Company O intollerable Vsury not the Iews whose peculiar sinne it is haue euer committed the like What I write is most true and hath beene practised by more then one or two I haue a whole Booke of young Gentlemens cases lying by me which if I should set foorth some graue Auntients within the hearing of Bow-bell would bee out of charity with me How euer I flie from particularities this I will proue that neuer in any Citty since the first assembly of societies was euer suffered such notorious cosonage and villa ny as is shrouded vnder this seauentie-fold vsury of commodities It is a hundred parts more hatefull then Conny-catching it is the Nurse of sinnes without the which the fire of them all would be extinguisht and want matter to feed on Poets talke of enticing Syrens in the Sea that on a sunny-day lay forth their golden trammels their Iuory necks and their siluer breasts to entice men sing sweetly glance piercingly play on Lutes rauishingly but I say There is no such Syrens by Sea as by Land nor women as men those are the Syrens that hang out their shining Silkes and Veluets and dazle Prides eyes with their deceitfull haberdashry They are like the Serpent that tempted Adam in Paradise who wheras God stinted him what trees and fruites he should eate on and goe no further he entic'd him to breake the bondes of that stint and put into his head what a number of excellent pleasures he should reape thereby So wheras carefull Fathers send their children to this Citty in all gentleman-like qualities to bee trained vp and stint them to a moderate allowance sufficient indifferently husbanded to maintaine their credite euery way and profit them in that they are sent hither for what doo our couetous Cittie blood-suckers but hire Pandars and professed parasiticall Epicures to close in with them and like the Serpent to alienate them from that ciuill course vvherein they vvere setled T is ryot and misgouernment that must deliuer them ower into their hands to be deuoured Those that here place their children to learne witte and see the world are like those that in Affrick present their children when they are first borne before Serpents which if the children they so present with their very sight scare away the Serpents then are they legittimate otherwise they are Bastards A number of poore chyldren sucklings in comparison are in the Court and Innes of Court presented to these Serpents and stinging Extortioners of London who neuer flye from them but with their tayle winde them in and sucke out their soules without scarring their skinne Whether they be legittimate or no that are so exposed to these Serpents I dare not determine for feare of enuie But sure legitimately or as they shold they are not brought vp that are manumited from their parents awe as soone as they can goe and speake Zeuxes hauing artificially yainted a Boy carrying Grapes in a Hand-basket and seeing the Birds as they had beene true Grapes come in flocks pecke at them was wonderfully angry with him-selfe and his Arte saying Had I painted the Boy which was the chiefe part of my picture as well as I haue doe the grapes which were but a by accident belonging to it the Birds durst neuer haue beene so bold So if Fathers would haue but as much care to paint and forme the manners of their children when they come to mans estate as they haue well to proportion out triflles to instruct and educare them in their triuiall infent yeares sure these rauenous Byrdes such as Brokers and Vsurers would neuer flye to them and pecke at them as they doe O Country Gentlemen I wonder you doe not lay your heads together and put vp a generall supplication to the Parliament against those priuy Canker wormes Catterpillers Which of you all but amongst them hath his Heyre cosend fetcht in and almost consumed past recouery Besides his minde is cleane transposed from his originall all deadly sinne he is infected with all diseases are hanging about him If one tice a Prentise to robbe his Maister it is fellony by the law nay it is a great penalty if he do but relieue him and incourage him beeing fled from his Maisters obedience and seruice and shall we haue no Law for him that ticeth a sonne to robbe his Father Nay that shall robbe a Father of his sonne robbe God of a soule Euery Science hath some principles in it which must be belieued and cannot be declared The principles and practises of vsury exceed declaration belieue them to be lewder then penne can with modesty expresse enquire not after them for they are execrable De rebus male acquisitis non gaudebit tertius heres Ill gotten goods neuer trouble the third heyre Euery plant saith Christ my heauenly father hath not planted shall be rooted out Plant they neuer so their posterity with the reuenewes of oppression since God hath not planted them they shall be ruin'd and rooted out As they haue supplanted other mens posterity so must they looke to haue their owne posterity supplanted by others Augustine in the fourth Chapter of his second Booke of Confessions pittifully complaineth how heynously he had offended when he was a