unwilling to grant him and offered to let him hold his Place still he doing what Business he could in his Chamber but he said he could not with a good Conscience continue in it since he was no longer able to discharge the Duty belonging to it But yet such was the General Satisfaction which all the Kingdom received by his Excellent Administration of Justice that the King though he could not well deny his Request yet he deferred the Granting of it as long as was possible Nor could the Lord Chancellor be prevailed with to move the King to hasten his Discharge though the Cheif Iustice often pressed him to it At last having wearied himself and all his Friends with his importunate desires and growing sensibly weaker in Body he did upon the 21 th day of February 28. Car. 2. Anno Dom. 1675 6. go before a Master of the Chancery with a little Parchment Deed drawn by Himself and Written all with his own hand and there Sealed and delivered it and acknowledged it to be Enrolled and afterwards he brought the Original Deed to the Lord Chancellor and did formally surrender his Office in these words Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos praesens Scriptura pervenerit Matheus Hale miles Capitalis Iusticiarius Domini Regis ad placita-coram ipso Rege tenenda assignatas Saluâ—em in Domino Sempiternam Noveritis me praefatum Matheum Hale militem jam senem factum Variis Corporis mei Senilis morbis infirmitatibus dire Laborantem adhuc Detentum Hâc Chartâ mea Resignare sursum reddere Serenissimo Domino Nostro Carolo Secundo Dei Gratià Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Regi Fidei Defensori c. Predictum Officium Capitalis Iusticiarii ad placâ—ta coram ipso Rege tenenda humillime petens quod hoc Scriptum irrotaletur de Recordo In cujus rei Testimonium huic chartae meae Resignationis Sigillum meum apposui Dat vicesimo primo Die Februarii Anno Regnidict Dom. Regis nunc Vicesimo Octavo He made this Instrument as he told the L. Chancellor for two Endâ— the one was to shew the World his own free Concurrence to his Removal Another was to obviate an Objection heretofore made that a Cheif Iustice being placed by Writ was not removable at pleasure as Iudges by Patent were Which opinion as he said was once held by his Predecessor the Lord Cheif Iustice Keyling and though he himself were always of another opinion yet he thought it reasonable to prevent such a Scruple He had the day before surrendered to the King in Person who parted from him with great Grace wishing him most heartily the return of his Health and assuring him that he would still look upon him as one of his Iudges and have recourse to his Advice when his Health would permit and in the mean time would continue his Pension during his Life The Good man thought this Bounty too great and an ill Precedent for the King and therefore Writ a Letter to the Lord Treasurer earnestly desiring that his Pension might be only during Pleasure but the King would grant it for Life and make it payable Quarterly And yet for a whole Month together he would not suffer his Servant to Sue out his Patent for his Pension and when the first Payment was received he ordered a great part of it to Charitable Uses and said he intended most of it should be so Employed as long as it was paid him At last he happened to Die upon the Quarter day which was Christmas day and though this might have given some occasion to a dispute whither the Pension for that Quarter were recoverable yet the King was pleased to decide that Matter against himself and ordered the Pension to be paid to his Executors As soon as he was discharged from his great Place he returned home with as much Chearfulness as his want of Health could admit of being now eased of a Burthen he had been of late groaning under and so made more capable of Enjoying that which he had much wished for according to his Elegant Translation of or rather Paraphrase upon those excellent Lines in Seneca's Thyestes Act. 2. Stet quicunque volet potens Aulae culmine lubrico Me dulcis Saturet quies Obscuro positus loco Leni perfruar otio Nullis nota Quiritibus Aetas per tacitum fluat Sic cum Transierint mei Nullo cum Strepitu dies Plebeius moriar Senex Illi mors gravis incubat Qui notus nimis omnibus Ignotus moritur sibi Let him that will ascend the tâ—ttering Seat Of courtly Grandeur and become as great As are his mounting Wishes As for me Let sweet repose and rest my Portion be Give me some mean obscure Recess a Sphere Out of the Road of Business or the fear Of falling lower where I sweetly may My self and dear retirement still enjoy Let not my Life or Name be known unto The Grandees of the Time to'st too and fro By Censures or Applause but let my Age Slide gently by not overthwart the Stage Of publick Action unheard unseen And unconcern'd as if I near had been And thus while I shall pass my silent days In shady privacy free from the Noise And bustles of the mad World then shall I A good old Innocent Plebeian Die. Death is a mere Surprise a very Snare To him that makes it his Lifes greatest Care To be a publick Pageant known to all But unacquainted with himself doth fall Having now attained to that Privacy which he had no less seriously than piously wished for he called all his Servants that had belonged to his Office together and told them he had now laid down his Place and so their Imployments were determined upon that he advised them to see for themselves and gave to some of them very considerable Presents and to every one of them a Token and so dismissed all those that were not his Domesticks He was discharged the fifteenth of February 1675 6 And lived till the Christmas following but all the while was in so ill a State of Health that there was no hopes of his Recovery he continued still to retire often both for his Devotions and Studies and as long as he could go went constantly to his Closseâ— and when his Infirmities encreased on him so that he was not able to go thither himself he made his Servants carry him thither in a Chair At last as the Winter came on he saw with great Joy his deliverance approaching for besides his being weary of the World and his longings for the Blessedness of another State his Pains encreased so on him that no Patience inferiour to his could have born them without a great uneasiness of mind yet he expressed to the last such submission to the will of God and so equal a Temper under them that it was visible then what mighty Effects his Philosophy and Christianity had on him in supporting him under such a heavy Load He could not
