a better life. 'Tis now too late to wish that my life may be like
his; for I am in the eighty-fifth year of my age: but I humbly beseech
Almighty God, that my death may: and do as earnestly beg of every
Reader, to say--Amen.
Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile, Psal. xxxii. 2.
[Footnote 1: This is a mistake; Bishop Sanderson was born at Sheffield
on the 19th of September.]
[Footnote 2: Thomas Scot, or Rotheram, so called after his
birth-place, Fellow of King's College, in Cambridge, was afterward
Master of Pembroke Hall, and 1483 and 1484, Chancellor of the
University. He obtained great ecclesiastical preferment, being
successively Provost of Beverley, Bishop of Rochester and of Lincoln,
and lastly Archbishop of York. Nor was he less adorned with civil
honours, having been appointed, first, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and
then Lord Chancellor of England. The two Universities and his native
town still enjoy the fruits of his bounty. He died 29th May, 1500.]
[Footnote 3: Dr. Gilbert Sheldon was born July 19, 1598.--His father,
Roger Sheldon, though of no obscure parentage, was a menial servant
to Gilbert Earl of Shrewsbury.--He was of Trinity College, Oxford, and
took his Master's degree in May, 1620. He was introduced to Charles I.
by Lord Coventry, and became one of His Majesty's Chaplains. Upon the
Restoration, he was made Dean of the Chapel Royal, succeeded Dr. Juxon
as Bishop of London, and after as Archbishop of Canterbury; in 1667
he was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He died at
Lambeth, Nov. 9, 1677.]
[Footnote 4: Dr. Richard Kilbie, born at Ratcliffe, in Leicestershire,
and a great benefactor to his College, since he restored the neglected
library, added eight new repositories for books, and gave to it
many excellent volumes. He became Rector in 1590, and in 1610 he was
appointed the King's Hebrew Professor. He died in 1620.]
[Footnote 5: An edition of this work was published in Oxford so
recently as 1841.]
[Footnote 6: Mr. Charles Crooke, a younger son of Sir John Crooke, of
Chilton, in Bucks, one of the Justices of the King's Bench. In 1615,
he proceeded D.D., being then Rector of Amersham and a Fellow of Eton
College.]
[Footnote 7: Brother of George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, born
at Guildford in 1560, and promoted to the See of Salisbury in 1615, as
a reward for his Lectures against Suarez and Bellarmine, in defence of
the King's supreme power. On his way to Sarum, he made an oration to
the University, and his friends parted from him with tears. He died
March 2nd, 1617-8.]
[Footnote 8: Dr. John Prideaux, born at Harford, in Devon in 1578, and
Rector of Exeter College in 1612, when he acquired so much fame in the
government of it, that several eminent foreigners placed themselves
under his care. He was made King's Professor in Divinity in 1615, and
Bishop of Worcester in 1641; but was reduced to great poverty in the
Civil Wars, and died July 20th, 1650.]
[Footnote 9: Dr. Arthur Lake, born at Southampton about 1550, and
educated at Winchester School, whence he proceeded to New College,
Oxford. He was created Dean of Worcester in 1608, and Bishop of Bath
and Wells in 1616. He died on 4th May, 1626.]
[Footnote 10: Dr. Tobias Matthew--died March 29, 1628, aged 83.]
[Footnote 11: Dr. William Laud, born at Reading, Oct. 7, 1573, and
educated there, and at St. John's College, Oxford. In 1616, he was
made Dean of Gloucester, in 1621 Bishop of St. David's, and in 1622 he
had a conference with Fisher the Jesuit, of which the printed account
evinces how opposed he was to Popery; but his Arminian tenets gave
offence to the Calvinists. In 1626 he was translated to the See of
Bath and Wells, in 1628 to London, and in 1633 to Canterbury. His zeal
for the establishment of the Liturgy in Scotland produced him numerous
enemies, by whose means he was imprisoned in the Tower for three
years, and beheaded Jan. 10th, 1644-45. His works were published at
Oxford, 6 vols. 8vo., 1847-9.]
[Footnote 12: Dr. Henry Hammond was born at Chertsey, in Surrey, Aug.
18th, 1605, and was educated at Eton, and Magdalen College, Oxford.
His loyalty caused him to be deprived of his preferments during the
Civil Wars, and at the Restoration he was designed for Bishop of
Worcester, but died before consecration, April 25th, 1660. His
principal works are, his "Practical Catechism," and "A Paraphrase and
Annotations on the New Testament."]
