and Wells, and not long after tranflated to Winchester, and by that means the presentation of a Clerk to Bemerton did not fall to the Earl of Pembroke (who was the undoubted patron of it) but to the King, by reafon of Dr. Curle's advancement: But Philip, then Earl of Pembroke (for Williams was lately dead), requested the King to bestow it upon his kinfman George Herbert; and the King faid, "Moft willingly to Mr. Herbert, if it "be worth his acceptance:" And the Earl as willingly and fuddenly fent it him without feeking: But though Mr. Herbert had formerly put on a refolution for the Clergy; yet, at receiving this prefentation, the apprehenfion of the laft great account, that he was to make for the cure of fo many fouls, made him faft and pray often, and confider for not less than a month; in which time he had fome refolutions to decline both the Priesthood and that living. And in this time of confidering, "He endured," as he would often say, "such spiritual conflicts as none can think, "but only those that have endured them."

In the midst of these conflicts, his old and dear friend Mr. Arthur Woodnot took a journey to falute him at Bainton (where he then was with his wife's friends and relations) and was joyful to be an eye-witness of his health and happy marriage. And after they had rejoiced together fome few days, they took a journey to Wilton, the famous feat of the Earls of Pembroke; at which time the King, the Earl, and the whole Court were

fat, when the late grand Rebellion began, wherein he was a great fufferer. He left no other demonftration of his learning, than a Sermon preached at Whitehall, on Heb. xii. 14. April 28, 1622. (Magna Britannia, Vol. IV. p. 857.)

WILLIAM, third Earl of Pembroke, died April 10, 1630. He was the fon of Henry fecond Earl of Pembroke, by his third wife Mary, the accomplished fifter of Sir Philip Sidney', in whom the Mules and the Graces feemed to meet, and to whofe memory the well known beautiful lines were written :

"Underneath this marble hearse

"Lies the fubject of all verse,

"Sidney's fifter, Pembroke's mother:
"Death, erit thou haft flain another,
"Wife and fair and good as the,

Time fhall throw a dart at thee.

Sir Philip Sydney dedicated to her his celebrated Romance called, from this circumstance, "The Countefs of Pembroke's Arcadia.”

The character of this William Earl of Pembroke is not only one of the most amiable in Lord Ciarendon's history, but is one of the best drawn. (Cat. of Royal and Noble Authors, Vol. I. p. 192.) "He was," fays Wood," not only a great favourer of learned and ingenious men, but was "himfelf learned and endowed to admiration with a poetical geny." His poems were published with this title, " Poems written by William Earl of Pembroke, &c. many of which are answered by way of Repartee, by Sir Benjamin Rudyard, with other Poems written by them occafionally and apart. London 1660.

"

PHILIP fourth Earl of Pembroke, and first Earl of Montgomery, Lord Chamberlain of the Household to King Charles I. and Chancellor of

the

there, or at Salisbury, which is near to it. And at this time Mr. Herbert prefented his thanks to the Earl, for his presentation to Bemerton, but had not yet refolved to accept it, and told him the reason why; but that night the Earl acquainted Dr. Laud, then Bishop of London, and after Archbishop of Canterbury, with his kinfman's irrefolution. And the Bishop did the next day fo convince Mr. Herbert, that the refufal of it was a fin, that a tailor was fent for to come fpeedily from Salisbury to Wilton, to take measure, and make him canonical clothes against next day; which the tailor did: And Mr. Herbert being fo habited, went with his prefentation to the learned Dr. Davenant, who was then Bishop of Salisbury, and he gave him institution immediately (for Mr. Herbert had been made Deacon fome years

the University of Oxford, of whom fee "The Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, Vol. II. p. 191." By Sufan his firft wife, daughter of Edward Vere Earl of Oxford, he had issue feven fons and three daughters. To his fecond wife he married June 13, 1630, Ann, fole daughter and heir to George Earl of Cumberland, widow of Richard Earl of Dorfet, but by her had no issue at his death, Jan. 23, 1649-50, leaving his Lady furviving, who is justly celebrated for her life and manners, extenfive charity and beneficence. Dying March 22, 1675, the was buried at Appleby in West moreland, where her funeral fermon was preached by Edward Rainbow, Bishop of Carlifle, April 14, 1676, with fome remarks on the life of that eminent lady, from Prov. xiv. 1. He obferves of her, that she had early gained a knowledge as of the best things; fo an ability to difcourfe in all commendable arts and fciences, as well as in thofe things which belong to perfons of her birth and sex to know: For fhe could discourse with virtuotos, travellers, fcholars, merchants, divines, ftatefmen, and with good housewives in any kind, infomuch that a prime and elegant wit, Dr. Donne, well seen in all human learning, and afterward devoted to the study of divinity, is reported to have faid of this Lady in her younger years to this effect, "That the knew well how to difcourfe of all things, from pie "deftination to flea-filk."

