would again rake into the scarce closed wounds of a newly bleeding State and Church.

And first, though I dare not say that I knew Mr. Hooker; yet as our ecclefiaftical history reports to the honour of St. Ignatius," that he lived in the time of St. "John, and had feen him in his child"hood;" fo I alfo joy that in my minority I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my father, who was after Bishop of London; from whom, and others, at that time, I have heard most of the material paffages which you relate in the hiftory of his life; and from my father received fuch a character of his learning, humility, and other virtues, that, like jewels of unvaluable price, they ftill caft fuch a luftre, as envy or the rust of time shall never darken.

From my father I have alfo heard all the circumstances of the plot to defame him; and how Sir Edwin Sandys outwitted his accufers, and gained their confesfion and I could give an account of each particular of that plot, but that I judge it b 2

fitter

fitter to be forgotten, and rot in the fame grave with the malicious authors.

I may not omit to declare, that my father's knowledge of Mr. Hooker was occafioned by the learned Dr. John Spencer, who, after the death of Mr. Hooker, was fo careful to preferve his unvaluable fixth, feventh, and eighth books of Ecclefiaftical Polity, and his other writings, that he procured Henry Jackfon, then of Corpus Chrifti College, to transcribe for him all Mr. Hooker's remaining written papers; many of which were imperfect; for his study had been rifled, or worse used, by Mr. Chark, and another, of principles too like his. But these papers were endeavoured to be completed by his dear friend Dr. Spencer, who bequeathed them as a precious legacy to my father; after whose death they rested in my hand, till Dr. Abbot, then Archbishop of Canterbury, commanded them out of my cuftody, by authorizing Dr. John Barkeham to require, and bring them to him to his palace in Lambeth at which time, I have heard, they

they were put into the Bishop's library, and that they remained there till the martyrdom of Archbishop Laud; and were then by the brethren of that faction given, with all the library, to Hugh Peters, as a reward for his remarkable service in those fad times of the Church's confufion. And though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand; yet there wanted not other endeavours to corrupt and make them speak that language, for which the faction then fought, which indeed was, to fubject the fovereign power to the people.

But I need not strive to vindicate Mr. Hooker in this particular: his known loyalty to his Prince whilft he lived, the forrow expreffed by King James at his death, the value our late Sovereign (of ever-bleffed memory) put upon his works, and now the fingular character of his worth by you given in the paffages of his Life, especially in your Appendix to it, do fufficiently clear him from that imputation and I am glad you mention how much value Thomas Stapleton, Pope Clement the Eighth, and other eminent men

of

of the Romish perfuafion, have put upon his books; having been told the fame in my youth by perfons of worth that have travelled Italy.

Lastly, I must again congratulate this undertaking of yours, as now more proper to you than any other perfon, by reason of your long knowledge and alliance to the worthy family of the Cranmers, (my old friends alfo,) who have been men of noted wisdom; especially Mr. George Cranmer, whose prudence, added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys, proved very useful in the completing of Mr. Hooker's matchlefs books: one of their letters I herewith send you, to make use of, if you think fit. And let me fay further, you merit much from many of Mr. Hooker's best friends then living; namely, from the ever renowned Archbishop Whitgift, of whose incomparable worth, with the character of the times, you have given us a more short and fignificant account than I have received from any other pen. You have done. much for the learned Sir Henry Savile, his contemporary and familiar friend;

amongst

amongst the surviving monuments of whofe learning (give me leave to tell you fo) two are omitted; his edition of Euclid, but especially his translation of King James's Apology for the Oath of Allegiance, into elegant Latin which flying in that dress as far as Rome, was by the Pope and Conclave sent to Salamanca unto Francifcus Suarez, (then refiding there as Prefident of that college), with a command to anfwer it. And it is worth noting, that when he had perfected the work, which he calls Defenfio Fidei Catholica, it was tranfmitted to Rome for a view of the Inquifitors; who, according to their custom, blotted out what they pleased, and (as Mr. Hooker hath been used fince his death) added whatsoever might advance the Pope's fupremacy, or carry on their own intereft; commonly coupling together deponere et occidere, the depofing and then killing of princes. Which cruel and unchristian language Mr. John Saltkel, the amanuenfis to Suarez, when he wrote that answer, (but fince a convert, and living long in my father's house,) often profeffed

the