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"undertaken to clear the controverfy; yet for the most part "they have rather fatisfied themselves, than convinced the dif "fenting party. And, doubtlefs, many middle-witted men, "which yet mav mean well, many fcholars that are not in the "highest form for learning, which yet may preach well, men "that are but preachers, and shall never know, until they come "C to heaven, where the questions ftick betwixt Arminius and "the Church of England (if there be any), will yet in this "world be tampering with, and thereby perplexing the contro"verfy, and do therefore justly fall under the reproof of St. "Jude", for being bufy-bodies, and for meddling with things "they understand not*."

And here it offers itself (I think not unfitly), to tell the reader, that a friend of Sir Henry Wotton's, being defigned for the employment of an ambassador, came to Eaton, and requested from him fome experimental rules for his prudent and fafe carriage in his negociations: To whom he fmilingly gave this for an infallible aphorifm; "That, to be in fafety himfelf, and fervice"able to his country, he should always, and upon all occafions, "speak the truth." It feems a ftate paradox: "For," fays Sir Henry Wotton, "you fhall never be believed: And by this "S means your truth will fecure yourself if you shall ever be "called to any account; and it will alfo put your adversaries, "who will still hunt counter, to a lofs in all their difquifitions "and undertakings."

Many more of this nature might be obferved, but they muft be laid afide; for I fhall here make a little ftop, and invite the reader to look back with me whilft, according to my promife, I fhall fay a little of Sir Albertus Morton and Mr. William Bedel, whom I formerly mentioned.

u Rather, St. Peter. 1 Pet. iv. 15, and 2 Pet. ii. 12.

* In England Arminianifm was hoftile to civil liberty, and Calvinifm 'favourable to it. It has been already remarked that James, however he pretended to promote the condemnation of Arminius and his doctrines at the Synod of Dort, encouraged the Arminians at home. He promoted Laud, Howfon, Corbet, and Neil, who were all zealous Armini-ans. There is reafon to fuppofe that they abetted his arbitrary ineafures, and by that means recommended themfelves.

"

"The Puritans, who will allow no free-will at all, but God does all, yet will allow the fubject his liberty to do or not to do, notwithfianding the King, the God upon earth. The Arminians, who hold we "have free-will, yet fay, when we come to the King, there must be all "obedience, and no liberty to be flood for." (Selden's Table Talk, underthe Article FREE-WILL.)

y When Sir Henry Wotton gives this shrewd advice to his friend, he feems really to have held that unfavourable opinion of the function of an ambassador, which he had once declared in his celebrated definition,

z He died in the vernality of his employments and fortunes, under the best king and mafter in the world." (Reliq. Wotton, p. 477.),

Sir

I have told you that are my reader, that at Sir Henry Wotton's firft going ambassador into Italy, his coufin, Sir Albertus Morton went his fecretary: And I am next to tell you that Sir Albertus died Secretary of State to our late King; but cannot, am not able to exprefs the forrow that pofsefsed Sir Henry Wotton at his first hearing the news that Sir Albertus was by death loft to him and this world. And yet the reader may partly guefs by thefe following expreffions: The first in a letter to his Nicholas Pey, of which this that followeth is a part:

"And, my dear Nick, when I had been here almost a "fortnight, in the midst of my great contentment, I received "notice of Sir Albertus Morton's departure out of this world, "who was dearer to me than mine own being in it. What a "wound it is to my heart, you that knew him and know me, "will eafily believe: But our Creator's will be done and unre" piningly received by his own creatures, who is the Lord of "all nature and of all fortune, when he taketh to himself now one " and then another, till that expected day wherein it fhall please "him to dissolve the whole and wrap up even the heaven itself "as a fcroll of parchment. This is the laft philosophy that we "muft ftudy upon earth. Let us, therefore, that yet remain "here, as our days and friends wafte, reinforce our love to "each other; which of all virtues, both fpiritual and moral, hath "the higheft privilege, because death itself cannot end it. "And my good Nick," &c.

