by your speeches late uttered that some who are no well-wishers of mine but rather seeke to poyson my reputation with your Majesty have possessed you that I have been accessary to the death of your brother and proceeded further having then a piece of bread in his hand ready to put into his mouth but so may I safely swallow this morsell as I am altogether innocent and guiltlesse of the act which streyning to eate he was therewith immediately choaked at the table which the King seeing and observing the strange Judgement inflicted upon his perjury he commanded his body to be drag'd froÌ„ thence conveyed to Winchester there buried But Marianus and some others write that he was not choaked with bread but upon his former false protestation dining with the King upon an Easter Monday at Winchester he was suddenly struck with a dead palsie and died the third day after Neither did Gods Judgements upon him end here but after his death all his Lands in Kent which were very spacious and great were eaten up and swallowed by the Sea and turned into dangerous quick sands on which many a goodly vessell hath since beene shipwrackt and they beare the name of Goodwins sands even to this day Harold the second sonne of Earle Goodwin after the death of his elder brother Swanus aswell heire to his fathers insolent and aspiring spirit as to his Earledome and Lands in the twentieth yeare of the raigne of the before-named Edward the Confessor he sayled into Normandy to visit some of his friends but by adverse windes and a sudden tempest at Sea he was driven upon the Province of Pountiffe where hee was tooke prisoner and sent to Duke William of Normandy who inforced him to sweare that hee should marry with his daughter when she came to mature age and farther that after the death of King Edward he should keep the Crowne of England to his behoofe according to the will of the Confessor to both which Articles having solemnly sworne he was dismissed from the bastard Duke and with great and rich gifts sent backe to England But after the death of Edward in the yeare of the Incarnation one thousand threescore and sixe Harold forgetting his former oath and promise made to Duke William he caused himselfe to be crowned King of the Lande who was no sooner warme in his Throne but Harold Harfoot sonne to Canutus with a puissant hoast of Danes invaded the Realme whom Harold of England met in a set battaile slew him hand to hand and discomfited his whole Army for he was of an invincible hardinesse and valour which victory was no sooner obtained but newes was brought him that William of Normandy was landed with a potent Army to claime his right and interest he had in the Crowne of England by the last Testament of Edward the Confessor with these tydings being thoroughly heated he marched with all speed from the North scarce suffering his Army to rest by the way to give the Normans battaile betwixt whom was a dreadfull and bloudy conflict But when the victory rather hovered over the English then the other Harold after many deepe and dangerous wounds was shot into the eye with an arrow and slaine In whose death may be observed Gods heavy Judgements against price and perjury Of my first sinne namely Pride none hath ever beene by our English Chronologers more justly taxed then that French Gerson Pierre Gavestone the great misleader and seducer of Edward the second whom though his Royall Father King Edward the first sirnamed Long-shanks upon his death-bed caused to bee banished yet the sonne was no sooner inaugurated and admitted to the government of the Realme but contrary to the wils of all his Lords and Peeres he caused his Exile to be repealed sent for him over and advanced him to great honour in which he demeaned himselfe like a proud upstart or as our English Proverbe goes Like a beggar set on horsebacke who is ready to ride poste to the Devill for whose sake the King committed William Lancton Bishop of Chester in the second yeare of his raigne to the Tower because he had perswaded the King against his Minion for which the Barons of the Realme and especially Sir Henry Lacy Sir Guy and Sir Aymery de Valence Earle of Lincolne of Warwick and Pembroke to whom the late King had given charge for his exile upon his death-bed wrought so farre by their power that contrary to the Kings will hee was avoyded the Land and banisht into Ireland for that yeare whither his Majestie sent many secret messengers with rich gifts to comfort him and made him chiefe Ruler of that Countrey But in the third yeare of his reigne divers grudges and discontents began to arise betwixt the King and his Nobles insomuch that for quietnesse sake and in hope of his amendment he was againe repealed but more and more increased in his insufferable insolence insomuch that having charge of all the Kings Jewels and Treasure he went to Westminster and out of the