makes the Sick mans Bed easie by giving rest to his Soul made his very Languishment comfortable and yet all this time he was solicitous in his Study and said often to Dr. Saravia who saw him daily and was the chief Comfort of his Life That he did not beg a Long life of God for any other reason but to live to finish his three remaining Books of POLITY and then Lord let thy Servant depart in peace which was his usual Expression And God heard his Prayers though he denied the Church the Benefit of them as completed by himself and 't is thought he hastened his own Death by hastening to give Life to his Books But this is certain that the nearer he was to his Death the more he grew in Humility in holy Thoughts and Resolutions About a moneth before his death this Good man that never knew or at least never consider'd the pleasures of the Palate became first to lose his Appetite then to have an aversness to all Food insomuch that he seem'd to live some intermitted weeks by the smell of Meat onely and yet still studied and writ And now his Guardian Angel seem'd to foretell him that the day of his Dissolution drew near for which his vigorous Soul appear'd to thirst In this time of his Sickness and not many days before his Death his House was robb'd of which he having notice his Question was Are my Books and written Papers safe and being answered that they were his Reply was then it matters not for no other loss can trouble me About one day before his death Dr. Saravia who knew the very Secrets of his Soul for they were supposed to be Confessors to each other came to him and after a Conference of the Benefit the Necessity and Safety of the Churches Absolution it was resolved the Doctor should give him both that and the Sacrament the day following To which end the Doctor came and after a short Retirement and Privacy they return'd to the Company and then the Doctor gave him and some Friends with him the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Jesus Which being performed the Doctor thought he saw a reverend Gaity and Joy in his Face but it lasted not long for his bodily Infirmities did return suddenly and became more visible insomuch that the Doctor apprehended Death ready to seize him yet after some amendment left him at night with a promise to return early the day following which he did and then found him better in appearance deep in Contemplation and not inclinable to Discourse which gave the Doctor occasion to require his present Thoughts to which he replied that he was meditating the Number and Nature of Angels and their blessed Obedience and Order without which Peace could not be in Heaven and oh that it might be so on Earth After which words he said I have lived to see this World is made up of Perturbations and I have been long preparing to leave it and gathering Comfort for the dreadful hour of making my Account with God which I now apprehend to be near and though I have by his Grace lov'd him in my Youth and fear'd him in mine Age and labour'd to have a Conscience void of offence to him and to all men yet if thou O Lord be extreme to mark what I have done amiss who can abide it and therefore where I have failed Lord shew mercy to me and since I owe thee a Death Lord let it not be terrible and then take thine own time I submit to it Let not mine O Lord but let thy Will be done with which Expression he fell into a dangerous Slumber dangerous as to his Recovery yet recover he did but it was to speak onely these few words Good Doctor God hath heard my daily Petitions for I am at peace with all men and he is at peace with me and from that blessed assurance I feel that inward joy which this World can neither give nor take from me More he would have spoken but his Spirits failed him and after a short Conflict betwixt Nature and Death a quiet Sigh put a period to his last breath and so he fell asleep And here I draw his Curtain till with the most blessed Martyrs and Confessours this most Learned most Humble Holy Man shall also awake to receive an Eternal Tranquillity and with it a greater Degree of Glory than common Christians shall be made Partakers of till which blessed time Let Glory be to God on high let Peace be upon Earth and Good-will to Mankind Amen Amen This following Epitaph was long since presented to the world in memory of Mr. Hooker by Sir William Cooper who also built him a fair Monument in Borne Church and acknowledges him to have been his Spiritual Father Though nothing can be spoke worthy his Fame Or the Remembrance of that precious Name Iudicious Hooker though this cost be spent On him that hath a Lasting Monument In his own Books yet ought we to express If not his Worth yet our Respectfulness Church Ceremonies he maintain'd then why Without all Ceremony should he dye Was it because his Life and Death should be Both equal paterns of Humility Or that perhaps this only glorious one Was above all to ask why had he none Yet he that lay so long Obscurely low Doth now preferr'd to greater Honors go Ambitious men learn hence to be more wise Humility is the true way to rise And God in me this lesson did Inspire To bid this Humble man Friend sit up higher AN APPENDIX To the LIFE of Mr. Richard Hooker ANd now having by a long and Laborious search satisfied my self and I hope my Reader by imparting to him the true relation of Mr. Hookers Life I am desirous also to acquaint him with some Observations that relate to it and which could not properly fall to be spoken till after his Death of which my Reader may expect a brief and true account in the following Appendix And first it is not to be doubted but that he died in the forty-seventh if not in the forty-sixt year of his Age which I mention because many have believed him to be more aged but I have so examined it as to be confident I mistake not and for the year of his death Mr. Cambden who in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth 1599. mentions him with a high commendation of his Life and Learning declares him to die in the year 1599. and yet in that Inscription of his Monument set up at the charge of Sir William Cooper in Borne Church where Mr. Hooker was buried his Death is said to be in Anno 1603. but doubtless both mistaken for I have it attested under the hand of William Somner the Archbishops Register for the Province of Canterbury that Richard Hookers Will bears date October the 26. in Anno 1600. and that it was prov'd the third of December following And that at his Death he left four Daughters Alice Cicily Iane and Margaret
