Rashnesse Sect. V. The diuision of Reason and the errour in vnderstanding thinges to proceede of Reason that doe not REason is of two sorts simple right and true Subtile corrupt and false as by the maner of Schoole distinctions is manifest The manner of reasoning with right and true Reason they call Logicke The arguing with false and corrupt Reason they call Sophistrie But before we enter into this diuision it shal be very necessarie first to discouer the cōmon error of men who vnderstand many things to proceed of Reason that in truth do not which being manifested will bee an easier way to take knowledge of the rest And for the better vnderstanding hereof let vs take them as they offer themselues to be discouered First things that haue being only attaine not to Reason for so haue stones Things that haue being and life only reach not neere Reason for so haue trees To haue being life sence only comprehend things seeming to proceed of Reason as beasts who yet faile thereof And because beastes in many things haue a neerenes vnto Reason being creatures in degree next vnto men Let vs peruse somethings in them which doe deceiue men and wherein most men do erre To mooue to feed to sleepe to wake to see smell or sence any thing commeth not to Reason to feare to eschew to desire to discerne to imagine to generate nor to preserue the young commeth not to right Reason Barely to preuent iminent dangers proceedeth not of Reason for the beasts enioy all these and will flee from their pursuers and eschew to cast themselues headlong from any high place Bare knowledge proceedeth not of Reasons for the birdes know their mates be they neuer so like to others of their plume they know the passage to and from their breeding places and prouide for and feed their young they build curious nests to preserue their egges they sit and hatch their young and know the times of the yeare for that purpose and the strength of their broode to make shift for themselues before they will leaue to feede them In these matchings and keeping to their mated Companions without change though they proceed not of right Reason according to the qualitie of the soules Reason yet may they teach many that come short of that dutie and yet hold themselues to be possessed of Reason Barely to make prouision for a future time to put in store or to hide from wasting and destruction commeth not to that which is called right Reason for so doth the field mouse who makes her way into the ground and chusing the best graines that are in the eare she there placeth it in great abundance for her winter prouision and so ordereth the matter that she keepeth them drie as they may not growe with the moisture The wood-bucke hordeth vp his nettes and the Ante her prouision against winter But enter duely into consideration of the Bee with whō I will conclude her continuall labor cunning working preseruing her food and their knowledge and gouernment and obedience And therin may a man euen with shame behold his owne faultes that such excellent matters should proceed from so small creatures voide of Reason only pertakers of sence Spare your patience to peruse the order of their employments a little at large First beeing small and puisill creatures they gather themselues together into multitudes without confusion They inhabite and dwell together without discord they continue in one house together without alteration they ioyne in working together without larre they giue roome one to another without annoy the vnburdened to the laden without resistance they ioyne to defend themselues against strangers they rob not one anothers house be they neuer so many And in their neighbourhood they haue a kind of regard and knowledge one of another and like a common wealth as it were they ioyne to suppresse others that are of another garden they dispose of their dead out of the hiue least they should annoy and suffer their young to grow and come to maturitie And as they suffer their young to feede on their labour so doe they expell and chace away the idle drones and sluggardes In their labour they prouide for two things hony for their food and waxe to make them welles to put the same in the most skillfull workman in the world cannot frame a more artificiall worke then they who ioyne together in their framing the waxen vessels in an admirable forme that the walles of one worke serueth ten seuerall vses it is a square it selfe seruing for foure sides in that worke for foure other sides to the foure conioyning neighboures either botom serueth for two vesselles euery place after it is full is so fast walled that nothing can fall out and so wel couered that nothing can come in the whole worke is so strongly wrought together that it falleth not off from the place where it is first fastened that after a kind of artificiall geometricall proportion of ponderositie it rather seemeth to be pendent than supported by any thing And marke it well you shall finde the hollow places where the hony is setled in such sort and order as it may be come at without harming or marring any other vessell They labour all together and they feede all together and if they want they perish all together They obey their king to depart from their habitation vpon warning As they were bred all together so they depart all together and it is holden that they chuse a place where to repose themselues before they leaue their former home but at the least it is very euident they continue and keepe together as it were a sworne vnited and incorporate housholde to partake good or euill as it befalleth They make their way thorow the ayre and knowe how to returne Their painful trauell in summer manifests they haue knowledge winter will come If any company of men did ioyne themselues together and performe this kinde of seruice for the mutuall good one of another woulde it not bee holden for the miracle of the world