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-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
in Scotland and the Archbishop of Canterbury designing to put out an Apology for vindicating the Liturgy that he had recommended to that Kirk desired our Doctor to translate it into Latine that being published with the Apology the world might be satisfied in his Majesties Piety as well as his Graces care as also that the rebellious and perverse temper of the Scots might be apparent unio all who would raise such tumults upon the recommendation of a Book that was so venerable and Orthodoxâ— Our Reverend Doctor undertook and compleated it but the distemper and troubles of those times were the occasion that the Book went no farther than the hands of that learned Martyr In Feb. 1639. Dr. Heylyn was put in Commission of the Peace for the County of Hampshire into which he was no sooner admitted but he occasioned the discovery of an horrid Murther that had been committed many years before in that Country April following he was elected Clerk of the Convocation for the College of Westminster At which time the Archbishop of Canterbury sending a Canon to that Assembly for the Suppressing the further growth of Popery and bringing Papists to Church our Reverend Doctor moved his Grace that the Canon might be enlarged for the greater satisfaction of the people as well as the protection of the Church viz. That all persons entrusted with Care of Souls should respectively use all possible Care and Diligence by open Conferences with the Parties and by Censures of the Church in inferior Courts as also by Complaints unto the Secular Powers to reduce all such to the Church of England as were misled into Popish Superstition This and much more was offered by Dr. Heylyn as may be seen more at large in his Life of the Archbishop And about the same time he drew up a Paper wherein he offered a mutual Conference by select Committees between the House of Commons and the Lower House of Convocation And this he did that the Representatives of the Clergy might give satisfaction to the Commons in point of Ceremonies and in other matters relating to the Church if the motion was accepted but if refused that they might gain the advantage of Reputation among knowing and wise persons But the unhappy Dissolution of the Parliament prevented all things of this nature The news of which was so unwelcome and amazing to Dr. Heylyn that being then busied at the Election for the School at Westminster the Pen felâ— out of his hand and it was not without some difficulty before he could recollect his thoughts in the business about which he was engaged The Convocation according to usual custom had expired the next day after the Parliament had not our Reverend man gone to Lambeth and there displayed to the Archbishop the Kings necessities and acquainted him with a precedent in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth for granting Subsidies or a Benevolence by Convocation to be taxed and levied without help of Parliament Upon which proposal the Convocation was adjourned till Wednesday May 13. on which day the Bishops met in full Convocation and a Commission was sent down to the Lower-House dated May 12 which enabled the Prelates and Clergy then Assembled to treat of and conclude upon such Canons as they conceived necessary for the good of the Church The greatest part of the Clergy very much scrupled this matter conceiving the Convocation to end with the Parliament But our Reverend Divine being well skill'd in the Records of Convocations shew'd the distinction between the Writ for calling a Parliament and that for assembling a Convocation their different Forms the independence of one upon the other as also between the Writ by which they were called to be a Convocation to make Canons and do other business He proved also that although the Commission was expired with the Parliament yet the Writ continued still in force by which they were to remain a Convocation till they were Dissolved by another Writ With this distinction he satisfied the greatest part of those who scrupled to sit after the Parliaments Dissolution But the King proved the best Casuist in the case who being acquainted with these scrupulosities called the most learned in the Laws to consult about them by whom it was determined That the Convocation being called by the Kings Writ notwithstanding the Dissolution of the Parliament was to be continued till it was Dissolved by the Kings Writ And this was subscribed by Finch Lord Keeper Littleton Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Banks Attorney-General Whitfield c. It will be too tedious to insert into these Papers all the Debates that were in this learned Assembly most of them are to be seen in the Life of the Archbishop Suffice it to acquaint the Leader that few or none of those propositions which either concerned the Institution Power or Priviledges of Sovereign Kings or related to the Episcopal Power Doctrine or Discipline of the English Church but were either first proposed or afterward drawn up by Dr. Heylyn