This is a part of his forrow thus exprefsed to his Nick Pey: The other part is in this following elegy, of which the reader may fafely conclude it was too hearty to be difsembled.

Sir Henry Wotton's epigram on the death of Sir Albertus Morton's wife is well known.

"He firft deceased: She for a little tried

"To live without him: lik'd it not, and died."

Albertus Morton was elected scholar of King's College, Cambridge, in 1602. He went to Venice as Secretary to his uncle Sir Henry Wotton, and was afterward agent for King James at the court of Savoy, and with the Princes of the Union in Germany, Secretary to the Queen of Bohemia in 1616, one of the Clerks of the Council, and knighted in Sept. 1617, and at laft Secretary of State, in which poft he died in November, 1625. (Dr. Birch's Life of Henry Prince of Wales.)

a Ifaiah, xxxiv. 4.

These are noble and exalted fentiments, fuch as Christianity alone inculcates.

K

TEARS

WEPT AT THE GRAVE OF SIR ALBERTUS MORTON, BY HENRY WOTTON.

C

SILENCE, in truth, would fpeak my forrow beft,
For deepest wounds can least their feelings tell©:
Yet let me borrow from mine own unreft

A time to bid him, whom I lov'd, farewel.

Oh, my unhappy lines! you that before

Have ferv'd my youth to vent fome wanton cries,
And now, congeal'd with grief, can scarce implore
Strength to accent-" Here my Albertus lies !"

This is that fable ftone, this is the cave

And womb of earth that doth his corps embrace:
While others fing his praife, let me engrave
These bleeding numbers to adorn the place.

Here will I paint the characters of wo;
Here will I pay my tribute to the dead;
And here my faithful TEARS in fhowers fhall flow,
To humanize the flints on which I tread".

Where, though I mourn my matchless lofs alone,
And none between my weakness judge and me;
Yet even these penfive walls allow my moan,
Whofe doleful echoes to my plaints agree.

Agreeable to that more ancient observation, " Cura leves loquun "tur, ingentes ftupent."

"The grief that does not speak

Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.”

(Seneca.)

(Shakespeare's Macbeth.)

d This curious line reminds us of part of an extravagant elegy to the memory of a pleafant poet of the last century, Colonel Lovelace, in which the author, E. Revett, fays,

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Why should fome rude hand carve thy facred ftone, "And there incife a cheap inscription,

"When we can shed the tribute of our tears

"So long, till the relenting marble wears?

"Which shall fuch order in their cadence keep,
"That they a native epitaph fhall weep;
"Until each letter fpelt diftinctly lies,
"Cut by the myftic droppings of our eyes."

Thus in the beautiful "Lycidas" of Milton-
"Now thou art gone, and never must return:
"Thee, thepherd, thee the woods and defert caves
"With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,
"And all their echoes mourn.'

But is he gone? and live I rhyming here
As if fome mufe would liften to my lay?
When all diftun'd fit waiting for their dear,

And bathe the banks where he was wont to play.

Dwell then in endless blifs with happy fouls,

Difcharg'd from Nature's and from Fortune's trust;
Whilft on this fluid globe my hour-glafs rolls,
And runs the rest of my remaining duft f.

This concerning Sir Albertus Morton.

And for what I fhall fay concerning Mr. William Bedel, I muft prepare the reader by telling him, that when King James. fent Sir Henry Wotton ambassador to the State of Venice, he fent also an ambassadors to the King of France, and another to the King of Spain. With the ambassador of France went Jofeph Hall, late Bishop of Norwich, whofe many and useful works fpeak his great merit; with the ambassador of Spain went James Wadfworth; and with Sir Henry Wotton went William Bedel.

