Temperance Frugality and moderation of the soule contented with her owne Riches The other of Waste Excesse Luxurious Riot and contempt of all order and mediocrity but in the Catastrophe or Conclusion the one is attended with shame and dishonour the other with applause and glory They be the very words of Plato Therfore let us suffice nature but surfeit not supply the bodies necessities but offend it not For who so shall endeavour the contrarie let him be forewarned by the subsequent examples Maximinus a Groome of base and sordid condition borne of needy Parents his Father being a poore shepheard and hee being of a strong and able body betooke himselfe to bee a common Souldier in which practice he shewed presidents of unexampled courage insomuch that he was promoted by the good Emperour Alexander Severus his Lord and Master to eminent place and Office and grew of great remarke in the Campe But such was his ambition and ingratitude withall that he conspired the death of his Prince and caused him with his Mother Mammaea to bee slaine leaving not one that was friend or favourite to his vertuous predecessor alive Which done hee usurped the Imperiall Purple who as hee was a Barbarous Thracian by birth so hee was by nature covetous after Bloud-shed removing all without any mercy whom hee either feared or hated or if neither so he knew him to be rich to possesse himselfe of his estate I will not stand to make a particular Relation of all his Insolencies Rapines Extortions Massacres and Murthers but come unto that which is now in agitation his Gluttony which was in such Excesse that every day for his owne particular allowance he had forty pounds of Flesh and Bread answerable to the quantity of Meat and five Gallons of Wine for his Drink and so much hee constantly devoured besides Sallets made Dishes and other Junkets and Kickshawes that came by the bye For though his maine repast was sollid Food on which hee laid his foundation yet was hee lickerish also after any other rarity that was served into his Table And yet for all this could not his God his Belly save him but after three yeares Usurpation in whose Imperiall Command hee had demeaned himselfe with all brutish Tyranny returning from the siege of Aquilaea which he was compell'd to leave to his great dishonour he was at Rome with one Balbitinus miserably cut to pieces amongst his Souldiers The Emperour Bonosus was also such another Vopiscus reports of him that as hee used to eate voraciously so hee dranke incessantly insomuch that no man was able to contend with him in his great draughts and Elbow-deep Healths insomuch that the Emperour Aurelianus said of him that fellow was onely borne to drinke not to live Upon a time when the Embassadors of the Babarians were to appeare before him and to deliver themselves from the King their Master in stead of hearing their Embassie hee caused great store of Wine to bee brought and pretending their liberall and free welcome and entertainment hee so ply'd them with healths that they were not able to expresse themselves for what cause they were sent thither but cunningly withall proposed unto them such questions that in their lavish cups they utter'd unto him the very secrets of their hearts being much more then they would have otherwise reveal'd and when hee had understood what he would hee tauntingly dismist them and would never affoord them further audience So much as he drunke so much he could evacuate at pleasure so that his body was never surcharged neither in all his day-riots or nights commessations could it bee perceived either by the faltering of his tongue or failing of his legs that hee was any way distempered he was of such an able constitution but all that could not secure his life or adde to his dayes for after being overcome by Probus who succeeded him in his Empire he caused him to dye a most unworthy death no way beseeming his former State and Dignity but rather suiting his vicious incontinency namely to be hanged by the neck in an Hempen Halter like a common Fellon From whence a Jest grew amongst the Souldiers Amphorum pendere non hominem That it was no man that hung there but a Tun or Hogshead The same Author Vopiscus speakes of one call'd Phago an insatiable Devourer who had no other pride nor practice in somuch that hee grew as famous for that abominable vice as if hee had beene possess'd with some extraordinary vertue His name and â—ame spread so farre that it came to the eares of the Emperour Aurelianus who for novelties sake willing to see if hee were able to doe what was reported of him admitted him to his Table and for whose dyet provision was made accordingly and divers spectators to behold the Prodegy there at one supper he devoured an hundred leaves of Bread a fat Wether and an Hog of a yeare old and drank to them according to the rate of eight Gallons of Wine insomuch that all left eating to see him feed and wondred the rather because he seem'd no way mov'd or distempered for which the Emperour at the intreaty of those who brought him thither dismist him with a reward But hee shortly after dyed miserably choked in the midst of his so gluttonous feeding A certaine Noble Generall being told that one of his Souldiers could at once eate such an huge quantity of provant and victuall that it seemed to him incredible hee sent for him and finding his other abilities no way exceeding others hee presently commanded him to bee hanged saying that he and an hundred more such as himselfe were in one moneths space able to starve him and his whole Army Clodius Albinus whose Guts were as a sinke or common Shore to entertaine what trash or garbage was conveighed into it yet withall loved to feed with all delicacy he is said at one Supper to have devour'd five hundred Figs an hundred Persick Apples ten Melons of Ostea twenty pound weight of Libican grapes an hundred Ficedulae which are Birds that feed upon the Vines much like a Nightingale and forty Oysters It is spoke of one called Heterognathus that through hasty eating he devoured the flesh from his owne Jawes and Cheeks and sent it downe packing with the rest Heraclides Pictas was such an Helno that scarce any of his time could parallell him some he would invite to Breakfast some others to Dinner a third company to Supper and feed heartily with them all sit as long as they would and eate and drinke with them without Intermission or Cessation and at night see all the Tables cleare that nothing were left for morning King Mithridatus also may truely bee call'd an insatiate eater who would give rewards to such as would feed highest and drinke deepest making it his greatest glory that hee was never exceeded in either yet was desirous to have others companions with him in his Gluttony setting which
