fruits, and excellent wine. These, saith the same "author, give entertainment to all strangers which pass that way.

Now, that there was some such torrent of water near Sinai in Moses's time, it is very probable; first, because he encamped thereabout almost a year, and drew no water, as in other places, by miracle; secondly, because it is written, Exod. xxxii. 20. that when Moses had broken the golden calf to powder, which Aaron set up in his absence, he cast the powder thereof into the water, and made the children of Israel to drink thereof.

On this mountain, the law by the angel of God was given to Moses, where he stayed a whole year, wanting some ten or twelve days; for he removed not till the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, and he arrived about the forty-fifth day after the egression; the law being given the fiftieth day.

any

At this mansion all was done which is written from the beginning of the twenty-ninth chapter of Exodus to the end of that book, all in Leviticus, and all in Numbers to the tenth chapter. Whereof (because there is no story nor other passage) I will omit the repetition, and in place thereof speak somewhat of the law, and the kinds and use thereof; whereby, if the reader find the story any way disjoined, he may turn over a few leaves, and, omitting this, find the continuation thereof. We must first consider, that as there can be neither foundation, building, nor continuance of commonwealth, without the rule, level, and square of laws; so it pleased God to give thereby unto Moses the powerfullest mean (his miraculous grace excepted) to govern that multitude which he conducted, to make them victorious in their passage, and to establish them assuredly in their conquest. For as the north star is the most fixed director of the seaman to his desired port; so is the law of God the guide and conductor of all in general to the haven of eternal life; the law of nature, from God's eternal law deduced, the rule of all his creatures; the law human, de

" Pet. Bel. lib. 2. c. 62.

pending on both these, the guard of kings, magistrates, and virtuous men ; yea, the very spirit and the very sinews of every estate in the world, by which they live and move; the law, to wit, a just law, being resembled to an heart without affection, to an eye without lust, and to a mind without passion; a treasurer, which keepeth for every man what he hath, and distributeth to every man what he ought to have. This benefit the ancients, though barbarous, esteemed so highly, that, among them, those which were taken for the first makers of laws were honoured as gods, or as the sons of gods; and the rest, that made either additions or corrections, were commended to all posterity for men of no less virtue, and no less liberally beneficial to their countries, than the greatest and most prosperous conquerors that ever governed them. The Israelites, the Lacedæmonians, and the Athenians, received their laws from one; as the Israelites from Moses, the Lacedæmonians from Lycurgus, the Athenians from Solon; the Romans sometimes from their first kings, from their decemviri, from their senators, from their lawyers, and from the people themselves; others from the prince, nobility, and people, as in England, France, and in other Christian monarchies and estates.

SECT. IV.

Of the name and meaning of the words law and right.

THE word lex, or law, is not always taken alike, but is diversely and in an indifferent sense used. For if we consider it at large, it may be understood for any rule prescribing a necessary mean, order, and method, for the attaining of an end. And so the rules of grammar and other arts are called laws. Or it is taken for any private ordinance of superiors to inferiors; for the commandments of tyrants, which they cause to be observed by force; for their decrees do also usurp that title, according to the general acceptation of the word law; of which Isaiah, Woe unto them that decree wicked decrees, and write grievous things. Likewise the word is used for the tumultuary resolutions

• Isaiah x. I. ·

RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. II.

H

of the people. For such constitutions doth Aristotle also call laws, though evil and unsufficient: P Mala lex est, quæ tumultuarie posita est; "It is an ill law that is made tumul"tuously." So as all ordinances, good or evil, are called by the name of laws.

The word law is also taken for the moral habit of our mind, which doth (as it were) command our thoughts, words, and actions; framing and fashioning them according to itself, as to their pattern and platform. And thus the law of the flesh, which the divines call legem fomitis, is to be understood. For every law is a kind of pattern of that which is done according unto it; in which sense, as ¶elsewhere, this moral habit or disposition of the heart is called the frame or figmentum of the heart; so in St. Paul to the Romans it is called a law: But I see another law in my members, rebelling against the law of my mind, and leading me captive unto the law of sin. Again, the nature and inclinations of all creatures are sometimes called 'laws, so far as they agree with the reason of the law eternal; as, the law of a lion, to be fierce or valiant.

