The fearfull race of Leuiathan, with the generation of his Incarnate breed.

LEuiathan the eldest, after that (in the former ages and infancie of the world) hée had per­uerted Nembrod, brought Nious to confusi­on, begun tyranny in the first, and monar­chie in the next; when in the kingdoms of the East hée had left no regall seate vnstai­ned with blood; & in the West, the true faith affronted by many herefies: at last waxing old (& more fruit­full and subtill in doing mischiefe) hée raised vp these contenti­ous spirits to peruert our world (which retaining now a daies and that very scarsely the only memory of the temperance of their forefathers, are wholly diuerted and turned from the meane, and accustomed for the most part in the extreames of all vertue and godlinesse.) His first sonne is Vainglory, who séeing his father waxen old in complotting villanies, broken by fatall contentions, spent by many poisons, and impouer [...]h­ed by meere-excesse, hath preferred him to the mastership of an hospitall, where hée now teacheth new paintings, to couer ages wrinkles; strange pollicies, to supplant zealous procée­dings; and subtill heresies, to infect the hearts of the simple. This lustie yonker (taught to play the Protheus by his old Grandsire the deuill) appeareth in diuers shapes to men, ap­plying himselfe to all natures and humors. To Eue hée appea­red [...]. 16. like a Serpent, Et eritis sicut d [...], And you shall be as gods, said he: but in this world hée is Incarnate, méeting gentle­men commonly at their ordinaries, schollers in their schools, handicrafts men in their shops, soldiers in their exploits, shrou­ding [...] [...]. 1. himselfe alwaies in the shaddow of vertue, wheras in truth he is but the effect of vice: he is backed with Boasting his familiar brother; grounded in Discord, a braunch of his nature; attended by Inobedience, the fruit of presumpti [...]. [Page 4] In chiefe places he appears not but in the coat of Singularity, reioicing vainly in those stratagemes, which at last are deter­mined in his owne ruine: witnesse Alcibiades, who (as Plu­tarch reporteth) nourished in his vaine felicities, perished vn­happily by inconsideration and incontinencie. Of late daies knowing that his grandfather determines to keepe graund Christmasses in hel, he hath insinuated himselfe into the city in these kind of furnitures & apparitions, to prouide him store of fuell to furnish Sathans house of Distresse, and common place of Confusion. In Powls hée walketh like a gallant Courtier, where, if hée méet some rich chuffes worth the gulling, at euery word he speaketh, hée makes a mouse of an elephant, he telleth them of wonders done in Spaine by his ancestors: where, if the matter were well examined, his father was but Swabber in the ship where Ciuill Oranges were the best merchandize: draw him into the line of history, you shall heare as many lies at a breath, as would breed scruple in a good conscience for an age: talke with him of trauels, ware thirty thousand crownes in eggeshels at a Venetian banquet: if any worthy exploit, rare stratageme, plausible pollicie, hath euer past his hearing, hée maketh it his owne by an oath: nay, to speake the whole pith of his commendations, truths are as rare in his mouth, as a­dulteries in Sparta. Touch me his hat, it was giuen him by Henry the second of Fraunce, when hée kist the Reintgraues wife at his going into Almaine: commend the fashion of his beard, hée tels you it is the worke of a Turkish barber: his band was a prize gotten in Transiluania; where the truth is, he bought it in the Exchange for his mony: Charles the Emperour gaue his cloake: his sword was Mountdragons, all that hée hath if you beléeue him, are but gifts in reward of his vertue: where (poore asse as he is) were hée examined in his owne nature, his courage is boasting, his learning ignorance, his ability weak­nesse, and his end beggery: yet is his smooth tongue a fit bait to catch Gudgeons; and such as saile by the wind of his good fortune, become Camelions like Alcibiades, féeding on the va­nity of his tongue with the foolish credulity of their eares. Sometime like a Merchant he haunteth the Exchange; there [Page 5] iets hée in the dispo [...]ls of a Brokers shop, graue in lookes, courtly in behauiour, magnificent to the simple sort, affable to the wiser, now enquiring of newes from Tripoly, straight boasting of his commodities from Ozante, filling all mens ears with so great opinion of his wealth, that euery one holdeth him happy that trust him, till in the end, hoth hée and they, prooue bankrupts. In his hood and habit hée will prooue Ramus, to be a déeper Philosopher then Aristotle, and presume to read the Mathematiques to the studious, when he knowes not what ei­ther Axis, Equator, or Circulus is: draw him to Geometry, hée will protest that Dodochedron is not a figure of twelue angles: vrge him in Musike, he will sweare to it, that he is A per s [...] in it, where hée is skillesse in Proportion, ignorant in Discord, negligent in Time, vnapt for Harmony, being both in soule & body a méere aduersary to all Science. For he that delighteth to challenge all things to himselfe, defraudeth his reason of Light, and his mind of Iudgement. Beware of this Deuill friends, for if you make him a souldier, you shall find a false heart, or howsoeuer you thinke him, a very ideot. A Father speaking of him, saith, Et seipsum perdit, & alium i [...]sicit, He loo­seth himselfe, and infecteth others. Those only that haue calcu­lated his natiuity, say this of him, that if euer he be attached by good counsell, hee will hang himselfe: or if he be crost in his opi­nion, kill himselfe in despaire, that all the wiser sort may haue cause to laugh at him.

The next sonne Leuiathan presenteth, is Ambition, catching at nothing but stars, climing for nothing but crownes. This gallant Deuill moouing at the first (before his Incarnation) a mutiny in heauen among the Angels, hath now assumed a bo­dy to raise tumults on the earth, and breake sacrum societatis vinculum, the sacred bond of society. In former times it was he only that peruerted lawes, neglected affinity, inuented conspi­racie, circumuented authority, giuing those pens occasion to report his excéeding tragedies, who were resolued to ground their eternity on the happy peace earnestly affected among all ciuill pollicies. It was Ambition at first that of Deioces a iust Iudge, made an vniust Mede, and a tyrant. It was hée that [Page 6] brought Tarquinius in hate amongst the Romans: it was hée that corrupted Nero, seduced▪ Chabades of Persia, incensed Ti­berius and Maximinus, prouoked Policrates to assault the Sami­ans: and not content to worke these troubles on the Conti­nent; Sicilie standeth amazed at the murthers contriued by him, and the waues were an ins [...]fficient wall for the Isles of the midland sea, to keepe out adulteries, murthers, and ambi­tions. Phalaris and Agathocles grone vnder his burthens: and Gréede, [...] yet in memory, that hée alone made Athanaeus murther his sonne, and Aiax through enuie and emulation as­sault his friends: neither hath his sinister influence had wor­king only in mens hearts, but it in [...]amed women also, as Se­miramis; Athalia, Agrippina in Neros time, Brunechild in France: so that whosoeuer readeth the ancient and moderne Chronicles, shall scarsely find any memorable act, except it be either grounded, seconded, c [...]tinued, or ended in Ambition. But since the obiect of the sence is a helpe to the memory, I will shew him particularly in his right coat, discouer him by his due circumstances, so that whosoeuer considerately weyeth how I describe him, shall be able to know him if hée meeteth him. If hée arise from obscurity, (as Changuis a smith, who as Lewis Regius witnesseth became Emperour of the Tarters) or from the potters furnace, as Agathocles:) hée laboureth tooth and naile to be skilfull in those things which are most plausible to the greater sort, and tollerable among the commons: his stu­die is for ostentation, not vertues sake: his bookes like Manso­lus tombe, are comely without, but within nothing but rotten bones, corrupt practises▪ his apparell increaseth with his for­tune, and as the inconstancy of worldly affaires direct him, so suteth hée both fashions and affections: and as vainly he de­sireth all things, so miserably feareth hée all men. In his study hée affecteth singularity, and is more proud in being the author of some new sect or heresie, then a good man is humble in the ful­nesse of his knowledge: come hée into the eye of the world, hée créepeth into seruice with men of good credit, in féeding whose humors (hauing perhaps for want of some issue, made intrusion into some heritage) he matcheth not according to his birth, but [Page 7] the increase of his fortune: and by hooke or creeke so st [...]reth in the world, that not only he attaineth preheminence in the city, but some place in Court: there begins hee with gifts to winne hearts, by fained humility to auoid emulation, by offices of friendship to bind his equals, by subtill insinuations to work his superiours, that he is both held worthy to be a statesman, or a state himselfe. Growne this step higher, the authoritie likes him not without the stile, wherin if any crosse him, look for poi­son in his cup, or conspiracy in his walks, or detractions among his equals: yea, so pestilent is his nature, that (like fire in the embers) he neuer sheweth but to consume both himselfe and o­thers: if hée perceiue any that by ripe iudgement c [...]nteiteth his courses, with him he ioineth as if he sought his only prote­ction vnder the wing of his glory: but the very truth is, he hath no other intent but this, to impe the wings of his renowme for feare he flie beyond him. Will you know his method? mary this it is: if the nature of the noble man whom hee enuieth be flexible, he bringeth him in feare either of his faithfull seruants in his priuat family, or his trusty familiars that loue his honor, or (if hée hath but some inckling of suspect, or some mislike be­twixt his Prince and him,) hée plaieth Lucian in lying, lea­uing no meanes vnsought, but (as the Oratour saith, Om­nem moltens lapidem) either to enforce feare or mooue hatred: this done, hée worketh on the contrary side, incensing the Prince by some probable surmises (sworne and confirmed by his flatterers and intelligencers,) till the Noble looseth ei­ther his land, authority, or place, and hée attaine both his stile and promotion. Then at his buriall who mourneth chie­fest but hée? yet play he neuer so cun [...]ngly, as Cornelius Gal­lus saith:

If hée endeauour to strengthen himselfe, hée doth but auoid his owne daunger, that after his owne assurance, hée may [Page 8] be more able in others mischiefes: to those he fauoureth, and such as further his procéedings, hee is a Patron to protect their writings, and a Iudge to dissemble their escapes: yea, if any of his traine hath offended the law, he writes as Agesilaus did to Hidrieus Cares in the behalfe of Nicias, Niciam si nihil peccaui [...], dimitte; sin peccauit, nostri causa dimitte: omnino autem dimitte. If Nicias (saith he) hath offended nothing, dismisse him; if he be faul­ty, release him for my sake: howsoeuer it be, set him at liberty. If (according to Machiauels doctrine) he haue a great State opposed against him to preuent his encrease, with him he plai­eth as the Ape with his yong ones, he kils him with coaksing him, he giues aime to his error, shewes patience if hée thwart him, encourageth him to dangers, vrgeth on his rashnes, and thus like a little worme, eateth through a great tree, and by ob­seruing times, winneth his triumph: of all things a likes not to heare of Theophrastus lesson, that cum viuere incipimus, tune morimur: when we begin to liue, then we die: for of all his suspects this is the greatest, that his actions in this world can not work felicity in another: yet with Alexander in his life time he lon­geth to be flattered: and though in soule he knowes himselfe to be a Deuill; yet to the world forsooth he would be deified. A­las, how many are shipwrackt on this rock? (as that Atheist Iulian the Apostata) how many of these sorts (as Caesar, Phocas) in their age, Caesar Borgia (otherwise called Duke Valentini­an) Corradine in Naples, Christierne of Denmarke, Ericus of Swethland, haue vnhappily drowned thēselues in this puddle?

But leaue we him as sufficiently discouered, and let vs see the third Diuel incarnate, which Leuiathan hath brought forth to corrupt and haunt this world: and who is he thinke you? Forsooth no begger, but a gallant of the first head, called Bo­sting, who hath an impure Cleon flattering at his héeles (as had Alexander) or a lasciuious Martiall (as Domitian.) He with Nabuchodonoser will bost that he hath builded Babilon, with the King of Ti [...]e vaunt that he is God, and with the prowd Pharisie accuse the Publican, and iustifie himselfe. This is a lustie bruit amongst all other Diuels, his beard is cut like the spier of Grantham [...]eeple, his eies turne in his head like the [Page 9] Puppets in a motion, he draweth his mouth continually a­wry in disdaine, and what day soeuer you méet him, he hath a sundrie apparell: Among Sectaries he walketh poorely, daw­bing his face with the white of Spaine to looke pale; fixing his eies still on heauen, as if in continuall contemplation; de­meaning himselfe like an Anabaptist, (as Sleidan disciphereth Sleid. lib. 10. de stat. relig. them) to the end he may be reputed as mortified, and a contem­ner of the world: then backbiteth he the Cleargie, commen­ding the simplicitie of his conscience, and getting Presumption, Pertinacitie and Contention, his sworne brothers, into his com­panie, he maligneth all men that commend him not, sweares that Gospeller to be a dronckard whom he neuer knew, pro­tests this Bishop to be a Nestorian, who notwithstanding with Cirile and the Counsaile of Ephesus condemneth his say­ing, Ego [...]imestrem & trimestrem haud quoquam confiteor deum. He condemneth all mens knowledge but his owne, raising vp a Method of experience with ( mirabile, miraculoso, stupendo, and such faburthen words: as Fierouanti doth) aboue all the learned Galienists of Italie, or Europe. Bring him to counsaile, he di­sturbeth the fathers: make him a Lawier, he nourisheth con­tentions: thwart him in his opinion, he will sweare that Capi­canu Muscio the Spaniard, was a moderate souldier, where in the expedition against the Turke (whē Sebastiana Venero was Generall of the Armie of the Uenetians, and Marco Antonio Colbuno Generall for the Pope, and Leiutenant of Don Iohn D'Austria) he and two of his companions, were hanged for se­dition and insolence. Though he looke with a counterfait eie, none must see further then he, and whatsoeuer he saith, must he held an Aphorisme, or he flings house out of the window with his boastings. If he heare any man praised, he either ob­scureth his fame by condemning him of dissolutenesse, or detra­cteth from his credite by vrging some report of intemperance. So that he wholy ascribeth desert to himself, and laies the bur­then of imperfection on all others mens backs. In the Statio­ners shop he sits dailie, Iibing and flearing ouer euery pam­phlet with Ironicall ieasts; yet heare him but talke ten lines, and you may score vp twentie absurdities: I am not as this [Page 10] man is is his common protestation, yet a more aranter Diuel is there not betwixt S. Dauis and London. Make him a schoolemaister and let him liu [...] on his Accidence, no man passeth the same foord with him but he drownes him; Perseus is a foole in his stile, & an obscure Poet. Statius, nim [...]um tumidus, too swel­ling. He hath an oare in euery mans boat; but turne him loose to write any Poeme, God amercie on the soule of his numbers: they are dead, dul, harsh, sottish, vnpleasant, yea Eldertons nose would grin at them if they should but equall the worst of his Ballads. But soft who comes here with a leane face; and hol­low eies, biting in his lips for feare his tongue should leape out of his mouth, studying ouer the reuertions of an ordinarie, how to play the ape of his age? I know him wel, it is Derision, a pret­tie Diuel I promise you, at his héeles waits Rash Iudgement in a cloake of Absurdities: Ho Apelles look to your pictures, for these Diuels will reprooue them; Sirha, cut not your meat with the left hand, spit not without the comely carriage of your head, speake not an accent amisse I charge you; for if Derision catch you in one trip, Rash Iudgement shal condemn you, and he wil execute you. But how I pray you? Marry he will run ouer all his varietie of filthie faces, till he light on yours: beat ouer all the antique conceits he hath gathered, til he second your defect, and neuer leaue to deride you, till he fall drunke in a Tauerne while some grow sicke with laughing at him, or consult with Rash Iudgement how to delude others, that at the length hée prooueth deformity himself. This cursed Cam cares not to mock his father; & as the Rabin Hanany saith, He neuer sitteth but in the chaire of Pestilence, his méerest profession is Atheisme: and as Iob saith, To mocke at the simplicitie of the iust: to be briefe Iob. 12. with Seneca in Medea.

It is meat and drinke to him when he is mocking another man: Christ his Sauior is a Carpenters sonne: Christians, Galileans in contempt: Nay such blasphemie vttereth he be­twixt the Holy ghost and the blessed and Immaculate Uirgine Marie, as my heart trembleth to thinke them, and my tongue [Page 11] abhoreth to speake them.

Next him marcheth Hypocrisie in a long gowne like a schol­ler; how like his father Leuiatha [...] he looks? But that his horns are not yet budded, because he moulted them verie lately, in the lap of an Harlot. Oh how ancient a Gentleman would hée be! he claimes from Simon Magus his petigrée, and by discent tels of Silene the Harlot his first by the mothers side, thē comes he to Menander the coniurer, from him reckons he to the Nico­la [...]ts, who held y ^• a [...]ome of Aristotle in a sinister sence, Bonum qu [...] communius e [...] melius, A good faire wench the commoner shee were, the better she were: Then Cherinthus, Ebion, the one con­firming that circumcision was necessary, the other, that Christ was not before his mother: next these the yeare 109 Marcion, denying God the creator to be the father of Christ: then Valen­tinian, alleaging that Christ participated nothing with the Uir­gine Marie: From them to the Cataphrigi, Tatiani and Seueri­ans; after these to Florus and Blastus in the time of Eleutherius the first. It were too long to recken the whole of them, but this I am sure of, the last sectarie of his kin now aliue (as he saith) is a Brownist, and an Hereticke he is I warrant him. This Di­uel (as most coniured by the constant and ghostly writings of our fathers and schoolemen,) I leaue to discouer, only this much of him as a true marke to know him by; he begins his innoua­tions, because he is crost in his requests, as Blastus; neither is he fauored but by the ignorant and vnlettered, as by Theodotus Niceph [...]r. lib. 3. cap. 7. Au­gustin Psal. 67. vers con­gregatio. a cobler: to be short, as Augustine saith, Ad hoc haereses sinuntur esse vt probati manifesti fiant, Therfore (saith he) are heresies suffred to florish, to the end that being proued they may be made manifest.

Another sonne hath he, and his name is Curiositie, who not content with the studies of profite and the practise of commen­dable sciences, setteth his mind wholie on Astrologie, Negro­mancie, and Magicke. This Di [...]l prefers an Ephimerides before a Bible; and his Ptolomey and Hali before Ambrose, golden Chrisostome, or S. Augustine: Promise him a familier, and he will take a flie in a box for good paiment: if you long to know this slaue, you shall neuer take him without a book of cha­racters in his bosome. Promise to bring him to treasure-troue, [Page 12] he will sell his land for it, but he will be cousened: bring him but a table of lead, with crosses (and Adonai, or Elohim written in it) he thinks it will heale the ague, and he is so busie in fin­ding out the houses of the planets, that at last he is either faine to house himselfe in an Hospitall, or take vp his Inne in a pri­son: he will not eat his dinner before he hath lookt in his Alma­nake: nor paire his nailes while Munday, to be fortunat in his loue: if he loose any thing, he hath readie a siue and a key; and by S. Peter and S. Paule the fool rideth him: hée will shew you the Deuill in a Christal, calculate the natiuitie of his gelding, talke of nothing but gold and siluer, Elixer, calcination, aug­mentation, citrination, commentation; and swearing to en­rich the world in a month, he is not able to buy himselfe a new cloake in a whole yeare: such a Diuell I knew in my daies, that hauing sold all his land in England to the benefite of the coosener, went to Antwerpe with protestation to enrich Mon­sieur the Kings brother of France, Le feu Roy Harie I meane; and missing his purpose, died miserably in spight of Hermes in Flushing. Of this kind of Deuill there was one of late daies flourishing in Lions (a famous cittie in France) who was so much besotted with starre gazing, that he credibly beléeued that there was a certaine Diuinitie in the Sunne, the Moone, and other Planets, saying that the Sonne was true God, which he tearmed the chiefest light and Supremum genus, aboue all the Ca­tegories of Aristotle, but after a little Eleborus had purged him, and reason conuicted him, he recanted. This Diuell if he fall ac­quainted with you (as he did with the Arians) he ties you to Martinet their familiar, maketh you honour Sathan in forme of a Bull, binding you to horrible and abhominable crimes, as first to adore the Deuill as God, then to disauow your Bap­tisme, next to blaspheame your creator, fourthly, to sacrifice to the Deuil, fifthly, to vow and dedicate your own children to his seruice, sixtly, to consecrate those that are vnborne, seuenthly, to seduce others to your power, eightly to sweare by the name of the Diuell, ninthly, to procure abortion to preuent Bap­tisme, tenthly, to eat your children before birth as Horace wri­teth and partly insinuateth.

Then teacheth he you to kill and poison, againe to rot eat­tell by charmes, then to raise stormes and tempests by inuoca­tion of Diuels: what need more horror? Blasting of corne, in­ducing of famine, prodigious incests, the sonne with the mo­ther, the daughter with the father, Magicall ingendrings [...]e­twixt the sorcerer and the Diuel, called by the Hebrews Titeth; al this (as Barkly C [...]prian in his Recantation confesseth, Malleus maleficorum: and Prieras in his Booke De demonum mirandis wit­nesse) are the fruits of Curiositie, and the working of sorceries, and the instructions of the Diuell. There are many in Lon­don now adaies that are besotted with this sinne, one of whom I saw on a white horse in Fléets [...]réet, a tanner knaue I neuer lookt on, who with one figure (cast out of a schollers studie for a necessary seruant at Bocardo) promised to find any mans oxen were they lost, restore any mans goods if they were stolne, and win any man loue, where, or howsoeuer he setled it; but his Iugling knacks were quickly discouered, and now men that in their opinions held him for a right coniurer, dare boldly sweare that he is a rancke cousener.

Another sonne Luiathan hath that deserues disceuering, for of all the children his father hath, he is most befriended & least suspected: his name is Superfluous Inuention, or as some tearme him Nouel-monger or Fashions. Sometimes he is a cooke, inuen­ting new sauces and banquets, sometimes deuising strange confections to besot an idolater of his bellie, sometimes for an irefull man he deuiseth strange reuenges, sometime for a fear­full, strong towers to kéepe him in: he is excellent at billiment laces to deuise new, and for pouders to breake the cannon, and poisons to kill lingeringlie, he yéelds neither place to Fierouanti nor any Italian. If Ladies lacke paintings and Bele [...]ze, Ue­nice affoords not the like; and if your mastership lacke a fashi­on, commend me to none but him. This is he who first found out the inuentions to curle, and to him it is ascribed the chan­ging and dying of haire: For he could be no lesse then a Diuell in my opinin, that durst falsifie Gods words, where hée saith, Non potes vnum capillum facere album aut nigrum, Yet dare he ad­uenture Matth. 5. [Page 14] to know all. Cleopatra in her time was his dear friend, and in our age he is sought too both in Towne and Countrie. The chines of Béefe in great houses are scantled to buie chains of gold; and the almes that was wont to reléeue the poore, is husbanded better to buy new Rebatoes: it is monstrous in our opinion to sée an old man become effeminate, but is it not more monstrous to sée the old woman made yoong againe! the Ele­phant is admired for bearing a litle castle on his back, but what say you to a tender, faire, young, nay a weakling of woman­kind, to weare whole Lordships and manor houses on her backe without sweating? Vestium luxum (saith Tully) arguit ani­mum parum sobrium, Alasse sobrietie where shalt thou now bée sought, where all men affect pompe? The Plowman that in times past was contented in Russet, must now adaies haue his doublet of the fashion with wide cuts, his garters of fine silke of Granado to méet his Sis on Sunday: the farmer that was con­tented in times past with his Russet Frocke & Mockado sléeues, now sels a Cow against Easter to buy him silken géere for his credit. Is not this Fashions a iolly fellow that worketh this? Con [...]it. A­po [...]. lib. 1. ca. 4. & 9. Urge the constitution of the Apostles to our gallants, O hom [...] mors aeterna [...]ibi parata est, quoniam propter ornatum tuum illaqueasti mulierem vt amore tui flagraret, Man eternall death is prepared for thee, because thou hast allured women to sinne by thy dissolute garments. Tut say they, we stand not on credite nor on consci­ence; and yet they lie too, for so long they stand on their credites that they vtterly fall by them. Crie out with them to the wo­man, and will her not paint her visage; now I faith Sir foole (will she say) helpe of nature is no sinne, to please my husband: Nay, whispers Fashion in her ears, if you be Gods works, you had the more reason to be adorned because his. Impiety thus al­waies attending on this Deuill, he forgeth excuses to dispence with conscience. It is a great matter saith Tertulian to sée the vanitie of women in these daies, who are so trimd and trickt, that you would rather say they beare great forrests on their necks, then modest and ciuill furnitures: Tut answers Fashion, it kéepes their faces in compasse; To weare wiers and great ruffes, is a comely cops to bide a long wrinckled face in. Boul­sters [Page 15] for crookt shoulders, who but Fashions first sold them in Uenice? and since busks came in request, horne [...] growne to such a scarcitie, that Leuiathan hath cast his owne beakers of late to serue the market. There are boulsters likewise for the buttocks as wel as the breast, and why forsooth? The smaller in the wast, the better handled. Beléeue me, I thinke in no time Ierome had better cause to crie out on pride then in this, for painting now adaies is grown to such a custome, that from the swartfaste Deuil in the Kitchin to the fairest Damsel in the cit­tie, the most part looke like Uizards for a Momerie, rather then Christians trained in sobrietie: O poore woman (cried the Fa­ther) canst thou lift vp thy face to heauē, cōsidering God knows thée not? Tut all this moues not (quoth Inuention of Nouelties) we must haue more new Fashions: well be it so master Diuell, yet let your dames take this verse of Martials for a conclusion:

But let vs leaue this Diuell at his cutting bord intentiue for new fashions against next Christmas, and sée what Diuell and sonne of pride marcheth next, forsooth Ingratitude, carelesse both in apparrell and lookes: This is a generall fellow, and thinkes scorne to be vnséene in all the sinnes of the world. If hée receiue graces from God, it not his mercie that giueth them, but his owne industrie; he is a right Pelagian, presuming by naturall vertue (without the grace of God) to attaine Paradise: Giue him what you can, hée condemnes you for your labor: he cals his maister old dunce that taught him learning; and to his fa­ther that brought him vp, he protests he knows him not poore groome, nay if he beg he scornes to reléeue him: his benefactors might haue kept their money with a vengeance: and for his Lord (if he serue at any time) none but Ingratitude if hée decay, will soonest sell him to a sergeant, he is the fittest instrument to hang his Maister, so that of Plautus is verie aptly applied vnto them.

To be short with Ieuenal in his Satires.

