THE PREFACE. I DARE neither think, nor affure the Reader, that I have committed no miftakes in this relation of the Life of Dr. Sanderfon; but am fure, there is none that are either wilful or very material. I confefs, it was worthy the employment of fome perfon of more learning and greater abilities than I can pretend to; and I have not a little wondered that none have yet been fo grateful to him and pofterity as to undertake it: For as it may be noted, that our Saviour had a care, that for Mary Magdalen's kindnefs to him, her name fhould never be forgotten: So I conceive the great fatisfaction many scholars have already had, and the unborn world is like to have, by his exact, clear, and useful learning; and might have by a true narrative of his matchlefs meeknefs, his calm fortitude, and the innocence of his whole. life, doth justly challenge the like from this prefent age, that pofterity may not be ignorant of them: And it is to me a wonder, that it has been already fifteen years neglected. But in faying this, my meaning is not to upbraid others (I am far from that) but excufe myself, or beg pardon for daring to attempt it. This being premised, I defire to tell the reader, that in this relation I have been fo bold, as to paraphrase and fay, what I think he (whom I had the happiness to know well) would have faid upon the fame occafions; and if I have been too bold in doing fo, and cannot now beg pardon of him that loved me, yet I do of my reader, from whom I defire the fame favour. And though my age might have procured me a writ of cafe, and that fecured me from all further trouble in this kind; yet I met with fuch perfuafions to undertake it, and fo many willing informers fince, and from them and others, fuch helps and encouragements to proceed, that when I found myself faint, and weary of the burden with which I had loaden myfelf, and fometime ready to lay it down; yet time and new ftrength hath at laft brought it to be what it now is, and here prefented to the reader, and with it, this defire, that he will take notice that Dr. Sanderfon did in his will or laft fickness advertise, that after his death nothing of his might be printed; because that might be faid to be his, which indeed was not; and alfo, for that he might have changed his opinion since he first wrote it, as it is thought he has fince he wrote his "Pax Ecclefiæ." And though these reafons ought to be regarded, yet regarded so, as he resolves in his "Cafe of Confcience concerning rafh Vows," that there may appear very good fecond reafons why we may forbear to perform them. However, for his faid reafons, they ought to be read as we do apocryphal fcripture; to explain, but not oblige us to fo firm a belief of what is here presented as his. And I have this to fay more; that as in my queries for writing Dr. Sanderfon's Life, I met with these little tracts annexed"; fo in my former queries for my information to write the Life of venerable Mr. Hooker; I met with a fermon, which I also believe was really his, and here presented as his to the reader. It is affirmed (and I have met with reason to believe it) that there be fome artists, that do certainly know an original picture from a copy, and in what age of the world, and by whom drawn: And if fo, then I hope it may be as fafely affirmed, that what is here presented for theirs, is fo like their temper of mind, their other writings, the times when, and the occafions upon which they were writ, that all readers may fafely conclude, they could be writ by none but venerable Mr. Hooker, and the humble and learned Dr. Sanderfon. And lastly, the trouble being now paft, I look back and am glad that I have collected thefe memoirs of this humble man, which lay scattered, and contracted them into a narrow compafs; and, if I have, by the pleasant toil of fo doing, either pleafed or profited any man, I have attained what I defigned when I first undertook it: But I feriously wish, both for the reader's and Dr. Sanderfon's fake, that pofterity had known his great learning and virtue by a better pen; by fuch a pen, as could have made his life as immortal as his learning and merits ought to be. I. W. In the first edition of Mr. Walton's Life of Dr. Sanderfon, printed in octavo, 1678, were added the following tracts. 1. "Bishop Sanderfon's Judgment concerning Submission to Ufurpers. 2." Pax Ecclefiæ." 3. "Bishop Sanderfon's Judgment in one view for the Settlement of the Church." 4. "Reafons of the Prefent Judgment of the University of Oxford, concerning the Solemn League and Covenants," &c. And also a Sermon of Richard Hooker, upon Prayer, from Matt. vii. 7. found in the ftudy of Bishop Andrews. THE LIFE OF DR. ROBERT SANDERSON. DR. ROBERT SANDERSON, the late learned Bishop of Lincoln, whofe Life I intend to write with all truth, and equal plainnefs, was born the 19th day of September, in the year of our redemption 1587: The place of his birth was Rotherham in the county of York, a town of good note, and the more, for that Thomas Rotherham, fometime Archbishop of that It appeared from the Register of the Parish of Sheffield in Yorkshire, that he was baptized in the church of Sheffield, Sept. 20, 1587. (Dr. Brown Willis.) d Thomas Scot, Fellow of King's College in Cambridge, was afterward Mafter of Pembroke Hall, and in 1483 and 1484, Chancellor of the Univerfity. He obtained great ecclefiaftical preferment, being successively Provost of Beverley, Bishop of Rochester and of Lincoln, and laftly Archbishop of York. Nor was he lefs adorned with civil honours, having been appointed, first, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and then Lord Chancellor of England. During the reign of Edward IV. were founded the