Life and Death of Mr. Badman | Page 5

long home, but thousands of thousands are left
behind; as Brothers, Sisters, Cousens, Nephews, besides innumerable
of his Friends and Associates.
I may say, and yet speak nothing but too much truth in so saying, that
there is scarce a Fellowship, a Community, or Fraternity of men in the
World, but some of Mr. Badmans Relations are there: yea rarely can we
find a Family or Houshold in a Town, where he has not left behind him
either Brother, Nephew or Friend.
The Butt therefore, that at this time I shoot at, is wide; and 'twill be as
impossible for this Book to go into several Families, and not to arrest
some, as for the Kings Messenger to rush into an house full of Traitors,
and find none but honest men there.

I cannot but think that this shot will light upon many, since our fields
are so full of this Game; but how many it will kill to Mr. Badmans
course, and make alive to the Pilgrims Progress, that is not in me to
determine; this secret is with the Lord our God only, and he alone
knows to whom he will bless it to so good and so blessed an end.
However, I have put fire to the Pan, and doubt not but the report will
quickly be heard.
I told you before, that Mr. Badman had left many of his Friends and
Relations behind him, but if I survive them (as that's a great question to
me) I may also write of their lives: However, whether my life be longer
or shorter, this is my Prayer at present, that God will stir up Witnesses
against them, that may either convert or confound them; for wherever
they live, and roll in their wickedness, they are the Pest and Plague of
that Countrey.
England shakes and totters already, by reason of the burden that Mr.
Badman and his Friends have wickedly laid upon it: Yea, our Earth
reels and staggereth to and fro like a Drunkard, the transgression
thereof is heavy upon it.
Courteous Reader, I will treat thee now, even at the Door and
Threshold of this house, but only with this Intelligence, that Mr.
Badman lies dead within. Be pleased therefore (if thy leisure will serve
thee) to enter in, and behold the state in which he is laid, betwixt his
Death-bed and the Grave. He is not buried as yet, nor doth he stink, as
is designed he shall, before he lies down in oblivion.
Now as others have had their Funerals solemnized, according to their
Greatness and Grandure in the world, so likewise Mr. Badman,
(forasmuch as he deserveth not to go down to his grave with silence)
has his Funeral state according to his deserts.
Four things are usual at great mens Funerals, which we will take leave,
and I hope without offence, to allude to, in the Funeral of Mr. Badman.
First, They are sometimes, when dead, presented to their Friends, by
their compleatly wrought Images, as lively as by cunning mens hands

they can be; that the remembrance of them may be renewed to their
survivors, the remembrance of them and their deeds: And this I have
endeavoured to answer in my discourse of Mr. Badman; and therefore I
have drawn him forth in his featours and actions from his Childhood to
his Gray hairs. Here therefore thou hast him lively set forth as in Cutts;
both as to the minority, flower, and seniority of his Age, together with
those actions of his life, that he was most capable of doing, in, and
under those present circumstances of time, place, strength; and the
opportunities that did attend him in these.
Secondly, There is also usual at great mens Funerals, those Badges and
Scutcheons of their honour, that they have received from their
Ancestors, or have been thought worthy of for the deeds and exploits
they have done in their life: And here Mr. Badman has his, but such as
vary from all men of worth, but so much the more agreeing with the
merit of his doings: They all have descended in state, he only as an
abominable branch. His deserts are the deserts of sin, and therefore the
Scutcheons of honour that he has, are only that he died without Honour,
and at his end became a fool. Thou shalt not be joyned with them in
burial.--The seed of evil doers shall never be renowned.
The Funeral pomp therefore of Mr. Badman, is to wear upon his Hearse
the Badges of a dishonourable and wicked life; since his bones are full
of the sins of his Youth, which shall lye down, as Job sayes, in the dust
with him: nor is it fit that any should be his Attendants, now at his
death,