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Fuller
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Fuller

ties. Moderation was therefore his favourite virtue, or 'the silken chain running through the pearl-string of all the virtues' (Holy State, p. 201). He distinguishes it from 'lukewarmness,' of which he cannot be fairly accused. But it can hardly be said that he was quite free from the weakness of the moderate man. It is intelligible that Heylyn accused him of 'complying with the times,' and called him a 'trimmer.' Moderate men are 'commonly crushed,' he says himself, 'between extreme parties on both sides,' whereas he was patronised by both sides, and beloved both by Charles I and by a regicide. The truth seems to be that his perfectly genuine moderation enabled him to accommodate himself rather too easily to men of all parties. His many dedications seem to escape flattery by their witty ingenuity, and his popularity implies a certain share of the wisdom of the serpent. He steered rather too skilful a course, perhaps, through a revolutionary time; but he really succeeded in avoiding any really discreditable concessions, and never disavowed his genuine convictions. Coleridge's remarks upon Fuller are in his 'Literary Remains,' 1836, ii. 381-390; Lamb's 'Selections,' with comments, published in his 'Essays,' first appeared in Leigh Hunt's 'Reflector,' No. 4 (1811); the essay by James Crossley in the 'Retrospective Review,' iii. 50-71, and the essay by Henry Rogers (originally in the 'Edinburgh Review,' January 1842), prefixed to a volume of selections in Longman's 'Travellers' Library,' 1856, may also be noticed.

Fuller was apparently one of the first authors to make an income by their pens. He says in the beginning of his 'Worthies' that 'hitherto no stationer hath lost by me.' It does not appear how much he made by the stationers. His works are:

  1. 'David's Hainous Sinne, Heartie Repentance, Heavie Punishment,' 1631 (reprinted in 1869, and by Dr. Grosart in Fuller's 'Poems and Translations in Verse,' 1868).
  2. 'The History of the Holy Warre,' 1639, 2nd edit. 1640, 3rd 1647, 4th 1651 (besides other reprints), reprinted 1840.
  3. 'Joseph's Party-coloured Coat,' 1640 (a collection of sermons), reprinted 1867 with 'David's Hainous Sinne,' &c.
  4. 'The Holy State and the Profane State,' 1642, also 1648, 1652, 1663 (reprinted in 1840 and 1841).
  5. 'Truth Maintained, or Positions delivered in a sermon at the Savoy, . . . asserted for safe and sound,' 1643.
  6. 'Good Thoughts in Bad Times,' 1645 and 1646.
  7. 'Andronicus, or the Unfortunate Politician,' 1646 (three editions) and 1649, also in second and later editions of 'Holy and Profane State.' In Dutch 1659.
  8. 'The Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience,' 1647, reprinted in 1810, 1812, 1815.
  9. 'Good Thoughts in Worse Times,' 1647, and with 'Good Thoughts in Bad Times' 1649, 1652, 1657, 1659, 1665, 1669, 1680; reprinted in 1810.
  10. 'A Pisgah-sight of Palestine,' 1650, 1652, 1668; reprinted in 1869.
  11. 'A Comment on the Eleven First Verses of the 4th Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel,' 1652 (twelve sermons).
  12. 'The Infant's Advocate,' 1652.
  13. 'A Comment on Ruth,' 1654.
  14. 'The Triple Recounter,' 1654.
  15. 'The Church History of Britain,' also the 'History of the University of Cambridge since the Conquest ' and the ' History of Waltham Abbey,' 1655; reprinted in 1837, edited by James Nichols, in 3 vols., and again 1840, 1842, and 1868, and edited by J. S. Brewer for the Oxford University Press, 1845. The 'Histories' of Cambridge and Waltham were reprinted in 1840, edited by James Nichols, with the ' Appeal of Injured Innocence.'
  16. 'A Collection of [four] Sermons, together with Notes upon Jonah,' 1656.
  17. 'The Best Name on Earth, together with several other [three] sermons,’ 1657 and 1659.
  18. 'The Appeal of Injured Innocence,'1659; reprinted in 1840 with the 'Histories' of Cambridge and Waltham Abbey.
  19. 'An Alarum to the Counties of England and Wales' (three editions), 1660.
  20. 'Mixt Contemplations in Better Times,' 1660; reprinted with former 'Contemplations' in 1830 and 1841.
  21. 'A Panegyrick to His Majesty,' 1660.
  22. 'The History of the Worthies of England,'1662; reprinted in 1811 and 1840.

Fuller published several separate sermons, including 'A Fast Sermon on Innocents' Day,' 1642; 'A Sermon on the 27th March,' 1643; 'A Sermon of Reformation,' 1643; and 'A Sermon of Assurance,' 1647. He contributed poems to Cambridge collections of verses in 1631 and 1633; a preface to the 'Valley of Vision,'1651 (a collection of sermons attributed to Dr. Holdsworth); an 'Epistle to the Reader,' and some lives to the 'Abel Redevivus,' 1651; a preface to the 'Ephemeris Parliamentaria,'1654; and a life to Henry Smith's 'Sermons,' 1657. A minute and most careful account of the bibliography of all Fuller's writings is given by Mr. Bailey.

[The anonymous life of Fuller, first published in 1661 (reprinted with Brewer's edition of the 'Church History') is the original authority; Oldys's Life in the Biog. Brit. (1750) is founded on this, with a painstaking examination of Fuller's writings. Memorials of the Life and Works of Thomas Fuller, by Arthur J. Russell (1844), adds a little; but everything discoverable was first brought together in Mr. John Eglinton