tossed Ark of Christ's Church;" the text being taken from 1 Cor. xii. 4.* Clear and elegant in the composition, and full of learning on the points of which it treats, it is also eminently practical; and there is scarcely a word of it which might not be addressed with equal propriety and equal benefit to a similar auditory at the present day. In the most solemn terms it reminded the hearers of the duties of their sacred calling; and while it insisted upon the imparity and diversity of Orders in the Ministry as points which admit of no question, it insisted no less upon the work and responsibility incident to each Order, and especially to the Episcopate. Again, it exposed the cruelty and perverseness of the Church of Rome in making its novel doctrines terms of communion; and while it earnestly deprecated and lamented the quarrels and controversies rife among Protestants (but equally rife among Romanists), it ascribed them to that cruelty and perverseness as their original source. The following extracts from the translation made by the author's eldest son, Robert, afterwards Archdeacon of Cornwall, will be read with interest :

"Oh, how oft, and with what deep sighs, hath this most happy and flourishing Church of England wished that she might, with some of her own blood, have purchased unto her dearest sisters abroad the retention of this most ancient and every way best form of government (the Episcopal); which might happily also have taken place, if they had met with such a monarchical reformation as, through the blessing of God, was designed unto us. Now they are fain to undergo that administration (provisionally only,' if we may believe that learned Frenchman, Fregevil), which the necessity of their condition doth for the time cast upon them.† The God of heaven raise them up queens for their nurses, and kings for their nursing fathers, that they may once enjoy with us this happy blessing of-to use the words of Nazianzen-'the sequence and subordination of degrees!' In the meantime I dare, with Ignatius, profess to put my soul in pawn for the safe observation of this excellent order, which, if it have ever not happily succeeded to any region or Church, it is the fault of the person, not of the institution itself, which cannot justly be deemed other than wholesome, holy, divine."‡

"We are compelled, we are driven away from the communion of the Church of Rome. They forced us to go from them, who had departed first from themselves. We have willingly departed from the communion of their errors; from the communion of the Church we have not departed. Let them renounce their erroneous doctrine, we embrace their Church; let them but cast away their soulslaying traditions and the erroneous novelties they have added to the faith, we will communicate with them in the rights of one and the same Church, and remain so for ever." §

"Surely whosoever willingly subscribes to the Word of God engraved in the everlasting monuments of Scripture, to the ancient Creeds, to the four General Councils, to the common consent of the Fathers for six hundred years after Christ, which we of the Reformed Church religiously profess to do, if he may err in small points, yet he cannot be a heretic." ¶

"But we, forsooth, are the disobedient and rebellious children of our mother the Church, whose commands while we disdain to receive, and to obey and

* Works, vol. xi., p. 1. Compare the dedication to "The Peacemaker," vol. vii., p. 45. + Compare Works, vol. x., pp. 149, 151, 154; and see above, p. xvii., 8q. Ibid., p. 21. See also vol. x., p. 139.

§ Works, vol. x., p. 31.

|| Compare Bishop Cosin's "Regni Anglia Religio Catholica," Works, vol. iv., p. 341, who agrees with Bishop Hall, except that he limits the consent of the Fathers to the first five centuries.

¶ Ibid., p. 35.

reverence her decrees, we are enwrapped in a shameful schism, and stricken with the curses of an angry mother. Surely this were an odious contumely. But, for us, we have not acknowledged her a mother; a sister we have. But, grant we were sons, yet we are no slaves. To forge a new faith, and imperiously thrust it upon her own, is not the part of an indulgent parent, but of a tyrant. This lawless liberty, we confess, we could never endure, and therefore are we openly thunderstricken with more than one anathema."*

"We profess this Church of ours by God's grace reformed; reformed, I say, not new made, as some emulous spirits spitefully slander us. For me-to borrow the language of Xenophon-I am ready to sink through shame to the very ground when I hear that hedge-row reproach, Where was your religion before Luther? Where was your Church?' Hear, O ye ignorant, hear, O ye envious cavillers; we desired the reformation of an old religion, not the formation of a new. The Church accordingly was reformed, not new wrought. It remains, therefore, the same Church it was before, but only purged from some superfluous and pernicious additaments of error. Is it a new face that was lately washed a new garment that is but mended? a new house that is repaired ? Blush, if ye have any shame, who thus ignorantly and maliciously cast this in our teeth."

