Bishop Hall, his Life and Times: or, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Sufferings of the Right Rev. Joseph Hall, D. D. successively Bishop of Exeter and Norwich; with a View of the Times in which he lived; and an Appendix, containing some of his unpublished Writings, his Funeral Sermon, &c. By the Rev. John Jones, Perpetual Curate of Cradley, Worcestershire. -L. B. Seeley and Son, Fleet Street. 1826. pp. 581. price 14s.

It is the aim of the author of this volume, as much as possible, to make the celebrated person whom it concerns, his own biographer; and since the documents of his personal history, written by himself, touch but slightly on various interesting circumstances of his life, partly on account of the great modesty of his disposition, the detail is rendered more copious, from whatever other authentic sources were at the author's command.

The times in which the Bishop lived being so eventful, and the estimation so high, which his "Contemplations" have given him among various classes in the religious world, we sit down to the perusal of this work with no ordinary degree of interest, especially as the author disavows, in his preface, the spirit of party, and discovers no disposition to that sort of special pleading, which is too commonly the characteristic of productions of the kind now before us. Beside the history itself, there is an Appendix, containing some of the bishop's previously unpublished pieces; particularly his Latin sermon, preached before the Synod of Dort; and his letters to Archbishop Usher. To these are subjoined his funeral sermon by

Whitefoot.

The narrative commences with a transcript of a tract written by himself, and entitled "Observations of some Specialities of Divine Providence, in the Life of Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, written with his own hand." In this document the writer, in a spirit of great Christian sobriety, declares that in thus drawing up memoirs of himself, he is induced, not by vanity or pride, but from a sincere desire to promote the glory of God.

Bishop Hall was born June 1, 1574, at Bristow Park, in the parish of Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire. His father was an officer under Henry Earl of Huntingdon, and was sub-governor of the town from which that nobleman derived his title. His mother was of the family of the "Bambridges," a woman of eminent piety; and who, after enduring severe conflicts in her religious experience, obtained relief from the conversation and advice of Mr. Anthony Gibbs, a nonconformist minister, whose preaching she attended. To this excellent woman, her son, with the deepest filial piety, attributes his enjoyment of the greatest religious advantages. His parents, it appears, devoted him from his infancy to the clerical profession, and he was educated with this view in the public school of Ashby de la Zouch. Afterwards he was about to be placed, at the suggestion of his schoolmaster, under the care of Mr. Pelset, at Leicester, a minister celebrated for his sacred eloquence and learning. The following extract indicates the disposition which characterized the writer at the age of fifteen years.

"What was the issue? O God, thy

providence made and found it. Thou knowest how sincerely and heartily, in

:

those my young years, I did cast myself on thy hands with what faithful resolution I did, in this particular occasion, resign myself over to thy disposition; ear nestly begging of thee in my fervent prayers to order all things to the best, and confidently waiting upon thy will for the event. Certainly, never did I, in all my life, more clearly roll myself upon the Divine Providence, than I did in this business. And it succeeded accordingly."p. 7.

When on the eve of becoming a pupil of Mr. Pelset, the way was unexpectedly opened for his repairing to the University of Cambridge, where he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Gilby. In consequence, however, of his father's family being so numerous, consisting of twelve children, he was sent for home, and would have lost the advantages of Cambridge through want of the pecuniary means of pursuing his studies, had not Mr. Edmund Sleigh, of Derby, his relation by marriage, generously become his Mecænas, undertaking to defray half the expence of his maintenance, till the time of taking his degree.

Having obtained the approbation of the constituents of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, during his residence among them, he was unanimously elected Fellow of their Society, whom he speaks of in the highest terms, saying that "it had none beyond it, for good order, studious conduct, strict government, austere piety, in which I spent six or seven years more with such contentment as the rest of my life hath in vain striven to yield."..

During this period he was chosen for two years together as lecturer in rhetoric in the public schools; which office he relinquished on account of his desire to devote himself more entirely to the pursuit of Christian theology. He was a hard student during his residence at the University, which occupied altogether the space of thirteen years. After he had taken orders, he immediately began

preaching, "as occasion offered," he himself informs us, "both in country villages, abroad, and in the most awful auditory of the University."

