orbe Concrelam exemit labem purumque reliquit Aethereum sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem i. e. Till that long day at last be come about That wasteth both all â—th and foul desire And leaves the Soul Aethereal throughout Baâ—hing her senses in pure liquid fire To come into the flesh amongst the natural sons of Adam those men who were best of repute for their Wisdom Learning Sincerity and of greatest Experience might set up Laws in any City or Nation Thus you see when Laws were first given Moses in a strange age was made Ruler and Captaine among the Hebrews his Laws you shall find in the following discourse Afterwards amonst the Hebrews their Law-givers were called Zephiriaus after them Zaleucus in Imitation of the Spartans and Cretians was thought to have received ancient Laws from Minos who gave severe Laws and found out suitable punishment he left rules whereby men might try their Actions so that many afterwards were frighted into good manners For before Laws were not written but the sentence and state lay in the Judges brest afterwards the Athenians received Laws from Draco and Solon upon which they proceeded in all Courts of Judicature from whom the Romans who lived after the building of the City 300 years had the Laws of the 12 Tables published by the Decemviri and those in process of time being enlarged by Romans and the Caesars became our civil Law until King Charles who lately made Christian Lawes both good and wholsom for his happy Kingdoms that then flourished in Armes and Learning during his Reign c. Other Nations also had their respective Law-givers as Egypt had Priests and Isis who were taught by Mercury and Vulcan These were Golden Laws and such as owed their Birth to Philosophers Babylon had the Caldeans Persia had Magitians i. e. Wisemen India had Brachmans Ethiopia had the Gymnosophists amongst the Bactrians was Zamolsis amongst the Corinthians was Fido amongst the Milesians was Hippodamus amongst the Carthaginians was Coranda amongst the Britains were the Druides amongst the Rosie-Crucians was Eugenius Theodidactus my good friend and his Laws to the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross are these 1. That every one of them who shall Travel must profess Medicine and cure gratis 2. That none of them notwithstanding their being of the fraternity shall be enjoyned one habit but may suit themselves to the mode of those Countries in which they reside 3. That every Brother of the Fraternity shall upon the day C make his appearance in the place of the Holy Genius or else signifie by Letters the cause of his absence 4. That every Brother shall chuse a fit person to be his successor after his decease 5. That the word R. C. shall be their Seal Character or Cognisance 6. That this Fraternity shall be concealed seven years until King Charles the second shall make void the Laws and Statutes of the Tyrant Oliver Cromwell and his brethren after three years Mercy and Truth will meet together Righteousness and Peace will kiss each other 7. And they are Sollemnly sworn each to other to keep and observe these Conditions and Articles in all which I find nothing either Prejudicial to themselves or Hurtfull and Injurious to others but that they have an excellent scope and intention which is the glory of God and the good of their Neighbour To this Fraternity you shall go in a certain Night when your Genius will appear to you like a beam of light the place will be very delightfull with Musick and pleasant with sweet smells of fresh Roses Gilliflowers and Perfumes prepare your self by prayer for Immediately you will see a Boy and a Lady or a white Hart or a Lamb Whatsoever you see of these be not afraid but follow your guidâ— it is necessary then that you Arm your self with Heroick Courage least you fear those things that will happen and so fall back you need no sword nor any other bodily weapon only call upon God for a good and holy man can offer up no greater nor more acceptable Sacrifice to God then the oblation of himself his Soul And these good Genii appear to me to be as the benign eyes of God running to fro in the world with Love and Pity beholding the innocent endeavous of honest single-hearted Men and ever ready to do them good They appear in many Forms Now when one of these hath brought you to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Miracles will appear but be resolute and follow your Genius and when you are among the Rosie Crucians you shall see the Day Star arise and the dawning will appear and they will give you great Treasures Medicines Tinctures and Telesmes when being used as the the Genius shall teach you these will make you young when you are old prolong Life preserve your health and make you Rich Wise and vertuous and finally alter amend and change the temper of the body and you shall perceive no disease in any part of your bodies I have seen one of these Genii like a young Scholler or Philosopher resolve Claudius Malbrank Esq 1. When old Oliver Cromwell would Dye 2. When his son Richard would lose his Honour 3. When the Parliament would be Dissolved 4. When Lambert would lose his Power 5. When the Committee of Safety and the City would fall out 6. When that Commitee would come to Nothing 7. When the Parliament would be Dissolved that should pull down the Gates of the City 8. When another Parliament and their General should fall out with London and when the Parliament and he will not agree 9. When London and King Charles will kindly embrace each other 10. When the City of London will Crown him King of England Scotland and Ireland and prevent the intended warr of France and Spain against us 11. When the King of Sweeds would lose his Power Life or Country 12. And when the King of Denmark will be Victorious over his Enemies When good to make golden Telesmes consecrated against the incursions of Enemies such a one was