in Italy at which time the Valour of the English was imprisoned in the same Seas with their Island And therefore France was at that time when first the Arms were quartered the more famous Kingdom 'T is true indeed since the time of those victorious Princes those Duo Fulmina Belli Edward the Third and the Black Prince his Son the Arms of England have been exercised in most parts of Europe Nor am I ignorant how high we stand above France and all other Nations in the true fame of our Atchievements France it self divers times over-run and once Conquered the House of Burgundy upheld from Ruine the Hollanders Supported Spain Awed and the Ocean Commanded are sufficient testimonies that in pursuit of Fame and Honor we had no Equals That I was always of this opinion my Book speaks for me and indeed so unworthy a person needs no better an Advocate in which I have been no where wanting to commit to memory the honorable performances of my Countrey The great Annalist Baronius pretending only a true and sincere History of the Church yet tells the Pope in his Epistle Dedicatory that he principally did intend that work pro Sacrarum Traditionum Antiquitate Authoritate Romanae Ecclesiae The like may I say of my self though not with like imputation of Imposture I promised a Description of all the World and have according to the measure of my poor Abilities fully performed it yet have I apprehended withal every modest occasion of enobling and extolling the Soâ—â—ers and Kings of England Besides that I do not now speak of England as it now stands augmented with by the happy Addition of Scotland I had had it from an Author whom in poverty of reading I conceived above all exception viz. Cambden Clarencieux that general and accomplish'd Scholar in the fifth part of his Remains had so informed me If there be error in it 't is not mine but my Authors The Precedency which he there speaks of is in General Councils And I do heartily wish it would please the Lord to give such a sudden Blessing to his Church that I might live to see Mr. Cambden Confuted by so good an Argument as the sitting of a General Council Thus Mr. Heylyn was the interpreter of his own words and by these demonstrations of his integrity King Iames's indignation was appeased and his own fears were ended Only he took care to have these offensive words blotted out of his Book as the Dean of Winton advised him In the year 1625. he took a Journey with Mr. Levet of Lincolns-Inn into France where he visited more Cities and made more Observations in the space of five weeks for he staid there no longer than many others have done in so many years The particulars of this Journey he put in Writing and some years after gratified his Countrey with the Publication of it together with some other very excellent Remarks made by him when he attended upon the Earl of Danby to the Isles of Guernsey and Iersey Anno Dom. 1628. Had King Iames lived to have perused that Book Mr. Heylyn had needed no other Advocate to have restored him to his Princely Favour and Protection For never was the Vanity and Levity of the Monsieurs and the Deformity and Sluttishness of their Madames more ingeniously exposed both in Prose and Verse than in the Account that he gives of his Voyage into France On April 18. 1627. he opposed in the Divinity-School and the 24th day following he answered pro Forma upon these two Questions viz. An. Ecclesia unquam fuerit invisibilis An Ecclesia possit errare Both which he determined in the Negative And in stating of the first he fell upon a different way from that of Doctor Prideaux in his Lecture de Visibilitate Ecclesiae and other Tractates of and about that time in which the visibility of the Protestant Church and consequently of the Renowned Church of England was no otherwise proved than by looking for it into the scattered Conventicles of the Berengarians in Italy the Waldenses in France the Wickliffs in England and the Hussites in Bohemia which manner of proceeding not being liked by Mr. Heylyn because it utterly discontinued that Succession in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy which the Church of England claims from the Apostles he rather chose to look for a continual Visible Church in Asia Aethiopia Greece Italy yea and Rome it self as also in all the Western Provinces then subject to the power of the Popes thereof And for the proof whereof he shewed 1. That the Church of England received no Succession of Doctrine or Government from any of the scattered Conventicles before remembred 2. That the Wickliffes together with the rest before remembred held many Heterodoxies in Religion as different from the Establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England as any point that was maintained at that time in the Church of Rome And 3. That the Learned Writers of that Church and Bellarmin himself among them have stood up as cordially and stoutly in maintenance of some Fundamental points of the Christian Faith against Socinians Anabaptists and Anti-Trinitarians and other Hereticks of these Ages as any of the Divines and other Learned men of the Protestant Churches which point Mr. Heylyn closed with these words viz. Vtinam quod ipse de Calvino sic semper errasset nobilissimus Cardinalis And this so much displeased the Doctor of the Chair that so soon as our young Divine had ended his Determination he fell most heavily upon