Where one has fortunately found a place, A monument that, as it has, fhall laft And even in their flow'ry characters, My father's grave, part of your friendship shares; And by this act, the world is taught to know, But yours is friendship of fo pure a kind, For, whereas most men's friendships here beneath, By which the generous Wotton, reverend Donne, For though they each of them his time so spent, With which Ambition might reft well content; Yet their great works, though they can never die, Are no juft scale to take their virtues by: Because they fhow not how th' Almighty's grace, But what their humble modefty would hide, Wotton, a nobler foul was never bred !- Through his degrees of honour and of arts, His monument in St. Paul's church before the late dreadful fire, 1665. Jamque opus exegi, quod, nec Jovis Ira, nec Ignis, Ovid. 1 Through all th' employments of his wit and fpirit, Whofe great effects these kingdoms ftill inherit, The trials then, now trophies of his merit; Nay, through difgrace, which oft the worthieft have, And yours, and the whole world's beloved Donne, And being then an object of much ruth, By the fame clew, after his youthful fwing, And though by God's moft powerful grace alone And know, that having crucify'd vanities The meek and learned Hooker too, almost And Herbert;-he, whofe education, And fitted for a court, made that his aim; Where, with a foul compos'd of harmonies, All this you tell us, with fo good fuccefs, And now! when many worthier would be proud Where to commend what you have choicely writ, Are equally invalid and unfit: Yet this, and much more, is most justly due, Were what I write as elegant as true, To the best friend I now or ever knew. But, my dear friend, 'tis fo, that you and I, By a condition of mortality, With all this great, and more proud world, muft die: In which eftate I ask no more of Fame, And if your many merits fhall have bred JAN. 17, 1672. CHARLES COTTON, k The author of "Scarronides, or Virgile Travestie," and of other poems. He composed the second part of "The Complete Angier, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation;" being a continuation of Isaac Walton's tract on the same subject. In this work he thus speaks of our Biographer: "I have the happiness "to know his person, and to be intimately acquainted with him, and in him "to know the worthiest man, and to enjoy the best and truest friend any man "ever had: Nay, I shall yet acquaint you further, that he gives me leave to call him Father, and I hope is not ashamed to own me for his adopted Son," COPY OF A LETTER WRIT TO MR. IZAAK WALTON, BY DOCTOR KING, LORD BISHOP OF CHICHESTER' HONEST IZAAK, THOUGH HOUGH a familiarity of more than forty years continuance, and the conftant experience of your love, even in the worst of the late fad times, be fufficient to endear our friendship; yet, I must confefs my affection much improved, not only by evidences of private refpect to many that know and love you, but by your new demonftration of a public fpirit, teftified in a diligent, true, and useful collection of fo many material pafsages as you have now afforded me in the Life of venerable Mr. Hooker; of which, fince defired by fuch a friend as yourself, 1 fhall not deny to give the teftimony of what I know concerning him and his learned books; but thall firft here take a fair occafion to tell you, that you have been happy in choofing to write the Lives of three fuch perfons, as pofterity hath just cause to honour; which they will do the more for the true relation of them by your happy pen: of all which I fhall give you my unfeigned cenfure. Dr. HENRY KING, Bishop of Chichester, fon of Dr. John King, Bishop of London, and great nephew of Robert King the firft Bishop of Oxford, and the laft Abbot of Ofney, was the author of a new metrical tranflation of the Pfalms, of which he has given a modest account in a letter to Archbishop Ufher, dated Oct. 30, 1651;-(Usher's Letters. p. 567.)—and also of poems, elegies, paradoxes, fonnets, divers Latin and Greek poems, with fome fermons and religious tracts. Whilft he was Dean of Rochefter, he was suspected of favouring the Puritans: The king, defirous of gratifying that party, made him Bishop of Chichefter: But during the time of Cromwell's ufurpation, he fuffered with his brethren, and was compelled to go abroad. He returned at the Refloration, and furviving that event nine years, died Oct. 1, 1669. He was advanced to a bishopric, when Epifcopacy was in a finking ftate; "It being conceived," fays Jacob," the moft effectual method for the "reftitution of that order, to prefer perfons not only of unblamable "lives, and eminent for their learning, but fuch as were generally be 'loved by all difinterefled people. The king's choice amongst these was very happy in this great divine, who lived a moft religious life, "and did not die till after his order was refiored." I fhall begin with my moft dear and incomparable friend Dr. Donne, late Dean of St. Paul's church, who not only trufted me as his executor, but three days before his death, delivered into my hands thofe excellent Sermons of his, now made public; profefsing before Dr. Winniff, Dr. Monford", and, I think, yourfelf then prefent at his bed-fide, that it was by my reftlefs importunity, that he had prepared them for the prefs; together with which (as his best legacy) he gave me all his fermon-notes, and his other papers, containing an extract of near fifteen hundred authors. How thefe were got out of my hands, you, who were the mefsenger for them, and how loft both to me and yourself, is not now feafonable to complain: But, fince they did mifcarry, I am glad that the general demonftration of his worth was fo fairly preferved, and reprefented to the world by your pen in the hiftory of his life; indeed fo well, that befide others, the best critic of our later time (Mr. John Hales of m Dr. THOMAS WINNIFF, fuccefsively Dean of Gloucefier and of St. Paul's, was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln in 1641, on the tranflation of Dr. Williams to York. His mildaefs, meeknefs, and humility, were equalled only by his learning, integrity, and eloquence. He experienced vexation and trouble in his promotion, and was under the necessity of retiring to a country parish, Lambourn in Efsex, where he died in 1654. A monument was there erected to his memory, on which he is defcribed as one, "Ex eorum numero Epifcoporum, quibus "incumbebat nutantis Epifcopatus molem pietatis ac probitatis fuæ Ful"cimine fuftentare." He has been cenfured, along with Uber, Prideaux, and others, for the moderation which he always difplayed towards the Puritans, and indeed towards all thofe who were not well affected to the church of England. But furely fuch a moderation is more commendable than the harfhnels and acrimony of intemperate zeal. Lord Clarendon naming four other divines, who were appointed bishops at the fame time with Dr. Winniff, characterifes them as, "of great eminency in the church, frequent preachers, and not a man to whom the faults of the then governing clergy were imputed, or against whom the leaft objection could be made." Dr.THOMAS MOUNTFORT. a Refidentiary of St. Paul's, died Feb. 27, 1632. It appears from Strype's Life of Whitgift, that this perfon was fufpended for having clandeftinely married Edward, Earl of Hertford, and Frances Pranel, widow of Henry Pranel, Efq. without bans or licenfe. Upon his fubmiflion and earnest defire to be abfolved, he obtained absolution from Archbishop Whitgift himfeif. The ever memorable JOHN HALES, Greek Professor in the University of Oxford, and afterward Fellow of Eton College, from his vaft erudition, called "The Walking Library," was efteemed to be one of the greatcft fcholars in Europe. Having attended the Ambasador of James I. to the Synod of Dort, he compofed in a series of letters, a regular and most faithful narrative of the proceedings of that afsembly. His adherence to the royal caufe, involved him in diftrefs. Ooliged to fell his most valuable collection of books at a low price, he died in extreme poverty, May 19, 1656, aged 72 years. It is jufily remarked, it was none of the least injuries of thofe times, that fo eminent a inan as Hales fhould live and die under fuch necefiities as he did, by which his life was fhortened," |