The Unloveliness of Love-Locks

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

C Hristian Reader, I here present unto thy view and censure, a rough and brief discourse: whose subject, though it be but course and vile, consisting of Effeminate, Proud, Lasciuious, Exorbitant, and Fantastique Haires, or Lockes, or Love-locks, (as they style them:) which every Barba • may correct and regulate: Yet the consequence of it may be great, and profitable in these Degenerous, Unnatural, and Vnmanly times: wherein as sundry of our Mannish, Impudent, and inconstant Female sex, are Hermophradit • d, and transformed into men; not only in their immodest, shameless, and audacious carriage, (which is now the very manners and Courtship of the times;) but even in the unnatural Tonsure, and Odious, if not Whorish Cutting, and Crisping of their Haire, their Natural veil, their Feminine glory, and the very badge, and Character of their subjection both to God, and Man: so diverse of our Masculine, and more noble race, are wholly degenerated and metamorphosed into women; not in Manners, Gestures, Recreations, Diet, and Apparel only; but likewise in the Womanish, Sinful, and Vnmanly, Cr • sp • ig, Cu • ling, Frouncing, Powdring, and nourishing of their Lockes, and Hairie excrements, in which they place their corporal Excellencie, and chiefest Glory. Strange it is to see, and lamentable to consider, how far our Nation is of late degenerated from what it was in former Ages: how far their Liues, and their Professions differ. We all profess • our selves t • be Heroicall, Generous, and true-bred English-men, yea Zealous, down-right, and true-hearted Christians, desirous to conform our selves to Christ in everything: and yet we are quite ashamed of our English Guise, and Tonsure, and by our Out-landish, Womanish, and Vnchristian Lockes and Haire, disclaim our very Nation, Country, and Religion too: Alas, may I not truly say of too to many, who would be deemed not only English-men, but Deuout, and faithful Christians: that the Barber is their Chaplain: his Shop, their Chapel: the Loo • ing-glass, their Bible ; and their Haire, and Lockes, their God? that they bestow more cost, more thoughts, more time, and pains upon their Hairie Lockes, and B • shes, from day today, then on their peerless • and immortal Souls? that they consult more seriously, and frequently with the G • asse, and Comb, then with the Scriptures? that they confer more oft • n with their Barbers, about their hairy Excrem •• ts ; then with their Ministers, about the means, and matter of their own Salvation? Are not most of our young Nobiliti •• and Ge • try, yea, the Elder too, under the Barbers hand • from day, today? Are they not in daily thralldom, and perpetual bond • ge to their curling Irons, which are as so many chains, and fetters to their Heads, on which they leave their Stampe, and Impresse? Good God, may I not truly say of our Gentry, and Nation, as Sen • ca once did of his: That they are now so vain and idle, that they hold a Counsel about every Haire, sometimes Combing it back, another time Frouncing, and spredding it abroad: a third time Combing it all before: in which, if the Barber be anything remiss, they will grow exceeding angry, as if they were trimming of the men themselves: do they not rage excessively, if any Haire be but cut to short, if it lie not to their liking, and fall not readily into its rings, and circles? Would they not rather have the Common-wealth disturbed, th • n their Haire disordered? do they not sit all day between the Comb, and the Glass? are they not more solicitous of the neatenesse of their Haire, then of their safety? and more desirous to be neat, and spruce, then Honest? Is it not now held the accomplished Gallantrie of our youth, to Frizle their Haire like Women: and to become Womanish, not only in exilitie of Voice, tenderness of Body, levity of Apparel, wantonness of Pace, and Gesture, but even in the very length, and Culture of their Lockes, and Haire? Are not many now of late degenerated into Virginians, Frenchmen, Ru •• ians, nay, Women, in their Crisped-Lockes, and Haire? have they not violated the Gra • e, and A ••• ent Cut, and decent Tonsure of their Ancestors; and broken the very Ordinance, and Law of God, and Nature, by their Womanish, Embroidered, Coloured, False, excessive Haire, and Love-Lockes? and shall they yet profess themselves to be English-men ; or Mortified, Humble, Chaste, and pious Christians? What, did ever any of our English Ancestors; did ever any Christians in former Ages; did ever any Saints of God, that we can hear, or read of, wear a Locke? or Frizle, Powder, Frounce, Adorn, or Decke their Haire? or wast their thoughts, and time, or lavish out so great expenses on their Heads, their Haire, and Lockes, as we do now? If not, then l • t us be as well conceited of our selves, as may be, yet certainly, as long as these new-fangled Lockes, and Badges of our inuirilitie, or more then Womanish, and unnatural Effeminacy, which still increase, multiply, and remain upon us, we can neither truly challenge the name of English-men, nor style of Christians. For, what part or portion can they have in Christ, who wear the very Badge, and Livery of the World? who complie themselves to the Guise, and Tonsure of the Deboistest, Rudest, and most licentious Ruffians? or give themselves over to the Vanities, Fashions, and Customs of the very scum, and worst of Men? Is this to be a Christian, to follow every Guise? to take up every new-fangled, Deboist, and Ruffianly fashion? to submit to every Vain, and Sinful humor of the Times? to deny our Selves, and Lusts in nothing; and to go as far in all external Emblems, or Symptoms of Vanity, Pride, Licentiousn • sse, Effeminacy, and Prophanenesse, as any others: and to exceed even Turks, and Pagans in them, who are not yet so Effeminate, Idle, Proud, and Vain as we? Alas, what is all this, but to be professed Enemies, and Rebels, unto Christ? to be Devil-Saints, or Bondslaues to the World, the Flesh, and Satan? this is not to be Christians, but Antichristians, Infidels, Pagans, if not monsters: He that is a Christian indeed, is a man of another temper • His Life is not like other men's, and His ways are of another fashion, answerable to that High, and Holy calling, which He hath undertaken: He fashions not himself to the Customs, Cultur •• , Guise, and Vanities of the World, which He hath renounced in His Baptism: He lives not to the will, or lusts of carnal Men: neither makes He any provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof: all His desire and labor, is to conform himself to Christ in everything: to walk as Christ walked; live as He lived: and to follow His words and footsteps, in all the passages, and turnings of His life: His Life is heavenly, His Conversation heavenly, His Haire, and Habit, such as answ • res His profession, and do well become the Gospel of Christ: not giving any just offense, or scandal to the Godly, nor any encouragement, or ill example to the Wicked: His outside, is consonant to His in-side, and suitable to His profession: His very Head, and Habit, do, yea, will declare Hi • m • eke, and gracious Heart, and proclaim His Christianity unto others: How then can such approve themselves to be true, and humble Christians in the sight of God, or Men: who are the only Minions, Sycophants, and Humourers of the World; following it close at every turn, and complying themselves so fully, and exactly to its dissolute Fashions, and Lasciuious guises: That they have not only lost the inward e •• icacie, life, and power; but even the very superficies, and outside of Religion? What evidence can such produce, to prove their interest, or title unto Christ, who have nothing • lse to show, or plead for it, but the Counterpanes, and Indentures, or the Cultures, Pompes, and Vanities of the World, which they have long since in w • rds at least, renounced in their Baptism? What, will the b • re name of Christi • ns, or the slight, and cold performance of some out-ward duties of Religion, convey you safe to Heaven? or will such a cold profession of Religion save your Souls, which is so far from changing the in-ward frame, and structure of your Hearts, that it hath not yet so much, as altered your Vain, and Sinful guises, and Attires • nor differenced you in out-ward appearance, from the most Gracelesse, Vain, and Sensuall persons that the World affords? Alas, if we look upon the out-sides of men, which would certainly be reformed, if all were right within:) w • at outward difference can you find between • many young Gentlemen, who profess Religion, and the d • boist • st Ruffians? between many Grave Religious Matrons, or Virgins, who pretend De • otion, and our common Strumpets? between us Christians and the most Lasciuious Pagans? are they not all alike Vain, Effeminate, Proud, Fantastique, Prodigal, Immodest, and Vnchristian in their Attires, Fashions, Haire, Apparel, Gesture, Behauiour, Vanity, and Pride of Life? are they not all so Irregular, and Monstrous in their antique Tonsures, and Disguises, that men can hardly, distinguish Good, from Bad: Continent, from Incontinent: Gracious, from Gracelesse: Believes, from Infidels? There was once a time, when as Christians were differenced from Pagans, and Infid • ls, by the modesty, and meanness of their Apparel, and their abandoning of those external Cultures, Ornaments, and Attires, which the unbelieving Gentiles, and themselves before their true conversion, did admire: but alas, these times are now so altered, and inverted; that we may better know a Christian, by these Characters, and Badges of Paganism, then a Pagan: For what Idolatrous, or Heathen Nation is there in the world, so Proud, so Vain, so Various, so Fantastique, Effeminate, Lasciuious, o • Vnchristian in their Apparel, Fashions, Haire, or Head-attires, as we English, who profess our selves the prime of Christians? Do we not transcend, and far surpass the Persians, Tartars, Indians, Turks, and all the Pagan Nations in the World, in these? and may they not lay more claim to Christ, and Heaven in all these respects, then we? Let Christians therefore who are now thus strangely carried away, with the Streame, and Torrent of the Times, and the Vanities, Fashions, Pompes, and Sinful guises of the World; which their own Hearts, and Consciences condemned at the first, before they were hardened, and enchanted by them, by degrees, and custom: ) look well unto their Souls, and to their interest, and right in Christ, in these back-sliding seasons; when many fall off from Religion by degrees, unto the World, the Flesh, and Satan, whose snares, and grand pollutions they had, (at least in out-ward show:) escaped heretofore; for fear their Evidence for Heaven, prove counterfeit at last: And if they find, their Hearts inclined, or lifted up to vaniti • , or their affections and practice, biassed to these Effemi • ate guises, Lockes, and Cultures of the World: they have reason, and cause enough to fear, that their Hearts are yet devoted to the world, and quite estranged from the Lord: that all things are not yet sincere, and right within them, because their out-sides are so Vain, so Proud, Fantastique, and Vnchristian: and that their claim to Christ, is merely counterfeit, because his Graces, Stampe, and Image shine not in them, but the Worlds alone. If therefore we desire to assure our Souls, and Consciences in the sight of God, that we are true and real Christians; that we have any share, or portion in Christ, or any inheritance in the highest Heavens: Let us be sure now at last, to keep our selves unspotted from the World: to crucify the flesh with the affections, and lusts thereof: to ab • taine from all these fleshly lusts, which war against our Souls: to walk honestly as in the day: not in Chambering, and Wantonness; but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, and making no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof: yea to cut, and cast off all those Love-Lockes, Paintings, Powdrings, Crispings, Curlings, Cultures, and Attires, wh • ch b • wray the great Deformiti • s, • ilth, L • sciu • ousnesse, Pride, and Vanity of our So •• es, b • t are no luster to our body • s: that so we may ad •• ne the Gospel of Christ, and beautify our Christian pro • essi • n, by an humble, lowly, examplary, and corespondent conversation. And if these Fashions, Lock • s, and Cultures s •• m • such Niciti • s, Tr • fl • s, Toyes, or nee • less scrupul • sities unto any, as may admit an easy disp • nsation, and m • y be still retai • ed without any h • rt, • r da • ger to men's Souls, or scandal to Religion: I answer • ; that if they are not Sinful, and Vnlawfull in themselves, as they ar • proved in this present Treatise by the consent of all Antiquity: yet they are but E • feminate, Ridicul • us, Vnpro • itable, and Foolish vanities, or Cultures of the World, in their very best acception; which Christians should not dot • upon, since they have renounced them in their Baptism; and since they have far greater things then these, on which to busy, and impl • y their thoughts and time. Christians have their rich and precious Souls to beautify, which they unmercifully butcher, and neglect, whiles they are to c • rious, and exa • t in the Culture of their bodies ; they have a great, and holy God to serve continually; they have sundry Heavenly graces to procure, cherish, and enlarge: they have a multitude of Christian duties, and Heavenly ex • rcises to discharge from day today: they have • or should have callings, and sundry warrantable employments, both for their own, and others good, and God's own glory; all which will quite engross their time, their lives, and thoughts, and take them off from all these head-altiring cares, in which too many wast, and spend their days: No reason therefore have they to allow themselves in these bewitching, and time-devouring Vanities, which steal away their Hearts, and Liues from God, and better things. And why should Christians take any liberty to themselves at all, in these nugatorie, and Vnchristian vanities? Is it not exceeding scandalous unto others, and d • ngerous to themselves to do it? doeth it not blaspheme, and scandalize Religion, and make it odious unto Pagans, who are not half so Vain, so Proud, and Vitious in this kind as Christians? and will it not draw all such, who take this liberty to themselves, to greater, and more scandalous sins at last, to the wreck, and hazard of their Souls? Alas, such is the strange deceitfulness of our Hearts, and the inbred pravity of our Natures: that if we once begin to play, and dandle with small and petty Vices, yea, though it be but with Vanities, Toyes, and idle Fashions: they will quickly draw us on to scandalous, great, and heinous sins at last; and so fetter us in the ginnes, and snares of gross impieties; that we shall sooner sink down into Hell under their weight, and pressure, then shake off their bondage. He that begins to nourish, or reserve a Locke, or to adorn, set out, and Crisp his Haire but now and then: though he were a Modest, Sober, Chast, Industrious, or some-what Religious person at the first: if he once but slack the rains of his affections to these vanities, and keep no stiff hand over them, to curb them in due season; will soon degenerate into an Idle, Proud, Vaineglorious, Vnchast, Deboist, and graceless Ruffian: His Amourous, Frizled, Womanish, and Effeminate Haire, and Locke, will draw him on to Idleness, Pride, Effeminacy, Wantonness, Sensuality, and Voluptuousness, by degrees; and from thence to Incontinency, Whoredom, Deboistnesse, and all Prophannesse, to the eternal wreck and ruin of his Soul. This the woeful, and lamentable experi • nce of thousands in our age can testify, who by giving way unto the outward Culture of their Heads, and Bodies, and yielding but a little to the sinful Guises, and Fashions of the Times at first: have been at last precipitated into the very sink, and puddle of all dissoluteness, and uncleanness, to the inextricable loss, and hazard, not only of their Bodies, Goods, Estates, and Credits: but of their rich, and peerless Souls. O therefore let us look unto our Hearts, and Souls betimes, let us keep, and fence them against the very beginnings, seeds, and first appearances of sin, and Vanity ; against these Vain, these Ruffianly, and Womanish Cultures, Frizlings, Lockes, and Fashions: which if they once get but entertainment, or footing in our affections, will so captivate, and enthrall us; that we shall hardly disposses, or quite eiect them, till they have made us slaves, and vassals to a world of gross, and crying sins : which will sink our Souls at last • into the very deepest depths of Hell without recovery. And is it not now high time, yea, have we not now great cause, to abandon, and renounce these Monstrous, Strange, Ridiculous, and misshapen Fashions, and Attires: which transform our Heads, and bodies into a thousand Antique, and Outlandish shapes? to disrobe our selves, of all our Proud, and costly Plumes, which bid de • iance to the Lord of Hosts, and cause him to unsheath his glittering Sword against us, to our final overthrow, and utter desolation? and to cut, and cast off all those Lockes, and Emblems of our Vanity, Pride, Incontinencie, La • ciuiousnesse, and gross Effeminacy, which Prognosticate some eminent, and fatal judgment to our Land, and Nation? and hasten to accomplish, and draw it down upon us to the full? Hath not the Lord begun to smite, and ruin us for these sins already? Hath he not sent a man-eating Pestilence, and d • populating Plague among us, which hath cut off thousands, week, by week: and is it not now likely to revive again, to sweep us all away? hath he not oft times cut us short, by Sea, and Land, and Blasted all our great Designes for sundry years; so that they have proved all abortive, and been more fatal to our selves, then hurtful to our enemies? hath he not laid our Confederates, and Associates round about us, wast, and desolate: and bereaved us of those foreign Props, and Stayes, on which we did most rely? hath he not spoiled us of our Name, and ancient Glory, which was Great, and Honorable throughout the World; and made us the very Obloquie, Hissing, Scorn, Reproach, and Taile of all the Nations; whereas we were the Head, and chief of People heretofore? hath he not taken away from us, the mighty Man, and the Man of War, the Judge, and the Prophet, the Prudent, and the Ancient, the Captain of fifty, the Honorable man, and the Counselor? hath he not bereft us of our Ships, and Mariners by Sea: of our Commanders, and expert Soldiers by Land? hath he not weakened, and impoverished us by losses, and overthrows abroad: by decay, and loss of trade: by Diuisions, Distractions, Pressures, and Discontents at home? hath he not revealed his wrath, and indignation against us from Heaven, by prodigious Thunders, Stormes, and Tempests, and sundry heavy Judgments? and may we not yet truly say, that for all this his anger is not turned away from us, but his hand is stretched out still? Do we not yet daily fear a Chaos, and confusion in our Church, and State, and a sudden surprisal of our Kingdom? do we not yet feel, and see the heavy curse, and wrath of God, still cleaving to us, and increasing on us: yea, working, and contriving our destruction, more, and more? do not all the Characters of a dying, and declining State appear upon us? and doeth not every man's own • Conscience whisper, nay, cry aloud unto him: that unless God prove miraculously Good, and Gracious to us, we are near some inevitable, and irrecoverable perdition, which will put a final period to our former happiness? And is this then a time, for us poor dust, and ashes; when as we are thus inuironed with fears, and dangers, and even destinated, and designed to destruction: when as God's Ministers, Threatenings, Word, and Judgments, do even summon us from Heaven, to humble and abase our Souls, and Bodies: to wallow in the dust, and to abhor our selves in Sackcloath, and Ashes : when as our necks lie all upon the block, expecting every moment their last, and fatal blow: to Pranke, and Decke, our Proud, and rotten Carcases? to lavish out our Patrimonies on our Heads, and Backes, and hang whole Manners at our Ears, and Neckes at once? to Frizle, Powder, Nourish, and set out our Haire, and Lockes, in the most Lasciuious, Amourous, Proud, Effeminate, Ruffianly, and Vain-glorious manner, that the quint • scence of our own, or other men's Vanity can invent? to live in the very ruffe, and height of Pride, and Vanity? or purposely to sell our selves: yea to educate, and train up our children, (who should be brought up in the fear, and nurture of the Lord: as the common custom of our Nobility, and Gentry is;) to Wantonness, Idleness, Voluptuousness, Epicureanism, and all excess of Sensuality, Pleasure, Vanity, Pride, and carnal iolliti • ; as if we took delight, and pleasure in our own destruction; or meant willfully to incur the very worst, and uttermost of God's heaviest Judgments? What, have we not • ggreuated, and multiplied our iniquities, and sins sufficiently already, but that we must thus intend, and increase them more, and more? are we not yet deep enough in God's displeasure, that we thus pro • oke, and grieve him further every day? or do we think to auocate, or divert God's Judgments, or to move him to compassionate us, by filling up the measure of our immeasurable sins against him? or are we willing, and desirous for to perish, or to bring our selves, and Country unto speedy ruin, that we are now more vile, more Sinful, Proud, and desperately wicked, proclaiming our Impudency, Vanity, Idleness, Hautinesse, and Sin, as Sodom did, not laboring once to hide it, though we expect, yea feel God's Plagues, and Judgments on us every moment? Alas, (my brethren,) what do you mean to do, or which ways will you turn yourselves? will you willfully cast away God's Love, and Favor: and subject yourselves, to the very utmost of his wrath, and vengeance? will you still provoke the Lord to your destruction, even beyond recovery? will you subject us to the Spanish yoke, and bondage? to all the miseries that Rome, that Spain, that Heaven, or Hell can plot against us? If this be your intended resolution; go on, and take your fill of Sin, of Pride, and Vanity: I will not interrupt you.