his hand made for the purpose and so rudely curried the Advocates naked body that he drew his eyes out tore off his stones and almost all the skin of his body The like he did to his wife though she were with child The Advocate dyed within three dayes after in great torment The Atturney transported himselfe to another place and his wife with much adoe recovering her rubbing spent the rest of her dayes there confounded with shame and infamy A Nobleman of Piedmont having married a Maid of mean parentage notwithstanding the honour she received by him she shamelesly abused her Lords bed by continuall Adulteries with a Gentleman his neighbour Which he knowing and purposing to take them in the act of uâ—cleannesse caused a packet of Letters to be brought him as from his Prince calling him to Court with an intent to send him in Embassage to a Forreine State Having imparted these Letters to his wife and providing all things necessary for his journey he departed with all his traine but at night stayes at a Castle of his to the Governour whereof he discovers his mis-fortune and designe and being followed onely by him and a Groome of his chamber all well armed in a darke night they came to the Castle where his Adulterate wife was in bed with her Amorist The Castellane told the Porter he had Letters from his Lord which he must presently deliver to his Lady The Porter opens the Gate and they suddenly all enter The Lord forbids the Porter to make any noyse but commanding him to light a Torch he presently goes to his Ladies chamber where the Castellane knocking toll'd an old woman her Baud that he had Letters from his Lord which his Lady must answer speedily This Lady drunke with her Lust commanded the old woman to open the doore and receive the Letters Then the Lord with the other two rushed in and suddenly seized on the two Adulterers naked together And after some furious words uttered he commanded his Lady with the helpe of her Baud to bind her Adulterate friend hand and foot and afterwards to hang him up upon a great Hooke fastned into a Beame for that purpose Then he caused the bed to be burnt commanding all the other moveables to be carried away he left onely a little straw for this Whore and Baud to lye on appointing that the dead body should remaine there untill the stink of it had choked them So having past some few dayes in that miserable plight they wretchedly ended their lives together Plutarch reckons this out of Dosythaus lib. 3. rerum saecularum Cyanippus the Syracusian being foxt with Wine meeting with his daughter Cyane in a darke corner by force comprest her but shee not knowing the party by whom she was deflowred pluck't off a Ring from his finger and gave it to her Nurse to keep which her Father after missing and shee finding by that assuredly that he was the man by whom she was vitiated shee found an opportunitie to transpierce him with a sword by which wound hee died and then shee her selfe fell on the same weapon and perish'd also The like Arisidas Italic lib. 3. relates of one Armutius who all the time of his youth lived a very continent and abstemious life but upon a time having drunke above measure he also in the night stuprated his daughter Medullinus who also knowing the ravisher by his Ring then taken from his Finger slew him without any respect of Filiall duty Fabinus Fabricanus the Cousin of Maximus having subdued Fuxia the chiefe City of the Samnites in which interim his Wife Fabia falling into the wanton embraces of her neare kinsman Petronius Valentinus at his home returne they conspired to murther him which having done they made a match together and were marryed But shee fearing that her new Husband might insiduate the life of her young Sonne Fabricianus who was then but a Childe she conveigh'd him thence to be liberally educated and instructed abroad who when hee grew to be a man and understood how treacherously and perfidiously his Father had been murdered and by whom he came disguis'd to Rome and having waited his opportunity slew both the Adulterer and the Adulteresse and for that act was acquit by the Senate One Story I connot forget remembred by Platine who writ the lives of the Popes though it be a mighty shame and a most ignominious aspersion not to exceed those in vertue whom we antecell in place and dignity yet this nothing mov'd Pope Iohn the twelfth of that name but that all honesty set apart and modesty quite banish'd he kept at his own charge a whole Seraglia of Prostitutes and Strumpets with whom night and day hee revelled and rioted which wickednesse escaped not without a most remarkable Judgement For he was after miserably slaine in the very act of Adultery Childebert the second and seventeenth King of France anno 692. grew in an utter detestation of his lawfull Wife and Queene Plectrude who was a Lady of a chaste and untainted life and divorc'd her from his Bed and Table in whose stead he received into his bosome one Alpayde a Gentlewoman of excellent Beauty and Feature but of a cruell and bloudy condition For when Lambert