abroad not only for his Health but he thought it opened his Mind and enlarged his thoughts to have the Creation of God before his Eyes When he set himself to any Study he used to cast his design in a Scheme which he did with a great exactness of Method he took nothing on Trust but pursued his Enquires as far as they could go and as he was humble enough to confess his Ignorance and submit to Mysteries which he could not comprehend so he was not easily imposed on by any shews of Reason or the Bugbears of vulgar Opinions He brought all his Knowledge as much to scientifical Principles as he possibly could which made him neglect the Study of Tongues for the bent of his Mind lay another way Discoursing once of this to some they said they looked on the Common Law as a Study that could not be brought into a Scheme nor formed into a Rational Science by reason of the Indigestedness of it and the Multiplicity of the Cases in it which rendered it very heard to be understood or reduced into a Method But he said he was not of their mind and so quickly after he drew with his own hand a Scheme of the whole Order and Parts of it in a large sheet of Paper to the great Satisfaction of those to whom he sent it Upon this hint some pressed him to Compile a Body of the English Law It could hardly ever be done by a Man who knew it better and would with more Judgment and Industry have put it into Method But he said as it was a Great and Noble Design which would be of vast Advantage to the Nation so it was too much for a private Man to undertake It was not to be Entred upon but by the Command of a Prince and with the Communicated Endeavours of some of the most Eminent of the Profession He had great vivacity in his Fancy as may appear by his Inclination to Poetry and the lively Illustrations and many tender strains in his Contemplations But he look't on Eloquence and Wit as things to be used very chastly in serious Matters which should come under a severer Inquiry Therefore he was both when at the Bar and on the Bench a great Enemy to all Eloquence or Rhetorick in Pleading He said if the Iudge or Iury had a right understanding it signified nothing but a waste of Time and loss of words and if they were weak and easily wrought on it was a more decent way of corrupting them by bribing their Fancies and biassing their Affections And wondered much at that affectation of the French Lawyers in imitating the Roman Orators in their Pleadings For the Oratory of the Romans was occasioned by their popular Government and the Factions of the City so that those who intended to excell in the Pleading of Causes were trained up in the Schools of the Rhetors till they became ready and expert in that luscious way of Discourse It is true the Composures of such a Man as Tully was who mixed an extraordinary Quickness an exact Judgement and a just Decorum with his skill in Rhetorick do still entertain the Readers of them with great Pleasure But at the same time it must be acknowledged that there is not that chastity of Style that closeness of Reasoning nor that justness of Figures in his Orations that is in his other Writings So that a great deal was said by him rather because he knew it would be acceptable to his Auditors than that it was approved of by himself and all who read them will acknowledg they are better pleased with them as Essays of Wit and Style than as Pleadings by which such a Iudge as ours was would not be much wrought on And if there are such Grounds to censure the performances of the greatest Master in Eloquence we may easily infer what nauseous Discourses the other Orators made since in Oratory as well as in Poetry none can do Indifferently So our Iudge wondred to find the French that live under a Monarchy so fond of imitating that which was an ill Effect of the Popular Government of Rome He therefore pleaded himself always in few words and home to the Point And when he was a Iudge he held those that Pleaded before him to be the main Hinge of the Business and cut them short when they made Excursions about Circumstances of no Moment by which he saved much time and made the cheif Difficulties be well Stated and Cleared There was another Custom among the Romans which he as much admired as he despised their Rhethorick which was that the Iuris-Consults were the Men of the highest Quality who were bred to be capable of the cheif Imployment in the State and became the great Masters of their Law These gave their opinions of all Cases that were put to them freely judging it below them to take any present for it And indeed they were only the true Lawyers among them whose Resolutions were of that Authority that they made one Classis of those Materials out of which Trebonian compiled the Digests under Iustinian for the Orators or Causidici that Pleaded Causes knew little of the Law and only imployed their mercenary Tongues to work on the Affections of the People and Senate or the Pretors Even in most of Tullies Orations there is little of Law and that little which they might sprinkle in their Declamations they had not from their own Knowledg but the Resolution of some Iuris-Consult According to that famous Story of Servius Sulpitius who was a Celebrated Orator and being to receive the Resolution of one of those that were Learned in the Law was so Ignorant that he could not understand it Upon which the Iuris-Consult reproached him and said it was a shame for him that was a Nobleman a Senator and a Pleader of Causes to be thus Ignorant of Law This touched him so sensibly that he set about the Study of it and became one of the most Eminent Iuris-Consults that ever were at Rome Our Iudge thought it might become the greatness of a Prince to encourage such a sort of Men and of Studies in which none in the Age he lived in was equal to the great Selden who was truly in our English Law what the old Roman Iuris-Consults were in theirs But where a decent Eloquence was allowable Iudge Hale knew how to have excelled as much as any either in illustrating his Reasonings by proper and well pursued Similies or by such tender expressions as might work most on the Affections so that the present Lord Chancellor has often said of him since his Death that he was the Greatest Orator he had known for though his words came not fluently from him yet when they were out they were the most Significant and Expressive that the Matter could bear Of this sort there are many in his Contemplations made to quicken his own Devotion which have a Life in them becoming him that used them and a softness fit to melt even
