SERM. X'XVI.I CHRISTIAN MORALITY, VIZ. JUSTICE, &C. 41 tavanrable providence. In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread, was the command given to Adam, when he was turned out of paradise, and forfeited his property in the fruits of Eden. But when once a person gets an aversion to business, when he finds a pleasure in sauntering and trifles, and indulges idleness and a lazy life; then he is tempted to seek the 'supports and com- forts of nature by some practices of unrighteousness. The slothful man will be clothed with rags, unless he procure better clothing by fraud or violence, Proxy. xxiii_ 21. . Hence it is that persons learn the art of stealing, and possess themselves of the goods or the money of their neighbour by thievery. They mark out the, houses in the day, and break them up at midnight for plunder. They remove theancient land-marks, to enlarge their own bor- ders ; they violently take away flocks, and feed upon them. They go forth to their unrighteous work in the morning, and rise betimes for a prey. They reap down the corn in their neighbour's field, and the wicked gather the vintage. They'.cause the naked : to lodge without clothing, and take away the sheaf from the hungry. These are they that rebel against the light, they abide not in the paths thereof. Though God does not lay 'folly to them, nor punish their crimes by his immediate judgments, yet his dyes are upon their ways, Job xxiv. 2-23. And many times his providence brings their crimes to light, and they are punished for their iniquity by the sentence of the judge. Owhat a shame and scan- dal is it, that in a nation professing christianity, there should be such multitudes_ trained up to the pilfering trade, -and educated for infamy, for transportation and the gibbet! There are -others, whose hands refuse to labour, and whose temper of mind delights in, idleness, but they ven- turenot upon these bolder crimes : they learn other un- righteous arts of cheating and falsehood, and fall into thesame evil practices, which I have just before de- scribed under the head Of luxury. But when luxury, pride, and sloth,, join their forces together, the temptar -tion to injustice becomes exceeding strong, and there are Í'ew who have power tó resist it. Such was the unjust steward, whoni our hiessed. Sa-
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