A BRIEFE CONFERENCE OF DIVERS LAWES Diuided into certaine Regiments By Lodowick LLoyd Esquier one of her Maiesties Serieants at Armes Eccle. 21. Vidi in loco iudicij impietatem in loco institiae iniquitatem LONDON Printed by Thomas Creede 1602. TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTIE PRINCE Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England France and Ireland c. I Knew not how most gratious Queene to make my most bounden dutifull seruice known vnto your Maiestie But as Dauids seruaunts ventured theyr liues through the middest of their enemies to fetch water from the well of Bethelem to please their Lord and Maister So my selfe thought it my dutie to trauell into some farre countries in no daunger but of your Maiesties displeasure by presenting some straunge Iewels among so many as might dislike your Highnesse which should scorch mee more then the Sunne did Ionas when his gourd was off and terrifie me more then the countenance of Moses terrified the Iewes without his vaile on But your Maiestie which forget nothing but iniuries will the sooner forgiue mee my ouermuch boldnesse the rather for that I present your highnesse but with Iewels such as far excell the Iewels on Aarons garment the onely pearles which ought to be bought with al the wealth we haue the Iewels which we ought to seeke with all the studie and trauell wee can the onely Vrim and Thummim which should shine bright on a Princes breast which the auncient Kings of Israel ware as tablets about their necks as frontlets on their foreheads and gardes on their garments which Iewels many other kings sought and mist. Licurgus sought these Iewels for the Lacedemonians at Delphos Mena sought them of Mercurius for Egipt Numa of the Nymph Egeria for the Romanes Zaleucus of Minerua for the LocreaÌ„s Of these Iewels also I brought the best Pearles I could finde among them vnto your Maiestie in hope of your wonted gracious fauour to accept these Iewels for their owne sake as Artaxerxes accepted water of the riuer Cyrus for Cyrus sake Your Maiesties most bounden and obedient seruant Lodowick LLoyd A BRIEFE CONFErence of diuers Lawes diuided into certaine regiments In the first Regiment is expressed the antiquitie and force of the Lawe the states of Common-wealths vnder diuers kindes of gouernments ALl creatures of God as well in heauen as in earth had lawes giuen them after they were created to be gouerned and ruled by the Sunne the Moone and the Starres to keepe their perpetuall motions and course in their places and regiments so the seas haue their limits and bounds how farre they should rule and raigne and though one starre differeth from an other in glorie in greatnesse and in brightnesse yet are they gouerned by one perpetuall lawe so the seas though the waues thereof be so loftie and proud yet are they shut vp within doores and commaunded to keepe in and not to goe further then the place to them by lawe appointed By lawe also the elements are commaunded to staie within their owne regiments without trespassing one of another as Manilius faith Certa stant omnia lege For the stanes by lawe haue their leaders before them they haue their watch giuen them they haue their motions and marching appointed them and as all riuers and waters haue their course and recourse to the seas and from the seas as from their chiefe commaunder so all starres haue their brightnesse light from the Sun as from their chiefe generall Neither were the Angels in heauen being the first and the chiefest creatures of God nor man in Paradise beeing the last creature Tanquam Epilogus operum dei without lawe the breach wherof made such a generall confusion that it so obscured the first integritie of the lawe of nature that the Angels that offended in heauen lost heauen and were iudged to perpetuall darkenesse and man for his disobedience in Paradise cast out of Paradise to euerlasting punishment so that the Angels were not pure nor the heauens cleare before God The earth likewise and the seas and all the creatures in them by breaking of the first lawe which Tertullian calleth Primordialem lâ—…gem legum omnium matricem lost the benefites of the first creation for in Adams fall all creatures were cursed which made Augustine to woÌ„der Vtrùm mirabilius homines iustos creare quà m iniustos instificare whether the mercy of God were more in creating iust men or in iustifying wicked men though with God it was of equall and like power yet said Augustine it was of greater mercy to iustifie vniust men for that Iustificatio er at secunda hominis creatio Yet the old Patriarches liued vnder the lawe of nature so Paul testifieth that the lawe was first written not in tables of stones but in fleshly tables of the heart for I will put my lawe saith the Lorde in their inward parts and in their hearts will I write it so Augustine saith Audi linguam non in lapide sed in corde scribentem for from the eternall lawe which is Creatrix gubernatrix vniuersitatis was reuiued and lightned the lawe of nature vnder the which the Patriarches liued for the lawe of nature which the Patriarches had being not corrupted differeth nothing froÌ„ the written lawe giuen to Moses which is the whole summe of the morall lawe What else is the lawe written giuen to Moses but a short repetition and compendious catalogue expounding vnto vs the lawe of nature beeing obscured and corrupted by the fall of Adam but by the second Adam renued written and giuen to Moses in tables of stones Tanquam norma rectitudinis in Deo So Paule sayeth that if the Gentiles which haue not the lawe doo by nature those things contained in the lawe they hauiug not the lawe are a lawe to themselues and therefore the Heathens are not excuseable for conscience which is that Flammeus gladius is a witnesse of theyr fault and a signe of the anger and iudgement against them for theyr sinne Agnitio Peccatilex and therefore the lawe was giuen to shewe vs our infirmities and that by the lawe grace might bee sought for Fides enim impetrat quod lex imperat for when the lawe was first giuen in Mount Sinai to Moses it was with such feare lightning and thundering with such cloudes smoake and fire that euery part of Sinai trembled and quaked when the lawe was giuen for the law is full of terror and ministreth vnto death The law said Plato punisheth wicked meÌ„ rewardeth good meÌ„ so Cicero saith Lex vitioruÌ„ emeÌ„datrix virtutuÌ„ est commendatrix By the lawe we know our selues without the which we wander in darknesse without light in ignorance without knowledge in sin without feare whose force and authoritie is from God and not from man so could Cicero say Tantalegis vis est vt ea non homini sed deo Delphico tribueretur And therefore the first and auncient kings and
poisons being throwne into the seas by Claudius the Emperour his successor so infected the seas that it killed an infinite number of fish which fish being dead the seas cast off to the next shores so by the death of one murtherer most part of the Senators and Knights of Rome escaped from murther and poyson In the time that Clau. Marcellus was Consull in Rome there were found 370. olde auntient women supposed matrons accused and condemned for poysoning so many in Rome that it was thought by the citizens and Senators of Rome that it was a common plague eyther by corruption of the ayre or otherwise that so destroyed the people such rewards haue tyrants For he that killed Saul in Mount Gilboa brought his crowne to Dauid supposing to haue some great reward had the reward of a murtherer commaunded by Dauid to be slaine The like reward had Rechab Banah which brought Isbosheths head to Dauid their reward was to haue their heads and their hands cut off and to be hanged vp ouer the poole in Haebron murther neuer wants his due deserts nor iust rewards Charondas lawe was that he that pulled a mans eye out should loose an other of his owne for it but if a man had but one eye and that were pluckt out Charondas thought the lawe were satisfied if one eye of the offender were lost for it yet the one eyed man by loosing of his eye was depriued of all his sight and therfore sought by the lawe to haue the offender as blinde as he for though hee lost but one eye yet lost hee all his sight and thereby would haue the penaltie of the lawe for his sight and not for the eye and claimed therefore iustice of the lawe against the offender But the lawe of Moses is otherwise that if a man strike his seruant in the eye that his eye perish hee shall let his seruant go free for that he lost his eye also if a man smite out his seruants tooth the lawe is that he shall likewise let his seruant goe free Yet in matters of death Moses lawe is eye for eye member for member life for life bloud for bloud so is the lawe of the twelue Tables Siquis membrum rupit in eum Talio esto So Samuel spake to king Agag the Amalekite as thy sword made many women without children so without children shal be thy mother and cut him in peeces according to Talions lawe Was not Andronicus stript out of his purple cloathing by King Antiochus commaundement for his murther and caused to bee killed in the same very place where he caused the high priest Onias to be slaine the Lordes iust iudgement euer reuengeth innocent bloud Zimri through ambition which is the roote of all mischiefe conspired against his maister Elam and killed him as he was drinking in Samaria How long raigned he seuen dayes after hee was besieged in his owne pallace where he was forced to burne himselfe and his house Zellum through ambition conspired against his maister Zachariah flew him and raigned in his stead but a moneth in Samaria If men looke to the end of kings gouernors and generals more are found betraied slaine by friends seruants in their chambers theÌ„ by the enemies in the field For these be called Cubiculares consiliarij à quibus bâ—…nus cautus imperator venditur Thus is murther euer committed either by couetousnes pride malice enuie or ambition which is chief the very ringleader of murther and treason Was not Saul ambitious when Samuel tolde him that the Lorde had reicted him for his disobedience to say to Samuel yet honour me before the people The Idoll Appollo in Delphos could say no more to Augustus Caesar when he came to know what should become of the Empire of Rome but that an Hebrew childe was borne that commaunded vs to silence yet as Saul spake to Samuel so the Idollspake to Augustus yet depart thou with reuerence from our aultar before the people These wicked mens liues are compared in the booke of Wisedome to a shadowe or to a poste riding in haste on the way or to a ship in the sea whose path cannot be seene or to a fowle flying in the ayre whose steppes cannot be found whose wicked hope is compared to an arrow that is shot and falleth quickly to the ground Was not Absolon ambitious to say I wish that there were some by the king appointed to heare the iust complaint of the people Thus by ambitious meanes he practised secret trecherie against the king his father for the kingdome In the seuenth Regiment is manifested the great zeale of good men where whoredome is punished in many countries and lest vnpunished in other countries with the praise and commendation of chastitie AS you read before in the first fourth regimeÌ„ts how the Egiptians the Lacedemonians the Locreans the Getes affirmed to haue their lawes from Oracles and Diuine powers So Numa Pomp. made the old Romaines beleeue that all the lawes and Religion which he gaue to thepeople were deliuered vnto him by the Nymph Egeria yea euen the verie barbarous Scythians brag that they haue their lawes from their god Zamolxis And as the Turkes at this day confesse that they haue their lawes from Mahomet so many other lawmakers in diuers countries made their people beleeue that they consulted with some diuine powers and were instructed to make their lawes Such therefore is the strength and authoritie of the lawe that Paul calleth the lawe the minister vnto death and yet a schoole maister to know Christ. Plato called lawes the sinewes of a common-wealth Demosthenes a diuine gift Cicero the bands of cities Plutarch the very life of a common-wealth The lawes are as keyes to opeÌ„ vnto vs the way vnto obedience and to know sinne for if the lawe had not commanded me Thou shalt not defile thy neighbours wife I had not knowne adultery to be a sinne There is no offence so grieuously punished by Gods lawe neither by mans lawe as adulterie was euen from the creation in so much that all men defiled themselues with that sinne all flesh corrupted his way Hence grew the Lords anger so great that hee punished the whole worlde with an vniuersall Deluge sauing eight persons after the Deluge for the selfe same sinne the Lorde destroyed the fiue Cities of Palestine with fire and brimstone the Lorde would not haue so filthy a sinne to raigne among his people How was Israel plagued for theyr adulterie with the Moabites with whom the Lorde commaunded that they should not ioyne in marriage and therefore the Lorde commaunded Moses to hang their Princes vp against the Sunne for theyr filthy lust with the Moabites and the women that had lien with men were commaunded by Moses to bee slaine and the Virgines to bee reserued in the warres against the Madianites and Moses was angrie with the Captaines for
with him to put away the straunge gods that were among them to cleanse themselues and chaunge their garments and Iacob buried and hid their Images vnder an oake by Sichem and went to Bethel and made an aultar there to his God as the Lord had commaunded him So Ninus a little before that time set vp the first Image that is read of to bee among the Gentiles to Belus his father from which time the name of Baal his prophets and his priests began to multiply so many in Niniuie and in Babilon yea in Iudah it selfe among the Israelites to whome the lawe was giuen from the Lord to Moses forbidding them to serue straunge gods Ieroboam Salomons seruant and king of Israel which made Israel first to sinne by making two golden calues theyr gods the one in Dan the other in Bethel saying to the people These be thy gods ô Israel which brought thee out of the land of Egipt Within a while after wicked Achab being not satisfied with the gods of Samaria the golden calues which Ieroboam made brought Baal froÌ„ Assyria to Iudah where he kept and maintained 450. false Prophets to instruct and teach Israel in the religion of Baal contrarie to the lawe which the Lord gaue vnto Moses for the lawe was Thou shalt haue no other gods but me so that the gods of the Moabites and Ammonites yea the gods of the Gentiles came to be worshipped in the middest of Ierusalem and Mount Oliuet was so full of Idolatry vnder euery greene tree and in euery groue that thereby it was called the Mount of corruption so that Ierusalem had as many straunge aultars in the time of Salomon as Athens had in the time of Paul The Iewes therefore were as Idolatrous and had as many gods as the Gentiles had and rather serued the dumbe Idols of the Gentiles then the liuing God of Israel So vaine and wicked were the Israelites that while Moses was in the Mount with the Lord for the lawe before he came downe from the Mount they had forced Aaron to make them a calfe of mettall as a god to go before them for so the Lord said vnto Moses vp and get thee downe quickly for the people haue made them a god of mettall at what time the Lord was so angrie that he determined to destroy all the Hebrues for their Idolatrie had not Moses earnestly praied and made intercession for them For the Hebrues before they came out of Egipt sawe the Idolatry of the Egiptians in worshipping oxen calues serpents crocodiles and other beasts as gods the lawe was not so soone giuen to Moses but it was as soone broken by the people who forsooke the Lord and his lawe and followed other gods Baalim and Ashtaroth after Ioshuahs death for during the whole time of Ioshuah he kept Israel from Idolatry and they serued the Lord but after his death they committed fornication with the daughters of Moab who brought Israel to worship and serue theyr goddes that the Lord was angrie with Israel and bad Moses take vp the chiefe men among the people and hang them vp to the Lorde against the Sunne that the Lords wrath might bee taken away So after Gedeons death Israel fell to their Idolatrie as they were wont to doo that Manasses a most wicked Idolatrous king builded aultars to all the host of heauen in the house of the Lord and he put vp an Image in the Temple of the Lord where the Lord himselfe said In Ierusalem will I put my name hee worshipped and serued them hee reared vp aultars and made groues he built high aultars which Ezechiah his father destroyed and following Achab king of Israel offered his sonne in fire so that in Ierusalem the Israelites worshipped more gods and had more aultars to their gods then the Athenians had in Athens which Paul testified who sawe so many gods and so many aultars in Athens one to lust one to shame and one among so many Ignotodeo to an vnknowne god The second Regiment of Lawes containing the contempt of religion seuerely punished among diuers nations of the sundrie sacrifices and vowes of the Heathens and of the multitude of Idols and Aultars in Israel SOcrates deriding scoffing at the multitude of the goddes and aultars of Athens was by the Athenians put to death not for breaking their aultars destroying their temples nor betraying the Citie but because he sware by a straunge god thinking thereby hee had despised the goddes of Athens and more esteemed straunge gods Plato his scholler though hee was of the like opinion as his maister Socrates was yet durst hee not openly confesse it for feare of the people though king Dyonisius knew Platos minde by his Letters therein signified that when Plato wrote to king Dyonisius of one god then hee wrote seriously and earnestly but when hee wrote of many gods hee ieasted with scoffes as Socrates did Plato was of oipnion that Poets and Painters filled Greece with all kinde of Idols for what the Poets faigned in Greece in fables the same the Painters painted in Greece in tables and therefore Plato thought good to remoue Homer crowned annointed with all reuerence out of Greece for that hee through the opinion of the Greekes had of him filled Greece with too many gods and aultars But the Lord commanded Israel to ouerthrowe the â—…ltars of the Gentiles to breake their pillars cut downe their groues and burne the Images of their goddes with fire saying Couet not the golde nor the siluer that is about the Heathens Images as Achan did least thou be snaâ—…ed thereby for it is an abhomination to the Lord. Among the Romanes they thought it a great sacriledge to contemne and prophane the religion of theyr gods for so Alcibiades was accused of sacriledge for that he offended the lawe of the Athenians despising the holy misteries of the goddesse Ceres entred with his torch-bearer and vâ—…rger before him against the lawe of Eumolpides into the secret sacrifice and misteries of Ceres for the which his goods were confiscated and himselfe banished out of Athens for his contempt So for the like Clodius was accused in Rome for that he entered secretly into the misteries of Flora where none should bee but women and the Priests of Flora but as Alcibiades was banished out of Athens so Cloâ—…ius after was slaine in Rome for that Clodius offended the lawe being rather suspected for Pompeia Caesars wife then for the zeale hee had to Floraes sacrifice So zealous were the Heathens that euen among the Scythians rude and sauage people for that Anacharsis the Philosopher brought the ceremonies of the Grecians and their religion into Scythia and vsed the same in Scythia he was slain by his owne countreymen the Scythians In like maner the Athenians vsed certaine of the Acarnanites who being not Priests prophaned the gods of Athens in their religion which was taken of the Athenians for a
