that the dear Saints in England had their Nose and their Ears slit for the profession of the Gospel The Parliament then might pretend the revenge of Mr. Pryns sufferings by a retaliation of a worse punishment upon Dr. Heylyn but the real cause that exasperated them was the good Doctors Loyalty to his King and fidelity to his Arch-Bishop the two great Pillars of the Church to whom all true Sons of the Church of England ought to be faithful And finally the many Books the Doctor had written and still likely to write more against the Puritan Faction was the grand cause of all his flights and sufferings in the time of War Est fuga dicta mihi non est fuga dicta Libellis Qui Domini paenam non meruere sui Though I am forc'd to fly my Books they are not fled No reason for my sake they should be punished At what Friends house he was now secured from danger though I have heard it named indeed I have forgot but from thence he travelled to Doctor Kingsmil a Loyal Person of great worth and ancient Family where he continued and sent for his Wife and Daughter from Winchester to him and from thence removed to Minster-Lovel in Oxfordshire the pleasant Seat of his elder Brother in the year An. Dom. 1648. which he farmed of his Nephew Collonel Heylyn for six years Being deprived of his Eâ—…astial Preferments he must think of some honest way for a Livelihood Fruges lustramus agros Ritus ut a prisco traditus extat aevo Yet notwithstanding he followed his studies which was his chief delight for though the 〈◊〉 Powers had silenced his Tongue from preaching they could not withold his Pen from writing and that in an acute and as sharp a stile as formerly after he had done with his frequent visits of Friends and long perambulations For the publick good of the Church to uphold her ancient maintenance by Tithes being rob'd then of all her other dues and dignities though himself was sequestred of both his Livings and made inâ—…apable of receiving any benefit by Tithes yet for the common cause of Christianity and in mere compassion of the Presbyterian Clergy though his profest Enemies he published at that time when Tithes were in danger to be taken away from them an excellent little Tract to undeceive the People in the point of Tithes and proveth therein That no man in the Realm of England payéth any thing of his own toward the maintenance of his Parish Minister but his Easter Offerings At the same time he enlarged his Book of Geography into a large Folio which was before but a little Quarto and intitâ—…led it with the name of Cosmography of which it may be truly said it does contain a world of Learning in it as well as the Description of the World and particularly sheweth the Authors most excellent Abilities not only in History and smoothness of its style that maketh the whole Book delightful to the Reader but in Chronology Genealogy and Heraldry in which last any one may see that he could blazon the Arms and describe the Descent and Pedigree of the greatest Families in Europe In which pleasing study while he spent his time his good Wife a discreet and active Lady looked both after her Housewifery within doors and the Husbandry without thereby freeing him from that care and trouble which otherwise would have hindred his laborious Pen from going through so great a work in so short a time And yet he had several divertisements by company which continually resorted to his House for having God be thanked his Temporal Estate cleared from Sequestration by his Composition with the Commissioners at Gold-Smiths Hall and this Estate which he farmed besides he was able to keep a good house and relieve his poor Brethren as himself had found relief from others Charity that his House was the Sanctuary of sequestred men turned out of their Livings and of several ejected Fellows out of Oxford more particularly of some worthy persons I can name as Dr. Allibone Mr. Levit Mr. Thornton Mr. Ashwel who wrote upon the Creed who would stay for two or three Months at his House or any other Acquaintance that were suffering men he cheerfully received them and with a hearty welcom they might tarry as long as they pleased The Doctor himself modestly speaks of his own Hospitality how many that were not Domesticks had eaten of his Bread and drunk of his Cup. A Vertue highly to be praised and most worthy of commendation in it self for which Tacitus giveth this Character of the old Germanes Convictibus Hospitiis non alia gens Effusius indulget Greater Hospitality saith he and Entertainment no Nation shewed more bountifully accounting it as a cursed thing not to be civil in that kind according to every mans ability and when all was spent the good Master of the House would lead his Guest to the next Neighbours House where he though not invited was made welcom with the like courtesie Among others kindly entertained Mr. Marchamont Needham then a zealous Loyalist and Scourge to the Rump Parliament was sheltered in the Doctors House being violently pursued till the Storm was over the good Doctor then as his Tutelar Angel preserved him in a high Room where he continued writing his weekly Pragmaticus yet he afterward like Balaam the Son of Beor hired with the wages of Unrighteousness corrupted with mercinary Gifts and Bribes became the only Apostate of the Nation and writ a Book for the pretended Common-wealth or rather I may say a base Democracy for which the Doctor could never after endure the mention of his name who had so disobliged his Country and the Royal Party by his shameful Tergiversation The good Doctors Charity did not only extend it self to ancient Friends and Acquaintance but to mere Strangers by whom he had like to run himself into a Premunire For word being carried to him in his Study there was a Gentleman at the door who said he was a Commander in the Kings Army and carâ—…estly desired some relief and harbour the Doctor presently went to him and finding by his Discourse and other Circumstances what he said was true received him into his House and made him very welcom the Gentleman was a Scotch Captain who having a Scotch Diurnal in his Pocket they read it fearing no harm thereby but it proved otherwise for one of the Doctors Servants listning at the door went straight way to Oxford and informed the Governour Collonel Kelsey that his Master had received Letters from the King whereupon the Governour sent a Party of Horse to fetch him away Strange News it was knowing his own Innocency to hear that Soldiers had beset his House so early in the Morning before he was out of Bed But go he must to appear before the Governour and when he came that treacherous Rogue his Man did confidently affirm that he heard the Letters read and was sure
â—…o the utmost of his power he had exercised his Pen in the defâ—…nce both of the Crown Scepter and Miter his Soul then transported with joy that he should survive the usurped powers and see with his old bad eyes the King settled upon his Fathers Throne and peace upon Israel In the Evening after the Ceremonies of the Coronation were over while the Ordinance was playing from the Tower it happened to thunder violently at which some persons who were at supper with him seemed much affrighted I very well remember an expression of his upon the same according to the Poets word Intonuit laetus that the Ordinance of Heaven answered those of the Tower rejoycing at the solemnity with which the Company being exceedingly pleased there followed much Joy and Mirth Thus being settled in Westminster he fell upon the old work of building again and repairing which is the costly pleasure of Clergy men for the next Generation because building is like planting the chief benefit of which accrues to their Successors that live in another Age as Cicero said of them who took delight in planting Oake-Trees Serunt Arbores quae prosiâ—…t alteri saeculo He enlarged his Prebends House by making some convenient Additions to it perticularly he erected a new Dining Room and beautified the other Rooms all which he enjoyed but for a little time of which he made the best use while he lived to serve his God and seek after the Churches good in which work he was as industrious after his Majesties happy Restauration as he was before to testifie his Religious zeal and care that all things might run on in the old right Channel for which reason he writ a fervent Letter to a great States-man of that time earnestly pressing him to advise the King that a Convocation might be called with the present Parliament which was a thing then under question his Letter is as followeth Right Honourable and my very good Lord I Cannot tell how welcom or unwelcom this Address may prove in regard of the greatness of the Cause and the low Condition of the Party who negotiates in it But I am apt enough to perswade my self that the honest zeal which moves me to it not only will excuse but endear the boldness There is my Lord a general speech but a more general fear withal amongst some of the Clergy that there will be no Convocation called with the following Parliament which if it should be so resolved on cannot but raise sad thoughts in the hearts of those who wish the peace and happiness of this our English Sion But being Bishops are excluded from their Votes in Parliament there is no other way to keep up their honour and esteem in the Eyes of the People than the retaining of their places in Convocation Nor have the lower Clergy any other means to shew their duty to the King and keep that little freedom which is left unto them than by assembling in in such meetings where they may exercise the Power of a Convocation in granting Subsidies to his Majesty though in nothing else And should that Power be taken from them according to the constant but unprecedented practice of the late long Parliament and that they must be taxed and rated with the rest of the Subjects without their liking and consent I cannot see what will become of the first Article of Magna Charta so solemnly so frequently confirmed in Parliament or what can possibly be left unto them of either the Rights or Liberties belonging to an English Subject I know it is conceived by some that the distrust which his Majesty hath in some of the Clergy and the diffidence which the Clergy have one of another is looked on as the principle cause of the Innovation For I must needs behold it as an Innovation that any Parliament should be called without a meeting of the Clergy at the same time with it The first year of King Edward the Sixth Qeen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were times of greater diffidence and distraction than this present conjuncture And yet no Parliament was called in the beginning of their several Reigns without the company and attendance of a Convocation though the intendments of the State aimed then at greater Alterations