the Trojan Palladium no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Galahad but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Anthusius quoteth the Place to Verulanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Telesmatically consecrated under a good Horoscope by Asius the Philosopher and presented to the founder Trumpoigniflus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. as a Statue enabled by Art to preserve the City wherein it should be laid up in a victorious and impregnable State c. When good to go to Law when good to marry and finally it resolveth all manner of questions but if any happen to converse with Angels and be acquainted with Rosie Crucians that dayly send these Genii abroad in the world let him not Arrogate any thing to himself because of his present Power but be contented with that which his Genius shall say unto him praise God perpetually for this familiar Spirit and have a special care that it is not used for any worldly pride but imploy
it in such works which are contrary to the world use it rightly and enjoy it as he that hath it not live a temperate life and beware of all sin otherwise my friend you Genius will forsake you and you shall be deprived of happiness for know this of a truth whosoever abuseth this Genius and lives not exemplarily purely and devoutly before men he shall lose this benefit and scarce any hope will there be left ever to recover it afterwards These Genii teach and give Laws to the Servants of God for to deliver to the people These Genii command us to forgive our Enemies and regard not any that speak evil against us for what hath a good man to do with the dull approbation of the vulgar Fame like a River bears up all light things and swolne but drowns things weighty and solid I see the lowest vertues draw praise from the common people the middle vertues work in them Astonishment but of the highest vertues they have no sence or perceivance at all Regard not therefore vaine praises for praise proceeds more out of bravery then out of merit and happiness rather to vain and windy Persons then to persons substantial and solid My Genius hath had some contest with mee in the disposal of The Idea of the Law the subject being cross to the deceit of the times which is both malicious corrupt and spleenatick it was my desire to keep it within doors but the relation it bears to my former discourses and my practice hath forced it to the Press it is the last glass of my thoughts and their first reflex being not compleat I have added this to perfect their Image and simmetry hoping it will be profitable The Genius of the Law of England and of the City of London is naturally the same that King Charles hath who is called King of Scots and there is no Government that will be established with good and wholsome Laws but Monarchy who can incorporate Fire and Water The people will not be happy without the King And it is esteemed more Honour Excellency and Majesty amongst the Legitimate Nobility and Gentry of the world for a General to restore or make a King then to be a King c. My humble and hearty desire is that the Laws of England the Priviledges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subject and the property of all things may be asserted according to the first Declarations of the King and Parliament in the begining of the unfortunate Warr. That the true Protestant Religion in the best sence of the Church of England may be professed and defended all Heresies Sects and Schismes discountenanced and suppressed a lawfull succession of godly and able Ministers continued and encouraged and the two Universities Oxford and Cambridge and all Colleges in both of them may be preserved and countenanced And this is for the prosperity of the Nation I have now done Gentlemen but how much to my own prejudice I cannot tell I hope I have offended no man yet I am confident this shall not pass without noise but if I have err'd in any thing and yet I have followed the best presidents of Lawyers in the World I expose it not to the mercy of man but of God who as he is most able so also he is most willing to forgive in the day of our account And if any more zealous Pretenders to Prudence Policy and Piety shall oppose the Idea of the Law I shall expect from them these following performances 1. A plain positive Exposition of all the passages in this Book without any injury to the sence of their Authour for if they interpret them otherwise then they ought they but create Errors of their own and then overthrow them 2. To prove their Familiarity with the Genius of the Idea of the Law and Knowledge in these Divine and Natural Statutes let them give the Reader a punctual discovery of all the secrets thereof If this be more then they can do it is argument enough that they know not what they oppose and if they do not know how can they Judg or if they judge where is their Evidence to Condemn 3. Let them not mangle and discompose my Book with a scatter of observations but proceed Methodically to the censure of Appologue Book and the account at the end expounding what is obscure and discovering the very intents of my Book in promoting the practice of good Laws for the benefit of my Country that the reader may find if I write for any other end then to disabuse the Nation my positions to be false not only in their Theory but if he will assay it by his own particular experience I intreat all Ingenuous Gentlemen that they will not slight my Endeavours because of my years which are but few it is the custome of most men to measure knowledg by the Beard but look rather on the Soul an Essence of that Nature quae ad perfectionem suam curricula temporis non desiderat and that they would not conclude any thing rashly against me Thus have I Published that knowledg which God gave me Ad fructum bonae Conscientiae I have not bushell'd my Light nor buried my Talent in the ground I will now whilst the poor Communalty are Plaintiffs and Exrcise-men Defendants humbly move for the Plaintiffs and put up my Idea of the Law to the Judg and so let the Attorney and his Counsel on the other side shew cause why we may not have judgment against them the Devil being Nonsuited and my Council hath put all his enemies under his feet Sentence being given I humbly pray the Execution may be served upon the last Enemy that my Counsellor Judg Prince and King may deliver up the Kingdom to his Father For now is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known From my House in the East-side Spitle Fields next door to the Red Lion without Bishops-gate neer London April 27. 