pernicious and abominable, than those idolatrous sacrifices, which were offered in honour of their Pagan gods."* Doubtless he thought the one not so offensive to reason, and the impressions Divinity hath made on every understanding, as the other were very pleasant to the senses, and therefore apt to steal away the mind from better things. For it was his maxim, "That eve. ry thing a man doeth, is either an hinderance or furtherance to good."† This would be esteemed intolerable doctrine in a poor Quaker; yet will the poor Quakers rejoice, if it be esteemed and followed, as good doctrine in Augustine.

Sect. 14. The Council of Carthage, though times began to look somewhat mistier, and the purity and spirituality of religion to be much declined by the professors of Christianity; yet there was so much zeal left against the worst part of Heathenism, that I find an express Canon against the reading of vain books and comedies of the Gentiles, lest the minds of the people should be defiled by them. But this age either hath no such canon, or executeth it not, to the shame of their profession.

Sect. 15. CARDAN more particularly relateth, how even Gregory the Great was so zealous of preserving purity of manners among Christians, who lived almost two hundred years after the Carthaginian council, that he caused many Latin authors to be burned, as vain and lascivious; as Cæcilianus, Affranius, Nævius, Licinus, Zennius, Attilius, Victor, Livy's Dialogues : Nor did Plautus, Martial, and Terence, so much in request, both in the schools and academies of the land, escape their honest zeal, although the multitude of copies so far frustrated their good intentions, as that they are multiplied of late.‡

!

August. de civit. Dei, 1. 2. c. 7.
Cardan.de Sapient. 1. 2.

† De ira Dei, l. 2. c. 7.

Sect. 16. GRATIAN also had such like passages as these, "We see that the priests of the Lord, neglecting the gospel and the prophets, read comedies or playbooks, and sing love-verses, and read Virgil, a book in which are yet some good expressions."* Strange! that these things should have been so severely censured of old, and that persons whose names are had in so much reverence, should repute these their censures the construction of Christ's precepts, and the natural consequences of the Christian doctrine; and yet that they should be so far neglected of this age, as not to be judged worthy an imitation. But pray let us hear what doctrine the Waldenses teach in this affair.

Sect. 17. PETRUS BELLONIUs, that great and inquisitive traveller, when he came to Mount Athos, where there live in several monasteries six thousand Coloeri, or religious persons, so called, he did not so much as find there, no, nor in all Greece, one man acquainted with the conversation of those parts; for though they had several manuscripts of divinity in their libraries, yet not one poet or historian; for the rulers of that church were such enemies to that sort of learning, that they anathematized all such priests and religious persons, as should read or transcribe any books but what treated of religion: and persuaded all others, that it was not law. ful for a Christian to study poesy, &c. though nothing is more grateful in these days. Zeno was of the same opinion against poetry.†

Sect. 18. WALDENSES, were a people so called from one Peter Waldo, a citizen of Lyons, in France, in the year 1160, that inhabited Piedmont, elsewhere called Albigenses, from the country of Albia; Lollards in England, from one Reynard Lollard, who some time after came into these parts and preached boldly against the idolatries, superstitions, and vain conversation of the inhabitants of this island. They had many other names, as Arnoldists, Esperonists, Henricians, Siccars, Insabaches, Patarenians, Turlupins, Lyonists, Fraticelli, Hussites, Bohemians, still the same ; but finally, by their enemies, Damnable Heretics, though by the Protestants, The true Church of Christ. And to omit many testimonies, I will only instance in bishop Usher, who, in his discourse of the succession of the Christian church, defends them not only as true reformers, but makes the succession of the Protestant church to be mainly evincible from their antiquity. I shall forbear all the circumstances and principles they held, or in which he strongly defends them against the cruelty and ignorance of their adversaries, particularly Rainerius, Rubis Capetaneis, &c.* only what they held concerning our present subject of Apparel and Recreations, I cannot be so injurious to the truth, their self-denial, the good of others, at whose reformation I aim, and my own discourse, as to omit it. And therefore I shall proceed to allege their faith and practice in these matters, however esteemed but of a trifling importance, by the loose, wanton, and carnal minded of this generation, whose feeling is lost by the enjoyment of their inordinate desires, and that think it an high state of Christianity to be no better than the beasts that perish, namely, in not being excessive in Newgate and mere kennel-enormities. That these ancient reformers had another sense of these things, and that they made the conversation of the gospel of a crucified Jesus to intend and require another sort of life, than what is used by almost all those who account themselves members of his church, I shall shew out of their own doctrines, as found in their most authentic histories.

