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
Hearbes or in their lanifices because the Heathens did obserue them The fourth Councell of Carthage Canon 16. together with Saint Hieromâ— Epist. 22. cap. 13. Prohibit Christian Bishops to read the Bookes of the Gentiles The Councell of Laodicea Canon 37.39 The Councell of Ancyra Canon 5 6 7. Saint Ambrose Orat. 3. Tertullian De Spectaculis lib. with sundry others informe vs that it is a great sinne to obserue the Feastiualls or Solemnities of Pagans to be present with them at thâ—ir Feasts to retaine their Feastiuall-gifts or to communicate with them in their Ceremonies which are not of God whence they prohibit Christians from them vnder paine of Excommunication and two yeeres Penance The sixt Councell of Constantinople Canon 96. Excommunicates all such as shall sweare the Oathes of the Gentiles Yea the same generall Councell Canon 62. disanulles and condemnes the obseruation of the Calends and Winter votes all meetings on the first of March all publike Dauncing of Women all Mummings Dauncings Sportes and Ceremonies which might prouoke Laughter vnder the name of Bacchus or any other which was falsely named a God among the Graecians inflicting Excommunication and Deposition on those that shâ—uld from thence obserue them because they were the Impostures of Satan and the Sportes and Vanities of the Heathen Yea Canon 65. It prohibits the making of Bonefires on New-moones before the Houses or Shops of Christians together with all skipping iesting and fooling about them after the Ancient custome vnder the foresaid penaltie as being a Pagan practise condemned in Manasseh in the 2 Chro. 33.2.5 6. And Can. 70. it informes vs that Christians who are taught the Lawes of God ought not to vse the manners Tumblings Playes and Vestments of the Graecian Infidels Saint Basil and Saint Augustine condemne the Drinking and Pledging of Healthes from this very ground that they were the inuention of the Deuill and the obseruations or reliques of Infidels and Pagans Clemens Romanus Constit. Apostol lib. 2. cap. 66. The third Councell of Arles The third Councell of Toledo Canon 23. Nazienzen Oratio 48. p. 796 797. Cyrillus Hierusol Catech. Mystag 1. with sundry other Councells and Fathers which I might enumerate prohibit and condemne all lasciuious Dauncing all scurrilous Songs and Iests with sundry other Sportesâ— and Merâ—â—ments because they were the Recreations Ceremonies and Inuentions of Heathen men The Councell of Eleberiâ— Canonâ— 34.37 The second Councell of Arles Canon 23. Tertullian in his Apologie against the Gentiles and his Booke against Idolatrie Lactantius De vero Culta lib. 6. cap. 2. Cyrillus Hierusolomitanus Catech. Mystagogica 1. together with Ormerod in his Pagano-Papismus Semblance 37.123 124 125. Condemne the burning of Tapers in Church-yardes or Churches especially in the day-time as the Papists doe vpon the selfe-same reason euen because the Pagans practised it as iâ— euident by Baruch 6.19 by Plinie Nat. Hist. lib. 16. cap. 37. Suetonij Câ—lig cap. 13. Virgil. AEneid lib. 11. p. 353. Copa p. 510. Tatianus Oratio aduers. Graecos And yet the Papists are not ashamed for to vse them Saint Hierome and Theodoret in their Commentaries and Interpretations on Ezech. 44.20 which inioyne the Priests not to shaue their heads but onely to poll them make the ground of this Iniunction the practise of the Idolatrous Priests of Isis and Serapis who did vse to shaue their crowne and beards and make bald their heads Yet notwithstanding this expresse command of God himselfe which is likewise seconded by Lâ—uit 19.27 and 21.5 All Popish Priests and Friers doe shaue their heads and beards in imitation of these and other Idolatrous Priests and Nations yea they doe inioyne this Toâ—sure to them by sundry Councells and Decrees for which not onely Protestants but euen their owne Popish writers doe condemne them as Heathenish and absurd Pope Anicetus was the first that made this innouation as Gratian. Distinctio 33. Polyd. Virgil. De Inuent Rerum lib. 4. cap. 8. and Lorinus on Leuit. 19.27 record contrary to the expresse Word of God and the fourth Councell of Carthage Canon 44. which inioyneth Clerkes or Clergie-men neither to let thâ—ir haire grow long nor yet to shaue their beards which their Binius Surius Carranza and Crabb haue miserably corrupted as Iohn Valerian in his Booke De Sacerdotum barbis witnesseth rendring it in this manner Clerici nec comam nutriant nec barbam shauing away this word radant from the latter clause as a superfluous excrement because it expressely condemnes their Effeminate Vnnaturall Heathenish and Popish shauing If then these seuerall Fathers and Councells haue vtterly condemned these Morrice-daunces Bonefires Newyeeres-gifts Newyeeres-dayes Diuinations Lotteries Mummings Dancings Healthes Tapers Shauen-crownd and bare-chind Priests together with all the other fore-recited Ceremonies Customes and Obseruations which are now too frequent among Christians as sinfull and abominable because they were in vse among the Gentiles and had their rise and birth from Pagans then certainely by the same analogie of reason wee must needes reiect and censure Stage-Playes as pernicious vnseemely and vnlawfull vnto Christians because they had their birth their authoritie vse and progresse from Idolatrous Heathens and the deboisest Pagans Vpon this very ground among sundry others Tertullian and Cyprian in their Bookes De Spectaculis Clemens Romanus Constit. Apost lib. 2. cap. 65.66 Clemens Alexandrinus Oratio Adhort ad Gentes fol. 8.9 Tatianus Oratio aduersus Grâ—cos Bibliotheca Patrum Coloniae Agrip. 1616. Tom. 2. p. 180 181. Athenâ—goras pro Christianis Legatio Ib. pag. 138 139. Theophilus Antiochenus Contr. Autolichum lib. 3. Ib. pag. 170. Arnobius Disput. aduersus Gentes lib. 7. pag. 230. to 242. Lactantius De vero Cultu cap. 20. Diuinarum Instit. Epit. cap. 6. Cyrillus Hierusol Catech. Mystag 1. Fol. 175. B. Minutius Foelix Octauius pag. 34.101.123 Hierom. Epist. 18. cap. 1. Com. in Ezech. lib. 6. cap. 20. Tom. 4. pag. 389. H. Chrysostome Hom. 6 7. 38. on Mat. Ambrose Sermo 11. 81. Augustine De Ciu. Dei lib. 1. cap. 31 32 33. lib. 2. cap. 4. to 15. De Rectitudine Cathol Conuersationis Tractatus De Doctrina Christiana lib. 2. cap. 25. Saluian De Gub. Dei lib. 6. Ioannis Salisburiensis De Nugis Curialium lib. 1. cap. 7 8. Concil Constantinop 6. Can. 62. The Councell of Africke Canon 26 27. D. Râ—inolds Gosson and Northbroâ—ke in their Bookes gainst Stage-Playes together with sundry other Councells and Authors which I shall muster vp hereafter condemne these Stage-Playes as vnlawfull and misbeseâ—ming Christians euen because they were the Inuentions Sportes and Ceremonies of Gentiles which Christians must not entertaine Now there is in trueth great reason why Christians should not imitate nor imbrace the Pleasures Sportes and ceremonies of the Heathen though many Libertines and Licentious Christians who make their will and lusts their law may deeme it Puritanisme or brand it for ouer-strict precisenesse in
dreadfull mysteries are administred with the selfe-same eyes that thou diddest behold the bed on the Stage where the detestable fables of adultery are acted whiles with the same eares thou hearest an adulterer speaking obscenely and a Prophet and an Apostle leading thee into the mysteries of the Scripture whiles with the same heart thou receivest deadly poyson and this holy and dreadfull Sacrament Are not these Playes the subversion of life the corruption the destruction of marriages the cause of warres of fightings and brawles in houses For when thou shalt returne home from these Stage-playes more dissolute effeminate and wanton being made an enemy of all chastity the sight of thy wife will be lesse pleasing to thee let her be what she will For being inflamed with that concupiscence which thou hast drunke in at Stage-playes and being taken with that new sight which hath besotted thee thou despisest thy sober modest wife who is contented with ordinary diet and upbraidest her with innumerable reproches not because thou findest any thing blame-worthy in her but because thou blushest to confesse thy disease because thou art ashamed to discover that wound with which thou hast returned home maimed from Stage-playes Thou framest other excuses seeking uniust occasions of displeasure loathing all those things that are to be done at home gaping after that wicked and uncleane concupiscence from which thou hast received an wounde and whiles thou carriest in thine eares a ringing sound of a voyce and with these the face the motion briefly all those images of whorish lust thou beholdest nothing of that thou hast at â—ome with pleasure And what doe I speake of a wife or family when as afterwards thou wilt be lesse willing to visit the very Church it selfe when as thou wilt heare a Sermon of chastity and of modesty with irkesomnesse Neither are these things which are now spoken to thee for instruction but for accusation and they will bring thee by little and little to despaire yea at last thou wilt suddenly sever thy selfe from the discipline administred for the publike good of all Wherefore I intreat you all that you would avoyd the wicked commemorations in Stage-playes your selves and likewise draw backe others from them who have beene led unto them For what-ever is there done is not delight or recreation but destruction but torment but punishment What good doth this temporary pleasure doe whiles everlasting torment issuâ—s from it and whiles being pricked night and day with concupiscence thou art troublesome and hatefull unto all Wherefore rouse up thy selfe and consider what a one thou art made returning from the Church againe what a one thou art comming from Stage-playes and compare these dayes with those if thou wilt doe thus there will be no need of my speech For it will be sufficient to have compared this day with that to shew what great profit comes from the one side and how great hurt from â—he other These things I thought good to speake to your charity at this time neither will I ever cease to speake For so we shall both admonish those who are obnoxious to this disease and we shall confirme those who are now whole for this oration