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defending it! But will his oversight give me a right to that to which, in truth, I had no just title before I made this advantage of his weakness or poverty? Or can any body think that, because the injustice is done in the face of a court, it is a less crime than if it had been done on the high road?

To feed a man with moneys, or to help to run him into debt, by encouraging him to borrow when he has no occasion, that I may get a better bargain of his estate when he shall be forced to sell it-this should seem by the commonness of it to be no great crime. But pray does the man know what he is doing? If he does not, I take advantage of his weakness; I help to ruin him, and perhaps his family; and, if he is really guilty of a sin in squandering away the inheritance of his forefathers, it is impossible I should be guiltless.

"He that flattereth his neighbour," saith Solomon, "spreadeth a net for his feet." (Prov. xxix. 5.) It is possible for a man, by fair speeches, to make his neighbour overlook his own interests; but, then, to take any ill advantage of a man, because he has an opinion of my judgment and integrity, is a wickedness which God will certainly avenge, though no law on earth can call a man to an account for it. Because it is less hazardous to wrong crphans than older people, is it therefore less criminal? No, surely: so far from it, that God declares himself concerned in the cause of the fatherless and widow; that he will undertake and vindicate their cause against those that oppress them. And why? Why, because they have none else to help them. For which very reason a man should be very careful of taking advantage of the weaknesses or oversights of such helpless people, because such people have a right, and a promise, of redress from God: "Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: for their Redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee." (Prov. xxiii. 10, 11.) How often do wills, and other writings of moment, fall into the hands of such as thereby have an opportunity of wronging their neighbours! And people that will make use of such an opportunity do generally think that this is a less offence than stealing. But for what reason? Why, only because for stealing (if a man is caught) he will be in danger of being hanged; while at the worst he will only be called a dishonest man, if the other be discovered. And yet the crimes are equally forbidden, equally unjust and dangerous in the sight of God, whose judgment will be according to right, and not according to the false opinions of men.

A man who borrows moneys which he knows he cannot repay plainly takes an advantage of his creditor's ignorance of his circumstances. It is probable he may fancy himself less guilty than if he had stolen so much or taken it by force; but he would not think so if the laws had made these two crimes equally penal, as they are in fact equally unjust in the sight of God and man. There are too many who will make no scruple of imposing upon their neighbour's ignorance in passing off bad moneys, who yet would startle at the thoughts of counterfeiting the current coin: I question whether such people have considered how near akin these two crimes are to one another.

To proceed; If a man will take all advantages which the very laws allow, he will very often do great injustice, and in good conscience make himself liable to restitution. For instance: a man, in settling his estate, which he may righteously do, forgets some formality which the law requires. Now, may I honestly go about to break this settlement? No, surely. Why, what, then, was the law made for? Why, purely to prevent frauds. Then, say you, he may be relieved in Chancery. But shall I give a man the trouble and the expense of law, when I believe beforehand that he has a right in conscience ? A man must love the world more than the command of God that will do so.

The

very same must be said of unjust prescriptions, which yet the laws allow

of Not that length of time can give a man any right which he knows he had not from the beginning, but because there would be no end of lawsuits if people were to be disturbed for ever. The law, therefore, does what is best for the public in general, and leaves it to private men to act as they will answer to God and a good conscience. It is too common for people to conceal, and to keep, what they have found. People do not, surely, consider that there is an express law of God against such practices; but they will find very particular precepts and directions touching this matter in the twenty-second chapter of Deuteronomy. But do these precepts oblige us? Yes, surely, unless you suppose that God required of the Jews to be strictly honest, and that Christians may do what they please.

In short, it would be a difficult matter to reckon up the many deceits that may be practised without being liable to be called to an account. But the sins of injustice which are most common, and least taken notice of, are such as are committed in the way of trade and bargains. The wise man has given us fair warning of this ; "As a nail," saith he, "sticketh fast between the joinings of the stones, so doth sin stick close between buying and selling." (Eccles. xxvii. 2.) And therefore a man who desires to keep a good conscience will be very watchful over himself, where he has warning beforehand of the danger he is in, and will be glad to have such rules to walk by as he is sure will not deceive him. Such is that of our blessed Saviour: WHATSOEVER YE WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD DO TO YOU, DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM. (Matt. vii. 12.) Which, though a very general rule, yet by a well-meaning Christian may be applied to all our dealings with one another. A man, for instance, who sets this rule before his eyes, will hardly put off damaged or distempered goods for sound; will hardly take advantage of the ignorance of the buyer; will use no deccits to raise the price, or set off the value of what he desires to sell.