[Footnote 13: Dr. Thomas Pierce, for some years President of Magdalen
College, Oxford. In his epitaph composed by himself he says, "Here
lies all that was mortal, the outside, dust, and ashes of Thomas
Pierce, D.D., once the President of a College in Oxford, at first the
Rector of _Brington-cum-Membris,_ Canon of Lincoln, and at last Dean
of Sarum; who fell asleep in the Lord Jesus [Mar. 28, an. 1691], but
in hope of an awake at the resurrection."]
[Footnote 14: Dr. Matthew Wren, successively Bishop of Hereford,
Norwich, and Ely, died April 14, 1667, aged eighty-one years and
upwards. He was distinguished for his extraordinary attachment to the
royal cause, having suffered an imprisonment for eighteen years with
singular patience and magnanimity.
It should not be forgotten, that when Cromwell had repeatedly offered
to release the Bishop, he refused to accept of the proffered boon,
saying, "that he scorned to receive his liberty from a tyrant and
usurper." His life was kindly prolonged by Providence, that as he had
seen the destruction, so he might also see the happy restoration of
his order.]
[Footnote 15: Born at Geneva on August 14, 1599, and educated at
Christ Church, Oxford. Archbishop Laud gave him the living of Minster,
Kent, and a Prebend in the Cathedral of Canterbury. He suffered
much in the civil wars, but at the Restoration he recovered his
preferments. Among his works are "A Treatise of Use and Custom,"
1638, "De Quatuor Linguis Commentatio," 1650, "Of Credulity and
Incredulity," 1668. He died on July 14, 1671.]
[Footnote 16: Dr. John Williams was then Dean of Westminster. He held
this Deanery _in Commendam_ during the whole time of his being Bishop
of Lincoln, and likewise three years after his translation to York.]
[Footnote 17: Was born at Anstley, in Wiltshire, in 1590; he received
his education in William of Wykeham's school, near Winchester; was
matriculated in the University of Oxford in 1608, and admitted Fellow
of New College in 1609. He took the degree of LL.B. June 30, 1614,
and that of LL.D. April 8, 1619. He no sooner had obtained his first
degree than he became an Advocate in Doctors' Commons. Through the
influence of his noble kinsman, who was then Lord of the Cinque Ports,
he was elected, in 1620, a Burgess to serve in Parliament for Hythe
in Kent. In the same year he succeeded Dr. John Budden as Professor
of Civil law; and in 1625, he was appointed Principal of Alban's Hall.
Though a layman, he held the Prebend of Shipston, in the Church of
Salisbury, which was then first annexed to the Law Professorship by
James I.
After the Restoration, Dr. Zouch, whose loyalty always remained
unimpeached, had the honour of being named by the King, along with
several other Commissioners, to restore the splendours and regulate
the disorders of the University. He was re-instated in the Court of
Admiralty; and if he had lived he would doubtless have attained those
higher dignities in his profession, to which his integrity and great
abilities entitled him. He died at his apartments in Doctors' Commons,
London, March 1, 1660.]
[Footnote 18: Let it ever be remembered to the honour of this Prelate,
whom Charles I. was wont to call "the good man," and whom he declared
to be his greatest comfort in his most afflictive situation, that he
delivered his sentiments without disguise to the King, on the subject
of Lord Strafford's fate, telling him plainly, that "he ought to do
nothing with an unsatisfied conscience, upon any consideration in
the world." His character is thus beautifully pourtrayed by Sir Henry
Wotton, in a letter to the Queen of Bohemia. "There is in him no
tumour, no sourness, no distraction of thoughts; but a quiet mind, a
patient care, free access, mild and moderate answers. To this I must
add, a solid judgment, a sober plainness, and a most indubitable
character of fidelity in his very face; so as there needs not much
study to think him both a good man and a wise man."]
[Footnote 19: This learned person went abroad in 1626, and spent
four years in visiting Asia and Africa. He again left England, and
travelled over several parts of Europe. He afterwards joined the
Parliament against Charles I., whom he was appointed to attend from
the very beginning of his imprisonment to the time of his death.
He shewed himself a most faithful servant to the King, whose real
character he soon discovered to be totally different from that which
had been represented to him. In 1660, Charles II. advanced him to the
Dignity of a Baronet, by the name of Thomas Herbert of Tinterne, in
Monmouth "for faithfully serving his royal father during the two
last years of his life."--In 1678 he published "Threnodia Carolina;
containing Memoirs of the two last Years of the reign of King Charles
I." This little work was reprinted in 1813, upon the opening the tomb
of the royal martyr, by Mr. G. Nicoll of Pall Mall, with a "sensible
and seasonable Preface." Sir T. Herbert assisted Sir William Dugdale
in compiling the third volume of his "Monasticon Anglicanum;" and died
at York, his native place, 1682, leaving several MSS. to the public
library at Oxford, and others to that of the Cathedral at York.]
