Life and Death of Mr. Badman

As for those whose Names I mention, their crimes or Judgments were manifest; publick almost as any thing of that nature that happeneth to mortal men.  Such therefore have published their own shame by their sin, and God, his anger, by taking of open vengeance.

As Job sayes, God has strook them as wicked men in the open sight of others, Job 34. 26.  So that I cannot conceive, since their sin and Judgment was so conspicuous, that my admonishing the world thereof, should turn to their detriment: For the publishing of these things, are, so far as Relation is concerned, intended for remembrancers: That they may also bethink themselves, repent and turn to God, lest the Judgments for their sins should prove hereditary.  For the God of Heaven hath threatned to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, if they hate him, to the third and fourth generation, Exod. 20. 5.

Nebuchadnezzars punishment for his pride being open, (for he was for his sin, driven from his Kingly dignity, and from among men too, to eat grass like an Ox, and to company with the beasts,) Daniel did not stick to tell Belshazzar his son to his face thereof; nor to publish it that it might be read and remembred by the generations to come.  The same may be said of Judas and Ananias, &c. for their sin and punishment were known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem, Acts 1. Chap. 5.

Nor is it a sign but of desperate impenitence and hardness of heart, when the offspring or relations of those who have fallen by open, fearfull and prodigious Judgments, for their sin, shall overlook, forget, pass by, or take no notice of such high outgoings of God against them and their house.  Thus Daniel aggravates Belshazzars crime, for that he hardened his heart in pride, though he knew that for that very sin and transgression his father was brought down from his height, and made to be a companion for Asses.  And thou his son, O Belshazzar, sayes he, hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest all this.  Dan. 5.  A home reproof indeed, but home is most fit for an open and continued-in transgression.

Let those then that are the Offspring or relations of such, who by their own sin, and the dreadfull Judgments of God, are made to become a sign, (Deut. 16. 9, 10.) having been swept, as dung, from off the face of the earth, beware, lest when Judgment knocks at their door, for their sins, as it did before at the door of their Pregenitors, it falls also with as heavy a stroak as on them that went before them: Lest, I say, they in that day, instead of finding mercy, find for their high, daring, and Judgment-affronting-sins, Judgment without mercy.

To conclude, let those that would not dye Mr. Badmans death, take heed of Mr. Badmans wayes: for his wayes bring to his end; Wickedness will not deliver him that is given to it; though they should cloak all with a Profession of Religion.

If it was a transgression of Old, for a man to wear a Womans Apparel, surely it is a transgression now for a sinner to wear a Christian Profession for a Cloak.  Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing swarm in England this day: Wolves both as to Doctrine, and as to Practice too.  Some men make a Profession, I doubt, on purpose that they may twist themselves into a Trade; and thence into an Estate; yea, and if need be, into an Estate Knavishly, by the ruins of their Neighbour: let such take heed, for those that do such things have the greater damnation.

Christian, make thy Profession shine by a Conversation according to the Gospel: Or else thou wilt damnifie Religion, bring scandal to thy Brethren, and give offence to the Enemies; and ’twould be better that a Millstone was hanged about thy neck, and that thou, as so adorned, wast cast into the bottom of the Sea, than so to do.

Christian, a Profession according to the Gospel, is, in these dayes, a rare thing; seek then after it, put it on, and keep it without spot; and (as becomes thee) white, and clean, and thou shalt be a rare Christian.

The Prophecy of the last times is, that professing men (for so I understand the Text) s[h]all be, many of them, base; (2 Tim. 3.) but continue thou in the things that thou hast learned, not of wanton men, not of licentious times, but of the Word and Doctrine of God, that is according to Godliness; and thou shalt walk with Christ in white.

Now God Almighty give his people Grace, not to hate or malign Sinners nor yet to choose any of their wayes, but to keep themselves pure from the blood of all men, by speaking and doing according to that Name and those Rules that they profess to know, and love; for Jesus Christs sake.

    John Bunyan.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMAN

Presented to the World in a Familiar DIALOGUE Betwixt Mr. WISEMAN, And, Mr. ATTENTIVE.

Wiseman.

Good morrow my good Neighbour, Mr. Attentive; whither are you walking so early this morning? methinks you look as if you were concerned about something more than ordinary.  Have you lost any of your Cattel, or what is the matter?

Attentive.  Good Sir, Good morrow to you, I have not as yet lost ought, but yet you give a right ghess of me, for I am, as you say, concerned in my heart, but ’tis because of the badness of the times.  And Sir, you, as all our Neighbours know, are a very observing man, pray therefore what do you think of them?

Wise.  Why?  I think, as you say, to wit, that they are bad times, and bad they will be, untill men are better: for they are bad men that make bad times; if men therefore would mend, so would the times.  ’Tis a folly to look for good dayes, so long as sin is so high, and those that study its nourishment so many.  God bring it down, and those that nourish it to Repentance, and then my good Neighbour, you will be concerned, not as you are now: Now you are concerned because times are so bad; but then you will be so, ’cause times are so good: Now you are concerned so as to be perplexed, but then you will be concerned so as to lift up your voice with shouting; for I dare say, could you see such dayes they would make you shout.

Atten.  Ai, so they would, such times I have prayed for, such times I have longed for: but I fear they’l be worse before they be better.

Wise.  Make no Conclusions, man: for he that hath the hearts of men in his hand, can change them from worse to better, and so bad times into good.  God give long life to them that are good, and especially to those of them that are capable of doing him service in the world.  The Ornament and Beauty of this lower World, next to God and his Wonders, are the men that spangle and shine in godliness.