him calling him by the most odious names of Papicola Bellarminianus Pontificius c. bitterly complaining to the younger part of his Audients unto whom he made the greatest part of his Addresses of the unprofitable pains he had took amongst them if Bellarmin whom he had laboured to decry for so many years should now be honored with the Title of Nobilissimus The like he did within a few days after Tantaene animis coelestibus irae when the Respondent became prior Oppenent loading him with so many Reproaches that he was branded for a Papist before he understood what Popery was And because this Report should not prepossess the minds of some great Persons the Disputant went to London and after the Lord Chamberlain had ordered him to Preach before the Kings Houshold Arch-Bishop Laud then Bishop of Bath and Wells took notice of the passages that had happened at Oxford But Mr. Heylyn told him the story at large and for a farther testimony of his Judgment and Innocency gave him a Copy of his Supposition which when it was perused the Disputant waited on him and his Lordship made him to sit down by him and after enquiry made into the course of his Studies told him That his Supposition was strongly grounded and not to be over thrown in a fair way of Scholastick Arguing That he would not have him be discouraged by noise and clamour That he himself had in his younger days maintained the same Positions in
Disputation in St. Iohns College for which he was much blamed by Arch-Bishop Abbot then Vice-Chancellor and made a By-word and Reproach in the University Finally he exhorted him to continue in that moderate course telling him That as God had given him more than ordinary Gifts so he would pray to God that he might employ them in such a way and manner as might make up the Breaches in the Walls of Christendom The Discourse between them continued for the space of two hours Amotis Arbitris For he ordered his Servants that no one should come to him on any occasion before he called But this was not all that was done then by our young Divine to secure himself from the Reproach of a Papist For in November next following he Preached before the King on those words Iohn 4. 20. Our Fathers worshipped on this Mountain In which Sermon he declared himself with such warm zeal against some Errors and Corruptions in the Roman Church that he shewed himself to be far enough from any inclination to the Roman Religion But his innocency in that matter will be made more apparent in some following passages of his Life Unto one of the most principal parts of which the Reader is now invited viz. his Marriage which was so far from being Clandestine and Clancular as it was objected to him in Print above thirty years after its solemnization that he ordered it to be performed upon St. Simon and Iudes day between ten and eleven of the Clock in the morning in his own College-Chappel which by his appointment was set out with the richest Ornaments in the presence of a sufficient number of Witnesses of both Sexes according to Law and Practice The Wedding-Dinner was kept in his own Chamber some Doctors and their Wives with five or six of the Society being invited to it Mrs. Bride was placed at the head of the Table the Town-Musick playing and himself waiting most part of the Dinner and no Formality wanting which was accustomably required even to the very giving of Gloves at the most solemn Wedding These things are more particularly related because some of his Enemies having nothing else with which they could blast his Reputation were pleased to accuse him of a Clandestine Marriage and that he was obliged in Conscience to restore all the Emoluments that he had received from his Fellowship between that time and his Resignation But what shall be given to thee or what shall be done unto thee thou false tongue It seems it must be injustice in Mr. Heylyn to receive his share of an half-years Divident which was usually allowed to persons in his circumstances but it was no act of unrighteousness in other men to take bread out of the mouths of young Students and send them to wander in solitary ways being hungry and thirsty and their souls ready to faint in them The Ceremony was performed by his faithful and ingenuous friend Dr. Allibond and the person that he made choice of for his Wife was Mrs. Laetitia Heygate third Daughter of Thomas Heygate of Heys Esq one of his Majesties Justices of Peace for the County of Middlesex who in his younger days whilst his elder Brother was alive had been Provost-Marshal-General of the Army under the Earl of Essex at the Action of Cales and of Margery Skipwith his Wife one of the Daughters of Skipwith of in the County of Leicester a Family of good note and credit in those parts Which said Thomas Heygate the Father was second Son of that Thomas Heygate who was Field-Marshal-General of the English Forces before St. Quintins under the Command of the Earl of Pembroke Anno Dom. 1557. and of Stonner his Wife a Daughter of the antient Family of the Stonners in Oxfordshire These particulars are set down by our learned Doctor in his little Manuscript to this end That Posterity might know from what Roots they sprang and not engage in any thing unworthy their Extraction 'T is an inestimable blessing for any one to be well Born and Descended but the present guilt and future account of that person will be increased who