Page 221
The IX. ADVERTISEMENT.
Apollo publ sh•…•…th a very severe Edict against some Littera∣ti, who under a cloak of feigned piety, cover downright a∣varice.
APollo finding for certain that a new race of wicked men are sprung up in Parnassus, and in his other States, who though they have made Gold their Idol, yet to cover their unquenchable thirst after rich∣es, do so confidently make use of the cloke of feigned goodness, as they have dared to exercise the devilish art of hypocrisie bare faced; his Ma∣jesty to provide for the indempnity of those silly ones, who think all to be gold that glisters, and of those blockheads who cannot discern an Eel from an Adner, by an Edict of his published on Tuesday last, doth in the first place affectionately exhort all souls living, to walk by the so beaten way of honoured Antiquity, of bene vivere, & Laetari; which proceeds from Gods great grace to good men; assuring every one that men may win favour from God, and good will from men, even amongst great rich∣es, if they be honorably gotten, and well distributed: Wherefore he exhorted all men, that forgoing fiction, and all manner of double▪ dealing, as things which gave an ill savor even to good things, and which made mens devotion appear hypocrisie, they should live with that purity of soul, and that candidness of manners, which made even stones look love∣ly, much more men; and that if there were any one, who would by a holy life make that profession of piety, which is so suspected in men who have avarice joined to their great riches, that their devotion should by all means begin from the contempt of money, distributing it out unto the poor, and laying it out in pious works; which if they should not do, they should be held from those crafty companions who make use of piety more to deceive men, then to please God.