pains and industry but all the miseries and mischiefs which armed Malice and succesful usurp'd Tyranny could inflict upon him Preach indeed he could not in those days of danger and persecution But he plentifully made up that unavoidable omission by his Writings through all which there runs such a native plainness and elegancy as can be parallel'd in very few of the Writers of that Age he lived in In all his Books his Stile is smooth and masculine his Sence full and copious his Words plain and intelligible his Notions numerous and perspicuous his Arguments pertinent ponderous and convincing Those Accomplishments which rarely concentred in any Individual were in Doctor Heylyn in their eminency and perfection viz. a solid Judgment an acute Wit a rich teeming Fancy and a memory so prodigiously quick and tenacious that it was the Store-house of most Arts and Sciences And which is most wonderful it was not impaired either by Age or by Afflictions For many of those learned Volumes that have his learned Name annexed to them were writ when his Sight failed him And here I cannot forget that deserved Character which a right learned man and now an eminent Prelate of our Church bestowed on him viz. That Dr. Heylyn never writ any Book let the Argument be never so mean and trivial but it was worthy of a Scholars reading And another very celebrated Professor now in Oxon paying him the respects of a Visit at Abingdon returned home with the profoundesâ— Admiration of his incomparable Abilities saying That he never heard any Doctor of the Chair deliver his Iudgment more copiously and perspicuously upon any Subject than our Doctor did upon those various Theological Points that were proposed to him Insomuch that what Livie affirmed of Cato might without any injury to Truth be affirmed of this Reverend person Natum ad id diceres quodcunque ageret And 't is just matter of wonder how any Scholar that had so many Sicknesses and Avocations from the Muses in his Childhood and Youth and that was incumbred with the burthen of so many secular businesses in his middle Age should arrive to such vast knowledg and improvements For he was a Critick and that no vulgar one both in the Greek and Latine Languages A polite Humanist being exactly acquainted with the best Poets Orators and Historians He was also an excellent Poet but a more able Judg of it in others than a practiser of it himself Philosophy he studied no farther than as it was subservient to nobler Contemplations But as for History Chronology and Geography they were as familiar to him as the Transactions of one months business can be to any private person And that Divine is yet to be named whose knowledg did exceed Dr. Heylyn's in the Canon Civil Statute or Common Laws To the profession of which last if he had betook himself few men in the Nation would have exceeded him either in Fame or Estate In all things that were either spoke or writ by him he did loqui cum vulgo so speak as to be understood by the meanest Hearer and so write as to be comprehended by the most vulgar Reader It is true indeed as he himself observes that when there is necessity of using either Terms of Law or Logical Notions or any other words of Art an Author is then to keep himself to such Terms and Words as are transmitted to us by the Learned in their several Faculties But to affect new Notions and indeed new Nothings when there is no necessity to invite us to it is a Vein of writing which the two great Masters of the Greek and Roman Eloquence had no knowledg of But many think that they can never speak elegantly nor write significantly except they do it in a language of their own devising as if they were ashamed of their Mother-Tongue and thought it not sufficiently curious to express their fancies By means whereof more French and Latine words have gained ground upon us since the middle of Queen Elizabeth than were admitted by our Ancestors whether we look upon them as the British or Saxon Race not only since the Norman but the Roman Conquest A folly handsomly derided in an old blunt Epigram where the spruce Gallant thus bespeaks his Page or Laquey Diminutive and my defective Slave Reach my Corps Coverture immediately 'T is my complacency that Vest to have T' insconce my person from Frigidity The Boy believed all Welsh his Master spoke Till rail'd in English Rogue go fetch my Cloak And yet this simplicity and plainness of writing is the true cause why so many were heretofore and are still scandalized at the Doctors Books But let the Reader attend to him whilst he pleads for himself The truth is I never voluntarily engaged my self in any of those publick Quarrels by which the Unity and Order of the Church of England hath been so miserably distracted in these later times Nor have I lov'd to run before or against Authority but always took the just Counsels and Commands thereof for my ground and warrant which when I had received I could not think that there was any thing left on my part but obsequii gloria the honor of a chearful and free obedience And in this part of my obedience it was my lot most commonly to be employ'd in the Puritan Controversies in managing of which altho I used all equanimity and temper which reasonably could be expected the argument and persons against whom I writ being well considered yet I did thereby so exasperate that prevailing party that I became the greatest object of their spleen and fury When the Jewish Libertines could not resist the wisdom and spirit and excellence of Elocution with which St. Stephen defended himself and blessed Saviour we find in the next