ney

Sunday (nay, if he do not actually find out the fault) XII. thou art bound to tell it him; otherwife thou makeft him pay for fomewhat which is not there, he prefuming there is that good qua lity in it, which thou knoweft is not: And therefore thou mayft as honeftly take his mofor fome goods of another man's, which thou knoweft thou canft never put into his poffeffion, which I fuppofe no man will deny to be an arrant cheat. To this head of concealment may be referred that deceit of falfe weights and measures: For that is the concealing from the buyer a defect in the quantity, as the other was in the quality of the commodity, and is again the making him pay for what he hath not. This fort of fraud is pointed at particularly by Solomon, Prov. xi. I. with this note upon it, That it is an abomination to the Lord.

His Overrating it.

6. The fecond part of fraud in the feller lies in Over-rating the commodity: Though he have not difguifed or concealed the faults of it, and fo have dealt fairly in that refpect, yet if he fet an unreasonable price upon it, he defrauds the buyer. I call that an unreafonable price, which exceeds the true worth of the thing, confidered with thofe moderate gains which all tradefmen are prefumed to be allowed in the fale. Whatever is beyond this muft, in all likelihood, be fetched in by fome of these ways; as, firft, by taking advantage of the buyer's ignorance in the value

of the thing, which is the fame with doing Sunday it in the goodness, which hath already been XII. fhewed to be a deceit : Or, fecondly, by taking advantage of his neceffity: Thou findeft a man hath present and urgent need of fuch a thing, and therefore takeft this opportunity to fet the dice upon him. But this is that very fin of extortion and oppreffion fpoken of before; for it is fure nothing can juftly raife the price of any thing, but either its becoming dearer to thee, or its being fome way better in it felf: But the neceffity of thy brother caufes neither of these; his nakednefs doth not make the clothes thou felleft him, ftand thee in ever the more, neither doth it make them any way better; and therefore to rate them ever the higher, is to change the way of trading, and fell even the wants and neceffities of thy neighbour, which fure is a very unlawful vocation: Or, thirdly, it may be by taking advantage of the indifcretion of the chapman. A man perhaps earnestly fanfies fuch a thing, and then fuffers that fanfy fo to over-rule his reason, that he refolves to have it upon any terms. If thou findest this in him, and thereupon raiseft thy rate, this is to make him buy his folly, which is of all others the deareft purchafe: It is fure his fanfy adds nothing to the real value, no more than his neceffity did in the former cafe, and therefore fhould not add to the price. He therefore that will deal juftly

Sunday juftly in the business of felling, must not XII. catch at all advantages, which the temper of

his chapman may give; but confider foberly what the thing is worth, and what he would afford it for to another, of whom he had no fuch advantage, and accordingly rate it to him at no higher a price.

Fraud in 7. On the Buyer's part there are not ordihe Buyer narily fo many opportunities of fraud: Yet it is poffible a man may fometimes happen to fell fomewhat, the worth whereof he is not acquainted with, and then it will be as unjuft for the Buyer to make gain by his ignorance, as in the other cafe it was for the feller: But that which often falls out is the cafe of neceffity, which may as probably fall on the Seller's fide, as the Buyer's. A man's wants compel him to fell, and permit him not to stay to make the best bargain, but force him to take the firft offer; and here for the Buyer to grate upon him, because he fees him in that ftrait, is the fame fault which I before fhewed it to be in the feller.

Many 8. In this whole business of Traffick there Temptations to Deare fo many opportunities of Deceit, that a ceit in man had need fence himself with a very firm Traffick. refolution, nay, love of justice, or he will be in danger to fall under Temptation; for as the Wife man fpeaks, Ecclus. xxvii. 2. As a nail fticks faft between the joinings of the ftones, fo doth fin ftick close between buying and felling. It is fo interwoven with all trades,

fo

fo mixt with the very first principles and Sunday grounds of them, that it is taught together XII. with them, and fo becomes part of the art: So that he is now a days fcarce thought fit to manage a trade, that wants it; while he that hath most of this black art of defrauding, applauds and hugs himself, nay, perhaps, boasts to others how he hath over-reached his neighbour.

Injustice a

What an intolerable fhame is this, that we The ComChriftians, who are, by the precepts of our monnefs of Mafter, fet to thofe higher duties of charity, Reproach to Chriftifhould, inftead of practifing them, quite un-nity. learn thofe common rules of justice, which mere nature teaches? For, I think, I may fay, there are none of those feveral branches of Injustice towards the poffeffions of our neighbour, which would not be adjudged to be fo by any fober Heathen. So that, as St. Paul tells thofe of the circumcifion, that the name of God was blafphemed among the Gen-. tiles, by that unagreeableness that was betwixt their practice and their law, Rom. ii. 24. fo now may it be faid of us, that the name of Chrift is blafphemed among the Turks and Heathens, by the vile and fcandalous lives of us, who call our felves Chriftians, and particularly in this fin of Injuftice. For fhame, let us at laft endeavour to wipe off this reproach from our profeffion, by leaving thefe practices, to which methinks this one fingle confideration fhould be enough to perfuade us.

XII.

It is not

man.

;

Sunday 9. Yet befides this, there want not other among which one there is of fuch a nature, the way to as may prevail with the arrantest worlding, enrich and that is, That this courfe doth not really tend to the enriching of him; there is a fecret curfe goes along with it, which, like a canker, eats out all the benefit was expected from it. This no man can doubt, that believes the Scripture, where there are multitudes of texts to this purpose: Thus Prov. xxii. 16. He that oppreffeth the poor to increase his riches, fhall furely come to want. So Habak. ii. 6. Wo to him that increafeth that which is not his! how long? and he that ladeth himself with thick clay; Shall they not rise up fuddenly that shall bite thee? and awake that shall vex thee? and thou shalt be for booties unto them. This is commonly the fortune of those that spoil and deceive others, they at last meet with fome that do the like to them. But the place in Zechary is moft full to this purpose, chap. v. where, under the fign of a flying roll is fignified the curfe that goes forth against this fin, ver. 4. I will bring it forth, faith the Lord of Hofts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that fweareth falfly by my name and it shall confume it, with the timber thereof, and with the ftones thereof. Where, you fee, theft and perjury are the two fins against which this curfe is aimed (and they too often go together in the matter of defrauding) and the nature of this curfe is

to