in Scotland and the Archbishop of Canterbury designing to put out an Apology for vindicating the Liturgy that he had recommended to that Kirk desired our Doctor to translate it into Latine that being published with the Apology the world might be satisfied in his Majesties Piety as well as his Graces care as also that the rebellious and perverse temper of the Scots might be apparent unio all who would raise such tumults upon the recommendation of a Book that was so venerable and Orthodoxâ— Our Reverend Doctor undertook and compleated it but the distemper and troubles of those times were the occasion that the Book went no farther than the hands of that learned Martyr In Feb. 1639. Dr. Heylyn was put in Commission of the Peace for the County of Hampshire into which he was no sooner admitted but he occasioned the discovery of an horrid Murther that had been committed many years before in that Country April following he was elected Clerk of the Convocation for the College of Westminster At which time the Archbishop of Canterbury sending a Canon to that Assembly for the Suppressing the further growth of Popery and bringing Papists to Church our Reverend Doctor moved his Grace that the Canon might be enlarged for the greater satisfaction of the people as well as the protection of the Church viz. That all persons entrusted with Care of Souls should respectively use all possible Care and Diligence by open Conferences with the Parties and by Censures of the Church in inferior Courts as also by Complaints unto the Secular Powers to reduce all such to the Church of England as were misled into Popish Superstition This and much more was offered by Dr. Heylyn as may be seen more at large in his Life of the Archbishop And about the same time he drew up a Paper wherein he offered a mutual Conference by select Committees between the House of Commons and the Lower House of Convocation And this he did that the Representatives of the Clergy might give satisfaction to the Commons in point of Ceremonies and in other matters relating to the Church if the motion was accepted but if refused that they might gain the advantage of Reputation among knowing and wise persons But the unhappy Dissolution of the Parliament prevented all things of this nature The news of which was so unwelcome and amazing to Dr. Heylyn that being then busied at the Election for the School at Westminster the Pen felâ— out of his hand and it was not without some difficulty before he could recollect his thoughts in the business about which he was engaged The Convocation according to usual custom had expired the next day after the Parliament had not our Reverend man gone to Lambeth and there displayed to the Archbishop the Kings necessities and acquainted him with a precedent in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth for granting Subsidies or a Benevolence by Convocation to be taxed and levied without help of Parliament Upon which proposal the Convocation was adjourned till Wednesday May 13. on which day the Bishops met in full Convocation and a Commission was sent down to the Lower-House dated May 12 which enabled the Prelates and Clergy then Assembled to treat of and conclude upon such Canons as they conceived necessary for the good of the Church The greatest part of the Clergy very much scrupled this matter conceiving the Convocation to end with the Parliament But our Reverend Divine being well skill'd in the Records of Convocations shew'd the distinction between the Writ for calling a Parliament and that for assembling a Convocation their different Forms the independence of one upon the other as also between the Writ by which they were called to be a Convocation to make Canons and do other business He proved also that although the Commission was expired with the Parliament yet the Writ continued still in force by which they were to remain a Convocation till they were Dissolved by another Writ With this distinction he satisfied the greatest part of those who scrupled to sit after the Parliaments Dissolution But the King proved the best Casuist in the case who being acquainted with these scrupulosities called the most learned in the Laws to consult about them by whom it was determined That the Convocation being called by the Kings Writ notwithstanding the Dissolution of the Parliament was to be continued till it was Dissolved by the Kings Writ And this was subscribed by Finch Lord Keeper Littleton Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Banks Attorney-General Whitfield c. It will be too tedious to insert into these Papers all the Debates that were in this learned Assembly most of them are to be seen in the Life of the Archbishop Suffice it to acquaint the Leader that few or none of those propositions which either concerned the Institution Power or Priviledges of Sovereign Kings or related to the Episcopal Power Doctrine or Discipline of the English Church but were either first proposed or afterward drawn up by Dr. Heylyn though he ouâ— of his great modesty and worth ascribes them to other persons It was the Clerk of the Church of Westminster who was placed on purpose by the Prolocutor to speak last in the Grand Committee for the Canon of Uniformity and to answer all such Arguments as had been brought against any of the Points proposed and were not answered to his hand It was he who made a proposition for one uniform Book of Articles to be used by all Bishops and Arch-deacons in Visitations to avoid the confusion that happened in most parts of the Church for want of it those Articles of the Bishops many times everting those of the Arch-Deacons one Bishop differing from another the Successors from the Predecessors and the same person not consistent to those Articles which himself had published by means whereof the people were much disturbed the Rules of the Church contemned for their multiplicity unknown by reason of