CHAP. I.

GAudeo verò, Serenissime Princeps, super Nobilissima Indole tua. 'Twas the Oratour's Rule, long ago, to commend what he had to utter by apt Prefaces; Oratoris est bene incipere: and the rea­son being to engage the Auditours to Attention, and thence to captivate them, the Practice proved not onely appropriate to Oratours, but to Historians, and generally all Writers. This Method, prevailing with our Chancellour in these words, makes me ready to write that of him, which Seneca does of his Fa­bian, That he seems to him, Mihi non effunde­re videtur Oratio­n [...]m, sed fundere. not so impetuously to multiply words, as weightily, and profita­bly to express his minde by them. So compt, so seasonable, so peculiar to his purpose is this Courtly Frontispiece, that therein our Fortescue, like Seneca's Fabian, may well be written of, as non negligens in oratione, sed securus, and his Book, to which this is the Inlet,Seneca Ep. 100. be termed Electa verba, non captata, &c. Choice words, not wrested, as the manner of men is, from their proper meaning, but significant to the purpose for which they are al­leadged, and expressive of an high Genius, and a Magnanimous Soul, that uttered them.

For here the Chancellour displays both the Prince's Endowments, and his own Affecti­on to the Glory and Extent of them; that as, by the one, he appears to have tutour­ed a Noble mind, so, in the other, does he insinuate such Tuition to take the first fire from his Example, who loved the virtue in others, which was first ingenerated in him­self.

This Clause then, Gaudeo, Serenissime Princeps, super Nobilissima Indole tua, re­lates both to the Prince, and to the Chancellour, in the Expansion of it. To the Prince, as, Serenissimus, and Nobilissimae indolis; to the Chancellour, as affected with, and rejoycing for the futurity of good to the Nation, over which his Accomplishment was to be influential. This is the purport of this Introductional Artifice, which I the rather touch upon, because it is a Course both Christian, and artly, not to prejudicate our [Page 2] Success by rude Prefaces; but to make our ends on men in honest ways, through the Mediation of Favour, honestly begg'd, and readily, with Consent of those we ask it of, obtained. And, because the Cause preceeds the Effect in Nature's Order, and it will become us to treat of the Root, before of the Fruit, the Prince's Perfections shall preceed the Chancellour's Affection to Him for them, even in our Comment.

The Prince is represented first, as Serenissimus. Then, as Nobilissima indolis.

Serénissimus. Antiently Emperours and Princes were pleased to be called by Names of singular Beneficence; Pii, Clementes, Mansueti, Tranquilli, Sereni, Felices: but, of late, they have assumed Superlatives to their Condecoration, so that not onely Iupi­ter had the Name of Optimus Maximus, but all Supremes are now represented by su­perlative Expressions, because they challenge sole Power within their Dominions. Hence comes it to pass, that though Princes do communicate many Attributes of theirs to men of Virtue, and Eminency (as to Patricians, Senatours, and Ministers of Learning, and State) such as are the Titles of Illustres, Spectabiles, Nobiles, Clarissimi, Perfectissimi, (of which Pancirol gives us a particular Accompt) yet the Title of Serenissimus, In Notitia digni­tatis utriusque Imperii, à p. 3. ad p. 20. & c. 4 17. Alciatus & Bre­chaeus ad Legem 100. in lib. De Verborum signifi­catione p. 234. as incom­municable, Princes have reserved to themselves, and to such have wise men chiefly, if not onely, given it. Thus of old did Saint Leo term the Emperour Leo, to whom he wrote, [...], To Our most glorious, and most serene Son, Leo the Emperour: and that, because Serenity in a Prince is that temperament, which keeps him aequilibrious, and properly qualified to rule, and all the Concomitants to it. And therefore though Herodian, to flatter a vile Commodus, may call him Nobilissi­mum Imperatorem, and Licinius Valerianus may, because none others will, give himself that Title; yet none deserves the Title of Serenissimus, but he, that, in Lactantius his words, in opere misericordiae largiter fecerit, &c. He that is merciful, generous, and ha's expressed in his life, De Opi [...]ic. c. 15. and Actions, Perfect Virtue. Indeed Serenity being a Supralu­nary may well be accounted more then ordinarily of: nor is it so much a Courtesie, as a due debt, and homage to Serenity, to admire it. The Catholique Rational Nature conspires to pay a Devoir to this Deity for the Diffusion of its quality to every thing.

Serenity is that temper, that gives opportunity to all Virtue; and then is the Season to do worthily, when there is no Cloud, no Storm of Obliquity in the Minde, but all the Re­gion of it is clear: therefore all serene things were accounted excellent, aestas serena, coelum serenum, color serenus, lux serena, animus serenus, doctrina serena, frons tran­quilla, & serena, yea, vitam serenare, and domum largo igne serenare, are frequent in all good Authours to express the greatest pleasure, content, and comeliness by. And therefore the Positive being so significant, its Superlative must have a supereminency of sense, reflecting most intense Lustres on a Prince, and prolating him, not as onely disposed to, but accomplished with the liberallest Proportions of humane Capacity, whereby lofty Nature is reduced to such an harmonious Mansuetude, as makes Ma­jesty comply with Meaness, and forbear those superb and monstrous Titles, which both intimidate men, and intrench on God's Patience provoked by the Arrogancy of them. For though Attila may glory in the Title of Ira Dei ego sum, & Or­bis vastitas, I am the Anger of God, and the World's Devastation, and Abbas the Per­sian King vapour, that he is King of Kings, and Sultanies, Lord of the Imperious Mountain of Ararat, Commander of all Creatures from the River Corazon to the Gulph of Persia, Governour of all Sultans, Emperour of Musselmen, Bud of Ho­nour, Mirrour of Virtue, Rose of Delight; while Sapores vaunts himself to be King of Kings, Equal to the Stars, and Brother to the Sun and Moon; and Cozroes will be Lord of Lords, Prince of Peace, Salvation of men, the great Conquerour rising with the Sun, giving Lustre to the Night: notwithstanding the great Cham give out, he is the Son of the highest God, and Quintessence of the purest Spirits; and Prester Iohn challenges to himself,Animosa vox vi­detur, & regia. cùm sit stultissi­ma Senec. lib. 2. Benef. c. 16. to be Head of the Church, the Favourite of God, the Pillar of Faith: yet all these, and such other Rhodomontadoes, are but the Lunacies of deluding and deluded Opination, the Metretricious Suggestions of light, and loathsome Eccen­tricity, Privations of that Serenity, which keeps the Minde in a Royal Mansuetude, and inclines it to a fertile, and frequent Humanity, which Nerva probably foreseeing in Trajan's temper, rewarded with Adoption of him to the Empire: for, though Trajan were a Spaniard, and neither an Italian, nor Italiz'd, yea, though Nerva himself had many Kindred, and none of strange Origen were ever Emperour before Trajan, yet [...],Dion Cass. lib. [...]8. p. 771. He did not prefer the ad­vancement [Page 3] of his Kindred above the good of his Government, Trajan, he chuses. [...], &c. Making Virtue a Qualification to Government, rather then Country. And accordingly he approved himself: for no sooner was he in the Throne, but he gave the Senate assu­rance, That he should disturb, or put to Death no good Man, which exemption of Good Men from fear, and danger, persisted in by his other supernumerary largesses, of which that was one Openly he honoured, and preferred all Good, and Iust Men, made all Men account him an Incarnate God, and possessed them with such Eulogick gratitude, as would have tempted any Minde, but that of serenity, to abate of its condescension, and to affect distance. But the gentleness of his Minde kept him in the merit of that praise, which Herodian gives to Marcus the Emperour, Father of Commodus, [...] &c. that he did not onely profess in Word, Lib. 1. p. 464. but practised in Deed the Gravity and continence of perfect Virtue. In short, what this serenissimus in a Prince is, the Lives, and Carriages of five of our late English Monarchs, [...].6. Q. Eliz. K. J. Charl. 1. four of which are, I believe, rewarded with the Glories of Heaven for it, and the last yet is, and I incessantly pray long may be, the living Instance of it, will beyond all the Oratory of Words, and Sculpture of the most Immortal and transcendent Pen, discover, and confirm.

Our Chancellour then meant much by Serenissime Princeps, yet not all that he had to bless God for in his matchless Pupil. To be of a towardly and pliant Nature, to be a sub­actum solum to virtuous Implantations, was a blessing, which the rough and sanguineous truculencies of some Natures abhorr: but to have nobilissimam indolem, a fertility, and profuseness of addiction to Good; to have, as it were, Good connatural to, and radicated in the very Free-hold, so that it is, as it were, inseparable from it, This is a noble Second to the former, nay it is the Parent of it, at least the sine qua non: for such most an end Princes prove, as they are in the Oar of their natural Temper. Hence the Chancellour expresses the accomplishment of the Prince by Indoles nobilissima, as the significatio futurae probitatis; so Tully uses the Word, Caesaris verò pueri mirifica indoles virtutis. Cic. ad Brutum 3 lib. 1. Ep. 7. c. 12. De Consol. So 2 De finibus 18. and he commends Lentulus as one eximiâ spe, summae virtutis adolescen­tem. And Seneca mentions Tantae indolis Iuvenem, qui citò Pater Maritus, citò Sacerdos, &c. Yea not onely in Children is Indoles nobilissima a notable comfort, but in Grown Men in veris signum est praesentis virtutis, so Tully: Faec exim fuisse in isto C. Laelii M. Catonis materiam & indolem; and Pliny says, primum nonnullis indolis dedi specimen;5. Vers. lib. 2▪ Ep. 7. and Aulus Gellius mentions Laetae indolis adolescens, lib. 19. cap. 9. 'Twere endless to mul­tiply instances out of Authours to this purpose: that only, which the Phrase imports, is a natural edg both to Good, or Evil; for indoles barely is applicable to either: for though Livy writing of Lavinia, understands her Indoles to be generositas quaedam virtutis atque animi (1 Ab Vrbe 9.) yet, when he uses the word of Hannibal, he makes it to Evil as well as to Good, cum hac indole virtutum ae vitiorum sub Asdrubale meruit. And therefore the Nobilissima here is not onely a Complement, but a Characteristical discrimination of the Prince's propension to Good, as his Choice, and that which God had so tinctured his Temper with that he could as soon cease to be, as not to be Nobly Virtuous. Indolem valent, quantum terrae proprietas, & coeli, sub quo aluntur. And hence is it, that as curious and thrifty Planters, that delight in choice Fruit, do not onely preserve choice Seed, and choice Grafts, but also sow and plant them in proper Soils; that so their Natural Indoles may have no Alloies, and Debasements, but Additions from the Position of their Fixa­tion: so do prudent and diligent Parents, and Supervisours express their Affection and Judgment in the Nurture of Youth to Virtue, that, their Natural Towardness not being nipped and blunted, they may in time come to a virtuous Tapering, and to that pro­portion of Plenitude, which their Natures and Opportunities capacitate them to.

Which Connaturality of the fruits of Education with the Impressions of their Birth make Virtue so habitual to them, that they may well be called theirs as (by Divine Concession) they are the temporary Possessours of them; since by their Coalition with them, and their Appropriation of them, as their peculiar Treasure, they are onely and properly termed serenissimi and nobilissimae indolis. For though Titles, and Terrour may cause ascriptions of Perfection to Men, who otherwise as they deserve them not, so would not obtain them, Shews of Virtue, or claims to the credit of Her from the real Alliances of Her, to their Ancestours, is not currant Coyn to purchase the Prince's Character here. For those remote and dubious Titles, though they derive faint and refracted lines from the Centre of Merit, yet are but the by-blows of its excellent Heroickness. They are as Monogenes, Pompey's Cook somewhat like him, but not very Pompey the Great: they [Page 4] are as Serapio Scipio's Slaughter-Man, not indeed Famous Scipio, Africk's Master. They are Spintheris the despicable Player, not Publius Lentulus the Grave Senatour. They are virtutis umbrae, little conducing to Princes praise, but rather the Vizzard of such Deformities as seek, and take Sanctuary and relief from creditable appearances. That which onely is worthy Princes, is propriis gemmis coruscare, to see that the Virtue they pretend to, be vera, non fucata; propria, non aliena. For that the Chancellour here admires the Prince, as One [...]hat was worthy his Descent, and Degree, and thereupon He assures him the Serenity of his Mind consorted with that Noble Towardliness, which he undoubtedly discovered to be his Own, unstudied, unaffected, naturally His, had so affected him with Joy, that he could not but declare his thoughts with Gratitude to God the giver, and with admiration of Him the Subject of so much and so rare Endow­ment, Gaudeo, Serenissime Princeps.

This the Chancellour adds, to shew the Sense Wise men have of Princes Worthinesses: for since they are the great Examples of their People, and have, as it were, the power of making them Good, or Bad; the preponderation of them to Virtue, which will be the [...]urn of the Common-Scale, and make it incline to the right, cannot but highly re­joyce those,In Augusto. that rightly conceive it. Augustus was a brave Prince, yet Suetonius writes, he never commended his Sons to the People's love nisi cum hac exceptione, si merebuntur, &c. but with this proviso, that they deserved, professing, that Honour ought to be the reward of Virtue, and not the Companion only of great Birth, and high Blood. For well he knew, that if the Wisdom and Calmness of their Minds did not balance, and over­bear their Passions, and make them tenable against Temptation and the fierce and too often prevalent sieges of it, they would do by their People, as that General in Cedrenus wrote he would do, in case their Good and his Will were competitours, aut mundus pro Imperatore &c. Either the World shall acknowledg Me an Emperour, or I will make my self [...]o, whether they will or no. Or, as Paul the Fourth, who was so great a Self­admirer, that he blushed not to say, that either he would have his Will, or he would set the World on fire, and go up in the flame thereof.

Pag. 122. But rather as D' Avila represents Mounsieur le Hospital the French-Chancellour, not like the Duke of Guise all for Warr, but endeavouring to compose, and sedate Differences, and to reconcile parties, though he held the reproach of a soft Gown-Man for so doing; and Henry the third of France, ‘who was wont to say, that by Civil, intestine Wars Re­ligion it self, which received its Nourishment from Peace, was much impaired, and so that, instead of gaining those Souls that were gone astray, by violent means, they did endanger the loss of those, that were most Zealous in the Truth: and therefore that of the Moralists concerning Caesar is most true,Plutarch. in ad­ver [...]. Stoicos p. 1059. edit. Pa­risiens. [...], no Man, but Caesar, that is in his right Wits, and is overpowred by Ambition, will come to the Com­mon-Wealth to disturb it for his own Radication, and Establishment.’ For ingenuity, that perswades a Man not to better himself as Chrysippus did by [...] and [...], by topsy­turvying all Men, and all things, but keeps him in the Golden mean of Contentation, especially such a Jewel in the Mind of Princes must needs exhilarate all Men, chiefly those, that have had the Honour of their Nurture, and Tuition, and have been near them in at­tendance, and affection; and such the Chancellour having, I conjecture, been, alledges his gaudeo upon the view of such imbibings, and so pleasing probable Fruits arising from it.

Gaudeo, serenissime, &c. As the Prince's Virtue gave, so the Chancellour's love took, the occasion of Joy at the Prince's proficiency. For though Joy be the proper Act of the Soul's exultation within it self,Cic. 3. Tuscul. Ep: 98 Ad. Lucil. Epist. 23. Gaudere significat Taentam apud se voluptatem sentire, ne­que vulgò proferre gaudii notas, in regard whereof Triumphare, & gaudere is joyned by Tully in lib. 189. ad Atticum, and Seneca censure him as Imprudent, qui adventitio laetus est; adding the reason, Exibit gaudium, quod intravit, &c. The Ioy that is occasional onely, and rises from imperfect Virtues, goes, as it comes, but that, which flows from a Di­vine Soul, conform to God, is constant, and solid, and encreaseth towards Eternity. Mihi cre­de, res severa est verum gandium, &c. Believe me, true Ioy is a serious thing: and so Ep. 27. Aliquid potius bonum mansurum circumspice, &c, look upon durable good, onely lasting Ioy is to be attained by Virtue, so Ep. 59. Est elatio animi suis bonis, viribúsque fidentis, and Gaudium hoc non nascitur nisi ex virtutum conscientia; so Philo, whiles he calls Joy [...],Lib quod deterius potiori insidiari so­loat p. 177. determines, Ioy may be in no mind, but where grounds from Virtue are, taking to himself, immortal delights. According to which, that expression of the blessed Virgin,Lib. De septenar. & Festis p. 1172. is Emphatick, My Soul doth magnify the Lord, and my Spirit rejoyceth in God, my Saviour.

[Page 5]I say, though to rejoyce be properly the Product of our own good, and intern se­renity, yet ha's it an extent also to that good, which we opinionate to be in any one, and for that are as much delighted,Cic. 4. Tusc. as if it were our own. Quum ratione animus move­tur, &c. When the Mind is moved by Reason, pleasingly, and unalterably, then is it parta­ker of joy. Hereupon the Chancellour reckoning upon the Prince, as Heir of the Crown, and probable to be the Monarch of this Land, in whose excellent Endowments, every particular in the Nation, would proportionably to its capacity and concern, be blest, not onely excites others, but protests himself much pleased with, and refreshed by the hopes and assurances he had of futurities blessing, in his excellent and Royal Incli­nation; and this is the cause of his Gaudeo.

Videns quantâ aviditate tu militares amplecteris actus.

It should seem the visible Application of this Prince to Manly and Martial Experi­ments had been earnestly look'd into by the Chancellour; who, not like a Parasite of the Court, or a mendicant at the Trencher, deluded the Prince into a belief, that Vice was Virtue and haughtiness of mind, Princely towardlyness: but like a man of weight, Worth, and Integrity, whose Conscience led him to enter common with his Prince in hazard, and whose heart hoped God would give hisdead and (as it were) buried right a glorious Resurrection in his future Prosperity (which this his Addiction to Chivalry, did in a kind fore-speak) annexes this videns quantâ, &c. as the Rise of his Gaudeo sere­nissime. Princeps de nobilissima indole tua.

Videns, Men of Honour love the Warranties of Honour, Reason, and Piety for their applauses, not daring to gratifie Power and Greatness to the disservice of Truth and Fidelity. He that ha's so debauched a Soul to put his probatum est to an uncertainty, may, ere long, be accounted fit for no Honour above a Knightship of the Post. But he that says no more then he sees, knows, and believes, deserves the credit of a faithful Witness.

Quantâ aviditate militares tu amplecteris actus. This is the materia prima, of which the Prince's Virtue, as it is here by the Chancellour rejoyced in, consisteth; and it di­rects us to two observables. First, Principis electio, that which the Prince chose to be the Companion of his Time, and the Dial, upon which, by the shadow and reflex of his pre­sent inclination, they should judge the height of their after-hopes from him. And those were no nugatory Trifles, no effeminate Lubricities, no childish refuse Trumperies, but the great and peculiar Glories and Ornaments of Princes, Militares actus. Secondly, affectus Principis erga res electas, he prosecuted them so chosen with no indifferent, remiss, and tepid love, but with a generous insatiety, with the keen appetition of im­patience, and prodigal intentness. Quantâ aviditate militares tu amplecteris actus. His choice was optimorum; for even Nature lessons to this in all the Emanations of her Implants; no Creature, but by its sensual propension is vehiculated to what it apprehends best for its Conservation, and least contrary to its Being Yea,Lib. 2. de Ben [...]. fic. 118. take away those impediments to choice (vis major & metus, which Seneca says, do ex necessitate tollere arbitrium) and propose to their sense things, they shall decline what they apprehend injurious to them, and accept what is pleasing. And for men, they are usually estimated by their Company, Pleasures, and professed Engagements. And such is the rate of their Exchange, in the Reputation of men, as their Judgment is either dignified, or depreciated in its choice: Moses lost himself almost in the Peoples eyes, for chusing a Zipporah to breed upon; so course a ground they thought unmeet to draw a fair-figur'd Posterity upon; especially Princes, as they are altioris molis, and are the great Sea-marks, by which Subjects are directed, are to avoid indiligence therein: Neglects in them are ominous, and of tragick interpretation, because their Duty being [...], to adorn their Charges by Actions Kingly;Adag. 1. Chil. 2. Cent. 5. p. 652. their Torpor is the hazard of their Government.

Therefore Homer bringing in Agamemnon, when he says, All his Companions in War were full of sleep, and took their rest, singles out Him, as more concerned to wake, because he had the care and conservation of all upon him.

[Page 6]Hence is it, that all Princes have Characters according to these first Draughts of their Choices, by which the [...] are understood to be legible in all their after Por­traictures. Nero, that delighted in Butchery, and in converse with Mummers and Juglers, was presaged to be a rude Monster: as was Trajan, that was pleased onely with worthy men, and graceful manners, a virtuous Prince. The choice then of our Prince being actus militares, to inure himself to hardship, and to accustome his body to toil, to fix his mind against fear, and thence to chase all touches of effeminacy; to pro­pound to himself certain hazard, and uncertain Victory; by hope to provoke Attempts, and by Courage (with God's blessing to force Success: this choice of his is the merit of true Nobility, which Marius in Salust expressed thus. I account (said he) Nature equally the Mother of all men, In Jugurth. and that the bravest Spirits are in her Heraldry the noblest, and most to be honoured: that Nobility began in Virtue; and therefore, though I can shew no Statues of my Triumphing Ancestry; yet if my Military Habiliments creditably managed by me, and the Wounds received on my Body for my Countrey, might be instead of valour, and Ancestry, then I have wherewithall to render me n [...]ble; thus Marius, and that most wisely: for Martial Addictions, where mansueted and tem­pered by ingenuous and civil Virtues, steal into the Mind informidable Resolutions, and instruct, by observing the Experiments of past and present, men at Arms to learn the method of fighting, and the temper of bearing both loss and gain, since the Issues of War, as all other things, are in the Hands of the Almighty, who disposes them as he pleases; and often it is seen, that as the Race is not to the swift, so not the Battle to the strong; nor are always men fortunate, as they well design, and dexterously manage their Designs. Marshal Memorancy was a brave man, and commanded in chief the For­ces of France many years; yet in all his Enterprises he came not off, but either a loser, grievously wounded, or a prisoner: Notwithstanding which secret pleasure of God, the best Prescript to a Prince's probable security is Arms. And therefore, though true it be, that Seneca long since writ to Nero, Errat, siquis existimat tutum esse regem ubi nihil à rege tutum est, securitas securitate mutua paciscendâ est, non opus est instruere in al­tum editas arces, D'Avila p. 239. Lib. 1. do Clem: p. 626, 627. nee in adscensum ardnos colles emunire, nec latera montium abscindere, multiplicibus se muribus turibúsque sepire, salvum regem in aperto clementia praestabit, unum est inexpugnabile munimentum amor civium. Though instances there are of the Ora­tories of Princes, who by the cogencies of their Wit, well and aptly uttered, have wrought Subjects to despise Death, to bring their dying Rights to life again; making them so keen and eager on fight, that they have gone pleasantly, and with triumph, to try their Title by Combats, and foughten Fields: yet never did I read of any, that by brave words won Field, without the second of brave Action. For the personal Valour of Commanders makes Souldiers of raw, and bold of cowardly men; when timerous and flying Leaders spirit their Foes, and discomfit their Parties. And Princes, whose design it is, to appear like Caesar, with their Veni, vidi, vici, and either to lose life, or obtain victory over their oppositions, in a just Cause, and notable Quarrel, resolve with our King Hen. 7th. Rather to be left dead Carrions on the cold Earth, then to be free prisoners in Ladies Chambers. Holingshed p. 758. Omitting no accomplishment, that Time and Affairs opportune them to. For that Prince, who is not valiant, will never be accounted wise, since Wisdom consists in obtaining what we affect, and in preserving such beloved at­tainments of ours, which Valour well managed, and spritefully expressed, chiefly con­duceth to.

And therefore that Precept of Pythagoras, [...], not to taste of those things that have a black Tail, Plutarch rightly understands to be a Command to avoid men of dissolute souls,Lib. de Educ. Liberis. p. 12. and infamous lives, was very good, because they taint those they breath upon, from the corrupted Lungs of their putrid Principles, and Pra­ctises. And thence is it a choice piece of Wisdom, as to chuse the best and most every way endowed men, to train up Princes in youth: of which Plato in 2. de Repub. & lib. 6. & 7. de legibus Arist. lib. 6. Politic. lib. 1. Agellius lib. 9. c. 3. and, according to which, Charles the Great educated his Children,Aemilius Probus lib. 2. c. 16. Sons and Daughters, as Probus informs us; and as Theodosius did Arcadius, and Honorius, under Arsenius; and Constantine, did his Sons,Nicephor lib. 22. c. 33. & lib. 14. 6.2 Euseb. lib. 4. de vit [...] Constantini c. 51, 52. And, as Trajan was by his Ma­ster Plutarch, who writ to him that Golden Book, De Liberorum institutione. And Alexander was by Aristotle, and all the most excellent Presidents to the World of vir­tuous [Page 7] Majesty have been.Schrivelius in E­pist dedic. ante Iliad. Homer. Edit. 1656. I say, as it ha's been their Wisdom, to chuse the choice of men for their Tutors, so have those Tutors been conducted to their Education, from the observance of their Natural Tempers; and, by both, animating them to good, and deterring them from evil, as they saw they were more or less addicted to them; espe­cially when their Charges are of such as Portius Cato was, I am acri ingenio ut ipsi sibi fortunam fecisse videatur, &c. Who was of so sharp a wit, that he seem'd to carry his good fortune in his promptness;Sabellicus lib. 5, Ennead. 5. no Art either publick or private wanting in him, so great was his eloquence in Speech, and bravery in Action, that it purveyed for him all his after Glory. In short, so rare was he in all parts of Virtue, that he seemed to do every thing as if he had been born only to that end, & yet was all he wished to be to a matchless perfection Where such Princes are, they must be tended specially that their Vestal fire extinguish not, that they turn not to Serpents hissing, which marrs the delight of their Virtues harmony. Their Minds must be kept ever stirring, that through inoccupancy of Virtue they con­stagnat not Vice, which being habituated to men is not easily rooted out of them. Here­upon the Wisdom of these Architects is to raise aRoof of Action upon the Foundation of sober Virtue; to keep the Mind within bounds, and to spend its volatility on Corporal Exercises, which are of virile invention and performance. For the Tutors and Dire­ctors of Princes Educations, after they have seasoned their Charges with Letters, and secured their Breedings and younger years from the Censures of Illiterateness, prompt them to Corporal Exercises, and athletary Activities, such as are skill in handling the weapon, for defence of their persons (a very great ornament and security to any man of power and honour to excel in) not that he shall need either to provoke, or be provoked the more by it: for his Passion ha's no stimulation thereby, nor will his Skill betray him to Pride over others, because true Science abhors Boast, but rather keeps it self latent a­gainst a time of need, and proves a Reserve to his security against secret Attempts, and false Treacheries, which seldom are acted upon Princes of spirit, and Corporal Manlyness. Next to this, Tutors present to Princes riding of the great Horse, and the right ma­naging of them in all the parts and punctilio's of Cavalry; then they allow Justs, Bar­riers, Tournaments, Tiltings, or such other Manly Recreations, as are fashionable to greatness in the age of their life and breeding. And they at last allow them to try the proof of all these preparatory Inductions by Field-service; that is, such venture, as may display boldness, and bravery; but be as little in the Eye and Road of Danger as may be: their Design being not to end, but to enamel his life with all those embossings, which illustrate the Fame, and aggrandith the Military Virtue of arising Majesty. For wont­edness, and assuscency to any thing connaturalizes it, which Pythagoras gave us long ago the rule of, [...]. To chuse the best way of life and custom, Plutarchus lib. de exilio. p. 602. will make it delightful to us. The experience of which, even in Military Affairs, rules the practise of great Commanders (not ordinarily to draw raw Souldi­ers, and fresh men into present service, but to put them into Garisons to be trained, and their best men to draw out, that their Novices, by the sport that now and then they have, may be gradually perfected in the Habit of couragious Boldness. Those actus Militaris then that our Prince here do's embrace, may be thought those onely; that are the Recreations and expressions of their spirits in times of Peace. And to these he is said to be not ably addicted, and affectionately acted. As well he chose, so to his choice, does he resolutely adhere; and this displays both Judgment and Constancy. A good Choice, and a grave Mind, not to waver in, or be cold to it: Levity is one of the Alloys and exuberances of Youth, and that which ha's so great a party in those early Flowers; that though they smell sweet, and come timely, yet they are soon gone. And therefore, the Prince young and wise, in age probable to chuse and chuse again; yet fixed to his first worthy Choice, deserves well the praise of his Tutor while he lives; as did such another Babe of Grace and Greatness, Iames the Son to the King of Scots; of whom Erasmus gives us almost an incredible accompt,Adag. Chil. 2, Cent. 5 p. 564, 565. concluding, Saetis demum dolori nostro, satis discipuli memoriae, deserve of him. For the Prince here is commended not onely amplecti, which argues endearedness, but magnâ aviditate; for so the Quant à imports: 'tis a Note of Magnitude and Hyperbolicism. Aviditas argues such a love, as obcaecates, à non videndo propter nimiam cupiditatem, saith Festus, a kind of Fury, that carries a man in a Whirl-wind,Lib. 3. de Finibus. Sicut amens qui mentem suam non habet: Such an in­satiety, as is in Nature's Hunger, and Womens longing: such as Tully reports of Cato, Erat enim, ùt scis, in c [...] inexhaust a aviditas legendi nec saetiari poterat: and, in Pliny, no­thing [Page 8] thing is more frequent then avidit as diripiendi lib. 12. c. 14. Avidit as ad aliquem fa­ciendum, lib. 17. c. 18. Aviditas ad cibos, lib. 20. c. 16. Aviditas faeminarum, lib. 20. c. 21. Yea,Ad Quint. fratr. lib. 1. Veri boni avi pe­ras [...]ta est, [...]ence. Ep. 23. Tullie's infinita aviditas gloriae, and his aviditate inflammatus, which he mentions, lib. 2. offic. c. 54. All these, and such like expressions in Authours, makes the Chancellour's Character of the Prince by this Quantae aviditas, to be impor­tunate and implacable, like that of Cato, who confessed, Graecas literas senex didici, &c. I learned Greek in my old age, and was so eager after it, as if I should never be satisfied with any attainment beneath the perfection of it.

There was much then of freeness and irritation in the desire of the Prince towards Arms; so that his Mind all on fire with love to, and valuation of it, testified itself, by hasting to, and embracing the Theory, as inlet to the practise of it. For so amplecti signi­fies here.1. De Oratore 120. And not onely cognoscere & intelligere, but vehementer amare; so Tully, Nec quod jus civili (Crasse) tam vehementer es amplexus: so in Salust. Imperator omnes ferè res asperas per Iugurtham agere in amicis habere magis magis (que) e [...]m in dies amplecti. So Tully, Pro Sylla. Tanto amore suas possessiones amplexi tenehant, ut ab his membra divelli citi­us ac distrahi posse diceres.

So that all the result from this of the Chancellour in portraying the Prince to be Martial, will amount to this, that use and custom made it not onely affected by, but connatural to him: so that as Aristides could sooner not be, then not be just, Citiùs Solem è coelo, &c. Sooner the Sun could be displaced the Firmament, then Aristides be re­moved from his integrity. So our Prince could as soon deny his Stomach food, or his Eye pleasure, as his delight Martial Exercise. And hence was it, that as to shew his forwardness, avidit as & amplecteris is asserted: so to evidence him more led by sense and passion, then reason and speculation, this delight of his is rendered by Militares actus. For Youth is more pleased with Corporal Traverses, then Mental Agitations; those are introduced, when the Senses exterior are glutted, and the wild Oats are fowed, as we say; but Bodily Feats, as they are in Youth most seasonable and fragrant, so are they most delighted to express them, because Sense pleases it self in its perfectest model, and vivid'st Representation, which is that of the Body in Youth, when the Sails of the Skin are filled, and the Veins reaking hot with lively blood, and the Joynts uncti­ously motive with metaled Youth, and the Spirits energically diffusive, when the Circulation is uninterrupted, and the Violets scent in the Breath, the Roses colour in the Cheek, and on the Lip, the Lilies whiteness on the skin, when the Plushy Mantle on the Head, and the succulent Moysture of the Bones, rouse up to agility, and per­form creditably their undertakings. Then, then, are men chiefly delighted in, and carried to actus militares. Yea, then is the impression of Custome more durable when it's fixed on Nature's marble and adamant, which was the reason that Solomon advises, to teach a Child in the Trade of his Youth, that he may not depart from it in Age; it be­ing not often seen that vertuous Youths degenerate into vicious Old-ages. Hence con­sidering the Chancellour presents the Prince as so earlily generous, and so towardly inclined in his first Dawning as it were. I cannot but greatly admire him, and believe the Chancellour by these Representations of him was much a Votary to him. For, since there is nothing amiable in Man, but Virtue, because that has abundant remains of the image God, and the primeve Sculpture of omnipotence, so without that is there nothing less estimable then he in his degradation. And this was the sense of David. Man in honour abode not, but became as the Beast that perished; yea, the Heathen Agamemnon when by the Sycionian he was presented with the famous Mare Aetha, Plutarch in Gryll p. 98 [...]. Edit. Paris. on purpose that he might be excused from War, accepted her [...], &c. Thinking a brave spirited Beast more valuable then a base spirited Man. And hereupon, when Princes in their ascents to Manhood, choose honest delights, and honourable loves, they are highly to be blazoned for remarkable, and almost Non-suchess, the tenden­cies of youthly greatness, being mostly to lubricity and effeminateness; the triflings of time, the debaucheries of Minds, the enervations of Strength, the neglects of Affairs, both of Peace and War, these are too often the Infelicities, and Shipwracks of Princes as well as meaner men. Thus was Edward the fifth of this Land made unhappy by fond delight.Holingshed, p. 715.

Petulantium libidinem, inxu. riam, avarniam, cr [...]delitatem sen­sim quidem prim [...] & occ [...]ltè, veiut juvenili errore exercuit. Sueton. in Nerone cap. 6. D'Avila. p 746. Spotswood's History, Scotland, p. 259.And if Youth abstain here, there is another snare that is apt to be caught by; desire of gain, though by indirect means, and satisfaction of anger, though by oppression and [Page 9] blood. The Duke of Guise, to maintain his Party with pay, seised on Church▪ Chalices, and coyned them. * Henry the Third of France, when he had caused the Duke of Guise to be murthered, came in all haste to the Queen-Mother to tell her, He had made him­self King of France, now he had slain the King of Paris: but she replyed, You have made the Duke of Guise to be slain, God grant you be not now made King of nothing. Yea, so long as Adam Gordon, Huntley's Deputy in the North of Scotland, stands on Record for abusing the Queen's Authority, in revenging his Family on the Forbes's Family, their Antagonists, one hundred and twenty seven of whom he slew, and twenty seven burn'd alive in Favoy-house; there will never want an horrid instance of the danger of power in a vitious mind. Give me a Prince like Malcolm the Third, King of Scotland, who can defie a Conspirator, and bravely challenge him; yea, upon his sound repent­ance heartily forgive him. Such Princes England ha's mostly had, now ha's to a miracle beyond compare, and I hope ever will have such, who have been, are, and will be nobly couragious, but not bloody; God and the King may, and do shew mercy from their own in­nate essential Clemency, but they are afflictive to men not without the aid of others, whom they consult with; when they send their Thunder-Bolts, and are by their Councellours often so allayed, Seneca Natural. Quast. lib. 2. p. 856. that their anger proves favour, faith Seneca. Quia Iovem, id est, Regem pro­desse etiam solum oportet, &c. Such Magnanimity, such virtuous loftiness of mind, will keep all Maggots of corrosion and putrefaction off, admit no suggestions of Vice to Fa­miliarity and Audience, but abhor the Promoters and solicitations to them, as valiant Grillon did, who being Captain of H. 3^d^'s. Guard, and commanded by him to kill the Duke of Guise, D'Avila. p. 742. honestly and religiously replyed, Sir, I am really your Majestie's most humble and devoted Servant, but I make profession to be a Souldier, and a Cavalier. If you please to command me to challenge the Duke of Guise, and fight with him hand to hand, I am ready at this instant to lay down my life for your service: but that I should serve for an Execu­tioner, before your Majestie's Iustice commands him to die, is a thing suits not with one of my condition; nor will I ever do it whilst I live: thus he. So dangerous a thing it is to give way to any evil, that, a battery and breach being once made upon Integrity, all the residue and remain of Virtue is in peril.

Well may the Prince then here be a person of wonder, and of the Chancellour's love, who gives up himself to such innocent and graceful Recreations, as are purely Princely, and become him as peculiarly such: for so it follows, Convenit namque tibite taliter delectari.

This is added, to carry the Prince's praise to its true merit; 'twas not onely a good, but a graceful choice, that he made, proportionable to his quality, and station; his de­lights were not like the [...],Cent. 1. Chil. 1. Adag. 30. those Gardens of the Poets fiction, altoge­ther vain and profitless, in quibus semina &c. in which seeds of virtue will no better thrive, then seeds of plants strewed up and down in an earthen pot; as Erasmus his words, are no such delights did the Prince fix upon: for then that might be said of him, which was said of Calvisius Sabinus in Seneca Nunquam vidi hominem beatum inde­centius, Ep. 27. N [...]ver did I see a man less become his happy condition then Sabinus did. The Prince, like him would have been great and rich; but in his demeanour not admirable, no nor imitable, as neither was he; yea, had the Prince so declined and inconsidered himself, that might have been said to him in the after-time of his life, which Seneca writes to his Friend,E [...]dem loco. Ep. 27. Numera annos tuos, & pudebit eadem velle, quae volueras puer ea­demparare: Consider thy years, and you will be ashamed when a man, what ye loved and glo­ried in, when a child. But when he culls out to his esteem such Recreations as are Princely and virile, well may he be applauded with a Convenit.

Indeed delights are common to all Creatures, and the chief external good both of their desire and endeavour; and when the object of them is adequate and regular, when it ha's no inconformity to the Agent,Vnicui (que) nostrûm padagogum dari Deum non quidem ordinarium, sed hunc inferioris note, ex corum numero, quos Ovi­dius ait De Plebe Dcos. Senec. Ep. 110. that acts to, and is acted by them, all is well, and like to be fortunate with us. For since there is a kind of Deity in the addiction, and genius, and the naturality of mens propensions do mostly presage their excellency, and preoccupy their conquest of the difficulties they encounter with, according to that of Heraclitus, [...], and according to that, which Ammian Marcelli­nus makes good in all famous persons, who have been excited to do what they worthily did, by it, lib. 21. p. 394. It conduces much to a good issue, that we mismatch not our genius, by any base consort, or plebeian Mate of converse and inteurness. Alcmon in [Page 10] Plutarch tells us,Libro De Fortu­na Romanorum. Fortune is the Sister [...], of good educa­tion, great perswasion, and exact providence, and circumspection. Hence do the current of Authours erect the genius and ducts of men, as Mints and Forges of their Fortunes, good or bad.Plau. in Trinum­mo. The Comoedian ha's it, Sapiens ipse sibi faciet fortunam; and Portius Cato is by Livy Sabellicus, and Budaeus made one, Qui quocanque loco natus, &c. Who would make every Countrey his, and every condition he was fit for come to him, and force their courtesie upon him. Indeed it is not always the reward of Virtue to suc­ceed; the lines of worthy men do not always fall to them in fair places, nor have they always goodly heritages:In Panegyr. yet Pacatius stands to it, Sua cuique prudentia Deus; and Erasmus ha's collected sundry instances to confirm it: and mostly we see, that men are happy or miserable, as their minds are narrow or great, active or supine, industri­ous or negligent,Hic Princeps suo beneficio tutus ni­hil praesidi [...]s eget: arma ornamenti cansa babet. Se­nec. lib. 1. Clem. p. 625. Patrem quidem patriae appellavimus, ut sciret datam sibi esse in potestarem patriam quae est temperatissima. liberis consulens. suáque post illos pone [...]s. Idem so­dem loco. prudent or temerarious: yea, in Princes and great men, there is no choice so noble, as that of couragious virtue, that draws forth the mind to bounty, beni­gnity, and a through closure with every overture of well-doing; nor is it possible nar­row thoughts should cohabite where true valour is. Men of honour, who look upon themselves as born and bred for publique good, are acted by principles of suavity and munificence, consulting no accumulation to themselves but fame, no practice on men but that of Justice and Obligement; their delights are to be Patrons of Virtue, and Store-houses of munificence. This the Duke of Guise made good to his enemy, the Prince of Coude; for having taken him at Blainville, he so gloriously treated him, that they both supped at Table together that night, and after lay together in the same bed. So did Charles the Fifth Emperour do by Francis the first of France, Herbert's Hist. H. 8. Yea, it is against the hair, nay against their nature, for them to be forced otherwise, though by reason of State, or necessity of affairs. Henry Wardlow, Lord Bishop of St. Andrews, Hist. Scotland. p. 57. had so noble a nature, that he thought no cost too great for a brave work; one day the Major Domûs complained of the great number of comers, who expected, and had entertainment at his house, desiring him for the ease of all his servants, to make a bill of houshold, that they might know who were to be served. He condescended, and when his Secretary was called to set down the names of the hou­shold, being asked whom he would first name, answered, Angus and Fife, two large Counties. The Secretary from this understood his pleasure, and desisted. All this I instance in, to shew that what men chuse as their delights, are so commensurate to the addictions of their souls, that the one is discernable by the other. Our Prince then by chusing militares actus, as the subject of his embraces, may very fitly be saluted with a Convenit tibi, Princeps, taliter delectari. For he, in thus doing, answered all, that could be expected from him, ratione famae, familiae, fortunae, potentia, all which were either hopeless, or hopeful, as he proceeded to the improvement of this choice. For if the Prince fit still, and cry Leo in via, fearing to hazard his person to gain his right, he both contemns his Government, and animates Rebellion, upon hope of no disturbance for recovering it: and the infamy of such pusillanimity, being a Hell on earth, makes a brave mind kindle, and engage to recuperate, which if God pleases not to permit, yet he dies with the same of an honest valour, and a just resentment of his injured estate, and fells the Fine and Recovery against him at the dearest rate, resolution enraged, and desire doubly edg'd, can part with it at.

D' Avila p. 237.Famous Momerancy in Anno 1576, fighting against the Hugonots Army, was bold­ly charged by Robert Steward, Momera [...]sy asked Steward, whether he knew him, or not? Yes, quoth Steward, I do; and because I do, I present thee with this, and shot him in the shoulder, so that he fell, but as he was falling, he threw his Sword, the blade whereof he still held in his hand, though broken, with such a violence at Steward's face, and then he was near eighty years old, that he beat out three of Steward's Teeth, brake his Jaw-bone, and laid him by him on the ground for dead; which shews, that men do fell their ruines, as dear as love and rage can make them to their Ruiners.

This is added, to shew, that Titles imploy cares of corresponding to them in actions of congruity. Magnos magna decent. This Alexander understanding from his Master Aristotle, or his Mother-Genius, replyed to one that asked him, if he would run at the Olympick Games: Do any Kings run there? implying, that men must do onely those Actions, that are semblable to themselves, the Actors. Of this Nehemiah had a sense, when he resolved against flight in those words; Shall such a man as I fly? And this [Page 11] that Emperour remembred, when he rouzed himself up against sorrow for his distress, with these words, Non decet Imperatorem mori flentem. And to this the Chancel­lour here is the Prince's Remembrancer, that as he well chose, so he should fix upon grounds of Congruity and Reason, as he was both a Knight in present, and a King in possibility.

Miles es,] This is not expressive of his profession and addiction, but in a more press sense relates to his particular dignity and degree. For usual it was with Princes afore, & in H. 6. time, to create, by dubbing their Sons Knights at the Baptistery, or in their Cradle, or when they were able to go. Perhaps our Prince might not be so early a Knight, but one created either when he grew fifteen years, or before. Whensoever he was Knighted, is not much material; that such he was, is without doubt; and that such he deserved to be, according to the addictions of his manly mind, is plain from our Chancellour's words, which I take to be not pompous in courtiery, but real, according to the latitude, and very truth of its History, and accomplishment in him, Rex futurus. This is the other Argument on the behalf of Martial Acts, as our Princes choice. He was born the Heir of a Crown, and had Title to Regality, when God should disseise his Father of Regality by death; till when, the Prince was but a Subject: for the Law abhors depri­vation, or resignation,Nullâviverborum nullâ ingenii sa­cultate exprimi potest, quantum opus sit, quám laudabile, qu ám (que) nanquam à me­moria hominum exiturum posse hoc dicere, Parentibus meis parui, cessi imperio corum, five aquuns, five iniquum fuit, obsequentem sub [...] missúmque me praebui, ad hos unum contumax fui, nè beneficiis vincerer Senec. lib. 3. De Benefi­ciis p. 50. upon any pretense whatsoever, Allegiance being indispensable, and determining no how but by death. Now the Prince being by Inheritance, if he should survive his Father, a King, this Rex futurus is proper, as to that probability and the regality of a Title; but it had another sense also from our Chancellour: it is as it were a Prophecy of Loyalty, concerning the ruine of Usurpation, and the Introduction of H. 6. the rightful Lord, or at least of him the Prince (now his Father is dead) King. Rex futurus is indeed the voice of Loyalty, but it ha's an associated per adventure; because what we are is before, what we shall be behind the Curtain of Providence mysterious to us. 'Twas bravely said of our Text-Master, but he (good man) reckon'd without his Host, and was not a Prophet in the upshot: yet this he did, to keep up the Prince's spirit, to harden him against despondency, to rivet on him magnanimity, which erects a Kingdom of content in the very quarters of Crosses. This, I believe, he did, to lesson him, that power lost by Battle, is by Battle to be regained; that Princes fighting stre­nuously are probable bravely to succeed; that diligence makes those fortunate, whom dissoluteness reduces to want, and, what's worse, contempt; that if there were no other Argument to Courage, this were enough, that Princes are impatient to be the Vassals and Tennis-Balls of Fortune, and that their probablest Rescue and Restitution is from Resolution.

In this Clause the office of Rule, both as to War and Peace, is fet down; and this the Chancellour appropriates to Kings, as the meetest persons to carry on both good Of­fices. This was primitively familisrique, all power being vested by God in the Heads of Families, over those that were theirs by Generation, Emption, Compact, or Con­quest. And as the power of life and death, which was Civil Judicial power, was in them; so also was the Military and Bellatory power in them also; for, if they were to rule their Family, they were also to protect their Rule from inroads upon, and injuries to it. Thus did Abraham, very soon after the World's peopling, arm his menial servants, to propel danger from them, and redeem his captive Nephew, Gen. XIV. 14.

After when power was more publique, and increase of people dwelling together called for a Magistrate; the Sword, both to repel evil, and compel to good, was lodged in him as well by the determination of God as the consent of the people. This did Moses, Ioshuah, and the Judges execute, and after them the Kings, God having written this Sa­pience on man's nature; according to which, generally, all Nations, and unions of men in all places, and at all times, assented to the position of power in one or few, for the good of their respective Combinations. And, if the Holy Writ had been silent in this, there had been good authority for its practice,Quis ergò magis naturam rerum ignorat, quàm qui optimo ejus operi & commendatisis­mo hoc ferum & perniciosum vitiu [...] assignat. Seneca De iral. 1. p. 542 merely upon the rules of civil conve­nience, and social necessity, which is an original Law, and paramountly takes place, as having its warrant in its weight, importance, and utility; nor could it be doubted, but the general compliance of the rational nature with it would have silenced all pretensi­ons to doubt about it. But St. Paul, from the Spirit of God, ha's partly asserted Ma­gistracy thus accommodated, as our Chancellour describes it. The Magistrate bears not the Sword in vain, that excludes power from being made a Cypher. If thou doest well, [Page 12] thou shalt have praise; if evil, fear the power: that is, the authority of God, in the trust of man, is for promotion of Justice, both in animation of good, and repulse of evil.

Under which head, War, as occasionally necessary, is not onely lawful, but useful; and that without which, Justice cannot be propagated; since Wars are undertaken not wisely,Dum in pace esse possumus, non arma induamus. Egnatius in vita ejusp. 575. edit. Sylburg. Aelius Spartianus, p. 128. edit. Sylb. Nullum Orna mentum Principis fastidio dignius pulchriús que est, quàm ella Corona, Observatos Cives. Seneca lib. 1. De Clem. ad sinem. not properly as choices, but as such exigents, without which peace and justice cannot be accomplished, or enjoyed: so true is that of Valerius Martianus, who, though a Creature of bussle, and one made by battle, yet when become great and grave, declared it his Maxim, Let us not live War, while we can leave in Peace. And therefore, if a Governour will prove himself an Adrian, It à se Rempublicam gesturum, [...]t sciret po­puli rem esse, non propriam; if he will shew himself untreacherous, by being jealous of his necessary power, he must apply himself pugnare bella populi sui, if ever he intend eos re­ctissimè judicare. For as the Empire of God is not submitted to, but ratione potentiae & for midatae vindictae in rebelles; so will not humane Governments be subjected to in their moderate, legal, and uninjurious Commands, without punishment by the edge of the sword upon Recusants. Hence was it, that as the Iews, in times of peace, pu­nished Enormities with death, restitution, retaliation, according to the divers nature of them, so did they impede the great neighbouring evils of encroachment on them; which Nations bordering on them were ready ever to attempt, by diversion, and ma­king their Countrey the seat of War. Upon which they were led by their Kings, and Leaders, who were Iepthahs for valour, Souls for stature, Davids for activity, chosen men, whom their people followed readily, stood to manfully, brought off victoriously, there being a natural love and loyalty in all people to men of honesty and valour, as appears in many instances, but chiefly in that of the people to Ionathan, and after to David;Quem in socordis Principis invidi­am Cives facilè admisère. Egnati­us in vita ejus p. 585. Lib De Iside & Osicide p. 354. edit. Parif. Lib. De Agesilao, p. 763. yea, and of later times to Nicephorus Boloniates, who thrust Michael Ducas from the Empire; and, Ignatius says, had reception by the people, as a reproach to Ducas his Cowardise.

Hence came it to pass, that the Nations looked upon no virtue so peculiarly and di­rectly in the Kings, as Chivalry. Plutarch tells us, the Egyptians chose their Kings [...], either from their Priests, or from their Warriours; and he adds the reason, [...], as thinking those onely worthy to rule, who were famous either for Valour, or Learning. And Xenophon writes, that the Greeks were like minded, [...]. So well advised was Agesilaus, that he judged strenuity pro­per for Kings.Lib 3. Memo [...]ab. p. 763. So Agamemnon is commended by that Authour from a Poem of him here quoted, and approved, [...], He was both great to fight, And wise to rule aright. Yea, he brings in Cyrus, justifying himself to be a good Governour, from that valour he expressed against the Nations enemies, [...], as if it had become him scur­ [...]ily to fear, and not rather to fight them as he gallantly did. And Clyt [...]bulus is brought in by him, declaring, that the Persian Kings did, and they ought ever to divide their time,De Administrat. Domest p. 827. Lib. 3. Hist. G [...]ae­cae p. 493. Aquinas de regi­mine Principum, c. 21. Romani s [...]n [...]per justa movere ar­ma, caeterae natio­nes odio, & male­vo [...] quód Imper [...]m t [...]nt [...] Vrbu justi­tiâ ageretur, sela in populam Ro­manum apiebant. Lilius Giraldus Syntag. Deorum pag. 466. Lib. 1. p. 640. e­dit. Sylb. between War and Husbandry; and where ever this distribution of Kingly Office is not, he terms it, [...], an imperfect Government. The Romans also eyed much Valour and Military Prowess in their Kings, Consuls, Emperours, and Captains; therefore, they chose two yearly Consuls, and pur­posely disposed one to the care of Martial; the other, to the civil justicing between man and man, yea, though they were a Nation fledg'd by War, and were made up of flagrant and combustible Elements, yet were they most just in their pacts, and inviolably zealous for indemnification of Allies; nor did they ever take a provocation so lightly, as to pro­ceed to revenge it on their Provokers, and right themselves against their provocation: but, upon sullain and surly persistencies in contumacy, and resolves of injury, memores icti foe deris cum panis non statim ad arma prccurrunt, dum priùs more legitimo quaeri ma­lunt, faith Iornandes.

After, when they chose Emperours, and Chiefs, they looked upon the warlik'st of men, and him they subjected to, and followed; yea, the Laws of all Governments, as of the Empire, France, Spain, Denmark, and this Empire of Great Britain, do there­fore call Wars the 7 E. 1.1 E 3. [...].7.18 E. 3. c. 74 H. 4. c. 13.2 E. 6.2.4 & 5. P.M.c. 3 King's Wars, Coyn 25 E. 3. c. 2.12.3 H. 7. c. 6. 5 E. 6. c. 19.20 H. 6. c. 19. the King's Coyn, the Navy 31 Eli [...]. c. 4. the King's [Page 13] Shipping, the Forts 2 & 3 E. 6. c. 16.13 R 2. c. 15. the King's strong Holds and Castles, the Laws 21 I ac. 2 the King's Laws; the Subjects, the King's Subjects; the Courts, the King's Courts; because by these the Kings are enabled to defend themselves, and their Governments, and that by Wars, to suppress Rebellion, or divert Invasion. And the trusts of God and Men, vested in the King to these publique Beneficencies, have, do, and will ever produce to their Trustees, glory, riches, and serenity. These exhalations are returned in golden, silver,Seneca in Com­sol. ad Polyb. p. 754. and milky showres; the Via lactea of Majesty. Caesari quoque ipsi, cui omnia li­cent, propter hoc ipsum multa non licent: omnium domos illius vigilia defendit, omnium otium illius labor; omnium delicias illius industria, omnium vacationem illius occupatio. Now if the Office of Kings be to war for peace, and security; where, without it, they are not purchasable, or possible to be kept; then the means of effecting these are, de debito, the King's. Every end supposes a means. If the King be to do, he is to have wherewith to do: he is else but togatum mancipium. Therefore our Laws do own and recognize the Seigniory of the King,Habet Rex in manu sua omnia jura, quae ad Cora­nam, & Laicalem pertinen [...] potesta­tem, & materia­lem gladium, qui pertinet ad Regni gubernaculum. Flera, c. 17. lib. 1. p. 16. edit. Seld. to defend force of Arms, and all other force, against the peace, whensoever it shall please him. So declare the Peers and Commons, in full and free Parliament, 7 Edw. the First. Not thereby to out themselves of all subject-like Counsel to their Kings, in cases of War, to be entred upon: for, in those Cases, our Kings have chosen to take their advises, before their own personal ones: but the Law was so, and so then declared, to enable the Crown to do its proper office, in case of emergencies, either of Rebellion, or Invasion; and were they bound to wait the Con­vention of Counsels, tedious often before, and in their Meetings, Remedies would be impossible, and Villanies unhinderably successful.

This is the rather to be touched upon, because it was once an old sore, and through the putrefaction of this hath made a many years confusion, and given being to a Level­ling Monster, and a Hydra-headed Antique, which deserves to be caution'd against in the legal Assertions of the Truth in this Cause For the King being caput regni & legum, all direction, protection, judgment of discretion, and severity is in him; and as the Law says, Nihil potest Rex, quàm quod de jure potest; so is it a just Rule (saving incom­municable absoluteness) Quidquid Iovi, id Regi licet, that is, as unaccountable to the coercive power of Subjects are Kings, as God himself; the Deputy: as his Principal, though that of Seneca be also true,Lib. 7. De Bene­fic. Ad Reges potest as omnium pertinet, ad singulos pro­prietas. Yea, were not Kings exempt from these Shackles of Iron, and base Metal, what glorious Nothings, and glistering Cyphers would they be? What pitisul Merce­naries would insolence, and Plebeian encroachment reduce them to: like that Tar­tarian Prince, they would truckle under the Usurpations of their Vassals, and be guilty of that easiness which is irregal. Quod ad Religionem attinct, de qua inter vos disputari audio, Inlioff. Discurs. Politic. p. 91. vester Pontifex meus Pontifex erat; vester Lutherus, meus Lutherus. So abhor­red a degradation of Majesty, that no generous spirit would take such an unkingly Kingship.

The Law then in the Chancellour's words, Pugnare bella populi sui, ha's this Inter­pretation, That the King is by Office to fight the Battles of his People; that is, by his people to battle, for the adjunct of propriety, ha's here but a sense of ministry, not cau­sality; that is, 'tis not to fight the Wars of his people, as they are Warranters of, and Regents in it; but of his people, as they are those Instruments he fights by, and fights for, since the end of War is Peace, as it follows, Et eos rectissimè judicare. This the Chancellour adds, to shew the amiable, as before he had the terrible Check of Maje­sty. So wisely ha's God provided for Order, and the tuition of the Magistrate's power, that between Force and Law it should be intermerate. Force supports Law, and Law moderates Force; were it not for punishments, we should be Ravilliacks to one ano­ther, Homo homini lupus; and were it not for Laws, Property would be determined by Might, and lame and helpless Mephibosheths be popped off with nothing, though they are the rightful Heirs, and ought to be the real Possessours of their Rights. So that Laws are the Rules and Monitors of Kings, concerning their duties to God, in their de­meanours to men. 'Tis true indeed, Parem habere non debet Rex, nec multò fortiùs su­periorem [Page 14] in justitia exhibenda, ut dicatur de eo, Magnus Dominus noster, & magna vir­tus ejus. That Fleta asserts, as the King's undoubted right: but then he subjoyns, Licètomnes potentiâ praecellet, cor tamen ipsius in manu Dei esse debet, & nè potentia sua maneat irrefraenata, fraenum apponat temperantiae, & lora moderantiae, nè trabatur ad in­juriam qui nihil aliud potest in terra, quàm quod de jure potect. So Fleta, lib. 1. c. 17. [...]. Crispinus apud Stobaeum, Ser. 45. p. 324.

I know that great is the indulgence of God to Kings, and vast Prerogatives ha's he vested them with. And to Kings, as the flower of men, hath he given rational princi­ples of Sapiencie, to immure and protect his Donaries to them, and Kings would be ac­cessary to their own, and their Subjects woes, if they should not employ to their preservations (in all worthy and wise latitudes) such Intrusts, and Commissions, by God and Laws delegated to them. But yet Fleta's counsel is from the unerring mouth and mind of Truth, Temperent igitur Reges potentiam suam per le­gem, quae fraenum est potentiae, Nullius juris ratio, aut aequitatis bonignitatis patitur, ut quae sal [...]briter pro utilitate homi num introducuntur, ea nos duriore interpre­tatione contrà ipsorum commodum produ­camus ad soveritatem. Modestinus, lib. 8. Responsorum. quòd secundùm leges vivant; quia hoc sanxit lex humana, quòd leges suum ligent latorem: & alibi digna vax ex Majestate regnantis est, Legibus alligatum se principom profiteri. So he, loco praec.

It is sedition in Subjects, to dispute what a King may do in the heighth of his power,King Iames's Speech at White-Hall, 1609. p. 531. of his Works in Fol.but just Kings will ever be willing to declare what they will do if they will not incur the curse of God. I will not be content, that my power be disputed upon: but I shall ever be wil­ling to make the reason appear of all my doings, and rule my actions according to my Laws.

Princes then must not be remiss and negligent, [...] &c. Diotogenes Py­thagor. apud Sto­baum Serm. 46. p. 329. Lex scripta, quamvès dura, est servanda. Gloss ad Pauli verba lib. 5. ad Edit. Digest. lib. 3. tit 2. p. 344. King Iames's Speech at White Hall, 1609. p 537. of his Works in sol. but vigilant and distributive of their power to their Subjects; that's judicare, the act of Majesty, by example of, and authori­ty from God. The Lord sitteth in the Congregation of the mighty, he judgeth amongst the gods. And this impartment of their power, they must make secundùm jus & aequum, as the Laws of their Government directs and advises, and that's rectissimè eos judicare. For though Laws may be hard and unpleasing, yet, while they remain Laws, the people are to be ruled by, and the Prince is neither cruel, nor unjust, in exacting obedience to, nor in correcting contumacy against them. Though his goodness and conscience, in dis­charge of his place and power also it be, to cause their emendation and correction (if such they be) with all possible speed, and to proceed with all imaginable zeal to the deliverance of the people from the burthen and influence of their rigour on them: so wisely spake King Iames of happy memory. If any Law or Statute be not convenient, let it be amended by Parliament; but in the meantime, term it not a Grievance: for to be grieved with the Law, is to be grieved with the King, who is sworn to be the Patron and maintaixer thereof.

