A Prospective-glass FOR GAMESTERS: OR, A short Treatise against Gaming: In which is contained A plain and perfect manifestation of the inconveniencies, miseries and calamities which the User or Practiser of unlawful Games doth bring upon himself, not only in regard of his mortal body, but also upon his eternal Soul.  
Wherein also these six evil consequences of Gaming are exactly and pertinently handled, viz.  

Drunkenness.  
Lying.  
Swearing.  
Adultery.  
Poverty.  
Thievery.   
Written at the request of a Gamester, upon his detestation of his former idle life and practice in this kind.  
By JOHN PHILPOT Master in Arts.  
Dedicated to the honest and judicious young men and Apprentices of the honourable City of LONDON.  
Published according to Order.  
London, Printed for Thomas Bates, at the Maidenhead on Snow-hill, near Holborn Conduit. 1646.   

To the Youngmen and Apprentices inhabiting within the City of London.  
I Have presumed to dedicate this short Treatise to you, as having by long and sad experience found, that of all places in this Kingdom, this City, notwithstanding the great means which hath been used by the Magistrates to the contrary, is yet contaminated by the infamous vice of gaming, whereby many youngmen of good education being sent from their parents in several countries hither to gain a trade or way of living, have by sundry provocations been by little and little drawn to this vice, which having once used, they have found so much sweetness in this dulee venenum, that they have not left sucking this poisonous bait, till they have thereby brought themselves to much poverty, penury, want and misery, besides the consideration of the unbecommingnesse of so sensual a vice in such sad and distracted times, wherein the judgements of God are in an extraordinary manner poured forth upon us; this and other sins, which this bigbellied monster (as the ensuing Treatise proves) daily produces and brings into the world, I could not but among the throng of Books (with which the presses have been a long time oppressed) but expose these few sheets to the public view, which although it contain not in it matter of News, (a thing much sought after) yet the subject having not lately been treated of, may afford new matter to the itching ears of many Athenians, and I doubt not but will find acceptance with all ingenious Patriots: I will not trouble you any longer with a tedious Induction, lest I make too wide a door for so maul a structure; but leave it to your perusal, hoping it may afford some benefit to all honest Youth of the Kingdom in general, and yourselves in particular; with whom I leave my poor endeavours in this kind, and rest.  
Your well-wishing Friend, J. P.   

A Treatise against Gaming.  
IN this discourse concerning gaming, my intent is not to condemn any kind of lawful recreations, as running, wrestling, shooting, and the like, which as they are necessarily used for the refreshment of the body, so we find them no where condemned, in the holy Scripture, that therefore which is the subject against which I have at this time undertaken to write, is concerning the unlawful games of Cards, Dice, etc. or any other games which are carried by fortune or lot, (as we commonly term them) because that notwithstanding they are forbidden by the Laws of the Kingdom, and particularly in the Statute, 33. H. 8.9. whereby not only the players at unlawful games, but such as suffer them in their houses are to be imprisoned, till they be bound over to play no more, yet such is the liberty that many take, that it is daily used to the misspending of precious time, and the undoing of the most precious souls of many hopeful young men. I have therefore published this Treatise to the view of the World, which (I hope) may prove as a means to deter some from this time and soul-destroying vice of gaming, and playing at Cards, Dice, etc. since it is a vice which the Heathens themselves condemned, even in their Princes, as Suctonius in the life of Augustus' reports, that it was his greatest blemish, that he was at leisure to play at Dice.  
Chilo being sent from the Lacedemonlans to Corinth, upon an Embassage, and finding the Senators of that City at cards and dice, would perform no part of his message, saying, he would not so much dis-honour the Lacedæmonians, as that they should either make or meddle with such persons: were such games infamous among Heathens, how much more unworthy are they among Christians▪ that therefore I may the more clearly anatomize the horridness and danger of these sins, it would not be amiss to note unto you the great and unspeakable evils, which are procured thereby, which for method sake I will handle under these seven heads, which I may fitly term the seven constant Handmaids or Attendants to unlawful gaming, or if you will the cursed spawn of this base Harlot, viz.  
1. To begin with drunkenness, the roaring boys of these our times, where can or will they find a fit place for gaming then at a Tavern, in which place, whereas they game without wit, so they will drink without measure: They will be sure, although they empty their purses, by gaming, yet they will fill their bellies by superfluous bibbing: although they go out of the Tavern lighter by many a fair pound, yet their heads are so heavy, that they are like to salute every post they meet withal.  
