Behold Adonibezek, King of the Canaanites, with his thumbs and his great toes cut off by Joshua, and confessing the justice of the great God. Threescore and ten kings, said he, with their great toes and their thumbs cut off, have gathered their meat under my table: As I have done, so God hath requited me, Judges i. 7. See the dogs licking up the blood of Ahab in the place where he slew Naboth the Jezreelite, in order to take unjust possession of his vineyard, 1 Kings xxi. 19. These things, which were written of old time, remain record for our instruction in the days of Christi

upon

anity.

But let us take more special notice what influences may be derived from the gospel, and from the name of Christ, to enforce the practice of justice among

men.

I. If we look to our Lord Jesus Christ as a Lawgiver, how various and how plain are his solemn and repeated commands, not only in his sermon upon the Mount, but upon other occasions too, that justice be practised between man and man. He hath explained to us that glorious rule of equity, on purpose to make the practice of justice easy, plain, and universal. Love your neighbour as yourself; that is, Do to others, as you would that others should do to you.

We cannot but think that the holy soul of our Lord Jesus was concerned to secure the practice of Justice and righteousness among his followers, when we read his terrible rebuke to the Pharisees for the neglect of it, and a curse pronounced upon them, Mat. xxiii. 23. Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites, for ye pay the tithe of mint and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. Judgment in that place may signify commutative and distributive justice: all manner of exercise of righteousness towards their fellowcreatures. Under a pretence of serving God better than your neighbours, and crowding his temple with your presents, and his altar with sacrifices and

gifts, ye abandon common justice, ye neglect the righteousness due to your fellow-creatures. There is a wo denounced upon you, and my Father will inflict the curse, for he hates robbery for burnt-offering, Isa. lxi. 8. Nor will the God of heaven excuse you from paying your dues to men on earth, under pretence of paying honours or sacrifices to him.

There are many other threatenings in the New Testament written against those that neglect justice, and pronounced by the apostles in the name and authority of Christ, their exalted Lord. The covetous and extortioners, those that take away the right of their fellow-creatures, are shut out from the heavenly blessedness, 1 Cor. vi. 10. Know ye not, says the apostle, that none of these shall inherit the kingdom of God? As much as to say, "It is so very obvious a thing, that an unjust man can never enter into heaven, (whatsoever pretence he makes) that I may appeal to the mean"est capacity, ye all know it." God will repay vengeance to them that do wrong to their neighbours, whether they be great or mean, for there is no respect of persons with him, Col. iii. 25.

II. Consider Christ as a pattern of Justice and righteousness. Look to the example of our Lord Jesus; you see him who was the sovereign Magistrate and Lord of all, who could distribute crowns and kingdoms to men, submitting himself to commutative justice among creatures.

Behold the Son of God, who was the brightness of his Father's glory, and the delight of his soul before the creation, behold him stooping down to our world, and taking flesh and blood upon him to become. our brother, that he might shew us how we ought to love our brethren. It was an unparallelled instance of divine love that Christ has given us, when he came down from heaven to become our neighbour and to dwell amongst us, that he might teach us to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Behold the glorious Son of God subjecting him

self to his earthly parents, to Joseph the carpenter, and to Mary his mother, that he might instruct us how to pay obedience to our superior relations. See how the King of kings pays tribute to Cæsar, when he was so poor, that he was forced to send Peter afishing, to procure the tribute-money by a miracle. And though the beasts of the field were his, and he could have commanded the cattle upon a thousand hills, to make provision for his followers; yet he would not dispossess the owners of them, but created food on purpose to feed thousands in the wilderness.

III. If we consider Christ as a glorious benefactor, who has taken care to provide for us the necessaries of this life, and hath purchased for us, at the hands of God, the eternal treasures of heaven and glory; has not this blessed consideration force enough to guard us against all temptations to injustice? Shall a Christian break the rules of equity, and steal, or plunder his neighbour, to gain money or merchandize, who has the promises of God for his support in a way of diligence and humble faith? Shall we sully our consciences, and defile our souls with knavery and injustice for a little of the pelf of this world, when we lave the unsearchable riches of Christ made over to us in the gospel, and the inheritance of heaven in reversion?

IV. Let us consider the very nature and design of the gospel of Christ, it is to make sinners holy, to make the unjust righteous; The new man of Christianity. must be created in righteousness and true holiness. Therefore are we purchased with the blood of Christ, that we might be a peculiar people, zealous of good works, Tit. ii. 14.

It is a shame and scandal to the Christian name, when one who wears it is unrighteous or dishonest. An unjust Christian, what a contradiction is it in itself, and how it disgraces the profession of the gospel! Hear how the great apostle treats his Corinthian disciples when such sort of sins were found a

mongst them, 1 Cor. vi. 1,-8. Dare any of you, having a mutter against another, go to law before the unjust and the infidel? Dare any 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 consequence? Such wretches as these are, shall never inherit the kingdom of God.

1

'The grace of God that bringeth salvation,' Titus ii. 9, 12, 'teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, ' and to live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present evil world.' It teaches us righteousness towards men, as well as sobriety among ourselves, and godliness towards the King of heaven. But how hath this divine religion been scandalized for want of justice in the professors 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 the wild hea-. thens 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 been 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 toward 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 ordinance of the gospel. But when souls stumble, and fall, and perish by such discouragements, wo to him that gave the offence, and laid this stumbling-block of iniquity in their way. How heavy must the blood of souls lie upon such

sinners!

Surely their has been enough said on this head to discourage oppression, deceit, and injustice, in the professors of Christianity, if argument, and shame, and terror, can have power and prevalence over sin and temptation. O may Almighty grace attend this discourse of justice, and work the sacred love of it in the' hearts of men!

Now if ye are made willing to walk by the rules of equity and justice, instead of proposing particular directions for this end, I shall proceed,

In the fifth and last place, to point out the various springs of injustice, that ye may avoid them.

The great and general spring of injustice to our neighbour is a criminal and excessive love to ourselves. For since the comprehensive notion of justice lies in this, "To give to every one that which is "due;" it follows, that the general notion of injustice consists in "taking to ourselves more than is due, or in giving less than is due to our neigh"bour."

There are a thousand instances of this unrighteousness among men, in reference to their bodies, their souls, their good name, or their possessions in the world. This general term of injustice is so extensive, that it includes a great part of the sins forbidden in the second table. Disobedience to parents and governors, rebellion, treason, murder, adultery, theft, violence and plunder, cheating, and deceit, and slander, with all sinful desires to possess what belongs to our neighbour, may be justly ranked under the head of unrighteousness: And they spring from this one fountain, namely, An excessive regard to self. It is to this natural and exalt