Kings Jewell-house tooke a Table and a paire of trestles all of pure gold and conveyed them with other precious gems out of the Land to the great exhausting and impoverishing of the same by whose wanton effoeminacies and loose conditions he drew the King to many vitious courses as adulteries and the like which mischiefes the Lords seeing daily to increase they tooke counsell againe at Lincolne and notwithstanding the Kings main opposer he was a second time confined into Flanders but in his fifth year was again sent for over when not able to contain himselfe from his immoderate luxury as he demeaned himselfe far more arrogantly than before insomuch that he disdained and had in contempt all the Peeres of the Land giving them much opprobrious and despightfull language wherefore seeing there was no hope of his amendment with an unanimous consent they vowed to rid the Land of such a Caterpiller and soon after besieged him in the Castle of Scarborrow and taking the Fort they surprised him and brought him to Gaversed besides Warwicke and the nine and twentieth day of â—une smote off his head Thus was Gods just doom against his pride luxury and avarice But there succeeded him both in ambition and the Kings favour of our own Natives the two Spencers the father and the son his great minions and favorites who both in wealth power and pride overtopt all the Nobles of the Land commanding their Soveraigne and confounding the Subjects of whom you may reade in the Records of the Tower that in the fourteenth year of this Edward the second Hugh Spencer the elder for his riots and extortions being condemned by the Commonalty and expelled the Land an Inventory of his estate being taken it was found by inquisition that the said Spencer had in sundry Shires fifty nine Mannours and in his possession of his own goods and chattels twenty eight thousand sheep one thousand oxen and steeres twelve hundred beeves with their calves
way addicted to any martiall exercise hee put into a religious house called Saint Swithens Abbey and made him a Monke his two other sonnes were Aurelius Ambrosius and Vter sirnamed Pendragon But Constantine the father being trayterously murdered one Vortiger who then was the most potent Peere in the Land tooke Constantine the eldest sonne out of the Monastery and made him King onely in name for he himselfe swayed the government of the Kingdome with all the power that belonged to a Crowne and Scepter Yet not with that contented he envied the state of the innocent King and though he had all the power yet he could not content himselfe without the title and therefore placed a guard of an hundred Picts and Scots about the Kings person and having ingrossed into his hands the greatest part of the Kings Treasury hee was so bountifull to those strangers that they feared not to say openly that be better deserved to be King then Constantine and waiting their best advantageous opportunity murdered him Whose head being presented to Vortiger then at London he made much seeming sorrow for his death and to acquit himselfe of the act caused all those hundred Knights to be beheaded by which the people holding him innocent crowned him King when the other had raigned about five yeares and this his coronation caused those that had the keeping of the two younger brothers Aurelius and Vter to flie with them into little Brittain where they remained long after but as a just reward of this trayterous supplantation hee was never after in any peace or quietnesse his Land being alwayes in combustion and trouble his Peeres suspecting him of the death of the King made insurrection against him insomuch that he was forced to sollicite aide of the Saxons who though they helped him for the present after of his friends they grew to be his enemies and were too mighty for him so that when he had raigned in great molestation and trouble sixteen years the Brittaines deprived him of all Kingly dignity and crowned his eldest sonne Vorâ—imerus in his stead Who when he had in many battailes overcome the Saxons and had almost quite expulsed them the Land he was poysoned by his stepmother Râ—waine when he had gloriously and victoriously seaven yeares governed the Land and his father Vortimer was againe made King who was after twice taking prisoner by Hengest King of the Saxons and his Peeres and Nobles cruelly butchered in his presence At length the two younger brothers of Constantine invaded the Land being aided by the distressed Brittains and pursued him into Wales where hee and divers of his complices fortified themselves in a strong Castle which Castle the two brothers with their Army besieged and after many vaine assaults it being valiantly defended with wilde-fire they burned and consumed the Fort together with Vortiger and all his souldiers and servants Worthy it is to observe by how many severall kinde of Judgements