Nihil augetur ingrato (saith Barnard) sed quod accipit, vertitur [...]i in perniciem, To an vngratefull man nothing is encreased, and that which he receiueth, turneth to his destruction. Pliny in the Prologue of his naturall Historie calleth them fures & infeli­ces, Theeues, and vnhappie, that acknowledge no benefites: and Seneca the Philosopher counteth them worser then Ser­pents, for Serpents (saith he) cast out their poison to other mens destruction, but vngratefull men without their owne dis­grace cannot be vnthankfull. Hermes Trimegestus counteth the best sacrifice to God to be Thankfulnesse, it followeth then à contrarijs that the worst thing in his sight is Ingratitude. The commenter vpon Aristotles Book De animalibus telleth a storie to this purpose: A certaine husbandman nourished an Aspis in his house, féeding him daily at his own table, and chearing him with his owne meat; it fortuned a little while after that hée brought forth two yong ones, the one of which poisoned the hus­bandmans sonne, and brought sorrow to his houshold: The old bréeder considering this (in the sight of the father) murthered the offender, and as if ashamed of his ingratitude, departed the house with the other. Behold sence of benefite in a Serpent, and will man be vnthankfull? The Lion that was healed by Andronicus in the wood, did he not saue his life in the Theator? Man consider this, and to bring thée the more in hatred with this fiend, weigh this one example of Seneca written in his fourth Booke De beneficijs: A certaine sould for indangered by ship­wracke, and floating (for the space of twentie daies) on a bro­ken mast in a sore tempest, was at last cast a shoare in a Noble­mans Lordship, by whom he was reléeued with meat, clothes, and monie: This Nobleman comming to Philip of Macedon his King, and encountring a little after with this vnthankfull souldier, was by him accused of false Treason: and so much for the time did iniquitie preuaile, that not only he indangered the Noblemans life, but possest his goods likewise, by the beneuo­lence [Page 17] of the King: notwithstanding truth (which according to Seneca in Oedipus, adit moras, hateth delay) being at last discoue­red, and the king assertained of the wretched souldiors ingrati­tude, he branded him in the face with a burning yron, and dis­poiling him of his ill gotten goods, restored the other: so deale you by this Diuell of our age, and beware of his subtilties, for if once he proue an intelligencer, he will helpe to hang you.

The next Harpie of this bréed is Scandale and Detraction, This is a right malecontent Deuill, You shall alwaies find him his hat without a band, his hose vngartered, his Rapier punto r'enuerso, his lookes suspitious and heauie, his left hand continually on his dagger: if he walke Poules, he sculks in the backe Isles, and of all things loueth no societies: if at any time he put on the habit of grauitie, it is either to backbite his neigh­bor, or to worke mischiefe: well spoken he is, and hath some languages, and hath red ouer the coniuration of Machiauel: In beleife he is an Atheist, or a counterfait Catholicke; hating his countrie wherein hée was bred, his gratious Prince vnder whom he liueth, those graue counsailors vnder whom the state is directed, not for default either in gouernement, or pollicy, but of méere innated and corrupt villanie; and vaine desire of In­nouation. He hath béene a long Traueller, and séene manie countries, but as it is said of the toad, that he sucketh vp the cor­rupt humors of the garden where hée kéepeth; so this wretch from al those Prouinces he hath visited, bringeth home nothing but the corruptions, to disturbe the peace of his countrie, and destroy his owne bodie and soule. If he studie, it is how to dis­pence and frustrate statutes, and (being grounded by ill counsel, and prepared for mischiefe) he laboureth (as the Legist saith) not to auoid the sinne, but the penaltie. This fellow spares nei­ther Nobilitie, Clergie, nor Laietie, but (like that Roman Em­peror, vnworthie the naming) desireth that the whole people and comminaltie had but one head, that he might cut it off at one stroake. Let him haue no cause, he wisheth Vitellius mise­rie to maiestie, and swears by no small bugs, that all the world is imprudent that imploies him not: This is hée that in priute Conuenticles draws discontented Gentlemen to conspiracies, [Page 18] and hauing brought thē past the [...]ercie of the law, he bewra [...]es them first; bringing them to a violent end, and binding himselfe to perpetuall prison: But woe be vnto him (saith Christ) by whom the scandale and offence commeth, it were better for him that a milstone hung about his necke, and that he were cast in­to the bottome of the sea: It is a position in the Apophthegmes of the Rabms, that he that draweth many men to sin, can hard­ly settle himselfe to repentance; then in what miserable estate is this wretch that delighteth in nought els but traiterous and deuillish stratagems? his daily companion in walke, bed, and bord, is rebellion and disobedience; and of the séed of this Ser­pent are raised so many monsters, that no cittie in Italie hath béene vnstained with them, and no Kingdome in Europe vn­molested by them. Ill would they obserue that golden sentence of Cornelius Tacitus registred by Machiauel, who saith, That men ought to honour things past, and obey the present, desiring and wishing for good Princes, and howsoeuer they proue to en­dure 3. thē: I but (answeres Scandale) I neuer respect how things bée, but how I wish them to be: notwithstanding (sir Deuil) let this be your looking glasse, That neuer scandale or conspiracie hath ben raised, [...]ut the practiser hath at last rewd it. The little Spaniard that assailed Ferdinando the wise king with a knife; Deruis the Turkish Priest that assaulted Baiazeth, what end came they to? Either their enuie (to their shame) was discoue­red by their feare, or drowned in their blouds. The schoolemai­ster that betraied the P [...]alerians children, was hée not whipt home by Camillus? Antigonius, Caesar, and all these Monarchs, haue they not loued the Treason, but hated the Traitor? Read all the annals and obseruations of antiquitie, and there hath nothing begun in corruption, but hath ended in mischiefe. But for your detraction, Scandale, blush you not to vse it? No, say you, the Diuell delighteth in mischief [...], yet will I giue your Mastership short hornes since you are so [...] a beast, that you may hurt no man: your course is you say to backebite superiors, to scandale the fathers and gouernors of the church, to bring Christians and Catholique Religion in hatred; but wretch as thou art, know this, that he that toucheth the credite [Page 19] of the Cleargie, toucheth the apple of Gods e [...]e; and who so lo­ueth [...] 2 [...] [...] Prou. 24. Da [...]. [...]. to detract, is hateful to God: the wise man saith, that the detractor is abhominatio hominum, the abhomination of men: and Gerson saith, that detraction is gréeuouser then theft. This Di­uell is fitly figured in that beast which Daniel saw hauing thrée rancks of téeth, to whome it was said, Arise and eat m [...]ch flesh: These thrée orders of téeth are thrée manners of detra­ction: The first is to deminish or misinterprete the action of a man, as if done vnder corrupt intention; or comparing one de­sert with another, to shew that the action was not done so ver­tuously as it ought, neither so perfectly as it might haue béene: The second maner, is (vnder an intent of de [...]amation) to pub­lish a mans hidden defects, which by the law of charitie should bée hidden, and in reason may be wincked at: The third man­ner is the most mischieuous, which is to imagine treasons and impose them on innocents. These téeth Peter teacheth al Chri­stians 1. Pet. 2. to beat out when hee saith, Laying apart all malice, and deceit, simulation, enuse, and detraction, desire milke: And what milke is this? Trulie swéet, and charitable words, for it is the nature of the tongue to speake good and vertuous things; what otherwise it vttereth, it is but the corruptions of the heart. A detractor (as a father saith) may rightly be compa­red to Cadmus of Gréece, who sowed Serpents téeth on the Ouid 4. [...]. earth, out of which arose men who slew one another: so the Detractor spreddeth nothing but corrupt and venomous séed, out of which spring contentions, warres, and discenti­ons among men. A Detractor likewise (saith Holgot) is like a stincking sepulcher, for as out of the one issueth foule and Holg [...] ▪ [...] sapi. poysonous sauours, so out of the others mouth commeth sedious, and pernicious conspiraces. It is a conclusion of Au­stines, that Qui negligit famam crudelis est, He that neglecteth his fame is cruell; and another Philosopher witnesseth, that hée that looseth his credite, hath nought els to loose. Beware therefore of this diuellish Scandale, Rebellion, and Detraction, and crosse you from this Deuill, least he crosse you in your walkes.

[Page 20]Another Diuel of this age (and the sonne of Leuiathan) is A­dulation, who goes generally ietting in Noblemens cast apar­rell, he hath all the Sonnets and wanton rimes the world of our wit can affoord him, he can dance, leape, sing, drinke vp-se-Frise, attend his friend to a baudie house, court a Harlot for him, take him vp commodities, féed him in humors; to bée short, second and serue him in any villanie: If he méet with a wealthy yong heire worth the clawing, Oh rare cries he, doe hée neuer so filthily, he puls feathers from his cloake if hée walke in the stréet, kisseth his hand with a courtesie at euery nod of the yon­ker, bringing him into a fooles Paradise by applauding him; If he be a martiall man or imploied in some Courtly tilt or Tour­ney, Marke my Lord (quoth he) with how good a grace hée sat his horse, how brauelie hée brake his launce: If hée bée a little bookish, let him write but the commendation of a flea, straight begs he the coppie, kissing, hugging, grinning, & smiling, till hée make the yong Princocks as proud as a Pecocke. This Da­mocles amongst the retinue caries alwaies the Tabacco Pipe, and his best liuing is carrying tidings from one Gentlemans house to another: some thinke him to be a bastard intelligencer but that they suspect his wit is too shallow. This is as courtlie an Aristippus as euer begd a Pension of Dionisius, and to speak the only best of him, he hath an apt and pleasing discourse, were it not too often sanced with Hiperboles and lies: and in his ap­parell he is courtly, for what foole would not be braue that may flourish with begging? The sword of a persecutor woundeth [...]. Psal. 6. 9. not so déepely as he doth with his tongue. Neither dooth the voice of a Syrene draw so soone to ship wrack as his words: yet (as Aristotle and Cicero thinke) he is but a seruile fellow, and [...]icero lib. 2. Tuscul. quest. according to Theophrastus, he is an ant to the graine of good na­ture: Of al things he cannot abide a scholer, and his chiefest de­light is to kéepe downe a Poet, as Mantuan testifieth in these verses: Mant. in [...].

There is in Princes and great mens courts (saith he) a rude, enuious, and rusticke troupe of men, ieasters, flatterers, bauds, soothers, adulterers, plaiers, and scoffers, who hating all vertue find a thousand inuentions to driue Poets thence, like to [...]ar­rion crowes, that hauing found a carkas, driue all other birds from it: and as the Culuer (as Ouid saith) alwaies séeketh and Aspicis v [...] veniant ad [...] [...] columb [...]? haunteth the cleanest Douecoat, so this flattering Diuel is stil conuersant in the house of the mightie: and as in the fattest ground growes the ranckest grasse, so with the men of greatest ability dwelleth the chiefest flatterie (S. Ierome cals him a Do­mestical Herome in Pro. 1. s [...]er illud si [...]e la­c [...]auerit. Cal. Ro [...]. lib. 11. Er [...]s. [...]. 4. chap. 33. enemie.) This [...] as the Gréeke [...]earmes it, hath but litle difference from rauening, for if we beléeue Caeleius Rodegi­nus, & Erasmus in his Apophthegmes, the only changing of a let­ter, will make Corachas & Colachas crowes & flatterers all one. Alexander méeting with this Diuell in the person of Aristobu­lus, coniured him quickly, for as Politian writeth on Suetonius, he not only scorned his flatteries, but cast his Chronicles into the riuer of Hidaspes, telling him that he deserued no lesse, who had so fabulously handled his victories: had Herod done no lesse when the Tyrians cald him God, his pride had not béene notifi­ed to the world; neither strooken by an Angell, should hée haue béene deuoured by wormes. This feind is continually attended and accompanied with foure of his brethren, Lightnes of mind, Vaine Ioy, Singularitie, & Defence of a mans sins: Lightnes of mind teacheth him to presume, Vaine Ioy swelleth him with tempo­rall prosperities, Singularitie makes him affect innouations to please, Defence of his sinnes groundeth him in his owne mis­chiefes; This sin is the only peruerter of friendship, and distur­ber of societie, and vnhappily saith Tully is that possession good, Cicer. [...]. 3. which is purchased by simulation & flatterie: so that great cause had both the fathers and Philosophers to detest this sin, because they knew that man is naturally apt to flatter himselfe, and is best pleased to heare his imperfections dissembled. The anci­ent Emperours desirous to auoid this error, and to banish this [Page 22] poison from their pallaces, sought out the wisest men to be their Counsailers, who most of all detested this vice, as Salomon who was aduised by Nathan and Sadoch: Carolus P [...]us the Em­perour, by learned Alcuinus: Traian the iust, by learned Plu­tarch: Nero the vniust, by graue Seneca: Alexander (though a conqueror) by ingenious Aristotle: Prolomey of Egypt, bp the 70 interpreters. To conclude therefore the discourse of this Deuill, I will end with two notable actions of the Ro­manes, whereby you may perceiue by them, to make estima­tion of truth, and to grow in detestation of Flatterie and Falshood: The Emperour Augustus in his triump [...] [...]er An­thonie and Cleopatra, led to Roome (amongst his other spoiles) Second. sel de Messia lib. 2. cap. 117. a graue Egyptian Priest of sixtie yeares old, whose life was so full of continence, and words so stored with truth, that it was neuer heard of him in all his life time that hée had told vntruth, or vsed flatterie; for which cause it was concluded by the Se­nate, that hee should presently bee set frée, and made cheife Priest, commanding (that among the statues of famous and renowmed men) one in especiall should bée reared for him. Spartianus on the contrarie side, sheweth an example quite op­posite to this, and this it was: during the Empire of Claudi­us, there died a certaine Romane called Pamphilus, who as was clearely prooued, had not in all his life time spoke one true word, but wholly delighted in lying and flatterie: for which cause the Emperour commaunded that his bodie should bee left vnburied, his goods should bée confiscate, his house ouerthrown, and his wife and children banished Roome, to the end that the memorie of a creature so venomous, should not liue and haue residence in his Commonweale. In which two things Messia vseth this obseruation, that in the time that these first effects happened, the Romanes were mortall enemies of the Egyptians, for which cause it may easilie bée séene how powerfull the force of truth is, since the Romanes raised a statue to their Enemie, and depriued their homeborne sonne and Cittizen of buriall for being a flattering lier: He­therto hée, and here conclude I the description of this fiend.

[Page 23]Behold next I sée Contempt marching forth, giuing mée the Fico with this thombe in his mouth, for concealing him so long from your eie sight: He was first nursed by his owne si­ster, Custome to sinne, and therefore according to Thomas A­quine, Magis peccat peccans ex habitu, quam aliter, He sinneth more, sinning in habitude then otherwise: Contumacie hath stéeld his lookes, so that he disdaines his superiours, and Rashnesse so con­founds him with will and passion, that hée is wholly subiect to headlong Precipitation: Arrogancie maketh him sumptuous in apparrell, loftie in gate, affecting in spéech, and thus marcheth forth thi [...] [...]ncarnate Deuill, God blesse your eie sight. This is he dare breake statutes, bl [...]b the lip a [...] superiours, Mocke Prea­chers, beat Constables, and resist Writs, nay, which is the sin of the Deuils, contemne God. If a poore man salute him, hée lookes as if he scorned him, and if he giue him but a becke with his finger, hée must take it as an almes from an Emperour: The wisest man is a foole in his tongue, and there is no Philoso­phie (saith he) but in my Method and carriage: he neuer speaks but hee first wags his head twise or thrise like a wanton mare ouer hirbit, and after hée hath twinckled with his eies (as hée would read his destinie in the heauens) and chewed the wordes betwéene his lips (as if nought but the flower of his Phrase could delight or become him) out braies hée foorth so simple a dis­course as would make a mās heart burst with laughing to hear it: To the cobler he saith, set me two semicircles on my suppedi­taries; and hée answeres him, his shoes shall cost him two pence: to his seruant hée chops the fragments of Lattin in eue­rie feast of his phrase, My deminitiue and defectiue slaue (quoth hée) giue mée the couerture of my corpes to ensconse my per­son from frigiditie; (and al this while he cals but for his cloak.) Get him write letters to his friend, and marke mée his Method: Sien of my Science in the Catadupe of my know­ledge, I nourish the Crocodile of thy conceit; my wrath-ven­ger (hee meanes his sword) shall annichilate their identities, and seperate the pure of their spirits from the filthie of their flesh, that shall frustrate thy forwardnesse, or [Page 24] put out the candel of thy good conceit towards me. Should I re­gister the whole, it would rather waxe tedious then delightfull: and as his spéech is extreamely affected and fond, his writing ridiculous and childish, so is his life so far out of square, that no­thing can reforme him: Talke to him of obedience, he saith itis the seale of a bace mind: Tell him of good gouernment, it is the gift of fortune, not the fruit of consideration: Rip vp the successe of battels, he saies they were not well followed. In briefe, no­thing can please him, who despiseth all things. If you say that (as Publius Mimus saith) the smallest haire hath his shadow (& with Rabin Ben-Aza [...]) that no man liuing is to bée contemned, for euerie man shall haue his hower, and euerie thing hath his place; Hée will answere aquila non capit muscas, Eue­rie bace groome is not for my companie. Beware of this Doemon, for though hée bée the last of Leuiathans race, yet is hée the arrantest and subtillest Atheist of all these Deuils. Hitherto haue I discouered pride and his children; now ha­uing taught you to know them, let me instruct you to auoid them.

As euerie mischiefe is best auoided by opposing against him his contrarie, so arme your selues with Humilitie against Pride and his faction, and he shall not confound you: For as Augustine saith, Pride sinketh to Hell, and Humili­tie August. E­pist. 38. leadeth to Heauen: Pride is the step to Appostasie, and being opposed against God, is the greatest sinne in man. All other vices (saith Augustine) are to bée taken héed of in August. ad Di [...]scor. sinnes, but this, in good doings, least those thinges that are laudably done, bee lost in the desire of praise. Follow Christ quia mitis est, and heare a Father crying to you, Ecce habes humilitatis exemplum superbiae medicamentum, Behold thou hast an example of Humilitie, and a medicine a­gainst Pride: Why swellest thou therefore Oh man? Thou lothsome and carrion skinne, why art thou stretched? Thou filthie matter, why art thou inflamed? Thy Prince is humble and thou prowd; Caput humile, & membra superba, The head humble, the members loftie, thus farre hee. Let vs resemble the Pecocke (according [Page 25] to the counsell of Ierome) which no longer delighteth in the brightnesse and beauty of his feathers, but whilst [...]he beholdeth them, and séeing the deformitie of his féet, is confounded and ashamed: so let vs, considering our infirmi [...]ies, be ashamed of our lostinesse, remembring daily that of Seneca:

Amongst many other plagues of a proud man this is one, that Dominus deridebit eos, as the Psalmist saith, Our Lord shall laugh them to scorne: where, of the iust and humble man it is said, Laetabitur cum viderit vindictam, He shall reioice when hee Prou 1. Et ego quo­que in interi­ [...]u vestro ri­debo. seeth the reuenge. Uery rightly is a proud man compared to smoke, the which the more it ascendeth, the more it vanisheth▪ so the loftie and proud minds of this world, the more they are mounted, the more suddenly are they consumed. To be short, (and in a small lesson to shut a true remedie against Pride and all his followers) vse this: first, consider how God hath grie­uously punished that sinne: next, call to thy consideration mans mortall weaknesse and infirmity: thirdly, kéepe in memorie the reward of Humilitie, and the hainousnesse of Pride, expres­sed in Boetius by these words, Cum [...]mnia vicia fugiant à Deo, sola superbia se ei opponit, Whereas all vices flie from God, only Pride opposeth herselfe against him. And let this serue for a due con­clusion set downe by Salomon, that Vbi supērbia, ibi & contume­lia est; vbi autem humilitas, ibi sapientia cum gloria, Where pride is, there contumely is also; but where humility is, there is wisdome with glory.

Tut preachers can better teach this (say you) returne you to your deuils: I confesse it my friends, absolue me therefore, and you shall heare me tell of strange deuils raised by Auarice and cursed Mammon: your silence saith, Doe, and therefore thus make I an entrance to my second discourse.

¶ Of strange and msraculous Deuils ingen­dred by Mammon.

AVarice which (as Augustine defineth it) is an insa­tiable & dishonest desire of enioying euerything (our secōd Etynnis & Mammon, the son of Satan) tormented & waxen old with intollerable desire, finding the world insufficient to satisfie his affe­ctions, by cold cathars of iealousie féeling his sences choked, and with a Paralisis of feare, shaken almost one ioint from ano­ther; betooke himselfe at last to his ca [...]e of suspition, where he suffereth his euidences to be worm-eaten for want of opening, and his gold and siluer to rust for want of vse. Yet bein [...] loth the world should lack members to supply his office, or Satān want ministers to conduct soules to hell, in like sort as Pallas is fai­ned by the Poets to be begotten in the braine of Iupiter without mother, so did Auarice in y ^e concanity of his codshed, beget seuen Deuils, which after a belke of surfet hauing breathed into the world, it is necessary you knew them, y ^e you might the better a­ [...]oid them. The first of them is Vsury (a Deuil [...] of good credit in y ^e city) who hauing primly stolne a sufficient stock foom the old miser his father, hath lately set vp for himselfe, and hath foure of his brothers his apprentices. The first of them is Hardnesse of heart, who bringing into his banke contempt of the poore, is set by him to beat beggers from his doore, & arrest his debters by Latitats. The second is, Vnmeasurable care, and Trouble of mind, who hath brought this portion to be imploid; destruction of the mind, neglect of Gods seruice, want of faith, and iealousie of losse: he kéepes the cash, and suffers not a mouse to enter, but he scores him. The third is Violence, & for him he hath bought a Sargeants office, who hath so many eies like Argus to watch, that no poore creditour can escape him▪ His stock is a bunch of writs, and a hanger, and ordinarily h [...] weares his mace at his back in stead of a dagger. The fourth is [...] and hée iets a­bout the stréets to steale for him, hée is a passing good hooker and picklock; and for a short knife & a horne thimble, turne him loose to all the fraternity: his stock is false keies, engines, & sword [Page 27] and bookler: Him hée imploses to rob from them hée hath lent moneyto, to the end they may be the fitter to commit a forfai­ture. This Vsury is iumpt of the complexion of the Baboun his father; he is haired like a great Ape, & swart like a tawny In­dian, his hornes are sometime hidden in a button cap (as Th. N. described him) but now he is fallen to his flat cap, because he is chiefe warden of his company: he is narrow browd, & Squirril eied, and the chiefest ornament of his face is, that his nose sticks in the midst like an embosment in Tarrace worke, here & there embelished and decked with veruca for want of purging with Agarick; some Authors haue compared it to a Kutters cod­piece, but I like not the allusion so well, by reason the tyings haue no correspondence: his mouth is alwaies mumbling, as if hée were at his mattens: and his beard is bristled here & there like a sow that had the lowsie: double chinned hée is, and ouer h [...]s throat hangs a bunch of skin like a mony bag: band weares hée none, but a welt of course Holland, & if you see it stitcht with blew thréed, it is no workiday wearing: his trusse is the piece of an old packcloth, the marke washtout; and if you spie a paire of Bridges satten sléeues to it, you may be assured it is a holy day: his points are the edging of some cast packsaddle, cut out sparingly (I warrant you) to serue him & his houshold for trussing leather: his tacket for sooth is faced with moth-eaten budge, and it is no lesse then Lisle Grogeram of the worst: it is bound to his body with a Cordeliers girdle; died black for come­lines sake: & in his bosom he beares his handkerchiefe made of the reuersion of his old tablecloth: his spectacles hang beating ouer his codpiece like the flag in the top of a maypole: his brée­ches and stockings are of one péece I warrant you, which ha­uing serued him in pure [...]ersie for y ^• tester of a bed some twen­ty yéeres, is by the frugality of a dier & the curtesie of a Tailer for this present made a sconse for his buttocks: his shoes of the old cut, broad at the toes and crosse-buckled with brasse, and haue loop-holes like a sconse for his toes to shoot out at: his gowne is sutable, and as séemely as the [...], full of thréeds I warrant you, wheresoeuer the wooll is imploied, welted on the backe with the clipping of a bare cast veluet hood, [Page 28] and faced with foines that had kept a widows taile warme twenty winters before his time. Thus attired, hée walkes Powls, coughing at euery step as if hée were broken winded, grunting sometime for the paine of the stone & strangury: and continually thus old, and séeming readie to die, he notwithstan­ding liues to confound many families. If you come to borrow money, hée will take no vsury, no mary will hée not; but if you require ten pound, you shall pay him forty shillings for an old cap, and the rest is yours in ready m [...]ny; the man loues good dealing. If you desire commodities at his hand, why sir you shall haue them, but how? not (as the caterpillers wont to sell) at high prises, but as the best and easiest penyworth, as in con­science you can desire them: only this, at the insealing of the assurance, if you helpe him away with a chest of glasse for ten pound of ten shillings price, you shall command his warehouse another time. Tut he is for you at casuall marts, commodities of Proclamations, and hobby-horses, you shall haue all that you please, so hée receiue what he desires. It is a common cu­stome of his to buy vp crackt angels at nine shillings the piece. Now sir if a gentleman (on good assurance of land) request him of mony, Good sir, (saith hée, with a counterfait sigh) I would be glad to please your worship, but my good mony is abroad, and that I haue, I dare not put in your hands. The gentleman thinking this conscience, where it is subtilty, and being beside that, in some necessity, ventures on the crackt angels, some of which can not flie for soldering, and paies double interest to the miser, vnder the cloake of honesty. If he failes his day, God forbid he should take the forfaiture, hée will not thriue by other mens curses, but because men must liue, and we are Infidels if we prouide not for our families, hée is content with this his owne; only a lease, a toy, of this or that manor, worth both his principall and ten times the interest, this is easie for the gen­tleman to pay, and reasonable in him to receiue. If a citizen come to borrow, my friend, quoth he, you must keepe day, I am glad to helpe young men without harming my selfe: then paying him out the mony and receiuing his assurance, he casts Iolly Robbins in his head how to cousin the simple fellow. If [Page 29] hée haue a shop well furnished, a stocke to receiue out of the Chamber, possibility after the death of his father, all this hee hearkens after: and if he fatle of his day, Well, saith he, for cha­ritie sake I will forbeare you, mine interest paid: meane while (vnknowne to the wretch) he sues him vpon the originall to an outlawry, and if the second time he faile (as by some flight in­couragement hée causeth him to do) hée turnes him out a dores like a carelesse yong man, yet for christianity sake, he lets him at liberty, and will in charity content him with his goods, and as Plautus saith in Trinummo:

A right Achab, hée will not loose Naboths vineyard for the catching after: and if an office fals, hée buies it to raise more profit in the sale therof: Hée hath false weights to sell all the wares hée retaleth: and if the reuersion of an heritage fall in his laps, he will not let to poison him that is in possession. He is the only friend to a prison house, enriching it by his prisoners. As for his dore, there are more staues in hand to beat the beg­gers thence, then morcels▪ se [...]t out to relieue their necessity▪ Aske him why he hoords vp m [...]ny, forsooth saith hée, against age; and yet for euery tooth hée can shew me at these yéeres, I will promise him a kingdom. Aske him why he marries not? Oh, saith hée, I am of Bias opinion, In youth it is too soone, and in age too late: promise him a great dowry, his answer is, The sau­rum volo, non foeminam: The mony (man) for me, the wench likes me not. Let the learned counsell him to forsake the world & fall to rest, O saith he, with Periander, Bon [...]res est quies, sed periculosa est temeritas: Rest is good, but rashnesse is dangerous. Urge him to hospitality, O saith hée, Quam suauis parcimonia? How sweet is f [...]ugality? On my conscience he had rather die lowsie with Phae­r [...]cides, Di [...]g. Iae [...]s, lib. 1. in vit [...] Phaerecid. then buy a shirt to shift him with. At his repasts, hée weies the meat his mouth deuoureth, and hath more mercy of his mony then his body, for hée kéepes the one lockt vp safely from sunne and wind, but for his body he suffers it to be pinch­ed with famine and winter, nay, to be subiect to all the in­conueniences and tyranies of nature. To conclude with Clau­dian:

Neither ought we to maruell her [...], if we consider the rea­son: for (as Chri [...]ostome saith) Usury may be compared to the [...]. venime of a [...] serpent▪ whose biting at the first is so swéet, that it ingendreth a desire to sléepe, and in sleepe▪ killeth. So▪ hée that is delighted with vsury, or intang [...]ed in the nets of those that practise it; the one is [...]laine by the poison thereof, in the sléepe of his desire and insatiate affection; and the other thin­king in the beginning to receiue some profit, slumbreth & drea­meth of his profit, and in the end (not acquitting himselfe of the principall) he is wholly consumed and confounded. Oh beware [...]ald. lib. 3. [...]. 449. of this Deuill, for (as Baldus saith) he resembleth a worme, which hauing made a hole in a trée where in shée may turne her selfe, she ingendreth another worme of the same mallice, vntill all be consumed▪ Some compares it to that [...]ulture which Ho [...]. odys. 11. gnawes on Titius liuer. Some compare it to fire, which is so actiue and insatiate an element [...] that it [...] all things it Lib. 2. lib. 3 [...]. toucheth. Ca [...]o (as Cice [...]o reporteth) compares an [...] to a Homi [...]ide: and Pausanius saith:

But to shew the villany of this Deuill more fitly, I will not only prooue that vsury is against the law of nature, but also a­gainst the law of God. That in the law of nature Usury was hatefull, it appeareth in this, that Plato in his lawes hath for­bidden [...]. [...] 2. de [...]egib. the vse thereof; and Plutarch in a whole treatise hath purposely disprooued it: The Turke, the Moore, the Saracene, and Tartar, all these Enemies of the policied world of Chri­stendome, [...]. do with horror detest it. It is contrary to nature, you know, for a barten thing to yéeld fruit: How can it then be possible, that mony (being a barren thing) should e [...]gender mo­ney. Another reason is this, Hée that selleth one thing twise, [Page 31] committeth [...] and larceny: but the Usurer doth so (for in receiuing the summe, he recei [...]eth siluer for siluer in the same equality, and then in exacting the surplusage, he seileth the vse, [...]. which is to sell twise) and the reason is (as Ba [...]t. Medina wr [...] ­teth) that the vse can not be separated from the thing.

