Chapter XXII: Part 22

Behold the glorious Son of God subjecting himself to his earthly parents, to Joseph the carpenter, and to Mary his mother, that he might instruct us how to pay obedience to our superior relations. See how the King of kings pays tribute to Cæsar, when he was so poor, that he was forced to send Peter a fishing, to procure the tribute-money by a miracle. And though the beasts of the field were his, and he could have commanded the cattle upon a thousand hills, to make provision for his followers; yet he would not dispossess the owners of them, but created food on purpose to feed four or five thousand in the wilderness.

III. If we consider Christ as a glorious benefactor, who has taken care to provide for us the necessaries of this life, and hath purchased for us, at the hands of God, the eternal treasures of heaven and glory. Has not this blessed consideration force enough to guard us against all temptations to injustice? Shall a christian break the rules of equity, and steal, or cheat, or plunder his neighbour to gain money or merchandise, who has the promises of God for his support in a way of diligence and humble faith? Shall we sully our consciences, and defile our souls with knavery and injustice for a little of the pelf of this world, when we have the unsearchable riches of Christ made over to us in the gospel, and the inheritance of heaven in reversion?

IV. Let us consider the very nature and design of the gospel of Christ, it is to make sinners holy, to make the unjust righteous: The new man of christianity must be created in righteousness and true holiness. Therefore are we _purchased with the blood of Christ, that we might be a peculiar peeple, zealous of good works_; Tit. ii. 14.

It is a shame and scandal to the christian name, when one who wears it is unrighteous or dishonest. An unjust christian, what a contradiction is it in itself, and how it disgraces the profession of the gospel! Hear how the great apostle treats his Corinthian disciples when such sort of sins were found amongst them; 1 Cor. vi. 1-8. _Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust man and the infidel? Dare any of you injure your neighbour, your fellow-christian? I speak this to your shame. Brother goes to law with brother, and ye injure one another. Why do not you rather suffer wrong? nay, you do wrong, and defraud, and that your own brethren._ But what is the consequence? Such wretches as these are, _shall never inherit the kingdom of God_.

_The grace of God that bringeth salvation_; Tit. ii. 9, 10. _teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly and righteously_, and religiously, _in this present evil world_. It teacheth us righteousness towards men, as well as sobriety among ourselves, and godliness towards the King of heaven. But how hath this divine religion been scandalized for want of justice in the professors of it! Scandalized among heathen kingdoms, among Turks and unbelievers! and christianity in our own land, how hath it been dishonoured by the practices of those that pretend to that holy name! How hath the conversion of wild heathens in the Indian nations been hindered by the injustice and fraud of christian merchants and traders there, or by merchants who call themselves christians. I have heard it said by persons whom I could fully credit, that a Turk when he is suspected of fraud and cheating, will reply, “What, do you think I am a christian?” O how hath the gospel of the lovely Jesus been rendered odious by the abominable practices of those that pretend to honour him! What falsehood, what lying, what perjury, and cheating, and deceit, and violence have been practised by our traders in foreign lands! Thus there has been an ill savour of our holy christianity carried beyond the seas, by those, perhaps, who have pretended to convert the infidels. And many in our own nation, who have begun to set their faces towards heaven, have been sorely disgusted at the knavish practices of professors, and been tempted to think that all religion is a jest, and to abandon the ordinances of the gospel. But when souls stumble, and fall, and perish by such discouragements, woe to him that gave the offence, and laid this stumbling-block of iniquity in their way. How heavy must the blood of souls lay upon such sinners!

Surely there has been enough said on this head to discourage oppression, deceit, and injustice in the professors of christianity, if argument, and shame, and terror can have power and prevalence over sin and temptation. O may almighty grace attend this discourse of justice, and work the sacred love of it in the hearts of men!

Now if ye are made willing to walk by the rules of equity and justice, instead of proposing particular directions for this end, I shall proceed,

In the fifth and last place, to point out the various springs of injustice, that ye may avoid them.

The great and general spring of injustice to our neighbour is a criminal and excessive love to ourselves. For since the comprehensive notion of justice lies in this, to give to every one that which is due, it follows, that the general notion of injustice consists in taking to ourselves more than is due, or in giving less than is due to our neighbour.

There are a thousand instances of this unrighteousness among men, in reference to their bodies, their souls, their good name, or their possessions in the world. This general term of injustice is so extensive, that it includes a great part of the sins forbidden in the second table. Disobedience to parents and governors, rebellion, treason, murder, adultery, theft, violence and plunder, cheating, and deceit, and slander, with all sinful desires to possess what belongs to our neighbour, may be justly ranked under the head of unrighteousness: And they spring from this one fountain, namely, an excessive regard to self. It is to this natural and exalted idol that we sacrifice the peace and the property, the good name, and even the life of our fellow-creatures. Nor will any method be effectual to secure us from the practice of injustice, till we learn to degrade self a little in our own esteem, and to judge of our neighbour, and of the things that are his due, by the same rule and measure by which we take an estimate, of ourselves, and of what is due to us. Let us put our neighbour in the place of self, and judge how he ought to be treated.

