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ing bound for another, who is either incapable, or unjust enough to refuse payment. It is true, the cafe is hard with the bondfman to pay for what, as we commonly fay, he has neither eat nor drank for, and in likelihood will detriment his family, and perhaps bring him to the very brink of poverty; but, fuppofe the worft, he cannot blame the creditor for thefe confequences, whofe right to his money cannot be fuperfeded by any act the debtor can do, or any thing the bondsman can fuffer, till the value received is duly and honeftly restored. So that fuch misfortunes are fevere cautions for us never to enter into fuch engagements rafhly, or withcut good grounds of fecurity to ourselves; but no countenance for breaking them, on which the creditor placed his chiefeft confidence; and therefore he mult either be paid by that means, or he is cheated and betrayed. But,

Of all debts, those of a man's own voluntary promise admit of the least excufe for non-payment, or wilful Not paying with-holding of them. Does not David in his de- what we fcription of a juft man command us, as it were, promife. to pay thofe promised debts, though they had been made to our own difadvantage? and as they include the wages of fervants, and the hire of the labourer; fo whoever delays to discharge them must remember the exprefs command of God: Thou shalt not opprefs an hired fervant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of the trangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the fun go down upon it, for he is poor, and fetteth his heart upon it: left he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be fin unto thee.

Likewife, where any of thefe offences are committed in breach of truft, which is the cafe of fervants, and Breach of any others who are intrufted with other men's af- truß. fairs how foever the law may in fuch cafes alleviate the punishment, yet in confcience this is an aggravation and increase of the guilt, as being a breach both of justice and fidelity. Nor is it any diminution of the crime, when it is the publick that is wronged by any unjust act. For tho', in this cafe, 'tis not fo obviously and immediately apparent upon whom the injury falls, as in the cafe of private wrongs; yet the uncertainty

or the number of the perfons among whom the damage may chance to be divided, alters not at all the nature of the crime itself. And though injuries of this kind, in smaller inftances, are not, perhaps, immediately felt and complained of; yet, when the publick comes to be wronged by perfons of large and extenfive power, then not only the crime itself, but the effects of it alfo, become greater and more apparent, than in the cafe of private injuftice.. VIII. When a man takes from another what is already in his poffeffion, then theft is called ftealing: under Stealing the goods of our which head we properly reduce thofe moft notoneighbour. rious rogues that rob upon the highway, and those that forcibly break up houfes and carry off their neighbours goods or chattles; as alfo thofe little pilfering thieves, whofe fingers cleave to every little thing they fee in private: against both whom the law of the land has enacted the punishment of death, which few ever efcape that make a conftant practice of this injustice; and nothing but timely and fincere repentance can fecure them from the eternal punishment of God's juftice. So dear is the price of their iniquity, as to venture not only their neck, but to barter their foul likewife for every little trifle they steal from another, or buy, or receive, knowing it to be stolen; which many, who seem to abhor steal- . ing, are guilty of, in buying such things a little cheaper, than at commom price. Nor muft we conceal our neighbour's goods; for if we find a thing, and know its right owner, and keep it for our own ufe, we cheat him, and thereby are guilty of theft. The only caution here needful to be given is, that young perfons especially take heed of the beginning of this fin, of being tempted to do wrong in fmaller matters, in things that may feem at first of no great confequence, not very highly injurious to the perfon wronged, nor very fhocking to the confcience of him that does the injustice. But this is of all others the greatest and most dan-. gerous temptation. For few finners begin with the very highest crimes; ufually, being feduced at firft into smaller tranfgreffions, they become hardened by degrees, till at length they run into the greatest and most capital offences.

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SUNDAY

SUNDAY XI.

I. Of deceit in truft. II. Of fraud in trade, and of the rules in traffick and bargaining; to ufe plainness, no extortion nor oppreffion, no unjuft weights, and measures, nor bad money; and of the advantage of fair dealing. III. Of evilgotten goods, difquiet of conscience, and the neceffity of retitution. IV. Of our neighbour's credit, or good name, including falfe reports, fpeaking ill of the dead, cenforioufnefs, falfe witness, public flander, whisperings, defpifing and fcoffing at infirmities, calamities, and jins: of tale-bearing and reafons against thefe vices. V. Of pofitive juftice; which requires truth, and condemns flattery, lying, equivocation, envy, and detraction. VI. Of refpect due to men of extraordinary gifts, rank, quality, wealth, and to the poor. VII. Of gratitude to benefactors.

I.

EXT to ftealing, follows the fin and injuftice of DECEIT; which I fhall defcribe under the heads of trust and traffick.

