Mystical Bedlam — Thomas Adams

Mystical Bedlam · Thomas Adams

Mysticall Bedlam, OR, THE WORLD OF MAD-MEN. The second Sermon.

ECCLESIASTES, CAP. 9. VER. 3.

The heart of the Sonnes of men is full of euill, and madnesse is in their heart while they liue: and after that, they goe to the dead.

MANS sentence is yet but begunne; and you will say, a Comma doth not make a perfect Sense. Wee are now got to his Colon: hauing left his heart full of euill, wee come to his madnesse. No maruell if, when the stomacke is full of strōg wines, the head grow drunken. The heart being so filled with that pernicious liquor, euill, becomes drunke with it. Sobriety, a morall daughter, nay, Reason the mother is lost; he runs mad, starke mad. This Frenzy possessing, not some outroome, but the principall seate, the Heart.

Neyther is it a short madnesse; that wee may say of it, as the Poet of anger, furor breuis est; but of long continuance; euen during life, whiles they liue. Other drunkennesse is yet after sleepe sober; but this is a perpetuall lunacie.

Considerable then is 1. the matter. 2. the men. 3. the time, Quid, in quo, Quamdiu. What, in whom, and how long. Madnesse is the matter. 2. the place, the heart. 3. The time, whiles they liue. The Colon or medium of mans Sentence spends it selfe in the description of

A

Tenant. Madnesse.

Tenement. The Heart.

Tenure: Whiles they liue.

1. Madnesse. 2. holds the heart. 3. during life. It is pitty. 1. so bad a Tenant. 2. hath so long time. 3. in so good a house.

1. The Tenant. Madnesse.

There is a double madnesse, corporall and spirituall, The obiect of the former is Reason: of the latter, Religion. That obsesseth the braine, this the Heart. That expects the helpe of the naturall Physitian, this of the Mysticall. The difference is; this spirituall madnesse may insanire cum ratione, cum Religione numquam. The morally-franticke may be mad with reason, neuer with Religion.

Physitians hauehave put a difference betwixt Phrenzy, and Madnesse: imagining madnesse to be onelyonly an infection and perturbation of the formost Cell of the head; whereby Imagination is hurt: but the Phrenzy to extend further, euen to offend the reason and memory; and is neuer without a feuer. Galen cals it an inflammation of the braines, or filmes thereof, mixed with a sharpe feuer. My purpose needes me not to be curious of this distinction.

To vnderstand the force of madnesse, we must conceiue in the brayne three ventricles; as houses assign'd by Physitians for three dwellers, Imagination, Reason, and Memorie. According to these three internal senses or faculties, there be three kinds of Phrensies or Madnesses.

1. There are some mad, that can rightly iudge of the things they see, as touching imagination & phantasie: but for cogitation and reason, they swarue from naturall iudgement.

2. Some being madde, are not deceiu'd so much in common cogitation and reason; but they erre in Phantasie and Imagination.

3 There are some, that be hurt in both imagination and reason, and they necessarily therewithall doe lose their memories. That whereas in perfect, sober, and well composed men, Imagination first conceiues the formes of things, and presents them to the reason to iudge; and reason discerning them, commits them to Memorie to retaine: in mad-men nothing is conceiu'd aright, therefore nothing deriu'd, nothing retayn'd.

For spirituall relation, we may conceiue in the soule; vnderstanding, reason, will. 1. The vnderstanding apprehendeth things according to their right natures. 2. The Reason discusseth them, arguing their fitnesse or inconuenience, validity or vanity: and examines their desert of probation or disallowance, their worthinesse eyther to be receyued or reiected. 3. The Will hath her particular working, and embraceth, or refuseth the obiects, which the vnderstanding hath propounded, & the reason discoursed.

Spirituall madnesse is a deprauation, or almost depriuation of all these faculties, quoad coelestia; so farre as they extend to heauenly things. 1. For vnderstanding, the Apostle sayth.a1. Cor. 2. 14. The naturall man perceyues not spirituall things, because they are spiritually discerned. And the veryb2. Cor. 4. 4. minds of vnbeleeuers are blinded by the god of this world. 2. For Reason: it iudgeth vanities more worthy, of prosecution when they are absent, of embracing when they salute vsus.cMalac. 3. 14. It is in vaine to serue the Lord: and what profite is it, that wee hauehave kept his ordinance, or walked mournefully before him? This is the voyce of distracted cogitation, and of reason out of the wits.Vet. 15. Wee call the proud happy; and the workers of wickednesse are set vp: yea they that tempt God are deliuered. 3. For Will; it hath lost the propensenesse to good, and freedome of disposing it selfe to well doing: neyther hath it any power of it owne, to stoppe and retarde the precipitation to euill.

Now whereas they distinguish Soule. 1. in vegetabilem, that giueth life. 2. in sensibilem, that giueth feeling. 3. in rationalem, that giueth reason: the first desiring esse, to be; the second, benè, to bee well; the third optimè esse, to be best; so not resting till it be with God: behold, this spiritual madnesse eneruates this last action of the soule, as corporall endeuors to extinguish the two former.

They attribute to the Soule 5. powers. 1. Feeling, whereby the Soule is moued to desire conuenient things, and to eschue hurtfull. 2. Witte, whereby shee knoweth sensible and present things. 3. Imagination, whereby she beholdeth the likenesse of bodily things, though absent. And these three vertues, say Philosophers, be common to men with beasts. 4. is Ratio, wherby shee iudgeth betweene good and euill, truth and falshood. 5. Intellectus, whereby shee comprehends things (not onelyonly visible, but) intelligible, as God, Angels, &c. And these two last are peculiar to man, abiding with the soule, liuing in the flesh, and after death. It beholdeth still the higher things per intellectum, and the lower per rationem.

As corporall madnesse drawes a thicke obfuscation ouer these lights, so spirituall corrupts and peruerts them: that as they are strangers to heauen, quoad intellectum, so at last, they become fooles in natural things, quoad rationem. Rom. 1. 28.As the Apostle plainely. Euen as they did not like to retaine God in their knowledge, so God gaue them ouer to a reprobate mind, to doe those things that are not conuenient. They that forget God, shall forget nature. Hence ensue both these frenzies, and with them a dissimilitude to men, to Christian men. It is reckoned vp among the curses, that wayte on the heeles of disobedience. Deut. 28.Deut. 28. 28. The Lord shall smite thee with madnesse, blindnesse, and astonishment of heart. But it is a fearefull accumulation of Gods iudgements and our miseries, when spirituall Phrensie shall possesse the soule, and scatter the powers of the inner man: euacuating not onelyonly imagination; but knowledge; not reason, but faith; not sense, but conscience. When the opinion of the world shall repute men sober and wise, and the scrutinie of God shall finde them mad-men.

To draw yet neerer to the point of our compasse, & to discouer this spirituall madnesse; let vsus conceiue in mans heart, (for therein this frenzy consists) in answerable reference to those three faculties in the brayne, and powers of the soule before manifested, these three vertues, Knowledge, Faith, Affections. The defect of grace, and destitution of integrity, to the corrupting of these three, cause madnesse. We will not inquire further into the causes of corporall frenzy: the madnes which I would minister to, is thus caused: a defectiue knowledge, a faith not well informed, affections not well reformed. Ignorance, vnfaithfulnesse, and refractary desires make a man mad.

1. Ignorance

Is a cause of this madnes; nay, it is madnes it selfe. Supplicij causa est, supplicium que sui. How mad are they then, that settling their corrupted soules on the lees of an affected ignorance, imagine it an excusatory mitigation of their sinnefulnesse! But so it befals them, as it doth the frantike: Hi dementiam, illi ignorantiam suam ignorant: These are ignorant of their owne ignorance, as those of their madnesse., foreign & foreign are inseparable companions. Wickednesse is folly; and ignorance of celestiall things is eyther madnesse, or the efficient cause, (or rather deficient) whereupon madnesse ensueth.aPsal. 14. 4. All the workers of iniquity hauehave no knowledge. The wicked in the day of their confusion, shall confesse, that the madnesse of their exorbitant courses, and their wildnes erring from the way of truth, arose from their ignorance of the way of the Lord.bWisd. 5. 6. Therefore hauehave wee erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousnese hath not shined vponupon vsus, &c. Will you heare their acknowledged reason? For the way of the Lord wee hauehave not knowne. So Wisd. 13.Wisd. 13. 1. from the absent knowledge of the true God, & for want of vnderstanding, and confessing by the workes the workemaster, the madnesse of Idolarry is hatched.cVer. 18. For health, hee calleth vponupon that which is weake: for life, hee prayeth to that which is dead: and for a good iourney, hee asketh of that which cannot set a foot forward. Through this errour, they were so mad, as to ascribe, first to stockes and stones, insensible creatures; secondly, to men, dust and ashes; thirdly, to wicked men, the worst of those that had a reasonable soule; fourthly, to Deuils, the malicious enemies of God and men, dWisd. 14. 21.that incomparable name of God.

Beyond exception, without question, the authority, patronage, and originall fatherhood of spirituall madnesse, Nescire Deum causa dementiae est.is the nescience of God. No maruell, if the aPsal. 95. 10.people doe erre in their very heart, sayth the Psalmist, the locall seate of this madnes, when they hauehave not known the wayes of the Lord. The true obiect of diuine knowledge is God; and the Booke wherein we learne him, is his Word. How shall they scape the rockes, that saile without this Compasse? when the Frenzy hath turned the edge of common sense, frustrated the power of reason, and captiuated the regent-house of vnderstanding, a man dreades not fire, mockes the thunder, playes at the holes of Asps, & thrusts his hand into the mouthes of Lions: ignoti nec timor, nec amor; he knowes not the danger.

So, whiles the supreme Iustice is not knowne, nor the auenger of wickednesse vnderstood,Prou. 14. 9. the vngodly are so madde, as to mocke at sinne, to play at the brinks of the infernall pitte, and to dally with those Aspes & Crocodiles, the stinging and tormenting spirits; to precipitate themselues into that vnquenched fire, to fillup the darts of thunder backe againe to the sender, and with a thirsty voracity to swallow down the dregs of the wrathfull viall. Quid in causa nisi ignorantia? what hath thus distempered the heart, and put it into this wildnesse, that without feare or wit, men run into the euident danger of vengeance,Prou. 22. 3. if not ignorance? Aprudent man foreseeth the plague, and hideth himselfe, but the foolish run madly on, and are punished.

