little worth if they tended not to the preservation and improvement of Mens Lives seeing then without Humane Law all things would be Common and this Community a cause of Incroachment Envy Slaughter and continual War of one upon another the same Law of Reason Dictates to Mankind for their own preservation a distribution of Lands and Goods that each Man may know what is proper to him so as none other might pretend a right thereunto or disturb him in the use of the same This distribution is Justice and this properly is the same which we say is one owns by which you may see the great Necessity there was of Statute Laws for preservation of all Mankind It is also a Dictate of the Law of Reason that Statute Laws are a necessary means of the safety and well being of Man in the present World and are to be Obeyed by all Subjects as the Law of Reason ought to be Obeyed both by King and Subjects because it is the Law of God Ph. All this is very Rational but how can any Laws secure one Man from another When the greatest part of Men are so unreasonable and so partial to themselves as they are and the Laws of themselves are but a dead Letter which of it self is not able to compel a Man to do otherwise than himself pleaseth nor punish or hurt him when he hath done a mischief La. By the Laws I mean Laws living and Armed for you must suppose that a Nation that is subdued by War to an absolute submission of a Conqueror it may by the same Arm that compelled it to Submission be compelled to Obey his Laws Also if a Nation choose a Man or an Assembly of Men to Govern them by Laws it must furnish him also with Armed Men and Money and all things necessary to his Office or else his Laws will be of no force and the Nation remains as before it was in Confusion 'T is not therefore the word of the Law but the Power of a Man that has the strength of a Nation that makes the Laws effectual It was not Solon that made Athenian Laws though he devised them but the Supream Court of the People nor the Lawyers of Rome that made the Imperial Law in Justinian's time but Justinian himself Ph. We agree then in this that in England it is the King that makes the Laws whosoever Pens them and in this that the King cannot make his Laws effectual nor defend his People against their Enemies without a Power to Leavy Souldiers and consequently that he may Lawfully as oft as he shall really think it necessary to raise an Army which in some occasions be very great I say raise it and Money to Maintain it I doubt not but you will allow this to be according to the Law at least of Reason La. For my part I allow it But you have heard how in and before the late Troubles the People were of another mind Shall the King said they take from us what he please upon pretence of a necessity whereof he makes himself the Judg What worse Condition can we be in from an Enemy What can they take from us more than what they list Ph. The People Reason ill they do not know in what Condition we were in the time of the Conqueror when it was a shame to be an English-Man who if he grumbled at the base Offices he was put to by his Norman Masters received no other Answer but this Thou art but an English-Man nor can the People nor any Man that humors them in their Disobedience produce any Example of a King that ever rais'd any excessive Summ's either by himself or by the Consent of his Parliament but when they had great need thereof nor can shew any reason that might move any of them so to do The greatest Complaint by them made against the unthriftiness of their Kings was for the inriching now and then a Favourite which to the Wealth of the Kingdom was inconsiderable and the Complaint but Envy But in this point of raising Souldiers what is I pray you the Statute Law La. The last Statute concerning it is 13 Car. 2. c. 6. By which the Supream Government Command and disposing of the Militia of England is delivered to be and always to have been the Antient Right of the Kings of England But there is also in the same Act a Proviso that this shall not be Construed for a Declaration that the King may Transport his Subjects or compel them to march out of the Kingdom nor is it on the contrary declared to be unlawful Ph. Why is not that also determined La. I can imagine cause enough for it though I may be deceiv'd We love to have our King amongst us and not be Govern'd by Deputies either of our own or another Nation But this I verily believe that if a Forraign Enemy should either invade us or put himself in t a readiness to invade either England Ireland or Scotland no Parliament then sitting and the King send English Souldiers thither the Parliament would give him thanks for it The Subjects of those Kings who affect the Glory and imitate the Actions of Alexander the Great have not always the most comfortable lives nor do such Kings usually very long enjoy their Conquests They March to and fro perpetually as upon a Plank sustained only in the midst and when one end rises down goes the other Ph. 