Life and Death of Mr. Badman

John Bunyan

Life and Death of Mr. Badman

NOTE

The Life and Death of Mr Badman was published by John Bunyan in 1680, two years after the First Edition of the First Part of The Pilgrim’s Progress.  In the opening sentence of his preface he tells us it was intended by him as the counterpart or companion picture to the Allegory.  But whatever his own intentions may have been, the Public of his own time seem to have declined to accept the book in this capacity.  Indeed, another writer, who signs himself T. S., undertook to complete Bunyan’s Allegory for him, in a book in size and type closely resembling it, and entitled The Second Part of the Pilgrim’s Progress . . . exactly Described under the Similitude of a Dream.  It was printed for Jho. Malthus at the Sun in the Poultry, and published in 1683.  So far as is known, only one copy of this book is now in existence, the copy which was formerly in the library of the poet Southey and now in that of the Baptist Union.  Upon this Bunyan seems to have changed his purpose, so far as The Life and Death of Mr Badman was concerned, and on the first of January, 1685, published the story of Christiana and her Children as his own Second Part of The Pilgrim’s Progress.

The work before us, therefore, now stands apart by itself.  In its composition Bunyan seems to have been greatly influenced, so far as form is concerned, by a book which his wife brought with her on her marriage, and which, as he tells us in his Grace Abounding, they read together.  It was entitled The Plaine Man’s Pathway to Heaven: By Arthur Dent, Preacher of the Word of God at South Shoobury in Essex.  The eleventh impression, the earliest now known, is dated 1609.  Both books are in dialogue form, and in each case the dialogue is supposed to be carried on through one long day.  Bunyan’s Mr Wiseman, like Dent’s Theologus, holds forth instructive discourse, while the Mr Attentive of the former, like the Philagathus of the latter, listens and draws on his teacher by friendly questionings.  There is not in Bunyan’s conference, as there is in Dent’s, an Asunetus, who plays the part of an ignorant man to come out enlightened and convinced at last, or an Antilegon, who carps and cavils all the way; and there is not in Dent’s book what there is in Bunyan’s, a biographical narrative connecting the various parts of the dialogue; but the groundwork of each is the same—a searching manifestation and exposure of the nature and evils of various forms of immorality.

Bunyan’s book came out in 1680, and was published by Nathaniel Ponder, who was also the publisher of The Pilgrim’s Progress.  A third edition appeared in 1696, but as no copy of the second edition is known to exist, no date can be assigned to it.  In 1684 Johannes Boekholt, a publisher in Amsterdam, obtained leave of the State to issue a Dutch translation, with the title Het Leven en Sterben van Mr Quaat.  This edition was illustrated by five copper-plate engravings, executed by Jan Luiken, the eminent Dutch engraver, who also illustrated The Pilgrim’s Progress the following year.  In 1782 a Welsh version, translated by T. Lewys, was published at Liverpool with the title: Bywyd a Marwolaeth yr annuwiol dan enw Mr Drygddyn.  A Gaelic version also was published at Inverness in 1824, entitled Beath agus Bas Mhr Droch-duine.

The present edition has been reprinted from a copy of the first issue, lent by the Trustees of the Bunyan Church at Bedford, and the proofs read with a second copy of the same issue, in the library of the British Museum.  For convenience of reading, as in other issues of this series of Cambridge English Classics, the old type forms of j, s, u, etc. have been made uniform with those in general modern use; but neither the spelling (including the use of capitals and italics 1) nor the punctuation has been altered, save as specified.  Effect has been given to the errata noted by Bunyan himself, and printed on page 15 of this issue.

The text of this edition of Bunyan’s Holy War2 is a careful reproduction of the First Edition of 1682.  It is not certain that there was any further authentic reprint in Bunyan’s life-time.  For though both in the Bodleian and the British Museum there is a copy purporting to be a second edition, and bearing date 1684, it is difficult to resist the impression that they are pirated copies, similar to those of which Nathaniel Ponder complained so bitterly in the case of The Pilgrim’s Progress.  For both paper and typography are greatly inferior to those of the first edition; some of Bunyan’s most characteristic marginalia are carelessly omitted; Bunyan’s own title—‘The Holy War made by Shaddai upon Diabolus for the regaining of the Metropolis of the World’—is altered to the feebler and more commonplace form—‘The Holy War made by Christ upon the Devil for the Regaining of Man’; and, further, when a new edition was issued in 1696, the alterations and omissions of 168 4 were ignored, and a simple reprint made of the first edition of 1682.

