it in such works which are contrary to the world use it rightly and enjoy it as he that hath it not live a temperate life and beware of all sin otherwise my friend you Genius will forsake you and you shall be deprived of happiness for know this of a truth whosoever abuseth this Genius and lives not exemplarily purely and devoutly before men he shall lose this benefit and scarce any hope will there be left ever to recover it afterwards These Genii teach and give Laws to the Servants of God for to deliver to the people These Genii command us to forgive our Enemies and regard not any that speak evil against us for what hath a good man to do with the dull approbation of the vulgar Fame like a River bears up all light things and swolne but drowns things weighty and solid I see the lowest vertues draw praise from the common people the middle vertues work in them Astonishment but of the highest vertues they have no sence or perceivance at all Regard not therefore vaine praises for praise proceeds more out of bravery then out of merit and happiness rather to vain and windy Persons then to persons substantial and solid My Genius hath had some contest with mee in the disposal of The Idea of the Law the subject being cross to the deceit of the times which is both malicious corrupt and spleenatick it was my desire to keep it within doors but the relation it bears to my former discourses and my practice hath forced it to the Press it is the last glass of my thoughts and their first reflex being not compleat I have added this to perfect their Image and simmetry hoping it will be profitable The Genius of the Law of England and of the City of London is naturally the same that King Charles hath who is called King of Scots and there is no Government that will be established with good and wholsome Laws but Monarchy who can incorporate Fire and Water The people will not be happy without the King And it is esteemed more Honour Excellency and Majesty amongst the Legitimate Nobility and Gentry of the world for a General to restore or make a King then to be a King c. My humble and hearty desire is that the Laws of England the Priviledges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subject and the property of all things may be asserted according to the first Declarations of the King and Parliament in the begining of the unfortunate Warr. That the true Protestant Religion in the best sence of the Church of England may be professed and defended all Heresies Sects and Schismes discountenanced and suppressed a lawfull succession of godly and able Ministers continued and encouraged and the two Universities Oxford and Cambridge and all Colleges in both of them may be preserved and countenanced And this is for the prosperity of the Nation I have now done Gentlemen but how much to my own prejudice I cannot tell I hope I have offended no man yet I am confident this shall not pass without noise but if I have err'd in any thing and yet I have followed the best presidents of Lawyers in the World I expose it not to the mercy of man but of God who as he is most able so also he is most willing to forgive in the day of our account And if any more zealous Pretenders to Prudence Policy and Piety shall oppose the Idea of the Law I shall expect from them these following performances 1. A plain positive Exposition of all the passages in this Book without any injury to the sence of their Authour for if they interpret them otherwise then they ought they but create Errors of their own and then overthrow them 2. To prove their Familiarity with the Genius of the Idea of the Law and Knowledge in these Divine and Natural Statutes let them give the Reader a punctual discovery of all the secrets thereof If this be more then they can do it is argument enough that they know not what they oppose and if they do not know how can they Judg or if they judge where is their Evidence to Condemn 3. Let them not mangle and discompose my Book with a scatter of observations but proceed Methodically to the censure of Appologue Book and the account at the end expounding what is obscure and discovering the very intents of my Book in promoting the practice of good Laws for the benefit of my Country that the reader may find if I write for any other end then to disabuse the Nation my positions to be false not only in their Theory but if he will assay it by his own particular experience I intreat all Ingenuous Gentlemen that they will not slight my Endeavours because of my years which are but few it is the custome of most men to measure knowledg by the Beard but look rather on the Soul an Essence of that Nature quae ad perfectionem suam curricula temporis non desiderat and that they would not conclude any thing rashly against me Thus have I Published that knowledg which God gave me Ad fructum bonae Conscientiae I have not bushell'd my Light nor buried my Talent in the ground I will now whilst the poor Communalty are Plaintiffs and Exrcise-men Defendants humbly move for the Plaintiffs and put up my Idea of the Law to the Judg and so let the Attorney and his Counsel on the other side shew cause why we may not have judgment against them the Devil being Nonsuited and my Council hath put all his enemies under his feet Sentence being given I humbly pray the Execution may be served upon the last Enemy that my Counsellor Judg Prince and King may deliver up the Kingdom to his Father For now is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known From my House in the East-side Spitle Fields next door to the Red Lion without Bishops-gate neer London April 27. 