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
therefore destroyed at the brooke Kyson false witnesse is a murtherer of his neighbours false witnesse selleth bloud for money a theefe that selleth mens lands liuings and liues secretly for it is written in the lawe of Moses that thou shalt not remoue thy neighbours marke which they of olde time haue set in thine inheritance So Numa Pomp. made the selfe same lawe in Rome that whosoeuer would plough vp any of his neighbors markes or meeres both he and his oxen should be slaine and sacrificed to god Terminus vpon the very meere where the offence was done False witnesse is a defamer and slaunderer of mens credite and therefore the lawe of the twelue tables saith Siquis occentauisset aut carmen condidisset quod infamiam faceret flagitiumque alteri capitale sit If any would write slaunderous libelles or infamous verses touching a mans credite good name and fame he should die for it The selfe same lawe was by Solon made in Athens that vpon any slaunders or nicknames an action might be had before the Iudges Areopagites How much more false witnesses and periurers that seeke mens liues by false oathes are to bee punished whose conscience are burned with hotte irons of whom is said Conscientia pietatis lacinia for you shall not sweare by my name falsely saith the Lord neither shall you defile the name of your God The Lord though he commaunded his people that they should not sweare at all neither by heauen for it is the Lords throane neither by the earth for it is his footestoole for the scripture vsed the speech of the Lord for an oath Dixit Dominus it was an oath and the Lord sware by the excellencie of Iacob he sware by himselfe Per me ipsum iuraui Oathes may bee well and iustly required in lawfull causes for Abraham made his seruant to sweare by the God of heauen and earth not to take a wife to his sonne Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites but of his owne stocke and kindred and therefore hee caused his seruant to lay his hand vnder his thigh which ceremony declareth the dutie and obedience the seruant should haue to his maister Iacob sware the like oath as his grandfather Abraham did and caused Ioseph his sonne to put his hand vnder his thigh as an oath that he should not suffer him to be buried in Egipt but to be brought from Egipt to Haebron to the field Machpelaâ—… and there to be buried with his fathers Abimelech requested Abraham to sweare Iura per deum ne noceas mihi nec stirpimeae and Abraham sware vnto Abimelech and named the place where they both sware Berseba Iacob sware vnto Laban his father in law Pertimorem in Patrissui by the feare of his father Dauid sware against Nabal and said Hocfaciat mihi dominus Thus God do vnto me if I leaue Nabal a head for that he denied me and my company a little victualls being a hungrie Salomon sware vnto his mother by the Lord Thus God do vnto me if Adoniah liue for that by seeking Abizaig he seeketh also the kingdome Elias the Prophet sware vnto Achab king of Israel Viuit Dominus as sure as the Lord liueth So Elizeâ—…s sware vnto Elias the like oath Viuit Dominus I will not forsake thee this kind of oath is often vsed in scripture as the Lord liueth or as thy soule liueth Paul the Apostle vsed this oath God is my witnesse whom I feare in an other place Testem Deum inuoco in animam meam I call God to witnesse to my soule and againe God knoweth that I lye not In the thirteenth Regiment is set downe the danger and inconveniences that hapned by ambition and what lawes diuers countries made to banish the same THe states of Princes and countries are euer in most danger where ambitious men be who fearing nothing at all secretly to speake against Princes and Magistrates ambitiously whose ambitious nature seekes not onely to rule and raigne but also to practise without feare through pollicie to vndermine states and to ouerthrowe their countrey through ambition Pacem contemnentes gloriam appetentes pacem gloriam perdunt Of these men Plato saith Siquis priuatim sine publico scitu pacem bellumuè fecerit capitale esto Ambitious men are not so glad and proud to see many follow them and obey them as they are spitefull and disdainfull against any one man that esteemes them not so ambitious and proud was Ammon that he could not endure the sight of Mardochaeus The ambition of Abimelech was such that hee slew three score and eight lawfull sonnes of Gedeon his bretheren vpon one stone to become a Iudge in Israel himselfe being but a bastard Absolon the naturall sonne of Dauid went most ambitiously about to winne the hearts of Israel from his father embracing and kissing euery one that came vnto him saying I wish there were some that would minister iustice to the people Such is the nature of ambitious men Qui honores quieta Repub desperant perturbata se consequi posse arbitrantur Can a man goe barefooted on thornes and not bee prickt can a man put coles in his bosome and not bee burnt can a man be ambitious and not be trecherous for ambition claspeth enuie as the Iuye claspeth the Oake and as the Iuye sucketh all the moysture of the Oake so enuie sucketh all the moysture of the ambitious man What was the end of Ammon for his ambition to be hanged vpon the selfe-same gallowes which he prepared for Mardocheus What got Abimelech by his ambition and murthering of his bretheren but to haue his braine panne broken and slaine and that by a woman in the Cittie of Argos The end of Absolon was no better but to be brought by his owne mule and to be hanged by the haire of his owne head in the wood of Ephraim where his mule left him Impia proditio celeri paena uindicanda Had these ambitious men obserued the three precepts which Brasidas taught his countrey men the Athenians Velle vereri obedire they might haue died a more honourable death then to be hanged and killed by those whom they sought ambitiously to destroy by their next kinred and chiefe friends These bee such men Qui suam sibi fortunam fingunt The like lawe was appointed by Plato for treason as for sacriledge Iudices istis proditoribus dantur qui sacrilegis solent for as Philip of Maecedon was wont to say Amare se prodituros non proditores so Augustus Caesar after him vsed the like wordes Proditionem non proditores amo And therefore Corah Dathan and Abiron and all their complices to the number of two hundred and fiftie were swallowed vp of the earth aliue for theyr ambitious murmuring against Moses The Lord spared neither Aaron Moses brother nor Myria his sister for the like offence so
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
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