1660. JOHN HEYDON In Honorem viri verè eruditi Domini Johannis Heydon generosi in operam suam elaboratissimam Legis Ideam Praeteritum tempus scribis scribisque futurum Illustras radiis tempus utrumque tuis Praeteritum praesens red dis praesensque futurum Nulla tuis oculis non patefacta latent Si tibi praeteritum praesens notumque futurum Inter coelicolas tu quoque caelicola The past and future time thy pregnant qui◠Illustrate 'bove the reach of humane skill Future and past both present are with thee There 's nothing hid from thy perspicacie The present Future past to him 's all one Who in the heavens hath his Station Thomas Revel Arm. To the truly Ingenious his highly deserving Friend John Heydon On his Learned Work Entituled The IDEA of the LAW COuld I of our Antipodes but give A true Description Tell how Those persons live That there Inhabit Acquaint the World how all Things stated are on that side of Earth's Ball Relate the curious Customs that
emergent Occasions then prevailing in the Kingdome I think now it is called so by Carolus Magnus secundus The State oft times now changed they are reverenc'd enough if they may conserve their Authority within the limits of their own proper Cases And it were monstrously preposterous any way to extend and apply them to Cases omited as in Olivers time 49. There can be no Sequel of a Sequele but the extention must be arrested within the Limits of immediate Cases otherwise you fall by degrees upon unresembling Cases and the Subtilty of wit will be of more force than the Authority of Law 50. In Lawes and Statutes of a compendious Stile extention may be made more freely But in those Lawes which are punctual in the Enumeration of Cases particular more warily For as exception strengthens the force of a Law in cases not excepted so enumeration weakens it in cases not enumerated 51. An explanatory Statute damms up the streams of a former Statute neither is the Extention received afterward in the one or the other For there is no Superextention can be made by a Judg where once an extention hath begun to be made by a Law 52. The Forme of words and Acts of Court doth not admit an Extention upon like Cases for that looseth the nature of Formality which departs from Custome to Arbitriment And the Introduction of Olivers Tyranical new Heavy Cases imbaseth the Majesty and cloggs the purity of the late Sacred King Charles his Statutes 53. Extention of Law is aptly applyed unto cases Post nate which were not existent in Nature when the Law was enacted For where the Case could not be exprest because there were not such extant a Case omitted is accepted for a Case exprest if the reason be the same So for extention of Lawes in Cases amiss let this my Direction suffice Now I shall speak of the use of Examples 53. It follows now I speak of Examples from which Right is inferr'd where Law is imperfect As for Custome which is a kinde of Law and for Presidents which by frequent Practice are grown into Custome as into a Tacite Law I will speak in due place But now I speak of Examples or Presidents which rarely and sparsedly fall out and are not yet grown up to the strength of a Law namely when and with what caution a Rule of Law is to be derived from them where Law is imperfect 54. Your Presidents must be derived from Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles and his happy Son being good and moderate and not from the bloudy Factions or dissolute Times of the Tyrant Oliver Cromwell and his Sons For Examples fetched from such times are a Bastard Issue and do rather corrupt than instruct 55. In his late Sacred Majesties time the Examples are to be reputed the best and most safe for those were but lately done and no inconveniences ensued Now Why may it not be done again Yet nevertheless recent Examples are of less Authority and if perchance it so fall out that a Reformation Modern Presidents taste more of their own times than of right Reason 56. But those Presidents betwixt Christ his Apostles and the late King Charles must be received with caution and choice For since our Saviour Christ two hundred years the revolution of an Age altered many things so as what might seeme ancient for time the same through perturbation and Inconformity to the present Age may be altogether new Wherefore leaving Moses Joshua and the Elders and the succeeding Prophets to the Lawes and Statutes of their times and following the Examples of Christ his Apostles Bishops and the Judges of a middle time are best or of such an Age as best sorts with the present times which now and than the time farther off better represents than the time close at hand 57. Keep your selves within or rather on this side the limits of an Example and by no means surpass those bounds For where there is no Rule of Law all ought to be entertain'd with Jealousie Wherefore here as in obscure cases follow that which is least doubtfull 58. Beware of Fragments and Compounds of Examples and view the example entire and every particular pâ—ssage thereof For if it be inequall and unreasonable before a perfect Comprehension of the whole Law to make a Judgment upon a part or Paragraph thereof much more should this Rule