But if you would avoid, divert, and quite escape that ouerrunning flood, and torrent of God's Judgments, (which is like to sweep us all away, we cannot tell how soon,) which our sins now call for, and our Hearts presage is near at hand: if your desire to enjoy more Halcyon days of Peace, or years of Iubilie, and full prosperity, which may make your lives a very Paradise, or Heaven upon Earth. If you expect any further repriuall at the hands of God, or if you would still retain his Presence, Face, and Favor; his Gospel, and Protection, which are sweeter, and better th • n life it self, or all the Riches, Pleasures, and Contentments, that thi • World can yield you: or if you are now unwilling for to perish: why then do you multiply, and still increase your sins, and post on in those ways of P • ide, and Vanity, which will certainly deprive us of God's Face, and Favor, and all our Earthly comforts, & cause us all to perish? Is this the way and m • thod, t • i • ke you, to app • ase God's anger, divert • his Iudgem •••• , 〈…〉 his favor, to rebel, an • sin against him mo •• , a •• •• re? to affront, and dare him to his Face, with our bl •• h ••••• Imp • de • cy: our monstrous Fashions, a • d A •• ires? our 〈◊〉 , Whorish, and Lasciuious g • st ••• s ? o • r 〈◊〉 • izled, Powdred and Vnmanly L • ck • s, and Haire? or m • re then Sardanapalian i •• irilitie, which • e • e • mes not Christians, o • men of Valo • r? to pr • u • ke him with our Cursing, Swearing, Whored ••• s, M • rth • rs Usury, Bribery, Covetousness, Oppression, I • iusti • e, Scurrilitie, Ribaldry, and Heathenish conuersati • ns? to disobey his Word, abuse his M • rcies, and Long-suffering towards us; and to grow Incorrigible, and more Sinful under all his Judgments, as we do ? Are these the means to compass all those Fauours, which we now expect, or to exempt us from those heavy Judgments, which our Hearts so fear? Is this the course to salve, to settle, or reunite our tottering, and divided State? to secure our Selves, our Church, or Kingdom here at home, or to make us dreadful to, or Conquerers over all our Foes, abroad? O no, these are the only ways to l • se our God, our Selves, our Souls, our Church, our Country, all We have, or all We hope for: these are the only means to heap, and hasten that, yea more, upon us then, We fear: these are the courses by which W • e have willfully cast our Selves into those present miseries, which We fear, or suffer, and which our Friends about us have drunk of to the full: and shall We yet proceed on in them? Have We not smarted enough already for them? and are We yet so strangely stupid, as not to take warning by our former stripes? which will be doubled, an • trebled yet upon us, if we still proceed. O therefore, (Christian Readers,) if you have any sense, or feeling of our present miseries: any apprehention of our future dangers, under the very thoughts, and fear of which We pine, and languish: any Bowels of compassion, to your Selves, your Country, or Posterity: any care at all to Remooue, Diuert, or Anticipate those heavy Judgments, which We fear, or suffer: or to reverse that fatal Curse of God, which cleaves to all our public Enterprises, and Designes: any forwardness to regain our Ancient Glory, Victories, and Renowne abroad: or to establish Unity, Safety, Peace, and welfare in our Church, or State at home: or any Cordial, and strong Desire, to retain God's Word, his Blessing, Face, and Favor still among us, which now withdraw themselves apace, as if they had no pleasure in us: Let us now, even now at last, after so many warnings, and Repriualls: so many days of Grace, and Mercy, so many Milde, and Fatherly Chastisements, in the midst of all those Enemies, Feares, and Dangers, which hedge us in on every side: (though We are almost senseless of them, perchance, beca • se God means for to destroy us: ) abandon all our Brauery, Pride, and Vanity; and all these Cultures, Love-Lockes, and Disguises, which blemish our Profession, and Arm our God, and all our Enemies against us, to our just destruction: If We will now lay down these weapons of Rebellion, which bid defiance to the Lord of Hosts: if We will reform our Heads, and Hearts, which distemper all our other members, with the Flux of sin; and make them all unsound: if We will yet humble our Souls before the Lord for all our sins, and turn our Heads, our Hearts, our Hand • s, our Eyes, and Feet unto his Testimonies, without anymore d • lays: it may be there is yet a day of Grace, a time of M • rcy, Peace, and Favor reserved for us in the breast of God, and we may yet esc • pe those sad, and fatal Judgments, w • ich God now threatens, and we feel, or fear: But if we still walk on, as in a progress, in the Effeminacy, Pride, and Vanity of our Liues, or in the stubbornness of our hard, and graceless Hearts, from evil, to worse, heaping up sin, to sin, without all stinte, or measure, as We do: Let other men expect, and hope what good they will; I for my own part, can Prognosticke nothing, but our final ruin. For if we still go on in sin, in despite of all God's Judgments, or overcoming F • uours: God will, he must, proceed in wrath, and vengeance: so that though Moses, Daniel, Noah, Samuel, Job, and Abraham, should stand before him in the gap, to divert his Indign • tion, Wrath, and Judgments from us, yet his mind could not be towards us, but he will cast us out of his sight; and send us out to Death, to Sword, to Famine, and Captivity without Redemption, till we perish. O therefore hearken, and Repent betimes, that so iniquity may not prove yo • r ruin. And if you would be rescued from God's Judgments, (especially from that fatal, and deforming sickness of the Poxe: which God hath now certainly sent upon us, but especially, upon our Gentry, who are most visited, and af • licted with it, as he did upon the haughty Daughters of Zion, for our excessive Pride, and over-curious decking of our Faces, which steal away our Hearts, our Thoughts, and Time from God, and better things:) or else endeared in his Favor: then wash, your Heads, your Hands, and Hearts from all their Vanities, Pride, and Wickedness, that you may be saved: Antidotes will profit nothing, as long as they are besprinkled, with Poison: all our Wishes, Tears, and Prayers, or the Supplications of others of God's dearest Children for us, cannot auail • to help, to succor, or do us any good, as long as they are empoisoned with our sins: If we regard but any iniquity in our Hearts, (much more when we practice nothing but Sin, and all excess of Pride, and Vanity in our lives,) the Lord will not hear us: yea, though we make many Prayers to him, and add Fasting to our Prayers, to make them more available; yet, he will not regard, but quite reject us: his Soul shall have no pleasure in us. O turn you, turn you, therefore from all the Sin, and Evil of your doings: from that abundance of Idleness, and superfluity of Pride, and Vanity which hath over • pred our Nation: from all those Antique, Effeminate, Deforming, Strange, and Vnchristian Attires, Fashions, and Disguises, which transform us into sundry Monsters, and almost deprive us of our Natural, and Human s • apes: that so we may clothe our selves with Jesus Christ, who will never comply, nor suite with such Attires, or those who are devoted to them. And if we will be Pranking, and Tricking up our selves, let us devote our Thoughts, our pains, and Time, to the inward Culture of our Immortal Souls, which now lie quite neglected, whiles our Hairie excrements are so much adored. These Souls of ours, which now we so much undervalue, as to prefer the very vainest Vanities of the World before them; are the Spouse, and Love of Christ: the very Palace, and Temple of the Sacred Trinity: the very Wealth, and total Sum of all we have: O then, let us clothe, and de • ke these Souls of ours, with the robes of Jesus Christ his Righteousness: with the clothing of wrought Gold; the raiment of Needle-Work ; the transplendent Jewels, and Pearls of Grace, and with the whole Wardrobe, and Cabinet of Heaven; that so we may even ravish the very Heart of Christ, and make him sick of Love: And if we will needs adorn our bodies too: let us Paint our Faces with the candor of Simplicitie, and Vermilian-blush of Chastity: and our Eyes with Modestie: let Silence, or Holy conference, be the ornament of our Lips; the Word of God our Earings, and the Yoake of Christ our Necke-bracelets: Let us submit our Heads to Christ, and then they are sufficiently, adorned: Let our hands be busied with the Distaffe, or some other honest employment, of our general, or special callings: and our Feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace: which makes them more rich, and lovely, then if they were clad in Gold: Let us clothe our selves with the Silke of Honesty, the Laune of Sanctitie, and the Purple of Chastity: Taliter pigmentatae Deum habebitis amatorem: So shall our God be enamored with us, and atoned towards us: so shall his Judgments be diverted, his Favor regained, his Mercies enlarged, his Gospel continued, our Foes subverted, our Church reformed, our Kingdom established, our Grieuances redressed, our Feares removed, our Peace prolonged, and our Souls eternally saved, in that Great, and terrible Day of the Lord, wherein the lofty looks of Man shall be humbled, and the hautinesse of Men shall be bowed down, and the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, shall rest upon every Proud, and Loftie person, who is high, and lifted up, to bring him low, that the Lord alone, may be exalted in that day.

Now this Lord, and God of Blessing, Bless this poor Treatise, to the Soul • s of many, which I have presumed for to publish, not out of any Singular, or Nouellizing Spirit, (as some may chance to think; because it treats of such a Subject; in which none else have ever traveled to my knowledge:) or out of any Vain-glorious humor of purchasing applause from others, or venting of my own conceits: but out of a sincere, and true desire, of confining English-men, and such as bear the name of Christians, to English, and true Christian Fashions, and Attires: to stop the ou • r-flowing Sins, and Monstrous vanities of these our Times, (which far exceed all former Precedents; and find either none, or little public Opposition:) and so, as much as in me lies, to turn away that black, and gloomie Cloude of Wrath, and Vengeance, which now hangs hovering over all our heads, threatening a sudden Storm of Blood, of Miserie, Ruin, and Desolation to us, unless, we thoroughly, and speedily Repent: In which if I have erred in any particular, as well I may, because I have walked in an vntroden p • th, and had no foot-steps but mine own to follow, (though some are so Malicious to report abroad; that my Works, th • y are some others, not mine own ; because they have little else to carpe against them:) I hope • y good intention shall mitigate my Errors for the present: and my Pen correct th • m, if once informed of them, for the future; so that I need not fear that School-boys breeching for th • m, which • some Pedantique Cl • rikes threaten to me; who for all their outside Pomp, their Doctorated, or B • a • d • d-gra • itie, de •• rue the School-boys lash, perchance as w • ll as I, who neither regard their causeless Censures, Scoffes, and Calumnies, nor yet fear their Threates. If I have causelessly stirred up their Choller, or tongues against Mee, or my Books, by gla • cing at their Pride, Pluralities, Idleness, Nonresid • ncie, or Vitious Lines, which are impatient of the lash, though now perchance they need it: or in that I am a Laicke only, not a Minister, and yet presume to Write in others Silence: (whereas every Christian is in truth, an holy Priest, to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable unto God, by Jesus Christ: to rebuke his neighbor in any wise, and not to suffer sin upon him ; (especially, in Dangerous, and sinful Times, which threaten Desolation, both to Church, and State:) and to contend earnestly, for the Faith of the Gospel, which was once delivered to the Saints: as well, as Clergy men; what ever Papist, or others mutter to the contrary:) or in that I have displayed their Popish, and Arminian Doctrines, Plots, and Proiects to the World, which they would yet keep veiled till their ends were wrought: or blamed them, for neglecting their Ministry, and merging themselves in Secular affairs: I only wish them so much Grace, and Wisdom, as to grow angry, and displeased with themselves, and these their Sins, and Errors; that so they may in time reform them: not with me; who bear no malice to their persons, (much less unto their High, and holy Function, which I honor:) but to their Errors, Sins; and Vices, which I only mention to reclaim them, not defame them: that so those Pastors, whose ill examples Vitiate, and cause their Flocks to err, if not all Christendom for to suffer:) being thoroughly reformed, both in Life, and Doctrine: the straying Sheep, (which now are Posting after sundry Sins, and Vanities, and those especially, which I have here oppugned:) might be more easily, and speedily, recalled from these ways of Sin, which are like to lead both them, and us unto destruction: and so both Sheep, and Pastors, our Church, and State; our Zion, and Jerusalem, yet preserved, in despite of all their Enemies: Which exact, and speedy reformation, the God of Mercies grant now unto us all, for his Son, and Mercies sake, Amen.

THE VNLOVELINESSE, OF LOVE-LOCKES.