children to straunge Nations as the Phrygians and others did for to relieue theyr parents for necessitie sake and yet farre better then to burne kill and sacrifice theyr children to Images and Idols as Ahaz Manasses and others did Bocchoris made a lawe against idlenesse for all idle men in Egipt were compelled to write theyr names and to giue account how they liued This lawe was brought by Solon from Egipt vnto Athens where they gaue the like account in Athens as they did in Egipt before the Areopagites for we read that the figge tree because it was barren and bare no fruite was spoyled of his leaues and therefore the well exercised man is compared to the Bee that gathereth honye of euery weede and the euil sloathful man to the Spider which gathereth poison of euery flower Bocchoris made an other lawe against those that clipt any coine diminished the waight changed the form or altered the letters about the coine that both their hands should be cut off for Bocchoris lawe was that those members should be punished that committed the offence So carefull were the Hebrew women for their children that their fathers should not name them but the mothers should giue them such names as should signifie some goodnesse or holinesse to come as a memoriall to the parents to thinke vpon their children besides giuing them their names their naturall mothers should be Nurses to their childrē as Sarah was a Nurse to Isaac her son Zephorah a Nurse to her son Moses the blessed Virgin Mary a Nurse to her sonne Christ Iesus our Sauiour so the two wiues of Iacob Leah and Rachel gaue names to all their children the twelue Patriarkes the sonnes of Iacob So Iacob corrected his children kept them vnder and blessed them at his death so Iob prayed for his children and offered for his children vnto the Lord euery day a burnt offering and so was Dauid for his sonne Salomon so carefull that he committed him to the Prophet Nathan to be brought vp in wisedome and in the law of the Lord this care had the Hebrewes to bring vp theyr children in the lawe and feare of the Lord. The very Heathens euen Phillip king of Macedonia was glad to haue his sonne Alexander borne in Aristotles daies because he might be brought vp in his house with him and instructed with so great a Philosopher Agamemnon was in his youth brought vp with wise Nestor of whom Agamemnon was wont to say that if he had but ten such wise Consuls as Nestor was he doubted not but soone to subdue Troy And so was Antigonus brought vp with Zeno chiefe of the Stoik Philosophers where hee could heare see nothing but what he sawe and heard from his maister Zeno. There bee many parents in the world that weigh not how they liue themselues neither esteeme how to bring vp their children like the Troglodites whose children were named after the names of the beastes of their countrey as horse ramme oxe sheepe lambe and such alledging that the beasts were their best parents in feeding in cloathing and in all other necessary helpes and therefore they would rather bee named after these beasts that maintained them in life and liuing then after their parents who gaue them but bare birth against the lawe of nature and therfore they and such are to be called Antinomi I doubt too many of these in many places may bee called Antinomi which degenerate from their parents both in name and in nature yea from all lawes rather to be beasts then to haue the name of beasts like people in Affrica called Atlantes whose children haue no names at all but as the Troglodites were named after theyr beasts and therefore well called Antinomi so these people leaue their children like themselues without names not like beasts but beasts indeed and therefore well and truly to be called Anomi for many haue the names of beasts that be neither beasts nor like beasts for as the Troglodites that before their parents preferre beastes against the lawe of nature are called Antinomi so these Atlantes in Affrica worse then beasts are called Anomi which is without any name It is much therefore in parents to shewe good examples before their children for what children see in the parents or heare from theyr parents that lightly will they imitate for the tree is bended when it is tender the horse is broken when he is a colte and the dogge taught when hee is a whelpe so children must be instructed and brought vp when they are young for that seede which is sowed in youth appeareth in age for Vertue must haue a time to growe to ripenesse Therfore Marc Cato the Censor made meanes to remoue Manlius from the Senat house because he wantonly imbraced and kist his wife before his daughter saying that his wife durst neyther imbrace nor kisse him before his children but for very feare when it lightned and thundered Hieron King of Cicilia sharpely punished Epicarmus the Poet for that he made and read certaine light verses before his daughter So was Ouid for the like offence bannished from Rome and so was Archiloccus from Sparta for saying it was better for a souldier to loose his shield then to loose his life The children of Bethel had they bene well brought vp they would not haue mocked flouted Elizeus the Prophet they might as well haue said Ozanna in excelsis with the children of Ierusalem as to say Ascende calue vp balde fellowe But true it is as Isocrates faieth that rude and barbarous men not brought vp in Vertue from theyr youthes should neuer or seldome prooue iust or honest And so it is written that Equus indomitus euadet durus filius remissus euadet praeceps And therefore both the Romaines and the Grecians were carefull to haue graue wise vertuous and learned men to bring vp theyr children in the feare of God Among the Lacedemonians Licurgus lawe was that expert and iudiciall men should bee founde out which were named Paedonomi to instruct and teach the youth of Laced◅mon for in three things especially the Grecians brought theyr children vp in Learning in Painting and in Musicke and especially great mens children in dauncing and in singing as Epaminondas and Cimon and for that Themistocles Alcibiades found great fault for that great Captains should become dancers they were therefore reprehended and answered that Epaminondas and Cimon were as great Captaines as they The Egiptians were wont to bring vp theyr children in Arithmeticke and Geometry and the Kings children in Magicke People of Creete brought theyr children vp in three things first to learne the lawes of theyr countrey secondly to learne Hymnes and Psalmes to praise theyr gods and thirdly to learne to sing the praise and fame of their great Captaines Among the Indians theyr wise men called Brachmanes made a Lawe that theyr Children should be brought after two
