his Father be put in execution It is well knowne to all diuines as I haue said that holy writ hath not prescribed any direct or precise forme to the Children of God whereby they are bound in Conscience to dispose of their lands goods but hath absolutely left them to the customes of their Country where any act of that kind shal be executed only as confirming all formes of deuises which by publick consent and authority either haue or shall in rightfull manner be deuised or ordained Out of this ground and others before mentioned let vs examyne whether a Father parting his fortunes by power of law and on iust cause shall do a wrongfull and a sinfull act as some pretend to make it I confesse that euery act in it self or by Circumstance euill and which vpon no occasion can be iustified is both before God and man sinne and is by no means to be executed by a Christian But that the parting of an inheritāce or the disinheriting of an eldest sonne vpon iust cause and according to course of Law is an act of that nature doth not appeare For I do not fynd that either the Law of Nature or grace nor yet the Lawes of man common ciuil or Canon euer forbad such acts whereby sinne may be imputed to those who do them on good considerations Sure I am that the Cannon and Ciuill Law are so far from forbidding them that they commaund as a thing in equity the Father either to deuide his inheritance or allow him according to his affection to giue to one more then to another yet with this prouiso that he who hath the least haue his childes part which the Law doth also assigne except on iust desert he do disinherit any one which at this day may yea must be by will with the cause of disinherision named therein Of which causes the Imperiall Lawes haue set downe fourteene as it shall well appeare to them who are desyrous to vnderstand more thereof So it is euident that by these two Lawes no sinne can grow vpon such acts being done vpon their warrant and vpon such consideration as hath bene before often by me set downe As for the cōmon Lawes of our Realme sure it is that they allow no lesse and with a greater preuiledge For a man may by this law giue his landes held in Fee either by deed in his life or by will at his death to any of his Children yea to a stranger without rendring a reason why he doth so True it is that a Father not disposing thereof in such sort the Custome giues the whole estate to the eldest yet in some parts of our Country the youngest Brother by Custome is to haue the land held by some kind of tenure if the Father in his life tyme do not dispose thereof As yet therefore I cannot see how any sinne is commited or contracted by the former acts being neither done against the law of God or man as we haue proued except it should be said to be sinne not to leaue it to the power of a custome which cannot be except the former law shal be proued not to be of force and no way to be executed which can no way bee done For though I must confesse that the custome of leauing the child-estate to the eldest sonne hath of later times bene much imbraced by our Gentry for the preseruation of their families for which it was inuented For the tymes haue so ruled that men of sort being either idle or not possessed with a couetous humor haue contended themselues with their Fathers fortunes and haue preferred their younger sonns by those means which the tymes did affoard which preferments were thē better then now they are namely by many cōmendable courses as either by seruice of spirituall men whereby many were raised or by professing a spirituall life whereby the younger brother hath oftentimes in hōnor stept before the elder But this manner of life is not so gratefull to our English gentlemens Natures as it hath bene The trade of the Merchant the Military profession the Courtyers life aduanced many more then now they do and lastly the elder brothers were the of better temper in spending and if they had no humour to get yet had they a care to keep what was left vnto them and euer held themselues bound by religion to prouide for their younger brothers and sisters left to their dispose which now is far otherwise For an elder brother is found to spend more in a yeare idlie then would prefer or maintaine a whose familie noblie and to suffer their brothers and sisters to shift which as these times shape is oftentymes to liue either lewdly or most miserably being forced either to forget their good education or to lay aside all badges of gentrie who otherwise with some reasonable helps might do God their Countrey and Family much honour Since wee haue gone so far let vs see on what grounds this custome first hath risen Surely for the maintenance of a family yet led with an ambition at the example of princes who finding some difficulties in the admitting of many to a gouernement and feling what inconueniences the parting of an estate brought deuised that one should gouerne sometimes the worthiest sometimes the eldest was elected according as the order was agreed vpon and yet the other brothers were mainteyned like Princes And thus custome also among them hath bene broken without imputation of sinne For to go no further then our later times it is well knowne that Ferdinand Charles the fifth his brother being setled in the Empyre deuided his estate To Maximilian his eldest sonn he left the Empyre with Austria Hungaria and Bohemia To Charles his second sonne Styria Carinthia and other dominions And to Ferdinand the youngest he gaue the Earldome of Tyrol All