also disclose which of them fway'd most, but that the very attempt of this addreffe thus made, and the thought of whom it hath recourse to, hath got the power within me to a paffion, farre more welcome then incidentall to a Preface. Which though I stay not to confeffe ere any afke, I fhall be blameleffe, if it be no other, then the joy and gratulation which it brings to all who with and promote their Countries liberty; whereof this whole Difcourfe propos'd will be a certaine teftimony, if not a Trophey. For this is not the liberty which wee can hope, that no grievance ever should arife in the Commonwealth, that let no man in this World expect; but when complaints are freely heard, deeply confider'd, and fpeedily reform'd, then is the utmoft bound of civill liberty attain'd, that wife men looke for. To which if I now manifeft by the very found of this which I shall utter, that wee are already in good part arriv'd, and yet from fuch a steepe difadvantage of tyranny and fuperstition grounded into our principles as was beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery, it will bee attributed first, as is most due, to the strong affistance of God our deliverer, next to your faithfull guidance and undaunted Wifdome, Lords and Commons of England. Neither is it in Gods efteeme the diminution of his glory, when honourable things are spoken of good men and worthy Magistrates; which if I now first should begin to doe, after fo fair a progreffe of your laudable deeds, and such a long obligement upon the whole Realme to your indefatigable vertues, I might be justly reckn'd among the tardiest, and the unwillingeft of them that praise yee. Nevertheleffe there being three principall things, without which all praifing is but Courtship and flattery, First, when that only is prais'd which is folidly worth praise next when greatest likelihoods are brought that fuch things are truly and really in those persons

to whom they are afcrib'd, the other, when he who praises, by fhewing that fuch his actuall perfwafion is of whom he writes, can demonftrate that he flatters not; the former two of these I have heretofore endeavour'd, refcuing the employment from him. who went about to impaire your merits with a triviall and malignant Encomium; the latter as belonging chiefly to mine owne acquittall, that whom I fo extoll'd I did not flatter, hath been referv'd opportunely to this occafion. For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best cov'nant of his fidelity; and that his loyalest affection and his hope waits on your proceedings. His highest praifing is not flattery, and his plaineft advice is a kinde of praifing; for though I fhould affirme and hold by argument, that it would fare better with truth, with learning, and the Commonwealth, if one of your publifht Orders which I should name, were call'd in, yet at the fame time it could not but much redound to the luftre of your milde and equall Government, when as private perfons are hereby animated to thinke ye better pleas'd with publick advice, then other ftatifts have been delighted heretofore with publicke flattery. And men will then fee what difference there is between the magnanimity of a trienniall Parlament, and that jealous hautineffe of Prelates and cabin Counsellours that ufurpt of late, when as they shall obferve yee in the midd❜ft of your Victories and fucceffes more gently brooking writt'n exceptions against a voted Order, then other Courts, which had produc't nothing worth memory but the weake oftentation of wealth, would have endur'd the least fignifi'd dislike at any sudden Proclamation. If I should thus farre prefume upon the meek demeanour of your civill and gentle greatneffe, Lords and Com

mons, as what your publifht Order hath directly faid, that to gainsay, I might defend my felfe with ease, if any fhould accufe me of being new or infolent, did they but know how much better I find ye esteem it to imitate the old and elegant humanity of Greece, then the barbarick pride of a Hunnish and Norwegian ftatelines. And out of those ages, to whose polite wisdom and letters we ow that we are not yet Gothes and Jutlanders, I could name him who from his private house wrote that difcourfe to the Parlament of Athens, that perfwades them to change the forme of Democraty which was then establisht. Such honour was done in those dayes to men who profest the study of wisdome and eloquence, not only in their own Country, but in other Lands, that Cities and Siniories heard them gladly, and with great refpect, if they had ought in publick to admonish the State. Thus did Dion Prufæus a stranger and a privat Orator counsell the Rhodians against a former Edict: and I abound with other like examples, which to fet heer would be fuperfluous. But if from the industry of a life wholly dedicated to studious labours, and those naturall endowments haply not the worst for two and fifty degrees of northern latitude, so much must be derogated, as to count me not equall to any of those who had this priviledge, I would obtain to be thought not so inferior, as your felves are fuperior to the most of them who receiv'd their counfell and how farre you excell them, be affur'd, Lords and Commons, there can no greater teftimony appear, then when your prudent spirit acknowledges and obeyes the voice of reason from what quarter foever it be heard speaking; and renders ye as willing to repeal any Act of your own setting forth, as any fet forth by your Predeceffors.

If ye be thus refolv'd, as it were injury to thinke ye were not, I know not what should withhold me

have or

from presenting ye with a fit inftance wherein to fhew both that love of truth which ye eminently profeffe, and that uprightneffe of your judgement which is not wont to be partiall to your felves; by judging over again that Order which ye dain'd to regulate Printing. That no Book, pamphlet, or paper shall be henceforth Printed, unleffe the fame be first approv'd and licenc't by fuch, or at least one of fuch as fhall be thereto appointed. For that part which preferves justly every mans Copy to himselfe, or provides for the poor, I touch not, only wish they be not made pretenfes to abuse and perfecute honest and painfull Men, who offend not in either of these particulars. But that other claufe of Licencing Books, which we thought had dy'd with his brother quadragefimal and matrimonial when the Prelats expir'd, I fhall now attend with such a Homily, as shall lay before ye, firft the inventors of it to bee thofe whom ye will be loath to own; next what is to be thought in generall of reading, what ever fort the Books be; and that this Order avails nothing to the fuppreffing of fcandalous, feditious, and libellous Books, which were mainly intended to be fuppreft. Last, that it will be primely to the difcouragement of all learning, and the ftop of Truth, not only by difexercifing and blunting our abilities in what we know already, but by hindring and cropping the difcovery that might bee yet further made both in religious and civill Wisdome.

I deny not, but that it is of greatest concernment in the Church and Commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye how Bookes demeane themselves, as well as men; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do fharpest justice on them as malefactors: For Books are not abfolutely dead things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them to be as active as that foule was whose progeny they are; nay they do preferve

as in a violl the pureft efficacie and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous Dragons teeth; and being fown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet on the other hand unleffe warineffe be us'd, as good almost kill a Man as kill a good Book; who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature, Gods Image; but hee who deftroyes a good Booke, kills reafon it felfe, kills the Image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the Earth; but a good Booke is the pretious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalm'd and treafur'd up on purpose to a life beyond life. 'Tis true, no age can restore a life, whereof perhaps there is no great loffe; and revolutions of ages doe not oft recover the losse of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole Nations fare the worse. We should be wary therefore what perfecution we raise against the living labours of publick men, how we fpill that feafon'd life of man preferv'd and stor'd up in Books; fince we fee a kinde of homicide be may thus committed, fometimes a martyrdome, and if it extend to the whole impreffion, a kinde of maffacre, whereof the execution ends not in the flaying of an elementall life, but ftrikes at that ethereall and fift effence, the breath of reason it felfe, flaies an immortality rather then a life. But left I should be condemn'd of introducing licence, while I oppose Licencing, I refufe not the paines to be so much Hiftoricall, as will ferve to fhew what hath been done by ancient and famous Commonwealths, against this disorder, till the very time that this project of licencing_crept out of the Inquifition, was catcht up by our Prelates, and hath caught fome of our Prefbyters.

In Athens where Books and Wits were ever bufier then in any other part of Greece, I finde but only