himself to the devil for favour, saying, Good devil, be good unto me.

Wiseman. This is almost like Saul, who being forsaken of God went to the witch of Endor, and so to the devil, for help. But, alas! should I set myself to collect these dreadful stories it would be easy in little time to present you with hundreds of them. But I will conclude as I began: they that are their own murderers, or that die in despair after they have lived a life of wickedness, do surely go to hell.

then dies quietly, is gone to hell--let me see what show of proof you have for this your opinion?

Wiseman. My first argument is drawn from the necessity of repentance. No man can be saved except he repents, nor can he repent that sees not, that knows not, that he is a sinner; and he that knows himself to be a sinner will, I warrant him, be molested for the time by that knowledge. This, as it is testified by all the Scriptures, so it is testified by Christian experience. He that knows himself to be a sinner is molested, especially if that know

that is, under amazement and great fear-do not therefore die in despair, for a good man may have this for his bands in his death, and yet go to heaven and glory. For, as I said before, he that is a good man, a man that hath faith and holiness, a lover and worshipper of God by Christ according to his word, may die in consternation of spirit; for Satan will not be wanting to assault good men upon their deathbed, but they are secured by the word and power of God; yea, and are also helped, though with much agony of spirit, to exercise themselves in faith and prayer, the which he that dieth in despair can by no means do. But let us return to Mr. Badman, and enter into further discourse of the manner of his death.

Attentive. I think you and I are both of a mind, for just now I was thinking to call you back to him also. And pray, now, since it is your own motion to return again to him, let us discourse a little more of his quiet and still death.

Wiseman. With all my heart. You know we were speaking before of the manner of Mr. Badman's death, how that he died still and quietly, upon which you made observation that the common people concluded that if a man dies quietly, and, as they call it, like a lamb, he is certainly gone to heaven, when, alas! if a wicked man dies quietly, if a man that has all his days lived in notorious sin dieth quietly, his quiet dying is so far off from being a sign of his being saved that it is an uncontrollable proof of his damnation. This was Mr. Badman's case; he lived wickedly even to the last, and then went quietly out of the world; therefore Mr. Badman is gone to hell.

Attentive. Well, but since you are upon it, and also so confident in it-to wit, that a man that lives a wicked life till he dies, and

his deathbed-molested, I say, before he can die quietly; yea, he is molested, dejected, and cast down; he is also made to cry out, to hunger and thirst after mercy by Christ; and if at all he shall indeed come to die quietly--I mean with that quietness that is begotten by faith and hope in God's mercy (to the which Mr. Badman and his brethren were utter strangers)-his quietness is distinguished, by all judicious observers, by what went before it, by what it flows from, and also by what is the fruit thereof.

I must confess I am no admirer of sick bed repentance, for I think verily it is seldom good for any thing; but I say, he that hath lived in sin and profaneness all his days, as Mr. Badman did, and yet shall die quietly-that is, without repentance steps in betwixt his life and death-ne is assuredly gone to hell, and is damned.

Attentive. This does look like an argument indeed; for repentance must come or else we must go to hell-fire; and if a lewd liver shall (I mean that so continues till the day of his death) yet go out of the world quietly, it is a sign that he died without repentance, and so a sign that he is damned.

Wiseman. I am satisfied in it for my part, and that from the necessity and nature of repentance. It is necessary, because God calls for it and will not pardon sin without it: "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." This is that which God hath said, and he will prove but a foolhardy man that shall yet think to go to heaven and glory without it. Repent, for the axe is laid to the root of the tree; every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit" (but no good fruit can be where there is no sound repentance) "shall be hewn down and cast into the fire." This was Mr. Badman's case; he had attending of him a sinful life, and that to the

very last, and yet died quietly--that is, without repentance; he is gone to hell, and is damned. For the nature of repentance, I have touched upon that already, and showed that it never was where a quiet death is the immediate companion of a sinful life; and therefore Mr. Badman is gone to hell.

