passenger is said to have poured into his wounds both Oil and Wine i. e. Oil to cherish and refresh it and Wine to cleanse it Oleum quo foveatur vinum quo mordeatur He had not been a skilfuâ— Chirurgeon if he had done otherwise And the Doctor being to contend with so many and malicious Adversaries had been a very unwary writer had he made no distinction but accosted them all after one and the same manner The grand Exemplar of Sweetness Candor and Ingenuity used the severest invectives against the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees Certainly one Plaister is not medicinal to all kind of sores some of which may be cured with Balm when others more corrupt aud putrified do require a Lancing And thus did this Reverend man deal with the enemies of the King and Church insomuch that he received thanks from the Ministers of Surrey and Bucks in the name of themselves and that party for his fair and respectful language to them both in his Preface to his History of the Sabbath and conclusion of the same To conclude unless good words may receive pollution by confuting bad principles and describing bad things nothing of any rude or uncharitable language can be found in any of the Writings of Dr. Heylyn But as all men have not abilities to write Books so neither to pass sentence on them when written And yet whatever hard censures the Doctors Books have met with in the world I am persuaded his most inveterate enemies who will have but so much patience as to peruse impartially this Account given of his Life will believe that one who had acted written and suffered so much in the defence of the King and Church might have met with some Rewards or Respects in some measure suitable to his merits But God Almighty and wise Providence had otherwise ordered the Event of things purposing no doubt that this excellent person who had for the greatest part of his pilgrimage encountred with the spite and threatnings oppositions and persecutions of those who had subverted Monarchy in the State and Order and Decency in the Church should notwithstanding the Kings Restauration have administred to him another Trial of his passive Fortitude and that was to wrestle with the neglects and ingratitude of his Friends Indeed some Right Reverend Fathers in the Church amongst whom Bishop Cousins ought not to be passed over in silence protested not their wonder only but their grief that so great a Friend and Sufferer for the Royal Family and Church should like the wounded men in the Gospel be passed by both by Priest and Levite and have no recompence for his past Services besides the pleasure of reflecting on them But the States-men of those days rank'd the Doctor with the Milites emeriti the old Cavaliers of whose Principles there could be no fear and of whose Services there could be no more need But notwithstanding all the frowns of Fortune yet he could say his Nunc Dimittis with more sensible joy and chearfulness than he was able to do for many of the precedent years having the satisfaction to live I cannot say to see till the King was restored to his Throne and the Church to its Immunities and Rights Yea let them take all forasmuch as my Lord the King is come again in peace unto his own House The Doctor had nothing given him but what neither Law nor Justice could detain from him and that was the former Preferments that he had in the Church from the profits and possession of which he had been kept above seventeen years And with those he contentedly acquiesced and not unlike some of the old famous Romans after they had done all the Services they could for their Country returned home to their poor Wives and little Farms yoking again their Oxen for the Plough when they had fettered their enemies in Chains Above all this excellent Scholar enjoyed the inward peace and tranquillity of his own mind in that he fought a good fight kept the Faith finished his course discharged his Duty and Trust and had been counted worthy to suffer the loss of all things except his Conscience for the best of Princes and the most righteous of Causes in the world And I pray God grant that an old observation which I have somewhere met withal may not be verified either as to the concerns of Dr. Heylyn or any of the old Royallists viz. It is an ill sign of prosperity to any Kingdom where such as deserve well find no other recompence than the peace of their own Consciences But alas all these unkindnesses and neglects were trivial to the irreparable loss of his eye-sight of which he found a sensible and gradual decay for many years and therefore was the better enabled to endure it But about the year 1654. tenebrescunt videntes per foramina those that looked out of the windows were darkened and he was constrained to make use of other mens eyes but not in the sense as great persons do to guide him in the Motions of his Body tho not in the Contemplations of his Mind Like good old Iacob his eyes were dim and he could not see but there was this difference between them that the Patriarchs eyes were