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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54178	No cross, no crown, or, Several sober reasons against hat-honour, titular-respects, you to a single person, with the apparel and recreations of the times being inconsistant with Scripture, reason, and practice, as well of the best heathens, as the holy men and women of all generations, and consequently fantastick, impertinent and sinfull : with sixty eight testimonies of the most famous persons of both former and latter ages for further confirmation : in defence of the poor despised Quakers, against the practice and objections of their adversaries / by W. Penn ...	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1669 (1669)	Wing P1327; ESTC R15257	90,375	122

punished with the most dreadful Plague that ever rag'd amongst them and all Greece with it never prospered in any considerable undertaking but from that time alwayes decay'd Amongst many of his sober and Heavenly Maxims on which he was accustomed to discourse with his disciples these are some He taught every where That an upright man and an happy man were all one They that do Good are employ'd they that spend their time in vain Recreations are idle To do Good is the best course of Life he only is idle who might be better employ'd A Horse is not known by his furniture but qualities so Men are to be esteemed for Virtue not Wealth Being asked Who lived without trouble He answered Those who are conscious to themselves of no evil thing To one who demanded What was Nobility He answered A good temper and disposition of Soul and Body They who know what they ought to do and do it not are not wise and temperate but fools and stupid To one that complained he had not been benefited by his Travels Not without reason sayes Socrates Thou didst travel without thy self Intimating he knew not the eternal Mind or God to direct and inform him Being demanded what Wisdom was said A virtuous composure of the Soul And being asked who were Wise answered Those that sin not Seeing a young man Rich but ignorant of Heavenly things and pursuing Earthly pleasures Behold sayes he a Golden Slave Soft wayes of living in pleasure beget neither good constitution of body nor mind Fine and rich Cloaths are only for Comedians that would sport the People with only making themselves fools Being demanded from what things Men and Women ought to refrain He answered PLEASUR' 's Being asked What Continence and Temperance were said Government of corporal desires and pleasures the wicked live to eat c. but the good eat to live temperate Persons become the most excellent Eat that which neither hurts the body nor mind and which is easie to be gotten One saying It was a great matter to abstain from what one desires But sayes he it is better not to desire at all It is the property of God to need nothing and they that need and are contented with least come neerest God The only and best way to Worship God is to mind obey whatsoever he Commands That the Souls of Men Women partake of the Divine Nature that God is seen of the virtuous mind that by waiting upon him they are united unto him in an inaccessible place of purity and happiness which God he asserted alwayes to be near him Many more are the excellent Sayings of this great man who was not less famous for his Sayings than his Examples with the greatest Nations yet died he a Sacrifice to the sottish fury of the vain world The History of his Life reports That his Father was told He should have the guide of his Life within him which should be more to him than five hundred Masters which proved true Instructing his Schollers herein Charging them not to neglect these divine affairs which properly concern man to mind or enquire after such things as are without in the visible world He taught the use of outward things only as they were necessary to Life and Commerce forbidding superfluities and Curiosities He was executed for his Doctrine after having lived seventy years the most admired followed and visited of all men in his time by Kings and Commonwealths and then whom Antiquity mentions none with more reverence and honour Well were it for poor England if her conceited Christians were true Socrates's whose divine severe just and self-denying life doth not bespeak him more famous than it will Christians infamous at the revelation of the righteous judgment where Heathens Virtue shall aggravate Christians Intemperance and their Humility the others excessive Pride and justly too since a greater than Socrates is come whose Name they profess but they will not obey him Plato that famous Philosopher and Scholler to Socrates was so grave so heavenly devoted nay so discreetly Politick that in his Commonwealth he would not so much as harbour Poetical Fancy's much less open Stagers as being too effeminate and apt to with-draw the minds of youth from more noble more manly as well as more heavenly exercises Plato seeing a young man play at Dice Reproved him sharply the other answered What for so small a matter Custom saith Plato is no small thing let idle hours be spent more usefully Let youth saith he take delight in good