'T is well But where Souldiers in the Judgment of the Kings Conscience are indeed necessary as in an insurrection or Rebellion at home how shall the Kingdom be preserved without a considerable Army ready and in pay How shall Money be rais'd for this Army especially when the want of publick Treasure inviteth Neighbour Kings to incroach and unruly Subjects to Rebel La I cannot tell It is matter of Polity not of Law but I know that there be Statutes express whereby the King hath obliged himself never to Levy Money upon his Subjects without the consent of his Parliament One of which Statutes is 25 Ed. 1. c. 6. in these words We have granted for us and our Heirs as well to Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots and other Folk of the Holy Church as also Earls Barons and to all the Commonalty of the Land that for no Business from henceforth we shall take such Aids Taxes or Prizes but by the common Consent of the Realm There is also another Statute of Ed. 1. in these words No Taxes or Aid shall be taken or Leveyed by us or our Heirs in our Realm without the good will and assent of the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land which Statutes have been since that time Confirmed by divers other Kings and lastly by the King that now Reigneth Ph. All this I know and am not satisfied I am one of the Common People and one of that almost infinite number of Men for whose welfare Kings and other Soveraigns were by God Ordain'd For
God made Kings for the People and not People for Kings How shall I be defended from the domineering of Proud and Insolent Strangers that speak another Language that scorn us that seek to make us Slaves Or how shall I avoid the Destruction that may arise from the cruelty of Factions in a Civil War unless the King to whom alone you say belongeth the right of Levying and disposing of the Militia by which only it can be prevented have ready Money upon all Occasions to Arm and pay as many Souldiers as for the present defence or the Peace of the People shall be necessary Shall not I and you and every Man be undone Tell me not of a Parliament when there is no Parliament sitting or perhaps none in being which may often happen and when there is a Parliament if the speaking and leading Men should have a design to put down Monarchy as they had in the Parliament which began to sit Nov. 3. 1640. Shall the King who is to answer to God Almighty for the safety of the People and to that end is intrusted with the Power to Levy and dispose of the Souldiery be disabled to perform his Office by virtue of these Acts of Parliament which you have cited If this be reason 't is reason also that the People be Abandoned or left at liberty to kill one another even to the last Man if it be not Reason then you have granted it is not Law La. 'T is true if you mean Recta Ratio but Recta Ratio which I grant to be Law as Sir Edw. Coke says 1 Inst. Sect. 138. Is an Artificial perfection of Reason gotten by long Study Observation and Experience and not every Mans natural Reason for Nemo nascitur Artifex This Legal Reason is summa Ratio and therefore if all the Reason that is dispersed into so many several Heads were united into one yet could he not make such a Law as the Law of England is because by many Successions of Ages it hath been fined and refinâ—d by an infinite number of Grave and Learned Men. And this is it he calls the Common-Law Ph. Do you think this to be good Doctrine though it be true that no Man is born with the use of Reason yet all Men may grow up to it as well as Lawyers and when they have applyed their Reason to the Laws which were Laws before they Studyed them or else it was not Law they Studied may be as fit for and capable of Judicature as Sir Edw. Coke himself who whether he had more or less use of Reason was not thereby a Judge but because the King made him so And whereas he says that a Man who should have as much Reason as is dispersed in so many several Heads could not make such a Law as this Law of England is if one should ask him who made the Law of England Would he say a Succession of English Lawyers or Judges made it or rather a Succession of Kings and that upon their own Reason either solely or with the Advice of the Lords and Commons in Parliament without the Judges or other Professors of the Law You see therefore that the Kings Reason be it more or less is that Anima Legis that Summa Lex whereof Sir Edw. Coke speaketh and not the Reason Learning or Wisdom of the Judges but you may see that quite through his Institutes of Law he often takes occasion to Magnifie the Learning of the Lawyers whom he perpetually termeth the Sages of the Parliament or of the Kings Council therefore unless you say otherwise I say that the Kings Reason when it is publickly upon Advice and Deliberation declar'd is that Anima Legis and that Summa Ratio and that Equity which all agree to be the Law of Reason is all that is or ever was Law in England since it became Christian besides the Bible La. Are not the Canons of the Church part of the Law of England as also the Imperial Law used in the Admiralty and the Customs of particular places and the by-Laws of Corporations and Courts of Judicature Ph. Why not for they were all Constituted by the Kings of England and though the Civil Law used in the Admiralty were at first the Statutes of the Roman Empire yet because they are in force by no other Authority than that of the King they are now the Kings Laws and the Kings Statutes The same we may say of the Canons such of them as we have retained made by the Church of Rome have been no Law nor of any force in England since the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Raign but by Virtue of the Great Seal of England La. In the said Statutes that restrain the Levying of Money without consent of Parliament Is there any thing you can take exceptions