my Brother and Sister In slaying them that are sent to declare the wil of God you resist the will of God and are guilty of all their damnations which are yet vnconuerted whom liuing their preaching might haue reduced The violating of any of the Cömmandements is death Thou shalt not kill is one of the principall Commaundements your fault at the first sight deserueth Hell-fire What doe you but proclaime open warre against heauen when you destroy or ouer-throwe any of the Temples of the holy Ghost which are mens bodies They are the Tabernacles which the Lord hath chosen by his Spirit to dwell in But the bodies of my Saints and Prophets vvhich you slay and stone are no triuiall ordinary Tabernacles such as Peter my Disciple would haue had me to make in the Wildernesse for Moses Elias and my selfe but Tabernacles like the Tabernacle at Ierusalem where I haue ordained my name to be worshipped Their words as my words I will haue worshipped Their heads are the Mounts from whence I speake to you in a holy flame as to your fore-fathers wandring in the desert I haue tolde you here-to-fore they are the Salt of the Earth with whose Prayers and Supplications if this masse of sinne were not seasoned it would sauour so detestably in Gods nostrils hee were neuer able to endure it They are the eyes and the light of the world if the eye lose his light all the whole body is blind and hence it came that they were surnamed Seers for they only foresaw praied and prouided for the people I tell you plainly if it were possible for you to plucke the Sunne out of Heauen and you should do it so consequently leaue all the world in darknesse you should not be liable to so much blame as you now are in killing them I send vnto you They are your Seers your Prophets your chiefe Eyes which you haue slaine destroied and put out Was Caine a Vagabond on the face of the earth for killing but one Abel tenne thousand iust Abels haue you slaine that were more neere and ought to haue beene more deere to you then Brothers and shall I not destitute your habitation for it scatter you as vagabonds through-out the Empires of the world As you haue made no conscience to stone my Prophets and slay them I sent vnto you so shall the strange Lords that leade you captiue and they amongst whom many hundred yeers you shal soiurne make no coÌ„science to cut your throats for your treasure and giue a hundred of you together to their Fencers and Executioners to try their weapons on for a wager and winne maisteries with deepe wounding you O Ierusalem Ierusalem deepe woes and calamities hast thou incurd in stoning my Prophets and slaying them I sent vnto thee How often would I haue gathered thy children together when they went astray How often would I haue brought them home into the true sheep-fold when I met them straying I came into the World to no other end but to gather together the lost Sheepe of Israell You are the flock and Sheepe of my pasture when I would haue gathered you together you would not heare my voice but hardned your harts You gather your selues in counsaile against me euery time I seeke to call you or to gather you Deny if you can that I sent not my Prophets in all ages to gather you That with my Rodde and my staffe of correction I haue not sought from time to time to gather you that by benefits and manifold good turnes I haue not tryde all I might to tye you or gather you vnto me Lastly that in mine own person I haue not practised a thousand waies to gather you to repentance and amendment of life If you should deny it and I not contradict it the diuell my vttrest enemy would confirme it Let me speake truely and not vauntingly although it be lawfull to boast in goodnes such hath alwaies bin my care to gather you that I thought it not enough to gather my selfe but I haue prayed to my Father to ioyne more Labours and Gatherers with me to reape and gather in his Haruest How often haue I gathered the multitude together and spoke vnto them When the people were flocked or gathered vnto mee out of all Citties and had nothing to eate I fed them myraculously with fiue Barlie-loues two fishes I would not haue shewd the wonders of my God-head but to gather you together The first gathering that I made was of poore Sea-faring men whome I haue preferd to be myne Apostles Would you haue beene gathered together when I would haue had you you had gathered to your selues the Kingdome of Heauen and all the riches thereof Now what haue you gathered to your selues but ten thousand testimonies in the Sonne of Gods testimony that he desired and besought you to suffer your selues to be gathered by him and you would not Souldiours that fight scatteringly and doe not gather themselues in ranke or battaile array shall neuer winne the day If you knew how strong and full of stratagems the diuell were with how many Legions of lustfull desires he commeth embattailed against