Of the nature and use of lots a treatise historical and theologicalOf the nature and vse of lots a treatise historicall and theologicall

To which kind of Lot-sports or Lot-games (which shall be the last, and so I leave them) may their ^aBanquet-lotteries be added, which we find two sorts of, some free, some set to sale, and both ⟨p. 123⟩containing either matter of free gift, or matter of charge and expense, or mixed matter of either. For so we read that ^bAugustus used ^con some Festivals and at other times by Lot to distribute certain gifts among his guests, some of worth and value, as gold, silver, and garments, and coins of all sorts foreign, ancient, and others; and some again mere toys and trifles, as ^dheir-clothes, and sponges, and pincers, or scissors and the like, with merry Posies upon them ^eof doubtful and double sense, seeming to glance at and nip them to whose Lot they were fallen. So likewise that monster of men ^fHeliogabalus, a second Nero, used to propound to whom he pleased, both in public and private, certain mixed Lots, some matter of gift, some matter of charge, of such extreme inequality, that some were neither mended nor impaired at all, but mocked only, ^gsome were made, as we say, and some utterly undone by them: for some according to that they drew were to pay in and lay down, either a pound of beef, or a dead dog, or ten flies, or ten fleas, or ten bears, or ten camels, or so many pounds of lead, or as many of silver, or gold, &c. And others again were to receive the like, as their Lot came: which made many rich that were poor before, and others as poor that were rich before: the monster delighting in nothing more then in the mischief and miseries of many. And these Lots were sometimes either written or painted ^h