by George Leon Walker

VII.

‘Twas of Genevahs Worthies said, with wonder,
(Those Worthies Three) Farell was wont to thunder;
Viret, like Rain, on tender grasse to shower,
But Calvin, lively Oracles to pour.

All these in Hookers spirit did remain:
A Sonne of Thunder, and a Shower of Rain,
A pourer-forth of lively Oracles,
In saving souls, the summe of miracles.

John Cotton’s Elegy.

WITH the single exception of the "Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline," spoken of in the last chapter, Mr. Hooker was not in primary purpose an author of books. Of his published writings some thirty titles are indeed extant. (1) Yet all these volumes, with the exception of the one on Church Polity, to whose composition he had been "haled by importunity," were at first discourses, whose original and main use was oral delivery, and whose chief object was the immediately practical one of impressing, convincing, and persuading the hearers of his voice.

Some of these discourses were apparently printed from notes taken down by hearers of his Lectures at Chelmsford, or possibly still earlier at Emmanuel; and even of others, concerning which we have the assurance that they are "as they were penned under his own hand," or "printed from his own papers written with his own hand," (2) we have no tokens of editorial revision by himself, and little of any intention in their composition that they should be printed at all. All his books – unless "The Poore Doubting Christian" be a possible exception - being published in England, either during his exile in Holland, his residence in America, or after his death, he saw none of them through the press; and though authorizing the issue of some of them, imparted to none the benefit of an author’s customary review of the printed page. One of them - "The Saints Dignitie and Dutie," published in 1651 - was compiled by his son-in-law, Shepard; two or three others - as "A Comment upon Christs Last Prayer," published in 1656, and "The Application of Redemption," published in 1659 - were issued under the prefatory supervision of Rev. Thomas Goodwin and Rev. Philip Nye; and some in all probability were printed from copies of Mr. Hooker’s discourses made by Rev. John Higginson, of Guilford, who is said (3) to have "transcribed from his manuscripts near two hundred of these excellent sermons which were sent over into England that they might be published; but by what means I know not, scarce half of them have seen the light unto this day." Several of the volumes are altogether anonymous, - a fact itself suggestive of the surreptitious use and publication of the materials of which they were compiled.

But though there is some diversity in the details of style and finish, such as this variety of manner in the appearance of the volumes would suggest, the family likeness is unmistakable. They obviously came, whatever verbal blemish may attach to them, from the same mind and pen.

Mr. Hooker was regarded by his associates - themselves men of great learning - as a learned man; and indications of the fact come out distinctly in his "Survey," and, in an exegetical way, to some extent in his discourses. But one looks in vain in his writings, as in the writings of his puritan contemporaries generally, for any apparent knowledge of current secular literature. The poets of the Elizabethan period find not the slightest token of existence in his pages. Shakspeare died in Hooker’s university days; Bacon while he was preaching at Chelmsford; but neither the poetry of the one nor the philosophy of the other, nor the literature which either of them stood in any wise the representative of, apparently came in the least degree within the ken of Hooker, any more than they did within the ken of most of his associates in the Puritan ministry of his time. Even the literature of the Prayer-book, with which they must have , been familiar from childhood, is almost unreflected in their pages.

Of the graces of a literary style, therefore, Hooker must not be looked to as an illustrator. He himself says, in the preface to his "Survey," what is applicable to all his writings: -

"As it is beyond my skill, so I professe it is beyond my care to please the nicenesse of men’s palates with any quaintnesse of language. They who covet more sauce then meate, they must provide cooks to their minde. . . .The substance and solidity of the frame is that which pleaseth the builder, it is the painters work to provide varnish."

This disclaimer is in Hooker’s genuine style. It is itself an illustration of that homely vigour and vivacity which made his pulpit utterances so arrestive of the most wandering or antagonistic attention, and makes the faded pages of his printed books frequently so lively and picturesque.