young man in leading his companions to rob a Peare-tree in their next neighbours Orchard Amaui perire O Domine he exclaimes amaui perire amaui defectum turpis animae et desiliens a Firmamento malitie me caeusa nulla esset nifimalitia I loued to perish O Lord I loued to perrish in my vngratiousnesse I delighted foule of soule that I was and quite slyding from the Firmament of my malice there was no cause but malice Of the stealing and beating downe of a few Peares this holy Father makes such a burdenous matter of conscience as that he counted it his vtter perrishing and back-slyding from the Firmament Vsurers make no conscience of cosoning and robbing men of whole Orchards of whole fields of whole Lordships Of their malice and theft there is some other cause then malice which is Auarice If the stealing of one Apple in Paradise brought such an vniuersall plague to the world what a plague to one soule will the robbing of a hundred Orphans of their possessions and fruite-yards bring In the Country the Gentleman takes in the Commons racketh his Tennaunts vndoeth the Farmer In London the Vsurer snatcheth vp the Gentleman giues him Rattles and Babies for his ouer-rackt rent and the Commons he tooke in he makes him take out in commodities None but the Vsurer is ordained for a scourge to Pride and Ambition Therefore it is that Bees hate Sheepe more then any thing for that when they are once in their wooll they are so intangled that they can neuer get out Therfore it is that Courtiers hate Merchants more then any men for that being once in their bookes they can neuer get out Many of them carry the countenances of Sheep looke simple goe plain were their haire short
Mountaines by the Sunne is resolued to water the Sonne of GOD hath sought to resolue thy snow-colde hart into water but he could not for thou wouldst not Ouer thy principall gates and the doores of thy Temple let therefore this for an Emprese be ingrauen A kind compassionate man who grieuing to see a serpentine Salamander fry in the fire so pitteously as it seemd cast water on the raging flames to quench them and was by him stung to death for his labour The most or word thereto ATNOLVISTI but thou wouldest not As who should say thank thy selfe though thou still burnest I would haue ridde thee out of the fire but thou wouldst not By stinging mee mortally thou disturbest me On thee Salamander-like Ierusalem haue I cast the coole water of my teares to keepe Hell fire if it might be from seeding on thee and inwrapping thee but thou delighting like that chilly Worme to liue in the midst of the fornace or as the foolish Candle-flie to blow the fire with the beating of thy winges neere vnto it that must burne thee hast spit thy poyson at me when I sought to preserue thee More agreeing is it to thy nature to fry in the flames of thy fleshly desires which is but a short blazd straw-fire to tinde or inkindle Hell-fire then to liue temperately qualefied midst Insulae fortunatae the fortunate Ilands of Gods fauour For this shalt thou be consumed with fire Thy house shall be left desolate vnto thee Hetherto with Ieschaciabus thou hast had nought but a plaister of drye-figges layd to thy byle thou hast beene chastised but with wanton whips but loe shortly the time comes thou must be scourged with Scorpions a hooke shall be cast into thy iawes and a chaine come through thy nostrils I now but foretell a storme in a calme but when the Leuiathan shall approach that with his neesings chaseth Cloudes and you shall see lightening and thunder in the mouthes of all the foure Windes When Heauen in stead of starres shall bee made an Artillery-house of Haile-stones and no Plannet reuolue any thing but prostitution and vastity then shall you know what it is by saying you would not to make your house vnto you be left desolate With the foolish builder you haue founded your Pallaces on the sands of your own shallow conceits had you rested them on the true Rock they had been ruine-proof but now the raine will rough-enter through the crannies of their wauering the Windes will blow and batter ope wide passages for the pashing shoures With roring and buffetting lullabies instead of singing and dandling by-os they will rock them cleane ouer and ouer The onely commodity they shall tithe to their owners will be by their ouer-turning to afford them Toombes vnaskt Great shall be the fall of thy foolish building O Ierusalem like a Tower ouer-topt it shall fall flatte and be laid low and desolate In the Hauen of Ioppa shall ariue as many shippes as would make a Marine-cittie in bignesse no lesse then thy selfe The Helle-spont by Xerxes was neuer so surchargd as it shall bee All Galile from the land of Nepthali vpwards shall bee but a quarter for their Pioners and a couch for their baggage From Ierusalem to the plaine of Gibeon which is fifty miles distance the infinite enemy will depopulate and pitch his Pauillions Man woman child he shall vnmortalize and mangle Oxen Sheepe Cammels idely engore and leaue to putrifie in the open Fieldes onely to raise vp seed to Snakes Adders and Serpents