COURTEOUS READER:

As I was considering with myself what I had written concerning the progress of the Pilgrim from this world to glory, and how it had been acceptable to many in this nation, it came again into my mind to write as then of him that was going to heaven, so now of the life and death of the ungodly, and of their travel from this world to hell. The which in this I have done, and have put it, as thou seest, under the name and title of Mr. Badman, a name very proper for such a subject; I have also put it in the form of a dialogue, that I might with more ease to myself and pleasure to the reader perform the work.

And although, as I said, I have put it forth in this method, yet have I, as little as may be, gone out of the road of mine own observation of things. Yea, I think I may truly say that to the best of my remembrance all the things that here I discourse of, I mean as to matter of fact, have been acted upon the stage of the world, even many times before mine eyes.

Here, therefore, courteous reader, I present thee with the life and death of Mr. Badman indeed; yea, I do trace him in his life, from his childhood to his death, that thou mayest, as in a glass, behold with thine own eyes the steps that take hold of hell; and also discern, while thou art reading of Mr. Badman's death, whether thou thyself art treading in his path thereto.

And let me entreat thee to forbear quirking and mocking for that Mr. Badman is dead, but rather gravely inquire concerning thyself by the word whether thou art one of his lineage or no; for Mr. Badman has left many of his relations behind him; yea, the very world is

overspread with his kindred. True, some of his relations, as he, are gone to their place and long home, but thousands of thousands are left behind, as brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, besides innumerable of his friends and associates.

I may say, and yet speak nothing but too much truth in so saying, that there is scarce a fellowship, a community, or fraternity of men in the world but some of Mr. Badman's relations are there; yea, rarely can we find a family or a household in a town where he has not left behind him a brother, nephew, or friend. audience

The butt, therefore, that at this time I shoot, at is wide, and it will be as impossible for this book to go into several families and not to arrest some, as for the king's messenger to rush into an house full of traitors and find none but honest men there.

I cannot but think that this shot will light upon many, since our fields are so full of this game; but how many it will kill to Mr. Badman's course and make alive to the Pilgrim's progress, that is not in me to determine; this secret is with the Lord our God only, and he alone knows to whom he will bless it to so good and so blessed an end. However, I have put fire to the pan, and doubt not but the report will quickly be heard.

I told you before that Mr. Badman had left many of his friends and relations behind him, but if I survive them (and that's a great question to me) I may also write of their lives; however, whether my life be longer or shorter, this is my prayer at present-that God will stir up witnesses against them that may either convert or confound them; for wherever they live

and roll in their wickedness they are the pest and plague of that country.

England shakes and totters already by reason of the burden that Mr. Badman and his friends have wickedly laid upon it; yea, our earth reels and staggereth to and fro like a drunkard; the transgression thereof is heavy upon it.

Courteous reader, I will treat thee now, even at the door and threshold of this house, but only with this intelligence, that Mr. Badman lies dead within. Be pleased, therefore, (if thy leisure will serve thee,) to enter in, and behold the state in which he is laid betwixt his deathbed and the grave. He is not buried as yet, nor doth he stink, as is designed he shall before he lies down in oblivion.

Now, as others have had their funerals solemnized according to their greatness and grandeur in the world, so likewise Mr. Badman (forasmuch as he deserveth not to go down to his grave with silence) has his funeral state according to his deserts.

Four things are usual at great men's funerals, which we will take leave, and I hope without offence, to allude to in the funeral of Mr. Bad

man.

First. They are sometimes, when dead, presented to their friends, by their completely wrought images, as lively as by cunning men's hands they can be, that the remembrance of them may be renewed to their survivors, the remembrance of them and their deeds; and this I have endeavoured to answer in my discourse of Mr. Badman; and therefore I have drawn him forth in his features and actions from his childhood to his gray hairs. Here, therefore, thou hast him lively set forth as in cuts, both as to the minority, flower, and seniority of his age, together with those actions of his life that he was most capable of doing, in and under those present circumstances of time, place, strength, and the opportunities that did attend him in these.

our and at his end became a fool. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial. The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned.

The funeral pomp, therefore, of Mr. Badman is to wear upon his hearse the badges of a dis honourable and wicked life, since his bones are full of the sins of his youth, which shall lie down, as Job says, in the dust with him; nor is it fit that any should be his attendants, now at his death, but such as with him conspired against their own souls in their life-persons whose transgressions have made them infamous to all that have or shall know what they have done.

