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decline in his Eftate, can presently call to mind, this was gotten by Oppreffion or Deceit; yet fo fottifh are we, fo bewitched with the Love of Gain, that he that makes this Obfervation can feldom turn it to his own Ufe, is never the lefs greedy or unjust himself, for that Vengeance he difcerns upon others.

10. But alas! if thou couldst be

fure that thy unjuft Poffeffions It ruins the fhould not be torn from thee, yet Soul eternally. when thou remembereft how dear

thou must pay for them in another World, thou haft little reafon to brag of thy Price. Thou thinkeft thou hast been very cunning, when thou haft overreached thy Brother; but God knows all the while there is another over-reaching thee, and cheating thee of what is infinitely more precious, even thy Soul: The Devil herein deals with thee as Fishers ufe to do; those that will catch a great Fifh, will bait the Hook with a lefs, and fo the great one coming with Greedinefs to devour that, is himfelf taken. So thou, that art gaping to fwallow up thy poor Brother, art thyfelf made a Prey to that great Devourer. And alas! what will it ease thee in Hell, that thou haft left Wealth behind thee upon Earth, when thou fhalt there want that which the meaneft Beggar here enjoys, even a Drop of Water to cool thy Tongue? Confider this, and from henceforth refolve to employ all that Pains and Diligence thou haft ufed to deceive others, in refcuing thyfelf from the Frauds of the grand Deceiver. I. To this Purpofe it is abfolutely neceffary that thou make Reftitution to all whom thou haft wronged: For as long as thou I s

The Neceffity of Reftitution.

Meepeft

keepest any thing of the unjuft Gain, it is as it were an Earneft-Penny from the Devil, which gives him full right to thy Soul. But perhaps it may be faid, it will not in all Cafes be poffible to make Reftitution to the wronged Party, peradventure he may be dead: In that Cafe then make it to his Heirs, to whom his Right defcends. But it may farther be objected, that he that hath long gone on in a Courfe of Frauds, may have injured many that he cannot now remember, and many that he hath no Means of finding out: In this Cafe all I can advife is this; Firft, to be as diligent as is poffible, both in recalling to mind who they were, and endeavouring to find them out; and when, after all thy Care, that proves impoffible, let thy Reftitutions be made to the Poor: And that they may not be made by Halves, be as careful as thou canft to reckon every the leaft Mite of unjust Gain: But when that cannot be exactly done, as it is fure it cannot by thofe who have multiplied the Acts of Fraud, yet even there let them make fome general Measures, whereby to proportion their Reftitution: As for example, a Tradesman that cannot remember how much he hath cheated in every fingle Parcel, yet may poffibly guefs in the Grofs, whether he have ufually over-reached to the Value of a third or fourth Part of the Wares, and then what Proportion foever he thinks he has fo defrauded, the fame Proportion let him now give out of that Eftate he hath raifed by his Trade; but herein it concerns every Man to deal uprightly, as in the Prefence of God, and not to make advantage of his own Forgetfulnefs, to the cutting fhort of the Reftitution, but rather go on the other hand, and be fure rather to give too much, than

too little. If he do happen to give fomewhat over, he need not grudge the Charge of fuch a Sin-offer ing; and it is fure he will not, if he do heartily defire an Atonement. Many other Difficulties there may be in this Bufinefs of Reftitution, which will not be foreseen, and fo cannot now be particularly fpoke to; but the more of those there are, the greater Horror ought Men to have of running into the Sin of Injuftice, which it will be fo difficult, if not impoffible, for them to repair; and the more careful ought they to be to mortify that which is the Root of all Injustice, to wit, Covetousness.

SUNDAY XIII.

Of Falfe Reports, Falfe Witness, Slanders, Whisperings; Of Scoffing for Infirmities, Calamities, Sins, &c. Of Pofitive Justice. Of Truth. Of Lying. Of Envy and Detraction. Of Gratitude, &c.

Sect. I.

"T

HE fourth Branch of

Negative Juftice con- His Credit. cerns the Credit of

our Neighbous, which we are not to leffen or impair by any Means, particularly not by falfe Reports. Of falfe Reports there may be two forts; The one is when a Man fays fomething of his Neighbour, which he directly knows to be false; L 6

The

The other, when poffibly he has fome flight Surmife or Jealoufy of the Thing, but that upon fuch weak Grounds, that it is as likely to be falfe as true: In either of these Cafes, there is a great Guilt lies upon the Reporter. That there doth fo in the first of them, no body will doubt, every one acknowledging that it is the greatest Baseness to invent a Lfe of another; but there is as little reason to queftion the other; for he that reports a Thing as a Truth, which is but uncertain, is a Lyar alfo; or if he do not report it as a Certainty, but only as a Probability, yet then, though he be not guilty of the Lye, yet he is of the Injuftice of robbing his Neighbour of his Credit; for there is fuch an Aptnefs in Men to believe ill of others, that any the lighteft Jealoufy will, if once it be fpread abroad, ferve for that Purpose: And fure it is a moft horrible Injustice, upon every flight Surmife and Fancy, to hazard the bringing fo great an Evil upon another; especially when it is confidered, that those Surmifes commonly fpring rather from fome Cenforioufnefs, Peevifhnefs, or Malice in the Surmifer, than from any real Fault in the Perfon fo fufpected. 2. The Manner of fpreading these Falfe Wit- falle Reports of both Kinds, is not alness. ways the fame: Sometimes it is more

open and avowed, fometimes more clofe and private: The open is many times by false Witnefs before the Courts of Juftice; and this not only hurts a Man in his Crédit, but in other Refpects alfo, it is the delivering him up to the Punifhment of the Law, and according to the Nature of the Crime pretended, does him more or lefs Mifchief; but if it be of the highest kind, it may concern his Life, as we fee it did in Naboth's Cafe,

1 Kings

1 Kings xxi. How great and crying a Sin is it in
this Refpect, as alfo in that of the Perjury, you
'may
learn from what hath been faid of both those
Sins. I am now to confider it only as it touches
the Credit; and to that it is a moft grievous Wound,
thus to have a Crime publickly witnessed against
one, and fuch is fcarce curable by any thing that
can afterwards be done to clear him; and therefore
whoever is guilty of this, doth a most outragious
Injuftice to his Neighbour: This is that which is
exprefly forbidden in the Ninth Commandment,
and was by God appointed to be punished by the
inflicting of the very fame Suffering upon him,
which his falfe Teftimony aimed to bring upon the
other, Deut. xix. 16.

Publick

Slanders?

3. The fecond open Way of spreading these Reports, is by a publick and common declaring of them, though not before the Magiftrate, as in the other Cafe, yet in all Companies, and before fuch as are likely to carry it farther; and this is usually done with bitter Railings and Reproaches, it being an ordinary Art of Slanderers to revile thofe whom they flander, that fo by the Sharpness of the Accufation they may have the greater Impreffion on the Minds of the Hearers: This, both in respect of the Slander and the Railing, is a high Injury, and both of them fuch as debar the Committers from Heaven. Thus Pfal. xv. where the upright Man is defcribed that fhall have his Part there, this is one fpecial Thing, Ver. 3. that be flandereth not his Neighbour. And for Railing, the Apoftles in feveral Places reckon it among those Works of the Flesh, which are to fhut Men out both from the Church here by Excommunication,

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