learned man And it would be a generous act and highly conducive to the honor of Mr. Noy's memory as well as the Kings and Churches interest if such Treasures were communicated to the benefit of all his Majesties Subjects which are now only useful to some single persons Neither was this all the trouble that Dr. Heylyn met with at this â—ime For some enemies then living added to the sorrow and disturbance that he had for his departed Friend The grievances which the Collegiate Church of Westminster suffered under the Government of Iohn Lord Bishop of Lincoln then Commendatory-Dean thereof became so intolerable that our Doctor was constrained for the common safety of that Foundation to draw up certain Articles no less than 36. against his Lordship by way of charge which he communicated to Dr. Thomas Wilson Dr. Gabriel Moore and Dr. Ludovicus Wemmys Prebendaries of the said Church who embarqu'd themselves in the same bottom with him and resolved to make complaint by way of Petition which was drawn up and presented to the King by all four together in the Withdrawing-Chamber at Whitehal March 31. 1634. And a Commission was issued out thereupon to the Archbishops of Centerbury and York the Earl of Manchester Lord Privy-Seal Earl of Portland Lord high Treasurer the Lord Bishop of London Lord Cottington and the two Secretaries of State viz. Sir Iohn Coke and Sir Francis Windebank authorizing them to hold a Visitation of the Church of Westminster to examine particular charges made against Iohn Lord Bishop of Lincoln and to redress such Grievances and Pressures as the Prebendaries of the said Church suffered by his Mis-government The Articles were returned to Dr. Heylyn to be put in Latine and the Commission bore date April 20. But the whole thing lay dormant till December 1635. at which time the Bishop began again to rage in his Province of Westminster dispossessing the Prebendaries of their Seats neglecting to call the Chapter to pass accounts conferring Orders in the said Church within the space of a month permitting a Benefice in the gift of the said Church and lying within his Diocess to be lapsed unto himself with many other Grievances which caused the forementioned Prebendaries to present a second Petition to his Majesty Humbly beseeching him to take the ruinous and desperate estate of the said Church into his Princely consideration as 't is worded in the Petition it self Upon which the former Commission was revived and delivered to the Lords whom it did concern and a Citation fixed upon the Church-doors of Westminster accordingly Upon Ianuary 25. they were warned by the Sub-Dean to meet the Bishop in Ierusalem-Chamber where amongst other matters his Lordship desired to know what those things were that were amiss that so he might presently redress them To whom Dr. Heylyn replied That seeing they had put the business into his Majesties hands it would ill become them to take it out of his into their own Ian. 27. both parties met before the Lords in the Inner Star-Chamber where the Commission was tendred and accepted and the whole business put into a methodical course each following Monday being appointed for the day of hearing till the whole was concluded Feb. 1. The Commissioners with the Plaintiffs and Defendant met in the Council-Chamber at Whitehal where it was ordered that the Plaintiffs should be called by the name of Prebendaries-Supplicant That they should be admitted upon Oath as Witnesses That they should have a sight of all Registers Records Books of Accounts c. That the first business that they should proceed in should be that of the Seat because that made the breach or difference more visible and offensive to the world than those matters that were more private and domestick and finally that the Prebendaries-Supplicant should have an Advocate who should plead their Cause defend their Rights and represent their Grievances And the person that they unanimously made choice of was Dr. Peter Heylyn Feb. 8. the Dean put in his Plea about the Seat or great Pew under Richard the II. and the Advocate being appointed by the Prebendaries-Supplicant to speak in the defence of their common Interest in the Seat now controverted and of which the Bishop of Lincoln had most disgracefully dispoâ—sessed them he made choice to represent to the Lord Commissioners 1. Their Original Right 2. Their Derivative Right and lastly their Possessory Right Their Original Right he proved from the Charter of their Foundation from Queen Elizabeth their Foundress who declared by Act of Parliament made in the first year of her Reign the Abbey of St. Peter in Westminster fell into her hands and that being seized thereof and of all the Lands thereunto belonging she did by her Letters Patents erect the said dissolved Abbey into a Collegiate Church consisting of a Dean and twelve Prebendaries and that the said Dean and Prebendaries should be both in re nomine unum corpus corporatum one only Body Politick that they should have a perpetual Succession a Common Seal and that they should Call Plead and be Impleaded by the name of the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster So that by this Donation the Dean hath no propriety in the said Church his own Stall excepted but is joynt-Owner with the Prebendaries of the Site and Soil Nor did the Queen bestow upon them the Church alone but bestowed it joyntly upon them una cum omnibus antiquis privilegiis libertatibus ac liberis consuetudinibus and those to be enjoyned in as full a manner as ever tho Abbot and Convent did before enjoy the same By which it appears that all the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Church of Westminster is vested joyntly in the Dean and Chapter and not in the Dean alone For as the Dean and Chapter are one Body so they make one Ordinary and as one Ordinary have a common and joynt Power to dispose of Seats Their Derivative Right he proved from their Original Right For the Queen giving the Dean and Prebendaries with their Successors all Rights Possessions Privileges and Immunities they need only to prove their Succession in the Church of St. Peter and then whatever Right was in their Predecessors Original must be on them derived As for their Possessory Right he desired their Lordships pardon if he should fail in the proof of it For the Book of the Chapter-Acts was missing which was very necessary in order to it And although one offered to take his Oath that the Bishop of Lincoln never saw it yet the Oath was so desperate that either the person who offered to take it had an hand in making away the Book or else that he durst swear whatever the Bishop of Lincoln said or asserted But being deprived of that Evidence he proceeded to Testimony where he did not make use of such Witnesses as were summoned by the Dean viz. Colâ—ege-Servants and Tenants who were obnoxious to him but indifferent men that were no way