will be profitable to both to the one that they may desist to the other that they may not fall into it So in his first Homily upon the 50. Psalme he is very punctuall to our purpose David writes he as he was walking upon the top of his Palace after dinner saw a woman washing her selfe and the woman was very faire and beautifull to looke upon He saw her I say and he is wounded in his eye and receiveth a dart Let curious persons heare this who contemplate the beauty of others Let those heare this who are possessed with the unruly delight or desire of Stage-playes Who say we doe in truth behold them but without detriment What heare I David is hurt and art not thou hurt He is wounded and can I trust to thâ— strength He who had so great a measure of the spirit received a dart and doest thou deny that thou art pierced And yet he beheld not an harlot but an honest chaste woman and that not in the Theater but at home but thou beholdest an harlot in the Play-house where even the very place it selfe makes the soule liable to punishment neither doest thou onely see but thou likewise hearest dishonest words and meritricious obscene songs and thy minde is wounded on every side to wit by the sight with those things which thou seest by the eare with those things which thou hearest by the smell with those things which thou smâ—llest And when as there are so many precipices so many corruptions how can I believe thee to be free from the bitingâ— of wild beasts Art thou a stone art thou iron Thou art a man subiect to the common fraâ—lty of nature Doest thou behold the fire and yet art not burned Whether is this agreeable to reason Put a candle into straw and then dare thou to deny that the straw will be burnt That verily which stubble is even that is our nature Let our Play-haunters then consider this and give this godly Father an answer to these his pithy interrogations The like passage wee finde in this 17. Homely upon the 5. of Mathew upon these words If thy right eye offend thee plucke it out c. Let those writes he heare these words who so often hasten to the Theater and doe there almost daily defile themselves with the filthinesse of adultery For if the Law command even him who is bound unto thee by familiarity if he scandalize thee to be cut off and cast away with what satisfaction now at last can they be defended who by their conversation and stay at Play-houses doe daily get the acquaintance of those lewde ones who were not formerly knowne to them also administer a thousand occasions of destruction to themselves Againe in his Homily upon the 118. alias the 119. Psalme vers 151.152 hee writes thus Let none account his life vile let none cleave fast to vanity We cannot serve two Masters he serves two masters who goes to Church one day and to Stage-playes another day Such a one hath two coates he is farre from that Coate which cannot be devided far from the Wedding garment because that is a Wedding garment which hath no spot For he who goes one day to the Church another day to Playes weares a defiled garment Every Servant standing with a blemish at his Masters Table is cast out and chastised with stripes keepe your garment pure as you received it in baptisme Let no man defile iâ— with his manners let no man rend so beautifull a vestment with the wickednesse of his heart You have received such a Garment in baptisme as the Angels had who attended the Lord in his Sepulcher whose raâ—ment was as white as snow Aâ—d you have received such a gift of graceâ—
And this I speake not to excuse their fault but that you may learne that you especially are the spring and head of this iniquity who spend the whole day in such ridiculous in such pernicious pleasures proclaiming abrode the honest name of Wedlocke and the reverend businesse in it For he who personates these things doth not sinne so much as thou who commandest them to be done Neither dost thou onely command and call for but thou dost likewise further the things that are acted by thy exultation laughter applause and by all manner of meanes thou maintainest this Diabolicall Shop With what eyes then canst thou now behold thy wife which thou hast there seene prostrated to so great iniury in the person of another How canst thou refraine from blushing as oft as thou remembrest thy wife when thou shalt there see the same sex so filthily made common Neither maist thou reply unto me now that whatsoever is there done is but a fiction or fained argument but not the truth of things For this very â—eining which comes home to our purpose hath made very many adulterers and overthroweth many houses And therefore it grieves me most that this so great an evill is not believed to be an eviâ—â— but that which is farre the worst of all both â—avour and clamor and applause and laughter are expressed when so beastly adultery is committed to the publike hurt What then sayest thou is this onely feining not a crime Well therefore are these worthy of a thousand deaths because what all lawes command men to shun those things are these not afraid to imitate For if adultery it selfe be evill doubtlesse the imitation of it must be evill And I doe not yet report how many and great adulterers they may make who personate such adulteries in an histrionicall fiction and how impudent likewise they make their spectators For there is nothing more filthy nothing more lascivious then that eye that can patiently that I say not willingly behold such things Moreover what a thing is this that when as thou wilt not so much as looke upon a naked woman in the street yea nor yet at home but if such a thing fall out by accident thou thinkest it done to iniure thee that yet when as thou goest up to the Play-house that thou maist violate the chastity of both Sexes and maist likewise incestuously defile thine owne eyes thou believest that no dishonest thing befalls thee For thou canst not say thus that she is an harlot that is thus uncovered because it is nature it selfe and there is the same body of an whore and of a free woman For if thou thinkest that there is no obscenity in such a fight for what cause when as thou shalt see the same thing in the street doest thou step backe againe from thy intended walke and most severely rebuke that immodesty unlesse perchance thou believest the same thing not to be alike filthy when we are severed and when we sit all together But this is meerely derision and shame and words altogether of extreme folly and it is better for one to besmeare his whole face with clay and dirt then with a spectacle of so great filthinesse For dirt is not so noxious to the eyes as that unchaste spectacle and the sight of a naked Harlot Heare therefore what nakednesse brought upon mankinde even from the beginning and even by this meanes feare that filthinesse What then hath made men naked disobedience and the counsell of the Devill so much hath this alwayes pleased him from the beginning But they verily when they were naked were yet ashamed you repute the same thing worthy prayse according to that of the Apostle glorying in your shame After what manner therefore can thy wiâ—e from henceforth behold thee returning from such a contumely how can she entertaine or speake to one so unworthily defiling the condition and sex of womans nature yea and returning a captive a servant of an whorish woman from such a spectacle If then you grieve when you heare these things I confesse that I give you and owe you the greatest thankes For who is he that doth comfort me but he who is made sorrowfull by me Wherefor cease not to mourne for this licentiousnesse and oft to be grieved for it For this grieâ—e will be made unto you a beginning of conversion unto better things Wherefore I have more earnestly pressed my speech that I might free you by a more deepe incision from their corruption by whom you are intoxicated and might revoke you to pure holinesse of mindâ— which verily together with the promised rewards of piety we may all happen to enioy by the grace and mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be glory for ever and ever Amen In his 7. Homely upon Mathew he proceeds thus against Playes and Play-haunters But what doe I speake of the space of the long iourney of the wise men to see Christ when as many women are now growne to such an height of effeminacy of minde that they cannot so much as come a very little distance from their houses to see the Lord in a spirituall manger unlesse they be carried upon Mules But of those also who verily can indure the paine of walking some preferre the tumult of worldly businesse others Theatricall routs or Play-house meetings before holy Assemblies Verâ—ly these Barbarians before they had seene Christ overcame so great a iourney for him thou verily no not after thou hast seene him dost like to imitate him For even when thou hast seene him thou so relinquâ—shest him that after him thou runnest to Play-houses and dost rather desire both to heare and to see a Stage-player then him And that I may touch the same things againe that I followed before thou verily leavest Christ placed in a Spirituall Manger but thou hastest to see a Strumpet lying on the Stage But of what punishments now at last doe we thinke this worthy Answer I beseech you if any one should promise he would bring thee unto the King and would shew thee him glittering on every side and sitting amidest the severall ornaments of hâ—s pompe and state dost thou thinke thou shouldest prefer a Stage-play before this courtly dignity though thou expectedst no benefit to accrue unto thee by it Verily out of this Table there flowes a fountaine of spirituall good things and this thou presently leaving runnest to the Theater that thou maist see a swimming woman and thou beholdest that sex exposed to the publike view I say that thou maist see this thou leavest Christ sitting by the fountaine of heavenly gifts For even now he sits not onely upon that one Samaritan Well but speaketh to the whole Citty But perchance even now he speakes onely to the Samaritan woman for even now no man stands by him save onely that some perchance are present onely with their bodies but others truely not