sacriledge against their gods and therefore were the Acarnanites slaine in Athens If the Gentiles do this for dumbe Idols and woodden gods and allow no straunge gods to bee worshipped nor serued within their territories neither suffered their religion to bee altered how much more should Israel obserue the lawe of their Lord and God for of him through him and for him are all things and as Hillarius saith Quicquid in deo est Deus est totum quod in Deo est vnum est Hermes though a Heathen man amōg the Egiptians could say Deus est quae sunt ea quae non sunt And Plato among the Greekes could say Deum esse aequalem totum ipsum singulum Such was the blinde zeale of the Gentiles towards theyr goddes that they exceeded the Iewes for as theyr gods were innumerable so were theyr ceremonies theyr sacrifices feasts and vowes infinite they were so religious to theyr goddes that they sought neither health wealth nor any thing else without vowes made eyther to dedicate Temples and Aultars to sacrifice and make Playes as the Romaines did for the health of theyr Consuls Dictators and Emperours or for any thing else the Priestes of Iupiter called Flamines should offer the sacrifice of Haecatombae vnto theyr gods The Grecians also when their gods were offended with them vowed for their assistance and helpe to stand with them to dedicate statues Images with crownes chaines and Iewels The Egiptians when they had offended their gods they should shaue their heads and their beards and dedicate the haires thereof at Memphis with vowes made that they would build temples of marble and of Iuorie to their gods The Persians which haue neither Temples nor Images but the Sunne onely whom they worship whose Temple said they is the whole world to whom the Persians made a pile of wood offered sacrifice and powred wine milke hony which with supplication vowes they made to the Sunne for the Persians had neither Temples nor Idolls which made Xerxes when he came to Greece with his Persian armie and sawe their Goddes and Idolls so full painted and pictured on the walles of their Temples that he left neither Gods nor Temples that he could come vnto vnburned In so much that the Lorde complained by his Prophets and brings these Heathens the Romanes Egiptians Persians others in for a proofe against his people saying how these Gentiles obserue and keep the lawes of their Gods and suffer no straunge God to be worshipped among them but my people will not obey me saith the Lord. The Prophet Ieremy cried so to Israel saying Looke how many cities are in thee oh Iudah so many strange Gods do you worship within Iudah And so the Lord complained how the Rechabites kept the lawes and ordinances of their father Ionadab that commaunded them they should neuer drinke wine build no house sowe no seede plant no vines and haue no vineyards they haue kept their fathers lawes but my people will not obey my lawes nor keepe my commaundements saith the Lord. So did the sonnes of Mattathias as the sonnes of Ionadab did obeyed their fathers commaundement in obseruing the lawes of the Lord. The examples are verified in all the kings of Israel euen from Salomon for hee forsooke the Lorde and serued straunge gods and builded Aultars to Chemosh god of the Moabites and to Moloch god of the Ammonites But Dauid burnt the Images and Idolls of the Philistines in the valley of Giants so in like sort were the Idols of the Iamnites burned The Lord therefore sent Ahiah the Sylonite to Ieroboam Salomons seruant which tooke his mantle and rent it into twelue peeces thus saith the Lord so will I rent the kingdome out of Salomons hand and will giue tenne Tribes to thee although they read in the lawe of the Lord that the sword of the Lord is sent against them that worship Images as the Lorde said I will whet my sworde which shall eate the flesh of Ido◅ators and will make my arrowes drunken with ◅heyr bloud I will destroye your Aultars ouerthrowe your Images and cast your bodies vpon the ◅arkasses of your Idols yet would not Israel bee in◅tructed And therefore it was prophesied and said of Ierusalem Thou shalt serue thy enemie in hunger in thirst ◅n nakednesse and in neede and he shall put a yoake of Iron vpon thy necke vntill hee haue destroyed thee thou shalt eate the fruite of thy body euen the flesh of ◅hy sonnes and daughters during the siege and straight◅esse wherein thy enemies shall inclose thee because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord so that thorne and thistle shall grow on their aultar and they shall say to the mountaines couer vs and to the hilles fall vpon vs. And therefore Zaleucus Pythagoras Scholler the first lawe that he made among the Locreans was first to establish religion and to honour and worship the gods acknowledging all things that are good to come from diuine powers the second lawe was against contention and discord among the people exhorting one to loue an other agreeable to the lawe of nature which lawe was giuē vnto vs that we should loue others and do for others as much as for our selues Hence grew that Paradoxe of Pythagoras that all things should be common amongst friendes and friendship most common and therefore Socrates was wont to curse that man Qui primus vtilitatem a natura seiunxisset for what nation is in the world but by the law of nature loues lenitie humanitie gratitude and goodnesse and by the selfe same lawe hates crueltie pride vngratefulnesse and wickednesse It seemed that Zeleucus read Moses lawe for that his first lawe was concerning religion in the first table and his second lawe touching loue and charitie betweene neighbours in the second table Licurgus among the Lacedemonians made a lawe that no straunger might come and dwell in Sparta not in any part of Lacedemonia lest they should defile prophane their lawes and religion neither should that Lacedemonian that went out of his countrey returne to his countrey lest he should corrupt their religion So it was among the Israelites by the lawe of Moses that no straunger might match with the Israelites neither by marriage nor by any societie vnles they would become obedient to the lawe of Moses It was not lawfull in Athens to thinke much lesse to speake any thing against their gods and for that Auaxagoras the Philosopher said the Sunne was but a fierie stone he was by the Athenians put to death for that the Athenians iudged the same to be a God So carefull were the Gentiles to serue theyr Gods that Gedeons death was sought for the breaking of the aultar of Baal Ieptha was threatned to be slaine in his owne house whereby hee was forced to flie to the land of Tob. Protagoras because the Athenians found
which are read euery Sabboth day in the Temple After the destruction of the Temple first builded by Salomon the Lord stirred vp Cyrus for the second building of the Temple and to deliuer all the vesselles of golde and siluer which Nabuchodonozer had taken out of the Temple of Ierusalem to be placed againe in the house of the Lord at Ierusalem according to the propâ—… sie of Esay two hundred yeares before Cyrus time After Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes kings of Persâ—… commaunded in like manner that the Temple which was hindred for a time by meanes of the Samaritans to Cambises and others should be with great diligence bâ—…ded and all the vessels wich king Nabuchodonozer tooâ—… away should be according to Cyrus Darius and Aâ—… erxes three mightie kings of Persia againe restored to Ierusalem Among the Grecians the first day of euery moneth was their Sabboth called among them as among the Iewes Neomenia which they kept most solemnly serued most religiously their gods Among the Romanes the Nones and Ides of euâ—… moneth were their Sabboths and obserued as religious daies on which daies they would commence no batâ—… but as a Sabboth to serue their gods for on the Ides of euery moneth throughout the yeare the Romanes 〈◊〉 great solemnities with diuers sacrifices and religious ceremonies Among the Parthians they obserued the very day that Arsaces ouerthrew Zaleucus to bee theyr Sabboth for that they were restored on that day to theyr libertie by Arsaces which daye they keepe as a religious day and vse great solemnitie in memorie of their libertie The day that Cyrus ouercame the Scythians was one of the Sabboths of the Persians which they call Sacas And an other Sabboth day of the Persians had on the very day that their rebellious Magi were slain that would haue vsurped the kingdome in memory whereof they consecrated a feast called Magophâ—…niah the which day was so solemne a Sabboth among the Persians that it was not lawfull for any of the Magi that day to goe out of his house The victories at Marathon and at Micala ouer the Persians was the Sabboth of the Athenians for among the Heathens the dayes of their victories and triumphs the dayes of their liberties restored and of their feasts were their Sabboths for as it was not lawfull among the Iewes to fight vpoÌ„ the Sabboth day so among the Heathens they straightly obserued their religious dayes as their Sabboth Phillip king of Macedonia vpon the very day that his sonne Alexander was borne got two victories the one was with his Mares in the games of Olympia and the other with his men of armes in Thracia for memorie whereof hee decreed an annuall feast to bee made which was obserued for a Sabboth among the Macedonians The Iewes so obeyed and reuerenced their lawes that they would not breake theyr Sabboth daye in so much that they suffered theyr enemins to kill and ouerthrow them because they would not fight vpon the Sabboth day so did they when they began to build the temple before they would build houses to dwell in or walles to defend them but euery man readie with weapon in one hand for their enemies working with the other hand Nicanor going to strike a fielde with Iud. Machabaeus vppon the Sabboth daye was willed to hallowe the Sabboth who said is there a God mightie in heauen that commands to keepe the Sabboth day and I am mightie on earth that commaund the conâ—…ry but Nicanor lost the battell and his life in the battell and his head his hands and his blasphemous tongue were cut off and hangd on the Pinnacles of the Temple at Ierusalem Nehemias finding some Israelites prophaning the Sabboth day in carrying burthens he tooke them and rebuked them sharply for prophaning of the Sabboth day So straightly the Iewes obserued their lawes that he that gathered but a fewe stickes vpon the Sabboth day was taken and brought to Moses and Moses brought him before the Lorde and sentence of death was giuen vpon him by the Lord for breaking of the Sabboath saying Let him bee stoned to death by the people Such reuerence obedience the Iewes had to Moses lawe that when Alexander the great commaunded the high Priest to aske him whatsoeuer he would haue him to do whereas he might haue had Territories and Countries giuen him hee requested but the liberties and lawes of his Countrey to the poore Iewes that did inhabite within Asia and all the dominions of Alexander So did the Iewes that dwelt in Greece in Asia and in Antioch requested of Zaleucus and Antiochus the great nothing but that they might liue and enioy the benefites of the lawes of their countrey which is the lawe of Moses Neither could the Iewes endure any that would despise theyr lawes for a souldier vnder Cumanus the Romane President for tearing of Moyses bookes in contempt mooued suche sedition that they came armed to Cumanus and claimed to haue iustice executed vpon the souldiers that so despised their law for the tearing of one leafe The like sedition moued an other Romane souldier vpon the feast day of the Iewes by shewing his genitall parts scoffiing and flowting theyr lawes and religion so that Cumanus to satisfie the Iewes put both the Romaines to death to the losse of twentie thousande Iewes by the Romaine Armyes afterwards The Iewes suffered many ouerthrowes most willingly vpon the Sabboth day saying Moriamur omnes because they would resist neither Pompey the great nor Antiochus King of Syria vpon the Sabboth aâ—… the Romaines and the Syrians euer found meaâ—… to fight with the Iewes vppon the Sabboth daye on the which daye Pompey the great tooke Ierusalem Therefore Iud. Machabaeus made a lawe that to fight vppon the Sabboth day in defence of theyr lawes of theyr countreys and of theyr liues was no seruile worke but thought it lawfull to fight vppon the Sabboth daye with Nicanor a blasphemer and an enemie of the Lorde and his Armye and so ouerthrew Nicanor and slew nine thousand of his host so that vpon the Sabboth day any man may do good So Christ aunswered the Israelites for his Disciples beeing accused that they brake the lawe in eating the eares of corne haue you not read what Dauid did when hee was a hungrye to eate the shewe bread which was not lawfull but onely for the Priests So he also answered for himselfe beeing accused of the Israelites that he brake the lawe in healing the 〈◊〉 vpon the Sabboth day Which of you said Christ will not loose his Oxe or his Asse from his cribbe vpon the Sabboth day to water them The Sabboth day is the schoole of the Lord in the which he would haue his people taught and instructed not onely to heare the lawes read vnto them but to learne the lawes and to liue according as the lawe commaundeth them to that ende was man created that hee
of 20. of the best learned Ciuilians with the aduise and consent of 50. of the grauest and wifest councellors that were within his Empire to examine whether the lawes were iust profitable for the people before they should be published but being once published as a lawe extreame punishment was appointed for the breach thereof as is before spoken without any appeale frō the lawe without some great extraordinary cause of appeale As among the Hebrewes in any citie of Iudah that if they could not rightly iudge nor discerne throughly the cause according to iustice by the Magistrates of the citie they might appeale to the Iudges named Sinadrion in Ierusalem from whence no appeale could be had So among the Grecians they might appeale from the Areopagites in Athens from the Ephories in Sparta and all other cities of Greece to the Amphictions at Trozaena which were appointed general Iudges for the vniuersall state of Greece in martiall and military causes and there to sit and determine twise a yeare of the whole state of Greece and further to heare and to iudge of some other great causes and capitall crimes from whose sentence no other appeale was to be had for out of euery citie in Greece in the Spring and in the Autumne to the Amphictions at Trozaena they sent Embassadors whom the Greekes called Pytagorae So among the Romanes a lawfull appeale might be had from the Consuls to the Senators from the Senators to the Tribune of the people and from the people to the Dictator which continued vntill the time of the Iudges called Centum viri for Sententia Dictatoris iudicia centum viralia were both lawes of life and death from whose iudgement and sentences there were no greater Iudges to appeale vnto of the like authoritie were the Decem viri from whom also there was no appeale during their gouernment So in diuine causes we may appeale to mount Sion from Mount Sinai from the lawe to the Gospell from Moses to Christ our perpetuall Dictator from whom we haue no place to appeale vnto for our eternall saluation In the fift Regiment is declared the choice of wise Gouernours to gouerne the people and to execute the lawes among all Nations and also the education and obedience of theyr children to their Parents and Magistrates ALl Nations made their choise of the wisest and chiefest men to rule and gouerne their countrey imitating Moses who was by the Lord commanded to choose seuentie wise graue men to be Iudges among the Israelites called Synadrion which continued from Moses time who first appointed these Magistrates vntill Herods time who last destroyed them for in euery citie of Iudah seuen Magistrates were appointed to gouerne and to iudge according to the law of Moses and for their further instructions in the lawe they had of the Tribes of the Leuites two in euery citie to instruct and assist the Magistrates in all actions according to the lawe The Egiptians being next neighbours to the Hebrewes though they mortally hated the Hebrewes yet theyr gouernment of Dinastia vnder thirtie Gouernours elected and chosen out of Eliopolis Memphis Pellusium Thaebes and other chiefe cities of Egipt seemed to imitate Moyses lawe vnder Aristocratia So Solon appointed in Athens certaine wise men called Areopagitae as Iudges to determine of life and death and of other criminall causes Among the old Gaules the Druydes sage and wise religious men had authoritie both in warre and peace to make lawes and to determine of the state of theyr countrey The lawes of all Nations against disobedient children to theyr parents are manifest not onely the lawe of nature among all Nations vnwritten but also the diuine lawe of the Lorde written commaundes children to bee obedient to theyr parents as the lawe sayeth Whosoeuer curseth his father or mother shall dye and his bloud bee on his owne head for that hee curseth his father or mother If a man hath a sonne that is stubborne or disobedient let his parentes bring him vnto the Elders of the Cittie and there accuse him of his faultes saying my sonne is a Ryotour a Drunkarde and disobedient vnto his parentes the lawe is that all the men of that Cittie shall stone him with stones to death This commaundement was esteemed among all Nations euen among wicked men as Esau beeing a reprobate so the Lorde saide Esau haue I hated and Iacob haue I loued yet Esau hating his brother Iacob in heart saying that the dayes of his fathers sorrowes were at hande for I will kill my brother and most like it is that he would haue done so had not the Lorde which appeared to Laban the Syrian in a dreame by night for that hee followed Iacob from Mesopotamia said to Laban Take heed to thy selfe that thou doo or speake to Iacob nothing but good as the Lorde kept Iacob from Laban so he kept him from his brother Esau. Notwithstanding Esau came to his father and said hast thou any blessing for me see that obedience and feare was in Esau towards his father Isaac though hee was a wicked man he determined not to kill his brother before his father died least Isaac his father should curse him The sonnes of Samuel the Prophet Ioel and Abiath which were made Iudges in Bersabe by rheyr father Samuel beeing olde they turned from theyr fathers wayes tooke rewards and peruerted the right the people complained to Samuel that his sonnes followed not his steppes and therefore they would haue a King to gouerne them as other nations had See the ende of Iudges in Israel by the wicked Iudges Ioel and Abiath two wicked sonnes of a good and godly father and the cause of the ouerthrowe of the Iudges in Israel The two sonnes of Eli their offences were such that their father being an olde man was rebuked of the Lord for suffering their vnthriftinesse and wickednesse which was the cause that the Priesthood was taken from the house of Eli for euer so that the gouernment of Iudges in Iudah and also of the Priesthood were taken away by the corruption and disobedience of wicked and vngodly children Obserue likewise the end of kings and kingdomes by wicked kings by Ahaz who offered his sonnes in fire to Moloch by Ioachim and his sonne wicked fathers which brought vp wicked sonnes The kings which were 21. in number continued fiue hundred and odde yeares Who would haue iudged that three such good Kings of Iudah should haue three such wicked children As Dauid had Absolon who sought most trecherously to dispossesse his father of his kingdome As Ezechias had Manasses who offered his sonne in fire to Moloch and filled Ierusalem with bloud Or as Iosias had Ioachim whose wickednesse together with Zedechiah was so disobedient to the Lord and his Prophets that he lost the kingdome of Iudah Who would haue iudged that Salomon the onely wise king of the world hauing
700. Queenes and 300. concubines and hauing but one sonne which is read of and that so wicked that through his wicked and cruell dealing to his people the Lord tooke 10. of the 12. Tribes of Israel away from Salomons sonne gaue them to Ieroboam Salomons seruant It was a commaundement giuen from Moses to the people that they should not forget the lawes of the Lord but teach them to their sonnes and their sonnes sonnes and therefore the lawes were commaunded to be set as frontlets betweene their eyes to bee written vpon the postes of their houses vpon their gates and to bind them for a signe vpon their hands that their children should not forget but be instructed by the sight thereof in the lawes of the Lord. For the olde Pharisies were wont to weare Philacteria which were scrolles of parchment about their heads and armes hauing the tenne commandements written on them therefore Christ pronounced so many woes against the Scribes and Pharisies for their hipocrisie Hence grew the beginning of setting vp of pictures in porches the Images of Philosophers in Schooles and Vniuersities and the Images of the goddes in the Temples and secret closets of Princes as Alex. Seuerus had the Image of Christ Abraham Orpheus and Appollonius in his closet worshipped as gods so the Heathens and Pagans had the Images of their countrie gods set vp at theyr gates galleries and closets Among the olde Romanes in auntient times they were buried in theyr gardens and in theyr houses and therefore they had their houshold godeds to doo sacrifice vnto them and to vse funerall ceremonies vnto these Idols for it was not lawfull by the lawe of the 12. tables to burie any within the citie for the lawe was Ne in vrbem sepelito and it was also Platos lawe that the dead should bee buried in the fieldes or some barren ground out of the cities least the dead bodies should infect the quicke These lawes were called Leges funerales But the Lord spake to Ioshuah Let not the booke of this lawe depart out of thy mouth see that thou doo and obserue all the lawes which Moses commaunded thee so Ioshuah did made a couenant with the people at his death set ordinances and lawes before them in Sychem and tooke a great stone and pitched it vnder an oake that stood in the Sanctuarie and said behold this stone shal be a witnesse vnto vs and a memoriall of the couenant betweene vs. So Iacob set vp a stone and said to his bretheren gather stones and make a heape which hee called Gilead and said to Laban this heape of stones be a witnesse betweene thee and me It was a custome among the olde Hebrewes as markes of witnesse and memoriall of things past to put vp stones as Samuel did in his victorie against the Philistines pitched vp a stone and named it the stone of helpe So carefull were the kings of Persia that they made choise of foure principall men in all knowledge to instruct the kings children after fourteene yeares of age and therefore the Persian lawes for education of theyr youth were not onely commended of many but of many imitated they should learne three principall lessons to take heed of lyes and onely to speake the truth secondly to deale iustly and wrong no man and thirdly to knowe what was wrong and what was iustice The children in Persia were brought vp with such reuerence to their parents that it was not lawfull for them in the presence of their parents either to sit to spit or to blowe their noses theyr children might not so much as taste wine though it were vpon their feast day which among the Persians is the most solemne feast also the children might not come to their parents sight before they were seuen yeares olde there is nothing so requisite in parents as the education of children And therefore Charondas made a lawe that the citizens which were gouerned by his lawes should bring vp their children in schooles to be taught to know good from euill and to be accustomed with vertuous education that thereby they might stand in stead to theyr countrey with wisedome iudgement and counsell The like law is set downe by Plato who saith Si Rempub. verè institues virrtus cum ciuibus comunicanda est For as euery citie hath her Phisitions to prouide for health and to care for the bodye So I thinke it rather better saide Chaerondas to haue schoolemaisters and teachers to bring vp youth in vertue and knowledge and to bee taught in the lawes of God man to serue their countrey Diuers Nations as the Carthagineans Arcadians Baeotians and Mazacens sent for Charondas lawes to gouerne their countrey and as the Romanes sent to Greece for Hermadorus to interpret the 12. Tables so the Mazacens sent for one to Thuria to interpret Charondas lawes So the Iewes after their return from Babilon appointed Esdras to read interpret the law of Moses vnto thē before whom they sware that they would turne away theyr straunge women the Ammonites and Moabites and that they would keepe the lawes of the Lord. The Lacedemonians would make their hindes and husbandmen drunken hauing roddes in their hands to whip and beat them for their drunkennesse and would bring them out before their children other youths of Sparta which was both Plato and Anacharsis order to the Grecians because their children might see the faults and beastlinesse of the seruants to terrifie the children that thereby they might loath vice and loue vertue and learne to bee obedient to their parents for the greatest care the Lacedemonians had was to bring vp their children in musicke and military discipline esteeming the education of their chidren in any thing else indifferent Nabuchodonozer king of Babilon caused foure of the kings stocke Zedechiah Daniel and his fellowes to bee brought vp in the Chaldaean discipline that they might serue the king in his chamber and at his table In auntient time the olde Romanes were not onely studious and carefull to bring vp their children to obserue the lawes of their gods at Rome but also vsed yearly to make choise often of the best mens children in Rome and to send thē to Etruria a religious nation there to be taught in the Etrurian discipline concerning religion to their gods and to learne dutie and seruice to their countrey beeing in the Latin tongue instructed first then in the Greeke tongue and after to learne wise and pithy sentences as Paradoxes and Aphorismes Charondas iudged those parents not fit to be of counsell nor worthy to be Magistrates to rule in their countrey that hauing many children by the first wife would marry a second for he supposed that they would neuer be carefull ouer their country that would not be careful ouer their children And therefore the lawes of diuers of the Gentiles were not to bee allowed in selling theyr
