2. If the seller hide and conceal any fault or imperfection in his commodity: neither will it excuse him to say, the question was never put whether the thing was faultless; for if by the money bid it may be collected that the buyer supposed the thing complete, in having offered the full value, were it so, it will follow that he is cheated of as much as the thing sold is worse by such fault or imperfection; and so this is as manifest a fraud as that of a deceitful balance, and which, though the laws do not, God certainly will punish.

3. Notwithstanding the weight be good, the measure full, and the thing sold void of faults, yet if, taking advantage of his ignorance, you make your chapman pay above the value and worth of the thing, this also will prove no other than deceit; because, were it your own case, you would think it hard measure to be abused in the price for your ignorance of the thing, or overreached for trusting to another man's honesty.

2. The second head I remarked of injustice in trade, is the necessity of other men. This happens, either when we, having monopolized or grasped all things of one sort and kind into our own clutches, make them bear what unreasonable rate soever we please; or when we prey on another man's need, and force him to pay not only for the commodity, but for his own necessity too, in exacting a sum which we know he never would give but by reason of his present exigency: this is extortion : for you should not enhance the value of that you sell, unless the price either was raised to you, or has improved since the buying. To this head may be referred the unreasonable disproportions which some men extort for the use of their money, because the borrower has an absolute necessity for so much, and may not have credit, perhaps, to take it up in another place for with what conscience can he demand double as much as he knows it is possible for another to gain by what he lends him? And thus much have I discoursed of justice; which, whether it be suitable to any man's practice, I meddle not; but sure I am, it is agreeable to your judgments, and on account of that usage which you all heartily desire at the hands of others.

I am now to speak of charity; which is the distinguishing character and inseparable mark of a Christian; by which our

Lord the holy Jesus has taught us to know and rightly understand him; By this shall all men know ye are my disciples, if ye love one another' it is a benign and sweet temper of soul, which disposeth us, not only sincerely to wish, but willingly to do all the good we can to other men, in their several capacities.

I cannot give a better or more exact view of charity, than by representing to you the blessed Jesus for a pattern; who made it his business to heal the sick, to give sight to the blind, to give life to those who were dead, to dispossess devils, to inspire men with holiness and excite them to lead a righteous life, to animate his followers with a zeal for works of friendship and mercy, to shame men out of their cruelty and self-interest by his own example, letting them see how he came to ransom their souls, and to vindicate them from the intolerable consequences of lying under the divine displeasure, to a state of bliss and immortality; insomuch that his whole life appeared a continued act of goodness.

Now it is not to be expected that I should give you such intire rules and laws as might guide you about charity, and as I have done of justice; because it is not confined to any limits that are fixed, but depends as well on your own power and abilities, as on the circumstances which the person is in, whom you design to relieve.

Wherefore we may conclude that charity requires we neglect no opportunity of doing good; so that, who is a fit object. of our mercy, and when it is we have an opportunity, are things left to God and our consciences to judge. It is justice not to rob the poor; but charity requires us to relieve them it is against justice to deal deceitfully with our friend, but it is inconsistent with charity not to love our enemy: so that where one leaves us, you see, the other takes its beginning; charity being an appendage, and as it were an additional act, made and annexed by the royal court of heaven, to the laws of nature, which were before promulgated in our souls concerning equity.

Particular duties of charity are these: 1. that you give your best counsel and directions to your brother; and this in the most prevailing language, and when he is most fit to receive it. If you reprove him, let your expressions be without rancor

and sharpness, so that he may be convinced that the end of your advice is his interest, and the cause of reprehending him, your love.

2. That you forgive injuries; nor let your passions boil up to the height, so that you must think it necessary to repay the indignity which was cast on you, by a greater; but keep yourself in an equal and unconcerned humor, notwithstanding the most impetuous assaults that are made on your temper: which will breed that meekness, wherewith you will become able to obey the precept of your Saviour, that being smitten on the one cheek, you turn the other;' that is to say, you will be so far from seeking revenge of an affront, as to be ready to receive another, and to make up the difference by repaying all with good turns.

3. Charity forbids that you should envy any happy advance your neighbor has of his fortune; but commands that you rejoice at his prosperity, and as much as in you lies, promote his greatness; which doubtless would be done, were your love of him and yourself equal.†

4. Charity enjoins you to lend your aid and succor to the rescuing your neighbor out of any calamity that has befallen him, whether it be from poverty or from the violence of others: one commands your beneficence and liberality, the other asks the use of your hand and strength; and both require you to compassionate his condition as your own.