Spectators he hath much inveighed which me thinkes should for ever shame and silence all such gracelesse Christians who dare to plead for Stage-playes giving out that none but some few foolish Puritans did ever yet condemne them infallibly evidence unto all mens consciences that Stage-playes desperately vitiate and deprave mens mindes and manners precipitating them into all vice all wickednesse and lewdnesse whatsoever and that they are unsufferable contaminating pernicious plagues in any Well-ordered State which caused these very Pagan Emperors States and Magistrates thus solemnely to exile them and these their Authors to declaime against them To passe from these to Christians wee shall finde both Christian Princes Republikes Authors of ancient and moderne times concurring with these former Pagans in these their doomes of Playes and Actors It is storied by Iosephus that when as King Herod would have brought Stage-playes Cirque-playes and other Spectacles into Hierusalem where he had erected a beautifull Theather and Amphitheater adorned with Caesars Titles and Inscriptions the whole Nation of the lewes though Forraigne Spectators much admired and delighted in his spectacles perceiving that these Playes did wholy tend to the dissolution of their ancient received Country discipline and fearing that some great inconveniencâ— to their Common-wealth would follow upon this alteration thought it their duty to maintaine their publike discipline which was now declining though it were with the hazard of their lives and not to suffer Herod to proceed with these his Spectacles shutting up their Citty Gates against them Which when Herod perceived he began to pacifiâ— and perswade them with good words to admit of these his Playes which prevayling nothing with many he endeavoured to introduce these Playes among them perforce whereupon ten of the Iewes conspired together to murther him whiles he was sitting in the Theater beholding these his Enterludes which they had certainely effected had not this their conspiracy beene casually detected Of which Herod taking advantage accomplished his desire and so brought these his Theatricall Enterludes into Hierusalem by meanes whereof saith Iosephus pray marke the dangerous consequence the Iewes departed more and more from their Country rites and corrupted the inviolable Institutions of their Ancestors with forraignâ— inventions and delights so that there was a very great declining and degenerating of their good manners into worse the discipline decaying whereby the people were wonâ— before this time to be kept in order Such vigorous venome was there in these Stage-playes both to subvert their State and discipline and corrupt their manners the whole Nation of the Iewes being thus both reall witnesses and examples to confirme my Minors truth whom I have here ranked among Christians as being then opposite unto Pagans I now come to reall Christians It is storied of Constantine the Great that very first and most famous Christian Romane Emperour whose name we English men have speciall cause to honour he being borâ—e bred and first crowned King and Emperour here in England his Mother Helena being a Brittish woman to That he wholy with-drew himselfe from the Secular Stage-playes of the Gentiles made in the third yeere of his Consulship â—o drive away plagues and diseases contemning and reiecting these their Eâ—terludes at which these Pagan Gentiles grieved much After which being established in his Empire he did by publike Edicts abolish all the ceremonies rites lascivious customes aud obscenities of the Gentiles and interdicted all gladiatory Playes and Enterludes as intolerable pernicious evils Not to speake of Nerva Constantius Valentinian Honorius Arcadius and playesâ— against which divers Fathers did declaime as barbarous and unchristian Spectacles not tolerable in any civil Stateâ— with which our tumultuous bloody Tragedies have too neere aâ—finity I finde Theodosius the Great who banished all Women-dancers Players and Singers by a publike Edicâ— as the plagues of those places and Citties where they were tolerated not onely suppressing and inhibiting all Stage-playes and Cirque-playes aâ— Antioch and stopping up all Cirques and Theaters as the fountaines of all wickednesse and the Nurseries of all those mischiefes that sprung up in Citties as Chrysostome at large relates and I likewise finde both him Valentinian and Gratian together with Valens the Emperour enacting these publike lawes against Stage-playes and common Actors well worthy observation That no Stage-playes should be acted on the Lords-day that Stage-players and Women-actâ—rs should be quite debarred from the Sacraments as long as they continued in their playing and that the Sacrament should not be administred to them in their extremity when as they lay upon their death-beds though they deâ—ired it unlesse theâ— did first renounce their wicked lewde profession and protest solemnely that they would not returne unto it againe in case they should recover Such was their detestation against common Actors and so by consequence against Playes themselves which made their Actors so base so execrable to these Christian Emperours Iustinian the Emperour promulgated this pious Edict That all sorts of Clergie men together with all other Christians should refraine not onely from Diâ—e play and Dicers company but likewise from the very acting and beholding of Stage playes and Theatricall Spectacles because they are not the least part of those pompes of the Devil which Christians solemnely renounce when they are baptized Leo and Anthemius two worthy Christian Emperours made this most pious Edict All Feaâ—t-dayes or Holy dayes dedicated to the most high God shall not be taken up or solemnized with any pastimes or excursions We therefore decree the Lords-day to be alwayes so honourable and venerable that it shall be exempted from all Executions Admonitions Bayles Appearances Arrests Law-suites and Controversies which shall all thâ—n cease Let all Advocates and Criers then be silent let there be then a kinde of trâ—ce for a space that so Adversaries may safely meete together upon it without feare and reconcile themselves one to the other c. Neither releasing the imployments of this religious Day doe we permit any one to be occupied in obscene pleasures Let not the Theatricall Scene nor the Cirque Combate or the dolâ—full Spectacles of wilde Beasts claime any liberty to themselves on this day and if any solemnity to be celebrated either in respect of our coronation or nativity shall chance to happen upon it let it be put off to some other time If any person shall ever hereafter presume to be present at Stage-playes on this Holy-day or if the Apparitor of any Iudge under pretext of any publike or private businesse shall violate those things which are decreed by this law he shall undergoe the losse of his office and the sequestration of his Patrimony O that this godly Law were now in force with Christians then Playes and Pastimes on Lords-day evenings would not be so frequent then those who had served God at Prayers and Sermons in the day time would not
Sermons what our Vniversities Magistrates and our whole State have determined of them in confirmation of my Minors truth For our Writers To passe by those of more ancient times as Beda Anselme Alexander Fabritius Hâ—lkot Bradwardiâ— Ioannis de Burgo Alexander de Ales Edmundus Cantuariensis Ioannis Saresberiensis Petrus Blesensis Mathâ—w Paris Polychronicon Ludovicus Vives Thomas Waldensis and others hereafter quoted who all condemne these Stage-playes as intolerable corruptions Master Northbroâ—ke an eminent learned Divine in his excellent Treatise against Vaine Playes and Enterludes Imprinted by Authority London 1579â— writes thus of Stage-playes To speake my minde and conscience plainely and in the feare of God I say that Players and Playes are not tolerable nor sufferable in any Common-weale especially where â—he Gospell is preached which he there proves at large by sundry testimonies of Fathers Councels moderne Divines and others and by many arguments because they are the occasions of much sinne and wickednesse corrupting both the mindes and manners of their Actors and Spectators The Author of the third Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters once a Playerly Play-poet himselfe till being pricked in conscience for it he renounced his profession dâ—livers his experimentall resolution of Stage-playes in these very tearmes Such doubtlesse is mine opinion of common Playes that in a Common-weale they are not sufferable My reason is because they are publike enemies to vertue and religion allurements to sinne corrupters of good manners meere Brothel houses of Bawdery and bring both the Gospell into slander the Sabbath into contempt mens soules into daâ—ger and finally the whole Common-weale into disorder all which particulars hee there confirmes at large The title of which Booke is very observable viz. A second and third Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters the one whereof was sounded by a reverend Bishop dead long since the other by a worshipfull and zealous Gentleman now alive one shewing the filthinesse of Playes in times past the other the abomination of Theaters in the time present both expresly proving that that Common-weale is nigh unto the curse of God wherein either Players be made of or Theaters maintained Set forth and allowed by Authority Anno 1580. A pregnant Authorized evidence of my Minors truth Master Stephen Gosson another great Play-poet before his conversion for which he afterwâ—rds shed many a bitter teare in his Schoole of Abuse containing a pleasant invective against Poets Pipers Players Iesters and such like Caterpillers of a Common-wealth setting up a â—lagge of Defiance against their mischeivous exercise and overthrowing their Bulwarkes by Prophane Writers Naturâ—ll Reason and Common Experience printed by Allowance and Dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney Anno 1578. And in his Playes Confuted Dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham which Booke is thus intituled Playes Confuted in five Actions Proving that they are not to be suffred in a Christian Common-weale c. Imprinted at London about the yeere 1581. doth positively affirme and copiously demonstrate upon unanswerable grounds That Stage-playes and common Actors are no wayes tolerable in any Christian or Well-governed Common-weale because they occasion much wickednesse lewdnesse and disorder and exceâ—dingly corrupt the mindes the manners both of their Auditors and Spectators as the Perusers of these Tractates shall more at large discerne The selfe-same Assertion and Conclusion we shall finde in Master Stubs his Anatomâ— of Abuses in reverend B B. Babington his Exposition upon the 7. Commandement in Master Iohn Field his Declaration of Gods Iudgement at Paris Garden published by Authority Anno 1583. In a Book intituled The Church of evill mâ—n and women c. printed by Richard Pinson Anno 1580. In Matthew Parker Archbishop of Canterbury De Antiqu Ecclesiae Brittanicae Loâ—dini 1572. fol. ult In M. George Whetston his Mirror for Magistrates of Citties London 1586. fol. 24. In Holling shead his Chronicle Anno 1549. pag. 1028. Numb 25.30 Col. 2. Anno 1559. Col. 1184. Anno 1576. Col. 1209. In Doctor Iohn Case Ethicorum lib. 4. cap. 8. pag. 307.308 Politicorum lib. 5. cap. 8. pag. 474.475 476. where he condemnes all Popular though he allowes of Academicall Stage-playes as Doctor Gager and Doctor Gentiles likewise doe In reverend B B. Halls Epistles Deâ—ad 6. Epist. 