Prince is his Queene who shineth by the C. 7 tit 37. l. 3. in princip beames of her King and hath the like prerogative as himselfe hath After them comes next in place the Kings Children because children in a sort are partakers of their Fathers dignitie but yet among children there is a difference that the male be preferr'd before the female among those which are males the eldest have the preheminence in going sitting speaking and other like matters of respect After the Kings Children follow in the next ranke Dukes after them Marquesses then Earles fourthly Vicounts and last Barons all which have dignities either heritable or granted by the bountie of the Prince whereupon their nobilitie is founded and whereby they onely and no other are to be accounted Peeres of the Land Among these for courtesie sake are reckoned such as descend of Noble Houses every one according to his degree untill the third generation L. 1. c de dignitat lib. 12. and the daughters of these great Houses so long as they marrie to any that are in degree of Peeres reteine their fathers dignitie but if they marrie under the degree of Peeres then they lose their fathers place and follow the degree of their husband which notwithstanding is in practice otherwise heere among us but without any warrant of Law The like is of the Widowes of the Peeres who L. Mulieres 13. C. de dignit l. 12. c. de equestri dignitat l. unic lib. 12. while they live sole and unmarried reteine the nobilitie of their husbands but if they marrie then they follow the condition of their second husbands be it honourable or otherwise Next in place after Peeres come Knights whereof Cujacius Cujacius lib de Feudis following the moderne French Heraldrie maketh three sorts one whereof hee calleth Chevalliers the other Bannerets the third Bachilers but setteth downe no proper difference of the one from the other and therefore I leave that to bee enquired of those which shall be curious thereof Among the Romans for ought that I have read L. cumte c. de Nuptiis there was but one order of them and they were next in degree to the Senatours themselves as with us they are to the Peeres Betweene Knights and Doctors of the Law hath ever been question for precedencie since either of them hath been in credit in Common-weales as may appeare both by the comparison that Tully maketh betweene Lucius Murena a Knight of Rome and Publ. Sulpitius a Lawyer either of them standing for the Consulship in his eloquent Oration made for Murena and many disputes of Bartol and Baldus arguing the case to and fro which although it be yet disputable in forreine Countries where the Civile Law is in credit yet here among us where all preferment is taken from it and the Professours thereof are shut up as it were into a narrow corner of their profession it is without controversie and the prioritie thereof indubitable but yet this Chassaneus de gloria mundi lib. 9. is the resolution of those which are learned in this point that in such acts as concerne learning a Doctor is to bee preferred before a Knight but in acts that concerne militarie knowledge a Knight takes place before a Doctor but in other acts which are neither proper to the one nor to the other first are preferred such Doctors as attend about the Prince secondly such Knights as waite upon the Prince thirdly such Doctors as being not about the Prince are excellent in learning fourthly come Knights without any place of preferment lastly Doctors of meaner gifts and place Although by the Civile Law there be no Gentlemen of title under Knights but all the rest went under the name of people yet in other common-wealths there are and with us bee even in this ranke which have names of preheminence whereby they are in degree aboue the rest as with the French there are lâ—s Gentilhommes and le Gens de ordinances and with us are Squiers and Gentlemen all which give Ensignes or Coat-Armours and thereby are distinguished from the meaner people in which respect Bartol calleth them Noble but yet of a weake nobilitie for that it hath no further prerogative Bartol 〈◊〉 de Insign in it than that it makes them differ from the baser sort of people Of these two sorts of Gentlemen with us the Squier hath the priority * And so it might have seemed by the English name for though we now call this kinde of Gentleman an Esquier yet our Ancestors called such a one Sâ—yld-cnapa a thâ—eld-knave that was the knave or as wee say now the boy of servant that used to beare a Shield or other Armour after his Master in the wartes and this is answerable to the Latin Armiger and to the originall of the dignity whereas the word Esquier which we now use fioÌ„ the French properly noteth an other thing L. 1. c. de dignitut lib. 10. 