1660. JOHN HEYDON In Honorem viri verè eruditi Domini Johannis Heydon generosi in operam suam elaboratissimam Legis Ideam Praeteritum tempus scribis scribisque futurum Illustras radiis tempus utrumque tuis Praeteritum praesens red dis praesensque futurum Nulla tuis oculis non patefacta latent Si tibi praeteritum praesens notumque futurum Inter coelicolas tu quoque caelicola The past and future time thy pregnant qui◠Illustrate 'bove the reach of humane skill Future and past both present are with thee There 's nothing hid from thy perspicacie The present Future past to him 's all one Who in the heavens hath his Station Thomas Revel Arm. To the truly Ingenious his highly deserving Friend John Heydon On his Learned Work Entituled The IDEA of the LAW COuld I of our Antipodes but give A true Description Tell how Those persons live That there Inhabit Acquaint the World how all Things stated are on that side of Earth's Ball Relate the curious Customs that
which prohidite and restrein future cases necessarily connext with matters past As for example If a Law should interdict some kiâ—d of Trades-men the vend of their Commodites for hereafter the Letter of this Law is for the future But the sence and meaning takes hold of the time past for now it is not warrentable for such persons to get their Livings this way 82. Every declaratory although there be no mention of time past yet by the force of the Declaration it is by all meanes to be extended to matters past for the Interpretation doth not then begin to be in force when it is declared but is made contemporary with the Law it self wherefore never enact declaratory Laws but in cases where Laws may in equity refer and look back one upon another and thus I have shewen you the incertitude of Laws also where no Law is found I shall now engross the imperfections perplexity and obscurity of Laws 83. Obscurity of Laws spring from four causes either from the excessive accumulation of Laws specially where there is a mixture of obsolete Laws or from an ambiguous or not so perspicuous and delucide description of Laws or from the manner of expounding Law either altogether neglected or not rightly pursued or lastly from contradiction and incertainty of Judgments 84. The Prophetical Law-giver saith Pluet super eos Laqueos now there are no worse snares than the snares of Laws specially penal if they be immense for number and through the alterations of times unprofitable they do not present a torch but spread a net to our feet 85. There are two wayes in use of making a new Statute the one establisheth and strengthens the former Statute about the same Ject and then adds and changes something the other abrogates and cancels what was decreed before and substitutes de integro a new and uniforme Law the latter way I approve for by the former way Decrees become complicate and perplext yet what is undertaken is indeed pursued but the body of Law is the mean time corrupted but certainly the more diligence is required in the latter where the deliberation is of the Law it self that is the Decrees heretofore made are to be searched into and duely weighed and examined before the Law be published but but the cheif point is that by this meanes the Harmony of Lawes is notably designed fot the future 86. It was a custome in the State of Athens to deligate six persons for to revise and examine every year the contrary Titles of Law which they called Antinomies and such as could not be reconciled were propounded to the people that some certainty might be defined touching them after this Example let such in every State as have the power of making Lawes review Anti-nomies every third or fift year or as they see cause And these may be search't into and prepared by Committees assigned therto and after that exhibited to Assemblies that so what shall be approv'd may be suffrages be establisht and setled 87. Now let there not be too scrupulous and anxious pains taken in reconciling contrary Titles of Law and of Salving as Mr Phillip Green terms it all points by subtil and Studie Distinctions for this is the web of wit and however it may carry a shew of modesty and reverence yet it is to be reckoned in the number of things prejudicial and being that which makes the whole body of Law ill sorted and incoherent it were far better that the