Also private contracts, among merchants and other tradesmen, do often put on the name of laws. But law commonly and properly is taken for a right rule, prescribing a necessary mean for the good of a commonwealth, or civil community. The rest, to wit, the commandments of tyrants, &c. which have not the common good for their end, but being leges iniqua, are by Thomas called violentiæ magis quam leges," rather compulsions than laws :" and whatsoever is not just, St. Augustine doth not allow for laws, howsoever established; for he calls them iniqua hominum constituta, quæ nec jura dicenda, nec putanda sunt; "the un"just constitutions of men, which are neither to be termed "nor thought laws." For, saith Aristotle, Legalia justa sunt factiva, et conservativa felicitatis; "Just laws are

P Ethic. 1. 4. c. I.

4 Gen. vi. 5. and viii. 2.

So Virgil, Continuo has leges æternaque fœdera certis Imposuit natura locis: where also it is to

S

be noted, that he joins leges and fœdera together: as in the scripture the law is ofttimes called the covenant.

Arist. Ethic. 5. 1.

"the workers and preservers of happiness;" because by them we are directed ad vitam quietam, " to a quiet life," according to Cicero; yea, to life everlasting, according to the scriptures. For the end of the law, saith 'Plato, is God and his worship: Finis legis Deus et cultus ejus. Lex, or the law, is so called by the Latins, a legendo, or, a ligando, of reading, or binding; Leges quia lectæ et ad populum latæ, saith Varro; for after laws were written and published, all men might read them, and behold in them whereto they were bound. The other etymology, a ligando, is no less agreeable with the nature of a law; whence in the scripture it is called also a yoke, and a band; as, "Confregerunt jugum, diruperunt vincula; "They have broken the "yoke, they have broken the bands." And in the second Psalm, Dirumpamus vincula eorum, et projiciamus a nobis funes ipsorum; "Let us break their bands in sunder, "and cast away their cords from us.”

X

The covenant it is called, because of the conditional promises of God; and because of God's people's voluntary submission of themselves unto it; for which word the Septuagint and the Epistle to the Hebrews use the word diałýxn, a testament or last will; which name it hath, because it is not otherwise effectual for our salvation, but in respect of the death of the testator; for without the death of the testator the testament is of no force; as Heb. ix. 17. it is said, Testamentum in mortuis ratum est.

The Hebrews call the law thorah, of teaching, because every man is thereby taught his duty, both to God and men. The Greeks call it vóuos, of distributing, because it distributeth to every man his own due; the power of the law is the power of God; justice being an attribute proper unto God himself: Imperium legis imperium Dei est; "The reign of the law is the reign of God."

Law in general is thus defined by the philosophers: Lex est vitæ regula, præcipiens quæ sunt sequenda, et quæ fugienda; "Law is the rule of life, commanding what to fol

Plato in Dial. 1. de Leg.

" Jer. v. 5.

x Psalm ii.

66

"low, and what to shun; or, Lex est omnium divinarum et humanarum rerum regina; "Law is the queen or princess of things both human and divine." But this description is grounded upon the opinion of inevitable fate. Law is the very wisdom of nature, the reason and understanding of the prudent, and the rule of right and wrong. For as a right line is called index sui et curvi," the demon"strance of itself and of the crooked;" so is the law the judge and measure of right and wrong.

Mr. Hooker calls the law a directive rule to goodness of operation; and though law, as touching the substance and essence, consist in understanding, concludit tamen actum voluntatis; "yet it comprehends the act of our will." The word jus is also diversely taken, as sometimes for the matter of the law, and for common right; itself; as jus civile, or jus gentium. the two general words jus and fas; hath reference to men, fas to God: humana. To go over another man's field is permitted by God's law, not by man's; and therefore in a thing out of controversy Virgil used both those words: as, Fas et jura sinunt, “ God and men permit.”

sometimes for the law Isidore distinguisheth whereof jus, saith he, Fas lex divina, jus lex

The word jus, or right, is derived or taken from the old substantive noun jussus, a bidding or commandment; or perhaps from the Greek Zeus, which is the name of Jupiter, or of the Latin genitive case Jovis; because, as the scripture speaks, the judgment is God's. For as it is certain, that jus-jurandum came of Jovis-jurandum, (for so we find it written in Nonius out of the ancient, in which sense the scripture calls it juramentum Jehova,) so also we may say, that jus came of Jovis, quia Jovis est; because as God is the author, and pattern, and maintainer of right, so also in his a vicegerents, the magistrates, he is the pronouncer and executor of right. Of this jus, the just are denominated, justus a jure, and justitia a justo; "the right gives name to "the righteous;" and "justice takes her name from the just.”

y [sid. Etym. ii. 43.

Deut. i. 17. 2 Chron. xix. 6.

a Exod. xxii. 11. 1 Kings