"Go to now, my brethren, we are by God's grace reformed; let us take heed lest we be deformed again by mutual dissensions. This is that which weakens and lames us, and which lays us open to the insulting triumphs of our adversaries. Yet, lest we should seem to give too much way to a spiteful slander, these jars of ours are not so great as our enemies either desire or clamour. Certainly, what discords soever hitherto have troubled us, we are beholding to none other for them but to these our kind enemies, who upbraid us with them.§ For if they had but reached forth to us a helping hand in due time, and jointly conferred their endeavours, which then behoved them, for the reforming of the Church, all had run squarely on; there had been no jars, no grudgings, no partstaking. But they stiffly refused; and by their forwardness and pertinacy, caused this so weighty a task to be cast upon some few, and these weak and feeble, and unequal to so great a charge. It could not therefore be otherwise but that the opinions of some single men, not conferred together in such a business, must needs somewhat differ. But thanks be to thee, O blessed God, the author of peace, that hast vouchsafed by thy Spirit so to bridle the distemperate affections of men, that their busy spirits, being stirred up, have not boiled forth into more fearful divisions."

* Works, vol. iv., p. 37.

+ Compare vol. ix., p. 433; xi. 283; and see "Ecclesiastical Biography," vol. iv., p. 286, sq. notes, where it is shown that "some of our learned men," in controversy with Romanists, have not answered this question as they ought to have done-and as Hall has answered it and consequently have given a great advantage to their opponents.

Hall always insisted, as here, that Rome was truly a Church, though a corrupt one; and the concession brought him into trouble with violent and unreasonable men, which followed him even to the end of his life. See below, p. xxxvii and p. xxxix. Bishop Sanderson, speaking of the false principles of the Puritans, says: "It shall suffice for the present to have named but this one, that the Church of Rome is no true Church. The disadvantages of which assertion to our cause in the dispute about the visibility of the Church, besides the falseness and uncharitableness of it, their zeal, or prejudice rather, will not suffer them to consider. With what outcries was Bishop Hall, good man, who little dreamed of any peace with Rome, pursued by Burton, and other hot spurs, for yielding it a Church." Works, vol. ii., p. 44.

§ See Works, vol. ix., p. 318.

"Imbelles pusillosque ac tantæ provinciæ impares." The epithets are remarkable, if intended to include the English Reformers.

"Neither have these very Romanists lesser quarrels amongst themselves. They can more hide their enmities, not exercise them less. If they be more wise, they are not more accordant. Neither is there, I daresay, any head of religion wherein they do at once differ from us and agree all with one another. Finally, our differences are no greater than were those of old among the holy Fathers of the Church, whose quarrels notwithstanding are not so odiously blazoned by posterity."*

"In the meanwhile let us all sweetly incline our hearts to peace and unity. Let there be amongst us, as said Jerome to St. Augustine, pure brotherhood. Neither let us suffer ourselves, upon every slight quirk of opinion, to be distracted and torn asunder. Let us forget that there were ever any such, in respect of the devotion of a sect, as Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Zuinglius, Arminius, or if any other mortal name; for what have we to do with man? Let us breathe nothing, let us affect nothing, but Jesus Christ.”+

Charles L. succeeded to the throne in 1625. The same favour which had been entertained towards Hall by the father was soon exhibited by the son. In 1627, his fifty-third year, he was promoted to the Bishopric of Exeter. The faithful and zealous and withal humble spirit in which he set himself to the discharge of his Episcopal duties, and by which he showed that the lessons which, in his Convocation sermon, he had so earnestly impressed on others, he was eager to carry out in his own practice, may be seen in the dedication to a second issue of a work which he had published shortly before under the title of the "Old Religion,”‡ and which he now inscribed to "My new and dearly affected charge, the diocese of Exeter." He also gives us some further particulars in his Autobiography:—