things for Pleasures are the baits of evil Observe the momentory sweetness of a delicious life is followed with eternal sorrow the short pain of the contrary with eternal pleasures being commanded to put on a Purple garment by the King of Sicilly he refused saying He was a man and scorn'd such effeminacy's He addicted himself to heavenly Contemplations and is said to have liv'd a virtuous but single Life alwayes eying and obeying the Mind which he sometimes cal'd God the Father of all things affirming Who so lived should become like him and so related as to be joyn'd with or to the Divinity it self This same Plato upon his dying bed sent for his Friends about him and told them the whole World was out of the way in that they understood not nor regarded the Mind that is God assuring them those men died most comfortably that liv'd most conformable to right Reason sought and ador'd the first Cause meaning God Antisthenes an Athenian Philosopher who had taught in the study of Eloquence several years but upon his hearing Socrates treat of the seriousness of Religion of the divine Life eternal Rewards c. bid all his Schollers to seek them a new Master for he had found one for himself wherefore selling his estate he distributed it to the poor and betook himself wholly to the consideration of heavenly things going chearfully six miles every day to hear Socrates But where are the like Preachers and Converts amongst the People called Christians Observe the daily pains of Socrates surely he did not study a week to read a written Sermon we are assured of the contrary for 't was frequent with him to Preach to the People at any time of the day in the very streets as occasion served Neither was he an Hireling or covetous for he did it gratis surely then he had no fat Benefices Tythes Gleabs c. And let the self-denyal and diligence of Antisthenes be considered of a Philosopher and Mister to become a Scholler and that a daily one surely it was then matter of reproach as 't is now shewing both want of Knowledge though call'd a Philosopher and his great desires to obtain it None of these us'd to go to Playes Balls Treats c. they found more serious employments for their minds and were examples of temperance to the world I

thou shalt be a terrour and shall be no more Thus hath God declar'd his displeasure against the Curiosity and vain Customs of this wanton World Yet further the Prophet Zephaniah goes for thus he speaks And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's Sacrifice That I will punish the Princes and the King's Children and all such as are cloath'd with strange Apparel Of how evil Consequence was it in those times for the greatest men to give themselves the liberty of following the vain Customs of other Nations or offering to change the usual End of Cloaths or Apparel to gratifie foolish Curiosity who went to place a Satisfaction in that which did not deserve their Care and to make a meer Necessity matter of Pleasure that rather should put in mind of shame This did the Lord Jesus Christ expresly charge his Disciples not to be careful about intimating that such as were could not be his Disciples for sayes he Take no care what you should eat nor what you should drink neither wherewithal shall you be clothed for after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things but seek yee first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Under which of Eating and Drinking and Apparel he comprehends all External matters whatsoever and so much appears as well because that they are opposed to the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness which are invisible and Heavenly things as that those very matters he injoyns them not to be careful about are the most necessary and the most innocent if then in such cases the minds of his Disciples are not to be solicitous much less in foolish superfluous idle inventions to gratifie the carnal appetites and minds of men so certain it is that those who live therein are none of his followers but the Gentiles and as he elsewhere sayes the Nations of the World who know not God If now then the distinguishing meant between the Disciples of Jesus and those of the World is That one minds the things of Heaven and God's Kingdom that stands in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost being not careful of External matters even the most Innocent and Necessary And that the others mind Eating Drinking Apparel and the Affairs of the World with the Lusts Pleasures Profits Honours and the like be you intreated for your Souls sake O Inhabitants of England to be serious to reflect a while upon your selves what care and cost are you at of time and money about foolish nay vicious things so far are you degenerated from the primitive Christian life What buying and selling what dealing and chaffering what writing and posting what toyl and labour what noise hurry bustle and confusion what study what little conspiracys and over-reachings what eating drinking vanity of Apparel most ridiculous Recreations in short what rising early going to bed late expence of precious time is there about things that perish View the Streets Shops Exchanges