INfinite and many are the sinful, strange, and monstrous Vanities, which this Vnconstant, Vain, Fantastique, Idle, Proud, Effeminate, and wanton Age of ours, hath Hatched, and Produced in all the parts, and corners of the World; but especially, in this our English climate; which like another Afric, is always bringing forth some New, some Strange, Misshapen, or Prodigious forms, and Fashions, every moment.

Not to insist upon those Lasciuious, Immodest, Whorish, or ungodly Fashions, and Attires, which Metamorphise, and Transforme, our Light, and Giddie Females of the Superior and Gentile rank, into sundry Antique, Horred, and Out-landish shapes, from day, today: which Fashions, and Attires both God himself, with sundry Fathers, and Moderne Aut • ors, have punctually condemned: Nor yet to mention, that Meretricious, Execrable, and Odious Art of Face-painting, (a Vice so rife among us,) which God himself, which Fathers, which Moderne Christian Authors, and sundry Pagans, have Sentenced, and Branded; as a mere invention of the Devil: as an Unnatural, Detestable, Heathenish, Proud, Lasciuious, Whorish, and Infernal practice, peculiar unto none but audacious Whores, and Stu • pets, or persons desperately Wicked: as a Bait, a Snare, or mere allectiue to Inescate, and Inamour others with us; as an Art that offers violence unto God himself, in obliterating that Natural, and lively Image, Form, and Beauty, which he hath stamped on his Creatures: in Correcting, Changing, and Nullifying of his Work; and so taxing him for an Imperfect, Bungling, or Vnskilfull Workman: in preferring those artificial Faces, and Infernal varnishes, which Satan hath Portraitured, and set out to Sale; before that Natural, and comely Countenance, Face, and Feature, which God's own Curious, and never-erring Finger hath carved out unto us: in changing that into a Counterfeite, False, and feigned Picture, or a Rotten, painted Statue, which he hath made, a Real, Lively, Rationall, and holy Creature: and as a Pernicious, and Soul-devouring Evil, which without Repentance, Dammes all such as use it, to the depths of Hell, from which there is n • Redemption: and causeth God to forget, yea, not to know them here; and to disclaim, and utterly renounce them in the day of Judgment: because they want that royal Image, and Superscription, which He had stamped on them; which I would our Painted Jezebels, Dames, and Ladies would consider, in a Deliberate, Cordial, and Soul-affecting manner, for fear they feel the smart, and terror of it at the last: Not to insist (I say) on these, or many such like sins and vanities of our female sex, which would requi • e a large and ample volume to batter and confound them: I have resolved for the present, to single out one sinful, shameful, and uncomely vanity, with which to grapple; which hath lately seised on many effeminate, loose, licentiou • , singular, fantastique, and vain-glorious perso • s • of our masculine, and more noble Sex: to wit, the nourishing and wearing of unnatural, shameful, and vnlouely Lock • s, or Love-lock • s, (as they style them:) which now b • gin to grow into a common, approved, and received fashion, or use among us.

These Love • locks, or E • re-locks, in which too many of our Natio • have of late begun to glory: what ever they may seem to be in the eyes, and judgments of many humorous, singular, • ffeminate, ruff • inly, vain-glorious, or time serving pe • sons, who repute and deem them a very generous, necessary, beautiful, and comely orname • t: are yet notwithstanding • but so many badges of infamy, effeminacy, vanity, singularity, pride, lasciviousness, and shame, in the eyes of God, and in the judgment of all godly Christians, and Grave or Civil men: yea, they are such unnatural, sinful, and unlawful ornaments, that it is altogether unseemly, and unlawful for any to nourish, use, or wear them. Lest this should seem an harsh, a • alse, or idle Paradox, to Ruffians, and such fantastique persons as are delighted in them. I will here propound some arguments, and reasons to evince this true, though strange and new Conclusion:

That the nourishing, using, or wearing of Lockes, or Love-locks, is utterly v • see • ely, odious, and unlawful unto Christians: and thus I prove it.

First

The Major must be yielded, because no good thing can proceed from him, who is all and only evil, both in himself, and all his actions, as the Devil is: the Minor I shall back and evidence, by the authority of Tertullian, who informs us: that all things which are not of God, are certainly the Devils: But the wearing, and nourishing of these Love-locks, is not from God, (no, nor yet from any of his Saints and Children, with whom they were never in use as we can read of;) therefore they must needs b • e from the Devil: And that they were so indeed, we have the express authority, of a learn • d, la • e, and reverend Historian; who i • forms us in express terms: That our sinister, and vnlouely Love-locks, had their generation, birth, and pedigree from the Heathenish, and Idolatrous Virginians, who took their pattern f ••• their Devil Ockeus: who usually appeared to them in 〈…〉 e of a man, with a long black Locke on the left side of 〈◊〉 head, hanging down to his feet: so that if we will resolve the generation of our Love-locks, into their first and true original; the Virginian D • uill Ockeus, will prove to be the natural Father, and inuentor of them. And shall we then, who profess our selves Christians; we who have given up our names to Christ, and so solemnly vowed, and protested unto God in our very Baptism: to forsake the Devil and all his Works ; turn such prodigious, and incarnate Devils, as to imitate the very Devil himself, in this his guise and portraiture, which we have so seriously renounced in our very first initiation, and admittance into the Church of Christ? Certainly, if the Devil himself were the first inuentor of these fantastique and vainglorious Love-locks; this very thing doeth stamp such an vnlouelinesse, and unlawfulness upon them, as should cause all such who bear the name, or face of Christians, to abhor them: this is my first argument.

Secondly.

Admit, that this objection should chance to fail me, (though I know not how it can well be shifted off:) yet thus I argue in the second place.

Th • Major is irrefragable: because God himself hath expr • sly Commanded all Christians whatsoever; not to imitate, use, or follow, the vain, unnatural, ridiculous, Effemi • ate, or Heathenish Customs • Fashions, Guises, Rites, or Habits of Infidels, Pagans, Wicked, or Worldly men, but utterly to abandon and disclaim them; because Christ Jesus hath shed his rich and precious Blood, of purpose to redeem and free them from them:

The Minor I shall evidence by sundry Testimonies: It is storied of the Effeminate, Luxurious, and Heathenish Sybaerites ; that it was the common custom of their City, for their Youthes and Pages to wear, and nourish Love-locks tied up in golden Ribbands: The Ancient Germans did use to wear long red Haire tied up in a knot, as our Love-locks sometimes are: The Heathenish, Barbarous, and Bloody Tartars, do usually shave the forepart of their Heads to their Crowns, from one Eare to the other, suffering their Haire to grow long on the hinder part of their Heads, like to our Women, of which they make two traces, or Love-locks, which they tie up behind their ears. The Infidel, and Idolatrous Virginians, do wear a long Love-lock on the left side of their Heads (as our English Ru • fians do) in imitation of Ockeus their Devil-god: whence it was, that a Virginian coming into England, blamed our English men for not wea • ing a long lock as they did: affirming the God which we worship • to be no true God, because he had no Love-lock, as their Devil Ockeus hath. The Heathenish, and Pagan Inhabitants of Duharhe do cut their Haire, leaving only two curled L • ckes hanging down from th • ir Temples, which they • ye up under their Chinnes: which Eare-locks, the Author stiles a pestilent custom: In Mexico there was a Monastery of young men, who shaved the former part of their Heads, letting the Haire on the h • nder part to grow, about the breadth of four fingers, which they • yed up in trusses • The Maxyes did use t • pole the lef • side of their Heads, (as our Love-lock wearers do the right,) suffering the Haire on the right side to grow long, in nature of our Love-locks. The Priests of Sybil • called Curetes, the AE • olians, Arabians, Ionians, Mysians, and Machlians, did use to pole the forepart of their Heads, lest their Enemies should take hold of their Haire; and so gain advantage of them in their Wars : leaving their Haire long behind. Musouius in his Book de Tonsura • makes mention of some Pagans, who did not pole all their Head alike, but did cut their Haire somewhat short before, and let it grow long behind: This (saith he) though it may seem to be somewhat comely, yet it hath much deformity in it, neither doeth it any whit differ from the culture, and elegancy of Women: for they do plaite some parts of their Hair • ; other parts of it they suffer to hang down at length, and the rest th • y dress after another fashion • that they may seem more beautiful. In like manner men who are thus polled, bewray that they desire to s • eme fair to those whom they study to please • while • s they cut away some of their Haire, and compose the rest in such a manner, as may make them seem more beautiful a • ong Women and Children, whose praise they do affect: which is an Effeminate, Womanish, Voluptuou • , and Vnmanly thing: A worthy censure of a Pagan on these Effeminate, and Lasciuious Love-locks, which should cause all Christians to abhor them. And to conclude this proof: The Idola • rous Chinians, Persians, and Dacians, though so • e of them shave their Heads full often, yet they leave a Locke, or Tuft of Haire upon th • ir Crowns about two foot long, that thereby • hey may be more e • sily carried into Heaven after their death: A very substantial and worthy reason for the use of Love-locks, if men might be carried up to Heaven by them, as these Idolaters & Mohammedans dream: whereas in truth, they serve for no other purpose, but to give the Devil holdfast, to draw us by them into Hell: a fitting place for such vain, Effeminate, ruffianly, Lasciuious, Proud, Singular, and Fantastique persons, as our Love-lock wearers, for the most part are: You see now by these precedent Histories; that the nourishing, use, and wea • ing of these vnlouely Love-locks, was common among Idolatrous Infidels, and Vain, Effeminate, Barbarous, Vnciuill, and Lasciuious Pagans, whose Custom, Guise, and Gracelesse fashions, no Christians are to imitate: 〈◊〉 for my own part, I never heard nor read as yet, that they were ever worn, used, or approved by any Sincere, Sober, Grave, or godly Christians in former ages: Wherefore it must needs be a shame, if not a sin for us who bear the habit and name of Christians, to deuiate from the use and custom of our Country, and from the pattern, and practice of the Saints in former ages, in taking up these Vain, Effeminate, Lasciuious, and unnatural Love-locks, in imitation of these Rude, these Barbarous, Effeminate, Idolatrous, and Gracelesse Pagans, whose Guise, whose Ways, whose Fashions, Rites, and Customs, no Christians are to follow.

Thirdly.

If these two arguments will not convince our Love-lock wearers, then let them hearken to a third, from which there can be no evasion.

The Major no man dares control, unless he will Atheistically condemn both God and Nature too: the assumption I shall prove in both particulars: First I say, that the nourishing, or wearing of Love-locks is contrary to the very Word of God: as is manifest by Ezech. 44. 20. compared with Levite. 29.27, and 21.5. They shall not shave, nor round, nor make bald their heads, nor suffer their Lockes to grow long, they shall only pole their Heads, and by the 1. Cor. 11.14. where the Scripture, and Nature it self inform us: that it is a shame for a man to wear long Haire: Now those who wear, or nourish Love locks: they do not pole their Heads: they wear long Haire; and they suffer their Lockes to grow long: therefore they expressly oppose, and contradict the word of God. If any now reply, that these Scriptures extend not unto such as nourish Love-locks, but to such as nourish all their Haire, suffering it to grow out unto its full and largest length; as the Massalian heretics, (who are therefore taxed by Epiphanius: ) the Lacedemonians by reason of Lycurgus his Law and direction: who thought, that long Haire would make those that were comely, m • r • beautiful: and those who were deformed, more terrible to their Enemies: the ancient Romans, till four hundred fifty and four years after the building of Rome: the Lyceans: the Argives, or Grecians, Germans, French men, P • ntingal • s, Arabians, Scythians, Parthians, Cumaeans, Indians, Hispanolians, Mexican Priests, Plesco • ians, Waymeeres, Sueuians, Hagarens, Assyrians, Thracians, Seres, Iberians, Basserani, Anians, Pigmies, Ginneans, Chineans, Malucchians, Iapanites, Curiamans, Chicoranes, Ancient Brittons, and other Idolatrous, Barbarous, and Heathenish Nations of Moderne and Ancient times ; together with some ( n ) particular men, are Recorded to have done; and not of those who only suffer a little part, and parcel of their Haire to grow long, cutting the rest as others do:

To this I answer first; that the same law which prohibites the nourishing of the whole, doeth virtually, nay, positively disallow the nourishing of any part: because every part is actually included in the whole; therefore these Scriptures do condemn all such, as nourish only their Love-locks, as well as such as suffer all their Haire to grow long: Secondly, I answer; that these Scriptures admit of no apporciament: for they command men to pole their Heads, not part of their Heades; and not to suffer their Lockes to grow long: in the number of which Lockes, these Love-locks are included • especially since this Precept is a universal Negative: Love-locks, are Lockes: they are long Haire, which is a shame to men that wear it ; therefore they are undoubtedly included within, and so punctually condemned by these Scriptures: Thirdly, the wearing of these Love-locks, is as great, (if not a greater) badge of Leuitie. Vanity, Singularitie, and Effeminacy, as the nourishing of all the Haire: therefore both of them are equally condemned by the Scriptures:

Secondly, as the nourishing and wearing of Love-locks, and long Haire, beyond the ordinary, and decent length of the more Civil, Grave, Religious, and Sobet rank of men, is contrary to the Word of God: even so it is directly contrary to the Law of Nature which no Custom can control: Which I prove, fi • st, by the express Testimony of the Scriptures: Doeth not Nature it s • lfe teach you (saith the Apostle) that if a Man have long Haire, it is a shame unto him? but if a Woman have long Haire, it is a Glory to her, for it is given to her for a covering: the Apostle here informed us; that the nourishing, and wearing of long Haire in men, is contrary to Nature: and he confirms this assertion, by these reasons: That (saith he) which even by the voice, and verdict of Nature, is a shame to Men ; that which is properly, and Naturally a Woman's glory: and which God, and Nature hath bequeathed unto Women, for a special use ; to wit, for a natural Couering, or Vail, and for a Badge, or Emblem of their subjection to their Husbands ; must needs be Unnatural, and so Vnlawfull unto Men: But the wearing, and nourishing of long Haire, (and so of Love-locks,) even by the voice, and verdict of Nature, is a shame to Men; it is the Natural, and proper Glory of none but Women, to whom God, and Nature have beque • thed it for a special use ; to wit, for a natural Couering, or Vail, and for a Badge, or Emblem of subjection to their Husbands: therefore it must needs be Unnatural, and so Vnlawfull unto men, even by the Apostles Testimony: Secondly, that which Natural, and Civil men do loathe, abhor, and utterly condemn, even from the very grounds and principles of Nature, must needs be opposite, and contrary to the Law of Nature: But even natural and Civil men do utterly abhor, condemn, and loathe the nourishing, and wearing of these Love-locks, and Ruffianly, or excessive long Haire; their very Hearts, and stomachs, do rise up in indignation against them, and abhor the very sight, and thoughts of them, (as every man's own experience can sufficiently testify,) and that from the very grounds, and principle • of Nature, which hath stamped, and engraven in men's Hearts, a secret antipathy, and dislike against these Love-locks, and long Haire in men: Hence was it, that Pope Benedict the ninth enjoined all the Polonians upon release of Cazimir the first their King, who had entered into Religion; to cut their Haire above their Ears, and not to suffer it to grow long: Hence was it, that Theophilus the Emperor enacted a Law; that all men should cut their Haire short, and that no Roman should suffer it to grow below his neck, under pain of severe whipping: Hence was it, that King Henry the first, commanded men's long Haire to be cut off (as our Justices, and Judges at the Assizes oft times do,) as being against God, and Natures Law: (an Iniunction which would well befit our Ruffianly times:) therefore they must needs be contrary to the Law of Nature.

