to confume the houfe, to make an utter de-Sunday ftruction of all that belongs to him, that is XII. guilty of either of these fins. Thus whilft thou art ravening after thy neighbour's goods or house, thou art but gathering fuel to burn thine own. And the effect of thefe threatnings of God we daily fee in the ftrange improfperoufnefs of ill-gotten eftates, which every man is apt enough to obferve in other mens cafes: He that fees his neighbour decline in his eftate, can prefently 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 seldom turn it to his own ufe, is nevertheless greedy or unjust himself, for that vengeance he difcerns. he difcerns upon others. 10. But, alas! if thou couldst be fure that it ruines thy unjuft poffeffions fhould not be torn from eternally. thee, yet, when thou remembreft how dear thou must pay for them in another world, thou haft little reafon to brag of thy prize. Thou thinkeft thou haft been very cunning, when thou haft over-reached 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 foul: The Devil herein deals with thee, as fishers ufe to do; thofe 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 himself taken. So thou that art gap the Soul Sundag ing to fwallow up thy poor brother, art thy XII. felf 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 shalt 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 imploy all that pains and diligence thou haft used to deceive others, in refcuing thy felf from the frauds of the grand deceiver. The Necef 11. To this purpose it is abfolutely necefVity of Re fitution, fary, that thou make reftitution to all whom thou haft wronged; for as long as thou keepest any thing of the unjuft gain, 'tis as it were an earneft peny from the Devil, which gives him full right to thy foul. 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 fraud, 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 advise 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 be made by halves, be as careful as thou canst Sunday XII. to reckon every the least mite of unjust gain: But when that cannot exactly be done, as 'tis fure it cannot by those 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 tradefman 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 a 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 raised 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 forgetfulness, to the cutting thort 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 somewhat over, he need not grudge the charge of fuch a finoffering; and 'tis fure he will not, if he do heartily defire an atonement. Many other difficulties there may be in this business of reftitution, which will not be foreseen, and fo cannot now be particularly spoke to: But the more of those there are, the greater horror ought men to have of running into the fin of Injustice, which it will be fo difficult, if not impoffible for them to repair; and the S 2 . more Sunday more careful ought they to be to mortify that XIII. which is the root of all injustice, to wit, Covetousness. 1 SUNDAY XIII. Of falfe Reports, falfe Witness, Slanders, HisCredit. Se&t. 1.♬ "T HE fourth branch of Negative Justice concerns the Credit of our Neighbours, which we are not to leffen or impair by any means, particularly not by false 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 falfe the other, when poffibly he has fome flight furmife or jealoufy of the thing; but that upon fuch weak grounds, that 'tis 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 greateft bafenefs to invent a lye of another: But there is as litthe reafon to question the other; for he that reports a thing as a truth, which is but uncertain, 2 certain, is a lyar alfo ; or if he do not report Sunday it as a certainty, but only as a probability, XIII. yet then, though he be not guilty of the lye, yet he is of the injustice of robbing his neighbour of his credit; for there is fuch an aptnefs in men to believe ill of others, that any the lightest jealousy will, if once it be fpread abroad, ferve for that purpose; and fure it is a moft horrible injuftice, upon every flight furmife and fanfy, to hazard the bringing fo great an evil upon another; efpecially when it is confidered, that thofe furmises commonly fpring rather from fome cenforiouf nefs, peevishness, or malice in the furmifer, than from any real fault in the perfon fo fufpected. nefs. 2. The manner of spreading these falfe re-False Wit ports of both kinds, is not always the fame fometimes it is more open and avowed, fometimes more clofe and private: The open is many times by falfe Witness before the courts of justice; and this not only hurts a man in his credit, but in other respects also 'Tis the delivering him up to the punishment 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 xxi. How great and crying a fin it is in this refpect, as alfo in that of the perjury, you may learn from what hath been faid of both those fins. I am now |