grown dim by reason of Age but Dr. Heylyns were darken'd with Study and Industry As the whole frame of his Body was uniform comely and upright his Stature of a middle size and proportion so his Eye naturally was strong sparkling and vivacious and as likely to continue useful and serviceable to its Owner as any mans whatsoever But by constant and indefatigable Study which for many years he took in the night being hurried up and down with a successive crowd of Business in the day either the Crystalline humor was dried up or the optick Nerves became perforated and obstructed by which means the Visive Spirits were stop'd and an imperfect kind of Cataract was fixed in his eyes which neither by inward Medicines nor outward Remedies could ever be brought to that maturity and consistence as to be fit for cutting Detestabilis est caecitas si nâ—mo oculos perdiderit nisi cui eruendi snnt No punishment would be more dreadful than blindness if none lost their eyes but those that had them pulled out by tortures and burning basons But this Sors Letho dirior omni this heavy affliction was by God laid upon Dr. Heylyn to exercise his Faith to quicken Devotion to try his Patience and to prepare him for his merciful Rewards Animo multis modis variisque delectari licet etiamsi non adhibeatur Aspectus Loquor autem de docto homine erudito cui vivere est cogitare Sapientis autem cogitatio non fermè ad investigandum adhibet oculos advocatos etenim si nox non adimit vitam beatam cur dies nocti similis adimat A man may recreate himself various ways altho his sight fail if he be knowing and learned For a wise man will entertain himself
make disquieting impressions on them And there is no better way for us to prevent that dishonour than by looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith and by taking those who have spoken in his Name for an example of suffering Affliction and of Patience Iam. 5. 10. But although Dr. Heylyn spoke in Name of the Lord yet few will be prevailed with to take him for a pattern in suffering persecution who believe those black Characters that have been of late given him by some of the Writers of this preâ—ent Age. And amongst the rest 't is matter of just wonder that Mr. Baxter who writes so frequently of Death and Iudgment and the account that must be given of all the hard speeches that are either spoke or writ against his Fellow-Christians should not be desirous to leave the troublesome stage of this world in a peaceable and calm temper and let those sleep quietly in their Graves whom he wish'd he had let alone when alive and unto whose learned labors he has not vouchsafed to return one word of Answer for above these two and twenty years And yet so it is that in his Preface to the Abridgment of Church-History he represents Dr. Heylyn to be a man of a malicious and bloody strain and one who spake of blood with pleasure thirsting after more c. I shall say little of that Book of Mr. Baxters understanding that it is taken into consideration by another hand But this I will not be afraid to affirm that if an impartial Pagan were to pass his judgment upon Christianity from those matters of Fact that are recorded in the Abridgment he would look upon it with a more uncharitable eye than Mr. Baxter does upon Dr. Heylyn and conclude it the most horrid Imposture in the world For what kind of Religion and Church was that which had little or nothing but Covetousness Ambition Oppression Simony Anarchy Tyranny Cruelty c. prevailing in it for so many centuries of years and no persons or conventions of men that had Wisdom and Power all that while to manage its affairs and concerns and to put it into any Apostolical or tolerable Order till an Army-Black-Coat who first almost dreined his Veins of their Blood against his Prince and then courted and caress'd a Tyrant and Vsurper and since that time has been employing his Spleen against the Church I say till such an one arose in the world and in affront to all the laws of Modesty and good Manners first prescribed a Platform of Civil Polity or Holy-Commonwealth to the State and then Rules of Government or Polity to the Church which should bind all Christians and be a Standard to all Superiors Let but any one seriously peruse the Abridgment and then judg whether Herod endeavoured with more malice to suppress the Genealogies of the Jewish Nation and especially those of the Royal Family that he himself might reign with more security than Mr. Baxter has done in throwing dirt upon Antiquity whereas a Divine of all men in the World ought to be very tender how he exposed the Nakedness of the Ancient Fathers lest he thereby exposed Christianity it self to scorn and contempt And we do not live in such an Age of piety and modesty but that some men would be very glad from the Abridgment if they had patience to read it to fix the like Infamy upon the Christian Faith as Cham did when he proclaimed the Nakedness of his Aged Father For my own part I never had the Honâ—ur either to know Dr. Heylyn or to be known by