6. In the Rich Cabinet London 1616. pag. 116.117 118. In Master Samuel Purchas his Pilgrim cap. 51. pag. 490. In M. Doctor Sparkes his Rehearsall Sermon at Pauls Crosse the 29. of Aprill Anno 1579. In the Anonymous Treatise of Dances London 1581. shewing that they are dependents or things annexed unto whoredome wherin it is also proved by the way that Playes are ioyned and knit together in a ranke with them In incomparable Doctor Reinolds his Overthrow of Stage-playes printed 1597. and reprinted at Oxford 1629. and in his Preface to the Vniversity of Oxford before his 6. Theses pag. 45.46 London 1612. In Doctor Iohn White his Sermon at Pauls Crosse March 24. 1615. sect 11. In Dr. Bond of the Sabbath London 1595. p. 134.135.136.137.138 In I. G. his Refutation of the Apologie for Actors London 1615. pag 13. 48. to 60. In Master Brinslyâ— his 3. part of the True Watch chapter 11. Abomination 30. pag. 302. In Master Osmund Lake his Probe Theologicall upon the Commaâ—dements London 1612. pag 167. to 272. In Master William Perkins his Exposition upon the 7. Commandement in his Workes vol. 1. p. 60. D. In his Treatise of Conscience cap. 3. Tom. 1. pag. 538. In his Cases of Conscience Booke 3. chap. 4. sect 4. Question 2. vol. 2. pag. 140.141 and in his Commentary on Galathians 3. vol. 2. pag. 239. In I. P. his Covenant betweene God and man Exposition on the 7. Commandement In B B. Baily his Preface to the Practise of Piety In Master Dod Master Cleavâ—r M. Elâ—on and B B. Andrewes on the 7. Commandement In Master Thomas Gatiker of the Lawfull use of Lots pag. 216. In Doctor Layton his Speculum Beâ—â—i Sacri cap. 45. In Master Iohn Downhâ—m his Summe of Divinity Booke 1. chap. 11. pag. 203. and in his Guide to Godlinesse lib. 3. chap. 21. sect 5. In Master Rebert Bolton his Discourse of True Happinesse pag. â—3 34 In a Short Treatise against Stage-playes Dedicated to the Parliament Anno 1625. In Richard Rawlidge his Monster lately found out c. London 1628. pag. 2.3.4 In Doctor Ames De Iure Conscientiae lib. 5. â—â—p 34. pag. 271. In Master Richard Brathwait his English Gentlewoman London 1631. pag. 53.54 In Doctor Thomas Beard his Theater of Gods Iudgements Edition 2. London 1631. Booke 2. chap. 36. pag. 435.436 who in these their severall Writings unanimously condemne all Stage-playes as unsufferable pernicious abominations and corruptioâ—s in a Christian State which desperately deprave mens mindes and manners by drawing them on to idlenesse wantonnesse prophanesse whoredome dissolutenâ—sse effemiâ—acy and all kinke of vice and wickednesse whatsoever as these their Writings with sundry others
That the time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousnesse lusts excesse of wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatries wherein they thinke it strange that you run not with thâ—m into the same excesse of riot speaking evill of you who shall giue an account to him who is ready to iudge both quicke and dead By Titus 2.11.12 The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly rightâ—ously and godly in this present world By Ephes. 5.18 And be not drunke with wine wherein is excesse By Luke 21.34 Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overchâ—rged with surfetting aâ—d drunkennesse and cares of this world and that day come upon you at unawares by sundry such like Scriptures to this purpose which I have formerly quoted in another Treatise And likewise by the dangerous quality of these effeminating soule-destroying sinnes which are more pernicious to a Common-weale then pestilence or warre it selfe mâ—re fatall to mens soules and bodies then any Circean charme The Minor is most apparant First from the originall invention and dedication of Stage-playes which were first of all devised by a company of drunken Grecians in honor of their Devil-Idoll Bacchus the God of wine of drunkennesse and all excesse to whom Playes and Play-houses were consecrated at the first as Historians and Fathers certifie us Whence Tertullian stiles the Theater the house or temple of Bacchus because Stage-playes which were formerly stiled Liberalia were as Diodorus Siculus Isiodor Hispalensis and others record instituted by consecrated unto Bacchus the Idol the author of all intemperance If therefore their very inception were thus from drunkennesse and excesse their progresse questionlesse must bee such Secondly it is euident from the testimony the experience of former ages who not onely enumerate Stage-playes among the excâ—sses the luxury both of the Greckes and Romanes as the Fathers and Authors in the margent testifieâ— but likewise make them the chiefe occasions of it Hence Chrysostome and Nazianzen stile the Play-house The Schoole of intemperance deboistnesse luxury and excesse Hence Salvian ioynes the Stage-playes epicuriâ—me and drunkennesse of the Romanes and those of Trevers both together making one the effect the companion of the other It is noted by Historians that Caligula Heliogobalus Nero Commodus Gallienus and other Roman Emperours who delighted most in Stage-playes were the most deboist luxurious dissolute ebrious of all others an infallible demonstration that Stage-playes are the occasion fewell and attendants of these sinnes It was the custome of the Pagan Greekes and Romanes in all their drunken riotous Feasts as it is now the usage of too many Christians to exhilerate themselves with Stage-playes of purpose to draw men on to drunkennesse luxury and more grosse intemperance Whence the Councell of Laodicea Can. 53.54 and the Councell of Aquisgrane under Lewes the godly prohibited Stage-playes at Christians marriage-Feasts and enioyned all Ministers not to be present at them but to arise and depart from such feasts before the Players entred that so they might prevent that riot that excesse which these theatricall Enterludes might occasion All which together with that of Plutarch who relates that all Stage-players were consecrated unto Bacchus as well as these their Stage-playes is a plenary ratification of my Minors truth to which our owne experience must subscribe For who more luxuâ—ious ebrious riotous or deboist then our assiduous Actors and Play-haunters Who greater Taverne Ale-house Tobacco-shop Hot-water house haunters c who greater stouter drinkers health-quaffers Epicures or good-fellowes then they What walke more usuall then from a Play-house to a Taverne to an Ale-house a Tobacco-shop or Hot-water Brothel-house or from these unto a Play-house where the Pot the Can the Tobacco-pipe are alwayes walking till the Play be ended from whence they returne to these their former haunts Many are the Ale-house more the Bacchanalian Taverne-meetings that are appointed concluded at the Play-house from which much drunkennesâ—e and excesse arise yea the Play-house is the common Randevouze where most such riotous Taverne conventicles are either motioned plotted or resolved on as our Play-haunters themselves confesse And is there not reason why it should be so Are not drunkennesse ioviality epicurisme luxury and profusenesse most rhetorically applauded most elegantly adorned in our Stage-playes with the sublimest Encomiums the most insinuating Panegyrickes the most amiable Titles that either art or eloquence can invent and doth not this adde spurs and fewell to many Yongsters lusts who to purchase the empty title of brave generous liberall and right ioviall Sparkes whom Players most applaud doe prodigally consume their Patrimonies their Pensions their time in Tavernes Ordinaries Tobacco-shops c. in ebrious luxurious meetings to their owne undoing their friends and Parents griefe Alas the pittifull complaints of sundry parents together with the testimony of our owne grave English Authors prove this to be too true Therefore we must needs abominate and reject all popular Stage-playes in respect of these their cursed fruits SCENA OCTAVA THe eight effect of Stage-playes is impudency immodesty and shamelesnesse yea even in sinfull things Whence this 34. Argument may be deduced That which banisheth all modesty al shamefacenesse and makes both Actors Spectators impudently shamelesse in committing sinne is questionlesse abominable and unlawfull unto Christians But this doe Stage-playes and Play-houses Therefore they are questionlesse abominable and unlawfull unto Christians My Major is irrefragable First because modesty and shamefastnesse are such graces such vertues as God himselfe requires of us in his Word and which the very Heathen much extoll They are the chiefest ornaments virtues guides supports and stay of Youth the Mothers the conservers of all other Christian or morrall vertues the onely curbs that restraine men from all sinne all lewdnesse and dishonestâ— whatsoever where these are once removed the whole practise of honesty and vertue will be quite extinguished Hee who hath lost these vertues is no better then a cast-away He who is past all shame is certainely past all grace past all recovery all amendment That therefore which banisheth these two restrayning vice-suppressing vertues in which not onely Christianity but even all common honesty civility and the publike safety doe subsist must needs bee abominable Secondly because impudency and shamelesnesse especially in committing sinne is almost the very highest degree of sinne yea they provoke God more to anger and draw a deeper guilt a more multiplied condemnation upon men then the sinne it selfe which they thus perpetrate They are infallible symptomes of a cauterized conscience an obdurate heart a reprobate sence of a man given wholy over unto sinne and Satan yea they