The Mount Tabor whose height is thirty furlongs and on whose toppe is a playne twenty-three furlongs broade shall haue all the starre-gazing Townes on it scituate iustled head-long downe from the heigth of his fore-head and breaking their backes with their stumbling rebutment tumble in the ayre like Lucifer falling out of heauen into Hell Yea their Firmament-propping foundation shall be adequated with the Valley of Iehosaphat whose sublimity whiles it is in beheading the Skye shall resigne all his Clowdes to the Earth and light-wing'd dust dignifie it selfe by the name of a meteor From that blind-dispersed night of dust shall many lesser Mountaines receiue their lofty mounting and part of it being wind-wafted into the Sea insert floating Ilands midst the Ocean None shall there bee left to fight the battailes of the Lord but those that fight the battailes of their owne ambition By none shall the Sanctuary be defended but those that wold haue none destitute it or defloure it but themselues The feast of Tabernacles the feast of sweet Bread and the feast of Weekes shall quite bee discalendred Your Sabaothes and New-moones shall want a Remembrancer Your Peace-offerings and continuall Sacrifice a thousand two hundred and ninety dayes as Daniel prophecied shall be put to silence The abhomination of desolation shall aduaunce it selfe in your Sanctum sanctorum Vpon your Altars in stead of oblations your Priests shall be slaughtered Not so much as the High-prieste the vnder-god of your Citty but shal be hanged vp es a signe at the doore of your Temple The particularity of your generall fore-spoken woes would worke in me a Tympany of Teares if I should portrayture it I haue pronounst it and your House vnrepriueable vnto you shall bee left desolate The resplendent eye-out brauing buildings of your Temple like a Drum shall be vngirt vnbraced the soule of it which is the fore-named Sanctum Sanctorum cleane shall bee strypt and vnclothed God shall haue nere a Tabernacle or retyring place in your City which he shall not be vndermined and desolated out of The Sunne and Moone perplexed with the spectacle shall flie farther vpward into heauen and bee afraid least when the besiegers haue ended below they next sacke them out of their sieges and circuits since they haue had God their common-Creator so long in chase Ierusalem euer after thy bloudy hecatombe or buriall the Sun rising and setting shall enrobe himselfe in scarlet and the mayden-Moone in the ascension of her perfection shall haue her crimson cheeks as they wold burst round balled out with bloud Those ruddy inuesturings and scarlet habilements from the clowde-climing slaughter-stack of thy dead carkases shall they exhalingly quintessence to the end thou maist not onely bee culpable of gorging the Earth but of goring the Heauens with bloud and in witnes against thee weare them they shall to the worlds end as the liueries of thy wayning Not Abrahams sonnes are you but the sonnes of bloud for in nothing you imitate Abraham but that he hauing no more saue one onely sonne would haue sacrific'd him so GOD hauing no more but one onely Sonne you lyein waite to crucifie and sacrifice him For thine owne destruction disgraded daughter of Syon thou lyest in waite in laying waite for mee that which I hunger and thirst after is thy saluation in my destruction I am enamoured of my Crosse because it is all ages blessing not a nayle in it but is a necessary
I haue giuen thee to cherish mee but sixe daies and rather then Famine should consume mee to consume thy selfe in my sustenance The fore-skinne of originall sin shalt thou cleane circumcise by this one act of piety Returne into mee see the mould wherein thou wert cast As much paine in thy conception endured I for thee as I will put thee to in thy departure By nature we all desire to returne to the soile from whence wee came wert thou of age to plead thine owne desires I know they would be accordant with mine I am thy Mother and must desire for thee I loue thee more then thou canst thy selfe therfore cannot my desires endamage thee Into the Garden of Eden I will leade thee but one gap broke ope thy entrance is made More shalt thou terrifie the seditious by the constraintment of thy quartering then if Iehouah out of a clowd should speake to them T is not thou but I shall be counted opprobrious Loe there goes the woman shall they say that hath slyced eaten her owne sonne I am content to vndergoe any shame to abash and rebuke their faces Sword how euer I haue flatterd thee looke for no direction from mine eyes for though with my hands I out-rage with mine eyes I cannot Mine eyes are womanish my hands are manly Mine eyes will shed teares in steed of shedding bloud they will regard pittifull lookes the white skin the comly proportion the tender youth the quiet lying like a Lambe my hand beholdeth none of these and yet it is my right hand which should do euery one right much more mine owne childe Right will I do thee noble infant in righting thee from the wrongs of Famine Nere shall the Romans haue thee for their Warde Thus