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Within four years after the death of this venerable man, the most strict and diligent inquiry was made after them without fuccefs. Anthony Wood announces the publication of all the eight books, with certain tractates and fermons, fo early as in 1617. The titlepage of the edition of that year, on which he establishes his opinion, utters a glaring falfehood; the volume containing only five books, as well in this edition of 1617, as in the fubfequent ones of 1621 and 1631. The compilers of "The General Dictionary," and of "The Bicgraphia Britannica," relying on the authority of Wood, have fallen into the fame error.Without condefcending to examine the contents of the volume, they very injuriously charge Dr. Gauden with ignorance or confidence, when he infinuates that the Seventh Book was firft published in 1662.

The Sixth and Eight Books were printed at London in 1648, 4to, under the title of "The Lawes of Ecclefiafticall Politie, the Sixth and Eight Books: By Richard Hooker. A work long expected, and now published according to the most authentique copies." In this edition it is afferted that they were compared with five copies extant, in different libraries; in the Bodleian Library, in that at Lambeth, and in thofe of Bifhop Andrews, Archbishop Uther, and Lord Edward Conway. With regard to the degree of credit due to these copies, a profound filence is obferved..

Fourteen years after, namely in 1662, the Seventh Book (touching Epifcopacy, or the Pri mitive, Catholick, and Apoftolick Government of the Church) faid to be completed out of his own manufcripts, was publifhed by Dr. Gauden, then Bishop of Exeter, along with Mr. Hooker's other works.

It seems reasonable to expect that the fulleft and moft convincing proofs fhould have been adduced to substantiate these books as authentic. A cautious editor, when he prefents to the public light a choice and precious manufcript, that had long been buried in obfcurity, will not content himself with mere affertions: He will endeavour to inform his readers when and where it was difcovered: He will endeavour to establish its authority with all pofiible precision, fo as to banish every doubt concerning its genuinenefs. On the prefent occafion nothing of this kind has been attempted: When affeverations are urged without any attendant arguments to confirm their validity, the mind is left to fluctuate in uncertainty and perplexedness. It is declared by Dr. Gauden, that "these three laft books were never finifhed." The truth of this declaration is exprefsly contradicted, both by the above cited epitaph, and by Ifaac Walton's narrative.

It is added, that "they had been for many ages fuppreffed." Was it not, therefore, highly requifite to advance fome evidence of their originality after this long fuppreffion; to afcertain the place where they had eluded all inquiry; to inftruct us by what means they were brought from their dark abode? A treasure so ineftimable, a depofit fo dear to every good man, would furely have been preferved with the utmoft fidelity and caution; and, when ufhered

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Dr. Gauden published "Hooker's Works," in 1662, fol. A fecond edition, with "The Life of Mr. Hooker, by Ifaac Walton," appeared in 1666. fol. A third in 1676. fol. A fourth in 1682. fol. A fifth

In 1723, fol. And a fixth in 1793, printed at Oxford in three volumes, 8vo.

See "Dr. Gauden's Life, &c. of Mr. Richard Hooker."..

into the world, would have been accompanied with all the atteftations neceffary to enhance its worth.

He proceeds: "They are now come to light after our late long troubles, as fome buried statues or hidden monuments are oft discovered by earthquakes." Are we to attribute the difcovery of them, after a concealment for fo extenfive a period of time, to the distracted ftate of this country, amidst the horrors and confufions of a civil war? Yet what prevented their more early appearance? In the mild and peaceable reign of James I. when difquifitions on the difcipline and doctrine of the Church of England were the fubjects of general attention, the publication of them would have been peculiarly acceptable. And if their genuinenefs admitted no doubt, what caufes can poffibly be affigned for fecreting them? If they remained in the poffeffion of Mr. Hooker's friends, those friends would eagerly and without delay have configned them to the prefs. If his enemies concealed them, it is fcarce probable that from their hands they would emerge pure and uncontaminated.