as a defensative to secure them from the plague their sicknesse being more effectuall to convert them then their health For those who were so weake in their health that they could not bee wonne by reasons to approve the truth were made whole in faith by this their corporall disease Loe here a man-eating pestilence sent by God from Heaven upon these Pagan Play-haunters Answerable to which I finde another Story in Plutarch who relates that in the Consulship of Caius Sulpitius and Licinius Solon the great plague then raigning in Rome devoured not onely sundry Play-haunters but even all the Stage-players then in Rome so that there was not so much as one of them left alive A just judgement of God upon these pestiferous miscreants And may we not then suspect that their toleration of and our great resort to Stage-playes hath beene a great occasion of those devouring Plagues which formerly and now of late have seised not onely upon London and her Suburbs where divers publike standing Play-houses are every day frequented but on other Townes and Cities too where stragling wandring Players though Rogues by Statute doe oft-times act their parts Sure I am that Saint Augustine Orosius and others truely stile Stage-playes the very plague and pestilence of mens mindes and manners and that Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian and S. Chrysostome call the Play-house the â—ery seaâ—e and chaire of pestilence no wonder therefore if they produce a plague in those Kingdomes the Cities which permit them Indeed the ancient Pagan Romanes when as Rome was exceedingly pestred with the plague sent into Tuscany for Stage-players to asswage its rage but both Livy Augustine and Orosius assure us that they were so farre from mitigating this plague which â—eised on mens bodies which they did rather aggravatâ— that in stead of it they brought in among them a far more pernicious and perpetuall pestilence of their soules and manners to wit their wicked pestiferous Stage-playes which they could not shake off In the first yeere of Queene Elizabeths Raigne all Stage-plages were prohibited by publike proclamation from the 7. of Aprill till Allhallontide of purpose to cease that plague which was then begun and so in all great sicknesses since that time all publike Enterludes have beene suppressed for the selfesame reason If then the inhibiting of publike Stage-playes hath beene such a common anâ—idote to asswage those fearefull Plagues which God in justice hath inflicted on us we may then conclude from the rule of contraries that our resort to ribaldry Stage-playes which God without all question as appeares by all the new recited judgements cannot but abhorre is a grand occasion both of the engendring and propagating these late these present plagues which yet wee feele and suffer As therefore we would flie and feare this dreadfull fatall sicknesse which hath a long time hovered over our heads and hath almost quite depopulated some particular places of this Kingdome and God knoweth how soone how fast it may increase to sweepe us all away let us henceforth cast out these our lewde pestiferous Enterludes and rase downe these our Leprous Play-houses which may involue us in the selfesame miseries that these Caesarians here sustained to our utter ruine But if all these former examples will not deterre us from these Spectacles let us consider what generall Nationall judgements they have oft procured To passe by Gods judgements upon Sodom for her Cirques and Theaters as Prudentius poetically expresseth it who affirmes with all that Christians after their conversion returne backe no more to Playes and Theaters The excessive expences of the Athenians on their Stage-playes if Plutarch or Iustin may be credited was the very overthrow and destruction of their State and the occasion of their bondage to the Macedonians Arnobius informes the Gentiles against whom he wrote that all the evils the miseries with which mortality was overwhelmed and oppressed from day to day without intermission originally sprang from Stage-playes with which these Heathen Gentiles were besotted Saint Augustine at large demonstrates that the bringing in and tolerating of Stage-playes which vitiates the mindes and manners of the Romanes was the principall cause of the very ruine of their Common-weale and of all those fat all miseries which befell them Whereupon hee breakes out into this patheticall exclamation O fooles O mad men what is this your extreame I say not error but frensie that when as all the Easterne Nations as wee have heard and the very greatest Cities in the remotest Countries doe publikely grieve and sorrow for your destruction that you should runne after Theatersâ— enter into them fill them and make them much more unruly and outragious then before This plague and pestilence of mens mindes this overthrow of honesty and goodnesse did worthy Scipio feare would befall you when he prohibited Theaters to be erected when he discerned that you might be easily corrupted and overturned with prosperity when as hee would not have you secure from feare of enemies neither did he thinke the Common-weale could be happy when as the walls of it onely stood but the manners fell to ruine But in you that hath more prevailed which wicked Devils have seducingly suggested then that which provident men have laboured to prevent Hence is it that the evils which you doe you will not have them to be imputed to you and the evils which you suffer you impute onely to the Christian times Neither in your security doe you seeke for a peaceable Common-wealth but an unpunished luxury who being depraved with prosperity cannot yet be amended by adversity Saint Chrysostome as hee records that Stage-playes had brought great mischiefes upon Cities both in respect of sinne and punishment so hee with all relates That the very Heavens were made Brasse and the earth Iron that the very elements themselves did proclaime Gods wrath against men for their Stage-playes How long therefore O sonnes of men will yee be slow of heart Why writes he doe yee love vanity in Enterludes and seeke after lies in Stage-players Holy Salvian writes expresly That the very sacking of Rome the destruction of all Italy the spoyling of Ravenna Trevers Marseilles Agrippina Moguntia and a great part of France and Spaine by the Goathes and Vandals was but a iust iudgement of God inâ—licted on them for their frequenting and maintaining Playes and Theaters whose execrable filthinesse whose inconsistency with Christianity and whose odiousnesse in Gods eye-sight hee most eligantly discyphers If wee observe all the passages of the Roman History we shall easily discover that the Roman Common-weale had never so bad Emperours and Magistrates and the greatest plagues that can befall a people that it was never so ill governed never so much disordered and corrupted and that the Romanes themselves and their Allies were never so strangely oppressed afflicted dissipated and consumed with all kinde of plagues and
iudgements with pestilences civill dissentions tyranny forraigne invasions exactions mundations earthquakes fires and the like as in the raignes of Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Heliogabalus Commodus Carinus and these other flagitious Histrionicall Emperours in whose raignes both Playes and Players were in most request as well with Prince as people whose sinnes were nourished and intended by them and so by consequence Gods iudgements on them too When ever their Playes and Theaters went up their manners vertues prosperity and Common-wealth went downe and all Gods iudgements fell upon them as their Historians declare at large When Herod brought in Playes among the Iewes then went their manners their State their whole Nation unto wrecke and Gods iudgements seised on them more fatally then before To come neerer to our times Franciscus Petrarcha M. Northbrooke M. Stubs and others certifie us That Stage-playes draw downe Gods vengeance not onely on their Actors and Spectators for which they recite some precedents but likewise on those States and Cities which allow them Master Brinsly a reverend Divine informes us That such who frequent Play-houses must needs bring faggots and firebrands to set in the gates of our Hierusalem The very Title of the second and third Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters published by Authority in the yeere of our Lord 1â—80 instructs us That that Common-weale is nigh unto the curse of God wherein either Players be made of or Theaters maintained And the Author of the third of these Blasts being once a Play-poet writes That sinne did so abound at Stage-playes and was there so openly committed that when he gave himselfe first to observe the abuse of common Playes he looked wheâ— God in iustice should presently in his wrath have confounded the beholders And I am verily perswaded saith hee that if Players may bee still permitted to make sale of sinne wee shall pull on our heads Gods vengeance and to our Realme bring an utter confusion And no wonder that it should bee so For where ever sinne goes before Gods wrath and vengeance will certainely follow after where all wickednesse and prophanesse super-abound Gods Iudgements cannot but abound at last Now Playes and Play-houses as the precedent Scenes doe manifest are the fruitfull nurseries and fomenters of all wickednesse all lewdnesse whatsoever they likewise harden mens hearts thorow the deceitfulnesse of sinne and undispose them to repentance they so ripen and prepare men for Gods judgements that they have neither providence to foresee nor any spirituall wisedome to prevent them no wonder therefore