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every man ought contentedly to take or give. But to buy as cheap and sell as dear as I can, is to take the liberty of availing myself of another's ignorance or necessity; which is a treatment I should not like toward myself. As far therefore as any, either in the whole or part of their dealings with others, have acted upon this wicked maxim, however they may be esteemed honest in the sight of men, they are accounted no better nor other than downright thieves in the sight of God: and however good they may have boasted themselves to have been in making a bargain in this world, unless they repent, they will find they have made a very bad one another day. God judgeth not as man judgeth: and therefore consider as before him how you have dealt with others in the traffic you have had with them; whether a desire of gain has not made you step aside from plain honesty in buying or selling. In buying, by undervaluing and running down the goods you would purchase, It is naught, It is naught, it is naught.'* By availing yourself of the ignorance of the seller; or, worse than either, by taking hold of another's necessity, and, because he must sell, therefore forgetting what charity and compassion would easily dictate in such a case, and giving him perhaps not half the worth of the goods you take from him. And then, in selling, inquire again whether you have not knowingly overrated your goods; or concealed artfully some defect or blemish you knew to be in them, parting with them at a price they had been only worth had they been sound; or raising upon an ignorant purchaser what you had been obliged to abate to a crafty one; or if one wanting your goods must have them, therefore being sure "to make him pay for them," as we say. It were endless to mention all the tricking and dishonest practices that may have been used in selling one however must not be omitted, because generally complained of, whether upon just grounds I neither know nor do allow myself to think; the persons concerned in selling must look to it. It is this, the not having weights and measures at all times statuteable and equal. It is the seller's business in conscience to see carefully and constantly that they are so ; which if he does not do, he cannot possibly be excused by an ignorance (supposing him ignorant) easily avoidable, and therefore wilful: but the truth generally is, there is real covetousness, and in

Prov. xx. 14.

consequence thereof knavery in the disposition; and the ignorance is, to beguile conscience, merely affected and pretended.

As we may be dishonest in buying and selling, so also in borrowing and lending. If a man borrows without design of paying, the whole world pronounces him a cheat. But doth it do so if he borrow when he has no prospect of paying? And yet at bottom this is little better than the other; he would not choose to be so dealt with himself; and, for anything he can foresee, he is as likely to deceive his neighbour, and disappoint him of the thing lent, as if he had no design to repay it. But what should he have done? he will say. He was in necessity. Then he should have begged, not borrowed, and in so doing he would have acted honestly. On the other part, a lender may be as dishonest as a borrower; he may exact unreasonable profit for what he lends, whether money or other things; or he may injure or destroy what is put in his hands as a security, whether estate, house, or lesser thing; or may oppressively detain to his own use what is so deposited, not caring to part with it again, though all proper satisfaction is already made, or is offered to be made.

Also in hiring and labouring for hire we may be dishonest. God does not allow those who hire to drive unreasonable bargains with labourers, beneath what their work is worth; nor to delay paying them; nor to detain any part of what was their due; nor to force a profit out of them at second hand, by obliging them, contrary to their inclinations, to take in goods what is owing to them in money, and so artfully and cruelly squeezing out of them a sixth, it may be a fifth, part of their wages.-No more must they who are hired defraud those who hire them, which they may do by more ways than any one can tell but themselves. They defraud their master when they are idle and slothful, squandering the time for which they are paid; and so they do when they are careless, and do not their work to their best skill and ability; and so also when they spoil and consume what is given them to work with; and so, finally, when they take any part of it to their own use, or give it to others without their masters' knowledge.

I have dwelt, you find, upon such things as do not pass for great matters in the eye of the world, but are coloured with

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some show of pretence for them, or do not come within the lash of the law, or by custom are accounted no great scandal, and such as may comport with the character of an honest man. Waving therefore to insist, that plain theft, violent robbery, insolent oppression of such as have no helper, are acts of dishonesty; I only add further upon this head, that we may steal from many as well as from one; and therefore that it is just as much theft to cheat the country as it is to defraud a particular man; so that all withholding of custom and tribute, and all buying or selling uncustomed goods, falls under the prohibition of this law. The ground of such practices is covetousness, the practices themselves theft.

