dies where the Fire that burns is never to be quenched nor the Body that is burning never consumed THE Third Question Q. What art thou now doing Answer I hope through God's great Goodness and Mercy That one Thing necessary For having wandred up and down and made many weary steps in the wide Wilderness of a vain and sinfull World I was at last very desirous to return home to my self but must freely confess some Truths which to my Readers at first sight may seem Paradoxes or Riddles viz. I could never truly get into my self before I was got out of and had wholly left my self My wavering Mind was never rightly composed till it was extreamly disturbed I had no ease till I was in pain nor Peace and quietness till I was in trouble and distress I could enjoy nothing till I was dispossest of all things I was unable to stand up till I was fallen down to make the least progress till I was struck with Lameness or to see my Way till I had lost both my Eyes Ejaculation and Prayer Father of Mercies I do sincerely and with all my Soul bless and praise Thee for all the Changes and Chances the Disgrace and Misfortunes the Crosses and Disappointments and the bodily pains and Torments that have followed one another like Job's messengers and so closely attended this last Scene of my Life and Evening of my Days As really believing that they were all Marks and Tokens of thy favour and loving Kindness and that the great Physician of Soul and Body never does administer those bitter Pills to his Sick Patients but for blessed Ends and Purposes Lord I believe all this help my unbelief and graciously grant that thy poor distressed Servant may at last come out of the Furnace of Affliction and Troubles like Gold and Silver that has been tried in the fire and purified seven times Let others imbarque and hazard their immortal Souls in what false Bottoms they please Let the Ambitious-Man glory in his Honors and Preferments Let the Covetous Man's trust and confidence be his worldly Wealth and Mammon of Unrighteousness Let the Voluptuous Man's Paradise be his Dalilahs and sensual Pleasures But Christian Reader let you and I in this our Day and while we have Time and Opportunity make Provision for Eternity In order to this there are some things which we either do or may know by the Light of Nature and those Principles which we brought into the World with us the visible things of the Creation naturally leading us to the knowledge of one God Almighty Maker and Governor of all things and the Law of Nature that is written in our hearts prompting us to worship that God to be just in our Dealings to honour our Parents and the like And when on the one hand we faithfully perform or on the other hand do any thing contrary to what the Light of Nature dictates to us we have Consciences within us that do either accuse or else excuse our Actions and Behaviours and thus far go the Heathens But now there are other things which more nearly concern us Christians and these are revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures which Scriptures we are to esteem and reverence as undoubted and unquestionable Truths both as to the historical part of them and also the Precepts Promises and Threats contained in them and that for the Reasons alledged in a foregoing part of this Treatise 1. In these Scriptures we are taught and commanded to acknowledge the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity Three Persons and one God who is an infinitely glorious Spirit that was from Everlasting without Beginning and shall be to Everlasting without End That he is no bodily Substance such as our Eyes behold but Spiritual and Invisible whom no Man hath seen or can see who comprehends all things and is only Immense not to be comprehended by any who can never be defined by any Words nor conceived by the Mind That He is infinitely Great and Excellent beyond all that we can possibly imagine That He has received his Being from none and gives Being to all things 2. To acknowledge His Divine excellencies and glorious Attributes as namely His All-sufficiency and admirable Providence in Disposing Governing and preserving all things his Omnipotence Omniscience and Omnipresence his Eternal Truth and Justice his transcendent Purity and Holiness and his infinite Mercy and Goodness 3. To love this God with all our Hearts and Souls as He is the Fountain of all Goodness and Excellency in himself and as He is infinitely kind and merciful towards us both in respect of our Souls and Bodies in giving us a Being in the World in forming and framing us wonderfully in our Mother's wombs in breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after his own Image and Likeness in giving us our Birth within the Pale of the Church and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels in leaving us so many pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true way to Life and Happiness But above all that unparallell'd Pattern of Piety and Goodness in the Life of the Holy Jesus who so freely gave up himself as an Offering to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers in giving us Food and Rayment and all the good Things of this Life and preserving us from sudden Deaths and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's breasts To answer all which Love and Kindness of God to us we must express our Love to him by our hearty and honest Endeavours to please him in all things which we can never do without a sincere Repentance and a firm Resolution to amend our Lives and never to harbour in our Bosoms