That Usury is against the law of God, it appeareth in the old Testament, Exod▪ [...]2, Leuit. 25. and in another place, Thou [...]. shalt [...]end neither gold [...], fruit, nor any other thing in vsury do thy brother, Dauid Ezechiel, and Luke, all conclude in this: so that by Gods law how coutemptible it is, it manifestly appeareth. Generall councils haue condemned it, as the Council of U [...] ­enna: the law Gabinium amongst the Romans taxed them: [...]. the Canon and Ciuill lawes disable them of [...] and digni­ties, debar them of communicating, deny them Christ [...]an bu­riall, permit them not to make Testaments. A [...] more penalties may you find in Panormitane and others, to long for me to write, only fit for the curious, not the simple. For mine owne part, Master Vsury, I hope I haue indifferently hand­led you: if there grow any s [...]ruple or doubt in any mans mind to know him better, let him but giue me warning against the next Impression, I will make the old moule warye hang him­selfe in his owne garters to sée his villanies opened.

By your leaue, my masters, here mar [...]heth forth another Deuil▪ by my faith if a man knew him not inwardly, he would take him for a handsome citizen: Would you know how I call him? Mary shall you: This is Brocage, a crafty Deuill is hee if you marke him: hée likewise hath three brothers to attend him, which be his apprentises: Craft, to kéepe his shop, & cor­rupt his commodities: Deceit, to take vp vpon trust, and ne­uer pay the principall: and Periury, to sweare to the prises of euery commodity. Grase neuer returnes him lesse then a sute of Satten for a Capon: and Deceit (a prety Scriuener) hath great commings in▪ for making false conueiances for him: only Periury hath of late daies ill fortune, for of méere good wil (a sew Termes ago) swearing for his masters credit in y ^• Star cham­ber, he was comitted to the pillery [...]ay, this yéere 96 hath bin very fatall for all of them▪ for not so much as the whip but hath [Page 32] had a ierke at some of their back parts. This deuill at his first comming from his father was a poore knaue in a white coat, and some haue known him sell broomes for cony skins, though now he be a gentleman. Sée you his hat with the brooch in it? hée neuer paid for it: and all these gay garments which attire him, are but the fruits of one forfaiture. This dapper slaue when I knew him first, had neither credit nor beard, but well fare a woman for the first, and oft shauing for the next: do you wonder how hée growes so fat? why it is by eating on other mens charges: and what if his house be well furnished, and he pay not for it? Tibul. lib. 1. Eleg. 1.

Tut the wealthy citizen may well spare it: hée laughs at Pyt­tacus if hée bid him pay that he was trusted with: and his reason is, because the world is mistrustfull, hée will kéepe them in a liuely faith, and a stirring hope: Crede quod habes & habes (quoth the Clarke to the Bishop) and it is his ordinary motto, though scarse formall. This is hée that kéepes a Catalogue or Kalen­der of all the bawdy houses in a city, that is acquainted with all the vsurers in a country, that can commaund any knight of the post for a crowne and a breakfast, that reuels it in all compa­nies to grow acquainted with gentlemen. At Powls you shall see him in the mid Isle, ready to discourse with all commers, and no sooner can a sufficient man let slip a word of want, but forth he steps and saith, I am for you sir: Will you borrow vp­on pawnes? Its done for you (quoth he) because I loue you: & if he get fifty shillings on a faire cloake, the gentleman is con­tent with forty, and I thanke you: but come the day of redée­ming, if the mony be tendered him, Faith my friend is not at home, quoth he, but your cloake is safe. The gentleman thin­king him to be a man of his word, trusteth him, and lets it run vpon interest; and in the meane time the Broker and Usurer consult, the cloake is forfaited, the mony shared, and the poore gentleman made a woodcock: if hée séeme agrieued and discon­tented at the losse, Alas [...]e si [...] (quoth my companion) it is not my act, Ile bring you to the principall, and let him answer you. The gentleman thinking all good faith, accompanies him, [Page 33] where Master Usurer assures him that the first interest was paid him, and for default of the last hée made seasure of the pawn, so that the Broker is not to be blamed: but sir (quoth he) if I haue done you one wrong one way, I will right you ano­ther? And how, thinke you? Marrie he lets him haue a new vp­on trust, on his owne bond and the Brokers, and of such a price as hée may well crie fie on the winnings: now if money comes with this commiditie, what followes then? The Broker for his paines hath his part of it, a part of the good cheare at the in­sealing, a part of the gaines with the Usurer, a part of the fées with the Scriuener, and the Gentleman himselfe hath only left him the whole summe of miserie. This théefe in societie (as I Diog. [...] ▪ lib. 8 de [...] [...] ▪ [...]. may rightly tearme him) hath as many shifts in his head, as Chrisippus hath written volumes, (and yet hath he written of the parts of Logick no lesse then thrée hundreth and eleuen vo­lumes, besides many of other kinds:) He can sell walnut leaues for Tabacco, artificiall Balsamo and Rubarbe for the right; and if any Marchant hath commodities scarce Marchandable by reason of wetting, maister Broker will fit him with his price and a chapman. If he lack money himselfe, he takes it vp on a­nother mans name, and to the Merchant he protests hée doth it of charitie to helpe his friend, where in déed he doth it to reléeue his owne necessity: you shall neuer find him without a counter­fait chaine about him; Bristow Diamonds set in gold in stéed of right, and these puts he away at what rate he list to men that are in extremitie. Alasse I had almost forgot my selfe; why sirs there is this couenant betwéene his brother Deuill the Usurer and he, that whatsoeuer bond he enters into it shal neuer be ex­acted at his hands. This is an only fellow to traine a man to an arrest, & bidding him to breakfast, to thrust him into the hands of a sergeant: or to toule a yoncker to an harlot, & so helpe him to be conniecatch: trulie Campania hath not so many vices as this companion hath villanies: He is dog at recognisances and statutes, and let him but get thē sealed by a sufficient man, a hundreth pound to a pennie if they escape without forfeiture, for what with winding him into bonds for more money paiable on the same day, or false surmised assumpfits betwixt the Scri­uener [Page 34] and him, he is as sure to be intangled as [...] at Min­turnum [...] in vita [...]. to be imprisoned. Rightly therefore said Demosthenes in his first Oration against Aristogiton, that Impr [...]bitas [...]st audax & alieni cupida, and more rightly may a Gentleman say that hath ben intangled in a Brokers lurches with him in Eunucho:

I haue a whole Legend to write of this deuill, but that I am di­stracted otherwise: wel maister Broker let this suffise you, you are knowne for a deuillish companion, grumble not at this as­sault, for the next will be the breach of your credit.

Crosse your selues my maisters more Deuils are abroad, and Mammons sons begin to muster: what! a fiend in a square cap, a Schollers gowne! nay, more, in his hands a Testament! Eh [...] miracul [...]m dicis; by my sooth sir it is Simony This fellow is a bui­er and seller of benefices, a follower of Balaam, that iold the gift of Prophecie to Baalac, and of Giezi that sold the gift of Numb. 22. 23. 2. 4. Reg. 5. health to the prince of Siria, Naaman Sirus: nay, to speake more plainlie, he is a right Iudas that sold Christ for money; Simony the purchaser is of the race of Simon Magus, that wold bu [...] the gift of the Holyghost from Peter, to whom he said, Pecuni tua ti­bi Act. 8. si [...] in perditionem, Fie vpon thee and thy money. This fellow though he can scant réed, wil be a Noblemans chapleine, and at chopping and changing benefices there is none like him. This [...]iend hath twentie pound to giue the Chancelors man to nomi­nate him for a parsonage: and for a little money and a written Lattine sermon, can purchase to bée a Batcheler of Diuinitie: he is practised to couenant with his Patron, and to suffer him to reserue some pencion. And in election of Schollers hée 2. [...]. 2. [...] [...] [...]. hath gold to pay for the preserment of his kinsman. In the Chapter house hée takes order that any Cannon shall be ad­mitted for money. To be briefe, the Mysterie of iniquitie now breaketh out in him: This is the onely dispenser with lawes, and corrupter of the puritie of the Cleargie. But I leaue this Deuill to be coniured by the Bishops and the Preachers, and onlie end with this curse of them published in the scripture: [Page 35] Ve illis q [...]i [...] Balaam mercede effusi sunt, which is as much to say, I pray God mend all that is amisse among the Cleargie men. How say you my masters do I not conster pretily?

Who is this with the Spanish hat, the Italian ruffe, the French doublet, the [...] cloak, the Toledo rapier, the Ger­mane hose, the English stocking, & the Flemish shoe? For [...] a sonne of Mammons that hath of long time ben a tra [...]ailer, his name is Lying, a Deuill at your commandement: if you talke with him of strange countries, why you bring him a bed, he wil hold you prattle from morningsberie to candle lighting; he wil tell you of monsters that haue faces in their breasts, and men that couer their bodies with their féet in stéed of a Penthouse, he will tell you that a league from Poiti [...]rs [...] to Crontel­les, there is a familie, that by a speciall grace from the father to the sonne, can heale the biting of mad dogs: and that there is another companie and sort of people called Sauueurs, that haue Saint Catherines Whéele in the pallate of their mouthes, that can heale the stinging of Serpents▪ Hée will tell you néere Naples of miraculo [...]s wels, and of a stone in Calabria that fell from heauen, and no sooner toucht the [...]arth, but it became a faire chappell: if you put him to it, hée will sweare he hath taken Saint Thomas by the hand in his tombe: nay, hée will offer you the earth which our Ladie sat on when Christ was borne, hée hath oile of Saint Iames, Saint Peters [...]orefinger, Saint Annes skirt of her necker­chiefe, Saint Dunstons walking staffe, The stone the Deuill [...]ffered Christ to make bread on, the top of Lunges speare, the barke of the trée of life in Paradice, a stone of Traians Tombe, a piece of Caesars chaire where in hée was slaine in the Senate house. Tell him of battels, it was hée that first puld off Francis the first his spur, when hée was taken by the Empe­ror, and in the battell of Lepante, he onely gaue Don Iohn De Austria incouragement to charge a fresh after the wind tur­ned; at Bullaine he thrust thrée Switzers thorow the bellie at one time with one Partizan, & was at the hanging of that sel­low that could drink vp a whole barrell of béere without a brea­thing: At the battell of Serisoles he will onely tell you that hée [Page 36] lent Marquis Guasto a h [...]rse whē he fled from the Duke of An­iou, and retired to Alst; and that he healed his shot in the knée, with only thrée dressings of his Balsamo. There is no end of his falshood except his tonge be cut out of his head, he will lie a­gainst God, and misinterprete the scriptures, he will falcifie hi­storie, and verifie false miracles, hée will swear to any inconue­nience to further his profit, and ascribe honour to any man, let him but pay him for his commendations: he wil testifie a false­hood meruailous cunningly, and excuse a sinne as smoothly as is possible: This is the likest Diuell to his father as any of his kindred, for Mammon mendax est, and so is he. If Solon say to him menti [...]i noli, lie not, he will answere him in a sentence, Veri­tas odium parat: Truth procures hatred: Quid plura? He is as per­fideous and forsworn as Tisaphernes: and if he were hanged for it, it were no matter. Soft swift (qd. master Lie-monger) you are too hastie, you are too passionate, heare a litle reason: May not a man dissemble to saue his life, vse fraud for Gods honour, and practi [...]e subtile stratagems for the behalfe of his countrie? is not an obsequions lie lawfull, according to Origen, Chrisostome, Ie­rom, Origen. lib. 6. [...]. Chrisost. de sacerd. Hieron in E­pist. ad Gal. Cas. lib. 16. coll. [...]. R [...]m. 3. & Cassian, his Disciple (especially to auoid a greater euil, or to conceale a mans graces & vertues, to the end to auoid vaine­glorie) and like as Eleborus is wholesome to those that are at­tainted with the falling sicknesse, and hurtfull to those that are healthful, so is not a lie profitable to auoid the danger that there is in speaking truth, and pernicious when there is no present necessitie? Sir, sir, you shall be a [...]swered & that quickly: Auant Sathan thou canst not tempt vs, Paul shall answere thée, Non sunt facienda mala vt inde veniant bona, Euill is not to be done that good may come of it; and Aristotle assures thée (though an E [...]h­nicke) that a lie (both according to essence and forme) is a sinne, and that it admitteth no circumstances: beware therfore of this Deuill my friends, for he is a right Priscillianist, who held it lawfull to forsweare and lie for profit or secrecie sake.

[Page 37]Nay this fauoureth of the Elchesaits heresie, who said it was lawfull to denie the faith by tongue, but not in heart; to auoid torments. Touching Origen, since he was known to be super­stitiously addicted to the opinion of Plato, Herodotus, and Me­nander, we leaue him as a Cabalist condemned by Gelasius, and a general counsaile: and touching Chrisostome, Ierome and Cas­sian, as men they may, & did erre: for though they haue scripture that séemeth in part to fauor their opinion (That a man may let slip an vntruth to the end that good may come of it;) yet it is to bée marked that they erred in this, in consturing those things li­terally which should haue béene taken figuratiuely: for where­as Iacob told his father that he was Esau the first borne, hee lied not; for in truth according to the disposition of the Diuine pro­uidence he was such, & destinate to enioy the right of the primo­geniture or first begotten: and touching al other places of scrip­ture, to answere with Augustine in a word, Ueritie in thē was concealed, and no lie committed; as in Abraham calling Sara his sister, &c. But Maister Lie-monger you shall not so scape, I haue a new fling for you, a rope is well bestowed to hang a théef that is past all reformation: Harke what an armie of authori­ties are brought to condemn thée, Os quod mentitur (saith the wise [...]. 1. man) occidit animam, The mouth that lieth, slaieth the soule: and Homer saith, That he that hath one thing in his heart, and ano­ther in his mouth, was more hateful vnto him then the gates of Hell: Phocilides he saith, Ne celes, Hide not one thing in thy heart, and speake another by thy tongue. And touching Cle­obulus and Menander, the one tels thée that a lie is abhomina­ble, the other that false report is a plague of life. What saith So­phocles? Lying hasteneth age. Aristotle, Plato in his Timae [...], and 2. De Repub. Caietanus, & Aquinas, all condemne it. Get thée backe therefore to Hell, thou fiend, for the world is too full of thée alreadie.

The next of this progenie is Vnlawfull lucre, looke what a handsome Mumpsimus shee is, will you know her profession? Forsooth shee kéepes a baudie house, and her tapster that tendes the score is a shag [...]heard slaue called Cousenag [...]: This i [...] shée that laies wait at all the carriers, for wenches [...] come vp to [Page 38] London: and you shall know her dwelling by a dish of stewd pruins in the window, & two or thrée fléering wenches sit knit­ting or sowing in her shop: She is the excellent of her age at a ring & a basket: & for a baudie bargain, I dare turne her loose to Chaucers Pādace. She serued first as a seruāt in the house with Lais foure year, and Flora fiue more, and after shée had learnt al the subtilties of painting, dying, and surfling, some thrée yeares in Uenice, she was brought hether in an Argosie: and left behind by Italians, fell at last to set vp for her self in Shor­ditch. This old featherbed driuer can wéepe when shée list, and is so deuo [...]t in outward appearance, that shée will not sweare, no trulie will she not; and shée will doe as shée would be done vnto, by Gods grace, in obseruation of the comman­dements. Say you are a stranger, and pray her to bée your ca­ter for the prouision of a mooneshine bancket, Now fie vpon you merrie man (saies she) your wife shall know it I warrant you, I will not cracke my credit with my neighbors for more then I speake on, goe séeke your flurts sir iacke, I am not for your mowing. Trust me, if it were not that she fumbls because her téeth are rotted out with eating swéet meats, it would bée a passing pleasure to heare her talke: Shée will reckon you vp the storie of Mistris Sanders, and wéepe at it, and turne you to the Ballad ouer her chimney, and bid you looke there, there is a goodly sample: I wenches (saies she, turning hirselfe to hir maidens of y ^• second scise) looke to it, trust not these dissimulation men, there are few good of thē, y ^• there are not. But touch me hir with a pint a sack, & a French crowne, if you like any of hir frie; Wel (saith she) you séeme to be an honest gentleman, go prettie maid & shew him a chāber; now maux you were best be vnma­nerly & not vse him well: There may you go to hell with a ven­geāce if you please, so you pay for your moūting. But if you hire hir to seduce some merchants wife, Lord how cunning she is! hir new wosted kirtle goes on I warrant you, & she hath as ma­ny rings on her finger, as kindheart hath téeth in his hat. If she find hir oportunity, she is a sure hound to lay holdfast: & if y ^• mo­dest wife stand on termes of her honesty, she hath this kind of spéech to intice & allure hir, Now in faith mistris (but you must [Page 39] presuppos [...] y ^• she hath deliuered the gentlemans ring before she speakes) you must néeds take it, a sin vnséene is halfe quitted: I know you are fair & yong, fresh, & full as a pullet, & this is not to be lost & laid vp niggardly; proue, proue the pleasures of loue, o [...] my consciēce you wil blame your self for deferring so long to in­ioy thē: I pray you swéet heart why was beauty made? what for copwebs to ouergrow it? Come, come, beléeue me for I haue ex­perince, y ^• gentleman is trusty & rich, & my house shall be at both your cōmandements. This is her maner of Dratory in beating bargains, and if shee win her purpose, Lancelot gloried not so much in his conquests, as she to her neighbors of her exploit. If she méet a yong maid in the stréet she hath lodging forher, & God forbid a Christian should want her helpe: but will you know the mischiefe? the wench is fair & for her turne, & that knows she be­fore y ^• next morning, for some ruffian or other is sure y ^• night to bord hir. If some rich yong merchant fall in her laps, and séekes game to his disaduantage, she welcoms him in at first w ^t, What doth it please your worship to haue for breakfast? If he call for a capon she dresses two, and he hath soure sauce to his raw flesh I warrant him: y ^• feast past & he heated with wine, if he striue to cōsture Glicerium vitiate, Pamphilus y ^• wench giues him a watch­word, thē vp starts Cousenage w ^t a bum dagger, she w ^t a hote spit, and out she cries, villain slander my house, rauish my maid; nay, they put y ^• poore fellow into such a passion, y ^• they rifle him ere he part of cloak, rings, & mony; so that he may cry wothe pie of his winning. If a maried man fal into hir hell of cófusion, she turns him loose to a trull y ^• hath new quickened, and finding him at his filthines, with some of her societie, she works out mony at that time, and when the harlot is brought a bed, she sends her to his door, makes her ruffians threatē him, so y ^• poor fornicator though he neuer deserue it, and another got it, hée (least his wise know thereof) both fathers the basterd, and finds the whore, fées the baud, and feasts the villaine, besides all other charges sope and candle: were I not afraid that Iulius Scaliger should haue cause to checke mée of teaching sinne in discoursing and discouering it, it were impossible for you to thinke what practises of hers I could di [...]couer: but since you know her [...]welling [Page 40] and haue her picture so publickely shewed you, I doome you to Cornelius Tub if you trust him, and her to hell as shee de­sernes it.

They say likewise there is a Plaier Deuil, a handsome sonne of Mammons, but yet I haue not séene him, because he skulks in the countrie, if I chance to méet him against the next impressi­on, hee shall shift verie cunningly, but Ile pleasantlie con­ [...]ure him, and though hée hath a high hat to hide his huge hornes, Ile haue a wind of Wit to blow it off spéedelie: For all of that sect I say thus much, If they vse no o­ther mirth būt Eutrapelian vrbanitie, and pleasure mix­ed with honestie, it is to bee borne withall; but filthie speaking, Scurrilitie, vnfit for chast eares, that I wish [...]. 4. Eth. Eph [...]s. 5. with the Apostle, that it should not bée named amongst Chri­stians. Againe in stage plaies to make vse of Hystoricall Scripture, I hold it with the Legists odious, and as the Councill of Trent did, Sess. § 4. Fin. I condemne it. The conclusion shall bée Tullies, and good fellowes marke it: Ni­hil est tam tetrum, nihil tam aspernandum, nihil homine indig­nius, quam turpitud [...], There is nothing more vild, nothing more to bee despised, nothing more vnworthie a man, then villanie and filthinesse, and if you will follow my counsaile therefore, write this ouer your Theators:

The last sonne of Mammon, and bréed of Auarice, is a De­uill called Dicing, and Dishonest sport, he like a gallant haunts the cockpits, like a Gentleman followes the ordinaries; he is at Bedlam once a day I dare assure you, and if hee scape the bowling allie one day, hée will not come at the Church a Moneth after for pure anger. This fellow is excellent at a Bum Card, and without the helpe of Bomelius dog, he can burne the knaue of clubs, and find him in the stocke, [Page 41] or in his bosome, hée hath cards for the nonce for Prima vista, o­thers for Sant, other for Primero; and hée is so cunning in shuf­fling & conueying his thumbe, that whensoeuer he deales, you shall be sure of no good dealing: As for Dice, he hath all kind of sortes, Fullams, Langrets, hard quater traies, hie men, low men, some stopt with quick [...]iluer, some with gold, some ground; so that if you séeke for hominem quadratum amongst them, you may hap to loose your labour. This Deuill is well séene in blas­phemie, and banquetting, in watching, and drunkennesse; and ere he wil want mony for Come-on- [...]iue, he will haue it by fiue and a reach, or hang for it. He stabs if you touch his stake; and stop me his dice, you are a villaine. At bowles if hée sée you o­uermatcht, hée will wager with you, being assured to winne; which kind of betting (by the Italian called Scomesse, and the Spaniard Apuestas) is both forbidden by the lawes and taxed to restitution: wife, children, all shall want, but this humour must be satisfied; lands, goods, and all must go, but fortune must be followed; hell, sudden death, and plagues will be had, if this be not considered.