that they hadde not slaine the Madianite women And therefore Phineas the sonne of Eleazer for his zeale against adulterie slew Coshi the Madianite harlot and Zimri the Israelite thrust them through both theyr bellies in the act for the which the Lord was so pleased that the plague ceased in the campe and the Priesthood was giuen for euer to Phineas his stocke for the Lord would not haue a whore to liue in Israel The zeale of Iehu was such that hee caused seuentie sonnes of Achab to bee slaine and caused Iezabal his wife to bee cast headlong downe out of a windowe to be eaten of dogges hee slew 42. of Achabs bretheren and destroyed all the Priests of Baal and left not one of Achabs house aliue The zeale of Iehu so pleased the Lord that his children raigned foure generations after him The zeale and faith of Abraham was such that he was readie to offer sacrifice his onely sonne Isaac to obey the Lords commandement The zeale and loue of Ioseph in Egipt was such that he preferred the lawes and loue of the Lord before the loue of his mistresse Putiphars wife Such also was the loue and zeale of Moses to Israel that hee requested to be put out of the booke of life before Israel should be destroyed of the Lorde in his anger Salomon was so zealous in the lawes of the Lord that he sought nothing but wisedome to rule his people and to know his lawes So Iob loued the Lord and his lawes that for all the losse of his goods and children and for diuers plagues and punishments of body yet he still stood constant in the lawes of the Lord. Adulterers are cryed out vpon in the scripture and often mentioned in the olde and newe Testament compared by the Prophet to stoned horses neying vpon other mens wiues Women so corrupted Salomon that hee forsooke the Lorde and worshipped straunge goddes and lost thereby tenne of the twelue Tribes of Israel Dauid his father was so punished for his offences with one woman against the Lord that he welnigh lost his kingdome by it If Dauid if Moses and Paul were buffeted by Sathan who can think himselfe free from Sathan we must therfore watch if we will not be deceiued we must fight if we thinke to haue victorie not against flesh and bloud onely but against armies of spirits infernall powers against spirituall enemies and against Sathan the prince and ruler of darknesse For many are the stratagems of Sathan with whom wee must wrestle as Iacob did with the Angell with such weapons as is taught in Paul or as Dauid did with Goliah or as Iob did with Sathan himselfe The euill counsell of Achitophel to Absolon to lye with his fathers concubines brought both Absolon and Achitophel to hanging Pharao for lusting on Sarah Abrahams wife both hee and all his house were scourged and plagued with Angels and visions The Beniamites for their abhominable abuse of the Leuites wife was the cause that three score fiue thousand died in Israel Sychem all the Sychemites for the rauishment of Dina Iacobs daughter were slain the towne ouerthrown by Simeon and Leui Iacobs sonnes The lawes of all countries and nations appointed such due seuere punishments for adulterie as in Rome Lex Iulia was as sharpely executed against adulterers as against traitors and still renewed by many of the Emperours after Iulius Caesar who made this lawe as Tiberius Seuerus and others who with great seueritie punished adulterie Lawes were made in many Countries to suppresse adulterie for concupiscence and euill affections were condemned by the lawes among the Gentiles to be the roote of all mischiefe for euill thoughts breed delectation delectation bredeth consent consent action action custome and custome necessitie for custome is as another nature Adultery was punished in Egipt by the lawe of Bocchoris in this sort the man should be beaten with rods to a thousand stripes and the womans nose should be cut off to deforme her face as a perpetuall marke of her adultery but if she were a free woman the man should haue his priuie members cut off for that member which offended the law should be punished by the law which law sometime was executed among the Romaines for so was Carbo gelded by Bibienus the Consul for his adultery the Romanes had rather make lawes then keepe the lawes which they made Therefore Charondas made a lawe to keep the good from the bad for to flie from vice is vertue that by taking away the cause the effect might also be remoued for vertue is soone corrupted with vice and a litle leauen infecteth the whole doughe and therefore an action might be had by the lawe of Charondas not onely against honest women that vsed the company of leaude men but also against men that should be often found in the societie of wicked men for Charondas saide good men become better by obedience of the lawe and become wicked by wicked company which obey no lawes for that lawe said Charondas is euer best by the which men become more honest then rich Par est eos esse meliores qui ex melioribus Lysander being demaunded what maner of gouernment he best liked said where good men are rewarded for their weldoing and euil men punished for their wickednesse as Plato said Omnis Respub paena Praemio continetur So Demosthenes euer thought that law best which prouided for good men aduancement and for euill men punishment To the like effect Zaleucus made a lawe that no honest or modest woman should goe in the street but with one maide with her and if shee had two the lawe was she should be noted for a drunkarde Neither might knowne honest women goe out of the Towne in the night time vnlesse they would be noted to goe in the company of adulterers Neither might any modest woman or sober matron be attired with braue apparell imbrodered or wrought with gold siluer bugles and such vnlesse shee would be noted by the lawe of Zaleucus that shee went abroad to play the strumpet for among the Locreans an adulterous nation people much giuen to lust and lecherie Zaleucus made a lawe that by their comely and modest apparell they should be knowne from harlots and light women which vsed to weare light garrish and all kinde of glistering garments to be looked at Aurelianus the Emperour punished a souldier found in the campe in adultery in this sort to tye both his legs to two toppes of trees bended to the earth and so his bodie by the swinge of the trees to cleaue in the midst through that the one halfe hangd on the one tree and the other halfe vpon the other tree The like or rather more horrible punishment vsed Macrinus the Emperour against two souldiers in the campe that deflowred a maide in their lodging he caused two oxen to be opened and sowed aliue one
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
