Thus innocent and exemplary was his behaviour in his College; and thus this good man continued till death; still increasing in learning, in patience, and piety.

In this nineteenth year of his age, he was chofen, December 24, 1573, to be one of the twenty Scholars of the Foundation; being elected and admitted as born in Devonshire; (out of which county a certain number are to be elected in vacancies by the Founder's Statutes.) And now he was much encouraged; for now he was perfectly incorporated into this beloved College, which was then noted for an eminent library, ftrict ftudents, and remarkable fcholars. And indeed it may glory, that it had Bishop Jewel, Dr. John Reynolds, and Dr. Thomas Jackfon, of that foundation. The firft, famous by his learned Apology for the Church of England, and his Defence of it against Harding. The fecond, for the learned and wife manage of a public difpute with John Hart, of the Roman perfuafion, about the Head and Faith of the Church, then printed by confent of both parties. And the third, for his moft excellent Expofition of the Creed, and for his other Treatifes; all fuch as have given greatest fatisfaction to men of the greatest learning. Nor was this man more eminent for his learning, than for his ftrict and pious life, teftified by his abundant love and charity to all.

In the year 1576, February 23, Mr. Hooker's Grace was given him for Inceptor of Arts; Dr. Herbert Weftphaling, a man of noted learning, being then Vice-Chancellor, and the Act following he was completed Mafter, which was anno 1577, his patron, Dr. Cole, being that year Vice-Chancellor, and his dear friend, Henry Savil of Merton College, then one of the Proctors. It was that Henry Savil, that was after Sir Henry Savil, Warden of Merton College, and Provost of Eaton: he which founded in Oxford two famous Lectures, and endowed them with liberal maintenance. It was that Sir Henry

Savil that tranflated and enlightened the Hiftory of Cornelius Tacitus, with a moft excellent comment; and enriched the world by his laborious and chargeable collecting the fcattered pieces of St. Chryfoftom, and the publication of them in one entire body in Greek; in which language he was a moft judicious critic. It was this Sir Henry Savil that had the happiness to be a contemporary, and a most familiar friend to our Richard Hooker, and let pofterity know it.

And in this year of 1577, he was chofen Fellow of the College: happy alfo in being the contemporary and friend of Dr. John Reynolds, of whom I have lately spoken, and of Dr. Spencer; both which were after, and fucceffively, made Prefidents of his College men of great learning and merit, and famous in their generations.

Nor was Mr. Hooker more happy in his contemporaries of his time and College, than in the pupilage and friendship of his Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer; of whom my Reader may note, that this Edwin Sandys was after Sir Edwin Sandys, and as famous for his Speculum Europe as his brother George for making pofterity beholden to his pen by a learned Relation and Comment on his dangerous and remarkable Travels; and for his harmonious Tranflation of the Pfalms of David, the Book of Job, and other poetical parts of Holy Writ, into moft high and elegant verfe. And for Cranmer, his other pupil, I shall refer my Reader to the printed teftimonies of our learned Mafter Cambden, the Lord Tottenes, Fines Morison, and others.

This Cranmer, whofe Chriftian name was George, was a gentleman of fingular hope, the eldest fon of Thomas Cranmer, fon of Edmund Cranmer, the Archbishop's brother be spent much of his youth in Corpus Chrifti College in Oxford, where he continued Master of Arts for many years before he removed, and then betook himself to travel, accompanying that worthy gentleman Sir Edwin Sandys

Şandys into France, Germany, and Italy, for the space of three years; and after their happy return, be betook himfelf to an employment under Secretary Davison: after whofe fall, he went in place of Secretary with Sir Henry Killegrew in his emballage into France; and after bis death he was fought after by the most noble Lord Mountjoy, with whom he went into Ireland, where he remained, until, in a battle against the Rebels near Charlinford, en unfortunate wound put an end both to his life, and the great hopes that were conceived of him.

