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

the Mercifull, but in the house of the Cruel; in the house of them that love to oppress. {109d} The Ballances of deceit are in his hand, he loveth to oppress. {109e} He is given to oppression and cruelty, therefore he useth such wicked things in his calling. Yea he is a very cheat, and as was hinted before, concerning Mr. Badmans breaking, so I say now, concerning his using these deceitful weights and measures, it is as bad, as base, as to take a purse, or pick a pocket; for it is a plain robbery, it takes away from a man that which is his own, even the price of his money.

3. The deceitful Weights and Measures are not to be found in the house of such as relieve the belly, and that cover the loyns of the poor, but of such as indeed would swallow them up. {109f} Hear ye this, ye that swallow up the needy, and that make the poor of the land to fail, saying, When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn, and the Sabbath that we may set forth Wheat, making the Ephah small and the Sheckle great, (making the Measure small, and the Price great) and falsifying the Ballances by deceit, that ye may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shooes, and sell the refuse of the Wheat. The Lord hath sworn by the excellencie of Jacob, surely I will not forget any of their works. {109g} So detestable and vile a thing is this in the sight of God.

4. God abominates the thoughts of calling of those that use false weights and measures, by any other term than, that they be Impure ones {110a} or the like: Shall I count them pure (saith he) with the bag of deceitful weights? {110b} no by no means, they are impure ones, their hands are defiled, deceitful gain is in their houses, they have gotten what they have by coveting an evil Covetousness, and therefore must and shall be counted among the impure, among the wicked of the world.

Thus you see how full and plain the Word of God is, against this sin, and them that use it. And therefore Mr. Badman, for that he used by these things thus to rook and cheat his neighbours, is rightly rejected from having his Name in, and among the catalogue of the godly.

Atten. But I am perswaded, that the using of these things, and the doing by them thus deceitfully, is not counted so great an evil by some.

Wise. Whether it be counted an evil or a vertue, by men, it mattereth not; you see by the Scriptures, the Judgment of God upon it. It was not counted an evil by Mr. Badman, nor is it by any that still are treading in his steps. But, I say, ‘tis no matter how men esteem of things, let us adhere to the Judgment of God. And the rather, because when we our selves have done weighing and measuring to others, then God will weigh and measure both us and our actions. And when he doth so, as he will do shortly, then wo be to him to whom, and of whose actions it shall be thus said by him: Tekel, Thou art weighed in the Ballances, and art found wanting. {110c} God will then recompense their evil of deceiving upon their own head, when he shall shut them out of his presence, favour, and kingdom, for ever and ever.

Atten. But ‘tis a wonder, that since Mr. Badmans common practice was to do thus, that some one or more did not find him out, and blame him for this his wickedness.

Wise. For the generality of people, he went away clever with his Knavery. For what with his Ballance, his false Ballance, and good weight, and what with his slight of hand to boot, he beguiled, sometimes a little, and sometimes more, most that he had to deal with: Besides, those that use this naughty trade, are either such as blind men with a shew of Religion, or by hectoring the buyer out by words. I must confess Mr. Badman was not so arch at the first; {111a} that is, to do it by shew of Religion; for now he began to grow threadbare, (though some of his brethren are arch enough this way, yea and of his sisters too, for I told you at first that there was a great many of them, and of them good:) but for hectoring, for swearing, for lying, if these things would make weight and measure, they should not be wanting to Mr. Badmans Customers.

Atten. Then it seem he kept good Weights, and a bad Ballance; well that was better than that both should be bad.

Wise. Not at all. There lay the depth of his deceit: {111b} For if any at any time found fault, that he used them hardly, and that they wanted their weight of things; he would reply: Why did you not see them weighed? will you not believe your own eyes: If you question my weights, pray carry them whether you will, I will maintain them to be good and just. The same he would say of his scales. So he blinded all, by his Ballance.

Atten. This is cunning indeed: but as you say, there must be also something done or said, to blind therewith, and this I perceive Mr. Badman had.

