CONTRACTING DEBTS.

165

known persons weak enough or wicked enough to fall into this. That it is weak, reasonable persons will allow; that it is wicked, the word of God declares.i

§ 15. Another sin, often witnessed in some persons that profess religion, and by which they dreadfully disgrace their profession, is the sin of contracting debts, which they afterwards neglect to discharge. This is a sin which springs from many sources. Often from idleness, and neglect of the proper duties of a person's calling in life. At other times it springs from pride, and a desire indulged to figure away beyond what a small income will allow. Sometimes it springs from extravagance, and frequently from thoughtlessness. Persons contract debts, without considering how unlikely it is that they shall be prepared for payment when the appointed time arrives. In all these cases, and many others, it is a sin which not only ruins the credit of the guilty person, but if he profess religion, brings disgrace, in the view of an undiscerning world, on religion itself. This common and dishonourable practice is a very wicked one.

It is a violation of God's solemn precept, “ Render therefore to all their dues. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another." The careless or the wilful debtor is continually transgressing these commandments of his God.

It is highly sinful, as it is an entire and dreadful violation of the Saviour's golden precept, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the (sum and substance of the) law and the prophets." The debtor who contracts debts which he is careless of discharging, would not have other persons treat him as he treats his creditors. His conduct therefore involves the guilt of transgressing wilfully and regularly, perhaps for month after month, and year after year, this important precept of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To obtain the property of another without a prospect of paying, or, after such property has been received, not to endeavour with promptitude to discharge such claim, is dishonesty, and commonly proceeds from a dishonest principle. It is therefore a transgression of the commandment, "Defraud not." "m "Thou shalt not steal." The debtor

(i) Lev. xix. 31. (k) Rom. xiii. 7, 8.

Isa. ii. 6; viii. 19. Gal. v. 19. Rev. xxi. 8. (7) Matt. vii. 12. (m) Mark x. 19.

(n) Exod. xx. 15.

166

NECESSITY TO DISCHARGE DEBTS.

who acts this part, is in God's sight a THIEF, and as such must he account for his dishonesty at the last. In his case too this dishonesty is aggravated by the abuse of confidence and the treachery that are connected with it. The injured creditor entertained confidence in the honesty of the person who has contracted the debt, which he does not endeavour to discharge. This confidence is abused. Had a robber assaulted him, he would be robbed by one who never appeared to him in any guise but that of a thief; but the debtor who possesses the property for which he neglects to pay, once appeared to him as an honest man, but has treacherously abused his confidence.

This conduct is almost always connected with lying; and the thoughtless or careless debtor is almost certainly a liar. When he purchases the articles for which he neglects to pay, he promises to pay at a specified time; these promises are broken. They are repeated perhaps ten or twenty times, and every time they are so many lies. This practice is begun with lying, and carried on with lying, and in most cases cannot subsist without lying. God says, "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie to one another."

Conduct of this description is represented in the word of God as the conduct of the wicked. "The wicked borroweth and payeth not again."P

As the conduct of the careless debtor brings a scandal on religion, he is exposed to the woe pronounced against those, whose conduct thus throws a stumbling-block in the way of others. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh."

While acting this dishonest part, he has no title to the kingdom of heaven. "Ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God."r

Such conduct is expressly represented in Scripture, as erposing the sinner to the anger of God. "Woe unto him that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work."s "Behold, the hire of the labourers, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of

(p) Ps. xxxvii. 20.

(0) Lev. xix. 11.
r) 1 Cor. vi. 8, 9.

(q) Matt. xviii. 7. (s) Jer. xxii. 13.

them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth."t Where, in the sight of God, is the difference, between defrauding the labourer by keeping back his hire, and defrauding the tradesman by keeping back the price of his wares? between building a house by defrauding others of the materials, and dressing out in fine apparel, for which the seller in vain seeks the payment? The dishonesty is the same; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much.

These observations are not meant to apply exclusively or principally to the fraudulent debtor. Persons of that description are not likely to peruse these pages; but, as already stated, they apply to those who thoughtlessly contract debts which they have no reasonable prospect of discharging at the specified time. Or who, when they have contracted debts, make little or no exertion to discharge them; but with unconcern, leave their creditors to suffer all the inconveniences that spring from their dishonest conduct. To the sorrow of real Christians, and to the scandal of a religious profession, such persons are sometimes found among its professors.