any secret Lust or live in any known Sin or Sins as likewise by taking all Opportunities of conversing with him as well in our private Closets as in the publick Assemblies by Prayer Fasting and Meditation by reading and hearing his Word and receiving the blessed Sacrament and lastly by our earnest and longing Desire whenever we shall put off these fleshly Tabernacles to enjoy him by Beatifick Vision amongst blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens 4. To fear him not only with an awful fear from the consideration of his Power and Justice he being a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity and also when provoked by our Impieties able to cast both Body and Soul into everlasting Flames which is infinitely more than either Men or Devils can do against us but also with a Filial fear as an obedient and dutiful Child truly fears to offend or displease a loving and tender Father 5. To trust in Him and to depend upon Him at all times and in all Conditions as well in regard of our Spiritual as our Temporal Concerns If we are assaulted by Temptations we are to rely upon him either
of what he teaches he commits a Crime and may be justly punished for the same now this Lobster-like-argument of his being artificially thrown forward does again naturally crawl backwards His meaning is as he has too plainly exprest in many places That if a Man go from hence and preach a New Doctrine in Africa he commits a Crime and consequently St. Jude did very ill after Christ's Resurrection to take a Journey from Jerusalem into Persia and there to take upon him to rebuke the Superstition of the Magi and to preach a New Doctrine and so was put to death deservedly The like may be said of St. Paul for his making a Mutiny and Uproar at Athens and disturbing the Worship of the great Goddess Diana of the Ephesians And in fine both he and all the Apostles committed great Crimes in presuming to preach New Doctrine amongst all Nations where Idolatry was Established and owned by publick Authority for says the same Author page 152. To maintain a Doctrine contrary to the Religion Established is a greater Fault in an authorized Preacher than in a private Person And therefore they all suffered condign Punishments and were accessary to their own cruel Deaths But now this reflects more severely upon our blessed Saviour who gave his Disciples their Commissions Matth. 28. 19. Go yee and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And which is yet more it reflects upon God the Father who sent his Son into the World for that end and purpose and also the Holy Spirit which was sent down from Heaven after our Saviour's Resurrection to inspire those Apostles with diversity of Tongues and such other miraculous Gifts as might rightly qualify them for the preaching the Gospel throughout all the Nations of the World So that this last Assertion is in effect Blasphemy against the Three Persons of the sacred Trinity Our blessed Saviour 10 Matth. 33. Says Whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven And in another place By your Words you shall be justified and by your Words condemned So that to deny Christ before Men is our Saviour's sense in a Crime that excludes and shuts a Man out of Heaven But this Author affirms positively page 271. That the denying of Christ before an Infidel Prince is not a Christian's Act but his Soveraign's Act and consequently no Sin And so he plainly gives the Son of God the Lye Our blessed Saviour when he sent out his Disciples 10 Matth. 15. Tells them That into whatsoever City they entred and were not received it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that City That is to say the refusing to receive and hear the Doctrine of Christ's Disciples was a greater Sin then that of Sodom But this Author tells us page 286. That those who refused so to hear and receive them did not Sin in so doing And here we see again the Arrogance and Impudence of the same Author in giving the Lye to the Lord Jesus Our Hebrew Masters do indeed teach us to read the Words and Sentences of part of the Scriptures but this politick Pedagogue would instruct us to read not only the Words and Sentences but the true Sense and Meaning of them backwards Our Saviour Christ in divers places owns his casting out Devils and unclean Spirits and sometimes these unclean Spirits owned him to be the Son of the most high God as did the Legion of Devils with which the Man was possessed in the Country of the Gadarenes 5 Mark 7. and divers others And the Pharisees the worst and most malicious of his Enemies acknowledged his casting out Devils Yet notwithstanding the composer of this Treatise had the Confidence to affirm page 354. That no Man was ever possessed with any other Spirit than that by which his Body was naturally moved And so gives the Lye not only to our Saviour but to all the Four Evangelists who have left upon Record most remarkable Instances of those Miracles In page 62 63 and 64. this Author tells us That Man by Nature is in a State of War every Man against every Man and every Man has a right to every thing over the Goods and Body of his Neighbour And yet in his next Chapter which is not above eight pages further he sets down Ten Laws of Nature which Laws of Nature are immutable and eternal and stamped upon Men's Souls and every of them tends to Peace and Quietness Love and Kindness Gratitude and doing to others as we would be willing they should do to us and these two Assertions are as contrary one to the other as Light is to Darkness however it is much