the Gentiles writes thus in the name and person of all the primitive Christians of his age Wee renounce your Spectacles and Stage-playes as farre forth as we reject their originalls which we know to have had their conception from superstition We have nothing at all to doe with the furie of the Circus with the dishonesty or lewdnes of the Theatre with the cruelty of the Arena with the vanity of the Xystus or Wrestling place wee come not at all unto your Playes Loe here a professed publike Protestation of all the primitive Christians against these Playes and Spectacles which we so much admire whose detestation of Playes was so notoriously knowne to the Pagans that Tertullian in his Booke De Spectaculis affirmes That the Heathen Gentiles did most of all discerne men to be Christians by this that they abandoned and renounced Stage-playes And shall this which was the eminentest badge of a Christian heretofore be nothing else but the ignominious brand of a Puritan now Certainly its a strong argument that those whom the world now brands for Puritans are in truth no other but the sincerest Christians and that those who stile them so especially for condemning or renouncing Stage-playes are little better I had almost said as bad nay worse than Pagans since he manifestly denies himselfe to be a Christian who takes away this speciall marke by which hee is knowne to be a Christian as the same Tertullian there inferres Thirdly this truth is evident by Theophilus Patriarke of Antiochia about the yeare of our Lord 170 Who in the person of all the Christians of that age writes thus unto Autolycus Wee are all prohibited to behold sword-playes lest we should be made partakers of such murthers Neither dare wee beholde those other Playes and Spectacles lest our eyes should be defiled and our eares should draw in those prophane verses that are there uttered neither dare wee so much as to heare Thyestis whiles hee commemorates tragicall villanies c. Neither is it lawfull for us to heare the adulteries of the Gods and men which they modulate with a sweete straine of words being allured unto it by rewards Farre be it farre be it I say from Christians with whom temperance and modesty flourish and chastity beares sway that wee should so much as thinke much lesse behold or act such villanies as these What fuller what plainer declaration against Stage-playes can we desire than this Fourthly Athenagoras the famous Christian Philosopher in his Apologie or Embassie for the Christians to M. Aurelius Antoninus and Aurelius Commodus two Roman Emperours about the yeare of our Lord 180 writes thus in the behalfe of the Christians of that age We utterly disaffect and condemne your gladiatory Spectacles Playes and Enterludes Fifthly Minutius Felix that famous Christian Lawyer who flourished about 200 yeares after Christ in his incomparable Dialogue stiled Ostavius in the defence of the Christians brings in Caelicius a Pagan taxing the Christians for that they resorted not to Stage-playes neither were they present at publike shewes to which Octavius in the behalfe of all the Christians gives this reply We therefore who are valued by our manners and chastity deservedly withdraw our selves from your evill pleasures Playes and spectacles whose originall we know to have proceeded from idolatry and which we condemne as pernicious allurements unto sinne Sixthly St. Cyprian that godly Martyr Bishop of Carthage about the yeare of our Lord 250. informes Gucratius in an Epistle purposely written to him to this end that it would not stand with the Majesty of God nor the discipline of the Gospell that the chastity and honour of the Church shoâ—ld be contaminated with so filthy a contagion as to permit a Stage-player either to act his Playes or to traine up others for the Stage though he had given over acting himselfe A pregnant evidence in what tearmes of opposition the primitive Church and Christians stood wiâ—h Stage-players and their filthy Enterludes which they could upon no tearmes brooke Seventhly the 3. Councell of Carthage about the yeare of our Lord 394. Can. 11. which prohibits the sonnes of Bishops and Clergie men from exhibiting and beholding Stage-playes informes us that all Christians had beene alwayes inhibited from resorting to such places where Players and blasphemers came If all Christians then have alwayes beene prohibited from resorâ—ing unto Stage-playes as this ancient Councell affirmes it is cerâ—aine the primitive Church and Christians did evermore condemne them and can we yet approve applaud frequent them now Eighthly St. Chrysostome about 400 yeares after Christ in his 15. Homely to the people of Antioch and in his 38. Homely upon Matthew writes That all the Christians of Antioch in the time of their feare and danger had of their owne accord shut up the Play-house doores and stopped up all passages to the Circus running hastily with zeale and earnestnesse to the Church to praise the Lord in stead of resorting to the Theaters which as to us and all good Christians in whose person hee speakes lie desolate and ruinated long agoe Ninthly Saint Augustine about the yeare of our Lord 410. records That when the Gospell was spread abroad in the world Stage-playes and Play-houses the very caves of filthinesse and professions of wicked persons went to ruine almost in every Citty as inconsistent with it whence the Gentiles complained of the times of Christianity as evill and unhappy seasons An apparant demonstration that the truth and power of Religion the true Church and servants of Christ were as opposite to Stage-playes to Theatres in the primitive times as the Arke to Dagon Christ to Bâ—lial and shall we now yoake them both together Lastly St. Bernard about the yeare of our Lord 1130. instructs us That all the faithfull souldiers of Iesus Christ abominate and reject all dicing all stage-players south-sayers tellers of fables all scurrilous songs and stage-playes as vanities and false frensies Neither delight they in the ravenous sport of hauking They cut their