I THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 ^ From the PUBLISHER. ^ 
 
 BX 5i9 9^\H2 5 H3 5 "isl? 
 Hamilton, James, 1814-186'7 
 Life of Joseph Hall, D.D. 
 Bishop of Norwich 
 
LIFE 
 
 or 
 
 JOSEPH HALL. D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OP NORWICH. 
 
 / Br 
 
 JAMES HAMILTON, M.B.S. 
 
 ooiTent le reconnoitre en tout.— PtucaL 
 Cum Pee de Deo vixit— ili^iMtunM. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ROBERT CARTER. 58 CANAL STREET, 
 AND PITTSBURG, 56 MARKET ST 
 
 1847." 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 BISHOP HALL. 
 
TO THE 
 
 EEV. JAMES HAMILTON, B.A. 
 
 OP ST, JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD ; 
 MINISTERING IN THAT ESTABLISHMENT 
 WHICH HALL ADORNED, 
 AND NEAR THE SCENES 
 WHICH HIS PRESENCE CONSECRATED, 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 ARB AFFECTIONATELT INBCBIBKD. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following Memoir was origi- 
 nally prepared as a biographical pre- 
 face to a new edition of Bishop 
 Hall's Contemplations. At the re- 
 quest of the Publisher, it now makes 
 its appearance separately, and with 
 some alterations which a revision 
 could not fail to suggest. 
 
 In a posthumous volume, entitled 
 
B PREFACE. 
 
 « The Shaking of the Olive Tree," 
 were inserted two autobiographical 
 fragments, — the one, " Observations 
 of some Specialties of Divine Provi- 
 dence in the Life of Joseph Hall, 
 Bishop of Norwich ;" the other, 
 " Hard Measure," setting forth the 
 sufferings of his later years. From 
 these the principal facts of his his- 
 tory have been derived ; but his 
 miscellaneous works, especially his 
 devotional writings, abound in ma- 
 terials illustrative of his character ; 
 and much information may be ga- 
 thered from the incidental notices 
 of his voluminous contemporaries. 
 Of these sources, so far as they were 
 known or accessible, the author has 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 availed himself; but in a tract of 
 such humble pretensions, did not 
 think it requisite to authenticate 
 every statement by elaborate refer- 
 ences. 
 
 It is only justice to this good pre- 
 late, and may be for our own ad- 
 vantage, to remember the motive 
 which induced him to leave on re- 
 cord the chief events of his history : 
 *' Not 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 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 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,'* 
 
 JEdinburghy 
 August 183a 
 
LIFE 
 
 or 
 
 BISHOP HALL. 
 
 JOSEPH HALL was born July 1st, 
 1574, at Bristow Park, in the parish 
 of Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire. 
 His parentage was honest and well- 
 allowed." His father held an oflSce 
 under the Earl of Huntingdon, which 
 enabled him to procure a good educa- 
 tion for his twelve children, and war- 
 ranted his ambition that one of them 
 should enter the ministry, at a time 
 
10 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 when a University was not the only 
 avenue to the Church. But the in- 
 structions and impressions which Jo- 
 seph received from his mother were a 
 better qualification than the lessons 
 of all his teachers ; and the conscious- 
 ness of their value in after days in- 
 vested the memory of the gentle giver 
 with an affection doubly filial. Wini- 
 fred Bambridge was the Monica of 
 Bishop Hall. A body always feeble, 
 and often anguish-stricken, was the 
 appropriate tenement of a spirit sor- 
 rowful and deeply exercised, if it did 
 not even re-act in a morbid influence 
 on her mind. But happily the clouds 
 which at one time shaded the piety of 
 this excellent woman, did not render 
 it forbidding to the more genial temper 
 of her son. He rejoiced in the light, 
 
LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 11 
 
 when others would have complained 
 of the halo, nor refused to be con- 
 ducted to the kingdom by a guide 
 whose countenance was sometimes 
 sad. And he at last had the satis- 
 faction of seeing her set free from 
 these vexing thoughts, and deriving 
 the joy of a religion of hope. What 
 with these trials, so had she profited 
 in the school of Christ, thit it was 
 hard for any friend to come from her 
 discourse no whit holier. How often 
 have I blessed the memory of those 
 divine passages of experimental, di- 
 vinity which I have heard from her 
 mouth ! What day did she pass with- 
 out a large task of private devotion, 
 whence she would still come forth 
 with a countenance of undissembled 
 mortification! Never any lips have 
 
12 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 read to me such feeling lectures of 
 piety ; neither have I known any soul 
 that more accurately practised them 
 than her own. Temptations, deser- 
 tions, 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- 
 Uke." 
 
 It was at the public school of his 
 native village that he received the ele- 
 ments of his education. After spending 
 "some years, not altogether indili- 
 gently, under the ferule of such mas- 
 ters as the place afforded, and attaining 
 some competent ripeness for the Uni- 
 versity," as he was now fifteen years 
 of age, it became a subject of much 
 deliberation to liis father, and anxious 
 
LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 IS 
 
 interest to himself, where he should 
 next be sent. His father's fortune, 
 not so large as his family, rendered 
 the University almost unattainable ; 
 and Joseph's schoolmaster, in his zeal 
 for so meritorious a pupil, had pri- 
 vately negotiated with Mr. Pelset, a 
 clerical friend, famed for his talents 
 and the eloquence with which he dis- 
 played them, to receive him into his 
 house as his scholar ; — Mr. Pelset 
 undertaking " within one seven years, 
 to send him forth, no less furnished 
 with arts, languages, and grounds of 
 theoretical divinity, than the careful- 
 lest tutor in the strictest college of 
 eitlier University." The scheme, when 
 unfolded to his father, so completely 
 adapted itself to liis circumstances and 
 desires, that he speedily took the re- 
 
14 LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 qilisite steps for securing its advan- 
 tages. *' There, and now were all my 
 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 heartily 
 and sincerely, in those my young years, 
 -I did cast myself upon thy hands; 
 with what faithful resolution I did in 
 this particular occasion resign myself 
 over to thy disposition, earnestly beg- 
 ging of thee in my fervent prayers, to 
 order all things to the best ; and con- 
 fidently waiting upon thy will for the 
 event. Certainly, never did I in all 
 my life more clearly roll myself upon 
 the Divine Providence, than I did in 
 this business; and it succeeded ac- 
 cordingly " 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 15 
 
 While these measures were in pro- 
 gress, his elder brother had occasion 
 to visit Cambridge, and was kindly en- 
 tertained by his townsman Nathaniel 
 Giiby, a Fellow of Emanuel College. 
 The majestic structures, the learned 
 leisure, and the old renown of Cam- 
 bridge, won his brother to a great 
 love and reverence of an academical 
 life," and powerfully enforced Mr. 
 Gilby's earnest persuasions by all 
 means to send his younger brother 
 thither. Under these influences he 
 returned to Ashby, and with Mr. 
 Gilby*s message reported in the most 
 glowing terms his own impressions. 
 On his knees he begged that his fa- 
 ther would not drown the expecta- 
 tions of the youthful aspirant *'in a 
 shallow country channel and con- 
 
16 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 eluded by beseeching him, if the cost 
 were the hindrance, to sell part of the 
 land which should otherwise be his 
 own inheritance. An appeal thus 
 urged could not be resisted, and with 
 an honest enthusiasm the governor of 
 Ashby exclaimed, " Cost what it will, 
 to the University he shall go." The 
 decision was opportunely made, for in- 
 stantly a knock at the door announced 
 a messenger from Mr. Pelset, to tell 
 that he was waiting for his pupil, and 
 would expect him on the morrow. Mr. 
 Hall told the servant that he was some 
 minutes too late, and informing him 
 of his change of purpose, dismissed 
 him with a courteous message to his 
 master, whilst Joseph welcomed the 
 ch^ge in his destination with tears of 
 joy. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 17 
 
 He had spent only two years in 
 Emanuel College, when his father, 
 •* whose not very large cistern was to 
 feed many pipes besides his," was pre- 
 vailed on to recall him, that he might 
 become the master of that school 
 where he had shortly before been 
 scholar. His extreme disappointment 
 at this premature interruption of his 
 studies was so evident as to move the 
 pity of an uncle, by whose generosity 
 he was enabled to resume his place at 
 college, where he soon after obtained 
 a scholarship. But, though other four 
 years terminated his right to this 
 maintenance, they had not abated his 
 literary enthusiasm, and had only ex- 
 alted into passion his love for the 
 haunts of learning. There was only 
 one capacity in which he could pro 
 
18 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 long his residence, and from that he 
 was precluded by the statutes. These 
 allowed of only a single fellow from 
 any shire, and the Leicestershire fel- 
 lowship was preoccupied by his. towns- 
 man and tutor Mr. Gilby. Here, not 
 for the first time, he experienced the 
 blessing of a faithful friend. For in 
 conversation with the Earl of Hun- 
 tingdon, his class-fellow Mr. Cholmley 
 so represented his worth and accom- 
 plishments, as to engage in his behalf 
 the warm interest of his father's patron. 
 The Earl was much concerned to hear 
 that his hopes of a fellowship were 
 forestalled ; but on learning the reason, 
 resolved on a remedy. He sent for 
 Mr. Gilby, and offered to appoint him 
 his chaplain, on terms which gained 
 his ready assent. Mr. Gilby tendered 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 19 
 
 his resignation at Cambridge ; it was 
 accepted, and three days of public 
 competition for the vacant fellowship 
 were named. The examination pro- 
 ceeded, and at the close of the second 
 day word arrived that the Earl of Hun- 
 tingdon was dead. Joseph Hall instantly 
 repaired to the Master of the College, 
 and entreated him, in regard for his 
 friend now thrown destitute, to stay 
 the election. He represented that his 
 own youth less required the situation, 
 and held out better prospects of pro- 
 vision in other ways. But he was told, 
 that the place having been declared 
 vacant, the election must proceed, and 
 that his tutor " must wait upon the 
 providence of God for his disposing 
 elsewhere." " Then was I with a 
 cheerful unanimity chosen into that 
 
*20 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 society, which if it had any equals, 1 
 dare say had none beyond it, for good 
 order, studious carriage, strict govern- 
 ment, austere piety; in which I spent 
 six or seven years more, with such con- 
 tentment as the rest of my Hfe hath in 
 vain striven to yield. Now was I called 
 to public disputations often, with no ill 
 success ; for never durst I appear in 
 any of those exercises of scholarship, 
 till I had from my knees looked up to 
 heaven for a blessing, and renewed my 
 actual dependence upon that divine 
 hand. In this while, two years to- 
 gether I was chosen to the rhetoric 
 lecture in the public schools, when I 
 was encouraged with a sufficient fre- 
 quence of auditors ; but finding that 
 well-applauded work somewhat out of 
 my way, not without a secret blame of 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 21 
 
 myself for so much excursion, I fairly 
 gave up that task in the midst of those 
 poor acclamations to a worthy succes- 
 sor, Dr. Dod, and betook myself to 
 those serious studies, which might fit 
 me for the high calling whereunto I was 
 destined, wherein, after I had carefully 
 bestowed myself for a time, I took the 
 boldness to enter into sacred orders ; the 
 honour whereof having once attained, 
 I was no niggard of that talent which 
 God had entrusted to me, preaching 
 often, as occasion was offered, both in 
 country villages abroad, and at home 
 in the most awful auditory of the Uni- 
 versity.** 
 
 In the disputations which had long 
 been the prominent business of aca- 
 demic life, Mr. Hall first acquired re- 
 
22 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 nown by his ingenious defence of the 
 paradoxical thesis, Mundus senescit ; 
 though, in the quaint language of 
 Fuller, " his position in somewhat 
 confuted his position ; the wit and 
 quickness whereof did argue an increase 
 rather than a decay of parts in this 
 latter age."* But whilst these dispu- 
 tations and the rhetoric lecture afforded 
 our scholar a dignified employment, 
 they were not the only avocation of 
 this tranquil period. Mr. Hall then 
 first adventured in the field of author- 
 ship ; but either from deference to an 
 ecclesiastical censure strangely passed 
 upon it, or because he had afterwards 
 learned so completely to count all 
 things but loss for Christ, we do not 
 
 • England's Worthies. Leicestershire. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 23 
 
 find him making any subsequent re- 
 ference to a publication which has 
 procured him applause among many 
 who are ignorant of his nobler works.* 
 It was in his 23d year that he gave to 
 the world his Satires, and introduced 
 a species of composition new to Bri- 
 tish literature. The circumstance of 
 his being the first English satirist 
 would entitle the Virgidemiiim to a 
 place of importance in the history of 
 our national poetry ; but the united 
 suffrages of skilful critics — with one 
 
 • Warton observes, not with his usual judgraent, 
 that " the poet is better known than the prelate 
 or the polemic." So far is this from being the case, 
 that of many thousands who have read Bishop 
 Hall's Meditations and Sermons with pleasure and 
 advantage, few have ever heard that he was a 
 poet, and still fewer that his poems were once pro- 
 scribed by authority, as unfit to be circulated or 
 read — Chalmers' Biog. Diet. Art. Hall, 
 
24 LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 formidable exception, and personal ani- 
 mosity made Milton here an incompe- 
 tent judge — have awarded it other 
 claims. Its greatest fault is obscurity 
 — an obscurity which the learned notes 
 of Warton and Singer have only par- 
 tially dispelled — the more provoking 
 as having been purposely assumed by 
 one of the most perspicuous of writers, 
 and not unjustly punished by the com- 
 parative neglect to which it has con- 
 signed the production. It was Hall's 
 very natural mistake, with no models 
 but the ancient satirists, to consider 
 their style of intricacy and innuendoes 
 essential ; and so completely was he 
 possessed by this misconception, that 
 he thinks it incumbent to apologize 
 for the excessive perspicuity of his 
 verses. But more than the meaning 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 2.5 
 
 is enigmatical. By clothing the ellip- 
 tical sententiousness of Persius in the 
 antiquated phraseology of Chaucer, he 
 has locked his sense in a double ci- 
 pher. In one respect he improved 
 upon his patterns, as his successors 
 have degenerated from him — in the 
 freedom from offensive personalities 
 which distinguishes his Satires — the 
 *' biting" and the " toothless" alike. 
 With a self-denial, wise though rare, 
 it was his determination to mar 
 his own verse rather than another's 
 name." The faithful delineation of 
 manners gives us an acquaintance with 
 the times beyond the reach, though 
 not beyond the province of history, — 
 whilst the couplets are not loaded 
 with inglorious names, which nothing 
 but such distinction could have saved 
 
26 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 from forgetfulness. Widely severed as 
 were the peculiarities of Pope — per- 
 spicuous, modernized, and personal — 
 we do not wonder that these Satires 
 should have been the subjects of his 
 minute and frequent study when he 
 at last discovered them, and that he 
 should have expressed regret that "he 
 had not seen them sooner." " Whe- 
 ther we consider the age of the man 
 or of the world, they appear to be 
 equally wonderful," is the verdict of 
 an accomplished reviewer.* Nor can 
 we withhold the mare specific and dis- 
 criminating sentence of one, whose 
 large acquaintance with the imagery 
 and diction of his father-poets has made 
 him the too fastidious critic of his 
 own. " In his Satires," says Mr. Camp- 
 
 • Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxi. p. 481. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 27 
 
 bell, *• he discovered not only the 
 early vigour of his own genius, but 
 the powers and pliability of his native 
 tongue. • * * In the point, and vo- 
 lubility, and vigour of Hall's numbers, 
 we might frequently imagine ourselves 
 perusing Dryden. This may be exem- 
 pUfied in- the harmony and picturesque- 
 ness of the following description of a 
 magnificent rural mansion, which the 
 traveller approaches in the hopes of 
 reaching the seat of ancient hospi- 
 tality, but finds it deserted by its 
 selfish owner : — 
 
 Beat the broad gates ; a goodly hollow sound. 
 With double echoes, doth again rebound ! 
 But not a dog doth bark to welcome thee. 
 Nor churlish porter canst thou chafing see. 
 All dumb and silent, like the dead of night. 
 Or dwelling of some sleeping Sybarite,; 
 The marble pavement hid with desert weed. 
 With house-leek, thistle, dock, and hemlock seed. 
 