in the face of the Church than are now pretended or desired And to say truth there was no danger to be feared from a Convocation thâ—…ugh the times were ticklish and unsetled and the Clergy was divided into sides and Factions as the Case then stood and so stands with us at the present time For since the Clergy in their Convocations are in no Authority to propound treat or conclude any thing more than the passing of a Bill of Subsidies for his Majesties use untill they are impowered by the Kings Commission The King may tye them up for what time he pleaseth and give them nothing but the opportunity of entertaining one another with the News of the Day But if it be objected That the Commission now on foot for altering and explaining certain passages in the publick Liturgy shall either pass instead of a Convocation or else is thought to be neither competable nor consistent with it I hope for better in the one and must profess that I can see no reason in the other For first I hope that the selecting of some few Bishops and other learned men of the lower Clergy to debate on certain points contained in the Common Prayer-Book is not intended for a Representation of the Church of England which is a Body more diffused and cannot legally stand by their Acts and Councils and if the Conference be for no other purpose but only to prepare matter for a Convocation as some say it is not why may not such a Conference and Convocation be held both at once For neither the selecting of some learned men out of both the Orders for the composing and reveiwing of the two Liturgies digested in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth proved any hindrence in the calling of their Convocation which were held both in the second and third and in the fifth and sixth years of the said Kings Reign Nor was it found that the holding of a Convocation together with the first Parliament under Queen Elizabeth proved any hinderance to that Conference in disputation which was designed between the Bishops and some learned men of the opposite Parties All which considered I do most humbly beg your Lordship to put his Majesty in mind of sending out his Mandates to the two Arch Bishops for summoning a Convocation according to the usual Form in their several Provinces that this poor Church may be held with some degree of veneration both at home and abroad And in the next place I do no less humbly-beseech your Lordship to excuse this freedom which nothing but my zeal to Gods Glory and my affection to this Church could have forced from me I know how ill this present Office doth become me and how much better it had been
THEOLOGO-HISTORICVS Or the True LIFE OF THE Most Reverend DIVINE and Excellent HISTORIAN PETER HEYLYN D.D. Sub-Dean of Westminster Written by his Son in Law JOHN BARNARD D. D. Rec. of Waddington near Lincoln To correct the Errors supply the Defects and confute the Calumnies of a late Writer Also an Answer to Mr. BAXTERS false Accusations of Dr. HEYLYN Quisquis patitur peccare peccantem is vires subministrat Audaciae Arnob. L. 4. LONDON Printed for J. S. and are to be sold by Ed. Eckelston at the Sign of the Peacock in Little-Britain 1683. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD NATHANIEL Lord Bishop of DURHAM My Honour'd Lord I Here present to your Lordship the true Effigies of Dr. Heylyn drawn to the Life so far as my Pen is able to preserve the memory of his person among the number of worthy men for his extraordinary merits I hope may be truly said to this Church and Nation wherein he labour'd while he liv'd to promote the publick Good of both that his Name will never be forgotten whil'st his Books are extant if we may believe the words of St. Jerome in this particular Vir sapiens saith he diebus noctibus laborat componit Libros ut memoriam suam posteris derelinquat so the Works which this painful Presbyter has publish'd to the World the Catalogue of them being not ordinary with the Writers of our Age and the matter in them upon several Subjects not vulgarly handled I doubt not will perpetuate his Memory to future Posterity especially among all good men who are sincere Lovers of Monarchy and Episcopacy I am sure for his Religion and Loyalty for the Cause of the King and Church of England no man could declare himself a more faithful and zealous example by constant writing and sufferings And for his conversation not only as a good Christian but as becomes a Clergy man it was so unblameable that his most inveterate enemies could never throw dirt in his Face for the least Immoralities Therefore for his sake whom your Lordship hath seen in his house at Abingdon where he made you heartily welcome in those dayes when I had the honour though so unworthy a person to dictate the first Principles of Academical Learning to you which God has since well blessed that you are one and I wish may long continue so of the Cheif Prelates in this Realm I doubt not I say for this Reverend and Learned Mans sake more than mine your Lordship will be pleased to take into your Patronage the Narrative of his Life which I have faithfully composed and retriv'd from the Ignorances and unpardonable deficiencies of a late Writer I am the more nearly concern'd for my Relation sake because Dr. Heylyn was not an ordinary common Clergy-man though he acted in a lower Sphere than the highest Dignitaries in our Church it s sufficiently known he was singularly well acquainted above many others with the principal motions and grand Importances in his time both of Church and State as any man may perceive who will take the pains to peruse his Writings And that he had not only a speculative Science in the Civil and Ecclesiastical Polity of this Nation but was oftentimes employed an Agent by the late King and Arch-Bishop the two blessed Martyrs of this Land in several matters committed to his particular Charge for which he incurr'd the odium of the Mobile and especially of those Factious People then call'd Puritans but now Fanaticks a Name though seems new and strange to them was of old first given by Calvin himself to those who deserting his and the Lutheran way of Reformation out of an aversion to Popery fell upon a contrary extreme Their hair-brain'd zeal without understanding and accompanied with invincible obstinacy in their Enthusiastical Dotages if Power was answerable to their Wills would bring a second desolation upon our Church and confusion in the Kingdom Both which God and his good Angels evermore protect that we may enjoy the inestimable comforts of Peace and Government our true Religion establish'd by Law and Scripture our sacred Ministry second to none for Learning and good Life generally and the ancient Order of Episcopacy deriv'd from the pure Fountain of Apostolical Times heartily prayeth Your Lordships most faithful Servant JOHN BARNARD Errata PAge 3. line 10. read acquainted p. 5. l. 16. r. transcriptions for transcription p. 10. l. 10. r. multavit for mulcavit p. 12. l. 15. r. volumes for volumnes p. 17. l. 2. r. E. p 19. l. 6. dele to p. 20. l. 7. r. joculari for voculari p. 20. l. 19. dele the p. 28. l. 8. r. two for too ibid. r. extremes for extreams p. 24. l. 28. r. thought for think p. 25 l. 4 dele which I sup p. 26 l 20 r. temerarius for teneâ—…arius p. 28 l. 14 r. believe for believed p. 29 l. 20 r. incesserat p. 31 l. 29 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 40 l. 23 r. supra for supera p. 32 in the marg r. Mileu p. 53 r. Euseb for Eusib. p. 54 l. 2 r. horresco for honesco ib. r. nefanda for nefranda p. 55 marg r. Suid. for Suida p. 57 l. 13 r. tends for bend p. 57 l. 24 r. Optatus for Oplatus p. 58 l. 25 r. Presbyterians for Presbiteriaas p. 93 l. 27 r. for p. 95 l. 21. r. manifestaque for manitestaque p. 101 l. 29 r. Levit. for Lenit p. 109 l. 20 r. Antagonist for Antogonist ib. marg r. And. for Aud p. 115 l. 11 add Justice of Peace for the County of Oxon. p. 123 marg r. in for tae p. 125 l. 3 r. Allegations for Accusations ibid r. Retractation for Retraction p. 139 l. 21 r. conference for conferrence p. 143 l. 29 r. where for when p. 144 l. 29 r. Turret for Tower p. 151 l. dele and p. 153 l. 20 r. sitting for sitting p. 186 l. 21 r. rights for right p. 157 l. 15 r. ut for p. p. 191 l. 18 add afterward p. 198 l. 3 r. commended for commanded p. 199 l. 8 r. he for be p. 209 l. 10 r. was for were p. 226 l. 9 r. himself for he p. 228 l. 15 r. there for their p. 255 l. 16. r. the Doctor lived p. 268 l. 23 r. faces for face p. 246 l. 28 dele Lux. r. 〈◊〉 There are more Errors than in the Errata which the good Reader is desired to pass by A Necessary Vindication OF Dr. HEYLYN AND THE AUTHOR of the following LIFE I Had never put my self to the trouble of writing and the Reader to his pains in reading the third Publication of Dr. Heylyn's Life but that I have been most grosly abused in the first and second upon the same Subject At the sight of both which I was not a little amazed but ashamed First to see an anonymous piece printed before the Doctors works which I had ordered otherwise And lately a little Book crept forth
distemper but he betook himself from his Bed to his Book and fell upon a more than ordinary piece of study The History of the Church of England since the Reformation An easie matter for others to tread the Path when he had found out the Way Though he is dead he yet speaketh and the truth of things without respect of persons not to ingratiate himself with the Parliament and Presbyterian party to make our Religion it self Parliamentary which Papists and Presbyterians affirm he spared no pains nor cost to search into old Records Registers of Convocation Acts of Parliament Orders of Council Table and had the use of Sir Robert Cottons Library to take out what Books he pleased leaving a pawn of Mony behind for them In all his other Writings what a faithful Historian he hath appeared to the World is sufficiently known and will be shewed in this particular In the mean while let not men be too credulous of anothers Transcriptions that are under question an verbum de verbo expressum extulit Whether they are copyed out exactly from the originals wherein lyes the main controversie in matter of fact which I am not bound nor other men to believe till we are convinced by our own Eyes besides it is an inglorious encounter to fight with a mans Ghost after he has been dead near twenty years with whom the late Historian nor any other whilst he was living durst venture with him in the point The Heathens scorn'd to rake in the Ashes of the dead but as Tacitus says of Agricola ut in loco Piorum manibus destinato placide quiescat that he might rest without disturbance in the place appointed for Souls However the Doctors Learning and Fidelity in History is so publickly known that it is not in the power of any Scot or English