to Ph. No I am satisfied that the Kings that grant such Liberties are bound to make them good so far as it may be done without sin But if a King find that by such a Grant he be disabled to protect his Subjects if he maintain his Grant he sins and therefore may and ought to take no Notice of the said Grant For such Grants as by Error or false Suggestion are gotten from him are as the Lawyers do Confess Void and of no Effect and ought to be recalled Also the King as is on all hands Confessed hath the Charge lying upon him to Protect his People against Forraign Enemies and to keep the Peace betwixt them within the Kingdom if he do not his utmost endeavour to discharge himself thereof he Committeth a Sin which neither King nor Parliament can Lawfully commit La. No Man I think will deny this For if Levying of Money be necessary it is a Sin in the Parliament to refuse if unnecessary it is a sin both in King and Parliament to Levy But for all that it may be and I think it is a Sin in any one that hath the Soveraign Power be he one Man or one Assembly being intrusted with the safety of a whole Nation if rashly and relying upon his own Natural sufficiency he make War or Peace without Consulting with such as by their Experience and Employment abroad and Intelligence by Letters or other means have gotten the Knowledge in some measure of the strength Advantages and Designs of the Enemy and the Manner and Degree of the Danger that may from thence arise In like manner in case of Rebellion at Home if he Consult not with of Military Condition which if he do then I think he may Lawfully proceed to Subdue all such Enemies and Rebels and that the Souldiers ought to go on without Inquiring whether they be within the Country or without For who shall suppress Rebellion but he that hath Right to Levy Command and Dispose of the Militia The last long Parliament denied this But why Because by the Major part of their Votes the Rebellion was raised with design to put down Monarchy and to that end Maintained Ph. Nor do
of the Caesars that could write or read The right to the Government was either Paternal or by Conquest or by Marriages Their succession to Lands was determined by the pleasure of the Master of the Family by Gift or Deed in his life time and what Land they disposed not of in their life time descended after their death to their Heirs The Heir was the Eldest Son The issue of the Eldest Son failing they descended to the younger Sons in their order and for want of Sons to the Daughters joyntly as to one Heir or to be divided amongst them and so to descend to their Heirs in the same manner And Children failing the Uncle by the Fathers or Mothers side according as the Lands had been the Fathers or the Mothers succeeded to the inheritance and so continually to the next of blood And this was a natural descent because naturally the nearer in Blood the nearer in kindness and was held for the Law of nature not only amongst the Germans but also in most Nations before they had a written Law The right of Government which is called Jus Regni descended in the same manner except only that after the Sons it came to the eldest Daughter first and her Heirs the reason whereof was that Government is indivisible And this Law continues still in England La. Seeing all the Land which any Soveraign Lord possessed was his own in propriety how came a Subject to have a propriety in their Lands Ph. There be two sorts of Propriety One is when a Man holds his Land from the gift of God only which Lands Civilians call Allodial which in a Kingdom no Man can have but the King The other is when a Man holds his Land from another Man as given him in respect of service and obedience to that Man as a Fee The first kind of propriety is absolute the other is in a manner conditional because given for some service to be done unto the giver The first kind of propriety excludes the right of all others the second excludes the right of all other Subjects to the same Land but not the right of the Soveraign when the common good of the People shall require the use thereof La. When those Kings had thus parted with their Lands what was left them for the maintenance of their Wars either offensive or defensive or for the maintenance of the Royal Family in such manner as not only becomes the dignity of a Soveraign King but is also necessary to keep his Person and People from contempt Ph. They have means enough and besides what they gave their Subjects had much Land remaining in their own hands afforrested for their recreation For you know very well that a great part of the Land of England was given for Military service to the great Men of the Realm who were for the most part of the Kings kindred or great Favourites much more Land than they had need of for their own Maintenance but so charged with one or many Souldiers according to the quantity of Land given as there could be no want of Souldiers at all times ready to resist an invading Enemy Which Souldiers those Lords were bound to furnish for a time certain at their own Charges You know also that the whole Land was divided into Hundreds and those again into Decennaries in which Decennaries all Men even to Children of 12 years of age were bound to take the Oath of Allegiance And you are to believe that those Men that hold their Land by the service of Husbandry were all bound with their Bodies and Fortunes to defend the Kingdom against invaders by