him But those who were his Familiars represent him to be one of a tender compassionate Spirit and that few men put a more candid construction upon Persons and Actions than he did 'T is true he writ of a bloody Sect but with a purpose to prevent the shedding of more Blood He vindicated the Monarchy and Hierarchy from the Calumnies of that Faction that was and is the implacable and sworn enemy of both And for this the Ashes of his Grave must be disturbed by one who as Tullie speaks does not consider but cast Lots in writing Books and whose voluminous Treatises are no more to be compared with the Learned Writers of this Church than the stuff of Kiderminster is to be valued at the same rate with the best Arras Dr. Heylyn was no more a Man of Blood than St. Paul was a Mover of Sedition And if he had 't is to be hoped he might have been as well Canonized for fighting for his Prince as some others are celebrated for Saints in the Everlasting Rest who died in the very Act of Rebellion against him But 't is no new thing for those who cut a purse to cry stop the Thief Mr. Baxter may be pleased to call to mind what was done to one Major Jenning the last War in that Fight that was between Lynsel and Longford in the County of Salop where the Kings Party having unfortunately the worst of the day the poor Major was stript almost naked and left for dead in the Field But Mr. Baxter and one Lieutenant Hurdman taking their walk among the wounded and dead Bodies perceived some Life left in the Major and Hurdman run him through the Body in cold blood Mr. Baxter all the while looking on and taking off with his own hand the Kings Picture from about his Neck telling him as he was swimming in his gore That he was a Popish Rogue and that was his Crucifix Which Picture was kept by Mr. Baxter for many years till it was got from him but not without much difficulty by one Mr. Summerfield who then lived with Sir Thomas Rouse and generously restored it to the poor man now alive at Wick near Parshore in Worcestershire although at the Fight supposed to be dead being after the wounds given him dragg'd up and down the Field by the merciless Soldiers Mr. Baxter approving of the Inhumanity by feeding his eyes with so bloody and barbarous a spectacle I Thomas Iennings subscribe to the truth of this Narrative above mentioned and have hereunto put my Hand and Seal this second day of March 1681 2. Tho. Iennings Signed and Sealed March 2. 1681 2. in the Presence of John Clarke Minister of Wick Thomas Darke And now let it be left to the Readers Iudgment who is of a more malicious and bloody strain Dr. Heylyn or Mr. Baxter Whatever ill opinion the Doctor gained in the World was for the service which he did for his King his Country and the Church And it need not be told who says Nemo pluris â—estimat virtutem quâ—m qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderetâ— i. e. He puts the best value upon virtue who to preserve the Integrity and Peace of his Conscience sacrifices the endearments of his Reputation ERRATA in the Preface PAge 3. line penult dele the P. 7. l. anâ—ep for tender r. tenderness In the Life Page 41. l. 23. r.
the History of St. George Patron of the most noble Order of the Garter A business as he tells the King in his Epistle Dedicatory of so intricate and involved a nature that he had no Guide to follow nor any Path to tread but what he had made unto himself Neither had that Task ever come to perfection had not so able an hand undertaken it whose industry and abilities were superior to every thing but themselves Many enemies the Book met withal when it came first to light But 't is more easie to load learned Authors with Railing and Reproaches than to Encounter and Confute their Arguments The Historian had the honor to be introduced by the Bishop of London into his Masters Bed-Chamber unto whom he presented his Book which his Majesty graciously accepted and held some conference with the Author about the subject-matter contained in it He also gave Copies of the History to all the Knights of the Order that were then attending at Court who all used him with respect suitable to his merits except the Earl of E. who called him a begging Scholar of which words he was afterward very much ashamed when the incivility unbecoming a Nobleman and Courtier came to the knowledge of those that were of hiw own Quality Against this History Doctor Hackwel appeared in Print of which the King was presently informed and sending for Mr. Heylyn commanded him to consider the Arguments of his Antagonist and withal sent him to Windsor to search into the Records of the Order This occasioned a second Edition of the History wherein were answered all the Doctors Arguments and Allegations but no Reply made to his Invectives which were too frequently interspersed in the Book of that learned Writer of whom Mr. Heylyn heard no more till his very excellent Book about the Supposed Decay of Nature came out in a new Edition wherein there was a Retractation made of those passages that related to