of the souldiers in the one oxe and the other souldier in the other oxe and left their heads out of the oxen that thereby they might speake one to an other as long as they liued Was not Abraham called from the Chaldeans because they were wicked Idolaters Did not Iacob long in Mesopotamia for the land of Canaan Did not Dauid wish to be in Iudah from among the Amalekites wicked Infidels Were not the captiue Israelites most desirous from Babilon to come to Ierusalem yet not before the time that God had appointed and determined for Elizeus could not prophesie before Elias threw his mantle vpon him neither could Dauid appeale the furie of Saul before hee played on his harpe neither could Aaron become a high Priest before his rod blossomd in the Arke The very Heathens forsooke the company countrey of wicked people as Hermadorus forsooke his countrey Ephesus for the iniquitie of the people Anacharsis left Scythia his barbarous countrey and came to Greece to learne wisedome and Philosophie in Athens Plato left Athens and went from Greece to Egipt to be taught in the religion ceremonies and lawes of the Egiptians Paul left Tharsis to goe to Ierusalem to learne the lawes of the Iewes at Gamaliel Queene Saba came from Aethiope to heare Salomons wisedome in Ierusalem It was lawfull by the lawe of Solon in Athens to kill an adulterer beeing taken in the act as among the olde Romanes the husband might kill his wife if hee found her an adulteresse but this lawe of Solon in Athens was after mitigated by Solon with a lesse punishment The Parthians supposed no offence greater then adultery neither thought they any punishment to be equall with so great a crime Among the Arabians the lawe was that the adulterer should die such a death as the partie grieued should appoint Diuers Philosophers euer thought adultery worse then periurie and without doubt greater harmes growe by adultery then periurie though the one be in the first Table against the maiestie of God to take his name in vaine and the other in the second Table against thy neighbour whom thou oughtest to loue as thy selfe and yet some of the best Philosophers as Plato Crisippus and Zeno iudged that common-wealth best gouerned where adultery was freely permitted without punishment that libertie they brought from Egipt vnto Greece where the Egiptians might marrie as many wiues as they would like the Persians Among diuers other nations adulterie was left vnpunished for that they had no lawe against adultery Histories make mention that the virgins of Cypria and of Phaenizia get their dowrie with the hire of their bodies vntil they gaue so much for their dowries that they might make choise of their husbands and be married The Troglodites the nights before they be married vnto their husbands must lye and keepe company with the next of their kin and after their marriage they were with most seuere lawes punished if they had offended It should seeme by the lawes of Licurgus in Sparta 300. yeares before the law of Solon in Athens which was 200. yeares before the law of Plato among the Cicilians which made no lawes against adultery that the Grecians tooke their instructions by imitation from the Egiptians For one after an other Solon after Licurgus and Plato after Solon trauelled to Egipt to other farre countries and brought the lawe of Bocchoris out of Egipt the lawe of Mynoes out of Creete and the lawes of the Gymnosophists out of India into Greece As among the Lesbians Garamites Indians Massagets Scythians and such that were more like to sauage beasts then to temperate people for by the lawe wee knowe sinne for I had not knowne what adultery was vnlesse the lawe had commaunded thou shalt not lust And therefore it was not lawfull by Moses lawe that a bastard or the sonne of a commonwoman should come vnto the congregation of the Lord or serue in any place of the Tabernacle or enter into the ministerie vntill the tenth generation so hatefull vnto the Lord was fornication adulterie and vncleannesse of life When Iacob had blessed all his children yet for that Ruben lay with his fathers concubine Bilha his father Iacob prophesied that he should not be the chiefest of his bretheren though hee was the eldest sonne of Iacob and the eldest of his bretheren for that he was as vnstable as water for defiling his fathers bed for among the Israelites it was a great shame and reproach for women to be barren therfore the wiues brought their maides to their husbands for childrens sake as Sarah brought her maide Agar vnto Abraham and Leah and Rachel brought to Iacob their two maides Bilha and Zilpha so Rachel gaue leaue to Iacob to lye with Bilha her maide who bare to Iacob two sonnes whom Rachel though not their mother named them as her owne sonnes Dan and Nepthali So Leah brought her maide Zilpha to Iacob who conceiued and brought him two sonnes of whom Leah was so glad that she named them as her owne sons the one Gad and the other Asar so that foure of Iacobs sonnes were borne by his maides and not by his wiues This was tollerated but not lawfull Though the Hebrewes were tollerated by the lawe of Moses to haue many wiues and concubines and Libels of diuorcement for the hardnesse of the lewes hearts as Christ said yet said our Sauiour Non fuit sic ab initio it was not so from the beginning Euen from the creation men liued vnder the law of nature for in mans heart yet not corrupted before the fall there was perfect knowledge in the lawe of nature as in the first man Adam was seene before his fall vnder the which the olde Patriarkes liued and sinnes were corrected and punished by the same lawe for it was a positiue lawe by nature set foorth and written in the hearts of men thus was the written lawe yet by Moses tollerated When it was tolde Iudah that his daughter in lawe Thamar was with childe hee commaunded that shee should be brought forth and be burnt Here the law of nature before the lawe written commaunded whoredome to be punished with death here Iudah though he detested whoredome in Thamar yet being found that the incest was committed by him found his fault greater then hers If a man be found with a woman that hath a wedded husband let them both die the death so shalt thou put euill away from Israel for the lawe is you shall maintain no harlots in Israel as the Cyprians and Locreans doo It was not lawfull among the old Romaines to call a bastard by the name of his father because he was the son of a common woman and no man knew who should be his father but they vsed for his name to write these two letters S. P. quasi sine patre as though he had neuer a father In Athens by the law of Solon a bastard
which were written many things concerning the lawe of nature and the influence and motions of the starres that if the bricke pillar were destroyed by water the stone pillar should reserue and keepe safe their lawes theyr seruice and sacrifice to God which the Patriarkes vsed as instructions to their posteritie after the floud which continued vntill Iosephus time which as Iosephus himself writes he sawe in Syria Moses at his death deliuered to the Hebrewes the booke of the lawe and he commaunded them to lay vp those lawes in the Arke within the Tabernacle where it was lawfull for none to come to them but the high Priest which continued from Moses time vntill Ierusalem was destroyed by Nabuchodonozer at what time Ieremie tooke the Tabernacle the Arke and the Aultar of Incense and brought them to Mount Nebo where Moses dyed where he found a hollow caue wherein he layed the Tabernacle the Arke the Aultar of Incense and so closed and stopped the caue Among the Egiptians their lawes were so reuerenced and honoured that none but onely the Priests of Memphis had the keeping thereof in the Temple of Vulcan The Lacedemonians in like sort so reuerenced and kept their lawes that their kings and the magistrates called Ephori came once a moneth to the Temple which they dedicated to the goddesse Feare and there in the porch of the temple the Senators of Lacedemonia which were 28. in number did minister an oath both to the King and the Ephori before the people to serue keep Licurgus lawes in the which Temple their lawes were lockt vp and kept with great care The Romaines made so much of the lawes of their Sybils that they were so kept and so strongly lockt with such care and diligence in a stony Arke in the Capitoll vnder the ground where none might come to them see nor read them but the officers called Duumuiri who had the charge ouer them neither they vntill the Consuls and the Senate had occasions to conferre with the lawes which continued from Torquinius Priscus time vntill Lu. Syllas time at what time the Capitoll was burnt and withall the lawes of the Sybils and if any of these officers would reueale any secrets out of the lawes of the Sybils hee was punished like a murtherer sowed aliue in a sheete and throwne into Tiber. So the Athenians very carefull of their lawes written first by Draco and after by Solon in Tables of wood called Syrbes that they were set vp to bee kept in theyr chiefe court place which the Athenians named Prytanion where Magistrates should sit and iudge causes of lawes The lawe of the Turkes is that the Priests after some ceremonies done should haue a sword and a speare which is set by him in the Pulpit and to shewe the same to the people saying see that you haue these weapons in a readinesse to defend the lawes and religion of Mahomet the penaltie of the Turkes lawe is that if any man speake against their law his tongue should be cut out in so much that the booke called Muzaph wherein their lawe is written is so reuerenced and honoured among the Turkes that no man may touch it with bare hands Thus were lawes in all countries reuerenced and with great care and diligence obserued After lawes decrees and statutes were made in euery Countrey with such circumstances as agreed with the time with the place and with the people for without law no Common-wealth nor Kingdome can be gouerned as Aristotle saith In legibus salus ciuitatis si ta est Iudges were appointed to execute the same in all countries and magistrates in euery citie as among the Hebrewes the Elders called Synadrion Iudges and yet in euery citie of Iudah was a seuerall Iudge Among the Egiptians they had 30. Iudges which they elected from Eliopolis Memphis Thaebes Alexandria and other citties of Egipt of the which 30. they elected one to be chiefe Among the Aethiopians the sage Philosophers the Gymnosophists executed theyr lawes among the Indians likewise the Brachmaines called also Sacerdotes solis Among the Grecians the generall Iudges called Amphictions which sate twise in the yeare once at Trozaena in the spring time and in the Autumne in the Temple of Neptune in Isthmos In many countries women for their wisedome and knowledge were admitted to sit in counsell as among the Persians with King Xerxes who in any great cause of counsell would sende for Artemisia Queene of Caria whose counsell he found so wise that chiefly among all the Princes of Persia in many causes he allowed and followed her counsell So the Queenes in Egipt altogether ruled and gouerned the whole estate of the kingdome to whom greater honour and homage was giuen rather then to the kings of Egipt for that the whole state of their kingdome was rather gouerned by the Queenes then by the Kings Women among the Lacedemonians were not only admitted in publike counsell to sit and determine in courts but also sent for to cōsult in secret matters of state with the Senators The old Gaules in the time of Haniball in any contention betweene them and the Carthagineans if the breach of the lawes or any league broken were committed by the Gaules the women should determine a satisfaction to the Carthagineans if any offence grew by the Carthagineans the Senators of Carthage should satisfie the Gaules It is as well saith Aristotle if men gouerne like women that women should gouerne Quid inter est vtrùm faeminae an qui gubernant gubernentur à faeminis The Romaines though they had a lawe that no woman nor young man should bee admitted to counsell yet suffered they such graue and wise women as Agrippina Meza Cornelia and others to sit in some secrete place where they might see and not bee seene Solon therfore forbad by law that young men should neither giue counsell nor be magistrates in a common-wealth So Plato saith Concilium eius est qui rei cunisque peritus est Yet Deberah and Hebrew woman was a Iudge in Israel gouerned and ruled the Hebrews for fortie yeares To this woman came all the children of Israel for iudgement and she gouerned them wisely and discreetly ministred vnto them in all points the lawes of Moses and deliuered them out of the hand of Iabin King of Canaan who had sore oppressed Israel for the space of twentie yeares But among the Athenians it was not lawfull that women should sit and determine in matters of state in Athens as the women in Sparta did or as the women of Persia. The Athenians sent to Delphos to know what lawe and religion were best to bee obserued among the people It was answered the auntient lawes and religion of their Elders The second time they sent againe saying that the lawes of the Elders were often chaunged It was by the Oracle answered that they should take the best lawes of diuers
aultars taking Abraham for their warrant in sacrificing his sonne Isaac and Ieptha in sacrificing of his daughter for their Idolatrous sacrifice in murdering their children as is said before of Achab Manasses and others The Ammonites had a great Image called Moloch which had seuen chambers within the hollownesse of it one to receiue meale the second to receiue Turtle Doues the third a sheepe the fourth a ramme the fift a calfe the sixt an oxe and the seuenth a man This Idoll had the face of a calfe with stretched out hands to receiue gifts certaine Samaritan Priests called Chemarims attended vpon this Idoll Moloch though I know well that graue godly Iudges are not acquainted with Molochs reaching hand nor with his chambers yet I doubt some like Chemarims that liue in the world and serue Moloch attend more vpon the reaching hand of Moloch and his hollow chambers then their maisters becke in true seruice to whom may bee said as Christ spake to Nicodemus Art thou a maister in Israel and knowest not how to be borne againe Euen among the Persians Cambises though a tyrant and a wicked king yet would he haue the Persian lawes obserued for the breach whereof hee caused one of his Iudges named Sinetes corrupted with money to haue his skinne fleyed from his backe and to be made a carpet for his sonne that succeeded after him to leane vpon to put him in remembrance of his fathers corruption and punishment by the law that his sonne therby might better obserue the lawe Remota iustitia regna magna latrocinia sunt Darius king of Persia caused Sandoces one of his Iudges for that he was corrupted with money to iudge vniustly against the law to be hanged and codemned by the lawe in that very place where hee was appointed to be a Iudge Of these corrupt Iudges and of the like the Prophet saith Dextra eorum repleta est muneribus These and such Lawiers and Iudges that oppresse poore Widowes and Orphants robbe the poore are corrupted with rewards cannot be hold the brightnesse of Moses face without a vaile to couer their face These are the lawiers of which the Prophet speakes that turne the lawe to wormewood righteousnesse to bitternesse and cast downe iustice to the ground for Nihil tam venâ—… quam aduocatâ—…m praesidâ—… saith Aristotle And therefore the Prophet Esay reprehended the Iudges of Israel and called them companions of theeues following after gifts and rewards as Samuels sonnes did he called them tyrants of Zodome and people of Gomorah Learne to do right saith the Lord apply your selues to equitie let the Widdowes complaint come before you and helpe the fatherlesse to his right This is the lawe onely of the Lord these be the precepts and summe of all lawes to liue honestly to hurt none and to giue to euery man his owne for where good kings rule and raigne there lawes are obeyed Iudges ought to doo righteous iudgement they ought to accept no persons but iudge according to the lawe of the people they should heare the small and the great alike neither accept the face of the poore nor feare the face of the mightie for that iudgement is the Lordes therefore Iudges are called goddes for the lawe commaundeth that thou shalt not raile vpon the Magistrates neither curse the ruler of the people So Homer saide Ex Ioue sunt reges To that effect dooth Plato likewise say Deus quispiam humanus Rex est What lawe had then Nabuchodonozer to say what GOD is hee that is able to take Iudah out of my hand Or Holofernes to say there was no God but onely his maister Nabuchodonozer such lawes made Domitianus that he would be called Dominus Deus Domitianus What lawe had king Zedechiah to answere his nobles that sought the Prophet Ieremies death take Ieremie and do with him what you list it is not lawfull for me to denie you any thing The like lawe and the like words vsed king Ashuerus to Ammon who sought the destruction of the Iewes throughout all the kingdome of Persia age quod placet do what thou list with the Iewes The like lawes vsed Darius at the request of his Persian Princes to throwe Daniel the Prophet of the Lord to be deuoured of Lyons these are the lawes of tyrants and not of kings to kill the Prophets of the Lord without lawe they forget the lawe of the Lord written by Esay the Prophet Woe be vnto you that make vnrighteous lawes and deuise lawes which are hard to keepe and are not to be kept that thereby the innocents are robbed of iudgement such a lawe made Iezabel for Naboths vineyard with false witnesse These kings like tyrants vse the sword for bloud and not the scepter for iustice like Pharao to whom when Moses alledged all the lawes of the Lord hee said Who is the Lord Nescio dominum I know not the Lord like Lysander of Sparta who said to a Lawier that pleaded lawes and customes on their sides he pleadeth best in lawe which pleadeth with this said Lysander laying his hand on his sword for this penne doth write with bloud Sileant leges inter arma So also Pompey the great said what prattle you to vs of your lawes when wee haue our swordes in our hands Who doth warrant the sword but the lawe who defends the lawe but the sword he that commaunded Peter to put vp his sword in his sheath in mount Oliuet was euen he that commaunded Ioshua to pull his sword out of his sheath to destroy the Canaanites the first commaundement that was giuen to man after the creation was the lawe and vpon breach of the lawe was the sword giuen to reuenge iustice for the Lord is iust for as lawes are made by God and ministred by Angels vnto men so must lawes be obeyed with reuerence and defended with the sword Prudentem dicemus sibi Reipub consulere potentem validum So Plato saith that he is valiant and wise that can both with the sword and the law defend a common-wealth In Egipt it was not lawfull for any heard-man to come within their Temples neither among the Hebrewes was it lawfull for men or women that had any white or blacke spottes somewhat reddish or pale to come among the congregation to the Temple for the priests should pronounce them vncleane So among the Persians by the lawe of their Magi none that had any pimples or red speckes on their face might touch the aultar or offer any sacrifice to their gods for in Persia they had neither Temples nor Images but among the Persians and the Arabians laid fire vpon the aultar in a vessel called Arula and offered frankinsence in sacrifice onely to the sunne for the Gentiles trimmed their aultars diuersly the aultar of Iupiter with Oaken branches the aultar of Appollo with Lawrell the aultar of Bacchus
