The Life and Death of Mr. Badman

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 rent, 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 vilifyingly say, I lye, and am a bespatterer of honest mens 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. Rook is pronounced against him? Will they not rather imitate Corah, Dathan, and Abiram's friends, even rail at me for condemning him, as they did at Moses for doing execution?

For thy old love to thy Friend, his wayes, 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 rent, 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 vilifyingly say, I lye, and am a bespatterer of honest mens 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. Rook is pronounced against him? Will they not rather imitate Corah, Dathan, and Abiram's friends, even rail at me for condemning him, as they did at Moses for doing execution?

I know 'tis ill puddling in the Cockatrices den, and that they run hazards that hunt the Wild-Boar. The man also that writeth Mr. ⟨image 6⟩Badmans 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 adventured 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 in 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 ones door for this? Verily, the flesh would be glad of such help; yea, a spiritual man, could he tell how to get it.