us
work of Mr. Hooker is one, and as it stands before the rest it is
therefore called a Preamble to the whole.

VIII. THREE TREATISES inserted in the "CLAVI TRABALES," viz. 1. "On
the KING'S POWER in Matters of RELIGION." 2. "Of his POWER in the
ADVANCEMENT of BISHOPS to their ROOMS of PRELACY." 3. "The KING'S
EXEMPTION from CENSURE and other JUDICIAL POWER."

It will not be improper to notice a publication of great merit,
entitled "A FAITHFUL ABRIDGMENT of the WORKS of that learned and
judicious Divine, Mr. RICHARD HOOKER, in eight books of ECCLESIASTICAL
POLITY, and of all the other Treatises which were written by the same
Author. With an Account of his Life. By a Divine of the Church of
England. _London_, 1705."

THE LIFE
OF
MR. GEORGE HERBERT,
PREBENDARY OF SALISBURY CATHEDRAL.

"Where with a soul composed of harmonies,
Like a sweet swan, he warbles as he dies
His Maker's praise, and his own obsequies."

--COTTON.

INTRODUCTION
TO THE
LIFE OF GEORGE HERBERT.

[Sidenote: A box of ointment]

In a late retreat from the business of this world, and those many
little cares with which I have too often cumbered myself, I fell into
a contemplation of some of those historical passages that are recorded
in Sacred Story: and more particularly of what had passed betwixt our
blessed Saviour and that wonder of Women, and Sinners, and Mourners,
St. Mary Magdalen. I call her Saint, because I did not then, nor do
now consider her, as when she was possessed with seven devils; not as
when her wanton eyes and dishevelled hair were designed and managed
to charm and ensnare amorous beholders. But I did then, and do now
consider her, as after she had expressed a visible and sacred sorrow
for her sensualities; as after those eyes had wept such a flood of
penitential tears as did wash, and that hair had wiped, and she most
passionately kissed the feet of her's and our blessed Jesus. And I do
now consider, that because she loved much, not only much was forgiven
her: but that beside that blessed blessing of having her sins
pardoned, and the joy of knowing her happy condition, she also had
from him a testimony, that her alabaster box of precious ointment
poured on his head and feet, and that spikenard, and those spices
that were by her dedicated to embalm and preserve his sacred body
from putrefaction, should so far preserve her own memory, that these
demonstrations of her sanctified love, and of her offi