I am told noe. Doctor Prideaux. For he departed (as they say) that were in the same seat with him, being tired, as it should seem, by the tedious preface of the Doctor Heylin. Respondent, before the disputations began; but be it so, or otherwise, to what purpose this is interposed, I know not?

Vpon an occasion of mentioning the absolute decree,Informer. he brake forth into a great and long discourse, that his mouth was shut by Authority, else he would maintain that truth contra omnes, qui sunt in vivis which fetch't a great hum from the Country Ministers that were there.

This Argument I confess was unexpectedly cast in by another, Docto • Prideaux. but bent (as I took) it against some what I have written in that behalf, which the Respondent, not endeavouring to clear, I was put upon it to shew, in what sence I took absolutum decretum, which indeed I said, I was able to maintain against any, as my predecessors in that place had done, This was not in a long discourse, as it is suggested, but in as short a solution as is usually brought in Schooles, to a doubt on the by.

And from this I took off the opponents further proceeding in obedience to Authority; whereupon if a hum succeded, it was more then I use to take notice of, it might be as well of dislike, as of Approbation, and of other Auditors as soon as Country Minnisters. A Hiss I am sure was given before, when the Respondent excluded King and Parliament from being parts of the Chu • ch; But I remember whose practise it is to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 I had rather to bear and forbear, 〈…〉 and end with this Protestation.

THat as I beleive the Catholick Church in my Creed,Doctor Prideaux Protestation. soe I reverence this Church of England, wherein I had my Baptisme, and whole breeding, as a most eminent member of it. To the Doctrine, and discipline of this Church, have I often hitherto subscribed, and by Gods grace constantly adhered, And resolve by the same assistance, according to my abilitie under his Majesties protection faithfully to maintain against the Papists or any other that shall oppose it.. The prelacie of our Reverend Bishops I have ever defended in my place, which I dare say hath been more often, and with greater paines taking than most of those have done, who have received greater encouragements f • om their Lordships: I desire nothing but the continuance of my Vocation in a peaceable cou • se, that after all my paines taking in the place of his Majesties P • ofessor, almost for this 18▪ yeares together, mySuch as proceeded Doctors under him of whom Doctor Heylin had been newly one. sonns especially, be not countenanced in my declining age to vilifie me, & vex me; so that I end the remainder of my time, (which likely must be short, and cannot be long) in heartie prayer for his Majesty my onely Master and Patron; for the Reverend Bishops, the State, and all his Majesties Subjects and his affaires; and continue my utmost endeavour to • oe all faithfull service to the Church wherein I live, to whose Authority I have ever, and doe hereby submit my self, and Studies, to be according to Gods wo • d directed or converted.

Thus was this learned and eminent Prof • ss • r of divinity traduced and disturbed, let the application be the patience and disregard of the Reader, when in this book he finds the like attempted by the same person, upon the late Arch-Bishop of Armagh.

And yet, what slender accompt is to be made of his language that way, may appear by the Ch • racter,Doctor Hackwells Character of Doctor Heylin. which a learned person, and one of note, George Hackwell Arch-Deacon of Surrey and of Exeter Colledg in Oxford, gives of him which I have under his own hand in a letter of his to a friend; Where, speaking of Mr. Heylin (since Doctor) whom he stiles, the Patron of that pretended Saint (St George,) hath these words of him, viz.

By this you may see that my adversary had good cause to disguise his name, and so would I too, were it under such an Ignominious character. This is the fourth time he hath done it. I expect in time he will make up the number of Labans change of Iacobs wages. Here is a Proteus indeed (which he would have put upon me) Annonymus, observator, observator Rescued, Rejoynder and now Petrus. 'Tis well he h • ngs by his christian name; he hath in this presumed, beyond any Pope, who though they have assumed Paul, the fift time, yet none hath stiled himself Petrus. We have now the one half of him, we shall have the other the next, either conjunctim, or divisim, it matters not.

He begins with his fancie of my being Doctor Bernards Reserve, in clearing the whole proceedings of the Lord Prymate in the business of the Earl of Strafford; and in the Examination and moderation of all passages, between Mr. • ' Estrange and him. I shall satifie the Reader upon what occasion I undertoke it.