or if any man woulde so order himselfe after that sort in the gouernement of himselfe his passions actions and affections in his little worlde woulde he not be esteemed the rarest of al that liue Consider these thinges well and marke what excellent partes of nature there are herein perfourmed by these seely sensitiue creatures Howe many men liue that will iudge otherwise than that the doing of these things proceede from right and true Reason and yet in very trueth they doe not They are onely those benefites of Nature which God hath bestowed on these kinde of creatures and tend onely and no further than to a temporary a dying finishing corruptible and ending scope for the creatures themselues and their liues being corruptible their actions and dooings can tend no further than to the extreame and vttermost of their liues which Nature taught them to preserue by these meanes Sect. VI. Vnto
necke to the intent if his law were for the vnworthinesse thereof reiected hee should presently be strangled Such consideration must be takē of the law saith Isiodore that we must not iudge of it but according to it nor saith Cliton the people must not hearken so much to the orator or aduocates of the law as to the truth of the law it selfe Pausanias Reason wherfore the lawes among the Lacedemonians ought not to be altred was for that the lawes ought to bee rulers ouer men and not men maisters ouer the law If Mercurius Tresmegistes tooke great paines and labor to compose lawes for the ordering gouerning of the Egiptians Phoroneus among the Greetians Solon among the Athenians Lycurgus among the Sithians Numa Pompilus among the Romans Pharomond among the Frenchmen Charles the great amōg the Almans Iulius Caesar and others among the English that were as lightes to their feuerall gouernments wherby their subiects might liue in obedience to the state and haue Iustice ministred distributed among them according to their equall rights which to their immortall honor haue continued in those countries for the reasonable guiding of the people what do the infringers violaters corrupters or contempners of those lawes whereof there are many deserue Ignorance ignorantly is holden to be the Mother of Deuotion which opinion hath bred a wonderful confusion in the world for if it bee the Mother and Deuotion the childe they know not one another and for want of knowledge must needs erre Concerning thēselues Partus sequiturventrem the Danghter followeth the Mother Ignorance hath no acquaintance much lesse alliance with Reason and therefore cannot apprehend nor embrace things grounded on Reason Ignorance is the opposed enemy of Reason and leadeth to all outragious and vnlawful attempts Blind Deuotion her Daughter inciteth and stirreth vp the minds of men to sensualitie selfe-will rashnes intemperance foole-hardinesse stubbornnes contempt and the vtter subuersion of the lawes ordinances and directions that Reason hath prouided This Ignorance and her brood hath spred abroad many seditious and slāderous reproches of indignitie insufficiencie and grosse defects to bee in the Lawes whereby this countrie wherein we liue is gouerned And this Ignorant and foule error hath dispersed it selfe into many quarters and gotten strong hold in the world To set downe the particular errors in that behalfe and to answer them fully woulde require a great volume woorth the writing and woorthy the reading wherein I will not now insist The like may I say of the continuall and daily euasions and slidings from the true tuch and period whervnto the practise and execution of the Lawe should tend Which fault in the abusiue practisers of the lawe hath beene a great cause that the burthen of that reproach although vntruely is layd so heauy vpon the lawe it selfe I may not giue way to the scope of this Discourse at large And therfore to satisfie the ignorant hereof in some measure I send him to behold and view these speciall poyntes concerning the course of gouernement established and set downe by reason and law The Maister of a house ordereth his housholde agreeing with the conditions thereof as the Babe newely borne is nourished with the mothers milke the elder children at schoole to learne rudiments how to be disposed at riper age those grown to mans state are employed in other busines the seruaunts labour for all and the maister careth and prouideth for all The apprentice is bound for yeares which hee must serue out before hee can haue his freedome The Schoole maister hath ordinaunces not to be broken and hee dealeth with those whome hee teacheth according to their capacities first he teacheth letters then sillables then wordes and after languages and the congruitie of them and after the knowledge of the tongues he teacheth Artes and thus by degrees proceedeth in a reasonable and a temperate manner to the furnishing of that which belongeth to his place The Vniuersities haue lawes and ordinances to approoue trie and examine the woorthinesse sufficiencie and honesty of those whom they intend to grace with Titles or Dignities of learning as the seuerall professions whereunto they bend themselues leade out of which proceede our reuerend Diuines learned Ciuilians and necessary Physitions besides the woorthy storage of the famous Innes of Court royall court and other places In Citties and Townes corporate they haue orders for the election and choyse of men from office to office and by degrees to loke into the sufficiencies abilities discretions and vnderstandings of men before they be admitted to beare the principall gouernment And therein is likewise to be obserued that Reason hath imposed a fit ordinance that by a common and generall election the chiefe officer is to be chosen In which corporations as there are many Companies whereof these gouernments doe consist So hath each of these Fraternities speciall orders and ordinances in their peculiar