Power with which she trusted him for he was a Pious man and naturally of Noble and Grateful Principles he eased her of all her Church-cares by his wife Menage of them he gave her faithful and prudent Counsels in all the Extremities and Dangers of her Temporal Affairs which were many he lived to be the chief Comfort of her Life in her Declining age to be then most frequently with her and her Assistant at her private Devotions to be the greatest Comfort of her Soul upon her Death-bed to be present at the Expiration of her last Breath and to behold the closing of those Eyes that had long looked upon him with Reverence and Affection And let this also be added that he was the Chief Mourner at her sad Funeral nor let this be forgotten that within a few hours after her death he was the happy Proclaimer that King Iames her peaceful Successour was Heir to the Crown Let me beg of my Reader to allow me to say a little and but a little more of this good Bishop and I shall then presently lead him back to Mr. Hooker and because I would hasten I will mention but one part of the Bishops Charity and Humility but this of both He built a large Almes-house near to his own House at Croydon in Surrey and endowed it with Maintenance for a Master and twenty eight poor Men and Women which he visited so often that he knew their Names and Dispositions and was so truly humble that he called them Brothers and Sisters and whensoever the Queen descended to that lowliness to dine with him at his Palace in Lambeth which was very often he would usually the next day shew the like lowliness to his poor Brothers and Sisters at Croydon and dine with them at his Hospital at which time you may believe there was Joy at the Table And at this place he built also a fair Free-school with a good Accommodation and Maintenance for the Master and Scholars Which gave just occasion for Boyse Sisi then Embassadour for the French King and Resident here at the Bishops death to say The Bishop had published many learned Books but a Free-school to train up Youth and an Hospital to lodge and maintain aged and poor People were the best Evidences of Christian Learning that a Bishop could leave to Posterity This good Bishop lived to see King Iames settled in peace and then fell sick at Lambeth of which the King having notice went to visit him and found him in his Bed in a declining condition and very weak and after some short discourse the King assured him He had a great Affection for him and high value for his Prudence and Virtues and would beg his Life of God To which he replied Pro Ecclesiâ Dei Pro Ecclesiâ Dei which were the last words he ever spake therein testifying that as in his Life so at his Death his chiefest care was of Gods Church This Iohn Whitgift was made Archbishop in the year 1583. In which busy place he continued twenty years and some moneths and in which time you may believe he had many Tryals of his Courage and Patience But his Motto was Vincit qui patitur And he made it good Many of his many Trials were occasioned by the then powerful Earl of Leicester who did still but secretly raise and cherish a Faction of Non conformists to oppose him especially one Thomas Cartwright a man of noted Learning sometime Contemporary with the Bishop in Cambridge and of the same College of which the Bishop had been Master in which place there began some Emulations the particulars I forbear and at last open and high Oppositions betwixt them and in which you may believe Mr. Cartwright was most faulty if his Expulsion out of the University can incline you to it And in this discontent after the Earls death which was 1588 Mr. Cartwright appeared a chief Cherisher of a Party that were for the Geneva Church-government and to effect it he ran himself into many dangers both of Liberty and Life appearing at the last to justifie himself and his Party in many Remonstrances which he caused to be printed and to which the Bishop made a first Answer and Cartwright replied upon him and then the Bishop having rejoyned to his Reply Mr. Cartwright either was or was persuaded to be satisfied for he wrote no more but left the Reader to be judge which had maintained their Cause with most Charity and Reason After some silence Mr. Cartwright received from the Bishop many personal Favours and retired himself to a more private Living which was at Warwich where he lived quietly and grew rich and where the Bishop gave him a Licence to Preach upon promise not to meddle with Controversies but incline his Hearers to Piety and Moderation and this Promise he kept during his Life which ended 1602 the Bishop surviving him but one year each ending his days in perfect Charity with the other And now after this long Digression made for the Information of my Reader concerning what follows I bring him back to venerable Mr. Hooker where we left him in the Temple and where we shall find him as deeply engaged in a Controversie with Walter Trevers a Friend and Favorite of Mr. Cartwrights as the Bishop had ever been with Mr. Cartwright himself and of which I shall proceed to give this following account And first this That though the Pens of Mr. Cartwright and the Bishop were now at rest yet there was sprung up a new Generation of restless men that by Company and Clamours became possest of a Faith which they ought to have kept to themselves but could not men that were become positive in asserting That a Papist cannot be saved insomuch that about this time at the Execution of the Queen of Scots the Bishop that preached her Funeral Sermon which was Dr. Dove then Bishop of Peterborough was reviled for not being positive for her Damnation And beside this Boldness of their becoming Gods so far as to set limits to his Mercies there was not onely Martin Mar-prelate but other venemous Books daily printed and dispersed Books that were so absurd and scurrilous that the graver Divines disdained them an Answer And yet these were grown into high esteem with the Common people till Tom Nash appeared against them all who was a man of a sharp wit and the master of a scoffing Satyrical merry Pen which he imployed to discover the Absurdities of those blind malitious sensless Pamphlets and Sermons as senssess as they Nash his Answers being like his Books which bore these Titles An Almond for Parrot A Fig for my God-son Come crack me this Nut and the like so that his merry Wit made such a discovery of their Absurdities as which is strange he put a greater stop to these malitious Pamphlets than a much wiser man had been able And now the Reader is to take notice That at the Death of Father Alvie who was Master of the Temple
Alen or learned Doctor Stapleton both English men and in Italy when Mr. Hookers four Books were first printed meeting with this general fame of them were desirous to read an Author that both the Rerformed and the Learned of their own Church did so much magnifie and therefore caused them to be sent for and after reading them boasted to the Pope which then was Clement the eight that though he had lately said he never met with an English Book whose Writer deserved the name of an Author yet there now appear'd a wonder to them and it would be so to his Holiness if it were in Latin for a poor obscure English Priest had writ four such Books of Laws and Church Polity and in a Style that exprest so Grave and such Humble Majesty with clear demonstration of Reason that in all their readings they had not met with any that exceeded him and this begot in the Pope an earnest desire that Doctor Stapleton should bring the said four Books and looking on the English read a part of them to him in Latin which Doctor Stapleton did to the end of the first Book at the conclusion of which the Pope spake to this purpose there is no Learning that this man hath not searcht into nothing too hard for his understanding This man indeed deserves the name of an Author his books will get reverence by Age for there is in them such seeds of Eternity that if the rest be like this they shall last till the last Fire shall consume all Learning Nor was this high the only testimony and commendations given to his Books for at the first coming of King Iames into this Kingdom he inquired of the Archbishop Whitegift for his friend Mr. Hooker that writ the Books of Church Polity to which the answer was that he dyed a year before Queen Elizabeth who received the sad news of