made, that he that drew men from their civil obedience was a traitor. It happened this was done in privacies and confessions, when there could be no proof; therefore they made another act, that for a priest to be in England was treason, because they presumed that was his business here, to fetch men off from their allegiance.

2. When Queen Elizabeth died, and king James came in, an Irish priest does thus express it: Elizabethâ in orcum detrusâ, successit Jacobus, alter hæreticus.

You will ask why they do use such language in their church?

Answer. Why does the nurse tell the child of raw-head and bloody-bones? To keep it in awe.

3. The queen-mother and count Rosset are to the priests and Jesuits like the honey-pot to the flies.

seditious and very evil-disposed people have procured bulls and writings from the Bishop of Rome to absolve all those that will be content to forsake their due obedience to the Queen; and enacts that such people shall be deemed and adjudged high traitors to the Queen and the realm and shall be punished by death and forfeiture. Then, 23 Elizabeth, ch. 1 makes it treason for any one to withdraw any or to be himself withdrawn to the Romish religion. Lastly, 27 Elizabeth, ch. 2 declares that divers jesuits, seminary priests and other priests have come to this country for the purpose of withdrawing men from their due obedience to her Majesty; and enacts that all such persons are to leave the country, and that if being natural born subjects of the Queen, they are found here or come here, they shall suffer the penalties of high treason.

1. 14. The queen-mother and count Rosset &c.] i. e. Mary de Medici, the French Queen-mother, who had sought a refuge at the English Court. In May 1641 the Commons resolved to suggest to the King That her Majesty be moved to depart this kingdom, the rather for the quieting of those jealousies in the hearts of his Majesty's well-affected subjects, occasioned by some ill instruments about the Queen's person, by the flowing of priests and papists to her house,' &c., &c. House of Commons' Journals, ii. 149.

Hobbes, in the Behemoth (pt. ii. beginning), after speaking of the belief, encouraged by the Parliamentary party, that it was the King's purpose to introduce popery, goes on to say that-'the colour they had for this slander was, first that there was one Rosetti, resident, at

4. The priests of Rome aim but at two things, to get power from the king, and money from the subject.

5. When the priests come into a family, they do as a man that would set fire on a house: he does not put fire to the brick-wall, but thrusts it into the thatch. They work upon the women and let the men alone.

6. For a priest to turn a man when he lies a dying, is just like one that has a long time solicited a woman, and cannot obtain his end; at length makes her drunk, and so lies with her.

CXVII.

PROPHECIES.

DREAMS and prophecies do thus much good; they make a man go on with boldness and courage, upon a danger or a mistress; if he obtain, he attributes much to them; if he miscarries, he thinks no more of them, or is no more thought of himself.

CXVIII.

PROVERBS.

THE proverbs of several nations were much studied by bishop Andrews; and the reason he gave was, because by and a little before that time, from the Pope, with the Queen .. Also the resort of English Catholics to the Queen's chapel, gave them colour to blame the Queen herself, not only for that, but also for all the favours that had been shown to the Catholics.'

See also a letter from Secretary Windebank to the King (Sep. 7, 1640). 'I most humbly beseech your Majesty to give me leave to propose your writing to the Queen that Rosetti may be advised to retire into France, or some other foreign part, for awhile, and that the Capuchins may likewise disperse,' &c. Clarendon's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 113.

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them he knew the minds of several nations, which is a brave thing: as we count him a wise man that knows the minds and insides of men, which is done by knowing what is habitual to them. Proverbs are habitual to a nation being transmitted from father to son.

CXIX.

QUESTION.

WHEN a doubt is propounded, you must learn to distinguish, and shew wherein a thing holds, and wherein it does not hold. Aye, or no1, never answered any quesIo tion. The not distinguishing where things should be distinguished, and the not confounding, where things should be confounded, is the cause of all the mistakes in the world.

CXX.
REASON.

1. IN giving reasons, men commonly do with us as the woman does with her child; when she goes to market about her business, she tells it she goes to buy it a fine thing, to buy it a cake, or some plums. They give us such reasons as they think we will be catched withal, but 20 never let us know the truth.

2. When the schoolmen talk of recta ratio in morals,

1 Aye or no] I or no, MSS.

1. 21. When the schoolmen talk &c.] Selden follows here the same line of thought as when he says that the Law of Nature means only the Law of God (p. 101). He urges, in effect, that moral rules must be based on positive law, human or divine, and that without this they have no sanction or meaning.

either they understand reason, as 'tis governed by a command from above; or else they say no more than a woman, when she says a thing is so, because it is so; that is, her reason persuades her it is so. The other acception has sense in it. As take a law of the land, I must not depopulate; my reason tells me so. Why? because if I do, I incur the detriment.

3. The reason of a thing is not to be enquired after, till you are sure the thing itself is so. We commonly are at what's the reason of it? before we are sure of the thing. 10 It was an excellent question of my lady Cotton, when Sir Robert Cotton was magnifying of a shoe, which was Moses's or Noah's, and wondering at the strange shape and fashion of it: But, Mr. Cotton, says she, are you sure it is a shoe?

CXXI.

RELIGION.

1. KING James said to the fly, Have I three kingdoms, and thou must needs fly into my eye? Is there not enough to meddle withal upon the stage, or in love, or at the table, but religion?

2. Religion amongst men appears to me like the learning they got at school. Some men forget all, others spend upon the stock, and some improve it. So some men forget all the religion that was taught them when they were young, others spend upon that stock, and some improve it.

3. Religion is like the fashion; one man wears his doublet slashed, another laced, another plain; but every man has a doublet: so every man has his religion. We differ about the trimming.

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4. Men say they are of the same religion for quietness' sake; but if the matter were well examined, you would 30

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scarce find three anywhere of the same religion in all points.

5. Every religion is a getting religion; for though I myself get nothing, I am subordinate to them that do. So you may find a lawyer in the Temple that gets little for the present; but he is fitting himself to be in time one of those great ones that do get.

6. Alteration of religion is dangerous, because we know not where it will stay; it is like a millstone that lies upon 10 the top of a pair of stairs; 'tis hard to remove it, but if it once be thrust off the first stair, it never stays till it comes to the bottom.

7. Question. (Whether is the church or the scripture judge of religion?/

Answer. In truth neither, but the state. I am troubled with a boil; I call a company of surgeons about me; one prescribes one thing, another another; I single out something I like, and ask you that stand by, and are no surgeon, what you think of it: you like it too; you and I are the 20 judges of the plaister, and we bid them prepare it, and there's an end. Thus 'tis in religion; the protestants say they will be judged by the scripture; the papists they say so too; but that cannot speak. A judge is no judge, except he can both speak and command execution: but the truth is, they never intend to agree. No doubt the pope, where he is supreme, is to be judge; if he says we in England ought to be subject to him, then he must draw his sword and make it good.

8. By the law was the Manual received in the church

1. 29. the Manual] was one of the many service-books in use before the Reformation. See e. g. a decree of a synod at Exeter (1287), giving a list of books with which every church was to be furnished, viz. missale bonum, gradale, troparium, manuale bonum, legenda, antiphonale, psalteria, ordinale, venitare ympnare, collectare. Wilkins, Concilia, ii. 139.

The manual contained the offices and rites and ceremonies which