blemishes and stains his Family by unworthy and ill-done actions Continuing this time Mr. Heylyn had no very considerable subsistence for himself and his new Companion For the Portion which he was to have by her being a thousand pounds was never paid many irreparable losses and mis-fortunes happening to her eldest Brother which he was not able to recover though left by his Father in the possession of 800 l. per Annum His Fellowship he resigned and although he had the Advowson of Bradwel a very good Living in Glocestershire left him by his Father together with a Rent-charge of Inheritance paid him out of the Mannor of Lechlade yet he was constrained for a while to wrestle with some necessities and frowns of Fortune He parted with his Title to Bradwel resolving to lay the foundation of his future Felicity in this world by his own honest industry and not bury himself in the obscurity of a Rural Life His noble Friend the Earl of Danby whom he attended in the quality of a Chaplain to the Isles of Guernsey and Iersey his own Chaplains modestly refusing a Voyage which they conceived to be troublesome and dangerous was not a little troubled to see such extraordinary merits continue still discouraged and unrewarded and therefore out of his generous Nature presented him to the great Judg and Mecoenas of Learning Arch-Bishop Laud then Bishop of London who making a second and more narrow enquiry into his Temporal concerns appointed him to meet him Court which not long after was to remove to Woodstock But his Lordship fell sick at Reading and Mr. Heylyn met with some rude usages in the Kings Chappel which was talked of the more at Oxon the interest he had at Court being universally known in that University But it was not very many months after that power was given him to revenge the Affront being admitted Chaplain in Ordinary to the King and into great Favour with the Grandees of that time But a soul enobled with the principles of Gratitude and Generosity is as averse to retaliate as to do an injury The first person therefore unto whom he paid his thankful Acknowledgments for his honorable Preferment was the Earl of Danby who presently told him That those thanks were not in the least due unto himself but to the Lord Bishop of London unto whose generous and active mind the whole of that Dignity was to be ascribed Upon which hint he attended upon the Bishop who after he had wish'd him happiness in his new Preferment gave him some particular Instructions for his behaviour in it which he carefully observed the whole time of his Attendance upon the Sacred Person of his gracious Master Having thus gained the advantage of this rising ground he found out an honest Art by which he might recommend himself to the Patronage of some noble mind and that was to assert
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
wrote by him he called by the name of Mercurius Anglicus which name continued as long as the Cause did for which it was written And besides these weekly Tasks being influenced by the same Royal Commands he writ divers other Treatises before he could obtain his Quietus est from that ungrateful Employment viz. 1. A Relation of the Lord Hopton ' s Victory at Bodwin 2. A View of the Proceedings in the West for Pacification 3. A Letter to a Gentleman in Leicestershire about the Treaty 4. A Relation of the Queens Return from Holland and the seizing of Newark 5. A Relation of the Proceedings of Sir John Gell. 6. The Black Cross shewing that the Londoners were the cause of the present Rebellion with some others that were never Printed These zealous services produced the very same effect that he foresaw when he first undertook them For in the space of six months he was voted a Delinquent in the House of Commons this being given for a reason viz. that he resided and lived at Oxon. Upon which an Order was sent to the Committee at Portsmouth to Sequester his whole Estate and seize upon all his Goods And Reading being taken by the Earl of Essex a free and easie passage was opened for the Execution of those unrighteous Decrees For in a short space after his Corn Cattle and Money were taken by one Captain Watts and all his Books carried to Portsmouth Colonel Norton's hand being set to the Warrant of his Sequestration he twice Petition'd to have some Reparation out of his Estate but was denied the first time and put off in a more Courtly manner the last Before he left Alresford he took care to hide some of his choicest and most costly Goods designing the first opportunity to have them conveyed to Oxon. But either by ill luck or the treachery and baseness of some of his Neighbours the Cart with all the Goods were taken by part of Nortons Horse and carried to Portsmouth himself also violently pursued and by Divine Providence delivered from the snare of those Fowlers who thirsted after his Blood and lay in wait for his Life The Cart with all contained in it was carried to Southampton and delivered unto Norton Saintship then being the ground of Propriety as it afterward was of Sovereignty A loss great in it self but much more so to a poor Divine and chiefly to be ascribed to a Colonel in the King's Army who denied to send a Convoy of Horse for the guarding of his Goods although the Marquess of Newcastle gave Order for it And these Oppressions which he suffered from his Enemies were increased by as unjust proceedings