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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10187	Histrio-mastix The players scourge, or, actors tragædie, divided into two parts. Wherein it is largely evidenced, by divers arguments, by the concurring authorities and resolutions of sundry texts of Scripture ... That popular stage-playes ... are sinfull, heathenish, lewde, ungodly spectacles, and most pernicious corruptions; condemned in all ages, as intolerable mischiefes to churches, to republickes, to the manners, mindes, and soules of men. And that the profession of play-poets, of stage-players; together with the penning, acting, and frequenting of stage-playes, are unlawfull, infamous and misbeseeming Christians. All pretences to the contrary are here likewise fully answered; and the unlawfulnes of acting, of beholding academicall enterludes, briefly discussed; besides sundry other particulars concerning dancing, dicing, health-drinking, &c. of which the table will informe you. By William Prynne, an vtter-barrester of Lincolnes Inne.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1633 (1633)	STC 20464A; ESTC S115316	1,193,680	1,258

I pray you but to foster mischiefe in their youth● that it may alwayes abide with them and in their age bring them sooner unto hell And as for these Stagers themselves are they not commonly such kinde of men in their conversation as they are in profession are they not as variable in heart as they are in their parts are they not as good practisers of ba●dery as inactors Live they not in such sort th●mselves as they give precepts unto others Doth not their talke on the Stage declare the nature of their disposition ●doth not every one take that part which is proper to his kinde Doth not the Plough-mans tongue walke of his Plough the Sea-faring ma●s of his Mast Cable and Saile the Souldiers of his Ha●nesse Speare and Shield and bawdy mates of bawdy matters Aske them if in the laying out of their parts they choose not those parts which are most agreeable to their inclination and that they can best discharge And looke what every of them doth most delight in that he can best handle to the contentment of others If it bee a roisting bawdy or lascivious part wherein are unseemely speeches and that they make choyse of them as best answering and proper to their manner of play may we not say by how much the more he exceds in his gesture he delights himselfe in his part and by so mach it is pleasing to his disposition and nature If it be his nature to be a bawdy Player and he delight in such filthy and cursed actions shall we not thinke him in his life to be more disordered and to abhorre virtue But they perhaps will say that such abuses as are handled on the Stage others by their examples are warned to beware of such evils to amendment Indeed if their authority were greater then the words of the Scripture or their zeale of more force than of the Preacher I might easily be perswaded to thinke that men by them might be called to good life But when I see the Word of truth proceeding from the heart and uttered by the mouth of the Reverend Teachers to be received of the most part into the eare and but of a few rooted in the heart I cannot by any meanes beleeve that the words proceeding from a prophane Player and uttered in scorning sort enterlaced with filthy lewde and ungodly speeches have greater force to move men unto virtue than the words of truth uttered by the godly Preacher whose zeale is such as that of Moses who was contented to be rased out of the booke of life and of Paul who wished to be separated from Christ for the welfare of his brethren If the good life of a man be a better instruction to repentance than the tongue or word why doe not Players I beseech you leave examples of goodnesse to their posteritie But which of them is so zealous or so tendereth his saluation that he doth am●nd himselfe in those points which as they say others should take heed of Are they not notoriously knowne to be those men in their life abroad ●s they are on the Stage Roisters Brawlers Ill-dealers Bosters Lovers R●ffians So that they are alwayes exercised in playing their parts and practising wickednesse making that an Art to the end they might the better gesture it in their parts For who can better play the Ruffian than a very Ruffian who better the L●ve● than they who make it a common exercise To conclude the principall end of all their Enterludes is to feed the world with sights and fond pastimes to Iuggle in good earnest the money out of other mens purses into their owne hands What shall I say They are infamous men and in Rome were thought worthy to be expelled allbeit there was libertie enough to take pleasure In the Primitive Church they were kept out from the communion of Christians and never remitted till they had performed publike pennance And thereupon Saint Cyprian in a certaine Epistle counselleth a Bishop not to receive a Player into the Pension of the Church by which they were nourished till there was an expresse act of penance with protestation to renounce an Art so infamous Some