that Dr. Sanderson did in his Will, or last sickness, advertise, that after his death nothing of his might be printed; because that might be said to be his, which indeed was not; and also for that he might have changed his opinion since he first writ it.  And though these reasons ought to be regarded, yet regarded so, as he resolves in that Case of Conscience concerning Rash Vows; that there may appear very good second reasons why we may forbear to perform them.  However, for his said reasons, they ought to be read as we do Apocryphal Scripture; to explain, but not oblige us to so firm a belief of what is here presented as his.

[Sidenote:  Tracts and a Sermon]

And I have this to say more; That as in my queries for writing Dr. Sanderson’s Life, I met with these little Tracts annexed; so, in my former queries for my information to write the Life of venerable Mr. Hooker, I met with a Sermon, which I also believe was really his, and here presented as his to the Reader.  It is affirmed,—­and I have met with reason to believe it,—­that there be some Artists, that do certainly know an original picture from a copy; and in what age of the world, and by whom drawn.  And if so, then I hope it may be as safely affirmed, that what is here presented for their’s is so like their temper of mind, their other writings, the times when, and the occasions upon which they were writ, that all Readers may safely conclude, they could be writ by none but venerable Mr. Hooker, and the humble and learned Dr. Sanderson.

And lastly, I am now glad that I have collected these memoirs, which lay scattered, and contracted them into a narrower compass; and if I have, by the pleasant toil of doing so, either pleased or profited any man, I have attained what I designed when I first undertook it.  But I seriously wish, both for the Reader’s and Dr. Sanderson’s sake, that posterity had known his great Learning and Virtue by a better pen; by such a pen, as could have made his life as immortal, as his learning and merits ought to be.

I.W.

THE LIFE
OF
DR. ROBERT SANDERSON,
LATE LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN.

[Sidenote:  Birth and birth-place]

Doctor Robert Sanderson, the late learned Bishop of Lincoln, whose Life I intend to write with all truth and equal plainness, was born the nineteenth day of September in the year of our Redemption 1587.  The place of his birth was Rotherham[1] in the County of York; a Town of good note, and the more for that Thomas Rotherham,[2] some time Archbishop of that see, was born in it; a man, whose great wisdom, and bounty, and sanctity of life, have made it the more memorable:  as indeed it ought also to be, for being the birth-place of our Robert Sanderson.  And the Reader will be of my belief, if this humble relation of his life can hold any proportion with his great Piety, his useful Learning, and his many other extraordinary endowments.

[Sidenote:  His father]