The Players Scourge, Part 1 · Act 6 · Scene 13
SCENA DECIMA-TERTIA.
THe 13. effect of Stage-playes is, that they breed in the hearts of their Actors and Spectators an inward disesteeme, a violent antipathy, an inplacable enmity against the practicall power of grace and holinesse; against all pious and religious men. This tDe Vero Cultu. c. 20. & 21.Lactantius, this uHom. 38. in Matth. & Hom. De Verbis Is…iae. Vidi Dominum, &c.Chrysostome, xDe Civ. Dei. lib. 2. cap. 20.Augustine, yDe Gubernatione Dei. lib. 6. pag. 195.196.Salvian, zHomilia 11. in Nahum.M. Gualther, The aIbidem.Author of the 3. Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters, bTreatise against Vaine Playes and Enterludes.M. Northbrooke, cAnatomy of Abuses. p. 101. to 107.M. Stubs, with sundry dM. Gosson, his Schoole of Abuses, & Playes Confuted. A Mirror for Magistrates of Citties. See here, Act 3. Scene 6. thorowout accordingly.others expresly testifie. Yea this our owne experience must subscribe too. For who more bitter, more virulent, more implacable adversaries to the power of godlinesse, to those who excell in grace, in piety: who such deriders, haters, eVt improbos metuunt quos optimos sentire potuerunt. Minucius Felix. Octav. p. 39.slanderers, despisers of purity, of sincerity, of devout and holy Christians, as *Nam tibicinae, mimi, praestigiatores, balatrones jocis tantum placent scurrilibus ad exhilerandos animos. Philo Iudaeus, D… Vita Contempl. p. 1209.Players and Play-haunters? None abhorre, revile, traduce, deride or scorne them more then they. And no wonder: for Saint Paul foretold it long agoe; f2 Tim. 3.3, 4, 5.That such who are lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God (as Players and Play-patrons for the most part are) are alwayes despisers of those that are good, having onelyonly a forme of godlinesse, but denying the power thereof. Lactantius hath given the true reason of it. gVeritas ideò semper invisa est, quòd is qui peccat, vult habere liberum peccandi locum, nec aliter se putat malefactorum voluptate securius persrui posse, quam si nemo sit cui delicta non placeant. Ergò tanquam scelerum & malitiae suae testes extirpare funditus nituntur ac tollere, gravesque sibi putant, tanquam vita eorum coarguatur. Cur enim sunt aliqui intempestive boni, qui corruptis moribus publicis convicium benè vivendo faciant? Cur non omnes sunt aequè mali, rapaces, impudici, adulteri, periuri, cupidi, fraudulenti? quin potius auferantur, quibus coram malè vivere pudet, qui peccantinm frontem, etsi non verbis, quia tacent, tamen ipso vitae genere dissimili feriunt & verberant. Castigate enim videtur quicunque dissentit. Lactantius. De Iustitia. lib. 5. cap. 9. pag. 382.Everyone (saith he) that sinnes desire elbow roome, he would have free liberty to sinne without controll; neither can hee take any full delight in evill, unlesse there be none to disapprove his wicked courses. Therefore hee desires to roote out all good men, who are offensive and displeasing to him, because they are not onelyonly witnesses of his evill deeds, but likewise reprove and shame them by their different holy lives, though they never speake of them with their tongues Their very holy lives are a reproach, a scandall to their dissolute manners: therefore they slander and abhor them. S. Augustine oft-times informes us; hNon a…dias degeneres tuos Christo Christianis que detrahentes, & accusantes velut tempora mala; cùm quaerant tempora in quibus non sit quieta vita, sed secura nequitia. August. De Civit. Dei. l. 2. c. 29. De Consensu… Evangelist l. 1. c. 33.That the degenerous voluptuous Pagans, did detract from Christ and Christians, accusing, yea declaiming against the Christian times, as evill; because they sought not after such times in which their lives might bee quiet, but rather in which their wickednesse might bee secure; in which they might securely enioy their wicked Stage-playes, their sinfull lusts, and worldly pleasures, without any reprehension or restraint. This doe our Paganizing Actors and Play-haunters now; they hate, revile and slander, all zealous, practicall Christians, under iSincerum cupimus vas incrustare. Probus quis nobiscum vivit? multum est dimissus homo; Illi tardo cognomē pinguis damus. Hic fugit omnes insidias, nulli que malo latus obdit apertum? (Quū genus hoc inter vitae versetur ubi acris Invi. dia atque vigent ubi crimina) pro bene sano, Ac non incauto, fictum astutum que vocamus. Simplicior si quis, ut forte legentem, Aut tacitum impellat, quovis sermone molestus: Communi sensu planè caret, inquimus, &c. Horace. Sermo. lib. 1. Sa…yr. 3. pag. 169.170.the Tearmes of Puritanes, Prescitians, Novellers, Factionists, *Hebr. 3.2.Holy-breathren, Men of the Spirit, Bible-beares, Sermon-haunters, Hypocrites, Holy-sisters, and a world of such like ignominious, disgracefull tearmes, (though some of them in themselves are honourable, having the holy Ghost himselfe for their Author, how ever prophane Atheisticall persons turne them into very mottoes of disgrace:) They abhor the very appearances of all grace and holinesse, as diametrally opposite to their ungodly courses, to their prophane, lascivious, ribaldrous Enterludes, which all the Saints of God have evermore condemned. k1 Pet. 4.3, 4.They thinke it strange that holy men run not with them into the same excesse of riot, into the selfesame pleasures and delights of sinne, in which they plunge themselves: therefore speake they evill of them; lExpedit enim vobis neminem videri bonum, quasi aliena virtus exprobratio delictorum vestrorum sit. Inviti splendida cum sordibus uestris confertis, nec intelligitis quanto id vestro detrimento audeatis. Nam si illi qui virtutem sequuntur, amari, libidinosi, ambitiosique sunt; quid vos estis, quibus ipsum …omen virtutis odio est, &c? Sen…ca De Vita B…ata. cap. 19.therefore they reproach, traduce, contemne, detest, oppugne them with the very height of spleene, of malice; as being an eyesore, yea a life-sore to them, as present experience can informe us. Hence therefore I argue in the 39. place.Argument 39.
That which ingenders in the hearts of its Actors and Spectators, an inward hatred, an undervaluing disesteeme, a violent antipathy, a virulent enmity, against the practicall power of grace and holinesse; against all holy, gracious, godly Christians; must needs be sinfull and abominable unto Christians. Witnesse the 1 Iohn 3.10. to 20. Phil. 4.8, 9. and infinite other Scriptures.
But this doe *See Philo Iudaeus in Flaccum. lib. p. 1305 1306. Quasi in Theatro exsibilabamur, subsannabamur, & irridebamur supra modum. Philo De …egatione ad Caiu… pag. 1399. See here, pag. 541.Stage-playes, as is evident by the premises, by experience, and by Act 8. Scene 7.
Therefore they must needs be sinfull and abominable unto Christians.