i It appears from this passage that a diftinction of drefs was not strictly obferved by those who are admitted only into Deacon's Orders. Though Mr. Herbert was ordained Deacon about the year 1626, he ftill continued to wear his fword and filk clothes.

k Dr. JOHN DAVENANT, elected in 1609 Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and in 1614 Prefident of Queen's College, was promoted to the B.fhopric of Salisbury in 1621. A zealous and steady oppofer of Arminianifm. He was appointed by James I. to attend the Synod of Dort. He is defcribed by Echard as a perfon of found learning, deep divinity, and unblemished life. His eager nefs to eftablish peace and a brotherly union between the different reformed churches may be inferred from the animated language with which he has exprefsed himself on the fubject: "I had rather a milftone were hanged about my neck, and I caft "into the fea, than that I fhould hinder a work fo acceptable to God, or "fhould not with my whole mind and ftrength fupport it." In a prayer uttered a short time before his death," he thanked God for his fatherly cor"rection, because in all his life-time he never had one heavy affliction; "which made him often much fufpect with himself, whether he was a true "child of God or no, until this his laft fickness." Then he fweetly,' continues Fuller, 'fell afleep; and fo we foftly draw the curtain about him.'

before); and he was alfo the fame day (which was April 26, 1630) inducted into the good, and more pleasant than healthful, Parfonage of Bemerton; which is a mile from Salisbury.

I have now brought him to the Parfonage of Bemerton, and t to the thirty-fixth of his age, and muft ftop here, and bespeak the reader to prepare for an almost incredible story of the great fanctity of the fhort remainder of his holy life; a life fo full of charity, humility, and all Chriftian virtues, that it deferves the eloquence of St. Chryfoftom to commend and declare it! A life, that if it were related by a pen like his, there would then be no need for this age to look back into times paft for the examples of primitive piety; for they might be all found in the life of George Herbert. But now, alas! who is fit to undertake it? I confefs I am not; and am not pleased with myself that I muft; and profess myself amazed when I confider how few of the Clergy lived like him then, and how many live fo unlike him now: But it becomes not me to cenfure: My defign is rather . to afsure the reader, that I have used very great diligence to inform myself, that I might inform him of the truth of what follows; and though I cannot adorn it with eloquence, yet I will do it with fincerity.

When at his induction he was fhut into Bemerton Church, being left there alone to toll the bell (as the law requires him), he ftaid fo much longer than an ordinary time before he returned to those friends that ftaid expecting him at the church-door, that his friend Mr. Woodnot looked in at the church-window, and faw him lie proftrate on the ground before the altar: at which time and place (as he after told Mr. Woodnot) he fet fome rules to himself, for the future manage of his life; and then and there made a vow to labour to keep them.

And the fame night that he had his induction, he said to Mr. Woodnot; "I now look back upon my afpiring thoughts, and "think myself more happy than if I had attained what then I "fo ambitioufly thirfted for: And I can now behold the court "with an impartial eye, and fee plainly that it is made up of "fraud, and titles, and flattery, and many other fuch empty, "imaginary, painted pleasures: Pleasures that are fo empty, as "not to fatisfy when they are enjoyed. But in God and his "fervice is a fulness of all joy and pleafure, and no fatiety. "And I will now ufe all my endeavours to bring my relations " and dependents to a love and reliance on him who never fails "thofe that truft him. But above all, I will be fure to live "well, because the virtuous life of a Clergyman is the most 65 powerful eloquence to perfuade all that fee it to reverence "and love, and at leaft to defire to live like him. And this "I will do, because i know we live in an age, that hath more "need of good examples than precepts'. And I beseech that

"Longum iter eft per præcepta, breve et efficax per exempla." (Seneca.)

"God, who hath honoured me fo much as to call me to ferve "him at his altar, that as by his fpecial grace he hath put "into my heart these good defires and refolutions; fo he will, "by his afsifting grace, give me ghoftly ftrength to bring the "fame to good effect. And I befeech him that my humble "and charitable life may fo win upon others, as to bring glory to my Jefus, whom I have this day taken to be my "mafter" and governor and I am fo proud of his fervice, that "I will always obferve, and obey, and do his will; and always "call him Jefus my mafter, and I will always contemn my "birth, or any title or dignity that can be conferred upon me, "when I fhall compare them with my title of being a Priest, "and ferving at the altar of Jefus my mafter."