12. who seemes by the common name wee give him in Latin to have had his origen either for that hee carried the Armour of the King Duke or other great Homer Iliad Plin. lib. 35. natural histor personage as wee see not onely in holy Scriptures Saul and Jonathan had their Armour-bearers but in Poëts and other prophane stories Patroclus was Achilles Armour-bearer and Clitus great Alexanders whereupom some write that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is he whom we call Armiger in Latin is a footeman that with a speare shield or head piece followeth an armed Knight in battaile or rather as some other suppose it is the footman himselfe armed in the field howsoever the word be taken this is sure that these were men of good account in the old time as those which won themselves credite out of warre and so their estimation remained in their posteritie and as those were in time before so are these which are in our dayes as descending for the most part from their worthy Ancestours There is no dubbing or creating of these by the Princes hand or him to whom the Prince hath given authoritie as it is in the creating of the Nobilitie and the making of Knights but every one whom the Captaine hath vouchsafed that service is by the service it selfe a Squier and that not onely hee which hath done the service in warre but also such which have done any equivalent service in peace as Lievtenants and Sherifes of Shires and Justices of Peace within their Countie for even in this as in other Promotions hath that distinction of the Law place of Castrensis peculii quasi castrensis whereby service of the Common-wealth at home is levelled and made equall with that abroad Gentlemen have their beginning either of blood as that they are borne of worshipfull parents or that they have done some thing worthily in peace or warre whereby they deserve to beare Armes and to bee accounted Gentlemen for hee is a Gentleman who is commonly
to any of these purposes were intended to the benefit of such as are legitimate and are next of kin by lawfull succession and not by unlawfull conjunction To legitimate him that was a Bastard when there could no claime be made unto his birth-right but by grace among the Romans were sundry wayes first where the Father of the Bastard they being both single persons married the woman by whom he begot the child secondly where the father did by his last Will and Testament or by some publick instrument subscribed by witnesse name him to be his naturall and lawfull sonne or simply his sonne without the addition of any of these two words base or naturall and therewithall did make him his heire which could not be but in such cases onely where the father had no other naturall and lawfull childe left alive Thirdly whereas the Prince by his Rescript or the Senate by their Decree did doe any one that credit as to grant them the favour of legitimation which was done for the most part in such cases onely where either the father of the childe or the childe himselfe offered himselfe to be attendant on the Court or Prince In this Realme none of the foresaid legitimations take place as farre as I can learne but onely that which is done by Parliament and that very rarely for besides those that King Henry the eigth did in the variety and mutability of 28. 8. cap. 7. his minde towards his owne issue I thinke there cannot be many examples shewed for as for that which is wrought 1. Mar. 1. parliament cap. 1 by subsequent Marriage being a thing anciently pressed by the Clergie of this Land to be admitted in like sort as it is used in other Lands where the Ecclesiasticall Law taketh place it was rejected by the Earles and Barons with one voyce and answer was made that they would not change the Lawes of the Realme in that point which to that time had beene used and approved All these cases of Bastardie in other Lands whether they be such or not such are triable by the Ecclesiasticall Law But here with us it is questionable to what Law and how farre they doe appertaine whether to the Ecclesiasticall or Temporall For the matter of Bastardie what it is the Ecclesiasticall Law and the Temporall differ not but there is a diversitie betweene them in the prosecution thereof for the Ecclesiasticall Law bringeth it two wayes in Judgement the one incidently the other principally but the Common Law maketh two sorts thereof the one generall the other speciall But first of the Ecclesiasticall division then of the Temporall Bastardie is then said to be incidently propounded when it is laid in barre of some other thing that is principally commenced as when one sueth for an inheritance that he pretendeth is due unto him by his nativitie an other crosseth him therein by objecting against him bastardie with purpose to exclude him from his action in the inheritance here the barre is in the incident because it comes exclusively to the action of inheritance but the action for the inheritance it selfe was in the principall for that it was begun in consideration of the inheritance and not with intent to prove himselfe legitimate which happily hee never dreamed of when he first entered his action for the inheritance In which case he which is charged with the bastardie may require himselfe to be admitted to prove himselfe legitimate before the Ecclesiasticall Judge and to bee pronounced to be such a one Ad Curiam enim