ATTEN. Did she talk thus openly?
WISE. No: this she spake but to one or two of her most intimate acquaintance, who were permitted to come and see her, when she lay languishing upon her death-bed.
ATTEN. Well, but pray go on in your relation, this is good; I am glad to hear it, this is as a cordial to my heart while we sit thus talking under this tree.
WISE. When she drew near her end, she called for her husband, and when he was come to her she told him that now he and she must part, and, said she, G.o.d knows, and thou shalt know, that I have been a loving, faithful wife unto thee; my prayers have been many for thee; and as for all the abuses that I have received at thy hand, those I freely and heartily forgive, and still shall pray for thy conversion, even as long as I breathe in this world. But husband, I am going thither, where no bad man shall come, and if thou dost not convert, thou wilt never see me more with comfort; let not my plain words offend thee; I am thy dying wife, and of my faithfulness to thee, would leave this exhortation with thee; break off thy sins, fly to G.o.d for mercy while mercy"s gate stands open; remember that the day is coming, when thou, though now l.u.s.ty and well, must lie at the gates of death as I do; and what wilt thou then do, if thou shalt be found with a naked soul, to meet with the cherubims with their flaming swords? Yea, what wilt thou then do, if death and h.e.l.l shall come to visit thee, and thou in thy sins, and under the curse of the law?
ATTEN. This was honest and plain; but what said Mr. Badman to her?
WISE. He did what he could to divert her talk, by throwing in other things; he also showed some kind of pity to her now, and would ask her what she would have? and with various kind of words put her out of her talk; for when she saw that she was not regarded, she fetched a deep sigh, and lay still. So he went down, and then she called for her children, and began to talk to them. And first she spake to those that were rude, and told them the danger of dying before they had grace in their hearts. She told them also that death might be nearer them than they were aware of; and bid them look when they went through the churchyard again, if there were not little graves there. And, ah children, said she, will it not be dreadful to you if we only shall meet at the day of judgment, and then part again, and never see each other more? And with that she wept, the children also wept: so she held on her discourse. Children, said she, I am going from you; I am going to Jesus Christ, and with him there is neither sorrow, nor sighing, nor pain, nor tears, nor death (Rev 7:16, 21:3,4). Thither would I have you go also, but I can neither carry you nor fetch you thither; but if you shall turn from your sins to G.o.d, and shall beg mercy at his hands by Jesus Christ, you shall follow me, and shall, when you die, come to the place where I am going, that blessed place of rest; and then we shall be for ever together, beholding the face of our Redeemer, to our mutual and eternal joy. So she bid them remember the words of a dying mother when she was cold in her grave, and themselves were hot in their sins, if perhaps her words might put check to their vice, and that they might remember and turn to G.o.d.
Then they all went down but her darling, to wit, the child that she had most love for, because it followed her ways. So she addressed herself to that. Come to me, said she, my sweet child, thou art the child of my joy; I have lived to see thee a servant of G.o.d; thou shalt have eternal life. I, my sweet heart,[72] shall go before, and thou shalt follow after, if thou shalt "hold the beginning of thy confidence stedfast unto the end" (Heb 3:14). When I am gone, do thou still remember my words. Love thy Bible, follow my ministers, deny unG.o.dliness still, and if troublesome times shalt come, set a higher price upon Christ, his word, and ways, and the testimony of a good conscience, than upon all the world besides.[73]
Carry it kindly and dutifully to thy father, but choose none of his ways. If thou mayest go to service, choose that rather than to stay at home; but then be sure to choose a service where thou mayest be helped forwards in the way to heaven; and that thou mayest have such a service, speak to my minister, he will help thee, if possible, to such a one.
I would have thee also, my dear child, to love thy brothers and sisters, but learn none of their naughty tricks. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them"
(Eph 5:11). Thou hast grace, they have none; do thou therefore beautify the way of salvation before their eyes, by a G.o.dly life and conformable conversation to the revealed will of G.o.d, that thy brothers and sisters may see and be the more pleased with the good ways of the Lord. If thou shalt live to marry, take heed of being served as I was; that is, of being beguiled with fair words and the flatteries of a lying tongue. But first be sure of G.o.dliness, yea, as sure as it is possible for one to be in this world. Trust not thine own eyes, nor thine own judgment, I mean as to that person"s G.o.dliness that thou art invited to marry. Ask counsel of good men, and do nothing therein, if he lives, without my minister"s advice. I have also myself desired him to look after thee. Thus she talked to her children, and gave them counsel; and after she had talked to this a little longer, she kissed it, and bid it go down.
