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Where one has fortunately found a place,
More faithful to him than his marble wash,
Which eating agei, nor fire shall e'er deface.

A monument that, as it has, fhall laft
And prove a monument to that defac'd;
Itfelf, but with the world, not to be raz'd.

And even in their flow'ry characters,

My father's grave, part of your friendship shares;
For you have honour'd his in firewing theirs.
Thus by an office, though particular,
Virtue's whole common-weal obliged are;
For in a virtuous act all good men share.

And by this act, the world is taught to know,
That the true friendship we to merit owe,
Is not discharg'd by compliment and show.

But yours is friendship of fo pure a kind,
From all mean ends and intereft fo refin'd,
It ought to be a pattern to mankind :

For, whereas most men's friendships here beneath,
Do perish with their friends' expiring breath,
Yours proves a friendship living after death;

By which the generous Wotton, reverend Donne,
Soft Herbert, and the church's champion,
Hooker, are refcu'd from oblivion.

For though they each of them his time so spent,
As rais'd unto himfelf a monument,

With which Ambition might reft well content;

Yet their great works, though they can never die,
And are in truth fuperlatively high,

Are no juft scale to take their virtues by:

Because they fhow not how th' Almighty's grace,
By various and more admirable ways,
Brought them to be the organs of his praife.

But what their humble modefty would hide,
And was by any other means deny'd,
Is by your love and diligence fupply'd.

Wotton, a nobler foul was never bred !-
You, by your narrative's moft even thread,
Through all his labyrinths of life have led;

Through his degrees of honour and of arts,
Brought him fecure from Envy's venom'd darts,
Which are ftill levell'd at the greatest parts;

His monument in St. Paul's church before the late dreadful fire, 1665.

Jamque opus exegi, quod, nec Jovis Ira, nec Ignis,
Nec poterit Ferrum, nec edax abolere Vetustas.

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,
Thro' all flate-tempefis, thro' each wind and wave,
And laid him in an honourable grave.

And yours, and the whole world's beloved Donne,
When he a long and wild career had run,
To the meridian of his glorious fun;

And being then an object of much ruth,
Led on by vanities, error, and youth,
Was long ere he did find the way to truth:

By the fame clew, after his youthful fwing,
To ferve at his God's altar here you bring,
Where an once wanton mufe doth anthems fing.

And though by God's moft powerful grace alone
His heart was fettled in Religion,
Yet 'tis by you we know how it was done;

And know, that having crucify'd vanities
And fixt his hope, he clos'd up his own eyes,
And then your friend a faint and preacher dies.

The meek and learned Hooker too, almost
l'the Church's ruins over-whelm'd and loft,
Is by your pen recover'd from his duft:

And Herbert;-he, whofe education,
Manners, and parts, by high applauses blown,
Was deeply tainted with Ambition,

And fitted for a court, made that his aim;
At laft, without regard to birth or name,
For a poor country cure does all disclaim;

Where, with a foul compos'd of harmonies,
Like a sweet fwan, he warbles as he dies
His Maker's praise, and his own obfequies.

All this you tell us, with fo good fuccefs,
That our oblig'd pofterity fhall profefs,
T'have been your friend, was a great happinefs.

And now! when many worthier would be proud
T'appear before you, if they were allow'd,
I take up room enough to ferve a crowd:

Where to commend what you have choicely writ,
Both my poor teftimony and my wit

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,
Nor other monument of Honour claim,
Than that of your true friend, t'advance my name.

And if your many merits fhall have bred
An abler pen to write your life when dead,
I think an honefter cannot be read.

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."

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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."

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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,"

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