The Gentile Sinner, Preface
Honoured Sir,
I Am very much indebted to your most obliging Goodnesse, for that great and undeserved Freedome, you were pleased to allow me in our last Discourse: And I am so Confident to meet with the same Goodnesse still, that I shall not feare to expresse as great a Boldnesse in these following lines.
With Gentlemen, I very much love to be talking of Gentlemen; with him that is a Gentleman indeed, that in his language (for in better, I am sure, I cannot) I may learne how to shame his Counterfiet; and with him too, who has no more then the bare Name, that I may thereby gaine an opportunity of proposing to him something better then himselfe, as a fit object of his Love and Imitation. I confesse I am often apt, more then well becomes me in the presence of Persons of your Quality, to inveigh somewhat Satyrically against such as this wanton Age of the World loves to miscall by so good a name; which might give any man of lesse Cand…r and Courtesy then Your selfe (Sir) a just occasion of judging me more Bold then Wise. What your resentments were of my last unponder'd expressions, I know not; But if in any of them I gave offence, I dare hope you will make your late Commands passe for my Sentence, and let this prosecution of that too Inconsiderate discourse (I beseech you) serve for my penance.
You were pleased to require a Summary of my thoughts concerning our Pr…sent English Gentleman, both as to what he is, and what he should be. I must not taxe you of Indiscretion, by telling you how ill you have placed your Commands; and therefore I shall rather choose to show you your Charitable mistake, by my ready Obedience; then by an unseasonable Modesty, seem to question your judgment: The taske injoyn'd me is in it selfe so odious, that nothing lesse then that highest respect I have for the worthy Imposer, could make it welcome; and it carries so great a disproportion to my weaker Faculties, that nothing, but too great an affection in you (Sir) could make it appeare possible. To tell you, what the Gentleman is, requires an experience; and to say what he should be, must suppose a Breeding farre above mine.
If by the Gentleman, you meane him whose reall virtues are such as have indeed merited him the name; I could goe a very compendious way to worke, and show you him in as faire a peece as Virtue can draw, or the World imitate, by directing your eye to that object which best deserves it▪ You must needs know your selfe too well, (Sir) to be Ignorant whom I meane. But for the other, whom wee then tooke the boldnesse to talke of, you cannot, I hope, imagine, that one so little acquainted with the present Garbes and Modes of the world, as without blushing I dare confesse my selfe to be, should be able to present you with his perfect portraiture.
To be short, Sir, You are too well acquainted with the true Gentleman, to think you shall ever read him any where better described then you find him at home; and I am too little acquainted with his counterfeit, to presume I may be able to give you an exact Character of him, 'till I use to goe more, then I hope in hast I shall doe, abroad. However, I had rather betray my. Ignorance of what I could never yet esteem well worth my knowledg; then the least disrespect to a Person, whose long-experienced Goodnesse hath abundantly meritted the best of my services. Such a prospect therefore as I could have of him, whilest immured up within the narrow compasse of a Darke Study, I shall make bold to lay open before your eye; and, in as plaine English as I can, tell you what I thinke both of the Man and his shadow.
But before I begin to discribe him, I find it necessary for me to premise unto you this cautious request—That you would be pleas'd to believe I doe not make nor take pleasure to see those wounds, which you have perswaded me to uncover; for I cannot but foresee too many of them, through Imprudence and Negligence, so altogether fester'd and Nauseous, that as they will try your patience to behold them, so will they even dare your faith to believe them: And this I shall further beg of you, that seeing to serve you I am forced to take the Liberty of a more open, and sometimes biting expression; you would not debarre me of the Priviledg of an Impartiall, yet friendly, Censurer; one who had much rather lose a friend, then tolerate a fault: Or the beneficiall Severity of a Faithfull Chirurgeon, who is allow'd often to make the smart the fore-runner of the Cure, and is excusable, though sometimes he seeme so hard-hearted as to disregard the lamentable out…ries, and most moveing groans of his afflicted patient; not sparing his Probe, 'till he have throughly search'd the wound.
I must in Good Earnest tell the Gentleman, how much my Pitty and Commiseration outgoe my Reprehensions and reproofes: And that my hearty prayers both now are, and ever shall be much more for him, then my unpleasing Invectives can be against him. The later are onelyonly sent out to invite him to take some Knowledg and Compassion of himselfe; but the former ascend as high as Heaven to Implore God's Mercy and Pitty towards him. For I know it (let him entertaine as flattering thoughts as he will of himselfe) the world has not had since the fall of Adam a more miserable Spectacle, then this poore wretched Leper, the Debauched Gentleman: who, doubtlesse, were he not so Complacently accessary to his own Misery, So obstinately bent upon and solicitously studious of his own overthrow, would be no oftner beheld then pittied.
But seeing his daily practice perswades me, that his main industry is a Designe to ruine himselfe, his Constant Profession an open D…fiance to his Happin…sse; seeing his chiefe d…light seemes to be placed in looking upon his own sores, and his Continuall Study is how to increase them: Seeing he esteemes nothing so dangerous as reall goodnesse, and every day proclaimes open Hostility against whatever shall bring along with it that unwelcome charity of preserving him from Hell: Seeing he labours to expresse a deadly feud betwixt himselfe and his own soule, and dreads no torments so much as the joyes of Heaven: Seeing the businesse of his whole life is to spoile a Gentleman: Without all doubt, the safest way now to be his friend is to seeme his enemy, the readiest means of making the Christian is to vex the Gentleman, and the hopefull'st method of healing his sores, is first to seratch them 'till they smart. There's no way to deale with a man in a Swoon, but to pinch him by the Nose, and to dash Cold water in his face, when he is thus brought to himselfe, he may be capable of a Cordiall: Thus indeed must we be constrain'd to deale with the Gentleman, who is not onelyonly void of all spirituall life, but even of all common sense: We must handle him a little more roughly then what he will think Civility, that so we may at length force him to open his eyes, to see how much he is mistaken in what he calls so. If after all this he will persist to call me his enemy, I shall onelyonly professe my sorrow for this, that he has l…st the benefit intended him by my pains; Not at all that I have miss'd the reward of his Commendati…n and thanks; these I shall then first be ambitious of enjoying, when I shall be assured that he is so much become a New man, that I need not feare his Commendations may prove Scandalls, or his thanks reproaches. 'Till when here he has my Confession, I am his utter Enemy: and let him take my Resolution too along with it, so I am resolved to continue 'till I can see him, more then yet he is, his own friend: Then, I am sure, he will without a prompter acknowledg, that thus to appeare his Enemy was the onelyonly way he had left me to befriend him.
With this resolution (Sir) and Confidence, I shall venture, first to give you a short Character of him as it stands legible in his common practise and Conversation; where, that he may not have so much as a pretence to be angry, I shall onelyonly write after that Copy himselfe has set me, and lets lye every where wide open to the view of the world: And having done this, I shall in a very few words characterize the man I would see, and tell you what I suppose, you know, God Expects, and his own Name and profession do witnesse he ought to be.