which if in his life tyme he had not disposed of had come to the eldest Philip the second late king of Spaine gaue to his Daughters the 17. Prouinces which were of right to haue descended to his sonne after his death if he had not disposed thereof in his life tyme. This is and was deemed lawfull by the Diuines of this age otherwise surely they would neuer haue done it But doth this custome in meaner degrees work that effect which it hath done in them No truely For as wee haue proued it is rather the ouerthrow then the preseruation of many families And let vs see withall whether families florithed not as much and more then now they do before this custome was receiued Liuic saith that three hundred of the Faby being all of one name and family issued out of Rome gates at one tyme on their owne cost to the defence of their citty which was done before this custome was dreamed of In Scotland 300. of the name and family of the Frasers gentlemen were at one tyme slaine in a fight by their enemies neighbors and 140. gentlemen of one name in Yorkshire waited vpon their chiefe
THE YONGER BROTHER HIS APOLOGY BY IT SELFE OR A Fathers free power disputed for the disposition of his lands or other his fortunes to his Sonne Sonnes or any one of them as right reason the Laws of God and Nature the Ciuill Canon and Municipall lawes of this Kingdome do command By I. Ap-Robert Gent. Nisi Dominus aedificauerit domum in vanum laborauerunt qui aedificant eam Psal 126. Vnlesse our Lord build the house they haue laboured in vayne that build it ¶ Imprinted Anno M. DC XVIII TO ALL FATHERS AND SONNES OF WORTHY FAMILIES VVhome Vertue Birth and Learning haue iustly stiled Gentlemen Health Happinesse and Increase of the best Knowledge AS in the front of this briefe Discourse there is Right Worthy Gentlemen already deliuered vnto you some light of that which concerneth the Quality Reason and Scope of the same so do I heere sincerely professe that I did not priuately write it at first but for priuate satisfaction neither do I now make it publique but with due relation to the generall good of Great Britaine and for the exercise of Honourable Spirits in this our much-speaking Paradoxicall Age. Not vpon the least presumption of a self-sufficiency to confront thereby any receiued Custome if any such bee nor to diminish the naturall Reuerence due by Younger Brothers to their Elder not to enkindle emulatiōs in families nor to innouate any thing to the preuidice of publique or priuate quiet which none I hope wil be so ill affected as to suppose neither myne inoffensiue zeale for younger brothers among whom I am rancked one nor the absolute consent of Imperiall and Ecclesiasticall Laws which I hauing a little studied do not a little respect nor the particuler honour I beare to the vsages in this point of our anciēt Britans from whom I am descended nor disire to maintaine and iustify an act in this Kind done by a Friend whom I must euer reuerence nor yet the hope of bettering my priuate fortunes which mooues men much in these our tymes hath drawne me to this vndertaking but principally as before is sōwhat touched the singuler Respect which as a Patriote I beare to the glory and good of Gentlemens Houses whose best Originalls surest means of Maintenance and principal Ornaments are Vertue or Force of mynd The want whereof is a comon cause of ruine The free Power therefore of You who are Fathers is heere in some special cases argued and defended to giue you occasion therby to consider with the cleerer eye-sight for the establishment and continuance of families Heere also the Naturall rights of vs that are children be so discoursed and discussed as that we younger Brothers may haue cause and courage to endeauour by vertuous means to make our selues without the least wrong to any capable if need shal be of the chiefest vses And both and all are so handled as that no offence can reasonably arise in any respect much lesse for that the whole is conceiued and written in Nature only of an Essay or Probleme to which I bynd no man to affoard more beliefe then himselfe hath liking of is free to refute the whole or any part at his pleasure as he feeles himself able and disposed If I may seeme among some to haue handled this subiect with more earnestnesse and acrimony then they think expedient let them be pleased to weigh the Decorum of Disputes which is principally herein obserued their Nature absolutly requiring quicknes and vehemency on whether syde soeuer Neither let this length of Epistle seeme vnto you like the gates of Myndus which were so great and the Citty so little that they ministred occasion to the Cynick to scoffe at the disproportion bidding the Townsemen shut their Gates for feare the Citty should run out through them seeing that in a new Matter a necessity lyeth vpon me to vse so large a Preparation As for the remedies of Euils by way of enacting Lawes that is the proper office of Magistrates and Courts of publick Counsell neuerthelesse to speak and treat of them vnder the fauour and correction of Superiours to whome I do alwaies very dutifully submit is a thing which may well belong to euery man But as for those graue and learned Censors vnto whom I may seeme to haue bestowed my paynes in very needlesse arguments because no lesse then I my self they hould the case as heere it is put to be most cleere and out of Controuersy to such I answere that I wrote it not for them vnlesse perhaps to confirme their iudgments but for others who are not altogeather