And thus all gracious and beloved Kings have ever done, ruling not by Lust, but Law; not by absolute power, but by legal administrations: and this will properly call him, that so does a King. 'O [...], &c. Tyrants seek their own good, Kings the good and benefit of their Subjects, saith the Philosopher; and lib. 4. De Repub. after he ha's spoken much of Kings, as Keepers of those Rights, which Nature ha's annexed to men,Lib. 8 De Mori­bus c. 12. c. 10. p. 403. [...], Xenophon. lib. 2. De Exped. Cyri. Libro unico, De Instit. Prine. in Argum. p. 527. Politic. Fleta in Proëmio libri edit. Selden and made them Defenders of, he concludes, [...], &c. that is, The Tyrant's end is benefit to himself, to suck the sweet, and eat the fat of Subjects: but the King's care is to profit and better his Subjects, by example and precepts of virtue, seeing they do things honest, and of good report. And that this is the second pillar of Go­vernment, and that which Kings are to look after, having by the Sword procured peace; if otherwise it was not attainable, is plain from the joynt consent of all good Authours, and Authorities of Scripture, Reason, and Practice; as learned Hopperus, and Ficinus on Plato's Politicks, ha's notably observed.

I know there are some Parasitique Wits, that forge Arguments, to the subversion of legal Boundaries, as never made by God for Princes, nor reasonably to be commended to their practise; yea, that harmless, and, as I believe, it was intended, and is by Wise­men expounded, Rule of the Civilians, Quod Principi placuit Legis habet vigorem, they apply to the liberty of the King's Will, to do what he will with the lives, fortunes, and liberties of the people under them; a Device to blow up the very Root of Kingship, God's blessing on it, love of Subjects under it, and the content of that continual Feast, [Page 15] which a good Conscience makes to its Possessour in all the vicissitudes, and varieties of life. For Kings being but men, and so under the Law of mutability and misery, do need, how great soever they be, the prayers, fidelities, and assistances, both by purse, and person, of their Subjects, as often as their legal and necessary needs shall call for them; and if they that are to pay and serve, love not their Lord, they will part with their money but slowly, perhaps after the season be past, and serve him but coldly, him in shew, and his Antagonist in truth: 'tis love, alas! mixed with fear, both subtilly, and yet innocently blinded in the gubernative activity of power, that makes Kings secure and beloved. Take away these kind entercourses in this politique Marriage between King and People, and all the Disdiapason ceases, and the harmony becomes discon­cented.

Indeed, the pleasure of Kings is, in a sober sense, the Law; because Kings please to do nothing but Justice, the just Counsels of God being with them, quà Kings, and they knowing, that they are accountable to God, for the ryot of the man, against the King, in them, ought so to demean themselves to their Subjects, as God does to the World, Rex est [...]. Forne­rius ad Legem, 244. lib. De Verb. signif. pag. 526. [...]. Diocogenes Pythagor. apud Stobaeum, Serm. 339. [...]. Philippus Rex apud Herodotum, lib. 3. Pythagor. because God ha's made their Subjects to them, as the World is to him; that is, since God ha's made them Lords, not to be disputed with, but by prayers and tears, by patience and resigna­tion, they should carry as even and just an hand towards them, in providence for their good, in compassion to their wants and weaknesses, in tenderness of their freedoms and securities, in desires to deserve their submissions and loyalties; as God does, whose mercy is, in this sense, over all his works, and who accounts seve­rity his strange work. And as God can do no injustice, because he is essentially just, and all Justice is originally in him, and what is in us, is but by derivation from him; so Kings are to do nothing unjust, because not onely so far as they do it, they are inconform to God, but for that they are responsible for what they do to God, whose rectitude they ought to imitate. Caveant igitur sibi Reges & Iudices, nè conquerentes repellant, vel perverse judicent, ob quod in judicium justi Dei corruant, Lib. 1. c. 17. Art. 10. [...], &c. Idem loco prec. ubi judex terribiliter discretus, & intolerabiliter severus, immoderatè offensus, & vehementer iratus, cujus sententia immutabilis, carcer irremeabilis, tormenta sine fine, saith Fleta notably. And while Kings remember this, and bring their dignities in credit by their virtues, not resting more on their Power to coerce, then on their Iustice to invite their people to their admiration and imitation. Hor­tensian Laws, that translate power from people to them, restraining all from using it besides themselves, are no injury, but advantages to the people; the wisdom of Kingly Counsel best knowing how to manage dexterously,Tiraquel. in Alex. ab Alex. lib. 6. c. 24. and to purposes of Sovereignty, such entrusts: No, nor truly are such devolvings greater advantages to Kings, then to render them more capable to make their people happy, by their more affectionate and watchful eye over them for their good, nor is all the honour and support that love and loyalty in Subjects to their Prince can express, more then the bare return of their Regal merit, who watch, and cark, and care, that they may be quiet and orderly under him, in order to God, the Sovereign of him and them: which makes me conclude Allegiance and Fidelity a most religious and reasonable service of God, through the Person and Government of the King;Calvin's Case, 7 Rep. who, whatever he be, we ought to obey for Conscience sake, with gratitude to God's mercy, when a David, and a Solomon; and with patience under God's pleasure, if otherwise: considering, that as well evil men, as good in Kingship, are to be obeyed; because obedience is due to the Office, and to the Person in it, by reason of both the Person in the Office, and the Office in the Person, and that inseparably, and without distinction. Yea, if Kings should be misled by ill Coun­sels, and do the thing, that is not right in the sight of God, and in the sense of the Law, because God is the onely Judge of their actions, and the Law's Head is the King: Chri­stian Subjects have no refuge to fly to, but Obedience, and Prayer to God, to turn his heart. They must not curse the Prince in their thoughts, nor calumniate him in their words. For as the former is Blasphemy and Sacrilege, so the latter is desperate Trea­son; [Page 16] the Road to damnable and detestable Rebellion. For since God never made any other Judge of Kings but himself, pretension to reduce their Eccentricity, by being in­solent against them, is in Gods, and the Laws account, but plausible enmity and intention to subvertthem: the good King, our late Lord Charles the First, [...],Seneca, Ep. 64. Quam venerationem praece­ptoribus meis deboo, candemillis praeceptoribus generis humani, à quibus tanti boni initia fluxerunt, si Consulem video, aut Praetorem quibus omnia bonor haberi solet faciam, equo desiliam, caput ad aperiam, semitâ cedam. Quid ergo? Marcum Caronem u [...]rumque, & Laelium sapientem, & Socratem cum Zlatone, & Lenone, Cleanthem que in a­nimum meum five dignatione summa recipi­am? ego verò illos veneror, & tantisi nom nibus semper assurgo. 7 Rep. Calvin's Case. found it so. Never were more Protestations of love and loyalty worded, then some of his English-men made to him; who yet brought him to the cursed custody and power of those, who impiously, and to the eternal dishonour of God, and the Laws of Nature and Nations, murthered him, whom all good men ve­nerate for a Martyr. Power then being the Ordinance of God, and residing divinely in the Person and Office of the King; Allegi­ance and Duty, in all the latitude of them, are by all manner of rights due to the King. And as nothing can make it cease to be due to the King, it being founded in the Law of Nature, and due by it to the King; who, though he may die in person, yet lives in suc­cession and office,Rex [...]unguam moritur Reg. Juris. [...]. Adag. 89. Chil. 2. Cent. 7. there being no Interregnary Chasm in England; so can no just expression of it be denyed, without sin against God, and injustice to his Vice-gerent, who ha's power of his Body, as Head thereof, and ought to have homage from it, as the vital influence of the whole, and every particular in it; which I thought good to write of here, to testifie my abhorrence of those Levelling Mon­ster Anarchique Principles; which, infatuating this Nation of late, produced so unna­tural, and tragical effects of War, Disloyalty, and Irreligion amongst us: in which while, some loyal-resolved, and knowing subjects, asserted their duty, and to their eternal honour, suffered more, or less for it: more credulous beguiled, and misconducted ones,Habeatur personarum a [...] dignita [...]um propor­tio, & cism sit ubique virtutis modus, aequò yeccaet quod excedit, quàm quod deficit. Se­neca, De Benef. c. 16. either wholly forgot it; or, in regard of the pressures upon them, did not so vigorously express it as they ought; which since God, I hope, and the King, I dare say, ha's in the majority, and well-meaningness of the seduced people forgiven, I onely remember here as a Caution against Relapse; humbly beseeching God, that both King and People may live in unity and godly love, That as all good Kings in their Government must imitate God, and his Christ, in being just and righteous, David and So­lomon in being godly and wise (they are wise King Iames his words) as they prefer their People's good beyond their own quiet and pleasure, as Philo says. Kings,Speech, 1616. pag. 551. [...] Philo, lib. De Agricultura, paeg. 193. shepherds of their people, do; so all good people must, and are onely good, when they do observe the Rule of Religion, Give honour to whom honour, fear to whom fear, tribute to whom tribute is due; that is, to the King, and to all in Authority under him, and to evidence to the World, that while others live besides, they live according to the rule of Christian, [...] Justinus Mart. Epist. ad Ze­num, & Siren. p. 590. edit. Syl­burg. and English subjection. And this, on bothsides observed, will cashier all jealousie; for while both respectively, rule and obey according to the Laws of this Realm, the people will live orderly, and in peace, and the King will be able pugnare bella populi sui, & eos rectissimè judicare.

Here the Chancellour produces to the Prince a Scripture-instance, in the great ex­ample of the wisest of men and Kings, Solomon; who being instructed by God how, as well as authorized where to rule, is the best pattern for a Prince's practice in his regal demeanour. And that Solomon here mentioned (for the eighth of the second of Kings wholly treats of him) is not a person less matchless, then is generally and truly presu­med of him. 'Twill not be amiss to consider, what in him may be most eminent, most convictive of our Belief,See the most learned Bishop of Worcester's Character of him, in his Ser­mon, at our Gracious Sove­reign's Corona­tion, pag. 3, & 4. of his supremacy above other men, either of his, or after-times. And though comparisons are odious, and vulgarly, we say, there is no one man so ac­complished, but there is another as excellent as he; yet since the Spirit of God, and all Authours Christian after him, ha's made him the Phaenix, humanae naturae ornament­um, 'twill be not lost labour to consider him.

Solomon then was a Prince born, the Son of King David, by Bath-Sheba his beloved Wife, a Prince Solomon was, called by this name mysteriously, in order to his causa­tion [Page 17] of peace, and introduction of the concurrent blessings with it, Plenty and Riches. For he made silver, to be in Ierusalem as Stones, and Cedars made he as the Sycamore Trees that are in the Vale in abundance, 1 King. viii. 27. and in order to his being a Type of Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who brake down the wall of separation be­tween God and Man, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. A Prince Solomon was, wise as an Angel of God; so the Holy Text phrases him, so the Holy God endowed him: God that gave him leave to desire what he would of him, gave him love to Wisdom and Grace, to beg it as his choice, and to obtain it as his jewel: so wise,1 Kings iii. and so understanding a heart did God give Solomon, that all Expositors do a­gree him ex omni parte beatus, both as to speculation, and action. Tiraquel num­bring the virtues of all Antients,Lib. 5. De Nobi­lirate. and Moderns, makes Solomon, in wisdom, paramount to them all. Pineda ha's made a large and laborious. Treatise De gest is Solomonis, wherein he makes every arome, and minute-particle of him, a Mountain of Wonder. And Turrian is not behind him in the admiration of him.Lib. 6. De Phi­losoph. Princip. [...] Aristor. Precemio Metaphys. In Piman [...]o Mercurii. Lib. 3. com. 6. Dialog. 250 13.c. 3. De Veti­tate, p. 214. And no wonder: for if wisdom make a man's face to shine as it is, Prov. and as the Heathens acknowledged to the praise of her, [...], There is nothing more honourable then wisdom; because it is the Image of God, and that which gives the possessour of it praelation above others; as it enables him to know those things, that otherwise are hidden, and hard to men. So the Philosopher says.

If Socrates, whom the Greeks thought [...], the wisest of Mortals, made it his study amongst men, and his petition to the gods, to be wise; O amice Pan, & caetera Numina, date obsecro, ut intus pulcher efficari; O thou Pan, and the rest of the gods, grant me, I beseech you, to be beauteous in soul, inwardly worthy; which Roselius en­larges, Veritatis divinae cognitionem petebat; He desired knowledge of divine truth, which God onely was able to grant him, which onely a calm and well-tempered Soul was capable of. If Wisdom, which all Authours and Ages thought God in Man: if this, I say, were in our Solomon eminently, beyond the proportion of other Kings, and answerable, if not transcendent, to the endowments of other men, not Moses himself excepted, though Vatablus be of another opinion;In 1 Reg. iii. 12. and if this mass of Wisdom be evidenced not onely judicially on the Throne, but discursively in the Chair, to the admiration of all hearers, who being at his discourses from the Cedar in Lebanon, to the Hyssop upon the Wall, and other his civil Precepts in the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, (though Grotius herein also much abates him, while he makes the Proverbs to be onely liber [...], a compilement, like those the Emperours of Constantinople after him had, of all the select Sentences of those Heroiques that in time preceded him, and were Proverbial amongst the Iews.) I say, Solomon's works and words considered, will render him such an Non-such, as the Holy Spirit characterizes him to be. So true is that of a learned man concerning his Proverbs, Bayns in c. 1. Prov. inter Crit. Sact. Neque ullum vel ex universo Proverbiorum numero reperias, &c. That there is no passage in the Proverbs so inconsiderable, and ordinary in the words of it, but if it be rightly and throughly understood, couches in it some admi­rable piece of truth and wisdom, worthy the most wise Solomon its Pen-man. So great, so wise, so much of mortal comprehension had Solomon, that, amongst men, the sons of natural propagation, [...] as Gregory Naz. Orat. 53. in Ec­cles. p. 74 [...]. no Socrates, no Xenophon, no Caesar, no Marcus An­toninus was greater, was like to him. He was of the quorum, quaruns, quorum, to all that preceded him, or shall succeed him in the ordinary way of Manhood; and there­fore is most to be heeded, as he is virorum scientissimus, & exemplorum augustissimus.

Now as to the Divinity of his Prescript, in that which our Chancellour here instan­ces, in the eighth Chapter of the first of Kings; which Chapter, having many re­markable passages in it, was purposely quoted by our Chancellour.

First, In it there is Solomon's regard to, and valuation of the Ark of God (the visible sign of God's presence) expressed in the Assembly of State, that he summoned to at­tend its remove, The Elders of Israel, all the Heads of the Tribes, and the chief of the Fa­thers of the Children of Israel, unto the King, vers. 1. 'Tis not fit any thing of Gods should be passed over without due honour, nor his Ark change his station, without the attendance of a decent Equipage: Princes that serve not Religion with all their might, are not worthy the blessings that attend it. Therefore, gracious King Charles, [Page 18] our late martyred Lord,Eiconn Basilie. pag. 212. art. 24. made a rare choice, Nor could I follow better Presidents (said he) if I were able, then those two eminent Kings, David, and Solomon, not more famous for their Sceptres and Crowns, then one was, for devont Psalms and Prayers; the other, for his divine Parables and Preaching, whence the one merited, and assumed the name of a Prophet, the other of a Preacher. Titles, indeed, of greater honour, where rightly pla­ced, then any of those the Roman Emperours affected from the Nations they subdued, it being infinitely more glorious, to convert souls to God, by the Word, then to conquer men to a subjection by the Sword. Thus he.

Ver. 5. All the Estates, that attended the Ark's remove, did it not more to observe the King's pleasure, then to testifie their own duty; for they that went before the Ark sacrificed Sheep, and Oxen, that could not be told, nor numbred for number.] Zealous minds think that the best service of God, which is most costly, as desiring to shew the truth of their heart in the bounty of their hand.

Ver. 14.Solomon blessed the whole Congregation, and the people stood.] 'Tis a good sign of ac­cord, when Passions, and Prejudices, do not obstruct between Prince and People: when the one thinks himself not too high, to regard his meanest Subject; the other, shews himself not too heady, and humorous, to observe and reverence his Liege Lord.

Ver. 23, 24. Solomon the King solemnly pours out his Soul to God in prayer before the people, as not ashamed of the humility of a sinner, in the heighth of the state of a Sovereign.] Nothing de­bases Majesty but sin, nor disparages a King in his Peoples eyes, but flagitiousness: he can never miss acceptation with men, that first gains by prayer and humility accepta­tion with God: nor does he ever miss to finde God propitious, who seeks him with all his heart, and serves him with all his might.

Ver. 29.Solomon builds a magnificent Temple, which he devotes to God, and which he prays, that God would accept as his own.] 'Twas not the King's prayer, nor the bounty he had ex­pressed in the costly furniture of it, that at all advanced those ends Solomon had in its designation: he intended it as a refuge to the peoples distress, and an oracular reperto­ry, in which the secret of God's power and goodness should be (as it were) deposited, which it could not prove, unless God ratified it for such: therefore prays he to God to grant his Petition, and to accept those services, that he and his people should in that place perform to him. Good Princes would willingly bring God and their Subjects to an accord, and leave his blessing as the guard of their government when they are gone▪ There is no policy like that of Religion, which ever keeps God on its party.

Ver. 55. The King blessed the Congregation again after, as well as he had done before his prayer.] To teach Princes, that their love to their people, should be ever in their memory, and that Religion is the cement of their reciprocation; nor do the Laws of Holy Church lesson ought to Prince, or People, beside love, and duty.

Ver. 65, 66. Solomon keeps a Feast, to satiate the Peoples stomachs with his dainties, as well as he had spoken to the filling of their ears with pious Orisons, and devout interpellations to God for them.] To pattern Princes, to use all Baits to catch Multitudes, the soberer of them with the reason of good counsel, and serious kindness; the ruder sort by bounty, and pabulary plenty, which will make them love, and bless their Benefactor, and return to their quarters contented, as Israel did, v. 66.

These are the main Poles, upon which this Chapter moves towards a fitness of di­rective influence on the Prince, for in that he ha's his life and breath from God, and even for his Crown, and Power, is but a Feudatary to the Almighty, who deals by Mo­narchs, as by Pismires, and exalts, or suppresses, as he pleases, in the Kingdoms of the World. And inasmuch as Kings have no readier way to preserve God their Tutelar, then by securing his rights inviolate, and by promoting the glory of his Divinity above all secular Projects, and extern conveniencies, as Solomon here did, and as Nature her self dictates to her very own Sons not enlightened by Divine Revelation, or Scripture-Regulation, according to that [...], The first care of Kings is that of Religion, and the Worship of God. In that, this wife and worthy Monopoly of devoting to God the totality of our prime and principal affection and reverence is in this Chapter pithily and particularly set down; and that it conduces, being punctually observed, to so much felicity and greatness in the outward state, parados, and pomp of a Prince, it well deserves the perfection and distinct observance of him: and the Chancel­lour ha's done wisely and faithfully to direct him to it.

Here the good old Chancellour wisely does not non movenda movere, Adag. 61. Chil. 1. Cent 6. pag. 254. E [...]a▪in. as they did, who laid siege to supplant that which was sacred, as past their reach, and so ought to have been exempt from their attempt; but he presses the Prince to so equal a divident of himself between Arms and Arts, that neither may have cause to boast of their engros­sing him, or of his dese [...]tion of them; but both being ancillary to his Regal Endowment, might indifferently be Candidates to his favour, and to both have his love and leisure pro­portion'd. To love Arts, so as not to hate Arms; and to practise Arms, so as not to de­cline Arts: to handle the Sword, yet not so as to suppress the Law: so to remember himself a Prince, as not to forget himself a man; homo ab humanitate, a Christian man, ferendo non feriendo, a knowing man, whose right commenceth from God, and is conveyed and declared by the Laws of civil compact, recognizing hereditary descents, and is secon­darily supported by Armies, and courage to manage them.Chrysippus libro [...] citatus in Digest. Tom. 1. Tit. 3. De legibus Senaiús­que Consultis, p. 73. 'O [...], &c. The Law is the Queen of all divine and humane things, and ought to preside over all men, good and bad, to be the Leader and President, and the rule both of just and unjust. And thus a Prince, viewing himself, cannot more in­cline to Mars, then Mercury; nor affect to be onely a Souldier, and not an Artist, but practise both Feats of Cratory, and Prowess, as occasion serves, and as their warrantable and just advantages conducts them: which to observe, and be punctual in argues the highest fruits of noble Institution, inclination, and God's Amen upon them.Orat. 53 in Ec­c [...]es. p. 763. [...]. For Wisdom (saith Nazianzen) can instruct the City to do more then arms, and strength without it can: yea, whereas the indiscreet man, by his force, is rather presumptuous to take the first opportunity, though it be the worst, because he rests on his forces, and that arm of flesh, he is seconded by; Wisdom conducts him, [...], to chuse worthy methods to worthy ends, and to stay God's leisure, and not to precipitate a good cause by an ill managery. So that Father: and therefore so concluded Edward the Fourth of this Land his life, with the charge he gave the Lords and others, Trustees for the education of his Children,Holingshed. pag. 709. in these words: If you bring them up in virtus, you shall have virtuous Princes; if you set them to Learning, that Governours shall be men of knowledge; if you teach them Activity, you shall have valiant Captains; if they practise Policy, you shall have politique and prudent Rulers; if they be unlearned, they may, by flattery, soon be blinded, and by adulation often deceived; if they lack activity, every Creature, be he never so base of birth, shall foil and overthrow them like dumb Beasts, and beastly Dastards. Therefore I desire you, and in God's name, adjure you rather to study to make them rich in godly knowledge, and virtuous qualities, then to make parties to gratifie them with abundance of worldly treasure, and mundane superfluity. Thus nobly that King.

Cùm ùt armis, ità legibus judicia peragantur. Quod Justinianus Augustus equissimâ librue mente in initio Prioemii libri suo Institutionum ait, "Imperatoriam Majestatem "non solùm armis decoratam, sed & legibus oportet esse armatam; ut utrumque tempus "bellorum & pacis rectè possit gubernare.

This the Chancellour marshals in this order, to make good what he had formerly gained: for, as in the former clause, he had made the Prescript; so in this he subjoyns the reason, Kings, as mix'd persons of Mercy and Justice, are Keepers both of Laws and Swords, the purports of both Tables; and, being such, are to practice the activities of both hands, to apply Law to their ordinary, and force to their extraordinary admini­stration; since as Food and Physick preserve the Body-natural, [...]. Synes [...]us lib. De Regno pag. 926. so do Laws and Arms the Body-politique. Hence is it, that Synesius makes a well-instituted Warlike Prince most inclinable to Peace; because his generous Nature having circumvallated his power renders him [...], Not onely, not willing to do wrong; but by his power to prevent wrong from being done; yea, it inclines him not so much to list up his head above men in self-magnification, as his hands and heart in solemn gratulation to God; both the God of him and his Government. For Kingship was looked upon in the World to be the Prognate of God, and a derivative from his Wisdom: and therefore, not onely the Scripture brings in God, asserting the Patronage of Kings, By me Kings reign, and Princes decree justice, Lib. De Provi­dentia, pag. 100, 101. but also Heathen Writers make their Gods the Proto-Kings; which Synesius avers to be the Position of the Egyptians, who are reckoned mortalium [Page 20] antiquissimi: and this they did not onely to aw men into fear of their Thunder and Lightning, but also to bespeak them to a belief, and recumbency on them, as Fountains of Justice, Sanctuaries of Refuge, Treasuries of Benefaction, not torvous, and of tru­culent aspect, but gentle and calm-look'd. Thence came those Positions of Iustinian, Regiam Majestatem, Glanvil in Pro­log. &c. and thence transplanted into our Law; because, though Kings be, in a sort, Gods and unquestionable by any but God; which was Marcus An­toninus his assertion seconded by all subsequent Authours,De Jur. belli & pacis. l lib. 1. c. 8. as Grotius ha's well observed and as Tacitus long before wrote in those words, Principi summum rerum arbitrium Dii dederurit subditis obsequii gloria est relicta. The gods have given Princes supreme power. and allotted to Subjects onely the glory and praise of obeying them. And though those, whom he mentions to be Kings in Ga [...]l and Germany of old, who had onely power precario jure regnandi & auctoritate suadendi, non jubendi potestate, Tacitus De Mo [...]ib. Germ. were but improperly called Kings, Kingship being a thing absolute, by, from, and under God; though; I say, these are, and ever will be loud truths, not to be descryed by the Oyms and Zyms of Anar­chy and popular insult; yet are they far from inflating Princes, beyond moderate, and well-featured Bounds. [...], Non bene imperat, nisi qui bene paeruerit imperio. Aristor. lib. 3. Politic. God ha's indeed subjected Subjects to Kings; but ha's he not also subjected Kings to himself? Surely yes, and they must give account of their people to him; and they will never have comfort in their rule, except they have learned to rule over their passions, and to be subject to the Prime Regent, God; who ha's depu­ted Kings to be Pastors and Curates to his, Flock the less glorious Creatures, on whom the Image of God is stamped, as well as on the greatest Monarchs. And therefore, as Arms are to support Governments, so Governments are to express themselves by Laws, as the genius of direction to those Arms. For God never intending power to be bruta fulmina, which carry more terrour then use: the Ma­gistrate is not to use it,Ideò Imperialem fortunam relus humanis Deus praeposuit, ut possit omnia, quae noviter contingunt, & emendare, & consponere, & modis & regulus competentibus trudere, & boc hon prinium à nobis dictum est, sed ab antiqua descendit prosapia. Justinianus in Diplom. De Confirm. Digestorum, pag. 16. Tom. I. but for the punishment of wickedness, and vice, and the maintenance of God's true Religion, and Virtue; which when they do, they are true Executours of Christ's Will, and Bequests; lovers of him, because keepers of his Commandment; and his Commandment is to do justice, love mercy, and walk hum­bly with God.

This, this is the noble end, and noble expression of power, ut in­telligeret eo se loco jam esse Regem suppositum, Hopperus lib. De Vera Juris­prud. pag. 335. ubi suae propriae personae oblivisci & in unum Reipub. bonum incumbere deberet: Giving the King to understand, that in being a King, he becames a forgetter of what is his personal advantage, to make good his publique Office, saith learned Hopperus. And he that goes by this Canon shall be sure of Peace, and God's blessing in his soul, and on his proceedings. Yea, the fruits of it he shall reap in the love of his Subjects,Synesius, lib. De Regno. pag. 21. [...], &c. the onely and chief protection and security of Princes. For though particular Accidents, and fatal Periodiques tended to in the old age of Governments, crosses this in the experience of its safety; yet [...], and saving those occult causes, which are not to be defeated, the Canon is sure, that mode­rate Government is most durable; which is the reason, as I humbly conceive, the Laws of England, the best tempered Laws, for an Island, in the World, point to the Kings of England, the middle way of Government between absolute Will, and popular depen­dance; because thereby it puts both King and People into a felicitous state, which they cannot deviate from, without mischievous inconveniencies. ‘A Political Monarch go­verns his Subjects, as a Father doth his Children, by equal and just Laws, made by their own consent to them.In his Sermon at the Coronation of our now blessed and beloved King, pag. 36. Despotical Government is that of the Turks, and Musco­vite; but Political is, and ought to be the Government of all Christian Kings; I am sure it is of ours: and therefore such a kind of Monarchy as ours is not onely the most just and reasonable, but the most plausible, and popular Government of all others: they are the words of that most Reverend and Learned Prelate the Lord Bishop of Worcester.’

The King is absolute; what then, may he do what he will? is his pleasure a Law? As King, yes: for so he can do no wrong, because, quà such, Deum agnoscit superiorem & Legem; but as mistaken, or seduced by passion, his Will is not the Law, but the Law his Will; and though men are no Supervisours compulsive of him, yet is there one greater then he, Satis est exspectet Deum ultorem: that's his aw and Monitor, ad bene regendum, the Sub­ject is free: how? not to do what he list; no, not with his own: for he must so use [Page 21] what is his, as not to prejudice the Publique: so is the Law of Reason and Policy, Re­spublica praeferendae est privatis, and so affirm the Statutes, 27 E. 3. c. 3. 12. 16. 28 E. 3. c. 5. 23 H. 8. c. 16. 25 H. 8. c. 13. 32 H. 8. c. 18, 19. 33 H. 8. c. 7. 35 H. 8. 4. I Edw. 6. c. 3. & 5. 2 & 3 E. 6. c. 37. 1 & 2 P. & M. c. 5. I Eliz. c. 17. 18 Eliz. 9. I Eliz. c. 15, 17. 8 Eliz. c. 3. 23 Eliz. c. 5. 27 Eliz. c. 19. and hundreds of others, which were made to restrain private emoluments, where pub­liquely detrimental: Yet he is free from all restraints,21 Jac. c. 3. other then such as the Common Law, or the consent of the Nation in Parliament, puts upon Him, his Body, Life, Lands, Po­sterity, and can appeal to the King's Court for relief,Plowd. Com. 236. 2 Instit. c. 21. M. Charta, p. 36. against all preter-legal courses against, or oppressions upon them. And hence is it, that the Government of England being so transacted by the Law, produces Justice, Riches, peace, and Piety, to a won­der. For the Monarch rules in it optantibus cunctis; and if in any thing he be incom­modated, non spem hominum excitat sed metum; yea, so filial a love have English ­men, for the most part, to their P [...]ces, that what Seneca writes of the Prince, is true of the people, Nihil esse cui quam tam praetiosum, &c. Nothing they have is so precious to them, as the safety of their Governour; for whom, as they will desperately hazard, so in his safety much rejoyce: so much they hold themselves related to his weal or woe. And there­fore, though true it be, that England is by some looked upon like Athens in Solon's time,Grocius, De Jur. Belli, & Pacis, p. 64. lib. 1. as a mix'd Government, which ha's much of regulation to power in it; yet is it as true, that England's Imperial Crown being absolute, in regard of dependance on any but God,Stat. 21 Jac. c. 3. & 4. leaves the Monarch as well empowred with the Sword to propagate, and protect Justice, as directed by the Law, to administer Justice to those that need, and seek it.

The use then both of Arms and Laws, must be connected in a Prince, that he may be indefectuous: For as Arms are like the Muscles, that move and plump out the joynts and proportions of the Body, that they are symmetrious to the beauty of the whole; so are Laws like the Veins and Arteries vehiculary of the blood, and succulency into all the parts, by a right orderly circulation, and distribution. And the counsel Laws give, is not to suppress the use, but advise to the right use of the Sword: not to condonate through easiness great offences, nor to punish passionately, and with severity, small dis­gusts and errours of infirmity; but to give to every offence its proper chastisement, to arbitrate the Law's Prescript, and become its Patron. This, while a Prince promotes, he declares himself an Agesilans, a rare Prince. For of him Xenophon writes,In Oratione De Agesilao, p. 66 [...] ' [...] &c. That though he could do what he would, yet he d [...]d what onely he ought, professing himself to be under the direction of the Law, though not the subjection of it.

Our Chancellour then had good reason for his advice, since he caressed, and smooth­ed the young Prince into the love of the Law; fore-seeing, with Timon of Athens, that if he were onely a Martialist, he might be as Alcibiades was by him fore-seen to prove, Patriae exitio futurus; so the Prince might, patriis legibus exitio futurus: since what Youth sucks in, it retains, and propagates in its Manhood, and Age: which considered, good Princes aim to do; as Iustinian says, armis decorari, to use force as a jewel for shew, ad faciendum populum, to purchase dread and estimation; but, armari legibus, to speak favour and terrour to subjects, in Law terms, per delegatos judices, non per ut lega­tos milites, morè curiali, non militari, By Pen and Paper, not Guns and Pikes, the Pa­radoes of Conquests, not the practice of Civil Governments, except on extraordinary occasions, and then, as necessary as Physick, in bodily distempers.

Tamen ut ad legum studia fervide tu anheles maximus legislator ille Moses elim Syna­gogae dux multo fortiùs Caesare te invitat. Here our Text-Master backs his former Argu­ment by an example; he saw the Prince was earnest, as one through-warm with the love of Arms, and well he perceived, that his eager pursuit, which left no vein in him un­stretched, but kindled, to a heighth of reaking; (for so aubelare signifies, anhelare est eum ex cursu, & quovis labore vehements crebris quasi singultibus spiratur & respiratur. So Columel, lib. 2. c. 3. Ante ad praesepiaboves relegari non expedit quàm sudare atque anhelare desierint. Hence anhelare scelus, for doing mischief with might and main. Tandem aliquando Quiretes Catalinam furentem audacia scelus anhelantem pestem pa­tria nefatiè molientem. And again, Anhelaus ex infimo pectore crudelitatem, Cie. in Catal. 24. Autor ad Hetennium, lib. 4. is Tullie's expression for our authority.) And therefore he endeavours to fix his mettle, and in­tend his earnestness on its right object, by propounding not onely a most excellent [Page 22] thing,Opus est alique ad quem mores no­stra seipsi exigant: wise ad regulam prava non corri­ges. Aliquem ha­beat animus quod vereatur cujus au­ctoritate, etiam se­cretum suum san­ctius faciat. Se­neca Ep. 11. but a choice example of one authoritative in the case, Moses; one of whom, no Story mentions, but either the Holy Text, or Histories from it. The grave Knight will not to Moab, and Ekron, not cull examples out of prophane Authours, while there are pregnant ones in the Book of God; his instance therefore is not in Alexan­der, Caesar, Pompey, Marcus Aurelius, Trajan, Constantine, or his Henry the Sixth, though all great instances of Bravery; but his man of Mirrour is Moses: For, though they all in their respective times, were praise-worthy; yet none of them came up to the pattern in the Mount, on which Moses his face glittered to a transfiguration, and admirableness, hardly consistent with Manhood. For God who had provided him such a Nurse-Mother, as a King's Daughter; such a Cradle, as an Ark of Flags, and exposed him to the ruffles, and hazards, of merciless Waters, when but a Babe, onely able to cry under the burthen of a helpless Infancy, shadowed out what he was, in time, to be, who broke out upon the World, through such a Mist, and Cloud of Dangers; which, when dispelled by mercy, evidenced h [...] to be what God appointed him, [...],Lib. 2. De Vita Mosis. p. 654. &c. as Philo's words are of him both a Law-giver an Army­Leader and a devont Sacrificer for the peoples relief and supply. Now Moses being such a person is the example presented to the Prince and asserted from the Holy Ghost to be learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians and mighty in word and in deed; which the Holy Text says of him not as thinking those miraculous things that he could do worthy him or commending them in him as they were feats that the Egyptians doted on and were superstitious about: for as Iustin Martyr's words are [...],In Resp. ad Quest. 25. ad Oithod. p. 317. edit Sylburg. &c. they were but small things and not proper to commend a Pro­phet. But therefore the Holy Ghost adds Moses was mighty in word and indeed; because [...] &c. because for those two excellencies Moses was famous with the Egyptians. As then the Chancellour's love to the Prince's proficiency; so his prudence in the choice of his example to that end is well-worthy him. He (wife soul) knew magnos magna decent that trifles became not those Eagle and coelestiz'd souls that steer Princes, which Philip of Macedon hinted to his son Alexander whom he found playing skilfully upon the Lute; Art thou not ashamed (quoth he) my Son to be so skilful a Musitian. And thence singles he out to the Prince's imitation this Se­raphique instance of both praecellencies A man of Wisdom for he was Legislator to the Iews; a man of eminency above others: for though they had other Legislators after him yet he was Maximus Legislatorum all their Legislation was after his mo­del and his precursing them: yea and a man he was not of yesterday who rose malis artibus and in the declension of the World to be a Law-giver; but olim when the Golden Ages were; when virtues had the upper hand of vices then had Moses the dignity to be Maximus Legislator Synagogae Dux; and fitly so too for he had what Philo says,Lib. 2. De Vita Mosis p. 655. all Law-givers and Chieftains should have [...] the gift to excel in all noble endowments, suitable to his place and occasions.

Moses is then here mentioned in both capacities, both of a Civil Magistrate, and a Martial Conductor. A Civil Prince, in the exercise of Legislation; a Martial Leader, in his conduct of the people against their enemies. Synagogae Dux, of the former, not onely himself, in his books, testifies; but even our Lord Jesus, the truth it self, who puts him in the parallel with himself: The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Peace came by Jesus Christ; and in another place Moses gave them a Law. Yea, the Iews, in Reli­gion,Lib. De Vita Mo­sis, p. 602. initio. in all Ages of the World, have testified of Moses, as their Law-giver. Philo Iude­dus writing of Moses his life, calls him [...] &c. as the Law-giver of the Jews, or the Interpreter of the Holy Law to the Jews. And to be a bare Legislator, is to be presumed great in place, grave in years, wise in counsel; for the Antients did ever account their Law-givers secundi Dii, and never took Laws from any Mouthes, but those which were extraordinarily gifted: [...]. Philo libro De Sacrificiis. Abe­sis & Caini, p. 153. yea, if it were reckoned a part of the policy of pristine Ages, to acclamate Laws, as the invention and bequest of the Gods to men, then sure those that were instrumental in their Productions, were none of the lowest of the people, but the best and bravest of them. And of that number was Moses, Maximus Le­gislator: not onely because he was primus & primas Legislator, and primum in uno­quoque genere nobilissimum: For before Moses gathered the people into a policy, they lived in diffusions, scattered; and as sheep without a shepherd. But Maximus, as having many preparatory endowments to, and successes in this Legislation. God [Page 23] that called him to, fitting him for so great a Sphere, and making him adorn the Sparta he had appointed him to. Ficinus makes three endowments, or felicities, in a Law-giver. Deum, fortunam, artem; God above, success about, art in his manageries, and constitutions. Philo the Iew, reports Moses his first step to greatness (yea,Com. in lib. 4. De Legib. Pla­ton. p. 821. and Moses had them all. and to this degree of it in Civil and Martial Government) to be his apprehensive Infancy; God made him all touch taking every sparkle of illumination that was struck into him from his puisne institution. The Hebrews story that one day being at play with the Crown of Pharaoh he threw it on the ground and afterwards trod upon it: the King,Gaulmyn in opere Rabinico. De Vita & motte Mosis p. 10 &c. Joseph. A [...]tiq. Judatc. lib. 2. c. 5. and Spectators took it to have an ominous presage and the jealousie of Pharaoh medi­tated revenge of the fact; but the King was advised to try by some expedient condu­cing to the discovery of the rise of it whether Malice or Chance and to forbear rigour in the interim. An Apple they say was on one side presented him and on the other a Coal of fire to see whether he would choose; and they say God gave him so subtile an Infancy that he chose purposely the Coal of fire and would have put it into his mouth; which they say he was led to do to shadow the former Instinct and under the notion of a Child to serve himself for his future Exploits; and the Sages told the King that there was no reason to put to death his Daughters adopted Babe for an act of pure simplicity. For being in Egypt and the Egyptians having Greek Philosophers amongst them whom they had leured to them by reward; Moses says he by an [...] an aptness of nature stole all their Arts from them upon the first in­sight and impartment of them: so that what other Lads were years in learning and then but imperfectly,Lib. De Vita Mo­sis. p. 605. at last obtained Moses learned in a trice and that exquisitely, ultra quam non making good that [...], &c. so excellent Wits learn Arts, that they add to them by learning of them. So Philo.

Another step to Moses his fitness, was his marriage to Iethro's Daughter:Gaulmyn p. 24. De Vita & morte Mosis. If wee'l believe Philo For God sayes he bringing Moses into his Father-in-Lawes house; Who as a Prince and Priest had plenty of all things and especially of Cattle Moses having committed to him the Government of the Castle [...] was made more apt thence to rule men as acquainting their inspectors which those observations vigilancies and discreet demeanours which will be usefull in greater charges. [...], &c. Philo lib. 2. De Vi­ta Mosis p. 656. But these and such like are but the less eminent lustres of Moses his Additions; that which makes him maximus legislator was his ministration to the Moral Laws Promulgation his Sanctification to his imployment Magistratique by being in the Mount with God 40 days and his knowledge of the mind of God in all the latitude of his Commission and his fidelity in doing every thing according to the preciseness of his En­trust which God rewarded with such a reverence from the people that as he was just to God and Men so was God a zealons assertor of his worth and an exiter of the people to an eternal Honour of him and of his Memory in all Generations and his Laws paramounted all other Law in that they abode the test and terrour of Conquest and remain to the Jewes in Nation and Religion the same that they were even to his day. Yea as when he lived he was the peoples Oracle from God and Orator to God a favorite who by the spel of his faith could charm as it were with reverence I write it Omnipotence and bind the Almighty to peace with his people as God himself intimates in these words Let me alone that I may stay this people: so when he was dead God concealed the place of his buryal to hinder their Idolatry for surely they would have been supertitious to his memory and erected an Altar near his grave that was so real a numen to them when he lived and this God knowing prevented them by concealing it yet I say this Moses so adored by the people and so victorious in the Conduct of them did render himself Maximus legislator by his self-denyal he made no family he gathered no wealth he commenced no regality from this advantage but served God and his charge leaving the compensation to the issue of God's appoint­ment. He looked more at God's glory then his own greatness; at the peoples peace then his Progenies preferment;Vt Deus in rebus inferio refus procreandis non sua, sed nostra causa agit, ita & vicarius e­jis Princeps Dominum suum imitatus, apud quen omnium actionum suorum rationem red. dere debet, non de se perticulatè, sed▪ dè tota Reipub. universè solicitus esse debet. Hopperus, lib. De Institut. Principis. and when God revealed to him he must die, introduced no Son or Creature of his, whom favour, not virtue, fitted to succeed him; but ge­nerously, and justly, deputes Ioshuah, one parted, and graced sui­tably to the Office he admits him to, and him, full of the Spirit of Wisdom. He charges, in the sight of all Israel, to be strong, and [Page 24] of good courage; yea, and as a Prophet, assures him God will be with him; as it is, Deut. xxxi. 6, 7.

So that Moses, all things considered, was rightly termed by our Text-Master, Ma­ximus Legislator, no Law-giver before him; no Law like his in duration; no Justice so unspotted as his, no Justicer so venerated as he. The Friend; nay, in a sort, a fel­low-Commoner with God (as I may reverently write it) at the Mess on the Mount; or rather the Master of Requests, admitted near, when all were to keep off the Mount. In sum, Moses was prefigured Christ; not onely as all Types were, but as he mostly, if not solely, was in the Office of Ecclesiastical despotiqueness, and indisputable Legi­slation.

Hitherto we have seen him in the Temple as the Corner-stone, and Earthly Master-Builder of the Sanhedrim, or Church-Fabrique: Now let's consider him in Tentorio, as a Magistrate Civil. Synagogae Dux, that's a Leader of the People; for [...] signi­fies any Convention of People; yea, the very actus Congregandi is called [...]: so Thucydides, Homil. 4. in Hex­ameron. lib. 2. uses [...], and St. Basil calls Cumulus acervus [...], so Alexander Aphrodiseus calls plenty of milk [...].

Beza, indeed, upon the Tenth of Matth. 17. where mention is [...], makes a distinction; the [...], he says, are gentium; the [...]: Judaeo­rum, but still he agrees, that the word [...] signifies a collection; and so Tur­recremata confirms it:Lib. 1. c. 1. Sum. De Ecclesia, Lib. 1. De Vita Mosis, p. 640. so that Synagogae Dux, is, but in Philo's words, [...] Leader of the Hebrews. And that this he notoriously was, the Holy [...]ext attests fre­quently: For, besides God's miraculous endowment of Moses, to convince Pharoah of his meslage, for the People's enlargement out of Egypt; upon which accompt he is called [...], &c. the Friend of God initiated in the Holy Mysteries. God made him the People's General too in the Wilderness, and at the Red-Sea; yea, after all to Canaan:Lib. De Cheru­bim. p. 116. for he it was, that brought them to that promised Land, though he him­self entered not with them into it. Happy Israel, that had such a Prince as Moses, Faithful in all Gods house, loving to all Gods people, &c. as Philo's words are,Lib. 1. p. 626. a circumspect man, equally virtuous in small and great affairs, not greedy of gain, not thirsty of applause, but intent onely upon great advantages to God, and the peo­ple, Lege Gaulmyn, lib. De Vita & Motte Mosis. octavo. and leaving the lesser practiques to lower minds. This, shortly was Moses. Thus happy was Israel; yea, and thus happy also was Moses in Israel, God accepted his integrity, and rewarded it with a renowned life, and a lamented death. 'Tis from the wisdom of the World, that men study rather to be great, then good; fortunate, then honest. That heart which is liquored with grace, and ha's the tincture of God on it, will stand upright in the Circumvallations of Temptations: Successes and power cannot palliate lawless liberty, where Gods fear denies it. To deal deceitfully, and take men in the snares of their credulity, was no practise of Moses the Chieftain of Israel, Gods Friend. For though Moses was sole in power, yet is he no oppressour of the people: No Lord over them against their wills, and to their out cry; but bears with their Murmures, sympathies in their grievances, watches to prevent their an­noyance, buries his own lustre, in the reputation of well-deserving, and ha's no other Monument, then their Memories, in their Generations, and Gods entry of his merits on the Record of his Scripture. And hereupon Moses being so unparallel'd a Magi­strate, may well be the example of the Prince, to learn both how to govern artlily, and martially; yea, and have a cogency on the Prince, multo fortiùs Caesare. For since Moses was so soft and trim'd Gown-man,Antiq. Judaic. lib. 3. [...].11. onely as some are, who yet do more by counsel in their Studies, then Armies do in the field by action, undisciplined, and unad­vised, but a valiant Warriour, as not onely his own Books declare, but as Iosephus, by tradition, reports; insomuch, that when the Ethiopians invaded Egypt, and the Oracle directed them to have their Armies led by an Hebrew Captain, to stop their progress. Which being observed, and Moses chosen for the man, and he so mira­culously, and mantully doing it, as Iosephus at large relates▪

Our Chancellour had high reason, to urge this example, rather on the Prince then Iulius Caesar's, because more energical and potent; more bold and superative in the nature and proper operation of it. For, alas! Iulius Caesar, which I suppose he may obliquely refer to, in regard he was a Temporary Master of the Western World, ha­ving subdued Germany, Gaul, and Britain, and dreamed, he was uniting the Empires [Page 25] of Heaven and Earth together, was but a little time Lord of those Conquests, obtained them by blood and oppression, and of them had far less then Alexander had atchieved, before he arrived at Caesar's age: yea; what Caesar had, he held with Troubles and Conspiracies, and at last paid his life for the revenge of his affection, wherein the Se­nators were Assassines, and the Capitol the Slaughter-house: nor did Caesar obtain ever after such a Marble of himself by the largess of Posterity, as Constantine the Great had, Quod instinctu divinitatis, mentis magnitudine cum exercitusuo, tam de Tyranno quam de omni ejus factione, uno tempore, just is Rempubl, ultus est armis. No such Trophy to his memory, but a tacit reproach of his practice, in the Inscription under Brutus his Statue in after-times, utinam none viveres; Caesar, I say, was potent, but cruel; pre­valent, but injurious; and this made him execrable, and envyed. But Moses was an Heroick that might have had what he would, God in wrath would have extirpated Israel, and multiplyed Moses into a great Nation: but Moses interposes with God; and mediates for Israel; yea, was contented to be onely what God cut him out for, and general good would quietly permit him to be.

And herein he was himself fortior Caesare, and his example ought to invite more ir­refragably then Caesar's did, because Caesar could not deny himself, taking what was takable by him. No sooner had the Common wealths divisions weakned opposition against him, every potent Patrician standing single, and the union of them refracted and subdivided into inconsiderable nothings, but Caesar puts in for the whole: No Re­conciler he; for then he had been felo propositi, but a subtile tent rather to keep the Wound open, till at last he and his party marched in at the breach, Victors; and when he was in possession, then he wins those by love, that would be made loyal by it, and destroys those that were implacable; and in this he did in his Generation wisely: But Moses had leave to chuse, and refused; might have been the Prince, but continued still the Captain of Israel; yea, when Fame surrounding his actions, and consolidating the People to him, rendered him more then probable, sure not to be defeated of their Ac­clamations, and complyings with his establishment, in all this croud of tryal, which bulges and swallows down ordinary mens continencies, and ingenuities. Moses stands firm to his veracity, and therefore in all things excels Caesar, as a Prince, and a Souldier: yea, if Iustinian, from whom our Chancellour cites the pre-alleadged Position, be the proper, Caesar, he means; yet Moses will still be more swasive with a good Prince then he. Iu­stinian did but employ his Trebonian, Lege Justinianum in confirmatione digestorum ante Tom. 1. p. 27. Et seq. to collect the Laws of other men famous in their Ages, that is, to bring them into a body, and to render them useful to all occasions, of justice, and accommodation; and in this work was, though famous, yet fallible. But Mo­ses was taught of God to know, and approved of God, to practise the right duty of a King, ex utroque Caesar. And that this is so, the testimony of the seventeenth Chapter of Deuteronomy, the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth Verses following will de­monstrate,

And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom, that he shall write him a Copy of the Law in a Book, out of that which is before the Priests, the Levites; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this Law, and these Statutes to do them; That his heart be not lifted up above his Brethren, and that he turn not aside from the Commande­ment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end, that he may prolong his days in his King­dom, he and his Children, in the midst of Israel.

Which words contain two parts, Actio and Finis; the King's Action, He shall write him the Copy of his Law in a Book, which is before the Priests, the Levites; and it shall be with him; and he shall read it all the days of his life. And then the King's end in this, as prescribed by God, That he may learn to fear the Lord his God; to keep all the words of this Law, and these Statutes to do them. This is the Analyse of them, but not to be passed over:Tradunt Judzi circa hunc locum, quâ ratione, modo, & ordine & in qua item membrane quo demque atramente liber legis sit describen­dus. Fagius in Loc. Lorinus also reproaches the Iews for this out of Munster. for though I wave the Rabbinique conceits, that this Law contained six hundred and thirteen Pre­cepts, three hundred sixty five affirmative, the number of the days of a year, and two hundred fourty eight negative, according to that computation they had of the joynts in man's body, which they perhaps conceived the King was to be remembred of, that he might know his life con­sisted of days, and his body of joynts, which might soon be severed from their contribu­tion [Page 26] to life, and government acted in it. To omit these, and such conceits which learned men have, the Holy Ghost's drift is, to teach us: First, the order of God's dispensation to Majesty. He first gives them a Throne, and settles them in it; so 'tis their right. And then he shall write him the copy of this Law. Princes duties in their Oaths, Exam­ples, and Rules of Restraint, are subsequent to their Titles, not to puss up Princes in a contempt and disesteem of their Subjects, whom because they depend not upon, they may use as they list; but to lesson Subjects to look on Majesty, as God's Vicarage, no Creature of theirs; First, he is seated in his Throne, then minded of his Duty.

Secondly, the obligation of Princes, as they are Deo subditi, and vice Deiregnantes. First, to endeavour their own accomplishment, in this literal Prescript, to be able to write, that they may write this, that God commands them to rivet on themselves by such means. I confess, possible it may be, that a Prince may be letterless, hate, and be wholly ignorant of letters. Some have been such, and such not unworthy Princes in their actions: For that their Memories being vast, and their Passions keen, as by the latter they might be impatient to write, as well as impotent; so by the former, possible to reap the fruit of writing without writing; and the Spirit of God not so much look­ing at writing, as the means; as at remembring to do the end: I confess, 'tis possible much of the mind of God may be here observed by Princes void of letters: but yet in that, Writing is the probablest way of durable fixing, and the Holy Ghost specially en­joyns it, it were good, nay best, the letter of this Scripture should be observed, that thereby Princes may know the Laws of God, and of their Government.

Statim inito regno sua manu Legem describat prater illam quam pri­vatus descripserat ut intelligat se ad observantiam le­gis obstrictiorem privatis esse. Fa­gius in Locum. Secondly, in writing themselves, not by Secretaries, and other hands, then their own; but in their own Characters, the Book of the Law; that is, a Copy of the Autographon, that lies with the Priests of God; and that so written under their own hand, to deliver to the Priest to be kept, inter sacra Dei, as God's evidence, signed and sealed by him against himself; if a violator of it, and the counterpart thereof to have from the Priest, signed by him, as the Charter of his practise. This I conceive is the meaning of the Text, and Lorinus is of the same opinion, though I know others think the contrary; because 'tis said, it shall be with him, which his Copy delivered to the Priest, they say, cannot be. Cajetan reads this clause, Scribet sibi emendationem legis hujas a [...]cipiens exemplar à Sacer­dotibus Leviticae Tribus, de exemplo optimae, etiam punctis & lineamentis emendato ad dif­ferentiam vulgarium librorum in quibus lex non exactè Scribitur, & ut ad amussim scribe­retur exemplar à sacerdotibus habendum fuisse. And Fonseca follows him, adding, that pro­bably this exemplar with the Priests was that, which Moses wrote; out of which, the Book found by the Prophet Helchia, in the Reign of Iosiah, was written. But I ra­ther conceive the former (yet with humble submission, yea, and without exclusion of the latter) because I suppose thereby the greater and stronger testimony lyes against the King, in case of violation by oblivion, since as the Gospel says, Out of thy own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked Servant, and perverse. So from thine own hand may God say to Princes, shall your sins be proved and reproved; Oftendam digitum, & debitum, God marshals then our faults effectually, when Reason condemns the viola­tion of Religion.

Describi Carabit, v. 18. Habebat. autem teste R. S duos libros legis unum qui reposi­tus adservabatur in archivis, & alium quem secum portabat. Drusius in Loc. Thirdly, in reading what they have written, and that not once, but often; but al­ways where duty renews, memory of it must be renewed; therefore we write that we may read; therefore read, that we may remember. To write, and not to read; to write on the Sand, or in Air, or Water, is to write in shew, but not in deed; for all's lost that's so trifled: those fusile, and unstable Elements, are not adopted to tenacity, and therefore are not the grounds on which we write. Men write on Tables, Trees, Pillars, Parchments, Papers, Metal, and on these they are legible thousands of years, even from Moses his time till now, above six thousand years; whereas then the Prince is to write,In c. 17. v. 19. 'tis to write librum è libro, the Copy, as the Original. Cajetan makes four fruits of his reading. First, Vt Deus timeatur. Secondly, Serventur legis prae­cepta omnia. Thirdly, Non elevetur cur ejus supra alios. Fourthly, Prorogetur im­perium Regis & filiorum. God commanded the Law to be written that it might be read, and Princes are commanded by God to write the Law, that they may read it of­ten, and affectionately, with resolution to do it at all times, in youth and age, in prospe­rity and adversity, in Israel, and in Captivity, and in all latitudes of impartiality, ac­cording to the direct and pat requiry of it.

[Page 27]And then lastly, he must read it with a resignation of himself to the power, and a resolution in himself to the practice of it. For so much onely we know aright, as we practise accordingly, That he may learn to do all that is commanded therein; that is, that knowing God the Commander, and all things accumulately, and copulatively, his com­mand; and himself, though a Prince, not exempt by Prerogative from his duty, may with a ready Will, and unalterable Resolution, perform the Duty enacted by it. This is in short, the sum of this Clause, of which yet our Chancellour has a quotation more succinct in the subsequent words,

This Helinandus was a French Monk of the Order of the Claniacenses, Posseuinus in Apparatu Sacro. p. 72 [...]. he lived about the Year, 1200. and Posseuinus says he wrote many things, as fourty eight Books of the History from the Creation;In Speculo Hi­storiali, lib. 30. c. 108. of the reparation of lapsed man one Book; Sermons, Epistles, &c. Vincentius Beluacensis also writes of him, where in his works this passage is, I know not; nor indeed have I ever seen the Authour; but that it is in them, is more then probable. And his Exposition of Moses his Directory, I take to be very genuine and nervous, suitable both to the Holy Ghost's intent, and his amanuensis's Language. For a Prince being caput Regni & legum, ought to have in him those vital and animal accomplishments, that may in the nobility of their distribution,Quo genere obli­gatus es, hoc fidens exsolvè. Senec, lib. 5. Benef. vos ad speciem veri componite ani­mum. & dum h [...] ­nestum dicitis quicquid est id quod nomine ho­nesti [...]actatur. id colite, Idem co­dem loco. supply all the dependents on him. For, as where there are corporal defects, and monstrosity of parts in them, they are thence lessened in the World's eyes, and do all things with much disadvantage; so much incommodated are they from their minds plebeity. It was a sawcy, and insolent Satyre of the Antients, Rex illiteratus est asinus Coronatus: but yet it has the truth of that Moral, That Kings unlearned are unlike themselves. Not Gods descended in the likeness of men, but Kings descended from the best and most conspi­cuous of men to be their vassals censure, and the diminutions of the very bruits of people. And therefore Philip had good reason to bless the Gods, that his Son Alexander was born to be bred under Aristotle, because there was great probability, under so noble Institution, he would become worthy his Father, and Tutor. For Parents generate their Sons, men in nature, and to be such in Title as they themselves are; but Tutors form them, to be worthy and virtuous men, by good Pre­cepts, and lovely examples of virtue presented them.Ex iis autem qui sant, eligamus non ces qui verba magna celeritate pracipitant, & com­munes locos volvunt, & in privato circulantur, sed ces qui vita decent, qui cum dixerint quid faciendum sit, probant faciendo. Seneca. Ep. 52. And hence it is, that next divine grace, solid and rational Intellectuals fre­quently actuated in Affairs, according to the limitations of Reli­gion, the nature of times, the coincidence of circumstances, and the Laws of Respective Governments, declare Kings Kinglyly qualified.Omnejus aut con­sensus fecit aut necessitas consti­tuit aut firmavis consuetudo. Mo­destinus, lib. 1. Regul. For knowledge of duty consists not wholly in the Theory of their Nature, but in the maturation of their Conceptions, to a subserviency to their end. And therefore, though Kings may have less proportions of speculative abilities, not so clearly defining and canvassing of Justice and Courage, as professed Doctours in Artly Faculties may; yet, they do ever in their aims, and when they do like themselves, excel them in the noblest import of Justice, that is, in distribution of it as a blessing,Totum autem jus consistit aut in acquirende, aut in conservando, aut in minuendo, Ulpianus lib. 2. Institut. resulting from their Crown, as, the Flos Solis which is enlivened and made conspicuous by it. For the chief end of Government is Justice, and that being Constans & perpetua voluntas jus unicuique tribuen­di, Iustus non e [...] nist qui constanter, & firme animi proposito quod justum est, agit. Reg. Jur. which refers to action, according to that of the Civilians, He is not just, who is not actively such in the disposition and resolution of his mind and purpose. Princes are said to be knowing in the Law of their Government when they observe Laws, and propagate Justice,Cum léx in prate­ritum quid indul­get, in futurum ve­tat, Ulpianus, lib. 35. ad Edictum. In notis in Philo­nis, lib. De Offi­cio Judicis. Minimé sunt mu­tanda qua inter­pretasionem cer­tam semper habua­runt. Paulus, lib. 4. ad Plautium. according to humane possibilities, and regal prudencies; Rex, cum sit Iudex, sententiam dicturus assu­mat sibitum prudentiam, &c. Since the King is Iudge, and as the living Law determins right and wrong, it becomes him to be prudent, that he err not in judgment; and just, that be proportion punishments and rewards, according to the natures of the actions they refer to, in which no favour or affection must be shewed, that Iustice be not maimed, faith Petreius. Now because the Laws of God and Governments are the best Magisteries of Princes in this noble Craft, and heroick exercise of Conscience, the Chancellour here puts the non debet upon the Prince, telling him, that whatever he pretermits, this he must not do, knowledge of the Law; because without it, a Ruler cannot be just, a People not be happy, a Government not be durable, a Governour not be renowned. The Cabalists [Page 28] do hold, that Injustice is one of the underminers of Thrones, and that Canker that eats out the vitality of their permanence, and disposes them to, and puts them into Revolu­tion and period: yea, he must needs be unnatural to his good name and perennity, who does not labour to know his duty, and perform it, as rightly he ought, so many being concerned besides himself (as in case of Kings there are,)Lib. 1. c. 15. Historiae Sclavorum. and in the rectitude, or obliquity of his actions. Helmodas tells, that Harald was so famous a King, Vt Leges & jur a statuerit, &c. That the Laws and Statutes he made were for the reverence of their Maker so venerable, that both the Danes and Saxons religiously observed them. And since him, those who have followed most the steps of serious knowledge; in strict Justice, have been most renowned. For as to be a man, is to be endowed with Reason and Understanding; so to be a King, is to be knowing in the Law of Nature, of Nations, of his Polity, haec tria sunt omnia; and in these, non debet princeps esse Ignarus.

