am bound to believe. And that the reader may know them from other things and passages herein contained, I have pointed at them in the margin, with a mark, thus, +

Thirdly, The funerals of persons of quality have been solemnized with some suitable sermon at the time and place of their burial; but that I am not come to as yet, having got no further than to Mr Badman's death; but forasmuch as he must be buried, after he hath stunk out his time before his beholders, I doubt not but some such that we read are appointed to be at the burial of Gog, will do this work in my stead; such as shall leave him neither skin nor bone above ground, but shall set a sign by it till their buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog, Ezek. xxxix.

Fourthly, At funerals there does use to be mourning and lamentation, but here also Mr Badman differs from others; his familiars cannot lament his departure, for they have not sense of his damnable state; they rather ring him, and sing him to hell in the sleep of death, in which he goes thither.

Good

men count him no loss to the world; his place can well be without him, his loss is only his own, and it is too late for him to recover that damage or loss by a sea of bloody tears, could he shed them. Yea, God has said, he will laugh at his destruction; who then shall lament for him, saying, Ah! my brother. He was but a stinking weed in his

life; nor was he better at all in his death. Such may well be thrown over the wall without sorrow, when once God has plucked them up by the roots in his wrath.

Reader, If thou art of the race, lineage, stock or fraternity of Mr Badman, I tell thee, before thou readest this book, thou wilt neither brook the author nor it, because he hath writ of Mr Badman as he has. For he that condemneth the wicked that die so, passeth also the sentence upon the wicked that live. I therefore expect neither credit of, nor countenance from thee, for this narration of thy kinsman's life.

For thy old love to thy friend, his ways, doings, &c. will stir up in thee enmity rather in thy very heart, against me. I shall therefore incline to think of thee, that thou wilt rent, burn, or throw it away in contempt; yea, and wish also, that for writing so notorious a truth, that some mischief may befal me. I look also to be loaded by thee with disdain, scorn, and contempt; yea, that thou shouldst railingly and vilifying say, I lye, and am a bespatterer of honest mens lives and deaths. For Mr Badman, when himself was alive, could not abide to be counted a knave, (though his actions told all that went by, that indeed he was such an one.) How then should his brethren that survive him, and that tread in his very steps, approve of the sentence that by this book is pronounced against him? Will they not rather imitate Corah, Da

than, and Abiram's friends, even rail at me for condemning him, as they did at Moses for doing execution?

I know it is ill puddling in the cockatrice's den, and that they run hazards that hunt the wild boar. The man also that writeth Mr Badman's life, had need be fenced with a coat of mail, and with the staff of a spear, for that his surviving friends will know what he doth: But I have adventured to do it, and to play, at this time, at the hole of these asps; if they bite, they bite; if they sting, they sting. Christ sends his lambs in the midst of wolves, not to do like them, but to suffer by them for bearing plain testimony against their bad deeds: But had one not need to walk with a guard, and to have a centinal stand at one's door for this? Verily, the flesh would be glad of such help: yea, a spiritual man, could he tell how to get it, Acts xxiii. But I am stripped naked of these, and yet am commanded to be faithful in my service for Christ. Well then, I have spoken what I have spoken, and now come on me what will, Job xiii. 13. True, the text says, "Rebuke a scorner, and he will hate thee; and that he that reproveth a wicked man, getteth himself a blot and shame;" but what then? Open rebuke is better than secret love; and he that receives it, shall find it so afterwards.

So then, whether Mr Badman's friends shall rage or laugh at what I have writ, I know the better end of the staff is mine. My

endeavour is to stop an hellish course of life, and to save a soul from death, James v. and if for so doing I meet with envy from them, from whom in reason I should have thanks, I must remember the man in the dream, that cut his way through his armed enemies, and so got into the beauteous palace: I must, I say, remember him, and do myself likewise.

Yet four things I will propound to the consideration of Mr Badman's friends, before I turn my back upon them.

1. Suppose that there be an hell in very deed; not that I do question it any more. than I do whether there be a sun to shine; but I suppose it for argument sake with Mr. Badman's friends; I say, suppose there be an hell, and that too such an one as the scripture speaks of, one at the remotest distance from God and life eternal, one where the worm of a guilty conscience never dies, and where the fire of the wrath of God is not quenched.

Suppose, I say, that there is such an hell, prepared of God (as there is indeed) for the body and soul of the ungodly world after this life to be tormented in; I say, do but with thyself suppose it, and then tell me, is it not prepared for thee, thou being a wicked man? Let thy conscience speak, I say, is it not prepared for thee, thou being an ungodly man? And dost thou think, wast thou there now, that thou art able to wrestle with the judge

ment of God? Why then do the fallen angels tremble there? Thy hands cannot be strong, nor can thy heart endure, in that day when God shall deal with thee, Ezek. xxii.

14.

2. Suppose that some one that is now a soul in hell for sin, was permitted to come hither again to dwell, and that they had a grant also, that upon amendment of life, next time they die, to change that place for heaven and glory, What sayest thou, O wicked man? Would such an one (thinkest thou) run again into the same course of life as before, and venture the damnation that for sin that he had already been in? Would he chuse again to lead that cursed life that afresh would kindle the flames of hell upon him, and that would bind him up under the heavy wrath of God? O! he would not; he would not; the 6th of Luke insinuates it; yea, reason itself, awake, would abhor it, and tremble at such a thought.

3. Suppose again, that thou that livest and rollest in thy sin, and that as yet hast known nothing but the pleasure thereof, shouldst be by an angel conveyed to some place where, with convenience, from thence thou mightest have a view of heaven and hell; of the joys of the one, and the torments of the other; I say, suppose that from thence thou mightest have such a view thereof, as would convince thy reason, that both heaven and hell are such realities as by the word they are declared to