At length I shall enter on the persuasive part of this dis

But if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.' Matth. vi. 14. This duty of mercifully sparing our neighbors when they have wronged us, ensures to us not only their good will, but the tender and gentle usage of God Almighty to our great crimes, wherewith we have offended him.

+ If prosperity attends an holy man, we ought to rejoice, because it is God's blessing; if a sinner, rather pity than envy him, whose end shall be bitterness and destruction.

For the compassion we have on our indigent and helpless brother, Christ our Saviour will put to his own score, and look on it favorable as if it were shown to himself. For as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' Matth. xxv. 40.

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course, and use some motives, from the nature of the thing, to induce you to the practice of what I have said.

1. The first shall be taken from the end, for which we were made. Man did not, like a mushroom, spring by chance out of the ground; nor had he his being of himself; but was the curious workmanship (except that his sin is derived from man as the proper fountain) of another, who clothed him with skin and flesh, supported him with bones, tied him together with muscles and nerves, and into this lovely structure inspired an immortal soul, which was to govern and command, to regulate and guide it in all its operations; so that man stands under the greatest and most endearing circumstances of obligation to the author of his being; and therefore laying aside all considerations of himself, he ought to betake himself to an intire obedience of his will: which is not that he should barely gratify himself, or follow the motions of his wily passions, or do whatever should be dictated by his appetites; but being intrusted with talents, and having laws before him, he should make them the standard whereby to measure all his behavior, and the rule wherewith all his actions should comply.

Wherefore if you believe the existence of a God, and that you have a soul, to be continued in being to eternity; if you think that this God created you, and thereby acquired a right to be your lawful commander, and that he is of too great wisdom to be mocked, and has too much power either to be defeated or brought to terms; that he is a rewarder of them that seek him, as well as a severe animadverter on offenders; lastly, if you will not confess yourselves guilty of the vilest hypocrisy, or of the greatest folly; of the vilest hypocrisy, in disbelieving the religion you profess, or of the greatest folly, in exposing your souls to the hazard of eternal and irreparable ruin; then reflect seriously with yourselves, how necessary it is to your salvation that you be up and doing the will of your Master; and how unreasonable it is that you, being dependent creatures, should think yourselves licensed to the practice of what you please.

We all own such an obedience to our lawful king, as rescinds the power of doing what we list; and yet we presume an absolute liberty from our duty in God's service and in matters of

religion; that is to say, we acknowlege the authority of God's minister over us, while we deny his own.*

But what, I pray, is more grossly absurd than to subject ourselves to the less, and yet resist the greater power, even that from whence the less was derived ?

2. The second motive is from the intrinsic beauty and loveliness of the rule itself.

I cannot conceive what should put more fervor and zeal into our devotion than the reasonableness of our religion, and the inherent lustre shining in all its laws; its precepts being worthy of the wisdom of God, and suitable to the nature of man, rectifying our reason, purifying our natures, and perfecting our understandings; its chief design being to tie us to the ravishing and unspeakable pleasures, of justice, innocence, and mercy, and to remove whatever was destructive of the order and tranquillity of society, by introducing love and kindness, and the noble principle of doing as,' &c. into the world. Our religion requires of us meekness and equity, charity and long sufferance, contentedness and compassion, friendship, humility, and patience, and every thing that has a real tendency to the felicity of mankind.

3. Let us do to others as we would have them do to us,' because both they and we bear the same stamp and impress of heaven.

For the rich and poor, the king and slave, alike resemble God, and are equal sharers of his image, having been all cast in the same mould, and made of the same materials, enjoying like bodies and equal souls, and in these the same faculties and dispositions; so that the odds between man and man are not of nature, nor founded in any essential difference in being, but the mere result of civil constitution; and that was from sin, which first put men to distinguish into proprieties, and sever into portions what nature left undivided and in common. Besides, God had given the same laws, and a like measure of ability to perform obedience, to all: so that none

The greatest credit we can do our religion, among strangers, is to live according to its rules; and the highest honor we can give God is obedience to his commands: for obedient carriage to God argues at once his excellency and our obligation.