Frame, praying to, and praising GOD till he quietly resigned his spirit to God, in the year 1598, and in the forty-third year of his age.

His WORKS are, "A Commentary on some select Psalms, on the Prophecy of Daniel, and the Gospel of John, with its Harmony. He wrote also on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and Galatians ; an Analysis of the Epistles to the Romans and the Hebrews, with respect to Effectual Calling.”

RICHARD

THIS

HOOKER.

HIS eminent English divine was author of a famous work, entitled, The Laws of ECCLESIASTIAL PoLITY, and was born at Heavy-tree, near Exeter, in the year 1553, or, as Wood says, about the time of Easter A. D. 1554. His parents, not being rich, intended him for a trade: But his schoolmaster at Exeter prevailed with them to continue him at school, assuring them, that his natural endowments and learning were both so remarkable, that he must of necessity be taken notice of, and that GOD would provide him some patron, who would free them from any future care or charge about him. Accordingly, his uncle John Hooker, who was then chamberlain of the town, began to regard him; and, being known to the excellent bishop Jewel, made a visit to that prelate at Salisbury soon after, and besought him, for charity's sake, to look favourably upon a poor nephew of his, 'whom nature had fitted for a scholar; but the estate of his parents was so narrow, that they were unable to give him the advantage of learning; and that the bishop therefore would become his patron, and prevent him from being a tradesman, for he was a boy of remark*able hopes.' Bishop Jewel examined into the merits of the boy, found him to be what the uncle had represented him, and took him henceforward under his protection and care. He got him admitted, in the year 1567, one of the clerks, of Corpus Christi-college in Oxford, and settled a pension on him; which, with the contributions of his uncle, afforded him a very comfortable subsistence.

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In the year 1571, Hooker lost his generous patron bishop Jewel, together with his pension; however, the divine providence raised him up two other patrons, in Dr Cole, then president of the college, and the great Dr Edwyn Sandys, bishop of London, and afterwards archbishop of York. To the latter of these bishop Jewel had recommended him o effectually, a little before his death, that, though a Cambridge-man himself, he immediately resolved to send his son Edwyn to Oxford, to be pupil to Mr Hooker, who was but very little older: For, said he, • I will have a tutor for my son, that shall teach him learning by instruction, and virtue by example.' Mr Hooker had also, at the same time, another considerable pupil, namely, Mr George Cranmer, grand-nephew to the famous archbishop and martyr, with whom,, as well as with Mr Sandys, he cultivated a strict and lasting friendship. In the year 1577, he was elected fellow of his college; and about two years after, being a good master of the oriental languages, he was appointed deputy-professor of the Hebrew tongue, in the room of a gentleman, who was disordered in his senses. In the year 1581, he entered into holy orders; and soon after being appointed to preach at St Paul's Cross in London, was drawn into a most extraordinary marriage: Which, because it is one of the most remarkable circumstances of his life, we will here give the particulars of, as they are related by Mr Walton.

There was, it seems, then belonging to the church of St Paul's, a house called the Shunamite's house, set apart for the reception and entertainment of the preachers at St Paul's Cross, two days before, and one day after the sermon. That house was, then kept by Mr John Churchman, formerly a substantial draper in Watling-street, but now reduced to poverty. Mr Walton says, that Mr Churchman was a person of virtue, but he cannot say quite so much of his wife. To this house Mr Hooker came from Oxford so wet and weary, that he was afraid he should not be able to perform his duty the Sunday following: However, Mrs Churchman nursed him so well, that he presently recovered from the ill effects of his journey. For this, he was very thankful; so much indeed, that, as Mr Walton expresses it, he thought himself bound in conscience to believe all she said: So the od man came to be persuaded by her, that he had a very tender constitution; and that it was best for him to have a wife, that might provę a nurse to him; such a one as might both prolong his life, and make it more

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"comfortable; and such a one she could and would provide for him, if he thought fit to marry.' Mr Hooker not considering, that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light, and fearing no guilt, because he meant none, gave her a power to chuse a wife for him; promising, upon a fair summons, to return to London, and accept of her choice, which he did in that or the year following. Now, says Walton, the wife provided for him was her own daughter Joan, who brought him neither beauty nor portion: And, for her conditions, they were too like that wife's which Solomon compares to a dripping house; that is, says Anthony Wood, she was a clownish silly woman, and withal a mere Xantippe.'

