So then, whether Mr. Badmans friends shall rage or laugh at what I have writ, I know that the better end of the staffe is mine. My endeavour is to stop an hellish Course of Life, and to save a soul from death, (Jam. 5.) and if for so doing, I meet with envy from them, from whom in reason I should have thanks, I must remember the man in the dream, that cut his way through his armed enemies, and so got into the beauteous Palace; I must, I say, remember him, and do my self likewise.
Yet four things I will propound to the consideration of Mr. Badmans friends, before I turn my back upon them.
1. Suppose that there be an Hell in very deed, not that I do question it, any more than I do whether there be a Sun to shine; but I suppose it for argument sake, with Mr. Badmans friends; I say, suppose there be an Hell, and that too, such an one as the Scripture speaks of, one at the remotest distance from God and Life eternall, one where the Worm of a guilty Conscience never dyes, and where the fire of the Wrath of God is not quenched.
Suppose, I say, that there is such an Hell, prepared of God (as there is indeed) for the body and soul of the ungodly World after this life, to be tormented in: I say, do but with thy self suppose it, and then tell me, Is it not prepared for thee, thou being a wicked man? Let thy conscience speak, I say, is it not prepared for thee, thou being an ungodly man? And dost thou think, wast thou there now, that thou art able to wrestle with the Judgment of God? Why then do the fallen Angers tremble there? thy hands cannot be strong, nor can thy heart endure, in that day when God shall deal with thee: Ezek. 22. 14.
2. Suppose that some one that is now a soul in Hell for sin, was permitted to come hither again to dwell; and that they had a grant also, that upon amendment of life, next time the dye, to change that place for Heaven ant Glory; what sayest thou, O wicked man? would such an one (thinkest thou) run again into the same course of life as before, and venture the damnation that for sin he had already been in? Would he choose again to lead that cursed life that afresh would kindle the flames of Hell upon him, and that would bind him up under the heavy wrath of God? O! he would not, he would not; the sixteenth of Luke insinuates it: yea Reason it self, awake, would abhorr it, and tremble at such a thought.
3. Suppose again, that thou that livest and rollest in thy sin, and that as yet hast known nothing but the pleasure thereof, shouldst be by an angel conveyed to some place where with convenience, from thence thou mightest have a view of Heaven and Hell; of the Joyes of the one, and the torments of the other; I say, suppose that from thence thou mightest have such a view thereof, as would convince thy reason, that both Heaven and Hell, are such realities as by the Word they are declared to be; wouldest thou (thinkest thou) when brought to thy home again, chuse to thy self thy former life, to wit, to return to thy folly again? No; if belief of what thou sawest, remained with thee, thou wouldest eat Fire and Brimstone first.
4. I will propound again. Suppose that there was amongst us such a Law, (and such a Magistrate to inflict the penalty,) That for every open wickedness committed by thee, so much of thy flesh should with burning Pincers be plucked from thy Bones: Wouldest thou then go on in thy open way of Lying, Swearing, Drinking and Whoring, as thou with delight doest now? Surely, surely, No: The fear of the punishment would make thee forbear; yea, would make thee tremble, even then when thy lusts were powerfull, to think what a punishment thou wast sure to sustain, so soon as the pleasure was over. But Oh! the folly, the madness, the desperate madness that is in the hearts of Mr. Badmans friends, who in despite of the threatnings of an holy and sin revenging God, and of the outcries and warnings of all good men; yea, that will in despite of the groans and torments of those that are now in Hell for sin, (Luk. 16. 24. 28.) go on in a sinfull course of life; yea, though every sin is also a step of descent, down to that infernal Cave. O how true is that saying of Solomon, The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead, Eccles. 9. 3. To the dead! that is, to the dead in Hell, to the damned dead; the place to which those that have dyed Bad men are gone, and that those that live Bad men are like to go to, when a little more sin, like stollen waters, hath been imbibed by their sinful souls.
That which has made me publish this Book is,
1. For that wickedness like a flood is like to drown our English world: it begins already to be above the tops of mountains; it has almost swallowed up all; our Youth, our Middle age, Old age, and all, are almost carried away of this flood. O Debauchery, Debauchery, what hast thou done in England! Thou hast corrupted our Young men, and hast made our Old men beasts; thou hast deflowered our Virgins, and hast made Matrons Bawds. Thou hast made our earth to reel to and fro like a drunkard; tis in danger to be removed like a Cottage, yea, it is, because transgression is so heavy upon it, like to fall and rise no more. Isa. 24. 20.
O! that I could mourn for England, and for the sins that are committed therein, even while I see that without repentance, the men of Gods wrath are about to deal with us, each having his slaughtering weapon in his hand: (Ezek. 9. 1, 2.) Well, I have written, and by Gods assistance shall pray, that this flood may abate in England: and could I but see the tops of the Mountains above it, I should think that these waters were abating.
2. It is the duty of those that can, to cry out against this deadly plague, yea, to lift up their voice as with a Trumpet against it; that men may he awakened about it, flye from it, as from that which is the greatest of evils. Sin pulld Angels out of Heaven, pulls men down to Hell, and overthroweth Kingdoms. Who, that sees an house on fire, will not give the Allarum to them that dwell therein? who that sees the Land invaded, will not set the Beacons on a fame? Who, that sees the Devils, as roaring Lyons, continually devouring souls, will not make an Out-cry? But above all, when we see sin, sinful sin, a swallowing up a Nation, sinking of a Nation, and bringing its Inhabitants to temporal, spiritual, and eternal ruine, shall we not cry out, and cry, They are drunk, but not with Wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink; they are intoxicated with the deadly poyson of sin, which will, if its malignity be not by wholsom means allayed, bring Soul and Body, and Estate and Countrey, and all, to ruin and destruction?
3. In and by this my Out-cry, I shall deliver my self from the ruins of them that perish: for a man can do no more in this matter, I mean a man in my capacity, than to detect and condemn the wickedness, warn the evil doer of the Judgment, and fly therefrom my self. But Oh! that I might not only deliver my self! Oh that many would hear, and turn at this my cry, from sin! that they may be secured from the death and Judgment that attend it.
Why I have handled the matter in this method, is best known to my self: and why I have concealed most of the Names of the persons whose sins or punishments I here and there in this Book make relation of, is,
1. For that neither the sins nor Judgments were all alike open; the sins of some, were committed, and the Judgments executed for them only in a corner. Not to say that I could not learn some of their names; for could I, I should not have made them publick, for this reason.
2. Because I would not provoke those of their Relations that survive them; I would not justly provoke them, and yet, as I think, I should, should I have intailed their punishment to their sins, and both to their names, and so have turned them into the world.
Why I have handled the matter in this method, is best known to my self: and why I have concealed most of the Names of the persons whose sins or punishments I here and there in this Book make relation of, is,
1. For that neither the sins nor Judgments were all alike open; the sins of some, were committed, and the Judgments executed for them only in a corner. Not to say that I could not learn some of their names; for could I, I should not have made them publick, for this reason.
2. Because I would not provoke those of their Relations that survive them; I would not justly provoke them, and yet, as I think, I should, should I have intailed their punishment to their sins, and both to their names, and so have turned them into the world.
3. Nor would I lay them under disgrace and contempt, which would, as I think, unavoidably have happened unto them had I withall inserted their Names.
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 theyl 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.