Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert Part 20

[Footnote 10: Dr. Tobias Matthew--died March 29, 1628, aged 83.]

[Footnote 11: Dr. William Laud, born at Reading, Oct. 7, 1573, and educated there, and at St. John's College, Oxford. In 1616, he was made Dean of Gloucester, in 1621 Bishop of St. David's, and in 1622 he had a conference with Fisher the Jesuit, of which the printed account evinces how opposed he was to Popery; but his Arminian tenets gave offence to the Calvinists. In 1626 he was translated to the See of Bath and Wells, in 1628 to London, and in 1633 to Canterbury. His zeal for the establishment of the Liturgy in Scotland produced him numerous enemies, by whose means he was imprisoned in the Tower for three years, and beheaded Jan. 10th, 1644-45. His works were published at Oxford, 6 vols. 8vo., 1847-9.]

[Footnote 12: Dr. Henry Hammond was born at Chertsey, in Surrey, Aug.

18th, 1605, and was educated at Eton, and Magdalen College, Oxford.

His loyalty caused him to be deprived of his preferments during the Civil Wars, and at the Restoration he was designed for Bishop of Worcester, but died before consecration, April 25th, 1660. His princ.i.p.al works are, his "Practical Catechism," and "A Paraphrase and Annotations on the New Testament."]

[Footnote 13: Dr. Thomas Pierce, for some years President of Magdalen College, Oxford. In his epitaph composed by himself he says, "Here lies all that was mortal, the outside, dust, and ashes of Thomas Pierce, D.D., once the President of a College in Oxford, at first the Rector of _Brington-c.u.m-Membris,_ Canon of Lincoln, and at last Dean of Sarum; who fell asleep in the Lord Jesus [Mar. 28, an. 1691], but in hope of an awake at the resurrection."]

[Footnote 14: Dr. Matthew Wren, successively Bishop of Hereford, Norwich, and Ely, died April 14, 1667, aged eighty-one years and upwards. He was distinguished for his extraordinary attachment to the royal cause, having suffered an imprisonment for eighteen years with singular patience and magnanimity.

It should not be forgotten, that when Cromwell had repeatedly offered to release the Bishop, he refused to accept of the proffered boon, saying, "that he scorned to receive his liberty from a tyrant and usurper." His life was kindly prolonged by Providence, that as he had seen the destruction, so he might also see the happy restoration of his order.]

[Footnote 15: Born at Geneva on August 14, 1599, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. Archbishop Laud gave him the living of Minster, Kent, and a Prebend in the Cathedral of Canterbury. He suffered much in the civil wars, but at the Restoration he recovered his preferments. Among his works are "A Treatise of Use and Custom,"

1638, "De Quatuor Linguis Commentatio," 1650, "Of Credulity and Incredulity," 1668. He died on July 14, 1671.]

[Footnote 16: Dr. John Williams was then Dean of Westminster. He held this Deanery _in Commendam_ during the whole time of his being Bishop of Lincoln, and likewise three years after his translation to York.]

[Footnote 17: Was born at Anstley, in Wilts.h.i.+re, in 1590; he received his education in William of Wykeham's school, near Winchester; was matriculated in the University of Oxford in 1608, and admitted Fellow of New College in 1609. He took the degree of LL.B. June 30, 1614, and that of LL.D. April 8, 1619. He no sooner had obtained his first degree than he became an Advocate in Doctors' Commons. Through the influence of his n.o.ble kinsman, who was then Lord of the Cinque Ports, he was elected, in 1620, a Burgess to serve in Parliament for Hythe in Kent. In the same year he succeeded Dr. John Budden as Professor of Civil law; and in 1625, he was appointed Princ.i.p.al of Alban's Hall.

Though a layman, he held the Prebend of s.h.i.+pston, in the Church of Salisbury, which was then first annexed to the Law Professors.h.i.+p by James I.

After the Restoration, Dr. Zouch, whose loyalty always remained unimpeached, had the honour of being named by the King, along with several other Commissioners, to restore the splendours and regulate the disorders of the University. He was re-instated in the Court of Admiralty; and if he had lived he would doubtless have attained those higher dignities in his profession, to which his integrity and great abilities ent.i.tled him. He died at his apartments in Doctors' Commons, London, March 1, 1660.]