you that secret ambushes of temptations he hath layde to intrappe you then would you gather your selues into one body to resist him then would you gather your selues to gather in prayer to with-stand him then would you gather for the poore which is to gather for Souldiers to fight against him Eâ—…eemosyna a morte liberat et non patitur hominemire in tenebras Almes deedes deliuer a man from death and keepeth his soule from seeing confusion As water quencheth fire saith the Wise-man so almes giuing resisteth sinne And if it resisteth sinne it resisteth the Diuel which is the father of sinne All my Fathers Angels stand gathered together about his Throne No bread is made but of graines of Corne gathered together no building is raysed but of a number of stones glued and gathered together There is no perfect society or Citty but of a number of men gathered together Geese which are the simplest of all foules gather themselues together goe together flie together Bees in one Hiue hold their consistory together The starres in Heauen do shine together What is a man if the parts of his body bee disparted and not incorporated and essentiate together What is the Sea but an assembly or gathering together of waters and so the Earth a congestion or heaping vp of grosse matter together A Wood or Forrest but an host of Trees encampt together A generall Counsaile or Parliament but a congregation or gathering together of special wise men to consult about Religion or lawes O what a good thing is it sayth Dauid for Bretheren to liue or be gathered together in vnity If there were no other thing to ratifie the excellence of it but the euill of his diameter opposite which is diuision or distraction it were infinitely ample to establish the title of his dignity Nor Dauid nor all
it Thou hast contended to be a more beautifull Creator and repolisher of thy selfe then he His owne workmanship thou hast made him out of loue with by altering and deforming it at thy pleasure There is no workman that regardeth or esteemeth his owne workmanship after it is translated and transposed by others Except thou quickly vndoest and with-drawest all thy ouer-working he will in wreakfull recompence that thou hast so disgrac't him alter thee deforme thee translate thee transpose thee and leaue thy house desolate vnto thee The last Daughter of Pride is Delicacy vnder which is contained Gluttony Luxury Sloth Security But properly Delicacy is the sinne of our London Dames So delicate are they in their dyet so dainty and puling fine in their speech so tiptoe-nice in treading on the earth as though they walkt vpon Snakes and fear'd to treade hard least they should turne againe Their houses so pickedly and neately must be trickt vp and tapistred as if like Abraham or Lot they were to receiue Angels The floare vnder foote glisteringly rubbed and glased that a Iew if he should behold it would suspect it for Holy ground Nothing about them but is wealth-boastingly and elaborately beautified onely their soules they keepe poore beggerly Iob scrapt his sores with a potshard if they haue any sore or noisome malady about them they will ouer-gilde it and make it seem more amiable then any other part of the body Their habitations they make so resplendent and pleasurable on earth that they haue no mind to goe to heauen Into heauens pleasures they cannot see for their eyes are dazled with terrestiall delights Those that will haue their harts thorowly enflamed with the ioies of the world to come must place no ioy in this world nor frame to themselues any obiect that may too much content They must haue somthing euermore to amate and check their felicity and with Macedon Philip to remember them of mortalitie Delicacy is nought but the art of security and forgetting mortality It is a kind of Alchimical quintessensing a heauen out of earth It is the exchanging of an eternall heauen for a short momentary imperfect heauen Blessed are they that by pining and excruciating their bodies liue in hell here on earth to auoid the hell neuer ending Many of the Saints and Martyrs of the Primitiue Church when they might haue spent their daies in all affluence and delicacy and liu'd out of gunshot of misery haue notwithstanding tooke vnto them the contemptiblest pouerty that might be They haue abandoned all their goods and possessions and in the Wildernesse conuersed with penurie and scarcity to beate downe and keepe vnder their rebellious flesh Some of them haue drunk puddle water fed on the lothsomest things that might be to bring their affection out of loue with this transitory infelicity Some of them haue grated rawed their smooth tender skinnes with haire shirts and rough garments that they might liue in vncessant smart take no ease or rest in this life where no rest or ease is to be taken vp but only a watch-mans lodge to soiourne in for a night or such a house as the Moath