moirs of this humble man, which lay scattered, and contracted them into a narrow compass; and, if I have, by the pleasant toil of so doing, either pleased or profited any man, I have attained what I designed when I first undertook it. But I seriously wish, both for the reader's and Dr. Sanderson's sake, that posterity had known his great learning and virtue by a better pen; by such a pen, as could have made his life as immortal as his learning and merits ought to be.

I W.

THE LIFE

OF

DR. ROBERT SANDERSON.

DR. ROBERT SANDERSON, the late learned Bishop of Lincoln, whose Life I intend to write with all truth, and equal plainness, was born the 19th day of September, in the year of our redemption 1587. The place of his birth was Rotherham in the county of York, a town of good note, and the more, for that Thomas Rotherham, sometime Archbishop of that see, was born in it; a man whose great wisdom, and bounty, and sanctity of life gave a denomination to it, or hath made it the more memorable; as indeed it ought also to be, for being the birth-place of our Robert Sanderson. And the reader will be of my belief, if this humble relation of his life can hold any proportion with his great sanctity, his useful learning, and his many other extraordinary endow

ments.

He was the second and youngest son of Robert Sanderson, of Gilthwaite-hall, in the said parish and county, Esq., by Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Richard Carr, of Butterthwaite-hall, in the parish of Ecclesfield, in the said county of York, gentleman.

This Robert Sanderson the father was descended from a numerous, ancient, and honorable family of his own name for the search of which truth I refer my reader that inclines to it, to Dr. Thoriton's

66

:

History of the Antiquities of Nottinghamshire," and other records; not thinking it necessary here to engage him into a search for bare titles, which are noted to have in them nothing of reality. For titles not acquired, but derived only, do but show us who of our ancestors have, and how they have achieved that honor which their descendants claim, and may not be worthy to enjoy. For if those titles descend to persons that degenerate into vice, and break off the continued line of learning, or valor, or that virtue that acquired them, they destroy the very foundation upon which that honor was built; and all the rubbish of their degenerousness ought to fall heavy on such dishonorable heads; ought to fall so heavy, as to degrade them of their titles, and blast their memories with reproach and shame.

But this Robert Sanderson lived worthy of his name and family; of which one testimony may

be, that Gilbert, called the great and glorious Earl of Shrewsbury, thought him not unworthy to be joined with him as a godfather to Gilbert Sheldon, the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury; to whose merits and memory posterity (the clergy especially) ought to pay a reverence.

But I return to my intended relation of Robert the son, who (like Josiah, that good king) began in his youth to make the laws of God, and obedience to his parents, the rules of his life; seeming even then to dedicate himself and all his studies to piety and virtue.

And as he was inclined to this by that native goodness, with which the wise Disposer of all hearts had endowed his; so this calm, this quiet and happy temper of mind (his being mild and averse to oppositions) made the whole course of his life easy and grateful both to himself and others; and this blessed temper was maintained and improved by his prudent father's good example, as also by his frequent conversing with him, and scattering short and virtuous apothegms with little pleasant stories, and making useful applications of them, by which his son was in his infancy taught to abhor vanity and vice as monsters, and to discern the loveliness of wisdom and virtue and by these means, and God's concurring grace, his knowledge was so augmented, and his native goodness so confirmed, that all became so

habitual, as it was not easy to determine whether Nature or Education were his teachers.

And here let me tell the reader, that these early beginnings of virtue were by God's assisting grace blessed with what St. Paul seemed to beg for his Philippians, namely, "That he that had begun a good work in them, would finish it." And Almighty God did for his whole life was so regular and innocent, that he might have said at his death, and with truth and comfort, what the same St. Paul said after to the same Philippians, when he advised them " 'to walk as they had him for an example."

And this goodness, of which I have spoken, seemed to increase as his years did; and with his goodness his learning, the foundation of which was laid in the grammar-school of Rotherham (that being one of those three that were founded and liberally endowed by the said great and good bishop of that name.) And in this time of his being a scholar there, he was observed to use an unwearied diligence to attain learning, and to have a seriousness beyond his age, and with it a more than common modesty; and to be of so calm and obliging behaviour, that the master and whole number of scholars loved him as one man.

And in this love and amity he continued at that school till about the thirteenth year of his age; at which time his father designed to improve his