[Footnote 18: Let it ever be remembered to the honour of this Prelate, whom Charles I. was wont to call "the good man," and whom he declared to be his greatest comfort in his most afflictive situation, that he delivered his sentiments without disguise to the King, on the subject of Lord Strafford's fate, telling him plainly, that "he ought to do nothing with an unsatisfied conscience, upon any consideration in the world." His character is thus beautifully pourtrayed by Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter to the Queen of Bohemia. "There is in him no tumour, no sourness, no distraction of thoughts; but a quiet mind, a patient care, free access, mild and moderate answers. To this I must add, a solid judgment, a sober plainness, and a most indubitable character of fidelity in his very face; so as there needs not much study to think him both a good man and a wise man."]

[Footnote 19: This learned person went abroad in 1626, and spent four years in visiting Asia and Africa. He again left England, and travelled over several parts of Europe. He afterwards joined the Parliament against Charles I., whom he was appointed to attend from the very beginning of his imprisonment to the time of his death.

He shewed himself a most faithful servant to the King, whose real character he soon discovered to be totally different from that which had been represented to him. In 1660, Charles II. advanced him to the Dignity of a Baronet, by the name of Thomas Herbert of Tinterne, in Monmouth "for faithfully serving his royal father during the two last years of his life."--In 1678 he published "Threnodia Carolina; containing Memoirs of the two last Years of the reign of King Charles I." This little work was reprinted in 1813, upon the opening the tomb of the royal martyr, by Mr. G. Nicoll of Pall Mall, with a "sensible and seasonable Preface." Sir T. Herbert a.s.sisted Sir William Dugdale in compiling the third volume of his "Monasticon Anglicanum;" and died at York, his native place, 1682, leaving several MSS. to the public library at Oxford, and others to that of the Cathedral at York.]

[Footnote 20: This is supposed to have been Mr. Swinfen, an ancestor (on the female side) of the late Earl St. Vincent.]

[Footnote 21: They were all, except Dr. Wall, ejected in 1647. Dr.

Samuel Fell died of grief, the day he was made acquainted with the murder of Charles I., viz. on Feb. 1, 1648-9. Dr. Gardner, Canon of the third stall, lived to be restored, and died in 1670. Dr. Paine, Canon of the fourth stall, died during the rebellion. Dr. Hammond, Sub-dean and Canon of the second stall, died in 1660. As for Dr. Wall, Canon of the seventh stall, he conformed no doubt to the measures of the Visitors. He died possessed of it in 1666.]

[Footnote 22: Mr. Thomas Brightman, born at Nottingham, and educated at Queen's College in Cambridge, was Rector of Hawnes in Bedfords.h.i.+re.

He died suddenly Aug. 24, 1607.

Mr. Thomas Cartwright, the noted Puritan, in allusion to the name of Mr. Brightman, considers him as full of illumination as "a bright star in the Church of G.o.d." Though no favourable opinion can be entertained of his writings, yet the acknowledged innocence of his life and conversation ent.i.tles him to every encomium.]

[Footnote 23: Honest Walton rather overstates the case. Thucydides simply says that attendance on the sick promoted the spread of the pestilence. (Lib. II. c. 51.)]

[Footnote 24: This amiable philosopher was born Jan. 25th, 1626-17, at Lismore, in the province of Munster, in Ireland. He was a scholar, a gentleman, a Christian of the most exalted piety and charity, and a very eminent Natural philosopher. He died Dec. 30th, 1691.]

[Footnote 25: Dr. Thomas Barlow was born in 1607, at Orton, in Westmoreland, was made Bishop of Lincoln, in 1675, and died at Buckden, in 1691. His character appears to have been vacillating; he was not among the venerable Prelates who stood forth the Protectors of the Protestant Religion in 1688. His theological learning was considerable.]

[Footnote 26: Richard Baxter was born at Rowton, in Shrops.h.i.+re, 1615, and was a Chaplain in the Parliamentary Army, though he was a defender of Monarchy. He refused the Bishopric of Hereford, and died in 1691.

His "Saint's Everlasting Rest" and "Call to the Unconverted" are his most famous books.]

[Footnote 27: Dr. Peter Gunning was a loyalist Divine, who suffered considerably for the Royal cause, and died Bishop of Ely, in 1684.]

[Footnote 28: Dr. John Pearson was the author of the famous "Exposition of the Creed;" in 1661, he was made Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, at Cambridge, and died Bishop of Chester, in 1686, aged 74.]

[Footnote 29: Dr. William Bancroft, born at Fres.h.i.+ngfield, in Suffolk, in 1616, and educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he was deprived of his Fellows.h.i.+p in 1649, for refusing to take the engagement. He was made Archbishop in 1677, and in 1688, he was one of the seven Prelates sent to the Tower by James II. At the Revolution he refused taking the Oaths to the new government, for which he was suspended and deprived. He died in retirement Nov. 14th, 1693.]