The Law of Nature is that [...], that which is implanted in all Crea­tures. This, Corvinus says, is collecta ex praeceptis naturalibus, &c. collected from Natures Precepts, A mundi origine & primordio nobiscum nata est, nunquam interitura. Quam si seque­rentur nostri jurisperiti ne rabulas dicam & legulejos potius non profecto intersecturas, & m [...]andros quotidiè & identidem de [...]ondcre­mur. Lilius Gyrald. adu literas. taught by Naturae to all Creatures: Such as are Conjunctions of Creatures, male and female, for pre­servation of their kinds, self-preservation, and all things incident thereto, &c. These Laws of Natural Policy God has chased up­on the universal nature of the Creation, animal and sensitive, and the Characters of them are indelible: the World must cease when they cease,Corvinus, lib. 1. Instit. Tit. [...]. Gloss, in Pandect lib. 1. Tit. 1. E. Quod natura, p. 55 Lib. 13. De Juti. Sprud. c. 2. p. [...]5. which under their prime cause, are the means of its continuance, in its noblest end, and parts external, living Creatures. This Law of Nature some of the Learned do make four fold, Lex Mosaica, instinctus nature, jus gentium, jus pretori­um. Possevinus makes it of a five-fold nature, Natural, Supernatural, Mosaique, Di­vine, Private. Yea, they make the Law of Nature to consist in those Precepts which are purely good, both as to doing of good, and avoiding of evil; according to that rule of Iustin Martyr, [...]; and in another place, [...].Lib. De Aristot. Dogmat. eversione 54. C. p. 116. p. 119. Now this Law of Nature being explicated in the Law of Moses, and added to by that nomothetique, and despotique Authority that Moses has, as the [...], (as Diodorus Siculus testifies) he had learned from the Egyptian Priests,In Cohortat. ad Graecos, p. 8. as the truth of their Tradition (as Justin Martyr observes.) The Laws of Nations, of what kind soever, are but the prudent Extracts, and divine Comments upon this Text; and the improvement of that natural Sagacity, and political discre­tion, which men of parts, place, and experience express according to the entrusts of God with them. And this being in all places, and in all ages, one and the same in the main, and chief tendency of it, which is preservation of justice, and propagation of hu­manity in all the emergent and occasional branches of them, which diversifie and spread out into infinities, as men and things dilate and increase, the Learned call the Law of Nations, as the common Principles which correspond man with man, jus gentium; and this is defined to be in praeceptis & communibus notionibus homini peculiariter insitis, Budzus in Pan­dect, priores, p. 51. Impress. Basilez, 1534. vi­vindi reclam rationem continentibus. This consists in distinctions of mens Rights, build­ing of houses, erecting of Cities, societies of Life, judgments of Controversies, War, Peace,Fornerius in Le­gem 42. p. 122. De signific. Ver­borum. Captivity, Contracts, Obligations, Successions, and the like; as that judicious Gentleman Sir Thomas Ridley has to my hand observed. Now because this Law is the same to all, in all places, at all times being the instinct of humane nature, and a dona­ry of Gods,View of the Ci­vil and Eccles. Law, p [...]. the natura naturans to the natura naturata in man, therefore 'tis called the Law of Nations, since it links together humane Natures and Societies so firmly, that there is no unluting,Digest. lib. 1. Tit. 1. De justitia &c jure, p. 56, 57.58. or discementing them, but by a ryot and fray against the peace of God's primary position of them: nor can Wars and Animosities justifie themselves of any better Origen then by blows, and monstrous heats, against the serene and just cogna­tion,Florentinus lib. 1. Inslit. lege An [...] not. loc. ut supr [...]. and alliance of man with man, and the common principles leading them to union and amity. But this being not the ordinary notion of jus gentium, I proceed to ho­nour it as the custome and observances of learned and reduced Polities, which of rude are become civil;¶ See K. Iames's Speech, An. 1616 Star Chamber, P. 554. of his Works. Alciatus Brech. & Forner ad legem 10. p. 28, 29. Gajus. lib. 1. Instit. c. 9. Digest. lib. 1. Tit. 1. p. 60. of Ethnique, Christian; of discordant, harmonious. And so by the jus gentium, the * Imperial Laws, ordinarily called the Civil Laws, are to be understood [...] these being the Laws of particular Constitutions, yet are so composed by, and conform­ed [Page 29] to the Laws of Nations, that they are deep Channels of Justice, Wisdom, and Varie­ty,Ulpian, lib 1. In­stit. c. 6. Digest. lib. 1. Tit. 1. De Justitia & Jure, p. 58 and are saved in the opinion of the plurality of civiliz'd men, Ius civile est quod ne­que in totum a naturali vel gentium recedit, nec per omnia ei seruit. Itaque cum aliquid ad­dimus, vel detratrimus Iuri communi, jus proprium, id est, Civile efficimus, saith Vl­pian. Now that the aforementioned Laws do differ in the objects they respect, the Law of Nature suits,Fornerius De Veriorum signific­ad legam 4 [...]. p. 122, 123. omnibus quidem hominibus, sed non solis, because it takes in bruits as well as men. The Law Civil agrees with men onely, but not with all men (for that we in England, and in other parts, more or less, it is excepted against in the Exem­ptions and Salvo's that are allowed against it) but the Law of Nations suits omnibus ho­minibus & solis; and the Civil or Roman Laws being the amplest and oldest System of humane Laws, are highly to be valued, and so are in the Empire, Nonopportere jus ci­vile Calumniari, saith Paulus; and the gloss gives the reason,Lib. 4. Epitom. Alfini. 19. Digest. lib. 10. tit. 4. ad exhibendum. Quia non est pecunia­rium interesse, quum sit inestimabilis scientia, p. 1 190. in marg. p. Doctior.

By the Civil Law, I mean the Law of Nations methodizd and collected into four Tomes.

The first whereof is the Digest à digerendo, or Pandects, from [...],Budaeus in Pandect, p. 56. edit Basil, 1534. Posseuinus Bibliothec. Select. lib. 13. c. 11, &c. seq. Nostrum autem consummationem quaea no. bis De [...] admuente componetur, Digestorum, vel Pandectarum [...]omen babere sanctmus, nullis jurisperitis in posterum audentibus commenta­rios illi applicare, et verbo [...]itate sua supra­dicti codicis compendium confundere. Imp. Caesar Iustinianus in Concil [...] ante lib. Pan­dectatum. p. 13. containing the Works of twenty seven original Law­yers, some of which were before Christ's time, and the rest in the Emperour's days to Maximinus ▪ and to this Tome Iustinian's In­stitutes is added.

The second Tome, or Member of the Law, is the Code in Twelve Books, the Responsa of the fifty six Emperours, and their Council, from the Emperour Adrian to Iustinian's time.

The third is the Authentiques, [...], proceeding from the immediate mouthes of the Emperours, and so being of absolute and unquestionable Authority, this part is called also Novella, Posseuinus Bi­blothec select, lib. 13. c. 16. Ulp. lib. 1. Instit Digest. lib. 1. Tit. 1. p. 58.59. for that the Laws in them are upon emergencies as new matters occasioned new Remedies.

The fourth is liber feudorum, [...], which contains Tenures of a Military Origen. I suppose, some make this as antient as Christ's time others later, but all very antient. These are the grand Records of the Civil Laws, which are artlyly and amply expatia­ted upon by the Learned Doctours in that Science, who truly have in all Ages proved themselves as great Masters of Learning, as any the World has had, and have carryed as great a sway in the transactions of State Affairs, as any other Race of Learned men;Lege Imper. Ju­stin. diplom. De Confirm. Digest. p. 11, 12, 13, &c. ante Tom. 1. Pandect. De Origine Ju­ris p. 70. such as of old were Tib. Corun [...]anus Publ. Papyrius App. Claudius Claud. Centumna­ [...]us Sempronis, called by the Romans as none before or after him was [...] Scipio Nasica Mutius and hundreds of others; which together with their equals of later date such as Vlp. Bartolus Zasius Alciat Hotteman Hopper who all of them in the words of Vlpian declare the Civil Law to be that quod neque in totum naturali vel gen­tium recedit nec per omnia seruit. Itaque cum aliquid addimus vel detrahimus juri commu­ni, jus proprium id est, civile efficimus. And again, Ius autem civile est quod ex legibus, plebiscitis, senatissconsultis, decretis principum, auct [...]ritate prudentium. These are some of those Iura, that the Prince here is not to be ignorant in. But the great Chancellour, as a common Lawyer by profession and preferment, has another kind of Law to ac­quaint the Prince with, as he was supposed by our Chancellour to be rightful Heir of the Crown of England, in which there was a peculiar Manicipe Law. Filia temporis, mater paci [...], fructus sapientiae, fulcrum regiminis, decus regnantis;Doctor & Stud. lib. 1. c. 4. p. 8. grounded upon six principal grounds: First, the La w of Reason: Secondly, the Law of God: Thirdly, on divers great Customs of the Realm: Fourthly, on divers principles called Ma­xims: Fifthly, on divers particular Customs: Sixthly, on Statutes made in Parliament by the King, and by the Common-Council of the Realm.

Such a Law as that Plato describes to be a well-constituted one,Lib. 1. De Legib. p. 773. [...], &c. making the Subjects happy and blessed under, and shining as the fruits of it. This is the Law of England antient, not onely ultra memoriam hominum, but recordorum, the fruits of experience, in the succession of time, the womb of peace, riches and renown in all ages and degrees; the centre and stability of all Governours, and Governments, when they reduced all their Circumferences to its punct of Justice, which is indivisible. In a word, the amplitude and glory of its Monarchs, while they have been ruled by it, dreaded alive, and lamented when dead, because great and [Page 30] good, powerful and just, men in nature, but Gods in munificence. In these Laws, and in the emanations from them, and the Statute-additions to them, the Prince is told, he ought not to be ignorant, because the Law is the rule of his duty, and ignorantia juris non excusat, neither before God in point of Conscience, or men in point of fame; which is the reason, that wise Princes have laboured to know and govern according to the Laws of their Government, and onely unhappy ones neglected themselves in the omission of it; and the effects of swerving from the Law is legible in the troubles of King Iohn, Math. Paris, pag. 231, 245, 384. Wals. in E. 2. Scire Leges, hoc non est verba co­rum tenere, sed vim ac potestatem. Coelius, lib. 16. Digestor. Pag. 238. to the Prince of Wales. Hen. the Third, E. the Second, R., the Second; who not guided by the Laws, had Reigns of War and Tumult. The Prince then was by our Text-Master well advised not to be ignorant of the Laws, lest he prefer Passion above Reason, and being carryed away by the Euroclydon of his Will, forget that pious, prudent, gener­ous Rule of practice, which our late Martyr'd Monarch, blessed King Charles commended in those words, I cannot yet learn (said that martyr'd Oracle) that Lesson; nor I hope ever will you, that it is safe for a King, to gratifie any Faction, with the perturba­tion of the Laws, in which is wrap'd up the publique Interest, and the good of the Com­munity. So renowned King Charles the First. But I proceed to what follows in the Text.

This is added, to take away all Arguments of excuse, which Martial Natures are apt to make in Apology for their artlessness; they say, it effeminates the mind: Did it so in Moses, David, Alexander, Caesar, Iulian, Constantine, Antoninus? nothing less: nor did they allow all time to their accomplishments as Souldiers, Schollars they knew they ought to be, and onely could be by Study, and learned institution, and the Laws of God,1 Jacob. c. s. and Men, as the Treasuries of that they read and considered, and this made them calm Governours, tender Parents, prudent Warriours, politique States­men, victorious Princes, and yet continues them in the reputation of Heroiques. Di­vide a Prince from knowledge and action, curtail him of either of those Diadems, and his Crown is abated; by how much either prevails against other, by so much is he pro­pended to the extream, which is the over-reach of virtues mediocrity. And therefore, as I hold a Prince ought not wholly to neglect Military Affairs, but verse himself in, and accustome himself to them, that he may intonate fear into Neighbours, not to pro­voke him to War, or to contemn him in his appearing; as vainly did the Emperour by the Swedish King, who was the bravest Hector of his Age; no, nor ought he wholly to rely on them, contemning Arts and Policies of Justice and Law; because they direct best how parta & propria conservare, and are the nerves and sinews of success and ho­nour: but joyn them together,In Epift. De Ju­stiniano, Codice confirm. In Panicrol. Tit. 56. De Arma­mentariis, p. 292. etsi milites sive arma propter leges in tuto collecantur, ipsas tamen leges armorum praesidio conservatas Justinianus putavit. So Salmuth. And how little Arms, without managery of Wisdom has profited their undertakers, is evi­dent in the fatal consequences of those brutish engagements, which have been ruinous to Princes, and their Fortunes; as Salmuth has given us many instances to prove the truth of it. And this renowned Queen Elizabeth resolving in her self, who turned the Affairs of Christendom upon the Poles, of her Wisdom and Courage, being truly furnished with both Ornaments, to a degree symmetrious to her Majesty, made her Reign renowned, her Subjects rich and grateful, her Commands absolute and obser­ved, her life prayed for, her death deprecated before it came, and lamented when it came. In a word, left none unsad, but those to whom she justly and honourably was a terrour. And she did this to the amazement of all Christendom, and the immortall honour of the Sex, by being directed by her learned judgment, to temper her Justice with spirit,Sapientiae noceri non potest, nulla delebit atas praesens, nulla diminuet sequens ac deinde sem­per ulterior aliquid ad veneratione [...] conferet, quoniam quidem in vicino versatur invidia. Seneca, lib. De Brevit Vitae. p. 735. and her Mercy with competent se­verity, and by employing such Spectacle State-Ministers, and active Martialists, as shewed her a practical Monarch, who as she knew how to rule supream, so skill'd the method of her supporting that her soleness by the proper aids and shores of it, Laws and For­ces; and this was non praetextu Militiae legem ignorare. For the fundamental and an­tient Laws, Priviledges, and good Customs of this Kingdom, do not onely preserve the King's Regal Authority, (but are the Peoples security of Lands, Livings, and Privi­ledges, [Page 31] both in general, and particular) are preserved and maintained; and by the abolish­ing, or alteration of the which, it is impossible, but that present confusion will fall upon the whole state and frame of this Kingdom. 1 Iac. c. 2. in the Preamble. They are the words of the Statute,

Which considered, there is great reason Princes and Monarchs, especially ours in England, should not be ignorant of the Laws, because they are so essential to their own stability, and their peoples security, as nothing can be more; nay, with­out them,Modestinus, lib. 1. Regularum. known and exercised in that Quaternion of Magistratique method, Imperare, vetare, permittere, punire, which contain the virtue of Laws, there can be no honour to the Prince, no felicity to the People: yea, that Prince that is so un­happy, while he intends so nobly, not to be well resented, may use Cato's words, though in a little other sense, Nihil egisti, fortuna, omnibus conatibus meis obstando, non pro mea adhuc sed pro patriae libertate pugnavi nec agebam tantâ pertinaciâ at liber, Seneca, Ep. 24. sed ut inter liberos viverem, nunc quoniam deplor at ae sunt res generis humani, Cato deducatur in tu­tum. Better for a good King to go to a glorious reward in Heaven, then live to oblige a graceless, and ingrate people. But God being the onely Lord of life and death, is to be attended upon for the issue of things; which if they be not to Princes, as well as other men, such as they would have them; yet are, in whatever they are, such as God permits, and knows best for them to have them. In the mean time, we must en­deavour to do our duties, the Prince not excepted, whose part it is, juris non esse ignarus praetextu Militiae.

A sacerdotibus Leviticae Tribus assumere jubetur exemplar legis, id est, à viris Catholicis & literatis.

This is added, to restrain the King for the Matters of God, to God's own appoint­ment and institution; the Priesthood was setled on Levi by God, Numb. 1.2, 3. and no portion had Levi with his Brethren, for the God of his Priesthood was his portion. Now, God to put a dignity on the Priesthood, does not onely enjoyn the people to consult the Priest, who had the custody and knowledge of the Law; but even the Prince, he was to write the Law from the Original, with the Priests, called here the Levitical Tribe;In loc. not as Aben-Ezra thinks, to distinguish them from other Priests, which were not of the seed of Levi: for Drusius refuses that, upon the ground that the Priests were of the Kindred of Aaron, who was of the Race of Levi; but to keep us close to God's Ordination, who made the Priesthood the Repertory of Law-Learn­ing, [...], as Philo's words are: And hence learned Grotius writes; Hìs vero ratio habetur meliorum temporum, Grotius in Deut. xvii. 9. &c. Here, saith he, is an account of the flourish­ing times of Levi; for then all controversies, judgments, difficulties, were brought before, and resolved by them; but afterwards they declining, and the incomes of the Priesthood be­ing great, and inclining the Priests to sloth and luxury, it fell out in time, that the Learn­ing of the Priesthood was translated into other Tribes, amongst which there were those that excelled the Priests in knowledge of the Law: so that the people did not onely wave the Levites, but even sometimes the High-Priest, and applyed themselves for introduction in the Law of God, to those that were learned, though not Levites, but Lay-men; saith he, out of Maimonides, lib. 2. De Synedrio.

Though therefore the Priests misbehaviour, might eclipse their credit with the peo­ple; yet God's dignification of Levi is plain from Scripture throughout the whole Book of Numbers; and the Authour to the Hebrews mentions it in the fifth of the He­brews, as an augmentation of it.Lib. quod Det. potiert insidi so­leat. p. 166. No man, saith he, takes this honour upon him, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. Yea, and plain is it from Philo, whose words are, [...], &c. Do you not see, quoth he, that God the great Law-giver, did not commit the preservation and charge of holy things to every man, but to the pure and holy Levites. So in another place, [...], &c. The Levite has all the pri­viledges that pertain to a perfect Priesthood, Lib. De Sacrif. Abelis & Caini, p. 152. by which men attain the knowledge of the great God, and are in their sacrifices and services rendred acceptable to him. And in another place he gives the reason, why God took such care of Levi, and made their Habita­tions, Cities of Refuge, as well as their Offices, the keepers of the holy things of God; because they deserted all that was most dear and near to them, to attend his portion who is immortal. The Priests then were the Trustees, to whom the Custody of God's Law was referred. And therefore Princes enjoyned to transcribe the Law from their Original, were to apply themselves to them; so under the Law: nor is it otherwise under the [Page 32] Gospel. For as God under the Old Law by Moses; so under the New Testament by who was faithful in God's Church as a Son, has ordinated an Evangelical Priesthood, not less conspicuous, then the Aaronick one; for, as that was ordained of God for men in things pertaining to God, as it is Heb. v. 1. as that was an honour to those that were of it, who were counted God's portion, as that had the dispensation of offering both gifts and sacrifices,De differentia Mosaici sacerdo­tis & Evangel [...]i lege in Orat. Car­lerii in Concil. Basil. Concil. To. [...]. p. 8. & Orat. Polemarii, p. 522. and making known the Law of God to men, as none were to be of that but Levites, persons separated to that function, as that was exclusive of all other Worship, till the time of refreshing from its burthen of multiplyed Ceremonies came: so the Priesthood or Ministry of the Gospel is ordained by Christ, and the Mi­nisters in it Patrimonium Crucifixi, and the Tythes in it the Ministers right, and all parts of Ministry onely is dispensable by them, and none ought to be accounted in the Ministry, but those separated to God by Canonique Ordination. Thus they an­swer each other; and in one thing the Gospel Priesthood excells the legal. As it is a more spiritual one, so a more durable one, so a more general one, that brought men to see their God through the Glass of Types and Figures; this face to face, that lasted but till the substance came.Catholicus est ille qui credit im­plicité, vel expli­catè actu, vel habi­tu omnia qu'ae per­tinent ad fidem orthodoxam for­matam vel infor­mem. Brulifer. Dist. 59.3. lib. 4. This shall endure, till time shall be no more; that was li­mited to the Iews: This is indulged to all Nations; the Gospel brings salvation unto all men: now, there is neither Iew nor Gentile, bond or free, but all one in Christ Iesus.

So that the Chancellor has done well to expound the Evangelique Rites by viri Catho­lici & literati. Catholici] This word in all Authors is expressed to denote Universality; the Physitians call * that w^ch is profitable to allay and sweeten all humours, a Catholique Medicament; and Quintilian terms universal and perpetual Rules Catholique, Catholici then here is to exclude factious assumption of the Office of Ministry, without admission, and confirmation in it Apostolical, ¶ Lib. 2. c. 13.9 In­stit. Orator. that is, Catholique: for no Ministry is Catholique [...], but that which is by Church-Tradition, Catholique Reception, Apostolique Practice, Scripture-Warrant; which for ought I know, have read, or I think is possible to be found in Scripture-History or Tradition, was Episcopal, in the sense that our Holy Mother the Church of England practises it from the purest times, and piousest presidents. And then Literati, to denote qualifications of the mind to, both understand in themselves their duty, and make others understand theirs also. For the Catholique Church,N [...] putes Ecclesiam, quae in petra est, in una parte esse terrarum, & non diffundi usque ad sines terr [...], &c. S. Augustin. lib. 11. con­triter. Petiliani, c 108. Sic Tract. 32. Super Joannem, 1 Homil. super Apocalyps. de cor­rect. Donatist. c. 3. which is not restrained to any part or particular of the whole Church, either Romane, Reformed, or Greek; but the whole Complex of Christians, having Christ their Foundation, and being the pillar and ground of Truth on him the Rock, though it may differ in circumstantials; yet being one in unity of Faith, and essentials of Worship,Sanctus August, de correct. Donatist, c. 30. Extra hoc corpus neminem vivificat Spiritus Sanctus. and practise of Charity, accounts its particular Ministry, in a true sense, Catholique. And therefore, though the Chancellour by Catholicis mean the Romish Priest, ex­cluding all others,Romanae Ecclesiae abundè satis est gloria partem esse parvam universalis Ecclesiae. Lib. De Officio pii viri, p. 388, 390. yet it is applicable to the Priesthood, or Mini­stry of the Universal Church: of which in Cassander's words, It is abundantly enough honour done the Church of Rome, that it is a small part of the Universal Church. And no National Church is more or less Catholique one then other, Vbi à capite non receditur per falsam, & Scripturis sacris dissentaneam Doctrinam à capite Christo, a corpore vero non per quamvis rituum & opinionum diversitatem sed per solam charitatis defectionem. So he.

So that the Officer that the Catholique Church has admitted to, and empowred with the things of God, the dispensation of his Word and Sacraments, and other holy parts of Priesthood, is Successour to the Prerogatives of the Evangelique Priesthood, of which the Levitical was fore-runner, and no Intruder must be hearkened unto, or admitted to participation in it, who is contrary publicae, antiquae, perpetuae, Quisquis ergo ab hac Catholica Ecclesia fuerit seperatus quantumlibet landabiliter se vivere existi [...]net, hoc solo scelere quod à Christi unitate disjunctus est, non habebit vitam sed ira Dei manet super ipsum. Sanctus Aug. Ep. 100. post collat contr. Donatist. Nomen Caholicum fuit inventum, ut ea di­scriminutione nominis ab haretico cum conven­ticulis cognosceretur esse distincta. Baronius, To 1. ad Am. 42. & universali Ecclesiae consuetudini. For Saint Paul re­probates such interposition as dangerous; we have no such Cu­stome, nor the Churches of God. This be enough for Catholicis viris. And those the Churches of God have always trained up to be, and admitted onely such as be Literati; as Learned, without Catholique, will be but a factious; so Catholique, without Learn­ed, a barbarous Priesthood. The Apostle's rule is to Timothy, Study to shew thy self a Work-man, 2 Tim. ii. 5. that needs not to be ashamed, [Page 33] [...], Operarium inconfusibilem, one that can hew out fit proportions from the mass of Scripture, and orderly set together what he has apportioned for his Ministry, to make it orderly and advantageous,Lib. 1. Contra Cresconium, c. [...] not erubescentem, as St. Augustine expresses it, as they are that boast of more then they can perform, seeming to be what they are not, [...], rectè secantem, that is, carrying himself so, as to hold the Truth free from all extreams, as they do that keep the Channel, and avoid the Rocks on both Shores, Collatio er go inter Dei servos esse debet, non altercatio, saith Saint Ambrose, in loc. Grotius will have it to be similitudo ductà victimis quae certo ritu secari debebant; and, says he, a man is said rightly to divide the Gospel, cum cuique accomodat camonita quae cuique Maximè conveniunt, In Locum. quomodo de victimis aliae partes dabantur sacerdotibus aliae privatis; which being an act of Wisdom, requires learned breeding to direct the Workman unto, and in his work; and upon this ground, as the Priests of old were learned in the Law, so the Ministers of the Gospel, whose mouthes are to preserve knowledge, are to be by Canon learned, and such the Chancellour means by Literati, not such as the Scientique Budaeus laments for being in primorum ordinum sacerdotibus in France, Budaeus in Pan­dect. priores, pag. 186. edit. Basil. where virtutis doctrinéque praemia in homines latinè infantissimos non singula sedbinae, terna congeri veriùs quam conferri vidimus, qui certè non tam bis honoribus orna­ti, quâm obruti esse iniquis oneribus videntur. No such Drones, and over-grown Novices does our Text intend; the holy things of God are under the Gospel committed viris Literatis. Cl [...]. pro Balbo. So Tully expresses viri literati as studiis doctrinisque dediti literatus & de­sertus. So De Clar. Orat. 4. Such, who have much in them, and much written up­on them of knowledge of books and men, and of holiness to the Lord: of the sword in these mens mouthes,In penul. should not that of Plautus be true, In eo ensiculo literarum quid est? But every part of their Exhortation and Reproof, their Information and Dire­ction should be rich and full of Argument.

This is the Chancellours scope, to inform the Nation, that the Christian Ministry, though it had the Levitical for its president, yet not onely succeeds, but exceeds it. And that the Rites of consecrating, or crowning Kings, and taking Oath of them to perform the Laws of their Government, and to maintain the Rites of Holy Church, as they will answer it to God, and the evidences of their Consciences, and the Gospels they swear by, to which the Ministers of God, Bishops, and others, are Witnesses in the behalf of Truth, is no lame and lazy Ceremony, made up onely of extern pomp, but of necessary and renowned consequence; which those that vituperate are Children, and those that would overthrow are Devils; because therein accusers of antient Piety and Prudence, and enemies to Mankind, who generally have the Priesthood in highest honour.

This I the rather touch upon, because we have lately been in, and are not yet wholly purged from the Lees of those unhappy times, wherein, with many, all Antiquity was execrable, nothing pleasing but novelty, decrescebat innocentia in foro, justitia in judicio, in amicitiis concordia, Lib. De Abus. saculi in artibus peritia, in moribus disciplina, as S. Cyprian once complained of his time. No Law, but Lust; no Justice, but Arms; no Church, but a Meeting-place; no Priest, but a High-shoe, or uncatholique illiterate; no Canon, but Enthusiasm; no Mercy; but Ruine. So that truly in our England, there was a kind of Reverter (at least in the menace of the Rabble, and their Arch [...]Dukes) of Draydlike Ethnicism, De Natur. Deo­rum Syntagm, 17. p. 529. Tun [...] maximè Deos propitiari, cum per cruciatum hominem excarnificâssent, saith Giral­dus of the Druids, and 'twas too true of them.

But blessed be God, we are in a better state now, the exemplar legis has been ten­dered the King, à viris Catholicis & literatis, and now the Eccho of our Learned Chan­cellour may humbly present the pre-instanced Scripture, Chap. xvii. of Deuteronomy, as that which is the noblest Monitor of the Prince's duty, that any where, in any Author, in any time is to be found.

Liber quippe Deuteronomii est liber legum quibus Reges Israel subditum sibi populum, Regere tenebantur. This is added, to shew the Text-Master's love to the Prince, in his preference of Deuteronomy, Plinius in Ep. Caninio Rufo, Ep. 6. and the xvii. Chapter of it, for his direction, to be ac­cording to much Wisdom; for that it is Methodus regiminis quo Reges Israelis teneri deberent, God's precise determination of the King to that, as his Oracle and path to walk by, and in. Indeed, I am of Pliny's mind, Sum ex iis qui miror antiqu [...]s, &c. I [Page 34] am of their minds, who admire the Antients, but yet not so to despise the acquirements of later men and times; for that were to accuse Nature, as spent, and defective to a generous pro­duction of Rarities, now as well as heretofore. I know there are Tracts of Policy, and Treatises of Institutions for a Prince, which of late have been proposed to the World with notable art, and subtile insinuations: nor are the later Wits less keen, nor their Writings less polite, then those of their Antecessors: But these are but men that wrote, and what they wrote subject-like them to errours and mistakes. Moses, the Penman of this, was one of God's infallible Secretaries, and he propounds to the King (that was Prophetically regulated and admonished, for Israel was yet under Moses his Regiment) [...],Philo. lib. 1. De Creati Princi­pis, p. 725. &c. The noble Mean between the Iron and Leaden Extreams how he shall be, [...], &c. An admirer of right, a judger of wrong, a propagator of truth, as the best Pillars of a durable Regality. This, says Philo, Moses propounds herein, as a Reward to the Prince that is led by it; and therefore no wonder, though Moses direct to Deuteronomy, as his second, and most compleat System of the Law. For though there were many parts of Holy Writ that perswaded the Prince to love the Law, and to embrace it as the Rule; as that where no Law is, the People perish: or that of Saint Paul, The Law is just, and holy, and good; and if it had not been for the Law, Rom vii. 12. Rom. vii. 7. I had not known sin. Or that of our Saviour, who be­ing interrogated by the Iews, questions of import, answers them, by referring them to the Law; How is it written in that Law?

Though I say the Chancellour might have illustrated the beauty and use of the Law from other Scriptures, yet in that he waves them all here, and refers to this Book, and this Chapter of this Book, 'tis a strong Argument, he thought it the most opposite to the Prince's instruction, Partem Scripturae politicam & legislativam; as Aure [...]lus his words are.In Pentateuch. Well he knew, good Chancellour, that every word of God was good; but that these were like those of Solomon's Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver, the onely words he could artlyly use to his purpose, Deuteronomium est quasi incensa, & perpetua concio, e [...]que de causa Mosis, c. 17. v. 18. jussit ut novi Reges, elegendique de­scribunt sibi Deuteronomium,In argumento an [...]e Deuteronom. ut discant timere Deum, &c. saith A. Lapide.

It's true indeed, every Book of Moses has his peculiar excellency, as it answers some useful end of God in the Production of his Designs there described: in Genesis there is description of God as the enjoyner of the Law; in Exodus, of Moses the Minister of the Law;Lorinus in pr [...]fat ante Deuteron. [...] Beda In loc. in Leviticus, of the Heads and Content of the Law; in Numbers, of the Na­ture of the People, to whom this Law was given; but in Deuteronomy, there is a short Recapitulation and Conclusion of the Law given; the last words of Moses, most pithy, most memorable, most cull'd: and A. Lapide says his Book was made upon three Causes. First, for supply of Mortality, because all the old men that came out of Egypt, and heard the Law delivered on Mount Sinai were dead. Secondly, because Moses was now to dy, and being to leave the people of his care and love, he leaves them instructed in the Law by this Copy, and perfect Accompt of it. Thirdly, for that the words of Rulers and Princes have most sway with the people they govern, he leaves them this Book, as the lasting Memorandum, and Iournal of their duty, and enjoyns Gover­nours to transcribe it, that by remembring it themselves, and ruling their people ac­cording to it, they may be happy and beloved as Moses was. For so it follows,

Well did Moses know the temptations of greatness, that Kings are but men in na­ture, though Gods in sacredness; that Power is apt to arrogate a Prerogative above Mortal Restraints, and that the nature of man frail in them, is apt to pervert God's in­tention in the latitude of their Commission. Therefore Moses claps the Clog of God on the King's Conscience, and enjoyns him to read and write over the Law of him and his Government, as he will answer the violation of it through ignorance or perverse­ness to the God of that Law, in whose hand his life and breath is, [...], &c. saith Philo, Lib. De Nomi­num Mutatione. p. 1048. That his corrupt Nature being awed by God's Soveraignty, may by fear and aw of it be restrained from exorbitant rigours, and vain excursions.

Indeed, as the Law of God is the best Book; so fear of God is from the best Lesson [Page 35] man can learn. No grace has more of the exaltation of God, and depression of man, then fear has; and no man has more need to have God's fear in him, then a King that is free from the fear of man onhim. Saint Bernard makes fear prima gratiarum quaetotius Reli­gionis ex [...]rdium est; No fear, no Religion. Therefore the Wise-man says, Fear God, and keep his Commandements, that is the whole duty of man. in the last of Eccles. It à est primus in ordine gratiarum sicut paupertas in ordine Beatitudinum, De donis Spir. Sancti. c. 1. Lib. De Abre­hamo, p 351. saith that Fa­ther. Indeed fear, as it may be objected and accented, as it may be tinctured and by­assed, may in Philo's words be [...], an ill adviser. It may be Ionas in our ship cause a storm, and endanger all the serenity of our inward peace: this his fear, the fear of man; a fear of incredulity, a fear of inverting God's position, making God less, and man more then he is. In an evil fear, forbidden by God, perfect love casteth forth this fear; 'tis a fear of servility, not ingenuity; the fear of Bastards, and not Sons: 'tis the nail in our heads, after the butter and milk in a Lordly dish, which this World's flatteries, and the Iael's of infirmity treat us deceitfully, and to our ruine. But holy fear, to fear the Lord and his goodness, is the felicity, as well as duty, of not onely Sub­jects but Princes: nay, 'tis paramountly pertinent to Princes, because the onely object of their fear, as a Superiour to them, employs it, and as a God to them, deserves it. And this the Hebrew phrase here [...], translated to fear imports: for 'tis none of those ordinary words the holy Language has; for ordinary fear not [...], the fear of one, a stran­ger in a Land that is not his own; as Psal. cxx. 5. nor [...], a fear of tristicity: so Psal. xxxviii. 18. nor [...], a fear of modesty, like that of youths, who blush for fear, when they come before men of age and worship, Iob xxxii. 6. which we call a run­ning our heads in a hole; nor [...], a fear causing an uproar in the mind, Isa. xxxii. 11. like that [...], charged on Martha, Tumultuaris circa plurima, c. v. nor [...], a fear that wholly unmans us, Deut. xxviii. 16. nor [...], a fear taking away all hope of acceptance, Esay xli. 10. Nor this, or any of these fears, which melt down the spi­rit, and make a manless fusility in the ponderous and masculine nature of man: none of these is the fear here.Beatus es, si cortuum triplici isto timore repleveris. ut timeas quidem pro accepta gratiae amplius pro amissa longè plus pro re­cuperata. Sanctus Bernardus Serm. 54. super Cantie. Cantie. That which Moses lessons the King to learn from the Lord's Law, is [...], which is a fear provoking to worship, and draw near to God; such a fear as argues love and duty, to fear him [...]so as to fear him onely, him always, so as to cast down their Crowns and Scepters at his feet, and to serve his glory with their compleat absoluteness. This is the King's timere deum, but it has an adjunct and copulation, which makes it both appear to be what it is in truth, and to make the principle from which it is sound in a suitable effect, keep his Commandements all the days of his life. This is that which ingratiates the fear of God with God, when 'tis seen in obedience to him, according to his declared Will, his Law, and that in every particular, not one, but all his Commandements; and that not sometimes, and not at o [...]her times, but all the days of his life. This is to be upright with God, as was King David, Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all thy Commandements. This is non currere per man­data sad ambulare in mandatis; to make God's glory the end of Princes Lives and Reigns. And this is to produce what in our Text follows.

This is well inferred from the presumption of its cause; to write the Law, is the way to remember it; to love it, the way to practice it; and to practice it, is to be what the Law here is told us to aim at, Fear God, and keep his Commandements, fully and con­stantly. This our Chancellour calls an effect of the Law, because the Law is in God's intention, and the ordinary way of his dispensation, thus to dispose Kings, as it offers them the Rational and Religious answering of the end of their Power, and his Pre­script: for Philo makes the Law as [...], &c. God's declaratory of his Will, Lib. De Migrat. Abraham [...]. p. 408. both as to what man may, and may not do. And therefore, inasmuch as fear is a postnate of knowledge, and knowledge the means of ingenerating divine fear; and this knowledge is conveyed to us by the Law, according to that of the Apostle, I had not known sin but by the Law. Not that the Law has any efficacy, to illuminate man to an efficiency of Holy and Reverential Fear. For that is true of the Law, which Saint [Page 36] Augustine wrote of Free-will,In solutionibus Questionum [...]i la [...]i. q. 1. Valet liberum arbitrium ad opera bona, si divinitùs adju­vetur, quod [...]t humiliter petendo & faciendo, desertum verò divino adjutorio quamlibet scientia legis excellat, nullo modo habebit justitiae soliditatem, sed inflationem impiae superbiae & exitiosum tumorem. [...]9 Epist. ad Hi­lar. And so in another place, Nam & lex ipsa in hoc adjutorium data est illis, qui eâ legitimè utuntur, ut per illam sciant, vel quid justitiae jam acceperint, unde gratias agant, vel quid adhuc eis desit quod instanter petant. Whereas therefore the knowledge of what is our duty to do, and not to do, is said to be [...]he effect of the Law, which teaches us what, and how to do our duty, or not do; it is to be understood, not a necessary effect, such as follows the cause, but an effect in order, that is, where ever fear of God is, there the Law of God, known and observed, has been the ordina­ry means of producing it, and not onely the [...]escue to point us to our Lesson, but the in­stigatour of us to learn and practise it. And indeed, to this end has the Will of God concerning man its patefaction in the Law, that man might not be under any impossibi­lity of knowing what he is, and is not to do; nor plead ignorance, when his omissions and errour [...] shall come to Arraignment: and therefore as here is much mercy in God's promulgation, so is there a call to us in it of eternal gratitude. For the Law written on the heart, and rivetted in the created nature, would have compurgated God from cruelty to his Creature, in punishing the breach of his Law, which they had such pre­vious and plenary warning of. But in that he has been pleased to write his [...]aw, and our duty, in such legible, and indelible Characters, as are learnable; not to know his Will by the Law, is to despise God from Heaven, and to sin against our Maker, and his Mercy. To fear then the Lord, as it is an act of service to God, so of mercy to our own souls, because it puts us out of fear of his fury; who is a consuming fire, who has power of soul and body; and it puts us into the protection of his promise, that No good thing shall be wanting to those that fear him, Psal. 34.9. And for asmuch as this fear is as in God causally, so in the Law institutionally; and Moses, by the [...]pirit of God, directs Kings to the Law as their Academy and Oraculary; because they being [...], &c. as Philo calls them,Lib. [...]. De Vita Mosis, p. 654. are not onely to take care that secular matters be car­ryed on well and wisely, but also the matters of God and his service. Kings and all in Authority shall do well to study the Law, that they may know to do the Will of their Lord; for that is to know God aright, to practicate his fear from a principle of Con­science, and holy affection to God▪ When not to oblige him to be ours, if any act of ours properly could so do, but to glorifie him as our chief good, is the sourse of our service, when we study to know, that we may be ready and regular, in doing what we know we ought, to shew forth the virtue of him that has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light. This, this is to know the Will of God, which is written in his Law; because this is perfect Charity, which is the fulfilling of the Law; and without this all the Notional and Grammatique Knowledge of the Law abstracted from pra­ctise of the duties postulated, is but nothing. So true is that of Saint Augustine, Pro bonis operibus sperastiterrenam quandam felicitatem;In prima quin­quagena ex Pro­l [...]g [...], Psal. 31. impius es, non est ist a merces fidei, cara res est fides, vili illam addixisti, impius ergo es & nu [...]a sunt operatua, move as licet in bonis operibus lacertes, & videaris navem optimè gubernare, in saxa festinas. So that Father; and so our Lord Jesus, If ye know these things, blessed are ye, if ye do them.

Principium omnis famulatus, est scire voluntatem domini cui servitur. Here the Chancellour proceeds to confirm what went before, from the consideration of do­mestique Order, which is suitable to the greater Polity of Kings and People; nay, of God and Man: for in Families there is a Lord and Servants; the one commands, be­cause he is Master of all, and his Will is their Law: the other obeys, because he is bound, as he eats, drinks, is cloathed, and lives by, and under his Master. Now in this service, which the Chancellour calls famulitium, as after Festus he does, servus famula­tus, the first and chiefest thing is to know the Master's pleasure,Ep. 47. and to study, and actu­ally answer it, Si [...] cum inferiore vivas, quemadmodum tecum superiorem velles vivere. And because the Will of the Lord and his humour was best seen by frequent being in his company. Seneca tells us antiently, the Masters did admit their Servants to eat with them; yea, and that the Masters might see what tempers their Servants were of, and what commands could best bear, Instituerunt diem festum quo non solum cum servis do­mini vescerentur, sed quo utique honores illi in domo gerere, jus diceré permiserunt, & [Page 37] domum pusillam Rempubl. esse judicaverunt, Ep. 47. Servants thus encouraged, the Ma­ster expected a return in observance; no dispute, no delay, to be sure no opposition: The Servant was, whatever he understood his Masters pleasure to have him be, accord­ing to that of Philo, Lib. quis rerum divinarum. Ha­ret. p. 482. [...], &c. The onely praise of a Servant, to think no command of his Masters slight, but to do all to his utmost pleasure, that he thinks he wills. And therefore God alluding to the Soveraignty of Earthly Masters, says, objuregatively to Israel. If I be a Master, where is my fear? Vbi est obedientia servi sub imperio domini? and the Apostle, to strengthen the authority of Masters over Ser­vants, says, Servants be obedient to your Masters in all things, for this is well-pleasing, and acceptable to God. How holy Paul obey in all things? yea, in all things: Sup­pose he commands Idolatry, or Murther, or any other sin, is he to be obeyed in this? Yes, he is to be obeyed, but not in the kind of the command he exercises, in the Ser­vants disposition, but not in the act of termination to such his command, Cum dominus carnis à domino spiritus diversum imperat, non est obediendum, saith Saint Ierom, and Ter­tullian, who owns this Canon, yet modifies it, sed intra limites Disciplinae, obey him so far as he obeyes God. Ideò Romanas leges contemnimus, ut divinae jussa servemus, said the Martyr Sylvanus, Justinus Martyr in Apol. 2. pr [...] Christian. [...], &c. We worship indeed but one God, but we are loyal servants to Kings and Emperours, praying constantly for them, that they may wisely and worthily discharge their trusts towards their people, as we profess their people ought to express loyal duty to them. And Seneca is positive, that virtuous minds, contra Remp. imperata non facient, nulli sceleri manus commodabunt. Let Stra­tocles flatter Demetrius never so highly, and desire the Athenians to pass a Law, Vt quicquid Demetrio Regi placuisset, id in Deos pium, & inter homines justum esset: yet Integrity will not swallow any unjust command, though it dare not disobey by contu­macy a just [...]ower, while it acts unjustly: but in things that are indifferent, in things civil and prudential,Philo, lib. De Confusione Lin­guarum, p. 333. there the Master is so absolute, that the servant is bound to obey throughly and constantly, and has no remedy, but to pray [...], &c. that God their onely Saviour would hear and relieve them.

This was the state of Servants bound to obey; yet had they also a priviledge, when they were veteranes and faithful: For then, as they were secundi liberi, where Chil­dren were, so where they were not, they did in jus liberorum transire. To which pro­bably our Apostle alluded, when he made the priviledge of Adoption to consist in tran­slation from Servants to Sonship. This is notably set forth by Abraham, in the case of Eleazar of Damascus his Steward, Gen. xv. 3. Behold! to me thou hast given no seed, and one born in mine house (to wit, Eleazar, v.5) is mine Heir.

This Eleazar of Damascus so called, because he had possibly either purchased a house at Damascus, or had some Rule there (not born there) is in Chap. xxiv. 2. said to be [...] Procurator filius, or gubernator d [...]mus, in cujus manu relinquam omnia quae mihi sunt, saith Rabbi Ioseph, filius discursationis, who checks all under my Roof. This is he of whom Abraham says, [...] haereditat mihi, that is, He at present possesses mine for me, and hereafter shall possess mine for himself. Now this being the compensation of antient and faithful servants, that they may in time come to this, the principal familique prudence is, to study the Master, and to let no word of his fall to the ground, no command of his be neglected; and this is scire voluntatem domini. For since the servant is in his body, his Lords, and has all accommodation from his Lord; what is more reasonable, then that his Lord should be, in this World, and in things lawful, all in all to him: so that the servant having no sphere so proper for his actuation, as his Masters will, and that will being best observed, by setting ones self to the exact knowledge of it, the Chancellour has fitly made it the first knack in the van of service, and that which makes the Master pleased with his servant, and with his service as such.

Legis tamen laetor Moses, primo in hoc edicto effectum legis, videlicet timorem Dei com­memorat, deinde ad custodiam causae ejus, viz. mandatorum Dei ipse invitat, nam effectus prior est quàm causa in animo exhortantis. That which our Chancellour calls Legisla­tor, Philo terms [...],Lib. De Monat­chia, p. 819. because Laws being [...]; and to sacred purposes, for order and distinction, security and beauty, the deliverers of them to the people they ruled, may fitly be termed [...]; which, though all Law-makers de­serve not to be; because, as they may rule solely, yet not be Kings, and People, yet by [Page 38] no Law: so they having not so much of Divine Rectitude in their Titles and Transa­ctions, may abate in the deserts and right to such nominal Titles. But Moses was none of these; he obtains power justly, uses it moderately, and resigns it willingly, when God his Principal, determining his life, calls Ioshuah to succeed him. This, this indeed, was [...], nay, [...], somewhat above the rate of men; for, as [...]de habent quaerit nemo, sed opportet habere. So when 'tis had; oh! to keep to their stipulations is death to them. If violation be more advantageous, no swasion of Religion, no fear of losing fame, no disgust of their People, keeps such lawless and boundless Natures in aw, they will do what Providence prompts them to, and Prudence suggests, as a necessa­ry Expedient,Con [...]zen. Poli­tic. lib. 5. c. 20. p. 339. though they do perjure themselves, and confound all, that Laws and Po­licy has distinguish'd; and all this they do, because the light in them is darkness, and the salt unsavoury. They consult with the false Oracles of flattery and self-magnification, and decline God's fear lesson'd in his Law. Were that, their Councellour, they would do nothing under pretence of God, but according to God, not rule, but as he does, sua­viter & fortiter; first with justice, and then with courage, and that by & according to God's Law, which directed by God, discovers the soules vanity, and instruct to fear God's Power, and love his goodness, as its compleat restraint from enormity. I know God by Miracle can instruct Kings, as he rained Mannah, and raised the Apostles from letterless Fisher-men, to learned Metropolitans, and profound Doctours. He can do by his absolute omnipotence what he will, and therefore is not obliged to qualifie Princes with fear and observance of him according to the method of Nature or Art, his Will being the Law: 'tis but say, and do: so the Chaos testified a passivity to his information; nor did in the pre-existent Matter ought reside, that had any refractory­ness in it. It did not, it could not appeal from his Will; for that had no superiour, no equal. But in that, God now discovers himself to us in familiar and natural methods, and leaves causes to their natural operation, ordinarily interposing no Power to suspend or impede the production of effects from causes; and inasmuch as the effect is first in nature of project, though last in order of time, the cause Physically precedeing it: Therefore the Chancellour advises to get holy and humble fear from the Law, which is God's un­doubted will to us; and that which we knowing, and doing, in such knowledge and deed shall be blest. This is the sum of this Clause.

Our Chancellour having wrote great things of holy fear, and made it, that Lucifer which shines in the Souls firmament, as an effect of God's Law read and practised, now comes to limit us to a right notion of it, that we may not mistake its counterfeit for the currant and noble grace of fear;Timor filialis ori­tur à duplici ra­dice; 1. a co­gnitione divinae magnitudinis, & a dilectione Dei Aragonius in S. Secundae, Diui Thomae. 919. Art. 2. De Timore, p. 264. and this he does, by distinguishing of fear, as a nude and rude passion, from what it is as a complex of graces, and a renovated prin­ciple, which makes us commensurate, in such degrees as humane frailty allow, to God's requiry of us in order to his glory, our Neighbours good, and our own personal and soulary felicity. For as it is not every Medicine that cures, every Suitor that succeeds, every Valour that is victorious, every Speaking that is oratory; so is it not every fear that is this fruit of the Law this favourite of God. There is fear that quivers through a guilty pusillanimity; there is fear that precipitates to a desperate ferocity; there is fear that sinks men beneath their station, into the stupidity of dull insects of sensless in­animation; fear that petrifies, and obdurates to an immobility; fear that lethargizes the spirits, and makes a man dead, while living. These fears may sometimes be useful, and God by their Revulsions work great effects preparatory to the fear of Worship and Reverence,Timor Dei est me­tus reverentiae, & cultus, A Lapide in Ecclus. xxiv. 24. p. 28. so often brings the terrour into the Conscience, and thereby pricks the sinner at the heart, letting out all the purulency, and impostumation of sin by its Lan­cet; and that removed, makes a kindly Avenue to his fuller work of Repentance and Conversion. In which sense, Saint Paul calls the Law, our School-Master to bring us to Christ: because as the School-Master cultivates youth, and weeds out by his Disci­pline all the trash, and corrects him for all the wilful breaches of his Rules, and so brings him at last into a pliant and regular temper, in which all after proficiencies [Page 39] thrive from their implantation to a great and graceful increase: so does God by toe­ling the sinner to read, and in reading to be taken with the terrours of the Law against the sin he is guilty of; so dismount and caress him, that for ever after he is a changed man; that as God did call off Paul from his eager Pharisaism, and Saint Augustine from his prophane Manichism, by the voyce of his power and mercy effectually touch­ing them; so does he often do by others, through the ministration of the Law; the threatnings of it being as so many voyces, and Counsels of desistance and abhorrence. This Saint Bernard counsels the sinner to observe,Serm. 13. Inter paervos Sermones▪ Timor servilis quantùm ad [...]ser­vitutem est malus, tamen quantùm ad substantiam est bonus. Arago­nius in secundam. Secundae Tho. 919. Art. 4. De Timore, p. 268. that he may be happy; Fili accedens ad sernitutem Dei, sta in timore, si ex timore te feceris illius servum, faeciet te ex charitate amicum suum, & sic aqua timoris commutabitur in vinum dilectio­nis. But this fear, though it be like poyson, useful by the modification of Omnipo­tence; yet it is not the fear of those, whom God values Jewels, and, as such, will pro­tect, Mal. iii. 'Tis not the fear of God's Elect, spuriorum timor, non filiorum; 'tis ti­mor praedae, non probitatis, a fear that preys upon the vitals of ingenuity, and like imbib'd spirits at present refreshes, but after grate on, and overwhelm them, without God san­ctifie it to illuminating purposes. Therefore this fear quà such being not of stanch materials, and loyal composure, is not able to fortifie against evil, and to provoke to good; not make the soul as compleat towards God, as the Queen of Navar's accom­plishments rendered her to the World, when she not onely bore up the degree and esti­mation of a Queen, D'Avila, p 363. though she had no Kingdom, but kept up her self, and built up the greatness of her Son, in spight of adverse fortune; but it flags, and renders the man that is acted by it mercenary, illiberal, and constrainedly onely good, being so far from enfranchising the soul, that it servilize it, and reduces it to an angustation of per­plexity.

Whereas the fear of God,Greg. Naz. Orat. 53. on Eccles. p. 756. expresses it. which Moses magnifies as the Laws work in the sacred heart of Kings, is quasi auriga animae, quasi nauclerus animae, quasi specula animae; 'Tis [...], a salutiferous, but a rare endowment; and a good Prince applyes that of Synesius to the fear of God, makes God's fear the Philosophy he sets down to, [...], in Ep. 45. ad Herculianum. That which carryes him not Phaeton-like, furiously up to the Clouds of Pride, but Christianly, by the safe path of Humility, steers him to secure his immortal soul from those exitials that are occasioned by two much either of presumption or de­spair, gives him a Prospect of God in his Soul and in Heaven, in the Throne of his af­fections, and in the bliss of his divine supereminency; and by this incoats glory even in this state of mortality;A Lapide in loc. which A Lapide, on those words of the Son of Syrach, Chap. 34.15. Blessed is the soul of him that feareth the Lord, to whom he doth look, and who is his strength. Thus descants on, parata [...]st anima (saith he) sapientis tum in spe, quia per timorem, & amorem Dei sperat certóque assequetur speratam à se Beatitudinem, tum in re, quia beatitudo hujus vitae consist it in timore filiali, hoc est, in amore Dei, quia per eum fit amicus, filius, & haeres Dei, & cohaeres Christi, quare ut filius, à Deo protegitur, dirigi­tur, omnique bono cumulatur. Thus he. And therefore as it follows in our Chan­cellour.

In this conclusion of his first Chapter, our Chancellour has reduced into a compen­dium, all that he writes concerning the subject of Fear, as the Lesson of the Law to the Prince. And, as in the former Clause, he shewed what fear the Law wrought not as its proper and most noble work, that is, in the effectuation it expresseth to the mind, that is taught by God: so in this does he set forth specially what it is in the use­ful and proper proceed of it towards a gratious and well-inclined person; and this he [Page 40] does out of that of the Psalmist, Psal. The fear of the Lord endures for ever: not by a duration of time; for the absorption of Faith by Vision, and Hope by Frui­tion, determines all fear, as it is in order to beatitude; for that being enjoyed, fear, the means to it, is lodged in its end; but the fear of the Lord endures for ever, that is, it makes the fearers of God so walk before God, while they are in the way to him; as that he shall take them into glory with him, and give them a coeternity of beatitude with him, which shall as little cease to be what it is, as his own Essence shall: so that he being for ever and ever his united to him by grace, shall in glory also have a be­ing and endurance for ever and ever, or else for ever and ever, [...], is an ac­cumulate expression, denoting a constant method of God in all distributions of his to men by holy fear, to usher in all their subsequent services. And this is but as the way to that he wages; whether one or both senses amounts, but to the acclamation of filial fear, which is the Oyl of Charity, the odour of a sweet-smelling Sacrifice to God: so far from being inconsistent with the Charity, that is, the bond of Perfection, that it is the very Charity, that is, the Bond of Perfection. Since thus to fear God, and keep his Commandements, is the whole duty of man. And this to do, though it does not paenam non merere, Caten. Graec. Patrum, p. 439. [...]. Isidor in Job xxviii as the Chancellour's words are, which attributes too much to the opus operatum, in the desert of it; since all our righteousness is but as a filthy rag before God; and when we have done all, we are commanded by our Lord to say, we are but unprofitable servants, and so no meritters, but demeritters. Yet does the acceptance of God's mercy crown this fear so far in us, that it makes us more then Conquerours over our corruptions, which are deservedly our fear, and entails us to the sure mercies of David, which are emanations of fidelity, and munificence inseparable from the fearers of God, because founded upon the veracity of his immutable Godhead. And hence it is, that Iob his determination of God's fear to be wisdom, and to depart from evil to be understanding, chap. 28. is literally and infallibly to be understood, as inde­fatigble; and the same is expressed to be, because it is the fear of the fontal and dura­bly wise being, and so is objectively Wisdom, and it worketh a practice in man suitable to the purpose of God in his Creation and Endowment,Gregorius Theo­log. apud Caten. Graecorum Pa­trum in Job xx. p. 436. [...], &c. A holy life is the first and most excellent Wisdom, and that which is most clean and acceptable with God; which is, to abhor and recede from evil, as God's opposite and Antagonist in his soul, and so argues understanding, and makes him subjectively wise, because wise,2 Jer. 13. [...], Greg. Naz. Orat. 53. both the witness of wise actions, since sin is absolute folly, as God charges it in his people. My people have committed two evils; forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and digged to themselves broken Cisterns that will hold no water. So that the Law of God, in all senses, teaching man his duty, and quickning his endeavour by grace, imparted him to a capacitation of it, and a resignation of him to the conduct and empire of it, may well be magnified by our Chancellour in this first Chapter; and the Scripture he re­fers the Prince to from the Book of Deuteronomy, of all other, be the most peculiar to the ends of his Instruction in the fear of God, and to the observation of his Precepts all the days of his life; saying of our Chancellour, as Synesius does of his Herculian, [...], &c. If there be question, Whether there be Syrens, so long as your Instructions remain, Ep. 145. they will put them out of question, since in every line of them they have such melodious notes, as wholly Fortescue, the Prince, and render him unable for ad­miration to contain himself. And so I end the first Chapter, referring the Reader for the fuller satisfaction of the latitude of holy and servile fear, to the many Authours, whose Works have much of it; as they may be read in Fabian Iustinian his Index Universa­lis. Printed at Rome, Anno 1612. p. 529. and in the Scholemen, who generally have written as largely on the Head of Fear, as on any other common place whatever. And so I proceed to what follows in

CHAP. II.

HAEC ut audivit Princeps, erecto in senem vultu sic locutus est] because I look up­on these Dialogues, as to the Persons, as well as to the Matter real, and not fictive: therefore I term this Chapter the Prince's Replication to the Chancellour. And three notable things it is considered for: First, the Prince's civility, in a speedy repay of his love; haec ut audivit Princeps. Secondly, the Prince's preparatory pertness, to op­pose [Page 41] his youth to this grave and wise Chancellour's age, erecto in senem vultu, sic locu­tus est. Thirdly, the Prince's pregnant and pathetique Reply in the following matter.

First, the civility of the Prince's return to the Chancellour's counsel, is notable: no sooner had he a sense that he was obliged, but instantly he meditates the compensation, haec ut audivit Princeps. 'Tis true, men may have courtesies done them they know not of, and then their detinue of thanks, till they have notice that they have received kind­ness, is their excuse: but when a kindness is done, and so palpably, as we our own selves, are privy to, and convinced of the reality of it; if then we either do it not at all, or not seasonably, and while 'tis warm and fresh, we do amiss. For, as ingratum est bene­ficium quod diu inter manus dantis haesit; so is the thanks suspectable not to be real, when it is cold, and comes by grand paws, and tedious crawlings to those we ow it to. This our Prince abhorring, as knowing the suspition of ingratitude, too great a blot for Majesty to be branded with, suffers nothing to impede his thanks to the Chancellour, but sends by the same Post that brought the Narrative Packet, his recoil of acceptance, haec ut audivit: no Arrow as it were, is impelled toward the Mark; no thought ejacu­lated to its object, no volubility of the eye more quick, then this courtesie of his Prince­ly heart, haec ut audivit, that is, non citiùs audivit quam retribuit; well knowing that of the Moralist was true, qui citò dat, his dat; and that he who makes no haste, has lit­tle good will.

It is I know, a way, of narrow minds, to defer rependments, in hope that time may wear out the expectation in those that deserve it, as it does the gratitude of those that are deserved of: such spirits are frequent to vulgar births and brats of self-admira­tion, who are content, every body, should admire them, and as divine, offer to them; while they in no sort divine, are immunificent; no rain of their bounty, no sun-shine of their favour falls on their adorers, though their loves to them, make them their costly Votaries: all they sow upon this Rock, and commit to this Cormorant, is sure to be thin come up, though thick sown. And well it were, if such degeneracy were the botch and deformity of men of low degree:Ingrata patria non habebis essa mea. Dictum Scipionis. but greatness sometimes has been capable of these ingratitudes; yet the Prince takes no president from them that are great, but not good, and have prelation above others in body and blood, but not in mind and vir­tue. Therefore his practice is to haste out of debt, to accept of what is in love presented him, and to represent himself the owner of it: this is the first thing, the Prince's acce­leration, reddere quod recepit, cui recepit;

Secondly, the Prince's preparatory pertness is notable; pertness, in that he takes fire immediately upon the stroke, and kindles by his own innate candor, and the vestal touch of his gentle mind; and preparatory, I term it, because it was ordinated to usher in the subsequent matter, more conveniently. It was the Preface to the Dis­course, and the Porch to this Pupil-like entertainment of the grave Chancellour. Erecto in senem vultu; he does not roughly frown, or rudely grin, but gravely youth out his mind to his Instructor, erecto in senem vultu. Of all the parts in man, the face we call the Market-place, and in the face the eye is the jewel of it. Of all the senses of man, sight is the noblest; not onely because it is the Organ even of our Clarification in Hea­ven, and that which we see the face of God by, but because here in this World it is the instrument of our Earthly Heaven, Wisdom, and Philosophy; which, in Philo's words, have their initiation from no other thing in us, [...], &c. then from it as the Prince of the Senses;Lib. De Abraha­mo, p. 373. therefore, though he calls it small in bulk, yet he adds, 'tis that organ which views the great things of Heaven and Earth. Thus, as Phidius, to use his words, Did out of every material, make Statues, Gold, Wood, Stone, Iron, his Art appearing in every Figure, let the Materials be never so trite, that any one that had artly eyes might see him the Workman: so God the great Architect of man, though he has made him to consist of parts more and less noble; yet in the minutest and least glorious part has he instanced his matchless power and goodness. Alas! the face, it is but a ball of flesh, and the eye but a bubble, which Omnipotence keeps clear and plump; yet how inexpressible is the prevalence of these to captivate love, to search into art, nay to do actions, second in a sort, to those of miracle and astonishment.