Breach of truft includes defrauding and promife-breaking, and is a great fin; 'for he, who trufts another, doth of deceit thereby unite him with a particular bond of fo- in trust. ciety to himself, upon a promife to be ferved fo far as he trufts him. So, if I accept the trust to be an arbitrator in a cause, or an executor of a will, or a guardian to children, a factor, or affignee, or a keeper of any pledge, I am admitted as a partner and a reprefentative in fuch matters, and my fidelity stands engaged for my behaviour in those feveral trufts. Wherefore, if by my neglect I fuffer any of his trufts to miscarry, I am dishoneft and injurious to him; because I undertook to do for him all that I can fuppofe he would have done for himself, had he been master of skill and capa.. my сара. city. So that, if for a bribe I betray the truft he committed to me, or convert it to my own advantage, I rob him more infamously, than if I demanded his purfe by open violence: because then I make ufe of that truft to betray his intereft, by which I was as much obliged to fecure and defend it, as if I

S 3

had

had exchanged perfons, and his intereft were my own: fo, to betray his intereft for my own advantage, when he had made me next his own perfon in power, is difingenuous perfidioufnefs and injuftice; which should always be a caution to all thofe who have the king's commiffion, all publick and parish. officers, as well as to stewards and fervants, that they faithfully discharge their refpective trufts. But in every of these frauds, where God or the poor are immediately concerned, as in all eftates for, and legacies left in truft to, pious and charitable uses, the theft or breach of truft become facrilege; the malignity of which crime is particularly condemned by the fentence of the Wife-man, who fays, that it is a fin to devour that which is holy.

II. The secondfort of fraud is in matters of traffick and bargaining, when either the buyer or feller receives any In traffick. damage or lofs: for, bargains in buying and felling being a voluntary exchange of interefts, we owe this duty one to another, to deal honeftly in making and faithfully difcharging our engagements. So, deliberate or contrived fraud is in itself a crime of the deepest malignity, and of the most pernicious confequence: a fin which tends to deftroy all human fociety, all truft and confidence among men, all justice and equity, which is the support of the world, and without which no fociety of men can fubfift. And the breaking through this obligation by deliberate fraud is, of all other fins, one of the moft open defiances of confcience, and the moft wilful oppofition to right reason, that can be imagined. Then for a Chriftian, a man that injuftice a feffes a pure and more holy religion, a religion that reproach to commands not only common juftice and equity, christianity. but fingular love and good-will towards our neighbour, to be guilty of a contrived and deliberate fraud, which the confcience even of a good heathen would abhor; this is a greater aggravation of the crime: because as the end of buying and felling is to furnish one another with the neceffaries and conveniencies of life; both buyer and feller have a right proper to them, fo to buy and fell, as that the buyer may have the worth of his price, and the feller the worth of his commodity; for otherwife, inftead of mutually

The commonness of

pro

mutually affifting, we must neceffarily opprefs each other. Therefore,

Its rules.

Notwithstanding it may be a difficult matter to determinę nicely what the exact measure is, which in buying and felling ought to be observed between man and man; yet in all cafes, when any opportunity of dealing prefents itself, it is but asking ourselves, How we would be dealt by in the fame circumstances? And our answer to that is our duty to those we deal with? I know how I fhould expect to be used, if my neighbour and I had changed perfons and circumstances: my heart tells me, that I fhould think it reafonable to expect fuch measures from him, and therefore he hath reafon to expect the fame from me: when I confult myfelf how I would be dealt by, thofe very paffions, which incline me to wrong others, will inftruct me to do them justice. Confequently, there is no rule in the world can be preffed with fewer incumbrances, or darkened with lefs intricacy; none that can lie open to larger ufe, or be readier at present application, or more obvious to all capacities. How then can men pretend to excuse themselves, when their duty lies fo plainly before them; or would not do their duty, when they do understand it? Therefore,

do not,

We must

not conceal

the faults of

our goods.

Use plainness and fimplicity in all your dealings: by difparaging another man's commodity, or overvaluing your own, endeavour to draw on an advantageous bargain; neither ask far beyond, nor bid much below, what reafon must inform you to be the real worth. Do not fay you cannot take lefs, or give more, when you know you may with fufficient profit to yourfelf. Make no falfe pretences, nor cover what is true; but, fo far as in you lies, fit your affirmations and denials to the understanding of the perfon you deal with, and do not lie in ambush behind your words, to trap and infnare the perfon with whom you tranfact; for not only that which is falfe, but that which deceives, is falfe and unjuft in bargains.

Do not impofe upon any man's unskilfulness or ignorance. So long as you keep within the latitude of lawful Nor use exgain, you may ufe your skill against another man tortion. in driving a bargain: for in an ordinary plenty of commodities S 4

there

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