You men that are endued with reason and professe Christi­anity, Matthiol. lib. 6. cap. 11. considering the force of this poison, touch it not: beware of this Caerastis, for his sting is mortall, and banish him from your companies, by reason of these inconueniences hée brée­deth. Dicing causeth auarice in a man to desire his neighbours goods; next a corrupt will, to carry them away; thirdly lying, to deceiue the beléeuer; fourthly periury, to maintaine a wrong; fiftly, the corruption of youth, leading to prodigality; sixtly, contempt of loue, which vtterly forbiddeth it; seuenthly, losse of time, which is a precious treasure; eightly, a world of fraud and deceit; ninthly, wrath and debate; tenthly, it nourisheth & Arist. 4. Eth. Alcator est illiber alis. bréedeth idlenesse; eleuenthly, it causeth illiberality and nig­gardize, for (as Aristotle saith) the gainester Au [...]rus est tenax, Co [...]etous and a boldfast: twelfthly, it giueth example of negli­gence, corrupts a family, seduceth children, making them sét light by substance, which God by his prouidence hath imparted to man, not to nourish his passions, affections, and desires vain­ly, but to succour and relieue his neighbour mercifully: thir­téenthly, [Page 42] it prou [...]keth murthers and homicides, déepe wounds, & bitter strokes, causing an improuident gamester to discharge the venime of his choller, on his wife, children, and seruants. How many blasphemies and periuries (eternall God) proceed from hence? how many thefts, frauds, and deceits? how many are they that after they haue lost their wealth, do desperately hang themselues like Iudas or Achitophel? Who can heare this without griefe? or conceit it without admiration? that a man formed according to the Image of God, and endued with rea­son, should so farre forget himselfe, that after hée had consumed himselfe euen vnto his shirt in gaming, was not ashamed to hazard his owne wife, and had not failed to haue prostituted and yéelded her to a lechers lust, had she not bin hidden by her neigh­bours, as Iohn Benedicti in his Somme de Pesches witnesseth. Nay, shall I tell you a true & certen story, not reported as an act done in times past, but a thing fresh in memory, which happe­ned within these twenty yéers in the city of Lyons in France; a matter worthy the noting, & not more worthie then certen?

A certaine gamester and drunkard, drowned in prodigality & sensuality, (more vnthriftie then Epicharides the dwarfe, who in fiue dayes spent all his patrimony in Athens; and like Ethio­pus the Corinthian, who sold all his possessions to Archias, that hée might follow dishonest drinking) hauing consumed his whole estate: One day (being vehemently incensed by losse and misthiefe) in so bitter and terrible sort beat his poore wife, (who came to séeke reléefe from his hands, for her and her poore chil­dren) in y ^• sight of his ruffianly companions, that as he thought (and happily it had so fallen out) he left her dead, and past reco­uery. This desolate wretch at last returning to her selfe, and repairing backe againe to her houshold, behold, two her young babes, who grieuously oppressed with hunger, with teares in their eies (taught not to speake by age, but misery) required and desired her of sustenance; Mother, saith one, Meate, or I die: Mam, saith the other, and with signes speakes the rest. Alas, poore babes, saith the mother with bitter sighes, Where shall I get it? your father hath lost his patience, with his wealth; & we our hope, with his mishap: Alas, alas, what shal become of me? [Page 43] or who shall succour you my children? better it is to die with one stroke, then to languish in continuall famine. Pressed by these miseries, and brought to this dispaire, shée tooke a knife in her hand, and cut her childrens throats, setting her selfe downe purposely to die, & perish in her sorows. Her husband the same euening returning laden with wine, & more fit to take rest then examine these tragedies, cast himselfe on his bed, neither drea­ming on his losses, nor her miseries: She vrged on by Satan, y ^• euer watcheth opportunities, séeing him asléepe, y ^• regarded not her sorrow, w ^t the same knife where with she had kild her chil­dren, she cut his throat, the cause of her confusion; speaking thus boldly during y ^e time of her execution: Thou shalt die thou neg­ligent man, since thy ill gouernment hath bene the ruine of me and my children. Day & time discouering these murders, the woman was apprehended; & examined by the Iustice, confessed the fact. Finally, she was condemned, & dying with much constancy, left examples to wiues to beware of too much fury, & admonitions to husbands to be more circumspect. Sée here how this cursed in­uention of the Lydians hath bene the occasion of the murder of foure persons: In reading therefore this history, be prouident to auoid and shun this Deuill.

Hauing thus described the children of Mammon, let these mo­tiues draw you in hatred both w ^t them & their father, consider y ^• this Auarice is a burning feuer, excéeding the flames of Aet [...]a, nay likewise that it burneth the soules of miserable vsurers in­cessantly; wey this, that the couetous man hath as much néed of that he hath, as of that he hath not, according to that of Ierome, Hieron. ad Paul [...]. Polit. lib. 1. Iuuen. [...]. 14. Tam de est auar [...] quod habet, qua quod non habet. Aristotle for this cause saith, that the desire of riches hath no end: and Iuuenal the Poet sings thus:

It were too long to recken vp all other authorities of Cicero, Virgil, Ouid, and Horace, for this were but to heape vp reading and moone no affection, I onely vrge to [Page 44] consideration, and by it to hatred of the sinne. Let vs therfore leaue foolish carking in this world, and remember we are made men to behold heauen, and not mowles to dig in the earth. De­nounce (saith Paul to Timothy) to them that are rich in this world that they be not proud, neither fixe their hope on the incertenty of riches, but in the liuing God, who giueth vs all things aboun­dantly whatsoeuer wee need. Let the Magistrate consider this, that as when the Moone appeareth in the spring time, the one horne spotted and hidden with a blacke and great cloud, from the first day of his apparition to the fourth day after, it is some signe of tempests and troubles in the aire the Sommer after: so if Secular and temporall Magistrates (who according to Ec­clesiastes are changed like the Moone) shall haue their mindes Eccles. 27. spotted with the clouds of Auarice and earthly desires, it is a signe of subsequent trouble amongst the people: For the Soue­raignes couetousnesse is the oppression of the subiect. O world­ling, looke as the interposition of the earth betwixt the Sunne and the Moone, is the cause of the Eclipse of the same; so the in­terposition of worldly goods betwixt our minds and God, is the cause of our blindnes in vnderstanding. Heare Augustine what Aug. lib. de doctr. Christ. he saith, Amas pecuniam quam nunquam videbis, caecus possides, cae­cus moriturus es, quod possides hic relicturus es: Thou louest mo­ny which thou shalt neuer see, blind thou possessest it, blind thou must die, and that which thou enioyest, thou must leaue behind thee. A couetous man is like him that is sick of the dropsie, who the more hée aboundeth in disordinate humors, the more excée­dingly he desireth and thirsteth; and the more he thirsteth, the more he drinketh, till at last he dieth: So the more stored a co­uetous man is with riches, which hée vseth not, the more ar­dently desires he the possession of more.

The Couetous man likewise is very rightly compared to hell, for with possessing in excesse, he is still insatiate. The co­uetous man buyeth earth, and sells his soule made for heauen: and looke as water (saith Augustine) is poured on the earth, so thirst they after the blood of their neighbours. All beasts of ra­uine do neuer prey on other till they be a hungry, and being ful­ly satisfied, they refraine from further spoile: but the cou [...]tous [Page 45] man doth euer desire and is neuer satisfied, he neither feareth God, nor regardeth man; he neither obeieth father, nor respe­cteth mother; to his friend he is vntrustie, to the widow iniuri­ous, the fatherlesse he despiseth, the frée he brings in bondage, he corrupteth false witnesses, & occupieth the goods of the dead as if hée should neuer die. Oh what madnes is this for man to get gold, & to loose heauen? The cure hereof is gotten by almes déed, according to that of Esay, Frange efurienti panem t [...]um: [...]. [...]. Breake thy bread to the hungry: and it followeth, Tunc erumpet quasimane lumen tuum, & sanitas tua citius orietur: Then shall thy light breake forth like the morning, and thy health shall quickly rise. I will trouble you no further: I feare me I preach too te­diously, only let me end with this of Manilius: [...]. [...].

The discouery of Asmodeus, and his le­cherous race of Deuils Incarnate in our age.

NO sooner came Asmodeus into the world by Sathans direction, but presently procured he Lothes incest with his daughters, Semi­ramis vnlawfull whordome with her owne sonne, and Dinas vnhappy and fatall rauish­ment; he made Thamar be enforced by her owne brother, and forced Dauid to commit murther on Vrias, and adultery with Bersabe: Pasiphae hée brought enamoured with a Bull, and Xerxes with a Plantaine trée: hée caused a young Athenian to fall in loue with the liuelesse picture of For­tune standing neare the Pritaneum, and to offer a great quanti­ty of mony to the Senate to buy it from their hands; of which being denied, and for which wholly inraged, after embracing, kissing, (and such other ceremonies) he crowned the statue, & lamenting, slew himselfe: he made Glauca of Cythera to loue [Page 46] a dog, a young Spartan to be besotted on a bird, Xenophon to affect a hound, nay the better part of the Philosophers to be Sodomites: read Plutarchs booke of Loue, and hée will testifie for me: yet thinking these gaines too little in expression of his enuy, watching Sardanapalus one night, hée practised this mon­strous villany: Hée assembled his hainousest thoughts, & com­pacted them togither, hée chained his loosest desires, to the in­ward workings and motions of the same; and after hée had drunke of Letheo, which (as the Poet saith) causeth forgetfulnes,

He slumbred awhile, and during sléepe, presented them to his Imagination; and Imagination forming them, he no sooner a­l [...]oke, but from his eies (like corrupt raies which frō menstrual women infect glasses) out start these deuils, & made impression in mens hearts, & euer since haue bene incarnate, & now in our world are most pratchant & busie. The first of them is Fornica­tion (a notorious [...]ocher) hée goes daily apparelled like a lord though he be but a deuill, his haire frisled & perfumed, y ^• should Vespasian but smell him (as once hée did a knight in Rome, as Suetonius reporteth) he would banish him his court for his labor: By day he walks y ^• streets & the Erchange, to spy out faire wo­men; by night he courts them with maskes, consorts, and mu­sicke; he will sigh like a dog that hath lost his master, if his mi­seres refuse him, & wéepe like a Crocadile till he haue won him­selfe credit: if his mistres saith, It is against her conscience, Tut (saith he) lechery is no sinne, find me one Philosopher that held simple fornication for offensiue. This is he that corrupts mai­dens to vnlawsull desires for mony, and cals Adultery by ano­ther name, A fit of good fellowship: This is the lord of all baw­dy houses, & patron of Peticote-lane, one that would build an hospitall for decaied whores, but y ^t he is loth to be at the char­ges. If he take vp commodities, it is Cock-sparrows, Potatos, and Herringes, and the hottest wines are his ordinary drink to increase his courage: his table talke is but of how many wen­ches he hath courted that wéeke, and ( Blindnes of heart waiting like a page on his trencher) you shall heare him laugh at his [Page 47] greatest villani [...]s most heartily: when he rides you shall know him by his fan; & if he walke abroad, & misse his mistres fauor about his neck, arme, or thigh, he hangs the head like y ^e soldier in the field y ^• is disarmed: put him to a sonnet, Du Portes cannot equall him; nay in y ^• nice tearmes of lechery he excéeds him: at Riddles, he is good; at Purposes, better; but at Tales he hath no equall, for Bandello is more perfit w ^t him then his Paternoster. Tell him y ^e Turks & Iewes seuerely punish such sin, & admit no stewes: I, (saith he, like a cursed Atheist) that prooues thē stocks & no men. His care is for nothing but perfumes & Elixar, y ^• one to make him smel swéet, y ^• other to lengthen life, for of all things he will not heare of death. A fit companion is this man for such as be idle: & if any aske, what shall we do to passe the time after the end of an Ordinary: Faith (saith he) lets serch whorehouses, for thats y ^• best exercise. If you talke to him of God, Hardnes of heart saies it concerns him not: If you counsell him to fast, hée commands his cook to make ready a fat capon for his supper: he is wholly y ^• deuils, of whom he is begotten. Tell him he hath y ^• pox, tut it is a gentlemens disease: & the cause of purging corrupt humors, are the effects of health. Such is this Deuil incarnate, who both deserues to be known & auoided, & the rather, by reasō of his page, blindnes of heart, for he it was y ^• first made the So­domites inwardly & outwardly blind: & he it was y ^• corrupted y ^• false Iudges to seduce Susanna: this is he y ^• distracteth our eies lest we should sée heauen, & blindeth our hearts, least we should behold Gods iust Iudgements. And therfore Antiquity in pain­ting y ^• god of loue, haue made him blind, because affectiō is blind, & maketh them blind that follow it. As therfore y ^• eie of the soule (by which as Plato witnesseth, we behold y ^• essence of God) is a great blessing of y ^• Holy ghost; so blindnes of vnderstanding his Lib. 7. de [...] opposite (wherby we are tied to carnal desires) is y ^e worst of ma­ny infirmities. Plato in his Dialogues cōpares this cōcupiscēse to a sieue, into which y ^• more water you poure, y ^e more it spils, & yet in y ^• end it is neuer filled. In like sort a man y ^• thinks to sa­tisfie himselfe in this Fornication, demeaneth himselfe like him C [...]r. Par. [...] [...]. d [...] di­uer [...]. temp. that striues to fill a sleue with water. The Doctor Gerson spea­king to this purpose, brings an example of him y ^• is seased with a [Page 48] burning feuer, who if he drinke a glasse of fresh water, thinkes himselfe sufficiently cooled, but in lesse then a quarter of an houre after he is more distempered then euer: As likewise one that is troubled with the Itch, the more he scratcheth the more his flesh tingleth; so the more a man séeketh to asswage Lust, the more it encreaseth. The only conquest of this Deuill, is to flie him; and for that cause this is a Maxime held amongst the Fathers, that Facilius vincitur luxuria fugiendo, quam pugnando: Lechery is better conquered in flying it, then resisting it. Tullie (though an Ethnicke) entring into the confideration of Forni­cation Cl [...]. l. 2. Offic. and Lust, saith thus, that It closeth vp the eies of our soules, and hindreth Iudgement. And Plutarch reporting Hanni­bals follies at Cannas, holdeth Lust and effeminate pleasure to be the downfall of his fortunes. Why stand I so long on this Deuill, when a greater preaseth forth, and presents himselfe? And who is that but Adultery, an arranter knaue then his bro­ther: Looke vpon his lips, the one is single, the other double: and though he be apparelled like a Citizen, hée hath doings in all countries: This is he will let his wife want, to maintaine a harlot; and laugh at his childrens misery, so his lust be satisfi­ed: This fiend hath a concubine in euery corner, and ordinari­ly a whore in his houshold: hée hath two of his owne kindred continually attending him, Precipitation, and Inconsideration; the one hindreth his prouidence and counsell, and without re­gard transports him with amorous passions: for where Blind­nesse of heart marcheth before, Precipitation must néeds follow to make him carelesse in his actions: For (as Plato saith) Volup­tas omnium insolentissima est, Pleasure and Lust is the most inso­tent of all things: for it perturbeth our spirits, and taketh away [...]he empire of liberty. This fellow peruerts memory, hurteth consideration, kils prouidence, and treads downe aduice: The other, called Inconsideration, hinders both reason and iudge­ment, by fleshly delights; dulleth the memory in respect of God, bréedeth an Apoplexie and benumming of the soule. Furnished with these two followers, what impietie leaues Adultery vn­done? his neighbour is made iealous, his wife a strumpet, his doore is hourely haunted with a Sumner, and catch him out of [Page 49] the Arches one tearme, hée will forseit his vpper garment for default, his owne house is hell to him, a baudie house his heauen; and for his companions hée chooseth none but the arrantest dronckards in a countrey. Hée hath no spirit to goodnesse, neither is hée mooued to godlinesse: his felici­tie is the surfets of his flesh, and paine with him is no more thought of then it is felt: hée is readie at a iarre to set strife betwixt man and wife, and to this intent forsooth, that he may take possession of another mans frée hold, and make a common of his neighbours inclosure. He spights him most that examines his procéedings, and will chafe till he sweat againe, if a man touch him with his infirmities. Speake ought that bréeds a hate of sinne, it is a verie Hell to him: blesse your selfe out of this fiends companie, for these certaine and exampler respects, that follow, First be­cause adulterie is a greater sinne, and more hatefull (as some schoolemen say, in the sight of God) then periurie. Lenit. 20. Deut. 21. Next, because Gods law forbids it, and example dissuades it. By the law adulterers were stoned to death. Be­fore the law they were punished by death; as appeareth by Iudas iustice on Thamar: examples of the hainousnesse of this sinne appeareth in many places; thousands of men died in the fields of Moab for this fault, and sixtie thousand of the children of Israell were put to the sword for the one­lie rauishing of a Leuites wife. Thirdlie, for these respects is this adulterie to bée eschewed, first because it impug­neth the law of nature, Next the law of countries; and last, for that it hath béene the ruine of manie Citties and kingdomes. If in the law of nature it had not béene odious, Pharoah and Abimelech had not answered Abraham, That had they supposed Sara for his wife, they had not taken her. Touching the lawes of countries, Solon in his, adiudged Gen. 12. Pano [...]mit. the adulterer to die: the Locrensians, Persians, Arabi­ans, and Egyptians most cruelly punished it: Plato consenteth with Solon, the law of the twelue tables with both: By the Ciuile lawes, the husband adulterer looseth his marriage, and the adulteresse his wife the thirds of the goods of her hus­band. [Page 50] And as concerning the exemplarie miseries it hath fa­tally wrought, Sodome and Gomorra were consumed with fire for adulterie and Sodomie: Troy a prowd cittie made a plowd land.

Agamemnon for refusing to kéepe to Clitemnestra, and defi­ling himself with Briseis, was prosecuted by deadly hatred by his wife, and slaine in Treason by her adulterous paramour Egi­stus. Vlisses rather refused immortalitie at Calipsos hand, then to consent to this sin; and Lewis of France as the Hystorian saith, Maluit mori quam violare fidem sues centhorali, He had rather die then breake his faith to his espoused wife: it was the onely a­dulteries of the French that caused a Massacre of 8000 vpon Fulgos. lib. 6. the ringing of one Bell in the Isle of Sicilie, Nectabanus & O­limpus loue, the miseries of vnhappie Dalida, of Tereus, & many others, might be here alleaged, but I will end with that in Ho­race, touching the punishments of adulterers, and the rather to Horace lib. 1. s [...]t 2. bring men in horror of the sinne:

But herein some man perhaps will take occasion to reproue me, that describing adulterie with a double lip, I discouer not [Page 51] the cause why I present him so: to him let this reason suffice, which wanteth not his authoritie, I therefore giue adulterie a single and double lip, because there is a single and a double adul­terie; that adulterie which is called single, is when as one of the two that commits the sinne is maried, and the other is not; and the double, wherein man commits Bigamy▪ or both the of­fenders are coupled in marriage: touching two of these, I haue sufficiently discoursed (as I hope) before this▪ onely of Bigamy and Poligamie this much and so an end: both these (as against nature) the Ethnicks and Pagans despised: and that they are Genes [...] ▪ [...] ▪ condemned by God it appeareth by his owne words, Erunt duo in carne vna, They shall be two in one flesh: he saith not, three or four: by this place shamelesse Lamech of the cursed race of Cam is condemned for beginning the pluralitie of wiues, and the la­sciuious and sensuall Emperour Valentinian, who coupled with his wife Seneca, a yong maiden called Iustine, whom he espou­sed as Socrates witnesseth.

Too long am I on this, behold another more hainons spirit incarnate in the bodie of a youthly & braue gallant, who comes freshly from the Tailers in a new sute of crimson Sattin, and must to Poules presently to méet with his Pandare: this fellow is called Rauishment, an vnnaturall fiend, he weareth a feather in his beuer hat which is called the plume of Inconstancie, and howsoeuer that waueth, his wit wandreth: this is hée will giue a baud ten pound for the breaking vp of a wench, nay which is most horrible, before that nature enable her: he neuer walkes without a full purse, nor sléepes before a mischiefe, nor wéepes but for pure enuie: he may not smile nor laugh, but at the de­spoiles of chastity. He holds this ariome, That there is no plea­sure swéet that is not accompanied with resist; and that no flowers are pleasant but those of the first gathering. He it was that rauished Danae in a golden shewer, & Mica the chast Uir­gine in the daies of Aristotimus. All wordly delights he hath to intangle innocency with, and his grandsir Sathan hath giuen it him from the cradle, to attempt the chastest: intertaine him to your guest, your Uirgines are corrupted, your kindred desa­med, your children pointed at, and that which is a great miserie [Page 52] in these miseries, he only publisheth your shame, & reioiceth at it: he is excellent at Italian, & I think he be one by y ^• mothers side: be not of his fraternitie if you be afraid of a general counsell, for the Elibertine Sinode cōdemus & excommunicates him. If you would know a baud male, or female, you shal find thē by him: for with none else is he acquainted: one marke he hath, his beard is cut after y ^• Turkish fashion, & he is lame of one leg like Agesila­us, & that he brake leaping in Florence out of a window. These tokens being sufficient to know him by, let these reasons serue to bring him in hate: Things they say the more rarer they be, the more dearer they be, Now then since that Uirginitie and chastitie is rare, and by that reason deare, how great rea­son haue we to hate him that despoileth vs of y ^• ornamēt? vnwor­thy is he y ^e name of a man y ^t doth y ^e work of a beast, nay most de­testable of al men is y ^• rauisher, who destroieth y ^• which God can not repair. According to y ^• opinion of Aristotle in his Ethicks, & Ierom vpon Amos, flie therefore this Hidra, this hateful to God Eth. 3. & man: & since according to Chrisost: Pudicitia & virginit as imbe­cillis est, Modesty & virginity is weak, let vs banish y ^• sin frō our so­cieties Chrisost. des virg. cap. 80. y ^• is likest to disturbe & attempt it. Another spirit there is incorporated very cūningly whichin al apparitiōs I euer could sée him in, hath his face couered w ^t a vaile & in it is writtē Incest, & he it was y ^• made Herod abuse his sisters wife, and I feare me plaies y ^e deuil couertly in our countrey, if I may chance to know it, he may be sure I wil vnmaske him. Another fiend there is, but he hants not our country, but trauaileth Flanders & y ^e low coun­tries like a souldior, this diuel robs churches, rauisheth religious women, scorns the Clergie, beats down bels & stéeple, & cōmit­teth filthy absurdities in y ^e churches, whom I only name in this place because I wish the ports might be laid if he attempt to ar­riue here, for of al chaffare he sels best a challice, cope, & commu­niō cup; & if he be permitted to enter among vs, no minister shal saue him a surples to say seruice on sunday in. But what visio is this, inough to affright the world? Selfe-loue, the idolater of his body, an infernal & master angell; accompanied w ^t Loue of this world, y ^• loaths to hear of piety: Hate of God (in y ^• he prohibits sin) & horror of the world to come, in y ^• he feareth iudgemēt: these foure lothsome ministers, bring in a thrée headed & vgly mōster; [Page 53] nature walks apart & hides her face in her hands for feare to be­hold him, y ^e first head is Mollities inuenting voluntary pollution: the second Sodomy, peruerting the order of nature: y ^• third Besti­ality, called by y ^e schoolmen ( crimen pessimū:) this monsters eies are stil hanging down, as if ashamed to behold y ^• light, & in his brows are written, signū reprobrationis, the mark of reprobatiō; the first [...]. head whispers in mine ear y ^e Her & Onan were slain by an angel through his corruptiō. The secōd tels me y ^• Italy can best teach me if I would know his qualities; alas chast eares, I dare not name it, thogh I fear it is to much vsed, I dare not think it, Pe­drastia, Socrates sin. The third tels me he is a monster getter, and hath followers amongst men are vnworthy naming: wretches auant, you brood of hel, you causes of the general Cataclisme and deluge, flie from these bounds of Christ endome, I am afraid to name you, I c [...]ure you by my praiers frō my country, y ^e infer­nal poures thēselues in their coppy of sin, hate you▪ & haue often­times slain those y ^• haue béene exercised in your villanies. That very night Christ was born, al your sodomitical crue perished, & depart you to darknes whilst I discouer your fathers villanies. God be thanked y ^• monsters are vanished, saw you not one of thē kissing a sow, another dallying w ^t a boy, another vsing voluntary pollutiō, fie away w ^t thē they are damned villaines▪ come lets ex­amin the workings of their father, & arm our selues against him, stand forth you pocky deuil Asmodius for I mean to swinge you.

Augustin discoursing vpon y ^e effects of lechery & lust, hath this Lib. de da [...] christ. notable saying, Luxuria est inimica deo, inimica virtutibus, perdit sub­stantiam, & ad tempus voluptatem diligens, futuram non sciunt cogita­re paupertatem, Lust (saith he) is an enemie to God, an enemie to vertue, it consumeth wealth, & louing pleasure for a while, it suffe­reth vs not to think of our future pouertie: approuing hereby in a few words, and they effectuall, that he who is intangled in the snares of desires, is distracted from God, forsaken by vertue, drowned in sensualtie, and besotted with inconsideration. This spiritual infirmite is compared to the disease of leprosie, which procéeedeth from corrupt and disordinate heat; and as the le­prosie 3. Reg. 8. is an incurable disease, euen so is lust an irremediable mischiefe: With this infirmitie was Salomon infected, [Page 54] who had seuentie Quienes and thrée hundreth concubines, so that euen in his age his heart was depraued: and whereas in al other sinnes their venome is not contracted by societie, in lust a man by conuersation may be corrupted: so that neither the wise mans wit, neither the strong mans armes, nor the holy mans meditation is defenced against lust, but as Ierome saith, ad Paulum & Eus [...]ochaim, Ferreas mentes libido domat,

Lust conquereth the most vntamed minds. As soon saith Grego­rie, as lust hath possessiō of the mind, it scarsly suffereth it to con­ceiue any good desires, and in that the desires therof are vicious by the suggestion thereof riseth corrupt thought, and of thought the like affection, & of affection delèctation, & of delight consent, & of cōsent operation, & of operatiō custome, & of custome despe­ration, and of desperation, defence of sinne and glorieng there­in, and of glorying in sinne, damnation. Lururious men haue outwardly the Deuill suggesting them; and inwardly concupis­cence incensing them; and of these two, al carnal sinn̄es are be­gotten. It is likewise to be noted, that the word of God, is two waies indemnified by lasciuious men, the one way is conculcator a transeuntibus, It is troden downe by them as they passe by it: This treading downe and oppression of the word of God, is the custome of euill thoughts, whereby the Gospell is oppressed: The second is, that it is deuoured of birds; which deuouring is the suggestion of the Deuill. Against these defects there are likewise two remedies, the first is, that we fence in the inclo­sure of our hearts, with the thornes of the memorie of the passi­on of Christ, according to that of the wise man, Popule sepi aures Eccles. 28. tuas spinis. For there is no greater remedie saith Origen, nor bet­ter means against euill cogitations, then the remembrance of Christs passion. The second remedie is, to fatten this inclosure of our hearts with the vertue of charitie; for of it it is said, That it couereth the multitude of sinnes. To conclude a sea of mat­ter in a short circle of admonition, refraine lust and her proge­nie for these causes, First it destroieth the infused graces of God, and the gifts of the holie ghost: Secondly, it consumeth the foure cardinall vertues: Thirdly, it weakeneth the body, in­féebleth the spirit, and hardeneth the heart against all deuotion. [Page 55] The armor against this enuie, is, The cōsideration of his defor­mitie, The auoidance of occasions and motions of desire, The tempering and moderation of our corrupt bodies, The continu­all thought of impendent death, The imagination of Gods con­tinuall presence, The consideration of those infirmities where­with it cloieth the spirit: Lastly in assaults, The office of praier; which as Cassianus saith, is a sufficient buckler against all the [...]. assaults of the world. I haue discouered the sore, and giuen a plaister, I beshrow those that are wounded if they make not vse of it.

