Life and Death of Mr. Badman Part 16

4. {135b} The Word saith, that The Lord will destroy the House of the proud. He will destroy his House; it may be understood, he will destroy him and his. So he destroyed proud Pharaoh, so he destroyed proud Corah, and many others.

5. {135c} Pride, where it comes, and is entertained, is a certain forerunner of some Judgment that is not far behind. When pride goes before, shame and destruction will follow after. When pride cometh, then cometh shame. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

6. {135d} Persisting in pride makes the condition of a poor man as remediless as is that of the Devils themselves.

And this I fear was Mr. Badmans condition, and that was the reason that he died so as he did; as I shall shew you anon.

But what need I thus talk of the particular actions, or rather prodigious sins of Mr. Badman, when his whole Life and all his actions, went as it were to the making up one ma.s.sie body of sin? {135e} Instead of believing that there was a G.o.d, his Mouth, his Life and Actions declared, that he believed no such thing. His transgression said within my heart, that there was no fear of G.o.d before his eyes. {135f} {135g} Instead of honouring of G.o.d, and of giving glory to him for any of his Mercies, or under any of his good Providences towards him (for G.o.d is good to all, and lets his Sun s.h.i.+ne, and his Rain fall upon the unthankful and unholy,) he would ascribe the glory to other causes. If they were Mercies, he would ascribe them (if the open face of the providence did not give him the lye) to his own wit, labour, care, industry, cunning, or the like: if they were Crosses, he would ascribe them, or count them the offspring of Fortune, ill Luck, Chance, the ill mannagement of matters, the ill will of neighbours, or to his wifes being Religious, and spending, as he called it, too much time in Reading, Praying, or the like. It was not in his way to acknowledge G.o.d, (that is, graciously) or his hand in things. But, as the Prophet saith; Let favour be skewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. {136a} And again, They returned not to him that smote them, nor did they seek the Lord of hosts.

{136b} This was Mr. Badmans temper, neither Mercies nor Judgment would make him seek the Lord. Nay, as another Scripture sayes, he would not see the works of G.o.d, nor regard the operations of his hands either in mercies or in Judgments. {136c} But further, when by Providence he has been cast under the best Means for his soul, (for, as was shewed before, he having had a good master, and before him a good father, and after all a good wife, and being sometimes upon a Journey, and cast under the hearing of a good Sermon, as he would sometimes for novelties sake go to hear a good Preacher;) he was always without heart to make use thereof: In this land of righteousness he would deal unjustly, and would not behold the majesty of the Lord.

Instead of reverencing the Word, {136g} when he heard it preached, read, or discoursed of, he would sleep, talk of other Business, or else object against the authority, harmony, and wisdom of the Scriptures. Saying, How do you know them to be the Word of G.o.d? how do you know that these sayings are true? The Scriptures, he would say, were as a Nose of Wax, and a man may turn them whithersoever he lists: one Scripture says one thing, and another sayes the quite contrary; Besides, they make mention of a thousand imposibilities; they are the cause of all dissensions and discords that are in the Land: Therefore you may (would he say) still think what you will, but in my mind they are best at ease that have least to do with them.

Instead of loving and honouring of them that did bear in their Foreheads the Name, and in their Lives the Image of Christ, they should be his Song, {136h} the matter of his Jests, and the objects of his slanders.

He would either make a mock at their sober deportment, their gracious language, quiet behaviour, or else desperately swear that they did all in deceit and hypocrisie. He would endeavour to render G.o.dly men as odious and contemptable as he could; any lyes that were made by any, to their disgrace, those he would avouch for truth, and would not endure to be controlled. He was much like those that the prophet speaks of, that would sit and slander his mothers son; {137a} yea, he would speak reproachfully of his wife, though his conscience told him, and many would testifie, that she was a very vertuous woman. He would also raise slanders of his wives friends himself, affirming that their doctrine tended to lasciviousness, and that in their a.s.semblies they acted and did unbeseeming men and women, that they committed uncleanness, &c. He was much like those that affirmed the Apostle should say, Let us do evil that good may come: {137b} Or like those of whom it is thus written: Report, say they, and we will report it. {137c} And if he could get any thing by the end that had scandal in it, if it did but touch professors, how falsely soever reported; Oh! then he would glory, laugh, and be glad, and lay it upon the whole party: Saying, Hang them Rogues, there is not a barrel better Herring of all the holy Brotherhood of them: Like to like, quoth the Devil to the Collier, this is your precise Crew. And then he would send all home with a curse.

Atten. If those that make profession of Religion be wise, Mr. Badmans watchings and words will make them the more wary and careful in all things.