thus like blind-fold Fortune I right thee mine eyes being vailed At one stroke euen as these words were in speaking she beheaded him and when she had done turning the Apron from of her own face on his that the sight might not afreshly distemper her without seeing speaking deliberating or almost thinking any more of him she sod rost and powdred him and hauing eate as much as sufficed set vp the rest The Seditious smelling the sauour of a feast which at that time was no ordinary matter in Ierusalem roughly in heapes rusht and burst into the house saying wicked woman thou hast meate and traiterously concealest it from vs we 'le teare thee in peeces if thou sets not part of it before vs. With some few words of excuse before them what she had brought entertaning them in these or like termes Eate I pray you here is good meate be not affraid it is flesh of my flesh I bare it I nurst it I suckled it Loe heere is the head the hands and the feete It was mine owne onely sonne I tell you Sweet was he to mee in his life but neuer so sweete as in his death Behold his pale perboyld visage how pretty-pitteous it lookes His pure snow-moulded soft flesh will melt of it selfe in your mouthes who can abstaine from these two round teat-like cheekes Be not dainty to cut them vp the rest of his body haue I cut vp to your hands Crauens cowards recreants sit you mute and amazed Neuer entred you into consideration of your cruelty before It is you that haue rob'd me of all my food so consequently rob'd me of my only Son Vengeance on your soules all the descending generations of the seede of your Tribes for thus mirrouring mee for the Monarch-monster of Mothers No Chronicle that shall write of Ierusalems last captiuity but shall write of mee also Not any shall talk of Gods iudgement on this Citty but for the cardinall iudgement against it shall recite mine enforcement to eate mine own childe I am a woman and haue kil'd him and eate of him My womanish stomacke hath serued me to that which your man-like stomackes are dastarded with What I haue done you haue driuen me to do what you haue driuen me to do now being done you are daunted with Eate of my sonne one morsell yet that it may memorize against you ye are accessary to his dismembring Let that morsell be his heart if you will that the greater may be your conuictment Men of warre you are who make no conscience of tearing out any mans heart for a morsell of bread Most valiant Captaines why for-beare you is not here your owne diet humane bloud Heere is my sonnes breast pierce it once againe for once you haue pierc't it with Famine Are not you they that spoyled my house and left me no kind of cherishment for me and my son Feede on that you haue slaine and spare not O my son ô mine onely sonne these Seditious are the diuels that directed the sword against thy throate They with their armed hands haue crammed thy flesh into my pallate Now poyson them with thy flesh for it is they that haue supplanted thee Renowned is thyne end for in Ierusalem is none hath resisted Famine but thou Me thou hast fed thy selfe thou hast freed 'T is thou onely that at the latter day shalt condemne these Seditious Excuse me that onely what I could not chuse committed I did all for the best The best remedy of thine vnrepriueable peruerse destiny was death therefore I deuoured thee that foules of the aire might not rent thee For sauce to thy flesh haue I infused my teares who so dippeth in them shall taste of my sorrow The Rebels hearing this were wholy metamorphiz'd into mellancholy yea the Chiefe-tanes of them were ouer-clowded in conceite Was neuer till this euer heard from Adam that a woman eate her owne Child Was neuer such a desolation as the desolatian of Ierusalem As touching the Pestilence some short peroration is now to succeed Of it there died more then a hundred thousand during the time of the siedge Out of the least gate of Ierusalem which was that towards the Brooke Cedron were carried forth to buriall a hundred fifteene thousand a hundred and eight persons all which were of the Nobles Gentlemen and substantialest men of the Iewes Many fled to Titus who when they came to meate could eate none of it but dyed with the very sight thereof Of those that fled a great number swallowed vp their Gold and their Iewels which being cleerely escaped they sought amongst their excrements But when by the Aramites and Arabians Titus mercenary Souldiers it was perceiued they slew them out-right and ript their bowels for their gold and so left them to the Eagles and Rauens Two thousand by this couetise slept their last The Princes of the Iewes which Titus as submissioners and succour-suers had receiued to mercy he straightly examined on their allegeance and fidelity how many were dead in the Citty since he first beleagured it the number was giuen vp namely of such as were carried forth at all gates to be buried and were slaine in battell seuen hundred thousand fiue hundred seuenty
