o it with as much

ou weary of my r

ases me to hear a gre

hat of his life is behind; and again I shall begin with his fraudulent dealing, as before I have s

y, and weights to sell by; measures to buy by, and measures to sell

r men's weights and measures, and by that means make them whether he did buy o

ntage, and their loss. What say you to Mr. Badman now? And if a question was made of his faithful dealing, he had his servants ready, that to h

; if the tree, as indeed it may, ought to be judged, what it is, by its fruits, then Mr. Badman must needs be a bad tree. But pray, for m

any things, do abominate and abhor such wickedness as this. Let a man but look upon these things as he goes by, and he

ething out of the Word

rd, in weight, or in measure; just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin shall you have' (Lev 19:35,36). This is the law of God, an

the Lord' (Prov 11:1). Some have just weights, but false balances; and by virtue of these false balances, by their just weights, they deceive the country. Wherefor

ghbour, will object thus. Well, to this foolish objection, let us make an answer. First, he that makes this objection, if he doth it to overthrow the authority of those texts, discovereth that himself is first cousin to Mr. Badman. For a just man is willing to speak reverently of those commands. That man therefore hath, I doubt, but little conscience, if any at all that is good, that thus objecteth against the text. But let us look into the New Testament, and there we shall see how Christ confirmeth the same; where he commandeth that men make to others good measure, including also that they make good weight; telling such that do thus, or those that do it not, that they may be encouraged to do it: 'Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again' (Luke 6:38). To wit, both from God and man. For as God will show his

s are bad, I will next, for the conviction of those that

h the prophet, 'yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable!' (Micah 6:10). Are they there yet, notwithstanding God's forbidding, notwithst

press' (Hosea 12:7). He is given to oppression and cruelty, therefore he useth such wicked things in his calling. Yea, he is a very cheat, and, as was hinted before concerning Mr. Badman's breaking, so I say now, concern

to fail, saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great [making the measure small, and the price great], and falsifying the balances by deceit? That ye may

t them pure,' saith he, 'with the bag of deceitful weights?' (Micah 6:11). No, by no means, they are impure ones; their hands are defiled, deceitful gain is in the

And therefore Mr. Badman, for that he used by these things thus to rook and cheat his nei

ese things, and the doing by them thus deceitf

things, let us adhere to the judgment of God. And the rather, because when we ourselves have done weighing and measuring to others, then God will weigh and measure both us and our actions. And when he doth so, as he will do shortly, then woe be to him to whom, and of wh

on practice was to do thus, that some one or more did n

e this naughty trade are either such as blind men with a show of religion, or by hectoring the buyer out by words. I must confess Mr. Badman was not so arch at the first; that is, to do it by show of religion; for now he began to grow threadbare, though some of his brethren are arch

ghts and a bad balance; well that was

weight of things, he would reply, Why, did you not see them weighted? will you not believe your own eyes? if you question my weights, pray

here must be also something done or said to blin

gins all mischief.[50] For hypocrites have no other way to bring their evils to maturity but by using and mixing the name of God and religion therewith. Thus they become whited walls; 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 go 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 h

re juggles; or if not, such must know that 'that which is altogether just,' they must do (Deut 16:20). Suppose that I be cheated myself 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,

that which is gotten by men thi

ded. For if they can get it, though they get, as we say, the devil and all, by

onsider what they shall do in the judgment, at the day of God Almighty, f

s he that loseth his good sheep for a half-penny-worth of tar;[52] that loseth a soul for a little of the world. And then what doth he get thereby but loss and damage? Thus he getteth or rather loseth about the world to come. But what doth he get in this world, more than travail and sorrow, vexation of spirit, and disappointment? Men aim at blessedness in getting, I mean, at temporal blessedness; but t

it. For God will either take it away in their lifetime, or else in the generation following, according to that of Job:

dren, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just' (Prov 13:22). What then doth he get thereby, that ge

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 i

it was possible for a man to have, to get mone

the wheat; making the shekel great, yet hoisting up the price (Amos 8). This was Mr. Badman's way. He would sell goods that cost him not the best price by far, for as much as he sold his best of all for. He had also a trick to mingle his commodity, that that which was bad might go off with the least mistrust. Besides, if his customers at any time paid him money, let them look to themselves, and to their acquaintances, for he would usually attem

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

ago. But what saith the Word of God? 'I will punish all those that leap on the

or if the commodity he wanted could not for the present be conveniently had elsewhere, then let him look to

I pray let me hear your judgment of ext

bour. And thus was Mr. Badman an extortioner; for although he did not exact, and force away, as bailiffs and clerks have used to do, 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 neighbour's pocket. For every man

his Badman was