Life and Death of Mr. Badman | Page 8

punishment thou wast
sure to sustain, so soon as the pleasure was over. But Oh! the folly, the
madness, the desperate madness that is in the hearts of Mr. Badmans
friends, who in despite of the threatnings of an holy and sin revenging
God, and of the outcries and warnings of all good men; yea, that will in
despite of the groans and torments of those that are now in Hell for sin,
(Luk. 16. 24. 28.) go on in a sinfull course of life; yea, though every sin
is also a step of descent, down to that infernal Cave. O how true is that
saying of Solomon, The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and
madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the
dead, Eccles. 9. 3. To the dead! that is, to the dead in Hell, to the
damned dead; the place to which those that have dyed Bad men are
gone, and that those that live Bad men are like to go to, when a little
more sin, like stollen waters, hath been imbibed by their sinful souls.
That which has made me publish this Book is,
1. For that wickedness like a flood is like to drown our English world:
it begins already to be above the tops of mountains; it has almost
swallowed up all; our Youth, our Middle age, Old age, and all, are
almost carried away of this flood. O Debauchery, Debauchery, what
hast thou done in England! Thou hast corrupted our Young men, and
hast made our Old men beasts; thou hast deflowered our Virgins, and

hast made Matrons Bawds. Thou hast made our earth to reel to and fro
like a drunkard; 'tis in danger to be removed like a Cottage, yea, it is,
because transgression is so heavy upon it, like to fall and rise no more.
Isa. 24. 20.
O! that I could mourn for England, and for the sins that are committed
therein, even while I see that without repentance, the men of Gods
wrath are about to deal with us, each having his slaughtering weapon in
his hand: (Ezek. 9. 1, 2.) Well, I have written, and by Gods assistance
shall pray, that this flood may abate in England: and could I but see the
tops of the Mountains above it, I should think that these waters were
abating.
2. It is the duty of those that can, to cry out against this deadly plague,
yea, to lift up their voice as with a Trumpet against it; that men may he
awakened about it, flye from it, as from that which is the greatest of
evils. Sin pull'd Angels out of Heaven, pulls men down to Hell, and
overthroweth Kingdoms. Who, that sees an house on fire, will not give
the Allarum to them that dwell therein? who that sees the Land invaded,
will not set the Beacons on a fame? Who, that sees the Devils, as
roaring Lyons, continually devouring souls, will not make an Out-cry?
But above all, when we see sin, sinful sin, a swallowing up a Nation,
sinking of a Nation, and bringing its Inhabitants to temporal, spiritual,
and eternal ruine, shall we not cry out, and cry, They are drunk, but not
with Wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink; they are intoxicated
with the deadly poyson of sin, which will, if its malignity be not by
wholsom means allayed, bring Soul and Body, and Estate and Countrey,
and all, to ruin and destruction?
3. In and by this my Out-cry, I shall deliver my self from the ruins of
them that perish: for a man can do no more in this matter, I mean a man
in my capacity, than to detect and condemn the wickedness, warn the
evil doer of the Judgment, and fly therefrom my self. But Oh! that I
might not only deliver my self! Oh that many would hear, and turn at
this my cry, from sin! that they may be secured from the death and
Judgment that attend it.
Why I have handled the matter in this method, is best known to my self:

and why I have concealed most of the Names of the persons whose sins
or punishments I here and there in this Book make relation of, is,
1. For that neither the sins nor Judgments were all alike open; the sins
of some, were committed, and the Judgments executed for them only in
a corner. Not to say that I could not learn some of their names; for
could I, I should not have made them publick, for this reason.
2. Because I would not provoke those of their Relations that survive
them; I would not justly provoke them, and yet, as