Well, in short, her time drew on, and the day that she must die.
So she died, with a soul full of grace, a heart full of comfort, and by her death ended a life full of trouble. Her husband made a funeral for her, perhaps because he was glad he was rid of her, but we will leave that to the manifest at judgment.
ATTEN. This woman died well. And now we are talking of the dying of Christians, I will tell you a story of one that died some time since in our town. The man was a G.o.dly old Puritan, for so the G.o.dly were called in time past. This man, after a long and G.o.dly life, fell sick, of the sickness whereof he died. And as he lay drawing on, the woman that looked to him thought she heard music, and that the sweetest that ever she heard in her life, which also continued until he gave up the ghost. Now when his soul departed from him the music seemed to withdraw, and to go further and further off from the house, and so it went until the sound was quite gone out of hearing.
WISE. What do you think that might be?
ATTEN. For ought I know the melodious notes of angels, that were sent of G.o.d to fetch him to heaven.
WISE. I cannot say but that G.o.d goes out of his ordinary road with us poor mortals sometimes. I cannot say this of this woman, but yet she had better music in her heart than sounded in this woman"s ears.
ATTEN. I believe so; but pray tell me, did any of her other children hearken to her words, so as to be bettered in their souls thereby?
WISE. One of them did, and became a very hopeful young man. But for the rest I can say nothing.
ATTEN. And what did Badman do after his wife was dead?
WISE. Why, even as he did before; he scarce mourned a fortnight for her, and his mourning then was, I doubt, more in fashion than in heart.
ATTEN. Would he not sometimes talk of his wife when she was dead?
WISE. Yes, when the fit took him, and could commend her too extremely, saying she was a good, G.o.dly, virtuous woman. But this is not a thing to be wondered at. It is common with wicked men to hate G.o.d"s servants while alive, and to commend them when they are dead. So served the Pharisees the prophets. Those of the prophets that were dead they commended, and those of them that were alive they condemned. (Matt 23).
CHAPTER XVII.
[HE IS TRICKED INTO A SECOND MARRIAGE BY A WOMAN AS BAD AS HIMSELF.]
ATTEN. But did not Mr. Badman marry again quickly?
WISE. No, not a good while after; and when he was asked the reason he would make this slighty answer, Who would keep a cow of their own that can have a quart of milk for a penny? Meaning, who would be at the charge to have a wife that can have a wh.o.r.e when he listeth? So villainous, so abominable did he continue after the death of his wife. Yet at last there as one was too hard for him.
For getting of him to her upon a time, and making of him sufficiently drunk, she was so cunning as to get a promise of marriage of him, and so held him to it, and forced him to marry her. And she, as the saying is, was as good as he at all his vile and ranting tricks.
She had her companions as well as he had his, and she would meet them too at the tavern and ale-house more commonly than he was aware of. To be plain, she was a very wh.o.r.e, and had as great resort came to her, where time and place was appointed, as any of them all. Ay, and he smelt it too, but could not tell how to help it.
For if he began to talk, she could lay in his dish the wh.o.r.es that she knew he haunted, and she could fit him also with cursing and swearing, for she would give him oath for oath, and curse for curse.
ATTEN. What kind of oaths would she have?
WISE. Why, d.a.m.n her, and sink her, and the like.
ATTEN. These are provoking things.
WISE. So they are; but G.o.d doth not altogether let such things go unpunished in this life. Something of this I have showed you already, and will here give you one or two instances more.
There lived, saith one, in the year 1551, in a city of Savoy, a man who was a monstrous curser and swearer, and though he was often admonished and blamed for it, yet would he by no means mend his manners. At length a great plague happening in the city, he withdrew himself [with his wife and a kinswoman] into a garden, where being again admonished to give over his wickedness, he hardened his heart more, swearing, blaspheming G.o.d, and giving himself to the devil. And immediately the devil s.n.a.t.c.hed him up suddenly, his wife and kinswoman looking on, and carried him quite away. The magistrates, advertised hereof, went to the place and examined the women, who justified the truth of it.