should bee the Temple of God where the Lord might dwell and raigne within him and that the Lord should be our aultar vpoÌ„ the which we should offer our selues vnto him in sacrifice both in body and â—…ule Among the Heathens the Sabboth of the Lorde was not knowne for that they knew not the Lord of the Sabboth this commandement pertained onely to the children of the Lord the Israelites to whom the law was giuen in hope of eternall rest The restoring to their libertie their victories their triumphes theyr feastes and the dayes of their birth these were the Sabboths of the Gentiles to serue to giue thankes and to sacrifice to their gods as before 〈◊〉 written but the Lord spake to Israel you shall not obserue time to make some dayes luckie and others vnluckie as the Gentiles did but only obserue your Sabboths and to come to the Temple to heare the lawes of the Lord read When Hanibal departed out of Italy the Temples were set opeÌ„ according to the custome of the Romanâ—… that they might goe and giue thanks to the gods for the vanquishing of such an enemie Archidamus began first with seruice and sacrifice to the gods before he would attempt any great battel with the enemie Xenophon before hee had gotten his whole Armie reconciled and willing to craue the fauour of the gods in any distresse hee would take no iourney in hand The Gentiles obserued times dayes and moneths as the kings of Macedonia commenced nowarre during the whole moneth of Iune The Romans likewise obserued the Nones of euery moneth as vnluckie and religious dayes and refrained that time to take any great thing in hand The Germaines also had a lawe not to fight any battell in the wane of the Moone much like the Lacedemonians who were forbidden by Licurgus lawe that they should take no warre or battell in hand before the full of the Moone they were therein so religious that they absented from the battell at Marathon foure dayes The Romans also would enter into no field neither wage any battell vpon their religious dayes Cai. Caesar in his warres against Ariouistus King of the Germaines knowing that the Germaines hadde a lawe set downe that it was not lawfull for them to commence any battell in the wane of the Moone Caesar obseruing the Germaines to bee so religious gaue them a battell vnexspected and ouerthrew them So Titus Vespasian vpon a satterday the Sabboth of the Iewes subdued the Iewes destroyed the Temple and tooke Ierusalem as Pompey the great did before Before the Temple was builded in Ierusalem by Salomon the Israelites came to Siloh where the Taberâ—…cle rested to offer to the Lord as after they did to Ieâ—…salem In this Temple at Ierusalem the Lord promised to Salomon that he would present himselfe and appeare at the prayer of Salomon as hee promised to Moses in the wildernesse to appeare at the doore of the Tabernacle to comfort them and to further them in all theyr lawes The Angels that brake the lawes of the Lord in heauen were condemned and had iudgement giuen to bee prisoners in perpetuall darkenesse and man that brake the lawe in Paradise had sentence of death pronounced against him by the Lorde himselfe in Paradise And therefore Licurgus to haue his lawes continue among the Lacedemonians to performe the Oracle of Appollo which was so long should the Lacedemonians keep Licurgus lawes vndefiled as long as Licurgus should keepe himselfe absent from the Lacedemonians and therefore most willingly banished himselfe out of his countrey to dye in Delos that by his absence the lawes which he established amoÌ„g the Lacedemonians should continue his lawes therefore continued 500. yeares and more after his death The contempt breach of lawes in all countries were seuerely punished in so much that Charondas made a law to the Carthaginians Archadians others that they that found fault with paenall lawes should be crowned with Tamarisk and be carried round about the towne and so thence to be banished according to the lawe of the 12. tables Violati iuris paena este And therefore Antalcidas accused Agesilaus for the breach of Licurgus lawe for that he taught the Persians by often warres to become men from women Non diù in hos bellaadum ne ipsi bellicosi euaderint Charondas made an other lawe that if any that were coÌ„uicted thought his lawe to be too seuere they might vpon condition make meanes to the people for abrogating of the lawe the condition was they should come with halters about their neckes before all the people in one place assembled which if they by complaining of the seuerities of the lawe should goe free the former law should be abrogated or mitigated but if they falsly accused and slaundered the integritie of the lawe they should be strangled with the same halters which they ware about their necks to accuse the law for the words of the lawes of the twelue tables which agree with Charondas lawe are these Legum iusta imperia sunto hisque ciues modestè sine recusatione Parento And yet it is necessary vpon occasions that lawes should be altered for saith Hypocrates Tempus est in quo occasio occasio in qua tempus though he applied this to Phisicke yet in the selfe same reason it serueth for the lawe Cicero thinketh the life and manners of good men often changed to be the cause of changing of the lawes and states of cities and Plato whom Cicero calleth Deum Philosophorum said that the least lawe made may not be chaunged nor abrogated without doing hurt or harme to the publique state of a common-wealth and therefore in Aegina he was euer accounted accurst that went about to make new lawes by abrogating the former For when Lysander went about to alter and change Licurgus lawes among the Lacedemonians hee was resisted by the Senators and the people though Lysander was the onely chiefe man in Sparta Likewise the whole summe of Aristotles Aeconomicall and Politicall lawes are but instructions teaching the rule and gouernment of a Common wealth iubendo parendo how men should know to doo good and auoyd to do euil to gouern and to be gouerned that the people should be defended from wrong so is the law of the twelue Tables Vis in populo abesto causas populi tencto And therefore positiue lawes in all countries were and are made from the beginning to maintaine ciuill orders and to determine of such orders and circumstances as are necessary and requisite for the keeping of the people in obedience of the same Of these and such lawes Plato wrote his booke de Repub tending to the administration and gouernment of the people according to the lawe The morall lawe commaundeth a iust and vpright ordering of iudgements contracts and punishments in a common-wealth Alexander Seuerus the Emperour therefore would make no lawes without the iudgement
as murther and whoredome were punished first by the lawe of nature before the lawe written so all other offences contained in the Decalogue were by the same lawe punished long before the lawe was written and giuen to Moses in mount Tabor The murthering of the Prophets of the Apostles and of the martirs of God euen frō the bloud of righteous Abel vnto the bloud of Zacharias the Priest crye and call for iustice and iudgement saying How long Lord will it be before vengeance be taken vpon wicked murtherers and tyrants Of these the Prophet saith Dederunt cadauera seru◅rum tuorum in cibum anibus caeli carnes piorum bestijs terrae But when the Lord is readie to be reuenged vpon these cruell murtherers and ambitious murmurers who can quench the fire in the stubble when it beginneth to burne who can turne againe the arrow shot of a strong archer or driue away a hungry Lyon in the wood who can resist the Lord in his purpose and decree Murtherers haue their markes as Cain had such a marke that hee could not dye though hee wisht to dye Esau had such a marke that though he sought with teares to repent yet he could not repent Pharao had such a marke that he could not confesse the Lord to be God though he sought Moses to pray for him but no doubt markes of murther for Cain kild his brother Abel Esau sought and said he would kill his brother Iacob and Pharao in his heart threatned death to Moses and Aaron and to all the Hebrewes These signes and markes which these reprobates had were not outward markes seene but inward burned with hotte Irons in their consciences but the Hebrewes in the land of Gosen were marked with the letter Tau in their foreheads as signes to be saued from the plagues in Egipt they that lamented and wept for Ierusalem were marked in theyr foreheads with the letter Tau of the Angell so all Christians are saued by this letter Tau made like a crosse which we must beare in our harts and not in our foreheads The punishment of Paracides among the olde Romanes was such that the murtherer should bee put in a sacke aliue bound hand and foote together with an ape a cocke and a viper which should so byte and torment him vntill he were almost dead and then to bee throwne into Tiber with his three companions with him so was Marc. Malleolus for killing of his mother iudged so to die by the Senators The second Paracide in Rome was Histius after the second Romane warres with the Affricans with the like iudgement giuen as before this kind of punishment for Paracides continued a long time among the Romaines for in former time while yet the Romaines were poore not acquainted with money long before they knew Affrike or Asia their punishment for murther was but a ramme which the Romanes slew and sacrificed to their gods The Grecians like the Romains in auntient time punished a murtherer with a certaine set number of cattell yet in other countries they punished murther most seuerely and cruelly As in Egipt they would thrust long needles made sharpe of steele vnder the nailes of their hands of their toes and after cut the flesh of the murtherer in small peeces and throwe it by gobbets into the fire burne it in his sight while yet he had life in him A lawe was made among the said Egiptians that if any man had killed his sonne the father should be lockt together with the sonne slaine by him in one chamber without meate or drinke for three dayes beholding still before his face the dead body of his sonne by himselfe slaine with a watch that none should come to him thinking that by looking theron there could be no greater torture or punishment to the father then to see his sonne so slaine by himselfe which was his father Among the Persians a lawe was made that he that killed his father was thought that he neuer had a father for they thought it against the lawe of nature a thing vnnaturall yea and vnpossible that the sonne should kill his father and therefore he should be euer after called a bastard a greater reproach among the Persians could not be and therefore Romulus in Rome and Solon in Athens being demaunded why they made no lawes against Paracides answered that they thought none so wicked or so cruell as to thinke on such wickednesse and therefore they thought it fit that no lawe should be mentioned for so wicked a fact though by Dracoes lawe Solons predecessor the least fault in Athens was punished with death and therefore called in ieast Lex Draconis In Lusitania a Paracide should be stoned to death not within their country least the murtherers bloud should defile their countrie but they should be banished to the next confines and there to die Dauid was forbidden to build the Temple in Ierusalem for that he was a man of bloud so the Lord said Thou art a man of bloud and therefore thy sonne Salomon shall build me a Temple In the citie Elephantina in Aethiopia a murtherer should bee forced by the lawe to eate the hearbe called Ophiusa which being eaten the murtherer should be so tormented with such terrible visions and dreames that he could neuer take rest or sleepe before he had kild himselfe The Macedonians in like sort stoned them not onely to death that committed any murther or treason against their Prince and their countrey but also such as were consenting therevnto and therfore Plato in Athens made a law that the hand that slew himselfe should not be buried with the body but should either be throwne away to be eaten of dogges or else to be nailed in some publike place to be eaten of fowles of the ayre as actor of the murther In many places murther was lesse esteemed of men then of birds or of beasts as in Egipt to kill an Egiptian cat was more dangerous then to kill a Romane captain The history is written in Diod. sic at large So to kill the bird called Ibis in Egipt there was by the lawe capitall punishment for it In Thessalia none might kill a stoike neither in Athens by the lawe of Solon none might sacrifice an oxe Cai. Caligula after he had murthered so many much complained because he could not murther more oftentimes wished that all Rome had but one necke that he might with one stroake cut it off There was found in this Emperours studie after he was murthered like a sword and a dagger the one written on and named Gladius the other Pugio in the which were written the most part of the names of the chief Senators appointed by Caligula to bee slaine and in the same studie was found a chest full of cups filled vp with diuers kindes of poysons which likewise he appointed to poyson the most part of the Romane knights as well of the Senate as of the Citie which
might choose whether he would be acquainted with his father or no or giue him a meals meat in his house or a cup of drinke at his doore for that he was the cause of his ignominious and infamous birth Among the Israelites if a man marry a young virgin and after proue her not to be a virgin when hee married her the lawe is that she should be brought to the doore of her fathers house and the men of that citie should stone her with stones to death but if her husband falsly accused her then the Elders of that citie should chastise him and mearce him in an hundred sickles of siluer and giue them to the father of the damzell and she to continue with him as his wife But in Israel there was an other lawe that if a man be taken committing fornication with a virgin after the matter come before a Iudge he shall be caused to marrie the woman and to liue with her during his life and to pay 50. sickles of siluer to the maides father for his offence A woman with childe condemned to death might challenge the time of her childbirth by the lawe of Bocchoris which lawe was brought by Solon from Egipt vnto Greece for the law thought it not fit that the guiltlesse should die for the fault of the guiltie An other lawe was made that if a man hurt a woman with childe so that her child depart from her and she die not hee shall be punished according as the womans husband shall appoint or pay as arbiters will determine Againe in Israel there was an other lawe that the wife of the dead shall not be giuen vnto a straunger but her brother in lawe shall take her to wife and marrie her and the eldest sonne which shee beareth shal be the child of the brother that was dead and not of him that begat him but if the brother refuseth to marrie his brothers wife the Elders of the citie shall call vnto him and commune with him before whom if hee denie to take her to wife then the sister in lawe should go in presence of the Elders and loose his shooe of his foote spit in his face and say so shall his name be called in Israel of the vnshod house The lawe of Moses was that an adulteresse should be brought by her husband vnto the Priest and the Priest to bring her and set her before the Lord shall vncouer her head haue bitter cursed water in his hand and say if thou be not an adulteresse and defiled not thy selfe vnknowne to thy husband then haue thou no harme of this bitter and cursed water but if thou be defiled by an other man besides thy husband the Lord make thee accurst and make thy thigh rot and thy belly swell and this cursed water goe into thy bowels and the woman his wife so accused shall say Amen The lawe which the Lorde punished his people for committing adulterie was with such seueritie that they should die the death either by stoning or burning which was the lawe among the Israelites The people called Cortini had a law in their country that an adulterer should bee crowned with wooll and should sit in the market place in open sight of the people to be laught at and to be noted as an infamous adulterer all his life long in his countrey The people called Pisidae had a law made that the adulterer should be bound vpon an asse and be carried from towne to towne for the space of three dayes with his face backwards holding the taile of the asse in his hand for a bridle They had in Athens by the law of Solon a place called Casaluion the women were called Casaluides to whom any Athenian might resort to auoyd adultery with the Matrons and Virgins of Athens The like place they had in Rome called Summaenium for the like purpose and the like are tollerated in many countries to auoyd great offences but rather a nurserie of whoredome then a prohibition These vsed the like words as Iulia did in Rome Licet si libet like Anaxarchus being demanded by Cambises Is it lawfull for the kings of Persia to marry their sisters we finde not such lawes said Anaxarchus Non fas potentes posse fieri quod nefas but wee finde an other lawe that the kings of Persia may do what they list What vice can be greater in man then incontinencie for it doth sin against the body it selfe doth weary and languish all the parts thereof for as fish saith Plato are taken with hookes so men are taken and deceiued with pleasures in so much that Xerxes the great king of Persia decreed by lawe a reward to any man that could inuent andfind out new kinds of pleasures but he was slain and lost the kingdom of Persia by his pleasures And therfore well said Solon Cōsule non quae suauissima sed quae optima Hanibal hauing welnigh subdued the Romane Empire yet being taken with the baites and pleasures of Campania in company of wine and women and all delicacies and pleasures that could be inuented of which Seneca saith Conuiuiorum luxuria vestium aegrae ciuitatis indicia sunt that by meanes of his incontinency in Campania he was driuen out of Italy and after out of his own country of Affrike by him that was one of the chiefest and chastest Captaines of all the Romaines Scypio Affrican who made a lawe to bannish all women out of his camp to whom in his Affrican wars was brought a passing faire young Gentlewoman of singular beautie and of a noble house whom Scypio vsed so honourably with great care and diligence for her good name credite vntill Allucius a young Gentleman that should be married to the virgine brought a great raunsome from her parents to redeeme her to whom Scypio deliuered both the young virgin into his hands and bestowed the gold which her father sent vnto him for her raunsome vpon Allucius for her dowry by this honourable dealing of Scypio the whole Prouince which stood out in armes against Scypio yeelded vnto him sought peace at Scypios hand for his courteous modestitie temperancie where Hanibal lost all Italy and Campania by his incontinencie and vnchaste life If Darius king of Persia had escaped from his last ouerthrow at Arbela by Alexander no doubt in respect of the honourable vsage which Alexander shewed to Darius wife and his daughters he would haue yeelded all the whole Empire of Persia vnto Alexander Narseus king of Persia being ouerthrowne and his armie slaine by Dioclesian the Emperor of Rome and the King himselfe constrained to flight his wife and his daughters were taken by the Romanes and were vsed so honourably that the Persians confessed that the Romanes did not only exceed all Nations in armes valour but in modestie and temperancie the honourable vsage of his