though he ouâ— of his great modesty and worth ascribes them to other persons It was the Clerk of the Church of Westminster who was placed on purpose by the Prolocutor to speak last in the Grand Committee for the Canon of Uniformity and to answer all such Arguments as had been brought against any of the Points proposed and were not answered to his hand It was he who made a proposition for one uniform Book of Articles to be used by all Bishops and Arch-deacons in Visitations to avoid the confusion that happened in most parts of the Church for want of it those Articles of the Bishops many times everting those of the Arch-Deacons one Bishop differing from another the Successors from the Predecessors and the same person not consistent to those Articles which himself had published by means whereof the people were much disturbed the Rules of the Church contemned for their multiplicity unknown by reason of their uncertainty and despised by reason of the inconstancy of those that made them The motion back'd by these Reasons did so well please the Prolocutor with the rest of the Clergy that they desired the Doctor in pursuit of his own project to undertake the Compiling of the said Book of Articles and to present it to the House with all convenient speed It was the same learned man who took into consideration the great Excesses and Abuses which were crept in and complained of Ecclesiastical Courts the redress and Reformation of which Grievances was brought within the compass of these seven Heads 1. Concerning Chancellors Patents and how long their virtuâ— was to continue 2. That Chancellors were not alone to censure the Clergy in sundry cases 3. That Excommunication and Absolution were not to be pronounced but by a Priest 4. Concerning Commutations and the way of disposing of them 5. Concerning Concurrent Iurisdictions 6. Concerning Licences to Marry 7. Against Vexatious Citations Some other things were proposed and designed but never put in
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
too late standing in the world to be accounted the first Broacher of those Doctrinal Points which have such warrant from the Scriptures and were so generally held by the ancient Fathers both Greek and Latine till St. Austins time defended since that time by the Iesuites and Franciscans in the Church of Rome by all the Melancthonian Divines among the Lutherans by Castalio in Geneva it self by Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper in the time of K. Edward VI by some of our Confessors in Prison in the days of Qu. Mary by Bishop Harsnet in the Pulpit by Dr. Peter Baroe in the Schools in the Reign of Qu. Elizabeth by Hardem Bergius the first Reformer of the Church and City of Emden and finally by Anastasius Velvanus A. D. 1554. and afterward by Henricus Antonii Iohannes Ibrandi Clemens Martini Cornelius Meinardi the Ministers generally of the Province of Vtrecht by Manaus the Divinity Professor of Leyden by Gellius Succanus in the Province of Friezeland before the name of Iacob van Harmine was heard of in the world And if it be objected that the whole stream of Protestant Divines who were famous either for Piety or Learning embraced the Calvinian Doctrines to this also the Doctor gives a satisfactory answer in many places of his learned Writings The Reader may please to consider 1. That this being granted to be a truth we are rather to look upon it as an infelicity which befel the Church than as an argument that she concurr'd with those Divines in all points of judgment That which was most aimed at immediately after the Reformation and for a long time after in preferring men to the highest dignities of the Church and chief places in the Universities was their zeal against Popery and such a sufficiency of learning as might enable him to defend those Points on which our separation from the Church of Rome was to be maintained and the Queens Interest most preserved The Popes Supermacy the Mass with all the Points and Nicities which depended on it Iustification by Faith Marriage of Priests Purgatory the Power of the Civil Magistrate were the Points most agitated And whoever appeared right in those and withal declared himself against the corruptions of that Church in point of Manners was seldom or never looked into for his other Opinions until the Church began to find the sad consequences of it in such a general tendency to Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline as could not easily be redress'd 2. In answer to the fâ—re-mentioned objection It is recorded in St. Marks Gospel cap. 8. that the blind man whom our Saviour restored to sight at Bethsaida at the first opening of his eyes saw men as Trees walking ver 24. i. e. walking as Trees quasi dicat homines quos ambulantes video non homines sed arbores mihi viderentur as we read in Maldonate By which words the blind man declared saith he se qauidem videre aliquid cum nihil antè videret imperfectè tamen videre cum inter homines arbores distinguere non posset More briefly Estius upon the place Nondum ita clarè perfectè video ut discernere possim inter homines