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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

conclude with that of Baronius and Spondanus his Epitomizer who informe us That among the primitive Christians in the solemne time of baptisme when as they all made publike renunciations it was the custome of the French Church for Christians particularly to renounce all Stageplayes as Salvian testifieth and under the pompes of the Divell which it was then and now the custome for Christians at their baptisme to renounce St. Cyrill teacheth us in another place that all Stage-playes were esteemed to be comprised and so ALL OTHERS DOE INTERPRET So that by the resolution both of the primitive Church Fathers and of ALL OTHER INTERPRETERS SINCE if Baronius or Spondanus may be credited Stage-playes are the very Pompes of the Divell which wee most solemnly abjure and protest against in our baptisme upon our very first admittance into the Church of Christ. And certainly they must needes be so For if Pompa in its genuine interpretation signifie nought else as Calepine Eliot Holioke and other Distionaries teach us but Spectaculum to wit a Spectacle Stage-play or glorious gaudy shew in which sence this word is oft times used both by Clemens Alexandrinus Cyprian Arnobius Lactantius M●nucius Felix Tertullian Nazienzen Chrysostome Augustine Salvian Apuleius Prudentius and other ancient Christian Writers and likewise by Zenophon Cicero Seneca Livie Dionysius Hallicarnasseus Ovid Plutarch Suetonius Plautus Athenaeus Diodorus Siculus Macrobius Herodian with divers other Heathen Authours to which many moderne Writers might be added who comprehend all Playes and Spectacles under the name of Pompes And if Stage-playes were originally invented by and consecrated unto Divels on whose festivalls they were alwayes solemnly acted in greatest pompe and state as all these Authours and the premises largely testifie then questionlesse the very Pompes of the Divell which we renounce in baptisme can be no other but Stage-playes with such other Spectacles Shewes and Pastimes which the idolatrous Pagans used in the solemnities and worship of their Divell Gods and so the primitive Church and Christians alwayes tooke them If then the primitive Church and Saints of God who to shew their greater detestation to Stage-playes disabled all those who did but marrie women-Actors or Play-haunters from taking holy Orders or any Ecclesiasticall preferments whatsoever thus solemnly abominated and renounced Stage-playes in their Baptisme as the very Pompes and pastimes of the Divell it is most undeniably certaine that they reprobated and condemned Stage-playes in the very highest degree And to put this out of all further question we have the Century-Writers in the behalfe of Protestants and Cardinall Baronius and Spondanus in the behoofe of the Papists upon the serious perusal of all the severall records and Writers of the primitive Church proclaiming this as an indubitable truth That all the Christians Fathers and Councels in the primitive Church have wholly abandoned yea utterly condemned Stage-playes as diabolicall heathenish unchristian Spectacles excommunicating all Players all Play-haunters both from the Church the Sacraments and the society of Christians till they had abjured renounced these lewd accursed Enterludes which they did most detest And shall we then who professe our selves the undoubted progenie followers successours of the primitive Churches Saints and Christians so farre degenerate from their piety purity zeale and Christian discipline as not onely to tollerate but even patronize admire honour Players Play-Poets Theaters Stage-playes● which they so severely censured so diligently suppressed and which is worse to hate abominate revile condemne and ignominiously traduce all such for Puritans Praecisians Humorists Cynnicks Novellers Factionists I know not what besides an apparant argument of their grace and goodnesse when such vitious persons thus revile them who either write or speake against them or out of piety and conscience resort not daily to them Alas where is our Christianity our piety our godly discipline where is our claime our title our conformity to the primitive Church where our affinity our cognation to the primitive Christians whose children successours and disciples we professe our selves whiles that we thus tollerate harbour justifie these Diabolicall Pompes and Spectacles which they so seriously renounced as extremely opposite to as inconsisted with the very practise and profession of a Christian and thus causlesly revile all those who speake or write against them When we shal all appeare before the dreadful tribunal of our most holy Saviour as we shall doe ●re long and when we shall there behold those blessed Patriarkes Apostles Fathers Bishops Saints and holy Martyrs in the prim●tive Church who have so zealously anathematized renounced Stage-playes as the very Pompes of the Divell which they and we have solemnly abjured in our baptisme passing an eternall doome of condemnation on us for our perfidious resort unto them against our sacred vow alas what can we pleade to