Bishop of Vtrecht a man of a strict life and austere conversation undertook boldly to lay his sinne before him and tell him the danger thereof notwithstanding hee had before restored him to his Episcopall See of which he had been before deprived shee having notice thereof could not rest in quiet till she had caused her Brother Dodon to kill this good Bishop which was done by the Kings consent For which neither of them escaped vengeance for Dodon dy'd despairing and mad and the King was strook after the acting of this murder with a disease of Wormes the stench wherof he not being able to endure threw himselfe headlong into the River of Mentz A strange and heavy Judgement for Wormes to eate his living flesh so that corruption did not altogether follow after death but contrary to nature hee rotted and his body putrified before death till the Worme of Conscience attended his soule a more miserable Death still attending a bad Life Philip the second sirnamed Augustus upon discontents repudiated his Queen Gelberge For which the King of Denmarke made complaint to the Pope of this injury done unto his Sister and the rather because neither Crime nor Delinquency nor the suspition of any could bee proved against her But this publike aspersion being cast upon her howsoever innocent must needs call her Honour into question which cannot bee but greatly to her harme and prejudice These things with other being alledged a day of hearing was appointed before the Popes Legate in the Bishops Hall at Paris where the Kings Cause was strongly maintained by the venters and Advocates but no one appeared in the poore Queenes defence insomuch that Sentence was ready to be pronounc'd against her and speedy
he suffer deeds of such horrid nature to passe unpunished in this world what vengeance soever he without true repentance reserveth for them in the world to come as it is observable in this present History for Lewis the fourth the thirty third King of France by lineall discent comming to the Crowne being the sonne to the before-named Charles the simple and loath that so grosse a treason committed against his father should be smothered without some notable revenge being very ingenious he bethought himselfe how with the least danger or effusion of bloud in regard of the others greatnesse and alliance how to bring it about and therefore he devised this plot following He caused a letter to be writ which he himselfe did dictate and hired an English-man who came disguised like a Poste to bring it unto him as from the King his Master at such a time when many of his Peeres were present and amongst the rest this Herebert was amongst them this suborned Poste delivereth the letter to the Kings hands hee gives it to his principall Secretary who read it privately unto him who presently smiling said openly Most sure the English-men are not so wise as I esteemed them to be for our Brother of England hath signified unto me by these letters that in his Countrey a labouring-man having invited his Lord and Master to dine with him at his house and he vouchsafing to grace his Cottage with his presence in the base requitall of so noble a curtesie he caused him to be most treacherously slaine and now my Brother of England desireth my counsell to know what punishment this fellow hath deserved In which I desire to be instructed by you my Lords that hearing your censures I may returne him the more satisfactory answer The King having ended his Speech the Lords were at first silent till at length Theobant Earle of Bloyes was the first that spake and said that hee was worthy first to be tortured and after to be hanged on a Gibbet which sentence all the Lords there present confirmed and some of them amongst the rest much aggravating the punishment which also Herebert Earle of Vermendoys did approve and allow of whereupon the Kings Officers who by his Majesties appointment then waited in a with-drawing roome of purpose seised upon him with an armed guard at which sudden surprise hee being much amazed the King raising himselfe from his seat said Thou Hebert art that wicked and treacherous labourer who didst most trayterously insidiate the life of my father thy Lord and Master of which felonious act thine owne sentence hath condemned thee and die thou shalt as thou hast well deserved whereupon he was hanged on a Gibbet on the top of a Mountaine called Lodan which since his execution is called Mount Hebert to this day Bajazet the great Emperour of the Turkes who in his mighty pride thought with his numerous Army to drinke rivers dry and to weight the mountaines in a ballance who had made spoyle of many Nations and with tyranny persecuted the Christians dispersed through his vast dominions who compared the world to a Ship and himselfe to the Pilot who commanded the sayles and secured the helme yet afterwards being met in battaile by Scythian Tamberlaine and his Army being quite routed his person also taken prisoner in the field the Conquerour put this untamed beast into an iron cage and caused him to be fed from the very fragments and scraps from his table and carried along with him whither soever hee marched and onely then released him from his imprisonment when he was forced to stoope and humble his body as a blocke to tread upon whilest Tamberlaine mounted upon his steed but here ended not Gods visible Judgements against this Usurper Persecutor and Tyrant who in despaire rayling upon his Prophet Mahomet in whom he had in vaine trusted against the Iron grate in which he was inclosed beate out his owne braines and wretchedly expired Infinite are the examples to the like purpose but I will leave those Forraine to come to our Domestick extracted out of our owne Chronologers and first of King Bladud Who was the sonne of Lud Hurdribras and after the death of his father was call'd from Rome where hee had studied darke and hidden Arts and was made Governour in