As to the mass of his writings, they are - laying aside the "Survey" - essentially on one theme. They are a body, not of doctrinal, but of experimental divinity. The discourses of which they are composed are said to have been, (4) and it is inherently probable that they were, the result of repeated preachings and lecturings upon the experimental aspects of religion, first at Cambridge when he lectured at Emmanuel, afterward at Esher and Chelmsford, and subsequently in America. He went over the ground again and again with marvellous minuteness and fulness of detail. His volumes are, when collected into their organic relationship, a development of what he conceived to be the soul’s way of seeking, finding, and enjoying Christ. Their titles, whether his own or given by others, distinctly indicate this recognized purpose running through them. "The Soules Preparation for Christ," "The Soules Humiliation," "The Soules Vocation," "The Soules Iustification," "The Soules Implantation," "The Soules Vnion with Christ," "The Soules Benefit from Vnion with Christ," "The Saints Dignitie and Dutie," - these, among others, show clearly the track along which he moved.

It is the line of thought followed rather by the pastor than the theologian. The robustest Calvinistic system of theology is everywhere implied and incidentally expressed in these discourses, but the statement of a system of theology is in none of them, or all of them, an aim. The aim is the persuasion of men; and to this purpose the .preacher brings a fecundity of conception, a power of spiritual anatomy, an amplitude and variousness of illustration, and an energy of utterance truly ;wonderful. Especially striking is this anatomic skill in dealing with the moral phenomena at that time so generally antecedent to, or attendant upon, conversion. To most modern readers the proportion will seem excessive which Mr. Hooker gives to the. experiences of the soul in mere "preparation" for conversion. He has volumes on these preliminary exercises of the spirit before it gets to the point of trust in Christ. He laid himself open, even while he lived, to the remark of the shrewd Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich: "Mr. Hooker, you make as good Christians before men are in Christ as ever they are after; would I were but as good a Christian now as you make men while they are but preparing for Christ." (5) Mr. Hooker’s course in this respect was probably extreme even for his time. But in those days of recoil from the outward ceremonial religion in which the Papacy had so long held men, the inward facts of personal experience were made the subject of the most careful scrutiny and dissection. Especially all the evasions and windings of the human spirit in recoil from the stern presentations made of the sovereignty and righteousness of God, were followed with microscopic acuteness and pitilessness of exposure. Conversion was a great thing and a difficult thing. It was "not a little mercy that will serve the turne . . . the Lord will make all crack before thou shalt finde mercy." (6) Mr. Hooker’s son-in-law, the "saintly" Thomas Shepard, put the matter thus in his "Sincere Convert": "Jesus Christ is not got with a wet finger. . . . It is a tough work, a wonderfull hard matter to be saved." (7) And again: "’T is a thousand to one if ever thou bee one of that small number whom God hath picked out to escape this wrath to come." (8) Holding these views of the immense difficulty of saving conversion, the vast liability to deception about it, together with the infinite misery of failure in the enterprise, it is not strange that the whole process of the spiritual enterprise should have been tried as by fire. As specimens of this kind of endeavour Hooker’s writings are unsurpassed. Of this feature of his teachings, as well as of others which will afford a more general view of his spirit and method as a preacher, the best conception will be gained by some, quotations from his books.

In "The Soules Preparation for Christ," the preacher is arguing on the necessity of a clear view of a man’s sinfulness, and says: (9) -