wife and daughters made Narseus to yeeld vnto the Komanes and to deliuer to the Romais hands Armenia with fiue other Prouinces and to conclude a peace See the force of vertue and power of chastitie in Heathens that Alexander Scypio and Dioclesian wanne by temperance and chastitie that which they could not conquere by armes Antigonus vnderstanding that his sonne lodged in a house where three sisters were of passing beautie wrote that he was most straightly besieged of three great enemies and therefore wished him to remoue his campe and afterwards made a decree that his son should lodge in no place but where the woman should be 50. yeares of age The lawe was among the Grecians that women should not sit among men vnlesse it were with thier husbands and among their next neighbours The like lawe was among the Romains the woman that might be found with strangers in banquets her husband might put her away and be diuorced frō her and therefore it is written in the lawe that conuiuia veneris Praeludia sunt Licurgus lawe was among the Lacedemonians that none should fare better then an other in banquets but all by lawe should be equally feasted the number was appointed in banquets from three vnto seuen among the Greekes so that it grew to be a prouerbe among the Grecians Septem conuiuium nouem conuitium facere So among the auntient Romanes not aboue foure or fiue should be allowed or admittted to a feast or banquet for the chiefe feast by Platoes lawe called Bellaria Platonis was figges berries oliues pease beanes masts of beech trees tosted and prunes for the temperate fare and thin dyet both of the olde Greekes and of the Romanes were Magis iucunda quam Profusa But after in time it grew to such excesse among the Romanes that they came to their feasts and banquets with garlands crowned and there to drinke the first draught to Iupiter as the Grecians drank the last draught to Mercurius Vnto these kinde of feasts the Romanes might not come in black or sad coloured garments but all in white Wisedome exclaimes against those that say Coronemus nos vosis ante quā marcescant vino precioso nos impleamus So likewise among the Grecians it grew to such excesse that they forgot Anacharsis lawe which was but three draughts of wine or Democritus lawe which was but foure at the most though afterward it came to a popular lawe Aut biberent aut abirent This the Greekes had frō the Persians who with their wiues and concubines consulted of state matters at their feasts Licurgus also decreed an other lawe that in any publike feast or banquet whē neighbours and friends were disposed to be merrie that the best and auntientest man of the company should speake to the rest that nothing spoken or done in this feast should passe yonder doore shewing to the company with his finger the chamber doore which they came in at These feasts were not Bellaria Platonis but rather Praeludia veneris In the eight Regiment is contained the commendation of chastitie in vertuous and godly women with the sinister means of the Gentiles to become chaste AFter lawes were made in euery countrey confirmed by diuine authoritie and executed by graue and wise magistrates these lawes for necessitie sake were sent for from one kingdome to an other to gouerne to rule theyr countreys Philadelphus king of Egipt sent three from Alexandria to Eleazarus the high Priest at Ierusalem for the lawes of Moses to bee translated from Hebrew into Greeke So the Senators of Rome sent three for the lawe of the 12. Tables to be brought from Athens to Rome So the Mazacens sent for the lawe of Charondas to Thuria and so the Grecians sent for the lawes of king Minoes into Creete Philadelphus much wondred after the reading of the Hebrew lawes being so wise and godly a lawe that welnigh for a thousand two hundred yeares no nation among the Gentiles made any mention of this lawe though before that time they must needs heare and read of it by reason of the greatnesse and authoritie of the Iewes common-wealth Demetrius and Menedemus two great Philosophers at that time answered the King that none durst attempt to mingle the diuine lawes of the Hebrewes with the prophane lawes of the Gentiles for both Theodectus and Theopompus were punished the one with madnesse the other with blindnesse for making no difference betweene the lawes of the Lord and the lawes of the Gentiles for as Dagon their god fel could not stand before the arke where the presence of God and the figure of Christ was so the lawes of the Lord suffered no prophane lawes to be ioyned with them Seeing we are commaunded by the lawe to forsake adultery wee must learne by the selfe same lawe how to become chaste not as the Priests of Athens did called Hierophantae before they should come to doo sacrifice to their goddesse Pallas they would drinke a very colde drinke made of Cicuta hemblocke to make themselues chaste sometimes vsed in Athens to poison condemned men which was the last drinke and draught of Socrates Neither like the Romaine Priests who vsed to drinke and to wash themselues often with the colde water Cicalda to become chaste to sacrifice to the Goddesse Ceres Neither as the Priests of Egipt did by shauing theyr beards and the haires of their heads by abstaining from wine women and flesh or by ofren washing or annointing of their bodies to become the more continent to serue their goddesse Ifis These Heathens all for that they knew not Christ missed in the meanes to become temperate So the Priests of Cybeles did amputare virilia because they might continue chast and religious to sacrifice and serue their goddesse Cybeles But it was commanded by the Lord to Aaron and his sonnes that they should make no baldnesse on theyr heads nor shaue off the lockes of their beards nor make any marke in their flesh as the Gentiles did It was not lawfull for them to marrie with a widowe or woman diuorced from her husband or any polluted woman but onely with a maide for the Lord would haue his Priests holy which kindle fire on his aultar and offer bread in his sacrifice If the Priests daughter play the harlot she should be burnt by the lawe though others by the lawe should be stoned to death To become chaste is to serue God and to say as Sarah Tobiahs wife said in her praiers thou knowest ô Lord how I haue kept my soule cleane without any desire or company of man Likewise to become temperate is to imitate Iudith the widdowe that sate all day long in her house in sackcloath and kept her selfe close within doores with her maides fasting all the daies of her life excepting onely the Sabboth and the feast of the new Moone not like Dina gadding to Sichem to see the manners and
lawes for it was the manner as well among the Grecians as among the Romaines euer to make lawes and neuer to keepe them And though the authoritie of the kings were taken away and derogated in many countries yet the force and power of the law stood in effect though the change thereof were dangerous For the lawe sayth Thou shalt not steale nor deale falsely heerein is included vnder the name of stealing all kinde of sacriledge falshood fraud lying one to an other and all other crimes pertaining to stealing Achan for his cunning stealing of a cursed Babylonian garmēt two hundred sickles of siluer and a toong of gold against the lawe at the spoile of Iericho was deliuered by the Lord to Ioshuahs hand who brought him with his sonnes his daughters all his cattells his Tent and all that hee had vnto the valley of Achor and there stoned Achan to death and burned them with fire the Lord euer preferreth obedience before sacrifice for the disobedience in Achan for breaking the lawe was the cause of his stoning The disobedience of Saul against the commaundement of the Lord was such that he lost both his kingdome and his life A Prophet that went from Iudah with the word of the Lord to Bethel for that he did eat bread in that place being forbidden he was killed of a Lion as he returned The man that gathered stickes vpon the Sabboth day against the commaundement the Lord commaunded he should be stoned to death We might thinke that the gathering of stickes and the eating of a peece of bread were but small faults that thereby the one should be stoned and the other killed of a Lyon had it not bene forbidden by the lawe So such men suppose Adams fault to be but little that for earing of an Apple in Paradise not onely he but his posteritie after him should loose Paradise but as the Angels in heauen by their disobedience lost heauen so Adam by his disobedience lost Paradise The Lorde spared not Kings for breach of the law as Oza and Ozias both kings the one for vnreuerent handling of the Arke vsurping the Leuites Office against the lawe was strooken with sudden death and the other for burning incense against the lawe which was the Priestes Office was strooken with leprosie The Lord spared not his owne Priest Aaron that for his incredulitie before the people he died for it in mount Hor. Neither spared the Lord his owne seruant Moses for his disobedience so that hee also died in mount Nebo that neither of them both came to the land of Canaan for their disobedience and diffidence in the Lord. So seuere the lawe of the Lord was that 50000. Bethsamites died for looking into the Arke Aarons sonnes Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire before the Lord against the lawe were destroyed by fire from heauen Hence grew the ceremoniall lawes of the Gentiles touching their religion and sacrifices to their Gods So the women that attended the fire on the aultar of Apollo in Delphos were seuerely punished if by any negligence it happened to be extinguished neither might that fire being so extinguished be kindled again by any other then by the said women and by no other fire thē by the beames of the sunne The Vestall virgins in Rome if the sacred fire of Vesta weare out by any negligence that Vestall virgine that then attended should be brought Per Regem sacrorum to the Bishop to be whipt neither might any fire be kindeled againe to the goddesse Vesta but by the heate of the Sunne neither might they sweare by any other then by the name of Vesta the like ceremonies they vsed to Minerua in Athens So among the Persians Assyrians and Chaldeans they worship their sacred fire Vt Deorum maximum on their aultars seeming to follow Moses lawe Zaleucus an auncient Lawe-maker among the Locreans brought vp with Pythagoras the Phylosopher made a lawe against adulterers that both the eyes of the adulterer should be pulled out which being broken by his eldest sonne though all the Locreans ioyntly en treated for Zaleucus sonne yet said he the lawe must nobe broken and to satisfie the lawe Zaleucus pulled one of his sonnes eyes out and an other of his owne shewing himselfe a natural father to his sonne a iust Iudge to performe the lawes which hee made to the Locreans so seuerely were they punished that brake the lawes or sought to breake the lawes among the Gentiles Those people said Alcibiades do better which keepe the lawes they haue though they be worse then often changed for better Obseruatio legum morum tutissima that plant cannot take roote which is often remoued So Augustus Caesar wrote to the Senators that what lawes soeuer they had decreed and set downe should not be chaunged nor altered for better were it not to make lawes then to make so many lawes and not to keepe them Positas semel leges constanter seruate nec vllam earum immutate si deteriores sint tamem vtiliores sunt Reipub. Lu. Papirius Cursor the Dictator for that Fabius Rutilius brake the decree of the Dictator though hee had good successe and wonne a great victorie yet the lawe was that Fabius should dye neither could the captaines entreate him for his pardon that Fabius was constrained secretly to flye to Rome and to appeale to the Tribune of the people and to the Senators the Dictator followed Fabius to Rome saying that there was no lawe that any appeale should be made from the Dictator vntill Fabius and his father fell vpon their knees with the Senators and Tribune of the people to entreat for him and that for breach of the lawe though hee was Magister equitum the greatest and next in authoritie to the Dictator for the lawe-makers themselues that brake their owne lawes were punished as Zaleucus spared not his owne eye nor Diocles his owne life for breach of the lawe The like we find in Plato comparing the lawe to medicines mingled with poyson to that ende the patient might recouer his health by the medicine so that saith Plato the law is profitable to correct and amend the offender Vt medicamentis venena miscemus salutarifine instar pharmaci haec talia vtilia esse Diocles among other of his lawes in Syracusa made a lawe that if any should come armed with weapons into any Senate Court of Councell or before any Magistrate or assembly of people sitting in lawe causes he should die for it by the lawe of Diocles. This lawe of Diocles was the cause of his own death for as he was riding into the Towne being met sent for to mitigate some contention and debates among the people he making hast forgetting his sword on his side came to the Court and opened to them the lawe made to the people to be gouerned by willed them to obey the same but hee was tolde by some
much Prudentia non vult falli nec fallere potest that a wise man neither can nor will be deceiued In like sort Thou shalt not commit adultery and therefore the lawe commandeth men to be chast sober and temperate both in bodie and minde for the lawe requireth inward and outward obedience as well in Angels as in men for outward euil springs from inward corruption Murther proceeds from hatred and malice of the heart Adultery commeth from wicked and filthie lust of the heart Theft is falshood and fraude in the heart to steale other mens goods therefore to do or to wish any thing against the lawe is sinne for the lawe is spirituall and he that is not subiect to the lawe saith Paul is subiect to the wrath of the Lorde for by the lawe we know our sinnes and in the lawe consisteth the knowledge of our life for the Lord hath decreed a necessiti◅ of obedience to the lawes of ciuil Magistrates for it is said Inuictae leges necessitatis and though the law doth accuse all men yet the lawe doth freely promise with a condition of obedience as the Gospell promiseth with a conditiō of faith for as by the lawe we see as in a glasse the corruption of nature and deformitie of sinne so by the lawe we are taught what is to be done and by the Gospell how things ought to be done Among the Romaines for the space of 300. yearer welnigh after the building of Rome they had no lawes written but Ius regis before they sent for the lawe of the 12. Tables from Athens which law was so obscure that they brought Hermadorus from Greece to Rome to interpret the lawes of the 12. Tables which lawe against theft was so seuerely executed that it was lawfull to kill a theefe that would not yeld especially in the night time for the lawe was Sifurtum sit factum nocte si eum aliquis occidit iure caesus esto if a theefe be found breaking any mans house in the night time be smitten to death no bloud must be shead for him which is also Moses law except the sunne be vp when he is found but if a theefe were taken in the day time with his theft with him hee was by the lawe of the 12. Tables to become his slaue and bondman of whom he stole it to be vsed as pleased the partie all his life time after An other lawe of the twelue Tables against other iniuries was that if any mans seruant had stolne any thing or his beast had done harme or endamaged his neighbour or a straunger he was to yeeld his seruant or his beast that so offended to the party grieued and so by the lawe of the 12. Tables the maister of the seruant was free for a theefe that cannot make restitution for his theft must be solde according to Moses lawe The seuerest lawe among the Romanes was Lex Iulia which appointed iust punishment for treason adulterie and theft by Lex Iulia in Rome theft was as seuerely punished as adulterie and adulterie punished as treason for the lawe saith a man must not robbe for theeues are accursed men must haue no conuersation with theeues Also there was a lawe in Lycia that if a free man should steale any thing he should loose his freedome and become a bond-seruant to him of whome hee stole it and by the lawe of Lycia neuer after to recouer his libertie but to liue as a bondman all his life time Bocchoris lawe in Egipt was that if any wayfaring man finde a man in daunger of his life and so to be slain by theeues and robbers and not helpe him eyther by his sloathfulnesse or negligence if he could hee was by the lawe of Bocchoris guiltie of death because hee did not ayde and helpe him with all meanes possible hee could Againe if a man were robd by theeues on the way though he were not killed and not rescued of any that could and neglecting to follow after the theeues hee or they by the lawe of Bocchoris were punished and beaten with a certaine number of stripes and kept without victualls three daies Licurgus made no lawes in Sparta against theft for it was lawfull by Licurgus lawe among the Lacedemonians to vse theft vnlesse the partie were taken with the theft which if he were he should be seuerely punished following the maner and custome of the Egiptians and the old Germanes which had no lawe written against theft but left vnpunished and therfore there is no transgression where there is no lawe There was then and is now a greater kinde of theft then stealing among diuers nations which is vsurie forbidden by the lawes of God as well as theft for before Bocchoris lawe which banished vsurie the lawe was in Egipt that the creditors might arrest the bodies of the dead for debts and that they should be vnburied till the depts were paid Pecunia est enim anima sanguis mortalibus which lawe was abrogated by Bocchoris that debts onely should be paid of the goods of the debters and not their bodies to be imprisoned for that they should be alwaies readie for defence of their countrey and not imprisoned either for debt or vsurie Solon brought this lawe from Egipt vnto Athens and called it Sysacthia against vsurers This lawe was after executed in the market place of Athens by Agis who extreamely hated vsurie where hee burnt all the vsurers writing tables of which fire Agesilaus was wont to say that he neuer lawe a better fire in Egipt Persia nor in Greece then when Agis burnt all the writing tables of the vsurers in the market place at Athens for before Solon brought this law from Egipt vnto Athens dead mens bodies might be arrested and an actiō might be had before the magistrate called Zeteta for satisfaction of debts in Athens Therefore Solons lawe was that no man should credit the sonne while the father liued to auoyd further daungers least the sonne should practise against the father which children do vse against their parents the law was that he which would c◅dit the sonne during the life of the father should haue no action against the son after the fathers death So hatefull was vsurie among welnigh all nations that where punishment of theft was but double punishment of vsurie was quadruple and therfore Lu. Genutius Tribune of the people in Rome abrogated former lawes of vsurie in Rome Lucullus in his victorie ouer Asia among other Romanie lawes which hee gaue them set all Asia free and at libertie from vsurie So Cato made a lawe that no vsurer should dwell within the prouince of Cicilia So also Licurgus made a lawe to bannish vsurie so farre from Sparta that it should neuer be named nor spoken of within Sparta The lawe of Moses among the Hebrewes was Thou shalt not giue to vsurie to thy brother as vsurie of
Common-wealth saith Cicero in some respect as dissimulation Nunquaâ—… regent qui non tegent That made Seneca to say that in Courts with Kings and Princes dissimulation must haue chiefe place Fraâ—… enim sublimi regnat in aula For if loue be not perfect nor esteemed and imbraced for it selfe where shall we finde true friendship If all men be addicted to their priuate gaine without doing good to any man or speaking wel ofany man where shall we finde a beneficiall man to his countrey or to his friend for hee that thinketh to do good to another to gaine profit to himselfe that man said Cicero is not to be thought beneficiall to his friend nor to his country but an Vsurer to himselfe The naturall societie among men and mutuall loue ought to be such that as Cicero said If any would ascend vp to the heauens to viewe the beautie and ornament thereof vnsweete were the admirations he sawe vnlesse it might be imparted to friends So may wee speake of vngratefull and slaunderous men who are not thankfull for any benefits done and therefore an action might be had against vngratefull men among the Macedonians and be brought before a Iudge as if they were in debt as debters not requiâ—…ing one good turne with another according to the lawe of nature much like to Charondas lawe which forbad ciuil citizens to associate themselues with euil vngrateful men which are as Cicero saith TanquaÌ„ glabra ad libidinem via which infect good men for being familiar with them and therefore an action might be had by lawe against honest men for comming oft to the company of these wicked euil men And so it was among the Athenians which had the like lawe against vnthankfull men for as Demosthenes said He that receiueth a benefit ought euer to be mindfull to requite it and he that benefites his friend ought to forget it as a man bound to do any good he can by the lawe of nature for so iust men are bound to do Non solum iuxta leges sed legibus ipsis imperare The wicked vngratefull Gergesites hunted Christ out of their countrey because he healed a man possessed of a diuel they had rather haue their diuel dwell with them then Christ they more esteemed their swine then the doctrine of Christ like the Iewes who had made choice of Barrabas the murtherer before Christ their Sauiour In the twelfth Regiment is mentioned the seuerepunishment of false witnesse together with the lawfull oathes of diuers godly men THe lawe is that if any bee found that hath giuen false witnesse against his brother let him stand before the Lord and before the Iudges and you shall doo to him as he thought to do to his brother that life for life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand and foote for foote should goe A false witnesse shall no remaine vnpunished and hee that speaketh lyes shallperish Againe be no false witnesse against thy neighbour hurt him not with thy lippes This is the sentence of the lawe pronounced by the Lord. He that priuily slaundereth his neighbour him will I destroy saith the Lord for he that telleth lyes shall not dwell in my house nor tarrie in my sight cursed is hee that striketh his neighbour secretly and cursed is he that taketh reward to shead innocent bloud and all the people shall say Amen And for that lyes and periurie are knit together with false witnesse we will examine the lawes of other Nations with the lawes of God and what punishment they haue for the same Foure hundred false witnesses did the Prophet Michaeas reproue of Baals Prophets which counselled king Achab to warre against the king of Syria Did not one true Prophet Micheas proue these 400. false Prophets to be false witnesses against the Lord but Achab by the king of Syria was slaine as Michaeas prophesied So did Elias kill foure hundred and fiftie false Prophets of Baal at the brooke Kyson for bearing false witnesse against the Lord for they affirmed that Baal was God And the Prophet Daniel caused 80. of Baals Priests to be slaine at Babilon for their lyes and false witnesse to the people against the Lord. These Idolaters were the worst kinde of witnesses because they bare false witnesse against the Lord to please Nabuchodonozer king Achab. The two Elders made themselues false witnesses against Suzanna in Babilon they were found by Daniel to be false witnesses and adulterous Iudges and were stoned to death according to the lawe Iezabel brought two false witnesses against Naboth for his vineyard to her husband king Achab and they said that they heard Naboth curse God and the king and Naboth was caried out of the citie and there they stoned him with stones to death but sentence was pronounced against him by Elias the Prophet saying In the same place where the dogs licked the bloud of Naboth shall the dogs licke the bloud of Achab also Non magis potest mactari opima Ioui quà m Rexiniquus Thales being demanded what was the strongest thing that he sawe answered Tyrannum senem Stephen was accused that he spake against the Lord and Moses and the Iewes brought two false witnesses against S. Stephen saying This man neuer ceaseth to speake euill words against this place the lawes and the holy Temple How often fought the Iewes meanes through false witnesse to condemne Paul crying out vpon him This Paul speaketh against this holy place against the lawe and against the people and brought Tertullus the Orator as a false witnesse to accuse and to plead against Paul before Faelix the Romaine deputie These forget the saying of the Prophet Michaeas who cryed out and said you Iudges you giue sentence for gifts ye Priests you teach for lucre ye Prophets you prophesie for money you build vp Syon with bloud and Ierusalem with doing wrong What dare not false witnesse do when they accused Christ to be a gluttoÌ„ a bibber of wine a blasphemer denying tribute to Caesar for being a seducer of the people a Samaritan a coniurer and one that had the diuell a breaker of the Sabboth day they wanted no false witnesse to proue all these things against Christ and yet against Mar. Cato being accused by his enemies in Rome fiftie seuerall times before the Senators they could not bring any one witnesse to prooue any thing against Cato Aristophantes in Athens beeing accused before the Iudges Areopagitae 95. times he pleaded his cause and shifted out himselfe from the maliee of his enemies not able to bring one witnesse against him that both Cato in Rome and Aristophantes in Athens were set at libertie and yet the Martyr Stephen the Apostle Paul and the sonne of God himselfe wanted no witnesses but had all Ierusalem to beare witnesse against them Zaleueus made many lawes but especially religious and ceremoniall lawes imitating his maister Pythagoras who was a