Friends to the Complainants but only to the Truth some of them Bishops some Doctors in Divinity all of them of unquestion'd Credit and such as spake upon certain and affirmative knowledge Finally the Advocate than whom never any Orator or Lawyer did better acquit himself urged that however things were in time past yet the Bishop by his Non-Claim had pre-judged himself and that the possession of the Prebendaries since his Lordship became Dean of Westminster was sufficient to create a Right though they had never any right before And this he made good by particular Cases and Decisions in the Civil Canon and Common Laws First for the Civil Law it was determined by the Laws of the twelve Tables That a continued and quiet possession which any man had gained in a Personal Estate for one year only or for two years together in matters Real which they call Immovable should create a Right those times being thought sufficient for any man to put in his Claim And so it held in Rome many hundred years till that upon some inconveniences which did thence arise it pleased Iustinian to set out his Edict which is still extant in the 7th Book of his Code and in that Edict to Decree That a possession of three years in matters Personal should beget a Right and as for Real Estates it was determined that a possession of ten years inter praesentes and twenty years inter absentes should conclude as much And in almost all Nations Christened the same Law has continued to this very time So that if this be applied to my Lord of Lincoln he is gone in Civil Law For being resident here continually for fifteen years together he never made his Claim to the Seat in question and so has lost his Right if ever he had any Next for the Canon Law it yields as many ruled Cases and Decisions by which to regulate this point as the former But the Advocate instanc'd only in one The Church of Sutry in Tuscany being void the Canons go to the Election of a Bishop and make choice of one whom they desire to have confirmed The Clergy of the Convents about the City interpose their Claim and make it manifest Eos Electionibus trium Episcoporum qui immediatè praefuerunt c. interfuisse i. e. that they were present at the Election of the three last Bishops and did give their Voices The Pope thereupon determined that seeing the Witnesses on the Canons part did seem to differ among themselves Et quod negativam quodammodo astruere satagebant and that they went about to prove the Negative viz. that the said Clerks had no Voices in the three last Elections or were not present in the same which negative proof it seems was taken for a strange attempt And seeing on the other side that it was manifest how the said Clerks were present at the three last Elections and had their Voices in the same the former Election was made void and the said Clerks put into that possession which they had before A Case says Dr. Heylyn that is very parallel to our present business we claiming that if not before yet in the time of the three last Deans we had possession of this Seat and therefore are to be restored unto that possession out of which we had been cast by my Lord of Lincoln Lastly for the Common Law however there is nothing against which the Laws do provide more carefully than the preventing or removing of a Force nor any thing wherein they do proceed with more severity than in punishing of the same yet by the Laws it is enacted that they which keep their possessions by Force in any Lands or Tenements whereof they or their Ancestors or they whose Estate they have in such Lands or Tenements have continued their Possession by the space of three years or more be not endangered by any former Statutes against Force Forcible Entries and Forcible Detainers So careful are the Laws to preserve Possession that in most cases they do prefer it before Right at least till Right be cleared and Judgment be pronounced in favour of it And albeit in the Common Laws there is no ruled Case in the present business as being meerly of Ecclesiastical Cognizance and Jurisdiction yet in the Common Law there is one Case which comes very near it and 't is briefly this If there be two Ioynt-Tenants or Tenants in Common of certain Lands and one of them doth expel or put forth the other out of Possession of the said Lands by force he that is so expelled may either bring his Writ of Assize of Novel Disseisin and so recover treble dammages or have his Action of Trespass of Forcible Entry against his Companion that did so expel him and thereupon shall have a Writ of Restitution This Case is very near ours as before is said the Dean and Prebendaries being Ioint-Tenants or Tenants in Common of the Seat in question out of which we are expelled forcibly by my Lord of Lincoln and now desire the benefit of the Law for our Restitution But says the Advocate my Lord objects that the Prebendaries are in subjection to him that they swear Canonical Obedience to him and therefore should not sit in the same Seat with him But to both we answer with an Absque hoc we are not in subjection to him for we are made Ioynt-Governors with him in every thing pertaining to the Church and in the Statutes are entituled Primarii principes viri and are to be Assistants to him and Associates with him in the common Government of the same Nor do we swear Canonical Obedience to him as is pretended We only make Oath that we shall give him dignam debitamque Reverentiam and that we swear to give to all Officers So that if Digna Reverentia is â—o be construed Canonical Obedience we owe Canonical Obedience to the Arch-Deacon the Treasurer the Sub-Dean and Steward as well as to the Bishop of Lincoln Much more was spoken by Dr. Heylyn vivâ voce in this matter which will be too tedious to be inserted in his Life But when he had ended his Speech the Lord Commissioners expected that the Bishop would have made a Reply but after a long pause he said no other words than these If your Lordships will hear that young fellow prate he will presently persuade you that I am no Dean of Westminster But upon hearing the proofs of both sides it was ordered by general consent of the Lord Commissioners that the Prebendaries should be restored to their old Seat and that none should sit there with them but Lords of the Parliament and Earls Eldest Sons according to the antient custom After this there was no Bishop of Lincoln to be seen at Morning-Prayer in the Church and seldom at Evening Feb. 15. the Lord Commissioners went on in hearing the particulars of the second Petition and so they proceeded from one Monday to another till Monday April 4. and then adjourned
Port or lofty looks or in all or in none Admitting the most and worst you can of these particulars would you have men that shine in a higher Orb move in a lower Sphere than that in which God has placed them Or being rank'd in Order and Degree about you would you not have them keep that distance which belongs to their Places Or because you affect a Parity in the Church would you have all men brought to the same Level with your self without admitting Sub and Supra in the Scale of Government If they were your Fathers in God why did not you look upon them with such reverence as becomes Children If your Superiors in the Lord why did not you yield them that subjection which was due unto them If fix'd in Place and Power above you by the Laws of the Land only and no more than so why did not you give obedience to those Laws under which you lived and by which you were to be directed Take heed I beseech you Mr. Baxter that more Spiritual Pride be not found in that heart of yours than ever you found worldly and external Pride in any of my Lords the â—â—â—hops and that you do not trample on them with greater insolence Calco platonis Fastum sed majori Fastu as you know who said in these unfortunate days of their Calamity than ever they expressed toward any in the time of their Glory Were it my case as it is yours I would not for ten thousand worlds depart this life before I had obtained their pardon and given satisfaction to the world for these horrible Scandals 3. As for those persons that were heartily affected with Episcopacy and dissatisfied with the extinction of an Order so sacred and venerable there was this way found out to quiet their diâ—contents viz. to