Five Cases of Conscience, Frontispiece – Table of contents
Five Cases of Conscience by A Learned Hand.
London Printed for Henry Brome 1666.
FIVE CASES OF Conscience: Occasionally Determined BY A late Learned Hand.
HEB. xi. 4.
He being Dead, yet speaketh.
LONDON: Printed by E. C. for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane, 1666.
A LETTER from a Friend concerning the ensuing Cases.
SIR,
HAving perused the Papers you sent me, I can safely vouch them for genuine, and not in the least Spurious, by that resemblance they wear of their Reverend Author; and therefore you need not fear to bring them to the Publique test, and let them look the Sun in the face.
'Tis true, their first Commission was but short, and long since expired, they being designed only to visit, and respectively satisfie some private Friends; yet I cannot see what injury you will offer to his sacred ashes, if, by renewing that, you send them on a little farther Embassie for the common good.
Indeed the least remains of so matchless a Champion, so invincible an Advocate in Foro Theologico, like the filings and fragments of Gold, ought not to be lost; and pity the world was not worthy many more of his learned Labours.
But—Praestat de Carthagine racere quam pauca dicere; far be it from me to pinion the wings of his fame, with any rude Letters of Commendation; or, by way of precarious Pedantry, to court any man into a belief of his worth, since that were to attempt Iliads after Homer, and spoil a piece done already to the life by his own Pencil, the works whereof do sufficiently praise him in the gates.
All I aim at is, to commend and promote your pious intention, to give the World security, by making these Papers publique, that they shall never hereafter stand in need of any other hand to snatch them out of the fire, a doom (you say) once written upon them.
Nor do I less approve your ingenuous prudence in determining to prefix no Name, it being as laudable not to speak all the Truth sometimes, as to forbear telling a Lie for advantage.
'Tis (I confess) the mode of late to hang Jewels of Gold in a Swines snout; I mean, to stamp every impertinent Pamphlet with▪ some great Name, or voluminous Title to make it vend the better (Laudat venales qui vult extrudere merces) at which the gul'd Reader repenting his prodigality of time and patience is forced to cry out all along, Beaucoup de bruit, peu de fruit, and in the end sums up its just character in a few words, Nil nisi magni nominis umbra.
But yours is the only method to deal with wise and rational men, who are not so easily taken with Chaff, (the multitude or greatness of words and names) as with the true weight and worth of things.
Yet let me tell you, that whoever is not a meer stranger to your learned Authors former Tractates, must needs spell his name in every page of this without any other Monitor.
I have no farther trouble to give you▪ unless I should bespeak your vigilance over the Press, which by her dayly teeming and inexpertness, or (at least) negligence of the Midwife is went of late to spoil good births with monstrous deformities, and unpardonable Errata; so you will avoid a double guilt contracted by some without fear or wit▪ of abusing your critical Reader on the one hand, and your most judiciously exact Writer on the other▪ and (if that may contribute any thing more) very much gratifie the most unworthy of his Admirers▪ and
Your Friends, &c.
The Five Cases Determined.
1. Of Marrying with a Recusant, pag. 1
2. Of Unlawful Love, 15
3. Of a Military Life, 57
4. Of Scandal, 109
5. Of a Bond taken in the Kings Name, 120