But that we may more effectually guard ourselves from the temptations of injustice, let us descend to particulars, and we shall find that almost all the unrighteous practices of men spring from some of these six principles; _viz._ covetousness, pride, luxury, sloth, malice against men, or distrust of God.

I. Covetousness is a great spring of injustice. This consists in an immoderate desire of possessing: And we are told by the apostle, that the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have not only erred from the faith, but they have ventured upon many sins, as well as pierced themselves through with many sorrows. For _they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which draw men in destruction and perdition_; 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. Solomon is of the same mind; Prov. xxviii. 20, 22. He that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent, for he hath an evil eye upon the possessions of his neighbour.

It is from this cursed root of covetousness that a multitude of bitter fruits proceed. It is by this vicious principle working within us, that we are tempted to take what is not our due, either by craft or by violence. Hence it is that men cheat each other in their daily commerce, they defraud and over-reach their neighbour, if they can, in every bargain they make, and try all the arts of subtle knavery, in order to enrich themselves. They divest their souls of truth and virtue, and put off conscience and shame to load themselves with thick clay.

It is covetousness that teaches the sons of men to practise upon their dealers with a false balance and a deceitful beam. They shorten their measures, and lessen their weights by which they sell their goods: But when the case alters, and they buy any thing for themselves, they will, if possible, take another sort of weight, or use a different measure; all which are an abomination to the Lord.

It is the same evil and unrighteous principle that persuades the seller to put off corrupt and damaged wares for good and sound, and to cozen his neighbour with merchandize that is by no means such as he reasonably expects. It is this principle that persuades the buyer also to cheat his neighbour with corrupt and false money, which he knows to be unlawful coin. For corrupt merchandize and corrupt money, false balances, light weights, and scanty measure, seem all to stand in the same rank of deceit: These are all weapons of craft and knavery to give a secret wound to their neighbour’s estate, they all belong to the armory of fraud, and the magazine of unrighteousness.

It is this covetous humour that tempts the tongues of men to speak flattering falsehoods in their daily dealings, and some of them make an hourly sacrifice of truth to the gain of a penny. It is from this principle that they break their promises of payment; they withhold the money that is due to their neighbour, beyond all reasonable time, and that for no other reason but to gain by the loan of it: They delay the payment of their poor creditors for many months, or perhaps for years, and put the advantage which they make of this delay into their own purse. This is a frequent, but an unrighteous practice in our day: For the profit that accrues by the detaining of money that is due to another beyond the customary or contracted time of payment, should doubtless be given to the person to whom the principal money was due; or at least he should have such a valuable share of it as may compensate the damage or loss he sustains by the delay.

It is a covetous desire of gain that tempts men to practise extortion, and to prey upon the necessities of those they deal with. When the buyer wants any conveniency of life, they force him to give much more than it is worth, because he stands in the utmost need of it; or they constrain the seller perhaps to part with some of his most valuable possessions for a trifle, because he is under special necessity and present distress. This was the extortion which Jacob practised upon his brother Esau, when he made him sell his birth-right for a mess of pottage, while he was faint with hunting. And it is the same iniquity when we impose upon the ignorance or known unskilfulness of the persons we deal with; and especially when we make our advantage of children or servants, or of persons who confess their own ignorance, and leave the choice of the goods, or the determination of the price, to the conscience of him that sells.

We may indeed set a just value upon our own goods; but we must not set a price upon any man’s pressing necessity, nor raise a tax upon his ignorance. It can never be certainly determined how much it is lawful for a trader to get by his merchandize: Doubtless he may sometimes make a greater gain of the same things than at another: And this is often necessary, in order to compensate the losses, the risks or dangers that he passes through. He may lawfully make those advantages which the change of things, and the divine providence often puts into his hands: Nor is it unlawful for him to take more of some persons than he does of others for the same merchandize; for he may treat some of his customers favourably, though he must deal righteously and justly with them all. But let him see to it that he use ingenuity towards the poor, the necessitous, and the unskilful, as well as moderation toward all men. The circumstances of things are so various, that much of the practice of justice must be left to the court of equity in every man’s breast, under the sacred influence of this rule, _Do that to others which you think reasonable that others should do to you_. It is best in all doubtful and difficult cases to practise what is fair and honourable in the sight of men, and what is safe and innocent in the sight of God: for a good conscience is better than the largest gain: But where the sacred principles of virtue are over-borne by corrupt inclinations, the moral powers of the soul are stretched at first to the lengths of moderate iniquity, and conscience is strained to the indulgence of some smaller unrighteousness: but virtue will die by degrees, and conscience will learn in time to allow bolder injustice. And then, though it may be stupified and senseless for a season, yet let the sinner know, that it will have its feeling return again, and the guilt of knavery and falsehood will torture the soul with unknown agonies here or hereafter.