persuade them that Bishops and Presbyters were of equivolent importance and comprehended under the same name in the Holy Scriptures But grant says this their Champion that they be so who that pretends to Logick can dispute so lamely as from a Community of names to infer an Identity or Sameness in the thing so named Kings are called Gods in Holy Scripture and God does frequently call himself by the name of King yet if a man should thence infer that from this Community of names there arises an Identity or Sameness between God and the King he might worthily be condemned for so great a Blasphemer St. Peter calls our Saviour Christ by the name of Bishop and himself a Presbyter or Priest or an Elder as we unhandsomly read it yet were it a sorry piece of Logick to conclude from hence that there is no distinction between an Apostle and an Elder the Prince of the Apostles and a simple Presbyter or between Christ the Supreme Pastor of his Church and every ordinary Bishop Lastly take it for granted that Bishops have an Identity or Sameness in Name Office Ordination and Qualification with Presbyters it will not follow convertibly that Presbyters have the like Identity or Sameness of Qualification Ordination Name and Office which the Bishop hath My reason is because a Bishop being first Regularly and Canonically to be made a Priest before he take the Order and Degree of a Bishop hath in him all the Qualifications the Ordination Name and Office which a Presbyter has and something further superadded as well in point of Order and Iurisdiction which every Presbyter hath not So that altho every Bishop be a Priest or Presbyter yet every Presbyter is not a Bishop To make this clear by an example in the Civil Government When Sir Robert Cecil Knight and principal Secretary of State was made first Earl of Salisbury and then Lord Treasurer continuing Knight and Secretary as he was before it might be said that he had an Identity or Sameness in Name Office Order and Qualification with Sir Iohn Herbert the other Secretary yet this could not be said reciprocally of Sir Iohn Herbert because there was something superadded to Sir Robert Cecil viz. the Dignity of an Earl and the Office of Lord Treasurer which the other had not So true is that of Lactantius Adeo argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus It is ordinary for Arguments built upon weak grounds to have worse Conclusions And a better Instance cannot be given of this than in the Retortion that Mr. Selden made to one in the House of Commons who disputed against the Divine Right of Episcopacy His argument was this 1. That Bishops are Iure Divino is of Question 2. That Archbishops are not Iure Divino is out of Question 3. That Ministers are Iure Divino there is no Question Now if Bishops which are questioned whether Iure Divino shall Suspend Ministers which are Iure Divino I leave it to you Mr. Speaker Which Mr. Selden whether with greater Wit or Scorn is hard to say thus retorted on him 1. That the Convocation is Iure Divino is a Question 2. That Parliaments are not Iure Divino is out of Question 3. That Religion is Iure Divino is no Question Now Mr. Speaker that the Convocation which is questioned whether Iure Divino and Parliaments which out of Question are not Iure Divino should meddle with Religion which questionless is Iure Divino I leave to you Mr. Speaker There are some other Points relating to Episcopacy which Dr. Heylyn has long time since cleared and determined And if some of our pretending States-men had considered and read what was written upon those Subjects their time and pains would have been more profitably spent to the honor and security of this Church and Kingdom than in raising doubts and scruples which had long before been so clearly stated and resolved For 1. As for Bishops sitting in Parliament to Vote in Causes of Blood and Death this the Doctor evinced not only in the Tract entituled De Iure paritatis Episcoporum but in his Observations upon Mr. L'Estrange's History where he says that altho the ancient Canons disable Bishops from Sentencing any man to Death yet they do not from being Aâ—sistants in such cases from taking Examinations hearing Depositions of Witnesses or giving Counsel in such matters as they saw occasion The Bishops sitting as Peers in the English Parliament were never excluded from the Earl of Strafford's Trial from any such Assistances as by their Gravity and Learning and other Abilities they were enabled to give in any dark and difficult business tho of Blood and Death which were brought before them 2. With the like solid reasoning the Doctor has evinced the Bishops to be one of the Three Estates For not to mention what he says upon this Argument in his Stumbling-Block of Disobedience That they have their Vote in Parliament as a Third Estate not in capacity of Temporal Barons altho they are so as Mr. Selden evinces and an Act of Parliament Stat. 25. Edw. III. will evidently appear from these following Reasons For
which was laid in Episcopacy 5. In the Time set apart for Divine Worship wherein the constant Practice of the Church of God from the Creation to the Year 1635. is Learnedly and Laboriously represented in that matter 6. In the Doctâ—ine of the Western Churches concerning the five Controverted points an Historical Account of which is given out of the Publick Acts and Monuments aswell as the most approved Authors in those several Churches 7. In the Kings Supreme Dignity and Authority against that Stumbling-block of Disobedience and Rebellion laid by Mr. Calvin about the Ephori of Sparta the Tribunes of Rome and the Demarchi of Athens than which Treatise few more Rational or Learned have seen the light upon that subject And lastly in the Bishops Right of Peerage a Treatise written in the Year 1640. when it was Voted in the House of Lords That no Bishop should be of the Committee for the preparatory Examination of the Earl of Strafford this Tract was never before Printed and as for the rest that were they could rarely be met with to be sold and those that could were not to be purchased at any ordinary or easie rates And there is no Reason but that the old Books Learned and useful as they are reprinted should meet with as kind reception from the World as new Books composed with less judgment out of old ones unless it be that some finical Readers will have their fancies gratified by the novelty of a Title Page even like some Ladies that are always affecting new Modes and Fashions in their Garbs and Garments And there are Botchers in Books as well as Cloaths that have the knack to make new ones out of old ones I shall not attempt to particularize or rectifie either the mistakes or omissions that are in the Life as it stands before the collected Treatises now specified The Reader may easily discern both by comparing what is there writ with the Memorials now published In which I have made use of no materials out of the Printed Folio except these two viz. The charitable zeal which the Doctor exerted in saving the Parish-Church of St. Nicholas in Abingdon from being laid even with the ground and the Dream that he had immediately before his fatal Sickness neither of which came unto my knowledg before I met with them before the Collection And I hope he that favoured the World with the publication of them will pardon my presumption since what I have made use of tends to the adorning of the memory of so near a Relation and since also many more particular passages were excerpted out of my Papers the very words as well as matter when he had them in his Custody as any Reader