Playes Parks Taverns Ale-houses c. and is not the World this fading World writ upon every face Say not within your selves How otherwise should men live and the World subsist the common though impertinent objection there is enough for all let some content themselves with less a few things plain and decent serve to a Christian life 'T is Lust Pride Avarice that thrust men upon such folly had God's Kingdom the exercise of their minds these perishing entertainments should have but little of their time or thoughts This Self-denying Doctrine was confirm'd and enforc'd by the Apostles in their Example as we have already shewn and in their Precepts too as we shall yet evince in those two most remarkable passages of Paul and Peter where they not only tell us what should be done but also interpret what should be deny'd and avoided In like manner I will that Women Adorn themselves in modest Apparel what 's that with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidered Hair or Gold or Pearls or costly Array then these are immodest but which becometh Women professing godliness with good works absolutely implying that those who Attire themselves with Gold Silver broidered Hair Pearls costly Array or the like cannot be the Women professing godliness making those very things to be contrary to modesty and what 's good and consequently that they are evil and unbecoming Women professing Godliness To which Peter joyns another Precept after the like sort viz. Whose Adorning let it not be that outward Adorning of plaiting the Hair and of wearing of Gold or of putting on Apparel what then but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price and as an inducement he adds For after this manner in the old time the Holy Women who so trusted in God Adorned themselves which doth not only intimate that both Holy Women were so Adorned and that it behoves such as would be Holy and trust in the Holy God to be so Adorned but also that they who used those forbidden Ornaments were the Women and People in all Ages that for all their talk were not Holy nor did trust in God They so far are such from trusting in God that the Apostle Paul expresly sayes That they who live in pleasures are dead to God whilst they live And sayes James They that live want only on Earth slay the Just They farther enjoyn'd That Christians should have their Conversation in Heaven and their minds fixed on things above walk honestly as in the day not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambring and Wantonness not in Envy and Strife let not Fornication Uncleanness or Covetousness be once named amongst you neither Filthiness nor foolish talking or jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks And let no corrupt Communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister Grace unto the Hearers But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the desire thereof And grieve not the Holy Spirit intimating such Conversation doth but be ye followers of God as dear Children walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise redeeming the time because the dayes are evil Measure your selves hereby O you Inhabitants of the Land who think your selves wrong'd if not accounted Christians see what proportion your Life and Spirit bear with these most Holy and Self-denying Precepts and Examples Well my Friends my Soul mourns for you I have been with you and among you your Life and Pastime are not strangers to my Observation and with Compassion yea unexpressible pity I bewail your folly O that you would be wise O that the just Principle in your selves were heard O that Eternity had time to

be fruits of Pride and Flattery and we dare not run into those vain compliances to earthly minds but having been sincerely affected with the reproofs of Instruction and our minds brought into a watchfull subjection to the righteous Law of Jesus we cannot conform our selves to the Fashions of the World that pass away knowing assuredly that for every idle word men speak they shall give an account in the day of Judgment And therefore I would beseech all people to be cautious how they reproach us on this occasion but rather that they would seriously weigh in themselves whether it be the spirit of the World or of the Father that is so angry with our honest plain and harmless Thou and Thee that so every Plant that God himself hath not planted may be rooted out CHAP. III. Several sober Reasons urg'd against the vain Apparel and usual Recreations of the Age as Gold Silver Embroyderies Pearls precious Stones Lockets Rings Pendents breaded and curl'd Locks Painting Patching Laces Points Ribonds unnecessary change of Cloaths superfluous Provision out of state costly and useless Attendence Rich Furnitures Plays Parts Mulbery and Spring-Gardens Treats Balls Masks Cards Dice Bowls Chess Romances Comedies Poets Riddles Drollery vain and unnecessary Visits c. by which they are proved inconsistent with a Christian life and very destructive of all civil society Reason I. BEcause Sin brought the first Coat if there had been no sin there had been no need of Apparel 't was Adam and Eve's fall that made them first seek a Covering