He adds further: "Each of them is by learned critics judged to be genuine or authentic." Who thofe learned critics are, or upon what grounds they founded their criticism, we are left to conjecture. King Charles I. by whom the very name of Mr. Hooker was held in the highest veneration, thought otherwife. In his interview with Lord Say, he exprefsly maintained that the Sixth and Eight Books were not allowed to have been written by Mr. Hooker. And this opinion was probably the refult of his difcourfes on the fubject with those divines, in whofe converfation he delighted, and who were perfectly competent to decide upon the matter, being men of great candour and known integrity of mind, neither deficient in inquifitiveness, nor liable to be deceived by artifice. And no recent teftimony has been fince adduced to enervate the evidence that arises from the king's affertion.

Of the authenticity of the Sixth Book no intelligence is communicated.

The Seventh Book is affirmed," by comparing the writing of it with other indisputable papers or known manuscripts of Mr. Hooker, to be undoubtedly his own hand throughout." From this laft pofitive declaration it may be deemed difficult to withhold affent. Our acquiefcence in it would have been cheerfully given, if it had been fupported by any corroborating arguments:-If we had been informed when thefe papers and known MSS. were depofited, and by whofe nice difcriminating eye the collation was made.

The

It is remarked of the puritanical writers of those times, that they were not afhamed "to fett forth fuppofitious pamphlets in favour of their caufe, under the counterfeit names of other men of known piety and parts, whose former writings have been entertained with general approbation abroad in the world:" Their very names, they thought, would give fome countenance to any caufe which they could feem in any degree to own." "This," fays Dr. Sanderfon," is one of their piæ fraudes, or godly cheats; a practice common to them with the Jefuits, as many other of their practices (ey and of their doctrines too) are. Such an unhappy fatal coincidence not feldom there is of extremes. Thus they dealt with the reverend Primate of Armagh, printing his name, and that in his life-time too (which was their modefty and tenderness of confcience), to two feverall pamphlets, the one called Vox Hiberniæ,' and the other A Direction to the Parliament,” &c.” See" Clavi Trabales," p. 151.

The Eight Book has no other mark of legitimacy upon it, has no other character to elucidate its origin, than the bare affirmation, that " it is written by another hand, as a copy, but interlined in many places with Mr. Hooker's own character, as owned by him.”

Dr. John Spencer, Prefident of Corpus Chrifti College in Oxford, folicitous to preferve every document, every fragment of the writings of his friend, commiflioned Mr. Henry Jackfons, a fellow collegian, to form a tranfcript of all the papers which were left. This tranfcript was bequeathed by Dr. Spencer to Dr. John King, Bifhop of London, on whofe demife it devolved upon his fon the Bishop of Chichefter, by whom it was placed in the Archbishop's library at Lambeth. The dreadful devaftation made of that library by Hugh Peters, and the other Goths and Vandals of the age, leaves us no reafon to think, that the transcript, whatever it contained, cfcaped the general wreck. But there is no proof that it actually comprised the books in question. A particular description of it is given by Dr. Spencer himself in the advertisement prefixed to the fixth edition of the Five Books of Ecclefiaftical Polity. He affures us concerning these three laft Books, that " fome evil-difpofed minds, whether of malice or covetoufnefs, or wicked blind zeal, it is uncertain, as if they had been Egyptian midwives, as foon as they were born and their father dead, fmothered them, and by conveying away the perfect copies, left unto us nothing but certain old unperfect and mangled draughts, difmembered into pieces, and fcattered, like Medea's Alfirtus, no favour, no grace, not the fhadows of themselves almoft remaining in them." If he ever arranged thefe papers with a view to publish them as the finished works of Mr. Hooker, he feems to have altered his defign, from a decided conviction that they had no claim to be acknowledged in that light".

He intimates, in the advertisement above quoted, that there is a purpose of fetting forth the three laft Booksalfo, their father's pofihumi. It may be asked, what hindered this purpose ? Nothing certainly, but an affurance that the papers found by Mr. Henry Jackfon were in fo mangled and mutilated a condition, that they could not appear without manifeft injury to the reputation of their author. When it is remembered that Dr. Spencer furvived Mr. Hooker fourteen years, we must conclude that his refpect for the dignity of his friend's character deterred him from obtruding any work on the public which he did not confider as indifputably authentic.