his Death with very much Sorow to which the King replyed and I receive it with no less that I shall want the desired happinesse of seeing and discoursing with that man from whose Books I have received such satisfaction Indeed my Lord I have received more satisfaction in reading a Leaf or Paragraph in Mr. Hooker though it were but about the fashion of Churches or Church Musick or the like but especially of the Sacraments than I have had in the reading particular large Treatises written but of one of those subjects by others though very Learned men and I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected Language but a comprehensive deer manifestation of Reason and that back't with the Authority of the Scripture the Fathers and Schoolmen and with all Law both Sacred and Civil And though many others write well yet in the next age they will be forgotten but doubtless there is in every page of Mr. Hookers Book the picture of a Divine Soul such Pictures of Truth and Reason and drawn in so sacred colours that they shall never fade but give an immortal memory to the Author And it is so truly true that he thought what he spake that as the most Learned of the Nation have and still do mention Mr. Hooker with reverence so he also did never mention him but with the Epithite of Learned or Iudicious or Reverend or Venerable Mr. Hooker Nor did his Son our late King Charles the first ever mention him but with the same reverence enjoyning his Son our now gracious King to be studious in Mr. Hookers Books And our learned Antiquary Mr. Cambden mentioning the Death the modesty and other vertues of Mr. Hooker and magnifying his Books wisht that for the honour of this and benefit of other Nations they were turn'd into the Universal Language Which work though undertaken by many yet they have been weary and forsaken it but the Reader may now expect it having been long since begun and lately finisht by the happy pen of Doctor Earl now Lord Bishop of Salisbury of whom I may justly say and let it not offend him because it is such a truth as ought not to be conceal'd from Posterity or those that now live and yet know him not that since Mr. Hooker died none have liv'd whom God hath blest with more innocent Wisdom more sanctified Learning or a more pious peaceable primitive Temper so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself our venerable R. Hooker only fit to make the learned of all Nations happy in knowing what hath been too long confin'd to the language of our little I stand There might be many more and just occasions taken to speak of his Books which none ever did or can commend too much but I decline them and hasten to an account of his Christian behaviour and Death at Borne in which place he continued his customary rules of Mortification and Self-denyal was much in Fasting frequent in Meditation and Prayers injoying those blessed Returns which only men of strict lives feel and know and to which men of loose and Godless lives are Strangers At his entrance into this place his Friendship was much sought for by Doctor Hadrian Saravia then one of the Prebends of Canterbury a German by birth and sometimes a Pastor both in Flanders and Holland where he had studied and well considered the controverted points concerning Episcopacy and Sacrilege and in England had a just occasion to declare his Judgement concerning both unto his Brethren Ministers of the Low Countrys which was excepted against by Theodor Beza and others against whose exceptions he rejoyned and thereby became the happy Author of many Learned Tracts writ in Latin especially of three one of the Degrees of Ministers and of the Bishops Superiority above the Presbytery a second against Sacrilege and a third of Christian Obedience to Princes the last being occasioned by Gretzerus the Jesuit And it is observable that when Beza gave his reasons to the Chancellor of Scotland for the abrogation of Episcopacy in that Nation partly by Letters and more fully in a Treatise of a three-fold Episcopacy which he calls Divine Humane and Satanical this Doctor Saravia had by the help of Bishop Whitgift made such an early discovery of their intentions that he had almost as soon answered that Treatise as it became Publique and therein discovered how Beza's opinion did contradict that of Calvins and their adherents leaving them to interfere with themselves in point of Episcopacy but these Tracts it will not concern me to say more than that they were most of them dedicated to his and the Church of Englands watchful Patron Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop and printed about the year in which Mr. Hooker also appeared first to the world in the Publication of his first four Books of Ecclesiastical Polity This Friendship being sought for by this Learned Doctor you may believe was not denied by M. Hooker who was fortune so like him as to be ingaged against Mr. Trevers Mr. Cartwright and others in a controversie too like Doctor Saravia's So that
rifled or worse used by Mr. Charke and another of Principles too like his but as these Papers were endeavoured to be completed by his dear Friend Dr. Spencer who bequeathed them as a precious Legacy to my Father then Bishop of London after whose Death they rested in my hand till Dr. Abbot then Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of my Custody authorizing Dr. Iohn Barkeham to require and bring them to him to Lambeth at which time I have heard they were put into the Bishops Library and that they remained there till the Martyrdom of Archbishop Laud and were then by the Brethren of that Faction given with the Library to Hugh Peters as a Reward for his remarkable Service in those sad times of the Churches Confusion and though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand yet there wanted not other Endeavours to corrupt and make them speak that Language for which the Faction then fought which was To subject the Soveraign Power to the People I need not strive to vindicate Mr. Hooker in this particular his known Loyalty to his Prince whilest he lived the Sorrow expressed by K. Iames at his Death the Value our late Soveraign of ever-blessed Memory put upon his Works and now the singular Character of his Worth by you given in the passages of his Life especially in your Appendix to it do sufficiently clear him from that Imputation and I am glad you mention how much value Robert Stapleton Pope Clement the VIII and other Eminent Men of the Romish Persuasion have put upon his Books having been told the same in my Youth by Persons of worth that have travelled Italy Lastly I must again congratulate this Undertaking of yours as now more proper to you than any other person by reason of your long Knowledge and Alliance to the worthy Family of the Cranmers my old Friends also who have been Men of noted Wisdom especially Mr. George Cranmer whose Prudence added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys proved very useful in the Completing of Mr. Hookers matchless Books one of their Letters I herewith send you to make use of if you think sit And let me say further you merit much from many of Mr. Hookers best Friends then living namely from the ever renowned Archbishop Whitgift of whose incomparable Worth with the Character of the Times you have given us a more short and significant Account that I have received from any other Pen. You have done much for Sir Henry Savile his Contemporary and familiar Friend amongst