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
unto them even for conscience sake and for the Lords sake and to make prayers supplications and intercession for them that under them we may lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour not to despose or shead their blood for which their is no precept nor president in the Gospel but only of the bloody Jews who with wicked hands crucified Jesus Christ the King of the Jews by birth-right and Lord of glory whom they rejected and disclaimed for their King before they crucified him which brought speedy and exemplary desolation upon their whole Nation ever since till now And is not this plain way of God the safest for you and the Army and Cromwels bloody Saints and Jesuites to follow yea the short cut to peace and settlement ruminate upon it and then be wise and bring the Kingdomes also c. Thus from my heart I wish England may Flourish in the Protestant Religion in peace and plenty under the Government of the King and Parliament The Major Aldermen Merchants Tradesmen and Common people in general will never bee happy until King Charles be Crowned King of England and if you erect a figure of Astrology and project a figure of Geomancy in a Telesme you shall find five Angels of God Commissionated to fight for the King against those that oppose him and these are their names Michael Gabriel Phebus Hamaliel Muriel and these command two Genij Teriel and Elim to preserve him against one enemy and his two servants Pallas and Barchiel but the Genij keep him in the Protestant Religion against all Sects in Charity and Prayer Now it is a vaine thing to fight against God turn him a Papist or an Anabaptist c. and these Angels will forsake him and he shall lose his life or all that belong to his happiness in this world c. He that desires to know more of what shall come to pass in England Scotland France and Ireland Spaine Italy Sweden Poland c. let him read my Book of Geomancy entituled by the Rosie Crucians The Temple of wisdome and he shall find what he desires and the Spirits that signifie these things and what strange things will happen in London before 1665. God bless the City from destruction the Devill is willing to make war between the King and Parliament that Popery may be built upon their ruine I desire mercy and truth may meet together Righteousness and peace kiss each other then will England be happy From my house in Spittle-feilds next dore to the red Lion on the east side London near Bishopgate this 27. of April 1660. John Heydon On the Idea of the Law retrived by his Ingenious Friend Mr. Jo. Heydon APélles view'd the Beauties of all Greece That he by them might limb a curious piece Resembling Venus Heydon surely saw As many wits to Ideize the Law In its perfection so sublime a tract As this appeares may legally exact A subsidie of praises to usher't forth By vertue of its own inherent worth Great volumes are but the periphrasis Of what you have epitomiz'd in this Plato's Licurgus Laws et Cetera Are summ'd up by you in this Algebra On this your Specilagium when I look Each Paragraph presents me with a Book And with an Idea thâ— nâ—r was known To any age or person but this one The Macrocosm may be by this Law freed From the Convultions Tyranny did breed Platonick Laws shall be no more Divine Reputed since we have these Laws of thine Tho. Fige 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Monsieur Monsieur Jean Heydonsur son admirable Idee des toâ—h emciennes et modernes LE grand flam beau du mond á toute sorte Des animaux par ses caions confoote Et toy moncher Heydon par ton espoit Ecllairs nostr ' ignoranle ton esloist Par la recherche de ta belle Industrie A tracé les tenebras et gueri Nostr ' avengless les choses plus chachcés Rendant tóut claires et tóut Illumintés Advance donc toutjours par ton geâ—a á sutmonter les assauts de l'annie LUIS FROISAND Eque Al molto Illustre amico mio honoratissimo Il Sigr Giovanni Heydon soprá l'opera sua accuratissima l' Idea delle Leggi IL Cielo e terra e tuâ—t ' i suoi se ereti Al tuo cercar ' non resteranno cheti Volgi e vivolgi tutto e non si trova Cosa ch' à tu ' Ingegno sia nova L' antico é novo à te e non v ' è cosa Nova à tiche paja tenebrosa E poiche tuito à tua vista appare Noll ' sdegniál Cieco se colo mostrare Castruccio Castracani Cavilero THE PROAEMIUM THE Idea of the Law you have read being the only way to establish a good Government and to Crown the Peoples desires with the King and happiness And this may be so strange and unexpected That the Defence it self which should cure and cease your amazement may not occasion in any passage thereof any further scruple or offence And this following shall strengthen the foregoing discourse And for my own part I cannot presage what may be in any shew of reason alledged by any man against me c. unless it be The Form of Government I would have and the King enthroned The Liberty welfare and prosperity of the people c. The Common Prayer c. In a word Episcopacie will warrant the easie and familiar sense that I shall set upon The Idea of the Law in the literal meaning thereof unto which if I advise reasons from the pious prudence of the holy Law-giver shewing how every passage makes for greater Faith in God and more affectionate obedience to his Law there will be nothing wanting I think though I shall sometimes cast in some notable advantages also from Critical Learning that may gain belief to the truth of the Kings Form of Government c. To prevent any further trouble in making good the sense I have put upon Monarchy being the best Form of Government in the world for the advantage of the people I shall here at once set down the Tyranny of the Times in one example of the Errors of the Laws of Oliver Cromwell and his fellows How much like the Popes their Laws and Statutes were The late King Charles his Law shewed the difference between true and false just and unjust honest and dishonest But the Pope and the Emperour boast that they have the Laws laid up in the chest of their breast to whom Will alone serveth for Law with the Arbitrement whereof they presume to judge and rule all Sciences Arts Scriptures Opinions and the works of men whatsoever they be For this cause Leo the Pope straightly commandeth all Christian people That no man in the Church should presume to judge any thing nor any man to justifie nor to discuss any matter but by the authority
perceive in the great and marvellous hidden Misteries of the Canons which some Popes of Rome do fructifie turning also the things which are spoken elsewhere in the holy Scripture and sometimes counterfeiting them and with these their devises likening and applying them from hence sprung those Concordance as Dr. Owen calls it of the Bible and of the Canons Moreover then this so many titles of Robberies of Clokes of Indulgences of Bulls of Confessionals of Pardons of Rescripts of Testaments of Dispensations of Priviledges of Elections of Dignities of Prebâ—nds of Houses of Holy Churches of Liberties of the place of Judgement of Judgements c. Finally the whole Canon Law is of all the most Erroneous and Deficient and that same Christian Religion at the beginning whereof Christ took away Ceremonies hath now more then ever the Jews had the weight of which being put thereto the light and sweet yoke of Christ is become much more grievous then all the rest and the Christians are enforced to live rather after the order of the Canons then after the Gospel It is a great error when the whole knowledge of both Laws is occupied about nothing but transitory frail flitting and vain things worldly affairs entercourses enmities of the Canons about the murders of men robberies thefts spoils factions conspiracies wrongs Treasons and the cases of the Censorian Courts Moreover then this Perjuries of witnesses falsifications of Notaries conclusions of Advocates corruption of Judges ambitions of Counsellors Revenues of Presidents by whom widows are oppressed Pupils undone good men exiled poor men trodden under foot innocents condemned and as J. Cleveland saith The Crows unharmed scape the Doves be vexed sore And blind men have altogether prepared for themselves and incurred those things which they have thought themselves to eschew by the means of the Laws and Canons because these Laws and Canons come not from God nor be addressed to God but are derived from the corrupt nature and wit of men and are invented for gain and covetousness To follow my Idea and Method of Law which is Monarchical and Episcopal you must next in order correct another Error in the practise of the Law which is full of deceits craftily set out with a colour of perswasion which is nothing else but to know how to intreat the Judge gently with perswasion and to know how to use the Laws of their fantasie or else inventing new cases and strange Pleas to make and unmake all Laws according to their pleasure or to avoid them with all manner of subtle slights or to prolong deceitful controversie to alledge the Laws in such wise that the Praetorian Court is turned into falsehood to entangle the Authority of the Atturneys in such sort that the meaning of the Law-maker is subverted to cry out with a lowd voice to be shameless presumptuous and clamorous and obstinate in pleading and declaring and he is accounted the best Practitioner which allureth most to variance and putteth them in hope to overcome perswadeth them to go to Law and incenseth them with wicked counsels which seeketh for appeals which is a notable Barrator and Author of variance which with the babling and force of his tongue can prate of every thing and also can make one case better then another with conveyances of Judgements and by this means to make true and righteous things appear doubtful and naught and with their arms to banish destroy and overthrow Justice That nothing may defile the Idea of the Law you must correct the blots and errors of the Proctors and Notaries whose injuries damages naughtiness and falsities you patiently endure forasmuch as they seem to have gotten credit licence and power to do all things through Apostolick and Imperial authority and among them they be the chiefest which know best how to trouble the place of Judgement to cause Controversies to confound causes to forge false Wills Obligations Supplications and Writs to know also excellently to deceive beguile and when it is needful to forswear and write false to dare to do all mischiefs and suffer not themselves to be overcome by any in imagining deceipts wiles crafts malitious alterations snares entrappings subtil practices incombrances controversies circumventions Scylla's and Charibdis's Furthermore no Notary can make so sure an instrument as Mr. Michael Petty terms it but that it is necessary to go to Law afresh if any adversary will go about to disanul the same For he will say either there is something left out or that there