"First it is not every sight of sinne will serve the turne, nor every apprehension of a mans vilenesse; but it must have these two properties in it, First, he must see sinne_clearly; Secondlyconvictingly. First, he that will see sinne clearely, must see it truly and fully, and be able to fadome the compasse of his corruptions, and to dive into the depth of the wretchednesse of his vile heart, otherwise it wil befall a mans sinne as it doth the wound of a mans body: when a man lookes into the wound overly, and doth not search it to the bottome, it begins to fester and ranele, and so in the end he is slaine by it; so it is with most sinners, wee carry it all away with this, Wee are sinners; and such ordinary confessions; but we never see the depth of the wound of sin; and so are slaine by our sinnes. It is not a generall, slight, and confused sight of sinne that will serue the turne: it is not enough to say, It is my infirmity, and I cannot amend it: and wee are all sinners and so forth. No, this is the ground why wee mistake our evils and reforme not our wayes, because we have a slight and overly sight of sinne; a man must prove his wayes as the Goldsmith doth his gold in the fire, a man must search narrowly and have much light to see what the vilenesse of his owne heart is, and to see what his sinnes are, that doe procure the wrath of God against him. . . . We must looke on the nature of sinne in the venome of it, the deadly hurtfull nature that it hath for plagues and miseries, it doth procure to our soules; and that you may doe, partly if you compare it with other things, and partly if you looke at it in regard of yourselves: First, compare sinne with those things that are most feareful and horrible; As suppose any soule here present were to behold the damned in hell, and if the Lord should give thee a little peepe-hole into hell, that thou didst see the horror of those damned soules, and thy heart begins to shake in consideration thereof; then propound this to thy owne heart, what paines the damned in hell doe endure for sinne, and thy heart will shake and quake at it, the least sinne that ever thou didst commit, though thou makest a light matter of it, is a greater evill then the paines of the damned in hell, setting aside their sinne; all the torments in hell are not so great an evil, as the least sin is: men begin to shrink at this, and loathe to goe down to hell, and to be in endlesse torments."

But such a thorough sight of sin is needful to a thorough work of grace; for (10)-

"Many have gone a great way in the worke of humiliation, and yet because it never went through to the quicke, they have gone backe againe, and become vile as ever they were; I have known men, that the Lord hath layed a heavie burthen upon them, and awakened their consciences, and driven them to a desperate extremity, and yet after much anguish, and many resolutions, and the prizing of Christ, as they conceived, and after the renouncing of all, to take Christ upon his owne termes as they imagined; and even these when they have bin eased and refreshed, and God hath taken off the trouble, they have come to be as crosse to God and all goodnesse, and as full of hatred to Gods children as ever and worse too.

"Now why did these fall away? Why were they never Justified and Sanctified? and why did they never come to beleeve in the Lord Jesus? The reason is, because their hearts were never pierced for their sinne, they were never y loosened from it; this is the meanig of that place in Ier., Plow up the fallow ground of your hearts, and sowe not among thornes, it is nothing else, but with sound saving sorrow to have the heart pierced with the terrours of the Law seising upon it, and the vilenesse of sin wounding the conscience for it. The heart of man is compared to fallow ground that is unfruitfull; you must not sow amongst thomes and thistles, first plow it, and lay it bare and naked, and then cast in your seed. If a man plow here a furrow, and there a furrow, and leave here and there a bawke, hee is never like to have a good crop, there will grow so many thistles and so much grasse, that it will choake the seed: our hearts are this ground, and our corruptions are these thomes and thistles: Now if a man be content to finde some sinne hatefull, because it is shamefull; but will keepe here a lust and there a lust, hee will never make any good husbandry of the heart: though a faithfull Minister should sow all the grace of promises in his soule, he would never get any good by them, but the corruptions that remaine in the heart will hinder the saving work thereof. Therefore plow up all, and by sound saving sorrow labour to have thy heart burthened for sinne, and estranged from it, and this is good husbandry indeed."

But there is great liability to self-deception about this matter:-

"Oh doe not cozen your owne soules; it is not the teares of the eye, but the blood of the heart that your sinnes must cost, and if you come not to this, never thinke that your sorrow is good. . . . Now if all be true that I have said, there are but few sorrowers for sinne, therefore few saved; here wee see the ground and reason why many fly off from Godlinesse, and Christianity: This is the cause, their soules were onely troubled with a little hellish sorrow, but their hearts were never kindly grieved for their sinnes. If a mans arme be broken and disjoynted a little, it may grow together againe; But if it be quite broken off, it cannot grow together; so the terrour of the Law affrighted his conscience, and a powerfull Minister unjoynted his soule, and the Judgements of God were rending of him; but he was never cut off altogether: and therefore he returnes as vile, & as base, if not worse then before, & he growes more firmly to his corruptions. It is with a mans conversion, as in some mens ditching; they doe not pull up all the trees by the roots, but plash them: so when you come to have your corruptions cut off, you plash them, and doe not wound your hearts kindly, and you doe not make your soules feele the burthen of sinne truly: this will make a man grow and flourish still, howsoever more cunningly and subtilly. . . . Looke as it is with a womans conception, those births that are hasty, the children are either stillborne, or the woman most commonly dies; so doe not thou thinke to fall upon the promise presently. Indeed you cannot fall upon it too soone upon good grounds; but it is impossible that ever a full soule or a haughty heart should beleeve, thou mayest be deceived, but thou canst not be engrafted into Christ: therfore when God begins to worke, never rest till you come to a full measure of this brokennesse of heart. Oh follow the blow and labour to make this worke sound and good unto the bottome." (11)