this sinne of Envy hath beene punisht as in the former examples is made apparant namely by the single sword by battaile by poysoning strangling heading torturing by murdering and cutting to pieces by being swallowed up of monsters the living to be buried with the dead by famishing in prison by being torne piece-meale and the bleeding limbes cast into common privies some burnt with ordinary fire others with wilde-fire the brother murdering the brother and the mother the sonne the bondage and vassalling of Nations c. which sinne though for the commonnesse and familiarity it hath amongst us is scarce minded or thought upon because many who are envious may so hide it that they may appeare honest withall yet is this hypocrisie no excuse for you see how hatefull it is in the eyes of the Creator by so many visible punishments thereof But I proceed After many dreadfull battailes fought and not without great effusion of bloud betwixt Edmund sirnamed for his strength and valour Iron-side the sonne of Ethelstane and Canutus the sonne of Swanus during this warre betwixt those martiall Princes to the great desolation of the Realme and mortality of the people It was agreed betwixt the two Generals to conclude the difference in a single duell The place where this should be performed was in an I le called Olney neare unto Glocester incompast with the water of the Severne In which place at the day appointed both the Champions met without any company or assistance and both the hoasts stood as spectators without the Isle there awaiting the fortune of the battaile where the Princes first proved one another with sharpe speares and they being broken with keene cutting swords where after a long fierce combate both being almost tyred by giving and receiving of hard and ponderous blowes at length the first motion comming from Canutus they began to parle and lastly to accord friendly kissing and embracing each other and soone after by the advise of both their Counsels they made an equall partition of the Land betwixt them and during their naturall lives lived together and loved as brothers But there was one Eâ—riâ—us Duke of Mercia of whom my Author gives this character A man of base and low birth but raised by favour to wealth and honour subtile of wiâ— but false of turning eloquent of speech but perfidious both in thought and promise who in all his actions complyed with the Danes to the dammage of his owne Countrey men and yet with smooth language protestations and false oathes could fashion his excuse at his pleasure This false Traytor in whose heart the serpent of envy and base conspiracy ever burned â—t length breaking out into flame against his owne Prince Iron-side for what cause is not knowne and thinking to get the grace and favour of Canutus he so awaited his opportunity that hee most treacherously slew his King and Master Iron-side Which done thinking thereby to be greatly exalted he poasted in all haste to Canutus shewing him what he had done for his love and saluted him by the stile of sole King of England which when the Prince of Danes had well understood and pondering what from his owne mouth he had confest like a just and wise Prince he answered him after this manner Since Edâ—â—câ—s thou hast for the love thou sayest thou bearest unto me slaine thy naturall Lord and King whom I most loved I shall in requitall exalt thy head above all the Lords thy fellow Peeres of England and forthwith commanded him to be taken and his head to be strook off and pitcht upon a speares head and set upon the highest gate of London a just judgement inflicted upon Envy which hath alwayes beene the hatcher of most abâ—ominable treason Unparalleld was that piece of Envy in Fostius one of the sonnes of Earle Goodwin and brother to Harold after King hee in the two and twentieth yeare of the raigne of Edward the Confessor upon some discontent betwixt him and his brother Harold came with a company of Ruffins and rude Pellowes and
after died being the one and fiftyeth yeare of his raigne I come now to our Moderne Histories Ferrex and Porrex joyntly succeeded their father Gorboduc in the governement of this Land of Brittaine in the yeare of the World foure thousand seaven hundred and eleven and continued in love and amity for a season but in the end Envy the mother of all misorder and mischiefe so farre prevailed with them that the one began to maligne the others estate insomuch that they both studied and devised to supplant each other thereby to gaine the entire supremacy which first brake out in Porrex who gathering an Army unknowne to his brother thought suddenly to surprise and kill him of which he having notice and yet not able for the present to provide for opposition he was forced to fly into France where craving ayde he was supplyed with a sufficient Hoast of Galls with which landing in England he gave