of Mr. Hooker, that it may be made known unto me. And to incline him to it, I here promise to acknowledge and rectify any fuch mistake in a fecond impreffion, which the printer says he hopes for; and by this means my weak, but faithful, endeavours may become a better monument, and, in fome degree, more worthy the memory of this venerable man.

I confefs, that when I confider the great learning and virtue of Mr. Hooker, and what fatisfaction and advantages many eminent scholars and admirers of him have had by his labours; I do not a little wonder that in fixty years no man did undertake to tell pofterity of the excellencies of his life and learning, and the accidents of both; and fometimes wonder more at myself that I have been perfuaded to it; and indeed I do not eafily pronounce my own pardon, nor expect that my reader fhall, unless my introduction shall prove my apology, to which I refer him.

THE INTRODUCTION.

I HAVE been perfuaded by a friend, that I ought to obey, to

write The Life of Richard Hooker, the happy author of five (if not more) of the eight learned books of "The Laws of Ecclefiaftical Polity." And though I have undertaken it, yet it hath been with fome unwillingness, forefeeing that it must prove to me, and efpecially at this time of my age, a work of much labour to inquire, confider, research, and determine what is needful to be known concerning him For I knew him not in his life, and must therefore not only look back to his death (now fixty-four years paft) but almoft fifty years beyond that, even to his childhood and youth, and gather thence fuch obfervations and prognofticks, as may at least adorn, if not prove necefsary for the completing of what I have undertaken.

This trouble I foretet, and forefee also that it is impoffible to escape cenfures; againft which I will not hope my wellmeaning and diligence can protect me (for I confider the age in which I live), and fhail therefore but intreat of my reader a fufpenfion of them, till I have made known unto him fome reatons, which I myfelf would now fain believe, do makeme in fome meature fit for this undertaking: And if these reasons fhall not acquit me from all cenfures, they may at least abate of their feverity; and this is all I can probably hope for.-My realons follow:

About forty years paft (for I am now in the feventieth of my age) began a happy affinity with William Cranmer (now with God) grand-nephew unto the great Archbishop of that name; a family of noted prudence and refolution; with him and two of his fifters I had an entire and free friendship: One of them was the wife of Dr. Spencer, a bofom-friend, and fometime com-pupil with Mr. Hooker in Corpus Chrifti College in Oxford, and after Prefident of the fame. I name them here, for that I fhall have occafion to mention them in this following discourse; as also their brother, of whose useful abilities my

h Ifaac Walton's edition of 1675 has been followed in the preceding lives of Dr. Donne and Sir Henry Wotton. It is thought expedient to deviate from that edition in the Life of Mr. Hooker, by adopting that which was laft revised by Walton, and is prefixed to his works printed at London in 1723, and at Oxford in 1793, yet without admitting those passages which Mr. Strype has introduced into the text.

reader may have a more authentic teftimony than my pen can purchase for him, by that of our learned Camden and others.

This William Cranmer, and his two fore-named fifters, had fome affinity, and a moft familiar friendship with Mr. Hooker, and had had some part of their education with him in his house, when he was parfon of Bishop's-Born near Canterbury; in which city their good father then lived. They had, I fay, a great part of their education with him, as myself, fince that time, a happy cohabitation with them; and having fome years before read part of Mr. Hooker's works with great liking and fatisfaction, my affection to them made me a diligent inquifitor into many things that concerned him; as namely, of his perfon, his nature, the management of his time, his wife, his family, and the fortune of him and his. Which inquiry hath given me much advantage in the knowledge of what is now under my confideration, and intended for the fatisfaction of my reader.

I had also a friend fhip with the Reverend Doctor Usher', the late learned Archbishop of Armagh; and with Doctor Morton, the late learned and charitable Bishop of Durham; as

k

i The character of this eminent Prelate is happily exprefsed in the eulogium of the University of Oxford, infcribed on his portrait, which was ordered to be prefixed to his edition of The Epiftles of Ignatius. Jacobus Ufserius, Archiepifcopus Armachanus, totius Hiberniæ Primas, "Antiquitatis primævæ peritiflimus, orthodoxæ Religionis Vindex avartipporos, Errorum malleus, in concionando frequens, facundus, præpotens, vitæ inculpatæ exemplar spectabile."

"

How properly this epithet is applied to this excellent perfon appears, from his behaviour in 1602, in the earlier period of his life, while the plague raged at York. The poorer fort of the infected, being turned out of their habitations, had booths erected for them at a moor near the city; for whofe comfort and relief in that fatal extremity, Mr. Morton often repaired to them from Marfion, to preach unto them, and to minifter confolation to their languishing fouls, having withal provifions of meat carried with him in facks, to relieve the poorest fort with. But as often as he went thither, he fuffered not any fervant to attend him, but himself faddled and unfaddled his horfe, and he had a private door made through the wall of his ftudy (being the utmost part of the houfe) for prevention, left he might bring the contagion with him and endanger his whole family. (Richard Baddiley's Life of Bishop Morton.) Having thus laid the foundation of virtue when in a more private and humble fiation, he built upon it a moft noble fuperftructure. His various actions of fplendid liberality and extenfive beneficence, through the whole courfe of a long life, are only to be equalled by the magnanimity which he difplayed in his great fufferings. By his will, dated Feb. 20, 1658, and proved Oct. 1, 1660, when he had little or nothing left, he bequeathed his chalice to All-Saints Church in York, and ten pounds to the poor of the parish where he died, which was at EaftonMaudit, in Northamptonshire. In his epitaph he is declared-" Bonis exutus omnibus bonâ præterquam Famâ et Confcientiâ."

alfo with the learned John Hales, of Eaton College, and with them alfo (who loved the very name of Mr. Hooker) I have had many difcourfes concerning him; and from them, and many others that have now put off mortality, I might have had more informations, if I could then have admitted a thought of any fitness for what by perfuafion I have now undertaken. But though that full harveft be irrecoverably loft, yet my memory hath preferved fome gleanings, and my diligence made fuch additions to them, as I hope will prove ufeful to the completing of what I intend. In the discovery of which I fhall be faithful, and with this assurance put a period to my Introduction.