Some notice, therefore, I have also here in this little discourse given the reader of them who were his confederates in his life and attendants at his death; with a hint either of some high villainy committed by them, as also of those judgments that have overtaken and fallen upon them from the just and avenging hand of God. All which are things either fully known by me, as being eye and ear witness thereto, or that I have received from such hands whose relations, as to this, I am bound to believe. And that the reader may know them from other things and passages herein contained, have pointed at them with a finger, thus

.

Thirdly. The funerals of persons of quality have been solemnized with some suitable sermon at the time and place of their burial; and that I am not come to as yet, having got no further than to Mr. Badman's death; but forasmuch as he must be buried after he hath be come polluted before his beholders, I doubt not but some such that we read are appointed to be at the burial of Gog will do this work in my stead, such as shall leave him neither skin nor bone above ground, but shall set a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog. Ezek. xxxix.

Fourthly. At funerals there did use to be mourning and lamentations, but here also Mr. Badman differs from others; his familiars can. not lament his departure, for they have not sense of his damnable state; they rather ring him and sing him to hell in the sleep of death in which he goes thither. Good men count him no loss to the world; his place can well be without him; his loss is only his own, and it is too late for him to recover that damage or loss by a sea of bloody tears, could he shed them. Yea, God has said he will laugh at his destruction; who, then, shall lament for him

ing weed in his life, nor was he better at all in his death. Such may well be thrown over the wall without sorrow when once God has plucked them up by the roots in his wrath.

Reader, if thou art of the race, lineage, stock, or fraternity of Mr. Badman, I tell thee, before thou readest this book, thou wilt neither brook the author nor it, because he hath writ of Mr. Badman as he has. For he that condemneth the wicked that die so passeth also the sentence upon the wicked that live. I therefore expect neither credit of nor countenance from thee for this narration of thy kinsman's life.

For thy old love to thy friend, his ways, doings, &c., will stir up in thee enmity rather, in thy very heart, against me. I shall therefore incline to think of thee that thou wilt rend, burn, or throw it away in contempt; yea, and wish also that for writing so notorious a truth some mischief may befall me. I look also to be loaded by thee with disdain, scorn and contempt; yea, that thou shouldest railingly and vilifying say I lie, and am a bespatterer of honest men's lives and deaths. For Mr. Badman, when himself was alive, could not abide to be counted a knave, (though his actions told all that went by that indeed he was such an one.) How, then, should his brethren that survive him, and that tread in his very steps, approve of the sentence that by this book is pronounced against him? Will they not rather imitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram's friends-even rail at me for condemning him, as they did at Moses for doing execution?

I know it is ill puddling in the cockatrice's den, and that they run hazards that hunt the wild boar. The man also that writeth Mr. Badman's life had need be fenced with a coat of mail and with the staff of a spear, for that his surviving friends will know what he doth; but I have ventured to do it, and to play, at this time, at the hole of these asps; if they bite, they bite; if they sting, they sting. Christ sends his lambs into the midst of wolves, not to do like them, but to suffer by them for bearing plain testimony against their bad deeds; but had one not need to walk with a guard and to have a sentinel stand at one's door for this? Verily, the flesh would be glad of such help; yea, a spiritual man, could he tell how to get it. Acts xxiii. But I am stripped naked of these, and yet am commanded to be faithful in my service for Christ. Well, then, I have spoken what I have spoken,

and now come on me what will. Job xii. 13. True, the text says, "Rebuke a scorner, and he will hate thee; and that he that reproveth a wicked man, getteth himself a blot and shame;" but what then? Open rebuke is better than secret love, and he that receives it shall find it so afterwards.

So, then, whether Mr. Badman's friends shall rage or laugh at what I have writ, I know the better end of the staff is mine. My d endeavour is to stop an hellish course of life and to save a soul from death, (James v.;) and if for so doing I meet with envy from them from whom in reason I should have thanks, I must remember the man in the dream that cut his way through his armed enemies, and so got into the beauteous palace;-I must, I say, remember him, and do myself likewise.