So soon as that Anonymus of an observator on Mr. l'Estrange, 〈…〉 came to the Prymates hands, he was pleased to shew it to me; and finding the Author so apt upon a slender occasion to bleamish him; (supposing him to be some Romish Agent whom he disdaining to Answer,) desired me in the pro • ecution of my History (as it lay in my way) to vindicate him, (though not long after I was told by his Bookseller, that the Author was Doctor Heylin In order thereunto he acquainted me with such passages as did concern that of the Earl of Strafford; whose commands I presently effected; intending (then) to have set it out by it self, least the Doctors M • lice should Gangreen by neglect. But the Lord Prymates decease immed •• t • ly following, it was referred to my •• ist • y wi • h some fr • sh Notions more prop • r, wh • ch in my absence was neglected by th • Press; and at my return, they b • ing ins • rted have given cause of Interse • tions in the Impression, between fol. 108 and 09. With which Petrus is so much troubled, and spends his breath in a dispute with him • e •• , whether it were mine or Doctor Be • na • ds? And why so jealous, good Pet • us? Append: pa. 142. First (saith he) because Mr. Sanderson before in his Preface makes Doctor Heylin a person of some fame and great ability. That (possibly) might be my mistake a • the next in my speaking reprochfully, of him, in his: Indeed I acknowledg that Doctor Heylin deserves Characters of severall kinds, as most men may discover, who consult his writings; and so Cato's, les • on learnt by him long agoe Convenient nulli &c. will better serve the turn to decipher him, than m • e.

Secondly, (saith he) Mr. Sand •• son in his History fol. 200. informs us, that in Anno. 1635. There was a Synod held in Ireland &c. But in his foysted Argument he speakes the Contrary. Good Petrus consult some tru • friends, that will read aright to you, and you will find the severall Folio's you mention, not to be any thing contrary, which are too tedious to insert in this short Castigation.

Three points there are in which Petrus fancies me,Three points of mine quarrelled by Petrus. to act for Doctor Bernard.

1 The acquitting the Lord Prymate from the distinction of a Politicall and a personall conscience. And yet it is confessed by himself to have been done to my hand by Mr. Howell's attestation of my history, (who was concerned in those words.)

2 The proving that the Articles of Ireland were not abrogated, & those of the Church of • ngland inserted in their stead. And yet he hath prevented any further confirmation of either, by his own confessing of his being too much credulous in beleiving and inconsiderate in publishing such mistaken intelligence. Which are his own words folio 87. And I could wish that in the Errata of the next Edition of his History of the Sabbaoth (if the world be ever troubled with it again) he would Record this Ingenuity of his (being such a rarity in him) so as to retract it, and howsoever he is much offended at the Primates expressions, viz. Nor shames he to affirm as being a Notorious untruth &c. Truly with me it seemes a gentle penance for so presumptuous an assertion, and pertinaciously continuing in it these many yeares, till he was thus convict; defaming not only a single person, but a whole Nation.

3 That the Lord Prymate boar no grudge to the Earl of Strafford, so as to advise the King to pass the Bill of Attainder. This (whosoever he accounts the Actor) hath been sufficiently cleared also, and needs no repetition here.

For the term of Sophistry, (for which he is also much offended with the Prymate) he hath in the Iudgment of divers, made it good, throughout his book, which are so many, that they would find as much work for an observator, as he saith my History will afford him: I shall only trouble the Reader with one instance (ex ungue Leonem, by this you may judg of the rest) which is in such great Characters, that he who rides post, may read it without stopping.

'Tis folio 63. where he repeating a Quotation of the Prymate in the conclusion of his Letter to Doctor Twiss • viz▪ That Gregory the great, esteemed it to be • he doctrine of the Preachers of Antichrist; wh • at his coming shall cause both the Lords day, and the Sabaoth, to be kept, or celebrated from doing any wo • ke;) Petrus, in his pretended answer, hath blindly mistaken the Copulative and, for the disunctive or (though the Prymate in the next words, had given him warning of that Stumble:) And so upon a false sent he runs away with the Hunt, as if it must necessarily follow from thence That it is the doctrine of the Preachers of Antichrist that no manner of work be done on the Saturday or the Sunday: And from that surmise, he makes an application (of which, I leave it to others to give the sense.) What will become (saith he) of our English Sabbatarians and their Abettors, who impose as many restraints of this kind, upon Christian people, as ever were imposed on the Iewes, by the Scribes and Pharisies? And in Conclusion he attempts to put out our Eies also, in perswading us again; That 'tis all one to say, on the Saturday and the Sunday; as on the Saturday, or the Sunday; As if unity and division; conjunction and separation, were alike with him: And it seemes by this, that his Nature is most addicted to the latter.

As for that great offence taken by him in the mistake of weakness, Append: p. 195. for incredulity; and Idleness, for Inconsideration in the printing of the Prymates Letter: There is no such difference, either in quantity or quality; but that if he can swallow the one, (as he hath done even now) he may as easily digest the other: And it being but a copy, it might as well happen as other greater mistakes have been in my absence between the Margin and the body of that letter.