of those who ought to have been his Friends For part of the Royal Army defaced his Parsonage-House at Alresford making it unhabitable and taking up all the Tithes for which he never had the least satisfaction unless it was the Manumission of himself from the troublesome Employment under Mr. Secretary Nicholas and at his going off at the request of that worthy Gentleman he writ a little Book called The Rebels Catechism Being thus dismissed from business so disagreeable to his Genius he found leisure to employ his Contemplative thoughts about subjects more weighty and serious And having obeyed the Commands of his Superiors he endeavoured to satisfie the doubts of his Friends and particularly of one whose thoughts were confusedly perplexed about our Reformation And to do this he drew up a Discourse in answer to that common but groundless Calumny of the Papists who brand the Religion of our Church with the nick-name of that which is Parliamentary But our Reverend Doctor Demonstrates in that Book how little or indeed nothing the Parliament acted in the Reformation For some years indeed that are past there have been Parliaments that have had a Committee for Religion which is to have an Apostolical care of all the Churches And our Reverend Doctor observes that this custom was first introduced into the House of Commons when the Divinity-School in Oxon was made the Seat of their Debates For the Speaker being placed in or near the Chair in which the Kings Professor of Divinity did usually read his publick Lectures and moderate in all publick Disputations they were put into a conceit that the determining in all Points and Controversies in Divinity did belong to them As Vibius Rufus having married Tullies Widow and bought Caesar's Chair conceived that he was then in a way to gain the Eloquence of the one and the Power of the other For after this we find no Parliament without a Committee for Religion and no Committee for Religion but what did â—hâ—nk it self sufficiently instructed to mannage the greatest Controversies in Divinity which were brought before them And with what success to the Religion here by Law Established we have seen too clearly Tractent fabrilia fabri Let things of a spiritual nature in the name of God be debated and determined by Spiritual persons Doctrinal matters are proper for the cognizance of a Convocation not of a Committee which does often consist of wise men but the common Title given to some of them does at least prove that those wise men are not always either the best Christians or greatest Clerks Neither were these things the only Subjects of the vast mind and contemplative â— thoughts of this great man For toward the latter end of this year being 1644. he Presented to his Majesty a Paper containing the Heads of a Discourse writ by him called The Stumbling-block of Disobedience removed in answer to and examination of the two last Sections in Mr. Calvins Institutions against Sovereign Monarchy The Lord Hatton the Bishop of Sarum Sir Orlando Bridgman and Dr. Steward perused the whole Treatise and the King approving of the Contents commanded the Lord Digby further to consider the Book in whose hands it did for a long time rest neither was it made publick till about ten years after the War was ended In the beginning of the year 1645. he left Oxon and went into Hampshire settling himself and Family at Winchester Alresford with all the rest of his Preferments being taken from him and having nothing to subsist upon besides his own Temporal Estate And yet even now the exuberancy of an honest zeal that I may use his own words though upon another occasion carried him rather to the maintenance of his Brethrens and the Churches Cause than to the preservation of his own peace and particular contentments And therefore considering unto what a deplorable condition the poor Loyal Clergy were reduced how they were hungry and thirsty and their souls ready to faint in them as also how the Parliament were about to establish those Presbyterian Ministers for term of life in those Livings out of which himself and many others were ejected he drew up some Considerations and presented them to some Members of the House of Commons to see whether he could move them to any Christian Charity and Compassion And they
the Country and more ease to the Clergy He proved That the changing of Tithes into Stipends would bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Country than was then pretended So zealous was this excellent person not only for his Friends and Fellow-sufferers viz. the poor oppressed and ejected Clergy but for his very enemies the Intruders that had Preach'd the King out of his Life and himself and Brethren out of all their Livelihoods and Preferments And at that time too his zeal appeared when he was by a small temporal Estate incapacitated to receive the least benefit by any Act of Mercy that could accrue to him by his labours in that particular Nay had the project of removing Hirelings out of the Church as it was then phrased taken effect Doctor Heylyn's Estate would have received considerable improvements and advantages For which he was fain to compound with the Committee-men in Goldsmiths-Hall in the year 1645. But he has left no memorial of what he paid to those insatiable Leeches and Oppressors However he sped well as the case stood with him For being as was before observed