The Life and Death of Mr. Badman

Atten. Therein, I think, the old man was out. Had I been his Father, I would have held him a little at slaves-end, till I had had far better proof of his manners to be good; (for I perceive that his Father did know what a naughty boy he had been, both by what he used to do at home, and because¹ he changed a good Master for a bad, &c.) He should not therefore have given him money so soon. What if he had pinched a little, and gone to Journey-work for a time, that he might have known what a penny was, by his earning of it? Then, in all probability, he had known better how to have spent it: Yea, and by that time perhaps, have better considered with himself, how to have lived in the world. Ay, and who knows but he might have come to himself with the Prodigal, and have asked God and his Father forgiveness for the villainies that he had committed against them.

Atten. Therein, I think, the old man was out. Had I been his Father, I would have held him a little at slaves-end, till I had had far better proof of his manners to be good; (for I perceive that his Father did know what a naughty boy he had been, both by what he used to do at home, and because¹ he changed a good Master for a bad, &c.) He should not therefore have given him money so soon. What if he had pinched a little, and gone to Journey-work for a time, that he might have known what a penny was, by his earning of it? Then, in all probability, he had known better how to have spent it: Yea, and by that time perhaps, have better considered with himself, how to have lived in the world. Ay, and who knows but he might have come to himself with the Prodigal, and have asked God and his Father forgiveness for the villanies that he had committed against them.

1. 1Severity what it in••ines to.

Wise. If his Father could also have blessed this manner of dealing to