if Gods judgements seise upon them to their just destruction even in the ruffe of all their carnall iolity and fearelesse security You have now seene a short survay of Gods tragicall judgements upon Play-poets Players Play-haunters and those States and Cities wherein they are tolerated and approved together with the reason of it which must needs stand firme as long as God is just to punish sinne These few examples therefore of Gods iudgements which should be warnings unto all should lesson all Play-poets to give over their composing all common Actors to renounce the acting all voluptuous Play-haunters to abandon the sight and hearing of all Theatricall Enterludes all Christian Princes Cities States and Magistrates whose connivency at any evils that they might suppresse doth make them deepely guilty of them for ever to exile all Playes and demolish all Play-houses whatsoever for feare they pull Gods judgements downe upon them as they have done on others Alas why should any Christian Play-poet Player or Spectator any Christian State or City where Playes have publike countenance be so desperately secure as to conceit that though Playes have brought Gods judgements upon others yet they shall scape unpunished his wrath shall never seise on them what ground what warrant is there for any such unchristian surmise Is not Gods avenging justice towards sinne and sinners still the same and are not Stage-playes Play-poets Actors Play-haunters and those places where they are tolerated as execrably vitious as sinfull as odious now to God as ever Is not the selfesame punishment alwayes due unto the selfesame sinnes and sinners and is not the selfesame sinne as sinfull as peccable yea more execrable more damnable in Christians then in Pagans God hath most severely punished Pagan yea and Christian Play-poets Stage-players Play-haunters and such States as tolerated them for Stage-playes heretofore as the forequoted examples testifie and shall hee not much more avenge himselfe on such like Christians for their Stage-playes now And yet alas such is the infidelity such the security of mens obdurate hearts that not onely when they heare but likewise when they visibly behold Gods vengeance seising upon others for composing acting frequenting countenancing these vaine delights of sinne yet they really believe not either that these have perished or that themselves shall perish for the selfesame things unlesse they likewise see themselves destroyed too neither are they any whit affected with the sudden fearefull deaths of others till such a death hath seised on themselves O therefore now at last as wee tender our owne private or the publike safety let other mens wounds bee our cautions let these mens deaths prove our life let their judgements be our medicines Hee saith Saint Cyprian is too audacious who strives to passe over there where he hath seene another to have fallen he is outragiously unruly who is not strucke with feare when he sees another perish in that course which he is running He onely is a lover of his owne safety who takes warning by anothers death And he onely is a provident man who is made solicitous by the ruines of other men which Solomon approveth saying The prudent seeing the evill man punished is greatly instructed And againe When wicked men fall the iust will bee much affrighted It is an adverse hurtfull confidence which certainely commits its life to dangers as to a certaine thingâ— And that is but a slippery hope which presumes it shall be safe amids the fomentations of sinne It is an uncertaine victory to fight amidest the enemies weapons and it is an impossible deliverance to be compassed about with flames and not to burne Wherefore let not a peradventure that we may escape Gods judgements though we still resort to Stage-playes overpoyse a peradventure that they may seise upon us as they have done on others Neither let Gods long-suffring towards Play-poets Players Play-haunters and such Republikes as approve them which in truth should lead them to repentance make all or any of them or us secure against the feare of his avenging hand For the longer Gods iudgements are delayed the greater will they be at last That punishment is most troublesome which is deferred with a foregoing terror that torment is more grievous more intolerable which is delayed for this onely purpose that it may strike the
heathenish unchristian polluted spectacles which defile the eyes the eares the soules corrupt the manners enflame the lusts of those who act who see or heare them acted disabling them likewise to and withdrawing them from Gods holy worship and service Fourthly that Stage-playes even in private houses at marriages or feasts are unlawfull and misbeseeming Christians as well as in publike Theatres Fifthly that the acting of Stage-playes whether publike or private by common Actors or others especially in Churches and Church-yards is altogether abominable and unlawfull though it be still permitted in some places among the Papists in forraigne parts Sixthly that the acting of our Saviours passion or of any other sacred history either in the Church or on the Stage a practise yet in use among the prophane sacrilegious Papists and Iesuites is altogether to be abandoned and condemned Seventhly that dancing dicing carding and Stage-playes are unlawfull and abominable as at all other times so chiefly upon Lords dayes holy dayes and solemne Christian festivalls especially on Easterâ— Whitsontide and Christtide set apart and consecrated to Gods peculiar and more speciall worship when they are now most in use If any here demand of me how the beginning and ending of Lords dayes and holy dayes on which these Stage-Playes and Pastimes are more specially prohibited should be accounted I answer that the Lords day notwithstanding some late reverend opinions to the contrary hath alwayes anciently beene reputed to begin at saturday evening not at midnight or daybreaking as some now teach and so to continue to the evening following At the time of the creation it is most apparant that the day began at evening For the evening and the morning were the first second third fourth fifth sixth and so by consequent the seventh day in ratification of which originall law of nature for the beginning and ending of dayes the Lord himselfe above two thousand yeares after commanded the Israelites to celebrate their Sabbath from evening to evening Levit. 23.32 From even to even shall you celebrate your Sabbath By vertue of which precept the Iewes did alwayes begin and keepe their Sabbaths and solemne festivalls from evening to evening till our Saviours passion and this present day Neither did our Saviours resurrection on the first day of the weeke alter the beginning and end of that day nor yet of the Sabbath which we now keepe upon it For if the first day on which our Saviour rose againe tooke its beginning onely from the time of his resurrection as some affirme then our Saviour could not possibly be three dayes in the grave nor yet be truly said to rise againe the third day according to the Scriptures the night in which our Saviour rose being according to this computation a part of the seventh day and no part of the first of which the Fathers and all other Expositors have alwayes made it parcell to justifie the truth of our Saviours resurrection on the third day And whereas some object that it is absurd that our Christian sabbath should begin before the houre of our Saviours resurrection which is the ground of it for thâ—s were to put the effect before the cause and to make the sabbath precede Christs resurrection which was the cause of its commencement I answer first that Christs resurrection did not sanctifie onely the first houre but the first day on which he rose therefore the antecedent part of the first day which was past before his resurrection as well as the subsequent For as Christians celebrate the day of our Saviours passion even from the very morning though our Saviour suffered not till towards evening and as the Israelites by Gods owne appointment were to begin their Passeover the evening of the foureteenth day not at midnight though the Angell slew not the first-borne of Egypt nor yet passed over the Israelites till midnight And as all Christians keepe holy the mornings of those dayes wherein they receive any publike deliverances as well as the evening though the deliverances perchance were not till noone or after And as if our Saviour should have risen at two of the clocke in the afternoone about which time he first shewed himselfe to his Disciples yet no man would have argued that therefore the sabbath must not begin before that houre so be kept from noone to noone because we observe not the houre but the intire day So our Christian sabbath by the selfsame reason must be still kept from evening to evening though our Saviour rose not till the morning because we observe not the houre the minute but the intire day whereon he rose againe which then began at evening Secondly I would demand on what day our Saviour rose on the seventh or on the first day of the weeke If on the seventh then he was not three dayes in the grave and then we have no ground for sanctifying the first day If on the first day of the weeke then the day was begun before he rose for if the day began not till he was risen then he rose not on it but before it If he rose after the day began as it is certaine he did by severall Scriptures then his resurrection did not change the beginning of the day it being begun befoâ—e else this day should have two beginnings and so it was begun before it began and after it began which is a contradiction and if it altered not the beginning of the first day then by what authority is it changed now Neither can it be here replied that the first day hath one beginning and the Sabbath or Lords day another for as it is said of the seventh day that the seventh day is the sabbath and the sabbath the seventh day so it may be truly said that the Lords day is the first day of the weeke and the first day of the weeke the Lords day they having both the selfe-same limits Thirdly no Scripture informes us that our Saviours resurrection changed the beginning or end of the sabbath that it should now begin at midnight or morning not at evening therefore it kâ—epes the selfâ—same beginning and end it had before Neither doth the objected reason viz that the cause should precede the effect warranted by no Scripture prove any thing at all Indeed if any had celebrated the first day as a sabbath before our Saviour had risen the reason had beene good but since our Saviour was risen againe before the first day was ever kept holy and since his resurrection on it was the cause why Christians subsequently observed the whole day not the very minute or houre on which he rose or that part onely of the day which remained after he was risen the reason is of no weight at all For if our Saviours resurrection should not extend to consecrate that part of the first day which preceded it because the effect should not goe before the cause a man might