Of the great Deuill Belzebub, and what monstrous and strange Deuils he hath bred in our age.

BElzebub the enuious, grand God of flies, Archduke of Grecian fantasies, and patron of the Pharisies, thou Prince of Deuils, I must straine your patience a little to rec­kon vp your pedigrée: and though your in­fecting [...]. Cain, peruerting Esau, seducing Saul, incensing Absolon, and gathering al the he­resies in the church were enough to condemne your hornes to be sawed off of your head for villanie: yet it shall suffise mee to find out the beginning of your sinfull progenie. Your wife I trow was Iealosie the daughter of a corrupt spirit, who could neuer find in her heart to dresse her selfe, for feare a pin should kill her; nor look into the aire, for feare she should be blasted▪ nor drink of water, in doubt she should be poisoned: God amercy for that nod hornd beast for it showes thy confession. Wel then, Ie­lousie thy wife, how were thy childrē gotten? for sooth it fortuned (as some poetical humor inspires me) that being vexed with a se­uer & passion of the spléen, thou wert by the aduice of Wrath (the Phisition in ordinary in thy houshold) let blood on the back of thy hand, in that vaine which is next the little finger, out of which hauing gathered much bloud, Iealousie (that was still afraid of [Page 56] thee, and shunned thy company for feare in lubberlepping her thou shouldst presse her to death) drunke vp this corrupt excre­ment fasting, & after one stolne kisse from thy mouth, fell in such sort a swelling, that within the space of one month at one birth (now the deuil blesse them) brought thée forth these sons as I or­derly describe thē. The first by Sathan (his grandsire) was cal­led Hate-Vertue, or (in words of more circumstance) Sor­row for another mans good successe) who after he had learnt to lie of Lucian, to flatter with Aristippus, & coniure of Zoroastes, wan­dred a while in France, Germanie, & Italy, to learn languages & fashions, & now of late daies is stoln into England to depraue all good deseruing. And though this fiend be begotten of his fa­thers own blood, yet is he different frō his nature, & were he not sure y ^• Iealousie could not make him a cuckold, he had long since published him for a bastard: you shall know him by this, he is a soule lu [...]ber, his tongue tipt with lying, his heart stéeld against charity, he walks for the most part in black vnder colour of gra­uity, & looks as pale as the Uisard of y ^• ghost which cried so mise­rally at y ^e Theator like anoisterwife, Hamlet, reuenge: he is full of infamy & slander, insomuch as if he ease not his stomack in de­tracting somwhat or some man before noontide, he fals into a fe­uer that holds him while supper time▪ he is alwaies deuising of Epigrams or scoffes, and grumbles, murmures continually, al­though nothing crosse him, he neuer laughes but at other mens harmes, briefly in being a tyrant ouer mens fames, he is a very Titius (as Virgil saith) to his owne thoughts.

The mischiefe is that by graue demeanure, and newes bea­ring, hée hath got some credite with the greater sort, and manie fooles there bée that because hée can pen prettilie, hold it Gospell what euer hée writes or speakes: his custome is to preferre a foole to credite, to despight a wise man, and no Poet liues by him that hath not a flout of him. Let him spie a man of wit in a Tauerne, he is an arrant dronckard; or but [Page 57] heare that he parted a fray, he is a harebraind guarreller: Let a scholler write, Tush (saith he) I like not these common fel­lowes: let him write well, he hath stollen it out of some note booke: let him translate, Tut, it is not of his owne: let him be named for preferment, he is insufficient, because poore: no man shall rise in his world, except to féed his enuy: no man can con­tinue in his friendship, who hateth all men. Diuine wits, for many things as sufficient as all antiquity (I speake it not on slight surmise, but considerate iudgement) to you belongs the death that doth nourish this poisen: to you the paine, that en­dure the reproofe. Lilly, the famous for facility in discourse: Spencer, best read in ancient Poetry: Daniel, choise in word, and inuention: Draiton, diligent and formall: Th. Nash, true English Aretine. All you vnnamed professours, or friends of Poetry, (but by me inwardly honoured) knit your industries in priuate, to vnite your fames in publike: let the strong stay vp the weake, & the weake march vnder conduct of the strong; and all so imbattell your selues, that hate of vertue may not imbase you. But if besotted with foolish vain glory, emulation, and contempt, you fall to neglect one another, Quod Deus omen auertat, Doubtles it will be as infamous a thing shortly, to pre­sent any book whatsoeuer learned to any Maecenas in England, as it is to be headsman in any frée citie in Germanie:

The meane hath discoursed, let the mighty preuent the mis­chiefe. But to our Deuill, by his leaue, we can not yet shake him off: hearke what Martial saith to thée, thou deprauer:

And why thinkest thou, wisheth hée thus? Mary to the end thou maist be the more tormented. Thou vice of nature; thou errour without excusation: though it nothing profiteth me to speake truth against thée, yet shall it hinder thy venime to molest & poison many. Know thou (scum of imperfections) that [Page 58] howsoeuer thou defraut est other of praise, thou be wraiest thine owne infirmities: and although I am past hope to reforme thée by my iust reasen, yet (false deuill as thou art) I leaue thée to the martyrdome of thy thoughts, and since example expres­seth imperfection, Ile tell the world a storie wherein with Lira I will prettily discouer thy nature.

A great and mighty Lord desirous to know the difference be­twixt an enuious & couetous man commāded a seruant of his to bring one of both sorts to his presence: to whom (after some courtly salutations) he made this offer, that aske what they would he would grant it them, on that condition, that he might giue the second the double of that the first demanded: these two vnderstanding the summe of the Noblemans intent, fell at de­bate betwixt themselues which of them should wish first; the couetous, desiring to wish last, by reason of the commoditie de­pending thereon, and the enuious disdaining the other should haue more then he. At last the Nobleman séeing their contenti­on without end, & desirous to sée the issue of his expectation, cō ­manded the enuious to begin, reseruing the couetous the latter choice; But what desired he thinke you, being preferred to this election? Forsooth, nought els but that one of his eies might bée pulled out, to the end the other might loose both his, chusing ra­ther the losse then the profit, to the end that he whom he enui­ed might haue mischiefe with the aduantage: whereby wée may easilie vnderstand, in what blindnesse and error that miserable man is, that suffereth himselfe to bée conque­red by this cursed humor: to conclude with Iob, this sort Iob. 5. of maligning enuie killeth a foole, I wish therefore that all wise men should flie it.

The next Deuill incarnate of this bréed is Malitious hatred, whose fouedelicity is to reioice at other mēs harms, giuing affliation [...]oh. [...]. to those y ^• are troubled w ^t afflictiō. This fellow still walks with his hat ouer his eies, confirming that of Iohn, He y ^• hateth his brother liueth in darknes. If a man offend him, he admits no re­concilement. Hée was a persecutor in the primitiue Church, when blindnes of heart was executioner of the saints: and to cause any mans confusion is his chiefest felicitie. It was hée [Page 59] drew the French king to inuade Cicilie, Italie, and Naples: and some say his councell ma [...]e the Spaniard enter into Na­uar. It was he that flesht the Turke vpon the Christians, and wrought that deadly debate betwixt the Tarter & Muscouite: when he heares of peace, then is he pensiue, and if he want cre­dit with y ^• mighty, he fals at working among the comminalty: he neuer coulors with anyman, but to betray him; nor lends a­ny man mony but to vndoe him, nor contriues any stratagem without murther, or dwels by any neighbor, but to hurt him: he hath a cause at law in euery court, and prefer him conditions of accord, he will fret himselfe to death. His enuies the older they be, the better they please him▪ for inueterate wrath still [...]oileth in his breast: if he counsel any man in his owne humor, he laboreth him to mistake all courtesies, to misconsture all re­concilements: if a man salute him, it is in mockerie; if a man salute him not, he is prowd and shall be puld lower: if a man ad­uise him in worldly affaires, he infinuates; to be briefe, nothing can please him but to heare of other mens perdition. Flie this fiend and his humor, you that loue peace or looke for selicitie, for he y ^• loueth not (saith Iohn) remaineth in death: follow the course of the Hermit Agathon, who neuer slept in anger, nor to his▪ power suffered any displeased man to part from him with­out reconciliation: rather make thine enemie ashamed by thy courtesies, thē incensed by thy hatreds; & being thy selfe mortal, let not thy hate be immortal. The last deuil of this race (for Iea­lousie is barren, but in increasing hir own mischiefs) is Worldly fear, he neuer walks abroad but in suspition, if a butchers hook do but catch him by the sléeue, he cries out, At whose sute? he is stil in iealousie that euery man wil excéed him, & attēpreth nothing in vertue, through y ^• suspect of his corrupt nature: because he wan­teth charity, he is stil in dread, & the only fée of his fortune is the suspect of his ability: he hath courage inough to aduenture on a­ny sinne, but touching the domages of his bodie, there is not an arranter coward. He trusts no man for fear he deceiue him, if he heare of any of his equals in election of an office, he trembles like an aspen leafe, in doubt that his aduancement should be a hinderance to him: according to that in Claudian,

And that of Tullie in his Epistle to Torquatus, Plus in metuendo est mali, quam in eo ipso quod timetur: There is more euill in fearing, then in that which is feared. This fiend was he that possessed Di­onysius the elder, giuing him a greater hell by his suspicion, then danger by his enemies hatred. Of all other deuils let good men blesse them from this; for though he séeme contemptible in his owne abiectiues, yet whatsoeuer mind hée seazeth vpon, (as Granatensis saith) hée shewes himselfe to be a powerfull pertur­bation, making of litle things, great; and of great, monstrous. The children of Beelzebub thus briefly brought in knowledge, let vs with some consideration examine the workings, & giue remedie against the assaults of the father. Enuie in his nature is agrieued at the prosperity of another man; he enuieth y ^• great, since he can not equall them: hée enuieth the weake, dreading they should compare themselues with him: finally, he enuieth his equals, because he were very loth they should be his compa­nions. In Kingdoms, Common-weales, Princes courts, and priuat families, he is still working; no man hunteth after ho­nour, but he affronts him: only the miserable man he malig­neth not, because he suspects not his risings; yet hath he a scorne for him, such as Phalaris had to heare Perillus groning and roa­ring in his brasen Bull. This capitall sin of all other is of most antiquity, and shall be of longest continuance. Grieuous were the warres raised by this fiend betwixt the Romans and Car­thaginians, and as fatall those betwixt Caesar and Pompey, who contended not vpon iniuries but vpon enuies. Hée it was that poisoned Socrates, slew Crassus, destroied Darius, ouerthrew Pyrrhus, brought Cyrus to his end, made Cataline infamous, and Sophomy be vnfortunate. Hermocrates the tyrant of Cicely knowing the venim of this vice, gaue his sonne this last, and not the least instruction: That he should not be enuious, (ad­ding thereunto this consequence) But do thou (saith hée) such déeds, that others may enuy thée: for to be euuied is the token [Page 61] of good deserts; but to be enuious, the signe of a corrupt nature. It is Tullius in his Orator; that the most flourishing fortune is al­waies enuied: agréeing with that in Quid,

This infirmitie is compared to a simple feuer, that is now hot, straight cold; for now doth the enuious man reioice at the aduersitie of the good, now waxe sad at the prosperitie of the righteous. Cain was sicke of this disease, enuying the prosperi­ty of Abel: Rachel enuied the fecunditie and fruitfulnesse of Lea; Saul, the felicity of Dauid. To conclude, the fall of y ^• world, and the death of Christ, was wrought by this sinne. Wisely saith Cassiodorus, Quicquid ex inu [...]dia dicitur, veritasnon reputatur: For who hath enuy in his heart, is neuer without lying in his tōgue. There is no man rightly enuieth another mans knowledge, but hée that suspecteth his owne. The remedie of this vice (as Albertanus saith). Is the loue of God, and of our neighbour: and in ascribing all things to the goodnes of God, we shall haue no­thing to maligne at, which is good in his creatures. Besides, if we hate death (as a thing most contrary and grieuous to na­ture) we must néedly hate Enuie, that first brought it into the world. The blessed soules (saith Gregory) do as much reioice at the felicitie of others, as their owne. It is then consequently an act of the cursed, to be agrieued at any mans prosperity. Not to detaine you long, with this I end with Tully, Est buius seculi Ci [...]. pr [...] L. Cornel. O [...]a. 24. li. 3 labes quaedam & macula virtuti inuidere, It is a certaine infirmitie and deformity of this world, to enuy vertue. And not to forget Horace,

The incarnate monsters begotten by the Arch-Deuill Baalberith.

AMongst all the monstrous ingendrings, and wonders of nature, (set downe by Pliny, Aristotle, and Elian in his histo­ries) the begetting of Baalberiths chil­dren is the most miraculous: for touch­ing procreation by mouth, by eares, and by other parts, they are confirmed by knowledge & experience; but for y ^• heart to be a place of conception, I held it a thing impossible, except it be in a Deuill. Yet as impossible as it is, true it is, and in a Deuill it was; and thus Baalberith became a father: When by those tirannies that ranged in the Primitiue Church from Au­relius to Valerian, this cursed spirit of wrath, rather augmen­ted then dismembred the faithfull, he sate him downe in a méere agony, and began to imagine in his thoughts how to destroy Patience in mens hearts, which is an opposed enemy to all his procéedings. Hereon inflaming his heart (by the hot cholerick and swift blood which he sent out of his vaines by Caua vena to it) there rose certaine spéedy and vehement spirits encountring with his sinister thoughts, that (forced out by his beating and heauy lungs) tooke passage with his breath▪ and no sooner entred the aire but attained bodies, in which they worke, and by which they are known. Tec first of them became a Ruf­fian, a Swashbuckler, and a Bragart, they call him Braw­ling contention; his common gate is as proud as a Spaniards, his ordinary apparell is a little low crownd hat with a fether in it like a forehorse; his haires are curld, and full of elues locks, and nitty for want of kembing; his eies are still staring, and he neuer lookes on a man but as if he would eate him: his dou­blet is of cast Satten, cut sometime vpon Taffata, but that the [Page 63] bumbast hath eaten through it, and spotted here and there with pure fat, to testifie that he is a good trencher man: his common course is to go alwaies vntrust, except when his shirt is a wa­shing, & then he goes woolward: and his bréeches are as despe­rate as himselfe, for they are past mending: his weapons are a basket hilted sword, and a bu [...] dagger; and if hée kéepe these from pawne, he is sure of a liuing: his praiers in the morning are, Gogs wounds hostesse one pot more: and his daily exercise is to be champion in a bawdy house: you shall haue him for tweluepence to braue and brawle with any men liuing: and let any men fall togither by the eares; to the field (cries hée) Ile sée faire play▪ he hath a Punck (as the Pleasant Singer cals her) that finds him spending mony; and if she prouide not his drinking penny, shée is sure of the bas [...]inado: giue him the lie▪ hée strikes you suddenly; and call him lesse then a gentle­man souldier, Zown [...]s you are a villaine. He is a passing good railer, specially if an old bawd anger him; and let him but looke into a vawting house, he shall play his tricks without charges. In Terme time he is a Setter, to further horse stealers; and to cunnyeatch a countreyman, he shall giue place to none in Newgate. In a [...]ray in Fléetstréet you shall daily see him foremost, for but in fighting, chiding, and scolding, hée hath no countenance. You shall hire him fōr a speciall baily if you come off with an angell; and sometimes he may carry a ring in his mouth, if hée haue a cast liuery for his labour. Hee is the only man liuing to bring you where the best licour is, and it is his hat to a halfe penny but hée will be drunke for companie. Then let the host crosse him, out goes his dagger; let the ho­stesse intreat him, shée is a whore for her labour, and though hée drinke beyond his stocke, thats but a custome. [...]ut (mine host, cries hée) skore it vp, it is the credit of your ale house. Bring a Sargeant and him togither, you shall heare vil­lanie with a vengeance: and if they conspire any mans ar­rest, gogs wounds hée will haulse him. This is a chiefe ca­terpiller in a citie, and too much winckt at: hée hath al­readie insected the most part of the suburbs, it were great pittie to graunt him harbour in the citie. Isidorus saith [Page 64] of this Deuill that he is subiect to thrée euill conditions of a dog: [...] First, he is alwaies ready to Quarrell: secondly, he taketh his best pleasure in Strife & Debate: thirdly, he prouoketh others vnto Discord. Of all Baalberiths bréed, there can not be an ar­ranter or more currish villaine, and peruerter of peace; and his impatience in iniury, commeth of his carnall mind. Of all com­panions there is none that more deserueth the auoiding then hée; for whosoeuer falleth into his humor of impatience, he pre­sently becommeth the disciple of the Deuill, and fit and apt for all euill things. Nay, whosoeuer delighteth in contentions and debates, séemeth wholly to contradict his naturall inclination [...]. sup. A [...]ath. 8. cap. and being: for (as Chrysostome saith) Non est creatus cum corni­bus, vt Ceruus, Tygris, aut Centaurus, &c. He is not created with hornes, as the Hart, Tyger, and Centaure, that with them he should gore another man; neither with a hard and hornie hoofe, like a horse, to kicke at another man: neither with a sharpe fang, as the Woolfe, Dog, and Lion, to bite any man; neither with a sharpe bill, or crooked and strong nailes, to the end hée should teare, or prey vpon another man; as the Falcon, the Herne, the Hawke, and the Eagle: but bée is created with all his members, very competent and humble, to the end he should behaue himselfe iustly and humbly in all things towards his neighbour: whereupon it is to be inferred, that a brauling and contentious fellow, is a beast amongst men. Comparatus est mi­nent [...]s insipientibus similis factus est illis, He is compared to bruit beasts, and is made like vnto them: and not only is the con­tentious quarreller like the sauadge beast, but he resembleth likewise the deuill himselfe. For as the one soweth cockle a­mong Matth. 13. the corne, so the other ingendreth contentions among societies. The Wise man cals him an Apostata, and vnprofi­table; Prouerb. 6. adding this, In omni tempore iurgium seminat, He continu­ally soweth debate. Herupon Gregory saith, That if they be the sonnes of God, that séeke peace and ensue it; they truly are the sonnes of Sathan, that peruert peace, and destroy society. Let not therefore this deuill haue any title among you, for hée is be­neficiall to none but foure: to the U [...]ttailer, for ridding his drinke; to the Surgean, for curing his wounds; to the Phisiti­an [Page 65] for purging his disease, and the earth for féeding it with dead bodies. As this Deuill only haunteth the suburbes, and [...]ildome but skulkingly and in companie entereth the cittie; so is there another Deuill of his race that haunts both court, cittie, and countrie, nay there is none so priuate méeting, none so sollemne disport, but he is there for a stickler to increase the multitude of sins: this Deuill is called Blasphemy, that is continually cla­morous, ready to swell in enuie, prone and forward in indigna­tion, he cares not to sweare God his maker and gouernor from top to [...]oe like the French man, and curse al his creatures in dis­honor of their creator; his delight is hourely to make idols of e­uery vaine thing he seeth sretting▪ [...]hafing and perplexing him­self if he want othes to difiest his displeasure. He haunts ordina­ries, and places of exercise, schooles and houses of learning, nay I fear me (would God it were a lie) there are more othes sworn in Poules in a day, th [...]n deuout praiers said in it in a month: e­uery shop hath one at least, beside the maister, to sweare to the price, and without an oth now adaies there is no buieng or chaf­fare: faith and troth are the least hazard; yea and nay is a pu­ritane. This fiend accounts it an impeach of his honour if any outsweare him, and a token of cowardise, if hée want othes to replie with▪ he is a man that day he coines some lothsome ieast out of the s [...]ipture; and is neuer so little crost, but (if he wants a fit English oth to put in) he will vp with Can [...]re, vie [...]ne la bosie, la peste [...]estrangle, la [...]able, le ragete puisso em [...]rter: if he want French blaspheamy, Pota d'i [...]dio, putana d'iddi [...], cties he with the Italian Atheist: if you talke of Diuine iustice, he saith there is no God: if he by sicknesse and plagues be forced to confesse him; he cals him tyrant, vniust, and without equitie: if another man be preferred before him, he saith God doth wrong to his honor: if he fling the dice (after the losse of two or thrée hazards,) In spight of God he will now cast in: and though hée bée iustly ac­cused of an offence, I forsake God (saith he) and I did it. Let a­ny man promise him a familiar to surther him in gaming, hée will vow that Deuils know all things, that the thoughts of mens hearts are open vnto them, that they may saue and giue man Paradise. Hire him to write a comedie, he is as arrant an [Page 66] A theift as Rabelais in his Pantag [...]uel, so that it is wonder y ^• (with Theodectus the Poet) he is not strokē blind, & by deuine iustice loose his ences as Theopompus did for many months: and not only in this habite breaketh forth Blasphemy in our age and nation; but amongst the Iewes and Rabins he hath béene more impious: saying that God roareth thrée times a day like a lion, Alasse, alasse, alasse, woe is me, that I haue destroied my people: and in their Peruchines and expositions vpon the sixt chapter of Genesio they say that God hath reproued himself for creating fiue things; First, the Chaldeans; secondly, the Isma­lites; thirtly, Originall sinne and concupiscence; fourthly, Ido­latrie; fifthly, that he suffered the captiuitie of the children of Is­raell in Babilon. It was he that taught them in their Talmud to excommunicate God for taking R. Ehezers part against them: and incensed that cursed lim of their sinagogue to say, That entering Paradice by subtilty, he deceaued both God and the Deuill. I dare not write further of those impieties I haue read, not onely in these reprobates, but also in the liues of ma­nie Christians in profession, Deuils in déed, who led by this spirit, haue like Iulian, Blastus, and Florinus, and many others, filled their times with impieties: Onely let mée persuade you by these examples to gather the lothsomenesse of this sinne, and flie it in all your spéeches and conuersation. Among the Grecian gods and Idolatrous Dracles, contempt had his pu­nishment, as it appeared in Daphides. And Misoeue, for threat­ning the gods with warre, was vtterly subuerted: Sena cherib for blaspeaming the true Immortall god, had eight hundreth thousand men defa [...]ted in one night by the Angels: Antiochu [...], Nicanor, and Holophernes, the one was deuoured with wormes, the next had his tongue pluckt out and cast vnto the foules; the third had his head cut off by a woman, and all for blaspheamie: Himinaeus, and Alexander, were pos­sest [...]y the Deuill: Olimpius the Arrian, was slaine by lightning: Pheraecides was consumed with [...]: nay a young child (as Cir [...]le reporteth) was fech [...] away by the Deuils, for blaspheaming the name of God. Let all sorts [Page 67] consider on this, and gouerne that little member their tongue, least Iustice that hath forborne long time, stri [...]e home at last to their confusion. What malecontent is this that followes him; Looking suspitiouslie, as fearing to [...]ée apprehended; scattering Li [...]els in Court, Westminster, and London? By his apparell hée should be a Frenchman, but his language showes him to bée English. Oh I know him now, it is Sedition the Trouble world; This Deuil de [...]ected for some notable villanie in his countrie, or after the lewd and prodi­gall expence of his liuing, flying vnder colour of Religion beyond the seas, is lately come ouer with seditious bookes, false intelligences, and defamatorie Libels, to disgrace his Prince, detract her honourable c [...]unsell, and seduce the com­mon sort: This fellow in Poules takes vp all the malecon­tents, telling them wonders of the entertainement of good wi [...]s in other countries, and cals them fooles for liuing so long heare, where men of good wits are most neglected. In the countrie, hée stormes, and railes, against inclosures, telling the hus­bandmen that the pleasure of their Lords, eates away the fat from their fingers; and these rackt rents (which in good sooth authoritie might wiselie looke into) are the vtter ruine of the yeomanrie of England: the conclusion of his talke alwaies is insurrection, and commotion; for saith hée the world will neuer bée mended with the poore whilest these carm [...]rants bée hanged higher. This is hée that saith that warre is a good trée, and bringeth forth good fruit, namelie store of good crownes: and it is a paradox of his, That it is better liue a Rebell then die a begger. If anie mis [...]ke his talke, and threaten to bring him in question, My friend (quoth hée) I doe but trie the na­tures of men how they are inclined, that they may bée lookt into by the better sort, whose intelligencer I am. This is a pestilent [...]iend, and the more secret hée lurketh, the more harme hée worketh, the whole scope of his dis­course is the cause of much inconuenience, for there, through on euerie side groweth hate, and of hate saith [Page 68] Machiauell come deuisions, and of deuisions sects, and of sects ruin. Another method of Sedition is this, to innouate in religion, to detract the pollicie of the Cleargie, to disgrace the reuerend fathers & eies of religion, our Bishops, obiecting against them these corruptions, which as they neuer thought, so they neuer practised. Of this race was Martine Marprelat, who had he béen attached with a writ of C [...]pias Hangvillaine, he had not trou­bled the world, nor left such fraternities of his sect in En­gland. D [...]acos lawes written in blood were fit for them, who on­ly stir vp seditions to spill innocent blood. Biesius in his booke De Repub. (setting down the difference betwixt good and euil) saith, That such things as maintain vs in euil, or change our goodnes to wickednes, are rightly called euill; but such as maintaine or encrease our felicities are rightly tearmed good: this considered what shall wée account these seditious libertines but wicked, who maintaine the inferiors in euill thoughts toward their su­periors, and alter the simplicitie and good affection of the sub­iect toward his Prince, to the subuersion of themselues, and the hate both of their countrie, and ruine of their kingdome? Con­stantinus the Emperor (séeing the inconueniences that arise by these sort of men) in his Epistle to the Alexandrians, causeth them to be punished seuerely. And one of the hastners on of the destruction of Ierusalem was the seditions and factions with­in [...]. 4. [...]. [...]. [...]. 32. the cittie: as Iosephus witnesseth. The nobility amongst the Iewes listening to whisperers, and detractors of their equals, would subscribe to no election or superioritie, so that (in the time that Antiochus Epiphanes fought with P [...]olomey for Siria) the whole countrey had like to be subuerted, (as Nicephorus wit­nesseth.) [...] E [...]cles. [...]. [...]. cap. 6. Princes in authoritie, nobles, and counsailes of Com­monweales, Citizens and subiects in each countrie, beware of these seditions; for they deserue trust on neither fide. For how can a forraine king in reason trust those who are false to their countrie? or suppose them faithfull, who (only seruing for profit and maintainance with them) will more willing (vpō assurance of life and liuelihood) discouer your practises to their naturall Prince? And how can their lawfull and rightfull Prince trust them, who hauing once past the limits of honestie are in Tullies [Page 69] opinion past recouerie?

