Wise. It was a cheat indeed. This way of breaking, it is else but a more neat way of Thieving, of picking of pockets, of breaking open of shops, and of taking from men what one has nothing to do with. But though it seem easie, it is hard to learn, no man that has conscience to God or man, can ever be his Crafts Master in this Hellish art.
Atten. Oh! Sirs! what a wicked man was this?
Wise. A wicked man indeed. By this art he could tell how to make men send their goods to his shop, and then be glad to take a penny for that for which he had promised before it came thither, to give them a Groat: I say, he could make them glad to take a Crown for a pounds worth, and a thousand for that for which he had promised before to give them four thousand pounds.
Atten. This argueth that Mr. Badman had but little conscience.
Wise. This argued that Mr. Badman had No Conscience at all; for Conscience, the least spark of a good Conscience cannot endure this.
Atten. Before we go any further in Mr. Badmans matters, let me desire you, if you please, to give me an answer to these two questions. {96a}
1. What do you find in the Word of God against such a practice, as this of Mr. Badmans is? {96b}
2. What would you have a man do that is in his Creditors debt, and can neither pay him what he owes him, nor go on in a trade any longer?
Wise. I will answer you as well as I can. And first to the first of your questions. To wit, What I find in the Word of God against such a practice, as this of Mr. Badmans is.
Answ. The Word of God doth forbid this wickedness; and to make it the more odious in our eyes, it joyns it with Theft and Robbery: Thou shalt not, says God, defraud thy neighbour, nor rob him. {96c} Thou shalt not defraud, that is, deceive or beguile. Now thus to break, is to defraud, deceive and beguile; which is, as you see, forbidden by the God of Heaven: Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, nor rob him. It is a kind of theft and robbery, thus to defraud, and beguile. {96d} It is a wilely robbing of his shop, and picking of his pocket: a thing odious to Reason and Conscience, and contrary to the Law of nature. It is a designed piece of wickedness, and therefore a double sin. A man cannot do this great wickedness on a sudden, and through a violent assault of Satan. He that will commit this sin, must have time to deliberate, that by invention, he may make it formidable, and that with lies and high dissimulations. He that commits this wickedness, must first hatch it upon his bed, beat his head about it, and lay his plot strong: So that to the completing of such a wickedness, there must be adjoyned many sins, and they too, must go hand in hand untill it be compleated. But what saith the Scripture? {96e}{96f} Let no man go beyond, and defraud his Brother in any matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such. But this kind of Breaking is a going beyond my Brother; This is a compassing of him about that I may catch him in my net; and as I said, an art to rob my Brother, and to pick his pocket, and that with his consent. Which doth not therefore mitigate, but so much the more greaten and make odious the offence. For men that are thus wilily abused cannot help themselves, they are taken in a deceitfull net. But God will here concern himself, he will be the avenger, he will be the avenger of all such either here or in another world.
And this, the Apostle testifies again, where he saith; {97a} But he that doth wrong, shall receive for the wrong that he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. {97b} That is, there is no man, be he what he will, if he will be guilty of this sin, of going beyond, of beguiling of, and doing wrong to his Brother, but God will call him to an account for it, and will pay him with vengeance for it too; for there is no respect of persons.
I might add, that this sin of wronging, of going beyond, and defrauding of my Neighbour, it is like that first prank that the Devil plaid with our first Parents, {97c} (as the Altar that Uriah built for Ahaz, was taken from the fashion of that that stood at Damascus, to be the very pattern of it.) The Serpent beguiled me, says Eve; Mr. Badman beguiles his Creditors. The Serpent beguiled Eve with lying promises of gain; and so did Mr. Badman beguile his Creditors. The Serpent said one thing and meant another, when he beguiled Eve; and so did Mr. Badman when he beguiled his Creditors.
That man therefore that doth thus deceive and beguile his neighbour, imitateth the Devil; he taketh his examples from him, and not from God, the Word, or good men: and this did Mr. Badman.
And now to your second question: To wit, What I would have a man do, that is in his Creditors debt, and that can neither pay him, nor go on in a trade any longer? {97d}