St. George Mr. Heylyn began now to conceive some hopes of not being any longer unkindly dealt withal by the hand of Fortune having a Presentation given him by one Mr. Bridges to the Parsonage of Meysie-Hampton in the Diocess of Glocester unto the Bishop of which he made Application but found him already pre-engaged to further the pretended Title of Corpus Christi College in Oxon. However his Lordship promised not to give Institution to any person till the Title was cleared advising Mr. Heylyn to leave his Presentation with him and to enter a Caveat in his Court But he who was false to God and his Mother-Church could never be faithful to those engagements thich 〈◊〉 made to man the one he deserted by turning Papist being the only Bishop of the English Hierarchy who renounced a Persecuted Church to embrace the Errors and Idolatries of the Roman Communion And as for his promises to Mr. Heylyn those he violated giving one Mr. Iackson who was presented by C.C.C. Institution so soon as ever he requested it This engaged our young Married Divine in a tedious Suit at Law which occasioned him great trouble and that which he could not well at that time undergo vast charge and expence especially if we consider the bad success that attended it For by reason of the absence of many of the Iury and the supply of Tales who attended upon the Trial as Water-men wait for a Fare together with the Tergiversation or rather Treachery of one of his Council upon whose Wisdom and Integrity the Client most relied the Cause went against him though affirmed by all Standers-by and by the Council himself the night immediately preceding the Trial to be as fair and just an Action as ever was brought to Bar. But indignus es felictate quem fortuitorum pudet It was not the first time that a poor man was oppressed and a righteous Cause miscarried And God ever rewards the quiet submission of his faithful Servants to his wise and unsearchable Providence with far more valuable Blessings than those which he deprives or with-holds from them Ioseph had never met with those signal honors and dignities in Pharaohs Court had not he been first sold by his Brethren for a Bond-slave into Egypt Neither was this the only disappointment he met with in his way to Preferment For not long after Preaching at Court in his second Attendance his Majesty expressed a very high opinion of him to many noble Lords about him and in a few months after gave him a Presentation to the Rectory of Hemingford in the County of Huntington But this also missed of the desired effect which his Majesties Bounty and Mr. Heylyns necessities required For the Bishop of Linclon unto whom he made Application with his Presentation would not allow the King to have any Title to the Living so that the poor man was fain to return to London re infectâ The Bishop was much offended as well as surprized that a young Divine should have so comprehensive a knowledg of the Law For he made good the Kings Right upon the passages of the Conveyances of the other party But the King soon understood the entertainment his Chaplain met with at Bugden and sent him this gracious Message That he was sorry he had pâ—t him to so much charge and trouble but it should not be long before he would be out of his debt And he soon performed his Royall promise for within a week after he bestowed on him a Prebeâ—dship of Westminster void by the death of Dr. Darrel to the extreme vexation of his Lordship who was then Dean of the same Church And that which added to the honor of this Preferment was his not only being the same day iniâ—iated into the friendship of the Attorney-General Mr. Noye but the condescending Message that came along with the Royal Gift viz. That he bestowed that Prebendship on him to bear the charges of his last Iourney but he was still in his debt for the Living When Moses was deserted by his Parents for fear of Pharaohs fury God was pleased to provide him a Saviour and a Nurse and he was taken out of the Bul-rushes and fed and preserved in despight of all his enemies Being possessed of this Preferment he began the repairing and beautifying of his House with many other things so far as his narrow contracted Fortune would permit him And the first honorable Visit that he received in his new Habitation was from the learned Lord Falkland who brought along with him one Captain Nelson that pretended a new Invention viz. The Discovery of the Longitude of the Sea The Captain had imparted his design to many learned Mathematicians who by no means could approve of or subscribe to his Demonstrations But the King referr'd him to Mr. Heylyn who told that noble Lord That his Majesty was mistaken in him his skill and knowledg lying more in the Historicaâ— than Philosophical part of Geography His Lordship seem'd much offended with the answer conceiving that out of a supercilious disdain of
