John Hales

a younger son of Joh. Hales, (Steward to the family of the Horners in Somersetshire) eldest son of Edw. Hales of Highchurch in the said County, son of Jo. Hales of the same place, son of Rich. Hales, by his wife the daughter of Beauchamp; was born in the Parish of S. James within the City of Bathe and educated in Grammar Learning there. At 13 years of age he was sent to the University in the beginning of the year 1597, and was for some time a Scholar of Corp. Ch. Coll. At length the prodigious pregnancy of his parts being discovered by the Hedge-beaters of Sir Hen. Savile, he was encouraged by them to stand for a Fellowship of Merton Coll. Whereupon an Election being appointed and made in 1605 (3 Jac. 1.) and all the Candidates sifted and examined to the utmost, he was the first that was chosen. In which Election, as he shew’d himself a person of Learning above his age and standing, so thro the whole course of his Bachellourship there was never any one in the then memory of man (so I have been informed by certain Seniors of that Coll. at my first coming thereunto) that ever went beyond him for subtile Disputations in Philosophy, for his eloquent Declamations and Orations; as also for his exact knowledge in the Greek Tongue, evidently demonstrated afterwards, not only when he read the Greek Lecture in that Coll. but also the publick Lecture of that Tongue in the Schools. His profound learning and natural endowments, (not that I shall take notice of his affability, sweetness of nature and complaisance, which seldom accompany hard Students and Criticks) made him beloved of all good men, particularly of Savile before mentioned, who found him, tho young, serviceable in his Edition of S. Chrysostom’s Works, and therefore oftenmention’d with honor by that noted Greecian Andrew Downes Greek Professor of Cambridge. Afterwards he was made Fellow of Eaton Coll, partly, if I mistake not, by the help of Savile, and partly by Sir Dudley Carleton, with whom he went, in the quality of Chaplain, when he was sent Embassador to the United Provinces, at what time the Synod of Dort was celebrated, an. 1618, where our Author Hales did good service in several respects, so far as his capacity did permit him. From that time till about the year 1638, no great matters occur memorable of him, only his acquaintance with Will. Chillingworth, whom he assisted in his great work, as I shall anon tell you, which made him to be noted among the learned, especially for certain opinions that were not thought fit to be by him entertained. In that year, I say, Dr. Laud Archb. of Canterbury, who had received cognisance of his great worth, did send for him to Lambeth, sifted, and ferreted him about from one hole to another, in certain matters of Religion that he partly then, but more in his younger days, maintained: And finding him an absolute Master of Learning, made him, upon his complyance, one of his Chaplains, and procured a Canonry of Windsore for him, installed therein 27 of June 1639. which, with his Fellowship, was all that this most incomparable person, whom I may justly stile a walking Library, enjoy’d. He was a man highly esteemed by learned men beyond, and within, the Seas, from whom he seldom fail’d to receive Letters every week, wherein his judgment was desir’d as to several points of Learning. He was a very hard Student to the last, and a great Faster, it being his constant custom to fast from Thursday dinner to Saturday: And tho a person of wonderful knowledge, yet he was so modest, as to be patiently contented to hear the disputes of persons at table, and those of small abilities, without interposing or speaking a word, till desir’d. As for his justness and uprightness in his dealings, all that knew, have avouched him to be incomparable: For when he was Bursar of his Coll. and had received bad money, he would lay it aside, and put good of his own in the room of it to pay to others. Insomuch that sometimes he has thrown into the River 20 and 30 l. at a time. All which he hath stood to, to the loss of himself, rather than others of the Society should be endamaged. After the Civil War began, occasion’d by the iniquity of the restless Presbyterians, he was turn’d out of all, and into his Fellowship was thrust in by the Authority of Parliament, one Penwarden, who being afterwards touch’d in conscience for the wrong he had done so worthy a person by