If the Romists were not mad-mē, or worse, they would neuer set vp ignorance as a Lampe to light men to heauen: assuring it for the damme to produce, and nurse with her cherishing milke to batten deuotion; when it is indeede an originall cause of madnesse, the mother of errour and wildnesse; making mans way to blisse more vncertaine, then Hannibals on the Alpes, or a Larkes in the ayre: The truth is; know to know, and be wise; know to obey, and be happy. This is eternall life, to know God, and his Sonne whom he hath sent, Iesus Christ. Labour to vnderstand the Bible, lest thou vndergoe the curses in it. Lege historiam, ne fias historia. Saint Paul after the recitation of many fearefull iudgements, concludes: Now all these things hapned vntounto them for ensamples, 1. Cor. 10. 11.and are written for our admonition, &c. If wee will not bee admonished by these ensamples, wee may become ensamples our selues, histories of madnesse to future generations. Let the Papists call Ignorance by neuer so tolerable and gentle names, it is Ignorance still, still cause of madnes. If madnes may bring to heauen, there is hope for these wilfully ignorant.

2. Vnfaithfulnesse

Is a sufficient-efficient cause of madnes. Faith is the Christian mans reason: now on the priuation of reason, must needes follow the position of madnes. For shall the Creatour of heauen and earth, the eternall Iustice, and infallible Truth affirme? shall he sweare? wil you put him to his oath; and that by two immutable things, the best in heauen, and the best on earth? will you hauehave him set his hand to it, and write it with his owne finger? dare you not yet trust him without a Seale? must hee seale it with that bloudy waxe, in the impression of death on his Sonne? must you hauehave witnesses, three on earth, and as many in heauen, when the King of Kings might well write Teste meipso? and will you not yet beleeue him? Is there no credite from your hearts to all these premises, promises, attestations, protestations, signes, seales? Will not these, all these signifie, certifie, satisfie your soules of that vnchangeable truth? Surely, you are madde, haplesly, hopelesly mad, vnmeasurably out of your spirituall wits. Were you as deepely gone in a corporall frenzy, I would sigh out your desperate case.

Hei mihi quod nullis ratio est medicabilis herbis!

Shall the Lord threaten iudgements, woe to him that trembles not. Non sapient, sentient tamen. Hell was not made for nothing. The vantguard of that accursed departing rabble, the ringleaders of the crew that dance to hell,Reuel. 21 8. are vnbeleeuers. Reuel. 21. An vnsetled heart accompanied incredulity.Esay 7. 9. If yee will not beleeue, surely yee shall not be established. Neyther are they that beleeue not, gathered within the pale and solde of the Church; but wander like straggling goates, and wilde beasts on the mountaines and forrests of this world. Hereupon, through the improuident and incircumspect courses, that madde Infidelity keepes, the soule stumbles at the Rocke, 1. Pet. 2. 7. 8.and is broken by that, which might hauehave beene her eternall safety. 1. Pet. 2. They that wander from the mounds and bounds of Faith, madly inuite dangers to salute them. Sub clypeo fidei, & subsidio virtutis vir tutus. But where faith is not our Proctor, nor is prouidence our Protector: what shall shield vsus, in the absence of faith? Not Solon, not Solomon, a Wise man among the Gentiles, a wiser among the Christians; but grow madde in the deficiencie of faith.

Men see by vnanswerable arguments, that the hand of God is too strong for sinners; that the least touch of his finger staggers their liues, their soules: that hee sends his Executioner, Death, to cal the wicked away; and that in a more horrid shape, then to others; arming him with plague, murder, distraction, destruction, and that often with suddennesse: they behold that (Cadit corpus, inde cadauer; sepelitur, seponitur) the body dies, and turns to rottennesse: they know their owne building to be made of the same loame and dust, and therfore lyable to that common and equall law. Frequent examples of Gods immediate vengeance, are added to the ancient trophees and monumentall ruines of his former desolations: spectacles set vp in the vast Theater of this world, whereof quocunque sub axe, whither soeuer thou turnest thine eyes, thou must needes be a spectator. Shall we still thinke, that solummodò pereunt, vt pereant; vel vt pereundo alios deterreant: they only perish to perish, and not to terrifie others, threatning the like wretchednes to the like wickednes? Surely, the iudgements of God should bee like his Thunders; Poena ad paucos, terror ad omnes: Whilest some fall, others should feare. They that will not take example by others, shall giuegive example to others.

But we see those that are as ripe in lewdnesse, draw long and peaceable breathes: neither is it the disposition of a singular power, but the contingencie of naturall causes, that thus worketh. Take heed: it is not the leuity, but the lenity of God; not the weakenesse of his arme, but the mercy of his patience, that thus forbeareth thee.2. Pet 3. 9. The Lord is not slacke, as some count slacknes, but is long-suffering to vsus-ward, &c. If this gentle Physicke make thee madder, hee hath a darke chamber to put thee in, a dungeon is more lightsome and delightsome, the Graue; bands of darkenesse to restraine thy outrages, and potions of brimstone to tame and weaken thy peruersenesse. Then will hee demonstrate actually; Nemo me impunè lacessit: No man shall prouoke me vnpunished.

Infidelity of Gods iudgements is madnesse; vnbeliefe of his mercies hath neuer beene counted lesse. What is it else, to refuse the offer of that Lambe, which takes away the sinnes of the world, Ioh. 1. 29.and to cut off our selues from that vniuersall promise? Moritur Christus pro indigenis, pro indignis: and spreaders out his armes on the Crosse, to embrace both Iew and Gentile. Why doth not God giuegive faith?Aug. I answere with that Father. Non ideo non habet fidem, quia Deus non dat; sed quiatu non accipis. Thou doest not therefore lacke faith, because God doth not offer it; but because thou wilt not accept it.

The name of Iesus Christ is, sayeth Saint August. Nomen, sub quo nemini desperandum est: A name able to defend vsus from desperation. But there are many implacable threatnings against out guiltinesse: There are none implacable to faith; none without reseruation of mercy to repentance. EueryEvery conditionall proposition hath two parts: the former suspendeth the sentence, and is called the antecedent: the latter concludeth the sentence, and is called the consequent. The first, Nil ponit in esse. As a conditionall promise inferreth nothing, but deriueth all force and vertue from the connexion, whereof it dependeth. So in menaces, there is eyther some presupposed cause, or after-concession, wherein it inferreth a consequence. If thou hast sinned: if thou doest not repent. There is place for remission with God, if there be place for repentance in thy owne heart.

If then distrust of Gods mercy bee not madnesse, what is? when it causeth a man to breake that league of kindnesse which he oweth to his owne flesh; and offers to his hand engines of his owne destruction: euermore presenting his mind with halters, swords, poisons, pistolls, ponds: disquieting the heart with such turbulent and distracting cogitations; till it hath adiured the hands to imbrue themselues in their owne bloud, to the incurring of a sorer execution from the iustice of God. Is he not mad, that will giuegive credite to the Father of lies, rather then to the God of Truth? when God promiseth to Penitence, the wiping away her teares, the binding vp her wounds, and healing her sores: and the deuill denyeth it; giuing it for impossible to hauehave the iustice of God satisfied, and thy sinnes pardoned: behold, darkenes is beleeued rather then light, and falshood is preferred to truth.

Be not thus Lyon-like in your houses, and franticke in your hearts, Ecclus. 4. 30.mad in your desperate follies; to shut vp heauen, when the Lord hath opened it; to renew that score which he hath wiped; and when hee hath pulled you out of the fire, to runne into it againe: like Tygers, to teare and deuoure your owne soules, which that bloud of eternall merite hath freed from the Dragon of hell. It is not a light and inferior degree of madnes, but a diffident and desperate; when the Physitian (euen He of heauen) shall promise helpe to a …ore, and apply playsters of his owne bloud to it, the Patient shall thrust his nayles into it, and answere, nay, It shall not be healed. Dan. 7. 7.This sinne is like that fourth Beast in the 7. of Daniel, without distinction of name or kind. Dreadfull, terrible, exceedingly strong; and it had great yron teeth, &c. The Lyon, Beare, Leopard are tame and gentle, in regard of this Beast: it is desperate madnes: That grinds the poore with his yron teeth, and stampes his own heart vnderunder his malignant feet, and dasheth against God himselfe with his hornes of Blasphemie.

It is then clearer then the day, that the darkenes of Infidelity is Phrenzie; whether (as it hath beene in stanced) it be presumptuous against Gods Iustice, or desperate against his Mercy. For, who but a mad-man would hope for impunity to his wilfully-continued sins, where he visibly perceiues, that peccatum peccantē necessitat morti: that iniquity giues soule and body lyable to condemnation, and obiects them to the vnappeaseable wrath of God? And yet who but a mad-man, hauing sinned, will despayre of forgiuenes, when the mercy of God hath allowed a place to repentance? Turn, Ezek. 18. 32.and liue, sayth the Lord: for I hauehave no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth.

3. Refractary and peruerse Affections

Make the possessed franticke. This is a speeding cause, and failes not to distemper the soule, whereof it hath gotten mastery. There may bee first, a sober knowledge, that the Patient may say, Video meliora, I see better things: and secondly, a faith, (but such as is incident to deuils) probo que , I allow of them: but thirdly, where the whole man is tyrannized ouer by the Regent-house of irrefragable affects, deterior a sequor, hee concludes his course with, I follow the worse. Obserue the Philistines crying,1. Sam. 47. 1. Sam. 47. God is come into the Campe; woe vntounto vsus, &c. Yet they settle, hearten, harden themselues to fight against him. Ver. 8. Woe vntounto vsus: who shall deliuer vsus out of the hand of these mightie Gods? yet verse 9. Bee strong and quit your selues like men, O yee Philistines: quit your selues like men, and fight. Twice they behold their Dagon falne down before the Arke: Chap. 5.yet Dagon must bee their God still, and the Arke is only reuerenc'd for a ne noceat.

