I cannot dissemble my joy to have done this little good and if it be the comfort and honour of your unworthy servant, that the God of heaven hath vouchsafed to use his hand in the least service of His Church; how can it be but your crown and rejoicing, that the same God hath set apart your Majesty, as a glorious instrument of such an universal good to the whole Christian world? It was a mad conceit of that old Heresiarch, which might justly take his name from madness, that an huge giant bears up the earth with his shoulder; which he changes every thirtieth year, for ease; and, with the removal, causes an earthquake. If by the device he had meant only an emblem of kings (as our ancient mythologists, under their Saint George, and Christopher, have described the Christian soldier, and good pastor), he had not done amiss: for surely, the burden of the whole world lies on the shoulders of sovereign authority; and it is no marvel if the earth quake in the change. As kings are to the world, so are good kings to the Church. None can be so blind, or curious, as not to grant, that the whole Church of God upon earth rests herself principally (most to her stay above) upon your Majesty's royal supportation: you may truly say with David, Ego sustineo columnas ejus. What wonder is it, then, if our tongues and pens bless you; if we be ambitious of all occasions, that may testify our cheerful gratulations of this happiness to your Highness, and ours in you? Which, our humble prayers unto Him, by whom kings reign, shall labour to continue, till both the earth and heavens be truly changed.

The unworthiest of your

Majesty's servants,

Jos. HALL.

OBSERVATIONS

OF SOME SPECIALITIES OF

DIVINE PROVIDENCE

IN THE

LIFE OF JOSEPH HALL,

BISHOP OF NORWICH.

WRITTEN WITH HIS OWN HAND.

Nor out of a vain affectation of my own glory, which I know how little it can avail me, when I am gone hence; but out of a sincere desire to give glory to my God, whose wonderful Providence I have noted in all my ways, have I recorded some remarkable passages of my fore-past life. What I have done is worthy of nothing, but silence and forgetfulness; but what God hath done for me, is worthy of everlasting and thankful memory. I was born July 1, 1574, at five of the clock in the morning, in Bristow-Park, within the parish of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, a town in Leicestershire, of honest and well-allowed parentage.

My father was an officer under that truly honourable and religious Henry Earl of Huntingdon, President of the north; and, under him, had the government of that market-town, wherein the chief seat of that Earldom is placed.

My mother Winifride, of the house of the Bambridges, was a woman of that rare sanctity, that, were it not for my interest in nature, I durst say, that neither Aleth the mother of that just honour of Clareval, nor Monica, nor any other of those pious matrons anciently famous for devotion, need to disdain her admittance to comparison. She was continually exercised with the

affliction of a weak body, and oft of a wounded spirit: the agonies whereof as she would oft recount with much passion, professing that the greatest bodily sicknesses were but flea-bites to those scorpions; so, from them all, at last she found a happy and comfortable deliverance. And that, not without a more than ordinary hand of God: for, on a time, being in great distress of conscience, she thought in her dream, there stood by her a grave personage, in the gown and other habits of a physician; who, inquiring of her estate, and receiving a sad and querulous answer from her, took her by the hand, and bade her be of good comfort, for this should be the last fit that ever she should feel of this kind: whereto she seemed to answer, that, upon that condition, she could well be content for the time, with that or any other torment: reply was made to her, as she thought, with a redoubled assurance of that happy issue of this her last trial: whereat she began to conceive an unspeakable joy; which yet, upon her awaking, left her more disconsolate, as then conceiting her happiness imaginary, her misery real: when, the very same day, she was visited by the reverend and (in his time) famous divine, Mr. Anthony Gilby*, under whose ministry she lived; who, upon the relation of this her pleasing vision and the contrary effects it had in her, began to persuade her, that dream was no other than divine, and that she had good reason to think that gracious premonition was sent her from God himself: who, though ordinarily he keeps the common road of his proceedings: yet, sometimes, in the distresses of his servants, he goes unusual ways to their relief: hereupon she began to take heart; and, by good counsel and her fervent prayers, found that happy prediction verified to her; and, upon all occasions in the remainder of her life, was ready to magnify the mercy of her God in so sensible a deliverance. What with the trial of both these hands of God, so had she profited in the school of Christ, that it was hard for any friend to come from her discourse no wit holier. I blessed the memory of those divine passages divinity, which I have heard from her mouth! she pass, without a large task of private devotion? whence she would still come forth, with a countenance of undissembled mortification. Never any lips have read to me such feeling lectures

How often have of experimental What day did

* A pious and learned divine, vicar of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He translated several of the most valuable of the treatises of Theodore Beza.-H.

of piety: neither have I known any soul, that more accurately practised them, than her own. Temptations, desertions, and spiritual comforts were her usual theme. Shortly, for I can hardly take off my pen from so exemplary a subject, her life and death were saint-like.