buildeth in a garment Others all naked on sharpe shreds of broken flint and fragments of of potsheards haue spred their weary limbs that lust in their sleepe might not assaile them Holy S. Ierome in the Desert thou builts thee a Cell to liue out of the haunts of concupiscence where parched and broiled in Sommer with the raging beames of the Sun and quiuering and quaking in Winter all riueld and weather-beaten with the sharp driuing shours and freezing Northern-winde thou drunkest no kind of liquor but the Ice-chilled water from the cold Fountain nor eats any meate but tough dried roots On the bare ground thou lodgedst and with abstinence and want of sleepe lookedst pale and wan This didst thou to mortifie thy insurrectiue masse of corruption This didst thou to teach mortification and sobriety to these licentious times of ours No course doe wee take to mortifie the Lawe of our members all mortification we censure by the name of superstition our fasts are no fasts but preparatiues to Euening feasts our mourning is like the mourning of an Heyre who then laughes inward when hee weepes most outward It is not prayer alone may kill the olde man in vs either it must be sanctified and assisted with fasting abstinence or it cannot cast out a spirit of such might It is heauenly policy as well as humane policie to weaken our enemy before we fight with him Wee must weaken our enemy Gods enemy the flesh with abstinence and fasting before we fight with him or els he will be too strong for vs. Physitions minister Purgations before they apply any Medicine Surgions lay Corsiues to any wound to eate out the dead-flesh ere they can cure it Abstinence and fasting are as Corasiues to eate out the dead-flesh of gluttony drunkennes concupiscence in our loins which so proiected and eaten out Christ is that kind Samaritan that will come and bind vp our wounds carrie vs home with him to his house or Kingdome euerlasting Thus much of Delecacy in generall now more particularly of his first branch Gluttony which if any Country vnder heauen be culpable of England is All our friendship curtesie is nothing but gluttony Great men shew their state magnificence in nothing so much as gluttony The birth day of our Sauiour his Resurrection and Ascension wee honour onely with gluttony How many Cookes Apothecaries Confectioners and Vintners in London grow pursie by gluttonie Vnder Gluttony I shrowde not onely excesse in meate but in drink also Our full platters and our plentifull cups vnapt vs to any exercise of Christianitie or prayer We do nothing but fatten our soules to Hell-fire Our bodies we bumbast and balist with engorging diseases Diseases shorten our daies therfore whosoeuer englutteth himselfe is guilty of his owne death and damnation Qui diligit epulas sayth Salomon in egestate erit Hee that loueth dainty fare shall feele scarcity Venter maero aestuans dispumat libidinem The belly abounding with wine and good cheere vomiteth forth lust Gluttony were no sinne or not so heynous as it is did it not pluck on a number of other heynous sinnes with it or that wee so engorging our selues infinite of our poore brethren hungerd staru'd not in the streets for want of the least dish on our Tables Very largely haue I inueighed against this vice elsewhere wherefore heere I will trusse it vp more succinct Text vpon Text I could heape to shew the inconuenience of it In London I could exemplify it by many note-worthy specialties but in so doing I should but lay downe what euery one knowes and purchase no thank for my labour To my iourneys end I haste discend to the second continent of Delicacy which is Lust or Luxury In complaining of it I am afraid I shal defile
eye-bals well-neere to pinnes-heads with weeping as a Barber wasteth his Ball in the water a further depth of dolour would I sound mine eyes more would I wast so I might waste and wash away thy wickednesse So long haue I wasted so long haue I washed and embained thy filth in the cleare streames of my braine that now I haue not a cleane Teare left more to wash or embaline any sinner that comes to me The fount of my teares troubled and mudded with the Toade-like stirring and long-breathed vexation of thy venimous enormities is no longer a pure siluer Spring but a miry puddle for Swine to wallow in Black and cindry like Smiths-water are those excrements that source downe my cheekes and farre more sluttish then the vgly oous of the channell T is thou alone vlcerous Ierusalem that hast so fouled and soyled them In seeking to gather fruite of thee I gather nothing but stayning Berries which embrued my hands and almost poysoned my hart Neuer wold I mention this or mone me if thou hadst not embrued or brawned thine owne hands not in Berries but in blood and more then almost poysoned thine owne hart What talke I of poyson when it is become as familier to thee as meate drinke Thou hast vsed it so