620 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
ceyve, the rather therby, and the more safely to be in the cumpanye 
of weemen, to bringe some bad purpose abowte; or of an effemynate 
mynd, to suffer his heare to growe longe; or to fryzell it, or in 
speeche, colour, gate, gesture, and behaviour to become womanishe; 
or ordynaryly so to converse amonge men and weemen, agaynst 
the course of all naturall and cyvill regarde, is an abomynation 
to the Lorde. other doe expownde the place, thus; that a man shall 
not putt on the ornamentes of a woman; nor a woman the armour 
of a man; and that this lawe was opposed agaynst the superstition 
of the Gentylls, amonge whome in the sacrifices of Venus, men clad 
them selves like weemen, with distaff and spindell, and suche 
like; and weemen in the sacrifices of Mars , putt them selves in 
armour, and therfor Abomynation in the Scriptures, say thay, is 
commonly taken for idolatrye, or for somethinge belonginge to 
idolatrye. all the devynes that ever I talked with of this matter, 
affirme the trwe meaninge of that place, to be contayned in thes 
senses rehearsed, wherfor though I grant, that, as you prove, 
(admyttinge that in case of necessytye a man may clad hym selfe 
in a woma <^n> s habitt) he may not therfor doe ill in iest, and in a 
meryment; yet I answere, that we not offendinge agaynst the 
trwe vnderstandinge of the Text, because we doe not so of any 
ill intent, or any suche mynd, or that any suche effecte hathe 
followed in vs therof, or may in deede be sayde at all to weare 
weeme <1n> s apparell, because wearinge implyes a custome, and a 
common vse of so doeinge, wheras we doe it for an howre or twoe, 
or three, to represent an others person 1 , by one that is openly 
knowne to be as he is in deede; it is not ill in vs to doe so, thoughe 
it be but in myrthe, and to delyte: and therfor all that parte of 
your discourse, wherin you inforce by many authorytyes, that 
there must be a distinction in apparell twixt men and weemen, 
pertaynethe not to me: for how coulde I thinke otherwise? for 
this my verse, Nec habitus ullus, sed animus turpem facit , was not 
to fetche abowte my hidden conclusion, or to delyver a rule that 
it is no dishonesty for a man in all places to weare whatsoever 
apparell he will, if his mynd be chast, as you say; but served as a 
parte of that interpretation of the place, wherof I spake before. 
<^p. 53.> And so the verse is as trwe for the matter, as it is for the 
forme: for no apparell simply defylethe the body, though the man¬ 
ner of wearinge it may. the manner consistethe in the circumstances 
of person, tyme, place, stuffe, fasshion, and suche like; which are 
of that force, that thay make the selfe same actions, in the selfe 
same man, good and evill. as for a Preacher, at servyce tyme, in 
his Churche, to walke vp and downe in his dublet and hose, with a 
coloured hatt on his head, and a brooche in it, weare a greate folly, 
Ms. porson. 