most parts of Italy being grown so despicable that Fool and Christian are become Synonymous Since then says the Doctor they have no mind to be called Christians no reason to be called Catholicks let us call them as they are by the name of Papists considering their dependence on the Popes decisions for all points of Faith But then he tells of another Faction that make as ill an use of the Title Holy as the Papists do of the name Catholick that are holy in the sense of Corah and his Factious Complices who made all the Congregation holy and all holy alike He gives also an excellent account of the Presbyterian and Independent platforms and proves against both of them that the Churches Government is not Democratical and against the Papists that 't is not Monarchical but in the judgment of the purest Antiquity Aristocratical In a word he shews how both the Eastern and Western Churches opposed the Popes Supremacy forced Celibacy of Priests Transubstantiation Half-Communion Purgatory Worshiping of Images and Auricular Confession Of which last Doctrine he at large states the whole business about it from Bishop Morton shewing how it ought to be free in regard of Conscience and possible in regard of Performance But then withal he asserts the Efficacy and Power of the Sacerdotal Absolution proving it not only Declarative but Authoritative and Iudicial as also the Right that every National Church has to decree Rites and Ceremonies for the more orderly officiating in Gods Publick Worship and the procuring of a greater degree of Reverence to the Holy Sacraments In the belief of these Doctrines this great Scholar lived and died And with what confidence can any one rake in his Grave and asperse his Memory not only with things which he never opined but with those which his soul ever abhorr'd But if there can be any accession to the degrees of Bliss in the other world I doubt not but his Rewards are advanced and grow more massie with the persecutions which his name suffers upon earth Our Blessed Saviour himself was not out of the reach of malevolent tongues when his Body was laid in the Grave being then called a Deceiver by his Murtherers And thrice welcome are those aspersions and mis-constructions that make us conformable to so glorious a pattern Spiteful and inconsiderate men do ever judg rashly of things and persons taking a great pleasure to assault the Innocence and undermine the Reputations of those that are more upright and vertuous than themselves But against these things 't is commonly said and as commonly believed that some persons and those too of the most illustrious Quality have been perverted from the Protestant Faith to Popery by reading some of Dr. Heylyn's Books and particularly his Ecclesia Restaurata or History of the Reformation And Dr. Burnet in the first Volume of his History upon the same Subject has done all he can to confirm the world in the belief of that injurious imputation For after a short commendation of our Doctors stile and method it being usual with some men slightly to praise those at first whom they design to lash more severely afterward he presumes to tell his Reader That either Doctor Heylyn was very ill informed or very much led by his Passions and he being wrought on by most violent prejudices against some that were concerned in that time delivers many things in such a manner and so strangely that one would think that he had been secretly set on to it by those of the Church of Rome tho I doubt not he was a sincere Protestant but violently carried away by some particular conceits In one thing he is not to be excused That he never vouch'd any Authority for what he writ which is not to be forgiven any who write of Transactions beyond their own time and deliver new things not known before So that upon what ground he wrote a great deal of his Book we can only conjecture and many in their ghesses are not apt to be very favourable to him This Objection containing many particulars in it will require as many distinct Answers in the Vindication of the Doctors Honor and Writings and more especially of his History of the Reformation And first if it be true that any have embraced the Roman Faith by reading of that Book we may conclude them very incompetent Judges in matters of Religion who will be prevailed on to change it upon the perusal of one single History and especially in the Controversies between VS and the Papists which do not so very much depend upon matters of Fact or upon an Historical Narration of what occurrences happened in England in the Reigns of any of our preceding Princes but upon Doctrines of Faith viz. what we are to believe or dis-believe in order to our pleasing of God in this life and our being eternally blessed with him in the next Altho Iunius and others have by their reading of Holy Writ found the efficacy of it upon their hearts and from profligate Atheists have become Gods faithful Servants yet the blessed Doctrine of the Bible has through the depravation of mans Nature had a quite contrary efficacy upon other persons being just like wholsom meat which administers health and vigor unto Atheletick and sound Bodies but infeebles nature and feeds the diseases of those