Love and charity, those my brethren had none at all; for what benefit or credite did it bring to them to come by night like theeves, to steale from me here a leg, there a head, here an arm, and there a nose; they did all goe away from mee the Crosse with profit: they have not done me so much dishonor as they have done themselves, and the honourable City, whose civill government is a patterne to all Nations: But I will tell you, my crosteI.e., crossed. Several possible meanings, including bearing or wearing a cross ( crossed adj.1.), thwarted ( crossed adj.3.a.), and having a cross to bear ( crossed adj.3.b.). brethren, you both at that time wanted wit and money: wit to govern your hot and over-boyling zeale, and crosseOf the English coins in circulation, many had a cross stamped on the reverse. They were legal tender as long as the cross had not been clipped. money to pay your Land-lords rent: that is a crosseI.e., burden. to you, not I: and so wanting such crossesI.e., coins. The cross marked on many coins came to stand synecdochically for the coin itself. With puns on other meanings (Fischer 62–63). as those, would bee revenged of me, to satisfie your malitious crosseGiven to opposition ( cross adj.5.a.) and/or ill-tempered, peevish, petulant ( cross adj.5.b.). humours; I am but your stocking horse,I.e., stalking horse. An underhand means or expedient for making an attack or attaining some sinister object; usually, a pretext put forward for this purpose ( stalking-horse n.2.b.). The speaker’s point is that the rabble attacks the Cheapside Cross only to justify the theft of other kinds of crosses. and colour for your future malice, your rage will not cease though you should pull mee downe, and make me levill with the ground: And when so done, then you wil cry out that there be crossesI.e., Jewellery in the shape of a cross, or church plate; possibly coins, given that goldsmiths were known for exchanging gold for silver and vice versa, and, by 1641, for taking deposits of coin and issuing promissory notes. in the goldsmithes shops; which is plate and jewels, standing upon crosseHaving a traverse direction ( cross-comb.1.b.(a)(i).) shelves, those be the crosses you intend, though your pretence be otherwais: Next the Mercers shops whose Satten and Velvet lie a crosse,Possibly with sense of cut on the bias. and whose Counters are acrosse their shops: Then the next crosses which you will finde fault withall; will bee with those rich monied men, whose bags lye crosePossibly a compositorial misreading of close. in their chests; then with their wives if they bee handsome which you will make to be crossesPossibly A trial or affliction ( cross n.10.a or 10.b.), if the implication is that the addressees, by finding fault with the wives of rich men, will turn the husbands into cuckolds. too, in a short space: I say deare brethren, if you be suffered to pull downe all things that are acrosse[,]Comma added for clarity. you will dare to pull a Magistrate of his horse, because he rides acrosse his horseback, and pull his chaine to peices because it hangs acroste his shoulders, and if a millers horse comes to market with a sack of corn acrosse his horseback, and if you say it is a crosse, you then violently wil run and pul it down, and share it as you have done part of me the crosse: And at length then our Churches will prove crosses to you, specially if they have bin builded in popish times, & so in processe of time every thing wil be a crosse to you that you either love or hate: But I will conclude with this caution that as long as we have such cross people; crosse every way, especially to Majestrates and men of Authority, and still go unpunished, we shall alwayes have such crosse doings, and so I poore Ieffrey Crosse leave you to your crosse wives, and your own crosse opinions.