The Works of John Bunyan, vol 3 - John Bunyan (the giving tree read aloud .TXT) 📗

naught, it is naught, saith the buyer,’ but when he hath got his bargain he boasteth thereof (Prov 20:14). What hath this man done now, but lied in the dispraising of his bargain? and why did he dispraise it, but of a covetous mind to wrong and beguile the seller?

2. Art thou a seller, and do things grow dear? Set not thy hand to help or hold them up higher; this cannot be done without wickedness neither, for this is a making of the shekel great (Amos 8:5). Art thou a buyer, and do things grow dear? use no cunning or deceitful language to pull them down, for that cannot be done but wickedly too. What then shall we do, will you say? Why I answer, leave things to the providence of God, and do thou with moderation submit to his hand. But since, when they are growing dear, the hand that upholds the price is, for the time, more strong than that which would pull it down; that being the hand of the seller, who loveth to have it dear, especially if it shall rise in his hand. Therefore I say, do thou take heed and have not a hand in it, the which thou mayest have to thine own and thy neighbour’s hurt, these three ways:—

1. By crying out scarcity, scarcity, beyond the truth and state of things; especially take heed of doing of this by way of a prognostic for time to come. It was for this for which he was trodden to death in the gate of Samaria, that you read of in the second book of Kings (2 Kings 7:17). This sin hath a double evil in it. (1.) It belieth the present blessing of God among us; and (2.) It undervalueth the riches of his goodness, which can make all good things to abound towards us.

2. This wicked thing may be done by hoarding up when the hunger and necessity of the poor calls for it. Now, that God may show his dislike against this, he doth, as it were, license the people to curse such a hoarder up—‘He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him, but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it’ (Prov 11:26).

3. But if things will rise, do thou be grieved, be also moderate in all thy sellings, and be sure let the poor have a pennyworth, and sell thy corn to those in necessity. Which then thou wilt do when thou showest mercy to the poor in thy selling to him, and when thou, for his sake because he is poor, undersellest the market. This is to buy and sell with good conscience; thy buyer thou wrongest not, thy conscience thou wrongest not, thyself thou wrongest not, for God will surely recompense thee (Isa 57:6-8).

I have spoken concerning corn, but thy duty is to ‘let your moderation’ in all things ‘be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand’ (Phil 4:5).

CHAPTER XII.

[BADMAN’S PRIDE, ATHEISM, INFIDELITY, AND ENVY.]

ATTEN. Well, Sir, now I have heard enough of Mr. Badman’s naughtiness, pray now proceed to his death.

WISE. Why, Sir, the sun is not so low, we have yet three hours to night.

ATTEN. Nay, I am not in any great haste, but I thought you had even now done with his life.

WISE. Done! no, I have yet much more to say.

ATTEN. Then he has much more wickedness than I thought he had.

WISE. That may be. But let us proceed. This Mr. Badman added to all his wickedness this, he was a very proud man, a very proud man. He was exceeding proud and haughty in mind; he looked that what he said ought not, must not be contradicted or opposed.

He counted himself as wise as the wisest in the country, as good as the best, and as beautiful as he that had most of it. He took great delight in praising of himself, and as much in the praises that others gave him. He could not abide that any should think themselves above him, or that their wit or personage should by others be set before his. He had scarce a fellowly carriage for his equals. But for those that were of an inferior rank, he would look over them in great contempt. And if at any time he had any remote occasion of having to do with them, he would show great height and a very domineering spirit. So that in this it may be said that Solomon gave a characteristical note of him when he said, ‘Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath’

(Prov 21:24). He never thought his diet well enough dressed, his clothes fine enough made, or his praise enough refined.

ATTEN. This pride is a sin that sticks as close to nature, I think, as most sins. There is uncleanness and pride, I know not of any two gross sins that stick closer to men than they. They have, as I may call it, an interest in nature; it likes them because they most suit its lust and fancies; and therefore no marvel though Mr.

Badman was tainted with pride, since he had so wickedly given up himself to work all iniquity with greediness.