J. B.

9 October, 1905.

THE AUTHOR TO THE READER

Courteous Reader,

As I was considering with my self, what I had written concerning the Progress of the Pilgrim from this World to Glory; and how it had been acceptable to many in this Nation: It came again into my mind to write, as then, of him that was going to Heaven, so now, of the Life and Death of the Ungodly, and of their travel from this world to Hell.  The which in this I have done, and have put it, as thou seest, under the Name and Title of Mr. Badman, a Name very proper for such a Subject: I have also put it into the form of a Dialogue, that I might with more ease to my self, and pleasure to the Reader, perform the work.

And although, as I said, I have put it forth in this method, yet have I as little as may be, gone out of the road of mine own observation of things.  Yea, I think I may truly say, that to the best of my remembrance, all the things that here I discourse of, I mean as to matter of fact, have been acted upon the stage of this World, even many times before mine eyes.

Here therefore, courteous Reader, I present thee with the Life and Death of Mr. Badman indeed: Yea, I do trace him in his Life, from his Childhood to his Death; that thou mayest, as in a Glass, behold with thine own eyes, the steps that take hold of Hell; and also discern, while thou art reading of Mr. Badmans Death, whether thou thy self art treading in his path thereto.

And let me entreat thee to forbear Quirking and Mocking, for that I say Mr. Badman is dead; but rather gravely enquire concerning thy self by the Word, whether thou art one of his Linage or no: For Mr. Badman has left many of his Relations behind him; yea, the very World is overspread with his Kindred.  True, some of his Relations, as he, are gone to their place, and 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, but such as with him conspired against their own souls in their life; persons whose transgressions have made them infamous to all that have or shall know what they have done.

Some notice therefore I have also here in this little discourse given the Reader, of them who were his Confederates in his life, and Attendants at his death; with a hint, either of some high Villany committed by them, as also of those Judgments that have overtaken and fallen upon them from the just and revenging hand of God.  All which are things either fully known by me, as being eye and ear-witness thereto, or that I have received from such hands, whose relation as to this, I am bound to believe.  And that the Reader may know them from other things and passages herein contained, I have pointed at them in the Margent, as with a finger thus: ☛

Thirdly, The Funerals of persons of Quality have been solemnized with some suitable Sermon at the time and place of their Burial; but that I am not come to as yet, having got no further than to Mr. Badmans death: but for as much as he must be buried, after he hath stunk out his time before his beholders, I doubt not but some such that we read are appointed to be at the burial of Gog, will do this work in my stead; such as shall leave him neither skin nor bone above ground, but shall set a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog, Ezek. 39.

Fourthly, At Funerals there does use to be Mourning and lamentation, but here also Mr. Badman differs from others; his Familiars cannot lament his departure, for they have not sence of his damnable state; they rather ring him, and sing him to Hell in the sleep of death, in which he goes thither.  Good men count him no loss to the world, his place can well be without him, his loss is only his own, and ’tis too late for him to recover that dammage or loss by a Sea of bloody tears, could he shed them.  Yea, God has said, he will laugh at his destruction, who then shall lament for him, saying, Ah! my brother.  He was but a stinking Weed in his life; nor was he better at all in his death: such may well be thrown over the wall without sorrow, when once God has plucked them up by the roots in his wrath.

Reader, If thou art of the race, linage, stock or fraternity of Mr. Badman, I tell thee before thou readest this Book, thou wilt neither brook the Author nor it, because he hath writ of Mr. Badman as he has.  For he that condemneth the wicked that die so, passeth also the sentence upon the wicked that live.  I therefore expect neither credit of, nor countenance from thee, for this Narration of thy kinsmans life.

For thy old love to thy Friend, his wayes, doings, &c. will stir up in thee enmity rather, in thy very heart, against me.  I shall therefore incline to think of thee, that thou wilt rent, burn, or throw it away in contempt: yea and wish also, that for writing so notorious a truth, some mischief may befall me.  I look also to be loaded by thee with disdain, scorn and contempt; yea that thou shouldest railingly and vilifyingly say, I lye, and am a bespatterer of honest mens lives and deaths.  For Mr. Badman, when himself was alive, could not abide to be counted a Knave (though his actions told all that went by, that indeed he was such an one:) How then should his brethren, that survive him, and that tread in his very steps, approve of the sentence that by this Book is pronounced against him?  Will they not rather imitate Corah, Dathan, and Abiram’s friends, even rail at me for condemning him, as they did at Moses for doing execution?