more modest to give himself the Lye then to give it so often as he has done to the Saviour of the World and the second Person of the Trinity In page 88. he acquaints us That by the People assembled are transferr'd all their Right on him whom they chose their Soveraign which Soveraign can do no Injustice though at his pleasure he take away any of their Lives And yet page 152. he asserts That no Man in the institution of their Soveraign can be supposed to give away the Right of preserving his own Body And page 112. If an Assembly meet and agree together they may rebel and make War against their Soveraign And I affirm that no Man of Sense or Reason can be supposed to defend the Authors reputation in so notorious a Contradiction In page 285. and divers other places he affirms That Christ's Kingdom not being of this World he left the Jews to the Law of Moses and other Nations to their respective Soveraigns and yet page 106. he plainly affirms That Christ acted in this World as King of the Jews and by his Soveraign Power and Authority sent two of his Disciples to untie and bring away the She-ass and her Colt on which he was to ride into Jerusalem Page 62. He affirms That the Desires and Passions of Man are no Sin though it be an absolute Breach of the Tenth Commandment Our Saviour forbids swearing by Heaven Earth Jerusalem or a Man 's own head 5 Matth. 34 35 36. but this Author asserts page 71. That such kind of Oaths is no swearing and so makes our Saviour guilty of Lying Page 152. he says That every man is supposed to know the Law of Nature it being so plain and yet pag. 141. he avers That the Law of Nature is of all Laws the most obscure Pag. 261. he says Christ s death did not satisfy God 's justice and yet pag. 356. he acknowledges That the Passion of Christ is a full Ransom for all manner of Sins Pag. 272. he affirms That there were no true Martyrs but those who conversed with our Saviour while he was here upon Earth and that he who is no Minister can be no Martyr Now if so all other Martyrs have
for removing them or else for giving sufficient strength to withstand them If at any time we are threatned with outward and temporal Dangers by our Enemies or Persecutors we are to rest upon Him knowing that the God whom we serve is able to deliver us and that He will surely do it if He sees it best for us if not that He will as certainly allay our Sufferings with that inward peace and those spiritual Comforts that neither the World can give us nor the worst of our Enemies can ever take from us and therefore we must be careful never to attempt or seek to deliver our selves from such like dangers by any unlawful or indirect means forasmuch as in so doing we utterly forfeit God's more powerful aid and assistance If we are in want either of Spirituals or Temporals we are to trust and rely upon Him for a seasonable and plentiful supply of both kinds He having graciously promised to give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him 11 Luke 13. And as for bodily wants those who truly serve and fear him are assured that they shall want no good thing that is sit for them 34 Psal 10. And again Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that hope in his Mercy to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of Famine 33. Psal 18 19. Why should we distrust a God who is able whenever he pleases to make Rivers flow out of hard Rocks or prepare a Table in the Wilderness who clothes the Lillies and feeds the young Ravens with whom the very hairs of our Heads are all numbred and in whom none ever trusted and were confounded 6. To submit entirely and with all humility to His holy Will and heavenly Wisdom in all His Dispensations and dealings with us and that from a deep sense of our own meaness and vileness and his transcendent Excellencies and Perfections and that infinite distance and disproportion that is between him and us To be fully perswaded that the State and Condition in which He places us for the time being is that which is best and most convenient for us however contrary to our own Desires and Inclinations And to bear our Afflictions with Christian Patience that so all His Fatherly Chastisements may have their blessed Effects and bring forth the fruits of Righteousness in our future Lives and Conversations 7. To Honour Him and to pay a due Reverence and Respect to whatever immediately relateth to His Worship and Service To have no other Gods besides Him whether Idols made with hands or those of our own beloved Lusts Not to take His holy Name in vain in our ordinary Discourses much less to prophane it with wicked Oaths bitter Curses or horrid Blasphemies To pay a due Respect to the Ministers of His Word and Sacraments and never to defraud them of their Dues and Maintenance which is in effect to rob God of his Tythes and Offerings and to commit the highest Sacriledge To keep holy His own Day and indeed all other Days solemnly set apart for His Worship and Service not following our own Ways nor speaking our own Words nor thinking our own Thoughts much less going to Church to hear News or to make Bargains with our Neighbours as the custom of some is and so to make their Fathers house a House of Merchandize or else to observe and reflect upon each others Dresses and which is much worse than all this to employ a great part of the time in Whispers Slaunders and Back-bitings or else in wanton Looks lascivious Glances or amorous Courtships and so to turn the House of Prayer and Supplications into a Scene of Pride and Vain-glory Slander and Calumny