 » ♦ • * 
 
28 
 
 LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 Look to the tow'red chimnics, which should be 
 The wind-pipes of good l)ospitality, 
 Through which it breatheth to the open air, 
 Betokeninp life and liberal welfare; 
 Lo, there th' unthankful swallow takes her rest. 
 And fills the tunnel with her circled nest. 
 
 *' His Satires are neitlier cramped 
 by personal hostility, nor spun out to 
 vague declamations on vice, but give 
 us the form and pressure of the times, 
 exhibited in the faults of coeval litera- 
 ture, and in the foppery or sordid 
 traits of prevailing manners. The age 
 was undoubtedly fertile in eccen- 
 tricity. * * * From the literature of the 
 age. Hall proceeds to its manners 
 and prejudices, and among the lat- 
 ter derides the prevalent confidence 
 in alchymy and astrology. To us this 
 ridicule appears an ordinary effort of 
 reason ; but it veas in him a common 
 sense above the level of the times."* 
 
 •Campbell's Specimens of the British Poets, 
 vol. ii. pp. 257-9. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 29 
 
 To do justice to " the vigorous and 
 musical couplets of this old poet," we 
 must extract the opening passage of 
 the 3d book, which our readers may 
 like none the worse for its entire free- 
 dom from obscurity. No classical de- 
 scription of the golden age can surpass 
 the playful ingenuity of the following : — 
 
 Time was, and that was terra'd the time of gold, 
 When world and time were young that now are old, 
 (When quiet Saturn sway'd the mace of lead, 
 And pride was yet unborn and yet unbred.) 
 Time was, that while the autumn fall did last. 
 Our hungry sires gap'd for the falling mast. 
 Could no unhusked acorn leave the tree. 
 But there was challenge made whose 4t might be. 
 But if some nice and licorous appetite 
 Desir'd more dainty dish of rare delight, 
 They scal'd the stored crab with bended knee. 
 Till they had sated their delicious eye : 
 Or search'd the hopeful thicks of hedgy rows. 
 For briery berries, or haws, or sourer sloes : 
 Or when they meant to fare the fin'st of all. 
 They lick'd oak-leaves besprent with honey-falL 
 As for the thrice three-angled beech nut-shell 
 Or chesnut's armed husk and liid kemell. 
 No squire durst touch, the law would not afford. 
 Kept for the court, and for the king's own board 
 
 These Satires, though the principal, 
 
so LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 were not the only poetical effusions of 
 our author. During his college days 
 he complied with a prevailing taste, 
 and composed a multitude of occa- 
 sional poems, threnodies and gratula- 
 tory odes. From one of the earliest 
 we transcribe a few stanzas, whose 
 euphonic pomp and well-adjusted epi- 
 thets may help to reconcile us to an 
 imagery which the long-forgotten oc- 
 casion now renders extravagant. The 
 whole elegy on Dr. Whitaker seems 
 to have been penned with ink from 
 Cocytus, and is such as Chatterton, 
 in one of his most dismal moods, would 
 have delighted to imitate : — 
 
 Bind ye my brows with nnourninff cyparisse, 
 Ancl palish twigs of deadly poplar tree. 
 
 Or if some sadder shades ye can devise. 
 Those sadder shades veil my lipiht-loathing eye; 
 
 I loathe the laurel bands I loved best. 
 
 And all that maketh mirth and pleasant rest. 
 
LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 31 
 
 Thou flattering sun that ledst this loathed light, 
 ■\Vhy didst thou in thy saffron robes arise? 
 
 Or fold'st not up the day in dreary night 
 And wark'st the western world's amazed eyes ? 
 
 And never more rise from -the ocean. 
 
 To wake the mom, or chase night-shades again. 
 
 Hear we no bird of day or dawning mom. 
 To greet the sun, or glad the waking ear: 
 
 Sing out ye screech-owls, louder than afom, 
 And ravens black of night, of death, of drear: 
 
 And all ye barking fowls vet never seen. 
 
 That fill the moonless nig^t with hideous din. 
 
 That we may not return to this 
 subject — in later years Hall employed 
 his muse on a dearer but more ardu- 
 ous theme, a metrical translation of 
 the Psalms. The first ten appeared 
 with the title, " Some few of David's 
 Psalms, metaphrased for a taste of the 
 rest." We could have wished that 
 his success had been more commen- 
 surate with his laudable design ; but 
 the "Metaphrase" wants the vigour, 
 the patljos, the melody, in short the 
 poetry of his youthful productions. 
 
32 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 There have been those who could call 
 forth rich music from a lyre of their 
 own, without being able to retune the 
 harp of David ; nor can we wonder that 
 the chords which refused the enchant- 
 ments of Milton and Byron, should 
 have been silent beneath the touch of 
 Hall. 
 
 Having obtained orders, his own 
 inclinations and the rules of the so- 
 ciety to which he belonged, made him 
 desirous of some extra-collegiate ap- 
 pointment. At that time a school had 
 recently been opened at Tiverton in 
 Devon, provided with an ample en- 
 dowment, and left principally under 
 the patronage of the Lord Chief-Jus- 
 tice Popham. He applied to the mas- 
 ter of Emanuel College to recommend 
 a governor for the new erection. Dr. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 33 
 
 Chaderton without any hesitation no- 
 minated Mr. Hall, and immediately 
 carried him to London, that he might 
 introduce him to the Chief-Justice. 
 The illustrious judge was so fascinated 
 by the indications of genius and ac- 
 complishments which this interview 
 revealed, that before they parted, the 
 one had promised his influence, and 
 the other signified his readiness to ac- 
 cept. On leaving his Lordship, Mr. 
 Hall had not proceeded far when he 
 was accosted by a messenger in the 
 street, who put a letter into his hand. 
 Dr. Chaderton remarking a change in 
 the countenance of his friend as he 
 perused his despatches, asked what 
 the matter might be ? Mr. Hall ans- 
 wered by handing him the letter, which 
 contained a very pressing invitation 
 
34 LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 from Lady Drury to the Rectory of 
 Halsted in Suffolk. " Sir," said Mr. 
 Hall, ".methinks God pulls me by the 
 sleeve, and tells me it is his will I 
 should rather go to the east than to 
 the west." « Nay," said Dr. Chader- 
 fon, " I should rather think that God 
 would have you go westward, for that 
 he hath contrived your engagement 
 before the tender of this letter, which 
 therefore coming too late, may receive 
 a fair and easy answer." " Pardon my 
 dissent," was Mr. Hall's reply ; ** I 
 well know that divinity was the end 
 whereto I was destined by my parents, 
 and this I have so constantly proposed 
 to myself, that I never meant other 
 than to pass through this western school 
 to it ; but I see that God, who found 
 me ready to go the farther way about, 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 35 
 
 now calls me the nearest and direct- 
 est way to that sacred end." To thi3 
 the good Doctor had nothing farther 
 to oppose, and though it was the frus- 
 tration of his journey to Ldndon, he 
 recognized the finger of God, and joy- 
 fully relinquished his protegee to the 
 better care of Providence. All that 
 remained was to satisfy Lord Popham 
 This Mr. Hall undertook; and not 
 only was his apology as frankly sus- 
 tained as it was candidly given, but he 
 was enabled to recompense the former 
 kindness of a friend. For, remember- 
 ing by whose representations to the 
 Earl of Huntingdon he had obtained 
 his fellowship, he stated the qualifica- 
 tions of Mr. Cholmley so effectually, 
 that the vacant place was transfered 
 to him, and they '* two, who came to- 
 
36 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 gether to the University, must now 
 leave it at once." * 
 
 His next step in life is too impor- 
 tant not to be told, and his own ac- 
 count is too characteristic to admit of 
 any other relating it. " Being now set- 
 tled in that sweet and civil country 
 of Suffolk, near to St. Edmund's- 
 Bury, my first work was to build up 
 my house, which was then extremely 
 ruinous ; which done, the uncouth 
 solitariness of my life, and the ex- 
 treme incommodityof that single house- 
 keeping, drew my thoughts, after two 
 years, to condescend to tlie necessity 
 of a married estate, which God no 
 « 
 
 ♦ From the above narratire, it will be seen that 
 Wr. Campbell has committed an oversight in sta- 
 ting that Hall' was some time master of the school 
 at Tiverton, in Devonsliire." — DritUh I'oets, II. 
 SCO. He was never actually appointed. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL, 
 
 37 
 
 less strangely provided for me. For 
 walking from the church on Monday 
 in the Whitsunweek, with a grave and 
 reverend minister, Mr. Grandidge, I 
 saw a comely modest gentlewoman 
 standing at the door of that house 
 where we were invited to a wedding- 
 dinner, and inquiring of that worthy 
 friend whether he knew her, ' Yes,* 
 quoth he, * I know her well, and have 
 bespoken her for your wife.' When I 
 further demanded an account of that 
 answer, he told me she was the daugh- 
 ter of a gentleman whom he much 
 respected, Mr. George Winniff of Bre- 
 tenham ; that out of an opinion had 
 of the fitness of that match for me, he 
 had already treated with her father 
 about it, whom he found very apt to 
 entertain it, advising me not to neglect 
 
38 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 the opportunity; and not concealing 
 the just praises of the modesty, piety, 
 good disposition, and other virtues 
 that were lodged in that seemly pre- 
 sence, I listened to the motion as sent 
 from God, and at last upon due pro- 
 secution happily prevailed, enjoying 
 the comfortable society of that meet 
 help for the space of forty-nine years." 
 
 The increasing comforts of Halsted 
 Rectory could not hinder him from 
 listening soon after to a proposal made 
 by Sir Edmund Bacon, that he should 
 accompany him in a continental tour. 
 The amount of enterprise and re- 
 sources which such an expedition then 
 demanded can scarcely now be under- 
 stood. In those days the travelhng 
 retinue of a nobleman resembled the 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 39 
 
 Mecca caravan, and he marched under 
 an escort which showed that he was 
 taking his pleasure in an enemy's coun- 
 try. Mr. Hall possessed a high degree 
 of that noble curiosity which compels 
 some to labour in the fire for know- 
 ledge, whilst others, waiting till wisdom 
 come, grow old in contented igno- 
 rance. No one in reading his works can 
 fail to be struck with the indications 
 of a busy, quick, and observant eye. 
 Many of his most striking and original 
 remarks are the result of sagaciously 
 noting, and dexterously applying what 
 passes before the eyes of other men 
 too often to appear uncommon, that 
 is, to appear in any way remarkable. 
 But the prospect of exploring a field 
 then so seldom traversed dilated his 
 mind with absolute ecstasy, and he 
 
40 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 rejoiced in the ungathered harvest of 
 knowledge which it promised. Above 
 all, he wished to visit a Roman Ca- 
 tholic country. He longed to behold 
 popery in reality; not the crippled 
 crouching thing which prolonged a 
 skulking existence in England, but the 
 stalwart galled and raging ApoUyon 
 that stalked tremendously through Eu- 
 rope. Sir Edmund travelled in the 
 protection of the English ambassador, 
 and for farther concealment, Mr. Hall 
 exchanged his canonicals for the silken 
 robes and gay colours of a fashionable 
 English gentleman. And notwithstand- 
 ing the frequent debates into which his 
 zeal betrayed him amongst Jesuits and 
 friars, the suspicious excellence of his 
 Latin, and the sturdy protestantism, 
 which only the hulk of a tall Braban- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 41 
 
 ter" saved from martyrdom at the pro- 
 cession of John the Baptist, he passed 
 undetected from Calais to Brussels, 
 from Nemours to Spa, and then, re- 
 turning, to Antwerp and Middleburgh. 
 It was our traveller's anxiety to view 
 the ancient college of this last city, 
 which lost him his voyage home. He 
 left his party at Flushing, and hngered 
 so long at Middleburgh, that his friends 
 availed themselves of a favourable 
 wind, and he arrived in time to gaze 
 hopelessly after their vessel now far at 
 sea. " Sadly returning to Middleburgh, 
 he waited long for an inconvenient and 
 tempestuous passage." In his epistles 
 he has given an account of this expe- 
 dition, an extract from which will serve 
 the additional purpose of enabling the 
 reader to compare his earlier — more 
 
42 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 quaint, dense, cramp, and antithetic — 
 with his later style. His six Decads 
 of Epistles are the first specimens of 
 that familiar and delightful composi- 
 tion since so common in our language. 
 He claims this merit for himself, and 
 we do not know of any British author 
 who published letters of his own before 
 him. 
 