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* Mr. Henry Jackson, born in the city of Oxford, was admitted Probationary Fellow of Corpus Chrifti College, Sept. 5, 1612. He was a great admirer of Mr. Richard Hooker, and of Dr. John Reynolds; whofe memories being most dear to him, he did for the fake of the firft, induftriously collect and publish fome of his small treatifes, and of the latter feveral of his epistles and orations. See "Wood's Ath. Ox." Vol. II. col. 291.

We learn from a letter, written by Mr. Henry Jackfon, and preferved in Fulman's papers, in the library of C. C. C. that Dr. Spencer actually intended to publish the Eight Book. "Puto præfidem nottrum emiffurum fub fuo Nomine D. Hookeri Librum octavum a me plane vita reftitutum. Tulit alter honores." What pains were taken by Mr. Jackson to render this Eight Book as perfect as poffit le, and how doubtful he was whether it really deferved the public light, appears from another letter: "Si totus non effem in poltendo libro octavo D. Richardi Hooker de Ecclefiafticâ Politiâ, quem præfes collegii noftri mihi commendavit, aliquid ad te mififfem, ut tuum expifcarer judicium an lucem necne mereatur."

It has been already remarked, that a copy of the three laft Books is faid to have been placed in Archbishop Ufher's library. If that learned and fagacious man had deemed the copy authentic, is it poffible to fuppofe that he would have withheld it from the public eye? In fact, his anxiety to preferve and make known the genuine writings of Mr. Hooker, appears from the care with which he felected three fhort treatifes written, with the hand of that excellent perfon, and published by Dr. Bernard, with the Primate's marginal notes, in the "Clavi Trabales: "Of gold," fays Bifhop Sanderfon, in a preface to this publication, "quævis bracteola the very filings are precious; and our Bleffed Saviour, when there was no want of provifion, yet gave it in charge to his difciples, that the offall should not be loft."

Mr. Ifaac Walton informs us, that the three perfect Books were loft, and that the wife of Mr. Hooker did not pay much attention to his memory after his death. She permitted Mr. Charke and his companion to ranfack his ftudy. These two men, profeffedly hoftile to the Church of England, burnt and tore many of his written papers, affuring her that they were writings not fit to be feen. Thus the invaluable treasure was irrecoverably gone, before Mr. Henry Jackfon entered on his commiffion. Nothing remained for him but the reliques of their favage plunder. Yet Mr. Neale, in his "Hiftory of the Puritans," Vol. I. p. 571. afferts with his usual boldness, that "the three laft Books were not published till many years after the author's death, though they were depofited in the hands of Archbishop Abbot, from whofe copy they were printed about the beginning of the civil wars." Not to remark the inaccuracy of his obfervation, for the Seventh Book first appeared in 1662, after the Restoration, we are led to infer from this affertion, that the three Books in their prefent ftate as corrected, revised, and prepared by Mr. Hooker for the prefs, were placed in the library at Lambeth, and there carefully preferved; when it is clear from the best authority, that of Dr. Spencer, that nothing was left but "certain old unperfect and mangled draughts, difmembered into pieces, and scattered like Medea's Abfirtus."

The excellent Dr. Jeremy Taylor confirms the fufpicion, that the three Books are not genuine. In the dedication of his celebrated work, entitled "Ductor Dubitantium," to King Charles II. He obferves, that "those cafes that concern the power, and offices of ecclefiaftical Superiors and Supreme, were, though in another manner, long fince done by the incomparable Mr. Hooker, in the Seventh and Eight Books of Ecclefiaftical Polity, or the learned Archbishop of Spalato: but their labours were unhappily loft, and never faw the light.” He adds, "Though I cannot attain to the ftrength of these champions of David, yet fince their portion of works is fallen into my hands, I have heartily endeavoured to fupply their lofs."

THE

In the earlier editions of "Walton's Lives," the perfon who married Margaret, the youngest daughter of Mr. Hooker, is called Clarke. This circumftance will admit an excufe for the error in the note at p. 287.

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