[BADMAN IN BUSINESS, THE TRICKS OF A WICKED TRADESMAN.]
ATTEN. And did the old man give him money to set up with?
WISE. Yes, above two hundred pounds.
ATTEN. Therein, I think, the old man was out. Had I been his
father, I would have held him a little at staves-end, till I had
had far better proof of his manners to be good; for I perceive
that his father did know what a naughty boy he had been, both by
what he used to do at home, and because he changed a good master
for a bad, &c. He should not therefore have given him money so
soon. What if he had pinched a little, and gone to journey-work for
a time, that he might have known what a penny was, by his earning
of it? Then, in all probability, he had known better how to have
spent it: yea, and by that time perhaps, have better considered
with himself, how to have lived in the world. Ay, and who knows
but he might have come to himself with the prodigal, and have
asked God and his father forgiveness for the villainies that he
had committed against them.
WISE. If his father could also have blessed this manner of dealing
to him, and have made it effectual for the ends that you have
propounded, then I should have thought as you. But alas, alas,
you talk as if you never knew, or had at this present forgot what
the bowels and compassions of a father are. Why, did you not serve
your own son so? But it is evident enough that we are better at
giving good counsel to others, than we are at taking good counsel
ourselves. But mine honest neighbour, suppose that Mr. Badman's
father had done as you say, and by so doing had driven his son to
ill courses, what had he bettered either himself or his son in so
doing?
ATTEN. That is true, but it doth not follow that if the father had
done as I said, the son would have done as you suppose. But if he
had done as you have supposed, what had he done worse than what
he hath done already?
WISE. He had done bad enough, that is true. But suppose his father
had given him no money, and suppose that young Badman had taken a
pet thereat, and in an anger had gone beyond sea, and his father
had neither seen him, nor heard of him more. Or suppose that of a
mad and headstrong stomach, he had gone to the highway for money,
and so had brought himself to the gallows, and his father and
family to great contempt, or if by so doing he had not brought
himself to that end, yet he had added to all his wickedness such
and such evils besides; and what comfort could his father have had
in this? Besides, when his father had done for him what he could,
with desire to make him an honest man, he would then, whether his
son had proved honest or no, have laid down his head with far more
peace than if he had taken your counsel.
ATTEN. Nay I think I should not have been forward to have given
advice in the cause; but truly you have given me such an account
of his villainies, that the hearing thereof has made me angry with
him.
WISE. In an angry mood we may soon outshoot ourselves, but poor
wretch as he is, he is gone to his place. But, as I said, when a
good father hath done what he can for a bad child, and that child
shall prove never the better, he will lie down with far more peace,
than if through severity, he had driven him to inconveniences.
I remember that I have heard of a good woman, that had, as this
old man, a bad and ungodly son, and she prayed for him, counselled
him, and carried it motherly to him for several years together;
but still he remained bad. At last, upon a time, after she had
been at prayer, as she was wont, for his conversion, she comes to
him, and thus, or to this effect, begins again to admonish him.
Son, said she, thou hast been and art a wicked child, thou hast
cost me many a prayer and tear, and yet thou remainest wicked.
Well, I have done my duty, I have done what I can to save thee;
now I am satisfied, that if I shall see thee damned at the day of
judgment, I shall be so far off from being grieved for thee, that
I shall rejoice to hear the sentence of thy damnation at that day;
and it converted him.
I tell you that if parents carry it lovingly towards their children,
mixing their mercies with loving rebukes, and their loving rebukes
with fatherly and motherly compassions, they are more likely to
save their children, than by being churlish and severe towards
them: but if they do not save them, if their mercy do them no good,
yet it will greatly ease them at the day of death, to consider;
I have done by love as much as I could, to save and deliver my
child from hell.
ATTEN. Well I yield. But pray let us return again to Mr. Badman.
You say, that his father gave him a piece of money that he might
set up for himself.[32]
WISE. Yes, his father did give him a piece of money, and he did
set up, and almost as soon set down again; for he was not long
set up, but by his ill managing of his matters at home, together
with his extravagant expenses abroad, he was got so far into debt,
and had so little in his shop to pay, that he was hard put to it
to keep himself out of prison. But when his creditors understood
that he was about to marry, and in a fair way to get a rich wife,
they said among themselves, We will not be hasty with him; if he
gets a rich wife he will pay us all.
ATTEN. But how could he so quickly run out, for I perceive it was
in little time, by what you say?
WISE. It was in little time indeed, I think he was not above two
years and a half in doing of it; but the reason is apparent, for
he being a wild young man, and now having the bridle loose before
him, and being wholly subjected to his lusts and vices, he gave
himself up to the way of his heart, and to the sight of his eye,
forgetting that for all these things God would bring him to judgment
(Eccl 11:9). And he that doth thus, you may be sure, shall not be
able long to stand on his legs. Besides he had now an addition of
new companions; companions you must think most like himself in
manners, and so such that cared not who sunk, if they themselves
might swim. These would often be haunting of him, and of his shop
too when he was absent. They would commonly egg[33] him to the
alehouse, but yet make him jack-pay-for-all; they would also be
borrowing money of him, but take no care to pay again, except it
was with more of their company, which also he liked very well;
and so his poverty came like 'one that travelleth, and his want
as an armed man' (Prov 6:11). But all the while they studied his
temper; he loved to be flattered, praised, and commended for wit,
manhood, and personage; and this was like stroking him over the
face. Thus they colleagued with him, and got yet more and more
into him, and so, like horse leeches, they drew away that little
that his father had given him, and brought him quickly down, almost
to dwell next door to the beggar.
ATTEN. Then was the saying of the wise man fulfilled, 'He that
keepeth company with harlots,' and 'a companion of fools, shall
be destroyed' (Prov 29:3, 13:20).
WISE. Ay, and that too, 'A companion of riotous persons shameth
his father' (Prov 28:7).[34] For he, poor man, had both grief and
shame, to see how his son, now at his own hand, behave himself in
the enjoyment of those good things, in and under the lawful use
of which he might have lived to God's glory, his own comfort, and
credit among his neighbours. 'But he that followeth after vain
persons, shall have poverty enough' (Prov 28:19). The way that
he took, led him directly into this condition; for who can expect
other things of one that follows such courses? Besides, when he
was in his shop, he could not abide to be doing; he was naturally
given to idleness. He loved to live high, but his hands refused
to labour; and what else can the end of such an one be but that
which the wise man saith? 'The drunkard and the glutton shall come
to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags' (Prov
23:21).[35]
ATTEN. But now, methinks, when he was brought thus low, he should
have considered the hand of God that was gone out against him,
and should have smote upon the breast, and have returned.
WISE. Consideration, good consideration, was far from him, he was
as stout and proud now as ever in all his life, and was as high
too in the pursuit of his sin, as when he was in the midst of his
fulness; only he went now like a tired jade, the devil had rid
him almost off of his legs.
ATTEN. Well, but what did he do when all was almost gone?
WISE. Two things were now his play. 1. He bore all in hand by
swearing, and cracking, and lying, that he was as well to pass as
he was the first day he set up for himself, yea that he had rather
got than lost; and he had at his beck some of his companions that
would swear to confirm it as fast as he.
ATTEN. This was double wickedness, it was a sin to say it, and
another to swear it.
WISE. That is true, but what evil is that that he will not do,
that is left of God, as I believe Mr. Badman was?