But one test and measure of this "sound work" inculcated by Hooker has not, perhaps, attracted the notice its place in our American religious history deserves. It is that test of true conversion which in New England theology is commonly connected with the name of Dr. Hopkins, of Newport,- that a Christian should be willing to be damned if it be God’s will. Cotton Mather (12) follows his father Increase (13) in an attempt to defend Mr. Hooker from the imputation of teaching this doctrine, on the ground that the publication of Mr. Hooker’s writings was to a great extent "without his consent or knowledge; whereby his notions came to be deformedly misrepresented in multitudes of passages, among which I will suppose that crude passage which Mr. Giles Firmin, in his Real Christian so well confutes, That if the soul be rightly humbled, it is content to bear the state of damnation." The defence is well meant, but it is idle. The Hopkinsian doctrine of contentment in being damned was taught, nearly a century and a half before Hopkins, by Hooker and his son-in-law Shepard with the utmost distinctness. It is not by any supposition of incorrect reporting that the tenet can be got out of Hooker’s "Humiliation" or Sheplard’s "Sincere Convert." Hooker’s "Humiliation" is one of the best published of all his treatises, and bears internal evidence of as much accuracy in reproducing his thought and idiom of speech as any other.

And the doctrine in question is logically and rhetorically woven into the texture of both Hooker’s and Shepard’s volumes. It appears and reappears in them. It is prepared for, led up to, stated, enforced, and objections to it answered. There is no accidental and inconsiderate slipping into its utterance. It is accepted with full intelligence, and with clear recognition of its obnoxiousness and its difficulty to common experience.

The teachings of Hooker and his son-in-law on this matter were made the topic of correspondence between Shepard and Rev. Giles Firmin, and of an elaborate treatise by Firmin, largely in confutation of the utterances of Shepard and his father-in-law on the doctrine in question. (14) Many pages might be quoted from Shepard’s writings in support of this doctrine, but attention must here be confined to Hooker’s teachings on the subject.

The preacher is well aware he is dealing with a hard point:-

"Now I come to this last passage in this worke of Humiliation, and this is the dead lift of all. The Prodigall doth not stand it out with his Father and say, I am now come againe, if I may have halfe the rule in the Family, I am content to live with you. No, though hee would not stay there before, yet now hee cannot be kept out, hee is content to bee anything. . . Lord (saith he) shew me mercy, and I am content to be, and to suffer anything. So from hence the Doctrine is this. The Soule that is truly humbled is content to be disposed by the Almightie, as it pleaseth him. The maine pitch of this point lyes in the word content. This phrase is a higher pitch then the former of submission: and this is plaine by this example. Take a debtor, who hath used all meanes to avoyd the creditor: in the end he seeth that hee cannot avoyd the suit, and to beare it hee is not able. Therefore the onely way is to come in, and yield himselfe into his creditors hands; where there is nothing, the King must loose his right; so the debtor yields himselfe: but suppose the creditor should use him hardly, exact the uttermost, and throw him into the prison; Now to bee content to under-goe the hardest dealing it is a hard matter: this is a further degree then the offering himselfe. So, when the Soule hath offered himselfe, and he seeth that Gods writs are out against him, and his conscience (the Lords Serjeant) is coming to serve a Subpoena on him, and it is not able to avoyd it, nor to beare it when he comes, therefore he submits himselfe and saith, Lord, whither shall I goe, thy anger is heavy and unavoydable; Nay, whatsoever God requires, the Soule layes his hand upon his mouth, and goes away contented and well satisfied, and it hath nothing to say against the Lord. This is the nature of the Doctrine in hand; and for the better opening of it let me discover these things. . . . For howsoever the Lords worke is secret in other ordinary things, yet all the Soules that ever came to Christ, and that shall ever come to Christ, must have this worke upon them; and it is impossible that faith should be in the Soule; except this worke bee there first, to make way for faith. (15) . . .

