TO THE READER. THOUGH the several Introductions to these several Lives have partly declared the reasons how and why I undertook them; yet, since they are come to be reviewed, and augmented, and reprinted; and the four are now become one book; I desire leave to inform you that shall become my reader, that when I sometime look back upon my education and mean abilities, it is not without some little wonder at myself, that I am come to be publicly in print. And though I have in those Introductions declared some of the accidental reasons that occasioned me to be so; yet, let me add this to what is there said: that, by my undertaking to collect some notes for Sir Henry Wotton's writing the Life of Dr. Donne, and by Sir Henry's dying before he performed it, I became like those men that enter easily into a law-suit, or a quarrel, and having begun, cannot make a fair retreat and be quiet, when they desire it. And really, after such a manner I became engaged into a necessity of writing the Life of Dr. Donne, contrary to my first intentions and that begot a like necessity of writing the Life of his and my ever-honoured friend, Sir Henry Wotton. And having writ these two lives, I lay quiet twenty years, without a thought of either troubling myself or others, by any new engagement in this kind, for I thought I knew my unfitness. But about that time Dr. Gauden (then Lord Bishop of Exeter) published the Life of Mr. Richard Hooker, (so he called it) with so many dangerous mistakes, both of him and his books, that discoursing of them with his Grace, Gilbert, that now is Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, he enjoined me to examine some circumstances, and then rectify the Bishop's mistakes, by giving the world a fuller and a truer account of Mr. Hooker and his books than that Bishop had done and I know I have done so. And, let me tell the Reader, that till his Grace had laid this injunction upon me, I could not admit a thought of any fitness in me to undertake it: but when he had twice enjoined me to it, I then declined my own, and trusted his judgment, and submitted to his commands; concluding that if I did not, I could not forbear accusing myself of disobedience; and indeed of ingratitude for his many favours. Thus I became engaged into the third Life. For the Life of that great example of holiness Mr. George Herbert, I profess it to be so far a free-will offering, that it was writ chiefly to please myself; but yet not without some respect to posterity; for though he was not a man that the next age can forget, yet many of his particular acts and virtues might have been neglected, or lost, if I had not collected and presented them to the imitation of those that shall succeed us: for I humbly conceive writing to be both a safer and truer preserver 1 Doctor Gauden.] This Life was prefixed to "the Works of Mr. Richard Hooker in eight books of Ecclesiastical Polity, now compleated, as with the sixth and eighth, so with the seventh, out of his own manuscripts, never before published, 1662." Folio. of THE EPISTLE TO THE READER. 167 of men's virtuous actions than tradition, especially as it is managed in this age. And I am also to tell the Reader, that though this Life of Mr. Herbert was not by me writ in haste, yet I intended it a review before it should be made public but that was not allowed me, by reason of my absence from London when it was printing; so that the Reader may find in it some mistakes, some double expressions, and some not very proper, and some that might have been contracted, and some faults that are not justly chargeable upon me but the printer: and yet I hope none so great as may not by this confession purchase pardon from a good-natured Reader. And now, I wish that as that learned Jew, Josephus and others, so these men had also writ their own lives but since it is not the fashion of these times, I wish their relations or friends would do it for them, before delays make it too difficult. And I desire this the more, because it is an honour due to the dead, and a generous debt due to those that shall live, and succeed us; and would to them prove both a content and satisfaction. For, when the next age shall (as this does) admire the learning and clear reason which that excellent casuist Doctor Sanderson (the late Bishop of Lincoln) hath demonstrated in his Sermons and other writings; who, if they love virtue, would not rejoice to know that this good man was as remarkable for the meekness. and innocence of his life, as for his great and useful learning; and indeed, as remarkable for his fortitude, in his long and patient suffering (under them that then called themselves the Godly Party) for that doctrine, which he had preached and printed, in the happy days of the nation's and the church's peace: and who would not be content to to have the like account of Doctor Field, that great schoolman, and others of noted learning? And though I cannot hope that my example or reason can persuade to this undertaking, yet I please myself that I shall conclude my Preface, with wishing that it were so. J. W. 2 Account of Doctor Field.] Le Neve in the year 1716, edited" Some Short Memorials concerning the Life of that reverend Divine Doctor Richard Field, the learned Author of Five Books of the Church; written by his son Nathaniel Field, Rector of Stourton in the Countie of Wilts," creditable to the memory of the Father, and the filial piety of the son; but yet not extensive enough to preclude the wish for a more detailed narrative of the life of so eminent and amiable a man. WHEN to a nation's loss, the Virtuous die, Which though it be the poorest, cheapest way, And these are monuments of so short date, That with their birth they oft receive their fate; Dying with those whom they would celebrate. And though to verse great reverence is due, Something more sacred then, and more entire, |