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

had he, I say, dealt like an honest man, he had then gone out of Mr. Badman’s road. He did it therefore of a dishonest mind, and to a wicked end; to wit, that he might have wherewithal, howsoever unlawfully gotten, to follow his cups and queans,[44] and to live in the full swing of his lusts, even as he did before.

ATTEN. Why this was a mere cheat.

WISE. It was a cheat indeed. This way of breaking, it is nothing 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 easy, 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. O! Sir! 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 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 pound’s 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. Badman’s matters, let me desire you, if you please, to give me an answer to these two questions. 1. What do you find in the Word of God against such a practice as this of Mr. Badman’s is? 2. What would you have a man do that is in his creditor’s debt, and can neither pay him what he 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. Badman’s is.

The Word of God doth forbid this wickedness; and to make it the more odious in our eyes, it joins it with theft and robbery. ‘Thou shalt not,’ says God, ‘defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him’

(Lev 19:13). 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, neither rob him.’ It is a kind of theft and robbery, thus to defraud, and beguile. It is a vilely 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 adjoined many sins, and they too must go hand in hand until it be completed. But what saith the scripture? ‘Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such’ (1 Thess 4:6). 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 deceitful 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, ‘But he that doeth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of persons’ (Col 3:25). 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 played with our first parents, as the altar that Uriah built of 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 creditor’s debt, and that can neither pay him, nor go on in a trade any longer?

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 knows 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’ (Psa 37:21). 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 neighbour’s.

That is therefore the first thing that I would propound to such; let him not run any farther into his creditors’ debt.

Secondly, After this, let him consider, 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 remissness in his calling, by living too high in diet or apparel, by lending too lavishingly that which was none of his own, to his loss; or whether by the immediate hand and judgment of God.

If by searching he finds that this is come upon him through remissness in his calling, extravagancies in his family, or the like; let him labour for a sense of his sin and wickedness, for he has sinned against the Lord. First, in his being slothful in business, and in not providing, to wit, of his own, by the sweat of his brow, or other honest ways, for those of his own house (Rom 12:11; 1 Tim 5:8). And, secondly, in being lavishing in diet 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 slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster’ (Prov 18:9). To be slothful and a waster too, is to be as it were a double sinner.

But again, as this man should inquire 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 myself, as not being contented with my first lot, that by God and my parents I was cast into? This ought duly to be considered, 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 has 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 ways. For sometimes it comes by visible ways, to wit, by fire, by thieves, by loss of cattle, or the wickedness of sinful dealers, &c. And sometimes by means invisible, and then no man knows how; we only see things are going, but cannot see by what way they go. Well, now suppose that a man, by an immediate hand of God, is brought to a morsel of bread, what must he do now?

I answer: His surest way is still to think, that this is the fruit of some sin, though possibly not sin in the management of his calling, yet of some other sin. ‘God casteth away the substance of the wicked’ (Prov 10:3). Therefore let him still humble himself before his God, because his hand is upon him, and say, What sin is this, for which this hand of God is upon me? (1 Peter 5:6).

And let him be diligent to find it out, for some sin is the cause of this judgment; for God ‘doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men’ (Lam 3:33). Either the heart is too much set upon the world, or religion is too much neglected in thy family, or something. There is a snake in the grass, a worm in the gourd; some sin in thy bosom, for the sake of which God doth thus deal with thee.

Thirdly, This thus done, let that man again consider thus with himself: perhaps God is now changing of my condition and state in the world; he has let me live in fashion, in fulness, and abundance of worldly glory; and I did not to his glory improve, as I should, that his good dispensation to me. But when I lived in full and fat pasture, I did there lift up the heel (Deut 32:15). Therefore he will now turn me into hard commons, that with leanness, and hunger, and meanness, and want, I may spend the rest of my days. But let him do this without murmuring and repining; let him