"Thirdly, Hence the Soule comes to be quiet and framable under the heavy hand of God in that helplesse condition wherein he is; so that the Soule having been thus framed aforehand, it comes to this, that it takes the blow and lies under the burthen, and goes away quietly and patiently, he is quiet and saith not a word more: oh! this is a heart worth gold. He accounts Gods dealing and Gods way to be the fittest and most seasonable of all. Oh (saith he) it is fit that God should glorifie himselfe though I be damned forever, for I deserve the worst.(16)…

"Now see this blessed frame of heart in these three particulars. First, the Soule is content that mercy shall deny what it will to the Soule, and the Soule is content and calmed with whatsoever mercy denyes. If the Lord will not heare his prayers, and if the Lord will cast him away, because he hath cast away the Lords kindnesse, and if the Lord will leave him in that miserable and damnable condition, which he hath brought himselfe into, by the stubbornnesse of his heart, the Soule is quiet. Though I confesse it is harsh and tedious, and long it is ere the Soule be thus framed; yet the heart true1y abased is content to beare the estate of damnation; because hee hath brought this misery and damnation upon himselfe." (17)

"But some may here object and say, Must the Soule, can the Soule, or ought it to be thus content, to be left in this damnable condition? For the answer hereof; Know that this contentednesse implies two things, and it may bee taken in a double sense. First, Contentedness sometimes implies nothing else, but a carnall securitie. . . .But then; Secondly, it implies a calmnesse of the Soule not murmuring against the Lords dispensation toward him. . . . So wee should not bee carelesse in using all meanes for our good, but still seeke to God for mercy; yet thus we must be, and thus we ought to be contented with whatsoever mercy shall deny, because wee are not worthy of any favour; and the humble Soule reasons thus with itselfe and saith, my owne sinne, and my abominations have brought me into this damnable condition wherein I am, & I have neglected that mercy which might have brought me from it, therefore why should I murmure against mercy, though it deny me mercy? . . . Marke this well. He that is not willing to acknowledge the freenesse of the course of mercy, is not worthy, nay, hee is not fit to receive any mercy; but that Soule which is not content that mercy deny him what it will; he doth not give way to the freenesse of the Lords grace and mercy, and therefore that Soule is not fit for mercy.(18) . . .

"But some may object. Can a man feele this frame of heart, to be content, that mercy should have him in hell? doe the Saints of God find this? and can any man know this in his heart?

"To this I answer. Many of Gods servants have been driven to this, and have attained to it, and have laid open the simplicitie of their Soules, in being content with this." (19) . . .

"The soule that is thus contented to be at Gods disposing, it is ever improving all meanes and helpes that may bring him neerer to God, but if mercy shall deny it, the soule is satisfied and rests well apaid; this every Soule that is truely humbled may have, and hath in some measure." (20)

But this submission and humiliation of the soul no one can accomplish for himself; for-

"This union that is betweene the Soul and its corruptions is marveilous strong and firme, nay so strong and firme that there is no meanes under heaven, no creature in the world that is able to breake this union, and dissolve this combination that is between sinne and the soule, unless the Lord by his Almighty power come and break this conspiracy that is betweene sin and the soule against himselfe and the glory of his name. . . .As it is with the body of a man if there were a great and old distemper in a mans stomacke, if a man should put a rich doublet upon him and lay him in a Featherbed and use all other outward meanes this would doe him noe good because the disease is within. . . . Iust so it is with the soule of a man; a mans heart will have his sinne; there is an inward combination betweene the soule and sinne; now all meanes, as the Word and the like, is outward, and can doe no good in this kind, they cannot break the union betweene a mans heart and his corruptions, unless the Lord by his Almighty power and infinite wisdome make a separation betweene sinne and the soule, and dissolve this union." (21)

And God does sometimes interpose to afford this indispensable aid. Not always, indeed, for God’s purpose does not always go to the extent of a saving work.

