the child of two years old, that should have a ribband, takes a pin, and the pin ere he be aware pricks his fingers, and then all's out of order, &c. Preaching, for the most part, is the glory of the preacher, to shew himself a fine man. Catechising would be more beneficial.

15. Use the best arguments to persuade, though but few understand; for the ignorant will sooner believe the judicious of the parish, than the preacher himself; and they teach when they dissipate what he has said, and beIo lieve it the sooner, confirmed by men of their own side; for betwixt the laity and the clergy there is, as it were, a continual driving of a bargain; something the clergy would still have us be at, and therefore many things are heard at first from the preacher with suspicion [they are afraid of some ends] which are easily assented to, when they have it from one of themselves. 'Tis with a sermon as 'tis with a play; many come to see it, which do not understand it; and yet hearing it cried up by one, whose judgment they cast themselves upon, and of power with them, they swear and will die in it, that 'tis a very good play, which they would not have done if the priest himself had told them so. As in a great school, 'tis not the master that teaches all; the monitor does a great deal of work; it may be the boys are afraid to see their master: so in a parish 'tis not the minister does all; the greater neighbours teach the lesser, the master of the house teaches his servant, &c.

20

16. First in your sermons use your logic, and then your rhetoric. Rhetoric without logic is like a tree with 30 leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet I confess more are taken with rhetoric than logic, because they are catched with a free expression, when they understand not reason. Logic must be natural, or 'tis not at all: your rhetoric figures may be learned. That rhetoric is best which is most seasonable and most catching. An instance we

have in that old blunt commander at Cadiz, who shewed himself a good orator, being to say something to his soldiers (which he was not used to do) he made them a speech to this purpose: What a shame will it be, you Englishmen, that feed upon good beef and brewess, to let those rascally Spaniards beat you, that eat nothing but oranges and lemons: and so put more courage into his men than he could have done with a more learned oration. Rhetoric is either very good, or stark naught: there's no medium in rhetoric. If I am not fully persuaded, I laugh at the orator.

17. 'Tis good to preach the same thing again, for that's the way to have it learned. You see a bird, by often whistling to, learns a tune, and a month after records to herself.

ΙΟ

18. 'Tis a hard case a minister should be turned out of his living for something they inform he should say in his pulpit. We can no more know what a minister said in his sermon1 by two or three words picked out of it, than we can tell what tune a musician played last upon the 20 lute, by two or three single notes.

CXI.

PREDESTINATION.

.I. Is a point inaccessible, out of our reach; we can make no notion of it, 'tis so full of intricacy, so full of contradiction; 'tis in good earnest, as we state it, half a dozen bulls one upon another.

2. They that talk nothing but predestination, and will not proceed in the way of heaven till they be satisfied in that point, do as if a man would not come to London,

1 His sermon] his sermons, H. and H. 2.

unless at his first step he might set his foot upon the top of Paul's.

3. Doctor Prideaux in his lectures, several days used arguments to prove predestination; at last tells his auditory they are damned if they do not believe it; doing herein just as school-boys; when one of them has got an apple,

1. 4. at last tells his auditory &c.] This is not quite so. Dr. Prideaux gave a series of nine lectures on Romans ix. 10, 11, 12. The first three treat of predestination, and several of the others touch upon it. In none of these does he tell his auditory that they are damned that do not believe it. But in the last lecture of the series, against the Roman Catholics, he is provoked by their assertion that he himself, as a Protestant, must be damned, and he retorts accordingly, with some warmth of expression, that the fate in question is much more likely to be theirs.

His imaginary opponent has been arguing (Dr. Prideaux, it will be seen, conducts both sides of the dispute) as a point in favour of the Roman Catholic Church, 'Fatentur Protestantes sub Papismo quam plurimos salutem consequi. At Papistae damnatos pronuntiant omnes Protestantes.' Dr. Prideaux rejoins, 'Respondeo. Hoc ipsum arguit Protestantes non tantùm Religionis puritate, sed charitate etiam esse adversariis superiores, qui distinguunt tamen inter seductores et seductos, et inter seductos rursus in simplicitate cordium, ante Lutheri reformationem, et obstinatos sequentis seculi, qui moniti ad obortam lucem claudunt oculos. Nam ut de istis dictat charitas ut speremus optima; ita de hisce nihil possumus praeter horrenda polliceri, quamdiù characterem Bestiae in frontibus aut dextris praeferunt. Inter sordes autem istas, ista quae summo cum periculo expectetur salus, non ipsorum additamentis sed iis quae nobis habent communia fundamentis, est attribuenda.' Lectures by John Prideaux (Bishop of Worcester), p. 143 (ed. 3, 1648).

