him purposely conceal the most of such his practical thoughts and works as the world now findeth by his Contemplations and other Writings He told me once how God brought him to a fixed Honour and Observation of the Lords Day That when he was young being in the West the sickness or death of some Relation at London made some matter of Estate to become his concernment which required his hastening to London from the West And he was commanded to travel on the Lords Day but I cannot well remember how many cross accidents befel him in his journey One Horse fell lame another died and much more which struck him with such sense of Divine Rebuke as he never forgot When I went out of the house in which he succeeded me I went into a greater over-against the Church-door The Town having great need of help for their Souls I Preached between the publick Sermous in my house taking the people with me to the Church to Common-Prayer and Sermon Morning and Evening The Judg told me that he thought that my course did the Church much service and would carry it so respectfully to me at my door that all the people might perceive his approbation But Dr. Reeves could not bear it but complained against me and the Bishop of London caused one Mr. Rosse of Brainford and Mr. Philips two Justices of the Peace to send their Warrants to apprehend me I told the Judg of the Warrant but askt him no counsel nor he gave me none but with tears shewed his sorrow The only time that ever I saw him weep So I was sent to the common Goal for Six Months by these two Justices by the procurement of the said Dr. Reeves His Majesties Chaplain Dean of Windsor Dean of Wolverhampton Parson of Horseley Parson of Acton When I came to move for my release upon a Habeas Corpus by the counsel of my great friend Serjeant Fountaine I found that the character which Judg Hale had given of me stood me in some stead and every one of the Four Judges of the common-Common-Pleas did not only acquit me but said more for me than my Council viz. Judg Wild Judg Archer Judg Tyrel and the Lord Chief Justice Vaughan and made me sensible how great a part of the Honour of His Majesties Government and the Peace of the Kingdom consisted in the Justice of the Judges And indeed Judg Hale would tell me that Bishop Usher was much prejudiced against Lawyers because the worst Causes find their Advocates but that he and Mr. Selden had convinced him of the Reasons of it to his satisfaction And that he did by acquaintance with them believe that there were as many honest men among Lawyers proportionably as among any Profession of men in England not excepting Bishops or Divines And I must needs say that the improvement of Reason the diverting men from Sensuality and Idleness the maintaining of Propriety and Justice and consequently the Peace and Welfare of the Kingdom is very much to be ascribed to the Judges and Lawyers But this Imprisonment brought me the great loss of converse with Judg Hale For the Parliament in the next Act against Conventicles put into it divers clauses suited to my case by which I was obliged to go dwell in another County and to forsake both London and my former habitation and yet the Justices of another County were partly enabled to pursue me Before I went the Judg had put into my hand Four Volumes in Folio which he had written to prove the Being and Providence of God the Immortality of the Soul and life to come the truth of Christianity and of every Book of the Scripture by it self besides the common proofs of the whole Three of the Four Volumes I had read over and was sent to the Goal before I read the Fourth I turn'd down a few leaves for some small Animadversions but had not time to give them him I could not then perswade him to review them for the Press The only fault I found with them of any moment was that great copiousness the effect of his fulness and patience which will be called tediousness by impatient Readers When we were separated he that would receive no Letters from any man about any matters which he was to judg was desirous of Letter-converse about our Philosophical and Spiritual Subjects I having then begun a Latin Methodus Theologiae sent him one of the Schemes before mentioned containing the Generals of the Philosophical part with some Notes upon it which he so over-valued that he urged me to proceed in the same way I objected against putting so much Philosophy though mostly but de homine in a Method of Theology but he rejected my Objections and resolved me to go on At last it pleased God to visit him with his mortal sickness Having had the Stone before which he found thick Pond-water better ease him of than the Gravel-Spring-water in a cold Journey an extraordinary Flux of Urine took him first and then such a pain in his side as forced him to let much Blood more than once to save him from sudden suffocation or oppression Ever after which he had death in his lapsed countenance flesh and strength with shortness of breath Dr. Willis in his life-time wrote his case without his name in an Observation in his Pharmaceut c. which was shortly Printed after his own death and before his Patient 's but I dare say it so crudely as is no honour to that book When he had striven a while under his disease he gave up his Place not so much from the apprehension of the nearness of his death for he could have died comfortably in his publick work but from the sense of his disability to discharge his part But he ceased not his studies and that upon Points which I could have wished him to let go being confident that he was not far from his end I sent him a book which I newly published for reconciling the controversies about Predestination Redemption Grace Free-will but desired him not to bestow too much of his precious time upon it But before he left his Place I found him at it so oft that I took the boldness to tell him that I thought more practical Writings were most suitable to his case who was going from this contentious world He gave me but little answer but I after found that he plied Practicals and Contemplatives in their season which he never thought meet to give me any account of Only in general he oft told me That the reason and season of his Writings against Atheism c. aforesaid were Both in his Circuit and at home he used to set apart some time for Meditation especially after the Evening publick Worship every Lords Day and that he could not so profitably keep his thoughts in connexion and method otherwise as by writing them down and withal that if there were any thing in them useful it was the way to keep it for after use And
ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE Life and Death OF Sir MATTHEW HALE THE LATE Universally Honoured and Loved LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE KINGS BENCH Written by Richard Baxter at the request of Edward Stephens Esq the Publisher of his Contemplations and his familiar Friend And Published by the urgency of others LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway in Queens-head Alley in Pater-noster-Row 1682. NOte that this Narrative was written two years before Dr. Burnet's and it 's not to be doubted but that he had better information of his Manuscripts and some other circumstances than I. But of those Manuscripts directed to me about the souls Immortality of which I have the Originals under his Hand and also of his thoughts of the Subjects mentioned by me from 1671. till he went to die in Gloucestershire I had the fullest notice READER SInce the History of Judg Hale's Life is published written by Dr. Burnet very well some men have thought that because my familiarity with him was known and the last time of a mans Life is supposed to contain his maturest judgment time study and experience correcting former oversights and this great man who was most diligently and thirstily learning to the last was like to be still wiser the notice that I had of him in the later years of his Life should not be omitted I was never acquainted with him till 1667. and therefore have nothing to say of the former part of his Life nor of the later as to any publick affairs but only of what our familiar converse acquainted me But the visible effects made me wonder at the industry and unwearied labours of his former Life Besides the Four Volumes against Atheism and Infidelity in Folio which I after mention when I was desired to borrow a Manuscript of his Law-Collections he shewed me as I remember about Two and Thirty Folio's and told me he had no other on that Subject Collections out of the Tower-Records c. and that the Amanuensis work that wrote them cost him a Thousand pound He was so set on study that he resolvedly avoided all necessary diversions and so little valued either grandure wealth or any worldly vanity that he avoided them to that notable degree which incompetent judges took to be an excess His Habit was so course and plain that I who am thought guilty of a culpable neglect therein have been bold to desire him to lay by some things which seemed too homely The House which I surrendred to him and wherein he lived at Acton was indeed well scituate but very small and so far below the ordinary dwellings of men of his rank as that divers Farmers thereabout had better but it pleased him Many censur'd him for choosing his last Wife below his Quality but the good man more regarded his own daily comfort than mens thoughts and talk As far as I could discern he chose one very suitable to his ends one of his own judgment and temper prudent and loving and fit to please him and that would not draw on him the trouble of much Acquaintance and Relations His house-keeping was according to the rest like his Estate and Mind but not like his Place and Honour for he resolved never to grasp at Riches nor take great fees but would refuse what many others thought too little I wondered when he told me how small his Estate was after such ways of getting as were before him But as he had little and desired little so he was content with little and suited his Dwelling Table and Retinue thereto He greatly shunned the visits of many or great persons that came not to him on necessary business because all his hours were precious to him and therefore he contrived the avoiding of them and the free enjoyment of his beloved privacy I must with a glad remembrance acknowledg that while we were so unsuitable in places and worth yet some suitableness of judgment and disposition made our frequent converse pleasing to us both The last time save one that I was at his house he made me lodg there and in the morning inviting me to more freqnent visits said No man shall be more welcome And he was no dissembler To signifie his love he put my name as a Legatee in his Will bequeathing me Fourty shillings Mr. Stephens gave me two Manuscripts as appointed by him for me declaring his judgment of our Church-contentions and their cure after mentioned Though they are imperfect as written on the same question at several times I had a great mind to Print them to try whether the common reverence of the Author would cool any of our contentious Clergy but hearing that there was a restraint in his Will I took out part of a Copy in which I find these words I do expresly declare That I will have nothing of my own Writings Printed after my Death but only such as I shall in my Life-time deliver out to be Printed And not having received this in his Life-time nor to be Printed in express terms I am afraid of crossing the Will of the Dead though he ordered them for me It shewed his mean Estate as to Riches that in his Will he is put to distribute the profits of a Book or two when Printed among his Friends and Servants Alas we that are great losers by Printing know that it must be a small gain that must thus accrue to them Doubtless if the Lord Chief Justice Hale had gathered money as other Lawyers do that had less advantage as he wanted not will so he would not have wanted power to have left them far greater Legacies But the Servants of a self-denying