patient it is no smaller then the whole assembl'd autority of England both Church and State; and in those times which are on record for the purest and sincerest that ever shon yet on the reformation of this Iland, the time of Edward the 6th. That worthy Prince having utterly abolisht the Canon Law out of his Dominions, as his Father did before him, appointed by full vote of Parlament, a Committy of two and thirty chosen men, Divines and Lawyers, of whom Cranmer the Archbishop, Peter Martyr, and Walter Haddon, (not without the assistance of Sir John Cheeke the Kings Tutor, a man at that time counted the learnedest of Englishmen, & for piety not inferior) were the cheif, to frame anew som Ecclesiastical Laws, that might be in stead of what was abrogated. The work with great diligence was finisht, and with as great approbation of that reforming age was receav'd; and had bin doubtlesse, as the learned Preface thereof testifies, establisht by Act of Parlament, had not the good Kings death so soon ensuing, arrested the furder growth of Religion also, from that season to this. Those laws, thus founded on the memorable wisedome and piety of that religious Parlament and Synod, allow divorce and second mariage not only for adultery or desertion, but for any captial enmity or plot laid against the others life, and likewise for evil and fierce usage: nay the 12. Chap. of that title by plaine consequence declares, that lesser contentions, if they be perpetual, may obtaine divorce: which is all one really with the position by me held in the former treatise publisht on this argument, herein only differing that there the cause of perpetual strife was put for example in the unchangeable discord of som natures; but in these lawes intended us by the best of our ancestors, the effect of continual strife is determin'd no unjust plea of divorce, whether the cause be naturall or wilfull. Wherby the warinesse and deliberation from which that discourse proceeded, will appeare, & that God hath aided us to make no bad conclusion of this point; seeing the opinion which of late hath undergon ill censures among the vulgar, hath now prov'd to have don no violence to Scripture, unlesse all these famous Authors alleg'd have done the like; nor hath affirm'd ought more then what indeed the most nominated Fathers of the Church both ancient and modern are unexpectedly found affirming, the lawes of Gods pe-