Lasciviousness and wanton Behaviour Lastly to come to the Lord's Table with due preparation and a sincere Intention to renew our Covenant made with him in Baptism then to receive with all Humility and Thankfulness those blessed Pledges of Eternal Life and Happiness 8. To be meek and lowly and to have a very mean Opinion of our selves which is the only Soveraign Remedy against Pride and Vain-glory and the best Expedient we can make use of throughout the whole Course of our Lives for the conquering our unruly Passions and subduing our inordinate Affections And this we must do unless we intend to make God our profest and open Enemy and what the issue and end of that will be with obstinate Offenders the following Texts will soon inform and satisfy us 16 Prov. 18. Pride goeth before Destruction and an haughty Spirit before a Fall Again 16 Prov. 5. Every one that is proud in Heart is an abomination to the Lord and though hand join in hand he shall not be unpunished Nebuchadnezzar was in his time for ought we know the greatest King upon Earth and yet for his Pride was driven from among Men to dwell and feed with the Beasts of the Feild 9. To be modest and chast in all our Actions Words and Thoughts and not to spend the flower of our Age and the choicest part of our Lives in Chambering Wantonness Adultery Fornication and all Uncleanness and to pull down many grievous and heavy Judgments upon our own heads 10. To be Temperate in all things that is to say in our Eating and Drinking and not squander our precious Time throw away our Estates and ruin our Families most shamefully wast such quantities of God's good Creatures as might relieve great numbers of indigent Persons prejudice our own Healths beget Quarrels and Contentions and many times shorten our days and bring our selves to untimely Ends and which is worst of all forfeit our precious and immortal Souls by Gluttony and Drunkenness and all manner of Riot and Excess To be temperate in our Sleep which was ordained by God for the refreshment of our frail Bodies that so they might not be wearied out with continual Toil and Labour and that we might be enabled from time to time to perform such Duties as Religion or Works of our Calling require of us And forasmuch as some Constitutions require more than others every Man must be governed by his own Experience for whoever does not limit himself does not only wast his precious time but also injures his Body and makes it a very sink of Humors and subject to sundry Diseases and Distempers To be moderate in our Recreations which are sometimes necessary both for the Body and Mind always provided that they are such as neither dishonour God injure our Neighbour take up too much of our time or divert our Minds from our more necessary Imployments in the number of which lawful and useful Recreations can very hardly be reckoned the sitting up whole Days and Nights at Cards and Dice and immoderate use of other Pastimes which I forbear to mention but leave the consideration of all such Excesses to every Man 's private Conscience To be moderate in Apparel and Dresses since Apparel and Garments were the Effects of the Transgression of our First
the pious Examples of the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and others of God's chosen Saints and Servants But above all of our blessed Saviour Jesus In the next place a great number of passionate and earnest Exhortations to incite us to fight manfully as valiant and good Souldiers under Christ's Banner all our Lives to which are annexed large Promises of spiritual Graces and Comforts to support us during our Pilgrimage in this Valley of Tears and after this painful Life ended Crowns of Glory and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens But on the other side to deter us from continuing in Sin and Disobedience we have in the last place not only Threats but also Examples of God's dreadful Judgments here in this Life upon wilful Offenders and the Vengeance of Eternal Fire denounced against all impenitent Sinners in the World to come with the Devil and his Angels Ejaculation and Prayer O blessed JESUS whose coming down from Heaven to take upon Thee our Nature for the Redemption of lost Sinners was the true foundation of the Holy Scriptures and of the Promises therein contained of Eternal Life and Happiness to all true Penitents and Believers Let therefore O Lord this holy Word of Thine be from henceforth a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my Paths And O that my ways were so directed that I might keep thy Statutes and never more turn aside unto lying Vanities Honnēni elohim keckhasdēkah kerov Rahamēka pheseangāi kerov kabbesseni mengavoui ou meckhatāti taharēni Have mercy upon me O God according to to thy loving Kindness according to the Multitude of thy tender Mercies do away my Offences wash me throughly from mine Iniquities and cleanse me from my Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forsake me not O God in mine Old Age now that I am gray-headed and my Strength faileth me and the Light of mine Eyes is gone from me Now that I am as a Pelican in the Wilderness as an Owl in the Desert and as a Sparrow upon the House top Behold thou hast made my Days as an hand-breadth and mine Age is as nothing before Thee O spare me a little that I may recover my Strength before I go away from hence and be no more seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In thee O Lord I have trusted let me never be confounded And here I crave leave before my Departure out of this World to leave