arbores I discern somewhat said the poor man but so imperfectly that I am not able to distinguish between Trees and Men. Such an imperfect sight as this the Lord gave many times to those whom he recovered out of the Egyptian darkness who not being able to discern all Divine Truths at the first opening of the eyes of their understandings were not to be a Rule and Precedent to those that followed and lived in clearer times and under a brighter Beam of Illumination than others did What grounds were laid down by this excellent person for Unity and Charity in the Worship of God and in the Doctrine and Government of the Church may be seen in these words to Mr. Baxter Unity and Charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government no man likes better than my self bring but the same affections with you and the wide Breach that is between us in some of the Causes which we manage on either side will be suddenly closed but then you must be sure to stand to the word Ancient also and not keep your self to simplicity only If Unity and Charity will content you in the ancient Doctrine in the simplicity thereof without subsepuent mixtures of the Church I know no Doctrine in the Church more pure and Ancient than that which is publickly held forth by the Church of England in the Book of Articles the Homilies and the Catechism authorized by Law of which I may safely affirm as St. Austin does in his Book Ad Marcelinum His qui contradicit aut a Christi fide alienus est aut est Haereticus i. e. He must either be an Inâ—idel or an Heretick who assents not to them If Vnity and Charity in the simplicity of Worship be the thing you aim at you must not give every man the liberty of worshiping in what Form he pleaseth which destroys all Vnity nor Cursing many times instead of Praying which destroys all Charity The ancient and most simple way of Worship in the church of God was by regular Forms prescribed for the publick use of Gods people in the Congregations and not by unpremeditated undigested Prayers which every man makes unto himself as his fancy shall lead him And if set Forms of Worship are to be retained you will not easily meet with any which hath more in it of the ancient simplicity of the Primitive Times than the English Liturgy And if ancient simplicity of Government be the point you drive at what Government can you find more pure or Ancient than that of Bishops of which you have this Character in the Petition of the County of Rutland where it is said to be That Government which the Apostles left the Church in that the Three Ages of Martyrs were governed by that the thirteen Ages since have always gloried in by their Succession of Bishops from the Apostles proving themselves Members of the Catholick and Apostolick Church that our Laws have established that so many Kings and Parliaments have protected into which we were Baptized as certainly Apostolical as the Lords day as the distinction of Books were written by such Evangelists and Apostles as the Conâ—ecration of the Eucharist by Presbyters c. An ample commendation of Episcopal Government but such as exceeds not the bounds of Truth or Modesty Stand to these grounds for keeping Vnity and Charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government in the Church of God and you shall see how chearfully the Regal and Preâ—atical Party will joyn hands with you and embrace you with most dear affections But you tell me That if I will have men in peace as Brethren our Union must be Law or Ceremonies or indifferent Forms This is a pretty Speculation but such as would not pass for
in the 20th Article which thus runs in terminis viz. Habet Ecclesia Ritus sive Ceremonias statuendi Ius in Fidei Controversiis Authoritatem c. But the Regius Professor was as little pleased with these Questions and the Respondents stating of them as he was with the former And therefore that he might the more effectually expose him he openly declared how the Respondent had falsified the publick Doctrine of the Church and charged the Article with that Sentence viz. Habet Ecclesia Ritus sive Ceremonias c. which was not to be found in the whole Body of it and for the proof thereof he read the Article out of a Book which lay before him beginning thus Non licet Ecclesiae quicquam instituere quod verbo Dei scripto adversetur c. To which the Respondent reaâ—iâ—y answered That he perceived by the bigness of the Book which lay upon the Doctors Cushion that the Article he read was out of the Harmony of Confessions publish'd at Ceneva Anno Dom. 1612. which therein followed the Edition of the Articles in the time of King Edw. 6. Anno Dom. 1552. in which that Sentence was not found but that it was otherwise in the Articles agreed on in the Convocation Anno Dom. 1562. to which most of us had subscribed in our several places but the Professor still insisting upon that point and the Respondent perceiving the greaâ—est part of his Auditory dissatisfied he called to one Mr. Westly who had formerly been his Chamber-Fellow in Magdalen College and desired him to fetch the Book of Articles from some