mortified Master must be content to suffer by his Vertues which yet if they imitate him will turn to their final gain God made him a Publick Good which is more than to get Riches His great judgment and known integrity commanded respect from those that knew him so that I verily think that no one Subject since the days that History hath notified the affairs of England to us went off the stage with greater and more Universal Love and Honour And what Honour without Love is I understand not I remember when his Successor the Lord Chief Justice Rainsford falling into some melancholy came and sent to me for some advice he did it as he said because Judg Hale desired him so to do and expressed so great respect to his judgment and Writings as I perceived much prevailed with him And many have profited by his contemplations who would never have read them had they been written by such a one as I. Yet among all his books and discourses I never knew of these until he was dead His resolution for Justice was so great that I am persuaded that no wealth nor honour would have hired him knowingly to do one unjust Act. And though he left us in sorrow I cannot but acknowledg it a great mercy to him to be taken away when he was Alas what would the good man have done if he
had been put by Plotters and Traitors and Swearers and Forswearers upon all that his Successors have been put to In likelihood even all his great wisdom and sincerity could never have got him through such a wilderness of thorns and briars and wild beasts without tearing in pieces his entire Reputation if he had never so well secured his conscience O! how seasonably did he avoid the tempest and go to Christ And so have so many excellent persons since then and especially within the space of one year as may well make England tremble at the Prognostick that the righteous are taken as from the evil to come And alas what an evil is it like to be We feel our loss We fear the common danger But what Believer can chuse but acknowledg Gods mercy to them in taking them up to the world of Light Love Peace and Order when confusion is coming upon this world by Darkness Malignity Perfidiousness and cruelty Some think that the last conflagration shall turn this Earth into Hell If so who would not first be taken from it And when it is so like to Hell already who would not rather be in Heaven Though some mistook this man for a meer Philosopher or Humanist that knew him not within yet his most serious description of the sufferings of Christ and his copious Volumes to prove the truth of the Scripture Christianity our Immortality and the Deity do prove so much reality in his Faith and Devotion as makes us past doubt of the reality of his reward and glory When he found his belly swell his breath and strength much abate and his face and flesh decay he chearfully received the sentence of Death And though Dr. Glisson by meer Oximel squilliticum seemed a while to ease him yet that also soon failed him and he told me he was prepared and contented comfortably to receive his change And accordingly he left us and went unto his native Country of Gloucestershire to die as the history tells you Mr. Edward Stephens being most familiar with him told me his purpose to write his Life and desired me to draw up the meer Narrative of my short familiarity with him which I did as followeth but hearing no more of him cast it by But others desiring it upon the sight of the published History of his Life by Dr. Burnet I have left it to the discretion of some of them to do with it what they will And being half dead already in those dearest friends who were half my self am much the more willing to leave this mole-hill and prison of earth to be with that wise and blessed Society who being united to their Head in glory do not envy hate or persecute each other nor forsake God nor shall ever be forsaken by Him R. B. Additional Notes on the Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale To my worthy Friend Mr. Stephens the Publisher of Judg Hale's Contemplations SIR YOU desired me to give you notice of what I knew in my personal converse of the Great Lord Chief Justice of England Sir Matthew Hale You have partly made any thing of mine unmeet or the sight of any but your self and his private friends to whom it is useless by your divulging those words of his extraordinary favour to me which will make it thought that I am partial in his praises And indeed that excessive esteem of his which you have told men of is a divulging of his imperfection who did over-value so unworthy a person as I know my self to be I will promise you to say nothing but the truth and judg of it and use it as you please My acquaintance with him was not long and I lookt on him as an excellent person studied in his own way which I hoped I should never have occasion to make much use of but I thought not so versed in our matters as our selves I was confirmed in this conceit by the first report I had from him which was his wish that Dr. Reignolds Mr. Calamy and I would have taken Bishopricks when they were offered us by the Lord Chancellor as from the King in 1660. as one did I thought he understood not our case or the true state of English Prelacy Many years after when I lived at Acton he being Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer suddenly took a house in the Village We sate next seats together at Church for many weeks but neither did he ever speak to me or I to him At last my extraordinary friend to whom I was more beholden than I must here express Serjeant Fountaine asked me why I did not visit the Lord Chief Baron I told him because I had no reason for it being a stranger to him and had some against it viz. that a Judg whose Reputation was necessary to the ends of his Office should not be brought under Court-suspition or disgrace by his familiarity with a person whom the interest and diligence of some Prelates had rendred so odious as I knew my self to be with such I durst not be so injurious to him The