The Life and Death of Mr. Badman

Atten. Certainly,¹ malice and envy flow from pride and arrogancy, and they again from ignorance, and ignorance from the Devil; And I thought, that since you spake of the pride of Mr. Badman before, we should have something of these before we had done.

1. 1Whence Envy flows.

Wise. Envy flows from Ignorance indeed. And this Mr. Badman was so envious an one, where he set against, that he would swell with it, as a Toad, as we say, ⟨p. 260⟩swells with poison. He whom he maligned, might at any time even read envy in his face wherever he met with him, or in whatever he had to do with him. His envy was so rank and strong, that if it at any time turned its head against a man, it would hardly ever be pulled in again: He would watch over that man to do him mischief, as the Cat watches over the Mouse to destroy it; yea, he would wait seven years, but he would have an opportunity to hurt him, and when he had it, he would make him feel the weight of his Envy. Envy is a devilish thing, the Scripture intimates that none can stand before it. ¹A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty, but a fools wrath is heavier than them both. Wrath is cruel,² and anger is outrageous, but who can stand before envy? This Envy, for the foulness of it, is reckoned among the foulest Villainies that are,³ as adultery, murder, drunkenness, revellings, witchcrafts, heresies, seditions, &c. Yea, it is so malignant a corruption, that ⟨p. 261⟩it rots the very bones of him in whom it dwells.