But I say no more of the face, for that's ipsa oris species; our Prince is here said, eri­gere [Page 42] vultum, Lib. De Orator. [...].3 De Oratore 12. and that's to present his Will, quae pro motu animi, infacie ostenditur. So Tully, Vultus qui sensus animi plerúmque indicant; and Imago animi vultus est, indi­ces oculi; and as dejection of Countenance shews a guilt, which Cain confirms after that fraticidial facinus, when God told him his Countenance was fallen from his brightness to be sad:Ep. 94. so erection of Countenance is a token of God's primaeve largess, and Nature's innocency resting in us. Ille vultus nostros erexit in coelum, & quicquid mirificum magnúmque fecerato à suscipientibus voluit, &c. saith Seneca. Indeed, the Antients, and men of wisdom in all Ages, have made the Countenance the Horizontal Line, upon which the Idaea's of the Mind, and the possessions of the Regency there, turn themselves open to a perfect view; when there is a sad disastre, and a lugubrious uncouthness within, there will be a flag of defiance to joy, and gentleness in the Vi­sage; there will be ambiguus, ac consceleratus vultus, as Horace says; Quintilians, di­stortus vultus, Lib. 6. c. 3. Herc. Fu [...]. Ovid's Durus, Ferinus, Terribilis, Trepidus, Tristis vultus; Seneca's Igneus, Tumidi & truces vultus. There will be Ovid's Countenance that covets abdere vultus suos tenebris, Projectus & de­gener vultus. Tac. lib. 19. 2 De R [...]med. Amor. 39. Men, in these cases, will toto vultu in terram procumbere, 14 Metam. 57. They will shew, what troubles the spi­rit of man hating prevarication has. And when again there is contentment, and a virtu­ous habit; when all is placid, and averse to mischief: then there is on the Virgin Visual Table, the Inscription of Decorus, Dilectus, Hilaris, ingenuus. Then there is Ovid's Laetus & loquens nitidus vultus, and Virgil's Virgineus, and Placidus; and Claudian's Comptus & Coruscus vultus. In short, the face and hew of it, is an undeniable gnomon of the in­terns that reflect their beams of intention, or remission, of brightness, or obsuscation, ac­cording to the nature of them in their original: So that whereas our Chancellour ex­presses the Prince as erecting his Countenance on them; he concludes him pleased with­in, and evidencing of it in a conformity of looks on the visual superficies of so compo­sed a soul and sense; and by erecto vultu, here he means what other Authours do by the most benign Epithites; and what Ovid, Placido vultu respice mea munera. 2 Fa­stor. 4. and as one that did not addere vultum verbis onely, but praeire verba vultu ami­cali. He makes way for the main address of his gratitude in the following words, sic locutus est.

These words argue the Prince both gentle of nature, and satisfied in reason and judg­ment; that as by the one he accepted the counsel of age, so in the other he owns the gratification of youth, in the firm perswasion of the Chancellour's Arguments to be valid, and his quotations Scripture. And to make his ingenuity more transparent, I shall first observe his Assent to the Canonization of the Book, out of which the Scri­pture-counsel is taken; Deuteronomy, that, he owns to be Sacrae Scripturae Volumen. Secondly, his Recognization of the Laws and Ceremonies in it as sacred, because part of the Canonique Scripture, Leges & Ceremoniae in eo conscriptae, etiam sacrae sunt. Thirdly, his mention of the Authour of them, GOD, à Domino editae. Fourthly, his notice of the Instrument of their Promulgation, Moses, Et per Mosen promulgatae. Fifthly, the Conclusion he subjoyns, deduced from the preconcessions, Quare ea [...] legere Sanctae contemplationis dulcedo est. These, as the oratorious and pious Prelimi­naries to his weighty subsequent Reply, are worthy notice. But yet I proceed.

This Clause has the Nerves, Sinews, and Ligament of the Prince's reason in it, and had need of athletary and masculine Arguments to resolve and repel it. No doubt, the Law of God which Moses proposes, is that which has an [...] in it self, and ought [Page 43] to have a more then moral swasion on men, nay, a divine Empire over them, to be­lieve, embrace, and follow the Prescript of it; the reason is, because flesh and blood is non-plussed, and has no Rampier to raise against the Battery of its Divinity; God does assist it with such an inseparability, that no wit of man shall hold out siege against it; but if he be not sealed up to the day of destruction, shall yield up his reason and pre­possessions to it. No doubt therefore, but Israel's King would hold himself concerned in a punctual consistency to it. God, whose the spirits of Kings are, was in it, and he dinted the edge of it, to cut through the oppositions of all argumentation against it. And therefore it was capable to teach the fear of God in God's method, and to the propor­tion of his requiry, because he fitted it to that end. 'Twas mighty, through God, to dismantle the strong Holds of Satan, and to rescind every obstruction that adversateth that end of God. It had a mighty Authour, GOD; and a mighty Minister, Moses, and a mighty appearance with Thunder and Lightning; and thence ought to have a mighty power with Kings, to teach them how to rule men under God, that they and their subjects may live with God for ever. But, Sir Chancellour, quoth he, Saul's Armour will not fit David, nor will the Prerogatives appropriated to this one onely Law, be appliable to all, no more then the Scribes and Pharisees come up to Moses, be­cause they sit in Moses Chair: Moses was a man mighty in word and in deed, his Law was written by the Finger of God; the Statutes and Appointments of it were contrived in the Divine Mind; and no wonder, if they directed to God their Center whence they originated: no wonder, though they taught the Kings that were to be, what they might, and might not do, and possessed them with a fear to do the contrary, and with a care to do their positive injunction, in reverence to God the enjoyner, and to the injunction, as a part of his Worship. All the scruple is, How humane Laws that are made by men, subject to like infirmities with others: perhaps, Tyrannos, trucu­lent, prophane, per jurious. How these so weak and wicked should arrogate the autho­rity of God, and command indisputable obedience to their Laws. And how Kings that are holy, pious, and beloved, should be reasonably thought to read them, or be obliged to conform to them; since qualis causa, talis effectus, shrewdly presumes the Laws of vio­lence and injurious contexture and impression like themselves. This the Prince ob­jects, as holding himself not so strictly obliged to peruse the Laws of England, since they are but humane in their subject matter, and earthly in the objects that they re­spect. And this concludes the second Chapter.

CHAP. III.

THese words bring in the Chancellour, acknowledging both the candor in the Prince, and the favour of the Prince to him; which he the rather here mentions, because good counsel, and noble Precepts, have not ever such returns from Pupils on their Tutors. 'Twas rare counsel that Seneca gave Nero, in his Book De Clementia, which he says he begun and continued, Vt quodammodo speculi vice fungerer, & te tibi ostenderem per­venturum ad voluptatem maximam omnium. And yet, though it had the sublimest strains of rhetorique love, and pathetique zeal to his aggrandization, that it might po­lish the roughness, and attenuate the superbity of his nature tending him to practices, as victorious over passion, and as obliging to subjects gratitude; as Augustus his was, whom he brings in as justly glorying, Praestitisti, Caesar, civitatem incruentam, & hoc quod magno animo gloriatus es, nullam te toto orbe stillam cruoris humani misisse; yet had he no other answer but death from that patricidial Monster. But blessed be God, our Chancellour having to deal with a sweeter Nature, and receiving from him better proofs of radicated virtue, gives him this due Encomium in the Exordium of this Cha­pter. And that he does by several Gradations. First, he salutes him as a Prince most excellent; not as great, but good; not glittering in the Vest of Royalty, so much as in the Virtue of Meekness and ductility; In maxima potestate haec verissima animi tem­perantia [Page 44] & humani generis incomprehensibilis amor,Lib. 1. De Cle­mentia, p. 624. [...]. 11.non cupiditate aliqua, non temerit [...]te incendi, non priorum principum exemplis corruptum, quantùm in cives suos liceat experi­endo, tentare, sed hebetare aciem imperii sui; as Seneca wrote to Nero. And then se­condly, not setting light by the grave and pithy suggestions of his experienced State­Minister, who had with loyalty and love asserted his Rights, partaken in his misfor­tunes; and now for his good, affectionately imparted himself as he was able to him. This had been but like heady and grateless Youth, which is apt to neglect and forget great deserts,Pettitus in leges, Atic. lib. 6, Tit. [...]. p. 538. and grave deservers, which the Attique Laws censured; as Val. Max. lib. 5. c. 3. witnesseth, and which all ingenuous Natures abhorred. But in that he does accept the counsels, and consider them, magnâ advertentiâ, intently and with a fixation of mind, to be conducted by them, and to admit them to a regency in him, argues him a high favourer of virtue, and one that bespeaks the Chancellour to continue his service to him, and that not in the ordinary way of daily astancy, and ap­pearing at this Court; but of diligent study to consider, and of faithful Resolution to impart, what he conceives fit for him to know and do; yea, and to convey this to him by a method of effectuality and perspicacity; that by delighting him with the method and pleasure of the Congress, he may be enamoured with, and surprized by the po­tency of the Reason; and thence be formed into such a composure of honour and ho­nesty, as may for the present make him the darling Prince; and in future, promise and perform him, if God see fit, the renowned King of his Fathers Subjects; which, that he may by this means come to, he proceeds to direct him as follows.

Here the Chancellour shews, that though the Laws of God mentioned in his Word, and Deuteronomy as part of it, be primarily, and per se sacred, because they immediately come à fonte saecro, and are the issues of explicated Divinity, there being a kind of patefaction of God in the Wisdom and Order, [...]. Trismegist. in Pimand. 9. the reason and necessity of them, to preserve Natural Religion, Civil Justice, and Social Harmony; yea, and to dispose men by their oeconomy, to glorifie God, in adoring him as Supreme, and secu­ring his from the sacriledge of our Insolence; and though God has implanted such Majesty in his Laws, [...], in Min [...]e, p. 564. as is not in any humane Law in the World, abstracted from it; ye [...] are all Laws which derive their force, à lege naturae (and those that do not, are no Laws, ac­cording to that of the Schools, Sanctus Thom. Summ. prima, secunda, q. 95, Prima secunda, q. 91. art. 2. Nulla Lex humana habet vim legis nisi in quantum à lege naturae derivatur) and are honest,Detrahunt leges aliquando à jure naturali, & addunt juri natural [...]; nec obstat, quod ipsum jus naturale est immutabile & verum, qui [...] illud verum in suo genere, in certis autom capitulis mutatur, & mutetur, quoad observantiam ipsam, tamen semper bonum, & equum est, Gloss. in Digest. lib. 1. Tit. 1. De Jure & Justitia, p. 58. just, pos­sible, according to the Custom of Places and Times, advantage­ous to common profit, and plain. These as regulated by the e­ternal Law of which they partake, inasmuch as from it they are inclined in proprios actus & fines. These though Humane, in re­gard of their Makers, and in regard of their Tether, they respe­cting humane Conversation and Order, yet are sacred, and do re­fer to God, as their Authour and Justifier; yea, they having a re­spect to that which is God's definition,Dr. & Stud. c. 19. Lib. quod Deus fit immutabilis, pag. 303. Lib. De Abraha­mo, p. 350. Order and Charity, according to Philo's no­tion of them, [...], &c. yea, and being nothing else but [...], The Narrative of the regular and devout Lives of the Patriarchs, before the Law on Mount Sinai was published, there is good reason to call and account the Laws of every Government sacred, and severely to punish the violent and obstinate Contemners of them. Si quis adversus [...]as fecisset, s [...]cer alicui deorum cum familia pecuniáque esset, Livius, lib. 2. was the Romans judgment; and Saint Paul's further, He that re­sists shall receive to himself damnation, that is, shall have a sentence in his Conscience, in praejudicium futuri judicii. That the Laws have ever been accounted in all Nations sacred, is not onely evidencible from the nature of Laws, which point out to man his du­ty, both to others and himself: from whence Philo terms the Law [...], as [Page 45] he does the King, [...], adding, that as it is the duty of a King to command what is to be done,Lib. secundo De Vita Mosis, p. 654. Lib. 1. De Legib. and forbid what is not: so is the [...], &c. the manner and mode of doing and not doing it, the propriety of the Law: and hence the Law (deriving its descent, non populorum jussis, &c. not from the Peoples power, or from the Iudges judgments, but the rule of Reason and Nature. And again, Hanc sapientissimo­rum fu [...]sse, &c. I see (saith he) the Law to be the judgment of the wisest men, not flowing barely from the conceptions of humane nature, nor issuing from any Sect or number of men, but some thing eternal, the Wisdom that governs all the World by commands and restraints.) Not onely from this ought the Law to have great esteem,Cic lib. 2. De Le­gibus. M. Antoninus, lib. 10. c. 25. Lib. De Mundo, c. 6. Plutarchus, De Homero. Plato in Minoe, p. 665. Politic. p. 556. Ficin. Com. in 1. De Legib. p. 767. Lib. 12. De Le­gib. p. 997. Aenead. 4. Lib. 3. Com. in Lib. 1. Aenead. 3. p. 226. Reip. Gerendae. Praecepta p. 817. Lib. ad. Princ. Indoctum, p. 781. Porphyrius in vita Pythagorae. edit. Holstenii. but ever had amongst all Nations in all times. They called the Law [...], the Lord of men; adding, [...], a sinner against the Law is a fugitive; and when Craesus asked Pittacus, What was the greatest thing? [...], meaning the Laws which were written on the Barks of Trees. Plato calls the Law, [...], the invention of truth. Ficinus in primo leg. Platon. derives the Laws by Mi­nos, Lycurgus & Selon, from three Gods, Iupiter, Apollo, Minerva, Power, Clemency, Wisdom; this argues the dignity of Laws; and Plato terms them [...], Plotinus [...], &c. a power or faculty containing all harmony, the soul of the Body politique; and Ficinus on him, says, Legum major est quam syderum authoritas; and Plutarch said much of the Laws, when he wrote the Laws, [...], &c. The Laws al­ways gives the first place in the Common wealth to him that does just things, and under­stands things profitable to Mankind. And in another place, [...], yea, they were so exact in observing their Laws, that [...], was Gospel with the Antients, be their Learning and power what it would be. Pausanias replyed therefore to one that asked him, how the Laws came to be so fixed, that no man durst endeavour their change, [...], &c. Because the Laws are Lords of men, not men of the Laws. Hence the Laws, as [...], all men have subjected to.Lib. De Bon. hom. libert. Diodor. Sicul. lib. 1. c. 6. Plutarchus in Solone. The Egyptian Kings, Nil agebant propriis affe­ctibus, sed omnia juxta legum decreta. Alcamen refused the gifts offered him by the Messenians, Quoniam si recepissem, inquit, cum legibus pacem habere non poteram. Py­sistratus, though a Tyrant, being accused by the Areopagitae, for violating the Laws of Solon, submitted to the judgment of that Senate according to them. Augustus Cae­sar, when he had violated the Law of Adultery, by him made, in beating the Adulterer with his Daughter, whereas he should have delivered him over to the Law, was displea­sed with himself; and when he cryed out to him to forbear, because he violated his own Law, Augustus forbore, ashamed, aequum tamen ducebat non minùs se quam alios legibus parere, Lib. 4. c. 1. as Fulgosus words it, I might be endless in quotations of this nature; but I refer the Readers to other places of his Commentary, where I more largely pro­secute this:Ep. 90. concluding with that of the Moralist, Hujus opus unum, est de divinis humanisque verum invenire, ab hac nunquam recedit justitia, pietas, religio & omnis alius comitatus virtutum consertarism, & inter se cehaerentium, haec docuit colere divina, humana diligere & penes Deos imperium esse, & inter homines consortium, quod aliquan­diu inviolatum mansit, antequam societatem avaritia distraxit, &c.

Whereas then the Chancellour says, Laws are sacred, and adds, Lex est sanctio sancta jubens honesta, & prohibens contraria; What doth he but speak, what God and Na­ture inspires him concerning it; for Laws being the inventa deorum, and the universal suffrages of Nature, propagating good, and impeding evil, are so deservedly accounted sacred,Illustres conditores legum, inventionem legum in Deum, sed per diversa nomina atque media retulerunt, lege annumerationem Le­gislatorum apud Ficmum in Argum. ante Minoe, Platon. p, 564. as nothing can be more, because they are from the sacred being, example, authority, and tend to a sacred issue, God's glory, and mens good. Which considered, though the Moral Law once delivered by God be absolute, and no dispensation by man can be allowed for the breach of it; yet is there a kind of second power,Lege S Pettit. De Legibus Atticis, edit. Paris. 1635. next to the positive Law of suspen­sion, latent in the nature of man, and that by God's permission, as it were authoritative, which may be exercised besides, though not directly against that unalterable Law,Lib. 2. Excusa­tionum. c 4. Di­gest. lib. 1. Tit. p. 86. De Con­sti [...]. Primus. [...], &c. Later Constitutions, that better see the defects of former, are to be preferred before those that preceded them, saith Mode­stinus. For else emergent virtues would be without reward, and vices without punish­ment, [Page 46] because they, as omissi casus, being not in the ordinary Canon; and must on that ground be passed over,Lib. De Joseph, p. 531. as if Magistrates were unconcerned in them. And this evil prudence, and self-preservation, the supreme Law, next that other, obviates, and that warrantably. Philo says Government is [...], &c. a various and prudent adaptation of man to times. As a Sea-Master does not always steer one course, nor put out alike Sails, but varies and alters, as the Seas and Winds, and his Marchan­dizes, and men occasion; and as a Physitian does not always give one dose, but varies his prescript as the Patient changes, by intentions, remissions, repletions, all to health: so should a Governour order his affairs, as he sees best according to emergencies, regard­ing publique good, and mens profits. And this Seneca makes a most notable care of a Governour to prospect, so that he must needs no other eyes but his own to direct him. And hence is it, that as he proposes Laws, ad docendum, as well as imperandum, yet he improbates Plato's long Laws, preferring short Laws soon learned, and easily re­membred far beyond them, and cryes out, nihil videtur mihi frigidius, nihil ineptius quàm lex cum Prologo; yet does he suffragate to the use of additional Laws to those that are constitutional and primaeve, according to the requiry of extraordinary Occurrences,Budaeus in Pand. priores, p. 194. Iura constitui oportte in iis quae [...] accidunt, non in iis quae [...], id est, iis quae plerúm (que) accidunt, non in iis quae nec opinatò, vel praeter hominum opinionem. which surely but for this, would be such an hiatus, as would swallow up all Gods and Mens Constituti­ons. For though it may be disputable, whether the World does senescere vigore; and many, on both sides, have variety and reason for their adhaesions for and against it; yet is it out of doubt, that the World, in the acceptation of it for men, the noblest part of it, do every day decrease in virtue, and with their new fashions, new habits and diet, introduce new vices; which, if not caution'd against by Laws, (slips cut out of the whole piece of pristine Wisdom) all that is sacred and ci­vil, will quickly be absorp't And therefore as Fabius Cunctator was by the Romans called Imperii scutum, because he taught them the way to master and ruine Hannibal by not fighting him,Lib. 1. p. 642. edit. Sylb. and for that was called by Iornandes, prima redeuntis & revivi­scentis Imperii spes: so true subsequent Laws, woven out of the materials of Legisla­tive Wisdom, which the Antients had, and we from them received the principles in. These I say improved, are rightly termed reviviscentis sapientiae naturalis indicia, the amputations of vice and eradicators of pestilent annoyances, and Magistrates that carry them on to these ends indisputably to be adored.Porphyrius, De Abstin. lib. 1. p. 6. And therefore that King amongst the Bramins, that made the Law against the venery of Women, by enjoyning that eve­ry Wife should be burned with her Husband, was an eternal Benefactor to the Nation whom he governed, and to the Successions of them: For whereas their Lust satis­fiable by others,Linschotten, in his Voyages to the India's, c. 36. better as they thought then their Husbands could, made them poy­son their Husbands, to enjoy their Leachers, and so filled Families with degenerous Broods: his Law drew them, for love of their own lives, to do nothing against, but all things for the lives of their Husbands, that they themselves might also live with them. And this was the break-neck of that Leachery; and so a good instance, that even by the light of nature, there is a latent power in Governours wisely to enact such Laws, as times, places, persons, and occurrences shall require; and such enacti­ons being sacred, ought as such to be obeyed, and that upon the ground that they are sanctae, because they do sancta jubere & honesta, & prohibere contraria, and have no name above their nature, but answerable to their appellation, according to our Chan­cellour's words, Sanctum enim esse oportet, quod esse sanctum definitum est.

This I conceive is added, to discriminate just from unjust Government: in just Go­vernment, a just Law is the Rule, that teaches unicuique quod suum, est tribuere, and im­pedes and punishes whatever is contrary to it; that makes God and his right, mens aws, and expects their zeals to appear asserters of them; whereas other Governments set up wickedness by a Law. Nay, are set up to be what they are by wickedness; such a Government is that of the Turks, and was that of the Mammalucks. Now as the Government is, so must the Laws of its support be; for holy and righteous Laws will no better suit with unrighteous power, and unjust manages, then old Cloth will with new in a Garment; or new Wine with old Bottles, to use our Lord's compari­son. That then, which the Chancellour intends, is, that things ought in nature to an­swer their definitions; and if Laws be defined holy from the holy Sanctions, they are [Page 47] presumed to command, and the contrary to them, to forbid: Then the Laws ought to be preserved in their account of holy, from forbearing enactions that are diametral to ho­nesty, and of evil report. And on this ground the Laws of England, since Christianity, have not onely eliminated foolish Laws,Plut. lib. [...], p. 245. De his quiserè à numine puniuntur, p. 550. like those of the Argives, that Women when they coupled with their Husbands, should put on Beards; or that of the Romans against their manumitted servants; or that of the Lacedemonians, [...], that is, men should not suffer their Mustachio's to grow. Not onely have the Laws of Eng­land avoided fond enactions, but also eliminated all Ethnique Laws, and Dr [...]ydize Cu­stoms; yea, and the Reformation has since refined things, which in, and under Popery, had at least negative legality, as dispensations for Leachery; and all this upon the Chan­cellour's Rule, Sanctum enim esse oportet, quod esse sanctum definitum est. Again, Lex est sanctio sancta jubens, & prohibens contraria, is the definition of all Authours accord­ing to truth it self; as is proved from the fore-cited Authorities; Lex, not onely à li­gando, from the obliging nature of it, because none are exempt from its cogency as a rule; but also lex à legendo, quia publicè legatur ut omnibus notus sit. For though of late Laws have been printed, and the Laity educated to read and practise them; yet in the elder times, the Laws were onely read and proclaimed from the authographon of their Entry, that all might at their peril take notice of it; which was one reason, I conceive, that Magna Charta being declaratory of the antient Common-Law which obliged all persons, was wont to be read not onely at the County Town by the She­riff, but also in Churches once a year at least, that all persons of what degree soever, though they could not read, or might not, if they could read, come safely to the sight and perusal of it, might hear to know it.

Sanctio sancta] Not consensus populi, but sanctio Principis. For, though Plato's rule be much to favour of People in formation of Laws; yet he fixes the sanctional power on the Prince as inseparable from him, as God's Vicar, and under him Legislator, and so our Laws do also. For the enaction which gives being to the Law-Statute, is the Kings; the consent of the Estates is but sine qua non. The Divinity of the King's Unction derives a sacredness on the Law; Subjects co-operation is but to frame them into useful methods, and to draw them to be obeyed more willingly, because con­sented to by their delegates in their passing. And to render them more probable to be just and wise, when so many Peers, of honour and learning, Spiritual and Lay, and wise and worthy Gentlemen, consider of, and consent to the enaction of them.

Iubens honesta & prohibens contraria. This I said was added to distinguish between Law and Law; for 'tis not the outward sanction onely, but the internal virtue, and the excellency of the end and drift of Sanctions, that makes them obligatory and cogent on men to obey them.Syntagmat. De Diis 13. p. 374. And therefore, if a Law should be any where made like those fore-cited, or like that which Lilius Giraldus, out of Herodotus, mentions among the Babilonians, that the native women should once a year couple with forraigners, for their recreation and content, that (as it were) they might the better bear the company of their Husbands and Countrey-men all the year after. This Law, I suppose, being so hard and obscene, so dishonest, and so unnaturally putid, would have no force on men and women further, then to make them suffer for disobedience to it; for since the Laws of every Nation are to accommodate the people of it in their way to virtue and serenity,Cic. lib. 3. De Leg. Tertio De Legi­bus. Plato 9. De Le­gib. p. 25. according to that of the Orator, Constat profectò ad civium salutem, civita­túmque inc [...]lumitatem, vitámque omnium quietam, & beatam, conditas esse leges. That the Magistrate is a worded Law, and the Law a silent Magistrate, as Tullie's words also are, and that his work chiefly is [...], &c. to consult and put in execution things good, generous, and just. Considering I say this, there is great cause to look that Laws be made as Laws ought, to the promotion of things honest, and the impediment of immoralities. For Saint Paul, in saying the Law is just, and holy, and good, did but point out to the natural endowment of Law, and those three glorious Attributes of God, which the Laws emanated from, and were regulated by.

And hence is it, that abstract these ends from Laws, and they are no remains of God in man, but have the monstrosities of corrupted nature, and execrable contradiction to God, in his intent and purpose of giving them to men; and instead of being the lines of manuduction to Heaven, they are bonds of iniquity, and conducts [...] his disho­nour in Natures violation and distortion; and some have thought the Statute of 28. H. [Page 48] 8. c. 7. 31 H. 8. c. 8. 32 H. 8. c. 25. 33 H. 8. c. 21. not to have been founded up­on such Piety, and Justice, as Laws ought to have been, and therefore they were soon repealed; it being a good rule, Alteri detrahere sui commodi causâ contra naturam est, & sic injustum, [...] 6 12. De jure Belli, & [...] p. 2. lib. 1. saith Grotius out of Tully. And thereupon considering the precise rule of our Lord's, making Justice the completion of the Law, and the Prophets, and finding many mens actions, in administration of Law diametral to it, I cannot but bring in here learned Budaeus his complaint, who makes some men even in their Justicings, so far self-admirers, and self-seekers, Cum, si ad veritatis normam, & ad simplicitatis Evangelicae praescriptum exigere jura velimus,In Epistol. Thom. Lupseto inter Opuscula. Tho. Mori Cancel. Angl. Impress Lovaniae, 1566.nemo sit tam stupidus quin intelligat, nemo tam vecors quin confiteatur, si urgeas, tam jus & fas hodiè, & jam diu in sanctionibus Pontificiis, & jus, atque aequum in legibus civilibus, & Principum placi­tis desidere, quam Christi rerum humanarum conditoris instituta, ejusque discipulorum ritus ab eorum decretis, & placitis, qui Craesi & Midae acervos, bonorum finem esse putant, & faelicitatis cumulum, adeo si justitiam finire nun [...] velis, quomodo priscis auctoribus pla­cuit, quae jus suum unicuique tribuat, vel nullibi illam in publico invenias, vel (si dicere id mihi permittam) culinariam quandam dispensatricem esse, ut fateamur necesse est, sive nunc imperitantium mores spectes, sive civium inter se & popularium affectus. So that grave Parisian Chancellour.

By all which it appears, that Laws are then onely sacred, when they are to purposes sacred, and enjoyn what God and Nature dictates them to; when they answer the end of their institution, and are conform to the principle whence they actuate, which be­ing just and good, becomes thereby accounted sacred, because officious to man in his religious, civil, and social capacity; for, sanctum esse oportet, quod sanctum definitum est.

Ulpianus, lib. 1. Instit. Digest. De Justitia, & jure, Tit. 1. p. 54.This definition of the Law, ars aequi & boni, is Celsus's, and Vlpian from him quotes it; this the gloss well explains, jus est ars. First, ut dicas definitum jus in ge­nere, & sic est ars, id est, scientia finita quae arctat infinita. For art is nothing else, according to Porphyrius, but the finite learning of things infinite. Secondly, it's called ars arcta, it is artificium hominis, nam auctor juris est homo, justitiae Deus, that is, though God give the rule for justice, yet man fits and disposes the method and way of its convoy and application to men, and so 'tis art; and then aequi & boni, that is, it ap­points that which is aequam & utile, good and lawful in it self, useful and beneficial to man. This the gloss.

Now this delineation of the Law of equity, which is the [...], the principle and fountain of all good, Author incertus, De Vita Pythag. apud Photium, Bibl. co. 269. Lib. 5. De Mori­bus, cap. 6. as Antiquity terms it. It is fit, it should be further considered; the Philosopher calls jus, [...], that evenness that intercurs the ex­treams; adding, [...], &c. If Injustice be inequality, then Iustice must be equa­lity. And he says, it consists in proportion and comparison, when both rewards and punishments are suited exactly to the merits and demerits of men, and when Magistrates in administration, incline neither to the right hand nor to the left.

I know, there are learned men that criticize between jus and lex: by jus they un­derstand that natural obligation on man, which the Hebrews called [...], and the Greeks [...],Jur. Belli & pa­cis, p. 3. and by Lex, constituted positive Laws, which they called [...], quod justum, ut quis accipiat ratione Scripturae aut legis aut consuetudinis. But this learned Grotius does not approve of, but shews Ius and Lex, have a promiscui­ty of use, and homonymous sense in Authours. And therefore I take Ius and Lex to import all one; and though Gaius disjoyns them, omnes populi qui moribus & legibus re­guntur, partim suo proprio, Lib. 1. Instit. tit. 1. p. 61. partim communi omnium hominum jure utuntur; yet there want not instances of Lex his acceptation in good Authours, in the large sense of Ius. And so I know our Chancellour intended it,Corvinus in Erotematibus Imperial. p. 1. since the Laws of particular Polities, be­ing extracts from the natural Law, and conducing to presentation and order, deserves the definition of ars aequi & boni.

[Page 49]Here is a ternary of Emphasises; one, in cujus merito; another in Quis; a third in Sacerdotes. The first refers us to the Law thus beneficial to Mankind, as meriting from it, and having praise, as its debt, not donary. I confess, the phrase cujus merito, though in some sense it may be opposed to cujus gratiâ, a good Orators phrase; yet here it has an identity of sense with it, and lessons us to return praise to desert, and glory to virtue. God himself accounts our praises, a worship of him; He that offereth me praise, glorifieth me: and men are by nothing more pleased and retributed then by praise. Oh! to hear well, is the deliciae vitae and aqua mirabilis, Lib. De Gloria. In lib. 1. Iliad Hometi. Impress. 1538. Majoranus in proemio Eusta­thii Impress. Romae. 1542. 2 Lib. Hestor. and the aurum potabile that all brave spirits digest contentedly. M [...]ursius in his Book, De Gloria, has given us a large account of the virtues of men, as their Titles to the glory ascribed to them: and Camerarius, after he has set forth Homer by such Eulogies as are even Hyperbolique to Rhetorique, concludes in this su­peraddition, that above sixty famous men commentaried on him; and that Eustathius, who extracted his laborious Work out of them, onely is now visible, of those many and famous Writers. And yet though near four hundred years before Herodotus, and one thousand before [...]liny he wrote, or two hundred and seventy years after the Tro­jan War, according to Porphyrie; since which there is no Authour so antient among prophane ones: Yet all this Tract of time, and variations of men, he has for his Work sake been honoured. Neque tamen magis vitam conservari, & ad juvari igni & aquá, quàm omnem eruditionem hujus poëtae monumentis manifestum est, saith Camerarius. Here's a cujus merito, with a witness, better then that of Sons and Daughters. For whereas few men live in them many Ages; some, not an Age; the best, not to much above twenty descents. This Homer, though blind and ignoble by Birth; yet in the perennity of his Wit, has had praise in above twenty Centuries of years. This is the first Emphasis facti dignè memorati & descripti. Budaeus in Pan­dect. priores, pag. 25. edit. Basil.

The second is, Emphasis personae, quis: This is not quis nescientiae, but eminentiae, a man of name not to be triobolarly prolated. And this was Vlpian, neither he that was a Sub-Tutor to Alexander, and Master of his Rolls, and one of his Circuit, and itine­rant Counsel: nor that other, a Tyrian born, and, for his Learning, made the Emperour Adrian's Deputy in France, Vossius, lib. De Scriptor Lat. and slain in an uproar there. But our Vlpian was, Domitius Vlpian the famous Lawyer: he is the Quis, in Budaeus his determination.

The Digest tells us, where he calls the Lawyers Sacerdotes, to wit, the first of his In­stitutes; and the gloss on it gives the why he so calls them. Quia ùt Sacerdotes sacra ministrant, & conficiunt it à & nos cum leges sint sacratissimae & ut jus unicui que tribuit sacerdos in danda paenitentia, sic & nos in judicanda justitia.

Indeed,Mystagog. lib. 2. sect. 2. ad sinem. [...]. the Laws of old were under the custody of the Priests, as the onely men of honour and fidelity; and Cressolius gives a good reason of it, Id sapienter machinata est divina providentia, &c. The wisdom of God, saith he, in the modelling of the Holy Tongue, has so providentially ordered it, that the same word should signifie Priest, and Prince, endowed with great Nobility; That when the word Priest is named, the mind of man might be lifted up, and exercised upon the thought of some excellent and truly noble person. For since the Law is ars aequi & boni, and all Matters and men are to stand or fall by it: 'tis reason, that sacred Jewel should have a sacred Servitour, and Protector, whom neither favour or fear should be suspected to corrupt. And to preserve this from defection, and the opprobry of it, no means being continuable more probably ef­fectual, then virtue of soul,Plato in Politic. p. 550. and nobility of descent, Antiquity chose to the Priesthood persons thus qualified.Lib. 2. Genial. c. [...]. Alexander ab Alexandro, has reported the Customs of all Na­tions thus to do; and Tiraquellus, his learned Commentator, has added to him in this kind. Diodorus Siculus confirms this, lib. 4. c. 1. and when Plato would have them be­gotten in holy Marriages,Lib. 6. De Repub. what does he but intend they should be [...], be nobly endowed with blood, and educated, that so [...], &c. That both from their nourishment, Lib. 5. Stromat. institution, and descent, as Clemens Alexandrinus phrases it, they may be rendered fit for their charge..Stobaeus, Serm. 41. For, according to Pythagoras, they thought [...], and that [...], that noble note they would have upon the Priesthood, [...], saith the Philosopher,Lib. 7. Repub. p. 8. [...] and c. 9. [...]; without which to determine differences, and distribute justice as Gods to men, Congregations of men cannot subsist,Pag. 436. Vol. 1. Marsilius Ficinus on Plato's Conviv. amoris, p. 103. has told us the Of­fice [Page 50] of these Priests as Heathenly, they were venerated, [...] officia Deo amica sint, quâ ratione Deo homines amici fiant, nos deccant, qui amoris charitatísque modus ad deum, ad patriam, ad parentes, ad alios tam ad vivos quam [...]d defanctos sit adhi­bendus. And hence it may be the Egyptians observed for long time that Law,Plato Politic. p. 550. [...], &c. no King reigned but as priested. Plutarchus in quaest Romanis, p. 291. The same Law had the Greeks in some parts, as Pluta [...]ch confirms it.

Vlpian's appellation then of Sacerdotes, as applying it to Lawyers, was in relation to the old Priesthood of the Iews and Heathens, who committed all their sacra to wise and well descended men; who did not make a profession and gain of the Law, but did recti­fie the peoples errours by their learned integrity,In Pandect. p. 24. which Budaeus, on this word of the Pandects, Edit. Basil. 1534. thus expresses; Siquidem sanctissima res est civilis sapientia quemadmodum autem apud antiquos Sacerdotes sui, singulis diis consecrati erant, qui de futuris atque agendis, consulentibus responsa dabant, sic venerandi illi jurisconsulti, omni genere litera­rum instructissimi, gratuitam non quastuariam jurisprudentiam habentes, in publicum quotidiè prodeuntes, unicnique civi consulentes, se antiquo instituto praebebunt, & tanquam oracula justitiae promebant. So he. Whereupon Athenaeus tells us, these were termed the Heroes, and rightly too; for they were propitious to communities, and nothing studied themselves more, then to be fitted for usefulness. But how the Chancellour should apply this to men now a days, though Lawyers, I not well know; unless in that sense, that they do sacra scire & docere: And if Sacerdotes they must be, they can be onely Sacerdotes brevium deorum, as Varro calls some, and Gyraldus after him. It is true indeed,Syntag. 17. De Diis, p. 461. learned Hopperus says as much as may be for them, when he says they were called [...];Hopperus, De vera. Jurisprud. lib. 4. tit. 30. and Sophoi, as Sempronius by the Romans was, because they had a concentration of the Philosopher, the Priest, the Lawyer in them, tum quia eà scientiâ praeditus est, tum quia sibi praesit ut Philosophus, Reipubl. ut jurisconsultus, sibi & Reipubl. ut sacerdos. But as learned a man, as he, tells us, whatever the Antients were, and how great their deserts were; yet though some of their Successours in time, answering them,Budaeus in Pan­dect. ought to be answered in suffrage of honour from men to them; others ought not to be; the great Parisian Chancellour is the man who reproaches some of his Contem­poraries, Disciplinarum omnium non modò ignaros, P. 14. edit. Basil, 1534. sed etiam contemptores, [...], quasi omnem literarum elegantiam nitorémque dicendi perosos, Doctrinis humanioribus abhor­rentes, Rusticos, invenustos, illepidos, hircosos. Thus he.

But I forbear more of this; though I think the Chancellor's Etymologie will not agree to the name, as it denominates universally the men, and is exegetical of them; for they do not always sacra dare, nor do they ever sacra docere. Ferdinand King of Spain knew that; for when he sent Pedrarias Vice-Roy into the West-Indies, Naudaeus in proemio, De studio militari. he forbad him, Iuris con­sultos aut causidicos secum deducere; adding the reason, Ne litium semina quae illis re­gionibus nulla erant, ab ipsis importarentur, & pernitiosâ contagione pacem illarum ac tranquilitatem interficerent. The like is reported of the Pannonians, that when Mat­thias Corvinus their King, sent for the best Civilians out of Italy to set over them, they requested the King to send them back again, and so he did, ad lites eorum ingeniis natas sedandum.

Nor did our Sacerdotes trulier, sacra dare, or docere, here in England; for in H. 3 ds time William York, and Robert Lexington, pretended, as Justice Itinerants over the Land, to reform Justice; but instead thereof, exacted great sums of money from the Sub­jects for the King, contrary to the Law. So did Thorp, 24 E. 3. Berners, E. 1. line, yea, all the Judges, except Mettingham, and Beckingham, Qui non abierunt in consi­lium impiorum, 18 E. 1.) were sentenced and executed for baseness and bribery.Gloss. p. 416. [...]6 Inst. So 11 R. 2. there was but one skip with qui solus inter impios mansit integer, saith Sir Hen. Spelman; yea, in H. 7. his time, Empson and Dudley were as faulty as any Miscreants before them, and thereupon executed: so that the name of Sacerdotes, as they do sacra dare & docere, in their Etymological import is, not infallibly due to all our late jurispe­riti, as to the antient prementioned Heroiques. Though I know many of them have, and deserve to be remembred as brave and couragious men; especially such as Judge Hales for his fidelity to Queen Mary, Judge Montague in Hen. 8. and Edward the Sixth his time; yea, and before them all, many of the late Judges, Serjeants, and other Profes­sors of the Law, some of which yet living in great honour and dignity, suffered for their loyalty, whatever the savageness of the late troubles, by Fine, Imprisonment, Se­questration, [Page 51] and other severity, could possibly express, to their eclipse and diminution; notwithstanding all which, their loyalty and Consciences kept them close to the princi­ples of Integrity, which they are now deservedly compensated for, in the peace of their Consciences, the favour of their Sovereign, and the love of all good men: Which is a sufficient ballance to the levities of others, as well elder as later; and gives me the just occasion to assert a truth, to the honour of God, the King, and the Nation; That the Laws of England, distributed by the Reverend Judges, are with more integrity, and im­partiality, accommodated to the people then in any part of the World, Laws are: Nor is there any Nation under Heaven so void of corruption in judgment, as England is, wherein the Judges chosen for virtue, knowledge, and gravity, descended mostly out of Knightly Families, and endowed, for the most part, with great Estates. Neither need, nor possibly almost can, those circumstances considered, be suspected of favouring any thing, but Justice in their Judgments; nor fearing any thing, but to offend God, the King, and the Law; if otherwise then according to their Oaths they should do. And hereupon I shall use the Psalmist's words, Blessed are the people that are in such a case, and who do receive the Law, à Talibus Sacerdotibus.

Sacerdotes, then, in a borrowed sense, Judges and Lawyers are; but in the true no­tion of Vlpian, and our Fortescue too, I suppose Lay-men were not intended to be expressed by it; for they did militiam potiùs quàm literas administrare; but in all parts, both of France, M. Paris. in Gu­liel. secundo. 2 Instit. p. 285. on Stat. Westm. 1. and p. 98. Normandy, and other Nations, men in Civil Judicature were, till E. 1. his time, Ecclesiastiques; and till then 'twas not onely nullus Clericus nisi Causidicus, but nullus Iudex nisi Clericus. And when the Judges of the Courts of Common-Law were Clergy-men, they would not suffer any usurpation upon the Common-Law, saith Sir Edward Cook, to their honour.

By Sacerdotes then, Vlpian, from whom our Chancellour deduces his instance, meant the flower and prime of men, whom the Antients expressed by names, alluding to their employments,Syntagm. deo­rum 17. p. 462. [...]; the La­tines, Sacerdotes, Curiones, Orgyones, and other the like, of which Gyraldus writes; and all to shew their dignity and duty, to whom the Mysteries of Law, Justice, and Re­ligion, to God and Man, were delegated.

In what sense the Laws are sacred,Oratione. Contra Aristogi­tonem. I have heretofore shewed, and that is as they are [...], the invention of the Gods, and from them delivered by Wise-men, as Demosthenes his words are, as they are so prevalent over men, that they do what is just of their own accord▪ Plutarch. in la­conicis Apotheg­mat. without their rigour over them, as Agesilaus said, his Subjects would. And when they have such a Reverence with the Ministers, and Dispensers of them,In Prolog. ante lib. legum. Angl. as Glanvil writes of in his time, tantae aequitatis, & suae celsitudinis curia, &c. When, I say, these that do jus dicere, though not dare, )the Judges are such) then as the Laws are holy, so do they deserve to be accounted reverend and worthy; though not Priests, yet Priestly men, Fathers for Wisdom, Oracles for Integrity, and Sanctuaries of eve­ry excellent thing;Pleas Crown, 4 part. p. 147. because then they have the duos sales Sir Edward Cook mentions, necessary to their ingrediency, Salem sapientiae nè sit insipidus, & salem Conscientiae ne sit diabolus. And how great Jewels such men are, Cressolius has notably in his Antho­logie, p. 52, 107, ad 174. observed.

Which words contain an irrefragable Argument, for the sacredness of humane Laws made by a lawful Power. For the Chancellour being to deal in a nice point, wherein Carnal Reason, and Interests in Religion, is apt to byass beyond, and besides the one and onely mark of truth; the right fixation of which, having a strong influence on practice, and carrying a not to be retunded Argument of duty, to be obedient to the [Page 52] Laws of Powers for Conscience sake. This so necessary to prevent Murmur and Re­bellion, which first by derogation from, then by insolency against Magistratique Power, threatens, if not enervates it, our Chancellour backs and confirms from Scripture and Reason. From Scripture, that of Saint Paul, Rom. xiii. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers, for there is no Power but of God; the Powers that be, are ordained of God: whosoever therefore resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God; and they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation.

This Scripture I have ever held the Magna Charta of Power, and because it hath such a pat and direct aspect on the supportation of it, Pride and Treachery have ever discharged their witty Canon on it, to batter, or at least abate the Obligation of it: nor were there ever more dangerous glosses, and religious cheats, put upon the literal truth of it, then of late by some of our seduced pretended Zealots, and their Theological Enthusiastiques. For though the Apostle has guarded this Canon of so great concern, with all possible strength, through which nothing but levelling fury, and Anabaptisti­cal Treachery can possibly break; yet have as great endeavours been made by men of more pretended sobriety, as could well, by wit and ill-will, be machinated. But this Scripture has, and I hope, ever will hold its own with all sober Christians, as well of these, as of the Primitive Ages; and so Saint Augustine defended it against the Dona­tists, who would disobey Magistrates, upon pretence, that God was rather to be obey­ed then they; which was true, but not in their sense; and then boast, they suffered for Conscience,Lib. De Corre­ctione Donati­starum, c. 6. ad Bonifac. and so were Martyrs, I say, as he reproached them, saying, Non ergo qui propter iniquitatem, & propter Christianae unitatis impiam divisionem, sed qui propter justitiam persequutionem patiuntur, ii Martyres veri sunt. And again, Potest esse im­piorum similis pana, sed dissimilis est Martyrum causa. So that divers Orthodoxly amongst us,Dr. F [...]rn. and by name, and very early, when the poyson of it did but pullulate, the late learned Bishop of Chester. So that considering, what is in the Text, and what has been said upon it, one would wonder, what confidence of man durst own so reasonless a Principle, as prophanation of this Text, endeavours to set up to the ruine of all Go­vernours, and confusion of all Government. For, first, the Apostle being to preach a Doctrine necessary for the suffering times of the Church, under Ethnique Princes, and rigid Step-Fathers, terms them yet Powers, and Powers ordained of God; and then knowing, men-sufferers would be tempted to stand upon terms, when they had multi­tudes to back them, and so would raise a purpresture against the Design of God in his Churches Clarification by suffering, and on the waste, and to the nusance of the Lords of these Earthly Soils, publishes obedience and subjection to them. Why; they are Powers, and higher Powers then to be coped with, or resisted by any their Subjects, while they command things lawful and just, actively, when otherwise, passively to be o­beyed; Si contrà Proconsul jubeat, Serm. 6. De Ver­bis Dom secund. Matthaeum. non-utique contemnis potestatem, sed eligis majori se­vire nec huic debeat minor irasci, si major praelata est, saith the Father; yea, and as there is by this Rule a latitude of obedience, so of persons, every soul, not one, and not the other, but all, high, low, rich, poor, Christian, Heathen, Master, Servant. Let every soul, saith Saint Paul, hinc jam assumenda est fides tua tanquam scutum in quo possis omnia ja­cula inimici extinguere, saith the Father. And the reason of Power, to be in all things, and by all persons obeyed, is ratione ortus & authoris; 'tis of God, appointed and com­missionated: 'tis of God, his eminently; mens in Magistracy derivatively. Now this the Chancellour proving, in behalf of Powers Constitution, extends to Powers expressi­on. If Magistracy be of God, and Laws be made by it, for the ends it self was consti­tuted, then Laws are of God, because effects of that Power which was ordained by God: so that Scripture is an Assertor of humane Laws as from God. And Reason se­conds it, whatever the second cause does, the first cause more singularly and nobly does: Magistrates are the second cause of Laws, and they are of God, their first cause: therefore Laws made by them are of God;Philo. lib. 1. legis Allegor, p. 57. Lib. De Agricul­tura, p. 182. Lib. quod det Po­tior Insidias. Sol. p. 190. by men his Delegates, whom he empowr­ing, as he is [...], the soul that enliveneth all, [...], &c. the hus­band and father, that begets and support every thing, [...], the principle and fountain of original wisdom, as Philo's words are; enables, to make wisely and exactly to see obeyed the Laws they so make, as the Candle lightning argues the Sun, the enlighter of it much more light, and the fountain of the Candle light; and the Earth producing food for man, argues the Earth, the maternal cause of man so sup­ported: [Page 53] so in Laws;Seneca. Ep. 65. Haec exemplaria rerum om­nium Deus intra se habet, numerósque univer­sorum quae agenda sunt, & modos mente com­plexus est; [...]plenus his figuris est quas Plato Ideas appellat immortales, immutabiles, inde­fatigabiles. what Magistrates, as the second cause, do, is by, of, and from God, their first cause. And hence is it, that the Philosopher says of God, that he is not blessed from one good in him, [...], as he is the general nature of all. And so far as these refer to their first cause,De Republ. lib. 7. c. 1. God, are indispensably to be obeyed, upon penalty of that which the next verse calls damnation, [...].

This is added to confirm the Preposition, for Iehosaphat was a very holy King, 2 Chro. xvii. 3, 4, 5, 6. and, by God's direction, I believe, gave this charge to his Judges; the intent whereof was not so much to incline them to care and integrity, from fear of his severity, and ill resentment of their miscarriage; but from consideration that they were quae Dei sunt acturi; yet the judgments they passed, were vice Dei: therefore they should do as God would, were he himself on the Bench; Iudge righteously, [...], says the Septuagint, that is, ye are temporary Gods, and are such as have reputed infallibility. Take heed, do nothing rashly, nothing contrary to evidence, nothing for favour,King James in his Speech, 1616. fear, or wrath. Remember Kings are properly Iudges, and Iudg­ments properly belong to them from God; and when Kings depute Iudges to bear part of the subalter [...] Burthen of Government, they are taken into a near conjunction with Kings; for the same conjunction that is between God and the King upward, is between the King his Iudge, downward, said our once English Solomon of famous memory.

This Scripture puts a great dignity on Judges, and calls for a great circumspection in their duty to God and the People they sit upon: For though it was primarily and per­sonally spoken to Iehosaphat's Judges, who judged by the Mosaique Law; yet inas­much as the words are, that God is with them, [...], all Judges that have [...], are within in it, one way or other, and there is a duty on, and a reverence to them, by virtue of this Scripture. And this wise Princes apprehending, constitute the best of Lawyer [...], both for Learning and Integrity, Judges, such as Pomponius men­tions, Servius Sulpitius, In Pandect. fo. 2. edit. Basil, 1521. neque enim magis ille juris consultus quàm justitiae fuit, itaque quae proficiscebantur à legibus, & à jure civili, semper ad facilitatem, aequitatémque refe­rebat, neque constituere litium actiones malebat quàm controversi as tollere, saith Budaeus. And such as Caius Aquilius, Itá justus & bonus vir fuit, (Cicero writes of him) ut naturà non disciplinâ consultus fuisse videatur: ità peritus, & prudens, ut ex jure civili non scientia solùm, verum etiam bonitas nata esse videatur. Fond Judges are to be taught their notes, as Nightingales are by their Mothers, and to make Musick as they do, [...], &c. Not for favour, or affection; nor for reward, or advantage, but for pure Iu­stice sake, Plutarchus, lib. De Solertia ani­malium. p. 97 [...]. and in obedience to God, their King, and the Laws. For the Laws are regulae permanentes, non nutantes: and as they punish bribery, and passion, as in the fore-men­tioned Examples is made out; so have they punished easiness, and unjust lenity, as a blemish to Justice, and an usurpation upon her. Justice Ingham paid in E. the First his time, eight hundred pounds for a Fine spent on building the Clock-house at Westmin­ster, for razing a Roll in an Action of Debt recovered against a very poor man, and making the thirteen shillings four pence thereupon entered,Sir Edw. Cook, 4 part Instit. Pleas Crown, p. 72. six shillings eight pence; which Justice Southcot in Queen Elizabeth's time, remembred Catelyn, the Chief-Ju­stice of. For when Catelyn would have expressed such a like mercy to a poor Wretch, Southcot denyed assent to it, saying, He meant not to build a Clock-house.

This is a good inference, and carries a great Argument to the study of humane Laws, that they are, in a sense, God's Laws, because made by God's Power, and to God's end, order, and justice; and therefore as study of Gods the primaeve and origi­nal Law, whether Natural, National, or Mosaique, is the best adjument to the un­derstanding of those humane Laws, which are formed from them: so the comfort, de­light, [Page 54] and benefit, which men have by the one in such degrees, reflects on the study of the other, as makes an ample compensation for the time expended about, and impend­ed on them. For though in the Laws of nature and men, there is mysterious abstru­sity, which toils and troubles the Learners brain, in perscrutating and understanding them; the effects whereof are visible in the morosity and separation of their Students, from the pleasures of conversation and diversion; yet are the events and issues in com­prehension of them to such degrees, as are consectaries and rewards of double diligence, very grateful, and perceptively congenial to the expectation of those excellent minds, who after busie disquisition into them, reap dulcedinem consolationis sanctae. There may God be seen in all his emanations and bounties to man, in the Work of the World, in the harmony and consent of Creatures, in a natural Worship of God,Quae cùm se disposuit & partibus suis consen­sit, & ut ita dicam continuit, summum, bonum [...]eligit nihil enim pravi, nihil lubrici superest, nihil, in quo arietet, aut labet, omnia fa [...]iet ex imperio suo, uthilque inopinatum accidet, sed quicquid agit, in bonum exibit facile, & pa­ratè & sine tergiveratione agentis. Senec. lib. De Vita Beata, p. 654. and a noble conservation of themselves, in the various ex­pressions of virtues and vices, according to the differences of Cli­mates and Tropicks, under which Nations are, and the accidents of their Changes, Subversions, Discoveries, and Laws, in the preva­lencies of Interests, which hurry up and down, sublevate and de­press persons and things, as they are acted by the Furies and Con­cerns of their Entrigo's and Composures. These, and such like particulars, learned by study of the Laws of Nature, Nations, and Countreys, do so enrich and fortifie the mind against penury and ignorance, which the divinity of it abhors; that truly 'tis not possible to be a stranger to God, the chief good, and to be ignorant of the wisdom that is above, while we study that, which is revealed of that wis­dom, in these several things,Natur. Quaest. lib. 3. p. [...]67. and in the traditions of them to us. Hence the M [...] ­ralist lays down a notable Rule for the chief thing, a Wise-man is to propose, Eri­gere animum supra minas & promissa fortunae, nihil dignum putare quod speres, quid enim habet dignum quod concupiscas, qui à divinorum contemplatione quoties ad humana recederis, non aliter caligabit, quàm quorum oculi in densam umbram ex claro sole redi [...]re. Now this attained, and a man so rarified and abstracted from vulgar feculencies, how can this, effected by study of the Laws of men, be less then dulcedo consolationis; not that dulcedo consolationis is bound up in them, quâ such; for so they do merum corticem hominis tangere, as they are humane, and have man for their scope and circumference, since in his capacity they amount to vanity and vexation of spirit. But as they are Directions and Manuducts to God, to whose wisdom and power all these are subject, and in whom they are what they are, and as they inable the mind to understand it self, designed to serve its principal, and by every exotique advantage, to be improved to its principals, glory, and dignity; so the knowledge of them affords dulcedinem consolationis.

Here our Text-Master prevents the mistake of Moses his intent in this Prescript to the Israelitish Kings, that Deuteronomy is referred to, because it, in the matter of it, or in the intent of God, relates to the pleasure of a King more then other men. For God and Moses in it takes no notice of this; 'tis an Argument which, by the bye, has a su­peraddition comes in, like that [...], our Lord mentioned, Matth. vi. 33. that which God and Moses from him commends in Deuteronomy to the King, is the utile dulci associatum & conjunctum, the holiness, the justice, the conformity to God, which a holy and divine soul counts its chief comfort, and that peculiar erudition in the me­thod of Kinglyness, which from that Book Entry is perspicuous and knowable. For though all the parts of Scripture are full of Instructions, and savoury Precepts, directive to man in the latitude of his duty, and holy meditation will, by an effectual Chimistry, drain from them spiritual succulency: yet none are so fitted to a King, as those parts of it which treat of Kingly matters; These words, in season, have the beauty of Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver; all parts alike, all parts of them beauteous. And there­fore 'twas not the sweetness of meditation, nor the particular affection that Moses had to this Book, as his Ioseph, that made him specially refer his love and direction of the [Page 55] Prince thereto: but quia in Deuteronomio, plus quàm in aliis libris veteris Testamenti leges inferuntur quibus Rex Israel populum regere obnoxious est, ejusdem mandati circumstan­tiae manifestè nos informant, that is, as I said before; because in Deuteronomy, as the se­cond thoughts of Moses, the Laws formerly delivered but in part, and, as it were, con­fusedly, as the emergent occasions produced them,S [...]e [...]onius in Claudio, c. 14. is compleated and digested into a fit and formal method. And the Prince that follows them, will know how duritiam mul­tarum legum ex aequo & bono moderare; for as it follows,

Still there is a perfect coherence in our Text, every thing ushers in its fellow, every antecedent word its subsequent, and that upon a reason of order; for in that Moses did not write this Law as a Prescript of Israel's Kings, and determined the direction to them, in the line of their order, and succession of their Government; but made it morally typical of all Governours, and Governments, who thence should take pat­tern. Our Chancellour tells the Prince, the direction of the Law in Deuteronomy, will reach him, as well as the Kings of Israel; and that God having given the Law as a Counsel and Prescript to all Kings, will require the breach or neglect of it from all Kings, as well others, as Israels. Indeed, some things there were delivered to the Iews, which were appropriate to them, and determined with their Oeconomy, the Rites of their Priesthood, the Judicials of their Civil Government, was literally limited to them, though there was some fiber and string, as it were, of moral duration and influence in them also: but for things that relate to conversation with God, men, and ones self; that, being moral in its nature, was adapted to the Iews as prior in time to us: but not more obliged by the bond, or priviledged by the franchise of it then others their Successours. And therefore as our Lord renewes the Precepts of old by his Go­spel mentioned Matth. v. and Saint Paul says, What is written, was written for our instruction. So may I say, in this case of the King, as referred to Deuteronomy, God intended the direction there to all Successours to the first Kings in their Kingship, and to such enlargements of Governments, as time should discover, and power and pru­dence erect; and having done this, the counsel or command there reaches all in their duty to understand, attend, and obey it. And therefore the Chancellour proceeds.

This the Chancellour concludes with as a reddition of the premises, with an appeal to his reason, for justification of his service to the Prince's accomplishment therein; no vain ayrie Romance, no nugatory delight, no sordid mendication is preferred by our Chancellour; those would weaken, not fortifie, the Prince's mind; and beweed, not cultivate it to an artly trimness; that which he promotes, is apparently worthy. 'Tis the Law of God, Nature, Nations, and what is as becoming him, to observe as any of these, because these all brought into, and become the Law of his Government. Now this so antient, exact, approved, idoneous esteemed, as he conveniently, so profitably presenting to him, was a good office, without all doubt or peradventure: many things, experience tells us, are convenient, but not profitable, (if profit be calculated accord­ing to the common notion) many things are profitable, but not convenient: but this being profitable for the nature, and convenient for the season, deserves to derive an honour on the giver, and oblige the receiver to a gratitude. And with this he ends his third Chapter.

CHAP. IV.

HEre the Chancellour prosecutes his precedent Argument for the Laws, by shew­ing, that the Laws of Government, [...], Theolog. apud Stobaeum, Serm. 210. p. 703. and especially those of England, the marrow of all the fore-mentioned Laws, do not onely instruct Princes in the way of Religion to God, and of Justice to men; but also of self-conservancy, by a well-ordered virtue, and a through-paced prudence, to attain temporal felicity of state and mind. And the better to possess the Prince with the opinion, that this the Law does, he engages him to the belief and tryal of them by these gradations.

First, in that he complements him, as Princeps colendissimus, he does bespeak him to love and follow the Law as that was has all the learning of right living, and just go­verning in it,De Natur. Deo­rum. Cic. post r [...]di­ [...]um. and that which makes men submit willingly to, and venture resolutely for him, men being apt piè sanéctque colere naturam excellentem & prastantem, as Tully has it, and memoriam beneficii colere memoriâ sempeternâ, as the same Orator: For though nobilissimus, and clarissimus, may make men dreaded and awed; yet colendissi­mus supposes a virtue, which seises on the Reason of man, and aws his Conscience, and thence works a divine veneration, performed to a Prince, as a mortal God, whom Religion commands to honour, because good, just, merciful, as well as because great, terrible, and not to be resisted.

Secondly, in that he proposes the Laws of Government, as founded upon the Law of God, Nature, and Nations, to be prescriptive of all virtue, accumulated in the fear of God, the beginning of wisdom, and applyes that Text, which King David spake as a Prophet to the Law, as hers, in his mouth; Come my Children, hearken to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Words of weight and wisdom, like those the Moralist calls for,Ep. 75. Senec. Non meherculès jejuna esse & arida volo quae de rebus tam magnis dicentur, neque enim Philosophia ingenium renunciat: for the Psalmist is no dry bone, that lives not in pathetiques, without a miracle; his words here do not so much se, ut res ostendere, but when others are oratorious to no purpose, but to enchant and seduce, to cog and over­reach their Auditors, by the lurch of their own credulity, his animi negotium agitur, non quarit ager medicum eloquentem sed sanantem, as the same Moralist goes on: and therefore these words that he transplants to so good purpose, are much to be heeded, since they propose the counsel, command, and practice of a prophetique divine King, to the Prince, that the Chancellour supposes God has appointed, and the men of England ought in due time to have accepted their King, and as such to have valued him.

