the Patron or other inducements to the Doctors acceptance but yet he did not over-readily entertain the kindness of the proffer till after a serious scrutiny of himself and his Abilities to discharge the requisite duties the place called for and after a very full and satisfactory enquiry of his Parishioners It was the Rectory of Broad Winsor in Dorsetshire a place far distanced from his native Country remoter from his University A Prophet hath no Honour in his own and therefore it was doubled to him in another The Accomodation both in reference to his maintenance and respect from this people was very noble and which afforded great expedience to the Doctors other labours which were bountifully cherished under the tuition of his Ministry After some while employed here in the pastoral Office the Doctor was desired by some Friends to dignifie his Desert with the Degrees which his Time and standing by the Rules of the University afforded him whereunto the Doctor out of a reverence to his Honourable Cailing was well inclined and accordingly prepared for his departure to Cambridge to take the Degree of Batchelour of Divinity Having taken care therefore to supply his place for the time of his absence at his setting forth he was acquainted that 4 of his chief Parishioners with his good leave were ready to wait on him to Cambridge to testifie their exceeding engagements it being the sense and request of his whole Parish This kindnesse was so present and so resolutely prest that the Doctor with many thanks for that and other demonstrations of their Love towards him gladly accepted of their Company and with his customary innate pleasantnesse entertained their time to the Journies end At his comming to Cambridge he was most welcomly treated and saluted by his friends and acquaintance and visited almost by all considerable persons of the University and Town especially of his Parishioners of St. Bennet Fame and Love vying which should render him most Addresses to the great delight and satisfaction of his fellow-Travellers and Neighbours in having a Minister who was so highly and yet no lesse deservedly honoured but to the Trouble of the modest Doctor who was then forced to busie his invention with Complements to which he was most naturally averse At this Commencement there proceeded with him in the same Degree of Batchelour of Divinity three other reverend persons all with general applause and commendation and therefore to doe them no wrong must forbear to give the Deceased Doctor his particular due Onely thus much by the way may be added that this Commencement cost the Doctor for his particular the sum of sevenscore pounds an evidence of his liberality and largenesse of mind proportionable to his other capacity's and yet then which nothing was lesse studied At his departure he was dismissed with as Honourable valedictions and so he returned in the same company who had out of their own purse contributed another addition of honour to that solemnity to his said Rectory at Broad Winsor resolving there to spend himselfe and the time of his pilgrimage amongst his deare and loving charge In the amaenity and retirements of this rurall life some perfection was given to those pieces which soon after blest this age an account of all which is reserved to the conclufion of these Collections from this pleasant prospect he drew that excellent Piece of the Holy Land Pisgah sight and other Tracts relating thereto so that what was said bitterly of some Tyrants that they made whole Countries vast solitudes and desarts may be inverted to the Eulogie of this Doctor that he in these recesses made desarts the solitudes of Israel the frequented path and track of all ingenuous and studious persons But Contemplation and the immurement of his vast spirit within the precincts of his Parish although both delightfull and profitable those foraign Travels of his brain above mentioned affording the One and his pious labours at home yeilding the other grew tedious and wearisom to his active and free Genius which was framed by nature for converse and general Intelligence not to be smothered in such an obscurity To this inclination also the unquietness and trepidations of those times then scared with the news of a war about Religion and reformation which the Scots pretended did oversway him He was very Tensible whither those first commotions did tend and that some heavy disaster did in those angry clouds which impended over the Nation more particularly threaten the Clergy He was then also married unto a vertuous young Gentlewoman and by her had born there his eldest son now a hopefull plant in the same Colledge and University where his Father had his education These motives concurring with that generall fame and esteem of him drew him to the consultation of a City life where both security honour and the advantages of learning did demonstratively promise the completion of his desires intended tranquillity destined already to some publique workes which were then in designment Removing therefore to London having obtained his fair dismission from that charge in the Countrey he continued his pious endeavour of preaching in most of the voyced Pulpits