But the wretched influence of this vice of covetousness is not confined only to traffic and merchandize: It spreads its unrighteousness much farther and wider: It tempts the sons and daughters of men to withhold due honour and necessary supplies from their aged parents, and exposes to great hardships in the latter end of life, those to whom we owe our life itself, and the comforts of it in our younger years. It withholds wages from the servant, and salary from him that has earned it. It forbids those who have received benefits to make a grateful return to their benefactors. It will teach a man to stop his ears at the cry of his neighbour in distress, lest it should cost some money for his relief. It refuses an alms to the starving poor, and finds an excuse for the churl, lest he stretch out his hand of bounty to a perishing family. It is so wrapped up in self, that it never considers what is due to another; and ventures to break all the rules of righteousness rather than diminish its own estate, or part with any thing it can call mine. It would suffer a church or a kingdom to sink and perish, and let the public peace be broken, and the nation dissolved, if it might but secure itself and its own possessions in the midst of those ruins. An accursed vice. An iniquity big with misery and desolation! yet it hides itself too often from conviction and reproof; it runs like a river under ground, and attempts to conceal itself under the specious disguises of frugality and virtue, while it practises all the mischiefs we have been describing.

II. Pride is another spring of injustice. But having broken up the fountain of covetousness as of a great deep, and traced it in its various streams, the labour of drying them up has employed so much time, that the pursuit of the other springs of unrighteousness must be delayed till a further season.

HYMN FOR SERMON XXV.
_Christian Morality_, _viz._ _Justice and Truth_.

Great God, thy holy law requires,
To curb our covetous desires,
Forbids to plunder, steal, or cheat,
To practise falsehood or deceit.

Thy Son hath set a pattern too,
He paid to God and men their due:
A dreadful debt he paid to God,
And bought our pardon with his blood.

Amazing justice! boundless love!
Do we not feel our passions move?
Do we not grieve that we have been
Faithless to God, or false to men?

Have we no righteous debt denied,
Through wanton luxury or pride?
Nor vex’d the poor with long delay,
And made them groan for want of pay?

Have we ne’er thrown a needless shame,
Or scandal on our neighbour’s name?
O happy men, whose age and youth
Have ever dealt in love and truth;

But if our justice once be gone,
And leave our faith and hope alone;
If honesty be banish’d hence
Religion is a vain pretence.

SERMON XXVI.
_Christian Morality_, _viz._ _Justice, &c._
PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
think on these things.
Οσα δικαια, οσα αγνα.

Justice and truth are two of the chief bands that preserve human society. If truth and justice perish from the earth, the sons of men would become like the savages of the wilderness, where the strong or the crafty animals prey upon _the weak, the simple, and the innocent_. The Lord God, the author of nature, is a God of justice, and he has written something of this law in the consciences of men. But the God of grace has given us much plainer rules for the practice of it, hath allured us to righteousness by sweeter motives, and hath guarded it by more awful and solemn terrors. These things have been the subject of the former discourse; and that we may, as far as possible, assist towards the rooting out injustice from the hearts and lives of christians, I have begun to point out some of the chief principles, or springs of it.

The first which I mentioned is covetousness, a vicious weed that grows in corrupt nature, and is fruitful of a thousand unrighteous actions.

I proceed now to the second, that is pride. When a person sets too high a value upon himself, and aggrandizes himself in his own esteem, he is ready to imagine that all things are due to him, and there is very little left to become due to his neighbour. The proud, as well as the covetous man, is full of self, and he forgets the command of love to his neighbour: He treats him as if he was not made of the same clay, and lives as though he were obliged to no duty to his fellow-creatures. This is evident in a variety of instances.

It is pride that forbids us to give due respect to those that are above us in the family, in the church, or in the civil state: And instead of paying the honours that are due to superiors, we are tempted to treat them with insolence and scorn. Many a father in our degenerate age, has found this unhappy effect of raising his children too soon and too high: And the mother has seen her sin, and felt it in her punishment, when she has cockered up her young offspring in pride, and thereby taught them to break the rules of justice, to slight all her authority, and make a scoff of that pre-eminence which God and nature have given her. The proud man is ready to say in his heart, “All that are around me ought to pay me respect, and do me justice,” while he is regardless of the respect due to others. “Let them carry it towards me as they ought, and I will carry it toward them as I please.”