How many runne madde of this cause, inordinate & furious lusts! If men could send their vnderstandings, like Spyes, downe into the Well of their hearts, to see what obstructions of sinne hauehave stopp'd their veines, those springs that erst deriued health and comfort to them; they should finde, that male afficiuntur, quia malè afficiunt: their madde affects hauehave bad effects: and the euill disposednesse of their soules, ariseth from the want of composednesse in their affections. The Prophet Ieremy, Ier. 2. 24.chap. 2. compareth Israel to a swift Dromedary, trauersing her wayes, and to a wilde Asse vsed to the wildernesse, that snuffeth vp the winde at her pleasure. Be yee not, Psal. 329.sayth the Psalmographer, as the horse and mule, which hauehave no vnderstanding: whose mouth must bee helde in with bit and bridle. Men hauehave vnderstanding, not beasts: yet when the frenzy of lust ouerwhelmeth their senses, wee may take vp the word of the Prophet, and powre it on them. EueryEvery man is a beast by his own knowledge. And therefore man that is in honour and vnderstandeth not, Psal. 49. 20.is like vntounto beasts that perish. Did not the bridle of Gods ouer-ruling prouidence, giuegive cohibition to their madnes, they would cast off the saddle of reason, and kicke nature it selfe in the face.

This is that which Solomon calles the wickednesse of follie, Eccl. 7. 25.foolishnes, and madnesse: an actuall deuiation & deuitation of the way of righteousnesse: a practicall frenzy, a rouing, wandring, vagrant, extrauagant course; which knowes not which way to flie, nor where to light, except like a Dorre in a dung-hill: an opinion without ground, a going without a path, a purpose to doe it knowes not what, a getting and losing, bending and breaking, building vp and pulling downe: conceyuing a multitude of thoughts, with much anxiety, and with a sudden neglect scattering them. As that woman, who being long barren, by studying and practising physicke, became pregnant to the bearing of many children: vponupon whom shee afterward exercising the same skill, brought them all to an vntimely graue. So

Per eandem redditur artem

Haec Medaea ferox, quae medicaea fuit.

So madly doe these frantickes spend their time and strengthes, by doing and vndoing, tying hard knots, and vntying them, affecting the issue of their owne braynes not a day together; and destroying much seed in the birth of their thoughts, because the conception now pleaseth them not. The Prouerbe sayth, that the most wilde are in least danger to bee starke madde: but here, wildenes is madnes; an indefatigable frenzy; an erring starre reserued for the blacke darkenesse; a rolling stone that neuer gathers any mosse to stay it; an incessant and impetuous fury, that neuer ceaseth rouing and rauing, till it come to the Center, Hell.

Thus I hauehave endeuour'd to demonstrate Madnesse, in the true definition, forme and colours. But as a man cannot so well iudge of a Summe, whiles it lyes in the heape, as when it is tolde and numbred out: if this vnited and contracted presentation of madnes bee not so palpable in your conceites, as you would desire it; behold, to your further satisfaction, I come to particulars. The whole denominates the parts; as all of water, is water; all of flesh, flesh: so eueryevery wilfull sinne is madnesse. Doubtlesse, when we come to this precise distribution, and narrow scrutiny, to the singling out of Frenzies, you will blesse your selues, that there are so few Bedlam-houses, and yet so many out of their wits.

Stultorum plena sunt omnia. It were no hard matter to bring all the world into the compasse of a fooles Cappe. I dare not goe so farre: onelyonly magna est plenitudo hominum, magna solitudo sapientum: There is great plenty of men, and no scarsity of mad-men. Plurima pessima: The most are not the best. Pretiosa non numerosa: Vile things breed as plentifully as mountaine-mise. Goodnesse, like the Raile, flyes alone: but Mad-men, like Partridges by Coueys. Nay, we may say, Magna solitudo hominum: if it bee true that Lactantius sayes. Nemo potest iure dici homo, nisi qui sapiens est: He is not a man, that is a mad-man. The foole is but imago hominis, the shadow or resemblance of a man. The world is full of madde-men, and the madder it is, the lesse it is sensible of the owne destruction. Semel insaniuimus omnes: Wee hauehave beene all once madde, is too true a saying: some in youth, others in age. The first is more obuious and common: wildnesse is incident to youth: the latter more perilous, and of lesse hope to bee reclaymed. If we must be madde, better young then olde: but better not be borne then be madde at all, if the mercy of God and grace of Iesus Christ recollect vsus not. In the wordes of a Poet.

All are once madde; this holds for too strong truth:

Blest man! whose madnes comes and goes in youth.

I promised to particularize and set open the gates of Bedlam, to leaue madnesse as naked, as euer sinne left the first propagators of it and mankind. The Epicure shall leade the ring, as the fore-man of this madde Morisco.

1. The Epicure.

I would faine speake (not onelyonly of him, but) with him. Can you tend it, Belly-god? The first question of my Catechisme shall be, What is your name? Epicure. Epicure? What's that? speake not so philosophically; but tell vsus in plaine dealing, what are you? A louer of pleasure, more then of God. 2. Tim 3. 4. foreign.One that makes much of my selfe; borne to liue, and liuing louing to take mine ease. One that would make my belly my executour, and bequeath all my goods to consumption, for the consummation of my owne delights. Hoh! a goodfellow, a merry man, a mad-man. What is your summū bonum? Pleasure. Wherein consists it? Rehearse the Articles of your beleefe. I beleeue that delicacies, iunkets, quotidiā feasts, suckets & marmulads are very delectable. I beleeue, that sweete wines and strong drinkes; the best bloud of the grape, or sweate of the corne is fittest for the belly. I beleeue that midnight reuels, perfumed chambers, soft beds, close curtaines, and a Dalila in mine armes, are very comfortable. I beleeue that glistering silkes, and sparkling Iewels, a purse full of golden charmes, a house neately decked, gardens, orchards, fish-ponds, parkes, warrens, and whatsoeuer may yeelde pleasurable stuffing to the corpes, is a very heauen vponupon earth. I beleeue, that to sleepe till dinner, and play till supper, and quaffe till midnight, and to dally till morning; except there bee some intermission to tosse some painted papers, or to whirle about squared bones; with as many oaths and curses, vomited out in an houre, as would serue the deuill himselfe for a Legacy or stocke, to bequeath to any of his children: this is the most absolute and perfect end of mans life.

Now a deft Creed, fitte to stand in the deuils Catechisme. Is not this madnes, starke and staring madnes? What is the Flesh which thou pamperst with such indulgence; as thou feedest beasts to feede on them, doest thou not fatte thy flesh, to fat the wormes? Goe Heliogabalus to thy prepared muniments, the monuments of thy folly and madnesse: thy Towre is polished with precious stones and golde, but to breake thy necke from the toppe of it, if neede be: thy halters enwouen with pearle, but to hang thy selfe, if need be: thy sword enamell'd, hatched with gold, and embost with Margarites, but to kil thy selfe, if need bee. Yet (for all this) deathes properation preuents thy preparation, and thou must fall into thine enemies hands.

Thou imaginest felicity to consist in libertie, and liberty to bee nothing els, but potestas viuendi vt velis; a power to liue as thou list. Alas, how madde art thou? thou wilt not liue as thou shouldst, thou canst not liue as thou wouldst: thy life and death is a slauery to sinne and hell. Tut, Post mortem nulla voluptas; and here, verse 4. It is better to a liuing dogge, then a dead Lyon. Thou art mad; for, for all these things thou must come vntounto iudgement.

How many of these mad-men ramble about this City? that lauish out their short times in this confused distribution, of playing, dicing, drinking, feasting, beasting: a cupping-house, a vaulting-house, a gaming-house share their meanes, liues, soules. They watch, but they pray not: they fast when they hauehave no money, and steale when they hauehave no credit; and reuelling the whole weeke, day and night, only the Sunday is reserued for sleepe, and for no other cause respected. Bee not madde, Eph. 5. 6.as the Apostle sayth: Bee not deceiued; for because of these things commeth the wrath of God on the children of disobedience. Are not these mad men: that buy the merry madnesse of an houre, with the eternall agonies of a tormented conscience?

2. The Proud

Is the next Mad-man, I would hauehave you take view of in this Bedlam. The proud man? or rather the proud woman: or rather hac aquila, both he and shee. For if they had no more euident distinction of sexe, then they hauehave of shape, they would be all man, or rather all woman: for the Amazons beare away the Bell: as one wittily, Hic mulier will shortly bee good latine, if this transmigration hold: For whether on horsebacke, or on foot, there is no great difference: but not discernable out of a Coach. If you prayse their beauty; you rayse their glory: if you commend them, command them. Admiration is a poyson, that swelles them till they burst. Laudatas extendit auis Iunonia pennas. Is not this madnesse? Bern.De ignorantia tui, venit in te superbia. Selfe-ignorance is the originall of pride. Is not hee madde, that knowes not himselfe? Quantò quis humilior, tantò Christo similior. Humility is Christs resemblance, Pride the Deuils Physnomie. Is he not mad, that had rather be like Satan then God? Humilitie is begunne by the information of Christ, wrought by the reformation of the Spirit, manifested in conformation to obedience. But Pride, sayth Aug. Vbi mentem possederit, erigendo deijcit, inflammando euacuat, & domum destruit, quam inhabitat. Pride casteth downe by lifting vp, by filling emptieth,Quod bonis operibus insidiatur. August. and destroyes the house where it inhabiteth. If superbire be supraregulam ire, then is pride extrauagancy and madnes: a pernicious, perilous sinne, that intraps euen good works.

Doe you thinke, there is no pride, no madnes in the land? Aske the Silke-men, the Mercers, the Tyrewomen, the Complexion-sellers, the Coach-makers, the Apothecaries, the Embroderers, the Featherers, the Perfumers; and aboue all as witnesses beyond exception, the Taylors. If you cast vp the debt-bookes of the other, and the fearefull billes of the last, you shal finde the totall summe, Pride and madnesse. Powders, liquours, vnguents, tinctures, odors, ornaments deriu'd from the liuing, from the dead, palpaple instances, and demonstratiue indigitations of pride and madnesse. Such translations and borrowing of formes, that a silly countryman walking the City, can scarce say, there goes a man, or there a woman. Woman, as shee was an humane creature, bore the image of God; as shee was woman, the image of man: now she beares the image of man indeed, but in a crosse and mad fashion; almost to the quite defacing of the image of God. Howsoeuer; that sexe will be the finer, the prouder, the madder. For pride and madnesse are of the feminine gender. They hauehave reason for it. Man was made but of earth; Woman of refined earth; being taken out of man, who was taken out of the earth: therefore shee arrogates the costlier ornaments, as the purer dust. Alas! how incongruous a connexiō is fine dust, proud clay? the attribute is too good for the subiect.