Yet four things I will propound to the consideration of Mr. Badman's friends before I turn my back upon them:

1. Suppose that there be a hell in very deed-not that I do question it, any more than I do whether there be a sun to shine, but I suppose it for argument's sake with Mr. Badman's friends-I say, suppose there be an hell, and that, too, such an one as the Scripture speaks of--one at the remotest distance from God and life eternal-one where the worm of a guilty conscience never dies, and where the fire of the wrath of God is not quenched.

Suppose, I say, that there is such an hell, prepared of God (as there is indeed) for the body and soul of the ungodly world after this life to be tormented in;-I say, do but with thyself suppose it, and then tell me, is it not prepared for thee, thou being a wicked man? Let thy conscience speak, I say; is it not prepared for thee, thou being an ungodly man? And dost thou think, wast thou there now, that thou art able to wrestle with the judg ment of God? Why then do the fallen angels tremble there? Thy hands cannot be strong nor can thy heart endure in that day when God shall deal with thee. Ezek. xxii. 14.

2. Suppose that some one that is now a soul in hell for sin was permitted to come hither again to dwell, and that they had a grant also that upon amendment of life next time they die to change that place for heaven and glory, what sayest thou, O wicked man? Would such an one (thinkest thou) run again into the same course of life as before, and venture the damnation that for sin he had already been in? Would he choose again to lead that cursed

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life that afresh would kindle the flames of hell upon him, and that would bind him under the heavy wrath of God? Oh he would not, he would not; the 16th of Luke insinuates it; yea, reason itself, awake, would abhor it and tremble at such a thought.

3. Suppose, again, that thou that livest and rollest in thy sin, and that as yet hast known nothing but the pleasure thereof, shouldest be an angel conveyed to some place where, with convenience from thence, thou mightest have a view of heaven and hell-of the joys of the one, and the torments of the other;-I say, suppose that from thence thou mightest have such a view thereof as would convince thy reason that both heaven and hell are such realities as by the word they are declared to be, wouldest thou (thinkest thou?) when brought to thy home again, choose to thyself thy former life to wit, to return to thy folly again? No; if belief of what thou sawest remained with thee, thou wouldest eat fire and brimstone first.

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 the mountains; it has almost swallowed up all; our youth, our middle age, old age, and all, are almost carried away of this flood. Qdebauchery, debauchery, what hast thou done in England! Thou hast corrupted our young men, 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; is 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. xxiv. 20.

Oh that I could mourn for England, and for the sins that are committed therein, even while I see that, without repentance, the men of God's wrath are about to deal with us, each having his slaughtering weapon in his hand. Ezek. ix. 1, 2. Well, I have written, and by God's 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 be awakened about it, fly from it, as from that which is the greatest of evils. Sin pulled angels out of heaven, pulls men down to hell and overthroweth kingdoms. Who that sees an house on fire will not give the alarm to them that dwell therein? Who that sees the land invaded will not set the beacons on a flame? Who that sees the devils, as roaring lions, continually devouring souls, will not make an outcry? But, above all, when we see sin, sinful sin, swallowing up a nation, sinking of a nation, and bringing its inhabitants to temporal, spiritual, and eternal ruin, 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 poison of sin, which will, if its malignity be not by wholesome means allayed, bring soul and body, and estate and country, and all, to ruin and destruction? cathartic

4. I will propound again. Suppose that there was amongst us such a law (and such a magistrate to inflict the penalty) that for every open wickedness committed by thee so much of thy flesh should,,with burning pincers, be plucked from thy bones; wouldest thou then go on thy open way of lying, swearing, and whoring as thou with delight doest now? Surely, surely no. The fear of the punishment would make thee forbear, yea, would make thee tremble, even when thy lusts were powerful, to think what a 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. Badman's friends, who, in despite of the threatenings of an holy and sin-avenging God, and of the outcries and warning of all good men, yea, that will in despite of the groans and torments of those that are now in hell for sin, (Luke xiv. 24, 28,) go on in a sinful course of life, yea, though every sin is also a step of descent down to that infernal cave! Oh 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. ix. 3. To the dead! that is, to the dead in hell, to the damned dead-the place to which those that have died bad men are gone, and that those that live bad men are like to go to, when a little more sin, like stolen waters, hath been imbibed by their sinful souls.

3. In and by this my outcry I shall deliver myself from the ruins of them that perish; for a man can do no more in this matter-I mean as man in my capacity-than to detect and condemn the wickedness, warn the evil-doer of the judgment, and fly therefrom myself. But oh that I might not only deliver myself!