voted a Delinquent the Parliament marked him out for an Oblation resolving that whenever they could get Heylyn into their snares who had been an instrument of so much mischief to them his Blood should appease their Fury and expiate his own Guilts But being at the Siege at Oxon he shared with the Royallists in the common benefit of those Articles that were made at the surrender of that City and by that means saved his Life as well as his Estate Anno Dom. 1648. he settled himself and Family at Minster-Lovel in Oxfordshire And although he had lost his Library which for choiceness of Authors was inferior to few Clergy-mens in England and therefore might well be deemed unfit to write Books for others when he was robb'd of his own yet he would not permit his own private Oeconomicks to swallow up his precious minutes but endeavoured to benefit his Country and to divert his mind from the sad complexion of the times by enlarging his Geography into a Cosmography which as it now remains perfected by him may be truly averr'd to be a Repository of as much useful and delightful Learning as any published either in that present or in preceding Ages It is true many material Errors were justly charged upon it when it was a Geography but his own Apology is more powerful than any can be made in his behalf for being writ in an Age on which the pride of Youth and Self-opinion might have some predominancies I thought it freer from mistakes than since I have found it and those mistakes by running through eight Editions six of them without my perusal or supervising so increased and multiplied that I could no longer call it mine or look upon it with any tolerable degree of patience If it be said that as 't is now completed by him he has as well run into new Errors as corrected the old ones it may be so too For those humane Abilities are yet to be named that were in all things governed by an infallible Spirit And no man that is not so guided can plead the privilege of not being liable to mistakes But his own words are the most satisfactory answer to this objection I must have been a greater Traveller than either the Greek Vlysses or the English Mandeville all Purchase his Pilgrims many of our late Iesuites and Tom Coriot into the bargain if in describing of the whole world with all the Kingdoms Provinces Seas and Isles thereof I had not relied more on the Credit of others than any knowledg of my own But if any Gentleman Merchant or other Traveller shall please to let me understand in what those Authors which I trusted have misinformed me let it be done in jest or earnest in love or anger in a fair manner or a foul with respect or dis-respect unto me in what way soever I shall most thankfully receive the Instructions from him and give him the honour of the Reformation when that Book shall come out in another Edition I will neither kick against those who rub upon such sores as I have about me nor fling dirt on them who shall take the pains to bestow a brushing on my Coat I was trained up when I was a Child to kiss the Rod and I can do it I thank God now I am a man Cur nescire pudens pravae quam discere mallem Rather to be ashamed of mistaking in any thing I have written than to learn of any body what I was to write was taken by me both for a Rule and a Resolution in the first putting out of my Geography and I shall be at the very same pass to the very last In the year 1653. he removed to Lacies-Court in Abingdon For being robb'd of his choicest Companions his Books he resolved to fix himself as near as possibly he could to Oxford loss of time together with the charge and trouble of a Journey rendring his Visits less frequent to the Bedleian Library than would well comport with his condition For although he was a Living Library a Locomotive Study a Scribe fully instructed in the Kingdom of God a Housholder that could bring out of his Treasury things both new and old yet for all that he resolved to continue a laborious Searcher after Wisdom and gave his Flesh no rest that he might entertain his mind with the noblest Contemplations neither would he fix his thoughts upon notional and useless Speculations but whenever he could by any kind of labour either of Body or Brain be really serviceable to the just Interests of his Prince or Church he refused no pains or expences but would undergo to others the most unsupportable burthens to restifie his zealous affection unto both One instance of which is evident in what he contributed to Saint Nicholas Church in Abingdon the utter demolishing of which was resolved on by the Sacrilegious Schismaticks of those times The then Vsurping Powers had by the severest Edicts solemnly interdicted the Regular Clergy the discharge of their publick Ministry in the sacred Offices of Religion Nay they were forbid the teaching and instructing of Youth in all private houses though they wanted the necessaries of Humane Life for themselves and Families In which sad prospect of Affairs our Divine built a private Oratory where he had frequency of Synaxes the Liturgy of the Church being daily read by him and the Holy Eucharist administred as often as opportunity gave leave many devout and well-affected persons after the manner of the Primitive Christians when they lived under Heathen persecutions resorting to his little Chappel that there they might wrestle with the Almighty for his blessing upon themselves and upon a divided infatuated people But in a few years the rage of the Higher Powers abating the Liturgy of the Church began in some places to be