the surviving Monuments of whose Learning give me leave to tell you so two are omitted his Edition of Euclid but especially his Translation of King Iames his Apology for the Oath of Allegeance into elegant Latine which flying in that dress as far as Rome was by the Pope and Conclave sent to Salamanca unto Franciscus Suarez then residing there as President of that College with a Command to Answer it When he had perfected the Work which he calls Defensio Fidei Catholica it was transmitted to Rome for a view of the Inquisitors who according to their custom blotted out what they pleas'd and as Mr. Hooker hath been used since his Death added whatsoever might advance the Popes Supremacy or carry on their own Interest commonly coupling Deponere Occidere the Deposing and Killing of Princes which cruel and unchristian Language Mr. Iohn Saltkell his Amanuensis when he wrote at Salamanca but since a Convert living long in my Fathers house often professed the good Old man whose Piety and Charity Mr. Saltkell magnified much not onely disavowed but detested Not to trouble you further your Reader if according to your desire my Approbation of your Work carries any weight will find many just Reasons to thank you for it and for this Circumstance here mentioned not known to many may happily apprehend one to thank him who is Chichester Nov. 13 1664. Sir Your ever-faithful and affectionate old Friend Henry Chichester To the Reader I Think it necessary to inform my Reader that Dr. Gauden the late Bishop of Worcester hath also lately wrote and publisht the Life of Mr. Hooker and though this be not writ by design to oppose the Life of Mr. Hooker written by him yet I am put upon a necessity to say That in it there be many Material Mistakes and more Omissions I do conceive some of his Mistakes did proceed from a Belief in Mr. Thomas Fuller who had too hastily published what he hath since most ingenuously retracted And for the Bishops Omissions I suppose his more weighty Business and Want of Time made him pass over many things without that due Examination which my better Leisure my Diligence and my accidental Advantages have made known unto me And now for my self I can say I hope or rather know there are no Material Mistakes in what I here present to him that shall become my Reader Little things that I have received by Tradition to which there may be too much and too little Faith given I will not at this distance of Time undertake to justifie for though I have used great Diligence and compared Relations and Circumstances and probable Results and Expressions yet I shall not impose my Belief upon my Reader I shall rather leave him at liberty But if there shall appear any Material Omission I desire every Lover of Truth and the Memory of Mr. Hooker that it may be made known unto me And to incline him to it I here promise to acknowledge and rectifie any such Mistake in a second Impression which the Printer says he hopes for and by this means my weak but faithful Endeavours may become a better Monument and in some degree more worthy the Memory of this Venerable Man I confess that when I consider the great Learning and Virtue of Mr. Hooker and what Satisfaction and Advantages many Eminent Scholars and Admirers of him have had by his Labours I do not a little wonder that in Sixty years no man did undertake to tell Posterity of the Excellencies of his Life and Learning and the Accidents of both and sometimes wonder more at my self that I have been persuaded to it and indeed I do not easily pronounce my own Pardon nor expect that my Reader shall unless my Introduction shall prove my Apology Errata Page 6. line 10. read to my introduction p. 58. l. 22. r. vented p. 106. l. 16. r. of so great a Controvertie p. 108. r. many p. 111. l. 3. adde Dr. Spencer p. 113. r. Salisbury p. 117. l. 10. r. by it self p. 137. l. 6. r. facetious p. 167. l. 11. after Dr. Abbot adde or the Bishop of London p. 171. l. 2. r. Fabian ibid. l. 5. r. Fabian THE LIFE OF Mr. Richard Hooker The Introduction I Have been persuaded by a Friend that I ought to obey to write The Life of RICHARD HOOKER the happy Author of five if not more of the eight learned Books of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity And though I have
had changed this for a better Life Which may be believed for that as he lived so he died in devout meditation and prayer and in both so zelously that it became a religious question Whether his last Ejaculations or his Soul did first enter into Heaven And now Mr. Hooker became a Man of Sorrow and Fear of Sorrow for the loss of so dear and comfortable a Patron and of Fear for his future Subsistence But Dr. Cole raised his spirits from this dejection by bidding him go cheerfully to his Studies and assuring him he should neither want Food nor Raiment which was the utmost of his hopes for he would become his Patron And so he was for about nine moneths and not longer for about that time this following accident did befall Mr. Hooker Edwin Sandys then Bishop of London and after Archbishop of York had also been in the days of Queen Mary forced by forsaking this to seek safety in another Nation where for many years Bishop Iewell and he were Companions at Bed and Board in Germany and where in this their Exile they did often eat the bread of sorrow and by that means they there began such a friendship as lasted till the death of Bishop Iewell which was 1571. A little before which time the two Bishops meeting Iewell began a story of his Richard Hooker and in it gave such a Character of his Learning and Manners that though Bishop Sandys was educated in Cambridge where he had obliged and had many Friends yet his resolution was that his Son Edwin should be sent to Corpus-Christi College in Oxford and by all means be Pupil to Mr. Hooker though his Son Edwin was then almost of the same Age for the Bishop said I will have a Tutor for my Son that shall teach him Learning by Instruction and Virtue by Example and my greatest care shall be of the last and God willing this Richard Hooker shall be the Man into whose hands I will commit my Edwin And the Bishop did so about twelve moneths after this resolution And doubtless as to these two a better choice could not be made for Mr. Hooker was now in the nineteenth year of his age had spent five in the University and had by a constant unwearied diligence attained unto a perfection in all the learned Languages and by the help of them an excellent Tutor and an unintermitted Study had made the subtilty of all the Arts easie and familiar to him and useful for the discovery of such Learning as lay hid from common Searchers so that by these added to his great Reason and his Industry added to both He did not onely know more but what he knew he knew better than other men And with this Knowledge he had a most blessed and clear Method of Demonstrating what he knew to the great advantage of all his Pupils which in time were many but especially to his two first his dear Edwin Sandys and his as dear George Cranmer of which there will be a fair Testimony in the ensuing Relation This for his Learning And for his Behaviour amongst other Testimonies this still remains of him That in four years he was but twice absent from the Chapel prayers and that his Behaviour there was such as shewed an awful reverence of that God which he then worshipped and prayed to giving all outward testimonies that his Affections were set on heavenly things This was his Behaviour towards God and for that to Man it is observable that he was never known to be angry or passionate or extreme in any of his Desires never heard to repine or dispute with Providence but by a quiet gentle submission bore the burthen of the day with patience never heard to utter an uncomly word and by this and a grave Bahaviour which is a Divine Charm he begot an early Reverence unto his Person even from those that at other times and in other companies took a liberty to cast off that strictness of Behaviour and Discourse that is required in a Collegiate Life And when he took any liberty to be pleasant his Wit was never blemisht with Scoffing or the utterance of any Conceit that border'd upon or might beget a thought of Loosness in his hearers Thus innocent and exemplary was his Behaviour in his College and thus this Good man continued till his death still increasing in Learning in Patience and Piety In this nineteenth year of his age he was chosen December 24. 