for ftealing of it. And wilt thou fell thy foul for fuch a fmall thing? The way of fin is down the hill; let the devil get in a finger, and he will have in his hand next. He that for a little will fin, will mend bis fervice if the devil will mend his wages. - At first perhaps it is but a bit of meat, then a parcel of peats, then a quantity of fodder, and then a fheep, and fo on till they come to the gallows here, and to hell hereafter.

6. The difficulty there is in finding it out. It is a work of darknefs which there ufe not to be witneffes to, and fo the man or woman defies the world to make out any fuch thing against them; and fo they go on without control, boafting like Ephraim, He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand he loveth to opprefs. And Ephraim faid, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out fubftance : in all my labours they fall find none iniquity in me, that were fin, Hof. xii. 7. 8.

But what avails that? Will ye defy the God of heaven and your own confcience to make it out before the tribunal? and then ye fay fomething. Till then thou art a criminal before God, and dreadful fhall thy doom be. But take heed, they have been discovered that thought themfelves fecure becaufe no eye faw them. When a man's day comes. to fall in fuch a courfe, God can infatuate him, that he guides not his matters with common fenfe.

7. Lastly, Bearing with them. I will not meddle with them, fays one; and I will not meddle with them, fays another; let them fall, in another's hand, and fo on it goes. Juftice is neglected, neighbours are robbed, the fouls of the guilty are ruined, and others involved in their fin, that might prevent the progrefs of it, and will not. It is marked of that Lah, that there was none in it to put it to fhame, Jadg. xvii. 7. Refpect to mens credit, more than to their confcences, is like the tender mercies of the wicked, that are cruel.

THIRDLY, I come now to point out foute remedies against this fin.

1. Let the guilty flee to the Lord Jefus Chrift for his blood and Spirit, to wash away their guilt, and take away their fin. They are no more beyond the reach of mercy than other grofs finners are. In the catalogue of the Corinthian finners were thieves; and yet we are told, that they were wafhed, and fanctified, and juftified in the name of the Lord Jefus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor. vi. 10. 11. Put the covetous heart in his hand, that he may take it away.

2. Labour to awe your hearts with the dread of the all-feeing God, whofe eye is ever on you; and remember that, for all these things ye do, God will bring you into judgement.

3. Labour to be content with your lot, Heb. xiii. 5. Be content with little, if it be your lot. A little will ferve nature, grace will be content with lefs; but luft will never have enough,

4. Lastly, Lay more ftrefs on the quality than the quantity of what ye have. A little with God's favour, in a righteous way, is better than much with the wrath and curfe of God.

SECONDLY, I would dehort from all injuftice and unrighteous dealing whatfoever, in all the ways I have thewn that the eighth commandment may be broken, befides by direct stealing, and any other way whatsoever. Be precifely upright and juft in all you do, and do nothing to others that ye would not have done to you. For motives, confiderydigh

. Whatever you gain by any unjuft way, it is indirectly ftolen, it is ftolen in effect. Therefore God forbids all thefe under the name of ftealing. And there is good reafon for it; for no right can be founded in wrong. Injuftice can give no man a title to what is his neighbour's before God; and therefore what you have of him unjustly, is fill

his, an ye are fraudulent and wrongous poffeffors of it, as well as if ye had directly stolen it.

2. Juft and upright dealing is neceffary to prove you to be faints, Pfal. xv. 1. 2. It is true, it will not prove it alone: men may be just to their neighbours, and yet be no faints. But he can be no faint that makes not confcience of it, be his profeffion and practice in religion otherwife what it will. This is clear, if you confider,

(1.) Righteoufnefs towards men is an effential part of the image of God, Eph. iv. 24. 25. And as the half-image is no image, so piety without righteousness is not God's image, nor true piety. Will God ever regard what we give him, when we make no confcience what we take from our neighbour?

(2.) Without it our fervice to God is but halffervice, Luke i. 74. 75. and that can never be fincere, Pfal. cxix. 6. In regeneration, God writes his law on the heart, and not fhreds here and there of the firft table: fo that where righteousness, a principal duty of the fecond table, is not, the law of God is not written there.