Thirdly, the very Law of Nature doeth instigate, and teach all Civil, Grave, and Sober men, who live under any Good, and Civil government, to wear their Haire of a moderate, and decent length, and to avoid the wearing, and nourishing of these Love-locks, and immoderate long Haire: What is the reason that our Nation did generally heretofore, and doeth yet for the most part, cut their Haire of a Decent, Grave, and Comely manner, without any reservation of a Love-lock; is it not more from the very direction, law, advise, or dictate of Nature, which doeth secretly inform them of the decency, and fitness of it, then from any binding Law, or custom of our Country? doubtless it is. If then Nature doeth teach men thus to cut their Haire: the nourishing of womanish, and long vnshorne Haire, together with the reservation of these Effeminate, Fantastique, Ridiculous, and uncivil Love-locks, must needs be contrary to the Law of Nature.

Lastly, that which savors of Leuitie, Vanity, Pride, Vain • glory, Singularitie, Eff • minacy, Wantonness, Lasciuiousnesse, Licentiousness, Self-conceitedness, or the like, must needs be contrary to the Law of Nature, because these sins and vices are so: But for men to wear long Haire, or Love-locks, in any Christian, or civil Common-wealth (as ours is) contrary to the common use and practice of our Country, doeth savor of all these: therefore it must needs be contrary to the Law of Nature.

Now that you may know, that it is contrary to the law of God, and Nature, for men to wear, or nourish Love-locks, or extraordinary long H • ire: consider but what the Fathe • s, and others have Recorded to this purpose: Clemens Romanus (if the Book be his:) enjoins men to pole their Heads, and not to suffer th • ir Haire to grow long, least the nourishing, and perfuming of their Haire, should be a means to inflame their lusts, and to illaqueate, or inamour Women with them: yea, he saith • xpr •• seely, that it is Vnlawfull for any Christian, or Man of God, to frizell, or frounce, to powder or color his Haire, to suffer it to grow long, or to fold it together, or tie it up with an hairelace, because it is Effeminate, and contrary to the Law of God. Clemens Alexandrinus, as he doeth utterly condemn the colouring, poudring, frizeling, curling, and Effeminate, and Meretricious dressing, adorning, and composing of the Haire, both in the male, and female sex: (a vice and fault to rife among us,) so he likewise commands men to wear their Haire of a moderate, and decent length, and not to suffer it to grow long, not yet to bind it up in fillets like women, as the Frankes, and Scythians do: They saith Saint Cyprian, are of the Devils Court and Palace, not of Christ's: who transform themselves into women, with womanish Haire, and so deface their m • sculine dignity, not without the injury, and wrong of Nature: a true and terrible speech, sufficient to startle all Effeminate, Hairy, Poudred, Frizled, and excrement-adoring Ruffians. Epiphanius condemn • es the Massalian heretics very much, for nourishing their Haire like women; informing them, that long Haire was contrary to the Catholic Church, and Apostoli • ue Doctrine; which teach us, that a man must not wear long Haire, in as much as he is the Image, and Glory of God: so that he which weareth long Haire, doeth dishonor Christ his Head, and sins against the Law of Nature, which teacheth us; that it is a shame for a man to wear long Haire: Paulinus, Saint Ambrose, and Saint Chrysostom, informs us, that it is a shame, yea, a great sin, for a man to wear long Haire at any time, because it is contrary to the order of Nature, and the Law of God; because it is given to Women by the constitution of God, and Nature, (which ought not to be violated,) for a covering, and for a ba • ge, and token of subjection: whence Chrysostom condemns such, who thought it no small part of their Religion to nourish their Haire: Saint Jerome, certifieth, that all such men as do Effeminately nourish their Haire, and set it out by the Looking • glass; (which is the proper passion and madness of Women,) shall surely perish: Yea, he condemns the wearing of long Haire, together with the Colouring, Crisping, Frizling, and Poudring of it, as a sin and vanity: and adviseth men not to shave nor make bald their Heads, as the Priests, and Worshippers of Isis, and S • rapis did in former times ; (and as the Popish Monks and shavelings now:) nor yet to suffer it to grow long, which is proper unto Soldiers, Barbarians, and riotous persons; but to cut it of a moderate, and decent length: Primasius informs us, that Saint Paul did expressly note, and tax the Corinthians, for suffering their Haire to grow long: as being a scandalous, and an offensive thing: Theophylact affirmeth, that the man who nouri • heth his Haire, is worthy of reproof, because he doeth transgress the Laws of Nature, and take upon him the habit, and form of a Woman, and a sign of subjection, against God's own institution; who hath ordained him to be a Prince, and a Ruler: S. Bernard doeth expressly condemn all such (though they are Soldiers) who wear long Haire; commanding them to cut their Haire, because it is a shame for a man to nourish it: So that by these authorities, to omit others, the wearing of excessive long Haire, or Love-locks, is directly contrary to the Law of God, and Nature: If you now object, that the Nazarites were to nourish their Haire, and not to suffer any razor to pass upon their heads, during the time of their vow, or separation: therefore men may wear Love-locks, and long Haire: Now I answer first, that the Nazarites had a special Command to nourish their Haire; not continually, but till their vows were out, and then they were to cut it off: but we have now no such command, therefore we must • ot do it. Secondly, they did nourish their Haire, out of obedience, and holy devotion unto God: whereas men in our days, do nourish their Haire and Love-locks, out of vain-glory, pride, effeminacy, singularity, lasciviousness, and such like sinister, and sinful ends: Thirdly, they during the time of their separation, did nourish all their Haire, and not one small or little portion of it, as our Love-lock wearers do: Fourthly, they only by the Law of God were to nourish their Haire, and none else: therefore, this example doeth evidently prove; that all men else, are not to nourish, but to clip and cut their Haire: Fifthly, the nourishing of their Haire was typical; typifying unto us; either Christ himself, or the graces, and beauty of Christ: or the Saints, and Church of Christ, as some observe: therefore we may, we must not imitate them, because all types are ceased now • Lastly, God himself commands all such as are to pray unto him with uncovered heads, to sheare and cut their Haire: yea, if a Woman will come, and pray to God with her head uncovered (as many do) she also is to be shorn, because she is uncovered: But all men are to pray to God with uncovered heads, for as much as they are the Image, and glory of God, and to express that holy reverence, and fear which they owe to him: (especially in the House and place of Prayer, or Presence-chamber of their Lord and God, where most men now a days sit covered; as if they owed no reverence, fear, nor service, to the Lord; or as if they came for to out-face him, and not to pray, and stoop unto him:) Therefore all m • n are to cut their Haire, and not to nourish it as the Nazarites did; because it is against the Law of God, and Nature: Love-locks, a • d excessive long Haire beyond the ordinary, grave, and decent length, are both against the Laws of God, and Nature, as I have already proved; and will any man then be so ungodly, or unnatural, as still to wear and nourish them, and not to cut them off? Let Ru •• ians, and professed Love-lock wears, now at last consider this; that they transgress the Laws of God, and Nature. If then they are, or will be Christians, as they profess themselves to be, let this Law of God instruct them: if they are but natural and carnal men, let then this Law of Nature teach them, to cassheere their ruffianly Haire, and Love-locks for the time to come, for fear they fight against thems • lues & nature ; & so incur the everlasting penalty, & censure, both of the Law of God, & Nature, at the last.

But it may be some will here object and say; that the Haire, and Love-locks which they wear, are supposititious, false, and counterfeit, and not their own: therefore they violate no Law of God, nor Nature, since the long Haire they use, is but borrowed, and aduenticious, their own being sh • rt enough: perchance, but little or none at all.

To this I answer first; that the wearing of counterfeit, false, and supposititious Haire, is utterly unlawful, though it be now so rife and common, both in our Masculine, and Female sex: First, because we have no Precept, no Record, no Warrant, nor Example for it in the Scriptures, which are the only Rule we are to walk by: The Idolatrous and Effeminate Medes, (not any Saints, nor Christians that we can read of,) were the first that used this false, and counterfeit Haire: therefore Christians may not use it. Secondly, because God hath given every man & woman such Haire, as is most natural, and suitable unto them, of purpose that they should wear and use it, and not contemn it, nor be ashamed of it: those th • refore who dislike the quantity, or quality of that Haire, which God's wisdom hath assigned to them, and there • ore purchase the hairy excrements of some other person, to Adorn and Beautifie their Heads with all; must needs incur God's Judgment; because they tax and censure God, and labor to correct, and change his Work: Thirdly, because this wearing of false and counterf • ite Haire, doeth always arise • rom pride and vain-glory: in that we desire to be more beautif • ll, and comely then God hath made us: or from concupiscence, • r vncleann • sse, in that we seek to inescate, and inamour those with this artificial and acquisite Haire, and beauty, which our own natural Haire, and feature would not move: or from a vain, and sinful levity of mind, whereby we desire to take up, and follow • he vain, abominable, wicked, and worldly guises, fashions, and customs of the times, which Christians must, abominate: or out of a vain-glorious, and fantastique desire of singularity, or differencing our selves from others: or out of an intent, or purpose to delude, and cozen others, by persuading them by this Hellish wile: that our Haire, and so our Complexions, Constitutions, and Conditions, (which are oft discovered by the Haire,) are not the same they are: or out of a cursed obstinacy, Rebellion, and Disobedience to God, and to his Laws, or to the Counsel, Advice, and Admonition of his Saints, and Ministers, whom we purpose and intend to cross, to thwart and grieve, by our Rebellious, Gracelesse, Wanton, and Ungodly lives: These I say, or some of these, are the only true, and proper grounds, and ends, why Men or Women wear this false, and counterfeit Haire; now these are all Vnlawfull, Wicked, and Abominable: therefore, the very wearing of this ascititious Haire, must be so too: This Clemens Alexandrinus knew full well: whence he informs us; That false and counterfeit Haire, is utterly to be rejected, and that it is a very wicked thing, to attire the head, with dead and ascititious Haire. For on whom doeth the Elder lay his hands? Whom doeth he bless? Not the Man or Woman, who are thus attired; but another's Haire, and by it, another's head. If then the Man be the Woman's head, and Christ the Mans: how can it but be a wicked fact for a Woman to wear false Haire, by which she falls into a double sin? For they deceive their Husba • ds by their excessi • e Haire; and they disgrace the Lord, as much as in there • lies, whiles they are whor • shly attired to the deceit of the truth, and accurse that head, which is truly beautiful ; thus far Clemens. Tertullian writing against the pride and vain attires of Women, condemns their false, and counterfeit • Haire among the rest: Moreover ye annex (saith he) I know not what enormities of Periwiges, and counterfeit • Haire; sometimes upon the crown of the head like an Hat; sometimes behind in the poll: It is a strange thing, that they thus strive against the commandments of the Lord. It is written, that no man can add to his stature: yet you add unto your weight, by adding Bracelets, and Bosses to your necks: If you are not ashamed of the enormity, yet be ashamed of the defilement; lest thou annex to thy Christian and holy head, the excrements, or spoil of some strange, perhaps some unclean and sinful head, that is destinated unto Hell it self: wherefore thrust away this bondage of attire from your fore-heads. You labor to seem beautiful in vain; in vain do you send for the most exquisite Tire-women: God commands you to be veiled; lest any part of your heads should be seen. Would to God I wretched man could lift up my head among you in the day of Christ's exaltation, to see whether or no you should rise again, with the same varnish, painting, and head attire, which now you bear; or whether the Angels should take you up into the Clouds, to meet Christ Jesus as you are now attired, and set out: If these things be good, and of God now, they would then accompany you, and enjoy their places in the Resurrection: but nothing can rise again, but pure flesh and Spirit; therefore thes • things which rise not again, neither in the flesh, nor spirit, are condemned, because they are not of God. Abstain from damned things, for the present: Let God now find you such, as he shall find you then. Saint Jerome, and Saint Chrysostom, tax all such, for Gracelesse, Carnal, and Worldly persons, who paint their faces, who frounce, and curle their Haire, or adorn, attire, and set out their heads with false, and borrowed Haire: Saint Cyprian, and Paulinus, also do the like ; therefore, by the voice and verdict of the Fathers, concurring with the precedent reason, the wearing of false and counterfeit Haire, either in Men or Women, must needs be sinful and unlawful: Fourthly, it must needs be so, because it is impos • ible, that he or she, should have a true; a sound, sincere, and upright heart, who hath a false, a counterfeit, and deceitful head: A false, a vain, or proud head, is always a presage, resemblance, or concomitant of an hollow, vain, and haughty heart. Hence was it; that King Philip associating a friend of Antipaters, with his Judges, perceiving him afterwards to color his Haire, and Beard, removed him from his place: affirming, that he could not believe, that such a one would prove Just, and Faithful, in the determination of causes, who was so perfidious, and treacherous to his own Haire: As a proud head, and an humble heart, or a lascivious, vain, and meritricious head, and an honest, modest, chaste, and sober heart, do seldom, or never go together: So a false, a counterfeit, an artificial, or aduenticious Head, or Face, and an Honest, Vpright, Faithful, Tr • e, and gracious Heart, do seldom (and if I am not much mistaken,) never meet, in one, and the self-same person. Such as the Head is, such is the Heart, there being such a mutual, and reciprocal intercourse between the Head, and the Heart: that a false Heart, will quickly vitiate, and corrupt, an honest, natural, plain, and modest Head; and a counterfeit, and artificial Head, an upright, true, and humble Heart. Since therefore, the wearing of aduenticious Haire; (which the Lasciuious Heathen Poet, doeth much condemn in amourous Women ; though many who would be deemed chaste, and modest Matrons, are not ashamed for to wear it: even in the very face, and presence of God himself, as if they meaned to outbraue him:) i • always a badge, or Emblem, if not a cause, of a false, a vain, a wanton, proud, deceitful, and immodest Heart; it cannot but be evil, and utterly unlawful unto such, who practice, or profess Religion. Lastly, the Fathers, do with one consent aver, the colouring of our own Haire with an artificial die, (which is now in use among us, as well as among the Indians, French, and others heretofore:) to be utterly unlawful, and abominable: because it doeth disapprooue, correct, and change the work of God: because it is but a mere invention, work, and figment of the Devil: because it savoreth of pride, lasciuio • snesse, effeminacy, vanity, and self-seeking: and doeth as much as in it lies oppose, nay, thwart, and falsify the very Words of Christ: who informeth us, that we cannot so much as make one Haire of our head, white, or bl • cke, with all our fa • s •• and artificial dies, which will quickly fade and lose their luster, because they are but false and counterfeit. Now those who wear false Haire, or Pe • iwigges, or frizled, and powdered bushes of borrowed excrement, as if they were ashamed of the head, of God's making, and proud of the tire-woman's: whether it be to follow the fashion, or out of dislike of their own natural Haire; or out of pride, lasciviousness, vanity of mind, affectionate beauty, or the like: or else out of a d • sire to cover, and conceal their baldness, (for which Synesius, Erasmus, and the Poet ieere, and utterly condemn them: ) do offer as great violence, and injury to the work, and Wisdom of God, and to this speech of Christ, as those that color, powder, paint, or die their Haire: therefore they must needs offend God in it: and so by consequence, the wearing of false, and coun • erfeite Haire, or Love locks, must needs be evil. But admit that it were Lawfull, either for men or women, to wear this borrowed, false, or apposititious Haire, which I can never grant: yet for men to wear it of an excessi • e length, must needs be evil: As men who wear false Haire, or Periwigs, do commonly affirm, and swear them to be their own, (pe • haps, upon this evasion, that they have paid well for them:) and would ha • e all men deem th • m for their natural, and native Haire; so they ought to wear them of the same proportion, length, and fashion, as if they were their proper Haire, w • thout the reservation of a Locke: because the rules for natural • must regulate, an • square out the length of artificia • l Haire. So that a man must neitheir wear a natural, no • artificial, borrowed, or aduenticious Locke, because it is contrary to the Word of God, and Law of Nature: which is my third, but not my meanest argument, against these Love-locks.

Fourthly.