 ** Besides my hopes, not my desires, 
 I travelled of late ; for knowledge part- 
 ly, and partly for health. There was 
 nothing that made not my journey 
 pleasant, save the labour of the way : 
 which yet was so sweetly deceived by 
 the society of Sir Edmund Bacon, (a 
 gentleman truly honourable, beyond all 
 titles), that I found small cause to 
 complain. The sea brooked not me, 
 nor I it; an unquiet element, made 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP ffALL. 43 
 
 only for wonder and use, not for plea- 
 sure. Alighted once from that wooden 
 conveyance, and uneven way, I be- 
 thought myself how fondly our life is 
 committed to an unsteady and reeling 
 piece of wood, fickle winds, restless 
 waters, while we may set foot on sted- 
 fast and constant earth. Lo, then 
 everything taught rae, everything de- 
 lighted me; so ready are we to be af- 
 fected with these foreign pleasures, 
 which at home we should overlook. 
 I saw much as one might in such a 
 span of earth in so few months. The 
 time favoured me : for now newly had 
 the key of peace opened those parts 
 which war had before closed ; closed 
 (I say) to all English, save either fu- 
 gitives or captives. All civil occurren- 
 ces (as what fair cities, what strange 
 
44 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL 
 
 fashions, entertainments, dangers, de- 
 lights, we found), are fit for other ears 
 and winter evenings. What I noted, 
 as a divine within the sphere of my 
 profession, my paper shall not spare 
 in some part to report. 
 
 " Along oar way, how many church- 
 es saw we demolished! Nothing left, 
 but rude heaps, to tell the passenger 
 there hath been both devotion and 
 hostility. Fury hath done that there, 
 which Covetousness would do with 
 us; would do, but shall not: the truth 
 within shall save tire walls without. 
 And, to speak truly (whatever the vul- 
 gar exclaim). Idolatry pulled down 
 those walls, not rage. If there had 
 been no Hollander to raze them, they 
 would have fallen alone rather than 
 hide so mucli impiety under their guilty 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 45 
 
 roof. These are spectacles, not so 
 much of cruelty as justice ; cruelty of 
 man, justice of God. But (which I 
 wondered at) churches fall and jesuits' 
 colleges rise everywhere. There is no 
 city where those are not either rearing 
 or built. Whence cometh this? Is it, 
 for that devotion is not so necessary 
 as policy ? Those men (as we say of 
 the fox) fare best where they are most 
 cursed. None so much spited of their 
 own, none so hated of all, none so 
 opposed by ours; and yet these ill 
 weeds grow. Whosoever lives long 
 shall see them feared of their own^ 
 who now hate them ; shall see these 
 seven lean kine devour all the fat 
 beasts that feed on the meadows oi 
 Tiber. 
 
 " At Brussels I saw some English 
 
46 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 women profess themselves vestals, 
 with a thousand rites, I know not 
 whether more ridiculous or magical. 
 Poor souls ! they could not be fools 
 enough at home. It would have made 
 you to pity, laugh, disdain (I know 
 not which more), to see by what cun- 
 ning sleights and fair pretences that 
 weak sex was fetched into a wilful 
 bondage ; and (if these two can agree) 
 willingly constrained to serve a master 
 whom they must and cannot obey. 
 What follows hence ?■ Late sorrow, 
 secret mischief, misery irremediable. 
 
 *' I talked there, in more boldness 
 perhaps than wisdom, with Costerus, 
 a famous jesuit, an old man, more 
 testy than subtile, and more able to 
 wrangle than satisfy. Our discourse 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 4? 
 
 was long and roving; and on his part 
 full both of words and vehemency. He 
 spake as at home, I as a stranger : yet 
 so as he saw me modestly peremptory. 
 The particulars would swell my letter 
 too much: it is enough that the truth 
 lost less than I gained. 
 
 *• At Ghent, a city that commands 
 reverence for age and wonder for the 
 greatness, we fell upon a capuchin no- 
 vice, who wept bitterly because he was 
 not allowed to make himself miserable. 
 His head had now felt the razor, his 
 back the rod: all that laconical dis- 
 cipline pleased him well, which another 
 being condemned to, would justly ac- 
 count a torment. What hindered tlien? 
 Piety to his mother would not permit 
 this which he thought piety to God. 
 
48 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL, 
 
 He could not be a willing beggar, un- 
 less his mother would beg unwillingly. 
 He was the only heir of his father, the 
 only stay of his mother : the comfort 
 of her widowhood depended on this 
 her orphan; who now naked must 
 enter into the world of the capuchins, 
 as he came first into this, leaving his 
 goods to the division of the fraternity 
 — the least part whereof should have 
 been hers, whose he wished all. Hence" 
 those tears. These men for devout, 
 the Jesuits for learned and pragmatical, 
 have engrossed all opinion from other 
 orders. 0 hypocrisy I No capuchin 
 may take or touch silver. This metal 
 IS as very an anathema to them, as. 
 the wedge of gold to Achan; at the 
 offer whereof he starts back, as Moses 
 from the serpent; yet he carries a boy 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 49 
 
 with him, that takes and carries it, 
 and never complains of either metal 
 or measure. I saw and laughed at it, 
 and by this open trick of hypocrisy 
 suspected more, more close. 
 
 " At Nemours, on a pleasant and 
 steep hill-top, we found one that was 
 termed a married hermit ; approving 
 his wisdom above his fellows, that 
 could make choice of so cheerful and 
 sociable a soUtariness. Whence, after 
 a delightful passage up the sweet river 
 Mosa, we visited the populous and rich 
 city of Leodium (Liege.) I would 
 those streets were more moist with 
 wine than with blood; wherein no 
 day, no night, is not dismal to seme. 
 No law, no magistrate lays hold on 
 the known murderer if liimself list ; 
 
50 LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 for three days after the fact, the gates 
 are open and justice shut : private vio- 
 lence may pursue him, public justice 
 cannot : whence some of more hot 
 temper carve themselves revenge; 
 others take up with a small pecuniary 
 satisfaction. O England, thought I, 
 happy for justice, happy for security 1 
 There you shall find in every corner 
 a maumet (image) ; at every door a 
 beggar, in every dish a priest. From 
 thence we passed to the Spa, a village 
 famous for her medicinal and mineral 
 waters, compounded of iron and cop- 
 peras ; the virtue whereof yet the 
 simple inhabitant ascribes to their 
 beneficial saint, whose heavy foot hath 
 made an ill-shaped impression in a 
 stone of the upper well : — a water 
 more wholesome than pleasant, and 
 yet more famous than wholesome. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 51 
 
 ** One thing I may not omit with- 
 out sinful oversight; a short but memo- 
 rable story which the graphier of that 
 town (though of different religion) re- 
 ported to more ears than ours. When 
 the last inquisition tyrannized in those 
 parts, and helped to spend the faggots 
 of Ardenne, one of the rest, a confi- 
 dent confessor, being led far to his 
 stake, sung psalms along the way, in 
 a heavenly courage and victorious tri- 
 umph. The cruel officer, envying his 
 last mirth, and grieving to see him 
 merrier than his tormentors, command- 
 ed him silence. He sings still, as de- 
 sirous to improve his last breath to 
 the best. The view of his approach- 
 ing glory bred his joy ; his joy breaks 
 forth into a cheerful confession. The 
 enraged sheriff causes his tongue to 
 
52 LIFE OF BISHOf HALL. 
 
 be cut off near the roots. Bloody 
 wretch ! It had been good music to 
 have heard his shrieks ; but to hear 
 his music was torment. The poor 
 martyr dies in silence, rests in peace. 
 Not many months after, our butcherly 
 oflBcer hath a son born with his tongue 
 hanging down upon his chin, like a 
 deer after long chase, which never 
 could be gathered up within the bounds 
 of his lips. O the divine hand, full 
 of justice, full of revenge ! 
 
 " Let me tell you yet, ere I take off 
 my pen, two wonders more, which I 
 saw in that wonder of cities, Antwerp ; 
 — one a solemn mass in a shambles, 
 and that on God's day j while the 
 house was full of meat, of butchers, 
 of buyers ; some kneeling, others bar- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 53 
 
 gaining, most talking, all busy. It was 
 strange to see one house sacred to God 
 and the belly, and how these two ser- 
 vices agreed. The priests did eat flesh, 
 the butchers sold flesh, in one roof at 
 one instant. The butcher killed and 
 sold it by pieces ; the priest did sacri- 
 fice, and orally devour it whole.* The 
 other, —an Englishman, so madly de- 
 vout that he had wilfully housed up 
 himself as an anchorite, the worst of 
 all prisoners. There sat he, pent up 
 for his farther merit, half hunger-starved 
 for the charity of the citizens. It was 
 worth seeing how manly he could bite 
 in his secret want, and dissemble his 
 over-late repentance. I cannot com- 
 mend his mortification, if he wish to 
 
 • We need scarcely say that the author alludes to 
 that monstrous tenet of popery, transubstantiation. 
 
54 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 be in heaven ; yea in purgatory, to be 
 delivered from thence. I durst not 
 pity him, because his durance was 
 willing, and as he hoped meritorious ; 
 but such encouragement as he had 
 from me, such thank shall he have 
 from God, who, instead of an Euge 
 which he looks for, shall angrily chal- 
 lenge him with ' who required this ^ ' " 
 
 The interview with Father Costerus, 
 to which Mr. Hall alludes in the fore- 
 going letter, has been recorded else- 
 where, and is characteristic of the 
 times. It often happens that the pre- 
 vailing notions of the day supply argu- 
 ments for some great truth, to which 
 controversiaUsts resort more eagerly, 
 and on whicn they are disposed to lay 
 greater stress, than on those proofs 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL, 
 
 55 
 
 which are alike weighty and conclusive 
 in every age. It has been said, that 
 our metaphysical countryman Andrew 
 Baxter, in his book on the Immateria- 
 lity of the Soul, perplexed the sceptics 
 of his time by a reference to nocturnal 
 apparitions more than by all his other 
 reasonings ; and if they were so incon- 
 sistent in their credulity, we can scarcely 
 conceive anything fairer or more irre- 
 sistible as an argumentum ad homines, 
 however inefficacious it may be in the 
 altered belief of the present generation. 
 It was similar ground which our pro- 
 testant divine occupied in common 
 with his popish antagonist, without 
 any suspicion of its soundness. An 
 English barrister, a proselyte to po- 
 pery, and resident at Brussels, was nar- 
 rating to Sir Edmund Bacon, in a style 
 
56 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 of extravagant hyperbole, the won- 
 ders lately performed by our- Lady at 
 Zichem ; and to silence the shrewd 
 objections of the worthy knight, had 
 instanced a cure miraculously wrought 
 upon himself. At this moment Mr. 
 Hall entered the apartment, and, there 
 being nothing in his dress to indicate 
 his profession, joined freely in the con- 
 versation. Put case this report of 
 your's be 'granted for true, I beseech 
 you teach me what difference there is 
 betwixt these miracles and those which 
 were wrought by Vespasian,* by some 
 
 « When Vespasian was at Alexandria in Egypt, 
 two men came to him as he was presiding in a 
 court of justice, the one to all appearance blind, 
 and the other lame, soliciting a cure. He at first 
 declined to interfere, but at the solicitation of his 
 courtiers he was persuaded to impart the healing 
 rite, which Serapis had indicated to the applicants 
 m a dream. Nec eventus defuit," adds Sueto- 
 toxiius ; and we may believe that the success was 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 57 
 
 vestals with charms and spells ; the 
 rather that I have noted in the late 
 published report, some patient pre- 
 scribed to come upon a Friday, and 
 some to wash in such a well before 
 their approach, and divers other such 
 charm-like operations." The confi- 
 dent tone of the lawyer was suddenly 
 lowered by this unexpected interro- 
 gatory, and he excused himself from 
 a reply, saying, " I do not profess this 
 kind of scholarship ; but we have in 
 the city many famous divines, with 
 whom if it would please you to confer, 
 you might sooner receive satisfaction." 
 Mr. Hall asked who was considered 
 
 as great as a collusion betwixt the Egyptian priests 
 and the emperor could secure. Sueionii, Vespas. 
 cap. 7. Taciti Hist. IV. 81. For the remarks of 
 Lardner see his Works, voL IIL p.. 412, quarto 
 edition. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 the most eminent divine of the place. 
 The English gentleman named Father 
 Costerus, and undertook to secure him 
 a conference, to which Mr. H. gladly 
 acceded. Accordingly, in the after- 
 noon the zealous Romanist returned 
 to announce that the father had agreed 
 to the interview, and to accompany 
 him to the Jesuits' College. There 
 arrived, the porter opened the gate, 
 and ejaculating a Deo gratias, ad- 
 mitted the stranger. He did not re- 
 main long in the hall till Costerus 
 joined him. After a friendly salutation, 
 the priest ran on in a long and formal 
 oration on the unity of that church in 
 which alone men can be saved, when 
 Mr. Hall took advantage of the first 
 moment which civility allowed to in- 
 terrupt him. " Sir, I beseech you mis- 
 
LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 59 
 
 take me not. My nation tells you of 
 what religion I am. I come not hither 
 out of any doubt of my professed be- 
 lief, or any purpose to change it ; but 
 moving a question to this gentleman 
 concerning the pretended miracles of 
 the time, he pleased to refer me to 
 yourself for my answer; which motion 
 of his I was the more willing to em- 
 brace, for the fame that I have heard 
 of your learning and worth. And if 
 you can give me satisfaction herein, I 
 am ready to receive it." So seating 
 themselves at a table in the end of the 
 hall, they prepared for a vigorous en- 
 counter. The Jesuit commenced by 
 giving his view of the distinction be- 
 tween miracles diabolical and divine, 
 Mr. Hall was not satisfied, and stated 
 his objections. Upon this his oppo- 
 
60 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 nent diverged into a vehement as 
 sault on the English church, which 
 he protested could not yield one mi- 
 racle. Mr. Hall reclaimed, that in his 
 church they had manifest proofs of the 
 ejection of devils by fasting and prayer 
 •* If it can be proved," cried Costerus, 
 " that ever any devil was dispossessed 
 in your church, I shall quit my reli- 
 gion." In the long and keen debate 
 which followed, Mr. Hall started many 
 questions to which his antagonist could 
 give no satisfactory answers. They 
 soon obtained an additional auditor in 
 Father Baldwin, an English Jesuit, 
 who came in and seated himself on a 
 form at the other end of the table, and 
 seemed not a little mortified that a 
 gentleman of his nation should leave 
 the college as unenlightened as he 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 61 
 
 came. The next morning the perse- 
 vering lawyer arrived with a message 
 from this father, expressing his disap- 
 pointment that an Englishman should 
 have preferred a conference with a 
 foreigner, when he would have been 
 happy to have his acquaintance and to 
 give him satisfaction. Mr. Hall would 
 as willingly have made arrangements 
 for this interview as for the former, had 
 not a secret signal from Sir Edmund 
 reminded him that they came to travel, 
 not to argue-, and that their safe-con- 
 duct would not be strengthened by an 
 additional debate. Father Baldwin's 
 message was therefore politely declined, 
 Mr. Hall having no hope of converting 
 the priest, and being resolved that no 
 papist should alter him. 
 