his brother Porrex battaile defeated his Army and slew him in the field Ferrex proud of his victory retyred himself to his Tent whither his mother Midan came by night with some of her women and being freely admitted to the place where he lay sleeping she with the rest most cruelly murdered him and after cut his body into small pieces causing them to be scattered in the field and in these two brothers ended the line of Brute Thus you see a most dreadfull judgement against Envy as well in the vanquisht as the victor but the greatest in the last to be so cruelly murdered rather by a monster then a mother Morindus was the bastard sonne of Flavius King of Brittaine by his Concubine Fanguestela and was inaugurated in the yeare of the World one thousand eight hundred fourescore and ten and made Governour of the Land The Chronicle reports him to have beene of a comely and beautifull personage of liberall gifts having an active body and a most daring spirit and strength withall above any Peere or Subject in the Land but as a grievous staine and blemish to all these good parts and endowments hee was of an envious condition and cruell disposition for he grew jealous of all such as either were great in wealth or gracious in the Court for any noble vertue for the first hee had a way to confiscate their estate and the latter he so suppressed that they never came into favour or grew to preferment being further so subject to wrath that whosoever crost or vexed him he would suddenly slay with his owne hands Afterward his Land being invaded by a Prince of Mauritania he met him in battaile and chased him to the Sea taking many prisoners whom to satisfie this cruelty and tyranny he caused to be put to death in his presence and sight with severall sorts of torments by heading killing hanging burning drowning and other kindes of execution but at the length as testifieth Guido de Columna and others this Morindus whom our English Chronicles call Morwith walking by the Sea side and spying a dreadfull monster upon the shore he out of his bold and Kingly prowesse assaying to kill the beast after a long fight was devoured and swallowed by the monster when he had eight yeares governed the Land which was a most strange and remarkable Judgement Envy and dissension was the first bondaging of this our free and noble Nation in becomming tributary to the Romans King Lud of famous memory being dead during the minority of his two sonnes Androgeus and Tenantius Cassibelan the brother to Lud was made King in the yeare of the World five thousand one hundred forty two who was a Prince noble bountifull just and valorous when the young Princes came to yeares of discretion hee gave to Androgeus the elder the Citie of London with the Earledome of Kent and to Tenantius the younger the Dukedome of Cornewall In this season Iulius Caesar being in the warres of France and beholding the white cliffes and rocks by Dover demanded of the Gauls whether it were inhabited or no or by whom being satisfied of his demand hee first exhorted the Brittaines by writing to pay tribute to the Romans to whom Cassibelan returned a short and sharpe answer with which Caesar much incensed makes ready his Navy and people but when they should have landed they found long and sharpe stakes pitcht by the Brittons which put them to great trouble and danger yet at length gaining the shore Cassibelan with a strong Army of Brittans gave them battaile and beat them to their shippes Notwithstanding Caesar soone after made a second Invasion with a greater power and had the like brave repulse to his great dishonour For which double victory Cassibelan having first given great thankes to the gods assembled his Lords and Peeres to feast them and held sundry triumphs and sports amongst which two young Knights one Nephew to the King called Herilda and the other Euelinus allyed to Androgeus made a challenge for wrastling in the performing of which exercise they grew to words and from words to blowes so that parties were made and in this tumult Herilda was slaine whose death the King tooke heinously and sent to his Nephew Androgeus that Euelinus might be delivered up to know how he could acquit himselfe of the murder which Androgeus denying the King gave him to understand that it was in his power to chastise his presumption which the other fearing sent to Iulius Caesar not onely letters but thirty hostages to assure him of his fidelity that if hee would make a third attempt for Brittaine he would ayde him with a puissant Army of which Caesar gladly accepting with a strong hoast landed and encamped himselfe neare unto Canterbury of which when Cassibelan had notice he marched towards him and betwixt them was fought a strong and bloudy battaile where many were slaine on either side and the day likely to incline to the Brittons when on the sudden Androgeus came in