have injured and defrauded our Neighbour, our Debt to him will not be paid by Charity to another. An hundred Pounds given to the Poor will not atone for a thousand, nor even for an hundred, gained by Extortion or Oppreffion. We must do Juftice before we pretend to be charitable, even in this Sense, and refund our wicked and ungodly Gains, before any Part of our Wealth can be made an acceptable Sacrifice to God. It is too common for Men to compound such Debts as these, and to imagine they fanctify their Extortion by laying out Part of it for the Glory of God, as they love to speak; but it is the highest Infolence and Affront to God to think to bribe his Juftice, and to obtain his Pardon, by fuch a Piece of Corruption as any human Court would condemn. Go to any Court of Justice, tell them that you have by Fraud and Extortion got a thousand Pounds from one Man, but you are willing to give an hundred to another who is in great Want: What would they say to you? Would they not tell you, that your Charity was Hypocrify, a Pretence to cover Iniquity? And fhall not God judge righteously, who knows your Fraud, whether you will own it, or not?

In

In a word: Charity will not atone for Want of Justice. Owe no Man any Thing, fays the Apostle, but to love one another. First pay the Debts of Juftice, and then think of Charity; at least, till the Debts of Justice are discharged, do not imagine that your Charity will cover the Multitude of Sins.

DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE VII.

GALATIANS vi. 9.

And let us not be weary in well-doing: For in due Seafon we shall reap, if we faint not.

***

T

製茶

HE Text, and other like Paf

fages of Scripture, are founded

in this known Truth, That God

does not ordinarily dispense the

Rewards and Punishments due to Virtue and Vice in this Life; but that he has appointed another Time and Place, how far diftant we know not, in which all Accounts fhall be fet right, and every Man receive according to his Works. What Force the Objects of Sense have upon the Minds of Men, how far they outweigh the distant Hopes of Religion, is Matter of daily Experience. The World pays prefently; but the Language

I

Language of Religion is-We shall reap, if we faint not. It It may be thought perhaps,

that it would have been better for the Caufe of Religion, if the Rewards of it had been immediate, and more nearly related to our Senfes; and, the Cafe being otherwise, proves in fact a great Prejudice to Virtue. But, if we can take leave of our Imaginations a little, and attend to Reason, we shall fee, that this Difpenfation of Providence was ordained in Wisdom. Were the Cafe otherwife; were Men to receive a due Recompence of Reward in this World for the Good they do, there would be no Reason why they fhould grow weary in well-doing, no Cause for their fainting under the Work, which would fo abundantly and immediately repay all their Labour and Pains.

1

It is natural for Men, when they have before their Eyes flagrant Inftances of Wickedness and Impiety, to make a fecret Demand upon God in their own Hearts, for Justice against fuch notorious Offenders. If their Demands are not anfwered, (and they rarely are) but the Wicked continue to flourish, and the Good to suffer under their Oppreffion; they, rightly judging that they were mistaken in their Expectations, and not

rightly

rightly judging where to charge the Mistake, are apt to conclude, that they have cleansed their Hearts in vain, and in vain have they washed their Hands in Innocency.

Whenever the Hopes and Expectations are raised beyond all Probability of being answered in the Event, they can yield nothing but Uneafiness, Anger and Indignation against the Course of Things in the World: And yet, who is to blame? Not he that appointed this natural Order, but he who understood it fo little, as to expect from it, what it was never intended to produce. Would you pity the Husbandman, should you see him lamenting his Misfortune, because he could not reap in Spring, when all the World knows the Time of Harveft is not till Summer? The Cafe is the fame in all other Instances: If Men anticipate the Reward of their Labour by the Eagernefs and Impatience of their Hopes, they will be disappointed indeed; but not because their Labour is in vain, which in due Time will bring its Reward, but because their Expectations are vain and unreasonable, and outrun the Order of Nature, which cannot be tranfgreffed.

You fee then of what Confequence it is to us rightly to balance our Expectations, and