haire and weare it short knowing according to the Apostle that it is a shame for a man to nourish his haire All which concurring testimonies infallibly cleare this undoubted truth That the whole primitive Church and all godly Christians that lived in it have unanimously constantly and professedly with greatest detestation abominated renounced and condemned Stage-playes For the further manifestation of which I shall desire you to consider but these particulars more First that the Scriptures both Canonicall and Apochryphall together with the Apostles the Whole Nation of the Iewes the Sainâ—s and Church of God both before and under the Law rejected and abandoned Stage-playes as I have largely proved in the precedent Scene therefore the primitive Church and Christians under the Gospell could not but censure and oppugne them too Secondly the most the chiefest Fathers and Councels in the primitive Church have abundantly unanimously professedly condemned Stage-playes in the highest
falshood cosenage indirect dealingâ— if you will learne to deceive to play the hypocrite sycophant parasite and flatterer if you will learne to cogge lie and falsifie to jest laugh and fleere to grin nodde and mow to play the vice to curse sweare teare and blaspheme both heaven and earth in all kindes and diversities of oathes if you will learne to play the bawd or curtesan to pollute your selfe to devirginate maides to deflowre wives or to ravish widdowes by enticing them to lust if you will learne to drabbe and stabbe to murther kill and slay to picke steale rob and rove if you will learne to rebell against Princes closely to carry treasons to consume treasures to practise idlenesse to sing and talke of filthy love and venery to deride quippe scorne scoffe mocke and floate to flatter and smooth to play the Divel the swaggerer the whoremaster the glutton the drunkard the injurious or incestuous person if you will learne to become proud haughty and arrogant Finally if you will learne to contemne God and all his lawes to care neither for heaven nor hell and to commit all kinde of sinne and mischiefe with secrecie and art you neede not goe to any other schooles for all these good examples may you see painted before your eyes in Enterludes aud Playes These and these onelie are the great good instructions that either Actours or Spectatours learne from Stage-plaies which make them fit schollers only for the Divel and traine them up for hell where all Play-house goodnesse unlesse God grants mercie and sincere repentance ever ends SCENA SEPTIMA TO passe by other Objections in the defence of Stage-playes as namelie that they reprehend sinne and vice that they inveigh against the corruptions and corrupt ones of the times that they remunerate and applaud vertue and sharply censure vice that their abuses their excesâ—es may be regulated and themselves reduced to a good decorum therefore they are lawfull which Objections I have answered by the way before viz. at pag. 34. to 42. p. 96. to 106. p. 124. to 127. The grand Objection of our present dissolute times for the justification of these Playes is this That none but a companie of Puritans and Precisians speake against them all else applaud and eke frequent them therefore cetainly they are very good recreations since none but Puritans disaffect them To this I answer that the objection is as false as frivolous For first I have already fully manifested that many Heathen States and Emperors and among the rest Tiberius Nero and Iulian the Apostate who were as farre from Puritanisme as the deboisest Anti-puritans the most dissolute Players or Play-patrons this day living have condemned suppressed Playes and Players Besides I have largely proved that not onely Plato Aristotle Cicero Seneca and other heathen Philosophers but even Horace Iuvenal nay Ovid and Propertius the most lascivious heathen Poets who were as farre from Puritans as they were from Christians have declaimed against Stage-plaies And is not this then a notorious falshood that none but Puritans condemne Stage-plaies Were Tiberius Nero Iulian Aristotle Tibullus Ovid thinke you Puritans Were all those fore-quoted Pagans who censured and suppressed Stage plaies Puritans If these be now turn'd Puritans in the Objectors phrase I pray what manner of Christians I dare not say incarnate Divels are those persons who thus taxe these dissolute Pagans for puritanicalll Precisians certainlie if they are somewhat better than infernall Fiends yet they are by many degrees worse than the very worst of all these Pagans who by their owne confessions are Saints are Puritans in respect of them O then the stupendious wickednesse the unparalleld prophanesse of our gracelesse times when Christians are not afraid ashamed to professe themselves more desperately vitious lascivious and deboist than the very worst of Pagans whom they thus honour with the stile of Puritansâ— because they are more vertuous lesse vitious than themselves Certainly if atheisticall prophanesse and infernall lewdnesse increase but a little more among us as it is very like if Stage-playes still continue I am afraid these Oâ—jectors will grow to that excesse of wickednes ere longâ— that the Divell himselfe nay Beelzebub the very Prince of Divels shall be canonized by them for a Puritan because he equalls them not in wickednesse Let these Play-patrons therefore either waive this false Objection or else confesse these very heathen Puritans as they deeme them to be much better much worthier of the name of Christians than themselves Secondly I have infallibly manifested That the whole primitive Church both under the Law and Gospell together with all the primitive Christians Fathers and Councels have most abundantly censured and condemned Playes and Players in the very highest degree of opposition And were the primitive Church and Christians the Fathers or Bishops who were present at these Councels Puritans If not then the objection is false If Puritans then Puritans are no such Novellers or new upstart humorists as the