ABSTRACT
Mason was Archdeacon of Norwich, and it was his desire to see all things settled in the Church which settlement he sought to ground in the rational realities of God's order for creation. In common with so many of his contemporaries, Mason emphasizes the importance of order for the Church. This concerns the whole of the Church's life, its ministry, its worship, and here particularly, that which gives framework and authority to all church order, canon law itself. Mason sets out the particular place and role of the Church as part of the fabric of the whole nation under the rule of monarchy. The Divine Right of Kings, their appointment in the dispensation of God, has its corollary in the Divine Responsibility of Kings. This responsibility lay in the upholding of Common or Natural Law. The relation between Order, Common Law and Natural Law, Monarch, and the One Body Politic, is comprehended in two sermons in particular by Lancelot Andrewes.