Wise. You say true. For when we see men do watch for our halting, and rejoyce to see us stumble and fall, it should make us so much abundance the more careful. {137d}

I do think it was as delightful to Mr. Badman to hear, raise, and tell lies, and lying stories of them that fear the Lord, as it was for him to go to bed when a weary. But we will at this time let these things pa.s.s.

For as he was in these things bad enough, so he added to these, many more the like.

He was an {137e} angry, wrathfull, envious man, a man that knew not what meekness or gentleness meant, nor did he desire to learn. His natural temper was to be surly, huffie, and rugged, and worse; and he so gave way to his temper, as to this, that it brought him to be furious and outrageous in all things, specially against goodness it self, and against other things too, when he was displeased. {138a}

Atten. Solomon saith, He is a fool that rageth.

Wise. He doth so; and sayes moreover, That anger rests in the bosom of fools. {138b} And truly, if it be a sign of a Fool to have anger rest in his bosom, then was Mr. Badman, notwithstanding the conceit that he had of his own abilities, a Fool of no small size.

Atten. Fools are mostly most wise in their own eyes.

Wise. True. But I was a saying, that if it be a sign that a man is a Fool, when Anger rests in his bosom; Then what is it a sign of, think you, when Malice and Envy rests there? For to my knowledge Mr. Badman was as malicious and as envious a man as commonly you can hear of.

Atten. Certainly, malice and envy flow {138c} from pride and arrogancy, and they again from ignorance, and ignorance from the Devil; And I thought, that since you spake of the pride of Mr. Badman before, we should have something of these before we had done.

Wise. Envy flows from Ignorance indeed. And this Mr. Badman was so envious an one, where he set against, that he would swell with it, as a Toad, as we say, swells with poyson. He whom he maligned, might at any time even read envy in his face wherever he met with him, or in whatever he had to do with him.

His envy was so rank and strong, that if it at any time turned its head against a man, it would hardly ever be pulled in again: He would watch over that man to do him mischief, as the Cat watches over the Mouse to destroy it; yea, he would wait seven years, but he would have an opportunity to hurt him, and when he had it, he would make him feel the weight of his Envy.

Envy is a devilish thing, the Scripture intimates that none can stand before it. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty, but a fools wrath is heavier than them both. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who can stand before envy? {138d} {138e}

This Envy, for the foulness of it, is reckoned {138f} among the foulest Villanies that are, as adultery, murder, drunkenness, revellings, witchcrafts, heresies, seditions, &c. Yea, it is so malignant a corruption, that it rots the very bones of him in whom it dwells. A sound heart is life to the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones.

{139a}

Atten. This Envy is the very Father and Mother of a great many hideous and prodigious wickednesses: I say, it is the very {139b} Father and Mother of them; it both besets them, and also nourishes them up, till they come to their cursed maturity in the bosom of him that entertains them.

Wise. You have given it a very right description, in calling of it the Father and Mother of a great many other prodigious wickednesses: for it is so venomous and vile a thing, that it puts the whole course of Nature out of order, and makes it fit for nothing but confusion, and a hold for every evil thing. For where envy and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work. {139c} Wherefore, I say, you have rightly called it, The very Father and Mother of a great many other sins. And now for our further edification, I will reckon up some of the births of Envy.

1. Envy, as I told you before, it rotteth the very bones of him that entertains it. And, {139d}

2. As you have also hinted, it is heavier than a Stone, than Sand; yea, and I will add, It falls like a Mill-stone upon the head. Therefore,

3. It kills him that throws it, and him at whom it is thrown. Envy slayeth the silly one. {139e} That is, him in whom it resides, and him who is its object.

4. 'Twas that also that slew Jesus Christ himself; for his adversaries persecuted him through their envy. {139f} {139g}

5. Envy was that by vertue of which Joseph was sold by his Brethren into Egypt: {139h}

6. 'Tis envy that hath the hand in making of variance among G.o.ds Saints.

{139i}

7. 'Tis envy in the hearts of Sinners, that stirres them up to thrust G.o.ds Ministers out of their coasts.

8. What shall I say? 'Tis envy that is the very Nursery of whisperings, debates, backbitings, slanders, reproaches, murders, &c.

'Tis not possible to repeat all the particular fruits of this sinfull root. Therefore, it is no marvel that Mr. Badman was such an ill natured man, for the great roots of all manner of wickedness were in him, unmortified, unmaimed, untouched.

Atten. But it is {140a} a rare case, even this of Mr. Badman, that he should never in all his life be touched with remorse for his ill-spent life.

Wise. Remorse, I cannot say he ever had, if by remorse you mean repentance for his evils. Yet twice I remember he was under some trouble of mind about his condition: {140b} Once when he broke his legg as he came home drunk from the Ale-house; and another time when he fell sick, and thought he should die: Besides these two times, I do not remember any more.

Atten. Did he break his legg then?

Wise. Yes: Once, as he came home drunk from the Ale-house.

Atten. Pray how did he break it?

Wise. Why upon a time he was at an Ale-house, that wicked house, about two or three miles from home, and having there drank hard the greatest part of the day, when night was come, he would stay no longer, but calls for his horse, gets up, and like a Madman (as drunken persons usually ride) away he goes, as hard as horse could lay legs to the ground. Thus he rid, till coming to a dirty place, where his horse flouncing in, fell, threw his master, and with his fall broke his legg: so there he lay.

{140c} But you would not think how he {140d} swore at first. But after a while, he comeing to himself, and feeling by his pain, and the uselesness of his legg, what case he was in, and also fearing that this bout might be his death; he began to crie out after the manner of such; {140e} Lord help me, Lord have mercy upon me, good G.o.d deliver me, and the like. So there he lay, till some came by, who took him up, carried him home, where he lay for some time, before he could go abroad again.

Atten. And then, you say, he called upon G.o.d.

Wise. He cryed out in his pain, and would say, O G.o.d, and O Lord, help me: but whether it was that his sin might be pardoned, and his soul saved, or whether to be rid of his pain, I will not positively determine; though I fear it was but for the last; {141a} because, when his pain was gone, and he had got hopes of mending, even before he could go abroad, he cast off prayer, and began his old game; to wit, to be as bad as he was before. He then would send for his old companions; his s.l.u.ts also would come to his house to see him, and with them he would be, as well as he could for his lame leg, as vicious as they could be for their hearts.

Atten. 'Twas a wonder he did not break his neck.

Wise. His neck had gone instead of his leg, but that G.o.d was long-suffering towards him; he had deserved it ten thousand times over.

There have been many, as I have heard, and as I have hinted to you before, that have taken their Horses when drunk, as he; but they have gone from the pot to the grave; for they have broken their necks 'twixt the Ale-house and home. [Picture: Take note symbol] One hard by us also drunk himself dead; he drank, and dyed in his drink.

Atten. 'Tis a sad thing to dye drunk.

Wise. So it is: But yet I wonder that no more do so. For considering the heinousness of that sin, and with how many other sins it is accompanied, {141c} as with oaths, blasphemies, lyes, revellings, wh.o.r.eings, brawlings, &c. it is a wonder to me, that any that live in that sin should escape such a blow from heaven that should tumble them into their graves. Besides, when I consider also how, when they are as drunk as beasts, they, without all fear of danger, will ride like Bedlams and mad men, even as if they did dare G.o.d to meddle with them if he durst, for their being drunk: I say, I wonder that he doth not withdraw his protecting providences from them, and leave them to those Dangers and Destructions that by their sin they have deserved, and that by their Bedlam madness they would rush themselves into: only I consider again, that he has appointed a day wherein he will reckon with them, {141d} and doth also commonly make Examples of some, to shew that he takes notice of their sin, abhorrs their way, and will count with them for it at the set time.

Atten. It is worthy of our remark, to take notice how G.o.d, to shew his dislike of the sins of men, strikes some of them down with a blow; as the breaking of Mr. Badmans legg, for doubtless that was a stroak from heaven.

Wise. It is worth our remark indeed. It was an open stroak, it fell upon him while he was in the height of his sin: And it looks much like to that in Job; Therefore he knoweth their works, and overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed. He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others: {142a} Or as the Margent reads it, in the place of beholders. He layes them with his stroak in the place of beholders.

There was {142b} Mr. Badman laid, his stroak was taken notice of by every one: his broken legg was at this time the Town-talk. Mr. Badman has broken his legg, sayes one: How did he break it? sayes another: As he came home drunk from such an Ale-house, said a third; A Judgment of G.o.d upon him, said a fourth. This his sin, his shame, and punishment, are all made conspicuous to all that are about him. I will here tell you another story or two.

I have read in Mr. Clark's Looking-gla.s.s for Sinners; {142c} That upon a time, a certain drunken fellow boasted in his Cups, that there was neither Heaven nor h.e.l.l; also he said, He believed, that man had no Soul, and that for his own part, he would sell his soul to any that would buy it. Then did one of his companions buy it of him for a cup of Wine; and presently the Devil in mans shape bought it of that man again at the same price; and so in the presence of them all laid hold on this Soul-seller, and carried him away through the Air, so that he was never more heard of.