have obiected that by these publike-Playes many forbeare to doe evill for feare to be publikely reprehended and for that cause they will say it was tollerated in Rome wherein Emperours were touched though they were present But to such it may be answered that in disguised Players given over to all sorts of dissolutenesse is not found so much as to will to doe good seeing they care for nothing lesse than for virtue And thus much for these Players Thus this Play-Poet and sometimes an Actor too Master Stephen Gosson another reclaimed Play-Poet writes thus of Stage-Players That they are uncircumcised Philistims who nourish a canker in their owne soules ungodly Masters whose example doth rather poyson then instruct men Wherefore writes he sithence you see by the example of the Romans that Playes are Ra●s-bane to government of Common-weales and that Players by the iudgement of them are infamous persons unworthy of the credit of honest Citizens worthy to be removed their Tribe if not for Religion yet for shame that the Gentiles should iudge you at the last day or that Publicans and Sinnes should presse into the Kingdome of Heaven before you withdraw your feet from Theaters with noble Marius set downe some punishment for Players with the Roman Censors shew your selves to be Christians and with wicked Spectators be not puld from Discipline to libertie● from virtue to pleasure from God to Mammon so shall you prevent the scourge by repentance that is comming towards you and fill up the gulfe that the Divell by Playes hath digged to swallow you Thus he To him I will annex the testimonie of I. G. in his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors Therefore writes he let all Players and founders of Playes as they tender the salvation of their owne soules and others leave off tha● cursed kinde of life and betake themselves to such honest exercises and godly mysteries as God hath commanded in his Word to get their living withall For who will call him a wise man that playes the foole and the vice Who can call him a good Christian that playeth the part of the Devill the sworne enemy of Christ Who can call him a iust man that playeth the dissembling hypocrite Who can call him a straight dealing man that playeth a cosoners tricke and so of all the rest The wise man is ashamed to play the foole but Players will seeme to be such in publike view to all the world A good Christian hateth the Devill but Players will become artificiall Divils excellently well A iust man cannot endure hypocrisie but all the acts of Players is dissimulation and the proper name of Player witnesse the Apologie it selfe is hypocrite A true dealing man cannot indure deceit

the presence of some godly men at Stage-playes can never make Play-assemblies good in God or mans esteeme When good and bad men ioyne together in Religious duti●s the goodnesse of the lesser part denominates the whole and makes it good in Gods in m●ns account because the end the cause of this convention is Gods glory But when good and bad confederate themselues together in any delights of sinne God lookes not on the goodnesse of the good but upon the wickednesse of good and bad condemning all for a Congregation of euill doers because the obiect the end of these their conventicles are unlawfull When gracious and gracelesse persons shall fit promiscuously together in a Play-house beholding some prophane lascivious Enterlude with delight not onely God himselfe but even Saints and Angels frowne upon them as a fraternitie of evill doers and a Satanicall unchristian assembly as the Fathers testifie because the most of thē are such the end for which they meet is such Wherefore since the whole Conventicle of Play-haunters in Gods in Angels in holy mens esteeme is alwayes evill notwithstanding the pres●nce of some few godly ones these Playes themselves must certainely be execrably odious to all good Christians who must abandon all lewde companions even in this respect ACTVS 5. SCENA PRIMA FIftly Stage-playe● must needs bee abominable unlawfull unto Christians both in regard of their manner of Action and of all those severall parts concomitants and circumstances that attend them From whence I raise this fifteenth Argument That whose manner of action parts concomitants and severall circumstances are sinfull must certainly be abominable and u●lawfull unto Christians 1 Thess. 