Book of God For beside the examples which we have in demolishing the Brazen-Serpent and the Altar of Bethel not acted by the Power of the People but by the Command of the Prince I would fain know where we shall find in the whole course and current of Holy Scriptures that the common people in and by their own Authority removed the High Places and destroyed Images or cut down the Groves those excellent Instruments of Superstition and Idolatry or that they did attempt any such thing till warranted and commissionated by the Supreme Powers Where shall we find that any of the seventy thousand persons which had not bowed the knee to Baal did go about to destroy that Idol or that Elijah or Elisha two men as extraordinary for their Calling as for their Zeal and Courage did excite them to it Where shall we find the Primitive Christians when living under the command of Heathenish Emperors busied in destroying Idols or defacing the Temples of those gods whom the Pagans worshipped though grown in those times unto those infinite multitudes that they filled all places of the Empire Et vestra omnia implevimus Cities Castles Burroughs your places of Assembly Camps Tribes Palaces yea the very Senate and common Forum as Tertullian pleads No other Doctrine preach'd or heard of till either the new Gospel of Wickliff or the new Lights shining from Geneva These with many more if it were safe to insert them in these Papers were the Doctrines which this Reverend man taught when there was no King in our English Israel He did not only rescue the actions of his Sovereigns Life and Reign from those CaCalumnies and Mistakes which were obtruded on him by malicious or inobservant Writers but he took care that what he writ should be beneficial to Regal Government and that those his Country-men who had any share of guilt in the unnatural Rebelâ—ion might be induced to a hearty Contrition and Reformation And this he did too in those days of Libertinism and Danger when he could expect nothing for his pains but Death mingled with all the ingredients of Cruelty and Torment Suffice it to acquaint the Reader that Dr. Bates imparted to his judicious perusal his Elenchus Motuum a secret of that weight and importance that it ought only to be lodg'd in so faithful and loyal a Breast upon which he made many Considerations that very much tended to the honor of the King and Church as well as of that loyal Physician and Historian And which is not unworthy of remark in whatever he Writ or Preach'd either before or afther the Murther of his Royal Master he took care in asserting the Prerogative and Rights of the Crown not to intrench the least upon the Liberties and Privileges of the People For thus he himself acquaints us Cert Epist. 326. If any were faulty in this kind viz. in maintaining that all the Goods of the Subject were at the Kings absolute disposal let them speak for themselves neither my Tongue nor Pen shall ever be employed in their behalf Certain I am that I am free enough from the Accusation my nearest kindred being persons of too fair a Fortune to be betrayed by one of their own Blood to a loss of that property which they have by Law in their Estates And no less certain am I that no flattery or time-serving no preaching up of the Kings Prerogative nor derogating from the property of the English Subject could be found in any of my Sermons before his Majesty had they been sifted to the very Bran. In confidence whereof I offered the Committee of the Courts of Iustice before whom I was called on the Complaint of Mr. Pryn to put into their hands all the Sermons which I had either Preach'd at Court of in Westminster-Abby to the end they might see how free and innocent I was from broaching any such new Doctrines as might not be good Parliament-Proof whensoever they should come to be examined Nor was the courage of our Doctor for the Church less active and vigorous than for the King For whenever its Doctrine of Discipline its Ministry or Government its Liturgy or Ceremonies its Offices or Revenues were assaulted by Tongue or Pen its enemies were in a short space of time made acquainted with their Malice or Mistakes For he encountred the Errors and Heresies the Schisms and Sacrileges the Disloyalties and Rebellions of the Age with no less zeal than St. Paul did the gross Idolatries and Superstitions of the Athenians The Doctrines of the Church he defended against Papists and Calvinists What he did against the first will be a sufficient vindication of his sincerity in the Protestant Religion a thing not only doubted of but called in question in the Long Parliament before whom he made a large Protestation touching his soundness in Religion and his averseness from Popery The Form of his Protestation I never had communicated to me but whatever it was he was then freed by it from all suspicion of that Crimination in the judgment of all sober men He had before set himself right in the opinion of the King and the whole Court in the Sermons which he Preach'd upon the Parable of the Tares For making the principal points controverted between Vs and the Papists the constant Arguments of his Discourses upon that Subject his Auditory were so well satisfied about his integrity in