Thirdly, in that he works upon passions of love and desire, which the Prince, as man, and young, might have eager set on felicity and blessedness, as attainable by this fear of God, wrought in him by the Law. This is to decorate, and introduce the Law into his love, by that lata porta, which is august, and by an entertainment of amplitude. In­deed, the Chancellour herein seems more happy,Ep. 5 [...]. then Seneca thought himself, when he was discoursing of Plato, Mille res inciderunt, cum fortè de Platone loqueremur, quae nomina desiderarent nec haberent; for whereas that Rhetorician had an excellent person to speak of, but by exility of words failed in a reddition of him commensurate to his merit, and his mentioners intendment and ambition, to evidence, our Text-Master, as writing of a better subject, the Laws, then he did of a Plato, who was but a man, passant through the Zodiaque of mutability and infirmity, neither wants words to wast his matter in, nor matter to ballast and carry his Reason to his Readers perswa­sion; but having temperamentum ad pondus, produces it to a very serious and savoury purpose, telling him, that though life was short, and felicity in, and beatitude after this life, was the instigation and reward of all Endeavours in Kings and Com­moners, [...],Plut. Lib. De Py­thiae Oraculis, p. 401. &c. that Princes must devote to God Altars of Iustice, Temperance, Magnani [...]ty, [...], not of Gold and Silver, but of Virtue, which they [Page 57] rather accept. Yet this so truly the Mistress and Minion of all persons perfections, and perswasions, was lodged in, and acquired by the irritation and irradiation of the Laws. For in that the Laws have the precepts of virtue practised, and vice abhorred, and in that, serenity of soul, and success in affairs associates, and fame and heroique Ca­nonization succeeds their practical punctuality, what can be more truly asserted, nor more really assured a sequacious and virtuous Prince, then that he living according to the Laws, shall be made an amor & deliciae humani generis by them, and attain an Ely­sium, not fictive,Lib. 6. Benef. p. 117. but real, his hearts wish, not the multa vota quae sibi fateri pudet, as Sene­ca expresses it, but the pauca quae facere coram teste possimus. Such desires he may obtain of God, by such a demeanour of, and conforming himself to the Laws, as Solomon had granted, when he wisely asked it, a wise and understanding heart; such as Hezekiah prayed for, Let there be peace and truth in my days; ad hunc disciplinatum te leges in­vitant, saith our Text.

This is brought in to compleat the Laws to the purpose of putting the Prince in pos­sibility, and possession of felicity and beatitude, by following the direction of the Laws: for they do not make a man guess, and look upon them by rote, as we say, [...], &c. All men may as well do this as wise men, Metaphysic. L [...]. 1. c. 2. says Aristotle; but give a man an exact and perfect view of, and direction to, yea an inheritance in them. For as the mind makes the man in whom it resides,Lib. 10. De Moti­bus. c. [...]. [...], as the same Philoso­pher lays down the position: so the Laws score out the features of beatitude and felici­ty, for those are consistent onely with Virtue, and Justice, which they also specifie. The Philosophers therefore who were the antient Nomothetae among the Greeks, acknow­ledged the sum of all the wisdom revealed by the Numina, and acquirable by men, to consist in felicity and blessedness, the adequate end of virtue, beyond which no man could, no man did ever wish; and though Seneca condemns them, as all other things, under that seeming hard sentence, Tota rerum natura umbra est aut inanis aut fallax: yet in his 89.Ep. 8 [...]. Epistle, as he recites the various opinions and definitions of Philosophy, and Philosophers; so does he conclude, Stude, non ut plùs aliquid scias, sed ut meliùs. And this to follow him in, there are two things that are to be touched upon in this Clause; the persons produced, the actions they are reported to do their Conclusion; Philosophers are the men, Disputation concerning felicity and beatitude, their recrea­tion and employment; fixation of their consistency in virtue, that their consent and agreement.

Philosophi, these were not onely lovers of Wisdom, but men, penè divini, compared to others,Lysis. p. 506. [...], omni-scient, as Theodor. in Plato asserts; and Socra­tes confirms divine;In Sophista. p. 153. The ground of Philosopy being admiration, [...], as it follows.In Theaetet. p. 115. Philosophers must needs be admired, as the onely men of profun­dity and miracle that were almost not understood by men, but thought Gods in the like­ness of men. And hence Ficinus makes Plato in all his works,Argum. in Re­pub. lib. 3. p. 609. proposing nothing so requisite to a Philosopher, Quàm copulam ex fortitudine pariter temperantiáque con­flatam, ut per illum alta petantur, per hanc non spernentur humilia, & utrimque nihil un­quam nimis aut audeas, aut metuas. Plotinus makes a Philosopher so compleat, that he is not conversant with any speculation beneath,Aenead. 1. lib. 3. p. 21, 22. [...], &c. A Crafts­Master in the cause and being of them, which he calls, [...]. Plutarch accounts them so exact, that he enjoyns the young man that is but saluted such, to be careful to avoid all indecency, least the jest of Menedemus be applyed to them, That they came to Athens to School wise; after became Philosophers; further Proficients then Orators, Lib. De Profe­ctu virtut p. 81. able to utter their Conceptions with applause. [...], at last rude, Lib. De Socrat. genio, p. 561. and utterly vain, swollen with arrogance and pride, which was no fruit of Philosophy, but the errours of them the Philosophers, since Philosophy taught, [...], &c. every thing that is good, and necessary concerning the Gods. Yea, [...]. Philostr. in vita Apollonii, c. 12. p. 92. he commends Socrates, as grave and good speaking from a right judgement of the causes and natures of things. Philostratus tells us the Indians did much honour to Phylosophers, and tryed them se­verely [Page 58] before they approved them for such; and the Phylosopher, in making a Phyloso­pher to enquire,Topic. lib. 1. c. 14. p. 119. [...], What does he less, then make it Divinity, and the practicer of it divine. So that whatever was possible to be beloved, and admired in man, being concluded in them, we may well fix them for men of re­marque; and as such,1 De Oratore. Budzus in Pan. dect. priores. p. 13. record in our minds their memories, for so the Oratour characte­rizes Philosophers worthy, Is qui studeat omnium rerum divinarum & humanarum vim, naturam, causasque nosse, & omnem bene vivendi rationem tenere & persequi, nomine hoc appelletur.

The Disputation is next, many men of many minds, and all men so far in love with their own shadow, that they, from different apprehensions, proceed to different de­terminations, and so to oppositions, heats, and civil Wars, which fill the World with Contests, and Hurries; and, in the end, looses Science in passion, and Reason in oppo­sition.

Aristotle, he makes felicity to consist in such a satiation, as arises from the presence of some useful virtues,Rhetotic. lib. 1. c. 6. Lib. 1. D [...] Mo­ [...]ib.c. 5. righteousness, courage, wisdom, &c. joyning with them corporal goods, as health, strength, which some call, bona viae; but beatitude he terms [...], &c. the greatest of goods, the perfection of acquirements, the end of action; bonum patriae, as Divines call it: yet the same Philosopher says, that learned and wise men have digladiated about it, and counts the rehearsal of their varieties,Lib. 1. De Morib. c. 2. altogether useless; yet he says, [...], &c. Well to live, and well to do, is to be blessed. Alexand. ab Alex, gives a large account, that Philosophers thought all bliss consisted in otio & quiete;Genial. lib. 4. c. 14. cum notis Tiraequelli. and surely, if all action be to rest, and rest be ces­sation from labour, and that be felicity or beatitude, as our Chancellour confuses them; then our Chancellour, and the Philosopher, lib. 10. De Morib. c. 7. are at an accord: And though they do logomachize, to try mastery of words and wit; and thereby to beat out discovery to greater perfection, and to spin a finer thred of art, and give it a renovation of beauty and delight; yet are they confederate in the main, and do not vary in the definition of the nature, but the wording of their apprehension: for they make not felicity or beatitude, to reside in sensuality, or visceration, in vio­lence or depredation, in morosity or sullen incommunicableness; but in that assimila­tion of nature, to the chief good, and prime cause, God; and to those figures of his immaculate, unalterable, and influential good, which he has communicated to excellent Creatures, and by which they are rendered, esteemed, and unvulgar. And this I take to be the sense of our Chancellour, in making Felicity and Beatitude tant amounts, not that they in Logical acceptations, or in Critical examinations, are exactly the same; for though they mostly agree, yet are they unlike enough, to admit a discrimination; but because the main ingredients to their perfection are the same, and the reward of both one, as to what we apprehend, the same virtue being the via recta to bliss, the finis itineris. And hereupon those learned men, that did disceptare de modo, disagreeing in the collateral, and less material circumstances, coincided in the upshot, which is their determination, quòd finis est omnis humani appetitus. And their conclusion is, that beati­tude and felicity is the end of all mans desire; of his desire, as rational; not onely [...],Lib. De Congres. q [...]et. erudit gratia, p. 435. a meditation of wisdom, as Philo calls it; but a wisdom, which is [...], &c. as he enlarges, and carries a man to such a mastery of himself, and such a magnification of his Mistris nature, and her and his Maker God, as puts us upon de­siring him as our chief good, and every thing as our happiness, in order to, and our beatitude with, and in fruition of him; for, as the same Philo observes, no receptacle can be fit for God,Lib. De his Ver­bis resipuit Noe, p. 282. Seneca, De Bea­ta vita. p. 653. Epist. 66. [...], &c. but the soul that is purged and prepared to receive him, the best good. And therefore the supreme good, take it as Moralists denominate it, animus fortuita despiciens, virtute laetans, ant invicta vis animi perita rerum, placida in actu cum humanitate multa, & conversantium cura; or, summum bonum quod honestum est. Ep. 71. Ex naturae voluntate se gerere, perfectus status in quo quis summum voti sui invenit. Take it for such a Resolution, as makes a man a free man, though in Pha­laris his Brazen Bull: yet all this, if it could be separate from virtue, were nothing; Quis sit summi boni losus, Senec. Ep. 87. animus, hic nisi purus & sanctus deum non capit. Alas! alas! they are but refracted, and minute determinations of the chief good that Philosophers make; They are strangers from the Common-wealth of Israel, and ignorant of the Covenant of grace, and without God in the world of their fancy and opination. Their [Page 59] wits are a wool-gathering, they seek living light in the dismal and tenebrious Caves of their obcecated mind, where the true light is not; all the good they can reach to, is, [...],In Epictet. lib. 3. c. 7. as Arrianus says, to live according to Natures norm and discovery: nay, though Porphyry be the director to seek good, [...], &c. in conjunction with the Authour of it, the soul. Though therefore they agree, the de­sires are carryed to beatitude and felicity; yet in that they specifie it so different from the truth of its being, they confer little to satisfaction: nor have they at all satiated in their discourses of Philosophy about these, and other points, the World in any age; though they have been the Patriarchs of Heresies, and illaqueated many in snares of ill belief,Philosophi, Patriarcha Haereticorum, E [...] clesia puritatem perversa maculavere doctri­nâ Sanctus Hieronim. ad Cresiphontem adu. Pelagianos. and suffurated time and parts from o­ther matters, (more Books being writ of Philosopy, and Philoso­phers, then of any Science whatsoever,) as is evident in Fabian Iustinian's Index, and in other Bibliotheckes. For there have none of the great Sects of them agreed, but been, if not diametral, yet divers from one ano­ther. For while the Peripatetiques, Aristotelians, or walking Philosophers, Cic. 1 Acad. c. 24 3 Tuscul. then which sort of men, Tully says, Nihil est uberius, nihil eruditius, nihil gravius, determined felicity, or beatitude in virtue. The Stoiques, or Zenonists, whom their Master taught in a Porch, called in Greek, [...], and thence are named Stoiques, though they do re con­cinere, 1 De Nat. deo. rum. yet verbis do discrepare, as Tullie's words are, with the Peripatetiques; for their Beatitude is in honesty. From both these, Epicurus his followers with him differ; for these either determined it to reside in pleasure, as reflecting on the Garden where Epi­curus is said first to principle his Clients, according to Demetrius Magnesius his ac­count of their Institution; or in exemption from sorrow, and a vacuity from all passion, and the felicity of it. Now, though I say all these, orè tenus, did differ; yet in the upshot and conclusion, they coincided: for the Stoiques honestly, and the Epicureans pleasure, is butlin other words, the Peripatetiques virtue, since the one and other ab­stracted from virtue, as the mean and rule of them are but vana & exilia nihila;Senec. Lib. De Beata Vita, p. 653. De Vita Pytha­gorae, p. 198, 199. Holstein Interp. and so Epicurus himself is quoted by our Chancellour. To conclude, nihil esse voluptuo­sum sine virture; and so Forphyrius limiteth beatitude and felicity, [...], &c. not to be fascinating and venereous pleasure that inchants the mind, but grave and serious pleasure, which consists in pureness of virtue: [...], &c. exercising it self in just, good, and necessary actions of life. And therefore Philiscus in Dion, miscalculated Bea­titude, while he made it to be in a sound body, and an avoidance of cares, which who­ever enjoys, [...], &c. has the fruit of all felicity. This, I say, is not rightly accented,Dionis Hist. Lib. 38. Cicero Exal. p. 71. because it terminated felicity to a self-fruition, and not to any thing without, and above it, which Porphyry rightly called conjuction, which its Au­thour, and the Scriptures, make to be in the knowledge of God. This is life eternal, to know thee the onely true God, and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ, and in the enjoyment of God in grace and glory. Blessed is the man, to whom the Lord imputeth no sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile. There is God enjoyed by his potent presence in the soul, chasing away all corruption inconsistent with him, and refining the soul from the impu­rity of its lees and dregs. And they shall be with me, that where I am, there shall they be also, which is the promise of Christ to his, as their compensation and beatitude; which is the fruition of them in glory. For so said the Spirit, Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works follow them.

Vnde sectae illae, ut dicit Leonardus Aretinus, in hoc concordaverunt, quod sola virtus est quae felicitatem operatur.

This Authour,In Fasciculo re­rum expetenda­rum & fugienda­rum, so. 154. Draudius Biblio­thec. Class. p. 1041, 1087, 1095, 1116, 1117, 1251, 1366. Leonardus Aretinus, is not that Florentine, which Poggius so accla­mates, in the Epistle he writes to him about Ierom of Prague, but one of the same name and kindred much elder: Posseuine, and Gesner, make no mention of this Authour; but Draudius does to his infinite advantage, making him the Authour of many excel­lent Books; amongst which, this Isagoge here quoted, containing ten Books on Ari­stotle ad Nichomach is not the least worthy. It was, I suppose, a Manuscript in our Text-Master his time; but about 1607. it was printed at Iean. And it is a notable Discourse of Moral Philosophy, that part of Philosophy that concerns the manners of men.Epist. 121 [...] Now though that of Seneca be true, Non quicquid morale est, bonos mores facit; yet may they be called Morals,Notis in loc [...]. quae si non apertè & statim flexu, vel subsidio aliquo ad bonos mores ducunt, saith Lipsius. And of this nature are Morals in Philosophy, because [Page 60] they do componere animum, as natural Philosophy does search into causes of things, and rational Philosophy discuss the propriety of words, and structure of Arguments. Seneca in his 89. Epistle, gives us a large account of Philosophy, and the contrariancy of Philo­sophers one to another, in stating and dissecting Philosophy: yet his conclusion is, cau­sae rerum ex naturali parte sunt, argumenta ex rationali, actiones ex morali: so that Aretine writing of the moral part of Philosophy, had unavoidably to do; which felicity, and beatitude, as the end of all man's desire and tendency, in the practice of virtue. And that which he is quoted for,Est autem secta disciplinae certa quaedam disciplinae formula, factio, studium, ratio vi­tae. Cic. 1 De Orator. Secta & ratio vita. Cic pro Caelio. as coagulating all the Sects of Philosophers, (and Sects de­noted habitus animorum & instituta Philosophica circa Disciplinam, that is, additions to a particular profession, according to the reverence men have of him that institutes, and as chief in it professes it) all these Sects, I say, he amassing, as it were, into one term of expression, declares them to own virtue alone, the means to attain felicity; that is, in other words, no felicity is enjoyable by man, but in a state of reduction of nature to its primaeve purity, and in a subserviency to its Maker, in all those actions wherein his pleasure is notified: which Seneca words more elegantly to my sense then ordinarily; Vt quanti quidque sit, judices, that we rightly understand what everything is; Vt impetum ad illa sapias ordinatum, temperatūmque, that is, that we love and hate, use and not use it, according as it is auxiliary, or obstructive to our end, in pleasing God and our selves. Vt inter impetum tuum actionemque conveniat, ut in omnibus istis tibi ipsi consentias, that is, that in the rise to, and action of our virtue, we do nothing but what is rational and proportionable to our being, who are made after the Image of God on our reasonable soul. Laertius, p. 795. edit. Colon. 1616. Laertius in Epi­curo, p. 791. edit. Colon. 1616. Gassendus Ae­thicae, Lib. 1. De Faelic. This is truly to be happy, to be what we ought, and onely such; all other felicity is but nominal, [...], weak remiss felicity, but a Badgers footed feli­city, halting before the best friend it hath to commend it; for so Epicurus concludes, [...], &c. all virtue consists in pleasure, and to live delightfully, is to be happy.

So that all Sects of Learning and Wisdom, though diversly denominated, as those from the place of their birth, or first appearing; as the Elienses, Megarenses, Ere­trici, Cyrenaici; or of their teaching and Institutor's School, as the Academiques, and Stoiques; or from guises and accidents, as the Peripatetiques; or from reproaches, as the Cyniques; or from effects, as the Endemonici; or from their heighth and pride, as the [...]: From the nature of their Writings, and names of their Masters, as the Socratists, In Proemio. and Epicureans. These, and all other Sects of them recited by Laer­tius, yet do all make up an harmonious suffrage, that virtue onely operates felicity. And this Aretine assenting to, and corroborating, is here quoted by our Authour, in the following words.

1 De Morib. c. 11.This definition of Aristotle, is the same with what he says otherwhere; for dis­coursing of felicity, and aggravating the glory and lustre of it, he says it is termed by some [...]; by others [...]. This, or that excellent endowment, as Prudence, Wisdom, Beauty, Strength, Riches, Friends, which were but slips from, and diminu­tives of it; but he concludes it, [...], that it was a concentration of them all in their end, [...] 5 Metaphys. c. 16. p. 196. and noblest resolution, and an arrival at that which was the meta ultima, ultra quod non: And hereupon he concludes it, [...], the perfect enjoyment of the end, and that perfectly. Now in that he calls felicity the perfect use of virtue, he means, that virtue is the means to it, and then is perfect, when it has its end for which it was designed, and to which end it is the vehiculation: So that felicity being the perfect use of virtue, argues its end in that endless beati­tude, which we living having not, cannot be properly said to have the perfect use of virtue; yet comparatively we may, as we are laid by others, who are less virtuous; and so Heathens that know not God, lodging Beatitude in these inferiour accomplish­ments, to any remarkable degree obtained, above the vulgar account, that perfects vir­tue which is by them expressed. So the Philopher calls that per­fect, [...];5 Metaphys. c. 16. p. 896. Virtus propriè dicta est habitus constituens po­tentiam in ubtimo gradu perfectionis suo actui debitus, Arragonius in Sanctum Thom. Ar­tic. [...]. De virtute sidei Explic. Text. p. 110. to which there is nothing to be expe­cted addable, because virtue is perfection it self. This is their notion of perfect use of virtue, when a man is so assueted to virtue, and has such a conquest over his passions of all sorts, that he can conform himself to his exact duty, and neither desire more then he has, nor [Page 61] fear more then he ought, nor endeavour to do otherwise to God, Man, or himself, then as perfect virtue limits. This is the perfectus usus virtutum, which Saint Paul translates into carrying a Conscience void of offence both towards God, and towards man. But Saint Paul's definition of it, transcending the Heathen's notion, is not to be insisted on as Aristotle's meaning, which went no further, then that before-mentioned. More of this might be added out of Durand, Suarez, Saint Thomas, and Arragonius, and Aure­lius on him:In Lib. De Mi­gratione Abra­hami, p. 399. Also from Scotus, Parisiensis, Turrecremata, and others the School­men, who have created of perfect virtue, and the use of it. But I refer the Reader to them, avoiding the superfluity of quoting them here, and concluding with that of Philo, that God doing all things like himself in weight and measure, [...], &c. indulges his Creature nothing defective beneath perfect, though not in the ab­solute and exact act, yet in such degrees as he accepts perfect. And thus Noah, Daniel, Iob, and others have been accounted perfect by him, and been blessed, in such the perfect use of virtue, from him.

His jam praesuppositis considerare te volo, etiam ea quae sequuntur leges humanae, non aliud sunt quàm regula quibus perfectè justitia edocetur.] This is to set forth, that as beatitude is attainable by virtue, so virtue is by knowledge of the Law: And as all virtue, so that, which though inclusively, is general; yet, in common understanding, one particular justice. This the Law inclines to, and teaches a Prince so the method of, as nothing else besides it can, or does. For Laws being the wisdom of Ages, and men having such additions, and subtractions, as make their compilements symmetrious to their end, must needs be the most faithful, and unerring Counsellours, which has caused Monarchs, in power and wisdom, to dye for Laws, and the [...], as well as for Religion, because Religion and they, directing one rule of Justice equally, call for cou­rage and constancy in mens observance of them. Now, though it were too bold a con­fidence, for any one to arrogate this rule of perfect justice to any single body of hu­mane Law; yet it is well-beseeming a sober man, to own the Chancellour in his vin­dication of humane Laws as such; because some, or other Laws of men, do supply what others want; and so amongst them, while yet they are together, but humanae leges, do notwithstanding perfecte justitiam edocere. For since the Rule of Justice with men, is the Laws of their Government, and the topique Customs of the place of their being, and those are knowable by study and practice, and the knowledge of them in both kind; is the perfectest acquisition, our nature is capable of. In the same sense they may perfectly be known, may they be accounted perfect Rules of virtue; since the vir­tue perfected in us by the Law, is but a conformity in practice to the speculation we have of it. And hence it is, that, as in common speech, we call that á perfect Copy, which is verbatim to the original; and that a perfect Child which has all the integral parts, and that a perfect book which has no leaves torn out: so the Law may be taken for a perfect Mistriss of Justice, when it gives, [...], Rules for Iustice, and is as inde­fectuous in it, as integrity of method and prudence, equity and exactness, composed by man, and generally approved by experience, can arrive at; which Budaeus well expres­ses, Quod in legibus; senatus consultis, rebus judicatis, juris peritorum authoritate, In Pandect. Pri­ores. p. 19. edis. Basil. edictis Magistratuum, more, aequitate consistis, &c. This is the rather to be insisted on warily, because all Laws, like all Law-makers, are not always such as virtue requires. Nay, no Laws or men, how transcendent soever, are either in their present times so well ballan­ced, or against the necessity of emergent changes and accidences, so omnisciently pro­vided for: but there will need some either abolition of, or mitigation from, or decla­ration about them,Lib. 10. De Con­stantino. and their senses in them. Constantine was a brave man, and inten­ded splendidly, in building anew, as to the Laws and Polity of it, Constantinople. No doubt but he had all the thoughts of perpetuity in his head imaginable, and resolved to live in the glorious memorial of that justly ordered Government, which in the memorial of his name, did, in a sort, immortalize him: yet Ignatius remembers us, multas leges ro­gavit, quasdam ex bono & aequo, plaerásque superfluas, nonnull ásque severas, primúsque urbem nominis sui ad tantum fastigium evchere molitus est, ut Romae aemulam faceret. And Grotius, that memorable man, then whom, I think, few have been more profi­tably learned, acknowledges some Laws imperial are not just; as that of wrecks at Sea, Nullâ enim praecedente probabili causâ, dominium suum alicui auferre mera injustitia est, saith he: yea, he further shews, that the Heathens abominated any thing like this, that [Page 62] men should lose their lives and goods for submitting to God, who causes, and allays winds and storms at his pleasure.Jur. Belli, & pa­cis, lib. 2. c 7. p. 175. A like hard, not to say unjust, they thought those Laws of the Nations, that punished Children for their Fathers crimes, which God Interdicts in Israel, as Ethnique, and irrational, saying, The Son shall not bear the ini­quity of the Father, Brechaeus ad le­gem. 42. Lib. De Verborum signi­ficatione, p. 121. Lib. 2. p. 377. Budaeus in Pand. p. 185. edit. Basil. Eustathius in 9 Iliad. nor the Father of the Son, but the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The like in justice was in the Laws of the Persians, and Macedonians, vowing their Neigh­bours heads in sacrifice: These, [...], Laws made by men, like the Poets, Atae, offen­sionis & noxae contubernalis, [...], for her enmity and spight, as it were, to Man­kind, [...], as she is set forth diule-like, [...] saith Suidas. I say, Laws so made, are not probable to have any rectitude in them; and there­fore the Statute of 1 M. 2 Sess. c. 1. censures and repeals those Statutes of 25 H. 8. c. 22. 28 H. 8. c. 7. for though Laws they were, because the establishments of Power; yet just Laws they were not, mistaken and mis-named Laws onely Cousin-germans to those of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iii. which made denial to worship the Image he idolatrously set up capital, Laws they may be, and those accepted by great and wise Nations, as the Sa­lique Laws are; but yet hard, and against the opinion of Nations; yea, determination of God in Zelophehad's Daughters cases; yea, and against the experience of Females fit to rule, where righted to it;Lipsius in Notis ad secundum, Po­litic. Tom. 1. Oper. so. 130. witness Q. Elizabeth, and witness the judgment of our state and Law, which establishes the Crown on the Heirs Female of our Kings, for want of Male, 1 Q. Mary, the second Parl. c. 1. These, and the like Laws, may be unjust, and therefore are not regulae, quibus perfectè justitia edocetur, but injuries to Governments, and unjust Usurpations upon the reasons of the Subjects to be governed, Qui leges injustas con­stituit, non Dei, sed suo ore loqui disitur, suis niti inventionibus, ex ambitionis, libidinis, avaritiae sontibus deductis enjusmodi sunt omnes leges Tyrannorum, & Hypocritarum, quâ non ad justitiam in Rempub.Lib. 1. De Vera Jurisprud. tit. 23.inducendam, sed ad opinatum, & falsum commodum eorum qui illas condunt, diriguntur, saith Hopperus.

Regula est pluri­um rerum compen­diosa narratione facta traditio. Gloss. in Tit. 3. Digest. De legi­bus Sena [...]usque consultis, p. 74.Which considered, our Chancellours shafts against this inconvenience and mischief, are not shot at random, but prudently levelled at the mark he aims at; satisfaction of the Prince, that the Law, as ars aequi est boni, is the best and safest discipline of admini­strative virtue. And hence is it, that he calls Laws, Rules; now Rules do not in­cline to things, but things conform to Rules; because there is no ametry in Rules, but a fixed and exact rectitude, Rules being truth adapted to ends of use, and tracks, according to Wisdoms discovery of her self, in the practiques of Sciences and Mysteries: so the Laws, as Rules, are not to condescend to mens mutable humours, but to retain their majesty, and immobility, as Rules do, and ought; allowing always Rea­son and Magistracy regent in it, liberty, in licitis & honestis, to alter, as Prudence ad­vises, and Providence, in affairs, shall over-rule them.

While then Laws are Rules, and such as do perfectè justitiam edocere, they must be of high descent, From the Father of Lights, larded with virtue and wisdom, in every part and nook of them: not framed, as if Epicurus were their Patron, who taught, that nothing was just, suâ naturâ sed metu: or according to Thrasimachus his latitude, whom Plato brings in,Lib. 1. De Legib. asserting that to be right, which is pleasing to the chief Power; but understood, as Sulpitius intended, whom Tully reports to have referred all things, ad aequitatem facilitatēmque; and as the ancient Lawyers directed their learning, Tol­lere controversias non constituere. And that purely, Vt pax, & inter homines, & in unius, cujusque servetur animo, In 22 c. lib. 19. Sancti Augustini. De Civit Dei. quâ nil majus natura ipsa gaudet, saith Vives.

And good reason there is, that the Law should be a Rule, by which virtue is so per­fectly taught, since it has all that can go to make a Rule, such as it ought, and is pretend­ed to be,Papinianus, lib. 1. Definit. c. 1. Di­gest. lib. 1. tit. 3. p. 73. Lib. 4. De Benefic. c. 12. mensura aequi & boni: For besides its influence from God, Papinian in his de­finition of it, Lex est commune praeceptum, virorum prudentiam consultum, delictorum quae sponte, vel ignorantia contrahuntur, coercitio, communis Reipubl. sponsio. I say, in this, he has published the deserts of the Law to be received for a Rule. For besides that Seneca in the name of all wise men, calls the Law, justi injustique regula; and writing of honesty,Ep. 71. says, Hoc nec remitti nec intendi posse, non magis quàm regulam, quâ rectum probari solet, quam si flectes, quicquid ex illa mutaveris, injuria est recti, Passing by this, the Rule has profit, firmness, and delight in it, which makes is accommodate to every Artist,Lib. 7. De tecto­rio opere. and to every person that is concerned in it. And hence, as Vitruvius ob­serves, the Rule in every part of Architecture, though he reduces lengths ad lineam [Page 63] & regulam; heights ad perpendiculum; and corners, ad normam, and respond they all must to these, or else there is not just mensuration. So does our Chancellour, in terming the Law a Rule, refer perfect virtue to it, as well to be gain'd by, as prote­cted in it. Nor is there any virtue learnable by any man, but what the Law can, and will teach him, if he will hear, and obey it.

And as Demosthenes, Ep. 203. whom Pliny stiles, ille norma Oratoris & regula, had not been an Orator so eminent; nor at all, if he had not conformed norma loquendi. Nor he, in Tully, Pro Muraena, 2. a good man, had he not resolved, Dirigere vitam ad normam rationis. So can­not the Prince be, what be ought in charity to be; good to his own soul, nisi servatâ illâ, qua quasi delapsa de caelo est, ad cognitionem omnium regulâ, ad quam omnia judicia rerum dirigentur; as Tully smartly.

Which considered,Lib. 1. De Finib. 97. no wonder though the Chancellour make Justice that is in man's Law, inseparable from the Law; because God, the Fountain of it, has instructed, and commanded man in place and power under him, to promote and practice it, as that which is a Ray of him, and raised by him to an esteem, as the Architectonique Virtue that includes all others, since Consequens, est ut qui ad legem se applicet, Iustitiae quoque tâdem operâ adhaerescat,Lib De Vera Ju­risprud 2. tit. 3.nam secundum regulas Geometricas quaecunque uni, & cidem sunt aequalia, inter se sunt aequalia, saith Hopperus.

Here our Master disclaims that narrow sense of Justice, which mistake may impose upon him, and lays claim to the latitude of Justice, as that which is in, and teaches men, from the Law, the practice of it. And this the better to obtain, he premises, that Ju­stice, as it is in fonte, and essentially in God, is like God himself inscrutable, having the vail of inaccessible glory before it, and dazling mortal eyes to an inperception of it; which yet, through the mediation of the Laws composed by wise men, and worded apt­ly to ordinary capacity, is in such a measure revealed, as it may be learned in some com­petent measure by them. And this adds much to the renown of the Law, that it dis­covers so excellent a Jewel, as harmonizes the World, and keeps it in any tolerable Concord; which because Justice does, 'twill be pertinent here to write somewhat addi­tional, to what is before delivered of her.

Justice, either is considerable alone, as one of the Virtues, or as complex, and inclu­ding all virtues in her. In the first sense, my Text-Master intends her not here; nor shall I in that here inlarge on it: but as she is the Lesson, that the Law learns both Prince and People; so she is to be acknowledged summarily all virtue. The Schools define Justice to be rectitudo impressa voluntati à rectitudine rationis quae dicitur veritas, Sanctus Thom. prima secunda, 960. art. 3. O. Lessius De Iu­stit, & Jure. and vast disputes they have about her: yet all agree, that she is the Aurora of all Perfe­ctions, attended by such an equipage, as no Monarch beneath Iehovah has. For if Solo­mon in all his Royalty, be not cloathed like a tender and trite Lilly of the Field, which every eye may look upon, till it have looked it self into darkness; and every hand touch, till it hath defloured its glory, and withered into deformity: How unlike, in the pomp and grandeur of their Train, are Solomon's Peers to this his Peerless Mistriss that is to them.

Tully makes six Virtues to attend the Train of Justice, Macrobius seven, Androni­cus nine,Lib. 5. De Morib. c. 3 & 5. Lib. 4. De factis, & dictis Socra­tis. Serm. 51. p. 188, 189. Lib. 10. De Re­publ. Aristotle and Theogius all virtues, [...], &c. Xe­no phon says the same, calling it, [...], &c. The greatest Art the Queen of all excellent Virtues, Polus the Pythagorean, as I find him in Stobaeus, is so transported with it, that he calls it [...], and adds no man, without it can be accounted wise or magnanimous. Plato makes it so beloved of the gods, that be his condition never so distressed, they will never forsake him alive or dead, because he is useful to the Publique, and so like the gods themselves. Epictetus makes the same account of it,Stobaeus, p. 206. [...], &c. every place is safe, where a just man lodges. Infinite to this purpose are the accounts might be given of the Encomiums of Iustice: but those [Page 64] are but tinsel trickings to the glorious tyres, and invaluable ornaments, Scripture puts on her,Aug. lib. 19. De ci­vit Dei. Budaeus, in Pandect. p. 73. edit. Basil. Iustice is the habitation of God's Throne, the exemplication of his essential Ma­gnitude, and illustricity to us. The Lord is known by the judgement he executeth. Justice is the whole duty of man, and that which prepares him for every good, against every evil: 'tis the Establisher of Thrones, the credit of Weights and Measures, the sweetner of Crosses, [...], as Saint Chrysostome notes it; yea, that which is [...], round every way, universally the same at all times, and to all persons, Methodius. according to the differences of circumstances, which are to be taken in, in exer­citial Iustice. So that the Laws of Nations being artes aequi & boni, and administring to People under the regency of them, such just proportions of punishment and reward, good instruction, and seasonable prevention, in good and evil; and being straight, certain, safe, useful rules of life, both in the ruling, and ruled parts of Societies, and the tropiques upon which Communities are harmoniously managed, they may, in very right, be allowed Weight, according to our Text-Master's Ballance, in those words, Quibus perfectè justitia edocetur. Lib. 1. Com. Ju­ris Civilis, c. 13. For so Donellus also asserts them, in the intendment of his words, and in that sense which Wise-men dispense them in, sequamur potiùs quod justum & aequum quàm quod strictum est, quòd strictum jus nihil habet auctoris praeter verba, efficit ut sit maximè contra ejus sententiam & voluntatem, at verò sententia non verbis astringenda est, sed verba potiùs sententiae atque adeò aequitati servirè debent, quàm servari, Dion. Cals. Hist. lib. 44. p. 256. Partis primae, p. 280. est ex mente legis; and that the performance of this is a necessary part of the Laws Justice, Salmuth upon Pancirol, doth in many examples, and by sundry authori­ties, make good. This shall suffice, for what our Chancellour, out of Leonardus Are­tinus, Homer, and Aristotle quotes, to the phrase of Justice, as it is the Parent of all other Virtue; and particularly the Prerogative, and Royal Embelishment of Kings: For so it follows.

In this sentence, our Master applyes Justice to the King, as the Rudder that must move and actuate him that is the Mover and Spirit of all his Government: For in Go­vernment, the King and the Law, though two in number, yet are but one in nature, both making but one Head; which Head, our Authour says, ought to be filled with no Proclamations but Justice,Eurypid. in Ale­maeo, in Stobaeus, p. 148, 504. and the care of it. Care did I say, yes to purpose; Princes find it so, that rule well and justly, [...]: Oh! the tortures and troubles of Crowns! what anxious thoughts, what discomposed plea­sures, what Earth-quakes of popular murmure and insolence, does greatness totter upon? Antigonus had so much of it, that on a day, when a poor Woman admired him for his Diadem and Purple Robe; he cryed out to her, O Mother, if thou knewest the guilt and trouble of thése, Stobaeus, Serm. 148. [...], &c. that is, thou would'st not take it up from the ground, if there it lay, and thou mayst have it for taking up, the charge attends it. In­deed, did people know how real deservers Princes are of their duties, what laborious Bees they are to bring them the honey of peace; what Clouds of plenty they are, and all to disgorge their Tributes and Customs in protection and orderly government of them, they would make more Conscience of duty to them then now they do. Est enim ea hominum conditio, Corda in vita Virgilii. ut si quando justum Regem nacti sunt velint potius illi subdi quam esse liberi, etiamsi Rex hic sit Tyrannus, quare Dominarite & tibi Orbi conducit, was Virgil's counsel to Augustus, wen he was in a quandary, whether to hold, or resign the Empire.In Panegyr. For what Pliny said to one is here true, Parens tibi imperium dedit, tuilli reddidisti, ultro dantem obligasti, communicato enim imperio solicitior tu, ille securior fa­ctus est. People have more from Princes, in care and vigilance, for, and over them, then Princes have from people, in tributes and perquisites of their Crown, which they carefully wear,Dion. Cass. Hist. lib. 55. p. 557. edit. Leunclavii. to those purposes of publique good. Which considered, that speech of Augustus to his Livia, [...], &c. Who woman can be quiet a moment, who has so many and great Enemies within this Government, &c. is but what all Kings and Chiefs do in their minds speak, and have too just cause to bemoan; as that which makes them sometimes necessarily act, what they do not applaud, as exactly just. What then they do besides the Rule, and beyond Justice, lyes on them to answer to God; for their [Page 65] square and tether is Justice thats the onely subject matter that Regality should express care in; and that done, security will flow in upon King and Kingdom. For to promote this there is a kinde of necessity in a Prince to take this glorious Mancipation on him. And did not God kindle ambitions of glory, by publick beneficencies in great mindes, they would never deny themselves the delights of private living, to take the envy and murmure of Government and Rule upon them; for when Subjects sleep, Princes wake; when they eat and drink to freedom, Princes are to keep cool heads, that they may be ripe and ready in counsel and action; when they love and marry whom they please, Princes are, and must be bound up by Reason of State, and marry to their best Interest, and strongest Allyance; when they command hours for private devotions, and hug their pillows as their ease, casting off care with their cloaths; Princes are masters of no privacies; hurried they are up and down in the day, and perplexed in the night with myriads of thoughts, tumultuating one upon another; every shadow presents su­spition and fear to them. And they knowing not what a moment may bring forth, are in no moment hereby quiet: when they see a Subject popular and wise, they fear his discontent, disaffection, and the fruits of it Rebellion: When they hear of Multi­tudes querulous, and parties among the people, their prudence aims to head none of them; but to ballance them both, so that neither may have the advantage of other, but the Law regulate both. When they observe Princes their Neighbours, in warlike paradoe, they must arm too, that the noise of their vigilance and preparation, may pre­vent what is malevolently designed from abroad against them. And when their own Subjects are in Arms, they take care, lest they should not be distributed into their first particles without inconvenience. When they are to court Forreign Favourites, they are dubious to trust, where they have not tryed, and found fidelity; and when their way is made, then their care is to improve by subtilty, what prudently they have gained. For not to proceed wisely in what is begun, is to retrograde in publique reputation; and to proceed faster then the good speed of Affairs dictates, is to be less advised then Princes ought to be. When Affairs are on foot, they must be sup­plyed with Instructions, money and all other necessaries; and when they are brought to their growth and birth, then the case is, how to produce them gallantly, and to be moderate under the interpretation of them with men, whose bolts will be diversly shot, and censures boldly delivered upon them. These, and myriads of such like emer­gencies, discompose the lives and peaces of Princes, and great men, and deny them the serenato's and calms that privacy delights their possessours with. When Bajazet the Fourth had lost his Son Orthobulus, and his City Sebastia, he could sing no Notes so cherrily as the shepherd, whom he sighingly cryed out happy, because he had none of them to lose.

Yet these cares are all but in order to the highest care of Kings; Justice, which be­ing the project of God, in the government of the World, calls them as dutiful Chil­dren, wise servants, and worthy Patrons of Popularities, to imitate him the Father, Ma­ster, and Defender of his Creation, and the Polities in it, which they can no ways to the life do, but by Justice.

Justice is the cement and soul of all Polities, the hinge upon which order winds it self into humane accommodation.Bibliothec. lib. 5. Diodorus writing of the virtues of Noah, concludes that he taught them [...], &c. Iustice and integrity of soul above all. And Trogus speaking of the Golden Age under Saturn, Justin. lib. 43. attributes this to it, Tantae ju­stitiae fuisse fertur, ut neque servierit sub illo quisquam, nec quicquam privatae rei habuerit, sed omnia communia, Sanctus August. lib. 4. De civit Dei Alciat. lib. De Verborum sig­nif. p. 42. ad le­gem 15. & indivisa omnibus fueriut, veluti unum cunctis patrimonium esset. Take away Justice, and all that we see and read of, becomes Chaos. Take away Justice, and what are Kingdoms but Magna Latrocinia; and Kings, but violentiae numina. Take away Justice, and what are Laws but nudae & nugatoriae Ceremoniae; pompous nothings, and ridiculous Gloworms. Take away Justice, and what is property and priviledge, but libidini holocaustum: and who may not by Ahabs, and sons of Belial, be made a Naboth for his Vineyard? Set aside Justice, and all Religion to God, and order amongst men,Lib. De Justit. Principis. ceases. Yea, Justice being the end of Government, (cujus qui­dem rei argumentum est, quod qui primus inter mortales à Deo constitutus fuit, Melchise­dec, id est, Rex Iustitiae, saith Hopperus) is so necessary, that it cannot be removed [Page 66] without the dissolution of all: 'Tis the Sun in the Firmament, God's Bow in the Clouds, an eternal witness of his love to man.

This is added, to shew the necessity of the presence of Justice in every act of Rega­lity, Peace and War are the two hands of Government; and both these are to be bound and loosed by Justice. And hence has it ever been the care of good Princes to be just, that they may be beloved, and well reported of: and thus onely they knowing, they must be by the Laws of their Government strictly stood to, has made them keep to it resolutely and throughly, Boni Principis est summum honorem legibus exhibere, nec quicquam sine illis nisi ultimâ necessitate tanquam tempestate cogente agere, Mopperus, lib. De Instit. Principis. ne si aliter fa­ciat, in anceps periculum se conjiciat, & loco Regis Tyrannum se exhibeat, is a States­mans rule from the great Secretary of Nature; who, because the Laws are respective of the good of many concerned in them,Lib. 8. De Morib. c. 12. makes the observation of them so important, that he concludes That a good King more eyes his Peoples good, then his own greatness. That then Peace and War are regulated by the Laws.Lib. 4. Reipub. c. 10. proceeds from the justice of the King who is Head-Dispenser and Protectour of his Laws. And hence it is, that the Wis­dom of Kings has ever admitted their Laws to be of the quorum, in conclusions about them: yea, and from this is it that mostly Peace and War has been successfully managed where Justice according to Law, has associated them. For God having intrusted power with Princes, to felicifie, and not ruine their people by it, prescribes Justice, as the me­thod of its dispensation to this end;Alciat. ad leg. 15. Lib. De Verbor. signific p. 43. and the Laws of God and men stating Justice in every application to them, conducts Princes to their Prerogative, and instructs people in their Allegiance readily and religiously; so that the Law being ars aequi & boni, and justice the end of it, being that which Prince and people are made happy by, there is reason that the Law, in assertion of Justice, should be adhered to.

This is the recollection of the premises to produce the conclusion, which our Text­Master makes in justification of the Law, and of the excellency of Justice taught by it. For since the end of all active virtue is felicity, & that is acquired by nothing more then Justice; and that Justice is specificated by the Law, which is the Rule and Model of it, and which onely can teach it perfectly, and make the knowledge of it productive of those fruits, which are comportable with Justice, in all the latitude of her relation to God, men, and a mans self, it reasonably follows, that not onely the Law is excellent, as it is repleat with Wisdom, and answers the ends of Gubernative Policy; but as it implants in, and exercises the mind that is furnished from it, with that perfect notion of felicity by vir­tue; which because it is a complex of all attainable goodness, and furnishes a man to every good word and work, is here called Justice; for so are the next words.

Iustitia fruens faelix per legem est. The phrase fruens referring to the Will, Quia frui est in voluntate, helps much to the comprehension of the Chancellour's meaning, That the felicity which man attains by the knowledge of the Law, ariseth from the de­light of the subject, in which it is to Justice; when in the Apostle Paul's words, I de­light in thy Law in my inward parts; or as the Prophet David said, I had hid thy Law in my heart, that I should not sin against thee. In this case, the Soul that is every way quadrate, [...] Stobaeus, Serm. 1. p. 2. and that looks to all God's Commandements with an indifferent and just eye, not daring to dispense with any part of his duty, may well be pronounced happy by the Verdict of Law. For God has given it that just confidence, that it shall stand in Judg­ment, that it shall not fear evil tydings, since its principle, which is fixed on the Rule, leads to Beatitude, and to what is the Porch of it, humble confidence. And indeed, [Page 67] what can make a man happy, but that Justice of principle and practice, which the Law justifies?Injuria semper in­justa est. Laedi etiam aliques ju­stè potest. Nam & qui jure damnan­tur, laduntur, sed non injuriâ. Asco­nius Praedianus, apud Philoxe­num. Lib. De Serm. Latino, p. 747. And what of this nature does the Law allow as a virtue, worthy its encou­ragement, but that which is tending to Justice: There is a mutual reciprocating of Ec­cho's, 'twixt Law, Happiness, and Justice; they answer each other, as parts of that Line of Communication which connects Heaven and Earth together: For when all things are at a stun, when Beauty gives way to putrefaction, Riches, Honours, and Wisdom weep out their woful farewel, Righteousness delivereth from death; not from death, as a debt to Nature, for it is appointed for all men once to dye: but from death, as a terrour; from the despair of comfort in, and mercy after death. This it delivereth from, thus in Hezekiah's cafe, That Remember, O Lord, I have walked before thee with an upright heart, was his Cordial against the cutting off of his days; it being the course of God, to give unto all men somewhat of comfort, or terrour in their departure, suitable to the merit, or demerit of their lives.

But, I trow, there is another sense more genuine of this Iustitia fruens faelix per le­gemest; which is this, he that has the benefit of Justice, is by the Law happy; for that the Magistrate, which is the living Law, is appointed by God to speak, and do comfortably to those that live under his charge, and are inoffensive to his power. And truly, it is no mean degree of happiness, which the Justice of Magistrates conveys to those under their charge, if the particulars of it be duly weighed; To live peaceable lives in all godlyness and honesty, to sit under our own Vine and Fig-tree, and to possess ones good things in peace; to drink of the water of our own Fountain, and to have the credit and comfort of God's blessing on our propagation; to keep our fleece on our backs, and not to have them shaven, and our lives taken from us, to colour the injury. To have the know­ledge of God run down in the Land like a mighty stream, is happiness, carrying its witness with it. And blessed are the people that are in such a case; and with this outward ad­vantage, have the Lord for their God. But all this is from that Iustice, which the Law, by the Magistrate, Quod sol mundo est & sanitas cor­pori, hoc animo & Reipubl. est Iu­stitia. Nam res ad vitam necessarias non ideo quaerimus ut simus, hoc enim brutorum est, sed ut benè simus, quod est justitia, & bellum cum hostibus gerimus, non ut vincamus, aliósque servitute opprimamus, nam hoc Tyranni faci­unt, sed ut in Pace beati vivamus, quod à justitia prostuit. Hoppe­ [...]rus. De Instit. Principis. makes good to us. Were it not for Iustice, the Laws Grnadsir, and from the fruitful Womb of Order, which Magistracy doth impregnate, who would be happy, but those whose powerful wickedness carryed them forth to drink healths in the Bowls of the Sanctuary, to prophane the holy things of God, and to violate the sacred rights of men. But blessed be God, there is a bright Star in the Firmament of Rule, which illuminates the clowdy face of Force, and makes us see Iustice expanding her Wings of Protection, so­vency, and comfort to all her Clients, and she can do no less then chear all that love and follow her; for she is a Ray of the Light sprung from on high, and is descended with a Cornucopia of good to Mankind. And therefore the Chancellour had a good reach when he said, Iustitia fruens faelix per legem est; for as he told the governed their happiness, so the Governour his duty, which is to love justice in himself, that he may administer it to his Subjects. For it is a sin not to be just, and a greater in the Prince, then in the People, because of the eminency of the one above the other. And that Prince that is unjust, and yet will be owned as Custos utriúsque tabuls, had need seize his Subjects reason as an Escheat, and make a Law, that people should believe no­thing good or bad, but as it is published to be by him; for if men be left to the just la­titude of their Reason, they will conclude him no worthy Prince that is not just. Where­fore the happiness that people enjoy under just Princes, is not onely from their good will, free concession, and gracious indulgence, but from a benefit also drilling down from Princes by the Laws of Nations, on People, as the Vallies which they water, and therefore Laws are accounted publique Treasuries, that buy out common slavery into En­franchisement. And therefore the Law is called by the Greeks [...], some say [...], which signifies, to distribute; as telling us, that whatever happiness subjection has, is from the justice of Kings by their Laws. Eurypides says there are but three virtues which he would have his Child learn,Stobaeus, Serm. 1. p. 1. To fear the Gods, to honour our Parents, and to reverence [...] [...], the common Laws of Greece; as conceiving the reverence of the Law to be next duty to God, and our Parents: and whatever assurance Government has, is from the same sourse; for the Law of Natural Justice teaches, that protection is to be recompenced with subjection, and subjection to be maintained by protection; both which are best kept up by Justice; which Justice makes man happy according to Law.

Well added, for no man can be sure of a good end from an ill beginning, non habet eventus sordida praeda bonos; the just God has joyned together Justice, which is in effect, all virtue, to happiness, that men may know the way to the one by the other. For men must pay toll at the Castle of Justice, before they come to the Basileopolis of Hap­piness. And since Pairs are so beautiful in their conjunction, the Chancellour has by an elegant Synonyma identified beatitudo & faelicitas, at least in has fugaci vita, in the con­dition whereof, we men are onely meet apprehenders of them. For he supposes, that the upshot of all man's motion in his calling and sphere, is but to attain rest; and that rest, from the toil of life, he fixeth in his Chair of State old Age, under the Canopy of his Night-Cap, and in the Robe of his Gown, having in his hand the scepter of his staff, and his Cough as the Herald, making room for him to the grave. Now that obtain­ed, he accounts himself happy to live in credit, dye in peace, leave a good name to survive him; that's all that the beatitude and felicity of this life amounts to, and this is only attainable by Justice. The just, saith the Wise-man, shall he had in everlasting remem­brance; and in another place, the memory of the dead shall be blessed. And this bles­sedness shall the Law pronounce, when it testifies, that we have lived to the true and just purposes of life. For we were not made to study, serve, love, and delight in our selves, but to serve our Maker, to love our Neighbour, to promote Virtue in our selves and others. And this we ought to do, considering that it is our duty, and we must give an account, Quid, quando, quibus, quare, fecimus; what, for the nature; when, [...] So­phocles apud Stobaeum, p. 807. [...] Dictum So­tadis apud Stob. p. 808. for the time; to whom, for the persons; wherefore, for the motive to our doing; yea, and considering above all, that the time we have to work in, is but fugax vita, short time, slippery time, gone like a tale that is told, passing as shadow, as a brook; time past before us, time past after us, time present, called life, onely ours: therefore we ought to be active, while the day lasts, because the night comes, wherein no man can work.

The Chancellour, as one in love with Justice, makes the summum bonum of life to consist in it; and so it must, considering he asserts it beatitude and felicity, which is the summum bonum of any thing; for what is the beatitude of a thing more then the per­fection, and what is the perfection less then the felicity of it: so that there being as per­fect a concord in the Chancellour's words,In Pandect. fo. 58. Basil edit. 1534. as soul; I cannot but wish, that may be in our times, which learned Budaeus, speaking of the Areopagitae, says of them, they were such friends to justice,Qui quidam ordo cum invertitur, & major opum ar­morúmque, poten­tiae, quam religio­nis, & justitia ra­tio habetur, fit, ut res illae primum fastu & luxu ci­vium corrumpant deinde autem ipsae­met aufugiant, & pro libertate ac opulentiâ, extre­mam servitutem, & paupertatem relinquunt. Hop­perus, lib. De In­stit Principis. that they would endure no Oratory, left their affection should be led aside from the truth, to favour that party which had the best Language in its defence, and did fit on Judgments in the dark, that they might not be led by favour, or know friend or foe; yea, that their integrity might appear, he adds out of Isocrates, Tantum priscos illos Areopagitas monumentum virtutis ac continentiae suae, illo in loco posteritati re­liquisse, ut etiam suo tempore quo jam mores antiquos multùm degenerasse conqueritur, ob­servatum effet eos qui moribus alioquin intolerandis antea fuisse videbantur, si quovis modo Ad Areopagiticum fortè consilium obrepserant, tum demum temperare sibi solitos esse, & tanquam loci genio afflatos, ex ingenio suo migrare▪ malléque institutis tanti con­silii quàm insitis sibi vitiis, aut ingenitis insistere. To this I say, Budaeus adds, Utiream benignitate divinâ, in amplissima curia nostra similis aliquis posthàc genius existat. By all which it appears, that Justice is a most excellent virtue, and that which our Chan­cellour both practised, when in office, and had the comfort of having so done, when exofficed; and this makes me conclude, in commendation of Justice.

Herein, as in other places, the Chancellour, like a devout man, and a knowing Christian, recalls his former extolling of the Law (as the Rule of Justice bestowing upon man the felicity of this life) by interpreting himself, as ascribing the main work [Page 69] to Grace, and to God the giver of it. For though that be true of Laws, which Plato desires of men, [...], &c. When God intends well to any man, or place, he raises up, and increases good men in it, which Morellus says, has been verified in France, Praefatione in lib. Senec. De Pro­vident. p. 14. wherein Reges sapienter & justè regnantes ad noucis septenos concessit: yet all that ever Art or Nature does to our perfection, is nothing, without God's con­currence and benediction in that gracious Providence, which effectuates what it will. Now this the Antients called by many names, as desirous to convey it most to the ad­vantage of its splendour. Moses termed it [...], the finger of God; and Solo­mon, [...], God's Hand; Pindar, [...], God's Palm; Plato, [...], God's Lot; Aristotle, [...], that divine virtue which contains every thing in, and brings every thing about to it; the old Academiques, [...], &c. Reason moderating, and ruling powerfully in all, [...], that divine gubernation and or­der of all things. These, I say, in other terms, mean the same with [...], that special grace and favour which he bestows on man, and by which he makes the Law effectual to this purpose in him. For though I well know the Law is just, holy, and good, and all Laws have the most presumptions of success, in what they undertake to teach, and seldom do lead into any thing beneath the most exact habit and action of virtue; yet in that they do this in conjunction with, not abstracted from divine grace, I think it just to ascribe all the perfection in virtue that man attains to by the Law, to God's blessing which derives energy to it. Indeed the Law can, as a System, and collection of divine truths, and prudent Rules, method us in justice, and teach us to use virtues,Durand. Dist. 26. q. 3. lib. 2. in order to beatitude; that is, excite the faculties apt to take and retain princi­ples, it can propose the rule to the understanding, and thence to the will and affecti­ons. But it cannot perswade his ear to hear, and his heart to embrace what is good, and accordingly to do it,Dist. 27. q. 3. p. 397. Bradward. lib. 2. c. 5. De Causa Dei. Quia ad bunc actum Deus nos adjuvat & interiùs confirmando voluntatem, ut adactum perveniat, & exteriùs facultatem operandi praebendo; as Durand notably. This is solely an act of grace from God, whose Prerogative it is to do, and not to do, as he pleases; and therefore without God, man's free will is nothing; no­thing without God's co-operation. He, he, must carry our endeavours to their issue, or they will be abortive,Bonaventur▪ lib. 2 Dist. 27. Distinct. 26. Qu 3. lib. 2. and have no figures of amiableness in them. And therefore our Chancellour has written no more here of grace, then the Schools generally assert. And Brulifer, though he would allow as much to man's will, and Piety's merit, as may be presumptuously arrogated, yet brings in a four-fold grace of God indulged man, suit­able to the four-fold evil he is immersed in: The evils are, 1. Combat with Satan's temptation. 2. The wrath of God. 3. The guilt of sin. 4. The sequel of sin. The grace that God vouchsafes, are, Protection, Deliverance, Extraction, Salvation. So that the triumph of a sinner over his toil and impossibilities, is from this grace of God, which enables him to every good word and work. This grace is therefore as the gift of God to, so the work of God in us; 'tis that which excites us to, retains us in, and rewards us for well-doing; because it is a largess of God to us expressive of eudochy, and complacentialness; it's that which God answers men by: if not secundum identita­tem desideriorum, yet secundum aequivalentiam: if not just as they desire, yet in the best exposition of their desire,P. Mirandul. in Hexap. c. 5. p. 30. that is, in such good as he sees best for them. No won­der then that Heathens, in all great undertakings, addressed to their Gods, praying their aid and influence, since they found themselves impotent to reach any things of remoteness without them. For God himself has declared it his Prerogative, to bless, and curse; to raise up, and pull down. And the Law can do nothing, either to con­vince of sin, or conduct to virtue, but as God's fescue in Magistrates hand. 'Tis God above, that must open the eye of the understanding, and incline the heart to good; yea, and 'tis God's grace onely, that when the good and excellent path of life is discovered, puts man in,Dist. 26. q. 1. lib. 2. p. 395 and keeps him on from halting or deviation; not onely by an act informa­tionis & denominationis subjecti, presenting good to us, sed redditionis operis meritorii; as Durand too durely phrases it, that is, rendring it accepted in the beloved Lord Iesus.

The consideration of which brings in grace in Scripture, under so many honourable, and useful attributes, that it's hard to think of benefits, whereof our nature and con­dition is capable, which this grace and favour of God does not accommodate us with; it restrains from sin, it excites to duty, it conflicts with despair, it actuates faith, it erects fortitude, it debases pride, it adorns humility, it promotes self-denial, it is victoriously [Page 70] valiant against the enemies of the soul; yea, it keeps the heart equanimous, neither presumptuous, nor despondent, but equilibrious, as a Son should be, between the fear of duty and mercenariness. Hereupon St. Paul ascribes this mutation from a Pha­risee to an Apostle, to be of grace; By the grace of God I am that I am, teaching us to put our selves for the fortunation and felicitous sequel of actions on the mercy of the Al­mighty, wherein no man that rightly aims, and religiously means to that end, can pos­sibly miscarry.Non te oxistixnes donum Dei jure hareditario possi­dere, ità videlicet securus de eo quasi nunquam perdere possis, nè subito cum fortè retraxe­rit manum, & substraxerit do­num, tu animo concidas & tri­stior quâm oppor­tet, fias. Sanctus Bernard. Serm. 21, in Cant. Cantic. All that we have to do, is to walk regularly and humbly before God, and thereby our inward man will be kept from predominancies inconsistent with this grace. For, as in the body, the prepotency of malignant humours, impedes the opera­tion of the noblest Potions; so in the soul, till grace have obtained the mastery over the brutal and lower Regents, there is no effects of grace probable to appear. It must be God that first excites, then by a concomitation crowns our endeavours with a desi­red issue. He gives recompence to diligence by wealth; to patience by victory; to humility by exaltation; to penitence by pardon. All that art and industry can do (ab­stracted from this grace as its benediction, which includes it's fiat) is nothing. Lewis the Ninth of France was a wise and pious Prince, yet he made but two Voyages against Infidels; one into Egypt, and the other into Barbary, and miscarried in both. In the first, he himself was taken prisoner, and his whole Army overthrown. In the latter, he dyed of the Plague. Caesar Borgia fearing that his Father Pope Alexander the sixth dying, the Papacy would come into the hands of his Enemy, ordered affairs so dexter­ously as he thought, that which way soever they steered, he should be out of danger: Pope Alexander shortly after dyed; and Caesar Borgia fell so sick, that he could exe­cute nothing he had designed; and so the Popedom came nnto his professed Enemy: so that the Chancellour's Position is most true, Non nisi per gratiam lex poterit ista operarii.