5.22 But such are the manner of action parts concomitants and severall circumstances of Stage-playes Therefore they are certainly abominable and unlaw●ull unto Christians The Major needs no confirmation because such as the forme the parts and circumstances are such questionlesse is the whole The Minor I shall evidence by a particular discussion First of the very manner of acting Stage-playes wherein I shall examine First the hypocrisie Secondly the obscenitie and lasciviousnesse Thirdly the grosse effeminacy Fourthly the extreame vanitie and follie which necessarily attends the acting of Playes Secondly of the severall parts that are usually acted in Stage-playes which are as sinfull as various Thirdly of the ordinary apparell wherein Playes are acted which is First of all womanish belonging ●o the female Sex Secondly costly fantasticall strange lascivious whorish provoking unto lewdnesse Fourthly of the severall concomitants or circumstances of Stage-playes which I shall reduce to these foure Heads Lascivious da●cing Amorous obscene songs Effeminate lu●t-exciting Musicke Pro●ufe inordinate lascivious laughter and vaine theatricall applauses omitting all other adjuncts shewes and circumstances of Playes which Horace and some others mention as not so pertinent to our present purpose To begin with the first branch of the first particular to wit the hypocrisie faining or dissimulation that is exercised in acting Stage-playes If we seriously consider the very forme of acting Playes we must needes acknowledge it to be nought else but grosse hypocrisie All things are counterfeited feined dissembled nothing really or sincerely acted Players are alwayes counterf●iting representing the persons habits offices callings parts conditions speeches actions lives● the passions the affections the anger hatred cruelty love revenge dissentions yea the very vices sinnes and lusts the adulteries incests rapes murthers tyrannies thefis and such like crimes of other men of other sexes of other creature● yea oft-times of the Divell himselfe and Pagan Divell-gods They are alwayes acting others not themselves● they vent notorious lying fables as undoubted truthes they put false glosses upon Histories persons virtues vices all things that they act representing them in feined colours the whole action of Playes is nought else but feining but counterfeiting but palpable hypocrisie and dissimulation which God which men abhorr● there●ore it must needs be sinfull If any here obiect That the acting of Playes is no hypocrysie no dissimulation it being onely done in sport in imitation with no sinister intent at all to hurt to cheate or circumvent men I answer First that admit it be but a meere ●mitation of other mens persons parts and vices yet it must needs bee sinfull because the very imitation of wicked men of Pagans of Idols of Idolaters especially in their lewdest wickednesses the most vsuall subject of our Enterludes is without all question evill as the Scriptures plainly teach us Secondly I answer that by the ●eining used in our Stage-playes many of our Spectators are deceived all cheated Deceived with forged fabulous histories instead of truthes with false represen●ations of true stories with palliated vices in lei● of virtues with virtues vizarded under the names of vice with bad Playes oft-times which all dislike instead of good as some in some respects account them Cheated with shadowes instead of substance with sinfull heathenish unchristian spectacles in place of honest recreations These Stage-hypocrisies which at the very best are pure vanity and so not valuable doe cheate many of their hon●sty their civility their chastity their estates their reputation their virtues their salvation● most of their money● all of their time too deare a price for so fruitlesse so wretchlesse a purchase Besides they involve men in the guilt of sundry sinnes which they little feared or suspected to the eternall hazzard o● their soules which is a great deceit Yea the very end why Players act their Enterludes is onely to cheate mens money out of their purses by dishonest meanes not giving quid pro quo The very ground-worke therefore of this objection is but forged Thirdly admit that no man were cheated or prejudiced by that counterfeiting which accompanies the acting of all Stage-playes yet the meere acting of the persons parts gestures offices actions passions especially of the Sexes Vices Anger Furie Love Revenge and Villanies of other men be it in sport in representation onely is hypocri●i● For what else is hypocrisie in the proper signification of the word but the acting of anothers part or person on the Stage or what else is an hypoc●ite in his tru● etimologie but a Stage-player or one who acts anothers part as sundry Authors and Gramarians teach us Hence that common epithite in our Latine Authors Histrionica hypocrisis And hence is it that not onely divers moderne English and Latine Writers but likewise sundry Fathers here quoted in the Margent s●ile Stage-players hypocrites Hypocrites Stage-players as being ●ne and the same in substance there being nothing more familiar with them then to describe an hypocrite by a Stage-player and a Stage-player by an hypocrite If therefore we give any credit to the Fathers or Authors here alleadged we must needs acknowledge the very acting of Stage-playes to be hypocrisie and Players themselves to be meere hypocrites their very profession