I do not here mention false weights and measures; oppressing the poor; buying or selling of stolen goods; using oaths and lies to deceive those with whom they deal. Those that do any of these things know that they do ill; and all the rules of the Gospel will be of no use to them so long as they do not believe them. But, for the sake of such as really desire to make a conscience of their ways, one would endeavour to make their way plain and safe, and their consciences easy upon good grounds.

Now, gain being the end of trade, aud every man having a right to a reasonable advantage, of which he himself must very often be the sole judge, he lieth under a great temptation of being favourable to his own interest, and of overlooking that of others; to prevent which, these considerations should always be present with men of business-That "he that maketh haste to be rich, can hardly be innocent" (Prov. xxviii. 20); that every man has a right to be dealt with fairly; that all depends upon God's blessing; that the fear of wanting what is necessary is the fear of infidels, who know not God; and that a man's life (and happiness) consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

When a man can consider such truths as these seriously, he is then disposed for saving instruction; he will easily hearken to the rules of religion; and a few rules will serve to direct him to keep a good conscience in the way of business. I shall recommend one very plain rule, which will go a great way towards directing every conscientious man how to act safely with respect to gain; and that is, to take such a gain, advantage, or consideration, as the person with whom I deal would be satisfied with if he knew my business as well as I do, and the reasons which oblige me to take such a profit. That this is a safe and good rule in trade is pretty plain from matter of fact; for, whenever two persons deal together who both understand their business well, a few words serve their turn: he that sells asks a reasonable gain, and he that buys sees it is fit he should have what he asks, all things con

sidered. Now, if men would but make this their rule when they deal with such as are ignorant, it would prevent a great deal of guilt, which the Wise Man saith is almost inseparable from buying and selling.

There are certainly secrets in dealings, which every body cannot be acquainted with; but, to prevent my being partial to myself, I may suppose the person I deal with knew the reasons why I insist upon such a price, and then, if I am conscious to myself that I need not be ashamed of such gain, I have a good testimony of my honesty, and my conscience will never reproach me for injustice. But if, instead of doing so, I take what I can get, make a hand of the negligence, ignorance, or simplicity of those with whom I have to do, I practice what is unjust, I have no regard to the laws of the Gospel; and, if ever I do repent of this sin, I make myself liable to one of the most difficult duties of Christianity-that of restitution and satisfaction, without which my repentance will never deliver me from the sad consequences of such injustice.

But to prevent, as much as may be, any occasion for the exercise of the duty of restitution, I would lay before you, 1st, the greatness of these sins; 2ndly, the temptations which lead to them, that we may avoid them; 3rdly, such considerations as are most likely to keep us from running into them. And, first, we are not to judge of the greatness of crimes by the opinion the world has of them. At this rate, we should not only make a jest of taking advantage of and cheating one another, as is too common; but even the sin of adultery, and some other crimes which a Christian should not mention without horror, would be counted failings, rather than sins that will shut us out of heaven. But we are to judge of the greatness of crimes by the authority that forbids them; by the punishment threatened; and by the mischiefs that attend them.

Now, all sins of this kind are plainly against the great rule of justice given by our Saviour, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." People are very sensible of any such injury done to themselves, and give very ill names to such as over-reach them. This shows that men do not think these small faults when they themselves are the sufferers. And, then, it is said expressly of these sins, "that the Lord is the avenger of all such" (1 Thess. iv. 6), perhaps because men are too apt to overlook them. And in another place St. Paul saith, "that the unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven."

Lastly, the mischiefs of these sins are very apparent; they harden the conscience; they provoke and encourage others to sin; and, what is worst of all, it is seldom that people think it necessary to repent of them.

Christians are for the most part convinced that great and crying sins, such as are liable to infamous punishments in this world-that these are to be particularly repented of, or no pardon is to be expected; but the sins of fraud are often committed without remorse, and without punishment, or easily forgotten, and therefore seldom truly repented of; which, in the end, make them as damnable sins as those that people seem to be more afraid of.

Let us, in the second place, consider the temptations to this vice, and what it is that occasions people to take advantage of their neighbour with so little regret and fear of punishment. Is it ignorance? That cannot be there is not the most ignorant person but knows well enough, when any body wrongs him, that that man does ill. Is it for want of faith, and that people do not believe that they are to give an account for their injustice? Few people will own such a degree of infidelity. Is it for want? No, surely; for it is too often that those that have the least need are aptest to wrong and overreach their neighbour. Is it an immoderate love for their children, and that people will venture at all rather than not leave

them all they can? That cannot be the reason, where people have none to provide for, or where they are undutiful, and take ill ways.

