be anfwerable for the neglect of weightier matters; but otherwise, if we tranfgrefs not the bounds of innocence and virtue, we truft in Chrift that our harmless, though weak and unprofitable words shall not rise up in judgment against us.

DISCOURSE XXXVII.

PART I.

EPHESIANS iv. 28.

Let him that ftole fteal no more; but rather let him la bour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

THE words now read to you make up a complete fense, without depending upon what goes before, or comes after. They contain a confirmation and explication of the eighth commandment for what the Apostle enjoins concerning labour, and working with our hands, is no more than the neceffary confequence of the command, Thou shalt not fleal. For fince all men are equal fharers in the wants and neceffities of life, and the things which fhould fupply these wants are unequally divided, fo that fome have more than enough, and fome much lefs; it follows, that the neceffities of the one must be fupplied from the abundance of the other. Steal you muft not, and give perhaps he will not.

The only

way then by which you can come at the things you want, is by purchase or exchange; and the only

thing a poor man has to exchange, is the work and labour of his hands: and therefore it follows as a confequence of the law, that fince you must not fteal, you must work, and purchase by your labour and industry the things which are neceffary for your support and fubfiftence. In all that rich men do, they want the help and affiftance of the poor; they cannot minifter to themselves either in the wants, or conveniencies, or pleasures of life: fo that the poor man has as many ways to maintain himfelf, as the rich man has wants or defires; for the wants and defires of the rich must be ferved by the labour of the poor. But then the rich man has often very wicked defires, and often delights in finful pleasures; and though to ferve the rich be the poor man's maintenance, yet in these cases the poor man must not serve him; and therefore the Apoftle adds, that he muft labour, working with his hands the thing which is good. His poverty obliges him to ferve man, and therefore he muft work with his hands; and his reafon and religion oblige him to ferve God, and therefore he must work only the thing which is good.

Labour is the bufinefs and employment of the poor, it is the work which God has given him to do; and therefore a man cannot be fatisfied in working merely as far as the wants of nature oblige him, and spending the reft of his time idly or wantonly for if God has enabled him to gain more by his labour, than his own wants, and the conveniencies neceffary to his station, require, he then becomes a debtor to fuch duties as are incumbent on all to whom God hath dispensed his gifts libe

rally. He muft confider that he owes a tribute to his Maker for the health and ftrength he enjoys; that there are others who want limbs to labour, or sense and understanding to arrive at the knowledge of any art or myftery, whereby to maintain themfelves; and to thefe he is a debtor out of the abundance of his ftrength, and health, and knowledge, with which God has bleffed him and therefore he is obliged to labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth,

To the great men God hath given riches, to the mean ftrength and understanding; both are equally indebted for what they have received, and equally obliged to make returns fuitable to their abilities: and therefore, as the rich man muft honour God out of his fubftance, so must the man of low degree make his acknowledgment out of the product of his labour and understanding: and therefore men are obliged to use labour and induftry in their honeft callings and employments, first to provide for themselves, and all who depend upon them for maintenance; and, in the next place, to provide a ftock to discharge the debt they owe to their Maker, by adminiftering, in proportion to their ability, to the wants and neceffities of their poorer brethren.

And this may serve to give us a general view of the sense and reasoning of the text; which I fhall now more particularly confider, according to the diftinct parts of which it confifts. And those I think are four firft, a prohibition, Let him that ftole feal no more. Secondly, in confequence of that, an injunction, But rather let him labour.

Thirdly, a limitation of this duty of labouring to things honeft and lawful, expreffed in these words, Working with his hands the thing which is good. Fourthly, the rule and measure of this duty, That he may have to give to him that needeth.

Firft, As to the prohibition, Let him that fole Steal no more. By this we are forbidden the ufe of all' fuch means, for our own maintenance and fupport, as are injurious to our neighbour. The command, Thou shalt not fteal, was given to fecure every man in the property and poffeffion of his goods; and therefore the reafon of the law reaches to all kinds of fraud and deceit by which men are injured in their goods and eftate: and there are many things which, in propriety of speech, we do not call ftealing, which nevertheless must be understood to be comprehended in this law, in virtue of the reafon upon which it is founded. The unjust acquifition of any thing is theft; for what you unjustly acquire, another lofes, and fuffers in his property, for the security of which the law against theft was enacted and therefore, in the way even of trade, you fell a commodity to an unfkilful buyer for a fhilling, which, according to the market price, is worth but fixpence, you are a thief to the value of fixpence; for of fo much you unjustly defraud the He that is ftronger than another may rob him by violence, he that is more fubtle may do it by cunning; but if the injury in both cafes be the fame, muft not the guilt be fo too?

if

man.

Some are apt to repine at the unequal divifion of the goods of fortune, and think that they have as good a natural right to a fhare of the world, as