their uncertainty and despised by reason of the inconstancy of those that made them The motion back'd by these Reasons did so well please the Prolocutor with the rest of the Clergy that they desired the Doctor in pursuit of his own project to undertake the Compiling of the said Book of Articles and to present it to the House with all convenient speed It was the same learned man who took into consideration the great Excesses and Abuses which were crept in and complained of Ecclesiastical Courts the redress and Reformation of which Grievances was brought within the compass of these seven Heads 1. Concerning Chancellors Patents and how long their virtuâ— was to continue 2. That Chancellors were not alone to censure the Clergy in sundry cases 3. That Excommunication and Absolution were not to be pronounced but by a Priest 4. Concerning Commutations and the way of disposing of them 5. Concerning Concurrent Iurisdictions 6. Concerning Licences to Marry 7. Against Vexatious Citations Some other things were proposed and designed but never put in
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
practicable in any well-governed Commonwealth unless it be in the old Vtopia the new Atlantis or the last discovered Oceana For how can men possibly live in peace as Brethren where there is no Law to limit their desires or direct their actions Take away Law and every man will be a Law unto himself and do whatsoever seems best in his own eyes without controul then Lust will be a Law for one Fellony for another Perjury shall be held no Crime nor shall any Treason or Rebellion receive their punishments for where there is no Law there can be no Transgression and where there is no Transgression there can be no punishment punishments being only due for the breach of Laws Thus is it also in the Worship of God which by the Hedg of Ceremonies is preserved from lying open to all prophaneness and by Set-Forms be they as indifferent as they will is kept from breaking out into open confusion St. Paul tells us that God is the God of Order not of Confusion in the Churches If therefore we desire to avoid Confusion let us keep some Order and if we would keep Order we must have some Forms it being impossible that men should live in peace as Brethren in the house of God where we do not find both David has told us in the Psalms that Ierusalem is like a City which is at Vnity with it self And in Ierusalem there were not only solemn Sacrifices Set-Forms of Blessing and some significant Ceremonies prescribed by God but Musical Instruments and Singers and Linnen Vestures for those Singers and certain Hymns and several Times and Places for them ordained by David Had every Ward in that City and every Street in that Ward and every Family in that Street and perhaps every Person in that Family used his own way in Worshiping the Lord his God Ierusalem could not long have kept the name of a City much less the honor of being that City which was at Vnity in it self When therefore the Apostle gives us this good counsel that we endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace he seems to intimate that there can be no Vnity where there is no Peace and that Peace cannot be preserved without some Bond. If you destroy all Ceremonies and subvert all Forms you must break the Bond and if the Bond be broken you must break the Peace and if you break the Peace what becomes of the Vnity So that it is but the dream of a dry Summer as the saying is to think that without Law or Forms or Ceremonies men may live peaceably together as becomes Brethren though they profess one Faith acknowledg one Lord receive one Baptism and be Sons of one Father which is in Heaven Having thus surveyed some particulars pertaining to the Doctrine and Ceremonies of the Church proeced we next to take a short view of some things delivered by this right learned man concerning the Convocation which in ancient times was part of the Parliament there being a Clause in every Letter of Summons by which the Bishops were required to attend in Parliament that they should warn the Clergy of their respective Dioceses some in their Persons and others by their Procurators to attend there also But this has beâ—n so long unpractis'â— that we find no foot-steps of it since the Parliaments in the time of King Richard the Second It is true indeed that in the 8th year of Henry VI. there passed a Statute by which it was enacted That all the Clergy which should be called thenceforth to the Convocation by the Kings Writ together with their Servants and Families should for ever after fully use and enjoy such liberty and immunity in coming tarrying and returning as the Great men and Commonalty of the Realm of England called or to be called to the Kings Parliament have used or ought to have or enjoy Which though it makes the Convocation equal to the Parliament as to the freedom of their Persons yet cannot it from hence be reckoned or reputed for a part thereof And as it is now no part of the Parliament so neither has it any necessary dependence upon that Honourable Council and Assembly either in the Calling or Dissolving of it or in the Confirmation or Authorizing of the Acts thereof but only in the King himself and not upon the Kings sitting in the Court of Parliament but in his Palace or Court-Royal where ever it be And this appears both by the Statute made in the 26th of Henry VIII and the constant practice ever since Indeed since the 25th year of Henry VIII no Convocation is to assemble but as it is Convocated and Convened by the Kings Writ for in the Year 1532. the Clergy made their Acknowledgment and Submission in their Convocation to that mighty and great Monarch which Submission passed into a Statute the very next year following But this does not hinder but that their Acts and Constitutions ratified by Royal Assent are of force to bind the Subject to submit and conform to them For