This is added, to shew how impotent the best Prescripts of Nature are to any excel­lent and certain end, in their abstraction from God's grace: neither the whole duty of man, which our Chancellour means by the Law, in which 'tis proposed; nor any part of it contained in single virtues, can be either desired, or practised by us, but with assistance of God's grace. First, we cannot, appetere legem aut virtutem, without grace; for appetuntur quae secundum naturam sunt,Lib. 3. De Natur. deorum.deelinantur contraria, is Tully's rule. Now the nature of man is so averse to virtue, as subverted from its created rectitude, that it op­poses it self to it, and declines it so, that if it be brought upon the love and practice of it, it must be by a divine perswasion, and sweet compulsion, from grace moving the Will to follow an enlightened understanding, and engaged affections. And then secondly, man cannot addiscere, 1 Offic. 21. that is, not onely learn, as Oratours sometimes use the word, but quasi aliquid addere adea quae didiceris, as our Text intends. No man can add to what na­ture instructs him in, concerning virtues divine and moral, but by grace; for thereby onely corruption is discovered, and the means of recuperation and restitution, by im­provement, revealed. Neither of these so necessary to our compleatness, are attainable, but by the grace of God,Non dat natura virtutem, ars est bonum sieri. De­erat illis justitia, deerat prudentia, deerat temperan­tiae ac fortitudo, omnibus his virtu­tibus babebat si­miliae quaedam rudis vita, virtus non contingit ani­mo nisi instituto & edocto, & ad sum­mum assiduà ex­ercitatione perda­cto Senec. Ep. 90. which brings the light and truth of God's discovery to the Conscience, in compunction and contrition; and then carryes the convinced subject to Iesus, the anchor, the price, the pattern, the donour of integrity, from which corrupted nature is the lapse. Indeed, in Heathens, and pure moral men, there may be suddain options, and passionate transports, reflected from the terrours of natural Conscience, which may cajole a man to ingenuous confessions, and seemingly serious protestations of amendment. But these being the products of no solid and sincere conviction, but the fruits of God's terrour, which he often injects into, and sometimes long continues upon wicked men, are but splendida peccata, no acts of grace, but of power: which as a Crea­tour, not a Father, God expresses himself to his Creature in. By these he over-wrought Balaam to bless, whom he resolved to curse, and Abimelech, not to take Sarah, whom he resolved to prostitute; which had they not been, neither the good words of the one, [Page 71] Let me die the death of the Righteous, and let my latter end be like unto his, Numb. xxiii. nor the chast deeds of the other, in not touching carnally Abraham's Sarah, had not succeeded their actions, which were praevious and ordinated to the contrary. So that whatever these, and other Heathens did, in order to self-mastery, magnanimity, contentation, patience, justice, charity, though they are effects of general grace, that is, of the largess of God the Creatour, to man his creature, yet are they but imperfect works, because they did them as lures to their own same, and as defensatives of them­selves from miscarrying in the deluge of censure and defamation, which hurries down into the lake of dishonour all sordid, illiberal, debauched courses; and hence they deserve to be accounted not so properly virtues, as the umbra's of them: because, beyond the Elysium of fame, there is no reward for these; for so, according to their calculation, is their reward in this World: for all they aimed at, was to appear to men; God, the principle of their activity, was superiour to, though not at all in their intendment and purpose;Bradward; De Causa Dei, lib. 20 c. 5. p. 287. and subjected they were, to what they could not oppose. Bona ipsa opera quae faciunt infideles, non ipsorum esse, sed illius qui benè utitur malis, said that renowned Father of our Church against the Pelagians. And therefore there is vast difference be­tween the Works of Grace and Nature, of Heathens and Christians; because, though in the externity, and materials of them, they may have an equipollency; yet in the in­tention, rule,Beda, cap. 13. contra Julianum. principle, and purpose, (which bears away the reputation with God) there is no agreement. The righteousness of these gracious souls, exceeds the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees, who yet were exact and rigid in the Rites of their Worship. The wisdom of these reaches to eternity;Malè velle, malè facere, malè dicere, malè cogitare de quoquam ex aquo vetamur. Tertullianus Apolog. c. 36. they consider their latter end, and desire God to teach them to apply their hearts to wisdom. The charity of these, is not onely to those of the houshold of Faith, but to all Mankind; not onely to a cup of cold water, but to actions of heroickness, whereby Coals of fire are heaped upon their Enemies heads. The patience of these, is not to the loss of their gods, but lives, so they may keep their souls spotless. The perseverance of these is such, that with Iob, though God kill them, they will put their trust in him: the humility of these is so real, that they put their mouthes in the dust, the bemoan themselves with Ephraim, If I have done evil, I will do so no more. These are the fruits of God's Canaan in the soul, which worldly men, as false Spyes misreport. These are Iacob's hands, as well as Iacob's voice; the same in deed, as in word: there is no tincture of Alchimy or alloy in these, they are all Gold, whereas nature gives men but the Vermillion of seeming: this presents the Rose and Lilly of perfect beauty. And hence comes it to pass, that God owns it as his work, and promises himself the reward of it unto the soul,Bradward, lib. 2. c. 5. p. 487. vide quid Christiani facere possint quo­rum in meliùs per Christum restaurata est natura, & qui divinae gratiae juvantur auxilio, saith the Father. Which considered, 'tis well added by our Chancellour, that thus to do, is divinae bonitatis beneficium, non humanae virtutis. For as it is not flesh and blood that reveals it, so is it not flesh and blood that performs it, natura humana etiamsi in illa integritate, quâ condita est, permaneret, nullo modo seipsam creatore suo non adjuvante servaret, quum igitur sine gratia Dei salutem non potuit custodire, quam accepit, quomodo sine gratia Dei potest reparare,Epist. 106. ad Paulinum.quod perdidit, is Saint Augustine's judgment. For if by the power of nature separate from grace, the virtue of justice could by the Law have been taught and learned, man needed no other School but that to teach him his duty, and to make him actually perform its dictate. But inasmuch as our Lord has taught us, that without him we can do nothing as we ought, and God will accept, and the holy men of all Ages have recurr'd to God's grace, as the sine quâ non to their progress and success: it highly besits us to ascribe all to grace, and to disclaim merit and self-suffi­ciency, that he alone may have the honour, who is the authour and finisher of all good in us. For it is one of the great and undeniable explorations of Omnipotence, and that which argues God the Regent and Provider of the World; that he makes every thing accountable to his end, and subservient to his purpose, not onely the proper effects of grace, renovation of principle, and melioration of practice, but also the punishments of grace despised and neglected,St. Augustin. Ep. 59. Sicut mali Dei bonis malè utuntur dum non corriguntur, sic contrà Deus, etiam malis corum benè utitur ad justitiam suam, & exercitationem suo­rum, said the Father; and to the same purpose Synesius, [...], &c. that is,Epist. 57. even the sinful liberties men take to satiate themselves with sin, work out God's justifi­cation in their punishment, and satisfic the pious, that he must needs be good, who gives so just rules to life, and they be out of measure sinful, that obey them not.

[Page 72]No wonder then the Scripture says, obedience is better then sacrifice, because sacrifice being a devoir of the man externally conforming, may flow from the less noble and de­generous proposal that men make to themselves, of assimulation to those they converse with, and are planted amongst, by complying with whom same and advantage is acqui­rable, which they call humana virtus, and from reason and experience is moved and pro­moted; but to obey God, in owning his goodness the motive, and his power the Pa­rent of what we attain to by study, action, friends, fortune, and to account our selves and all collateral aids, blind and passive seconds to his omnisciency and wisdom, the energy and effectuality of the first cause God, must be divinae bonitatis beneficium, no man can disclaim what he loves so dearly himself, but he that in the glass of God's per­fection sees his weakness and insufficiency, and by the mastery of mercy over his corru­ption, ascribes all he is, or does, to his Makers good-will to him, and the enablement he has from it.

This is a good inference from the premised assertion; since all mans chief good, by Philo­sophy is made to consist in felicity or beatitude, this felicity or beatitude is attainable by Justice; this Justice taught and learned by the Law, the Law made effectual by Gods grace accompanying it. Hence argues the Chancellor; if such be the attainments by the Laws, then the Laws of God, Nature, Nations, are to be chiefly learned by a Prince, Indeed the Ar­gument has as much of cogency, as utile and decorum can give it; and while there is a tye of grace upon the Laws, without which they are counted ineffectual, there is no fear, supererogation, or attribution of ought to them in derogation to grace, which is the gift of God by them; as it is not bread that supports life, nor air that cools and re­freshes the inwards, nor light that promotes order, nor physick that procures health, but God's fiat and creative permission and benediction, whereby not onely their innate and specifique virtue, in a beneficent exertion, accommodates it self to, but is conducted and confirmed by the omnipotence of God so to do: so is it not the Law that can bring the mind by understanding the definition, to affect the direction, and execution of justice, except God incline, and circumact the heart to the comple­tion of it; and that by a grace of prevention, taking out of our way those rubs that im­ply avocation, making us of unwilling willing; and then by carrying on those begin­nings to procedure, by breaking out the crepusculum into the bright day, nè frustra velimus, that is, by assisting us to run the race with patience that is set before us, looking unto Iesus. O 'tis a rare Prospect of the Crucifix, that brings us to make our selves vild, and of no reputation, that we may be obtainers of preventing grace, and do the will of God, by aid of his co-operating grace. Our Lord Iesus gave us the presi­dent to follow him, that we might be enjoyers of happiness with him, Gratias agamus domino & salvatori nostro, qui nos nullis praecedentibus meritis vulneratos curavit, & ini­micos reconciliavit, & de captivitate redemit, de tenebris ad lucem reduxit, de morte ad vitam revocavit, & hxmiliter confitentes fragilitatem nostram illius misericordiam depre­cemur, ùt quia nos misericordia sua praevertit,Lib. 1 Homil. Homil. 14.dignetur in nobis non solùm non custodire, sed & augere munera, & beneficia sua quae ipse dignatus est dare, was Saint Augustine's counsel:The Authour's Prayer to God. And, O Lord, grant me, who am thy poor valet, and have presumed to write of thy grace, such assistance of thy preventing and concomitating grace, that I may neither sin against them by my pen, or in my life, but that I may so write of grace, and so live to grace, that it may appear I covet the grace I write of, and magnifie the assistance, that in this un­worthy endeavour of mine, thy grace afford me; while my heart conscious to it self of many falshoods in friendship, and coolness in zeal, to the glory of thy grace, yet presumes to cry out with Saint Ierom, Semper largitor, semperque donator est, &c. Thou, O Lord, art always bountiful and givest, O let me be an ever receiver from thee, for it will not suf­fice my hungring soul, that once thou givest, unless thou often and ever givest; I am cove­tous to have the most I can of thy gracious bounty: as my soul is never satisfyed with recei­ving, so let not thy grace be satisfied with giving to it; for the more it has, the more it desires [Page 73] of thee. The Authour's Ejaculation. Thus that Father, and I from him: For, without this continual, and effectual inflex, how shall I write aright of grace, which worketh in us whatever is right in the sight of thee my gracious Iudge.

Without grace then, the Law is ineffectual to bring Princes by Justice to beatitude, since it will not inform them of the excellency of virtue, nor subdue them to its method by efficacy of conviction, which makes practique virtue, and carries to, and ends in beatitude, but by help from above. Moral swasions are weak Physick, to carry away peccant humours prepossessing: it must be grace from God that vehiculates them to the parts disaffected, and by them works evacuation and restitution to a better habit. If our righteousnesses, that are as filthy rags, become clean garments before God: if our Salt that has lost its savour, be savoured by his acceptance; if our darkness become light in the Lord, through the Lord of Lights irradiation on us; if our covetousness of the Earthly Mammon be converted into the earnest covering of the best things; if instead of crying out against our selves, when we have done all we can, that we are unprofitable servants, as our Lord commands us. It must be the work of grace.

Our Lord,Quieunque est victoriâ dignus, non est ex se dignus sed ex Dei gratuita volun­tate, quae & di­gnum victoriâ ef­ficit, & victorem. Bradward, lib. 2. c. 6. ad finem, p. 490. in room of that, makes himself that blessed Call to us, Come ye blessed children of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you. This happy change is from something of God in, on, and with us, his grace of prevention and concomitance. This, this, is the soul, rule, guide to the Laws, wherein Justice, as the way to beatitude, is deposited. And without this grace of God, the Worlds Philosopy, the Laws learning, nay, Justice to the highest proportion imaginable for man to arrive at, will be but Ap­ples of Sodom, beauteous in appearance, but rottenness aud nullity in the proof of it: so true is that of the Wise-man, even in this riches, as well as in any other; The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow thereto.

And therefore no wonder, though our Chancellour says, toto conamine addiscendae sunt leges, when he joyns the grace of God with the Law, and makes the Law sacred by its conjunction with, or rather subserviency to God's grace. For this premised, nothing can be imagined more pleasing and profitable to the Reason and Religion of a Prince, then the Laws, because they lead to the chief good by the best aids; to God, by God. This is no other then Scripture Divinity, God the chief good apprehended by Faith in the eye, Hope in the heart, Charity in the hand, Humility in the knee, per­severance in the foot, which are all but other wordings of grace, preventing and ac­companying. Since to attain these, as there is no means but that of God's grace in chief, and our obsequiousness to it, as the consequent of it: so are those to be fol­lowed to this heavenly purpose toto conamine, no saint, remiss, refracted, minute de­sires, will do to purpose this deed. This Heaven on Earth is for the violent and labori­ous Bees, that let no endeavour pass untryed to attain it, refuse no hazard or toil to conquer and atchieve it. He that wrastles with God in prayer night and day, he it is that toto conamine, endeavour knowledge of the Laws: For Conamen here signi­fies not so much the act, as the endeavour and desire to it, which expresses it self in a fixation and unmovableness of intention upon it, when all the man sets to it (conari ma­nibus, pedibus, Andr. 5. 4. Pro Quinto 27. Pro Scylla 56. as Terence says,) 'tis such an expression as Cicero meant, when he uses magno conatu studioque agere, to set out industry, or a conatus cum impetu, such an one, as Beast and Bruits express, when they are carryed to or fro from things they love or hate; To do what we do with all our might, as Solomon's words are: This is toto conamine addiscere; nor can it well be otherwise, for it is in order to the greatest and utmost good, to Justice, the delight of God, and perfection of a Prince: yet this, though insisted on with all imaginable strenuity, will not be effected but by grace; and that present and concurring, nothing can be wanting; That God has declared the true Elixar that makes what ever it touches partaker of its virtue, and transforms it from what it was,Theatrum Chy­micum. p. 481. to what is more excellent; not by Sir Edward Kellets mystical jugling (no better then commerce with Satan) whereby brass is transformed to silver, and copper-wyre into gold, as some Chymists report him to have done. For that lightly and unlawfully come by, as lightly and loosely goes; as it is said to do with him, who was so vain as to give four thousand pounds worth of gold wyre away in Rings at a Maid-servants Wedding; no such effect of this Elixar: Grace, it turns an hard into a soft, a proud into an humble, an hypocritical into a sincere heart; yea, it teaches a man to delight in the Law of God in the inward man, and to be deservedly what Pits [Page 74] reports Feckenham Abbot of Westminster to be, Erat in eo (saith he) insignis piet as in Deum, Scriptorib. lic. p. 786. mirae charitas in proximos, singularis observantia in majores, mitis affabilitas in inferiores, dulcis humanitas in omnes, multiplex doctrina, redundans facundia, incredi­bilis Religionis Catholicae zelus; and while a man obtains this by the Law, is he not amply compensated? has he not the utmost bliss, this state of viatoriness is capable of [...] I trow yes, and if so, then the Laws of God and men from them are the most ready and useful accomplishments of Kings and great men, because they put them into bliss, in their deepest miseries, and in the unnaturallest desertions their vicissitudes can ac­quaint them with. For that Princes may be unhappy in accidents of life, is but what has been,Lib. De Exulio, p. 605. edit. Paris. will be, must be, [...]. Now, saith Plutarch, the most deser­ving men have been most incumbred, most afflicted, most ruined; but in that they can be chearful, patient, humble, and holy, under the pressures Providence permits to impend them, argues a great enablement from God, who gives grace to those that beg it, suitable to his own glory, and their good.

And this I conceive our Text-Master found experimentally in himself, God had made him a Martyr for Loyalty, a Champion for the Laws, whom because they could not bend, (who would have their wills the Law, and not make the Law their Wills) they resolve to banish, and break in mind, fortune, body; and he, though he had undoubt­edly many friends of Henry the Fourth's party, who would, and could have made his peace, and procured his freedom to live at home, yet he rather chose to live free abroad, then a slave in a free Countrey, and under a free Law, as England ought to have been, but was not. Hereupon his leisure, and loss of practice by business at home, proves his opportunity to study God, affliction, men, his own heart, more and more throughly.Psal. 119. And now he cryes out, If it had not been for God's Law his delight, he had perished in his affliction. Now he owns gratefully to God, that it was good for him to be afflicted. Now the fruits and comforts of Justice in his profession, place, practice, quondamly return on him the reward of their integrity: Sure he that writes so divinely of Justice, & presses the Law as the Rule of Princes in it, found the Justice of Laws great subterfuges to his disconsolacy, and retreats to his once mistakes of God's dealings. The greatest discoveries men have of God's light and truth, are from the midst of Lightnings and Thunders, Afflictions Storms end in a calm of merciful sublevation; when the bush burns, and is not consumed, Isaac's throat is under the knife, then the Ram caught by the horns is welcome to Abraham, as God's provision for a sacrifice of redemption. So often as I think of Patmos, the place of Saint Iohn's Revelation of, and prospect into the mysteries of glory, of which the fuller sight is reserved for hereafter, I cannot but conclude our Chancellour, was made what he so divinely by his being driven from house and home; for now he being taken off from the troubles of visits, and distractions of business, which storm-like, come in crouds, and cross waves of different import, has thereby leisure to converse with God, and to commune with his own heart; and being removed from the impulsion of this World's Hell, which by force and fraud either ter­rifie or allure men into snares. The judgment that he (in this condition of separation being more impartial) gives, carryes the stronger reason, and will be more influen­tial, by how much the more sincere it is presumed to be, since nothing so embases coun­sel and instruction, as the prae-occupation of interest, to the proportion and scope of which it is often experimented mercenary:Leges Magistra­tus & judicia quaedam quasi sunt numina divi­nitùs constituta in Republ Hop­perus, lib. unico, De justitia Prin­cipis. which being not to be suspected in our Chancellour, renders his words not onely swasive but in a sort imperative, as they flow from the almost infallible Oracle and Fountain of great Learning, grave Experience, entire Affection, and noble Loyalty.

Still our Text-Master proceeds to inculcate on the Prince a valuation of the Law, which, though he had by many pregnant Arguments, commended to him, he yet fur­ther urges from a higher Authority then that of Philosophers, and men of age and wis­dom: For though it were enough to youth, that antiquity found in the way of righ­teousness, commended this or that to them, because multitude of years teach wisdom, and the Spirit of God in that counsel or command, Thou shalt rise up before the Hoar-headed, [Page 75] gives youth to know his acceptation of respect shewed to them, then which, greater cannot be testified then to be directed and instructed by them: yet the Chan­cellour brings in the irrefragable advice of God's Spirit, by the Kingly Prophet, in the person of Christ Jesus, who being the Prince of peace, as well as power, allures all his Delegates, to submit themselves to his Scepter willingly, throughly, constantly, and to be lessoned, that thus to do, is to advance their power, and attone the displea­sure, that obstinacy may treasure up against them: Be instructed (saith he) ye Iudges of the Earth. Now this he brings in out of the second Psalm, not primarily, (for then he might have been thought to distrust the efficacy of his pre-engagements of the Prin ces reason, since Justice lodged in, and learned from the Law, is of concern enough to move a man, a Prince, in order to a King, to value, and endeavour to understand the notion and practice of it, as the sine quâ non, to his very essence and being quâ such.) But the cause that this Scripture is superinduced, is rhetorically to overbear the Prince, that all excuse laid aside, he should as a man, and as a King, incessantly apply himself to holy instruction in the will of God, revealed in his Law moral, and in the extracts from it, the National Laws fitted to his Government. For though true it be, that per­haps when our Chancellour wrote to the Prince, Henry the Sixth was alive; or if dead, the Prince was not actually King, as in Title and Truth after his Father the Chancel­lour conceived he ought to have been: yet the good Chancellour bespeaks him, to pre­pare before against the time of tryal, to imitate Solomon's Pismire, that laid up in the Winter of ruines store, against the Summer of rule, provokes him by all the engage­ments of Providence and probability, to antedate his Regality, and become a King in Learning and Endowment, before he becomes King in fact and acknowledgment. And this he does not, by kindling in him thoughts of revenge, and flames of abhorrence to those persons and practices, that raised War against his Father, and forced him abroad; yea, threatned his never return, but by courting him to learn of God, how to want, and how to abound; how to be without subject or subsistance, and how to use both moderately, and to the ends of God's glory, and Governours institution: which wisely, and well to learn, he directs him to attend the counsel of holy David, a King and a Prophet, Ex utroque Caesar, a man of valour, and a Prince of piety, to be instructed, and that because he is to judge others: and thereupon that he may not ei­ther not do what, or do otherwise then what he ought to do to men, as one of the Judges of the Earth, to be well grounded in knowledge, the rule of action. Now, though I know it becomes not any Subject to treat of the duties of Princes but with reverence, which many men have forgot in their late Treatises concerning them: yet shall I be hold to touch upon this subject here, as my method leads me, in the Exposi­tion of this Scripture, though that but shortly, modestly, and I hope with submissive wisdom above offence. The quotation then out of Psal. ii. 3. Erudimini qui judica­tis terram, though it was largely intended to all, to whom instruction is proper; yet presly and primarily was directed to the great men of the World, whom the Prophet foresaw to be industriously composed, and pertinaciously resolved, against the recepti­on of Christ in his Gospel, Government, and Doctrine. And this I suppose the Psal­mist had revealed to him particularly from God, whose prescience and omniscience dis­covered it to be such in the Revolutions of time, and productions of men, that both the prenunciation of it might accord with other Prophecies in the testimony and truth of mens opposition to the Son of God; and that as the godly might be prepared not to stumble at it, so the wicked might be left without excuse, when their pertinacy suf­fers the just indignation of God's Son against them.

Which premised, the words have respect to somewhat implyed, and somewhat ex­pressed: The implication is, that great men, Judges of the Earth, need instruction: not onely as they are men in common with others, subjected to the consequences of sin, which have labefacted all the Integrals of created Faculties, and made us dark in our Intellects, averse in our Wills, dull in our affections to good; yea, in a sort estranged us from the love of duty to, and subjection under God, but as they are persons pecu­liarly elevated above others, apt to be flattered by, and inflamed from the vain delusions of their Parasites, that they are made believe (unless God give them more humility to know themselves) the best and happyest of men, when (God knows) their Cedar heighth, lyes in the storm and heat of all temptations; and having such snares about them, better [Page 76] were it for them to hear of the frailty of man, of the justice of God, of the duty of hu­mility. These more commemorated in their representation of things to them, would render them more happy in their souls and bodies, then often they are. Ahab loved not Micaiah, [...]. Dion. Cass. lib. 55. p. 552. the Holy Ghost says, because he told him the truth, when all the Prophets of Baal covertly betrayed him to sin and judgment; yet Augustus did not so by Maecenas, when he was more sharp them some think he needed; for since he kept him a favourite, as one that should bring him off anger, and cool his enragings, he gently bore, yea, he kindly took, and accordingly desisted from his severity, when his friend put in that ru­brique, [...], &c. Arise Sir, you have been terrible enough. It is, I confess, a hap­piness to serve Princes of mild and ductile natures, whose hearts reflect on soft and virtuous friends with candor and kindness; which Augustus was so frequent and fer­vent in, that next to the indulgence of God, who gave him a good nature, and a do­cibleness to be guided by love and experience, which sedates jealousie and rage; he owed as much of his stability and glory to his noble Livia; and his prudent Maecenas, as to any other Princely endowment,Lib. 1. De Cle­ment. p. 624. c. 10. or benediction he enjoyed; which that florid, and stupendiously eloquent Moralist does incomparably mention, Haec eum clementia ad salutem securitat émque perduxit, &c. This Piety, saith Seneca, accompanied with Clemency, arrived him at safety and security: this made him a Conquerour, before he had actually conquered his insolent and implacable Foes: This, at this day, makes him dead, fa­mous above most living Princes; men voluntarily for this, not by command, account him of a God-like goodness, descendedly a Parent, and a good Prince to his Countrey; and that be­cause he passed by contumelies, which Princes often take worse then injuries, and revenged them not. Thus Seneca of him. But he could not say so of Nero, though his Pupil, and one whom he put more milk, then blood, in the principles of his education; his Quin­quennium shewed what he was from his Masters tuition, before the vices of greatness, and the luxuries of effeminacy had enchanted him, he ought to have reasoned with himself, Ego ex omnibus mortalibus placui, electúsque sum qui in terris deorum vice fungerer, &c. I, Lib. 1. De Clem. c. 1. of all men, am favoured of the Gods, and deputed to be their Deputy on Earth; this fa­vour and prelation, shall not make me wrathful and cruel; nor shall either the heat of youth, or the rashness of choler, or the vain-glory of being known in my dreadful power, provoke me to be savage: but my ambition shall be to purchase glory by virtue, and to carry the sword as an emblem of severity to awe vice, but to support virtue: so will I be ruled by Law and Reason, as if I kept them within my heart, and would make use of them as I had occasion. This ought to have been his thoughts, and according to this his Master, the Cultivator of him, hoped he would prove. But Nero had so debauched his mind by effeminate tran­sports, that all the imbibings of his educations were expectorated. Now all the Lenitives and Morals that art can prescribe, are Apocryphal, and come too late either to be wel­come, or followed. Nero was proceeded Tyger, such a degree in inhumanity, as had no name before him. To tell him, non regem decet saeva, & inexorabilis ira, to proclaim to him affability, love, complyance, as that which would not make him execrable, but adorable, was such a Solaecism to his ranting Resolution, that he counted it meliùs non nasci quam inter publico bono natos numerari;Postea. adeò sui dissimilis evasit, ut monstrum non ho­mo dici mereatur. Sueton. De Ne­rone. yea, so impatiently did he suffer his fury to be in danger of allaying, by the mildness of his Master, and the majesty of his Reason, that he opened tyrannously the veins of that body, the soul whereof lodging in the blood and spirits then expiring, had impregnated him with better principles. Die Seneca did a Martyr to Nero's rage, who endeavoured to make Nero mild and virtuous? I could tell you of Demetrius Poliorcetes, Pausanias, the Lacedemonian Alcibiades, Agathocles, Pisistratus, Sylla, Catiline, Mark Anthony, Domitian, Manuel Comnenus, Offa King of Mercia, Pope Alexander the Sixth: All which, and sundry others, who had emi­nent vices as well as virtues, and not well observing the Rules of practique virtue, had need to be instructed against forgetting God, themselves, and their people. This con­firms, that they need instruction, because their plethorique fortunes and stations are subject to more predominant vices, and their ears are less (then is necessary) suppled by virtuous freedoms, and serious monitions, softning the heart, and lifting it up in gra­titude to God.

This our late martyr'd King Charles the First, considering, breaks out into this ex­pression, Publique Reformers had need first act in private, C. 20. Eicon Ba­sih p. 187. and practice that on their own hearts, which they purpose to try on others. Christ's Government will confirm mine, not [Page 77] overthrow it, since as I own mine from him; so I desire to rule for his glory, and the Churches good. So he that was the best of men and Kings his contemporaries, discovered the teachings of God to him in his afflictions: And as that they need instruction, is implyed, so that they may, and ought to be instructed, is expressed, and that by a King, Peer to any Successour in Kingship, and a Prophet, which no King after him I think was, Solo­mon excepted, who was his Son; if a Prophet he was, which I am not sure of.

Erudimini, said he, to the Judges of the Earth, who was himself a Judge of the Earth; not thereby to become an authority to insolent spirits, to reproach or discover the na­kedness of Princes, if any such there be, as Chams in all times have cursedly done: no, nor to render Majesty cheap by these abasements, which even suspition of defect in some degree, occasions. But the Erudimini here is, [...], 'tis to follow and imitate nature; embrace plain and naked truth, [...], to see good Laws and right Constitutions obeyed in all parts of Government, Lib. De Temu­lentia, p 2 [...]5 p. 261. as Philo's words are; and this to do, as to do it, is that which is insculpt on the Table of man's heart, to obey God, who has fixed Governours to rule for him, and will have account of their trusts from them. So is it to be followers of God as dear children, in all those imitable acts, which as a Father, and King of order, he proposes to them in his example. The prophetique King here takes great men to task as their Monitor, and he bids them, [...], castigate vos, he bids them understand, that whereas God has given them exemption from mens casti­gation, yet he requires they should restrain and curb themselves; for the root, [...], signifies such a restriction,Pagninus in Verbo. as men in bonds and setters have, nè pro sua libidine evage­tur & vivaet: 'tis not barely to know; for that the Holy Ghost have expressed by [...], for of that the wise King speaketh, Prov. xxii. 6. Teach a child in the trade of his youth, that is, as Rabbi Ionah expounds it, teach him pausatim paulatim, ut ferre pos­sit; nor is it an instruction like that of Tyro's, who learn methods of War and Com­bat by exercise; for then the word would have been [...], as the Psalmist uses it, Psal. xxxiv. 12. Come my little children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord: nor is it [...], such a fear as is preparatory to God's instruction, such, as Kimchi says, implyes, praeparationem verborum cujuspiam in alterum cum rationibus, & ostensione juris; but it is chiefly [...], that is here used. And the Prophet's sense is, Learn to know God's mercy to you, that though he has prelated you, yet 'tis, that you should deny your selves what you might, to do what you ought. This is that the holy King invites his fellow Kings to; and the holy Prophet counsels them that govern the Earth, in God's name to do, and that because they are judicare terram. Indeed, the conside­ration of duties incumbent on men in power, should make them as less seekers, so less servers of themselves in it: for besides that it is a burthen too heavy for the most At­lantique shoulders, which has ever been the reason why Deputations have been so fre­quent, and that of old, as Iethro counselled Moses, and as Paterculus tells us, was among the Romanes, and as is in use at this day with us, and amongst our Neighbours.Rarò eminentes viri, non magnis adjutoribus ad gubernandum fortunam suam usi sunt, ut duo Scipiones, duob [...]s Laeliis quos per omniae aequa­verunt sibi, ut divus Augustus, M. Agrippa & maximè ab illo Statilio Tauro, quibus novitas familiae hàud obstitit, quò minùs ad maltiplices consulatus, triumphósque, & complura niteren­tur sacerdotia. Patercul. lib. 2. Men in power had need to have extra­ordinary parts, and self-masteries, to know and perform their pla­ces to a conscientious and creditable latitude. God requires Ta­lents for Talents, every ten Talents of power must have ten Ta­lents of Justice to men, and glory to God returned for it. And hence comes it to pass, that the Erudimini here has much more in the scope, then the meer phrase carryes with it. For my part, I humbly conceive those three heads of Saint Paul's, predicated of the Gospels Revela­tion, that is,2 Titus 11. teacheth to deny ungodlyness, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil World, is whatever this Erudimini imports, nay, whatever God has in ex­pectation from Kings, the best and God-likest of men. To live soberly to ones self, so as to have a reverence to ones body, becomes every man, but especially a Prince, be­cause he is [...], a diety in flesh; and if he be the Oracle that men repair to for so­lution of doubts, reparation of wrongs, preservation from violence, and example to virtue; to keep his head cool, his affections restrained, his desires moderate, is the way to be quadrate to his dignity, then he will not erre in judgment, when he judges im­partially first his own body and soul, and keeps such quarter in them, [...] [...], &c. that he suffers nothing to be done by him, but what is suitable to nature's rule,Lib. 4. Sect. 12. edit Gatakeri.and the good of Mankind. This the Emperour Mark Antoninus prescribes. This [Page 78] takes off all those exuberances, that besot and lose Princes in obscenity and dissoluteness. To live righteously, that is the joy of all Subjects; because where it is radicated in the soul, 'twill distribute it self in all expressions of power. The same Emperour gives a noble advice [...],Lib. 4. Sect. 22. p 27. not to wander from the punct and indivisibility of Iustice, but ever to have justice as the Rudder that steers us, [...], &c. to watch over the understanding, and hold it free from love of any appearance. The learned Gata­ker glosses thus on the words,In lib. 4. c. 22. p. 145. Com­mentar. Epist. 89. Nè aberres vel tantùm, aut ab aquitate in conatibus, aut à veritate in assentionibus. This is that which Seneca magnifies so, in that it does not virtu­tem daré voluptati, sed nullum bonum putat nisi hones [...]um, quae nec hominis nec fortunae maneribus deliniri potest, cujus boc pretium est, non posse praecio capi. But to live godly, that's the top-lesson of Princes, 'tis doctrina principi congrua, because it keeps all the Springs and Artifices of action and contemplation in awe;Esay xlv. 23. God himself declares this use to be made of it, I am a great King, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I swear by my self every knee shall bow to me. Kings, though compared to men, they are Gods, not to be bowed against their wills, but to be bowed to that they may will well; yet to God, they are men subject to his Iron Rod, and his word of mutation works on their souls, bo­dies, and affairs. Hence, not onely the Apostle prefixes the true fear of God to the honour of the King; but Antoninus, according to the sense of Scripture, gives the rule to all Kings, as well as other, [...]. Fear, saith he, the Gods, and then [...], Lib. 6. Sect. 30. p. 52. preserve men. All government of men ought to be to that end, which Iulian al­leadges Marcus Antoninus to answer to Silenus, [...], So to live over men, as to be both just and merciful to them, as God is just in point of punishing errours, merciful in point of relaxing burthens. Deus est mortalis juvare mortalem, & haec aed aeternam gloriam via, hic est vetustissimus referendi benè merentibus gratiam mos, ut tales numinibus adscribant, Hist. Nat. l 2. c. 1. saith Pliny.

So that all these considered, the Erudimini here has much in it, and a strong force it carryes to the gaining of Princes to follow it, if they would be subject to the reason of it, the Prophet is no lax and saint Rhetorician in this soft, yet significant language; but he does by a pathetique, arctare & movere verbis, as our Text-Master comments on him; he does movere vigore, and arctare ratione, and as he sets all his spiritual love on work to perswade, so all his learned Reason to compel and over-rule the Judges of the Earth, scire institutum Dei, & sequi disciplinatum legis; for as learned King Iames of happy memory once wrote.

And this our Chancellour setting out so emphatically, makes me conclude him to be Rara avis in terris. One in his own soul so just, and so incessant an Oratour with the Prince, for Law and Justice according to it, that to other Acursiusses, Leguleiviliora eligentes, non juris consulti, as Budaeus words it, he deserves to be accounted a Servius, a Pomponius, a what not, that proclaims him a Saint of the Long-Robe: And as Bu­daeus wished to France in his time, (and a learned and wise Chancellour he in his time was) so in my humble and hearty wish to England, Vtinam verò nunc tres servos ha­beremus pro sexcentis illis Accursianis, id est, tres viros justos, pios, germanósque, & ut ita dicam, majorum gentium juris consultos; that is, say I, not as he, in the specifique words, [Page 79] but in analogie of good wishes, would to God we had more good, and less bad Law­yers then we have. And this I wish, for God, the King, and the Countreys sake, that Religion, Allegiance, Justice, and Charity, might be, by their Learning and practice, the more and better promoted. But I return to the Text.

These words our Text-Master adds, as an expatiation and ornament of his main Ar­gument; not that he thought it not sufficient to carry the weight he superstructed it, but to obviate any mistake of the sense of Scripture, apt to be distorted through pee­vishness, or mistaken by ignorance. To rectifie which digressions, from the intend­ment of the Prophet, our Chancellour proposes this allegation of the Holy Ghost's, as directly relative to Rulers of all ranks; not onely as they are men, for so they are con­cerned in common with all others; but also, and chiefly, as they are the highest and most influential of men, either to good or evil. And because they may be engaged to do good, their Architect who has built their power so many Stories high beyond other mens, whose foundations are more in the dust, and whose houses are of Clay, when theirs are of Cedar and Marble; whose Companions are the Dogs of the Flock; when these sit among the Gods, is by the Prophet more presly catechetique to Princes, not onely to call them to, but to instigate them by the commemoration of their received bounties from God, to learn their duty, and practice their subjection to, and zeal for him, that has so dignified them.

It's true indeed, there is an Erudimini, which all men, at all times, in all stations, need; the Apostle, by the Spirit of God, calls on Christians to study, and exhibit to view that Catholicon that cures prejudice,Phil. 4.5. and commends to peace and Charity, Let your mo­deration, saith he, be known to all; and there are particular Scriptures exhortative to men in mechanique and active Callings, which are to be heeded, God has left no man without his mortalis genius, his [...]; yea, and his Monitor from above, such Scripture-dictates as if he follow, he will please God, and pleasure himself in the peace of a rightly informed from, and rightly conforming Conscience to, God. To this purpose are Scriptures applicable to particular conditions: The Priests are to read the Law, Mark 9.50. 2 Tim. 2.15. 1 Cor. 9.19. Mal. 2.7. 1 Tim. 5.17. Jam. 1. [...]1. 2 Pet. 1.10. Phil 3.14. to preserve their savour as salt, and lustre as light, to study to shew themselves work-men; To carry Consciences void of offence both towards God, and towards men; To become all to all, that they may gain some; and the people are to enquire the Law at the Priests lips. Count those that labour in the Word and Doctrine worthy of double honour; receive with all meekness the ingrafted Word able to save their souls; To labour to make their cal­ling and election sure; To press forward to the mark of the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. These, and such like Scriptures, are accommodated for instruction of Priest and People.

There are other Scriptures adapted to other purposes of practick use,Jam 4.6. Adag. Chil. [...]. Cent. 6. Adag. 22, 23. p. 236. Jer. 9.23. Gal. 6.14. not to be proud, for God resists the proud; not to glory in abundant Revelations, not [...], to lift up our horn on high; not to glory in riches, wisdom, beauty, strength, but to glory in this, that we know God; to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus, where­by the World is crucified unto us, and we unto the World. To Parents, not to provoke their Children;Ephes. 6.5, 6. to Children, not to disobey their Parents; to Servants, to be obedient to their Masters; and to Masters, not to be hard and severe to them; to Wives, to sub­mit themselves to their own Husbands;Ephes. 5.22, 25. and to Husbands, to love their Wives as their own flesh; to Christians, to love one another, and to provoke each other to love, and to good works;Luke 3.14 to Souldiers, to be content with their wages, and to do violence to no man. To Schollers, to be wise to sobriety, and not to search into the secret things which belong to God,Deut. 29.29. but content themselves with things revealed. To people, to obey those that are set over them. To fear God, and honour the King, and to give subjection to every Ordinance of man,Heb. 13 17. 1 Pet. 2.13. for the Lord's sake. These, and such like Scriptures, are in­serted into God's Holy Word, as particular documents, to particular persons, stations, [Page 80] degrees of men. But this Scripture before us, Erudimini qui judicatis terram, is the Scripture that concerns Kings and Judges, that they should consider what God requires from them, and what their Prelacies, ex aequo, imports them to do. And this, if ever any man did, I believe our late King Charles the blessed, was taught by God to do: Hear him,Eicon. Basilic. [...] 19. p. 177. I never had any victory, which was without my sorrow, because it was on mine own Subjects, who, like Absalom, dyed many of them in their sin; and yet I never suffered any defeat, which made me despair of God's mercy and defence: when Providence gave me, or denied me victory, my desire was neither to boast of my power, nor to charge God foolishly, who I believed at last would make all things work together for my good. I wished no greater advantages by the War, then to bring mine enemies to moderation, and my friends to peace. I was afraid of the temptations of an absolute Conquest, and never prayed more for victory over others, then over my self: When the first was denied me, the second was granted me, which God saw best for me. This was the Piety and probity of a King, vi­vendo nobilis, moriendo nobilior, which I believe he had conveyed to him, through the mercy of God, by the instructions of his learned and pious Father of happy memory King Iames, Basilicon. Do­ron, Book 1. p. 14 [...]. fol. the first King of England of his name, and the second Solomon in the World, as I believe. For hear him, concerning a King's Christian duty towards God. Think not therefore that the highness of your dignity diminisheth your faults, much less giveth you a licence to sin; but by the contrary, your fault shall be aggravated, according to the heighth of your dignity, any sin that ye commit not being a single sin, procuring but the fall of one, but being an exemplare sin, and therefore drawing the whole multitude to be guilty of the same; remember then that this glittering worldly glory of Kings is given them by God, to teach them to prease, so to glister and shine before their people, in all works of sanctification and righteousness, that their persons, as bright lamps of godlyness and virtue, may, going in and out before their people, Pag. 156. Book 2. give light to all their steps. And in the second Book, treating of the King's duty in his office, he saith, A good King thinking his highest honour to con­sist in the discharge of his calling, employeth all his study and pains to procure and maintain, by the making and execution of good Laws, the welfare and peace of his people; and as their natural Father, and kindly Master, thinketh his greatest contentment standeth in their prosperity, and his greatest surety, in having their hearts, subjecting his own private affe­ctions and appetites to the weal and standing of his Subjects, ever thinking the common in­terest his chiefest particular; which, by the contrary, an usurping Tyrant thinking his greatest honour and felicity to consist in attaining per fas vel nefas, to his ambitious pre­tences, thinketh never himself sure, but by the dissention and factions among his people, and counterfeiting the Saint, while he once creep in credit, Will then (by inverting all good Laws, to serve onely for his unruly private affections) frame the Common-wealth ever to advance his particular, building his surety upon his peoples misery, and in the end, as a step-father, and an uncouth hireling, make up his own hand, upon the ruines of the Repub­lique. Thus incomparably that King.

By these, and the like senses, which good Kings have had of their duty to God and men, it appears, that the Prophet's words here to Kings, are of more consequence, by how much they tend by the greatest project, to end in the greatest emolument, that of Kings bettered both to God and men in their beneficence, as I may so say to both, in that they do as Marcus Antoninus advises,Lib. 4. Sect. 2. p. 23. [...], &c. Do nothing rashly nor vainly, nor otherwise, then as exactly corresponds with the rule. When they do as Artists do,Gatakeri An­notat. n lib. 4. sect. 2. p. 122. in minutissimis quibúsque artis suae, & praecepta observant, & specimen edunt, it à & Apelles ex lineae unicae ductu solo, Protogeni innotuit, saith this learned Commen­tator on him.

Which considered, as good Princes are to be ever solicitous of their duties, and vigi­lant over their thoughts and works, that they wander not to an eccentricity, and disho­nour themselves by the returns of the ventures they have made unhappily on them: So are all good Subjects to pray for their Princes in secret, and pitty their temptations, rather then revile their seductions by them. For Princes had need of great graces, and self-denials,Quod in Caesari­bus rarum compe­ries perpetuo sa­ [...]s. Erasm. in Epist. ad Suetonium De Augusto. that remain virtuous, where every Wit, every Beauty, every Courage, is their humble Servant, and gives themselves a free-will offering to before they ask, them. No wonder then the fear of God is called the beginning of wisdom, and Iustice the establisher of the Throne, and both pressed by our Chancellour from Moses and Solo­mon, as Prescripts to Kings, because they being in excelso positi, as they have great [Page 81] storms to shake them, so had need to be firmly rooted in the love of God, and in care and watchfulness over themselves, for their Subjects sakes. For if they that are the Guard be surprized; if the Wall of the Vineyard be broken down; if the shepheard wander out of the way,Malos principes faciunt nimia li­centia, rerum co­pta, amici improbi, satellites detest­andi. Vopiscus in Au­reliano. and be lost in the Wilderness of sin, where no path of God is; Religion, Peace, Order, Honesty, Renown, Power, all, evaporates and dissolves; Kings are Bonds that keep all together they are nerves and sinews, veins and arteries, that preserve strength, and convey nutriment to the body: they are Suns, and Moons, and Stars, all Constellations of felicity to the inferiour World their Subjects, who move from them, if they keep their brightness by day and night, suffering no sin vastative of the Conscience to reign in and over them; but by humility, and severity of life, rescue themselves from the Eclipses of immortalities;Vulcatus Gallic. in Avidio Cassio, p. 156. Rom. Scriptorum. All the World will love and fear them, as good, and great, and all mouthes will be filled with acclamation of them, as they did in Solomon's Case; Blessed be God who has given to David a wise Son to reign over this great People; and as they did to Antoninus, whom the Senate acclamated thus, An­tonine pie, dii te seruent. The like to Alexander, Lampridius in Severo, p. 208. to Seuerus, Capitolinus in Severo, p. 221. to Gordianus, Idem, p. 228. to Claudius, Trebellius Pollio, p. 267. to Tacitus, Flav. Vopisc. p. 284. to Probus. Idem, p. 292. Ul [...]ichus Hutte­nus ad Leonem x Pontif. in Prae­fat. ante Vallam. Yea, 'twill be said of them, as 'twas of the Medicean Family. In Cosmo Mediceo fuit hoc in primis admirandum, &c. This was most admirable in Cosmo Medices, that though he himself were unlearned, he loved the Learned, and allured them to him by rewards and honours; and his Father Lau­rentius Medices was both himself a learned man, and loved the learned; which caused the World to say, that the family of Medices, were the Patrons of Learning, who restored Arts almost lost, and gave the Greek and Latine Tongues a resurrection in their learning and bounty. Oh 'tis a rare Character the Princely Pope Leo the 10^th has, Tu ille orbis amor, &c. Thou, Ulrichus Hutte­nus de Leone x. Papa, in Praef. ante Vallam. Isocrates, Ep. 7. Xenophon. Pae­dag. lib. 8. O sacred Leo, art the Worlds darling and delight, the restorer of Peace, the determiner of War, the authour of safety, the setler of troubles, the Father of Studies, the Nurse of Arts, the restorer of all decay in Science. For when a Prince follows the Orator's rule, [...], &c. When he seeks rather to be rich in fame then wealth, when he endea­vours, as Chrysantas says, [...], &c. a good King differeth nothing from a good Father, as Tullius, the old Roman King, was to his Subjects, [...], &c. when he accounts his Subjects children, Dyonis. Halicar­nass. lib. 4. Herodot. lib. 3. and is to them a Father; when he is in his Reign not a Darius, [...], a narrow minded Prince; nor a Cambyses, [...], a severe and violent Lord, whom no man can either obey, or resist; but a Cyrus, a Father, quia mitis, bonus, beneficus, benignus: A Prince that thus is taught of God to know his mercy, and to make men bless God for the fruits of it that they find, in living peaceable lives under him in all godlyness and honesty: such a Prince deserves to have the happiness, which Nicoles said Physitians had,Anton. Collect. lib. 1. c 56. [...], &c. whose virtues the Sun and all eyed men see with admiration, and their frailties not see in charity, but bury them in grate­ful forgetfulness.

This is quoted, as it is added in the Psalm, to acculeate the perswasion, to learn to know how to judge for, as God, that is righteously. For though it be enough to a good man, to do what is good and just, because good and just are the properties of God, and the provisions of his Institution in Magistracy: yet forasmuch as the servility of our nature being the effect of sin, evidences us more driven by fear, then drawn by love, the Holy Ghost has brought up the duty with a danger in the failer of it: And the sense is this, that the wisdom of God is not to be perverted by us, nor the power which he has intrusted great men with, to be abused to rage and fury, which is but the back­side, and dark Representation of that Cloud, in which Magistracy is wrapped, for its fur­ther and fuller awe on Mankinds disorders, left God reveal from Heaven his wrath a­gainst such unrighteousness of great men, and they perish from the right way, that is, lest when they are too big for men to deal with, God take them short by death, or other anticipation, and they have not the just power continued to them, which, while they had, they unjustly abused. And this indeed, is a great Argument, which should move men in power to study knowledge, and practice of their duty; to consider, that God is higher then they, that they are but dispensers of his talents; and that therefore they ought to carry wise minds, and wary hands, in ordering publique affairs. Oh! hap­py [Page 82] was that Goth, Theodorick, and happy those people under him. In bonis jactibus tacet, in malis ridet, in neutris irascitur, in utrisque philosophatur; when Governours are concerned in no passion,Sidonius, lib. 1. Ep. 2. but as it still is in subserviency to God's end in their Go­vernments felicity, then are they out of fear of the Son of God's wrath, and their perish­ing from the right way. Nay then that is more true, then Seneca perhaps meant it, Dedit tibi natura, Ep. 31. illa quae si non deserveris, par Deo surges, hoc est summum bonum, quod si occupas, incipis deorum esse [...]ocius, non supplex.

Still our Chancellour fills the Prince's ears with fresh Reasons; fain he would that he should be just, who is a King's Son, and he hopes is to be a King in God's time: And here­upon, as he had formerly acquainted him, that Justice he must know and practice; sonow he tells him, that the must do what he does not so much in policy, as in love to Justice: not because he would be well thought and spoken of; not for that it is commodious to fix Government, though this is a warrantable motive; but from love to Justice, as the imi­tation of God, and a partaking of his essential perfection in such a measure as we are ca­pable of, and it is possible to be derived on us. And hereupon Princes are to love Justice, and to hear the Laws that commend it;Lib. 1. De Absti­nentia, p. 7. which Laws were not made by men of force, [...], as Porphyrus's words are, but [...], by wise and worthy men, who considered them, as they were suitable to the rea­son of Nature, and the Religion of right Reason. And thus our Chancellour presses it from the first of Wisdom, v. 1. as both a Moral Divinity, and a Divine Morality. That which both to Heathens and Christians as men, is commendable, and without it, what­ever is seraphiquely pretended in either, is just nothing. For whereas the Text in Wisdom is, Love righteousness, ye that be Iudges of the Earth: our Translators refer­ring to Texts in the Canon, suitable to this Apocrypha in the Margent, mentioned 1 Kings iii. 3. The words are, Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the Statutes of Da­vid his Father; and Esay lvi. 1. where the words are, Thus saith the Lord, keep ye Iudgment, and do Iustice: which put together, do in their, and any good man's sense, amount to our Chancellour's drift, That to love Righteousness, is to love the Lord the fountain of it, and the best way to see him with his reward with him, that is, with comfort and salvation from him, is to keep Judgment, and do Justice, that is, to do Justice, by keeping Judgment, since no King can be just to his own power, and peoples preservation, who keepeth not the Judgment to discern of good and evil, and dili­gently searcheth not out the conveniencies and contraries that are in his Government, and suits not Laws congruous to them. And so our Chancellour, and I after him, con­clude the fourth Chapter.

CHAP. V.

IN this Chapter, the Chancellour presents the key to this invaluable Cabinet of Ju­stice, in which all the Wealth of Heaven and Earth lodges; and though he has before me, and I, in all humility, after this great example, have been bold to write of it, what to rude and loose minds may seem superfluous; yet on so noble and necessary a head, containing under it all virtue, especially in a Prince, as he has not sparingly invited me to proceed; so shall I not abruptly, and with disrespect to so superiour a president and command, desist, but further ampliate the dignity of Justice, as in these words of this Chapter, introductory to its subsequents, 'tis expressed to us.

Lib. De Abra­ham, p. 353. Lib. 1. legis Alle­goria [...]um, p. 53.That Justice is lovely, besides those many precited Authorities, Philo's attribution to it, is notably confirming of it, [...], &c. Nothing, saith he, excels Iu­stice, but it presides all other things, and adorns them all: yea, it is [...], &c. [Page 83] a fruitful guest, cherishing the soul in all conditions. But how to come at Justice, to know, and love, and possess her, is that which the Chancellour most drives at, to inform the Prince of, and to enamour him with.

This he resolves to be the knowledge of the Laws, as the Repertory and Mine of Justice,In the case of the Postnati. wherein God has manifested himself to Mankind. Hopperus, a very learned Councellour to the King of Spain, an Authour, for the knowledge and use of whom, I owe the first discovery to the Lord Chancellour Ellesmore, Lib. 1. De Vera Jurisprud. tit. 20. though the fuller, to my very learned and worthy friend Mr. Langford, a Bencher of Grays-Inn, a notable Con­templatour of this Authour. I say, Hopperus calls the Law, summam divinae mentis ra­tionem, & vocem cum bonitate & potentiâ conjunctam, quae posita in Republ. jubet ea, quae facienda sunt, & prohibet contraria, ut exhausta injustitiâ Iustitiâ particeps efficiatur: According to which computation, all Laws are essentially the same, as they came from one God, but differ gradually, as they came to be revealed, or as the subjects they re­spect, are various. By reason of the latitude whereof, and the denomination of things just and unjust, according to the varieties of Laws, there was a necessity that the wisest of men, should both at first make them, and after expound, and administer them.

And good reason, the best and bravest of men, should have to do with Laws; since they are the Standards of Justice, and the Rules of Conscience, in matters civil, and nor mala per se, both to Kings and People; and upon this ground, not made by advice of raw and hot-headed youth, those, of old assistebant curiae foribus, & concilii publici spectatores, Budaeus in Pa [...] ­dect p. 54. edit. 1521. so [...]. Parte primâ, De Excellentia ho­minis, c. 59. p. 172. antequam, consortes erant, as Tacitus teaches us, but as Justice was spe­cificated by nine several Laws, the divine Law, the Law of Nature, of Nations, of the Church, the Civil Law, Customary Law, the Law of Honesty, Necessity, Positivity, as Phavorinus has noted it, and according to all these things are determined just; so the Justicers of these Laws had need have great abilities to know and apply their Judgments to the severalities of them, and their emergencies. The consideration of which, in the consequence of it, has dictated to men, prudently to acquiesce in the judgments of learned and well-parted men, as the competentest distributers of Justice to the rest of the World, who being better qualified to act, yet are less exact in matters of design and decision then they: So that the great work of enablement to Legislation, for which Fabius and Sabinus were called the Cato's; Domitius Vlpian, and Iulius Paulus, the two Poles Vertices Legum; Pomponius the Oracle skill'd, usque ad finibriam & ex­trema scientiarum; Papinian Iuris Asylum, the Prince of Law, and Refuge of distress: I say, that which proclaimed these so useful in their times, was the universal Science they had of right and wrong, good and evil, and the Catholique disquisition that they had made of the usages and apprehensions of Nations, and men concerning them.

This they termed Knowledge, the door to practique Justice, and wisdom of action: So Epictetus, [...], &c. first Knowledge enters into man, then her sisters Fortitude and Iustice. In Cebetis Ta­bula, p. 43. For as in the World, the first Creature was Light; so in man, the initial virtue is Knowledge, which is not barely the use of Reason, but a distinct and applicative apposite use of it to persons and things. For by this method, doth God in nature carry man to improvement and action; by his speculative Intellect he under­stands good; by his practical Intellect affects it; by his reason, he discerns be­tween good and evil; by his freedom of will he chooses, by his will consents, by his wit finds out mediums to his end, and by a close of all, comes to the mark he aims at.Quod sensus percipit, imaginatio representat, cogitatio format, ingenium investigat: ratio judicat, memoria servat, intelligentia appro­hendit, contemplationèmque adducit, scientia est. Parte primâ c. 59. p. 172. So that as Phavorinus marshals them; that which Sense perceives, Imagination represents, Cogitation forms, the Wit searches out, Reason judges of, Memory retains, and the Understanding apprehends, and is brought on by contemplation, that is said to be Knowledge: So that the knowledge of the Law, that the Chancellour ushers in here, is not knowledge of comprehension, which the Greeks call [...]; for that, though some Oratours use promiscuously with apprehendere;Lib. 2. c. 5.10. yet Quintilian discriminates, Latior comprehensio, says he. For so to know the Law, and Justice from it, is impossible for man, unnecessary for a Prince; com­prehension in this sense being bonum patriae non viae, peculiare Dei & deisicorum, non ho­minum, according to that of Saint Paul, We know but in part. But knowledge of ap­prehension is that quae ad mensuram refertur, [...]. 'Tis to see as far into a [Page 84] Mill-stone, as the opacity and compactness of the body will suffer, and our optique vigour can pierce to. This mediocrity, in our knowledge of the Law, is that which the Chancellour puts the Prince upon attaining: For although deep speculations become Professours of Arts, who live and thrive by the fame and gain of their procedures there­in, yet to men who study for delight, and to know how to regulate themselves to God, and to others, lesser proportions of criticalness and profundity will serve: yea, it sometimes falls out by God's judgment on curiosity, that our sin, in searching be­yond our tether, brings us to arrive at aversation from God the chief God, and enmity against his Image in his adorers, and to be made up of ill ingredients, as Por­phyrie was; of whom Holstenius professes, he can give no other reason of his hatred of Christianity,De Vita & Scri­pti [...]. Porphyrii, c. 6. and that madness, that he vented against it, Quàm quod animus atrae bilis fermento turgens, & nimia eruditionis copia inflatus, semet ipsum non caperet, ita & hujus exemplo patuit, mundi sapientiam insipientiam esse apud deum. So that the apprehenderis here, is a term of restraint, wherein the prescriber limits the universality of his coun­sel, the Prince he would have to know the Law, because it's the Rule of Justice, and that the Crown of Government, and that the Earthly Paradise of Kings: But this knowledge he would have modest and moderate, true for the nature, but not ambiti­ous of ultimacy, to know ultra quod non, to boast and brave with, but as the Stoique advices, [...], &c. to shew our selves bettered by it; men that are intent upon, and act according to reason, and are not acted by transports, and giddy fanaticismes, which makes much of what is little, and most of what is nothing, but folly and mad­ness.

This the Text adds, to make knowledge of the Law, more to be affected by the Prince, because 'tis the means of loves both admission and perfection. For as there is no desire of that we know not, so no degree of desire of it and love to it, further or other, then the knowledge of it is in us. 'Tis true good is the object of love; but because good, is not to us good, but as known and apprehended so by us: therefore the Philosopher first, and our Chancellour next from him, tells us, nihil amatum nisi cognitum, Aenead. 3. lib. 5. p. 5. which brings to my thought the wisdom of Plotinus, in making love the con­sequence of knowledge, to be descended from the two extreams of [...] indigence, and [...] affluence, to shew, that it is the mean between their ex­cesses,Amor cum ex pulchro ama [...] quasi ex patre & ex pulchri cognitione unà cum ejus absentia in amante conspecta quasi ex matre ducat origi­nem. Phàvorinus, lib. De excel. hom. Parte prima, c. 7. p. 38. Lib. 6. p. 299. and compounds want and abundance, to make a conjunct content; for as if it were all good, and wanted nothing, 'twould not look abroad in the power of a communicative effect: so if it were wholly void of good, and clogg'd with misery, [...], it would never endeavour after good. The power and providence of God is then notable, in so dexterously composing things, that as knowledge occasions love, so love improveth knowledge; since as that we love we enquire into; so that we enquire into we love: so says experience from reason by the Philosopher here quoted, Dicit námque Philosophus. This Philoso­phe here is Aristotle, the Master of Alexander the Great, called here so [...], and [...], because no less a Conquerour of Art and Nature, then his Pupil was of People and Countreys: as the one did reduce all to his power by puissant Armies, laying level all opposition against him, and making the inaccessableness of their situati­on and obstruction plain before him, that every one might see Alexander a Conquer­our, who chalked out his quarters every where, and had no more to do then veni, vidi, vici: so the other, in his subtile Philosophy, and laborious History of Nature, did denude those secrecies that before him were not known, and made men after him a fair access to the most cryptique, and obstruse Veins and Mines of intellectual riches; which the learned World finding, attribute to him more then mortal Eulogies, and prefer him in their Doxologies beyond any that is meer man. I know the Greeks had high va­lue of Socrates, and Pythagoras; the Indians of Apollonius Tyanaeus; the Poets of Hercules and Tully, taking this rise from the interpretation of the Oracle, which from the Bees sitting on Plato's lips, when but in swadling clouts, presaged his incomparable Eloquence;1. D [...] Divinitat. Lib. 2. Denat. Deorum. though I say Tully admire Plato so far, that he terms him, Deus Philoso­phorum, Deus ille noster Plato, as he wrote to his friend, Princeps ingenii & doctrinae, [Page 85] Cic. Quint. fratri. lib. 1. Exagitator omnium rhetorum in Orat. 2.4. though he calls Plato gravissimus;Cic. Attico. lib. 4. 85. Vossius Hist. Graec. lib. 1. p. 15. Cel. Rhodig. 1. Antiq c. 22. Dugardus in sappl. ad Vigers Idiotism. Graec. Livy Impress. hom. 1647. p. 387. yet Aristotle will carry the name of the Philosopher, a name given him for his eminency in knowledge, for which the Antients gave names of honour ac­cording to their peculiar merits; Bion they call [...], the Rhetorician; Arria­nus [...], the lover of truth, Atheneus, [...], the Wise-man at Meals; Strabo [...], the Geographer; Dyonisius: [...], the Describer; Stepha­nus Bizautinus [...], the Writer of Nations and Customs; Iulian [...], the Apostate; Hermogenes Rhetor, [...], the writer of the state of causes; Herodian Grammaticus, [...], the Artist; Chaeroboscus, [...], the Countrey Artist; Charon, [...], the Ferry-man, &c. Yea, in our own Na­tion, it has, and is used thus, Bede was called the venerable, Halensis the accurate, Sco­tus the subtile, Bradwardine the profound, Ockham the invincible, Hooker the judicious. All which names were given them, not ad excitandam invidiam, sed ad perpetuandam memoriam of their incomparable respective merits. In like manner, as the Holy Ghost does affix reproaches on evil men,1 King. 14.16. 1 King. 21.26. Math. 26. as on Ieroboam, he who made Israel to sin, & malo exemplo, & malo, praecepto; and Ahab, he who sold himself to do wickedness, ex malo proposito, & in malum finem, and Iudas, he that was called Iscariot the Traytor, because he sold his Master, Malo genio, & pro malo lucro; and commends the virtues of good men, by terms of Diginity, as Abraham, the Father of the faithful; Noah, the Preacher of Righteousness, Moses, the Law-giver, and friend of God; Job the patientest man; David, the man after God's own heart; Solomon, the wisest of men; Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles; John the Divine. So other prophane Authours, in the like cases, have done, and by so doing, as they have stained and battoon'd the Coat-Ar­mour of divers Hectors in villany and Heresie, so have they adorned with all possible Trophies of virtue the memories and names of others. Amongst whom, our Aristotle the Philosopher, is not the least nor last to be placed; to make good which Verdict, a Jury of Authours, good men and true, shall be produced to confirm this Title on him, not so much in the name [...], for all Authours allow that to him, but in the merit so to be called.

