"mours. 66 66 66 66 Dr. Covel's Testimony concerning it. XV PREFACE. "cines how profitable soever worke not equally in all hu- EDITOR'S From hence proceeded a desire in some to make a question of things whereof there was no doubt, and a request for resolution of some points wherein there was no danger to this end a Letter (which heere is answered) was published by certaine Protestants (as they tearme themselves) which I heare (how true I know not) is translated "into other tongues: this they presume hath given that "wound to that reverend and learned man, that it was not "the least cause to procure his death. But it is farre "otherwise; for he contemned it in his wisdome (as it was "fit) and yet in his humilitie would have answered it, if he "had lived." He adds, " I staid the time, and a long time, “until some elder and of riper judgment might have acquitted "me from all opinion of presumption in this cause; which being not done by them whom many reasons might have "induced to this defence, I could not for that part which I "beare in that church, whose government was defended by "Maister Hooker, with patience endure so weake a letter "anie longer to remaine unanswered. And herein I have "dealt as with men (although to me unknown) of some learning and gravitie, to whom peradventure in manie re"spects I am farre inferiour; and yet for anie thing I know, "or appeareth in this letter, they may be clothed with the 66 same infirmities that I am. But if this had beene by him"self performed (which I heare he hath done, and I desire "thee to expect it) thy satisfaction (gentle reader) would "have beene much more; yet vouchsafe in thy kindnesse "to accept this." In p. 9, Covel begs the writers of the letter to receive from him what they had required from Hooker: 66 a charitable, direct, plain, and sincere answer: which, no "doubt of it, from himselfe had bin far more learned and more "speedy, if he could either have resolved to have done it, or "after he had resolved could have lived to have seen it finished. "But first of all, he was loath to entermeddle with so weake "adversaries, thinking it unfit (as himselfe said) that a man "that hath a long journey should turne backe to beate everie barking curre; and having taken it in hand, his urgent and "greater affaires, together with the want of strength, weaken"ed with much labour, would not give him time to see it "finished. Yet his minde was stronger than his yeares, and 66 66 PREFACE. xvi The Christian Letter, a Puritan Production. EDITOR'S "knew not well how to yeeld to infirmitie. Wherein if he "had somewhat favoured himselfe, he might peradventure "have lived to have answered you; to the benefite of the "Church, and the comfort of a great number." Evidently the writer of these sentences had no access to Hooker's papers, and his general reasonings shew as much : for he is commonly content to clear up the points objected to by production of his author's context, and collections from other parts of his writings. However, the same impression seems to have been made on him as on Hooker, by the perusal of the Christian Letter: viz. that it was the production not of many, but of one; and that one, a person before versed in the Puritan controversy, and now desirous, under cover of anxiety for evangelical doctrine, to insinuate the principles of the Genevan discipline in all their disturbing force. Thus in P. 3, Covel says, "It is much easier to answer those shadows "of reason, wherein these admonishers do please themselves, "than by their silence to make them confesse that they are fully answered:" where the word "admonishers" printed in Italics evidently points at the compilers of the famous Admonition to the Parliament. Again, p. 5; "Those whom we "must make adversaries in this cause are men not known "either by name, religion, or learning....It may be peradven"ture the zeal of some one, who desirous to gain an opinion " among his followers undertaketh to speak as from the minds "of many....Whosoever they are, as I cannot easily conjec"ture, so I am not curious to know." In p. 46, he speaks to the unknown compilers of " the rest of their writings in "that kind:" and in p. 136, tells them, "themselves were "able to witness that Hooker had not shunned to encounter "the best of the Disciplinarian faction in our land." Covel, therefore, as well as Hooker himself, countenances the idea that the pamphlet proceeded from some veteran or veterans in the cause of Puritanism, afraid to speak out, for what reason is not hinted, but probably because of late the government had been acting decisively against that party: and also on account of the great effect on men's minds, which had been produced by the publications as well of Hooker himself, as of others hereafter to be specified. On the whole, it seems very clear that the Christian Letter may be regarded as a kind of document, expressing the views and feelings of Hooker's Memoranda for a Reply to it. PREFACE. xvii the Puritans of that generation: which being understood, the EDITOR'S question as to the author's name, however curious, is comparatively of little moment. Cartwright and Travers were both living at the time, the one in Warwick, master of the hospital, the other in Dublin, Provost of Trinity College: but both of them apparently had finally retired from the controversy; and the style of the letter will be found on examination very unlike either of theirs. John Field, another leading admonitioner, had been dead since 1588 18 more. Hooker's notes on this pamphlet are here printed from the original, preserved (as above mentioned) in the library of C.C.C.; and collated with two transcripts, in interleaved copies of the tract, the one also in C.C. C.19, the other in Trinity College, Dublin (A. 5. 