very ceremoniall Philosopher he made a law that no man should go about to corrupt iustice or iudgement either by periurie false witnesse or otherwise and the punishment for those that brake Zaleucus lawe was not redeemed with money but performed with shame and infamy paines and tortures And therefore Bocchoris made the like lawe in Egipt against periurers and false witnesses as against those that brake their professed faith and religion towardes God and violated their faith and bond of societie towards man with no lesse punishment then with death Artaxerxes so hated lyes that hee made a decree among the Persians that whosoeuer were found proued a lyar should haue his tongue set vnto a poste or a pillar in the market place fastned with three nailes thervnto The lawes of Moses to the Israelites against any great offence was to stone them to burne them or to run vpon them The lawes of the Indians against false witnesse was to cut off the endes of all his fingers from his hands and the ends of all his toes from his feete The lawes of the Persians as you heard by Cambises and Darius was fleying and hanging against false witnesses and corrupt Iudges as you read of Sandoces and Sinetes The punishment of false witnesse by the Turkes was and is executed in this sort that hee shall bee set on a Mule with his face backwards holding the tayle of the Mule for a bridle in his hand and so to bee carried round about through euery streete of the towne and after burned in the forehead with two letters as a marke of false witnesse By the lawe of the 12. Tables among the Romanes he that was conuicted for a false witnesse should bee throwne headlong downe frō the rocke Tarpeia which lawe was first exercised and executed in Egipt and a long time after brought from Athens to Rome For the law among the Egiptians was that false wie nesses should pe punished with the like death The Indians had the like lawe as the Persians had that if any man were found three times a lyar what state soeuer he were of he should be neither magistrate nor officer during his life but should be depriued of all honour and credit and lead his life priuate in silence and yet among the Egiptians lyes were left without lawes vnpunished The lawes of all countries were sharpe and seuere against rebellious seruants and false witnesses which like seditious serpents seeke secretly to forsake and defraude their maister both in word and deed And therefore the testimonie of the seruant against their maister by the lawe of Romulus among the auntient Romanes was not admitted so that many of the late Emperours of Rome made a decree that those seruants that would accuse their maisters should be slaine as vngratefull and trecherous seruants So did Sylla vse Sulpitius seruant for betraying of his maister though Sulpitius was Syllas enemie This continued vntil punishments were set downe and appointed by lawe for crimes and offences by seruants as carrying a forke made like a gallowes on his shoulders or with Paucicapa or burning markes in the foreheads as the Syracusans vsed to burne their bondseruants in the forehead with the print of a horse to note them as their owne bond-slaues Melius enim est vitiosas partes sancare quà m execare For the lawe doth respect no person otherwise then by iustice lawes then were made how much and how farre the authorities of maisters extended ouer their seruants Among the Lacedemonians the lawe of Licurgus was so austere that it was lawfull for their maisters to kill those wicked wilfull seruants that would practise either by word or deed any falsehood against their maisters Alexander in his great furie against all lawes slew Calistenes his seruant and Philosopher for some sharpe and quick words yet Calistenes spake but what he ought to speake but not how he ought to speake Quae debebat dicebat sed non quomodo debebat Calistenes though a Philosopher yet hee forgot this lesson Facile prsse loqui cum Rege sed non de Rege Heerein that which was spoken of Hanibal may be spoken of Alexander Armis vicit vitijs victus But better could Anaxarchus flatter Alexander then Calistenes lamenting the dearh of Clitus whom he slew in his furie Art thou ignorant king Alexander said Anaxarchus how auntient wise men caused the Image of Iustice to stand by Iupiter that whatsoeuer Iupiter had decreed it was taken for a lawe for that Iustice was on his side The like speech may bee spoken of Iulia procuring her sonne in lawe to offend with her Doest thou not know thou art an Emperor which makest law to others and makest it not to thy selfe A lawe was made in Athens not onely against seruants but against any trecherous man whatsoeuer were he neuer so great that though hee died in his countrey yet should he not be buried in his countrey but be carried out of the confines of Athens so was Phocion and others that were suspected of any treason An other law among the Grecians was that he which prodigally and wilfully consumed his fathers patrimonie should not be buried within his owne countrey of Greece so those kings of Egipt that neither obeyed nor liued vnder the lawe while they liued should not be buried in their Pyramides so were some of the kings of Iudah and of Israel vnburied for breaking of the lawe There was a lawe made by king Agis in Sparta that the seruants called Hilotae for their rebellious sedition against their maisters were condemned to be in perpetuall seruitude neither might their maisters make them free in Sparta neither might the seruaunts goe out of Sparta but liue there like bondslaues and their posteritie after them which should be called Hilotae Oportes enim supplicia more patrio sumi offenders most be punished as Aristotle saith after the lawes and custome of the country The like law made Salomon against Semeia for that he tooke part with Absalon against the King railed and slaundered Dauid and threw stones at him that if hee should but once goe out of Ierusalem he should die for it by the sentence of Salomon And so in Athens the like lawe was made that those that the Athenians ouercame at the riuer Hister they and theyr posteritie should be as captiues and bondslaues in perpetuall bondage with one name giuen to them and theyr posteritie called Getae as Hilotae were in Sparta Among the Persians their lawe was that the seruant being bought with money that fled afterwards from his maister beeing taken hee should be fettered and bound in chaines and so bound to serue his maister False witnesses are lyars periurers and blasphemers either with periured tongues for a mans life or with slaunderous tongues for his name and good fame calling God to be witnesse of vntruth so the false prophets and priests of Baal did whom Elias
most ambitiously sought Naboths vineyard but hee did not long enioy it and some seeke with Nimrod to build towers in the ayre like to the King of Mexico when hee is sworne at the first comming to the kingdome who among other oathes must sweare that the sunne must keepe his course shyning alwaies in sight that the cloudes must let raine fall downe that the riuers must runne their course and that the earth must bring forth all kinde of fruites These kinde of men search those things that be vnder the earth and those things that be aboue the heauens Satagunt inquirentes saith Plato quae subter terram quae super caelum sunt We read of Antiochus after hee had taken Ierusalem after such slaughter of men women virgins children and Infants that within three daies there was slain foure score thousand and as many solde as were slaine and 4000. taken prisoners after he had taken a thousand and eight hundred talents out of the Temple he went with such a haughtie proude minde from Ierusalem to Antioch as Xerxes went from Persia into Greece thinking in his pride to make men saile vpon drie lande and to walke vpon the seas but as they liued both so they dyed the one miserably murthered in his owne country the other most miserably dyed out of his countrey These and such ambitious men in seeking to build their great name and fame on earth as Xerxes and Antiochus they become so odious and contemptible in their own country as Ammon was in Persia among the Iewes whose name when the Iewes heard of they beate and stampt on the ground with theyr feete because they would not heare his name for the like ambition the name of Hercules might not be mentioned among the Dardanians nor the name of Achilles among the Taenedians for that they destroyed both these countreys To forget these great iniuries Thrasibulus made a lawe in Athens called Amnestia because the crueltie of the thirtie tyrants which caused the children to daunce in their fathers bloud in Athens might no further bee remembred least by reuenging of the same more bloud should be lost much like the Dictators in Rome who might put to death any free Cittizen at theyr pleasure So did Opimius vsurping the office of a Dictator beeing but Consul caused Gracchus Fuluius and diuers other Cittizens to bee slaine But after Iulius Caesar became the first Emperour and Perpetuus Dictator the other Emperours that succeeded him claiming the like authoritie made such lawes in Rome as pleased themselues Sit fortitudo nostra lex iniusticiae for when the honour of the Senators were abrogated and past by Hortensius lawe vnder the Emperour Caesar and his successors that they onely made such lawes as were called Placita Principum without authoritie of the Senators or counsel of the people which were accepted as lawes among the Romaines during the time of the Emperors as Iusregis was in Rome during the raigne of the Kings The law called Plebiscita made by the Tribune of the people could not be allowed vnlesse it were confirmed by the Senators neither could the law made by Senators called Senatus Consultus be allowed without the voyce of the people In like sort Responsa Prudētū for that they had authoritie to enterpret the law in matters of controuersies their sentence iudgement was accepted as lawes so that the body and whole summe welnigh of the ciuill lawe consisted in these lawes before named None might in auntient time among the Romanes be elected Dictator Consul Praetor or Censor vnlesse he were one of the Patritians but in time it grew that the Patricians and the Plebeians were ioyned together that one Consul should be chosen by the Patritians the other by the people This lawe called Amnestia was afterwards brought to Rome from Athens and renewed by Cicero that they should forget the murthering of Caesar least a greater harme should come by reuenging of Caesars death by ciuill warres Omni enim populo inest malignum quiddam querulum in imperautes This lawe was put in practise by the Iewes in Mazphah for the trecherous murthering of Godoliah by ambitious Ismael for they thought it best to put vp iniuries by forgetting of iniuries But the lawe of Draco in Athens was not to forget iniuries as Thrasibulus lawe was neither to please the people as the lawe of Gracchus was in Rome but seuerely to punish the people and that with such seueritie that it was called according to his name Lex Draconis the lawe of a Dragon for the least fault in Athens by the lawe of Draco during the time of his raigne was punished with death who for his lawes was strangled in Aegina vppon the Theaters by the people So that in Rome for the lawes which Gracchus made to please the people he himselfe and diuers others were slaine So in Athens and in diuers other places by offending the people too much by cruell lawes they were strangled killed and slaine of the people for their lawes as Draco was in Aegina and Perillus in Agregutum who found out the brazen bull to please the tyrant Phalaris who decreed by lawe a reward to those that would find out new kindes of torments and tortures to punish offenders So Xerxes promised great gifts and rewards to any that would finde out diuers straunge kinds of pleasures to feed his humour as an Epicure Of these kinde of fellowes Aristotle saith Subtilia illa ignea ingenia in assiduo motu nouandis quam rebus gerendis aptiora and therefore rash young men must not bee magistrates or officers by Aristotles rule In the fourteenth Regiment is set downe the change and alteration of diuers lawes of the libertie and tyrannie of some lawes of the authoritie of soothsayers both among the Romaines and the Grecians HEliogabalus a monster and not an Emperour maintained rather women as Senators to sit with him in councell in Mount Quirinal to make lawes to feed his filthy humours then the Senators which haue beene Iudges equall with Kings in councell after Kings with Consuls after Consuls with good Emperours for Heliogabalus called the Senators Togatos seruos to whom Augustus Caesar gaue great reuerence in any publike assembly or meeting and with whom in the Senate house he sate in councell Facilius est errare naturam quà m sui dissimilem possit princeps formare Rempub. So Tiberius Caesar and Traiane that whatsoeuer was done in Rome was then done by the Senators with the consent of good Emperours which with the Senators made lawes and obeyed those lawes which they made for Vnum imperij corpus vnius animoregendum in so much that Adrian the Emperour when hee sawe a proud citizen of Rome walking in the market place betweene two Senators hee commaunded an officer to giue him first a buffet and after to bring him to prison for that hee made himsefe a
page 2 The lawe of nature is a short repetition of the lawe written pa. 3 The lawe writtten giuen to Moses pa. ead The credit and confirmation of lawes pa. 4 Chiefe magistrates and gouernors in diuers countries pa. 5 The Lord commaunded an aultar to be made pa. 6 Diuers aultars before the lawe written pa. ead How they vsed to write in auntitient time pa. 7 The first Image brought by Rachel Iacobs wife pa. 8 The Image of Belus in Niniuie pa. ead Ieroboam made two golden calues pa. ead Israel committed Idolatry while Moses was in the Mount pa. 9 Socrates poysoned in Athens for religion pa. 11 Platoes opinion of Poets and painters pa. ead Alcibiades banished from Athens pa. 12 Clodius slaine in Rome pa. ead Anacharsis slaine in Scythia pa. ead The vowes and supplications of the Gentiles pa. 13 Xerxes burnt the Temples in Greece pa. 14 The Rechabites lawes pa. ead The Prophet Ahiahs speech to Ieroboam pa. 15 Zaleucus lawes of religion to the Locreans pa. 16 Licurgus lawe against straungers in Sparta pa. ead Anaxagoras put to death pa. 17 The zeale of the Gentiles in theyr religion pa. ead Cyrus confessed the God of Israel pa. 18 Darius made a lawe that all dominions should feare the God of Daniel pa. 19 Egipt the mother of all Idolatrie pa. 20 The Iewes obserued straightly the lawes of Moses pa. 21 Diuers tooke vpon them to be the Messias pa. 22 Idolatrous sacrifice of the Gentiles pa. 23. No bloud offered in sacrifice by Licurgus lawe pa. ead Paul called in Athens Spermologos of the Philosophers pa. 24 Molochs reaching hand and seuen chambers pa. 25 Punishment of corrupt Iudges in Persia pa. 26 The lawe of the Lord set downe by Esay the Prophet pa. ead Of diuers kings blaspheming the name of the Lord pa. 27. Lysander and Pompeys taunt to a Lawyer pa. 28 Ceremoniall lawes of the Gentiles pa. 29 The Gentiles builded diuers temples to their Gods pa. ead The manner of the dedication of the Temples of the Heathens pa. 30 The consecratiō of Aaron by Moses pa. 31 By what authoritie all Nations confirme their lawes pa. 32 The straight obseruation of the Sabboth by the Iewes pa. 33 The second building of the Temple by the appointment of Cyrus pa. ead Diuers kindes of Sabboths among the Heathens pa. 34 The blasphemie of Nicanor pa. 35 How dearely the Iewes esteemed their lawes pa. 36 Certaine Romaines slaine by the Iewes pa. 37 The lawe of Iud. Machabaeus pa. ead Among the Heathens the Sabboth of the Lord was not knowne pa. 38 Licurgus lawe for time to goe to battell pa. 39 Before the Temple was made the Israelites came to Sitoh pa. 40 The continuance of Licurgus lawes pa. ead Charondas lawes against contemners of lawes pa. ead Licurgus lawe called Rhetra pa. 41 The lawe of the 12. Tables touching obedience pa. ead The summe of lawes set downe by Plato pa. 42 The forme and manner of diuers appeales among the Heathens pa. 43 The wise and graue Iudges in diuers countries pa. 44 Lawes of all nations against disobedient children pa. 45 Corruption of Iudges pa. 46 Good parents had ill children pa. ead Markes of monuments and couenants pa. 48. The lawes and care of the kings of Persia to bring vp their children pa. 49 Charondas lawe for education of children pa. ead Plato and Anacharsis lawe for the education of the youth in Greece pa. 50 The Romanes care for their children pa. ead Bocchoris lawes against idlenesse and clippers of coyne pa. 51 The care of the Hebrew women in naming and nursing theyr children pa. 52 The carelesse nature of the people called Troglodites Atlantes for their children pa. 53 Manlius remoued from the Senate house pa. 54 Licurgus appointed schoolemaisters in Sparta called Paedonomi pa. ead The lawe of the Brachmaines in India pa. 55 Orators and Poets contended in Greece 56 Of lawe-makers and magistrates in diuers countries pa. ead Bloud the first witnesse against murther pa. 57 Foure witnesses against murther pa. 58 The enuie of Saul towards Dauid pa. ead Punishment of murther by the law of nature before the lawe written pa. 59 Murtherers haue their markes pa 60 How Paracides were punished in Rome pa. 61 Bocchoris lawe in Egipt against murther pa. ead No lawe against Paracides neither by Romulus nor Solō pa. 62 Platos lawe against him that kild himselfe pa. 63 The punishment of murther in diuers countries pa. 64 Charondas lawe for pulling out ones eyes pa. ead The law of the 12. Tables imitated Moses law pa. 65 The Gentiles both allow confirme their lawes by Oracles pa. 67 Pentapolis destroyed for Sodomiticall sinne pa. 68 The Israelites punished for theyr sinne with the Moabite pa. ead Commendation of godly zeale pa. 69 Adultery punished in diuers countries pa. 70 Bocchoris lawe against adulterie pa. 71 Charondas lawe against adultery pa. ead Zaleucus lawes against adultery pa. 72 Punishment of adulterie by Aurelianus Macrinus both Emperors of Rome pa. ead The law of Solon called Paratilmus against adulterie pa. 73 The opinion of diuers Philosophers cōcerning adultery pa. 74 Moses law against bastards pa. 75 Lawes of diuers nations against bastards pa 76 Bocchoris lawe in Egipt for a woman with childe pa. 77 The lawe of the Unshod house pa. 78 Moses lawe against an adulteresse pa. ead Xerxes reward to inuent pleasures pa. 79 Commendation of chastitie pa 80 Leges conuiuales pa. 81 Platos lawe called Bellaris Platonis pa. ead Good lawes sent for frō one countrey to an other pa. 82. 83 Meanes made by the Gentiles to become chaste pa. 84 Examples of chastitie in good women pa. ead The harme that hapneth by too much libertie pa. 85 The offence of the eye pa. 86 The chastitie of the people named Animphi and Abij pa. 87 The lawe of the twelue Tables for chastitie pa. ead Continuance of lawes in all countries pa. 88 The Tabernacle hidden by leremie pa. 89 The care and diligence of a◅ nations in keeping theyr lawes pa. 90 Iudges appointed in all countreys to execute lawes pa. 91 Of counsell and gouernment of women pa. 92 The Athenians sent to Delphos pa. 93 Achan stoned to death for theft pa. 94 The punishment of the Lorde for breach of his lawes pa. ead The lawe of Zaleucus for breach of his lawe pa. 95 The seueritie of Lu. Papirius for breach of the lawe page 96 Diocles slew himselfe to satisfie the offenee hee did to his owne lawe pa. 97 Licurgus banished himselfe for continuance of his lawes pa. ead The credit of Aristotle and Pythagoras with their schollers pa. 98 The Israelites sacrificed theyr children to Moloch pa. ead All creatures obey the Lorde more then man the chiefe creature pa. 99 The fraude of Giezi plaine theft pa. ead The vision of the flying booke pa. 100 Foure great men that robd the Temple in Ierusalem pa. ead The lawe Plagium pa. 101 The lawe of the Phrigians against theft pa.
