SERMON XXVI. 359 thefirst-bornof hell ! It seizedour first parents and tempted them to aim at godhead, to practice injury to Godhimself, andassume a right to the fruit of the forbidden tree ! Vile iniquity, that hath tainted all the seed of Adam ! It is .a haughty poison that was infused into our veins with the first sin ; and where shall we find the son of daughter of Eve that is notinfected with it ? Bles- sed be the grace of God, wheresoever its dominion is broken, so that it does not break out into all the works of unrigli- teousness. The third spring of injustice among men is profuseness and Iuxury. When persons affect to live in a manner. above what their circumstances will afford,. they are tempted to intreuch upon the property .of theirneighbour, either by cheating or by violence. Itis the language of luxury, " Imust indulge my appetite, my table must be furnished with a costly variety, and I must eat and drink with elegance, as is the modish phrase. I must treat my friends when theyvisit me, with fashionable entertainments ; I must keep fine company, and make a figure in the world; I must appear in such an equipage as myneighbour allows himself, though he be ten times richer than I am. I must have many changes of raiment, for it is a mean and vulgar thing to appear too often in the same dress: My house must be furnished after the mode, and I must shine at home and abroad in silks or in silver; for I cannot bear the thought that such or such a one should. out-shine and over -top me." Then the patrimony is sold or mortgaged to raise present supplies, and the rich food and clothing, and luxurious expences of a twelve-month, devour and swallow up seven years income, or the gain of half their lives.. What remains then, when their own substance is not suffici- ent to supply their vanity, but that they make aninroad upon the propertyof their neighbour ? They run deep into debt with the artificer and trader, and they never concern themselves how to make payment. The workman has built thempalaces, instead of such common dwellings as their character requires, and the artificers of various kinds have furnished out their bravery of apparel or equipage : But the unhappy creditors are ready to' starve in tattered raiment, through the oppression and injustice' of their luxurious neighbour. And when they make a modest demand of what is due to them, they meet with nothing but a frown or a jest, and the reproachful names of saucy and imper- tinent. But, wo to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high ; , far the stone shall cry out of the wall against the oppressor: The beam out of the timber shall- answer it, dad shall_ bear witness against unriohteous,iess; flab. 49, I1.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=