WISE. You say right; pride is a sin that sticks close to nature, and is one of the first follies wherein it shows itself to be polluted. For even in childhood, even in little children, pride will first of all show itself; it is a hasty, an early appearance of the sin of the soul. It, as I may say, is that corruption that strives for predominancy in the heart, and therefore usually comes out first. But though children are so incident to it, yet methinks those of more years should be ashamed thereof. I might at the first have begun with Mr. Badman’s pride, only I think it is not the pride in infancy that begins to make a difference betwixt one and another, as did, and do those wherewith I began my relation of his life, therefore I passed it over, but now, since he had no more consideration of himself, and of his vile and sinful state, but to be proud when come to years, I have taken the occasion in this place to make mention of his pride.

ATTEN. But pray, if you can remember them, tell me of some places of scripture that speak against pride. I the rather desire this because that pride is now a reigning sin, and I happen sometimes to fall into the company of them that in my conscience are proud, very much, and I have a mind also to tell them of their sin, now when I tell them of it, unless I bring God’s Word too, I doubt they will laugh me to scorn.

WISE. Laugh you to scorn! the proud man will laugh you to scorn bring to him what text you can, except God shall smite him in his conscience by the Word. Mr. Badman did use to serve them so that did use to tell him of his; and besides, when you have said what you can, they will tell you they are not proud, and that you are rather the proud man, else you would not judge, nor so malapertly59

meddle with other men’s matters as you do. Nevertheless, since you desire it, I will mention two or three texts; they are these:—‘Pride and arrogancy—do I hate’ (Prov 8:13). ‘A man’s pride shall bring him low’ (Prov 29:23). ‘And he shall bring down their pride’ (Isa 25:11). ‘And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up’ (Mal 4:1). This last is a dreadful text, it is enough to make a proud man shake. God, saith he, will make the proud ones as stubble; that is, as fuel for the fire, and the day that cometh shall be like a burning oven, and that day shall burn them up, saith the Lord.

But Mr. Badman could never abide to hear pride spoken against, nor that any should say of him, He is a proud man.

ATTEN. What should be the reason of that?

WISE. He did not tell me the reason; but I suppose it to be that which is common to all vile persons. They love this vice, but care not to bear its name. The drunkard loves the sin, but loves not to be called a drunkard. The thief loveth to steal, but cannot abide to be called a thief; the whore loveth to commit uncleanness, but loveth not to be called a whore. And so Mr. Badman loved to be proud, but could not abide to be called a proud man. The sweet of sin is desirable to polluted and corrupted man, but the name thereof is a blot in his escutcheon.[60]

ATTEN. It is true that you have said; but pray how many sorts of pride are there?

WISE. There are two sorts of pride: pride of spirit, and pride of body. The first of these is thus made mention of in the scriptures.

‘Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord’

(Prov 16:5). ‘A high look, and a proud heart, and the ploughing of the wicked, is sin’ (Prov 21:4). ‘The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit’ (Eccl 7:8). Bodily pride the scriptures mention. ‘In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels.[61] the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails’ (Isa 3:18-23). By these expressions it is evident that there is pride of body, as well as pride of spirit, and that both are sin, and so abominable to the Lord. But these texts Mr. Badman could never abide to read; they were to him as Micaiah was to Ahab, they never spake good of him, but evil.

ATTEN. I suppose that it was not Mr. Badman’s case alone even to malign those texts that speak against their vices; for I believe that most ungodly men, where the scriptures are, have a secret antipathy against those words of God that do most plainly and fully rebuke them for their sins.

WISE. That is out of doubt; and by that antipathy they show that sin and Satan are more welcome to them than are wholesome instructions of life and godliness.

ATTEN. Well, but not to go off from our discourse of Mr. Badman.

You say he was proud; but will you show me now some symptoms of one that is proud?

WISE. Yes, that I will; and first I will show you some symptoms of pride of heart. Pride of heart is seen by outward things, as pride of body in general is a sign of pride of heart; for all proud gestures of the body flow from pride of heart; therefore Solomon saith, ‘There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes, and their eye-lids are lifted up’ (Prov 30:13). And again, there is ‘that exalteth his gait,’ his going (Prov 17:19). Now, these lofty eyes, and this exalting of the gait, is a sign of a proud heart; for both these actions come from the heart. For out of the heart comes pride, in all the visible appearances of it (Mark 7). But more particularly—

1. Heart pride is discovered by a stretched-out neck, and by mincing as they go. For the wicked, the proud,