behind me a friendly Caution to all young Gentlemen and Students to beware of a certain pernicious Treatise which does in effect make a Jest of the Holy Scriptures and turns Angels and Spirits into Phantasms and Heaven and Hell into meer Metaphors It is a Book that very well deserves a Noli me tangere or a Caveat Emptor to be stamped in Capital Letters upon its Cover I am very tender of naming the Author who now stands or falls to his own Master and hope that he made his Peace with Heaven by a sincere and hearty Repentance before he went from hence besides that Christian-Charity obliges me to make very soft and gentle steps over dead Men's Graves though at the same time Christian-piety prompts me to declare to all the World That had I the vanity to think my self equal to him both for Natural Parts and acquired Learning I would not have been the Writer and Publisher of such a Discourse to have gained the Wealth of both the Indies The Company of Stationers may do God and their Country very signal Service and possibly not at all impair thereby their private Fortunes if instead of applauding and vending that impious Treatise they would join together in buying up all the Copies and converting them to Ashes The Psalmist speaking of the vast and wide Ocean tells us of a Leviathan that God had made to play therein But sure I am that God could never be pleased that any Man should make a Leviathan here upon Earth to play with his Divine Attributes and Holy Scriptures This Treatise may not be improperly called the Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Sinner's Common-Hall where all Persons concerned may be furnished at very easy Rates with new invented Mattocks Spades and all other Instruments and Utensils of politick Pioneers to undermine Civil and Church-Governments I must needs acknowledge That the Method of this Treatise is very pleasant the Stile elegant and the Expressions very proper and significant and is interlaced with specious Touches of Learning and that of divers kinds politely extracted and wittily digested but let me tell thee mi figliolo mi Jovane and timely forewarn thee Guardati d' aceto di vin dolce It is only to beguile the Readers and ere they are aware to lead them into Labyrinths and make them swallow down most pernicious Principles Thus the skilful Angler covers the fatal hook with a pleasant Bait and the cunning Fowler carefully hides the Snare from the unwary Bird. Thus the appearance of a Sepulchre is oft times very glorious when the inside is full of Rottenness dead Men's Bones and all Uncleanness Thus a lewd Strumpet being adorned with gay Cloths and set off with rich Jewels false Teeth Hair and Eye-brows and a painted Face seems beautiful to the beholders who if she did but once lay aside those Ornaments and Disguises would soon affright her most voluptuous Lovers and become a Soveraign Remedy for their incontinence Leviathan It is the Devil 's Alcoran Beware ingenious young Men There 's Death in the Pot There 's Poison in the Cup There 's a Snake in the Grass You are near the Hole of an Asp And the Den of a Cockatrice Leviathan It s the Author's imaginary Golden Image set up in the Year 52 in a place which he then lookt upon as the English Babylon whose height of Impudence was much more than thirty Cubits to which he did then really believe that both the Leaders and the Populace of those Times being wonderfully charm'd with his witty Fancies and pleasing Novelties would as readily fall down and do Obeisance as Nebuchadnezzar's Subjects did of old to his real Golden Image at the sound of the Sackbut Psaltery Dulcimer and other Musical Instruments Reflection How apt are frail Mortals on whom God has at any time bestowed some extraordinary Gifts of Nature to be transported with their own wild Fancies and to be drunk with the New Wine 't is what the Author calls his own Treatise of their vain and foolish Imaginations and then How ready is Satan at hand who too well knows their Nature and Constitutions their Tempers and Dispositions with their Inclinations and Infirmities to improve those humane Frailties and to push and drive them to all manner of extravagant Actions and presumptuous Undertakings Ejaculation King of Kings and Lord of Lords Who pullest down the Mighty from their Seats and exaltest the Humble and Meek whenever Pride and Vain-glory puffs us up and makes us become wise in our own Eyes Let the remembrance that we
thrown away their Lives and were accessary to their own Deaths Pag. 60. he says That Contempt is the Immobility of the Heart But this cannot be for when the Pulse ceases to beat the Man can no longer live and consequently this Author contemning all sorts of Laws Learning and Religion could never have lived to finish his Leviathan Our Saviour acknowledges that if he had not done such Miracles as no Man else could do the Scribes and Pharisees might have had for their Unbelief some just pretence But this Author avers pag. 148. That Miracles are not at all sufficient to give evidence But sure I am that this bold Assertion of his which is a Wonder though not a Miracle gives the whole World a sufficient Evidence of his great Arrogance and Impudence Our Saviour says That the Reprobates shall go into everlasting Punishment And St. Paul says That this Mortal must put on Immortality but this Author says p. 345. That the Reprobates Bodies shall not be immortal And pag 245. That no individual Person shall be punished with Torment Eternal Pag. 360. he says That to pray to the King for fair Weather is Idolatry But