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was somewhat soured by his sufferings; so that he was free only with a few."

His parliamentary character has been recently most ably sketched by an anonymous writer in a periodical paper. "Selden was a member of the long parliament, and took an active and useful part in many important discussions and transactions. He appears to have been regarded somewhat in the light of a valuable piece of national property, like a museum, or great public library, resorted to, as a matter of course, and a matter of right, in all the numerous cases in which assistance was wanted from any part of the whole compass of legal and historical learning. He appeared in the national council, not so much the representative of the contemporary inhabitants of a particular city, as of all the people of all past ages; concerning whom, and whose institutions, he was deemed to know whatever was to be known, and to be able to furnish whatever, within so vast a retrospect, was of a nature to give light and authority in the decision of questions arising in a doubtful and hazardous state of the national affairs."

"After all," says one of his biographers, "the most endearing part of Mr. Selden's character is elegantly touched by himself in the choice of his motto:"

Περι παντος την ελευθερίαν.

LIBERTY ABOVE ALL THINGS.

TO THE HONOURABLE

MR. JUSTICE HALES,

ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE COMMON PLEAS;

AND TO THE MUCH HONOURED

EDWARD HEYWOOD, JOHN VAUGHAN,

AND

ROWLAND JEWKS, ESQUIRES.

MOST WORTHY GENTLEMEN,

WERE you not executors to that person, who, while he lived, was the glory of the nation; yet am I confident, any thing of his would find acceptance with you; and truly the sense and notion here is wholly his, and most of the words. I had the opportunity to hear his discourse twenty years together; and lest all those excellent things that usually fell from him might be lost, some of them from time to time I faithfully committed to writing, which, here digested into this method, I humbly present to your hands: -you will quickly perceive them to be his, by the famiHar illustrations wherewith they are set off, and in which you know he was so happy, that, with a marvellous delight to those that heard him, he would presently convey

the highest points of religion, and the most important affairs of state, to an ordinary apprehension.

In reading, be pleased to distinguish times, and in your fancy carry along with you the when and the why, many of these things were spoken; this will give them the more life, and the smarter relish. It is possible, the entertainment you find in them, may render you the more inclinable to pardon the presumption of

Your most obliged, and

Most humble servant,

RI. MILWARD.

SELDEN'S

TABLE TALK.

ABBEYS, PRIORIES, &c.

1. THE unwillingness of the monks to part with their land, will fall out to be just nothing, because they were yielded up to the king by a supreme hand, viz. a parliament. If a king conquer another country, the people are loath to lose their lands; yet no divine will deny, but the king may give them to whom he please. If a parliament make a law concerning leather, or any other commodity, you and I for example, are parliament men ; perhaps, in respect to our own private interests, we are against it, yet the major part conclude it : we are then involved, and the law is good.

2. When the founders of abbeys laid a curse upon those that should take away those lands, I would fain know what power they had to curse me; it is not the curses that come from the poor, or from any body, that hurt me, because they come from them, but because I do something ill against them that deserves God should curse me for it. On the

other side, it is not a man's blessing me that makes me blessed, he only declares me to be so; and if I do well, I shall be blessed, whether any bless me or

not.

3. At the time of dissolution, they were tender in taking from the abbots and priors their lands and their houses, till they surrendered them, as most of them did. Indeed, the prior of St. John's, sir Richard Weston, being a stout man, got into France, and stood out a whole year, at last submitted, and the king took in that priory also, to which the Temple belonged, and many other houses in England. They did not then cry-No abbots, no priors; as we do now, No bishops, no bishops.

4. Henry the Fifth put away the friars, aliens, and seized to himself one hundred thousand pounds a year; and therefore they were not the Protestants only that took away church lands.

5. In queen Elizabeth's time, when all the abbeys were pulled down, all good works defaced, then the preachers must cry up justification by faith, not by good works.

ARTICLES.

The nine-and-thirty Articles are much another thing in Latin, (in which tongue they were made) than they are translated into English: they were made at three several convocations, and confirmed by act of parliament six or seven times after. There is a secret concerning them: of late ministers have subscribed to all of them, but by act of parliament that confirmed them, they ought only to subscribe to those articles which contain matter of

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