FRONTISPIER appear to be greater extortioners than our men. The instructions, exhortations, and scriptural precepts and examples to enforce honest dealing, interspersed as reflections throughout this narrative, are invaluable, and will, I trust, prove beneficial to every reader. I have taken the liberty of dividing this longcontinued dialogue into chapters, for the greater facility of reference, and as periods in the history, where the reader may conveniently rest in his progress through this deeply interesting narrative. GEO. OPFOR. As a curious and interesting illustration of the form and manner in which the Life of Badman was first published, facsimiles of the five engravings that accompanied the first edition are given on this and the following page. These woodcuts are accurately copied from a fine set in the first edition, in the Editor's library. Very few of these rare volumes are found with the cuts, the reverse of each being blank. They are in the later copies, with letter-press on the reverse; excepting the folio editions, which have the five engraved on one copper-plate, the designs being reversed.-ED. To be a bad man must be had, Lest they fall short of lasting bliss. You that do use to curse and swear, COURTEOUS READER, THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. to go into several families, and not to arrest some, as for the king's messenger to rush into a house As I was considering with myself what I had full of traitors, and find none but honest men written concerning the Progress of the Pilgrim there. I cannot but think that this shot will light from this world to glory, and how it had been upon many, since our fields are so full of this acceptable to many in this nation, it came again | game; but how many it will kill to Mr. Badman's into my mind to write, as then, of him that was course, and make alive to the Pilgrim's Progress, going to heaven, so now, of the life and death of that is not in me to determine; this secret is with the ungodly, and of their travel from this world to the Lord our God only, and he alone knows to hell. The which in this I have done, and have whom he will bless it to so good and so blessed put it, as thou seest, under the name and title of an end. However, I have put fire to the pan, and Mr. Badman, a name very proper for such a sub- doubt not but the report will quickly be heard. ject. I have also put it into the form of a dialogue, that I might with more ease to myself, 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. 1 told you before that Mr. Badman had left many of his friends and relations behind him, but if I survive them, as that is 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 country. 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 transbe-gression thereof is heavy upon it. 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, hold with thine own eyes the steps that take hold of hell; and also discern, while thou art reading of Mr. Badman's death, whether thou thyself art treading in his path thereto. And let me entreat thee to forbear quirking1 and mocking, for that I say Mr. Badman is dead; but rather gravely inquire concerning thyself by the Word, whether thou art one of his lineage 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, cousins, 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. Badman's relations are there; yea, rarely can we find a family or household in a town, where he has not left behind him either a brother, nephew, or friend. The butt therefore, that at this time I shoot at, is wide; and it will be as impossible for this book 1 Quirk, an artful or subtle evasion of a truthful home-thrust. -(ED.) Butt, a mark set up to shoot at. Some are always exposed to the wit and raillery of their wellwishers, pelted by friends and foes, in a word, staud as butts.'-Spectator, No. 47.—(Ed.) 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 grandeur 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 men's 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 completely wrought images, as lively as by cunning men's hands they can be; that the remembrance of them may be renewed to their survivors, the remembrance of 3 The office of a Christian minister is like that of a king's messenger, not only to comfort and reward the king's friends, but to arrest his enemies. England was then overrun with the latter 'game.' Alas! there are too many of them now. May the revival of this shot light upon many.'-(ED.) Fire to the par,' alluding to the mode of using fire-arms, by applying a lighted match to the pan, before the fire-lock was invented.-(ED.) Fourth. 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 sense 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 it is too late for him to recover that damage 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. them and their deeds; and this I have endeavoured | neither skin nor bone above ground, but shail set to answer in my discourse of Mr. Badman, and a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the therefore I have drawn him forth in his features valley of Hamon-gog. Eze. xxxix. and actions from his childhood to his grey hairs. Here therefore, thou hast him lively set forth as in cuts; 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. Second. There is also usual at great men's funerals, those badges and escutcheons 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 escutcheons of honour that he has, are only that he died without honour, and at his end became a fool.' Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial.' The seed of evil doers shall never be renowned.' Is. xiv. 20. 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 sin of his youth, which shall lie down,' as Job says, 'with him in the dust.' 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 margin, as with a finger, thus: T Third. 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. Badman's death; but forasmuch 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 Reader, if thou art of the race, lineage, 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 kinsman's life. For thy old love to thy friend, his ways, doings, &c., will stir up in thee enmity rather in thy very heart against me. 1 shall therefore incline to think of thee, that thou wilt rend, burn, or throw it away in contempt; yea, and wish also, that for writing so notorious a truth, some mischief may befal me. I look also to be loaded by thee with disdain, scorn, and contempt; yea, that thou shouldest railingly and vilifyingly say I lie, and am a bespatterer of honest men's 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 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram's friends, even rail at me for condemning him, as they did at Moses for doing execution? I know it is ill puddling in the cockatrice's den, and that they run hazards that hunt the wild boar The man also that writeth Mr. Badman's life had need be fenced with a coat of mail, and with the staff 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 one's door for this? Verily, the flesh would be glad of such help; yea, a spiritual man, could he tell how to get it. Ac. xxii. But I am stript naked of these, and yet am commanded to be faithful in my service for Christ. Well then, I have spoken what I have spoken, and now come on me what will.' Job xiii. 13. True, the text say, 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. Badman's friends shall rage or laugh at what I have writ, I know that the better end of the staff1 is mine. My endeavour is to stop a hellish course of life, and to save a soul from death.' Ja. v. 20. 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 myself likewise. Yet four things I will propound to the consideration of Mr. Badman's friends before I turn my back upon them. | change that place for heaven and glory. What 3. Suppose again, that thou that livest and rollest in thy sin, and that as yet hast known nothing but the pleasure thereof, shouldest be by an angel conveyed to some place, where, with convenience, from thence thou mightest have a view of heaven and hell, of the joys 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, choose to thyself 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. 1. Suppose that there be a hell in very deed; 4. I will propound again. Suppose that there not that I do question it any more than I do was amongst us such a law, and such a magistrate whether there be a sun to shine, but I suppose it to inflict the penalty, that for every open wickedfor argument sake with Mr. Badman's friends. Iness committed by thee, so much of thy flesh should say, suppose there be a hell, and that too such an with burning pincers be plucked from thy bones, one as the Scripture speaks of, one at the remotest wouldest thou then go on in thy open way of lying, distance from God and life eternal, one where the swearing, drinking, and whoring, as thou with worm of a guilty conscience never dies, and where delight doest now? Surely, surely, no. The fear the fire of the wrath of God is not quenched. Sup- of the punishment would make thee forbear; yea, pose, I say, that there is such a hell, prepared of would make thee tremble, even then when thy God-as there is indeed-for the body and soul of lusts were powerful, to think what a punishment the ungodly world after this life to be tormented thou wast sure to sustain so soon as the pleasure in; I say, do but with thyself suppose it, and then was over. But O! the folly, the madness, the tell me is it not prepared for thee, thou being a desperate madness that is in the hearts of Mr. wicked man? Let thy conscience speak, I say, Badman's friends, who, in despite of the threatenis it not prepared for thee, thou being an un-ings of a holy and sin-revenging God, and of the godly 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 angels tremble there? Thy hands cannot be strong, nor can thy heart endure, in that day when God shall deal with thee. Eze. xxii. 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 they die, to In the single combat of quarter-staff, he who held the best end of the staff usually gained the victory.-(ED.) 2 Pilgrim's Progress, Interpreter's House, p. 100. This is a remarkable illustration of a difficult part of the allegoryfaithful admonitions repaid by inurderous revenge, but overcome by Christian courage.-(ED.) a step of Lu. xvi. 24, 28. The heart outeries and warnings of all good men, yea, that That which has made me publish this book is, |