OCTOR ROBERT SANDERSON, the late learned Bishop of Lincoln, whose Life I intend to write with all truth and equal plainness, was born the nineteenth day of September in the year of our Redemption 1587. The place of

his birth was Rotherham1 in the County of York; a Town of good note, and the more for that Thomas Rotherham 2,

This is a mistake; Bishop Sanderson was born at Sheffield on the 19th of September. W. D.

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 in 1483 and 1484, Chancellor of the University. He obtained great ecclesiastical preferment, being successively

some time Archbishop of that see, was born in it; a man, whose great wisdom, and bounty, and sanctity of life, have made it the more memorable: as indeed it ought also to be, for being the birth-place of our Robert Sanderson. And the Reader will be of my belief, if this humble relation of his life can hold any proportion with his great Piety, his useful Learning, and his many other extraordinary endowments.

He was the second and youngest Son, of Robert Sanderson, of Gilthwaite-Hall, in the said Parish and County, Esq. by Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Richard Carr, of Butterthwaite-Hall, in the Parish of Ecclesfield, in the said County of York, Gentleman.

This Robert Sanderson, the Father, was descended from a numerous, ancient, and honourable family of his own name for the search of which truth, I refer my Reader, that inclines to it, to Dr. Thoroton's " History of the Antiquities of Nottinghamshire," and other records; not thinking it necessary here to engage him into a search for bare titles, which are noted to have in them nothing of reality: for titles not acquired, but derived only, do but shew us who of our ancestors have, and how they have achieved that honour which their descendants claim, and may not be worthy to enjoy. For, if those titles descend to persons that degenerate into Vice, and break off the continued line of Learning, or Valour, or that Virtue that acquired them, they destroy the very foundation upon which that Honour

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 of the plague, at his palace of Cawood, in 1501.

was built; and all the rubbish of their vices ought to fall heavy on such dishonourable heads; ought to fall so heavy, as to degrade them of their titles, and blast their memories with reproach and shame.

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But our Robert Sanderson lived worthy of his name and family of which one testimony may be, that Gilbert, called the Great Earl of Shrewsbury, thought him not unworthy to be joined with him as a Godfather to Gilbert Sheldon3, the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury; to whose merits and memory, posterity-the Clergy especially-ought to pay a reverence.

But I return to my intended relation of Robert the Son, who began in his youth to make the Laws of God, and obedience to his parents, the rules of his life; seeming even then to dedicate himself, and all his studies, to Piety and Virtue.

And as he was inclined to this by that native goodness, with which the wise Disposer of all hearts had endowed his; so this calm, this quiet and happy temper of mind-his being mild, and averse to oppositionsmade the whole course of his life easy and grateful both to himself and others: and this blessed temper was maintained and improved by his prudent Father's good example; and by frequent conversing with him, and

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.

scattering short apophthegms and little pleasant stories, and making useful applications of them, his son was in his infancy taught to abhor Vanity and Vice as monsters, and to discern the loveliness of Wisdom and Virtue; and by these means, and God's concurring grace, his knowledge was so augmented, and his native goodness so confirmed, that all became so habitual, as it was not easy to determine whether Nature or Education were his teachers.

* Phil. i. 6.

And here let me tell the Reader, that these early beginnings of Virtue, were by God's assisting grace, blessed with what St. Paul seemed to beg for his Philippians *; namely, "That he, that had begun a good work in them, would finish it." And Almighty God did: for his whole life was so regular and innocent, that he might have said at his death-and with truth and comfort-what the same St. Paul said after to the same Philippians, when he advised them to walk as they had him for an example t.

† Chap. iii. 17.

And this goodness, of which I have spoken, seemed to increase as his years did; and with his goodness his Learning, the foundation of which was laid in the Grammar-school of Rotherham-that being one of those three that were founded and liberally endowed by the said great and good Bishop of that name.—And in this time of his being a Scholar there, he was observed to use an unwearied diligence to attain learning, and to have a seriousness beyond his age, and with it a more than common modesty; and to be of so calm and obliging a behaviour, that the Master and whole number of Scholars, loved him as one man.

And in this love and amity he continued at that School till about the thirteenth year of his age; at

which time his Father designed to improve his Grammar learning, by removing him from Rotherham to one of the more noted Schools of Eton or Westminster; and after a year's stay there, then to remove him thence to Oxford. But, as he went with him, he called on an old friend, a Minister of noted learning, and told him his intentions; and he, after many questions with his Son, received such answers from him, that he assured his Father, his Son was so perfect a Grammarian, that he had laid a good foundation to build any or all the Arts upon; and therefore advised him to shorten his journey, and leave him at Oxford. And his Father did so.

His father left him there to the sole care and manage of Dr. Kilbie', who was then Rector of Lincoln College: And he, after some time and trial of his manners and learning, thought fit to enter him of that College, and, after to matriculate him in the University, which he did the first of July, 1603; but he was not chosen Fellow till the third of May, 1606; at which time he had taken his degree of Bachelor of Arts: at the taking of which degree, his Tutor told the Rector, "That his pupil Sanderson had a metaphysical brain and a matchless memory; and that he thought he had improved or made. the last so by an art of his own invention." And all the future employments of his life proved that his tutor was not mistaken. I must here stop my Reader, and tell him that this Dr. Kilbie was a man of so great learning and wisdom and was so excellent a critic in the Hebrew Tongue, that he was made Professor of it in this uni

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.