by your speeches late uttered that some who are no well-wishers of mine but rather seeke to poyson my reputation with your Majesty have possessed you that I have been accessary to the death of your brother and proceeded further having then a piece of bread in his hand ready to put into his mouth but so may I safely swallow this morsell as I am altogether innocent and guiltlesse of the act which streyning to eate he was therewith immediately choaked at the table which the King seeing and observing the strange Judgement inflicted upon his perjury he commanded his body to be drag'd froÌ„ thence conveyed to Winchester there buried But Marianus and some others write that he was not choaked with bread but upon his former false protestation dining with the King upon an Easter Monday at Winchester he was suddenly struck with a dead palsie and died the third day after Neither did Gods Judgements upon him end here but after his death all his Lands in Kent which were very spacious and great were eaten up and swallowed by the Sea and turned into dangerous quick sands on which many a goodly vessell hath since beene shipwrackt and they beare the name of Goodwins sands even to this day Harold the second sonne of Earle Goodwin after the death of his elder brother Swanus aswell heire to his fathers insolent and aspiring spirit as to his Earledome and Lands in the twentieth yeare of the raigne of the before-named Edward the Confessor he sayled into Normandy to visit some of his friends but by adverse windes and a sudden tempest at Sea he was driven upon the Province of Pountiffe where hee was tooke prisoner and sent to Duke William of Normandy who inforced him to sweare that hee should marry with his daughter when she came to mature age and farther that after the death of King Edward he should keep the Crowne of England to his behoofe according to the will of the Confessor to both which Articles having solemnly sworne he was dismissed from the bastard Duke and with great and rich gifts sent backe to England But after the death of Edward in the yeare of the Incarnation one thousand threescore and sixe Harold forgetting his former oath and promise made to Duke William he caused himselfe to be crowned King of the Lande who was no sooner warme in his Throne but Harold Harfoot sonne to Canutus with a puissant hoast of Danes invaded the Realme whom Harold of England met in a set battaile slew him hand to hand and discomfited his whole Army for he was of an invincible hardinesse and valour which victory was no sooner obtained but newes was brought him that William of Normandy was landed with a potent Army to claime his right and interest he had in the Crowne of England by the last Testament of Edward the Confessor with these tydings being thoroughly heated he marched with all speed from the North scarce suffering his Army to rest by the way to give the Normans battaile betwixt whom was a dreadfull and bloudy conflict But when the victory rather hovered over the English then the other Harold after many deepe and dangerous wounds was shot into the eye with an arrow and slaine In whose death may be observed Gods heavy Judgements against price and perjury Of my first sinne namely Pride none hath ever beene by our English Chronologers more justly taxed then that French Gerson Pierre Gavestone the great misleader and seducer of Edward the second whom though his Royall Father King Edward the first sirnamed Long-shanks upon his death-bed caused to bee banished yet the sonne was no sooner inaugurated and admitted to the government of the Realme but contrary to the wils of all his Lords and Peeres he caused his Exile to be repealed sent for him over and advanced him to great honour in which he demeaned himselfe like a proud upstart or as our English Proverbe goes Like a beggar set on horsebacke who is ready to ride poste to the Devill for whose sake the King committed William Lancton Bishop of Chester in the second yeare of his raigne to the Tower because he had perswaded the King against his Minion for which the Barons of the Realme and especially Sir Henry Lacy Sir Guy and Sir Aymery de Valence Earle of Lincolne of Warwick and Pembroke to whom the late King had given charge for his exile upon his death-bed wrought so farre by their power that contrary to the Kings will hee was avoyded the Land and banisht into Ireland for that yeare whither his Majestie sent many secret messengers with rich gifts to comfort him and made him chiefe Ruler of that Countrey But in the third yeare of his reigne divers grudges and discontents began to arise betwixt the King and his Nobles insomuch that for quietnesse sake and in hope of his amendment he was againe repealed but more and more increased in his insufferable insolence insomuch that having charge of all the Kings Jewels and Treasure he went to Westminster and out of the Kings Jewell-house tooke a Table and a paire of trestles all of pure gold and conveyed them with other precious gems out of the Land to the great exhausting and impoverishing of the same by whose wanton effoeminacies and loose conditions he drew the King to many vitious courses as adulteries and the like which mischiefes the Lords seeing daily to increase they tooke counsell againe at Lincolne and notwithstanding the Kings main opposer he was a second time confined into Flanders but in his fifth year was again sent for over when not able to contain himselfe from his immoderate luxury as he demeaned himselfe far more arrogantly than before insomuch that he disdained and had in contempt all the Peeres of the Land giving them much opprobrious and despightfull language wherefore seeing there was no hope of his amendment with an unanimous consent they vowed to rid the Land of such a Caterpiller and soon after besieged him in the Castle of Scarborrow and taking the Fort they surprised him and brought him to Gaversed besides Warwicke and the nine and twentieth day of â—une smote off his head Thus was Gods just doom against his pride luxury and avarice But there succeeded him both in ambition and the Kings favour of our own Natives the two Spencers the father and the son his great minions and favorites who both in wealth power and pride overtopt all the Nobles of the Land commanding their Soveraigne and confounding the Subjects of whom you may reade in the Records of the Tower that in the fourteenth year of this Edward the second Hugh Spencer the elder for his riots and extortions being condemned by the Commonalty and expelled the Land an Inventory of his estate being taken it was found by inquisition that the said Spencer had in sundry Shires fifty nine Mannours and in his possession of his own goods and chattels twenty eight thousand sheep one thousand oxen and steeres twelve hundred beeves with their calves
way addicted to any martiall exercise hee put into a religious house called Saint Swithens Abbey and made him a Monke his two other sonnes were Aurelius Ambrosius and Vter sirnamed Pendragon But Constantine the father being trayterously murdered one Vortiger who then was the most potent Peere in the Land tooke Constantine the eldest sonne out of the Monastery and made him King onely in name for he himselfe swayed the government of the Kingdome with all the power that belonged to a Crowne and Scepter Yet not with that contented he envied the state of the innocent King and though he had all the power yet he could not content himselfe without the title and therefore placed a guard of an hundred Picts and Scots about the Kings person and having ingrossed into his hands the greatest part of the Kings Treasury hee was so bountifull to those strangers that they feared not to say openly that be better deserved to be King then Constantine and waiting their best advantageous opportunity murdered him Whose head being presented to Vortiger then at London he made much seeming sorrow for his death and to acquit himselfe of the act caused all those hundred Knights to be beheaded by which the people holding him innocent crowned him King when the other had raigned about five yeares and this his coronation caused those that had the keeping of the two younger brothers Aurelius and Vter to flie with them into little Brittain where they remained long after but as a just reward of this trayterous supplantation hee was never after in any peace or quietnesse his Land being alwayes in combustion and trouble his Peeres suspecting him of the death of the King made insurrection against him insomuch that he was forced to sollicite aide of the Saxons who though they helped him for the present after of his friends they grew to be his enemies and were too mighty for him so that when he had raigned in great molestation and trouble sixteen years the Brittaines deprived him of all Kingly dignity and crowned his eldest sonne Vorâ—imerus in his stead Who when he had in many battailes overcome the Saxons and had almost quite expulsed them the Land he was poysoned by his stepmother Râ—waine when he had gloriously and victoriously seaven yeares governed the Land and his father Vortimer was againe made King who was after twice taking prisoner by Hengest King of the Saxons and his Peeres and Nobles cruelly butchered in his presence At length the two younger brothers of Constantine invaded the Land being aided by the distressed Brittains and pursued him into Wales where hee and divers of his complices fortified themselves in a strong Castle which Castle the two brothers with their Army besieged and after many vaine assaults it being valiantly defended with wilde-fire they burned and consumed the Fort together with Vortiger and all his souldiers and servants Worthy it is to observe by how many severall kinde of Judgements this sinne of Envy hath beene punisht as in the former examples is made apparant namely by the single sword by battaile by poysoning strangling heading torturing by murdering and cutting to pieces by being swallowed up of monsters the living to be buried with the dead by famishing in prison by being torne piece-meale and the bleeding limbes cast into common privies some burnt with ordinary fire others with wilde-fire the brother murdering the brother and the mother the sonne the bondage and vassalling of Nations c. which sinne though for the commonnesse and familiarity it hath amongst us is scarce minded or thought upon because many who are envious may so hide it that they may appeare honest withall yet is this hypocrisie no excuse for you see how hatefull it is in the eyes of the Creator by so many visible punishments thereof But I proceed After many dreadfull battailes fought and not without great effusion of bloud betwixt Edmund sirnamed for his strength and valour Iron-side the sonne of Ethelstane and Canutus the sonne of Swanus during this warre betwixt those martiall Princes to the great desolation of the Realme and mortality of the people It was agreed betwixt the two Generals to conclude the difference in a single duell The place where this should be performed was in an I le called Olney neare unto Glocester incompast with the water of the Severne In which place at the day appointed both the Champions met without any company or assistance and both the hoasts stood as spectators without the Isle there awaiting the fortune of the battaile where the Princes first proved one another with sharpe speares and they being broken with keene cutting swords where after a long fierce combate both being almost tyred by giving and receiving of hard and ponderous blowes at length the first motion comming from Canutus they began to parle and lastly to accord friendly kissing and embracing each other and soone after by the advise of both their Counsels they made an equall partition of the Land betwixt them and during their naturall lives lived together and loved as brothers But there was one Eâ—riâ—us Duke