Christian ethics -- Fiction; Christian fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction
Wise. Yes; and many of his Neighbours, yea, many of those that were
carnal said, {156c} ’Tis a righteous Judgment of God upon him, for
his abusive carriage and language to his other wife: for they were
all convinced that she was a vertuous woman, and he, vile wretch, had
killed her, I will not say, with, but with the want of kindness.
Atten. And how long I pray did they live thus together?
Wise. Some fourteen or sixteen years, even untill (though she also
brought somthing with her) they had sinned all away, and parted as poor
as Howlets. {156d} And, in reason, how could it be otherwise? he would
have his way, and she would have hers; he among his companions, and she
among hers; he with his Whores, and she with her Rogues; and so they
brought their Noble to Nine-pence.
Atten. Pray of what disease did Mr. Badman die, for now I perceive we
are come up to his death?
Wise. I cannot so properly say that he died of one disease, {157a}
for there were many that had consented, and laid their heads together
to bring him to his end. He was dropsical, he was consumptive, he was
surfeited, was gouty, and, as some say, he had a tang of the Pox in his
bowels. Yet the Captain of all these men of death that came against him
to take him away, was the Consumption, for ’twas that that brought him
down to the grave.
Atten. Although I will not say, but the best men may die of a
consumption, a dropsie, or a surfeit; yea, that these may meet upon a
man to end him: yet I will say again, that many times these diseases
come through mans inordinate use of things. Much drinking brings
dropsies, consumptions, surfeits, and many other diseases; and I doubt,
that Mr. Badman’s death did come by his abuse of himself in the use
of lawfull and unlawfull things. I ground this my sentence upon that
report of his life that you at large have given me.
Wise. I think verily that you need not call back your sentence; for
’tis thought by many, that by his Cups and his Queans he brought
himself to this his destruction: he was not an old man when he dyed,
nor was he naturally very feeble, but strong, and of a healthy
complexion: Yet, as I said, he moultered away, and went, when he set a
going, rotten to his Grave. And that which made him stink when he was
dead, I mean, that made him stink in his Name and Fame, was, that he
died with a spice of the foul disease upon him: A man whose life was
full of sin, and whose death was without repentance.
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}
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