the Law of nature And so also such as they called Villains and held their Land by baser drudgery were obliged to defend the Kingdom to the utmost of their power Nay Women and Children in such a necessity are bound to do such service as they can that is to say to bring Weapons and Victuals to them that fight and to Dig But those that hold their Land by service Military have lying upon them a greater obligation For read and observe the form of doing homage according as it is set down in the Statute of 17 Edw. 2. which you doubt not was in use before that time and before the Conquest La. I become your Man for Life for Member and for worldly Honour and shall owe you my faith for the Lands that I hold of you Ph. I pray you expound it La. I think it is as much as if you should say I promise you to be at your Command to perform with the hazard of my Life Limbs and all my Fortune as I have charged my self to the reception of the Lands you have given me and to be ever faithful to you This is the form of Homage done to the King immediately but when one Subject holdeth Land of another by the like Military service then there is an exception added viz. saving the faith I owe to the King Ph. Did he not also take an Oath La. Yes which is called the Oath of Fealty I shall be to you both faithful and lawfully shall do such customs and services as my duty is to you at the terms assigned so help me God and all his Saints But both these services and the services of Husbandry were quickly after turned into Rents payable either in Money as in England or in Corn or other Victuals as in Scotland and France When the service was Military the Tenant was for the most part bound to serve the King in his Wars with one or more Persons according to the yearly value of the Land he held Ph. Were they bound to find Horse-men or Foot-men La. I do not find any Law that requires any Man in respect of his Tenancie to serve on Horseback Ph. Was the Tenant bound in case he were called to serve in Person La. I think he was so in the beginning For when Lands were given for service Military and the Tenant dying left his Son and Heir the Lord had the custody both of Body and Lands till the Heir was twenty one years old and the reason thereof was that the Heir till that Age of twenty one years was presum'd to be unable to serve the King in his Wars which reason had been insufficient if the Heir had been bound to go to the Wars in Person Which methinks should ever hold for Law unless by some other Law it come to be altered These services together with other Rights as Wardships first possession of his Tenants inheritance Licenses for Alienation Felons Goods Felons Lands if they were holden of the King and the first years profit of the Lands of whomsoever they were holden Forfeitures Amercements and many other aids could not but amount to a very great yearly Revenue Add to this all that which the King might reasonably have imposed upon Artificers and Tradesmen for all Men whom the King protecteth ought to contribute towards their own protection and consider then whether the
words in their Letters Patents Constituimus vos Justitiarium nostrum Capitalem ad Placita coram nobis tenenda durante beneplacito nostro That is to say we have made you our Chief-Justice to hold Pleas before our self during our pleasure But this Writ though it be shorter does not at all abridge the power they had by the former And for the Letters Patents for the Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas they go thus Constituimus dilectum Fidelem c. Capitalem Justitiarium de Communi Banco Habendum c. quamdiu nobis placuerit cum vadiis foedis ab antiquo debitis consuetis Id est We have Constituted our Beloved and Faithful c. Chief-Justice of the Common-Bench To have c. during our pleasure with the ways and Fees thereunto heretofore due and usual Ph. I find in History that there have been in England always a Chancellour and a Chief-Justice of England but of a Court of Common-Pleas there is no mention before Magna Charta Common-Pleas there were ever both here and I think in all Nations for Common-Pleas and Civil-Pleas I take to be the same La. Before the Statute of Magna Charta Common-Pleas as Sir Edw. Coke granteth 2 Inst. p. 21. might have been holden in the Kings-Bench and that Court being removeable at the Kings will the Returns of Writs were Coram Nobis ubicunque fuerimus in Anglia whereby great trouble of Jurors ensued and great charges of the parties and delay of Justice and that for these causes it was Ordain'd that the Common-Pleas should not follow the King but be held in a place certain Ph. Here Sir Edw. Coke declares his Opinion that no Common-Plea can be holden in the Kings-Bench in that he says they might have been holden then And yet this doth not amount to any probable proof that there was any Court of Common-Pleas in England before Magna Charta For this Statute being to ease the Jurors and lessen the Charges of Parties and for the Expedition of Justice had been in Vain if there had been a Court of Common-Pleas then standing for such a Court was not necessarily to follow the King as was the Chancery and the Kings-Bench Besides unless the Kings-Bench wheresoever it was held Plea of civil Causes the Subject had not at all been eased by this Statute For supposing the King at York had not the Kings Subjects about London Jurors and parties as much trouble and charge to go to York as the