justifie to extenuate this our fact or to intitle our selves to the triumphant Church in heaven whose discipline wee thus reject on earth Can wee alledge for our selves that we are pious Christians when as our daily Play-house-haunting proclaimes us worse than Pagans or can we pleade we are members of the holy Catholicke Church of Christ when as our frequent presence at Playes at Play-houses and the diametrall contrariety of our lives our actions to all the primitive Christians proves us the very limbes the bondslaves of the Divell Certainly we must needes stand silenced amazed confounded condemned then for justifying for frequenting Stage-playes now against the unanimous execration vote and sentence of the whole primitive Church and Saints of God both under the Law and Gospell who as they shall judge and doome us at the last so they must needes abominate and condemne us now O therefore let no Christian now be so impiously shamelesse so peevishly absurd as to apologize for Playes or Players by pen by tongue or practise as tollerable as usefull among Christians or ignorantly much lesse maliciously out of an implacable detestation to all grace all goodnesse to condemne all such for Puritans Novellers or factious Male-contents the common voice and clamour of our dissolute gracelesse times wherein many turne professed Atheists or incarnate Divels to avoid the jealousie of being reputed Puritans But since the whole Catholicke Church both before and under the Law and Gospell with all the primitive Christians Fathers Councels of all Nations all places have thus unanimously proclaimed an everlasting professed hostility and passed such a finall doome and execration against Players and Stage-playes let this eternally convince our conscience close up our mouths alter our resolutions reforme our Play-haunting lives cause us readily to subscribe to this 47. Play-confounding Argument against which there can be no resistance with which I shall conclude this Scene That which the whole Church of

their subsequent reformation will reverse it now that so all England may henceforth experimentally discerne that Stage-Playes and Actors are as well condemned detested by her Lawyers as by her Lawes and Statutes which brand all Stage-playes for unlawfull pastimes all common Actors for notorious Rogues too base Companions for generous spirits to beholde or dance attendance on who were created for more noble objects more sublime imployments than base infamous Enterludes or most abject Players O therefore let the serious consideration of your owne native generositie of your heroicke Studies elevated with the sublimer contemplations of your transcendent Christian Nobility which makes you heires of heaven coheires with Christ yea Kings and Priests unto God your Father who hath not onely crownes of glory but likewise an heavenly eternall Kingdome to bestow upon you raise up your depressed mindes and thoughts so farre above these earthly childish vanities as with a kinde of holie magnanimitie to trample them under feete as drossie filthie pleasures unworthy any Christians presence much lesse his approbation who hath farre better farre sublimer spectacles to beholde even those which I shall here commend unto you in Cyprians words in his elegant Booke against Stage-playes Habet Christianus Spectacula meliora si velit habet veras et profuturas voluptates si se recollegerit et ut omittam illa quae nondum contemplari potest habet istam mundi pulchritudinem quam videat atque miretur solis ortum aspiciat rursus occasum mutuis vicibus dies noctesque revocantem globum lunae temporum cursus incrementis suis decrementisque signantem astrorum micantium choros et à summo de summa mobilita●e fulgentes anni totius per membra divisa et dies ipsos cum noctibus per horarum spatia digestos et terrae molem libratam cum montibus et proflua ●lumina cum suis fontibus extensa maria cum suis fluctibus atque littoribus Interim constantem pariter summa conspiratione nexibusque concordiae extensum aërem medium tenuitate sua cuncta vegetantem nunc imbres contractis nubibus profundentem nunc serenitatem refecta raritate revocantem et in omnibus istis incolas proprios in aëre avem in aquis piscem in terra hominem Haec inquam et alia opera divina sint Christianis fidelibus Spectacula Quod theatrum humanis manibus extructum istis operibus poterit comparari magnis licet lapidum molibus extruatur crusta sunt montium et auro licet ●ecta lucanaria reluceant astrorum fulgore vincentur nunquam humana opera mirabitur quisquis se cognoscerit filiū Dei. Dejicit se de culmine generositatis suae qui admirari aliquid post Deum potest Scripturis in quam sacris incumbat Christianus let Papists and those who are given so much to Play-bookes co●sider this ibi invenie● condigna fidei Spectacula Videbit instituentem Deum mundum suum et cum caeteris animalibus hominis illā admirabilem fabricam melioremque facientem spectabit mundum in delicijs suis ●justa naufragia piorum praemia impiorumque supplicia maria populo sicca●a et de pe●ra rursus populo maria por●ecta spectabit de coelo descendentes messes non ex areis inspiciet flumina transitus