may easily discern who will be at the pains of comparing the Life now Published with what is extant before the Keimelia Ecclesiastica The truth is though I did with some unwillingness and regret undertake the writing of what is here offered to the World yet I was the more easily induced to it not only out of Reverence to the memory of a right Learned man and the honour that I owe to some of his nearest Relatives but also from those black Clouds of darkness which have of late threatned our publick Peace and Common Interests deeming that it would be beneficial unto my self and not unacceptable unto Loyal English-men especially those of the Clergy if their minds were fortified with Courage and Resolution to suffer and submit unto the Will of God in the times that might happen by calling to remembrance what others have done in the days that are past For God does not only know the Frame of our Bodies that they are dust but the temper of our minds viz. how averse they are to exercise patience under heavy Persecutions and how unable to contend with the infelicity of an unrighteous World unless he did now and then represent unto our view some fresh example of his righteous servants who by their faith and patience have beat out a path and made the way plain before us And whoever reads over the following Account given of Dr. Heylyn will find few of his Quality and Profession who survived the fury of that storm that was raised in the Vnnatural War and who brought their Vessel to safe shore and landing at the last that endured more numerous and violent Hurricanes than he did And what can be more seasonable or advantageous against that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that languishing and faintness of spirit which may possibly seize on us under the Cross than that being in a tendency to endure and encounter with the like hardships we should arm our selves with the same Resolution of mind as the person did treated of in these papers Perhaps the persecutions that are here mentioned are not of so wide an extent as to furnish any one with a Panoplie against all the Evils that this inconstant World may bring upon us But although they may not in all respects parallel those sufferings which may be our Portion and Lot yet they may be of that efficacy to mind us of our duty and to prepare us for the vicissitudes of Providence that whenever our Fiery Tryal comes we may not think it strange or unusual but by some preparatory exercises of Piety and self-denial we may be mortifying in our selves all that softness tenderness and effeminacy of temper which will render Affliction grievous and intollearable to us The blessed Apostle acquaints us what good effect his passive fortitude produced in some new Converts to Christianity when they became possessed of the very same zeal and constancy as he had for waxing confident by his bonds they were much more bold to speak the word without fear Phil. 1. 14. God be praised as yet we have no sharper persecutions to exercise our Christian Vertues than what have befallen the holiest Christians in the most flourishing Condition of the Church The Sun shines upon our Tabernacles and notwithstanding all the outcries about Property and Liberty yet there is no such irruption into either as to occasion complaining in our streets But we know not how soon our Fate may be the same with Dr. Heylyn's to be brought before the Rulers of the darkness of this World for the sake of the Christian Righteousness And whenever 't is our lot it concerns us to behave our selves with that Faith and Courage that we neither violate the Oaths we have taken nor disgrace the Religion we profess nor forfeit the happiness we hope for and expect We see with our eyes or hear with our ears with what resolution men suffer for evil doing And if a natural Sturdiness or Fool-hardiness does sustain the spirits of men against the Terrors of a violent Death notwithstanding those black guilts of Schism Faction Sedition Treason Murther c. which lye upon their consciences What a disgrace will it be unto our profession for us to be weary and faint in our minds when any external evils or dangers
13th year of his Age sent to London by his Father to be under the Cure of Dr. Turner Husband to that Gentlewoman that had a hand in the Death of Sir Tho. Overbury who keeping him to a strict Diet and frequent Sweatings sent him back into the Country after four Months time But his Distemper again returning he was fain once more to apply himself unto his old Doctor before a Cure could be completed Upon his return to Burford he found his old Master dead and was committed to the Care of a Successor viz. Mr. Davis a Reverend good man who notwithstanding his long discontinuance from School found his Scholar not to have mis-spent or mis-employed any time that gave him the least Relaxation from his Distemper and therefore placed him Third in the â—ppermost Form Mr. Davis spared no diligence that might tend to the cultivating of a Plant so flourishing and hopeful making him fit for the University by having him but twelve Months under his Tuition A kindness so gratefully resented by our Doctor that he dedicated to him one of his Books called Ecclesia Vindicata and had it not been for the misfortune of the War had given better Testimonies of a thankful and generous mind in preferring him to some considerable Benefice or Dignity in the Church He was the beginning of December 1613. in the 14th year of his Age sent to Oxford and placed under the Tuition of Mr. Ioseph Hill an antient Batchelor in Divinity once one of the Fellows of Corpus Christi College but then Commoner of Hart-Hall by whom Mr. Walter Newberry afterward a zealous Puritan was made choice of to instruct him in Logick and other Academical Studies as far as the tenderness of his Age rendred him capable And he made such progress in them that upon the 22d of Iuly 1614. he stood Candidate for a Demies place in Magdalen College having no other Recommendations than Sir Iohn Walters then Attorney General to the Prince and afterward Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Grand-Father to that worthy Gentleman Sir William Walter now of Sarsden in the County of Oxford Baronet Dr. Langton President of the College put Mr Heylyn the Eighth upon the Roll which was the first place of the second Course but it succeeded not till the year following being then Elected First upon the Roll and having very much endeared himself to the President and Fellows by a facetious Latine Poem upon a Journey that he made with his two Tutors unto Woodstock But immediately after his admission into that noble Foundation he fell into a Consumption which constrained him to retire to his Native Air where he continued till Christmas following He was a year after his Admission made Impositor of the Hall in which Office he acquitted himself with so much Fidelity that the College-Dean continued him longer in it than any ever before by which means he contracted a great deal of Hatred and Enmity from those Students that were of his own standing being called by them the Perpetual Dictator But he diverted the violence of the Storm by the assiduity of his Studies and particularly by Composing an English Tragedy called Spurius which was so well approved of by some learned persons of that Foundation that the President caused it to be privately acted in his own Lodgings In Iuly 1617. he obtained his Grace for the degree of Batchelor of Arts but was not Presented to it till the October following by reason of the absence of one of his Seniors holding it unworthy to prejudice another person for his own Advancement After the performance of the Lent-Exercises for his Degree he fell into a Fever which increasing with great violence at last turned into a Tertian Ague and caused him again to retreat unto his Countrey Air which he enjoyed till the middle of Iuly following and then according to the College Statutes which require that Exercise to be performed every long Vacation by some Batchelor of Arts he began his Cosmographical Lectures and finished them in the end of the next August His Reading of those Lectures drew the whole Society into a profound admiration of his Learning and Abilities insomuch that before he had ended them he was admitted Fellow upon Probation in the place of one Mr. Love And that he might give a Testimony of his grateful mind for so unexpected a Favour he writ a Latine Comedy call'd Theomachia which he Composed and Transcribed in a Fortnights space On Iuly 29. 