ence to the Law, then ought I to observe it, which may be known by the often repetition of the Law. The way of fasting is enjoined unto them, who yet do not observe it. The Law enjoins a Penalty as an enforcement to Obedience; which intention appears by the often calling upon us, to keep that Law by the King, and the Dispensation of the Church to such as are not able to keep it, as young Children, old Folks, diseased Men, &c.

Fathers and Sons.

T hath ever been the way for Fathers, to bind their Sons. To strengthen this by the Law of the Land, every one at Twelve Years of Age is to take the Oath of Allegiance in Court-Leets, whereby he swears Obedience to the King.

Fines.

HE old Law was, that when a Man was Fined, he was to be Fined Salvo Contenemento, so as his Countenance might be safe, taking Countenance in the same sense as your Country man does, when he says, if you will come unto my House, I will show you the best Countenance I can; that is, not the best Face, but the best Entertainment. The meaning of the Law was, that so much should be taken from a Man, such a gobbet sliced off, that yet notwithstanding he might live in the same Rank and Condition he lived in before; but now they fine men ten times more than they are worth.

Free-will.

HE Puritans who will allow no Free-will at all, but God does all, yet will allow the Subject

his Liberty to do or not to do, notwithstanding the King, the God upon Earth. The Arminians, who hold we have Free-will, yet say, when we come to the King, there must be all Obedience, and no Liberty to bestood for.

Friars.

HE Friars say they possess nothing: whose then are the Lands they hold ? not their

Superior's, he hath vowed Poverty as well as they. Whose then? To answer this, 'twas decreed they should say they were the Pope's. And why must the Friars be more perfect than the Pope himself?

2. If there had been no Friars Christendom might have continued quiet, and things remained at a stay.

If there had been no Lecturers, which succeed the Friars in their way, the Church of England might have stood and flourished at this Day.

Friends.

LD Friends are best. King James used to call for his old Shoes; they were easiest for his Feet.

Genealogy of Christ.

HEY that say the Reason why Joseph's Pedigree is set down, and not Mary's, is, because

the Descent from the Mother is lost, and swallowed up, say something; but yet if a Jewish Woman, married with a Gentile, they only took Notice of the Mother, not of the Father. But they that say they were both of a Tribe, say nothing; for the Tribes might marry one with another, and the Law against it was only Temporary, in the time while Joshua was dividing the Land, lest the being so long about it, there might be a confusion.

2. That Christ was the Son of Joseph is most exactly true. For though he was the Son of God, yet with the Jews, if any Man kept a Child, and brought him up, and called him Son, he was taken for his Son; and his Land (if he had any) was to descend upon him; and therefore the Genealogy of Joseph is justly set down.

* They were both of a tribe, and therefore only the genealogy of one was put down, as such marriage was unlawful, &c.

This point is discussed in the 18th chap. of Selden's Treatise De Successionibus ad Leges Ebræorum.

Gentlemen.

HAT a Gentleman is, 'tis hard with us to

define. In other Countries he is known by his Privileges; in Westminster-Hall he is one that is reputed one; in the Court of Honour, he that hath Arms. The King cannot make a Gentleman of Blood. What have you said? Nor God Almighty: but he can make a Gentleman by Creation. If you ask which is the better of these two, Civilly, the Gentleman of Blood, Morally, the Gentleman by Creation may be the better; for the other may be a Debauched Man, this a Person of worth.

2. Gentlemen have ever been more Temperate in their Religion, than the common People, as having more Reason, the others running in a hurry. In the beginning of Christianity, the Fathers writ Contra gentes, and Contra Gentiles; they were all one: But after all were Christians, the better sort of People still retained the Name of Gentiles, throughout the four Provinces of the Roman Empire; as Gentil-homme in French, Gentil-huomo in Italian, Gentil-hombre in Spanish, and Gentil-man in English and they, no question, being Persons of Quality, kept up those Feasts which we borrow from the Gentiles; as Christmas, Candlemas, May-day, &c. continuing what was not directly against Christianity, which the common People would never have endured.

Gold.

HERE are two Reasons, why these Words (Jesus autem transiens per medium eorum

ibat)* were about our old Gold: the one is, because Ripley, the Alchymist, when he made Gold in the Tower, the first time he found it he spoke these Words, per medium eorum, that is, per medium Ignis et Sulphuris. The other, because these Words were thought to be a Charm, and that they did bind whatsoever they were written upon, so that a Man could not take it away. To this Reason I rather incline.

* We have the following account in Camden's Remains: "The first gold that K. Edward III. coyned was in the yeare 1343, and the pieces were called Florences, because Florentines were the coyners. Shortly after he coyned Nobles, of noble faire and fine gold; afterwards the Rose-Noble then current for 6 shillings and 8 pence, and which our Alchymists do affirme (as an unwritten verity) was made by projection or multiplication Alchymicall of Raymund Lully in the Tower of London, who would prove it as Alchymically, beside the tradition of the Rabbies in that faculty, by the inscription; for as upon the one side there is the King's image in a ship, to notifie that he was the Lord of the Seas, with his titles; set upon the reverse a cross fleury with Lioneeux; inscribed, Jesus, autem transiens per medium illorum ibat. Which they profoundly expound, as Jesus passed invisible and in most secret manner by the middest of the Pharisees, so that gold was made by invisible and secret art among the ignorant. But others say, that text was only one of the Amulets used in that credulous warfaring age to escape dangers in battle."

Lenglet du Fresnoy, in his History of Hermetic Philosophy, after mentioning Camden's and Selden's account says: (6 mais je n'ai jamais lu en aucun endroit que les artistes de la science Her