hold in Examples which unless they be very square and proper are of doubtfull use and application 59. In Examples it imports very much through what hands they have past and have been transacted For if they have gone currant with Clarks only and Ministers of Justice from the course of some Courts without any notice taken thereof by Superiour Counsellors or with the Master of Errours by the people they are to be rejected and little to be esteemed of but if they have been such precise Presidents or Counsellors of Estate Judges to Principal Courts as that it must needs be that they have been strengthened by the â—acite approbation at least of Judges they carry the more reverence with them 60. Presidents that have been publish'd however less practised which being debated and ventilitated by Discourses and disâ—ptations have yet stood out unargued are of greater Authority but such as have remained buried as it were in Closets and Archives are of less For Examples like Waters are most wholesome in the running stream 61. Examples that refer to Lawes I would not have them drawn from Writers of History but from publique Acts and more diligent Traditions The Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kibbel and it is an Infelicity familiar even with the best Hystorians that they pass over Lawes and Judicial Proceedings too slightly and if perhaps they have used some Diligence therein yet they vary much from the authentick Constitutions 62. An Example which a contemporary Age or a time nearest unto it hath repealed should not easily be taken up again though the like Case should afterwards ensue nor makes it so much for an Example that upon Experience they have now relinquish'd it 63. Examples are admitted into Councils but do in like manner prescribe or command Therefore I advise you to let them bee so moderated that the Authority of the time past may be bowed and plied to the practice of the time present and thus much concerning Advice and Direction from Presidents where Law is imperfect it followes next that I speak of Courts Pretorian and Ceuforian Courts of equity and of penalty as I practised of Cliffords Inn where I was sometime a Clerk 64. I advise you let there be Courts and Jurisdictions which may define according to the Arbitrement of some good man and according to sound Judgment for the Law as is observ'd before cannot provide for all cases but is fitted to such occurrences as commonly fall out and time as was said by the Ancients is a most wise thing and daily the Author and Inventor of new cases 65. New cases fall
places of preferment to whom all matters of weight be committed which sell and compel men to buy of them all things Placards of the Tyrant Protectors gifts Benefices Offices Dignities Letters of Cromwell or the Parliament and Writs moreover right Justice Law Equity and honesty Sometimes it fortunes according to the judgement of Chancellors and Secretaries the friends and enemies of Kings are reckoned with whom according to their pleasure they sometime make League and sometime make mortal War And when they from most base estate by means of a most covetous selling of their voyce have climbed to so high a degree of Dignity they have therewithal such a mischievous boldness that sometimes they dare condemn Kings and without determination of the Council and without declaring the cause do condemn them to be Beheaded and thus have they transferred us to misfortune they being now puffed up with Pride by robbing and spoiling theeving pilfring plundering breaking of houses and Sequestring the people and taking away their riches c. You have now also read the Errors of the Law And you see how necessary it is for to Crown King Charles That the Idea of the Law may with Mercy and Truth Righteousness and Peace be practised and established in the three Kingdoms England Scotland and Ireland to the glory of God and the good of our Countrey Thus have you the Idea of the Law clarified and the dross taken from it being fit now to establish in a happy Common-wealth under the Government of King Charls May the 2. 1660. John Heydon THE IDEA OF GOVERNMENT THe first Rule that I laid down in my Introduction to the defence of the Idea of the Law I need not here again repeat but desire all Gentlemen only to carry it in mind I have shewn you the Errors of the Law in all Courts and have done what lies on my part that you may peruse this Defence of my Idea of the Law without any rub or stumbling let me now request but one thing which you are bound to grant which is that you read my Defence without Prejudice and that all along as you go which is but a little way you make not your recourse to the customary conceits of your fancy but consult with your free Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato De Leg. For Custom is another Nature and therefore those conceits that are accustomary and familiar we unawares appeal too as if they were indeed the Natural light of the mind and her first common notions 2. Now before I can represent unto you the Idea of the Law you must Crown King Charles the Second Son of King Charles the first lately murthered and then I shall shew you the frame and fashion of the Just Notion of the Idea of the Law in General according to my Telesmatical Genius and Hortensius gives this shadowy interpretation of it Lex est quaedam regula mensura secundam quam inducitur aliquis ad agendum vel ab agendo retrahitur but Heliani◠offended with the latitude of this definition esteems it too spreading and comprehensive as that which extends to all Natural I and to Artificials too for they have Regulas mensuras operationum Thus God has set a Law to the waves and a Law to the windes Nay thus Clocks have their Laws and Lutes have their Laws and whatsoever have the least appearance of motion has some rule proportionable to it whereas these workings were always reckoned to be at