about a year and an half. "This Law," added the Abbe, "will soon ruin the whole nation." From these facts, as well as from the nature of the case, it is clearly evident, that the progress of Divorce, though different in different countries, will, in all, be dreadful beyond conception. Within a moderate period, the whole community will be thrown, by laws made in open opposition to the Laws of God, into a general prostitution. No difference exists between this prostitution, and that which customarily bears the name, except that the one is licensed, the other is unlicensed, by man. To the Eye of God, those, who are polluted in each of these modes, are alike, and equally, impure, loathsome, abandoned wretches; the offspring of Sodom and Gomorrah. They are divorced and undivorced, adulterers and adulteresses; of whom the Spirit of Truth hath said, that not one of them shall enter into the kingdom of God. Over such a country, a virtuous man, if such an one be found, will search in vain, to find a virtuous wife. Wherever he wanders, nothing will meet his eye, but stalking, barefaced pollution. The realm around him has become one vast Brothel; one great province of the World of Perdition. To that dreadful world the only passage out of it directly leads: and all its inhabitants, thronging this broad and crooked way, hasten with one consent to that blackness of darkness, which envelops it for ever. SERMON CXXII. EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.-IDLENESS.-PRODIGALITY. EXODUS XX. 15.-Thou shalt not steal. THE preceding Command prohibits all trespasses against purity; this against property. To steal, is to take privately the property of others, with an intention to convert it to our own use. To rob, is to take the same property, for the same purpose, openly, and with violence. There can be little necessity of expatiating upon a crime, so well understood, and so universally infamous, as stealing, before an assembly, whose education, principles, and habits, furnish so strong a barrier against it. It may, however, be useful to observe, that this crime has its origin in that spirit of covetousness, which prompts us to wish, inordinately, for the enjoyments, and possessions, of others. This spirit, when indulged, continually acquires strength; and in many instances becomes, ultimately, so powerful, as to break over every bound of right, and reputation. The object in contemplation is seen to be desirable. As we continue to contemplate it, it becomes more and more desirable. While the attention of the mind is fixed upon it, it will be turned, comparatively, very little to other objects; particularly to those moral restraints, which hinder us from acquiring what we thus covet. The importance, and obligation, of these restraints, gradually fade from before the eye. The man, engaged only in the business of obtaining the intended gratification, naturally finds little leisure, or inclination, to dwell upon the danger, shame or sin, of seizing on his neighbour's possessions. Thus he becomes unhappily prepared to put forth a bold and rash hand, and to pluck the tempting enjoyment, in spite of the awful prohibitions of his Maker. He, who does not covet, will never steal. He, who indulges covetousness, will find himself in danger, wherever there is a temptation. In examining this precept, it will be my principal design to consider the subject of Fraud. That Fraud is implicitly forbidden in this Precept will not, I suppose, be questioned. The Catechism of the Westminster Assembly of Divines explains the Command in this manner. "It requires," say they, "the lawful procuring, and furthering, the wealth and outward estate of ourselves, and others ;" and " forbids whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighhour's wealth, or outward estate." In the Catechism of King Edward it is thus explained. "It commandeth us to beguile no man; to occupy no unlawful wares; to envy no man his wealth; and to think nothing profitable, that either is not just, or differeth from right and honesty." In this manner we are abundantly warranted to understand it by our Saviour's Commentary on the other Commands, in his sermon on the Mount. Accordingly, it has been generally understood in the same comprehensive manner by divines. To this interpretation, the nature of the subject gives the fullest warrant. All that, which is sinful in theft, is the taking of our neighbour's property, without his knowledge or consent, and converting it to our own use. In every fraud we do exactly the same thing, although in a different manner. Every fraud, therefore, whatever be the form in which it is practised, partakes of the very same sinful nature, which is found in theft. Fraud is in all instances a violation of what is commonly called Honesty, or Commutative Justice. Honesty, in the Scriptural sense, is a disposition to render, or the actual rendering of, an equivalent for what we receive, in our dealings with others. This equivalent may consist either of property, or of services; Honesty being equally concerned with both. At the same time, there is such a thing, as defrauding one's self. "Whatsoever doth, or may unjustly hinder our own outward estate," or, in other words, that comfort, and benefit, which we might derive from our property, or from our opportunities of acquiring it, is of this nature; and is accordingly forbidden by this Commandment. With these introductory observations, I shall now proceed to consider the prohibition in the Text, under the following heads: 1. The Fraudulent Conduct, which respects Ourselves, and our Families; and, II. That, which respects others. I. I shall mention several kinds of fraudulent conduct, which most immediately respects ourselves, and our families. All the members of a Family have a common interest; and are so intimately united in every domestic concern, that, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Whatever affects the head must affect the whole body. If a man defraud himself, either