Adjacent Booksellers which being observed by the Professor he declared himself very willing to decline any farther Debate about that business and to go on directly in the Disputation But the Respondent was resolved to proceed no further Vsque dum liberaverit animam suam ab istâ calumniâ as his own words were till he had freed himself from that Imputation And it was not long before the coming of the Book put an end to the Controversie out of which he read the Article in English in his verbis The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith c. which done he delivered the Book to one of the Auditors who desired it of him the Book passing from one hand to another till all were satisfied And at this point of time it was that the Bishop of Angolesme Lord Almoner to the Queen left the Schools professing afterward That he could see no hope of a fair Disputation from so foul a beginning It has been laid to Doctor Heylyn's charge that at this time he was Hissed because he excluded King and Parliament from being parts of the Church But he never deny'd either to be parts of the Diffusive Body of the Church but only to be parts of the Church Representative which consists of the Bishops and Clergy in their several Councils For neither King nor Parliament are Members of the Convocation as he then proved and asserted The Articles ascribe to the Church of England Represented in a National Council power of decreeing Rites and Ceremonies and Authority of determining Controversies in Faith as well as other Assemblies of that nature And this neither deserved nor met with any Hiss Perhaps a Hiss was then given but it was when the Regius Professor went to prove that not the Convocation but the High Court of Parliament had power of ordering matters in the Church in making Canons ordaining Ceremonies and determining Controversies in Religion And he could find no other medium to make it good but the Authority of Sir Edw. Coke in one of the Books of his Reports An Argument unto which the Respondent returned no other Answer than Non credendum est cuique extra suam Artem upon which immediately he gave place to the next Opponent which put an end to the heats of that Disputation But it did not so to the Regius Professors passion against Dr. Heylyn For conceiving his Reputation somewhat lessened in the eye of the world he gave an account in a paper of the whole transaction that tended very much to the Doctors disgrace as well as his own Justification But Dr. Heylyn well knew upon what bottom he stood and therefore in his own Vindication caused the Professor to be brought before the Council-Table at Woodstock where he was publickly rebuked for the mis-representations that he had made of him And upon the coming out of the Kings Declaration concerning Lawful Sports Dr. Heylyn took the pains to translate the Regius Professors Lecture upon the Sabbath into English and putting a Preface before it caused it to be Printed A performance which did not only justifie his Majesties proceedings but abated much of that opinion which Dr. Prideaux had amongst the Puritanical Faction in those days Pass we now from the University the School of Learning and Study to the Court the Seat of Breeding and Business where Dr. Potter afterward Dean of Worcester presented to the King a very learned Treatise called Charity Mistaken and for a reward of his great Abilities had a Prebendship of Windsor design'd for him which was then likely to become vacant by the promotion of the Bishop of Glocester to the See of Hereford Many of Dr. Heylyn's Friends were very zealous with the King on his behalf especially Dr. Neile then Archbishop of York But his Lordship stuck faster to his Bishoprick than he did to his Principles and so the business ended But whilst it was in agitation it occasioned this merry Epigram from our young Doctor who was conceived by every one to have missed that Prebendship upon the supposed Vacancy When Windsor Prebend late disposed was One ask'd me sadly how it came to pass Potter was chose and Heylyn was forsaken I answered 't was Charity Mistaken But the Doctors Juvenile humor was presently converted iuto a far less pleasing passion For Mr. Attorney-General Noye left this world for a better very much to the sorrow but much more to the loss of Dr. Heylyn He kept his Whitsontide in 1634. with the Doctor at Brentford where he used all imaginable arguments and intreaties to dissuade him from going to Tunbridge-Waters the following Vacation importuning him to accompany him to Alresford where he would be certain to find a better Air and a more careful Attendance But we are very often wise to our own hurt and stand in that light which would guide us to safety and felicity But whatsoever damage our Doctor sustained by the loss of so invaluable a Friend some persons else have gained well by it having two large Manuscripts of Mr. Noys own hand-writing The one contains the Collections he made of the Kings maintaining his Naval power accroding to the practice of his Royal Predecessors The other about the Priviledges and Jurisdictions of Ecclesiastical Courts These two Books Doctor Heylyn had a sight of from Mr. Noye about two months before the death of that
