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
execution there being intended an English Pontifical which was to contain the Form and Manner of the Coronation of King Charles I. and to serve as a standing Rule to succeeding Ages on the like occasions Another Form to be observed by all Archbishops and Bishops for consecrating Churches Church-yards and Chappels And a third for reconciling such Penitents as either had done open Pennance or had revolted from the Faith of Christ to the Law of Mahomet Which three together with the Form of Confirmation and that of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons which were then in force were to make up the whole Body of the Book intended But the troubles of the times increasing it was thought expedient to defer the prosecution of it till a fitter conjuncture And yet notwithstanding all the storms that were then rising this excellent person went through the Book of Articles the compiling of which gave no obstruction to him from attending the service of the Committee upon all occasions And for the better Authorizing of the Articles he placed before every one of them in the Margin the Canon Rubrick Law Injunction or other Authentick Evidence upon which they were grounded Which being finished were by him openly read in the House and by the House approved and passed without any alteration only that exegatical or explanatory clause in the fourth Article of the fourth Chapter touching the reading of the Communion-Service at the Lords Table was desired by some to be omitted which was done accordingly Finally it was Dr. Heylyn who proposed a Canon for enjoyning the said Book to be only used in Parochial Visitations for the better settling of Uniformity in the outward Government and Administration of the Church and for preventing of such just Grievances as might be laid upon the Church-Wardens and other sworn men by any impertinent inconvenient or illegal Enquiries in the Articles for Ecclesiastical Visitations Neither were these the only Fruits of his labours and travels in this business there being six Subsidies granted to the King and the Bishops and Clergy in Convocation upon the 20th of May received his Majesties Letters Sealed with his Royal Signet and attested by his Sign Manual which required and authorized them to proceed in making Synodical Constitutions for levying of those Subsidies which had been before granted And this was easily done there being nothing to be altered but the changing of the name of Subsidy into that of Benevolence Friday May 29. the Canons were formally subscribed unto by the Bishops and Clergy no one dissenting except the Bishop of Glocester who died in the Communion of the Roman Church and was all that part of his life in which he revolted from the Church of England a dear Favourite and Servant of Oliver Cromwel unto whom he dedicated some of his Books for which he was voted worthy of Suspension by the Convocation and was accordingly Suspended by the Archbishop of Canterbury Which being done the Convocation was dissolved Proceed we now from the Active to the more Passive part of Dr. Heyly's life For the Long Parliament the Churches as well as the Kings Scourge began to sit at Westminster and a general Rumor was spread both in City and Country that our Doctor being conscious to himself of many Crimes durst not stand the brunt of their displeasure and therefore had made use of his heels as his best weapons of defence being run away out of a fear and foresight of an approaching storm When these rumors were raised he was at his Parsonage of Alresford from whence he hastened with all conveniâ—nt speed confuting the Calumny by shewing himself the very next day after his coming to London in his Gown and Tippet in Westminster-Hall And upon a Vote passed in the House of Lords that no Bishop should be of the Committee for the Preparatory Examinations in the Cause of the Earl of Strafford under colour that they were excluded from acting in it by some antient Canons as in cause of Blood our learned Divine did thereupon draw up a brief Discourse entituled De jure Paritatis Episcoporum now inserted in the Re-printed Volume of his Works which he presented unto many of the Bishops to assert all their Rights of Peerage and this of being of that Committee among the rest which either by Law or antient custom did belong unto them The Parliament began their Session Novemb. 3. 1640. and upon the 9th of December following upon the Complaint of Mr. Pryn our Doctor was called before the Committee of the Courts of Justice who accosted him with that fierce fury that no one could have withstood the Torrent but one whose Soul was fortified with Innocence equal to his Courage The Crime objected against him was that he had been a subservient Instrument under the Archbishop of Canterbury all the sufferings of Mr. Pryn having read the Histriomastix out of which he had furnished the Lords of the Council and many other persons with matter to proceed against its Author But our Doctor made a bold and just Defence for himself telling his Accusers That the Task was imposed upon him by Royal Authority which he would readily prove if they would have so much patience as to allow him time for that purpose Great hopes they had to squeeze something out of him concerning his being engaged in it by the Archbishop but he was too wary to be ensnared by any of their Artifices and being faithful to his Friend and Patron was kept four days under Examination suffering for the two first the brutish Rage of the People more perhaps than St. Paul did at Ephesus for that blessed man did not adventure himself amongst those Savages But our poor Doctor was tossed up and down by the fury of an ungovern'd multitude and railed at as he passed through them by their leud and ungoverned tongues But God who sets bounds to the Waves of the proud Ocean rebuked their rage and rescued him from their malice But alas what civility can be expected from the ill-bred Rabble unto Clergy-men when they themselves like the Eagle in the Greek Apologue wound one another with Arrows feathered with their own Plumes For four days after he had received order to appear before the Committee he preach'd his turn in the Abbey at Westminster and in the midst of his Sermon was insufferably affronted by the Bishop of Lincoln who knocking the Pulpit with his Staff cried out aloud No more of that Point No more of that Point Peter This happened to the poor man in very ill circumstances for it occasioned new clamours and animated his enemies to proceed on with greater violence against him But notwithstanding all their united malice he held out bravely sending the whole passage of his Sermon as he designed to Preach it both to his Friends at Court and Enemies in Parliament and taking Sir Robert Filmore with some other Gentlemen that were his Auditors out of the Church along with him to his House where he immediately sealed
Sermon had as kindly an effect upon the Committee as his Visit had upon the Bishop For he found those fierce Gentlemen after the perusal of his Notes much more favourable and respective than before They demanded a Copy of the Charge which he drew up against Mr. Pryn which being delivered Mr. Pryn accused him of Libelling and Preaching against him for proof of which he produced in Court some of the Doctor 's Books urging many passages out of them but all concluded nothing That which was at last most insisted on was a Sermon Preach'd some years before Mr. Pryn's Censure in the Star-Chamber before his Majesty but the sense of his past dangers before the Committee was in some measure recompenc'd by this days mirth and jollity For Mr. Pryn resolving effectually to damnifie the Doctor produced a company of Butchers to bring in Evidence against him about a Sermon formerly Preach'd by him And after the Testimony of these great Criticks had been mannag'd to the best advantage of Raillery and Mirth the Criminal was favourably dismissed and never more called before them 'T is true many attempts were made to create him new Disturbances some being employed to make a severe inquisition into his Life and Manners which they found too spotless for their spleen and malice Others engaged his Neighbours at Alresford to draw up Articles against him which was accordingly done by two of them and few others of the most inconsiderable Inhabitants who were prevailed on to make their Marks for Write they could not by telling them it was a business in which the Town were very much concerned But when the Articles were produced before the Committee they appeared so foolish and frivolous as not to be deemed worthy of consideration and upon that were returned to be amended upon a Melius Inquirendum and this being done in a more correct and enlarg'd Edition they were again return'd to the Committee and a set day was appointed for a Hearing And that being come the Complaint was put off sine die and a Copy of the Articles delivered to the person accused together with those newly put in against him by Mr. Pryn collected out of his Printed Books But the poor Doctor being quite tir'd with Business and Attendance obtained leave of the Chair-man to retire into the Country who freely promised to send a private Messenger to him if there were any occasion for his return Upon which he removed his Study to Alresford setting his House for no more than 3 l. a year with a purpose never more to come back to Westminster whilst those two incomparable Friends remained in it viz. the House of Commons and Bishop of Lincoln At his coming to Alresford the people were amazed to see him having been persuaded that they should never more fix eye on him unless they took a journey to a Goal or a Gallows About this time it was that Doctor Hacwel taking advantage of the innumerable troubles and enemies of this learned man publish'd a book against him concerning the Sacrifice of the Eucharist It was not without some difficulty that he obtained one of them to be sent to him in the Country where he wrote a speedy Answer to it But Dr. Hackwel's Friends thought fit to call in the Book so soon as it first came into light and then our Doctor was easily persuaded to suppress his Answer diverting his Studies to more pleasing and no less necessary subjects viz. The History of Episcopacy and the History of Liturgies The first was Printed presently after it was written and Presented to the King by Mr. Secretary Nicholas and Published under the name of Theophilus Churchman but the other although sent to London and received by the Bookseller was not Printed till some years after For now there was more employment found out for the Sword than the Pen the noise of Bellona and Mars silencing the Laws of God and Men and Christians conceiving it their duty rathâ—r to spill the Blood of their Country-men for Religion than to part with one drop out of their own veins and to plunder the Goods of their Neighbours than to endure the spoiling of their own Sir Will. Waller sent eighty of his Soldiers to be quartered at the Doctors house with full Commission to strip him naked of all he had But his fair and affable carriage towards them did so mollifie the Austerity of their natures that they quite dismissed all thoughts of violence and revenge So were Esau's bloody resolutions quite converted into kindness and respect by the humble deportment as well as noble presents that were made to him by his Brother Iacob But notwithstanding the Diversion of this storm the Reverend man was early the next morning brought before Sir William by his Provost-Marshal by whom he was told that he had received Commands from the Parliament to seize upon him and send him Prisoner unto Portsmouth The Doctor had the like privilege with St. Paul being permitted to plead for himself and by his powerful reasoning did so far prevail upon the General as to be dismissed back to his house in safety But prudently fore-seeing that this would only be a Reprieve till a further mischief within a few days he left Hampshire and went to Oxon where he no sooner arrived but he received his Majesties Commands by the Clerk of his Closet to address himself to Mr. Secretary Nicholas from whom he was to take directions for some special and important Service which was at last signified to Dr. Heylyn under the Kings own hand viz. to write the Weekly Occurrences which befel his Majesties Government and Armies in the unnatural War that was raised against him The Reverend Man was hugely unwilling to undertake the employment conceiving it not only somewhat disagreeable to the Dignity and Profession that he had in the Church and directly thwarting his former Studies and Contemplations but that by a faithful discharge of his Duty in that Service he should expose both his Family and himself to the implacable malice of those persons whose very mercies were Cruelty and Blood But no Arguments or Intercessions could prevail to have him excused from that Employment at least for some time till he had made it facile by his own diligence and example Neither were dangers or difficulties of any moment with him when the Service of his Prince and Master required his Labours and Assistance Discere à peritis sequi optimos nihil appetere ob jactationem nihil ob formidinem recusare simulque anxius intentus agere is a Character as truly applicable to Dr. Heylyn as to the brave Roman of whom it was first written For he desired no employment out of vain-glory and refused none out of fear but equally was careful and intent in whatever he undertook and at that time too when he was denied the poor Deanery of Chichester for which his Majesty was earnestly importuned in his behalf by Mr. Secretary Nicholas The Weekly Occurrences that were