and particular offices In this behalfe there are many orders ordinate and subordinate and which were ouer-tedious to recite to be short therfore in that point Reason hath giuen them abilities and powers to make ordinances and constitutions within themselues but limited with within bonds That they be not contrarie to the lawes of the land The Innes of Court haue orders both to constraine study and to trie and examine the studients as well for the sufficiencie of learning as congruitie of manners and to commend and giue grace to the well deseruing and stoppe the course of peruerse and disordered persons Out of this courtly Academie what good this Commonwealth hath receiued appeareth in that the Kings and Queenes that raigned ouer the same haue alwayes chosen their seruants and ministers of iustice and authoritie from those places Of the Lawe it selfe it is worthily said Lex Regi quod Rex legi The lawe is to the King as the King is to the lawe As the King vpholdeth and maintaineth the lawes priuiledges and rights of the Land so the lawe keepeth men in subiection and obedience to the King and thereby giueth glorie and safetie to the King with peace and dignitie to the kingdome That in the desciding of controuersies and questions growne among men the lawe hath a most equall and indifferent course drawne downe by reason appears in this First the smaller matters are to be tried before the Lord of a manor where the cause is between those of his homage wherein as in the causes of greater moment in higher Courts the triall is appoynted per probos legales homines by a Iurie of approoued and lawfull men per testes fide dignos by witnesses not attainted of notorious crimes but deseruing credite In which behalfe is to be obserued what care the Lawe hath of indifferencie in that it hath admitted many challenges for kindred aliance affection fauour or displeasure and such like lest by corruption iniustice might bee ministred And as the cause may require so that it goeth to the Iudges thēselues For like
as by the verdict of Twelue men euery cause of some nature must be tried So by the Direction of the Law causes of some other nature are to be descided and adiudged by the sentence of the twelue Iudges of the Land Is it not of worthie consideration a very resonable course that reason hath set downe that the trial of Land shal be by men of the same neighborhood that they knowing the right may execute the worke of the Law Lex suum cuique tribuit the Law giueth to euery man his owne Then the common opinion of them that say the fault is in the law is erronious by condemning the Law for the peruerters of the Law and Iustice of whom there are too great a number Looke further into the true sinceritie of the Law and you shal finde that Reason hath made Lawes to reforme those errors and to punish the offenders according to the qualitie of their transgressions What can she do poore dumbe thing she is not able to speake in her own behalfe and few wil do her right either in woorde or action Comes shee not neere the Court when she punisheth treason to preserue the Kinges person Embrace her and vse her worthily for she is of great honor and the principall worke that euer Reason brought to effect in causes of this world The Souldier and man at Armes will confesse that without the Lawes of warres and martiall Discipline there is no possibillitie of keeping things in order The diuines and professors of holy Writ in all countries and in all ages haue made alowance hereof muth endeuoured the performaunce of some things in that behalfe All the Emperors Monarks and Kings of the world depend hereupon and hereby their gouernments are preserued and kept from confusion the least fraction whereof worketh great anoy as appeareth by the stories written by Cornelius Tacitus of the liues of Nero Galba Vetellius and others in the Romane Empire This consideration offereth it selfe though something abruptly that if the offences errors and transgressions of men in these points did consist of substantial matter as the bodies of the offenders do and were for their vnworthines appointed to bee consumed with fire All the water in the great Ocean would not extinguish the flame This being true it shall agree well with Reason and bee very conuenient that men looke into themselues before it be too late correct their errors whilest they haue time lest in the end for the faults of their materiall bodies and sensuall and loose dispositions their Soules which consist of immateriall and vncorruptible substance bee sett on fire and burne in hel with vnquenchable fire that no water of what abundance soeuer can put out And so hauing drawne to thy remembrance these short notes I send thee to consider for the worthines of the law that Moses from whom the grounds of all lawes are receiued did in his time publish the law to the people himselfe vntill the people grew to great numbers and infinite disorders and then by the perswasion of Iethro his Father in lawe hee appointed ministers and officers vnder him The law put in execution by those officers was not the law of the officers but the law of Moses And the law vttered by Moses was not Moses own law but the law of God Such is our case the multitude of offences and euills committed amongst vs are too great and ouer many for our Queene to order in her person therefore Reason hath set downe meane authoritie vnder her The lawes they put in execution are not the lawes of the Iudges but the lawes of our Queene and countrie The sentence they pronounce is her Maiesties they only giue it a voyce and the maine point is this both the lawes and determination thereupon if they be truly executed and obeyed are the lawes and sentence of God himselfe Was there not in Moses time a chiefe head aboue men was there not a mongst mē one aboue the rest were there not vnder him others that took paines to sit in Iudgement