[Footnote 20: This is supposed to have been Mr. Swinfen, an ancestor
(on the female side) of the late Earl St. Vincent.]
[Footnote 21: They were all, except Dr. Wall, ejected in 1647. Dr.
Samuel Fell died of grief, the day he was made acquainted with the
murder of Charles I., viz. on Feb. 1, 1648-9. Dr. Gardner, Canon of
the third stall, lived to be restored, and died in 1670. Dr. Paine,
Canon of the fourth stall, died during the rebellion. Dr. Hammond,
Sub-dean and Canon of the second stall, died in 1660. As for Dr. Wall,
Canon of the seventh stall, he conformed no doubt to the measures of
the Visitors. He died possessed of it in 1666.]
[Footnote 22: Mr. Thomas Brightman, born at Nottingham, and educated
at Queen's College in Cambridge, was Rector of Hawnes in Bedfordshire.
He died suddenly Aug. 24, 1607.
Mr. Thomas Cartwright, the noted Puritan, in allusion to the name of
Mr. Brightman, considers him as full of illumination as "a bright star
in the Church of God." Though no favourable opinion can be entertained
of his writings, yet the acknowledged innocence of his life and
conversation entitles him to every encomium.]
[Footnote 23: Honest Walton rather overstates the case. Thucydides
simply says that attendance on the sick promoted the spread of the
pestilence. (Lib. II. c. 51.)]
[Footnote 24: This amiable philosopher was born Jan. 25th, 1626-17, at
Lismore, in the province of Munster, in Ireland. He was a scholar, a
gentleman, a Christian of the most exalted piety and charity, and a
very eminent Natural philosopher. He died Dec. 30th, 1691.]
[Footnote 25: Dr. Thomas Barlow was born in 1607, at Orton, in
Westmoreland, was made Bishop of Lincoln, in 1675, and died at
Buckden, in 1691. His character appears to have been vacillating; he
was not among the venerable Prelates who stood forth the Protectors
of the Protestant Religion in 1688. His theological learning was
considerable.]
[Footnote 26: Richard Baxter was born at Rowton, in Shropshire, 1615,
and was a Chaplain in the Parliamentary Army, though he was a defender
of Monarchy. He refused the Bishopric of Hereford, and died in 1691.
His "Saint's Everlasting Rest" and "Call to the Unconverted" are his
most famous books.]
[Footnote 27: Dr. Peter Gunning was a loyalist Divine, who suffered
considerably for the Royal cause, and died Bishop of Ely, in 1684.]
[Footnote 28: Dr. John Pearson was the author of the famous
"Exposition of the Creed;" in 1661, he was made Lady Margaret's
Professor of Divinity, at Cambridge, and died Bishop of Chester, in
1686, aged 74.]
[Footnote 29: Dr. William Bancroft, born at Freshingfield, in Suffolk,
in 1616, and educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he
was deprived of his Fellowship in 1649, for refusing to take the
engagement. He was made Archbishop in 1677, and in 1688, he was one of
the seven Prelates sent to the Tower by James II. At the Revolution
he refused taking the Oaths to the new government, for which he was
suspended and deprived. He died in retirement Nov. 14th, 1693.]
[Footnote 30: Bishop Sanderson's Will is recorded in the Prerogative
Court of Canterbury, in the volume called Juxon, Article 37. After his
death, it was industriously reported that he repented of his writing
against the Presbyterians, and would not suffer a Church Minister to
pray by him, which is refuted by the narrative of Mr. Pullin's giving
him the Sacrament.]
[Footnote 31: Mr. John Pullin, B.D., and formerly Fellow of Magdalen
College, Cambridge. His name is subscribed to a copy of commendatory
Latin verses prefixed to "Duport's Greek Version of Job." He was a
Prebendary, and also Chancellor of Lincoln.]
DR. PIERCE'S LETTER.
[Sidenote: Letters from Sanderson]
GOOD MR. WALTON,
At my return to this place, I made a yet stricter search after the
letters long ago sent me from our most excellent Dr. Sanderson, before
the happy restoration of the King and Church of England to their
several rights: in one of which letters more especially, he was
pleased to give me a narrative both of the rise and the progress,
and reasons also, as well of his younger, as of his last and riper
judgment, touching the famous points controverted between the
Calvinians and the Armenians, as they are commonly (though unjustly
and unskilfully) miscalled on either side.