1619. he was admitted in verum perpetuum Socium and not long before was made Moderator of the Senior Form which he retained above two years And within that compass of time he began to write his Geography accordingly as he designed when he Read his Cosmographic-Lectures which Book he finish'd in little more than two months beginning it Feb. 22. and completing it the 29th of April following At the Act Ann. Dom. 1620 he was admitted Master of Arts the honor of which Degree was the more remarkable because that very year the Earl of Pembroke Chancellor of the University signified his pleasure by special Letters that from that time forward the Masters of Arts who before sate bare should wear their Caps in all Congregations and Convocations unto which Act of Grace his Lordship was induced by an humble Petition presented to him by the Regent Masters in behalf of themselves and Non-Regents as also by Dr. Prideaux then Vice-Chancellor who being pre-acquainted with the business gave great encouragement to proceed onward in it and lastly by the indefatigable pains of one Master Clopton junior of Corpus-Christi-Colledge who was the principal Solicitor in that Affair His Geography was committed by him to the perusal of some Learned Friends and being by them well approved he obtained his Fathers consent for the Printing of it which was done accordingly November 7. 1621. The first Copy of it was presented by him to King Charles the First then Prince of Wales unto whom he Dedicated it and by whom together with its Author it was very graciously received being introduced into the Princes Presence by Sir Robert Carre one of the Gentlemen of his Highnesses Bed-Chamber and since Earl of Ancram unto whose Care Master Heylyn was commended by the Lord Danvers then at Cornbury by reason of some bodily Indisposition But after this Sun-shine of Favour and Honor darted on him by the Prince there followed a Cloud which darkened all his Joys for in a few months after his Father died at Oxon with an Ulcer in his Bladder occasioned by the Stone with which he had been for many years grievously afflicted His Body was conveyed to Lechlade in Glocestershire where he was buried near his Wife who died six years before him of a Contagious Fever and lay in the Chancel of that Parish-Church Septemb. 15. 1622. he received Confirmation from the hands of Bishop Lake in the Parish Church of Wells and in a short space after exhibited a Certificate to Doctor Langton concerning
in the 20th Article which thus runs in terminis viz. Habet Ecclesia Ritus sive Ceremonias statuendi Ius in Fidei Controversiis Authoritatem c. But the Regius Professor was as little pleased with these Questions and the Respondents stating of them as he was with the former And therefore that he might the more effectually expose him he openly declared how the Respondent had falsified the publick Doctrine of the Church and charged the Article with that Sentence viz. Habet Ecclesia Ritus sive Ceremonias c. which was not to be found in the whole Body of it and for the proof thereof he read the Article out of a Book which lay before him beginning thus Non licet Ecclesiae quicquam instituere quod verbo Dei scripto adversetur c. To which the Respondent reaâ—iâ—y answered That he perceived by the bigness of the Book which lay upon the Doctors Cushion that the Article he read was out of the Harmony of Confessions publish'd at Ceneva Anno Dom. 1612. which therein followed the Edition of the Articles in the time of King Edw. 6. Anno Dom. 1552. in which that Sentence was not found but that it was otherwise in the Articles agreed on in the Convocation Anno Dom. 1562. to which most of us had subscribed in our several places but the Professor still insisting upon that point and the Respondent perceiving the greaâ—est part of his Auditory dissatisfied he called to one Mr. Westly who had formerly been his Chamber-Fellow in Magdalen College and desired him to fetch the Book of Articles from some Adjacent Booksellers which being observed by the Professor he declared himself very willing to decline any farther Debate about that business and to go on directly in the Disputation But the Respondent was resolved to proceed no further Vsque dum liberaverit animam suam ab istâ calumniâ as his own words were till he had freed himself from that Imputation And it was not long before the coming of the Book put an end to the Controversie out of which he read the Article in English in his verbis The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith c. which done he delivered the Book to one of the Auditors who desired it of him the Book passing from one hand to another till all were satisfied And at this point of time it was that the Bishop of Angolesme Lord Almoner to the Queen left the Schools professing afterward That he could see no hope of a fair Disputation from so foul a beginning It has been laid to Doctor Heylyn's charge that at this time he was Hissed because he excluded King and Parliament from being parts of the Church But he never deny'd either to be parts of the Diffusive Body of the Church but only to be parts of the Church Representative which consists of the Bishops and Clergy in their several Councils For neither King nor Parliament are Members of the Convocation as he then proved and asserted The Articles ascribe to the Church of England Represented in a National Council power of decreeing Rites and Ceremonies and Authority of determining Controversies in Faith as well as other Assemblies of that nature And this neither deserved nor met with any Hiss Perhaps a Hiss was then given but it was when the Regius Professor went to prove that not the Convocation but the High Court of Parliament had power of ordering matters in the Church in making Canons ordaining Ceremonies and determining Controversies in Religion And he could find no other medium to make it good but the Authority of Sir Edw. Coke in one of the Books of his Reports An Argument unto which the Respondent returned no other Answer than Non credendum est cuique extra suam Artem upon which immediately he gave place to the next Opponent which put an end to the heats of that Disputation But it did not so to the Regius Professors passion against Dr. Heylyn For conceiving his Reputation somewhat lessened in the eye of the world he gave an account in a paper of the whole transaction that tended very much to the Doctors disgrace as well as his own Justification But Dr. Heylyn well knew upon what bottom he stood and therefore in his own Vindication caused the Professor to be brought before the Council-Table at Woodstock where he was publickly rebuked for the mis-representations