of Mercia of whom my Author gives this character A man of base and low birth but raised by favour to wealth and honour subtile of wiâ— but false of turning eloquent of speech but perfidious both in thought and promise who in all his actions complyed with the Danes to the dammage of his owne Countrey men and yet with smooth language protestations and false oathes could fashion his excuse at his pleasure This false Traytor in whose heart the serpent of envy and base conspiracy ever burned â—t length breaking out into flame against his owne Prince Iron-side for what cause is not knowne and thinking to get the grace and favour of Canutus he so awaited his opportunity that hee most treacherously slew his King and Master Iron-side Which done thinking thereby to be greatly exalted he poasted in all haste to Canutus shewing him what he had done for his love and saluted him by the stile of sole King of England which when the Prince of Danes had well understood and pondering what from his owne mouth he had confest like a just and wise Prince he answered him after this manner Since Edâ—â—câ—s thou hast for the love thou sayest thou bearest unto me slaine thy naturall Lord and King whom I most loved I shall in requitall exalt thy head above all the Lords thy fellow Peeres of England and forthwith commanded him to be taken and his head to be strook off and pitcht upon a speares head and set upon the highest gate of London a just judgement inflicted upon Envy which hath alwayes beene the hatcher of most abâ—ominable treason Unparalleld was that piece of Envy in Fostius one of the sonnes of Earle Goodwin and brother to Harold after King hee in the two and twentieth yeare of the raigne of Edward the Confessor upon some discontent betwixt him and his brother Harold came with a company of Ruffins and rude Pellowes and
daughter with no other message then this you must not live which the wretched creatures understanding knowing the austeritie of their Father and his constancy in his resolutions hee fell upon the one and shee on the other and so miserably ended their lives Iulia was the step-Mother of Antonius Caracalla Emperour of the Romans who having cast many wanton glances towards her and she reciprocally answering them at length when they were in familiar discourse together he brake forth into these words vellem si liceret I would if it were lawfull whose meaning she soone apprehending suddenly answered again and without pause si lubet licet leges dat Imperator non accipit if you like it is lawfull Emperours make Lawes but are tide to none with which words being emboldned he first contracted and then publikely married her notwithstanding some few dayes beforehe had caused her owne sonne Geta to be put to death and this is related by Sextus Aurelius and by Aeliâ—â— Spartanus Amongst these Incestuous is listed Capronia the vestall Virgin who for her offencâ— was strangled Semiramis was the wife of Ninus King of Assyria who after she had caused her husbands death and fearing lest so great and warlike a people would not be govern'd by one of her Sex shee tooke upon her the masculine shape of her Sonne whom she had altogether brought up in delicacie and effeminacy and in his name she raigned for the space of fourtie two yeares conquering the most part of Asia and erecting many famous Cities But Babylon she made her chiefe place of residence who also hedged or walled in the vast River Euphrates turning the channell and compelling it to run through the great City yet according to Diodorus lib. tertio shee grew to bee of that venerious and libidinous disposition she did not onely admit but hire and inforce divers of the youngest and ablest Souldiers to her lascivious and incontinent imbraces and further as Trogus Pompeius lib. 2. hath left remembred shee laboured to have Carnall congression with her sonne Ninus whom she concealed in her Pallace and whose shape she adulterated for which setting all Filiall respect and obedience aside hee slew her with his owne hands and after raigned in her stead A young Spanish Maid having prostituted her selfe to a Gentleman upon promise of marriage she being of meane parentage he married another which comming to her eare she vowed his death and the better to effect it preswaded him by flattering Letters to come againe and see her which he did and although at first she received him with teares and cornplaints yet seeming at last to be satisfied with some reasons he alledged she permitted him to use the same privitie with her as before and so to bed they went together but when he was asleepe she cruelly murdered him having first bound him so fast with a Cord that he could not make any resistance using also divers cruelties against the dead body before the heat of her rage could be extinguished For the which she also suffered death having first voluntarily accused her selfe A Gentleman of Millan a Widower tho of 60 yeares of age fell in love with a young Wench Daughter to a Farmer his Tenant whom he bought for ready money of the wretched Father to serve his Lust. This Strumpet growing impudent after a while fell in love with the eldest son of this Gentleman being about twentie yeares old and in the presence of a Cousin of hers who was her Baud she discovers her whole heart to him seeking by teares and sighs to draw him to commit Incest But the Gentleman having more grace sharply reprehended and threatned both her and her Companion Wherefore to excuse this her shamelesnesse as soone as the Father returned she complaines to him saying That his sonne had sought three or foure times to corrupt her which he beleeving and meeting his sonne at the staires head ranne furiously at him with his sword drawne and the sonne to shun that danger leapt backward downe the staires and brake his neck The Father following and finding him dead after cryes of fury and despaire in detestation of his former wicked life fell upon his owne sword and so dyed The Strumpet hearing by the fearfull cryes of the servant what had hapned pursued by the just judgement of God she runnes toward a Well neere the house into which she threw her selfe and was drowned The she Baud being apprehended and racked confesseth the whole plot and was therefore justly executed her body and the young Strumpets being hanged in the open aire as a prey for ravenous Birds Nicholas Prince of Opolia was so monstrously given to corrupt wives and maids that none were safe that came neere him for which God punished him in this manner Being at Nice in an assembly of the States of Silesia called by Cassimer Prince of that Countrey it hapned that one in his presence brought a packet of Letters to Prince Cassimer which being opened he delivered to the Bishop of Nice to read Which Nicholas seeing and his former beastly wickednesse causing him to imagine it was some partie made against him to seize upon his life suddenly drew his Dagger and desperately runnes against Cassimer and the Bishop whom he wounded tho but lightly for that being in open Court many Nobles and Gentlemen defended them Nicholas failing of his purpose saves himselfe in the Sanctuary from which he was drawne by the Bishops command and brought backe into the assembly by whom he was justly condemned for this and many other notorious Crimes and the next day was publiquely beheaded and his naked body as a reproch of his former wickednesse exposed to the view of all men A Burgesse of Ulmes finding his wife wantonly given did often advise her to carry her selfe in a more modest and civill sort But she not regarding his admonitions and he more and more suspecting her dis-honesty on a time he made a shew to goe into the Countrey but suddenly slipt back into his house without discovery and privately hid himselfe yet so that he saw his servants busied in preparing a feast and the Adulterer and his wife imbracing each other Yet he retained himselfe till after supper when seeing them enter the chamber to goe to bed together using filthy speeches the witnesses of their wickednesse he suddenly stepping out first killed the Adulterer and then his wife and having justified his proceedings before the criminall Judges he obtained pardon for the same An Advocate of Constance having had the carnall knowledge of an Atturnies wife of the same Citie which the Atturney suspecting pretends a journey into the Countrey but returning at night he heard they were together in a Hot-house in an old womans house that dwelt by him whereupon he goes thither with three of his friends which he left in the street to hinder any that should come to helpe them then entring the house with a strong Curry-combe in
bold thus further to proceed Touching the first Question What hath mans labour most increast Yet of it selfe desires it least In my weake understanding I take it to be the Earth the mother of all creatures rationall or irrationall sensitive or vegetative which though men daily digge and delve plow or furrow mine and undermine trenching her sides and wounding her intrayles not suffering her to have the least cessation of rest in any of the foure seasons yet she in her owne fertility and annuall vicissitude without these injuries is able of her selfe to yeeld herbs and flowers grasse and hay plants and trees with food and sustenance in abundance to all creatures bred upon her still teeming wombe who as she delivers them into the world not onely fosters and cherisheth them but when their Date is runne and their time expired receiveth them again into her owne breast from whence they had their first being Touching the second I take it to be Humility which teacheth a man how to rule his affections and to keepe a mediocrity in all his actions The high Creator dwelleth in Heaven and if wee arrogantly lift up our selves unto him he will fly from us but if we humbly bow our selves before him he will descend downe upon us Humilitas animi sublimitas Christiani In Humility is a Christian mans mindes sublimity It stirs up affection augmenteth good will supports equity and preserves a common weale in safety It is apt to repentance hungring after righteousnesse and conversant in deeds of mercy It hath brought these good things to passe which no other reason or vertue could effect And whosoever shall desire to ascend where the Father is much first put on that humility which the Sonne teacheth and most happy is the man whose calling is high and his spirit humble of which vertue I may truely conclude with your Question Man hath by that most honour gain'd And yet with least losse is maintain'd The third the most basely vile and yet the highest valued the most cursed to mannage yet the most costly to maintain in my ignorant conceptions I hold to be Pride which being first hatched in heaven in an instant precipitated Lucifer and his Angels headlong into hell which perceiving Humility to be honourable desireth often to be covered with the cloake thereof least appearing alwayes in its owne likenesse it might thereby be the lesse regarded I shall not need much to amplifie the vice nor to aggravate the sinne a spice whereof may I speake it with pardon hath beene discovered even in this my best beloved parent and to avoide prolixitie It is that thing men soonest rue And yet with greatest charge pursue With which answer so modestly delivered and in a kinde of matron-like gravity rarely to be found in one of her tender and young yeares the King was so highly raptur'd that he not onely received her father into former grace but spake openly being then a Batchelour that had she beene borne of noble bloud he would have made her his Queen and Royall Consort and taking her from the earth caused her to stand before him when instantly newes was brought him that an Earledome was then fallen unto the Crowne which he presently for her sake conferred upon Don Pedro her father of which she taking advantage