Hauing thus far brought you in knowledge of the fatall ene my of societies, called Sedition, now looke vpon this other side a little, and marke what Deuill marcheth there: For sooth it is War, in one hand bearing a brand to set cities on fire, in y ^• other a sword bathed and embrued with bloud; This fiend soweth a spice of tyrannie wheresoeuer he marcheth, hauing Feare, Cla­mor, Sorrow▪ Mourning, Crying, Groning, continually atten­ding his chariot; of whose effects Lucan most heroically singeth in his second booke of ciuill warres, in these verses:

This fiend is the boulster of Ambition, and serueth only the crowned sort to disiest their mislikes & perturbations: & not on­ly with his entrance, but also with his feare bringeth he cala­mitie, for no sooner draweth he his forces into any place, but be­fore any assault or violence be offered, the fields are forsaken, husbandry is giuen ouer, marchandise cease, & feare triumphs: [Page 70] the expectation of his intent, is the perturbation of those that expect him, and whosoeuer serues him, is bound to obay his ne­cessities: the laws of iustice are peruerted by him, and vaine­glorie that be got him is oftentimes the cause of his ouerthrow, This deuill is the scourge of God, the son of wrath, the plague of nations, the p [...]ison of peace, and Bartas thus learnedly de­scribes him in his effects,

Wonderful are the mischiefs that this fiend hath raised in the world, in leauing countries desolate, cities dispoiled, and flouri­shing Realms vtterly wasted: many are the examples & wofull the histories that intreat hereof, & nature hath receiued y ^e grea­test wounds by this enuie: let vs therefore flie it with prudence. For then prowd wretch y ^• desirest change for thy profit as thou supposest; know this, that war is blind in his cruel [...]y, & respects not what thou wilt, but where thou art: all sorts perish by his sword, he regards not religion, affection, desert, al is one to him in intending execution; let vs therefore loue peace and pursue it, for as Ouid saith,

[Page 71] Augustine speaking in commendation of peace saith, that [...] it is so good a thing that amongst all created things nothing is heard of, with more delight; nothing desired for, with grea­ter affection, and nothing possessed with more profit. Christ knowing the commodities and perfection of this peace, not on­lie in word but also in example, not onelie in life and death, but also after death, taught vs to embrace it. In life hée taught it [...] 2. vs, for at his birth the Angels soong, Peace bée to men on earth. [...]. 10. In life hée taught his Disciples to preach it, saying, Into what house soeuer you come, say first of all, Peace bée vnto this house. Hée commended it in his death, when hée suffered him­selfe to bée taken, whipt, crucified, and slaine, that he might reduce vs to Peace with God. Hée commended peace vnto vs after his death; For after his resurrection (and in his vi­siting the Apostles) his first salucation was, Peace bée among you: who therefore is an enemie of peace, is an enemie of God, who liued, suffered, and arose from death to life, to esta­blish and forme our peace. Nihil est tam [...] (saith Tul­ly) quampax, &c. Nothing is so popular as peace, for not onlie they to whom nature hath giuen sence, but euē y ^• houses & sields séem to me to reuiue therat. And to conclude, not only let al men [...]schew this fatall Deuill of war, and entertaine the sweet bene­fit of Ciuill peace in their societies, but let them get them the true peace also, which (as Leo saith) is not deuided from Gods will, but onely delighted in those things which are of God: for when sensuality tesisteth not our will, & our will in no part con­tradicteth reason, then haue we the clearnesse, s [...]renitie, & peace of mind, and then is the kingdome of God.

Next War followeth a froward furie called Vengeance: if you long to know him he hath these marks his face pale his eies in­flamed, his browes bent, his hand shaking, his [...] yawing, his passion expressed with othes, & satisfied with blood; he wil not stand lawing to dis [...]est his iniuries, but a word and a blow with him; no man must a [...]use him, no m [...]n contreule him: hee is ge­nerallie blind in his owne affaires, and [...] in all his actions, his custome is either to purchase the gal­lowes by murthers, or to bée beggered by the law: Bée not [Page 72] acquamted with him in any case, for he that féeds on Reuenge, respecteth not reason; Plato knowing the force of this infirmi­tie, being displeased with his seruant who had gréeuously offen­ded him, would not punish him himselfe, but gaue him to bée corrected by his friend Tenocrates with these words; Chastice mée this boy (saith hée) for in that I am angrie I cannot punish him: Seneca reporteth the same of Socra­tes, and Saint lerome of Architas Tarentinus, and all such like actions of memorie are worthie to bée registred. For (to accord with Philosophie and Poesie) Reuenge is but an [...] thing, an infirmitie of the spirit, a default in iudge­ment, whi [...]h becomes not Thales or Chrisippus, (as Iuuenal saith) but rather an intemporate and dissolute Thais: where [...] Sa­t [...]r. 13. contrariwise clemencie, and remission, and forgiuenesse of iniurie, it is an act of pietie; wherein Caesar (though o­therwise an vsurper) gloried, telling one (and swearing it by the immortall gods) that in no act of his he more iustly deserued glorie, or more perfectly delighted himselfe, then in pardoning those who had offended him, and in gratifieng those who had serued him. To make short, whosoeuer Reuengeth, is sure of Gods vengeance, for the law of God especially interdicted and forbiddeth it, in these words, Séeke not reuenge; neither Leuit. 19. remember thou the iniuries which thy neighbors haue done vnto thée. The Philosophers likewise accorded herein, as ap­peareth by Socrates and P [...]ato, who in his first of his Common weale saith thus, that Reterr [...] inturiam, est inferre, To render and do iniurie is all one.

But leaue we this fiend to the tyrany of his owne thought, for here marcheth forward the spirit of Impatience now incar­nate, a fleshlie fiend I warrant him: This is he will beat his wise, lame his children, breake his seruants backes, vpon euerie light occasion; hée will not dine for anger if his nap­kin haue a spot on it, nor pray if hee haue not that gran­ted him which at the first he requireth: he will not stay to heart an answere whilest a man may excuse himselfe, nor endure any reading if it fit not his purpose, nor affect anie lear­ning that [...]eedes not his humor: hée will bea [...] his Phisitian [Page 73] if his purge worke not presently; and kill his horse, if he gallop not when he commands him: he is like captaine Cloux foole of Lyons that would néeds die of the sullens, because his master would entertaine a new foole besides himselfe: this deuill is an arrant swearer, a swift striker, a short liuer, thrée good marks to know him by, and of all his imperfections this is not the least, that if he be detracted he stormeth, be it either iustly or vniustly, not considering what an honour it was for Zerxes, Caesar, Domitian, Titus, Traian, and Tiberius, who being certifi­ed that a certaine man had spoken ill of him, answered, That tongues are frée in a city. For to heare a mans fault is wis­dome, but to be flattered is méere misery. A certaine Empe­rour confirming the lawes of Theodosius, Arcadius, and of Homer, said thus: If any one not knowing the law of mode­sty, so far forth forget himselfe to speake ill of vs, our will is, that he be not punished for the same, for if it procéed of lightnesse of spirit, and readinesse of tongue, it is to be neglected: if it pro­céed of folly or choller, it is to be pitied: and if it procéed of iniu­ry, it is to be pardoned: A golden saying, and worthy an Empe­rour, which if you follow my friends, you haue a sufficient spell about you, to coniure the spirit of Impatience from you. Thus haue I briefly shewed you the whelpes of Wrathes lit­ter: now for a conclusion, let vs a litle canuase this cursed fiend Baalberith. To discourse therefore of this immoderate passion (procéeding from the sensetiue appetite, as Aquine saith) it is the increase of the gall (according to the Phisitians) but the decrease of all modesty, by the law of reason: for he that is af­fected with this short madnesse (according to Seneca) is angry with his quill if it deliuer not inke; with his dice, if he play and loose, and then he bites them: his gesture is inconstant, he looks red in the gils like a Turkie cocke, his eie lids are deprest, his lips tremble, his tongue stutters, and he is vnquiet in all his body. Sometimes from words he breaketh into cries, from cries into slaunders, from slaunders into contumely, from contumelies into cursings, from cursing into blasphemies. Sometime like an ague it seaseth the whole body, & somtimes [Page 74] like a fre [...]sie, peruerteth the mind: sometime it lifteth by the hand to hurt another man, sometimes himselfe: somtimes somtimes hée heares not, eates not, speakes not, but is his owne plague. What shall I say? this Deuill in all men darkeneth reason, & confoundeth memory: and as smoke drweth a man out of his house, so wrath erpelleth the Holy-Ghost from our hearts. Those that write of Ire, disswade and debar men from the vse thereof for thrée causes: First, because it iniureth God; next, their neighbours; and lastly themselues. For from God it taketh the effect of his power; from our neighbour it taketh the affect of due beneuolence; and from mens selues it taketh the aspect of reason and vse of intelligence. For first of all, it behooueth God in respect of his power, iudicially to reuenge and punish sinne, spiritually to inhabite the good, and liberally to be­stow his benefits on them. But the Irefull man is contrari­ous to God in all these things: first, hée taketh from God his reuenge, because Ire is a disordinate appetite of reuenge: and God saith, To me belongeth reuenge, Et ipse retribuum, For God Rom. 13. hath reserued two things vnto himselfe, glory, & reuenge; and the proud man robbeth him of the one, and the irefull man of the other: secondly, an Irefull man iniureth God, because he ex­pelleth him from the rest of his habitation: In pace factus est locus eius, His place is made in peace: but according to the Prouerbs, An Irefull man prouoketh brawles, erga he displaceth God of that habitation wherein hée would dwell, by corrupting his heart with contentions: thirdly, God is iniuried, in that the peace he sent into the world, is by the [...]refull man disturbed. Second­ly, Ire taketh from our neighbor the affect of due beneuolened, for we are bound to defend him in substance, fame, and person: and contrariwise this Ire compelleth vsto hurt him in raui [...] ­ing his substance, impe [...]ching his forne, and killing his person. Arist. lib 3. de animal. Ariltoile (a great searches into nature) saith, that as soone as the Bée looseth her sting, shée dieth: and so fareth it (if we morrally allude) with the Irefull and reuenging man; for whilst [...]ther in deed or word he exerciseth his mallice on his neighbour, hur­ting him in his substance, person, or fame, he first of all spiritu­ally Iob. 5. killeth himselfe, according to that of Iob, Virum stul [...] [...] ­terficit [Page 75] iracundia [...]: Ire killeth the foolishman▪ Thirdly, wrath drewneth & destroieth in a mans owne selfe three kind of goods: For first of all, it subuerteth the honestly of corporall disposition: secondly, it hindreth reason: and thirdly, shorteneth life. That it destroieth the honesty and comelinesse of mans disposition, it appeareth, because how faire soeuer a man be, it deformeth his lookes, it discōlours his face, it altereth his gesture, it transpor­teth his tongue, and euery way disgraceth him. And therefore Seneca faith▪ Nothing more profiteth an Irefull man then to behold his owne deformity: and therefore another Philosopher said, that it was requisite for a wrathfull man to sée his owne face in a myrrour, to the end, that by the reflexion thereof, hée might behold his unnaturall alteration. It is said of Minerua, that being delighted in the musicke of a cornet, she once plaid by a transparant and christall fountaines side, wherein spying her chéekes mightily puft and swollen with winding, shee cast away her instrument, and repined the further vse of it: As it happened to Minerua the goddesse of wit, so fortuneth it often times to many wise men subiect to indignation, who somtimes distracted with Ire, and perceiuing in the cléere fountaine of their iudgement, the vndecencie and errour thereof, vtterly disclaim [...]: secondly wrath hindreth the power of reason, ac­cording to Catos saying:

It hindreth the iudgement and vnderstanding, least it should dis­cerne truth: and for that cause the Deuill behaueth himselfe like a cunning fisherman, who purposing to catch and insuare the fish more cunningly, troubleth the waters, to the end, that blin­ding their sight, they may the sooner fall in his net. In like man­ner doth the Deuill demeane himselfe, who striuing to draw men to sinne, hee stirreth perturbation, strife, and dissentious among them, to the end they may the sooner fall into sinne, and be seduced by his mallice. Aristotle in the first of his Topiques saith, that Ire neuer subuerteth reason, but when the mind and soule is peruerse and froward: and euen as it is the craft of the 1. [...] Sophister (as the same Philosopher saith) to prouoke his aduer­sary to Ire, to the end he may hinder his iudgement, so it is the [Page 76] pollicte of the Deuill to blind our vnderstanding with wrath, least we would discerne his villany: thirdly, Ire shorteneth life, as may appeare in beasts, which being naturally chollericke, haue but short time of continuance; as namely, in the dog, and that in Ecclesiastes it is approoued, where it is said, Zelus & ira­cundia minuent dies, & ante tempus senectam adducent, Zeale and wrath shorten life, end hasten age. It is said of the Duyr (a stone gathered in India and Arabia) that it [...]ieth spirits, presenteth dolefull visions, multiplieth strife, & causeth brawles: The like may be said of Wrath, for it banisheth all good thoughts from the heart, [...]lleth the imagination with vntoward visions, and increaseth enuy, wrong, and contention: and as the stone Sar­dius hindreth the properties thereof, so doth Patience mollifie & pacifie trouble: according to that of the Wise man, Responsio mollis frangit iram, A soft answer putteth downe strife. Seneca in his third booke de Ira faith, If it be a friend that offended, hee did that he would not: if an enemy, he did as he ought: So howsoe­uer displeasures come, if they be wisely construed, they are ea­sily digested. Wrath by the Schoolemen likewise is compared to a burning feuer, which as it hath two accidents (according to Constantine) continuall heat, and great thirst; so a wrathfull Lib. 7. crat. cap. de caus. man vpon euery froward word in gesture, words, and lookes, is drawne into a great heat, and afterward is seased with a great thirst of reuenge. A wrathfull man likewise is compared to a beast called Abbane, which being a creature of the bignesse of a Hart, yet (against the custom of all other beasts) hath her Axist. 2. de Animal. gall in her eare: so a wrathfull man (although he be kindly spo­ken to) yet taketh he all things in bitternesse: and according as be interpreteth words, so giueth hée short and crosse answers. Thus far haue I drawn a line, to square the foundation against Gal. de cog­n [...]scendis cu­randisque a­nimi affecti­bus. Ber. Do­n [...]o incorp. the assaults and battery of Baalberith. Now with Gallen I will mortifie some chiefe stones of the building, and leaue the rest to your finishing: and thus saith he in a certaine treatise of his, That from our tender youth we ought to tame this passion of choller, and not attend till our yéeres be ripened; at which time hauing taken root, it is the harder to be wéeded out: for if wée yéeld this head strong fury one foot, it will take two, and by litle: [Page 77] and litle will in such sort créepe and attaine to the feiguurie of the heart, that by no meanes or medicine it will be vuseated therefrom. The heauen (said Gallen) hath so much fauoured me, that I had a iust, good, and courteous father, & no waies oppres­sed with passion and choller; whose good precepts and instru­ctions, I haue euer retained: for at no time, in what choller so­euer he hath béene, haue I séene him transported so farre, as to strike any man, but (which more is) hée had alwaies a custome to reprehend those, that beat and stroke their subiects and ser­uants. But if I were fortunate in a father (said he) I was lesse fortunate in a mother, for I had one the most chollericke and troublesome woman liuing vpon the earth, shée was alwaies at the staffes end with my father, to whome shée was no lesse troublesome, then was earst Xantippe to her Socrates: she ne­uer ceased to raile against him, continually filling the house w ^t tumult, yea, choller had such power in her from her youth, that when she entred into any discontents, she finng, stampt, strooke, yea so far forgot her selfe, that she strooke her chambermaids. The same author saith like wise, that the first time he began to detest that vice, was, that being a young lad he beheld a man seased with this passion, who was so far disguised by choller, that hée séemed rather a monster then a man, for hée had his countenance changed, his eies staring, his haires bristling on his head, his lookes furious, and all the rest of his body trem­bling, and agitated with fury; he cried, he stamped, he threatned, he fomed at the mouth like a bore, and to conclude, he shewed such strange, insolent, and prodigious countenauces, that hée gaue manifest euidence that this brutall passion, brings a man besides himselfe, and makes him like vnto beasts. Thus farre Gallen, by whose counsell if wée propose vnto our selues the image and picture of a distempered and wrathfull man, no doubt but the obscene, filthy, and lothsome behauiour which he vseth, will bring vs in detestation of his vice, and determination to a­uoid and conquer such like perturbations and affections.

The intemperate and vnnaturall Deuils raised by Beelphogor, Prince of belly cheere.

IN that time that Gera the Emperour had made his festiuall of thrée daies long, and his messes were serued in according to the order of an Alphabet; Beelphogor gorged with multitude of dishes, and dead drunke with varietie of wines, at last fell fatally sicke of an extreame surfet. Sleepe his Phisitian was sent for, but hee could not digest it; Manna, Rubarb, and the best easie & pure drugs were ministred, but they wrought nothing in his gorged stomacke. His brother Deuils loth to loose so kind a friend, and necessary member of the common­weale of confusion, sent to Persia for the high priest of Bel who was held a great Magitian and a Phisitian. This holy father, faced like the North wind of a map, mounted on a horned. Deuill instead of a Spanish Gen [...]et, speedily posted to his court▪ and was atdast admitted to his presence, where after sight of his vrine and féeling of his pulse▪ with a bitter sigh (as terrible as a Tarnado on the coast of Spaine) he began in these words to tell his opinion: Palsgraue of the pipes of wine, Grand dispo­ser of delicates, it is no receipt of the Hipocratists, nor potion of the Galtenists, can dissolue the trudities and surcharging hu [...]rs of your stoi [...]atke: but as among the Barbarians and Cannibuls the priests are phisitians and neuer faile of their c [...]re, so the patient thinke thei [...] able, & the thing possible; so I, the priest in your rights & sacrifi [...]s, (if so your great Bellyship haue a good opinion of my experience) am both able, and [...] ▪ rid you of your surset without paine or trouble Beelphogor. glad of this, poured [...] tun of Gréeke wine downe his throat for his good counsell, and assuring him that he considently trusted in his cunning, our cure-deuill at last began his Incantation. Long had he not mubled in a great cane, which he had brought [Page 79] in his wide sleeue, and washt the patients temples in a Fat [...]: vnpurged Malmsey, but Beelphogor began to cast or discharge, (let it please chast eares to let slip this vnreuerent word) and in stead of voiding corrupt fle [...]me, Adust choller, and other in­digested excrements, he sent forth (oh procreation incredible to be thought of) fiue fiends, dull winged like Bats, spirits of the elements next neighbouring the earth, whoin clouds of fogges and mists, hauing haunted Asia, Africa, and Europe: for the most part haue by a Southerne wind of late daies béene blown into England, and become incarnate after this maner follow­ing (yet reseruing those names to theselues which their grand­sire Sathan gaue them.) The first is D [...]este of spirit, and he dwels in an English man late come out of Germany, who ha­uing béene an apprentise to drunkennesse since the yéeres of his discretion, is lately arriued, to make a dearth of S [...]ks in En­gland. If you marke his gate in the stréets, it is sausages and neats tongues: he shawn [...]es like a cow had broke her forelegs: you shall euer see him sweating, and his landresse, I know, hath a good master of him, for the very pure grease of his hand­kerchiefe, is sufficient to find her candles for a winter time: his eies are full of cathars, and had he not a vent by them to dis­charge his head, his braines long since had sunk in a [...]uagmire: hée hath chéekes dropsie proofe, and a nose, such a nose as neuer nose was greater: from the wast to the foot of equall proporti­on: his necke drowned in his head and shoulders, his body in his buttocks, and his buttocks in his calfes: all pure béefe of twenty pence a stone, a dog would not eat it. This Deuill of a drunkard hath no felicity but in a tauerne, and for euery day if he make not a man drunke, he hath spent much idle tune: he hath all the tearmes of art set downe by T. N. in his Supplica­tion to the Deuill, Primum ad fund [...]m, secundum his medium, tertium v [...] primum, sic debes bibere vinum. He hath a sausage al­waies in his pocket to driue downe drinke, and in stead of the stories of the nine worthies, he hath painted in a booke in their antiques all the faithfull drunkards of his age: he th [...] k [...] himselfe with [...]uita, another with Ke [...]h win [...] an [...] [...] ­sters, another with Heringes and pickeld h [...]rings: he [...] [...] [Page 80] their names (and Epigrams to them) of the best maker of this age. Of all nations and citizens he can not abide a Romane: aske him why, Fie on them (quoth he) the slaues kill their wiues for drunkennesse. Draw him but into the common place of wine, he will weary the whole company (with one quart & a morcell more, and so God be at your sport M. Tatlton:) first he saith that it is vitis, quasi vita, a man were as good misse his life as wine: againe, that (in Almaine and France) wine is the most honourable present to strangers: he alledgeth you these verses out of Ralblais (but with this breathing poing, One pottle more of that next the doore Ned,)

After the company hath drunke carouse about, and sung Cho­robent, and Gaude plurimum, forward goes he, By gots hun­dred towsand ton a deuels, all Caesars armie had bene lost with­out wine: and the only medicine for the flegme is (in his know­ledge) thrée cups of Charnico fasting: he hath the Prouerbe of the old Phisitians ( post crudum purum) a gallon of wine to an apple is pure simetry and proportion in drinking: fill his cup a­gaine of Madera wine, and let him wipe his eies after his fa­shion, you shall haue stories too, as true as the voiage of Pan­tagruel. I was (will he say) somtime in a Tauerne, and it was with some of my neighbours that it was (this drinkes too flat Iohn, fill better, saith he, and carousing in stead of a full point he prosecutes his matter,) and it chanced as we were a drinking I saw mine host carry two pitchers full of water into his wine seller, hauing two other carried after by his apprentice full of good wine (as I supposed:) now Sir, (suspecting same knauery) I thrust my head out of the window, and cried mainly with a full throat, Fire, fire, fire; By reason it was somewhat tow­ards night (now a bit, & then a cup more) I was quickly heard, so that at the last, the Tauerne was full of all sorts of people, some bringing water, (as the contrary to fire,) others oile, (good to quench lightning,) some ladders to clime the house [Page 81] top, some vineger to lay on scalding: The people entring into the chamber where I was, and seeing neither fird, nor sinoake, fearefully aske mée where the fire was? I also hoarse with crying, at last answered them that it was in the sel­ler, and I was sure of it, and for proofe therof (quoth I) I saw the host very now carrie down store of water. They hearing this, sodainly ran downe into the seller, where they found the Ta­uerner with his prentice mingling wine and water together, all the companie detesting his knauerie, one cast his paile of water at his head, another his oile, another his vineger, ano­ther broke a sticke out of his lather, and all to bebeat him: the host souced in souce like a pickled herring, ran away to saue himselfe, the people fell a drinking til they left him neuer a drop in his seller, and I (a pottle more of Charnico, Edward) with­out paying pennie for my Wine, went away with the goblet, (and I drinke to you good man Pouling) this last period is a pottle at least, and how say you by my taleteller? Wil you haue yet more? Take him frō this his dailie exercise, he is as dead as a doore naile, hee hath no more sence then a shoat in pickle: Get him to church, hée sléepes out the sermon: persuade him to absti­nence, tut saith hée it ingenders Cathars, & nourisheth the Me­grim; examine him in his worldly affairs, talke of that to mor­row: the onely meanes to wake him is to tell him the Uintage is come home, for against that time hée makes him a doublet a quarter wider in the wast then the first, because hée will walke and drinke easelie. It would make a good wit druncke to dream [...] of his qualities, I will therefore here leaue him, and as I haue painted him out to the eie, so will I conuict his detestable course by reason. First maketh hée that which was ordained to bée the temple of the Holy-ghost a den of Deuils, next drowneth hée that spirit which was created for heauenly contemplations, in earthly and transitorie pleasures then by his Gast imargia and Epicurisme, he dulleth his conscience with an apoplery & nomb­nes, so that it hath no power to distinguish mortall sinnes, from heauenly & intelectuall delights; lastly by detesting continency, he suffereth the plagues of excesse, and looseth the benefites of abstinence, which maintaine the soule in his harmonie, and the [Page 82] bodie in health and temperature, and as Horace saith,

Of all detestable sinnes dronkennesse is most vildest, for it bréedeth lothsomenesse in those that most delight in it; It is a a luxurious thing as the wise man saith, and the immoderate Prouerb. 20. vse of wine hurteth a man foure kind of waies: first it is the cause of thraldome, secondly the confusion of honestie, thirdlie, the complement of vice and vol [...]ptuòusnesse, fourthly▪ the signe of follie: The first is manifest in this, because the origi­nall root and occasion of disgrace was in wine, whereby Noe Gene. 6. became the slaue of dronkennesse, and the scorne of his sonne Cam: That it is the confusion of honestie it appeareth, because whosoeuer is accustomed therein, hée is banished the societie of good men, and subiect to mightie discredits; What is more filthie then a droncken man, saith Innocentius? who hath stench in his mouth, trembling in his bodie, follie in his tongue, and want of secresie in his heart: his mind is aliena­ted, his face is deformed, and no secret can bée had where [...]brietie is soueraigne. And Seneca saith, That the mind intan­gled by dronckennesse, hath no power of it selfe; and if it bée rightlie considered of, it is but a voluntarie madnesse. Alex­ander transported with this sinne, slew Chtus his faithfull friend at a banquet, and after hée had recouered himselfe, hée would haue murthered and stabd himselfe for sorrow. The Romans figuring out the image of Ebrietie, painted it in this sort; First, they set downe the image of a boy, and next they painted a horne in his hand, and on his head they set a crowne of glasse: A child they painted him, in signe that it maketh a [Page 83] man childish and past his sence or gouernement: They ga [...] him a horne in his hand, in token that hée alwairs soun­deth and publisheth secrets whatsoeuer, and they crow­ned him with glasse, because the dronckard reporteth himselfe a glorious and rich man, where hée is as poore as Irus: Paup [...]rior Iro, as the Poet saith. Valerius in his [...]ixt Booke and second Chapter reporteth this Hystorie: A certaine innocent and guiltlesse woman, was condemned by Philip King of Macedon in his drunkennesse, who confident and affuted of her owne Innocencie, cried out, I appeale from Philip drunken, to Philip sober. The King ashamed at this reprehension, shakt of sléepe, re­couered his sences, and gaue more diligent regard to the cause, and at last finding right on her side, reuersed the Iudge­ment, and acquited the woman. By which it appeareth, that the shaking off of dronkennesse, is the establishing of rea­son, and the custome thereof the destruction of honestie: That it is the complement of voluptuousnesse and pleasure it appeareth likewise, for modestie restraineth manie men from sinne, and where it is taken away and subdued by wine, the pleasure that lies hidden in the heart, is discouered without shame. Wherevpon Seneca saith, Plures pudere peccana [...] qu [...]m bou [...] voluntate prohibiti sunt à peccato & scelere, More men are pro­hibited from offence and wickednesse by the shame of sinne, then by good intention and will; but where the mind is possessed with too much force of wine, whatsoeuer euill lurked in the heart, is discouered by the tongue. That Wine likewise is the experi­ment and signe of follie it is manifest, because if a man bée in­clined to any euill whatsoeuer, a triall and experience of the same must bée made in his drunkennesse, and therefore the Germanes neuer consult before they drinke, perhaps allu­ding and relying on that of Ecclesiastes, Vinum corda superb [...] ­rum Eccles. c [...]. 31. arguit, Wine openeth and argueth the secrets of prowd men: vpon all which premises I inferre, that drunkennesse and all disordinate riot, is hurtfull to all estates, for if it seize the poore man, hée shall not bée rich, if it depriue [Page 84] the rich man, his substance shal be consumed; if it distraught the yong man, hée will not bée instructed; if it take hold on the old man, it makes him a foole: For this cause Origen vpon Genesis speaking of Lot saith, Ebri et as peior fuit quam Sodoma, qui [...] quem Orig. hom 5. [...]n Gen. Sodoma nondecepit illa caepit. Dronkennesse was worse then Sodome, for when Sodome could not deceiue, hee ouertooke: These consi­dered, let this fiend be auoided, if not in regard that he defameth vs in this world, yet in respect that hée kéepes and excludeth vs out of heauen.

