THE RETURNE OF the Knight of the Post from Hell, with the devils answer to the Supplication of PIERCE PENNILESS, with some Relation of the last Treasons.  
Omnia praeclara rara,  
LONDON Printed by john Windet for Nathaniel Butter. 1606.   

To all Favourers of Learning or the Learned.  
ABout some ten years agone, when the Supplication of Pierce Penniless was published; the Gentleman who was the author thereof, being mine intimate and near companion, as one with whom I communicated both my love, mine estate, and my studies, and found ever out of his disposition an equal, or if postible a more fervent sympathy of look community and affection, so as I can not choose but still take much delight in his memory; would many times in his private conference with me, unfold his determination touching the concluding and finishing up of that moral and w 〈…〉 Treatise, which for as much as it could bear no second part by the same title (as heepublikelie did protest in an Epistle to the Printer joined to the same treatise) his resolution was to accomplish his desire by writing the return of the Knight of the Post, & therein did many times at large, discourse the main plot and drift, wherein he meant to bestow great art, wit and laborious study. Now death who many times by an uncharitable or cruel Anticipation preventeth those designs, which might administer much matter of regard and commodity, by taking him too early from the world, who had he lived, would have enriched it with much wittiness, left that uneffected, which had it been by him taken in hand, would doubtless have satisfied many learned expectations. Now myself who ever challenged most interest in his love, and nearest alliance to his counsels, seeing the turbulency of this last age, and the frantic madness where with the Devil infecteth the minds of most traitorous and wicked persons, I took in hand (albeit as unfit as Patrocles for Achilles' armour) to finish up what he in former times had intended, wherein if I have neither the witty pleasantness of his conceits, nor the gaulye bitterness of his pens sharpness, to the first imagine me of a more solid and dull composition less affected to delight and variation of humours, and to the latter think it is a bond whereto I have bound myself ever since my first nativity, rather to wish myself dumb then by foul speech, uncomely parables, or fantastical taxations to win either public note, or else brutish commendations, and ifin this I have either prevented or unwittingly taken in hand that which peradventure some far better Genius may think fit to bestow upon some of their well laboured hours, let mine inacquaintance, ignorance, and the reasons before repeated be mine excuses, & let them follow on their learned determinations, with this encouragement, that mine as a foil hath no ambition, but to give lustre to their more pure Diamonds.   


THE RETURNE of the Knight of the Post from Hell, with the devils answer to Pierce Penilesse Supplication.  
Having consumed the beginning of 
Incredibilis 〈◊〉 caecitas homin● etc. Aug.  my youth with vanity, and the latter end with hope, finding in the first, the error of nature, in the latter the weakness of mine own judgement, willing to recover past losses with present thri●tfulnes, I betook myself to a more settled and constant 
Mens imm●●●anet lachrin● voluuntur in●nes, Virg.  course of 〈◊〉, which being suitable to mine unambitious spirit, as not promising any unweeldie advancement, yet did it show me assured grounds, how I might attain to a certain competency, which ever was th● greatest height of my natural covetousness: this to effect with such substantial and sound workmanship, as might both withstand the fury of present storms, and the rutuating of after consuming Time, I began and stained the building of my fortunes, upon the fairest, the goodliest, and once the strongest colombe of this Kingdom, by whose support I risse to all that I desired: for my desire was no more, 
Heureux est ui la, qui plus en ne desire  then by it I enjoyed: but behold, whilst my blind contentment seducing my more blind affections, made me forget this Philosophy, that under the Sun, there is nothing immortal, and that Time's works, like Penelope's web, are 
prima quae tam dedit, ● carpsit.  done and undone, made to day, and to morrow defaced: I know not whether they were blind moles, or fearful conies, politic Fo●es, or flattering Badgers, but surely all or some of them envying the beauty of so goodly a Pyramedde (whose plain lustre defaced others counterfeit brightness, and whose well fashioned strength might have supported the Counsel Chamber of Princes) by a tedious and long laboured undermining at length overthrew him into the foul muddy lake of most detested Lethe, with whose fall myself was undone, and many others perished: blame 
ra ●ument jam, nigrescunt ●guine venae, ●uid.  me not, if I toare my hair, beat my breast, cursed my birth, talkt● to the air, and like a mad man forswore all mediocrisie in my moans, when I saw the expense of a double Prenticeship, rewarded with this altogether undone Fortune, my passion augmented my frenzy, and my frenzy (though confusedly, and without proportion) called up into my remembrance all the accounts of mine own stupidity and blockishness, as having not formerly either armed myself against these general evils of mankind, or else by a daily expectation, have beheld no more than for what I continually waited, but when the weariness of my troubled thoughts began to take some rest, through better consideration, and that I beheld myself like an orphan, left to the world hopeless and comfortless building new castles in the air, and strange Eutopian commonwealths in my fantastical brain, found at length both by mine own experience, and others judgements such crosses, such calamities, and such unresistible miseries in all the courses of life to which man can any way either dispose himself, or his meditations, that like the offspring of ●iobe, I became a weeping stone, having no sense in me, but insensible coldness 
riguisie ma▪ ovid.  whereupon willing to impart some part of my cogitations, I began in verse to write after this manner.  

Say gentle Muse, what course of life is best,  
Envy wounds Courts, a country life wants rest, 
●od vitae se●● iter? si na tumultu ●soni●.   
Trauell's uncertain, and where there's no stay,  
There grief begets as long a weary day,  
The merchants loss makes loathsome his delight,  
And poverty despised breedeth spite:  
Toil makes the Ploughman's sorrows to surmount,  
And shipwreck makes the sea of no account,  
The single life is chained to foreign pains,  
Yet marriage of more greater cares complains,  
And hardly keeps his chaste bed in chaste plight:  
But fears the day, and wakes the jealous night,   

The work of usury is base and ill,  
It gauls the rich, and doth the poor man kill.  
To every age there doth one care belong,  
And no man likes the life he leadeth long,  
The sucking babe wants sense of good or ill,  
And children take instruction 'gainst their will:  
Wild youth with rashness overthroweth all,  
Wisemen by fortune, war or sea do fall,  
Whilst wrath, deceit, and labour linked together,  
Transform themselves to pains more great than either  
Old age, long wished, & won by vows and prayers  
Infirmities both waste; torment and tears,  
We all things present, commonly despise:  
Some hate the Gods, the while juturna cries,  
Why was I made immortal? Oh and why  
Hath death no power on me, that I may die?  
Prometheus' bound to Caucasus complains,  
And calls the heavens to witness of his pains,  
And jove the king of Gods most deeply blames,  
For putting life immortal in base frames,  
Weigh well the virtues of the mind, then see,  
How they torment us, did not chastity,  
Undo Hippolytus: yet still mark this,  
There's none lines well, that leads loose life amiss,  
Witness those Kings whose faults we dare discuss  
Nice Sardanapalus, bawdy Tereus,  
The treble punic war●e ●●●y teach us shun,  
To be forsworn, and yet Saguntos won,  
By true faith keeping that untimely end,  
Which l●ane-fa●d-famine hatefully doth send,  
To honour friendship, or to live by friends,  
That brought Pythagoras' sect unto their ends,  
Fear this and live in ●ate with all thou meets,  
For that was Timon stand in Athens streets.  
Ever the mind doth disagree and find,  
Doubts and distrusts, that overthrow the mind:  
Then let none covet for the things we crave,  
We still refuse, and yet as fain would have,  
Some wish for honour, and repent the same,  
Some long for rule, and a commanding name,  
And so they may control, they're pleased to be,  
As serving slaves unto indignity;  
But unto honours high top-gallant brought,  
The sting of envy parts not from their thought,  
Some study night and day for golden speech,  
Yet in their lives to no one grace doth reach,  
The Advocate that pleads the guilty; cause,  
The adverse Chent hateth and his laws,  
The Client of the Advocate is scorned,  
Because his ill is by his mouth adorned.  
Some would be Fathers, but their children's ill,  
Makes then with grief wish they were childless still▪  
Yet he that wants an heir is made a prey,  
To these that gape to bear his goods away.  
Who sparing lives, and hordeth up his pelf,  
Lines still the scorn of men, and of himself,  
Yet he that all spends, always shall obtain,  
An unthrifts name, the worse disgrace of twain,  
By strange mishaps, euers in this round,  
Is contrary in his own working found,  
Then best the sentence of the grenke to try,  
Or not to be, or being soon to die.   
After I had in this rude manner rhymed out my 
Cura leues loq●●●tur ingentus stupent Sen.  passions and as it were discharged mine afflicted mind of much woe by this former meditation, I began to toss my thoughts up and down a thousand several ways, and to think with myself what new course were best for mine vndertaking, the loss of my former time made m●e loath service, distrust the wars, and fear the court, as being too old for bondage, tos poor to buy prefexment, and too plain by flattery to gain advancement, wherefore finding myself unfit for those things to which most men fit all their dispositions, I began to look into myself and to the sto●ke from whence I was derived, where I found my pedigree was not obscure, nor my disc●nt ungentill, but what availeth high matches unto low means: hence I began to lock into what mine ancestors had left behind them, and I found that their providence left enough both to renown their names and enrich their posterity, to part of which I knew myself might both by the laws of God and nature justly challenge a title, upon which gauel●kind estate prese●●ing, I instantly resolved to forsake the city, and wholly to betake myself to a country habitation, where living poorly I might yet live 
In solis ●is tibi turba locis  contentedly, which having done and framed in myself every thing suitable to the course I intended, being at my first arrival ravished with the homely delights of the country, I could not forbear to write in verse this country conunendation.  

Dear blessed woods lone walks, and fruitful plains, 
Ca re sclue ate e●o●, etc, Guarin●   
The truest harbourers of peaceful rest,  
The willingness that in my soul remains,  
To see you by my homecome is expressed,  
And if my stars will destiny my fate,  
To lead a life conformed to my will,  
I will not change you for a cities state,  
A Prince's court, or for the muse's hill,  
For if we note these mortal goods aright,  
They are no other than our evils are,  
He holds the least who most hath in his sight:  
And who hath most hath nothing to his share,   

Riches they are not but entangling toils,  
Wherein the liberty of men turmoils.  
What boots the gloss of honour in young years,  
Or fame, or virtue, or in mortal blood,  
That heavenly strains of Nobleness appears,  
All heavens graces and the earths best good,  
What boots these large & these fair pleasant woods,  
Rich plains, and flocks more rich upon them penned,  
And if amongst so many earthly goods,  
The heart be still excluded from content.   

O happy shepherd thou that safely sleeps,  
In a pure gown (though poor) yet ever free,  
Whose self is all thy riches, and who keeps,  
But natures fair, thy fair to beautify,   

That knows not how ambition doth torment,  
But living poorly lives the more content  
Thou that in poverty no poorness knows,  
Nor feels the strange diseases of the rich,  
But holds thine own through which thy wishes  
Thou art not wounded by enjoying much, (shows)  
Thou that dost spurn at bug bear dignity,  
With Nature's gifts; the gifts of nature feeding,  
Milk with selfe-milke revived and with the Bee  
Preserves pure nature's sweets from sweetness needing  
The Fount wherein thou drinkst, thou bathest alone  
And it is evermore thy Counsel giver,  
If thou be'st well, the world wants cause of moan,  
For there can never be a juster liver.   

Was never borrowed beauty to thee lent,  
But living poorly thou livest more content▪  
In vain from thee, the heavens are hid in clouds,  
Or armed with thunder most malevolent,  
Thy simple thoughts no fear or horror shrouds,  
Sune shine & showers, breed thee like content  
Thy country life is free from heaviness,  
No care within thy hearts dear closet lies  
Thy flock (thy charge) seeds on the tender grass,  
Whilst thou feedest still, thy true love with thine eyes,  
Not her whom men or stars to thee assign,  
But her alone, that love unto thee gave,  
Who 'mongst th'adorned plants of myrtil twine  
By you renowned, each others pleasures have   

Where other choice, breeds satallie lament,  
You living poorly live the more content,  
Nor for thee feels she that bright fire of love,  
Which thou shalt not both know and easily see,  
Nor thou that heat, within her shall not move;  
For both being poor, you both contented be.   

O life which knows not how to die till death,  
would I with thee might change my state or breath.   
But after I had in the country spent many years, expecting much, but obtaining nothing, and found that the tenor in our Northern parts, was a mere contrary, to the charitabie Custom of thrice happy Kent, this unequal fee-simple, allotting younger Brothers but the simple see of contempt and Beggary, when I say I saw those, whose only fortunes, were but to exchange a sonie trencher, ride before a Cloak-bag, or but carry a sword and unckler out-scrippe me, and outbrave me (by an unequal distribution) even with that patrimony, for part of which doubtless I was once created, yea when I saw nature herself, (whom Philosophy had made the excellent mistress of all things,) now become the vg●est monster of all ages, serpent like devouring up the issue of her own bowels: when I saw neglect in parents, tyranny in Brethren, and contempt in kinsfolk, when I saw fools a advanced, Philosophers despised, strangers feasted children starved, gold enough to purchase toys, charity too little, ever to enter heaven, when I saw Monkeys cherished in mother's laps, while Children cried for want of cradles, new fashions purchased with all unmodestie, old manors sold to maintain thriftlesnes when all this I saw, what could I do but cry,  

O hommum mores, O gens, O tempora dura,  
Quantus in urbe dolour, quantus in orb dolus.   
And in that passion comparing the City and Country together, and finding them of suitable illness, I resolved with Astopho, that since there was no better, and that as Machiuell holds, we must necessarily conveise with the evil, that it was my best to choose the best of evils, whereupon dischargeing my hopes, and praying for my persecutors, I packed 
utque in s● sua per vestigia voluitur ano●s Virg.  up my baggage, and made a main back again for the City, which how ever chidden by the Puritanise, the Humorist, or the Satirist yet in mine experience I found it more charitable than the Country Uulgarist but my horse was no sooner arrived within the pr 〈…〉 'tis of shoreditch, where bounty is so super abundant, that men may command bodies, as fast as the devil desires souls: when I beheld at every door a weapon, at every streets end a guard, and at every gate a petty regiment, I could not choose but wonder and presage that some notable, famous and unweakeable villainy should be the occasion of this severe & diligent carefulness, yet again remembering with myself, that since the blessed coming of his most excellent Majesty, I had not beheld the City government: I half supposed that this strict observance was grounded upon some straiter ruling the vulgar multitude: so that loath to discharge mine own ignorance, I ●oroare to make inquiry o. that I most desired to understand, the rather sith I beheld the generality thereof, which was equal●●e demeaned through the whole City: in the end coming into Paul's, to behold the old Duke & his guests, and to see if great Christopher's room were not equaled with nob e Francis and famous Philip's Tomb: I beheld, all things after the old fashion, in the end walking down into the great market place of confused discourses, I had not taken above two or three turns ere I observed this: that generally all men, whose talk I could overhear, seemed only to discourse of one Subject, praising God, that had revealed a must horridde, and not to be imagined treason, & biterly cursing those monsters and monstrous men, whose ●●uelish brains could contrive a damnable Project, worse than ever the Devil himself dreamed of, at least much worse than ever was thought of in former ages▪ for no religion could cloak it, no Atheizme could maintain it, nor could any revenge be imagined of so infinite and damnable greatness, for the plot made no respect of Gods anointed, no conscience of his elect nor no care of many thousand innocents: as having only this end to bring the most fluorishing empire of the world to à most sad, woeful, and eternal desolation: this universal discourse as I gathered here and there a word, and joined them together in mine own thoughts, made even my hair, rise with the terror thereof, yet insomuch as I could not get a perfect understanding of the matter in my walking up and down, I much more diligently looked about, to see it I could discern any of mine acquaintance, of whom I might inquire, the truth of this hyddcous conspiracy: but my long absence's had robbed me of old acquaintance: From the great wal●e I went to the Usurer's alley, where having taken a turn or two, I might perceive the argument of th● tie in the hundred, and the coos●ning the law, with an o●●e stale ●ricke of the life of a stranger was quite laid aside, and the bringing of the Lombard out of Germany, into England was quite forgotten, and they as the former (though formely they had never reioycste at any man's 〈…〉) now were infinitely well pleased with the discou●ri● of the execrable conspiracy, but ●ull myself was not bettered in mine own knowledge. From thence I went into the Intelligencers gallery, where the Proteousles of this age hold their conventicle, men that change their religions a● oft as the merchants wife her smocks, that had sevenscore for her shift, and esteem more of a Spanish Crusado, or a French sous, then either of the allegiance to which they are bound by nature, or of honesty which should make them acceptable in men's society: these men albeit they are no better in reputation then common executioners, and that all their Projects have but these ends, either to entangle, or strangle, yet as I might over hear some odd parcels, of their broken Spanish, Italian, and French Apotheges, I found (O miracle) a certain contyence in them, with a bitter detestation, and hateful condemning of the former practice. Now whether it were Envy in them, that the Devil should select worse Agents than themselves, or that grace being not utterly banished, touched them with the thought of such bestial unnaturalness, I know not, but certain it is they like wise condemned the invention, and reioy●st at the prevention, which when I noted, I was much more inflamed then ever I was before to understand the substance, the rather when I considered, how God and good men fools and fantastickes, slaves and villains, & even all sorts of people, from the ●est to the worst, joined in one general, applauding Gods mercies, that had brought to light a treason of such not to be imagined monstrousness: whereupon looking up and dawn at last, I espied a fellow with a hunger staruedlooke and an envious gesture, with a threede-bare cloak, and an half but●onde doublet, with a neck almost ru●les, and a waste all girdlesse, with torn breeches, and ungarterd stockings, his shoes cut, and his toes uncovered: this fellow me thought as he walked more discontentedly than the rest, so did he in my conceit, use more serious and b●sie action to himself then any other, and albeit he was alone, yet did he use such earnest demonstrations, as if he had been declaiming before a multitude: to him I went, and privileged by the baseness of his habit at the first I asked him what news he heard in the City; why (said he) are you such a stranger, that you hear not the news; truly, answered I, I am but newly come to the City, and have not as yet heard of any passages: why quoth he) the Parliament-house, the kings Majesty, the Queen the Prince of Wales, the Lords spiri tual and Temporal, the Commons of the Kingdom, and all that either had attended them, or come to behold them, should this day have been blown up with Gunpowder: Now, the Lord in Heaven defend quoth I (and withal started back:) what? hath there been seen any visible Devils abroad, that should have acted that ugly tragedy, for sure no man or mankind could either have the brains to contrive, or the hands to execute such an hydride and inhuman treason: But (said he) Devil me no denils, they may hereafter through judgement prove Devils, but as yet they are men, which bo●h contrived, and should have executed: Have you, (quoth I) heard any of their names▪ their names (replied he) why: I am of familiar acquaintance with them all, he that should have executed, and was like wise a contriver, was one Guy do Faulkes. The especial Plotte-layer, was Thomas Piercy, Robert Catesby, the two Winter's, John Wright, Christopher Wright, and dinars others: truly (answered I) you do but delude me, for these sellowes, were of such under quality, and so far from hope of advancement, by the subversion of the commonwealth, that except all gentry should be rooted out, and nothing left but their families: I see not which way they should have raised their fortunes one step higher: ●s for Faukes I never beard his name before, for Percy, I knew him long since, at what time he was reputed a good honest gentleman seruingma●, one that ●urst fight, and had fought many t●l frays, by which means he got love amongst men, and credit with his Lord and Master, but for any estate worthy to bring him into the eye of the common wealth, or for any wisdom worthy to be called into a common counsel or for any sincerity in religion, fit to be a lantern to others pathed they were attributes then as far from him as he by this plot is far from a good christian, there was in him a ●alure which had it not been estranged from virtue might well have brought him to account, but never to the office of a crown bestowing.  
Now for Catesby, I had also some knowledge of him too, whom many men esteemed in times pastfor a gentleman of a good frank nature, and of a sociable disposition, one that could well tell how to set up a rest at primero, or to throw a pair of Dice out of his hards with the best comeliness. But for me●ling with matters of estate or alteration of kingd●s, I never knew any fool so mad, as to hope of advancement by his fortunes. Yet this in charity I must say of him, he had a secret greatness of ●pitit which had it like wise had no acquaintance but virtue, might have deser●d much good both of his King & Country: as for Winter's they were men like Faukes out of my ●llement therefore I think of them as of the●e de●d●, that they are the worst of past and present remembrance, but for the two Writes, though they were men with wh● I had little or no acquainiance: yet were they men of whom I have heard many vild discourses & therefore likely to be the ministers of evil, The elder of them was infinitely proud, yet not so proud as ingrateful, for being v●terlye without any certain meres more than the revenue of other men's purses, yet was his general ostentation that he was beholden to no man. His virtue was a good oily tongue, that with easy utterance beguiled many weak attentions and a formal corriage which contemning others heaped upon himself a self commondations, his usual boast was that he scorned felt hats, he loud doublets lined with taffat●●●nen of twenty shillings an elle, silk stockings, never v● d●r twenty angels in his pocket, and his horseat lest of fortic poū● reckoning, this being wrought only by ciphers I scared would ever in the end bring upon him the Romon judgement Detur carnifici, & the rather in that I knew his youth was loose and adulterate, his middle age proud and contemptuous, and therefore his end like to be desperate and treacherous: for the younger Wright, he was in show blockish, and clownish, in disposition currish, and as his samiliars reported, by faculty thievish, so that he was ofter carractred in my Lord chief justices records, then in the calendar of those that should mark men for good employment.  
Now these things considered, I can but wonder and stand amazed, that such worms as these should go about to undermine so glorious and strong a government, the ruins whereof, could not choose but trus● them into many pieces, but the Dinel whose time is but short, more extremely rageth. And this last Iron age, must of necessity be the mother of Monsters, mischiefs and prodigies. Why (replied this threede-ba●e fellow,) Do you hold this Position, that Poverty is no fit Agent for villainy, at●s you are much dece●ued, they are the only corner-stones on which the devil ●●ecteth his Empire, for to them, he preposeth wealth, glory and advancement, the only contraries to their fortunes: and what doth man 
Communi vitio naturae ut invisis, latitantibus atque incognitis rebus, magis confidamus, vehemen tiusque exterreamur. Cesar. li. 2.  naturally most covet, but what he most wanteth: again, where shall you find more pride then in beggars, more contempt then in slaves, and more revenge than in weakness,: O you are too simple, if you th●nke not these men fit for massacre. I hearing him talk thus, began to look somewhat strangely upon him, and demanded of him what he was, & of whence, that being so disorderly attired, could so fubtlely order his words: I am (quoth he) to tell you truly both in essence and nature a spirit, which taking upon me this humane shape, run up and down to increase these mischiefs, and to enrich Hell, which is my masters kingdom, briefly, I am a knight of the post, & that knight of the post who about some ten years agone conveyed the supplication of Pierce Penniless to the Devil my Master: I hearing him talk thus, took up my hand and blessed myself, but after, casting away both fear and amazement, I told him that I had many times read the Supplication, wherein Pierce did describe the Knight of the Post, to be a neat pedantical fellow, in the form of a Citizen, and you look (quoth I) like a tattered outcast, that should hide himself from the Provost Marshal, why Sir (said he) Think you the devils Factors shift their shapes no o●ter then wild Irish women their smocks, O you are decevied I am a Citizen, but for City occasions, as to bail v●thriftes, to defeat creditors, to abuse justice, and to c●s●n Innocentes. I am sometimes an Attorney, sometimes a Proctor, very olten a Parrator, I have worn a Barresters' gown, and when need requires, a cornered Cap, I have a short furde cloak, and a pair of Spanish leather Bu●kins, I have a suit of the best fashion, white Pumps, and a guil● Rapier, I have a great scarf, a short screen, and a pair of starched Mutchatoes: in brief, what can I not counterfeit, when either the Devil will have me coneycatch men of their souls, or the world of reputation. Believe me (quoth I) you are a desperate juggler, but since it is my fortune, to fall thus foul upon your beggarly Knightshippe: I pray thee let us leave all former discourses, and tell me, how thy master accepted poor Pierces Supplication, truly (replied he) at first he was very angry, as well for troubling him in those busy times; when he had great affairs of estate in handling, as also for so plainly laying open the politic stratagems, and secret devices, which he himself and his seven Counsellors had of so long time been in compiling for speedy means to bring the world into his subjection, yet in the end being infinitely solicited by my importunicie after the fashion of the world, rather to ease himself of vexation, then for any good he intended to Pierces suit, gave me by word of mouth this answer, which I abruptly after writing down, you may hear read in this paper, following   

The answer of the high and mighty Prince of darkness Donsel Del Lucifer, King of Acheron Styx & Phlegeton, Duke of Tartary, marquess of Cocytus, and L. high Regent of Limbo, to the Supplication of Pierce Penniless  
THe tenor Pierce of thy supplication coming into our all confounding fingers we could not choose but out of our damnable inclination, take buy displeasure, both at the unreasonableness of thy demand and at thy too plain unfolding of those sins, by which we advance the power of our kingdom, yet to satisfy in some part the earnestness of thy solicitor we have out of our inferuall sinfulness returned thee this answer.  
For the rent thou challengest due to thine unhallowed purse, wherein I have kept revels so long a season, I tell thee there is none due from me as never having taken possession of the tenement, nor at any time delighted in such vast unfurnished places, for I tell thee how ever blindness by my suggestion hath persuaded, yet is there not any place wherein I am better entertained, or bestow my malediction in greater abundance, then amongst the infinite he apes of idolatrous Crosses: therefore I may not suffer my servant Avarice to disfurnish my Treasury, till bringing a certificate from my public notary despair he witness thee apt for villainy, and then I will not only take the advantage of those usurping Cormorants which without letters patents take upon them my highest offices, but by a secret way which leads unto damnation bring thee to hear the conference of Gold my all prevailing orator. I know there be a great sort of good fellows that would swim through ale and blood, and many needy lawyers that mourn in thryed-bace gowns that would forswear speaking either true latin or true law, so they might come to be golds acquaintance. But I tell thee Pierce it may not be, least having what they desire, they being glutted leave to desire what I would have them: or gold being too generally made the slave ●● slaves leave his power of enchanting great persons: therefore I think it fit to straighten some part of his former liberty & by the extremity of his absence make men run mad for his presence, so that the very hope of him shallbe prized above a soules-fafetie, for which purpose I have sent new directions to my servant Greediness and to his assistants Famine, Lent, & Desolation, that they shallbe more severe in their government, and less prodigal of the liberty of gold then formerly they have been. I will have them teach the world, as Courtiers do Fantastics that the only fashion & beauty of this age is to be immoderately miserable, and to make Bounty and Hospitality of vilder reputation than a great bellid doublet, or a pair of unbombasted venetians. 
Attili●s Regulus.  I will have them teach Generals of armies, that it is better to forsake there charges, then to endure the loss of a plough share, or a horse team, I will have them teach consuls that 
Cato the elde●.  it is better to sell their horses then provide provender: that to travel a foot shows strength, to ride sloth, that a gown of freeze is warmer than a rob of scarlet: I will have them teach Emperors that small trains are great treasures, and that honourable and full courts are but 
Scipio A Emilianus. Homer, Zeno Tibenus Graccus  hordes of envy and nests of ambition, I will keep learning poor and unrespected, lest if he be advanced my kingdom be consumed, generally I will have them ere the dissolution of the world make every thing worse than it was in the time of the old sages, for recompense where of I will clothe my servant Greediness in Monopoles, Mortgages the lands of Orphans and the livings of Churches: yet I tell thee my poor Penniless supplicator I will not be so infinite in my tyranny, but that gold my prisoner shall have some recreation, and at great feasts and pageant-playes lighten out the glory of his beauty, nor will I keep him so utterly without the comfort of society, but that he shall ever have one of the seven pillars of my throne to be his play-mate, and sometimes attendant even Pride, which as thou sayest reigneth in the heart of the Court, and 
The seven deadly sins  perverteth all virtue, shall not only assist Greediness in this design, but shall so far exceed in all inhuman 
pride  and incomprehensible ostentation, that her former monuments, and her former unnatural ambitions shallbe reckoned as types and shadows of great humility, alas thy silly chothier shall be but the cipher of an upstart, who being nursed in Taverns, taught in Brothels, & 
The vpsta●te  confirmed in theatres, shall so quickly be discovered by the eye of the i●dicious, that brought into contempt by the weakness of his own demeanour, he shall be able to enrich my Kingdom with nothing more than his own hanging. There must be in this decrepednes of the world's age, upstartes of an other condition, those on whom Nature hath bestowed excellent benefits, as a comely form, a ripe wit, and a civil, or an unambitious disposition, whom Education hath made learned, rommerce, beloved, and observation full of perfect judgement: Upon these shall Pride show the power of her Internal D●●tie: Into these shall she i●spue such a ●enome of self affection, that being hood winked with the folly of imaginary greatness, they shall transport all their actions beyond the limits of Piety or reason, accusing and condemning all present things, as either government or fortunes, and only fix and amuse their cogitations upon future actions, Hope, Fear and Desire, 
Calamitosus est animus futuri anxius: Sen.  drawing into their minds this Position, that to doubt of what is to came, is to be ac●rtainde of present sorrow. Hence shall it proceed, that they shall raze out of their remembrances, this Philosophy, Know thyself, and follow thy business, which comprehending all duty, makes men leave other men's business, to think of their own actions and not to correct, but to be well chastised: but they giving loose reins unto Folly, shall live unsatisfied with all things, till the world impoverished, can boast of nothing, but chiefly of this, that it is not virtuous: nay so far shall Pride exhale and draw them up unto omnipotent illness, that when they shall with their own evilseeing eyes behold the vilnes of their wicked passages, yet shall they seek to glorify themselves in their deaths strangeness, which how ever it be odious to God and his Angels, yet shall it be to them pleasant, in that the like wickedness hath not been before repeated: insomuch that like the dying Frenchman, neither looking backward to sin, nor forward to salvation: they shall in their last gasp expect nothing but a tumultuous Funeral.  
Besides, to such weakness shall the Pride of their own thoughts bring them, that like him that exceedingly troubled with the stone, being forbidden the taste of sli●●y and gross meats in the extremity of his worst fits, sound ease in railing against milk, cockles, and carbanadoes: so they for aspiring to dart mountains against 
ventus ut amittit vires nisi robore d●s●● occurra ●t s●l●ae ●p●tio diffusus 〈…〉 Lucan.  the heavens, shall find no comfort, but the acusing of their own consciences, how ever formerly they had resolved upon this principle, That Fury wanting a Subject, on which to be furious, is Fury of no estimation.  
Thus shall their souls lose themselves in themselves and not being content with those reasonable Objects, for which it was created, lose both the work of advancement, and the fast hold of salvation. Pride shall make these over weening great ones resemble fantastic Ladies, whose affections being estranged from those lawful and honourable objects on which they ought to be employed, rather than they should perish in idleness to bestow them too excessively on Monkeys, dogs, & parokitoes deceiving the passions of the soul by a false and uncomely object so they estranging their labours and studies from moderation and justice, shall employ them upon building 
Pannonis haud aliter post ictum saevior ursa, etc. Lucan.  Castles in the air, conforming states and overthrowing Kingdoms, like brute beasts, bitting the stone that hurt them, or appeasing their wounds by new wounds of their own making: they shall with the Persian whip the Sea, and challenge mountains to combat: they shall besiege rivers, and seek revenges against mighty houses, nay in the end, when their actions shall be opposed by divine providence, they shall with the profane King vow hate against the Almighty, bind their thoughts from adoring, their tongues from speaking, and their hearts from believing the truth of the triple Deity: These are the upstartes of this last age; who having all the ornaments in which any deceit can be covered, shall so much deceive wisdom with her antic and painted garments that truth shall not be respected, albeit he go clad in never so great plainness.  
Next this upstart thou placest the beggarly and 
The politician.  counterfeit Politician, as a cumber to the commonwealth, whose knowledge is but a sulien Pride, and his discontent a beggarly need●nesse, who being but a fool by nature and a knave by practice, commonly be pernicious to none, but men of less and weaker understanding, but there be Politicians of an other mould, of an other spirit, and of an other understanding, Fellows that having got experience by observation, and understanding by much reading, that with labour having attained wisdom, and with well spent hours that good which might do good to their country being ready to deliver up a fruitful harvest of their toils shallbe so corrupted with pride, that disdaining any virtuous scale (whose strait steps shall renown the advanced) they shall hold in contempt and derision all manner of promotion, if at one jump they may not sit cheek by jowl with the highest majesty, as if prince's eyes could in this tumultuous world behold and understand men's deserts by their outward appearances: hence shall issue the damnable projects of treasons, murders, and subversions, and hence shall men forsake to be masters of their own goods, so they may be slaves to foreign ambitions, from hence shall come the merchandise of crowns, the sales of cities and strong forts, the exchange of governments, the shipwreck of souls and alterations of religions, these are they that shall maintain oppositions, hold intelligence with the factious, and discover the weakness of their own cradles, and in the end having sworn themselves the hangmen to execute all damnable judgements, shall like old hangmen bring their own necks to the cord and die with confusion.  
What shall I do speaking of these prodigal heirs who 
The prodigal young master.  like filthy weeds are no sooner sprung up but the scythe is ready to crop them, doth not their lasciviousness poison their bodies as fast as their profanes their souls, or can the world say he sees them, ere the grave saith he hath them tut they are but bubbles in water and records in sand.  
And albeit the gates of hell are made much wider than they were for entertaining there multitudes, yet doth their riotes, their lusts, their perjuries and their blasphemies bring none into hell but those of their own damned quality, the young masters that shallbe of the worlds last framing, shallbe at least of the age of three score or upward. Fellows that having par●im●●iously, basely and greedily heaped unto themselves great masses of wealth, by usury, extortion, and all unlawful exactions, shall in the end with the tickle of pride have such an itch in their souls, that what with the searching of the old records of gentry to find a name that should sound somewhat near to their predecessors, what with bribing of ●erraulds to confirm and link together their genealogies, what with riotous expense to gain a little vulgar worship amongst their neighbours, what with building princely houses, for the monuments of their magnificence, or else what with brawls and controversies in law about the precession meare of the next Lordship they live to consume their own hoardinges and in the end dying miserably leave a forlorn issue which retaining the blood of their parents ambitions, become either amongst their neighbour's thieves, or amongst stranger's traitors to their King and country, these are gallants that we are summer garments on winter's body, who having ten more diseases than can be reckoned by a horselieche, think of their lives as of their sins that they shall never be called in question.  
Next these thou placest the pride of the learned, whose combats and controversies troubles all the world 
pride in the learned  with their frantic disputation. Why, where were the devils kingdom if they were brought either to a peaceful unity, or a charitable conformity, tut there be new seditions inventing to keep them at an eternal enmity, so that the weak being confounded and the ignorant miss there shallbe both a doubtfulness of the truth, and a defence of false opinions how absurd & vilely soever it be grounded: they shall suggest scriptures to maintain heresies and cite the old fathers of the primitive church to defend a new synagogue never before this last age hard of or imagined: they shall spurn at magistracy, and go about to confound authority, which being too strong a bulwark for their undermining, they shall what their sharpest tools to dig down the immortal seat of royal majesty: but whe● their strokes shall rebound back into their own bosoms they shall in the fury of their prides like windy bladders swell till they burst and become unprofitable for the meanest uses.  
Another sort shall deny the reading of holy writ, the form of meditation, the use and number of sacraments, the 
papists  function of the elect, the congregation of the believing, and heap such infinite authority upon a sinful man's jurisdiction, that casting faith into that end of the wallet which ever hangs behind them, they shall rob the great almighty both of his true homage and allegiance and in the end when their battery shallbe able not to move one stone 〈◊〉 christianity, they shall like true soldiers of hell's kingdom, practise to make such mines and undermininges as may blow up all truth and religion with unmerciful gunpowder, adding unto Cattelins' conspiracy and all other treasons how wild soever great shows of charity in comparison of their inhumanity.  
After these shall follow Herillus and his legions, who being self conceited and over weening in their own learn, 
Neuters  shallhould no heaven, no religion, nor no felicity but the rareness of their own knowledges, affirming it to have sufficient authority to make men wise, happy, and virtuous, binding grace and truth within limits of their studies, as if art being the mother of virtue, and ignorance the nurse of viciousness, the one could not err, nor the other attain any perfection: forgetting this principle that God oweth his extraordinary assistance unto faith and religion and not to our passions, these are they which have justice in their mouths not in their hearts, making religion but a show to show their other knowledges, lending nothing to devotion, but the offices that flatter their passions making their zeal work wonders when it assisteth their dispositions, towards hatred, cruelty, ambition, covetousness, defamation and rebellion, but towards piety, be nignitie and temperance it goes like the s●mmer tropic retrograde and backward, so that religion which was made to root out vices shall by these proselytes, be made to shroud, foster, and provoke them.  
Next these shall rise up public Atheists who although 
Atheists.  they shall have in every affliction & danger, some feeling of the great deity yet shall the infinite pride of their profanes disavow the acknowledgement, and loath to be repentant because their fa●thes are planted but by the cowardliness of their hearts, and established by the weakness of their apprehensions, believing only that which they believe, because they want courage not to unbeléeve: and fain unto themselves, that Hell and after torments are only but shadows, and fictions, till summoned either by old age, sickness or authority, to give an end to their breathing, they then feel that horror which brings them unto hell, with their only Companion Desperation: These Pierce are the Factors that make rich Satan's Commonwealth, who neither by compulsion nor reason being brought to acknowledge their Maker, only confirm themselves in Atheism, which is a Position as monstrous and unnatural, as it is hard and uneasy to be established in the mind of any reasonable Creature.  
Next learning thou peticionest against the Pride of Artificers, 
pride of Artificers and gen●y.  where the needy Tailor will imitate the neat Nobility: Alas, a small fault, if there were none proud, but Tailors, who being the impers of peacocks plumes may best borrow some of their broken feathers: but do but cast thine eye aside, in after ages, and thou shalt see a Water-bearer as brave as a Sea▪ Captain, and a Cobbler as curious in his acoutermentes, as on Candlemas day at night, an Inns of Court Reveller, why he shall not be accounted worthy of a trade, if he will not adventure more than half his clear profits, to adorn his body beyond either his degree or vocation, and some like the Duke of Florence fool, wear all their wealth on their ba●kes only, but this excess being Male and Female, shall bring forth into the world millions of prodigies, so that streets shall be pestered, theatres burdened, conventicles ●lled, and Churches thronged with ga●dymen and painted women, who like the kings of Mexico, shall have more several shifts of clothes to adborne their bodies, than virtues to embellish their minds, their alms being god help you, and their bribes a cast suit or an once worn Rebato, these are they which shall metamorphize servingmen to lackeys, the love of their neighbours to the lusts of their fond thoughts, great houses to a city chamber, and good hospitality to ● penurious misery, till bringing pearls from America, jewels from India, silks from Arabia, perfumes from Cataya, furs from Muscovia, Monkeys from Barbaria, Tobacco from Trinidada, ● Fashions from Italia, Fools from the I'll Cithaera, and lying knave's from Creta, they as lavishly spend as they unconscionably got, till shaking hands with beggary they make their last wills and Testaments in the bottom of some dungeon, whilst those unworthy creatures that rise by their downfalles, start up into their promotions, and make a scoff of them by whom they were formerly advanced: these and a thousand more such transuersions must be wrought before the worlds dissolution, every nation is full of the worlds faults, nor shall they be cleansed till the al-confuming fire of heaven purge and restore again the old Chaos. Therefore Pierce content thyself with this, that the world cannot be amended, till it be quite ended, for as years grow, evils grow, & men always esteem that best, which is of the latest fashion.  
Now to conclude, that Pride may be complete in 
Of En●●●.  all his proceedings: there is sent into the world certain Furies of Hell, who in the habits of Pettifoggers, or unlawful Lawyers, run about to disturb Peace, and overthrow friendship, to break the bond of nature, and the chain of allegiance, by ringing in men's ●ares, the properties of mine and thine, the beauty of commandment, and the glory of large possessions, that it is fit either to be none, or else alone, That to imitate Princes, is to be without Competitors, and hence it springs, that Envy being an Assistant with Avarice sets all the world together, by the ears. These Ministers of the infernal Kingdom, abusing Law with Law, and misconstruing the judgements of most learned Sages, with the base corruptions of their muddy consciences, these are they which have double tongues, and two▪ fold solutions, one for private discourse, and an other for public profit, like the Athenian, who having given two contrary resolutions of one question, and being tasked therefore, replied, He had given the first at the Table, where was no profit. The second at the Bar, where was both gain and glory.  
Thus do they despise men's overthrows, and make a scoff of their own wickedness: These are they that make as many rights, as men have powers to put chase and as many wrongs as there be emulous thoughts fit for contradictions. These are they that maintain beggars to contend with the wealthy, that having got them into their nets, they may make a pray of their riches: These when Contentions grow irksome, spread forth the false robe of arbitration, and making themselves the umpyers, prove conscience to be more coretously tedious, than Law was bitter and wasteful, yea, their quirks, their quiddities, their judgements, reversed by errors, their errors imagined, and not proved, their tedious references, and their purchased reportings, shall make men so run mad with rage and discontentment, that even despair shall swelled himself with labour to instruct men how they shall be rid of the world and her troubles: These with their contesting behaviours, and wrangling action, with their clamorous voices, and unblushing countinances, shall bring such a scandal to that most excellent corrector of vice, and fountain of reason, that the very name thereof shall be as fearful to Wisemen, as the name of Talbot to the French, or a Bugbear to an infant. Nor shall Envy spend all his power upon these Subjects, but like a shape-chaunging Proteus alter every hour with every several fashion, not somuch but the Courts of Princes shall be infected with his poisons: Nobility dreaming of Majesty, and statesmen how to get noble Titles. Fools envying the preferments of the Wise, and Wisemen offended with the too much respect, that Fools have gotten: Flatterers shall even gnaw their own hearts, to see plain dealing in authority, and plain dealing shall with himself under ground, to see Flatterers become Pedants to the choicest dispositions, nay, I will tell thee Pierce, when the highest Majesty shall adorn thy Country with all these infinite and immortal blessings, which never before were seen, so generally to flourish over any Nation, when he shall send a power that shall close up the janus of domestic garboils, and unrevealed discontentments, that to a general war shall bring an universal Peace, that to virtue shall bring honour, to desert, rewardé, and to every several estate, his several advancement, even in those days shall Enute be waking, and murmuring against his pleasures, railing at his Followers, and making scoffs of those, whom his hand hath graced, in the end run headlong into those damnable protects of unnatural treasons that even wickedness itself, shallbe ashamed it was ever invented.  
Envy having thus glutted himself with illness, and brought his Agents to the ruin, for which he preserved them, he shall then for his recreation take upon him, the habit of a woman, and as a Tennis-court fittest for his pleasures, bandy his balls up and down in women's bosoms. Hence shall it come, that age and deformity, envying youth, and beauty shall fetch from Italy, France, and the low-Countries, a second nature, which though it be bastard and abortive, yet shall it be royally entertained, as the goodliest Creature, covering wrinkles with Ceres & Cinaber, & bald heads with golden Periwigs, or brown Gregoryans, having this virtue that though all the sins of their lives be repeated before them e●en in plain and unglosed Phrases, yet shall they no more blush or seem to be ashamed, then at the reporting of a tale out of Orlando, or a Sonnet out of Ports or Stella. Hence shall come the alteration of Attires, the new▪ fangleness of fashions, and the mask-like disguises of intemperate spirits, this day envying to morrow, & the morrow envying the day that ensues it, and all but to this end, that making themselves by their disgrace, gracious in the eyes of their Favourites, they may enviously confound them, and themselves together: nor shall this poison be particularly bounded within any restrained limit, but shall in such universal sort be cast over the whole world, that the Court, the City, and the Country, shall go together by the ears,, which shall be renowned for prime invention. As for foreign Envy▪ home-practises shall witness, I mean the Envy of Rome only, where ●urther keeping an Apothecary's shop, compounds Medicines, to empoison all Christians. Oh were it not for the bloody doctrine of that Church, Hell had wanted a great number of her chiefest Burgamaisters.  
Next after Envy, thou complainest of this minds perturbation, Wrath, who being not so great as Envy, 
Of ●●ath.  is yet in his Nature, as busy to advance the dignity of Limbo, as any of the former, not like Envy, looking only aloft at stars and high objects, but like a more humble slave of sin, neither regarding persons, nor degrees, makes all things his prey with whatsoever he encountereth, he is no Dwarf, nor is he of swarthy visage yet indeed he is choleric and of a hasty nature, displeased both with right and wrong, both with war and peace full proceedings, he hath as many shapes as the former, and doth change his vizards as oft as great men their resolutions, nor ma● his evils be taken from the earth till the golden age be brought back, and Saturn and Ops restored to their old commandment: he sometime looks like to a beadle, that whips beggars out of the street & charity out of men's bosoms, banishing with the sight of the needy the remembrance of commiseration, whilst the right vagabond indeed with a brazen face of ostentation overcomes the beadle, and over braves the Constable.  
Another while he walks like a promoter buying and selling for 6. pence a pe●ce the whole volume of the pennall statutes, but if once he be crossed or want but two pence of his reckoning, then doth he rage like a wild-boare and lays his soul to paw●●●hel▪ by perjury rather than lose one jot of his revengement. He hath the garments of a City magistrate, and then he cries revenge against all that stood betwixt him and preferment shadowing cruelty under the law, malice under upright government, and▪ unexcusable, injustice under want of better information, sometimes he is in a country justices garments, and then woe unto all that be of a contrary faction, for than they look not into men's estates but into their loves, not what they are able to spare, but with whom they are most willing to spend, & then they lay subsidies on the poor, great loans on borrowers, and strong troubles on weak resisters, who shall go to the wars but the son of the widow, the steward of the aged, or the bridegroom that coming from the church is but newly married. But resteth wrath thus? No, he hath in every degree a several design, and though not in this present age: yet in times past he hath been seen to sit inscarlet, from whence even to the dunghill he hath spread the venom of his nature, and is no way to be appeased but either by the silver Image of some of the Lords anointed, or with the cordial lustre of some golden Angels, both which have power to appease anger and to insinuate freindshippe where hate was the extreameliest conceived: after wrath hath thus severally transformed himself, he shall lastly take upon him the shape of a monster, and show himself more ugly to the beholder than those which are seen in Nilus, or the Baboons in sturbidge, for he shall have the head of an Ass, the body of a Toad, the feet of an Asprea, and the mind of a Serpent, which form when he hath taken upon him he shall wholly give himself over to detraction and falling in hate with all things, and all creatures despise whatsoever in the world is held comely or decent, the ministry of the word shall not escape his reproof, but tasking their charitable labours and despising their Doctrine, show the profanes of his poisonous rancour. Learning which only plucks the vizard from his ugly face shallbe spotted with his reproaches (yet cleansed again by her own virtues) and he that shines the fairest in the eye of the best judgements, shall the most be assailed with his lies and defamations, nay the arts shall not escape his fury, saying Grammar is but an introduction to corruption: Lodgick a defence of untruths, Rhetoric the beauty of sin, Music the ●awde to looseness, Arithmetic an index for gross rememberances, history the storehouse of treasons, and philosopy the mother of cowardice: with a thousand such like chimaeras fit to issue from a hellish study, but of all and of all poor Poetry▪ (yet is it not poor that is beloved of the muses) shallbe a mighty block in the way of his malice, as well because his guard is but nine women, whose arms are not used to weapons as also for that some illiterate intruderes who never having been acquainted with any high contemplation, shall administer to the world matter of much scoff and foolery. To conclude there is nothing how ingenious, how comely, how fit soever to be preserved for after ages, but this monster shall detract, malign, and slander, and thinkst thou then it is fit to call such agents out of the world, the multiplication of whose seed shall make hell an invincible monarchy, no they are predestinate to govern till the last day, at what time they shall come laden home with rich spoils and great triumphs, in the mean space there shall go to consort with those furies the fury Gluttony, with whom albeit thou seemest to be mightily offended, yet so it is thou mayest see an increase but no waneing of his mischiefs, 
Of Gluttony  for even as promotions rise so shall this mischief grow bigger and bigger, he that with toil studies in the university shall with good cheer sleep in a rich parsonage, and he that is painful in in●eriour places shall oft prove idle in the higher offices so that gluttony being made a coherent with Avarice they shall suffocate the world with the smoke of surfeit and disorder. what talk'st thou of the Emperors of Rome or of their vicious and excessive disorders in their too ●urious diets, descend thine eyes into ●ower times of thine own remembrance and see if the triple ●round monarch of that fatal City, do not make them temperate, and well dyetted princes in comparison of his superabundant fare, and intolerable magnificence, placing Peter chair at the upper end of feasts, and preaching abstinence with a full gorged stomach, whom one of his Disciples imitating, upon a vigil eve at night having eaten for his own share a box of Marmalade, a pound of Eringoes, beside preserved Cherries, Abricotts, ●ride Pears and Poumcitherous, fell into an infinite and vncha●it able railing against the protestants whom he termed flesh eaters and unhallowed, thanking. God that he had that night as well satisfied himself with that ●lender repast as with all the flesh and gross meats in a Prince's kitchen, this was a fast fit for such a Saint, and thus doth gluttony riot even with him that calls himself God's vicar from his example came the abstinence of Cloisters who fast all Aduent, and eat nothing but chines of pork, tripes and puddings, a thin diet for a lazy devotion, and from them I think the City took their observations, who beholding their teachers stray so far from temperance armed with their institutions, gave themselves ●●er to all riot, all effeminacy, and all voluptuous and immoderate eating, making all the feasts that either were instituted or invented by Solon, or Numa, not comparable in the meanest degree with the wedding of two beggars, or the supper of one of the Bandetty upon his punk or Curtyzan. It is purposlesse for me to tell thee the excess that shall arise in merchants, in governors, and in higher people, when even theatres shall be turned to Pulpits, to inveigh and give example of their much riotousness, and the supper fluity of their banquets, shall exceed the immoderate feast, wherein Alexander was poisoned at the City of Babylon: there shall not be an Alphonso heard of, that will live a whole day with one Apple, nor a Diogenes that will sustain Nature with a Carrot root or a Parsenippe: There shallbe no more Molynes, that will exchange the State of Princes, to become Capuchin Friars, For gluttony shall alter all those Lectures and write, Ne quid nimis on every great Man's Table: so that surfeites sooner than sword, shall bring ●oules in heaps into the infernal kingdom: nor shall Gluttony there rest satisfied, but sending his Handmaid Drunkenness forth of Spruceland, Dansk & Belgia, 
Of drunkenness  shall overthrow more, and work greater disorder than all the feasts that either hath, or hereafter shall be invented & that she doth the shall do with so good a grace, & with so amiable and facile a dexterity, like a venetian fire-maker or a refined traveler, there shall nothing ●e held commendable that is not graced with her fashions. Truth shallbe held doubtful if not delivered from a drunken utterance, friendship shall not be embraced i● it be not bound with a drunken obligation, nor shall service have his merit if drink be not a witness to the protestation. To be brief to drink drunk shallbe as usual as good morrow in a morning, good even after noon, and God save you at a high way encounter, for there shallbe no health, no service, no● no good wish which shall pass cum privilegio, if it come not so oft from the bottom of a full bowl, that in the end the well wisher for want of sense drop under the Table: this is a notable project for hells enriching, when the folly of blind men will attribute false titles of glory to the ugliest sin that is preserved in the kingdom of darkness and to repute themselves then the best men when they are worse than the basest that ever was created. Thou ●elst me of the laws of King Edgar for repressing this vice and keeping men within the compass of moderation I tell thee there shallbe edicts publishst of greater power and from a better wisdom from a King of all complete perfection and full of infinite detestation of these loathed abuses, yet these s●ie insinuating Furies, shall have so many labory●●hes and Fore holes, to cover their masked vildenes, that they shall never be quite banished, whilst there hangs a Garland before a Tavern, or a wisp at an Alehouse.  
The laws of Drunkards thou hast repeated, and no doubt but they shall be much amplified in the next conventicle of sins, and for the Species of Drunkenness, thou hast▪ said as much as can be reported, yet must they still continue in the world, some as Siren's, to entice strangers, some as Pedagogues, to instruct the not knowing, and some as Lacedaemonian pictures, to give a distaste and loathing to such brutish and beastly corruptions.  
After all these shall press forth the old Beldame and nurse of these mischiefs, inayle-footed sloth, who hating 
Of Sloth.  all virtue, because it is Laborious, shakes hands with Industry, & bidding adieu gives himself over unto all inst and sensuality▪ from whence there proceedeth a thousand worse evils, than those which thou taskest: for if an idle drunkard, a bawdy humorist, or a vagrant unthrist, were the worst fruits that jolenes could produce. Then the Dropsy; the Pox and the Gallows, would like good Physicians soon purge the body of the commonwealth, of such solid yet weak obstructions▪ neither would the infection be so mortal, but the smallest antidote of virtue might preserve the weakest judgement from perishing: but there be greater damnations begot by this Idleness, for when it once takes possession of a great spirit, and a ready wit, like the Positions of Machivel. It obscures the remembrance of heaven, and casts virtue▪ into the Lake of Oblivion and then my young Master siittes, with his hat ever his eyes; and in one hour, sends his thoughts Post over all the worlds Monarchy, which once again returning into his bosom, find particular faults, with all they have surveyed in their wandering contemplation: There is no Religion but they will confounded it, no government but they dislike it, no authority but it is too austere, no freedom but it is too remiss, nor no customs but they shall be broken: Kings are with them either Stocks or Blocks, and the necessary Officers of a wall built commonwealth, are with them but as a heap of Ciphers, without any figure, they will have laws, but they shall not punish, they will have rule, but it shall observe no order, and they will have all things in good fashion, yet nothing without confusion. Hence doth spring treasons, Massacres, and surprises, the sale of duty, and the sack of Cities, the Creation of murder, and the cry of Innocents'.  
And hence doth spring those execrable Positions, which making reckoning of no God but their breath, nor no Heaven but the contentment of their o●ne affections, throw into the world as many blasphemies, as Northern blasts throw parched leaves on the ground after Autumn. One saith, all love must be to a man's self, or for a man's self, and not to trust at all, is the only way to keep a man from deceit and circumvention, that rich promises must be seconded with poor performances, that honesty and dishonesty are of equal estimation so they serve in their needful offices, that to give reward to the well deserving, is to lose the benefit of deserts to come only by false hopes like the Siren still to entertain Ulysses, that a thankful nature is as great a clog to a Wiseman, as an execution to a poor Debtor, that unseen dissimulation is better than plain dealing, that it matters not for men's affections, so they gain men's services, that forbearance is the best revenue, if in the end it gain what it expecteth, with a world of other, as to oppose truth in an adversary, to despise the distressed, to make sale of justice, to take bribes by underfactors, that it is virtue enough to gain an opinion to be virtuous, that zeal is a hidden rock in a rough Sea, that that Religion is best that best fitteth man's purposes; that men of the sword are like Physicians or their urinalles, good but in extremity, that to keep high spirits from rising, is to keep low thoughts from doubting, are not these Rules of a religious disposition? Why, this is the fruit of sloth, when it is companiond with hatred, contempt and man's weakness, and even from this sin issues more scandals, more reproofs, and more defamations to common wealths, than from all the other, percedent furies,: therefore how busy soever she be in the world, yet in hell she hath the quietest lodging with the greatest torment.  