this Isle of Brittain in the yeare of the world foure thousand three hundred and eighteene For so testifieth Gualfride Polichronicon and other ancient remembrancers This Bladud was altogether devoted to the study of Magick and Necromancy and very expert in Judiciall Astrology by which he is said to make the hot Baths in the Towne then called Caerbadon but now Bath which Citie he is said to have erected This King caused the Art of Magick to be taught through his Realm and ordained Schooles and Schoole masters to that purpose in which hee tooke such pride and presumption as that he thought by it all things were possible to be done so much the Devill the first master and founder of that Art had deluded him so farre that at the length having called a great confluence of his people about him he made an attempt to flie in the arre but fell upon the Temple of his god Apollo where he brake his neck his body being torne and bruised after he had raigned twenty yeares leaving a sonne called Leire to succeed him and continue his posterity Goodwin Earle of west Saxon in the time of Edward the sonne of Egelredus was of that insufferable ambition by reason of his great revenues and numerous issue for he had five sonnes and one daughter that he swayed the whole Kingdome and almost compulsively compelled the King his Soveraigne to take his daughter Edith to wife After rebelling against the King and forced with his sonnes to depart the Land yet after he made such meanes that hee mediated his peace and was reconciled to him 〈◊〉 but amongst all his other insolencies he was accessary to the death of the Kings brother or at least much suspected to be so which was the first breach betwixt his Soveraigne and him But so it happened in the thirteenth yeare of the raigne of this King Edward Earle Goodwin upon an Easter Monday sitting with diverse other Lords and Peeres of the Kingdome at the Kings table in the Castle of Windsor it happened one of the Kings Cup â—eaâ—â—â—s to stumble and yet well to recover himselfe without falling and not spilling any of the wine which Earle Goodwin observing laughed aloud and said There one brother helped the other thereby intimating that the one leg or foot had well supported the other from falling To which words the King instantly replyed and so might my brother Alphred have bin still living to have helped and supported me had not Earle Goodwin supplanted him by death At which words being startled as conceiving that the King suspected him of his brothers murder thinking to excuse himself of that horrible act he said to the King Sir I perceive
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
rid downe to Hereford in the marches of Wales where at that time his brothers servants were very busie to make provision for the entertainment of the King invited thither by Harold who when he was thither come most cruelly and inhumanely he fell upon the innocent servants and â—lew them all and after cut them into pieces and gobbets which he put into sowce and salt pickling and powdering their limbes and afterward sent messengers to the King and his brother to give them to understand that if they brought fresh meate along with them hee had provided them of powdered meate as much as they could desire Which barbarous act being bruited abroad it made him so hatefull to all men that his owne tenants and people men of Northumberland the Province of which he was then Lord rose up in Armes against him seising all the Lands and Goods of which he was possest and chased him into Flanders with no more then one or two servants to attend him where he remained with his wife and children during the Kings life But when his brother Harold after the decease of K. Edward had usurped the Crowne Fostius envying his brothers Soveraignty having purchased to himselfe a Navy of threescore small ships sailed about the Isle of Wight and the coast of Kent where hee robbed and tooke preyes and from thence went into Lindsee where hee did much harme by fire and sword but was chased thence by Edwin and Malearus the Earles of Mercia and Northumberland Then he sayled into Scotland where he stayed till the Summer after And when Harold Harfager the sonne of Canutus King of Denmarke and Norway invaded the Realme Fostius took part with him against his brother Harold and in a dreadfull battaile fought neare Stemisford Bridge he with all his complices and adherents were miserably cut to pieces A just Judgement suting with his former envy butchery and tyranny But leaving many Histories and Examples with strange inflictions imposed upon this sinne I come to the later times as low as to the raigne of Edward the sixt over whom by his fathers last Will for the time of his minority his two Unkles the brothers Seymors being made chiefe Guardians it happened that the two great Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolke Dudley and Gray much murmured and maligned that they should beare such sway in the Kingdome The one being Lord Protector the other Lord high Admirall one having great power by Land the other by Sea by which their glories seemed to be much ecclipsed and finding no way how to supplant them by their servants they took a newer course and practised it by their wives to draw their ruines out of their owne bosomes and thus it happened Sir Thomas Seymor the younger brother being Admirall and having married King Henries Queene Dowager whose good fortune it was of all the rest to survive her husband she was suggested to contest with her sister in law for priority in place to which the other for both were privately incouraged by the two Dukes would no way assent the one claiming precedence as she had beene Queene the other challenging it as she was now the Protectors wife The wives set their husbands at oddes by taking their parts insomuch that there grew envy and heart-burning betwixt them so that in the third yeare of the young