IN this discourse concerning gaming, my intent is not to condemne any kind of law­full recreations, as running, wrestling, shooting, and the like, which as they are necessarily used for the refreshment of the body, so we find them no where condem­ned, in the holy Scripture, that therefore which is the sub­ject against which I have at this time undertaken to write, is concerning the unlawfull games of Cards, Dice, &c. or any other games which are carried by fortune or lot, (as we commonly terme them) because that notwithstanding they are forbidden by the Lawes of the Kingdome, and particularly in the Statute, 33. H. 8.9. whereby not onely the players at unlawfull games, but such as suffer them in their houses are to be imprisoned, till they be bound over to play no more, yet such is the liberty that many take, that it is daily used to the mis-spending of precious time, and the undoing of the most precious souls of many hope­full young men. I have therefore published this Treatise to the view of the World, which (I hope) may prove as a meanes to deterre some from this time and soul-destroying vice of gaming, and playing at Cards, Dice, &c. since it is a vice which the Heathens themselves condemned, even in their Princes, as Suctonius in the life of Augustus reports, that it was his greatest blemish, that he was at leasure to play at Dice.

Chilo being sent from the Lacedemonlans to Corinth, upon an Embassage, and finding the Senators of that City at cards and dice, would performe no part of his message, saying, he would not so much dis-honour the Lacedemoni­ans, as that they should either make or meddle with such persons: were such games infamous among Heathens, how much more unworthy are they among Christians▪ that therefore I may the more clearely anatomize the horridnesse and danger of these sinnes, it would not be a­misse to note unto you the great and unspeakable evills, which are procured thereby, which for method sake I will handle under these seven heads, which I may fitly terme the seven constant Hand-maids or Attendants to unlawfull gaming, or if you will the cursed spawne of this base Har­lot, viz.

1. To begin with drunkennesse, the roaring boys of these our times, where can or will they find a fitter place for gaming then at a Tavern, in which place, whereas they game without wit, so they will drinke without measure: They will be sure, although they empty their purses, by gaming, yet they will fill their bellies by superfluous bib­bing: although they go out of the Tavern lighter by ma­ny a faire pound, yet their heads are so heavy, that they are like to salute every post they meet withall.

O the horridnesse of this new-fashioned vice of game­ing! which doth produce so hideous a monster as drun­kennesse.

But there be those in the world, which plead for drun­kennesse, as Lot for Zoar, Behold, is it not a little one? Ah, let no man be so foolish, as to plead for this little great sin of drunkennesse, little in our owne sights, but great and abominable in the sight of God. S. Paul exhorts us to the [Page 3]contrary, Rom 13.13. saying, Let us walke honestly, (or as some Translations have it, decently) as in the day, not in rio­ting, and drunkennesse; why? because drunkennesse is a deed of darknesse: Those which are drunke are drunke in the night, 1. Thes. 5. Wherefore, except it be avoided, it will bring us unto an eternall night of griefe, horror, and la­mentation.

Do but consider with thy selfe, O drunkard, how much many a poore soul wants the snuffs, as thou termest them, which are powred on the ground carelesly by thee.

What canst thou tell, but when thou art in thy cups, God in judgement may strike thee dead? O then in what a case art thou!

A drunken man is uncapable of any thing that is good; but fit for all mischiefe. Mark what wise. Salomon saith, Pro. 20. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whoso­ever as deceived thereby, is not wise. Againe he saith, Pro. 23. Be not amongst wine bibbers: we must not come in a wine-bibbers company, Salomon commands. Why? Be­cause the drunkard shall come to poverty: poverty in this world, and in the world to come, except he speedily repent.

O what poverty can be like unto this, to knock at the doore, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, Luke 13. and he shall make answer and say, I know not whence years, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, procured by this vice of drunkennesse, sprung from the loynes of gaming. Nor doe I say, that drunkennesse comes alone by gaming, but that it is Regia via, a high way to it: Wherefore, that we may avoid the one, let us fly the other, as two venemous Serpents, seek­ing to sting us unto death.