worst Titles were cancell'd and the rest stand in force 88. I advise you to let such Lawes as are obsolete or growen out of use as well as Anti-nomies be propounded by delegates as a part of their charg to be repeall'd for seeing express Statute cannot regurarly be voyded by Disuse it fals out that through a Disestimation of Old Laws the Authority of the rest is somewhat embased And the Cromwells Tyrannical Torture ensues that Lawes alive are murthered and destroyed in the feare of God with the deceitfull imbracements of Lawes dead But above all beware of a Gangreen in Lawes 89. For such Lawes as are not lately published let the Pretorian Courts have power in the mean space to define centrary to them for although it hath been said not impertinently No man ought to make himself wiser then the Lawes yet this may be understood of Lawes when they are awake not when they are asleep on the other side let not the more recent Statutes which are found prejudicial to the Law publique be in the power of the Judges but in the power of the King and the Counsellors of Estate and supreem Authorities for redress by suspending their execution through Edicts and Acts until Parliamentary Courts and such High Assemblies meet again which have power to abrogate them least the safty of the Commonwealth should in the mean while be endanger'd 90. If Lawes accumulated upon Lawes swell into such vast volumes or be obnoctious to such confusion that it is expedient to revise them a new and to reduce them into a sound and solid body intend it by all means and let such a work be reputed an Heroicall noble work and let the Author of such a work be rightly and deservedly ranckt in the number of The Right Worsh Ralph Gardener Esq Justice of Peace and Councellor of Estate to the Supream Authority of England c. And such Founders and Restorers of Law 91. This purging of Lawes and the contriving of a new Digest is five wayes accomplisht first let obsolete Lawes which Mr. Thomas Heydon terms old fables be left out Secondly Let the most approved of Antinomies be received the contrary abolish't Thirdly Let all coincident Laws which import the same thing be expung'd and some one the most perfect among them retain'd of all the rest Fourthly If there be any Laws which determine nothing but only propound Questions and so leave them undecided let these likewise be Casheer'd Lastly let Laws too wordy and too prolix be abridged into a more narrow compass 92. And it will import very much for use to compose and sort apart in a new Digest of Laws Law recepted for Common Law which in regard of their beginning are time out of mind And on the other side Statutes super-added from time to time seeing in the delivery of a Juridical sentence the Interpretation of Common Law and Statute Laws in many points is not the same This Judg Roll. did in the Digests and Code 93. But in this Regeneration and new Structure of Laws retain precisely the Words and the Text of the Ancient Laws and of the Books of Law though it must needs fall out that such Collection must be made by Centoes and smaller portions then sort them in order for although this might have been performed more aptly and if you respect right reason more truely by a new Text than by such a Consarcination yet in Laws not so much the Stile and Description as Authority and the Patron thereof Antiquity you must
of the holy Councils Canons and Decretals whose head is the Pope and also that you cannot use the determination of the best learned men of all the holyest Divines but so far forth as the Pope doth permit and shall authorize by his Canons And in another place the Canon doth forbid that no other Volume or Book by the Divines yea throughout the whole world saith he but the same which is allowed throughout the Romish Church by the Canons of the Pope The like Laws the Emperour pretended to have in Philosophie Physick and other Sciences granting no authority to any knowledge but so much as is given them by the skilfulness of the Law whereunto as he saith if all Sciences and Arts that are be compared they are all vile and unprofitable For this cause Vlpian saith the Law is King of all things both Humane and Divine whose vertue is as Oramasus saith to command to grant to punish to forbid then which dignities there is found no Office more great and Pomponius in the Laws defineth that it is the gift and invention of God and the determination of all wise men because these antient Law-makers to the end they might purchase authority by their decrees among the ignorant people they made semblance that they did as they were taught by the Gods As you may read in my Preface of this Book Behold now you perceive how the Popes Law presumeth to bear sway over all things and exerciseth Tyranny like O. Cromwell and his fellows and how by woful experience you see it preferreth it self before all other Disciplines as it were the first begotten of the Gods doth despise them as vile although