"The Lord deales diversely as hee seeth fit; specially in these three wayes. First, if God have a purpose to civilize a man, he will lay his sorrow as a fetter upon him; he onely meanes to civilize him, and knocke off his fingers from base courses. . . . God onely rips the skinne a little, and layeth some small blow upon him; but if a man have beene a rude and a great ryoter, the Lord begins to serve a Writ upon him. . . so that now the soule seeth the flashes of hell, and Gods wrath upon the soule, and the terrours of hell lay hold upon the heart, and he confesseth that hee is so, and hee hath done so, and therefore he is a poore damned creature, and then the soule labours to welter it, and it may be his conscience will bee deluded by some carnall Minister that makes the way broader than it is, . . . or else it may be, hee stops the mouth of conscience with some outward performances: . . . and he wil pray in his family, and heare sermons, & take up some good courses; & thus he takes up a quiet civill course, and stayeth here a while, and at last comes to nothing: And thus God leaves him in the lurch, if he meanes onely to civilize him.

But secondly, if God intends to doe good to a man, hee will not let him goe thus, and fall to a civill course. . . .The Lord will ferret him from his denne, and from his base courses and practises: He will be with you in all your stealing and pilfering, and in all your cursed devices, if you belong to him hee will not give you over. . . . Now the soule is beyond all shift; when it is day, he wisheth it were night, and when it is night, hee wisheth it were day; the wrath of God followeth him wheresoever he goeth, and the soule would fain be rid of this, but hee cannot; and yet all the while the soule is not heavy and sorrowfull for sin; hee is burdened, and could bee content to throw away the punishment and horror of sinne, but not the sweet of sinne: as it is with a child that takes a live coale in his hand, thinking to play with it, when hee feeles fire in it, hee throwes it away; hee doth not throw it away because it is black, but because it burnes him: So it is here: A sinfull wretch will throw away his sinne, because of the wrath of God that is due to him for it, and the drunkard will be drunke no more; but if he might have his queanes and his pots without any punishment or trouble, he would have them with all his heart, hee loves the black and sweet of sinne well enough, but he loves not the plague of sinne. . . . Now in the third place, if the Lord purpose to doe good to the soule, he will not suffer him to be quiet here, but hee openeth the eye of the soule further; and makes him sorrow, not because it is a great and shamefull sinne, but the Lord saith to the soule, Even the least sinne makes a separation betweene mee and thee; and the heart begins to reason thus: Lord, is this true? is this the smart of sinne? and is this the vile nature of sinne? O Lord! how odious are these abominations that cause this evill, and though they had not caused this evill, yet this is worse then the evill; that they make a separation betweene God and my soule. Good Lord, why was I borne?" (22)

So that if God really intends to save a man he does not stop with any "morall and external drawing," but he works "effectually" to that end.

"I expresse it thus, looke as it is with the wheele of a clock, or the wheele of a lack that is turned aside, and by some contrary poyse set the wrong way. He now that will set this wheele right, must take away the contrary poyse, and then put the wheele the right way, and yet the wheele doth not goe all this while of it selfe, but first there is a stopping of the wheele, and a taking away of the poyse: and secondly the wheele must be turned the right way, and all this while the wheele is only a sufferer; so it is with the soule of a man, the heart of a man, and the will of a man, and the affections of a man; they are the wheeles of the soules of men. . . . Now when the Lord commeth to set these wheeles aright, he must take away the poyse and plummet that made them runne the wrong way, that is, the Lord by his almighty power, must overpower those sins and corruptions which harbour in the soule. . . and then the frame of the soule will be to God-ward, it will be in a right frame and order, it will runne the right way, and all this while the will is only a sufferer, and this I take to be the meaning of the text: That God by a holy kind of violence, rendeth the soule of a poore sinner, and withall by his almighty power, stops the force of a mans corruptions, and makes the soule teachable, and framable to the will of God, it makes it to lie levell, and to be at Gods command, and this is done by a holy kind of violence." (23)

But when this "effectual" sovereign work of grace is accomplished, there is no end to the consolations of the gospel.