that hee doubted in his opinion of the gods of Athens they so sought him that had he not fled betimes hee had died for it The like hapned to a Romane captaine in Egipt for killing of a Catte one of the Gods of Egipt which was against his will he hardly escaped with his life whom the people so followed and pursued to Alexandria that Ptolomeu the king and all his princes had their hands full to saue him and others from death The Athenians also were so zealous and religious towards their gods that they decreed 600. crownes to any man that would kill Diagoras for that hee was charged that hee scoft and laughed at their gods and doubted whether any gods were if there were what maner of gods they were Too many examples might be brought for the proofe of this in all ages and in all countries The lawes of Moses by the Lord set downe was to serue him in the Temple of Salomon and that onely in Ierusalem yet Salomon in his old age forsooke the Temple which he made to serue the Lord and was the first himselfe that serued straunge gods in groues and vnder euery green tree that from Salomons time Idolatry grew so in Iudah that the Israelites had as many lawes as they had gods and as many gods as they had cities and although they had not so many Temples builded to their gods as the Gentiles had yet they had as many aultars in groues vnder euery green tree for among the Israelites in euery groue was a temple vnder euery greene tree an aultar yet they spared not to defile the temple of the Lord in Ierusalem among the Gentiles they were so carefull of their gods that euery god had his temple for among them two gods might not be in one temple So the Romanes could endure nothing worse then to suffer strange gods to be among them for Lu. Aemilius the Consul was by the Senators commaunded to pull downe the temples of Isis Serapis 〈◊〉 â—…at they were Egiptian gods for there was a lawe among the Senators of Rome that Dij Peregrini e ciuitate â—…ijciantur And therfore the Romanes so esteemed their gods that when Pilate wrote vnto his Lord and maisâ—…r Tiberius Caesar to haue one Iesus allowed to be one of the gods in Rome who did many miracles and great wonders in Iudah Ierusalem and yet of malice by the Iewes was put to death though Caesar would allow it and would haue the Senate also to allow 〈◊〉 yet the Senators thought it not fit that a strange god should be accepted in Rome among the Romane gods so that the Romains the Grecians could serue many gods but Israel could not allow nor accept their Lord God for the Samaritans draue him out of their cities the Gergesites banished him out of their country and in Ierusalem his owne citie the Iewes crucified him preferring Barabas the murtherer before Iesus their Sauiour Yet Cyrus king of Persia caused it to be proclaimed by writing throughout all his Empire that the Lorde God of heauen had commaunded him to build him a house at Ierusalem in Iudah confessing that he onely is the god that is at Ierusalem and therfore Cyrus commanded the Israelites to build their Temple againe Artaxerxes surnamed long hand made the like lawe for repairing of the Temple of Ierusalem Nabuchodonozer published a lawe that he should be torne in peeces and his house made a Iakes that blasphemed the God of Israel but before he said what God can take you out of my hand at what time Holofernes said there was no other God but Nabuchodonozer Darius Medus made a streight lawe that all dominions and people should feare the God of Daniel but before he proclaimed an edict that whosoeuer desired any petition either of any god or man within 30. dayes but of himselfe should be cast into a Lions den so that Daniel was found against the statute praying to his god and was cast into the Lions denne King Agrippa all in cloth of siluer glistring garments making an Oration to the people vpon the Theaters at Caesaria because hee suffered the people to flatter him and to say it is the voice of God not of man which as Thucidides saith is one of the three most dangerous enemies to ouerthrow a common-wealth this king in the very face of these his flatterers was presently so tormented with such pangues of death that dying hee spake to the people See whom you called a god a little before dieth now like a most wretched man like Bel the god of Nabuchodonozer who after that Daniel tooke pitch fat and haire and did seethe them together and put it in Bels mouth god Bel burst in sunder of whoÌ„ Daniel said Behold your god Bel whom you worship for the greatest king is like an earthen vessell soone broken a spider is able to poyson him a gnat is able to choake him and a little pinne able to kill him this is the greatest glory that man can bragge of himselfe In the third regiment is set downe the Idolatry and superstitiousnesse of the Israelites compared by application with the customes and lawes of the Gentiles IN Egipt the mother of all Idolatry from whence the Grecians the Romanes and all the world were instructed to serue straunge gods they had most sumptuous Temples of Marble and of Iuory bedect with gold siluer most richly but such ridiculous gods were in Egipt as apes dogges crocodiles calues oxen serpents and cattes that euery seuerall citie in Egipt had a seuerall beast for their god in Memphis a bull in Heliopilis an oxe in Medeta a bucke goate in the citie of Elephantina a crocodile and so of the rest And therefore the greekes scoffed the Egiptians for that there was no beast so vile but they would make him a god in Egipt and none but beasts were gods in Egipt the Grecians gods were carued made like men The Romains made themselues gods as Domitianus after he decreed to be called sonne vnto Pallas was not contented therwith but would be called Dominus Deus Domitianus So Caius and other some of the later Caesars would bee called sonne vnto Iupiter others brothers to the Sunne and Moone which both Augustus Caesar and Tiberius refused to be honored with those names though they were offered others would haue their Image set vp in the Temple at Ierusalem but woe be vnto him that saith vnto a peece of wood arise and to a dumbe stone stand vp And therefore the Prophet saith Confundantur omnes qui adorant sculptilia gloriantur in simulachris suis. Wee are forbidden to bring rubbers and napkins and to holde a looking glasse to Iuno for it is not Pauls napkin Peters shadow Elizeus staffe Moses rodde nor Elias mantle but the Lord God of Elias as Elizeus said When Pilate the Romane President was commanded by Tiberius
