XXV1I1 LIFE OF WALTON. 



known ; for, without it, no one can tell who or what he is refuting) 

 by the initials " T. C." and the adjunct " lib." above-mentioned. 



Here the matter rested, till the re-establishment of episcopacy and 

 the liturgy (both which, it is well known, were abolished by the 

 usurpers under Cromwell) revived the question of the lawfulness of 

 both the one and the other, and gave rise to a controversy that is 

 likely never to end. 



The praise of Hooker's book is, that it is written with great force 

 of argument, and in a truly Christian temper ; that it contains a won- 

 derful variety of learning and curious information ; and for richness, 

 correctness, and elegance of style, may be justly deemed the standard 

 of perfection in the English language, i 



This excellent man, Hooker, was by a crafty woman betrayed into 

 a marriage with her daughter ; a homely ill-bred wench, and, when 

 married, a shrew; who is more than suspected, at the instigation of 

 his adversaries, to have destroyed the corrected copy of the three last 

 books of his invaluable work, of which only the former five were pub- 

 lished by himself. He was some time Master of the Temple j but his 

 last preferment was to the rectory of Bishop's-Bourne, near Canter- 

 bury. In his passage from Gravesend to London, in the tilt-boat, he? 

 caught a cold; which brought on a sickness that put an end to his 

 days, in 1600, when he had but just completed his forty-seventh year. 



HERBERT was of the noble family of that name; and a younger 

 brother of the first of modern deists, * the famous Edward lord 



(I) It i worth remarking upon thi* dispute, liow the separatists have 

 shifted their ground : at first, both parties seemed to be agiced, that with- 

 out an ecclesiastical establishment of some kind or other, and a discipline 

 in the church to be exercised over its ministers and members, the Christian 

 religion could not subsist ; and the only question was, Which, of the two, 

 had the best warrant from scripture, and the usage of the primitive Church ; 

 a _< r>i nment by blskops, priests, and deacons ; or, by presbyters and lay 

 etders, exercising jurisdiction in provincial and parochial synods and 

 classes, over the several congregations within counties, or particular divi- 

 sions of the kingdoms 1 But of this kind of church government we now 

 hear nothing, except in the church of Scotland. All congregations are 

 now independent of each other, and every congregation is styled a church : 



The father of this tenet, was Robinson, a pastor of an English 



church at Leyden ; if not the original founder of the sect called Brotvnlsts, 

 now extinct; and the great maintainers of it; were the divines most 

 favoured by Cromwell in his usurpation, Goodwyn, Owen, Nye, Caryl, and 

 others. The presbyter ions, it seems, have approved it; and, giving up 

 their scheme of church government, have joined the independents ; and 

 both have chosen to be comprehended under the general denomination of 

 Dissenters. Vide Quick's A'ynodkon. Vol. II. 467. Calamy's Life of Baxter, 

 Vol. I. 47. Preface to Dr. Grey's Hudibrat. 



(t) So truly termed ; as being the author of a treatise l>> Verltate 

 prout distinguitur a Rfvelatione, a vrrlsimili, tl possibill, A, falsd. Touch- 

 ing which book, and the religious opinions of the author, I shall here take 

 occasion to mention a fact that I find related in a collection of periodical 

 papers, entitled the Weekly Miscellany, published in 1736, in two vols. 8vo. 

 Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, being dangerously ill, and apprehensive that 

 his end was approaching, sent for Dr. Jeremy Taylor, and signified a desire 

 of receiving the sacrament at his hands : the doctor objected to him the 

 tenets contained in his writings, particularly those wherein he asserts the 

 sufficiency and absolute perfection of natural religion, with a view to shew 

 that any extraordinary revelation is needless; and exhorted him to retract 