that are sickly and distempered Let the History of the Reformation be never so fatal to unwary and less intelligent Readers yet it was writ with an intent to justifie the Reformation and that upon such just and solid Reasons as might sufficiently endear it to all knowing men as its Author tells his Majesty Bonae res neminem scandalizant nisi malam mentem says one of the Antients Some men have such inveterate Diseases that no Physick can do them good and some Stomachs are so foul that Antidotes are turned by them into poison If any one was ever unsetled in Protestantism by reading of Ecclesia Restaurata it was only accidental his perversion being to be ascribed either to the ignorance or weakness of his Judgment or to the stubbornness of his Will or some other evil principle of his Mind It cannot proceed from any intrinsick evil quality in that or any other Book of Doctor Heylyns which abound with unanswerable Arguments to establish the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church of England against its professed Enemies of Rome and Geneva But our Doctors own words will be a sufficient defence of him unto all equal and unprejudic'd Judgments In the whole carriage of this work I have assumed unto my self the freedom of a just Historian concealing nothing out of Fear nor speaking any thing out of Favour delivering nothing for a Truth without good Authority but so delivering that Truth as to witness for me that I am neither biassed by Love or Hatred nor overswayed by partiality and corrupt affections I know 't is impossible in a work of this nature to please
first the Clergy in all other Christian Kingdoms of these North-West Parts make the Third Estate that is to say in the German Empire as appears by Thuanus the Historian lib. 2. In France as is affirmed by Paulus Aemilius lib. 9. In Spain as testifieth Bodinus de Republ lib. 3. For which also consult the general History of Spain as in point of practice lib. 9 10 11 14. In Hungary as witnesseth Bonfinius Decl. 2. lib. 1. In Poland as is verified by Thuanus also l. 56. In Denmark as Pontanus tells us in Historia rerum Danicarum l. 7. The Swedes observing anciently the same Form and Order of Government as was used by the Danes The like we find in Cambden for the Realm of Scotland in which anciently the Lords Spiritual viz. Bishops Abbots and Priors made the Third Estate And certainly it was very strange if the Bishops and other Prelates in the Realm of England being a great and powerful Body should move in a lower Sphere in England than they do elsewhere But 2dly Not to stand only upon probable inferences we find first in History touching the Reign and Acts of Henry V. That when his Funerals were ended the Three Estates of the Realm of England did assemble together and declared his Son King Henry VI. being an Infant of eight Months old to be their Sovereign Lord as his Heir and Successor And if the Lords Spiritual did not then make the Third Estate I would fain know who did Secondly The Petition tendred to Richard Duke of Glocester to accept the Crown occurring in the Parliament Rolls runs in the name of the Three Estates of the Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons thereof Thirdly In the said Parliament of the said Rich. Crowned King it is said expresly That at the request and by the consent of the Three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Land Assembled in this present Parliament and by Authority of the same it be Pronounced Decreed and Declared That our Sovereign Lord the King was and is the very and undoubted King of this Realm of England c. Fourthly It is acknowledged in the Statute of 1. Eliz. c. 3. where the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in that Parliament Assembled being said expresly and in terminis to represent the Three Estates of this Realm of England did recognize the Queens Majesty to be their true lawful and undoubted Sovereign Liege Lady and Queen Add unto these the Testimony of Sir Edward Cooke tho a private person who in his Book of the Iurisdiction of Courts published by Order of the Long Parliament c. 1. doth expresly say That the Parliament consists of the Head and the Body that the Head is the King that the Body is the Three Estates viz. the Lords Spiritual Temporal and the Commons In which words we have not only the Opinion and Testimony of that learned Lawyer but the Authority of the Long Parliament also tho against it self I hope the perusal of these things will be no less acceptable to the sober Reader than the transcribing of them has been unto my self which I have done to the end as well of informing my Country-men about the Rights of the Crown and Privileges of the Church and Clergy as to shew that Dr. Heylyn had a zeal according unto knowledg and was not less zealous for knowledge-sake And the Doctor having thus stood up in the defence of Monarchy and Hierarchy both in their prosperous and adverse condition when the black Cloud was dispelled and a fair Sun-shine began to dawn upon these