Aristarchus to blast his good Name And let this suffice at present Magnus Aristarcho major Homerus erat Whilst he was so intent upon the History of Reformation he found little encouragement to go on in these studies for the discontents that boyled in this Nation and the Commotions then begun in Scotland upon pretence of the Common-prayer imposed upon them And a mere pretence indeed it was for herein was nothing done but with the consent and approbation of their own Scottish Bishops who made what Alterations in the Liturgy they pleased to which they had his Majesties Royal Assent but the blame was wholly laid upon the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who only commended the Book to them spe quidem laudabili sed eventu pessimo as the learned Dr. Bates said the success being improsperous though the enterprise commendable the Arch-Bishop unjustly censured for it he caused Dr. Heylyn to translate the Scotch Liturgy into Latin and his Lordship intended to set out his own Apology with the Book to vindicate himself from those aspersions thrown upon him that the World might be satisfied with his Majesties Piety and Goodness and his Lordships own care and readiness to serve that Nation but their hasty Rebellion to which they were ever precipitant put an end to the Bishops Apology and the Doctors Translation Hamilton whom Dr. Burnet doth so highly applaud had a party that not only opposed this Liturgy but betrayed the King on all occasions nay some of the Bed-Chamber who were Scots were grown so sawcy and impudent that they used to ransack the good Kings Pockets when he was in Bed to transcribe such Letters as they found and send the Copies to their Country-men in the way of Intelligence To speak the matter in a word he was grown of Scots in Fact a King though not in Title His Majesty being looked on by them as a Cypher in the Arithmatick of State The Scotch Covenanters after the unhappy War was begun called it Bellum Episcopale the Bishops War raised only to uphold their Hierarchy but the truth is as the Doctor proveth Though Liturgy and Episcopacy were made the occasions yet they were not the causes of the war Religion being but the Vizard to disguise the business which Covetousness Sacriledge and Rapine had the greatest hand in for the King resolving to revoke all grants of Abby Lands the Lands of Bishopricks and Chapters and other Religious Corporations which have been vested in the Crown by Act of Parliament were conferred on many of the Nobility and Gentry in his Fathers Minority when he was under Protectors whence the Nobility of Scotland made use of discontented and seditious Spirits under colour of the Canons and Common prayer to embroyl that Kingdom that so they might keep their Lands and hold up their Power and Tyranny over the people To appease the Tumults in Scotland and quench the sparks of Sedition that began to kindle in England the King called a Parliament and issued out his Writ for Clerks in Convocation at which time the Doctor was chosen by the Colledge of Westminster their Clerk to sit in Convocation where he proposed a most excellent expediency which would be of happy use if still continued for the satisfaction of some scrupolous Members in the House of Commons about the Ceremonies of our Church That there might be a mutual conference by select Commitees between the House of Commons and the lower House of the Convocation that the Clergy might give the Commons satisfaction in the point of Ceremonies and all other things relating to the Church which motion from him was well accepted and generally assented thereto And no doubt a most happy success would have followed upon it not only to take away all scruples but to beget a Reverence and Love from the Commons to the Clergy by such a mutual Conference and Conversation But this Parliament being then suddenly dissolved put a period to that and all other business at the news of which brought unexpectedly to the Doctor while he was bufie then at the election for the School of Westminster his pen fell from his hand himself struck dumb with admiration Obstupuit steteruntque comae vox fancibus haesit A sad and unfortunate day it was saith the Doctor and the news so unpleasing brought hiâ—… by a friend whilst he was writing some dispatches it so astonished him though he â—…ad heard some inkling of it the night before that suddenly the Pen fell out of his hand and long it was before he could recollect his Spirits to give an answer The Convocation usually endeth in course the next day after the dissolution of Parliament But the Doctor well knowing that one great end of calling Parliaments is to raise the King money for the publick concerns he therefore went to Lambeth and showed the Arch-Bishop a preced ent in the reign of Queen Elizabeth for granting subsidies or a benevolence by Convocation to be levyed upon the Clergy without the help of a Parliament whereby the Kings necessities for mony might be supplyed and so it successfully fell out the Arch-Bishop acquainting the King with this present expediency
in this Case that most Writers are in love with their Paper-works but the World should first judge whether there is any excellency or real worth in them otherwise it is a fond fancy Narcissus like for any one to be inamoured with his own Shaddow But that which is worse than all this I perceive the Writer is not consistent with himself but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Poets words difficilis facilis juâ—…undus acerbus es idem Because one while he plays the Satyrist against the Fanaticks and afterward turns Factor for the Papists whose cause he could not plead better to please the holy Fathers of the Ignatian Society founded since Luther's time than to render the Name of Protestant odious ` A Name ` saith he that imports little in it of `the positive part of Christianity God forbid and let us then put this into our Litany Lord have mercy upon our Souls who profess our selves to be Protestants and not Papists if the positive part of Christianity be wanting among us For by Name what doth he or can he mean but our Religion and Christian Profession For the Name of Protestant it self is but Thema simplex I may say vox praeterea nihil no more is Catholick Christian Orthodox or any other Name Nomina imponuntur rebus Names are given to things to diversify and distinguish them one from another or else how are they significative of themselves While he goes about to unchristian the Name Protestant or at least makes it Terminus diminuâ—…ns a very slighty Name indeed he endeavours to overthrow the true Protestant Religion For ever since the first Reformation and change of Religion wrought among us by our just and necessary separation from communion with the Church of Rome we and our Fore-fathers have constantly gone under the Name of Protestants though originally I acknowledge this Name was taken up by those Princes of Germany who adhering to Luther's Doctrine made their Protestation at Spires the imperial Chamber and afterward set forth the Augustane Confession since which time the Church of England having cast off the Papacy this Name hath been the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or remark of distinction betwixt us and Papists Our Kings and Princes not only acknowledging the same but have defended the Protestant Religion his most sacred Majesty whose Life God long preserve among us in most or all his Speeches unto his High Court of Parliament hath graciously declared to secure and defenâ—… the Protestant Interest and Religion His Royal Father the most glorious Martyr of our Church but two days before his Death told the Princess Elizabeth That he should die for the maintaining the true Protestant Religion and charged her to read Arch-Bishop Laud's Book against Fisher to ground her against Popery And why were the Jesuiâ—…s so active about his Death that some of them became Agitators in the Independant Army but because it was agreed before by the Pope and his Council saith Dr. du Moulin that there was no way for advancing the Catholick Cause in England but by making away the King of whom there was no hope to turn from hiâ—… Heresie because he was a Protestant I cannot omit Arch-Bishop Laud's words at the time of his Tryal before the Lords Anno Dom. 1643. Saith he Not to trouble your Lordships too long I am so innocent in the business of Religion so far from all practice or so much as thought of practice for any alteration unto Popery or any blemishing of the true Protestant Religion established in England as I was when my Mother first â—…are me into the World In his Speech upon the Scaffold before his Death he saith thus of the King I shall be bold to speak of the King our gracious Soveraign He hath â—…een mâ—…d traduced for bringing in of Popery â—…ut on my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present account I know him to be as free from this Charge as any Man living and I hold him to bâ—… as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law established as any Man in this Kingdom And now hath not this Name Protestant which imports our Religion been owned by all our Judges and Lawyers the Lord chief Justice speaking of Papists If they cannot saith he at this time live in a Protestant Kingdom with security to their Neighbours but cause such fears and dangers and that for Conscience sake then let them keep their Conscience and leave the Kingdom Mr. Justice Wild in like manner Had such a thing as this been acted by us Protestants in any Popish Country in the World I doubt there would not have been scarce one of us left a live I might bring in here Sir William Jones Mr. Finch Mr. Recorder of London And truly if we are ashamed of our Name we may be of our Religion and cannot blame Popish Plots to subvert it if we hold not funâ—…lamentals which are the positive parts of Christianiâ—…y The Jesuit hawketh not for â—…parrows his zeal to destroy our Religion carries him through Fire and Water Sea and Land over Rocks and Mountains to gain a Proselyte according to those Verses I find in Pareus alluding to the Pharisee and Hor the Poet. Impiger extremos Jesuita excurrit ad Indos Per mare discipulum quaerens per saxa per ignes Juventumque facit se duplo deteriorem Sea Land Fire craggy Rocks and Indian Shore A Jesuit's frantick zeal transports him o're One Romish Proselyte to make once made Child of the Devil twice then before he 's said Nay he hath the patience to stay at home and there no dull Stoick can excel him in this Vertue if he be once commanded by his Superior he will obey though his work be no other saith Mapheus than to water a dry log of Wood for a year together he will not presume to ask the reason why but does it Then how much more ready is he to propagate the Gatholick Cause and in order thereto adventure upon any action if it be to the hazard of his Life while he is commanded by his Father General at Rome and the Congregatio de Propaganda fide What will not he undertake to extirpate the Name of Protestant and think he does God Service for if positive Christianity be not imported in it then we are Negatives we are Jews Infidels Pagans and cannot be denominated Christians for Positive and Negative are contradicentia there can be no reconciling or tacking them together and accoâ—…ding to my Logick a Contradiction is omnium oppositorum fortissima the strongest and most forcible of all oppositions But I would know what are the Principles of Protestantisâ—… that are so contradictory to Christianity they must be either credenda or facienda matters relating to Faith or Christian practice Do we hold any points of Faith contrary to the Primitive Catholick Church Or deny Obedience to the Commands of God either in his Law or Gospel