long for meate and drinke that true nourishing meate and drinke thou now takest for poyson Consuetudo est altera natura Custome hath so engrafted it in thy nature that now not onely poyson not hurts thee but fostereth and cherisheth thee What-soeuer thou art is poyson and none thou breathest on but thou poysonest With Athenagoras of Argus thou neuer feelest any paine when thou art stung with a Scorpion Thou hast no sting or remorse of conscience Thy soule is cast in a dead-sleep and may not be awaked though Heauen Earth should tumble together For discharge of my duty and augmentation of thine euerlasting malediction since Teares threats promises nor any thing will peirce thee heere I make a solemne protestation what my zeale and feruent inclination hath beene euer since thy first propagation to win weane thee from sathan and notwithstanding thou stonedst my Prophets and slewest them I sent vnto thee I stil assayed to reuoke thee bring thee back againe to thy first image not once or twise or thrise but I cannot tell how often I would haue gathered thee euen as a Henne gathereth her Chickins vnder her wings butthou wouldest not Blame me not though I giue thee ouer that hast giuen mee ouer long patience hath dulled my humour of pitty No sword but will loose his edge in long striking against stones My leane withered hands consisting of nought but bones are all to shiuerd and splinterd in their wide casos of skinne with often beating on the Anuile of my bared breast So penetrating and eleuatedly haue I praid for you that mine eyes would tayne haue broke from their anchors to haue flowne vp to Heauen and mine armes stretcht more then the length of my body to reach at the Starres My heart ranne full-butt against my breast to haue broken it open and my soule flutterd and beate with her ayry-winges on euery side for passage My knees crackt and the ground fledde back Then O Ierusalem would I haue rent my body in the midst like a graue so I might haue buried thy sinnes in my bowels And had I been in heauen as I was on Earth the Sunne should haue exhalted from thee all thy trespasses as meteors which the clowdes his Cofferers receiuing might foorth-with haue conduited downe into the Sea and drowned for euer Fooles be they that imagine it is the Windes that so tosse and turmoile them in the deepe they are no winds but insurrectiue sins which so possesse the waues with the spyrite of raging I drowned all the sinnes of the first World in water all the sinnes of the first World now welter souse and beate vnquietly in the Sea whither the World of waters was with-drawne when the Deluge was ended And as a guilty conscience can no where take rest so no more can they in the Sea but embolning the billowes vppe to the ayre with roring and howling darte them-selues on euery Rocke desiring it to ouer-whelme them and because they know they can neuer be recouered with the same enuy which is in the diuels they seeke to drowne and ramuerse euery ship that they meete If happily there be a calme it is when they are weary of excruciating them-selues I that was borne to suppresse treade downe sinne vnder foote in the night time when that sinne-inhabited element is wont to be most lunaticke walke on the crests of the surges as on the dry land Another cause why the Sea so swelleth barketh of late more then ordinary is for when I sent the diuels into the Heard of Swine they carried them head-long into the Sea where they drowned and perrisht them and then loth to come to land to be controlled and dispossessed againe by mee they entred and inhabited the Sea-monsters such as the Whale the Grampoys the Wasser-man whome they haue suborned and inspyred to lye in waite for Ships-wrack Sinne takes no rest but on earth and on earth no rest in the night but the day The night is blacke like the diuell then hee may boldly walke abroade lyke the Owle and his eyes nere be dazeled Solus câ—…m solo hee may conferre with his subiects tempt terrifie insinuate what he will Hee knowes that God hath therefore hydde all other obiects from mans sight in the night that then he should haue no occasion to gaze elswhere but full leysure to looke into himselfe In which regard least he shold looke into him selfe and so repent hee will not let him see with his owne eyes but lendeth him other eyes of despaire or security to see withall If of security then either hee perswades him there is no God and that Religion is but subtile Lawgyuers policy to keepe silly fooles in awe with scare-crowes or that if there be a God he is a wise God and like a wise Counsailer troubles not himselfe with euery vaine twittle twattle of this man or that man but considers wherefore we are made and beares with vs thereafter Yea which is horrible hee sootheth him vp that if God would not haue had him sinne hee would neuerhaue giuen him the partes or the meanes to sinne with If he be a whore-maister hee remembreth him how Abraham went in to his mayde Hagar How Lot committed incest with his Daughters How Dauid lay with Berseba and slew Vrias And how I my selfe woulde not let the woman that had committed adultery bee stoned to death but bidde her goe home to her house in peace sinne no more If he be a drunkerd Noah was drunke the fore-named Lot was drunke and Dauid mencioned before likewise made Vrias drunke Yet all these were men that God delighted in If hee bee a periurd person why Peter for-swore himselfe