the most but inclinations and Pondera and not fruits of a Legislative Power But yet the Apostle Paul to stain the pride of them that gloried in the abuse of the Law ruining many poor people for a fee calls such things by the name of Law as were most odious and anomalous thus he tells you of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though sin be properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus he mentions Legem membrorum the same which the Lawyers call Legem fomitis 3. And yet this is sure that a rational creature is only capable of a Law which is a moral restraint and so cannot reach to those things that are necessitated to act ad extremum virium 4. And therefore Cooke does give you a more refined interpretation when he tells you Lex est mensura quaedam actum moralium ita ut per Conformitatem ad illam Rectitudinem moralem habeant si ab illi discordent obliqui sint A Law is such a just and regular turning of actions as that by vertue of this they may conspire into a Moral musick and become very pleasant and harmonious Thus Plato speaks much of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in Laws After this he does altogether discourse of Harmony and does infinitely prefer mental and intellectual Musick those powerful and practical strains of goodness that spring from a well composed spirit before those delicious Blandishments those soft and transient touches that comply with sense and salute it in a more flattering manner and he tells you of a spiritual dancing that is answerable to so sweet a Musick to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilest the Laws play in Consort there is a chorus of well-ordered affections that are raised and elevated by them And thus as Aristotle well observes some Laws were wont to be put in verse and to be sung like so many pleasant Odes that might even charm the people into obedience 5. 'T is true that conceited Philosopher gives the reason of it they were put into verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might remember them the better But why may not I add a reason also to share with it that they might come with a greater grace allurement that they might hear them as pleasant as they would do the voyce of a Vial or an Harp that has Rhetorick enough to still and quiet the evil Spirit But yet this does not sufficiently paint out the being of a Law to say that 't is only regula mensura and Littleton himself is so ingenious as to tell me that he cannot rest satisfied with this Interpretation which he wrote but with a blunt pen. And therefore I will give him some time to engross it fair And in the mean time I will look upon that speculative Law-giver Plato I mean who was alwayes new modelling of Laws and rolling Political Ideas in his mind 6. Now you may see him gradually ascending and climbing up to the description of a Law by these four several steps and yet he does not reach the top and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it neither First he tells me that Laws are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are esteemed fitting but because this might extend to all kind of Customs too his second thoughts limit and contract it more and tells me that a Law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Decretum civitatis yet because the Mass and bulk of people the rude heap
fact and so fatal punishment unto man and partly that the sight and presence of the object might not repeat so prodigious a crime in the thoughts of men nor receive the memory of it nor continue the disgrace of him that dyed for it But there was another reason in Bove cornupeta for there as Maimonides tells me in his Morech Nebachim it was ad poenam exigiendam à Domino the putting of that to death was a punishment to the owner for not looking to it better for I cannot at all consent to the fancy of the Jews which the renouned Josephus mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although the forementioned Critick give a better sense of it then it is likely the Author ever intended non in Alimentum sumi debuit unde scilicet in Domini commodum cederet but how such an interpretation can be extracted out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not easily to be imagined for those words of Josephus plainly imply that the Jewes thought such an Ox could not yield wholesome nourishment or at the best they lookt upon an unclean beast which was not to be eaten which indeed was a fond and weak conceit of them but they had many such which the learned Author loves to excuse out of his great favour and indulgence to them yet which is very remarkable if the Ox had kill'd a Gentile they did not put it to death it seems it would yield wholesome nourishment for all that But this I am sure of that as God doth not care for the Oxen which the renowned Selden doth very well understand of Cura legislativa for otherwise God hath a providential care even of them so neither doth he take care for the punishment of Oxen but it is written for his Israels sake to whom he hath subjected these Creatures and put them under his feet 37. Neither yet can the proper end of a punishment agree to the sensitive Creature for all punishment is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not in the power of punishment to recal what is past but to prevent what 's possible The Greek Lawyer speaks the same which God speaks to Moses That Israel may hear and fear and thus punishment doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 38. But none of these ends are applyable to sensitive Creatures for there is no more satisfaction to Justice in inflicting an evil upon them then there is in the ruining of inanimate beings in demolishing of Cities or Temples for Idolatry which is only for the good of them that can take notice of it Quam stultum est his irasci qua iram nostram nec merneruut nec sentiunt No satisfaction