1573 to be one of the twenty Scholars of the Foundation being elected and admitted as born in Devon-shire out of which Country a certain number are to be elected in Vacancies by the Founders Statutes And now he was much encouraged for now he was perfectly incorporated into this beloved College which was then noted for an eminent Library strict Students and remarkable Scholars And indeed it may glory that it had Bishop Iewel Doctor Iohn Reynolds and Doctor Tho. Iackson of that Foundation The First famous by his Learned Apologie for the Church of England and his Defence of it against Harding The Second for the learned and wise Menage of a publique Dispute with Iohn Hart about the Head and Faith of the Church and now printed And the Third for his most excellent Exposition of the Creed and other Treatises All such as have given greatest satisfaction to men of the greatest Learning Nor was this man more Note-worthy for his Learning than for his strict and pious Life testified by his abundant love and charity to all men And in the year 1576. Febr. 23. his Grace was given him for Inceptor of Arts Doctor Herbert Westphaling a man of note for Learning being then Vice-chancellour The Act following he was compleated Master which was Anno 1577. his Patron Doctor Cole being Vice-chancellour that year and his dear friend Henry Savill of Merton College being then one of the Proctors 'T was that Henry Savill that was after Sir Hen Savill Warden of Merton College and Provost of Eaton He which founded in Oxford two famous Lectures and endowed them with liberal maintenance 'T was that Sir Henry Savill that translated and enlightned the Annals of Cornelius Tacitus with a most excellent Comment and enriched the world by his laborious and chargeable collecting the scatter'd pieces of S. Chrysostome and the publication of them in one entire Body in Greek in which Language he was a most judicious Critick 'T was this Sir Hen Savill that had the happinesse to be a Contemporary and familiar friend to Mr. Hooker and let Posterity know it And in this year of 1577. he was chosen Fellow of the College Happy also in being the Contemporary and Friend of Dr. Iohn Reynolds of whom I have lately spoken and of Dr. Spencer both which were after and successively made Presidents of Corpus-Christi College men of great Learning and Merit and famous in their Generations Nor was Mr. Hooker more happy in his Contemporaries of his Time and College than in the Pupillage and
Friendship of his Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer of whom my Reader may note that this Edwin Sandys was after Sir Edwin Sandys and as famous for his Speculum Europae as his brother George for making Posterity beholden to his Pen by a learned Relation and Comment on his remarkable Travels and for his harmonious Translation of the Psalms of David the Book of Iob and other Poetical parts of Holy Writ into most high and elegant Verse And for Cranmer his other Pupil I shall refer my Reader to the Testimonies of our learned Mr. Cambden the Lord Tottenes Fines Morison and others This Cranmer whose Christen name was George was a Gentleman of singular hopes the eldest Son of Thomas Cranmer Son of Edward Cranmer the Archbishops Brother he spent much of his youth in Corpus-Christi College in Oxford where he continued Master of Arts for many years before he removed and then betook himself to Travel accompanying that worthy Gentleman Sir Edwin Sandys into France Germany and Italy for the space of three years and after their happy return he betook himself to an Imployment under Secretary Davison after whose Fall he went in place of Secretary with Sir Henry Killigrew in his Embassage into France and after his death he was sought after by the most Noble Lord Mount-Ioy with whom he went into Ireland where he remained untill in a battel against the Rebels near Carlingford an unfortunate wound put an end both to his Life and the great Hopes that were conceived of him Betwixt Mr. Hooker and these his two Pupils there was a sacred Friendship a Friendship made up of Religious Principles which increased daily by a similitude of Inclinations to the same Recreations and Studies a Friendship elemented in Youth and in an University free from self-ends which usually the Friendships of Age are not and in this sweet this blessed this spiritual Amity they went on for many years and as the holy Prophet saith so they took sweet counsel together and walked in the House of God as Friends By which means they improved it to such a degree of Amity as bordered upon Heaven a Frienship so sacred that when it ended in this world it began in the next where it shall have no end And though this World cannot give any degree of Pleasure equal to such a Friendship yet Obedience to Parents and a desire to know the Affairs and Manners and Learning of other Nations that they might thereby become the more serviceable unto their own made them put off their Gowns and leave Mr. Hooker to his College Where he was daily more assiduous in his Studies still enriching his quiet and capacious Soul with the precious Learning of the Philosophers Casuists and Schoolmen and with them the Foundation and Reason of all Laws both Sacred and Civil and with such other Learning as lay most remote from the track of common Studies And as he was diligent in these so he seemed restless in searching the scope and intention of Gods Spirit revealed to Mankind in the sacred Scripture for the understanding of which he seemed to be assisted by the same Spirit with which they were written and he would often say The Scripture was not writ to beget Pride and Disputations and Opposition to Government but Humility and Obedience and Peace and Piety in Mankind And that this was really his Judgment did appear in his future Writings and in all the Actions of his Life Nor was this excellent man a stranger to the more light and aëry parts of Learning as Musick and Poëtry all which he had digested and made uselful and of all which the Reader will have a fair testimony in what follows Thus he continued his Studies in all quietness for the space of three or more years about which time he entered into Sacred Orders and was made Deacon and Priest and not long after in obedience to the College Statutes he was to preach either at S. Peters Oxford or at S. Pauls Cross London and the last fell to his allotment In order to which Sermon to London he came and immediately to the Shunamites house which