2. My second argument is drawn from that blessed word of Christ: "While the strong man armed keeps the house his goods are in peace till a stronger than he comes;" but the strong man armed kept Mr. Badman's house —that is, his heart and soul, and body-for he went from a sinful life quietly out of this world. The stronger did not disturb by intercepting with sound repentance betwixt his sinful life and his quiet death; therefore Mr. Badman is gone to hell.

The strong man armed is the devil, and quietness is his security. The devil never fears losing of the sinner if he can but keep him quiet. Can he but keep him quiet in a sinful life and quiet in his death, he is his own. Therefore he saith, his goods are in peace; that is, out of danger. There is no fear of the devil's losing such a soul, I say, because Christ, who is the best judge in this matter, saith, His goods are at peace, in quiet, and out of danger.

Attentive. This is a good one too; for doubtless peace and quiet with sin is one of the greatest signs of a damnable state.

Wiseman. So it is; therefore, when God would show the greatness of his anger against sin and sinners in one word, he saith, "They are joined to idols, let them alone." Let them alone-that is, disturb them not; let them go on without control; let the devil enjoy them peaceably; let him carry them out of the world unconverted, quietly. This is one of the sorest of judgments, and bespeaketh the burning anger of God against sinful men. See also when you come home, Hosea iv. 14, "I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom." I will let them alone, they shall live and die in their sins. But,

3. My third argument is drawn from that saying of Christ, "He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should heal them."

There are three things that I will take notice of from these words:

The first is, that there can be no conversion to God where the eye is darkened and the heart

hardened. The eye must first be made to see and the heart to break and relent under and for sin, or else there can be no conversion. "He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see and understand, and so be converted." And this was clearly Mr. Badman's case: he lived a wicked life, and also died with his eyes shut and heart hardened, as is manifest in that a sinful life was joined with a quiet death; and all for that he should not be converted, but partake of the fruit of his sinful life in hell-fire.

The second thing that I take notice of from these words is, that this is a dispensation and manifestation of God's anger against a man for his sin. When God is angry with men-I mean, when he is so angry with them—this, among many, is one of the judgments that he giveth them up unto-to wit, to blindness of mind and hardness of heart, which he also suffereth to accompany them till they enter in at the gates of death. And then and there, and not short of then and there, their eyes come to be opened. Hence it is said of the rich man mentioned in Luke, "He died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes," implying that he did not lift them up before; he neither saw what he had done nor whither he was going till he came to the place of execution, even into hell. He died asleep in his soul; he died besotted, stupefied, and so consequently for quietness like a child or lamb, even as Mr. Badman did; this was a sign of God's anger; he had a mind to damn him for his sins, and therefore would not let him see nor have an heart to repent for them, lest he should con vert, and his damnation, which God hath appointed, should be frustrate: "Lest they should be converted and I should heal them."

The third thing I take notice of from hence is, that a sinful life, and quiet death annexed to it, is the ready, the open, the beaten, the common highway to hell; there is no surer sign of damnation than for a man to die quietly after a sinful life. I do not say that all wicked men that are molested at their death with a sense of sin and fears of hell do therefore go to heaven, for some are also made to see and are left to despair, (not converted by seeing,) that they might go roaring out of this world to their place; but I say there is no surer sign of a man's damnation than to die quietly after a sinful life, than to sin and die with his eyes shut, than to sin and die with an heart that cannot repent; "He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not

see with their eyes nor understand with their heart," (no, not so long as they are in this world,) "lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."

God has a judgment for wicked men; God will be even with wicked men; God knows how to reserve the ungodly to the day of judgment to be punished; and this is one of his ways by which he doth it. Thus it was with Mr. Badman.

4. It is said in the book of Psalms concerning the wicked, "There are no bands. in their death, but their strength is firm." By no bands he means no troubles, no gracious chastisements, no such corrections for sin, as fail to be the lot of God's people for theirs; yea, that many times fall to be theirs at the time of their death. Therefore he adds concerning the wicked, "They are not troubled" then "like other men, neither are they plagued like other men," but go as securely out of the world as if they had never sinned against God and put their own souls in danger of damnation "There are no bands in their death." They seem to go unbound and set at liberty out of this world, though they have lived notoriously wicked all their days in it. The prisoner that is to die at the gallows for his wickedness must first have his irons knocked off his legs; so he seems to go most at liberty when indeed he is going to be executed for his transgressions. Wicked men also have no bands in their death; they seem to be more at liberty when they are even at the wind-up of their sinful life than at any time besides.