fell downe againe upon her knees to give the King thankes for so great an honour bestowed upon him for which she prostrated unto him in all humble manner her life and service adding withall some words to this purpose My Royall Liege excuse my over-boldnesse if I challenge your Majestie of your Kingly word and promise past unto me before all this presence who demanding of her wherein he was any way ingaged she made reply But late great Sir you said that were I noble you would accept of my unworthy selfe as your royall Bride and Spouse Then pardon my presumption if I thus farre prompt your memory to put your Highnesse in minde that I am now not onely by your Grace ennobled but an Earles daughter at which word covering her face with her hand shee concluded in a bashfull and modest blush All which so highly pleased the King that making good his Princely word he gave order for the present celebration of their nuptiall This History though it have a comicall conclusion yet is pertinent to the discourse now in agitation for Don Pedroes pride of knowledge was sentene't with death and his life howsoever redeem'd by his faire and vertuous daughter was immediately forfeit by the doome of the King and therefore the judgement in Justice howsoever not in execution remarkable We reade in the French Chronicle of one Iordaine of Lisle by Nation a Gascon and Nephew to Pope Iohn the two and twentieth of that name a man of a most high and insolent spirit daring any thing though never so facinorous cruell inhumane or bloudy building all his heinous and horrid acts upon the greatnesse of his Unkle who after he had beene pardoned for eighteene capitall crimes still grew more impious and shamelesse former mercy making him still the more presumptuous at the last being apprehended and brought to Paris he was arraigned convicted and condemned by Charles the fourth surnamed the Faire King of France where notwithstanding his great allyes he suffered like a common felon and murderer on the Gallowes It is credibly reported also of a proud Italian Gentleman borne in Genoa who in a single duell having the better of his Antagonist in the field insomuch that he disarmed him of his weapon and the other now standing at his mercy he fell to parle with him upon these termes that there was no way for him to escape immediate death but by abjuring his Christianity and renouncing his Saviour to which the other through base timerousnesse assented of which the Victor taking divelish advantage even in the midst of his most impious Apostasie he stab'd him to the heart and slew him uttering these more then heathenish words before I had been onely revenged upon thy body but now I have sent both thy body and soule to the Devill and that 's a revenge which deserves a chronicle But what became of this firebrand of Hell and limbe of the Devill being apprehended for the murder and his diabolicall proceedings in the act being related to the Judges as a terrour to others he was first committed to the rack and after many other insufferable tortures despairing of all mercy from God having shewed no compassion towards man he most miserably ended his life One Herebert Earle of Vermendoys in France was of that haughty and insolent spirit that he durst lay hands upon his Soveraigne Charles King of France surnamed the Simple who caused him to be imprisoned and under whose custody hee shortly after died at Peroune which seem'd for a time to be smothered and he still subsisted in his former eminencie but where man seemeth most to forget God doth remarkably remember nor doth
he suffer deeds of such horrid nature to passe unpunished in this world what vengeance soever he without true repentance reserveth for them in the world to come as it is observable in this present History for Lewis the fourth the thirty third King of France by lineall discent comming to the Crowne being the sonne to the before-named Charles the simple and loath that so grosse a treason committed against his father should be smothered without some notable revenge being very ingenious he bethought himselfe how with the least danger or effusion of bloud in regard of the others greatnesse and alliance how to bring it about and therefore he devised this plot following He caused a letter to be writ which he himselfe did dictate and hired an English-man who came disguised like a Poste to bring it unto him as from the King his Master at such a time when many of his Peeres were present and amongst the rest this Herebert was amongst them this suborned Poste delivereth the letter to the Kings hands hee gives it to his principall Secretary who read it privately unto him who presently smiling said openly Most sure the English-men are not so wise as I esteemed them to be for our Brother of England hath signified unto me by these letters that in his Countrey a labouring-man having invited his Lord and Master to dine with him at his house and he vouchsafing to grace his Cottage with his presence in the base requitall of so noble a curtesie he caused him to be most treacherously slaine and now my Brother of England desireth my counsell to know what punishment this fellow hath deserved In which I desire to be instructed by you my Lords that hearing your censures I may returne him the more satisfactory answer The King having ended his Speech the Lords were at first silent till at length Theobant Earle of Bloyes was the first that spake and said that hee was worthy first to be tortured and after to be hanged on a Gibbet which sentence all the Lords there present confirmed and some of them amongst the rest much aggravating the punishment which also Herebert Earle of Vermendoys did approve and allow of whereupon the Kings Officers who by his Majesties appointment then waited in a with-drawing roome of purpose seised upon him with an armed guard at which sudden surprise hee being much amazed the King raising himselfe from his seat said Thou Hebert art that wicked and treacherous labourer who didst most trayterously insidiate the life of my father thy Lord and Master of which felonious act thine owne sentence hath condemned thee and die thou shalt as thou hast well deserved whereupon he was hanged on a Gibbet on the top of a Mountaine called Lodan which since his execution is called Mount Hebert to this day Bajazet the great Emperour of the Turkes who in his mighty pride thought with his numerous Army to drinke rivers dry and to weight the mountaines in a ballance who had made spoyle of many Nations and with tyranny persecuted the Christians dispersed through his vast dominions who compared the world to a Ship and himselfe to the Pilot who commanded the sayles and secured the helme yet afterwards being met in battaile by Scythian Tamberlaine and his Army being quite routed his person also taken prisoner in the field the Conquerour put this untamed beast into an iron cage and caused him to be fed from the very fragments and scraps from his table and carried along with him whither soever hee marched and onely then released him from his imprisonment when he was forced to stoope and humble his body as a blocke to tread upon whilest Tamberlaine mounted upon his steed but here ended not Gods visible Judgements against this Usurper Persecutor and Tyrant who in despaire rayling upon his Prophet Mahomet in whom he had in vaine trusted against the Iron grate in which he was inclosed beate out his owne braines and wretchedly expired Infinite are the examples to the like purpose but I will leave those Forraine to come to our Domestick extracted out of our owne Chronologers and first of King Bladud Who was the sonne of Lud Hurdribras and after the death of his father was call'd from Rome where hee had studied darke and hidden Arts and was made Governour in this Isle of Brittain in the yeare of the world foure thousand three hundred and eighteene For so testifieth Gualfride Polichronicon and other ancient remembrancers This Bladud was altogether devoted to the study of Magick and Necromancy and very expert in Judiciall Astrology by which he is said to make the hot Baths in the Towne then called Caerbadon but now Bath which Citie he is said to have erected This King caused the Art of Magick to be taught through his Realm and ordained Schooles and Schoole masters to that purpose in which hee tooke such pride and presumption as that he thought by it all things were possible to be done so much the Devill the first master and founder of that Art had deluded him so farre that at the length having called a great confluence of his people about him he made an attempt to flie in the arre but fell upon the Temple of his god Apollo where he brake his neck his body being torne and bruised after he had raigned twenty yeares leaving a sonne called Leire to succeed him and continue his posterity Goodwin Earle of west Saxon in the time of Edward the sonne of Egelredus was of that insufferable ambition by reason of his great revenues and numerous issue for he had five sonnes and one daughter that he swayed the whole Kingdome and almost compulsively compelled the King his Soveraigne to take his daughter Edith to wife After rebelling against the King and forced with his sonnes to depart the Land yet after he made such meanes that hee mediated his peace and was reconciled to him 〈◊〉 but amongst all his other insolencies he was accessary to the death of the Kings brother or at least much suspected to be so which was the first breach betwixt his Soveraigne and him But so it happened in the thirteenth yeare of the raigne of this King Edward Earle Goodwin upon an Easter Monday sitting with diverse other Lords and Peeres of the Kingdome at the Kings table in the Castle of Windsor it happened one of the Kings Cup â—eaâ—â—â—s to stumble and yet well to recover himselfe without falling and not spilling any of the wine which Earle Goodwin observing laughed aloud and said There one brother helped the other thereby intimating that the one leg or foot had well supported the other from falling To which words the King instantly replyed and so might my brother Alphred have bin still living to have helped and supported me had not Earle Goodwin supplanted him by death At which words being startled as conceiving that the King suspected him of his brothers murder thinking to excuse himself of that horrible act he said to the King Sir I perceive