And this I speake not to excuse their fault but that you may learne that you especially are the spring and head of this iniquity who spend the whole day in such ridiculous in such pernicious pleasures proclaiming abrode the honest name of Wedlocke and the reverend businesse in it For he who personates these things doth not sinne so much as thou who commandest them to be done Neither dost thou onely command and call for but thou dost likewise further the things that are acted by thy exultation laughter applause and by all manner of meanes thou maintainest this Diabolicall Shop With what eyes then canst thou now behold thy wife which thou hast there seene prostrated to so great iniury in the person of another How canst thou refraine from blushing as oft as thou remembrest thy wife when thou shalt there see the same sex so filthily made common Neither maist thou reply unto me now that whatsoever is there done is but a fiction or fained argument but not the truth of things For this very ●eining which comes home to our purpose hath made very many adulterers and overthroweth many houses And therefore it grieves me most that this so great an evill is not believed to be an evi●● but that which is farre the worst of all both ●avour and clamor and applause and laughter are expressed when so beastly adultery is committed to the publike hurt What then sayest thou is this onely feining not a crime Well therefore are these worthy of a thousand deaths because what all lawes command men to shun those things are these not afraid to imitate For if adultery it selfe be evill doubtlesse the imitation of it must be evill And I doe not yet report how many and great adulterers they may make who personate such adulteries in an histrionicall fiction and how impudent likewise they make their spectators For there is nothing more filthy nothing more lascivious then that eye that can patiently that I say not willingly behold such things Moreover what a thing is this that when as thou wilt not so much as looke upon a naked woman in the street yea nor yet at home but if such a thing fall out by accident thou thinkest it done to iniure thee that yet when as thou goest up to the Play-house that thou maist violate the chastity of both Sexes and maist likewise incestuously defile thine owne eyes thou believest that no dishonest thing befalls thee For thou canst not say thus that she is an harlot that is thus uncovered because it is nature it selfe and there is the same body of an whore and of a free woman For if thou thinkest that there is no obscenity in such a fight for what cause when as thou shalt see the same thing in the street doest thou step backe againe from thy intended walke and most severely rebuke that immodesty unlesse perchance thou believest the same thing not to be alike filthy when we are severed and when we sit all together But this is meerely derision and shame and words altogether of extreme folly and it is better for one to besmeare his whole face with clay and dirt then with a spectacle of so great filthinesse For dirt is not so noxious to the eyes as that unchaste spectacle and the sight of a naked Harlot Heare therefore what nakednesse brought upon mankinde even from the beginning and even by this meanes feare that filthinesse What then hath made men naked disobedience and the counsell of the Devill so much hath this alwayes pleased him from the beginning But they verily when they were naked were yet ashamed you repute the same thing worthy prayse according to that of the Apostle glorying in your shame After what manner therefore can thy wi●e from henceforth behold thee returning from such a contumely how can she entertaine or speake to one so unworthily defiling the condition and sex of womans nature yea and returning a captive a servant of an whorish woman from such a spectacle If then you grieve when you heare these things I confesse that I give you and owe you the greatest thankes For who is he that doth comfort me but he who is made sorrowfull by me Wherefor cease not to mourne for this licentiousnesse and oft to be grieved for it For this grie●e will be made unto you a beginning of conversion unto better things Wherefore I have more earnestly pressed my speech that I might free you by a more deepe incision from their corruption by whom you are intoxicated and might revoke you to pure holinesse of mind● which verily together with the promised rewards of piety we may all happen to enioy by the grace and mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be glory for ever and ever Amen In his 7. Homely upon Mathew he proceeds thus against Playes and Play-haunters But what doe I speake of the space of the long iourney of the wise men to see Christ when as many women are now growne to such an height of effeminacy of minde that they cannot so much as come a very little distance from their houses to see the Lord in a spirituall manger unlesse they be carried upon Mules But of those also who verily can indure the paine of walking some preferre the tumult of worldly businesse others Theatricall routs or Play-house meetings before holy Assemblies Ver●ly these Barbarians before they had seene Christ overcame so great a iourney for him thou verily no not after thou hast seene him dost like to imitate him For even when thou hast seene him thou so relinqu●shest him that after him thou runnest to Play-houses and dost rather desire both to heare and to see a Stage-player then him And that I may touch the same things againe that I followed