"It is a word of consolation, and it is a cordiall to cheare up a mans heart, and carry him through all troubles whatsoever can betide him or shall befall him. This doctrine of Justification it seems to me to be like Noahs Arke, when all the world was to bee drowned: God taught Noah to make an arke, and to pitch it about, that no water, nor winds, nor stormes could breake through, and so it bore up Noah above the waters, and kept him safe , against wind and weather; when one was on the top of a mountain crying: O save me, another clambering upon the trees, all floting, and crying, and dying there; there was no saving but for those only that were gotten into the arke: Oh so it will be with you poor foolish beleevers, the world is like this sea, wherein are many floods of water, many troubles, much persecution: Oh get you into the arke the Lord Jesus, and when one is roring and yelling, Oh the devill, the devill; another is ready to hang himselfe, or to cut his owne throat; another sends for a Minister, and hee crieth, Oh there is no mercy for mee, I have opposed it; Get you into Christ, I say, and you shall bee safe I will warrant you; your soules shall bee transported with consolation to the end of your hopes." (24)

And of such justified state the Spirit of God gives inward witness:-

"The spirit doth evidence to the soule, broken and humbled, That the soule hath an interest in this mercy, that it was appointed for it, and he hath to meddle with it… We may observe that a witnesse in a cause doth marvellously cleare it, if he be wise and judicious, and the thing that before was doubtfull, comes now to be apparant: as now in a point of Law, two men contend for land; now if an ancient wise man of some place is called before the Judge at the Assizes, and hee beares witnesse. upon his knowledge, that such Landes have beene in the possession of such a generation or family, for the space of many yeares; this is a speciall testification, that this man being of that generation, he hath an interest in these lands: So it is with the witnesse of Gods Spirit, there is a controversie betweene Satan and the soule, the soule saith, oh, that grace and compassion might be bestowed on mee; why, (saith Satan) dost thou conceive of any mercy, or grace and Salvation? marke thy rebellions against thy Saviour, marke the wretched distempers of thy heart, and the filthy abhominations of thy life: dost thou thinke of mercy?. . Now the Spirit of God comming in, that casts the cause and makes it evident, if such a poore heart have interest, and may meddle and make challenge to mercy and salvation, because it hath beene prepared for them, from the beginning of the world to this very day. Now this gives a light into the businesse, & the evidence is sure, that this man hath title to all the riches and compassion of the Lord Jesus; Acts. 2. 39. Every poore creature thinkes, that God thinkes so of him, as hee thinkes of himselfe . . . whereas the Spirit of the Lord judgeth otherwise, and God meanes well toward him, and intends good to all you that have beene broken for your sins; and there is witnesse of it in heaven, and it shall be made good to your owne consciences." (25) -

Which gives a good ground for comfort and cheerful living: -

"Come what will come. This is his aim to settle the conclusion of their happines, and the certainty thereof: To be beyond the reach of al the hosts in Heaven and Earth. Therefore he musters up al, what we are, what shal be. If there were a thousand worlds to come, and should set themselves to shake the comforts of the faithful, it could not be. . . . The Devils and sin may as wel separate Christ from the Father, as pul the love of the Father from his own heart, and so from Christ, as separate us from it. . . . Be therefore content with what thou hast, our Saviors desire is to interest thee in the heart and love of the Father, as himself. Not to love thee as a Creature, as a friend, a subject, but as the Son of his love. What me? Yes thee, poor, weak, silly, worthless Worm, that beleevest in him. Go thy way therefore, never quarel, nor question any more. It is enough, nay it is too much. I would not have thought it. I durst not have desired it. I could not have beleeved it, but that our Savior hath said and done it." (26)

But what sort of preaching is it which leads to these salvatory results? Hooker gives his idea about it in answering the question, "What is a powerful minister?"