Regiamnon pertinet Glanvill lib. 7. cap. 13. agnoscere de Bastardia Against which the Law of the Land doth not oppose it selfe but acknowledge it to bee the right of the Church And yet to avoid all subtill and 9 Hen. 6. ca. 11. surreptitious dealing in this behalfe it hath set downe a warie and cautelous forme of proceeding by which the same shall be brought unto the Ordinarie and such as have interest in the suit may have notice thereof and time to object in forme of Law against the proofes and witnesses of him that pretends himselfe to be Mulier if they so thinke good and what shall be certified herein by the Ordinarie as concerning the nativity of him that is burthened to be a Bastard that is whether hee were borne before or after Glanvill lib. 7. cap. 15. his Parents marriage shall be supplied in the Kings Court either by judging for or against the Inheritance But Bastardie is then taken to bee principally propounded when either one finding himselfe to be greeved with some malicious speech of his adversarie reproaching him with Bastardie or himselfe fearing to be impeached in his good name or right doth take a course to cleere his nativitie by calling into the Law him or them by whom hee is reproached or feareth to bee impeached in his right and credit to see him to prove himselfe legitimate and to alledge object against it if they ought have or can have to the contrary which if either they doe not or doing to the utmost what they can can bring no good matter against his proofe but that it stands still good and effectuall in Law to all intents and purposes whatsoever although perhaps hereby hee shall not be able to carry the inheritance both for that it appertaineth not to the Ecclesiasticall Law to judge of Lands Tenements or Hereditaments and also for that there is a precise forme set downe by Statute how suits of this nature shall be recovered yet if no opposite or contradicter appeare herein and the suit was onely taken in hand against such as either openly reproached him or secretly buzzed abroad slanderous speeches as concerning his legitimation it is not to be doubted but by an accident also it will be good for the inheritance it selfe for where a mans legitimation is sufficiently proved thereon followeth all things which naturally thereto belong But if any man 9. Hen. 6. c. 11. urge the forme of the Statute being interessed therein then must it necessarily be followed for that otherwise it would be thought all that was done before so farre as it may concerne the inheritance although it were but in a consequence were done by collusion This kinde of proceeding hath been much more in use in former times than it is now and never any opposition made against it but now it goeth not altogether cleere without contradiction as many other things are offensively taken which notwithstanding have good ground and sufficient warrant for them And so farre as concerning the Ecclesiasticall proceedings in this businesse Now to the Temporall sorts of them Generall Bastardie is so called because it comes in incidently and is in grosse objected against some that sue in a matter principall to disappoint his suit This suit because it is of the Ecclesiasticall cognisance it is sent by the Kings writ to the Ordinarie with certaine additions for more perspicuity of the inquirie thereof as that whether
doe such service to him and his for the same as is betweene them covenanted or is proper to the nature of the Feude SECT 2. That Feuds are either Temporall or Perpetuall and how OF Feuds some are Temporall some other are Perpetuall Temporall Feuds are those that are given either for terme of a mans life or for yeares or at the will of the Lord for some service done or to be done such as are Annuities given to Lawyers for counsell Pensions given to Physitians for their advise Stipends to any Teacher of Arts and Sciences Fees for keeping of Towres and Castles called by Feudists Castalia and is by Littleton called Castle-ward although by him it is taken for a state of inheritance Perpetuall Feuds are rights which a man hath by grant from the Soveraigne or chiefe Lord of the soyle or territorie to have hold use occupie and injoy honours mannors lands tenements or hereditaments to him and his heires for ever upon condition that the said vassall or partie his heires and successours doe homage and fealty to his Lord his heires and successours for such honours lands or hereditaments and doe him either service in warre according as it is covenanted betweene the Lord and his vassall or such other service as the nature of his tenure doth require or if hee faile therein he shall either finde some other in his roome to doe the same or else pay a certaine summe of money in lieu thereof Although this Tenure by the first creation thereof be perpetuall yet that the soveraignty thereof should not still remaine unprofitable to the first Lord the whole benefit thereof going continually to the vassall or tenant it is provided that the Soveraigne or chiefe Lord the first yeare the heire or successour