ead The lawes of Draco in Athens against theft pa. ead Bocchoris lawes in Egipt against theft pa. 102 Charondas lawe in fauour of Orphants pa. 103 Solons lawe in Athens for Orphants and Infants pa. ead The daughters of Zalphod restorea by Moses lawe to their fathers inheritance pa ead The effect of loue and praiers pa. 105 The effectes of lawes in inward and outward obedience pa. 106 The lawes of the 12. Tables against theft pa. 107 Iulius lawe against theft pa. ead Bocchoris lawe against theft pa. 108 Theft left vnpunished by Licurgus lawe pa. ead Bocchoris lawe against vsurie pa. ead Solons lawe against vsury called Sysacthia pa. 109 Lucullus and Cato banished vsurie pa. ead Moses lawe against vsury pa. 110 Solons lawe against slaunderers pa. ead Description of ill tongues page 111 The diuerse punishmeÌ„t of tongues pa. 112 Slaunderous tongues practised mischiefe pa. 113 A lawe in Athens against vngratefull men pa. 115 Diuers false Prophets reproued pa. 116 Naboth and Stephen stoned to death pa. 117 False witnesse against Christ himselfe pa. 118 Zaleucus lawe against false witnesse pa. ead The lawe of Bocchoris in Egipt against periurers pa. 119 Punishment of false witnes among the Turkes pa. ead The lawe of the twelue Tables against false witnesse page ead Diuers lawes against rebellious and trecherous seruants pa. 120. 121. 122 The law of the 12. Tables against staunderers pa. 123 Of the maner of swearing among the Hebrewes pa. 124 Of diuers ambitious men pa. 125. 126 The euill end of ambition pa. ead Zaleucus lawe against ambitious men pa. 127 Cincius lawe in Rome against ambition pa. 128 The lawe Ostracismus in Athens against ambition pa. 129 Ambitious kings in Egipt might not be buried pa. ead The Image of Iustice in Eliopolis pa. 130 Of the oaths of the kings of Mexico at their consecratioÌ„ pa. 131 The pride and insolencie of Xerxes and Antiochus pa 132 The lawe of Thrasibulus in Athens called Amnestia pa. ead The lawe Plebiscita pa. 133 The lawe of the Indian Philosophers pa. 136 Of liberties and freedomes in diuers countries pa. ead The first law of Romulus in Rome called Lex Curiata pa. 137 The second lawe in Rome called Senatus Consultus pa. ead What the Senators of Rome might do without the consent of the people pa. 138 Gracchus law in Rome called Lex Agraria pa. 139 Thirtie Senators in Carthage called Conipodes pa. 140 Aristocratia chaunged to Monarchia among the Hebrewes pa. ead Kings deposed in Sparta by the Ephori pa. 141 Platos lawe against curious men pa. ead Consuls remoued in Rome from their office by soothsayers pa 142 The lawe called Lex Auguralis pa. 143 FINIS Iob. 38. Iob. 25. The old Patriarkes liued vnder the law of nature 2. Cor 3. Iere. 31. The lawe of nature is a short repetition of the lawe written The lawe written and giuen to Moses Cic de leg lib. 1. Cic. de leg lib. 3. Cic. de diuini lib 1. Diod. sic lib. 2. cap. 5. Lex curiata Chiefe magistrates gouernors in diuers countries The Lord coÌ„maunded an aultar to bee made Exod. 20. Diuers aultars beâ—…ore the law written Septe longaeui Tylia otherwise called Phyllida Vlpian F. de leg 3. Rachel stole her father Labans Image Gen. 31. Gen. 35. The Image of Belus made by his sonne Ninus Ieroboam made two golden calues Israel made a god of mettall while Moses was with the Lord for the lawe Deut. 9. Num. 25. 4. Regâ—… Socreates poisoned in Athens for religion Platoes opinion of Poets Painters Ioseph lib. 2. contra Apion 〈◊〉 Alcibiades 〈◊〉 ed from Athens Cloâ—…ius slaine in Rome Anacharsis slaine Ioseph lib. 2. contra Apion Paul 〈◊〉 ad Rom. Hermes in Poemand Plato in Phaed. The Romains vowe Grecians Vowes of the Gentiles to their gods Persâ—… Xerxes burnt the Temples in Greece Cic. de legib lib. 2. â—…em 1â—… The Rechabites lawes Ahiahs speech to Ieroboam Deut. 32 Deut. 38. Hose 10. Zeleueus first lawes to the Locreans Diod. sic li. 12. Cic. de leg 1. Licurgus lawe that no stranger should dwell in Sparta Anaxagoras put to death Ioseph lib. 2. contra Apion Iudic. 6. Protagoras Diod. sic lib. 2. Diagoras TalentuÌ„ Atticum Cic. de natura deor lib. 1. Val. Max. de peregrin religione cap. 3. Cyrus confessed the god which the lewes worshipped 1. Eldr. 〈◊〉 Artax Nabuchodonozer Darius made a lawe that all dominions should feare the god of Daniel Agrippa Ioseph de antiq li. 19. ca. 7. Egipt the mother of all Idolatrie Dioâ—…ic lib. 2. Ioseph lib 2. conâ—… Apion Gode c. â—…n li. 2. Viget cap. 1. The Iewes obserued straitly their lawes Alex. Neapolit genial lib. 5 cap. 24. Diuers tooke vpon theÌ„ to be the Mesias Ioseph de Antiquit. lib. 20. cap 5. Torquinius Three hundred aureos Idolatrous sacrifice of the Gentiles No bloud offered in sacrifice by Licurgus lawe Cic. de leg lib 2. Arist lib. 5. polit cap. 11. Paul called Spermologos in Athens Deut. 17. 2. Reg. 21. Moloches 7. chambers Hose 10. Punishment of corrupt Iudges in Persia. Psal. 25. Law turned to wormewood c. Amos. 4. Arist. Rhet. 1. cap. 3. The lawe of the Lord set down by Esay the Prophet Esai 〈◊〉 Deut. 7. Exod. 22. Plato polit Wicked answers of kingsâ—… Ashuerus Darius Iezabels lawe for Naboths vineyard Lysander and Pompeys speech to a Lawier â—…ammius gladâ—…us Plato in Alcibiad Leuit. 13. Alex. Neapo lit gnial lib. 4. â—…a 7. Ceremoniall lawes of the Gentiles The Gentiles builded diuers temples to their gods Exod. 40. The maner of the Gentiles in dedicating their temples c. Alex. Neapo lit li. 6. cap 14. Alex. Neapo lit genial lib. 4 cap. 17. The consecration of Aaron Leuit. 8. By what authorities all nations confirmed their lawes Diod. sic lib 2. cap. 4. Plut. in Sylla The straight obseruation of the Sabboth by the Iewes Exod. 16. Luk. 23. Iohn 19. The second building of the temple by Cyrus 1. Esdr. 1. Darius Artaxerxes Neomenia The Romains Sabboths Parthians The diuers kinds of Sabboths among the Heathens Heredot lib. 6 Phillip The blasphemy of Nicanor Ioseph lib. 11. cap. 8. Ioseph lib. 12. cap 3. Certaine Romanes slaine by the Iewes Ioseph lib. 20. cap. 4. 1. Machab. 2. Plut. in Pomp. The lawe of Iud. Machaâ—… Math. 12. Among the Heathens the Sabboth of the Lord was not knowne Liui 〈◊〉 Thueyd 1. Xenoph. de expedit Cyri. 3. Plut. in Alex. Licurgus lawe for time of battell Front lib. 2. cap. 1. Before y temple was made in Ierusalem the Israelites came to Siloh Esay 45. The continuance of Licurgus lawes Charondas lawes against those that disobeyed contemned lawes Licurgus law Rheâ—…ra Plut. in Licurgo The lawe of the 12. tables Hipocrates in praecepâ—… Cicero de leg 2. Cic. de diuin lib. 1. Cic. de leg lib. 3. Alex. Neapolit genial lib. 6 cap. 23. Ioseph lib. 4. cap. 8. The diuers orders of appeales among
the Heathens Alex. Neapolit genial lib. 3 cap. 16. Ioseph lib. 4. cap. 8. The wise and graue Iudges in diuers countries Diod. sic lib. 2. cap. 3. Exod. 20. Lawes of all natioÌ„s against disobedient children Deut. 21. Esau. Gen. 27. Gen 31. The corruption of Iudges Ophnes and Phinees Good parents haue ill children 1. Reg. 16. 1. Reg. 24. The care of the Hebrues to keepe Moses lawe Deut. 6. Godese lib. 2. cap. 6. Alex. Neapolit lib. 6. cap. 14 Platoes lawe Markes of monuments and couenants by Ioshua Iacob and Samuel Gent. 31. The care of the Kings of Persia to bring vp their children Charondas lawe sxr education of children Plato in Alcibiad Alex. Neapol lib. 6. cap. 25. Nehemiae cap. 8. 10. Plato Anacharsis order for the youth in Greece Ioseph lib. 10. cap. 11. The Romanes care for theyr children Cic. de diuin 1. Charondas lawe Bocchoris lawes The care of the Hebrew women in naming and in nursing their children Iacob Iob. Dauid Phillip Agamemnon Antigonus Troglodites called Antinomi The carelesse nature of the Troglodites Atlantes for their children Atlantes called Anomi Manlius remoued from the Senate house Epicarmus punished Eccle. 30. Licurgus appointed schoole maisters in Spartâ—… called Paedonomi The lawe of the Brâ—…chmanes for their children in India Orators and Poets contended in Greece The names of lawe makers magistrates in diuers couÌ„tries Gene. 4. Blood the first witnesse against murther C ham was accursed Deut. 1â—… The second murtherer in scripture Gene. 27. Ioseph threatned to be killed Foure witnesses against murtherers Iacob fledde from Esau. The enuie of Saul towards Dauid Three kindes of murther 3. Reg 21. Iob. 20. Psal. 93. Math. 2. Sap. 6. 2. Reg. 11. Punishment vpon Cain and others by the law of nature Esd. li. 4. ca. 16. Murtherers haue theyr markes How Paracides were punished in Rome Alex. Neapol Genial lib. 3. cap. 5. Bocchoris lawes in Egipt for murther Diod. sic lib. 2. No law made against Paracides neither by Romulus nor Solon Platoeslaw for the man that kild himselfe Caligula Oros. li. 7. ca 5 Oros. lib. 3. cap. 10. Diuers horrible murtherers punished Charondas lawe Exod. 21. The law of the 12. Tables like Moses lawe Andronicus killed Zimri 3. Reg. 15. Zellum 4. Reg. 15. Curtis 9. Vopisc in Aurel Saul Absolon Plut. in Numa The Gentiles confirm their lawes by authoritie of Oracles from their gods The fiue cities called Pentapolis destroyed The Israelites plagued for their sin with the Moabites Nomb. 13. 4. Reg. 10. The commendation and reward of godly zeale Ephes. cap. 6. Example of adultery in diuers countries punished Gen. 1â—… Iudic. 19. Gen. 34. Lawes in diuers countries against adultery Bocchoris lawe against adultery Charondas lawe against adultery Arist. 5. polit Demosthenes aduersus Leptin Plato de leg Zaleucus lawes against adultery Fla. vobise in Aureliano Punishment of adultery by Aurelianus and Macrinus both Emperors of Rome Capitolin in vita Macrini Time hath euer bene appointed for godly men to effect theyr purpose The lawe Paratilmus against adultry The opinion of diuers Philosophers concerning adultery Alex. Neapol lib. 1. cap. 24. Diod. sic lib. 2. cap. 6. Moses lawe against bastardâ—… Gen. 49. Gen. 30. Lawe of nature Gen. 3â—… Leuit. 19. Lawes of nations against bastards Deut. 22. Deut. 22. Bocchoris law for a woman with childe Exod. 21. The lawe of the vnshod house Deut. 25. The lawe of Moses against an adulteresse Cortini Pisidae Casaluion Summaenium Xerxes offred rewards to inuent pleasures Laert. in Solone Haniball Scypio Commendation of chastitie Alexander Dioclesian Sext. Ruffinus Front lib. 4. cap. 1. L. Consensu C. de repud lib. 1. cap. 2. Leges conuiuales Sapien. 2. Vertuous and good lawes were so honored that they were sent for froÌ„ one countrey to an other Philadelphus Ioseph lib. 12 cap. 2. Alex. Neapol genial lib. 4. cap. 7. Sinister means of the Gentiles to become chaste Toby 3. Examples of chastitie in good women Iedith 10. 1â—… Neomâ—…nia Prou 7. The harme that hapneth by too much libertie Prou. 6. Gene. 12. The offence of the eye Math. 14. Aqua Mercurij Mary Magdalene People called Animphi and Abij Gymnosophists The lawe of 12. tables for chastitie Deut. 23. Val. Max. li. 6. cap. 1. Cic. de leg 3. Continuance of lawes in all countries Ioseph lib. 1. ca. 3. de Antiq. The Tabernacle hidden by Ieremy 2. Macab 2. Egiptians Lacedemonians The care and diligence of all nations in keeping their lawes Alex. Neapol genial lib. 3. cap. 16. Athenians Chron. Turcor Arist. Rhet. 1. cap. 3. Iudges appointed in all countries to execute lawes Of counsell and gouernment of women Aristot. 〈◊〉 polit â—…ap 7. Plato in Alcib Alex. Neapol lib. cap. 3. Cic. de leg lib. 2. The Athenians sent to Delphos Leuit. 19. Achan stoned to death for theft Ioshua 7. 3. Reg. 13. Num. 15. The law of the Lorde for breach of his lawes Malac. 1. Nadab and Abihu The lawe of Zaleucus for breach of the lawe Thueyd lib. 6. August apud Dyon 3. The seueritie of L. Papirius for breach of the lawe Front li. 4. ca. 1 Plato de Rep. 5. Diocles lawe Diocles killed himselfe to satisfie his owne lawe Licurgus banished himselfe The credit of Pythagoras and Aristotle with theyr schollers Plato de Rep. 5. The Israelites sacrificed their children to Moloch 3. Reg. 1â—… Luk. 8. The disobedience of man against God Psal. 141. Cic. de leg 3. Liui. lib. 6. The fraud of Giezi plainâ—… theft Leuit. 19. The vision of the flying booke Zaâ—…h 5. Cato Censorius de re militari Foure that robd the temple Cic. de natura deor lib 3. Dyonisius A lawe called Plagium The seuere lawes of the Phrygians against theft The lawes of Draco in Athens against theft The lawe of Bocchoris in Egipt against theft Diod. sic lib. 2. cap. 3. Exod. 22. Bocchoris lawe against theft Deut. 19. Charondas lawe in fauour of Orphants Solons law for Orphants and Infants Alex. Neapol lib. 6. cap. 10. The daughters of Zalphod restored to their fathers inheritance Nomb 27. Voconius law Alex. Neapol lib. 6. cap. 15. Exod. 32. Effect of loue and praiers Gen. 18. Gen. 22. Gen. 13. Gen. 3. Cic. de finibus 5. The effects of lawes in inward and outward obedience Edictum principis The lawe of the 12. Tables against theft An other lawâ—… of the twelue Tables Exod. 22. Iulius lawe against theft Bocchoris lawes Theft left vnpunished by Licurgus lawe Bocchoris law against vsurie Illiad 1. Solons lawe against vsurie called Sysacthia Diod. sic lib. 2 cap. 3. Zeteta Solons lawe Lucullus and Caro bannished vsurie Alex. Neapol lib. 1. cap. 7. Licurgus Moses lawe against vsurie Deut. 23. Math. 18. Solons lawe against nick-names Catapygos Obscessor viaâ—…um Bocchoris law Leuit. 19. Psal. 33. Xenoph. 1. Paed. Iames cap. 3. Pro. 13. Platoes lawe Suet. in Augusto Achisophel Slanderous tongues practised mischief Tacit. 1. annal Pleto de Repub 5. Cic. pro Milone Cic. de leg lib. 1. Alex. Neapolit 5. cap. 1. Plato in 〈◊〉 Deut. 19. Prou. 19. 24. Psal. 101. Deut. 27. Diuers false Prophets of Baal reproued by Michaeas and Elias 80. of Baals Priests reproued Suzanna Naboth stoned to death by false witnes Stephen the first martyr Paul Act. 24. False witnesse against Christ our sauiour Mar. Cato Aristophantes Zaleucus lawe against false witnesse Bocchoris law Diod. fic lib. 2. cap. 3. Alex Neapol lib. cap. 10. The Turkes punishment of false witnes The lawe of the 12. Tables Indians Lawes against rebellious seruants Alex Neapol lib. 3. cap. 20. Paucicapa a kind of punishment Cic. ad Attic. Epist. 1. Licurgus lawâ—… Plut. in Alex. Alex. Neapol lib. 6. cap. 14. Hilotae Arist lib. 5. Polit cap. 11. 〈◊〉 Deut. 19. The lawe of the 12. tables against slaunderers Alex Neapolit 6. cap. 10. Leuit. 9. Oathes Of oathes Amos. 8. Gen. 24. Of the maner of oathes among the Hebrewes Gen. 27. Gen. 22. 1. Reg. 25. 3. Reg. 17. Galath 1. Coloss. 1. Plato de leg lib. 12. The pride of Ammon Abimelech Absolon Many great meÌ„ ambitious The nature of ambition Iudic. 9. The end of ambitious meÌ„ Plato de leg 9. Stobaeus Sermo Numb 16. Numb 12. Zaleucus law against ambitious men The lawe Petalismus against ambitious men Cai. Petilius Cincius lawes against ambition in Rome Alex. Neapol lib. 4. cap. 3. Cie de leg li. 3 Arist lib. 3. polit cap. 〈◊〉 The lawe Ostracismus in Athens against ambitious Arist. 5 poliâ—… cap. 11. Amzitious kings of Egipt might not be buried Diod. sic lib. 〈◊〉 cap. 3. The lawe of the people Pedalij to iustice Alex. Neapol lib. 6. cap. 17. Appollonius and Socrates wishes The Image of Iustice c. The picture of ambition without legs Cic. proplanâ—… Luk 17. Sebna Achab. Nimrod Plato in Apol. The pride and ambition of Antiochus Ammon Hercules Achilles The lawe of Thrasibulus in Athens called Amnestia Alex Neapol lib. 6. cap. 23. Draco strangled in Egina Perillus died by those torments which he inuented Arist. polit lib. 3. cap. 3. Tib. Caesar. Tacit. 1. Annal. Lamp in Alex. Lamp in Alex The lawe of the Indian Philosophers Diod. sic lib. 3. Alex. Neapolit lib. 4. ca. 10. The first lawe of Romulus called Lex Curiata The second lawe in Rome called Senatus Consultus Plato Plyni Paneg. Alex. Neapol lib 4. cap. 11. Illiad 1. Alex. Neapol lib. 6. cap. 14. What the Senators might do without the people Plut. in Pomp. Gracchus law called Lex agraria Platos lawes 28. Senators in Sparta 30. Senators of Carthage called Conipodes Aristocratia changed to Menarchia 〈◊〉 Sam. cap. 8. Kings deposed in Sparta by the Ephori Platos lawe Cic de diuin lib. 1. Consuls remoued in Rome from their office Lex Auguralis Alex. Neapol lib. 5. cap. 19. Leuit. 19. Cic. de diuin lib. 2. Diod. sic lib. 3. cap. 10. Cic de diuin lib. 1. Tacit. annal 3
