WISE. Yes, once and again. I think he brake twice or thrice.
ATTEN. And did he do it before he had need to do it?
WISE. Need! What do you mean by need? There is no need at any time for a man to play the knave. He did it of a wicked mind, to defraud and beguile his creditors. He had wherewithal of his father, and also by his wife, to have lived upon, with lawful labour, like an honest man. He had also, when he made this wicked break, though he had been a profuse and prodigal spender, to have paid his creditors their own to a farthing. But had he done so, he had not done like himself, like Mr. Badman; had he, I say, dealt like an honest man, he had then gone out of Mr. Badman's road. He did it therefore of a dishonest mind, and to a wicked end; to wit, that he might have wherewithal, howsoever unlawfully gotten, to follow his cups and queans,[44] and to live in the full swing of his lusts, even as he did before.
ATTEN. Why this was a mere cheat.
WISE. It was a cheat indeed. This way of breaking, it is nothing 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 easy, 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. O! Sir! 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 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 pound's 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. 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?