[HE GETS DRUNK AND BREAKS HIS LEG--GOD'S JUDGMENTS UPON DRUNKARDS.]
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. Once when he broke his leg
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 leg 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 leg. So there he lay. But you would not
think how he swore at first. But after a while, he coming to
himself, and feeling by his pain, and the uselessness of his leg,
what case he was in, and also fearing that this bout might be his
death; he began to cry out after the manner of such, Lord help
me, Lord have mercy upon me, good God 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 God.
WISE. He cried out in his pain, and would say, O God, 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;
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.[67] He then
would send for his old companions; his sluts 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. It was a wonder he did not break his neck.
WISE. His neck had gone instead of his leg, but that God 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 betwixt the ale-house and home. One hard by us also
drunk himself dead; he drank, and died in his drink.
ATTEN. It is a sad thing to die 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 others sins it is
accompanied, as with oaths, blasphemies, lies, revellings, whorings,
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 madmen, even as if they did dare God 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, and doth also commonly
make examples of some, to show that he takes notice of their sin,
abhors their way, and will count with them for it at the set time
(Acts 17:30,31).
ATTEN. It is worthy of our remark, to take notice how God, to show
his dislike of the sins of men, strikes some of them down with a
blow; as the breaking of Mr. Badman's leg, for doubtless that was
a stroke from heaven.
WISE. It is worth our remark, indeed. It was an open stroke, 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.' Or, as
the margin reads it, 'in the place of beholders' (Job 34:25,26).
He lays them, with his stroke, in the place of beholders. There
was Mr. Badman laid; his stroke was taken notice of by every one,
his broken leg was at this time the town talk. Mr. Badman has broken
his leg, says one. How did he break it? says another. As he came
home drunk from such an ale-house, said a third. A judgment of God
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-glass for Sinners, that upon
a time a certain drunken fellow boasted in his cups that there was
neither heaven nor hell; 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 man's shape, bought
it of that man again at the same price; and so, in the presence
of them all, laid hold on the soul-seller, and carried him away
through the air, so that he was never more heard of.[68]
He tells us also, that there was one at Salisbury, in the midst
of his health, drinking and carousing in a tavern; and he drank a
health to the devil, saying that if the devil would not come and
pledge him, he would not believe that there was either God or
devil. Whereupon his companions, stricken with fear, hastened out
of the room; and presently after, hearing a hideous noise, and
smelling a stinking savour, the vintner ran up into the chamber;
and coming in he missed his guest, and found the window broken,
the iron bar in it bowed, and all bloody. But the man was never
heard of afterwards.[69]
Again, he tells us of a bailiff of Hedley, who, upon a Lord's day,
being drunk at Melford, got upon his horse, to ride through the
streets, saying that his horse would carry him to the devil. And
presently his horse threw him, and broke his neck. These things
are worse than the breaking of Mr. Badman's leg; and should be a
caution to all of his friends that are living, lest they also fall
by their sin into these sad judgments of God.
But, as I said, Mr. Badman quickly forgot all; his conscience
was choked before his leg was healed. And, therefore, before he
was well of the fruit of one sin, he tempts God to send another
judgment to seize upon him. And so he did quickly after. For not
many months after his leg was well, he had a very dangerous fit
of sickness, insomuch that now he began to think he must die in
very deed.