the regular Clergy In the year 1639. when his Majesty began his Journy against the Scots upon the liberal contribution of the Clergy he gave fifty Pounds out of his Parsonage in Alresford and for Southwarn-borough thirteen pounds thirteen shillings and four pence at the same time when he had not payed of his first Fruits for this Living He was the first of all the Clergy that subscribed in Hampshire being a leading man his good Example so moved others that the Clergy of that County exceeded their other Brethren they raised for the Kings use the sum of 1348l 2s 4d After his Majesty King Charles the Second most happy Restauration towards the Royal Benevolence he gave fifty Pounds for his Parsonage of Alresford besides his share of a thousand Pound as he was Prebendary of Westminster I should have added also which I had almost forgotten in the beginning of the War he gave to the Old King Mony and Plate to the value of an hundred Pounds by all which freely parted out of his Purse and more than his Estate could well bear having many Children to provide for he sufficiently confuted the Calumny of L' Strange who said according to his gentile and new mode of writing hard words the Doctor was Philargurous when poor man what he parted with and what he was plundred of he had scarce enough left to insconse his Person from frigidity according to the good squires Language For his Charity to the Poor he had always a liberal Heart to cast his Bread upon the Waters when he had Bread to cast that is when he was in a condition to relieve others at which time he gave Alms to his Enemies as well as to the honest Poor of the Kings Party for being asked the question when he lived in Abingdon whether he would serve St. Ellens poor being of the adverse Party against the Royalists He answered no exception ought to be made in the Case of Charity Wherein he followed the Example of our blessed Lord who had compassion on the poor Samaritans as well as upon the Jews to whom he shewed many acts of piety and goodness besides the Cure of their bodily infirmities its probable he gave them an Alms-peny for which reason Judas carried the Bag that had a common stock in it for the Poor to be used as occasion served The good Doctor hath sent Meat from his own Table to the Prisoners in Goal and at Abington such as were condemned to dye he took pains to instruct and prepare them for Death and to administer the holy Sacrament unto them before their Execution particularly to one Captain Francis and his Company condemned with him at Abingdon Assizes the Captain being a known Royalist for which reason it was thought the Judge was so severe against him upon his Tryal and plainly partial in the Examination of Witnesses of both sides The Doctor after the Sentence of Condemnation went to Prison to pray with him and administred the Sacrament to him and the other Prisoners who were penitent provivided Bread and Wine for them at his own Charge all which certainly was the most Christian Act of Piety and Charity that could be shewed to those miserable Souls I could instance many other particulars which manifested his goodness wherein he ought to be followed as a worthy Example but that its time now to draw near to his End For do the Prophets live for ever as the good Prophet himself said No 't is the deplored Condition of Mankind to live a while for to dye after the holy men of God had served God in their Generation they must fulfil the end of their Prophesie with their Lives as God said to Daniel Tu autem abi ad termiuum Go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in the Lot at the end of the days on which Geierus and Junius Comment thus Compara te ad mortem disposita domo â—…ua contentus hac revelatione non ultra labores requiesces a laboribus corpore in Sepulchro Anima vero in sinu Abrahae stabis in haereditate tua caelesti aeterna vel illa ejus parte quae tibi ex dècreto Dei continget Prepare thy self for Death set thy house in order be content with this Revelation thou shalt labour no more but rest from all thy labours and troubles with thy Body in the Grave but thy Soul in Abraâ—…ams Bosom thou shalt abide for ever in thy caelestial Inheritance and in that degree of Glory which God hath decreed for thee So all these things happened to this good man and I may call him prophetical because he strangely foresaw his own Death set his house in order and prepared himself accordingly and an end was soon put after to his Days and of making many Books because much study as Solomon â—…aith is a weariness of the flesh though the Mind or Spirit of a Man is never tired out or can be satisfied because Knowledge is no burden By the Almighties good pleasure and providence he was now removed from his House in Abingdon to his house in Westminster where he lived not long and from thence to the House of Darkness where all must take up their last Lodging The Grave is mine house saith Job I have made my Bed in the Darkness What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death Shall â—…e deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Is not this the House appointed for all Living According to the French Proverb three things carry away all with them L'Eglise la Court la Mort L'Eglise prend de vif mort La Court prend le droiet le tort La Mort prend le foible le fort The Church the Court and Death take all The Church both Living and the Dead install To Court all Causes come either right or wrong But Death destroys all Mortals weak or strong Therefore we shall speak of the Circumstances foregoing his Death and the memorable Accidents happning to him about the same time He had before been greivously afflicted with a Quartan Ague that deadly Enemy unto old Age and seldom cured by the Physician Febris quartana opprobrium medici The poor Doctor had wrastled with the Disease a long time and seemingly got the victory of it for the paroxysms or usual fits of this sore distemper had departed from him but withal so violently shaken him and left such a weakness behind them so exhausted his strength and vital Spirits that any one might perceive what strange alterations his sickness had wrought in him for he was before of a fresh lively complexion a man vigorous in action but now grown feeble and weak of a pale discoloured countenance the fore-runner of Death his Cheeks fallen his Eyes a little sunk within his Temples and leanness of Face and whole Body that shewed he was hastning on fast to the end of his Pilgrimage Yet I dare not say there is