world reputes them yea then they are in truth no other but the true Saints of God the undoubted successors of the primitive Church and Christians whose doctrine disciplineâ— graces manners they onely practise and maintaine And indeede if the truth of things bee well examined wee may easily prove the Fathers the primitive Church and Christians yea Christ himselfe his Prophets and Apostles Puritans if that which brands men now for Puritans in prophane ones censures may descide this Controversie To instance in some few particulars One grand badge of a Puritan is as the objection testifieth to condemne Stage-playes Players and Play-haunters and wholly to renounce these Pompes of the Divell But this the Apostles the Fathers the primitive Councels Church and Christians did as I have plentifully manifested this being the most notorious character of a faithfull Christian to abstaine from Stage-playes By this badge therefore they are arrant Puritans To condemne effeminate mixt dancing lasciviousnesse and diceplay together with health-drinking drunkennesse deboistnesse roaring whoring ribaldry obscene or amorous songs and jests and naked filthy lust provoking pictures are now chiefe Symptomes of a notorious Puritan but Christ his Prophets and Apostles together with all the primitive Churches Christians Fathers Councels have condemned all and each of these with an unanimous consent therefore they are arrant Puritans To speake or write against mens wearing of perewigges Love-lockâ—s and long haire together with the effeminate frizling pouldring and accurate nice composing of it to declaime against our whorish females frizling broydring pouldring dying plaiting with their late impudent mannish that I say not monstrous cutting and shearing of their haire and their false borrowed excrements to declaime against face-painting vaine wanton complements strange fashions tyrâ—s newfangled or overcostly apparell are eminent characters of a branded Puritan But Christ Iesus himselfe his Prophets and Apostles with all
experience in despite of scandall and all lying rumours hath manifested that these Puritans and Precisians are such persons as both feare God and honour the King though they oppugne the corruptions sinnes profanesse and Popish and Pelagian Errors of the times with all such factious Innovators who either broach new heresies and superstitions or revive olde As for their loyalty to their Prince his power and prerogative it is so apparant that however Papists and persons popishly affected now slander them as enemies to Monarchie and Princes Prerogatives in words to take off this merited imputation from themselves yet they bâ—ame them even under the very name of Puritans as over-great advancers and chiefest patriots and propugners of Monarchy of Princes supremacy in their printed workes none going so farre in suppressing the Popes usurped Authority or eâ—larging the Kings and temporaâ—l Magistrates prerogatives and supremacy as they as even the Iesuite in his Answer to Deus et Rex hath proclaimed uâ—to all the world Let therefore the Moguntine Iesuites Contzen disciples following the desperate plot of their Master to cheat a Protestant Church of her religionâ— and to scrue in Popery into it by degrees without noyse oâ— tumult by raising slaunders upon the Doctrines and persons of the most zealous Protestant Ministers and Protestants to bring them into the Princes and peoples hatred and thrust them out of office accuse Puritans of faction sedition and rebellion now without any ground or proofe at all as the Pagans did the Christians long agoe or let the Epicures and prophane ones of our voluptuous times repute them such because they wage warre against their sinnes and sinfull pleasures yet now upon the serious consideration of all these premises I hope their consciences will acquit them of these malicious slaunders and readily subscribe to this apparant truth that they are the holiest meekest and most zealous Christians and that they are onely hated and reviled for their goodnesse Since therefore these Play-censuring conformable Puritans and Precisians in their proper colours uncased of these odious persecuted termes of scandall which represent them to mens fansies in a most ugly forme there being never poore persecuted word since malice against God first seized upon the damned Angels and the graces of heaven dwelt in the heart of man that passed through the mouthes of all sorts of unregenerate men with more distastfulnesse and gnashing of teeth than the name of PVRITAN doth at this day which notwithstanding as it is now commonly meant and ordinarily proceedes from the spleene and spirit of prophanesse and good fellowshippe is an honourable nicke-name of Christianity and grace as a worthy reverend Divine observes are the very eminentest choicest and most gracious forward Christians let us not thinke the better but farre worse of Stage-playes because they all abominate condemne them as all good Christians have done before them and if any have thus persecuted hated or reviled them out of ignorance or malice heretofore let them heartily bewaile it and give over now because it is not onely a kinde of sacriledge but even an high indignity and affront to God himselfe to hate to slaunder persecute or wrong his servants especially for controlling us in our delights of sinne of which these constantly condemned Stage-playes are the chiefe And for a close of this Objection and Scene together let us all remember that worthy sentence of St. Hierom Apud Christianos ut ait quidam non qui patitur sed qui facit contumeliam miser est and then these maliciouâ— calumnies against Puritans and Precisians will quickly vanish CHORVS YOV have seene now Christian Readers the severall arguments and Authorities against Stage-playes together with the â—lender Apologies for them which how poore how illiterate and weake they are the very meanest capacity may at first discerne I beseech you therefore by the very mercies of God as you tender the glorie of Almighty God the honour