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And, though my age might have procured me a Writ of Ease, and that secured me from all further trouble in this kind; yet I met with such persuasions to undertake it, and so many willing informers since, and from them, and others, such helps and encouragements to proceed, that when I found myself faint, and weary of the burthen with which I had loaden myself, and sometime ready to lay it down; yet time and new strength hath at last brought it to be what it now is, and here presented to the Reader, and with it this desire; that he will take notice, that Dr. Sanderson did in his Will, or last sickness, advertise, that after his death nothing of his might be printed; because that might be said to be his, which indeed was not; and also for that he might have changed his opinion since he first writ it, as 'tis thought he has since he writ his Pax Ecclesiae. And though these reasons ought to be regarded, yet regarded so, as he resolves in his Case of Conscience concerning Rash Vows; that there may appear very good second reasons why we may forbear to perform them. However, for his said reasons, they ought to be read as we do Apocryphal Scripture; to explain, but not oblige us to so firm a belief of what is here presented as his.

And I have this to say more; That as in my queries for writing Dr. Sanderson's Life, I met with these little Tracts annexed; so, in my former queries for my information to write the Life of venerable Mr. Hooker, I met with a Sermon, which I also believe was really his, and here presented as his to the Reader. It is affirmed, and I have met with reason to believe it,-that there be some Artists, that do certainly know an original picture from a copy; and in what age of the world, and by whom drawn. And if so, then I hope it may be as safely affirmed, that what is here presented for their's is so like their temper of mind, their other writings, the times when, and the occasions upon which they were writ, that all Readers may safely conclude, they could be writ by none but venerable Mr. Hooker, and the humble and learned Dr. Sanderson. And lastly, the trouble being now past, I look back and am glad that I have collected these memoirs, of this

humble man, which lay scattered, and contracted them into a narrower compass; and if I have, by the pleasant toil of so doing either pleased or profited any man, I have attained what I designed when I first undertook it. But I seriously wish, both for the Reader's and Dr. Sanderson's sake, that posterity had known his great Learning and Virtue by a better pen; by such a pen, as could have made his life as immortal, as his learning and merits ought to be. I. W.

THE LIFE OF DR. ROBERT SANDERSON

Late Lord Bishop of Lincoln

DR. ROBERT SANDERSON, the late learned Bishop of Lincoln, whose Life I intend to write with all truth and equal plainness, was born the nineteenth day of September in the year of our Redemption 1587. The place of his birth was Rotherham in the county of York; a town of good note, and the more for that Thomas Rotherham, some time Archbishop of that see, was born in it; a man, whose great wisdom, and bounty, and sanctity of life, gave a denomination to it, or hath made it the more memorable as indeed it ought also to be, for being the birth-place of our Robert Sanderson. And the reader will be of my belief, if this humble relation of his life can hold any proportion with his great sanctity, his useful learning, and his many other extraordinary endowments.

He was the second and youngest Son, of Robert Sanderson, of Gilthwaite-Hall, in the said parish and county, Esq., by Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Richard Carr, of Butterthwaite-Hall, in the parish of Ecclesfield, in the said County of York, Gentleman.

This Robert Sanderson, the Father, was descended from a numerous, ancient, and honourable family of his own name for the search of which truth, I refer my reader, that inclines to it, to Dr. Thoriton's History of the Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, and other records; not

thinking it necessary here to engage him into a search for bare titles, which are noted to have in them nothing of reality for titles not acquired, but derived only, do but shew us who of our ancestors have, and how they have achieved that honour which their descendants claim, and may not be worthy to enjoy. For, if those titles descend to persons that degenerate into vice, and break off the continued line of Learning, or Valour, or that Virtue that acquired them, they destroy the very foundation upon which that honour was built; and all the rubbish of their degenerousness ought to fall heavy on such dishonourable heads; ought to fall so heavy, as to degrade them of their titles, and blast their memories with reproach and shame.

But this Robert Sanderson lived worthy of his name and family of which one testimony may be, that Gilbert, called the Great and Glorious Earl of Shrewsbury, thought him not unworthy to be joined with him as a Godfather to Gilbert Sheldon, the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury; to whose merits and memory, posterity-the Clergy especially ought to pay a reverence.

But I return to my intended relation of Robert the Son, who (like Josiah that good King) began in his youth to make the Laws of God, and obedience to his parents, the rules of his life; seeming even then to dedicate himself, and all his studies, to piety and virtue.

And as he was inclined to this by that native goodness, with which the wise Disposer of all hearts had endowed his; so this calm, this quiet and happy temper of mind— his being mild, and averse to oppositions-made the whole course of his life easy and grateful both to himself and others and this blessed temper was maintained and improved by his prudent Father's good example; as also, by his frequent conversing with him, and scattering short and virtuous apophthegms with little pleasant stories, and making useful applications of them, by which his son was in his infancy taught to abhor Vanity and Vice as monsters, and to discern the loveliness of Wisdom and Virtue; and by these means, and God's concurring grace, his knowledge was so augmented, and his native good

ness so confirmed, that all became so habitual, as 't was not easy to determine whether Nature or Education were his teachers.

And here let me tell the reader, that these early beginnings of Virtue, were by God's assisting grace, blessed with what St. Paul seemed to beg for his Philippians,1 namely, 'That he, that had begun a good work in them, would finish it.' And Almighty God did: for his whole life was so regular and innocent, that he might have said at his death-and with truth and comfort-what the same St. Paul said after to the same Philippians, when he advised them to walk as they had him for an example.'

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And this goodness, of which I have spoken, seemed to increase as his years did; and with his goodness his Learning, the foundation of which was laid in the Grammar-school of Rotherham-that being one of those three that were founded and liberally endowed by the said great and good Bishop of that name.-And in this time of his being a Scholar there, he was observed to use an unwearied diligence to attain learning, and to have a seriousness beyond his age, and with it a more than common modesty; and to be of so calm and obliging a behaviour, that the Master and whole number of Scholars loved him as one man.

And in this love and amity he continued at that School till about the thirteenth year of his age; at which time his Father designed to improve his Grammar learning, by removing him from Rotherham to one of the more noted Schools of Eton or Westminster; and after a year's stay there, then to remove him thence to Oxford. But, as he

went with him, he called on an old friend, a Minister of noted learning, and told him his intentions; and he, after many questions with his Son, received such answers from him, that he assured his Father, his Son was so perfect a Grammarian, that he had laid a good foundation to build any or all the Arts upon; and therefore advised him to shorten his journey, and leave him at Oxford. And his Father did so.

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