The Major is irrefragable, because Christians are to abstain from the very appearance, and shadows: much more from the characters, badges, and f • uites of Evil. The Minor, I shall back and fortify: not only by the authority of Saint Basil, Clemens Romanus, Saint Heirom, Saint Cyprian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, and Theophylact: who tax and censure such as wear long Haire, for Effeminate, Proud, Vain-glorious, Lasciuious, Vnchast, Intemperate, Deboist, and Riotous persons; because their very Haire • discover, and proclaim them to be such: But likewise by the testimony of Athenaeus, who observeth this as a badge of effeminacy in the Sybarites, Iapiges, Samians, and Colophonians, that they wore long Haire, and that they suffered their Pages, and Children to wear Lockes, which they tied up in golden ribbands: by the suffrage of Seneca the Tragedian: who au • rreth; that none can style him a valiant man, whose long staring Haire is bedewed with spicknar: and by the practice of Aristodemus the Tyrant: who when he would Effeminate the Cumaeans, for fear they should rebel against him: enjoined them to nourish their Haire, and to bind it up in trusses or fi •• ets like Women. Long haeire then (much more the nourishing of a Frizled, Poudred, and fantastique Love-lock) must needs be an Emblem, and Ensign of Effeminacy, Lasciuiousnesse, and Vain-glory. And doeth not our own experience testify as much? What Wise, what Grave, what Religious, or Judicious man among us is there; but when he beholds a man that wears a Locke, will presently repute, and deem him, either an Eff • minate, Lasciuious, or Wanton person: or a Proud, a Singular, Humourous, Fantastique, or Vain-glorious Spirit: or a Deboist, a Riotous, Licentious, and Prodiall Ruffian; or a vain, a shallow pated, a giddy-headed, or new-fangled Nouice: even from this very ground, because he wears a Locke: Most that wear these Lockes, are notoriously known to be such as these: wherefore men upon the very first view deem them such; because their Lockes describe, discipher, and proclaim them to be such. The Minor therefore must be granted, and the conclusion too.

Fifthly.

Sixthly.

The Major is without control; because God himself enjoins us: not to delight in vanity; not to follow after vain things, which cannot profit, nor do us good in our latter end; not to lift up our hearts unto vanity, for they which do so, shall never ascend into the hill of the Lord. For the truth of the Minor, I appeal not only to the voice, and verdict, of all Ci • ill, Grave, Religious, wise, and sober men; who deem these Love-locks, Foolish, and Fantastique toys, and Vanities; but likewise to the Consciences, and Judgments of such as wear these Love-locks, and are most of all devoted, & inclined to them: who when they are demanded, why they nourish them; can yield no other true, or solid ground, or reason for it, but only this, which is far worse then none at all: that it is only the Leuitie, & Vanity of their minds: or the Foolish, and Fantastique custom, Humour, and fashion of the Times, and nothing else, that moves them to it. So that these Love-locks, even in the eyes, and Judgments of such as do adore them most, are but idle toys, & foolish vanities: and therefore Christians may, nay, must not use them.

Seventhly.

The Major is warranted, not only by the grounds of State, and Pollicie: which condemn all innovations, and factious singularity, as well in habits, fashions, manners, and attiers, as in Laws, and Government: and deem the ancient Customs, Guises, and F • shions of a Country, as observable, and vn • iolable, as the very fundamental Laws, and Statutes of it: but likewise by the rules of Christianity, and Religion: which condemn all singularity, strangeness, and contrariety, not only in Manners, but in Aparell, Haire, and Gestures too ; enjoining all Christians: though not to conform themselves, to the Carnal, Idl • , Si •• full, Vain, Lasciuious, Proud, and Want on Fashions of the world, from which Christ Jesus hath Redeemed them: Yet as much as in them lie • , to live lovingly, and pea • eably with all men; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Love ; by confining themselves to the laudable, ancient, decent, comely, and received fashions, and custom of the State, and Country where they live; as far f • orth, as they are consonant, and not repugnant to the Law of God, or Nature. The Minor is most clear and evident, by its own light: For is not this a Badge, a Note, or Ensign of Wilfull, Factious, and Affected ingularitie, (and so of Pride, and Self-conceit, which are the Nurse, and Mother of it: ) for some few particular, or private Guiddy, Brain-sick, Humourous, Vain-glorious, and Fantastique Spirits, to introduce a new-fangled Guise and Fashion, of nourishing and wearing Love-locks, without any public warrant, or allowance; contrary to the Manner, Custom, Use, and Tonsure of our own, or other Civil, Grave, Religious, Wise, and P • udent Na • ions: that so they may d • ff • rence, distinguish, and divide themselves from others of the common rank and Cut, as if they were ashamed of their native Country: or as if they were descended from some other Nation, or Goue • n • d by some other Customs, Laws, or Constitutions, then others of their Country-men, Fellowes, Kinred, Neighbors, and Companions are? Certainly, if this be not Affected, Grosse, and Wilfull Singularitie, there is no such thing as Singularitie, or breach of Civil society in the World. This Martial, and Tertullian knew: whence, they condemn such for Singular, and Fantastique persons, who varied from the cut and Tonsure of their Country, as their authorities in the Margent testify: It was noted as a point of Shamelesnesse, and Singularitie in Nero, though an Emperor; that he oftentimes wore his Haire combed backward into his poll, in an affected, and over curious manner, after the Greek fashion: If this were Effeminacy, and Singularitie in a Roman Emperor, much more are Love-locks, in our French-English Subjects. I have read of some Humourous, and Singular persons in France, who came at last to be styled Secta Rasorum, or the Sect of Shauelings: because they shaved off one side of their Beardes ; as Hanun shaved off one half of the Beardes of David's messengers in contempt, and scorn:) that so they might be known, and differenced from other men: and may not our Love-lock wears, who pole one side of their heads, and let the other grow long • of purpose to discriminate themselves from others; be styled a Sect, and Faction as well as they? The Maxyes, are taxed, and noted by Historians, as a Singular, Fantastique, and Auerse kind of people: for polling the left side of their heads only, and letting the right side grow long, and bushie, contrary to the fashion of all other Nations: and may not our fickle, and unconstant Englishmen, who pole the right side of their heads, and l • t the left grow out into Ruffianly, and • ffeminate Love-locks, contrary to the Guise, and Fashion of their Country, incur the self-same censure? undoubtedly they may. If a man should seriously propound this question, to any of our Love-lock Ruffians: what are the proper, true, and genuine grounds, or motives, that induce and move them for to wear these Lockes, contrary to the practice, and custom of their Country, and of the Ciuiler, Grauer, and more Religious sort of men? their Hearts, and Consciences, could give no other answer, but only this: that Pride, and Singul • ritie, are the only grounds, and causes of it: The reason why they loathe that nature • ll plain and common cut, which every man observes, and choose this new one of th • ir own; is only this: because they would be singular, and somewhat different from the v • lger Crue: or because they would imitate some Frenchefied, or outlandish Mounseir, who hath nothing else to make him famous, (I should say infamous,) but an Effeminate, Ruffianly, Vgly, and d • formed Locke. And is not this a sure Badge, and Character, of Singularitie, and Auersnesse: is it not a kind of breach, of civil society; and a violation of the Guise, the Fashion, and Laud • ble, Dec • n • , and app • ooued custom of our Country, from which we ought not for to vary, without some grand, or weighty cause:) to contemn the civil Cut, and ancient Tonsure of our Country, as if we were ashamed of, or dis • ontented with it; and to follow this new-fangled, Horred, Strange, Mishapen, Womanish, and Outlandish Guise, and Fashion, which doeth in a manner separate, and divide us from the community and body of our proper Nation, as if we had no harmony, nor communion with it; or were no limbs, nor members of it? undoubtedly it is. Wherefore, we may justly say of all our impudent, Ruffianly, and shameless • e Love-lock fosterers, (who are Odious, and blame-worthy, even in this respect, that they suite not with that whole, of which they do profess themselves a part, ) as Saint Paul did of the Jews in a different case: that they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Their very Lockes are Badges of Humourous, Licentious, Pernicious, and willful Singularitie: they are breaches of civil society, and infringments of the Tonsure, Guise, and Fashions, of our Country: therefore they must needs be Evil, Sinful, and Vnlawfull vanities, which we should all renounce.

Eghtly.

Ninthly.

The Major needs no confirmation: the Minor, I shall prove in two particulars. First, that Love-locks are an occasion, or ordinary cause of Sin, and Evil, to the Wearers, and that in these respects. First, in that they cause them to Exalt themselves, and to Triumph, and Glory in them, as if they were a Dignity, Honor, or Advancement to them: as if they did enhance their Valour, Worth, and Bea • tie, and make them better then themselves, or others, in their own retired thoughts: whence, they oft times cause their Hearts to swell with secret pride, in so much, that they do privily disdain, neglect, and undervalue all such persons who either want them, or condemn them. Secondly, in that they oft ti • es cause a prodigal, vain, and great expense, sufficient to relieve the wants, and miseries of many poor distressed Christians, who starve for want of succor and re • iefe. Much is the cost, and great the disbursements, which many lavish out upon their Haire, and Love-locks. So that we c • nnot say as Charillus did; that Haire is the cheapest, and least costly ornament of all other • , which made the Lacedemonians for to nourish it, since it is now so costly, and expensiue unto diverse: How many hundreds are there now among v • , whose heads are almost as chargeable, and expensiue to them, as their backs, or bellies? whose Barbars stipend doeth exceed their Ministers? who bestow more cost upon their Haire, & Love-locks, then their Souls? who spend more weekly, quarterly, or monthly on their Hairie excrements, then they bestow Ann • ally, on Christ's poor members? how many poor Christians would those stipends, and expenses nourish, which many lavish out so largely on their Lockes, and Haire; that all their Charity, and Bounty, turns to excrement; being so smothered, hid, or fast entangled in their costly Haire, and Frizled Love-locks, that none but such as marshall, and set out their Lockes, can find them out? this prodigal expense therefore, which these Lockes, and long Haire cause, doeth prove them to be a means of Sin, and Evil to those who wear, and nourish them. Thirdly, they are such, in that they cause a great misspense, and loss of rich and precious Time. Many are those Peerelesse, Precious, Rich, and mo • ning Howers, which diverse spend from day, today, in Ordring, Dressing, Combing, Poudring, Platting, (nay, Curling, and Crisping ) of their Haire, and Love-locks; which a whole genera •• Council: which Scriptures, Fathers, Moderne Christians, yea, Pagans have condemned; as a Badge, and clear Prognosticke of a Meriticious, Proud, Vain-glorious, False, and sinful Heart: as an Allectiue • Bait, and Prologue, or Ba • d, and Pander to Uncleanness: and as an Effeminate, Unnatural, Vain, Lasciuious, Fantastioue, Proud, Vnchristian, Heathenish, and Gracelesse practice. Much is the time, that many spend between the Comb and the Glass, in Viewing, Ordering, Platting, Frouncing, Poudring • and curling of these goodly Eare-jewels, or else in dallying, and playing with them. Many there are, (I may be bold to speak it,) who spend more time, more thoughts, and pains upon their Haire, and Love-locks, week, by week, then upon God himself, their Souls, or Christian duties: as if they were borne for no other purpose, but to manure, and adore their Excrements, whiles their Souls lies rotting & utterly neglected, in the very sorded rags, and dregs of Sin: so that they are an occasion of much ill unto them, even in this respect. Fourthly, they are so; in that they commonly encroach so far upon their disordred affections, that they over-affect, and dote so much upon them at the last; as not to part with them upon any terms; but to bid battle, and defiance unto all, who shall dislike, or speak against them, or offer any violence, or abuse unto them: whence it sometimes comes to pass, that these vnlouely jewels, are made the ground & cause, of many Fatall, Tragicall, and bloody Duels, Quarrels, and events, as some late experiments can abundantly testify. May I not truly say of many, that they are so enamored, and besotted with their Lockes, that they would hazard, and engage their lives in their quarrel, and defense? that like the Chinians, or Indian Iaponites, they deem it an insufferable contumely, and capital offense, for any to touch them, or disorder them, much more to speak against them, or to cut them off, which is almost as much as present death; and that they would rather part with their lives, then Lockes? It is storied of one Clotilde, a Queen of France, that she chose rather to have the heads of young Sons cut off, then to suffer them to be pold, or shaven, which would have been an indignity, and dishonor to them: and are there not many now among us, so far enamored with their Effeminate, and unseemly Love-locks, that they would rather lose their heads, then them? Vndoubtedly there are: so far do vanities infatuate, and poss • sse men's hearts, when once they suffer their affections to run out upon them. Fifthly, they are so to them, in that they are the cause of much Effemin • cy, Dalliance, Wantonness, Lasciuiousnesse, and Uncleanness in them: Whence, Saint Heirom doeth oft times admonish Women, to avoid, and quite d • cline, comatos, calamistratosque iuuenes, such youngsters as wore either long, or frizled Haire: virosque qu • bus Feminei contra Apostolum crines: and men of long, and womanish Haire, contrary to the Apostles prescript: as being Lustful, and Lasciuious persons: Hence was it, that Painters, and Poets, when as they would Delineate, Portraiture, Discipher, or set out an Vnchast, Lasciuious, Amorous, or Incontinent person of the Masculine sex, did always paint, describe, and set him out with long, Effeminate, Womanish Amorous, Curled, or Embroidered Haire: to signify, that long • or amorous Haire, either in Men or Women, is oft times an incendiary, a provocation, occasion, or cause of Lust, Effeminacy, Lasci • iousnesse, and Uncleanness in them: whence, your Curtezans & amorous Pictures, (which the Scriptures, and two Councils do utterly condemn, though they are now so much in use among us,) are always por • raitured with Hai • e hanging loose about their Ears, of purpose to provoke, and stir up Lust. Long Haire, and Love-locks then (as likewise Frizled Poudred, and over-curious Haire,) being oft times an incendiary, and cause of Lust, Lasciuiousnesse, Wantonness, Effeminacy, and Uncleanness, both in the Owners and Spectators of them, must needs be Evil, and Vnlawfull, even in this respect. Sixthly, they cannot but be so; in that they give offense, distaste, and scandal unto others, to whom they are a grief, and eyesore: now this giving of just offense, and scandal unto others, is a Sin: Therefore these Love-locks, are an ordinary occasion of Sin, or cause of Evil, even to those that wear them.

Secondly, they are such to the spectators, & beholders of them; and that in these respects. First, in giving an ill example to those of the more Effe • inate, Fantastique, Singular, Licentious, and Vain-glorious rank; who are oft times induced by their ill president, and example, to imitate, and second them in this Effeminate, Lasciuious, Fantastique, Singular, Licentious, Ru •• ianly, Unnatural, and Vain glorious guise. Hence it is, that most men have no other Apology, Plea, nor justification for the nourishing, and wearing of their Lockes, but only this: that it is now the use, and practice of the times: or that such, and such men wear them; and we are but their Ecchos, Shadows, Apes, or counterp • nes; and trace but their footsteps: if they would but abandon them, then we would too, who desire to conform our selves to • heir cut, and fashion: Secondly, they are such, in that they animate, and confirm others, (especially, those of the Female sex,) in their Lasciuious, Eff • minate, Singular, Antique, Vnchristian, and Vain-glorious Guises, Fashions, and Attires: When woe • en shall see men so Effeminate, Singular, Humourous, and Fantastique, 〈◊〉 to Crisp, to Nourish, Pouder, and adorn their Haire, or nourish Love-locks: they presently conclude; that they • ay take more liberty, and freedo • e to themselves, in these, and such-like Antique, or Apish practices, Fashions, Guises, and Attires, then men may do: whence, they turn themselves into more shapes, and form • s, then Proteus did: into more variety, and change of Coloures, Dressings, and Attires, then the Polipus hath skins, or colors: and into so many Monsters, and wonderments of the World, being constant in nothing, but Inconstant, Vain, Lasciuious, Gracelesse, Worish, and Vngo • lie, Trappings, C • ltures, Fashions, and Attires: which all Gracious, Modest, Grave, Religious, Chast, and godly Christians should abhor, as the liueries of Satan, and badges of the world. Thirdly, they are such to others; in that they administer occasion to them, to Tax, and Censure such as wear, and nourish them, for Proud, Effeminate, Fantastique, Singular, Humourous, Vain-glorious, Licentious, Disolute, and Lasciuious persons: because the most that wear them are such; and so to have perhaps, an uncharitable opinion of them, and to pass an hard, a • ash, and heady censure on them, even against the rules of Charity, and Christianity: which enjoin us to hope, and judge the best of all men, v • less their lives extort the contrary. Fourthly, they are such to others, in that they offend, and grieve, yea, and oft distemper the Souls, of many Deuout, Religious, Gracious, Grave, and civil Christians, yea, and of many Sober, Civil, Grave, and moderate Carnal men: who utterly condemn, and disapprooue them in their judge • ments, as well as in their practice. Fifthly, they are such to others, in that they bring a scandal, and imputation, not only on Religion it self, which suites not with such Idle, and Fantastique vanities, or Lasciuious guises: but even upon our whole Nation: which is oft times taxed of Lasciuiousnesse, Effeminacy, Leuitie, Vanity, Inconstancy, Guiddinesse, Licentiousness, Deboistn • sse, and the like, by reason of the Vanity, Ficklenesse, Effeminacy, Wantonn • sse, and Licentio • snesse of some f • w. Since therefore Love-locks are an occasion, and cause of Evil, both to the Owners, and Spectators of them in all these respects, they cannot but be Odious, Evil, Vnseemely, and Vnlawfull unto Christians.

