The Works of John Bunyan, vol 3, John Bunyan [ebook reader color screen TXT] 📗

links of a chain; he that will be a drunkard, must have money, either of his own or of some other man’s; either of his father’s, mother’s, master’s, or at the highway, or some way.

ATTEN. I fear that many an honest man is undone by such kind of servants.

WISE. I am of the same mind with you, but this should make the dealer the more wary what kind of servants he keeps, and what kind of apprentices he takes. It should also teach him to look well to his shop himself; also to take strict account of all things that are bought and sold by his servants. The master’s neglect herein may embolden his servant to be bad, and may bring him too in short time to rags and a morsel of bread.

ATTEN. I am afraid that there is much of this kind of pilfering among servants in these bad days of ours.

WISE. Now while it is in my mind, I will tell you a story. When I was in prison, there came a woman to me that was under a great deal of trouble.[26] So I asked her, she being a stranger to me, what she had to say to me. She said she was afraid she should be damned. I asked her the cause of those fears. She told me that she had, some time since, lived with a shopkeeper at Wellingborough, and had robbed his box in the shop several times of money, to the value of more than now I will say; and pray, says she, tell me what I shall do. I told her I would have her go to her master, and make him satisfaction. She said she was afraid; I asked her, why? She said, she doubted he would hang her. I told her that I would intercede for her life, and would make use of other friends too to do the like; but she told me she durst not venture that.

Well, said I, shall I send to your master, while you abide out of sight, and make your peace with him, before he sees you; and with that I asked her her master’s name. But all that she said, in answer to this, was, Pray let it alone till I come to you again.

So away she went, and neither told me her master’s name nor her own. This is about ten or twelve years since, and I never saw her again. I tell you this story for this cause; to confirm your fears that such kind of servants too many there be; and that God makes them sometimes like old Tod, of whom mention was made before, through the terrors that he lays upon them, to betray themselves.

I could tell you of another, that came to me with a like relation concerning herself, and the robbing of her mistress; but at this time let this suffice.

ATTEN. But what was that other villain addicted to; I mean young Badman’s third companion.

WISE. Uncleanness; I told you before, but it seems you forgot.

ATTEN. Right, it was uncleanness. Uncleanness is also a filthy sin.

WISE. It is so; and yet it is one of the most reigning sins in our day.[27]

ATTEN. So they say, and that too among those that one would think had more wit, even among the great ones.

WISE. The more is the pity; for usually examples that are set by them that are great and chief, spread sooner, and more universally, than do the sins of other men; yea, and when such men are at the head in transgressing, sin walks with a bold face through the land. As Jeremiah saith of the prophets, so may it be said of such, ‘From them is profaneness gone forth into all the land’: that is, with bold and audacious face (Jer 23:15).

ATTEN. But pray let us return again to Mr. Badman and his companions.

You say one of them was very vile in the commission of uncleanness.

WISE. Yes, so I say; not but that he was a drunkard and also thievish, but he was most arch in this sin of uncleanness: this roguery was his masterpiece, for he was a ringleader to them all in the beastly sin of whoredom. He was also best acquainted with such houses where they were, and so could readily lead the rest of his gang unto them. The strumpets also, because they knew this young villain, would at first discover themselves in all their whorish pranks to those that he brought with him.

ATTEN. That is a deadly thing: I mean, it is a deadly thing to young men, when such beastly queens shall, with words and carriages that are openly tempting, discover themselves unto them; it is hard for such to escape their snare.

WISE. That is true, therefore the wise man’s counsel is the best: ‘Come not nigh the door of her house’ (Prov 5:8). For they are, as you say, very tempting, as is seen by her in the Proverbs. ‘I looked,’ says the wise man, ‘through my casement, and behold among the simple ones I discerned a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner, and he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. And, behold, there met him a women with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart; she is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house; now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner. So she caught him, and kissed him, and, with an impudent face, said unto him, I have peace-offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows. Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves’ (Prov 7:6-18). Here was a bold beast. And, indeed, the very eyes, hands, words, and ways of such, are all snares and bands to youthful, lustful fellows.

And with these was young Badman greatly snared.

ATTEN. This sin of uncleanness is mightily cried out against both by Moses, the prophets, Christ, and his apostles; and yet, as we see, for all that, how men run headlong to it!

WISE. You have said the truth, and I will add, that God, to hold men back from so filthy a sin, has set such a stamp of his indignation upon it, and commanded such evil effects to follow it, that, were not they that use it bereft of all fear of God, and love to their own health, they could not but stop and be afraid to commit it.

For besides the eternal damnation that doth attend such in the next world, for these have no ‘inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God’ (Eph 5:5), the evil effects thereof in this world are dreadful.

ATTEN. Pray show me some of them, that as occasion offereth itself, I may show them to others for their good.

WISE. So I will. 1. It bringeth a man, as was said of the sin before, to want and poverty; ‘For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread’ (Prov 6:26). The reason is, for that a whore will not yield without hire; and men, when the devil and lust is in them, and God and his fear far away from them, will not stick, so they may accomplish their desire, to lay their signet, their bracelets, and their staff to pledge, rather than miss of the fulfilling of their lusts (Gen 38:18). 2. Again, by this sin men diminish their strength, and bring upon themselves, even upon the body a multitude of diseases. This King Lemuels’

mother warned him of. ‘What, my son?’ said she, ‘and what the son of my womb? And what the son of my vows? Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings’ (Prov 31:2,3). This sin is destructive to the body. Give me leave to tell you another story. I have heard of a great man that was a very unclean person, and he had lived so long in that sin that he had almost lost his sight. So his physicians were sent for, to whom he told his disease; but they told him that they could do him no good, unless he would forbear his women. Nay then, said he, farewell sweet sight. Whence observe, that this sin, as I said, is destructive to the body; and also, that some men be so in love therewith, that they will have it, though it destroy their body.[28]

ATTEN. Paul says also, that he that sins this sin, sins against his own body. But what of that? He that will run the hazard of eternal damnation of his soul, but he will commit this sin, will for it run the hazard of destroying his body. If young Badman feared not the damnation of his soul, do you think that the consideration of impairing of his body would have deterred him therefrom?

WISE. You say true. But yet, methinks, there are still such bad effects follow, often upon the commission of it, that if men would consider them, it would put, at least, a stop to their career therein.

ATTEN. What other evil effects attend this sin?

WISE. Outward shame and disgrace, and that in these particulars:—

First, There often follows this foul sin the foul disease, now called by us the pox. A disease so nauseous and stinking, so infectious to the whole body, and so entailed to this sin, that hardly are any common with unclean women, but they have more or less a touch of it to their shame.

ATTEN. That is a foul disease indeed! I knew a man once that rotted away with it; and another that had his nose eaten off, and his mouth almost quite sewed up thereby.

WISE. It is a disease, that where it is it commonly declares that the cause thereof is uncleanness. It declares to all that behold such a man, that he is an odious, a beastly, unclean person. This is that strange punishment that Job speaks of, that is appointed to seize on these workers of iniquity (Job 31:1-3).

ATTEN. Then it seems you think, that the strange punishment that Job there speaks of should be the foul disease.

WISE. I have thought so indeed, and that for this reason. We see that this disease is entailed, as I may say, to this most beastly sin, nor is there any disease so entailed to any other sin as this to this. That this is the sin to which the strange punishment is entailed, you will easily perceive when you read the text. ‘I made a covenant with mine eyes,’ said Job, ‘why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there,’ for that sin, ‘from above, and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?’

And then he answers himself: ‘Is not destruction to the wicked, and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?’ This strange punishment is the pox. Also, I think that this foul disease is that which Solomon intends when he saith, speaking of this unclean and beastly creature, ‘A wound and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away’ (Prov 6:33). A punishment Job calls it; a wound and dishonour Solomon calls it; and they both do set it as a remark upon this sin; Job calling it a ‘strange punishment,’ and Solomon a ‘reproach that shall not be wiped away,’