I know ’tis ill pudling in the Cockatrices den, and that they run hazards that hunt the Wild-Boar.  The man also that writeth Mr. Badmans life, had need to be fenced with a Coat of Mail, and with the Staffe of a Spear, for that his surviving friends will know what he doth: but I have adventured to do it, and to play, at this time, at the hole of these Asps; if they bite, they bite; if they sting, they sting.  Christ sends his Lambs in the midst of Wolves, not to do like them, but to suffer by them for bearing plain testimony against their bad deeds: But had one not need to walk with a Guard, and to have a Sentinel stand at ones door for this?  Verily, the flesh would be glad of such help; yea, a spiritual man, could he tell how to get it.  Acts 23.  But I am stript naked of these, and yet am commanded to be faithful in my servi[c]e for Christ.  Well then, I have spoken what I have spoken, and now come on me what will, Job 13. 13.  True, the Text sayes, Rebuke a scorner, and he will hate thee; and that, He that reproveth a wicked man, getteth himself a Blot and Shame; but what then?  Open rebuke is better than secret love; and he that receives it, shall find it so afterwards.

So then, whether Mr. Badmans friends shall rage or laugh at what I have writ, I know that the better end of the staffe is mine.  My endeavour is to stop an hellish Course of Life, and to save a soul from death, (Jam. 5.) and if for so doing, I meet with envy from them, from whom in reason I should have thanks, I must remember the man in the dream, that cut his way through his armed enemies, and so got into the beauteous Palace; I must, I say, remember him, and do my self likewise.

Yet four things I will propound to the consideration of Mr. Badmans friends, before I turn my back upon them.

1.  Suppose that there be an Hell in very deed, not that I do question it, any more than I do whether there be a Sun to shine; but I suppose it for argument sake, with Mr. Badmans friends; I say, suppose there be an Hell, and that too, such an one as the Scripture speaks of, one at the remotest distance from God and Life eternall, one where the Worm of a guilty Conscience never dyes, and where the fire of the Wrath of God is not quenched.

Suppose, I say, that there is such an Hell, prepared of God (as there is indeed) for the body and soul of the ungodly World after this life, to be tormented in: I say, do but with thy self suppose it, and then tell me, Is it not prepared for thee, thou being a wicked man?  Let thy conscience speak, I say, is it not prepared for thee, thou being an ungodly man?  And dost thou think, wast thou there now, that thou art able to wrestle with the Judgment of God?  Why then do the fallen Angers tremble there? thy hands cannot be strong, nor can thy heart endure, in that day when God shall deal with thee: Ezek. 22. 14.

2.  Suppose that some one that is now a soul in Hell for sin, was permitted to come hither again to dwell; and that they had a grant also, that upon amendment of life, next time the dye, to change that place for Heaven ant Glory; what sayest thou, O wicked man? would such an one (thinkest thou) run again into the same course of life as before, and venture the damnation that for sin he had already been in?  Would he choose again to lead that cursed life that afresh would kindle the flames of Hell upon him, and that would bind him up under the heavy wrath of God?  O! he would not, he would not; the sixteenth of Luke insinuates it: yea Reason it self, awake, would abhorr it, and tremble at such a thought.

3.  Suppose again, that thou that livest and rollest in thy sin, and that as yet hast known nothing but the pleasure thereof, shouldst be by an angel conveyed to some place where with convenience, from thence thou mightest have a view of Heaven and Hell; of the Joyes of the one, and the torments of the other; I say, suppose that from thence thou mightest have such a view thereof, as would convince thy reason, that both Heaven and Hell, are such realities as by the Word they are declared to be; wouldest thou (thinkest thou) when brought to thy home again, chuse to thy self thy former life, to wit, to return to thy folly again?  No; if belief of what thou sawest, remained with thee, thou wouldest eat Fire and Brimstone first.