It is pride that inclines us to throw a blot here and there upon the good name of our neighbour, and to blemish his reputation, lest he should outshine us. When some honourable mention is made of another person in our company, especially if it be one of our own sex, our own rank or degree in the world, do we not feel something rising within to lessen their honour, and to stain their character? It is through this vanity and ambition of mind, that we are tempted to defame and reproach our neighbour, and to rob him of his just honour among men, and we endeavour to build our own fame and credit upon the ruin of his. But it is a sandy, or rather an impious foundation; and the fame that is built upon such ground will never stand. Pride inclines us to assume more respect than is due to ourselves, and to take it away from our neighbour, even as covetousness tempts us to take more money to ourselves than is due, and to deprive our neighbour of it. Thus both of them are opposite to the sacred rule of justice; one to that justice which we owe to our neighbour’s estate, and the other to his good name.

But the evil influence of pride spreads farther also; for it teaches us to practise unrighteousness in matters of property: It instructs us in the methods of oppression, and inspires us with a wicked courage to practise it; Ps. lxxiii. 6, 7, 8. _When pride compasses men as a chain, and they wear it as a golden ornament, then violence covers them as a garment; and though their eyes stand out with fatness, and they have more than heart could wish, yet they are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression._ They gripe those that are poor, because they themselves are mighty. They refuse to pay the just demands of their neighbours, they speak loftily, and stand it out with them against all right and justice, because they are great in the world. It is the rule of justice to change places with our humble neighbour, and ask ourselves, what we should think due to us, if we were in his place. Or at least we should set ourselves and our neighbour upon the level, and consider what is just and right on both sides. But the heart of pride cannot bear such a rule, it exalts itself far above the level of mankind, and practises toward those that are around it with a superior insolence and injustice. Cursed pride, the first-born of hell! It seized our first parents and tempted them to aim at godhead, to practice injury to God himself, and assume a right to the fruit of the forbidden tree! Vile iniquity, that hath tainted all the seed of Adam! It is a haughty poison that was infused into our veins with the first sin; and where shall we find the son or daughter of Eve that is not infected with it? Blessed be the grace of God, wheresoever its dominion is broken, so that it does not break out into all the works of unrighteousness.

The third spring of injustice among men is profuseness and luxury. When persons affect to live in a manner above what their circumstances will afford, they are tempted to intrench upon the property of their neighbour, either by cheating or by violence.

It is the language of luxury, “I must indulge my appetite, my table must be furnished with a costly variety, and I must eat and drink with elegance, as is the modish phrase. I must treat my friends when they visit me, with fashionable entertainments; I must keep fine company, and make a figure in the world; I must appear in such an equipage as my neighbour allows himself, though he be ten times richer than I am. I must have many changes of raiment, for it is a mean and vulgar thing to appear too often in the same dress: My house must be furnished after the mode, and I must shine at home and abroad in silks or in silver; for I cannot bear the thought that such or such a one should out-shine and over-top me.” Then the patrimony is sold or mortgaged to raise present supplies, and the rich food and clothing, and luxurious expences of a twelve-month, devour and swallow up seven years income, or the gain of half their lives.

What remains then, when their own substance is not sufficient to supply their vanity, but that they make an inroad upon the property of their neighbour? They run deep into debt with the artificer and trader, and they never concern themselves how to make payment. The workman has built them palaces, instead of such common dwellings as their character requires, and the artificers of various kinds have furnished out their bravery of apparel or equipage: But the unhappy creditors are ready to starve in tattered raiment, through the oppression and injustice of their luxurious neighbour. And when they make a modest demand of what is due to them, they meet with nothing but a frown or a jest, and the reproachful names of saucy and impertinent. But, _wo to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high;—for the stone shall cry out of the wall against the oppressor: The beam out of the timber shall answer it, and shall bear witness against unrighteousness_; Hab. ii. 9, 11.

This is the crying guilt of many, and very commonly practised in this city, in greater or in less degrees; but perhaps the profuse wretch pursues a bolder course of injustice, and betakes himself to robbery and plunder: He lies at watch on the high-ways, he seizes and assaults the innocent traveller, and deprives him of his wealth and every thing valuable, in order to support his own wild and extravagant expences. Luxury must be fed, though justice be starved; and luxury must be clothed, though justice go naked.

My hearers perhaps will think themselves unconcerned in all this story, and take no share of conviction to themselves, nor do I know any of them to whom half this charge belongs. But let it be considered, that men do not usually rise to this degree of madness all at once. Unrighteousness has several steps and stages in its race; if we indulge our appetites, and spread our tables, or form our apparel or our furniture but a little beyond our income, if we once begin to admit such a manner of life and expence as exceeds our estate, in order to please our own sensual or vain inclinations, or to vie with our neighbours, we expose ourselves to most evident temptations of injustice, and lead our souls into sinful snares. “We cannot live frugally as our fathers did: The fashion is altered, and we must follow it, whether the purse can bear it or no.”