before thou verily leavest Christ placed in a Spirituall Manger but thou hastest to see a Strumpet lying on the Stage But of what punishments now at last doe we thinke this worthy Answer I beseech you if any one should promise he would bring thee unto the King and would shew thee him glittering on every side and sitting amidest the severall ornaments of h●s pompe and state dost thou thinke thou shouldest prefer a Stage-play before this courtly dignity though thou expectedst no benefit to accrue unto thee by it Verily out of this Table there flowes a fountaine of spirituall good things and this thou presently leaving runnest to the Theater that thou maist see a swimming woman and thou beholdest that sex exposed to the publike view I say that thou maist see this thou leavest Christ sitting by the fountaine of heavenly gifts For even now he sits not onely upon that one Samaritan Well but speaketh to the whole Citty But perchance even now he speakes onely to the Samaritan woman for even now no man stands by him save onely that some perchance are present onely with their bodies but others truely not

him that is taken in adultery to be guilty of adultery not under any humane but under a Devine Sentence hence deadly punishments For whosoever shall looke upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart He doth not onely ●xtirpate the disease but likewise the roote of the disease for unchaste concupiscence i● the roote of adultery So likewise doe Phisicians they looke diligently not onely to diseases but likewise to the taking away of their causes although they see the eye diseased yet they represse the evill rewme that is above in the temples Thus Christ also doeth Adultery is an evill blindnesse it is a disease of the eyes not of the body onely but first of the soule Therefore he stops the re●me of uncleanesse from thence by the feare of the law Wherefore he not onely punisheth adultery but avengeth concupiscence likewise He that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart These bare words repeated are sufficient to purge away all the disease of sinne But pardon us we cleanse wounds and he who purgeth wounds must apply bitter medicines But by how much the more they shall indure my words by so much the more shall the poyson be purged out By all these faithfully recited passages of holy Chrysostome which I would Players and Play-haunters would seriously would frequently read over it is most apparant that Stage-playes are the immediate common occasions of much actuall lewdnesse adultery and other grosse uncleanesse which should cause all Christians to abominate them and to keepe their wives and children from them as th● ancient Pagan Germans did for feare they should corrupt their chastity and draw them on to publike lewdnesse To passe by the concurrent testimonies of Authors● quoted in the precedent Scene who give punctuall testimony of this truth as their words there cited will su●ficiently manifest I shall confine my selfe onely to foure of our owne English Authors for finall confirmation of my Minors verity The first of them is Alexander Fabritius in his Destructorium Vitiorum pars 4. cap. 23. De Ludis inhonestis or dishonest Playes The second kind writes he of unlawfull Playes is the Play of lascivious vanity such as are Dancing Enterludes and other Theatricall Playes which are called Playes from the Theater or Play-house which is a publike place where the people hath accustomed to meet together ●o Play because after such Playes ended Whores are oft times prostituted in such Playes And so such Playes are very often the cause of fornication whoredome and adultery and therefore the Devill is delighted in such Playes and as it appeareth a perfect man ought not to give his minde to such sports with which the Devill is delighted And therefore worthily sa●th Saint Augustine Let him wil●draw himselfe from the Spectacles of the world who will obtaine the perfect gr●ce of remiss●on For Dyna the Daughter of Iacob of whom it is writt●n in th● 34. of Genesis when Iocob came into the Land of Canaan Dinah his Daughter walked abroad to wit● to the spectacles of the world that she might see the women of that Country whom Sychim the Sonne of the King of that Country seeing he was inamored with her tooke her and ravished her perforce But as Saint Augustine s●ith if she ●ad conti●●ed at home among her owne she had not beene defloar●d by a forraigne ravisher Therefore the soule ought by so much the more to beware and to restraine it selfe because she is not once but oft-times r●vished and defloured let her feare now having had experiment of that which she ●as ignorant of being yet a V●rgin Adde wee to him the testimony of Master Philip Stubs in his Anatomy of Abuses Doe not Playes writes he maintaine Bawdry insinuate foolery and renew the remembrance of hea●●en Idolatry Doe they not in●●ce to who●edome and unclean●sse Nay are they not rather plaine devo●rers of Ma●denly virginity and chastity For proofe whereof but marke the flocking and running to Theaters and Curtens daily and hourely night and day time and tide to see