What, then, is it which shall tempt men to run such hazards? Why, an excessive love for the world. People think they have still too little; that more would make them more happy: this makes them forget the account they must give, and those rules which are prescribed by God for the peace and good government of the world this makes them overlook their neighbour, as if he had not a right to be fairly dealt with this makes them forget that death is not far from them, when they shall part with all they have unfairly gotten, and, if they know their danger, will wish a thousand times they had starved sooner than have done the least injustice.

You see how much this sin is to be feared; and that it is possible for people, by increasing their substance, to increase their damnation. Let me, therefore, recommend to you a few considerations, to make you abhor so base a vice. Let us seriously think of it, that all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do; so that what may be an oversight to man cannot be so to God. Nay, a man may be shut out of heaven for that very thing which no law on earth could take hold of him for; or, if he repents of it, it will cost him dear before he can be forgiven.

Believe it, Christians, the Lord is nigh them that are wronged, to do them justice when they call upon Him in the bitterness of their soul; and it will be no advantage to a man to have doubled his talents, when he has doubled his guilt and his punishment. Even your posterity shall suffer for your fraud: and you are only laying up a treasure of judgments for those very children whom you are so passionately foud of. God will lay up the iniquities of sinners for their children, saith Job. (Job xx. 10.) So that it were much better they were left to the wide world than with anything that is got by deceit.

Depend upon it, neither your care in settling what you will have, nor your advice to your heir, nor lands, nor securities, nor bonds, nor locks, can preserve what you shall get by fraud-no, not repentance itself. 'That is hard,' you will say: 'will not God pardon me upon my repentance?' Why, you think, perhaps, that repentance consists in confessing your faults, and asking God's pardon without making restitution; as if a thief, who has got enough to live upon, should ask God's pardon, and then think all is well and forgiven. Who does not see the wickedness of such an opinion?

To conclude. If we would follow the good patriarch's advice, and be innocent, it is necessary that we have his faith and affections. How? Why, the Apostle tells us, that "he looked for a city, whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. xi. 10); that is, he did not so much concern himself with what he might get in this short life, but he was for securing, by all means, an inheritance in heaven. He kept his eye and his heart there: and this made him despise all unjust advantages that came in his way, knowing that this was not the world that he was made for. And, in truth, unless this consideration be always present with us, the world has so many temptations to draw us out of the way that it will be impossible for a man to resist them. Self-interest—a present advantage-the slight opinion the world has of such crimes-will all contribute to draw a man into a snare who is not steadfastly purposed in his heart that no worldly advantage shall prevail with him to forfeit his inheritance in heaven: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark viii. 36.) We have not now time to consider particularly what is to be done where people have by design, or unwittingly, fallen into this error. The text directs us to restitution,

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FROST at Christmas!-'Tis the Englishman's delight. With a bright sun above and a crackling ground below, the prospect of his holly-crowned fireside becomes doubly cheering. Let us introduce this sacred and jocund season with a home-picture :

The frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud-and hark, again! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude which suits
Abstruser musings: save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
"Tis calm indeed! so calm that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,
This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood,
With all the numberless goings on of life,
Inaudible as dreams! The thin blue flame
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,
Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature
Gives it deep sympathies with me who live,
Making it a companionable form,

Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit
By its own moods interprets, everywhere

Echo or mirror seeking of itself,

And makes a toy of Thought.

COLERIDGE.

Our ancestors began their winter revels as early as the feast of Saint Martin, the 11th of November. Old HERRICK is in his most joyous mood when he deals with these subjects:

It is the day of Martelmass,
Cups of ale should freely pass;
What though Winter has begun
To push down the Summer sun,
To our fire we can betake,
And enjoy the crackling brake,
Never heeding Winter's face
On the day of Martelmass.

Some do the city now frequent,
Where costly shows and merriment
Do wear the vapourish evening out
With interlude and revelling rout;
4TH QUARTER.

Such as did pleasure England's queen,
When here her royal grace was seen;
Yet will they not this day let pass,
The merry day of Martelmass.
When the daily sports be done,
Round the market-cross they run,
Prentice lads, and gallant blades,
Dancing with their gamesome maids
Till the beadle, stout and sour,
Shakes his bell, and calls the hour;
Then farewell lad and farewell lass
To the merry night of Martelmass.

M

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