to be had from such things as are not apprehensive of punishment and their Annihilation though a great evil yet wants this sting and aggravation of a punishment for a Creature is not sible of it 39. Much less can you think that a punishment hath any power to amend or meliorate sensitive beings or to give example to others amongst them 40. By all this you see that amongst all irrational beings there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence it also follows that the Law of nature is built upon Reason Reason the Idea of the soul of man whose Genius describes the Idea of all humane Law to him And the original of all is the divine Idea of the Law of God 41. There is some good proportionable and nutrimental to the being of man and some evil so venomous and obstructive to his nature as that the God of Nature doth sufficiently antidote and fortifie him against the one and doth maintain and sweeten his essence with the other There is so much harmony in some actions as that the soul must needs dance at them and there is such an harsh discord and jarring in others as that the soul cannot endure them 42. Therefore Mr. Hobs doth thus describe the Law of Nature Jus naturale est dictatum rectae rationis indioan◠actui alicui ex ejus convenientia vel disconvenientia cum ipsa natura rationali inesse moralem turpitudinem aut necessitatem moralem consequenter ab authore naturae ipso Deo talem actum aut vetari aut praecipi which I shall thus render The Law of nature is a streaming out of Glory from the Idea of the Law of God powerfully discovering such a deformity in some evil as that an intellectual eye must needs abhor it and such a commanding beauty in some good as that a rational being must needs be enamoured with it and so plainly shewing that God stampt and sealed the one with his Command and branded the other with his disliking 43. Philo Judaeus makes mention of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tells me that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radical and fundamental knowledge planted in the being of man budding and blossoming in the first principles flourishing and bringing fruit spreading it self into all the goodly branches of Morality under the shadow of which the soul may sit with much complacency and delight And as he pours out himself very fluently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no need of Oratory to allure men to it you need not heap up arguments to convince them of it it is easily found it is easily attain'd it growes spontaneously it bubbles up freely it shines out clearly and pleasantly it was so visible as that the most infant age of the world could spell it out and read it without a Teacher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he goes on it was long extant before Moses was born long before Aaron rang his golden Bels before there was a Prophet or a Judge in Israel men knew it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They had a Law of Gods own making They had the Statutes of God within them By this Idea of the Law Adam and Eve knew that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had deceived them and arrested them and when by Hab. Corp. they were removed from their former condition they discovered their nakedness And that again by Alias Hab. Corp. they should be removed to the prison of the flesh 44. This Idea of the Law flamed in Cains conscience and the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in his fore head And this Law was proclaimed in his heart with as much terrour as it was published from mount Sinai which filled him with those furious reflections for his unnatural murder Enoch when he walkt with God walkt by the Genius of this Idea of the Law Noah the Preacher of Righteousness took this Idea of the Law for his Text. Hard-hearted Pharaoh saw this Idea of the Law when he cries out The Lord is righteous but I and my people have sinned Cromwell and the fanatick Parliament were terrified by this Idea of the Law after they had destroyed King Charls nor will the three Kingdomes be in peace untill King Charles the
then as man doth start aside and apostatize from this Law to so much misery and punishment doth he expose himself 65. Though it be not necessary That the Idea of the Law should discover the full extent and measure of that punishment which is due to the Breakers of this Law for to the Nature of punishment Non requiritur ut praecognita sit poena sed ut fiat actus dignus tali poena the Counsellors and Atturneyes both will acknowledge this principle 67. For as Numenius Appionus hath it Sequitur reatus ex intrinseca conditione culpae ita ut licet poena per legem non sit determinata Arbitrio tamen competentis judicis puniri possit Yet the Idea of the Law will reveal and disclose thus much That a being totally dependent upon another essentially subordinate and subject to it must also be accountable to it for every provocation and rebellion And for the violation of so good a Law which he hath set it and for the sinning against such admirable Providence and Justice that shines out upon it must be liable to such punishment as that glorious Law-giver shall judge fit for such offences who is so full of Justice that he cannot and so great in goodness that he will not punish a Creature above its desert And thus have I cleared one hundred Paragraphs hoping you will crown the King according to his deserts that my Idea may be proclaimed that the King Parliament Priest and People may live happily c. 68. And there was never any partitition-Wall between the Essence of King Charles and the Parliament Now the Law of Nature is founded in Essentials And that which is disconvenient to that rational Nature which is in a Cavileir is as opposite and disagreeable to the same Nature in a Parliamentier Round-head Presbyterian Anabaptist Independent and Quaker as that good which