[Footnote 30: Bishop Sanderson's Will is recorded in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, in the volume called Juxon, Article 37. After his death, it was industriously reported that he repented of his writing against the Presbyterians, and would not suffer a Church Minister to pray by him, which is refuted by the narrative of Mr. Pullin's giving him the Sacrament.]

[Footnote 31: Mr. John Pullin, B.D., and formerly Fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge. His name is subscribed to a copy of commendatory Latin verses prefixed to "Duport's Greek Version of Job." He was a Prebendary, and also Chancellor of Lincoln.]

DR. PIERCE'S LETTER.

[Sidenote: Letters from Sanderson]

GOOD MR. WALTON,

At my return to this place, I made a yet stricter search after the letters long ago sent me from our most excellent Dr. Sanderson, before the happy restoration of the King and Church of England to their several rights: in one of which letters more especially, he was pleased to give me a narrative both of the rise and the progress, and reasons also, as well of his younger, as of his last and riper judgment, touching the famous points controverted between the Calvinians and the Armenians, as they are commonly (though unjustly and unskilfully) miscalled on either side.

[Sidenote: Dr. Hammond's book]

The whole letter I allude to does consist of several sheets, whereof a good part had been made public long ago, by the most learned, most judicious, most pious Dr. Hammond, (to whom I sent it both for his private, and for the public satisfaction, if he thought fit,) in his excellent book, ent.i.tled, "A Pacific Discourse of G.o.d's Grace and Decrees, in full accordance with Dr. Sanderson:" to which discourse I refer you for an account of Dr. Sanderson and the history of his thoughts in his own hand-writing, wherein I sent it to Westwood, as I received it from Boothby Pannel. And although the whole book, (printed in the year 1660, and reprinted since with his other tracts in folio,) is very worthy of your perusal; yet, for the work you are about, you shall not have need to read more at present than from the 8th to the 23rd page, and as far as the end of section 33. There you will find in what year the excellent man, whose life you write, became a Master of Arts: how his first reading of learned Hooker had been occasioned by certain puritanical pamphlets; and how good a preparative he found it for his reading of Calvin's Inst.i.tutions, the honour of whose name (at that time especially) gave such credit to his errors: how he erred with Mr. Calvin, whilst he took things upon trust in the sublapsarian way: how, being chosen to be a Clerk of the Convocation for the Diocese of Lincoln, 1625, he reduced the Quinquarticular Controversy into five schemes or tables; and thereupon discerned a necessity of quitting the sublapsarian way, of which he had before a better liking, as well as the supralapsarian, which he could never fancy. There you will meet with his two weighty reasons against them both, and find his happy change of judgment to have been ever since the year 1625, even thirty-four years before the world either knew, or, at least, took notice of it; and more particularly his reasons for rejecting Dr.

Twiss, (or the way he walks in,) although his acute and very learned and ancient friend.

[Sidenote: Arriba discussed]

I now proceed to let you know from Dr. Sanderson's own hand,[1] which was never printed, (and which you can hardly know from any, unless from his son, or from myself,) that, when that Parliament was broken up, and the convocation therewith dissolved, a gentleman of his acquaintance, by occasion of some discourse about these points, told him of a book not long before published at Paris, (A.D. 1623,) by a Spanish Bishop,[2] who had undertaken to clear the differences in the great controversy _De Concordia Gratiae et Liberi Arbitrii_. And because his friend perceived he was greedily desirous to see the book, he sent him one of them, containing the four first books of twelve which he intended then to publish. "When I had read," says Dr.

Sanderson, in the following words of the same letter, "his Epistle Dedicatory to the Pope (Gregory XV.), he spake so highly of his own invention, that I then began rather to suspect him for a mountebank, than to hope I should find satisfaction from his performances. I found much confidence and great pomp of words, but little matter as to the main knot of the business, other than had been said an hundred times before, to wit, of the co-existence of all things past, present, and future [Latin] _in mente divina realiter ab aeterno_, which is the subject of his whole third book: only he interpreteth the word _realiter_ so as to import not only _praesentialitatem objectivam,_ (as others held before him,) but _propriam et actualem existentiam_; yet confesseth it is hard to make this intelligible. In his fourth book he endeavours to declare a twofold manner of G.o.d's working _ad extra_; the one _sub ordine praedestinationis_, of which eternity is the proper measure: the other _sub ordine gratia_, whereof time is the measure; and that G.o.d worketh _fort.i.ter_ in the one (though not _irresistibiliter_) as well _suamter_ in the other, wherein the free will hath his proper working also. From the result of his whole performance I was confirmed in this opinion; that we must acknowledge the work of both grace and free will in the conversion of a sinner; and so likewise in all other events, the consistency of the infallibility of G.o.d's foreknowledge at least (though not with any absolute, but conditional predestination) with the liberty of man's will, and the contingency of inferior causes and effects. These, I say, we must acknowledge for the [Greek: hoti] but for the [Greek: to pos], I thought it bootless for me to think of comprehending it. And so came the two _Acta Synodalia Dordrechtana_ to stand in my study, only to fill up a room to this day."