seditious men that he made lawes and brake them himselfe to come with his sword on his side against his owne lawe to the Court Diocles forgetting that he had his sword on his side answered I will streight satisfie the lawe drew his sword out and slue himselfe in presence of all the multitude I am not ignorant that some say that Charondas was he that made this lawe and not Diocles. So Licurgus willingly banished himselfe to die out of his countrey that the lawes which he made in his countrey might continue according to the Oracle Pythagoras disciples thought whatsoeuer their maister said was sound and sure they would haue no other proofe but what Pythagoras said Ipse dixit Likewise Aristoles schollers they would seeke no other proofe whether it were right or wrong but what they found in Aristotles booke est Aristotelis Vilescit princeps qui quae iusserat vetat quae vetuerat iubet For the which fault Cato reprehended Pompey for that hee brake the lawe which hee made before when hee was Consull The Israelites had not such trust and confidence in their Lord and God as eyther the schollers of Pythygoras or of Aristotle had in their maisters but said wee will obey the Queene of heauen wee will sacrifice to the calfe in Bethel and offer our children to Moloch in the valley of Hinnon See the diffidence which the Israelites had of their Lord and God of whom the Prophet said Ipse dixit facta sunt ipse mandauit creata sunt for by his word heauen and earth were made and by his commaundement all things created and yet not so much obeyed as Pythagoras was of his disciples or Aristotle of his schollers nor so much worshipped of his people Israel as the two calues made by Ieroboam in Dan and Bethel Old customes once rooted in long time confirmed are taken for lawes also whatsoeuer is done by example it is supposed that it may bee done by lawe so Cicero saith Quod exemplo fit id etiam iure fieri putant when in truth wicked customes are named Vetustas erroris non veritas legis though corrupt and leaud manners of men were first the cause that lawes were made yet euill examples may not bee allowed as lawes The auntient fathers and Patriarkes were Poliga◅ but not thereby to make good lawes by ill examples for it is said Praua consetudo magnus tyr annus In the tenth Regiment is shewed the disobedience of man against the Lord with the seuere punishments of all nations against theft THe Lord commaunded rauens to feed Elias and they did obey him he commaunded the Sunne to stay ouer Gibeon and the Moone ouer Aialō a whole day and they obeyed him the Lord commaunded the winds the seas fire haile snowe Ise and tempests and they obeyed his commaundement all creatures obey the Lord but man the chiefe creature which the Lord created according to his owne Image And therefore said Cicero Legi obediunt maria terraeque hominum vitaiussis supraemaelegis obtemperat the heauens the earth the sea and all men liuing obey the supreme lawe which is the lawe of God which Cicero calleth the lawe of nature Lex est illa circaea virga qua taetaeferae hominesque mitescunt Lawe is the rod apointed to tame man and beast The fraud of Giezi Elizeus seruant because he went secretly like a theese after Naman the Syrian and made a large lye that Elizeus his maister sent for a Tallent of siluer and two garments the Prophet beeing his maister gaue sentence on him that the leprosie of Naman shoulde cleaue and sticke to him for euer Giezi heere stole nothing but onely for his falsehood and lyes which with sacriledge and robberies stealing of cattell fraud deceit and the like are included within the precept of stealing for the law is Thou shalt not steale nor deale falsly neither lie one to another thou shalt not do thy neighbour wrong neither robbe him The vision of the flying booke signified the curse of theeues and such as abuse the name of the Lorde with oathes for all theeues and swearers shall be iudged by this booke for this booke shall remaine in theeues houses and in the houses of them that sweare falsly by my name saith the Lord and shall consume them with the timber and stones thereof Many poore theeues are fettered chained in prisons but great and publike theeues are cloathed in gold and purple Such was Heliodorus that came to robbe the Temple of Ierusalem from king Zaleucus who was so scourged and whipt that for golde and siluer he had stripes and stroakes that scarse thence he escaped aliue So should Shesac king of Egipt Antiochus king of Syria Pompey the great and Mar. Crassus the Romain Consul these foure great mightie theeues had bene as wel plagued and punished as Heliodorus was when they robd the Temple had it not bene for the great sinnes of Iudah and Ierusalem Many like Dyonisius after he spoyled the temple of Proserpina in Locris and sailing with a good gale of wind from Locris to Syracusa see said he to his mates fellowes how prosperously we saile after this our sacriledge Many againe robbe in scoffing sort like the same Dyonisius the tyrant who tooke the golden garment from Iupiter Olimpian in Peloponesus saying that it was too heauie for sommer and too colde for winter and therefore he commaunded that Iupiter should be cloathed with a woollen garment light for sommer and warme for winter many such like sacriledges are scoffingly committed in Christian Churches Many make but a ieast of theyr theeuerye and falshood with Dyonisius who when hee had taken the golden beard of Aesculapius away said it was no reason the sonne should weare a beard seeing his father Appollo had none If any man be found stealing any of his brethren the children of Israel and selleth him the thiefe shall die for the same the like is spoken to him that taketh the neather or vpper milstone to pledge The seuere lawes that they had in Phrygia against theft were such that hee that stole but a ploughe share from the fielde or a forke or a rake from a meadowe should by the lawe in Phrygia die In Athens the lawes of Draco were so hard streight against theft that for the least filching or stealing the theefe should die for it If any man in Athens should steale hearbes to make pottage or to take some dung of beasts for to dung his owne ground from another mans ground it was by Dracoes lawe a capitall crime He that borrowed a Horse of his neighbour and would ride further then the place appointed by the lawe of Draco hee might haue an action and therefore Demades saide that Dracoes lawes were Leges sanguine scriptae lawes written with blood the least fault in Athens by the lawe of Draco
was punished with death which lawes by Solon his successor were mittigated Among the Indians though adultery was left vnpunished as it was among the Scythians yet theft was most odious to both these Nations and most sharply to be punished by the lawes of India and Scythia In all countries among all nations theeues were diuersly punished In Egipt the lawe of Bocchoris was such against theft that if the Theefe after hee had stolne any thing had brought his stealth willingly of himselfe vnto the chiefe Priest called Princeps Sacerdotum before he was accused of it he that lost the goods should write the time the day and the houre when it was lost vnto the Priest and should haue again three parts of his goods the theefe should haue the fourth part that stole it for that he confest it before he was accused which is according to Moses lawe that if the theft be found in the theeues hands he shall restore double but if a theefe steale an oxe or a sheepe and kill it or sell it he shall restore fiue oxen for an oxe and foure sheepe for a sheepe for in the ciuil lawe it is written Propter manifestum furtum restituatur quadruplum The Romanes therefore verie carefull hereof kept in their Capitoll dogges quicke for smelling and sent and fed geese for sacrifice to Iuno quicke of hearing lest theeues should rob the Capitoll and so Manliuâ—… by geese saued not only the Capitoll but Rome it selfe from the Gaules Another lawe of Bocchoris that if any were accused falsly of theft in Egipt before a Iudge the lawe was that hee which wrongfully accused the partie should suffer that punishment which was due to him that was accused if he had committed the fault so is Moses lawe that if a false witnesse accuse a man of trespasse beforeâ—… Iudge and be not able to proue it then shall the Iudge do vnto the false witnesse as hee had thought to haue done vnto his brother Charondas made a lawe in fauour and education of Orphants that the wealth and legacies which were left vnto them by their parents should be answered to the Orphants by the next of theyr fathers kindred when they came to age and the Orphants to bee brought vp with the next of their mothers kindred therfore Charondas made this lawe least the fathers kindred or mothers kindred should deceiue the Orphants either by any fraud deceit or guile which is plaine theft The like lawe made Solon in Athens as Charondas made among the Thurians and Carthagineans least any fraude or deceit should bee practised against Infants or Orphants and therefore the Indians vsed none of the kindred or of the bloud of the Orphants but two straungers as tutors and gardens to answere to the pupuls their goods and legacies according to the lawe of India Among the Persians as among the Indians the lawe was that the patrons that deceiued their clients should die for it so was the law of the 12. Tables as wel among the Romanes as among the Grecians Patronus si clienti fraudem fecerit sacer esto The daughters of Zalphod were restored to theyr fathers heritage for the Lord commaunded Moses that hee should turne the inheritance of theyr father vnto them and gaue them a possession to inherit among their fathers bretheren this is the lawe of the Lord if a man die and haue no sonne his inheritance shall turne to his daughter if hee haue no daughter to his bretheren if hee haue no bretheren to his fathers bretheren Among the Arabians the lawe was that the eldest brother was allowed to the inheritance before the eldest sonne In Aethiopia in like manner not the kings children but his brothers childreÌ„ should succeed him in the kingdome Among the Lycians also the daughters and not the sonnes should be their fathers heires neither were they named after their fathers name but after their mothers name This is against Voconius lawe in Rome called Plaebiscita for that he was Tribune of the people by the which law it was lawful that no woman should haue though she were the onely daughter of her father but the fourth part and because women grew so rich by patrimonie and by legacies Domitianus the Emperour confirmed Voconius lawe and made a decree that no defamed woman should possesse the heritage of her father neither should she be carried in a coach were shee euer so great or so rich for the lawe was Nequis etiam census vnicam relinqueret filiam haeredem contrarie to the law of the 12. Tables which was that the Testator might dispose of his goods as pleased himselfe according to the lawe Vti legasset suae reiquisque ita ius esto Therefore the lawe commaunds iust and true dealings to be exercised and embraced as well in words as in deedes for negatiue commaundements include in themselues affirmatiues as Thou shalt doo no murther therefore thou must aide and helpe thy neighbour wherefore we must loue our neighbours in heart and wish them no more harme then to our selues and shewe the same in word and deed Such loue was in Moses and in Paul that the one wished to be put out of the booke of life to saue the people from destruction the other of meere loue wished to be accursed for their bretheren to do them good Such is the nature of perfect loue that Abraham prayed for the Zodomites and Moses for Pharao and the Egiptians though they were wicked people for that is the lawe loue your enemies and do good to them that hate you So Stephen the first martyr following the example of his maister Christ prayed for them that stoned him for all vertues haue their force power from praiers faith is strengthened by praiers loue confirmed by praiers and repentance continued by praiers In the eleuenth RegimeÌ„t is described the diuers kinds of thefts of vsurie and slaunder and of lawes prouided for the punishment of the same THe lawe commaundeth Thou shalt not steale which containeth not onely all kinde of falsehood fraude and deceit as before is spoken but also iustice equitie charitie and conscience Such was the iustice of Abraham to his nephew Lot that though their seruants contended and fell out yet they both agreed for Abraham vsed great iustice diuided their portions equally into two parts and gaue the choosing thereof to Lot The like iustice was betweene Iacob and his father in lawe Laban seperate thou or I said Iacob all the sheepe which haue great spots and little spots and all blacke lambes among the sheepe shall be my portion and wages and euery one that is not black nor 〈◊〉 ted among the sheepe and the lambes shall be the 〈◊〉 to me for my righteousnes shall answere for me Thus were they in auncient time instructed by the law of nature to loue one another and to vse iustice and charitie A Heathen man could say almost so