9. Inquisition shall be made for the thoughts of the ungodly and the sound of the words shall come unto God for the correction of his iniquities Therefore beware of murmuring which profiteth nothing and refraine thy tongue from slander for there is no word so secret that shall goe for nought and the mouth that speaketh lyes slayeth the soule It is the counsell of the Wise man Eate not the bread of him that is envious or hath an evill eye neither desire his d 〈…〉 meates for as though he thought it in his heart bee will say Eate and drinke but his heart is not with thee thou sh 〈…〉 t vomit the â—arselâ— that thou hast 〈◊〉 and thou shalt lose thy sweet words c. The booke of Wisdome 〈◊〉 us that through Envy of the Devill came death into the world and they that hold of his side prove it therefore let us be advised by Saint Peter who in the second chapter of his first Epistle saith Wherefore laying aside all malitiousnesse and all guile and dissimulation and envy and evill speaking as new borne babes desire that sincere milke of the Word that yee may grow thereby c. But from the discovery of the foulenesse of the sinne I come now to shew what severall judgements have beene inflicted upon it And first to search forraine Histories before we come to fearefull and tragicall Examples moderne and domestick of our owne that the one may the better illustrate and set off the other I begin with that incestuous brood of Thebes the two brothers Eteocles and Polynices whose father Oedipus ignorant of his owne naturall parents and having first most unfortunately slaine his owne father and after retyring himselfe to Thebes by the solution of Sphinxes riddle married with his owne mother Iocasta neither of them knowing their proximity in bloud and by that match swayed the Kingdome together with those two before-named sonnes and two daughters Antigone and Ismene which he had by her But at length having knowledge of that incestuous match made with his mother he in griefe thereof with his nayles pulled out his owne eyes and she in despaire strangled her selfe after which the Kingdome falling to the two brothers They first agreed to raigne monethly and then yearely by turnes but soone after there grew such malitious envy betwixt them that whatsoever the one did in his regency the other when the power came into his hands utterly abrogated and disanull'd making new lawes to the former quite contrary which also lasted but a moneth for then the succeeder paid the resigner in his owne coyne Upon this grew faction and divers partisans on either side some favouring the one and some affecting the other in the end from threatnings and braves it came to battaile and blowes in which the two brothers encountering hand to hand in a single duell they interchangably slew one another whose envy in life was so irreconcilable and invererate that it appeared after their deaths for their two bodies being brought to be burnt in one funerall pile the very flame was seene to divide it selfe and burne in two parts suting to their opposite soules and contrary conditions Another Example of Gods Judgements against Envy Greece affordeth us Perseus the sonne of Philip King of Macedon but not that Philip who was father to Alexander the Great hee had an elder brother whose name was Demetrius a man of most approved honesty and imitable condition whose knowne vertues his younger brother of a malevolent and cumbred spirit much envying framed a most scandalous and detracting inditement against him pretending that he had privately insidiated his fathers life and Kingdom and sold them both unto his enemies the Romans of which by suborned witnesses he had made such proofe and bribing to that purpose prevailed so farre that he was convented convicted and condemned and most innocently suffered the rigout of the Law by having his head strooke off But the King having had notice of these barbarous and injust proceedings surprised with excesse of griefe died not long after and this malicious fratricide succeeded in the Kingdome who now having all things answerable to his own desires thinking Macedonia too narrow a limit for his unbounded ambition he in great presumption not onely opposed but invaded the Roman Empire whose envy and detraction against his brother God thus punished He drew him with all his puissant Army neare unto the river of Danubius where being encountred by the Roman Consul Aemilius he and his whole hoast were cut to pieces and utterly ruined insomuch that the power of the Macedonians being utterly confounded it became after subject and tributary to the Roman Empire and thus his defamatory destruction conspired against another fell upon his owne head and is still registred to his perpetuall shame and inflamy It is reported of the Roman Emperour Caligula who was a man of infinite vices that he never spared man in his rage not woman in his lust to whom sisters and strangers were alike he was so infected with this vice of envy that in contempt of the most noble families in Rome from the Torquati hee tooke the honour of wearing golden chains from the Cinâ—innats so called for their crisped and curled looks he tooke their haire and caused them to be shorne to the skull and so of others besides from 〈◊〉 Pompeâ—â—s he caused the denomination of Great to be taken away and Aesius Proculeus a very beautifull young man because hee was for feature and favour preferred before him he caused to be murdered for which and other like vices hee was deposed from the Imperiall purple and put to a most base wretched and ignoble death Antoninus and Geta were the two sonnes of the Emperour Severus betwixt whom he divided the Empire after his death To Antoninus was all Europe allotted and whole Asia was the possession and patrimony of Geta. Bizantium kept a great Garrison of Souldiers for Antoninus and Caloedon a Citie of Bythinia was the place of strength to which Geta trusted besides the two great Cities of Antioch and Alexandria were the Royall and Kingly feats for Geta and Mauritania and Numidia for Antoninus who was of a dangerous and divelish nature but Geta of a very curteous and affable temperature for which he was the more envyed by the Elder and his attrocities and inhumanities as much disaffected by the younger By which mutuall enmity those glorious victories which Severâ—s atchieved and after by concord and peace enjoyed to the great advancement of the Empire were now almost wholly ruined The Empresse their mother fore-seeing some great and eminent disaster gave them often very matron and pious admonitions exhorting them to unity and concord but her indulgent and wholesome counsell nothing prevailed with them for daily their discord hatred and bloudy practises increased and the one was so jealous of the other that they durst not eate nor drinke together for feare of poyson In this mutuall feare they continued till at the
Souldiers who so well awaited their opportunity that as the Pope was riding from Avignon to one of his Castles in Provence called Poursorge he surprised him and brought him prisoner into France then put him into a strong Tower where for want of food he was forced to eate the flesh from his armes and so diedâ— of whom the story gives this Character That he estred into the Papacie like a Fox that he ruled like a Lyon and in the end died like a Dogge Nero Caesar who had all the seaven deadly sinnes predominant in him even in his minority and first comming to the Empire was in a high measure worthily asâ—â—â—st and branded with this horrid and abhominable vice of Envy who when Cesar Germanicus a Prince of great hope and expectation on whom all the eyes of Rome were fixt was made competitor with him in the Empite 〈◊〉 â—ligning his greatnesse and goodnesse though his neare kinsman he with his owne hands tempered a strong and moâ—â—â—serous poyson and most 〈…〉 ously inviting him to a feast in the height of all their 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 he caused that deadly draught to be ministâ—ed unto him which he had no sooner tasted but immediately he sunke from his seat and fell downe dead at the Table at which all the guests being startled and amazed Nero the master of the feast put it off with this sleight saying onely remove the body into some withdrawing roome and let it be buried according to the custome of Romans but how God revenged this and other his inhumanities you may reade in his wretched and unlamented death in the former Tractate expressed Macrinus who had murdered Antoninus the brother of Geta attaining to the Empire when he had raigned one yeare his head was cut off in Calcedon a Citie of Bythinia with his sonne Diadumenus whom in his life-time he had made competitor with him in the Empire Bassianus otherwise called Heliogabalus the sonne of Semiamira succeeded in the Empire He was first a Priest of the sunne and after by meanes of his grandmother Mesa a rich and potent woman was made Emperour who though a young man of an extraordinary aspect and feature able to attract the loves and affections of all men yet was he inwardly infected with the contagion of all the vices that could be named Insomuch that in all his actions he rather appeared a monster then a man so that hee grew not onely despised but hatefull to the people Which the wise Lady Mesa seeing and fearing his fall and in his her owne ruine as farre as she could she excused his grossest crimes laying the fault upon the tendernesse of his youth and wrought so that by his consent Alexianus who was the sonne of Mammea her daughter was admitted companion with him in the Empire which Alexianus after called Alexander Severus was a wise and prudent Prince whose vertue had gained him the generall love of the Senate and people for which Heliogabalus so envied him for vice and vertue are still in opposition that he made many attempts to poyson him which by the care of Mesa and Mammea were prevented But how was this envy punished The people seised upon Heliogabalus with his mother Semiamira and dragging their bodies through the chiefe streets of Rome having after torne them piece-meale would not affoord them the honour of buriall but cast their quarters into the common jakes that stood upon the river Tiber. Neither have women beene free from this rankorous sinne of Envy as appeareth by the story following and shall be made more apparant hereafter This Prince Alexander Severus afore-named all the time that his grandmother Mesa lived who suffered none but grave and wise men to be about him insomuch that no Emperour before or after him could be said to exceed him in all these attributes that belong to an Imperiall Monarch was both beloved and feared But she being dead his mother Mammea grew to that height of pride covetousnesse and envy that his indulgent sufferance of her ambition was a great and the sole blemish of his government who comming to maturity and the Empire now setled in his owne hands he tooke to wife a daughter of one of the most noblest Senators of Rome which was also by his mothers consent but when this Lady came to take upon her the state of an Empresse Mammea who challenged that title solely to her selfe malitiously envying her estate wrought so that first the father of the new Empresse was put to death and so terrible was her commandement and her Majestie so much dreaded that she banished both from the Court and the bed of the Emperour the innocent Empresse unto the uttermost coasts of Africa Thus was Alexander out of a milde and gentle nature swayed and over-ruled by his mother which was the occasion of both their ruines for Maximiâ—us a Thracian borne of base parentage his father being a shepheard and preferred by Alexander to eminent place in the warres taking the advantage of the murmuring of the people and souldiers and the covetousnesse and envy of the mother most treacherously conspired against his Lord and Master the same barbarously and cruelly flew them both and by their death aspired unto the Imperiall purple The French Chronicles speake of one Prince Cranne the sonne of Clotharius who having raigned forty five yeares at Soissons now called the Belgick Gant upon the decease of his elder brother Childebert who died without issue male was proclaimed the seventh King of France This Cranne on whom that may be truly construed of the Poet Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos was sicke of his fathers life envying and grieving that he kept him so long from the Crowne but wanting meanes to make him away privately by poyson or the like because his servants about him were faithfull and not to be corrupted he therefore opposed him by publike hostility incensing his Unkle Childebert against him who supported him in all his insolencies against his father But Childebert being dead and he now wanting his great support was forc't to mediate his peace with his father who upon his submission tooke him to grace and gave him his free pardon But his former heart burning envy still boyling in his breast he fell into a second rebellion yet finding the successe of his bad attempts to grow still worse and worse as his last refuge hee fled to the Prince or Duke of the Brittons whom some call Conobee others Canubo who undertooke to secure him from the pursute of his father Whereupon Clotharius with his Army invaded that Countrey and joyned battaile with the Prince and his sonne in which the Brittons lost the day their Army was routed the Prince slaine and Cranne taken prisoner of whom his father having seised hee caused him to be shut up in an house and with his wife and children to be burnt to death a just judgement from heaven but a cruell sentence from a father who that very day twelve-moneth