with fresh forces by which the wearied Souldiers were compelled to forsake the field and gave place to the Romans who slew them without mercy so that Cassibelan with those few that were left retired himselfe to places of safety Whose valour Caesar admiring would not prosecute his victory any further for the present but offered him peace conditionally that he should pay a yearely tribute of three thousand pounds to the Romans which conditions Cassibelan accepted and still continued King and Androgeus who had so basely betrayed his Countrey not daring to trust his owne Nation whom in so high a nature he had injured abandoned the Realme and went with Caesar. Now if any shall aske me where were Gods dreadfull Judgements in all this I answer what greater then for a free Nation to lose their immunities and become tributary and vassals to strangers from which they were not freed many hundred yeares after Long after this Constantine was made King and left three sonnes behinde him Constantine the eldest because he was of a very milde and gentle temper and no
enjoy the moecall embraces of her libidinous companion plotted divers ways to take away her husbands life which at length she affected by poysoning him and divers of his family which having done and fearing to be questioned about the Fact she truss'd up her Jewels and the best things about her and fled into France unto the Court of Charles the Great with whom she so temporized and qualified her owne impious Cause and being withall a Lady of extraordinary aspect and presence that she grew highly into his grace and favour But when after he was informed of her unstable condition hee thought to make some tryall of her and being at that time a Widdower one day when hee was in some private conference with her at a window hee said openly Now Lady I put it to your free election whether you will take mee for your wedded Lord and Husband or this my Son here standing in presence To which Question shee without the least pause gave this suddaine Answer Then I make choice of the Sonne and refuse the Father which the King taking as an affront and being therewith somewhat mov'd he as suddenly reply'd I protest woman if thou hadst made choice of me I would have given thee to my Sonne if he would have accepted of thee but for that thou hast slighted and for saken me thou shalt now have neither of us and so presently commanded her as a Recluse to be shut up into a Nunnery But this place though never so strict could not containe her within the bounds of Modesty or Chastity For by the meanes of some Libertines her old companions and acquaintance shee made an escape out of the Cloister and having quitted that place shee wandred up and downe till having consumed all that shee could make she fell into necessitous poverty in which she miserably dy'd none commiserating her in her greatest extremity In memory of which her misdemeanors mixt with the murder of her naturall Lord and Husband the Kings of the West Saxons made a Decree that thence-forward none of their Wives should be called Queenes nor sit by them at any Feast or in any place of State or Honour And this was observed amongst them for a long time after Now to shew how the Creator of all who instituted chaste Matrimony in Paradice as hee hates those contaminated with all impurity so of the contrary he is a Guardian and Potector to those of cleane and undefiled life as may appeare by this subsequent story In the time of Edward the sonne of King Edgar by his first wife Egelfleda who began his reigne in the yeare of Grace nine hundred threescore and nineteene though he was opposed by his step-mother Elphaida who got into her confederacy Alphred Duke of Mercia a potent man in those dayes to have instated her sonne Egelredus a childe of seven yeares old in the Regall Dignity yet she was opposed by Bishop Dunstan with the rest of the Clergy who were also supported by the Earle of East Ingland now called Essex who against the Queens minde and her Confederates Crowned the said Edw. at Kingstowne but the fore-named Alphred who altogether adhered to the proceedings of the Dowager Queen being suspected to have too much private familiarity with her they agreed to put the strict Religious Cloysterers out of the College of Winchester where K. Edgar had before there placed and put into their roomes so many wanton and lascivious Clerks every one of them having his Concubine about him which Controversie had been like to have ended in bloud But there was an assembly of the Bishops and Lords the Prelates and Peeres of both parties in which Dunstan maintaining Chastity was much despised by the Adversary but still he upheld his opinion being grounded upon Justice and Vertue Now the place of their meeting was in a faire and large upper â—â—om and in this great division and argument it being doubtfull which side would carry