the use of ceremonies, and by law to impose an obedience to them, as
upon her children; and this he proposed to do in "Eight Books of
the Law of Ecclesiastical Polity;" intending therein to shew such
arguments as should force an assent from all men, if reason, delivered
in sweet language, and void of any provocation, were able to do it:
and, that he might prevent all prejudice, he wrote before it a large
Preface, or Epistle to the Dissenting Brethren, wherein there were
such bowels of love, and such a commixture of that love with reason,
as was never exceeded but in Holy Writ; and particularly by that of
St. Paul to his dear brother and fellow-labourer Philemon: than which
none ever was more like this epistle of Mr. Hooker's. So that his dear
friend and companion in his studies, Dr. Spencer, might, after his
death, justly say, "What admirable height of learning, and depth of
judgment, dwelt in the lowly mind of this truly humble man--great in
all wise men's eyes, except his own; with what gravity and majesty of
speech his tongue and pen uttered heavenly mysteries; whose eyes, in
the humility of his heart, were always cast down to the ground; how
all things that proceeded from him were breathed as from the Spirit of
Love; as if he, like the bird of the Holy Ghost, the Dove, had wanted
gall:--let those that knew him not in his person, judge these living
images of his soul, his writings."

[Sidenote: Desire for quietness]

The foundation of these books was laid in the Temple; but he found
it no fit place to finish what he had there designed; he therefore
earnestly solicited the Archbishop for a remove from that place; to
whom he spake to this purpose: "My Lord, when I lost the freedom of my
cell, which was my College, yet I found some degree of it in my quiet
country parsonage: but I am weary of the noise and oppositions of this