Porphyrius says,Deuita Pytha­gorae p. 205. Incertus Author de vita Pythago­rae e Photio. p. 210. the Pythagoreans did account Aristotle a Collector from, and a Resi­ner of Pythagoras his Discoveries and Doctrine, as he was the tenth eminent person from him, after Plato the ninth: and this must argue him, as both judicious to be able to do it, so notably benefited in Science by so doing. Plato gives so large a testimony of him, in calling him [...], the Reader of all Authours, that he almost deifies him, and makes him to Books by [...], what Saint Paul asserts God to men in his [...].

Quintilian knows not,Lib. 10. Instit. Orator. p. 156. (though he himself be, of Oratours one of the first three) what to write worthy him, Quid Aristotelem, &c. What shall I say of Aristotle, whom I know not whence mostly to commend, for knowledge of things and Books beyond measure, sweetness of expression, In vita Aristot. [...]. Lacitius in uita edit. Causabon. Lib. de virtute & fort. Alexandri. acuteness of invention, and variety of all Learning.

Ammonius records of him, that in Philosophy [...], he ex­ceeded the proportions of man, having gone through the exact course of that study.

And what could Laertius say more then he does of him, when he publishes him the great Master of Arts, and sums up his Works to 445290 Verses.

Plutarch ascribes much of Alexander's Victory to the parts that Aristotle's institu­tion raised and enlarged in him.In Trismegist Pymand. lib. 1. c. 4. p. 36.

Averroes (as I find him in Rosselius) accounting him a Prodogie, and Blazing Star of knowledge, breaks out into these words, Laudemus deum qui seperavit hunc unum ab aliis, &c. Let us give thanks to God, that has separated this one he to a perfect knowledge of all things, having appropriated wisdom to him, whom he calls the Father of Philosophy, Historia Natur. lib. 8. c. 16. & lib. 18. c. 34. 4 Academ. In Orat. 3. 2 De Oratore. and Master of Method.

Pliny publishes him, vir summus in omni doctrina; which is as much as if he had said, He had read whatever was written, and digested into use whatever he had read.

Tully extols him as the flumen orationis aureum, &c. the Golden Sea of Speech, most ad­mirable, and abundantly knowing. Yea, so far exceeds himself, that he positively avers Aristoteles is the He, Lib. de Brevitate vitae. whom I most admire.

Seneca grants him, the Captain of all good Arts, making Theophrastus his famous Disci­ple beloved by him.

[Page 86] Vossius calls him Magnus Aristoteles,Lib. 4. c. 9. De Hi­storicis Graecis. non Philosophus modo summus, &c. not onely a great Philosopher, but a Patron to History and Poetry.

In Epist. ant [...] Opera. Causabon protests him, summum (bone Deus) virum, &c. the most excellent man, the Eagle of Philosophy.

In Epist. Brulat [...]o Cancellatio Gal. Duval compares Aristotle's Works, and so him, to the Purple Vest, which Alcisthe­nes had to the Wonder end; for which Dyonisius the elder gave one hundred and twenty Talents; adding, nihil hìc vile videas, nihil abjectum, &c. omnia pulchra, honesta, opti­ma, praestantissima.

In Pandect. priores. Edit. Basil. p. 198.And Budaeus says as much as they all in those words, Is author qui res omnes ratione, &c. He is the man who rationally, and in a way of Science, treats of all things; yea, even of those things, which without him, would hardly have held capable of such treatment.

Well then might Aristotle be called [...], though he had, as Aldrovandus, Gassendus, and even Plutarch himself make good, sundry mistakes, as no man is without them (no not his Correctors) though after him incomparable Authours, since he not onely shewed the way to all after ingenuity, but even made it so facile, that not to exceed him,In Apologia, p. 79. (which is not ever the happiness, though the possibility of after discove­ries, is a piece of non-proficiency,) as Picus Mirandula has at large discoursed.

This I the rather here touch upon, because the passions of men have been so keen and virulent upon account of this Authour; some crying him up as the onely he, panè post Deos Deus, and making his Philosophy, and all of him, so far divine, that to vary from him in a tittle, has been by them censured of folly, and to oppose and decline him,Vossins c [...]ntra Des Chartem in Censura Novae Philosophiae. condemned for a kind of Sacriledge. Others so servently acted against him, that they thought no envy truculent enough to his person, no severity too tart for his Writings. As when he lived, he was fain to peragrate, to avoid the fury of de­struction in his own Countrey, every Mom [...]s carping at him, and bedirting his name with their mordacious Libels, till at last he made the Proverb good, [...]; for his learning made him welcome abroad, whom it could not render quiet at home; which shews the benefit of breeding, whereby men support themselves under the vicissitudes of fortunes, which Nero comforted himself with, when he was fore-told by the Mathematicians, Sueton in Nero­ne. that he should be deprived of his Empire; and Dyo­nis [...]us of Syracuse, found his onely refuge, when his Tyranny left him, to take up the Trade of teaching Arts and Musique. I say, as Aristotle had these ruffles alive, so since has he been coursely dealt with by passionate men, and the storms of their servours im­pelled by interess. The whole Parisian Colledge, in Anno 1229. decreed his Books to be burned,Rigordus in Vita Philippi August ad Annum 1229. Campanella. Nè quis eos de catero scri­bere aut leg [...]re praesumerst. vel quocunque modo habere. as ill Doctrine to men, and Bla­sphemy against God.

And Philo long ago, though he debacchates not against him, yet speaks with an indifferency, which amounts to a reproach, [...],Lib. quòd mundus sit incorruptibilis, p. 940. &c. Aristotle, saith he, whom I know not how piously and soundly learned, says so. All which tells us, that envy attends great parts, as many have to their sor­row found it; and further more shall. And therefore, though great parts are seldome so kept in, but time and actions evidence them: so do they often make their havers un­happy; some in making them feared, and pack'd abroad, least, as Eclipses to Favou­rites, they should darken them, that would be all that lustre and favour can make them, or putting them upon such thristless searches, as waste fortune, and reduce them to need. So far are men from admiring and loving, what God has made conspicuous, as was this Philosopher Aristotle, Lib. 3. c. 17. in Astrol. who had consummatam scientiam rerum omnium, as Mirandula makes good against the Astrologers, that their eye is evil, because his has been good. So much of this Philosophus in our Text. Now of what he wrote, Nihil amatum nisi cognitum.

Analytic prior. lib. 1. ad initium.This Position, in terminis, as here, is not from ought I can find in the Philosopher, but the sense, and very near the words of it, is in him, in these words, [...], &c. that is, all Learning, and Discipline in Art, is from antecedent knowledge, which is so necessary, that, as without the senses, no orderly and pleasant life, if any at all, can be;Rhetor [...]e. lib. 2. c. 4. Aenead. [...]. lib. 5. p. 291. so neither without knowledge can life of love be. Hence the Philosopher makes society, familiarity, and alliance, furtherances and progresses to love, and the heighth of it friendship. Plotinus confirms Aristotle; for he calls love to be [...], [Page 87] &c. an implanted apprehension, Comment in Plotin lib. 9. En­nead. 3. p. 355. notion and cognation, on which his Commentator observes, Actus quidem intellectus omnino immobilis est, actus imaginationis omnino mo­bilis, actus denique rationis est mixtus, neque potest anima esse congruum universi me­diam nisi tria hec inse possideret, And Plato calling love Eros, and Plotinus [...] ha­ving its substance from vision, seemes to conclude love a matter of knowledge: for though it be true, that love may not know, neither that which is most lovely, nor all, that is lovely in the Object it loves, yet it is also true, that where ever any degree of love is, there is some knowledge introductory to, and obsignatiue of it; for love moves from the understanding to its termination in the will, and before the act of the will,Lege Rosselium in Pymand lib. 2. c. 2. p. 67. & [...]. [...]. there is no liberty in the intellect; so that when, what the understanding presents, the will complyes with, then love warms it self in the affections, and thence communi­cates it self to the object of it, and the object of love being good, and good being the object of knowledg, it followes, that as whatsoever we desire to know, we love to ob­tain, so what we obtain by knowledg, we love, as good: and nothing can be the ob­ject of love, but what is so made by the prospect of knowleeg, which God confirms by several Texts in holy Writ, when he promises that all his shall know him, from the least to the greatest, and what then, they shall know him as the means to their trust in him, which is the perfectest act of love, They that know thy name, will put their trust in thee. And our Lord intended this in the order of those words, If ye know these things, blessed are ye, if ye do them.

Quare Fabius Orator ait, quòd faelices essent artes si de illis soli Artifices judica­rent.

This sentence of Quintilian's is some what like that of Plato's, which Marcus Anto­ninus had almost alwayes in his mouth florere Civitates, Julius Capitoli­nus in vita Anto­nini. &c. That Cities flourished when either Philosophers ruled them, or they that ruled them, were Philosophers. Now this Fabius was Fabius Quintilian, (son to Fabius Causidicus, Grandson to the Quin­tilian Declamator, Lib. 6. divisionum. which Seneca makes his Contemporary, and the renowned tutor to Caelius, and honourably mentioned by Martial,

yea, not onely famous in Rome for notable defence of causes vivâ voce, but eviden cing a Magistry in that faculty by his institutions of Oratory, and his Declamations which to this day are of great esteem and authority, and that so upon the account not onely of parts but virtue, if he practised what he wrote; for besides, that he began his twelfth Book with a Chapter entitled, Non posse Oratorem esse, nisi virum bonum; back­ing his assertion with nervous reasons,Lib. 12. Instit. Orat. c. 1. concluding Mutos [...]ascere, & egore omni ratione satiùs fuisset, quàm providentiae munera in mutuam perniciem convertere; all good Au­thours do give him Characters not contrary to the merit of such virtue and learning: Trebellius Pollio publishes him Declamatorem Generis humani acutissimum;In Posthumio Jun. lib. 5. Ep. 10. Sidonius Apollinaris mentions acrimoniam Quintiliani, others term him Romanae eloquentiae Cen­sor , Coriphaeus Oratorum, Dempster. Lib. 3. de Finib. Criticorum omnium [...], Optimus decendi artifex, Orator, eximius ac necessarius. Now this Fabius is not called Rhetor (as those were, qui artem Oratoriam profitentur, & dicendi praeceptatradunt, as Tully's words are; for these, though by some made equivalent to Orators, I take a form below them) but Orator of the rank of those whom Tully describes, Orator est vir bonus dicendi peritus, qui in causis publicis, 1. De Orator. 2. De Legib. & privatis, plenâ & perfectâ utitur Eloquentiâ; such as were not onely Advocates at home but Embassadours abroad, Faederum, pacis, belli, induciarum Oratores, of these Seneca in his 40, and 100. Epistle writes notably. Thus much of our Fabius Orator who, now of what he wrote here quoted, Faelices essent artes si de illis soli judicarent artifices: by arts he meanes that which Sipontinus defines esse facultatem quae praeceptis quibu [...]dam ac regalis continetur, Tully makes it constare ex multis animi conceptionibus;4. Academi. 450 4. De Finib. indeed when all is said, it is but reason of practice and observation fol­lowed by diligence which comes to be dux certior quàm natura. As all ingenious inven­tions are termed arts, so have arts attributions from Authors suitable to the variety and diversity of such Inventions,Quintilian. lib. [...]. c. 7 c. 17. there is Imperatoria ars, armorum ars, Medentium [Page 88] ars, Magica ars, Palaestrica ars, every thing that is what it is, ex cognitione & com­prehensione rerum, 3. De Finibus. Tully allowes art.

Now whereas he sayes, Faelices essent artes, he means as much as fortunate & suc­cedentes:Pro Fontcio. 1 De Divinat. 165. so Virgil 3. Aeneid. Vivite faelices quibus est fortuna peracta: so Tully, ad casum fortunámque faelix vir; so quod bonum, faustum, faelix, fortunatúmque esset, praefabantur rebus omnibus agendis antiqui, his meaning is, 'twould be a gaudy time, and arts would be undoubtedly prosperous, if onely they which had art, were Judges of art.

Si de illis soli judicarent artifices, that is, if onely men of Judgment in arts might judge of arts, for though I know any man is counted an Artificer, who exercises an art,Lib. 2. [...].14.4. yet as to this sense of Quintilian, that is required to be taken in, which he sayes, artifex est qui percipit artem: and so Festus, Artifices dicti quòd scientiam suam per, actus exerceant, sive quòd aptè opera inter se arctent, so Plin. lib. 22. c. 24.

1. De Orator. Quantò magis hos Anacharsis deno­ [...]âsset imprudentes de prudentibus ju­dicantes quàm im­musicos de musicis. Tertullianus A­pol. c. 1.So that Artifices here are men of proficiency, Masters; so Tully calls exact men, dicendi artifices & doctores, and suavitatis artifex consuetudo, and morbi artifex, and generally every Excellency is called artifice; from whence I gather, our Text-Master thought arts then onely well dealt with, when they were not concluded before heard, nor judged by injudicious men, but had a legal and rational tryal per pares.

Which if it were, arts would not hear so ill as they do, some reproach them as the roads to ruine; breed up a man ingeniously, and a beggar by all means he must be; that is the prattle of ignorance [...],Eras. Adag. Chil. 1. Cent. 7. p. [...]82. &c. Art is to men the Port of misfortune: and Iulius Graecinus found it so, whom the Historian writes to be a Senator of great elo­quence and wisdom in ordering publique affaires, but he adds iísque virtutibus iram Caii Caesaris meritus. Indeed many brave men finde it so through the occult provi­dence of God,Lib. 1. Metaphy. and the manifest envy of men, [...], &c. Ignorance make a for­tune where knowledg onely discouers art, this is the lot of scientifiquenesse often, but not always; many multitudes of men have by learning and arts, come to riches, ho­nour, what not? when they have been so happy to be understood aright, and lived in an age and place, where arts were acceptable and fairly valued; for which Virgil was not onely by Augustus, who therefore was his munificent Patron, but also by the great wits of ages,Lib. 1. Saturnal. Macrobius long ago gave a noble testimony of him, Est tam scientiâ profundus quàm amaenus ingenio, miranda est hujus Poëtae, & circa nostra, & circa exter­na sacra doctrina, non potest intelligi profunditas Maronis sine divini, & humani juris scientia;Lib. 17. so Pliny terms him solertissimarum aurium solertissimus blanditor; Cerda, Donatus and Servius are not behinde, but above all Scaliger, Resplendent gemma in ejus carmine; Sealig. lib. 5. d [...] Virgilio. compouit mellita, & nectarea; addit tot venustates quot verba; Inest in eo phrasis regia & ipsius Apollinis ore digna, sic puto loqui deorum proceres in caelestibus conciliis, non si ipse Jupiter Poëta sit, meliùs loquatur; these incouragements do the learned give learning by the values of them. And hence comes it to passe that learning is so necessary for a man in power. For learning in a man of power and place makes him unprejudiced, and cleares his Eyesight to an Eagle-eyed clarity, it distinguishes between Subjects and accidents, between what learning does, and what the man in which learning is, does; and when it condemns the man, it justifies his art; hence comes Quintilian to account arts happy, if Artists onely judged of them: because, they will not onely value them as they are, but not undervalue them for some adjunct defects; Protogenes valued one plain line of Apelles, and the foam, or any minute and unbeauti­fied particle of Picture from Zeuxis, or any he that does pingere aternitatem. Or one sentence of Masculine wit boldly and bravely worded, shall have more Commendation from a knowing and accomplished Master, then all the Hecatombs and Pyramids of rodo­montado'd Impertenances, which are Darlings to the plebs, shall have: whereas others judge of arts as blinde men do of colours, hab-nab, hit or miss, no matter whether, crying up as the superstitious Athenians did, a false god; nay inscribing an Altar to the unknown God, when they decry the true one onely God; so they advancing trite, vain vile, artlesse art, decry real and regular art, reversing the Escutcheon of recti­tude, and making that vile which is excellent, as Polaemon the Grammarian did by Marcus Varro, Petrus Crinitus lib. 9. c. 10. De honesta discipl. the most learned of the Romans, whom he called Porcus, when he was the Jewel of his age; and the Jewes did by our Lord, whom they made a Devil, and a friend of Publicans and sinners, and the Ethniques, did by the Christians, whom they proclaimed disturbers of Governments, and flagitious, when none were more holy, [Page 89] humble and submiss then they; I say while men and things are thus misjudged, and the keen edge of ill will, or the blunt of ignorance is turned to them in their judgement of them, no Halcyon dayes of art can be hoped for. But when God reduces things to rights, and puts men of art in place and power, then arts are like to thrive, quia judi­cantur ab artificibus, as the Poét said of that Pope,

And therefore that reproof of Tully is very appositely to be brought in here,1. Tusc. Quaest. Hic quidem quamvìs eruditus sit sicut est, haec Magistro concedat Aristoteli cauere ipse do­ceat, benè enim illo Proverbio Graecorum praecipitur, quam quisque nôrit artem, in ea se exerceat: Lib. 8. De. pno­sophist. for since that of the Harper in Athenaeus, [...], every man is the properest Iudge of his own harp; learning and arts are never properly judged, nor to the proportion of their merits, till they be judged by Artists.

If knowledge be the window that lets in love, ignorance is the nusance that annoyes and obscures the light and lustre of it, for it does not onely cause an inexpression of love, but an expression of hatred its contrary, since hatred of good arises from igno­rance of it; for did we know good to be what it is, we would love it as we ought, which caused the Philosopher not onely to light a Candle at noon day, to seek a wise man in the multitude; but professe that if virtue could be denuded, so that men could see her pulchritude, they would be impatient to be absent from her, and to be in any condition without her.

Indeed it is a part of the penal pravity of our natures to be ignorant of the life of God, and without him in our understandings, and while we continue in this obccecation, as God is not in all our thoughts, so is nothing more the study of our corruption then to set light by his Counsel, Commands, Rule, Spirits, Son, all that has his Impresse on it, and the reason is onely from our ignorance of God, he is not in all our thoughts, and hereupon not before our eyes, but instead of loving him as the most excellent, (which knowledge of him would represent and perfectly assure to us) we postpone him to all objects we prefer before him in love as we apprehend above him by our Knowledge; and so the rule is in all things, so far they are loved and despised, as they are more or lesse known by us.

Every thing sayes Solomon, has a season in which it is most gay, and in every man, and creature there is a pleasure and grandeur which with the contraries of them are ap­propriate to them,Plutarch. lib. [...]. [...], &c. said the Moralist, the horse delights in his traces, the Ox becomes his Yoak, the Dolphin pleaseth himself to passe by the Ship under sayl, and to see men his darlings aboard them; the Boar loves hunting and the prey of it; the Dog is eager on his sport according to the scent of his kinde: Athenaeus dipno­sophist. lib. 8. and so amongst men, [...], &c. The Coulter pleases the Swayn as well as the Scepter the Prince; and the sword as highly accomplishes as the Souldier thinks, as the book does the Scho­lar him, so much is the love of man tethered to himself, and so does he philautize his own feature and the objects of his pompous Fancy, that he is apt to make that his Can­ton, which Seneca layes down, Tantùm sapienti sua quantùm Deo omnis aet as patet, est ali­quod quò sapiens antecedat Deum, Epist. 53. on which Muretus writes, Impia & intollerabilis arro­gantia Stoicorum, quò non satìs esse docebant sapientem suum cum Deo ex aequo componere, nisi etiam anteponerent, and justly, for the excesse of his pride ought he tobe condemned, who thus raises a Scalade against the Knowledg of God and the humbling effects of it.

Which alas to their just grief, if they had eyes to see and hearts to mourn for it, not onely the best of men are subject to, but even the basest; not almost he, that is hardly worthy to be fellowed with the dogs of a wise mans flock, but abounds in con­ceit of himself; not onely Alexander will be a God, Iulius Caesar make a Marriage between Heaven and earth in his power over both, Octavian reduce the mettal of Rome to a Vassalage under him, beginning to dare the Senate at twenty yeares of age, and keeping Roysters about him, who shall nose the Senators, and tell them pointing to their Swords,Sueton. in O­ctav. c. 26. Hic faciet si vos non feceritis, No wonder, though these Monsters in Manhood Leviathan like, swallowing up all thought of God, Mali malorum daemo­num [Page 90] & fictores & Sacerdotes & cultores, Raro simul homi­nibus & bona fortuna & bona mens datur. Liv. lib. 30. as the Father terms them, are so hot­headed, but to find the foex and tail of Mankind thus [...], to smell of pride, that's somewhat strange; yet most true, so it follows,

This is a Verse out of some of the Poet Minors, the sense of it is, That even the reasonlessest of men, who are but one degree on this side Beasts, have yet the sensuality, or senselessness rather, to contemn what they know not; which made Maro, the So­crates of Poets, say,

Accounting them happy in that Countrey serenity, which their life of exemption from trouble gives them: though God knows, stupid souls that they are, they are seldom thankful, or contented with what they have. This onely they excel in, that they can judge as well of utile and dulce, as any men, and make as little use of it, beyond rude huffs,Adag 5. Cent. 3. Chil. 3. and high-shooe insolence, in which sense the Adage is verified of them, [...] proud and ignorant; not [...], conspicuous and illustrious in acts of hospitality and kindness; but [...], whom their happiness affects not, because they understand it not. This makes them think themselves the best of the pack of men that live in Kingdoms, because they know not wherein by men of more exact breed­ing and parts, they are out-gone.

2. De Oratore. Cic. 3. De Nat. deorum.What this Colonus is, needs little explication; properly it imported cultor agrorum, a husband-man, whom Tully gives Epethites of Optimus, parcissimus, modestissimus, fru­galissimus; and as it imported a Citizen of Rome sent abroad to plant, and obliged to live according to the Romane Laws,In Asin. 7. so had it also a note of depreciation on it, and dif­fered a little from a slave: to which Plautus alludes, when he scoffingly speaks of Colo­nus catenarum, for one held in prison. And Tully, when he would turn men to the most barbarous Masters of reason,Pro C [...]cinna. Lib. De verbo­rum signific. p. 490. bids us, à colono rationes accipere. Concerning these, the Digest speaks much; and Alciate on the 227^th Law. Our Law also, because they are men of narrowest reason, and lowest breeding decryes them all offices of note; no man of this rank can be Justice of Peace, Knight, High Sheriff, or Member to Parliament. Yet these men having skill in Countrey affairs, and being ignorant of any thing beyond the Plough, and the Utensils of Husbandry, contemn Books and Arts, as useless and un­necessary.

Which he adds, in confirmation of the rule he gave, that nothing is beloved further then 'tis known: for not onely the vulgar sort of men, who covet no accomplish­ments besides how to dig, delve, sow, reap, hedge, ditch, whistle, and tend horses; yet are in love with their employments, because they know them, and are onely intellectual proficients in them, but even artly men value Art upon no other grounds; for as their knowledge is of, so their addiction to, and affection for them, is. For though it be common to all men, to know the common notions of night and day, black and white, which perhaps gave rise to the Proverb,Adag. 98. Chil 1. Cent. 6. [...], yet to search into the abscondita of things, and thence to report the nature of them, where men and things do as the Sepia, or Cottle-fish do, to prevent its being surprized, send forth a quantity of black blood, which so thickens the water, that its white body cannot be seen: to which Athenaeus alludes,

And Catallus describes Caesar, notwithstanding all his disguises,

This, I say, to do, must proceed from knowledge, and is called art in him that knows how thus to demean himself. Hence Tully makes Rubrius Cassinas, who took one [Page 91] that was little of eminency in appearance, and made him his Heir, and thereupon minds him of his love to him;2. Philip. Te is quem nunquam vidisti, fecit haeredem, & quidem vide quàmte amar it is qui albus atérve fueris ignorans, fratris filium praeteriit. I say, Tully not onely in that remembers the person so favoured to be mindful of, and thankful for it, but censures Rubrius, as more doting by passion then directed by judgment, as doctissimi and peritissimi here ought to be. For Tully has matched these Epethites to­gether, to set forth the double nature of art, both in speculation and action. Doctissimi theoria, peritissimi praxi; for unless they both go together, they make no fair shew to perform the excellent end of right judgment, and to fix love upon the foundation of Arts known, and thence delighted in.

Here the Chancellour instances in Philosophers, the wisest and learnedest of men, as dissenting and detracting from one another, as the parts of Philosophy, which they are particularly versed in, and bent to prosecute, are divers from each other in the object of their Science,Tullius. 1. Offic. and the reason of them. For since Philosophy is the study of wisdom, [...],Aristot. lib. De. 6 Mundo prasat. ad Alexand. A Study of divine and admirable Mystery: And Phi­losophers are not [...], men of prate and discourse, versed in no good and profitable method of art, having heads swollen with vapour and ostentation, but men that de wholly give up themselves to contemplation and disquisition of nature, as Philo at large discourses,Lib. De Vita Contemplativa, pag. 890. since they are Asaphs, men that do wisely ru­minate,Cum sapientes propriè vocemus eos qui subli­mia quadam, & a vulgi captu remota intel­ligunt, Quomodo Anaxagoram, Thalo­tem, Democritum, Sapientes nominavit antiquitas, certè qui adeae per quirenda o [...] ▪ studio incumbunt, quae qui tenent, sapientes habentur, ii propriè dicendi sunt Philoso­phari, Muretus, innotis ad primum Natur. Quest. Senecae. p. 842. and perpend what they do. This considered, (as hereto­fore in the Notes on the fourth Chapter, has been larglyer writ­ten of) invests Philosophers with great respects, and expects them men of much reason, and therefore probable to be exact and scru­pulous.

Now these Philosophers our Text calls by three several names, as they intend three distinct parts of Philosophy; the natural Philo­sopher; the Metaphysitian; the Mathematician: all which, says our Text, have principles so different each from other, that as the one may be igno­rant in, so obstinate against the principles and practises of the other; and that from this ground, that every one reduces Art to his own Standard, and will have all that is not what he knows and loves, false and useless.

Here now I might ravel out into a large field, and discourse of Philosophers and Phi­losophy to an infinity of needless trouble to my self, and my Reader: but I shall study more thrift of time, and compose my discourse to those modest limits, and soft touches, as best suit with a Commentator that intends profit and delight to his Rea­der.

Certainly Philosophy is a most excellent gift of God, and orna­ment of man; [...]. Lib. De Mundi Opificio, p. 11. Aenead. 1. Lib. 3. p. 20. Parte prima, De excel. Homi. c. 59. p. 173. [...] Lib. De Specialibus legibus, pag. 806. Philo says it's the chief ingredient into man's prero­gative, above the other works of God's hand; and Plotinus calls men learned in it, [...], prepared to fly high even to Heaven, in the power of their mental endowments thereby, which was the reason, that Architas said a Philosopher was [...], and Homer stiles him [...], as one, habilis ad omnes disciplinas, ac­cording to Phavorinus, which should mind him that professes it, to live as one that has his mind divinely endowed, and called upon to all exemplary and practical virtue, which Philo makes so peculi­arly the part of a Philosopher, as nothing more is: For as it is not bags but money; nor deeds but lands, nor books but knowledge, [Page 90] to make use of them; nor numbers of men, but discipline and courage, that declares a man rich, learned, fortunate, victorious; so is it not the notion, but practice of Philoso­phy, that derives on men the honour of being true Philosophers. This was the cause Plato was wont to say,Julius Capitoli­nus in Antonino. p. 148. Edit. Sylb. and M. Antoninus repeat from him that saying, Then Cities flou­rish, when Philosophers govern them, or when they that govern them are governed by Phi­losophers; which the Antients were so zealous in, that Seneca answers us, Antiqua Phi­losophia nihil aliud quàm facienda & vitanda praecepit, &c. The antient pristine Philoso­phy consisted onely in rules of doing good, and eschewing evil, and then Philosophers were most excellent plain men; but when they came to be so critically learned, as afterwards they became, Epist. 95. all sincerity took leave, and learning was judged rather to consist in subtiliy then virtue, in wrangling wit, rather then in a good life. So he. And hence it is, that where­as virtue was the study of Philosophers, and their heats and passions were lulled asleep in the pursuit of her. Now since she has been deserted, and her professours have pre­tended, rather then practised Philosophy, she hath degenerated into cavil and contest about words and forms.In notis ad Senec. ludum. p. 936. Rhenanus hath learnedly collected a large Catalogue of dis­sents amongst Philosophers, which argues onely the disproportion of Mortals apprehen­sion, and the vehement chollers that they are upon interesses of fame and fury expres­sive of, vitia [...]es not the reputation of art, for that still remains sacrum quoddam & venerabile, Epictetus apud A. Gellium. lib. 17. c. 19. as Seneca terms it. Ep. 56. Vitae lex, Ep. 95. Ultimum instrumentum & additamentum, Ep. 17. inexpugnabilis murus quem fortuna multis machinis lacessitam non transit. Ep. 83. Omnibus praeferenda artibus, rebusque. Ep. 29. and the Philosophers, not being defective to themselves, [...], &c high talkers of, while little livers to virtue, make not themselves a reproach, but rather recover their antique reputation by such severities, as may eliminate all vice, and stop the mouth of all detraction.Lib. 2. De Ira. 14. So Seneca's rule is, Sapient omnia quae debet sine ullius malae rei ministe­rio efficiet, nihilque admiscebit cujus modum solicitus observet.

Which premised, the divisions of Philosophy into parts, is rather a matter of me­thod and order, then any thing else; and since it is the contemplation of wisdom, in preparation for action, can have no variety in it, but what is gradual, and has a sense of ministration to the consequution of the noble end of it, to wit, how to know to do.

Whereunto, because the several Attoms and minute Particles (making the mass and bulk) with the variety of their use, and operation in ascent to the culmen of it, is to be considered,Anead. 1. lib. 3. p. 21. which perhaps is somewhat towards that which Plotinus lays down, [...], &c. the understanding gives perspicuous principles, which done, the soul compounds couples, and distributes them, till they come to perfect understanding. I crave leave therefore not so much to cherish and confirm debate of words, and variety of ex­pression, as to write somewhat useful to the practical Philosophy, to which the specula­tive is but ducent. For to little purpose is all knowledge of essences, and abstracted no­tions, if they refine not the reason, and brighten it to a perfect oriency in a life of ex­emplary virtue.

In Prologo art. 2. p. 57. In Sententias. Aureolus ingenuously casts the Sciences, which is Philosophy, into this model: the first three he calls Scientiae Sermocinales Sciences of Speech; Grammar, Logick, Rhe­torique. To speak properly and according to use, subtilly and according to rule, floridly to the heighth of captation and eloquence, either in prose or verse. The second three he calls purely sensible and experimental, Natural, Moral, Medicinal. To know the nature the virtues, vices of things, and the adjuments to rectitude, and the restora­tion of declensions from it. Two purely Mathematical, Arithmetique, and Geome­try, which instruct the use of Numbers, Weights, and Measures. Three medious be­tween the Mathematiques and experimental Sciences, Astrologie, Harmony, Perspe­ctive; one meerly intellectual Metaphisicks. Thus that Golden Wit.

[...]. Lib. De Agricult. p. 189.Nor is Philo the Iew much, if at all behind him, who compares Philosopy to a gallant Plantation: the Physicks answers trees and plants, the Moral fruits, the Rational to hedges and bounds; now (says he) as the fences and hedges secures the fruits, so the ratio­nal Philosophy is the defence of the Moral and Natural. From both which I collect, that God has made a harmony in art, the preservation of which is the life of Science; there is then no difference in Philosophy, but what arises by accident, and either pride, or wilful mistake of men: For as the Fly does as well set forth the majesty and power of [Page 93] God in this production, as the Elephant; so in the least principle of service, the bounty and wisdom of God is patefied, as well as in the greatest.

The natural Philosopher he searches into the nature of compound things,Aristot. Auscult' lib. 2. c. 2. p. 329 Volum. primo. Phavorinus. part [...] prima, cap. 95. p. 171. Vives in censura operum Aristote­lis, tit. Metaphi­sic. Basil. 1542. and their Re­volutions, Elements, Generation, Corruption, Meteors, Minerals, tendency of Beasts, Ve­getables, and all their species; the Metaphysitian he understands indeed substance, accidents all sensible beings, yet separate from matter, the Mathematician he makes dis­quisition of those things which he can make good the reason of, by demonstration obvi­ous and plain to the sense; but Metaphysiques, being the contemplation of divine and ab­stract beings, that is of things separate from matter and form, is the foundation of all other things, not the Mathematicks excepted; yea, and all these impro­ving (to that we call practical Philosophy) makes up Budaeus his compleat character of a Philosopher, [...]. Metaphys. lib. 1. c. 1. ad initium. Is qui studeat omnium re­rum, &c. He that studies to know the nature of all things divine and humane with the causes of them, and applyes his knowledge, to produce a life of virtue and reason, suitable to such knowledge, In Pandect. priores, p. 13. he deserves wor­thy to be counted a Philosopher, are his words full of weight and worth.

Order then is to be kept in Sciences, which will best be done by love to them, found­ed upon knowledge of them; for whence come heats but upon ignorance, on the as­saylants part, and zeal of knowledge on the Defendants: the composure of which will best be brought about by their unanimity, to credit study with practice. For when all is done that art can witness to, and woo the world by to love her; if it leave the man that has it like Barlaam the Monk, whom the Historian makes a rare Critique in Eu­clid, Aristotle, Plato, but vitiating all this [...], by filling a peaceable Church with discord and cavils, Contacuzenus Hist. lib. 2. c. 39. fire-balls thrown about by his wit. Better I say, know nothing, then thus to know any thing: better to know a little usefully, then much to no other end; but to dishonour God, and disturb men.

As then there must be knowledge in Science to make men value them, so where there is not, there will be contempt of them, which their followers not enduring, proceeds to enmity at last between them; yea, and if the learned side get the Victory by argument, yet if they have not a strenuity of practice to consort with their learning, well they may obtain of men flashes of fame, but real and true Victors they will not be. Philo elegantly reasons this with the learned man in these words,Lib. De ho [...]i­num mutatione. p. 1055. [...], &c. What reason, says he, hast thou, O man, to consider the nature of Heavenly bodies, and vault up into the knowledge of things beyond thy reach: What sensuality hast thou by this skill purged out of thee? What mastery over desires and passions obtained? art thou more divine, and less carnal by this then thou wast? if not, [...], &c. as Trees signifie nothing, if they be barren, and bear no fruit; so the knowledge of nature amounts to nothing, if it ad­vance not virtue in us.

From all which, argued upon occasion of our Texts instance of Arts so far, and no farther loved then known, the conclusion is, that knowledge is the key to love, and all the fruits of it. And where it truly and soberly is, does not heighten passion, but trims and polishes it to a serious purpose, that is, to magnifie God, accord with men, and exem­plifie virtue in a daily practice of it; which well executed, will evidence to men, that God has made a connection of Sciences, and that where any truly is, there are such de­grees of universality,Caelius Calcagni­nus nepoti suo. Quaestionum, lib. 2. as make men civil to those Arts they are not Masters of, and rude Dictators in nothing that is cryptique and mutable: so true is that of Calcagninus, Ità juncta & copulata sunt inter se naturâ, ùt sine piaculo disjungi non possunt; nam sicut. in corpore humano nihil frustrà positum est, quod ad suum opus est institutum, caterisque par­tibus respondeat, ut non sine pernicie avelli possit, ità disciplina, id est, humanae vitae mem­bra inter se connexa sunt, ut seorsim positae mancae & mutiles sunt, nemo ergo Phisica sine Logicis, nemo Logica sine Mathematicis, nemo omnia sine orationis praesidio assequatur.

Though therefore, there may be upon various degrees of apprehension, more or less proportions of zeal and indifferency towards Arts, and the Rules of them, accord­ing to the measure of mens expending of themselves upon them; yet will there ever be in true Philosophers such a moderation, as keeps from the deridebit of our Text. For though our Chancellour phrases thus the effect of ignorance and disaffection, yet does [Page 94] he uses this Hyperbole, rather to make his Arguments more weighty, then to affirm the very specifique effect of them to be derision. For that, importing scorn, argues enmity, and superb prevalency in the soul against the principles of wisdom, which calm and soften it. now a wise and virtuous man will rather pitty, and pray for mens reductions from errours prejudices and mistakes, then contemn and reproach them for such their defects and alloys.Fictus amor oculorum nitet in lumine, sapit in ore, mulc [...]t in aure, ridet in facie, placet in cute, intus autem est venenum Sardinium quod nimirum quos peremit, risu perire fa­cit, Cyrillus lib. 1. Apolog. Moralis. c. 19. And hence is it seen, that those that are the merry mad Satyrists of Ages, whose wits run to waste in pasquillous invectives, and mordacities, Lucian-like, sprout into such prodigious excesses of folly, that they need no Hell more then the vanity of their own actions procures them; while every calm mind acquiesces in the serious study of himself, and in the charitable opinion of others, whom because he knows not erroneous from pertinacy,In Apolog. per Platone. he uncharitably censures not to be abominated; so that though wise men may with Plato smile, yea and laugh, which Bessa­rion says he never did; yet do they not do it with levity, so as to reproach their internal gravity, or to injure their brother in nature, whom they are bound by the Laws of civi­lity, to preserve in his reputation,Adag. 39. Cent. 6 Chil. 2. as to that vanity they are [...], neither [...], that laughter which makes men quake till they tickle again; which Philostratus ren­ders by [...], latè diductógue ore ridere, which we call, to laugh out, and is ascribed to fools and mad-men, nor that [...] which the profuse effeminate Greeks were overtaken with in their feasts of lubricity and compota­tion:Cent. 5. Chil. 1. p. 215 nor that [...], when men laugh deceitfully, and from a heart enraged and malicious, which Eudemus understands the meaning of that phrase [...], thou lookest down upon me, In collectaneis di­ctionum Rhetoric. and deridest me. I say none of these laughters are good and grave men subject to, because this is not onely to prophane the gravity of their own minds, but to reproach God, who having made nothing in vain, abhors the contempt of any work of his hands.Deridere atque contemnere, lib. 3. De Oratore Cic. And therefore, though men of learning and chari­ty may disapprove what some other say and write, from the better apprehension they have of things, then those who attend them not perhaps have; yet still will they abstain from that which the Text says, is the too common consequent of different Judgments to deride. Ipsos deridebit.

This Clause was that for which the fore-going was instanced in; for the Chancel­lour intending instigation of the Prince to the study of the Law, as before he had infor­ced it from the excellency of the Law, as the guide to Justice, which Justice he propo­ses as the desert of fame, and the foundation of duration in Government: so now does he in this Clause shew how impossible it is to love what we know not, and to be zea­lous for that, which our Conviction of the excellency and use of it, does not excite us to. And this, as he does rhetorically, by presenting the worst effect of ignorance, op­position, and that with vehemence of whatever is unknown to, and unbeloved by us, so does he discover the dreadful effect of that prepossession by deridere, a carriage of contempt and vilipendency. And this he tells the Prince, if he knows not the Law, he will make appear by his personal demeanour to men of Law, whom thereby he will disoblige and discourage. To prevent which, he inculcates his counsel of him to the study of the Law, which alone can make him love it, because acquaiut him with, and sit him for the execution of it.

The great consequence of which wise men fore-seeing, do so direct Princes in their edu­cation, that next the knowledge of God, they prefer the instruction of them in the Laws of their Polities above all other parts of breeding, as that which mightily relievs them in all the exigencies of Government, and shews them the Prescript of serenity, if any there be in those heights of honour and sublimation, which Charles the 5. assured his Son he never found in them; and thereupon in the Session at Bruxels, when he resigned up the Government to Philip the second his Son, he thus spake to him, Compatlor tibi, mi fili, &c. I pity thee my Son, on whise shoulders, by my resignation of my Crown and Go­vernment [Page 95] to thee, I put a very weighty burthen; for in all the years that I possessed it, I enjoyed not a minutes time of ease and joy, free from cares and fears.

So that the Chancellour's application to the Prince in the precedent clause, being con­firmative of nihil amatum nisi cognitum, points at some inconveniencies; which unskil'd­ness in the Law will devolve on him.

First, the Municipe Law, which is obvious and clear, Angliae perito & in lege Angliae docto, will be strange to him.

Secondly, he will be to seek of the Law and reason of that, which as King he must de­fend, and according to which, by his Judges in his Courts, he must determine in cases of the half and whole blood.

Thirdly, he will not know whether estates go, if they have no legal Inheritour, and the owner of them dies, sine haerede sanguinis.

Fourthly, he will be grieved, when he sees the ill effects of them, which are onely avoided, and the trouble of them waded through by knowledge of mind.

Fifthly, a Prince will know, that if ignorance does so incommodate him and his af­fairs, and art so promote and beautifie them, in pure Justice this art and knowledge, where by such advantages are acquired, ought to be promoted and valued, since ars non habet inimicum praeter ignorantem.

First, As all arts are obvious to Artists, so is it in the Lawes, they are plain peritis, & in legibus doctis, such the Chancellor calls not those [...], who are all for prate and noise,1. De Oratore. Litium strepitu gaudentes; but such as p [...]nè omnia profitentur, men versed in all points of Law, in no portion of its necessary Knowledge defective, rerum divina­rum, humanarúmque notione, justi atque injustique scientia instructi, according to Vlpi­an; I mean not, nor do I think our Chancellor did mean such an Attainment of Know­ledg, as is to a perfection so properly called; for so no man is capable of Knowledg, the perfect God is onely thus perfect,In Legem 139. ad Legem Juliam & Papiam p. 319. lib. de verborum signifis. but such a perfection as is haveable, Cùm factum est, illud quod fieri inter partes convenit, qui ità consummavit scientiam, ut jam in usu esse possit, as Alciat note is, such as enables a man to give counsel and direction, what to do in every case, and a judgement, in cases determined and adjudged.

This is the sense of peritus & doctus in legibus, Peritus coming from an old Verb perio, or (according to Nonius) aperio, as if one peritus had not onely opened the way, but gone through the path of learning; some have made these two words nothing dis­crepant,Itaque quum si docti, à peritis fa­cilè desistunt sen­tentia 3. Offic. 19. Pro Fronteio 14. but Tully has given peritus the cast beyond doctus, for doctus a man may be in point of reading, and the wisdom of the minde, who is not peritus, for that implyes doctus and a faculty to set it forth to the utmost advantage, which we call a dexteri­ty; so Tully mentions, Sapiens homo, & multarum rerum peritus, and he commends Aelius as one, antiquitatis, veterúmque scriptorum literatè peritus, so a good Orator is called dicendi peritus;De Clar. Orato­ribus 108. Quintil [...] 1. c. [...]. Virgil. 10. Eclog. 3. Offic. 79. Varro 1. de R [...] Rustica. c. 2. a good Souldier, peritissimus homo belligerandi; a good teacher of youth, docendi peritus; a good Musitian at the voice, cantare peritus; one that de­fines things well, definiendi peritus; yea a Husbandman, that is thorowly versed in culture, perisissimus de Agricultura: all which are Excellencies of action, and demon­strative Skils: so here [peritis] intends the Masters of them so well versed in Law cases, that not onely the present Age wherein they that thus excel, live; but after-Ages by their writing conclude them learned, and for that cause reverence them.

Secondly, To these then, though the case may be clear, that the Brother of the half blood, shall not succeed to his Brother, but rather the Sister of the whole blood; yet to a man, that knows not the Law, 'twill be strange. Hereupon, if the King knows not the Law, he will be ignorant of the reason of the Law; which is this, The Bro­ther of the half blood shall not inherit, because, he not being of the compleat blood, is not a compleat heir:Lib. 4. p. 279. B. & lib. 2. p. 65. 1. Instit. lib. 1. Fe [...]simple. p. 14. so Bracton sayes, the Law ever was, that an Heir must have sanguinem duplicatum; and Fleta lib. 6. c. 1. de propinquitate haeredum, so Littleton sect. 6. and so is my Lord Cook's opinion on him, not onely, Quòd linea recta praefertur transversali, but because the whole blood is, pluis digne de sank, and the general al­lowed Law of England, Propinquior excludit propinquum, propinquus remotum, remo­tus remotiorem. Reg. I [...]ris.

Thirdly, Nor will a Prince without Knowledg (in some degree) of the Law, know whether estates will go: if there be not fratres uterini, yet the law directs to the Sis­ters of the whole blood; and in this case the Law is clear, a Sister of the whole bood [Page 96] shall be in statu, Lib. 1. sect. 9. as a Brother, and inherit quasi he, so Littleton, and all other Autho­rities; the reason whereof is, because proximity of blood, takes of all defects, not one­ly in the Crown where no Salique law is good, but in particular Estates to the injury of Sisters, whom God admitted Heires to their Father's Estates, they having no Brothers, Numb. xxxvi. and for defect of these Heires, either of the body, or the blood, or by will testamentary Heires; though I know till the Statute 32 H. 8. c. 1. Lands were not devisable by will. Lands are to descend as an Escheate to the Grand Lord, either the King as the supremus Dominus & haeres; or to the Lord to whom he has granted this Benefit of his Prerogative,Cap. quod non ab­solvitur. as his Escheat. Escaeta a word of art, Escaetae vulgò dicuntur, (saith Ockam) qua, decedentibus his qui de rege tenent, &c. Cum non existit ratione sanguinis haeres, 1. Instit. on Littl. p. 13. ad fiscum relabuntur, these Sir Edward Cock makes to happen, aut per defectum sanguinis, aut per delictum tenentis, see more of Escheats in Fleta lib. 3. c. 10. What the Common Law calls Eschaeta, the Civil Laws I suppose names Caduca;Digest. lib. 23. Tit. 2. de ritu nu­ptiarum. p. 2114. Virgil. lib. 1. Georg. 10. Phil. & lib. 3. De Oratore. so Paulus, Veterem sponsam in Provincia, quam quis administrat, uxorem ducere potest. & dos data, non fit Caduca. This word Caduca from cadere, they apply to all things that do casually happen, Caducas frondes, for leaves ready to fall: Caduca Haereditas is used by Tully, and Iuvenal. 9. Satyr. 9.

And that he is called Caducarius, Advers. lib. 28. c. 15. that is Heir to him, that has no Heir, Turnebus is Authority; see Brech [...]us ad legem 30. p. 92. lib. de verborum significatione.

Fourthly, These things as they are obvious to men of parts, study, and businesse in the Law, so would be very troublous and hard for a Prince to understand, that wholy neglects the consideration of them; to prevent which, the Chancellour conjures the Prince to study the Law, that he may be ready in understanding of, and right judge­ment concerning it.

And lastly, All the precedent Arguments he presses to hinder a dangerous and ne­cessary effect of ignorance, Enmity to Art and Law: for notwithstanding all the good Offices, Knowledg of Art, and of that of the Law, doth, yet will it not carry a letter­lesse minde above a barbarons hatred of that which is most beneficial; nor has ever learning been more coursly dealt with, then from those that know it least, Ars non ha­bet inimicum nisi ignorantem.

For God having made man after his own Inage, in the Endowments of his reason­able Soul, with those Perfections in remiss Degrees which are eminently in himself, has no doubt in him, if improved to the utmost of his ingenuity, a capacity to act to the life the specifique actions of every creature under his Subjection, as Phavorinus very notably asserts:Parte primá De Excell. Hom. c. 55. p. 160. and that he does not effect great things by the illuminations of his in­tellect, proceeds, partly from the penal accessions of sin, which have blunted their edg, and dulled their perception; and partly from the torpor and negligence of us, who do not put forth what of the remains of our creation is yet upon us. From whence alone it is, that we are so ignorant of our duty, and so unprovided to comply with the Pro­vidences of God towards us: this makes us ignorant of and pertinacious against things, because we are at a losse concerning them,Ep. 56. Si bona fide sumus, &c. If we were in ear­nest, and answered the Prescript of God, we would contemn the meretricious avocations of this world, no delights of sense should interrupt our commerce with divine objects; 'tis a light wit that lookes nothing inward, but is wholy swallowed up in the gaity of externals. And in his 95. Epistle, Totum mundum (saith he) scrutor, &c. I search the whole world and give my self a liberty of delight, great things rouse me up to contemplate their tran­scendency, this makes me fortified against all unpleasing accidents, which I eye not as ca­sualties, but God's designs, which I am readily to comply with, and chearfully to follow, not as that I cannot, but will not wave, because it is the best fruit of my duty. Thus does Divine learning fit a man to deny himself, and to be free to persue the Errand of his Maker, St. Ierom tells us, that Hippias the Philosopher called by the Greeks Omni­scius, was wont to glory that he made every thing about him with his own hand,Ep. ad Heliodor. while he had a knowing head, and a contented minde, his hand was able to supply him with necessaries to nature; and for humour and phantasie he had the Mastery of those; his [Page 97] learning had made him free from all those little states and airy Punctilio's, that ignorance affects, and now he being arrived at wisdom, was by it manu-mitted: no wonder then Galen calls arts, [...], and Aristotle [...], and [...], which Budeus opposes to those,In reliquis pan­dectis p. 298. [...], and [...], be­cause when these deceive a man, and prove no subtersuges in want; the liberal arts are a kind of portable Mines, and Magnetequ's that draw fame and fortune to them every where, which confirms that as all knowing men do love Knowledg in others and promote it, so none are Enemies to, and oppose themselves against it, but such as are ignorant; which that the Prince may not be, the Chancellour proceeds to dehort him in the subsequent words.

These words do signifie some fears in the Chancellour, and those probably not ground­lesse ones, that the Prince being young, bred abroad, and martially addicted, might be drawn by those treacherous lures of love and revenge, to decline the love of the common-Law, and admire some other Law, which had more complyance with abso­lutenesse, and Martial rigour then our Law has: now this the grave Judge foreseeing of evil consequence, the people of England admiring nothing above their Lawes, nor loving any Governor further then he rules according to them; he seriously dehorts him from, and cautions him against such humours, and that not cooly and Courtlyly, but by an amicitial vehemence, and oratorious Pathos, in which all arguments of dis­swasion were couched.

Absit àte, as much as if he had said, Sir, such an errour in judgement and choice becomes you not, nay rather you are so to abominate, as men do Carrions, and Sacri­ledges, Incests and Sodomies; the Hebrews expresse this absit by [...], quod pro­phane & impurae rei notionem habet, and the learned say 'tis used cùm rem diram atque atrocem abominamur, Masius in Josh xxii. 29. when the Children of Reuben were charged to have built an Altar to confront God's Altar, their answer begins with this absit, God forbid that we should rebel against the Lord, and turn this day from following the Lord, c. xxii. v. 24. res prophana est, servis tuis hujusmodi facinus designare, so the Chaldee Paraphrase; absit abominantis sermo est, Estius, Erasmus, and Grotius jointly affirm, and so Saint Paul uses it, Rom. iii. 4, 6, 13. vi. 2, 15. vii. 13. ix. 14. xi. 1. 1 Cor vi. 15. Gal. ii. 17. iii. 21. vi. 14. yea the Jews long afore Gen. xliv. 7. 1 Sam. xii. 13. xx. 2. 1 Chron. xi. 19. Iob. xxvii. 5. Luk. xx. 16.

To the same purpose the Latines absit procul, 2 Offic. 9. so Cic. Vt illiberalitatis, avaritiaeque absit suspicio, and Martial, Absit à jocorum nostrorum simplicitate malignus interpres, so Pliny, procul à nobis, nostrisque literis absint ista: lib. 1. 29. thus 'tis in its own nature to be avoided.

But absit à te, fili Regis, there's another step to the dehortation, Sir, You are Son to a King, and a pious King, who, though he suffered, yet was more then a Conquerour, your Father loved and lived in Rule according to the Lawes, and he has principled you with justice, according to those Lawes the Standard of it; do not stain your high blood and noble greatnesse by actions of meannesse, let Peasants and men of low birth expresse lubricity and weaknesse by such illiberal courses as inconsist with regal Mag­nanimity; let the Lawes (Sir) have the honour of your studying of them, that they may have the fruit of Proficiency, your love. And truely if the considerations of [...] will not work with men,Quod decat, honestum est, & quod honestum est. decet. Cic. 1. Offic. what will. For since the glory and praise of every thing is from that decency, which it carryes with it, and that Conformity which it expresses to the Canon of its regulation;Plaut. Deos decet opulentia. Decet me haec vestis, Plaut. Decet me his verbis fabulari, Plaut. as to fight advisedly, and with courage, commends a Souldier, to speak fluently, and with apt tones of Elevation and Cadence, a true Orator; to argue subtilly and with nervosity,Exemplis grandi­oribus decuit [...]li, Cic. 1. Divinat. an exact Logician, to distinguish critically and with Scripture clearnesse, a ready Casuist, to dance nimbly and with erect body, a trim Courtier; to plead boldly and with apt strains of captivation, a good Advocate; so to love the Laws from experience of the use, worth, and benefit of them, to the ends of guberna­tive [Page 98] virtue, becomes a Governour, and he that reasons not with himself from the point of honour and decency,Decentia, Conve­nientia quadam & pulcbritudo Cic. 2. Nat. Deod. to the Motives of his action, will never act as becomes him: this was it that made Abraham implead God's purpose against Sodom (as with reve­rence I write it) using a Phrase of Cogency with men,Gen. xviii. 25. when he supplicated God, Shall not the Iudge of all the world do right? to slay the righteous with the wicked, that be far from thee; he takes advantage from the nature of God, to plead for the actions suitable to it; God is the Judg of all the world, and Judges are to do right, now sayes he, far be it from the Judge of all the world to put good and bad into the same common calamity, and to reward good with evil; that's, O Lord, contrary to thy nature as just, to thy Prerogative as a Judge, the Judge; to thy eminency of all the world, to that interest in thy Justice which all men thy creatures, and the good especially, expect, To have right done; that be far from thee not to do. So Ioseph when he considered Potipher's confidence in him, and the reservation of his wife to his own fruitions, yea the contra­diction that was between a Servant and a Paramour, and the ingratitude that his accep­tance of the invitation to his Mistresse's imbrace implyed to God and Potiphar, reasons thus,Gen xxxix. 9. Nehem. vi. ii. How can I do this wickednesse, so Nehemiah rescued himself from subtile inacti­vity, when God's cause was so concern'd, by this shall such a man as I fly.

Indeed all the great actions of Heroiquenesse that men do, are (next the grace of God) upon the Instigations of the congruity to do, or to forbear, which actions have with our Conditions, professions, obligations, and such like cir­cumstances; Because Kings runn'd not at the Olympique games,Baffus noster videbatur mihi prosequi se, & componere, & vivere lanquam superstes sibi & fortiter serre decidium sui Senee. Epist. 30. A­lexander would not; because Pompey saw his affairs lost without his Presence, he contemned the danger of his Attempt with this, necesse est ut eam non ut vivam. Because Iulius Caesar had the resolutions to be the Phoenix of his age, he overlook'd the dread of resolute Senatours, eying him as their Supplanter and vowing his death; and hence became he their sacri­fice, who, had he observed his praecautions, had evaded them; what shall I say?Non est viri timere sudorem, huc & illuc ac­cedat, ut perfecta virtus sit, aqualitas ac. te­nor nor vitae per [...]mnia consonans sibi, quód non potest esse, nisi rerum scientia contingat, & ars, per quam divina & humana noscun­tur. Seneca Ep. 31. Nimirum existimo praserendum non in vir­ture trajanum, non Antoninum in clemen­tia, non in gravitate Nervam, non in guber­nando arario Vespasianum, &c. Trebellius Follio in Victorino. Seneca makes this an argument beyond most, when he advises to debate with a mans own heart, when proclive to sin, Major sum, & ad majora genitus, quàm ut mancipium sim carnis meae; which had Victorinus the fifth of the thirty Tyrants done, he would not have left that one Record to his blemish that he has: Iulius Aterianus sets him forth as the Deputy in France after Posthumus, and second to none in the office: not to Trajan in virtue, not to Antonine in clemency, not to Nerva in Gra­vity, not to Vespasian in ordering his Treasury, not to Pertinax, or Severus in martialling his Military course of life; but all the glory, and same of these virtues, his libidinous desire and use of women defam'd; so that no Historian durst applaud his virtues, so stained by his vices. And therefore no wonder though our Chancel­our brings in this (fili Regis) to back his absit; so did the Mother of King Lemuel do to him:Trov. xxxi. c. It is not for Kings O Lemuel, it is not for Kings to drink wine, nor for Prin­ces strong drink, least they drink and forget the Law, and pervert the Iudgement of any of the afflicted.

Especially when this to do, is an Inimiceris; for to be ignorant of the Law is not to love it, and not to love the Law the rule of justice, is to affect injustice, and to resolve ir­regularity, and that is to proclaim an enmity against the Law, and against such a Law as is the Law of your own Country, to which your Father and his Progenitors swore Observation, in the presence of the great God of Heaven, and the great men of your Nation. This is the force of the Text, Absit à te, fili Regis, ut inimiceris legibus regni tui, why? 'tis inimicari tibi, & tuis, 'tis to proclaim thy self not a Royal minded Prince, who art a Father to thy people, but a severe Lord, who wilt rule them by will, and rule over them by power: 'tis to decline the Oath in the Coronation, which wise King Iames said,True Law of freè Monarchies, p. 195. of his works. Is the clearest civil and fundamental Law, whereby the King's Office is properly defined, yea and the office of a Father, which by the Law of Nature (as well as Policy) the King becomes to all his Leiges at his Coronation: 'tis spernere justitiam, to think justice too trite a path to walk in, though it be the path of peace and subtilty, For certainly a King that governs not by his Law, can neither be countable to God for his administration, nor have a happy and established Raign: and a good King will [Page 99] not onely delight to rule his Subjects by the Law, but even will conform himself in his own actions thereunto, always keeping that ground, that the health of the Common-wealth be his chief Law. Pag. 203. So wrote a King that knew how to rule, and to value the Law too, learned King Iames.

This refers not to the vulgar saying immediately before, Art hath no Enemy but ignorance; but to the passage out of the second Psalm, mentioned in the fourth Chap­ter, Be wise, O ye Kings, and be instructed, ye Iudges of the Earth, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way. Which being the counsel of the Holy Ghost, and penned by his amanuensis, and that to the intent of pressing Justice on them (upon account of propitiating the chief Justice of quick and dead, the Son of God Christ Iesus) may well be called electio sapientiae, and justly termed illos erudire; for if any prudence be by man in this militant state expressed, 'tis this, of laying up a good foundation, of labour­ing for the meat that perisheth not, of confirming him our friend, who is commissionated by God with all power in Heaven and Earth. And if any method be more indubitate and exquisite to this end then other, 'tis that which Justice, known, beloved, and pra­ctised, directs us how, when, and where to use, this virtue therefore as the rapsody and accumulation of all excellency. Our Chancellour does evertouch upon, as that which is subjectum regalis curae, and without which the foundations of the Earth will be out of order.