it suddenly the joysts of the Loft failed and the floore tumbled downe being a great distance from the ground in which ruine the greatest part of those adverse to the Bishop and Clergy were either slaine outright or very dangerously hurt even to lamenesse but of all those that stood with Dunstan in the defence of chastity not one perished neither was any heard to complaine of the least hurt felt or found about them by which miraculous accident the Bishop compass'd his pious and religious ends This King Edward upon a time being hunting in the Forrest and having lost his Traine and finding none of his servants neare him hee bethought himself that his Mother-in-law Elphaida with her Sonne Egelredus lived at a place called Corfe-Castle which is in the West-Countrey and thought it no better a time then now to give her a visit but the malicious woman looking out of her window and knowing him a far off called to one of her servants of her owne breeding and told him what he had to doe for she perceived he was alone and none of his Peeres or Attendants about him By this time the King was come to the Castle gate whither she descended and offered him all the Courtesie of entertainment that any Syren who only flatters to destruction could have done for with courteous words she besought him to alight and to lodge in the Castle that night both which he with great affability and gentlenesse refused saying he would onely taste a Cup of her Beere and then ride to finde out some of his Company but the Cup being brought he had no sooner moved it towards his mouth but this Barbarous Villaine Traitor and Regicide strook him with a long Dagger edg'd on both sid 〈…〉 which entring behind the poynt appear'd to have fore'd way through his breast at which mortall wound receiv'd he put spurres to his horse making speed towards the Forrest in hope to have met with some of his servants but by the extremity of bleeding fainting by the way he felt from his horse with one foot intangled in the stirrop then he was dragg'd crosse high-wayes and a thwart plowde lands till his horse staid at a Towne called Covisgate where he was found but not being knowne for the King hee was unworthily buried at a Town called Warham where his body remained for the terme of three yeares after at which time it was discovered and the dissembling and murderous woman thinking to clearer her selfe of the fact to the world thought at the first to visit him in the way of Pilgrimage but to make the cause evident against her the Horse on which she rode could not be compell'd to come neare unto the place by a miles distance neither by faire usage nor sore beating or any course that man could devise after whose death her sonne Egelredas was Crowned King in the first yeare of whosâ— Reigne the Land grew barren and scarce bore any fruit there happened moreover a Plague which tooke away the men and a Murraine
which destroyed the Beasts and cat-Cattaile He proved likewise a great enemy to the Church being ungracious in the beginning wretched in the middle of his life and hatefull in the end thereof Neither could some Church-men cleare themselves of those Capitall Crimes which they very bitterly reproved in others For Sigandus made Bishop of Shirburne about the twelfth yeare of Edward sirnamed the Confessor shortly after usurped the Bishoprick of Winchester by strength who was a lewd and unlearned man as most of the Prelates of England were in those dayes and wholy devoted to Avarice Lust and Vaine-glory who could not containe himselfe within the Lists of keeping variety of Concubines which in those dayes was held but a veniall or quotidian sinne but he imploy'd his Panders to corrupt married women to his lustfull embraces thinking no wickednesse could be truely committed till hee had ascended the highest branch thereof and when it was openly spoken that he was unworthy the name of a Priest who made such boast of the pompe of the World the use of Voluptuousnesse Gluttony and Luxury whilst in the interim there was no care of instructing mens soules in the way towards Heaven Hee had learn'd from some one of his Chaplaines a better Scholler then himselfe this poore and slight Answer to evade it Nunc aliud tempus alii pro tempore mores Now the times are chang'd and wee have learnt to suit our Manners and Conditions to the present a notorious Church-temporizer in those dayes But though he reign'd long in great pompe and prosperity he was in the time of William the Conquerour deprived of all his Ecclesiasticall honours and confined to Winchester and there kept prisoner till he dyed who in that extreame dejection when he should onely have repented him of his former Avarice and studied newnesse of life would usually sweare he was a very poore man and not worth one peny and that hee was free from all Concupiscence of Lust both which were proved untrue