And that he did fo may appear in many parts of his "Book of Sacred Poems;" efpecially in that which he calls "The Odour." In which he feems to rejoice in the thoughts of that word, Jesus, and fay, that the adding thefe words my master, to it, and the often repetition of them feemed to perfume his mind, and leave an oriental fragrancy in his very breath. And for his unforced choice to ferve at God's altar, he feems in another place of his poems ("The Pearl," Matt. xiii.) to rejoice and fay,--" He knew the ways of learning; knew what nature "does willingly; and what, when it is forced by fire: Knew "the ways of honour, and when glory inclines the foul to noble "exprefsions: Knew the court: Knew the ways of pleasure, of "love, of wit, of mufic, and upon what terms he declined all "thefe for the fervice of his mafter Jefus ;" and then concludes, faying,

"That through these labyrinths, not my groveling wit ;

But thy filk-twift let down from heav'n to me

"Did both conduct, and teach me, how by it

"To climb to thee.

The third day after he was made Rector of Bemerton, and had changed his fword and filk clothes into a canonical coat; he returned fo habited with his friend Mr. Woodnot to Bainton; and immediately after he had feen and faluted his wife, he said to her " You are now a minifter's wife, and must now

-In

m See "Duport's Verfes on the Life of Mr. George Herbert." thefe his pious refolutions, Mr. Herbert feems a moft to adopt the triumphant afsertions of St. Paul: "Yea, I count all things but loss for the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus," Phil. i. 8. May there fentiments engage the ferious attention of the young Clergy! Nothing furely can be more difgraceful than for a Minifter of the Gofpel to afsume the appearance of difclaiming his function, by imitating the habit and deportment of fecular perfons, when he affects the gentleman fo much that he forgets the Clergyman. (See Scougal's Works, p. 246.)

n

Mr. George Herbert's" Temple," p. 169. Edit. of 1709. . Ibid. p. 81.

"fo far forget your father's houfe, as not to claim a precedence! "of any of your parishioners; for you are to know, that a Priest's "wife can challenge no precedence or place, but that which "fhe purchases by her obliging humility; and I am fure places "fo purchased do beft become them. And let me tell you, "that I am fo good a herald as to afsure you that this is truth." And the was fo meek a wife as to afsure him it was no vexing news to her, and that he should see her observe it with a cheerful willingness. And, indeed, her unforced humility, that humility that was in her fo original, as to be born with her, made her fo happy as to do fo; and her doing fo begot her an unfeigned love, and a ferviceable refpect from all that converfed with her; and this love followed her in all places as infeparably, as fhadows follow fubftances in sunshine.

It was not many days before he returned back to Bemerton, to view the church, and repair the chancel; and indeed to rebuild almost three parts of his houfe, which was fallen down, or decayed, by reafon of his predecessor's living at a better parfonage-house, namely, at Minal, fixteen or twenty miles from this place. At which time of Mr. Herbert's coming alone to Bemerton, there came to him a poor old woman, with an intent to acquaint him with her necefsitous condition, as alfo with fome troubles of her mind; but after fhe had spoke fome few words to him, fhe was furprifed with a fear, and that begot a fhortness of breath, fo that her fpirits and fpeech failed her; which he perceiving did fo compafsionate her, and was fo humble, that he took her by the hand, and faid, "Speak, good mo"ther, be not afraid to speak to me; for I am a man that will "hear you with patience; and will relieve your necessities too, "if I be able; and this I will do willingly; and therefore, mother, "be not afraid to acquaint me with what you defire."-After which comfortable speech, he again took her by the hand, made her fit down by him, and understanding fhe was of his parish, he told her, "he would be acquainted with her, and take her "into his care:" and having with patience heard and understood her wants (and it is fome relief for a poor body to be but heard with patience), he, like a Chriftian Clergyman, comforted her by his meek behaviour and counfel; but because that cost him nothing, he relieved her with money too, and so sent her home with a cheerfu! heart, praifing God and praying for him. Thus worthy and (like David's blefsed man) thus lowly was Mr. George Herbert in his own eyes, and thus lovely in the eyes of others.

At his return that night to his wife at Bainton, he gave her an account of the pafsages betwixt him and the poor woman; with which he was fo affected that she went next day to Salisbury, and there bought a pair of blankets, and fent them as a token of her love to the poor woman; and with them a message," that fhe would fee and be acquainted with her "when her house was built at Bemerton.”"