so seasonably inculcated to your old friend, I return the most humble thanks of, Sir, your most obliged and faithful friend, J. EVELYN. 39. Bishop Bull to Mr. Nelson. Oxon. Ch. Ch. July 27, 1697. You were pleased to favour me with an unexpected letter; and therein to signify to me the good character those of this place you have met with give of me. I find common fame, how uncharitable soever it is to others, has been too kind to me in ascribing to me what I must confess to you I do not deserve; which convinces me, that a very little thing is sufficient to bring a man into the good, as well as the ill opinion of others. But every man that can think impartially is his own best judge in this case. And therefore I hope I may say, that I know myself so well, as to see the opinion others have of me to be a thing that tells me, not what I am, but what I ought to be. Indeed, I acknowledge to you (and I think myself obliged so to do), that I am a servant of the great God, though but a weak and imperfect one. As for other things, I must tell you (and I am not ashamed to own it), that my improvements here in the university have been as mean as my education was before I came here. Pardon me, sir, for thus taking notice of the beginning of your letter, for I could not restrain myself from it, because you are not the first by many that intimated to me how well others speak of me. And I look upon it as a special providence of God in bringing these things to my hearing, to mortify me for what I really am, and to stir me up to endeavour to be what I am not. But enough of this, sir, and I tell it only to you, knowing to whom I write; for perhaps to some, such a letter might render me ridiculous. 40. Sir Thomas Browne to Mrs. Lyttleton (Reflections on a Shipwreck). DEAR BETTY, Though it were no wonder this very tempestuous and stormy winter, yet I am sorry you had such an uncomfortable sight, as to behold a ship cast away so near you; this is no strange though unwelcome sight at Yarmouth, Cromer, Winterton, and sea-towns. Though you could not save them, I hope they were the better for your prayers, both those that perished and those that escaped. Some wear away in calms, some are carried away in storms: we come into the world one way, there are many gates to go out of it. God give us grace to fit and prepare ourselves for that necessity, and to be ready to leave all, when and howsoever He shall call. The prayers of health are most likely to be acceptable: sickness may choke our devotions, and we are accepted rather by our life than by our death. We have a rule how to lead the one; the other is uncertain, and may come in a moment. God, I hope, will spare you to serve Him long, who didst begin early to serve Him. I rest your loving father, 41. Sir Henry Wotton to King James I. (on taking Deacon's Orders.) MY MOST DEAR AND DREAD SOVEREIGN,- As I gave your majesty foreknowledge of my intention to enter into the Church, and had your gracious approvement therein, so I hold it a second duty to your majesty, and satisfaction to myself, to inform you likewise by mine own hand, both how far I have proceeded, and upon what motives; that it may appear to your majesty (as I hope it will) an act of conscience and of reason, and not of greediness and ambition. Your majesty will therefore be pleased to know, that I have lately taken the degree of deacon; and so far am I from aiming at any high flight out of my former sphere, that there I intend to rest. Perhaps I want not some persuaders that, measuring me by their affections, or by your majesty's goodness, and not by my own defects or ends, would make me think that yet, before I die, I might become a great prelate. And I need no persuasion to tell me that, if I would undertake the pastoral functions, I could peradventure by casualty, out of the patronage belonging to your royal college, without further troubling of your majesty, cast some good benefice upon myself, whereof we have one, if it were vacant, that is worth more than my provostship. But as they were stricken with horror who beheld the majesty of the Lord descending upon the Mount Sinai; so, God knows, the nearer I approach to contemplate His greatness, the more I tremble to assume any care of souls, even in the lowest degree, that were bought at so high a price: Premant torcular qui vindemiarunt; let them press the grapes, and fill the vessels, and taste the wine, that have gathered the vintage. But shall I sit and do nothing in the porch of God's house, whereinto I am entered? God himself forbid, who was the supreme mover. What service, then, do I propound to the Church? or what contentment to mine own mind? First, for the point of conscience, I can now hold my place canonically, which I held before but dispensatively; and withal I can exercise an archdeaconal authority annexed thereunto, though of small extent and no benefit, yet sometimes of pious and necessary use. I comfort myself also with this Christian hope, that gentlemen and knights' sons, who are trained up with us in a seminary of churchmen (which was the will of the holy founder), will, by my example (without vanity be it spoken), not be ashamed, after the sight of courtly weeds, to put on a surplice. Lastly, I consider that this resolution which I have taken is not unsuitable to my civil employments abroad, of which, for the most part, religion was the subject: nor to my observations, which have been spent that way, in discovering of the Roman arts and practices, whereof I hope to yield the world some account, though rather by my pen than by my voice. For, though I must humbly confess that both my conceptions and expressions be weak, yet I do more trust my deliberations than my memory: or, if your majesty will give me leave to paint myself in higher terms, I think I shall be bolder against the judgments than against the faces of men. This I conceive to be a piece of my own character; so as my private study must be my theatre rather than my pulpit, and my books my auditors, as they are all my treasures. However, if I can produce nothing else for the use of Church and State, yet it shall be comfort enough to the little remnant of my life, to compose some hymns unto His endless glory who hath called me,— for which His name be ever blessed,-though late to His service, yet early to the knowledge of His truth, and sense of His mercy. To which ever commending your majesty and your royal actions, with most hearty and humble prayers, I rest, your majesty's most devoted poor servant, H. WOTTON. 42. Archdeacon Hewetson to Bishop Wilson. M. H. advises his dear T. W., now entered into holy orders, to resolve to proceed in them, and to endeavour to render himself worthy of them; and to that end always to keep in mind the discourse we had the Sunday before he was ordained, when we together read over and considered the canons of both Churches, the thirty-nine articles, and the office of ordination; -that when he is licensed and qualified for performing any part of his ministerial function, he strictly observes the laws of the holy Church; nor ever deviates from the rubric, except when he is commanded so to do, or is dispensed with by his ordinary, if it lies in the power of any ordinary to contradict or dispense with what is established either by acts of parliament or canons. He is farther advised to observe the Church's festivals and fasting-days, as far and as well as he possibly can, and as his health (I mean, as to the latter) will bear. And if upon every Sunday and holyday he read over the proper collect, epistle, and gospel privately before he goes to church, and one chapter in the "Whole Duty of Man" every Sunday, he would, in so doing, imitate the practice of his dear friend. To say the morning and evening prayer, either publicly or privately, every day, is, he knows, one of the Church's express commands in one of the rubrics before the calendar. And if, besides, he used private devotions at least twice a day, and read every day one chapter in the English Bible, to choose that he may be well acquainted with the letter of the text, he will do a thing in itself pious, to himself profitable, and will herein too comply with the usage of his dearest friend never to miss the Church's public devotion twice a day, when unavoidable business, want of health, or of a church, as in travelling, does not hinder. In church to behave P |