is deceit or else he will lay some other exception or demur to impugn the credit of the Bill Bond Lease Deed or Morgage or other And these be the remedies of the Law whereunto they teach contentious persons to flee these be the watches unto which William Hill Esq saith that the Law giveth succour except there be some that had rather fight then strive For he shall have so much Law as with his power he shall be able to defend wherefore the Law saith that we cannot resist them that be stronger then us The Lawyers of all Courts of Judicature interpret diversly one from another And I have a Controversie with them as sometime my Predecessor Doctor Nicholas Culpeper had with the Colledge of Physitians he desired the health of his poor Countreymen amending the Bill of the Doctors and prescribed good Medicines for poor people and being envyed it is supposed he was poysoned Now I hope to correct the Errors of the Law by the Idea and as briefly as I can I have shewed what is good and what is evil But indeed they have brought forth with most unhappy fruitfulness so many storms of Opinions and so many Annotations of most subtle Counsels and Cautles with which naughty Practises Atturneys are instructed and maintained which do so much bind their reputation with the famous memory of those Laws through everâ— Period as my beloved Friend Mr. Windsor Chumbers terms them Paragraphs as though the verity consisteth not rather in reasons then in confused testimonies drawn out of the vile multitude of very obstinate and trifling persons among whom is so much deceipt wrangling and discord that he which disagreeth not from others as I have heard an ingenuous man and no Lawyer Mr. Heydon say He that knoweth not how to gainsay other mens words with new opinions and bring all apparent things in doubt and with doubtful Expositions to apply well invented Laws to their devises is accounted little or nothing learned c. I have heard another industrious man Mr. William Hobbs the Astrological Fencer say All the knowledge of the Law is become a naughty Counsel and a deceitful not of iniquity Now I am ashamed to see how England is Governed and what strange Laws and Statutes are established to abuse the simple honest people by Fanatique Parliamentiers These hate the King and from these come those gorbellied Committee of Safety and the Grand Oliver who hurl low Secretaries into places of honor undeserved and base people into
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
second be crowned King of England and Ireland and that Family again restored c. Hence it was that God when he gave his Law afresh gave it in such a compendious Brachygraphy he wrote as it were in Characters without any explication or amplification at all He only enjoyned it with an imperatorious brevity he knowes there was enough in the breasts of men to convince them of it and to comment upon it only in the second Command there is added an enforcement because his people were excessively prone to violation of it and in that of the Sabbath there is given an exposition of it because in all its circumstances it was not found in the natural Idea of the Law so that in Dr. Barlowes language of Oxford the Decalogue would be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gold in the Lump whereas other Lawyers and Atturneyes use to beat it thinner And there is a sort of men termed petty Foggers that have the voice of Advocates engraffed in them which either of want of Clyents or riches incense the poor and silly men of the Countrey to go to Law and hearing their causes affirm them to be good supplying the place of Counsellours and raysing up for the value of a shilling great contentions and do make of a fiery sparkle a burning flame that destroyes many 46. But to return to the purpose of this Law as it is printed by nature Dr. Ward tels me Right reason is that fixt and unshaken Law not writ in perishing paper by the hand or pen of a Creature nor graven like a dead letter upon liveless and decaying Pillars but written with the point of a Diamond nay with the finger of God himself in the heart of a man a Deity gave it an Imprimatur And a Genius gave it in an immortal mind So as that I may borrow the expression of the Apostle the mind of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I take it in the very same sence as it is to be took in the Church It is a Pillar of this Truth not to support it but to hold it forth neither must I forget the saying of Mr. Thomas Heydon saith he the royal Law of Nature was never shut up in a prison nor never confined or limited to any outward surface but is was bravely scituated in the Centre of a rational Being alwayes keeping the soul company guarding it and guiding it ruling all its Subjects every obedient action with a Scepter of Gold and crushing in pieces all its enemies breaking every rebellious action with a Rod of Iron 47. The Idea of the Law which is the Queen of Angelical and humane Being doth so rule and dispose of them as to bring about Justice with a most high and powerfull and yet with a most soft and delicate hand 48. You may hear Plato excellently discoursing of it whilest he brings in a Sophister disputing against Socrates and such an one as would needs undertake to maintain this principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there was an untunable Antipathy between Nature and Law that Lawes were nothing but Hominum infirmiorum commenta that this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most bright and eminent Justice of Nature for men to rule according to power and according to no other Law that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all other Lawes were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay he calls them cheatings and bewitchings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they come saith he like pleasant songs when as they are meer Charms and Incantations But Socrates after he had stung this same Callicles with a few quick interrogations pours out presently a great deal of honey and sweetness and plentifully shews that most pleasant and conspiring Harmony that is between Nature and Law That there 's nothing more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then a Law that Law is founded in Nature that it is for the maintaining and enobling and perfecting of Nature Nay as Plato tels me elsewhere in Philebus There is no way for men to happiness unless they follow those steps of Reason those foot-steps of Nature This same Law L. Verulam doth more then once acknowledge when he tells me a positive Law with him is a more private Law but Natures Law is a more publique and catholique Law which he proves to be a very soveraign and commanding Law for thus he saith The Law that is most filled with Reason must needs be most victorious and triumphant And thus much in defence of sixty three Paragraphs of my Idea of the Law 49. Right it is I should interpret the meaning of twenty eight paragraphs more as they appear in the Jdea of the Law Reason is a most beautifull Law a Law of pure Complexion of a Natural colour never fades never dies it encourages in obedience with a smile it chides them and frowns them out of wickednesse good men hear the least whispering of its pleasant voice they observe the least glance of its lovely eye but wicked men will not hear it though it come to them in thunder nor take the least notice of it though it should flash out in lightening None must enlarge the Philacteries of this Law nor must any dare to prune off the least branch of it Nay the Malice of man cannot totally deface so indelible a Beauty No Pope nor Protector nor King nor Parliament nor People nor Angel nor creature can absolve you from it This Law never paints its face It never changes its colour it does not put on one Aspect in London and another face at Westminster but lookes upon both Royal Cavaleirs and fanatique Roundheads with an impartiall eye it shines upon all Ages and times and conditions with a perpetual light it is yesterday and to day and for ever There is but on Law-giver one Lord and supreame judge of the same Law God blessed for ever more He was the contriver of it the Commander of it the publisher of it and none can be exempted from it unless he will be banisht from his own essence and be excommunicated from humane nature 50 This punishment would have sting enough if he should avoid a thousand more that are due to so foul a Transgression 51 Now the most high and Soveraign being even God himselfe doth not subject himself to any Law though there be some Actions also most agreeable to his Nature and others plainly inconsistent with it yet they cannot amount to such a power as to lay any Obligation uppon him which should in the least notion differ from the liberty of his own Essence 52. Thus also in the Common-wealth of humane Nature that proportion which Actions bear to reason is indeed a sufficient foundation for a Law to build upon but it is not the Law it self nor a formall obligation 53. Yet some of the Lawyers are extream bold and vain in their suppositions so bold as that I am ready to Question whether it be best to repeat them
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
men to a strict account for every violation of this Law 78. Which Law is so accurate as to oblige men not only ad actum but ad modum also it lookes as well to the inward form and manner as to the Materiality and bulk of outward Actions for every being owes thus much kindness and curtesie to it selfe not only to put forth such acts as are essential and intrinsecal to its own welfare but also to delight in them and to fulfil them with all possible freenesse and Alacrity with the greatest intensnesse and complacency selfe love alone might easily constraine men to this naturall obedience Humane Lawes indeed rest satisfied with a visible and externall obedience but natures Law darts it selfe into the most intimate Essentialls and lookes for entertainment there 79. You know that amongst the Moralists only such Acts are esteemed Actus Humani that are Actus voluntarii when my Natural Idea hath tuned a Rationall being she expects that every string every faculty should spontaneously sound forth his praise 80. And the Divine Jdea that hath not chain'd nor fetter'd nor enslaved my Naturall Jdea but has given it a competent liberty and enlargement the free diffusion and amplification of its own essence he lookes withall that it should willingly consent to its own happinesse and to all such means as are necessary for the accomplishment of its choycest end and that it should totally abhor whatsoever is prejudicial to its own being which if it do it will presently embrace The Jdea of the Law if it either love its God and King or it self and the welfare of the People The command of its God and the King or the good of it selfe and happinesse of the People 81. Nay the precepts of this Idea