[Sidenote: "Vindiciae Gratiae" discussed]

And yet see the restless curiosity of man. Not many years after, to wit, A.D. 1632, out cometh Dr. Twiss's[3] _Vindiciae Gratiae_, a large volume, purposely writ against Arminius: and then, notwithstanding my former resolution, I must need be meddling again. The respect I bore to his person and great learning, and the acquaintance I had had with him in Oxford, drew me to the reading of that whole book. But from the reading of it (for I read it through to a syllable) I went away with many and great dissatisfactions. Sundry things in that book I took notice of, which brought me into a greater dislike of his opinion than I had before: but especially these three: First, that he bottometh very much of his discourse upon a very erroneous principle, which yet he seemeth to be so deeply in love with, that he hath repeated it, I verily believe, some hundreds of times in that work: to wit this; That whatsoever is first in the intention is last in execution, and _e converso._ Which is an error of that magnitude, that I cannot but wonder how a person of such acuteness and subtilty of wit could possibly be deceived with it. All logicians know there is no such universal maxim as he buildeth upon. The true maxim is but this: _Finis qui primus est in intentione, est ultimus in executione_. In the order of final causes, and the means used for that end, the rule holdeth perpetually: but in other things it holdeth not at all, or but by chance; or not as a rule, and necessarily. Secondly, that, foreseeing such consequences would naturally and necessarily follow from his opinion, as would offend the ear of a sober Christian at the very first sound, he would yet rather choose not only to admit the said harsh consequences, but professedly endeavour also to maintain them, and plead hard for them in large digressions, than to recede in the least from that opinion which he had undertaken to defend.

Thirdly, that seeing (out of the sharpness of his wit) a necessity of forsaking the ordinary sublapsarian way, and the supralapsarian too, as it had diversely been declared by all that had gone before him, (for the shunning of those rocks, which either of those ways must unavoidably cast him upon,) he was forced to seek out an untrodden path, and to frame out of his own brain a new way, (like a spider's web wrought out of her own bowels,) hoping by that device to salve all absurdities, that could be objected; to wit, by making the glory of G.o.d (as it is indeed the chiefest, so) the only end of all other his decrees, and then making all those other decrees to be but one entire co-ordinate medium conducing to that one end, and so the whole subordinate to it, but not any one part thereof subordinate to any other of the same. Dr. Twiss should have done well to have been more sparing in imputing the _studium partlum_ to others, wherewith his own eyes, though of eminent perspicacity, were so strangely blindfolded, that he could not discern how this his new device, and his old dearly beloved principle, (like the _Cadmean Sparti_,) do mutually destroy the one the other.

This relation of my past thoughts having spun out to a far greater length than I intended, I shall give a shorter account of what they now are concerning these points.

[Sidenote: Hammond and Sanderson]

For which account I refer you to the following parts of Dr. Hammond's book aforesaid, where you may find them already printed: and for another account at large of Bishop Sanderson's last judgment concerning _G.o.d's concurrence_ or _non-concurrence_ with the _actions of men_, and the _positive ent.i.ty of sins of commission_, I refer you to his letters already printed by his consent, in my large Appendix to my Impartial Enquiry into the Nature of Sin, -- 68, p. 193, as far as p. 200.

"Sir, I have rather made it my choice to transcribe all above out of the letters of Dr. Sanderson, which lie before me, than venture the loss of my originals by post or carrier, which, though not often, yet sometimes fail. Make use of as much or as little as you please, of what I send you from himself (because from his own letters to me) in the penning of his life, as your own prudence shall direct you: using my name for your warranty in the account given of him, as much or as little as you please too. You have a performance of my promise, and an obedience to your desires from

"Your affectionate

"Humble Servant,

"THO. PIERCE.