Travers) by John Elmer, then Bishop of London, at this time one of his auditors, and at laft one of his advocates too, when Mr. Hooker was accused for it.

But the justifying of this doctrine did not prove of fo bad confequence, as the kindness of Mrs. Churchman's curing him of his late distemper and cold, for that was fo gratefully apprehended by Mr. Hooker, that he thought himself bound in confcience to believe all that the faid: So that the good man came to be perfuaded by her, that " he was a man of a tender confti"tution;" and, "that it was beft for him to have a wife, that "might prove a nurse to him; such a one, as might both prolong "his life, and inake it more comfortable; and fuch a one, the could "and would provide for him, if he thought fit to marry." And he not confidering, that "the children of this world are wifer in their "generation than the children of light;" but, like a true Nathaniel, who feared no guile, because he meant none, did give her fuch power as Eleazar was trusted with, when he was fent to choose a wife for Ifaac; for even so he trusted her to choose for him, promifing upon a fair fummons to return to London, and accept of her choice; and he did fo in that or the year following. Now, the wife provided for him was her daughter Joan, who brought him neither beauty nor portion; and for her conditions, they were too like that wife's, which is by Solomon compared to a dripping house: So that he had no reason to "rejoice in the wife of his youth," but rather to

The conduct of AYLMER, Bishop of London, in the fcenes of public life, has been accurately defcribed by the induftrious pen of Mr. Strype. It will be fufficient to notice one trait of his character, which difplayed itself in his care of Lady Jane Grey, to whom he was tutor. Such was the suavity of his difpofition, fo gently, fo pleafantly, and with fuch fair allurements to learning, did he inftruct her, that the thought all the time nothing whilft fhe was with him. "And when I am called from "him,” said this accomplished young woman, "I fall on weeping, be"caufe whatsoever I do elfe but learning, is full of grief, trouble, fear, "and wholly misliking to me. And thus my book has been fo much my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more, that "in refpect of it all other pleatures in very deed be but trifles and "troubles to me." (Ascham's Schoolmaster.)--On this occafin Roger Afcham thus exclaims in a Latin letter to this lady. "O Elmarum meum felicifsimum, cui talis contigit difcipula, et te multò feliciorem, que eum Præceptorem nacta es; Utrique certè et tibi quæ difcis et "illi qui docet et gratulor et gaudeo."

"That which I taught," fays Mr. Hooker (Answer to Mr. Travers's Supplication, Sect. VIII.) 66 was at Paul's Crofs; it was not huddled in "among other matters in fuch fort that it could pafs without noting: "It was opened, it was proved, it was fome reasonable time flood upon. "I fee not which way my Lord of London, who was prefent and heard "it, can excufe fo great a fault as patiently without rebuke or controul"ment afterward to hear any man there teach other wife than the word " of God doth."

fay with the holy prophet, "Wo is me that I am constrained "to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar § !"

This choice of Mr. Hooker's (if it were his choice) may be wondered at; but let us confider that the Prophet Ezekiel fays, "There is a wheel within a wheel;” a fecret facred wheel of Providence (efpecially in marriages) guided by his hand, that "allows not the race to the swift," nor "bread to the wife," nor good wives to good men. And he that can bring good out of evil (for mortals are blind to fuch reasons) only knows why this blefsing was denied to patient Job, and (as fome think) to meek Mofes, and to our as meek and patient Mr. Hooker. But fo it was; and let the reader ceafe to wonder, for affliction is a divine diet; which though it be unpleafing to mankind, yet Almighty God hath often, very often impofed it as good, though bitter phyfic to thofe children whofe fouls are dearest to him.

And by this means the good man was drawn from the tranquillity of his College; from that garden of piety, of pleasure, of peace, and a fweet converfation, into the thorny wilderness of a bufy world; into thofe corroding cares that attend a married priest, and a country parfonage; which was Draiton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire, (not far from Ailfbury, and in the diocese of Lincoln); to which he was prefented by John Cheney, Efq. (then patron of it) the 9th of December, 1584, where he behaved himself fo, as to give no occafion of evil, but (as St. Paul adviseth a minister of God) "In much patience, in afflictions, in anguifhes, in necefsities, in poverty, and no doubt in long-fuffering;" yet troubling no man with his dif contents and wants i.