of the vassall comes unto his land shall have the whole revenue of his livelihood for that yeare or a certain summe of money in token of the returne thereof unto the Lord and the redemption thereof made againe by the tenant which by the Law of the Novels is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is well nigh the same that wee call livery which every heire that holdeth in Knights service sueth out before he take possession of his land as heire to his Ancestours This Tenure is gotten either by Investiture or by Succession Investiture is the same that we call Creation and is the Investiture what it is Primier grant of a Feude or Tenure to any with all rights and solemnities thereto belonging wherein the homager or feodatarie for the most part upon his knees promiseth faith and allegeance under a solemne oath unto his Lord and his successours Succession is whereby the eldest sonne succeedeth the What is Succession in the Feuds father in his inheritance and if hee faile and have no issue then the next brother and so in order successively and if there be no sonne then the next heire male and if there be no heire male then the land escheats unto the Lord. For the Lumbards from whom the Feuds first came or at the least were chiefly derived from them directing all their policie as the Lacedaemons did to matters of warre had no feminine Feuds among them but after by processe of time there were created aswell Feminine Feudes as Masculine Feuds in so much as where there was no issue male to put them from it women did succeed in the inheritance SECT 3. Of Feudes Regal and not Regal Leige and not Leige and how Feuds may be lost OF Feuds some are Regall some not Regall Regall are those which are given by the Prince only and cannot be given by any inferiour Of these some are Ecclesiasticall as Archbishopricks Bishopricks and such like Others are Civill or Temporall as Dukedomes Earledomes Vicounts and Lords who by that are distinguished from the rest of the people that they haue the conducting of the Princes Armie at home and abroad if they be thereto appointed and haue right of Peeres in making of Lawes in matters of triall and such other like businesses Not Regall are those which hold not immediatly of the Prince but are holden of such Ecclesiasticall or Civill States which haue had their Honours immediatly from the Prince Besides of Feuds some are Leige others not Leige Leige Feuds are they in the which the vassall or feodatorie promiseth absolute fealtie or faith to his Lord against all men without exception of the King himselfe or any other more auncient Lord to whom besides he oweth alleagance or service Of this sort there is none in this Realme of England but such as are made to the King himselfe as appeareth by Littleton in the title of Homage wherein is specially Salve le Foy que je doy à nostre Signour le Roy. Littleton tit Homage excepted the faith which the Homager oweth to his Lord the King Feuds not Leige are such wherein Homage is done with speciall reservation of his faith and alleageance to the Prince and Soveraigne Of such as are Vassals or Leige men some are called Valvasores majores others Valvasores minores Valvasores Vavasors majores are such as hold great places of the state under the Emperour or King as are the degrees of Honour before-named and are called Peeres of the Land who onely gives Nobilitie Valvasores minores are those which are no Peeres of the Land and yet have a preheminence above the people and are as it were in a middle Region betweene the people and the Nobilitie such as are Knights Squires and Gentlemen The Feuds are lost by sundry wayes by default of issue of him to whom it was first given which they call Apertura feodi by surrender thereof which by them is termed Refutatio feodi by forfeiture end that was in two sorts either by not doing the service that his tenure did require or by committing some villainous act against his Lord as in conspiring his Soveraignes death defiling his bed or deflowring his daughter or some other like act treacherous to his Lord unworthy of himselfe CHAP. V. SECT 1. What the Canon Law is in generall What the Decrees are and of how many parts AND so much of the Civile Law the Bookes thereunto pertaining Now it followeth that I doe in like order speak of the Canon Law which is more hardly thought upon among the people for that the subject thereof in many points hath many grosse and superstitious matters used in the time of Papistrie as of the Masse and such other like trumperie and yet there are in it beside many things of great wisdome and even those matters of superstition themselves being in a generalitie well applied to the true service of God may have a good use and understanding What is the Canon Law The Canon Law hath his name of the Greeke word Canon which in English is a Rule because it leads a man straight neither drawes him on the one side or the other but rather correcteth that which is out of
