50. JOHN SPENCER, D.D
But if a Puritan can show that the Church of Christ is different from all civil societies, because Christ had framed a constitution for it, and that where the
Scriptures are silent, and neither enjoin nor forbid, no human association has a right to interpose its authority, but should leave the matter in-
JOHN SPENCER.
different: in such a case, Hooker's system would not be more stable than that of the Eastern philosopher, who rested the earth on the back of an elephant, who stood upon a huge tortoise, which stood upon nothing."
After the death of Hooker in 1600, his papers were committed to Dr. Spencer, the associate and assistant of his studies, to superintend their publication. He attended carefully to this literary executorship, till the translation of the Bible began to engross his attention, when he committed the other duty, though still retaining a supervisory care, to a young and enthusiastic admirer of Hooker. The publication was not completed at the time of Dr. Spencer's death, and the papers of Hooker passed into other hands. When he became Master of Arts, in 1580, John Spencer entered into orders, and became a popular preacher He was eventually one of King James's chaplains. His wife was a pupil of Hooker's, as well as her brothers, George and William Cranmer, who became diplomatic characters, and warm patrons of their celebrated teacher. Mrs. Spencer was a great-niece of Thomas Cranmer, that Archbishop of Canterbury, whom Queen Mary burnt at the stake for his Protestantism. In 1589, Dr. Spencer was made Vicar of Alveley in Essex, which he resigned, in 1592, for the vicarage of Broxborn. In 1599, he was Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, beyond Newgate, London. He was made President of Corpus Christi College, on the death of Dr. Reynolds, in 1607. Dr. Spencer was appointed to a prebendal stall in St. Paul's, London, in 1612. His death took place on the third day of April, 1614, when he was fifty-five years of age. Of his eminent scholarship there can be no question He was a valuable helper in the great work of preparing our common English version. We have but one publication from his pen, a sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross, and printed after his decease, of which Keble, who is Professor of Poetry at Oxford, says, that it is "full of eloquence, and striking thoughts." ROGER FENTON.
This clergyman was a native of Lancashire. He was Fellow of Pembroke Hall, in Cambridge University. For many years, he was "the painful, pious, learned, and beloved minister" of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, London, to which he was admitted in 1601.