of vnknowledge orignorance is already counterpleaded you shall not say Woe bee to mee that I neuer tasted the milke of vnderstanding but with Iob banne the time that euer you suckt the breasts At my breasts Ierusalem hast thou not suckt but bit off my breasts when thou stonedst the Prophets O Ierusalem Ierusalem that stonest my Prophets and killest them I sent vnto thee How often would I haue gathered thy children together as a Henne gathereth her Chickins vnder her wings but thou wouldst not Therefore shall thy House bee left desolate vnto thee Heere ebbe the spring-tide of my Teares Eyes from this present prepare your selues to bee recluses I came not to shed Teares but Bloud for Ierusalem Bloud for Ierusalem will I shed to attone for her shedding of innocent bloud So that let her yet turne vnto mee her attonement is made I will corroborate my Crosse Giant-like to vnder-beare the Atlas burthen of her insolences With my Nazarite tresses to my Crosse will I bind her crossing frowardnesse and contaminations Not a nayle that takes hold of me but I will expresly enioyne it to take hold of her deflectings and errours Death as euer thou hopest at my hands to haue thy Commission enlarged when thou killest mee kill her iniquities also let thy deepe entring Dart obliuionize their memories Of man as of me thou killest but the body onely kill the body and the soule both of her vnbounded sinnegluttony I will pay thee largely for thy paines Whereas before thou neuer tookst any but the subiects prisoners now thou shalt haue the King himselfe surrendred to thy cruelty Thou shalt enrich thy stile with this title I Emperour Death the Lord of all flesh the killer of the King of all Kings c. Deale well by Ierusalem how euer thou dealst with me Let not her Soule be left desolate though her Citty bee left desolate vnto her Euen the High-priestes that shall binde mine hands and adiudge my body to be scourged deale mercifully with cut them not off suddenly but giue them a space of repentance Let them bee crowned with eternity though they crowne me with Thornes their crowning mee with thornes I take for no trespasse for they cannot pricke me so ill with those bryars as they haue prouokt mee with their sinnes Nor shall the Gall and Vinegar they giue me to drinke bee so bitter vnto mee as their blasphemies Forgiue them Lord they forget what they doe Further I may not proceede except I should detract from my Passion to adde to my Teares Hee that can weepe with more soule-martyrdome then I let him take vpon him to wash in my steed the earths Ethiopian face Euery vaine of me let it burst to feede the Lake of Gehenna before Gehenna gather springs from the heart of Ierusalem Not the least hayre of my body but may it be as a pegge in a vessell to broch bloud with plucking out so in the droppings of that bloud Ierusalem will bathe her selfe O Ierusalem Ierusalem that stonest my Prophets and killest them I sent vnto thee ten thousand times adiew I would neuer haue bid thee adiew or beene diuorced from thee but that thou thy selfe hast diuorced thy selfe Heauen no heauen hast thou made vnto me by endlesse performing thy obits If my crimson Teares on the Crosse may more preuaile with thee so it is or else in vaine I discended or else to thy paine I discended Discende into the closet of thine owne conscience and enquire how oft I haue come thither and cald vpon thee to gather thee Examine thy heart thy reynes if I haue not secretly communed with thee by night to conuert and be turned vnto me Thou neuer with drewst thy selfe and wert solitary but my Spirit was reprouing and disputing with thee At length shall I obtaine of thee to remember and gather thy selfe Though thou wilt not in respect of me whom thou shouldst respect yet in respect of thine owne benefite remember and gather thy selfe enter into meditation of thy lamentable estate But heare thy Physition though thou intendest not to be ruled by him Vnderstand the nature of thy disease which is the first steppe to recouery Relieue my languor by being lesse retchles of thy inuisible aspiring infirmity Glance but halfe a kind looke at me though thou canst not resolue to loue me by halfe a looke my loue may steale into thine eies vnlookt for Thy sight is no way mispent or impayred by casting away one askance-regard on any The Sunne shineth as well on the good as the bad