in our judgments of better and worse, we oftentimes conceive amiss, when we compare those things which are in device, with those which are in practice for the imperfections of the one are hid, till by time and trial they be discovered; the others are already manifest and open to all. But last of all (which is a point in my opinion of great regard, and which I am desirous to have enlarged), they do not see that for the most part when they strike at the State Ecclesiastical, they secretly wound the Civil State: for Personal faults, what can be said against the Church, which may not also agree to the Commonwealth? In both, Statesmen have always been and will be always, men, sometimes blinded with error, most commonly perverted by passions many unworthy have been and are advanced in both, many worthy not regarded. As for Abuses which they pretend to be in the Laws themselves, when they inveigh against Non-residence, do they take it a matter lawful or expedient in the Civil State, for a man to have a great and gainful office in the north, himself continually remaining in the south? 'He that hath an office, let him attend his office.' When they condemn Plurality of Livings Spiritual to the pit of Hell; what think they of the infinity of temporal promotions? By the great Philosopher* it is forbidden, as a thing most dangerous to Commonwealths, that by the same man many great offices should be exercised. When they deride our Ceremonies as vain and frivolous, were it hard to apply their exceptions, even to those civil ceremonies, which at the Coronation, in Parliament, and all Courts of Justice, are used? Were it hard to argue even against Circumcision, the ordinance of God, as being a cruel ceremony; against the Passover, as being ridiculous,-shod, girt, a staff in their hand, to eat a lamb ?† "To conclude: You may exhort the Clergy, (or, what if you direct your conclusions not to the Clergy in general, but only to the learned in or of both Universities?) you may exhort them to a due consideration of all things, and to a right esteem and valuing of each thing in that degree wherein it ought to stand. For it oftentimes falleth out, that what men have either devised themselves, or greatly delighted in, the price and the excellency thereof they do admire above desert. The chiefest labour of a Christian should be to know; of a Minister, to preach, Christ crucified:' in regard whereof, not only worldly things, but things otherwise precious, even the Discipline itself, is vile and base. Whereas now, by the heat of contention and violence of affection, the zeal of men towards the one, hath greatly decayed their love to the other. Hereunto therefore they are to be exhorted, to 'preach Christ crucified,' the 'mortification of † [Exod. xii. 11.] *ARIST. Pol. lib. ii. cap. 9. 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. "GEORGE CRANMER." THIS following EPITAPH was long since presented to the world in Memory of Mr. Hooker, by Sir William Cowper;* who also built him a fair Monument† in Borne Church [1633], and acknowledges him [there] to have been his Spiritual Father. "THOUGH nothing can be spoke worthy his fame, Or the remembrance of that precious name, In his own Books; yet, ought we to express, Was it because his life and death should be Or, that perhaps this only glorious one Doth now preferr'd, to greater honours go. And God in me this lesson did inspire To bid this humble man,-Friend, sit up higher." *["Of Ratling Court, Kent; Knt. and Bart."-GAUDEN'S Life, p. 36.] t["The following is an accurate copy of the inscription on Mr. Hooker's monu ment: SUNT MELIORA MIHI. RICHARDUS HOOKER EXONIENSIS SCHOLARIS SOCIUSQ; COLLEGII CORP. iij POSUIT HOC PIISIMO VIRO MONUMENTUM ANO. DOM. MDCXXXIII. GULI- ZOUCH, p. 284.] A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THOMAS CARTWRIGHT, B. D. FORMERLY FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S; AND AFTERWARD A SENIOR-FELLOW THIS distinguished Puritan Divine, styled "Antesignanus,"† was the person who in the vigour of his age combated with WHITGIFT, and whose writings became so alarmingly influential, that HOOKER was employed "by appointment" to counteract their effects when their Author, in his "declining and forgetful age "§ was labouring under prohibition and decrepitude. He was born in the county of Hertford, about the year 1535.|| In 1550 he matriculated at St. John's College, Cambridge, and pursued his studies with avidity; never allowing himself more than five hours for sleep: a rule he adhered to through his subsequent life. T *This is called a "Sketch" only, because a more voluminous Life, and one more worthy of this memorable character, is in manuscript, from the pen of the Rev. BENJ. BROOK, the laborious author of "The Lives of the Puritans, in three volumes, octavo, 1813." When the genuine history of those individuals is investigated, it appears how greatly our country and our religion are beholden to them for resisting Ecclesiastical encroachments and arbitrary domination. + Camdeni Annales Regn. Eliz. in An. 1581. "When I consider the zeal for Religion which sheweth itself in many, as well of the Nobility and Gentry of this Realm, as of the People, ....so I cannot be but ashamed of mine own slackness, and afraid of the displeasure of the Lord, for that those whose proper work this is, and especially which should bear the Standard and carry the Torch unto the rest, are so cold and so careless in these matters of the Lord." T. C.'s First "Replye," Epistle to the Church of England, p. iv. "He, in this Church, first of all in large Books defended these opinions."-MATT. SUTCLIFFE'S (Dean of Exeter) Examination of M. Thomas Cartwright's late Apologie, 1596. 4to. p. 46. Covel's "Defence" of Hooker; Pref. See the end of Vol. II. for this Tract. S"A Brief Apologie of Thomas Cartwright, against all such slanderous accusations, as it pleaseth Matthew Sutcliffe, in his several pamphlets, most injuriously to load him with." (1595, 4to). Incorporated in Sutcliffe's "Examination," p. 43. || The Lives of Thirty-two English Divines, fo. 3rd Edit. 1677. By Samuel Clarke, p. 16. The volume contains a portrait, and six pages of matter respecting Cartwright. TIbid. Three years after the demise of the lamented Edward VI. the Clergy having revolted to Popery, he found it expedient to withdraw from College and to engage himself as a Barrister's assistant. "Here,” says Fuller, "he got some skill in the Common-Law, which enabled him afterwards to fence the better for himself by the advantage thereof."