* Friend! Stop! You have the form of a man still. And perhaps some remains of understanding. O may the merciful God lay hold of that! Unto him all things are possible. Think a little for once. What is it you are doing? Why should you destroy yourself? I could not use the _worst enemy_ I have in the world, as you use _yourself_. Why should you murder yourself inch by inch? Why should you burn yourself alive? O spare your own body at least, if you have no pity for your soul! But have you a soul then? Do you really believe it? What, a soul that must live forever! O spare thy soul! Do not destroy _thy own_ soul with an ♦everlasting destruction! It was made for God. Do not give it into the hands of that old murderer of men! Thou canst not stupify it long. When it leaves the body it will awake and sleep no more. Yet a little while, and it launches out into the great deep, to live, and think, and feel for ever. And what will chear thy spirit there, if thou hast not _a drop of water to cool thy tongue_? But the die is not yet cast. Now cry to God, and _iniquity shall not be thy ruin_. ♦ “eversting” replaced with “everlasting” per Errata 18. Of old time there were also those that _were at ease in Zion, that lay upon beds of ivory, and stretched themselves upon their couches, that ♦ate the lambs out of the flock, and calves out of the stall_. But how inelegant were these ancient _epicures! Lambs out of the flock, and calves out of the stall!_ Were these the best dainties they could procure? How have we improved, since _Jeroboam_’s time? Who can number the varieties of our tables; or the arts we have “To enlarge the pleasure of tasting?” And what are their couches, or beds of ivory, to the furniture of our apartments? Or their _chains and bracelets, and mantles and changeable suits of apparel_, to the ornaments of our persons? What comparison is there between their diversions and ours? Look at _Solomon_ in all his glory; and yet may we not question, whether he was not an utter stranger to _the pleasures of the chase_? And notwithstanding his 40,000 horses, did he ever see a _race_ in his life? He _made gardens and orchards, and pools of water; he planted vineyards and built houses_. But had he one _theatre_ among them all? No. * This is the glory of later times. Or had he any conception of a _ball_, an _assembly_, a _masquerade_, or a _ridotto_? And who imagines that all his instruments of musick put together, were any more to be compared to ours, than his or his father’s rumbling _Hebrew_ verses, “To the soft sing song of _Italian_ lays.” In all these points our pre-eminence over the _Jews_, is much every way. ♦ “eat” replaced with “ate” per Errata