is a House so called for that besides the Stipend paid the Preacher there is provision made also for his Lodging and Diet two days before and one day after his Sermon this House was then kept by Iohn Churchman sometimes a Draper of good note in Watling-street upon whom Poverty had at last come like an armed man and brought him into a Necessitous condition which though it be a punishment is not always an argument of Gods disfavour for he was a good man I shall not yet give the like testimony of his Wife but leave the Reader to judge by what follows But to this House Mr. Hooker came so wet so weary and weather-beaten that he was never known to express more passion than against a Friend that dissuaded him from Footing it to London and for finding him no easier an Horse supposing the Horse trotted when he did not and at this time also such a Faintness and Fear possest him that he would not be persuaded two days Quietness or any other means could be used to make him able to preach his Sundays Sermon but a warm Bed and Rest and Drink proper for a Cold given him by Mrs. Church-man and her diligent Attendance added unto it enabled him to perform the office of the day which was in or about the year 1581. And in this first publick appearance to the World he was not so happy as to be free from Exceptions against a point of Doctrine delivered in his Sermon which was That in God there were two Wills an Antecedent and a Consequent Will his first Will that all mankind should be saved but his second Will was that those onely should be saved that did live answerable to that degree of Grace which he had offered or afforded them This seemed to cross a late Opinion of Mr. Calvins and then taken for granted by many that had not a Capacity to examine it as it had been by him and hath been since by Dr. Iackson and Dr. Hammond who believe that a contrary Opinion trenches upon the Honour and Justice of God How he justified this I will not undertake to declare but it was not excepted against as Mr. Hooker declares in his Answer to Mr. Travers by Iohn Elmer then Bishop of London at this time one of his Auditors and at last one of his Advocates too when Mr. Hooker was accused for it But the Justifying of this Doctrine did not prove of so bad consequence as the Kindness of Mrs. Churchmans curing him of his late Distemper and Cold for that was so gratefully apprehended by Mr. Hooker that he thought himself bound in conscience to believe all that she said so that the Good man came to be persuaded by her that he was a man of a tender constitution and that it was best for him to have a Wife that might prove a Nurse to him such
an one as might both prolong his life and make it more comfortable and such a one she could and would provide for him if he though fit to marry And he not considering that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light but like a true Nathanael fearing no guile because he meant none did give her such a power as Eleazar was trusted with when he was sent to chuse a Wife for Isaac for he trusted her to chuse for him promising upon a fair summors to return to London and accept of her choice And he did so Now the Wife provided for him was her Daughter Ioan who brought him neither Beauty nor Portion and for her Conditions they were too like that Wife 's which is by Solomon compar'd to a dripping house so that he had no reason to rejoyce in the Wife of his youth but too just cause to say with the holy Prophet Wo is me that I am constrained to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar This Choice of Mr. Hookers if it were his Choice may be wondered at but let us consider that the Prophet Ezekiel says There is a wheel within a wheel a secret sacred Wheel of Providence especially in Marriages guided by his hand that allows not the race to the swift nor bread to the wise nor good Wives to good Men and he that can bring good out of evil for Mortals are blind to this Reason onely knows why this blessing was denied to patient Iob and as some think to meek Moses and to our as meek and patient Mr. Hooker But so it was and let the Reader cease to wonder for Affliction is a Divine diet which though it be not pleasing to Mankind yet Almighty God hath often imposed it as Physick to those children whose Souls are dearest to him And by this means the Good man was drawn from the tranquillity of his College from that Garden of Piety of Pleasure of Peace and a sweet Conversation into the thorny Wilderness of a busie World into those corroding cares that attend a married Priest and a Countrey Parsonage which was Draiton Beauchamp in Buckingham-shire not far from Alesbury and in the Diocese of Lincoln to which he was presented by Iohn Cheny Esquire then Patron of it the 9. of December 1594. where he behaved himself so as to give no occasion of Evil but as S. Paul adviseth a Minister of God in much patience in afflictions in anguishes in necessities in poverty and no doubt in long-suffering yet troubling no man with his discontents and wants And in this condition he continued about a year in which time his two Pupils Edwin Sandys and George Craumer were returned from Travel and took a journey to see their Tutor where they found him with a Book in his hand it was the Odes of Horace he being then tending his small allotment of Sheep in a common Field which he told his Pupils he was forced to do for that his Servant was gone home to dine and assist his Wife to do some necessary houshold business When his Servant returned and released him his two Pupils attended him unto his House where their best Entertainment was his Company which was presently denied them for Richard was call'd to rock the Cradle and the rest of their Welcom was so like this that they staid but till next morning which was time enough to discover and pitty their Tutors condition and having given him as much present comfort as they were able they were forced to leave him to the company of his Wife Ioan and seek themselves a quieter Lodging At their returns to London Edwin Sandys acquaints his Father then Archbishop of York with his Tutors sad condition and sollicits for his removal to some Benefice that might give him a more comfortable subsistence which his Father did most willingly grant him when it should next fall into his power And not long after this time which was in the year 1585 Mr. Alvie Master of the Temple died who was a man of a strict Life of great Learning and of so venerable Behaviour as to gain such a degree of love and reverence from all men that he was generally known by the name of FATHER ALVIE At the Temple Reading next after the death of this Father Alvie the Archbishop of York being then at Dinner with the Judges the Reader and Benchers of that Society met with a Condolement for the Death of Father Alvie an high commendation of his Saint-like Life and of his great Merit both to God and Man and as they bewail'd his Death so they wisht for a like Patern of Virtue and Learning to succeed him And here came in a fair occasion for the Bishop to commend Mr. Hooker to Father Alvies Place which he did with so effectual an earnestness and that seconded with so many other Testimonies of his worth that Mr. Hooker was sent for from Draiton Beauchamp to London and there the Mastership of the Temple proposed unto him by the Bishop as a greater freedom from Cares and the advantage of a better Society and a more liberal Pension than his Countrey Parsonage