Now in conclusion like a binding fillet to knit together all those disorders which best order the devils palace thou complain'st of Slothes fairest daughter, the mind— enchanting 
O● Lechery  Lechery, she that with a burning desire overthrows reason and with a furious and unrestrainde appetite murders all the good motions of man's mind and leaves no monument or place where virtue was acknowledged whom although sterue-governing Philosophy reports to be a pleasure bought with torment, a delight be got with unrest, a content companiond with sear, and a sin that hath his ending in lamentation. Yet is she a necessary minister of hell and the devils only Lombard who takes most souls for interest what though wisemen say she is a thief to the purse, a disease to the body, a rot to the mind, a consumer of the wit, a madder of the senses, and a mortal poison to the whole fabric of man's composition, yet is she pleasant even in the depth of perdition and like a loadstone directs men with desire to ruin and destruction, yet is not her powerfulness shown as thou suggests in shoreditch Courtesans, or Southwark brothels, not in base persons, nor in known Burdelios, those places be rather Lacedaemonian tables which with lively pictures and demonstrations present to wandering eyes, such ou glines, such loathsomeness, such terror, such affright, & such abomination, that if there be left in the heart of man but one half living spark of grace, if there be in him but the shadow of shamefastness, but one touch of honour, but one pecce of a cleanly thought, if he desire to be but in the lowest degree of virtue, and not to be the worst of all that are accounted vicious, he cannot choose but in beholding their shamelessness grow either utterly to detest ●r at least to forbear the pollution of such noisome and stinking excrements, so that these publiquc, known, and noted damnations, confound none but such as were in their nativities long before damned for a thousand worse iniquities. The pride of lusts government & the conquest of her charms consists in greater and more subtle objects, such as have modesty in their looks, chastity in their behaviours, and heaven in their words, that publish fasts for humility, prayer for exercise, and learning for a defence against inchastity, those that wear a deaths head upon their finger, that go to their beds as unto sepulchres, that meditate on the general judgement, and measure the pains of Helles infinite torments, these when slothes child doth enchant with her lasciusousnes she makes Wisdom wonder, and weakness imitate the follies of their affections, these are they that every Hell, and minister unto the world matter of infinite discoursing: These are they that in the most beutious work of nature, in the richest embroidery of Art, that under the Crown of Honour, the sphere of innocency, the protection of severe education, and all that ever can breed reverence or admiration, lap wantonness in chaste garments, and imaginary silence, deluding themselves with these Principles, That sin is no sin, being either shadowed with greatness, authority, or concealment.  
Hence came the first invention of those skinne-coates, or artificial vissardes, wherewith now a days is clothed both youthful and decayed nature, least according to the first pre-ordination which ordained the face to be the index of the mind by which should be defended or accused all secret consultations, there might nothing be left close or entire to the corrupted conscience, it is not a Lais with public sale, but Helen with private stealth, it is not a Clodius, but an obscure Anselmus, not a doting Dolabella, but an insorcing Ajax, not a wanton Horace, but a lustful Ovid, that doth either enrich the world, or heap up infinite spoils in the kingdom of darkness: wherefore Pierce even this sin and the other five, as they marched formerly in thy Supplication, may neither yet be utterly razed from the earth, nor stolen from man's memory, lest the golden age turning back contrary to all nature, there neither be left Subjects for idle pens, talk for fools, nor habitation for the vicious, to the great surcharge of Hell, and impoverishment of the earth, which shall hold no reasonable creatures, if they be not either saints in their conversation, the worlds fools, or children not above the age of seven.  
Now to conclude that Pierce Penniless may find the devil as grateful to him as in times past he was to the ●e●lous painter, and that thy want and poverty shall not bring thee to too sudden a desperation even from these seven great trees of damnation, and from the fruit of their branches from whence all evils both known and concealed receive their taste, their relish, and their season: shalt thou and every other Genius of learning whose crossed fortunes and neglected virtues, have no other means or sustentation, then what shall issue from a worn Pen, and a more wearied meditation, receive the merit of praise, reward, and admiration? for why, there shall be such a poison spread through that little world, where Poets have their movings and every guilded understanding shall so delight to tickle his itching sense, either with Satirical bitterness, or lascivious beastliness, that albeit they see the very image of their own thoughts and the pictures of their faces as lively as in a crystal fountain, yet shall self-opinion so overmaster their acknowledgements and blindness make them so misinterpret the colours of their soul's garments, that as if May-games were to be preferred before the Triumphs of Princes, the blasphemies of Brothels, before the Orations of Demosthenes, and the story of Gollart, before the commentaries of Cesar they shall give no merit, no praise, no satisfaction to any thing that is more solid than an Attomie or mors moral then a ploughman's salutation the reason being that those for the most part which should give learning his right glory and with their bounteous hands uphold the muses in their all peaceful contemplations, are so utterly illiterate, and so scornful to acknowledge the antipathy betwixt them and pure science, that accounting all things ridiculous which are not moulded in Barbarism, and all writings riddles which are not drawn from Purilis they ●o like jack Cade and his companions think themselves and others best spoken when they speak nothing but their mother's language Hence proceedeth the contempt of learning, the disgrace of wisdom, and the burial of the muses hence shall it come to pass that the lofty Poem wherein the soul of art shallbe celestially infused, and the rare amazing passions of life stirring tragedies shallbe both neglected & unrewarded, whilst wanton Clio in her comic lasciviousness usurping upon the entertain of her ill-iudging favourites, shall spread such new fashions in the court of men's unconstant affections, that animated by the applause of their enduring sufferance, she shall like a Courtesan of the first defiling by use of evil, make men think, there is no goodness, but the evil which so much she boasteth: bashful modesty shall become blockish stupidity, & the serious labour of art, shallbe the weary tediousness of the mind, all the grave subjects of virtue & prows, & at those noble histories which give eternity to the worthiness which died in past ages, shall in th●se times be by h●●●●ng serpents banished from public audience, & nothing allowed of which doth not either move laughter by imaginary wa●●o●nes, or by plain and gross uncleanliness, the Emperor Maximilian shall have no linen breeches when he is dead to c●●●● his nakedness, nor shall the Lord of Mountaignes' curiosity in concealing the private offices of nature be aloud amongst our worldlings for any rule of decency, but even as one of our Gallenists maintained in a declamation, it shallbe no shame to speak any thing which nature doth not shame to perform be it never so great secretness, out of this applause and sufferance shall most famous wits even such as are able io enchant Angels with sweetness to move senseless trees with admiration and to make adamantine Rocks melt with the hearing of their passions desist and break off from their more serious studies wherein the graver Muse had wont to exercise, honourable love, immortal prowess, or divine meditation, and fall to display the vulgar humours of dejected natures whose excelling illness being deciphered by excellent wits which make the vildest subjects glorious by there handling shall so please h●● the academies of Arts & Fashions that others less power full seeking to fly with their feathers shall rip up all the gra●es of Scurrility, & common market places of ●●th 〈…〉 s, and there withal so over press and load all ears & attentions, that as if there were nothing but folly, worthy the chronickling, all virtuous actions shall be either forgot or unspoken of. Hence shall it come to pass, that savages which never beheld the true beauty of fair buildings, or ta●●ed the comfort of civil society, as ●auingledde wild lives with disorder, riot, violence, and all barbarous 〈…〉 ment, shall take upon them like wissards or Pa 〈…〉 to understand or foretell all the imperfections ● 〈…〉, which ever have reigned in court, 〈…〉 or 〈…〉, as if they were the thoughts of 〈…〉, the 〈…〉 of magistrates, or the desires of the 〈…〉 that neither virtue, place, honour nor beauty shall 〈…〉 y shields or defences against the piercing 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 ce and 〈…〉, but only the indifferent▪ ●●●gements of the w●●● and the contempt of 〈…〉 which bitterness however arti 〈…〉 with the 〈…〉 e banishing garments of learned Saty 〈…〉▪ are 〈…〉 the sin nourishing or engendering parents of the m●● wor〈…〉 ●teaching by correcting▪ and enabling meakenes 〈◊〉 err, by the strength they ●●Spand●● in t● pl〈…〉 ● err●●●, so that they shall transvert this sa●●●●.  
●●●cum est ●onum scientia, et malum unicum Ig●oranti●▪  
FINIS.