King the Admirall was questioned about his Office and by the consent of his brother condemned in Parliament to have his head strooke off the Protector with his owne hand signing the Warrant for his death The one brother being thus removed there was now the lesse difficulty to supplant the other for in the same moneth of February in which his brother lost his head was the Protector by the Lords of the Counsell committed to the Tower but about a yeare after by intercession of the King and his submission to the Lords of the Counsell upon the sixt of February he was released and set at liberty yet this proved but a lightning before a clap of thunder For the two Dukes his great and potent adversaries still prosecuted their malice insomuch that not long after calling him to a second account when he had nobly acquitted himselfe of all Treasons whatsoever that could be alleadged against him He was in a tryall at Guild-Hall not having a Jewry of his Peeres convicted of Felony and in the first yeare of the King upon the two and twentieth day of Ianuary the great Duke of Sommerset the Kings Unkle and Lord Protector was beheaded upon the Tower Hill But this envy in the two Dukes escaped not without Gods heavy Judgements for after the Kings death Northumberland having a large commission from the Lords signed with the great Seale of England to raise an Army to suppresse the Lady Mary afterward repenting thereof sent a countermand after him and when he thought himselfe in most security the Nobility forsaking him and the Commons abandoning him hee with his sonnes and some few servants in Cambridge were left alone where notwithstanding in the open Market-place he proclaimed the Lady Mary Queene yet in Kings Colledge he was arrested of high Treason and thence brought to the Tower of London and on a scaffold upon the Hill the twelfth day of August next following lost his head The Duke of Suffolke being likewise proclaimed Traytor had a servant called Vnderwood whom he had raised to a faire estate and therefore to his trust he committed his person who for some moneths concealed him in an hollow tree and morning and evening brought him his food with millions of oaths engaged for his truth and fidelity but being corrupted with a small quantity of gold and some large promises he betrayed him and delivered him up to the noble Earle of Huntington under whose conduct the Duke with a strong guard of speare-men was conveyed through London to the Tower and the seaventh day after his surprisall he was arraigned and convicted of Treason in the great Hall at Westminster and upon the twenty fourth day on the Tower Hill beheaded In this relation it is worthy to be observed in those two great Dukes of Sommerset and Northumberland that though the whole Kingdome could scarce satiate their ambitions yet now a small piece of earth contents them for they lie buried together before the Altar in Saint Peters Church in the Tower betwixt two Queenes the wives of King Henry the eight Queene Anne and Queene Katharine they being also both beheaded CHAP. III. Gods dreadfull Judgements against Wrath. DIverse are the divisions and branches of this sinne of Wrath which some reduce to these foure heads Mortall Veniall Capitall Generall It is then called Mortall when it hath a desire to punish not to satisfie the Justice of the Law but its spleene or when through the vehemence of anger it divides from the love of God and our neighbour or when it seekes a severe and cruell revenge for trifling delinquencies It is called Veniall when the motion of ire doth
seeing him run they ran after him all not knowing the originall of this uprore they stop him and demand the cause of his flight who in his great affright and terrour of conscience said He was the man They asked what man he answered the same man that committed such a bloody murder so many yeares since upon which he was apprehended and committed to Newgate arraigned by his own confession condemned and hanged first on a gibbet and after at Mile-end in chaines Thus we see how the devill never leaves his ministers and servants especially in this horrid case of murder without shame and judgement Another strange but most true story I shall relate of a young Gentleman of good meanes and parentage brought up in Cambridge whose name for his worshipfull kinreds sake I am desirous to conceal he being of a bould spirit and very able body and much given unto riot and expence could not containe himselfe within his exhibition but being a fellow-commoner lavisht much beyond his allowance to helpe which and to keepe his credit in the Towne he kept a good horse in the stable and oftentimes would flie out and take a purse by the high-way and thus he continued a yeare or thereabouts without the jealousie or suspition of any At length his quarterly meanes not being come up from his father and hee wanting money to supply his ordinary riots hee put himselfe into a disguise tooke horse and crossing New-market Heath he discovered a purchase a serving-man with a cloak-bag behinde him and spying him to travell singly and alone he made towards him and bid him stand and deliver the other unacquainted with that language answered him that he had but little money and what he had he was loath to part with Then said the Gentleman thiefe thou must fight for it Content saith the other and withall both alight and drew and fell stoutly to their businesse in this conflict the honest serving-man was infortunately slain which done the other but sleightly wounded tooke away his cloak-bagge and binding it behinde his owne horse up and fled towards the University and having set up his horse in the Town and carried the cloak-bagge or Portmantuan to his chamber he no sooner opened it but he found a Letter directed to him from his father the contents whereof were That hee had sent him his quarterly or halfe-yeares allowance by his owne man a