Hence you shall have them boast of their faith and hope in God's mercy when they lie upon their deathbed; yea, you shall have them speak as confidently of their salvation as if they had served God all their days, when the truth is, the bottom of this their boasting is because they have no bands in their death.

Their sin and base life come not into their mind to correct them and bring them to repentance, but presumptuous thoughts and an hope and faith of the spider's (the devil's) making possesseth their soul, to their own eternal undoing.

Hence wicked men's hope is said to die, not before, but with them; they give up the ghost together. And thus did Mr. Badman. His sins and his hope went with him to the gate, but there his hope left him, because it died there; but his sins went in with him, to be a worm to gnaw him in conscience for ever and ever.

The opinion, therefore, of the common peo ple concerning this kind of dying is frivolous and vain; for Mr. Badman died like a lamb, or, as they call it, like a chrisom child, quietly and without fear. I speak not this with reference to the struggling of nature with death, but as to the struggling of the conscience with the judgment of God. I know that nature will struggle with death; I have seen a dog and sheep die hardly; and thus may a wicked man do, because there is an antipathy betwixt na ture and death. But even while, even then, when death and nature are struggling for mastery, the soul, the conscience, may be as besotted, as benumbed, as senseless and ignorant of its miserable state as the block or bed on which the sick lies; and thus they may die like a chrisom child in show, but indeed like one who by the judgment of God is bound over to eternal damnation, and that also by the same judgment is kept from seeing what they are and whither they are going till they plunge down among the flames.

And as it is a very great judgment of God on wicked men that so die, (for it cuts them off from all possibility of repentance, and so of salvation,) so it is as great a judgment upon those that are their companions that survive them; for by the manner of their death, they dying so quietly, so like unto chrisom children as they call it, they are hardened and take courage to go on in their course.

For comparing their life with their death, their sinful, cursed lives with their child-like, lamb-like death, they think that all is well, that no damnation is happened to them; though they lived like devils incarnate, yet they died like harmless ones; there was no whirlwind, no tempest, no band nor plague in their death; they died as quietly as the most godly of them all, and had as great faith and hope of salvation, and would talk as boldly of salvation as if they had assurance of it. But as was their hope in life, so was their death; their hope was without trial, because it was none of God's working, and their death was without molestation, because so was the judgment of God concerning them.

But, I say, at this their survivors take heart to tread their steps, and to continue to live in the breach of the law of God; yea, they carry it stately in their villainies, for so it follows in the Psalm: "There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm, &c. There fore pride compasseth them" (the survivors) "about as a chain, violence covereth them as a

Yea, they are bold, by seeing this, to conclude that God either does not or will not take notice of their sins. "They speak wickedly, they speak loftily." They speak wickedly of sin, for that they make it better than by the word it is pronounced to be. They speak wickedly concerning oppression, that they commend and count it a prudent act. They also speak loftily; "They set their mouth against the heaven," &c. "And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?" And all this, so far as I can see, ariseth in their hearts from their beholding of the quiet and lamb-like death of their companions. "Behold, these are the ungodly that prosper in the world," (that is, by wicked ways;) "they increase in riches."

This, therefore, is a great judgment of God ooth upon that man that dieth in his sins and also upon his companion that beholdeth him so to die. He sinneth, he dieth in his sins, and yet dieth quietly. What shall his companion say to this? What judgment shall he make how God will deal with him by beholding the lamb-like death of his companion? Be sure he cannot, as from such a sight, say, Woe be to me! for judgment is before him. He cannot gather that sin is a dreadful and bitter thing by the child-like death of Mr. Badman, but must rather, if he judgeth according to what he sees or according to his corrupted reason, conclude with the wicked ones of old, "That every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or where is the God of judgment?"

