so called, for that, besides
the stipend paid the Preacher, there is provision made also for his
lodging and diet for two 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