Mr. Baxter makes a hideous cry As Murder it self cannot be concealed no more can those Actions that border upon it but Divine Vengeance will pursue whosoever is guilty of either which the very Heathen took notice of when he saith Raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede paena claudo The innocent Doctor is falsly accused of words but now his Accuser is truly arraigned and upon his indictment found guilty of bloody deeds For he that is a Partizan with cruel men or an Abettor and Encourager of them is certainly a Pertaker with them and not only an Accessary to the Fact but a Principal as in all Sanguinary Causes according to our Statute Laws there are no Accessaries but Principals and I am sure in Foro poli or the Court of Heaven such Offenders are alike But the Man is still alive What then the intention of killing him and their leaving him for dead is a breach of the sixth Commandment as if it were actual homicide Murther was intended Mr. Baxter standing by not once reproving Hurdman but setting him thereon by his own example calling the Major Rogue I say it had been Murther with all cruelty to the height if the poor man had dyed because it is against the Law of Arms after a Battel fought to kill our Enemy in cold blood And as the Case now stands aggravated with all the Circumstances alledged Mr. Baxter can no ways acquit himself because he cannot be ignorant of this Rule Nullum Praeceptum consistit in indivisibili that no Precept of Gods Law is tyed up to one single or individual act but has a greater latitude in it as all kinds of Murther is forbidden whether of the bea rt tongue or hand unmercifulness cruelty revenge hatred malice is Murther Whosoever hateth his Brother saith the Apostle he is a Murtherer and you know that no Murtherer hath eternal Life in him Also every Precept of Gods Law is both affirmative and negative under the affirmative all duties that possibly can be reduced to it are implyed and under the negative which is of greater force because it binds ad semper as the Schools say all things which come within the verge of it as cruelty inhumanity c. are absolutely forbidden Mr. Baxters personal presence gave countenance to the bloody action much more in being a delightful Spectator of it which ought to have been abhorred by him Nero himself could not behold bloody Tragedies though he commanded them saith the Historian Et jussit scelera Nero non spectavit Much more barbarous actions are hateful to the Eyes of all Christians that Constantine after his Conversion by publick Edict did forbid all monstrous and bloody Spectacles in the Amphitheater For a Minister of Jesus Christ as he calls himself who preaches against hardness of heart to be so cruel hearted himself as not to pity a poor Christian weltring in his blood and wounds for the cause only of his King and Country to shew no mercy nor Cristian compassion towards him not so much as we would do to a Turk or an Infidel but call him Rogue Popish Rogue violently pulling from his Neck the Kings Picture and seeing him dragg'd up and down in the Fields by merciless Souldiers Honesco referens It was a more lamentable sight than the Spectacula nefranda when Christians were torn in pieces by wild Beasts in the Roman Theater I must therefore say to Mr. Baxter as the High-priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Are these things so I sincerely wish from my heart that he may and I hope he will repent and ask God and the Major forgiveness which is the lest part of pennance and satisfaction he can perform for so heinous an Offence and till then with what confidence can Mr. Baxter preach to his Auditors being a silenced Minister both by the Laws of the Land and his own Conscience that must needs fly in his face and sorely exagitate him as it was once the Case of Origen who sinned not maliciously but out of fear and cowardice to save his life This Scripture struck him to the heart Why doest thou preach my Laws and takest my Covenant in thy mouth whereas thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my words behind thee If Mr. Baxter will look out of his broken Church History into true Ecclesiastical History he shall find Origen's Repentance set forth by Suidas for a most excellent Example to imitate He was called Syntacticus for compiling many Books in which Mr. Baxter does strive to follow him in writing many Books full of Errors but not so learnedly erreth as Origen did and and probably if he will not leave the odious quality of abusing reverend and worthy men his Books may hereafter run the same fortune with Origens to be publickly condemned For He cannot forbear railing upon Dr. Heylyn after he hath laid in his Grave near twenty years Speaking of the late Wars saith he Not only Lads that knew it not but Heylyn the great Reproacher of Reformers would make men believe that it was Presbyterians in England that began the strife and War What Heylyn There be many Heylyns in England which of them So profest an Enemy he is to Degrees because he was himself I hear never a Graduate or an University-man that he is a Despiser of those Dignities in others For his insolency in this kind and errors in other matters he was once soundly swinged by the Doctor and the Correction put an end to all the Epistolary Controversies between them that he was fain then to lower his Top-sail and durst never appear in the Doctors time top and top gallant In revenge of which and therein he thinks he hath done a great Act not to call him so much as Peter Heylyn Mr. Heylyn or Good-man Heylyn nay he will not allow him a Christian Name because he will be out of Charity with him both alive and dead This is the man that prefesseth so much mortification humility and self-denyal Yet no man swelleth with more spiritual pride Mare Adriatico superbior But why is Heylyn a Reproacher of the Reformers I cannot tell unless this be accounted a reproach which rather tendeth to his credit that he is an impartial Writer of Histories relating the naked Truth of things without respect of Persons and chiefly because he utterly dislikes such a Reformation of Religion that is carried on in a popular and tumultuary way which I think cannot be justifiable neither by Law Reason nor Scripture nor by all the Learning Mr. Baxter hath or ever shall have to prove the contrary I appeal to the ancient Fathers and the primitive Christians in the first Centuries whether this was judged by them an approvable way of Reformation that is effected by the vulgar sort who are not competent Judges of Religion but by the Authority of the Christian Magistrate with the advice and good counsel of the Clergy which is the only regular and most Scriptural
way the other bends to Sedition Blood-shed and Confusion if it be left to the Multitude Which caused the good Father to complain of the Donatists Basilicas invasistis multi ex numero vestro per loca plurima cruentas operati sunt caedes And what outragious acts were done by the Donatists against Churches Altars consecrated Vessels and necessary utensils for the Sacrament Haec omnia furor vester aut rasit aut fregit aut removit saith Oplatus All these things your fury hath raz'd down or defaced or taken them away And hath not this been the practice of some Reformers God be thanked not in the Church of England and let other Churches of the reformed Religion look to themselves I am sure it is a detestible Principle which the Primitive Christians from their hearts did abhor that if the Magistrate will not reform the Church and State then the people must Their Piety and Patience is most exemplary to us that we should rather suffer for true Religion than make resistance or Reformation by rebellion It was a seditious saying of Donatus Quid est Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to do with the Church But be he either Heathen or Christian and if Christian either Orthodox or Heterodox in the Faith the good Catholicks did not then seek to establish their Religion vi armis much less without his Authority or at least connivance of their Emperors publickly exercise their Religion Secondly that which so imbitters Mr. Baxter against Dr. Heylyn is saith he That Heylyn would make men believe that it was Presbyteriaas in England that began the late Strife and War And who believes otherwise but they who have a bloody mind to War again Have we not seen it with our Eyes and others who were unborn then have heard with their Ears the same by many Witnesses and Writers besides Dr Heylyn What must men deny their senses It is not in the power of the Doctor nor any other to possess people with a belief and perswasion of things whether they will or no but as they appear evident to sense reason or understanding they give credit to them accordingly Mr. Baxter imitates the Papists He thinks of the War as they do of the Gun-powder Plot that it is so long ago it must be either forgotten or cannot be proved He and those of his Tribe would be blowing their Trumpets again for a second War and cry out to your Tents O Israel but God in his mercy I hope will preserve the Land that is grown more wise by sad experience of the late troubles than to be twice deceived The pretence of Reformation and Reformers whose Credit Mr. Baxter would still hold up he cannot endure they should be touched was the Pulchra Laverna of Rebelion both in England and Scotland Who were the first Reformers but the Presbyterians Who was it An Episcopal man or a Presbyterian that said Strike the Basilick vein for nothing else will cure the plurisy of our State and after followed the fatal stroke given upon the Lords anointed to the terror and consternation of the whole Kingdom but much more to the shame and confusion of it And how many years after was this Nation ridden with the Reformers That it might have been called instead of France Regnum Asinorum for the unmerciful loads