sure never to provoke any in particular by censuring or reflecting on their Actions for many that have Conversed much with him have told me they never heard him once speak ill of any Person He was imployed in his practice by all the Kings party He was assigned Council to the Earl of Strafford and Arch Bishop Laud and afterwards to the Blessed King himself when brought to the infamous Pageantry of a Monk Tryal and offered to plead for him with all the Courage that so Glorious a Cause ought to have inspired him with but was not suffered to appear because the King refusing as he had good reason to submit to the Court it was pretended none could be admitted to speak for him He was also Council for the Duke of Hamilton the Earl of Holland and the Lord Capel His Plea for the former of these I have published in the Memoires of that Dukes life Afterwards also being Council for the Lord Craven he pleaded with that force of Argument that the then Attorney General threatned him for appearing against the Government to whom he answered he was Pleading in defence of those Laws which they declared they would maintain and preserve and he was doing his duty to his Client so that he was not to be daunted with Threatnings Upon all these occasions he had discharged himself with so much Learning Fidelity and Courage that he came to be generally imployed for all that Party Nor was he satisfied to appear for their just Defence in the way of his Profession but he also relieved them often in their Necessities which he did in a way that was no less Prudent than Charitable considering the dangers of that time for he did often deposite considerable Sums in the hands of a Worthy Gentleman of the Kings Party who knew their Necessities well and was to Distribute his Charity according to his own Discretion without either letting them know from whence it came or giving himself any Account to whom he had given it Cromwell seeing him possest of so much Practice and he being one of the Eminentest Men of the Law who was not at all affraid of doing his duty in those Critical times resolved to take him off from it and raise him to the Bench. Mr. Hale saw well enough the Snare laid for him and though he did not much consider the prejudice it would be to himself to Exchange the easie and safer profits he had by his Practice for a Iudges place in the Common-Pleas which he was required to accept of yet he did deliberate more on the Lawfulness of taking a Commission from Usurpers but having considered well of this he came to be of opinion that it being absolutely necessary to have Iustice and Property kept up at all times It was no Sin to take a Commission from Usurpers if he made no Declaration of his acknowledging their Authority which he never did He was much urged to Accept of it by some Eminent Men of his own Profession who were of the Kings Party as Sir Orlando Bridgeman and Sir Geoffery Palmer and was also satisfied concerning the lawfulness of it by the resolution of some famous Divines in particular Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Henchman who were afterwards promoted to the Sees of Canterbury and London To these were added the importunities of all his Friends who thought that in a time of so much Danger and Oppression it might be no small Security to the Nation to have a Man of his Integrity and Abilities on the Bench and the Usurpers themselves held him in that Estimation that they were glad to have him give a Countenance to their Courts and by promoting one that was known to have different Principles from them Affected the Reputation of Honouring and trusting men of Eminent Virtues of what perswasion soever they might be in relation to publick Matters But he had greater Scruples concerning the proceeding against Felons and putting offenders to Death by that Commission since he thought the Sword of Justice belonging only by right to the lawful Prince it seemed not warrantable to proceed to a Capital Sentence by an Authority derived from Usurpers yet at first he made distinction between common and ordinary Felonies and offences against the State for the last he would never meddle in them for he thought these might be often legal and warrantable Actions and that the putting Men to Death on that account was Murder but for the ordinary Felonies he at first was of opinion that it was as necessary even in times of Usurpation to Execute Justice in those cases as in the matters of property For after the King was Murthered he laid by all his Collections of the Pleas of the Crown and that they might not fall into ill hands he hid them behind the Wainscotting of his Study for he said there was no more occasion to use them till the King should be again restored to his Right and so upon his Majesties Restoration he took them out and went on in his design to perfect that great Work Yet for some time after he was made a Iudge when he went the Circuit he did sit on the Crown Side and Judged Criminals But having considered farther of it he came to think that it was at least better not to do it and so after the Second or Third Circuit he refused to sit any more on the Crown Side and told plainly the reason for in matters of Blood he was always to choose the safer Side And indeed he had so carried himself in some Tryals that they were not unwilling he should withdraw from medling farther in them of which I shall give some instances Not long after he was made a Iudge which was in the year 1653 when he went the Circuit a Tryal was brought before him at Lincoln concerning the Murther of one of the Townsmen who had been of the Kings Party and was Killed by a Souldier of the Garrison there He was in the Fields with a Fowling piece on his Shoulder which the Souldier seeing he came to him and said it was contrary to an Order which the Protector had made That none who had been of the Kings Party should carry Armes and so he would have forced it from him But as the other did not regard the Order so being stronger than the Souldier he threw him down and having beat him he left him The Souldier went into the Town and told one of his fellow Souldiers how he had been used and got him to go with him and lie in wait for the Man that he might be revenged on him They both watched his coming to Town and one of them went to him to demand his Gun which he refusing the Soldier struck at him and as they were strugling the other came behind and ran his Sword into his Body of which he presently died It was in the time of the Assizes so they were both Tried Against the one there was no Evidence of forethought Felony so he was only found
