The works of Mr. Thomas Brown, serious and comical : in prose and verse, with his remains in four volumes compleat; vol. IIBrown, Thomas
General
The works of Mr. Thomas Brown, serious and comical : in prose and verse, with his remains in four volumes compleat; vol. II
Brown, Thomas
English wit and humor -- Early works to 1800; Erotic literature -- Early works to 1800; Latin literature -- Translations into English
the followers of thy false glimmerings, must forsake the errors, and
seek the lord by a more perfect illumination, for the false fading
_jack-a-lanthorn_ which thou leftest among us, is burn’d into the
socket, and now stinks in the nostrils of the righteous, far worse than
the dying snuff of a cotton-candle; besides, what spiritual pilgrim in
his progress to the land of the living, would follow a wicked
_Will-with-a-wisp_, who has led a friend before into dark ways, and
there left him to grope among the filthiness of sin and pricks of
conscience to all eternity? no, if we follow thy ways, we shall err like
stray’d sheep, and be pounded by _Satan_ for wand’ring into the paths of
the wicked.
That the father of lies, upon thy first entrance into his wicked
habitation, should put thee into a fool’s jacket, we do not much wonder,
for the painted marks of folly are _Satan’s_ gay livery, with which he
cloaths his wicked servants in this world as well as in his dominions;
for didst thou ever behold on earth the sons of darkness, who follow the
lust of the flesh, and delight in those pomps and vanities which the
inward man forbids our frail natures to pursue, but they always were
distinguish’d by some gaudy badge, which discovered their pride, or
other infirmities? do not the high-priests of _Baal_ wear lawn
coversluts, and their head journeymen red pokes upon their backs? do not
flatterers of princes wear badges on their breasts, and adorn their
spindle-shanks with glittering gimcracks? do not their lazy slaves wear
blue and yellow, that the world may know whose fools they are? do not
the blessers of their food wear silken ornaments dangling from their
proud necks to their ancles, that the publick may mistake them to be
wiser than their neighbours? do not the captains of the host hoop their
loins with golden sashes, and stick feathers in their caps to fright
their foes with their finery? do not judges wear gowns of a crimson die,
and the great men of the law wear the skull-caps of knavery, with the
edges tipp’d with innocence, to deceive the vulgar? do not physicians
ride in coaches with the weapons of destruction ty’d dangling at their
arses, as it they were hurrying on a full trot to kill and not recover
their patients? do not haughty vintners hypocritically tye on their blue
ensigns of humility, to cozen their customers into an opinion of their
lowliness? do not whoremongers and adulterers thatch their empty noddles
with whole thickets of whores-hair? and do not wanton women wear turrets
on their heads, and cover their tails with the bowels of the silk-worms?
do not drunkards wear red noses, knaves hawks eyes, and liars impudent
faces? in short, friend _Naylor_, most people upon earth have some badge
or other of _Satan_’s livery; even kings themselves wear purple, and the
whores of _Babylon_ scarlet; therefore our friends are all of one
opinion, that since thou departed’st so far from the light, as to suffer
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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