People about York had before to go to London Therefore I can by no means believe otherwise then that the Erection of the Court of Common-Pleas was the effect of that Statute of Magna Charta Cap. 11. And before that time not existent though I think that for the multiplicity of Suits in a great Kingdom there was need of it La. Perhaps there was not so much need of it as you think For in those times the Laws for the most part were in setling rather than setled and the old Saxon Laws concerning Inheritances were then practised by which Laws speedy Justice was Executed by the Kings Writs in the Courts of Barons which were Landlords to the rest of the Freeholders and Suits of Barons in County-Courts and but few Suits in the Kings Courts but when Justice could not be had in those Inferior Courts but at this day there be more Suits in the Kings Courts than any one Court can dispatch Ph. Why should there be more Suits now than formerly For I believe this Kingdom was as well Peopled then as now La. Sir Edw. Coke 4 Inst. p. 76. assigneth for it six Causes 1. Peace 2. Plenty 3. The Dissolution of Religious Houses and dispersing of their Lands among so many several persons 4. The multitude of Informers 5. The number of Concealers 6. The multitude of Attorneys Ph. I see Sir Edw. Coke has no mind to lay any fault upon the Men of his own Profession and that he Assigns for Causes of the Mischiefs such things as would be Mischief and Wickedness to amend for if Peace and Plenty be the cause of this Evil it cannot be removed but by War and Beggery and the Quarrels arising about the Lands of Religious Persons cannot arise from the Lands but from the doubtfulness of the Laws And for Informers they were Authorised by Statutes to the Execution of which Statutes they are so necessary as that their number cannot be too great and if it be too great the fault is in the Law it self The number of Concealers are indeed a number of Couseners which the Law may easily Correct And lastly for the multitude of Attorneys it is the fault of them that have the power to admit or refuse them For my part I believe that Men at this day have better learn't the Art of Caviling against the words of a Statute than heretofore they had and thereby encourage themselves and others to undertake Suits upon little reason Also the variety and repugnancy of Judgments of Common-Law do oftentimes put Men to hope for Victory in causes whereof in reason they had no ground at all Also the ignorance of what is Equity in their own causes which Equity not one Man in a thousand ever Studied and the Lawyers themselves seek not for their Judgments in their own Breasts but in the precedents of former Judges as the Antient Judges sought the same not in their own Reason but in the Laws of the Empire Another and perhaps the greatest cause of multitude of Suits is this that for want of Registring of conveyances of Land which might easily be done in the Townships where the Lands ly a Purchase cannot easily be had which will not be litigious Lastly I believe the Coveteousness of Lawyers was not so great in Antient time which was full of trouble as they have been since in time of Peace wherein Men have leisure to study fraud and get employment from such Men as can encourage to Contention And how ample a Field they have to exercise this Mystery in is manifest from this that they have a power to Scan and Construe every word in a Statute Charter Feofment Lease or other Deed Evidence or Testimony But to return to the Jurisdiction of this Court of the Kings-Bench where as you say it hath power to correct and amend the Errors of all other Judges both in Process and in Judgments cannot the Judges of the Common-Pleas correct Error in Process in their own Courts without a Writ of Error from another Court La. Yes and there be many Statutes which Command them so to do Ph. When a Writ of Error is brought out of the Kings-Bench be it either Error in Process or in Law at whose Charge is it to be done La. At the Charge of the Clyent Ph. I see no reason for that for the Clyent is not in fault who never begins a Suit but by the advice of his Council Learned in the Law whom he pays for his Council given Is not
open before them be Burglary Robbery Theft or other Felony for this is to give a leading Judgment to the Jury who ought not to consider any private Lawyers Institutes but the Statutes themselves pleaded before them for directions La. Burning as he defines it p. 66. is a Felony at the Common-Law committed by any that maliciously and voluntarily in the night or day burneth the House of another And hereupon infers if a Man sets Fire to the House and it takes not that then it is not within the Statute Ph. If a Man should secretly and maliciously lay a quantity of Gun-Powder under another Mans House sufficient to Blow it up and set a Train of Powder in it and set Fire to the Train and some Accident hinder the Effect is not this Burning or what is it What Crime It is neither Treason nor Murder nor Burglary nor Robbery nor Theft nor no dammage being made any Trespass nor contrary to any Statute And yet seeing the Common-Law is the Law of Reason it is a sin and such a sin as a Man may be Accused of and Convicted and consequently a Crime committed of Malice prepensed shall he not then be Punished for the Attempt I grant you that a Judge has no Warrant from any Statute-Law Common-Law or Commission to appoint the Punishment