They were once naked and knew no shame but after Transgression they were asham'd to be longer naked Innocence was once the only covering but that being lost Necessity put them to seek a worse Ah blessed time when Purity not Ignorance freed them from such shifts Since therefore sin brought shame and shame stood first in need of covering how impudently shameless are those who pride and please themselves in the first Institution is grosly perverted the utmost service that Cloaths originally were designed for when sin had stript them of their native Innocence and great simplicity was to cover their shame therefore plain and modest next to fence out cold therefore substantial Lastly to differ Sexes and therefore distinguishing so that then meer necessity provok'd to Cloathing now pride and vain curiosity In former times some benefit obliged but now wantonness and pleasure they minded them for covering but now that 's the least part their greedy eyes must be provided with gaudy superfluities as if they made their cloaths for triming and as the less serviceable part only for the sake of other curiosities that must be tack'd upon them although they neither cover shame fence from cold nor distinguish sexes but signally display their wanton fantastick full-fed minds Then the best of Recreations was to serve God be just follow their vocations mind their flocks do good exercise their bodies in such practices as might be sutable to gravity temperance and virtue which now is extended to almost every folly that carries any mark below open and scandalous filth detested of the very Actors when they have done it so much are men degenerated from Adam in his disobedience so much more confident and artificial are they grown in all Impieties yea their minds through custom are become so very insensible of the inconvenience that attends the like follies that what was once meer necessity a badge of shame at best but a meer remedy is now the delight pleasure and recreation of the Age How ignoble is it how ignominious and unworthy of a reasonable Creature That which is indued with understanding sit to contemplate immortality and made an associate for God and Angels should mind a little dust a few shameful raggs inventions of meer folly toyes so apish and fantastick entertainments so dull and earthy that a Rattle a Baby a Hobby-horse a Top are by no means so foolish in a simple Child nor unworthy his thoughts as that the like inventions should exercise the noble mind of man and Image of the great Creator of Heaven and Earth This the very Heathens of old had so clear a prospect of that they detested all such foolery looking upon curiosity of Apparel and that variety of Recreations now in voge and estimation with Christians to be destructive of all good as what more easily stole away the minds of People into wantonness idleness effeminacy and made them only companions for the Beast that perishes witness those famous men Socrates Plato Aristides Cato Epictetus c. who plac'd true honour and satisfaction in nothing below Virtue and Immortality Nay such are the remains of Innocence amongst some Moors and Indians to our times that they not only Traffique in a naked posture but if a stranger call'd a Christian fling out a filthy word it 's customary with them by way of Moral to bring him water to purge his mouth how much do the like virtuous and reasonable Instances accuse the People called Christians of grosse folly and intemperance O that Men and Women would once be so charitable to themselves as to remember whence they came what they are doing and to what they must return that more noble more virtuous more rational and heavenly things may be the matters of their pleasure and satisfaction that they would once be perswaded to believe how inconsistant the folly vanity and conversation they are mostly exercised in really are with the true Nobility of a reasonable Soul and let that just Principle which taught the Heathens teach them lest it be found more tollerable for Heathens than such Christians in the day of account For if their ruder notions and more imperfect sense of things could yet discover so much vanity if their Light condemn'd it and they in obedience thereunto disus'd it it behoveth Christians much more Christ came not to extinguish no but to improve that Knowledge and they who think they need do less now than before had need to act better than they think We therefore hence conclude That the fashions and recreations now in repute are very abusive of their first Institution if ever they had any and that the inconveniencies that have attended them as wantonness idleness pride lust respect of persons witness a Plume of Feathers or a lace Coat in a Countrey-Village nay almost any where what sirring what scraping what bowing though perhaps he be a High-way-man rotten in body and soul too with the rest of the like fruits are inconsistent with the Duty Reason and true Satisfaction of men and absolutely destructive of Wisdom Knowledge Manhood Temperance Industry and whatsoever may render men truly noble and truly good as will more largely be discoursed in its place Reas 3. These things which have been hitherto condemn'd have never been the conversation nor practice of the Holy Men and Women of old times whom the Scriptures recommend for Holy Examples worthy of imitation Abraham Isaac and Jacob were plain men