before the Statute of Proemunire and the Act for Submission Convocations made Canons that were binding altho none other than Synodical Authority did confirm the same And certainly they must have the same power when the Kings Authority signified in his Royal Assent is added to them They also gave away the money of the Clergy by whom they were chosen even as the Commons in Parliament gave the money of the Cities Towns and Countries for which they served For in chusing the Clerks for Convocation there is an Instrument drawn up and sealed by the Clergy in which they bind themselves to the Arch-Deacons of their several Dioceses upon the pain of forfeiting all their Lands and Goods Se ratum gratum acceptum habere quicquid Dicti Procuratores sui dixerint fecerint vel constituerint i. e. to allow stand and perform whatsoever their said Clerks shall say do or condescend unto on their behalf Nor is this a speculative Authority only and not reducible unto practice but precedented in Queen Elizabeths time For in the year 1585. the Convocation having given one Subsidy confirmed by Parliament and finding that they had not done sufficiently for the Queens occasions did after add a Benevolence or Aid of two shillings in the pound to be levied upon all the Clergy and to be levied by such Synodical Acts and Constitutions as they digested for that purpose without having any recourse to the Parliament for it But against these things it was objected in the Long Parliament of King Charles I That the Clergy had no power to make Canons without common consent in Parliament because in the Saxon times Laws and Constitutions Ecclesiastical had the Confirmation of Peers and sometimes of the people unto which great Councils our Parliaments do succeed Which argumeut says our Reverend Doctor if it be of force to prove that the Clergy can make no Canons without consent of
Disputation in St. Iohns College for which he was much blamed by Arch-Bishop Abbot then Vice-Chancellor and made a By-word and Reproach in the University Finally he exhorted him to continue in that moderate course telling him That as God had given him more than ordinary Gifts so he would pray to God that he might employ them in such a way and manner as might make up the Breaches in the Walls of Christendom The Discourse between them continued for the space of two hours Amotis Arbitris For he ordered his Servants that no one should come to him on any occasion before he called But this was not all that was done then by our young Divine to secure himself from the Reproach of a Papist For in November next following he Preached before the King on those words Iohn 4. 20. Our Fathers worshipped on this Mountain In which Sermon he declared himself with such warm zeal against some Errors and Corruptions in the Roman Church that he shewed himself to be far enough from any inclination to the Roman Religion But his innocency in that matter will be made more apparent in some following passages of his Life Unto one of the most principal parts of which the Reader is now invited viz. his Marriage which was so far from being Clandestine and Clancular as it was objected to him in Print above thirty years after its solemnization that he ordered it to be performed upon St. Simon and Iudes day between ten and eleven of the Clock in the morning in his own College-Chappel which by his appointment was set out with the richest Ornaments in the presence of a sufficient number of Witnesses of both Sexes according to Law and Practice The Wedding-Dinner was kept in his own Chamber some Doctors and their Wives with five or six of the Society being invited to it Mrs. Bride was placed at the head of the Table the Town-Musick playing and himself waiting most part of the Dinner and no Formality wanting which was accustomably required even to the very giving of Gloves at the most solemn Wedding These things are more particularly related because some of his Enemies having nothing else with which they could blast his Reputation were pleased to accuse him of a Clandestine Marriage and that he was obliged in Conscience to restore all the Emoluments that he had received from his Fellowship between that time and his Resignation But what shall be given to thee or what shall be done unto thee thou false tongue It seems it must be injustice in Mr. Heylyn to receive his share of an half-years Divident which was usually allowed to persons in his circumstances but it was no act of unrighteousness in other men to take bread out of the mouths of young Students and send them to wander in solitary ways being hungry and thirsty and their souls ready to faint in them The Ceremony was performed by his faithful and ingenuous friend Dr. Allibond and the person that he made choice of for his Wife was Mrs. Laetitia Heygate third Daughter of Thomas Heygate of Heys Esq one of his Majesties Justices of Peace for the County of Middlesex who in his younger days whilst his elder Brother was alive had been Provost-Marshal-General of the Army under the Earl of Essex at the Action of Cales and of Margery Skipwith his Wife one of the Daughters of Skipwith of in the County of Leicester a Family of good note and credit in those parts Which said Thomas Heygate the Father was second Son of that Thomas Heygate who was Field-Marshal-General of the English Forces before St. Quintins under the Command of the Earl of Pembroke Anno Dom. 1557. and of Stonner his Wife a Daughter of the antient Family of the Stonners in Oxfordshire These particulars are set down by our learned Doctor in his little Manuscript to this end That Posterity might know from what Roots they sprang and not engage in any thing unworthy their Extraction 'T is an inestimable blessing for any one to be well Born and Descended but the present guilt and future account of that person will be increased who blemishes and stains his Family by unworthy and ill-done actions