a question hath beene where the King hath had sons both before hee came to the Kingdome and after which of them is to succeed hee that was borne before the Kingdom as having the prerogative of his birth-right or he that was borne after as being brought into the world under a greater planet than the other neither hath there wanted reason or example for each side to found themselves on for Xerxes the son of Darius King of Persia Herodot lib. 4. Justin lib. 11. Plutarchus in vita Artaxerxis being the eldest birth after his father was enthronized in the Kingdome carried away the Empire thereof from his brother Artemines or Artobazanes borne before his father came to the royall possession thereof so Arseces the son of another Darius borne in the time of his fathers Empire carried away the garland from his brother Cyrus borne before the Empire so Lewes Duke of Millan borne after his father Guicciard l. 1. Histor Blondus Decad. 2. lib. 6. Mich. Ritius l. 2 de regib Hungar Sigeb in Croniâ— was Duke was preferred to the Dukedome before his brother Galliasius borne before the Dukedome But these examples notwithstanding and the opinion of sundry Doctors to the contrary common use of succession in these latter dayes hath gone to the contrary and that not without good reason for that it is not meet that any that have right to any succession by the prerogative of their birth-right such as all elder brethren have should be despoiled thereof except there be some evident cause of incapacity to the contrary Besides sundry contentions have risen in kingdomes between Bartol l si viva matre c de bâ—â—is maternis primogeniti silâ—â— non excludunt secundogenitum in regno ff de liberis posthumis l. in suis the issue of the eldest sonne of the King dying before his father and the second brother surviving the father who should reigne after the father the Nephew challenging the same unto him by the title of his fathers birthright and so by the way of representation for the eldest sonne even the father yet living beares the person of the father how much then rather his father being dead Whereupon the Law cals as well the sonne Filiusfamilias as the father Paterfamilias for that the sonne even during the fathers life is as it were Lord of his fathers state the other claiming as eldest sonne to his father at the time of death upon which title in old time there grew a controversie betweene Areus the sonne of Acrotatus eldest sonne to Cleomines King of Lacedamon Pausanias lib. 3 Histor and Cleomines second sonne to Cleomines and uncle to the said Areus but after debate thereof the Senate gave their sentence for Areus right against Cleomines besides Eunomus King of Lacedaemon having two sonnes Polydectes and Lycurgus Polydectes dying without children Lycurgus Plutarch in vita Lycurg succeeded in the kingdome but after that he understood Polydectes widow had a childe he yeelded the Crown to him wherein he dealt farre more religiously than either did King John who upon like pretence not onely put by Arthur Plantaginet his eldest brothers sonne from the succession of the kingdome but also most unnaturally tooke away his life from him or King Richard the third who most barbarously to come unto the kingdome did not onely slay his two innocent Nephewes but also defamed his owne mother in publishing to the world that the late King his brother was a bastard Our Stories doe not obscurely note that a controversie of like matter had like to have growne betweene Richard the second and John of Gaunt his uncle and that he had procured the counsell of sundry great learned men to this purpose but that hee found the hearts of sundry Noble-men of the Land and specially the Citizens of London to be against him whereupon hee desisted from his purpose and acknowledged his Nephewes right Yet notwithstanding when as Charles the second King of Sicile Vicerius in vita Hen. 7. departed this life left behinde him a Nephew of Charles his eldest sonne surnamed Martellus and his younger sonne Robert and the matter came in question which of them should succeed Clement the fifth gave sentence for Robert the younger sonne of Charles deceased against the sonne of Martellus being Nephew to his Grandfather and so caused the said Robert to bee proclaimed King of Sicile which Clem. c. pastoralis de re judicata was done rather upon displeasure that Pope Clement conceived against the Emperour Frederick than that there was just cause so to doe And yet Glanvill an old reverent Lawyer Glanvil l. 7. c. 3 of this Land and Lord chiefe Justice under Henry the second seemeth to make this questionable here in England who should be preferred the Uncle or the Nephew And thus much of succcession of Kings wherein the eldest among Males hath the prerogative and the like in Females if there be no Male for that a Kingdome is a dignitie undivisible and can come but to one be he Male or Female for that otherwise great governments would soone come to small Rules and Territories And the like that is said of Kingdomes is to be held of all Dignities under Kingdomes where the eldest sonne is to be preferred before all his other brethren and