THE Life and Death OF Sir Kt. SOMETIME LORD CHIEF IUSTICE OF His Majesties Court OF KINGS BENCH Written by GILBERT BURNETT D.D. LONDON Printed for William Shrowsbery at the Bible in Duke-Lane 1681. THE PREFACE NO part of History is more instructive and delighting than the Lives of great and worthy Men The shortness of them invites many Readers and there are such little and yet remarkable passages in them too inconsiderable to be put in a general History of the Age in which they lived that all people are very desirous to know them This makes Plutarch's Lives be more generally Read than any of all the Books which the ancient Greeks or Romans Writ But the lives of Hero's and Princes are commonly filled with the account of the great things done by them which do rather belong to a general than a particular History and do rather amuse the Reader 's fancy with a splendid shew of greatness than offer him what is really so useful to himself And indeed the Lives of Princes are either Writ with so much flattery by those who intended to merit by it at their own hands or others concerned in them Or with so much spite by those who being ill used by them have revenged themselves on their Memory that there is not much to be built on them And though the ill nature of many makes what is Satyrically writ to be generally more read and believed than when the flattery is visible and course yet certainly Resentment may make the Writer corrupt the truth of History as much as Interest And since all Men have their blind sides and commit Errors he that will industriously lay these together leaving out or but slightly touching what should be set against them to ballance them may make a very good Man appear in very bad Colours So upon the whole matter there is not that reason to expect either much truth or great instruction from what is written concerning Hero's or Princes for few have been able to imitate the patterns Suetonius set the World in writing the Lives of the Roman Emperours with the same freedom that they had led them But the Lives of private Men though they seldom entertain the Reader with such a variety of passages as the other do Yet certainly they offer him things that are more imitable and do present Wisdom and Virtue to him not only in a fair Idea which is often look't on as a piece of the Invention or Fancy of the Writer but in such plain and familiar instances as do both direct him better and perswade him more And there are not such temptations to biass those who writ them so that we may generally depend more on the truth of such relations as are given in them In the age in which we live Religion and Virtue have been proposed and defended with such advantages with that great force of reason and those perswasions that they can hardly be matched in former times yet after all this there are but few much wrought on by them which perhaps flows from this among other reasons that there are not so many excellent Patterns set out as might both in a shorter and more effectual manner recommend that to the World which discourses do but coldly The wit and stile of the Writer being more considered than the argument which they handle and therefore the proposing Virtue and Religion in such a Model may perhaps operate more than the perspective of it can do and for the History of Learning nothing does so preserve and improve it as the writing the Lives of those who have been eminent in it There is no Book the ancients have left us which might have informed us more than Diogenes Laertius his Lives of the Philosophers if he had had the art of writing equal to that great Subject which he undertook for if he had given the World such an account of them as Gassendus has done of Peiresk how great a stock of knowledge might we have had which by his unskilfulness is in a great measure lost Since we must now depend only on him because we have no other or better Author that has written on that Argument For many Ages there were no Lives writ but by Monks through whose writings there runs such an incurable humour of telling incredible and inimitable passages that little in them can be believed or proposed as a pattern Sulpitius Severus and Jerom shewed too much credulity in the Lives they writ and raised Martin and Hilarion beyond what can be reasonably believed after them Socrates Theodoret Sozomen and Palladius took a pleasure to tell uncouth stories of the Monks of Thebais and Nitria and those who came after them scorned to fall short of them but raised their Saints above those of former Ages so that one would have thought that undecent way of writing could rise no higher and this humour infected even those who had otherwise a good sense of things and a just apprehension of Mankind as may appear in Matthew Paris who though he was a Writer of great Iudgement and fidelity yet he has corrupted his History with much of that Alloy But when emulation and envy rose among the several Orders or Houses then they improved in that art of making Romances instead of writing Lives to that pitch that the World became generally much scandalized with them The Franciscans and Dominicans tried who could say the most extravagant things of the Founders or other Saints of their Orders and the Benedictines who thought themselves possest of the belief of the World as well as of its wealth endeavoured all that was possible still to keep up the dignity of their Order by outlying the others all they could and whereas here or there a Miracle a Vision or Trance might have occurred in the Livâ—s of former Saints now every page was full of those wonderfull things Nor has the humour of writing in such a manner been quite laid down in this Age though more awakned and better enlightned as appears in the Life of Philip Nerius and a great many more And the Jesuits at Antwerp are now taking care to load the World with a vast and voluminous Collection of all those Lives that has already swelled to eleven Volumes in Folio in a small Print and yet being digested according to the Kalender they have yet but ended the Month of April The Life of Monsieur Renty is writ in another manner where there are so many excellent passages that he is justly to be reckoned amongst the greatest patterns that France has afforded in this age But while some have nourished Infidelity and a scorn of all sacred things by writing of those good Men in such a strain as makes not only what is so related to be disbelieved but creates a distrust of the authentical writings of our most holy faith others have fallen into another extream in writing Lives too â—ejunely swelling them up with trifling accounts of the Childhood and Education and the
