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declarations of your God: "Wo unto him that buildeth his house with unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong." Jer. xxii. 13. Be not deceived:-neither thieves, nor covetous, -nor extortioners,-shall inherit the kingdom of God," 1 Cor. vi. 9. Besides, the Lord that bought you with his own blood, and from whose grace alone you expect the gift of salvation, has commanded you to conform in your whole conduct to the following rule: "Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them, for this is the law and the prophets."

Were you, therefore, after these full instructions, which you receive as the irrevocable righteous decrees of the Almighty, were you to do any thing unjustly, you know you must renounce both the authority of God, and your interest in the redemption which is in Jesus. You know, that the very day you determine to follow the evil customs of the world in this point, you must bid farewell to all solid peace of conscience, forfeit that delightful communion with God, which has been the sweetest enjoyment of your life, and give up the pleasing expectation of a blessed immortality; for remorse, for fear, or what is worse, for a conscience past feeling.

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Comparing therefore things spiritual with things temporal, you will determine that honesty is always the best policy. And though you know that injustice and fraud possess so powerful an influence over the world, that you may run to and fro through the streets," and "seek to find a man, if there be any, that executeth judgment;" yet, unseduced and uncorrupted by the multitude of sinners, you will pity those who purchase gain at the expence of their integrity. "Surely," you will say, "They have made their faces harder than a rock.-Surely,they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." Jer. v. 3, 4.

Further, Are you the head of a family? you will then regard it as a grand branch of your Christian duty, to give unto your servants that which is just and equal. You will not treat them with haughtiness, because of their dependent state: you will recede from no engagment into which you have entered with them, nor withhold wages which are due: you will make a conscience of not exact

ing from them harder labour than they are well able to perform. In case of slight misdemeanors, you will not provoke them with threatenings, nor gall them with words of abuse; nor, when you observe them faithful in your service, be backward to give them suitable encouragement. Above all, you will abhor that custom which is an indelible reproach to a civilized, much more to a Christian country, of abandoning them in the time of their sickness; and through fear of paying for their cure, turning them out without money, without friends, when their condition loudly calls for medicine, for attendance, and compassion.

The command of your God respecting the justice due from masters to their servants is most express, and the care he has taken to procure for them a benevolent regard, from all who reverence his authority, is very remarkable. You hear him, in their behalf, thus addressing you: "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy -lest he cry against thee to the Lord, and it be sin unto thee," Deut. xxiv. 14. 15. You are assured that the God of heaven and earth, like an impartial loving Father, equally resents the wrong done to any of his offspring; and with him is no respect of persons. The knowledge of this will lead you to regard your domestic dependents in a respectful light; it will lead you to repress the emotions of a selfish hasty spirit, as the faithful Job was wont to do: "If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me:"that is, if in any matter of debate betwixt them and myself, I paid little regard to justice, condemning and accusing them when guiltless, or treating them with harshness because in my power;- "What shall I then do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb, make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?" Job. xxxi. 13-15. Thus the awful thought that you have a Master in heaven, will regulate your deportment towards your fellow-creatures, over whom his providence has given you authority.

So essential to the character of a real Christian is this part of justice, which is due from all masters to their servants, that whosoever lives in the violation of this duty,

does but expose himself and the faith of Jesus to derision, by pretending a regard for it. For what can be more contemptible, what more odious, than a man pretending to be a follower of Jesus, who is a tyrant in his house, and frantic towards his servants? One of the most melancholy objects on earth, is a passionate governor of a family, calling himself a believer, and valuing himself on his relation to Christ. All the servants who are connected with him, and all who observe his carriage towards them, will be led to despise and to revile that religion which they see joined with such loathsome hypocrisy. Out of regard therefore to the name and gospel of Jesus, that it may not through you be blasphemed, as well as from a sense of interest, and a love to the commands of your Saviour, you, O Christian! will give no occasion for your servants to complain of your unjust deportment towards them.

