SERM. XXXVII.] THE CHRISTTAN'S TREASURE. 113 they are most times poor and mean in this world, many of them destitute of the common supports Of nature, and the comforts of life. Christ himself, their Lord and Master, had not where to lay his head : And the apos- tles, who were the chief of christians, suffered " hunger and thirst, were naked and buffeted ; they had some- times neither food nor raiment, neither rest nor peace; nor any certain dwelling-place," 1 Cor. iv. 11. 2. And as all things are not in their possession, so neither are we to understand that all things in a civil sense are their right and property. They have not ajust claim and demand of the good things which their neigh- bours possess, nor ought they to take possessionofthem, though they had power to do it. It is a very wicked principle which has no countenance from scripture, and has been abused to most unrighteous and bloody pur- poses, that dominion is founded in grace, or that the saints have apresent civil right to all the earth, and the good things of it. From this sort of doctrine, somemen of furious zeal and enthusiasm have been tempted to rise and seize on the propertyof their neighbours. And in- deed, all the persecution 'in the world upon the account of religion, is built on this principle, " that the saints alone have a right to peace and liberty, to honour and money, and all the good things of this life ; and that the heretic and the sinner have no right to any thing." And though persecutors are very much ashamed to own this doctrine in words, yet they confirm it and comment upon it, in all their oppressive and bloody practices. But the christian religion knows no such principles; it allows every man's propertyand interest in the goods of this world, whether he be a Turk or a Jew, a heathen or a christian, a saint or a sinner. It is providence has disposed of these outward things in the civil life, and, men become intitled to them, by the laws anii agreement of civil society: And thus a rich wicked man may be righteouslypossessed of a fine house, and purple rai' ment, may have a well-spread table, and large lands, and dominions, while a saint may happen to lie at his door destitute of bread and clothing. But in what sense then can it be said, "that all thing are theirs." To give a just answer to this enquiry, we must take VOL. II. T
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=