It seems probable from 'Church of Rome,' sec. 2, that Selden may have had this passage in his mind.

Prideaux's first lecture on predestination ends, not with damnatory threats, but with a defence of the doctrine of reprobation, attacking no one in particular, and proceeding somewhat after the fashion of Rabbi Busy with the puppet. 'Si cui haec sententia de absoluta reprobatione videatur asperior, possem respondere cum Augustino. Hoc scio, neminem contra istam praedestinationem, quam secundùm Scripturas sanctas defendimus, nisi errando disputare posse.' p. 14. But he does not press this, and it cannot be the passage to which Selden is referring.

or something the rest have a mind to, they use all the arguments they can to get some of it from him [I gave you some th' other day: you shall have some with me another time]; when they cannot prevail, they tell him he is a jackanapes, a rogue, and a rascal.

CXII.

PREFERMENT.

1. WHEN YOU would have a child go to such a place, and you find him unwilling, you tell him he shall ride a cock-horse, and then he will go presently: so do those that govern the state deal by men, to work them to their 10 ends; they tell them they shall be advanced to such or such a place, and then they will do any thing they will have them.

2. A great place strangely qualifies. John Read was in the right [groom of the chamber to my lord of Kent]. Attorney Noy being dead, some were saying, How will the king do for a fit man? Why, any man, says John Read, may execute the place. I warrant (says my lord) thou thinkest thou understandest enough to perform it. Yes, quoth John, let the king make me Attorney, and I would 20 fain see that man that durst tell me, there's anything I understand not.

3. When the pageants are a coming, there's great thrusting and riding upon one another's backs, to look out at the windows; stay a little and they will come just to you, you may see them quietly. So 'tis when a new statesman or officer is chosen; there's great expectation and listening who it should be; stay but awhile, and you shall know quietly.

4. Missing preferment makes the presbyters fall foul 30

upon the bishops. Men that are in hopes and in the way of rising, keep in the channel, but they that have none, seek new ways. 'Tis so amongst lawyers; he that has the judge's ear will be very observant of the way of the court; but he that has no regard will be flying out.

5. My lord Digby having spoken something in the House of Commons, for which they would have questioned him, was presently called to the upper house. He did by the parliament as an ape when he has done some 10 waggery; his master spies him, and looks for his whip, but before he can come at him, whip says he to the top of the house.

1.6. My lord Digby &c.] Lord Digby, who had been one of the accusers of the Earl of Strafford, afterwards, just before the final vote, spoke strongly in his favour, declaring that he did, with a clear conscience, wash his hands of that man's blood, and protesting: 'that my vote goes not to the taking of the Earl of Strafford's life.' Exception was taken to this speech at the time when it was made (April, 1641) the speech afterwards, by order of the House, was burnt by the hand of the common hangman. Nalson, Collections, ii. 160.

Clarendon adds that when Lord Digby was questioned in the House about his speech, he defended himself so well, and so much to the disadvantage of those who were concerned, that from that time they prosecuted him with an implacable rage and uncharitableness upon all occasions. Hist. i. 359.

Clarendon's further account of his call to the Upper House and of the reasons for it, will throw some light on this. He had made private and secret offers of his service to the King, and the King being satisfied both in the discoveries he had made of what had passed, and in his professions for the future, called him by writ to the House of Peers, from which time forward he did visibly advance the King's service. i. 534, 535.

Forster thinks that Selden's image, of the ape who has done some waggery, may have been suggested by the apish tricks of Lord Digby's younger brother, member for Milborn Port. This young gentleman had perched himself upon a ladder in the House of Commons, and was called to by the Speaker and ordered to come down and not sit on the ladder as if he were going to be hanged. This happened on the day when his brother would have been expelled the House, if the King's letters patent had not issued the night before calling him to the Lords. Forster, The Grand Remonstrance, p. 279.