Serjeant answered It is not meet for him to come first to you I know why I speak it Let me intreat you to go first to him In obedience to which request I did it and so we entered into Neighbourly familiarity I lived then in a small house but it had a pleasant garden and backside which the honest Landlord had a desire to sell. The Judg had a mind to the house but he would not meddle with it till he got a stranger to me to come and enquire of me whether I was willing to leave it I told him I was not only willing but desirous not for my own ends but for my Landlord's sake who must needs sell it and so he bought it and lived in that poor house till his mortal sickness sent him to the place of his Interment I will truly tell you the matter and the manner of our converse We were oft together and almost all our discourse was Philosophical and especially about the Nature of Spirits and superior Regions and the Nature Operations and Immortality of mans Soul And our disposition and course of thoughts were in such things so like that I did not much cross the bent of his conference He studied Physicks and got all new or old books of Philosophy that he could meet with as eagerly as if he had been a boy at the University Mousnerius and Honoratus Faber he deservedly much esteemed but yet took not the later to be without some mistakes Mathematicks he studied more than I did it being a knowledg which he much more esteemed than I did who valued all knowledg by the greatness of the benefit and necessity of the use and my unskilfulness in them I acknowledg my great defect in which he much excelled But we were both much addicted to know and read all the pretenders to more than ordinary in Physicks the Platonists the Peripateticks the Epicureans and specially their Gassendus
heart an Infidel and inclined to the Opinions of Hobbs I desired him to tell me the truth herein And he oft professed to me that Mr. Selden was a resolved serious Christian and that he was a great adversary to Hobbs his errors and that he had seen him openly oppose him so earnestly as either to depart from him or drive him out of the Room And as Mr. Selden was one of those called Erastians as his Book de Synedriis and others shew yet owned the Office properly Ministerial So most Lawyers that ever I was acquainted with taking the word Jurisdiction to signifie something more than the meer Doctoral Priestly power and power over their own Sacramental Communion in the Church which they guide do use to say that it is primarily in the Magistrate as no doubt all power of Corporal Coercion by Mulcts and Penalties is And as to the Accidentals to the proper power of Priesthood or the Keys they truly say with Dr. Stillingfleet That God hath setled no one form Indeed the Lord Chief Justice thought that the power of the Word and Sacraments in the Ministerial Office was of Gods institution and that they were the proper Judges appointed by Christ to whom they themselves should apply Sacraments and to whom they should deny them But that the power of Chancellors Courts and many modall additions which are not of the Essence of the Priestly Office floweth from the King and may be fitted to the State of the Kingdom Which is true if it be limited by Gods Laws and exercised on thing only allowed them to deal in and contradict not the Orders and Powers setled by Christ and his Apostles On this account he thought well of the form of Government in the Church of England lamenting the miscarriages of many persons and the want of Parochial Reformation But he was greatly for uniting in Love and Peace upon so much as is necessary to Salvation with all Good Sober Peaceable Men. And he was much against the corrupting of the Christian Religion whose Simplicity and Purity he justly took to be much of its excellency by mens busie additions by Wit Policy Ambition or any thing else which sophisticateth it and maketh it another thing and causeth the lamentable contentions of the world What he was as a Lawyer a Judg a Christian is so well known that I think for me to pretend that my testimony is of any use were vain I will only tell you what I have written by his Picture in the front of the great Bible which I bought with his Legacy in memory of his Love and Name viz. Sir Matthew Hale That unwearied Student that prudent Man that solid Philosopher that famous Lawyer that PILLAR and BASIS of JUSTICE who would not have done an unjust act for any worldly price or motive the Ornament of his Majesties Government and Honour of England the highest faculty of the Soul of Westminster Hall and pattern to all the Reverend and Honourable Judges That godly serious practical Christian the lover of goodness and all good men a lamenter of the Clergies selfishness and unfaithfulness and discord and of the sad divisions following hereupon An earnest desirer of their Reformation Concord and the Churches peace and of a REFORMED ACT of UNIFORMITY as the best and necessary means thereto That great contemner of the Riches Pomp and Vanity of the World That pattern of honest plainness and humility who while he fled from the Honour that pursued him was yet Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench after his being long Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer living and dying entring on using and voluntarily surrendring his place of Judicature with the most universal Love and Honour and Praise that ever did English Subject in this Age or any that just History doth acquaint us with c. c. c. This man so wise so good so great bequeathing me in his Testament the Legacy of Forty shillings meerly as a Testimony of his respect and love I thought this book the Testament of Christ the meetest purchase by that price to remain in memorial of the faithful love which he bare and long expressed to his inferiour and unworthy but honouring Friend who thought to have been with Christ before him and waiteth for the day of his perfect conjunction with the Spirits of the Just made perfect Richard Baxter