an elder, the thankes for them; every heat makes him a harvest; and discontents abroad are his sowers he is actively his princes, but passively his He is often a desirer of learning, angers servant. which once arrived at, proves his strongest armour : he is a lover at all points; and a true defender of the faith of women: more wealth than makes him seeme a handsome foe, lightly he covets not, lesse is below him he never truly wants, but in much having, for then his ease and lechery afflict him : the word peace, though in prayer, makes him start, and God hee best considers by his power: hunger and cold ranke in the same file with him, and hold him to a man: his honour else, and the desire of doing things beyond him, would blow him greater than the sonnes of Anack. His religion is, commonly, as his cause is (doubtfull) and that the best devotion keeps best quarter: he seldome sees gray hayres, some none at all, for where the sword failes, there the flesh gives fire: in charity, he goes beyond the clergy, for hee loves his greatest enemy best, much drinking. He seemes a full student, for hee is a great desirer of controversies, he argues sharply, and carries his conclusion in his scabbard; in the first refining of man-kind this was the gold, his actions are his ammell. His alay (for else you cannot worke him perfectly) continuall duties, heavy and weary marches, lodgings as full of need as cold diseases. No time to argue, but to execute. Line him with these, and linke him to his squadrons, and hee appeares a most rich chaine for princes. A Taylor S a creature made up out of threds, that were pared off from Adam, when hee was rough-cast. The end of his being differeth from that of others, and is not to serve God, but to cover sinne. Other mens pride is his best patron, and their negligence, a maine passage to his profit. He is a thing of more then ordinary judgement: for by vertue of that, hee buyeth land, buildeth houses, and raiseth the low set roofe of his crosse legged fortune. His actions are strong encounters, and for their notoriousnesse alwaies upon record. It is neither Amadis de Gaule, nor the Knight of the Sunne, that is able to resist them. A ten groats fee setteth them on foot, and a brace of officers bringeth them to execution. He handleth the Spanish pike, to the hazzard of many poore Egyptian vermins; and in shew of his valour, scorneth a greater gantlet, then will cover the top of his midle finger. Of all weapons he most affecteth the long bill; and this he will manage to the great prejudice of a customers estate. His spirit notwith standing is not so much as to make you thinke him man; like a true mongrell, he neither bites nor barks, but when your back is towards him. His heart is a lumpe of congealed snow: Prometheus was asleep while it was making. Hee differeth altogether from God; for with him the best peeces are still marked out for damnation, and without hope of recovery shall be cast down into hell. He is partly an alchymist; for hee extracteth his owne apparell out of other mens clothes; and when occasion serveth, making a brokers shop his alembicke; can turne your silkes into gold, and having furnished his necessities, after a month or two, if he be urged unto it, reduce them again to their proper substance. He is in part likewise an arithmetician; cunning enough for multiplication and addition, but cannot abide substraction: Summa totalis, is the language of his Canaan; and usque ad ultimum quadrantem, the period of all his charity. For any skill in geometry, I dare not commend him; for hee could never yet find out the dimensions of his owne conscience: notwithstanding he hath many bottomes, it seemeth this is alwaies bottomlesse. He is double yarded, and yet his female complaineth of want of measure. And so with a Libera nos à malo, I leave you; promising to amend whatsoever is amisse, at his next setting. A Puritane Sa diseas'd peece of Apocrypha : bind him to the Bible, and he corrupts the whole text: ignorance and fat feed, are his founders; his nurses, railing, rabbies, and round breeches his life is but a borrowed blast of wind; for betweene two religions, as betweene two doores, he is ever whistling. Truly whose child he is, is yet unknowne; for willingly his faith allowes no father: onely thus far his pedegree is found, Bragger and he flourisht about a time first; his fiery zeale keepes him continually costive, which withers him into his own translation, and till he eat a schooleman, he is hide-bound; he ever prayes against non residents, but is himselfe the greatest discontinuer, for he never keepes neere his text: any thing that the law allowes, but marriage, and March beere, hee murmures at; what it disallowes and holds dangerous, makes him a discipline: where the gate stands open, hee is ever seeking a stile: and where his learning ought to climb, he creeps through: give him advice, you run into traditions, and urge a modest course, he cryes out councels. His greatest care is to contemne obedience, his last care to serve God handsomely and cleanly. Hee is now become so crosse a kind of teaching, that should the Church enjoyne cleane. shirts, hee were lowsie: more sense then single praiers is not his; nor more in those, then still the same petitions: from which he either feares a learned faith, or doubts God understands not at first hearing. Shew him a ring, hee runs backe like a beare; and hates square dealing as allied to caps: a paire of organs blow him out o'th parish, and are the only glister-pipes to coole him. Where the meat is best, there he confutes most, for his arguing is but the efficacy of his eating: good bits he holds breed good positions, and the Pope hee best concludes against, in plum-broth. He is often drunke, but not as we are, temporally, nor can his sleepe then cure him, for the fumes of his ambition make his very soule reele, and that small beere that should allay him (silence) keepes him more surfeited, and makes his heat breake out in private houses women and lawyers are his best disciples, the one next fruit, longs for forbidden doctrine, the other to maintaine forbidden titles, both which he sowes amongst them. Honest he dare not be, for that loves order: yet if he can bee brought to ceremonie, and made but master of it, he is converted. : G |