My parents had, from mine infancy, devoted me to this sacred calling, whereto, by the blessing of God, I have seasonably attained. For this cause, I was trained up in the public school of the place.

After I had spent some years, not altogether indiligently, under the ferule of such masters as the place afforded, and had near attained to some competent ripeness for the University, my school-master, being a great admirer of one Mr. Pelset, who was then lately come from Cambridge, to be the public preacher of Leicester (a man very eminent in those times, for the fame of his learning, but especially for his sacred oratory); persuaded my father, that if I might have my education under so excellent and complete a divine, it might be both a nearer and easier way to his purposed end, than by an academical institution. The motion. sounded well in my father's ears, and carried fair probabilities: neither was it other than fore-compacted betwixt my schoolmaster and Mr. Pelset: so as, on both sides, it was entertained with great forwardness.

The gentleman, upon essay taken of my fitness for the use of his studies, undertakes within one seven years to send me forth, no less furnished with arts, languages, and grounds of theorical Divinity, than the carefullest tutor in the strictest college of either University. Which that he might assuredly perform, to prevent the danger of any mutable thoughts in my parents or myself, he desired mutual bonds to be drawn betwixt us. The great charge of my father, whom it pleased God to bless with twelve children, made him the more apt to yield to so likely a project for a younger son.

There and now, were all the hopes of my future life upon blasting. The indentures were preparing: the time was set: my suits were addressed for the journey.

What was the issue? O God, thy Providence made and found it. Thou knowest how sincerely and heartily, in those my young years*, I did cast myself upon thy hands with what

* Anno ætatis 15.

:

dependance upon the most noble Henry Earl of Huntingdon, having occasion to go to York, unto that his Honourable Lord, fell into some mention of me. That good Earl, who well esteemed my father's service, having belikely heard some better words of me than I could deserve, made earnest inquiry after me, what were my courses, what my hopes: and, hearing of the likelihood of my removal, professed much dislike of it; not without some vehemence, demanding why I was not chosen Fellow of that College, wherein by report I received such approbation. Answer was returned, that my country debarred me; which, being filled with my tutor, whom his lordship well knew, could not by the Statute admit a second. The Earl presently replied, that, if that were the binderance, he would soon take order to remove it. Whereupon his lordship presently sends for my tutor Mr. Gilby unto York; and, with proffer of large conditions of the chaplainship in his house, and assured promises of better provisions, drew him to relinquish his place in the College to a free election. No sooner was his assent signified, than the days were set for the public (and indeed exquisite) examination of the competitors. By that time two days of the three allotted to this trial were past, certain news came to us of the inexpected death of that incomparably Religious and Noble Earl of Huntingdon; by whose loss my then disappointed tutor must necessarily be left to the wide world unprovided for. Upon notice thereof, I presently repaired to the master of the college, Mr. Dr. Chaderton*; and besought him to tender that hard condition to which my good tutor must needs be driven, if the election proceeded; to stay any farther progress in that business; and to leave me to my own good hopes wheresoever, whose youth exposed me both to less needs, and more opportunities of provision. Answer was made me, that the place was pronounced void however; and, therefore, that my tutor was divested of all possibility of remedy, and must wait upon the providence of God for his disposing elsewhere, and the election must necessarily proceed the day following. Then was I, with a cheerful unanimity, chosen into that society; which if it had any equals, I dare say had none beyond it, for good order, studious carriage, strict government, austere piety: in which I spent six or seven

He was the first Master of Emmanuel College; lecturer at St. Clement's, Cambridge; and one of the translators of the Bible.-JONES.