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Thus lived and dyed Sir Matthew Hale, the Renowned Lord Chief Justice of England: He had one of the blessings of Virtue in the highest measure of any of the Age, that does not always follow it, which was, That he was universally much valued and admired by Men of all sides and persuasions: For as none could hate him but for his Justice and Virtue, so the great estimation he was generally in, made, that few durst undertake to defend so ingrateful a Paradox, as anything said to lessen him would have appeared to be. His Name is scarce ever mentioned since his Death, without particular accents of singular respect. His Opinion in Points of Law generally passes as an uncontroulable Authority, and is often Pleaded in all the Courts of Justice. And all that knew him well, do still speak of as one of the perfectest Paterns of Religion and Virtue ever saw. The Commendations given him by all sorts of people, are such, that I can hardly come under the Considers of this Age, for anything I have said concerning him, yet if this Book lives to after-times, it will be looked perhaps as a picture, drawn more according to fancy and invention, than after the Life; if it were not that those who knew him well, establishing its Credit in the present Age, will make it pass down to the next with a clearer authority. I shall pursue his praise no further in my own words, but shall add what the present LORD CHANCELLOR of ENGLAND said concerning him, when he delivered the Commission to the Lord Chief Justice Rainford, who succeeded him in that Office, which he begun in this manner:
"The Vacancy of the Seat of the Chief justice of this Court and that by a way and means so unusual, as the Resignation of him, that lately held it; and this too proceeding from so a deplorable a cause, as the infirmity of that Body, which began to forsake the ablest mind that ever presided here, bath filled Kingdom with Lamentations, and given the King many and pensive thoughts, how to supply that Vacancy again." And a little after, speaking to his Successor, he said, "The very Labours of the place, and that weight and fatigue of Business which attends it, are no small discouragements; For what Shoulders may not justly fear what Burden which made him stoop, that went before you? Yet I confess, you have a greater discouragement than the mere Burden of your Place, and that is the unimitable Example of your last Predecessor: Onerosum est succedere bono Principi, was the saying of him in the Panegyrick: And you will find it so too, that are to succeed such a Chief Justice, of so indefatigable an Industry, so invincible a Patience, so Exemplary an Integrity, and so magnanimous a contempt of worldly things, without which no Man can be truly great; and to all this a Man that was so absolute a Master of the Science of the Law, and even of the most abstruse and bidden parts of it, that one may truly say of his Knowledge in the Law, what St. Austin said of St. Hieromes's Knowledge in Divinity, 'Qued Hieronimus nescivit, nullus mortalium un-quam scivit.' And therefore the King would not suffer himself to part with so great a Man, till he place upon him all the marks of Bounty and Esteem, which his retired and weak condition was capable of."
To this high Character, in which the expressions, as they become the Eloquence of him who pronounced them; so they do agree exactly to the Subject, without the abatements that are often to be made for Rhetorick I shall add that part of the Lord Chief Justices Answer, in which he speaks of his Predecessor,
"A person in whom his Eminent Virtues, and deep Learning, .have long managed a Contest for the Superiority, which is not decided to this day; nor will it ever be determined, I suppose, which shall get the upper hand, A person that has sat in this Court these many years, of whose Actions there I have been an eye and ear-witness, that by the greatness of his Learning always charmed his Auditors to reverence and attention; A person of whom I think I may boldly say, that as former times cannot shew any Superior to him, so I am confidant succeeding and future time will never Show any equal. These considerations heightened by what I have heard from your Lordship concerning him, made me anxious, and doubtful, and put me to a stand, how 1 should succeed so able, so good, and so great a Man. It doth very much trouble me, that 1, who in comparison of him am but like a Candle lighted in the Sun-shine, or like a Glow-worm at Mid-day, should succeed so great a Person, that is and will be so eminently famous to all Posterity: And 1 must ever wear this Motto in my Breast to comfort me, and in my Actions to excuse me:
"Sequitar, quamvis non passibus equis." "
Thus were Penegyricks made upon him while yet alive, in that same Court of Justice which he had so worthily governed. As he was honoured while he lived, so he was much lamented when he died: And this will still be acknowledged as a just Inscription for his Memory, though his modesty forbid any such to be put on his Tombstone:
THAT HE WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST PATERNS
THIS AGE HAS AFFORDED, WHETHER IN HIS PRIVATE
DEPORTMENT AS A CHRISTIAN, OR IN HIS PUBLIC
EMPLOYMENTS, EITHER AT THE BAR OR
ON THE BENCH.
FINIS.
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