Hence arise the impetuous desires of hasty and extravagant gains by gaming, in order to recover what is lost by luxury. Men venture largely upon the turn of a dye, and defraud their honest creditors of their bread and life, to pay, what they call in their cant, the debts of honour. A wanton sort of justice and illegal equity! It is the luxurious fashion of life that hath filled our land with the itch of gaming; and if the turn of a wheel can entitle them to thousands, they despise the slow and tedious ways of supplying their wants by labour, business, or traffic. Thus honest industry is discouraged, and trade, which is the political life of our nation, lies groaning and expiring.

Hence proceeds the wicked custom of breaking promises to those that we deal with, and long delays of payment, till we imagine that the debt is cancelled, by being almost forgotten. A vain and criminal imagination! As though the daily increase of interest, and the patience of the creditor, could make the principal cease to be due! As though time, and unjust delay could pay debts without money.

Hence flows the unrighteous practice of borrowing without any design to pay, which is gross and shameful iniquity: I would hope none of the professors of religion have so far abandoned all sense of righteousness. Yet there are too many, who, when once they have borrowed, grow so careless and negligent of payment, that it brings a disgrace upon their profession, and a blot upon their character. Profuse and thoughtless sinners, who run in debt to every one that will trust them for the daily conveniencies of life! Though they have no reasonable prospect of paying, yet they ask their neighbour to lend, with a free and courageous countenance, and put a bold face upon their venturous iniquity, being too proud to let their poverty be known. But the God of justice beholds their crime, and writes their names down in his book among the unrighteous. Ps. xxxvii. 21. _The wicked borroweth and payeth not again._

Hence it comes to pass that there are so many bankrupts in our days, even among the professors of strict religion: A shameful and ungodly practice, if it arise from luxury and profuseness, or from a careless neglect of their proper affairs! It was thought sufficient, in the days of our fathers, to deserve an expulsion from the church of Christ, unless they could evidently make it appear, that it was merely the unforeseen and frowning providences of God, they were reduced to this extremity.—There is many a man hath groaned away his latter years in poverty, and perhaps in a cold prison, and in most forlorn circumstances of life, by means of the profuseness of his youth: And he hath been taught to read the guilt of his luxury and injustice in a long and painful lesson.

But a profuse and sensual humour is not only the spring of unrighteousness among persons of better rank and circumstance in the world, but it tempts servants also to be unjust to their masters: They will now and then provide a treat for themselves and their friends; they must eat nicely, and drink to excess: And thus they waste their master’s substance. They must keep good company in the world, and now and then spend a licentious hour or two, while their just and reasonable service at home is neglected; and perhaps the purse of the master must pay for all.

Under the same head I may bring a charge of injustice against the careless and wasteful servant, who persuades himself that his master is rich enough, and therefore he is not solicitous to buy or sell, or manage any affairs for him to the best advantage. He permits the goods of his master to be wasted or embezzled, he grows liberal and generous at his master’s cost, and has no thought of the golden rule of our Saviour, to manage his master’s concerns with the same frugality and conduct, as he would expect a servant should do for him. But it is time I proceed to the next particular.

The fourth occasion of injustice, is sloth and idleness. For the _slothful man is a brother to him that is a great waster_; Prov. xviii. 9.

Whosoever wants the necessaries, or the conveniencies of life, is bound to obtain them by labour and diligence, if he is not possessed of them by any other methods of favourable providence. _In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread_, was the command given to Adam, when he was turned out of paradise, and forfeited his property in the fruits of Eden. But when once a person gets an aversion to business, when he finds a pleasure in sauntering and trifles, and indulges idleness and a lazy life; then he is tempted to seek the supports and comforts of nature by some practices of unrighteousness. _The slothful man will be clothed with rags_, unless he procure better clothing by fraud or violence; Prov. xxiii. 21.

Hence it is that persons learn the art of stealing, and possess themselves of the goods or the money of their neighbour by thievery. They mark out the houses in the day, and break them up at midnight for plunder. They remove the ancient land-marks, to enlarge their own borders; they violently take away flocks, and feed upon them. They go forth to their unrighteous work in the morning, and rise betimes for a prey. They reap down the corn in their neighbour’s field, and the wicked gather the vintage. They cause the naked to lodge without cloathing, and take away the sheaf from the hungry. _These are they that rebel against the light, they abide not in the paths thereof._ Though God does not lay folly to them, nor punish their crimes by his immediate judgments, yet his eyes are upon their ways; Job xxiv. 2-23. And many times his providence brings their crimes to light, and they are punished for their iniquity by the sentence of the judge. O what a shame and scandal is it, that in a nation professing christianity, there should be such multitudes trained up to the pilfering trade, and educated for infamy, for transportation, and the gibbet!

