It is possible for a Ship to sink at sea, notwithstanding the most
faithfull endeavour of the most skilful Pilot under Heaven. And thus,
as I suppose, it was with the Prophet that left his wife in debt to the
hazarding the slavery of her children by the Creditors. {105c} He was
no profuse man, nor one that was given to defraud, for the Text says he
feared God; yet, as I said, he was run out more than she could pay.
If God would blow upon a man, who can help it? and he will do so
sometimes, {105d} because he will change dispensations with men, and
because he will trye their Graces. {105e} Yea, also because he will
overthrow the wicked with his Judgments; and all these things are seen
in Job. But then the consideration of this, should bid men have a care
that they be honest, lest this comes upon them for their sin: It should
also bid them beware of launching further into the world, than in an
honest way by ordinary means they can Godlily make their retreat; for
the further in, the greater fall. It should also teach them, to begg
of God his blessing upon their endeavours, their honest and lawfull
endeavours. And it should put them upon a diligent looking to their
steps, that if in their going they should hear the Ice crack, they may
timely goe back again.
These things considered, and duely put in practice, if God will blow
upon a man, then let him be content, and with Job embrace the dunghill;
let him give unto all their dues, and not fight against the Providence
of God, (but humble himself rather under his mighty hand,) which comes
to strip him naked and bare: for he that doth otherwise, fights against
God; and declares that he is a stranger to that of Paul; I know both
how to be abased, and I know how to abound; every where, in all things,
I am instructed both to be full, and to be hungry, both to abound, and
to suffer need. {105f}
Atten. But Mr. Badman would not, I believe, have put this difference
’twixt things feigned, and those that fall of necessity.
Wise. If he will not, God will, Conscience will; and that not thine own
only, but the Consciences of all those that have seen the way, and that
have known the truth of the condition of such an one.
Atten. Well: Let us at this time leave this matter, and return again to
Mr. Badman.
Wise. With all my heart will I proceed to give you a relation of what
is yet behind of his Life, in order to our discourse of his Death.
Atten. But pray do it with as much brevity as you can.
Wise. Why? are you a weary of my relating of things?
Atten. No. But it pleases me to hear a great deal in few words.
Wise. I profess not my self an artist that way, but yet as briefly as I
can, I will pass through what of his Life is behind; and again I shall
begin with his fraudulent dealing (as before I have shewed with his
Creditors, so now) with his Customers, and those that he had otherwise
to deal withall.
He dealt by deceitfull Weights and Measures. {106} He kept weights to
buy by, and weights to sell by; measures to buy by, and measures to
sell by: those he bought by were too big, those he sold by were too
little.
Besides, he could use a thing called slight of hand, if he had to do
with other mens weights and measures, and by that means make them
whether he did buy or sell, yea though his Customer or Chapman looked
on, turn to his own advantage.
Moreover, he had the art to misreckon men in their Accounts whether
by weight, or measure, or money, and would often do it to his worldly
advantage, and their loss: What say you to Mr. Badman now?
And if a question was made of his faithfull dealing, he had his
servants ready, that to his purpose he had brought up, that would
avouch and swear to his Book, or word: this was Mr. Badmans practice;
What think you of Mr. Badman now?
Atten. Think! Why I can think no other but that he was a man left to
himself, a naughty man; for these, as his other, were naughty things;
if the tree, as indeed it may, ought to be judged, what it is by its
fruits; then Mr. Badman must needs be a bad Tree. But pray, for my
further satisfaction, shew me now by the Word of God, evil of this his
practice: and first of his using false Weights and Measures.
Wise. The evil of that! why the evil of that appears to every eye: the
Heathens, that live like Beasts and Bruits in many things, do abominate
and abhorr such wickedness as this. Let a man but look upon these
things as he goes by, and he shall see enough in them from the light of
nature to make him loath so base a practice; although Mr. Badman loved
it.
Atten. But shew me something out of the Word against it, will you?
Wise. I will willingly do it. And first we will look into the Old
Testament: {107a} You shall, saith God there, do no unrighteousness in
Judgment, in mete-yard, in weights or in measures, a just Ballance, a
just Weight, a just Ephah, and a just Hin shall you have. {107b} This
is the Law of God, and that which all men according to the Law of the
land ought to obey. So again: Ye shall have just Ballances, and a just
Ephah, &c. {107c}
Now having shewed you the Law, I will also shew you how God takes
swerving therefrom. A false Ballance is not good; a false Ballance is
an abomination to the Lord. {107d} Some have just Weights but false
Ballances, and by vertue of those false Ballances, by their just
Weights, they deceive the Countrey: {107e} Wherefore, God first of all
commands that the Ballance be made Just: A just Ballance shalt thou
have. Else they may be, yea are, decievers, notwithstanding their just
weights.
Now, having commanded that men have a just Ballance, and testifying
that a false one is an abomination to the Lord, he proceedeth also unto
weight and measure.
Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small;
{107f} that is one to buy by, and another to sell by, as Mr. Badman
had. Thou shalt not have in thy house divers measures, a great and a
small, (and these had Mr. Badman also) but thou shalt have a perfect
and a just weight; a perfect and a just measure shalt thou have, that
thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth
thee. For all that do such things, (that is, that use false Weights and
Measures) and all that do unrighteously are abomination to the Lord.
See now both how plentiful, and how punctual the Scripture is in this
matter. But perhaps it may be objected, that all this is old Law, and
therefore hath nothing to do with us under the New Testament. (Not
that I think you, neighbour, will object thus:) Well, to this foolish
objection, let us make an Answer. First, he that makes this objection,
if he doth it to overthrow the authority of those Texts, {108a}
discovereth that himself is first cousen to Mr. Badman: For a Just man
is willing to speak reverently of those commands. That man therefore
hath, I doubt, but little conscience, if any at all that is good,
that thus objecteth against the Text: but let us look into the New
Testament, and there we shall see how Christ confirmeth the same: Where
he commandeth that men make to others good measure, including also that
they make good weight; telling such that doe thus, or those that do it
not, that they may be encouraged to do it; Good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom;
for with the same measure that ye mete withall, it shall be measured
to you again: {108b} To wit, both from God and man. For as God will
shew his indignation against the false man, by taking away even that
he hath, so he will deliver up the false man to the Oppressor, and the
Extortioner shall catch from him, as well as he hath catched from his
neighbour; therefore another Scripture saith, When thou shalt cease to
deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. That the
New Testament also, hath an inspection into mens Trading, yea even with
their weights and measures, is evident from these general exhortations.
{108c} Defraud not; lye not one to another; let no man goe beyond his
brother in any matter, for God is the avenger of all such: whatsoever
you do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, doing all in his name, to his
glory; and the like. All these injunctions and commandments do respect
our life and conversation among men, with reference to our dealing,
trading, and so consequently they forbid false, deceitful, yea all
doings that are corrupt.
Having thus in a word or two shewed you, that these things are bad; I
will next, for the conviction of those that use them, shew you, where
God saith they are to be found. {109a}
1. They are not to be found in the house of the good and godly man, for
he, as his God, abhorrs them; but they are to be found in the house
of evil doers, {109b} such as Mr. Badmans is. Are there, saith the
Prophet, yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and the scant measure that is abomination? {109c} Are they there yet,
notwithstanding Gods forbidding, notwithstanding Gods tokens of anger
against those that do such things? O how loth is a wicked man to let
goe a sweet, a gainful sin, when he hath hold of it! They hold fast
deceit, they refuse to let it goe.
2. These deceitful Weights and Measures are not to be found in the
house of 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 seems 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 a
man to have, to get money; one would think that he should a been rich.
Wise. You reckon too fast, if you count these all his bad tricks to get
money: For he had more besides. {114a}
If his customers were in his Books (as it should goe hard but he would
have them there; at least, if he thought he could make any advantage of
them,) then, then would he be sure to impose upon them his worst, even
very bad Comodity, yet set down for it the price that the best was sold
at: like those that sold the Refuse Wheat, or the worst of the wheat;
making the Sheckle great, {114b} yet hoisting up the price: This was
Mr. Badmans way. He {114c} would sell goods that cost him not the best
price by far, for as much as he sold the best of all for. He had also
a trick to mingle his comodity, that that which was bad might goe off
with the less mistrust.
Besides, if his customers at any time paid him money, let them look to
themselves, and to their Acquitances, for he would usually attempt to
call for that payment again, specially if he thought that there was
hopes of making a prize thereby, and then to be sure if they could not
produce good and sufficient ground of the payment, a hundred to one but
they payed it again. Sometimes the honest Chapman would appeal to his
servants for proof of the payment of money, but they were trained up by
him to say after his mind, right or wrong: so that, relief that way, he
could get none.
Atten. It is a bad, yea an abominable thing for a man to have such
servants. For by such means a poor customer may be undone and not
know how to help himself. Alas! if the master be so unconscionable,
as I perceive Mr. Badman was, to call for his money twice, and if his
servant will swear that it is a due debt, where is any help for such a
man? he must sink, there is no remedy.
Wise. This is very bad, but this has been a practice, and that hundreds
of years agoe. But what saith the Word of God? I will punish all those
that leap upon the threshold, which fill their masters houses with
violence and deceit. {115a} {115b}
Mr. Badman also had this art; could he get a man at advantage, that
is, if his chapman durst not go from him, or if the comodity he wanted
could not for the present be conveniently had elsewhere; Then let him
look to himself, he would surely make his purse-strings crack; he would
exact upon him without any pity or conscience.
Atten. That was Extortion, was it not? I pray let me hear your Judgment
of Extortion, what it is, and when committed?
Wise. Extortion {115c} is a screwing from men more than by the Law of
God or men is right; and it is committed sometimes by them in Office,
about Fees, Rewards, and the like: but ’tis most commonly committed
by men of Trade, who without all conscience, when they have the
advantage, will make a prey of their neighbour. And thus was Mr. Badman
an Extortioner; for although he did not exact, and force away, as
Bailifs and Clarks have used to doe; yet he had his opportunities, and
such cruelty to make use of them, that he would often, in his way, be
Extorting, and forcing of money out of his Neighbours pocket. For every
man that makes a prey of his advantage upon his neighbours necessities,
to force from him more than in reason and conscience, according to
the present prizes of things such comodity is worth; may very well be
called an Extortioner, and Judged for one that hath No inheritance in
the Kingdom of God. {115d}
Atten. Well, this Badman was a sad wretch.
Wise. Thus you have often said before. But now we are in discourse of
this, give me leave a little to goe on. We have a great many people
in the Countrey too that live all their dayes in the practice, and so
under the guilt of Extortion: people, alas! that think scorn to be so
accounted.
As for Example: {116a} There is a poor body that dwells, we will
suppose, so many miles from the Market; and this man wants a Bushel of
Grist, a pound of Butter, or a Cheese for himself, his wife and poor
children: But dwelling so far from the Market, if he goes thither,
he shall lose his dayes work, which will be eight pence or ten pence
dammage to him, and that is something to a poor man. So he goeth to
one of his Masters or Dames for what he wanteth, and asks them to help
him with such a thing: Yes, say they, you may have it; but withall
they will give him a gripe, perhaps make him pay as much (or more) for
it at home, as they can get when they have carryed it five miles to
a Market, yea and that too for the Refuse of their Commodity. But in
this the Women are especially faulty, in the sale of their Butter and
Cheese, &c. Now this is a kind of Extortion, it is a making a prey of
the necessity of the poor, it is a grinding of their faces, a buying
and selling of them.
But above all, your {116b} Hucksters, that buy up the poor mans
Victuals by whole-sale, and sell it to him again for unreasonable
gains, by retale, and as we call it, by piece meal; they are got into a
way, after a stingeing rate, to play their game upon such by Extortion:
I mean such who buy up Butter, Cheese, Eggs, Bacon, &c. by whole sale,
and sell it again (as they call it) by penny worths, two penny worths,
a half penny worth, or the like, to the poor, all the week after the
market is past.