Chapter that his enemies deserted all rational arguings and betook themselves to acts of the most inhumane violence first gnashing upon him with their teeth and then assaulting him with stones Add the truth is Dr. Heylyn had few other answers returned to the many learned Volumes written by him besides vollies of audacious and virulent slanders to wound his name and to hinder easie and credulous persons from perusing of his Books He tells one who called him the Primipilus or chief of the Defenders of Prelacy that altho he did sometimes put vinegar in his Ink to make it quick and operative as the case did require yet there was nothing of scurrility or malice in it nothing that savoured of uncharitableness oâ— of such bitter reproaches as he was unjustly charged with When he met with such a Fire-brand as Mr. Burton it was not to be expected that he should pour oil upon him to increase the flame and not bring water to quench it whether foul or clean And when he met with other unsavory pieces it was fit that he should rub them with a little salt to keep them sweet The good Samaritan when he took care of the wounded
his Age by which means he obtained a Dispensation notwithstanding any Local Statutes to the contrary that he should not be compelled to enter into Holy Orders till he was Twenty four years of Age according to the time appointed both in the Canons of the Church and the Statutes of the Realm And such were his fears to enter upon the Study as well as undertake the profession of Divinity that it was not without great Reluctance and Difficulty on his own part as well as many weighty Arguments and Persuasions of a very Learned and Reverend person Mr. Buckner that he applied himself unto Theology Thus Moses pleaded his Inability and notwithstanding the express command of the Almighty refused to be sent upon the Divine Embassie persevering in his unseasonable modesty till God threatned him with his Anger as he had before encouraged him with his promises But as the difficulties in Divinity made Mr. Heylyn for some time to desist so the sweetness and amabilities of that Study allured him to undertake the Profession And therefore he received the Orders of Deacon and Priest but at distant times in St. Aldates Church in Oxon from the Right Reverend Bishop Howson And when he was Ordained Priest he Preach'd the Ordination Sermon upon those words of our Blessed Saviour to St. Peter Luke 22. 32. And when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren What course and method he observed in his Theological Studies he tells of with his own Pen When I began my Studies in Divinity I thought no course so proper and expedient for me as the way commended by King Iames which was that young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abbreviators making them the grounds of their Study and opened at the charges of Bishop Montague though not then a Bishop For though I had a good respect to the memory of Luther and the name of Calvin as those whose Writings had awakened all these parts of Europe out of the ignorance and superstition in which they suffered yet I always took them to be men men as obnoxious unto Error as subject to humane Frailty and as indulgent too unto their own Opinions as any others whatsoever The little knowledge I had gained in the course of Stories had pre-acquainted me with the Fiery Spirit of the one and the Busie Humor of the other thought thereupon unfit by Arch-Bishop Cranmer and others the chief Agents in the Reformation of this Church to be employed as Instruments in that weighty Business Nor was I ignorant how much they differed fsom us in their Doctrinals and Forms of Government And I was apt enough to think that they were no fit Guides to direct my Judgment in order to the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church of England to the establishing whereof they were held unuseful and who both by their Practices and Positions had declared themselves Friends to neither The Geography was in less than three years Re-printed and in this second Edition Enlarged and again Presented by him to the Prince of Wales and by him received with most affectionate Commendations of the Author But it met with a far different entertainment from K. Iames. For the Book being put into the hands of that learned Monarch by Dr. Young Dean of Winton who thereby designed nothing else but the highest kindness to Mr. Heylyn the King at first expressed the great Value he had for the Author but unfortunately falling on a passage wherein Mr. Heylyn gave Precedency to the French King and called France the more Famous Kingdom King Iames became very much offended and ordered the Lord Keeper that the Book should be call'd in The good Dean gave notice to Mr. Heylyn of his Majesties Displeasure advising him to repair to Court and to make use of the Princes Patronage as the best lenitive to prevent the rankling of this wound lest it festered and became incurable But he rather chose to abide at Oxon acquainting the Lord Danvers with the business and requesting his Advice and Intercession and sending afterward an Apology and Explanation of his meaning to Doctor Young the substance of which was That some crimes are of a nature so unjustifiable that they are improved by an Apology yet considering the purpose he had in those places which gave offence to his Sacred Majesty he was unwilling that his Innocence should be condemn'd for want of an Advocate The burthen under which he suffered was rather a mistake than a crime and that mistake not his own but the Printers For if in the first line of page 