to heare the peoples causes was there not thē a chiefe Magistrate and inferior Magistrates some in authoritie to order and gouerne others vnder them to obey were there not men that sustained wrong and others that did the iniurie was not Miriam that gallant Lady punished with leprosie for murmuring against the authoritie of Moses And is not this the antientest gouernment in the world And was not this a kind of Monarchie Doth not our state and gouernement resemble this we haue the same GOD they had a sole gouernor as they lawes as they had Liuetenants Deputies Officers and Magistrates as they people to be kept in obedience as they murmurers against the head as they If they had Corah and his company that rebelled this land hath not bin free from such but God haue the honor they haue had their punishment as well as Miriam and Abiram If the Magistrates in that gouernment found store of busines to punish offences and right the oppressed our countrie is not altogether vnlike them therein If Moses had Aron for Church matters our head hath vnder her mē authorized for that purpose Behold all these things which cōtaine within them a thousand other branches and consider whether Reason hath not preuailed far in this our country and God bin very fauorable to the successe thereof what impiety inhumanitie and bestialitie were it to peruert the good that hath bin attained vnto in these pointes And what doe the contemners resisters disobeyers peruerters and abusers of this so sacred and holy an ordinance of God deserue lesse then those that were punished in Moses time Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri quibus acquiruntur ijsdem praeseruantur modis by diligence labor studie endeuour and obedience haue these bin brought to order and by the like must bee preserued In which office euery member hath a share the chiefe head in gouerning and the rest in obeying which is a dutie to be performed by euery subiect And wherevnto right and true Reason will leade euery man if he carefully obserue his duetie The omitting wherof was a fault in the time of Saint Paul and Saint Peter The one writing to Titus willed him to put men in remembraunce that they be subiect to principalities and powers The other requireth that men should submitt themselues vnto all maner of ordinances of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the king as to the superior or vnto gouernors as vnto them that are sent of him for the punishment of euill dooers and for the praise of them that do well Besides Saint Paul saith in an other place be subiect to the higher powers for who so resisteth the power Rom. 13.1 2. resisteth the ordinance of God With which sayings I conclude desiring that euery man will put himself in remembrance of his dutie in those points and according to his calling beare a faithfull and true heart to his Queene and Country and obedience to authoritie as the key that openeth to all happines and is the closing vp of Reasons gouernement in these worldly causes and a great inducement to eternitie Finis The Minds priuiledge Who can restraine the freedom of the mind Or banish thoughts from grieued harts perplex Or who can shew what limits are assignde To Sorrowes griefes which do poore soules sore vex Mind keepe thee free from euer being bound Fast from ' Despaire and feast on good Content Yet surfet not on too secure a ground Lest Time let passe Remissenesse make repent Seeme not to be but be as thou dost seeme Thy conscience saue what euer thee befall It forc'th not much what other men do deeme Thy guilt or guiltlesse conscience swayeth all In things that taste of good is good delight Thou mansion for thy God to take repose Keepe pretious things wherein he may delight Then secrets all he will to thee disclose In all restraints yet thou art still at large In all exiles thou still remainst at home The secret matters thou dost take in churge Seruant like thee diuine Virtue knows none The pollisht Temple of Dianaes shrine Did not delight the viewers halfe so much As counsels good layd vp in storch-house thine Which will abide the hammer deft and tuch Keepe farre from thee the praue and euil things The sanctimonies for thy turne are fit Thou harbour hast among the Peers and Kings Thy Chaire was made thy maker there to sit Thou cloth of gold of state and richest price To clad thy God the high and mightest one In thee therefore beware let raigne no vice An equall mate thy King abideth none Let none come in keepe fast the vtter gate Deceipt is rife and thou art in great danger Take heede beware there is a subtile mate That presseth in yet ought to be a stranger Shee le offer faire both words and deeds of gaine She saies she will be gone and will but view But keepe her out it will be to thy paine The words she speakes is neither of them true The Bridebed once defilde the Bridegroom leaues It is a place he doth detest and hate See to thy selfe when once she thee deceaues Thy Glorie 's gone thy Honor 's out of date Friend to thy selfe be thou for to be frended Needs curious choise I speake as reason bindeth Faire shews of loue with faint effects are ended When fruitles words shew what the speaker mindeth The matter meant the mind must needs containe That secret is to him that dooh intend Al pleasing words and speeches that are vaine Gainst truths supports by no means may contend That ample walke within so large a field Would well permit my pen a ranging scope But yet my will to Reason now must yeelde To end this cause my Muse doth stand in hope In fewest words but words of great respect The minding well and well affecting spirit Eternizd Ioyes with Angels shall amplect And endlesse blisse by promise shall inherit That blissed place and place of highest blisse Without cōpare Compare what needs that word God hath ordained for seruants that are his Blessed are they that euer serue the Lord. Finis