siccos refraenatis aquarum agminibus exhibentia videbit in quibusdam fidem cum igne luctuantem religione superatas feras et in mansuetudinem conversas intuebitur et animas ab ipsa morte revocatas considerabit etiam de sepulchris admirabiles ipsorum consummatorū jam vitas corporum redactas et in his omnibus jam majus videbit Spectaculum Diabolum illum qui totum detriumphaverat mundum sub pedibus Christi jacentem Quàm hoc decorum Spectaculum Fratres quàm jucundum quàm necessarium intueri semper spem ●nam et oculos aperire ad salutem suam Hoc est spectaculum quod videtur etiam luminibus amissis Hoc est spectaculum quod non exhibet Praetor au● Consul sed qui est solus et ante omnia et super omnia immo ex quo omnia Pater Domini nostri Iesu Christi cui laus et honor in saecula saeculorum These my beloved Brethren are the true celestiall worthie Spectacles of every pious Christian O let your hearts your mindes your affections your eyes and eares be wholly ravished and taken up with these which will onely bring true comfort to our soules Let mee therefore ●lose up my Epistle to you with St. Augustines words Intendite ad magna haec spectacula Ista sunt spectacula utilia salubria aedificantia non destruentia imò et destruentia et aedificantia Destruentia recentes Deos aedificantia fidem in verum et aeternum Deum Let other men therefore who love their Stage-playes better than their God their soules resort to Theatres whiles they please Illi habeant mare in theatro nos habeamus portum in Christo but let Christ Iesus be your all in all your onely solace your onely Spectacle and joy on earth whose soule-ravishing heart-filling presence shall be your eternall solace your everlasting visible all-glorious most triumphant Spectacle in the highest heavens whither God bring us all at length for this his Sonne and mercies sake Amen Your loving Christian Friend and Brother to command WILLIAM PRYNNE TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THREE things there are beloved Readers in this my HISTRIO-MASTIX for which I am necessitated to make some Apologie to prevent all causelesse cavills The first is its tedious prolixitie which as it far exceeds its primitive intended Brevity so it may somewhat derogate from its welcome acceptation as being too large for so slight a subject But as it was no disparagement to Phaebus his pallace that the workmanship of it did exceede the matter so I hope it will be no prejudice to this Treatise if Malo nodo malus cuneus may be allowed for a Plea Hee who intends to encounter a potent enemie had neede provide a puissant armie Hee who will cure a large spreading gangrene must proportion his plaister to the maladie he who would discover or refute an inveterate generally received Error must come strongly armed with convincing reasons and authorities else he is like to do more harme than good Players and Stageplaies with which I am now to combate in a publike Theatre in the view of sundry partiall Spectators are growne of late so powerfull so prevalent in the affections the opinions of many both in Citie Court and Country so universally diffused like an infectious leprosie so deepely rivited into the seduced prepossessed hearts and judgements of voluptuous carnall persons who swarme so thicke in every Play-house that they leave no empty place and almost crowd one another to death for multitude as they did in Augustines time chusing rather to fill the Theatre than the Church that had not this my HISTRIO-MASTIX overgrowne

Gubernatione Dei lib. 6. write as much Yea all those Fathers and Councels which excommunicated Players and Play-haunters from the Church till they had repented renounced the acting the beholding of all Theatricall Enterludes affirme the same since those can never be deemed worthy the society of the Saints in Heaven who are not fit to communicate with the Saints on earth Certainely that which the Church doth lawfully binde on earth is bound in Heaven those therefore who are justly excluded out of cōdemned by the militant Church as Players and Play-haunters ought to be are excluded likewise out of Heaven are condemned in Heaven unlesse they doe repent This all the moderne Christian Authors together with two penitent relenting Play-poets of our owne who have written against Stage-playes doe likewise joyntly testifie And indeed they should all have written in vaine against these Enterludes did they not bring perdition to mens soules There are but three things that have moved all the Fathers Councels and Christian Authors which I shall here recite to write against Stage-playes so frequently so abundantly as they have done The first is the dishonour the injury that Stage-playes doe to God The second the prejudices mischiefes and inconveniences they bring upon the Church and State The third the guilt the sinnes the damnation they procure to mens soules the last of which is a necessary consequence from the former which are meerely false if this be not true Since therefore it is evident by the Confession of all these Fathers Counsels and Christian Writers who have censured Stage-playes by excommunicating Players and Play-haunters in the