Though 'tis possible for Petrus to shew his guilt of Idleness, to make more work for the Press to no purpose. Which petulant brain of his, may be excused by the want of that sense, which might divert his thoughts, otherwise.

And for what else remaines,Append: p. • 47. concerning the Bishops whether sent for, or sent to the King? Or whether the Iudges were willing or unwilling to deliver their Iudgment against the votes of the Parliament? I refer the Reader to what hath been said in the History, too tedious to recite.

As for the challengers threats with which he concludes, (hereafter) to commit a publique Riot on my whole History; and therein to be made immortall, by being loud and troublesome. He that marcheth against the Ocean may no doubt take abundance of Cockle-shells Captive. I confess ingeniously, there may be mistakes in the body of so large an History, which will be amended in the next Impression, as it is sodainly intended; wherein, your oblique Information, or any civill advertisement of others will direct me: Seeing (as Petrus saith) abilities not governed by Infallibility, cannot exempt a man from being obnoxious to mistakes, with which his own Pamphlets are pestered. But spare your Intelligence in the disquisition of one particular concerning the Children of Mr. Iohn Hambden of Buckingham Shire, which is confes • ed an Errata, and must be thus corrected: That he died of his wounds, and left three Sonnes compleat Persons both of body and mind; what ere sinister Report then gave occasion of the mistake.

And now (Petrus) at parting: I could find in my heart to give you a little good Counsell: Be not so wilde an Ishmaelite, as to have your hand against every man, and provoking every mans hand against you.

Take the advice given to your namesake: Peter, put up thy sword again into his place. Leave off this cross • grain humour, studying the injury against such Persons, as the late eminent Prymate, so far above you in learning and reputation, that wise men look upon your language, like the barking at the Moon; or a mad-man throwing up a sharp stone, which falls on his own pate.

This your last Book, having made you such a Bankrupt in point of reputation with most men, that all the charitable collections of your numerous helpers, will not easily recruite you.

I reverence your function, and mervail that many of your Bookes do so little concern it, rather to the dishonour than otherwise, and I am not at all obliged to respect your person. Your travail hath been much earthy, at which you began, had you continued that Iourney, you might have amended your own •• rours. What is otherwise (as the observations of the Lords day, or of Persons of piety, who were and are for it) you have been in a continuall combate against both.

Your own friends conceive you unfortunate, to the disturbance of the Church in each; For my part, so soon as I find you reformed, I shall contribute my endeavours, that your credit, now out of joint, may be set right again. Your own Pen that broke you must repair you, though as yet I am among the number of those that therein despair. And as you have been a 〈1 page missing〉 〈1 page missing〉 mish Clergy) that ever was guilty of it. He began it whilst the Primate was living, and prosecuted it after his death, with all the violence that might be expected from an Enemy. As to the quotations he makes out of his own several undigested Pamphlets to excuse himself, they have only this sense, viz. If the Scandal he had raised on the Primate were but silently received (and so believed) he would be quiet. His laying aside of that Argument is of no value, unless he had revoked it.

Page 208.] As to that Page, I say again, what the two Honorable Persons mentioned by me have given under their hands, and so attested, and also offer their Oaths therein, is enough to satisfie all unbyassed Persons. And for his Author he • ow boasts o • , (yet names none) If he be a wise man, he will not be willing to appear against the Primats own Declaration, and those other Testimonies, besides the Improbability so fully shewed heretofore: If he be not wise, 'tis not much material. But I have done with it.

Ibid.] He confesseth, that Iames Howel (to whose bare Name, he might have added the Title due to him, being of better repute than Peter Heylin) hath quitted that distinction of a personal and political Conscience by his Attestation of my History, wherein I have mentioned it, and is clear enough expressed: But that Peter hath a trick when he is at a loss to make a large circumlocution about the sense, only to amuze the Reader; the thing is apparent by his own words, wherein he was so conscious to himself, as that he had not the face here to repeat them, which are these, If the Historian did say any thing of it, it is expunged by Mr. Howel, whom it only concerns, when he had perused his History, and passed his approbation of it, (Petrus Resp. pa. 144.) so that his presumptuous conclusion is but a shadow, and will vanish with any intelligent Reader.

Page 209.] For the abrogating of the Articles of Ireland; No rational unbias • ed Reader but may be satisfied in the Doctors Mis-information of that passage; and if he had not a brow that could not blush, he would not have touched any more on that string: but seeing he will not own any Ingenuity in the clear acknowledgement of his mistake, let him dye in it; I suppose few or none live in that opinion with him.