did afford him But these Reasons were not powerful enough to incline him to a willing acceptance of it his wish was rather to gain a better Countrey Living where he might see Gods blessings spring out of the Earth and be free from Noise so he exprest the desire of his Heart and eat that bread which he might more properly call his own in privacy and quietness But notwithstanding this aversness he was at last persuaded to accept of the Bishops Proposal and was by Patent for Life made Master of the Temple the 17. of March 1585. And here I shall make a stop and that the Reader may the better judge of what follows give him a Character of the Times and Temper of the people of this Nation when Mr. Hooker had his Admission into this Place A Place which he accepted rather than desired and yet here he promised himself a virtuous quietness that blessed Tranquillity which he always prayed and labour'd for that so he might in peace bring forth the fruits of peace and glorifie God by uninterrupted prayers and praises for this he always thirsted and yet this was denied him For his Admission into this Place was the very beginning of those Oppositions and Anxieties which till then this Good man was a stranger to and of which the Reader may guess by what follows In this Character of the Times I shall by the Readers favour and for his information look so far back as to the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth a time in which the many pretended Titles to the Crown the frequent Treasons the Doubts of her Successour the late Civil War and the sharp Persecution that raged to the effusion of so much Bloud in the Reign of Queen Mary were fresh in the memory of all men and begot fears in the most
Works and by their Transcription they fell into the hands of others and have been thereby preserved from being lost as too many of his other matchless wrirings were and from these I have gathered my observations in this Discourse of his Life After the publication of his answer to the Petition of Mr. Trevers Mr. Hooker grew dayly into repute with the most learned and wise of the Nation but it had a contrary effect in every many of the Temple that were zealous for Mr. Trevers and for his Church Discipline insomuch that though Mr. Trevers left the place yet the seeds of Discontent could not be rooted out of that Society by the great Reason and as great Meekness of this humble man for though the chief Benchers gave him much Reverence and Incouragement yet he there met with many neglects and oppositions by those of Mr. Trevers Judgement insomuch that it turned to his extreme grief and that he might unbeguile and win them he designed to write a deliberate sober Treatise of the Churches power to make Canons for the use of Ceremonies and by Law to impose an obedience to them as upon her Children and this he proposed to do in eight Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity intending therein to shew such Arguments as should force an assent from all men if Reason delivered in sweet Language and voyd of any provocation were able to doe it And that he might prevent all prejudice he wrote a large Preface or Epistle to the Dissenting Brethren wherein there were such Bowels of Love and such a Commixture of that Love with Reason as was never exceeded but in Holy Writ and particularly by that of St. Paul to his dear Brother and fellow Labourer Philemon than which none ever was more like this Epistle of Mr. Hookers so that his dear friend and companion in his Studies might after his death justly say What admirable height of Learning and depth of Iudgment dwelt in the lowly mind of this truly humble man great in all wise mens eyes except his own with what gravity and Majesty of speech his Tongue and Pen uttered Heavenly Mysteries whose eyes in the Humility of his Heart were always cast down to the ground how all things that proceeded from him were breathed as from the Spirit of Love as if he like the Bird of the Holy Ghost the Dove had wanted gall let those that knew him not in his Person judge by these living Images of his soul his Writings The foundation of these Books were laid in the Temple but he sound it no fit place to finish what he had there designed and therefore solicited the Arch Bishop for a remove saying When I lost the freedom of my Cell which was my College yet I found some degree of it in my quiet Country Parsonage but I am weary of the noise and oppositions of this place And indeed God and Nature did not intend me for Contentions but for Study and quietness I have begun a work in which I intend the Iustification of our Laws of Church-Government and I shall never be able to finish it but where I may Study and pray for Gods blessing upon my indeavours and keep my self in Peace and Privacy and behold Gods blessing spring out of my Mother Earth and eat my own bread without oppositions and therefore if your Grace can Iudge me worthy such a favour let me beg it that I may perfect what I have begun About this time the Parsonage or Rectory of Boscum in the Diocess of Sarum and six miles from that City became void The Bishop of Sarum is Patron of it but in the vacancy of that Sea which was three years betwixt the death of Bishop Peirce and Bishop Caldwells admission into it the disposal of that and all Benefices belonging to that Sea during this said vacancy came to be disposed of by the Archbishop of Canterbury and he presented Richard Hooker to it in the year 1591. And Richard Hooker was also in this said year Instituted Iuly 17. to be a minor Prebend of Salisbury the Corps to it being nether-Havin about ten miles from that City which Prebend was of no great value but intended chiefly to make him capable of a better preferment in that Church In this Boscum he continued till he had finished four of his eight proposed Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity and these were enter'd into the register Book in Stationers Hall the 9. of March 1592. but not publisht till the year 1594. and then with the before mentioned large and affectionate Preface to them that seek as they termit the Reformation of the laws and orders Ecclesiastical in the Church of England of which Books I shall yet say nothing more but that he continued his laborious diligence to finish the remaining four during his life of all which more properly hereafter but at Boscum he finisht and publisht but only the first four He left Boscum in the year 1595. by a surrender of it into the hands of Bishop Caldwell and he presented Benjamin Russel who was Instituted into it 23. of Iune in the same year The Parsonage of Bishops Borne in Kent three miles from Canterbury is in that Archbishops gift but in the latter end of the year 1594. Doctor William Redman the Rector of it was made Bishop of Norwich by which means the power of presenting to it was pro ea vice in the Queen and she presented Richard Hooker whom she loved well to this good living of Borne the 7. of Iuly 1595. in which Living he continued till his Death without any addition of Dignity or Profit And now having brought our Richard Hooker from his Birth-place Place to this where he found a Grave I shall only give some account of his Books and of his behaviour in this Parsonage of Borne and then give a rest both to my self and my Reader His first four Books and large Epistle have been declared to be printed at his being at Boscum Anno 1594. Next I am to tell that at the end of these four Books there is printed this Advertisement to the Reader I have for some causes thought it at this time more fit to let go these first four Books by themselves than to stay both them and the rest till the whole might together be published Such generalities of the cause in question as are here handled it will be perhaps not amiss to consider apart by way of Introduction unto the Books that are to follow concerning particulars in the mean time the Reader is requested to mend the Printers errors as noted underneath And I am next to declare that his fifth Book which is larger than his first four was first also printed by itself Anno 1597. and dedicated to his Patron the Archbishop These Books were read with an admiration of their excellency in This and their just fame spread it self into forain Nations And I have been told more than fourty years past that Cardinal