A certaine man desired to see Constantine the Great: whom intentiuely beholding, hee cryed out: I thought Constantine had beene some greater thing; but now I see, hee is nothing but a man. To whom Constantine answered with thanks. Tu solus es, qui in me oculos, apertos habuisti. Thou onelyonly hast looked on mee with open and true iudging eyes. O nobiles magis quā foelices pannos; may many great men say of their stately robes: nay, O honoranda, magis quam honestavestimenta; may proud creatures say of theirs. What is a silken coate to hide aches, feuers, impostumes, swellings; the merited poysons of lust? when wee may say of the body and the disease, as of man and wife, for their incorporation of one to the other, Duo sunt in carne vna: they are two in one flesh.

There is mortality in that flesh, thou so deckest: & that skinne which is so bepainted with artificial complexion, shall lose the beauty and it selfe. Detrahetur nouissimum velamentum cutis. You that sayle betwixt heauen and earth in your foure-sail'd vessels, as if the ground were not good enough to be the pauement to the soales of your feet: know that the earth shall one day set her foot on your neckes, and the slime of it shall defile your surphul'd beauties: dust shall fill vp the wrinckled furrowes, which age makes, and paint supplies. Your bodies were not made of the substance, whereof the Angells; not of the nature of starres, nor of the water, whereof the fire, ayre, water, and inferiour creatures. Remember your Tribe, and your fathers poore house, and the pitte… whereout you were hewne: Hanibal is at the gates, death stand at your dores: be not proud, be not madde: you must die.

3. The Lustfull

Is not to be missed in this Catalogue. The Poet cals amantes, amentes; taking (or rather mistaking) LoueLove for Lust. Indeed it is insana libido, a blinding, blending fascination; a Witch that with her powerfull charmes intoxicates the braines. A Father contemplating in his meditations, how it came to passe, that our forefathers in the infancy of the world, had so many wiues at once, answeres himselfe. Certè enim fuit consuetudo, non fuit culpa: Whiles it was a custome, it was scarce held a fault. Wee may say no lesse of our dayes: Lasciuiousnesse is so wonted a companion for our Gallants, that in their sense, it hath lost the name of being a sinne. They call it Magnatum ludum; and whether it be or no, thence deriue to themselues authority and imitation.

But still, Quae te dementia cepit? Thou art mad, whiles incontinent, Is it not malum sui diffusiuum? a sawcy sinne, a costly disease? yet were it cheape to the purse, is it not the price of bloud? Can al your prouocatiues, enliuenings, trepidations, and fomenting preseruatiues, preuent the wasting of your marrows? Chamberworke will drie the bones. Iob. 31. 9. 12.If my heart, sayth Iob, hath beene deceiued by a woman; it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would roote out all mine encrease. Luxuriam sequitur dissipatio omnis: Luxurie is attended on by a generall consumption: first,Pro. 6 26. of Substance, Prou. 6. By meanes of an whorish woman, a man is brought to a peece of bread. Sen.Secondly, of Body. Tremores pedum, & articulorum generat depriuationem: It weakens the limbes, and vnties the ioynts, those knots whereby the body is trussed together.1. Cor. 6. 18. Saint Paul calles it a sinne against a mans owns body. Thirdly, of Name. A wound and dishonour will he get, and his reproch shall not be wiped away. Pro. 6. 33.Euen when he shal depart his place (the world) he leaues (an euill memoriall) a bad …auour behind him.

I would mention the losse of his Soule too; but that hee cares not for: the other hee would seeme to louelove, then how mad is he to endanger them? If thou be not mad, away with these fomenta luxuriae: feede nature, not appetite. Nature nihil parùm, appetitui nihil satis. Qui minùs tradit corpori, quàm debet corpori, ciuem necat: Qui tradit plus corpori, quàm debet corpori, hostem nutrit: As hee that allowes lesse to his body, then hee owes to his body, kils his friend: so hee that giues more to his body, then hee owes to his body, nourisheth his enemy. Thou complaynest of original euill in thy flesh; yet nourishest what thou complainest against. Caro non est mala, si malo careat. But Christ was more fauourable to the Adulteresse, and sent her away with impunity: yet not in allowance to the vice of the accused, but to conuince the wickednes of the accusers. Putauit lapidandam, Ioh. 8. 7. 11.non à lapidandis. Noluit talem, noluit à talibus: He might thinke her worthy to die, but not by them that were worthy to die. Hee would not hauehave her polluted, nor yet to perish by so polluted hands. I conclude the madness of these men with the Poet.

Ludit amor sensus, oculos perstringit, & aufert

Libertatem animi, & mira nos fascinat arte.

Credo, aliquis Daemon subiens praecordia, flammam

Con…itat, & raptam tollit de cardine mentem.

—Amor est & amaror & error.

Lust blinds the senses, and with witching arte,

Brings into fatall seruitude the heart.

A subtill Fiend, the cause and plague of badnes,

Poysons the bloud, and filles the braine with madnesse.

If they will not see this yet, (as what frantick man perceiues his owne madnes?) they shall feele it vnderunder the hands of an ill Surgion on earth, or a worse in hell.

4. The Hypocrite

Playes the mad-man vnderunder couert and concealement. He is proud vnderunder the shadow of humility. But hee cannot say with Dauid, Psal. 131. Mine heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. Cor & oculi, fons & rivuli. The tongue that brags of humility, deserues little credite. Frons, vultus, oculi saepè mentiuntur; lingua verò saepissimè: The forehead, eyes, and countenance do often deceiue, the tongue most commonly. The worst Inne hath sometimes the biggest Signe; and the baser mettall the lowdest sound.Ie…on. ad Celant. Turpiora sunt vitia, cum virtutum specie celantur: Vices are then more vgly, when they hauehave put on the robes of vertues. Hypocrita solus vult omnibus videri melior, Hugo de vita Claustrali.& solus est omnibus peior: The Hypocrite would seeme better then any man, and is indeed the worst of all men. His respect is not to the reward of vertue, but regard of men; as if vertue were not sibimet pulcherrima merces, a sufficient compensation to it selfe. Being the Sonne of a hand-maide, Iud. 9.and a bramble indeed, as Iotham spake of Abimelech; hee bragges as much of his shadow, as eyther Vine, Oliue, Figge-tree, or the tallest Cedar in Lebanon.

Hee mournes for his sinnes, as a hasty Heyre at the death of his Father. Haeredis luctus sub Larua, risus est: Hee is at once a close mourner, and a close reioycer. When the wicked man counterfeits himselfe good, he is then worst of all. Dissembled sanctitie is double iniquity: quia & iniquit as est, & simulatio: because it is both sinne and simulation. Hypocrites are like Iugglers, that shew trickes of Legerdumaine, seeming to doe the feates they doe not, by casting a mist before mens eyes. Howsoeuer it was once sayde, Stultitiam simulare loco, prudentia summa est: I thinke it not so intolerable as the speech of Protagoras in Plat. somewhat agreeing to Machiauel: Hee is a madde-man, that cannot counterseit Iustice, and dissemble integrity. I am here rather occasioned to say: Hee is a mad-man, that doth counterfeit good things, because hee doth but counterfeit. And in that great Epiphany, and manifestation of the secrets of all hearts, he shal be found a mad-man. Meane time, he is a franticke too: for hee incurres the worlds displeasure, in making a shew of good lines; Gods double displeasure in making but a shew. Hee that would purchase the hatred both of God and man, is he lesse then mad?

5. The Auarous

Is a principall in this Bedlam. Soft: if it were granted, that the Couetous were madde, the world it selfe would runne of a garget: for who is not bitten with this madde dogge? It is the great Canon of the Deuil, charged with chaine-shot, that hath killed charity in almost all hearts. A poyson of three sad ingredients; whereof, who hath not (to speake sparingly) tasted? Insatiability, rapacity, Ambr.tenacity. In concupiscendo, acquirendo, retinendo. Couetousnesse hath three properties, saith Ambrose, Concupiscere aliena, cupita inuadere, celare quod ruadit: To couet not her own, to get what she couets, and to keepe what shee gets. And yet, Oh Auarous, why art thou so mad after money? Non habentes inficit, habentes non refecit: It hurts them that it possesseth, and helpes not them that possesse it. The brood, that couetousnesse hatcheth, is an ofspring intricated with cares terrestriall, infected with desires carnall, blinded with passions, subiected to affections, infirmed by tentations, informed by lusts, infolded in errors, in ambiguities difficult, obnoxious to suspicions. Is hee not madde, that will foster in his bosome a damme, with such a damned littour?

Tria retia habet Diabolus in mundum extensa: vt quicquid euaserit de retibus gulae, Chrys. hom. 5. in Math.incidat in retia inanis gloriae; & quicquid euaserit his, callidius capiatur retibus auaritiae. De his nullus perfectè euasit: The Deuils three nettes are Ryot, Vaine-glory, Couetousnesse: The second catcheth them that scape the first; and the last misseth not to apprehend the deliuer'd from both the former.aAmos. 5. 19. He that flies from the Lion, the Beare meets him; and the escaping both these, the Serpent (Couetousnesse) bites, not vnlike the prediction of God to Elias, concerning Hazael, Iehu, and Elisha; whom hee was commanded to annoint. b1. Reg. 19. 17.It shall come to passe, that he that escapeth the sword of Hazael, shall Iehu slay: and him, that escapeth from the sword of Iehu, shall Elisha slay.

If this bee madnesse, who are well in their wittes? And yet madnesse it is, and infatuate frenzy. What is it els, to forsake Paradise for Sodome, heauen for earth, God for Mammon, when as (by most irreconcileable enmity) they cannot bee embraced at once? Howsoeuer you will say, those things you couet are good creatures, and call them goods: yet nemo bonus bona bonum aestimat, male vtenti: no good man will account those goods, good for him, that can not commaund his affections to their sober vsage. Hee that shall preferre profite to vertue, his body to his soule, his purse to his body, his eye to his purse, time to eternity, let him goe for a mad-man.