of the Law are so potent and triumphant as that some acts which rebel against it become not only illicit but irrite as both the Counsellors and Atturneys observe they are not only irregularities but meer nullities and that either ob defectum potestatis incapacitatem materiae as if one should goe about to give the same thing to two severall persons the second Donation is a Morall non entity or else propter perpetuam rei indecentiam turpitudinem Durantem as in some an omalous and incestuous Marriage And this Idea of the Law is so exact that it is not Capable of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Lawyers Emendatio legis but there is no mending of Essences nor of Essentiall Laws both which consist in puncto in indivisibili so cannot Recipere magis minus nor is there any need of it for in this Law there is no rigour at all it is a pure praetorian Court of equity and so nothing is to be abated of it neither doth it depend only a mente Legislatoris which is the usuall rise of mitigation but it is conversant about such acts as are per se tales most intrinsecally and inseparably 82. Yet Notwithstanding this Law doth not refuse an interpretation but the Naturall Idea doth glosse and Aspect upon her soul the Divine Idea as in what circumstances such an act is to be esteemed murder and when not and so in many other branches of the Idea of the Law if there be any appearance of intricacy any seeming knot and difficultly the King will give edge enough to cut it asunder There are many Lawes and statutes in England Scotland and Ireland bordering upon this Idea of the Law Jus gentium juri naturali propinquum consanguineum and it is medium quoddam inter jus naturale jus civile Now this Jus gentium is either per similitudinem concomitatiam when severall nations have yet some of the same positive Lawes or else which indeed is most properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per communicationem societatem which as Mr. Tho. Hobs describes ab omnium vel multarum gentium voluntate vim obligandi accipit i. e. when all or many of the most refined Nations bunching and clustring together do bind themselves by generall compact to the observation of such Laws as they judge to be for the good of them all As the Honourable entertainment of an Embassadour or such like 83. So that it is jus humanum non scriptum it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as Theodosius tells me usu exigente humanis necessitatibus Gentes humanae quaedam sibijura constituerunt Whereas other humane Lawes have a narrower sphere and compasse and are limited to such a state as William Prinne Esq stiles leges populares the Hebrews call their positive Lawes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though the one do more properly point at Ceremonials the other at Judicials Plotinus renders them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abaris calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some call naturall Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Mosaicall Philosophers render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but according to the Greek Idiom these are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now though the formality of Humane Lawes do flow immediately from the power of some particular men yet the strength and smew of these Lawes is founded in the Idea of the Law or Moral and Naturall Lawes for my Idea doth permissively give them leave to make such Lawes as are for their greater convenience and when they are made and whilest they are in their force and vigour it doth command and oblige them not to break or violate them for they are to esteem their owne consent as a sacred thing they are not to contradict their owne acts nor to oppose such commands as ex pacto were framed and constituted by themselves And thus much in defence of one hundred and thirty paragraphs of my Idea of the Law which I have explained and amplified by the Idea of Government which is the King FINIS THE IDEA OF TYRANNY OR ENGLANDS Mysterious Reformation FROM The beginning of the Wars to this time unridled to the dis-abuse of this long deluded NATION Made publick by John Heydon Gent. for Eugenius Theodidactus Gal. 1.10 If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Jesus Christ But I am a servant of God and Secretary of Nature LONDON Printed in the year 1660. AN EPILOGUE BEhold the King of Angels is angry because you will not crown his Messenger and servant KING Amongst all the Orders and Inhabitants of heavenly unbodied souls and immortal Genii there is one King and he is angry because you will not obey the Lawes of the Emperour and King of the whole world God Amongst the Stars the anger of God is transferred and you have made discord in the Court of heaven and his Messengers and Planets meet and oppose wonderfully In 1642. Saturn and Jupiter fell out about Subjects Rebellion against their King And it may be observed that since Church-men dabled in Politiques and States-men in Divinity Law and Religion have been still subjected to
the Dedication of this little treatise of the Law which if you accordingly please to take into your favourable Patronage and accept as a Monument or Remembrance of good will You will oblige Your most Affectionate Friend and Servant John Heydon Aprill 27. 1660. TO THE MOST EXCELLENTLY ACCOMPLISH'T THE HONORABLE NOBLE LEARNED AND MOST HIGHLY OBLIGING OF ALL GENEROUS SPIRITS PHILIP GREEN of Staple-Inne Esq JOHN HEYDON In testimony of the Honor he bears to him humbly presenteth the Idea of the Law or A Monarchical Form of Government Fitted to the Genius of England Scotland and Ireland and useful for the Practitioners of all Courts viz. Chancery Kings Bench Common Pleas c. and all Courts of Equity or of Penalty The Preface to the Reader THe Idea of the Law is my present design And first I shall endeavour to follow the Method of God Man if you looke on his Material Parts was taken out of the great World as woman was taken out of man You read in Genesis that God made him out of the Earth This is a great mystery and you may find it in my book called The Temple of Wisdom Now I refer you therefore thither to avoid Repetitions but now let me tell you in a word it was not the common Pot-clay but another thing and that of a farr better Nature He that knows this knows the Subject of the Rosie Crucian Medicine to procure long Life Health Youth Riches Wisdome and Vertue how to alter change and amend the state of the body as you may read in my three first Books which Elias Ashmole Esquire made publick imperfect and rudely Deficient calling it The way to bliss In my true Copy of which there are four Books all wearing the same Title except the last which is called The Rosie Crucian infallible Axiomata there you shal find what destroyes or preserves the Temperament of Man I will in this Preface Digress but not much from the purpose because I will shew you the Nature of man how he fell and wherefore Laws were given c. Now in my Vacation I studied Man and in him I found three principles homogenial with his life such as can restore his decayes and reduce his disorders to a Harmony They that are ignorant in this point are not Competent Judges of Life and Death but Quacks and such as daube their follies and abominable deceipts and horid cheats upon every wall post and pissing place c. The Learned Viridiamus calls this matter Multiplices Terrae particula singularis if these words be well examined you may possibly find it out And so much for the Body let me speak a word of his Soul which is an Essence not to be found in the Texture of the great World and therefore meerly Divine and Supernatural Tebelenus calls it Divini spiritus aura vitae Divinae Halitus He seems also to make the Creation of Man a little Incarnation as if God in this work had multiplied himself Adam saith he received his soul Ex admiranda singularique Dei Inspiratione ut sic loqui sit fas fructificatione St. Luke also tels you the same thing for he makes Adam the Son of God not in respect of the exteriour Act of Creation but by way of Descent And this St. Paul confirms in the words of Aratus for we also are his Generation The soul of man consists chiefly of two Portions Ruach and Mephes Inferiour and Superiour The Superiour is Masculine and Eternal The Inferior Faeminine and Mortal In these two consists our Spiritual Generation Ut aute◠in caeteris animantibus atque etiam in ipso homine Maris ac faminae conjunctio fructum propagationemque spectabat Naturae singulorum dignam ita in homine ipso ille Maris ac faemenine interior arcanaque societas hoc est animi atque animae Copulatio ad fructum vitae Divinae Idontum producendum comparabitur atque huc illa arcana benedictio faecunditas concessa huc illa declarata facultas monitio spectat Crescite multiplicamini replete Terram subjicite illam Dominamini Out of this you may learn The Law of Marriage That is a Comment on life a meet Hieroglyphick or outward representation of our inward vital Composition for Life is nothing else but an union of Male and Female Principles And he that knowes this secret knows the Mysterious Law of Marriage both Spiritual and Natural and how he ought to use a wife Matrimony is no ordinary trivial business but in a moderate sence Sacramental It is a visible sign of our invisible union to Christ which St. Paul calls a great Mystery and if the thing signified be so reverend the signature is no ex tempore contemptible Agent When God had thus finished his last and most excellent Creature he appointed his residence in Eden made him his Vice-Roy and gave him a Law with full Iurisdiction over all his works that as the whole man consisted of body and spirit so the Inferiour Earthly Creatures might be subject to the one and the Superiour intellectual Essences might minister to the other But this Royalty continued not long for presently upon his preferment there was a faction in the Heavenly Court and the Angels scorning to attend this piece of clay contrived how to get a Habeas Corpus for to remove him The first in this Plot was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he got a Lattatat of Azazell and a warrant from Hilel and so goes about to nullifie reverse and violate that which God had enacted that so at once like an Inferior Bailiffe and his Dog as they call him he might over reach him and his Creature This Policy he imparts to Egin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mahazael Paymon Azael and some others of the Hierarchy I will not name here and strenghens himself with Conspirators But there is no counsel against God the Mischief is no sooner contrived but he and his Confederates are expel'd from light to darkness and thus Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft A Witch is a Rebel in Physicks and a Rebel is a Witch in Politicks the one Acts against Nature the other against Order the Rule of it but both are in league with the Divel as the first father of Discord and Sorcery Satan being thus ejected as the condition of Reprobates is became more hardned in his Resolutions and to bring his Malice about arrives by permission at Eden Here this old Serpent cunningly assaulted or arrested Adam with such warrantable conference as would surely make him believe all was well and so pleas'd his faeminine part which was now so invigorated with life that the best news to her would be tidings of a warrant to do any thing Wherefore the Serpent deceitfully said to the faeminized Adam why are you so demure and what makes you so bound up in spirit Is it so indeed that God has confined you to obey his Law taken away your Liberty and forbidden you all