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And in this mean condition he continued about a year; in which time his two pupils, Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer, were returned from travel, and took a journey to Drajton to fee their tutor; where they found him with a book in his hand (it was the "Odes of Horace"), he being then tending his small allotment of sheep in a common field; which he told his pupils he was forced to do, for that his fervant was then gone home to dine, and assift his wife to do fome necefsary household bu

Anthony Wood pronounces the wife of Mr. Hooker to have been a lilly clownish woman, and withal a mere Xantippė,

h Drayton Beacham, R. St. Mary, in the Deanery of Muralley, in the Archdeaconry of Bucks. Bishop Gauden is mistaken when he relates that Mr. Hooker was preferred to this living by his College. Lord Cheyne prefented his clerk to this rectory in 1708.

(Bacon's Liber Regis, p. 495.)

!

i By this inconfiderate marriage his Fellowship was immediately vacated. Dr. Gauden's ignorance of this unfortunate event has occafioned him to afsign feveral reafons why Mr. Hooker forfook an academic life, and chofe to confign the rich treafury of his learning to the retiredness and obfcurity of a country parfonage.

finefs. When his feryant returned and released him, his two pupils attended him unto his house, where their best entertainment was his quiet company, which was prefently denied them; for Richard was called to rock the cradle; and their welcome was fo like this, that they ftayed but next morning, which was time enough to difcover and pity their tutor's condition and having in that time remembered and paraphrafed on many of the innocent recreations of their younger days, and by other fuch like diverfions, given him as much prefent pleasure as their acceptable company and difcourfe could afford him, they were forced to leave him to the company of his wife, and feek themfelves a quieter lodging. But at their parting from him, Mr. Cranmer faid, "Good tutor, I am forry your lot is fallen in no "better ground, as to your parfonage; and more forry your "wife proves not a more comfortable companion after you have "wearied your thoughts in your reftlefs ftudies." To whom the good man replied, "My dear George, if faints have ufually a double fhare in the miferies of this life, I, that am none, "ought not to repine at what my wife Creator hath appointed "for me; but labour, as indeed I do daily, to fubmit to his "will, and pofsefs my foul in patience and peace 1."

At their return to London, Edwin Sandys acquaints his father (then Bishop of London, and after Archbishop of York), with his tutor's fad condition, and folicits for his removal to fome benefice that might give him a more comfortable subsistence; which his father did most willingly grant him, when it fhould next fall into his power. And not long after this time, which was in the year 1585, Mr. Alvy, Mafter of the Temple, died, who was a man of a strict life, of great learning, and of fo venerable behaviour, as to gain fuch a degree of love and reverence from all men that knew him, that he was generally known by the name of Father Alvy. At the Temple reading, next after the death of this Father Alvy, the Archbishop of York being then at dinner with the Judges, the Reader, and

How ftrongly is this unpleafing domeftic fcene contrafted by the gentle manners, the exalted piety, the extenfive charity, the faint-like humility of that excellent woman, the wife of Mr. George Herbert?

On the fione which covers the body of Thomas a Kempis is his effigy, and that of another perfon extending to him a label whereon is written a queftion to this purpose:—

"Oh! where is PEACE, for thou its paths haft trod?"

To which Kempis is reprefented as answering

"In poverty, retirement, and with God."

(The Amaranth, 1767, p. 23.)

m RICHARD ALVY was alfo the firft canon of the fifth ftall in the collegiate church of St. Feter, Wefiminfter. The Mafierfhip of the Temple was vacated by his death in August 1584.

and Benchers of that fociety, he there met with a condolement for the death of Father Alvy, a high commendation of his faintlike life and of his great merit both to God and man; and as they bewailed his death, fo, they wished for a like pattern of virtue and learning to fucceed him. And here came in a fair occafion for the Archbishop to commend Mr. Hooker to Father Alvy's place, which he did with fo effectual an earnestnefs, and that feconded with so many other teftimonies of his worth, that Mr. Hooker was fent for from Draiton Beauchamp to London, and there the Mastership of the Temple proposed unto him by the Bishop, as a greater freedom from his country cares, the advantage of a better fociety, and a more liberal penfion than his parfonage did afford him. But these reasons were not powerful enough to incline him to a willing acceptance of it: his with was rather to gain a better country-living, where he might be free from noise, (fo he expressed the defire of his heart), and eat that bread, which he might more properly call his own, in privacy and quietnefs. But notwithstanding this averfeness, he was at laft perfuaded to accept of the Bishop's propofal; and was by patent for life made Mafter of the Temple the 17th of March, 1585, he being then in the 34th year of his age.