In 1601, he was offered the situation of head master of the Free School, erected at Tiverton, in Devonshire, by Mr. Peter Blundell, and in the gift of the Lord Chief Justice Popham. Of this offer he accepted; but having no sooner left the presence of the judge, than he received intelligence of his presentation to the rectory of Halstead, by Lady Drury, he declined the former station, and entertained the proposal of her ladyship, as more immediately according with his wishes to be employed in the sacred office.

Two years after his settlement at Halstead, he accepted of an invitation from Sir Edmund Bacon, to travel with him on the Continent of Europe; feeling extremely desirous of being an ocular witness of the state and practices of the Romish church, which he considered might be of service to him in the discharge of the duties of his station on his return home. The account of this visit, chiefly to the low countries, is highly interesting and curious; it gives us an insight into the manners of the times; exhibits to advantage the style of the author, which is here often highly concise and latinized; a perfect contrast to the flimsiness of a later age, and, moreover, discovers the solemnity of his mind, and that tincture of superstition with which his disposition was obviously imbued. As a specimen, we quote the following passage.

"At Gant, a city that commands reverence for age and wonder for the greatness, we fell upon a Capuchin Novice, which wept bitterly, because he was not allowed to be miserable. His head had now felt the razor; his back, the rod all that Laconical discipline pleased him

well; which another, being condemned to, would justly account a torment. What

hindered then? Piety to his mother, would not permit this, which he thought piety to God. He could not be a willing beggar, unless his mother must beg unwillingly. He was the only heir of his father, the only stay of his mother: the comfort of her widowhood depended on this her orphan; who now, naked, must enter into the world of the Capuchins, as he came first into this; leaving his goods to the division of the fraternity: the least part whereof should have been her's, whose he wished all. Hence those tears, that repulse. I pitied his ill-bestowed zeal ; and rather wished, than durst, teach him more wisdom. These men for devout, the Jesuits for learned and pragmatical, have engrossed all opinions from other Orders. O hypocrisy! No Capuchin may take or touch silver: for these are, you know, the quintessence of Franciscan spirits. This metal is as very an anathema to these, as the wedge of gold to Achan: the offer whereof he starts back, as Moses from the serpent; yet he carries a boy with him, that takes and carries it, and never complains of either metal or measure. I saw, and laughed at it; and by this open trick of hypocrisy, suspected more, more close. How could I choose? while, commonly, the least appears of that which is; especially of that which is loathsome in appearance, much more in nature. At Namur, on a pleasant and steep hill-top, we found one, that was termed a married hermit; approving his wisdom above his fellows, that could make choice of so cheerful and sociable a solitariness.

at

"Whence after a delightful passage up the sweet river Mosa, we visited the populous and rich clergy of Leodium. The great city might well be dichotomized into cloisters and hospitals. If I might adventure I could here play the critic; after all the ruins of my neglected philology. Old monuments, and after them our Lipsius, call this people Eburones. I doubt whether it should not rather be written Ebriones; yet, without search of any other records, save my own eyes: while yet I would those streets were most moist with wine than with blood; wherein no day, no night is not dismal to some. No law, no magistrate lays hold on the known murderer, if himself list: for, three days after his fact, the gates are open, and justice shut: private violence may pursue him, public justice cannot: whence, some of more hot temper carve themselves of revenge; others take up with a small pecuniary satisfaction. O England, thought I, happy for justice, happy for security! There you shall find, in every corner, a maumet; at every door a beggar; in every dish a priest.

"From thence we passed to the Spa, a village famous for her medicinal and

mineral waters, compounded of iron and copperas; the virtue whereof yet the simple inhabitant ascribes to their beneficial saint, whose heavy foot hath made an ill-shaped impression, in a tone of his Savenir; a water more wholesome than pleasant, and yet more famous than whole

some.

