Life and Death of Mr. Badman by John Bunyan (most life changing books TXT) 📕

farthi[n]g from them. Yet nevertheless he would shew himself an honest man, and would pay as far as he was able; and if they were willing to come to terms, he would make a composition with them, (for he was not able to pay them all.) The Creditors asked what he would give? {94c} ‘Twas replyed, Half a crown in the pound. At this they began to huff, and he to renew his complaint and entreaty; but the Creditors would not hear, and so for that time their meeting without success broke up. But after his Creditors were in cool blood, and admitting of second thoughts, and fearing lest delays should make them lose all, they admit of a second debate, come together again, and by many words, and great ado, they obtained five shillings i’th’ pound. {94d} So the money was produced, Releases and Discharges drawn, signed, and sealed, Books crossed, and all things confirmed; and then Mr. Badman can put his head out of dores again, and be a better man than when he shut up Shop, by several thousands of pounds.

Atten. And did he do thus indeed?

Wise, Yes, once, and again. I think he brake twice or thrice.

Atten. And did he do it before he had need to do it?

Wise. Need! What do you mean by need? there is no need at any time for a man to play the knave. {95a} He did it of a wicked mind, to defraud and beguile his Creditors: he had wherewithall of his Father, and also by his Wife, to have lived upon, with lawfull labour, like an honest man. He had also when he made this wicked Break (though he had been a profuse and prodigal spender) to have paid his creditors their own to a farthing. But had he done so, he had not done like himself, like Mr. Badman; had he, I say, dealt like an honest man, he had then gone out of Mr. Badmans road. He did it therefore of a dishonest mind, and to a wicked end; to wit, that he might have wherewithall, howsoever unlawfully gotten, to follow his Cups and Queans, and to live in the full swinge of his lusts, even as he did before.

Atten. Why this was a meer Cheat.

Wise. It was a cheat indeed. This way of breaking, it is else but a more neat way of Thieving, of picking of pockets, of breaking open of shops, and of taking from men what one has nothing to do with. But though it seem easie, it is hard to learn, no man that has conscience to God or man, can ever be his Crafts Master in this Hellish art.

Atten. Oh! Sirs! what a wicked man was this?

Wise. A wicked man indeed. By this art he could tell how to make men send their goods to his shop, and then be glad to take a penny for that for which he had promised before it came thither, to give them a Groat: I say, he could make them glad to take a Crown for a pounds worth, and a thousand for that for which he had promised before to give them four thousand pounds.

Atten. This argueth that Mr. Badman had but little conscience.

Wise. This argued that Mr. Badman had No Conscience at all; for Conscience, the least spark of a good Conscience cannot endure this.

Atten. Before we go any further in Mr. Badmans matters, let me desire you, if you please, to give me an answer to these two questions. {96a}

1. What do you find in the Word of God against such a practice, as this of Mr. Badmans is? {96b}

2. What would you have a man do that is in his Creditors debt, and can neither pay him what be owes him, nor go on in a trade any longer?

Wise. I will answer you as well as I can. And first to the first of your questions. To wit, What I find in the Word of God against such a practice, as this of Mr. Badmans is.

Answ. The Word of God doth forbid this wickedness; and to make it the more odious in our eyes, it joyns it with Theft and Robbery: Thou shalt not, says God, defraud thy neighbour, nor rob him. {96c} Thou shalt not defraud, that is, deceive or beguile. Now thus to break, is to defraud, deceive and beguile; which is, as you see, forbidden by the God of Heaven: Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, nor rob him. It is a kind of theft and robbery, thus to defraud, and beguile. {96d} It is a wilely robbing of his shop, and picking of his pocket: a thing odious to Reason and Conscience, and contrary to the Law of nature. It is a designed piece of wickedness, and therefore a double sin. A man cannot do this great wickedness on a sudden, and through a violent assault of Satan. He that will commit this sin, must have time to deliberate, that by invention, he may make it formidable, and that with lies and high dissimulations. He that commits this wickedness, must first hatch it upon his bed, beat his head about it, and lay his plot strong: So that to the completing of such a wickedness, there must be adjoyned many sins, and they too, must go hand in hand untill it be compleated. But what saith the Scripture? {96e}{96f} Let no man go beyond, and defraud his Brother in any matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such. But this kind of Breaking is a going beyond my Brother; This is a compassing of him about that I may catch him in my net; and as I said, an art to rob my Brother, and to pick his pocket, and that with his consent. Which doth not therefore mitigate, but so much the more greaten and make odious the offence. For men that are thus wilily abused cannot help themselves, they are taken in a deceitfull net. But God will here concern himself, he will be the avenger, he will be the avenger of all such either here or in another world.