"I entered upon that place not without much prejudice and suspicion on some hands; for some that sat at the stern of the Church had me in great jealousy for too much favour of Puritanism. I soon had intelligence who were set over me for espials. My ways were curiously observed and scanned. However, I took the resolution to follow those courses which might most conduce to the peace and happiness of my new and weighty charge. Finding therefore some factious spirits very busy in that diocese, I used all fair and gentle means to win them to good order, and therein so happily prevailed, that (saving two of that numerous Clergy, who, continuing in their refractoriness, fled away from censure) they were all perfectly reclaimed, so as I had not one minister professedly opposite to the anciently received order (for I was never guilty of urging any new impositions) of the Church in that large diocese. Thus we went on comfortably together, till * Works, vol. ix., p. 41. + Works, vol. ix., p. 45.

Works, vol. ix., p. 305. The full title is as follows: "The Old Religion: a Treatise, in which is laid down the true State of the Difference between the Reformed and the Romish Church; and the Blame of this Schism is cast upon the true Authors; serving for the vindication of our innocence, for the settling of wavering minds, for a preservative against Popish insinuations. With an Apologetical Advertisement for such readers as formerly stumbled at some passages in the book." The passages stumbled at were those in which the Church of Rome was recognized as a Church, though a corrupt one. Compare Autobiography, vol. i., p. xxxiii, sq., and see above, p. xx, note. The author explained himself still further upon the same point in another publication, entitled, "The Reconciler: an Epistle pacificatory of the seeming Differences of Opinion concerning the Trueness and Visibility of the Roman Church." Ibid., p. 397. This must have appeared about the same time (1626-7), because, writing in 1654, he speaks of it as having been published about twenty-eight years before. Works, vol. viii., p. 503. See below, p. xxxvii. Two Latin letters by Hall, bearing upon the Roman controversy, may also be mentioned here: one "To Mark Antony de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato, dissuasive of his Departure for Rome," written while the author was still Dean of Worcester; and the other, "An Answer to Pope Urban's Inurbanity, expressed in a Brief to Louis, the French King, exasperating him against the Protestants of France." 1629. Ibid., pp. 383, 404.

some persons of note in the Clergy, being guilty of their own negligence and disorderly courses, began to envy our success; and finding me ever ready to encourage those whom I found conscionably forward and painful in their places, and willingly giving way to orthodox and peaceable lectures in several parts of my diocese, opened their mouths against me, both obliquely in the pulpit and directly at the Court, complaining of my too great indulgence to persons disaffected, and my too much liberty of frequent lecturings within my charge. The billows went so high, that I was three several times upon my knee to his majesty to answer these great criminations; and what contestation I had with some great lords concerning these particulars it would be too long to report only this under how dark a cloud I was hereupon, I was so sensible, that I plainly told the Archbishop of Canterbury that, rather than I would be obnoxious to those slanderous tongues of his misinformers, I would cast up my rochet. I knew I went right ways, and would not endure to live under undeserved suspicions. What messages of caution I had from some of my wary brethren, and what expostulatory letters I had from above, I need not relate. Sure I am I had peace and comfort at home in the happy sense of that general unanimity and loving correspondence of my Clergy."

The reference to Archbishop Laud* in the foregoing passage is very significant, and reminds us that we are fast approaching to the great crisis in our country's history which the policy of that eminent man, by his administration of the Church-stricter and more uncompromising than the times would bear-was tending to precipitate. We can readily suppose that two minds so differently constituted as those of Laud and Hall would lead them to treat the prevalent disorders in a different way; and that some uneasy feeling, the origin of which has been traced to an early period of their lives,† might occasionally arise between them on this account. At the same time, however, there seems to have been no discordance in regard to fundamental principles; and though gentler measures than Laud pursued would doubtless have recommended themselves to our Bishop, it is gratifying to know that the Primate had no real cause to be dissatisfied with his suffragan upon the score of undue laxity. This we learn from Laud's own authority; for in the annual account of his province to the king for the year 1634, when he made his metropolitical visitation of the diocese of Exeter, he wrote as follows:

"For Exeter, where, according to many complaints which had been made here above, I might have expected many things out of order, I must do my lord the Bishop this right, that for your Majesty's instructions they have been carefully observed."

