teen years neglected. But in saying this, my meaning is not to upbraid others (I am far from that), but excuse myself, or beg pardon for daring to attempt it.

This being premised, I desire to tell the reader, that in this relation I have been so bold, as to paraphrase and say, what I think he (whom I had the happiness to know well) would have said upon the same occasions; and if I have been too bold in doing so, and cannot now beg pardon of him that loved me, yet I do of my reader, from whom I desire the same favor.

And though my age might have procured me a writ of ease, and that secured me from all further trouble in this kind; yet I meet with such persuasions to undertake it, and, so many willing informers since, and from them and others, such helps and encouragements to proceed, that when I found myself faint, and weary of the burden with which I had loaden myself, and sometime ready to lay it down; yet time and new strength hath at last brought it to be what it now is, and here presented to the reader, and with it, this desire, that he will take notice that Dr. Sanderson did in his will or last sickness advertise, that after his death nothing of his might be printed; because that might be said to be his, which indeed was not; and also, for that he might have changed his opinion since he first wrote it, as it is thought he has since

he wrote his “Pax Ecclesiæ." And though these reasons ought to be regarded, yet regarded so, as he resolves in his "Case of Conscience concerning Rash Vows," that there may appear very good second reasons why we may forbear to perform them. However, for his said reasons, they ought to be read as we do apocryphal Scripture; to explain, but not oblige us to so firm a belief of what is here presented as his.

And I have this to say more; that as in my queries for writing Dr. Sanderson's Life, I met with these little tracts annexed; so in my former queries for my information to write the Life of venerable Mr. Hooker, I met with a sermon, which I also believe was really his, and here presented as his to the reader. It is affirmed (and I have met with reason to believe it) that there be some artists, that do certainly know an original picture from a copy, and in what age of the world, and by whom drawn. And if so, then I hope it may be as safely affirmed, that what is here presented for theirs, is so like their temper of mind, their other writings, the times when, and the occasions upon which they were writ, that all readers may safely conclude, they could be writ by none but venerable Mr. Hooker, and the humble and learned Dr. Sanderson.

And lastly, the trouble being now past, I look back and am glad that I have collected these me

moirs of this humble man, which lay scattered, and contracted them into a narrow compass; and, if I have, by the pleasant toil of so doing, either pleased or profited any man, I have attained what I designed when I first undertook it. But I seriously wish, both for the reader's and Dr. Sanderson's sake, that posterity had known his great learning and virtue by a better pen; by such a pen, as could have made his life as immortal as his learning and merits ought to be.

I W.

THE LIFE

OF

DR. ROBERT SANDERSON.

DR. ROBERT SANDERSON, the late learned Bishop of Lincoln, whose Life I intend to write with all truth, and equal plainness, was born the 19th day of September, in the year of our redemption 1587. The place of his birth was Rotherham in the county of York, a town of good note, and the more, for that Thomas Rotherham, sometime Archbishop of that see, was born in it; a man whose great wisdom, and bounty, and sanc tity of life gave a denomination to it, or hath 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 sanctity, his useful learning, and his many other extraordinary endow

ments.

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 honorable family of his own name: for the search of which truth I refer my reader that inclines to it, to Dr. Thoriton'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 show us who of our ancestors have, and how they have achieved that honor 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 valor, or that virtue that acquired them, they destroy the very foundation upon which that honor was built; and all the rubbish of their degenerousness ought to fall heavy on such dishonorable heads; ought to fall so heavy, as to degrade them of their titles, and blast their memories with reproach and shame.

But this Robert Sanderson lived worthy of his name and family; of which one testimony may