they successively one before an other if there be no issue left of them that goe before and the Male line is to be preferred before the Feminine and the Feminine before all the rest of the kinred so it be not a Masculine Feud and the same intailed upon the heire Male. And thus farre as concerning the matters wherein the Civile Law dealeth directly or incidently within this Realme Now it followeth to shew how much of all those Titles of the Canon Law which have beene before set downe are here in practice among us CHAP. II. SECT 1. Concerning the use which the Canon Law hath in this Realm That some Titles thereof are abolished onely individually and some others are altogether OF those Titles of the Canon Law which before have beene recited some are out of use here with us in the singular or Individuum by reason of the grosse Idolatrie they did conteine in them as the Title of the Authoritie and use of the Pal the Title of the Masse the Title of Reliques and the worship of Saints the Title of Monks and Regular Canons the Title of the keeping of the Eucharist and Creame and such other of like qualitie but yet are reteined in the generall for in stead of them there are substituted in their places holy worships tending to the like end of godlinesse those other did pretend but void of those superstitious meanes the other thought to please God by and so in stead of the Masse hath come in the holy Communion and in place of worshipping of Saints hath succeeded a godly remembrance and glorifying of God in his Saints and so of the rest whereof
and carnall men seeke for very greedily humbling themselves onely to God and the rule of their Master Which thing bred such an admiration of him and of his Schollers that not only many other Ordes sprang out from them within few yeares as the Praemonstratenses Cluniacenses Templarians Hospitallers Cystertians and the order of Saint John of Jerusalem but even Popes Princes and people were wholly carried away with the wonderment of them insomuch as every of them did as it were strive who might shew themselves most kinde unto them whereupon Princes built them houses every one in his Kingdome as Clito Ethelbald King of Mercia built the Monasterie of Crowland here in England of blacke Monkes under the rule of the said Benedict in the yeare 716. Popes and Princes granted them priviledges so farre as it concerned either of their particulars the Clergie Nobilitie and People conferr'd goods and lands upon them every one according to his abilitie SECT 3. That the admiration which these Religious Men did breed of themselves in the head of Princes and Popes did procure appropriations of Parsonages and Immunities from Tythes And that the over-conceit which men had of Prayer above Preaching in the Church was an adjuvant cause thereunto IN this zealous bounty of every degree towards these new sorts of men there are two undigested Priviledges granted them both of them so hurtfull and injurious to the Church of God as never any was the like The one was the Annexation or Appropriation of presentative Benefices to these Religious Houses The other the freeing of such Lands or Hereditaments as they held in sundry Parishes from the payment of Tythes to the Parsons and Vicars thereof to both of which the School-mens Divinity gave great advantage as shall be shewed hereafter Either of these had their beginning of one roote that is to say of this false ground that Preaching which is the most true and most naturall foode of the Soule in a Congregation that is come to the profession of Religion already and knowes but onely the Articles of the Christian Faith the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandements Linwood provin eisdem de offic Archidiacont cap. Igncrantia Sacerdotum de officio Archipresbyters and other Principles and Rudiments of Christian Religion is nothing so necessary for the Salvation of a mans Soule as Prayer is Besides that Preaching oftentimes gives more cause of Schisme and dispute in Religion than it doth of profiting and edifying the Soule and therefore it was not permitted by the Provinciall Constitutions of this Realme that Parsons or Vicars of Churches should expound or preach any other matter or doctrine than the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandements the two Precepts of the Gospel that is the love of God and the love of a mans Neighbour the sixe workes of Mercy the seven principall Vertues the seven Sacraments for so many then the Romish Church held the seven deadly Sinnes with their progeny and this to be done vulgarly and plainely Absque cujustibet subtilitatis texturafautastica for so they call learned and orderly Preaching whereas notwithstanding Prayer is evermore profitable every where necessary and never dangerous Furthermore Preaching onely profiteth those that be present and doe beare it and attend upon it but Prayer is availeable even to those that be farre distant yea though they be in the remotest place of the world By which and other like arguments they translated away that