that he had made of him And upon the coming out of the Kings Declaration concerning Lawful Sports Dr. Heylyn took the pains to translate the Regius Professors Lecture upon the Sabbath into English and putting a Preface before it caused it to be Printed A performance which did not only justifie his Majesties proceedings but abated much of that opinion which Dr. Prideaux had amongst the Puritanical Faction in those days Pass we now from the University the School of Learning and Study to the Court the Seat of Breeding and Business where Dr. Potter afterward Dean of Worcester presented to the King a very learned Treatise called Charity Mistaken and for a reward of his great Abilities had a Prebendship of Windsor design'd for him which was then likely to become vacant by the promotion of the Bishop of Glocester to the See of Hereford Many of Dr. Heylyn's Friends were very zealous with the King on his behalf especially Dr. Neile then Archbishop of York But his Lordship stuck faster to his Bishoprick than he did to his Principles and so the business ended But whilst it was in agitation it occasioned this merry Epigram from our young Doctor who was conceived by every one to have missed that Prebendship upon the supposed Vacancy When Windsor Prebend late disposed was One ask'd me sadly how it came to pass Potter was chose and Heylyn was forsaken I answered 't was Charity Mistaken But the Doctors Juvenile humor was presently converted iuto a far less pleasing passion For Mr. Attorney-General Noye left this world for a better very much to the sorrow but much more to the loss of Dr. Heylyn He kept his Whitsontide in 1634. with the Doctor at Brentford where he used all imaginable arguments and intreaties to dissuade him from going to Tunbridge-Waters the following Vacation importuning him to accompany him to Alresford where he would be certain to find a better Air and a more careful Attendance But we are very often wise to our own hurt and stand in that light which would guide us to safety and felicity But whatsoever damage our Doctor sustained by the loss of so invaluable a Friend some persons else have gained well by it having two large Manuscripts of Mr. Noys own hand-writing The one contains the Collections he made of the Kings maintaining his Naval power accroding to the practice of his Royal Predecessors The other about the Priviledges and Jurisdictions of Ecclesiastical Courts These two Books Doctor Heylyn had a sight of from Mr. Noye about two months before the death of that
till the 25th of the same month upon which day the business was again re-sumed and the Bishop of Lincoln appeared not so well to the Lord Commissioners except those of the Laity who were apparently inclined to favour him and therefore those of the Clergy thought it neither fit nor safe to proceed to Sentence and upon that the Commission was put off sine die The Advocate 's Activity in this Affair procured him a great deal of enmity and ill-will both in Court and Countrey as every mans Zeal will do that will be true to his Principles and faithful in his Station For whoever does impartially administer or peremptorily demand publick Justice will as certainly be exclaimed of as a Patient will cry out of that Chirurgeon that Launces a gangren'd or fester'd Wound But Dr. Heylyn gained these two advantages by his zeal in this business viz. That he justified the Priviledges of the Prebendaries out of whose Revenues the Bishop kept a plentiful Table inviting to it the chiefest of the Nobility Clergy and Gentry the Prebendaries having no other advantages by his Hospitality than to fill their bellies with the first Course and then after the manner of great mens Chaplains to rise up and wait till the coming in of the second And the other was that by his frequent and extempore Debates before the Lords Commissioners he was at last brought to such an habit of speaking that Preaching became more easie and familiar to him than it had been in the first part of his life I will not as I before promised mention all the Grievances that were complained of concerning that great person One thing more it may not be amiss to insert in these Papers and that is Dr. Heylyn's Refusal to sit in the Choire of Westminster according to Academical Decrees For the Bishop of Lincoln having taken a Resolution that the twelve Prebendaries should sit in the Choire according to their Degrees in the Vniversity our Doctor remonstrated against it giving these Reasons for his Refusal 1. In the Charter of the Foundation of that Church the Prebendaries are distinguished by Primus Secundus Tertius c. as now by Prima Secunda Tertia Praebenda c. according unto which account both in the Treasurers Book and in the Chanters I am reckoned as the sixth Prebendary and do preach accordingly as Successor to Edmund Schambler the Sextus Prebendarius here first established 2. In the same Charter of the Foundation William Young being of no Degree is placed before Gabriel Coodman Master of Arts which makes it evident there was no purpose that for the after-times the Order of Academical Degrees should be observed in marshalling the Prebendaries places 3. The Statutes of the College give to the new succeeding Prebendaries the Stall and House belonging to their Predecessors in the same Prebend according to these words thereof Succedâ—nt Prebendarii praedecessoribus suis in eâdem praebenda tam in Stallo loco voce in Capitulo quam in domo eidem Praebendae annexis By which it is apparent that the Stalls as well as Houses are annexed to the Prebendaries But the Prebendaries by this Statute take not their places in the Chapter-House by any such Seniority as is pretended nor have two several Chapter-Acts been found of any force to sever the Houses from the Prebendaries and therefore not their Stalls neither 4. His Majesties Letters Patents whereby I claim whatsoever I hold in Westminster give me Praebendam illam quae vacat per mortem G. Darrel which was the sixth Prebend cum omnibus juribus praeheminentiâ—s with all Rights and Pre-eminences thereunto belonging and so by consequence the sixth Stall also as the pre-eminenee appertaining to it 5. The Mandat in those Letters Patents is that I be installed fully and absolutely in the same Prebend which was then vacant In eandem Praebendam plenariè installari faciatis as the Patent goes which is not done at all either plenariè or in eandem if this order hold 6. The Mandat issuing out with the said Letters Patents is that I be Installed prout moris est according to the antient custom But such a custom by sitting according to degrees of Schools was never yet known in Westminster nor in any Church out of the University that I can hear of and is not kept in many Colleges of the University which I am sure of therefore that clause reflects upon such a custom as hath formerly been used in Westminster and hath both the Statute and the Charter for the ground thereof 7. Your Lordship did determin the last Chapter that the way of sitting by Prima Secunda Tertia Praebenda c. was most agreeable to Statute and that if any man should take his place accordingly he could not be hindred from so doing to which determination there was then a full assent in Chapter and divers of the Prebendaries have since sate accordingly 8. Whereas your Lordship took a Corporal Oath at your Admission into this Deanery to govern this Collegiate Church ex his Statutis according to the tenor of these very Statutes which are now in use and that the Prebendaries have all of them taken a several Oath faithfully to observe the same Statutes and