Lastly.

The Major being clear, and evident by its own ligh • , becau • e, every Natural, Morrall, or Spiritual action is denominated from its end, or object: I shall endeavor to evidence, and make good the Minor, by ex • mining, and scaning all those several, Genuine, True, and proper ends, for which men wear, or nourish Love-locks; which are one of these: The fi • st end and ground, for which men wear and nourish them, is either an Imitation of, or a conformity to the Vain, the Wanton, Immodest, and Lasciuious, Guises, and Fashions of the Times; or of some Licenti • u • , Ruffianly, Lasciuious, Fantastique, Humourous, Effeminate, Proud, Vnconstant, Vain • glorious, or Outl • ndi • h persons, whose Fashions, and Tonsure we admire. Now this very end must needs be Evil; since God himself Commands us, not to conform our selves to the Guise, and Fashion of the World, according to the former Lusts in our ignorance: not to subject our selves to the Rudiments, Lusts, and Ordinances of Carnal, or Worldly men: not to walk as the Gentiles do, in the vanity of our minds, according to the course, and fashion of the World: not to live the rest of our time to the Lusts of men, but to the will of God: not to be the Servants, Apes, or followers Men: but to be the followers, and imitators of God, and Christ, as deer Children: who have Redeemed us from off the Earth, and from among the Children of Men: yea, and from our vain conversation, received by tradition from our Fathers: (much more from those upstart, and new-found vanities, to which we are now embondaged:) to this only end and purpose: that we should walk as Christ walked, live as he lived: living no longer to our selves, or to our own Deceitfull, Vain, and Sinful lusts, and Pleasures, but unto Christ alone: Christ Jesus is our only pattern, and example, and by him we are to regulate, and square our lines • and actions. Now Christ him •• lfe, (or any of his:) did never teach us for to nourish Love-locks: they never left us, either Pattern, Prec • pt, Wa • rant, or Ex •• ple, of these Lasciuiou • , • nd Fantastique vanities: they are but Moderne, and new-inu • nted Toyes, and Vanities, with which the Church, and Saints of God, in former ages were not at all acquainted. Why then shall we who dare profess our selves to be the S • ruants, Followers, Children, and Sons of Christ, & of his Church: addict our selves to these vain, Lasciuious, Licentious, Effeminate, and Vnchristian guises of the World? What have Christians to do, or intermeddle, with the Fantastique, Immodest, Vnseemely, and Ungodly Fashions, Pompes, or Coultures of the World, which they have utterly renounced in their Baptism? What Warrant, or Example, have they in the Scripture, to Adore, Admire, or take up, these Ruffianly, Vain, and Foolish Trappings, Lockes, and Guises, which few, but the very scum of men Appla • d, and Magnifie? Alas, whose steps, what patterns, do we follow in these new-fangled vanities? Do we imitate, and follow Christ: or such Pious, and Religious Ancestors, which walk, as Jesus walked? Are they Religious, Humble, Chast, Discreet, or Holy men, who set and bend themselves to serve the Lord, in sincerity, and truth of Heart? If so, then show me when, and wh • re Christ Jesus, or any such as these, did ever nourish, or approo • e of Love-locks, and then you may safely wear them. But if the persons we imitate, are only Idle, Vain, Effeminate, Lasciuious, Deboist, Vain-glorious, Proud, Fantastique, Singular, Ruffianly, or Ungodly wretches, who have no power, nor truth of Grace within them: who make their will, and fancy, the only rule by which they walk: (as I fear me, they will prove all such at last.) If they are such a • make no care, nor Conscience, of following Christ, or such are not likely to bear us company in Heaven: let us utterly renounce their Guise, and Fashion, and withdraw our feet from all their ways: because the • cchoing, and imitation of such (which is the principal, and primary end of wearing Love-locks,) i • merely Sinful, Vnlawfull, and Vnsee •• lie, unto Christians.

The second end, or ground, why many wear, and nourish Love-locks, is a Proud, a Singular, Fantastique, and Vain-glorious Humour: or a Desire, that others should take notice of them, for Ruffians, Rorers, Fantastiques, Humourists, Fashion-mongers, or for Effeminate, Lasciuious, Voluptuous, Singular, or Vain-glorious persons, or men of Vitious, Riotous, and Licentious lives. Many there are, who nourish them of purpose, to Proclaime, and blaze abroad their Vanity, Rudnesse, and Deboistn • sse, to the World: that so they may be admired among the light and vulger sort, or censured by those of the more Religious, Wise, and Grauer rank, as Dissolute, Ruffianly, Lic • ntious, Rude, Vain-glorious, and Fantastique persons, since they have nothing else to make them noted, or known to the World. Now this very end, (which many of our Love-lock owners do intend,) must needs be odious, and abominable: because it is a glorying, and triumphing in those sins, and vices, which should be their sorrow, grief, and shaeme: because it is a publishing, and proclaiming of their sin, with impudence, and shamefulness, as Sodom did: which is the very highest pitch, and strain of all iniquity; and will bring certain ruin, and Damnation to them at the last. The third cause, or end, why many wear, or nourish Love-locks, is an over greedy desire of satisfying the Leuitie, Vanity, and Ficklenesse, of their various, and unstable Lusts and minds, which hurry, and post them on to every new-fangled, Fantastique, or Vain-glorious guise. Now this being the ground, the cause, and end, why must men nourish Love locks, must needs be Evil, Bruitish, and Vnseemely, because it savors of Lawlesse, and unruly Wilfulnesse ; which pampers the Vain, and Sinful humors, Lusts, and dispositions of our carnal Hearts, which should be Mortified, Curbed, and Restrained. The fourth end, or ground, for which men foster Love-lock • is the commemoration of some Mistress, Whore, or Sweet-heart, (as they style them,) as being a Character, or sure Testi • ony, of their devoted service, and true affection to them: whence they were denominated, and styled, Love-locks ; because th • y are but Emblemes, and significations of men's Love, to such Female, Amorous, and Lasciuious creatures, for w • ose sakes they did reserve, and cherish them at the first: Now this being th • original, chief • , and pro • er, end, of wearing Love-locks; it mak • s them Odi • us, Sinful, and Abominable; because this • nd, and ground is such: For who will not censure and condemn all such, for Vain, Effeminate, Lasciuious, Amorous, Vnchast, or Sensuall persons; who dare to wear • , and nourish Love-locks, against the Laws of God, and Nature: and the Mod • st, Dece • t, Grave, and civil • onsure, Cut, and Custom of their Country; of p • rpose for to please, or Humour, a Vain, Fantastique, Light, or Worish Mistress, Dame, or Sweet-heart? or to bequeath them at the last to some Impudent, Shamelesse, or Vain-glorious Harlot, (the only Gulf to swallow, and devour Souls without Redemption: ) to wear them like some Goodly, Rich, or Pretious Jewels in their Ears, as an open Herald, Badge, or Testimony, to proclaim those R • ciprocall, Amourous, Vnchast, and Lustful affections, which they bea • e one to ano • her, to their disgrace, and sham • ? D • eth this beseem a Christian, or a Child • of God? are these things tolerable in Carnal, Grave, or Civil; much more in Honest, Chast, or Gracious p • rsons, whose very Culture, Haire, and Tonsure, should ma • ifest, and Proclaime their Chastity unto the v • ew of others? Were there ever s • ch patter • es, o • pr •• id • nts as these, to be found in any age, in Chast, or Mo • est men? • n any of God's Saints, or Childr • n? or in the Church of God? Certainly, I never heard, nor read as yet of any such, and I dare lay, no man else. Wherefore, let those who nourish Love-locks for this end, (as many do,) and yet dare assume the name, or face of Christians to themselves, even blush, and hide their • eads for s • ame, nay • vex, affl • ct, and grieve their Hearts, an • Souls, at the very remembrance, and thoughts of this, and all those other Vain, Lasciuious, Odious, Scandal • us, Si • full, and Vnchristian ends, for which they wear, and cherish Love-locks; which convince the very use, and wearing of them to be evil.

If any now object (as many do) in the defense, and justification of these Vnlouely, Vain, and foolish Haire • jewels. That they are an Ornament, Honor • Beauty, Grace, and Credit to them, and hence only is it, that they nourish them, without any other by respect.

I answer, that they are so far from being any Ornament, Beauty, Grace, or Credit to such as own them, that they are the very Brands, and Badges of their Infamie, and Shame: and that by the unerring verdict, both of God and Nature, who expressly inform us: that if a man have long Haire, it is so far from being a Grace, or Ornament, that it is a shame unto him: with which the Fathers, and others do concur. Who dares then be so impudently bold, or shamelessely wicked, as to estimate, or repute that for an Ornament, Grace, or glory: which God and Nature, together with the Fathers, and all Godly, Grave, and Holy men, repute, and style a shame? Love-locks, and long Haire, beyond the Sober Civil, Moderate, and Decent length, of the more Religious, Grave, and Sober sort of men, are a very infamy, and shame to men ; if Fathers, Christians, God, or Nature, may be credited: therefore, they are not, they cannot, be an Ornament, Beauty, Grace, or Credit to them; at least in the eyes of God, and Holy men, (to whom they should endeauoure to approve themselves: what ever they, or other Vain, or Gracelesse persons do pretend. But if men should slight this Grave, & weighty Testimony, both of Fathers, God, and Nature, as a mere untruth. I would demand this question of any Ruffian, or Vain-glorious Gallant, who vaunts, and triumphs, in the length, and largeness of his Locke, and thinks himself much Honoured, Beautified, and Adorned by it: Whether that which every Page, or Foot-boy, e • ery Groome, or Coach-driuer, every loitering Rog • e, or Cheating Rooke: every R • gged, and Raggamuffin Soldier: every Nasty, or strange-scented Fre • ch-man: every Runnagado, Light-footed, or False-handed Irish-man: or every Sorded, Base, Deboi • t, and Rascall person wears: that which every Scullian, Peasant, Cobbler, Tinker: nay, every Rogue, and Beggar, which post from Goale, to Goale, or Dore, to Dore: that which every Man, or Woman in the World, may have as well as he: can be any extraordinary Honor, Credit, Ornament, or Beauty to him? Certainly, that which ever ordinary, Base, and Infamous Varlet wears: that which auery Man or Woman, is capable of, as well as any man; can be no Ornament, Beauty, Grace, or Credit unto any. Hence was it, that Clodion the hairy, King of France, desiring to be Respected, Honoured • and Renouned for his long Haire; enacted a Law: that none but Kings, and their Children, with the Princes of the Blood, should wear long Haire, in token of command: which Law was long observed in France: Else, his long Haire had been no special Ornament, nor Grace unto him, if everyone might have worn it. Now there is not the basest Peasant, Rogue, or Varlet in the World, but may wear as Long, as Great, as Faire, and Rich a Lou • -lock, as the greatest Gallant, or the proudest Ruffian: yea, we see that Foot-boys, Lacquies, Coach-men, Seruing-men, (yea, Rogues that ride to Tiburne, and the very • roth, and sc • mme of Men,) have taken up this Roguish guise, and Fashion, and have it most in use, and admiration; and can these Lockes then be any ornament, Grace, or Credit, unto men of Place, of Birth, and Worth; since such vile, base, and infamous persons wear, and take them up in use? and since there is none so mean, so base, or poor, but may as well, and freely nourish, and reserve a Love-lock, as the very best, and proudest Gallant? Certainly, if Love-locks, and long Haire, were such rich, and precious ornaments, or Beautiful, Jewels, as our Sect of Love-lock wearers deem them: then every Woman in the World, (unless it be such Audacious, Impudent, Shamelesse, and Mannish Viragoes, who clip, and cut their Haire, against the Laws of God, and Nature: ) then all those Barbarians, and Heathen Nations, who nourish all their Haire, and never cut it till their deaths: yea, every long-tailed Horse, the Haire of whose mane, and tail, are of a far longer and larger sise, then the greatest Ruffians Love-lock: ) should be far more Honorable, Generous and comely, then the most over-grown, Hairie, or deboi • test Ruffian, who is most proud and haughty of his Love-lock; because they transcend him in the length of Haire. Since therefore Love-locks, and long Haire, are common unto beasts, as well as men, since every Man, or Woman may wear them if they please, as well as any: and since they are so ri • e and frequent among the baser, looser, and deboister sort of men: I may infallibly conclude; that they add no ornament, beauty, credit, grace, or luster unto any, but infamy, deformity, shame, and disrespect, especially among the better, graver, and religious rank of Christians: which should cause all men of worth and credit, forever to discard them. Secondly, if men will wear their Haire for ornament, and comeliness sake, let them nourish it of a moderate, Ordinary, Civil, Grave, and decent length, which is the most beautiful, and co •• lie wear of all others. It was a mere mistake, and error in Lycurgus, who taught the Lacede • onian young m • n to nourish their Haire at the full length, because if they were Beautiful, it would make th • m more Amiable and comely: if Deformed, more Terrible to their Enemies: For that ce • tainely, must be • ost Beautiful, and Co • ely, that is most sui • able to Nature, to the condition of our Sex, the custo • e of our Country: and which d • eth most Adorn, Commend, and Beautifie us in the eyes of God, and of the Bes • , th • Wisest, and Greatest part of Men: Now short Haire, or Haire of a Moderate, Ordinary, Grave, and Decent length, is most suitable, and proportionable to Nature, to the condition of our Sex, and custom of our Country: (to all which long Haire is contrary and aue • se,) and it doeth most Adorn, Commend, and Beautifie us in the sight of God, and of the Best, the Wisest, the Grauest, and greatest part of Men, who approve it as the best and comeliest wear, both in their Judgments, and their Practice; when as they condemn long Haire, and Love-locks, both in their Judgments, and their Practice too, as Unnatural, Womannish, Hatefull, and Vndec • nt vanities; which more deform Men, then adorn them: as things which enervate, and exh • ust their strength • and Spirits: and make them not more Ter • ible, but more Contemptible to their Enemy • : who oft times take advantage by their Haire to foil them, and to cut their throats, as Histories do relate ; Whence, the Abantes, the Macedonians, and others whose Haire had been an occasion of their overthrow in War; were forced to pole, and shave their heads before, least their Enemies should take advantage, or holdfast by their Haire, and so put them to the worst, as they had done in former times. Love-locks then, or excessive long Haire, are neither a Grace, nor Ornament to the Beautiful, but rather a Deformitie, Disgrace, and Shame: they make men not more Terrible, but more Contemptible to their Enemies, who will slight, and scorn them as Effeminate, Sloathfull, and Vnmanly persons, and take advantage by them: contrary, to that received maxim of Lycurgus: (which Pag • ns may, though Christians ought not to admire, because they have surer rule and pattern for to walk by:) so that this first pretence is merely vain.

