laines with the goodly Eccho they made; and befotted us to the gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth house, another from the Weft end of Pauls; fo apifhly Romanizing, that the word of command ftill was fet downe in Latine; as if the learned Grammaticall pen that wrote it, would caft no ink without Latine or perhaps, as they thought, because no vulgar tongue was worthy to expreffe the pure conceit of an Imprimatur; but rather, as I hope, for that our English, the language of men ever famous, and formoft in the: atchievements of liberty, will not eafily finde fervile letters anow to fpell fuch a dictatorie prefumption Englisht. And thus ye have the Inventors and the ori

ginall of Book-licencing ript up, and drawn as lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be heard of, from any ancient State, or politie, or Church, not by any Statute left us by our Anceftors elder or later; nor from the moderne custom of any reformed Citty, or Church abroad; but from the moft Antichriftian Councel, and the most tyran

nous Inquifition that ever inquir'd. Till ! then Books were ever as freely admitted

into the World as any other birth; the iffue of the brain was no more ftifl'd then the iffue of the womb: no envious Juno: fate crof-leg'd over the nativity of any mans intellectuall off-fpring; but if it prov'd a Monster, who denies, but that it was justly burnt, or funk into the Sea.

But

But that a Book in wors condition then a peccant foul, fhould be to ftand before a Jury ere it be borne to the World, and undergo yet in darkneffe the judgement of Radamanth and his Collegues, ere it can paffe the ferry backward into light, was never heard before, till that myfterious iniquity provokt and troubl'd at the first entrance of Reformation, fought out new limbo's and new hells wherein they might include our Books also within the number of their damned. And this was the rare morfell so officiously snatcht up, and fo ilfavourdly imitated by our inquifiturient Bifhops, and the attendant minorites their Chaplains. That ye like not now these most certain Authors of this licencing order, and that all finifter intention

intention was farre diftant from your

thoughts, when ye were importun'd the paffing it, all men who know the integrity of your actions, and how ye honour Truth, will clear yee readily.

But fome will fay, What though the Inventors were bad, the thing for all that may be good? It may fo; yet if that thing be no fuch deep invention, but obvious, and eafie for any man to` light on, and yet beft and wifeft Commonwealths through all ages, and occafions have forborne to use it, and falsest feducers, and oppreffers of men were the firft who tooke it up, and to no other purpose but to obftruct and hinder the first approach of Reformation; I am of thofe who beleeve, it will be a har

der

der alchymy then Lullius ever knew, to fublimat any good use out of fuch an invention. Yet this only is what I request to gain from this reason, that it may be held a dangerous and fufpicious fruit, as certainly it deferves, for the tree that bore it, untill I can diffect one by one the properties it has. But I have firft to finish, as was propounded, what is to be thought in generall of reading Books, what ever fort they be, and whether be more the benefit, or the harm that thence proceeds?

Not to infift upon the examples of Mofes, Daniel, & Paul, who were skilfull in all the learning of the Ægyptians, Caldeans, and Greeks, which could not probably be without reading their Books

of