is suitable and proportionable to a King or Cavileir in his rational being is every way as intrinsecal to the welfare of a Parliamentier Round-head c. that doth not differ essentially from him so likewise for the promulgation of this Law being it doth equally concern them both It is also by my Idea of the Law equally publisht and manifested to them both 69. The Extent of the Idea of the Law I shall lastly manifest in these thirty Paragraphs and so conclude there are stampt and printed upon the being of man some clear and undelible principles some first and alphabetical Notions by putting together of which it can spell the nature of my Jdea of the Law there is scatter'd in the soul of man some seeds of the Divine Idea which till it with a vigorous Pregnancy with a multiplying fruitfullnesse So that it brings forth a numerous and sparkling Posterity of secondary Notions which make for the Crowning and encompassing of the Soul with happiness 70. All the fresh springs of Common and fountaine Notions are in the Soul of man for the watering of his Essence for the refreshing of this heavenly Plant This Arbor inversa this enclosed being this Garden of God 71. And though the wickednesse of man may stop the pleasant motion the cleare and Christalline Progress of the fountain yet they cannot hinder the first rising the bubbling endeavors of it They may pull off the Leaves of the Idea of the Law and pluck off the fruit breake through my Defence and chop off the Branches yet the root of it is eternal And the foundation of it inviolable Now these first and Radicall principles are wound up in some such short bottoms as these Bonum est appetendum malum est fugiendum Beatitudo est quaerenda Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris And Reason thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incubando super haec ova by warming and brooding upon these and oval Principles of her own laying it being it self quickened with an heavenly vigour doth thus hatch the Idea of the Law of Nature 72 First you must not nor cannot thinke that the Idea of the Law is confined and contracted in this Government of England but Reason like The King with one foot fixed a Centre and with the other measures a Parliament and spreads out the circumference of the Common peoples happinesse and welfare and draws severall conclusions which doth all meet to make three Prosperous Kingdomes which is only in this sacred centrall principle 73. For men must not only look upon the Capitall letters of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they must read the whole context and coherence of it they must look to every jot and Apex of it for heaven and earth shall sooner pass away then on jot or tittle of this Law shall vanish 74. Discourse is the usuall Inlet of errour and too oftengives an open admission and courteous entertainment to such falsities as come disguised in a Syllogistical form which by their sequarious windings and gradual insinuations twine about some weake understandings yet in the Nature of the thing it selfe it is impossible to collect an errour out of a truth as it is to gather the blackest night out of the fairest sun-shine or the fowlest wickedness out of the purest goodnesse A conclusion therefore that is built upon the sand you may very well expects its fall but that which is built upon the Rock is impregnable and immoveable 75. For if this Idea of the Law should not extend it selfe so far as to oblige men to an accurate observation of that which is a remove or two distant from first principles it would then prove extreamly defective in some such precepts as do most intimately and intensly conduce to the welfare and advantage of an intellectuall being 76. The Idea of the Law as it is thus brancht forth doth bind in foro conscientiae for as that noble Author Des Cartes speakes very well in this Naturall conscience it is centrum notitiarum communium and it is a kinde of sensus communis in respect of the inward faculties and that other in respect of the outward senses It is a competent Judge of this Idea of the Law it is the naturall pulse of the soul by the beating and Motion of which the state and temper of men is discernable The Apostle thus felt the Heathens pulse and found their consciences sometimes accusing them sometimes making Apology for them yet there 's a great deal of difference between the Law of Conscience and the Morall Law for as the Lawyers plead it is Dictamen practicum in particulari it is a prosecution and application of this Naturall Idea of the Law as providence is of that Divine Idea of the Law 77. Nay conscience sometimes doth embrace only the shadow of a Law and doth engage men though erroneously to the observation of that which was never dictated by any just legislative power nor is it content to glance only at what 's to come but Janus like it has a double Aspect and so looks back to what 's past as to call
the sword and in effect those same excursions and adulterate Mixtures are but the workings of a party already in motion towards that end He that designes a change of Government must begin by imposing a delusion upon the people And whatsoever is necessary to his purpose must be accommodated to their humour The Pulpit by these glosses and puzling distinctions under the Doctrines of conditionate obedience suggesting liberty cousens the multitude into a Rebellion Oaths Covenants are but the Jugglers-knots fast or loose as the Priest pleases The weaker sort being thus prepared and poysoned by a seditious Clergy 't is then the States-mans part to push those mutinous inclinations into action and to divide the cause betwixt Conscience and Property the better to involve all interests in the Quarrel under the Masque of Piety and publickness of spirit of holy men and Patriots the Crafty cheat the simple engaging by those specious pretences the rash mis-guiding