Baltazar Gerbier Knight to all men that loves truth

The Reader being come thus farre, may (if he please) remember againe vvhat is said in the first lines of these leaves. Iudgment belongs to God and to none else, for he saith Iudgment is mine.

And a•• by so doing, he vvill free himselfe of that just censvver vvhich those deserve that judge arnisse, so vvill he (by the reading of the fol∣lovving lines) be throughly informed of the just cause that justly mo∣ved me thereunto, and that I could not (vvithout proving criminall to my selfe) obmit to mention the passages contained in the former lines▪ For an Anatomist cannot proceed to the demonstration of the figure of the heart of man except he rips up the skin of the body.

Some kings and Princes (vvho are abused by pernicious) Coun∣cellors) vvill not stick to the Obseruation of the Lavvs vvhich they themselues haue made, not to those to vvhich they vvere svvorne, Butt abandonne them selues unto a Licenciousnesse to dispose of the Liues and pocessions of men: But none of them can dispose of the motions of the heart, nor of any mans good fame.

Iff theire be any peculliar Prerogatiue in this vvorld sure selfe defence in the least questionnable, it is the first Lavv of nature. The∣refore all men are bound to conclude that those vvho do vvilfully assaille it do make them selffe unvvoorthy of the benefist of the Lavvs of God, the Lavvs of Nature, the fondamentall Lavvs of Empi∣res, and of Nations.

To the heart I haue been vvounded, and attempts haue been made to my soule, and therefore no vvonder that I haue begunne these Lines vvith the names of my Parents, their birth, and their

profession, likvveise vvith my birth, and profession; and consequent∣ly vvith some passages that must argue vvhat I haue profest, vvhiest in effet is the ripping upp of the first skin: On vvhich Spirist of Darknesse and Diluzion haue of late endeauioured to put such an infamous stayne, as neither Antiquity nor Moderne times can afforde amorē horride example.

All vvhich the said Spirits of Darxnesse factionnaris and adhe∣rents to Cottintoniens haue been contracted in the persson of Mr. VVilliam Crafts, vvho undertooke his taske, to pocesse divers Noble Famillies in Paris, vvith a most false opinion that my Daughters (detained from m•• in the Nunnery) belong to others: This the Eldest hath declared under her ovvn hand, and that vvhen the said abomi∣nable false-hood vvas uttered by the said Master Craft, shee desired a friend to reprove him, he ansvvered it vvas to make her a fortune.

A fortune indeed, vvhich the most vvicked among the Headens vvould on such condition reject, and vvould for ever banish the vvord Fortune from their remembrance.

My selfe and a vertuous Mother proclamed the Keepers of these Children, to have spent their meanes, belonging to others, horride Monsters, that kept children from endeavouring their Salvation; and in conclusion by the said Master Craft's most false relations) become in the Opinion of number of Deluded persons a Monster, that should haue been capable to do that for vvhich I should justly deserve to be forsaken by God, and abhorred of all man-kinde; better had I never been borne, than to be coupable of such a crime; better had I lived all my dayes among brute beasts, and not in sight of the Courts of Princes.

My life hath been vvithout staine, no man ever savv me pocest vvith vvine, and sure no man can say that the place of my birth vvas destroyed by fire and Brimstone, and that I vvas driven vvith my fa∣mily in a Cave: No man can say of mee (as the VVorld hath just cause to maintaine of the said Master Crafts) to haue svvarued from the Religion in vvhich I baue been borne and bredd, nor for any vvorldly preferments; Meanes to vveake to vvork on a Christian set∣led m••nde; I shall rather chouse to abandonne the Society of man∣kind,

all vvorldly conforts; Nay, burry my selfe alive, than to yeeld to disordinate povvers; And had it not been the hopes to do some good on my poore seduced Children, I vvould not haue been mo∣ved neither by promises of SUFFICIENT ENTERTAINMENT ansvverable to my condition, nor by assurances of Royall favours, subscribed by Eminent Signatures, vvhich Monsieur Brasset the French Resident at the Haghe did peruse ere I vould sturre from thence in August last 1645 to returne into France.

VVhere (as said before) all my labours on my seduced Children haue proued like the vvashing of Black mores, my cares and paynes having produced to me but some letters vvritten by those blinded Virgins, but penned by their blind Leaders, for so theire arguments proues them to be, since they haue sett under theire one hand that they could not hazard to imitatte Ioseph vvhen he rane to his fa∣ther Iacob to gossen to do theire last duty, but vvith hazard off theire SALVATION, and therefore sent only to me (at my departure) a vvorke Stilled, DISCOVRSE OF AMABLE BOVRZET, a Priest, vvho had dedicated a pack of mouldy or∣dinary tailles, (a nest of Cob-vvebs) to Prince Edvvard Palatin, Allas deluded Prince! as iff those Lines vvere to proue as fatall as the vvound Achiles receaued in his heele, and (though vvhithout comparaison of quality) consequently to stay me, that I might be vvraught uppon, or constrayned to render my Soule into the snarres of Monsieur Bourzet, vvho teacheth a most damnable doctrine, as di∣sobedience of Children to Parents, especially in things in different; vvhich is to see and to heare Parents in a neuther place, according the Lavvs of the Land, VVhich do ordaine children to see and con∣sulte their parents ere they take any religious orders.

All vvhich being finally seconded by the letter vvritten by Iacques d'Eldime (vvho dvvels as said before at a Vinnegar man behind Saint Leu, La Rue aux Ours in Paris) proued a most brutish farvvell; and a souer comfort, to the vvounded heart of a Father▪

BALTAZAR GERBIER.