441. was be read instead of is the sense runs as he design'd it And this appears from the words immediately following for by them may be gathered the sense of this corrected reading When Edward the Third quartered the Arms of France and England he gave Precedency to the French first because France was the greater and more famous Kingdom Secondly That the French c. These Reasons are to be referr'd to the time of that King by whom those Arms were first quartered with the Arms of England and who desired by this honor done unto their Arms to gain upon the good opinion of that Nation for the Crown and Love whereof he was a Suitor For at this time besides that it may seem ridiculous to use a Verb of the present Tense in a matter done so long ago that Reason is not of the least force or consequence the French having so long since forgot the Rights of England and our late Princes claiming nothing but the Title only The place and passage so corrected I hope says Mr. Heylyn I may without detraction from the Glory of this Nation affirm That France was at this time the more famous Kingdom Our English Swords for more than half the time since the Norman Conquest had been turned against our own Bosoms and the Wars we then made except some fortunate Excursions of King Edward the First in France and King Richard in the Holy Land in my conceit were fuller of Pity than of Honor. For what was our Kingdom under the Reign of Edward the Second Henry the Third Iohn Stephen and Rufus but a publick Theatre on which the Tragedies of Blood and civil Dissentions had been continually acted On the other side the French had exercised their Arms with Credit and Renown both in Syria Palestine and Egypt and had much added to the Glory of their Name and Nation by Conquering the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and driving the English themselves out of all France Guyen only excepted If we look higher we shall find France to be the first Seat of the Western Empire and the Forces of it to be known and felt by the Saracens in Spain the Saxons in Germany and the Lombards
make disquieting impressions on them And there is no better way for us to prevent that dishonour than by looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith and by taking those who have spoken in his Name for an example of suffering Affliction and of Patience Iam. 5. 10. But although Dr. Heylyn spoke in Name of the Lord yet few will be prevailed with to take him for a pattern in suffering persecution who believe those black Characters that have been of late given him by some of the Writers of this preâ—ent Age. And amongst the rest 't is matter of just wonder that Mr. Baxter who writes so frequently of Death and Iudgment and the account that must be given of all the hard speeches that are either spoke or writ against his Fellow-Christians should not be desirous to leave the troublesome stage of this world in a peaceable and calm temper and let those sleep quietly in their Graves whom he wish'd he had let alone when alive and unto whose learned labors he has not vouchsafed to return one word of Answer for above these two and twenty years And yet so it is that in his Preface to the Abridgment of Church-History he represents Dr. Heylyn to be a man of a malicious and bloody strain and one who spake of blood with pleasure thirsting after more c. I shall say little of that Book of Mr. Baxters understanding that it is taken into consideration by another hand But this I will not be afraid to affirm that if an impartial Pagan were to pass his judgment upon Christianity from those matters of Fact that are recorded in the Abridgment he would look upon it with a more uncharitable eye than Mr. Baxter does upon Dr. Heylyn and conclude it the most horrid Imposture in the world For what kind of Religion and Church was that which had little or nothing but Covetousness Ambition Oppression Simony Anarchy Tyranny Cruelty c. prevailing in it for so many centuries of years and no persons or conventions of men that had Wisdom and Power all that while to manage its affairs and concerns and to put it into any Apostolical or tolerable Order till an Army-Black-Coat who first almost dreined his Veins of their Blood against his Prince and then courted and caress'd a Tyrant and Vsurper and since that time has been employing his Spleen against the Church I say till such an one arose in the world and in affront to all the laws of Modesty and good Manners first prescribed a Platform of Civil Polity or Holy-Commonwealth to the State and then Rules of Government or Polity to the Church which should bind all Christians and be a Standard to all Superiors Let but any one seriously peruse the Abridgment and then judg whether Herod endeavoured with more malice to suppress the Genealogies of the Jewish Nation and especially those of the Royal Family that he himself might reign with more security than Mr. Baxter has done in throwing dirt upon Antiquity whereas a Divine of all men in the World ought to be very tender how he exposed the Nakedness of the Ancient Fathers lest he thereby exposed Christianity it self to scorn and contempt And we do not live in such an Age of piety and modesty but that some men would be very glad from the Abridgment if they had patience to read it to fix the like Infamy upon the Christian Faith as Cham did when he proclaimed the Nakedness of his Aged Father For my own part I never had the Honâ—ur either to know Dr. Heylyn or to be known by him But those who were his Familiars represent him to be one of a tender compassionate Spirit and that few men put a