the Emperour to set vp his Image in the Temple of Ierusalem some of the best of the Iewes went to Caesaria to Pilate requesting with teares that hee would not violate the Temple with Images Pilate aunswered Caesars Image must be set vp or else you die for it they presently offered their neckes bare to be cut off before theyr lawe should be broken or the Temple violated with Images The like commaundement had Petronius from his maister Cai. Caesar to set vp his Image in the Temple but in like manner as before to Pilate the Iewes came with their wiues and children to entreate Petronius who told them as Pilate did that the Image of Caesar must bee set vp in theyr Temple as other Nations suffered the Romaine Emperours Images to bee set in their Temples among their gods as fellowes to theyr gods or else they must dye for it the Iewes answered Petronius that all the Iewes in Iudah men women and children shall and will dye before the lawe shall be broken Thus were they so slaine and killed betweene the Romaine Emperours and the kings of Assyria that their bloud was shed out like water on euery side of Ierusalem and yet would they not allowe Images nor haue theyr lawes broken The Romaines had no Images for 170. yeares though afterwards they had in their closets diuers Images which they worshipped as goddes they had also houshold and peculiar gods at their gates and in theyr entries besides the Images and statues of themselues and of their friends so that the Romaines so esteemed Images that in the time of the late Caesars Theodosius the Emperour thought to destroy Antiochia for the pulling downe of the Image of his friend Placilla had not Macedonius perswaded him to the contrarie So Agrippa for his woman Drusilla despised Paul Among the Iewes one Theudas a Magitian tooke vpon him to be the Messias perswaded the people that he was that Prophet which they looked for and that he was able with a word to deuide the Riuer Iorden into two and to giue him and his company place to passe through but he was slaine and his company and Theudas head brought to Ierusalem by Cuspius the Romaine President An other after Theudas called Attonges a shepheard affecting the kingdome made himselfe the Messias And after Attonges one Barcosma who tooke vpon him to be the Messias whom the Iewes so affected and followed thirtie yeares and when they perceiued hee could not keepe promise with them in vanquishing the Romanes the Iewes slew him But as the Israelites offered the bloud of beasts and sprinkled theyr Aultars according to the lawe of Moses so the Gentiles imitated the Hebrewes offered also bloud but the bloud of theyr seruants and children The Heathens thought no bloud too deare to please their gods For the Romains were admonished out of the bookes of the Sibils which they more honoured and esteemed in Rome then the bookes of the Prophets were in Iudah as it may seeme by Torquinius Priscus who bought them so deare and after were more carefully kept then Zedechiah king of Iudah kept the lawes of God for hee did burne and teare the booke which Ieremiah sent to him from the Lord without any dread or care had of the Prophet so that the bookes of the Sibils were more reuerently kept and their lawes obserued in Rome then the bookes of the Prophets in Ierusalem So Zedechiah the false Prophet was preferred by Achab before Michaeah the true Prophet of the Lord and Baals priests before the Lords Prophets The Romanes had their warrants from the bookes of the Sibils to sacrifice vnto Iuno a quicke man buried as the Grecians were wont to sacrifice to Bacchus The Phaenizians and the Carthagineans sacrificed to Saturnus with Infants bloud the Laodicians sacrificed a young virgin vnto Pallas so the Lacedemonians sacrificed to Mars with bloud the old Germanes to Mercurie with bloud These sacrifices of bloud were contrarie to the lawe of Licurgus taught among the Lacedemonians and after by Numa Pomp. imitated in Rome in all his lawes taught to him by the Nimphe Egeria as Licurgus lawes were taught to him by Apollo in Delphos Yet Pythagoras brought this lawe of Licurgus after Numas time from Greece to other parts of Italy for it was Pythagoras lawe according to Licurgus that nihil animatum dijs litetur that no bloud should be sacrificed but fruites hearbes flowers meale milke honie and wine which was the lawe of Licurgus among the Lacedemonians The Romaines as Cicero said had their Temples made to pietie faith vertue and to the minde as degrees and steppes to ascend vp to heauen but by the same lawe of Cicero they were forbidden to build any Temples to any prophane vice contrarie to the Greekes and to the Egiptians who allowed all kinde of theyr countrey gods but yet would allow no straunge gods It was the chiefest poynt among all Heathen Princes to bee carefull of their religion Oportet principem saith Aristotle ante omnia res diuinas videre curari For in Pauls time when he came to Athens and sawe so many gods and so many aultars Paul waxed angrle to see one aultar to lust an other to shame and another to an vnknowne god after he had disputed with certain Philosophers of the Stoiks and Epicures against theyr gods and their aultars he had no other commendations of the Philosophers in Athens but to be called Spermolagos a teacher of straunge doctrine Among the Iewes the punishment of Idolators was to bring them to bee stoned with stones to death beeing lawfully conuicted with two or three witnesses and the handes of the witnesses shall be first vpon them to kill them and the handes of all the people I neede not goe out of Iudah for examples to the Gentiles in following straunge gods in committing Idolatrie and in forsaking the lawes of the Lord. Manasses built aultars in the house of the Lord for all the hosts of heauen gaue himselfe to witchery and forcerie vsed them that were soothsayers and had familiar spirits and caused his sonnes to passe through fire in the valley of Hinnon Wicked Ahaz king of Iudah made an Idolatrous aultar sacrificed offered the bloud of his son through fire to Moloch So wicked Achab offered the bloud of his sonne likewise in Tophet to Moloch following the king of Moab who sacrificed his sonne that should haue raigned next after him king to please his Idoll Chemosh Thus the kings of Iudah and Israel prophaned the Lords aultar with the bloud of their owne children to please their dumbe Idols Yet Pythagoras and Vlixes two Heathens sacrificed to Vrania but with water and hony mingled according to Numa Pomp. lawe which commanded that no bloud should be offered in sacrifice but milke and hony No doubt the Gentiles imitated these wicked kings of Iudah in their sacrifices in their vowes and in the dedicatiō of their temples and
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