to Glory is enclos'd and smooth'd with such variety of carnal Pleasures no alas Conviction a wounded Spirit a broken Heart a regenerated Mind in a word Immortality would then prove as meer fictions as some make them and others therefore think them if the like practises are not for ever to be extinguish'd and expell'd all Christian society for I affirm That to one who internally knows God and hath a sense of his blessed Presence all such Recreations are death yea more dangerously evil and more apt to steal away the mind from its Heavenly exercise than grosser Impieties for they are so big they are plainly seen so dirty they are easily detested which Education and common Temperance as well as Constitution in many teach them to abhor and if they should be committed they carry with them a proportionable conviction but these pretended Innocents these supposed harmeless Satisfactions are more surprising more fatal more destructive for as they easily gain and admission of their senses so the more they pretend to Innocency the more do they secure the minds of People in the common use of them till they become so insensible of their evil Consequences that with a mighty confidence they can plead for them But as this is plainly not to deny themselves but on the contrary to employ these vain Inventions of carnal Men and Women to gratifie the desire of the Eye the desire of the Flesh and the pride of Life all which exercise the mind below the divine and only true Pleasure or else tell me what do So Be it known to such That the Heavenly Life and Christian Joyes are of another kind as hath already been express'd nay that the true Disciples of the Lord Christ must be hereunto crucified as to Objects and Enjoyments that attract downwards and that their affections should be so rais'd to a more sublime and spiritual Conversation as to use this World even in its most innocent enjoyments as if they us'd it not but if they take pleasure in any thing below it shall be in some of those good Offices before-mention'd whereby a benefit may redound in some respect in which God is honour'd over all visible things the Nition reliev'd the Government better'd themselves rendred exemplary of good and thereby justly intituled to present Happiness a sweet Memorial with Posterity and to a seat at his Right hand where there are Joyes and Pleasures for ever than which there can be nothing more honourable nothing more certain world without end Reas 7. There should be no vanity of Apparel nor Recreations common amongst those who would be Christians indeed because both that which invented them delights to have them and pleads so strongly for them is inconsistent with the true Spirit of Christianity nor doth the very nature of the Christian Religion admit of these things For therefore was it that Immortality and Eternal Life was thereby brought to light that Mortality and all the pleasures of it in which the world lives might be forgone and relinquished and for that reason it is that nothing less than immense Rewards and eternal Mansions are promised but that Men and Women might therefore be encourag'd willingly to forsake the vanity and fleshly satisfactions of the World and encounter with boldness the shame and sufferings they must expect to receive at the hand of it may be their nearest and otherwise dearest Intimates and Relations For if the Christian Religion had admitted the Possession of this World in any other sense than the simple and naked use of those Creatures really given of God for the necessity and convenience of the whole Creation for instance Did it allow all that Pride Vanity Curiosity Pomp Exchange of Apparel Honours Preferments Fashions and the Customary Recreations with what ever may delight and gratifie their senses Then what need of a daily Cross a self-denying Life working out Salvation with fear and trembling seeking the things that are above having the Treasure and heart in Heaven No idle talking no vain jesting but fearing and meditating all the day long undergoing all reproach scorn hard usage bitter mockings and cruel deaths What need these things and why should they be expected in order to that glorious Immortality and eternal Crown if the Vanity Pride Expence Idleness Concupiscence Envy Malice and whole manner of living among the called Christians were allow'd No certainly but as the Lord Jesus Christ well knew in what foolish trifles and vain pleasures as well as grosser impieties the minds of Men and Women were fixed and how much they were degenerated from the Heavenly principle of Life into a coverous seeking after the enjoyments of this perishing World nay inventing daily new ones to gratifie their Lusts so did he not less foresee the difficulty that all would have to relinquish and forsake them at his call and with what great unwillingness they would take their leave and be weaned from them wherefore as inducements thereunto he did not speak unto them in the Language of the Law