harrassed and oppressed Islands by the Return of his Sacred Majesty this excellent man having in his mind Tullies Resolution Defendi Rempub. Adolescens non deseram Senex thought it unbecoming him to desert the Church in any of its pressing needs and therefore when the door of Hope began to open he busied his active and searching mind in finding out several expedients for the restoring and securing of its Power and Privileges in future Ages against the attempts of Factious and Sacrilegious men And the first thing that he engaged in was to draw up several Papers and tender them to those Persons in Authrority who in the days of Anarchy and Oppression had given the most signal Testimonies of their Affection to the Church In which Papers he first shewed what Alterations Explanations c. were made in the Publick Liturgy in the Reigns of King Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth and King Iames that so those who were intrusted with so sacred a Depositum might be the better enabled to proceed in the Alteration and enlargement of it as they afterward did and as it now stands by Law Established in this Church Secondly Whereas in the first year of King Edward VI. it was enacted that all Arch-Bishops Bishops c. should make their Processes Writings and Instruments in the Kings name and not under their own Names which Act was afterward extended unto Ordinations as appears by the Form of a Testimonial extant in Sanders's Seditious Book De Schismate Anglicano and whereas the Act was repealed in the last year of Queen Mary and did stand so repealed all the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but was by the activity of some and the incogitancy of others revived again in the first year of King Iames but lay dorment all the Reign of that Prince and during the first ten years of King Charles I. after which it was endeavoured to be set on foot by some disturbers of the Publick Peace upon which the King having it under the hand of his Judges that the proceedings of the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. were not contrary to the Laws of the Land inserted their Judgment about it in a Proclamation for indemnifying the Bishops and the satisfying of his loving Subjects in that Point therefore Dr. Heylyn considering that what the Judges did was extrajudicial and that the Kings Proclamation expired at his Death solicited the concerns of the Church in this Affair viz. that the Act so pasâ—ed as before is said in the first of King Iames might be repealed that so the Bishops might proceed as formerly in the exercise of their Jurisdiction without fear or danger Thirdly Whereas in the 16. year of Charles I. there passed an Act that no Arch-Bishop Bishop c. should minister any Corporal Oath unto any Church-Warden Sideman or any other person whatsoever with many other things whereby the whole Episcopal Jurisdiction was subverted except Canonical Obedience only and all proceedings in Courts Ecclesiastical in Causes Matrimonial Testamentory c. were weakened and all Episcopal Visitations were made void as to the ordinary Punishments of Heresie Schism Non-conformity Incest Adultery and other Crimes of Ecclesiastical Cognizance therefore Dr. Heylyn stated the Case and in a Petition drawn up by him prayed that for the restoring of the Episcopal Jurisdiction the Clauses of that Act
pains and industry but all the miseries and mischiefs which armed Malice and succesful usurp'd Tyranny could inflict upon him Preach indeed he could not in those days of danger and persecution But he plentifully made up that unavoidable omission by his Writings through all which there runs such a native plainness and elegancy as can be parallel'd in very few of the Writers of that Age he lived in In all his Books his Stile is smooth and masculine his Sence full and copious his Words plain and intelligible his Notions numerous and perspicuous his Arguments pertinent ponderous and convincing Those Accomplishments which rarely concentred in any Individual were in Doctor Heylyn in their eminency and perfection viz. a solid Judgment an acute Wit a rich teeming Fancy and a memory so prodigiously quick and tenacious that it was the Store-house of most Arts and Sciences And which is most wonderful it was not impaired either by Age or by Afflictions For many of those learned Volumes that have his learned Name annexed to them were writ when his Sight failed him And here I cannot forget that deserved Character which a right learned man and now an eminent Prelate of our Church bestowed on him viz. That Dr. Heylyn never writ any Book let the Argument be never so mean and trivial but it was worthy of a Scholars reading And another very celebrated Professor now in Oxon paying him the respects of a Visit at Abingdon returned home with the profoundesâ— Admiration of his incomparable Abilities saying That he never heard any Doctor of the Chair deliver his Iudgment more copiously and perspicuously upon any Subject than our Doctor did upon those various Theological Points that