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
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
he had got a perpetual Parliament for the English and would do the like for the Scots too and contrary to the wishes of all good men prevailed with the King to Dissolve that Parliament which was immediately precedent playing with both hands at once pulling with one hand back the Commons from all Compliance with the King and thrusting on the King with the other hand to Dissolve the Parliament In fine for the repetition of these things is not very delighting Tho this D. Hamilton did in the opinion of very many wise men aim at nothing less than the Crown of Scotland and had so courted the Common Soldiers raised for the Service of the Swedes and obliged their Commanders that David Ramsey openly began an health to King Iames the Seventh yet all these with many more particulars are either quite smothered or so painted over by Dr. Burnet that the Volume he has writ upon Hamilton may rather be called an Apology or a Panegyrick than a History But Dr. Heylyn had the courage to acquaint the world with these harsh Truths in the Life of the Archbishop and in the Observations that he has writ upon Mr. L'Estrange's History of King Charles I. And there was no other way to be revenged on him than to traduce his Labours and blast his Memory as if he had been secretly set on to write by those of the Church of Rome A Calumny so improbable that 't is confuted in the very Preface to Ecclesia Restaurata where he tells how the Owners of the Abby-Lands had all the reason in the world to maintain that Right which by the known Laws of the Land had been vested in them And that the Exchanges Grants and Sales of the Monasteries and Religious Houses were passed and confirmed by the Kings Letters-Patents under the Great Seal of England in due form of Law which gave unto the Patentees as good a Title as the Law could make them and that Pope Julius the Second in Queen Maries Reign confirmed all those Lands by his Decree to the present Occupants of which they stood possessed justo titulo by a lawful Title But the Doctors Observation is verified in himself viz. That 'T is the Faction a man joyns with not the Life or Principles of the man himself that makes him a good or a bad man And I will add a learned or good Writer He did not write Books or Preach Sermons as anciently Poets did Comedies of whom Terence tells us Poeta cum primum animum ad scribendum appulit Id sibi negotii credidit solum dari Populo ut placerent quas fecissit fabulas Thus Englished by Dr. Heylyn Thus Poets when their mind they first apply In looser Verse to frame a Comedy Think there is nothing more for them to do Than please the people whom they speak unto But this Reverend man was of no crouching temper to popular Factions or Opinions And whoever they are that oppose those will be charged with Railing and Reviling as well as with Falsities and Mistakes tho they use the most unaffected propriety of words to represent the conceptions of their minds in giving an account of things in their proper and due circumstances Dr. Heylyn had too much in him of a Gentleman and a Scholar to use any unseemly expressions in his Writings to render either Persons Opinions or Actions odious If he found them so he ought so to represent them or else he would not have acquitted himself like an Historian i. e. faithful to the just interests of Truth Had he but employed his Pen to have written one half of those things against the King and Church of England which he writ for them he would have been accounted by very many persons I will not say by Dr. B. the greatest Scholar the greatest Protestant the most faithful Historian or in their own phrase the most precious man that ever yet breath'd in this Nation But he had the good luck to be a Scholar and better luck to employ his Learning like an honest man and a good Christian in the defence of a Righteous and pious King of an Apostolical and true Church of a Venerable and Learned Clergy And this drew upon him all the odium and malice that two opposite Factions Papist and Sectary could heap upon him Had he writ only against the first his name had received no more disturbance from men upon earth than his Soul does amongst its blessed associates in Heaven But diving into unbeaten paths in his Theological Studies he gives an account of the first entrance of the Calvinian Tenets into this Kingdom viz. How the controversies about Grace Predestination c. had had been long agitated in the Schools between the Dominicans on the one side and the Franciscans on the other the Dominicans grounding their opinion on the Authority of S. Austin Prosper and some others of the following Writers The Franciscans on the general current of the ancient Fathers who lived ante mota certamina Pelagiana before the rising of the Pelagian Heresies Which Disputes being after taken up in the Lutheran Churches the moderate Lutherans as they call them followed the