whereas the Statute is most plain that the new Prebendaries are to have the Stalls of their Predecessors in the same Prebend I cannot see how prossibly this new order can stand with the same Statute and so by consequence with out Oaths who have sworn to keep them 9. Upon this new order there will follow such confusion in the Church that upon the coming in of a new Prebendary the greatest part of the company will be still troubled to remove their Stalls higher or lower from one side to another according as the New-comer is in Seniority and so instead of order we shall bring disorder into our Church 10. This new order is an Innovation never before known in this Church and hath no ground in Statute or in Custom which as your Lordship noted is optimus Insterpres Legis but is quite contrary thereunto Unto which Statute and his Majesties Letters Patents I refer my self humbly desiring that these just reasons of my refusal to yield to such an order as neitheâ— stands with Statute or with Custom nor any other true ground of Reason may find a favourable Interpretation and Admission Whilst these hot contests continued out came our Doctors History of the Sabbath the Argumentative or Scholastick part of which subject was refer'd to Bishop White of Ely the Historical part to Dr. Heylyn who had before that time given ample Testimony of his knowledge in the antient Writers The History is divided into two parts The first whereof begins with the Foundation of the World and carries on the story till the destruction of the Temple at Ierusalem The second begins with our Saviour Christ and his Apostles and is drawn down to the year 1633. It was Written Printed and Presented to the
wrote by him he called by the name of Mercurius Anglicus which name continued as long as the Cause did for which it was written And besides these weekly Tasks being influenced by the same Royal Commands he writ divers other Treatises before he could obtain his Quietus est from that ungrateful Employment viz. 1. A Relation of the Lord Hopton ' s Victory at Bodwin 2. A View of the Proceedings in the West for Pacification 3. A Letter to a Gentleman in Leicestershire about the Treaty 4. A Relation of the Queens Return from Holland and the seizing of Newark 5. A Relation of the Proceedings of Sir John Gell. 6. The Black Cross shewing that the Londoners were the cause of the present Rebellion with some others that were never Printed These zealous services produced the very same effect that he foresaw when he first undertook them For in the space of six months he was voted a Delinquent in the House of Commons this being given for a reason viz. that he resided and lived at Oxon. Upon which an Order was sent to the Committee at Portsmouth to Sequester his whole Estate and seize upon all his Goods And Reading being taken by the Earl of Essex a free and easie passage was opened for the Execution of those unrighteous Decrees For in a short space after his Corn Cattle and Money were taken by one Captain Watts and all his Books carried to Portsmouth Colonel Norton's hand being set to the Warrant of his Sequestration he twice Petition'd to have some Reparation out of his Estate but was denied the first time and put off in a more Courtly manner the last Before he left Alresford he took care to hide some of his choicest and most costly Goods designing the first opportunity to have them conveyed to Oxon. But either by ill luck or the treachery and baseness of some of his Neighbours the Cart with all the Goods were taken by part of Nortons Horse and carried to Portsmouth himself also violently pursued and by Divine Providence delivered from the snare of those Fowlers who thirsted after his Blood and lay in wait for his Life The Cart with all contained in it was carried to Southampton and delivered unto Norton Saintship then being the ground of Propriety as it afterward was of Sovereignty A loss great in it self but much more so to a poor Divine and chiefly to be ascribed to a Colonel in the King's Army who denied to send a Convoy of Horse for the guarding of his Goods although the Marquess of Newcastle gave Order for it And these Oppressions which he suffered from his Enemies were increased by as unjust proceedings of those who ought to have been his Friends For part of the Royal Army defaced his Parsonage-House at Alresford making it unhabitable and taking up all the Tithes for which he never had the least satisfaction unless it was the Manumission of himself from the troublesome Employment under Mr. Secretary Nicholas and at his going off at the request of that worthy Gentleman he writ a little Book called The Rebels Catechism Being thus dismissed from business so disagreeable to his Genius he found leisure to employ his Contemplative thoughts about subjects more weighty and serious And having obeyed the Commands of his Superiors he endeavoured to satisfie the doubts of his Friends and particularly of one whose thoughts were confusedly perplexed about our Reformation And to do this he drew up a Discourse in answer to that common but groundless Calumny of the Papists who brand the Religion of our Church with the nick-name of that which is Parliamentary But our Reverend Doctor Demonstrates in that Book how little or indeed nothing the Parliament acted in the Reformation For some years indeed that are past there have been Parliaments that have had a Committee for Religion which is to have an Apostolical care of all the Churches And our Reverend Doctor observes that this custom was first introduced into the House of Commons when the Divinity-School in Oxon was made the Seat of their Debates For the Speaker being placed in or near the Chair in which the Kings Professor of Divinity did usually read his publick Lectures and moderate in all publick Disputations they were put into a conceit that the determining in all Points and Controversies in Divinity did belong to them As Vibius Rufus having married Tullies Widow and bought Caesar's Chair conceived that he was then in a way to gain the Eloquence of the one and the Power of the other For after this we find no Parliament without a Committee for Religion and no Committee for Religion but what did â—hâ—nk it self sufficiently instructed to mannage the greatest Controversies in Divinity which were brought before them And with what success to the Religion here by Law Established we have seen too clearly Tractent fabrilia fabri Let things of a spiritual nature in the name of God be debated and determined by Spiritual persons Doctrinal matters are proper for the cognizance of a Convocation not of a Committee which does often consist of wise men but the common Title given to some of them does at least prove that those wise men are not always either the best Christians or greatest Clerks Neither were these things the only Subjects of the vast mind and contemplative â— thoughts of this great man For toward the latter end of this year being 1644. he Presented to his Majesty a Paper containing the Heads of a Discourse writ by him called The Stumbling-block of Disobedience removed in answer to and examination of the two last Sections in Mr. Calvins Institutions against Sovereign Monarchy The Lord Hatton the Bishop of Sarum Sir Orlando Bridgman and Dr. Steward perused the whole Treatise and the King approving of the Contents commanded the Lord Digby further to consider the Book in whose hands it did for a long time rest neither was it made publick till about ten years after the War was ended In the beginning of the year 1645. he left Oxon and went into Hampshire settling himself and Family at Winchester Alresford with all the rest of his Preferments being taken from him and having nothing to subsist upon besides his own Temporal Estate And yet even now the exuberancy of an honest zeal that I may use his own words though upon another occasion carried him rather to the maintenance of his Brethrens and the Churches Cause than to the preservation of his own peace and particular contentments And therefore considering unto what a deplorable condition the poor Loyal Clergy were reduced how they were hungry and thirsty and their souls ready to faint in them as also how the Parliament were about to establish those Presbyterian Ministers for term of life in those Livings out of which himself and many others were ejected he drew up some Considerations and presented them to some Members of the House of Commons to see whether he could move them to any Christian Charity and Compassion And they