False-witness thou shalt not Covet and if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 34. Love worketh no ill to his Neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law 35. Rom. 13. And all other Lawes depend upon these The Politick part of all Law is this following which ought as I have prescribed to be practised according to the Basis of Moses and the Prophets and Christ and his Disciples The Method advises you how to rectifie the Errors of all Courts after this order in the Paragraphs grounded as you heard before in the Old and new Testament And these Rules you must observe 36. In all Civill Society either Law or Power prevails for there is a Power which pretends Law and some Lawes taste rather of might than right Wherefore there is a threefold Source of injustice Cunning Illaqueation under color of Law and the harshness of Law it self 37. The Force and Efficacy of private Right is this He that doth a wrong by the Fact receives Profit or Pleasure by the Example incurrs Prejudice and Peril others are not Partners with him in his Profit or Pleasure but take themselves interessed in the Example and therefore easily combine and accord together to secure themselves by Lawes lest Injuries by turns seize upon every Particular But if through the corrupt Humor of the Times and the generalty of guilt it fall out that to the greater number and the more potent Danger is rather created than avoided by such a Law Faction disanulls the Law which often comes to pass 38. Private Right is under the Protection of Publick Law For Lawes are for the People Magistrates for Lawes The Authority of Magistrates depends upon the Majesty of Kings and the forme of Policy upon Lawes Fundamental Wherefore if this Government be good sound and healthfull Lawes will be to good purpose If otherwise there will be little security in them Yet notwithstanding the end of Publique Law is not only to be a guardian to private right lest that should any way be violated or to repress Injuries but it is extended also unto Religion and Armes and Discipline and Ornaments and Wealth Finally to all things which any way conduce unto the prosperous estate of a Commonwealth 39. For the end and aim at which Lawes should level and whereto they should direct their Decrees and Sanctions is no other than this That the people may live happily This will be brought to pass if they be rightly train'd up in Piety and Religion if they be honest for moral conversation secur'd by Armes against Forraign Enemies munited by Lawes against Seditions and private wrongs Obedient to Government and Magistrates Rich and flourishing in Forces and wealth But the Instruments and Sinnes of all blessings are Lawes 40. And to this end the Lawes we receiv'd successively by Moses were first from God and then from him by Josuah and from Joshua by the 70 Elders c. But the best Lawes we received from Christ the Apostles delivered them to the Bishops c. And the end they attain you read before But many Lawes miss this mark For there is great difference and a wilde distance in the comparative value and virtue of Lawes For some Lawes are excellent some of a middle temper others altogether corrupt I will exhibite according to the measure of my Judgment some certain Lawes as it were of Lawes whereby Information may be taken what in all Lawes is well or ill received by Massora and established or by Tradition tinctur'd with the virtue or vice of the Judges and their Brethren 41. But before I descend to the Body of Lawes in particular I will briefly write the Merit and Excellency of Lawes in general A Law may be held good that is certain in the Intimation just in the Precept profitable in the Execution Agreeing with the Form of Government in the present State and begetting virtue in those that live under them 42. Certainty is so Essential to a Law as without it a Law cannot be just Si enim incertam vocem det Tuba quis se parabit ad Bellum So if the Law give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to obey A law must give warning before it strike And you do not read that Cain killed any after God had marked him and it is a good President That is the best Law which gives least Liberty to the Arbitrage of the Judg and that is the reason of Moses his strict charge to the people that they should not come nigh the Mountain which is that the certainty thereof effecteth 43. Incertainty of Lawes is of two sorts One where no Law is prescribed The other when a Law is difficile and Dark I must therefore first speak of Causes omitted in the Law that in these likewise there may be found some President of certainty 44. The narrow compass of man's wisdome cannot comprehend all Cases which time hath found out and therefore New Cases do often present themselves In these Cases there is applyed a threefold Remedy or Supplement either by a Proceeding upon like Cases or by the use of Examples though they be not grown up into Law or by Jurisdictions which award according to the Arbitrement of some Good Man Moses or Christ as you may read in the Old and New Testament how Controversies were decided according to sound Judgment whether in Courts Pretorian or of Equity or Courts Censorian or of Penalty 45. In new Cases your Rule of Law is to be deduced from Cases of like nature but with Caution and Judgment touching which these Rules following are to be observed Let Reason be fruitfull and Custome be barren and not breed new Cases Wherefore whatsoever is accepted against the sence and Reason of a Law or else where the Reason thereof is not apparent the same must not be drawn into Consequence 46. A singular publick Good doth necessarily introduce Cases pretermitted Wherefore when a Law doth notably and extraordinarily respect and procure the Profit and Advantage of a State Let their Interpretation be ample and extensive It is a hard case to torture Laws that they may torture men I would not therefore that Lawes penal much less capital should be extended to new Offences Yet if it be an old Crime and known to the Lawes but the Prosecution thereof falls upon a new Case not foreseen by the Lawes You must by all means depart from the Placits of Law rather than that offences pass unpunish'd 47. In those Statutes which the Common Law especially concerning Cases frequently incident and are of long continuance doth absolutely repeal I like not the Proceeding by Similitude unto New Cases For when a State hath for a long time wanted a whole Law and that in cases express'd there is no great danger if the Cases omitted expect a Remedy by a New Statute 48. Such Constitutions as were manifestly the Lawes of time and sprung up from
which prohidite and restrein future cases necessarily connext with matters past As for example If a Law should interdict some kiâ—d of Trades-men the vend of their Commodites for hereafter the Letter of this Law is for the future But the sence and meaning takes hold of the time past for now it is not warrentable for such persons to get their Livings this way 82. Every declaratory although there be no mention of time past yet by the force of the Declaration it is by all meanes to be extended to matters past for the Interpretation doth not then begin to be in force when it is declared but is made contemporary with the Law it self wherefore never enact declaratory Laws but in cases where Laws may in equity refer and look back one upon another and thus I have shewen you the incertitude of Laws also where no Law is found I shall now engross the imperfections perplexity and obscurity of Laws 83. Obscurity of Laws spring from four causes either from the excessive accumulation of Laws specially where there is a mixture of obsolete Laws or from an ambiguous or not so perspicuous and delucide description of Laws or from the manner of expounding Law either altogether neglected or not rightly pursued or lastly from contradiction and incertainty of Judgments 84. The Prophetical Law-giver saith Pluet super eos Laqueos now there are no worse snares than the snares of Laws specially penal if they be immense for number and through the alterations of times unprofitable they do not present a torch but spread a net to our feet 85. There are two wayes in use of making a new Statute the one establisheth and strengthens the former Statute about the same Ject and then adds and changes something the other abrogates and cancels what was decreed before and substitutes de integro a new and uniforme Law the latter way I approve for by the former way Decrees become complicate and perplext yet what is undertaken is indeed pursued but the body of Law is the mean time corrupted but certainly the more diligence is required in the latter where the deliberation is of the Law it self that is the Decrees heretofore made are to be searched into and duely weighed and examined before the Law be published but but the cheif point is that by this meanes the Harmony of Lawes is notably designed fot the future 86. It was a custome in the State of Athens to deligate six persons for to revise and examine every year the contrary Titles of Law which they called Antinomies and such as could not be reconciled were propounded to the people that some certainty might be defined touching them after this Example let such in every State as have the power of making Lawes review Anti-nomies every third or fift year or as they see cause And these may be search't into and prepared by Committees assigned therto and after that exhibited to Assemblies that so what shall be approv'd may be suffrages be establisht and setled 87. Now let there not be too scrupulous and anxious pains taken in reconciling contrary Titles of Law and of Salving as Mr Phillip Green terms it all points by subtil and Studie Distinctions for this is the web of wit and however it may carry a shew of modesty and reverence yet it is to be reckoned in the number of things prejudicial and being that which makes the whole body of Law ill sorted and incoherent it were far better that the worst Titles were cancell'd and the rest stand in force 88. I advise you to let such Lawes as are obsolete or growen out of use as well as Anti-nomies be