Doctrine of Melancthon conformable to the Franciscans in those particulars The others whom they call Stiff or Rigid Lutherans of whom Flaccius Illyricus was chief go in the same way with the Dominicans The Authority of which last opinion after it had been entertained and published in the works of Calvin for his sake found admittance in the Schools and Pulpits of most of the Reformed Churches And being controverted pro and con by some of the Confessors in Prison in Qu. Maries days after her death many of our exiled Divines returning from Geneva Basil and such other places where Calvins Dictates were received as celestial Oracles brought with them his opinions in the points of Predestination Grace and Perseverance which being dispersed and scattered over all the Church by Calvins authority and the diligence of the Presbyterian party then busie in advancing their Holy Discipline they came to be received for the only true and orthodox Doctrine and were so publickly maintained in the Schools of Cambridge till Dr. Peter Baroe Professor for the Lady Margaret in that University revived the Melancthonian way in his publick Lectures and by his great Learning and Arguments had drawn many others to the same persuasions From which words it appears what little shew of reason there is to call those Divines Arminians who are of a different judgment from Mr. Calvin in the points aforesaid For first The Arminians are rather a Branch of the Sect of Calvin to whose Discipline in all particulars they conform themselves and to this Doctrines in most differing from him only in Predestination and the Points subordinate but managing those differences with a far better temper than their Opposites as may be seen at large in Mr. Hales's Letters And secondly Arminius as our Doctor Tells us was too much a puisne of
first the Clergy in all other Christian Kingdoms of these North-West Parts make the Third Estate that is to say in the German Empire as appears by Thuanus the Historian lib. 2. In France as is affirmed by Paulus Aemilius lib. 9. In Spain as testifieth Bodinus de Republ lib. 3. For which also consult the general History of Spain as in point of practice lib. 9 10 11 14. In Hungary as witnesseth Bonfinius Decl. 2. lib. 1. In Poland as is verified by Thuanus also l. 56. In Denmark as Pontanus tells us in Historia rerum Danicarum l. 7. The Swedes observing anciently the same Form and Order of Government as was used by the Danes The like we find in Cambden for the Realm of Scotland in which anciently the Lords Spiritual viz. Bishops Abbots and Priors made the Third Estate And certainly it was very strange if the Bishops and other Prelates in the Realm of England being a great and powerful Body should move in a lower Sphere in England than they do elsewhere But 2dly Not to stand only upon probable inferences we find first in History touching the Reign and Acts of Henry V. That when his Funerals were ended the Three Estates of the Realm of England did assemble together and declared his Son King Henry VI. being an Infant of eight Months old to be their Sovereign Lord as his Heir and Successor And if the Lords Spiritual did not then make the Third Estate I would fain know who did Secondly The Petition tendred to Richard Duke of Glocester to accept the Crown occurring in the Parliament Rolls runs in the name of the Three Estates of the Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons thereof Thirdly In the said Parliament of the said Rich. Crowned King it is said expresly That at the request and by the consent of the Three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Land Assembled in this present Parliament and by Authority of the same it be Pronounced Decreed and Declared That our Sovereign Lord the King was and is the very and undoubted King of this Realm of England c. Fourthly It is acknowledged in the Statute of 1. Eliz. c. 3. where the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in that Parliament Assembled being said expresly and in terminis to represent the Three Estates of this Realm of England did recognize the Queens Majesty to be their true lawful and undoubted Sovereign Liege Lady and Queen Add unto these the Testimony of Sir Edward Cooke tho a private person who in his Book of the Iurisdiction of Courts published by Order of the Long Parliament c. 1. doth expresly say That the Parliament consists of the Head and the Body that the Head is the King that the Body is the Three Estates viz. the Lords Spiritual Temporal and the Commons In which words we have not only the Opinion and Testimony of that learned Lawyer but the Authority of the Long Parliament also tho against it self I hope the perusal of these things will be no less acceptable to the sober Reader than the transcribing of them has been unto my self which I have done to the end as well of informing my Country-men about the Rights of the Crown and Privileges of the Church and Clergy as to shew that Dr. Heylyn had a zeal according unto knowledg and was not less zealous for knowledge-sake And the Doctor having thus stood up in the defence of Monarchy