directly, or indirectly, he cannot fail, therefore, of defrauding his family. For this reason, I have thought it proper to consider the Family of a man, as united with himself in this part of my Subject. The 1. Specimen of Fraud, which I shall mention under this head, is Idleness. That Idleness hinders our own wealth, or outward estate, will not be questioned. I went by the field of the slothful, says Solomon, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo! it was all grown over with thorns; and nettles had covered the face thereof; and the stone-wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. Idleness, at the same time, is obviously a fraud. The lazy man cheats himself of good, which God hath given to him; of enjoyments, put into his hands by the bounty of his Creator. These blessings he barters for the love of ease. The price, which he pays, is very great: that, which he gets in return, is dross and dùng. The Mischiefs of Idleness are numerous, and important. Our time is a possession, of inestimable value. The best employment of it, that is, such an employment of it as the Scriptures require, involves all, which is meant by our duty. The loss, or waste, of it, is, therefore, no other than the loss or omission of all our duty; the frustration of the purpose for which we were created. Secondly. Idleness is a sinful waste of our Talents. By these I mean all the powers of body and mind; and the means, which God has furnished us in his Providence, of employing them for valuable ends. Our Time and Talents, united, constitute our whole capacity of being useful; our worth; our all. The idle man wastes them both; wraps them up in a napkin, and buries them in the earth. In this manner he robs God of the end for which he was made; and becomes a burden upon the shoulders of his fellow-men. He eats what others provide: and, while they are industriously engaged in labour, his business is only to devour. Thus he is carried by mankind, as a load, from the cradle to the grave; is despised, loathed, and execrated, while he lives; and, when he dies, is buried, like the carcass of an animal, to fulfil the demands of decency, and merely to get rid of a nui sance. In the mean time, his drowsiness clothes himself and his family with rags; prevents them from the enjoyments, common to all around them; disappoints, without a reason perceivable by them, all their just expectations; and, as was formerly observed concerning the drunkenness of a Parent, sinks them below the common level of mankind. Want in every form, and all the miseries of want, arrest them daily, and through life. Their food is poor and scanty. Their clothes are rags. They are pinched with cold, through the destitution of fuel; and deprived of refreshing sleep, because their bed is the earth, and because their dwelling, a mere sieve, admits without obstruction snow and rain, the frost and the storm. Thus, while they see almost all others around them possessed in abundance, not of the necessaries only, but of all the comforts, and most of the conveniences, of life; they them 4 selves are forced to look on, and thirst, and pine, for the tempting enjoyments: while, like Tantalus, they are forbidden by an ironhanded necessity to taste the good. At the same time, the man is forced to feel, while his family also are compelled by him to feel, that he, their husband, and their father, is the subject of supreme folly, and insignificance, and of gross, unremitted, and hopeless sin; of folly, which is causeless; insignificance, voluntarily assumed; sin, unnecessary and wanton; and that he is an object of general and extreme contempt. The contempt, directed immediately to him, is of course extended to his family, also; and they are compelled, at their first entrance into the world, to encounter the eye of scorn, and the tongue of derision. All these evils are sustained, also, only that the man may lead the life of a sluggard, be assimilated to the sloth in his character, and rival the swine in his favourite mode of life, and his most coveted enjoyments. Thirdly. Idleness exposes a man to many temptations, and many sins. A lazy man is, of course, without any useful engagement: his mind is therefore vacant, and ready for the admission of any sin, which seeks admission. To such a man temptations may be said to be always welcome. They are guests, for which he is regularly prepared and he has neither company nor business, to hinder him from yielding to them whatever attention, or entertainment, they may demand. The proverbial adage, that "Satan will employ him, who does not find employment for himself," is founded in experience, and good sense. The mind, even of the idlest man, will be busy; and the mind, which is not busied in its duty, will be busied in sin. On such a mind every temptation is secure of a powerful influence; entices without opposition; and conquers without even a struggle, or a sigh. Hence we find such a man devoted, not only to the general sin of idleness, but to all the other sins which he can conveniently practise. The Sluggard, says Solomon, is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men, that can render a reason. From this miserable vanity, of which their deplorable mismanagement of their own affairs ought to cure them at a glance, it arises that Sluggards so commonly become the professed counsellors of mankind. Hence it arises, that so many of them are politicians, pettifoggers, and separatical preachers. They know nothing, it is true, except what an abecedarian knows, of either Divinity, Law, or Government. Still they feel, and declare, themselves to be abundantly able to teach the way to Heaven, which they have never learned; and to explain Laws, which they never studied. The affairs of a Nation, so numerous, so complicated, and so extensive, as to be comprehended only by minds peculiarly capacious, and to demand the laborious study of a life, these men understand instinctively; without inquiry, information, or thought. Their own affairs. it |