God from on high beholdeth all the workers of iniquity aswell as the vpright of heart It behoueth thee to try all spirits let my Spirit be one of those all which thou bringest to the Touch-stone I do not will thee without tryall on my bare report to be directed by it but when thou hast tride it sifted it to the vttermost then as it approues it selfe to entertaine it Vpon vn-certaine experiments hauing the least protence of gaine in thē men will hazard and venture many thousands try once an experiment to gaine heauen with venture or hazard but a few indifferent good thoughts of mee I say I am thy Messias and am come to gather thee condemne me not rashly but awaite see the end of my gathering whereto it sorts Search the Scriptures the Prophets whether I be a lyer and impostor or no. I would giue thee leaue to hate me so thy hate would make thee industrious sedulous to hearken out enquire whence I am Were I notorious guilty and vn-examined vnheard you should sentence me you should giue to me amongst men an opinion of innocence being not guilty you make your iudgements guilty of knowing I am not guilty in proceeding against mee without circumstance or proofe I speake all this while to the wind or as a disconsolate prisoner that complaineth himselfe to the stone-wals God is mooued and mollified though hee be neuer so incensed with often and vn-slacked intercessions Gold which is the Soueraigne of mettals bends soonest onely Iron the peasant of all is most inflexible Ierusalem with nothing is mooued therefore must her Tabernacle be remooued therefore must her House bee left desolate vnto her Often importunatly violently eagerly haue I intercessioned vnto her to gather herselfe vnto mee I haue kneel'd wept bitterly lift vp mine hands hung vpon her and vowed neuer to let her go till shee consented to retire herselfe into my tuition answer'd pleasingly to my petition Neuer did the Widdow in my Parrable so follow and tyre the wicked Iudge with fury-haunting instancy as I haue done her No where could she rest but I haue alarumd in her eares her pride murder and hypocrisie and with dismall crying and vociferatiue inculcating vnto her drawne my throat so hic into the roofe of my mouth that it hath quite swallow'd vp and ensheath'd my tongue and threatend to turne my mouth out of his office I haue crackt mine
vp Baudes in the Subsidy booke for the plenty they liue in is princely A great office is not so gainful as the principalship of a Colledge of Curtizans No Merchant in riches may compare with those Merchāts of maiden-heads if their female Inmates were not so fleeting vncertaine This is a trick amongst all Baudes they will faine themselues to be zealous Catholiques and whereas they dare not come to Church or into any open assembly for wonring and howting at they pretend scrupulosity of conscience and that they refraine only for religion So if they be imprisoned or carried to Bridewell for their baudrie they giue out they suffer for the Church Great cunning doe they ascribe to their Art as the discerning by the very countenance a man that hath Crownes in his purse the fine closing in with the next Iustice or Aldermans deputy of the warde the winning loue of neighbours round about to repell violence if haply their houses should be enuirond or any in them proue vnruly being pilled and pould too vnconscionably They fore-cast for back-doores to come in and out by vndiscouerd Sliding windowes also and trapboords in floars to hide whores behind and vnder with false counterfet panes in wals to be opened shut like a wicket Some one Gentleman generally acquainted they giue his admission vnto fans fee free priuiledge thence forward in their Nunnery to procure them frequentance Awake your wits graue authorized Lawe-distributers and shew your selues as insinuatiue subtile in smoaking this Citty-sodoming trade out of his starting-holes as the professors of it are in vnderpropping it Either you do not or wil not descend into their deep iugling legerdemaine Any excuse or vnlikely pretext goes for paiment Set vp a shop of incontinencie who so will let him haue but one letter of an honest name to grace it In such a place dwels a wise woman that tells fortunes and she vnder that shadow hath her house neuer emptie of forlorne vnfortunate Dames married to olde husbands In another corner enhabiteth a Phisition and a Coniurer who hath corners and spare Chambers to hide cation in and can coniure vp an vnphisicall drab at all times In a third place is there a grosse pencild Painter who works all in oyle-colours vnder color of drawing of pictures draws more to his shady Pauilion then depart thence pure vestals Lodge these Baudes any suspicious Gentlewoman and being askt what she is be she young and braue they will answere that shee is an Esquires or Knights daughter sent vp to be plac't with I wote not what Lady or Countesse Be shee of