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Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.—v. 5.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. GOD IS LOVE; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.-1 John iv. 15, 16.

Richard Hooker.

(FROM IZAAK WALTON.)

THE CLOSING YEARS OF HIS LIFE.

THE foundation of these books [on “Ecclesiastical Polity"] was laid in the Temple; but he found it no fit place to finish what he had there designed; and he therefore earnestly solicited the Archbishop for a remove from that place; to whom he spake to this purpose:

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"My Lord, when I lost the freedom of my cell, which was my College, yet I found some degree of it in my quiet country parsonage: but I am weary of the noise and oppositions of this place; and indeed, God and nature did not intend me for contentions, but for study and quietness. My Lord, my particular contests with Mr. Travers here have proved the more unpleasant to me, because I believe him to be a good man; and that belief hath occasioned me to examine mine own conscience concerning his opinions; and, to satisfy that, I have consulted the Scripture and other laws, both human and divine, whether the con

science of him and others of his judgment ought to be so far complied with as to alter our frame of Church government, our manner of God's worship, our praising and praying to him, and our established ceremonies, as often as his and others' tender consciences shall require us; and in this examination I have not only satisfied myself, but have begun a treatise, in which I intend a Justification of the Laws of our Ecclesiastical Polity: in which design, God and his holy angels shall at the last great day bear me that witness which my conscience now does, that my meaning is not to provoke any, but rather to satisfy all tender consciences; and I shall never be able to do this, but where I may study, and pray for God's blessing upon my endeavours, and keep myself in peace and privacy, and behold God's blessing spring out of my mother earth, and eat my own bread without oppositions; and therefore, if Your Grace can judge me worthy of such a favour, let me beg it, that I may perfect what I have begun.”

About this time the parsonage or rectory of Boscum, in the Diocese of Sarum, and six miles from that city, became void. The Bishop of Sarum is patron of it; but in the vacancy of that see (which was three years betwixt the translation of Bishop Pierce to the see of York, and Bishop Caldwell's admission into it) the disposal of that and all benefices belonging to that see, during this said vacancy, came to be disposed of by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and he presented Richard Hooker to it in the year 1591.

He left Boscum in the year 1595, by a surrender of it into the hands of Bishop Caldwell; and he presented Benjamin Russel, who was instituted into it the 23rd of June in the same year.

The parsonage of Bishop's Borne in Kent, three miles from Canterbury, is in that Archbishop's gift; but in the latter end of the year 1594, Doctor William Redman, the Rector of it, was made Bishop of Norwich; by which means the power of presenting to it was pro eâ vice in the Queen; and she presented Richard Hooker, whom she loved well, to this good living of Borne, the 7th of July 1595; in which living he continued till his death, without any addition of dignity or profit.

At his entrance into this place, his friendship was much sought for by Dr. Hadrian Saravia, then, or about that time, made one of the Prebends of Canterbury; a German by birth, and sometime a pastor both in Flanders and Holland, where he had studied and well considered the controverted points concerning episcopacy and sacrilege; and in England had a just occasion to declare his judgment, concerning both, unto his brethren ministers of the Low Countries, which was excepted against by Theodore Beza and others, against whose exceptions he rejoined, and thereby became the happy author of many learned tracts, writ in Latin; especially of three; one, of the Degrees of Ministers, and of the Bishop's Superiority above the Presbytery; a second, against Sacrilege; and a third, of Christian Obedience to Princes.

This friendship being sought for by this learned Doctor, you may believe was not denied by Mr. Hooker, who was by fortune so like him as to be engaged against Mr. Travers, Mr. Cartwright, and others of their judgment, in a controversy too like Dr. Saravia's: so, in this year of 1595, and in this place of Borne, these two excellent persons began a holy friendship, increasing daily to so high and mutual affections, that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same; and their designs, both for the glory of God and peace of the Church, still assisting and improving each other's virtues, and the desired comforts of a peaceable piety. Which I have willingly mentioned, because it gives a foundation to some things that follow.

This parsonage of Borne is from Canterbury three miles, and near to the common road that leads from that city to Dover; in which parsonage Mr. Hooker had not been twelve months, but his books and the innocency and sanctity of his life became so remarkable, that many turned out of the road, and others (scholars especially) went purposely to see the man whose life and learning were so much admired. And, alas! as our Saviour said of St. John Baptist, What went they out to see? a man clothed in purple and fine linen? No, indeed; but an obscure, harmless man, a man in poor clothes, his loins usually girt in a coarse gown, or canonical coat; of a mean stature, and stooping, and yet more lowly in the thoughts of his soul; his body worn out, not with age, but study

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