u art worse than Judas himself, or they that crucified Christ:
for they did offend out of ignorance, but thou hast thought in thine heart
there is no God. Thou hast given thy soul to the devil, as witches and
conjurors do, _explicite_ and _implicite_, by compact, band and obligation
(a desperate, a fearful case) to satisfy thy lust, or to be revenged of
thine enemies, thou didst never pray, come to church, hear, read, or do any
divine duties with any devotion, but for formality and fashion's sake, with
a kind of reluctance, 'twas troublesome and painful to thee to perform any
such thing, _praeter voluntatem_, against thy will. Thou never mad'st any
conscience of lying, swearing, bearing false witness, murder, adultery,
bribery, oppression, theft, drunkenness, idolatry, but hast ever done all
duties for fear of punishment, as they were most advantageous, and to thine
own ends, and committed all such notorious sins, with an extraordinary
delight, hating that thou shouldst love, and loving that thou shouldst
hate. Instead of faith, fear and love of God, repentance, &c., blasphemous
thoughts have been ever harboured in his mind, even against God himself,
the blessed Trinity; the [6786]Scripture false, rude, harsh, immethodical:
heaven, hell, resurrection, mere toys and fables, [6787]incredible,
impossible, absurd, vain, ill contrived; religion, policy, and human
invention, to keep men in obedience, or for profit, invented by priests and
lawgivers to that purpose. If there be any such supreme power, he takes no
notice of our doings, hears not our prayers, regardeth them not, will not,
cannot help, or else he is partial, an excepter of persons, author of sin,
a cruel, a destructive God, to create our souls, and destinate them to
eternal damnation, to make us worse than our dogs and horses, why doth he
not govern things better, protect good men, root out wicked livers? why do
they prosper and flourish? as she raved in the [6788]tragedy--_pellices
caelum tenent_, there they shine, _Suasque Perseus aureas stellas habet_,
where is his providence? how appears it?

[6789] "Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo,
Pomponius nullo, quis putet esse Deos."

Why doth he suffer Turks to overcome Christians, the enemy to triumph over
his church, paganism to domineer in all places as it doth, heresies to
multiply, such enormities to be committed, and so many such bloody wars,
murders, massacres, plagues, feral diseases! why dot