but surely the King has power to Punish him on this side of Life or Member as he please and with the Assent of Parliament if not without to make the Crime for the future Capital La. I know not Besides these Crimes there is Conjuration Witch-craft Sorcery and Inchantment which are Capital by the Statute 1 of King James cap. 12. Ph. But I desire not to discourse of that Subject for though without doubt there is some great Wickedness signified by those Crimes yet I have ever found my self too dull to conceive the nature of them or how the Devil hath power to do many things which Witches have been Accused of Let us now come to Crimes not Capital La. Shall we pass over the Crime of Heresie which Sir Edw. Coke ranketh before Murder but the consideration of it will be somewhat long Ph. Let us defer it till the Afternoon Of Heresie La. COncerning Heresie Sir Edw. Coke 4 Inst. p. 39. says that 5 things fall into consideration 1. Who be the Judges of Heresie 2. What shall be Judged Heresie 3. What is the Judgment upon a Man Convicted of Heresie 4. What the Law alloweth him to save his Life 5. What he shall forfeit by Judgment against him Ph. The principal thing to be considered which is the Heresie it self he leaveth out viz. What it is in what Fact or Words it consisteth what Law it violateth Statute-Law or the Law of Reason The Cause why he omitteth it may perhaps be this that it was not only out of his Profession but also out of his other Learning Murder Robbery Theft c. Every Man knoweth to be evil and are Crimes defined by the Statute-Law so that any Man may avoid them if he will But who can be sure to avoid Heresie if he but dare to give an Account of his Faith unless he know beforehand what it is La. In the Preamble of the Statute of the 2d Hen. 4. cap. 15. Heresie is laid down as a Preaching or Writing of such Doctrine as is contrary to the determination of Holy Church Ph. Then it is Heresie at this day to Preach or Write against Worshipping of Saints or the Infallibility of the Church of Rome or any other determination of the same Church For Holy-Church at that time was understood to be the Church of Rome and now with us the Holy-Church I understand to be the Church of England and the Opinions in that Statute are now and were then the true Christian Faith Also the same Statute of Hen. 4. Declareth by the same Preamble that the Church of England had never been troubled with Heresie La. But that Statute is Repeal'd Ph. Then also is that Declaration or Definition of Heresie repeal'd La. What say you is Heresie Ph. I say Heresie is a singularity of Doctrine or Opinion contrary to the Doctrine of another Man or Men and the word properly signifies the Doctrine of a Sect which Doctrine is taken upon Trust of some Man of Reputation for Wisdom that was the first Author of the same If you will understand the truth hereof you are to Read the Histories and other Writings of the Antient Greeks whose word it is which Writings are extant in these days and easie to be had Wherein you will find that in and a little before the time of Alexander the Great there lived in Greece many Excellent Wits that employed their time in search of the Truth in all manner of Sciences worthy of their Labour and which to their great Honour and Applause published their Writings some concerning Justice Laws and Government some concerning Good and Evil Manners some concerning the Causes of things Natural and of Events discernable by sense and some of all these Subjects And of the Authors of these the Principal were Pythagoras Plato Zeno Epicurus and Aristotle Men of deep and laborious Meditation and such as did not get their Bread by their Philosophy but were able to live of their own and were in Honour with Princes and other great Personages But these Men though above the rest in Wisdom yet their Doctrine in many points did disagree whereby it came to pass that such Men as studied their Writings inclined some to Pythagoras some to Plato some to Aristotle some to Zeno and some to Epicurus But Philosophy it self was then so much in Fashion as that every Rich Man endeavour'd to have his Children educated in the Doctrine of some or other of these Philosophers which were for their Wisdom so much renown'd Now those that followed Pythagoras were called Pythagoreans those that followed Plato Academicks those that followed Zeno Stoicks those that followed Epicurus Epicureans and those that followed Aristotle Peripateticks which are the names of Heresie in Greek which signifies no more but taking of an Opinion and the said Pythagoreans Academicks Stoicks Peripateticks c. were termed by the names of so many several Heresies All Men you know are subject to Error and the ways of Error very different and therefore 't is no wonder if these Wise and diligent searchers of the Truth did notwithstanding their Excellent parts differ in many points amongst themselves But this Laudable Custom of Great Wealthy Persons to have their Children at any price to learn Philosophy suggested to many idle and needy Fellows an easie and compendious way of Maintenance which was to Teach the Philosophy some of Plato some of Aristotle c. Whose Books to that end they Read over but without Capacity or much Endeavour to examine the Reasons of their Doctrines taking only the Conclusions as they lay and setting up with this they soon professed themselves Philosophers and got to be the School-Masters to the