more candid construction upon Persons and Actions than he did 'T is true he writ of a bloody Sect but with a purpose to prevent the shedding of more Blood He vindicated the Monarchy and Hierarchy from the Calumnies of that Faction that was and is the implacable and sworn enemy of both And for this the Ashes of his Grave must be disturbed by one who as Tullie speaks does not consider but cast Lots in writing Books and whose voluminous Treatises are no more to be compared with the Learned Writers of this Church than the stuff of Kiderminster is to be valued at the same rate with the best Arras Dr. Heylyn was no more a Man of Blood than St. Paul was a Mover of Sedition And if he had 't is to be hoped he might have been as well Canonized for fighting for his Prince as some others are celebrated for Saints in the Everlasting Rest who died in the very Act of Rebellion against him But 't is no new thing for those who cut a purse to cry stop the Thief Mr. Baxter may be pleased to call to mind what was done to one Major Jenning the last War in that Fight that was between Lynsel and Longford in the County of Salop where the Kings Party having unfortunately the worst of the day the poor Major was stript almost naked and left for dead in the Field But Mr. Baxter and one Lieutenant Hurdman taking their walk among the wounded and dead Bodies perceived some Life left in the Major and Hurdman run him through the Body in cold blood Mr. Baxter all the while looking on and taking off with his own hand the Kings Picture from about his Neck telling him as he was swimming in his gore That he was a Popish Rogue and that was his Crucifix Which Picture was kept by Mr. Baxter for many years till it was got from him but not without much difficulty by one Mr. Summerfield who then lived with Sir Thomas Rouse and generously restored it to the poor man now alive at Wick near Parshore in Worcestershire although at the Fight supposed to be dead being after the wounds given him dragg'd up and down the Field by the merciless Soldiers Mr. Baxter approving of the Inhumanity by feeding his eyes with so bloody and barbarous a spectacle I Thomas Iennings subscribe to the truth of this Narrative above mentioned and have hereunto put my Hand and Seal this second day of March 1681 2. Tho. Iennings Signed and Sealed March 2. 1681 2. in the Presence of John Clarke Minister of Wick Thomas Darke And now let it be left to the Readers Iudgment who is of a more malicious and bloody strain Dr. Heylyn or Mr. Baxter Whatever ill opinion the Doctor gained in the World was for the service which he did for his King his Country and the Church And it need not be told who says Nemo pluris â—estimat virtutem quâ—m qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderetâ— i. e. He puts the best value upon virtue who to preserve the Integrity and Peace of his Conscience sacrifices the endearments of his Reputation ERRATA in the Preface PAge 3. line penult dele the P. 7. l. anâ—ep for tender r. tenderness In the Life Page 41. l. 23. r.
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
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
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
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
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
all parties tho I have made it my endeavour to dissatisfie none but those that hate to be reformed or otherwise are so tenaciously wedded to their own opinion that neither Reason nor Authority can divorce them from it In short his love to Truth and veneration to the Church of England were the only motives that made him undertake to write that History The one was the Mistris which he ever serv'd and the other was the Mother whose Paps he had always suck'd And whoever dis-regards or deviates from either of those may perhaps be offended with some particular passages in Ecclesia Restaurata As for his never vouching Authority fâ—r what he writ which is not to be forgiven him I hope he has met with a more merciful Judg in another world than it seems Dr. Burnet is in this But who is to pardon Dr. B. for accusing Dr. Heylyn of violent prejudices against persons of writing things so strangely as if he had been a Factor for the Papists and yet not specifying one particular Instance wherein he was thus partial and perfidious He began the writing of that History in September 1638 communicating his design to Archbishop Laud from whoâ— he received all imaginable encouragement And what benefit would any Reader receive to have quoted to him the pages of Manuscripts Acts of Parliament Registers of Convocation old Records and Charters orders of Council-Table or other of those rare pieces in the Cottonian Library which were made use of in that elaborate History Had Dâ— Heylyn borrowed his materials out of Vulgar or Printed Authors he ought then to have vouch'd particular Authorities for what he writ but making use of those which few Scholars either could or had perused it had been the part of a Pedant not of an Historian to have been exact and particular in his Quotations Not to mention either Greek or Latine Historians Does not Dr. B. esteem the Lord Bacon's History of Henry VII to contain as complete and judicious an account of the Affairs of that Princes Reign as any thing of that nature that is extant in English Story But the Margent of that Book is not stust with many more Quotations than the Doctors Ecclesia Restaurata And yet the Lord Bacon writ of Transactions beyond his own time and lived as far distant from the Reign of King Henry VII as Dr. Heylyn did from