Fisher, and went to Douay; but, in 1631, returned to England. From his intercourse with Laud he came back to Protestantism, wrote several defences of it, but above all, his great work entitled, The Religion of Protestants, or safe Way to Salvation. Preferment now poured in upon him; but he for a time refused promotion, objecting to the Articles and the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed. He at length, however, accepted of the chancellorship of Salisbury, with the prebend of Brixworth, in Northamptonshire. In the civil wars he attached himself to the Royal party; took a leading part in the siege of Gloucester, whence he retired to Arundel-castle, which was taken by the Parliamentary forces. Here he fell ill through his exertion, and was removed to Chichester, where he died, 1614. He is said to have been a man of little stature, but of great soul! Cheynell, a fanatic clergyman, molested him in his last moments, and at his interment insulted his memory. He threw a copy of his famous book into his grave, as full of carnal reason and damnable heresy! Tillotson and Locke, however, were sensible of his incomparable merits, and will send his eulogium down to posterity.

3.

JOSEPH HALL, D. D.

SUCCESSIVELY BISHOP OF EXETER

NORWICH. DIED 1656.

AND OF

I CANNOT but second and commend that great Clerk, of Paris, who, when King Lewis of France,

required him to write down the best word that ever he had learned, called for a fair skin of parchment, and, in the midst of it, wrote this one word, Measure, and sent it, sealed up, to the King. The King, opening the sheet, and finding no other inscription, thought himself mocked by his Philosopher, and, calling for him, expostulated the matter. But when it was showed him, that all virtues, and all religious worthy actions, were regulated by this one word; and that, without this, virtue itself turned vicious, he rested well satisfied. And so he well might, for it was a word well worthy of one of the seven sages of Greece, from whom indeed it was borrowed, and put into a new coat. For while he said, of old, for his motto, nothing too much, he meant no other but to comprehend both extremes under the mention of one; neither, in his sense, is it any paradox to say, that too little is too much; for, as too much bounty is prodigality, so too much sparing is niggardliness, so as, in every defect, there is an excess, and both are a transgression of measure. Neither could aught be spoken of more use or excellency; for what goodness can there be in the world, without MODERATION, whether in the use of God's creatures, or in our own disposition and carriage? There is, therefore, nothing in the world more wholesome, or more necessary, for us to learn, than this gracious lesson of Moderation ; without which, in very truth, a man is so far from being a Christian, that he is not himself. This is the centre wherein all, both divine and moral philo

sophy, meet; the rule of life; the governess of manners; the silken string that runs through the pearl chain of all virtues; the very ecliptic line under which reason and religion move, without any deviation; and therefore most worthy our best thoughts of our most careful observance. For, surely, if the want of moderation, in practice, do most distract every man in his own particular, the want of moderation, in judgment, distracts the whole world from itself; whence it is that we find so miserable divisions all the earth over, but especially so woeful schisms and breaches in the Christian world; wherein we see one nation thus divided from another, and each one nation no less divided from itself. For it cannot be, since every man hath a mind of his own, not less different from others than his face, that all should jump in the same opinion; neither can it stand with that natural self-love, wherewith every one is possessed, easily to forsake the child of his own brain, and to prefer another man's conceit to his own. Hereupon, therefore, it comes to pass, that while each man is engaged to that opinion, which either his own election, or his education, hath given him, new quarrels arise, and controversies are infinitely multiplied, to the great prejudice of God's truth, and to the lamentable violation of the common peace. Would to God we could as well redress as bewail this misery, wherewith Christendom is universally infected!

Treatise on Christian Moderation.

JOSEPH HALL was born 1574, near Ashby-dela-Zouch, Leicestershire. His mother was a woman of uncommon piety. After being educated at the grammar-school of his native place, he was admitted of Emanuel College, Cambridge. He, in 1597, distinguished himself as a wit and poet, by publishing six books of Satires. He read lectures on rhetoric, preaching also in the villages and before the University. After various preferments he, in 1616, was made Dean of Worcester. In 1618 he attended the Synod of Dort, and in 1627 became Bishop of Exeter, having before refused the See of Gloucester, being a man of quiet habits and great modesty. Accused of puritanism, he was nevertheless sincerely attached to the Church of England; writing a book entitled, Episcopacy by Divine Right asserted. In 1641 he was translated to the see of Norwich, where he preached to large and attentive congregations. The Parliament, however, cruelly persecuted him, stopping his rents, and reducing him to poverty. He retired to Higham, in Norfolk, still disposed to works of charity and piety! Here he died, 1656, in the 82d year of his age; and is buried in the church-yard without a stone to his memory. His Meditations on the Old and New Testament, are valuable. They are, indeed, much admired, and ought to find a place in every library.

4.

THE EVER-MEMORABLE

JOHN HALBS,

CANON OF WINDSOR.-DIED 1656.

Look down, O Lord, upon thy poor dismembered church, rent and torn with discords, and even ready to sink! Why should the neutral, or Atheist, any longer confirm himself in his irreligion, by reasons drawn from our dissensions? Or why should any greedy-minded worldling prophesy unto himself the ruins of the sanctuary, or hope one day to dip his foot in the blood of thy church? We will hope, O Lord, in thee (for what hinders?) that, notwithstanding all supposed impossibilities, thou wilt one day in mercy look down upon thy Sion, and grant a gracious interview of friends, so long divided. Thou that wroughtest that great reconciliation between God and man, is thine arm waxen shorter? Was it possible to reconcile God to man? To reconcile man to man is it impossible? Be with those, we beseech thee, to whom the prosecution of church controversies is committed; and, like a good Lazarus, drop one cooling drop into their tongues and pens, too, too much exasperated against each other. And, if it be thy determinate will and counsel that this abomination of desolation, standing where it ought not, continue unto the end, accomplish thou, with speed, the number of thine elect, and hasten the coming of thy Son our Saviour, that he may