Primitive Church till their sincere repentance by all the foregoing Acts and Scenes and by the practise of Players Play-poets Play-haunters of ancient of moderne times who alwayes upon their true co●version and repentance have utterly discarded and renounced Playes and Play-houses that Stage-playes without sincere repentance damne mens soules Let this teach all Players Play-poets and Play-haunters whatsoever as they tender the eternall welfare of their soules and bodies as they desire to avoyd the unsupportable wrath of God the everlasting torments of Hell and to participate of the eternall joyes of Heaven even seriously to bewayle and cordially to repent their former penning acting and beholding of all forepast Stage playes and for ever to abandon all such Enterludes for time to come as the certaine contrivers the infallible consummators of their just damnation unlesse they seriously repent Yea let this lesson all them when ever they are tempted to Playes or Play-houses by any lewde companions by Satan or by they owne sinfull lusts to answer these temptations with this 45. Play-confounding Argument from which there is no evasion Those things which without sincere repentance bring eternall destruction and damnation on mens soules and bodies must needs be sinfull abominable and eternally execrable unto Christians But this doe Stage-playes as all the premises testifie Therefore they must needs be sinfull abominable and eternally execrable unto Christians Damnation as it is a fru●t of sinne so it is that which every man should labour to avoyd though it were with the losse of his very dearest members much more of his unprofitable and sinfull pleasures which alwayes end in griefe Our Saviour Christ himselfe hath given us this advice that if our right hand or our right eye offend us we should cut off the one and plucke out the other for it is profitable for us that one of our members should perish rathe● then that our whole bodies and soules should be cast into Hell where the worme dyeth not and the fire is not quenched If a man to avoyd damnation must thus offer violence to and even with indignation cut off pull out and cast away his right hand his right eye the usefullest the profitablest the dearest be●t-beloved of all his other members should he not much more abandon abominate these unprofitable expensive and pernicious Stage-playes that so he might escape it Alas who would be so desperately prodigall of his owne salvation who would so vilifie so undervalue Heaven or his owne immortall Soule the losse of which cannot be recompenced with the gaine of all the world as to set to hazard to forfeit them for a Stage-play and yet how many thousands daily doe it O that such men would consider but a while what damnation what eternall eternall damnation accompanied with the everlasting wrath and vengeance of an Almighty provoked sinne-revenging God is this certainely would cau●e them as it ●hould cause us all for ever to detest these sugered soppes of Satan which without sincere repentance prove nought else but eternall bitternesse both to soule and body Damnation is in truth the onely argument to rouse voluptuous and secure persons who lie rotting in the dregges of sinfull pleasures O that the terror and alarum of it would now at last awaken those miserable gracelesse Play-poets Actors Play-haunt●rs who lie sleeping in the very brinke of Hell without any suspition or feare of danger that so it might cause them with care a●d conscience perp●tually to divorce them●elves from Stage-playes which as they had their originall beginning growth and progresse from the Devill so they alwayes have their end in Hell damnation and eternall torments with the Devill unlesse Gods infinite mercy and mens true repentance interpose A su●ficient motive to withdraw all men all Christians from them and with that holy Father Saint Augustine in his most pious Confessions where he oft bewailes with teares his running unto Stage-playes before his true conversion for ever to renounce them CHORVS YOu have seene now Christian Readers the severall bitter fruits and pernicious effects of Stage-playes most copiously anatomized in the precedent Act and certainely if ever any tree were discovered to be evill by its evill fruits then Stage-playes whose variety of evill products surmounts all others must be as bad if not farre worse then any The fruits of Stage-playes as is evident by the premises are bad in respect of God whom they sundry wayes dishonour bad in regard of Church and State whom they exceedingly prejudice and corrupt bad in regard of the Composers Actors Spectators and upholders of them whose sinnes they multiply whose manners they corrupt whose time they wast whose mindes they effeminate and deprave whose hearts they harden whose soules they contaminate whose repentance they anticipate or deferre whose lusts they foster whose damnation they hasten whose everlasting torments they accumulate and without repentance really procure As therefore we tender the honour love and worship of our gracious God the happinesse the welfare of our Church and State the purity tranqnility salvation of our owne poore soules of the soules of our brethren our posterity● which succeede us Let us henceforth passe in irrepealable sentence of condemnation against all popular Stage-playes and bid an