with Iuye the aultar of Hercules with Popley and of Pluto with Cypresse so were the aultars of Minerua with Oliue and of Venus with Myrtle so that there was no seruice omitted no dutie forgotten no lawe broken in the superstitious and prophane religion of the Heathens So fond and superstitious were both the Athenians and the Romaines that the Athenians builded temples out of Athens to Pouertie and old age because they would faine expell these aged and poore gods out of Athens or else to put the Athenians in remembrance that they should pray vnto them least they should come to pouertie and to want The Romans and Egiptians builded temples to those gods that might annoy their cities out of their cities as the Romanes builded the Temples of Bellona Mars foure miles out of the gate Capaena in Rome to reâ—…ist and withstand the trecherie and violence of their enemies The Egiptians builded the Temples of Saturnus and Serapis out of the cities as gods to watch ward to defend their cities from the enemies and least their gods by inuocation or supplication of the enemies should forsake their cities the Romanes bound fast the Image of Mars and the Carthaginians Hercules See how blinde men in religion are ignorant in gods seruice and yet ignorance with some late learned men was termed the mother of deuotion The Lord commaunded Israel to serue no straunge gods but him onely and to come at three appointed feasts in the yeare to one place in the citie of Ierusalem to serue him and to sacrifice in one Temple the Temple of Salomon for as the Lord made choise of one nation to be his peculiar people so hee made also choise of one place Ierusalem where his name should bee worshipped and called vpon After that the Tabernacle was set vp the arke of testimonie set therin the Lord commanded Moses to bring Aaron and his sonnes vnto the doore of the Tabernacle and there to wash them with water after to put vpon Aaron the holy garments to annoint him and 〈◊〉 him that he might minister in the Priests office The Gentiles vsed the like ceremonies at the first coâ—…crating of any teÌ„ple which they dedicated to their gods that they should lay their hands vpon the porch poste calling vpoÌ„ the name of that god to whoÌ„ they consecrated the temple for whatsoeuer the Gentiles dedicated to their gods though prophane before yet after they were coÌ„secrated they were Sacra diuino cuâ—… maÌ„cipata ciâ—…er temples aultars mony religious places or otherwise For among the Romains the Grecians the dumbe deafe blind lame or maimed otherwise by nature were reiected from any office in the temples of their gods So was it among the Persians in like sort that no blinde or maimed man should minister vnto their gods Whence had they all these originals but as it seemeth from the lawe of Moses And as Moses was commaunded that Aaron and his sons should be first washt with water before they should put on their holy garments and minister vnto the Lord so the priests of Egipt should often wash and annoint themselues before they should serue and sacrifice in the temple of Isis. So the Priests of Greece washt and annointed themselues before they would sacrifice vnto Ceres And so among the Romanes in other places they seemed though they erred much to imitate the ceremonies of the Iewes who had their warrant from the Lord and they from the diuell Moses put on Aaron the coate and girded him with a girdle cloathed him with the robe and put the Ephod on him after he put the brest-plate thereon and put in the brest-plate the Vrim and Thummim he also put the golden plate and the Miter vpon his head and vpon the Miter the holy crowne as the Lord had commaunded Moses and he powred of the annointed oyle vpon Aarons head and annointed him that the excellencie of his calling might be knowne and the dignitie of his office present the maiestie of the highest Hence the Heathens and the Gentiles tooke their platforme as an example to be followed in the annointing and crowning of their kings by the Lord warranted and particularly set downe to Moses whereby you shall find by comparison that the prophane ceremonies of the Gentiles tooke their originall from Moses lawe in the annointing of their kings In the fourth Regiment is shewed how the Gentiles confirmed their lawes by diuers authorities faining that their laâ—…s were giuen to them of their gods with the straight keeping of the same THere was no lawe among the Gentiles made nor established vnlesse they were authorized and confirmed by some diuine power to satisfie ignorant people for the Heathens most preferred that lawe and esteemed that gouernment which was commaunded and allowed as it were from the gods as by Mercurius in Egipt by Iupiter in Greece and by Appollo in Sparta as you heard before So among the Locreans their lawes were authorized by Minerua among the Getes by the Goddesse Vesta and so the lawe which Sergius compiled to the Turkes to this day the Turkes holde it authorized and confirmed from the very mouth of their great Prophet Mahomet And for that a sperhawke brought in her clawes a booke written with red letters to the Priests at Heliopâ—…lis in Egipt containing the lawes and religion of theyr gods the Priests therefore euer after ware red Scarâ—… caps like the colour of the letters the feather of a sperhawke in their caps in memorie thereof So no warre was commenced nor battell taken in hand without such policies to intice and allure the souldiers to fight as Sertorius had his white hinde which he taught to follow him in his Affrican warres by whom he made his souldiers belieue hee was instructed to dâ—… any thing he did So Lu. Sylla would take vpon him in the sight of his souldiers to consult with the picture of Appollo to make his souldiers more obedient and valorous So did Marius with his Scythian woman Martha and so of others which I spake of in my booke of stratagems and now to the Sabboth The obseruation of the Sabboth was seuerely by the lawe of the Iewes kept for the Lord blessed the seuenth day and hallowed it to rest from our workes aâ—…d to serue the Lord signifying vnto vs our eternall rest to come and therefore the Iewes gathered vpon the sixt day in the wildernesse so much Manna as serued them vpon the Sabboth because they should not breake the Sabboth As the Lord Iesus was crucified on the Sabboth eue and rested in his graue the Sabboth day so careful were the Iewes to obserue the Sabboth that the holy womeÌ„ that followed Christ with their odors ointments and spices staied from the annointing of his body vpon the Sabboth for the Sabboth was made especially that they should cease from labour and come to heare the lawes of the Lord and the voices of the Prophets
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