4.  I will propound again.  Suppose that there was amongst us such a Law, (and such a Magistrate to inflict the penalty,) That for every open wickedness committed by thee, so much of thy flesh should with burning Pincers be plucked from thy Bones: Wouldest thou then go on in thy open way of Lying, Swearing, Drinking and Whoring, as thou with delight doest now?  Surely, surely, No: The fear of the punishment would make thee forbear; yea, would make thee tremble, even then when thy lusts were powerfull, to think what a punishment thou wast sure to sustain, so soon as the pleasure was over.  But Oh! the folly, the madness, the desperate madness that is in the hearts of Mr. Badmans friends, who in despite of the threatnings of an holy and sin revenging God, and of the outcries and warnings of all good men; yea, that will in despite of the groans and torments of those that are now in Hell for sin, (Luk. 16. 24. 28.) go on in a sinfull course of life; yea, though every sin is also a step of descent, down to that infernal Cave.  O how true is that saying of Solomon, The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead, Eccles. 9. 3.  To the dead! that is, to the dead in Hell, to the damned dead; the place to which those that have dyed Bad men are gone, and that those that live Bad men are like to go to, when a little more sin, like stollen waters, hath been imbibed by their sinful souls.

That which has made me publish this Book is,

1.  For that wickedness like a flood is like to drown our English world: it begins already to be above the tops of mountains; it has almost swallowed up all; our Youth, our Middle age, Old age, and all, are almost carried away of this flood.  O Debauchery, Debauchery, what hast thou done in England!  Thou hast corrupted our Young men, and hast made our Old men beasts; thou hast deflowered our Virgins, and hast made Matrons Bawds.  Thou hast made our earth to reel to and fro like a drunkard; ’tis in danger to be removed like a Cottage, yea, it is, because transgression is so heavy upon it, like to fall and rise no more.  Isa. 24. 20.

O! that I could mourn for England, and for the sins that are committed therein, even while I see that without repentance, the men of Gods wrath are about to deal with us, each having his slaughtering weapon in his hand: (Ezek. 9. 1, 2.)  Well, I have written, and by Gods assistance shall pray, that this flood may abate in England: and could I but see the tops of the Mountains above it, I should think that these waters were abating.

2.  It is the duty of those that can, to cry out against this deadly plague, yea, to lift up their voice as with a Trumpet against it; that men may he awakened about it, flye from it, as from that which is the greatest of evils.  Sin pull’d Angels out of Heaven, pulls men down to Hell, and overthroweth Kingdoms.  Who, that sees an house on fire, will not give the Allarum to them that dwell therein? who that sees the Land invaded, will not set the Beacons on a fame?  Who, that sees the Devils, as roaring Lyons, continually devouring souls, will not make an Out-cry?  But above all, when we see sin, sinful sin, a swallowing up a Nation, sinking of a Nation, and bringing its Inhabitants to temporal, spiritual, and eternal ruine, shall we not cry out, and cry, They are drunk, but not with Wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink; they are intoxicated with the deadly poyson of sin, which will, if its malignity be not by wholsom means allayed, bring Soul and Body, and Estate and Countrey, and all, to ruin and destruction?

3.  In and by this my Out-cry, I shall deliver my self from the ruins of them that perish: for a man can do no more in this matter, I mean a man in my capacity, than to detect and condemn the wickedness, warn the evil doer of the Judgment, and fly therefrom my self.  But Oh! that I might not only deliver my self!  Oh that many would hear, and turn at this my cry, from sin! that they may be secured from the death and Judgment that attend it.

Why I have handled the matter in this method, is best known to my self: and why I have concealed most of the Names of the persons whose sins or punishments I here and there in this Book make relation of, is,

1.  For that neither the sins nor Judgments were all alike open; the sins of some, were committed, and the Judgments executed for them only in a corner.  Not to say that I could not learn some of their names; for could I, I should not have made them publick, for this reason.

2.  Because I would not provoke those of their Relations that survive them; I would not justly provoke them, and yet, as I think, I should, should I have intailed their punishment to their sins, and both to their names, and so have turned them into the world.

3.  Nor would I lay them under disgrace and contempt, which would, as I think, unavoidably have happened unto them had I withall inserted their Names.

As for those whose Names I mention, their crimes or Judgments were manifest; publick almost as any thing of that nature that happeneth to mortal men.  Such therefore have published their own shame by their sin, and God, his anger, by taking of open vengeance.

As Job sayes, God has strook them as wicked men in the open sight of others, Job 34. 26.  So that I cannot conceive, since their sin and Judgment was so conspicuous, that my admonishing the world thereof, should turn to their detriment: For the publishing of these things, are, so far as Relation is concerned, intended for remembrancers: That they may also bethink themselves, repent and turn to God, lest the Judgments for their sins should prove hereditary.  For the God of Heaven hath threatned to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, if they hate him, to the third and fourth generation, Exod. 20. 5.