ADVERTISEMENT. THE following account of Dr. Henry Hammond is a republication of The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond, written by John Fell, D.D. Dean of Christ Church in Oxford; the second edition; London, 1662; of which the first edition came out in the year preceding. DOCTOR HENRY HAMMOND. DOCTOR HENRY HAMMOND, whose life is now attempted to be written, was born upon the eighteenth of August in the year 1605, at Chertsey in Surry, a place formerly of remark for Julius Cæsar's supposed passing his army there over the Thames, in his enterprise upon this island; as also for the entertainment of devotion in its earliest reception by our Saxon ancestors; and of later years, for the charity of having given burial to the equally pious and unfortunate prince king Henry VI. He was the youngest son of Dr. John Hammond physician to prince Henry; and from that great favourer of meriting servants and their relations, had the honour at the font to receive his Christian name. Nor had he an hereditary interest in learning only from his father; by his mother's side he was allied both unto it and the profession of theology, being descended from Dr. Alexander Nowel, the reverend dean of St. Paul's, that great and happy instrument of the reformation, and eminent light of the English church. Being yet in his long coats, (which heretofore were usually worn beyond the years of infancy 2,) he was sent to Eton school; where his pregnancy, having been advantaged by the more than 1 Being descended.] But see Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 362, 3. 2 The years of infancy.] "When about seven years old" (it is related of Williams, afterwards archbishop of York, the antagonist and rival of archbishop Laud, that) " He took a leap, being then in long coats, from the walls of Conway town to the sea shore, looking that the wind, which was then very strong, would fill his coats like a sail, and bear him up, as it did with his play fellows but he found it otherwise." Hacket's Life of Williams, p. 8. This was about the year 1590. paternal care and industry of his father (who was an exact critic in the learned languages, especially the Greek), became the observation of those that knew him: for in that tenderness of age he was not only a proficient in Greek and Latin, but had also some knowledge in the elements of Hebrew: in the latter of which tongues, it being then rarely heard of even out of grammar schools, he grew the tutor of those who began to write themselves men, but thought it no shame to learn of one whose knowledge seemed rather infused than acquired; or in whom the learned languages might be thought to be the mother-tongue. His skill in the Greek was particularly advantaged by the conversation and kindness of Mr. Allen, one of the fellows of the college, excellently seen in that language, and a great assistance of sir Henry Savile in his magnificent edition of St. Chrysostom. His sweetness of carriage is very particularly remembered by his contemporaries, who observed that he was never engaged (upon any occasion) into fights or quarrels; as also that at times allowed for play, he would steal from his fellows' into places 3 Steal from his fellows.] The place, and the engagements of this schoolboy remind us of the narrative given by the pious and amiable Dr. Henry More, of his own early years. 'Being bred up, to the almost fourteenth year of my age, under parents, and a master, that were great Calvinists, but withal, very pious and good ones; at that time, by the order of my parents, persuaded to it by my uncle, I immediately went to Eton school; not to learn any new precepts or institutes of religion, but for the perfecting of the Greek and Latin tongue. But neither there, nor yet any where else, could I ever swallow down that hard doctrine concerning Fate. On the contrary, I remember that upon those words of Epictetus, "Αγε με ὦ Ζεῦ, καὶ σὺ ἡ πεπρωμένη, Lead me, O Jupiter, and thou Fate, I did, with my eldest brother, who then, as it happened, had accompanied my uncle thither, very stoutly and earnestly for my years, dispute against this fate or Calvinistical predestination, as it is usually called: and that my uncle, when he came to know it, chid me severely; adding menaces withal of correction, and a rod for my immature forwardness in philosophizing concerning such matters. Moreover, that I had such a deep aversion in my temper to this opinion, and so firm and unshaken a persuasion of the divine justice and goodness; that, on a certain day, in a ground belonging to Eton College, where the boys used to play and exercise themselves, musing concerning these things with myself, and recalling to my mind this doctrine of Calvin, I did thus seriously and deliberately conclude within myself, namely, If I am one of those that are predestinated unto hell, where all things are full of nothing but cursing and blasphemy, yet will I behave myself there patiently and submissively towards God: and if there be any one thing more than another, that is acceptable to him, that will I set myself to do, with a sincere heart, and to the utmost of my power. . . . which medita of privacy, there to say his prayers: omens of his future pacific temper and eminent devotion. Which softness of temper his schoolmaster Mr. Bush, who upon his father's account had a tender kindness for him, looked upon with some jealousy; for he building upon the general observation, that gravity and passiveness in children is not from discretion but phlegm, suspected that his scholar's faculties would desert his industry, and end only in a laborious well-read nonproficiency but the event gave a full and speedy defeat to those well-meant misgivings; for he so improved, that at thirteen years old he was thought, and (what is much more rare) was indeed ripe for the university, and accordingly sent to Magdalen college in Oxford, where not long after he was chosen demy; and though he stood low upon the roll, by a very unusual concurrence of providential events, happened to be sped: and though, having then lost his father, he became destitute of the advantage which potent recommendation might have given, yet his merit voting for him, as soon as capable, he was chosen fellow. Being to proceed master of arts, he was made reader of the natural philosophy lecture in the college, and also was employed in making the funeral oration on the highly meriting president Dr. Langton. tion of mine is as firmly fixed in my memory, and the very place where I stood, as if the thing had been transacted but a day or two ago. "And as to what concerns the existence of God, though in that ground mentioned, walking, as my manner was, slowly, and with my head on one side, and kicking now and then the stones with my feet, I was wont sometimes, with a sort of musical and melancholick manner, to repeat, or rather humm to myself those verses of Claudian : 'Sæpe mihi dubiam traxit sententia mentem, 'Oft hath my anxious mind divided stood, Whether the gods did mind this lower world; Or whether no such Ruler, wise and good, We had; and all things here by chance were hurled ;' yet that exceeding hale and intire sense of God, which nature herself had planted deeply in me, very easily silenced all such slight and poetical dubitations as these. Yea, even in my just childhood, an inward sense of the divine presence was so strong upon my mind, that I did then believe, there could no deed, word or thought be hidden from him."-Life of the learned and pious Dr. Henry More, by Richard Ward, A. M. London, 1710. 8vo. p. 5. |