beene more copious in this theame before I shall here briefely passe it over now referring you to Part 1. Act 2. Act 5. Scene 11. for fuller satis●action THe 6. and last ground of the unlawfulnesse of acting Playes is the evil fruits that issue from it both to the Spectators of which I have at large discoursed Part 1. Act 6. thorowout and likewise to the Actors which I shal here onely name As first it makes the Actors guilty of many sinnes to wit of vaine idle ribaldrous and blasphemous words of light lascivious wanton gestures and actions losse of time hypocrisie effeminacy imp●dency theft lust with sundry other sinnes which they cannot avoyd Secondly it ingenerates in them a perpetual habit of vanity effeminacy idlenesse whoredome adultery and those other vices which they daily act Discunt enim facere dum assuescunt agere simulatis erudiuntur ad vera as Lactantius and Cyprian truely write Whence we see for the most part in all our common Actors the reall practise of all those sinnes and villanies which they act in sport they being as Ludovicus Vives Iohn Calvin the Civilian and Iacobus Spielegius write Perditissimis moribus deploratae nequitiei men of most lewde most dissolute behaviour and most deplorable desperate wickednesse as I have elsewhere largely proved And how can it bee otherwise Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu being as true as it is ancient When Children Youthes and others shall be trained up either in Vniversities Schooles or Play-houses to Play effeminate amorous wanton Strumpets parts to act the parts of Wooers Lovers Bawdes Panders Whore-masters Incestuous persons Sodomites Adulterers Cheaters Roarers Blaspemers Paricides and the like when they shall be instructed Magisterio impudicae artis gestus quoque turpes molles muliebres exponere as Saint Cyprian phraseth it to expresse effeminate womanish wanton dishonest mimicall gestures by the tutorship of an unchast art to court Whores and Strumpets to sollicit the chastity and circumvent the modesty of others to contrive to plot and execute any villany with greatest secrecy and security to act any sinnes or wickednesse to the life as if they were really performed when they shall have their mindes their memories and mouthes full fraught with amorous ribaldrous panderly Histories Pastorals Iests discourses and witty though filthy obscenities from day to day the case of all our common Actors especially those who have beene trained up to acting from their youth no wonder if we discover a whole grove of all these notorious acted sinnes and villanies budding forth continually in their ungodly lives insomuch that those who in their yonger dayes represented other mens vices onely fall shortly after to act their owne the better to inable them to personate other mens of the selfesame kinde he being best able to play the sinnes of others who hath oft-times perpetrated the very selfesame crimes himselfe Wh●nce commonly it comes to passe that the eminen●est Actors are the most lewde companions Et nonne satis improbata est cujusque artis exercitatio quâ quanto quisque doctior tanto nequior Thirdly it makes men vaine lascivious prophane and scurrilous in their discourses fantasticall and new-fangled in their haire and apparell mimicall antique histrionicall in their gate their gestures complements and behaviours prodigall in their expences impudent and shamelesse in their carriage false and trecherous in their dealings malicious bloody and revengefull in their mi●des atheisticall gracelesse unchaste deboist and dissolute in their lives and for the most part impenitent and desperate in their deathes according to that true rule of the famous Roman Orator Mors honesta saepe vitam quoque turpem exornat vita turpis ne morti quidem honestae locum relinquit These and many such like evils are the fruits of Play-acting● as too many ancient and moderne visible examples witnesse Fourthly it nourisheth men up in vanity and idlenesse in which they waste their precious time which should be husbanded redeemed to farre better purposes For though our common Players be ever acting yet they are alwayes idle● and make thousands idle to besides themselves Horum enim non otiosa vita est dicenda sed desidiosa occupatio● Nam de illis nemo dubitabit quin operose nihil agant as Seneca wittily de●cants And so great is our popular Stage-players that I say not our ordinary Play-haunters idlenesse quod totam vitam ordinant adludendum as Aquinas writes of them they even spend th●ir whole lives in playing whence Marcus Aurelius long agone and our owne Statutes since have ranked Players among the number of idle vagrant Truants Rogues and V●gabonds which ought severely to be punished and then set to some honest worke ●o get their livings their acting being nought else but idlenesse in Gods in mens account And alas what a poore reward must they expect from God at last when he shall remunerate every man according to his workes who have never