so perswaded Nor to any as to prescribe or bynd further then their owne Consciences shall thinke good For that were far too peremtory Finally nothing being heer defended but by Authority Reason and Exāple nor any person taxed nor particuler personall vices if neuerthelesse I haue not performed my part in the worke so well as I desyre or as the Cause deserues which I feare I haue not yet my hope is Right Worthy Fathers and Worthy Sonnes of Right Worthy Families that for my honest meaning and good intentions sake your will euer conceiue well of and taken into your speciall protection Your vnfayned vvel-vvisher I. Ap-Robert THE YOVNGER BROTHERS APOLOGIE CHAP. I. The Occasion of writing this Apology is to proue that Fathers may in some cases dispose of their worldly Estates to which of their Sonnes shal reasonably please c. for so much therof as they will and that to be Lawfull by the Law of God of Nature and of Nations NOT many moneths since being inuited by a deare friend of myne to a solemne Feast made by him to many of his well-deseruing friends it was my fortune at that Meeting to acquaint myselfe with many gentlemen of no meane discourse Whereby I feasted as well my vnderstanding with their pleasant society as my taste with the variety of most excellent meates With what our Senses were delighted I let passe to recoumpt since neither profit pleasure nor praise can arise thereof either to the writer or reader Only my intent is to make my Reader acquainted what accident caused me to write this small Treatise and imbouldned me to publish the same to the cōmon view of this al-reprehending age In which neuertheles I do rather hope for allowance then in any sort to feare displeasure For though my subiect be new yet I hope it shal want at the first rather age strēgth which growes by yeares then probable arguments yea forcible reasons to defend it selfe As for friends I hope it will fynd some and peraduenture more then enemyes if it deserue well For as younger Brothers be more in number then elder so are they generallie more free in bestowing their deserued loue For want breeding vnderstanding makes them knowe prize their friends according to their worth Whereas the elder either seated in their Fathers wealth and possessions with more then hopes to enioy their Fortunes do somtynes neyther
of a Fathers soueraigne power ouer the life of his child giueÌ„ to him by the lawes of the twelue Tables where it is written that * Leg. 12. Tabular cap. 3. Dionys Halicarnass Lib 2. Antiquitat Paterfamilias haberetius vitae yea more terque filium venundandi potestatem I will briefly and effectually proue what I affirme herein out of the sacred Text it selfe There theÌ„ it plainely appeares that Fathers had power among the Iewes to cause their children for riot disorder or vnthriftines to be stoned to death Ergo power to disinherit Deuter. 21. For the greater doth euer include the lesse And not to seeme to speake without booke it shall not be amisse to set downe Moyses words which are as follow If a man shall beget a stubborne and vnruely sonne who shall not heare the commaundement of his Father and Mother and being chastised shall contemne to obay they shall apprehend and bring him to the seniours of that Citty and to the gate of iudgment And they shall say to them This our sonne is headstrong and disobedient contemns to heare our admonishments giues himselfe ouer to rioutous excesse and is a drunkard The people of that Citty shall ouerwhelme hini with stones and he shall dye that yee may take euill from among you and that all Israell bearing it may feare Out of which place in Gods word wee may gather how odious a vice vnthriftines was among the people of God what ample power a Father had to punish the same in his child For if wee do well obserue the manner of the processe betweene the Father and the child in this case we shall fynd that the Father was accuser witnesse and as it were iudge of his owne cause For we fynd not that the Seniours of the Citty did giue sentence or further examyned the proofes of the Fathers accusation but their presence giuing as it were allowance to a Fathers power and intention to punish his sonne the people might without more inquiry stone to death so euil a deseruing child Which being by my reader well considered my hope is that it will neuer heerafter seeme vnlawfull though somwhat straung that a Father should disinherit his eldest or any other sonne of his for the cause only of vnthriftines And although the world of men is grownâ—â—â— to that greatnes that it is necessary that one generall Father or politique head should be in a Kingdome or State which may iustly abridge some of those priuiledges and abate a Fathers power all Fathers being become children to the Father of all Fathers their Lord and King vnder God yet the power to raise and maintaine a family by good and lawfull means is still both allowable and commendable in a Parent Who may from tyme to tyme reward according to distributiue iustice al those who liue vnder him by leauing his fortunes to them as in iustice they shall deserue and law shall allow So that there is no question but he may still disinherit according to the power of that law vnder which he liues For no other tye is ouer him God and Nature allowing that at this day and for euer which once they gaue vnto him Which authority he not only may but ought also to execute as far as the law of man shall permit otherwise he shal erre in his Paternall iustice For a Father is not