and credit of religion the happinesse and safety both of Church and State the serious covenant you have made to God in baptisme to forsake the Divell and all his workes the pompes and vanities of this wicked world with all the sinfull lusts of the flesh whereof Stage-playes certainly are not the least as you regard that solemne Confession you have publikely made to God and ratified in the very sacred blood of the Lord Iesus Christ at every receiving of the Sacrament that you doe earnestly repent and are heartily sorrie for all your misdoings that the remembrance of them is grievous unto you the burthen of them intollerable and that you will ever hereafter serve and please God in newnesse of life to the honour and glory of his name offering and presenting unto the Lord your selves your soules and bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto him or as you respect your owne or others soules whom your evill examples may leade downe to hell that upon the serious perusall of all the premises you would now at last abominate and utterly abandon Stage-playes as the very fatall pests both of your mindes and manners and the most desperate soothing enemies of your soules as all ages all places have found theÌ„ by experience It may be some of you through ignorance and incogitancy have formerly had good opinions and high thoughts of Playes and Players as being altogether unacquainted with their infernall originallâ— and most lewd effects which I have here displayed to the full and that made you so diligently to frequent them Let not this then which was only the â—in of ignorance of weaknesse heretofore become the sinne of wilfulnesse or presumption now but as God by these my poore endeavours hath opened your eyes to see so doe you pray unto him for strength and grace to reâ—orme your ancient errour in this case of Playes Repent thereforâ— with teares of griefe for what is past and then speedily divorce your selves from Playes and Theaters for time to come that as your consciences upon the serious perusall of all the premises cannot but now subscribe to this strange Paradox as some may deeme it which I have here made good That all popular and common Stage-playes whether Comicall Tragicall Satyricall Mimicall or mixt of either especially as they are now compiled and personated among us are such sinfullâ— hurtfull pernicious recreations as are altogether unseemely yea unlawfull unto Christians so the lives and practise likewise may say Amen unto it So shall you then obtaine the intended benefit and I my selfe enjoy the much desired end of these my weake Endeavours which was which is no other but Gods owne glory your temporall and eternall happinesse and the Republickes welfare For which as I have hitherto laboured so I shall now by Gods assistance proceede to endeavour it in the ensuing part of this Play-scourging Discourse which now craves your favour and
premised reasons and Authorities against Stage-playes together with those severall soule-condemning wickednesses sinnes yea fearefull judgements in which they frequently involue their Actors and Spectators to remember that they are the very Devils snares his workes his pompes which they most solemnely renounced in their baptisme that they are the greatest the most pernicious corruptions both of their Actors their Spectators mindes and manners the onely Canker-wormes of their graces their vertues the chiefest incendiaries of their carnall lustsâ— the common occasions of much actuall lewdnesse sinne and wickednesse the principall obstacles of their sincere repentance the grand empoysoners of their soules and if we believe S. Augustine the mortiferous broad beaten way to Hell it selfe and everlasting death in which whole troopes of men run daily on unto destruction O then let all these all other fore-alleaged flexanimous considerations divorce you now from Stage-playes from Theaters which else will seperate you from your God and so engage your hearts your judgements your consciences against them as never to frequent them more upon any occasion or perswasion whatsoever You have heard and seene at large what Censures what Verdicts the Primitive Church both before and under the Law and Gospell the ancientest Christians Councels Fathers the best Châ—istian the best Pagan Nations Emperours Princes States Magistrates Writers both ancient and moderne have constantly have unanimously passed upon Stage-playes Theaters Players Play-haunters against whom Tertullian Cyprian Chrysostome Augustine Salvian and other Fathers with sundry moderne Authors have professedly written ample Volumes You have seene all ages all places all qualities and degrees of men Iewes and Gentiles Greekes and Barbarians Christians and Pagans Protestants and Papists yea Popes and Iesuits to concurring in their just damnation Be not O be not yee therefore wiser nay worser then all then any of these Play-condemning Worthies who have gone before you whose harmonious Play-confounding resolutions agreeable with the Scripture if Saint Bernard may be credited must binde you to renounce all Stage-playes in the very selfesame manner as if God himselfe had expresly commanded you to abandon them frequent not Playes which they abominated pleade not for Enterludes which they so seriously so abundantly condemned Let not that censure of holy Bernard be verified of you that you have now not onely lost the power of the ancient Christian Religion but even the very shew and outside to but as you are Christians in name in profession so bee you such in truth in practise And since it was the most notorious character of Christians heretofore to abominate to abandon Players Playes and Play-houses let it bee your honour your piety your practicall badge of Christianity to forsake them now that so imitating the Primitive Play-renouncing Christians in their holinesse you may at last participate with them in their eternall blisse And so much the rather let me admonish you to withdraw your selves from Playes and Play-houses because no ordinance of God can