Continuing this time Mr. Heylyn had no very considerable subsistence for himself and his new Companion For the Portion which he was to have by her being a thousand pounds was never paid many irreparable losses and mis-fortunes happening to her eldest Brother which he was not able to recover though left by his Father in the possession of 800 l. per Annum His Fellowship he resigned and although he had the Advowson of Bradwel a very good Living in Glocestershire left him by his Father together with a Rent-charge of Inheritance paid him out of the Mannor of Lechlade yet he was constrained for a while to wrestle with some necessities and frowns of Fortune He parted with his Title to Bradwel resolving to lay the foundation of his future Felicity in this world by his own honest industry and not bury himself in the obscurity of a Rural Life His noble Friend the Earl of Danby whom he attended in the quality of a Chaplain to the Isles of Guernsey and Iersey his own Chaplains modestly refusing a Voyage which they conceived to be troublesome and dangerous was not a little troubled to see such extraordinary merits continue still discouraged and unrewarded and therefore out of his generous Nature presented him to the great Judg and Mecoenas of Learning Arch-Bishop Laud then Bishop of London who making a second and more narrow enquiry into his Temporal concerns appointed him to meet him Court which not long after was to remove to Woodstock But his Lordship fell sick at Reading and Mr. Heylyn met with some rude usages in the Kings Chappel which was talked of the more at Oxon the interest he had at Court being universally known in that University But it was not very many months after that power was given him to revenge the Affront being admitted Chaplain in Ordinary to the King and into great Favour with the Grandees of that time But a soul enobled with the principles of Gratitude and Generosity is as averse to retaliate as to do an injury The first person therefore unto whom he paid his thankful Acknowledgments for his honorable Preferment was the Earl of Danby who presently told him That those thanks were not in the least due unto himself but to the Lord Bishop of London unto whose generous and active mind the whole of that Dignity was to be ascribed Upon which hint he attended upon the Bishop who after he had wish'd him happiness in his new Preferment gave him some particular Instructions for his behaviour in it which he carefully observed the whole time of his Attendance upon the Sacred Person of his gracious Master Having thus gained the advantage of this rising ground he found out an honest Art by which he might recommend himself to the Patronage of some noble mind and that was to assert
publickly read and Mr. Huish then Minister in Abingdon had a numerous Auditory of Loyal persons who frequented publick Prayers at St. Nicholas which became so greatly offensive to the Factious party that they laboured all they could to have the Church raz'd to its very Foundations But notwithstanding the Authority which then ruled God rendred the endeavours of Dr. Heylyn and some other Royallists successful in the preâ—ervation of his own house And because Mr. Huish either out of a principle of prudence or fear had for some time whilst those contests continued desisted from performing the sacred Offices of Religion therefore our Doctor to animate him unto the performance of his Duty sent him the following Letter after his return from London where he had been soliciting in the common Cause of the Church which was to have been laid even with the ground SIR We are much beholden to you for your chearful condescending unto our desires so for as to the Lords-days Service which though it be Opus Diei in Die suo yet we cannot think our selves to be fully masters of our requests till you have yielded to bestow your pains on the other days also We hope in reasonable time to alter the condition of Mr. Blackwel's pious Gift that without hazzarding the loss of his Donation which would be an irrecoverable blow unto this poor Parish you may sue out your Quâ—etus est from that daily Attendance unless you find some further motives and inducements to persuade you to it yet so to alter it that there shall be no greater wrong done to his Intentions than to most part of he Founders of each University by changing Prayers for the Souls first by them intended into a Commemoration of their Bounties as was practised All dispositions of this kind must vary with those changes which befal the Church or else be alienated and estranged to other purposes I know it must be some discouragement to you to read to Walls or to pray in publick with so thin a company as hardly will amount to a Congregation But withal I desire you to consider that magis and minus all Logicians say do not change the Species of things that Quantities of themselves are of little efficacy if at all of any and that he who promised to be in the midst of two or three when they meet together in his name hath clearly shewed that even the smallest Congregations shall not want his presence And why then should we think much to bestow our pains where he vouchsafes his presence or think our labour ill bestowed if some few only do partake of the present benefit And yet no doubt the benefit extends to more than the parties present For you know well that the Priest or Minister is not only to pray with but for the people that he is not only to offer up the peoples Prayers to Almighty God but to offer up his own Prayers for them the benefit whereof may charitably be presumed to extend to as well as it was intended for the absent also And if a whole Nation may be represented in a Parliament of 400 persons and they derive the Blessings of Peace and Comfort upon all the Land why may we not conceive that God will look on three or four of this little Parish as the Representative of the whole and