These three chaplains to these three ambassadors were all bred in one Univerfity, all of one College (Emanuel College in Cambridge), all beneficed in one diocefe, and all moft dear and entire friends. But in Spain Mr. Wadfworth met with temptations, or reafons, fuch as were fo powerful as to perfuade him (who of the three was formerly observed to be the most averfe to that religion that calls itself Catholic) to difclaim him

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An ingenious modern critic has justly remarked, that "the poetical 'compofitions of Sir Henry Wotton, when confidered in their proper light, namely as the effufions of one who merely fcribbled for his amufement, will be found deferving of praife."

JAMES HAY, Viscount Doncafter.

Mr JAMES WADDESWORTH, who died a Penfioner of the Holy Inquifition in Seville, was educated at Emanuel College in Cambridge, being a fellow-ftudent and a chamber-fellow with Mr. Bedel. They were alfo beneficed in the fame diocefe; and they both left England at the fame time. When Sir Charles Cornwallis, Treafurer to Henry Prince of Wales, went ambassador to Spain, he took with him Mr. Waddesworth as his chaplain, who was prevailed on to change his religion, and entirely to abandon his native country, and was afterward appointed to teach the Infanta the English tongue, when the match betwixt Prince Charles and her was believed to be concluded. "It appears," fays Bifhop Burnet, "as if in thefe two, Mr. Bedel and Mr. Waddesworth, thole "words of our Saviour had been to be verified- There shall be two in 66 6 one bed, the one shall be taken and the other left. For as the one of "thefe was wrought on to forfake his religion, the other was very near "the being an inftrument of a great and happy change in the Republic "of Venice."

felf a member of the church of England, and declare himself for the church of Rome; discharging himself of his attendance on the Ambassador, and betaking himself to a monaftic life, in which he lived very regularly, and fo died.

When Dr. Hall, the late Bishop of Norwich, came into England, he wrote to Mr. Wadíworth (it is the first epiftle in his printed decades), to perfuade his return, or to fhow the reafon of his apoflacy. The letter feemed to have in it many fweet expreffions of love; and yet there was in it fome expreffion, that was fo unpleasant to Mr. Wadsworth, that he rather chose to acquaint his old friend Mr. Bedel with his motives; by which means there passed betwixt Mr. Bedel and Mr. Wadsworth divers letters, which be extant in print, and did well deferve it: For in them there feems to be a controverfy, not of religion only, but who should answer each other with most love and meekness. Which I mention the rather, because it too seldom falls out to be fo in a book wari.

There is yet a little more to be faid of Mr. Bedel; for the greatest part of which the reader is referred to this following letter of Sir Henry Wotton's, written to our late King Charles I.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY,

"HAVING been informed that certain perfons have, by the good wishes of the Archbishop of Armagh, been directed hither "with a most humble petition unto your Majefty, that you will "be pleased to make Mr. William Bedel, now resident upon a "fmall benefice in Suffolk, Governor of your College at "Dublin, for the good of that fociety: And myfelf being re"quired to render unto your Majefty fome teftimony of the "faid William Bedel, who was long my chaplain at Venice in "the time of my firft employment there, I am bound in all "confcience and truth (fo far as your Majefty will vouchfafe to "accept my poor judgment) to affirm of him, that I think hardly a "fitter man for that charge could have been propounded unto 66 your Majesty in your whole kingdom for fingular erudition and "piety, conformity to the rites of the church, and zeal to ad66 vance the caufe of God; wherein his travels abroad were not * obfcure in the time of the excommunication of the Venetians. "For it may please your Majefty to know, that this is the man whom Padre Paulo took, I may fay, into his very foul; "with whom he did communicate the inwardeft thoughts of

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i The collection of thefe letters forms a very valuable appendix to Bishop Burnet's Life of Bishop Bedel. Those which passed between Mr. Bedel and Mr. Waddefworth, on the converfion of the latter to Popery, difcover that mildness and benignity of temper on the part of the former, which fhould be preferved in all controverfies. On the contrary, the acrimony and harshness of Mr. Jofeph Hall, writing on the fame fubject, are truly reprehenfible.

* Mr. BEDEL had been prefented by Sir Thomas Jermyn to a reclory. in Suffolk.

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