Mr Hooker, now driven from his college, remained without preferment, and supported himself as well as he could till the latter end of the year 1584, when he was presented by John Cheny, Esq. to the rectory of Drayton Beauchamp, in Buckinghamshire, where he led an uncomfortable sort of life with his wife Joan. In this situation, he received a visit from his two friends and pupils Sandys and Cranmer, who found him with a Horace in his hand, tending his small allotment of sheep in a common field: Which he said he was then forced to do, because his servant was gone home to dine, and assist his wife in some of the household business. When the servant returned and released him, his two pupils attended him to his house, where their best entertainment was his quiet company, which was presently denied them; for poor Hooker was called to rock the cradle, and the rest of their welcome was so like this, that they stayed but till the next morning, which was long enough to discover and pity their tutor's condition. At their return to London, Mr Sandys acquainted his father with Mr Hooker's deplorable state; who thereupon entered so heartily into his concerns, that he got him to be made master of the Temple, A. D. 1585. This though a considerable preferment, was not so suitable to Mr Hooker's temper, as the retirement of a living in the country, where he might be free from noise: Nor did he accept of it without some reluctance. At the time when Mr Hooker was chosen master of the Temple, one Mr Walter Travers was afternoon-lecturer there; a man of learning and worth, but ordained by the presbytery at Antwerp, and warmly attached to the Geneva government. Mr Travers had some hopes of setting up this government in the Temple, and for that purpose endeavoured to

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be master of it; but, not succeeding, he did not behave quite generously to Mr Hooker, but opposed him by his sermons; many of which were, perhaps unadvisedly considering the time, about the discipline and ceremonies of the church; insomuch that they constantly withstood each other to the face: For as somebody said pleasantly, The 'forenoon sermon spake Canterbury, and the afternoon Geneva.' The opposition became so visible, and the consequences so dangerous, especially in that place, that archbishop Whitgift caused Mr Travers to be silenced by the high commission court. Upon that, Mr Travers presented his supplication to the privy-council, which being with-. out effect, he made it public. This obliged Mr Hooker to publish an answer, which was inscribed to the archbishop and procured him as much reverence and respect from some, as it did neglect and hatred from others. In order therefore to undeceive and win these, he entered upon his famous work" of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity," and laid the foundation and plan of it, while he was at the Temple. But he found the temple no fit place to finish what he had there designed: And therefore intreated the archbishop to remove him to some quieter situation in the following letter.

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"MY LORD,

"When I lost the freedom of my cell, which was my college, yet I found some degree of it in my quiet country parsonage. But I am weary of the noise and "oppositions of this place; and indeed God and nature "did not intend me for contentions, but for study and quietness. And, my lord, my particular contests here

with Mr Travers have proved the more unplea"sant to me, because I believe him to be a good "man; and that belief hath occasioned me to exa"mine mine own conscience concerning his opinions. "And to satisfy that, I have consulted the holy Scrip"ture, and other laws, both human and divine, whether "the conscience of him, and others of his judgment, "ought to be so far complied with by us, as to alter our "frame of church government, our manner of God's "worship, our praising and praying to him, and our "established ceremonies, as often as their tender con

"sciences shall require us. And, in this examination, I

have not only satisfied myself, but have begun a treatise, in which I intend the satisfaction of others, by a "demonstration of the reasonableness of our laws of ecclesiastical polity.-But, my lord, I shall never be able

to finish what I have begun, unless I be removed into "some quiet parsonage, where I may see God's blessings "spring out of my mother earth, and eat my own bread "in peace and privacy: A place, where I may, without disturbance, meditate my approaching mortality, and "that great account, which all flesh must give at the last "day to the God of all spirits."

Upon this application, he was presented, A. D. 1591, to the rectory of Boscomb, in Wiltshire; and, on the 17th of July the same year, to the prebend of Nether-haven, in the church of Saram, of which he was also made sub, dean. At Boscomb he finished four books, which were entered into the register book at Stationers' Hall, on the 9th of March, A. D. 1592, but not printed till the year 1594. In the year 1595, he quitted Boscomb, and was presented by Q. Elizabeth to the rectory of Bishops-Bournę in Kent, where he spent the remainder of his life.

But it would not be doing proper justice to the character of this great man, were we to conclude his life in this summary manner; and therefore we shall insert some extracts from old Isaac Walton's account of him, from which the foregoing has been chiefly taken.

This parsonage of Bourne, is from Canterbury three miles, and near to the common road that leads from that city to Dover; in which parsonage Fir Hooker had not been twelve months, but his books, and the innocency and sanctity of his life became so remarkable, that many turned out of the road, and others (scholars) especially) wet purposely to see the man, whose life and learning were so much admired; and alas ! as our Saviour said of St John Baptist, What went they out to see! a man clothed in purple and fine linen? no, indeed; but an obscure harmless man; a man in < poor clothes, his loins usually girt in a coarse gown or 'canonical coat; of a mean stature, and stooping, and yet more lowly in the thoughts of his soul; his body worn out, not with age, but study and holy mortifications; his face full of heat-pimples, begot by his inactivity and sedentary life. And to this true character of his person, let me add this of his disposition and bchaviour; God and nature blest him with so great a bashfulness, that as, in his younger days, his pupils might easily look him out of countenance; so neither then, nor in his age, did he ever willingly look any man in the face: And was of so mild and humble a nature, that his poor parish clerk and he did never

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