for their sakes extend his Grace and Blessings unto all the rest that he who would have saved that sinful City of Sodom had he found but ten righteous persons in it may not vouchsafe to bless a less sinful people upon the Prayers of a like or less number of Pious and Religious persons When the High Priest went into the Sanctum Sanctorum to make Atonement for the Sins of the People went he not thither by himself none of the people being suffered to enter into that place Do not we read that when Zacharias offered up Incense which figured the Prayers of the Saints within the Temple the people waited all that while in the outward Courts Or find we any where that the Priest who offered up the daily Sacrifice and this comes nearest to our Case did ever intermit that Office by reason of the slackness or indevotion of the people in repairing to it But you will say There is a Lion in the way there is danger in it Assuredly I hope none at all or if any none that you would care for The Sword of the Committee had as sharp an edg and was managed with as strong a malice as any Ordinance of later Date can impower men with Having so fortunately escaped the danger of that why should you think of any thing but despising this as Tully did unto Mark Antonie Catilinae Gladios contempsi non timebo tuos Why may you not conclude with David in the like sense and apprehensions of Gods preservation that he who saved him from the Bear and the Lion would also save him from the Sword of that railing Philistine And you may see that the Divine Providence is still awake over that poor Remnant of the Regular and Orthodox Clergy which have not yet bowed their knees to the Golden Calves of late erected by putting so unexpectedly a hook into the nostrils of those Leviathans which threatned with an open mouth to devour them all I will not say as Clemens of Alexandria did in a case much like that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to indulge too much to apprehensions of this nature in matters which relate to Gods publick Service All I shall add is briefly this that having presented you with these Considerations I shall with greediness expect the sounding of the Bell to morrow morning and in the mean time make my Prayers to Almighty God so to direct you in this business as may be most for his Glory your own particular Comfort and the good of this people with which expressions of my Soul I subscribe my self Your most affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ Iesus Peter Heylyn Upon the receipt and reading of this Letter Mr. Huish betook himself to his wonted duty reading the Churches Prayers with that frequency gravity and devotion as became a man of his Reverence and Profession And the daily visits which were paid by our Doctor to the place of Gods publick Worship the better enabled him as well to undergo the severity of Study as to contend with the hardships of Fortune And amongst the products of his Studies the Theologia Veterum or Exposition of the Apostles Creed does first merit our Commendations Indeed many other Books were written by him when the King and Church were in their low and calamitous condition some of which were Historical relating to matters of Fact some Political relating to the power of Princes and various Forms of Government and lastly others Theological and those either Didactical tending to the settling and informing of mens understandings or Practical that conduced to the amending of their manners or Polemical that vindicated the Truths of God
derogatory to Regal Power viz. That Parliaments are to be Assistant to the King in the exercise of his Regal Government Unto which our excellent Doctor says That Parliaments or Common-Councils consisting of the Prelates Peers and other great men of the Realm were frequently held in the time of the Saxon Kings and that the Commons were first called to those great Assemblies at the Coronation of K. Henry I. to the end that his Succession to the Crown being approved by the Nobility and People he might have the better colour to exclude his Brother And as the Parliament was not instituted by King Henry III. so was it not instituted by him to become an Assistant to him in the Government unless it were from some of the Declarations of the Commons in the Long Parliament in which it is frequently affirmed That the Fundamental Government of this Realm is by King Lords and Commons which if so then what became of the government of this Kingdom under Henry III. when he had no such Assistants joyned with him Or what became of the Foundation in the Intervals of following Parliaments when there was neither Lords nor Commons on which the Government could be laid And therefore it must be apparently necessary either that the Parliaments were not instituted by King Henry III. to be his Assistants in the Government or else that for the greatest space of time since Henry III. the Kingdom hath been under no Government at all for want of such Assistants And I would fain learn who should be Judg touching the Fitness or Vnfitness of such Laws and Liberties by which the People and Nobility are to be gratified by their Kings For if the Kings themselves must judg it it is not likely that they will part with any of their just Prerogatives which might make them less obeyed at home or less feared abroad but where invincible necessity or violent importunity might force them to it And then the Laws and Liberties which were so extorted were either violated or annulled whensoever the Granter was in power to weaken or make void the Grant for Malus diuturnitatis Custos est metus But if the People must be Judges of such Laws and Liberties as were fittest for them there would be no end of their Demands unreasonable in their own nature and in number infinite For when they meet with a King of the Giving hand they will press him so to give from one point to another till he give