2. Gaming produceth lying; for the world is now [Page 4]growne to such an height of impiety, that there is no man almost even in very mercenary affaires will feare (for his owne profit) to tell a lye; but with gamesters it is grown a fashion, followed by every one of them. A lye, that is but a trifle in their account, shall they loose their mony for want of a lye, that were a jest indeed? O but let them look to it, least they jest away their souls by it: who is the Fa­ther of lyes but the Devill? we need to make no doubt, for Christ himselfe said it, John 8.

A lying tongue God hates, saith Solomon, Prov. 6. and if he hate it, then woe be unto thee, whosoever thou art, which affectest it; it had better thou never hadst been borne. That God is a God of mercy it is most true, but that he is a God of judgement also is most certaine: God will create Adam, after his own likenesse, Gen. 1. and give him dominion o­ver the fish, over the fowles of the aire, over the cattle, o­ver all the earth, and over every creeping thing which creepeth on the earth, and placed him in Eden.

But if Adam breake the Commandement of God, if A­dam does that which God hates, then he must be thrust out of Eden, to go forth and till the ground, Gen. 3.

God dealt fairely, kindly, and mercifully, with Israel his chosen people, untill that they did that which he hated, running a whoring after their own inventions, then did he deliver them over into the hands of their enemies who car­ried them away captive.

God loves man so long as man loves God, but when man once begins to doe that which hee hates, then God powres forth his violls of wrath. God hates lying, wher­fore that we may shun the effect, which is lying, let us a­void the cause gaming, for qualis causa, talis effectus, the Logician saith, if the cause be good, it followes that ef­fect, [Page 5]the end must be good; but if the cause be bad, the effect must be so likewise.

A Lawyer, (an honest one I mean) if the cause be good, by pleading must needs overthrow his Adversary, and so the effect prove good also, but if bad, although all his Equivocations & Fallacies, the effect (as I said before) must needs prove bad: Wherefore that wee may not be tainted for Lyers, let us not be Gamsters, For where the dead carkas is, there will the Eagles gather together; and so, where common Gaming is, there is also common Lying, which produceth Swearing.

Thirdly, by Gaming comes Swearing.

After a company have beene Gaming together, those which lose their mony when they can get no redresse for their losse, their only ease is, to curse, ban, and sweare at the Cards or Dice: Nay, and before they Have lost their money, they are not Gamesters; if they have not a fit of Swearing, that such a one playes not faire, or that the other hath wonne farre more then he confesseth, for that they cannot doe by Lying, if it be possible, they will by Swearing. I needed not to have made any distin­ction at all betwixt Lying and Swearing; for saith an ancient Father. Swearing and Lying goe toge­ther; and proceeding further, he saith, Therefore they which are used to swearing, doe very naught; and no doubt, but that Gods vengeance hangeth over their heads: And certaine it is, that he which is a great Swearer, is also a great Lyer.

O consider with thy selfe O Gamester, and consequently Swearer, how thou offendest thy [Page 6]good and gracious God, who when thou wert in the gulfe of misery, and ready for to discend into the deepe abysse of Hell. Joh. 3. He so loved the world, that he gave his onely begotten Sonne, that whoso­ever beleeveth in him should not perish, but have ever­lasting life.

In this saith Saint John, 1 Ioh. 4. was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his onely begotten Sonne into the world, that wee might live through him.

Nor did he onely send his Sonne to looke into the world, and no more, but he sent him to dye for the world, and to be made a propitiation, for all our sins: and yet for all this, wee with our roaring swearing-Gamsters pluck him from his throne of glory againe if it were possible, by those thundring Oaths.

O was it not enough that he sufferd once such tor­ments, as the best of Orators wanted words to ex­presse thē; but that Adamantine-hearted men, more cruell then the Iewes, for they crucyfied him but once, must by their swearing crucifie him dayly. Me thinkes I see the hard and flintie rocks to gush out in teares, and yet their eyes are dry! O hearke how savage beasts of the field doe seeme in their kind to lament and morn to see their masters more brutish than themselves! What shall I say? shall I tell these men Saint Iames admonition? Iam. 5. Above all things my brethren sweare not, neither by hea­ven, &c. but let your yea, be yea, and your nay, nay, lest yee fall into condemnation. I feare their hearts are so hardned they will not regard it, nor all the rout of this bewitching Vice of Gaming.

