thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting." God will then recompense their evil of deceiving upon their own head, when he shall shut them out of his presence, favour, and kingdom for ever and ever.

Atten. But it is a wonder, that since Mr Badman's common practice was to do thus, that some one or more did not find him out, and blame him for this his wickedness.

Wise. For the generality of people he went away clever with his knavery. For what with his balance, his false balance, and good weight, and what with his slight of hand to boot, he beguiled sometimes a little, and sometimes more, most that he had to deal with: Besides, those that use this naughty trade, are either such as blind men with a shew of religion, or by hectoring the buyer out by words. I must confess that Mr Badman was not so arch at the first; that is, to do it by shew of religion; for now he began to grow threadbare, (though some of his brethren are arch enough this way, yea and of his sisters too; for I told you at rst that there were a great many of them, and never a one of them good); but for hectoring, for swearing, for lying, if these things would make weight and measure, they should not be wanting to Mr Badman's customers.

How Mr

Badman did cheat and hide bis cheating

Atten, Then it seems he kept good weights

and a bad balance; well, that was better than that both should be bad.

Wise. Not at all. There lay the depth of his deceit; for if any at any time found fault that he used them hardly, and that they wanted their weight of things, he would reply, Why did not you see them weighed? will you not believe your own eyes? if you ques tion my weights, pray carry them whither you will, I will maintain them to be good and just. The same he would

Good weights and a bad ba lance a deep piece of knavery.

say of his scales. So he blinded all by his balance.

Atten. This is cunning indeed but as you say, there must be also something done or said, to blind therewith; and this I perceive Mr Badman had.

Wise. Yes, he had many ways to blind; but he was never clever at it by making a shew of religion, (though he cheated his wife therewith); for he was, especially by those that dwelt near him, too well known to do that, though he would bungle at it as well as he could. But there are some that are arch villains this way; they shall to view, live a whole life religiously, and yet shall be guilty of these most horrible sins; and yet religion in itself is never the worse, nor yet the true professors of it. But as Luther says, In the name of God begins all mischief. hypocrites have no other way to bring their

For

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 he should have, why, he suffereth his very senses to be also deluded, by recalling of his chapman's religion to mind, and thinks verily that not his good chapman but himself is out; for he dreams not that his chapman can deceive. But if the buyer shall find it out, and shall make it apparent, that he beguiled, then shall he be healed by having amends made, and perhaps fault shall be laid upon servants, &c. and so Master Cheat shall stand for a right honest man in the eye of his customer, though the next time he shall pick his pocket again.

Some plead custom for their cheat, as if that could acquit them before the tribunal of God; and others say, it came to them for so much, and therefore another must take it for so much, though there is wanting both as to weight and measure: but in all these things there are juggles; or if not, such must know, that that which is "altogether just, they must do." 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, however thou art dealt withal in thy buying, yet thou must deal justly in selling, or thou sinnest against thy soul, and art become as Mr Badman. And know, that a pretence to custom is nothing worth. It is not custom, but good conscience, that will help at God's tribunal.

Atten. But I am persuaded, that that which is gotten by men this way, doth them but little good.

Wise. I am of your mind for that; but this is not considered by those thus minded; for if they can get it, though they get as we say, the devil and all, by their getting, yet they are content, and count that their getting is much.

Little good! why, do you think they consider that? No; no more than they consider what they shall do in the judgment, at the day of God Almighty, for their wrong getting of what they get, and that is just nothing at all.

But to give you a more direct answer. This kind of getting is so far off from doing them little good, that it doth them no good at all; because thereby they lose their own. souls; "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" He loseth then, he loseth greatly that getteth after this fashion. This is the man that is penny-wise and pound-foolish; this is he that loseth his good ship for a halfpenny worth of

tar; 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 the man that thus getteth, shall not have that. For though an inheritance after this manner may be hastily gotten at the beginning, yet the end thereof shall not be blessed. They gather it indeed; and think to keep it too: but what says Solomon? God casteth it away. "The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish; but he casteth away the substance of the wicked."

The time, as I said, that they do enjoy it, it shall do them no good at all; but long, to be sure, they must not have it. For God will either take it away in their lifetime, or else in the generation following, according to that of Job: "He (the wicked) may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver."

Consider that also that this is written in Proverbs: "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." What then doth he get thereby, that getteth by dis honest means? Why, he getteth sin and wrath, hell and damnation; and now tell me how much he doth get,