away Royalty it self and if they be not satisfied in all their Askings they will be pleased with none of his former Grants But that which pared the Prerogative to the quick was that the Reformation of Religion was the Province of the People or that they might do their Duty in the business when the King omitted his concerning which our excellent Doctor delivers his judgment in these clear and convincing words Exam. Hist. 135. That Idolatry is to be destroyed by all them that have power to do it is easily granted But then it must be understood of lawful Power and not permitted to the liberty of unlawful violence Id possumus quod jure possumus was the Rule of old and it hath held good in all attempts for Reformation in the elder times For when the Fabrick of the Iewish Church was out of order and the whole Worship of the Lord either defiled with Superstitions or intermingled with Idolatries as it was too often did not Gods Servants tarry and wait for leisure till those who were Supreme both in Place and Power were by him prompted and inflamed to a Reformation How many years had that whole People made an Idol of the Brazen-Serpent and burnt Incense to it before it was defaced by Hezekiah How many more might it have stood longer undefac'd untouch'd by any of the common People had not the King given order to demolish it How many years had the seduced Israelites adored before the Altar at Bethel before it was hewn down and cut in pieces by the good Iosiah And yet it cannot be denied but that it was much in the power of the Iews to destroy that Idol and of the honest and Religious Israelites to break down that Altar as it either was or could be in the power of our English Zealots to beat down Superstitious Pictures and Images had they been so minded Solomon in the Book of Canticles compares the Church to an Army Acies castrorum ordinata as the Vulgar hath it An Army terrible with Banners as we read it A powerful Body without doubt able which way soever it moves to wast and destroy the Country to burn and sack the Villages through which it passes And questionless many of the Soldiers knowing their own Power would be apt to do it if not restrained by the Authority of their Commanders and the Laws of War Ita se ducum Authoritas sic gor disciplinae habet as we find in Tacitus And if those be not kept as they ought to be Confusi equites peditesque in exitium ruunt the whole runs to a swift destruction Thus it is also in the Church with the Camp of God If there be no subordination in it if every one might do what he list himself and make such uses of that power and opportunity as he thinks are put into his hands what a confusion would insue how speedy a calamity must needs fall upon it Courage and zeal do never shew more zealously in inferiour powers than when they are subordinate unto good Directions from the right hand i. e. from the Supreme Magistrate not from the interests and passions of their Fellow-Subjects It is the Princes Office to Command and theirs to execute with which wise Caution the Emperor Otho once represt the too great forwardness of his Soldiers when he found them apt enough to make use of that power in a matter not commanded by him Vobis arma animus mihi Concilium virtutis vestrae Regimen relinquite as his words are He understood their Duty and his own Authority allows them to have power and will but regulates and restrains them both unto his own Command So that whether we behold the Church in its own condition proceeding by the starrant and examples of Holy Scripture or in resemblance to an Army as compared by Solomon there will be nothing left to the power of the people either in way of Reformamation or Execution till they be vested and entrusted with some lawful Power derived from him whom God hath placed in Authority over them And therefore though Idolatry be to be destroyed and to be destroyed by all which have Power to do it yet must all those be furnish'd with a lawful Power or otherwise stand guilty of as high a Crime as that which they so zealously endeavour to condemn in others And if it be urged That the Sovereign forgetting his Duty the Subjects should remember theirs 't is a lesson which was never taught in the
and the penalties thereunto annexed might be wholly abrogated and annulled But the most remarkable Effort of his zeal for the Church after the Kings Restauration was the Application made by him to the great Minister of State in those days that there might be a Convocation called with the Parliament What good effects were produced by his endeavours in that particular let the Reader judg when he has perused the following Letter with which the Reverend Doctor saluted that powerful Statesman Right Honorable and my very good Lord I Cannot tell how welcome or unwelcome this Address may prove in regard of the greatness of the Cause and the low condition of the Party who negotiates in it But I am apt enough to persuade my self that the honest zeal which moves me to it not only will excuse but endear the boldness There is my Lord a general Speech but a more general Fear withal amongst some of the Clergy that there will be no Convocation called with the following Parliament which if it should be so resolved on cannot but raise sad thoughts in the hearts of those who wish the peace and happiness of our English Sion But being the Bishops are excluded from their Votes in Parliament there is no other way to keep up their Honor and Esteem in the eyes of the people but the retaining of their places in the Convocation Nor have the lower Clergy any other means to shew their duty to the King and keep that little freedom which is left unto them then by assembling in such Meetings where they may exercise the Power of a Convocation in granting Subsidies to his Majesty tho in nothing else And should that Power be taken from them according to the constant but unprecedented practice of the