Also at Oster, in the duchy of Magalapole, saith Mr. Clark, a wicked woman used in her cursing to give herself body and soul to the devil, and being reproved for it, still continued the same; till, being at a wedding-feast, the devil came in person, and carried her up into the air, with most horrible outcries and roarings; and in that sort carried her round about the town, that the inhabitants were ready to die for fear. And by and by he tore her in four pieces, leaving her four quarters in four several highways; and then brought her bowels to the marriage-feast, and threw them upon the table before the mayor of the town, saying, Behold these dishes of meat belong to thee, whom the like destruction waiteth for if thou dost not amend thy wicked life.
ATTEN. Though G.o.d forbears to deal thus with all men that thus rend and tear his name, and that immediate judgments do not overtake them, yet he makes their lives by other judgments bitter to them, does he not?
WISE. Yes, yes, and for proof, I need go no farther than to this Badman and his wife; for their railing, and cursing, and swearing ended not in words. They would fight and fly at each other, and that like cats and dogs. But it must be looked upon as the hand and judgment of G.o.d upon him for his villainy; he had an honest woman before, but she would not serve his turn, and therefore G.o.d took her away, and gave him one as bad as himself. Thus that measure that he meted to his first wife, this last did mete to him again. And this is a punishment wherewith sometimes G.o.d will punish wicked men. So said Amos to Amaziah, "Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city" (Amos 7:17). With this last wife Mr. Badman lived a pretty while; but, as I told you before, in a most sad and h.e.l.lish manner. And now he would bewail his first wife"s death; not of love that he had to her G.o.dliness, for that he could never abide, but for that she used always to keep home, whereas this would go abroad; his first wife was also honest, and true to that relation, but this last was a wh.o.r.e of her body. The first woman loved to keep things together, but this last would whirl them about as well as he. The first would be silent when he chid, and would take it patiently when he abused her; but this would give him word for word, blow for blow, curse for curse; so that now Mr.
Badman had met with his match. G.o.d had a mind to make him see the baseness of his own life in the wickedness of his wife"s. But all would not do with Mr. Badman, he would be Mr. Badman still. This judgment did not work any reformation upon him, no, not to G.o.d nor man.
ATTEN. I warrant you that Mr. Badman thought when his wife was dead, that next time he would match far better.
WISE. What he thought I cannot tell, but he could not hope for it in this match. For here he knew himself to be catched, he knew that he was by this woman entangled, and would therefore have gone back again, but could not. He knew her, I say, to be a wh.o.r.e before, and therefore could not promise himself a happy life with her. For he or she that will not be true to their own soul, and therefore could not expect she should be true to him. But Solomon says, "A wh.o.r.e is a deep ditch," and Mr. Badman found it true.
For when she had caught him in her pit, she would never leave him till she had got him to promise her marriage; and when she had taken him so far, she forced him to marry indeed. And after that, they lived that life that I have told you.
ATTEN. But did not the neighbours take notice of this alteration that Mr. Badman had made?
WISE. Yes; and many of his neighbours, yea, many of those that were carnal said, It is a righteous judgment of G.o.d upon him for his abusive carriage and language to his other wife: for they were all convinced that she was a virtuous woman, and that he, vile wretch, had killed her, I will not say with, but with the want of kindness.
CHAPTER XVIII.
[HE PARTS FROM HIS WIFE--DISEASES ATTACK HIM UNDER CAPTAIN CONSUMPTION, HE ROTS AWAY, AND DIES IN SINFUL SECURITY.]
ATTEN. And how long, I pray, did they live thus together.
WISE. Some fourteen or sixteen years, even until, though she also brought something with her, they had sinned all away, and parted as poor as howlets. And, in reason, how could it be otherwise?
he would have his way, and she would have hers; he among his companions, and she among hers; he with his wh.o.r.es, and she with her rogues; and so they brought their[74] n.o.ble to ninepence.
ATTEN. Pray of what disease did Mr. Badman die, for now I perceive we are come up to his death?
WISE. I cannot so properly say that he died of one disease, for there were many that had consented, and laid their heads together to bring him to his end. He was dropsical, he was consumptive, he was surfeited, was gouty, and, as some say, he had a tang of the pox in his bowels. Yet the captain of all these men of death that came against him to take him away, was the consumption, for it was that that brought him down to the grave.[75]
ATTEN. Although I will not say but the best men may die of a consumption, a dropsy, or a surfeit; yea, that these may meet upon a man to end him; yet I will say again, that many times these diseases come through man"s inordinate use of things. Much drinking brings dropsies, consumptions, surfeits, and many other diseases; and I doubt that Mr. Badman"s death did come by his abuse of himself in the use of lawful and unlawful things. I ground this my sentence upon that report of his life that you at large have given me.