Protestantism that some of the most judicious did not stick to say That Dr. Heylyn had in his Tare-Sermons pulled up Popery by the Root and subverted the Foundations of it To which it was replied by some bitter spirits whether with more uncharitableness or imprudent zeal is hard to say That the Archbishop might Print and Dr. Heylyn might Preach what they pleased against Popery but they should never believe them to be any thing the less Papists for all that A censure of a very strange nature and so little â—avouring of Christianity that it is hard to parallel it by any instance except it be of the Age we now live in And so industrious has the Devil the great Calumniator and Accuser of Holy men been to propagate this Reproach that some persons whose Tongues are their own and will admit of no Lords over them have visited the very Grave of this Reverend person and like Vultures prey'd upon his body Amongst whom the Author of that pestilent Pamphlet called An Appeal from the Country to the City le ts flie at him in these words Dr. Heylyn has made more Papists by his Books than Christians by his Sermons And Dr. Heylyn though dead does yet speak for himself to the eternal confutation of the Calumny as well as shame of the Calumniator The present Dean of St. Pauls has very generously justified the Doctor against T. G. who by all means would have brought him over to his Cause and Party in the Controversie between them about the Idolatry of the Roman Church quoting a passage out of his fourth
after his Copy and Example And renewing the charge to her he went to Bed in as good bodily health as he had done before for many years but after his first sleep he found himself taken with a violent Fever occasioned as was conceived by his Physician by eating of a little Tansey at Supper It seized him May 1. 1662. and deprived him of his understanding for seven days the eighth day he died but for some hours before had the use of his Faculties restored to him telling one of the Vergers of the Church who came to him I know it is Church-time with you and this is Asâ—ension-day I am ascending to the Church triumphant I go to my God and Saviour into Ioys Celestial and to Hallelujahs Eternal He died in his great Climacterical upon Ascension-day 1662. when our Blessed Saviour entred into his Glory and as a Harbinger went to prepare his place for all his faithful Followers and Disciples The Synagogus annexed to Mr. Herbert's Poems Mount mount my Soul and climb or rather fly With all thy force on high Thy Saviour rose not only but ascended And he must be attended Both in his Conquest and his Triumph too His Glories strongly woo His Graces to them and will not appear In their full lustre until both be there Where he now sits not for himself alone But that upon his Throne All his Redeemed may Attendants be Rob'd and Crown'd as he Kings without Courtiers are lone men they say And do'st thou think to stay Behind one earth whilst thy King Reigns in Heaven Yet not be of thy happiness bereaven Nothing that thou canst think worth having's here Nothing is wanting there That thou canst wish to make thee truly blest And above all the rest Thy Life is hid with God in Iesus Christ Higher than what is high'st O grovel then no longer here on earth Where misery every moment drowns thy mirth But towre my Soul and soar above the Skies Where thy true Treasure lies Tho with corruption and mortality Thou clogg'd and pinion'd be Yet thy fleet thoughts and sprightly wishes may Speedily glide away To what thou canst not reach at least aspire Ascend if not indeed yet in desire As for the Off-spring of his Loins God gave him the blessing of the Religious man in Psalm 128. his Wife being like a fruitful Vine and his Children being in all eleven as Olive-plants encompassed his Table nay he saw his Childrens Children and which to him was more than all he saw peace upon Israel i. e. the Church and State restored quieted and established after many concussions and confusions and a total Abolition of their Government But the issue of his Brain was far more numerous than that of his Body as will appear by the following Catalogue of Books written by him viz. Spurius a Tragedy MSS. Written An. Dom. 1616. Theomachia a Comedy MSS. 1619. Geography twice Printed at Oxon in Quarto 1621. 1624. and four times in London but afterward in 1652. enlarged into a Folio under the Title of Cosmography An Essay call'd Augustus 1631. inserted since into his Cosmography The History of St. George London 1631. Reprinted 1633. The History of the Sabbath 1635. Reprinted 1636. An Answer to the Bishop of Lincolns Letter to the Vicar of Grantham 1636. Afterward twice Reprinted An Answer to Mr. Burtons two Seditious Sermons 1637. A short Treatise concerning a Form of Prayer to be used according to what is enjoyned in the 55. Canon MSS. Written at the request of the Bishop of Winchester Antidotum Lincolniense or an Answer to the Bishop of Lincoln's Book entituled Holy-Table Name and Thing 1637. Reprinted 1638. An uniform Book of Articles fitted for Bishops and Arch-Deacons in their Visitations 1640. De Iure partialis Episcoporum or containing the Peerage of the Bishops Printed in the last Collection of his Works 1681. A Reply to Dr. Hackwel concerning the Sacrifice of the Eucharist MSS. 1641. A Help to English History containing a Succession of all the Kings Dukes Marquesses Earls