of Oppression it groaned under till at last wearied and tired out with them it kickt off her Riders and I am confident will never take to them again For what were the fruits of the godly Reformation Sacriledge and a continued Rebellion Church and Crown Robberies the King deprived of all his Right and Revenues and the Church of her ancient Demeans and Dignities from both which as no good consequence any one might conceive did follow a horrible Anarchy and confusion not only Dr. Heylyn but the World it self is judge of these things whether the Presbyterians were not the Principal and I may say the only causes of the late Wars and those evils attending them I think the Doctor set the Sadle upon the right Horse But I am sure Mr. Baxter doth not when he puts Lads and Dr. Heylyn together who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and very irreverently conjoyned together yet perhaps those Boys think themselves as good Men as Mr. Baxter and possibly to have as much Learning however more discretion in them than appears in him who shamefully complains of his feebleness to his Wife For modesty sake I dare not set down the words written at the end of his Letter to her which he hath printed in his Narrative of her Life But who are these Lads that knew not the War and yet will be talking of it I very well apprehend his meaning and confess I was then but a Youth but now am old and gray-headed that what I have written I hope to make good and fear not to meet Mr. Baxter upon a fair Challenge any where in the half-way except between Lynsel and Longford In the mean while he who Styles himself so proudly in the Title page of his Church History Richard Baxter a Hater of false Histories Let him not falsisie Dr. Heylyn nor others who approve themselves truer Historians than himself whom I now attach for falshood in saying this scandalous story of the Doctor That he himself had laid much of the War on the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and on the Parliaments complaints of Popery Arminianism and arbitrary illegalities In his Hist. of Presb. pag. 465. pag. 470. In all which pages ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidem there is not a word or syllable can be found of these things nor to such purpose that I wonder he hath the face to charge Dr. Heylyn with them when he pro fesseth himself to be a Hater of false Histories no sooner the word is out of his mouth but within a page or two he makes this abominable falsity I do suspect him now more than ever about Major Iennings business and conclude him to be guilty Could any one rationally think that the Doctor who in all his Time and Books appeared a most zealous Champion for the Bishops and in that cause I may say was Dr. Irrefr agabilis would lay to their charge much or little that they were procatarcical causes of the War especially when he vindicates them in all his Writings from this malicious aspersion which the Puritan Faction would have thrown upon them He was not a man of contradictions like Richard Baxter in most of his Writings for which every Lad is apt to lug his Beard as the Poet said of the Stoick vellent tibi barbam lascivi pueri No no he had a wiser Head-piece and better Memory than any Baxter That he never exposed himself to shame or censure for any contradiction that could be fouud in all his Writings Qualis ab inâ—…epto processerit sibi constet Instead of Mr Baxters Allegation the Doctor tells us in the same page 464
465. that the Assembly of Divines so called in their Confession larger and lesser Catechism held forth such a Doctrine touching Gods Decrees that they gave occasion of receiving the old Blastian Heresie in making God to be the Author of Sin that the Bill against Bishops he observes took date from the fifth of November the day defigned on the blowing up of the Parliament by the Gun-powder Traytors that notwithstanding the House of Commons had taken the Scotch Covenant they never intended to set up Scotch Presbytery only held fair quarter with them for a time because in April 1646. They published this following Declaration That they were not able to consent to the granting of an arbitrary and unlimited Power and Iurisdiction to near ten thousand Iudicatories to be erected in the Kingdom which could not be confistent with the fundamental Laws and Government of it and which by necessary conse quence did exclude the Parliament from having any thing to do in that Iurisdiction Page 470. the Doctor tells us again That the English Puritans laid their heads and hands together to embroil the Realm out of a confidence that having alienated the greatest part of the Tribes from the House of David they might advance the golden Calves of Presbyterians in Dan and Bethel and all other places whatsoever in the Land and for the maintenance thereof had devoured in conceit all Chapter Lands and parcelled them amongst themselves into Augmentations But no sooner had they driven this bargain but a Vote passed for selling those Lands towards the payment of those debts of the Common-wealth Nor have they lived to see their dear Presbytery settled or their lay Elders entertained in any one Parish of the Kingdom Now I have recited all those passages out of the pages Mr. Baxter refers us to what hath he gained to his cause but a confutation of it As it wa said of Caesar's Conspirators iisdeâ—…â—…bus quibus Caesarem foderunt 〈◊〉 occiderunt With the same Daggers they stabbed Iulius Caesar they killed themselves So Mr. Baxter hath destroyed himself and the good old Cause with his own Weapons by reciting Dr. Heylyn against Dr. Heylyn The Dr. though dead he yet speaketh and hath vanquished his living Adversary For what man out of these premises could draw a conclusion except Mr. Baxter by his Kederminster Logick that Heylyn had laid much of the War upon the Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. when there is no mention of War or Bishops in the Case No quantum to be found of much or little in it no minimum quod sic Nay nothing at all to prove Mr. Baxter's position and scandalous defamation of the Doctor Therefore I must say to him the words of the old Comedian Dehine quieâ—… porro moneo desinat maledicere ne maâ—…cta noscat sua If the Dr. himself had been still living as some of his Elders are neither Mr. Baxier Mr. Hickman nor M. Burnet no one of them durst have adventured a single Duel with him in any point of Learning but he would have said to every such Gladiator as Cicero did to Mark Antony Catilinae gladios contempsi non pertimescam tuos But now he hath neither hand nor sword but is disarmed by Death miserandum flebile corpus it is no sign of true Vertue or noble Valour in them much less of a good Cause on their side to insult ignobly over a dead Lion As for Mr. Baxter who will not let him rest quietly in his Grave if my fraternal correption cannot amend him I wish he may remember his good Wifes rebuke and deserved correction she gave him by his own confession That he should make fewer Books and write them better And I think this good counsel had not been unseasonable to the late Writer of Dr. Heylyn's Life to have transmitted that Task to any other person who had been an ancient Friend and Acquaintance of the Doctors rather than ambitiously assumed it upon himself who was a professed Stranger to him by reason of which no better account could be expected from him than what he has given and that is unsatisfactory a Life to the half an imperfect Creature that is not only lame as the honest Book-seller said but wantteth Legs and all other integral parts of a Man nay the very Soul that should animate a Body like Dr. Heylyn I am sure no man except himself who was totally ignorant of the Dr. and all the circumstances of his Life would have engaged in such a work which was never primarily laid out or designed for him but by reason of some unhappy differences as usually fall out in Families and he who loves to put his Ore in troubled matters instead of closing them up hath made them wider Otherwise it is not material who had writ the Doctors Life so it had been done by an able hand of a more knowing person therefore I must say of him as Plutarch doth of Tib. Gracâ—…us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is a bold Undertaker and rash Talker of those matters he does not understand And so I have done with him unless he creates to himself and me a future trouble Now I hope any ingenious Reader will plainly see I am forced to a just and necessary Vindication of my self Si quis me atro dente petiverit inultus ut flebo puer and chiefly of my Father in Law to whom as I am bound in gratitude for the favours I received from him in his Life time so I could do no less than perform this little Task of writing his Life and that without passion and partiality being free from motives of both as the Historian said Quorum Causas procul habeo However for holding the Reader in so long suspence I have endeavoured to make a mends in the following Life which in a manner I have composed new retaining only what I had before written and still remains in the printed Folio entitled Keimelia Ecclesiastica but now with that which was so shamefully abused I am sure the Work is complete and perfect and I hope will afford this general benefit First to encourage all young Scholars in the Love of Learning by the Example of so Reverend a Divine and excellent Historian as Dr. Heylyn And secondly to remind others of some principal transactions both in Church and State during his time And so I conclude in the words of Salust Age nunc illa videamus Judices quae consecuta sunt THE LIFE OF THE Most Reverend and Learned DIVINE Dr. PETER HEYLYN TO write the Lives of worthy Personages was ever accounted a most laudable Custom among the Heathens For to perpetuate the Memory of the Dead who were eminent in Vertue did manifestly conduce to the publick benefit of the Living much more the Ancient Christians in their time both solemnly retained this Practice and adjudged it an Act of Piety and Justice to the Deceased If they were Men of Fame for Learning or other Vertues
the Convocation still continued sitting notwithstanding the dissolution of Parliament And when this was scrupled at by some of the house the Doctor resolved their doubts and rid them of their fears by shewing them the distinction betwixt the Kings Writ for calling a Parliament and that for assembling a Convocation Their different forms and independence of one upon another Finally it was determined by the King himself and his learned counsel in the Law That the Convocation called by his Majesties Writ was to be continued till it was dissolved by his Writ notwithstanding the dissolution of Parliament This benefit the King got by their fitting six subsidies under the name of Benevolences which the Clergy payd to him On Friday May 29 the Canons of that Convocation were unanimously subscribed unto by all the Bishops and Clergy No one of them dissenting but the Bishop of Glocester for which he was deservedly suspended who afterward turned Papist and was the only renegado Prelat of this Land Of this Convocation Sir Edward Deering to shew his wit which he dearly payd for after in one of his speeches to the house of Commons was pleased to say that every one that had a hand in making their Ganons should come unto the Bar of the House of Commons with a Candle in one hand and a book in the other and there give fire to his own Canons which good fortune afterward fell upon his own book of speeches NecLex est justior ulla which by order of the House of Commons was burnt in the Fire by the hand of the common Hang-man A publick disgrace that he worthily deserv'd for his proud Eloquence in often pratling against the King and Church In another of his speeches he tells them That if they câ—…uld bring the Lords to sit in the House of Commons and the King to be but as one of the Lords then the work was done And finally in a nother he so abuseth all the Cathedrals in the Kingdom with so foul a mouâ—… as if he had licked up the filth of all the former Libells to vomit it at once upon them And yet this Gentleman afterward as Doctor Heylyn saith made it his earnest suit to be Dean of Canterbury which being denied him by the King in a great discontent he returned to the Parliament c. But lastly to consider the sad condition of that Convocation before they were dissolved the Doctor as one of their fellow members speaks most feelingly during all the time of their sitting they were under those horrid fears by reason of the discontents falling upon the Parliaments dissolution that the King was fain to set a Guard about Westminster-Abby for the whole time of their fitting Poor men to what a distress were they brought in danger of the Kings displeasure if they rose of the peoples fury if they sate in danger of being beaten down by the following Parliament when the work was done and after all obnoxious to the Lash of censorious tongues for their good intendments for notwithstanding their great care that all things might be done with decency and to edification every one must have his blow at them For Pryn published the unbishoping of Timothy and Titus and his other Libel of news from Ipswich wherein he called the Arch-Bishop of Cant. Arch-Agent of the Devil that Belzebub himself had been Arch-Bishop and all the Bishops were Luciferian Lords The like reproaches were thundered out of the Pulpit by Burton in his Sermon on Pro. 24. v. 22. where he abused the Text and Bishops sufficiently calling them instead of Fathers Step-Fathers for Pillars Cater-Pillars limbs of the Beast Factors for Antihcrist and antichristian Mushromes Bastwick laid about him before in his Flagellum Episcoporum Latialium when he had worn out that Rod took another in his Litany Finally the Rabble had a cursed Song among them to affront the poor Clergy with as they met them saying Your Bishops are bite-Sheep Your Deans are Dunces Your Preists are the Preists of Baal The Devil fetch them all by bunches And now the Fire smothering in the Embers at last broke forth into an open flame at the Session of the next Parliament which was fatall both to Chureh and State and finally to themselves that with scorn they were turn'd out of doors by their own Servants who became their Masters The first fitting of them was on a dismal day notable and infamous Novemb. 3d. when Henry 8 began the dissolution of Abbyes and Papists with Protestants were laid both on one hurdle and burnt together at the same Stake the King then promised his people should for ever be acquitted of Taxes ut facilius illi monasteia concederentur saith Sanders that Monasteries and Religious houses might be more easily granted to him The Parliment opening on that critical day Arch-Bishop Laud was advertised in a letter to move the King that for good luck sake their Session might be put off to another day but this being looked upon by his Lordship as a superstitious conceit he waved the motion of it to the King which proved afterward the fall of himself and the Hierarchie At the opening of this long Parliament a general Rumor was spread abroad that Doctor Heylyn was run away for fear of an approaching storm that was like to fall on his own head as well as on his Lordships Grace the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury but he who was ever of an undaunted Spirit would not pusillanimously desert the Cause of the King and Church then in question but speedily hastned up to London from Alrèsford to coufute the common Calumny and false report raised on him by the Puritan faction that he appeared the next day in his Gown and Tippet in Westminster Hall and in the Church with his accustomed formalities of Cap Hood and Surplice employed also his Pen boldly in defence of the Bishops right when the temporal Lords began to shake the Hierarchy in passing a vote that no Bishop should be of the Committee for examination of the Earl of Strafford being causa sanguinis upon which the Doctor drew up a breif and excellent discourse full of Law and History entituled de jure paritatis Episcoporum The Bishops right of Peerage so consequently that they ought to sit in that Committee their priviledge and right are maintained by him which by Law or ancient custom doth belong unto theâ—… It is worth our while to see what he hath written upon this point in the cause of Bloud many years after the first discourse of the Bishops Peerage when there was little hopes of ever their returning again into the House of Peers That the Bishops were disabled by some ancient Canons saith he from sentencing any man to death and it may be from being present when any such sentences was pronounced I shall easily grant but that they were disabled from being assistants in such case from taking the examinations or hearing the depositions of Witnesses or
Faults by his good service done both to Church and State The next Book which the Doctor published An. Dom. 1657. Ecclesia Vindicata or the Church of England justified he deâ—…ted it as a gratefuâ—… Testimony of his mind to his Master then living Mr. Edward Davis formerly School-Master of Burford and now Vicar of Shelton in the County of Berks to whom he ever shewed a Love and Reverence and had the Doctors Power been answerable to his will and intention he had design'd more considerable Preferments for him but the sudden and unexpected alteration in his own affairs prevented so soon almost as he was preferred that he could shew no other Specimen of his gratitude What saith the Heathen Diis parentibus Precaeptoribus non redditur aequivalens An amends can never be made to God our Parents and Tutors and certainly he hath but little of a Christian in him that can forget this Lesson About the same time he was harassed before Olivers Major General for the Decimation of his Estate hoc novum est aucupium For he thought there had been an end of all further payments and punishment for his Loyalty by compounding for his Estate in Goldsmiths-Hall that he argued the Case notably with them but all in vain for Arguments though never so acutely handled are obtuse Weapons against the Edge of the Sword He tells us that his temporal Estate was first brought under Sequestration and under a Decimation since only for his adhaesion to those sacred Verities to which he hath béen principled by Education and confirmed by Study While he was arguing his cause before the Major General and his Captains one Captain Allen formerly a Tinker and his Wife a poor Tripe-Wife took upon him to reprove the Doctor for maintaining his Wife so highly like a Lady to whom the Doctor roundly replyed That he had married a Gentlewoman and did maintain her according to her quality and so might he his Tripe-wife Adding withal that this Rule he always observed For his Wife to go above his Estate his Children according to his Estate and himself below his Estate so that at the years end he could make all even Soon after these things came out the Order of Decimation against him a Heathenish Cruelty in this Case if Mens Estates are as dear to them as their Lives because the one without the other renders them miserable may be compared to that of Maximian the Tyrant and cruel Persecutor of the Church that put the Christians to such a bloody Decimation that every tenth man of them was to be killed And this other was barbarous enough in its kind that all the Gentry of the Nation not only the tenth part of them who had engaged in his Majesties Service should first be compelled to compound for their own Estates and afterward without mercy Decimated that brought an utter ruin upon many of their Families Notwithstanding all this the Doctor like the Palm-Tree crescit sub pondere virtus the more he was pressed with their heavy loads did flourish and grow up in his Estate that through the blessing of God being neither the Subject of any mans Envy nor the Object of their Pity he lived in good Credit â—…nd kept a noble House for I my self being often there can say I have seldom seen him sit down at his Table without company for being nigh the University some out of a desire to be acquainted with him and others to visit their old Friend whom they knew rarely could be seen but at Meals made choice of that time to converse with him And likewise his good Neighbours at Abingdon whom he always made welcom if they were honest men that had been of the Royal party and was ready to assist them upon all occasions particularly in upholding the Church of St. Nicholas which otherwise had been pulled down on pretence of uniting it to St. Ellens but in truth to disable the sober party of the Town who were loyal people from enjoying their wonted Service and Worship of God in their own Parish Church of which they â—…ad a Reverend and Orthodox man one Mr. Huish their Minister and in his absence the Doctor took care to get them supplied with able men from Oxford Great endeavours were on both sides the one party to preserve the Church and the other to pull it down because it was thronged with Malignants who seduced others from their godly way Religion always hath been the pretence of factious minds to draw on others to their party as one saith well Sua quisque arma sancta praedicat suam causam Religiosam Deus Pietas cultus divinus praetexuntur Every one proclaimeth their own Quarrels to be a holy War the cause Religion God Godliness and Divine Worship must be pretended Several Journies the good Doctor took to London sparing neither his pains nor purse in so pious a cause for the managing of which he employed diverse Solicitors sometimes before Committees at other times before Oliver's Council