after died being the one and fiftyeth yeare of his raigne I come now to our Moderne Histories Ferrex and Porrex joyntly succeeded their father Gorboduc in the governement of this Land of Brittaine in the yeare of the World foure thousand seaven hundred and eleven and continued in love and amity for a season but in the end Envy the mother of all misorder and mischiefe so farre prevailed with them that the one began to maligne the others estate insomuch that they both studied and devised to supplant each other thereby to gaine the entire supremacy which first brake out in Porrex who gathering an Army unknowne to his brother thought suddenly to surprise and kill him of which he having notice and yet not able for the present to provide for opposition he was forced to fly into France where craving ayde he was supplyed with a sufficient Hoast of Galls with which landing in England he gave his brother Porrex battaile defeated his Army and slew him in the field Ferrex proud of his victory retyred himself to his Tent whither his mother Midan came by night with some of her women and being freely admitted to the place where he lay sleeping she with the rest most cruelly murdered him and after cut his body into small pieces causing them to be scattered in the field and in these two brothers ended the line of Brute Thus you see a most dreadfull judgement against Envy as well in the vanquisht as the victor but the greatest in the last to be so cruelly murdered rather by a monster then a mother Morindus was the bastard sonne of Flavius King of Brittaine by his Concubine Fanguestela and was inaugurated in the yeare of the World one thousand eight hundred fourescore and ten and made Governour of the Land The Chronicle reports him to have beene of a comely and beautifull personage of liberall gifts having an active body and a most daring spirit and strength withall above any Peere or Subject in the Land but as a grievous staine and blemish to all these good parts and endowments hee was of an envious condition and cruell disposition for he grew jealous of all such as either were great in wealth or gracious in the Court for any noble vertue for the first hee had a way to confiscate their estate and the latter he so suppressed that they never came into favour or grew to preferment being further so subject to wrath that whosoever crost or vexed him he would suddenly slay with his owne hands Afterward his Land being invaded by a Prince of Mauritania he met him in battaile and chased him to the Sea taking many prisoners whom to satisfie this cruelty and tyranny he caused to be put to death in his presence and sight with severall sorts of torments by heading killing hanging burning drowning and other kindes of execution but at the length as testifieth Guido de Columna and others this Morindus whom our English Chronicles call Morwith walking by the Sea side and spying a dreadfull monster upon the shore he out of his bold and Kingly prowesse assaying to kill the beast after a long fight was devoured and swallowed by the monster when he had eight yeares governed the Land which was a most strange and remarkable Judgement Envy and dissension was the first bondaging of this our free and noble Nation in becomming tributary to the Romans King Lud of famous memory being dead during the minority of his two sonnes Androgeus and Tenantius Cassibelan the brother to Lud was made King in the yeare of the World five thousand one hundred forty two who was a Prince noble bountifull just and valorous when the young Princes came to yeares of discretion hee gave to Androgeus the elder the Citie of London with the Earledome of Kent and to Tenantius the younger the Dukedome of Cornewall In this season Iulius Caesar being in the warres of France and beholding the white cliffes and rocks by Dover demanded of the Gauls whether it were inhabited or no or by whom being satisfied of his demand hee first exhorted the Brittaines by writing to pay tribute to the Romans to whom Cassibelan returned a short and sharpe answer with which Caesar much incensed makes ready his Navy and people but when they should have landed they found long and sharpe stakes pitcht by the Brittons which put them to great trouble and danger yet at length gaining the shore Cassibelan with a strong Army of Brittans gave them battaile and beat them to their shippes Notwithstanding Caesar soone after made a second Invasion with a greater power and had the like brave repulse to his great dishonour For which double victory Cassibelan having first given great thankes to the gods assembled his Lords and Peeres to feast them and held sundry triumphs and sports amongst which two young Knights one Nephew to the King called Herilda and the other Euelinus allyed to Androgeus made a challenge for wrastling in the performing of which exercise they grew to words and from words to blowes so that parties were made and in this tumult Herilda was slaine whose death the King tooke heinously and sent to his Nephew Androgeus that Euelinus might be delivered up to know how he could acquit himselfe of the murder which Androgeus denying the King gave him to understand that it was in his power to chastise his presumption which the other fearing sent to Iulius Caesar not onely letters but thirty hostages to assure him of his fidelity that if hee would make a third attempt for Brittaine he would ayde him with a puissant Army of which Caesar gladly accepting with a strong hoast landed and encamped himselfe neare unto Canterbury of which when Cassibelan had notice he marched towards him and betwixt them was fought a strong and bloudy battaile where many were slaine on either side and the day likely to incline to the Brittons when on the sudden Androgeus came in with fresh forces by which the wearied Souldiers were compelled to forsake the field and gave place to the Romans who slew them without mercy so that Cassibelan with those few that were left retired himselfe to places of safety Whose valour Caesar admiring would not prosecute his victory any further for the present but offered him peace conditionally that he should pay a yearely tribute of three thousand pounds to the Romans which conditions Cassibelan accepted and still continued King and Androgeus who had so basely betrayed his Countrey not daring to trust his owne Nation whom in so high a nature he had injured abandoned the Realme and went with Caesar. Now if any shall aske me where were Gods dreadfull Judgements in all this I answer what greater then for a free Nation to lose their immunities and become tributary and vassals to strangers from which they were not freed many hundred yeares after Long after this Constantine was made King and left three sonnes behinde him Constantine the eldest because he was of a very milde and gentle temper and no
himselfe to have the like congresse with them being a young man he was a scandall to all those whom he made his companions and they reciprocally were scandalized by being in his company These with infinite others of his licentious irregularities are recorded by Lampridius Hee had also as the same Author testates three hundred Concubines of selected forme and feature chosen out of the families of the Senatours and Patritians and as many choice young men of sweet aspect and undespised proportion taken out of the best of the Nobility and with these hee did continually riot drinke and wanton in his Pallace where were used all immodest postures and uncomely gestures that the very Genius of lust could devise so that his Court shewed rather a common stewes then the royall dwelling house and mansion of a Prince Gordianus Iunior who wore the Imperiall purple with his father absenting himselfe from all warlike imployment lived in lazinesse and ease giving himselfe solely to voluptuousnesse and carnall concupiscence having at once two and twenty Concubines and by every one of them three or foure children at the least for which by some he was called the Priamus of his age but by others in scorne the Priapus And Proculus the Emperour in one expedition besides many other spoyles tooke captive an hundred Sarmatian Virgines all which hee boasted not onely to have vitiated and deflowred but to have perpetrated or more plainly got with childe within fifteene dayes for so Flavius Vopiscus reports of him as also Sabellicus in Exemplis Heliogabalus that Monster of nature gathered together Bawdes Whores Catamites Pimps Panders Rounsevalls and Stallions the very pest and poyson of a Nation or People even till they grew to a great multitude to which he added all the long-nos'd vagabonds and sturdy beggars he could finde for these they say have the greatest inclination to libidinou filthinesse and these he kept together and maintained at his great charge onely to satisfie his brutish humour Therefore Lampridius writing to the Emperour concerning his prodigious Venery useth these words Who can endure a Prince who committeth lust in all the hollowes of his body when Roomes Cages and Grates the receptacle and dennes of wilde beasts cannot amongst them all shew a beast like him He also kept cursors and messengers who had no other imployment but to ride abroad and seek out for these Masuti and to bring them to Court that he might pollute and defile himselfe amongst them But these whose dissolute and floath-infected lives have growne to such an execrable height of impudence have not escaped Gods terrible Judgements by miserable and tragick ends as you may read in the premises where I have had occasion to speake of the same persons though to other purpose I will prosecute this further by example wherein the effects of this dull and drowsie vice of idlenesse and sloath shall be better illustrated and in none more proper then that of â—Egistus and Clitemuestra for Agamemnon King of Mycena and brother to Menelaus King of Sparta the husband of Helena ravisht thence by Paris one of the sonnes of King Priam being chosen Generall of the Grecian Army in that great expedition against Troy for the rape of that Spartan Queene In his absence he left Aegistus to governe his family and mannage his Domesticke affaires who lull'd in ease and loytring in idlenesse and she a lusty Lady and lying in a widdowed and forsaken bed such familiarity grew betwixt them that at length it came into flat adultery of whom the Poet thus ingenuously writes Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptâ— causa est Desidiosus erat c. Aske any why Aegistus did Faire Clitemnestra woe 'T is answer'd he was idle and Had nothing else to doe Now this Egistus was before espoused to a young Lady the daughter of Phocas Duke of Creophen whose bed he repudiated and sent backe to her father For the love of this Queene of Micena of whom he begot a daughter called Egiona and in the absence of his Lord and Master supported by the Queene tooke upon him all regall authority and was obeyed as King Now Agamemnon had a young sonne called Orestes who was then under the tuition or guardianship of a worthy Knight called Fultibius who fearing lest the adulterer and the adulteresse might insidiate his life he conveyed him out of the Land and brought him to Idomeneus King of Creet a pious and just Prince who undertooke to bring him up educate and instruct him like the sonne of such a father and protect him against all his enemies whatsoever Imagine now the ten yeares warres ended Troy sackt and spoyled rak't to the earth and quite demolished and Agamemnon at his returne the very first night of his