Wise. Yes. He had many ways to blind, but he was never clever at it, by making a shew of Religion, (though he cheated his wife therewith:) for he was, especially by those that dwelt near him, too well known to do that, though he would bungle at it as well as he could. But there are some that are arch villains this way; they shall to view live a whole life Religiously, and yet shall be guilty of these most horrible sins: And yet Religion in it self is never the worse, nor yet the true professors of it. But as Luther says, In the name of God begins all mischief. For Hypocrites have no other way to bring their evils to maturity, but by using and mixing the Name of God and Religion therewith. {112b} Thus they become whited Walls; {112a} for by this white, the white of Religion, the dirt of their actions is hid. Thus also they become graves that appear not, and they that goe over them, (that have to do with them) are not aware of them, but suffer themselves to be deluded by them. Yea, if there shall, as there will sometimes, rise a doubt in the heart of the buyer about the weight and measure he should have, why, he suffereth his very sences to be also deluded, by recalling of his Chapmans Religion to mind, and thinks verily that not his good chapman but himself is out; for he dreams not that his chapman can deceive. But if the buyer shall find it out, and shall make it apparent, that he is beguiled; then shall he be healed by having amends made, and perhaps fault shall be laid upon servants, &c. and so Master Cheat shall stand for a right honest man in the eye of his Customer, though the next time he shall pick his pocket again.

Some {112c} plead Custom for their Cheat, as if that could acquit them before the Tribunal of God: And others say, it came to them for so much, and therefore another must take it for so much, though there is wanting both as to weight and measure: but in all these things there are Juggles; or if not, such must know, {112d} That that which is altogether just, they must doe. Suppose that I be cheated my self with a brass half-Crown, must I therefore cheat another therewith? if this be bad in the whole, it is also bad in the parts. Therefore however thou are dealt withall in thy buying, yet thou must deal justly in selling, or thou sinnest against thy soul, and art become as Mr. Badman. And know, that a pretence to custom is nothing worth. ‘Tis not custom, but good conscience that will help at Gods Tribunal.

Atten. But I am perswaded, that that which is gotten by men this way, doth them but little good.

Wise. I am of your mind for that, but this is not considered by those thus minded. For if they can get it, though they get, as we say, the Devil and all, by their getting, yet they are content, and count that their getting is much.

Little good! Why do you think they consider that? No: no more than they consider what they shall doe in the Judgment, at the day of God Almighty, for their wrong getting of what they get, and that is just nothing at all. {113a}

But to give you a more direct answer. This kind of getting, is so far off from doing them little good, that it doth them no good at all; because thereby they lose their own souls; What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? {113b} He loseth then, he loseth greatly that getteth after this fashion. This is the man that is penny-wise, and pound-foolish; this is he that loseth his good Sheep for a halfpennyworth of tarr; that loseth a soul for a little of the world. And then what doth he get thereby, but loss and dammage? {113c} Thus he getteth, or rather loseth about the world to come: But what doth he get in this world, more than travel and sorrow vexation of spirit, and disappointment? Men aim at blessedness in getting, I mean, at temporal blessedness; but the man that thus getteth, shall not have that. For though an Inheritance after this manner may be hastily gotten at the beginning, yet the end thereof shall not be blessed. They gather it indeed, and think to keep it too, but what says Solomon? God casteth it away. The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish, but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.

The time, as I said, that they do enjoy it, it shall doe them no good at all; but long to be sure they must not have it. For God will either take it away in their life time, or else in the generation following, according to that of Job: He, the wicked, may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. {113d}

Consider that also that is written in the Proverbs: A good man leaveth an Inheritance to his childrens children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. {113e} What then doth he get thereby, that getteth by dishonest means? why he getteth Sin and Wrath, Hell and Damnation: and now tell me how much he doth get.

This, I say, is his getting; so that as David says, we may be bold to say too: I beheld the wicked in great prosperity, and presently I cursed his habitation: for it cannot prosper with him. Fluster and huff, and make a doe for a while he may, but God hath determined that both he and it shall melt like grease, and any observing man may see it so. Behold, the unrighteous man in a way of Injustice getteth much, and loadeth himself with thick Clay, but anon it withereth, it decayeth, and even he, or the Generation following decline, and return to beggery.

And this Mr. Badman, notwithstanding his cunning and crafty tricks to get money, did dye, no body can tell whether worth a farthing or no.

Atten. He had all the bad tricks, I think, that it was possible for