;

"The wide deserts on which it borders, are haunted with three kinds of ill cattle freebooters, wolves, witches; although these two last are ofttimes one. For, that savage Ardenna is reputed to yield many of those monsters, whom the Greeks call Avkavpwπeç; they, Lougarous; we if you will, Witch-wolves; witches that have put on the shape of those cruel beasts. We saw a boy there, whose half-face was devoured by one of them, near the village; yet so, as that the ear was rather cut than bitten off. Not many days before our coming at Limburgh, was executed one of those miscreants, who confessed on the wheel, to have devoured two and forty children in that form. It would ask a large volume to scan this problem of lycanthropy. The reasons, wherewith their relation furnished me, on both parts, would make an epistle tedious. This, in short, I resolved; a substantial change is above the reach of all infernal powers; proper to the same hand, that created the substance of both herein the devil plays the double sophister; yea, the sorcerer with sorcerers; he both deludes the witch's conceit, and the beholders' eyes."-pp. 34-37.

After remaining a year and a half at Halstead, where he struggled with the disadvantages of poverty, he was introduced by his friend Mr. Gurrey, tutor to the Earl of Essex, to preach at Richmond before Prince Henry, at whose court, to its honour, his "Meditations," already published, had been well received. In consequence, probably, of this introduction, Mr. Hall now received the curacy Waltham, which, though it promised him an accession of comfort, he felt great reluctancy to exchange for Halstead. His letters to Sir Robert and Lady Drury on this occasion, discover a truly pastoral spirit; and evince the mutual regret which ensued on the separation of the minister from the people of his charge.

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His removal to Waltham Holy Cross took place in 1612, the same

year in which he finished his terms, and became entitled to the degree of Doctor in Divinity, which he now assumed. About this time he became a principal instrument in inducing Thomas Sutton, Esq. to found and erect the Charterhouse Hospital.

In 1610, he appeared as the apologist of the Church of England against the Brownists. We are not about to defend any of the evils spoken of, as attaching to the personal character of their founder, or his original followers; but we think the extracts which are given from the good Bishop's writings, are quite beside the mark, as they touch chiefly upon the ritual observations of the establishment, and not upon the system itself, as built the foundation upon of the Lords and Commons, the King himself being the chief corner stone. The superiority of the Church of England to the Romish, no candid person will be disposed to doubt, and it is not merely to the ceremonies, or mainly to the ceremonies, as such, we apprehend, that the advocate of a different form of the church demurs. The present objections, at least, which we are accustomed to hear, usually regard something more than mere ceremonies. The advocates of the Church of England have never been able, for instance, to reconcile the doctrine of baptismal regeneration with Scripture or reason. That it is the doctrine of the church, that infants become heirs of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, in the administration of baptism, is undeniable. If the sign of the cross might be pardoned as a puerility, yet the doctrine is at least unscriptural and unreasonable. The decidedly evangelical part of the national clergy have attempted to explain this away with a very ill grace, as true sons of the church; and certain it is, that they will evermore, notwithstanding all

their efforts, and the scriptural truth of their sentiments on this head, make but a sorry figure in taking up the gauntlet against their orthodox brethren, whom the church regards as her only dutiful and proper sons. How also Bishop Hall would defend the consigning over to eternal blessedness all who do not die in what is called mortal sin, we know not; nor do we feel solicitous to know, for sure we are it cannot be defended. What an opiate to the conscience to stand round the grave of a person, who may very rarely have attended at any place of worship in his life-time, and have had at least no religious character, and to hear a venerable clergyman, whose piety, learning, and station give him influence over minds, pronounce that such a style of living, so flattering to the corrupt nature of men, should be entitled unequivocally to the " sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life!" But we must go no further in this direction, as it would lead us into too wide a field, and prevent us from doing justice to the interesting history before us. Suffice it to say, that notwithstanding the excellence of many of her sons, which we are always most ready to acknowledge, the whole system of the Church of England is notoriously corrupt. In its general constitution, it symbolizes with popery, of which, however superior, it may be regarded as the likeness and the penumbra. Both are founded on the principles of this world—both exalt the ministers of Christ out of their due sphere, or depress them by contrast below their per level. Some they crown with mitres, and place on throneswhile others are left to subsist on the scanty pittance which the tender mercy of their superiors may deign to eke out to them. Both seek to grasp the sceptre of civil dominion, and to give law

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