 It may be worth while to mention, 
 
62 LIFE OP SISHOP HALL. 
 
 as justifying an objection to the Eng- 
 lish ritual strongly urged by the Pres- 
 byterians of that day, that in his voyage 
 up the Maese, Mr. Hall had what he 
 calls *'a dangerous conflict" with a 
 Sorbonist of the Carmelite order, on 
 the subject of the Eucharist. This 
 friar was trying to persuade the com- 
 pany, from the circumstance of their 
 kneeling at the sacrament, that the 
 English protestants recognised the doc» 
 trine of transubstantiation. By what 
 arguments Mr. Hall confuted the ca- 
 lumny we do not know; but the debate 
 waxed so hot, that Sir Edmund was 
 constrained to interfere, and call away 
 his polemical friend from a discussion 
 more manly than discreet, in a country 
 where all argument against the esta- 
 blished religion was prohibited by law: 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 63 
 
 — not, however, till the prior indicated 
 his suspicions to the bystanders, by 
 significantly telling them that he had 
 once prepared a suit of green satin for 
 his travels in England. Mr. Hall was 
 afterwards employed by his Majesty 
 King James, to persuade the people of 
 Scotland into kneeling at the com- 
 munion ; but when he found his 
 church claimed by Roman Catholics 
 on the ground of this ceremony, he 
 might well have shown indulgence for 
 those Presbyterians who saw in it a 
 remnant of popery. 
 
 At Spa he composed the second of 
 his three centuries of Meditations 
 and Vows." They were the results of 
 his meditative perambulations, amidst 
 scenery whose picturesque and historic 
 charms had kindled even then the 
 
64 
 
 LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 poefs fervour. He composed them 
 while 
 
 Ardennes waved above him hei green leaves. 
 Dewy with nature's tear-drops; 
 
 but though himself a poet, his work 
 records no sombre nor romantic im- 
 pressions. *' The mind is its own 
 place," and the thoughts of our tra- 
 veller were never more at home. As 
 the productions of an. able pen, these 
 Meditations reflect lustre on the ta- 
 ients of their author, and give him a 
 good claim to be styled the Christian 
 Seneca, as the graceful Apology of 
 Lactantius conferred on that father 
 the kindred title of the Christian Ci- 
 cero. Each Meditation embodies some 
 brief reflection, and closes with a prac- 
 tical resolution: in this last respect 
 reminding us of perhaps the most in- 
 structive document in the life of that 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 65 
 
 wise self-observer, President Edwards. 
 They are all precious, as revealing 
 thoughts which had long dwelt in a 
 sanctified bosom, as recording the ani- 
 madversions of one who was no less 
 sagacious in reading the hearts of 
 others than strict in watching his own, 
 and as contributing wise directions to 
 others advancing in the same heaven- 
 ward journey. No reader need grudge 
 a few extracts, should they bring him 
 acquainted with a work never to be 
 forgotten, but perhaps not sufficiently 
 known in practical divinity : — 
 
 " As there is a foolish wisdom, so 
 there is a wise ignorance, in not pry- 
 ing into God's ark, in not inquiring 
 into things not revealed. I would fain 
 know all that I need, and all that I 
 may. I leave God's secrets to himself 
 
66 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 It is happy for me that God makes 
 me of his court, though not of his 
 council." 
 
 " The devil himself devised that 
 slander of early holiness, A young saint, 
 an old devil. Sometimes young devils 
 have proved old saints, never the c«n 
 trary : but true saints in youth do al- 
 ways form angels in their age. I will 
 strive to be ever good ; but if I should 
 not find myself best at last, I should 
 fear I was never good at all." 
 
 *' As we say. There would be no 
 thieves, if there were no receivers ; so 
 would there not be so many open 
 mouths to detract and slander, if there 
 were not so many open ears to enter- 
 tain them. If I cannot stop another 
 man's mouth from speaking ill, I will 
 either open my mouth to reprove it, 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 67 
 
 or else I will stop mine ears from hear- 
 ing it ; and let him see in my face that 
 he hath no room in my heart." 
 
 "I am a stranger even at home : 
 therefore if the dogs of the world bark 
 at me, I neither care nor wonder." 
 
 I care not for any companion, but 
 such as may teach me somewhat, or 
 learn somewhat of me; but these shall 
 much pleasure me, neither know I 
 whether more. For though it be an 
 excellent thing to learn, yet I learn 
 but to teach others." 
 
 " If I die, the world shall miss me 
 but a little ; I shall miss it less. Not 
 it me — because it hath such store of 
 better men : not I it — because it hath 
 so much ill, and I shall have so much 
 happiness." 
 
68 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 " I acknowledge no Master of Re- 
 quests in heaven but one — Christ my 
 Mediator. I know I cannot be so 
 happy as not to need him ; nor so 
 miserable that he should contemn me. 
 Good prayers never came weeping 
 home : I am sure I shall either receive 
 what I ask, or what I should ask." 
 
 I never loved those salamanders 
 that are never well but when they are 
 in the fire of contention. I will rather 
 suffer a thousand wrongs than offer 
 one: I will suffer a hundred, rather 
 than return one : I will suffer many 
 ere I complain of one, and endeavour 
 to right it by contending. I have ever 
 found that to strive with my superior 
 is furious ; with my equal, doubtful ; 
 with my inferior, sordid and base; 
 wirh any, full of unquietness " 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 69 
 
 *• Sudden extremity is a notable trial 
 of faith. The faithful, more quickly 
 than any casualty, can lift up his heart 
 to his stay in heaven : whereas the 
 worldling stands amazed and distraught 
 with the evil, because he hath no 
 refuge to fly unto. When, therefore, 
 some sudden stitch girds me in the 
 side, like to be the messenger of death; 
 or when the sword of my enemy, in 
 an unexpected assault, threatens my 
 body ; I will seriously note how I am 
 aflfected : so the suddenest evil, as it 
 shall not come unlooked-for, shall not 
 go away unthought of. If I find myself 
 courageous and heavenly-minded, I 
 will rejoice in the truth of God's grace 
 in me ; knowing that one drachm of 
 tried faith is worth a whole pound of 
 speculative ; and that which once stood 
 
70 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 by me will never fail me. If dejected 
 and heartless, herein I will acknow- 
 ledge cause of humiliation, and with all 
 care and diligence seek to store myself 
 against the danger following." 
 
 •* I will be ever doing something, 
 that either God when he cometh, or 
 Satan when he tempted, may find me 
 busied." 
 
 Each day is a new life, and an 
 abridgment of the whole, I will so 
 live, as if I counted every day my first 
 and my last ; as if I began to live but 
 then, and should live no more after- 
 wards." 
 
 ** Rareness causes wonder. If the 
 sun should arise but once on the earth, 
 I doubt every man would be a Persian, 
 and fall down and worship it." 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 71 
 
 ** The proud man hath no God ; 
 the envious man hath no neighbour ; 
 the angry man hath not himself." 
 
 '* I observe three seasons wherein 
 a wise man differs not from a fool : 
 in his infancy, in sleep, and in silence; 
 for in the two former, we are all fools, 
 and in silence all are wise. Surely, he 
 is not a fool that hath unwise thoughts, 
 but he that utters them. Even con- 
 cealed folly is wisdom, and sometimes, 
 wisdom uttered is folly. While others 
 care how to speak, my care shall be 
 how to hold my peace. 
 
 Extremity distinguisheth friends. 
 Worldly pleasures, like physicians, give 
 us over when once we lie a-dying ; 
 and yet the death-bed had most need 
 
72 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 of comforts. Christ Jesus standeth by 
 his in the pangs of death, and after 
 death at the bar of judgment, not 
 leaving them either in their bed or ia 
 their grave." 
 
 The living at Halsted was small, 
 and, notwithstanding the moderate de- 
 sires of the incumbent, so inadequate 
 that he was forced " to write books to 
 buy books." He applied to the pa- 
 tron for an augmentation of ten pounds 
 per annum — a demand in itself not 
 exorbitant, and only just, when it is 
 remembered that Sir Robert Drury, 
 by an abuse of power then frequent, 
 was appropriating to his own uses a 
 portion of the minister's emoluments. 
 Sir Robert's refusal to comply with 
 Mr. Hall's request, prepared him to 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 73 
 
 accept any preferment that might be 
 offered him. And he soon had more 
 than he desired. For during a visit 
 to London he was sought out by a 
 friend, who came to tell him the high 
 acceptance which his Meditations had 
 obtained at the court of Prince Henry, 
 and to urge him to embrace an oppor- 
 tunity of preaching before his High- 
 ness. Mr. Hall was then confined to 
 his lodgings in Drury Lane by a se- 
 vere cold. *' I strongly pleaded my 
 indisposition of body, and my inpre- 
 paration for any such work, together 
 with my bashful fears, and utter un- 
 fitness for such a presence. My 
 averseness doubled his importunity; 
 in fine, he left me not till he had my 
 engagement to preach the Sunday fol- 
 lowing at Richmond. He made way 
 
74 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 for me to that awful pulpit, and en- 
 couraged me by the favour of his noble 
 lord the Earl of Essex. I preached : 
 through the favour of my God, that 
 sermon was so well given as taken ; 
 insomuch as that sweet prince signified 
 his desire to hear me again the Tues- 
 day following ; which done, that la- 
 bour gave more contentment than the 
 former, so as that prince both gave 
 me his hand, and commanded me to his 
 service. My patron seeing me, upon 
 my return to London, looked after by 
 some great persons, began to wish me 
 at home, and told me that some or 
 other would be snatching me up. I 
 answered, it was in his power to pre- 
 vent : Would he be pleased to make 
 my maintenance but so competent as 
 in right it should be I would never 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 75 
 
 Stir from him. Instead of condescend- 
 ing, it pleased him to fall into an ex- 
 postulation of the rate of competen- 
 cies, affirming the variableness thereof 
 according to our own estimation, and 
 our either raising or moderating the 
 causes of our expenses. I showed him 
 the insufficiency of my means ; but a 
 harsh and unpleasing answer so dis- 
 heartened me, that I resolved to em- 
 brace the first opportunity of my re- 
 move. 
 
 " Now, whilst I was taken up with 
 these anxious thoughts, a messenger 
 came to me from my Lord Denny, my 
 after most honourable patron, entreat- 
 ing me from his Lordship to speak 
 with him. No sooner came I thither, 
 than after a glad and noble welcome. 
 
76 LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 I was entertained with the earnest 
 offer of Waltham. The conditions 
 were, like the mover of them, free 
 and bountiful. I received them as 
 from the munificent hand of my God; 
 and returned full of the cheerful ac- 
 knowledgments of a gracious provi- 
 dence over me. Too late now did my 
 former noble patron relent, and offer 
 me those terms which had before fast- 
 ened me for ever. I returned home 
 happy in a new master, and in a new 
 patron ; betwixt whom I divided my- 
 self and my labours, with much com- 
 fort, and no less acceptation. 
 
 " In the second 3'ear of mine atten- 
 dance on his highness, when I came 
 for my dismission from that monthly 
 service, it pleased the prince to cora- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 77 
 
 mand me a longer stay ; and at last 
 upon mine allowed departure, by the 
 mouth of Sir Thomas Challoner, his 
 governor, to tender unto me a motion 
 of more honour and favour than I was 
 worthy of ; which was, that it was his 
 highness' pleasure and purpose to have 
 me continually resident at the court as 
 a constant attendant, whilst the rest 
 held on their wonted vicisitudes ; for 
 which purpose his highness would ob- 
 tain for me such preferments as should 
 yield me full contentment. I returned 
 my humblest thanks, and my reiadi- 
 ness to sacrifice myself to the service 
 of so gracious a master ; but being con- 
 scious to myself of my unanswerable- 
 ness to so great expectation, and loath 
 to forsake so dear and noble a patron, 
 who had placed much of his heart up- 
 
78 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 on me, I did modestly put it off, and 
 held close to my Walthamj where in 
 a constant course I preached a long 
 time (as I had done also at Halsted 
 before) thrice in the week ; yet never 
 durst I climb into the pulpit to preach 
 any sermon, whereof I had not before, 
 in my poor and plain fashion, penned 
 every word in the same order wherein 
 I hoped to deliver it, although in the 
 expression I listed not to be a slave to 
 syllables." 
 