thorns and the thornes crept aloft and choked it To those thornes I compare these thorny Contentioners that choake the Word of God with foolish controuersies and friuolous questions Euen as the spirit led our Sauiour aside into the Wildernesse to be tempted so are there wicked spirits of Contention amongst vs that leade men aside into the woods and solitary places to be tempted Let any be he the veriest block-head vnder heauen raise vp a faction and he shall be followed and supported Englishmen are all for innouation they are cleane spoiled if once in twenty yeers they haue not a new fashion of religion Somtimes Vitia sunt ad virtutem occasio Contention is the occasion of seeking out the truth but our Contentions for the most part are the seeking to prooue truth no truth after she is once found out and preferring probability before manifest verity We will not try her by her Peeres which are the best expositors and auncient Fathers but by the literall Law either not expounded or new expounded without any Quest of Church decretals or Cannons Were it not that in reprouing Contention I might hapely seeme contentious I would wade a little farther in this subiect Yet it were to no end since fire the more it is stirred vp the more it burneth and heresy the more it is stird stroue with the more vntoward it is Nought but sharp discipline is a fit disputant with snarling Scismatiques The Israelites for they rooted not out the remnant of the Gen◅ile Nations from amongst them they were as goades in their sides and thornes in their nostrils so if we root not out these remnants of Scismatiques from amongst vs they will be as goades in our sides and thornes in our nostrils Melius est vt pereat vnus quam vt pereat vnitas It is better that some few perish then vnity perish London beware of Contention thou art counted the nursing-mother of Contention No Sect or Schism but thou affordest Disciples to If thou beest too greedie of innouation and contention the sword of inuasion and ciuill debate shall leaue thy house desolate vnto thee Now come I to the Daughters of Pride whereof Disdaine is the eldest Disdain is a vice in comparison of which Ambition is a vertue It is the extream of Ambition It is a kind of scorne that scorneth to be cōpared to any other thing None are more subiect vnto it then faire women for they disdaine any one should bee held as faire as they They disdaine any should go before them or sit aboue them They disdaine any should be brauer then they or haue more absolute pennes entertained in their praises then they This woman disdains any but she should carry the credit of wit another that any should sing so sweet as shee a third that any should set forth the port and maiesty in gate and behauiour like vnto her Onely for disdaine and preheminence their Husbands and their Loues they draw sundry times into neuer-dated quarrels Such disdaine and scorne was betwixt the wiues of Iacob Rachel and Leah because the one had children and the other none Such disdaine was betwixt Sarah and Hagar There was a disdain of shouldring amongst the Disciples who should be greatest Iosephs Brethren disdained their Father should loue him better then he did them Diues disdained Lazarus In London the rich disdaine the poore The Courtier the Citizen The Citizen the Countriman One Occupation disdaineth another The Merchant the Retayler The Retayler the Craftsman The better sort of Craftsmen the baser The Shoomaker the Cobler The Cobler the Carman One nyce Dame disdaines her next neighbour should haue that furniture to her house or dainty dish or deuise which she wants Shee will not goe to Church because shee disdains to mixe her selfe with base companie and cannot haue her close Pue by her selfe She disdaines to weare that euery one weares to heare that Preacher which euery one heares So did Ierusalem disdain Gods Prophets because they came in the likenesse of poore men Shee disdained Amos because he was a keeper of Oxen as also the rest for they were of the dregges of the people But their disdaine prosperd not with them their house for their disdaine was left desolate vnto them London thy house except thou repents for thy disdaine shall be left desolate vnto thee The second Daughter of Pride is Gorgeous attire Both the Sonnes and Daughters of Pride delight to go gorgeously As Democritus set vp his brasen shield against the Sunne to the intent that continually gazing on it he might with the bright reflection of his beamy radiation feare out his eyes and see no more vanities so set they their rich embroidered sutes against the Sun to dazle daunt and spoile poore mens eyes that looke vpon them Like Idols not men they apparrell themselues Blocks and stones by the Panims and Infidels are ouer-gilded to be honored and worshipped so ouer-gilde they themselues to bee more honored and worshipped The women would seeme Angels here vpon earth for which it is to be feared they will scarce liue with the Angels in heauen The end of Gorgeous attyre both in men and women is but more fully to enkindle fleshly concupiscence to assist the diuel in lustful temptations Men thinke that women seeing them so sumptuously pearled bespangled cannot chuse but offer to tender their