derstanding heart is assaulted with this Doctrine of a God, a
Devil, a Heaven and a Hell, Salvation and Damnation after a man is
dead, his spirit being not strongly grounded in the knowledge of
the Creation nor in the temper of his own heart, he strives and
stretches his brain to find out the depth of that doctrine and
cannot attain to it. For, indeed, it is not knowledge, but
imagination. And so by poring and puzzling himself in it, he loses
that wisdom he had, and becomes distracted and mad. If the passion
of joy predominate, then he is merry, and sings, and laughs, and is
ripe in the expression of his words and will speak strange things:
but all by imagination. But if the passion of sorrow predominate,
then he is heavy and sad, crying out, _He is damned; God hath
forsaken him, and he must go to Hell when he dies; he cannot make
his calling and election sure._ And in that distemper many times a
man doth hang, kill or drown himself. So this Divining Doctrine,
which you call spiritual and heavenly things, torments people
always when they are weak, sickly or under any distemper. Therefore
it cannot be the Doctrine of Christ the Saviour.

"Or, _thirdly_, This Doctrine is made a cloak of policy by the
subtle Elder Brother, to cheat his simpler Younger Brother of the
Freedoms of the Earth. For, saith the Elder Brother, 'The Earth is
mine, and not yours, Brother; and you must not work upon it, unless
you will hire it of me; and you must not take the fruits of it,
unless you will buy them of me, by that which I pay you for your
labor. For if you should do otherwise, God will not love you, and
you shall not go to Heaven when you die, but the Devil will have
you, and you must be damned in Hell.'

"If the Younger reply, and say--'The Earth is my Birth-Right as
well as yours, and God who made us both is no Respecter of persons.
Therefore there is no reason but I should enjoy the Freedoms of the
Earth for my comfortable livelihood, as well as you, Brother.'

"'I,' but saith the Elder Brother, 'You must not trust to your own
Reason and Understanding, but you must believe what is written and
what is told you; and if you will not believe, your Damnation will
be the greater.'

"'I cannot believe,' saith the Younger Brother, 'that our Righteous
Creator sho