 His attendance at court did not'long 
 detam Him from the undivided per- 
 formance of his pastoral duties at Wal- 
 tham; for the hopes of the nation were 
 quickly prostrated by the death of the 
 amiable prince, which occurred Nov. 6, 
 1612; and on the first day of the fol 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. "9 
 
 lowing year Mr. Hall discharged the 
 last office of a love -w^iich had sup- 
 planted the deference of the courtier, 
 by preaching a farewell sermon to the 
 prince's household, then dissolved at 
 St. James's. The discourse contains 
 repeated testimonies of the grateful and 
 affectionate admiration with which the 
 chaplain cherished the memory of his 
 illustrious patron — testimonies which 
 royal station has seldom so justly merit- 
 ed. But history has recorded the en- 
 gaging character of King James's eldest 
 son so fully, as to supersede any extracts 
 from this ardent eulogy. The closing 
 sentences, however, possess a pathos 
 and an appropriateness to the text 
 (Rev. xxi. 3) which will justify their 
 insertion here : — " But what if we 
 shall meet here no more? — what if 
 
80 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 we shall no more see one another's 
 face? Brethren, we shall once meet 
 together above ; we shall once see the 
 glorious face of God, and never look 
 off again. Let it not overgrieve us to 
 leave these tabernacles of stone, since 
 we must shortly lay down these taber- 
 nacles of clay, and enter into taber- 
 nacles not made with hands, eternal 
 in the heavens. Till then, farewell, 
 my dear brethren, farewell in the Lord. 
 Go in peace, and live as those that 
 have lost such a master, and as those 
 that serve a Master whom they cannot 
 lose. And the God of peace go with 
 you, and prosper you in all your ways, 
 and so fix his tabernacle in you upon 
 earth, that you may be received into 
 those tabernacles of the New Jerusa- 
 lem, and dwell with him for ever in 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 81 
 
 that glory which he hath provided for 
 all that love him. Amen." 
 
 The sixteen years which Mr. Hall 
 spent at Waltham were among the 
 most pleasant of his life, for they were 
 the least distracted. His circumstances 
 freed him from worldly solicitudes ; the 
 national convulsions which agitated his 
 old age, of which he was sometimes the 
 sorrowful witness, and sometimes the 
 unoffending victim, had not commen- 
 ced; his home was the shining abode of 
 that happiness, a beam of which occa- 
 sionally brightens upon his pages ; and 
 in that home no apartment was more 
 loved or frequented than his study. 
 What Hall has already described no 
 other should attempt to teU; and we 
 do not believe that any reader ever 
 
82 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 complained of the length of the fol- 
 lowing letter, which gives in brief the 
 distribution of this good man's time for 
 many years together. It will possess 
 an additional value to those whose 
 distinguished prerogative has placed 
 them in situations of like advantage : — 
 " Every day is a little life, and our 
 whole life is but a day repeated : whence 
 it is that old Jacob numbered his life 
 by days, and Moses desired to be taught 
 this point of holy arithmetic, to num- 
 ber not his years but his days. Those, 
 therefore, that dare lose a day are 
 dangerously prodigal, those that dare 
 misspend it desperate. All days are 
 his who gave time a beginning and 
 continuance ; yet some he hath made 
 ours, not to command but to use. In 
 none may we forget him ; in some we 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 93 
 
 must forget all besides him. First, 
 therefore, I desire to awake at those 
 hours, not when I will, but when I 
 must: pleasure is not a fit rule for rest, 
 but health; neither do I consult so 
 much with the sun, as with mine own 
 necessity, whether of body or in that 
 of the mind. If this vassal could well 
 serve me waking, it should never 
 sleep; but now it must be pleased that 
 it may be serviceable. Now, when 
 sleep is rather driven away than leaves 
 me, I would ever awake with God ; my 
 first thoughts are for Him who hath 
 made the night for rest, and the day 
 for travail; and as he gives, so blesses 
 both. If my heart be early seasoned 
 with his presence, it will savour of him 
 all day after. While my body is dress- 
 ing, not with an effeminate curiosity. 
 
84 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 nor yet with rude neglect, my mind 
 addresses itself to her ensuing task, 
 bethinking what is to be done, and in 
 what order, and marshalling (as it may) 
 my hours with my work. Tliat done, 
 after some while's meditation, I walk 
 up to my masters and companions, 
 my books ; and sitting down amongst 
 them with the best contentment, I 
 dare not reach forth my hand to salute 
 any of them, till I have first looked up 
 to heaven, and craved favour of Him 
 to whom all my studies are duly re- 
 ferred; without whom I can neither 
 profit nor labour. After this, out of no 
 great variety, I call forth those which 
 may best fit my occasions, wherein I 
 am not too scrupulous of age. Some- 
 times I put myself to school to one of 
 those ancients whom the Church hath 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 85 
 
 honoured with the name of Fathers, 
 whose volumes I confess not to open 
 without a secret reverence of their 
 holiness and gravity; sometimes to 
 those later Doctors, who want nothing 
 but age to make them classical; al- 
 ways to God's book. That day is lost, 
 whereof some hours are not improved 
 in those divine monuments: others I 
 turn over out of choice, these out 
 of duty. Ere I can have sate unto 
 weariness, my family, havijig now over- 
 come all household distractions, invite 
 me to our common devotions; not 
 without some short preparation. These, 
 heartily performed, send me up with a 
 more strong and cheerful appetite to 
 my former work, which I find made 
 easy to me by intermission and variety. 
 Now, therefore, can I deceive the 
 
86 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 hours with change of pleasures, that 
 is, of labours. One while my eyes are 
 busied, another while my hand, and 
 sometimes my mind takes the burden 
 from them both. One hour is spent 
 in textual divinity, another in contro- 
 versy ; histories reliere them both. 
 Now, when my mind is weary of others* 
 labours, it begins to undertake its own : 
 sometimes it meditates, and winds up 
 for future use; sometimes it lays forth 
 its conceits into present discourse, 
 sometimes for itself, often for others. 
 Neither know I whether it works or 
 plays in these thoughts ; I am sure no 
 sport hath more pleasure, no work 
 more use. Only the decay of a weak 
 body makes me think these delights in- 
 sensibly laborious. Thus could I all 
 day (as ringers use) make myself music 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 87 
 
 with changes, were it not that this 
 faint monitor interrupts me still in the 
 midst of my busy pleasures, and en- 
 forces me both to respite and repast. 
 I must yield to both; while my body 
 and mind are joined together in these 
 unequal couples, the better must fol- 
 low the weaker. Before my meals, 
 therefore, and after, I let myself loose 
 from all thoughts, and now would for- 
 get that I evdl- studied. A full mind 
 takes away the body's appetite, no less 
 than a full body makes a dull and un- 
 wieldy mind. Company, discourse, re- 
 creations, are now seasonable and 
 welcome. These prepare me for a 
 diet, not gluttonous but medicinal. 
 The palate may not be pleased, but the 
 stomach, nor that for its own sake; 
 neither would I think any of these 
 
S8 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 comforts worth respect in themselves, 
 but in their use, in their end, so far 
 as they may enable me to better things. 
 If I see any dish to tempt my palate, 
 I fear a serpent in that apple, and 
 would please myself by a wilful denial. 
 I rise capable of more, not desirous ; 
 not now immediately from my trencher 
 to my book, but after some inter- 
 mission. Moderate speed is a sure 
 help to all proceedings ; where those 
 things which are prosecuted with vio- 
 lence of endeavour or desire, either 
 succeed not, or continue not. 
 
 *• After my later meal, my thoughts 
 are slight: only my memory may be 
 charged with her task of recalling what 
 was committed to her custody in the 
 day ; and my heart is busy in exami- 
 ning my hands and mouth, and all 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 Other senses, of that day's behavioiii , 
 And now the evening is come, no 
 tradesman doth more carefully take in 
 his wares, clear his shop-board, and 
 shut his windows, than I would shut 
 up my thoughts and clear my mind. 
 That student shall live miserably, who, 
 like a camel, lies down under his bur- 
 den. All this done, calling together 
 my family, we end the day with God. 
 How miserable is the condition of those 
 men who spend the time as if it were 
 given them, and not lent ! as if hours 
 were waste creatures, and such as 
 should never be accounted for ! as it 
 God would take this for a good bill of 
 reckoning, Item, spent upon my plea- 
 sures, 40 years! 
 
 " Such are my common days; but 
 God's day calls for another respect. 
 
90 LIFK OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 The same sun arises on this day, and 
 enlightens it: yet, because the Sun of 
 righteouL>ness arose upon it, and gave 
 a new life to the world in it, and drew 
 the strength of God*s moral precept 
 unto it; therefore justly do we sing 
 with the Psalmist, • This is the day 
 which the Lord hath made.' Now I 
 forget the world, and in a sort myself; 
 and deal with my wonted thoughts, as 
 great men use, who at some times of 
 their privacy, forbid the access of all 
 suitors. Prayer, meditation, reading, 
 hearing, preaching, singing, good con- 
 ference, are the business of this day, 
 which I dare not bestow on any work 
 or pleasure, but heavenly. I hate su- 
 perstition on the one side, and loose- 
 ness on the other ; but I find it hard 
 to offend in too much devotion, easy 
 
LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 9l 
 
 in profaneness. The whole week is 
 sanctified by this day ; and according 
 to my care of this day, is my blessing 
 on the rest." 
 
 So intent was he on these beloved 
 employments that, to secure leisure for 
 study, he is said * to have restricted 
 himself at one time to a single meal in 
 the day. He was not a solitary in- 
 stance of the like abstinence among 
 his contemporaries. But that he was 
 not criminally negligent of his health 
 may be inferred from various circum- 
 stances. He wisely imitated Isaac, 
 
 who went out in the evening to 
 meditate." t And not only did he from 
 time to time indulge himself with what, 
 in the vehemence of his enthiisiasim, 
 
 • Lloyd's Memoirs, p. 419. 
 
 t Art of Divine Meditation, Chap. X. 
 
92 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 he calls " his other soul," music; but 
 like many other worthies formed for 
 patient contemplation, he occasionally 
 took down the angle, and by the river 
 side pursued the calling symbolical of 
 his own. To the remonstrances of a 
 considerate friend he answers — Fear 
 not my immoderate studies, I have a 
 body that controls me enough in these 
 courses ; my friends need not. There 
 is nothing whereof I could sooner sur- 
 feit, if I durst neglect my body to 
 satisfy my mind; but while I affect 
 knowledge, my weakness checks me, 
 and says, * Better a little learning, 
 than no health.' I yield, and patiently 
 abide myself debarred of my chosen- 
 felicity- 
 
 The quiet tenor of his life at Wal- 
 tham was thrice interrupted by a call 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 93 
 
 from his Majesty, to bear a part in 
 undertakings of public interest. The 
 first was in 1616, when he went to 
 France to grace the splendid retinue 
 of the British ambassador. Viscount 
 Doncaster. Had the festivities of that 
 brilliant occasion possessed any attrac- 
 tions for our sober-minded theologian, 
 he was effectually precluded from en- 
 joying them by a dangerous sickness, 
 which overtook him soon after his ar- 
 rival, and lasted with his stay. When 
 the time arrived for the return of the 
 ambassador, he was kindly invited by 
 the illustrious Du Moulin to reside 
 with him till his recovery should be 
 established. " I thanked him," says 
 Dr. Hall, "but resolved if I could but 
 creep homewards to put myself upon 
 the journey. A litter was provided, 
 
94 LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 but of so little ease, that Simeon's 
 penitential lodging, * or a malefactor's 
 stocks, had been less penal. I crawled 
 down from my close chamber into that 
 carriage, ' in which you seemed to me 
 to be conveyed as in a coffin, '-j- as 
 Mr. Moulin wrote to me afterward ; 
 that misery had I endured in all the 
 long passage from Paris to Dieppe, 
 being left alone to the surly muleteers, 
 had not the providence of my good 
 God brought me to St. Germain's, upon 
 the very setting out of those coaches, 
 which had staid there upon that morn- 
 ing's entertainment of my lord ambas- 
 
 • Simeon was a Syrian devotee, who spent 57 
 years in a cavity on the top of a pillar. His 
 austerities procured him a reputation which en- 
 abled him to found a sect, from their singular ha- 
 bitations called Stylitoe, or Sancti Columnares. 
 See Mosheim, Cent. V. Part 2. 
 
 t In qua videbaris mihi efierri, tanquam in san* 
 dapil&. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 95 
 
 Sador. How glad was I that I might 
 change my seat and my company. In 
 the way, beyond all expectation, I 
 began to gather some strength ; whe- 
 ther the fresh air or the desires of my 
 home revived me, so much and so 
 sudden reparation ensued, as was sen- 
 sible to myself, and seemed strange to 
 others. Being shipped at Dieppe, the 
 sea used us hardly, and after a night 
 and a great part of the day following, 
 sent us back well wind-beaten, to that 
 bleak haven whence we set forth, 
 forcing us to a more pleasing land-pas- 
 sage, through the coasts of Normandy 
 and Picardy; towards the end whereof 
 my former complaint returned upon 
 me, and landing with me, accompanied 
 me to and at my long-desired home." 
 On his return, he found that, during 
 
96 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 his absence, the king had conferred 
 upon him the deanery of Worcester! 
 
 Early in tlie following year he was 
 called to accompany his Majesty on 
 his famous expedition into Scotland, 
 for the purpose of establishing Epis- 
 copacy.* It was James's fortune to 
 have at his command men whose con- 
 sciences acquiesced in, whose talents 
 vindicated, and whose worth com- 
 mended the measures which his vanitlT"^ 
 suggested, and his obstinacy enforced. 
 The ceremonies, afterwards obnoxi- 
 ously distinguished as the Five Ar- 
 ticles of Perth, were the main cause of 
 the royal pedant's progress into Scot- 
 land on this occasion. He did one 
 thing wisely when he took in his train 
 
 » For an account of his Majesty's doings on this 
 occasion, see Caldcrwoud'i Histurv. pp. 673. et 
 teg. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 97 
 
 an Episcopalian so sincere, so learned, 
 and so reasonable as Dr. Hall. Wis 
 words had more persuasiveness than 
 his master's ordinances ; and though 
 we do not know. that he came any 
 speed, the meekness and earnestness 
 with which he argued the question, 
 were better fitted to overcome the 
 presbyterian prejudices of Scotchmen, 
 than the domineering arrogance of one 
 whose arguments owed all their weight 
 to his station. He respected the pres- 
 byterian ministers, and they recom- 
 pensed his good opinion with their 
 cordial estCv^m. His more injperious 
 and less logical brethren envied and 
 misrepresented his reputation. As he 
 says himself — "The great love and 
 respect that I found, both from the 
 ministers and people, brought me no 
 
98 LIFE OP BISfiOP HALL. 
 
 small envy from some of our own* 
 Upon a commonly received supposi* 
 tion, that his Majesty would have no 
 farther use of his chaplains, after his 
 remove from Edinburgh (forasmuch 
 as the divines of the country, whereof 
 there is great store and worthy choice, 
 were allotted to every station), I easily 
 obtained) through the solicitation ot 
 my ever-honoured Lord of Carlisle, to 
 return with him before my fellows. 
 No sooner was I gone, than sugges- 
 tions were made to his Majesty of my 
 over plausible demeanour and doctrine 
 to that already prejudicate people, for 
 which his Majesty, after a gracious 
 acknowledgment of my good service 
 then done, called me upon his return 
 to a favourable and mild account; not 
 more freely professing what informa- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 99 
 
 tions had been given against me, than 
 his own full satisfaction with my sincere 
 and just answer; as whose excellent 
 wisdom well saw, that such winning 
 carriage of mine could be no hinder- 
 ance to those his great designs. At 
 the same time his Majesty, having se- 
 cret notice that a letter was coming 
 to me from Mr. W. Struthers, a re- 
 verend and learned divine of Edin- 
 burgh, concerning the five points then 
 proposed and urged to the Church of 
 Scotland, was pleased to impose upon 
 me an earnest charge, to give him a 
 full answer in satisfaction to those his 
 modest doubts ; and at large to declare 
 my judgment concerning these required 
 observations, which I speedily per- 
 formed with so great approbation of 
 his Majesty, that it pleased him to 
 command a transcript thereof, as 1 was 
 
100 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 informed, publicly to be read in their 
 most famous university ; the effect 
 whereof his Majesty vouchsafed to 
 signify afterwards unto some of my 
 best friends, with allowance beyond 
 my hopes." 
 