The Epicure feedes on fowle a hundred times, that it may feede him but once: the Couetous feedes his purse a thousand times, and starues himselfe. He cares not to destroy his soule, to please his lust; yet for the saluation of his soule, will not holde his purse short of the smallest gaine. To conclude, the God whom hee serues, cannot helpe him; the God, whom hee should serue, will not helpe him, because hee hath forsaken him. There is no other helpe or hope to reclayme the auarous: but Lord hauehave mercy on them, Math. 17. 15.for they are lunatike and sore vexed; as that Father spake of his possessed sonne, Math. 17. Lunatike they are perpetually, and not at some fittes by the Moone, as that word seemes to intimate: Sore vexed, with the implacable, insatiable, turbulent distraction of their owne spirites; not without accession of all those solicitations, which the infernall spirits can suggest; all for gaine. Oft-times they faell into the fire, and oft into the water. Their Epilepticke courses now driue them into the fire of malice & dissention; now plunge and drown them in the floudes of oppression: till the inundation of their cruelty hauehave spoyled the whole Country; and themselues at last suffocated in their owne deluge. They may bee brought to the cVer. 16.Disciples, the Ministers of Christ, but they cannot cure them. Alas! this frenzy is harde to heale. Though they bee neytherdVer. 17. faithlesse, nor peruerse, negatiuely: though they striue byeVer. 21. fasting and prayer, affirmatiuely: auoide they euill impediments, or vse they good meanes; this kind of deuill will not out, Couetousnesse will not be expelled. OnelyOnly Lord hauehave mercy on them; conuince them, conuert them; for they are mad-men.

6. The Vsurer

Would laugh, to heare himselfe brought into the number of mad-men. Hee sits close, and is quiet at home, whiles madnesse rambles abroad. Hee holds others in bonds; is in no bonds himselfe: hee stands so much vponupon law, you cannot iudge him lawlesse. He would not come neere a Tauerne dore, where madnes rores: hee keepes a succinct course, and walkes in an euen pace to Hell. Slaunder him not for one of Bedlam: yet hee is madde, rauing, roaring madde; and that by the verdict of God in the penne of Solomon: Eccl. 7.Eccl. 7. 7. Surely, oppression maketh a man mad.

It is indeed a thriuing occupation. Vsurie is like that Persian Tree, that at the same time buddes, blossomes, and beares fruit. The moneyes of interest are euermore, som ripe for the Trunke, others drawing to maturity, the rest in the flowre approaching, all in the bud of hope. But he is mad; for his sinne at once buds, blossomes, and brings forth the fruit of vengeance. EueryEvery bond hee takes of others, enters him into a new obligation to Satan: as he hopes, his debtors wil keepe day with him, the Deuil expects no lesse of himselfe. EueryEvery forfet hee takes, scores vp a new debt to Lucifer; and eueryevery morgag'd land he seazeth on, enlargeth his dominions in hell.

But why doe you call this benefit made of our money, vsurie and madnesse? It is but vsance, and husbandring of our stocke. So by a new name giuen to your old sins, you will thinke to escape the censure of mad-men. Thus I hauehave read of the people of Bengala, who are so much afraide of Tygers, that they dare not call them Tygers, but giuegive them other gentle names. As some Physitians; that will not call their impatient Patients disease madnesse, but melancholy. But let the Bengalans call them what they will, they are Tygers still: and giuegive vsury what name you please, (for what Vsurer is not asham'd to bee called so?) it is meere madnesse. He is madde, that cals euill good, and sowre sweet: but hee is no slaunderer,Esa. 5. 20. that calles Vsurie madnesse. It is no lesse; when the eternall God in his word, shall condemne Vsurie to hell, stil to prosecute it with hope of heauen.

But many learned men are patrons and patterns for it. They are as madde as you; and learne you by their madnesse to become sober. Aliquid auxilij est, aliena insania frui. There is some benefite vsually to bee made, by another mans exemplary madnesse. Were it more questionable; yet he is no lesse madde, that will ventrously doe, what hee is not sure is safe to bee done; then he, that hauing a whole field to walke in, will yet goe on a deepe riuers dangerous banke. He is in more danger to topple in, and therefore a mad man. It were good for the common-wealth, if all these mad-men the Vsurers were as safe and fast bound in a locall, as they are in spirituall Bedlam.

7. The Ambitious man

Must also bee thrust into this Bedlam, though his port be high, and he thinks himselfe inciuisible from the Court. Whiles hee beholds the starres, with Thales, he forgets the ditch; and yawning so wide for preferment, contempt is easily throwne into his mouth. I hauehave read of Menecrates a Physitian, that would needs bee counted a god, and tooke no other fee of his Patients, but their vow to worshippe him: Diony sius Syracusa hearing of this, inuited him to a banket; and to honour him according to his desire, set before him nothing but a Censor of Frankincense; with the smoake whereof hee was feasted till he starued, whiles others fed on good meate. This shewed the great Naturalist, a naturall foole, a mad-man. Sapor a Persian King wrote himselfe, Rex Regum, Frater Solis & Lunae, particeps Syderum, &c. King of Kings, brother to the Sunne and Moone, and partner with the Starres. Yet alas! hee was a man, therefore a mad-man, in the arrogation of this Stile.

Let the Romane Canonists turne their Pope into a new nature;Nec Deus est, nec homo, &c. Obad. 4. which is neyther God nor man: they are madde that giuegive it him, and hee is madde to accept it. Let Edom exalt her selfe, as the Eagle, and set her nest among the starres: yet sayth God, the pride of thine heart bath deceyued thee. Let the Prince of Tyrus imagine himselfe to sitte in the seate of God: Wilt thou yet say before him that killeth thee, Ezek. 28. 2. Ver 9.I am God? but thou shalt bee a man, and no God before him that slayeth thee. Let Senacherib thinke to drie vp riuers with the soale of his foote; and Antiochus to sayle on the mountaines: Quid sibi fert tanto dignum promissor hiatu? What euents hauehave answered their grand intendments, but madnes?

Eusebius reports of Simon Magus, that hee would be honour'd as a God, and had an Altar with this inscription, to Simon the holy God: which it seem'd, his harlot Helena did instigate. But when by the power of the Deuill he presumed to flie vp to heauen, at the commaund of Saint Peter, the vncleane spirite brake his necke. Hee climbed high, but hee came downe with a vengeance. His miserable end shewed him an ambitious man, a mad-man. Soare not too high, yee sonnes of Anak; striue not to attaine heauen by multiplying of earth, like Babel-builders: Feriunt summos fulgura montes. Though you aspire in glory, you shall expire in ignominie. If you were not franticke, you would sistere gradum, keepe your stations, know when you are well, and giuegive a fiat to His will, that hath placed you in a site happiest for you. You are madde to outrunne him.

8. The Drunkard

Wil, sure, wrangle with me, that his name comes so late in this Catalogue; that deserued to bee in the front or vantguard of mad-men. Demens Ebriet as is an attribute giuen by an heathen. It is a voluntary madnesse, and makes a man so like a beast, that whereas a beast hath no reason, hee hath the vse of no reason: and the power or faculty of reason suspended, giues way to madnes. Nay, he is in some respect worse then a beast: for few beasts will drinke more then they need, whereas madde Drunkards drinke when they hauehave no need, till they hauehave need again.

Quaeris, quis sit homo ebriosus?Bez. Epigr. aetqui

Nullus est homo, Maeuole, ebriosus.

Shew mce a drunken man, thou blest. I can

not do't: for hee that's drunken, is no man.

To proue himselfe a mad-man, hee dares quarrell with eueryevery man, fight with any man; nay, with postes and walles,Virg. imagining them to bee men. Bacchus ad arma vocat: In praelia trudit nermem. Hor.Wine makes them bold, without feare or wit: hazarding themselues into dangers, which sober, they would tremble to thinke of. Nec enim haec faceret sobrius vnquam. Are not these mad? If you should see them like so many superstitious Idolaters, drinking healthes on their bare knees to their fayre Mistresse: which (may be) is but a foule strumpet, swearing against him that will not pledge it, or not pledge it off to a droppe; would you in your right wittes take these for other, then mad-men? no: let them goe among the rest to Bedlam.

9. The Idle

Man, you will say, is not madde: for mad-men can hardly bee kept in, and hee can hardly bee gotte out. You need not bind him to a poste of patience, the louelove of ease is strong fetters to him. Perhaps, he knowes his owne madnesse, and keepes his Chamber; both that sleepe may quiet his frenzy, and that the light may not distract him. Hee liues by the sweat of other mens browes, and will not disquiet the temples of his owne head. If this be his wit, it is madnesse: for by this means, his Field is couered with nettles and thornes, his body ouergrowne with infirmities, his soule with vices; his conscience shall want a good witnesse to it selfe: and his heart be destitute of that hope, which in the time of calamity might hauehave reioyced it.

Seneca could say, Malo mihi male esse, quàm molliter, I had rather bee sicke then idle: and indeed to the slothfull, ease is a disease: but these men had rather bee sicke then worke. These are madde: for they would not bee poore, nor want means to giuegive allowance to their sluggishnesse; yet by their refusall of paines, they call on themselues a voluntary, and ineuitable want. Oh that the want of grace thus procured, were not more heauy to their soules, then the other to their carkases. Complaine they of want? Iustly may they, should they, shall they: for the want of diligence hath brought thē to the want of sustenance. Thus their quiet is frenzy, their idlenesse madnesse.

10. The Swearer

Is rauingly madde: his owne lippes so pronounce him; as if hee would be reueng'd on his. Maker; for giuing him a tongue. It is so bilster'd with his hote breath, that he spittes fire at eueryevery sentence. He swears away all part of that bloud, which was shed for his redemption: and esteemes the wounds of his Sauiour, but only a complement of his speech; wherein he doth his best, to giuegive him new ones. Hee neuer mentions God, but in his oathes, and vilipends his great Name, as if He heard him not.

What frenzy exceedes his? for he cals his bread, his drinke, his clothes, the Day, Sunne, Starres, Plants, and stones to testifie his truth: indeed hee calles them to testifie against him. How shall the Name of that God doe him good, which hee so eyther disallowes, or dishallowes? God is not madde to giuegive him that blessing, which hee is so madde to vilefie. And for a full exemplification of his madnesse; by oathes he thinkes to get credite, and by oathes he loseth it.

11. The Lyer

Is in the same predicament with the Srearer; let them goe together for a couple of mad-men. As hee findes now exclusion out of all humane faith; so hee shall at last out of Gods Kingdome,Reu. 21. 27. Reu. 21. Lyes hauehave beene often distinguished: the latest and shortest reduction is into a merry Lye, and a very Lye: eyther is a Lie, though of different degree: for the malicious lye exceedes the officious lye. The Prouerbe giues the Lyer, Erasm.the inseparable society of another sinne. Da mihi mendacem, & ego ostendam tibi furem: Shew me a Lyer, and I will shew thee a theefe.W. sd. 1. 11. Hee is madde: for the mouth that speaketh lyes, slayeth his owne soule. This is not all; hee giues GOD iust cause to destroy him more.Psal. 5. 6. Thou shalt destroy them that speake lyes. This is his madnesse: Hee kils at least three at once. The Theefe doth onelyonly send one to the Deuill: the Adulterer two: the Slanderer hurteth three: himselfe, the person of whom, the person to whom hee telles the lye. Lie not in earnest, Lye not in iest; if thou doest accustome it, get thee into Bedlam.

12. The Busie-Body

All will confesse a mad-man: for hee fiskes vp and downe, like a nettled horse, & wil stand on no ground. He hath a charge of his owne properly distinguished: yee hee must needes trouble his head, with alien and vnnecessary affayres. Hee admits all mens businesses into his brayne, but his owne: and comes not home for his owne, till he hath set all his neighbors ploughes a-going. Hee hurries vp and downe, like Iehu the sonne of Nimshi in his Chariot, or as a Gallant in his new Caroch, driuing as if he were mad.

He loues not to sleepe in his owne dores; and hinders the common-wealth with friuolous questions. He is an vniuersal solicitor for eueryevery mans sute; and would talke a Lawyer himselfe madde. There is not a Boate, wherein hee hath not an Oare; nor a Wheele, wherein hee will not challenge a Spoake. He liues a perpetuall affliction to himselfe and others; and dies without pitty; saue that they say, it is pitty hee died no sooner. He is his neighbours malus genius, and a plague to melancholy. Hee is the common superuisor to all the wils made in his parrish: and when hee may not be a counseller, hee will bee an intelligencer. If you let him not in to interrupt, hee will stand without to euesdroppe. He is a very mad-man; for he takes great paines without thankes, without recompence, of God, or man, or his owne conscience. Hee is luxurious of businesse, that concernes him not: Lay hands on him, shackle him: there are some lesse mad in Bedlam. I will be rid of him with this Distich.

Hee cleaues to those he meddles with, like pitch:

Hee's quick siluer, good onelyonly for mens itch.

13. The Flatterer

Is a mad-man, Pro. 26. 18. 19.Prou. 26. As a mad-man, who caesteth firebrands, arrowes, and death. So is the man, that deceyueth his neighbour, and sayth, Am I not in sport? Hee displeaseth his conscience, to please his concupiscence: and to curry a temporary fauour, he incurreth cuerlasting hatred. For his Great-one, once awaked from his lethargicall slumber, wil say of him, as Achish did of Dauid, 1. Sam 21. 15.counterfeyting himselfe distracted: HaueHave I need of mad-men, that you hauehave brought this fellow to play the mad-man in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?

14. Ingratitude

Is madnesse: for the vnthankefull man both makes himselfe vnworthy of receyued fauours, and preuents the hope of future. For eueryevery man can say, Quod facis ingrato, perit: what you doe to a mad-man, is lost. But if hee bee vnthankefull to God, hee turneth his former blessings into curses, and shuts vp heauen against his owne soule. Cessat cursus gratiarum, vbi non fuerit recursus: The course of grace, where it hath no recourse, is soone stopp'd. All waters come secretly from the sea, but returne openly thither: though fauours hauehave a secret and inuisible deriuation from God, they must returne openly to him in prayses, and in a thankfull acknowledgement. Thou art madde, O elate and puffed spirite, that vsest, abusest, takest, swallowest the blessings of heauen without gratitude. Greg.Nones dignus pane, quo vescer is: For, nō est dignus dandis, qui non agit gratias de datis: Hee is vnworthy of more benefites, that is vnthankefull for those hee hath. The Ingratefull man must needes bee one of this number, and salute Bedlam.

15. The Angryman

None will deny to be a mad-man, but they that are eyther madde or angry. The Scripture hath so condemned him; Nature so censured him: therefore hee cannot shift this Bedlam. Anger resteth in the bosom of fooles; It is all one; of mad-men. Ira furor, though but breuis: the longer it lasts, the madder it is. Bee angry, ther's the reynes:Eph. 4. 26. but sinne not, ther's the bridle. Let not the sunne goe downe on your wrath, if you must needs be angry: neyther giuegive place to the Deuill. If he suffer the Sunne to set on his wrath, the Sunne of mercy may set on his soule: and when hee hath giuen the Deuill place, the Deuill at last will giuegive him place;Act. 1. 52. euen his owne place, which his mad fury hath voluntarily accepted. He is starke mad; for he …pares not to wound himselfe; and with a violent fire, which himselfe kindles, he burnes vp his own bloud.

16 The Enuious man

Is more closely, but more dangerously madde. Enuie is the consumption of the bones, sayth Solomon: he doth make much of that, which will make nothing of him: he whets a knife to cut his owne throat. The Glutton feeds beasts, to feed on; and like a Witch, nourisheth a deuil with his own bloud. He keeps a disease fat, which will euer keepe him leane: and is indulgent to a Serpent that gnawes his entralles. Hee punisheth and reuengeth the wrongs on himselfe, which his aduersary doth him. Is not this a mad-man? Others strike him, and like a strangely-penitentiall Monke, as if their blowes were not sufficient, hee strikes himselfe. That Physitians may not begge him when hee's dead, hee makes himselfe an Anatomie liuing. Sure, hee giues cause to thinke, that all the olde fables of walking ghosts were meant of him, and but for a little starued flesh, he demonstratiuely expounds them. If it were not for his soule, the Deuil could scarce tell, what to doe with his body. Hee would doe much mischiefe, if he liue's to't: but there is great hope, that he wil kil himselfe before-hand. If you misse him in a Stationers shoppe geering at books, or at a Sermon cauilling at doctrines, or amongst his neighbours cattell, grudging at their full vdders, or in the Shambles plotting massacres; yet thou shalt bee sure to finde him in Bedlam.

17 The contentious man

Is as franticke as any. Heare him speake, his words are incendiary: obserue his feete, they runne nimbly to broyles, not knowing the way of peace. Looke vponupon his eyes, they sparkle fire: marke his hands, they are euer sowing debate: he will strike a neighbour in the darke, and lay it on his enemy: all to make worke. Search his pockets, and they are stuff'd with libels, inuectiues, detractions. He hates all men, and the Lord him;Pro 6. 19. being that seuenth abomination, that his soule abhorreth, one that soweth discord among brethren. Pro. 26. 18.There is a witnesse against him beyond exception. The debatefull man is madder, &c. The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they goe downe into the innermost parts of the belly, 22.&c. When hee speakes faire, 25.beleeue him not: for there are seuen abominations in his heart. Hee comes to a Marte or Market, to breede quarrels; as if he were hired by some Surgeon. He neyther sees, nor heares of a discord, but hee must make one; but euer couertly, cowardly, out of the reach of weapons.Pro. 26. 17. Hee that passeth by and medleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dogge by the eares: hee will bee soone weary of holding him; and if hee let him goe, hee is sure to bee bitten. Hee is vtterly madde: for hauing incensed, incouraged party against party, as one clappes on vnwilling Mastiues; when perceyuing his villany, they become friends, both shall fall vponupon him. So hee makes worke for Lawyers, worke for Cutlers, worke for Surgeons, worke for the Deuill, worke for his owne destruction. To Bedlam with him.

18 The Impatient

Is a madde-man: for when the ties of softer afflictions will not hold him, he must be manacled with the chaines of iudgements. Patienter ferendū, quod non festinanter auferendū: He makes his yoke more troublesome, then it would be: and by his strugling, forceth his gyues to make prints in his flesh. He is mad; for hee longs for ease, and denyes it himselfe. It hath been sayde among men, Beare one wrong, and prouoke greater: but I say, Beare one affliction from God well, and preuent greater. He is madde, that is angry with God, that cares not for his anger, that will plague his anger. How ill had it gone with God before this, if such a man could hauehave wrought his teene vponupon him? Meane time, God is at peace, out of his reach, and hee is plagued for his madnesse. Teach him patience in Bedlam.

19 The Vaine-glorious

Is a meere mad-man, whether hee boast of his good deedes, or his ill. If of his vertues, they are generally more suspicable: if of his vices, hee is the more despicable: If of his wealth, his hearers the lesse trust him: this noyse preuents him from being a debter: If of his valour, he is the more infallibly held a coward. In what straine soeuer his Mountebanke-ostentation insults, hee loseth that he would finde, by seeking the wrong way. Hee is madde: for when hee would be accounted vertuous, honourable, tich, valiant, in fauour with greatnesse; and the world takes not ample notice of it, hee sounds it with his owne Trumpet: then at once they heare it, and deride it. By seeking fame, he loseth it, and runs mad vpon't. Put him into Bedlam.

20. Lastly,

To omit our Schismatickes, and Separatists, who are truly called, Protestants out of their wittes, lyable to the imputation of Phrenzy: the Papists are certainely madmen, dangerous mad-men; madde in themselues, dangerous to vsus: and would happily be confined to some locall Bedlam, lest their spirituall lunacy doe vsus some hurt.

Madde in themselues: for who but mad-men would forsake the fountaine of liuing waters, Ier. 2. 13.the word of truth, and pinne their faith and saluation on the Popes sleeue? a Prelate, Luk. 13. 1.a Pilate, that mingles their owne bloud with their sacrifices. Thinke how that inchanting cup of fornications preuailes ouer their besotted soules; and you will say they are not lesse then madde. Come you into their Temples, and behold their Pageants, and histrionicall gestures, bowings, mowings, windings, and turnings; together with their seruice in an vnknowne language, and (like a deafe man, that sees men dancing, when hee heares no musicke) you would iudge them madde. Behold the masse-Priest with his baked god, towzing tossing, and dandling it, to and fro, vpward and downward, forward and backward, till at last, the iest turning into earnest, he choppes it into his mouth at one bitte; whiles all stand gaping with admiration; Spectatum admissi, risum tencatis amici? would you not thinke them ridiculously madde? But no wonder if they runne madde; that hauehave drunke that poyson. Many volumes hauehave beene spent in the discouery of their madnesse; I doe but touch it, lest I seeme to write Iliads after our learned Homers.