Two pages following are spent in masking and unmasking himself, with so much tergiversation, that I let them pass; only in page 210. I find him most galled with that testimony which Doctor Prydeaux and Doctor Hackwell give of him, and instead of healing the wound, he hath made it more wide, and is therein found indeed his own self Revenger.

As concerning Dr. Prydeaux (page 211.) first he professeth himself to have been his Enemy in that business, in that he saith page 212. If he had been called to the Hearing of it before the late King, it is not probable Dr. Prydeaux had gone off so clearly with those evasions▪ 2. He acknowledgeth page 113. That the paper published was of Dr. Prydeaux own penning, and given by him amongst his friends. 3. In page 214. That he opposed Dr. Prydeaux in his Lectures De visibilitate Ecclesiae, and (affecting a singularity) went a different way from him and other Tractates, in and about that time 4. He useth those of the Waldens • s and Wickliffists, (as he styles them) very coarsly, calling them scattered Conventicles, charging them with Heterodoxes in Religion, who, I have heard and read, suffered very much under the tyranny of the See of Rome. 5. He highly magnifies the Writers of the Church of Rome, and in special Bellarmine for his cordial and stout maintenance of some fundamental points of Faith, comparing him with any of the Divines or learned men of the Reformed Churches, entituling him Nobilissimus Cardinalis, and so much himself confesseth; but by another Witness, I have been told, that he did also then, and at other such times, accumulate divers others, not only the like, but greater Titles.

6. He confesseth (page 215.) that upon this, Dr. Prydeaux censured him in the Schools for a Papist, and one of Bellarmines Disciples. For my part, I cannot but subscribe to so learned a Testimony: and if it be so, it were better for him to appear the same, than thus to disguise himself to the dishonour of our profession. This whole Relation speaks little or nothing to the Doctors reputation; Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee. What he tells us immediately after, of his two Sermons at Woodstock, and of the commendation given him by some of the Court, as they must be his own Flatterers, so it appears they were no judicious wise men by the over-much latitude in it, (ibid.) as if in those two Sermons he had done more against Popery, than all the Sermons Dr. Prydeaux had preached in his life time; as it was an absurd, ridiculous rant, so it is worse becomming his own pen to be the Trumpet thereof. And how it agrees with his haesitation, whether the Religion of Popery be I dolatrous and superstitious? (as he doth in his Examen Historicum of Mr. Fullers History) I leave it unto any man to judge, I am sure in it he strayes from the Homilies of the Church of England, who do fully determine it. And what that Error was which he preached in a Sermon at Westminster, for which the Dean publickly rebuked him in the Pulpit, saying, Sir no more of that, and persisting therein he stroke the Pulpit with his staff, saying, No more of that I say, I leave to his own memory, it being very likely to be a kin to this.

And whereas he saith (page 216.) that he maintained this position, that the Church could not erre, unless he have some unknown reserve, I know no point concludes him more, to be what Dr. Prydeaux apprehended him, and so I begin to think I was not at first much mistaken in conceiving of that Anonimous Observator (Peter Heylin) who began to write to the disparagement of the late Primat, to have been some Agent of the See of Rome.

Nay, as if he had not injured himself sufficiently, he goes on to tell us, (page 217.) of the opposition he made to Dr. Prydeaux, and of his judgement in the questions propounded, and of a check given to Dr. Prydeaux by the late Archbishop of Canterbury. To what end is all this? is it, or can it be any reputation for him thus to thwart Dr. Prydeaux? will he put his in the same scale with him? Well, as we know Dr. Prydeaux was an eminent and a pious person, so it appears Dr. Heylin was a Disturber of him, and hath in this very Book of his Examen Historicum confirm'd it sufficiently, in the abuse of Mr. Thomas Fuller, one of better reputation than himself; and therein (sooth for to say) I cannot but commend him, he alwaies aims at high and worthy persons, not spending his Bolt (soon shot) upon such as are of mean▪ esteem. We have his own Confession, and so the Crime is no new one, (as he saith) but an old one, with which seeing he hath charged himself, what need we any further Witness? He comes off but poorly from the Hiss, and is as much mistaken in his confident conclusion; this whole Relation with all prudent men making very much for the ho • our of Dr. Prydeaux, and Peter Doctors own disreputation. And so I leave him in the dirt with which he hath bespattered himself sufficiently.