wrought but one●y loytered and played all their dayes Lastly the acting of Stage-playes inthrals the Actors both in the guilt the punishment of all those sinnes which their Playes or action occasion in the Spectators Which being so many in number so great in quality as experience manifests them to bee what Actors conscience is able to stand under their guilt their curse and condemnation either in this life or in the day of judgement when they shall all be charged on his soule Lastly the acting of Stage-playes as it of right excludes all Actors both from the priviledges of the Common-weale from the Church the Sacraments and society of the faithfull here and drawes a perpetuall infamy upon their persons ●o it certainely debars them from entring into Heaven and brings downe an eternall condemnation on their soules and bodies hereafter if they repent not in time those being bound over to the judgement of the great generall Assises and eternall torments even in Heaven● who are thus bound and justly censured by the Lawes and Edicts of the Church or State on earth Hence was it that divers Players and Play-poets in the Primitive Church and since renounced their professions as altogether incompatible either with Christianity or salvation yea hence a late English Player some two yeeres since falling mortally sicke at the City of Bathe whether he came ●o act being deepely wounded in conscience and almost driven to despaire with the sad and serious consideration of his lewde infernall profession lying upon his death-bed ready to breath out his soule adjured his sonne whom hee had trained up to Play-acting with many bitter●teares and imprecations as he tendred the everlasting happinesse of his soule to abjure and forsake his ungodly profession which would but inthrall him to the Devils vassalage for the present and plunge him deeper into Hell at last Such are the dismall execrable

contagion as the shining Sunne God forbid we may perchance● bee such in Heaven hereafter as neither vèlle ne● posse peccare but here we cannot be such For what man among us can say that he hath made hi● heart cleane and that he is pure from his sinne Certainely if any dare say so as some Papists write of their ●uper-errogating super-arrogant Saints Iohn● will tell him that he is a lyer and there is no truth in him And although unto the pure all things that is all good all lawful● all indifferent things all meates and drinkes for of them the Apostle speakes are pure yet unto the impure and such for the most part are all Play-haunters all things that is all good all indifferent things all meates all drinkes and recr●●tions are uncleane and so by consequence Stage-playes too because their very conscience● is defiled Secondly whereas it is objected that evill things corrupt not chaste or honest eyes or eares or hearts I answer that it is true indeed in these three particular cases First when as the evils which men see or heare are meerely casuall not run unto of set purpose upon deliberation Secondly when men are necessitated to heare and see them even against their wills and yet in these two cases they prove oft-times contagious Thirdly when as men see or heare them with highest detestation of their lewdnesse and strong resolves against them not with delight or approbation But thus men see and heare not Stage-playes to which they purposely and willingly● resort in which they place their pleasure and delight Therefore they cannot but corrupt yea dangerously defile them because they doe not loath but love them over-much And what so apt to contaminate and deprave men as that which they best affect The last Objection for the seeing of Playes is this If you debarre us from beholding Stage-playes say some you will then deprive us of all our mirth our pleasures and cause us for to live a melancholy sad dumpish lif● the which we cannot brooke therefore you must still permit us to resort to Playes To this I answer first that it is the condition of all voluptuous carnall persons to deeme themselves much restrained when as they are inhibited from any one sinfull pleasure in which they take delight as if all their comforts their contentments yea their life it selfe were utterly lost and gone Let a Drunkard be but restrained from his Cups and Pot-companions an Whore-master from his Queanes and Whoredomes a common Dicer from his unlawfull gaming or a Play-haunter from his Stage-playes which delight and feed his lusts they presantly thinke themselves undo●e yea quite bereaved of all their pleasures and all because they place their happinesse their chiefe delights in these their carnall contentments which alwayes end in horror But alas what hard in●urious rest●aine is this to inhibit them from sinne and sinfull things which would certainely plung them into eternall misery from which the very Lawes of God of nature of Nations have long since debard them under the severest penalties What are Christians growne now such carnall Epicures as to thinke there is no pleasure mirth or solace but in sinne alone in amorous Pastorals obscene lascivious speeches jests and Enterludes or such lewde notorious abominations as