427 / 514
SEAM.
XXV.] CHRISTIAN
MORALITY, VIZ. JUSTICE,
&C.
4ig
of
you injure
your neighbour, your
fellow
-
christian
?
" I
speak
this to
your
shame.
Brother
goes to law with
brother, and
ye
injure
one
another. Why
do
not
you
rather
suffer
wrong?
nay, you do wrong,
and defraud,
and
that
your
own
brethren." But
what
is
the conse-
quence
?
Such
wretches
as these are,
"
shall never
inhe-
rit
the kingdom
of
God."
"
The grace
of
God
that
bringeth
salvation, Tit. ii.
11, 12.
teacheth
us
to deny ungodliness
and
worldly lusts,
and
to
live
soberly and righteously, and religiously,
in
this
present
evil
world."
It
teacheth
us
righteousness towards
men, as
well
as
sobriety among
ourselves,
and godliness
towards the King
of
heaven.
But
how hatli this
divine
religion
been
scandalized for want
of
justice
in the
pro-
fessors
of
it
!
Scandalized among
heathen
kingdoms,
among
Turks
and
unbelievers
!
And christianity in
our
own
land,
how
hath it
been
dishonoured
by
the
practices
of
those
that
pretend
to
that
holy name
!
How
hath
the
conversion
of
wild
heathens
in
the
Indian
nations been
hindered
by
the injustice
and fraud
of
christian merchants
and
traders there, or
by
merchants
who call themselves
christians.
I
have
heard
it
said
by
persons
whom I
could
fully credit,
that
a
Turk
when
he
is
suspected
of
fraud
and
cheating,
will
reply,
"
What, do you think
I
am a
christian
?"
O
how
hath the
gospel
of
the lovely
Jesus
oeen
rendered odious
by
the abominable practices
of
those
that pretend
to
honour
him
!
What
falsehood,
what
lying,
what
perjury,
and
cheating, and
deceit,
and
violence have been practised
by
our traders
in
foreign
lands
!
Thus there
has
been
an
ill
savour
of our
holy
christianity
carried
beyond
the
seas, by
those,
perhaps,
who have
pretended
to
convert the
infidels.
And many
in
our
own
nation,
who have
begun to set
their
faces
to-
wards heaven, have been sorely disgusted
at
the knavish
practices
of
professors,
and
been
tempted
to
think
:
that
all religion
is
a
jest,
and to abandon
the
ordinances
of
the
gospel.
But
when souls
stumble, and
fall,
and pe-
rish
by
such
discouragements, woe
to him
that
gave
the
offence,
and
laid this stumbling-block
of
iniquity
in
their
way.
How heavy must the blood
of
souls
lay
upon such
sinners
!
Surely
there
has
been enough said
on
this
head
to
dis-
courage oppression, deceit,
and
injustice
in the
profes-