3. That injuftice in profeffors of religion gives a deep wound to religion itself, Rom, ii. 22. 24. And indeed that religion which does not make men just neighbours to deal with, can hardly be thought to make them faints. That craft, cunning, and fraud ufed by many, how inconfiftent is it with Christian fimplicity, the fear of an all-feeing God, and contempt of the world, which religion teaches?

4. How oppofite is it to the nature of God, who is juft and righteous, and whom we must follow as dear children? The unjuft ftand in direct oppofi tion to him, who cannot but do right. God has a fpecial love to righteousness, Pfal. xi, ult. and all injustice is an abomination to him. He has fet a

*See feveral excellent difcourfes on this subject in a book of the author's lately published, entitled, The diftinguishing characters of true believers.

particular mark of abhorrence on it, Micah vi. 10, 11. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the boufe of the wicked, and the fcant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? And he has alfo fet a particular delight in juft dealing, Prov. xi. 1. A just weight is his delight.

5. It brings a blafting curfe along with it, Prov. xiii. 11. Wealth gotten by vanity, fhall be diminished. And though it may profper for a while, it will have a foul hinder end, Prov. xx. 21. The end thereof fball not be bleed. It is as a moth in the man's own labours, and fometimes eats away his fubftance, makes wings to it that it leaves him, and often hurries him away from it. That is a heavy word, Jer. xvii. 11. He that getteth riches, and not by right, fball leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end fhall be a fool.

6. It leaves a fting in the confcience, which will be felt to fmart fooner or later. Confcience is the deputy of a just God in the foul, which will be able fometimes to act its part, and both accufe, convince, condemn, and torment the unjust dealer, so that he will be ready to throw away luis unjust gain as willingly as ever one ready to be burnt did live-coals out of his bofom, and as Judas did his thirty pieces of filver, though perhaps it may be out of time. A Pythagorean bought a pair of fhoes upon truft: the fhoemaker dies: the philofopher is glad, and thinks them gain but a while after his confcience twitches him he repairs to the house of the dead, cafts in his money with these words, "There, take thy "due; thou liveft to me, though dead to all be"fides."

The

7. Lastly, It will exclude you out of heaven. There is a bar drawn on all unrighteous perfons, that they cannot come there, 1 Cor. vi. 9. treafures of eternal glory are loft by unrighteous dealing in the world, Luke xvi. 11. Where then

is the profit, though a man gain the whole world? It is fad gain where a thoufand times more is loft by it. Peace with God and confcience is loft by it; the foul is loft by it, and that for ever. And they who walk not by the rules of juftice in the world, fhall lie under the ftrokes of divine juftice eternally.

The occafions that enfnare men into ftealing might be repeated here, as occafions of other pieces of injuftice. But to fence you against this evil, I offer thefe things.

1. Confider your unrighteous nature, and carry it to Chrift to be healed by him. When Adam's nature and ours in him was corrupted, it was whol ly fo, not only with refpect to the firft, but the fecond table. There is need then that the plaister be as wide as the wound, Eph. iv. 24. And he that would remove the bitter ftreams, muft apply to get the fountain fweetened,

in

2. Accuftom yourselves to acknowledge the Lord your civil actions, Prov. iii. 6. The want of this betrays men into much unfair dealing; for where there is fo little of God, there must be much of the devil.

(1.) Eye God in these matters, as he who is your witnefs, and will be your Judge in them. Set the Lord before you in your bufinefs, and you will fear to fiep wrong. May be thou canft wrong thy neighbour, and he fhall not know it. But God knows it, and it cannot be hid from him. May be he cannot right himself for want of witneffes; but pray remember, that God and thy own confcience are wit neffes to all that paffeth betwixt you and others. And though ye may think it is long to that court day, yet remember that awful declaration, Mal. iii. 5. I will come near to you to judgement, and I will be a fwift witness against the forcerers, and against the adulterers, and against falfe fwearers, and againf thofe that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn afide the franger