people with good intentions but wanting care and skill in Sacriledge and Treason And indeed now all the planets are retrograde except the Sun and Moon which sometimes are eclips'd and dart down these influences upon the earth This was the very Root and this hath been the proness of our evils for under the Notion of Gods glory the safety and honour of the King The fundamental Lawes and Freedomes of the people the priviledges of Parliaments c. The Kingdome was gulled into a complyance with an ambitious and scismatical faction the main pretence was the Assertion of the Subjects legal Rights against the grand prerogatives And that directed only to the limitation of an intended arbitrary power that regulation of such such misgovernments and all this saving their Allegiance to his sacred Majesty whose Person Crown and Dignity they had so often sworn deeply to maintain This was a bait so popular it could not fail of drawing in a party and that produced a Warre The former story of the Quarrel is little to my purpose The Logique of it less How by the same authority of Text and Law both King and People could be justified against the other I meddle not let it suffice that Saturn and Jupiter back't with a Comment few years before threw down after six years conflict a vast profusion of blood and Treasure the King a prisoner and his whole party scattered and disarmed The Commons found themselves dispos'd to end our troubles and passed a Vote to treat with his Majesty in order to a settlement This met with little opposition for all the planets were then in Trine except Mars his people who having gorged themselves already upon the publick ruine were not yet satisfied without their Soveraigns blood the death of Monarchy it self and the subjecting of a tame slavish people to a Conventicle of Regicides there were not many of so deep a tincture but what these few could not effect by number they did by force for by the malice of mutual Aspects the planets showered down six moneths before then Sir Hardresse Waller Pride and Hewson moved by this influence upon the sixth of December 1648. they seized and imprisoned 41. of the Commons house clapp'd guards upon all Passes leading to it some 60. more were given in upon a List to those that kept the door with an expresse direction from several leading members to oppose their entrance about 40. more withdrew for fear of violence their crime was only the carrying of a Vote for peace already mentioned the day before This action was so erroneous that the very Contrivers of it were ashamed to own it transferring that upon the Army-Officers which was done by their own appointment They passed however a formal disallowance of the violence and ordered their discharge which yet the Officers refused upon a combination now most evident observe A Comet and a grand Eclipse of the Sun alters the matter for that which they told me in 48 was an Act of the Army-Officers In 59. they call a Judgement of Parliament and they justifie and continue that very seclusion by a Vote of Jan. 5.59 which they themselves condemned and discharged by several Orders in Decemb. 48. The particulars of these transactions by Sir Michael Heydon are excellently delivered And thus you see how God by the Planets shoots down his Angry sword and how they are now all set upon revenge their influence is furious and so will continue untill the King be crowned in England c. I will now return to the great test of the spirits and designes of the several parties and Members of the House and from that Judgement and discrimination of persons and humours we may learn seasonably to provide against after-claps This Blow brake the house of Commons into three-peices one party adhered to the Vote opposed the violence declared against it claimed from time to time their own and the peoples Rights pleaded the Covenant and their Declarations and stood it out The second sort was not prepared for Martyrdome a kind of Barnacle neither fish nor flesh this was a party that flew at first but soon retracted Headed again and went along for company My charity perswades me well of diverse of them and that they mixed rather in hopes to moderate the rest then in design to strengthen them A party rather weak and passive then malicious But nothing can excuse those sons of Belial the perjured Remnant no nor express them beside their Oaths and Covenant they have above an hundred times in printed Declarations renounced the very thought of what they have since executed Read the exact Collections We are say they so far from altering the fundamental constitution and Government of this Kingdome by King Lords and Commons that we have only desired that with the consent of the King such powers may be settled in the two houses without which we can have no assurance c. These are the very words of their Declaration April 17. 1646. published by the House of Commons alone towards the end of the War and most remarkably entituled A Declaration of their True intentions concerning the antient Government of the Nation and securing the people against all arbitrary Government Let this Quotation serve for all lest I exceed my limits not to insist upon things known and publicke How faithfully these people have managed their original Trust how strictly they have kept their Oaths and Promises how tenderly they have observed the Lawes and asserted our freedomes how poor they have made themselves to make us rich how graciously they have assumed the Legislative power and then how modestly they have exercized it In fine how free and happily we lived under their Government till Geomantick Divels were called upon by the power of Angry Planets and loost in their Influence then Oliver stept in and threw them out by a trick of their own teaching And thus the King of Planets was angry with the Moon that eclips'd his Glory in March 52. And thus in April 1653 he shewed