BISHOP HALL, HIS LIFE AND TIMES. CHAPTER I. IF 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. 66 My father was an officer under that truly honorable and religious Henry Earl of Hunting don, President of the North; and, under him, had the government of that market-town, wherein the chief seat of that earldom is placed. "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. divinity, which I have heard from her mouth! What day did she pass, without a large task of private devotion? whence she would still come forth, with a countenance of undissembled mortification. Never any lips have read to me such feeling lectures of piety: neither have I known any soul that more accurately practised them than her own. Temptations, desertions, and spiritual comforts, were her usual theme. Shortly, for I can hardly take off my pen from so exemplary a subject, her life and death were saint-like.* 66 My parents had, from mine infancy, devoted me to this sacred calling, whereto, by the blessing of God, I have seasonably attained. For this cause, I was trained up in the public school of the place. After I had spent some years, not altogether * It is singular and remarkable that many of those divines, who have proved most eminent for their piety and usefulness, have, in a particular manner, experienced the benefit of parental instruction; and especially have imbibed religious principles from the piety and example of their mothers. Dr. Doddridge, before he was able to read, was instructed by his mother, in the histories of the Old and New Testament, by the assistance of some dutch tiles in the chimney of the room, where they usually sat. The names of Augustin, Hooker, Newton, Cecil, Buchanan, and Dwight, are here enumerated as instances of the happy and blessed effects of parental instruction in religion. This should encourage parents to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Though the instructions and pious examples of parents may not always seem to have immediate effect upon their children; yet the means should be used, and the most untoward may, through the divine blessing, be brought to the knowledge of the truth: for this is a course which has been so often crowned with success, and which is seldom or |