saith Peter, "let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of G.o.d of great price. For after this manner, in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in G.o.d, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands" (1 Peter 3:1-5).
3. Another reason is, because they have forgotten the pollution of their nature. For the remembrance of that must needs keep us humble, and being kept humble, we shall be at a distance from pride.
The proud and the humble are set in opposition; "G.o.d resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." And can it be imagined that a sensible Christian should be a proud one; sense of baseness tends to lay us low, not to lift us up with pride; not with pride of heart, nor pride of life. But when a man begins to forget what he is, then he, if ever, begins to be proud. Methinks it is one of the most senseless and ridiculous things in he world that a man should be proud of that which is given him on purpose to cover the shame of his nakedness with.
4. Persons that are proud have gotten G.o.d and his holiness out of their sight. If G.o.d was before them, as he is behind their back.
And if they saw him in his holiness, as he sees them in their sins and shame, they would take but little pleasure in their apish knacks. The holiness of G.o.d makes the angels cover their faces, crumbles Christians, when they behold it, into dust and ashes.
And as his majesty is, such is his Word (Isa 6). Therefore they abuse it that bring it to countenance pride.
Lastly. But what can be the end of those that are proud in the decking of themselves after their antic manner? Why are they for going with their bull"s foretops,[63] with their naked shoulders, and paps hanging out like a cow"s bag? Why are they for painting their faces, for stretching out their neck, and for putting of themselves unto all the formalities which proud fancy leads them to? Is it because they would honour G.o.d? because they would adorn the gospel? because they would beautify religion, and make sinners to fall in love with their own salvation? No, no, it is rather to please their l.u.s.ts, to satisfy their wild and extravagant fancies; and I wish none doth it to stir up l.u.s.t in others, to the end they may commit uncleanness with them. I believe, whatever is their end, this is one of the great designs of the devil and I believe also that Satan has drawn more into the sin of uncleanness by the spangling show of fine cloths, than he could possibly have drawn unto it without them. I wonder what it was that of old was called the attire of a harlot; certainly it could not be more bewitching and tempting than are the garments of many professors this day.
ATTEN. I like what you say very well, and I wish that all the proud dames in England that profess were within the reach and sound of your words.
WISE. What I have said I believe is true; but as for the proud dames in England that profess, they have Moses and the prophets, and if they will not hear them, how then can we hope that they should receive good by such a dull-sounding ram"s-horn as I am?[64]
However, I have said my mind, and now, if you will, we will proceed to some other of Mr. Badman"s doings.
ATTEN. No; pray, before you show me anything else of Mr. Badman, show me yet more particularly the evil effects of this sin of pride.
WISE. With all my heart I will answer your request.
1. Then: It is pride that makes poor man so like the devil in h.e.l.l, that he cannot in it be known to be the image and similitude of G.o.d. The angels, when they became devils, it was through their being lifted or puffed up with pride (1 Tim 3:6). It is pride also that lifteth or puffeth up the heart of the sinner, and so makes him to bear the very image of the devil.
2. Pride makes a man so odious in the sight of G.o.d, that he shall not, must not, come nigh his majesty. "Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly; but the proud he knoweth afar off" (Psa 138:6). Pride sets G.o.d and the soul at a distance; pride will not let a man come nigh G.o.d, nor G.o.d will not let a proud man come nigh unto him. Now this is a dreadful thing.
3. As pride seest, so it keeps G.o.d and the soul at a distance. "G.o.d resisteth the proud" (James 4:6). Resists, that is, he opposes him, he trusts him from him, he contemneth his person and all his performances. Come unto G.o.d"s ordinances the proud man may; but come into his presence, have communion with him, or blessing from him, he shall not. For the high G.o.d doth resist him.
4. The Word saith that "The Lord will destroy the house of the proud"
(Prov 15:25). He will destroy his house; it may be understood he will destroy him and his. So he destroyed proud Pharaoh, so he destroyed proud Korah, and many others.
5. Pride, where it comes, and is entertained, is a certain forerunner of some judgment that is not far behind. When pride goes before, shame and destruction will follow after. "When pride cometh, then cometh shame" (Prov 11:2). "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov 16:18).
6. Persisting in pride makes the condition of a poor man as remediless as is that of the devils themselves (1 Tim 3:6). And this, I fear, was Mr. Badman"s condition, and that was the reason that he died so as he did; as I shall show you anon.
But what need I thus talk of the particular actions, or rather the prodigious sins of Mr. Badman, when his whole life, and all his actions, went, as it were, to the making up one ma.s.sy body of sin?
Instead of believing that there was a G.o.d, his mouth, his life and actions, declared that he believed no such thing.[65] His "transgression saith within my heart, that there was no fear of G.o.d before his eyes" (Psa 36:1). Instead of honouring of G.o.d, and of giving glory to him for any of his mercies, or under any of his good providences toward him, for G.o.d is good to all, and lets his sun shine, and his rain fall upon the unthankful and unholy, he would ascribe the glory to other causes. If they were mercies, he would ascribe them, if the open face of the providence did not give him the lie, to his own wit, labour, care, industry, cunning, or the like. If they were crosses, he would ascribe them, or count them the offspring of fortune, ill luck, chance, the ill management of matters, the ill will of neighbours, or to his wife"s being religious, and spending, as he called it, too much time in reading, praying, or the like. It was not in his way to acknowledge G.o.d, that is, graciously, or his hand in things. But, as the prophet saith, "Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness" (Isa 26:10). And again, They returned not to him that smote them, nor did they seek the Lord of hosts (Isa 9:13).
This was Mr. Badman"s temper, neither mercies nor judgment would make him seek the Lord. Nay, as another scripture says, "He would not see the works of G.o.d, nor regard the operations of his hands either in mercies or in judgments" (Isa 26:11; Psa 29:5). But farther, when by providence he has been cast under the best means for his soul--for, as was showed before, he having had a good master, and before him a good father, and after all a good wife, and being sometimes upon a journey, and cast under the hearing of a good sermon, as he would sometimes for novelty"s sake go to hear a good preacher--he was always without heart to make use thereof (Prov 17:6). In this land of righteousness he would deal unjustly, and would not behold the majesty of the Lord (Isa 26:10).
Instead of referencing the Word, when he heard it preached, read, or discoursed of, he would sleep, talk of others business, or else object against the authority, harmony, and wisdom of the scriptures; saying, How do you know them to be the Word of G.o.d? How do you know that these sayings are true? The scriptures, he would say, were as a nose of wax, and a man may turn them whithersoever he lists. One scripture says one thing, and another says the quite contrary; besides, they make mention of a thousand impossibilities; they are the cause of all dissensions and discords that are in the land. Therefore you may, would he say, still think what you will, but in my mind they are best at ease that have least to do with them.
Instead of loving and honouring of them that did bear in their foreheads the name, and in their lives the image of Christ, they should be his song, the matter of his jests, and the objects of his slanders. He would either make a mock at their sober deportment, their gracious language, quiet behavior, or else desperately swear that they did all in deceit and hypocrisy. He would endeavour to render G.o.dly men as odious and contemptible as he could; any lies that were made by any, to their disgrace, those he would avouch for truth, and would not endure to be controlled. He was much like those that the prophet speaks of, that would sit and slander his mother"s son (Psa 50:19,20). Yea, he would speak reproachfully of his wife, though his conscience told him, and many would testify, that she was a very virtuous woman. He would also raise slanders of his wife"s friends himself, affirming that their doctrine tended to lasciviousness, and that in their a.s.semblies they acted and did unbeseeming men and women, that they committed uncleanness, &c. He was much like those that affirmed the apostle should say, "Let us do evil that good may come" (Rom 3:7,8). Or, like those of whom it is thus written; "Report, say they, and we will report it" (Jer 20:10). And if he could get any thing by the end that had scandal in it, if it did but touch professors, how falsely soever reported, O! then he would glory, laugh, and be glad, and lay it upon the whole party; saying, Hang them rogues, there is not a barrel better herring of all the holy brotherhood of them. Like to like, quoth the devil to the collier, this is your precise crew.
And then he would send all home with a curse.
ATTEN. If those that make profession of religion be wise, Mr.
Badman"s watchings and words will make them the more wary, and careful in all things.
WISE. You say true. For when we see men do watch for our halting, and rejoice to see us stumble and fall, it should make us so much abundantly the more careful.
I do think it was as delightful to Mr. Badman to hear, raise, and tell lies, and lying stories of them that fear the Lord, as it was for him to go to bed when a weary. But we will at this time let these things pa.s.s. For as he was in these things bad enough, so he added to these many more the like.
He was an angry, wrathful, envious man, a man that knew not what meekness or gentleness meant, nor did he desire to learn. His natural temper was to be surly, huffy, and rugged, and worse; and he so gave way to his temper, as to this, that it brought him to be furious and outrageous in all things, especially against goodness itself, and against other things too, when he was displeased.
ATTEN. Solomon saith, He is a fool that rageth (Prov 14:16).
WISE. He doth so; and says moreover, that "Anger resteth in the bosom of fools" (Eccl 7:9). And, truly, if it be a sign of a fool to have anger rest in his bosom, then was Mr. Badman, notwithstanding the conceit that he had of his own abilities, a fool of no small size.
ATTEN. Fools are mostly most wise in their own eyes.
WISE. True; but I was a saying, that if it be a sign that a man is a fool, when anger rests in his bosom; then what is it a sign of, think you, when malice and envy rests there? For, to my knowledge Mr. Badman was as malicious and as envious a man as commonly you can hear of.
ATTEN. Certainly, malice and envy flow from pride and arrogancy, and they again from ignorance, and ignorance from the devil. And I thought, that since you spake of the pride of Mr. Badman before, we should have something of these before we had done.
WISE. Envy flows from ignorance indeed. And this Mr. Badman was so envious an one, where he set against, that he would swell with it as a toad, as we say, swells with poison.[66] He whom he maligned, might at any time even read envy in his face wherever he met with him, or in whatever he had to do with him. His envy was so rank and strong, that if it at any time turned its head against a man, it would hardly ever be pulled in again; he would watch over that man to do him mischief, as the cat watches over the mouse to destroy it; yea, he would wait seven years, but he would have an opportunity to hurt him, and when he had it, he would make him feel the weight of his envy.
Envy is a devilish thing, the scripture intimates that none can stand before it: "A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool"s wrath is heavier than them both. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?" (Prov 27:3,4).
This envy, for the foulness of it, is reckoned among the foulest villainies that are, as adultery, murder, drunkenness, revellings, witchcrafts, heresies, seditions, &c. (Gal 5:19,20). Yea, it is so malignant a corruption, that it rots the very bones of him in whom it dwells. "A sound heart is the life of the flesh; but envy the rottenness of the bones" (Prov 14:30).
ATTEN. This envy is the very father and mother of a great many hideous and prodigious wickednesses. I say, it is the very father and mother of them; it both begets them, and also nourishes them up, till they come to their cursed maturity in the bosom of him that entertains them.
WISE. You have given it a very right description, in calling of it the father and mother of a great many other prodigious wickednesses; for it is so venomous and vile a thing that it puts the whole course of nature out of order, and makes it fit for nothing but confusion, and a hold for every evil thing: "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work" (James 3:16).
Wherefore, I say, you have rightly called it the very father and mother of a great many other sins. And now for our further edification, I will reckon up of some of the births of envy. 1.
Envy, as I told you before, it rotteth the very bones of him that entertains it. And, 2. As you have also hinted, it is heavier than a stone, than sand; yea, and I will add, it falls like a millstone upon the head. Therefore, 3. It kills him that throws it, and him at whom it is thrown. "Envy slayeth the silly one" (Job 5:2). That is, him in whom it resides, and him who is its object. 4. It was that also that slew Jesus Christ himself; for his adversaries persecuted him through their envy (Matt 27:18; Mark 15:10). 5.
Envy was that, by virtue of which Joseph was sold by his brethren into Egypt (Acts 7:9).
6. It is envy that hath the hand in making of variance among G.o.d"s saints (Isa 11:13). 7. It is envy in the hearts of sinners, that stirs them up to trust G.o.d"s ministers out of their coasts (Acts 13:50, 14:6). 8. What shall I say? It is envy that is the very nursery of whisperings, debates, backbitings, slanders, reproaches, murders, &c.
It is not possible to repeat all the particular fruits of this sinful root. Therefore, it is no marvel that Mr. Badman was such an ill-natured man, for the great roots of all manner of wickedness were in him unmortified, unmaimed, untouched.
ATTEN. But it is a rare case, even this of Mr. Badman, that he should never in all his life be touched with remorse for his ill-spent life.
CHAPTER XIII.
[HE GETS DRUNK AND BREAKS HIS LEG--G.o.d"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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d.