eating his bread, went and voluntarily would have resign’d up the place again to him, but Mr. Hales refused, telling him, that the Parliament having put him out, he was resolved never to be put in again by them. As for his Canonry of Windsore, it laid void till his Majesties Restauration, an. 1660, and then ’twas bestowed on Anth. Hawles D. D. sometimes of Queens Coll. in Oxon. At length he being reduced to necessity, was forced to sell the best part of his most admirable Library (which cost him 2500 l.) to Cornelius Bee of London Bookseller, for 700 l. only, as I have been informed by persons of unquestionable veracity. ’Tis true that one of the Sedleian Family of Kent did invite him to live in his Family, with an Allowance of 100 l. per an, the keeping of two Horses and a Servants diet, but he being wedded to a retir’d and studious life, refused to accept of that generous offer; yet about that time he accepted of a quarter of that Salary, with his diet, in the family of one Madam Salter (Sister, if I mistake not, to Dr. Duppa B. of Sarum) who lived near Eaton, purposely that he should instruct her son Will. Salter; but he being blockish, Hales could do nothing upon him. Afterwards a Declaration issuing out, prohibiting all persons from harbouring Malignants, that is Royalists, he left that Family, notwithstanding rhe Lady desired him to the contrary, telling him, that she would undergo all danger that might ensue by harbouring him, and retiring to Eaton, he took up his quarters and sojourned in an house next to the Christopher Inn, belonging then to Hannah the widow of John Dickenson, (a Servant from his youth to our Author Hales) and afterwards the wife and widdow of one Sim. Powney; which Hannah was very careful of, and respectful to, him, as having formerly at her Marriage received of his bounty. Other persons of the loyal party, would have exhibited to, had they not been equal sharers in affliction with, him, and therefore it was that he died in an obscure condition, much pitied by many then in being, but by more in the next generation, particularly by such (which you’ll say is a wonder) that were no friends to the Church of England, who did ((a))((a)) See in the Rehearsal transpros’d, written by Andr. Marvell, pr. 1672. p. 175. reckon it not one of the least ignominies of that age, that so eminent a person of the Church of England (as Hales was) should have been by the iniquity of the times reduced to those necessities under which he lived, &c. And whereas he had been heard to say in his former days that he thought he should never dye a Martyr, yet he was known to live a Confessor, and died little less than a Martyr for the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England. The Publisher ((b))((b)) Dr. Jo. Pearson B. of Chester in his Preface to Jo. Hales his Remaines. of his Remains doth tell us, that “He was a man of as great sharpness, quickness, and stability of wit, as ever this, or perhaps any, Nation bred. His Industry did strive, if it were possible, to equal the largeness of his capacity. Proportionable to his Reading was his Meditation, which furnished him with a judgment beyond the vulgar reach of man. So that he really was a most prodigious example of an acute and piercing wit, of a vast and illimited knowledge, of a severe and profound judgment, &c. ” He tells us also, that he was true and just in his secular Transactions, and charitable beyond example, and as a Christian, none was ever more acquainted with the nature of the Gospel, because none more studious of the knowledge of it than he. That he was sollicited to write, and thereby to teach the World, but would resolve against it; yet did not hide his Talent, being so communicative that his Chamber was a Church and his Chair a Pulpit, and ((c))((c)) Pet. Heylyn in his Life and death of Dr. W. Laud Archb. of Cant. under the year 1638. was as communicative of his Knowledge, as the celestial Bodies of their Light and Influences. When the King and Court resided at Windsore, he was much frequented by Noble-men and Courtiers, who delighted much in his company, not for his severe or retired Walks of Learning, but for his polite Discourses, Stories and Poetry, in which last, ’tis supposed, he was excellent; for a noted ((d))((d)) Sir Joh. Suckling in his Fragm. aurea, or Poems. Lond. 1648. p. 10. Poet of that time doth bring him into The Session of Poets, thus:

Hales set by himself most gravely did smile,

To see them about nothing keep such a coile,

Apollo had spied him, but knowing his mind,

Past by and call’d Falkland ((e))((e)) Lucius Lord Falkland. that sate just behind.

Oratio funebris in obitum Cl. Equitis Tho. Bodleii, 29 Mar 1613. Oxon. 1613. qu. printed again in 1681. in the Collection of Lives, published by Dr. Will. Bates.

Several Sermons, as (1) Serm. at S. Maries on Tuesday in Easter week, on Pet. 3.16. Oxon. 1617. qu. and divers others. which you may see in his Remains. One Joh. Hales hath a Sermon of Duells extant, on Numb. 35.33. which I take to be the same with our Author, yet it is not printed in his said Remains. Another also Concerning the abuse of obscure and difficult places of Scripture, &c. Quaere.

Dissertatio de pace & concordia Ecclesiae. Eleutheropoli 1628. in tw. This book which is much celebrated by famous Authors, is printed in the same character and at the same supposed place, as his Brevis disquisitio, and therefore by the generality is taken to be written by our Author.

Brevis disquisitio, an & quomodo vulgo dicti Evangelici Pontificios, ac nominatim Val. Magni De Acatholicorum credendi regula judicium, solidè atque evidenter refutare queant. Eleuth. 1633. in 16. This book containeth, as the Puritan then said, Sundry, both Socinian and Pelagian Points, as also that the body which shall be raised in the Resurrection is not idem numero: And that Souls do not live till the Resurrection, besides other points, &c. ’Tis true that certain of the principal Tenents were cunningly inserted therein, pretending them for the best Expedients to appease some Controversies between the Ch. of England and Rome.

A Tract concerning Schism and Schismaticks, wherein is briefly discovered the original and cause of all Schism.—All or most of this Pamphlet was taken, as ’tis said, from Socinus, and written about the year 1636, partly, as some think, out of discontent, that he had no preferment confer’d on him, partly, as others say, for the encouragement of some great Masters of Wit and Reason to dispute the Authority of the Church, and partly at the request of his friend W. Chillingworth, who desired some such matter of, to be used by, him, in the composition of his book intit. The Religion of Protestants, &c. Several copies of it were transmitted from hand to hand, and one coming into those of Dr. Laud, he therefore sent for him, as I have already told you, entred into a long discourse with him about certain particulars therein, and being drawn over to his mind, our Author Hales, as ’tis ((f))((f)) Sam. Parker in his Reproof to the Rehearsal transpros’d, p. 135. said, recanted, and was then resolved (tho before inconstant) to be orthodox, and to declare ((g))((g)) Pet. Heylyn, as before, an. 1638. himself a true Son of the Church of England both for Doctrine and Discipline. This Tract was afterwards published without a name, in one large sh. in qu. an. 1642, when the Press was open for every Opinion. And since it hath given great advantage and use to some that have not loved, nor are Lovers of, the Ch. of Engl. as (1) E. S. in his Irenicum. (2) Dr. Jo. Owen in his Plea for the Nonconformists. (3) The Author of Separation no Schism, wrot against Dr. Jo. Sharp’s Sermon before the Lord Mayor, on Rom. 14.19. (4) Andr. Marvell in his Rehearsal transpros’d, part 1. &c. So that advantage being taken by it, and the Tract several times printed, some of the orthodox Clergy have answer’d it; among which have been (1) Rob. Conold M. A. in his Notion ((h))((h)) Printed at Lond. 1677. oct. of Schism in two letters. The last of which is against Hales. (2) Tho. Long B. D. in his Character of a Separatist, but more largely in his book intit. Mr. Hales’s Treatise of Schism examined and censur’d, &c. One Philip Scot also, a Rom. Cath. doth modestly accost our Author in his Treatise of the Schism of England, Amsterd. 1650. in tw. but he goes another way to work. See more in Will. Page among these Writers, under the year 1663.

Golden Remains. Lond. 1659. 73. 88. oct. These Remains consist of Sermons, Miscellanies, Letters and Expresses from the Synod of Dort, &c.

Tract concerning sin against the Holy Ghost. Lond. 1677. oct.

Tract conc. the Sacrament of the Lords Supper.—A just censure of which you may see in a book intit. An account of the Greek Church, &c. written by Tho. Smith B. of D. of Magd. Coll. printed 1680. p. 169.

Paraphrase on S. Mathews Gospel.

Tract concerning the Power of the Keys, and Auricular Confession.

Miscellanies.—With these is printed his Tract concerning Schism before mention’d, according to the orig. copy. These four last things are printed and go with his Tract concerning sin against the Holy Ghost. At length having lived to the age of seventy and two years, concluded his last day at Eaton, in the house of Hannah Powney before mentioned, on Munday the nineteenth day of May, at about eight of the clock at night, in sixteen hundred fifty and six, and was, according to his desire,1656. buried (but little better than in private) in Eaton College Churchyard. Over his grave was afterwards an Altar Monument erected, at the charge of one Pet. Curwen sometimes a Scholar of Eaton and his great Admirer, with an Inscription thereon, which partly runs thus: Musarum & charitum amor Johannes Halesius (nomen non tam hominis quam scientiae) hic non jacet, at lutum quod assumpsit optimum infra ponitur, nam certe supra mortales emicuit moribus suavissimis, ingenio subtilissimo, pectore pleno sapuit mundo sublimior adeoque aptior Angelorum choro, &c.