doe you any good or clense you from your sinnes whiles you resort to Theaters as I have largely proved heare but Saint Chrysostome once more to this purpose where speaking against mens and womens parling laughing and gazing about in Churches which hee severely censures he writes thus Nunquid theatrica sunt haec quae hîc geruntur opinor autem quod id Theatris debeamus Inobedientes enim multos nobis constituunt ineptos quae enim hîc extruuntur illic subvertuntur non hoc solum sed alias immunditias necesse est Theatri studiosis adhaerere Et perinde fit ac si quis campum velit purgare in quem fons lutâ— fluens insâ—uat quantum enim purgaris tantum influit Hoc hîc fit quando enim purgamus à Theatro huc venientes immundiciam afferentes dum illuc iterum abeunt majorem contrahunt immundiciam quasi dedita opera sic vivant ut nobis negocium faciant iterum veniunt multo luto sordidati in moribus in gestibus in verbis in risu iâ— desidia Deinde iterum nos fodimus quasi dedita opera in hoc fodientes ut puros illos dimissos iterum videamus luto ac caeno inquinari You then who have beene constant Play-haunters besmeared with their filth and dung for divers yeeres together you who have spent your youth your manhood your best and chiefest dayes which you should have dedicated to God your honest callings and farre better things on Playes on Play-houses and such lascivious sports you who have cast away your money your estates on Players Playes Play-houses the very factors pompes and synagogues of the Devill wherewith you should have cherished Christs poore needy members You who have beene ancient Patriots Supporters of Actors or their Enterludes either by your purses or your presence drawing thereby upon your soules the guilt of many a fearefull unlamented sinne remember O remember that it is now more then time for you to clense your selves from these Augaean Stables with which you have beene too long defiled to renounce these cursed pompes of Satan which you have too long served to redeeme the short remainder of that most sacred time which you have too prodigally too sinfully consumed to take some speedy serious course for the mortifying of those soule-slaying â—leshly lusts which you have over-long fomented for the adorning the saving of those immortall soules which you have over-much neglected for the attoning of that holy God that blessed Saviour that sanctifying Spirit of grace which you have too highly too long provoked crucified grieved which you can never doe whiles you resort to Stage-playes And since the world the flesh the Devill have had your youth and strength let God be sure to enjoy your age whom you have sacrilegiously robbed of all the rest Alas all the time that you have already past in Play-haunting and such delights of sinne hath beene but a time of spirituall death wherein you have beene worse then nought in Gods account Ab eo enim tempore censemur ex quo in Christo renascimur as Saint Hierom truely writes and what other profit have you reaped from Playes or Play-houses Nisi quod senes magis onusti peccatorum fasce proficiscimini as the same Father speaks O therefore now at last before it be too late before death hath wounded you Heaven excluded you Hell devoured you repent of all your former Play-haunting with many a sob and teare abandoning all Playes all Play-houses for the future ut sic correcti atque in meliuâ— reformati qui admirati fuerant prius in Spectaculis insaniam nunc admirentur in moribus disciplinam You who are but young and newly entred into this dangerous course of Play-haunting you of whom I may say as Seneca once did of the Roman gentry Ostendam nobilissimos
blacke making and marring and other unlawfull games prohibited by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme divers and many unlawfull assemblies conventicles seditions and conspiracies had beene daily and secretly practised by idle and misruly persons repairing to such places of the which robberies and divers misdemeanours had ensued that for remedy thereof all Licences placards or grants made to any person or persons for the keeping of any Bowling-allies Dicing-houses or other unlawfull games in the which number Stage-playes were included should be utterly voyd and of none effect By the Statutes of 34. 35. Henry 8. cap. 1. of 2. 3. Edward 6. cap. 1.1 Eliz. cap. 2. and of 3. Iacobi cap. 21. we have severall mulcts and penalties inflicted upon such who should recite or interpret Scripture or revile the Sacrament or Booke of Common Prayer or any part thereof or iestingly and prophanely speake or use the Name of God the Faether or of Christ Iesus or of the holy Ghost or of the Trinity in any Enterludes Stage-playes Rymes or Pageants And lest any one should hence inferre that these Statutes which are principally intended in private Playes and Enterludes since they condemne and suppresse all publike seeme to allow of popular Stage-playes because they suppresse not Playes themselves but onely these their abuses the Statutes of 14. Eliz. cap. 5.39 Eliz. cap. 4.1 Iacobi cap. 7. 1. Caroli cap. 1 doe in expresse words condemne all Stage-playes and common Enterludes as unlawfull exercises and pastimes occasioning many great inconveniences quarrels blood-sheds and disorders to Gods dishonour and the publike preiudice For the better suppression of which the Statutes of 14. Eliz. cap. 5. 