betwixt this kingdom and thy judgments; that, being all members, of that body whereof thou, Christ, art head, we mayall join in humiliation for our sins, and in the propagation of thy honour here; and be made partakers of thy glory in the kingdom of glory.

THE PRESUMPTUOUS MAN,

His Felicities.

TELL bawling babes of bugbears to fright them into quietness, or terrify youth with old wives' fables, to keep their wild affections in awe: such toys may work upon their timorous apprehensions when wholesome precepts fail, and find no audience in their youthful Tell not me of hell, devils, or of

cars.

damned souls to enforce me from those pleasures which they nickname sin. What tell ye me of law? my soul is sensible of evangelical precepts without the needless and uncorrected thunder of the killing letter, or the terrible paraphrase of roaring Boanarges, the tediousness of whose language still determines in damnation; wherein I apprehend God far more merciful than his ministers. "Tis true I have not led my life according to the pharisaical square of their opinions, neither have I found judgments according to their prophecies; whereby I must conclude that God is wonderfully merciful, or they wonderfully mistaken. How often have they thundered torment against my voluptuous life, and yet I feel no pain; how bitterly have they threatened shame against the vaunts of my vain-glory, yet find I honour; how fiercely have they preached destruction against my cruelty, and yet I live; what plagues against my swear

ing, yet not infected; what diseases against my drunkenness, and yet sound; what danger against procrastination, yet how often hath God been found upon the death-bed? what damnation to hypocrites, yet who more safe? what stripes to the ignorant, yet who more scot-free? what poverty to the slothful, yet themselves prosper; what falls to the proud, yet stand they surest; what curses to the covetous, yet who richer? what judgments to the lascivious, yet who more pleasure? what vengeance to the profane, the censorious, the revengeful; yet none live more unscourged: who deeper branded than the lyar? yet who more favoured? who more threatened than the presumptuous? yet who less punished? Thus are we fooled and kept in awe with the strict fancies of those pulpit-men, whose opinions have no ground but what they gain from popularity: thus are we frightened from

the liberty of nature by the politic chimeras of religion; whereby we are necessitated to the observing of those laws whereof we find a greater necessity of breaking.

BUT stay, my soul; there is a voice that darts into my troubled thoughts, which saith:

If thou wilt not harken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Deut. xxviii. 15.

Deut. xxix.

Because thou hast not kept my laws, all the curses in this book shall overtake thee, till thou be destroyed.

Deut. xxix. 27.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against the land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book.

2 Chron. xxxiv. 24.

Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof; even all the curses that are written in this book.

His Soliloquy.

PRESUMPTION is a sin, whereby we depend upon God's mercies without any warrant from God's word; it is as great a sin, O my soul, to hope for God's mercy without repentance, as to distrust God's mercy upon repentance: in the first thou wrongest his justice; in the last, his mercy. O my pre sumptuous soul, let not thy prosperity in sinning encourage thee to sin, lest, climbing without warrant into his mercy, thou fall without mercy into his judgment. Be not deceived; a long peace makes a bloody war, and the abuse of