lodging in the Palace cruelly murdered in his bed by Egistus and the Queene By this time Orestes being of the yeares able to beare Armes and having intelligence how basely his father was butchered and by whom he made a solemne vow to avenge his death upon the Authors thereof and to that end besought aide of the King Idomeneus his foster father and protector who first made him Knight and furnisht him with a competent Army To assist whom came Fultibius his first Guardian with all the forces he could levy as also Phocas whose daughter Egistus had before forsaken These sped themselves so well that in few dayes they entred the Land and after laid siege to the chiefe Citie called Micene where the Queen then lay for Aegistus was at that time abroad to solicit aâ—d against invasion which he much feared but finding the gates shut and the wals manned and all entrance denied they made a fierce assault and though it was very couragiously and valiantly defended yet at length the City was taken and the Queen surprised in the Palace who being brought unto the presence of her son all filiall duty set apart and forgetting the name of mother he saluted her onely by the title of Adulteresse and Murderesse and when he had thundered into her eares the horridnesse and trocity of her crime having his sword drawn in his hand he suddenly transpieâ—â—'d her body and left her dead upon the pavement as an explaâ—ion or bloody sacrifice to appease the soul of his dead farher Some would aggravate the fact and say that he caused her breasts to be torne off she being yet alive and cast to the dogges to be eaten but that had been a cruelty beyond nature for a son to exercise upon a mother now whilest these things were in agâ—â—ation Aegistus had gathered an Army for the raising of the â—â—ege and reclaiming the City of which Orestes having intelligence ambuâ—hed him in his way and had such good successe that having incompassed him in he set upon his Forces both before and behinde routed them and took Aegistus prisoner whom after he had put to the greatest tortures that humane apprehension could invent or devise he commanded his body
betwixt man and man and hath walked in my statutes and hath kept my judgements to deal truly he is just and shall surely live saith the Lord. Matth. 6. 24. No man can serve two masters for either he shall hate the one and love the other or else he shall leane to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and riches Luke 12. 15. Wherefore he said nnto them take heed and beware of covetousnesse for though a man have abundance his life standeth not in his riches Iohn 12. 4. Then said one of his Disciples even Iudas Iscariot Simons son which should betray him Why was not this oyntment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor now he said this not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thiefe and had the bag and bare that was given It is Radix omnium malorum 1 Tim. 6. 10. For the desire of money is the root of all evill which whilest some lusted after they erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrowes for they that will be rich fall into many temptations and snares and into many foolish and noysome lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction Covetous men are contemners of Gods Word Matth. 13. 22. And he that received the seed amongst thornes is he that heareth the Word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulnesse of riches choak the Word and he is made unfruitfull It is no better than idolatry Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are on earth fornication uncleannesse the inordinate affections evill concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry They are miserable and vain Iob 20. 19. He hath undone many he hath forsaken the poor and hath spoiled houses which he builded not surely he shall feel no quietnesse in his body neither shall he reserve of that which he desired there shall none of his meat be left therefore none shall hope for his goods when he shall be filled with his abundance he shall be in pain and the hand of the wicked shall assail him he shall be about to fill his belly but God shall send upon him his fierce wrath and shall cause to rain upon him even upon his meat c. They are not capable of everlasting life Col. 6. 10. Nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Many more Texts there are to the like purpose but I come nearer to shew you examples of Covetousnesse and the punishments thereof out of the sacred Scriptures We reade Iosh. 7. 20. And Achan answered Ioshua and said I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus I have done I saw amongst the spoiles a goodly Babylonish garment and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight and I covered them and behold they lie hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it It followeth Verse 24. Then Ioshua took Achan the son of Zerah and the silver and the garment and the wedge of gold and his sonnes and his daughters and his oxen and his asses and his sheep and his tents and all that he had and all Israel with him brought them to the valley of Achor and Ioshua said in asmuch as thou hast troubled us the Lord shall trouble thee this day and all Israel threw stones at him and burnt them with fire and stoned them with stones c. It was also punished in Nabal 1 Sam 1. 25. who was churlish gripple and covetous and ungratefull to David and his servants for which the Text saith Verse 36. And about ten dayes after the Lord smote Nabal that he died who not onely lost his life hut had his wife Abigail given unto David whom he before despised Ahab King of Israel for coveting of Naboths vineyard and by the meanes of his wife Iezebel putting him to death that her husband might take possession thereof hear his terrible judgement that followed 1 Kings 21. 17. The Word of the Lord came to Eliah the Tishbite saying Arise go down to meet Ahab King of Israel which is in Samaria lo he is in the vineyard of Naboth whither he is gone down to take possession of it therefore shalt thou say unto him thus saith the Lord hast thou killed and also gotten possession and thou shalt speak unto him saying thus saith the Lord in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs licke even thy blood also behold I will bring evill upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall as well him that is shut up as him that is left in Israel and I will make thy house like the house of Ieroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah for the provocation whereby thou hast provoked and made Israel to sin and of Iezebel spake the Lord saying the dogs shall eat Iezebel by the wals of Iezreel the dogs shall eat him of Ahabs stocke that dieth in the City and him that dieth in the fields shall the fowles of the air eat c. Now what more fearfull judgement could have been pronounced against them all which punctually happened unto them according to the Prophets saying Further we reade Esay 1. 23. Thy Princes are rebellious and companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherlesse neither doth the widows cause come before them therefore saith the Lord God of hostes the mighty One of Israel Ah I will case me of my adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies Ier. 22. 17. Thine eyes and thine heart are but onely for thy covetousnesse and to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for destruction even to do this Therefore thus saith the Lord against Iehoiakim the son of Iosiah King of Iudah they shall not lament him saying ah my brother and ah my sister neither shall they mourne for him saying ah Lord or ah his glory he shall be buried as an asse is buried and cast forth without the gates of Ierusalem Ezech. 22. 27. Her Princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood and to destroy soules for their own covetous lucre In thee have they taken gifts to shed bloud thou hast taken usury and the increase and thou hast defrauded thy neighbour by extortion and hast fogotten me saith the Lord God behold therefore I have smitten mine hands upon thy covetousnesse that thou hast used and upon the blood which hath been in the midst of thee I will scatter thee amongst the heathen and disperse thee in the countries c. Amos 4. 1. Hear this word ye kine of Baashan that are in the mountaines of Samaria which oppresse the poor and destroy the needy c. The Lord God hath sworne by his holinesse that loe the dayes shall come upon you that
of Augustus Caesar was a man of a most perdit obscenenesse practised in that superlative degree of filthinesse that scarce any age could produce a prodegy to paralell him modesty will not suffer me to give them name And Tegillinus according to Tacitus lib. 17. was a man of a most corrupted life who soothed and humoured Nero in all his ribaldries his sirname was Othonius by whose flattery and calumny many a noble Roman was put to death and when Otho who succeeded Nero came to wear the Imperiall purple and to be instated Emperour he sent amongst other malefactours for him to suffer as a putrified and corrupt member of the State and when the executioner with other lictors and officers came to surprise him in his house they found him drinking and rioting amongst his catamites and harlots where without limiting any time either to settle his estate or to take leave of any of his friends he was instantly slain and his wounded body cast into the open streets Crassus the richest of the Roman fathers after the death of one of his brothers married his wife by whom he had many children And Surinus the wealthiest and most potent of the Parthians next to the King had in his tents two hundred concubines at one time And Xerxes King of Persia was so given over to all licentiousnesse and luxury that he hired pursuivants and kept Cursors and messengers in pay to inquire and finde out men who could devise new wayes of voluptuousnesse and to them gave great rewards for so Valerius Maximus reports of him And Volateranus remembers us of one Vgutius a Florentine Prince who was slain of his Citizens and Subjects for stuprating their wives and vitiating their virgins Thus seldom we see this vice to go unpunished Nor is it particular to the masculine sex as the sole provocatours hereof but women have been equally and alike guilty We reade in Genesis of Potiphars wife who solicited Ioseph to her adulterate embraces who because he refused to commit such villany and to offend both God and his master she accused him to his Lord that he would have done to her violence for which he lay two years in prison But from prophane Histories we have many examples For Iulia Agrippina the mother of Nero was said to have unlawfull congresse with Domitian for so Iuvenal saith nay more after feasting and banqueting in the heat of her cups when she with her son were together topt with wine they commonly used incestuous consociety the conclusion of which impious lust was that the son in the end having caused his mother to be slain commanded her body to be dissected and ript open before his face as longing to see the bed wherein he lay when he was an unborne infant She was the daughter to Germanicus sister to Caligula the wife first of Domitius after of Clodius whom she poysoned for no other cause but to make Nero her son Emperour and you hear how well he requited her A chicken of the same brood was Messalina the daughter of Messala and the wife and Empresse of Claudius Caesar a woman of a most insatiate lust whose custome was to disguise her selfe like a private Gentlewoman so that she might not be known and with her pandor ushering her to walke unto common stewes and brothell-houses and there prostitute her selfe to all commers whosoever nay she was not ashamed to contend with the ablest and strongest Harlot in the City for masterie whence also shee returned