39. Eliz. cap. 4. have branded have adiudged all common Players of Enterludes all idle persons using any unlawfull games all Players and wandring Minstrels for Rogues for Vacabonds and Sturdy Beggers subiecting them to such paines and punishments as other wandring Rogues and Vacabonds are to undergoe unlesse they should belong to some Baron or other honourable person of greater degree and be authorized by them to play under their hand and Seale of Armes which license of theirs exempted them onely from the punishment not from the infamy or stile of Rogues and Vacabonds which Statutes not so effectually suppressing these Playes and Enterludes as was expected by reason of the liberty that Barons and other Noblemen had to license Players of Enterludes belonging to them to act their Playes the Statute of 1. Iacobi c. 7. to remedy this mischiefe hath declared and enacted that from thenceforth no authority given or to be given or made by any Baron of this Realme or any other honourable Personage of greater degree unto any Enterlude Players Minstrels Iuglers Bearward or any other idle person or persons whatsoever using any unlawfull games or Playes to play or act should be available to free or discharge the said persons or any of them from the paines and punishments of Rogues of Vacabonds and Sturdy-beggers in the said Statutes viz. 14. Eliz. cap. 5. 39. Eliz. cap. 4. mentioned but that they shall be taken within the offence and punishments of the same Statutes and of this Statute of 1. Iacobi cap. 7. So that now at this day by these severall Acts of Parliament yet in force resolved and concluded upon after long mature deliberation by our whole State and Kingdome all common Stage-playes are solemnely adiudged to be unlawfull and pernicious Exercises not sufferable in our State and all common Stage-players by whomsoever licensed to be but Vacabonds Rogues and Sturdy-beggers who ought to suffer such paines and punishments in every degree as are appointed to be inflicted upon all other Vacabonds Rogues and Sturdy-beggers by the forenamed Statutes So that all Magistrates may now justly punish them as Rogues and Vacabonds where-ever they goe yea they ought both in law and conscience for to doe it since these severall Statutes thus inforce them to it notwithstanding any License which they can procure since the expresse words of the Statute of 1. Iacobi cap. 7. hath made all Licenses unavaylable to free them from such punishments It is most apparantly evident then by all these promises that not onely Pagan Writers Emperours States and Magistrates together with the Primitive Christians Fathers and Christian Writers of Forraigne parts but even our owne domestique Writers Preachers Vniversities Magistrates and our whole State it selfe in open Parliament both in ancient moderne and present times have abandoned censured condemned Stage-playes and common Actors as the very pests the corruptions of mens mindes and manners the Seminaries of all vice all lewdnesse wickednesse and disorder and intolerable mischiefes in any civill or well-disciplined Common-weale therefore my Minors truth is past all doubt we cannot but readily subscribe unto it and so by consequence to the conclusion too without any more dispute How then can we tolerate or connive at much lesse applaude frequent or iustifie these pernicious depraving Enterludes which we have all thus condemned as intolerable evils Our owne Writers Preachers Vniversities Magistrates yea our whole Realme and State in Parliament to whose Acts we all are parties as our Law-bookes teach us have thus publikely branded censuraed them as extreamely evillâ— how can how dare we then foment them pleade for themâ— or resort unto them as exceeding good Let us O let us not be worser then these Heathen nor wiser then these Christian fore-recited forraigne and domâ—stique Authors Fathers Ministers Magistrates Princes Emperours States and Kingdomes who have thus abandoned suppressed Playes and Players for the forenamed mischiefes which they did occasion but as we cannot but approve applaud their censure in our judgemeÌ„ts so let us submit unto them in our practise renouncing abominating all filthy Stage-playes from henceforth and for ever as the very poyson the corruption of our mindes and manners which they will strangely vitiate as all these conclude and the examples both of the ancient Greekes and Romanes witnesse And no wonder is it that Stage-playes should thus deprave the Actors the Spectators mindes and mannersâ— especially those of the yonger sort who in regard both of their tender yeeres their waâ—t of iudgemeÌ„t of experience the strength the vigor of their lusts and their naturall inclination unto evill are more easily câ—rrupted For if evill words corrupt good manners as the Apostle teacheth there is plenty of these in all our Stage-playes which are little bâ—tter then meere bâ—wdâ—ry and scâ—rrility If sinfull lewde companions if the society of Adulterers Adulteresses Whore-masters Whores Ruâ—â—ians Panders Bawdes or such like leprous creatures can deprave men as all professe they will what others shall we meete at Theaters but such lewde filthâ— persons If pestilenâ— wicked vitious places will infect mens mindes or manners What place so dangerous so leprous so contagioâ—s as the Play-house which the Fathers stile a Chaire of Pestilence If adulterous lascâ—vious
Kings and great men and not to bee Actors or Spectators of vanity but wholy to lay aside such foolish Masques and Enterludes At Lions in France in the moneth of August in the yeere 1607. whiles the Iesuites were acting a prophane Play of Christs comming to Iudgement at the last day to the disgrace of true Religion the Lord from Heaven continued thunder and lightnings for two houres space together slew twelue of the Actors and Spectators presently and amazed all the rest with great terror and feare To passe from France to Rome Suetonius records that in Iulius Caesar his time there resorted such a multitude of people to Rome to behold his Stage-playes and Spectacles that most of the strangers were forced to lodge in the Villages adioyning in Tents there was oft-times very many people trod and crushed to death at these Playes by reason of the multitude and among them two Senators so tragicall and fatall were these Enterludes Dion Cassius records that in Pompey his time a Theater in Rome built for the acting of Syrian Enterludes was overturned with a sudden tempest to the death and destruction of many persons To passe by the memorable example of Gods avenging Iustice upon the Philistines and their Lords many thousands of them being crushed to death with the fall of their Dagons Temple which Samson pulled downe upon their