A30164:37
The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
The life and death of Mr. Badman presented to the world in a familiar dialogue between Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive / by John Bunyan ...
London: printed by J. A. for Nath. Ponder, 1680
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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 ⟨image 9⟩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.