Shepherd. Holy ground is not a proper place for the daughters of Belial to shoot their amorous glances on. Haughtiness, stretched-forth necks, and wanton eyes, shall not go unpunished in the daughters of Zion, much less in the daughters of Hagar. And as for Little Faith, by his inordinate affection for a strange woman, he is making a rod for himself: Conscience and he will have bloody work of it another day, when the King comes to visit his sin with a rod, and his iniquity with scourges. Inordinate affection is a member of Little Faith's strange man; but, as there is an intoxicating pleasure in it, he will not complain of it till the frowns and rebukes of the King bring him to his senses: then he may go out, like Samson, and shake himself, and bewail both the loss of his God, and his folly that procured it.

Steward. This will be the end, and I wish he would consider it in time; but he is too completely entangled to escape the snare of the fowler. Little Faith never knew what it was to be in love with the creature till now: he is in his first love.

Shepherd. And do you think that Mara has any love for him?

Steward. Yes; I believe she loves him with that sort of love that is made violent by opposition, damped by gratification, and freezed by the constancy of an affectionate husband. I dare say, Mara has been smitten with love by an hundred objects, and the last is always the winner. Mara

is not the magnet, but the needle, soon drawn; but, if not held fast, is sure to fall off, like Michal, or Delilah: and no wonder, when the Nazarite, and the psalmist, became the willing captives of such, without consulting the giver of every good and every perfect gift.

Shepherd. "A prudent wife is from the Lord," but this sort are none of his gifts. Little Faith has forgot the proverb that speaketh to him as to a son; "And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings."

Steward. Little Faith doth not believe her to be a strange woman, for he is as much taken with her mask of religion as he is with her person. The kings of the earth were never more drunk with Jezebel's fornication, than Little Faith is with Mara's deception.

Shepherd. Pray, what sort of woman is she in person?

Steward. She is beautiful, has a pretty face, a good complexion, is well-shaped, genteel, and of good address; affects to appear very modest and devout; is remarkably plain in her apparel, and as neat as wax-work; is a complete mistress of herself, and of all the artifice she is possessed of; and one who can soon find out the company she is in, and can shape her conversation to suit it. In short, there is every thing in her person that makes a woman desirable or admirable; and every

filled with his own way. When Rehoboam rejected the good counsel of the aged, and took that of his flatterers, he lost the presence of the God of his fathers, and ten parts of his kingdom: and I know that Little Faith is going on now without the King's presence, and without his approbation. The King is returned to his place; and Little Faith must seek him early, and earnestly too, before he finds him again.

Shepherd. Then I should think that he would be miserable in his mind, and a burden to himself; for a glimpse of the King's face used to raise him to heaven: but, if the King frowned, he was in the belly of hell.

Steward.

And I wish it was with Little Faith now as it was in months past, but it is not. He is as lively and as cheerful as a bird in appearance, but it comes not from above: it is lightness and levity; his sweetness and simplicity are greatly vanished; and some of the children tell me, that his conversation is dry and empty. Nevertheless, he is not comfortless: the lusts of the flesh afford him most pleasing sensations. His thoughts and affections are all hovering about Mara, not God; his delight is in her person, not in the divine favour; and his comforts lie in his interviews with her, instead of communion with his Royal Father: his present hopes of a wife overtop his hopes of heaven; and his mind is more employed about his intended, though an unlawful marriage, than about the future marriage of the Lamb. These things

turned away the heart of Solomon, and brought that magnificent and highly-favoured prince to renounce the royal name; which appears by his telling us what he was before he was a preacher; "I, the preacher, was king over Israel, in Jerusalem."

Shepherd. But, pray, who encourages Little Faith in paying his addresses to Mara? I dare say he is not without his backers, nor without his helpers-on.

Steward. Indeed he is not: for there is not a court flatterer, a feigned loyalist, a pensioner, a placeman, an unfaithful servant, or an hypocrite, in all the court, or that hangs about the palace, but what approves of Little Faith's choice. Old Uzzah, the man that you saw weeding the gravelwalk the first time you came to the palace, who told you that the Steward and his room were just as narrow as yourself, is very forward for the match, and praises Miss Duplicity up to the skies; and I am informed, that she has lately been admitted as a member of the royal society by some of the partial rulers of the household. But, notwithstanding all their art and artifice, the religion of Mara Duplicity, and that of Little Faith, shall no more cleave together than iron can mix with miry clay.

Shepherd. Well, you have put in your caveat: you have reproved him, and shewed your disapprobation; and, by so doing, you have forbid the banns. But all hath hitherto been ineffectual;

filled with his own way. When Rehoboam rejected the good counsel of the aged, and took that of his flatterers, he lost the presence of the God of his fathers, and ten parts of his kingdom: and I know that Little Faith is going on now without the King's presence, and without his approbation. The King is returned to his place; and Little Faith must seek him early, and earnestly too, before he finds him again.

Shepherd. Then I should think that he would be miserable in his mind, and a burden to himself; for a glimpse of the King's face used to raise him to heaven: but, if the King frowned, he was in the belly of hell.

Steward. And I wish it was with Little Faith now as it was in months past, but it is not. He is as lively and as cheerful as a bird in appearance, but it comes not from above: it is lightness and levity; his sweetness and simplicity are greatly vanished; and some of the children tell me, that his conversation is dry and empty. Nevertheless, he is not comfortless: the lusts of the flesh afford him most pleasing sensations. His thoughts and affections are all hovering about Mara, not God; his delight is in her person, not in the divine favour; and his comforts lie in his interviews with her, instead of communion with his Royal Father: his present hopes of a wife overtop his hopes of heaven; and his mind is more employed about his intended, though an unlawful marriage, than about the future marriage of the Lamb. These things