This, I say, is his getting; so that as David says, we may be bold to say too: "I be held the wicked in great prosperity, and presently I cursed his habitation:" for it cannot prosper with him. Fluster and huff, and make ado for a while he may, but God hath determined that both he and it shall melt like grease; and any observing man may see it so. Behold the unrighteous man, in a way of injustice, getteth much, and loadeth himself with thick clay, but anon it withereth, it decayeth, and even he, or the generation following, decline, and return to beggary.

And this Mr Badman, notwithstanding his cunning and crafty tricks to get money, did die, nobody can tell whether worth a farthing

or no.

Atten. He had all the bad tricks, I think, that it was possible for a man to have, to get money; one would think that he should have been rich.

You reckon too fast, if you count these all his bad tricks to get money;

for he had more besides.

More of Mr If his customers were in his Badman's bad books, (as it should go hard tricks. but he would have them there;

at least if he thought he could make any advantage of them), then would he be sure to impose upon them his worst, even very bad commodity, yet set down for it the price that the best was sold at: like those that sold the refuse wheat, or the worst of the

wheat; making the shekle great, yet hoisting up the price: this was Mr Badman's way. He would sell goods that cost him not the best price by far, for as much as he sold his best

Another art to cheat withal.

of all for. He had also a trick

to mingle his commodity, that that which was bad might go off with the least mistrust.

Besides, if his customers at any time paid him money, let them look to themselves, and to their acquaintances, for he would usually attempt to call for that payment again, espe cially if he thought that there were hopes of making a prize thereby, and then to be sure if they could not produce good and sufficient ground of the payment, a hundred to one but they paid it again. Sometimes the honest chapman would appeal to his servants for proof of the payment of money, but they were trained up by him to say after his mind, right or wrong; so that, relief that way, he could get none.

Atten. It is a bad, yea an abominable thing for a man to have such servants. For by such means a poor customer may be undone, and not know how to help himself. Alas! if the master be so unconscionable, as I perceive Mr Badman was, to call for his money twice, and if his servant will swear that it is a due debt, where is any help for such a man? he must sink, there is no remedy.

Wise. This is very bad; but this has been

a practice, and that hundreds
But what saith

of years ago.
the word of God? "I will

punish all those that leap up-
on the threshold, which fill

Servants ob

serve these words.

their masters houses with violence and deceit."

Mr Badman also had this art: Could he get a man at advantage, that is, if his chapman durst not go from him, or if the commodity he wanted could not for the present be conveniently had elsewhere; then let him look to himself; he would surely make his purse-strings crack; he would exact upon him without any pity or conscience.

Atten. That was extortion, was it not? I pray let me hear your judgment of extortion, what it is, and when committed.

Wise. Extortion is a screwing from men more than by the law of God or men is right; and it is committed

sometimes by them in office, a- Of extortion. bout fees, rewards, and the

like: but it is most commonly committed by men of trade, who, without all conscience, when they have the advantage, will make a prey of their neighbour. And thus was Mr Badman an extortioner; for although he did not exact, and force away, as bailiffs and clerks have used to do; yet he had his opportunities, and such cruelty to make use of them, that he would often, in his way, be extorting and forcing of money out of his

neighbour's pocket. For every man that makes a prey of his advantage upon his neighbour's necessities, to force from him more than in reason and conscience, according to the present prices of things, such commodity is worth, may very well be called an extortioner, and judged for one that hath no in heritance in the kingdom of God.

Atten. Well, this Badman was a sad wretch. Wise. Thus you have often said before. But now we are in discourse of this, give me leave a little to go on. We have a great many people in the country too that live all their days in the practice, and so under the guilt of extortion: People, alas! that think scorn to be so accounted.

extortioners.

As for example: There is a poor body that dwells, we will suppose, so many miles from the market; and this man Who are wants a bushel of grist, a pound of butter, or a cheese, for himself, his wife, and poor children: But dwelling so far from the market, if he goes thither he shall lose his day's work, which will be eight pence or ten pence damage to him, and that is something to a poor man. So he goeth to one of his masters or dames for what he wanteth, and asks them to help him with such a thing. Yes, say they, you may have it; but withal they will give him a gripe, perhaps make him pay as much (or more) for it at home, as they can get when they have carried it five miles

to a market; yea, and that too for the refuse of their commodity. But in this the women are especially faulty, in the sale of their butter and cheese, &c. Now, this is a kind of extortion, it is a making a prey of the necessity of the poor, it is a grinding of their faces, a buying and selling of them.

But above all your hucksters, that buy up the poor man's victuals by wholesale, and sell it to him again for unreasonable gains, by retail, and as we call it, by piece-meal,

Hucksters.

they are got into a way, after a stinging rate, to play their game upon such by extortion. I mean such who buy up butter, cheese, eggs, bacon, &c. by wholesale, and sell it again (as they call it) by penny-worths, twopenny-worths, a half-penny-worth, or the like, to the poor, all the week after the market is past.

These, though I will not condemn them all, do, many of them, bite and pinch the poor by this kind of evil dealing. These destroy the poor, because he is poor, and that is a grievous sin: "He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want." Therefore he saith again, "Rob not the poor because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate; for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of them that spoil them."

Oh, that he that gripeth and grindeth the