§ 16. Another sin, which it is to be feared has blasted the eternal hopes of many professed disciples of the Son of God, is covetousness. Covetousness is a sin confined to no peculiar age; for if it be allowed, that it is frequently the ruling sin of old age, yet it is also often a sin of youth. It is confined to persons in no station: the poor and the rich are frequently alike covetous. Nor is it, like drunkenness and lewdness, found almost entirely among those who are destitute of the profession of religion; but it has been the curse and the ruin of many that have named the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is an insidious sin. The covetous man scarcely ever has any suspicion of his real character. He that robs, knows that he is a robber; he that plunges into drunkenness, when reason returns, knows that he has been intoxicated; but he that indulges covetousness, generally has no suspicion of his guilt and danger; but lives, and dies, and perishes in his delusion. -Many are the motives which should induce every Christian to watch against this sin.

It is an express transgression of the commandments of the Son of God. "Covetousness, let it not be once named

(t) James v. 4.

among you, as becometh saints."" "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

As covetousness tramples these commandments under foot, and becomes guilty of rebellion against the Lord of heaven, so it leads to other most atrocious crimes. Balaam's covetousness made him desire to curse Israel, whom God blessed. Ahab's covetousness of Naboth's vineyard, caused Naboth's murder, and Ahab's destruction. Judas's covetousness led him to betray the Lord of life; and thus to sell his gracious Master, and damn his own soul, for thirty pieces of silver. The single murders which robbers have committed, the wholesale murders which war has perpetrated, have been frequently the effect of covetousness. Fatal to individuals and nations, it is not less deadly to churches and families. A covetous minister of the gospel is one of the worst of monsters. Good withers before him, as life and verdure before a pestilential blast. Demons might walk beside him, and exult in viewing opening schemes of usefulness neglected, and opportunities of doing immortal good slighted, through the freezing influence of covetousness.

The peculiar vileness of covetousness is further seen, in its being a sin of the heart, and as such diametrically opposed to all good. It is not a transient crime, into which the person falls through strong temptation; but it is a disposition of his heart, by which in effect he prefers the creature to the Creator. As such it is worse than the grossest crimes: worse than profaneness, worse than perjury, worse than even adultery. The Scriptures record mournful instances of men of piety, that through strong temptation fell into these dreadful sins; but the Scriptures mention no instance of a child of God that was a covetous man. The covetous man belongs to the family of Balaam and of Judas.

Covetousness is described as idolatry; and such is the enormity of this species of idolatry, that all who live in it are the heirs of perdition. "Mortify covetousness: no COVETous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." "But they that will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and (u) Eph. v. 3. Col. iii. 5.

(v) Matt. vi. 19-21.

(w) Eph. v. 5.

hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil.”x "Be not deceived nor thieves, nor COVETOUS, shall inherit the kingdom of God."y Awful and decisive declarations! Let not the covetous indulge so false a hope, as the hope of reaching heaven.

Covetousness is a sin not less dangerous than abominable. When once it has gained the rule of the heart, the sinner's condition is almost hopeless. Few indeed are the instances of the conversion of a covetous man. A covetous professor of religion is in a state nearly as desperate as that of a soul in hell. This sin so blinds the mind, so hardens the heart, that a Christian minister might almost as well reason with a stone, as with a covetous professor of religion; and might stand on a tomb, and preach to the tenants of the grave, with nearly as much prospect of benefiting them, as there is of benefiting him.

As the covetous have no part in the kingdom of heaven, so the Scriptures command, that they should be excluded from the church of Christ on earth."

Think not, however, that the sin against which these cautions are directed, is merely or chiefly that excessive avarice which has rendered a few noted misers eminently infamous. If this were the case, there would be less probability of being hardened and ruined by this hateful vice. But the Lord Jesus represents conduct much less dark, much less miserly, as ruinous covetousness. He does not describe the covetous man as a thorough miser, hoarding up his useless stores merely to gaze upon them; nor as a hard oppressor, who gains his riches by grinding the faces and keeping back the wages of the poor. He does not describe him as one who starves himself and his family to increase his golden heap. His riches were given him by God's bounty; his fields brought forth plentifully. He showed his covetousness, not by the way of acquiring riches; not by gathering in the bounty of heaven; but by the use he made of them. A mere selfish use. Instead of promoting God's glory and man's happiness by his abundance, he proposed employing his riches in self-gratification, and God pronounced him a fool.

(a) 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10.

(3) 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. (a) Luke xii. 15-21. Q

(2) 1 Cor. v. 11, 13.