monethes olde before the Magistrates and there to iudge by the sight of the children that if they were fit for warres they should be brought vp in military discipline if otherwise they should be appointed to Mechanicall occupations The Aethiopian Philosophers made a lawe that all Magistrates and Parentes should examine theyr children and the youthes of theyr Countries what labour and exercise they had done euery day before they should take meate and if it were founde that they had not exercised either Mechanicall or Militarie exercise they should goe away vndined for that day Among the Grecians all the Orators and Poets came from all parts of Greece sometimes to Thesius graue sometimes to Helicon and there the Poets to contend in verses and the Orators in Oratory with diuers kindes of crownes and garlands which exercise was vsed to draw and intice the youthes of Greece to vertue and learning and as the Romane youths had a garment like the Dictators garment called Toga praetexta in honor of armes to exercise military discipline in Martius field so the Grecians had for those youthes that excelled in learning the garment called Palladium The sixt Regiment intreateth of murther and reuenge of blood amongst all Nations against the which the Gentiles had diuers lawe-makers which made lawes to punish the same AS the Gentiles in all Countries had their lawes made to rule and gouerne them as among the Egiptians by Bocchoris among the Persians and Baetrians by Zoroastes among the Carthagineans by Charondas among the Magnesians and Cicilians by Plato among the Athenians by Solon and among the Lacedemonians by Licurgus so had they certaine Magistrates to execute the same lawe after them as the thirtie Senators in Egipt the Areopagites in Athens the Ephori in Sparta and so of the rest This is the lawe of nature written first in tables of flesh and after in tables of stone Cain the first-man born and the first murtherer he slue his brother Abel and had sentence of the Lord with a perpetual marke of torture that no man should kill Cain but to liue as a vagabound and a rogue cursed vpon the earth the witnesse that accused him was his brother Abels blood so the Lorde spake Vox sanguinis fratris tui edit clamorem ad caelum blood therefore was the first witnesse on earth against murther and called in scripture the Iudge of blood Cain for disobedience to his father and murthering of his brother became a cursed vagabound vpon the earth and all his wicked posteritie were drowned in the deludge So scoffing Cham was cursed of his father Noah and in him all his posteritie likewise accursed for the Canaanites which were of the stocke of Cham were slaine by the Israelites and the Gibionites which came from the Canaanites were made slaues to the Israelites and so the Egiptians and Aethiopians the ofspring of Cham were taken captiue by the Assyrians so that Cham was cursed in himselfe and cursed in his posteritie for the scorning of the nakednesse of his father so the parents of the Idolaters and blasphemers brought the first stone to presse their owne sonnes The second murtherer in Scripture was Lamech which killed Cain against whome the Lorde made a lawe that whosoeuer should slea Cain should be punished seuen folde for so Lamech confessed himselfe that Cain should be auenged seuen-folde but Lamech seuentie times seuen fold there shall want no witnesses against murtherers and oppressers of Orphants and widowes The witnesse against the filthie lust of the Sodomites was the verie crie of Sodome before the Lorde for so is the lawe that the Iustice of blood shall slea the murtherer Iacobs children consented all sauing Ruben and Iudah to kill Ioseph their younger brother which made Ruben speake to his brethren in Egipt that the blood of Ioseph was the cause that they were thus imprisoned and charged with theft and robberies There are foure witnesses which the Lord stirreth vp against murtherers oppressors of Orphants Infants and Widowes first the Lorde himselfe is a witnesse the seconde the witnesse of blood the thirde the witnesse of stones in the streets and the fourth the witnesse of fowles in the aire The like murther was in Esaus heart against Iacob his brother for Esau saide that the dayes of his fathers sorrowes were at hand for I will slea my brother Iacob but Iacob fled to Aran to his vncle Laban by his mothers counsell Rebecca for feare of his brother Naboth was stoned to death by false and wicked witnesse for his Vineard of Achab by his wife Iezabels counsell The like murther was in Sauls heart against Dauid practising by all meanes possible to kill Dauid first by himselfe then by his sonne Ionathan by his daughter Michol Dauids wife and by his seruants for there is three kindes of murther the first in the heart against the Lorde as in Cains heart against Abel in Esaus heart against Iacob and in Sauls heart against Dauid the seconde by the tongue either by false witnesse as Iezabel with false witnesse against Naboth for his Vineard or else by slaunder as the two Elders in Babilon slaundered Susanna the third performed by the hand of the which there are two many examples but all murthers by the hande and by the tongue proceed from the heart the enuie of Cain in his heart towardes his brother Abel was the cause that he slew his brother The murther of Naboth was the couetousnesse of Achab in his heart to haue his vineyard The murthering of Vriah came from Dauids heart by lust to Berseba Vriahs wife There be other kinde of murtherers that rise early in the morning to kill in the day and rob in the night So Iob saith Manè surgit homicida interficit egenum Pauperem Againe there bee other kinde of murtherers as the Prophet saieth Qui viduam Aduenam interficiunt So may it be said of ambition in the heart for by ambition Herod caused all the childrē in Bethelem and about Bethelem to be slain seeking to destroy him which could not be destroyed which was Christ. Against such kings tyrants the more wicked crueltie they vse the more iust punishment they shall receiue Iudicium enim durissimum ijs qui presunt fiet and the more wrong and iniurie they do to honest and iust men the greater torments they shall suffer Fortioribus fortior instat cruciatio By ambition in the heart Abimelech slew three score and eight of Gedeons sonnes his bretheren And so by the selfesame ambition Thalia caused all that were of the kings bloud to be put to death so is hee that enuieth hateth wisheth ill to his brother a man-slaughterer The punishment of murther in Cain and in Lamech was giuen by the lawe of nature of the Lorde before the written lawe was giuen to Moses as Thamar the daughter in lawe of Iudah for whoredome and
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
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
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
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