Playes and Enterludes where such wa●ton gestures such bawdy speeches such laughing and ●●ee●ing such kissing and bussing such clipping and culling such w●●king and glancing of wanton eyes and the like is used as is wonderfull to behold Then these goodly Pageants being ended every mate sorts to his mate every one brings another homeward on the way very friendly and in their secret conclaves covertly they play the Sodomites or worse And these be the fruits of Playes and Enterludes for the most part And whereas you say there are good examples to be learned in them truely so there are If you will learne to play the vice to teare sweare and blasp●ame bo●h Heaven and Earth if you will learne to become a Bawde to be uncleane to devirginate Maides to def●oure ●onest Wives c. If you will learne to sing and ta●ke of bawdy love and venery c. If you will learne to play the Whore-master the Glutton Drunkard or Incestuous person and finally of you will learne to contemne God and all his Lawes to care neither for Heaven nor Hell and to commit all kinde of sinne and mischiefe you need goe to no other Schools for all these good Exampl●s you may see painted before your e●es in Enterludes and Playes Wherefore that man who giveth money for the maintenance of them must needs incurre the inevitable sentence of eternall damnation unlesse he repent Thus hee Stephen Gosson a penitent reclaimed Play-poet Stage-playes● to which he was once addicted writes much to this effect I will shew you writes hee what I see and informe you what I read of Playes Ovid said that Romulus built his Theater as a Horse-faire for Whores made Triumphes and set up Playes to gather the faire women together that every one of his Souldiers might take where he liked a snatch for his share c. It should seeme that the abuse of such places was so great that for any chaste Liver to haunt them was a blacke Swan and a white Crow Dion so straitly forbiddeth the ancient Families of Rome and Gentlewomen that tender their name and honour to come to Theaters and rebukes them so sharpely when he takes them napping that if they be but once seene there he iudgeth it sufficient cause to speake ill of them and thinke worse The shaddow of a knave hurts an honest man the sent of a Stewes an honest Matron and the shew of Theaters a simple gazer c. Cookes doe never shew more craft in their iunkets to vanquish the taste nor Painters in shadowes to allure the eye then Poets in Theaters to wound the conscience There set they abroach strange consorts of melody to tickle the eare costly apparell to flatter the sight effeminate gesture to ravish the sence and wanton speech to whet desire to inordinate lust

ambitiosique sunt quid vos estis quibus ipsum nomen virtutis odio est Negatis quenquam praestare quae loquitur nec ad exemplar orationis suae vivere Quid mirum cum loquantur fortia ingentia omnes humanas tempestates evadentia cum refigere se crucibus conentur in quas unusquisque vestrum clavos suos ipse adjicit Non praestant Philosophi quae loquuntur multa tamen praestant quod loquuntur quod hone●ta mente concipiunt Nam si et paria dictis agerent quid esset illis beatius Interim non est quod contemnas bona verba et bonis cògitationibus plena praecordia studiorum salutarium etiam citra affectum laudanda tractatio est Quid mirum si non ascendunt in altum Arduos aggressus virtutis suscipe etiam si decidunt magna conantur Generosa res est respicientem non ad suas sed ad naturae suae vires conari alta tentare et mente majora concipere quam quae etiam ingenti animo adornatis effici possint Qui hoc facere proponet volet tentabit ad deos iter faciet ne ille etiamsi non tenuerit magnis tamen excidet ausis Vos quidem qui virtutem cultoremque ejus odistis nihil novi facitis Nam et solem lumina aegra formidant et aversantur diem ●plendidum nocturna animalia qui ad primum ejus ortum stupent et latibula sua passim petunt abduntur in aliquas rimas timida lucis Gemite et infaelicem linguam bonorum exercete convicio Instate commordete citius multo frangetis dentes quam imprimetis It is true that the best of all Gods children have their weaknesses their passions and infirmities which they cannot wholly conquer whiles they continue here they have flesh in them as well as spirit which sometimes shewes it selfe they have a dying body of sinne within them which though it raignes not in them as a King yet sometimes it overmasters them in some particular actions as a tyrant doe● But yet this frees them from hypocrisie First that they unfainedly desire and endeavour to mortifie all their sinnes and lusts and to be freed from them Secondly they utterly abominate and detest their sinnes continually watching fighting praying against them and labouring to destroy them Thirdly when they fall into any sinne of infirmity out of humane frailty they condemne and judge themselves for it it is their greatest griefe and shame and they goe mourning for it all their dayes loathing and abhorring themselves because they have thus offended Fourthly they become more vigilant against their sins and frailties for the time to come binding