"The word is compared to a sword: as, if a man should draw a sword and flourish it about, and should not strike a blow with it, it will doe no harme; even so it is here with the Ministers, little good will they doe if they doe onely explicate; if they doe onely draw out the sword of the Spirit: for unlesse they apply it to the peoples harts particularly, little good may the people expect, little good shall the Minister doe. A common kind of teaching when the Minister doth speake only hoveringly, and in the generall, and never applies the word of God particularly, may be compared to the confused noise that was in the Ship wherein Jonah was, when the winds blew, and the sea raged, and a great storm began to arise. The poore Marriners strove with might and maine, and they did endeavour by all meanes possible to bring the ship to the shore; everyone cried unto his god and cast their wares into the sea, and all this while Ionas was fast asleepe in the ship: but when the Marriners came down and plucked him up, and said, Arise thou sleeper, . . . who art thou? Call upon thy God, then he was awakened out of his sleepe. The common delivery of the word is like that confused noise: there is matter of heaven, of hell, of grace, of sin spoken of, there is a common noise, and all this while men sit and sleepe carelessly, and never looke about them, but rest secure: but when particular application comes, that shakes a sinner, as the Pilot did Jonah, and asks him, What assurance of Gods mercy hast thou? what hope of pardon of sinnes? of life and happinesse hereafter? You are baptized, and so were many that are in hell: you come to Church, and so did many that are in hell: but what is your conversation in the meantime? Is that holy in the sight of God and man?

"When the Ministers of God shake men and take them up on this fashion then they begin to stirre up themselves, and to consider of their estates. This generall and common kind of teaching is like an enditement without a name: if a man should come to the assizes, and make a great exclamation and have no name to his enditement, alas, no man is troubled with it, no man feares it, no man shall receive any punishment by reason of it. So it is with this common kind of preaching, it is an enditement without a name. We arrest none before wee particularly arraigne them before the tribunall of the Lord, and show them these are their sinnes, and that unless they repent and forsake them they shall be damned: for then this would stirre them up, and make them seke to the Lord for mercy: this would rowse them out of their security, and awaken them, and make them say as the Jewes did to Peter and. the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren what shall wee doe to bee saved? " (27)

These extracts must suffice. They give a fair average indication of Hooker’s style. But they can of course only partially suggest the wonderful variety of pat, homely, forcible illustration, and of sharp, searching, and energetic application, with which the same essential theme of the process of personal religion in the soul is treated in every one of his many volumes, with the single exception which has been specified. They are the product of a mind intent on the characteristic functions of the preacher. And such a preacher was sure of hearers. Such an analyst of human emotions touched men at many points. A son of thunder and a son of consolation by turns, his ministry - whatever the defects or extravagances of his theology - could not have been other than that which all testimony declares it to have been, one of the most powerful of his age.

1 Appendix II.

2 See Goodwin and Nye’s preface, and the publisher’s announcement to the "Comment upon Christs Last Prayer" and "The Application of Redemption."

3 Magnalia, i. 315.

4 Magnalia, i. 314.

5 Giles Firmin’s Real Christian, p. 19.

6 Hooker’s The Soules Preparation, pp. 9, 10.

7 Shepard’s Sincere Convert, p. 150.

8 Ibid. p. 98.

9 The Soules Preparation (1632), pp. 12-14.

10 The Soules Preparation (1632), pp. 150-152.

11 The Soules Preparation (1632), pp. 182-187.

12 Magnalia, i. 315.

13 Prefatory letter to Solomon Stoddard’s Guide to Christ.

14 Firmin’s Real Christian, Preface, Introduction, and pp. 107-149

15 The Soules Humiliation (1638), pp. 98-100.

16 The Soules Humiliation (1638), pp. 106,107.

17 Ibid. 112.

18 The Soules Humiliation (1638), pp. 113-115.

19 Ibid, 115, 116.

20 Ibid. 114.

21 The Vnbeleevers Preparing for Christ (1638), pp. 138-140.

22 The Soules Preparation (1632), pp. 131-136.

23 Preparing for Christ (1638), part ii. pp. 24-26.

24 The Soules Exaltation (1638), pp. 122, 123.

25 The Soules Effectuall Calling (1638), pp. 79, 80.

26 Comment on Christs Last Prayer (1656), pp. 319, 320.

27 The Soules Implantation (1640), pp. 73-77.