[ 1736] The Devills hard dealing with the en∣snared Sinner.
IT is not unknown how the Spanish Index deals with Velcurio who comment∣ing on Livy,* 1.1 saith; That the fifth age was decrepit under the Popes and the Empe∣rours; The Index favourably takes out the Popes, and leaves the Emperours wholly obnoxious to the imputation: Thus the Devill winds out himself at the last from the wicked, refusing to carry the burthen any longer, but leaves it wholly to their supportation; he that flattered them before with the paucity of their sins, now takes them in the lurch, and over-reckons them, he that kept them so long in the beautiful Gallery of Hope,* 1.2 now takes them aside and shews them the dark Dungeon of despair, and ingrossing all their iniquities in great text-letters hangs them on the curtain of their beds feet, to the wracking amazement of their distracted and distempered Souls.