faithfull servant commended unto him by a deare friend whom he had lately entertained willing his sonne to use the man kindly for his sake which Letter when he had read and found the money told to a penny and considering he had kil'd his owne fathers man whom he had intreated to be used curteously at his hands and onely to take away his owne by force abroad which hee might have had peaceably and quietly brought home to his chamber he grew to be strangely alter'd changing all his former mirth into a deepe melancholy In briefe the robbery and murder were found and known and the Lord chiefe Justice Popham then riding that Circuit whose neare kinsman hee was he was arraigned and condemned at Cambridge Assises though great meanes were made for his pardon yet none could prevaile the Judge forgetting all alliance would neither commiserate his youth nor want of discretion but caused him without respect of person to be hanged up amongst the ordinary and common malefactors Doctor Otho Melander reports this horrible parricide to be committed in the yeare of Grace 1568. within the Saxon confines At a place called Albidos neare unto the Lyon Tower which hath beene an ancient seat of the Dukes of that Countrey There saith he lived a father who had two sonnes the one hee brought up to husbandry the other in merchandise both very obedient and dutifull and given to thrift and good husbandry the Merchant traded in Lubeck where in few yeares hee got a very faire estate and falling sicke even in his prime trading he made his Will in which hee bequeathed to his brother about the summe of five hundred pounds and his father ten and died some few houres after he had setled his estate But before his death he sent to his brother to come in person and receive those Legacies the father not knowing how he had disposed of his meanes dispatcht his other sonne with all speed possible to Lubeck more avaritious after what his sonne the Merchant had left him then sorrowing for his death though hee were a young man of great expectation and of a most hopefull fortune The surviving sonne who was the younger arriveth at the Citie and having first deplored the death of his brother as nature bound him and glad to heare of him so great and good a report he takes out a copie of the Will and after receiveth his money to a farthing and with this new stock seeing what was past hee joyfully returnes into his owne Countrey who at his first arrivall was as gladly welcommed by his father and mother who were over-joyed to looke upon the bagges that hee had brought but when by reading of the Will they saw how partially the money was disposed in that so little fell to their share they first began bitterly to curse the dead sonne and after barbarously to raile on the living out-facing him that he had changed the Will by altering the old and forging a new which the innocent youth denying and excusing himselfe by telling them that the originall was upon record and by that they might be fully satisfied yet all would give them no satisfaction till very wearinesse made them give over their heavy execrations then the sonne offered them whatsoever was his to dispose of at their pleasure which they very churlishly refused and bad him take all and the Devill give him good with it which drew teares from the sonnes passionate eyes who after his blessing craved but denyed very dolefully left them and was no sooner departed from them but to compasse this money they began to devise and consult about his death which they concluded to be performed that night and when hee was sleeping in his bed they both set violently and tygerly upon him forcing daggers into his breast so that inforced with the agony of the wounds he opened his eyes and spying both his parents with their hands imbrued in his bloud he with a loud ejaculation clamour'd out these words or to the same sence Quae non Aurum hominem cogis quae non mala suades In Natos etiam stringere ferra Iubes That is O Gold to what dost thou not compell man to what evils dost thou not perswade are not these sufficient but must thou cause parents to sheath their weapons in their owne bowels their children which words were uttered with such a loud and shrill shreeke that it was heard by the neighbours who starting out of their beds and breaking open the doores found them in the very act before the body was cold for which they were apprehended
noise not so much as a sigh or groane hee began to imagine that shee was dead and so indeed it prov'd hee then more incivilly then before rapt at his Ladyes chamber-doore and wakned her telling her that shee had now the event of her bloudy and cruell desires for by reason that there was a still silence in the Dungeon hee perceived the poore Virgin had expired her life At which words being startl'd and strangely mov'd she rose from her bed and calling for store of lights caused the Dungeon doore to be opened where they might behold a most ruthfull and samentable spectacle the maid throwne upon her backe and foure great Snakes wrapt about her one of an extraordinary bignesse wound about her neck another had twinde it selfe encompassing both her legges a third like a girdle imbrac'd her waste or middle a fourth stuck upon her jawes stretching its selfe to its utmost length which no sooner taken thence but was found dead having so ingorg'd it selfe with her bloud that it swel'd and burst asunder At whichsight the Lady strook with the horrour thereof from a suddaine melancholy grew into a meere madnesse and in a raging fit soon after dy'd Strange were that act abroad which cannot in some sort be parallel'd with us at home At Gainsborough in Lincolnshire it happened that a Gentleman of the Town had occasion to ride up to London about his Term businesse and as the custome is in the Countrey the night before a man takes his journey his neighbours and friends will send in their meat and sup with