O God of thy great mercy open their eyes, and turn their reynes, that from the bottome of their hearts they may repent them of their wickednesse, & be converted from this evill course of Gaming, & consequently from that horrid sin of swearing, which unto thee I know is most odious and hate­full, let their yea, be yea, and their nay, nay, so shall thy Saints rejoyce, & they hereafter to their com­forts, enjoy eternall happinesse.

Fourthly, Gaming is the high-way to Adultery.

Lust is the Ring-leader of mischiefe, it is a bait of much evill, it is the Devils vaile which he often throws over mens faces to blind them in the way of igorance, it is that Diabolical sin which ne'r leaves man till such time it hath robd him of that glori­ous Diadem of happinesse his precious soule and his only Darling, it is that damned and bewithced sin that makes a separation between God and man, it is that Grand Champion which causes that soul which was created glorious and delightsome in the sight of God, become most detestable and odious in his presence. By this Vice the soule is endange­red, and oftentimes with cruell ulcers and sores the body is infected, and his means by Harlots sudden­ly wasted. Woe be to that man which spends his time so vainly, and consumes his estate so wicked­ly in this bosome-sin, which is the only & read iest way to hellish misery and everlasting Beggery, it is the cause their friends forsake them, & those which are the Children of God to abhor and detest them. Nay, it makes their neighbours to shun them, and very youth to deride them & laugh them to scora, [Page 8]their kins folke doe despise them, and are very sh [...]e and nice to drink with them; tis so odious a Vice, that no good man regards them, it doth cause God to forsake them, and if they doe not speedly repent themselves, and aske God mercy and forgivenesse for so damned a crime, the Devill will soone take them, and who then is there able to deliver them? O the horridnesse of this sin of Adulte­ry which is ushered in by the damnable Vice of Gaming, which is a madnesse (God he knowes) too much embraced by foolish and voluptuous worldlings, who doe, as it were, with ardent desire, surrender or imploy themselvs with every part and facultie of their bodies and mind to this so dam­nable an Exercise, Gaming I meane. Which exer­cise is as a bait or snare to entrap men in, to cozen and cheat them of the estate which their fore-fa­thers with sweatie browes so turmoyled and la­boured for. It is as a Thiefe, robbing and strip­ping them stark naked of those happy and celesti­all cogitation, which perhaps otherwise they would be indued withall, which would redound to the welfare both of bodies and soules.

This Vice of Gaming, as I said before, oftentimes ushers in the ugly monstrous sin of Adultery, and puts us in mind of strange women, whose rowling and glancing eyes allure us to their owne wicked intents, of whom wise Solomon giveth us warning: Prov. 6. Lust not after her beautie in thine heart, nei­ther let her take thee with her eye-lids, for by meanes of a whorish woman man is brought to a piece of bread, and the Adulteres will hunt for the precious life. Marke to [Page 9]the 2 chap. 32 vers. and there Solomon saith, VVho so committeth Adultery with a woman lacketh und understanding, he that doth it, destroyeth his owne soule.

Furthermore, Gaming, Esca est malorum, a net of evils, in which oftentimes men are caught in. Gaming makes men carelesse of their affaires, and heedlesse of their estates for the present, and for ever after ruinous. It makes a man, as I told you before in the last particular, prone to sweare and forsweare, and in the eagernesse of their play rea­dy to bulke out such oathes, which are ready to teare the Divine Essence out of his sacred Throne of Glory: But especially, this vice doth Dame Lust attend upon. This mighty darling sinne doth still wait on that mans elbow who is given to the vice of Gaming.

A Gamester, discruciatur animo, is troubled and perplext in his minde; his eyes are still effemi­nate, his thoughts are incrused and inflamed after lascivious and wanton women, which are cater­pillers to devoure his estate, and Darling friend his soule. Gaming doth often rob man of his silken robe of honour, and causes him to be clad­ded with ragges of much infamy and disgrace.