propounded by delegates as a part of their charg to be repeall'd for seeing express Statute cannot regurarly be voyded by Disuse it fals out that through a Disestimation of Old Laws the Authority of the rest is somewhat embased And the Cromwells Tyrannical Torture ensues that Lawes alive are murthered and destroyed in the feare of God with the deceitfull imbracements of Lawes dead But above all beware of a Gangreen in Lawes 89. For such Lawes as are not lately published let the Pretorian Courts have power in the mean space to define centrary to them for although it hath been said not impertinently No man ought to make himself wiser then the Lawes yet this may be understood of Lawes when they are awake not when they are asleep on the other side let not the more recent Statutes which are found prejudicial to the Law publique be in the power of the Judges but in the power of the King and the Counsellors of Estate and supreem Authorities for redress by suspending their execution through Edicts and Acts until Parliamentary Courts and such High Assemblies meet again which have power to abrogate them least the safty of the Commonwealth should in the mean while be endanger'd 90. If Lawes accumulated upon Lawes swell into such vast volumes or be obnoctious to such confusion that it is expedient to revise them a new and to reduce them into a sound and solid body intend it by all means and let such a work be reputed an Heroicall noble work and let the Author of such a work be rightly and deservedly ranckt in the number of The Right Worsh Ralph Gardener Esq Justice of Peace and Councellor of Estate to the Supream Authority of England c. And such Founders and Restorers of Law 91. This purging of Lawes and the contriving of a new Digest is five wayes accomplisht first let obsolete Lawes which Mr. Thomas Heydon terms old fables be left out Secondly Let the most approved of Antinomies be received the contrary abolish't Thirdly Let all coincident Laws which import the same thing be expung'd and some one the most perfect among them retain'd of all the rest Fourthly If there be any Laws which determine nothing but only propound Questions and so leave them undecided let these likewise be Casheer'd Lastly let Laws too wordy and too prolix be abridged into a more narrow compass 92. And it will import very much for use to compose and sort apart in a new Digest of Laws Law recepted for Common Law which in regard of their beginning are time out of mind And on the other side Statutes super-added from time to time seeing in the delivery of a Juridical sentence the Interpretation of Common Law and Statute Laws in many points is not the same This Judg Roll. did in the Digests and Code 93. But in this Regeneration and new Structure of Laws retain precisely the Words and the Text of the Ancient Laws and of the Books of Law though it must needs fall out that such Collection must be made by Centoes and smaller portions then sort them in order for although this might have been performed more aptly and if you respect right reason more truely by a new Text than by such a Consarcination yet in Laws not so much the Stile and Description as Authority and the Patron thereof Antiquity you must
of the holy Councils Canons and Decretals whose head is the Pope and also that you cannot use the determination of the best learned men of all the holyest Divines but so far forth as the Pope doth permit and shall authorize by his Canons And in another place the Canon doth forbid that no other Volume or Book by the Divines yea throughout the whole world saith he but the same which is allowed throughout the Romish Church by the Canons of the Pope The like Laws the Emperour pretended to have in Philosophie Physick and other Sciences granting no authority to any knowledge but so much as is given them by the skilfulness of the Law whereunto as he saith if all Sciences and Arts that are be compared they are all vile and unprofitable For this cause Vlpian saith the Law is King of all things both Humane and Divine whose vertue is as Oramasus saith to command to grant to punish to forbid then which dignities there is found no Office more great and Pomponius in the Laws defineth that it is the gift and invention of God and the determination of all wise men because these antient Law-makers to the end they might purchase authority by their decrees among the ignorant people they made semblance that they did as they were taught by the Gods As you may read in my Preface of this Book Behold now you perceive how the Popes Law presumeth to bear sway over all things and exerciseth Tyranny like O. Cromwell and his fellows and how by woful experience you see it preferreth it self before all other Disciplines as it were the first begotten of the Gods doth despise them as vile although it be altogether made of nothing else but of frail and very weak inventions and opinions of Vserpers Rebels and Traytors which in the fear of God do Rob and Murther even their King which things be of all others the weakest and will be altered very suddenly by Charles his son The beginning of the sin of our first Parents when they were arrested and carryed into flesh was the cause of all our miseries Now the Law of the Pope O. Cromwell and his fellows proceeded from Tyrannie and cruel usurpation whose notable Decrees are these It is lawful to resist force with force he that breaketh promise with thee break thou promise with him it is no deceit to deceive him that deceiveth a guileful person is not bound to a guileful person in any thing blame with blame may be requited Malefactors ought to rejoyce if justice nor faithfulness Injury is not done to him that is willing It is lawful for them that traffique to deceive one another The thing is so much worthy as it may be sold for It is lawful for a man to provide for himself with the loss of another No man is bound to an impossible thing when it must needs be that you or I be confounded I should choose rather that you be confounded then I and many such things which afterwards were written among the Roman Laws and now lately practised since King Charles the First was murthered Finally there is a Law that no man should die for thirst for hunger for cold or in Prison for debt nor be put in Prison by his Creditor without six pence a day and a penny loaf of bread and two quarts of Ale every morning at eight of the clock And if any be put in Prison upon the Kings account or at the Kings suit he ought to be allowed two shillings six pence a day and two bottles of Wine and the like Law ought to be given by all Governours of Countries and duly paid every Saturday at five of the clock at night And no man is bound to hurt himself by watching and labour Afterwards the cruel Law of Nations arose from whence war murder bondage were derived and Dominions separated after this came the Civil or Popular Laws from whence have grown so many debates among men that as the Laws do witness there have been made more businesses then there be names of things For whereas men were prone and enclined to discord the publishing of Justice which was to be observed by means of the Laws was a necessary thing to the end that the boldness of lewd men might in such wise be bridled and among the wicked innocency might be safe and the honest might live quietly among the dishonest And these be the same so notable beginnings of the Law wherein there have been innumerable Law-givers of which Moses was the first c. The Civil Law is nothing else but that which men will do with a common consent the authority of which is only in the King and the People For without a King this is all void and of none effect for this cause Pheroneus saith that the Laws bind us for no other cause but that they have been approved by the judgement of the King and People wherefore if any thing please the People and the King this then standeth in force both by Custom and Ordinances of Law although there appear Error for common Error maketh Law and the Matter judgeth Truth which Ulpian a Tyrant and a Lawyer in times past hath taught us in these words viz. that he ought to be taken for a Free-man of whom sentence hath been given although in effect he be a Libertine that is to say a bond man made Free because the matter judged is taken for Truth Mr. Jeremy Heydon saith That one Sedâ— Mahomet Bookâ— a Barbarian who ran away from his Master demanded at Rome the Pretorship the which he administred and at length was known it was judged that none of those things should be altered which he being a servant did in the covering of so great a dignity the same man after returned to Sally where he was Consul And in Sidmouth in Devonshire a Gentleman is so much esteemed for his royal heart to the King and knowledge in matters of Justice that many would that men should argue with his words Seluhanus and Paulus the best learned among the Romans say For the use of the Pope if a Cistern of silver be reckoned among silver that it is understood silver and not houshold-stuff because error maketh their Law the same he openly confesseth of the Laws and Decrees of the Senate that a reason cannot be given of all things which have been ordained by our Elders Hereof then you know that all the knowledge of the Civil Law dependeth upon the only opinion and will of the King and People without any other reason urging enforcing to be so then either the honesty of manners or commodity of living or the authority of the King or the force of Arms which if it be the Preserveress of gooâ—men and the Revengeress of wicked men it is a good Discipline It is also a most wicked thing for the naughtiness which is done when the Magistrate or the King neglecteth it suffereth it or alloweth it But that more is the opinion of Demonartes
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
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
