other man at the ſame price; and ſoon after peremptorily demanded his ſoul; the whole company affirming it was fit be ſhould have it, ſince he bought it, not knowing who it was that aſked it: but on a ſudden this infernal merchant laid hold of this wretched ſoul-ſeller, and carried him into the air before them all, toward his own habitation, to the great aſtoniſhment and amazement of the ſpectators, and was never after heard of; but no queſtion found to his coſt that men had ſouls, and that hell was no fable, contrary to his profane and ſenſeleſs opinion.—Diſcipul. de temp. Serm. 132.
II. Not inferior to the former was the impiety of one, not many years ſince in this nation, called Marlin, a ſcholar by profeſſion, brought up from his youth in the univerſity of Cambridge, and afterwards a ſcurrilous poet and playmaker, who giving the reins to his wit and fancy, ran into ſuch extremes, that he denied God, and Jeſus Christ, and blaſphemed the Trinity, not only in words, but as it is credibly reported, writ books against it, affirming our Saviour to be a deceiver, and Moſes a ſeducer of the people, and the holy Scriptures to be but vain and idle ſtories, and all religion to be only a politic cheat and device: but heaven, by an eminent judgment, ſoon ſtopt the mouth of this blaſphemer; for it happened, that as he intended to have ſtabbed a perſon whom he had malice againſt, the other perceiving it, avoided the ſtroke; and withal catching hold of his wriſt, he ſtabbed in his own dagger into his own head, which wounded him in ſuch a terrible manner, that notwithſtanding the immediate help of chirurgery, he died ſoon after, and that in a very ſad condition; for he curſed and blaſphemed to the laſt gaſp and his laſt breath paſſed out of his body with an horrid