And again in 1637 the Archbishop sends to the king the following report of the diocese of Exeter :

"The Bishop of this diocese assures me that all things are in very good order there; and indeed I think the diocese is well amended within these few years, his lordship having been very careful both in his visitations and otherwise." §

But the strongest proof of the substantial concord and mutual regard which existed between the two prelates is to be found || in the fact that one of the most

* Laud was only nine months older than Hall, having been born in October 1573.

+ See Heylyn's "Life of Laud," p. 50, where we are told that one of Hall's Epistles"To Mr. W. L., expostulating the Cause of his Unsettledness in Religion " (vol. vi., p. 193) -was generally supposed to be aimed at Laud. Also Works, vol. xii., p. 451.

Laud's Works, vol. v., p. 325. The king's "instructions" referred to are to be found, ibid., pp. 311-314.

§ Ibid., p. 352.

Works, vol. x., p. 141.

valuable of Bishop Hall's controversial treatises—namely, "Episcopacy by Diviue Right Asserted," which appeared early in 1640-was written in compliance with the request of the Archbishop, to whom the author not only submitted an outline of his intended work before it was put in hand, in order to obtain his judgment upon the plan, but also received from him suggestions for its improvement which we know to have been adopted. The Archbishop was fully aware how much was involved in the competent execution of such a work at that particular juncture; and it is certain he would have committed it to no one in whose ability and faithfulness he did not place the most entire confidence. He showed his interest further by entreating that the several portions of the book might be sent to him as soon as finished, in order that "the work might come on faster;" and when it was completed-some further corrections having been made by Laud's advice-it appeared eventually with his full approval. The following passage from the Archbishop's letter, acknowledging the volume, deserves to be quoted, both for the testimony which it bears to the singular candour and humility of Bishop Hall-candour and humility which, in the present instance, some have thought were carried even to excess §-and also for the proof which it affords of his own care and indefatigable industry in all matters which affected the wellbeing of the Church :—

"For your book, I first thank you heartily for your pains, and next more than heartily (were it possible) for your noble and free submission of it, not only to many eyes and judgments, but also in the main to be ordered, and after that pressed or suppressed, as it should be thought fit here; which care and conscience would men use which set out books, we should not have so much froth and vanity in this world as now 'tis full of. But whereas you write that you are pleased to subject the work to me, and to interpret it that you meant not personally to me, because I could not have time from other occasions to revise it, but by way of deputation, these are to let you know that, were my occasions greater than they are, I would not suffer a book of that argument, and in these times, to pass without my particular view. And therefore, my lord, these may tell you that both my chaplains have read over your book, and that since them I have read it over myself very carefully, every line of it; and I have now put it into the hands of my lord the Bishop of Ely;|| and this thrice reading over hath been the cause why I did not give you a more speedy account of it."¶

It was indeed time, and more than time, that something should be done, and done in the most effective way, to maintain the true government of the Church; and Hall had shown his fitness and readiness for the task both in other ways, as in his Latin Concio before noticed, and by "two Propositions concerning Church Government" which he had circulated the year before.** Episcopacy had been suddenly and violently put down (1638) in Scotland as contrary to the Word of God; and the Long Parliament of England, which first met on November 3rd, 1640, actuated by the example and by the influence of the Scotch, whose assist

* "The Form of Penance, Reconciliation," &c., stated to have been drawn up by Land and Hall conjointly (vol. xii., p. 346), is omitted as spurious in the last edition (1863) of Bishop Hall's Works.

+ See Laud's Works, vol. iv., pp. 308-10; vi., p. 572; Heylyn's "Life of Laud," p. 374; Collier's "Church History," vol. ii., p. 789.

Hall's letter, acknowledging the archbishop's corrections, all of which he adopted, and had himself, he says, anticipated "divers of them," has been preserved in Prynne's "Canterbury's Doom," p. 275. It appears to have escaped the notice of the former editors of the Bishop's works, but is to be found in Dr. Wynter's edition, vol. x., p. 540.

§ See Perry's "Church History," vol. i., p. 584. Compare what Hall says of himself in his "Letter from the Tower." Works, vol. i., p. xxxviii.

Dr. Matthew Wren.

Laud's Works, vol. vi., p. 576. ** Works, vol. x., p. 139.