O the horridness of this new-fashioned vice of gaming! which doth produce so hideous a monster as drunkenness.  
But there be those in the world, which plead for drunkenness, as Lot for Zoar, Behold, is it not a little one? Ah, let no man be so foolish, as to plead for this little great sin of drunkenness, little in our own sights, but great and abominable in the sight of God. S. Paul exhorts us to the contrary, Rom 13.13. saying, Let us walk honestly, (or as some Translations have it, decently) as in the day, not in rioting, and drunkenness; why? because drunkenness is a deed of darkness: Those which are drunk are drunk in the night, 1. Thes. 5. Wherefore, except it be avoided, it will bring us unto an eternal night of grief, horror, and lamentation.  
Do but consider with thyself, O drunkard, how much many a poor soul wants the snuffs, as thou termest them, which are poured on the ground carelessly by thee.  
What canst thou tell, but when thou art in thy cups, God in judgement may strike thee dead? O then in what a case art thou!  
A drunken man is uncapable of any thing that is good; but fit for all mischief. Mark what wise. Solomon saith, Pro. 20. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever as deceived thereby, is not wise. Again he saith, Pro. 23. Be not amongst wine bibbers: we must not come in a wine-bibbers company, Solomon commands. Why? Because the drunkard shall come to poverty: poverty in this world, and in the world to come, except he speedily repent.  
O what poverty can be like unto this, to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, Luke 13. and he shall make answer and say, I know not whence years, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, procured by this vice of drunkenness, sprung from the loins of gaming. Nor do I say, that drunkenness comes alone by gaming, but that it is Regia via, a high way to it: Wherefore, that we may avoid the one, let us fly the other, as two venomous Serpents, seeking to sting us unto death.  
2. Gaming produceth lying; for the world is now grown to such an height of impiety, that there is no man almost even in very mercenary affairs will fear (for his own profit) to tell a lie; but with gamesters it is grown a fashion, followed by every one of them. A lie, that is but a trifle in their account, shall they lose their money for want of a lie, that were a jest indeed? O but let them look to it, lest they jest away their souls by it: who is the Father of lies but the Devil? we need to make no doubt, for Christ himself said it, John 8.  
A lying tongue God hates, saith Solomon, Prov. 6. and if he hate it, than woe be unto thee, whosoever thou art, which affectest it; it had better thou never hadst been borne. That God is a God of mercy it is most true, but that he is a God of judgement also is most certain: God will create Adam, after his own likeness, Gen. 1. and give him dominion over the fish, over the fowls of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing which creepeth on the earth, and placed him in Eden.  
But if Adam break the Commandment of God, if Adam does that which God hates, than he must be thrust out of Eden, to go forth and till the ground, Gen. 3.  
God dealt fairly, kindly, and mercifully, with Israel his chosen people, until that they did that which he hated, running a whoring after their own inventions, than did he deliver them over into the hands of their enemies who carried them away captive.  
God loves man so long as man loves God, but when man once gins to do that which he hates, than God pours forth his viols of wrath. God hates lying, wherefore that we may shun the effect, which is lying, let us avoid the cause gaming, for qualis causa, talis effectus, the Logician saith, if the cause be good, it follows that effect, the end must be good; but if the cause be bad, the effect must be so likewise.  
A Lawyer, (an honest one I mean) if the cause be good, by pleading must needs overthrow his Adversary, and so the effect prove good also, but if bad, although all his Equivocations & Fallacies, the effect (as I said before) must needs prove bad: Wherefore that we may not be tainted for Liars, let us not be Gamesters, For where the dead carcase is, there will the Eagles gather together; and so, where common Gaming is, there is also common Lying, which produceth Swearing.  
Thirdly, by Gaming comes Swearing.  
After a company have been Gaming together, those which lose their money when they can get no redress for their loss, their only ease is, to curse, ban, and swear at the Cards or Dice: Nay, and before they Have lost their money, they are not Gamesters; if they have not a fit of Swearing, that such a one plays not fair, or that the other hath won fare more than he confesseth, for that they cannot do by Lying, if it be possible, they will by Swearing. I needed not to have made any distinction at all betwixt Lying and Swearing; for saith an ancient Father. Swearing and Lying go together; and proceeding further, he saith, Therefore they which are used to swearing, do very naught; and no doubt, but that God's vengeance hangeth over their heads: And certain it is, that he which is a great Swearer, is also a great Liar.  