If any obi • ct in the second place; that they nourish, (yea, Frizle, Curle, Colour, Crisp, Adorn, and Frounce) their Haire, and Love-locks of purpose to augment, or to set out their Beauty: that so they may appear more Amiable, and Comely, both in their own, and others eyes: which end they hope is Laudable, Good, and Iustifiable.

I answer first; that this pretence is no ways warrantable: For if we must not do evil in any kind, that so good may come of it: much less, may we Curle, Die or over-curiously decke our Haire, or Love-locks, of purpose to improve, illustrate, or set out our Beauty ; which in its very best acceptation, is but a brittle, momentary, fading, and inferior good. We all know, that the acquiring, intending, and enhancing of comliness, and external beauty, is made the common ingredient; nay, the daily Apology, Patronage, Plea, and Justification of many enormious, and sinful practices. Whence is it, that diverse justify, and approone the unnatural • execrable, mereticious, and infernal varnishing of their Faces: together with their immodest, strange, lascivious, unchristian, and antique habits, fashions, and attires, which God, which Fathers, which Moderne Divines, and Christian Authors; nay, Infidels, and Pagans have sentenced, and doomed to the pit of Hell? is it not from this conclusion; that they eleuate, and enhaunce their Beauty, and make them more Louely in their own, and others eyes? Whence is it, that our Immodest, Impudent, and mannish Viragoes, or audacious Men-women, do unnaturally clip, and cut their Haire; wearing their Lockes, and Fore-tops (as they style them,) in an odious, and shameless manner, as if they were really transformed, and transubstantiated into Males, by a stupendous metamorphosis: is it not f • om this Apology, Plea, and Justification, that they do it only for Ornament, and Beauty sake? Now bec • use I am fallen upon this vile, and odious practice of our women, which is now so much in use: I will give you an Historical list of sundry women in former times, who have Polled their Heads, and cut their Haire upon sundry grounds and reasons: but none of them out of Pride, or Fashion-following as our Viragoes do. Some there were, who did cut their Haire by reason of some Religious, Idolatrous, or Superstitious order, or profession, wh • ch they had taken upon them. Witness, the Vestall Virgines among the Romans; who upon their initiation into that Superstitious, and retired Order, did shave their Heads, and hanged the Haire shorn off as an holy thing, upon a Lote-tree near unto the Altar of the Goddess Lucina; from whence it was called, Lotus capillata, or the Hairy Lote-tree: Witness, a Monastery of Religio • s Virgines in Mexico, who had their Haire cut: Witness, Monicha the daughter of Sanctius a Iapanite; who being converted to the faith of Christ, did cut her Haire: which among the Iapanites, is a badge of a retired, and Religious life, free from all worldly affairs: and witness, the Ancient Nuns in Egypt, who upon their entrance into their holy Orders, did use to cut their Haire: This custom it seems became some-what ordin • ry among Religious persons: and therefore the Council of Gangra in the year of our Lord, 324. Canon 17. to prevent this irreligious, unnatural, and ungodly practice, enacted: That if any woman should cut her Haire, under a supposed pretence of Piety, and Religion, which God had given her for a natural veil, and for a remembrance of her subjection, that she should be accursed, as an infringer of the precept of subjection: Other women have cut their Haire in case of necessity, for the defense, and safeguard of their Country: In the last Carthaginian Wars, the Carthaginian Women in case of necessity for want of other matter, did cut their Haire, (their Femenine glory,) to make Ropes, and Cords for their Ships, and Engines: The Roman Matrons, when as Rome was Sacked by the Gauls, and the Capitol like to be surprised, did the like, upon the like necessity: whence the Romans erected a Temple afterwards to bald Venus. When Aquilea was hardly besieged by Maximinus, their women for want of other Materialls, did cut their Haire to make Bow-strings: So did the Bizantian women likewise, when as their City was besieged by Seuerus: For which act of theirs, they are all renowned to posterity; it being in case of absolute necessity for the needful defense both of their Liberty, Liues, and Country. Other women have there been, who have cut their Haire from the practice, use, and custom of their Country: Thus did the Seres, Tapyri, and Irish-women use to clip their Haire, when as their men did cherish it: Among the Arimphaeans, both men and women were polled: In the Region of Quicuri, the women did usually defalke, and clip their Haire: The Brasilian women, when as their Husbands went any long journey, did use to cut their Haire: When any woman was to be Married among the Ancient Lacedemonians, their custom was, to cut her Haire close to the skin: In Bilbaum there is this custom; that the women poll themselves until they are Married, and then they let their Haire grow out at length: In Trezaene, the girls before their Marriage did cut their Haire, and dedicated it to Hyppolit • s: Among the Ancient Russians, after any Marriage was celebrated, the Bride being ready to be brought to her bed, had her Haire cut of, whiles she was dancing: The Cheriberensean women, when they are to be Married, are polled before unto the eye-brows, but remain bushie behind. All these recited women have thus unnaturally cut their Haire, fro • the very practice, use, and custom of their Country: But what saith Saint Ambrose in the like case: Major est natura quam patria: the law of nature which prohibets women for to cut their Haire, ) is stronger then the custom of any Cou • trey, which allows them for to cut it: so that this custom cannot excuse, nor iusti • ie those who use, and pr • ctise it. Other women there are, who have cut their Haire of purpose to consecrate it to some Devil-god, or Goddess: In Sicyonia all the women did shave off their Haire, in honor of the Goddess of Health; and then consecrate it unto her for a Sacrifice. The Vestall Virgines, did usually cut their Haire to consecrate it to the Goddess Lucina: In Trezaene, the Girls did cut their Haire to consecrate it to Hyppolitus: a fit Sacrifice for these Heathen Idols. Others there are, who have usually cut their Haire, in token of grief, and sorrow, at the death and obsequies of their Husbands, Friends, Children. • rinces, and the like. The Graecian women, when as their Husbands, or near Friends died, did use to cut their Haire, in token of grief, and sorrow for their deaths, casting it into the fire; wherein their Husbands, and Friends were burned, or else hanging it over their Graues, and Tombes. Thus did Theoph • no shave her self, upon the death of Stauratius her Husband: If an Israelite, or Jew had taken any Captiue woman, that was beautiful, which he desired to take unto him for his wife; he was thon to bring her home into his house: and there she must shave her head, and pare her nails, and there remain a full month, to bewail her Father, and her Mother. The Rom • n, German, Milesian, AEthiopian, and Macedonian women, when as their Sons, their Brothers, Husbands, or great men died, did use to cut their Haire in token of grief, and sorrow. When Germanicus died, certain barbarous Kings did so lament his death, that they polled their wives in testimony of their Heauinesse and Sorrow for him. When the Prince of Chubdan dieth, his wives in black with sh • uen • ea • s continually m • urne • The • ersians when as any great man died, did v • e to shave their wi •• s, to express their grief and mourning: Am • ng the Canarij, when as the Husband dieth, his wi • e cutteth off her Haire. The Scythians, and Milesians receiving a great, and public overthrow, did shave the heads of every per • on throughout their Country and Nation • , in token of their sorrow. In Malaber, when as the King dieth and is buried, they all shave their heads: And so in Fl • rida, when as the King dieth, both men and women cut off half their Haire, to express and testify their grief, and mourning. An unnatural, impudent, and shameless grief, and sorrow, that is testified by such unnatural, mannish, and shameful expressions. Other women are there, who have had their Haire shorn off by way of punishment, an • co • rection, for some notorious crime. The Ancient Germans, when as they took their wives in Adultery, did use to cut off their Haire first, then did they strip them naked, and whip them through the Village where they lived, and so put them away. Mary the wife of Constantine, the son of Irene; the wife of Constantine, the son of Leo; the wife of Argyrus, and the sister of Zoe the Empresse were thus p • lled, and then Diuorced, and punished for their incontin • ncy, and such like offenses: In Bengala, and so likewise among the Indian Bramanes, if women refused to be burned with their Husbands, they had their heads p • lled, and their Haire cut off, as a severe, and infamous punishment; and they were ever after reputed dishonest women. Among the Indians, French, and T • nians, those who were guilty of the greatest crimes, were to have their Haire cut off, which was reputed the most infamous, severe, and heavy punishment of all others: Which testifies, that it is the most infamous, unnatural, and shameful •• ing, that can b • fall a woman, (not a grace, or ornament,) to cut or clip her Haire. You have now heard a large Historical Narration of women who have cut their Haire in whole, or part, for sundry ends and purposes, against the very order, law, and rule of God, and nature, which none can violate, or transgress, without apparent loss, and hazard to their souls: But never could I read, or hear of any, that were so strangely Impudent, Immodest, Mannish, and Vnnaturally wicked; as to clip and cut their Haire, against the ordinance of God, and Nature, the light and testimony of their own Consciences; the custom of their Country, and the opinion, and practice of the Church, and Saints of God from age to age, of purpose to inhance, illustrate, or set out their beauty; but only our audacious, brazen-faced, shameless, (if not unchaste, and whorish,) English Hermophrodites, or Man-women Monsters; whose prodigious, and blushlesse impudency, bids battle and defiance unto Heaven it self, and dares the Lord to smite, or to control them: Certainly, God himself hath testified, that it is an unnatural, vile, and shameless thing, for women to poll their heads, or cut their Haire: therefore they may not clip, nor cut it as they do, to set out their beauty, or rather to proclaim their shameless impudency, to the public view. If they may not do it, out of a pretence of Religion, or De • otion towards God: as the Council of Gangra hath resolved; much less may they use it out of Lasciuiousnesse, Pride, Wantonness: or any affectation of Comlinesse, and Beauty. But to return again unto our purpose from whence we have somewhat, (though not impertinently) digressed. As women may not clip their Haire, (no nor Paint their Faces, nor wear immodest apparel, or attires:) out of a pretence of comliness, and beauty; no more ought men to nourish, crispe, or frizell it, for this end and purpose. First, because it savors of Effeminacie, and womanish inuirilitie: an odious, unnatural, and filthy sin, which damns men's Souls to Hell, without repentance: which makes men odious and loathsome unto others, and misbeseemes all Christians. It is a great disparagement and shame to men ; especially, to Christians, to be Effeminate and womanish in anything: much more in the over-curious, delicate, and vain-glorious culture, frizling, colouring, poudring, or adorning of their Haire, which savoreth of nothing but Effeminacy. The Scriptures, and Fathers condemn this Broydering, and curious Dressing, and setting out of the Haire, even in women themselves, as an Effeminate, and unseemly thing: if in women, is it not much more so in men? The sixth general Council of Constantinople enacted: That no man should walk abroad with curled Haire under pain of Excommunication: not only because it was a pomp and vanity of the world, which Christians have renounced in their Baptism, and a mere bait to inamor, and inescate others: but likewise because it was a • adge and character of effeminacie: Clemens Alexandrinus condemns all such, for androginous, and effeminate persons, who Curle, and Crisp their Haire like women: Tertullian, Chrysostom, Cyprian, Jerome, and others do the like: What a deformed thing is it (saith Ambrose,) for a man to do any womanish thing? Therefore let those men who Curle their Crowns like women, beget, and bring forth Children as women do: Let God and men (saith Petrarch,) hate those beasts in the shapes of men, who set out or Crisp their Haire after an womanish effeminacie: Galataeus, Agrippa, Zenophon, Seneca the Philosopher, Seneca the Tragedian, Ovid, Martial, and others, cond • mne this Frouncing, Frizeling, Colouring • Powdring, and over-curious dressing of the Haire, as an effeminate, womanish, and vnmanly thing: which misbeseemes, disgraceth, and deformeth man and woman: therefore we must not use it to set out our Beauty, because it favors of effeminacie; a sin which God, which Man, which Nature, do abhor • Secondly, as it relisheth of effeminacy, and inuirilitie; so likewise, it tasteth of Leuitie, Vanity, Pride, Vaineglory, Impudency, Incontinency, Lasciuiousnesse, Carnallitie, Self-pleasing, Self-seeking, Idleness, Voluptuousness, neglect of God, and better things: as the Fathers, and others do abundantly testify: Few there are either of the Male, or Female sex, who are occupied, and taken up in the Frizeling, Frouncing, Colouring, Powdring, or nice Composing of their Haire, but Incontinent, Vaineglorious, Proud, Sloathfull, Carnal, or Luxurious persons: who are altogether prodigal, and careless of the Beauty, Culture, and Salvation of their Souls: who are Negligent, and Sloathfull in God Service, and in the practice of all Holy duties: who play away their time in earnest, and spend their precious lives in foolish vanities; as if they were borne for no other purpose, but to Eate, to Drink, to Play, to Sleep, or to ina • our, and set out their bodies: who only seek to please themselves, and others; to Pamper, Cherish, and set out their Proud, their Lustful, and Rebellious Flesh: (which should be mortified, and kept under, by the subtraction of all these outward cultures, and Vnchristian attires, which feed and strengthen it:) such who have Vnsound, Vnchast, and Gracelesse Hearts ; and would be easily induced to prostitute their bodies to the lusts of others, or to inescate others with themselves: this Authors, and experience doeth plentifully witness: Therefore we may not use these Effeminate, Gracelesse, and Vnchristian arts, of purpose to procure or enlarge our Beauty, because it savoreth of so many sins, and is practiced by few or none, but Gracelesse, Proud, Vnchast, Effeminate, and Sinful persons : and because it is but a doing of evil, that good may come of it.

Secondly, I answer; that man's perfect, true, and real Beauty, doeth not consist in the Faire, Clear, or comely Superficies, Delicacy, and tenderness of the Skin, or Face; nor yet in the curious, nice, and artificial Embroyderies, Curlings, Textures, Colourings, Powdrings, or compositions of the Haire, as most men vainly deem: but in the inward Endowments, Ornaments, Trappings, Virtues, and Graces of the Mind, and Soul, in which the Excellency, Essence, and Happiness of men consist: This is the only Comelinesse, and Beauty, which makes us Amiable, Beautiful, and Resplendent in the sight of God, of Men, and Angels: this is the only culture, and Beauty which the Lord respects: this is the only Beauty which Christ Jesus had on Earth, who had no outward form, or artificial, or exotique ornaments, to make him amiable: this is the chief and only Beauty, and Glory, which the Saints, and Church of God admire, and partake of both here, and hereafter ; though carnal men abhor and loath it as the great • st deformity. If therefore we would be truly beautiful, and lovely both with God, with Men, and Angels; if we would extend our Beauties, and improve them to the uttermost, so as to inamour, and r • uish God, and Christ himself: let us then disclaim these Diabolical, Worldly, and Vnchristian culture • , which Defile, Pollute, Detu • pate, and deform our Souls, and make us odious, and uncomely in the eyes of God, the Saints, and blessed Angels: and decke our Souls with the very Beauties of Holiness, with the Embroidered, Rich, and precious ornaments, Diamonds, Attires, and Pearls of Grace: let us be all Glorious, and Beautiful within ; that so we may be fit Spouses for God, and Christ to love and match with, and may shine as Stars, and as the brightness of the firmament in God's heavenly Kingdom for evermore: This is a Beauty that Sickness, Time, and Age cannot decay: this Beauty will stick by us, and continue with us for all eternity: yea, it is such a comeliness as will supply, conceal, adorn, and grace all corporal deformities, and take them clean away: whereas all corporal, and external Beauty, is but mere deformity, where this is absent: O then let us prize this Beauty most, without which we are deformed, ugly, and vnlouely in God's sight, let us admire, seek, and purchase it with greatest care: so shall we be abundantly beautiful, and every way amiable, and comely, though we have no artificial trappings, nor external crispings, cultures, or attires to adorn our Bodies, Heads, and Faces, or to enlarge our external Beauty, which is not worth the seeking.

