I HAVE declared that Mr. Hooker proposed eight books of Ecclesiastical Polity, and that his first four were printed anno 1594, and his fifth book first printed. and alone, anno 1597; and that he lived to finish the remaining three of the proposed eight: but whether we have the last three as finished by himself, is a just and material question; concerning which I do declare, that I have been told almost forty years past, by one that very well knew Mr. Hooker and the affairs of his family, that about a month after the death of Mr. Hooker, Archbishop Whitgift sent one of his Chaplains to inquire of Mrs. Hooker for the three remaining books of Polity, writ by her husband: of which she would not, or could not, give any account: and that about three months after that time the Bishop procured her to be sent for to London, and then by his procurement she was to be examined by some of her Majesty's Council, concerning the disposal of those books: but by way of preparation for the next day's examination, the Bishop invited her to Lambeth, and after some friendly questions, she confessed to him, "that one Mr. Clarke, and another minister that dwelt near Canterbury, came to her, and desired that they might go into her husband's study, and look upon some of his writings: and that there they two burnt and tore many

of them, assuring her, that they were writings not fit to be seen; and that she knew nothing more concerning them."

And I declare also, that Dr. John Spencer, who was of Mr. Hooker's college, and of his time there, and betwixt whom there was so friendly a friendship, that they continually advised together in all their studies, and particularly in what concerned these books of Polity-this Dr. Spencer, the three perfect books being lost, had delivered into his hands (I think by Bishop Whitgift) the imperfect books, or first rough drafts of them, to be made as perfect as they might be by him, who both knew Mr. Hooker's hand-writing, and was best acquainted with his intentions. And a fair testimony of this may appear by an epistle first and usually printed before Mr. Hooker's five books, (but omitted, I know not why, in the last impression of the eight printed together in anno 1662, in which the publishers seem to impose the three doubtful books to be the undoubted books of Mr. Hooker,) with these two letters, J. S., at the end of the said epistle, which was meant for this John Spencer: in which epistle the reader may find these words, which may give some authority to what I have here written of his last three books.

"And though Mr. Hooker hastened his own death by hastening to give life to his books, yet he held out with his eyes to behold these Benjamins, these sons of his right hand, though to him they proved Benonies, sons of pain and sorrow. But some evil-disposed minds, whether of malice, or covetousness, or wicked blind zeal, it is uncertain, as soon as they were born, and their father dead, smothered them, and by conveying the perfect copies, left unto us nothing but the old imperfect mangled drafts, dismembered into pieces; no favour, no grace, not the shadow of themselves remaining in them. Had the father lived to behold them thus defaced, he might rightly have named them Benonies, the sons of sorrow: but seeing that the learned will

not suffer them to die and be buried, it is intended the world shall see them as they are; the learned will find in them some shadows and resemblances of their father's face. God grant, that as they were with their brethren dedicated to the Church for messengers of peace: so, in the strength of that little breath of life that remaineth in them, they may prosper in their work, and, by satisfying the doubts of such as are willing to learn, they may help to give an end to the calamities of these our civil wars. "J. S."

II.

THE following account of Archbishop Whitgift is embodied by Walton in his Life of Hooker, but is here inserted as an appendix, that the narrative might not be interrupted.

John Whitgift was born in the county of Lincoln, of a family that was ancient, and noted to be both prudent, and affable, and gentle by nature. He was educated in Cambridge; much of his learning was acquired in Pembroke Hall, (where Mr. Bradford, the martyr, was his tutor;) from thence he was removed to Peter House; from thence to be Master of Pembroke Hall; and from thence to the Mastership of Trinity College. About which time the Queen made him her chaplain; and not long after Prebend of Ely, and then Dean of Lincoln; and having for many years past looked upon him with much reverence and favour, gave him a fair testimony of both, by giving him the Bishopric of Worcester. And having had experience of his wisdom, his justice, and moderation, she, in the twenty-sixth of her reign, made him Archbishop of Canterbury, and, not long after, of her Privy Council; and trusted him to manage all her ecclesiastical affairs and preferments. In all

which removes he was like the Ark, which left a blessing upon the place where it rested: and in all his employments was like Jehoiada, that did good unto Israel.

These were the steps of this Bishop's ascension to this place of dignity and cares; in which place (to speak Mr. Camden's very words in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth) "he devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God, and his painful labours to the good of his Church." And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation of church affairs, which were much disordered at his entrance, by reason of the age and remissness of Bishop Grindal, his immediate predecessor; the activity of the Non-conformists, and their chief assistant, the Earl of Leicester; and, indeed, by too many others of the like sacrilegious principles. With these he was to encounter; and though he wanted neither courage nor a good cause, yet he foresaw, that, without a great measure of the Queen's favour, it was impossible to stand in the breach that had been lately made into the lands and immunities of the Church, or indeed to maintain the remaining lands and rights of it.

The reader must take notice, that not many years before his being made Archbishop, there passed an act or acts of parliament, intending the better preservation of the church-lands, by recalling a power which was vested in others to sell or lease them, by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them only in the Crown: and amongst many that made a bad use of this power or trust of the Queen's, the Earl of Leicester was one; and the Bishop, having, by his interest with her Majesty, put a stop to the Earl's sacrilegious designs, they two fell to an open opposition before her; after which they both quitted the room, not friends in appearance. But the Bishop made a sudden and seasonable return to her Majesty, (for he found her alone,) and spake to her with great humility and reverence, to this purpose :