of London being cryed up for one of the most excellent preachers of his age but most usually in the Inns of Court He was from thence by the Master and Brotherhood of the Savoy as well as earnestly desired and intreated by that small parish complemented to accept of the Lecturers place which having undertaken after some instance heâ— did most piously and effectually discharge witness the great confluence of affected Hearers from distant congregations insomuch that his own Cure were in a sense excommunicated from the Church unless their timous diligence kept pace with their devotion the Doctor affording them no more time for their extraordinaries on the Lords day then what he allowed his habituated abstinence on all the rest He had in his narrow Chappel two Audiences one without the pale the other within the windows of that little Church and the Sextonry so crowded as if Bees had swarmed to his mellifluous discourse He continued here to the great satisfaction of his people and the neighbouring Nobility Gentry till our unhappy unnaturall warres had made a dismall progress through the whole Nation labouring all that while in private and in publique to beget a right understanding among all men of the Kings most righteous cause which through seduction and popular fury was generally maligned His exhortations to peace and obedience were his constant subjects in the Church all his Sermons were such Liturgies while his secular daies were spent in vigorously promoting the Kings affairs either by a sudden reconciliation or potent assistance To this end on the Anniversary day of his late Majesties inauguration which was the day of March 1642. hee preached at St. Peters Westminster on this Text 2 Sam. 19. 30. Yea let him take all so that my Lord the King return in peace A Theam so distastfull to the
Honour During the Campania and while the Army continued in the Field he performed the duty of his holy Function with as much solemn Piety and Devotion as he used before in places consecrated to Gods Worship and according to the form used and appointed by the Church of ENGLAND In all Emergencies and present Enterprizes using no other prayers then what the care of the Fathers of the Church had in those miserable exigences newly directed To this he added constant preaching on the Lords day animating in his Sermons the Souldiers to fight couragiously and to demean themselves worthy of that glorious Cause with which God had honoured them With the progress of the War he marched ftom place to place and where ever there happened for the better accōmodation of the Army any reasonable stay he allotted it with great satisfaction to his beloved studies Those cessations and intermissions begot in him the most intentnesse and sollicitous industry of mind which as he never used to much recreation or diversion in times of peace which might loose and relasch a well disciplin'd spirit so neither did the horrour and rigidnesse of the war stiffen him in such a stupidity which generally possest all Learned Men or else distract him but that in such lucid intervals he would seriously and fixedly come to himself and his designed businesse Indeed his businesse and study then was a kind of Errantry having proposed to himself a more exact Collection of the Worthies General of England in which others had waded before but he resolved to go through In what place soevet therefore he came of remark especially he spent frequently most of his time in views and researches of their Antiquities and Church-Monuments insinuating himself into the acquaintance which frequently ended in a lasting friendship of the learnedst and gravest persons residing within the place thereby to informe himself fully of those things he thought worthy the commendation of his labours It is an incredible thing to think what a numerous correspondence the Doctor maintained and enjoyed by this means Nor did the good Doctor ever refuse to light his Candle in investigating Truth from the meanest persons discovery He would endure contentedly an hours or more impertinence from any aged Church-officer or other superannuated people for the gleaning of two lines to his purpose And though his spirit was quick and nimble and all the faculties of his mind ready and answerable to that activity of dispatch yet in these inquests he would stay and attend those circular rambles til they came to a poynt so resolute was he bent to the sifting out of abstruse Antiquity Nor did he ever dismisse any such feeble Adjutators or Helpers as he pleased to style them without giving them money and chearful thanks besides After the Fight at Cheriton Down my Lord Hopton drew down with his Army and Artillery to Basing and so marched that way to Oxford intending to take up Winter Quarters as soon as he had consulted with the King and left the Doctor in that as couragiously manned as well fortified House where he had scarce begun to reduce his marching Observations into Form and Method but Sir William Waller having taken in Winchester came to besiege the Doctors Sanctuary This no way amated or terrified him but onely the noyse of the Canon playing from the Enemies Leagure interrupted the prosecution of digesting