and Hierarchy both in their prosperous and adverse condition when the black Cloud was dispelled and a fair Sun-shine began to dawn upon these harrassed and oppressed Islands by the Return of his Sacred Majesty this excellent man having in his mind Tullies Resolution Defendi Rempub. Adolescens non deseram Senex thought it unbecoming him to desert the Church in any of its pressing needs and therefore when the door of Hope began to open he busied his active and searching mind in finding out several expedients for the restoring and securing of its Power and Privileges in future Ages against the attempts of Factious and Sacrilegious men And the first thing that he engaged in was to draw up several Papers and tender them to those Persons in Authrority who in the days of Anarchy and Oppression had given the most signal Testimonies of their Affection to the Church In which Papers he first shewed what Alterations Explanations c. were made in the Publick Liturgy in the Reigns of King Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth and King Iames that so those who were intrusted with so sacred a Depositum might be the better enabled to proceed in the Alteration and enlargement of it as they afterward did and as it now stands by Law Established in this Church Secondly Whereas in the first year of King Edward VI. it was enacted that all Arch-Bishops Bishops c. should make their Processes Writings and Instruments in the Kings name and not under their own Names which Act was afterward extended unto Ordinations as appears by the Form of a Testimonial extant in Sanders's Seditious Book De Schismate Anglicano and whereas the Act was repealed in the last year of Queen Mary and did stand so repealed all the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but was by the activity of some and the incogitancy of others revived again in the first year of King Iames but lay dorment all the Reign of that Prince and during the first ten years of King Charles I. after which it was endeavoured to be set on foot by some disturbers of the Publick Peace upon which the King having it under the hand of his Judges that the proceedings of the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. were not contrary to the Laws of the Land inserted their Judgment about it in a Proclamation for indemnifying the Bishops and the satisfying of his loving Subjects in that Point therefore Dr. Heylyn considering that what the Judges did was extrajudicial and that the Kings Proclamation expired at his Death solicited the concerns of the Church in this Affair viz. that the Act so pasâ—ed as before is said in the first of King Iames might be repealed that so the Bishops might proceed as formerly in the exercise of their Jurisdiction without fear or danger Thirdly Whereas in the 16. year of Charles I. there passed an Act that no Arch-Bishop Bishop c. should minister any Corporal Oath unto any Church-Warden Sideman or any other person whatsoever with many other things whereby the whole Episcopal Jurisdiction was subverted except Canonical Obedience only and all proceedings in Courts Ecclesiastical in Causes Matrimonial Testamentory c. were weakened and all Episcopal Visitations were made void as to the ordinary Punishments of Heresie Schism Non-conformity Incest Adultery and other Crimes of Ecclesiastical Cognizance therefore Dr. Heylyn stated the Case and in a Petition drawn up by him prayed that for the restoring of the Episcopal Jurisdiction the Clauses of that Act
and the penalties thereunto annexed might be wholly abrogated and annulled But the most remarkable Effort of his zeal for the Church after the Kings Restauration was the Application made by him to the great Minister of State in those days that there might be a Convocation called with the Parliament What good effects were produced by his endeavours in that particular let the Reader judg when he has perused the following Letter with which the Reverend Doctor saluted that powerful Statesman Right Honorable and my very good Lord I Cannot tell how welcome or unwelcome this Address may prove in regard of the greatness of the Cause and the low condition of the Party who negotiates in it But I am apt enough to persuade my self that the honest zeal which moves me to it not only will excuse but endear the boldness There is my Lord a general Speech but a more general Fear withal amongst some of the Clergy that there will be no Convocation called with the following Parliament which if it should be so resolved on cannot but raise sad thoughts in the hearts of those who wish the peace and happiness of our English Sion But being the Bishops are excluded from their Votes in Parliament there is no other way to keep up their Honor and Esteem in the eyes of the people but the retaining of their places in the Convocation Nor have the lower Clergy any other means to shew their duty to the King and keep that little freedom which is left unto them then by assembling in such Meetings where they may exercise the Power of a Convocation in granting Subsidies to his Majesty tho in nothing else And should