Note 147 — [2] A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD.[76] (continued 2)

We are told by Bishop Burnet (the Father of our Governor Burnet), that Judge Hale was born at Alderly in Gloucestershire, the first of November, 1609, and died on the 25th of December, 1676. In the Life of Sir Matthew, appended to his Contemplations, is given one of the most interesting Pieces of Biography extant. In Accordance with one of his Sayings he was buried in the Church-yard of Alderly, and not in the Church, as was in his Time the prevailing Custom—that Saying was: "The Churches were for the Living, and the Church-yards for the Dead." In the Bishop's Life of him will be found a particular Account of his Family. After the great Fire of London he was one of the principal Judges that sat in Clifford's Inn, to regulate the Affairs between Landlord and Tenant, growing out of that Desolation. And with Sir Orlando Bridgman he rendered great Service in accommodating Differences which otherwise would long have retarded the rebuilding of the City. Whereas its "sudden and quiet building is justly reconed one of the Wonders of the Age." He was made "Lord Chief Justice of England," May 18th, 1671, which Office he resigned but a few Months previous to his Death, owing to his Infirmity. He lamented the rigorous Proceedings against the Nonconformists, though the adherent to the established Church; and used to say, "Those of the Separation were good Men, but they had narrow Souls, who would break the Peace of the Church, about such inconsiderable Matters, as the Points in Difference were." There does not appear to be taken any Notice of the Trials of Witches by Burnet in his Life of the Judge. It may be sufficient to say, that, like our Judges, Sewall and Stoughton, he was a Believer in Witchcraft, because there was Evidence of its Existence in the Bible! He was a timid Man, and this Timidity would not allow him so much as "to sum up the Evidence" in the Trial above given, and thus was the Case submitted to the Jury, who speedily gave in their Verdict of Guilty. There can be no Doubt but if Sir Matthew Hale had lived until the End of the New England Trials, he would, like Judge Sewall, have repented of his Course.