only to beget and nourish his Children in his life but by Natures law must prouide to his power that they liue both in his life after his death to the honour of God the seruice of their Country and Comfort of their family which were the only ends for which God created man a ciuill a reasonable Creature All which if it shall assuredly be thought by a Father that any Child of his will wholy neglect or rather execute the coÌ„trary theÌ„ no question a Father is not bound to leaue him any more then shall honestly suffice the necessities of Nature For as I haue said before no man may giue or lend his goods to any one who will in all mens iudgments assuredly abuse them But let vs see whether a desperate vnthrift may be arraigned and adiuged guilty of these accusations Surely it is cleere that all vnthrifty courses are displeasing to God and contrary to his honour And how can he be able to serue his Countrey who in short tyme will not be able to serue himselfe with necessaries wherewith to liue but must of force be mainteyned like a Droane in a Common wealth out of others labours As for his family what greater discomfort can it haue then an absolute ouerthrow whereby the Noble acts and honour gotten to it by their Predecessors vertues are buried in obliuion and the present and future hopes of all worldly and lawfull honour vertues temporall rewards are taken away And shall not all this deserue disinherison Can there be a greater sinne committed against the honour and essence of a family as it is a family then to be spoyled of her honour life it self For in these our tymes welgotten goods and vsed as they ought are the only soule by which a family and all the vertuous acts which it hath done may liue Since therefore the highest is sought and aymed at in this sinne surely according to the proportion of distributiue iustice the greatest punishment is in equity due to the same according to the reason of the precept â—us suum vnicuique tribuere Nature teartheth the silly Bees in their Common wealth to do to death their Droanes who liue of others labours and shall it then be thought vnlawfull for a Father so to punish an incorrigible vnthrift who will not only liue of others labours but also subuert the honorable endeauours of his Noble Ancestors Thus if sonnes may be deemed domed by the offended hauing power to do both according as the offence done against them shall by circumstance be of quality as we haue proued they may and ought then certainely it is lawfull for a Father so to do as I haue formerly set downe But because example in all doubtfull questions do make their side the stronger it shal not be amisse for the cleering of all the premises to add some few to the former drawne as well from Kinges by whose patterns totus componitur orbis as from inferiour persons whose qualities best fit the condition of our present subiect And if kingdomes and CoÌ„mon wealths haue fauored it then certainly by all arguments à maioriad minus it may much rather be done and ought to be suffered in priuate families CHAP. IX The maine points of the Premisses exemplified in diuers particuler Facts aswell of Princes as of priuate Men. It is not fit perhaps to vrge the better acceptance with God of Abels offering aboue Cayns the elder Brother but of that estate which Abel had in Adams Patrimony Abel Nor will I reinforce the memory of Iaphets share in his Fathers right to the whole
heritance should be left to any one particuler person and namely to the elder Brother yet in some Cases it would not bynd the Father to obserue it For as in the former Cōmandements vpon some considerations the Cōmandement may be dispensed withall so in this For it is not sufficient to be the elder Brother or the nearest in bloud to gaine an inheritance in the Case which I haue now proposed for other circumstances must concurre which if they be wanting bare propinquity or ancienty of bloud may iustly be reiected and he that is second third fourth fifth or last may lwafully be preferred before the first and this by al law diuyne and humane and by all Reason Conscience and Custome of nations Christian For if it should fall out that the next in bloud should be a Naturall foole or a madman or being taken by the Turkes or Mores in his infancy and brought vp in their religion would maintaine the same or if any other such accident ministring cause of iust exception should fall out is it likely that any law would allow that such a man should be admitted to the inheritance Wherefore how idly should they talk that would haue that it was his birthright or that God and Nature had made him heire since that neither God nor Nature doth imediately make heires as I haue sayd before True it is that God and Nature makes men who by the mediation of the lawes and customes of nations may come to be heires Vpon which ground our cómon Lawyers say that no heyres are borne but men and law make them True it is that in holy Writ great respect is had of the first begotten a blessing is held to come to parents thereby But this blessing I presuppose to be that therby the feare of sterility was taken away which in the old Law was held to be a great punishment of God and in respect thereof parents had of themselues and by the nationall lawes and customs a great regard of their first begotten and preferred them to the better part of their possessions yet not by any commaund from God as a precept to bind his elect people vnder paine of sinne For had any such Law bound them vnder such a penalty