as that they should have an Earthly Canaan great Dignities a numerous Issue a long Life and the like no rather the contrary at least to take these things as they should fall but he speaks to them in a higher strain namely That he assures them of a Kingdom and a Crown that are Immortal that neither Time Cruelty Death Grave nor Hell with all its instruments shall ever be able to disappoint or take away from those who should believe and obey him further That they should be taken into that neer Aliance of loving Friends yea the intimate divine Relation of dear Brethren and Co-heirs with him of all Coelestial Happiness and glorious Immortality wherefore if it be recorded That those who heard not Moses were to die much more they who refuse to hear and obey the Precepts of this great and Eternal Rewarder of All that diligently seek and follow him And therefore it was that he was pleased to give us in his own Example a tast of what his Disciples must expect to drink more deeply of namely The Cup of Self-denyal cruel Tryals and most bitter Afflictions He came not to Consecrate a way to the Eternal Rest through Gold and Silver Ribbons Laces Points Perfumes costly Cloaths curious Trim's exact Dresses rich Jewels pleasant Recreations Play 's Parks Treats Balls Masques Revels Romances Love-songs flattering Sonnets and the like Pastime of the World No no alas but by forsaking all such kind of entertainments yea and sometimes more lawful enjoyments too and chearfully undergoing the loss of all on the one hand and the Reproach Ignominy and the most hateful Persecutions from ungodly men on the other alas he needed never to have wanted such variety of worldly Pleasures had they been sutable to the work he came to do for he was tempted as are his followers with no less bait than all the Gloryes of the World however Satan ly'd in saying

the impiety's of called Christians have notoriously demonstrated Tertullian Chrysostom Theophylact Gregory Naz. accounted ancient Fathers especially Tertullian who lived about two hundred years after Christ now fourteen hundred and sixty nine years since Upon that remarkable passage recorded by Matthew as the words of Christ himself namely But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment Almost agree Sayes Tertullian of all vain and superfluous words more talk than is necessary Sayes Chrysostom Of such words as are not convenient nor profitable but move immodesty Sayes Theophylact Of all Lyes Callumny's all inordinate and ridiculous speeches Sayes Gregory Such words men shall account for which want that profit ever redounding from modest discourses and that are seldom uttered from any preceding necessity or cause things frivolous fables old-wives-tales All which sufficiently reprehend the Recreations of the times of great folly vanity and sin Ambrose another Father who first was Lieutenant of the Province and City of Millan and upon his discreet appeasing of the Multitude somewhat disorderly upon some difference amongst them about Electing a Bishop was by their uniform Consent chosen himself Although this Person of all others might have been thought to plead for the accustomed Recreations especially not having been long a Christian for he was a Catechumenist or one but lately instructed at the time of his being Elected yet doth he in so many words determin the matter thus Playes ought not to be known by Christians And Augustine more famous much for his many Books and knowledg in Church affairs whose sentences are oracles with some gives this as his Opinion of Playes and the like Recreations That they were more pernitious and abominable than those Idolatrous Sacrifices which were offer'd in honour of the Pagon Godds Doubtless he thought the one not so offensive to Reason and the impressions Divinity hath made on every understanding as the other was very pleasant to the senses and therefore apt to steal away the mind from better things for 't was his maxime That every thing a man doth is either a hindrance or furtherance to good This would be esteem'd intollerable Doctrine in a Quaker yet will the Quaker rejoyce if it be esteem'd and follow'd as good Doctrine in Augustine Nay Polybius Cicero Livius Tacitus great Heathen Writers ascrib'd the flourishing of the Roman State and Empire to the Gravity Religion and Virtue of those Ages many times bitterly envying against the excess and vanity we have here condemned as that which doth deboyst civil society's and bring them under such effeminate security as to expose them to the violence of the first Pretenders which both Augustine and Lactantius further attest Machiavel in his Disputations saith The first promoters of Christianity were so diligent in rooting out the vanity's and superstitions of the Gentiles that they commanded all Poets and Historians which contained any thing of the Gentile Conversation or Worship to be burn'd But that Spirit 's extinguish'd and those follys revived Cardan more particular relates to us how Gregory though a Pope another from him afore-mentioned did cause many Latine Authors to be burn'd because of their vanity and lasciviousness as Caecilianus Affranius Naevius Licinus Zennius