should even pierce all Christian hearts with griefe what is there no pleasure thinke we but in that which God prohibits in that which he and all good men abhorre in that which shuts men out of Heaven and poasts them on to Hell Good God if these be the chiefe delights of Christians now which was the vice the shame of Pagans of Christians heretofore why doe any such voluptuous carnall Christians hope for Heaven Are there any lascivious Stage-playes Spectacles Songs or such like sinfull vanities there are there any such lust-fomenting sin-engendring sports or pastimes in Heaven as carnalists delight in here on earth O no there is no uncleanesse vanity or lasciviousnesse in that holy place● If men therefore thinke themselves miserable when they are deprived of these pleasures here what happinesse can they hope to finde in Heaven hereafter where there are no such Enterludes such carnall contentments as they delight in now If then wee may bee happy yea eternally happy in the highest degree without these lust-enraging Enterludes hereafter why should wee deeme our selves unfortunate in being restrained from them now especially since Christ himselfe informes us that if any man will come after him he must deny himselfe in all his sinfull pleasures and crucifie his flesh with the affections and lusts thereof The Saints and Angels now in Heaven the Primitive Church and Christians yea and many Pagans whiles they were on earth accounted their lives most comfortable though they wanted Stage-playes yea this was one of their greatest contentments that they had quite abandoned them Nay those very Saints of God on earth who now lead the most comfortable joyfull happy lives of all men in the world are such who never come at Stage-playes● and many carnall men there are who live full mer●y full jolly lives without them This Objection therefore is but frivolous Secondly though men are deprived of Stage-playes of all other unlawfull pleasures whatsoever yet they have choyce enough of sundry lawfull recreations and earthly solaces with which to exhilerate their mindes and sences They have the seuerall prospects of the Sunne the Moone the Planets the Stars the water the earth with all the infinite variety of Creatures of Fishes Birds Fowles Beasts cre●ping things Trees Herbes Plants Rootes Stones and Mettals that are in them to delight their eyes They have the Musicke of all Birds and singing creatures to please their eares the incomperably delicate ●doriferous sents and perfumes of all H●arbes all Flowers Fruits c. to refresh their noses● the savory tastes of all edible creatures to content their pallats so farre as the rules of sobriety and temperance will permit the pleasures that Orchards Rivers Gardens Ponds Woods or any such earthly Paradices can affoord them the comfort of Friends Kindred Wives Children Possessions wealth and all other externall blessings that God hath bestowed upon them And what want of pleasures of contentments can they complaine of who have all these for to delight them the very meanest whereof are farre more pleasant then the very best of Enterludes then all our Stage-playes put together Besides though men are debard from Stage-playes Dicing or mix lascivious Dancing or any other unlawfull sports they have store of honest of healthfull recreations still remaining with which to refresh themselves as walking riding fishing fowling hawking hunting ringing leaping vauting wrestling running shooting singing of Psalmes and pious Ditties playing upon musicall Instruments casting of the Barre tossing the Pike riding of the great Horse an exercise fit for men of quality running at the ring with a world of

dying Scenes draw on apace and it will not be long ere you goe off the Theater of this world unto your proper place and then how miserable will your condition be You have beene the Devils professed agents his meniall hired servants all your lives and must you not then expect his wages at your deathes You have treasured up nought but wrath unto your selves against the day of wrath whiles you lived here precipitating both your selves and others to destruction and can you reape ought but wrath and vengeance hereafter if you repent not now Your very profession hath excommunicated you the Church the Sacraments the society of the Saints on earth and will it not then much more exclude you out of Heaven O miserabilis humana conditio sine Christo vanum omne quod vivimus was S. Hieroms patheticall ejaculation and may it not be much more yours who have lived without Christ in the world who have renounced his service and betaken your selves to the Devils workes and pompes against your bapti●mall vow as if you had covenanted by your selves and others to serve the Devill and performe his workes even then when you did at first abjure them O then bewaile with many a bitter teare with many an heart-piercing sigh with much shame much horror griefe and indignation the losse of all that precious time which you have already consumed in the Devils vassalage● and since God hath forborne you for so many yeeres out of his tender mercy O now at last thinke it enough yea too too much that you