the immoral and irreligious Principles and Practices that had so long vexed his Righteous Soul And therefore began a great design against Atheisme the first part of which is only Printed of the Origination of Mankind designed to prove the Creation of the World and the truth of the Mosaical History The Second part was of the Nature of the Soul and of a future State The Third part was concerning the Attributes of God both from the abstracted Idea's of him and the Light of Nature the Evidence of Providence the notions of Morality and the voice of Conscience And the Fourth part was concerning the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures with Answers to the Objections against them On writing these he spent Seven years He Wrote them with so much Consideration that one who perused the Original under his own hand which was the first draught of it told me he did not remember of any considerable Alteration perhaps not of twenty words in the whole Work The way of his Writing them only on the Evenings of the Lords Day when he was in Town and not much oftner when he was in the Country made that they are not so contracted as it is very likely he would have writ them if he had been more at leisure to have brought his thoughts into a narrower Compass and fewer words But making some Allowance for the largeness of the Stile that Volum that is Printed is generally acknowledged to be one of the perfectest pieces both of Learning and Reasoning that has been Writ on that Subject And he who read a great part of the other Volumes told me they were all of a piece with the first When he had finished this Work he sent it by an unknown hand to Bishop Wilkins to desire his Judgment of it But he that brought it would give no other Account of the Authour but that he was not a Clergy man The Bishop and his worthy Friend Dr. Tillotson read a great deal of it with much pleasure but could not imagine who could be the Author and how a Man that was Master of so much Reason and so great a variety of Knowledge should be so unknown to them that they could not find him out by those Characters which are so little Common At last Dr. Tillotson guessed it must be the Lord Cheif Baron to which the other presently agreed wondring he had been so long in finding it out So they went immediately to him and the Bishop thanking him for the Entertainment he had received from his Works he blushed extreamly not without some displeasure apprehending that the Person he had trusted had discovered him But the Bishop soon cleared that and told him he had discovered himself for the learning of that Book was so various that none but he could be the Author of it And that Bishop having a freedom in delivering his opinion of things and Persons which perhaps few ever managed both with so much plainness and Prudence told him there was nothing could be better said on these Arguments if he could bring it into a less Compass but if he had not leisure for that he thought it much better to have it come out though a little too large than that the World should be deprived of the good which it must needs do But our Iudge had never the opportunities of revising it so a little before his Death he sent the first part of it to the Press In the beginning of it he gives an Essay of his Excellent way of Methodizing things in which he was so great a Master that whatever he undertook he would presently cast into so perfect a Scheme that he could never afterwards Correct it He runs out Copiously upon the Argument of the Impossibility of an Eternal Succession of Time to shew that Time and Eternity are inconsistent one with another And that therefore all Duration that was past and defined by Time could not be from Eternity and he shews the difference between successive Eternity already past and one to come So that though the latter is possible the former is not so for all the parts of the former have actually been and therefore being defined by Time cannot be Eternal whereas the other are still future to all Eternity so that this reasoning cannot be turned to prove the possibility of Eternal Successions that have been as well as Eternal Successions that shall be This he follows with a Strength I never met with in any that Managed it before him He brings next all those Moral Arguments to prove that the World had a beginning agreeing to the Account Moses gives of it as that no History rises higher than near the time of the Deluge and that the first Foundation of Kingdoms the Invention of Arts the Beginnings of all Religions the gradual Plantation of the World and Increase of Mankind and the Consent of Nations do agree with it In managing these as he shews profound Skill both in Historical and Philosophical Learning so he gives a Noble Discovery of his great Candor and Probity that he would not Impose on the Reader with a false shew of reasoning by Arguments that he knew had Flawes in them and therefore upon every one of these he adds such Allays as in a great measure lessened and took off their force with as much Exactness of Judgment and strictness of Censure as if he had been set to Plead for the other Side And indeed Sums up the whole Evidence for Religion as impartially as ever he did in a Tryal for Life or Death to the Iury which how Equally and Judiciously he always did the whole Nation well knows After that he Examines the Ancient Opinions of the Philosophers and inlarges with a great variety of curious Reflections in answering that only Argument that has any appearance of Strength for the Casual production of Man from the origination of Insects out of putrified Matter as is commonly supposed and he concluded the Book shewing how Rational and Philosophical the Account which Moses gives of it is There is in it all a sagacity and quickness of Thought mixed with great and curious Learning that I confess I never met together in any other Book on that Subject Among other Conjectures one he gives concerning the Deluge is that he did not think the Face of the Earth and the Waters were altogether the same before the Universal Deluge and after But possibly the Face of the Earth was more even than now it is The Seas possibly more dilated and extended and not so deep as now And a little after possibly the Seas have undermined much of the appearing Continent of Earth This I the rather take notice of because it hath been since his Death made out in a most Ingenious and most Elegantly Writ Book by Mr. Burnet of Christ's Colledge in Cambridge who has given such an Essay towards the proving the possibility of an universal Deluge and from thence has Collected with great Sagacity what Paradise