then should it bynd all Christians now on the same conditions For we see it by generall practise of all countryes to be otherwise Therefore it followes directly that it was not Gods Comaundement but a Nationall Law For God both is and ever was one without chaunge to all his people and so euer were and wil be his Lawes positiue made for them that truely worship him The clayme which Esau made to his Birthright was not by the law of God as some ignorantly affirme but by the lawes of his country For should the law of God haue commaunded it it had bene sinne in his Mother and brother by cunning to haue gotten it from him Neither could the Father or the State wherin they liued vpon no iust cause knowne but to God alone without sinne haue setled the same vpon his Brother Iacob as it was and as it may seeme by allowance from God and as it may be iudged by the sucesse Whereby it is thought that God ordained it as a punishment of the one and blessing of the other which by the permission of sinne to be committed God doth neuer do Neither did the Nationall law or custome of the Iewes as it is said absolutly commaund the Father to leaue vnto his first begotten all or the greatest part of his goods and fortunes But if in case he died not disposing therof by act in his life or will at his death then the custome of the Nation layd a double portion on the eldest or first begotten prouiding for the rest proportionably By all which you may gather that neither the law of God or man in this case commaunded that Esau should haue the inheritance but power to do the contrary was giuen to the Father in his life tyme euen by the law it selfe For many Deuines hold that Esau selling his Birthright as it is termed sould not goods or lands but his clayme of being high Preist after his Father which by custome was to come to him being his Fathers eldest sonne Of which dignity God seing him vnfit permitted him to passeaway his right in his Fathers life as we read in holy writ and which God seemed to approue And thus I hope this objection is answered Further if it were true that the effect of Eldership were such by the law of God as some passionately defend that is that the whole inheritance should of right pertaine to the eldest thē sure it followeth by good consequēce that there should nor euer could haue bene but one temporall Lord of all the world For of necessity Adams inheritance should haue gone still to the next in bloud which how absurd it is let all men iudge Moreouer we read that Nöe hauing three sonnes and the whole world to leaue vnto them gaue it not all to the Eldest but equally deuided it among them and their posterity as all authenticall histories do witnes God requiring obedience of children to parents promised a reward saying Honour thy Father Mother that thy dayes may be long in the land which the Lord shall giue thee This surely was not spoken to one but to all the children of men For with God there is no exception of persons but as a iust and pions Father he giues euery one according to his deserts Terram autem dedit filijs hominum We read also in holy writ how the prodigall child being weary or his Fathers house came vnto him and boldly sayd Pater da mihi portionem substantiae meae quae me contingit This child of which the Gospell speaks was the yoūger brother yet you see how boldly he sayd giue vnto me that portion of goods which belongs to me By which words it is euident that a diuision or partition of a Fathers fortunes was then in vse and that any child as well yoūger as elder had power by law to demaund his legitimate or childes part according to the Nature of the Ciuill and Canon Law as you haue heard For the words following in the text are these Et diuisit substantiam illis Thus we see that the priuiledge of Eldership was thē excluded which now in our countrey by custome onely is gotten to be of such force But it may be obiected that this was a parable onely as indeed it was and cannot be alledged as law True it is yet it cannot be denied but that all similies parables or examples which euer were alledged by the wise and learned to represent the truth haue euer bene deriued from the customes and nature of things according to the knowne truth in that tyme place and to those to whome the speach or discourse is directed And shall we think that our Sauiour Christ being wisdom and truth it selfe treating of so important an affaire
as he did then in the Ghospell would vse an vnknowne discourse or striue to make the truth appeare to our weake vnderstandings by a Parable which in equity could not be true Noe surely For it appeares by Salomon his succeding to his Father Dauid that Dauid had power by the lawes of god and man to giue his Kingdome to the worthiest which hedeeming to be Salomon gaue vnto him his Kingdome though he was the yongest sonne Neither was there any iust exception made against Adonias his eldest Brother or against some other of his Brethren why they should be disinherited by their Father Dauid contrary to the common practise of those tymes in setling inheritances But the only knowne reason of this act in Scripture was Dauid promise made to Salomons Mother togeather with her great intreaty made to Dauid to performe the same Which surely he would not haue done except hee had found a lawfull power in himselfe to haue executed the same And thus much concerning what may be said out of Scripture or law of God in our present question CHAP. IIII. That nations begining to denise sundry formes of setling Inheritâ—nces