Yea, this is enough to puzzle the wisest man. David himself was put to a stand by beholding the quiet death of ungodly men. "Verily," says he, "I have cleansed my heart in vain, and have washed my hands in innocency." Ps. lxxiii. 13. They, to appearance, fare better by far than I; "Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart can wish; but all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning." This, I say, made David wonder, yea, and Job and Jeremiah too; but he goeth into the sanctuary, and then he understands their end, nor could he understand it before. "I went into the

"As

Why, there where he might inquire of God, and by him be resolved of this matter. "Then," says he, "understood I their end." Then I saw that "thou hast set them in slippery places," and that "thou castest them down to destruction." Castest them down-that is, suddenly, or, as the next words say, in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors;" which terrors did not seize them on their sickbed, for they had no bands in their death. The terrors, therefore, seized them there where also they are holden in them for ever. This he found out, I say, but not without great painfulness, grief, and pricking in his reins, so deep, so hard, and so difficult did he find it rightly to come to a determination in this matter.

And indeed this is a deep judgment of God towards ungodly sinners; it is enough to stagger a whole world; only the godly that are in the world have a sanctuary to go to, where the oracle and word of God is, by which his judgments, and a reason of many of them are made known to and understood by them.

Attentive. Indeed this is a staggering dispensation; it is full of the wisdom and anger of God; and I believe, as you have said, that it is full of judgment to the world. Who would have imagined that had not known Mr. Badman and yet had seen him die but that he had been a man of an holy life and conversation, since he died so stilly, so quietly, so like a lamb or a chrisom child? Would they not, I say, have concluded that he was a righteous man? Or that if they had known him and his life, yet to see him die so quietly, would they not have concluded that he had made his peace with God? Nay, further, if some had known that he had died in his sins, and yet that he died so like a lamb, would they not have concluded that either God doth not know our sins, or that he likes them, or that he wants power, or will, or heart, or skill to punish them, since Mr. Badman himself went from a sinful life so quietly, so peaceable, and so like a lamb as he did?

Wiseman. Without controversy. this is an heavy judgment of God upon wicked men: one goes to hell in peace, another goes to hell in trouble; one goes to hell, being sent thither by the hand of his companion; one goes thither with his eyes shut, and another goes thither with his eyes open; one goes thither roaring, and another goes thither boasting of heaven and happiness all the way he goes; one

goes thither like Mr. Badman himself, and others go thither as did his brethren. But above all, Mr. Badman's death, as to the manner of dying, is the fullest of snares and traps of wicked men; therefore they that die as he are the greatest stumble to the world; they go and go; they go on peaceably from youth to old age, and thence to the grave, and so to hell, without noise.

They go as an ox to the slaughter, and as a fool to the correction of the stocks;" | that is, both senselessly and securely. Oh, but being come at the gates of hell! oh, but when they see those gates set open for them! oh, but when they see that that is their home, and that they must go in thither! Then their peace and quietness flee away for ever; then they roar like lions, yell like dragons, howl like dogs, and tremble at their judgment, as do the devils themselves. Oh, when they see they must shoot the gulf and throat of hell! when they shall see that hell hath shut her ghastly jaws upon them! when they shall open their eyes and find themselves within the belly and bowels of hell! then they will mourn and weep, and hack, and gnash their teeth for pain. But this must not be (or, if it must, yet

very rarely) till they are gone out of the sight and hearing of those mortals whom they do leave behind them alive in the world.

Attentive. Well, my good neighbour Wiseman, I perceive that the sun grows low, and that you have come to a conclusion with Mr. Badman's life and death, and therefore I will take my leave of you. Only first let me tell you I am glad that I have met with you to day, and that our hap was to fall in with Mr. Badman's state. I also thank you for your free dom with me in granting of me your reply to all of my questions. I would only beg your prayers that God will give me much grace, that I may neither live nor die as did Mr. Badman.

Wiseman. My good neighbour Attentive, I wish your welfare in soul and body; and if aught that I have said of Mr. Badman's life and death may be of benefit unto you, I shall be heartily glad; only I desire you to thank God for it, and to pray heartily for me that I, with you, may be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

Attentive. Amen! Farewell.
Wiseman. I wish you heartily farewell.