Duties of common and moral Honesty; and be as unjúft towards Men as they would be thought devout towards God. Would to God this Blot were as easy to be wiped off, as it is obvious and eafy to be observed. It hath made Religion to ftink in the Noftrils of profane Perfons, and wrought in them fuch an inveterate Hatred against all Profeffion of Godliness, that now the World flies and avoids all that make fhew of it as dangerous People; and thinks it not fafe to converse with thofe, who will dare once to talk of converfing with God. It is a Shame and Grief of Heart to hear the Blafphemies that are daily uttered against Holiness upon this very Account. What is more common in their Mouths, than, "Have a Care how you deal with fuch "an One: Why, he is a Saint, and will "lay his Hand upon his Heart, and cheat you with a Sigh, and a Verily. Well, " of all Men in the World deliver me "from having to do with a Saint." I would not mention fuch Things as these to you, did I not know them to be ordinary and common Reproaches. I befeech you, O Chriftians, for the Gofpel's fake; if not for your own Credit, yet if you have any Refpect left for that Piety you pretend unto, if any Senfe of the Reputation of that Religion for which you profefs you are ready to lay down your very Lives, redeem its loft Honour, and make it appear to all the World, that Tea and Nay is as true a Dealer as Oaths and Curses. Confider that dreadful Place, 1 Theff. 46. Let no Man go beyond, or defraud his Brother in any Thing, for that the "Lord is the Avenger of all fuch. His Justice will certainly punish your Injustice; and though you may have an Advantage through the Ignorance or Eafinefs of those you deal with to over reach them, yet believe it there is a Day coming wherein the falfe Weights fhall be themfelves weighed, and the Scanty Measures be themselves meted by a Standard that is infallibly true. Poffibly thy Bargains and Contracts may proceed fo with those who are perfwaded to trust thee, because of thy Profession, that they can have no Advantage to recover their Right? by Law. Beware thou give them no Occafion to rail at the Gospel; nor tot accufe themselves of Folly for thinking that a Profeffor could be an honeft Man. Remember there is a Day coming, whereein a Thoufand Witneffes fhall be produced to teftify what Agreements and Compacts thou haft made. All Accounts/shall be ballanced, and fo much found refting due, 1 due, which thou (halt certainly pay, tho not to those thou haft wronged, yet to the Juftice of God, who is the great and univerfal Creditor. He is the Avenger of all fuch, who by wronging others in their Eftates, wrong them most of all in their Souls, and imbitter their Hearts against that Religion and Profes fion which deluded them. Efpecially, the Scandal is fo much the more grofs, and the Wound that Religion receives the more incurable; when Rapine, and Extortion, and Injustice, fhall be done under Pretérice of advancing the Gofpel, and promoting the Honour and Glory of God. What is this elfe but to bring him into a Partnership with them; and to make him the Receiver of their Thefts? To tranfgrefs the Law, that we might pleafe, the Lawgiver, and to be wicked for God's fake? As if it were á Service done to him, to make use of the First Table of the Law to break the Second in Pieces; and that to be zealous towards God, required we fhould be unjust towards Men. Let it appear now by your Equity and Juftice towards all with whom you deal, that you do indeed believe that Gofpel which you profefs, and which teacheth you to defpife whatsoever this World offers, either at the Price of a Sin 1 Sin against your Religion, or of a Reproach upon it. our own. Seventhly, It doth mightily adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour, as to be juft and upright in our Dealings with Men, fo as not to over-reach and defraud them in what is theirs, fo neither to be too rigorous and strict in exacting what is We ought in fome Cafes Jure noftro cedere, to part with our own Right, and rather than be contentious, fit down by the Lofs of what others unjustly take from us. Whereas those who will ftrain their Right to the utmost Extent, and ftill have recourse to the fummum Jus, the most rigid Exaction of whatsoever they can lay claim to, if they turn not Justice into Oppreffion, yet they turn it into Wormwood, as the Prophet fpeaks, and make it bitter and unpleafing. If they do not Injury to others, yet certainly they injure themselves, and they injure the Reputation of that Religion they profefs, which requires us not to ftand upon Punctilio's, but to give a meek Conceffion one to another ; and votes him that yields both to have the better Cause, and to be the better Man. And yet I do not condemn, where Violence and Inju ftice deprives us of what is neceffary to the the Sustentation of Life; where what they take from us is more than we can well spare without fome notable Inconvenience: I do not, I fay, condemn thofe who seek to recover their own by legal and allowed Courfes. In this Cafe, I know the Law is good, if it be lawfully used. And therefore the Apostle (i Cor. 6. at the Beginning: Dare any of you, having a Matter against another, go to Law before the Unjust, and not before the Saints?) condemns not fuing for our Right, but fuing for it in fuch a manner as to bring a Shame and Scandal upon the Gofpel. He forbids them in any Cafe of Difference among themselves to have recourse to the Heathen Tribunals for Juftice; but would have other Chriftians to take up the Matter, and compound it between them. They must not bring fuch a Difparagement upon Religion, as that the Heathens fhould ever know there were any Differences and Contentions among Chriftians And therefore they must not plead for Right in their Courts, but chufe out fome of their most prudent Brethren to be Arbitrators and Umpires between them, standing to their Award. So now great Difcredit to Christianity, for those who profefs it, to be always quarrelling about small Things, and thofe U 2 little it is a : |