themselves by solemne vowes and covenants never to relapse into them more crying mightily unto God for strength to resist● and power to subdue them Fifthly they allow not themselves in one knowne sinne whatsoever they sinne not so frequently in that manner as others doe keeping themselves innocent for the most part from great offences and notorious sinnes in which those who most condemne them wallow Lastly they leade farre holier and stricter lives than other men they serve and honour God more than they they love and feare God more than others being farre more frequent more constant in hearing reading prayer meditation fasting and all holy duties than those who declaime against them most and yet they desire they endeavour to be better and holier every day Therefore they are no hypocrites as all Antipuritans for the most part are who professe themselves Christians as well as Puritans and yet live like Pagans like Infidels in grosse notorious sinnes without any shame or sorrow for them or any warre against them endeavouring not to grow better than they are For the second part of the Objection that Puritans and Precisians are seditious factious troublesome rebel●ious persons and enemies both to state and government and that this onely is the cause why they are so much hated persecuted reviled I answer that this is an ancient scandall which hath beene alwayes laid upon the choycest Saints of God from age to age whe●fore we may the lesse wonder at it now For did not Pharaoh long agoe thus censure Moses and Aaron and thereupon drove them out of his presence as factions persons who did let the people from their worke and stirre them up to mutinie Did not King Ahab accuse the holy Prophet Eliijah as a troubler of Israel when as it was onely himselfe and his fathers house that did disquie● it and did he not hate and imprison the good Prophet Micaiah as an enemie to him and his proceedings because he alwayes prophecied truth unto him and would not flatter him in his ungodly courses and humours Did not that wicked favourite Haman accuse the whole Nation of the Iewes to King Ahasuerus that their lawes were diverse from all people that they kept not the Kings lawes and that it was not for the Kings profit to suffer them and thereupon procure the Kings Letters to the Lieutenants and Governours of the people that they might be destroyed Did not Rehum and Sh●mshai write letters to King Axtaxerxes against Hierusalem of purpose to hinder the building of it ou● of their malice ●o the pious Iewes that it was a rebellious and a bad Citie and hurtfull unto Kings and provinces and that they had moved sedition of old time in the middest thereof for which cause it was destroyed informing the King withall that if the walls thereof were set up againe they would not then pay toll tribute and custome and so the Kings revenue should be endammaged and did not S●nballat send his servant to Nehemiah with an open letter in his hand wherein it was written it is reported among the heathen and Gashmu saith it that thou and the Iewes thinke to rebell for which cause thou buildest the wall that thou maist be their King c. Was not the Prophet Ieremy persecuted and imprisoned by the high Priest the Prin●es and all the people for a man of strife and contention to the whole earth as a professed enemie both to the King the State and all the people for no other cause but this that he faithfully delivered those displeasing messages which God enjoyned him to proclaime against them for their sinnes Did not Amaziah the Priest of Bethel accuse the Prophet Amos to King Ieroboam for conspiring against him in the middest of the house of Israel and that the land was not able to beare his words Which scandalons accusation not succeding did hee not thereupon advise him to flee into the land of Iudah and to eate bread and prophecie there charging him like an Episcopall controller not to prophecie any more at Bethel for it was the Kings Chappell and the Kings Court where he would have no faithfull Prophets no truth-telling sinne-rebuking C●aplaines come who knew not

Honestate Ecclesiasticorum lib. 2. cap. 11.12 * See 5. 6. Edward 6. c. 3. b See the Exhortation in the Booke of Common-prayer as the end of publike and priv●te baptisme See Canon 45. which enjoyneth every benef●ced Minister that is a Preacher to preach once a Sunday at least either in his owne or some other adjoyning parish * ●al 95.1 2 6. d Psal. 96.1 2 3 8 9. See Psal. 97.1 Psal 99.9 Psal. 100.1 2. e Isay 2.3 5. Psal. 122.1 f See Act 1.2 p. 10.52 67 68 g Prov. 2.13 14. * See Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum ex authoritate Regis Henrici 8. Edwardi 6. Londini 1571. Tit. De Divinis Officijs c. 4●6 9 10 12. fol. 43.44 45. which appoints two Sermons a day in Citties on Lords●dayes Holi-dayes See Canons 1604. Canon 45. which enjoynes all licensed Preachers to preach one Sermon every Sunday at the least h Master Fox Booke of Martyrs Edit 1610. pag. 1366. Col. 11. Line 77.78 * O that our Bishops and Ministers would doe thus now i Imprinted by Iohn Day Anno 1550. k Let such now who cry downe