 In 1618, the Synod of Dort as- 
 sembled to pronounce a judgment on 
 the controversies introduced by the 
 new sect of Arminlus.* As they de- 
 sired the attendance of divines from 
 the various reformed churches, Dr. 
 Hall was one of four deputed to re- 
 present the Church of England. But 
 
 • A full account of this famous Synod will be 
 found in Hales's Golden Remains, and in Brandt's 
 History of the Reformation in the Low Countries. 
 The previous history, in a very authentic form, 
 will be round in the preface to the Articles of the 
 Synod, translated by the late Mr. Scott of Aston- 
 Sandford. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 101 
 
 he had not attended two months, when 
 the deleterious influence of a Dutch 
 atmosphere, and the sleepless nights 
 of a garrison town, reduced his deli- 
 cate frame to such a state of weakness 
 that he became unfit to give his pre- 
 sence regularly, and was brought to 
 the reluctant conclusion that he must 
 withdraw. Before setting out, he com- 
 plied with a request of the Synod, 
 and preached before them a sermon 
 in Latin, which he was enabled to do 
 with unexpected vigour, having en- 
 joyed during the previous night his 
 first sound rest after a wakeful fort- 
 night. At first he only retired to the 
 Hague, in the hope that a change of 
 place, and the attentions which he re- 
 ceived in the house of the ambassador, 
 might recruit his exhausted* strength; 
 
102 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 but experiencing no salutary result, he 
 accepted his Majesty's recal. " Re- 
 turning by Dort, I sent in my sad 
 farewell to that grave assembly, who 
 by common vote sent to me the presi- 
 dent of the Synod, and the assistants, 
 with a respectful and gracious valedic- 
 tion. Neither did the Deputies of my 
 Lords the States neglect to visit me ; 
 and after'a noble acknowledgment of 
 more good service from me than I 
 durst own, dismissed me with an ho- 
 nourable retribution, and sent after me 
 a rich medal of gold, the portraiture 
 of the Synod, for a precious monu- 
 ment of their respects to my poor en- 
 deavours, who failed not, whilst I was 
 at the Hague, to impart unto them 
 my poor advice concerning the pro- 
 ceeding ofthat synodical meeting. The 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 103 
 
 difficulties of my return in such weak- 
 ness were many and great ; wherein, 
 if ever, God manifested his special 
 providence to me, in overruUng the 
 cross accidents of that passage, and, 
 after many dangers and despairs, con- 
 triving my safe arrival." The gold 
 medal was transmitted to him from the 
 States, through the eminent scholar 
 Daniel Heinsius, and from all the gra- 
 tifying circumstances attending its pre- 
 sentation, was a memorial which he 
 justly valued. It is conspicuously in- 
 troduced in his portrait preserved in 
 Emanuel College. Dr. Hall had never 
 occasion to be ashamed of his con- 
 nexion with the venerable Synod of 
 Dort, notwithstanding the aspersions 
 heaped upon it as soon as its sit- 
 tings had terminated, and propagated 
 
104 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 to the present day. Amongst other 
 calumnies, his colleagues were accused 
 of a conspiracy against the Arminians, 
 and of having taken an oath before- 
 hand to vote down the remonstrants. 
 The slander might have refuted itself ; 
 but Dr. Hall published a letter which 
 effectually dispelled it, and we are not 
 aware that this falsehood has ever 
 been revived. 
 
 The errors which this Synod con- 
 demned, but did not cure, soon crossed 
 the German Ocean, to divide the 
 churches of Britain. *' Sides were 
 taken, and pulpits rang everywhere of 
 these opinions." The pacific spirit of 
 this holy man was wounded, when he 
 heard the watchwords of Arminian 
 controversy passed as freely and angrily 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 105 
 
 in England as they had ever been in 
 Holland. When the convocation of 
 the Church met in 1623, Dr. Hall 
 preached a sermon in Latin before it, 
 of which an English translation by 
 his son is preserved among his other 
 works. Its tone is as conciliatory as 
 might have been anticipated from the 
 known tendencies of the author, and 
 its very title is nobly indicative of his 
 designs and feelings, — " Noah's dove 
 bringing an olive of peace to the tossed 
 ark of Christ's church." He laboured 
 in other ways to restore the unity of 
 which he mourned the departure ; and 
 published^ as " a project of pacifica- 
 tion," some remarks '* on the five busy 
 articles, commonly known by the name 
 of Arminius." In this his mediatory 
 interference met with no better reward 
 
106 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 than did that of Richard Baxter in a 
 similar controversy a short time after ; 
 for it brought upon him the suspicions 
 of many, and the open hostility ot 
 some in either party. As he calmly 
 remarks, *' I was scorched a little with 
 this flame, which I desired to quench." 
 
 Hitherto Dr. Hall had sustained the 
 lighter responsibilities and easier la- 
 bours of a parish priest. When he had 
 adventured in controversy, no other 
 necessity was laid upon him than the 
 love which he bore to truth, and con- 
 cern at beholding the best cause the 
 worst supported. He had enjoyed fre- 
 quent, if not long, intervals of that 
 contemplative leisure after which his 
 soul habitually thirsted. He was now 
 called to govern a church where his 
 ambition had only been to serve ; but 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 107 
 
 the period of his elevation was ont 
 when the office of a bishop was least 
 likely to be courted. His episcopate 
 extended over the most tempestuous 
 period which the EngUsh hierarchy has 
 encountered. The vessel was heaving 
 when he was summoned to his post ; 
 and the billow which bore him to the 
 shore was that which swept over the 
 wreck. 
 
 It was in 1627 that Dr. Hall was 
 consecrated Bishop of Exeter. He had 
 previously declined the see of Glouces- 
 ter. He entered on this high station 
 aware of the suspicions from many 
 quarters which attended him: "for 
 some that sate at the stern of the 
 Church had him in great jealousy for 
 too much favour of Puritanism." He 
 had early intelligence that certain per- 
 
108 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 sons were set as spies to watch over 
 him. However, he formed his resolu- 
 tion, and walked wisely according to 
 its rule. In his diocese he found some 
 who did not comply with the ecclesi- 
 astical canons ; but by his prudent and 
 gainly conduct he reclaimed all the re- 
 fractory, except two who retired from 
 his jurisdiction. What greatly tended 
 to secure harmony within his extensive 
 charge, was the honourable determina- 
 tion which he formed at the outset, and 
 to which he steadily adhered, of never 
 imposing any new orders or rites on his 
 clergy. This, with the full toleration 
 of week-day lectures and extra-canoni- 
 cal services, and the favourable notice 
 which ho took of the mere diligent 
 among the clergy, secured for his dio- 
 cese an invidious pre-eminence over 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 109 
 
 those around it, and brought on him 
 the resentment of his more narrow- 
 minded brethren on the bench, as well 
 as the hostility of the less exemplary 
 within his own cure. At court he was 
 informed against, and "was three se- 
 veral times upon his knees to his 
 Majesty, to answer these great crimina- 
 tions ;" insomuch that he "plainly told 
 the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 that rather than he would be obnoxious 
 to these slanderous tongues of his mis- 
 informers, he would cast up his rochet." 
 The unanimity and attachment of his 
 clergy were his sufficient compensation 
 for the obloquy which others so un- 
 worthily cast upon him. But a doubtful 
 oath imposed in 1640,* and which this 
 conscientious prelate could not tender 
 • The synodical or et cetera oath. 
 
110 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 to his clergy, gave rise to dissensions, 
 through the officious interposition of 
 some strangers. The majority still ad- 
 hered to him ; but, the firebrands being 
 now scattered, he foresaw a conflagra- 
 tion. In this conjuncture he was the 
 more ready to accept the offer of a 
 translation to Norwich, made to liim 
 in the year following (1641). by King 
 Char'es. With his promotion to this 
 see he closes his Specialties. ** But 
 how I took the Tower in my way ; and 
 how I have been dealt with since my 
 repair hither, I could be lavish in the 
 sad report, ever desiring my good God 
 to enlarge my heart in thankfulness to 
 him, for the sensible experience I have 
 had of his fatherly hand over me, in 
 the deepest of all my afflictions, and to 
 strengthen nie for whatsoever other 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 1 1 1 
 
 trials he shall be pleased to call me 
 unto ; that being found faithful unto 
 the death, I may obtain that crown of 
 life, which he has ordained for all those 
 that overcome." 
 
 The value of Bishop Hall's services, 
 and the perils of his situation, will be 
 better understood when it is remem- 
 bered that Laud was at this time the 
 primate of England. Among the other 
 inflictions of that violent and arbi- 
 trary prelate, was the famous Book 
 of Sports." This he revived, and re- 
 quired that it should be read from 
 every pulpit in England. Those who 
 resisted were silenced for their puri- 
 tanism ; but the piety and independence 
 of Hall rescued the clergy of his diocese. 
 And although the archbishop, in the 
 plenitude of his zeal against evangelical 
 
112 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 religon, had summoned before the Star 
 Chamber some pious individuals, who 
 had founded lectureships and purchased 
 impropriations for the supply of desti- 
 tute parishes, and compelled them, at 
 a prodigious sacrifice, to relinquish 
 their scheme, Bishop Hall had the in- 
 trepidity to protect within his bounds 
 the obnoxious lecturers. 
 
 His moderation, however, did not 
 save him from the storm which at this 
 time burst after long threatening, and 
 carried the episcopal order before it. 
 The circumstance which implicated 
 him was, at the worst, an act of un- 
 advisedness. When the Parliament 
 met towards the close of 1641, the 
 popular indignation against the bishops 
 had risen so high, that the House of 
 Lords was beset by an armed mob of 
 
LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. US 
 
 many thousands, who, by the cry of 
 ** No bishops !" gave unequivocal indi- 
 cations of their object. Such of the 
 order as happened to be present, in- 
 cluding the Archbishop of York and 
 the subject of this memoir, felt that 
 their lives were in jeopardy, and es- 
 caped with diflSculty to their homes; — 
 some under the protection of the Earl 
 of Manchester, others by secret and 
 circuitous routes, and the rest by re- 
 maining till the night was far advanced. 
 Having been so narrowly rescued, the 
 bishops felt no inclination to expose 
 themselves again to similar danger, 
 and were induced to sign a document 
 prepared by the Archbishop of York, 
 petitioning the King and Parliament to 
 guarantee their safety in attending on 
 their legislative duties, and protesting 
 
11* LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 against all enactments which might pass 
 during their absence. This protest 
 was instantly laid hold of by their ene- 
 mies as a most unconstitutional and 
 treasonable declaration, and made the 
 ground of an impeachment against the 
 twelve who had signed it. " We poor 
 souls," says Hall, " who little thought 
 that we had done anything that might 
 deserve a chiding, are now called to 
 our knees at the bar, and charged 
 severally with high treason, being not 
 a little astonished at the suddenness 
 of this crimination, compared with the 
 perfect innocency of our own inten- 
 tions. But now traitors we are in all 
 haste, and must be dealt with accord- 
 ingly. For on January 30 (1642)^ in 
 all the extremity of frost, at eight 
 o'clock in the dark evening, are we 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 115 
 
 voted to the Tower; only two of our 
 number had the favour of the black 
 rod by reason of their age, which 
 though desired by a noble lord on ray 
 behalf, would not be yielded : wherein 
 I acknowledge and bless the gracious 
 providence of God; for had I been 
 gratified, I had been undone both in 
 body and purse, the rooms being strait, 
 and the expense beyond the reach of 
 my estate. The news of our crime 
 and imprisonment soon flew over the 
 city, and was entertained by our well- 
 wishers with ringing of bells and bon- 
 fires ; who now gave us up (not 
 without great triumph) for lost men, 
 railing on our perfidiousness, and ad- 
 judging us to what foul deaths they 
 pleased." 
 
116 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 At this time of surprise and peril, 
 with the exultations of his enemies 
 ringing in his ears, and an impeach- 
 ment for his life hanging over him. 
 Bishop Hall addressed a letter to a 
 private friend, so full of the noble sen- 
 timents and indignant utterance which 
 conscious rectitude inspires, in har- 
 mony with Christian humility, that we 
 regret being compelled to give only 
 extracts : — 
 
 My intentions and this place are 
 such strangers, that I cannot enough 
 marvel how they met. But, howso- 
 ever, I do in all humility kiss the rod 
 wherewith I smart, as well knowing 
 whose hand it is that wields it. To 
 that infinite justice who can be inno- 
 cent? but to my king and country 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 117 
 
 never heart was, or can be more clear ; 
 and I shall beshrew my hand if it shall 
 have (against my thoughts) j ustly offend- 
 ed either; and if either say so, I reply 
 not ; as having learned not to contest 
 with those that can command legions. 
 