were proposed to him Insomuch that what Livie affirmed of Cato might without any injury to Truth be affirmed of this Reverend person Natum ad id diceres quodcunque ageret And 't is just matter of wonder how any Scholar that had so many Sicknesses and Avocations from the Muses in his Childhood and Youth and that was incumbred with the burthen of so many secular businesses in his middle Age should arrive to such vast knowledg and improvements For he was a Critick and that no vulgar one both in the Greek and Latine Languages A polite Humanist being exactly acquainted with the best Poets Orators and Historians He was also an excellent Poet but a more able Judg of it in others than a practiser of it himself Philosophy he studied no farther than as it was subservient to nobler Contemplations But as for History Chronology and Geography they were as familiar to him as the Transactions of one months business can be to any private person And that Divine is yet to be named whose knowledg did exceed Dr. Heylyn's in the Canon Civil Statute or Common Laws To the profession of which last if he had betook himself few men in the Nation would have exceeded him either in Fame or Estate In all things that were either spoke or writ by him he did loqui cum vulgo so speak as to be understood by the meanest Hearer and so write as to be comprehended by the most vulgar Reader It is true indeed as he himself observes that when there is necessity of using either Terms of Law or Logical Notions or any other words of Art an Author is then to keep himself to such Terms and Words as are transmitted to us by the Learned in their several Faculties But to affect new Notions and indeed new Nothings when there is no necessity to invite us to it is a Vein of writing which the two great Masters of the Greek and Roman Eloquence had no knowledg of But many think that they can never speak elegantly nor write significantly except they do it in a language of their own devising as if they were ashamed of their Mother-Tongue and thought it not sufficiently curious to express their fancies By means whereof more French and Latine words have gained ground upon us since the middle of Queen Elizabeth than were admitted by our Ancestors whether we look upon them as the British or Saxon Race not only since the Norman but the Roman Conquest A folly handsomly derided in an old blunt Epigram where the spruce Gallant thus bespeaks his Page or Laquey Diminutive and my defective Slave Reach my Corps Coverture immediately 'T is my complacency that Vest to have T' insconce my person from Frigidity The Boy believed all Welsh his Master spoke Till rail'd in English Rogue go fetch my Cloak And yet this simplicity and plainness of writing is the true cause why so many were heretofore and are still scandalized at the Doctors Books But let the Reader attend to him whilst he pleads for himself The truth is I never voluntarily engaged my self in any of those publick Quarrels by which the Unity and Order of the Church of England hath been so miserably distracted in these later times Nor have I lov'd to run before or against Authority but always took the just Counsels and Commands thereof for my ground and warrant which when I had received I could not think that there was any thing left on my part but obsequii gloria the honor of a chearful and free obedience And in this part of my obedience it was my lot most commonly to be employ'd in the Puritan Controversies in managing of which altho I used all equanimity and temper which reasonably could be expected the argument and persons against whom I writ being well considered yet I did thereby so exasperate that prevailing party that I became the greatest object of their spleen and fury When the Jewish Libertines could not resist the wisdom and spirit and excellence of Elocution with which St. Stephen defended himself and blessed Saviour we find in the next Chapter that his enemies deserted all rational arguings and betook themselves to acts of the most inhumane violence first gnashing upon him with their teeth and then assaulting him with stones Add the truth is Dr. Heylyn had few other answers returned to the many learned Volumes written by him besides vollies of audacious and virulent slanders to wound his name and to hinder easie and credulous persons from perusing of his Books He tells one who called him the Primipilus or chief of the Defenders of Prelacy that altho he did sometimes put vinegar in his Ink to make it quick and operative as the case did require yet there was nothing of scurrility or malice in it nothing that savoured of uncharitableness oâ— of such bitter reproaches as he was unjustly charged with When he met with such a Fire-brand as Mr. Burton it was not to be expected that he should pour oil upon him to increase the flame and not bring water to quench it whether foul or clean And when he met with other unsavory pieces it was fit that he should rub them with a little salt to keep them sweet The good Samaritan when he took care of the wounded