have spent your best your chiefest dayes in this unchristian diabolicall lewde profession professing publikely in S. Peters words The time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles and of the Devill to we will henceforth live to God alone If you will now cast of your former hellish trade of life with shame and detesta●ion if you will prove new men new creatures for the time to come Christs armes Christs wounds yea and the Church her bosome stand open to receive you notwithstanding all the lusts and sinnes of your former ignorance But if you will yet stop your eares and harden your hearts against all advice proceeding on stil in this your ungodly trade of life in which you cannot but be wicked then know you are such as are marked out for Hell such who are given up to a reprobate sence to worke all uncleanesse even with greedinesse that you all may be damned in the Day of Iudgement for taking pleasure in unrighteousnesse and disobeying the truth As therefore you expect to enter Heaven Gates or to escape eternall damnation in that great dreadfull Day when you must all appeare before the Iudgement Seate of Christ to give a particular account of all those idle vaine and sinfull actions gestures words and thoughts which have proceeded from you or beene occasioned in others by you all your dayes be sure to give over this wicked trade of Play-acting without any more delayes which will certainely bring you to destruction if you renounce it not as all true penitent Players have done before you For if the righteous shall scarcely be saved in the Day of Iudgement where shall such ungodly sinners as you appeare Certainely you shall not be able to stand in Iudgement or to justifie your selves in this your profession in that sinne-confounding soule-appaling Day but you shall then be punished with everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord from the glory of his power if the very riches of his grace and mercy will not perswade you to renounce this calling now Quantoque diutius Deus vos expectavit vt emendetis tanto districtius judicabit si neglexeritis by how much the longer God hath forborne you here expecting your repētance the more severely shal he then condemne you If any Stage-players here object that they know not how to live or maintaine themselves if they should give over acting To this I answer first that as it is no good argument for Bawdes Panders Whores Theeves Sorcerers Witches Cheaters to persevere in these their wicked courses because they cannot else maintaine themselves so it is no good Plea for Players No man must live by any sinfull profession nor yet doe evill that good may come of it therefore you must not maintaine your selves by acting Playes it being a lewde unchristian infamous occupation Secondly there are divers lawfull callings and imployments by which Players might live in better credit in a farre happier condition then now they doe would they but bee industrious It is therefore Players idlenesse their love of vanity sinfull pleasures not want of other callings that is the ground of this objection Thirdly admit there were no other course of life but this for Players I dare boldly averre that the charity of Christians is such as that they would readily supply the wants of all such indigent impotent aged Actors unable to get their livelihood by any other lawfull trade who out of conscience shall give over Playing Certainely the charity of Christians was such in Cyprians dayes that they would rather maintaine poore penitent Actors with their publike almes then suffer them to perish or continue acting and I doubt not but their charity will be now as large in this particular as it was then Lastly admit the objection true yet it were farre better for you to die to starve then any wayes to live by sinne or sinfull courses There is sinne● yea every pious Christian as is evident by the concurrent examples of all the Martyrs should rather chuse to die the cruellest death then to commit one act of sinne Better therefore is it for Players to part with their profession for Christs sake even with the very losse of their lives and goods which they must willingly lose for Christ or else they are not worthy of him then to retaine their Play-acting and so lose their Saviour themselves their very bodies and soules for all eternity as all unreclaimed unrepenting Players in all probability ever doe Let Players therefore if they will be mercifull to themselves shew mercy rather to their soules then to their bodies or estates Talis enim misericordia crudelitate plena est qua videl●cet ita corpori servitur ut anima juguletur Quae enim charitas est carnem diligere spiritum negligere Quaeve discretio totum dare corpori animae nihil Qualis vero mis●●icordia ancillam reficere dominam interficere Nemo pro hujusmodi misericordia sperat se consequi misericordiam sed certissime potius paenam expectet Yea let them renounce their Play-acting though they perish here rather then perish eternally hereafter to live by it now Lastly I shall here exhort all Play-haunters all Spectators of any publike or private Enterludes to ponder all the premised reasons