lie down in Bed above a Year before his Death by reason of the Asthma but sat rather than lay in it He was attended on in his Sickness by a Pious and Worthy Divine Mr. Evan Griffith Minister of the Parish and it was observed that in all the Extremities of his Pain when ever he Prayed by him he forbore all Complaints or Groans but with his Hands and Eyes lifted up was fixed in his Devotions Not long before his Death the Minister told him there was to be a Sacrament next Sunday at Church but he believed he could not come and partake with the rest therefore he would give it to him in his own House But he answered No his Heavenly Father had prepared a Feast for him and he would go to his Fathers House to partake of it So he made himself be carried thither in his Chair where he received the Sacrament on his Knees with great Devotion which it may be supposed was the greater because he apprehended it was to be his Last and so took it as his Viaticum and Provision for his Journey He had some secret unaccountable Presages of his Death for he said that if he did not Die on such a day which fell to be the 25 th of November he believed he should Live a Month longer and he Died that very day Month. He continued to enjoy the free use of his Reason and Sence to the last Moment which he had often and earnestly Prayed for during his Sickness And when his Voice was so sunk that he could not be heard they perceived by the almost constant lifting up of his Eyes and Hands that he was still Aspiring towards that Blessed State of which he was now speedily to be possessed He had for many years a particular Devotion for Christmas day and after he had received the Sacrament and been in the performance of the publick Worship of that day he commonly wrote a Copy of Verses on the Honour of his Saviour as a fit Expression of the Joy he felt in his Soul at the return of that Glorious Anniversary There are Seventeen of those Copies Printed which he Writ on Seventeen several Christmas days by which the World has a Taste of his Poetical Genius in which if he had thought it worth his time to have Excelled he might have been Eminent as well as in other things but he Writ them rather to entertain himself than to merit the Lawrel I shall here add one which has not been yet Printed and it is not unlikely it was the last he Writ it is a Paraphrase on Simeon's Song I take it from his blotted Copy not at all finished so the Reader is to make Allowance for any Imperfection he may find in it Blessed Creator who before the Birth Of Time or e're the Pillars of the Earth Were fix't or form'd did'st lay that great Design Of Man's Redemption and did'st define In thine Eternal Councels all the Scene Of that stupendious Business and when It should appear and though the very day Of its Epiphany concealed lay Within thy mind yet thou wert pleas'd to show Some glimpses of it unto Men below In Visions Types and Prophesies as we Things at a distance in Perspective see But thou wert pleas'd to let thy Servant know That that Blest hour that seem'd to move so slow Through former Ages should at last attain Its time e're my few Sands that yet remain Are spent and that these Aged Eyes Should see the day when Jacob's Star should rise And now thou hast fulfill'd it blessed Lord Dismiss me now according to thy word And let my Aged Body now return To Rest and Dust and drop into an Urn For I have liv'd enough mine Eyes have seen Thy much desired Salvation that hath been So long so dearly wish'd the Ioy the Hope Of all the Ancient Patriarchs the Scope Of all the Prophesies and Mysteries Of all the Types unvail'd the Histories Of Jewish Church unridl'd and the bright And Orient Sun arisen to give light To Gentiles and the joy of Israel The Worlds Redeemer blest Emanuel Let this sight close mine Eyes 't is loss to see After this Vision any sight but Thee Thus he used to Sing on the former Christmas-days but now he was to be admitted to bear his part in the new Songs above so that day which he had spent in so much Spiritual Joy proved to be indeed the day of his Jubilee and Deliverance for between two and three in the Afternoon he breathed out his Righteous and pious Soul His End was Peace he had no struglings nor seem'd to be in any pangs in his last Moments He was Buried on the 4 th of Ianuary Mr. Griffith Preaching the Funeral Sermon his Text was the 57 of Isa. 1 verse The Righteous perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and Merciful Men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come Which how fitly it was applicable upon this occasion all that consider the course of his Life will easily conclude He was Interred in the Church-yard of Alderly among his Ancestors he did not much approve of Burying in Churches and used to say the Churches were for the Living and the Church-yards for the Dead His Monument was like himself decent and plain the Tomb-stone was black Marble and the sides were black and white Marble upon which he himself had ordered this bare and humble Inscriptian to be made HIC INHUMATUR CORPUS MATTHEI HALE MILITIS ROBERTI HALE ET IOANNAE UXORIS EJUS FILII UNICI NATI IN HAC PAROCHIA DE ALDERLY PRIMO DIE NOVEMBRIS ANNO DOM. 1609. DENATI VERO IBIDEM VICESIMO QUINTO DIE DECEMBRIS ANNO DOM. 1676. AETATIS SUAE LXVII Having thus given an Account of the most remarkable things of his Life I am now to present the Reader with such a Character of Him as the laying his several Virtues together will amount to in which I know how difficult a Task I undertake for to Write defectively of Him were to injure Him and lessen the Memory of one to whom I intend to do all the Right that is in my Power On the other hand there is so much here to be commended and proposed for the Imitation of others that I am affraid some may imagin I am rather making a Picture of Him from an abstracted Idea of great Virtues and Perfections than setting him out as he truly was But there is great Encouragement in this that I Write concerning a Man so fresh in all peoples Remembrance that is so lately Dead and was so much and so well known that I shall have many Vouchers who will be ready to justifie me in all that I am to relate and to add a great deal to what I can say It has appeared in the Account of his various Learning how great his Capacities were and how much they were improved by constant Study He rose always early in the Morning he loved to walk much