There are others, whose hands refuse to labour, and whose temper of mind delights in idleness, but they venture not upon these bolder crimes; they learn other unrighteous arts of cheating and falsehood, and fall into the same evil practices, which I have just before described under the head of luxury. But when luxury, pride, and sloth join their forces together, the temptation to injustice becomes exceeding strong, and there are few who have power to resist it. Such was the unjust steward, whom our blessed Saviour represents in a parable, procuring himself a way of living by cheating his Lord: Luke xvi. 1, 2, 3, 4. He had wasted his master’s goods, and he was to be cashiered from his service: What shall I do, said he, I have not been used to work, I cannot dig; there is the sloth of the man: He had lived well in his stewardship, and was grown proud, to beg I am ashamed. Well, I can purloin no more of my Lord’s estate for myself, but I can do it for his debtors; I will cheat him in his accounts, and make all his debtors my friends, by cancelling a good part of their obligations, and then I shall get a livelihood amongst them. O that all such practices had been found no where but in parables!

Some that have been reduced to poverty by idleness, and have borrowed boldly what they could never pay, yet wipe their mouths, and think themselves innocent and righteous, because they have not a sufficiency to make payment: Whereas, in truth, it is their own sloth that makes them poor, and keeps them so. Some of these idle creatures waste their days in drowsiness and inactivity. “A little more sleep, a little more slumber, so poverty comes upon them like an armed man without resistance.” Others are a little more sprightly, and they spend their hours in an inquisitive impertinence, in public news and private slander, in searching and tatling of the affairs of other persons and their families, while they eat, and drink and live upon the labour of the diligent, and unjustly serve themselves out of the industry of their neighbour. So the worthless drone wastes the summer’s day in buzzing and trifling, he gads abroad, and wanders with idle flight; then he returns, and feeds upon the honey that the bee has gathered, and abuses the industry of a better animal.

St. Paul takes notice of this sort of people at Thessalonica who call themselves christians, and reproves them with just severity; _We hear there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread: For even when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat_; 2 Thess. iii. 10, &c. And in his letter to the Ephesians, he exhorts the thief to diligence. _Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands, the thing which is good_; and that not only for his own support, but that he may have to give to him that needeth; Eph. iv. 28. How little do those christians read their bibles! Or how little do they mind what the great apostle tells them! They profess they were never brought up to work, and give that answer roundly as a sufficient excuse for idleness: And therefore when they become poor and necessitous, they think it the duty of others to maintain them, without stretching out their hand for any thing but to beg and receive. They will apply themselves to no employment, though they are told their duty continually: Their pride, indolence, and sloth withhold them from labour, though they are called to it daily in the loudest language in which God now-a-days speaks to his creatures; and that is the voice of reason, of scripture, and of providence.

But there is another sort of sloth and idleness, that leads on to the practice of injustice too, and that is when men are busy in their trades, and the affairs of life, but seldom look into their accounts, or perhaps keep none at all: And thus they live upon the spend, and are utterly ignorant whether their income will support it. They eat and drink with daily chearfulness, and sleep sound upon their pillow, while they know not whether their food and raiment, and even the bed they rest on, be their own or no. Perhaps they have let their accounts run long behind, they are a little jealous of their circumstances, and then it is an unpleasant and tedious task to take a thorough review of them. By this means they run on venturing and heedless, till justice overtakes them, and ruin seizes them at once. Then they see what a shameful and cruel inroad they have made upon their neighbour’s property: They find then that they have fed and clothed themselves and their household out of their neighbour’s estate. What shall I say to persons of this character? Their souls are generally hardened on all sides against conviction, and it is with much difficulty they are ever brought to confess their own folly, their sloth and unrighteousness. Ask thyself, O man, O woman, ask thyself this short and solemn question, “Am I willing my neighbour should deal thus with me, and spend my substance for his daily support?”

Here let it be observed, that I would always except from this accusation such as are mere children and cannot work, or such as are aged, and past all ability of labour, such as are weak and sick, and rendered thereby utterly incapable of working, and such as seek work with honest diligence, and would be glad to be employed in any thing they can do, if they could find others to employ them. Some of these indigent and necessitous persons are in every city, and they seem to be marked out by providence as the proper objects of compassion and bounty, and are not to be blended with the slothful and idle creatures in the general charge of unrighteousness.

Fifthly, The next spring of injustice is malice and envy. This is the vilest of all, and the most like the devil; for it contrives mischief, and brings injury upon others, without seeking gain and advantage to self. This is a vile iniquity, and has a great deal of the spirit of cruelty and of hell in it, where ill-nature and spite reign and triumph.

