Part 23

Wise. For the generality of people, he went away clever with his Knavery. For what with his Ballance, his false Ballance, and good weight, and what with his slight of hand to boot, he beguiled, sometimes a little, and sometimes more, most that he had to deal with: Besides, those that use this naughty trade, are either such as blind men with a shew of Religion, or by hectoring the buyer out by words. I must confess Mr. Badman was not so arch at the first; {111a} that is, to do it by shew of Religion; for now he began to grow threadbare, (though some of his brethren are arch enough this way, yea and of his sisters too, for I told you at first that there was a great many of them, and of them good:) but for hectoring, for swearing, for lying, if these things would make weight and measure, they should not be wanting to Mr. Badmans Customers.

Atten. Then it seems he kept good Weights, and a bad Ballance; well that was better than that both should be bad.

Wise. Not at all. There lay the depth of his deceit: {111b} For if any at any time found fault, that he used them hardly, and that they wanted their weight of things; he would reply: Why did you not see them weighed? will you not believe your own eyes: If you question my weights, pray carry them whether you will, I will maintain them to be good and just. The same he would say of his scales. So he blinded all, by his Ballance.

Atten. This is cunning indeed: but as you say, there must be also something done or said, to blind therewith, and this I perceive Mr. Badman had.

Wise. Yes. He had many ways to blind, but he was never clever at it, by making a shew of Religion, (though he cheated his wife therewith:) for he was, especially by those that dwelt near him, too well known to do that, though he would bungle at it as well as he could. But there are some that are arch villains this way; they shall to view live a whole life Religiously, and yet shall be guilty of these most horrible sins: And yet Religion in it self is never the worse, nor yet the true professors of it. But as Luther says, In the name of God begins all mischief. For Hypocrites have no other way to bring their evils to maturity, but by using and mixing the Name of God and Religion therewith. {112b} Thus they become whited Walls; {112a} for by this white, the white of Religion, the dirt of their actions is hid. Thus also they become graves that appear not, and they that goe over them, (that have to do with them) are not aware of them, but suffer themselves to be deluded by them. Yea, if there shall, as there will sometimes, rise a doubt in the heart of the buyer about the weight and measure he should have, why, he suffereth his very sences to be also deluded, by recalling of his Chapmans Religion to mind, and thinks verily that not his good chapman but himself is out; for he dreams not that his chapman can deceive. But if the buyer shall find it out, and shall make it apparent, that he is beguiled; then shall he be healed by having amends made, and perhaps fault shall be laid upon servants, &c. and so Master Cheat shall stand for a right honest man in the eye of his Customer, though the next time he shall pick his pocket again.

Some {112c} plead Custom for their Cheat, as if that could acquit them before the Tribunal of God: And others say, it came to them for so much, and therefore another must take it for so much, though there is wanting both as to weight and measure: but in all these things there are Juggles; or if not, such must know, {112d} That that which is altogether just, they must doe. Suppose that I be cheated my self with a brass half-Crown, must I therefore cheat another therewith? if this be bad in the whole, it is also bad in the parts. Therefore however thou are dealt withall in thy buying, yet thou must deal justly in selling, or thou sinnest against thy soul, and art become as Mr. Badman. And know, that a pretence to custom is nothing worth. ’Tis not custom, but good conscience that will help at Gods Tribunal.

Atten. But I am perswaded, that that which is gotten by men this way, doth them but little good.

Wise. I am of your mind for that, but this is not considered by those thus minded. For if they can get it, though they get, as we say, the Devil and all, by their getting, yet they are content, and count that their getting is much.

Little good! Why do you think they consider that? No: no more than they consider what they shall doe in the Judgment, at the day of God Almighty, for their wrong getting of what they get, and that is just nothing at all. {113a}

But to give you a more direct answer. This kind of getting, is so far off from doing them little good, that it doth them no good at all; because thereby they lose their own souls; What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? {113b} He loseth then, he loseth greatly that getteth after this fashion. This is the man that is penny-wise, and pound-foolish; this is he that loseth his good Sheep for a halfpennyworth of tarr; that loseth a soul for a little of the world. And then what doth he get thereby, but loss and dammage? {113c} Thus he getteth, or rather loseth about the world to come: But what doth he get in this world, more than travel and sorrow vexation of spirit, and disappointment? Men aim at blessedness in getting, I mean, at temporal blessedness; but the man that thus getteth, shall not have that. For though an Inheritance after this manner may be hastily gotten at the beginning, yet the end thereof shall not be blessed. They gather it indeed, and think to keep it too, but what says Solomon? God casteth it away. The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish, but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.

The time, as I said, that they do enjoy it, it shall doe them no good at all; but long to be sure they must not have it. For God will either take it away in their life time, or else in the generation following, according to that of Job: He, the wicked, may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. {113d}

Consider that also that is written in the Proverbs: A good man leaveth an Inheritance to his childrens children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. {113e} What then doth he get thereby, that getteth by dishonest means? why he getteth Sin and Wrath, Hell and Damnation: and now tell me how much he doth get.

This, I say, is his getting; so that as David says, we may be bold to say too: I beheld the wicked in great prosperity, and presently I cursed his habitation: for it cannot prosper with him. Fluster and huff, and make a doe for a while he may, but God hath determined that both he and it shall melt like grease, and any observing man may see it so. Behold, the unrighteous man in a way of Injustice getteth much, and loadeth himself with thick Clay, but anon it withereth, it decayeth, and even he, or the Generation following decline, and return to beggery.

And this Mr. Badman, notwithstanding his cunning and crafty tricks to get money, did dye, no body can tell whether worth a farthing or no.

Atten. He had all the bad tricks, I think, that it was possible for a man to have, to get money; one would think that he should a been rich.

Wise. You reckon too fast, if you count these all his bad tricks to get money: For he had more besides. {114a}

If his customers were in his Books (as it should goe hard but he would have them there; at least, if he thought he could make any advantage of them,) then, then would he be sure to impose upon them his worst, even very bad Comodity, yet set down for it the price that the best was sold at: like those that sold the Refuse Wheat, or the worst of the wheat; making the Sheckle great, {114b} yet hoisting up the price: This was Mr. Badmans way. He {114c} would sell goods that cost him not the best price by far, for as much as he sold the best of all for. He had also a trick to mingle his comodity, that that which was bad might goe off with the less mistrust.

Besides, if his customers at any time paid him money, let them look to themselves, and to their Acquitances, for he would usually attempt to call for that payment again, specially if he thought that there was hopes of making a prize thereby, and then to be sure if they could not produce good and sufficient ground of the payment, a hundred to one but they payed it again. Sometimes the honest Chapman would appeal to his servants for proof of the payment of money, but they were trained up by him to say after his mind, right or wrong: so that, relief that way, he could get none.

Atten. It is a bad, yea an abominable thing for a man to have such servants. For by such means a poor customer may be undone and not know how to help himself. Alas! if the master be so unconscionable, as I perceive Mr. Badman was, to call for his money twice, and if his servant will swear that it is a due debt, where is any help for such a man? he must sink, there is no remedy.

Wise. This is very bad, but this has been a practice, and that hundreds of years agoe. But what saith the Word of God? I will punish all those that leap upon the threshold, which fill their masters houses with violence and deceit. {115a} {115b}

Mr. Badman also had this art; could he get a man at advantage, that is, if his chapman durst not go from him, or if the comodity he wanted could not for the present be conveniently had elsewhere; Then let him look to himself, he would surely make his purse-strings crack; he would exact upon him without any pity or conscience.

Atten. That was Extortion, was it not? I pray let me hear your Judgment of Extortion, what it is, and when committed?

Wise. Extortion {115c} is a screwing from men more than by the Law of God or men is right; and it is committed sometimes by them in Office, about Fees, Rewards, and the like: but ’tis most commonly committed by men of Trade, who without all conscience, when they have the advantage, will make a prey of their neighbour. And thus was Mr. Badman an Extortioner; for although he did not exact, and force away, as Bailifs and Clarks have used to doe; yet he had his opportunities, and such cruelty to make use of them, that he would often, in his way, be Extorting, and forcing of money out of his Neighbours pocket. For every man that makes a prey of his advantage upon his neighbours necessities, to force from him more than in reason and conscience, according to the present prizes of things such comodity is worth; may very well be called an Extortioner, and Judged for one that hath No inheritance in the Kingdom of God. {115d}

Atten. Well, this Badman was a sad wretch.

Wise. Thus you have often said before. But now we are in discourse of this, give me leave a little to goe on. We have a great many people in the Countrey too that live all their dayes in the practice, and so under the guilt of Extortion: people, alas! that think scorn to be so accounted.

As for Example: {116a} There is a poor body that dwells, we will suppose, so many miles from the Market; and this man wants a Bushel of Grist, a pound of Butter, or a Cheese for himself, his wife and poor children: But dwelling so far from the Market, if he goes thither, he shall lose his dayes work, which will be eight pence or ten pence dammage to him, and that is something to a poor man. So he goeth to one of his Masters or Dames for what he wanteth, and asks them to help him with such a thing: Yes, say they, you may have it; but withall they will give him a gripe, perhaps make him pay as much (or more) for it at home, as they can get when they have carryed it five miles to a Market, yea and that too for the Refuse of their Commodity. But in this the Women are especially faulty, in the sale of their Butter and Cheese, &c. Now this is a kind of Extortion, it is a making a prey of the necessity of the poor, it is a grinding of their faces, a buying and selling of them.

But above all, your {116b} Hucksters, that buy up the poor mans Victuals by whole-sale, and sell it to him again for unreasonable gains, by retale, and as we call it, by piece meal; they are got into a way, after a stingeing rate, to play their game upon such by Extortion: I mean such who buy up Butter, Cheese, Eggs, Bacon, &c. by whole sale, and sell it again (as they call it) by penny worths, two penny worths, a half penny worth, or the like, to the poor, all the week after the market is past.

These, though I will not condemn them all, do, many of them, bite and pinch the poor by this kind of evil dealing. These destroy the poor because he is poor, and that is a grievous sin. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want. {116c} Therefore he saith again, Rob not the poor because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate; for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of them that spoile them.