The second fiend of this race is Immoderate and Disordinate Ioy, and he became incorporate in the bodie of a [...]easter, this fel­low in person is comely, in apparell courtly, but in behauiour a very ape, and no man: his studie is to coine bitter ieasts, or to show antique motions, or to sing baudie sonnets and ballads: giue him a little wine in his head, he is cōtinually flearing and making of mouthes: he laughes intemperately at euery litle oc­casion, and dances about the house, leaps ouer tables, out-skips mens heads, trips vp his companions héeles, burns Sacke with a candle, and hath all the feats of a Lord of misrule in the coun­trie: féed him in his humor, you shall haue his heart, in méere kindnesse he will hug you in his armes, kisse you on the chéeke, and rapping out an horrible oth, crie Gods Soule Tum, I loue you, you know my poore heart, come to my chamber for a pipe of Tabacco, there liues not a man in this world that I more honor; In these ceremonies you shall know his courting, and it is a speciall marke of him at the table, he sits and makes fa­ces: kéep not this fellow company, for in iugling with him, your Wardropes shall be wasted, your credits crackt▪ your crownes consumed, and time (the most precious riches of the world) vt­terly lost. Nemo sal: at sobrius, saith the Prouerbe, A wise man ne­uer danceth: fli [...] therefore this Deuill, except you long to be fooles with him, and vnfortunately end in your dancing (like Lewis Archbishop of Magdēburge) who in treading his lauo [...]tos and corrant [...]s with his mistresse, in trying the horsetrick broke his necke: remember your selues likewise of this verse in the old Poet,

Beside consider what Seneca writeth of worldly ioy, where he saith it is the messenger of future miserie; Flie it therefore, for it is alwaies seconded by some sorrow or mischiefe. Another sonne of this race is Multiplication of words, and he first incar­nated himselfe in the bodie of an Intelligencer, this is a notable knauish fiend to intangle any man; for he neuer ceaseth to giue occasion in his cups for men to ouershoot themselues, he will of purpose cast out suspitious words of his Prince, to sée how men are affected, & talke of forbidden bookes to get some man confesse if hée conceale any of them: I would you should well know hée hath béene a trauailer, and can play the Nullifidian as well as any of Sathans succession: whittle him a little (like the King of France his Switzer when he had drunk vp the bottle of Gréek wine) hée will tell you the secrets of all the Commonweales of Christendome, he is an inward man in the Emperours estate, and dare assure you that he hath nothing of the Empire but cer­tain summes of mony which he receiueth annually of the impe­riall townes, and of certaine Gentlemen that hold their lands immediately of the Empire; and if you draw him to computa­tion, he saith it is about some 200 thousand Florins by yeare; As for that in Boheme and Mora [...]a, and places appertaining to the said Realm, he gathereth no more in them then 700 thou­sand Florins annually: Touching Silesia, Lausatia and Hun­gary, he saith they hold all in fée of the Empire. He can assure you that Denmarke, Sue [...]ia, Hungary, and Boheme, are ele­ctiues; and that in Wallachia the Turke ordaineth the gouer­nors, yet Christians necessarily, because al the nation follow the Gréeke church. Bring him into Poland, he is able to say thus much of that kingdome, that the King hath for reuenue but six or seuen hundreth thousand Dollers for the intertainement of his house, and that when he maketh war, it is vpon the expence of the country, without the consent of whom hée can otherwise do nothing. And if you inquire of his forces, he thinks the coun­trey may well bring 140 thousand furnisht horse into the field vpon occasion of seruice. If you fall in question of the Turke [Page 86] his knowledge is this that he hath alwaies in prest for the war 130 thousand Timariste, (who are waged by lands which the Turke hath giuen them, to the end they should entertain so ma­ny horse at his command) he hath beside them 14 thousand Ia­nisaries, and 36 thousand Spaies, continually waged by mony: Besides all those that goe into the war or haue any place or dig­nity vnder him, are either Apostataes, or the sonnes of Renega­dos; as for the Turks by race, they are alwaies kept in serui­tude and pouertie, either exercised in Marchandise or seruing in the Temples. Touching his reuenue hée hath nine millions of gold, (besides the presents which his officers send him, and the lands of his owne demeasne,) besides he hath Daces or taxes of the Iews and Christians euery one paying him a Shikin a year. And touching his gouernors, he saith they are Basshawes, and that the continuance of their authorities is but from thrée yeares to thrée yeares. Bring the Pope in question, he can tell you this (for perhaps he hath knowne his beneuolence) that hée built the Seminary of the Iesuits of an hospital, contrary to the will of the dead; and how he hath taken thrée hundreth crownes of pencion lately from them, so that now they haue but sixe hun­dreth to maintaine themselues: he is séen in many other things likewise which I must not speake of, but beware of multiply­ing words with him, for though hée butt not with his horns be­cause he will not bée thought a cuckold, hée will giue a shroud wound with his tongue, that may bring a man to his necke­verse: hee hath continually a warrant in his pocket, and vnder colour of attaching Traitors, troubles and spoiles many honest men. Blesse your selues from him Maisters, for though he hath a smooth tongue, his heart is deceitful. Of his race was Sinon that betraied Troy, and of his faction be all such most to bée fea­red and fled from.

Wonderfull it is to sée his course, he is generall and open in discourse, but vnder intent to deceaue, he will play the good fel­low [Page 87] but to make [...] profite of any man, he will speake in se­rious matter, though he shew himselfe a foole, and conclude vp­on any thing though it be without reason: & though the course of intelligence (according to Machiauell) be necessary in an e­state, and worthy the execution of a considerate and good man (for his countries sake) yet the Sparta being laid on his shoul­ders that hath no honestie, maketh that estate odious, which o­therwise would be honest: Thus much in description of a disor­dinate babler, now let vs heare somewhat against the inconti­nencie of language, and the vnbounded babble of the tongue. He that kéepeth his tongue (saith Salomon) kéepeth his soul, and Prouerb 13. Lac. 3. he that is inconsiderate in his spéech shall find mischiefe: he that hath not offended in his words is a wise and perfect man, and according to Cato it is the chiefest vertue to set a hatch before the dore of our tongues, Solon, S [...]onides, and Zenocrates, being [...]. demanded why they spake so little, answered that they neuer repented themselues that they had held their peace, but contra­riwise in speaking and returning answers. It was noted by Aeschilus the Tragedian, that God in our bodies hath planted two eies, two eares, two nosthrils, and the braine aboue the tongue, to giues vs to vnderstād, that we ought rather sée, hear, and conceiue, then speake: Ieremie in his Lamentations writ­ten in verse; hath (contrary to the order of the Hebrew Alpha­bet put the Letter Pe, before Ghain, (as Rabbi Salomon saith) to aduertise vs to speake nothing which we haue not heard, (for Pe in Hebrew signifieth the month, and Ghain signifieth the eies.) It is written of the Philosopher Anacharsis, that hée said that two members of the bodie ought carefully to bée kept, namely the tongue, and the parts vndecent to be named, for néerest (saith hée) approch they to God that can moderate them both; and Horace saith, [...]

[Page 88]Let therefore this fiend and furie of the tongue bée banished from vs, for as Barnard saith, Non est capillu [...] de capit [...], [...]ec momentum de tempore, de quo rationem non reddemus: There is not a haire of our heads nor a moment of time, of which we shall not yeeld account: and as Augustine saith, Exigetur a nobis omne tempus impensum, qua­liter fuerit expensum, Wee shall haue an account exacted at our hands how we bestowed the time, which hath beene granted vs to liue in. And as the Rabine saith, The eie of God séeth, and his ear heareth, and al our works are written in his book: let therfore lo­quacitie be banished, and let Catos words be considered, that

For the vanity of words sheweth the slightnes of wit; & inconsi­deration, breaketh no waies out sooner then by the tongue; by it hates are increased, blasphemies published, and (being but the least member) it is the onely key that openeth the dores of hell. By it we wrong our neighbour, breake commandements, de­praue Magistrates, accuse innocents, seduce Uirgines, corrupt yong men, mocke age: briefly, if it be not gouerned in man (I meane his tongue) it is able to kindle a greater fire (as the Phi­losopher saith) then the whole world shall be able to quench.

Let this suffise for babling, for here marcheth forth Scurilitie, (as vntoward a Deuill as any of the rest) the first time he lookt out of Italy into England, it was in the habite of a Zani: This is an onely fellow for making faces, shewing lasciuious ge­stures, singing like the Great Organ pipe in Poules, counter­faiting any deformitie you can deuise, and perfect in the most vnchristian abhominations of Priapisme: hée hath ieasts to set an edge on lust, and such bitter Iibes, as might driue a Ca­to to impatience; if hée sée an old man march in the stréet, hée re­turns him a nichil habet; by a light huswife he dare say, y ^• she is as rotten as an openarse: hée that longs to know more of him let him read Bouch [...]ts Ser [...]s, and if hée find a leafe without a grosse ieast hée may burne the Book I warrant him. And if he require further insight into the filthy nature of this fiend, in Artine in his mother N [...]na, Rab [...]ais in his Legend of Ribaudrie, and [Page 89] Bonauenture de Perriers in his Nouels, he shall be sure to loose his time, and no doubt, corrupt his soule. I could amplifie this title as largely as any, and point out with the finger many E­picures of this age, that are excellent in this abomination; but I feare me to corrupt in reporting corruptions, and to infect good & chast eares, with that which many of this godles world earnestly affect. Pitty it is that toward wits should be inchan­ted with such wickednes, or that great mens studies should en­tertaine that, which Philosophers schooles shamefully hist a­way. In a word, let the Apostles counsell be entertained a­mongst them, where he saith, Fornicatio autem & omnis immundi­tia, Ephes. 5. aut auaritia, &c. Fornication, and all vncleannesse or auarice, let it not so much as be named among you, as it becommeth saints, or filthinesse, or foolish talke, or scurrilitie, being to no purpose: but let men so season their behauiours and discourses, that Menan­ders words may be falsified in them, That the vanity of the tongue hath bene the ruine of many men.

The last Erinnis of this line, is Slouenlin [...]s & Vnclean [...]es: this spirit at first became incorporate in the person of an Italian, who, banished Padua for buggery, trauelleth here and there in England to méet with more of his fraternity: he is a méere ene­mie to the Sopemakers, for he washeth not a shirt in a twelue­month, & at that time for frugality sake, hée buies not another, but lies in bed till y ^• first be washed: he neuer washes his hands and face, because he faith that Sol vrit pur [...]ora, The sunne burneth and tanneth the purest: neither weares hée apparell, except it come of beneuolence; for (saith he) Bene venit, qu [...]d gratis venit, It comes well, that comes of free cost. In wearing his apparell he is a Cinicke, for brushing (saith he) weareth away the wooll; beating driues the dust in a mans eies, and the heauier the gar­ment is, the better it weares: he is as frée as the king in a bau­dy house, and so his belly be full and lust satisfied, Cuc [...]llus non facit monachum, A man of worth is not knowne by his good ap­parell: he shifts his lodging euery moneth, partly for necessity sake, partly for his pleasure: and his whole delight is to haue a well faced boy in his company: hée is a great acquaintance of the Brokers, and will not sticke to bring a man to a harlot: [Page 90] he hath a heauy looke, a thréed bare cloake, a long fore coloured haire, and his mouth is like a Barbary purse full of wrinkles; he is the secretary to the spittle whores, and a mortall enemie to all that disdaine an Alehouse: he wild scold pretily, but a very boy may swinge him; but for lying, cogging, surfetting, whor­dome, blasphemy, scurrilitie, gluttony, and more then these, the Epicure is a continent man in comparison. Of all men let a scholler beware of this infecting spirit, for if a man of good parts be bewitched with this beastlinesse, no man will waxe more de­formed then he, especially let him flie dishonest and filthy wo­men, that are able to infect nature by their societie: otherwise I may say as Martial said to Oppian: Mart. lib. 6. Epigram. 42.

It resteth now (according to course) that I speake some­what of the deformity of Beelphogor the father, since I haue in part scored out the vncleannesse of his children. Gluttony (as the Schoolemen write) is (both according to the habitude and act) a disordinate delight in eating and drinking, a mortall enemy of the vertue of temperance; of­fending both in quantity, quality, time, and manner. It was first introduced from Asia into Rome, where (corruptions commonly being the swiftest in springing) it became from a seruile thing, the delight of the soueraignes: so that Apicius (an abiect cooke that profest the art of cookery in the kitchin) was not ashamed afterward to step into the schoole, and declaime in praise of it, whome for his insatiable abuses and inuentions, Pliny (and that rightly) called the Gulfe of prodigality. To this sinne Milo Crotoniates and Tagon (the belly-ged) were so addi­cted, that the one bare an Oxe on his shoulders, and after de­noured it; and the other (at the table of Autelian the Emperor) eat a Goat, a Hog, and drunke a Tierse of wine, and far more in boast of his intemperance. A [...]boinus and Maximinus Empe­rours, yéelding nothing in sensuality to this; for y ^e one deuoured at a supper an hundred Peaches, ten Pepins, fiue hundred figs, beside diuers other things: the other, in one day eat forty pound [Page 91] of flesh, and dronke a whole vessell of nine gallons of wine, to digest it. And now a daies our world rather superior then infe­riour to other ages, in these kind of infirmities, neglecteth no­thing in sensuality: our bankets are sauced with surfets, so that Beelphogor may (I feare me) claime as many followers and fautors in our age, as either he had in Persia, Rome, or Media: for our bankets excéed nature, and where our fathers were con­tent with bread and water, which at first nourished mans life after the creation of the world: now neither the fruit of trées, nor the variety of corne, nor the roots of hearbs, nor the fishes of Lib. de [...] [...] ▪ con [...]t. the sea, nor the beaste of the earth, nor the foules of the aire, can satisfie our intemperance: but (as Innocentius saith) paintings are sought for, spices are bought, foules are nourished, & cookes hired, to please appetite: one stampes and straines, another in­fuseth and maketh confections; turning the substance into the accident, and nature into art. For which cause Seneca (deriding the variety of banquets) saith, Vna s [...]lua pluribus Elephantibus suf­ficit, Epist. 8. homo vero pascitur terra & mari. One wood sussiseth to nou­rish diuers Elephants, but man feedeth both on sea and earth. And in his tenth booke of his Declamations, he saith, Whatsoeuer bird flieth, whatsoeuer fish swimmeth, whatsoeuer beast runneth, is buried in our bodies: all which in the truth of things is both a­gainst nature and Art: for both Art and nature, forbiddeth that contraries should be mixt togither: which not withstanding in our festiuals are often done. But if we consider how hurtfull it is to our bodies, and damnable for our soules, doubtlesse ex­cept wée be blinded in heart, wée shall quickely detest it. In many meates (saith Ecclesiastes) there is much infirmi­tie; and (according to Seneca) wée therefore die suddenly, be­cause we liue vpon dead things. Why then should we de­light Lib. [...]. 10. [...]. 8. cap. 6. in that which causeth our detriment? Policrates saith, that the intemperancy of meate subuerteth manners, and preiudizeth mans health: and Hippocrates maintaineth this, that grosse and fat bodies, growen beyond measure, except by letting blood, they be somewhat abated, become numme and insensible, and fall into most dangerous diseases. Chrysostome saith, that excesse of meat consumeth and rotteth [Page 92] mans body by continuall sicknes, and at last bringeth cruell death. Galen (the interpreter of Hypocrates) saith, That they that are grossesed, can not be long time healthfull: concluding, that those soules can not meditate or conceiue celestiall things, whose bodies are ouergrowen with blood, flesh, and fat. It is re­ported of Dionysius the tirant, that being too much swallowed vp by surfet and drunkennesse, he lost his eie sight; for there is nothing sooner dulleth the eie, then excesse: because (as Portu­minus saith) Edacitas cibos terit, sed oculos v [...]rat, Gluttony spendeth meat, but deuoureth the eies. Macrobius in his Saturnals, pro­poseth a very prety and disputable question; namely, whether vniforme and simple meat, be better and easier of digestion, then diuers and different? and to this a certaine Philosopher answereth, that diuers and different meat is the hardest of dige­stion for these causes: first it appeareth in beasts, which be­cause they féed on a simple and pure nutriment, are most helth­full; and if any of them be diseased, it is when by variety of medicine and mans folly, they are nourished against the course of their nature: secondly, because all simple meat is more easily digested, in signe whereof, euery Phisitian recouereth and mi­nistreth to his patient in one kind of food, that nature may more easily conuert the simple meat into her selfe: thirdly, because as the variety of wine, hurteth more then one sort of wine in the same quantity, in like sort doth the variety of meat: fourthly, because he that obserueth one kind of simple diet, may more ea­sily iudge and gesse at the cause of his infirmitie (if at any time he féele himselfe distempered) and consequently can more easily auoid such kind of food: whereas if hée should haue vsed diuers, he should vtterly be ignorant, to which of many he should im­pute the cause of his sicknesse: fistly, because in the stomacke, the nature of diuers meats is very different, therefore (nature working vniformitie for her owne part) certaine are sooner di­gested then other, (the rest remaining in the stomacke being crude) and consequently that r [...]ts which is afterwards to be di­gested: by which reasons it followeth, that these rich men v­sing diuers kind of dishes, do by that means shorten their owne liues. But perhaps to particularize diseases will be held more [Page 93] forcible argumenes, I will therefore tell you what infirmi­ties surfet bréedeth. First (as Auicen saith) it hindreth the braine, the liuer, and the nerues, it causeth conuulsions, sown­dings, Epilepsies, the falling sicknesse, and the palsey: it ingen­ders the lamenesse in the legges, the gout, the Sciatica, the A­poplexie, and a thousand defluxions, cathars, and crudities of the stomacke, which procéed from nought els, but from the insa­tiable desire of drinking and eating. All philosophie will con­fesse vnto me, that the more a man stuffes and chargeth his sto­macke, the more he gréeueth it; for first of all it is necessary that he surmount and excéed the nutriment and meat, and digest it also; and in the surmounting he must striue, and in striuing he wearieth himselfe, and in wearying himselfe he waxeth féeble, and in waxing féeble he finally consumeth, and then his cooke (I meane his stomacke) vnable to worke or boile, it followeth of necessity that he must die. But leaue we this to Phisitians to decide, and like Christians let vs learne to say with Seneca (though a Pagan) Maius sum, & ad maiora natus sum, quam vt fiam mancipium corporis mei, I am greater, and borne to greater things, then to become the bondslaue of mine owne body. Brief­ly, (since according to Augustine) Gluttony marcheth neuer Lib. 4. de b [...]i. [...]. [...]. but accompanied with other vices: and (in his fourth booke ad Sacras virgines) since Ebrietie is the mother of all vice, the trou­ble of the head, the subuersion of the sense, the tempest of the tongue, the storme of the body, the shipwracke of sanctity, and the soule; let vs conquer this monster by our abstinence, liuing according to the examples of Paul, the first Hermite Hilarius, Macharius, and others; that that saying may be truly verified in vs, that In carne esse, &c. To be in the flesh and not to liue after the flesh, is rather the life of Angels then men. And thus far for Gluttony and Beelphogor, whome (I hope) I haue so coniured, as he shall haue little welcome to those that haue any sparke of piety: the vantgard and battell are already discoinsited, now Astaroth looke to your rereward, for I assure my selfe to dis­comfit you.

The lumpish and heauie fiends begot­ten by the Arch-Deuill Astaroth.

INdustrious Labour, that hast thus long kept me from Idlenesse, guiding the sailes of my conceit through the Seas of reason; now helpe to arange my squadrons, to describe & confound him: lead me a path vntracted by courser spirits, that I may beare downe en­uy by desert, & puzle detraction in his depra­uing knowledge. It is not vnknowen to men of reading, how Astaroth after hée had receiued many sacrifices by the Israe­lites (as appeareth in the booke of Iudges) and perswaded Sa­lomon (the wisest of Kings) in his old and retired yéeres to build him an Altar, was (by the praiers and perswasions of ma­ny Prophets) at last banished from the chosen nations: so that enforced to liue in exile, he ranged vp and downe Media, Per­sia, and Arinenia, and at last spred his renowme in Rome: whence banished by the busie affaires of Princes from their Courts, and from other places of Spaine, France, and Italy; he at last retired himselfe to the Northren parts: Amongst whom finding contentions in the Clergie, and affectation of glory and armes in Prince and subiect; he tooke his Idle wings and flew to the Southerne and lately discouered land, where honoured by the Brasilians, that greatly delighted in Idlenes, he hath yet a sufficient segniory and dominion to maintaine himselfe: Yet willing that the Ciuill world (which hée deadly hateth) should be infected with his humor, he hath lately vpon an Indian Negro be gotten fiue sonnes at one clap: and (the soo­ner to practise his mallice) hath procured their abortion and vntimely birth, to the end they might with the more spéed be sent into Europe. The first is, Desperation, the second Pusilla­nimity, the third Dulnesse of the spirit, the fourth Negligence, the [...]sto Sleepinesse. These fiue well instructed and better prouided [Page 95] for, he shipt in a Brasile man for Ciuill, but the ship being vn­fortunately taken by an English man, they were brought into England, and no sooner set foot on land, but ran away from their Captaine. Now sir, hauing all languages perfectly, they follow strange directions, not tying their spirits to one determinate body, but flying here and there, and infecting all places, and ex­empting themselues from no persons: yet as subtill as they are, I haue sounded them out; and that I know them, I will resolue you if you please to read their descriptions. The eldest of them Desperation (a peculiar vice procéeding frō Idlenes, but not y ^• which is the sin against the Holy-ghost,) is such a sin, that if he méet w ^t a rich man, he makes him distrust himselfe for get­ting vp on his horse without helpe; he causeth him forbeare the reading of bookes in suspect of his vnderstanding, he driues him to be dainty of his meats, telling him his stomack is squeasie; he féedeth him in his dreams with terrible visions, he driues him to mistrust himselfe in whatsoeuer he pretendeth, inforcing such a diffidence in himselfe, that both he maketh him an enemy to his body, and the ruine of his owne soule. He perswades the Mer­chant not to traffique, because it is giuen him in his natiuity to haue losse by sea; and not to lend, least he neuer receiue againe. He makes the Scholler loath to read bookes if they be long, carelesse to heare lectures, because he vnderstands not at the first. He causeth a louer to lie sighing in his bed, and rather die sicke of the sullens then tell his griefe. The poore man he tea­cheth to curse his birth, and desperately to giue ouer labour, where otherwise if he would shew diligence, he might be relie­ued. He tels a Lady it is best kéeping her bed, when the Phisi­tians assure her the disease is cured with exercise: and let him but light on a séeble heart, he will die first before he take a medi­cine. If a friend intreateth his friend to speake in his behalfe, out steps he, and counsels him to forbeare the demand, for feare he be denied: and if a husband man haue a good crop, in the midst of his haruest hée teacheth him this tetch of vnthanke­fulnesse, I would I were a beast, so I were rid of this trouble. How say you by this spirit of darkenesse? Is hee not cunning and subtill? Are not his treasons coloured [Page 96] and plausible? Is not his perswasion conformable to weake na­ture? If you say nay, you erre; if you confesse it, then learne thus to preuent him: First, remember that Volenti nihil diffici­le, A good will winneth all things: and to condemne our owne abilitie in good things, is to suspect Gods mercifull prouidence in furtherance of iustice and vertue: obserue that lesson in Se­neca,