 " You tell me in what fair terms I ' 
 stood not long since with the world ; 
 how large room I had in the hearts of 
 the best men : but can you tell me 
 how I lost it? Truly I have in the 
 presence of God narrow^ searched 
 my own bosom ; I have impartially 
 ransacked this fag-end of my hfe, and 
 curiously examined every step of my 
 ways ; and I cannot by the most exact 
 scrutiny of my saddest thoughts, find 
 what it is that I have done to forfeit 
 
118 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 that good estimation wherewith you 
 say I was once blessed. 
 
 *' Can my enemies say, that I bore 
 up the reins of government too hard, 
 and exercised my jurisdiction in a ri- 
 gorous and tyrannical way, insolently 
 lording it over my charge? Malice 
 itself, perhaps, would, but dare not 
 speak it ; or if it should, the attesta- 
 toin of so numerous and grave a 
 clergy would choke such impudence. 
 Let them witness whether they were 
 not still Entertained, with an equal 
 return of reverence, as if they had 
 been all bishops with me, or I only a 
 presbyter with them. Let them say 
 whether aught here looked despotical, 
 or sounded rather of imperious com- 
 mand than of brotherly complying; 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 119 
 
 whether I have not rather from some 
 beholders undergone tlie censure of a 
 too humble remissness, as stooping 
 too low beneath the eminence of epis- 
 copal dignity ; whether I have not 
 suffered as much in some opinions, for 
 the winning mildness of my adminis- 
 tration, as some others for a rough se* 
 verity. 
 
 " Can they say that I barred the 
 free course of religious exercises, b; 
 the suppression of painful and peace- 
 able preachers? If shame will suffer 
 any man to object it, let me cliallenge 
 him to instance but in one name. Nay, 
 the contrary is so famously known in 
 the western parts, that every mouth 
 will herein justify me. What free ad- 
 mission and encouragement have 1 al- 
 
120 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 ways given to all the sens of peace, 
 that came with God's message in their 
 mouths! What mis-suggestions have 
 I waived! How have I often and pub- 
 licly professed, that as well might we 
 complain of too many stars in the sky, 
 as too many orthodox preachers in the 
 church ! 
 
 " Can they challenge me as a close 
 and hack-stair friend to Popery or Ar- 
 minianism, who have in so many 
 pulpits, and so many presses, cried 
 down both? Surely the very paper 
 that I have spent in the refutation of 
 both these, is enough to stop more 
 mouths than can be guilty of this 
 calumn}'. 
 
 " Lastly, since no man can offer 
 to upbraid me with too much pomp, 
 which is wont to be the common eye- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 121 
 
 sore of our envied profession, can any 
 man pretend to a ground of taking me 
 of too much worldiiness? Surely, of 
 all the vices forbidden in the deca- 
 logue, there is no one which my heart, 
 upon due examination, can less fasten 
 upon me than this. He that made it 
 knows that he hath put into it a true 
 disregard (save only for necessary use) 
 of the world, and all that it can boast 
 of, whether for profit, pleasure, or 
 glory. No, no ; I know the world too 
 well to doat upon it. It were too 
 great a shame for a philosopher, a 
 Christian, a divine, a bishop, to have 
 his thoughts grovelling here upon 
 earth ; for mine, they scorn the em- 
 ployment, and look upon all these 
 sublunary distractions with no other 
 eyes than contempt. 
 
122 LIFE OF BISHOP ttALL. 
 
 ** To shut up all, and to surcease 
 your trouble, I write not this as one 
 that would pump for favour and repu- 
 tation from the disaffected multitude 
 (for I charge you that what passes pri- 
 vately betwixt us may not fall under 
 common eyes), but only with this de- 
 sire and intention, to give you true 
 grounds, when you shall hear my name 
 mentioned with a causeless offence, to 
 yield me a jnst and charitable vindi- 
 cation. Go you on still to do the 
 office of a true friend, yea, the duty 
 of a just man; in speaking in the cause 
 of the dumb, in righting the innocent, 
 in rectifying the misguided j and lastly, 
 the service of a faithful and ciiristian 
 patriot, in helping the times with the 
 best of your prayers, which is the daily 
 
UFE OF BISHOP HALL. 123 
 
 task of your much devoted and thank- 
 ful friend, — Jos. Norvic." 
 
 After a bill had passed both Houses, 
 and obtained the royal assent, for de- 
 priving the bishops of their seats in 
 parliament, the Commons proceeded 
 to impeach the twelve who had signed 
 the protjestation, at the bar of the 
 Lords, on a charge of high treason. 
 But finding that there was no likeli- 
 hood of obtaining a conviction of a 
 crime so serious, they assumed a lower 
 ground. A bill was introduced and 
 passed by both Houses, declaring the 
 bishops delinquents of a high nature, 
 depriving them of their ecclesiastical 
 authority, and assigning to each a stated 
 yearly maintenance. The bishops were 
 
124 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 then released, on giving bond to a great 
 amount. 
 
 It was in the month of June that 
 Bishop Hall found himself once more 
 at large, after a confinement of five 
 months. During this time he had not 
 been idle. For besides taking his ro- 
 tation with his brethren in 'preaching 
 on the Lord's day, and corresponding 
 with his friends, he wrote his work en- 
 titled, The Free Prisoner." On his 
 release, he instantly repaired to Nor- 
 wich, the seat of his new bishopric, 
 and was received with more respect 
 than he anticipated from the temper 
 of the times. He preached on the 
 Sabbath following his arrival to a 
 crowded audience, and continued his 
 services unmolested till the month of 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 125 
 
 March following (1643). The ordi- 
 nance of sequestration was then issued, 
 and the commissioners of Parliament 
 came to inform the Bishop that he 
 must abandon his palace, and that 
 they were required to seize on all his 
 estate, real and personal. They went 
 to the extent of their warrant, not 
 leaving so much as a dozen of trenchers, 
 or his children's pictures, out of their 
 curious inventory." But before the 
 time fixed for the public sale of his 
 goods arrived, a pious lady, unknown 
 to the Bishop, redeemed his furniture, 
 until he should be able to repurchase 
 it ; and a benevolent divine of his dio- 
 cese rendered an additional service, by 
 paying the estimated value of his li- 
 brary. Being now deprived of every 
 source of income, he apphed to the 
 
126 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 committee on sequestrations for the 
 annuity granted by Parliament; but he 
 was told that an order had come down 
 inhibiting any such allowance. In 
 answer, however, to a petition from 
 his wife, a smaller yearly payment was 
 assigned to her ; though, by a most un- 
 righteous exaction, out of this scanty 
 fund the Bishop had to defray assess- 
 ments and monthly pajTnents for lands 
 which were no longer his. At last, 
 after his endurance had been sorely 
 tried, by witnessing the defacing of his 
 cathedral, and the demolition of its 
 splendid organ, he was ejected from 
 the palace, which his straitened means 
 rendered no longer a suitable habita- 
 tion. A generous neighbour relin- 
 quished his house for the accommo- 
 dation of the Bishop and his family. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 127 
 
 where be only remained till he procured 
 the lease of a small property at Higham, 
 in the neighbourhood of Norwich. 
 
 Of his subsequent life, spent in re- 
 tirement and without molestation, we 
 know little; but that little is enough to 
 prove that its latter end was worthy 
 of its beginning. He continued to 
 preach until his infirmities and legal 
 prohibitions had disabled him. Then 
 " as oft and long as he was able, this 
 learned Gamaliel was not only content, 
 but very diligent to sit at the feet of 
 the youngest of his disciples, as dili- 
 gent a hearer as he had been a preach- 
 er." After the death of Charles I. he 
 continued to observe with his family a 
 weekly fast because of it. Though 
 his fortune was so greatly reduced, a 
 number of poor widows were his 
 
128 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 weekly pensioners. In 1652 he lost 
 his wife, and then he wrote a tract, 
 almost his last, entitled, " Songs in the 
 Night." From this interesting memo- 
 rial we see how this grey-headed saint 
 went down to his grave " sorrowing 
 yet rejoicing." " Have I lost my goods 
 and foregone a fair estate? Had all the 
 earth been mine, what is it to heaven ? 
 Had I been the lord of all the world, 
 what were this to a kingdom of glory? 
 
 •* Have I parted with a dear con- 
 sort; the sweet companion of my 
 youth; the tender nurse of my age; 
 the partner of my sorrows for these 
 forty-eight years? She is but stept a 
 little before me to that happy rest, 
 which I am panting towards, and 
 wherein I shall speedily overtake her. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 129 
 
 In the meantime and ever, my soul is 
 espoused to that glorious and immortal 
 Husbaod from whom it shall never be 
 parted- 
 
 ** Am I bereaved of some of my 
 dear children, the sweet pledges of our 
 matrimonial love ; whose parts and 
 hopes promised me comfort in my de- 
 clined age? Wliy am I not rather 
 thankful it hath pleased my God, out 
 of my loins, to furnish heaven with 
 some happy guests? Why do I not, 
 instead of mourning for their loss, sing 
 praises to God for preferring them to 
 that eternal blessedness ? 
 
 " Am I afflicted with bodily pains 
 and sickness, which banish all sleep 
 from my eyes, and exercise me with a 
 I 
 
130 LIFE OF BISttOP HALL. 
 
 lingering torture ? Ere long this mo- 
 mentary distemper shall end in an ever- 
 lasting rest." 
 
 And so it was ; for though his pain- 
 ful malady was prolonged for four years 
 more, they will appear but a " mo- 
 ment" now. The grace which enabled 
 him to overcome at last, strength- 
 ened him to bear throughout. One 
 who saw has recorded, that " though 
 sorely afflicted with bodily diseases, 
 he bore them all with as much pa- 
 tience as hath been seen in any flesh, 
 except that of the Saviour." And 
 when his time drew near, many of the 
 noble, and karned, and pious, gathered 
 to his chamber to implore his dying 
 prayers, and bear away his dying bene- 
 diction. After much time s.^nt in de- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 131 
 
 votion, and many words of gracious 
 exhortation, he summoned the expi- 
 ring energies of nature to make the last 
 confession of his faith ; and when sa 
 engaged, his strength departed, the 
 agonies of deatli came over him, and 
 then he fell asleep. He died on the 
 8th of September 1656, when he had 
 reached his 82d year. 
 
 His will assigned the churchyard as 
 his burying place; adding as his rea- 
 son, I do not hold God's house a 
 meet repository for the dead bodies of 
 the greatest saints." He bequeathed 
 £30 to each widow in the village 
 where he was born, and in that where 
 he died. 
 
 Here our sketch should have ended. 
 
132 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 But on looking back, we feel conscious 
 of an involuntar)' injury to the memory 
 of this great man, in having presented, 
 even with his own assistance, a view of 
 his character so exclusively external. 
 We are aware that publications, pa- 
 rochial and diocesan care?, the busi- 
 ness of the nation, the defence of or- 
 thodoxy, journeys of observation or of 
 diplomacy — in short, that the whole 
 busi/ work of existence formed but in 
 part the life of Bishop Hall. His was 
 eminently a life of coxtemplatiox. 
 
 He fell upon a time when the Church 
 of England contained many men whose 
 genius and piety would have immorta- 
 lized and sainted them in an earlier 
 age. With a theology less accurate 
 and a devotion less enlightened than 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL, 133 
 
 signalized their puritan successors, and 
 with a piety less strenuous and san- 
 guine than that which poured in ani- 
 mation through the stern and athletic 
 orthodoxy of our covenanting fathers, 
 a jealous sincerity, a serene quietism, 
 and an unflinching self-denial, were the 
 commanding characteristics of their re- 
 ligion, which made it awful and inte- 
 esting to others, and safe for them- 
 selves. It wanted in the activity of 
 life and the diffusiveness of Christi 
 anity. It was introverted, not aggres- 
 sive. It mused and soliloquized. It 
 was monastic, and dwelt alone. It 
 was more amiable in its forbearance, 
 than meritorious for its services. In 
 its narrow channel it flowed deep, but 
 it seldom overflowed. 
 
134 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 The idolatry of one party has in- 
 jured them with another; but the day 
 is coming that will restore to each his 
 own. In its first outburst, the noise 
 of faction will overwhelm the voice of 
 piety, still and small, but it cannot 
 last so long. And now that the ran- 
 cour of raging polemics is settling down 
 into forgetfulness, tlie memorial and 
 the works of these excellent of the 
 earth are reviving, and posterity, more 
 just to them than they were to them- 
 selves, is admitting the claims of either 
 party to attributes of worth wliich they 
 could not discern in one another. 
 
 For ourselves, with leanings all away 
 from prelacy, we would commemorate 
 with as much alacrity as we iiave felt 
 deliglit in contemplating the singular 
 
LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 
 
 135 
 
 devotion and exalted genius which dis- 
 tinguished many a high churchman of 
 the first Charles's reign — the exem- 
 plars of an age only moving regret by 
 the contrasted Uttleness of our own. 
 To specify all the instances would not 
 be easy ; and it is hard to select a 
 few. But there was George Herbert, 
 the gentle, the elegant — majestically 
 humble, gravely gay — as antithetic in 
 his character as in his own quaint 
 poesy — passing no week without music, 
 and no day without showing mercy — 
 converting life into one Sabbath, and 
 fulfilling his invocation to that sacred 
 day, when it and he " flew hand in 
 hand to heaven." Jeremy Taylor, too, 
 soaring in ether with a load of learning 
 which would have kept another grovel- 
 ling, and from pinions wet with Cas- 
 
136 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 t^ian dew shedding freshness on the 
 arid waste of controversy — now cast- 
 ing a look of hope to the ancient 
 models, anon dashed by the contem- 
 plation of his own ideal — beside the 
 waters of Lough Neagh, musing on 
 the mysterious tower of its romantic 
 island, and its more mysterious anti- 
 quity, till his " thoughts wandered 
 through eternity ;" or amid the ruins 
 of its monastery listening for the revi- 
 ving echoes of its wonted orisons, un- 
 til his dreaming fancy beheld in the 
 evening light of autumn its tapers re- 
 kindled, and in the falling shadows 
 marshalled anew the sacerdotal pro- 
 cession — an imagination revelling in 
 all the picturesque and sublime of re- 
 ligion, and a heart responding with 
 harmonious impulse to its loftiest re- 
 
LIFE OP BISHOP HALL. 1S7 
 
 quirements. There was Nicholas 
 Ferrar — the Church-of-England-man 
 
 — closing his eyes on propitious for- 
 tune and radiant beauty, and that no- 
 thing earthly might distract his gaze, 
 and no rest short of heaven allure his 
 sense, immured in a protestant con- 
 vent — meting to himself scanty slum- 
 bers on the hard pillow of an anchoret 
 
 — with his goods feeding all the needy 
 except himself, and indulging no lux- 
 ury save the midnight music of the 
 choristers whom he retained to "praise 
 God nightly" in the oratory of Little 
 Gidding. And Henry Hammond, 
 economizing his time by the abundance 
 of his prayers, and increasing his wealth 
 by the wise munificence of his charities 
 — living for his friends, reducing kind- 
 ness to a law, and welcoming the in- 
 
138 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 terruption which called for its exercise 
 — amidst bodily sufferings producing 
 works of research and judgment, de- 
 manding but sufficient to destroy the 
 most vigorous health — " omne jam 
 tulerat punctum, cum Mors, quasi 
 suum adjiciens calculum, terris ab- 
 stulit." Among these and many more,* 
 almost as ascetic in his life, but above 
 them all in the largeness of his views 
 and the soundness of his creed, we 
 recognise the gifted author of the 
 " Contemplations." 
 