middle yeeres she is a widdow that hath sutes in Law here at the Tearme and hath been a long Counsaile-table petitioner Be she but ciuily plaine and in her apparrell cittizinizd she is the good-wiues Niece or neere kinswoman Thus haue they euasions for all obiections and are neuer lightly brought in question but when they breake and iarre with their neighbours Monstrous creatures are they meruaile is it fire from heauen consumes not London as long as they are in it A thousand parts better were it to haue publike Stewes then to let them keepe priuate Stewes as they doe The world would count me the most licentiat loose straier vnder heauen if I should vnrip but halfe so much of their venerial machauielisme as I haue lookt into Wee haue not English words enough to vnfold it Positions instructions haue they to make their whores a hundred times more whorish and treacherous then their owne wicked affects resigned to the diuels disposing can make them Waters and receipts haue they to enable a man to the acte after hee is spent dormatiue potions to procure deadly sleepe that when the hackney he hath paide for lies by him he may haue no power to deale with her but she may steale from him whiles he is in his deepe memento and make her gaine of three or fowre other I am weary of recapitulating their roguery I would those that should reforme it would take but halfe the paines in supplanting it that I haue done in disclosing it Repent repent you ruines of intemperance recouer your soules though you haue sudded your bodies Let not your feete be fast locked in the mire of pollution Meditate but what a brutish thing it is how short lasting and but a minute contentiue If you should lend it from the beginning to the ending but sutable descriptionate politure or if with your eies you could but view the meeting of venoms I know it would worke in some of you an abiuring dislike Consider but what lothsome things are engendred of the excesse of it and how the soule which was made to mount vpward in the heate of it descends downward Sinne enough of your selues women haue you you need haue no sinne put into you Your flesh of the own accord will corrupt faster then you would though you corrupt it not before his time with inordinate carnall sluttishnes Make not your bodies stinking dungeons for diseases to dwell in imprison not your soules in a sinke To you men this admonition I wil giue be prodigall any way rather then giue a whore an earnest pennie of her perdition Salomon sayth Qui nutrit scortum perdit substantiam He that keepeth a harlot squandreth his substance Paul saith Qui fornicatur in corpus suum peccat He which committeth fornication sinneth against his owne flesh In the Acts it is sayde Abstinete vos a fornicatione Abstaine from fornication In the Epistle to the Galathians The workes of the flesh are adultery fornications c. In the Epistle to the Ephesians No whoremonger adulterer or couetous person shall enter into the Kingdome of heauen Hebrues the 13. Adulterers God wil iudge Deuteronomy the 23. There shall not be a harlot of the Daughters of Israell Mathew the tenth Whom God hath ioyned let no man separate An adulterer goes betwixt or separates whom God hath ioined Cum cetera possit Deus c. When God can do all things els he cannot restore a Virgin after she is defloured Laesa pudicitia saith Ouid deperit illa semel Chastity being once scarred is neuer salued Agamemnon defiling Brisis his wife Clitemnestra plaid false with Egistus in the meane time On the other side Vlisses shunning the enchauntments of Circes the sweet descant of the Syrens immortality of Calipso to liue with his constant wife Penelope shee notwithstanding all the gallant troupes of Grecian woers enticements that in her house kept a standing court a long time kept her selfe chaste for him 20. yeeres Solon ordained that the adulterer should be put to death The tale of Selcucus and is son his stale I haue made my booke too great already only in displaying the sinnes of London Whosoeuer they be that haue soules and would in no means haue them miscarry let them remember that of S. Augustine In pollutione anima fit tota caro In adultery or fornication the