attention too THE SECOND PART ACTVS PRIMVS IF then all popular Stage-playes bee thus sinfull hurtfull execrable unseemly unlawfull unto Christians as I have at large evinced in the precedent part of this my Histrio-mastix I shall thence inferre these 3. ensuing Corollaries which necessarily issue from it First That the profession of a Play-poet or the composing of Comedies Tragedies on such like Playes for publike Players or Play-houses is altogether infamous and unlawfull Secondly That the very profession of a Stage-player together with the acting of Playes and enterludes either in publike theaters or private houses is infamous Scandalous and no wayes lawfull unto Christians Thirdlyâ— That it is an infamous shamefull and unlawfull practise for Christians to be either spectators or frequenters of Playes or Play-houses In briefe the very penning acting and beholding of Stage-playes are infamous unseemly unlawfull unto Christians since Playes themselves are so To begin with the first of theseâ— I shall for the better clearing of its truth and the avoyding of all mistakes most willingly acknowledge First that as Poetrey it selfe is an excellent endowmeÌ„t pâ—culier unto some by a kind of naturall Genius so it is likewise lawfull yea usefull and commendable among Christians if righly used as not onely the divine hymmes recorded in Scripture together with the famous ancient Poëms of Tertullian Arator Apollinaris Nazianzen Prudentius Prosper and other Christian worthies with the moderne Distiques of Dubarâ—as Beza Scaliger Bucanon Heinsius Withars Hall Quarles our late Soveraigâ—e King Iames with infinite others but likewise the much applauded verses of Homer Pindarus Virgil Statius Silius Italicus Lucan Claudian Horace Iuuenall and some parts of Ovid where he is not obscene most plentifully evidence whose Poëms are both approved read highly magnified of all learned ChristiaÌ„s who both allow teach them in their publike Schooles Yea were not Poetrie and Poets Lawfull we must then rase out of our Bibles Acts 17.28 1 Cor. 15.33 Titus 1.12 13. where the sentences of Menander Epimenides and Aratus three heathen Poets are not only recited but Canonized too If any desire any further satisfaction in this point which is so cleare I shall onely referre them to Tertullian ad Vxorem lib. 1. to St. Basil de legendis libris Gentilium Oratio to Nicephorus Callistus Eccleâ—â—asticae Historae l. 10. c 26. to the ancient moderne CommeÌ„tators on these texts to Georg Alley Bishop of Exeter his poore mans Librarie part 1. Misellanea Praelectionis 4. pag. 165.166 D. Rainolds Overthrow of Stagâ—â—playes p. 21 22. who will abundantly satisfie them in this poynt Secondly that it is lawfull to compile a Poeme in nature of a Tragedie or poeticall Dialogue with severall acts and parts to adde life and luster to it especially in case of necessitie when as truth should else be suffocated Hence Nicephorus and Cassiodor record of Apolinaris the Elder that being inhibited by Iulian the Apostate to Preach or teach the Gospell or to traine the christians children to learning and poetrie he thereupon translated divers Bookes of Scripture into verse and composed divers Tragedies in imitation of Euripides and sundry Comedies and lyricke verses in imitation of Menander and Pindarus consisting only of divine arguments and Scripture stories by which he instructed those to whom he could have no liberty to Preach the like did Gregory Nazianzen and others in the Primitive Church upon the same occasion having no other meanes to defend or propagate religion with approbation or connivance but by such Poëms as these Hence divers pious Christians likewise in King Henry the 8. and Queene Maries bloudy raigne being restrained by Superiour Popish-powers to oppose received errors or propagate the truth and Doctrine of the Gospell in publike Sermons or polemicall positiue treatises did covertly venâ— and publish sundry truthes yea censure sundry Errors and interpret divers scriptures in Rimes in Comedies Tragaedies Poems like to Playes under the names the persons of others whom they brought in discoursing of sundry points of true religion which could not else bee Preached but by such Poems as these which the people gladly heard and read and the Magistrates and popish Priestes conived at at first till at last King Henry the 8. by the statute of 34. 35. H. 8. c. 1. and Queene Marie by her expresse Proclamation in the first yeare of her raigne which the popish Prelates did most strictly execute Prohibited the setting forth or penning of any songs Playes Rimes or Enterludes which medled with interpretations of Scripture contrary to the doctrine established in their raignes Wherefore I shall here approve not condemn the ancient Tragedy stiled Christus passus falsly attributed to Nazianzen wherein Christs passion is elegantly descâ—phered together with Bernardinus Ochin his Tragedy of Freewil Plessie Morney his Tragedie of Ieptha his daughter Edward the 6. his Comedie de meretrice Babilonica Iohn Bale his Comedies de Christo de Lazare Skeltons Comedies de Virtute de Magnificentia de bono Ordine Nichâ—laus Grimoaldus de Archiprophetae Tragedia c. which like Geffry Chaucers Pierce the Plowmans tales and Dialogues were penned only to be read not acted their subiects being al serious sacred divine not scurrilous wanton or prophan as al modern Play poëms are Thirdly as it is lawfull to pen so likewise to recite to read such tragicall or comicall poëms as these composed onely to be read not acted on the Stage And in truth the Tragedies Comedies and Play-poëms of ancient times as those of Sophocles Euripedes AEschylus Menander Seneca and others were onely read or recited by the Poets themselves or some others of their appointment before the people not acted on the Stage by Players as now they are it being a great disparagement to Poets to have their Poëms acted as Horace Diodorâ—s Siculus and Quintilian testifie That these ancient Comedies and Tragedies were thus read or recited onely not played or acted on the Stage is evident by the expresse testimonies of Horace Sermo l. 1. Satyr 4. 10 Epist. l. 2. Epist. 1. de Arte Poâ—tica lib. of Iuuenall Satyr 1.4 8. of Diodorus Siculus Bibl. hist l. 14. sect 110. p. 649 650. of Plutarch de Audiendis Poetis lib. of Plinie Epist l. 1. Epist 13. Epist l. 2. Epist. 10. l 3. Epist 15.18 l. 5. Epist. 3. l. 7. Epist. 17. l. 8. Epist. 21. l. 9. Epist. 27. Of Suetonius in his Octauius sect 89. Of Quintilian de Oratoribus Dialogus 1.6.14 of Polydor Virgil de Invent. rerum l. 3. c. 13. of Scaliger Poeticis l. 1. c. 7. of Dr. Reinolds in his Overthrow of Stageplayes p. 22. of Bulâ—ngerus de Theatro l. 2. c. 1. p. 339. A.B. with sundry others who all give testimony to this truth Which takes of one grand obiection that Players and Play-poets make to iustifie the Acting and penning of Stage-playes that many
your last dying Scenes draw on apace and it will not be long ere you goe off the Theater of this world unto your proper place and then how miserable will your condition be You have beene the Devils professed agents his meniall hired servants all your lives and must you not then expect his wages at your deathes You have treasured up nought but wrath unto your selves against the day of wrath whiles you lived here precipitating both your selves and others to destruction and can you reape ought but wrath and vengeance hereafter if you repent not now Your very profession hath excommunicated you the Church the Sacraments the society of the Saints on earth and will it not then much more exclude you out of Heaven O miserabilis humana conditio sine Christo vanum omne quod vivimus was S. Hieroms patheticall ejaculation and may it not be much more yours who have lived without Christ in the world who have renounced his service and betaken your selves to the Devils workes and pompes against your baptiâ—mall vow as if you had covenanted by your selves and others to serve the Devill and performe his workes even then when you did at first abjure them O then bewaile with many a bitter teare with many an heart-piercing sigh with much shame much horror griefe and indignation the losse of all that precious time which you have already consumed in the Devils vassalageâ— and since God hath forborne you for so many yeeres out of his tender mercy O now at last thinke it enough yea too too much that you have spent your best your chiefest dayes in this unchristian diabolicall lewde profession professing publikely in S. Peters words The time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles and of the Devill to we will henceforth live to God alone If you will now cast of your former hellish trade of life with shame and detestaâ—ion if you will prove new men new creatures for the time to come Christs armes Christs wounds yea and the Church her bosome stand open to receive you notwithstanding all the lusts and sinnes of your former ignorance But if you will yet stop your eares and harden your hearts against all advice proceeding on stil in this your ungodly trade of life in which you cannot but be wicked then know you are such as are marked out for Hell such who are given up to a reprobate sence to worke all uncleanesse even with greedinesse that you all may be damned in the Day of Iudgement for taking pleasure in unrighteousnesse and disobeying the truth As therefore you expect to enter Heaven Gates or to escape eternall