Lacedemonians had also their Senate of eight and twentie graue and auncient wise men which by Licurgus lawe should be 60. yeares old before they should be chosen and accepted to be of councell The Carthagineans in like manner made choice of 30. of their principall and chiefe men of Carthage called Conipodes to sit and determine in secret councell of the state of their citie for the Carthagineans though they followed Charondas lawe yet they imitated the Lacedemonians in all other gouernment as well in warreas in peace So wearie were many nations of kings that when the Hebrewes sought to alter the gouernment of Iudges to haue Kings the Lord commaunded Samuel to set downe to the Hebrewes the lawes of Kings that they will take their sonnes their daughters the best of their fields of their vineards and of their Oliue trees giue them to their seruaunts and they shall take the best of their men-seruants and their maid-seruants their yong men and their asses to do their worke withall So the Vine the Figge tree and the Oliue answered the trees which would haue a king Shall we loose our fatnesse and sweetnesse to become a king Notwithstanding the bramble would be a king ouer the trees The Storke also would accept to be king ouer the the Frogges though all nations desire generally rather to be ruled by one then by many yet many that were elected kings would faine haue forsaken it Q. Cincinnatus being taken from the plough to be a Dictator in Rome to weare Togam praetextam assoone as sixe moneths were expired so long the office of the Dictatorship endured he returned again to his plough according to Salomons speech better is a morsel of bread in a poore mans house peaceably then to bee a Consul or a Dictator in Rome among vnruly people And therefore the Ephori of Sparta grew so ambitious that they began to enuie their kings and therefore deuised this lawe to expell their kings to obserue the starres euery ninth yeare in a cleare bright night which if they sawe any starre eyther shooting sliding or any way remouing from their place they with the consent of the whole colledge of soothsayers accused their kings that they had offended their gods and therefore deposed their kings so were king Agis and king Pausanias deposed from their kingdome by Lysander This was against the lawe of the Lord who said vnto Iob Where wast thou when I placed Hyades in theyr places and Plyades in their course canst thou know the course and orders of Septentriones and of other starres and of the reason thereof Nunquid Nosti rationem caeli saith the Lord Against these starre-gazers Plato writeth men should not bee too curious to seeke causes supernaturall and saith Nequè inquiri oportere nec fas esse curiosè satagere causas scrutantes That was the cause why Andronicus the Emperour hearing two learned men reasoning of the like to say if they would not leaue their curious and friuolous disputations the riuer Rindacus should be Iudge betweene them and end the controuersie for Non sapit qui nimis sapit So were the Priests called Mantes in Athens of such authoritie that nothing could be done in any publike councell concerning religion and matters of state vnlesse they were in place present The like lawe the Romaines vsed euery fiftyeare being taught and commaunded to bee obserued out of the bookes of the Sybils that vpon any appearances or sights of two Sunnes together or of three Moones or any other great causes the soothsayers might remoue either Consul or Praetor from their place The like ambition began in Persia after Cambises dyed that it was not lawfull for the kings of Persia to make any lawes otherwise then they were instructed by theyr Magi neither was there any lawe made among the auntient Romaines without the counsell of their soothsayers who were called interpretes Iouis Nuntijdeorum for these lawes were called among the Romains and the Persians Leges Augurales but of these Augural lawes I haue toucht them in my booke of Stratagems which were as much esteemed and feared of captaines and souldiers as their military lawes for both the Persians Grecians and Romains followed the counsell of soothsayers in their warres contrary to Moses lawe which forbad dreames and soothsaying to be vsed as the Gentiles did for saith the lawe Non declinetis ad magos The superstitious error of the Gentiles in their soothsayers grew to be so great that if the soothsaiers said that Esculapius beeing dead could sooner restore health and minister medicine to the sicke by dreames then Galen could do by his art aliue some would beleeue it and therefore the Pythagorians abstained from beanes when they went to sleepe because it filleth rather the minde with vaine dreames then the belley with good meate If any soothsayers would say that Serapis and Minerua through diuination could minister medicine and restore the sicke vnto health without the helpe of Phisitions sooner then the Phisitions themselues these flatterers would be as they are accepted in court countrey TanquaÌ„ Syrenes aulae the Gentiles would beleeue it which as Thucydides saith are two most noysome things in a common-wealth for nothing could be spoken so absurd but some Philosopher or other will maintaine it and defend it The Philosophers among the Indians which would either prognosticate or defend falsehood or seeme to affirme that to be true which was false they were by law for euer after commaunded to perpetuall silence The lawe of diuination was such in all kingdomes and countries eyther by fleeting of starres flying of fowles by intrailes of beasts or by dreames that whatsoeuer the soothsayers spake among the Persians Grecians and the Romaines it was taken for Maximum praestantissimum ius Reipub for the words of the lawe were Auspicia seruanto for example therof Cicero reciteth many histories and Crisippus gathered many Oracles together But if the lawe of the Gospell were so kept among Christians as the law of Augurers was among the Gentiles and the words of the Preacher were so obserued as the words of the Soothsayers among Pagans if mens affections were set on a heauenlycommon-wealth Vbi Rex est veritas lex charitas modus aeternitas as worldlings are set on an earthly habitation Vbi Rex est vanitas lex infidelitas modus breuitas As it hath bene seene in the Greeks which first florished before the Affricans in the Affricans which florished before the Romains and in the Romains which flourished before the Scythians and therefore In rebus cunctis est morum temporum imperiorum vices So that all commoâ—… wealths all kingdomes and all countries were ruled are and shall be gouerned by diuine prouidence from the beginning to the worlds ende FINIS A Table containing a briefe summe of the whole booke THe old Patriarkes liued vnder the lawe of nature
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.