DR. PETER HEYLYN
83. For at the time of his sad pilgrimage, when he was forced to wander and take sanctuary at any friend’s house, his thoughts were not
extravagant, but studiously intent upon these matters which he digested afterward into form and use when he came to a settled condition. And in the beginning of his troubles, being under the displeasure of the House of Commons, on the complaint of Mr Pryn, when his enemies took the advantage, some to libel and others to write against him, — (particularly Doctor Hackwel, fa189 before mentioned, at such an unseasonable time;
with whom Doctor Heylyn saith he “would not refuse an encounter upon any argument, either at the sharp or at the smooth”) fa190 — afterward,
when monarchy and episcopacy was trodden under foot, then did he stand up a champion in defense of both, and feared not to publish “The
Stumbling-Block of Disobedience,” fa191 and his Certamen Epistolare; in which Mr Baxter fled the field, because there was impar congressus fa192 betwixt him, and (as I may say) an old soldier of the King’s, who had been used to fiercer combats with more famous Goliahs. Also Mr Thomas Fuller was sufficiently chastised by the Doctor for his Church History; as he deserved a most sharp correction, because he had been a son of the Church of England in the time of her prosperity, and now deserted her in her adverse fortune, and took to the adversary’s side: fa193 and it was then my hap, having some business with Mr Taylor, my fellow collegian in Lincoln College, then Chaplain to the Lord Keeper, Mr Nathaniel Fines, to see Mr Fuller make a fawning address to my Lord fa194 with his great book of Church History hugged under his arm, which he presented to the Keeper after an uncouth manner, as Horace describeth,
Sub ala
Fasciculum portas librorum ut rusticus agnum. fa195 The many falsities, defects, and mistakes of that book the Doctor discovered and refuted; fa196 of which Mr Fuller afterward being
ingeniously ashamed, came to the Doctor’s house in Abingdon, where he made his peace; both became very good friends, and between them for the future was kept an inviolable bond of friendship.
84. In the year 1656, the Doctor printed some observations fa197 upon the History of the Reign of King Charles, published by H[amon] L[‘Estrange], Esq.: with whom the Doctor dealt very candidly, and modestly corrected some of his mistakes in most mild and amicable terms, telling him, viz.,
“Between us both the History will be made more perfect, and consequently the reader will be better satisfied; which makes me somewhat confident, that these few notes will be so far from making your History less vendible than it was before, that they will very much advantage and promote the sale: and if I can do good to all, without wrong to any, I hope no man can be offended with my pains and industry.” fa198 In answer to which Mr Hammond L’Estrange, led by his passion, and not by reason, fell upon the Doctor in such uncivil words, unbecoming a gentleman, that, as the Doctor saith, he never was accustomed to such Billingsgate language. fa199 “ There was indeed a time” (saith he) “when my name was almost in every libel which exercised the patience of the State for seven years together, and yet
I dare confidently say, that all of them together did not vomit so much filth upon me, as hath proceeded from the mouth of the pamphleteer whom I have in hand.” fa200 Therefore the Doctor returned a quick and sharp reply to him in his book entitled Extraneus Vapulans, wherein, with admired wit and eloquence, he gave Mr L’Estrange a most severe, yet civil correction.
His brother Mr Roger L’Estrange, a most loyal gentleman, hath since made amends for his brother’s faults, by his good service done both to Church and State. fa201
85. The next book which the Doctor published, fa202 An. Dom. 1657,
“Ecclesia Vindicata; fa203 or the Church of England justified,” he dedicated it, (as a grateful testimony of his mind), to his Master, then living, Mr Edward Davis, formerly schoolmaster of Burford, and now vicar of Shilton
fa204 in the county of Berks, to whom he ever showed a love and reverence;
and had the Doctor’s power been answerable to his will and intention, he had designed more considerable preferments fa205 for him; but the sudden and unexpected alteration in his own affairs prevented, (so soon almost as himself was preferred), that he could show no other specimen of his gratitude. What saith the heathen? Diis, parentibus, et proeceptoribus non redditur oequivalens — “ An amends can never be made to God, our parents, and tutors;” and certainly he hath but little of a Christian in him that can forget this lesson.
86. About the same time he was harassed before Oliver’s major-general for the decimation fa206 of his estate. Hoc novum est aucupium; fa207 for he thought there had been an end of all further payments and punishment for his loyalty, by compounding for his estate in Goldsmiths’ Hall, fa208 that he argued the case notably with them, but all in vain for arguments, though never so acutely handled, are obtuse weapons against the edge of the sword. He tells us that his temporal estate was “first brought under
sequestration, and under a decimation since, only for his adhesion to those sacred verities to which he hath been principled by education, and
confirmed by study.” fa209 While he was arguing his cause before the major- general and his captains, one Captain Allen, formerly a tinker, and his wife a poor tripe-wife, took upon him to reprove the Doctor for maintaining his wife so highly, like a lady; to whom the Doctor roundly replied — That “he had married a gentlewoman, and did maintain her according to her quality;
and so might he his tripe-wife:” — adding withal, that “this rule he always observed, For his wife to go above his estate, his children according to his estate, and himself below his estate; so that at the year’s end he could make
all even.” Soon after these things, came out the order of decimation against him; a heathenish cruelty in this ease — if men’s estates are as dear to them as their lives, (because the one without the other renders them miserable)
— may be compared to that of Maximian, the tyrant and cruel persecutor of the Church, that put the Christians to such a bloody decimation that every tenth man of them was to be killed. fa210 And this other was
barbarous enough in its kind, that all the gentry of the nation, (not only the tenth part of them), who had engaged in his Majesty’s service, should first be compelled to compound for their own estates, and afterward without mercy decimated: that brought an utter ruin upon many of their families.
87. Notwithstanding all this, the Doctor, like the palm-tree, (crescit sub