too late standing in the world to be accounted the first Broacher of those Doctrinal Points which have such warrant from the Scriptures and were so generally held by the ancient Fathers both Greek and Latine till St. Austins time defended since that time by the Iesuites and Franciscans in the Church of Rome by all the Melancthonian Divines among the Lutherans by Castalio in Geneva it self by Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper in the time of K. Edward VI by some of our Confessors in Prison in the days of Qu. Mary by Bishop Harsnet in the Pulpit by Dr. Peter Baroe in the Schools in the Reign of Qu. Elizabeth by Hardem Bergius the first Reformer of the Church and City of Emden and finally by Anastasius Velvanus A. D. 1554. and afterward by Henricus Antonii Iohannes Ibrandi Clemens Martini Cornelius Meinardi the Ministers generally of the Province of Vtrecht by Manaus the Divinity Professor of Leyden by Gellius Succanus in the Province of Friezeland before the name of Iacob van Harmine was heard of in the world And if it be objected that the whole stream of Protestant Divines who were famous either for Piety or Learning embraced the Calvinian Doctrines to this also the Doctor gives a satisfactory answer in many places of his learned Writings The Reader may please to consider 1. That this being granted to be a truth we are rather to look upon it as an infelicity which befel the Church than as an argument that she concurr'd with those Divines in all points of judgment That which was most aimed at immediately after the Reformation and for a long time after in preferring men to the highest dignities of the Church and chief places in the Universities was their zeal against Popery and such a sufficiency of learning as might enable him to defend those Points on which our separation from the Church of Rome was to be maintained and the Queens Interest most preserved The Popes Supermacy the Mass with all the Points and Nicities which depended on it Iustification by Faith Marriage of Priests Purgatory the Power of the Civil Magistrate were the Points most agitated And whoever appeared right in those and withal declared himself against the corruptions of that Church in point of Manners was seldom or never looked into for his other Opinions until the Church began to find the sad consequences of it in such a general tendency to Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline as could not easily be redress'd 2. In answer to the fâ—re-mentioned objection It is recorded in St. Marks Gospel cap. 8. that the blind man whom our Saviour restored to sight at Bethsaida at the first opening of his eyes saw men as Trees walking ver 24. i. e. walking as Trees quasi dicat homines quos ambulantes video non homines sed arbores mihi viderentur as we read in Maldonate By which words the blind man declared saith he se qauidem videre aliquid cum nihil antè videret imperfectè tamen videre cum inter homines arbores distinguere non posset More briefly Estius upon the place Nondum ita clarè perfectè video ut discernere possim inter homines arbores I discern somewhat said the poor man but so imperfectly that I am not able to distinguish between Trees and Men. Such an imperfect sight as this the Lord gave many times to those whom he recovered out of the Egyptian darkness who not being able to discern all Divine Truths at the first opening of the eyes of their understandings were not to be a Rule and Precedent to those that followed and lived in clearer times and under a brighter Beam of Illumination than others did What grounds were laid down by this excellent person for Unity and Charity in the Worship of God and in the Doctrine and Government of the Church may be seen in these words to Mr. Baxter Unity and Charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government no man likes better than my self bring but the same affections with you and the wide Breach that is between us in some of the Causes which we manage on either side will be suddenly closed but then you must be sure to stand to the word Ancient also and not keep your self to simplicity only If Unity and Charity will content you in the ancient Doctrine in the simplicity thereof without subsepuent mixtures of the Church I know no Doctrine in the Church more pure and Ancient than that which is publickly held forth by the Church of England in the Book of Articles the Homilies and the Catechism authorized by Law of which I may safely affirm as St. Austin does in his Book Ad Marcelinum His qui contradicit aut a Christi fide alienus est aut est Haereticus i. e. He must either be an Inâ—idel or an Heretick who assents not to them If Vnity and Charity in the simplicity of Worship be the thing you aim at you must not give every man the liberty of worshiping in what Form he pleaseth which destroys all Vnity nor Cursing many times instead of Praying which destroys all Charity The ancient and most simple way of Worship in the church of God was by regular Forms prescribed for the publick use of Gods people in the Congregations and not by unpremeditated undigested Prayers which every man makes unto himself as his fancy shall lead him And if set Forms of Worship are to be retained you will not easily meet with any which hath more in it of the ancient simplicity of the Primitive Times than the English Liturgy And if ancient simplicity of Government be the point you drive at what Government can you find more pure or Ancient than that of Bishops of which you have this Character in the Petition of the County of Rutland where it is said to be That Government which the Apostles left the Church in that the Three Ages of Martyrs were governed by that the thirteen Ages since have always gloried in by their Succession of Bishops from the Apostles proving themselves Members of the Catholick and Apostolick Church that our Laws have established that so many Kings and Parliaments have protected into which we were Baptized as certainly Apostolical as the Lords day as the distinction of Books were written by such Evangelists and Apostles as the Conâ—ecration of the Eucharist by Presbyters c. An ample commendation of Episcopal Government but such as exceeds not the bounds of Truth or Modesty Stand to these grounds for keeping Vnity and Charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government in the Church of God and you shall see how chearfully the Regal and Preâ—atical Party will joyn hands with you and embrace you with most dear affections But you tell me That if I will have men in peace as Brethren our Union must be Law or Ceremonies or indifferent Forms This is a pretty Speculation but such as would not pass for