damnation in that great dreadfull Day when you must all appeare before the Iudgement Seate of Christ to give a particular account of all those idle vaine and sinfull actions gestures words and thoughts which have proceeded from you or beene occasioned in others by you all your dayes be sure to give over this wicked trade of Play-acting without any more delayes which will certainely bring you to destruction if you renounce it not as all true penitent Players have done before you For if the righteous shall scarcely be saved in the Day of Iudgement where shall such ungodly sinners as you appeare Certainely you shall not be able to stand in Iudgement or to justifie your selves in this your profession in that sinne-confounding soule-appaling Day but you shall then be punished with everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord from the glory of his power if the very riches of his grace and mercy will not perswade you to renounce this calling now Quantoque diutius Deus vos expectavit vt emendetis tanto districtius judicabit si neglexeritis by how much the longer God hath forborne you here expecting your repeÌ„tance the more severely shal he then condemne you If any Stage-players here object that they know not how to live or maintaine themselves if they should give over acting To this I answer first that as it is no good argument for Bawdes Panders Whores Theeves Sorcerers Witches Cheaters to persevere in these their wicked courses because they cannot else maintaine themselves so it is no good Plea for Players No man must live by any sinfull profession nor yet doe evill that good may come of it therefore you must not maintaine your selves by acting Playes it being a lewde unchristian infamous occupation Secondly there are divers lawfull callings and imployments by which Players might live in better credit in a farre happier condition then now they doe would they but bee industrious It is therefore Players idlenesse their love of vanity sinfull pleasures not want of other callings that is the ground of this objection Thirdly admit there were no other course of life but this for Players I dare boldly averre that the charity of Christians is such as that they would readily supply the wants of all such indigent impotent aged Actors unable to get their livelihood by any other lawfull trade who out of conscience shall give over Playing Certainely the charity of Christians was such in Cyprians dayes that they would rather maintaine poore penitent Actors with their publike almes then suffer them to perish or continue acting and I doubt not but their charity will be now as large in this particular as it was then Lastly admit the objection true yet it were farre better for you to die to starve then any wayes to live by sinne or sinfull courses There is sinneâ— yea every pious Christian as is evident by the concurrent examples of all the Martyrs should rather chuse to die the cruellest death then to commit one act of sinne Better therefore is it for Players to part with their profession for Christs sake even with the very losse of their lives and goods which they must willingly lose for Christ or else they are not worthy of him then to retaine their Play-acting and so lose their Saviour themselves their very bodies and soules for all eternity as all unreclaimed unrepenting Players in all probability ever doe Let Players therefore if they will be mercifull to themselves shew mercy rather to their soules then to their bodies or estates Talis enim misericordia crudelitate plena est qua videlâ—cet ita corpori servitur ut anima juguletur Quae enim charitas est carnem diligere spiritum negligere Quaeve discretio totum dare corpori animae nihil Qualis vero misâ—â—icordia ancillam reficere dominam interficere Nemo pro hujusmodi misericordia sperat se consequi misericordiam sed certissime potius paenam expectet Yea let them renounce their Play-acting though they perish here rather then perish eternally hereafter to live by it now Lastly I shall here exhort all Play-haunters all Spectators of any publike or private Enterludes to ponder all the
42. Iustiniani Novella 98. 105. AElij Lampridij Heliogabalus p. 202. Bâ—lengerus De Theatro l. c. 1.50 p. 296â—297 298. Codex Theodosij l. 15. Tit. 5.7 m See the 3. Blast of Retrait from Stage-playes BB. Babingions Exposition on the 7. Commandement accordingly n M. Gosson in his Schoole of Abuses Playes Confuted and the 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes write thus See Act 4. Scene 1. * Ejusmodi itaque patronos habet ars Lenonia quique tueantur artem meretriciam cui in huÌ„c usque diem proâ— dolor in Christiana republica locus est in Civitatibus publica Theatra immunitates stipendia concessa sunt c. Agrippa De Vanitate Sciâ—nt cap. 64. o See Tertul. De Spectac c. 10. Isiodor Hisp OriginuÌ„ l. 18. c. 42. Lampridij Heliogabalus pag. 202. Agrippa De Vanitate Scientiarum cap. 63. 64 accordingly p Castos se quitur mala paupertas vitioque potens regnat adulter Seneca Hyppolitus Act. 3. Chorus fol. 87. * Pub. Sempronius Sophus conjugem repudij nota affecit nihil aliud quà m quod se ignorante ludos ausam spectare Ergo dum sic olim faeminis occurritur mens earum a delictis aberat Valerius Maximus lib. 6. cap. 3. sect 12. pag. 237. Alexander ab Alexandro Gen Diâ—rum lib. 3 cap. 7. Caelius Rhodig Antiqu. Lect. lib. 28. cap. 16. * Vir dimittere uxorem potest si praeter voluntatem suam Circenses Theatricas voluptates captat ubi scenicae voluptates sunt aut ubi ferae cuÌ„ hominibus pugnant Iustiniani Novelo 22. Novella 117. Bulengerus De Theatro lib. 1. cap. 50. pag. 297. * Theatra sunt faediora quo convenis verecundia illic omnis exuitur simul cum amictu vestis honor corporis ac pudor ponitur denotanda ac contrectanda virginitas revelatur Sic ergo Ecclesia frequenter virgines suas plangit sic ad infames carum destandas fabulas ingemiscet sic flos virginum extinguitur honor continentiae ac pudor ponitur gloria omnis ac dignitas profanatur sic se expugnatus inimicus per artes suas inserit â—ic insidijs per occulta fallentibus Diabolus obrepit sic dum ornari cultius dum libentius evagari virgines volunt virgines esse desinunt furtivo dedecore corruptae viduae antequam nuptae non mariti sed Christi adulterae Cyprian De Habitu Virginum lib. pag. 242. q Tom. 1. Operum Parisijs 1588. Col. 510.511 512. r Periculosum esse adire spectacula quodque eares adulteros perfectos facit hinc socordia bellumque nascatur c. * Play-haunters and Stage-players were alwayes excommunicated and kept from the Church the Word and Sacraments in the Primitive Church Well were it for us if this ancient Discipline were revived now s Play-haunters and wicked men are in truth excommunicated persons and no members no branches of the Church though they live within the Church * Sacrae mensae so was it stiled in S Chrysostomâ—s time not the holy Altar t Irreverent receiving of the Sacrament a great a dangerous sinne u Adultery occasioned by seeing Stage-playes x Mat. 5 28â— y Quod si mulier spontâ— ac fortè in foro obvia negleâ—ctius culta sâ—penumero intuâ—ntem curiosius caepit ipso vultus â—spectu isti qui non simplâ—citeâ— neque fortuitò sed studio tanto studio ut ecclesiam quoque contemnant hac gratia pergunt illuâ— ac totum ibi desidentes diem in facies faeminaruÌ„ illarum nobiscum defixos habent oculos qua fronte poterint dicere quod â—as non viderint ad concupiscendum ubi verba quoque accedunt fracta lascivaque ubi cantioâ—es meritriciae ubi voces vehementer ad voluptatem excitantes ubi stibio picti oculi ubi coloribus tinctae genae ubi totius corporis habitus fucorum impostura plenus est aliaque insuper multa lenocinia ad fallendos inescandosque homines intuentes instructa c. Ibidem z Eâ—enim si hic ubi Psalmi ubi divinâ—rum verborum enarratio ubi Dei metus multaque reverentia frequenter seu latro quispiam versutus clam obrepit concupiscentia quomodo qui desident in Theatro qui nihil sani neque audiunt neque vident qui undique obsidionem patiuntur per aures per oculos possint illam superare concupiscentiam Rursum si non possunt quomodo poterunt unquam ab adulterij crimine absolvi Tum qui non liberi sunt ab adulterij crimine quomodo poterunt absque paenitentia ad haec sacra vestibula accedere hujusque praeclari conventus esse participes c. Ibidem * Note this well * O that our Players and Play-haunters would consider this discourse when they come unto the Sacrament or the Church a O that our Players and Play-haunters and all who come irreverently to the Sacrament would carry this ingraven in their minds * Agedum diâ— mihi quo animo ista feret Deâ—s Atqui non tantum est discrimen inter unguentum caenum inter vestes heriles serviles quantum est inter spiritus gratiam istam perversam actionem Non metuis non expavescis dum oculis quibus illic lectum qui est in orchestra spectas ubi detestandae adulterij fabulae pâ—raguntur ijsdem hanc sacram mensam intueris ubi tremenda peraguntur mysteria dum ijsdem auribus audis scortum obscaenè loquens Prophetam Apostolumque ad arcana Scripturae introducentem dum eodem corde lethalia sumis venena hanc hostiam sacram ac tremendam c. Ibidem * Loâ— here the adulterous cursed fruits of hearing Stage-playes c Qua propter rogo vos omnes ut ipsi pravas in spectaculis coÌ„memorationes vitetis alios ab his deductos retrahatis Quicquid enim illic geritur non est oblectatio sed pernicies sed paena sed supplicium Quid prodest illa temporaria voluptas duÌ„ hinc perpetuê° nascitur dolor duÌ„que nocte pariter ac die à concupiscentia stimulatus omnibâ—s molestus es invisus Excute igitur teipsum reputans qualis fias ab Ecclesia rediens rursus quâ—lis à spectaculis atque hos dies cum illis conferas id si feceris nihil opus erit meo sermone Satis enim fuerit hunc diem cuÌ„ illo coÌ„parasse ad ostendenduÌ„ quam magna sit hinc utilitas quanta sit illinc noxa c. Ibidem * Nota. * Tom 1. Col. 821. C. D. * Vidit inquaÌ„ atque oculo vulneratus est aâ— telum excepit AudiaÌ„t curiosiÌ„ qui alienas â—ormas contemplantur Audiant qui insano spectaculorum studio tenentur Qui dicunt Spectamuâ— quidem sed sine detrimento Quid audio David laesus est tu non laederis Ille laesus est ego tuae virtutiâ— confidere quaeam Is qui tantam Spiritus gratiam habebat spiculum excepit tu