tant incidents, which will always prove interesting and instructive to all future generations.

In every period of the Christian Church, there have been some eminent characters endued with primitive simplicity and genuine excellence; among these we may most justly class the good, the pious, and the learned subject of the following Memoirs. His devotedness to the service of his divine Master, his great humility and patience under all his sufferings, were distinguishing traits in his character. The character given us of St. Augustin, may, with the greatest propriety, be applied to Bishop Hall: Insignis erat sanctissimi præsulis mansuetudo, ac miranda animi lenitas, et quædam invincibilis clementia.

In the Appendix to this volume there will be found some unpublished pieces of Bishop Hall, particularly his Letters to Archbishop Usher and others, and his Latin Sermon before the Synod of Dort; which, it is hoped, will prove very acceptable to all who possess the last edition of his Works. Whitefoot's Funeral Sermon, inserted in the Appendix, is also not only of rare occurrence, but is highly valuable and interesting, as containing some striking particulars in the life of the Bishop.

The author earnestly hopes that this volume may prove a profitable addition to the large mass of biography of good and excellent personages already before the public, as well as instructive and edifying to every Christian reader; and it is his sincere prayer that all the sons of the Church may imitate the example of Bishop Hall,-follow him as he followed Christ,-live above this vain and troublesome world,-bear with patience all the trials and sufferings of this mortal life, and continually "mind eternity." *

Cradley, Worcestershire,

Oct. 4, 1825.

• See Inscriptions on Bishop Hall's Monument, and of Mrs. Hall, pp. 419, 420.

BISHOP HALL,

HIS LIFE AND TIMES.

CHAPTER I.

IF

F the memory of the wise, the pious, and the good is blessed, and should be preserved and illustrated for the advantage and improvement of future ages; the name of JOSEPH HALL, successively Bishop of Exeter and Norwich, ought undoubtedly to be held in perpetual remembrance. Few, if any, of the fathers of the Church of England, have left behind them more lasting or exemplary proofs of learning, piety, and unwearied labours in the cause of truth. The purity of his life, the fervor of his charity, and the variety and importance of his theological writings, have ranked him among the brightest ornaments of the church. He was indeed a star of the first magnitude, alike admirable and eminent as an author, as an advocate of the church, and as a christian pastor and bishop of primitive simplicity and piety.

B

As Bishop Hall has left a brief account of his life, under the title of "Observations of some Specialities of Divine Providence in the Life of Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, written with his own hand," it appears advisable to adopt the whole of this narrative into the present Memoir, only pausing occasionally to introduce such other incidents and details as other and equally authentic accounts may furnish.

The Bishop thus commences the Memoirs of himself.

"NOT out of a vain affectation of my own glory, which I know how little it can avail me when I am gone hence; but out of a sincere desire to give glory to my God, whose wonderful providence I have noted in all my ways, have I recorded some remarkable passage of my forepast life. What I have done is worthy of nothing but silence and forgetfulness; but what God hath done for me, is worthy of everlasting and thankful memory.

"I was born July 1, 1574, at five of the clock in the morning, in Bristow-Park, within the parish of Ashby de la Zouch, a town in Leicestershire, of honest and well-allowed parentage.

"My father was an officer under that truly honorable and religious Henry Earl of Huntingdon, President of the North; and, under him,

had the government of that market-town, wherein the chief seat of that earldom is placed.

66

My mother Winifride, of the house of the Bambridges, was a woman of that rare sanctity, that, were it not for my interest in nature, I durst say, that neither Aleth the mother of that just Honor of Clareval, nor Monica, nor any other of those pious matrons anciently famous for devotion, need to disdain her admittance to comparison. She was continually exercised with the afflictions of a weak body, and oft of a wounded spirit: the agonies whereof, as she would oft recount with much passion, professing that the greatest bodily sicknesses were but flea-bites to those scorpions ; so, from them all, at last she found a happy and comfortable deliverance. And that, not without a more than ordinary hand of God: for, on a time, being in great distress of conscience, she thought in her dream, there stood by her a grave personage, in the gown and other habits of a physician; who, inquiring of her estate, and receiving a sad and querulous answer from her, took her by the hand, and bade her be of good comfort, for this should be the last fit that ever she should feel of this kind; whereto she seemed to answer, that, on that condition, she could well be content for the time, with that or any other torment; reply was made to her, as she thought, with a redoubled assurance of that happy issue of this her last trial;

whereat she began to conceive an unspeakable joy; which yet, on her awaking, left her more disconsolate, as then conceiting her happiness imaginary, her misery real; when, the very same day, she was visited by the reverend and (in his time) famous divine, Mr. Anthony Gilby,* under whose ministry she lived; who, upon the relation of this her pleasing vision and the contrary effects it had in her, began to persuade her, that dream was no other than divine, and that she had good reason to think that gracious premonition was sent her from God himself: who, though ordinarily he keeps the common road of his proceedings, yet, sometimes, in the distresses of his servants, he goes unusual ways to their relief: hereupon she began to take heart; and, by good counsel and · her fervent prayers, found that happy prediction verified to her; and, upon all occasions in the remainder of her life, was ready to magnify the mercy of her God in so sensible a deliverance. What with the trial of both these hands of God, so had she profited in the school of Christ, that it was hard for any friend to come from her discourse no whit holier. How often have I blessed the memory of those divine passages of experimental

* He was a pious and zealous Non-conformist; and was profoundly learned in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. He was patronized by the Earl of Huntingdon, and was presented to the Vicarage of Ashby de la Zouch.