that he gave to each of them a hundred pound that he left Ioue his Wife his sole Executrix and that by his Inventory his Estate a great part of it being in Books came to 1092 l. 9 s. 2 d. which was much more than he thought himself worth and which was not got by his Care much less by the good Huswifery of his Wife but saved by his trusty servant Thomas Lane that was wiser than his Master in getting Mony for him and more frugal than his Mistress in keeping it of which Will I shall say no more but that his dear Friend Thomas the father of George Cranmer of whom I have spoken and shall have occasion to say more was one of the Witnesses to it One of his elder Daughters was married to one Chalinor sometime a School-master in Chichester and both dead long since Margaret his youngest Daughter was married unto Ezekiel Chark Bachelar in Divinity and Rector of St. Nicholas in Harble down near Canterbury who died about 16. years past and had a Son Ezekiel now living in Sacred Orders being at this time Rector of Waldron in Sussex She left also a Daughter with both whom I have spoken not many moneths past and find her to be a widow in a condition that wants not but far from abounding and these two attested unto me that Richard Hooker their Grandfather had a Sister by name Elizabeth Harvey that liv'd to the Age of 121. years and died in the moneth of September 1623. For his other two Daughters I can learn little certainty but have heard they both died before they were Marriageable and for his Wife she was so unlike Iepthaes Daughter that she staid not a comely time to bewail her Widdow-hood nor liv'd long enough to repent her second Marriage for which doubtless she would have found cause if there had been but four months betwixt Mr. Hookers and her death But she is dead and let her other infirmities be buried with her Thus much briefly for his Age the year of his Death his Estate his Wife and his Children I am next to speak of his Books concerning which I shall have a necessity of being longer or shall neither doe right to my self or my Reader which is chiefly intended in this Appendix I have declared in his Life that he proposed eight Books and that his first four were Printed Anno 1594. and his fifth Book first printed and alone Anno 1597. and that he liv'd to finish the remaining three of the proposed eight but whether we have the last three as finisht by himself is a just and Material Question concerning which I do declare that I have been told almost 40. years past by one that very well knew Mr. Hooker and the affairs of his Family that about a moneth after the death of Mr. Hooker Bishop Whitgift then Archbishop of Canterbury sent one of his Chaplains to enquire of Mrs. Hooker for the three remaining Books of Polity writ by her Husband of which she would not or could not give any account and that about three moneths after the Bishop procured her to be sent for to London and then by his procurement she was to be examined by some of her Majesties Council concerning the disposal of those Books but by way of preparation for the next days examination the Bishop invited her to Lambeth and after some friendly questions she confessed to him that one Mr. Charke and another Minister that dwelt near Canterbury came to her and desired that they might go into her Husbands Study and look upon some of his writings and that there they two burnt and tore many of them assuring her that they were writings not fit to be seen and that she knew nothing more concerning them Her lodging was then in King-street in Westminster where she was found next morning dead in her Bed and her new Husband suspected and questioned for it but declared innocent of her Death And I declare also that Doctor Iohn Spencer mentioned in the life of Mr. Hooker who was of Mr. Hookers College and of his time there and betwixt whom there was so friendly a friendship that they continually advised together in all their Studies and particularly in what concern'd these Books of Polity this Doctor Spencer the three perfect Books being lost had delivered into his hands I think by Bishop Whitgift the imperfect Books or first rough draughts of them to be made as perfect as they might be by him who both knew Mr. Hookers hand-writing and was best acquainted with his intentions And a fair Testimony of this may appear by an Epistle first and usually printed before Mr. Hookers five Books but omitted I know not why in the last impression of the eight Printed together in Anno 1662. in which the Publishers seem to impose the three doubtful as the undoubted Books of Mr. Hooker with these two Letters I. S. at the end of the said Espistle which was meant for this Iohn Spencer in which Epistle the Reader may find these words which may give some Authority to what I have here written And though Mr. Hooker hastened his own Death by hastening to give Life to his Books yet he held out with his eyes to behold these Benjamins these Sons of his right Hand though to him they prov'd Benonies Sons of pain and sorrow But some evil disposed minds whether of Malice or Covetousness or wicked blind Zeal it is uncertain as soon as they were born and their Father dead smother'd them and by conveying the perfect copies left unto us nothing but the old imperfect mangled draughts dismembred into pieces no favour no grace not the shadow of themselves remaining in them had the Father lived to behold them thus defaced he might rightly have named them Benonies the Sons of Sorrow but being the learned will not suffer them to die and be buried it is intended the world shall see them as they are the learned will find in them some shadows and resemblances of their Fathers face God grant that as they were with their Brethren dedicated to the Church for messengers of Peace so in the strength of that little breath of Life that remaineth in them they may prosper in their work and by satisfying the Doubts of such as are willing to learn they may help to give an end to the calamities of these our Civil Wars I. S. And next the Reader may note that this Epistle of Doctor Spencers was writ and first Printed within four years after the death of Mr. Hooker in which time all diligent search had been made for the perfect Copies and then granted not recoverable and therefore indeavoured to be compleated out of Mr. Hookers rough draughts as is exprest by the said Doctor Spencer since whose death it is now 50. years And I do profess by the Faith of a Christian that Doctor Spencers wife who was my Aunt and Sister to George Cranmer of whom I have spoken told me forty years since in these