1.

Latv.

MAN may plead not guilty, and yet tell no Lie; himself; fo that when I fay Not Guilty, the meaning is, as if I fhould fay by way of Paraphrase, I am not fo Guilty as to tell you; if you will bring me to a Try1 al, and have me punish'd for this you lay to my Charge, prove it against me.

2. Ignorance of the Law excufes no Man; not that all Men know the Law, but becaufe 'tis an excufe every Man will plead, and no Man can tell how to .confute him.

3. The King of Spain was out-law'd in WestminsterHall, I being of Council against him. A Merchant had recover'd Cofts against him in a Suit, which because he could not get, we advis'd to have him out-law'd for not appearing,, and fo he was. As foon as Gondimer heard that, he prefently fent the Money, by reason, if his Master had been out-law'd, he could not have the Benefit of the Law, which would have been very prejudicial, there being then many Suits depending betwixt the King of Spain, and our English Mer chants.

4, Every Law is a Contract between the King and the People, and therefore to be kept. An hundred Men may owe me an hundred Pounds, as well as any one Man, and fhall they not pay me because they are ftronger than I? Object. Oh, but they lofe all if they keep that Law. Anfw. Let them look to the making of their Bargain. If I fell my Lands, and when I have done, one comes and tells me I have nothing else to keep me, I and my Wife and Children muft ftarve,

C 7

if

if I part with my Land; muft I not therefore let them have my Land, that have bought it and paid for, it ?

5. The Parliament may declare Law, as well as any other inferior Court may, (viz.) the King's Bench. In that or this particular Case, the King's Bench will declare unto you what the Law is, but that binds nobody whom the Cafe concerns: So the higheft Court, the Parliament may do, but not declare Law, that is, make Law that was never heard of before.

1.

Law of Nature.

I Cannot fancy to myself what the Law of Nature

means, but the Law of God. How fhould I know I ought not to fteal, I ought not to commit Adultery, unless some body had told me fo? Surely 'tis because I have been told fo. 'Tis not because I think I ought not to do them, nor because you think I ought not; if fo, our minds might change, whence then comes the Reftraint? From a higher Power, nothing elfe can bind: I cannot bind myself, for I may untie myfelf again; nor an equal cannot bind me, for we may untie one another: It must be a fuperior Power, even God Almighty. If two of us make a Bargain, why fhould either of us fland to it? What need you care what you fay, or what need I care what I fay? Certainly because there is fomething about me that tells me Fides eft fervanda, and if we after alter our Minds, and make a new Bargain, there's Fides fervanda there too.

Laern

Learning.

1. O Man is the wifer for his Learning; it may

work upon, but Wit and Wisdom are born with a Man.

2. Moft Men's Learning is nothing but History duly taken up. If I quote Thomas Aquinas for fome Tenet, and believe it, because the School-Men fay fo, that is but Hiftory. Few Men make themfelves Mafters of things they write or speak.

3. The Jefuits and the Lawyers of France, and the Low-Country-men, have engroffed all Learning. The reft of the World make nothing but Homilies.

4. 'Tis obfervable, that in Athens, where the Arts flourish'd, they were govern'd by a Democracy; Learning made them think themselves as wife as any body, and they would govern as well as others; and they fpeak as it were by way of Contempt, that in the Eaft, and in the North they had Kings, and why? Because the most part of them followed their Business, and if fome one Man had made himself wiser than the reft, he govern'd them, and they willingly fubmitted themselves to him. Ariftotle makes the Obfervation. And as in Athens the Philofophers made the People knowing, and therefore they thought themselves wife enough to govern; fo does preaching with us, and that makes us affect a Democracy. For upon these two Grounds we all would be Governors, either because we think ourselves as wife as the beft, or because we think ourselves the Elect, and have the Spirit, and the reft a Company of Reprobates that belong to the Devil.

Lec

1.

Ledurers.

Edturers do in a Parish-Church what the Friars did heretofore, get away not only the Affections, but the Bounty, that should be bestow'd upon the Minifter.

2. Lecturers get a great deal of Money, because they preach the People tame [as a Man watches a Hawk] and then they do what they lift with them.

3. The Lectures in Black-Friars, perform'd by Officers of the Army, Tradefmen, and Minifters, is as if a great Lord fhould make a Feaft, and he would have his Cook drefs one Dish, and his Coachman another, his Porter a third, &c.

I.

TH

Libels.

Hough fome make flight of Libels, yet you may fee by them how the Wind fits: As take a Straw and throw it up into the Air, you fhall fee by that which way the Wind is, which you fhall not do by cafting up a Stone. More folid Things do not fhew the Complexion of the times fo well, as Ballads and Libels.

Liturgy.

TH

Liturgy.

1. HERE is no Church without a Liturgy, nor indeed can there be conveniently, as there is no School without a Grammar. One Scholar may be taught otherwife upon the Stock of his Acumen, but not a whole School. One or Two, that are piously difpos'd, may serve themselves their own Way, but hardly a whole Nation.

2. To know what was generally believ'd in all Ages, the way is to confult the Liturgies, not any private Man's writings. As if you would know how the Church of England serves God, go to the CommonPrayer-Book, confult not this nor that Man. Befides, Liturgies never Compliment, nor ufe high Expreffions. The Fathers oft-times speak Oratoriously.

1.

Lords in the Parliament.

HE Lords giving Protections is a fcorn upon

TH them. A Protection means nothing actively,

but paffively; he that is Servant to a Parliament-Man is thereby protected. What a Scorn is it to a Perfon of Honour, to put his Hand to two Lies at once, that fuch a Man is my Servant, and employ'd by me, when haply he never faw the Man in his Life, nor before never heard of him.

2. The Lords protefting is Foolish. To protest is properly to fave to a Man's felf fome Right; but to proteft as the Lords proteft, when they their felves are involv'd, 'tis no more than if I fhould go into Smithfield, and fell my Horse, and take the Money, and yet, when I have your Money, and you my

Horse,