with comfort. Let not my plain words offend thee; I am thy dying wife, and of my faithfulness to thee, would leave this exhorta tion with thee: Break off thy sins, fly to God for mercy, while mercy's gate stands open: remember that the day is coming, when thou tho' now lusty and well, must lye at the gates of death, as I do: And what wilt thou then do, if thou shalt be found with a naked soul, to meet with the cherubims with their flaming swords? Yea, what wilt thou then do, if death and hell shall come to visit thee, and thou in thy sins, and under the curse of the law?

Atten. This was honest and plain. But what said Mr Badman to her?

Wise. He did what he could to divert her talk, by throwing in other things; he also shewed some kind of pity to her now, and would ask her what she would have? and with various kind of words put her out of her talk: For when she saw that she was not regarded, she fetched a deep sigh, and lay still. So he went down; and then she called for her children, and began to talk to them. And first she spake to those that were rude, and told them the danger of dying before they had grace in their hearts. She told them also that death might be nearer than they were aware of; and bid them look, when they went through the church-yard again, if there were not little graves there. And, ah! children, said she, will it not be dreadful to you, if we

only shall meet at the day of judgment, and then part again, and never see each other more? And with that she wept, the children also wept. So she held on her discourse: Children, said she, I am going from you, I am going to Jesus Christ, and with him there is neither sorrow, nor sighing, nor pain, nor tears, nor death. Thither would I have you go also, but I can neither carry you, nor fetch you thither but if you shall turn from your sins to God, and shall beg mercy at his hands by Jesus Christ, you shall follow me, and shall, when you die, come to the place where I am going, that blessed place of rest and then we shall be for ever together, beholding the face of our Redeemer, to our mutual and eternal joy. So she bid them remember the words of a dying mother, when she was cold in her grave, and themselves were hot in their sins, if perhaps her words might put a check to their vice, and that they might remember and turn to God.

Then they all went down, but her darling, to wit, the child that she had most love for, because it followed her ways. So she addressed herself to that: Come to me, said she, my sweet child, thou art the child of my joy: I have lived to see thee a servant of God; thou shalt have eternal life. I, my sweet heart, shall go before, and thou shalt follow after; "if thou shalt hold the beginning of thy confidence stedfast to the end." When I am gone, do thou still remember my

notes of angels, that were sent of God to fetch him to heaven.

Wise. I cannot say but that God goes out of his ordinary road with us poor mortals sometimes. I cannot say this of this woman, but yet she had better music in her heart, than sounded in this woman's ears.

Atten. I believe so; but pray tell me, did any of her other children hearken to her words, so as to be bettered in their souls thereby.

Wise. One of them did, and became a very hopeful young man : But for the rest I can say nothing.

Atten. And what did Mr Badman do after his wife was dead?

Wise. Why even as he did before, he scarce mourned a fortnight for her, and his mourning then was, I doubt, more in fashion than in heart.

Atten. Would he not sometimes talk of his wife, when she was dead?

Wise. Yes, when the fit took him, and could commend her too extremely, saying, she was a good, godly, virtuous woman. But this is not a thing to be wondered at: It is common with wicked men to hate God's servants while alive, and to commend them when they are dead. So served the Pharisees the prophets: Those of the prophets that were dead they commended; and those that were alive they condemned.

Atten. But did not Mr Badman marry again quickly.

Wise. No, not a good while after: and when he was asked the reason, he would make this slight answer: Who would keep a cow of their own, that can have a quart of milk for a penny? Meaning, who would be at the charge to have a wife, that can have a whore when he listeth? So villainous, so abominable did he continue after the death of his wife. Yet at last there was one was too hard for him. For getting of him to her upon a time, and making of him sufficiently drunk, she was so cunning as to get a promise of marriage of him, and so held him to it, and forced him to marry her. And she, as the saying is, was as good as he, at all his vile and ranting tricks: She had her companions as well as he had his, and she would meet them too at the tavern and ale-house, more commonly than he was aware of: To be plain, she was a very whore, and had as great resort came to her, where time and place was appointed, as any of them all. Ay, and he smelt it too, but could not tell how to help it. For if he began to talk, she could lay in his dish the whores that she knew he haunted, and she could fit him also with cursing and swearing; for she would give him oath for oath, and curse for curse.

Atten. What kind of oaths would she have? Wise. Why, damn her, and sink her, and the like.

Atten. These are provoking things.

Wise. So they are; but God doth not altogether let such things go unpunished in this life. Something of this I have shewed you already, and will here give you one or two instances more.

There lived, saith one, in the year 1551, in a city of Savoy, a man who was a monstrous curser and swearer, and though he was often admonished and blamed for it, yet would he by no means mend his manners. At length a great plague happening in the city, he withdrew himself into a garden, where being again admonished to give over his wickedness, he hardened his heart more, swearing, blaspheming God, and giving himself to the devil: And immediately the devil snatched him up suddenly, his wife and kinswoman looking on, and carried him quite away. The magistrates, advertised hereof, went to the place and examined the woman, who justified the truth of it.

Also at Oster in the duchy of Magapole, saith Mr Clark, a wicked woman used in her cursing to give herself, body and soul, to the devil; and being reproved for it, still continued the same; till being at a weddingfeast, the devil came in person, and carried her up into the air, with most horrible outcries and roarings: And in that sort carried her round about the town, that the inhabitants were ready to die for fear; and by and by he tore her in four pieces, leaving her