rather tyred then satisfied nay more she selected out of the noblest Wives and Virgins to be eye witnesses and companions in her filthinesse whither men also were not denied accesse as spectators against all womenly shame and modesty and if any noble Gentleman of whom she seemed to be enamoured refused or despised her profered imbraces shee would feigne and devise some crime or other to be revenged on him and his whole familie Pliu. lib. 29 tels us That one Vectius Valius a notable Physitian was nobilitated meerly for pandthering to her luxuries Fabia the Wife of Fabrius Fabricanus grew greatly besotted on the love of a faire young Gentleman call'd Petroninus Valentinus who the more freely to injoy in her petulant imbraces caused her husband to be traiterously murdred But being in regard of the high measure of the fault complain'd upon by her husbands Kinred and Friends shee was convicted by the Iulian Law and suffered according to the penalty thereof Martiall reckoneth up as notorious Strumpets and Adulteresses Leviana Paula Proculina Zectoria Gallia as Catullus remembreth us of Austelina and Iuvenall of Hyppia Zoe one of the Roman Empresses caused her husband Arginopilus to be slaine to adulterate her selfe with Michael Paleologus but who shall read of both their ends shall finde that they were most wretched and miserable As these for Scortation and Adultery so others have been notoriously infamous for Incest Giddica the Wife of Pomminius Laurentinus grew into such an extreme dotage of her sonne in law Comminius that not able to compasse her unchaste desires and her Incestuous love being discovered to her husband shee dispairingly strangled her selfe of which death also Phoedra alike besotted on her husbands sonne Hippolitus perished Papinius the sonne of Papinius Volucris had a beautifull Sister whose name was Canusia These two spending their childhood together as their yeares so their naturall affection increased insomuch that the one thought nothing to deer for the other their love being mutuall and alternate not guilty of the least Impious thought or immodest apprehension but when they came to maturity new thoughts began to grow and fresh temptations to arise to which in their minority they were altogether unacquainted and now they could not sollace themselves without sighing nor frame any mirth but mixt with melancholly both were sick and of one disease but neither had the boldnesse to discover the nature of their malady and thus they continued for a season In the meane time the Father had found out a noble match for his Sonne but he put it off with evasions and could not bee wonne to lend a willing eare to the motion The Mother also had sought an Husband for her daughter to which shee was quite averse alledging her youth and unripenesse of yeares and so both the motions had a cessation for a time without any suspition in which interim the incestuous fire burst out into a flame which in the end consumed them both for the Sister was found to be great with Childe by the Brother which a length comming to the knowledge of the Father he grew inraged beyond all patience neither could his wrath be mitigated or appeased by the teares of the Mother or mediation of any friend but his constant resolution was they both should die yet not willing to imbrue his own hands in their bloud he devised another course causing two swords to be made the own he sent to his son Papinius the other to his
his hand made for the purpose and so rudely curried the Advocates naked body that he drew his eyes out tore off his stones and almost all the skin of his body The like he did to his wife though she were with child The Advocate dyed within three dayes after in great torment The Atturney transported himselfe to another place and his wife with much adoe recovering her rubbing spent the rest of her dayes there confounded with shame and infamy A Nobleman of Piedmont having married a Maid of mean parentage notwithstanding the honour she received by him she shamelesly abused her Lords bed by continuall Adulteries with a Gentleman his neighbour Which he knowing and purposing to take them in the act of uâ—cleannesse caused a packet of Letters to be brought him as from his Prince calling him to Court with an intent to send him in Embassage to a Forreine State Having imparted these Letters to his wife and providing all things necessary for his journey he departed with all his traine but at night stayes at a Castle of his to the Governour whereof he discovers his mis-fortune and designe and being followed onely by him and a Groome of his chamber all well armed in a darke night they came to the Castle where his Adulterate wife was in bed with her Amorist The Castellane told the Porter he had Letters from his Lord which he must presently deliver to his Lady The Porter opens the Gate and they suddenly all enter The Lord forbids the Porter to make any noyse but commanding him to light a Torch he presently goes to his Ladies chamber where the Castellane knocking toll'd an old woman her Baud that he had Letters from his Lord which his Lady must answer speedily This Lady drunke with her Lust commanded the old woman to open the doore and receive the Letters Then the Lord with the other two rushed in and suddenly seized on the two Adulterers naked together And after some furious words uttered he commanded his Lady with the helpe of her Baud to bind her Adulterate friend hand and foot and afterwards to hang him up upon a great Hooke fastned into a Beame for that purpose Then he caused the bed to be burnt commanding all the other moveables to be carried away he left onely a little straw for this Whore and Baud to lye on appointing that the dead body should remaine there untill the stink of it had choked them So having past some few dayes in that miserable plight they wretchedly ended their lives together Plutarch reckons this out of Dosythaus lib. 3. rerum saecularum Cyanippus the Syracusian being foxt with Wine meeting with his daughter Cyane in a darke corner by force comprest her but shee not knowing the party by whom she was deflowred pluck't off a Ring from his finger and gave it to her Nurse to keep which her Father after missing and shee finding by that assuredly that he was the man by whom she was vitiated shee found an opportunitie to transpierce him with a sword by which wound hee died and then shee her selfe fell on the same weapon and perish'd also The like Arisidas Italic lib. 3. relates of one Armutius who all the time of his youth lived a very continent and abstemious life but upon a time having drunke above measure he also in the night stuprated his daughter Medullinus who also knowing the ravisher by his Ring then taken from his Finger slew him without any respect of Filiall duty Fabinus Fabricanus the Cousin of Maximus having subdued Fuxia the chiefe City of the Samnites in which interim his Wife Fabia falling into the wanton embraces of her neare kinsman Petronius Valentinus at his home returne they conspired to murther him which having done they made a match together and were marryed But shee fearing that her new Husband might insiduate the life of her young Sonne Fabricianus who was then but a Childe she conveigh'd him thence to be liberally educated and instructed abroad who when hee grew to be a man and understood how treacherously and perfidiously his Father had been murdered and by whom he came disguis'd to Rome and having waited his opportunity slew both the Adulterer and the Adulteresse and for that act was acquit by the Senate One Story I connot forget remembred by Platine who writ the lives of the Popes though it be a mighty shame and a most ignominious aspersion not to exceed those in vertue whom we antecell in place and dignity yet this nothing mov'd Pope Iohn the twelfth of that name but that all honesty set apart and modesty quite banish'd he kept at his own charge a whole Seraglia of Prostitutes and Strumpets with whom night and day hee revelled and rioted which wickednesse escaped not without a most remarkable Judgement For he was after miserably slaine in the very act of Adultery Childebert the second and seventeenth King of France anno 692. grew in an utter detestation of his lawfull Wife and Queene Plectrude who was a Lady of a chaste and untainted life and divorc'd her from his Bed and Table in whose stead he received into his bosome one Alpayde a Gentlewoman of excellent Beauty and Feature but of a cruell and bloudy condition For when Lambert Bishop of Vtrecht a man of a strict life and austere conversation undertook boldly to lay his sinne before him and tell him the danger thereof notwithstanding hee had before restored him to his Episcopall See of which he had been before deprived shee having notice thereof could not rest in quiet till she had caused her Brother Dodon to kill this good Bishop which was done by the Kings consent For which neither of them escaped vengeance for Dodon dy'd despairing and mad and the King was strook after the acting of this murder with a disease of Wormes the stench wherof he not being able to endure threw himselfe headlong into the River of Mentz A strange and heavy Judgement for Wormes to eate his living flesh so that corruption did not altogether follow after death but contrary to nature hee rotted and his body putrified before death till the Worme of Conscience attended his soule a more miserable Death still attending a bad Life Philip the second sirnamed Augustus upon discontents repudiated his Queen Gelberge For which the King of Denmarke made complaint to the Pope of this injury done unto his Sister and the rather because neither Crime nor Delinquency nor the suspition of any could bee proved against her But this publike aspersion being cast upon her howsoever innocent must needs call her Honour into question which cannot bee but greatly to her harme and prejudice These things with other being alledged a day of hearing was appointed before the Popes Legate in the Bishops Hall at Paris where the Kings Cause was strongly maintained by the venters and Advocates but no one appeared in the poore Queenes defence insomuch that Sentence was ready to be pronounc'd against her and speedy