Thirdly, I answer; that everything is most amiable, beautiful, and comely in that natural feature, comeliness, and proportion, which God himself hath stamped, and engraven on it. Nothing is properly, and truly beautiful, and comely in it self, but that whose Varnish, Gloss, and Beauty flows, and springs from God himself; who is the only fountain, and spring of Beauty: All acquisite, external, exotique, and artificial varnishes, cultures, dressings, and attires, which any ways change, sophisticate, or alter that natural feature, form, and comeliness, which the prudent, and unerring hand of God hath wrought, and formed in us: transforming us into another hue, or plight, then God hath given us: is so far from adding comeliness, or luster to us, that it doeth more deturpate, and deform us; ecclipsing, obfuscating, and depraving that natural, and lively Portraiture and Beauty, which the curious Pencell of God himself hath drawn, Limmed, and engraven on us. Hence was it, that Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of the Lilies of the Field: because their array, and Beauty was natural; His, but acquisite, and artificial. If therefore we would be truly beautiful, let us content our selves with that natural Beauty, Haire, and Feature, which God himself hath bequeathed to us, as being most suitable, and convenient for us. Doubtless, if God had ever thought, that Crisped, Frounced, Powdered, or artificial, acquisite, and embroidered Haire had been most for his glory, or for our Beauty, Good, and Comelinesse: himself would out of his infinite wisdom and goodness have assigned us such natural Haire as this, which we affect and seek ; else he could not have been so Wise, so Good, so perfect, and exact a God, so exquisite, and skillful a Creator as we all repute him. Since he therefore, being Wisdom, Goodness, Knowledge, and Beauty it self hath designed such natural, and vnadorned, or vncrisped Haire unto us as is most comely, proper, and behoofull for us: Let us not murmur, nor find fault with him, nor call his Art, his Wisdom, his Goodness, and Discretion into question: Let us not offer violence and force to him, in laboring to correct, to alter, perfect, or amend his work ; or to new-moulde, or make our selves, as if we were more wise then • ee: But since we cannot make so much as one Haire white or black, when as God who numbers all our Haires, hath given it another tincture, let us rest contented with that lot and portion, with that natural Haire, and Comelinesse which God hath given us, as all other creatures do, who never seek to change their Haire or Plumes, as men and women do: for fear we prove far worse the • beasts, spurnning against our wise and great Creator, and saying to him with those presumptuous Pot-sheards in the Scripture: why hast thou made us thus? to the wrack and ruin of our souls. That Beauti, Haire, and form, is best and comely •• , which God, which Grace, and Nature, (not children, loose and wanton persons) deem most beautiful and comely: But God, and Grace, and Nature, deem our natural Beauty, Haire, and feature best and comeliest: and none but Children, Licentious, Vain, Lasciuious, and graceless persons undervalue them, preferring these artificial Curlings, Powdrings, Colourings, Embroiderings, and dres • ings of the Head, the Haire, and Face before them. Therefore these natural must needs be best and comeliest: If therefore we would be beautiful, and lo • ely in good earnest, let us rest contented with Natures wa • d-robe, not adding art or culture to it: for fear we offer violence unto God himself, and put the Devils varnish on his work and Image.

Fourthly, I answer; that an Effeminate, Womanish, [ 4] and affected sprucenesse, or concinnitie, (especially, in Haire and excrements, the lowest and most inferior parts, if parts of man,) is no Ornament, Grace, nor Comelinesse, but rather a deformity, and disrespect to men: as being vnsuitable to their Magnanimous, Masculine, and Heroicke sex. A neglected, natural, an vnaffected Beauty, Face, and Comelinesse, doeth most adorn, commend, and set out men: The only means therefore for men to enhance, illustrate, and set out their Beauty, is to neglect it, not to seek it, at least but in a moderate, careless, remiss, and vnaffected manner: so that this pretence of seeking Beauty, is but false and vain.

Fifthly, though natural Beauty be a gift of God, not wholly to be slighted, because it adds some luster to our Gifts, and Graces, being regulated and a • tended with Chastity, Modestie, M • ekenesse, and Humility: as our vices (on the other side,) do stain obfuscate, and blemish both it, and all external cultures, and attires else: yet a Studious, Curious, Inordinate, and eager Affection of Beauty, (especially, by Effeminate, and Vnchristian Cultures, Fashions, and Attires,) must needs be Sin • ull, and Abominable: yea, far worse then Drunkenness, and excess of Wine ; if Clemens Alexandrinus may be credited: [ 5] and that for these ensuing reasons: First, because it proceeds most commonly, from an Adulterous, Vnchast, an • lastfull Heart, or Meretricious, and Whorish affection: For if it be true of natural Beauty, that it is seldom accompanied, or attended with Chastiti • , and Continencie: that it is commonly a bait, a snare, a Baud, a Pander, and strong alectiue unto all incontinency: much more must it be true of artificial, and affe • ted comeliness, the badge and ensign • of a common Harlot, or an Incontinent, and Lasciuious person: He, or she, can never be a chaste and undefiled virgins in the sight of God, who desires to be amiable in the eyes of men: For though they do not always actually prostitute their bodies to the lusts of others, as most that do affect an accurate, excessive, or artificial Beauty, in Crisping and adorning of their Haire and Faces do: yet since they inamor and inescate others, and kindle a fire and flame of concupiscence, and unchaste affections in the hearts of many, who cast their eyes upon them, by these meretricious cultures, and over-studious, and affected Countenances, Dressings, and Attires, which seem to set their bodies out to sale; they cannot but be guilty of incontinency in themselves, because they thus occasion it in others. Those who have continent and chaste affections, as they deem this corporal, and outside Beauty a needless and superfluous thing: so they are so far from seeking, or affecting it: that like that chaste and beautiful Pagan, they would rather obscure, neglect, and quite deface their natural Beauties, by inflicting wounds and scars upon their faces, to make them more deformed, for fear least others should be infatuated and ensnared with them: then any ways Curle, Crisp, Adorn, Embroider, or set out their Haire, and Faces, to their own, or others prejudice. Beauty is no help nor furtherance, but a great impediment unto chastity: therefore this studious affectation of it, and inquiry after it, proceeds not from a continent or chaste affection, but from a Lasciuious, Lustful, and Adulterous Heart: and so it cannot but be evil. Secondly, it must needs be evil, because it flows as from an Effeminate, and Vnchast, so likewise from a Proud, Vaineglorious, Carnal, Worldly, and self-seeking Spirit, which aims not at God's glory, nor at its own, or others good and welfare: There are none who seek an artificial Comelinesse, or transcendent Beauty, by altering, Colouring, Crisping, or adorning of their Heads, or Haire, or by any such like means, but do it out of an inward, and secret pride of Heart, of purpose to be proud, and bless themselves, (as fond Narcissus did of old, and many idle Christians now, who make their Haire, and Face their Idols:) in their own Beauties, Skinnes, and Shadows: and to Deifie, or Adore themselves, their Haire, their Heads, and Faces, like so many petty God's: Or else they do it to win respect and praise, from Carnal, Gracelesse, and iniudicious persons, by seeming more Beautiful, and Louely to their sensual eyes, then in themselves they are. Or out of a Worldly, Carnal, and self-seeking Heart, to please themselves, & others: to conform themselves unto the guise, and sinful customs of the World, and Times, which Christians have renounced in their Baptism: or to pamper, humor, satisfy, and set out their proud, and sinful flesh, which should be Mortified, and Crucified, with all the inordinate Lusts, Affections, and Desires of it • Or else they use it out a mere Fantastique, Singular, and Vaineglorious Humour, as Sir Thomas Ouerbury, hath well observed: who makes this, the very Character of a Phantastique, or improvident young Gallant: to study by the discretion of his Barber, to Frizle like a Baboone: three such (saith he,) would keep three of the nimblest Barbers in the Town from weaving Net-garters: for when they have to do with him, they have many Irons in the fire. These are the proper, true, and only roots, the ends, and springs from which this search, this labor, and iniquirie after Beauty, Fairenesse, or Complexion flows: these are the main and chiefest reasons, for which our Men, or Women Nouris • , Colour, Frizle, Powder, or set out their Haire: Now these are Sinful, Odious, and Vnlawfull. Therefore we must not Nourish, Curle, Powder, Colour, Embroider, or set out our Haire, of purpose to Diuulge, Enhance, or blaze our Beauty, (which in truth, consists in Grace, in Holiness, and in a well-spent Life, and not in Haire, in Face, in Skin, or Superficies,) as this objection, or vain excuse pretends: God's glory, our own, and others real, true, and spiritual good, should be the end, and aim of all our actions: Let us always eye, intend, and mind this blessed end in all our ways; and then we shall not seek for corporal, f • eeting, nor external Beauty, which betrays, and wracks the Souls of many, but brings no solid, true, nor real good to any.

You have heard and seen now Christian Readers, the birth and pedigree; the beginning, growth, and end: together with the unlawfulness, vanity, effeminacy, and vndecency of Love-locks: You see how they thwart the Laws of God, and Nature, and the Tonsure, Cut, and custom of our Country: you have heard and read, what vncontrouleable, and convincing arguments have been produced, to prove them to be Odious, Lasciuious, Vncomely, and Vnlawfull, Toyes, and Vanities; which bring no glory at all to God, nor Ornament, Grace, or good to Men in any kind: to be such infallible Characters of Leuitie, Vanity, Lasciuiousnesse, Pride, Effeminacy, and Vaineglory, as misbeseeme not only Gracious, and holy Christians, but likewise the more Temperate, and Civil sort of carnal Men: to be things of ill report among the Grauest, Best, and Wisest rank of Christians, whose judgments ought not to b • slighted: You have h • ard and seen what the Fathers, and Moderne Authors have concluded of extraordinary long Haire, and so of Love-locks; how they have passed a doom, and sentence of condemnation on them: For of truth, saith John Valerian, a great Clearke of Italy,) to nourish the bushes, or the Haire, is the fashion of Women; or else of such men, as live delicately, and unchaste: for the long Haired people were ever esteemed both of the Greeks, and Latins for a token of foul lust, and filthy living: And for my own part, I never heard as yet of any Laudable, Honest, Lawfull, Just, or sound Apology, or Justification, that might, or could be pleaded for them; but only these absurd pretences, which I have here refuted, and defeated. I beseech you therefore by that homage, duty, and respect which you owe to God, and Nature; and by that reverence and submission, which you yield unto the opinions and judgments of the Fathers, and the Best, the Wisest, Grauest, Holiest, and most judicious Christians: by that conformity, and regularitie, you owe unto the Ancient, Laudable, and decent Habit, Fashion, Tonsure, Guise, and custom of your own Country, and Nation, of whose Cut, and Tonsure, you ought not, you need not be ashamed: by the love and care you bear unto your Names, and Credits, among the Best, and Wiser sort; and by the good, and happiness you wish unto your Souls at last, which Love-locks will involve, and merge in sin: by that sacred Vow, and Covenant, which you have solemnly made to God, and Sealed, or Subscribed in your very Baptism: Even to forsake the Devil and all his Works, the Pompes, and Vanities of this wicked World, and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh : (in all which these Love-locks have their part, and share:) and by that Joy, and Heavenly consolation, which you hope, and long for at your Deaths; when all the Powdring, Curling, Cost, and Time, which you have vainly, and prodigally cast away upon your Haire, and Love-locks, will prove but Gall, but Horror, Shame, yea, Anguish, Griefe, and Bitterness to your Souls: that you would now at last abandon, and utterly renounce the nourishing, use, and wearing of these Lasciuious, Singular, Vaineglorious, Unnatural, and Vnlouely Love-Locke, (which God, and Nature, which all Good, all Holy, Grave, and civil Men, both now, and heretofore; as also the Use, and Ancient practice of our Country do condemn:) together with that Lasciuious, Odious, Effeminate, and Vnchristian Frizling, Colouring, Platting, Frouncing, or Delicate, and curious Composition, and Powdring of the Haire, which oft times make men's lives to stink ; and do now so far engross the thoughts of many, both of our Male, and Female sex: that they can find no spare, nor leisure time, to Dresse, Adorn, or Beautifie, their Vgly, Filthy, Naked, Poor, and vnadorned Souls, (which lie Rotting, and stinking in the dregg • s of Sin, as if they were things of naught:) that so, you may with all humbleness, and sincerity of Heart, and mind, and all lowliness, and fervency of Spirit, even set, and bend yourselves to seek, and serve the Lord unfeignedly in all things: and demean yourselves in such a Gracious, Modest, Humble, Holy, Blamelesse, Exemplary, Deuout, and Christian manner, as may Adorn the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Beautifie that outward profession, and practice of Religion, which you have formerly tainted, and defamed by your Vain, Lasciuious, Proud, Luxurious, Ruffianly, Gracelesse, and Vnchristian conversation: It was a received use and custom heretofore, for men in times of Griefe, of Sorrow, and Affliction, to poll their Heads, and cut their Haire, as Authors, and the Scriptures testify: Beloved, these times wherein we live, which way soever we turn our selves, are times of Griefe, of Sorrow, Misery, Trouble, and Affliction; which sommon us to Fasting, Weeping, and Mourning, to Baldness, and Sackcloth: Let us therefore take occasion from the present time, to clip, cut off, cashere, and utterly relinquish, our Vain, our Rus • ianly, Singular, Effeminate, and uncomely Love-Lockes, and excessive Haire; together with all false, or borrowed excrements, or artificial Crispings, wreathings, Colourings, Powdrings, and over-curious Cultures, and Compositions of our Haire; (which God himself, which Councils, Fathers, and Moderne Divines; yea, Pagan Authors have condemned:) that so we may with broken Hearts, and contrite Spirits, unfeignedly abase our Souls before the Lord, to divert those Fatall, Heauy, Sad, and doleful Judgments, which are now approaching toward us, and even ready for to seise, and prey upon us for our many sins: whereof our Pride, our Vanity, our Wantonness, and Effeminacy in Haire, and Apparel, are not the least. If we refuse this counsel and advice, which the vicinitie, and neeren • sse of God's Judgments, do even force, and pr • sse upon our Hearts: and still proceed, to Nourish, Decke, set out, and Crisp our Haire, and Love-Lockes, or our corruptible, base, and crazy bodies, which will be turned into dust and ashes, and trodden under foot • ere long: spending more time, more thoughts, and cost upon them, then upon our Souls, which is the case of many: If we intrude, and thrust our selves into the very House, and presence of our Glorious, Great, and holy God, so Frounced, Curled, Powdred, Perfeumed, Painted, and Adorned, as if we came to Church of purpose to out-face, and dare the Lord: to Daunce, and not to Pray: to Feast, and not to Fast: to Laugh, and not to Weep: to See, and to be Seene, and not to Hear: to show our Selves, our Clothes, our Jewels, our Haire, our Beauty, our Pride, our Vanity, and Effeminacie unto men: but not our Hearts, our Piety, our Devotion, our Humility, and Repentance unto God, as the Fathers phrase it: If we place our Piety, and Devotion in our Clothes, and Haire, and think our selves Holiest, when our Clothes, and Haire sit neatest: If we think we have done God good service, when we have but washed our Skinnes, and tricked up our Heads and Haire, to come and show our selves in the Church, about the latter end of Prayers or Sermon, of purpose to draw the Eyes, and Hearts of others after us, and so to withdraw them quite from God: If we take more care and pains to adorn our Heads, and Faces, for the view of others, then to prepare, and fit our Hearts, and Souls by Prayer, and Meditation for God, and for his Ordinances; as alas, too many Idolatrous, and self-seeking Christians do in these our days, who adore no other Deity, but their Haire, their Heads, their Faces, Clothes, and borrowed Beauty: We have then no other hope but this; that God will loathe our persons, and our Prayers too: and pour out the very dregs, and fullness of his wrath, and fury on us, to our final ruin. Let this then, cause us to renounce, abhor and loathe these Sinful, Odious, Vnchristian, Lasciuious, and vnlouely Vanities.

BERNARDI. Meditationes, cap. 11.

Omnia quae ad vsum vitae accepimus, ad vsum culpae conuertimus: Quapropter iustum est, vt qui in cunctis peccauimus, in cunctis feriamur.