his Notes which trouble he recompenced to them by an importunate spiriting of the Defendants in their Sallies which they followed so close and so bravely suffering the Besiegers scarce to eat or sleep that Sir William was compelled to raise his Siege and march away leaving above a thousand men slain behind him and the DOCTOR the pleasure of seeing that strong Effort of Rebellion in some way by his means repulsed and defeated and in being free to proceed in his wonted intendments What time the Doctor continued here is very uncertain sure we may be he was not an unemploy'd or an unacceptable Guest to that Loyal Garrison and that as Noble and Honourable Marquesse the Proprietary of the Place the Demolishing of which princely Edifice then standing in spight of their potent Armes yet afterwards through the Fortune of War being fallen into their hands and razed by their more impotent revenge he doth heartily lament in his Worthies Generall preferring it while it flourished for the chiefest Fabrick in Hantshire This his kindness to the place of his Refuge though no doubt true and deserved enough yet no questionlesse was indeared in him by some more peculiar obliging regards and respects he found during his abode there though indeed his worth could want and misse them no where The next removal of the Doctor was to his charge in the Army and his particular duty of Chaplain to his said Lord. The War was then at its Zenith hotter and more dilated raging every where both in this and the two neighbouring Kingdoms so that there was no shelter or retirement which it had not invaded and intruded into by unruly Garrisons while the Country became a devasted Solitude so that the Doctors Designe could proceed no where But that fatal War hasting to a sad and miserable end success not answering the merit of the Cause the Kings Field-forces being every where engaged and part of the Loyal Army driven into Cornwall under the Command of that skilful Captain the good Doctor took refuge betimes in Exeter having taken his Conge and Dismission of his beloved Lord. Here again he resumed his Task of the aforesaid Worthies not minding the cloud impending on that place nor no way intermitting the Duty of his Calling preaching constantly to those truly Loyal Citizens It is a supernumerary labour to acquaint the Reader with how great satisfaction and content that alwayes and every where being annexed to his meanest endeavours During his stay in Exeter the Queen having been delivered of her last Burden saving her sorrows and distresses by the Birth of the Princesse Henrietta the Learned Doctor was preferred to be the Infant-Ladies Chaplain Her Royal Fathers intendment being as he had educated the rest of his Princely Issue to have her brought up in the Protestant Religion To that end the good Doctor in regard of his soundnesse and sincerity in that profession and eminent famous Assertion of it was designed to attend on her to instill unto her tender mind if God had pleased to continue her with safety within the limits of this Kingdome the and Belief of the English Catholique Church This for the present was altogether Honorary and pointed only at his merit which indeed was as much as the iniquity of those times would afford to any the most deserving Personages But yet the King to signifie his approbation of the Doctors excellent worth by a farther Testimony of it soon afterwards gave him a Patent for his Presentation to the Town of Dorchester in Dorsetshire a Living valued to be worth 400 l. per Annum This Royal and bounteous
Friends and the strong perswasions of his own conscience he came to a resolution to doe his duty as a Minister of Christ and leave the issue to God But he did not onely look upon this prohibition in general as a severe punishment inflicted upon the Nation by removing their Teachers into Gorners nay remote corners of the world if they disobey'd that Edict but in particular at first view of it as some punishment or infliction on himself as if God had refused him and laid him aside as not fit to serve him and this he referred to his former remisnesse in the discharge of that high Function whereunto he was separated and called And now did he superabundantly exercise that grace of charity to all persons distrest and ruined by this sad occasion what his own small Estate could not do he helped out by exhorting and perswading all men of his acquaintance or Congregation for so was the Church of England reduced even in that to the form of that Schisme that ruined it or select Auditory so that what by his powerfull Example and as strong perswasions he did minister effectually to their RELIEF Not to omit one particular charitable office of this Doctor to the same kind of Sufferers from the expiration of the War he constantly retained one that had been a Captain in the Royal Army and whose fortunes and condition could neither keep him according to that degree nor sustain or relieve him in any other This the good Doctor did out of a Loyall and Honourable sense of such persons sufferings and contempts far unworthy their Cause or their Desert and did therefore allow him 10 l. yearly besides dyet and lodging till the Captain