preaching Lectures and Lecturers as the cause of Sedition consider ●his l Prov. 29.18 * Let ●asie Ministers carelesse Christians who cry downe Lecture and cry up Stage-playes note this well m Let all our Prelates and Ministers consider well of this n See the Historicall Narratiō c. printed An. 1631. The Copy of an answer to a Letter c. Imprinted by stealth in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths Raigne without any Authors or Printers name unto it was answered verbatim by Robert Crowly and printed by Authority Anno 1566. which shewes the shamelesnesse of him who durst now lately in his new Narration to publish it as the received Opinion of the Church of England it being penned by one Champ●eis who if Iohn Veron may be credited in his Apologie in Defence of his Treatise of Predestination was both a Papist and a Pelagian too o See his Confession and Protestation of the Christian Faith Dedicated to Edward the 6. the whole Parliament Anno 1550. His Comfortable Exposition upō certaine Psalmes London 1580. fol. 22.23 24 29 46 55 56● 57 60 63 64 65 78 105. and his Articles upō the Creed London 1581. Article 3. to 15 17 20 21 25 29 30 33 36 38 39 40 42. to 52 55 62 67 78 91 93 94 97 98. where he concludes point-blanke against the Arminian Tenets which some men cast upon him * Hanc ob rem maximus ille Moses aequum c●nsuit ut omnes ascripti ejus Civitati jus naturae sequentes celebrarent hunc diem Sabbatum otio festisque hilaritatibus intermissis laboribus opificijs quaestu●rijs nego●i●sque victū paranubꝰ ablegata etiā tantisper ceu per inducias solicitudine anxia ut vacarent non ludicris sicut quidam ridendisque spectaculis mimorum saltatoruque quae insanum vulgus amat perdite c. sed soli philosophiae verae c● Philo Iudaeus l. 3. De Vita Mos●s p. 932. u Tu verò relicto fidelium caetu Dei Ecclesia ac legibus ad Graecorum ludos curris ad Theatra properas expetens unus ex venientibus eò numerari parti●eps fieri audi●ionum turpium ne dicam abominabilium nec audisti Hieremiam dicentem Domine non sedi in concilio ludentium sed timui a conspectu manus tuae ●neque Iob dicentem● similia Ibid. Surius Concil Tom. 1. pag. 68. * Ier 15.17 y Iob 31.1 5 7. an excellent place z Hoc autem dum cantant recantantij qui immortalitatem anteà celebrabant tandem perniciosissimam mali malè canunt p●linodiam Comedamus bibamus cras enim morimur Ii autem non cras verè sed jam Deo mortui sunt sepelientes suos mortuos hoc est seipsos in mortem infodientes c. Ibidem a Loqu●mur tamen ad illos quos frequenter ab Ecclesiae conventu spectacula voluptuosa subducunt c. August Hom. 21. Tom. 10. p. 592. See Enar. in Psal. 80. Tom. 8. pars 2. p. 3.4 8 13 18. b Hanc inquam pudendam veraeque religioni adversandam detestandam talium numinum placationem has fabulas in Deos illecebrosas atque criminosas haec ignominiosa Deorum facta sceleratè turpiterque conficta sed sceleratius turpiusque commissa oculis ●uribus publicis Civitas tota disce●at c. De Civitate Dei l. 2. c. 27. c Hom. 3. De Davide Saul Tom. 1. Col. 511.512 Hom. De Verbis Isaiae Vidi Dominum sedentem c. Tom. 1. Col. 1281. to 1284. Hom. in Psal. 118. v. 151.152 Tom. 1. Col. 1030.1931 Hom. 7. in Matth. Tom. 2. Col. 58.59 Hom 15. 21. Ad Pop. Antioch d Majorem obtinent insana spectacula frequentiam quā bea●a martyria Sermo in Octav● Petri Pa●li cap. 5. fol. 165. e Bibl. Patrum Tom. 4. p. 705. D. E. f Sed proh dolor quamplurimi inter Christianos hanc Iudaeorum amentiam improbitatem imitantur qui diebus festis aut ludis illiberalibus crapula choreis aut alijs mundi vanitatibus dediti quum Deo diligentius obsequium exhibere quum templa Dei frequentare orationibus insistere atque Ecclesiastico interesse officio deberent tunc maxime Deum suis dissolutissimis moribus irritant Idnè est ô Christiani celebrare diem festum indulgere ventri inconcessis voluptatibus habenas laxare Si prohibetur die festo opus quod manu exerceatur ad vitae necessitatem ut integrius divinis rebus vacare possitis nonne potiori jure prohibita sunt ea quae non nisi cum peccato committi po●●unt gravi offensione Dei Diebus ad exercenda opera servilia concessis unusquisque suo intentus est operi abstinet à crapula ludis vanitatibus Diebus autem festis passim currunt ad cauponā ●d ludos spectacula choreas in irrisionem divini nominis diei praevaricationem quum tamen eo gravius sit peccatum quo sanctiori tempore committatur Resipiscant igitur● id zi●anium quod inimicus homo superseminavit in agro Domini prorsus extirpare● a se evellere laborent Cyril Alex. in Ioan. Evang. l. ● c. 5 p. 595. g Qui Domini metu praediti sun● dominicū diem expectāt u● Deo praeces adhibeant ●c co●pore sanguine Domini fruantur Inertes autem socordes Dominicum diem ●xpectant ut ab opere feriati vitijs operādent Quod autem non mentiar res ip●ae fidem faciant Alio die in mediū prodi neminem invenies Die Dominico egredere atque alios cithara canentes alios applaudentes ●altantes alios sedentes ac proximos maledictis insectantes alios denique luctantes reperies Praeco ad Ecclesiam vocat omnes segnitie torpent ac moras nectunt Cithara aut tuba personuit omnes tanquam