him and drinke to the hope of his safe returne and so they did to him Now this Gentleman had in his house a young gentlewoman sent thither to bee tuter'd and withall to learne good huswifrie and was about the age of fourteen or fifteen yeares at the most The next morning before hee tooke horse when hee call'd for water this maid brought him the Towell and Bason and held it till hee had wash'd onely in rubbing of his hands he sprinkled a little water on her face which his wife observed after Breakfast the Gentleman road on his journey and the woman in whom this slight accident strooke a deepe impression of devillish Jealousie soon after call'd to the maid to deliver her an account of her linnen us'd the night before which was her charge she having hid a Napkin or two out of the way of purpose to pick a quarrell with her The Girle sought in every roome and could not finde them then she bid her looke in the next Chamber but shee was no sooner up staires but after followes the Mistresse like an incens'd Virago and shut the doores fast upon her then casts her upon the Bed and threw another Feather-bed upon her and spying a Scotch Pocket-Dagger hanging by the Walls shee tooke out one of the knives and casting her selfe upon the upper bed turn'd up the bottome where she fell most unwoman-like to worke with her maid making her quite uncapable of future marriage and this was done withinin memory for to the womans great ignominy and shame in the same Towne I have heard it reported and been shewne the very house where the deed was done The horridnesse of which Act makes me that I cannot conceale her name shee was call'd Mistris Brig house In this intrim a Serving-man comming in and hearing his Mistris was in great displeasure and distemperature gone up with her maid and knowing her froward and hasty disposition he went to the doore and knockt but hearing none but one as it were miserably forcing breath for life he lookt in either at some chinke or the key-hole where he saw his Mistris in the same posture I before described with a knife in her hand and one pittifully bleeding under her He broke open the doore being Wainscot and casting her off from the Bed to the floore tooke up the Maid nigh stifled and carried her to a neighbours house where Chyrurgeons were sent for and she in time recovered of life though shee had made her utterly unable of Conception But what gain'd shee by this her uncivill cruelty she was after abhorr'd by all good and modest women asham'd to looke out of her owne doores neither would any of fashion converse with her but held it a scandall to be but seen in her company But now to return to the Judgments inflicted upon adultery and to shew what our own countrey relates as those perpetrated and committed in this Land King Locrine who succeeded his Father Brute in the Kingdome tooke to his Bride Guendolina daughter to Corinaus Duke of Cornwall who lived in great conjugall love together having a young Prince to their issue call'd Madan but after the King having rest and ease in his age with which his youth was scarce acquainted with he was greatly enamoured of a delicate faire Lady whose name was Estrild the daughter of one Homber a Dane who with a great power invading the Land the King gave him battaile and having routed their whole Army they were forc'd to take that great River which parteth Lincoln-shire and Holdernes and runnes up to Hull in which he with his people being drowned left to the same River his name unto this day To returne to the matter Locrine had by this Lady Estrild a daughter call'd Sabrina but this close packing could not be long conceal'd but by some who thought to insinuate into the favour of the Queen who was of a haughty and masculine spirit all was told her for which being mightily incensed no mediation could appease her implacability but she first incensed her Father and then all her owne particular friends whom by her bounty or favour shee had before obliged to make Warre upon her Husband and prevailing in her purpose shee gave the King Battaile in which his party was discomfited and he himselfe slaine in field This revenge to any of reason might seeme sufficient but here her anger rested not but shee caused the faire Estrild and her Daughter Sabrina to be brought unto her Tent where having reviled them both one with the name of Whore the other of Bastard shee in her heat of bloud and height of rage commanded them both to be throwne into the River neare unto the place where the Battaile was late fought where they were both drowned the River upon that accident losing the name and after the Daughter Sabrina hath beene called Severne even to this day Brithricus the first King of the West Saxons began his Reigne in the yeare of our Lord seven hundred threescore and eighteen and the tenth of Charles the Great then King of France who took to Wife Ethelburge one of the Daughters of Off a King of Mercia he was a valiant Prince and renowned for many Warlike exploits but especially for beating the Danes and compelling them to avoid the Land But what can Valour or Prowesse availe against a wicked and cursed woman who the more freely to
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 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