22.): for which latter collation, as for all that comes from the Dublin library, the reader will understand that he is indebted to Dr. Cotton, the present Dean of LisThese transcripts have been eminently useful in supplying portions where the original had worn out, and in confirming readings which might have been otherwise doubtful. On comparing the two, they appear to have been made independently of each other: that in C. C. C. seems the earlier and more accurate. In one instance, the Dublin copy inserts a note, of which no vestige occurs in the original. A few of the memoranda, which the Editor conceived might be worth preserving, but for the insertion of which in the notes no convenient place had occurred, will be found at the end of this Preface. 4. But Hooker's preparations in his own defence had proceeded further than these brief and scattered hints. In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, (MS. B. 1. 13.) is what is described in the catalogue as "a Treatise by Hooker, on Grace, the Sacraments, Predestination, &c. :" which in three passages 20 clearly indicates itself to have formed part of the xviii Account of Fragments in the Dublin Library. EDITOR'S intended reply to the Christian Letter. It contains much PREFACE. valuable matter, although in a very undigested and imperfect form: with the exception perhaps of the portion concerning Predestination, which is much the largest of the three, containing in the MS. twenty closely written folio pages, whereas the other two, on Grace and on the Sacraments, contain but six and four respectively. We may conjecture that this more finished part was not now for the first time written, but rather that the revival of the dispute on Predestination led the author to revise papers which he had prepared more than ten years before, when Travers first attacked him on the subject. For in the Answer to Travers's Supplication, §. 23, he states himself to have "promised at some convenient time to make "the points then agitated clear as light both to him and to "all others." Now the points were the very same which the Christian Letter had now called in question. If this conjecture be warrantable, it will follow, that we cannot certainly reckon upon these fragments as exhibiting Hooker's latest and most matured judgment on all the mysterious topics introduced in them: although the distinct reference to the Lambeth Articles at the end must undoubtedly be regarded as a deliberate summary of the general conclusions at which he had then arrived. Of the second fragment, that on Sacraments, it may seem questionable whether it is rightly placed as part of this controversy. As far as it goes, it is wholly defensive, against Romanists; but it might be intended as introductory to a view of the question from the other side. The whole of these fragments will be found in the Appendix to the fifth book. Their genuineness is morally demonstrable. The writer uses the first person in speaking of the books of Ecclesiastical Polity, and refers to the Christian Letter in a way which coincides remarkably with Hooker's own MS. memoranda. Compare (e. g.) the mention of aptness and ableness in the Fragment, p. 538, with a note in p. 11, of the pamphlet, which will be found in this edition, E. P. i. vii. 6. But indeed it is hardly necessary to dwell on minute marks of this kind, so strong and clear is the internal evidence throughout. To say nothing of favourite idioms, and turns of language; the views themselves, philosophical and theological; the mode of developing those views; the allegations Account of G. Cranmer's Letter on the Discipline. xix PREFACE. from the Fathers and Schoolmen, and the way of translating EDITOR'S them; the introduction and management of rapid historical sketches; the quiet and sustained majesty of style; and more perhaps than all, the deep awe with which sacred things are approached: are so many tokens of ownership, impossible to be counterfeited. One quality indeed is wanting: there are few if any traces of that instinctive playfulness of humour, which breaks out so often in his former controversial writings. It would seem as if he had determined to be more than usually guarded in his manner of speaking of his adversaries on this occasion: a circumstance not a little remarkable, when compared with the notes on the Christian Letter, many of them so keenly expressive of his first sharp sense of their unfair usage of him. 5. The Appendix to the fifth Book contains moreover the letter of George Cranmer to Hooker, which in all editions since 1666 immediately follows the life by Walton. Being in a great measure historical, it was judged more convenient to place it in the order of time; and so placed, it bears a striking testimony to the effect of Hooker's labours even at that early period, and to the apparently declining condition of the Puritan interest 20; and we may judge a little of the support and encouragement which it must have afforded to his wearied and anxious mind, when he found his old friend and pupil, now rapidly rising, in the expectation of all their contemporaries, to the highest places of the state 21, yet unchanged in affection for him, and bringing his varied experience and 66 20 The conclusion is particularly calculated to excite serious reflections on the possible cause of the revival of that interest, in so fearful a way, within the very next generation. "The "clergy," says Cranmer, especially "those of both universities, are to be "exhorted to preach Christ crucified, "the mortification of the flesh, the "renewing of the spirit: not those "things which in time of strife seem "precious, but passions being allayed, "are vain and childish." There is a remarkable coincidence between this and the language of King Charles I. about thirty years after, when being at Woodstock he commended to the faculty |