where it was carried dubiously and rather inclining to the other side at which the Presbyterian party caused the Bells to be rung and made Bonefires in the Town to express their Joy triumphing in the Ruin of a poor Church but the day was not so clearly their own as they imagined Dum res quamvis afflictae nondum tamen perditae forent as the Orator said for the Church yet stood against all its Enemies God protecting his own House and his zealous Servants for it in a time when they could look for little favours from the Powers that then ruled who had not so much respect for Gods House as the Heathens had for their Idol Temples and for those that vindicated them as Justin saith on this occasion Diis proximus habetur per quem Deâ—…rum majestas vindicata sit For which he praiseth Philip of Macedon calling him Vindicem Sacrilegii ultorem Religionum c. During those troubles about the Church Mr. Huish the Minister thereof durst not go on in his ministerial Duties which no sooner the Doctor heard of but to animate and encourage him he writ a pious Letter a Copy of which I then transcribed which is as followeth and worth the inserting here Sir WE are much beholden to you for your chearful condiscending unto our desires so far as the Lords-days Service wich though it be Opus diei in die suo yet we cannot think our selves to be fully Masters of our Requests till you have yeilded to bestow your pains on the other days also We hope in reasonable time to alter the condition of Mr. Blackwels pious gift that without hazarding the loss of his donation which would be an irrecoverable blow to this poor Parish you may sue out your Qietus est from that daily Attendance unless you find some further motives and inducements to perswade you to it yet so to alter it that there shall be no greater wrong done to his Intentions than to most part
for such as shine in a more eminent Sphere in the holy Hierarchy to have tendred these particulars to consideration which since they either have not done or that no visible effect hath appeared thereof I could not chuse but cast my poor Mite into the Treasury which if it may conduce to the Churches good I shall have my wish and howsoever shall be satisfied in point of Conscience that I have not failed in doing my duty to this Church according to the light of my understanding and then what happens to me shall not be material And thus again most humbly craving pardon for this great presumption I subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant to be commanded PETER HEYLYN Soon after a Convocation was called by his Majesties Writ and during the time of their siting while he lived he seldom was without Visitors from them who constantly upon occasion came to him for his Advice and Direction in matters relating to the Church because he had been himself an ancient Clerk in the old Convocations Many Persons of Quality besides the Clergy for the reverence they had to his Learning and the delight they took in his Company payed him several Visits which he never repayed being still so devoted to his studies that except going to Church it was a rare thing to find him from home I happened to be there when the good Bishop of Durham Dr. Cousins came to see him who after a great deal of familiar discourse between them said I wonder Brother Heylyn thou art not a Bishop for we all know thou hast deserved it To which he answered much good may it do the new Bishops I do not envy them but wish they may do more than I have done Although he was but a Presbyter I believe their Lordships thought him worthy of their holy Order I am sure he was reverenc'd by some of them as St. Jerome was by St. Augustine Quamvis Episcopus major est Presbitero Augustinus tamen minor est Jeronimo The one of which was an old Presbyter the other a young Bishop but both of incomparable Learning and Vertues The old Presbyter writeth thus to St. Austin the great Bishop of his time In scripturarum campo juvenis non provoces senem Nos nostra habuimus tempora nunc te currente longa spatia transmeante nobis debitur otium For the good Doctors indefatigable pains and continued industry he was second to none For his Writings and Sufferings in the Cause of Monarâ—…by and Episcopacy he did spend himself and was spent For the sad Persecutions he suffered in the time of War his Enemies hunting â—…fter his Life as Ahaziahs Captains did for the man of God the woful shifts and straits he was put to to secure himself from violence how many times he narrowly escaped death from the hands of his Enemies as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler What fears and distractions were often upon him that he might say O si nescissem Literas I would to God I had not known a Letter of the Book for his Learning and Loyalty were the cause of all his Calamities yet notwithstanding he lived in an ungrateful Age that no respect was shewed to him or his But he returned only to his own in Peace which he enjoyed a little while before the War and less time after the Churches setlement It hath been the Lot many times of great Scholars to be neglected which made his Enemies rejoyce and not a little insult over him to see him only passed by and of all others remain in Statu quo in the same Condition he was in before which after the happy revolution of publick affairs neither Law nor Justice could hinder him of I will not say of him as the Cardinal did of Melancton that most Learned Divine of the Reformation O ingratam Germaniam quae tanti viri tantosque labores non pluris aestimet It fa redalso ill with Luthers Memory after his Death whose Widdow hoping some favours would be shewed to her for his merits was shamefully disappointed Praeter viduitatis incommoda quae mutiplicia experta est magnam ingratitudinem multorum pro quibus sperans benesicia ob ingentia mariti in Ecclesiam merita turpiter frustrata est So ordinary it is foâ—… men of admired worth who have done publick service either in Church or State to be soonest forgotten Now having run through the principal circumstances of this Reverend mans Life it behoves us to say something of his Person Conversation Qualities and the memorable Accidents hapning before the time of his Death and so leave his Memory among worthy men For his Person he was of a middle Stature a slender spare man his Face oval of fresh complexion looking rather young than old his Hair short and curl'd had few or no gray hairs his Eyes quick and sparkling before he had the ill fortune to loose his Sight His natural Constitution being hot and dry It was conceived by skilful Oculists his Brain heated with immoderate study burnt up the Christaline humor of his Eyes And this was most probable he being continually engaged in writing either for Church or State his Brain was like a Laboratory kept hot with study decayed his Eyes if there be any truth in the Naturalists Observation magna cogitatio obcaecat abducto intus visu And this he look'd upon as the saddest affliction that ever befel him in his whole Life Yet no doubt he was comforted with the words which he had often read in Socrates of Anthony the good Monk unto Dydimus that learned man of Alexandria Let it not grieve thee at all saith he O noble Dydimus that thou art bereaved of thy corporal Eyes and carnal sight for though you want such Eyes as commonly are given to Flyes and Gnats yet hast thou greatly to rejoyce that the Eyes wherewith the Angels do behold their Maker wherewith God is seen of Men are not taken from thee Our blessed Saviour said the light of the Body is the Eye for without these two Luminaries which God hath placed in the Microcosm of man None can be said in this World to live a true happy Day who are under such a continual Night of Darkness but that the intellectual Light of the Soul the Candle of the Lord within us supplies that miserable defect with a far greater felicity by extraordinary endowments of the mind which Seneca calls melior pars nostri and it is the best part of man indeed though all the Members and Parts of our Bodies are so excellently compacted together by the Wisdom of the Creator and have such a necessary depence upon one another for the exercise of their several Offices that the Compositum of Man cannot be complete without them and chiefly the Eye being the guide of the whole Body hath preheminence over the rest of the Members saith the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because by it we
receive the greatest share of Knowledge and Understanding it being the principal Organ of sensâ—… for that use But the loss of his Eyes considering the Cause was no blemish to his Person but rather a Mark of Honour as the Caeci among the Romans a noble Family were so called because of the notable service they did for the publick good Claros illustres viros militiae domique ex oculorum vitio cognomenta invenere saith Alex. ab Alexand. Thus Constantine the great in honour of Paphnutius sufferings for Christian Religion kissed the hole in his face out of which the Tyrant Maximinus had bored his eye the good Emperor making much of the Socket saith Mr. Fuller when the Candle was pâ—…t out These outward Windows being shut the Doctor enjoyed more perfectly the sweet and seraphical contemplations of his own Mind without â—… disturbance from other Objects which â—…eing removed he did take a complacency and delight only in himself as Tully saith Habet animus quo se delectet etiam occlusis sensibus I may say truly of him thus though he was my Father in Law that he was the venerable Bede of our Age for many excellent Tractates he published which he never saw with his own Eyes and they were done in as exact a manner as when he had his faculty of sight at the best The like Socrates saith of Dydimus when he was blind he not only interpreted Origens Writings and made Commentaries upon them but set forth excellent Treatises to defend the Orthodox Faith against the Arians The Doctors Cosmography was the last Book he writ with his own hand after which voluminous work his Eyes failed him that he could neither see to write nor read without the help of an Amanuensis whom he kept to his dying day yet he was not so totally deprived of his sight as some imagin but he could discern a Body or Substance near hand though not the Phisiognomy of a Face so as to follow his Leader when he walk'd abroad He macerated his Body with the immoderate exercises of his mind ofteâ—… fasting and taking little or nothing for the space of two or three days when he was upon painful studies which made him look at such times like a Sceleton yet then he was also of a cheerful Spirit He followed no excercise for his health but walking in his Garden and then he used a kind of low whistling with himself either to recreate his Spirits or else as it were to sound an Alarm against his Enemies like the