heads whiles they were there feasting dancing and acting Playes before their Idoll Dagon and beholding Samson playing dancing and making sport before them like a Clowne in a Play they calling him out of the prison to that purpose From whence Arias Montanus well observes that it was the custome of the Philistines and other Idolaters to court their Idols with dances and Stage-playes on their solâ—mne Festivals their temples being built in such a manner that people might conveniently behold the dances and Stage-playes that were acted in them and thereupon hee iustly taxeth Christian Princes for exhibiting Playes and such like impure unchristian spectacles to the people and tolerating them in their Kingdomes they being unsuitable and pernicious unto Christian manners and altogether unlawfull unto Christians as originally consecrated unto Idols the very acting and beholding of them being odious unto God as this his iudgement on the Philistines proves Cornelius Tacitus and Paulus Orosius and out of them sundry others relate that about the eighth yeere of Tiberius his Raigne there were by the iust iudgement of God at least fifty thousand persons slaine and pressed to death at once with the fall of a Theater at Fidena in Italy which Theater was built by one Atilius whiles they were there beholding Sword-playes and such like Theatricall Enterludes the dolefulnesse of which bloody Tragedy and judgement seconded with a devouring fire which almost burnt up that City is at large described by Tacitus Ioannes Aventinus in his excellent Annals hath registred two memorable Examples for our present purpose The first of them hapned at Pisonium a City of Bavaria about the yeere of our Lord 1200. where divers people assembling together from all quarters to behold Enterludes and Cirque-playes above three hundred of them were there slame outright with thunder and hayle from Heaven The latter of them fell out in Rome it selfe upon the 15. day of October in the yeere of our Lord 1450 when Pope Nicholas the first solemnized his famous Iubily with secular Playes at which time fiue hundred and fifty persons comming to Rome to see these secular Enterludes which this Pope brought in contrary to the decrees of the Councell of Constance were drowned washed to death in the River Tiber the Bridge upon which they were being overturned with the waters To these I shall adde one Tragicall Story more which Gregory Nyssen in the life of Gregory the worker of miracles hath registred to posterity The Citizens of Caesarea and well might all the people of that Province accustomed to meet together at Caesarea once a yeere upon a publike solemne Festivall which they dedicated to a certaine Devill-Idol which that Country worshipped at which feast they alwayes celebrated some publike Stage-playes to the honour of this their Idoll and to delight the people It fortuned that the whole Country and City assembled thus together after their wonted manner when Saint Gregory was newly made Minister of that City and being thus assembled they presently flocked to the Theater which being filled with those who first hasted thither those who came after climbed up by troopes upon the Scaffolds that were built about it At last the crowde of the people who were very desirous to behold these Enterludes grew so great that they left no roome at all upon the Stage either for the Players or Musicians to act their parts whereupon the whole multitude cryed out to that Devill whose festivall they then solemnized with one united voyce O Iupiter make us roome Which Saint Gregory over-hearing hee presently sends one who stood by to the Theater to tell the people that that they should forth-with have more roome and ease then they desired No sooner was this message delivered to them lâ—ke a dolefull sentence passed against them but a devouring pestilence suddenly seised upon that great assembly which were there sporting and beholding Playes and presently a lamentation was mingled with their dancing in so much that their pleasures were turned into sorrowes and calamities and funerall dolefull Elegies one upon another were heard thorowoâ—t the City in stead of acclamations and musicke For as soone this pestilent disease had seised upon men opinion and conceit did propagate it the faster it consuming whole houses at once like a fire in so much that flying from their houses to their Temples for succour and recovery their very temples were even filled up with the carcases of such who there fell downe dead of this disease whose extremity was such that all the Cisternes Fountaines and pits of water neere the City were covered with the dead corps of such who resorted to them for to quench their thirst in so much that many went voluntarily to their graves to die there because the living were not sufficient to bury the dead Neither did this pestilence surprise men suddenly but a certaine Ghost or Spirit came first unto these houses over which destruction hovered and then certaine perdition followed after At last when the people came to know the cause of this their sicknesse they renounced their former Idolatrous sacrifices rites and Enterludes and resorting with their whole families to Saint Gregory they intreated him both to instruct them and to pray unto God for them that so they might escape this pestilence By which meanes they all abandoning their Idol-worship were drawne to the profession of Christs Name part of them being led as it were by the hand unto the truth by the disease that was then upon them others of them embracing the faith of Christ