collegiate churches of Middleham and Rotherham, in the county of York. The latter originally confifted of one mafter, three fellows and fix scholars, and was founded and moft liberally endowed by Thomas Archbishop of York, from 1480 to 1501. He has affigned the reason that induced him to adopt that number, "ut ubi offendi Deum in decem præceptis fuis, ifti decem orarent pro me." To this college were annexed three schools for inftructing boys in writing, grammar, and mufic. "Thefe "fchools," fays Mr. Camden," are now fuppreffed by the wicked avarice of the age." This Prelate changed his family name of Scot, for that of Rotherham, the fuppofed place of his birth. It was ufual for the clergy to add the names of the places of their nativity to their Chriftian names, and fuch an addition affords the beft evidence of the places where they were born. And it is remarked, that this Thomas Scot is the laft clergyman who is known to have obferved this cuftom. He afterward augmented the college of Rotherham with five pricfts. His munificence is amply difplayed both at Oxford and Cambridge. In the latter univerfity he built the library, and a confiderable part of the fchools: and while he was Bishop of Lincoln, he completed the buildings of Lincoln College in Oxford, and furnifhed the fociety with a body of statutes, subscribed with his own hand, Feb. 11, 1479. He died of the plague, at his palace of Cawood, in 1501. that fee, was born in it: a man whofe great wifdom, and bounty, and fanctity of life gave a denomination to it, or hath made it the more memorable, as indeed it ought alfo to be, for being the birth-place of our Robert Sanderfon. And the reader will be of my belief, if this humble relation of his life can hold any proportion with his great fanctity, his useful learning, and his many other extraordinary endowments. He was the second and youngest fon of Robert Sanderson, of Gilthwaite hall, in the faid parish and county, Efq. by Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Richard Carr, of Butterthwaite-hall, in the parish of Ecclesfield, in the faid county of York, gentleman. This Robert Sanderfon the father was defcended from a numerous, ancient, and honourable family of his own name: for the fearch of which truth I refer my reader that inclines to it, to Dr. Thoriton's "Hiftory of the Antiquities of Nottinghamshire'," and other records; not thinking it neceffary here to engage him into a fearch for bare titles, which are noted. to have in them nothing of reality: for titles not acquired, but derived only, do but fhew us who of our ancestors have, and how they have achieved that honour which their defcendants claim, and may not be worthy to enjoy. For if thofe titles defcend to perfons that degenerate into yice, and break off the continued line of learning, or valour, or that virtue that acquired them, they deftroy the very foundation upon which that honour was built; and all the rubbish of their degenerousness ought to fall heavy en fuch difhonourable heads; ought to fall fo heavy, as to degrade them of their titles, and blaft their memories with reproach and shame. But this Robert Sanderson lived worthy of his name and family; of which one teftimony may be, that Gilbert, called the great and glorious Earl of Shrewsbury, thought him not unworthy to be joined with him as a godfather to Gilbert Sheldon, the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury; to whofe * Gill Thwait, or Gill-fort, near Rotherham, is named in " Short's Hiftory of Mineral Waters," P. I. p. 269, as having a spring famous for reftoring the ufe of their limbs to fuch as have loft it by working in metals. In this History, P. 474, a pedigree of the family of Sanderson is inferted. whofe merits and memory pofterity (the clergy especially) ought to pay a reverence. But I return to my intended relation of Robert the fon, who (like Jofia that good King) began in his youth to make the laws of God, and obedience to his parents, the rules of his life; feeming even then to dedicate. himself and all his ftudies to piety and virtue. And as he was inclined to this by that native goodness, with which the wife Difpofer of all hearts had endowed his fo this calm, this quiet, and happy temper of mind (his being mild and averfe to oppofitions) made the whole course of his life eafy and grateful both to himself and others; and this bleffed temper was maintained and improved by his prudent father's good example, as alfo by his frequent converfing with him, and scattering short and virtuous apothegms with little pleasant stories", and making useful Dr. Sheldon, Archbishop of York, was born July 19, 1598. His father, Roger Sheldon, though of no obfcure parentage, was a menial fervant to Gilbert Earl of Shrewsbury, who died May 18, 1616, and was buried at Sheffield, July 17, in the fame year. That nobleman was seized of many valuable possessions at or near Sheffield; and among others of the manor and Rectory of Rotherham. See in "Collins's Peerage,” p. 19, 20, an enumeration of the titles which he affumed when he went ambaffador to France, in the 39th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. We may almoft imagine, that Mr. Robert Sanderfon had propofed to himself the ex-, ample, which is recorded with fo much filial tendernefs in the following lines: --Confuevit pater optimus hoc me, "Ut fugerem exemplis vitiorum quæque notando, -Purus et infons " (Ut me collaudem) fi vivo, et carus amicis, In the fame manner Demea inftructs his fon in Terence "Nihil prætermitto, confuefacio; denique "Infpicere tanquam in fpeculum in vitas omnium HORAT. SERM. Lib. I. 4-105. Ib. vi. 69. ADELPH, A III. Sc. 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