Let the rich know this, that he that feareth a litle frost of infir­mity, shall haue a great snow fall vpon him: let him consider, that to helpe nature, winneth ease; and that to endeauour wil­lingly, is halfe the meane to attaine happily: let him remem­ber this, that God openeth the vnderstanding, if we offer the endeauour; and commanding vs temperance, killeth the feare of ercesse; and being all in all things, is defectiue in nothing that is vertuous. Let the superstitious Merchant trust the cre­ator, and he shall not superstitiously be tied to creatures; and succour his neighbours necessities with good intent, and God shall [...]eward him. Let the scholler know, that the harder he is to conceiue, the surer he is to retaine: and as no way is too long to him that séeketh a place desired; so no booke can be too tedious that le [...]s any path to knowledge. Let the poore labour to pre­uent néed, and he may be assured to find no cause to suspect ne­cessities. Let the Lady fast in continence, she shall not languish in excesse: and let all men build on God, and desperation shall not hurt them. Let vs draw néerer this fiend, and coniure him more cunningly: he hath more motiues in man, & let vs there­fore examine them. Saith he, fasting killeth worldly comfort, and therefore it is to be fled. Answer him boldly, that it is tran­sitory, and momentary which delighteth, but eternall that mor­tifieth. If he say, thy sinnes are great; tell him, Gods mercie is greater: If he induce desperation by thy often fall, oppose Christs words against his suspect, Non dico [...]bi vsque septies, sed Mat. 18. vsque septuagies septies, I say not to thee, seuen times, but seuenty times seuen times. And remember that of Leo, Misericordiae Do­mini nec mensuras possum [...]s pouere, [...]c tempora definire, Wee can [Page 97] neither measure the mercies of God, nor define the time: and (to giue a sword vtterly to confound this furie) vse hope, which (though euery waies thou be assaulted) will maintaine thy con­stancie; And conclude thus (when troubles or doubts distraught thée,) with Ouid,

The second furie (now adaies ranging vp and downe our countrie, and infecting fraile and inconstant hearts) is Pusaila­nimitie and Worldlie feare, who (wheresoeuer he lurketh,) is knowne by these tokens; hée maketh the eie inconstant, the co­lour come and goe, the heart beat, the thought suspitious, he kils weake desire, by suspitious feares; and as a little water (as A­ristotle saith) is sooner corrupted then a great deale; so with this abastardizing spirit, the weaker minds are sooner attainted thē the great. This fiend maketh easie thinges impossible by mi­strust, and so transporteth affections that they can claime no ti­tle in their owne natures. This is a temporall and foolish kind of feare, rising either from the loue of transitorie things, or the supposed difficulties of life. The ordinarie seate of this humor is in the sensualitie of the heart: With this weaknesse of spirit was Anthonie the Romane seasd, who séeing the increases of Caesar, when his meanes of resist were sufficient, retired him­selfe to his Timoneum, leauing both Cleopatra and his busines, as destitute of all hope, before the assurance of his danger: mor­tall is this sinne if it bée accompanied with the consent of the will, the Apostle writing to the Colossians saith, Fathers pro­uoke not your children vnto indignation, least they become weake in mind, and loose their courage, (according to the Syriak:) noting hereby, that this infirmitie accompanieth for the most part those that are of the weakest abilitie and Iudge­ment. This deiection of spirit likewise is an effeminate and womanish disease, expressed often by foolish huswifes in those words, Good God what shal I do? How shal I dresse my house? Make ready my children? Doe this, and do that? being things [Page 98] easie and rediculons to bée forced. Against this infirmitie, and inue noming spirit of feare, I will applie that of Doctor Ger­son, where hée sayth, That there are diuers that thinke they of­fend by dispaire, which offend not: For this procéedeth from a certaine Pusillanunitie of their hearts, or of emotiue or fée­ling of dispaire, which they estéeme to bée a consent, but it is not. For whatsoeuer féeling they may haue, (yea, although it presse so farre as that they thinke themselues almost attainted with this temptation) they lose not charitie, as long as they are sorrowfull, and the reason is contrarie and consenteth not thereto: So that the spirit of a man is ouercome by the ene­mie, except there bée consent of the will: For the seuce maketh not the sinne, but the consent. You that are or may happen to bée intangled in these briars, and assailed by this temptation, make your generall recourse to God, saying with the Apostle, Omnia possum in co qui me [...]: I can doe al things by the grace of him that comforteth mee. To conclude, let no man hide his Talent whatsoeuer, which God hath bestowed on him to trafficke and profite his neighbour, least hée incurre this vice of Pusillanimitie; but let vs all cleaue vnto Magnanimi­tie his opposite, considering this of Tullies, Qui magno animo est & forti; omnia quae cadore in hominem possunt de­sp [...]cit, & pro nihiloputas. Hee that hath a noble and resolute mind, despiseth all miisfortunes that are incident to man, holding them of no reckoning. And that of Lucans,

Dulnesse of spirit (the next borne to Pusillanimitie) hath great conformitie with him, for Pusillanimitie hinders the beginning and enterprise of a good worke, and this fiend letteth the per­formance of it whe it is begun, & maketh a man giue ouer in the midst of his busines. This monster hath thrée heads whersoeuer [Page 99] he seaseth one body: the first is Idlenesse, (slack to performe any thing, and a poison that confoundeth many men;) the second is Slownesse, that deserreth to follow vertue, or conuersion from sinne: the third is Tepiditie, which causeth a man do his worke coldly, without courage or feruor in his busines. This fiend haunteth most commonly among those sort of men, that are too much subiect to their flesh, and being bondslaues to their sensual lusts, haue their reasons obscured, and their desires dulled: they hate Musike, despise Arts, accounting their excellence to be in ignorance; if they speake, it is so abruptly and lothsomly, as it mooueth not; and if they be silent, they rather looke like some blind statues of marble, then liuing and moouing men. If they write, it is Inuita Minerua, so coldly and without conceit, as they (like the vntunable ring of Bels) rather fill the ears with iarring and noise, then delight or reason. Many & too many are possessed with this spirit, and this spirit is incarnate in them. For they only like beasts respect present things, hauing no care of that which is to come: you shall sée a slouen sléeping in his bed, that for want of rising loseth the commodity of preferment: another so cold in his enterprises, that he is vnfortunate in all busines. Whatsoeuer commeth from such men, séemeth to be enforced, (so is the eie of their iudgements blinded in percei­uing that which best behooueth them.) I knew one of this factiō in Oxford, who (after he had studied seuen yeres, & often beaten ouer the Predicables,) at last thanked God y ^• he had a litle sight in Genus: This was as slouenly a lout as euer I lookt vpon, who often found in his heart to loose his breakfast for want of fetch­ing: come into his study, you should still sée him sléeping ouer his booke. In all exercises he was alwaies the last: & in all dis­putations so cold, & duncicall, that neither any man vnderstood him, nor he, himselfe. With this spirit was those two Seruing men seased, the first of which being asked by his master sitting at dinner, what hée had brought from the Sermon? In faith Sir, (said he) your hat and cloake, and nothing els. The second examined in the like manner, answered thus: Faith I markt not the beginning, I was asléepe in the midst, and came a­way before the end. This is a daungerous fiend wheresoeuer [Page 100] he gets footing, causing men to make shipwracke of their time, which being short and swift once past is irrecouerable, & which lost (saith Bias and Theophrastus) a great treasure is lost. This made certaine discontented (as Timon and Apermantus) waxe Plutarch careles of bodie and soule, fretting themselues at the worlds in­gratitude, and giuing ouer all diligent indeuor, to serue the fury of their vnbridled minds. The stories registred by learned men are full of men thus affected, and who so considereth the most pollices and Common weals of Christians, shall I fear me (and let me write it with griefe) find more oportunitie lost by cold­nesse, slacknes, and delay, then consideration can remedy with many yeares heart break and studie. By delay and protraction, enemies wax strong, and lingering hate giueth preuention a di­ligenter eie; and though Affricanus admitteth not officious dili­gence, yet am I so contrarie to him, that I dare boldly auow, that the most stratagems that are done happily, are done sud­dainly: yet desire I not to bée misconstrued in this, for be­fore action, I admit counsel, and secresie: But matters once in­tended, I hold all time lost till they be executed; for delay giueth the enemie oportunitie of intelligence, weakeneth the heart of the souldior, generally more feruent in the first exploits; and af­flicteth the heart of the gouernor till the issue be discouered. To conclude, as waters without stirring & mouing, wax corrupt; so without diligence all affaires are either lost or weakened.

But leaue we this (yet not as impertinent to this place, but as such a thing if well lookt into, deserues a whole volume) and let vs now haue an eie to the next ftend of this bréed, which Sa­thā first named Negligence. Negligence incarnate in our world, hath generally a running head, he is full of rancor, and repleni­shed with idlenesse; Instability, and Mutabilitie, continually at­tend vpon him; so that he beginneth many things, but endeth nothing: he will execute no office by reason of trouble, kéepe no house least he take too much care for his family: put him in trust with a message, hée forgets it: and commit your affaires to his handling, all comes to nought: reading good bookes troubles his wits, but for Palmerine, thats a pretrie storie, and why, because it teacheth him no wit: This fiend lets his books bée couered [Page 101] with dust for want of looking too, his garments fall in pieces for want of amending, his haire ouergrow his shoulders, for want of barbing, his face couered with durt for want of washing, and he walks generally vntrust, not for exercise sake, but for idlenes: he is still thinking and deuising on things, but he executeth no­thing, and (like a lunaticke person) runs into strange imagina­tions, and only speaks them without effecting them: he defers in al that he doth, and thereby loseth the most of his thrift; and in neglecting to sollicite his friends, hée loseth & smothereth his fortunes; so that Occasion may rightly say and crie to him out of Ausonius, [...] lib. [...].

Isodore (in his booke of Etimologies, writing of this sin) saith [...]. that the negligent man is called negligens, quasi nec eligens; that is, negligence, because he hath no choice in any thing: for who so is subiect to this infirmitie, is void of all election, by reason that he wanteth consideration: for a considerate man in foreséeing pre­uenteth, which preuention is the death of negligence. This fiend my friends must be earnestly auoided, for by him Anthony dallying in delights with Cleopatra, gaue Caesar oportunitie in many victories; And Hannibal lying idle at Cannas, corrupted Diogen. La­cr [...]us. both his souldiors, and strengthned his enemies. It is a Cinicks life not a Christians, which is ouerpast in negligence, and no­thing worse becommeth a man, then to be carelesse and impro­uident: For as fruits vnlookt vnto, are for want of turning soone rotten, so minds for lacke of vertuous meditation, become cor­rupt and polluted: memorie without vse decai [...]th, and the bodie without exercise becommeth lothsome, negligence therefore is fitly compared to a sléepe, for as in it man resteth and is depriued of al that he hath, so in the sléepe of negligence and sinne, al ver­tues are dispoiled: which is very prettily figured in the sléepe of Ionas, of whom it is said, That he fled from the face of our Lord in Tharsis, and entring into a ship fell into a profound sléep, and there arose a great wind, and the tempest increased, and the ship [Page 102] was in danger; Finally, Ionas was cast into the sea, where falling into the belly of a Whale, hée lost his haires of his head, [...]ud became bald. On which place the glosse saith, That the great and heauie sléepe of the Prophet signifieth a man loa­den and drowsied in the sléepe of error, for whom, it sufficeth not to flie from our Lord, but furthermore (ouerwhelmed with a certaine carelesnesse) hée is ignorant of Gods wrath and se­curelie sléepeth, and at last is cast into the Whales bellie, which is the bosome of hell. For as the Whale dwelleth in the déepest flouds, and profoundest seas; so Hell is said to bée in great obscuritie, and in the depth of the earth. Wherevpon in the Gospell it is said, To be in the heart of the earth: For as the heart is in the middest of a creature, so is Hell in the middest of the earth. At the last hée is made bald and spoild of his haire, that is, depriued of his vertues and graces. And where it is said, Ionas sléeping the winds arose; it implieth thus much, that a man sléeping in idlenesse, negligence, and carelesnesse, the winds and stormes of temptations suddainlie and vehement­lie arise: For then are wée most suddainlie surprised with error, when wée are most intangled with improuidence and negligence. And as Caesar in his Senate house was assailed when hée least suspected, by his conspirators, so men in their securities are soonest subdued by the assaults of wickednesse; which conspireth the death of the soule. The Poets faine thus of the Syrenes which haunt about Sicily (and of late daies haue appeared in the Sea in India) That with their swéet tunes they draw the Marriners asléepe, that whilest they sléepe soundly, they may sincke their ship. The like may bée said of the Deuill, who lulleth vs in the lap of inconsiderate se­curitie, and singeth vs asléepe with the notes of Negligence, till he sincke the ship of our soule, which is our bodie, in the bottom­lesse seas of confusion, which is Hell.

Let vs flie from Negligence therefore, as being the first cause of the downefall both of men and Angels, let vs bée forward in curing our corrupt natures, let vs not resem­ble the foolish bussard in Horace, who because hée could not [Page 103] sée as cleare as Linx, would not annoint his eies with Colliri­um; but let vs séeke out of celestiall heritages, not negligently (as those of the tribe of D [...]n, sent out to search the promise land,) but diligentlie, like those that brought backe the fat there­of, that wée may bée worthy the heritage. Fi [...] how farre haue I wandred when Sleepinesse the last Deuill of this bréed hath ouertooke me to interat of his nature: Sit downe drowsie fiend, I will dispatch thée presently.

Somnolence and Sleepinesse lurketh continually with vn­fortunate persons, and the excesse thereof sheweth the spirit hath small working: he is a fiend that (wheresoeuer hée in­habiteth) dulleth the sences, maketh the head heauie, the eies swolne, the bloud hote, corrupt, and excessiue, the face pufft, the members vnlustie, the stomacke irkesome, the féet féeble: Looke in a morning when you sée a fellow stretching himselfe at his window, yawing, and starting, there bée assured this Diuell hath some working: This is a shrowd spirit where­soeuer hée gets seasure, for hée liueth by the expence of life, and hée that entertaines him, hath rhewms, ca­thars, defluxions, repletions, and opilations, as ordinari­lie about him, as euerie substance hath his shadow. This fiend and his brother Negligence are of one nature, and where Duloesle of spirit, and these méet, God, nature, law, coun­sell, profit, soule, bodie, and all are neglected.

This considered, let this Deuill incarnate (too ordina­rie a guest in this countrie) bée banished from our societie, least being corrupted by his example, wée fall into the same sinne wherewith hée is intangled: for as Plato sayth, Dormieus est nullius praetis, A sleepie man is of no worth; and in the seuenth of his lawes, hée thus writeth, Somnus mul­tus, nec animis, nec corporibus▪ nec rebus preclare gerendis, ap­tus est à natura, Excessiue sleepe is neither good for the soule or bodie, or auailable in any vertuous or laudable action: For hée that sléepeth, is no more accounted of then hée that is dead: and truly I am of this opinion, that hée tooke this custome and law from Homer, and no other, who sayth, That sléepe is the brother of death: The same allusion also vsed Diogenes, [Page 104] who when he had slept said, Frater fratem inuisit, The brother hath visited his brother, that is, sléepe hath visited death: the same likewise intimateth Ouid in this verse,

The like consideration likewise had the Doctors of Israel: so that one amongst them (called Rabi-Dosa the son of Harkinas) writeth, The mornings sléepe, and the euenings dronkennesse, shorten a mans life: corporal sléepe likewise oftentimes ingen­dreth the sléepe of the soule, which spirituall sléepe is farre more dangerous then the other, and therefore Cato dissuadeth youth from it.

So that humane nature is wandred from his scope, and ouer­come by euill custome. Thexe is another Poet (as I remem­ber it is Ouid) that saith it is sufficient for children to sléepe seuen houres: and another contemplatiue father saith, that to repose fiue houres, is the life of saints; to sléepe sixe, is the life of men; but to slug seuen, is the life of beasts: Saist thou thus O father? Oh that thou couldest haue liued to haue séene this age, wherein if thy wordes sound truth, thou shoul­dest find (whatsoeuer way thou séekest) as manie reasonable beasts as there bée motes in the Sunne, thinking eight, tenne, twelue houres, but a Method of Moderation. These are they that sléepe in their beds of Iuorie, and play the Ames 6. [Page 105] the wantons on their soft couches: Pauca verba, this is a subiect for a Preacher. Let me therefore draw to my conclusion, and finish both my booke, and the discouery of further wretchednes, in she wing the detestable effects of Astaroth, adding certaine disswasions to the same.

Damascene (defining this sinne) saith, That it is a spirituall Damas. lib. 2. Ortho. ca. 14. heauinesse, which depresseth and weigheth downe the soule so much, that it taketh no delight or tast in executing goodnesse. Tully he defines it to be a wearines and tediousnes of the spirit, by which a man groweth in lothing of that good he hath begun. So that by them it is to be gathered that Sloth is a languishing infirmity of the spirit, a dulnes of the mind, a diffidence of Gods helpe, a distrust of our owne strength. The sinnes it maketh those subiect too that are intangled therewith, are forgetfulnes of God, carelesnes of our estates, obscurity of our soules, loath­somnesse of our bodies, and irrecuperable losse of time. This sin (by the Fathers) is compared to the disease (called by the Phi­sitians) Paralisis, with which, whosoeuer is seased, his mem­bers are dissolued▪ his vitall powers and naturall faculties are weakened, and he himselfe is wholly not himselfe, neither be­ing able to mooue, nor master his owne lims. So fareth it by a slothfull man, who looseth by this sicknes the light of his mind, the vse of his vnderstanding, y ^• good affections that are the props and pillars of the same, and becommeth but the image of that which in effect he is not: and as this infirmity is healed by ve­r [...] hot Pultesies and inward potions, so except the heat of cha­rity, and the remembrance of hell fire, be applied to the wounds and dulnes hereof it remaineth wholly incurable. Besides, this sinne is against nature, for as the bird to flie, the fish to swim, the floure to grow, the beast to féed, so man was ordained to la­bour; which if he do not, he wrongs nature, wrongs his bodie, and which worse is, dams his-soule. N [...]li esse piger, (saith Augu­stine) Serm. 2. de tim. lib. 6. Be not slow, labour earnestly and God will giue thee eternal life. Helinandus in his Chronicies reporteth, that when a cer­taine Bishop (called Philippus Beluacensis) was for a night lod­ged in their Monastery, hée slept so long, that hée was neither present at Gods seruice, neither ashamed to let the sunne (it be­ing [Page 106] then Winter time) to behold him sléeping, which when Helinandus perceaued, and saw no man readie or bold enough to tell him of his fault, hée confidentlie stept neare vnto his bed, and in briefe spake thus vnto him, Sir the Sparrows haue long since forsaken their nests to salute God, and wil a Bishop y [...]t lie sléeping in his chamber? Consider (father) what the Psal­mist saith, Mine eies haue preuented the day; and that of Am­brose, It is vncomely for a Christian that the beame of the Sunne should behold him idle; and let this persuade you to cast off your slugginesse: The Bishop (rowsed with these wordes all in rage) said vnto him, goe wretch as thou art and louse thy selfe, I disdaine thy counsailes: to whom the Moncke an­swered in a pleasant manner, Take héed father least your wormes kill you, for mine are alreadie slaine: hée meant the worme of conscience, which shall at last bite them, who are giuen ouer to their sensualities. I haue read also a pret­tie storie in an old dunce called Petrus de Lapiaria, which be­cause of the pithie allusion I will not sticke to tell you. A cer­taine King (saith hée) hauing thrée sonnes, and being well kept in yeares, resolued to make his Testament, certify­ing his children, that which of them was most slothfull, on him hee would bestow his kingdome; to whom the first said, to me belongs the kingdome, for I am so sluggish, that as I sit by the fire I rather suffer my shinnes to bée burnt, then to draw them from the flame: the second hée said, the crowne in all rea­son belongs to mée, since I am farre more slothfull then thou art, for hauing a rope about my necke, and being rea­die to bee hanged, and a sword in my hand, suficient to cut the same, yet am I so slothfull, that I will not stretch out my hand to saue my life: after him the third stept vp, and in these wordes m [...]e his claime, nay saith hée I alone ought to raigne, for I excell you all in flothfulnesse, For lying continually on my backe, water stilleth vpon mine eies, yet I for sloth sake forsake not my bed, neither turne to the right nor to the left hand: and on this sonne the King bestowed his Crowne and kingdome. To yéeld this a Morrall interpre­tation, [Page 107] these thrée sonnes are thrée sorts of idle persons; The first that cares not for fire, signifieth him, that being in the companie of euill and luxurious men, will not forsake them: The second, (knowing himselfe hanged in the snaro of the Deuill, as the couetous man) yet hauing and know­ing the sword of Praier sufficient to cut the rope, neuer­lesse hée will not vse it: The third (that will neither turne his eie to the right or to the left hand) signifieth him that neither considereth the paines of Hell, nor the rewards of Heauen, So that neither for feare of punishment, nor hope of reward, hée will rise againe from sinne: On him the Deuill his father (who as Iob saith, is the King euer the children of pride) bestoweth the kingdome of Hell, where no order but continuall horror inhabiteth. And tru­lie to the iole and slothfull person Hell doth most iustly ap­pertaine, because hauing eies to sée his infirmitie hée blindeth them; a mind to vnderstand his remedie, hée disdaineth it; and times made for labour, yet refuseth it: but as Salomon saith, Omnis piger in egestate erit, The sloth­full man shall liue in pouertie, and Hell iustly shall bée his inheritage that negligently forbeareth to labor for heauen. Oh thou slothfull man if this persuade thée not, looke fur­ther; the male storke senteth the adulteries of the female, except shée wash her selfe, doth not God then both sée and will punish thy sinne except thou mend thy selfe? The Lion smelleth the filthinesse of his adulteresse, and will not hée thinke you looke into the offences of his creatures, yet as­suredly he that séeth all things beholdeth thy wickednesse, and except thou repent thée, will do iustice on thy negligence.

Hauing alreadie heard the deformities of this mon­ster, now at the last let vs consider the ren edies against him. First, let vs intentiuely ponder and weigh how much our Sauiour hath laboured and trauailed for the sal­uation of mankind: It is said that hée past the nights in praier, after whose example if wee desire to bée his, wee must (with the holie Martyrs of the [Page 108] Primitiue Church) mortifie our earthly members, and follow him in the like exercise: secondly, (in that this sinne of Idlenes hindreth both soule and body, and by that meanes is the occa­sion of many mischiefes, as well corporall as spiritual.) It hath bene as well detested both in holy scriptures, as in fathers of the Primitiue Church, as appeareth by Iohannes Clymachus, where he saith, Idlenes is a dissolution of the spirit, an abiect feare in all good exercises, an hatred and griefe of any godly profession. He saith likewise that worldly men are happy, he speaketh til of God, accounting him cruell, and without humanity; he ma­keth a man astonished in heart, and weake in praier; more hard then iron in the seruice of God, & both slothfull and rebellious to trauell with his hands, or to do obedience. Behold the right effects of deuilish Astaroth: consider likewise what fruites spring from this cursed fiend. Thirdly, one of the best meanes to resist the craft of this fiend, is to trauell and to be alwaies doing somewhat, to the end we be not surprized suddenly, as Saint Ierome counselleth. To this purpose, the ancient monks of Egypt, had alwaies these words in their mouthes▪ That he Cass lib. 10. cap. 23. which occupieth himselfe in any good exercise, is not tempted by the Deuill; but hée that doth nothing, but liueth Idly, is tormented and possessed with diuers. And if the Heauens, the Sunne, the Moone, and other planets, the birds, beasts, and fishes. are in continuall motion, and without ceasing apply those offices for which they were created; what ought man to do, who is created for trauell, and whose soule is defined by the Philosopher to be a perpetuall motion? Let the Idle go [...]. [...]b. de an [...]mal. Prouerb. 6. to schoole to the Ant (as saith Salomon) and learne of her to be­haue him selfe: and let him take héed that hée prooue not that vnfruitfull trée, which must be cast into eternall fire, and that barren figtrée which Christ cursed. Let him alwaies remēber y ^• Idlenes is the nurse of all euils, & that it is & hath bin the ouer­throw of many millions of soules. Let him consider y ^• by labour we obtaine reward; by negligence, loose our selues. It is repor­ted of Cyrus the King of the Persians, that being willing to in­kindle the hearts of the common sort to war against the Medes, Ba [...]. S [...]x. lib. [...]stra. a 41. he vsed this pollicy and stratageme: He led his army to a cer­taine [Page 109] wood, where, for the whole day, he occupied the people in cutting downe the wood, and in continuall toile in lopping the trées. But the next day, he caused very sumptuous feasts to be prepared, & commanded his hoast to feast, sport, and make holy day with gladnes; and going to euery company in the midst of their sports, he asked them which of those two daies best liked them: who answered, that the second was more pleasant then the first. To whom he replied in this sort: As by yesterdaies labor you came togither and were assembled to this daies ban­quet, so can you not be happy and blessed, till first of all you o­uercome the Medes. So (in alluding to this after a morrall meaning) we can not attaine to blessednesse, except we ouer­come in this world the Medes, which are the deuils, by vertu­ous actions; neither can we be admitted to the banket, except by labour in this life time. Agamemnon, Vlysses, and Hercules, the one besieged and raced Troy; the other, subdued and ouer­came Polyphemus; the third atchieued twelue incredible la­bours for glories sake: Let not vs therefore refuse labour for heauens sake. The Angels are not idle, but sing praises; the ce­lestiall bodies (as I say) are not Idle, but obserue their moti­ons; all airie, earthly, and watry creatures, are in continuall exercise: aire is continually tossed by the wind; water continu­ally ebbes and flowes. If therefore all creatures detest Sloth, and imbrace Labour, to giue man example; let vs forsake loth­some Idlenesse, for many foretold and these set down by Ouid:

As therefore all things ware worse for want of exercise & vse, and study refineth both Arts and all maner knowledge what­soeuer, let vs detest Astaroth, flée his bréed, tie our selues to ex­ercises both of mind and body, vse the practise of Themistocles, occupy our heads when we walke solitary, and so dispose of all our actions, that the Enemy of all vertue find vs not Idle, who thinketh that fort easily woon, where the watchman sléepeth; & that mind quickly ouercome, that entertaineth Idlenesse. Let vs follow Paul, who wrought with his hands, least he should be troublesome to his brethren. Let exercise neuer forsake vs, ei­ther of mind or of body: for the Deuill (as Ierome saith) is like a thiefe, who finding a horse idle in the fields, gets vpon the backe of him, where contrary of those that labour, he can catch no holdfast. Idlenesse (saith Bernard) Est mater nugarum, nouerca virtutum, Is the mother of toies, and the stepdame of vertue: for it casteth the strong man headlong into offence, and choking vertue, nourisheth pride, and squareth out the path to hell. If the castle be vnwalled, the Enemie enters; if the earth be vn­manured, it bringeth forth thornes; if the vine be neglected, it groweth fruitlesse: So if our bodies and mind [...] be vnexercised, they are the sooner seduced and distracted.