O consider with thyself O Gamester, and consequently Swearer, how thou offendest thy good and gracious God, who when thou wert in the gulf of misery, and ready for to descend into the deep abyss of Hell. Joh. 3. He so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  
In this saith Saint John, 1 joh. 4. was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.  
Nor did he only send his Son to look into the world, and no more, but he sent him to die for the world, and to be made a propitiation, for all our sins: and yet for all this, we with our roaring swearing-Gamsters pluck him from his throne of glory again if it were possible, by those thundering Oaths.  
O was it not enough that he suffered once such torments, as the best of Orators wanted words to express them; but that Adamantine-hearted men, more cruel than the jews, for they crucified him but once, must by their swearing crucify him daily. Me thinks I see the hard and flinty rocks to gush out in tears, and yet their eyes are dry! O hark how savage beasts of the field do seem in their kind to lament and morn to see their masters more brutish than themselves! What shall I say? shall I tell these men Saint james admonition? jam. 5. Above all things my brethren swear not, neither by heaven, etc. but let your yea, be yea, and your nay, nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. I fear their hearts are so hardened they will not regard it, nor all the rout of this bewitching Vice of Gaming.  
O God of thy great mercy open their eyes, and turn their reins, that from the bottom of their hearts they may repent them of their wickedness, & be converted from this evil course of Gaming, & consequently from that horrid sin of swearing, which unto thee I know is most odious and hateful, let their yea, be yea, and their nay, nay, so shall thy Saints rejoice, & they hereafter to their comforts, enjoy eternal happiness.  
Fourthly, Gaming is the highway to Adultery.  
Lust is the Ringleader of mischief, it is a bait of much evil, it is the Devil's veil which he often throws over men's faces to blind them in the way of igorance, it is that Diabolical sin which ne'er leaves man till such time it hath robbed him of that glorious Diadem of happiness his precious soul and his only Darling, it is that damned and bewithced sin that makes a separation between God and man, it is that Grand Champion which causes that soul which was created glorious and delightsome in the sight of God, become most detestable and odious in his presence. By this Vice the soul is endangered, and oftentimes with cruel ulcers and sores the body is infected, and his means by Harlots suddenly wasted. Woe be to that man which spends his time so vainly, and consumes his estate so wickedly in this bosome-sin, which is the only & read jest way to hellish misery and everlasting Beggary, it is the cause their friends forsake them, & those which are the Children of God to abhor and detest them. Nay, it makes their neighbours to shun them, and very youth to deride them & laugh them to scora, their kins' folk do despise them, and are very sh●e and nice to drink with them; 'tis so odious a Vice, that no good man regards them, it doth cause God to forsake them, and if they do not speedly repent themselves, and ask God mercy and forgiveness for so damned a crime, the Devil will soon take them, and who then is there able to deliver them? O the horridness of this sin of Adultery which is ushered in by the damnable Vice of Gaming, which is a madness (God he knows) too much embraced by foolish and voluptuous worldlings, who do, as it were, with ardent desire, surrender or employ themselves with every part and faculty of their bodies and mind to this so damnable an Exercise, Gaming I mean. Which exercise is as a bait or snare to entrap men in, to cousin and cheat them of the estate which their forefathers with sweaty brows so turmoiled and laboured for. It is as a Thief, robbing and stripping them stark naked of those happy and celestial cogitation, which perhaps otherwise they would be endued withal, which would redound to the welfare both of bodies and souls.  
This Vice of Gaming, as I said before, oftentimes ushers in the ugly monstrous sin of Adultery, and puts us in mind of strange women, whose rolling and glancing eyes allure us to their own wicked intents, of whom wise Solomon giveth us warning: Prov. 6. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids, for by means of a whorish woman man is brought to a piece of bread, and the Adulteres will hunt for the precious life. Mark to the 2 chap. 32 vers. and there Solomon saith, Who so committeth Adultery with a woman lacketh und understanding, he that doth it, destroyeth his own soul.  
Furthermore, Gaming, Esca est malorum, a net of evils, in which oftentimes men are caught in. Gaming makes men careless of their affairs, and heedless of their estates for the present, and for ever after ruinous. It makes a man, as I told you before in the last particular, prone to swear and forswear, and in the eagerness of their play ready to bulk out such oaths, which are ready to tear the Divine Essence out of his sacred Throne of Glory: But especially, this vice doth Dame Lust attend upon. This mighty darling sin doth still wait on that man's elbow who is given to the vice of Gaming.  
A Gamester, discruciatur animo, is troubled and perplexed in his mind; his eyes are still effeminate, his thoughts are incrused and inflamed after lascivious and wanton women, which are caterpillars to devour his estate, and Darling friend his soul. Gaming doth often rob man of his silken robe of honour, and causes him to be cladded with rags of much infamy and disgrace.  
Though thou mayst by this exercise of Gaming flourish in primo juventutis, in the prime of thy age, and accumulate an estate, the vice being so tempting, thou mayst before old days be deceived of thy former estate, and bring upon thyself the state of beggary, as I shall show anon.  
O therefore, let all men as regard prosperity in this world, and eternal joys in the world to come, forsake this damnable exercise of Gaming, which hatcheth such a serpentine Egg as Adultery, which that all may, God of his great mercy grant; and thus I conclude Gaming as it is the highway to Adultery.  
Fifthly, Gaming is the highway to beggary.  
Gaming is the highway to idleness, and consequently to beggary: For I myself have known many Tradesmen, and others, which after they have taken a haunt of Gaming, neither can nor will find the way again to follow their lawful occupations, but spend the remnant of their lives in sloth; from a Dice-patron, he becomes an idle person and a sluggard, to whom Solomon thus speaketh, Prov. 6. Go to the Ant thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest: how long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? yet a little sleep, etc. By this we may see, that the ways of Idleness is want and poverty. Again, Solomon saith, Prov. 13. The soul of the sluggard (or slothful) desireth, and hath nothing. And again, he saith, ch. 22. v. 5. The slothful man saith, there is a Lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. No excuse shall be wanting to maintain his idleness, by which buildings decay, and houses drop down, Eccles. 10. Idleness saith one, Radix omnium malorum est, is the root of all evil. S. Paul saith, Qui non laborat, non comedat, he that laboureth not let him not eat. After Adam had offended, it was God's pleasure that he should not be idle; wherefore he saith, Gen. 3. In sudore vultus tui vesceris pa●●●ue, in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread. And S. Paul saith again, Magis autem laboret ut det indigentibus, let him labour the more, that he may have wherewithal to help the poor.  
But alas! our Idle Gamesters are so far from that, as they will not work to supply their own wants; what? shall they which but lately had the world in a string, to have what they would, and do what they would, and command whom they would, now by any one be commanded? they frown if although a proud heart and a beggar's purse agree not togegether: Content they are to live, although a dog's life, having hunger and ease. Work! no, they will rather steal, which brings me to the sixth danger that ensues by Gaming.  
Sixtly, Gaming is the high way which leadeth to thievery: After beggary hath visited a Gamester, he is desperate and prone to all evil, but especially thievery, although God in the 8. Commandment expressly commands to the contrary, saying, Thou shalt not steal. And where the Commandments of God are broken, there can be no love to God, For if ye love me, saith Christ, keep my Commandments; as if he had said, It is not enough, to say that you love me, making only a show of the same, but let me see it done effectually by keeping my Commandments; to steal and keep God's Commandments too, we cannot. Of stealing Gaming is oftentimes a great cause. Doth Gaming cause Thievery? O then fly it like a serpentine Egg of the Devils own hatching.  
The Law condemns a Thief in this world, and except God be merciful, he is condemned also in the world to come. O who now then will not fly Gaming!  
Seventhly, and lastly, Gaming leads to eternal damnation (I mean superfluous Gaming) except the great mercy of God by speedy repentance prevent it not.  
Hitherto have I described the Devils new created champions, attending upon Gaming, and now (by the help of God) briefly, the dangers which hang over the head, except he shake off this bewitching vice. It must needs be granted by the precedent propositions, that it is a cause of breaking of God's Statutes, and therefore it is flat disobedience, against which are many and great curses pronounced, Deut. 28. He which disobeyeth the commandments of God, cursed shall he be in the City, and cursed shall he be in the field, the Lord shall make the pestilence to cleave unto him, etc.  
But yet the dangers of this world are not comparable to those of the world to come, which shall happen to the disobedient: Here, they shall be only punished corporally, there spiritually, except they speedily repent, then shall God blot out all their wickedness out of his remembrance, which that all may do, not only Gamesters, but all others; God of his great mercy grant.  
FINIS.