about the said third or fourth year of the long parliament, the then present parson of Borne was sequestred, (you may guess why,) and a Genevian minister put into his good living. This, and other like sequestrations, made the clerk express himself in a wonder, and say, "They had sequestred so many good men, that he doubted, if his good master Mr. Hooker had lived till now, they would have sequestred him too.'1

"It was not long, before this intruding minister had made a party in and about the said parish, that were desirous to receive the Sacrament as in Geneva; to which end, the day was appointed for a select company, and forms and stools set about the altar or communion-table, for them to sit and eat, and drink; but when they went about this work, there was a want of some joint-stools, which the minister sent the clerk to fetch, and then to fetch cushions (but not to kneel upon). When the clerk saw them begin to sit down, he began to wonder; but the minister bade him 'cease wondering, and lock the church door;' to whom he replied, Pray take you the keys, and lock

1 For some account of these disgraceful and cruel sequestrations at the hands of the Puritans, see Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy in the late times of the Grand Rebellion, Lond. 1714. There appears to be no record in this work of the sequestration of Bishopsborne.

me out: I will never come more into this church; for all men will say, my master Hooker was a good man, and a good scholar, and I am sure it was not used to be thus in his days.' And report says, the old man went presently home, and died; I do not say died immediately, but within a few days after.1

"But let us leave this grateful clerk in his quiet grave, and return to Mr. Hooker himself, continuing our observations of his Christian behaviour in this place, where he gave a holy valediction to all the pleasures and allurements of earth, possessing his soul in virtuous quietness, which he maintained by constant study, prayers, and meditations: his use was to preach once every Sunday, and he or his curate to catechise after the second lesson in the evening prayer; 2 his sermons were neither long nor earnest, but uttered with a grave zeal, and an

1 The good man's name was Sampson Horton: he was buried on May 9, 1648, after serving as parish-clerk at Bishopsborne for 60 years.

2 "The curate of every parish, or some other at his appointment, shall diligently upon Sundays and holy-days, half-an-hour before Evening Prayer, openly in the Church instruct and examine so many Children of his parish sent unto him as the time will serve, and as he shall think convenient, in some part of this Catechism."-Rubric at end of Confirmation Office in Prayer Book of 1559. Isaac Walton's statement as to the time of Hooker's catechizing is probably a mistake founded on the custom of his own day, in accordance with the rubric of the Prayer Book of 1662, which names the time "after the Second Lesson." Walton died in 1683. Hooker, however, used the Prayer Book of 1559 only, dying three years before the revision of 1603.

humble voice; his eyes always fixt on one place to prevent his imagination from wandering, insomuch that he seemed to study as he spake; the design of his sermons (as indeed of all his discourses) was to shew reasons for what he spake; and with these reasons, such a kind of rhetorick, as did rather convince and persuade, than frighten men into piety; studying not so much for matter (which he never wanted) as for apt illustrations to inform and teach his unlearned hearers by familiar examples, and then make them better by convincing applications; never labouring by hard words, and then by needless distinctions and subdistinctions, to amuse his hearers, and get glory to himself; but glory only to God. Which intention, he would often say, was as discernible in a preacher, as a natural from an artificial beauty.'

"He never failed, the Sunday before every Ember-week, to give notice of it to his parishioners, persuading them both to fast, and then to double their devotions for a learned and pious clergy; but especially the last; saying often, That the life of a pious clergyman was visible rhetorick, and so convincing, that the most godless men (though they would not deny themselves the enjoyment of their present lusts) did yet secretly wish themselves like

those of the strictest lives.' And to what he persuaded others, he added his own example of fasting and prayer; and did usually every Ember-week take from the parish-clerk the key of the church-door; into which place he retired every day, and lockt himself up for many hours; and did the like most Fridays, and other days of fasting.1

"He would by no means omit the customary time of Procession, persuading all both rich and poor, if they desired the preservation of love, and their parish-rights and liberties, to accompany him in his perambulation ; 2

1 Here we find incidental evidence that in the seventeenth century no technical distinction between "abstinence" and "fasting was recognized, such as since the year 1781 has obtained currency amongst Roman Catholics in England. In the writings of Andrewes, Beveridge, Bull, Burnet, Cosin, Gunning, Sparrow, Jeremy Taylor, Wilson (all of whom were Anglican bishops), and Bingham, Evelyn, Heylyn, Hooker, Johnson, L'Estrange and Thorndike, who treat more or less fully of the subject of fasting, the terms "fasting" and "abstinence" used interchangeably with one and the same meaning. There is no evidence forthcoming that the revisers of the Book of Common Prayer in 1661, when the list of Fasts was first inserted, intended to adopt the Roman system of distinguishing abstinence from fasting.

are

2 The reference here is to the observance of the Rogation days, on which it was the custom to beat the bounds of the parishes. Dr. Rock in The Church of our Fathers, Vol. IV. p. 107, has-"The procession all about the fields and lanes of a country parish, and through the streets and alleys of a town, on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, before the feast of the Ascension, and now called Rogation Week, but then, The Gang Days... The Rogation perambulation was ordered by the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, A.D. 1559-"But yet for the retaining of the perambulation of the circuits of parishes, they shall once in the year at the time accustomed, with the curate

and most did so in which perambulation, he would usually express more pleasant discourse than at other times, and would then always drop some loving and facetious observations to be remembered against the next year, especially by the boys and young people; still inclining them and all his present parishioners, to meekness, and mutual kindnesses, and love; because love thinks not evil, but covers a multitude of infirmities.'

"He was diligent to inquire who of his parish were sick, or any ways distrest, and would often visit them, unsent for; supposing that the fittest time to discover to them those errors to which health and prosperity had blinded them; and having by pious reasons and prayers moulded them into holy resolutions for the time to come, he would incline them to confession,1 and bewailing their sins, with

and the substantial men of the parish, walk about their parishes, as they were accustomed, and at their return to the church, make their common prayers. Provided, that the curate in their said common perambulations, used heretofore in the days of rogations, at certain convenient places shall admonish the people to give thanks to God, in the beholding of God's benefits, for the increase and abundance of his fruits upon the face of the earth, with the saying of the 103rd Psalm, Benedic anima mea, etc., or such like."-Cardwell, Documentary Annals, Oxford 1844, i. p. 220. The observance of the Rogation days was introduced into England from Gaul, before the custom was known at Rome. See Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, ch. ii. § 34, p. 147; also Leofric Missal, p. xlii. note.

1 The rubric in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick in Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book of 1559, which was the only