King Henry VIII who laid the first Foundation of our Reformation For my own part I cannot with the most diligent search find out any passages in Ecclesia Restaurata which evert the great Rule that ought to be observed by all Historians viz. Ne quid false audeant to commit nothing unto Writing which they know to be false or cannot justifie to be true History is the Record of time by which the Revolutions of Providence are transmitted from one Age unto another And if it can be proved that Dr. Heylyn has either suborned Witnesses falsified Records or so wrested Evidence that posterity cannot make a certain judgment of those Transactions of which he undertook to inform his Country-men then it must be confessed that he was led by Passion more than Judgment and by violent prejudices more than the substantial evidences of Truth And yet if all this were made out 't is no more than what may be laid at the door of that Author who not many years since writ the History of Duke Hamilton where are reported the most abominable Scandals broach'd by the malicious Covenanteers against the Hierarchy of the Scotish Church And the Historian without the least contradiction or confutation permits them to pass for infallible Truths that so Posterity as well as the present prejudiced Age might be leavened with an implacable enmity and hatred against the whole Order of Bishops And altho the Hamiltons were the old inveterate enemies of the Stuarts and the Duke of whom that large History is compiled was an enemy as treacherous to K. Charles I. as any that ever appeared against him in open Arms drawing the Scots in the English Court to be his Dependents alienating their Affections from the King his Master Tho wise men of both Nations thought that the first Tumult at Edinborough was raised by his Instruments and the Combustions that ensued were secretly fomented by him Tho when he was High Commissioner he drew the King from one Condescention to another in behalf of the Covenanteers till he had little else left to give but his Crown and Life Tho he drew him first to suspend and then to suppress the Liturgy and Canons made for the use of the Scotish Church and to abrogate the five Articles of Perth procured with so much difficulty by K. Iames and confirmed by Parliament Tho he authorized the Covenant with some few alterations in it and generally imposed it on that Kingdom Tho he yielded to the calling of the Assembly and was assured by that means that the Bishops by the Majority of their Enemies Voices should be Censured and Excommunicated that Episcopacy should be abolished and all the Regular Clergy exposed to Ruine Tho he got to himself so strong a Party in the Kingdom that the King stood but for a Party in the Calculation Tho when he had Command over a considerable part of the Royal Navy in the Frith at Edinburough he made good that saying of the Scots That the Son of so good a Mother being a most rigid Covenanter could do them no hurt by loitering about on purpose till he heatd that the Treaty of Pacification was begun at Barwick whither he came in Post-hast pretending to disturb that business when he knew it would be concluded before he came thither Tho he was guilty of the vilest Treachery to the Best of Princes and the Best of Subjects viz. Charles I. and the Marquess of Montross who returning out of France and designing to put himself into the Kings Service made his way to Hamilton who knowing the gallantry of the man and fearing a Competitor in his Majestiâ—s Favour told Montross on the one hand That the King slighted the Scottish Nation that he designed to reduce it unto a Province and that he would no longer continue in the Court were it not for some services that he was engaged to do for his Country And on the other hand told the King That Montross was so popular and powerful among the Scots that he would embroil the Affairs and endanger the Interest of his Majesty in that Kingdom which suggestions made the King take little notice of him and the Martyred Heroe was confirmed in the belief of what Hamilton had secretly whispered to him which caused him to go to Scotland and there to list himself with the Male-contents of that Kingdom whose concerns he espoused till he saw his own Error and Hamilton's Treachery Tho D. Hamilton was the man that prevailed with the King to pass that Act for continuation of the Parliament during the pleasure of the Two Houses and boasted how
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
the Peers and People in Parliament it must prove also that the Peers and People can make no Statutes without consent of the Clergy in their Convocation My reason is because such Councils in time of the Saxons were mixt Assemblies consisting as well of Laicks as Ecclesiasticks and the matters there concluded on of a mixt nature also Laws being passed as commonly in them in order to the good Governance of the Commonwealth as Canons for the regulating such things as concerned Religion And these great Councils of the Saxons being divided into two parts in the times ensuing their Clergy did their work by themselves without any Confirmation of the King or Parliament till the Submission of the Clergy to King Henry VIII And if Parliaments did succeed in the place of those great Councils it was because that anciently the Procurators of the Clergy not the Bishops only had their place in Parliament tho neither Peers nor People voted in the Convocations Which being so it is not much to be admired that the Commons repined about the disuse of the general making of Church-Laws as they did in the beginning