Tri. I think him a profane person indeed.
Ana. He bears.

The visible mark of the beast in his forehead.
And for his stone, it is a work of darkness,
And with philosophy blinds the eyes of man.
Tri. Good brother, we must bend unto all means,
That may give furtherance to the holy cause.
Ana. Which his cannot: the sanctified cause
Should have a sanctified course..

Tri. Not always necessary:

The children of perdition are oft-times
Made instruments even of the greatest works:
Beside, we should give somewhat to man's nature,
The place he lives in, still about the fire,
And fume of metals, that intoxicate
The brain of man, and make him prone to passion.
Where have you greater atheists than your cooks?
Or more profane, or choleric, than your glass-men?
More antichristian than your bell-founders?
What makes the devil so devilish, Iwould ask you,
Sathan, our common enemy, but his being
Perpetually about the fire, and boiling
Brimstone and arsenic? We must give, I say,
Unto the motives, and the stirrers up
Of humours in the blood. It may be so,
When as the work is done, the stone is made,
This heat of his may turn into a zeal,
And stand up for the beauteous discipline,"
Against the menstruous cloth and rag of Rome.
We must await his calling, and the coming
Of the good spirit. You did fault, t' upbraid him
With the brethren's blessing of Heidelberg,
weighing

What need we have to hasten on the work,
For the restoring of the silenced saints,

And stand up for the beauteous discipline, So the pretended reformation of the church was at this time affectedly called by the Puritans. See vol. iii. p. 482.

Which ne'er will be, but by the philosopher's

stone.

And so a learned elder, one of Scotland,
Assured me; aurum potabile being

The only medicine, for the civil magistrate,
T' incline him to a feeling of the cause;
And must be daily used in the disease.

Ana. I have not edified more, truly, by man; Not since the beautiful light first shone on me: And I am sad my zeal hath so offended.

Tri. Let us call on him then.

Ana. The motion's good,

And of the spirit; I will knock first. [Knocks.] Peace be within!

[The door is opened, and they enter.

SCENE II.

A Room in Lovewit's House.

Enter SUBTLE, followed by TRIBULATION and

ANANIAS.

Sub. O, are you come? 'twas time. Your threescore minutes

Were at last thread, you see; and down had gone
Furnus acediæ, turris circulatorius :"

Lembec, bolt's-head, retort and pelican
Had all been cinders-Wicked Ananias!
Art thou return'd? nay then, it goes down yet.
Tri. Sir, be appeased; he is come to humble
Himself in spirit, and to ask your patience,

Furnus acedia, turris circulatorius:] Furnus acedia sive incuriæ, ubi uno igne et parto labore diversi furni foventur." Lex. Alch. Turris circulatorius est cas vitreum, ubi infusus liquor ascendendo et descendendo quasi in circulo rotatur." Ibid.

If too much zeal hath carried him aside
From the due path.

Sub. Why, this doth qualify!

Tri. The brethren had no purpose, verily, To give you the least grievance: but are ready To lend their willing hands to any project The spirit and you direct.

Sub. This qualifies more!

Tri. Aud for the orphans goods, let them be
valued,

Or what is needful else to the holy work,
It shall be numbered; here, by me, the saints,
Throw down their purse before you.

Sub. This qualifies most!

Why, thus it should be, now you understand.
Have I discours'd so unto you of our stone,
And of the good that it shall bring your cause?
Shew'd you (beside the main of hiring forces
Abroad, drawing the Hollanders, your friends,
From the Indies, to serve you, with all their fleet)
That even the med'cinal use shall make you a
faction,

And party in the realm? As, put the case,
That some great man in state, he have the gout,
Why, you but send three drops of
your elixir,
You help him straight: there you have made a

friend.

Another has the palsy or the dropsy,
He takes of your incombustible stuff,
He's young again: there you have made a friend.
A lady that is past the feat of body,

Though not of mind, and hath her face decay'd
Beyond all cure of paintings, you restore,
With the oil of talc: there you have made a
friend;

• With the oil of talc :] "Talc is a cheap kind of mineral

And all her friends. A lord that is a leper,
A knight that has the bone-ach, or a squire
That hath both these, you make them smooth
and sound,

With a bare fricace of your med'cine: still
You increase your friends.

Tri. Ay, it is very pregnant.

Sub. And then the turning of this lawyer's pewter

To plate at Christmas.

Ana. Christ-tide, I pray you.'

Sub. Yet, Ananias!

Ana. I have done.

Sub. Or changing

His parcel gilt to massy gold. You cannot
But raise you friends. Withal, to be of power
Το
pay an army in the field, to buy

The king of France out of his realms, or Spain
Out of his Indies. What can you not do
Against lords spiritual or temporal,

That shall oppone you?

Tri. Verily, 'tis true,

We may be temporal lords ourselves, I take it. Sub. You may be any thing, and leave off to

make

Long-winded exercises; or suck up

Your ha! and hum! in a tune. I not deny,
But such as are not graced in a state,
May, for their ends, be adverse in religion,

which this county (Sussex) plentifully affords, though not so fine as what is fetched from Venice. It is white and transparent like chrystal, full of strekes or veins, which prettily scatter themselves. Being calcined and variously prepared, it maketh a curious white-wash, which some justify lawful, because clearing not changing the complexion." Fuller's Worthies.

9 Christ-tide, I pray you.] For the scrupulous care with which the Puritans avoided the use of the Popish word mass, even in composition, see vol. iii. p. 178.

And get a tune to call the flock together:
For, to say sooth, a tune does much with women,
And other phlegmatic people; it is your bell.

Ana. Bells are profane; a tune maybe religious. Sub. No warning with you! then farewell my patience.

'Slight, it shall down: I will not be thus tortured. Tri. I pray you, sir.

Sub. All shall perish. I have spoke it.

Tri. Let me find grace, sir, in your eyes; the

man

He stands corrected: neither did his zeal,
But as your self, allow a tune somewhere.
Which now, being tow'rd the stone, we shall not
need.

Sub. No, nor your holy vizard, to win widows
To give you legacies; or make zealous wives
To rob their husbands for the common cause:
Nor take the start of bonds broke but one day,
And say, they were forfeited by providence.
Nor shall you need o'er night to eat huge meals,
To celebrate your next day's fast the better;
The whilst the brethren and the sisters humbled,
Abate the stiffness of the flesh. Nor cast
Before your hungry hearers scrupulous bones;
As whether a Christian may hawk or hunt,
Or whether matrons of the holy assembly
May lay their hair out, or wear doublets,
Or have that idol starch about their linen.'

Or whether matrons of the holy assembly

May lay their hair out, or wear doublets;

Or have that idol starch about their linen.] The Puritans of our author's days affected all these, and other scruples of equal consequence; and would have reformed the dresses of the age, as well as the constitution and language of the kingdom, by scripture precedents, and scripture expressions. In the dominion of grace all was to be pure simplicity. There cannot be