tender soules at their feete The women they thinke that hauing naturally cleere beauty scorchingly blazing which enkindles any soule that comes neere it adding more Bauines vnto it of lasciuious embolstrings men should euen flash their harts at first sight into the purified flames of their faire faces Euer since Euah was tempted and the Serpent preuailed with her women haue tooke vpon them both the person of the tempted and the tempter They tempt to be tempted not one of them except she be tempted but thinkes her selfe contemptible Vnto the greatnesse of their great Grand-mother Euah they seek to aspire in being tempted and tempting If not to tempt and be thought worthy to be tempted why dy they and diet they their face with so many drugs as they do as it were to correct Gods work-manship and reprooue him as a bungler one that is not his crafts Maister Why ensparkle they their eyes with spiritualiz'd distillations Why tip they their tongues with Aurum potabile Why fill they vp ages frets with fresh colours Euen as Roses and flowers in Winter are preserued in close houses vnder earth so preserue they their beauties by continuall lying in bed Iust to Dinner they will arise and after Dinner goe to bedde againe and lie vntill Supper Yea sometimes by no sicknes occasioned they will ly in bedde three dayes together prouided euery morning before foure a clock they haue their broths and their cullises with Pearle and Gold sodden in them If hapely they breake their houres and rise more early to goe a banquetting they stand practising halfe a day with their
Looking-glasses how to peirce and to glaunce and looke alluringly amiable Their feete are not so well framed to the Measures as are their eies to moue and bewitch Euen as Angels are painted in Church-windowes with glorious golden fronts besette with Sunne-beames so beset they their fore-heads on either side with glorious borrowed gleamy bushes which rightly interpreted should signifie beauty to sell since a bush is not else hanged forth but to inuite men to buy And in Italy when they sette any Beast to sale they crowne his head with Garlands and be-deck it with gaudy blossoms as full as euer it may stick Their heads with their top and top gallant Lawnebaby caps and Snow-resembled siluer curlings they make a plaine Puppet stage of Their breasts they embuske vp on hie and their round Roseate buds immodestly lay forth to shew at their hands there is fruite to be hoped In their curious Antick-wouen garments they imitate and mocke the Wormes and Adders that must eate them They shew the swellings of their mind in the swellings and plumpings out of their apparrayle Gorgeous Ladies of Court neuer was I admitted so nere any of you as to see how you torture poore olde Time with spunging pynning and pounsing but they say his sicle you haue burst in twaine to make your Periwigs more eleuated arches of I dare not meddle with yee since the Phylosopher that too intentiuely gaz'd on the stars stumbled and fell into a ditch and many gazing too immoderatly on our earthly starres fal in the end into the ditch of al vncleannesse Onely this humble caueat let me giue you by the way that thou looke the diuell come not to you in the likenes of a Taylor or Painter that how euer you disguise your bodies you lay not on your colours so thick that they sinke into your soules That your skinnes being too white without your soules be not al black within It is not your pinches your purles your floury iaggings superfluous enterlacings and puffings vp that can any way offend God but the puffing vp of your soules which therein you expresse For as the biting of a bullet is not that which poisons the bullet but the lying of the Gunpowder in the dint of the biting so it is not the wearing of costly burnisht apparell that shall bee obiected vnto you for sinne but the pride of your harts which like the Moath lies closely shrouded amongst the thirds of that apparell Nothing else is garish apparell but Prides vlcer broken forth How will you attire your selues what gowne what head-tire will you put on when you shall liue in Hell amongst Haggs and diuels As many iagges blisters and scarres shall Toades Cankers and Serpents make on your pure skinnes in the graue as now you haue cuts iagges or raysings vpon your garments In the marrow of your bones snakes shall breede Your morne-like christall countenances shall be netted ouer and Masker-like cawle-visarded with crawling venemous wormes Your orient teeth Toades shall steale into their heads for pearle Of the ielly of your decaied eyes shall they engender them young In their hollow Caues their transplendent iuyce so pollutionately employd shelly Snailes shall keepe house O what is beauty more then a wind-blowne bladder that it should forget whereto it is borne It is the foode of cloying-concupiscence liuing and the substance of the most noysome infection being dead The Mothers of the iustest men are not freed from corruption the Mothers of Kings Emperors are not freed from corruption No gorgeous attire man or woman hast thou in this world but the wedding garment of faith Thy winding-sheete shall see thee in none of thy silks or shining robes To shew they are not of God when thou goest to God thou shalt lay them al of Then shalt thou restore to euery creature what thou hast robd him of All the Leases which dust let out to life at the day of death shall be returned againe into his hands In skins of beastes Adam and Eue were clothed in nought but thine owne skinne at the day of iudgement shalt thou be clothed If thou beest more deformed then the age wherin thou diedst shold make thee the diuel shal stand vp and certifie that with painting physicking thy visage thou so deformedst it Whereto God shall reply What haue I to doe with thee thou painted sepulcher Thou hast so differenced diuorced thy selfe from thy creation that I know not thee for my creature The print of my finger thou hast defaced and with Arts-vanishing varnishmēt made thy self a changeling from the forme I first cast thee in Sathan take her to thee with blacke boyling Pitch rough cast ouer her counterfeit red and white and whereas she was wont in Asses milke to bathe her to engraine her skin more gentle plyant delicate and supple in bubling scalding Lead and fatty flame-feeding Brimstone see thou vncessantly bathe her With glowing hot yrons sindge and sucke vp that adulterized sinfull beauty wherewith she hath branded her selfe to infelicity O female pride this is but the dalliance of thy doom but the intermissiue recreation of thy torments Th greatnesse of thy paines I want portentous words t◅ portray Wherein soeuer thou hast tooke extream de light and glory therein shalt thou be plagued with extreame despiteous malady For thy flaring frounzed Periwigs lowe dangled downe with loue lockes shalt thou haue thy head side dangled downe with more Snakes then euer it had hayres In the moulde of thy braine shall they claspe their mouthes and gnawing through euery part of thy scull ensnarle their teeth amongst thy braines as an Angler ensnarleth his hooke amongst weedes For thy rich borders shalt thou haue a number of discoloured Scorpions rould vp together and Cockatrices that kill with their verie sight shall continually stand spirting fiery poyson in thine eyes In the hollow Caue of thy mouth Basiliskes shall keepe house and supply thy talke with hissing when thou striuest to speak At thy breasts as at Cleopatras Aspisses shal be put out to nurse For thy Carcanets of pearle shalt thou haue Carcanets of Spiders or the greene venemous flies Cantharides Hels torments were no torments if inuention might conceit them As no eye hath seene no eare hath heard no tongue can expresse no thought comprehend the ioies prepared for the Elect so no eye hath seene no eare hath heard no thought can comprehend the pains prepared for the reiected Women as the paines of the diuels shal be doubled that goe about hourely tempting and seeking whom they may denoure so except you soone lay holde on g◅ce your paines in hel aboue mens shal be doubled for millions haue you tempted milions of men both in soule and substance haue you deuoured To you halfe your husbands damnation as to Euah will be imputed Pride is your natural sinne that woman you account as common which is not coy proude Woman-head you deeme nothing else but a disdainefull maiesticall cariage Being but
a ribbe of man you will think to ouer-rule him you ought to be subiect too Watch ouer your pathes look to your waies least the Serpent long since hauing ouer-maistred one of you ouer-maister all of you one after another Banish Pride from your Bours and the lineall discents of your other sinnes are cut off you will seeme Saints and not women But for you men would nere be so proud nere care to goe so gorgeously Nere fetch so many newfangles from other Countries you haue corrupted them you haue tempted them halfe of your pride you haue deuided with them No Nation hath any excesse but they haue made it theirs Certaine glasses there are wherein a man seeth the image of another and not his own those glasses are their eyes for in them they see the image of other Countries and not their owne Other Countries fashions they see but neuer looke backe to the attire of their fore-fathers or consider what shape their owne Country should giue them Themistocles put all his felicitie in being discended from a noble linage Simonides to be well-beloued of his people or Cittizens Antif◅ines in renowne after his death Englishmen put all their felicitie in going pompously and garishly they care not how they impouerish their substance to seeme rich to the outward appearance What wise man is there that makes the cas◅ or couer of any thing ritcher then the thing it selfe which it containeth or couereth Our garments which are cases and couers for our bodies we compact of Pearle and golde our bodies themselues are nought but clay and putrifaction If as the case or couer of any thing keeps it frō dust or from soyling so our costly skinne-cases could keep vs from consuming to dust or being sin-soiled it were some-what but they contrariwise resolue into dust they are no Armours against olde age but such as are harmed by olde age They weare away with continuance euen as Time doth weare and fore-walke vs Our soules they keep not from sin-soyling but are the only instruments so to soile and sin-eclipse them They are a second flesh-asisting prison and further corrupting weight of corruption cast on our soules to keepe them from soaring to heauen Decke our selues how we will in all our royalty we cannot equalize one of the Lillies of the fielde as they wither so shall we wanze and decay and our place no more be found Though our span-long youthly prime blossomes foorth eye-banqueting flowers though our delicious gleaming features make vs seeme the Sonnes and Daughters of the Graces though we glister it neuer so in our worme-spunne robes and gold-florisht garments yet in the graue shall we rot from our redolentest refined compositions ayre pestilenzing stinkes and breath-choking poysnous vapours shall issue England the Players stage of gorgeous attire the Ape of all Nations superfluities the continuall Masquer in out-landish habilements great plenty scanting calamities art thou to await for wanton disguising thy selfe against kind and digressing from the plainnesse of thine Auncesters Scandalous shamefull is it that not any in thee Fishermen and Husbandmen set aside but liue aboue their ability and birth that the outward habite which in other Countries is the only distinction of honour should yeelde in thee no difference of persons that all auncient Nobilitie almost with this gorgeous prodigality should be deuoured and eaten vp and vp starts inhabite their stately Palaces who from farre haue fetcht inthis variety of pride to entrap to spoile them Those of thy people that in all other things are miserable in their apparel will be prodigall No Land can so vnfallibly experience this Prouerbe The hoode makes not the Monke as thou for Tailors Seruing-men Make-shifts and Gentlemen in thee are confounded For the compasment of brauery wee haue them will rob steale cosen cheate betray their owne Fathers sweare and forsweare or doe any thing Take away brauery you kill the heart of lust and incontinencie Wherfore do men make themselues braue but to riot and to reuell Looke after what state their apparell is that state they take to them and carry and after a little accustoming to that carriage perswade themselues they are such indeede Apparell more then any thing bewrayeth his wearers mind All sorts couet in it to exceed Old age I exclude for that couets nought but gold couetise None in a manner fore-cast for their soules they suffer them to go naked with no good deeds will they cloth them They let them freeze to death for want of the garment offaith they famish and starue them in not supplying them with ghostly cherishment O soule of all humane parts the most diuinest soueraignest of al the rest art thou the most despicable and wretched Not any part of the body but thou consultest and carest for To euery part is thy care more auaileable then thy self Impart but the tenths of it on thy selfe be not more curious of a wimple or spot in thy vesture then thou art of spotting and thorow-stayning thy deere-bought Spirit with ten thousand abhominations Whiles the good Angel of mercy stirres about the blood-springing Poole of expiation haste thou to bathe in it Thou canst not bathe in it effectually vnlesse thou strip thy selfe cleane out of the attyre of sinne All gorgeous attire is the attire of sinne The fraile flesh wherein thou art inuested is nothing but a sin-battred Armour with many strokes of temptations assaulted brused to breake into thee and surprise thee Watch pray that thou be not supprised In vaine is thy prayer against sin except thou watchest also to preuent sinne We here in London what for dressing our selues following our worldly affaires dining supping and keeping company haue no leisure not only not to watch against sinne but not so much as once to thinke of sinne In bedde wiues must question their husbands about house-keeping and prouiding for their children and famile No seruice must God expect of vs but a little in Lent and in sicknes aduersity Our gorgeous attire we make not to serue him but to serue the flesh If he were pleased with it why did they euer in the old Law when they presented themselues before him in fasting and prayer rentit off their backs put on course Sack-cloth and ashes No lifting vp a mans selfe that God likes but the lifting vp of the Spirit in prayer One thing it is for a man to lift vp himselfe to God another thing to lift vp himself against God In pranking vp our carcases too proudly we lift vp our flesh against God In lifting vp our flesh we depresse our spirits London lay off thy gorgeous attire and cast downe thy selfe before God in contrition and prayer least hee cast thee downe in his indignation into hell-fire Greeuously hast thou offended and transgressed against his diuine maiesty in turning that to pride which was alotted thee for a punishment His workemanship thou hast scorned and counted imperfect without thine owne additions put to