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. Badman's matters, let me desire you, if you please, to give me an answer to these two questions. 1. What do you find in the Word of God against such a practice as this of Mr. Badman's is? 2. What would you have a man do that is in his creditor's 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. Badman's is.
The Word of God doth forbid this wickedness; and to make it the more odious in our eyes, it joins it with theft and robbery. 'Thou shalt not,' says God, 'defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him' (Lev 19:13). 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, neither rob him.' It is a kind of theft and robbery, thus to defraud, and beguile. It is a vilely 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 adjoined many sins, and they too must go hand in hand until it be completed. But what saith the scripture? 'Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such' (1 Thess 4:6). 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 deceitful 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, 'But he that doeth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of persons' (Col 3:25). 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 played with our first parents, as the altar that Uriah built of 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 creditor's debt, and that can neither pay him, nor go on in a trade any longer?
Answ. First of all. If this be his case, and he knows it, let him not run one penny further in his creditors' debt, for that cannot be done with good conscience. He that knows he cannot pay, and yet will run into debt; does knowingly wrong and defraud his neighbour, and falls under that sentence of the Word of God, 'The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again' (Psa 37:21). Yea, worse, he borrows, though at the very same time he knows that he cannot pay again. He doth also craftily take away what is his neighbour's. That is therefore the first thing that I would propound to such; let him not run any farther into his creditors' debt.