appear On each side of us without being there I might commend this Learned Work of thine Which proves thy Pen and Fancy all Divine But my dull stock of Learning cannot aid Me to the Tythe of prayses might be paid Unto your Skil for this your Idea The form and figure of all Mundane Law Let learned Lawyers beat the better Brains And fix Encomiums on you for your pains That may be fit so quaint a Subject Let True Poets pay their sharper Verses that Are your just right That like a General Your Book may march in Equipage ' mong'st all With its due State and Train That it may ride Whil'st other Law Books Lac'quey by it's side Let Cook and Littleton give place their dayes Have long enough continued let the Bayes Be given to those deserve it better and Let Shepherd know That Heydon may command The Lawyers Lawreat as his proper due For this choyce treasury so learn'd so true And let it not your greater-Lawyers grieve To Retrograde themselves whilst they receive Another into Honour for you know Lord Mayors of London once a year do so John Gadbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Johannis Heydoni viri doctissimi Ideam Legis IDeam Legis monstras Heidone nec illan Commonstras solum sed bonus arte doces Tempora distinguis mores critico ungue rebelles Indicat carpit pagina docta tua Sic Legis formam dum tu monstrasque doc esq Doctoris faelix nomen omen habes Macte piâ virtute precor nec desine pensum Inque annos multos te rogo vive vale The Laws-Idea learned Heydon shows And open-brested teacheth all he knows Twixt times distinguishing and what is bad Wisely both shewes and taxeth Thus is had The Laws true form plainly both shew'd and taught In teaching which I find omitted nought Go on Learn'd Sir and finish this your Task Live long and happily is all I ask George Starkey Eirenaeus Philoponus Philalethes THE IDEA OF THE LAW 1. WHen GOD had made the Heavens and the Earth the Mundus vitae the World of Life and Formes or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus compleated his work in the Senary comprehending the whole Creation in Six Orders of things He ceased from ever creating any thing more either in the outward Material World or in the World of Life But his Creative power retyring into himself he enjoyed his own eternal Rest which is his immutable and indefatigable Nature that with ease oversees all the whole Compass of Beings and continues Essence Life and Activity to them and the better rectifies the worse and all are better rectifies the worse and all are guided by his eternal Word and Spirit but nothing New hath ever been Created since the Six Dayes Production nor shall ever be hereafter 2. Then man fell after all was perfect into disobedience by his Feminine Faculties and the Pride of the Serpent And being in this sinfull Estate his First-born Cain killed his brother Abel and therefore had the mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thau set in his Forehead it was done by God and according to his Promise instead of Death he was enabled to walk and live securely among the wildest of Terestrial Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. A sword could not enter him fire could not burn him water could not drown him the air could not blast him nor any thunder or lightning could strike him c. 3. And afterwards Lawes were given to men to be executed One not to oppress another but to fear God do his Statutes and keep his Judgments 4. And thus God forgave Cain and saved his life which I cannot account a downright Punishment but indulged by the mercy of God and necessary to the multiplication of Mankinde c. So Lawes were established amongst men before Moses 5. And I look upon Moses mainly in reference to the publick Inducement in which after this a few generations he appeared admirable viz. As a Politician or Lawgiver In which his skill was so great that even in the Judgment of Heathen Writers he had the preheminence above all the rest the Rosie-Crucians place him in the head of their Infallible Axiomata of the most Famous Law-givers under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if Eugenius Theodidactus be not mistaken or if he be at least he bears them company that are reputed the best reserv'd for the last and most notable Instance of those that entituled their Lawes Divine and made themselves spokemen betwixt God and the people This Mneues is said to receive his Lawes from Mercury as Minos from Jupiter Licurgus from Apollo St. Chrystopher Heydon from his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his good Genius As Moses from Jao that is Jehovah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But they speak like meer Hystorians in the business that say so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word which they boldly abuse to the diminution of all their Authorities promiscuously It is said they feigned they received Lawes from these Deities And Aristotle adds the reason of it too but like an errant Statesman or an incredulous Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Whether it be saies he that they judged it an admirable and plainly Divine Project that redounded unto the Profit of a multitude or whether they conceived that hereby the people looking upon the greatness and Supereminence of their Law-givers would be more obedient to their Lawes Pretorian or Censorian That saying in the Schools is not so trivial as true Quicquid recipitur recipitur admodum recipientis Every thing is as it is taken or at least appears to be so The tincture of our own natures stains the appearance of all objects 6. But to leave Aristotle to his Ethnicism and incredulity As for us that ought to believe Scripture and obey the Lawes of our Land established in the Gospel of Jesus Christ being a President for all Lawes and Statutes 7. And first if we will not gainsay the authority of the Greek Text we shall not only be fully perswaded of Moses his receiving of Laws from Gods own mouth but have some hints to believe that something Analogical to it may have come to pass in other Lawgivers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Deut. 32. When the most High divided the Nations when he separated the Sonnes of Adam he set the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the Angels of God but Jacob was the portion of Jehovah that is Jao c. So that it is not improbable but that as the great Angel of the Covenant he whom I in my Book named The Wisemans Crown and in another entituled A new Method of Rosie Crucian Physick call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The eldest of Angels the Archangel the Word the Beginning the name of God which is Jehovah I say that as he gave Lawes to his charge so the titular Angels of other Nations might be Instructors of those that they
out both in matters Criminal which have need of penalty and in matters Civil which have need of reliefe the Courts which respect the former I call Censorian which respect the latter Praetorian 66. I advise you to let the Censorian Courts of Justice have Juridiction and Power not only of punishing new offences but also of increasing penalties assigned by the Laws for old crimes if the be cases heinous enormous so they be not Capital for a notorious guilt is as it were a new case 67. Observe also to let in like manner the Pretorian Courts of equity have power to quallify the rigor of Law that none be imprisoned but those taht are able to pay their debts their goods chattels ought not to be engaged but at the discreation of some good man let time given be for payment for the supplying the defects of Law for if a remedy ought to be extended to him whom the Law hath past by much more to him whom it hath wounded 68. Take care that these Censorian and Praetorian Courts be by all means limited within cases extraordinary not invade ordinary Juridictions least peradventure the matter extend to the supplantation rather than the supplement of Law 69. Let these Juridictions reside only in the highest Courts of Judicature and not be communicated to courts Inferiour for the power of extending or supplying or moderating Laws little differs from the power of making them 70. But let not these Courts be assigned over to one man but consist of many nor let the decrees thereof issue forth with silence but let the Judges alledg reasons of their sentence and that openly in the Audience of the Court that which is free in the power may in the fame and reputation be confined 71. Let their be no rubriques of blood neither define of Capital crims in what Court soever but from a known and certain Law for God himself first denounced death afterwards inflicted it nor is any man to be put to death but he that knew beforehand that he sinned against his own life 72. In Courts of Censure give way to a third tryal that a necessity be not imposed upon Judges of absolving or of condemning but that they may pronounce a non Liquet so in like manner let Laws Censorian not only be a penalty but an infamy that is which may not inflict a punishment but either end in admonision or else chastise the delinquet with some light touch of Ignominy and as it were a blushing shame 73. In Censorian Courts let the first aggressions and the middle Acts of great offences and wicked attempts be punish't yea although they were never perfectly accomplish't and let that be the cheifest use of those Courts seeing it appertaines to severity to punish the first approaches of wicked enterprises And to Mercy to intercept the perpetration of them by correcting middle Acts. 74. Special regard must be taken that in Pretorian Courts such cases be not countenanced which the Law hath not so much pretermitted as slighted as frevilous or as odious Judg'd unworthy redress 75. Above all it most imports the certainty of Laws that Courts of equity do not so swell and overflow their banks as under prtence of mittigating the rigour of Laws they do dissert or relaxe the strength and sinnes thereof by drawing all to Arbitrement 76. I advise you not to let Pretorian Courts have power to decree against express Statutes under any Pretence of equity for if this should be permitted a Law Interpreter would become a Law maker and all matters should depend upon Arbitrement The Recorder of London is of opinion That the Jurisdiction of defining according to equity and conscience and that other which according to strict Law should be deputed to the same Courts but Judg Rolle sayes to several by all meanes let there be a seperation of Courts for there will be no distinction of Cases where there is commixtion of Jurisdictions but you shall have Arbitrement incroach upon and at last swallow up Law 77. The Table of the Pretors amongst the Romans came in use upon good ground In these the Pretor set down and publisht aforehand by what forme of Law he would execute Judicature after the same example Judges in Pretorian Courts The Kings Bench Chancery Common Pleas c. should propound certain Rules to themselves so far as may be openly publish them for that is the best Law which gives least liberty to the Judg He the best Judge that takes least liberty to himself you see how time alters Laws since Moses recieved them from God and what Laws Christ gave you in the Gospel and now how Pollitickly they are practised by tedious Clerks proud Students covetous Councellors Self-will'd Serjeants whose Learning is great yet at last the Patient Clients are willing to go home where they lament their losses sustained through the Errors of proceedings the Crasy Judge he sits quietly willing rather to sleep then to prescribe a method of good wholsome Laws to the People And thus the poore suffer but I hope to give you a cleare way in passage onely through all Courts that with these Rules before a Judge you may know and understand your Case and the Judge also may give true and sound Judgment and supply that which is omitted by the Law fot rhe worst Tyranny is Law upon the rack And where there is made a departure from the letter of Law the Judge of an Interpreter becomes a Law-giver 78. I have found that there is likewise another kind of supplement of Cases omitted when one Law falleth upon another and withal drawes with it cases pertermitted this comes to pass in Laws or Statutes which as the usual expression look back or reflect one upon another Laws of this nature are rarely and with great caution to be alleag'd for I like not to see a two fac'd Janus in Lawes 79. Arguments brought against Testimonies accomplish thus much that the case seems strange but not that it seems true and he that goes about to elude and circumvent the words and sentence of Law by fraud and captious fallicies deserves in like manner to be himself insnar'd by a succeeding Law wherefore in case of subtil shifts and sinester devices it is very meet that Lawes should look back upon and mutually support one another that he who studies evasions and eversion of Laws present may yet stand in awe of future Laws 80. Lawes which strenghten and establish the true intentions of Records and Instruments against the defects and formes and solemnities do rightly comprehend matters past for the greatest inconvenience in a Law that refers back is that it disturbeth but these conformitory Laws respect the peace and feeling of those cases which are Transacted and determined yet you must take heed that cases already adjudg'd be not reverst or violated 81. You must be very careful that not those Laws alone be thought to respect things past which invallide cases already desided but those also