late Long Parliament and that they must be taxed and rated with the rest of the Subjects without their liking and consent I cannot see what will become of the first Article of Magna Charta so solemnly so frequently confirmed in Parliament or what can possibly be left unto them of either of the Rights or Liberties belonging to an English Subject I know 't is conceived by some that the distrust which his Majesty hath in some of the Clergy and the Diffidence which the Clergy have of one another is looked on as the principal cause of the Innovation For I must needs behold it as an Innovation that any Parliament should be called without a meeting of the Clergy at the same time with it The first year of King Edward VI. Qu. Mary and Qu. Elizabeth were times of greater diffidence and distraction than this present Conjuncture And yet no Parliament was called in the beginning of their several Reigns without the company and attendance of the Convocation tho the intendments of the State aimed then at greater alterations in the face of the Church than are now pretended or desired And to say the truth there was no â—anger to be feared from a Convocation tho the times were ticklish and unsettled and the Clergy was divided into Sides and Factions as the case then stood and so stands with us at this present time For since the Clergy in their Coâ—vocations are in no Authothority to propound treat or conclude any thing more than the passing of a Bill of Subsides for his Majesties use until they are impowred by the Kings Commission the King may tie them up for what time he pleases and give them nothing but the opportunity of entertaining one another with the news of the day But if it be objected that the Commission now on foot for altering and explaining certain passages in the Publick Liturgy that either pass instead of a Convocation or else is thought to be neither competable nor consistent with it I hope far better in the one and must profess that I can see no reason in the other For first I hope that the selecting of some few Bishops and other learned men of the lower Clergy to debate on certain Points contained in the Common-Prayer-Book is not intended for a Representation of the Church of England which is a Body more diffused and cannot legally stand bound by their Acts and Counsets And if this Conference be for no other purpose but only to prepare matter for a Convocation as some say it is not why may not such a Conference and Convocation be held both at once For neither the selecting of some learned men out of both the Orders for the composing and reviewing of the two Liturgies digested in the Reign of King Edward VI. proved any hindrance in the calling of those Convocations which were held both in the second and third and in the fifth and sixth of the said Kings Reign Nor was it found that the holding of a Convocation together with the first Parliament under Queen Elizabeth proved any hindrance to that Conference or Disputation which was designed between the Bishops and some learned men of the opposite parties All which considered I do most humbly beg your Lordship to put his Majesty in mind of sending out his Maâ—dates to the two Archâ— Bishops for summoning a Convocation according to the usual Form in their several Provinces that this poor Church may be held with some degree of Veneration both at home and abroad And in the next place I do no less humbly beseech your Lordship to excuse this freedom which nothing but my zeal for Gods glory and my affection to this Church could have forced from me I know how ill this present office does become me and how much fitter it had been for such as shine in a more eminent Sphere in the holy Hiâ—rarchy to have tendered these Particulars to consideration Which since they either have not done or that no visible effect hath appeared thereof I could not chuse but cast my poor Mite into the Treasury which if it may conduce to the Churches good I shall have my wish and howsoever shall be satisfied in point of Conscience that I have not failed of doing my duty to this Church according to the light of my understanding and then what happens unto me shall not be material And thus again most humbly craving pardon for this presumption I kiss your Lordships hands and subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant to be commanded Peter Heylyn Having thus surveyed the most important Occurrences of Dr. Heylyn's Life I doubt not but every judicious and impartial Reader will be convinced at once of his vast Abilities and Acquirements in the large Circle of Learning and Sciences of his immovable Integrity in the Protestant Religion and of his indefatigable Industry and Service to the just Interests both of the Crown and Mitre For tho I will not say as St. Paul does of his Son Timothy that there was no man like-minded yet no one had more hearty and unbiassed affections no man did more naturally care for this Church and Kingdom than Dr. Heylyn and at that time too when he expected nothing for his
and Unity of his Church against the Errors Schisms and Persecutions of its Enemies whether Papists Socinians or Disciplinarians His Book upon the Creed is a mixture of all these excellent Ingredients insomuch that whoever would be acquainted with the Sence of the Greek and Latine Fathers upon the Twelve Articles of our Faith as also with Positive Polemical and Philological Theology he will not find either his labour lost or his time mispended if he peruse what our learned Doctor has writ upon that Subject But neither Learning or Innocency are a sufficient safe-guard against the assaults of mischievous and malicious men many of whom combined together to render Dr. Heylyn as infamous in his Name as they had before made him improsperous in his Estate And to that purpose they used their utmost endeavours to have one of his Books burned called Respondet Petrus by an Order from