Part 8 (1/2)

Atten. Alas poor Badman! Then it seems thou couldest not at all times please thy like.

Wise. No, he could not, and the reason I have told you.

Atten. But do not bad Masters condemn themselves in condemning the badness of their servants. {64b}

Wise. Yes; {64c} in that they condemn that in another which they either have, or do allow in themselves. And the time will come, when that very sentence that hath gone out of their own mouths against the sins of others, themselves living and taking pleasure in the same, shall return with violence upon their own pates. The Lord p.r.o.nounced Judgment against Baasha, as for all his evils in general, so for this in special, because he was like the house of Jeroboam, and yet killed him. {64d} This is Mr.

Badmans Masters case, he is like his man, and yet he beats him. He is like his man, and yet he rails at him for being bad.

Atten. But why did not young Badman run away from this Master, as he ran away from the other?

Wise. He did not. And if I be not mistaken, the reason {65a} why, was this. There was G.o.dliness in the house of the first, and that young Badman could not endure. For fare, for lodging, for work, and time, he had better, and more by this Masters allowance, than ever he had by his last; but all this would not content, because G.o.dliness was promoted there. He could not abide this praying, this reading of Scriptures, and hearing, and repeating of Sermons: he could not abide to be told of his transgressions in a sober and G.o.dly manner.

Atten. There is a great deal in the Manner of reproof, wicked men both can, and cannot abide to hear their transgressions spoken against.

Wise. There is a great deal of difference indeed. This last Master of Mr. Badmans, would tell Mr. Badman of his sins in Mr. Badmans own dialect; he would swear, and curse, and d.a.m.n, when he told him of his sins, and this he could bear better, {65b} than to be told of them after a G.o.dly sort. Besides, that last Master would, when his pa.s.sions and rage was over, laugh at and make merry with the sins of his servant Badman: And that would please young Badman well. Nothing offended Badman but blows, and those he had but few of now, because he was pretty well grown up. For the most part when his Master did rage and swear, he would give him Oath for Oath, and Curse for Curse, at least secretly, let him go on as long as he would.

Atten. This was h.e.l.lish living.

Wise. 'Twas h.e.l.lish living indeed: And a man might say, that with this Master, young Badman compleated himself {65c} yet more and more in wickedness, as well as in his trade: for by that he came out of his time, what with his own inclination to sin, what with his acquaintance with his three companions, and what with this last Master, and the wickedness he saw in him; he became a sinner in grain. I think he had a b.a.s.t.a.r.d laid to his charge before he came out of his time.

Atten. Well, but it seems he did live to come out of his time, {66a} but what did he then?

Wise. Why, he went home to his Father, and he like a loving and tender-hearted Father received him into his house.

Atten. And how did he carry it there?

Wise. Why, the reason why he went home, {66b} was, for Money to set up for himself, he staied but a little at home, but that little while that he did stay, he refrained himself {66c} as well he could, and did not so much discover himself to be base, for fear his Father should take distaste, and so should refuse, or for a while forbear to give him money.

Yet even then he would have his times, and companions, and the fill of his l.u.s.ts with them, but he used to blind all with this, he was glad to see his old acquaintance, and they as glad to see him, and he could not in civility but accomodate them with a bottle or two of Wine, or a dozen or two of Drink.

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 G.o.d and his Father forgiveness for the villanies that he had committed against them. {66d}

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 compa.s.sions of a Father are. Why did you not serve your own son so? But 'tis evident enough, that we are better at giving good counsel to others, than we are at taking good counsel our selves. {67a} But mine honest neighbour, suppose that Mr. Badmans 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's 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?

{67b}

Wise. He had done bad enough, that's true. But suppose his Father had given him no Money, and suppose that young Badman had taken a pett 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 High-way 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 a been forward to have given advice in the cause; but truly you have given me such an account of his vilianies, that the hearing thereof has made me angry with him.

Wise. In an angry mood we may soon out-shoot our selves, 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 inconveniencies.

I remember that I have heard of a good woman, that had (as this old man) a bad and unG.o.dly {68a} 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 d.a.m.ned at the day of Judgment, I shall be so far off from being grieved for thee, that I shall rejoyce to hear the sentence of thy d.a.m.nation at that day: And it converted him.