 Of his voluminous writings a com- 
 parative estimate has long ago been 
 
 * See Walton's Life of Herbert — Heber's Life of 
 Taylor — Packard's Life of Ferrar — and Fell's 
 Life of Hammond. For others of the same 
 period, the reader is referred to Lloyd's Memi)irs, 
 Walton's Lives, and Dr. C. Wordsworth's inter- 
 esting collection of Ecclesiastical Biography. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 139 
 
 formed by the pithy author of Eng- 
 land's Worthies. *' Not unhappy at 
 Controversies, more happy at Com- 
 ments, very good in his Characters, 
 better in his Sermons, best of all in 
 his Meditations." Fuller is nearly right 
 in his gradation ; but we would trans- 
 pose the Comments to the place which 
 he has assigned to the Controversies ; 
 and as to the Characters and Medi- 
 tations, we scarcely know which to 
 prefer. 
 
 A popular controversy is an eligible 
 investment for those who are anxious 
 that their moderate talents should bring 
 them a large rather than a lasting re- 
 venue of fame. Whilst the strife is 
 hottest, he must be a despicable auxi- 
 liary whom neither side will accept as 
 a champion and applaud as a hero. 
 
HO LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 But when the war is ended, there is 
 no retiring allowance for the disband- 
 ed volunteers. The controversy ex- 
 pires, and the reputations which it 
 created soon follow those others which 
 it destroyed. But there are exceptions. 
 There are controversies, in themselves 
 insignificant, which have been immor- 
 talized by the parties whom they called 
 into action. There are controversial 
 writings which are the epitaphs of the 
 of the subjects on which they treat 
 The subject is buried with the age 
 which gave it birth ; Dut its memory is 
 perpetuated by some rare disputant, 
 whose wit or sense or eloquence has 
 that vitality which will not perish 
 lightly. The topics on which Hall ex- 
 hausted his erudition and ingenuity 
 have many of them gone into a happy 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 141 
 
 oblivion ; yet such is the amount of 
 genius and learning which these works 
 display, that in order to revive their 
 popularity we have only to destroy 
 the other writings of their author. In 
 their tone and spirit they exemplify 
 the rules laid down in the excellent 
 treatise on Christian Moderation, when 
 he says, " It is not for Christians to 
 be like unto thistles or teazles, which 
 a man cannot touch without pinching 
 his fingers ; but rather to Pilosella, in 
 our Herbal, which is soft and silken 
 in the handling, although, if it be 
 hard-strained, it yields a juice that 
 can harden metals to cut iron." Per- 
 haps the pacific temper which made 
 him so amiable as a man, rendered 
 him less eminent as a controversialist. 
 With the secret misgivings of one who 
 
142 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 trode forbidden ground, he dealt his 
 blows irresolutely ; and in the literary 
 gymnastics of his day, it was reckoned 
 feeble execution to annihilate an ar- 
 gument without demolishing the au- 
 thor also. The tract entitled, '* The 
 Revelation unrevealed," is interesting 
 from its connection with a subject 
 which lately agitated the British 
 Churches. It would have been well 
 for the world had the course of Bishop 
 Hall been more frequently pursued, 
 who was better pleased to inculcate 
 caution on more fearless and sanguine 
 investigators, than to increase the un- 
 certainty by conjectures of his own. 
 The event has justified his wisdom ; and 
 whatever may be thought of his argu- 
 ments — and some of them still wait for 
 a refutation — the modern advocates 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 143 
 
 of a personal reign might be admo- 
 nished by the failures of their equally 
 confident predecessors. The autiior 
 whom Bishop Hall refuted, had fixed 
 the year 1656 for the conversion of the 
 Jews, 1666 for the end of the papacy, 
 and 1700 for the raising of the dead 
 and the beginning of Christ's earthly 
 kingdom. *' How many have I heard 
 joyfully professing their hopes of an 
 imminent share in that happy king- 
 dom ; yea, some have gone so far as 
 already to date their letters from New 
 Jerusalem, and to subscribe themselves 
 glorified." Our author showed his for- 
 bearance by suspending his judgment 
 till the event should decide for him, and 
 did a service to the cause of prophetic 
 scripture, by showing that its veracity 
 was not involved in anv of these rash 
 
144 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 predictions. Far, however, from im- 
 pugning the motives or questioning the 
 piety of his opponents, he only asks 
 for leave to entertain his own opinion 
 in peace. " What prejudice is it to 
 me, if the souls of martyrs get the start 
 of me in resuming their bodies a thou- 
 sand years before me, if in the mean- 
 while my soul be at rest in a paradise 
 of bliss? And what can it import any 
 man's salvation to determine whether 
 the saints reign with Christ on earth 
 or in heaven, while I know that in 
 either they are happy?" 
 
 " The Christian," « The Characters 
 of Virtue and Vice,*' and those other 
 works where the peculiarities of hu- 
 man nature form the subject of inves- 
 tigation, have always appeared to us 
 among the most successful efforts of 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 1*5 
 
 their author's genius. His characters 
 are sketched with a graphic precision 
 worthy of Theophrastus, and with the 
 same felicitous regard to the minute 
 traits which define the species, and to 
 that general habit which describes it ; 
 "whilst in the greater elevation of his 
 standard and more practical tendency 
 of his strictures, as well as in the racy 
 strength of his language, he excels his 
 Aristotelian model. Nor does he even 
 want the occasional humour of the 
 more ancient author. These charac- 
 ters, along with some other specimens 
 in the Holy State" of Bishop Hall's 
 contemporary, Thomas Fuller, are the 
 early anticipations of a literature which 
 the essayists of the succeeding century 
 carried to a pitch of unrivalled perfec- 
 tion; but the reader who has the most 
 
146 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 extended acquaintance with these, will 
 return with admiration to the originals 
 of Hall and Fuller, in whose " English 
 undefiled" he will find much wisdom 
 combined with as much knowledge, — 
 that 
 
 knowledge which dwells 
 In heads replete with thoughts of other men, 
 Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. 
 
 But we gladly proceed to notice 
 works which, as they employed the 
 best moments of their author, still live 
 to *' praise him in the gate." 
 
 The ** art of heavenly meditation," 
 was that which he had chiefly studied. 
 Even among his contemporaries, there 
 were few who combined such density 
 of expression with such amplitude of 
 thought — few who had studied the 
 Fathers so diligently, and who could 
 command them so readily — few who 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 147 
 
 had drunk so deeply the classic inspi- 
 ration — few who had entered into the 
 meaning of Scripture, with the same 
 spirit of quick apprehensiott and tho- 
 rough appreciation — and fewer still 
 who had learned to dwell so much on 
 high. The spirit that taught the pro- 
 phets to speak, taught him to under- 
 stand. In his company we feel that 
 we are not attended by a perfunctory 
 and hireling guide — but by one whose 
 profession is his passion, whose fa- 
 miliarity with sacred things is reveren- 
 tial — whose insight is the result of 
 love and long acquaintance. 
 
 He was a man of peace, and de- 
 lighted in the retirement without which 
 it is seldom enjoyed. '* The court is for 
 honour, the city for gain, the country 
 
U8 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 for quietness ; a blessing that need not, 
 in the judgment of the wisest, yield to 
 the other two. Yea, how many have 
 we known that having nothing but a 
 coat of thatch to hide them from hea- 
 ven, yet have pitied the careful pomp 
 of the mighty? How much more may 
 they who have full hands and quiet 
 hearts pity them both?" *• What a 
 heaven," as he elsewhere exclaims, 
 ** lives a scholar in, that at once in 
 one close room can daily converse 
 with all the glorious martyrs and fa- 
 thers ! — that can single out at plea- 
 sure, either sententious Tertullian, or 
 grave Cyprian, or learned Jerome, or 
 flowing Chrysostom, or divine Am- 
 brose, or devout Bernard, — or who 
 alone is all these — heavenly Augustin, 
 and talk with them, and hear their 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. U9 
 
 wise and holy counsels, verdicts, re- 
 solutions : yea, to rise higher, with 
 courtly Isaiah, with learned Paul, with 
 all their fellow-prophets, apostles : yet 
 more, like another Moses, with God 
 himself!" In such retirement passed 
 the chosen hours of our author, and 
 refreshed by such converse he penned 
 his devotional works. 
 
 To some of these allusion has been 
 already made, and others of them are 
 sufficiently known by frequent and 
 accessible reprints. The most popu- 
 lar of his shorter treatises are, ** Christ 
 Mystical ; or. The Blessed Union of 
 Christ and his Members," and *' The 
 Balm of Gilead." The last supplies 
 the best materials for judging of the 
 author's mind and peculiar manner ; 
 but is not superior to many of his less 
 
150 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 celebrated publications, ** The Breath- 
 ings of the Devout Soul," « The Great 
 Mystery of Godliness,*' " The Soul's 
 Farewell to Earth, and Approaches to 
 Heaven," and above all, his Soliloquies 
 and Meditations. In these and others 
 we find an ardent piety, that must 
 kindle the sympathetic flame in every 
 heart of like experience, and may pro- 
 voke to greater love and better works, 
 those who are conscious of their short- 
 coming. They are filled with affecting 
 thoughts of an unseen Saviour, of his 
 love in dying, and now in reigning, — 
 delighted contemplations on the works 
 which his fingers framed — gratitude 
 for mercies, especially those most im- 
 portant but least remembered bless- 
 ings, negative mercies, — stirring ad- 
 monitions on the shortness of the time. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 151 
 
 and the magnitude of a believer's work 
 — on the vanity of life, the approaches 
 of death, and the joyful recognitions 
 and endearing fellowship of the world 
 unseen — incitements to moderation 
 and self-denial, to cheerfulness, to 
 peace and charity — holy resolutions 
 and faithful communings with himself. 
 Connected with the history of his life, 
 no works better illustrate that " ma 
 tive yet quieting principle in religion, 
 which alone delivers a man from per- 
 turbation in the world and inanity in 
 retirement."* By the strength " which 
 he daily fetched from heaven, men's 
 threatenings became no terror, nor the 
 honours of this world any strong en- 
 ticement : temptations became more 
 harmless, as having lost their strength; 
 « Hannah More. 
 
152 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 and aflBictions less grievous, as having 
 lost their sting ; and every mercy be- 
 came better known, and better re- 
 lished."* 
 
 But there is a work still better 
 known, and combining many of these 
 excellencies with some peculiar to it- 
 self, *' Contemplations on the Histo- 
 rical passages of the Old and New 
 Testaments." Their value does not 
 consist alone nor chiefly in the acute 
 expositions of Scripture incidentally 
 introduced — in the descriptive vivacity 
 which paints the Bible scenes to the 
 eye of fancy, or enacts its history anew 
 —in the apothegmatical naivete, which 
 deals out so calmly yet so pointedly 
 the eager observations of a penetra- 
 • Baxter. 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HAIX. 153 
 
 ting eye, on the various wisdom and 
 folly, virtues and vices, with which a 
 long life had made him familiar. Nor 
 is it only in the ardent enforcement of 
 Christian duty, and eloquent statement 
 of Christian privilege, that this book 
 bespeaks the attention of the serious 
 reader. It presents in one view the 
 Bible, and a mind rich in feeling and 
 accomplishments, lovingly exploring 
 and reverently interpreting the Bible; 
 nay, as it were, fraternizing and amal- 
 gamating with it. These Contempla- 
 tions will not be read with advantage 
 by one who peruses them as a com- 
 mon book, as hastily and as uncon- 
 cerned; nor will they be read aright 
 without adverting continually to the 
 peculiar mode of their execution, to 
 their author and their end. In the 
 
154 LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 former particular, they closely resem- 
 ble the Confessions of his favourite 
 Augustin, consisting of reflections and 
 ejaculations, so mingled as to blend 
 devotion with instruction. The author, 
 whom we have already attempted to 
 pourtray, recurs to our imagination as 
 the gentle, self-denied, and benignant 
 parish priest, whom his neighbours 
 met and eyed reverentially as he took 
 his stated evening walk, cheerful at 
 times, but oftener pensive, in the fields 
 near Waltham parsonage — a man of 
 that calm resolution and ardent faith, 
 which could at any warning have fol- 
 lowed the Saviour whom he loved to 
 prison and to death, and whose aspi- 
 rations often soared so high as to forget 
 the Meshech where he sojourned. And 
 the end will be answered, if we who 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP HALL. 
 
 155 
 
 read them, learn for ourselves to live 
 the same divine life, and acquire the 
 same skill in heavenly meditation — 
 an art little esteemed and less practised 
 in an age which vt'ould not be too busy 
 if it thought as much as it toils. 
 
 More sweet than odours caught by him who sails 
 Near spicy shores of Araby the blest, 
 A thousand times more exquisitely sweet. 
 The freight of holy feelrag which we meet. 
 In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gale 
 From fields where good men walk, or bowers 
 wherein they rest. ' WoEDswoaxB. 
 
 THE END.