For after his death a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found about his necke by which in divers places of the earth was discovered much Treasure and those Women that ministred unto him were no other then Prostitutes and Concubines Henry the second was a potent and most victorious Prince But after he had falne into the libidinous embraces of the Lady Rosamond Daughter to the Lord Fitzwaters he was never quiet but continually afflicted with Warres both forraine and domestick insomuch that both his Queene and Sons rebelled against him and put the whole Realme into great combustion and for her part shee did not escape a due scourge for her offence for though the King provided all meanes possible for her security and safety by building the intricate Labyrinth at Woodstock and gave her in charge to a most trusty Guardian yet the Queen at length by her Spies found her out and with more then a womanish chastisement which should ever savour of some mercy tore off those delicate locks with which the King had been so much intangled and forced her to drinke a draught of deadly poyson by which her life was compell'd out of her body and thus Lust ever carryeth her rod at her owne girdle To descend unto these latter times how many strange and bloudy murders have beene committed through Lust I will give them but a meere nomination because most of them have beene Staged Book'd and Balleted and disperst abroad through the Kingdome As Master Arden of â—eversham slaine by his wife and her adulterous Companion Cosby the act it selfe being committed in his owne house by a barbarous and inhumane villaine most commonly knowne by the name of Black Will who after the deed done and his reward received fled into the Low-Countries where he thought himselfe secure But Gods hand reached him even thither where for some other deed of the same nature he was burnt on a Stage in Flushing and shee her selfe with Cosby and his Sister together with a Gentleman Master Green who had carried Letters betwixt the two Adulterers though hee took it upon his death he knew not the intents of them were all publikely executed at the Gallowes The like murder was committed on the person of one Master Page of Plymouth by his young wife and one Master George Strangwidge who as the common voice went were privately contracted together before her inforc'd Marriage But howsoever as they were convicted of the murder so for the same they were condemn'd and publikely executed And but of late dayes those two bloudy Ministers of the Devill most commonly knowne by the names of Countrey Tom and Cambury Besse who made a trade to have her his Whore walke in the evening into the Fields and where she saw any Gentleman or other likely to have money about him or good cloathes on his backe shee would insinuate into his Company and with her libidinous allurements offer her selfe to his prostitution which if he accepted of that arch-limbe of the Devill who hid himselfe privately for that purpose and stealing upon them with a Bastinado hooped and plated with Iron beate out his Braines even in the very act of Lust neither having pitty of body or soule Then rifled they their Pockets and stript them of their cloathes of which they made profitable chaffer being vendible at the Brokers for the last of which being committed upon a young Gentleman of good quality by his cloathes they were discovered and apprehended hee being executed neare unto the place where the last Fact was committed and after being thence removed to a more remote place his body hangs in chaines upon a Gibbet even to this day and shee was hang'd in Clerken-well fields over against Islington If any would have further inspection into the cursed fruits of Lust let him but enquire after the monethly Sessions at New-gate where scarce one passeth without those that goe for Maid-servants either strangling their Bastard-Issue or putting them downe into privities not caring to save their smal credit in this world to hazard everlasting perdition in the world to come yet notwithstanding all their close packings they are in the end found out and brought to the Gallowes I am loath to be more tedious in this then the rest therefore I conclude with this Distick as a generall Caveat unto all libidinously addicted Quid facies facies veneris cum veneris ante Non Sedeas sedeas ne pereus pereus What wilt thou doe when thou before Loose Venus shalt appeare Stay not but take thine heeles lest her Allurements cost thee deare CHAP. VII Gods Judgements against the Sinne of Gluttony TThis Sinne of Gluttony tooke its originall in our great Grandam Eve as we read Genesis 2. 16. And the Lord God commanded the man saying thou shalt eat freely of every Tree of the Garden but of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eate of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye the