AN ENCOMIUM UPON That most accomplished GENTLEMAN, Stephen Mosdel, Esq; marshal of the Kings-Bench Prison, Southwark.  
As also a short Narrative, or anatomy of the Fleet-Prison, Newgate, and both the counters.  
By John Knap, M. D. Philalethes.  
The Worthey are to wear the Bays.  
Whose Temples, when begird with it;  
shows but the merits of a praise,  
conferred by them who point at it.  
Printed in the Year, 1671.   

TO THE READER.  
INgeni●us Reader, if thou wilt wast off a few volatile min●ets in persual of this leaden piece of lumber, I promise in some sort to requited thee by using brevity, and eschewing affectaiton, Rhodomoniads, or crackling words; for look how they fall fr●m my Pen, so they shall pass without being licked into any other form then what they were whelped; for he that dives for Pearl in the Ocean of Verbosity, may meet with a quarre of pebbles, and be gravelled in disgrace.  
I shall therefore keep such a medium, and so Cloath my discourse, as is a fit dress for Truth to be seen in, studying more the weight of verity, then ornament of words, by which I may escape a Cloud of Censure, which will overcast the brightest beams of Ingenuity.  
But not to arrest thy patience with a farther interruption, I give a stop to the current of my Pen, and redress to my subject.  
But before I begin( by the way of Parenthesis) I must tell thee, I almost fear to name the person I would commend, lest I sin against his humanity, which can suffer any thing but its own praises, like the Sun, which( though all admire) it cannot admire itself.  
But yet such are my affections, that( like powder enclosed in a Ball of iron) they cannot but take fire and rend their furious parts as impatient, to come to their center of Love.   

An Enconium upon that most accomplished Gentleman, Stephen Mosdel, of the Kings-Bench-Prison, Southwark, &c.  
IT is not a thousand years since I was a Carcerarian under the Custody of this Gentleman, and a poor Victim upon his Acture, trembling like a partridge before a falcon; but instead of Vulters Talens, I met with silken hands; and in lieu of sackcloth and Ashes, I found cloath of Tissue, and spread Carpets of Velvet. The ravenous Kite, which in other Prisons g●ipes the poor Robins to the hearts, was here turned to a Dove, and fed me; nothing that had hands of merit to reach, but might receive mercy from him.  
I cannot blazen his Coat, nor derive his Pedigree, and so an unfit herald of his paturnal glory; but this I can say, and he needs not blushy to hear it, suis majoribus virtute praeluxit. It is a true saying, a good man is known by giving good Examples, for his wholesome documents are as golden Spurs to Virtue; behold but the civil deportments of all his Sublunaries and Servants, what a harmony Syntax, or Synteresis there is amongst them, who are as so many Trumpets, to proclaim their Masters Renown. One would think( by their strange, and unheard of humanity,) they had been Academians, & Brothers to the Muses; they are the most obligiv'd persons, that ever I put mine eyes upon; so infinite is their patience and humanity, that a man can hardly abuse them, because they cannot be made angry at abuses; from the Janitore to the Scabinuum, they move in such a Votary zodiac, that one would take them for a planetary Society about the Sun, and therefore the Bench may be styled rather to be an Academy than a Prison, and truly no marvel; for how can a ship run against a Rock, when so wise a Pilot sits at helm.  
That brave Soul, the marshal, is a man so truly merciful, that he never eats a plentiful Meal, but it minds him of those which are in necessity, whom he presently refreshes, by opening the sluices of his bounty, from whence silver streams of Charity plentifully flows.  
Amongst many others, witness myself, whom he sent for( after I was tired out by a long siege of Tiranical Enemies, and spirit-bound, through want and sickness,) saying thus; Doctor, I understand you are a person of fair endouments, but above all, sublimely qualified upon a Physical account; it pities me to think you should be baracado'd up, and obstructed from liberty; I hope therefore if I give it you, it will not be abused? I dare say Doctor, if any of your Creditors,( and I had not a few) bring you in Execution, you will not abscond yourself, or play least in sight, will you Doctor says he? But methoughts, all this while it was not his, but an Angels voice, his vocal Cadences( like Chataracts or Stillacids of honey) hapst into the bosom of the air, and perfumed it( as if the Gardens of Spices had been set on fire, or a pot of Incense kindled); but to his Quere I thus replied.  
Sir, I have no other hostage then mine honour, which I freely pawn, wishing that hour I forfeit the same,( Herod like) my flesh may be eaten up with worms, and my Soul by Charon, be wasted over the Stygian-Lake, and stay in Hell till my body comes, where the Infernal Spirits may rendevoues in the most inward recesses thereof.  
Well Doctor says he, no more, no more; I am satisfied of your Integrity; go and prosper, I take your own word; use the large Talent Heaven has bestowed upon you, and those rich dowries of the deity, which( if you please yourself) may make you inferior to nothing, great or opulent: And then( like those Angels which conducted Lot out of Sodom), he departed.  
O unheard of Candour! I am ravished, my hare stands an end, all the Oecomonicks of Nature are unhinged; my blood cruses like Julebs through my veins; I could run out of myself, to make room for admiration! What, for an Eagle to stoop at a Wren, which preys upon Flies and Spiders, while he himself sets upon the highest Turret in the house of famed, O de boni? now I believe the Doctrine of Pythagoras, about transmigration of Souls, that some Angel slipped into his body when he was asleep. O unheard of bounty! to snatch a man( by a holy violence) from a burning lake of penury: What shall I say? had any thing done it, but himself whose natural temper is always to do good, I should swear Miracles were not yet ceased. Go harrow the topics of the world, and fly to the very Coelum imperiosum, see if you can meet with such another Pompey of honour, to take a mans own single word for Actions amounting to at least 2000. l. when as, if I had given him the slip, the Wallet had lain upon his back; and all this while nothing could irritate him to it, but true pitty to a distressed Gentleman, bread up to parts, perhaps something better then usually men are in this blookish age.  
Truly I am not stipend to enchase his virtues with the black enamel of my weak praises, which rather sullies then adorns. I do but tender a payable duty, to prevent a surfeit of ingratitude, called the black-jaundies of the Soul, or the Devils Epidemical pest, and so what shall I say? I am out of breath, the farther I run, the farther I am behind, like a Cow pursuing a Hare; the more I speak, the more I have to say. The virtue of his little finger were subject enough for my shallow brains to work upon, and so I consider it is best to do as Geographers, who draw the whole world in a little Map; I shall therefore in a few sheets, show his back-parts, it will require a large volume to delineate his full splendour.  
In fine, he is the mirror of man-kind, and one of an unfathomable worth, which was never conspicuous, till of late, he became capacitated to show it; and now, nothing but a blind Buzzard, a stupefied paralitical obtuse dunce, in whose coxcomb the Devil has board a hole, took out the brains and shit in't, but must see his heroic Soul qualified and adapted from all goodness and generosity.  
I confess he is fitter for a nobler employ, then what he is possessed off, and yet the fittest for it, for who so fit for distressed objects as a merciful man, one made up of bowels of Compassion, ordained like Habakkuk to feed Lambs in a lions Den; yea, it was a Den, a summum jus, to bury men alive in; a Golgotha, an Acheldama a Charnel-house, Mortuary, or Hell, before this brave Soul( by his generous Candour) rebaptiz'd it, and now it may be called an Hospital, or Sanctuary.  
And yet notwithstanding that these his Corruscant rays of a beautiful example shines so bright, and conspicuous in the eyes of all men; how flinty and pertinacious are some Custodia●ians, sucking poor Prisoners hearts bloods out; upon which score, I am Ecstased, and wonder at the preposterous madness of these which are attached by the Devils lifeguard, called bailiffs, or Serjeants, that they should turn over to any other Prison but the Bench.  
For to speak truth, that judge which sends you thither, transmits you( as it were) to your Fathers house; but he that packs you to the Fleet, hurries you to Purgatory, where you shall lie broiling like St. Laurence upon a Grediron of Discontent, and Toosted upon a fork of Flagrancy, till all your pecuniary fat drops into their dripping pans, and so you become lean as Pharaohs Cows; there you shall be in a great house, like Asses in a Pound, chewing the Cud in apprehension of Provender, while the fiddler plays no such matter; and thus the old Proverb is verified, the nearer the Church, the farther from God.  
I have had the misfortune to try both, and both have tried my patience. But should necessity put me upon being in one, I would rather be seven years in the Bench, then so many days in the Fleet: I love not that Church where the Devil rings the Saints Bell, nor that flock of goose where the Fox Preaches.  
I had rather associate with the Dove, then the Kite, or be in a Pinfold with the Lambs, then locked up in the Tower with the lions; but yet there be some fools, who had rather go naked, then want a gay coat. It is a dangerous pest which is catched by the wind of Curiosity.  
The Fleet puts me in mind of a great Dutch Strumpet, bedaubed with Gold Lace, living at the sign of the Vacuum, who use to draw in a pack of Coxcombs to see her fair house, while she picked their pockets; like the German Princess, who bull'd the poor Citizen: or rather the Fleet resembles a Roman Statue, which is brass without, and dirt within.  
There's a fair house, but slender rules, which reach no farther then the new built Baudy-houses, which is about as far from the Fleet, as one of her Prisoners can piss, who is so poor he can hardly shit for bones. When the Devils blind( and one of his eyes are out) Habeas Corpuses will be granted; pray God it be John, that Will. may not have his Will.  
In fine, I look upon the Fleet to be a Decoy, which brings poor Ducklings into the Net, and off goes their necks. Whereas the noble Bench, is rather a Sanctuary, then a Prison, defending distressed Gentlemen from ravenous Wolves, who would rend them in pieces, and be licking their Arses before they can let down their breeches.  
Such I say, the Bench legally relieves, and instead of wounding, heals them; therefore, since men must be chastised for telling lies, had they not better be whipped with a Nose-gay than a Rod of Iron? if a man must be a Prisoner, had he not better be in the Bench, where he shall be nobly used, then in the Fleet, to lye wind-bound, spirit-bound, and to boot, strike sail to every inconsiderable Coxcomb( I would say Cockboat) but preposterous people will run like a guiddy torrent, wheresoever phantasy transports them, and sail with every blast of Innovation.  
I confess the Fleet is a fairer house then the Bench; what then? sounds the Viol ever the better for the Varnish? or is the Parsons Sermon more edifying for the Velvet Cushion? Give me good meat in an earthen dish, rather then Carrion in a silver Charger. A brave mind in a mean habit, is to be preferred before a painted Jezebel with a polluted heart. I had rather die in our noble Martials arms, then live in the bosom of the Fleet, for which, if you expect mercy, you will be deceived like Scoging, who went to let a Fart, and beshit his breeches; perhaps you may get a parcel of fair words.  
But no longer Larzion, no longer Swish; the Fleets sweet language, with its now performance, is like the Courtship of the Sun and Moon, who have looked upon each other 6000. and odd years, and never kis'd, nor came together.  
The Officiates at the Fleet, are like the Hebrew Language, to be red backward; when they promise Mountains, look for Mole-hills; and thus distressed Gentlemen become Slaves to Mecanick Rascals; whereas on the contrary, our heroic marshal, the glory of the living, the poor mans patron ' and the Prisoners Sanctuary, is as good, as just, and as merciful as may be; his lovely face being an Index of his generous Soul; one so lovely, that a man would think nature had made all the rest of man-kind in jest, and him only in earnest.  
Had he been a woman, I should have ventured my neck in a Rope, rather than lost so much pleasure as so sweet a parsonage would have afforded; and he is not more outwardly handsome, than inwardly gracious, for look what his Tongue says( which is the Ambassador of his Soul) his heart resolves to act, and so his glorious spirit has a scabbard suitable to the embelisht steel within, but beware how you draw him to anger, least( like the Cherubims flaming sword) some sparks fly in your face; for Corruplio oplimi est pessima, the Bee has a sting, well as honey; and the sweet Rose prickles; he is a Father to the Ingenious, but a scourge to the Impious, and so ' his Iron hand will recompense his leading feet; he will forbear much, but not too long: Those that think to load themselves with spoils, taken from the Army of his abused mercies, make but a rod for their own backs, and will be cheated like Perillus about the brazen Bull.  
I am sorry my throat is too narrow to proclaim his deservings, I wish I were qualified enough to do it, and then no golden-tongu'd Orator should draw the Efficies of his merits more to the life then I. O that I had the archangels Trumpet, that I might make both Heaven and Earth ring of his Renown! But I am not partend sufficiently to do it, my Pen flags like a Buzzards wings, from whence it was plucked, else I would enrole him in fames eternal Register, and that with the point of a Diamond.  
His mercies have not been a few to most, more, or less to all, but infinite to me. To my knowledge( besides myself) above two hundred persons, together which their Wives and Children, owe their lives to his benignity; Therefore doubtless, ere age gets one foot in the Grave, he will get sure footing in Heaven. For mercy rejoices against the day of mercy, and cruel men tremble to think of the day of judgement.  