But if, instead of the place of authority and government, the all-wise God has fixed you in that of subjection, as a servant or an apprentice, you will faithfully follow the directions which the Scripture gives you for the exercise of justice in that condition of life. You will abhor the thought of wasting, embezzling, or secreting to your own use any of your master's money, goods, or provisions. You will neither do this yourself, nor basely connive at others who are wicked enough to do it. You will not see things spoilt before your eyes; nor give away to tattlers and busy-bodies what is not your own to give. You will not be idle and slothful, because those are absent who are to overlook you and force you to diligence. You will think it your duty to consult the interest of your master, and to make it in some sense your own.

The motives which influence you, if you have any title to be called a Christian, to do so much more in this repect than it is common to find other servants doing, are peculiar and mighty in operation. You will act thus from a principle of conscience, concerned to be approved by God in your behaviour, and determined to do nothing knowingly and wilfully that is offensive to him, whether any besides himself are present to observe you, or not. From a desire also to adorn and recommend to others that gospel of which you know the excellency, you will be

uniform in the practice of honesty and justice. In this substantial manner you will evidence that your faith is more than a barren notion; by proving that it makes you worthy of all the confidence your master can place in you, and that it preserves you from falling into those lies or frauds so generally the practice of servants in almost every family. This conscientious honesty you will regard as one of the most substantial proofs that you know God. You will judge that your master must necessarily mock at your religion, and with justice too, however zealous you may seem, if he should find that you pilfer as others, and that you are not to be trusted when removed from his inspection.

Now whatever opposition and hatred you may incur by such conscientious deportment, you will patiently endure; assured that in doing your duty in this manner, and upon these principles, you shall receive from God the reward of an everlasting inheritance. And though the value of your services, or the things in which you discover your integrity, be little in the judgment of the world; you know they shall witness for you, that you were faithful and obedient; and, like the widow's mite, be as much in the sight of God as greater services. Since he, where there is a willing mind, accepteth according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.

But lest such promises should not alone prove sufficient to animate you to the practice of justice, you know from the infallible word of God, that no fraud, however common, however slightly thought of, either in wasting your master's substance, or neglecting his business, much less in purloining his goods, if persisted in, will be overlooked; that "every one that doth wrong, shall receive for the wrong that he doth," whether poor or rich, master or

servant.

Another important instance in which every real Christian manifests his impartial love of justice, is by paying those customs which are by law enacted, and from thence become his earthly sovereign's right. This very thing is expressly mentioned and enjoined by the command of your God. You are to give "tribute to whom tribute, and custom to whom custom is due." Besides this most express command, you have the example of your Redeemer.

When he had neither silver nor gold, he wrought a miracle that he might pay the tribute exacted of him and his poor disciple. He did this, rather than seem to countenance the iniquity of defrauding the crown of its just revenues. You will therefore renounce the custom too common in trade, of attempting either to bribe the king's officers to betray their trust, or of eluding their utmost vigilance. You will renounce such practices as utterly irreconcileable with any regard to Christian duty.

The last instance of justice which I shall insist on, is that of restitution to all whom you have wilfully injured, either in their souls or their bodies, their estate or reputation. Have you led any friend or acquaintance into error, or tempted them to sin? Have you solicited and obtained their compliance to some base and guilty practice? The first step you will necessarily take, when you yourself repent and believe in Jesus, will be to endeavour to recover from danger your companions in iniquity; and, as far as lieth in you, to make them sensible of the crimes, in which you have shared, alas! so deeply with them. In case you have defrauded any one, you will (like Zaccheus upon his first receiving the Saviour) make what restitution you are able; esteeming it a baseness provoking in the sight of God and man, to live yourself in superfluities, whilst others are suffering loss through your former injustice. All evidences of the truth of your faith you must esteem utterly deceitful, if you can enjoy the spoils, of which you have defrauded your neighbour.

Further, As a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, if at any time, through private resentment or licentiousness of speech, you have been either the inventor or propagator of a falsehood to the injury of your neighbour; you will think it a part of justice to make a particular retraction of the calumny you advanced. For though it may be prejudicial to your own reputation thus to point out the truth; though it may make the world abate the esteem which they at present have for you; this esteem belongs not to you, but to the person you have injured; and to him you must return it, though you expose yourself. For however mortifying this procedure may appear, it is absolutely necessary; and is the only

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