Now, the wife provided for him was her daughter Joan, who brought him neither beauty nor portion; and for her conditions, they were too like that wife's, which is by Solomon compared to a dripping house: fo that the good man had no reafon to rejoice in the wife of his youth; but too just cause to fay with the holy Prophet, Wo is me, that I am constrained to bave my babitation in the tents of Kedar!

This choice of Mr. Hooker's (if it were his choice) may be wondered at: but let us confider that the Prophet Ezekiel fays, There is a wheel within a wheel; a fecret facred wheel of Providence, (moft vifible in marriages,) guided by his hand, that allow's not the race to the fwift, nor bread to the wife, nor good wives to good men: and he that can bring good out of evil (for mortals are blind to this reafon) only knows why this bleffing was denied to patient Job, to meek Mofes, and to our as meek and patient Mr. Hooker. But fo it was; and let the reader cease to wonder, for affliction is a divine diet; which though it be not pleafing to mankind, yet Almighty

$ 4

Almighty God hath often, very often, impofed it as good, though bitter phyfic to thofe children, whofe fouls are deareft to him.

And by this marriage the good man was drawn from the tranquillity of his college; from that garden of piety, of pleasure, of peace, and a fweet converfation, into the thorny wilderness of a bufy world; into thofe corroding cares that attend a married priest, and a country parsonage; which was Draiton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire, not far from Ailfbury, and in the diocese of Lincoln; to which he was prefented by John Cheney, Efq. (then patron of it) the ninth of December, 1584, where he behaved himself fo as to give no occafion of evil, but (as St. Paul adviseth a minifter of God) in much patience, in afflictions, in anguishes, in neceffities, in poverty, and no doubt in long Juffering; yet troubling no man with his difcontents and wants.

And in this condition he continued about a year; in which time his two pupils, Edwin Sandys and George Cran

mer,

mer, took a journey to fee their tutor; where they found him with a book in his hand, (it was the Odes of Horace,) he being then like humble and innocent Abel, tending his small allotment of sheep in a common field; which he told his pupils he was forced to do then, for that his fervant was gone home to dine, and affift his wife to do fome neceffary household bufinefs. But when his fervant returned and releafed him, then his two pupils attended him unto his house, where their best entertainment was his quiet company, which was presently denied them; for Richard was called to rock the cradle; and the rest of their welcome was fo like this, that they ftaid but till next morning, which was time enough to discover and pity their tutor's condition : and they having in that time rejoiced in the remembrance, and then paraphrased on many of the innocent recreations of their younger days, and other like diverfions, and thereby given him as much prefent comfort as they were able, they were forced to leave him to the company

of

of his wife Joan, and feek themselves a quieter lodging for next night. But at their parting from him, Mr. Cranmer faid, "Good tutor, I am forry your lot is fallen

in no better ground, as to your parfonage; " and more forry that your wife proves "not a more comfortable companion, "after you have wearied yourself in your "reftlefs ftudies." To whom the good man replied, "My dear George, if faints "have ufually a double share in the mise"ries of this life, I, that am none, ought "not to repine at what my wife Creator "hath appointed for me; but labour (as "indeed I do daily) to fubmit mine to "his will, and poffefs my foul in patience " and peace."

At their return to London, Edwin Sandys acquaints his father, who was then Archbishop of York, with his tutor's fad condition, and folicits for his removal to fome benefice that might give him a more quiet and a more comfortable fubfiftence; which his father did moft willingly grant him, when it should next fall into his power. And not long after this time, which was

in the year 1585, Mr. Alvy (Master of the Temple) died, who was a man of a strict life, of great learning, and of so venerable behaviour, as to gain so high a degree of love and reverence from all men, that he was generally known by the name of Father Alvy. And at the Temple-reading, next after the death of this Father Alvy, he the faid Archbishop of York being then at dinner with the Judges, the Reader, and Benchers of that fociety, met with a general condolement for the death of Father Alvy, and with a high commendation of his faint-like life, and of his great merit both towards God and man; and as they bewailed his death, so they wished for a like pattern of virtue and learning to fucceed him. And here came in a fair occafion for the Bishop to commend Mr. Hooker to Father Alvy's place, which he did with fo effectual an earnestness, and that feconded with fo many other teftimonies of his worth, that Mr. Hooker was fent for from Draiton Beauchamp to London, and there the mastership of the Temple propofed unto him by the Bishop,

as