the Romanes especially therin respected the free power of Fathers the right of Children to their Fathers estates begining only at their Fathers Death HAVING now declared in the former chapter what the lawes of God and Nature doe determyne of our present question we inted to examine in breif what is comaunded by the law of Man aswell ciuill of other Nations as common of our owne Gontry And first touching the ciuill Law thus Though that all Law which euer had but the name or credit of Law doth surely deriue her originall from the Law of Nature whereupon Cicero many hundreth yeares synce said that the ground of all law making is to be taken from the chief law which was borne before any law was written or Citty builded yet do they differ much in forme For as it is no law but tyranny which wholy disagrees with the law of Nature as Aristotle saith so if it agree in al with the law of Nature without limitation or difference it must of force be the very law of Nature it self and not the law of man Which surely is nothing els then a temper or forme of equity drawne by right reason from the grounds of Natures lawes according as tyme place and the Natures of men either gaue or shall giue the occasion For though new lawes be dayly made of new seuerall accidents yet all are agreable to the old and ancient grounds of reason in Nature the iust Mother of all law Wherefore hauing set downe before what the law of Nature is touching the matter in question I shall need only now to shew what temper or forme hath thereunto bene added by the Ciuill Lawyer After that mankind was inforced yet by Natures warrant as I haue said to make a partition of the Blessings of God and Nature and that men were possessed by the same right of goods and lands which they desyred to leaue to posterity law-makers and in particuler the Ciuilian deuised by little and little certayne formes of inheritance and ordination of heyres at the first somwhat rigorous giuing to Parents power of life and death ouer their Children a free disposition of all their fortunes to any one of them in his life but dying intestate then all which was the Fathers to be equally deuided among the Children as wel daughters as sonns Which Constitution was afterward vpon good grounds altered The Father being bound to leaue euery Child a portion which the Ciuill Lawyer calleth a legitimate others a Patrimony which at the first was the eight part of the Fathers substance equally to be deuided as I haue said which after a while seeming little the law commaunded that the fourth part should be left without controule except that vpon iust cause the Testator did disinherite him or them who by course of law were to succeed him still vpholding the former lawes that aswel daughters as sonnes should equally succeed to their Parents dying intestate herein assigning fourteene Causes why an heyre might lawfully be disinherited Many hundred yeares passed from the establishing of the Ciuill law and before that it was ordayned by force of law that Parents should leaue a Childes part as it is now called or that he could not disinherit without expressing the cause thereof in his last Will yet in all this tyme nor vntill this present day the priuiledg of engrossing all by Primogeniture was not once heard of or at least wise not admitted but rather excluded as by many texts in the same Law it well appeares The end of the Imperiall or Roman Ciuill law being only to maintaine morall Iustice inthree short precepts Liue honestly Hurt no Man Gine vnto euery one his owne So he who obserues these three fulfills this law yea the law of Nature from whence this law is sprung Now if any Brother can proue that his Father either in life by deed or by will at his death disposing of his goods lands no otherwise then I haue set downe doth none act against these three then why should he not content himself either with the fruits of his Fathers loue or his owne deserts whatsoeuer they be True it is that in Naturall iustice children during their Fathers life haue Ius ad rem and not Ius in re to a Fathers goods Whereupon the Law calleth them Quasibonorum patris Dominos Which their right onely takes effect after their Fathers death For during life hee hath power to alter alien sel and giue as it shal please him according to forme of law but being dead without will or disposition therof they fall vpon his children as I haue said according to the law of nations This law imbraceth a two fold iustice the one in exchange the other in distribution The first hath not to do with our cause the other surely rather commends then condemns a Father who vpon good occasion that is for the bad demerits of his eldest sonne and for the preseruation only of his family shall giue or conuey his lands goods to the yonger For the Nature of distributiue iustice is not only to giue proportionably to the well deferuing but also to forbeare to place benefits vpon any one who shall abuse them or vse them to any other end then to that good for which they were lent him and hee shall leaue them And this is Ius suum vnicuique tribuere For no man can giue or sell his goods to an euill end or to any one whom he assures himselfe will vse them to the dishonour of God or the wrong of those who shall liue with him or by him of which I will speak more in the last chapter being there to handle what a Father may in conscience do or not do in our present question with sinne and without sinne And thus much of the Ciuill and Canon Lawyers auerment of an elder