17 



picture of the public peace at that time prevailing in England, 

 and the means by which it might be preserved. This extract 

 gives a fair specimen of Davies's fine style : — 



" The publick peace is the cause that your fruitfull fields 

 are soe well manured, your barren wastes converted, your 

 lands and stores encreased, your cities and townes enlarged, 

 trade and traffick by sea and by land freely entertained, and 

 all the commodities of the earthe improved. In these halcyon 

 daies of peace all arts and sciences, both liberall and mechani- 

 call, have been brought to perfection, and have produced, and 

 daylie doe produce, innumerable things, as well for pleasure 

 and ornament as for the necessary use of the life of man. The 

 CJommonwealthe, and in the Comraonwealthe the Church of 

 God doth flourishe, the gospell hath a more free passage, and 

 religion herselfe takes deeper roote. In a worde, every man 

 doth sitt under his owne vine, and under his owne fig tree, 

 and enjoy the fruits of his owne labour, which are the chiefest 

 felicities that the hearte of man desireth in this life. If then 

 the publick peace doe prodtice such excellent effects, it must 

 needs be a good and an excellent worke to maintaine and pre- 

 serve this peace amongst you, and to make it perpetuall to you 

 and yours. 



" But by what meanes maie this be done ? How may the 

 publick peace be maintained and preserved ? By the execu- 

 tion of the publick justice (as I said before) Justicia et Pax 

 exosculatse sunt invicem ; for as peace is the nurse and mother 

 of plenty (Pax cererera nutrit alumna Ceres), soe justice is the 

 mother and nurse of peace ; for the scope and end of justice 

 is to appease all tumults, to end all controversies, and to re- 

 press and settle all men and matters in quiet and safety. And 

 therefore it is said that justice maketh a hedge about every 

 man's field, though there be no other inclosure; that shee 

 keepeth watch and ward over every man's goods, and maketh 

 every man's cottage a castle of defence. Nay shee herself is a 

 castle and a fortresse for the weake to retire into. Shee is a 