Sect. 19. To be brief: in their exposition upon the Lord's prayer, that part of it which speaks thus, "Give us this day our daily bread;" where, next to that spiritual bread, which they make it the duty of all to seek more than life, they come positively to deny the praying for more than is requisite for outward necessities, or that it is lawful to use more; condemning all superfluity and excess, out of fashion, pride, or wantonness, not only of bread, but all outward things, which they judge to be thereby comprehended; using Ezekiel's words, "That fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, was the cause of the wickedness and the abominations of Sodom, for which God by fire destroyed them off the earth."* Whereupon they conclude, with an ancient father of the primitive church, after this manner, "That costly apparel, superfluity in diet, (as three dishes, when one will serve) play, idleness and sleep, fatten the body, nourish luxury, weaken the spirit, and lead the soul unto death: But (say they) a spare diet, labour, short sleep, plain and mean garments, help to purify the soul, tame the body, mortify the lusts of the flesh and comfort the spirit." So severe were they, that in that chapter of the instructions of their children, they would not suffer them to converse with those of strange places or principles, whose conversation was gaming, plays, and the like wanton recreations; but especially concerning young women. "A man, say they, must have a great care of his daughter : hast thou daughters? keep them within to wholesome things; see they wander not: for Dinah, Jacob's daughter, was corrupted by being seen of strangers."† They affirm no better to be the general event of such conversation.

To which I shall add their judgment and practice concerning taverns, public houses for treats and pleasures, with which the land swarms in our days.

Sect. 20. "A tavern is the fountain of sin, the school of the Devil; it works wonders fitting the place : it is

* Jo. Paul. Per. Hist. Wald. in cat. l. 1. c. 3. p. 37, 31. Dona nos le nostre pan quotidian. en. choi. Memor. Morrel. Vign. Mem. f. 7. Ezek. xvi. 45. Thesaur. fed. Ap. Wald.

† Ibid. 1. 2 c. 3. Lifilli sign. naisson ali patrons carnals. de non esser rendus, &c.

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the custom of God to shew his power in his church, and to work miracles; that is to say, to give sight to the spiritually blind, to make the lame to leap, the dumb to sing, the deaf to hear: but the Devil doeth quite the contrary to all these in taverns, and the like places of pleasure. For when the drunkard goes to the tavern, he goes upright; but when he comes forth, he cannot go at all; he has lost his sight, speech, and hearing too. The lectures that are red in this school of the Devil, say these poor Waldenses, and first reformers, are gluttonies, oaths, perjuries, lyings, blasphemies, flatteries, and divers other wicked villanies and pernicious effects, by which the heart is withdrawn farther and farther from God. * And, as the book of Ecclesiasticus saith, "The taverner shall not be freed from sin."

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But above other recreations, do but seriously observe of what danger and ill consequence these first reformers thought Dancing, Music, and the like pastimes to be, which are the greatest divertisements of the times, viz.

Sect. 21. Dancing is the Devil's procession, and he that enters into a dance, entereth into his procession; the Devil is the guide, the middle, and the end of the dance; as many paces as a man maketh in dancing, so many paces doth he make to go to hell. A man sinneth in dancing divers ways, for all his steps are numbered ; in his touch, in his ornaments, in his hearing, sight, speech, and other vanities. And therefore we will prove, first by the scripture, and afterwards by divers other reasons, how wicked a thing it is to dance. The first testimony that we will produce, is that which we read in the gospel, where it is said, it pleased Herod so well, that it cost John Baptist his life. The second is in Exodus, when Moses coming near to the congregation, saw the calf, he cast the tables from him, and broke them at the foot of the mountain; and afterwards it cost three thousand of their lives. Besides, the ornaments which women wear in their dances are as crowns for