of the Long Parliament when they voted the proceedings of the Clergy to be prejudicial and destructive to the Fundamental Liberties and Priviledges of the Subject For besides that this repining at the proceedings of any Superiour Court does not make its Acts illegal there is a new memorable passage in the Parliament of the 51. of Edw. III. which will clear this matter which in brief is this The Commons finding themselves agrieved as well with certain Constitutions made by the Clergy in their Synods as with some Laws or Ordinances which were lately passed more to the advantage of the Clergy than the common People put in a Bill to this effect viz. That no Act or Ordinance should from thenceforth be made or granted on the Petition of the said Clergy without consent of the Commons and that the said Commons should not be bound in times to come by any Constitutions made by the Clergy of this Realm for their own advantage to which the Commons of this Realm had not given consent The reason of which is this and 't is worth the marking Car eux ne veulent estre obligez anul de vos Estatuz ne ordinances faits sanz leur Assent i. e. because the Clergy did not think themselves bound as indeed they were not in those times by any Statute Act or Ordinance made without their Assent in the Court of Parliament And besides these precedents already mentioned there is another memorable Convocation in the 4th and 5th years of Philip and Mary in which the Clergy taking notice of an Act of Parliament then newly passed by which the Subjects of the Temporalty having Lands in the yearly value of five pounds and upwards were charged with finding Horse and Armor according to the proportion of their yearly Revenues and Possessions did by their sole Authority in the Convocation impose upon themselves and the rest of the Clergy of this Land the finding of a like number of Horses Armor and other necessaries for the War according to their yearly Income proportion for proportion and rate for rate as by that Statute hath been laid on the Temporal Subjects And this they did by their own sole Authority as was before said ordering the same to be levied on all such as were refractory by Sequestration Deprivation Suspension Excommunication without relating to any subsequent Confirmation by Act of Parliament which they conceived they had no need of Nor did the zeal of our learned Doctor here terminate it was like Aarons Ointment that descended from his Beard to the lowest Skirts and Fringes of his Garments For first as for the Bishops he did not only write for them when their Order flourished but he defended their Function and Honor when their power was expired For that Episcopacy might never revive in this Kingdom its enemies used all possible endeavours to render it odious to all sober and considering Christians And to do that 1. The Bishops were made the cause of the Civil War to which calumny our Doctor answers It s true the Covenanteers called it the Bishops War and gave out that it was raised only to maintain the Hierarchy The truth is Liturgy and Episcopacy were made the occasions but they were not the causes of the War Religion being but the Vizard to disguise the business which Covetousness Sacriledg and Rapine had the greatest hand in But the thing was thus The King being engaged in a War with Spain and yet deserted by those men who engaged him in it was fain to have recourse to such other ways of Assistance as were offered to him But what those ways were will be too tedious to acquaint the Reader with in this place he may better inform himself in the Observations on Master L'Estrange his History 2. Another Engine raised to demolish Episcopacy was to persuade the People that Bishops were an imperious proud sort of men or as Mr. Baxter who was resolved as well to make up the measure of his own Incivilities as of the Bishops Afflictions a Turgid persecuting sort of Prelacy as also that in respect of their Studies they were no way fit for Government or to be Barons in Parliament Unto which the Doctor answers with an old story of a Nobleman in K. Henry VIII's time who told Mr. Pace one of the Kings Secretaries in contempt of Learning That it was enough for Noblemens Sons to Wind their Horn and carry their Hawk fair and leave Learning to the study of mean men To whom Mr. Pace replied Then you and other Noblemen must be content that your Children may wind their Horns and keep their Hawks whilst the Children of mean men do manage matters of State And certainly there can be no reason why men that have been versed in Books studied in Histories and thereby made acquainted with the chiefest Occurrences of most States and Kingdoms should not be thought as fit to manage the Affairs of State as those who spend their time in Hawking or Hunting if not in worse Employments For that a Superinduction of Holy Orders should prove a Supersedeas to all civil prudence is such a wild extravagant fancy as no man of Judgment can allow of And as for the Clergies Pride and Covetousness he thus tells their Accuser How sad their Condition is and under what impossibilities of giving content unto the people For if they keep close and privately and live any thing below their Fortunes the People then cry out O the base sordidness of the Clergy But if according to their means or in any outward lustre then on the other side Oh the pride of the Clergy But tell me Mr. Baxter if you can in what the Turgidness or high swelling pride of the Prelates did appear most visibly Was it in the bravery of their Apparel or in the train of their Attendance or in their Lordly