Page • 19.] As for that misplacing of the words by the Printet, viz. Dr. Hackwell Archdeacon of Surrey and of Exeter College, for Dr. Hackwell of Exeter College, and Archdeacon of Surrey, was not so worthy his Discourse as thus to spend six lines about it.

Now, as for Dr. Hackwells certificate of him (p. 220) it had been his wisest way to have let that die also; first, the return he makes (p. 222.) to the diminution of Dr. Hackwells abilities, charging him with weakness in penning of his book, & affirming his own tale of St. George and the Dragon far excelling him in the Answers, these are not to be heeded, being only his own testimony, and will be as little effectual to the injuring of the same and worth of that person, as what he hitherto vented, hath been to the late Primat or Dr. Prydeaux. For his language (p. 223.) of Dr. Reynolds & Dr. Hackwell (both eminent professors of the Protestant Religion) and the rest of that gang (those are his words) a Jesuite would have said little more; But still 'tis like himself, as in the words thereafter following he hath the like again, which I disdain to repeat. And as to his magni • ying the Roman writers, the Legendaries, he does not deny it, but defends himself in it. These being the Premises, the Conclusion, (which he only denies) must undoubtedly follow, of Dr. Hackwells cen • ure of him, viz. That his words will hardly passe for a commendation or a slaunder.

And in (p. 224.) as to my saying that he hath made good that term of Sophistry • hrough • ut his Bo • k, he accuseth himself of it, in the repetition of my words by halfs, or disjointed: A •• for the rules of Grammar (which he would have the world know he hath not forgot) besides, that he descends too much from himself, to make so long a narrative about it (better becomming some Country Pedagogue) I am sure they are better sense, than what his Comment thereon doth give them; for in a word this is all, I having spoken of a Sophistry of his (in his book) immediately before, I added, which indeed are so many, is not this cleer enough to be understood? viz. which Sophistries are • o many? Yet Peter would have it amended into a calmer word, viz. Errors, but they plainly relate to Sophist • i • s; which I th • ught fit to instance in one of his (p. 225.) where he maintaineth a Copulat: ve and a Disjunctive t • b • all one, and that which himself here confesseth, viz. that it is not material, in which se • se they be used, diff • reth little from it.

And so we have an end of him, though (p. 226.) he goes out like the snuff of a candle, with an ill • ent of some unsavory language against Dr. Hackwell, not much to be valued; only let me tell him, as to his reputation, which he here at last much boasts of, to have been with the generality of this Nation, certainly he hath looked on himself with some Multiplying Glasse, for I can witnesse, that with the Court and Parliament, Clergy and Commonalty, he had the least of resp • ct, and as much of the general hatred as any of his profession; he being indeed of such an harsh disposition, that few persons could consort with him: And so he continued during the Court and Parliament, as appears by the speech of a worthy Member, Sir Benjamin Ruddier, 7 Novemb. Anno 1640. After he had traced the proceedings of some of the Clergy, very much to their rebuke, he complains about dancing upon Sundayes, that they would fain be at some thing that were like the Masse that will not bite, a muzzled Religion; they would evaporate and dispirit the power and vigour of Religion, by drawing it out into solemn specious formalities, into obsolete antiquated Ceremonies new furbished up. And Mr. Speaker (said he) this is the good work in hand which Dr. Heylin hath so often celebrated in his bold Pamphlets. All his Acts and Actions are so full of mixtures, Involutions and complications, as there is nothing cleer, nothing sincere in any of his proceedings, &c. and much more, which I forbear.

'Tis true, this Dr. Heylin was intertained by some persons, a fit bold Agent to be made use of in the opposing of such whom they pleased should be affronted, and that for promotion (of which yet, they did not think him much worthy) he would adventure upon the broaching any thing for several ends, and this is his Character.

I shall only add this, that it had been very undecent in me to have dealt thus with any other of his profe • sion, which I very much reverence in them; but he hath made himself so cheap and contemptible, by his often personal biting and scandalizing eminent men, that he is held fit thus to be handled, he having been, and is, the Bou • efeau of the age that disturbs all men; And as to my self, for his further threats, I have learnt to despise them.

Then in his very winding up of the bottome of his Appendix, a Note (as he calls it) overslipt him concerning the Affairs of Oxon. Not at all relating to this difference, yet he directs the Reader to Folio () blank; but where, • r in what Book, or of what Author, by Name or Title, he doth not expresse, only he mentioneth Mr. Fuller, and Mr. Sanderson: Some Crotchet it seems, was in his pate, which neither he, nor his Agent understood, and therefore we have it imperfect. And so having prosecuted him thus far by pursute, I shall now bring him from his Arrest, unto his Arraignment.