IF so, how happy are the just; how sweet  
Their joys will be when Soul and body meet?   

When th' Angels shall invite them to a feast  
Of Solace, Comsort, and Eternal Rest?   

There shall they sit upon the Throne of Grace,  
Beholding Christ the Saviour, face to face!   

With all the Heavenly Host of Saints, and choir  
Of Angels, bright as the celestial fire.   

Then let our noble marshal surely know,  
He has a place above, well as below.   
Then thus you see what it is to be merciful, and what to be crewel, to our poor distressed Brethren, who are within the Verge of our powers to help, or hurt. When I was Naked, you clothed me not; when in Prison, you Visited me not: Woe to them who choose the distressed as a mark to shoot at, for they will find their Arrows reverberate upon their own bosoms.  
But the merciful and humble will have a Cage of nightingales dwelling in their breasts, always singing Halalujahs, and Sonnets taught by the Master of celestial music, the Holy Ghost.  
Oh! Its only proper for base Spirits to glut their Swords with blood; and thegreatest symptom of a Coward, to cicatrise over a giant bound in chains.  
Happy he then, who lends an ear to the cries of the poor, for he will find the Heavens besieged with prayers for his salvation. Then away with those Pa●asits, who have Jacobs voice, and Esaus hands; whose garments smell of Incense, while their Alters stink of the smoke and blood of Martyrs. Come, come, too high winding a string, cracks it; and he that makes the sword of Justice too sharp, may cut his own fingers.  
Behold then our noble marshal, a precedent of mercy drawn to the life by a divine pencil, that good man, dear to God, and born for holy enterprizes, will let him go on like an innocent Dove, and spread his silver wings far as his praises reach, that at last he may be lifted to that Caelum imperium while cruel Tyrants lye grouling in the internal abyss of Hell: Let his holley cheeks be bedewed with tears of pitty, and not his hands be besmeard with the blood of Innocents. Let not his Soul drink gull, while his lips distill honey; but let his actions be consonant with his expressions, like a true eight struck in music, nor let his Porch be fairer then his Temple, and then his Lifes bright Sun will set with greater glory far, then others rise; his Acti●ns will blossom in the dust; his urn will parturiate flowers which will smell sweet in the Nostrils of the Saints, and the Angels will strive to pully and hoist him up to Heaven.  
Let our dear marshal remember that as he professes Christianity, so he is Governor over Christians: alas, what we enjoy here, is but slippery and uncertain, and our dignities are full of frailties. It is me●cy and good works which refers to immortal felicity, and links men to eternal beatitude; goods got by cruelty and sinister ends, are like Bats wings which flatter about for a time, in the obscure twilight of this world, but like plummets of led, hanging upon a mans heels, they will sink them down to Hell, while mercy( like the wings of Eagles) bears them up to the Region of the Sun; the triumph of a good man, is to have sin in power, and virtue in will, to be able to do evil, and continue it.  
But I beseech you heroic Sir, be not displeased, that a little yeap seems to snarl at a lion; if I be too saucy, it is affection which causes me so; but there is no man so healthful, but sometimes needs the Physician; a little Cloud may give the mariner warning of a great Tempest; no man so holy but may err; and for a person of your grandeur, to have your honour darkened, is ten times worse then for an habitual sinner to die upon the Gallows; a black spot is quickly d●scerned in a beautiful face; the Sun is more gazed at in one hour when Eclipsed, then in seven years when she shines most corruscantly. Greatness with goodness, sets off the lustre of virtue, else it makes 'vice more apparent.  
Sir, your favours have not been small to me, and so my affections( to level them) cannot be slender to you; for my life indeed is but a monument of your mercies, and therefore I covet it for nothing more, then that I might live to show the world I love you.  
Thus honourable Sir, you being established in Virtue and Renown: Let Shemys curse you; let Dogs bark as at the Moon; let your Enemies( swelled with anger at your prosperity) split like Toads, and lye dead in ditches; for after the misty Clouds which would darken your honour, after faithfulness of seeming friends, nay after thunder-bolts, shot from the Capital of infernal Finds, be over, then the continual feast of a good Conscience will dulcifie all your afflictions; for these terrene discontentments are but sour sauces to those sweet meats which shall be set before you in Eternity of bliss. Proceed therefore precious Soul, that having on the wedding garment, you may be a welcome guest at that holy Table, and then we your poor Servants, whom you have so much obliged, shall reverence your name as a perpetual monument of glory, built upon such strong colums, as the steely teeth of time shall never be able to corrode in sunder.  