that Power be taken from them according to the constant but unprecedented practice of the late Long Parliament and that they must be taxed and rated with the rest of the Subjects without their liking and consent I cannot see what will become of the first Article of Magna Charta so solemnly so frequently confirmed in Parliament or what can possibly be left unto them of either of the Rights or Liberties belonging to an English Subject I know 't is conceived by some that the distrust which his Majesty hath in some of the Clergy and the Diffidence which the Clergy have of one another is looked on as the principal cause of the Innovation For I must needs behold it as an Innovation that any Parliament should be called without a meeting of the Clergy at the same time with it The first year of King Edward VI. Qu. Mary and Qu. Elizabeth were times of greater diffidence and distraction than this present Conjuncture And yet no Parliament was called in the beginning of their several Reigns without the company and attendance of the Convocation tho the intendments of the State aimed then at greater alterations in the face of the Church than are now pretended or desired And to say the truth there was no â—anger to be feared from a Convocation tho the times were ticklish and unsettled and the Clergy was divided into Sides and Factions as the case then stood and so stands with us at this present time For since the Clergy in their Coâ—vocations are in no Authothority to propound treat or conclude any thing more than the passing of a Bill of Subsides for his Majesties use until they are impowred by the Kings Commission the King may tie them up for what time he pleases and give them nothing but the opportunity of entertaining one another with the news of the day But if it be objected that the Commission now on foot for altering and explaining certain passages in the Publick Liturgy that either pass instead of a Convocation or else is thought to be neither competable nor consistent with it I hope far better in the one and must profess that I can see no reason in the other For first I hope that the selecting of some few Bishops and other learned men of the lower Clergy to debate on certain Points contained in the Common-Prayer-Book is not intended for a Representation of the Church of England which is a Body more diffused and cannot legally stand bound by their Acts and Counsets And if this Conference be for no other purpose but only to prepare matter for a Convocation as some say it is not why may not such a Conference and Convocation be held both at once For neither the selecting of some learned men out of both the Orders for the composing and reviewing of the two Liturgies digested in the Reign of King Edward VI. proved any hindrance in the calling of those Convocations which were held both in the second and third and in the fifth and sixth of the said Kings Reign Nor was it found that the holding of a Convocation together with the first Parliament under Queen Elizabeth proved any hindrance to that Conference or Disputation which was designed between the Bishops and some learned men of the opposite parties All which considered I do most humbly beg your Lordship to put his Majesty in mind of sending out his Maâ—dates to the two Archâ— Bishops for summoning a Convocation according to the usual Form in their several Provinces that this poor Church may be held with some degree of Veneration both at home and abroad And in the next place I do no less humbly beseech your Lordship to excuse this freedom which nothing but my zeal for Gods glory and my affection to this Church could have forced from me I know how ill this present office does become me and how much fitter it had been for such as shine in a more eminent Sphere in the holy Hiâ—rarchy to have tendered these Particulars to consideration Which since they either have not done or that no visible effect hath appeared thereof I could not chuse but cast my poor Mite into the Treasury which if it may conduce to the Churches good I shall have my wish and howsoever shall be satisfied in point of Conscience that I have not failed of doing my duty to this Church according to the light of my understanding and then what happens unto me shall not be material And thus again most humbly craving pardon for this presumption I kiss your Lordships hands and subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant to be commanded Peter Heylyn Having thus surveyed the most important Occurrences of Dr. Heylyn's Life I doubt not but every judicious and impartial Reader will be convinced at once of his vast Abilities and Acquirements in the large Circle of Learning and Sciences of his immovable Integrity in the Protestant Religion and of his indefatigable Industry and Service to the just Interests both of the Crown and Mitre For tho I will not say as St. Paul does of his Son Timothy that there was no man like-minded yet no one had more hearty and unbiassed affections no man did more naturally care for this Church and Kingdom than Dr. Heylyn and at that time too when he expected nothing for his