* It is evident, however, that his favourite study was Theology, for scarcely had the haughty Elizabeth ascended the Throne, and nearly all the State-Clergy reverted back to Protestantism,† than THOMAS CARTWRIGHT was inducted into his College again, through the favourable representation of his employer to Dr. Pilkington, then Master of St. John's, and afterward Bishop of Durham. His acquisition of general knowledge, and his acuteness in Logic, procured him a Fellowship in 1560, which he quitted about 1563, for another in Trinity College; and not long after, he was appointed one of the Senior-Fellows. In 1564, her Majesty was magnificently entertained at the University. On the 7th of August a Philosophy-Act was held, and Cartwright engaged in it as first opponent. The parties selected were "the ripest and most learned men,"§ the élite, of the University. Notwithstanding this evidence of the estimation in which Cartwright was regarded, maligners have represented that he failed to give satisfaction to his Royal Auditor;|| and, that on her Majesty's neglect of him, he began " to kick against her Ecclesiastical Government." This paltry accusation has been echoed from adversary to adversary, till effrontery itself has been abashed and put to confusion by the Ecclesiastical Historian, confessing, that from the Relation of the Queen's reception at Cambridge, there appears no clear ground for any such discontent; for the Queen is said there, to have approved of them * Hist. of the Worthies of Engl. 1662. Fol. Hertfordshire, p. 27. +"The nation had of late been so much accustomed to these revolutions, that men had lost all idea of truth and falsehood in such subjects."-HUME's Hist. of Eng. Eliz. an. 1558. His name ranks seventh among the Socii majores, in NICHOLS' Progresses of Queen Eliz. 1805. 4to. Vol. III. p. 142. § Strype. Annals, Vol. I. p. 403. "Now there be in Cambridge again many good plants (as did well appear at the Queen's Majesty's late being there), which are like to grow to mighty great timber, to the honour of learning and great good of their country, if they may stand their time, as the best plants there were wont to do; and if some old dotterel trees, with standing over-nigh them and dropping upon them do not either hinder or crook their growing: wherein my fear is the less, seeing so worthy a Justice of an Oyer (Sir W. Cecil) hath the present oversight of that whole Chace: who was himself sometime in the fairest spring that ever was there of learning, one of the forwardest young plants in all that worthy College of St. John's."-The Scholemaster, by ROGER ASCHAM, Preceptor to Queen Eliz. Edit. 1743. 8vo. p. 180. "Cartwright had dealt most with the Muses, Preston with the Graces. Cartwright disputed like a great; Preston like a genteel Scholar. And the Queen, upon parity of deserts always preferred properness of person!"-FULLER'S Hist. Camb. 1655. Fol. p. 139. ¶ Sir Geo. Paule. Life of Whitgift, Ed. 1699. 8vo. p. 10. all.* But if this positive evidence were not extant, there is sufficient inferential evidence from the fact, that it was after this pretended slight that Cartwright was advanced to the Divinity Chair as Margaret Professor!+ This elevation occurred in 1569. He had commenced Bachelor in Divinity in 1567; but he was precluded from obtaining a higher degree. His Professorship, indeed, implied his qualification for the degree of Doctor in Divinity, and accordingly he put in his claim for a Diploma at the ensuing Commencement. In the mean time he opened his Public Lectures, founding them on the first and second chapters of the Acts. They were delivered, his earliest Biographer informs us, 66 with such acuteness of wit, and solidity of judgment, as caused admiration."§ And on the same authority we are informed, that his popularity at St. Mary's was so great as to require the windows to be taken out. That Cartwright's Lectures would be ad tempora, is what might be expected from one who, as will hereafter be shewn, was thoroughly skilled in the Popish controversy. By his learning and talents, his enemies being judges, he was indeed eminently fitted to promote the Reformation. Of his powers of persuasion, Paule, who records the fact with no good will, tells us, that, "Upon a Sunday, Dr. Whitgift being from home, Master Cartwright with some of his adherents, made three Sermons in that one day; wherein, they so vehemently inveighed (amongst other Ceremonies of our Church) against the Surplice, as those of Trinity College were so moved therewith, that at Evening-Prayer they cast off their Surplices, though against the Statutes of the House, and were all placed in the Chapel without their Surplices, three only excepted." Thus Cartwright's doctrines relating to Church-Discipline would necessarily tend to the reduction of the existing Hierarchy and its appendages, and to the substitution of Church-Officers and Church-Government more accordant to what he deemed the Apostolical standard. A system," cunningly devised," had by "adapting itself to the senses,"¶ taken possession of the affections and prejudices of the multitude. Unlike that Divine simplicity which the Christian Religion exhibited at the commencement of its propagation, the factitious additions had rendered its * Strype. Ann. Vol. I. p. 403, and Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, 1735. fo. Vol. II. lib. VII. p. 45. †The best evidence of Cartwright's share in the exhibition is seen in Nichols' Progresses, ut sup. pp. 66, 177. Whitgift was appointed Margaret Professor in 1562, and was succeeded by W. Chaderton, B. D. in 1567. Strype's Whitgift, in loc. § Clark's Lives, ut sup. p. 17. Life of Whitgift, p. 11. Hume. Hist. Eng. cap. xxxviii. an. 1559. |