Attilius Victor Livi's Dialogues nor did Plautus Martial and Terrence so much in request both in the Schools and Academies of the Land escape their honest zeal although the multitude of Copies so far frustrated their good intentions as they are multiply'd of late In like manner sayes Cardan did Gregory Naziancen suppress the Greek Authors Menander Diphilos Appollodonus Philemon Alexis Sappho c. Petrus Bellonius that great and inquisitive Traveller when he came to Mount Athos where there live in several Monasteries six thousand Caloieri or Religious persons so called He did not so much as find there no nor in all Greece one man acquainted in the Conversation of these parts for though they had several Manuscripts of Divinity in their Libraries yet not one Poet Historian or Philosopher for the Rulers of that Church were such enemies thereto that they Anathematiz'd all such Priests and Religious persons as should read or transcribe any Books but what treated of Religion And perswaded all others that it was not lawful for a Christian to study Poesie c. though nothing is more grateful in those dayes Ouzelius in his Animadversions on Minucius Felix saith That as the Gentiles did object to the Christians their rude stile ill bred Language and destitute of all Address or civil Salutation calling them Rusticks and Clowns so did the Christians by way of Irony and contempt term them the well-bred the eloquent the knowing This he proves by ample testimonies out of Arnobius Lactantius Isidorus Pelusiota Theodoret and others In the Constitutions of Clemens Romanus as suppos'd it is injoyn'd Abstain from all the Books of the Gentiles What have you to do with strange and unprofitable discourses which seduce weak People The Council of Carthage had an express Canon against reading the Heathen Authors much less their foolish Commoedies And Gratian also hath such-like passages as these We see that the Priests of the Lord neglecting the Gospels and the Prophets read Commoedies or Play-books and sing Love-verses and read Virgil a Book now in so much request as to have been of late rendred into English Strange that these things should have been so severely censur'd of old and that those persons whose Names are had in so much reverence should make the like Actions the constructions of Christ's Precepts and the natural consequences of the Christian Doctrine and yet that they should be so far neglected of this Age as not to be judged worthy an imitation The Waldenses so called from one Peter Waldo a Citizen of Lyons in France in the year 1160 elsewhere called Albigenses from the Country Albi Lollards in England from one Reynard Lollard who sometime after came into these parts and Preached boldly against the Idolatry's Superstitions and vain Conversation of the Inhabitants of this Island They had many other Names as Arnoldists Esperonists Henriciens Siccars Insabachas Patarenians Turlupins Lyonists Fraticelli Hussites Bohemians still the same but finally by the Papists damnable Hereticks though by the Protestants the true Church of Christ And to omit many testimonies I will instance only in Bishop Usher who in his discourse of the succession of the Christian Church defends them not only for the true Reformers but makes the succession of the Church to be mainly evinceable from their Antiquity I shall forbear all the Circumstances and Principles they held or in which he strongly defends them against the horrid cruelty and ignorance of the Romanists particularly Rainerius Rubis Capetaneis c. only what they held concerning our present subject of Apparel and Recreations I cannot be so injurious to the Truth their

EVIL 2. Ignatius who lived within the first hundred years after Christ left this amongst other things behind him who was torn in pieces of wild Beasts at Rome for his true Faith in Jesus There is nothing better than the peace of a good Conscience Intimating there might be a peace to wicked Consciences that is past feeling any thing to be evil but swallowed up of the pleasures of the World And in his Epistle to the Churches at Ephesus Magnesia Trallis and Rome upon his Martyrdom saith Now do I begin to be a Disciple I weigh neither visible nor invisible things so that I gain Christ 3. Iraenius called a Father saith Such who make large Confessions and speak virtuous words and yet are not conformable to them in their life and conversation are nothing worth 4. Justin Martyr a Christian Philosopher plainly tells us in his relation of his conversion to the Christian Faith That the power of Godliness in a plain simple Christ had that influence and operation on his soul that he could not but betake himself to a serious and strict life and yet before a Cynick And this gave him joy at his Martyrdom having spent his dayes as a serious Teacher and a good Example And Eusebius relates that though he was a follower of Plato's doctrine yet when he saw the Christians piety and courage he concluded no people so temperate less voluptuous and more set on divine things which first induced him to be a Christian 5. Chrysostom another Father so call'd said To sacrifice the whole soul and body to the Lord is the highest