THEFT.

SUCH unhappy perfons as have been tempted to STEAL, or who have committed any leffer act of fraud or difhonefty, are earnefly intreated before they are led on to greater crimes, to confider the DEPLORABLE CONDITION of the THIEF and the ROBBER as it is defcribed in the following extract from a difcourfe on the eighth commandment. [Fofter, vol. iii. Serm. 12.]

The FIRST thing, that will immediately offer itself to our thoughts, is that to which the name of theft is more peculiarly appropriated; whether it be clandeftine ftealing, where no alarm is given, or robbery committed by violence, to the terror or perfonal hurt of the party injured. Thefe - miferable offenders, while their crimes deferve deteftation, are themselves proper objects of our pity and compaffion. For their infelicity is oftentimes beyond expreffion, beyond even the conception of an honest and upright mind; and greater than they themfelves, with all their tupefaction and infenfibility, their audacious defiance of divine and human juftice, and the help of artificial incentives to a refolute and intrepid execution of their wicked and mifchievous defigns, can, with any tolerable fhare of quietude and compofure, bear up under. A brief enumeration of particulars will be fufficient to fet their deplorable condition in a true light; to infpire fentiments of horror at the most diftant

apprehenfion, the bare poffibility of being ourfelves involved in the fame labyrinth of guilt and intricate distress; and, of confequence, a ftrong averfion to all fuch beginnings of vice, all fuch introductory acts of injuftice, as may lead in the end to fo abandoned, fo fatal, an extreme.

The criminals, of whom we are now speaking, have renounced their humanity, and all the rights and privileges that naturally belong to it. They have broken the tie by which they flood related, both in point of common affection and interest, to the rest of mankind. They have engaged themselves in an independent faction, a pernicious confederacy againft univerfal right and public order; and diftinguifhed and marked themfelves out as foes to the whole Species; and are, therefore, moft juftly outcasts from human fociety, and treated, from the great law of felfprefervation, and in neceffary defence of property, like other wild and ungovernable creatures, to a level with whom they have voluntarily degraded themselves-and whofe inflinct of nature it is to burt and to defroy.

And befides their being, upon this account, declared infamous by the laws of civil government, and expofed to the unfufferable vengeance of God, the universal and righteous judge, whofe foul"hateth the wicked, and him that loveth violence;" they are liable to continual anxieties, and moft dreadful agonies of guilty remorfe, and have no relief from within, nor fecurity from without, while danger and terror surround

them

them on every fide. Their only intervals of what looks like felf-enjoyment are, properly fpeaking, fcenes of madness, in which their fpirits are unnaturally inflamed, and lewdnefs and riot, obliterate and extinguifh thought; and which therefore, though chofen as mitigations. of prefent pain, are upon the whole an increase of their guilt and mifery. But when nature is recovered from this violence, and has, in fome meafure, fhaken off the load that was thrown. upon it to fupprefs its kind and wife admonitions; when reafon is unfettered, and begins again to exert itself; the former diftra&tions and inquietudes are renewed, and perhaps with redoubled force, for their haying been checked not by proper lenitives, but by criminal debauches.

The

offender is forced to retire, from the fociety and converfe of mankind, for fear of being difcovered, and made an open and ignominious example of public juftice. He veils himself under the fbades of night, and fteals from one obfcure and bafe retreat to another; is alarmed upon the leaft commotion; knows that even the perfons, with whom he intrufts his life, can have no confidence fafely repofed in them; and runs the hazard of being, every moment, betrayed by his companions in rapine and dishonest spoil.

This, which has been already reprefented, is a fcene of mifery, to which none of the natural and unavoidable calamities of life, however griev ous, nor the pangs of death itself, in the track of virtue and honour, however violent, can bear H 4

any

any proportion. But imagine the criminal to be detected, and fecured within the reach of juftice, and fresh infelicities (not included in the former frightful catalogue of evils, refulting from theft and robbery) arife, and present themfelves to our view. His agony fpringing from guilt muft, at leaft, be the fame, and his fears, it may be fuppofed, will croud more thick and close upon him; and in this depreffion of fpirit and amidst the conflict of fuch confused and tumultuous paffions, how is it poffible for him to endure the ghaftly and diftorted looks of his fellow-criminals anticipating their fate, the rattling of chains, the horrid afpect of a folitary and rueful dungeon, the hourly expectation of death, the gloomy formalities that precede it, the violent, infamous, public execution; with but little hope, in general, of the mercy of God, and too juft apprehenfions of a future, more dreadful condemnation. For it is fcarce poffible, for fuch heinous tranfgreffors as these, to have any good degree of affurance of the fincerity of their repentance, without which the everlasting mercies of God are not to be fecured; fince their forrow and contrition did not commence, till Hell and deftruction were imagined to be near, and lay, in a manner, open and naked before them; and therefore may be fufpected to be rather a mechanical paffion, a kind of instinct occafioned by the melancholy fituation to which they have reduced themselves, than the effect of conviction and ingenuity, and a real inward dispo

fition of mind alienated from their former vices, But fuppofing their fpirits not to be funk and darkened by the least tincture of despair; but rather prefumptuous and elate, and abfolutely fearless with refpect to futurity; yet if they are impenitent (of which there is the utmoft danger) this unconcern, this confident and relentless temper, is the circumftance, in the whole train of their misfortunes, that ought to be moft ardently deprecated; becaufe, being blinded by fo fatal an error, their future deftruction must be unavoidable. They enjoy, indeed, a few moments of eafe and pleafing fond delufion; which will foon vanish, and aggravate their fucceeding miseries.

"Take heed, brethren, left there be in ANY OF You an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." And "exhort one another daily while it is called to day, left any of you BE HARDENED through the deceitfulnefs of fin.” Heb. iii. 12, 13.

AN

EXHORTATION TO PRISONERS.

IT is a great mercy of God, not to fuffer men to ruin themselves both in this world, and in that which is to come. For this end, he is pleased to make use of feveral wonderful me