maintenance that was provided for the home Pastors who by Gods owne institution were to watch over their Soules to forreine and strange Guides who never communicated to their necessitie in any heavenly comfort but onely tooke the milke of the flock and fed themselves withall But by this pretence of theirs ought not Preaching to have beene disgraced for albeit Prayer bee a necessarie peece of Gods service and so necessary that the Soule of man is as it were dead without it yet is it not †But here it will neede that the Reader use a sober judgement for it cannot but bee thought unequal that Prayer and Preaching should bee so unwarily plac'd in competition as that Prayer should lose by the comparison There may bee alwayes neede of Preaching but then most of all when the Auditorie is unchristian This reason prevailed for all places in the first times but in these last onely for some according to which it were unprofitable to goe about to convert the Indies no otherwise than by our Prayers Yet even in those primitive times which had most cause to call for Preaching we shall find that this duty was of rarer exercise lesse solemnity than that of Prayer as it may abundantly be discovered out of the Liturgies of both the Charches And it is observeable that where Preaching hath beene of the greatest account it hath bin so much beholden to Prayer that it was not onely begun and ended but also discontinued by devotion For wee shall finde the Reverend Fathers Chrysostome and Basil of Seleucia at prayers in the middle of a Sermon See the one in his 39. Orat. the other in his 3. Hom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Moses the Sonne of Maimon that profound Doctor of the Iewes instituting a comparison betwixt their Sacrifices and the more substantiall Services required in stead of all other nameth that of Prayer and Invocation and of these hee saith that they are c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nearer to Gods first intention and that our way thereunto is bythem afterwards he saith that these are necessarie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all times in all places and for every man See his More Neuoch Helec 3. C. 32. p. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And holy Antioch in his 106 Hom. which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is of a more sublime Condition than any other vertue And how our Lord himself stood affected to this wee may acknowledge by that where hee calleth the Church his House of Prayer not Preaching which took so well in the elder times that all their Temples were known by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oratories Nay the Preacher himselfe Prov. 15. is so confident of a just mans Prayer that he dares say that God will even be obedient to it for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by the Interpreter of the forenamed Antiochus However It may seeme to be so for when all the Preaching of Lot could prevaile no otherwise than to bring vexation to his righteous Soule the Prayers of Abraham might have saved Sodom if among so many thousands there had beene but ten just men All this while wee would not detract anything from Preaching but considering our selves to live under a State so maturely compos'd and so throughly advis'd and setled in the Faith it will be expected that we should so farre moderate our opinion of Preaching as that our magnifying thereof may no way
division I will in a word or two make plaine the necessitie thereof And therefore for a ground of all the rest I will assume this for a matter confessed that every man knowes that every well ordered Common-wealth stands on two parts principally the politick part which consisteth of the Prince and people and the Ecclesiasticall part which standeth in Sacris Sacerdotibus And therefore well said the Emperour Two of the greatest things that God ever gave unto In authent quon oport Episcopod in prin col 1. Auth. de non alienand c. rebut Eccl. c. 2. §. 1. the world meaning earthly things was the Empire or secular government whereby the outward man is ordered and made as Aristotle saith bonus civis that is a good and loyall subject and the Priesthood whereby the inward man is ruled and is made as the said Author testifieth bonus vir that is a good and vertuous man which are two wonderfull effects of the whole government in generall neither can the one of these be wanting but the other will be ruinated and brought to desolation Secondly no man is ignorant of this but in politique government two things sway the whole state the one is peace at home and the other is warre abroad which as they have their seasons so they have their causes and effects the one from counsell at home the other from discipline abroad neither can the one or the other of these be maintained but by their private and proper Lawes Beside in peace who seeth not there is as much need of vent by sea for to benefit the Common-wealth by either by importation of those things that wee want at home or by exportation of those things wee