if the King command a Man to do so and he do it it is no Idolatry Pag. 360. he tells us That if a Man who is no Pastor worships an Idol and others follow him this is no Scandal given However I wonder he should not think this to be a very scandalous Doctrine If the Author were yet living I should take the boldness to give him this civil Item oportet mendacem esse memorem especially since he asserts pag. 60. That Imagination and Memory are the same thing For if so I greatly wonder how he could imagine so many Falsities and Contradictions and yet at the same time not remember them For my part I must confess I do not apprehend Imagination and Memory to be the same thing and if it were practicable I should thus reason the Case with him Sir Your Leviathan is a product of meer Imagination for never any such thing yet was But of that which never yet was you could have no Remembrance Egregie magister ergo falleris I cannot here omit his positive Assertion in the same page That all Men have equal Faculties of Body and Mind but God forbid it should be true for then every Man equal to him as to Education and acquired Learning would write and publish a Leviathan and by that means all Booksellers shops would soon be fill'd with impious and pernicious Books What other Men may judge of this his positive Assertion I know not For my part I am not of that Opinion That a Marius Dioclesian Julius Caesar or Tamberlane had not Gifts and Endowments of Nature far above a Plebeian or Common Souldier or that every Pesant or Country Thatcher had equal parts to compare with Jack Straw or Wat Tyler I must needs confess That if all other Men were like the Author of this Leviathan I should then conclude That all Men are indeed both by Nature and Art in a State of War It 's too plain That he was in War with the whole World and its great pitty the whole World was not in War with him when he first published his accursed Leviathan He was in War with Man's Creation and in War with his Redemption in War with the Law of Moses and in War with the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in War with the Subsistence of Departed Souls and in War with that of Angels and Spirits and yet I have heard it reported of him that he was afraid to be alone in a dark Room in War with the marvellous Act and Deeds of the Old Prophets and in War with our blessed Saviour's Miracles in War with those Heavenly Mansions which the holy Jesus is gone before to prepare for his blessed Saints and Martyrs and in War with the place of Eternal Torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels or else if it be true what is commonly said of him when his Man was rubbing his Body in a Morning he would never have adventured to pronounce such Words in raillery as Rub you Rogue for Eternity in War with all civil Common Wealths and Established Laws and in War with all Church Governments and Gospel Ordinances in War with all Moral Honesty and Rules of Sobriety and in War with Religion and all its Fundamentals in War with the Works of Aristotle and the Heathen Philosophers and in War with Euclid's Elements and Mathematical Demonstrations in War with Schools and Universities and in War with all the Liberal Sciences in War with his own Definitions and in War with his own pernicious Principles between many of which there is a much greater Contrariety and Distance than he allows at the Resurrection between the Saints and Reprobates making all both Good and Bad to stand at the last Day upon the Earth's superficies pag. 242. And making the Punishment of the one to consist only in beholding for a short time the Glory and Happiness of the other How they must be placed I do not well understand some few of the Reprobates I confess might look over the shoulders of others but they being so exceeding numerous the Saints Antecii and Perecii must certainly have great difficulty to see them plainly But how to find Expedients or how to make Spectacles for the eyes of their Antipodes would have been past the Author 's little Skill in Geometry or Opticks As to the Design in general of this impious Discourse I am willing to believe that the Author 's Res Angusta Domi and personal Vain-glory might move him in such a juncture as that was to fish in troubled waters in hopes to advance his Fortune and get himself a Name But Satan who stood behind the Curtain and prompted him to this Undertaking had undoubtedly a further and deeper Design namely to encourage all Persons whatever to follow the Devices and Desires of their own hearts without the least fear or dread of burning Lakes or endless Torments by shamefully distorting and wresting the plain Texts of the holy Scriptures by searching for Errours in the Books of Moses by undervaluing and lessening our Saviour's Miracles and so endeavouring to overthrow the Fundamentals of Christian Faith by calling in question the Subsistence of blessed Angels Unclean Spirits and Departed Souls by turning heavenly Mansions and the place of Eternal Torments into meer Metaphors And lastly by setting up a New Common-Wealth and a Soveraign who by an incomprehensible Law of Nature must have the absolute Command not only of the Estates and Bodies but also of the Souls and Consciences of all his Subjects though it be to deny the Doctrine of Christ and his and to Worships Idols and Sacrifice to Devils This Arch Enemy of Souls is alas too well acquainted with Humane Frailties which are in truth the effects of his beguiling our First Parents and knows That Quicquid volumus facile credimus that very slender