Christians have beene evermore hated persecuted and reviled by carnall men and that onely for their grace and goodnes Witnesse the expresse resolution of St. Chrysostome Christianorum genus non quia est odibile sed quia est divinum odiunt carnales Which St. Augustine thus seconds Invidentiae illius diabolicae qua invident bonis mali nulla alia causa est nisi quia illi boni sunt illi mali Omnis enim malus ideo persequitur malum quia illi non consentit ad malum And this onely is the cause why Puritans and Precisians are thus maligned and despited now If any here object that they condemne not Puritans for their goodnesse but because they are hypocrites and dissemblers or because they are seditious factious persons enemies to the state and government the crimes wherewith the world now charge them whose accusations are still as various flitting and uncertaine against Puritans as they were of old against the Christians To this I answer first That it is no wonder for Puritans to be reputed hypocrites and impostors now For even our Saviour Christ himselfe was not onely counted but called a Deceiver and one who did but cheate the people though we all know and beleeve that there was no guile at all within him Yea all the Apostles and Saints of God were accounted Deceivers and yet they were true 2 Cor. 6.8 And St. Hierom informes us that Christians were thus stiled even in his age Vbicunque viderint Christianum statim illud è trivio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant Impostorem et detrahunt Hi rumores turpissimos serunt et quod ab ipsis egressum est id ab alijs audisse se simulant ijdem auctores et exaggeratores as our Antipuritans are now Secondly admit that Puritans were but hypocrites Impostors which is impossible for any particular men to judge since they are unacquainted with the secrets of their hearts which God alone can onely search which me thinkes should stop these objectors mouths yet none exclaime against them as Puritans and Precisians for these vices onely but for that very profession of religion which they make For let a man be never so treacherous or deceitfull in his dealing yet if he make no forward profession of religion he may passe very well for a politique crafty provident man he shall then be no Puritan but let him professe religion be he never so honest in his dealings yet he sâ—â—â—â— certainly be branded for a Puritan It is not therefore mens hypocrisie but their profession of religion that makes them Puritans which if it be but meerely counterfeit why doe not our Antipuritans make that profession of religion in truth the very shew oâ— which they so much hate even for the substance sake Thirdly admit some Puritans or Precisians are meere Impostors making religion a very vaile to cloake their treachery and circumvent their brethren as there are now too many such yet malice it selfe must needs acknowledge that the Major part of them are most just and upright in all their dealings towards men witnesse experience and the common speech that such and such are very honest and upright in their trades or they are worthy Gentlemen which men may safely trust but yet they are Puritans as if their piety were a disparagement to their honesty and yet men hate and slander them all alike for the hypocrisie onely of some few as they did the Christians in St. Augustines dayes Quanta mala saith he dicunt in malos Christianos quae maledicta perveniunt ad omnes Christianos Nunquid enim dicit qui maledicit aut qui reprehendit Christianos ecce quid faciunt non boni Christiani Sed ecce quae faciunt Christiani non seperat non discernit Thus doe men deale with Puritans now they hate revile and persecute them in the lumpe without distinction they deeme them hypocrites and deceivers all alike when as the most of them are not such as if their very profession of religion made them hypocrites which men are apt to believe therefore they detest them not for their hypocrisie which reacheth onely to some few but for the strict holinesse and precisenesse of their lives alone wherein they all accord Fourthly the reason why men thus uncharitablie forejudgeâ— all Puritans for hypocrites though they neither know their hearts nor persons is onely this because they see that holinesse grace and goodnesse in them which they finde not in themselves or others and thâ—reupon to satisfie their owne selfe-condemning consciences they censure all excesse of grace and holinesse as meere hypocrisie for feare themselves should be reputed but prophane in wanting all those graces those eminent degrees of holinesse wherein they excell It was a true speech of an heathen Orator An non hoc ita fit in omni populo nonne omnem exuperantiam virtutis oderunt Quid Aristides nonne ob eam ipsam causam patria pulsus est quod praeter modum justus esset Certainly if the exuberancy of morall vertues have made heathens odious unto vitious Pagans no wonder if the transcendent eminency of Puritans graces procure the malice the reproaches of all carnall Christians who being unacquainted with the power of saving grace themselves are apt to censure it as folly hypocrisie or madnesse in all others but yet this may be their comfort Cùm damnamur à vobis à Deo absolvimur If any now reply that Puritans live not as they speake and teach therefore the world condemnes them for hypocrites and dissemblers let Seneca give them a satisfactory answer Aliter inquit loqueris aliter vivis Hoc per malignissima capita et optimo cuique inimicissima Platoni objectum est objectum Epicuro objectum Zenoni Omnes enim isti dicebant non quemadmodum ipsi viverent sed quemadmodum vivendum esset De virtute non de me loquor Et cum vitijs convicium facio in primis meis facio cum potuero vivam quomodo oportet Nec malignitas me ista multo veneno tincta deterrebit ab optimis Ne virus quidem istud quo alios spargitis vos necatis ne impediet quo minus perseverem laudare vitam non quam ago sed quam agendam scio quo minus virtutem adorem et ex intervallo ingenti reptabundus â—equar Expectabo scilicet ut quicquam malivolentiae inâ—â—olatum sit cui sacer nec Rutilius fuit nec Cato c. De alterius vita de alterius morte disputatis et ad nomen magnorum ob aliquam eximiam laudem virorum sicut adoccursum ignotorum hominum minuti canes latratis Expedit enim vobis neminem videri bonum quasi aliena virtus exprobratio delictorum vestrorum sit Inviti splendida cum sordibus vestris confertis nec intelligitis quanto id vestro detrimento audeatis Nam si illi qui virtutem sequuntur avari