THE PREFACE. vii 



them (as perhaps in due time I may) under the denomina 

 tions of the sees whereof they were possessed when they 

 died. 



In what I have writ, I have endeavoured invariably to 

 follow the tract of truth, and have related things as I found 

 them. I may perhaps be censured for this plain and im 

 partial way of writing, and blamed, that I have not put 

 some veil or varnish upon some things, and been wholly 

 silent of others, which might reflect some blemish upon the 

 man I write of. In truth, I make no scruple to express 

 the defects and failings of men, as well as their excellent 

 qualities and praiseworthy deeds. We are not writing a 

 panegyric, but a faithful account. A sober reader might 

 justly misdoubt the whole, when all is praise, and every 

 passage of the life is represented as coming up to the per 

 fect and commensurate rule of justice, virtue, and honour. 

 And herein I follow a good historian, (Morison, Secretary 

 to the Lord Mountjoy, sometime Lord Deputy of Ireland,) 

 who, undertaking to write his Lord and Master s acts, bids 

 his reader confidently to believe, &quot; that as in the duty of 

 &quot; a servant he would not omit any thing he remembered, 

 &quot; which might turn to his Lord^s honour ; so, in his love 

 &quot; to truth, he would be so far from lying and flattery, as 

 &quot; he would rather be bold modestly to mention some of his 

 &quot; defects, whereof the greatest worthiness of the world can- 

 &quot; not be altogether free.&quot; Adding, that &quot; as he esteemed ly- 

 &quot; ing and flattery by word of mouth among the living to be in- 

 66 fallible notes of baseness and ignorance, so he judged these 

 &quot; vices infamous and sinful, when they were left in print to 

 &quot; deceive posterity.&quot; And as for the errors in good men s 

 lives, it suffices to say, that we are not angels in this state 

 of mortality, and men will be men, as Archbishop Parker 

 used to say. The best have their imperfections ; and there 

 have been many singular useful men, whose passions or 

 other temptations have made them sometimes to deviate 

 and go aside; and yet may their names stand fair, and 

 their examples be recommended to posterity. Some slips 

 and failings perhaps we may find in this Bishop in reading 



a3 