Betwixt Mr. Hooker and thefe his two pupils, there was a facred friendship; a friendship made up of religious principles, which increased daily by a fimilitude of inclinations to the fame recreations and studies; a friendship elemented in youth, and in an University, free from felf-ends, which the friendships of age usually are not. In this fweet, this bleffed, this fpiritual amity, they went on for many years: and, as the holy Prophet faith, fo they took fweet counfel together, and walked in the house of God as friends. By which means they improved it to fuch a degree of amity, as bordered upon heaven; a friendfhip fo facred, that when it ended in this world, it began in the next, where it shall have no end.

And, though this world cannot give any degree of pleasure equal to fuch a friendship; yet obedience to parents, and a defire to know the affairs, and manners, and laws, and learning of other nations, that they might thereby become the more ferviceable unto their own, made them put off their gowns, and leave Mr. Hooker to his College: where he was daily more affiduous in his ftudies, ftill enriching his quiet and capacious foul with the precious learning of the Philofophers, Cafuifts, and Schoolmen; and with them the foundation and reafon of all Laws, both facred and civil; and with fuch other learning as lay moft remote from the track of common studies. And as he was diligent in thefe; fo he feemed restless in fearching the fcope and intention

of

of God's Spirit revealed to mankind in the facred Scripture for the understanding of which, he feemed to be affifted by the fame Spirit with which they were written; he that regardeth truth in the inward parts, making him to understand wisdom fecretly. And the good man would often fay, The Scripture was not writ to beget pride and difputations, and oppofition to government; but moderation, and charity, and humility, and obedience, and peace, and piety in mankind; of which no good man did ever repent himself upon his death-bed. And that this was really his judgment, did appear in his future writings, and in all the actions of his life. Nor was this excellent man a ftranger to the more light and airy parts of learning, as mufic and poetry; all which he had digefted, and made useful; and of all which the Reader will have a fair teftimony in what follows.

Thus he continued his ftudies in all quietness for the space of three or more years; about which time he entered into Sacred Orders, and was made both Deacon and Prieft; and not long after, in obedience to the College Statutes, he was to preach either at St. Peter's, Oxford, or at St. Paul's Cross, London, and the last fell to his allotment.

In order to which Sermon, to London he came, and immediately to the Shunamites Houfe; which is a house fo called, for that, befides the ftipend paid the Preacher, there is provifion made alfo for his lodging and diet two days before, and one day after his Sermon. This houfe was then kept by John Churchman, sometimes a draper of good note in WatlingStreet, upon whom, after many years of plenty, poverty had at laft come like an armed man, and brought him into a neceffitous condition: which, though it be a punishment, is not always an argument of God's disfavour, for he was a virtuous man: I fhall not yet give the like teftimony of his wife, but leave the Reader to judge by what follows. But to this house Mr. Hooker came fo wet, fo weary, and

weather

weather-beaten, that he was never known to express more paffion, than against a friend that diffuaded him from footing it to London, and for hiring him no eafier an horfe, (fuppofing the horfe trotted when he did not ;) and at this time alfo, fuch a faintnefs and fear poffeffed him, that he would not be perfuaded two days quietnefs, or any other means could be used to make him able to preach his Sunday's Sermon ; but a warm bed, and rest, and drink proper for a cold, given him by Mistress Churchman, and her diligent attendance added unto it, enabled him to perform the office of the day, which was in or about the year one thousand five hundred and eighty one.

And in this first public appearance to the world, he was not fo happy as to be free from exceptions against a point of doctrine delivered in his Sermon, which was, That in God there were two Wills: an antecedent and a confequent Will: his firft Will, That all mankind fhould be faved; but his fecond Will was, That thofe only fhould be faved, that did live answerable to that degree of grace which he had offered or afforded them. This feemed to crofs a late opinion of Mr. Calvin's, and then taken for granted by many that had not a capacity to examine it, as it had been by him, and had been fince by Dr. Jackson, Dr. Hammond, and others of great learning, who believe that a contrary opinion trenches upon the honour and justice of our merciful God. How he juftified this, I will not undertake to declare; but it was not excepted against (as Mr. Hooker declares in an occafional anfwer to Mr. Travers) by John Elmer, then Bishop of London, at this time one of his auditors, and at last 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 kindnefs of Mrs. Churchman's curing him of his late diftemper and cold; for that was fo gratefully apprehended by Mr. Hooker, that he thought himfelf bound in confcience to be