[Sidenote:  Omissions]

First, as there could be in natural bodies no motion of any thing, unless there were some first which moved all things, and continued unmoveable; even so in politic societies there must be some unpunishable, or else no man shall suffer punishment:  for sith punishments proceed always from superiors, to whom the administration of justice belongeth; which administration must have necessarily a fountain, that deriveth it to all others, and receiveth not from any, because otherwise the course of justice should go infinitely in a circle, every superior having his superior without end, which cannot be:  therefore a well-spring, it followeth, there is:  a supreme head of justice, whereunto all are subject, but itself in subjection to none.  Which kind of pre-eminency if some ought to have in a kingdom, who but a King shall have it?  Kings, therefore, or no man, can have lawful power to judge.

If private men offend, there is the Magistrate over them, which judgeth; if Magistrates, they have their Prince; if Princes, there is Heaven, a tribunal, before which they shall appear; on earth they are not accountable to any.  Here, says the Doctor, it breaks off abruptly.

And I have these words also attested under the hand of Mr. Fabian Philips, a man of note for his useful books.  “I will make oath, if I shall be required, that Dr. Sanderson, the late Bishop of Lincoln, did a little before his death affirm to me, he had seen a manuscript affirmed to him to be the hand-writing of Mr. Richard Hooker, in which there was no mention made of the King or supreme governors being accountable to the people.  This I will make oath, that that good man attested to me.

“FABIAN PHILIPS.” [1]

So that there appears to be both omissions and additions in the said last Three printed books:  and this may probably be one reason why Dr. Sanderson, the said learned Bishop,—­whose writings are so highly and justly valued,—­gave a strict charge near the time of his death, or in his last Will, “That nothing of his that was not already printed, should be printed after his death.”

[Sidenote:  King Charles on Hooker]

It is well known how high a value our learned King James put upon the books writ by Mr. Hooker; and known also that our late King Charles—­the Martyr for the Church—­valued them the second of all books, testified by his commending them to the reading of his son Charles, that now is our gracious King:  and you may suppose that this Charles the First was not a stranger to the Three pretended books, because, in a discourse with the Lord Say, in the time of the Long Parliament, when the said Lord required the King to grant the truth of his argument, because it was the judgment of Mr. Hooker,—­quoting him in one of the three written books, the King replied, “They were not allowed to be Mr. Hooker’s books:  but, however, he would allow them to be Mr. Hooker’s, and consent to what his Lordship proposed to prove out of those doubtful books, if he would but consent to the judgment of Mr. Hooker in the other five, that were the undoubted books of Mr. Hooker.”