enjoy the moecall embraces of her libidinous companion plotted divers ways to take away her husbands life which at length she affected by poysoning him and divers of his family which having done and fearing to be questioned about the Fact she truss'd up her Jewels and the best things about her and fled into France unto the Court of Charles the Great with whom she so temporized and qualified her owne impious Cause and being withall a Lady of extraordinary aspect and presence that she grew highly into his grace and favour But when after he was informed of her unstable condition hee thought to make some tryall of her and being at that time a Widdower one day when hee was in some private conference with her at a window hee said openly Now Lady I put it to your free election whether you will take mee for your wedded Lord and Husband or this my Son here standing in presence To which Question shee without the least pause gave this suddaine Answer Then I make choice of the Sonne and refuse the Father which the King taking as an affront and being therewith somewhat mov'd he as suddenly reply'd I protest woman if thou hadst made choice of me I would have given thee to my Sonne if he would have accepted of thee but for that thou hast slighted and for saken me thou shalt now have neither of us and so presently commanded her as a Recluse to be shut up into a Nunnery But this place though never so strict could not containe her within the bounds of Modesty or Chastity For by the meanes of some Libertines her old companions and acquaintance shee made an escape out of the Cloister and having quitted that place shee wandred up and downe till having consumed all that shee could make she fell into necessitous poverty in which she miserably dy'd none commiserating her in her greatest extremity In memory of which her misdemeanors mixt with the murder of her naturall Lord and Husband the Kings of the West Saxons made a Decree that thence-forward none of their Wives should be called Queenes nor sit by them at any Feast or in any place of State or Honour And this was observed amongst them for a long time after Now to shew how the Creator of all who instituted chaste Matrimony in Paradice as hee hates those contaminated with all impurity so of the contrary he is a Guardian and Potector to those of cleane and undefiled life as may appeare by this subsequent story In the time of Edward the sonne of King Edgar by his first wife Egelfleda who began his reigne in the yeare of Grace nine hundred threescore and nineteene though he was opposed by his step-mother Elphaida who got into her confederacy Alphred Duke of Mercia a potent man in those dayes to have instated her sonne Egelredus a childe of seven yeares old in the Regall Dignity yet she was opposed by Bishop Dunstan with the rest of the Clergy who were also supported by the Earle of East Ingland now called Essex who against the Queens minde and her Confederates Crowned the said Edw. at Kingstowne but the fore-named Alphred who altogether adhered to the proceedings of the Dowager Queen being suspected to have too much private familiarity with her they agreed to put the strict Religious Cloysterers out of the College of Winchester where K. Edgar had before there placed and put into their roomes so many wanton and lascivious Clerks every one of them having his Concubine about him which Controversie had been like to have ended in bloud But there was an assembly of the Bishops and Lords the Prelates and Peeres of both parties in which Dunstan maintaining Chastity was much despised by the Adversary but still he upheld his opinion being grounded upon Justice and Vertue Now the place of their meeting was in a faire and large upper â—â—om and in this great division and argument it being doubtfull which side would carry it suddenly the joysts of the Loft failed and the floore tumbled downe being a great distance from the ground in which ruine the greatest part of those adverse to the Bishop and Clergy were either slaine outright or very dangerously hurt even to lamenesse but of all those that stood with Dunstan in the defence of chastity not one perished neither was any heard to complaine of the least hurt felt or found about them by which miraculous accident the Bishop compass'd his pious and religious ends This King Edward upon a time being hunting in the Forrest and having lost his Traine and finding none of his servants neare him hee bethought himself that his Mother-in-law Elphaida with her Sonne Egelredus lived at a place called Corfe-Castle which is in the West-Countrey and thought it no better a time then now to give her a visit but the malicious woman looking out of her window and knowing him a far off called to one of her servants of her owne breeding and told him what he had to doe for she perceived he was alone and none of his Peeres or Attendants about him By this time the King was come to the Castle gate whither she descended and offered him all the Courtesie of entertainment that any Syren who only flatters to destruction could have done for with courteous words she besought him to alight and to lodge in the Castle that night both which he with great affability and gentlenesse refused saying he would onely taste a Cup of her Beere and then ride to finde out some of his Company but the Cup being brought he had no sooner moved it towards his mouth but this Barbarous Villaine Traitor and Regicide strook him with a long Dagger edg'd on both sid 〈…〉 which entring behind the poynt appear'd to have fore'd way through his breast at which mortall wound receiv'd he put spurres to his horse making speed towards the Forrest in hope to have met with some of his servants but by the extremity of bleeding fainting by the way he felt from his horse with one foot intangled in the stirrop then he was dragg'd crosse high-wayes and a thwart plowde lands till his horse staid at a Towne called Covisgate where he was found but not being knowne for the King hee was unworthily buried at a Town called Warham where his body remained for the terme of three yeares after at which time it was discovered and the dissembling and murderous woman thinking to clearer her selfe of the fact to the world thought at the first to visit him in the way of Pilgrimage but to make the cause evident against her the Horse on which she rode could not be compell'd to come neare unto the place by a miles distance neither by faire usage nor sore beating or any course that man could devise after whose death her sonne Egelredas was Crowned King in the first yeare of whosâ— Reigne the Land grew barren and scarce bore any fruit there happened moreover a Plague which tooke away the men and a Murraine
which destroyed the Beasts and Cattaile He proved likewise a great enemy to the Church being ungracious in the beginning wretched in the middle of his life and hatefull in the end thereof Neither could some Church-men cleare themselves of those Capitall Crimes which they very bitterly reproved in others For Sigandus made Bishop of Shirburne about the twelfth yeare of Edward sirnamed the Confessor shortly after usurped the Bishoprick of Winchester by strength who was a lewd and unlearned man as most of the Prelates of England were in those dayes and wholy devoted to Avarice Lust and Vaine-glory who could not containe himselfe within the Lists of keeping variety of Concubines which in those dayes was held but a veniall or quotidian sinne but he imploy'd his Panders to corrupt married women to his lustfull embraces thinking no wickednesse could be truely committed till hee had ascended the highest branch thereof and when it was openly spoken that he was unworthy the name of a Priest who made such boast of the pompe of the World the use of Voluptuousnesse Gluttony and Luxury whilst in the interim there was no care of instructing mens soules in the way towards Heaven Hee had learn'd from some one of his Chaplaines a better Scholler then himselfe this poore and slight Answer to evade it Nunc aliud tempus alii pro tempore mores Now the times are chang'd and wee have learnt to suit our Manners and Conditions to the present a notorious Church-temporizer in those dayes But though he reign'd long in great pompe and prosperity he was in the time of William the Conquerour deprived of all his Ecclesiasticall honours and confined to Winchester and there kept prisoner till he dyed who in that extreame dejection when he should onely have repented him of his former Avarice and studied newnesse of life would usually sweare he was a very poore man and not worth one peny and that hee was free from all Concupiscence of Lust both which were proved untrue For after his death a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found about his necke by which in divers places of the earth was discovered much Treasure and those Women that ministred unto him were no other then Prostitutes and Concubines Henry the second was a potent and most victorious Prince But after he had falne into the libidinous embraces of the Lady Rosamond Daughter to the Lord Fitzwaters he was never quiet but continually afflicted with Warres both forraine and domestick insomuch that both his Queene and Sons rebelled against him and put the whole Realme into great combustion and for her part shee did not escape a due scourge for her offence for though the King provided all meanes possible for her security and safety by building the intricate Labyrinth at Woodstock and gave her in charge to a most trusty Guardian yet the Queen at length by her Spies found her out and with more then a womanish chastisement which should ever savour of some mercy tore off those delicate locks with which the King had been so much intangled and forced her to drinke a draught of deadly poyson by which her life was compell'd out of her body and thus Lust ever carryeth her rod at her owne girdle To descend unto these latter times how many strange and bloudy murders have beene committed through Lust I will give them but a meere nomination because most of them have beene Staged Book'd and Balleted and disperst abroad through the Kingdome As Master Arden of â—eversham slaine by his wife and her adulterous Companion Cosby the act it selfe being committed in his owne house by a barbarous and inhumane villaine most commonly knowne by the name of Black Will who after the deed done and his reward received fled into the Low-Countries where he thought himselfe secure But Gods hand reached him even thither where for some other deed of the same nature he was burnt on a Stage in Flushing and shee her selfe with Cosby and his Sister together with a Gentleman Master Green who had carried Letters betwixt the two Adulterers though hee took it upon his death he knew not the intents of them were all publikely executed at the Gallowes The like murder was committed on the person of one Master Page of Plymouth by his young wife and one Master George Strangwidge who as the common voice went were privately contracted together before her inforc'd Marriage But howsoever as they were convicted of the murder so for the same they were condemn'd and publikely executed And but of late dayes those two bloudy Ministers of the Devill most commonly knowne by the names of Countrey Tom and Cambury Besse who made a trade to have her his Whore walke in the evening into the Fields and where she saw any Gentleman or other likely to have money about him or good cloathes on his backe shee would insinuate into his Company and with her libidinous allurements offer her selfe to his prostitution which if he accepted of that arch-limbe of the Devill who hid himselfe privately for that purpose and stealing upon them with a Bastinado hooped and plated with Iron beate out his Braines even in the very act of Lust neither having pitty of body or soule Then rifled they their Pockets and stript them of their cloathes of which they made profitable chaffer being vendible at the Brokers for the last of which being committed upon a young Gentleman of good quality by his cloathes they were discovered and apprehended hee being executed neare unto the place where the last Fact was committed and after being thence removed to a more remote place his body hangs in chaines upon a Gibbet even to this day and shee was hang'd in Clerken-well fields over against Islington If any would have further inspection into the cursed fruits of Lust let him but enquire after the monethly Sessions at New-gate where scarce one passeth without those that goe for Maid-servants either strangling their Bastard-Issue or putting them downe into privities not caring to save their smal credit in this world to hazard everlasting perdition in the world to come yet notwithstanding all their close packings they are in the end found out and brought to the Gallowes I am loath to be more tedious in this then the rest therefore I conclude with this Distick as a generall Caveat unto all libidinously addicted Quid facies facies veneris cum veneris ante Non Sedeas sedeas ne pereus pereus What wilt thou doe when thou before Loose Venus shalt appeare Stay not but take thine heeles lest her Allurements cost thee deare CHAP. VII Gods Judgements against the Sinne of Gluttony TThis Sinne of Gluttony tooke its originall in our great Grandam Eve as we read Genesis 2. 16. And the Lord God commanded the man saying thou shalt eat freely of every Tree of the Garden but of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eate of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye the