Atten. These were blemishes sufficient to make him stink indeed.
Wise. They were so, and they did do it. No man could speak well of him when he was gone. [157b] His Name rotted above ground, as his Carkass rotted under. And this is according to the saying of the wise man: The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. [157c]
This Text, in both the parts of it, was fulfilled upon him and the woman that he married first. For her Name still did flourish, though she had been dead almost seventeen years; but his began to stink and rot, before he had been buried seventeen dayes.
Atten. That man that dieth with a life full of sin, and with an heart void of repentance, although he should die of the most Golden disease (if there were any that might be so called) I will warrant him his Name shall stink, and that in Heaven and Earth.
Wise. You say true; and therefore doth the name of Cain, Pharaoh, Saul, Judas, and the Pharisees, though dead thousands of years agoe, stink as fresh in the nostrils of the world as if they were but newly dead.
Atten. I do fully acquiesce with you in this. But, Sir, since you have charged him with dying impenitent, pray let me see how you will prove it: [158a] not that I altogether doubt it, because you have affirmed it, but yet I love to have proof for what men say in such weighty matters.
Wise. When I said, he died without repentance, I meant, so far as those that knew him, could judge, when they compared his Life, the Word, and his Death together.
Atten. Well said, they went the right way to find out whether he had, that is, did manifest that he had repentance or no. Now then shew me how they did prove he had none?
Wise. So I will: And first, [158b] this was urged to prove it. He had not in all the time of his sickness, a sight and sence of his sins, but was as secure, and as much at quiet, as if he had never sinned in all his life.
Atten. I must needs confess that this is a sign he had none. For how can a man repent of that of which he hath neither sight nor sence? But ’tis strange that he had neither sight nor sence of sin now, when he had such a sight and sence of his evil before: I mean when he was sick before.