[Sidenote: Dr. Hammond's book]
The whole letter I allude to does consist of several sheets, whereof
a good part had been made public long ago, by the most learned, most
judicious, most pious Dr. Hammond, (to whom I sent it both for his
private, and for the public satisfaction, if he thought fit,) in his
excellent book, entitled, "A Pacific Discourse of God's Grace and
Decrees, in full accordance with Dr. Sanderson:" to which discourse
I refer you for an account of Dr. Sanderson and the history of his
thoughts in his own hand-writing, wherein I sent it to Westwood, as I
received it from Boothby Pannel. And although the whole book, (printed
in the year 1660, and reprinted since with his other tracts in folio,)
is very worthy of your perusal; yet, for the work you are about, you
shall not have need to read more at present than from the 8th to the
23rd page, and as far as the end of section 33. There you will find in
what year the excellent man, whose life you write, became a Master of
Arts: how his first reading of learned Hooker had been occasioned by
certain puritanical pamphlets; and how good a preparative he found it
for his reading of Calvin's Institutions, the honour of whose name
(at that time especially) gave such credit to his errors: how he erred
with Mr. Calvin, whilst he took things upon trust in the sublapsarian
way: how, being chosen to be a Clerk of the Convocation for the
Diocese of Lincoln, 1625, he reduced the Quinquarticular Controversy
into five schemes or tables; and thereupon discerned a necessity of
quitting the sublapsarian way, of which he had before a better liking,
as well as the supralapsarian, which he could never fancy. There you
will meet with his two weighty reasons against them both, and find his
happy change of judgment to have been ever since the year 1625, even
thirty-four years before the world either knew, or, at least, took
notice of it; and more particularly his reasons for rejecting Dr.
Twiss, (or the way he walks in,) although his acute and very learned
and ancient friend.
[Sidenote: Arriba discussed]
I now proceed to let you know from Dr. Sanderson's own hand,[1] which
was never printed, (and which you can hardly know from any, unless
from his son, or from myself,) that, when that Parliament was broken
up, and the convocation therewith dissolved, a gentleman of his
acquaintance, by occasion of some discourse about these points, told
him of a book not long before published at Paris, (A.D. 1623,) by a
Spanish Bishop,[2] who had undertaken to clear the differences in
the great controversy _De Concordia Gratiæ et Liberi Arbitrii_. And
because his friend perceived he was greedily desirous to see the book,
he sent him one of them, containing the four first books of twelve
which he intended then to publish. "When I had read," says Dr.
Sanderson, in the following words of the same letter, "his Epistle
Dedicatory to the Pope (Gregory XV.), he spake so highly of his own
invention, that I then began rather to suspect him for a mountebank,
than to hope I should find satisfaction from his performances. I found
much confidence and great pomp of words, but little matter as to the
main knot of the business, other than had been said an hundred times
before, to wit, of the co-existence of all things past, present, and
future [Latin] _in mente divina realiter ab aeterno_, which is
the subject of his whole third book: only he interpreteth the word
_realiter_ so as to import not only _præsentialitatem objectivam,_ (as
others held before him,) but _propriam et actualem existentiam_; yet
confesseth it is hard to make this intelligible. In his fourth book
he endeavours to declare a twofold manner of God's working _ad extra_;
the one _sub ordine prædestinationis_, of which eternity is the proper
measure: the other _sub ordine gratia_, whereof time is the
measure; and that God worketh _fortiter_ in the one (though not
_irresistibiliter_) as well _suamter_ in the other, wherein the
free will hath his proper working also. From the result of his whole
performance I was confirmed in this opinion; that we must acknowledge
the work of both grace and free will in the conversion of a
sinner; and so likewise in all other events, the consistency of the
infallibility of God's foreknowledge at least (though not with any
absolute, but conditional predestination) with the liberty of man's
will, and the contingency of inferior causes and effects. These, I
say, we must acknowledge for the [Greek: hoti] but for the [Greek: to
pos], I thought it bootless for me to think of comprehending it. And
so came the two _Acta Synodalia Dordrechtana_ to stand in my study,
only to fill up a room to this day."