old Germans who affected a such like Tone asperitas soni fractum murmur when they went to War All this while he was in deep Meditation preparing for an encounter with his Adversary in some polemical discourse The Pen being his only Weapon in which he was as fortunate as Alexander with his Sword of whom it s said Cum nullo hostium unquam congressus est quem non vicerit He fought with none of his Enemies but he overcame them so the Doctor had the same good fortune in all his Pen-Combates to be Conqueror For which cause he was ordinarily called the Primipilus and chief Defender of Prelacy by Smectymnus the Bishops Darling by others the Puritan Episcopal man For his Zeal and Courage I may truly say of him he was a right Peter of whom Casaubon observes out of the Greek Fathers Petrum suisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ervido ingenio virum St. Peter was a man of a hot temper and disposition that set him forward on all occasions more than the other Disciples So the Doctor was of the like disposition naturally and inclined the more by study much watching and sitting up late at Nights that threw him often into Fevers to which he was very subject not withstanding his hot temper and constitution he did so wisely correct and govern it that he never fell into those Paroxisms as to suffer his reason to be extinguished with passion but his most fervent zeal was ever attended with deep knowledge for he had an acute Wit a solid judgement and exuberant fancy to which was adjoyned that which is rare to be found in all these excellences together a most prodigious and yet faithful Memory that he did not usually take Notes or make Collections of Readings out of Authors as most Scholars do but committed what he read to his own Memory which I believe never failed him in whatsoever he treasured up to make use of hereafter Therefore it was a pittiful charge of Mr. H. L' Estrange against him that he misreported the words of Pareus in putting down quomodo for quando to which the Doctor answers thus for himself whereby we may see what a true Repository of things his Memory was I must tell you saith he for him that is plundred of his Books and keeping no Remembrances and Collections of his Studies by him he cannot readily resolve what Eâ—…ition he followed in his consulting with that Author He always thought that Tenure in Capite was a nobler and and more honourable Tenure than to hold by Copy and therefore carelesly neglected to commit any part of his Readings unto Notes and Papers of which he never found such want as in this perticular which you so boldly charge upon him When the Esquire tax'd him again for having many Helpers as if he were beholden to other mens studies and pains about the composing of his Books that was such a notorious Scandal that every one who knew him could confute he in modest and most pious manner replied thus Though I cannot say that I have many Helpers yet I cannot but confess in all humble gratitude that I have one great Helper which is instar omnium even the Lord my God Auxilium meum a Domino my help cometh even from the Lord which hath made Heaven and Earth as the Psalmist hath it And I can say with the like humble acknowledgements of Gods mercies to me as Jacob did when he was askt about the quick dispatch which he had made in preparing savory meat for his Aged Father Voluntas Dei fuit tam cito occurreret mihi quod volebam Gen. 27. 20. It is Gods goodness and his only that I am able to do what I do And as for any humane Helpers as the French Courtiers use to say of King Lewis the Second That all his Council rid upon one Horse because he relyed upon his own Judgement and Abilities only So I may very truly say that one poor Hackny-horse will carry all my Helpers used be they never so numerous The greatest help which I have had since it pleased God to make my own sight unuseful to me as to writing and reading hath come from one whom I had entertained for my Clerk or Amanuensis who though he reasonably well understood both Greek and Latin yet had he no further Education in the way of Learning than what he brought with him from the
had the gift of prophecy though their eye sight failen them as did with Jacob yet they were called Seers because they foresaw future things they were so old that for their Age and gravity they were sometimes upbraided so Elisha by the Children was mocked who undoubtedly were so taught by their ungodly Fathers to say of him go up thou baldhead Neither doth a melancholy constitution as some have imagined make men prophetical either in sleeping or waking but on the contrary renders them uncapable as is evident by the examples of Jacob and Elisha the first of whom being in deep sadness which is the inseparable Companion of melancholy for the loss of his Son Joseph was at the same disabled from prophecy or otherwise he could have told what Fortune had befallen his Son who was not dead but sold by his Brethren Hence Mercer tells us it was an ordinary saying among the Rabbines Maeror prophetiam impedit In like manner the Prophet Elisha for the sorrow of Elijah his Master taken away from him and the anger he had conceived against Jehoram that wicked Prince whilst these two passions were predominant over him he could not prophesie till the Minstrel played with her Musical Instrument to drive away his melancholy sadness and then the hand of the Lord its said came upon him and he prophesied saying Thus saith the Lord c. By all which I hope it is evident that hypocondriacal persons who are grievously afflicted with melancholy are not thereby disposed to prophesie and then by necessary consequence it followeth that Dreams arising from the same natural cause cannot be said prophetical no more then that of Albertus magnus who dream'd that hot Scalding Pitch was poured upon his Brest aâ—…d so soon as he awakned from his sleep he vomited up abundance of adust Chollar Such Dreams certainly arise from the ill habitude of the Body through fullness of bad humors But there is another sort of Dreams which may be called divine or supernatural which are imprinted on the mind of man either by God himself or his holy Angels from which necessarily follows prophecy because such extraordinary impressions are usual for those ends And this I take to be the Reverend Doctors Dream who was a man of so great Piety as well as Study that I cannot think otherwise but that he was able to discern the different motions of his Soul whether they were natural or supernatural of which last he was so firmly assured by his own reason and great Learning that no arguments could disswade him to the contrary St. Austiine saith Animam habere quandam vim divinationis in seipsa That the Soul of man hath a certain power of Divination in it self when it is abstracted from bodily actions I confess then it must needs be drawn up to higher Communion with God than ordinary but more immediately I rather think with Tertullian a little before death about the time of its separation from the Body because many dying persons have wonderfully foretold things which afterward came to pass the reason of which that good Father giveth and therein I judge he was no Montanist when he saith Quia Anima in ipso divertio penitus agitari enunciet quae vidit quae audit quae incipit nosseâ—… Because the Soul then acts most vigorously at the last Broath declares what things it seeth it heareth and what it begins to know now entring into Eternity So the heavenly and pious Doctor according to the prenotions of his Death forseeing his time was short gave his Wife strict charge again that very night as he was going to Bed and in appearance well that she should bury him according to his Dream she affrighted with this dreadful charge sate by him while he fell into a Sleep out of which he soon awaked in a Feverish distemper and violent Hick-up which she taking notice of said I fear Mr. Heylyn you have got cold with going abroad to day but he answered very readily no it was Deathâ—… Hick-up and so it proved for he grew worse and worse till he dyed Now some I hear impute the cause of his sickness to the eating of a Tansey but this is false for I heard the contrary relation from her own mouth his Dream was on the Saturday night his Surplice happened to be burnt on Sunday morning all which day he pass'd in private mediatation in his Study and on the Monday what time he had to spare he spent in providing a Settlement for his Wife as aforesaid But to return again to his good mans sickness of which the true cause as his Physician said was the reliques of his long quartane Ague not purged out by Physick to which he was alwaies averse threw him into a malignant Feverâ—… in which â—…he remained insensible till some few hours before he dyed but when it pleased God to restore unto him his Senses again he most zealously glorified his Name with praises and thanksgivings for his mercies towards himself and Family earnestly praying for them and often commending them to Gods Heaveuly care and protection at the same time he left â—… little Book of Prayers with his dear Wife for her devotion which she shewed afterward to me being a Collection of many Collects out of the Common Prayer to every one of which he had added a most fervent Prayer of his own composure that little Book she said should be the Prayer-Book of her Devotion while she lived Finally as his time grew shorter and shorter he prayed with more vehemency of Spirit sometimes to God sometimes to his Saviour and to the blessed Comforter of his Soul rejoycing exceedingly that he should live to Ascension day uttering forth most heavenly expressions to the sweet Comfoâ—…t of others aud principally of his own Soul with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full assurance of his Salvation through Christ Jesus which last unspeakable joy and consolation above all other God is pleased to be bestow upon the faithful and seal it to them with the earnest of his Spirit at the hour of Death At which time his Soul now ready to depart and be with Christ his Saviour one Mr. Merrol a Verger of the Church coming into his Chamber to see him he presently called him to his Bed side saying to him I know it is Church time with you and I know this is Ascenfion day I am ascending to the Church Triumphant I go to my God and Saviour unto joyes Caeleftial and to Halleluja's eternal with which and other like expressions he dyed upon Holy Thursday An. Dom. 1663. in the Climacterial year of his Life threescore and three in 〈◊〉 number the Sevenths and ninths do often fatally concurre He was afterward buried under his Sub-Deans Seat according to his Dream and desire His Death lamented by all good men because there was a Pillar though not a Bishop falln in the Church of whom I may say in the Poets words Quando ullum invenient parem