The consequence of Justice, as our Chancellour has largely explicated in the fourth Chapter, so does he here re-intimate, by his earnest and vehement conjuration, seising upon all that is tender and noble in him, to love and embrace Justice, treasured up in the Laws of England. And first he bespeaks him to do this, as what best becomes him, as he is Princeps inclytissimus; the first Head on a Subjects shoulders; the second in the Kingdom, because the Heir, but one degree, as was supposed, on this side the Throne; and then he is as Inclytissimus, one that was for endowment of mind as conspicuous, as for external accomplishment acclamated; for so Inclytus (of which Inclytissimus is the superlative) signifies in its bare positive notion, inclytus, insignis, gloriosus, veluti ful­gore quodam samae resplendens. Hence every thing of remarkable and signal eminency, is expressed by this word. Livy writing of the justice of the elder Romane times, expresses it thus,Livius I. aburts 73. Plautus in milite Virgil 6. Aeneid. 96. Inclyta justitia, religióque eâ tempestate Numa Pompilii erat, and Plautus his In­clytus apud mulieres Virgil's Armis inclytus & gloria inclyta famae; and Maenia inclyta bello. These, and such like expressions, in florid Authours, argue our Chancellour here, using the word in the highest notion of it, to intend the heighth of prevalence with the Prince, whom thus highly he prefers. And then the Chancellour's edge to propend the Prince to the Law, as the rule of Justice expresses it self by such rhetorical Charms as are not to be avoided, Iterum atque iterum te adjuro, a form of compreca­tion, which emphatizes it self in the reduplication,2. A [...]neid. 3. Aeneid. Prolege Manilia. Iterum atque iterum te adjuro, a form of compreca­tion, which emphatizes it self in the reduplication, Iterum atque iterum, a Flower tran­splanted from Maro's Garden, Iterum (que) iterumque monebo, iterum atque iterum fragor intonat ingens, Iterum & saepius in Tully, Iterum as sapius in Pliny, lib. 10. c. 12. And then to adjure him thus multiplyed that's more then usual,Iurare vehemen­tius & gravius. for it has not the sense of intreaty onely, but of obligation by Oath, so swear by all that's obliging and sacred: so Terence, And. 4.2. II. 2 Philip. 36. Lorinus in 19. Actorum. v. 13. Baron. Annal. To. 4.p. 103. ad. annum Christi, [...]62. per omnes tibi adjuro deos nunquam eam me deserturum: so Tully, Adjurásque idte invito me non esse facturum. This adjuro the Exorcists in Act. xix. 13. used to the evil spirit, [...], say they to the evil spirit, which Lorinus says, was a constant ad­juration of the devil by certain words, in the elder Ages fewer, after consisting of more, s the devil grew more impudent, and adhesive to his possession. Now, though in some Authours, Orators, and others, adjuro signifies no more then juro; yet in the Scripture and Ecclesiastical use, it implyes obtestationem ac reverentiam divini numinis, reique cujus­piam sacrae, and is not used onely by good men, to perswade to do, or not to do; but also by unclean spirits, to set their delusion more firm on them that heat it. Thus the [Page 100] evil spirit that came out of the man, Mark 5.7. uses the word, I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For as the Apostles, and primitive Worthies, did cast out evil spirits by miraculous power indulged them for the Churches honour, and Religi­ons prevalence, against the Heathen Superstition; so has the devil in the World, pro­phani circulatores & agrytae, Gualtperius. In. 19. Actorum, v. 13. such as the seven Sons of Sceva were, to delude them by into the blindness of errour, and under the power of Satan to hold them: which tye he possessed the World to be so sacred, that vengeance attended the violation of it, which made Orpheus of old mention [...], I adjure thee by Heaven, as somewhat sacramental in its intendment. Add to this, Vt leges regni patris tui addiscas, and then there is as much of swasion, as wit and love can allure by. For what can bear rule more with a Son then the president practice approbation of his Father, and since Henry the sixth had the Laws of England for his guide, and appreciated the knowledge of them, as the means to value and love Justice commended by them, what can be more probable to prevail with his Son to love and allow them, then the consideration of his Fathers doing, which when he follows and improves, he does what addiscas imports, and what the Text thereby presents him; for addiscere is addere ad quae didiceris; and so Tully writes it,1 De Oratore 32. Quid quòd etiam addiscunt aliquid, ut Solonem in versibus gloriantem vidi­mus, quise quotidiè addiscentem senem fieri dicit.

This Clause has indeed the marrow of all perswasion in it; for it not onely acquaints the Prince with what is fit for him to learn from the Law concerning Justice, as it is therein prescribed; but it presents him with solid Reasons, why in love to himself, and in reason resulting from it, the Law (ars aequi & boni) ought to be known, and de­lighted in by him.Ea debent in hi­storia poni ab Hi­storiographis. qua aut sugienda sint aut sequen­da Julius Capitolin. in Gordian. Tr. p. 238. edit. Sylb. Cic. lib. 1, offic 23. 2 De Nat. Deorum 78. And these Reasons are privative, and positive. There are incon­veniencies, that a Prince by knowledge of the Law shall avoid, and there are advantages to be acquired; for by knowledge love is gained, and by love delight in, and joy at the prevalence of the Law over injury and disorder. This is the sum of this Clause. And indeed what can be prescribed to a Prince's accomplishment, which this method leads not to: For as to attain conveniencies, is to possess ones self of virtue; so to avoid inconveniencies, is to shun all the diversions from it, and from the comfort of its enjoyment. As then convenientia is an Oratour's word for fitness and aptitude of any thing to our purpose, and that in a measure of proportion between extreams, as whole­some and nutritive diet is called convenient food by Agur, and a house suitable to ones degree and family, a convenient house, and a fortune proportionable to a man's charge and breeding, a convenient fortune, and a wind to fill out the sails, yet not en­danger the Mast, a convenient wind; so is inconvenientia the opposite thereto, betokening exaberance, and somewhat uncomely redundant: which flaw in the Chrystal, or rather Adamant of Princes,Vide Heresba­chium, lib. De Educandis Prin­cipum liberis. much abates them. For as in Architecture, the essential beauties of building are delight, firmness, convenience; so in the formation of Princes minds, and in the building of them up to their after glory, no delight in, no firmness of their esteem, except there be a proportionation of their loves and natures to the Nation they preside over. The best help to which is, the knowledge of Laws, for they rightly understood and conformed to, take away wholly, or at least lessen inconveniencies in Government; so that the rule of Law, Quod est inconveniens aut contra rationem non est permissum in lege, reduces inconveniencies of disproportion to the Law, as the first-born of Reason, the King is caput regui & legum; for an inconvenience it would be, that the Head should be thought incapable to direct, judge, and order, what is to be done, both regally and judicially. The King is, though a Child, plevae aetatis; it would be inconvenient that his Council should not supply his corporal inabilities, during his personal nonage. The King can do no wrong, because he judges in curia, by Judges, and not in camera by his Will, and it would be inconvenient, it otherwise should be. These, and such like in­conveniencies, being publico malo, and injurious to the compleat and indefectuous be­ing of Majesty, the Law supplies, by directing how they shall either not wholly be, or [Page 101] be wholly compensated for. Thus as men stop up an inconvenient light, and fill an in­convenient Pond, and repair an inconvenient way, and improve an inconvenient house, and change an inconvenient air, and avoid inconvenient company and diet; so does a wise Prince by the Law judge of what is inconvenient in Government, and either wholly abrogate, or mutilate and new form it to an improvement; and hereby does he avoid the inconveniencies of either real vilipendency, (for in that he discerns by the Law evil from good, he vindicates his knowledge of, and affection to the means of such his judiciousness) or reputed negligence, which being so great a fear to him, will best be disowned by his acceptation of the Laws for his rule to govern by. For he that governs men rationally by Laws, and justly by the Laws of their own Government; doth not onely intra se vivere & addiscendo leges sapere, but appeals to God for prote­ction and success in his Government, and cannot easily fall into the paroxisms and di­stempers, which extrajudicial courses occasion, and in which Princes and people are un­happy. For a sure rule it is, vim facit qui patitur, Princes that either abate their Sub­jects of their rights, or suffer themselves to be abated (by their Subjects) of their Royal Rights, are accessary to the inconveniencies that follow them, and by so much the less know they the Law, as they permit the invasion and breach of it, either in themselves, or others. The Chancellour then that counsels, quomodo tu [...] evites has inconvenientias, is well to be listened to; for as the counsel is grave in the conception and mind of the giver, so is it generous wise and affectionate in its tendency and scope, which is gravem & securum reddere principem, dum modum rectè evitandi inconvenientias, & realis & sup­positiae ignorantis legis addiscit. For since the mind of man will be busie in some disquisitive activity, and natural desires are to nothing but what is either really and in very deed good, or else semblably, and in appearance such, which is the reason, the Schools say, finis & bonum convertuntur, the Chancellour does wisely and worthily, to bespeak the Prince's youth to adhere to the Law, as his choice and pleasure, and to expect no good as a man, and a King, but such as that informs him of, prepares him for, and onely will render useful to him; as Antoninus Pius found it, who by the Historian is chara­ctred to be [...], &c. An honest upright private man, but signally, and to a greater degree, honest and upright, when made publique. For no sooner was he in the Throne; but he grew the admiration of all; terrible he was to none, bountiful to all; moderate in using power, a preser [...]er of just men to rule under him. Learning then in the Law must not onely enter the Prince in the love, but confirm and establish him in such love, to a delight in,O praeclara infor­matio doctrina rum munere cale sti indulta felici­bus quae vel vitto­sas naruras sape excolusti. Ammi­anus Marcelli­nus, lib. 29 p. 483. in Valentiliano & Valente. and a resolution of prelating the Law above all. For else, as in a calm, the ship moves not though all the sails be out; and in the midst of dainties, there is yet want where there is no stomach; so in the love of the Law, there will be but remiss­ness, if knowledge and valuation of its use, enhance not its appreciation, valuation is the daughter of discovery and Science, and so far do we esteem, as we understand: there­fore all the ports of Science are to be set open, that love and delight may enter at them; yea, and daily increase, as the knowledge of them increaseth. For so it follows in the words.

This the Chancellour subjoyns by way of application, for having reasoned before with him, that knowledge causes love, and love desires to enjoy, and enjoyment fixeth delight, and crowns it with a non ultra of felicity, he deduces this from it, That the Laws of England being the measure and Mistris of her Governours happiness, not to know them, is not to know how and whereby to be happy: And therefore he advises him once and again, not onely to content himself onely to know there is a Law, and to appoint men of Learning to judge in Courts of Law according to the Law, and to see that right be done to all, as well poor as rich, and to punish them that do contrary; though this, I say, be a rare Princely virtue: yet is not this the very specifique virtue, he perswades the Prince hereto; which is intelligere leges per doctrinam, that is, to dig for the wis­dome of them, as for hidden treasure: to knock early, often, and loud at Wisdoms gate; to gain by search, and sweat, the language, terms, books, sense, and reason of the Laws, and [Page 102] in search after this to be exact and studious; not to follow Pompey who in his wars was effeminate, In castris Pompeii videre licuit triclinia strata, Magnum argenti pondus ex­positum, recentibus cespitibus tabernacula constrata, as Ammianus Marcellinus reports: that is, not to think an hour or two enough for study, and then perhaps when the minde is overcharged with other thoughts: but to follow that course in study, which Iulian did in the wars,Hist. bell. Civil. lib. 25. in Juliano stans interdum more militiae cibum brevem, vilémque sumere visebatur; according to the Lawes of learning to keep close to the book, and to admit no inter­ruption, till somewhat toward the Helm of art be gained, this once obtained, and the Lawes and our Reasons kindely cohabiting our Minds, then they will be loved as good, materially formally finally good, since all their Precepts are ordinated to the bonum suprà, intrà, infrà, circà, to God, man, our selves, and all the things that re­late to them.

These words give the reason of the former from the mouth of Nature by the hand of her Secretary Aristotle, whose position is, that love is of a transforming quality, make­ing the lover become so much what it loves, that he rather lives where he loves,Tunde quantum vales, Anaxarchum non ranges, tunde quantum voles, opinionem non mutabis; nihil Anaxarchus bonum esse credi­dit, quod animi non esset, nihil malum quod ad animum non pertineret. then where he lives; which is the reason, that of all the effects of love that's mentioned by Solomon, he is the most conclusive of this, Love is stronger then death; not onely because it survives and evicts death, having aboad in Heaven where death is not,Heinsius in Orat. de Stoica Philosophia an­nexa Senec. p. 48. ad [...]sine [...] but chiefly because death can but part the bodyes, which by union of soules were combin'd in a fierce and firm resolvednesse of willing, nilling, joying, fearing, delighting, abhorring, chusing, refusing, imbracing, avoiding; but it cannot by its terrour cause those latent simi­larities to be inexpressive or neglectfull of keeping an unisone in touch and time: for while they continue a capacity to love, they will expresse the fervour and Constancy of the resolution they have to each other, and the reason is, because love is a perfect surprize and conquest which rests not in a bare Sympathy, but passes from those in­choat Novicisms to the non ultrà of Con-naturality; nor is it hard for any man or wo­man to be brought of to be of the same judgement, dyet, delight with those they love; for in the assimilation each to other is the Continuation maintained, and the Degrees of love sublimated: there was no Key to Sampson's strength till the dallying with Dalilah delivered it to her, and taught her how to ruine him, who, but for that lubricity, had not been to be dealt with by Philistins; nor could David's warmth so have afflicted his own Soul, and blasphemed his God, (as in the case of Vriah slain and Bathsheba en­joyed) it did, but that his love was the sole Provocation to that action of Infamy.

No wonder then the Philosopher attributes so much to use, as to call it as another Nature ( [...],) and quotes Evenus his verses to confirm it.

This is the reason that Authours assign such Potency to use and custome,Lib. de Amicitia. 60. in Dialog. De Oratore. Epitome Dionis in Commodo. 18. p. 374. Edit. Syl­burg. Orthographia per totum librum. In lib. 1. Enead. 3. p. 226. art. 3. Namsi is possit ab ca sese derepente a­vellere qui cum tot consuescit annos, non [...]um horninem du­cerem. Ancyr. 4. as amounts to a second Nature, not lesse effectual in her influences and ducts, then the first; Tully tells us of vetustatis & consuetudinis vis maxima; Tacitus makes in consuetudinem vertere, to be all one with in naturam. Xiphilinus reports that Commod [...]es was what he was, [...], first, by ignorance of what was good, then by ill customes, he at last arrived at sordid and effeminate manners flowing from a contaminated and de­bauched nature. Quintilian, Dorsquius, A Gellius, make all parts of Grammer and learning, even to Orthography, to be ruled by use; and Marsilius Ficinus on Ploti­nus makes good the force of use and custom as another nature; yea Terence when he expresses a mans application to a woman that pleases him, and from whom he can as soon die as part, calls it, consuescere cum aliqua. The consideration of which should turn men to right usages and customs, if they would preserve themselves virtuous, for [Page 103] if nature be by them altered and the course and current of it diverted, there ought to be great care that we habituate no evil to us,Scholastici. Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati, and this amongst others I conceive to be one reason, why Solomon advises to teach a Child in the trade of his youth, virtue, that when he is old, he may not depart from it; but of this Saint Ierome in his Epistle to Demetriades writes at large, and Cornelius A Lapide on Ecclus. xxx. 1. and Heresbachius de educ. Principum liberis. Pag. 133.

Here the Text-Master instances the force of custome and conjunction from that, which is somewhat equivalent to it in vegetables, and has analogie in that kinde with the effects of virtues and vices on the minde; for though it be true, that no general rule is exempt from an exception, and no second cause is so absolute but may be overruled by its first cause, yet is it also ordinarily true, that God leaves Nature to her work, and impedes her not but upon high Concerns, and in notable Cases: indeed there are Instances that God, contrary to all humane probability, has brought men and things into esteem and renowne which have been unlikely so to be. Valerius Maxi­mus brings in Tarquinius Priscus in the Head of these,Lib. 3. c. 4. a man born at Corinth, and Da­maratus a Hogherd his father, and a bastard to boot, yet for all this miraculously brought to Rome, and that with such multiform advantages to his greatnesse, that in short time, he grew the Love, Dread, and Soveraign of all degrees, and the Historian gives us such a Record of his Bravery, as eternally monuments him for a Mirrour of men, Dilatavit fines Romani Imperii, &c. He enlarged the Romane Empire by brave Con­quests, he honoured the Solemnities of religion with additional graces to them, he made the Senate and Orders of Knighthood more ample and capacious for great merits; and besides these the great virtue in him, was, that he so demeaned himself in his charge, that the City of Rome had no cause to repent she chose a stranger for her Emperour, and passed by her own Sons. Lib. 2. Pop. Rom Valer. Max. lib. 3. c. 4 The like doth Egnatius report of the Emperour Iustine, a Thracian born; and so of Mahomet: Basilius, Tullus Hostilius, Phocion, Iphicrates, Viriatus, Nar­ses, Iacobus Paresotus, Mutius the Founder of the S-Forzan family, and sundry others meanly bred and born, who yet have come to great fortunes, and brought about mighty designs to the amazement of men, that beheld or read them. These things, I say, have been and yet are at the pleasure of God further to permit, but this extra­ordinary course is not God's frequent Method of his Manifestation to men; his usual direction to Attainments are by Industry and Assuescency of ones self to labours of the minde and body, and by that he gives men the successe of facility and pleasure in that, which before they were habituated to, was difficult and displeasing; that as in Vege­tables, fruits generically the same, are reconciled in their specifique difference by in­serting them into one anothers stock, the Cyons of a Pare or Apple being grasted on the stock each of other, and Plumbs inoculated into each other will produce the fruit of the stock and kinde, into which they are let: so in the minde of men, there is a real transformation suitable to the nature of the Company men consort with, and the Ob­jects they fix their delight upon; for use begets an habit, and habits delight in suit­able activity, and such as the soul and minde of man is, such will be his delight either in good or evil,Lib. De beata vi­ta p. 654. lib. De Tranquil. p. 620. so true is that of Seneca, Naturâ duce utendum est, hane ratio obser­vat, hanc consulit, idem est ergo beatè vivere & secundum naturam, and surely where virtue is in the soul, in quocunque habitu est, prodest, as he notably.

For it is the [...] of virtue habituated to, and radicated in man, that transforms him; naturally he is void of all good, and sets himself in a resolved hostility against whatever is divine, and may dissociate him and his rude praepossessions by vice and enmity to virtue: but when God touches the natural Conscience, and causes the beauty of virtue to irradiate, when there is one Beam of discovery let into the understanding, of a more excellent way then it has found, this causes it so to augment and dilate itself in desires and endeavours, that at last it brings in the perfect discovery of virtue, and re­leases men from their bondage to sins service, so that they once being accustomed to be [Page 104] continent, just, modest, patient, liberal, magnanimous, cannot tell how to be other, nay wonder at themselves for bruits and not men, when they were in their pristine barbarity, this was that made Seneca professe with truth, Nihil cogor, nihil patior in­vitus, I do not serve God being compelled, Lib. De Provi­dentia, p. 526f. and obey him because I must, but I am willing to be what he would have me because I ought; I know nothing is casual but certain, as to him who has laid out every occurrent of my life, so that whatever falls out is but the very effect of his disposition. O this habituation of the soul to virtue is the felicity and up­shot of all acquirements, 'tis the viaticum, that supports the Journey of life, and serves us with all necessaries to our conclusion. Porphyry made it peculiar to wise men to en­joy, for while he allowed all men to dy the way of all flesh,In Sententiis Holstenio inter­prete, p. 221. [...], by a departure of their bodies from their soules, yet he restrains the departure of the soul from the body onely to Philosophers, supposing them onely to live chiefly in the joy of those abstracted virtues, which they contemplated in order to practice: this St. Paul meant more metaphysically then any Philosopher could understand or act it, I live, not I, Gal. ii. 20. 1. Cor. ix. last v. Phil. iii. 8. but Christ that liveth in me: I bring down my body, I account all things losse in comparison of Christ: How so, holy Paul? the love of Christ constrained him to deny himself for him, who had called him from a Persecutor to become an Apostle. Thus pre­valent was the habituation of sanctity to St. Paul, that he could deny himself in all his complacencies, and in all his transcendencies, so he might fulfil the will of his Master, whose vassal he was, and from whom he had command so to do; yea, and no further is the Philosophy of this World rational, and religiously moral, then it fixes us in this re­solution of training up our minds to virtue, and choosing apt helps to advance it in us, good rules, good company, good discourse, good pleasures, that by all these, we our selves may be good. For true is that which Apollonius Tyanaeus spake of to the Emperour Vespasian, Philostratus in Vita ejus. lib. 2 c. 14. p. 100. My companions, said he, in Philosophy, [...], keep their heads cool, and undizie, that they may see clearly what they ought to do in the course of steddy virtue; nor are they ambitious to know what is not fit for them, [...], &c. they hourly, and every minute consider with themselves, what is their duty to do, and intent, they are upon it, early and late. This, this is the way, to be every way what God and Nature requires, to keep our selves up to the precise rules of virtue and to be habitually and dispositively good, is not onely the path of being, but also of doing good: By this the Elders obtained a good report; and through this, difficulties have been rendred facile, and impossibilities compossible. What makes the Nightingale out-note her fellow Choristers, in the suavity and perfection of her modulation, but her con­tinual singing fifteen days,Plinius Hist. Nat. and fifteen nights without intermission, till she has made her notes natural to her? What makes the Sun to shine, and all things in their Elements to move with vigour and indesession; but that position of natures to such perfect actions in those spheres? And what makes Martyrs constancy not onely to lye hid in a Well six whole years without seeing light,In Athanasii per­secutiones univer­sum conjuratum orbem, & commo­tos fuisse principes terrae; gentesetiam, regua, exercitus coiisse adversus eum, Russinu [...]; lib. 1. c. 18.19. as Athanasius did, but even to dye all sorts of cruel death, and that with joy and exultation? but this contemplation of dying daily, this mor­tifying of their Earthly Members, glorying in the Cross, endeavouring to have the same mind in them that was in Christ Jesus. The habituation of themselves to those virtues of self-denial and humility, made them not onely prepared for, but Proficients in, all ex­cellent virtues. For knowing the nature and use of them, they delighted in, and at last were partakers of the plenitude of them. Thus David made the Law of God his de­light, by meditating in it day and night. And thus the Law of God made David the delight of God and Man, while it made him in wisdom to excel all his teachers, and in in­tegrity to be a man after God's own heart, and to fulfil all his will.

The former Clause was but illustrative of the force of Use and Custome; this is ap­plicative to the Prince, in the habituation of whose mind to Justice, as the Law pro­pounds [Page 105] pounds it, there will be a suitable effect: For since all Laws that are just, being extracts out of the Law of God in nature, and the positive enlargement of it as emergencies required them, are to all respective Countreys, and the men in them, the measures of just and unjust; and the Law of England is such to the King and People respectively therein, his humble address to the Prince is, that the Law he would study, and by considering of, so delight in it, that his principles being Law and Justice, his practice may be also such, and so he not erre in Judgment, nor cause the people to wander out of the way by his ill example, or complain of hard usage under his Government, when God should reduce him to it. This is the scope of the Chancellour, which he wisely prosecutes, by not onely commending the Law as a study of delightful knowledge, the Magazine of Justice, but as that which is attainable to some kind of intellectual pleni­tude, I mean to such a proportion as is necessary for him: so that from knowledge of, he shall proceed to love, delight, and take a complacentiality in the Law, as the Scheme of Justice, that his mind ought to be conformed to, and thence his actions. And this once had, he concludes him not parasitically, but meritoriously just, and applyes to him that of the Psalm xlv. 7. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thine own God, hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows. Which the Authour of the Hebrews, chap. i. 8. applyes to Christ, the King of Righteousness, whom he makes super-eminently endowed with, and superlatively honoured for it, Thou hast loved Righteousness; not greatness, not victory, not riches, but righteousness, that's the darling of thy soul, that's the secret of thy Government. Thou hast not onely said to Kings, [...], as much as Laws are not to be violated, Inter dicta Phythagorae, apud Porphyrium in vita ejus, pag. 199. because they are the exemplars of Iustice, the glory of Crowns; and injustice in the Soul of a Prince, is the riot of sen­suality against Reason, and a warp of the less noble faculties from the Law of their conjunction with, and subserviency to the more no­ble: but thou hast (O Lord Jesus) to thine eternal honour and admiration,Injustitia in anima, est ig [...]bili­um partium à naturali lege dis­sidium. Tapia, lib. 9.p. 9. De Triplici bono & verâ hominis nobilitate. Grot. in Locum. loved righteousness as thy choice, thy self, bonum tuum quiae bonum te; Oh! but how does that appear [...] the next words confirms it, [...]disti iniquitatem, as thou lovest Justice, so thou hatest whatever is contrary to, and inconsistent with it. Thou hatest thy Scepter which is [...], should be other then of pure Gold, and endure the touch of all tongues, thine enemies be­ing Judges; thou wilt not by that oppress the weak, nor bruise the broken, but bind them up, because thy Scepter is like thy Kingdom, which represents all righteous­ness, having no fellowship with iniquity. Here, O holy soul, thine eyes may see the King of Saints in his beauty, far greater then Solomon in all his Royalty, loving Iustice, and hating iniquity, as never man or King did, or could do before, or ever can, or shall do after him. Now also consider the compensation that the Father is mentioned to give the Son for this his love to righteousness; that follows, Wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee; because thou art so qualified to rule as a King, God has called thee to Kinglyness by unction;Phil. 2. as he has given thee a name above every name, so has he preferr'd thee in thy unction above all unctions of men. Their unctions make their heads and hearts often ake with care, because their affairs are sometimes disasterous, and at best troublesome: their Crowns gird their Brows, and make them bend them for pain; but God hath anointed thee, O blessed Iesus, [...], with such oyl, as chears and in­candorates thy face, (for [...] signifies the same with [...], oblectumentum, ornamentum, honestamentum.) God has put such sovereign oyl into the Springs of thy Rule,Psal. 110 3. Cant. 1. 4. that thy Scepter easily turns thy Subjects to thee; Thy people are a willing peo­ple in this day of thy power, and they call unto thee to draw them, and promise to run after thee gladly and constantly, and all this above thy fellows; no Angels in Heaven, no Kings on Earth, are so anointed as the King of the Church was: For whereas their unction is but the work of art, Christ's unction was the work and spirit of God whereas theirs was but poured out in measure, Christ's was an effluxion of divine virtue without measure, whereas theirs was but temporary, as their Kingdoms are: Christ's was eter­nal and perpetual, as his Kinglyness is; whereas theirs was but to signifie their separa­tion and sanctification to the rule of their Subjects onely, and those onely during their lives, Christ's was emblematical of his indeterminable and capacious power, which was [Page 106] to extend to all persons, and to indure beyond all time; and therefore well expressed, Prae consortibus tuis, regibus terrae; quippe qui etiam habuit potestatem, &c. For Christ the King of the Church had the prerogative above all Kings, to forgive all sins on Earth, and to have an everlasting Kingdom, as he had deserved, so to have his glory be by his pur­chase of it with his body on the Cross, which was an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of the World, as Manster and Clarius both on the Text.

This Scripture thus applyed to Christ, our Chancellour brings in here to his aid, the better to prevail upon the Prince to love the Laws, that declare the measure and pro­portion of English Justice: For as the end of Laws is to determine right and wrong,Brompton in Chronicis, pag. 956, 958, edit. Londini. (and the Common-Laws of England were com­posed and methodized so to do out of the farrago of Laws that of old were here amongst us, and which Brompton says, were nimis par­tiales; and therefore by Saint Edward the Confessour meliorated,Legum ministri magistratus, legum interpretes judices, legum idcirco omnes servi sumus, ut liberi esse possumus. Cic. pro Cluenti. and by all Princes added to, explained, or substracted from, as their wisdom in Counsel saw fit:) so is the exactest and unerringst me­thod of Justice to be learned by Prince and People from these Laws; which they that addict themselves to know, will love, and in loving be just and happy in life and death. And so our grave Ma­ster, and after him, I conclude the fifth Chapter.

CHAP. VI.

HIc epilogat Cancellarius totius persuasionis suae effectus, saith the Editor of my Text in Hen. the 8. time on this Chapter: And not amiss, for having pre­discoursed of the excellency of Justice, and the consequentiality of its being, and being beloved in a King, who is to distribute it according to the Law of his Government, which Law known, will be delighted in, and conformed to by him: He now comes to annex, by way of motive and assurance, the felicities that do flow in upon just Princes, and do distinguish them from others, both in life and death. And this he doth; first, by telling him, that Righteousness and Justice is so peculiarly the Garment of Kings, that they must wrap up their whole man in it, as garments cover all the body, and the Robes of Princes are long from top to toe, significative of their plenary power and augustness. In which sense, God is said to put on Righteousness as a Garment, and the Saints are said to be cloathed in the garment of their elder brother, and that to ren­der them beloved.

So the Chancellour intimates to the Prince, that by knowledge of, and love to the Law, he shall be so invested with, and habituated to Justice, that it shall be his nature, and as impossible for him not to be just, as not to be in warmth motion and sense while living.

Secondly, he presents him with another benefit, ignorantiae legis evitare poteris igno­miniam, and that's no small one: For as ignorance is the botch and deformity of hu­mane nature, (which God has endowed with a reasonable soul, divinae particula aurae, and made capable by the vastness of its intellect, to understand and judge of all things:) so is ignorance of the Law in a Prince, so great a deformity, as no corporal one comes near in the despicableness of it. For as he will make but an ill oration, that knows not the rules of speaking, and he but a pitiful Sea-man, that skils not the use of the Com­pass, and he a rash Souldier, that considers not of the advantages and disadvantages, [Page 107] which he is to provide for in fighting; and he an ill Counsellour, who has never read the Rules of Policy, nor seen the effects of them in practice, so will he prove himself but a sost and despicable Prince, who knows little or nothing at all of the Law, accord­ing to which he is sworn to govern. For as all other mens eating, sleeping, fruitions, are inbeneficial to him, if he have not health to enjoy them himself; so is the know­ledge of all other things incontributive to his real quiet and effulgency; if in the Law, which is anima regiminis, he be unversed, and letterless, frustra foris strenuè si domi malè vivitur.

3. As knowledge of the Law will avoid the shame of ignorating it, so will it accrew a complication of positive goods, contributive to the comfort of life and acquirement of same after death, Per legem felicitate fruens beatus esse poter is in hac vitâ, that is, the Conscience of just governing his people, according to his Oath and his Laws, which are their Birth-right, will give him such a calm and stability on his Subjects love, and such an humble confidence in God's mercy and protection, that he shall not fear the evil day that it should come on him; or if it do, he shall be assured to overcome it by magnanimity, and innocent Hectorism. And whereas guilt makes Kings succumbere, ashamed and unbold to assert themselves, the Justice of a royal soul, notably evidenced in a just Reign, shall make him that has it, more then a Conquerour in life, and no­thing less then a Martyr at death; yea, it shall go near, (though not come home to the pitch of merit, for that's no proper phrase in reformed Oratory and Doctrine.) to de­serve a Canonization, by the favour of him that accepts and re­wards all admirable actions flowing from virtuous principles;Quomodo justitiae vindex erit, qui expoliat alios? quomodo su­am amabit Remp. qui de The­sauris cogendis, dies, noctésque cogitat? quomodo rebus agen­dis advertet animum, quilucro totus inhiat? Nihil rectè geri­tur quod rei privatae studio ge­ritur, nullum facinus genero­sum suscipitur absque famae ex­istimatione. Hanc verò in pra­cio non habet animus vilis, ab­j [...]ctúsque avaritiae deditus. Savedra in Symbolis Politicis. yea, inasmuch as such a procedure in beneficence, must argue an intern fear of God, and a wisdom effected by it in the soul of the practi­cer; who therefore is such to men, his equals in nature, and his in­feriours in polity and order, because Charity commands him so to be, and the love of God towards him in his prelation above others, and in him, provoking him to crown worth in all he sees it in, and to proportion his favours according to the Justice of his divine office. I say these effects of Justice, resulting from the knowledge and practice of the Law, will so exhilerate and quicken the spirits of a Prince, that he will not onely be calm within, and not incumbred with the terrours of the Almighty, but be abun­dantly beloved by his Subjects, live in peace and plenty, dye re­nowned and lamented, I King. iii. last v. All Israel heard of the Iudgment which the King had judged, and they feared the King, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. Yea, and be made as the Chancellour reports, from the Apostle Saint Paul, Be made one spirit with him, that is, not onely submit to God, and follow him in all his Directions and Prescripts of virtue, as a good Child does, who makes his Fathers will his Law; Nemo enim Deo conjungi ullo modo potest, in cujus voluntate situm non sit, vel illius d [...]sciplinam, & imperium sequi, vel ingratè repudiare, cum autem beata, tota sit in divina conjunctione posita vita sequitur, ut astrictâ voluntate, nemo possit vitam beatam adipisci, but also as a fruit and consectary of that conjunctness, have a fameness of glory in Heaven, as they had a same­ness of soveraignty here, always understanding the sameness secundum mensuram ho­minis, though secundum veritatem Dei, as true a conjunction with God in glory, as they had here in power, a reward commensurate to their actions rightly and religiously performed, sic autem fit ut justis hominibus regnum illud immortale, non solùm, ut merces, & praemium; sed etiam, ut legitimum patrimonium patris sapientia, & benignitate fonda­tum, optimo jure debeatur: si enim aequitatis ratio postulat, ut servis operâ suâ egregiè fun­ctis, merces domini benignitati consentanea persolvatur, si leges amicitiae praescribunt, us omnia bona sint amicis communia, si jure statutum est, ut filii legitimi in paternorum bonorum possessione collocentur, non obscurum est juris aeterni rationem flagitare, ut summus ille omnium dominus qui bonorum amicus, & pater est, vel servis diligentibus, vel amicis fidelibus, Lib. 1. De Justitia. p. 85. vel filiis charissimis sempiternae gloriae fructum largiatur, saith Orosius.

[Page 108]This is judiciously inserted here to abate too much recumbence on the Law, and too high admiration of Justice, as she is proposed by it, for as the beauty of the sun over­doted on, proved an argument to the Eastern world to adore it, and as the learning of Nature besotted Philosophers unreasonably to expend themselves about it, till they de­spised the wisdom of God and undervalued it,Rom. i. 16. the power of God to Salvation, beneath their delirancies and Enthusiastique conceits, so is justice though beloved of God, and that which he commends to man as his duty and glory, apt to be mistaken as the onely acquirement of study, and the lesson of the Law alone, if the Prince be not informed of the proper cause, from whence onely it is blessed to be what it is; and that is God by his will in his word: indeed God permits us to own study as a means, and that by which he ordinarily begets and expatiates virtue in man: as the minde of man from what he reades or heares, has the principle of his actuation excited, so arts and study so Lawes and Systems of Justice may be owned by him as great helps and methods to those excellent ends; but God endures them not partakers in the glory of successe, and prevalence, which onely is his, and theirs onely by his permission, and so far as he plea­ses: so that though the Lawes of men, and of England may be most just, and such as can teach the Prince how to be just actively, and that to all the proportions of Kinglynesse; yet can it not do this ex insita vi, L [...]ge P. Mirandul. in c. 5. Heptapli p. 10. or ratione i [...]natae potentiae, but must be helped to do this by grace, the gift of God: which grace and favour thus to be adjuvated, is, to be obtained by prayer; so Solomon obtained wisdom, and so every good thing is to be obtained. And to that must be added diligent Meditation of Scripture, not a light, and oscitant reading, but a deep and solid rumination, not now and then, but con­stantly and affectively; indagare is to seek as men do at the bottom of wells, and in blinde corners, wherein, if they look not intently, they cannot finde what they seek. God will have us call earnestly and seek passionately for his blessing on our endeavours, before he will give us our desires: were justice an easie lesson, did the Law infallibly make the Student of it just, there were no more to do, then to read over the Law Books, and consider the judgements in them, and then the whole attainment of ju­stice were had. But because the Law is but (of it self) a dead Letter to this quickning Issue, therefore God will have his fiat begg'd by Prayers, and this Method learned from his minde revealed; and the Knowledg of these, proves ever the readiest way to the blessing of them. The Law, saith St. Paul, is holy, and just, and good Rom. vii. 12. where [...] is v. 14. explained by [...], utpotè à spirituali bono profecta, God indeed has intended the Law, holy, quoad ceremonialia; just, quoad judicialia; good, In locu [...]. quoad moralia; as St. Thomas observes: O but whatever it is, it proves not without God's blessing, that opens the Mystery, and applyes the Energy of it to the understanding and will, and thence lets a man into the pleasure, and profit of it: nor is God's blessing on endeavours obtainable but according to the Enaction of his word; therein he has taught, that Prayer is the Scaladoe of heaven, and that the violent in holy devotion take it by force,Psal. [...]. 15. ascendat oratio, ut descendat miseratio; he has invited his to call, and promised to hear and answer them, and our Lord bid his Disciples ask, assuring them that whatsoever they shall ask the Father in his name, Matth. xxi. 22. shall be given them: which the Psalmist in his own experience confirms so to be, as promised, The Lord hear­eth the righteous, and his [...]ares are open unto his cry. As then to beg the blessing of God on studies, not onely humane, but those of Scripture, is the way to obtain it; so is study without it as unsanctified so mostly unsuccessefull, 'tis to labour for things of naught, 'tis to loose time on shadowes and bubbles, sapienter descendere ad infernum; so it followes in our Text,

This sentence is true, and collectable from Texts of holy writ, but as it is a part of the Book of wisdome,Prafat. in lib. Solomonis. Eu [...]eb. Lib. 2. c. 17. not written by Solomon, for St. Ierom sayes, Liber sapientiae apud Hebraeos nus quam est, verum & ipse stilus Graecam magìs eloquentiam redolet; but by Philo probably, whom the learned think so to have named it, because Christ the wis­dom of God is therein set forth both in his Advent and Passion, because of which, the Iewes, Magdeburg. Cent. 9. c. 4. p. 111. as the Centurists tell me, wholly rejected it; this Book I say, being written by [Page 109] none of God's Penmen, ought not, as I humby conceive, to be accounted Caenon in the Catholique Church: though I know Lorinus and generally all the Romanists account it sacred, and part of the Canon, Praefat. in Com. in lib. Sapientiae c. 1. but our Church rejects it, and so does Chamier. lib. 5. c. De Canone. The learned Bishop of Durham, now one of the Reverend Fathers of our Church, has notably vindicated the Canon of Scripture against Apochryphal intrusions, as well as unwritten Legends, to him therefore, as matchlesse in that Argument, I refer my Reader, humbly protesting a­gainst all Novelty on either extream; for though some wholly reject, and others fond­ly extoll them to a kinde of rivalry with Scripture, yet our Churches moderation shall be my temper towards them, to allow them their place, as rules of Prudence,Secundae lectionis vel ordinis, Bellarminus De verbo Dei c. 4. King James to all Christian Monarchs p. 303. oper. Lib. 15. De Ciuitate Dei, c. 23. In Catalog. Haeres. and direction for manners; not as foundations of faith, and this I suppose, has been ever the Catholique account of them; so St. Augustine, Etsi in iis invenitur aliqua veritas, tamen propter multa falsa, nulla est Canonica authoritas; and Philastrius, Etsi legi debent morum causâ, à perfectis, non ab omnibus legi de­bent, quia non intelligentes multa addiderunt, & tulerunt, quae voluerunt Haeretici; and Angelom, when he gives the reason of their Reception in the Church, concludes yet, Hi à quibusdam excipiuntur, In. c. 9. & 10. 1 Regum. non proptere à ut illos approbent, sed [...]a quae necessaria sunt ad confirmandum, recipiant.

Though therefore most true it is, that all Knowledge that leades us not to God,Reddidit causam, quare in ea peccata de qui­bus suprà dixit, inciderint Aegyptii & Cà­nanaei, ac illorum occ [...]sione incipit in ge­nere tractare de idolorum superstitione quae triplex erat; quaedam enim animalia viva co­le [...]ant pro diis; alia [...]reaturas ut elementa, & corpora caelestia; alia verò etiam imagines verarum rerum. Jansenius Annotat. in Loc. in love to, admiration of, and conformity with him, be unprofitable, and therefore vain, forasmuch as it leaves a man, short of the best good, and the onely perfection, and ar­gues his soul unactive to the immense nature of its Divinity in God's purpose of infusion; yet is not the book out of which this is quoted sacred Canon: but God having made use of the Authour of that Book, as a notable Instancer of truth in that which the wis­dom of the world often deceives great Scholars by, (as it did par­ticularly that Abel Bishop of St. Andrews, Spotswoods Hi­story Church Scot­land. p. 44. who upon the Gate of the Cathedral there wrote, Haec mihi sunt tria Lex, Canon, Philosophia, and was wittyly replyed upon, Te levant absque tria, fraus, favor, vana sophia.) There is reason there should be re­gard done it, next to that of Canon.

Here the grave Knight improves the Maxime of Philosophers, intùs existens prohibet alienum, for finding by experience the minde of man taken up with action, and youth the warmest, and most vicious part of life, (being the time from fifteen to twenty five,) carrying the man to good or evil with impetuosity,Petr. Crinit. de honesta discipl. lib. 5. c. 9. he bespeaks the Prince to antici­pate vice by prepossession of his soul with virtue; and that he may the more successe­fully rivet on, and drive home his swasion; he not onely considers the soul as the mint, and formatory of all things, which have their rise in youth, and their ripenesse in age; the soul of man in its actions on the body being like the seasons of the year, loaden with sap in the spring, and blowings and leaves after, and then with knitting and increase in the youth and Mid-summer of it, and then withering, and returning to its first Principle as the sap doth: but as a Virgin-Table on which there is a space to write what a man will, and hence as one that is yet a Novice in vice, and has a minde like the Galaxy pure and und [...]b [...]uched, he commends to him the fair Arras and Ima­gery of virtue to adorn himself with, and prayes him if he would be one of Justice his Triarii, sub vexillis innocentiae subsidere, to keep himself unarmed, [...],Dionyssus Halli­earnass. lib. 5. &c. that he may come to the succour of justice, when things are desperate and hope of recovering almost ceases; for as in wars and Combats the bravest Hectors are those that are so bred up from their youth, because to them courage in, and contempt of danger is a second nature, and no need there is of terrifying them by such a Law as the Megaritans had, who decreed, to fight disorderly or fly cowardly, should bedeath; their resolution being [...].Herodor. lib. 7. &c, not to fly any disadvantage of an enemy in battel, but either dye or overcome: so are they the most just men, whose youth [Page 110] is accustomed to justice, and who inure themselves to love Lawes, and orderly cour­ses even from their Cradles: this was Solomon's reason in his counsel,A prima adolescentia observan­dis sideribus deditus Gassendus, Tom. 5. in praefat. ad vitam Tichon. Brahe. Zuniger. Theatrum vitae huma­ [...]ae, vol. 1. lib. 4. p. 94, 95. Heresbachius de Instit. Princi­pum liberis. [...], Laertiu [...] in vita ejus. Picus Mirandul. lib. 2. c. 2. Train up a child in the trade of his youth, and he will not depart from it in his age, Prov. xxii. 6. And the experience of the necessity, and importance hereof has so swayed with wise Parents, that as they have omitted no improvements of their children, which their tenderest ages were capable of: so have they chosen the most professed Masters and Tutors, b [...]th in learning, prudence and pie­ty, to instruct them, and accounted them their Benefactors and Parents, as to those fair fortunes of fame and usefullnesse, which those educations have fitted them for, and admitted them unto in after-times.

For though natural ingenie give men great helpes to excellency in what ever they undertake, yet the main is God's blessing upon industry and diligence, provided those be prudently directed, and that they be so, helpes of exact Masters are great furtherances, nor have any men in the world proved so noble Lustres to their Orbes, as those that have had their youths well seasoned with all the varieties of compleat institution, as was Laurentius Medices, whom Mirandula thus writes of,In praemio de ente & bono ad Angel. Politianum. p. 159. Efficaci adeò vir ingenio, &c. Of so ready and generally a dexterous wit was he, that he seemed equally exact in every kind of ability, and has this admirable in him, that though he were ever taken up with state affairs, yet he always either spake or medita­ted some learned and scientifique thing. And our Edward the sixth, of whom 'tis hard to write any thing to such a heighth of Hyperbole, which his just deserts advanced him not to be represented by. Since then it is incident to youth to be ill-principled, as he was,In Nerone. c. 16. whom Suetonius reports, Luxuriam, libidinem, crudelitatem veluti juvenili errore exercuit; and as Coligui, who was heard often to say, That neither Alexander nor Ju­lius Caesar were superiour to himself, and the ill habits that are atcheiued then, are sel­dom if ever receded from, but remain as dead flies to inquinate the compositions of the most eminent virtues. It is of high concernment to inure the minde of youth to virtue and humility, to courage and justice, for this will so ballast and steer the after­ages, that nothing will disseise them but death, which is the great Usurper of all mor­tal glories and triumphs in their determination.

Which premised, our Chancellour does most worthyly to attack the youth of our Prince with such desensatives, as may abortivate the Attempts of passion and lubricity upon him; for in that he commends not airy Romances, not Poëtique fictions, not parasitique drolleries, but sober reason and sacred Scripture to his rumination: what doth he lesse then endeauour to make his choice in youth, an Iliads to repose his fame in, and teach him to live in the glory of a matchlesse piety, far more then Homer did in his Poems; which yet Tully sayes were so contributive to their Author, Vt nisi Ilias extitisset illa, idem tumulus qui corpus ejus contexerat, nomen ejus obruisset.

And truely if the holy Scriptures, which are the most antient record extant, far be­fore the Peleponesian war,Bochartus praefat. in lib. de Coloniis beyond which Thucydides acknowledges in the Greek stories nothing is certain, and which was but about Artaxerxes and Nehemiah's time; I say, if the Scripture does discover to us, Moses, Iob, Samuel, three notable Instan­ces of sober youth, and such men in their age as few exceeded, and thus probably they became by the seasoning of their youth with piety and probity. Is there not much more from the authority of the Book, from whence these authorities are quoted, and the nature of the Instances hence made to perswade a Prince of reason and religion, then from any Ethnique Author, or lesse credible Examples: surely I think, yes, and so I believe the Chancellour doubted not but to convince the Prince of; for since the word of God is a sword and a Hammer to cut asunder and mall down all opposition a­gainst and interposition between it and its end and drift, the Chancellour has done well to draw forth this weapon to terrifie all contradictions, that he did but fear pro­bable; for since nothing became a young Prince more then readynesse to learn, and ductility to take learning in that Method his Tutors should convey it to him, it was a dexterous practice that our Chancellour uses to implant virtue by, to wit, the Com­mendation of Justice from the Law of God and the Law of England.

As the former Clause had argumentum ab utili, so this has an argument à damno contrarii; if virtue be not suprerinduced, vice will be; for natura non patitur vacuum: so his Motive to virtue is not onely a decoro from the beauty, but a damno evitato; for if he give up himself to virtue (and abandon every evil way, and every evil consort; then there will be no vacuity for vanity and vice to portray it self on: that, as proba­bly of old, Candidates in any arts had Tables in which they wrote, or on which drew; what they had to say or do, which when all was full, and no room left; those that had no place therein could not be carryed up to the Judges to be approved of and chosen: so from thence does he apply to the Prince the simile, beseeching him so to fill up the Virgin-Table of his minde with virtues of all kindes to his Princely compleatnesse; that when the heat and vigour of youth importunes him to release that severity his resolu­tion has virtuously brought him under, he may deny those insinuations admission and acceptance, conside [...]ing that what's once well done, ought not to be undone: nay, there is a kind of necessity to persist in an inexorablenesse, where to change is to be­come worse, and to retreat the field, to lose it.

For youth is the foundation of ages superstructure, and though it sometimes falls out, that dissolute youths prove stanch ages, yet mostly 'tis otherwaies, since the in­dications of Manhood are conjecturable even from youth, Iulius Caesar told the world what he would be man,Cuspinian, in vita ejus. when but a boy, animum habuit semper ingentia semper infinita expetentem, and those drowsie inactivities that many have, who do plùs quietè, quàm ag [...]ndo, atque movendo proficere, shew, that to place them in active lives is to make them unhappy and uselesse, so that the great secret of institution is to know the Ge­nius and delight of youth, and to give it prospect and scope that way, not to abate their courage by continual droppings of displeasure, nor to raise their insolence by in­temperate praises, but so to carry a mean in all things, that they may be kept warm, and not put into a flame and feaver of distemper, for tantùm ingenii, quantùm irae, and so to be cooled as not to be chilled and mortified; for if wisdom said, vellem in ju­vene aliquid amputandum, and Politian foretold of Peter de Medices, that he was like to make a wise man, who was so forward a Boy; then there is danger in breaking the spirit of youth by frequent and imprudent discouragements. As barren grounds brings forth nothing good, so over-lusty grounds too much to be good; extreames are the errors which Mediocrity corrects: such a strength of Soyl as enables production kind­ly and plentifully, and no more then does inable so to do, is good in ground. The like proportion of discretion is to be allowed to the Tillage of youth, neither too much severity, or too great liberty, but an even hand is to be exercised here; for hereby not onely the ingenuity will be dexterously fed, and the stomach of it kept quick and unnauseate, but the memory will also remain unbroken; and that being the sine qua non to all learning, Quintilian allowes a youth onely capable of so much ingenuity to learn, as he has memory to retain; because it is the Christal Glasse, which has in it lifes, yea arts Elixar, set that over too great a flame, and the Glasse breaks and the E­lixar is lost: burthen a youths memory with immense cares and manifold studies tran­scending his proportion, and he is ruined by an immemorativenesse: and again, whol­ly disuse memory, and it will shrivel up into a narrownesse and incapacity; the right use of memory is moderately to exercise it, for action perfits habits as food and moti­on increase life and all the concomitants of it; yea and this prudence will exercise it self towards youth in a right disposing of it to delights, and a real principling of it against ill manners,Alexand. ab A­lexand. l. 2. c. 25. and ill Maxims. Timotheus the Musician would have a double reward from those Scholars, whom he took to teach from other Masters, with whom they were en­tred; and his reason was, because he had a double labour with them, dedocendi, do­cendi, unlea [...]ning them what they had been ill taught, and then teaching them what was better: and true it is, that he that will be a good Tutor to youth, must imitate both the plastique Artist and the Carver, add and substract as he sees occasion, as they [Page 112] do; which made Michael Angelo to say, Sculpture was nothlng else but a purgation of su­perfluities, which being better done abroad then at home, the cockerings of Parents fo­stering an impatience in Children to be corrected for faults, and directed how not here­after to commit them, makes breeding of children of such consequence; that as the wo­men of Nombre de dios seldom are brought to bed there, where they conceive, but chuse a better air in which to bring forth;Pag. 364. Of his works. so wits (saith Sir Henry Wotton) thrive bet­ter transplanted then in their native soyl. Youth then being such tinder, 'tis good to prevent that by care,Pag. 254. which negligence makes fatal; For as in Picture Gladnesse, and Grief, though opposites in nature, are such Confiners each on other in art, that the least touch of a Pensil will translate a crying into a laughing face: so in education of youth, vice and virtue are so near Borderers one upon another, that it is easy to plant either of them on young stocks; and many hopefull Persons through the inobservance of Pa­rents, Guardians, and Tutors shipwrack, which had their Pilots been knowing and carefull, had brought the rich Gargazon of their mindes to a Market of gain to their reputation, and advantage to the age of its Production, which was the unhappinesse of Robert de Veer, In Hypodeigm. Neustriae. p. 146. of whom Walsingham thus writes, Qui quidem juvenis aptus fuerit ad c [...]ncta probitatis officia, si non defuisset ei in pueritia disciplina. The palpability of which injury to Children is such, that even the grossest sort of men avoid it, and train up their Children to courses of life suitable to their aptitude, and probable to afford them supports for life. So in the next words it follows:

Here the Chancellour tells the Prince, that the zeal that he has to his understand­ing of, and delight in the Law as the rule of English Justice, arises from that principle of paternal sagacity, which age and experience has brought to perfection in him, and his duty to Henry the sixth, his Liege Lord, and the Prince's Father, (now either in pri­son, or made away, could not in regard of the troubles of his life, and the absence of the Prince from him disenable him to) commanded from him. For though it be true, that young Princes, probable Heirs to Crowns, are in reputation above all other per­sons; yet may they want helps of instruction from their inferiours in station, who be­ing zealous for their good, may not be rude and uncourtly, in communicating their counsels to them, in words pregnant, and with reasons solid. Nor will any but Reho­boam's despise it, since whatever love offers, is not to be reproached, though discretion may not accept it at the rate it is offered. If our Lord commended the Widows Mite cast into the Treasury, because she gave it freely according to the penury of her con­dition; surely any address that good will makes, is to be received with kindness, espe­cially when it comes a digno, and dignè, when the Chancellour, a Father in years, presents to the Prince, as a youth of Majesty, his humble and hearty counsel; yea, in­deed not to be concerned in the education and principling of this Prince, according to Honour, Law, and Justice, had been an offence against, and a breach of all the Laws of Charity and gratitude, which called the Chancellour forth to a more then usual mani­festation of himself; that by producing a proportionation of care and zeal in Parents, quâ such to their Children, he might convince the Prince, that what other disci­pline to meaner mens Children is, that, the Justice of Law known, is to a Prince, who without it, will be to seek of one of the Flowers, and choicest Jewel of his Crown.

As therefore it is the care of worthy Parents to provide for their Children, fortunes to live splendidly upon, if God please to succeed them in that just and commendable solici­tousness; so is it no less their study, to instruct them in such Arts, Callings, and courses of life, as renders honest industry, and convenient support and reward. And this the very reason of nature, in the lowest impartment of it, teaches Parents to do to their Chil­dren; [Page 113] for besides that Brutes do teach their young how to forrage, prowl, and provide for themselves according to the nature of their kind. The most rude, as well as know­ing of men do train up their Children in Callings, that they may know how to live ano­ther day, as the Proverb is. The Carpenter he accustoms his Child to cut with an Ax, and a Saw; the Smith to beat with the hammer; and if a Child prove, as that brave Butchers Son of Ipswich did Cardinal Woolsey, so spriteful and eager after Learning, so zealous in Religion, that a Clerk, or a Church-man he must be; then all that the Fa­ther can wrap and wring shall be expended in Schooling, and all this that youth may be sitted to the purpose his genius directs him to, and best furnishes him for performance of; so does it become Princes to express a proportionable care of their Sons educati­ons, as their proof is of greater consequence for good or evil: nay, there is no such a convenit, that a common Parent should be intent on his Child, to provide him good breeding and a Calling on which he may live comfortably, as for a Prince, because his influence being general, the care of him, in order to a general good, concerns the ge­nerality, whom his not being virtuous, endangers to be in no degree happy. The King­dom of Macedon was lost by the covetousness of Perseus the King of it. The Treason of one Count Iulian was the cause that the Moors conquered Spain, Plutarch in P. Aemilio. Tolet. l 5. c. 14. Liv. De [...]. 3. li [...]. 2. and possessed it six or seven hundred years. The temerity of Consul Varro, in giving battle to Hannibal, was the loss of the Romanes at Canna. These, and such like evils, are produced by the defects of men in place, and therefore great care is to be used in their education and conduct, that they appear in their actions compleat to the extent of their quality, and the proportion of their influence. To promote which, in a more then ordinary mea­sure, the Chancellour presents Justice, resident in the English Law, as the aptest aidant of him, and the thriftiest enterprize he can set upon; yea, because the pliancy of youth gives advantage to the perfection of acquirements, and fixes attained habits in an unal­teredness to their age, he perswades him to accept of serious and virtuous institution in his youth, and to believe that the Laws of England are the best study he can engage in, because they are not onely the effects of reason experienced and methodized, but the pe­culiar Rule of right Government, and Religious Order; the learning of which will be most facilitated, by beginning early, and persisting earnestly in the love and study of it from ones youth; which the Chancellour inculcates on him the rather, because he sees the inconveniencies that want of Justice in the minds of Princes, brings on them and their Subjects, making them not meditative of their respective duties, but vigilant to over-reach and afflict each other: which evil spirit, so contrary to God's institution, and approbation, he beseeches him to abhor and discredit, by being the example of a just Monarch, who by a religious and righteous Reign over Subjects, conjures them to a subjection suitable to his Government: and this, if he does, he will not onely be a Son of his incomparable Father Henry the sixth, but of his Heavenly Father GOD, whose place he in reigning bears. And so the sixth Chapter, and the Notes on it end.

CHAP. VII.

THis Chapter represents the Prince, as sweetly and gratefully recoyling upon the Chancellour, whom he not onely confesses potently oratorious, but sweetly a Vi­ctor of his Reason, into a resignation of practice to his Precept; so mild so ductile was our Prince, that though it was not Iob's hand-maid, whose counsel he desp [...]sed not, yet in that he was so observant of the wise advice of his inferiour, it argued him not onely not evil, like him the Prophet mentions, who hated him that reproved in the gate, but [Page 114] very good, whom sober suasion, and affectionate tenderness did so effectually move, which is not ever the issue of good counsel given, to be kindly taken, and exactly fol­lowed. For mostly good advice is like to water spilt upon the ground, lightly set by, till it be dearly paid for, in the neglect of timely observance, which would have as­serted the Soveraignty of it. Solon lessoned Craesus the right use of prosperity, by pre­paring for its contrary before it came,Plutarchus in vita ejus. but the Philosopher was thought pedantique, and censured of pragmatique arrogance, till the time of Craesus his trouble rush'd on him; and then in his distress he cryes out, Solon, Solon, wishing he had credited his pre­monition, when there might have been hopes of anticipating his now miserable sur­prize: Caesar had an intimation not to be at the Senate the day he had his stab, but he contemned it, and lost his life by it. The Duke of Guise, in Henry the third of France his time, was fore▪warned of his being slain not onely by nature, when she swooned a little before the Duke sate at Council,Per intempestivam libertatem & su perbam scultitiam Ar [...]ian [...]s lib. 8. de gestis Alexand. Venenum perimen­tis sub pallio consu­lentis. Garimbertus. but by a note sent him by a friend; to neither of which he hearkening, was murthered; Archias had had notice of the Conspiracy a­gainst him, but he putting off the Messenger that brought it, [...], till to morrow, and it acted on him before he would hear the discovery of it. But the Prince here was better instructed by our Master, who prefaced his advice, not as Calisthenes fondly did, by freedom more bold then becoming, more rude then welcome and friendly, bringing death in by the ushery of love, and using the cloak of counsel to palliate the dagger of dispatch. No such Projector, and half-faced Traytor, was our good Chancellour; a Gentleman he was born and bred, and a Christian spirit, his piety and misfortunes by God sanctified, had begot in him; and therefore he was not of Cardinal Prato's spirit, whom Francis the first of France condemned to an Iron Cage, which was onely able to keep his pride within compass, nor of Cardinal Patavinus's, who rather then miss his plenty and ex­travagancies, would comply with any party,In Epist. de Theodorico. and serve any vices: no such miscreant our Chancellour, he chose (good man) the noble attendance of his Princes Pilgrimage, be­fore the enjoyment of his Country, without his King ruling in and over it, and being of so Masculine a soul,Gladiatori quàm S [...]natori propior, Vel Patercul. l. 2. that, as prosperity made him not to boast, adversity not complain, neither passionate; under all calm and conscientious: this, I say, being the virtue of our Chancellour, deserved from the Prince the Title he here gives him, to be vir Egregius.

And justly such, for he was no Rufus Egnatius, more a Ruffian then a Long-robe­man, but one singled out to this service, Egregius, quasi ex toto grege electus, saith Fe­stus; one, not to be pared in his age, nor to be fellowed for loyalty, not like Nazi­anzens Country of Ozizala, abounding in flowers but barren of Corn, that is a man of shew and talk, but of no sincerity and truth of wisdom; no such man was our Chan­cellour, but a Sage of incomparable honour, piety and ability, whom no advantage would buy off from Loyalty, and such he being, good reason he should be accounted, as indeed he was vir Egregius; yea, and without dishonour might his Soveraign son say to him, vicisti me suavissimâ or atione tuâ; for surely whatever his judgement di­ctated fit, his love put him to promote to his Princes improvement; no unprincely narrownesse did he principle him in, or counsel him to follow; though undoubtedly he had Metrodorusses enough to solicite him to accept of treachery to a good end: for his brave soul, like that of Sextus Pompeius, disdained to gain great things by indirect means; and thus he serving his Prince, could not but be acceptable to him, and the onely man of influence on him; yea happy in some sort beyond the usual propor­tion of superlutive meriters; for least he should have enter commoned with them in the misfortunes that the brave old Marshal Memorancy (had by a remove from [...]ourt, and Mounsienr de Vins notwithstanding his receiving a Bullet at the Siege of Rochel into his body to save King Henry the third, D Avila p. 25. p. 507. to his grief found true, according to the saying of Lewis the ninth of France, Il perd [...] souuent d' auoir, trop bien serui. too good service often undoes many men;) God called him out of life before he came to try what compensation his loyalty would have; so that as he lived so he dyed an honourable Victor over all difficulties, and received the testimony, that he had not onely asserted reason, but advantaged it by suaviloquious Oratory, which is here termed, suavis oratio.