service we can pay unto him God promiseth mercy to penitent sinners but he doth not promise them they shall have so much time as to morrow for their repentance 6. Charles the 5th Emperour of Germany King of Spain and Lord of the Nether-lands After twenty three Pitch'dfields six Triumphs four Kingdoms conquer'd and eight Principalities added to his Dominions a greater Instance than whom can scarce be given after all this Pomp Resigned all up to other hands betook himself to his retirement leaving this Testimony behind concerning the life spent in the honours and pleasures of the world and in that little time of his retreat from them all That the sincere study profession and practice of the Christian Religion had in it such joys and sweetness as COURTS were strangers to 7. Sir Philip Sidney a person whose parts courage and virtue were of such reputation aswel beyond the Seas as here at home that had Queen Elizabeth agreed upon the earnest sollicitation of the Polanders he had 't was said been ellected King of that vast Dominion of more than 2600 miles in circumference when he say upon his Death-bed and just departing the world he bad his friends behold in him the end of this worlds desires and enjoyments Reputing what was so much pursued by the Great Ones as poor abject and unworthy of their immortal souls and amongst other things his Arcadia than which though there have been many Newer Romances there is not one more modest and ingenious yet as an effect of his youthful Melancholy Amours that could be profitable unto none but rather impress the like fancies upon others and raise that which with all industry should timely be allay'd and totally extinguished in them he earnestly requested his great friend the Lord Brooks that it might be cast into the flames and never prove so injurious to his Memory which he desired to have continued and preserved on more serious subjects nor those who should spend their precious time in reading of it as to be published to the world although it is translated into most usual languages Such were the serious apprehensions of this dying man and his advice to them he left behind him who certainly then best knew the benefit or dis-service that would redound from the like conversation neither have I observed any Person left upon Record in all our English stories whom all Persons as well as the Historians agreed to merit so great an esteem but more especially for his great Modesty Yet after all we hear his Recantation of the many unnecessary things and his Recommendation of but the one thing necessary to his Friends as what would most rejoyce at last 8. Secretary Walsingham in Queen Elizabeth's time towards the conclusion of his dayes in a Letter to his once fellow Secretary then Chancellor of England called Lord Burliegh writes thus We have lived enough to our Countrey our Fortunes our Soveraign it is high time we begin to live to our selves and to our God Which giving occasion for some Court-humourist to visit and divert him Ah! said he while we laugh all things are serious round about us God is serious when he preserveth us and hath patience towards us Christ is setious when he dieth for us the Holy Ghost is serious when he striveth with us the whole Creation is serious in serving God and us they are serious in Hell and Heaven and shall a man that hath one foot in his grave jest and laugh None can be serious too soon because none can be good too soon away then with all foolish talking and jesting and mind more profitable things 9. One they call Sir John Mason who had been Privy Counsellor to four Princes and spent much time in the preferments and pleasures of the world retired with these regretful sayings After so many years experience Seriousness is the greatest wisdom Temperance the best Physick a good Conscience is the best estate and were I to live again I would change the COURT for a Cloyster my Privy Counsellors bussles for an Hermits retirement and the whole life I lived in the Palace for one hours enjoyment of God in the Chappel ALL THINGS ELSE FORSAKE ME BESIDES MY GOD MY DUTY AND MY PRAYERS 10. One call'd Sir Henry Wotton thought it to be the greatest happiness in this life to be at leisure to be to do good As in his latter end he was wont to say when he reflected on past times though a man esteem'd sober and learned HOW MUCH TIME HAVE I TO REPENT OF AND HOW LITTLE TO DO IT IN 11. The Lord Bacon sometime before his death confessed That to be Religious was to live strictly and severely for if the opinion of another World be false yet the sweetest life in this World is Piety Virtue and Honesty if it be true there be none so wretched and miserable as loose carnal and prophane Persons 12. One Dr. Donne and a great Poet taking his farewel of his Friends on his dying bed left this saying behind him for them to measure their fancies and their actions by I repent of All my life but that part of it I spent in communion with God and doing good 13. Selden the greatest Scholler and Antiquary of these Kingdoms one who had taken a diligent survey of what knowledge was considerable amongst the Jews Heathens and those call'd Christians at last professeth