up his voice and declared to her the hatred of the living God to all
witches and warlocks, seeing that not only is the punishment of fire
awarded to them in the Old Testament, but that the Holy Ghost expressly
saith in the New Testament (Gal. v.), "That they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God"; but "shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death"
(Apocal. xxi.). Wherefore she must not be stubborn nor murmur against the
court when she was tormented, seeing that it was all done out of Christian
love, and to save her poor soul. That, for the sake of God and her
salvation, she should no longer delay repentance, and thereby cause her
body to be tormented, and give over her wretched soul to Satan, who
certainly would not fulfil those promises in hell which he had made her
here upon earth; seeing that "He was a murderer from the beginning--a liar
and the father of it" (John viii.). "Oh!" cried he, "Mary, my child, who
so oft hast sat upon my knees, and for whom I now cry every morning and
every night unto my God, if thou wilt have no pity upon thee and me, have
pity at least upon thy worthy father, whom I cannot look upon without
tears, seeing that his hairs have turned snow-white within a few days, and
save thy soul, my child, and confess! Behold, thy Heavenly Father grieveth
over thee no less than thy fleshly father, and the holy angels veil their
faces for sorrow that thou, who wert once their darling sister, art now
become the sister and bride of the devil. Return therefore, and repent!
This day thy Saviour calleth thee, poor stray lamb, back into His flock,
'And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath
bound ... be loosed from this bond?' Such are His merciful words (Luke
xiii.); _item_, 'Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I
will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful' (Jer.
iii.). Return then, thou back-sliding soul, unto the Lord thy God! He who
heard the prayer of the idolatrous Manasseh when 'he besought the Lord his
God and humbled himself' (2 Chron. xxxiii.); who, through Paul, accepted