For the Liberty of unlicenc'd Printing. T Hey who to States and Governours of the in a private condition, write that which they foresee may advance the publick good; I suppose them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little alter'd and mov'd inwardly in their mindes: Some with doubt of what will be the fucceffe, others with feare of what will be the cenfure; fome with hope, others with confidence of what they have to speake. And me perhaps each of these dispositions, as the subject was whereon I enter'd, may have at other times variously affected; and likely might in these foremost expreffions now alfo disclose which of them fway'd most, but that the very attempt of this addresse 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 aske, I shall be blamelesse, if it be no other, then the joy and gratulation which it brings to all who wish and promote their Countries liberty; whereof this whole Discourse propof'd will be a certaine testimony, if not a Trophey. For this is not the liberty which wee can hope, that no grievance ever should arise 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 utmost bound of civil liberty attain'd, that wife men looke for. To which if I now manifest 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 superstition grounded into our principles as was beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery, it will bee attributed first, as is moft due, to the strong affiftance of God our deliverer, next to your faithfull guidance and undaunted Wisdome, Lords and Commons of England. Neither is it in Gods esteeme the diminution of his glory, when honourable things are spoken of good men and worthy Magiftrates; which if I now first fhould begin to doe, after fo fair a progreffe of your laudable deeds, and fuch 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 praising is but Courtship and flattery, Firft, when that only is prais'd which is folidly worth praise: next, when greatest likelihoods are brought that such 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 perswasion is of whom he writes, can demonstrate that he flatters not; the former two of these I have hereto fore 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 coy'nant of his fidelity; and that his loyaleft affection and his hope waits on your proceedings. His highest praising is not flattery, and his plainest advice is a kinde of praifing; for though I should affirme and hold by argument, that it would fare better with truth, with learning, and the Commonwealth, if one of your publisht 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 statists have been delighted heretofore with publicke flattery. And men will then see what difference there is between the magnanimity of a trienniall Parlament, and that jealous hautineffe of Prelates and cabin Counfellours that ufurpt of late, when as they fhall 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 signifi'd dislike at any sudden Proclamation. If I should thus farre prefume upon the meek demeanour of your civill and gentle greatnesse, Lords and Commons, as what your publisht Order hath directly faid, that to gainsay, I might defend my selfe with ease, if any should accuse me of being new or infolent, did they but know how much better I find ye efteem it to imitate the old and elegant humanity of Greece, then the barbarick pride of a Hunnish and Norwegian statelines. 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 discourse 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 profeft the study of wifdome and eloquence, not only in their own Country, but in other Lands, that Cities and Siniories heard them gladly, and with great respect, if they had ought in publick to admonish the State. Thus did Dion Prufœus a stranger and a privat Orator counfell 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 ftidious 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 C who had this priviledge, I would obtain to be thought not fo inferior, as your felves are fuperior to the most of them who receiv'd their counsell: and how farre you excell them, be affur'd, Lords and Commons, there can no greater teftimony appear, then when your prudent fpirit 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 set 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 from presenting ye with a fit inftance wherein to fhew both that love of truth which ye eminently profeffe, and that uprightnesse of your judgement which is not wont to be partiall to your felves; by judging over again that Order which ye have ordain'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 such as shall 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 pretenses to abuse and perfecute honest and painfull Men, who offend not in either of these particulars. But that other clause of Licencing Books, which we thought had dy'd with his brother quadragefimal and matrimonial when the Prelats expir'd, I shall now attend with fuch a Homily, as shall lay before ye, first the inventors of it to bee those 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 scandalous, feditious, and libellous Books, which were mainly intended to be suppreft. Laft, that it will be primely to the difcouragement of all learning, and the stop of Truth, not only by the difexercifing. and blunting our abilities in what we know already, but by hindring and cropping the dif covery 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 sharpest 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 whofe progeny they are; nay they do preserve 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 thofe fabulous Dragons teeth; and being fown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet on the other hand unlesse 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 destroyes a good Booke, kills reason 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 treasur'd up on purpose to a life beyond life. 'Tis true, no age can reftore a life, whereof perhaps there is no great loffe; and revolutions of ages doe not oft recover the loffe of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole Nations fare the worse. We should be wary therefore what persecution we raise against the living labours of publick men, how we spill that season'd life of man preferv'd and ftor'd up in Books; fince we see a kinde of homicide may be thus committed, fometimes a martyrdome, and if it extend to the whole impreffion, a kinde of massacre, whereof the execution ends not in the flaying of an elementall life, but strikes 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 introlucing licence, while I oppofe Licencing, I refuse not the paines to be fo much Hiftoricall, as will ferve to shew 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 some of our Prefbyters. |