was that all Laws were unprofitable and superfluous as they which were not made neither for good nor ill men forasmuch as they have no need of Laws and these be made never the better for them Furthermore Sinensis confesseth that unless any Law can be made which to all men may be profitable in that which very often it doth happen that Equity fighteth with the rigor of the Law Maimâ—n also defining equity calleth it the Correction of a righteous Law in which point he faileth because it is made generally Is it not then sufficiently declared by this alone that all the force of the Law and Justice doth not so much depend upon the Laws as upon the honesty and equity of the Judge Another error proceeds from the Civil law to the Canon Law or the Popes Law which to O. Cromwell and his Fellows the Fanatique Parliamentiers appeared most Holy so wittily it doth shadow the Precepts of Covetousness and manners of robbing under the color of Godliness albeit there be very few things ordained appertaining to Godliness to Religion to the worshipping of God and the solemnity of the Sacraments I will not speak of some which are contrary and repugnant to the Law of God I accuse not D. Owen Vice-Chancellor of Oxford he knows them all the residue are nothing but contentions strifes pride pomp means to gain riches and the decrees of the Popes of Rome to whom the Canons be not sufficient which were in time passed made by the holy Fathers except they continually add to them new Decrees extravagancies Declarations and Rules of Chancery so that there is no end nor measure of making Canons which alone is the ambition and desire of the Bishops of Rome that is to say to make new Canons whose arrogancy is grown so far that they have commanded the Genii and Angels in Heaven and have presumed to rob and bring their booty out of Hell and to put in their hands among the spirits of the dead and on the Law of God also they have sometimes exercised their Tyrannie interpreting declaring and disputing to the end that nothing might want or be derogated from the greatness of his power Is it not true that Pope Clement in that Leaden Bull which at this day is yet kept in Lievorno vulgarly called Legorn and at Venice and in other places in Italy in the Coffers of Priviledges commandeth the Angels of Heaven that they should bring into everlasting joys the soul of him that useth to go in pilgrimage to Rome for Indulgences and there dying being delivered out of the pains of Purgatory saying moreover We will not in any wise that he go to the pains of Hell granting also to them that be signed with the Cross that at their Prayers they may take three or four souls out of Purgatory which they list which erroneous and intolerable Tymerity I will not say Heresie the Schools of London in the Kings time openly detested and abhorred But the Fanatick Parliament intended very shortly if Kings Charles the Second do not come the sooner to interrupt the Hyperbolical zeal of Clement with some Anabaptistical godly shaking Invention that the thing may rather flourish then perish seeing that for their affirming or denying nothing is altered in the deed and authority of the Pope whose Canons and Decrees have in such sort bound all Episcopacy and Presbyterie c. in a cord for Damnation because they detest the Popes Canons and after this example they fear their own Clergy so that none of all their Divines or Jesuites be he never so contantious dareth to determine no not imagine or dispute any thing contrary to the Popes Canons without protestation and leave Furthermore we have learned out of these Canons and Decrees that the Patrimony of Christ his Kingdoms Castles Donations Foundations Riches and Possessions and that Empire and Rule belongeth to the Bishops and Priests of Christ and to the Prelates of the Church and the Jurisdiction and Temporal Power is the Sword of Christ And that the Person of the Pope is the Rock being the foundation of the Church that the Bishops are not only the Ministers of the the Church but also Heads of the Church and that Evangelical Doctrine the fervency of Faith the contempt of the world are not only the goods of the Church but Revenues tenths Offerings collections Purples Mitres Gold Silver Pearl Possessions and Money and that the authority of the Pope is to make war to break truce to break oaths and to assoyl from obedience and of the House of Prayer to make a den of Theeves and so the Pope can depose a Bishop without cause and Oliver Cromwell could cut off Doctor John Huit his head by the same rule The Pope can give that which is another mans Cromwell and the Fanatique Parliament after the same president sold the Kings Lands and the Church Lands that he can commit Symony that he can dispense against his vow against his Oath against the Law of Nature And did not Cromwell and his Fellows do so too and none may say unto him Why dost thou this And also he can as they say for some grievous cause dispense against all the New Testament and to draw not only a third part but also the souls of the faithful into Hell That the duty of Bishops is not now as it was in time past to preach the Word of God with Crosses to Confirm children to give Orders to Dedicate Churches to Baptize Bells to hallow Altars and Challices to Consecrate and bless Vestments and Images and Geomantical Telesmes which esteem their wits more meet for higher matters and leaving the charge to certain Bishops which have nothing else but the Title go in Embassage to Kings they be Presidents of their Oratories or attend upon Queens excused for a sufficient great and weighty cause not to serve God in Churches so that they royally honour the King in the Court Hereof these Cautles took their beginnings by means whereof at this day without Simony Bishopricks Benifices be bought sold and moreover what Fairs and Markets soever be in Pardons Grants Indulgences Dispensations such like maner of robberies by whom also there is a price set in the free remission of sins given by God there is found a Mean to gain by the punishments of Hell Furthermore that false Donation of Constantine proceeds from this Law albeit in effect and with the Testimony of Gods Word Caesar cannot leave his charge neither the Parson of the Clergy ought to usurp the things that belong to Caesar but of infinite Laws of Ambition of Pride and of Tyrannie These are Errors crept in with Cromwell amongst the Laws of England He that will diligently examine the Laws and Statutes of Rome shall find how much the Fat Faâ—atique Parliament hath borrowed of them and corrupted our Laws But the Idea of the Law will put all in Order The Method and Rules you read before Another Error in Laws you shall
and undigested lump of the multitude may seek to establish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calls it therefore he bethinks himself how to purge out the dross from it and tells me in the next place that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inventio ejus quod verè est where it is very remarkable what this Philosopher means by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which he is wont usually to point out a Deity which is stiled by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it is not capable of this sense here for thus Laws are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex est inventio vel donum Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore in this place speaks these two particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all rectitude has a being and flows from the Fountain of being whereas obliquities and irregularities are meer privations and non-entities and 't is a notable speech in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same expression which the Apostle gives to the Law of God when he calls it The Royal Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing that is profitable has a being in it but you can gather no fruit from a privation there is no sweetness in an obliquity and therefore a Law is a wholesom mixture of that which is just and profitable Thus do I interpret the first second and third Paragraphs of my Idea of the Law and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch speaks whereas Turpe praeceptum non est Lex sed iniquitas for obligation that 's the very Form and Essence of a Law Now every Law Obligat in Nomine Dei but so glorious a Name did never bind to any thing that was wicked and unequal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that only is countenanced from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Golden chain of Laws 't is tyed to the chair of Jupiter and a command is only vigorous as it issues out either Immediately or remotely by the Genii from the great Soveraign of the world So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is my Foundation of the Idea of the Law And in all true kinds of Government there is some Supream Power derived from God himself and fit to contrive Laws and Constitutions agreeable to the welfare and happiness of those that are to be subject to them and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Rosie Crucians are the fittest makers of Laws 7. Plato did not lay stress enough upon that binding vertue which is the very sinew nay life and soul of a Law according to my fifth Paragraph That these three