died About this time the Doctor became Chaplain to the right Honourable the Lord Berkley having quitted Waltham in lieu whereof this Lord presented him with the Living of Cranford in Middlesex where his Body is now deposited how infinitely well beloved he was there needs not be added to those accumulations of respect he found every where for fear especially of resuscitating the recent grief of those Parishioners for his late lamented losse He was a little before wooed also to accept of a Living at in Essex which for some respects he owed the Patron and to employ that rich Talent with which God had so bountifully trusted him he undertook and piously there continued his Labours till his Settlement at London In the Interim came out a Book of Dr. Heylins called Animadversions upon Mr. Fuller ' s Ecclesiastical History wherein somewhat tartly though with that judicious learning for which that Doctor is most deservedly honoured he taxâ—… that Book of some Errors c. To this the Doctor replyed by a Book styled The Appeal of injured Innocence to the learned and ingenious Reader being a very modest but a most rational and polite defence to the aforesaid exceptions against that elaborate Piece The Dispute and Controversie was soon ended the Oyl the Doctor bestowed on this labour being poured into the fresh Wound of this Quarrel did so asswage the heat of the Contest that it was soon healed into a perfect amicable closure and mutual endearment Indeed the grace that was supereminent in the good Doctor was Charity both in giving and forgiving as he had laboured during our civil broils after peace so when that could not through our sins be attained did he with the same earnestnesse presse the Duty of Love especially among Brethren of the same afflicted and too much already divided Church and therefore was most exemplary in keeping the band of it himself though in a matter that most nearly concerned his credit and fame the chiefest worldly Thing he studied and intended This constrained retrospection of the Doctors to secure and assist the far advanced strength of his foremost works did a little retard and impede the arriere of his labours which consisted of the flower and choice of all his Abilities and wherein his WORTHIES were placed howbeit this proved but a Halt to those encumbrances and difficulties which he had all along before met and soon set that Book on foot again This was the last Remora to it the Doctor going on a smooth swift pace while all things else were retrograde in the Kingdome through the tyrannical plots and stratagems of the Usurper Cromwell so as toward the beginning of that mirabilis Annus 1660. he had it ready for the Press to which assoon as the wonders of his Majesties Restitution was over in the thankful contemplation whereof the good Doctor was so piously fixt as nothing else might presume to intrude upon his raised gladded spirits he brought it taking the auspicia of that happy and famous juncture of time for the Commencement of this Everlasting Monument of himself as well as all other English Noble deceased Persons A while before to compleat the Doctor 's contentment as to his Ministry also he was invited to his former Lecturers place at the Savoy who even from his departure had suffered under an insufficient or disloyal and malicious Clergy and therefore stood in need of an able and dutiful Son of the Church to reduce and lead them in the right way and the old paths For this People his ancient flock the Doctor had alwayes a more especial respect and kindnesse which was the rather heightned in him out of a compassion to their state and condition Nor did he more tenderly affect them then they universally respect him receiving him as indeed he was as an Angel of God sent to minister unto them heavenly things in exchange whereof they freely gave him their hearts and hands The Doctor through the injury and iniquity of the times had for neer 20 years been barred of all Profits of his Prebendariship of Salisbury of which before but upon the return of the King those Revenues and Possessions so sacrilegiously alienated from the Church reverted also to their rightful Proprietors This accession and additional Help did very much encourage the Doctor in the carrying on of his Book which being large would require an able Purse to go through with and he was very sollicitous often presaging he should not live to see it finished though satisfied of his present healthy constitution to have it done out of hand to which purpose part of the Money accrewing to him from his Salisbury Prebendariship was designed He therefore hastned his Book with all Expedition and whereas he had intended to continue it but till 1659. and had therefore writ it in such language as those times of Usurpation during the most part of which it was compiled would suffer such a subject concerning Matter to be drest in he now reviewed it over giving Truth and his own most excellent Phansie their proper becoming Ornaments Scope and Clearnesse But neither the elevation of the Usurpers nor the depression of the Royallists and the Vice-versa of it did ever incline or sway him to additions intercalations or expunctions of persons whom he