Though thou mayst by this exercise of Gaming flourish in primo juventutis, in the prime of thy age, and accumulate an estate, the vice being so tempting, thou mayst before old dayes be decei­ved of thy former estate, and bring upon thy selfe the state of beggery, as I shall shew anon.

O therefore, let all men as regard prosperity in [Page 10]this world, and eternall joyes in the world to come, forsake this damnable exercise of Gaming, which hatcheth such a serpentine Egge as Adulte­ry, which that all may, God of his great mercy grant; and thus I conclude Gaming as it is the high-way to Adultery.

Fifthly, Gaming is the high-way to beggery.

Gaming is the high-way to idlenesse, and con­sequently to beggery: For I my selfe have known many Tradesmen, and others, which after they have taken a haunt of Gaming, neither can nor will finde the way againe to follow their lawfull occupations, but spend the remnant of their lives in sloath; from a Dice-patron, hee becomes an idle person and a sluggard, to whom Salomon thus speaketh, Prov. 6. Go to the Ant thou sluggard, consi­der her ways, and be wise, which having no guid, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathe­reth her food in the harvest: how long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? yet a little sleep, &c. By this we may see, that the wayes of Idlenesse is want and poverty. Again, Salomon saith, Prov. 13. The soule of the sluggard (or slothfull) desireth, and hath nothing. And again, he saith, ch. 22. v. 5. The slothfull man saith, there is a Lyon without, I shall be slain in the streets. No excuse shall be wan­ting to maintaine his idlenesse, by which buildings decay, and houses drop down, Eccles. 10. Idlenesse saith one, Radix omnium malorum est, is the root of all evill. S. Paul saith, Qui non laborat, non comedat, he that laboreth not let him not eate. After Adam had offended, it was Gods pleasure that he should [Page 11]not be idle; wherefore he saith, Gen. 3. In sudore vultus tui vesceris pa [...] [...]ue, in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eate thy bread. And S. Paul saith again, Magis autem laboret ut det indigentibus, let him la­bour the more, that he may have wherewithall to help the poore.

But alas! our Idle Gamsters are so far from that, as they will not work to supply their own wants; what? shall they which but lately had the world in a string, to have what they would, and do what they would, and command whom they would, now by any one be commanded? they frown if although a proud heart and a beggers purse agree not toge­gether: Content they are to live, although a dogs life, having hunger and ease. Work! no, they will rather steale, which brings mee to the sixt danger that ensues by Gaming.

Sixtly, Gaming is the high way which leadeth to theevery: After beggery hath visited a Game­ster, he is desperate and prone to all evill, but espe­cially theevery, although God in the 8. Comman­dement expresly commands to the contrary, say­ing, Thou shalt not steale. And where the Comman­dements of God are broken, there can be no love to God, For if ye love me, saith Christ, keep my Com­mandements; as if he had said, It is not enough, to say that you love me, making only a show of the same, but let me see it done effectually by keeping my Commandements; to steale and keep Gods Commandements too, we cannot. Of stealing Gaming is oftentimes a great cause. Doth Ga­ming [Page 12]cause Theevery? O then flie it like a serpen­tine Egge of the Divels owne hatching.

The Law condemns a Theefe in this world, and except God be mercifull, he is condemned also in the world to come. O who now then will not flie Gaming!

Seventhly, and lastly, Gaming leads to eternall damnation (I meane superfluous Gaming) except the great mercy of God by speedy repentance pre­vent it not.

Hitherto have I described the Devils new created champions, attending upon Gaming, and now (by the help of God) briefly, the dangers which hang over the head, except he shake off this bewitching vice. It must needs be granted by the precedent propositions, that it is a cause of breaking of Gods Statutes, and therefore it is flat disobedience, a­gainst which are many and great curses pronoun­ced, Deut. 28. He which disobeyeth the commandements of God, cursed shall he be in the City, and cursed shall he be in the field, the Lord shall make the pestilence to cleave unto him, &c.

But yet the dangers of this world are not com­parable to those of the world to come, which shall happen to the disobedient: Here, they shall bee only punished corporally, there spiritually, except they speedily repent, then shall God blot out all their wickednesse out of his remembrance, which that all may doe, not onely Gamesters, but all others; God of his great mercy grant.