Bishops c. of England and Wales Written An. Dom. 1641. under the name of Robert Hall but now enlarged under the name of Dr. Heylyn The History of Episcopacy London 1641. And now Reprinted 1681. The History of Liturgies Written 1642. and now Reprinted 1681. A Relation of the Lord Hopton's Victory at Bodmin A View of the Proceedings in the West for a Pacification A Letter to a Gentleman in Leicestershire about the Treaty A Relation of the Proceedings of Sir Iohn Gell. A Relation of the Queens return from Holland and the Siege of Newark The + or Black Cross shewing that the Londoners were the cause of the Rebellion The Rebels Catechism All these seven Printed at Oxon 1644. An Answer to the Papists Groundless Clamor who nick-name the Religion of the Church of England by thâ— name of a Parliamentary Religion 1644. and now Reprinted 1681. A Relation of the Death and Sufferings of William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 1644. The Stumbling-Block of Disobedience removed Written 1644. Printed 1658. and Reprinted 1681. An Exposition of the Creed Folio London 1654. A Survey of France with an account of the Isles of Guernsey and Iersey London 1656. Quarto Examen Historicum or a Discovery and Examination of the Mistakes Faâ—sities and Defects in some modern Histories in two Books London 1659. Octavo Certamen Epistolare or the Letter-Combat managed with Mr. Baxter Dr. Bernard Mr. Hickman and I. H. Esq London 1658 Octavo Historia Quinque-Articularies Quarto London 1660. Reprinted 1681. Respondet Petrus or An Answer of Peter Heylyn D. D. to Dr. Bernards Book entituled The Iudgment of the late Primate c. London 1658. Quarto Observations on Mr. Ham. L'Strange's History on the Life of King Charles I. London 1658. Octavo Extraneus Vapulans or a Defence of those Observations London 1658. Octavo A Short History of King Charles I. from his Cradle to his Grave 1658. Thirteen Sermons some of which are an Exposition of the Parable of the Tares London 1659. Reprinted 1661. The History of the Reformation London 1661. Fol. Cyprianus Anglicus or the History of the Life and Death of Arch-Bishop Laud. Folio London 1668. Aërius Redivivus or the History of the Presbyterians from the year 1636 to the year 1647. Oxon. 1670. Fol. His Monument has since the erection of it had violence offered it by some rude and irreligious hand there being ever in the world those ill men who regard the Names of the Learned neither whilst they are living nor when they are dead It is erected on the North-side of the Abbey in Westminster over against the Sub-Deans Seat and the Right Reverend Dr. Earl then Dean of Westminster and afterward Bishop of Salisbury was pleased to honor the memory of his dear Friend with this following Inscription Depositum morâ—ale Petri Heylyn S. Th. D. Hujus Ecclesiae Prebendarii Subdecani Viri planè memorabilis Egregiis dotibus instructissimi Ingenio acri foecundo Iudicio subacto Memoriâ ad prodigium tenaci Cui adjunxit incredibilem in Studiis patientiam Quae cessantibus oculis non cessarunt Scripsit varia plurima Quae jam manibus teruntur Et argumentis non vulgaribus Stylo non vulgari suffecit Constans ubique Ecclesiae Et Majestatis Regiae Assertor Nec florentis magis utriusque Quam afflictae Idemque perduellium Schismaticae Factionis Impugnator acerrimus Contemptor Invidiae Et animo infracto Plura ejusmodi meditanti Mors indixit Silentium Vt sileatur Efficere non potest Obiit Anno Aetat 63. Posuit hoc illi moestissima Conjux FINIS Sleid. Com. l. 6. * So he did in a Letter to Dr. Heylyn Theol. Vet. Pref. to the Reader K. Iames Instructions to the University Ian. 18. 1616. Appendix to the Adv. on Mr. Sanderson's Histories Wisdom 4. 8 9. Pryn Burtoâ— Bastwick Page 426. Archbishops Life page 429. Page 430. * At these words the Bishop knock'd with his Staff on the Pulpit Tacit. in Vit. lul Agr. Observations on the History of the Reign of K. Charles 34. * Committee of Affectioâ—s * Exam. Hist. p. 111. Preface to the Cosmography Certam Epist. 369. As Euscapius said of Longinus * Certam Epist. 100. Tacit. An. lib. 4. Epist. Ded. before Cert Epist. Exam. Histor. 201. Cert Epist. 243. Tacit. Hist. l. 1. Tacit. Hist. l. 1. Page 6. General Preface to an Answer of several Treatises * Preface to Theo. Vet. p. 13. Theol. Vet. p. 27 28. Edit 1. b Ib. 72. c Ib. 152. d Ib. 187. e Ib. 418 419 420. f 130. g 138. h 152. i 277. k 195. ib 269 270 294. l 292. m 294. n 304. o 384. p 305. q 332. r 359. s 361 362. t 371 372. De not Eccles. l. 4. c. 4. u 386 387. w 397 398. x 457 458. y 403 404. Mat. 27. 63. Dr. Burnet's Preface to the History of the Reformation Vol. I. Epist. Ded. Hist. D. Ham. p. 29 30. Page 6. Exam. Hist. 162. Observat. on the History of the Reign of K. Charles 72. Cert Epist. 22. Cert Epist. 173. Ib. 153. Cert Epist. 57. Exam. Hist 126. Observat. on the History of the Reign of K. Charles 220. Exam. Hist. 97. Obs. 196. Exam. Hist. 237. Introduct unto Exam. Hist. Observ. on 151. Exam. Hist. â—46 Cert Epist. 44. Obser. 183. 1 Pet 2. 25. 1 Pet. 5. 1. Ib. 188. P. 224. Yitles of Hon. p. 2. cap. 5. Observ. on the Hist. page 2. Pref. to Theol. Vet. Acts 6. 10. Cert Epist. 31. Gen. 48. 10. * Stalius calls blindness so Tul. Tus. Quaest. lib. 5. Ibid. Quintilian in Declam Certam Epist. 310. * Sir W. S. Cert Epistola Epist. Ded. Tacit. Anal. l. 13. 2 Cor. 11. 27. Psal. 32. 4. Ecclus. c. 34. 2 7. Verse 6.