it be altogether made of nothing else but of frail and very weak inventions and opinions of Vserpers Rebels and Traytors which in the fear of God do Rob and Murther even their King which things be of all others the weakest and will be altered very suddenly by Charles his son The beginning of the sin of our first Parents when they were arrested and carryed into flesh was the cause of all our miseries Now the Law of the Pope O. Cromwell and his fellows proceeded from Tyrannie and cruel usurpation whose notable Decrees are these It is lawful to resist force with force he that breaketh promise with thee break thou promise with him it is no deceit to deceive him that deceiveth a guileful person is not bound to a guileful person in any thing blame with blame may be requited Malefactors ought to rejoyce if justice nor faithfulness Injury is not done to him that is willing It is lawful for them that traffique to deceive one another The thing is so much worthy as it may be sold for It is lawful for a man to provide for himself with the loss of another No man is bound to an impossible thing when it must needs be that you or I be confounded I should choose rather that you be confounded then I and many such things which afterwards were written among the Roman Laws and now lately practised since King Charles the First was murthered Finally there is a Law that no man should die for thirst for hunger for cold or in Prison for debt nor be put in Prison by his Creditor without six pence a day and a penny loaf of bread and two quarts of Ale every morning at eight of the clock And if any be put in Prison upon the Kings account or at the Kings suit he ought to be allowed two shillings six pence a day and two bottles of Wine and the like Law ought to be given by all Governours of Countries and duly paid every Saturday at five of the clock at night And no man is bound to hurt himself by watching and labour Afterwards the cruel Law of Nations arose from whence war murder bondage were derived and Dominions separated after this came the Civil or Popular Laws from whence have grown so many debates among men that as the Laws do witness there have been made more businesses then there be names of things For whereas men were prone and enclined to discord the publishing of Justice which was to be observed by means of the Laws was a necessary thing to the end that the boldness of lewd men might in such wise be bridled and among the wicked innocency might be safe and the honest might live quietly among the dishonest And these be the same so notable beginnings of the Law wherein there have been innumerable Law-givers of which Moses was the first c. The Civil Law is nothing else but that which men will do with a common consent the authority of which is only in the King and the People For without a King this is all void and of none effect for this cause Pheroneus saith that the Laws bind us for no other cause but that they have been approved by the judgement of the King and People wherefore if any thing please the People and the King this then standeth in force both by Custom and Ordinances of Law although there appear Error for common Error maketh Law and the Matter judgeth Truth which Ulpian a Tyrant and a Lawyer in times past hath taught us in these words viz. that he ought to be taken for a Free-man of whom sentence hath been given although in effect he be a Libertine that is to say a bond man made Free because the matter judged is taken for Truth Mr. Jeremy Heydon saith That one Sedâ— Mahomet Bookâ— a Barbarian who ran away from his Master demanded at Rome the Pretorship the which he administred and at length was known it was judged that none of those things should be altered which he being a servant did in the covering of so great a dignity the same man after returned to Sally where he was Consul And in Sidmouth in Devonshire a Gentleman is so much esteemed for his royal heart to the King and knowledge in matters of Justice that many would that men should argue with his words Seluhanus and Paulus the best learned among the Romans say For the use of the Pope if a Cistern of silver be reckoned among silver that it is understood silver and not houshold-stuff because error maketh their Law the same he openly confesseth of the Laws and Decrees of the Senate that a reason cannot be given of all things which have been ordained by our Elders Hereof then you know that all the knowledge of the Civil Law dependeth upon the only opinion and will of the King and People without any other reason urging enforcing to be so then either the honesty of manners or commodity of living or the authority of the King or the force of Arms which if it be the Preserveress of gooâ—men and the Revengeress of wicked men it is a good Discipline It is also a most wicked thing for the naughtiness which is done when the Magistrate or the King neglecteth it suffereth it or alloweth it But that more is the opinion of Demonartes