Gentleman happened to be retain'd to argue a point in Law where he was on the contrary side he would very often mend the Objections when he came to repeat them and always Commend the Gentleman if there were room for it and one good word of his was of more advantage to a young Man than all the favour of the Court could be Having thus far pursued his History and Character in the publick and Exemplary parts of his Life without interrupting the thread of the Relation with what was private and Domestick I shall conclude with a short account of these He was twice Married his first Wife was Anne Daughter of Sir Henry Moore of Faly in Berkshire Grandchild to Sir Francis Moore Serjeant at Law by her he had Ten Children the four first Died young the other six lived to be all Married And he out lived them all except his eldest Daughter and his youngest Son who are yet alive His eldest Son Robert Married Frances the Daughter of Sir Francis Chock of Avington in Berkshire and they both dying in a little time one after another left five Children two Sons Matthew and Gabriel and three Daughters Anne Mary and Frances and by the Iudges advice they both made him their Executor so he took his Grandchildren into his own Care and among them he left his Estate His second Son Matthew Married Anne the Daughter of Mr. Matthew Simmonds of Hilsley in Glocestershire who dyed soon after and left one Son behind him named Matthew His third Son Thomas Married Rebekah the Daughter of Christian Le Brune a Dutch Merchant and Died without Issue His fourth Son Edward Married Mary the Daughter of Edmund Goodyere Esq of Heythorp in Oxfordshire and still lives he has two Sons and three Daughters His eldest Daughter Mary was Married to Edward Alderly Son of Edward Alderly of Innishannon in the County of Cork in Ireland who dying left her with two Sons and three Daughters she is since Married to Edward Stephens Son to Edward Stephens Esq of Cherington in Glocestershire His youngest Daughter Elizabeth was Married to Edward Webb Esq Barrister at Law she Died leaving two Children a Son and a Daughter His second Wife was Anne the Daughter of Mr. Ioseph Bishop of Ealy in Berkshire by whom he had no Children He gives her a great Character in his Will as a most dutiful faithful and loving Wife and therefore trusted the breeding of his Grand-Children to her Care and left her one of his Executors to whom he joyned Sir Robert Ienkinson and Mr. Gibbon So much may suffice of those descended from him In after times it is not to be doubted but it will be reckoned no small Honour to derive from him And this has made me more particular in reckoning up his Issue I shall next give an account of the Issues of his Mind his Books that are either Printed or remain in Manuscript for the last of these by his Will he has forbid the Printing of any of them after his Death except such as he should give order for in his Life But he seems to have changed his mind afterwards and to have left it to the descretion of his Executors which of them might be Printed for though he does not express that yet he ordered by a Codicill that if any Book of his Writing as well touching the Common Law as other Subjects should be Printed then what should be given for the Consideration of the Copy should be divided into Ten shares of which he appointed Seven to go among his Servants and Three to those who had Copied them out and were to look after the Impression The reason as I have understood it that made him so unwilling to have any of his Works Printed after his Death was That he apprehended in the Licensing them which was necessary before any Book could be lawfully Printed by a Law then in force but since his Death determined some things might have been struck out or altered which he had observed not without some Indignation had been done to a part of the Reports of one whom he had much Esteemed This in matters of Law he said might prove to be of such mischievous Consequence that he thereupon resolved none of his Writings should be at the Mercy of Licensers And therefore because he was not sure that they should be Published without Expurgations or Interpolations he forbid the Printing any of them in which he afterwards made some Alteration at least he gave occasion by his Codicill to infer that he altered his mind This I have the more fully explained that his last Will may be no way misunderstood and that his worthy Executors and his Hopeful Grand-Children may not conclude themselves to be under an Indispensible obligation of depriving the publick of his excellent Writings A Catalogue of all his Books that are Printed and are to be Sold by William Shrowsbury at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-lane 1. THe primitive Origination of Mankind considered and examined according to the light of Nature Fol. 2. Contemplations Moral and Divine part 1. Octavo 3. Contemplations Moral and Divine part 2. Octavo 4. Difficiles Nugae or Observations touching the Torricellian Experiment and the various solutions of the same especially touching the Weight and Elasticity of the Air. Octavo 5. An Essay touching the Gravitation or Non-Gravitation of fluid Bodies and the Reasons thereof Octavo 6. Observations touching the principles of natural Motions and especially touching Rarefaction and Condensation together with a Reply to certain Remarks touching the Gravitation of Fluids Octavo 7. The Life and Death of Pomponius Atticus written by his Contemporary and Acquaintance Cornelius Nepos translated out of his Fragments together with Observations Political and Moral thereupon Octavo 8. Pleas of the Crown or a methodical Summary of the principal matters relating to that Subject Octavo Manuscripts of his not yet Published 1. COncerning the secondary Origination of Mankind Fol. 2. Concerning Religion 5 Vol. in Fol. viz. 1. De Deo Vox Metaphysica pars 1. 2. 2. Pars 3. Vox Naturae Providentiae Ethicae Conscientiae 3. Liber sextus septimus Octavus 4. Pars 9. Concerning the H. Scriptures their Evidence and Authority 5. Concerning the Truth of the H. Scripture and the Evidences thereof 3. Of Policy in matters of Religion Fol. 4. De Anima to Mr. B. Fol. 5. De Anima Transactions between him and Mr. B. Fol. 6. Tentamina de ortu natura immortalitate Animae Fol. 7. Magnetismus Magneticus Fol. 8. Magnetismus Physicus Fol. 9. Magnetismus Divinus 10. De generatione Animalium Vegetabilium Fol. Lat. 11. Of the Law of Nature Fol. 12. A Letter of advice to his Grand-Children Quarto 13. Placita Coronae 7 Vol. Fol. 14. Preparatory Notes concerning the Right of the Crown Fol 15. Incepta de Iuribus Coronae Fol. 16. De Prerogativa Regis Fol. 17. Preparatory Notes touching Parliamentary proceedings 2 Vol. Quarto 18. Of the