death Againe 3. 6. So the Woman seeing that the Tree was good for meat and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a Tree to be desired to get Knowledge took of the fruit thereof and did eate and gave also to her husband with her and he did eate For which they were most grievously punished and all man-kinde for their sakes For Verse 16. Vnto the Woman God said I will greatly encrease thy sorrowes and thy conception In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children and thy defire shal be subject to thy husband and he shall rule over thee Also to Adam he said Because thou hast obeyed the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the Treewhereof I commanded thee saying Thou shalt not eate of it Cursed is the earth for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life Thornes also and Thistles shall it bring forth unto thee and thou shalt eate the herbe of the field in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate bread till thou returne to the earth for out of it wast thou taken because thou art dust and to dust shalt thou returne We read Numb 11. 32. then the people arose all that day and all that night and all the next day and gathered the Quailes he that gathered the least gathered ten Homers full and they spread them abroad for their use round about the Host whilst the flesh was yet in their teeth before it was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people and the Lord smote the people with an exceeding great plague There they buried the people that fell a lusting Deut. 6. When thou shalt eate and be satisfied beware diligently that thou forgettest not the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and the house of bondage Againe 21. 20. The Parents shall say to the Elders of his City This our Son is stubborne and disobedient and will not obey our commandement but is a Rioter and a Drunkard Then all the men of the City shall stone him with stones unto death so shalt thou take away evill from amongst you that all Israell may heare it and feare Ecclesiasticus 31. 12. If thou sittest at a costly Table open not thy mouth wide upon it and say not behold much meat Remember that an evill eye is a shame and what thing created is worse then a wicked eye for it weepeth for every cause Stretch not thine hand wheresoever it looketh and thrust it not with it into the Dish Eate modestly that which is set before thee and devour not lest thou bee'st hated Leave then off first for nurtures sake and be not insatiable lest thou offend When thou sittest amongst many reach not thy hand out first of all How little is sufficient for a man well taught and thereby he belcheth not in his Chamber nor feeleth any paine A wholsome sleep commeth of a temprate Belly he riseth up in the morning and is well at ease with himselfe but paine is watching and choler like diseases and pangs of the belly are insatiable men If thou bee inforced to eate arise goe forth and empty thy stomack and then take thy rest so shalt thou bring no sicknesse unto thine house Shew not thy valiantnesse in Wine for wine hath destroyed many the Furnace proveth the edge of the tempering so doth Wine the hearts of the proud by drunkennesse Wine soberly drunk is profitable for the life of man what is life that is overcome with Wine Wine was made from the beginning to make man glad and not for drunkennesse Wine measurably taken and in time bringeth gladnesse and chearefulnesse of the minde but drinke with excesse maketh bitternesse of minde brawlings and scoldings Drunkennesse increaseth the rage of a Foole till he offend it diminisheth his strength and maketh wounds c. Againe 37. 28. be not greedy in all delights and bee not too hasty of all meats for excesse of meats bringeth sicknesse and gluttony commeth with cholerick Diseases By surfeit have many perished and he that dyeteth himselfe prolongeth his life Thus farre the old Testament let us now heare what the Gospel saith Luke 6. 24. Woe be to you that are rich for ye have received your consolation Woe be to you that are full for yee shall be hungry Woe be unto you that now laugh for yee shall waile and weepe Againe 21. 34. Take heed lest at any time your hearts be oppressed with surfeiting and drunkennesse and cares of this life lest that day come upon you unawares For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth Watch therefore and pray continually that yee may bee counted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to passe and that ye may stand before the Sonne of Man Rom. 13. 12. The night is past and the day is at hand let us therefore cast away the workes of darknesse and let us put on the Armour of light so that we walke honestly as in the day not in drunkennesse or gluttony nor in chambering or wantonnesse nor in strife or envying but put yee on the Lord Iesus Christ and take no thought for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it And Luke 17. In the dayes of Noe they eate and dranke they marryed Wives and were given in marriage even untill the day that Noe entred into the Arke and the floud came and destroyed them all Thus farre the Scriptures I come now to the Fathers St. Ambrose in one of his Sermons saith That ill Ministers wait upon the Throat which alwayes covets but is never satisfied for what is more insatiable then the belly to day it receives to morrow it requires being full it commends abstinence being empty it cannot endure the name of any such vertue Hunger is a friend to chastity an enemy to wantonnesse But saturity betrayeth modesty and corrupts good manners It is not the meat but the immoderate appetite that is condemned For as St. Augustine saith It was not for a Quaile or a Phesant that Eve longed for but for an Apple and thereby brought a curse unto all man-kinde It was not for a Kid or a Lamb of the flock that Esau hungred but for a messe of Broth for which he sold his birth-right Elias was fed with flesh but Iohn the Baptist with Locusts and wilde Honey and David thirsted not for wine but water for which he reprehended himselfe neither was our Saviour in the Wildernesse tempted by the Devill with flesh but bread and as Gregory in his Moralls saith It is not the meat but the lust after it that is in fault for we oft-times may eate of dainty Cates without offence and yet upon course and common fare may sinne by surfeit And in another place where Gluttony is predominant all those honours that men winne are lost and whilst the belly is not bridl'd all vertues runne to havocke but when that is curb'd and