And this, the Apostle testifies again, where he saith; {97a} But he that doth wrong, shall receive for the wrong that he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. {97b} That is, there is no man, be he what he will, if he will be guilty of this sin, of going beyond, of beguiling of, and doing wrong to his Brother, but God will call him to an account for it, and will pay him with vengeance for it too; for there is no respect of persons.

I might add, that this sin of wronging, of going beyond, and defrauding of my Neighbour, it is like that first prank that the Devil plaid with our first Parents, {97c} (as the Altar that Uriah built for Ahaz, was taken from the fashion of that that stood at Damascus, to be the very pattern of it.) The Serpent beguiled me, says Eve; Mr. Badman beguiles his Creditors. The Serpent beguiled Eve with lying promises of gain; and so did Mr. Badman beguile his Creditors. The Serpent said one thing and meant another, when he beguiled Eve; and so did Mr. Badman when he beguiled his Creditors.

That man therefore that doth thus deceive and beguile his neighbour, imitateth the Devil; he taketh his examples from him, and not from God, the Word, or good men: and this did Mr. Badman.

And now to your second question: To wit, What I would have a man do, that is in his Creditors debt, and that can neither pay him, nor go on in a trade any longer? {97d}

Answ. First of all. If this be his case, and he knows it, let him not run one penny further in his Creditors debt. For that cannot be done with good conscience. He that knowes he cannot pay, and yet will run into debt; does knowingly wrong and defraud his neighbour, and falls under that sentence of the Word of God, The wicked borroweth and payeth not again. Yea worse, he borrows though at the very same time he knows that he cannot pay again. He doth also craftily take away what is his Neighbours. That is therefore the first thing that I would propound to such: Let him not run any further into his Creditors debt. {98a}

Secondly, After this, let him consider, {98b} how, and by what means he was brought into such a condition, that he could not pay his just debts. To wit, whether it was by his own remisness in his Calling, by living too high in Dyet or Apparel, by lending too ravishingly that which was none of his own, to his loss; or whether by the immediate hand and Judgment of God.

If by searching, he findes, that this is come upon him through remisness in his Calling, Extravagancies in his Family, or the like; let him labour for a sence of his sin and wickedness, {98c} for he has sinned against the Lord: First, in his being slothfull in business, and in not providing, to wit, of is own, by the sweat of his brows, or other honest ways, for those of his own house. {98d} And secondly in being lavishing in Dyet and Apparel in the Family, or in lending to others that which was none of his own. This cannot be done with good conscience: it is both against reason and nature, and therefore must be a sin against God. I say therefore, if thus this debtor hath done, if ever he would live quietly in conscience, and comfortably in his condition for the future, let him humble himself before God, and repent of this his wickedness. For he that is slothfull in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster. {98e} To be slothfull and a waster too, is to be as it were a double sinner.

But again, as this man should enquire into these things, so he should also into this. How came I into this way of dealing in which I have now miscarried? is it a way that my Parents brought me up in, put me Apprentice to, or that by providence I was first thrust into? or is it a way into which I have twisted my self, as not being contented with my first lot, that by God and my Parents I was cast into? This ought duly to be considered. {98f} And if upon search, a man shall find that he is out of the place and Calling into which he was put by his Parents, or the Providence of God, and has miscarried in a new way, that through pride and dislike of his first state he as chose rather to embrace; his miscarriage is his sin, the fruit of his Pride, and a token of the Judgment of God upon him for his leaving of his first state. And for this he ought, as for the former, to be humble and penitent before the Lord.

But if by search, he finds, that his poverty came by none of these; if by honest search, he finds it so, and can say with good conscience, I went not out of my place and state in which God by his providence had put me; but have abode with God in the calling wherein I was called, and have wrought hard, and fared meanly, been civilly apparelled, and have not directly, nor indirectly made away with my Creditors goods: Then has his fall come upon him by the immediate hand of God, whether by visible or invisible wayes. For sometimes it comes by visible wayes, to wit, by Fire, by Thieves, by loss of Cattel, or the wickedness of sinful dealers,