such a predetermined Term of every mans Life which is immutable but the great God of Heaven from whom we derive our Being can lengthen or shorten our days as his Wisdom pleaseth and on the other side this is a Decree most absolute and irrevocable Statutum est omnibus ut semel moriantur It is appointed for all men once to die In reverence of which Decree such a heavenly man as the Doctor was could not but be prepared as every religious Soul is for to dye or put off his mortal Body Before which time two Accidents happened to him one suddenly after the other which he looked upon as presaging Providences of his Death for he was a man very critical in his observation of unusual things and I may say in this particular prophetical For on the Saturday Night before he sickned he dreamed that he was in an extraordinary pleasant and delightful Place where standing and admiring the beauty and glory of it he saw the late King his Master who said to him Peter I will have you buried under your Seat at Church for you are rarely seen but there or at your Study Which Dream he told his Wife the next Morning saying it was a significant one giving her charge when he dyed there to bury him A few hours after his Maid holding his Surplice against the Fire to air it one of the Billets upon the fire tumbled down the Flame of which catched hold of the Surplice and burned it at which Accident so soon following his Dream he said That was ominous and he should never wear Surplice more as indeed he did not like Aaâ—…on the high Priest when he was stripped of his priestly Garments by Gods own appointment he must certainly dye These two Accidents falling out together made such a strong impression upon his mind that on the same day though he was seemingly well as he used to be he did not go to Church but on the Munday following went forth in the Morning stayed out all the Day in which time he bought a House of one Mrs. Floyd in the Almonry payed his Mony for it renewed the Lease of it and brought home the Writings and then told his Wife the reason of his being from home all that time which was an unusual thing with him was because he had bought her a House to live in near the Abby that she might serve God in that Church as he had done All which she not knowing before seemed strange and terrifying to her not thinking the precedent Accidents of the Dream and Surplice could have wrought such an indelible impression on his fancy she urged all the arguments and perswasions she possibly could to drive away this Melancholy humor but all in vain for he still persisted in his opinion which proved too sad a truth Because he was a man who rarely dreamed in his Life and when he did he could remember no circumstances of it which puts me in mind what Pliny hath writen to this purpose that there be some persons of so curious and excellent temper who are seldom or never disturbed with Dreams but if it so happen to them at any time it is a deadly sign Quibus mortiferum fuisse signum saith he contra consuetudinem somniorum in venimus exempla That there is a truth in some Dreams I do not question though I would not have men too credulous of them Because this is not now Gods oeconomy or his ordinary way of dispensation under the Gospel to manifest his mind to us as he did to the Patriarchs before the Law and afterward to the holy Prophets to whom he made known himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in divers manners and particularly in this way and manner of Dreams yet as God cannot be limited in his Will and Power at any time when he hath a mind to do an extraordinary thing I would therefore not too rigidly condemn all Dreams for delusions that are ascertained to us by the Testimony of wise and credible Persons whom we know are no way enclined to be either fanciful or fanatick Omiting what Artemidorus hath written in his Oneirocriticks I take Caelius Rhodoginus for a most learned and faithful Author who reports of himself that when he could not explain a hard passage he met with in Pliny that puzled his Brain it was made known and revealed to him in a Dream if he did look in such a Book he should find it Librum arripui saith he sicut somniaveram sic comperui ` I took up the Book and `found the same accordingly as I `dreamed Neither was that less wonderful which Joseph Scaliger tells us of his Fathers Dream who in his Sleep read an Epitaph which he never saw with his Eyes or ever heard of before yet proved most true whence he inferreth by this Example the prodigy and yet certainty of some Dreams Prodigiosa etiam usque ad miraculum ex somniis vaticinatio We may believe his Relation for he was a man of that Integrity and great Spirit as he would scorn to tell a Lye I cannot omit what Dr. Heylyn himself hath written of Arch-Bishop Laud That he was much given to take notice of Dreams and commit them to writing Amongst which I find this for one that on Friday Night the 24th of January 1639. his Fathâ—…r who died six and forty years before came to him and that to his thinking he was as well and as cheerful as evel he saw him that his Father asked him what he did there and that after some speecâ—… he demanded of his Father how long he would stay there And his Father made this Answer that he should stay till he had him along with him A Dream which made such impression on him as to add this Note to it in his Breviate that though he was not moved with Dreams yet he thought to remember this I know many impute those Dreams in our Sleep to a melancholy temper which the Doctor was never subject to either in time of Sickness or Health but was a Man always of most cheerful Spirit I confess that black humor presenteth strange things to the Imagination and Phantasie of some Persons that Aristotle in his Problems ascribes the Prophesie of the Sybil Women thereto and Cardanus the Revelations of Hermites because living in solitude and on bad diet Quantum poterat saith he in illis humor melancholicus The old Philosophers also were of opinion that all Prophesie did proceed from the strength of Imagination by the conjunction of the Understanding which they call Intellectus possibilis with the other faculty of the Intellectus agens whereby they concluded contrary to the holy Scripture that old men were not capable of prophecying by reason of the weakness of their imagination and other natural faculties decayed in them through Age but the quite contrary appeareth in Scripture Examples that that they were generally aged men or well stricken in years who
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