And now, to end this head, if any be found to have defrauded another, or to have in his hand anything which he knows belongs to his neighbour, whether he is the original defrauder or not, he is required by this commandment to restore it. It is as much dishonesty and injustice to keep what is another's as to take it from him. He must make restitution. Nay, he must not delay to do it; for, should he restore it at last, he is actually defrauding his neighbour of the use and benefit of it every day he keeps it. But perhaps the fraud has been such that he cannot know whom he has injured, or those are dead to whom the right belongs; and therefore how can he make restitution? Why, he may not keep that which is not his own at any rate. Is the person dead to whom it is due? Let his representatives have it : for it is theirs. Does not a man know to whom he has been injurious? Then it falls of right to the poor; and these we have always with us.-And thus much of injustice.

The second sin forbidden is niggardliness. This is the contrary to liberality, and is that sad and sinful state of soul when a man has neither an heart to use nor to give, and so robs himself and the needy. There is not a vice in the world more cried out upon; and yet, if we may believe Solomon, there is none more common. There is an evil, which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: a man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof.'* Well, but however common, what

* Eccles. vi. 1, 2.

niggardly man ever owned that he was so? It is a sin, it seems, that hides itself from our eyes, and never wants the false but fair show of prudence to cloak itself under. So that peradventure it may be your sin or mine, while we suspect nothing of the matter; we may be penuriously robbing ourselves and others, and at the same time be admiring at the close-fistedness of this person and that. We shall all therefore do well to look at home; and I suppose we may find some degree or other of it cleaving to us. Sure I am he only is in any sort safe from its dominion over him, who sees and contends against it. The marks of it may be such as these:

First. Much anxiety and carefulness about increasing in wealth, so that the thoughts are all intent upon it, with a certain eagerness of growing up to more than one has yet attained to.

Secondly.-Importunate solicitude about the success of worldly schemes, so that they follow us all the day; we only forget them as we fall asleep, and they present themselves to us the very moment we awake.

Thirdly. An over-joyfulness of heart, when our schemes prosper, and we find things answering our expectations. Along with these,

Fourthly.-A secret uncomfortable discontent of spirit, when we meet with disappointment, and our designs do not succeed. And, Fifthly. When it cheers our hearts to receive, but our countenances fall if we are to pay. This is a sure mark of a niggard. And so is,

Sixthly. An over-carefulness about saving, perpetual plotting and contriving to pinch a little from this and a little from that, and when it goes to a man's heart to think how much is going away. And, most of all,

Seventhly. When we have forgotten that the use of money is to live comfortably ourselves, and to distribute largely to others. I say, when we have forgotten the use of money; for covetousness shall so blind a man, that he shall never once reflect why money was given him.

And, Eighthly.-When, whatever a man gives, his heart draws back from doing it. When he gives for very shame, to save his character; and would never think of giving at all,

could he handsomely avoid it; and being engaged in a charitable undertaking, he presently repents, and is seeking a pretence to disengage himself from it.-By such marks as these we may discover niggardliness. But you will say, if you are of such a stamp as this, you are encouraging extravagance. No,

Thirdly.-Wastefulness is a sin also forbidden by this commandment. I am well aware that the prodigal person, upon hearing the character of the niggard, will be ready to boast, and to declare that he hates a niggard from the bottom of his soul. Well, but he considers not that he also is a thief. Wastefulness is theft as well as niggardliness. Thus,

First. He that will waste his substance in eating and drinking, live above his ability, and spend with those that are better able than he, is but a thief; he robs his family, and brings poverty on himself. Such an one may be esteemed by his companions, and reckoned the most honest and best-natured man in the world but sure I am in God's reckoning he has a very ill character, he is a thief, he steals from his own, yea, from his own house what they at home should live upon, and is worse than an infidel.

So, Secondly, They who lay out all their substance on their back, dress beyond what they can afford, and will needs make a fine appearance whatever it cost them, are miserable thieves; they rob the poor, leave them naked and starving, that themselves may appear to be something. Nay, they rob themselves; and so bring on penury and want where God sends none. It is easy to see this prodigal humour will more effectually reduce any one than a thief could do by picking the pocket; that might be but once or seldom, but this a perpetual drain.

So, Thirdly, Gamesters are but thieves, whether they lose or win. Does he lose? He steals from himself and family. But he gains perhaps? Why, then, he only robs another and his family. But will it be said he gained it fairly? No such It was coveting that which was another man's that set him to game; and there is one robbery, namely, in the heart. And then he took an unlawful means of getting, for God has appointed no such kind of traffic; and to take from another without God's warrant cannot be honest.

matter.

And, Fourthly, He that prodigally wastes his substance in

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