of the Leiger-Books of Battell Evesham Winton c. one vol. Seldeni Copies of the principal Records in the Red-Book in the Exchequer one vol. Extracts of Records and Treaties relating to Sea-affairs one vol. Records touching Customs Ports Partition of the Lands of Gil. De Clare c. Extract of Pleas in the time of R. 1. King Iohn E. 1. c. one vol. Cartae Antiquae in the Tower Transcribed in 2 vol. Chronological Remembrances extracted out of the Notes of Bishop Usher one volume stitched Inquisitiones de Legibus Walliae one vol. Collections or Records touching Knighthood Titles of Honour Seldeni 1 vol. Mathematicks and Fortifications one vol. Processus Curiae Militaris one vol. A Book of Honour stitched one vol. Extracts out of the Registry of Canterbury Copies of several Records touching proceedings in the Military Court one vol. Abstracts of Summons and Rolls of Parliament out of the Book Dunelm and some Records Alphabetically digested one vol. Abstracts of divers Records in the Office of first Fruits one vol. stitched Mathematical and Astrological Calculations 1 vol. A Book of Divinity Two large Repositories of Records marked A. and B. All those above are in Folio THe proceedings of the Forrests of Windsor Dean and Essex in Quarto one vol. Those that follow are most of them in Velome or Parchment TWo Books of old Statutes one ending H. 7. The other 2 H. 5. with the Sums two vol. Five last years of E. 2. one vol. Reports tempore E. 2. one vol. The Year Book of R. 2. and some others one vol. An old Chronicle from the Creation to E 3. one vol. A Mathematical Book especially of Optiques one vol. A Dutch Book of Geometry and Fortification Murti Benevenlani Geometrica one vol. Reports tempore E. 1. under Titles one vol. An old Register and some Pleas 1 vol. Bernardi Bratrack Peregrinatio one vol. Iter Cantii and London and some Reports tempore E. 2. one vol. Reports tempore E. 1. E. 2. one vol. Leiger Book Abbatiae De Bello Isidori opera Liber altercationis Christianae Philosophiae contra Paganos Historia Petri Manducatorii Hornii Astronomica Historia Ecclesiae Dunelmensis Holandi Chymica De Alchymiae Scriptoribus The black-Book of the New-Law Collected by me and digested into alphabetical Titles Written with my own hand which is the Original Coppy MATTHEW HALE The Conclusion THus lived and died Sir Matthew Hale the renouned Lord Cheif Justice of England He had one of the blessings of Virtue in the highest measure of any of the Age that does not always follow it which was that he was universally much valued and admired by Men of all sides and perswasions For as none could hate him but for his Iustice and Virtues so the great estimation he was generally in made that few durst undertake to defend so ingrateful a Paradox as any thing said to lessen him would have appeared to be His Name is scarce ever mentioned since his Death without particular accents of singular respect His opinion in points of Law generally passes as an uncontroulable authority and is often pleaded in all the Courts of Justice And all that knew him well do still speak of him as one of the perfectest patterns of Religion and Virtue they ever saw The Commendations given him by all sorts of people are such that I can hardly come under the Censures of this Age for any thing I have said concerning him yet if this Book lives to after-times it will be looked on perhaps as a Picture drawn more according to fancy and invention than after the Life if it were not that those who knew him well establishing its Credit in the present Age will make it pass down to the next with a clearer authority I shall pursue his praise no further in my own words but shall add what the present Lord Chancellor of England said concerning him when he delivered the Commission to the Lord Chief Iustice Rainsford who succeeded him in that Office which he began in this manner The Vacancy of the Seat of the Chief Iustice of this Court and that by a way and means so unusual as the Resignation of him that lately held it and this too proceeding from so deploreable a cause as the infirmity of that Body which began to forsake the ablest Mind that ever presided here hath filled the Kingdom with Lamentations and given the King many and pensive thoughts how to supply that Vacancy again And a little after speaking to his Successor He said The very Labours of the place and that weight and fatigue of Business which attends it are no small discouragements For what Shoulders may not justly fear that Burthen which made him stoop that went before you Yet I confess you have a greater discouragement than the meer Burthen of your Place and that is the unimitable Example of your last Predecessor Onerosum est succedere bono Principi was the saying of him in the Panegyrick And you will find it so too that are to succeed such a Chief Iustice of so indefatigable an Industry so invincible a Patience so exemplary an Integrity and so magnanimous a contempt of worldly things without which no Man can be truly great and to all this a Man that was so absolute a Master of the Science of the Law and even of the most abstruce and hidden parts of it that one may truly say of his knowledge in the Law what St. Austin said of St. Hieroms knowledge in Divinity Quod Hieronimus nescivit nullus mortalium unquam scivit And therefore the King would not suffer himself to part with so great a Man till he had placed upon him all the marks of bâ—unty and esteem which his retired and weak Condition was capable of To this high Character in which the expressions as they well become the Eloquence of him who pronounced them so they do agree exactly to the Subject without the abatements that are often to be made for Rhetorick I shall add that part of the Lord Chief Justices answer in which he speaks of his Predecessor A person in whom his eminent Virtues and deep Learning have long managed a contest for the Superiority which is not decided to this day nor will it ever be determined I suppose which shall get the upper hand A person that has sat in this Court these many Years of whose actions there I have been an eye and ear witness that by the greatness of his learning always charmed his Auditors to reverence and attention A person of whom I think I may boldly say that as former times cannot shew any Superiour to him so I am confident succeeding and future time will never shew any equal These considerations heightned by what I have heard from your Lordship concerning him made me anxious and doubtful and put me to a stand how I should succeed so able so good and so great a Man It doth very much trouble me that I who in comparison of him am but like a Candle lighted in the Sun-shine or like a Glow-worm at mid-day should succeed so great a Person that is and will be so eminently famous to all Posterity and I must ever wear this Motto in my breast to comfort me and in my actions to excuse me Sequitur quamvis non passibus aequis Thus were Panegyricks made upon him while yet alive in that same Court of Justice which he had so worthily governed As he was honoured while he lived so he was much lamented when he died And this will still be acknowledged as a just inscription for his Memory though his modesty forbid any such to be put on his Tomb-stone THAT HE WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST PATTERNS THIS AGE HAS AFFORDED WHETHER IN HIS PRIVATE DEPORTMENT AS A CHRISTIAN OR IN HIS PUBLICK EMPLOYMENTS EITHER AT THE BAR OR ON THE BENCH FINIS