Heroic marshal; if I might stand by,  
Whon saucy Death will summons you to die.   

I'd ward his stroke, by laying down my blood,  
To free a man so generously good.   

But if the gods, through pity should be loathe,  
To have me die, not being sit for Death:   

And knowing, you adopted for the Throne  
Of Grace, by Life and Conversation;   

Should snatch your bright Soul from hence, and even,  
Give it a remove from Earth to Heaven.   

I should take leave, in spite of all your powers,  
To make mine eyes out-vie the Clouds with showers.   

Till like that bow-boy, Cupid, blind I prove,  
Partly with briney tears, but more through Love.   

But as your blood is fresh, and young you are,  
And well-complexion'd, brisk and debonare;   

There is no fear, but you may live to see,  
As many years, as Par, or Latomie.   

Christ grant you may, else grant good God that I  
Had ne'er been born, or else being born to die.   

Quid dicam homines, quod verum dicere licet,  
caesar de lauro praestautior, editus ille.   

Ideo non Carcer Bancus hic regius esto,  
Tollit, quod, sensus tunc indulgentia sui.    

A Narrative of Newgate, and both the counters, &c.  
BUt now my hand is in, I think it not amiss to speak something concerning Newgate, that Akelcima or Sanguineus place; not forgetting both counters, and the rest of the Devils Pepper-boxes. Newgate it seems was built by Whitingtons Cat, I wish she had scratched both her Masters eyes out for an old Dog: 'Twere a fine free School, but that she hangs up many of her disciples; yet some are taught to red, and escape it, by having the Law in their own hands, with a fusco ferali, marking them forsooth like beasts to be known, though to little purpose, for they are sure to find them again. But I wonder there's no better provision for those of the Upper form,( the poor Debtors) who pay unmerciful rates for being made Loufie, and used like Dogs.  
But what care the Officers, let their Wives, Children, and Relations lye, die, and be damned, so they get their money; and when they have sucked their very hearts blood out, over with them to the Common-side, and there to the old Canvas bag, with pop, pop, for the Lords sake one Farthing, & Caetera. And is not this rare, and base, that poor Souls, Planet-struck, and under Fates black Rod, should be thus treated? are not they of the same common stock with Adam, and inspired with divine Souls? Are they not bought with the precious blood of, Christ, and Consequently our Brethren. Surely were our gracious King made thoroughly acquainted with these things, there would be some course taken to redress them. In other Nations it is not so, and I blushy to think it should be so here, where Christianity is so much preached, though as little practised. Well, well, have a care you Bull-beggars and Buffoons, that feed fat, like an ox against the day of slaughter, and suck the quintessence and marrow of the Land, you will one day be called to an account how you have spent your Talents, and how you have dealt with Christs members here on earth; poor wretches who seem to be born with their heels upward, and aliens to the common-wealth of Fortune, that they should be so cruelly dealt with, as to pay for being estrained & locked up from liberty? why should England( sometimes the glory of the world) be out-done by any Nation that truckle under us, as the Dutch or the like; yet God has blessed us with a most pious, gracious, merciful and Valiant King, who dares deal with Devil and Turk, and would doubtless make us all happy, and redress the Enormities, were we not so Stiff-neck'd, Rebellious, treacherous Factious, and self-ended, that we grudge to afford him wherewith to do it; nay such are their Rebellious natures, they begin to grin and sneer like Dogs, at their Sovereign Lord the King.  
But let them have a care, least the Almighty takes a just revenge upon them, by sending instead of a Lamb, a lion, to rule them with a rod of Iron; Every see-simple, pitiful, inconsiderable Rascal, dares to bark against this holy Prince, as dogs against the Moon, but let them beware least they be met with.  

