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ROSICRUCIAN APOLOGISTS: JOHN HEYDON. 317
memory of saint or martyr. I never killed any man wil-
fully, but took him prisoner and disarmed him ;
I did
never divide myself from any man upon the difference
of opinion, or was angry with his judgment for not
agreeing with me in that from which, perhaps, within
a few dayes, I should dissent myself. I never regarded
what religion any man was of that did not question mine.
And yet there is no Church in the world whose every
part so squares unto my conscience, whose articles, con-
stitutions, and customs seem so consonant unto reason,
and, as it were, framed to my particular
devotion as
this whereof I hold my belief, the Church of England, to
whose faith I am a sworn subject, and therefore in a double
obligation subscribe unto her articles, and endeavour to
observe her constitutions. Whatsoever is beyond, as points
indifferent, I observe according to the rules of my private
reason, or the humour and fashion of my devotion, neither
believing this because Luther affirmed it, or disproving that
because Calvin hath disfavoured it. Now as all that dye in
the war are not termed souldiers, neither can I properly
term all those that suffer in matters of religion martyrs.
And I say, there are not many extant that in a noble way
fear the face of death lesse than myselfe ; yet from the
moral duty I owe to the commandement of God, and the
natural respects that I tender unto the conversation of my
essoine and being, I would not perish upon a ceremony,
politique points, or indifferency ; nor is my belief of that
untractable temper, as not to bow at their obstacles or
connive at matters wherein there are not manifest impieties.
The leaves, therefore, and ferment of all, not only civil, but
religious actions, is wisdome,
without which to commit our-
selves to the flames is homicide, and, I fear, but to passe
through one fire into another. I behold, as a champion,