[Sidenote: "Vindiciæ Gratiæ" discussed]
And yet see the restless curiosity of man. Not many years after, to
wit, A.D. 1632, out cometh Dr. Twiss's[3] _Vindiciæ Gratiæ_, a large
volume, purposely writ against Arminius: and then, notwithstanding my
former resolution, I must need be meddling again. The respect I bore
to his person and great learning, and the acquaintance I had had with
him in Oxford, drew me to the reading of that whole book. But from the
reading of it (for I read it through to a syllable) I went away with
many and great dissatisfactions. Sundry things in that book I took
notice of, which brought me into a greater dislike of his opinion than
I had before: but especially these three: First, that he bottometh
very much of his discourse upon a very erroneous principle, which yet
he seemeth to be so deeply in love with, that he hath repeated it, I
verily believe, some hundreds of times in that work: to wit this;
That whatsoever is first in the intention is last in execution, and
_e converso._ Which is an error of that magnitude, that I cannot
but wonder how a person of such acuteness and subtilty of wit could
possibly be deceived with it. All logicians know there is no such
universal maxim as he buildeth upon. The true maxim is but this:
_Finis qui primus est in intentione, est ultimus in executione_. In
the order of final causes, and the means used for that end, the rule
holdeth perpetually: but in other things it holdeth not at all, or
but by chance; or not as a rule, and necessarily. Secondly, that,
foreseeing such consequences would naturally and necessarily follow
from his opinion, as would offend the ear of a sober Christian at the
very first sound, he would yet rather choose not only to admit the
said harsh consequences, but professedly endeavour also to maintain
them, and plead hard for them in large digressions, than to recede
in the least from that opinion which he had undertaken to defend.
Thirdly, that seeing (out of the sharpness of his wit) a necessity of
forsaking the ordinary sublapsarian way, and the supralapsarian too,
as it had diversely been declared by all that had gone before him,
(for the shunning of those rocks, which either of those ways must
unavoidably cast him upon,) he was forced to seek out an untrodden
path, and to frame out of his own brain a new way, (like a spider's
web wrought out of her own bowels,) hoping by that device to salve all
absurdities, that could be objected; to wit, by making the glory of
God (as it is indeed the chiefest, so) the only end of all other his
decrees, and then making all those other decrees to be but one
entire co-ordinate medium conducing to that one end, and so the whole
subordinate to it, but not any one part thereof subordinate to any
other of the same. Dr. Twiss should have done well to have been more
sparing in imputing the _studium partlum_ to others, wherewith his own
eyes, though of eminent perspicacity, were so strangely blindfolded,
that he could not discern how this his new device, and his old dearly
beloved principle, (like the _Cadmean Sparti_,) do mutually destroy
the one the other.
This relation of my past thoughts having spun out to a far greater
length than I intended, I shall give a shorter account of what they
now are concerning these points.
[Sidenote: Hammond and Sanderson]
For which account I refer you to the following parts of Dr. Hammond's
book aforesaid, where you may find them already printed: and
for another account at large of Bishop Sanderson's last judgment
concerning _God's concurrence_ or _non-concurrence_ with the _actions
of men_, and the _positive entity of sins of commission_, I refer you
to his letters already printed by his consent, in my large Appendix to
my Impartial Enquiry into the Nature of Sin, § 68, p. 193, as far as
p. 200.
"Sir, I have rather made it my choice to transcribe all above out of
the letters of Dr. Sanderson, which lie before me, than venture the
loss of my originals by post or carrier, which, though not often, yet
sometimes fail. Make use of as much or as little as you please, of
what I send you from himself (because from his own letters to me) in
the penning of his life, as your own prudence shall direct you: using
my name for your warranty in the account given of him, as much or as
little as you please too. You have a performance of my promise, and an
obedience to your desires from
"Your affectionate
"Humble Servant,
"THO. PIERCE.
"North Tidworth,
"March 5, 1677-8."
[Footnote 1: Sir, I pray note, that all that follows between inverted
commas are Dr. Sanderson's own words, excellently worthy, but no where
else extant; and commend him as much as any thing you can say of him.
T.P.]
[Footnote 2: Arriba.]
[Footnote 3: This learned nonconformist was born at Reading about
1575, and educated at Winchester School, and New College, Oxford. He
had been Chaplain to the Princess Elizabeth. He died at Newbury, July
20, 1646. Wood says, "his plain preaching was esteemed good; his solid
disputations were accounted better; but his pious life was reckoned
best of all."]
THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN'S LETTER.
[Sidenote: Sanderson's Life]
[Sidenote: Erroneous doctrines]
MY WORTHY FRIEND, MR. WALTON,