Princes, 'tis said, are demi-gods, oh then,  
rak not in their Ashes, to find them men.   

For they free from pollution, and slain,  
As Diamonds, or oyld-Canvas is from rain.   

Princes their Tallies, and accounts brings in,  
To God, but we Subjects, brings ours to him.   

Then sauce it not too high, proud Jack, far know  
Thy King can raise thee high, or lay thee law.   
NOw as to the counters, and other cursed Prisons, or Slaughter-houses; call them what you please, I am loathe to make so considerable as to mention them; but because( like blocks) they lye in the way, on which I cannot but stumble, I shall take them up, and bring them to the fiery trial of my Pen, giving my opinion as follows.  
And though they are to Newgate but as a Shrimp to a Lobster, yet they are so base, and nothing but Lucifer would have to do with them. You shall see those Dogs, the Devils Druggery-men, lye sneaking upon a Bench, ready for any villainy, like a Spider ●n her Web, catching at every silly fly; or like Old neck their Father, seeking whom they may devour.  
They are sworn upon their knees to betray their own Children, and so like Villains at last, they betray their own Souls, and then they are bid to rise up Varsets, which is a kind of dubing them Knights of the Post. For thirty pence, their Father-in-Law Judas his fee, they would betray Jesus Christ, were he on earth again.  
But now while the poor Arrested victim is in their Clutches, he shall not be put presently in Prison, but in a barricadoed house, as ill, or worse, where a crew of Sharks will bite him till his bones crack, and then when all is done, away he is marched to Hell, where Cerberus the Porter thereof, called the linsey-woolsey, locks him up, where like a flock of Ravens, about a flayed horse on a Dunghill, the Heteroclites of the house, hic & hoc, halec, comes powdering upon him, with mors in olla, one plucking a Feather, another a quill, till he's as bare as a drills britch.  
Item for a pare of lousy sheets, in which some itchey Rascal lately lay,— 2. s.  
And about a week after,  
Item for Brimstone and Butter from some Quaking Apothecary, to cure him,— 2. s.  
Item for Garnish— 3. s. 6. d. which if not able to pay, off trips the loose movables, and into the cellar, with dedil mihi Vestim pignori.  
Item, For an earthen Candlestick and a Chamber-pot of the same mettel, called plate forsooth— 1. s.  
Item, About a month after, for lying in an old lousy Barn,— 14. s. called Chamber-rent forsooth, or else down a down diddle, to the hole so smoath, to which Hell compared, is Paradise, where the Old Proverb is stroke over the thumbs; a knock, but not a bit; hunger as much as you will, but no ease; a man must take abuses there, and be thankful for them, least grumbling with a quid nu●c, his brains be dashed out. rak Hell, and scum the Devil; there's not such a damned crew to be found; and yet were they as careful, as watchful, there were nothing better, for they sleep not all night, nor can they, for swearing, cursing, roaring, and hallowing; yet they might be better exercised; for, if their bosom friends refuse to set them at work, their back-biters will employ them with a circum scalptura corpus; and this is winked at in this bloody beef-eating crewel Nation, where men are wolves one to another; suffering their Brethren to be devoured, starved to death, and bu●ied alive; thus men become Murtherers, for though the crewel law, de exemplo justifies it, yet God doth not, and so must expect a reward, justly due to such cruel Dogs, which( without great Repentance) will be damned for Homicide.  
But take notice, I do not style the Bench a Prison, in comparison of the rest, because of the Martials infinite mercies, and humanity, besides the privileges which belongs to it.  

'mongst all the Sons of men, and those that kill,  
By locking up, pray call them what you will.   

Martials, or Guardians, Devil, or his Dam;  
There is but one, that is an honest man:   

And he for ought I know, being best of men,  
May make atonement for his Brethren.   
I should have proceeded a little farther, telling them their own, but their villainies are so infinite, and they themselves so inconsiderable, and withal so incourigable, and besides, my time so precious, that I think it not worth my while, to wast off hours which may be better spent in prayers to God, that the Devil may fetch them before they do farther m●schief, and so farewell f●ost.  

When Hell is ready, and the Devil's there,  
To entertain such Dogs as sergeants are.   

I hope he'l come or sand for them at least;  
Till when I 'm sure, the earth will near be blessed.   
FINIS.