Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Richd Hooker, George Herbert, | Page 8

days before, and one day after his Sermon. This house
was then kept by John Churchman, sometime a Draper of good note in
Watling-street, upon whom poverty had at last come like an armed man,
and brought him into a necessitous condition; which, though it be a
punishment, is not always an argument of God's disfavour; for he was a
virtuous man. I shall not yet give the like testimony of his wife, but
leave the Reader to judge by what follows. But to this house Mr.
Hooker came so wet, so weary, and weather-beaten, that he was never
known to express more passion, than against a friend that dissuaded
him from footing it to London, and for finding him no easier an
horse,--supposing the horse trotted when he did not;--and at this time
also, such a faintness and fear possessed him, that he would not be
persuaded two days' rest and quietness, or any other means could be
used to make him able to preach his Sunday's Sermon; but a warm bed,
and rest, and drink proper for a cold, given him by Mrs. Churchman,
and her diligent attendance added unto it, enabled him to perform the
office of the day, which was in or about the year 1581.
And in this first public appearance to the world, he was not so happy as
to be free from exceptions against a point of doctrine delivered in his
Sermon; which was, "That in God there were two wills; an antecedent

and a consequent will: his first will, That all mankind should be saved;
but his second will was, That those only should be saved, that did live
answerable to that degree of grace which he had offered or afforded
them." This seemed to cross a late opinion of Mr. Calvin's, and then
taken for granted by many that had not a capacity to examine it, as it
had been by him before, and hath been since by Master Henry Mason,
Dr. Jackson, Dr. Hammond, and others of great learning, who believe
that a contrary opinion intrenches upon the honour and justice of our
merciful God. How he justified this, I will not undertake to declare; but
it was not excepted against--as Mr. Hooker declares in his rational
Answer to Mr. Travers--by John Elmer[14], then Bishop of London, at
this time one of his auditors, and at last one of his advocates too, when
Mr. Hooker was accused for it.
[Sidenote: Wanted a nurse!]
[Sidenote: His marriage]
But the justifying of this doctrine did not prove of so bad consequence,
as the kindness of Mrs. Churchman's curing him of his late distemper
and cold; for that was so gratefully apprehended by Mr. Hooker, that he
thought himself bound in conscience to believe all that she said: so that
the good man came to be persuaded by her, "that he was a man of a
tender constitution; and that it was best for him to have a wife, that
might prove a nurse to him; such a one as might both prolong his life,
and make it more comfortable; and such a one she could and would
provide for him, if he thought fit to marry." And he, not considering
that "the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the
children of light;" but, like a true Nathaniel, fearing no guile, because
he meant none, did give her such a power as Eleazar was trusted
with,--you may read it in the book of Genesis,--when he was sent to
choose a wife for Isaac; for even so he trusted her to choose for him,
promising upon a fair summons to return to London, and accept of her
choice; and he did so in that, or about the year following. Now, the
wife provided for him was her daughter Joan, who brought him neither
beauty nor portion: and for her conditions, they were too like that wife's,
which is by Solomon compared to a dripping house: so that the good
man had no reason to "rejoice in the wife of his youth;" but too just
cause to say with the holy Prophet, "Wo is me, that I am constrained to
have my habitation in the tents of Kedar!"

This choice of Mr. Hooker's--if it were his choice--may be wondered at:
but let us consider that the Prophet Ezekiel says, "There is a wheel
within a wheel;" a secret sacred wheel of Providence,--most visible in
marriages,--guided by his hand, that "allows not the race to the swift,"
nor "bread to the wise," nor good wives to good men: and He that can
bring good out of evil--for mortals are blind to this reason--only knows
why this blessing was denied to patient Job, to meek Moses, and to our
as meek and patient Mr. Hooker.