And here I fhall make a stop; and that the reader may the better judge of what follows, give him a character of the times, and temper of the people of this nation, when Mr. Hooker had his admifsion into this place: a place which he accepted, rather than defired; and yet here he promised himself a virtuous quietnefs; that blefsed tranquillity which he always prayed and laboured for; that fo he might in peace bring forth the fruits of peace, and glorify God by uninterrupted prayers and praises; for this he always thirfted; and yet this was denied him. For his admifsion into this place was the very beginning of thofe oppofitions and anxieties, which till then this good man was a stranger to, and of which the reader may guess by what follows.

In this character of the times, I fhall by the reader's favour, and for his information, look fo far back as to the beginning of

This you may find in the Temple Records." William Ermfiead was Matter of the Temple at the difsolution of the Priory, and died 2 Eliz. Richard Alvy, Bat. Divinity, Pat. 13 Feb. 2 Eliz. Magifter five cuftos domûs et ecclefiæ novi Templi; died 27 Eliz.-Richard Hooker fucceeded that year by patent, in terminis, as Alvy had it, and he left it 33 Eliz.-That year Dr. Belgey fucceeded Richard Hooker.

On this occafion two other candidates were propofed-Mr. Walter Travers and Dr. Nicholas Bond the Queen's chaplain. The former, commended by Alvy himself on his death-bed to be mafter after him, was fupported by the intereft of the Lord Treasurer Burghley; the latter, named to the Queen by Archbishop Whitgift, was afterward admitted Prefident of Magdalen College, Oxford, and much abused by Martin Mar-Prelate. 1

(Strype.)

the reign of Queen Elizabeth; a time in which the many pretended titles to the Crown, the frequent treafons, the doubts of her successor, the late civil war, and the fharp perfecution that had raged to the effufion of fo much blood in the reign of Queen Mary, were fresh in the memory of all men; and these begot fears in the most pious and wifeft of this nation, left the like days fhould return again to them or their present pofterity. The apprehenfion of which dangers begot an earnest defire of a fettlement in the church and ftate: believing there was no other way to make them fit quietly under their own vines and fig-trees, and enjoy the defired fruit of their labours. But time, and peace, and plenty, begot felf-ends; and thofe begot animofities, envy, oppofition, and unthankfulness for those blessings for which they lately thirfted, being then the very utmost of their defires, and even beyond their hopes.

This was the temper of the times in the beginning and progrefs of her reign; and thus it continued too long: for those very people that had enjoyed the defires of their hearts in a reformation from the church of Rome became at last sfo like the grave, as never to be fatisfied; but were ftill thirfting for more and more neglecting to pay that obedience to government and perform thofe vows to God, which they made in their days of adversities and fears; fo that in a fhort time there appeared three several interests, each of them fearless and restless in the profecution of their defigns; they may for diftinction be called the "active Romanifts," the "reftlefs Nonconformists," (of which there were many forts), and the "pafsive, peaceable "Proteftant P." The councils of the first confidered and refolved on in Rome; the fecond in Scotland, in Geneva, and in divers felected, fecret, dangerous conventicles both there and within the bofom of our own nation; the third pleaded and defended their cause by established laws, both ecclefiaftical and civil; and if they were active, it was to prevent the other two from deftroying what was by thofe known laws happily establifhed to them and their pofterity.

I fhall forbear to mention the very many and dangerous plots of the Romanifts against the church and ftate; because what is principally intended in this digrefsion is an account of the opinions and activity of the Nonconformifts; against whofe judgment and practice Mr. Hooker became at laft, but most unwillingly, to be engaged in a book war; a war which he maintained, not as against an enemy, but with the spirit of meekness and reafon.

In which number of Nonconformists, though fome might be fincere and well-meaning men, whofe indifcreet zeal might be so like charity, as thereby to cover a multitude of errors, yet

P This word is here used in a more limited fenfe to denote a member of the Church of England.