abound with as there is provision to be made for the increasing and preserving of those things that wee have rising and growing by land in our owne countrie neither of which can be had or injoyed without their proper Lawes fit and appertaining to either policie And what Law is there that ordereth these businesses but the Civile Law onely which giveth a forme to Navigation and all occurrents that happen by sea whether they be in or about the Navigation it selfe or the concontracts or as it were contracts that are made in upon or beyond the same As a Legall forme is requisite in peace at home and Marine affaires abroad that every thing may have his due effect according to the right thereof so also it is necessary in warlike exploits upon the Sea that every action have his limits and bounds whereby Justice may bee ministred which if it be to be observed where lawfull warre is held betweene Prince and Prince that every one be not left unto his owne lust much more is it expedient to be put in ure in Piracies and other Sea-robberies where the innocent is spoyled and the spoiler is enriched The redresse whereof is not but by the Admirall Law to whom the Princes of this Land have granted that authoritie For the often commerce of Princes with Princes the negotiation that one State hath with an other there is nothing more necessary than frequent Embassages wereby intelligence may be had what danger one State intendeth to an other how the same may be prevented by Leagues or otherwise and how the same may be made and maintained I know not what Law serves better for all these ends and purposes than the Civile Law In matters that appertaine to the soules health the Preacher teacheth out of the word of God wherein the right service of God standeth hee ministreth the Sacraments unto the people and instructeth them in other fundamentall points of Religion but it is the Ecclesiasticall Law that compelleth men to the due observance hereof and punisheth the trangressors All men grant that there is a provision to be made for the Minister for that it is against reason that any man should goe to warfare on his charges but it is the Law of the Church that sets out this provision and yeeldeth remedie for the recoverie thereof if it be denied Nothing is more due unto the dead than that their last Wils should be observed for that it is such an ordinance as a man hath not in his power againe when God hath once called him hence neither is there any thing that Princes have more gratiously granted unto their subjects than that in their life-time they may dispose of that which after they are dead is none of theirs and yet shall take place when they are not as though yet they were theirs in which provision the Civile and the Ecclesiasticall Law are above all other Lawes most religious Christening Wedding Burying whereby a man entreth into this world converseth in the world and returneth againe unto the earth from whence he was taken and so after passeth to glorie and everlasting blisse are every one of the Ecclesiasticall cognisance How many men of great skill such as few Princes have greater in all kinde of learning are of this ranke not only in the societie of them that professe this knowledge here in the chiefest Citie of the Land but also in both the Universities and in sundry other places of this Realme not strangers or forrainers but home-borne subjects of the same faith of the same religion of the same kindred and familie of like alleagiance to the Prince and service to the Commonwealth as other his good subjects are even those that oppugne this profession chiefly whose practice if it be overthrowne or provision lessened not onely those that are now present make profession of this knowledge shall be faine to turne their copie but those that are futurely to come will change their profession when they see there is no reward or estimation belonging thereto for it is honour that nourisheth Arts and no man will follow that profession that is out of count and credit but every Father will say unto his Son in like sort as Ovids Father said to him when hee saw him addict and give himselfe wholy to Poetrie Studium quid inutile tent as It was anciently said of the profession of these Lawes Dat Justinianus honores but now it is so far off from that that it conferres honours as that it is almost a discre dit for any man to be a Civilian in this State and the profession thereof doth scarce keepe beggerie from the gate As God doth dispose his government by justice mercie whoreof notwithstanding mercie hath the supreme place in the Lords Tabernacle as that which was put above upon the Arke wherein were the two Tables of stone in which the Law was written to which St James alluding Exod 25. saith that mercie triumpheth over judgement so the Princes of this Land to the imitation of that heavenly representation lames 2. have appointed two supreme seats of Government within this Land the one of justice wherein nothing but the strict letter of the Law is observed the other of Mercie wherein the rigour of