Surely Mad-men are dangerous without restraint. Papists are ready instruments of commotion, peruersion, treason.Met. These are a sicknes, immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum, ne pars sincera trahatur.

Our land cannot bee at ease, so long as these lye on her stomacke. They pricke and wound her sides, not with praying against her, (for their imprecations wee hope, are irrita vota) but with preying vponupon her: and when all stratagems faile, ready to fetch arguments from the shambles,Postil. D. Boys. vern. par. pag. 118. and conclude in ferio. Whose Religion is politicke, learning bloudy, affections malicious, ambitious, diuellish. The Inquisition is their Grammar, fire and fagot their Rhetoricke, fleet and fetters their Logicke, the Cannons rore their Musicke, and poysoning is their Phisicke. Whose Priests hauehave such almighty power, that they can make their Maker, that whereas in their Sacrament of Order, (as they tearme it) God makes an impotent creature a Priest: now in their Sacrament of the Aliar, the Priest shall make Almighty God. Yea, as he made them with a word, and put them in their mothers wombe: so they can make him with a word, and put him in a boxe. They that thus blaspheme their Creator, shall wee trust them with their fellow-creature?

It was an ingenuous answere of a Spanish Nobleman, commanded by Charles the 5. to lodge the Duke of Bourbon at his house in Madrid: The state of the English fugitiues.I will obey thee, but set my house on fire, so soone as the Duke is out of it. My Predecessors neuer built it to harbor Traytors. Did hee thinke that a conspirator would poyson his house; and shall we thinke that such are no infection to our land? Dauid did counterfeyt himselfe madde, when he was not, for his owne security: these are mad, and dissemble it; till by one franticke act, they can bring vsus all to ruine. If they were forraine, publike and profest enemies, wee would not blame, not feare them. While Kingdoms stand in hostility, hostile actions are iust. But these are domesticall, intestine, secret aduersaries, bred and fed in the same Country; therefore the more intolerable, as the more pernicious.

Tut, they can satisfie their consciences by distinguishing of Treasons. Indeed, all their Religion is a religion of distinctions: such as that is, that an excommunicate Prince may bee dethroned; and being once vncrowned, may on his penitent submission be restored to the Church: Quoad animam, non quoad regnum. Thus they leaue positiue, textuall, schoole-duinity, and fall to Crowne-diuinity. Antichrist pleades, their Religion is maintain'd by the Fathers. Did euer any Father allow of Treason? Shame they not to auerre it? If any abused, wrested, falsified writing of the Fathers did seem to consent to their errors: yet wee know, that Audiendi Patres, non vt Indices, sed vt testes: The Fathers are to be heard as witnesses, not as Iudges. It is Gods scriptum est, not their traditum est, that must giuegive decision of all doubts.

They obiect, that those are birdes of our owne hatching, that thus pollute their nest. Perhaps, our country gaue them breath and birth, but they drunke this poyson from the inchanting Cuppe of Rome. They are euer extrauagant persons, that like rotten armes or legges hauehave drop'd from the body. Men sine sede, sine fide, sinere, sine spe. They are desperate men, and destitute of fidelity, that seeke Rome, where their former learning, and the better learning of their conscience, is peruerted, periured. That (forgetting to speake the language of Canaan) enigmaticall, epicene, spurious, and abortiue equiuocation, is the mayne accent of their speeches: an ambiguous, ambagious, couzening voice, which Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, neuer knew, neuer practised to saue their blouds. A strange, stigmaticke, mishapen, halfe-borne, halfe-vnborne child; I know not where bred, nor by what Pope, Cardinall, or Iesuite gotten: but this I am sure, whosoeuer was the father, Rome keepes the bastard, and nurseth it with her best indulgence. So that now,

Iurat? crede minus: non iurat? credere noli:

Iurat, non iurat? hostis ab hoste caue.

Their words are false; their oathes worse: neither iust:

Sweare they, or sweare they not, giuegive them no trust.

How els could it bee; but to the sophisticating of true substances, must be an accesse of false qualities?

Those are those critical, hypocritical Canibals, that make dainty at some seasons to eate the flesh of beasts, but forbeare at not time to drinke the bloud of men. As the Pharises, that stucke not to buy Christs death, (and their owne withall) with money: yet would not admit that money into their Treasurie: fearing to pollute the materiall Temple, not the spirituall of their soules. The Romans make conscience in their fasting seasons, to eate any flesh but Buls flesh; I meane, that which the Popes Bulles hauehave made holy: (for that which Saint Paul sayth,1. Tim. 4. 5. doth sanctifie it, is neglected) but to cut throtes, murder Kings, blow vp States, is not inter opera mala, no nor adiaphora, but inter meritoria: is not euill, nor indifferent, but a worke of merite.

They say, (and we forsooth must grant that improued, but neuer proued assertion) that they deriue their Chayre from Peter: and what doe they deriue this doctrine too? Saint Peter exhorts to patience, not to caruing their owne reuenge.1. Pet. 2. 13. 14. 17. Neyther are their murderous inuentions and intentions of the lowest ranke; but of Kings, Princes, Senates, whole States: and that without any respect, as of their owne conscience, so of the persons goodnes they strike at: Ayming at the life of a King, a gracious King, vnderunder whom they enioyed their liues, and that in abundant wealth and peace. So the conspiracy of Parry is aggrauated.

Quòd Regina scelus, scelus est quòd virgo petatur,

Quòd pia virgo scelus, quòd tibi grata scelus.

Cum virgo, Regina, pia, et tibi grata petatur:

Proh scelus! est, superat quòd scelus omne, scelus.

Which I hauehave thus interpreted.

It's treason, that a Queene should ruin'd be,

that a Maid; ill.

That she was good, yet worse: that good to thee;

more wicked still.

But when a Queene, a Maid, Good, and thy friend,

thou wouldst dispatch:

The treason, that thy blacke heart doth intend,

dare Hell to match?

Neyther is it wonder, that they exercise thus vponupon vsus, who hauehave no mercy to their own bowels. The short liues of the Popes, (as it was once of the Emperours in that Seate) manifest, that by treason the Chayre is got, by treason lost. It would then bee a good degree toward our health, if these dangerous mad-men were shut vp in some strong Bedlam.

There are many other mad-men; whom, though I particularly name not in this Catalogue, you shall finde in Bedlam. I desire not to say all, but enough. All are not taken into that taming-house in a day: it is filled at times. If this muster can worke any reformation on these franticke Patients, another discouery will not be lost labour.

You conceiue the nature of the Tenant: you may a little better vnderstand his vilenesse, if you consider, 1. That hee is an vsurper, intruding himselfe into Gods freehold; which both by creation, and re-creation hee may challenge for his owne inheritance. If God should aske madnesse, as hee did that vnbidden Guest in the Gospell, Math. 22. 12.that came to the marriage without his wedding Garment: Friend, how camest thou hither? Eyther like that wretch, hee would be mute, or els answere: Man let me into his heart. What a Traytour is man, to let into his Landlords house, his Landlords enemy?

2 That hee doth not pay the rent of Gods house. God rich in mercies, lends and (as it were) lets to farme diuers possessions; as the graces of the Spirite, the vertues of the mind, gifts of the Body, goods of the world; & for all these requires no rent, but thanksgiuing: that we prayse him in heart, tongue, and conuersation. But so long as Madnesse is in any of these Tenements, God cannot hauehave this little rent of his Farme. They are mad, that think they may enioy Gods blessings without rent, or the due payment of an accountant tribute.

3. That hee doth suffer Gods Tenement to decay: he doth ruinate where hee dwels. For the out-houses of our bodies, madnesse doth striue eyther to burne them with lust, or to drowne them with drunkennesse, or to starue them with couetousnesse. For the spirituall and inward building, the foundation of Gods Tenement in our soule is faith, the walles hope, the roofe charity. Now madnes continually endeuours to raze our foundation, to digge through our walles, to vncouer our roofe: that hauing neyther faith in God, nor louelove to men, our soule may bee without hope, exposed to the tempests of the deuill. Shall not madnesse account for these dilapidations?

4. That he doth imploy the house to base vses. It is ill done in a Tenant to a fayre house, to make the best roomes stables for his horses, stalls for his oxen, or styes for his hogges. But madnes makes the Memory a stable for malice and reuenge: the vnderstanding a dungeon for blindnesse and ignorance: the will a vault for hypocrisie and disobedience. So the Body, which is the Temple of God, is made a denne of theeues.

This is the Tenant, Madnesse: a sorry inhabitant, and vnworthy of so good a lodging, as the next point appeares, which is

2. The Tenement, the heart.

The Heart is a mansion for God, not for madnesse. God made it, and meant to reserue it to himselfe: hee neuer placed such a Tenant in it, as the Frenzy of sinne. Christ is sayde to hauehave a fourefold house, Anagogicall, Allegoricall, Corporall, Morall.

1. The first is the Church triumphant, that glorious, and euerlasting habitation of his Deity.

2. The second, is the Church militant, wherein hee dwels sacramentally, by his holy Ministery.

3. The third is Corporall, that consecrated wombe of the Virgin, wherein he dwell't 9. moneths.

4. The last is Mans Heart, wherein he hath a mysticall and spirituall abode.Eph. 3. 17. Christ doth dwell in our hearts by faith, 1. Ioh. 4. 16.and by louelove. As he loues the gates of Sion, more then all the dwellings of Iacob: so hee delighteth in the heart of man, more then in all Palaces and Pauilions of Princes. When an aduersary Tyrant hath taken the chiefe Forte in a Country, and driuen out their iust and mercifull Gouernour; feare, sorrow, and expectation of ruine possesseth the inhabitants. It can goe no better with the like Nation of Man, when Iesus Christ is expelled his habitation, the heart; and so sauage a Tyrant is admitted to Tenure, as madnesse: a strong man, that will fortifie the Castle, and scornes to lose it, except strength it selfe, the vnresistable grace of Christ layes battery to it. But this Theme is scarce cold, since I last handled it. I must bee forced to leaue the Tenement awhile, in the vnmercifull hands of madnesse; and inquire, (if perhaps with any comfort) how long this Tenure lasteth.