Though envy and malice awaken and excite the sinner to acts of unrighteousness and violence, and tempt us to rob our neighbour of what is his due; yet these vicious principles aim more frequently to disturb the peace, or health, and good name of our neighbour, than to injure his estate. It is wrath and hatred that boils up the blood into fury and revenge, and moves us to smite our neighbour with the fist of wickedness; nor is the guilty passion allayed till it has practised mischief to his body, or his reputation, or his family, or to something that belongs to him. Hence proceed murders and death, and all the train of evils and injuries of the cruel and bloody kind. It was from this principle that Cain slew Abel his brother, that the sons of Jacob sold Joseph into slavery: It was from this principle that Sanballat and Tobiah joined their rage and their counsels against the Jews, that they might hinder the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and endeavour to destroy the builders, and throw down the work; Neh. ii. 10.

I hope there are no examples of this flagrant injustice to be found among us who profess piety. But are there none of us guilty of some lesser injuries rising from the same principle? Are there none of us that indulge our tongues to backbite and slander, to make our neighbours look odious, or to make ourselves easy or merry? This is to play the _madman, who casts abroad fire-brands, arrows, and death,—and saith, Am I not in sport?_ Prov. xxvi. 18, 19. Are there none of us that delight to teaze, and vex, and torture our neighbour by disagreeable speeches and sly reproach? Do we never envy and provoke one another, contrary to the apostle’s express prohibition? Gal. v. 26. Do we not take pleasure to repeat the things that make each other uneasy, in order to vent the gall within us, and scatter the venom upon our neighbour’s good name? This is malice and unrighteousness together; a complicated crime, which one would think should be abhorred by every christian, if one did not frequently see and feel the practice of it among the professors of the name of Christ. I might well compare such creatures to a wasp or hornet, who first teaze and disquiet us with their endless humming, and ere we can get rid of them, they fix their painful sting in our flesh; though neither the pain nor the teazing vexation they give us, can procure any conveniency to those peevish insects, those noisy animals of a little angry soul.

If we are poor, this evil humour tempts us to envy the riches of our neighbour, and we magnify and exalt them beyond the truth, that we may give some colour to our splenetic and uneasy carriage. If we are afflicted, or in pain, we envy the welfare and the ease of others, we enlarge our paraphrases upon their blessings, and blacken their character, that they may appear unworthy of such favours, and worthy of our indignation and envy. “When shall the time come, O Lord Jesus, thou king of righteousness, and king of peace, when shall that day appear, that Ephraim _shall not envy Judah, nor Judah molest Ephraim_? When shall it be that no ravenous beast shall come near Zion, and there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all thy holy mountain?”

The last spring of injustice that I shall mention, is unbelief, and distrust of the providence of God. When persons are in low circumstances, they are sometimes hurried by the power of this temptation to use sinful means in order to obtain what they want, or at least what they fancy they want for the comfortable support of life. The word of God has many engaging promises in it, to those who are diligent in their duty: Though _the soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; yet the soul of the diligent shall be made fat_: Prov. xiii. 4. It is the hand of a diligent man that maketh rich, for it hath the blessing of the Lord upon it. God can increase the handful of meal in the barrel, and lengthen out the stream of oil from the little cruse, that the debts of the widow may be paid thereby, and her family find provision; 1 Kings xvii. 12, 14. And even since the days of miracles have ceased, there are many christians who have lived by faith, and have found wonders of support, not much inferior to this ancient miracle.

But those who know not the way of living by faith, are too ready to indulge themselves in some little pilfering or cheating methods to procure a subsistence. Thus unbelief has a plain tendency to unrighteousness, but _he that believeth shall not make haste_; Is. xxviii. 16. He that believes the care of God toward his own people, and puts his trust in his Redeemer, who is Lord of all things, he that lives upon the covenant of God daily he shall not make haste to make himself rich, or to possess himself of the comforts of life by any methods of injustice; his faith and diligence shall be rewarded at least with daily bread.

And now having finished this subject, I must beg pardon of my reader for insisting so largely on those two virtues, justice and truth, in my text. But they are of so divine a necessity to make up the character of a christian, they are of so valuable importance to the glory of the gospel, and so shameful an inroad has been made upon them in various instances in our degenerate age, that I was willing to attempt something to retrieve this part of godliness: And O may the convincing and sanctifying Spirit of God attend it with his sacred influences, that those who are called by the sacred name of christian, may never bring a blemish upon it by deserving the characters of false and unjust!

[The Second Part of this Sermon.]

The next virtue mentioned in my text, is purity; whatsoever things are pure,—think on these things. The sense of this word αγνα in the Greek, is extended so far by some critics, as to include temperance in eating and drinking, as well as chastity and modesty in all our words and behaviour; and thus it signifies almost the same with sobriety, and implies a restraint upon all the excessive and irregular appetites that human nature is subject to. Under these two heads I shall treat of purity briefly, and shew under each of them how the light of nature, and how the gospel of Christ requires the practice of it.

I. Temperance in eating and drinking may be included in this command of purity, for we can hardly suppose the apostle omitted so necessary a virtue, and it is not mentioned at all, if it be not implied here. It is not beneath the doctrine of christianity to condescend to give rules about the most common affairs of human life, even food and raiment. It is a piece of impurity to imitate the swine, and to gorge ourselves beyond measure; to give up ourselves to fulfil every luscious appetite, and every luxurious inclination of the taste.

An indulgence of this sort of vice, what infinite disorders doth it bring upon mankind! If a man would read the character of a drunkard painted in very bright and proper colours, and receive the foulest ideas of it in the fairest oratory, he cannot find a better description than Prov. xxiii. 29-32. _Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not therefore upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright._ Some men in our age well understand what Solomon here means. _But at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder._ The pleasure will be attended with intolerable pain and mortal injury, when the excess of liquor shall work like so much venom poured into the veins, and cast thee into diseases as incurable as the biting of any serpent; it will do thee more mischief than an adder with all his poison. There are many that have felt the words of Solomon true, when their voluptuous sins have been dreadfully recompensed with ruin to their soul and body.

But the inspired writer dwells upon the loathsome subject, and bids us mark the particular effects of it: _Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things_; Prov. xxiii. 33. that is, says a learned paraphrast[30] upon the text, “thy thoughts will not only grow confused, and all things appear to thee otherwise than they are; but lustful and adulterous desires will be stirred up, which thou canst not rule, and thy mouth being without a bridle, will break forth into unseemly, nay, filthy, scurrilous, or, perhaps, blasphemous language, without respect to God or man.” Yea, thou shalt be, saith the wise man, as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast; ver. 34. that is, “Thou wilt sottishly run thyself into the extremest hazards, without any apprehensions of danger, being no more able to direct thy course, than a pilot who snores when a ship is tossed in the midst of the sea; no more able to take notice of the peril thou art in, than he that falls asleep on the top of a mast, where he was set to keep the watch.” _They have stricken me_, shalt thou say, _and I was not sick_; they have beaten me, and I felt it not. When I shall awake, I will seek it yet again; ver. 35. It is as if the wise man had said, “That to complete thy misery, thou shalt not only be mocked, and abused, and beaten, but thou shalt be as senseless as if no harm had befallen thee: And no sooner wilt thou open thine eyes, but thou wilt stupidly seek an occasion to be drunk, and be beaten again.”

My friends, have ye never seen a drunkard make that odious figure, in which Solomon represents him? You find human nature is constant to itself: It appears now in Britain, just as it is described in the days of old at Jerusalem in all its vicious excesses. There is a great degree of likeness between our forefathers’ intemperance, and their children of late posterity. One would think one such a spectacle as this, or the mere report of it, with an assurance of the truth, should be enough to forbid our lips the excess of liquor, and to set a guard upon ourselves in the hour of temptation.

Not only those who overwhelm themselves with strong drink, and forget reason and themselves, but those that are mighty to drink wine, have a severe censure cast upon them, and a curse in the book of God: Is. v. 11. not only _woe to them, that rise up early in the morning, that they may find strong drink_, and continue till night, till wine inflame them; but _woe to them that are mighty to drink wine_, even though they are not utterly overcome by it, to the disorder and disgrace of their understandings, verse 22. The reason is, because nature will not bear such a quantity of wine or strong liquors at first; and it is presumed men have forced nature beyond its original capacity, and thus have grown up, by degrees of sin, to such a strength in drinking. These are they that _call evil good and good evil_, and that glory in their shame.

_Hearken to thy father’s advice_, O youth, _and despise not thy mother’s counsel; hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way of temperance. Be not among wine-bibbers, amongst riotous eaters of flesh_; ver. 19. Youth is greedy of pleasure, and in danger of being corrupted by it; therefore avoid the society of drunkards and gluttons. You see they are joined together in the prohibition and threatening of the word of God, “for the glutton and the drunkard shall both come to poverty.” A wanton indulgence of the taste will tempt men to revelling and riot, thence follows a neglect of all business; and many a prodigal, who had a fair estate, is by this means become a beggar or a prisoner. Let us be watchful therefore when we sit down at a plentiful table, and put a knife, as it were, to our throat, if we feel the danger of a sharp and wanton appetite; let the guard of our virtue be as sharp and active as our thirst or hunger. Let us not be desirous of feasting ourselves with dainties, for they too often prove deceitful meat: And though they are never so tempting to the palate, yet they may disturb the health of the body, or indispose the mind for the service of virtue. But this leads me to the next general head, and that is, To consider how the light of nature condemns this vice, this sort of impurity.