No certainer coniecture is there of the ruine of any kingdome then their reuolting from God Certaine coniectures haue wee had that wee are reuolted from God and that our ruine is not farre of In diuers places of our Land it hath rained blood the ground hath been remoued and horrible deformed births conceiued Did the Romans take it for an ill signe when their Capitoll was strooken with lightning how much more ought London to take it for an ill signe when her chiefe steeple is stroken with lightning They with thunder from an enterprise were disanimated wee nothing are amated The blazing starre the Earth-quake the dearth and famine some fewe yeeres since may nothing afright vs. Let vs looke for the sword next to remembrance and warne vs. As there is a time of peace so is there a time of warre No prosperity lasteth alwaies The Lord by a solemne oath bound himselfe to the Iewes yet when they were obliuious of him it pleased him to forget the couenant he made with their forefathers and left their Citty desolate vnto them Shall he not then we starting from him to whom by no bond he is tide leaue our house desolate vnto vs Shal we receiue of God a long time all good and shall we not looke in the end to receiue of him some ill O yee disobedient children returne and the Lord shall heale your infirmities Lie downe in your confusion and couer your faces with shame From your youth to this day haue you sinned and not obeyed the voyce of the Lord your God Now in the age of your obstinacy and vngratefull abandonments repent and be conuerted With one vnited intercessionment thus reconcile your selues vnto him O Lord our refuge from one generation to another whither from thy sight shall wee goe or whether but to thee shall we flie from thee Iust is thy wrath it sendeth no man to hell vniustly Rebuke vs not in thine anger neither chastise vs in thy displeasure We haue sinned we confesse and for our sinnes thou hast plagued vs with the sorrows of death thou hast compast vs and thy snares haue ouertooke vs out of Natures hand hast thou wrested the sword of Fate and now slayest euery one in thy way Ah thou preseruer of men why hast thou set vs vp as a mark against thee Why wilt thou breake a leafe driuen to and fro with the winde and pursue the dry stubble Returne shew thy self meruailous vpon vs. None haue we like Moses to stand betwixt life and death for vs. None to offer himselfe to die for the people that the Plague may cease O deere Lord for Ierusalem didst thou die yet couldst not driue backe the plagues destinate to Ierusalem No image or likenes of thy Ierusalem on earth is there left but London Spare London for London is like the Citty that thou louedst Rage not so far against Ierusalem as not onely to desolate her but to wreak thy selfe on her likenesse also all the honor of thy miracles thou loosest which thou hast shewed so many sundry times in rescuing vs with a strong hand from our enemies if now thou becommest our enemie Let not vvorldlings iudge thee inconstant or vndeliberate in thy choise in so soon reiecting the Nation thou hast chosen In thee we hope beyond hope We haue no reason to pray to thee to spare vs and yet haue wee no reason to spare from prayer since thou hast wild vs. Thy will be done which willeth not the death of any sinner Death let it kill sinne in vs and reserue vs to praise thee Though thou kilst vs we wil praise thee but more praise shalt thou reape by preseruing then killing since it is the only praise to preserue where thou maist kill With the Leaper wee cry out O Lord if thou wilt thou canst make vs cleane Wee claime thy promise That those which mourne shall be comforted Comfort vs Lord wee mourne our bread is mingled with ashes and our drinke with teares With so many Funeralls are we oppressed that we haue no leasure to weepe for our sinnes for howling for our Sonnes and daughters O heare the voice of our howling withdraw thy hand from vs and we will draw neere vnto thee Come Lord Iesu come for as thou art Iesus thou art pitiful Challenge some part of our sin-procured scourge to thy Crosse. Let it not bee sayd That thou but halfe satisfiedst for sinne Wee belieue thee to bee an absolute satisfier for sinne As we belieue so for thy merits sake wee beseech thee let it happen vnto vs. Thus ought euery Christian in London from the highest to the lowest to pray From Gods iustice wee must appeale to his mercy As the French King Frauncis the first a woman kneeling to him for iustice sayd vnto her Stand vp woman for iustice I owe thee if thou begst any thing beg for mercy So if we begge of God for any thing let vs begge for mercy for iustice he owes vs. Mercy mercy O graunt vs heauenly Father for thy mercy Luctus monument a manebunt FINIS Psal. 9. 16 Mat. 3. Ierem. 1. Phil. 4. Nâ—…d 10. August tom â—…0 hom 5. Tob. 4. 10. Ierem. 9. This vvas long after Christs teares ouer Ierusalem Herodot Gen. 19. Psal. 65. Dan. 12. ch 3. â—…5 * A Ballaâ—… French iâ—… song thaâ—… sang danâ—… Math. 27. 25. King 19. 22. 1. Cor. 3. 1. Tim. 6. Math. 17 Iere. 22 Math. 21. Rom 3. Math. 27. Ambro de offici Math 25. Psal. 112. Luk. 21. Gen. 4. Iob. 15. Exod. 23. Ierom on the 23. of Mathew Aug. lib 3. de lib. arbit Iob. 28. Diagoras primus De. 〈◊〉 â—…gans a Disallowed by Atheists Psal. 148. Amos. 1. Prou. 21 Ierom. ad Eustoch Esay 21. Prou. 29 1. Cor. 6 Acts 15 Ephes. 5 Ierom super Aâ—…os Iob. 6 Esay 30 Guide in musics Ierem. 9 Ierem. 5 Ezech. 3 Mat. 21. 19 Mat. 20. 19 Ierem. 23. Esay 24 Ierem. 12 Ierem. 21 Ierem. 19 Dan 2. 23 Psa. 76. Math. 8. Psalm 75 Plalm 77. Heb. 12 â—…eb 12 5. Ieb 5 17. He. 12 8 〈◊〉