3. The Tenure whiles they liue.

Alas! what gaine wee by searching further into this euidence? the more we looke into it, the worse we like it. Whiles they liue. The 1. Tenure of Madnes. 2. in the Heart. 3. is for terme of life. Too long a time for so bad a Tenant. But you will say vntounto mee, as the Disciples to Christ: Aug.Who then can bee saued? Nunquid daturus est Deus regnum coelorum stul…is? Will God giuegive the Kingdome of heauen to madmen? Feare not, all are not mad-men that hauehave madnesse a Tenant in their heartes; but they that hauehave it for their Landlord. It is not my distinction,Rom. 7. 16. but Saint Pauls, Rom. 7. Sinne may dwell, nay,Rom. 6. 12. Sinne will dwell in your hearts; let it not raigne there, sayth the Apostle. It must be a houshold seruant, it must not be a King. Aliud est habere insaniam, aliud haberi ab insania. It is one thing to hauehave madnes, another thing for madnesse to hauehave thee. Since it will dwell in thee, whiles thou dwelest in the flesh, make it a seruant, a slaue, a drudge. Set the Gibeonites to draw water; let it make thine eyes laue thy body with repentant teares: and to cleaue wood, let it rend thy heart with sorrow. Keepe that subtill deceiuer, with whom thou ignorantly struckst the hand of couenant, vnderunder bit and bridle: velle, reuelle, turne, restraine, command, controll it at thy pleasure. Let it neuer be thy Captain, thy Lādlord, thy King.

Though Sinne, the Deuils madde dogge hath bitten thee, and thou at first beginnest to runne franticke: yet apply the plaister of the bloud of Christ to thy sores. This shall draw out the venome, and grace shall get the mastery of madnesse. Bee of good comfort, thou shalt not die franticke. Encourage thy selfe with a holy violence against thy fleshly lusts: intend, contend to infeeble, and at length to extinguish the force of thy depraued nature. Kill madnesse, lest madnesse kill thee. Bee sensible of the bane, that lies in this spirituall frenzy, and doe not laughing die. Madnesse is at first, inimicus blandus, a fleering enemy: in the middest, dulce venenum, sweet poyson: at last, the Epithets of blandum and dulce being lost, it is Scorpio pungens, a stinging Serpent. Well, yet let it sting thee heere, that it may not sting thee hereafter. Happy is hee, that learnes to bee sober by his owne madnesse; and concludes from I hauehave sinned, I will not sinne. Madnesse may bee in his heart, like a Tenant; it shall neuer bee like a Tyrant. Innocent Adam was naked, and knew it not: sinnefull Adam was naked, and knew it. Then comes God, hearing his excuse of concealing himselfe deduced from his nakednesse: Who tolde thee that thou wast naked? Gen. 3. 11.Sure, his guilt tolde him. Wee hauehave beene mad, and are now come to our selues, to know our owne madnesse. If it be asked, who told vsus, that wee were madde? I answere, Euen the same grace of Gods Spirite, that reclaymed vsus from madnesse. For the wicked, since they louelove madnesse, be it vntounto them: and when they will neuer be recollected, let them bee mad still. But blessed be that God, that helped vsus; praysed bee his holy Name, that hath recalled vsus. Hee hath in this life freede vsus from madnesse, as a Tyrant, and shal hereafter free vsus from it as a Tenant.

Thus hauehave you the Mystery of this spirituall Bedlam detected, and a crue of Mad-men let out to your view: whose house is the world, whose bonds are iniquities, whose delight is darkenesse, whose master is the Deuil: for those whom he keepes in this metaphoricall Bedlam, without reclayming by the power of the Gospell; hee hath ready prouided another materiall, locall, infernall Bedlam, a dungeon, not shallower then Hell, wherein there is no light of Sunne or Starre, no food but speckled Serpents, no liberty to straggle; but the Patients are bound with euerlasting chaynes; and himselfe (with his same-suffering spirites) doe eternally whip them with roddes of burning steele and yron. One houre in this Bedlam will tame the most sauage madde-men, that were euer nurst among wolues, or suck'd the brests of inhumanity.

I heare them talke of some irrefragable Rorers, creatures, (not men) whom no limits of reason can teddar vp: let them take heed, lest they become at that day, Rorers indeed, and rore for the very anguish of their hearts: howling like Dragons, that hauehave liued like Tygers. Thinke of this Bedlam, ye madde-men, Eccl. 11. Reioyce, …O young man, in thy youth, &c. Reioyce, nay (it were somewhat well, if no more then ioy) be mad; in thy youth, tempus insaniendi, a time of illimited desire; Let thy heart cheare thee, and do thou cheare thy hart; that, thee with lusts; thou, that with wine and iunkets: and walke frantikely, inordinately; in thy wayes, by-wayes, & wrywayes, for the way of truth thou wilt not know; and in the sight of thine eyes, such tempting, and lust-prouoking obiects, as those two Sentinels of the body can light vponupon: or if thou canst not yet bee madder, extend thy desires to finde out experimentall madnesse: but know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into iudgement: remember, that there is an infernall Bedlam, whereunto they that liue and die spiritually-mad-men, must be eternally confined.

He that should now tell the Couetous, the Ambitious, the Voluptuous, &c. they are mad-men, should appeare to them madde, in saying so. They rather thinke vsus madde; as Festus, though madde himselfe, without learning, could tell Paul, that Much learning had made him mad. Act. 26. 24.But we may answere for our selues, as Augustine of Dauids madnesse: Insanire videbatur, sed regi Achish insanire videbatur: Dauid seemed mad, but to King Achish: 1. Sam. 21, 13.Wee are iudged mad-men, of none but madde-men, because wee runne not with them to the same excesse of riot, 1. Pet. 4. 4.because wee cut short our affections of their vain delights, and drowne not our selues in the whirlepoole of their luxuries; but girde repentance to our loynes with resolution; they imagine vsus franticke. They thinke vsus mad-men, wee know them so. And they shall at last despairingly confesse in this lower Bedlam: Wisd. 54. 5.We fooles accounted the godly mans life madnesse, and his end to bee without honour: Now is hee numbred among the children of God, and his lotte is among the Saints. Bee wise then in time, yee sonnes of men; trust not spirituall madnesse, lest it bring you to eternall Bedlam. From whose iawes when you are once entred, bee you neuer so tame, you cannot be deliuered.

3. The Period.

Wee hauehave ended Mans Comma, and his Colon, but not his Sentence: the Period continues and concludes it. Wee 1. found his heart full of euill. 2. Wee left it full of madnesse. 3. Let vsus obserue at the shutting vp, what will become of it. After that, they goe to the dead. Heres the end of mans progresse: now he betakes himselfe to his Standing-house, his Graue. The Period is deliuer'd

Consequently. After that

Discessiuely. they goe

Discensiuely. downe to the dead.

The Summe is,Rom. 6. Death is the wages of sinne. 1. After that, they hauehave nourished euill and madnesse in their hearts, this is the successiue (not successefull) euent and consequence. 2. They goe, they shall trauell a new iourney, take an vnwilling walke; not to their medowes, gardens, tauernes, banketting-houses; but, 3. To the dead: a dismall place, the habitation of darkenesse and discontent: where finesse shall bee turned to filthinesse: lustre to obscurity, beauty and strength to putrefaction and rottennesse.

If a man lookes into what life it selfe is, hee cannot but finde, both by experience of the past, and proofe of the present age,Wisd 5. 13. that hee must die. As soon as we are born, wee beginne to draw to our end. Life it selfe is nothing, but a iourney to death. There is no day, but hath his night: no sentence, but hath his period: no life on earth, but hath the death. Examine the scope of thy desires, and thou shalt perceyue, how they hasten to the graue: as if death were the gaole, prize or principall end, which the vanity of humane endeuours runnes at. Bee a man in honour, in wealth, in gouernment: he still ambitiously blind, languisheth for the time to come; the one, in hope to enlarge his greatnesse; the other, his riches; the last, his dominions. Thus they couet the running on of time and age, and rest not till they hauehave concluded their sentence, and attayned their Period, gone to the dead.

All men, yea all inferiour things must be freed by an end: and as the Philosopher answered to the newes of his sonnes death: Scio me gen…sse mortalem: so God the Father of all, may say of eueryevery man liuing, Scio me creasse mortalem: I hauehave made a man that hath made himselfe mortal. Man is a little world, the world a great man: if the great man must die, how shall the little one scape? Hee is made of more brittle and fragile matter, then the Sunne and Stars: of a lesse substance then the earth, water, &c. Let him make what shew he can with his glorious adornations; let rich apparrell disguise him liuing; seare-cloths, spices, balmes enwrappe him, lead and stone immure him dead: his originall mother will at last owne him againe for her naturall childe; and triumph ouer him with this insultation, hee is in my bowels, Psal. 146.Psal. 146. 4. Hee returneth to his earth. His body returneth not immediately to heauen, but to earth, nor to earth, as a stranger to him, or an vnknowne place, but to his earth; as one of his most familiar friends, and of oldest acquaintance. To conclude:

If wee bee sinnefull, wee must die; if wee bee full of euill, and cherish madnesse in our hearts, we must to the dead. Wee hauehave sinnes enough, to bring vsus all to the graue: God grant they bee not so violent, and full of ominous precipitation, that they portend our more sudden ruine. Yea, they doe portend it; but Oh nullum sit in omne pondus.

But I hauehave beene so prolixe in the former parts of the Sentence, that I must not dwell vponupon the Period. Hee needs not bee tedious, that reades a Lecture of mortality. How many in the world, since this Sermon begunne, hauehave vndergone experimentall demonstration of this truth? This Sentence is but the morall of those spectacles, and those spectacles, the iustifying examples of this Sentence. They are come to their Period before my speech: my speech, my selfe, and all that heare me, all that breathe this ayre, must follow them. It hath beene sayd, We liue to die: let me a little inuert it: Let vsus liue to liue: Liue the Life of grace, that wee may liue the life of glory. Then though we must goe to the dead, we shal rise from the dead; and liue with our God out of the reach of death for euer.

Amen.

FINIS.

End of the text · Thomas Adams, Mystical Bedlam (1615)

Mystical Bedlam, Sermon · Sermon 2

p. 33Mysticall Bedlam, OR, THE WORLD OF MAD-MEN. The second Sermon.

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