Now as Mr. Wiseman said this, he gave a great sigh.

Atten.  Amen.  Amen.  But why, good Sir, do you sigh so deeply? is it for ought else than that for the which as you have perceived, I my self am concerned?

Wise.  I am concerned with you, for the badness of the times; but that was not the cause of that sigh, of the which, as I see, you take notice.  I sighed at the remembrance of the death of that man for whom the Bell tolled at our Town yesterday.

Atten.  Why?  I trow, Mr. Goodman your Neighbour is not dead.  Indeed I did hear that he had been sick.

Wise.  No, no, it is not he.  Had it been he, I could not but have been concerned, but yet not as I am concerned now.  If he had died, I should only have been concerned for that the world had lost a Light: but the man that I am concerned for now, was one that never was good, therefore such an one who is not dead only, but damned.  He died that he might die, he went from Life to Death, and then from Death to Death, from Death Natural to death Eternal.  And as he spake this, the water stood in his eyes.

Atten.  Indeed, to goe from a death-bed to Hell is a fearful thing to think on.  But good Neighbour Wiseman, be pleased to tell me who this man was, and why you conclude him so miserable in his death?

Wise.  Well, if you can stay, I will tell you who he was, and why I conclude thus concerning him.

Atten.  My leisure will admit me to stay, and I am willing to hear you out.  And I pray God your discourse may take hold on my heart, that I may be bettered thereby.  So they agreed to sit down under a tree: Then Mr. Wiseman proceeded as followeth.

Wise.  The man that I mean, is one Mr. Badman; he has lived in our Town a great while, and now, as I said, he is dead.  But the reason of my being so concerned at his death, is, not for that he was at all related to me, or for that any good conditions died with him, for he was far from them, but for that, as I greatly fear, he hath, as was hinted before, died two deaths at once.

Atten.  I perceive what you mean by two deaths at once; and to speak truth, ’tis a fearfull thing thus to have ground to think of any: for although the death of the ungodly and sinners is laid to heart but of few, yet to die in such a state, is more dreadful and fearful than any man can imagine.  Indeed if a man had no Soul, if his state was not truely Immortal, the matter would not be so much; but for a man to be so disposed of by his Maker, as to be appointed a sensible being for ever, and for him too to fall into the hands of revenging Justice, that will be always, to the utmost extremity that his sin deserveth, punishing of him in the dismal dungeon of Hell, this must needs be unutterably sad, and lamentable.

Wise.  There is no man, I think, that is sensible of the worth of one Soul, but must, when he hears of the death of unconverted men, be stricken with sorrow and grief: because, as you said well, that mans state is such, that he has a sensible being for ever.  For ’tis sense that makes punishment heavy.  But yet sense is not all that the Damned have, they have sense and reason too; so then, as Sense receiveth punishment with sorrow because it feels, and bleeds under the same, so by Reason, and the exercise thereof, in the midst of torment, all present Affliction is aggravated, and that three manner of wayes:

1.  Reason will consider thus with himself; For what am I thus tormented? and will easily find ’tis for nothing but that base and filthy thing, Sin; and now will Vexation be mixed with Punishment, and that will greatly heighten the Affliction.

2.  Reason will consider thus with himself.  How long must this be my state?  And will soon return to himself this Answer: This must be my state for ever and ever.  Now this will greatly increase the torment.

3.  Reason will consider thus with himself; What have I lost more than present ease and quiet by my sins that I have committed?  And will quickly return himself this answer: I have lost Communion with God, Christ, Saints and Angels, and a share in Heaven and eternal Life: And this also must needs greaten the misery of poor damned souls.  And this is the case of Mr. Badman.

Atten.  I feel my heart even shake at the thoughts of coming into such a state.  Hell! who knows that is yet alive, what the torments of Hell are?  This word Hell gives a very dreadful sound.

Wise.  Ai, so it does in the ears of him that has a tender Conscience.  But if, as you say, and that truly, the very Name of Hell, is so dreadful, what is the Place it self, and what are the Punishments that are there inflicted, and that without the least intermission, upon the Souls of damned men, for ever and ever.

Atten.  Well, but passing this; my leisure will admit me to stay, and therefore pray tell me what it is that makes you think that Mr. Badman is gone to Hell.

Wise.  I will tell you.  But first do you know which of the Badmans I mean?

Atten.  Why was there more of them than one?

Wise.  O, yes, a great many, both Brothers and Sisters, and yet all of them the Children of a godly Parent, the more a great deal is the pity.

Atten.  Which of them therefore was it that died.

Wise.  The eldest, old in years, and old in sin; but the sinner that dies an hundred years old shall be accursed.

Atten.  Well, but what makes you think he is gone to Hell?

Wise.  His wicked life, and fearful death, specially since the Manner of his death was so corresponding with his life.

Atten.  Pray let me know the manner of his death, if your self did perfectly know it.

Wise.  I was there when he died: But I desire not to see another such man (while I live) die in such sort as he did.

Atten.  Pray therefore let me hear it.

Wise.  You say you have leisure and can stay, and therefore, if you please, we will discourse even orderly of him.  First, we will begin with his Life, and then proceed to his Death: Because a relation of the first may the more affect you, when you shall hear of the second.

Atten.  Did you then so well know his Life?

Wise.  I knew him of a Child.  I was a man, when he was but a boy, and I made special observation of him from first to last.