Olivers Council-Table For Dr. N. Bernard Preacher of Grays-Inn putting out a Book entituled The Iudgment of the Lord Primate of Ireland c. our Reverend Doctor being therein accused for violating his Subscription and running cross to the publick Doctrine of the Church or England as also being taxed with Sophistry Shamelesness and some other things which he could not well endure either from the Dead or the Living he returned an Answer to it against which Articles were presently formed and presented to the then Council-Table and the common Rumor went that the Book was publickly burnt A fame as the Doctor says that had little truth in it though more colour for it than many other charges which had been laid upon him He was in London when he received the first notice of it and though he was persuaded by his friends to neglect the matter as that which would redound to his honour and knew very well what Sentence had been passed by Tacitus upon the Order of Senate or Roman Consul for burning the Books of Cremutius Cordus the Historian Neque aliud externi Reges aut qui eâdem saevitiâ usi sunt nisi dedecus sibi atque illis gloriam peperere i. e. they gained nothing but ignominy to themselves and glory to all those whose Books they burnt yet our Doctor was rather in that particular of Sir Iohn Falstaff's mind not liking such grinning honour and therefore rather chose to prevent the Obloquy than boast in it To which purpose he applied himself to the Lord Mayor of London and a great Man in the Council of State and receiving from them a true information of what had passed he left his Solicitude being quite freed from all fear and danger About this time it was that the King Church and Church-men were arraigned and traduced by many voluminous Writers of the Age and the Doctor being solicited to answer them by Letters Messages and several personal Addresses by men of all Orders and Dignities in the Church and of all Degrees in the Universities was at last overcome by their Importunities the irresistible Intreaties of so many Friends having something in them of Commands And the first Author whose Mistakes Falsities and Defects he examined was Mr. Thomas Fuller the Church-Historian who intermingling his History with some dangerous Positions which if reduced into practice would overthrow the Power of the Church and lay a probable Foundation for Disturbances in the Civil-State the Doctor made some Animadversions on him by way of Antidote that so if possible he might be read without danger Another was Mr. Sanderson's long History of the Life and Reign of King Charles I. whose errors being of that nature as might mis-guide the Reader in the way of Knowledg and Discourse our Doctor rectified him with some Advertisements that so he might be read with the greater profit It would swell these Papers into too great a bulk if I should give a particular account of the Contests that this Reverend man had with Mr. Harington Mr. Hickman and Mr. Baxter the last of which was so very bold as to disgorge himself upon the whole Clergy of England in his Grotian Religion which caused in our Doctor as he tells his Brethren the old Regular Clergy So great an horror and amazement that he could not tell whether or no he could give any credit to his Senses the words sounding loud in his ears and not sinking at first into his heart Neither Did Mr. Baxter arraign the whole Clergy in general but more particularly directed his Spleen against Dr. Heylyn whose name he wish'd afterwards he had spared But it was whilst he was living he has made more bold with him since he was dead and that for no other reason that I can learn but for exposing the Follies Falshoods and uncharitableness of a daring and rash Writer who never returned one word of Answer besides Railing and Reproaches unto what our Doctor Published against him And having made mention of these Authors against whom our excellent Doctor appeared in the Lists it may not perhaps be deemed unacceptable to those Readers who are either unable to buy or unwilling to read the Books written against them to transcribe some particular passages which may be a farther testification of the zeal of this great Scholar for the King and Church And the first relating to the King shall be about the Coronation it being a piece of new State-Doctrine that the Coronation of the King should depend upon the consent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament For in the Form and Manner of the Coronation of King Edward VI. described in the Catalogue of Honour set forth by Thomas Mills of Canterbury Anno Dom. 1610 we find it thus The King being carried by certain Noble Courtiers in another Chair unto the four sides of the Stage was by the Archbishop of Canterbury declared to the people standing round about both by Gods and mans Laws to be the Right and Lawful King of England France and Ireland and proclaimed that day to be Crowned Consecrated and Anointed unto whom he demanded Whether they would Obey and Serve or not By whom it was again with a loud cry answered God save the King and ever live his Majesty The same we have in substance both in fewer words in the Coronation of King Iames where it is said The King was shewed to the people and that they were required to make acknowledgment of their Allegiance to his Majesty by the Archbishop which they did with Acclamations But assuredly says Dr. Heylyn the difference is exceeding vast between Obeying and Consenting between the peoples acknowledging their Allegiance and promising to Obey and Serve their Lawful Sovereign and giving their Consent to his Coronation as if it could not be performed without it This makes the King to be either made or unmade by his people according to the Maxim of Buchanan Populo jus est imperium cui velit deferat than which passage there is nothing in all his Books more pestilent or seditious Neither is another Position any less