Descriptions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intend only humane Laws and so are engrost fair for the pure notion of a Law in general 8. And though the same other branch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may seem to defend my Idea yet it is too obscure too much in the clouds to give a clear manifestation of the Idea of the Law and yet Aristotle does not in this supply Plato's defects but seems rather to Paraphrase upon the descriptions or rather Interpretations of Humane Laws and tells me in more enlarged language that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where yet he cannot possibly mean that every individium should give his suffrage but certainly the Representative consent of the whole will content him 9. But I see these antient Philosophers are not so well furnisht to lend me any thing to defend my Idea of the Law But I must return to London again and see what assistance William Prinne Esq and other Lawyers of the Temple will lend me who by this time have lickt their former Interpretations into a more comely form I will look upon W. Prinne Esq first Lex sayes he est ordinatio rationis ad bonum Commune ab eo qui curam habet Communitatis promulgata It is a rational Ordinance for the advantage of the Publique good made known by that power which has care and tuition of the Publique 10. And Judge Roll his Picture of a Law now that it is fully drawn after Littleton by Cook and then by Roll hath much the same Aspect Lex est Commune Praeceptum Justum ac stabile sufficientur Promulgatum A Law is a Publique Command a just and immoveable command lifting up its voyce like a Trumpet and in respect of the Law-giver though it be praesupponere actum intellectus as all acts of the will do yet it does formally consist in actu voluntatis not the understanding but the will of a Law-giver makes a Law But in respect of him that is subject to the Law it does consist in actu Rationis 't is required only that he should know it not in actu voluntatis it does not depend upon his obedience The want of his will is not enough to enervate and invalidate a Law when 't is made all Laws then would be abrogated every moment His will indeed is required to execution and fulfilling of the Law not to the validity and existence of the Law And thus all the Laws of God do not at all depend upon the will of man and thus interpret my seventh Paragraph of the Idea of the Law but upon the power and will of the Law-giver Now in the framing of every Law there is to be Intentio boni communis and thus that speech of L. Verulam Vtilitas Justi propè mater aequi if it be took in this sense in which 't is thought he meant it is not so much as tolerable Law-givers should send out Laws with Olive branches in their mouths they should be fruitful and peaceable they should drop sweetness and fatness upon a Land Let not then Brambles make Laws for Trees as O. Cromwell and his fellows did for King Charles and his Dukes Earls and Lords c. least they scratch them and tear them and write their Laws in blood as you have seen lately 11. But King Charles will send out Laws as the Sun shoots forth his Beams with healing in his wings And thus that elegant Plutarch speaks God sayes he is angry with them that counterfeit his Thunder and Lightning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Scepter and his Thunderbolt and his Trident he will not let them meddle with these He does not love they should imitate him in his absolute Dominion and Soveraignty but loves to see them darting out those warm and amiable and cherishing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those beamings out of Justice and goodness and clemency And as for Laws they should be like so many green and pleasant pastures into which these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to lead their flocks where the people may feed them sweetly and securely by those refreshing streams of Justice that run down like water and righteousness like a mighty Torrent And this Consideration would sweep down the Cobweb-Laws of Bradshaw Lenthall Prideaux Oliver Cromwel and the Fanatique Parliament c. that argue only the venom and subtilty of them that
spin them this would sweep down many an Achitophels web and many an Hamons web many an Herods web and every Spiders web in England that spread Laws only for the cathing and entangling of weaker ones such Law-givers are fit to be Domitians Play-fellows that made it his Royal sport and past-time to catch Flyes and insult over them when he had done Whereas a Law should be a staff for a Common-wealth to lean on and not a read to peirce it through Laws should be cords of love not nets and snares Hence it is that those Laws are most radical and Fundamental that principally tend to the conservation of the Vitals and Essentials of a Kingdom and those come neerest the Law of God himself as I interpret my eight Paragraph of the Idea of the Law and are participations of that Eternal Law which is the Spring and original of all inferiour and derivative Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato speaks and there is no such publique benefit as that which comes by Laws For all have an equal interest in them and priviledge by them And therefore as Aristotle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Law is a pure intellect not only without a sensitive appetite but without a will 'T is pure Judgement without affections a Law is impartial and makes no Factions and my Idea of the Law cannot be bribed though the Judge may and that Philosopher does pretty well prosecute this If you were to take Physick then indeed it is ill being determined by a Book it is a dangerous taking a printed Receipt you had better leave it to the brest of the Physitian to his skill and advice who minds your health and welfare as being most for his gain and credit But in point of Justice the case is very different you had better here depend upon a Rule then to leave it to the Arbitrary Power of a Judge who is usually to decide a controversie between two and if left to himself were apt to be swayed and byassed by several interests and engagements which might encline him to one more then another Nay now that there is a fix◠Rule an immoveable Law yet there is too much partiality in the application of it how much more would there be if there were no rule at all 13. But the truth is the Judge should only follow the ultimum practicum dictamen legis his Will like a Caeca potentia is to follow the Novissimum lumen intellectus of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to rule and guide him and therefore Justice was painted blind though ipsa Lex be oculata for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Will is to follow the ultimum nutum capitis the meaning of the Law in all Circumstances 14 In a Law-giver there is to be Judicium Prudentia Anchitectonica ad ferendas leges the Aegyptian Heiroglyphick for Legislative power was oculus in sceptro and it had need be such an eye that can see both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it had need have a full and open Prospect into publick affaires and to put all advantages into one scale and all inconveniences into another 15. To be sure that the Laws of God they flow from a fountain of Wisdom and the Lawes of men are to be lighted at this Candle of the Lord according to the sense of the ninth Paragraph of the Idea of the Law which he hath by a Genius set up and those Laws are most potent and prevalent that are founded in light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Other Lawes are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they may have an iron and adamantine necessity but the other have a soft and downy perswasion going along with them and therefore as he goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason is so beautifull as that it wins and allures and thus constrains to obedience There is to be Sigillum Legis I mean Electio determinatio Legis after a sincere aim at publick good and a clear discovery of the best means to promote it there comes then a fixt and sacred Resolution Volumus statuimus this speaks the Will of the Law-giver and breaths life into the Law it adds Vigour and Efficacy to it But yet notwithstanding 16. There must be Vox Tubae that is Promulgatio Insinuatio Legis The Law is for a publick good and ought to be made known in a publick manner for as none can desire an unknown good so none can obey an unknown Law and therefore invincible ignorance doth excuse for else men should be bound to absolute impossibilities But whether it be required to the publishing of a Law that it should be in a way of writing which is more fixt and durable or whether the manifestation of it in a vocal or oral manner will suffice which yet is more transient and uncertain I leave the Lawyers and States-men to dispute it This I am sure that all the Lawes of God are proclaimed in a most sufficient and emphatical manner And thus much in defence of my ten Paragraphs Next in order I shall give you the sense of the Eternal Law of Jesus Christ Now I am come to the Spring and Original of all Laws That fountain of Law out of which you may see the Law of Nature bubling and flowing forth to the sons of men for as L. Verulam doth very well tell me The Law of Nature is nothing but Participatio Legis aeternae in rationali creatura the copying out of the eternal Law and the imprinting of it upon the breast of the rational being that eternal Law was in a manner incarnated in the Law of Nature 17. Behold all the Verses to the thirty fifth Paragraph and they are so clear and plain that there is no need of any farther explication or defence for this Law is not really distinguished from God himself in Trinity and Unity Nil est ab aeterno nisi ipse Deus so that it is much of the same nature with those decrees of his and that providence which was awake from everlasting For as God from all eternity by the hand of infinite wisdom did draw the several faces and Lineaments of being which he meant to shew in time so he did then also contrive their several frames with such limits and compass as he meant to set them and said unto every thing Hither shall thou go and no farther 18. This the Platonists would call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would willingly heap such honourable Titles as these Prophetically upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the greatest happiness that other Lawes can arrive unto is this that they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring and subservient Laws as you shall find them in the one hundred and thirty Paragraphs of my Idea of the Law waiting upon this their Divine royal Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or as they would chuse to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some shadows and appearances of this bright and glorious Law or at the