fraud, they complain very loudly when they suffer it. They then can clearly discern its baseness and its mischief; and discover that nothing deserves praise but purity and goodness.

The crime of fraud has this aggravation, that it is generally an abuse of confidence. Robberies of violence are committed, commonly, upon those to whom the robber is unknown. The lurking thief takes indiscriminately what comes by chance within his reach. But deceit cannot be practised unless by some previous treaty and gradual advance, by which distrust is dissipated, and an opinion of candour and integrity excited. Fraud, therefore, necessarily disguises life with solicitude and suspicion. He that has been deceived, knows not afterwards whom he can trust, but grows timorous, reserved, afraid alike of enemies and friends; and loses, at least, part of that benevolence which is necessary to an amiable and virtuous character.

Fraud is the more to be suppressed by universal detestation, as its effects can scarcely be limited. A thief seldom takes away what can much impoverish the loser; but by fraud the opulent may at once be reduced to indigence, and the prosperous distressed: the effects of a long course of industry may be suddenly annihilated; the provision made for age may be withdrawn, and the inheritance of posterity intercepted.

For the particular application of this doctrine 1 am sorry that my native place should afford an opportunity but since this society has called me to stand here before them, I hope no man will be offended, that I do my duty with fidelity and freedom. Truth requires that I warn you against a species

of fraud, sometimes found amongst you, and that of a very shameful and oppressive kind. When any man, whose contributions have had their due part in raising the fund for occasional relief, is reduced, by disease or hurt, to want the support which he has, perhaps, for many years supposed himself gradually accumulating against the day of distress, and for which he has denied himself many gratifications; at the time when he expects the beneficial effects of his prudence and parsimony; at that very time, every artifice is used to defeat his claim, and elude his right. He declares himself, perhaps, unable to work, by which nothing more can reasonably be meant, than that he is no longer capable of labour equal to his livelihood. This man is found employing the remains of his strength in some little office for this, surely he deserves to be commended: but what has been the consequence? He has been considered as an impostor, who claims the benefit of the fund by counterfeited incapacity; and that feeble diligence, which, among reasonable and equitable men, gives him a title to esteem and pity, is misapplied, and misrepresented into a pretence for depriving him of his right; and this done by judges, who vainly imagine they shall be benefitted themselves by their own wicked determi. nation.

It is always to be remembered that a demand of support from your common fund is not a petition for charity, but a claim to justice. The relief thus demanded is not a gift, but a debt; he that receives it has first purchased it the denial of it, therefore, is a fraud and a robbery; and fraud so much the more atrocious and detestable, as by its

nature it must always be practised on the poor. When this succour is required, there is no place for favour or for resentment. What is due must

be paid, because it is due: other considerations have here no weight. The amiable and the perverse, the good and the bad, have an equal right to the performance of their contract. He that has trusted the society with his money, cannot, without breach of faith, be denied that payment, which, when he paid his contribution, was solemnly stipulated.

It has been always observed by the wise, that it is every man's real interest to be honest; and he who practises fraud, to the injury of others, shows, at the same time, how fraud may be practised against himself. Those who have been forward in watching the steps of others, and have objected to payment when it was required, may live to be themselves watched, and excluded by a precedent, which their own fraudulence or malice has incited them to establish they will then feel the folly of wickedness, and know the necessity of providing against the day of calamity by innocence and integrity; they will wish that they could claim the kindness of others as a recompense for kindness formerly exhibited by themselves.

:

Fraud is the more hurtful, because the wrong is often without redress. As he that is wronged by fraudulent practices must always concur in the act that injured him, it is not always easy to ascertain the exact limits of his agency, so as to know precisely how far he was deceived. This, at least, is seldom to be done without an inquiry and discussion, liable to many legal delays, and eludible by

many artifices. The redress, therefore, is often more pernicious than the injury; and while the robber lurks in secret, or flies for his life, the man of fraud holds up his head with confidence, enjoys the fruits of his iniquity with security, and bids defiance to detection and to punishment.

But this triumph, however he may escape human judicatures, must end with his life. The time will come, and will come quickly, when he that has defrauded his neighbour must stand before the Judge of all the earth; a Judge whom he cannot deceive, and before whom whatever he has taken wrongfully, without restitution and without repentance, will lie heavy on his soul.

"Let him, therefore, that has stolen, steal no more!" let him that has gained by fraud, repent and restore, and live and die in the exercise of honesty!

75

SERMON XIX.

2 CORINTHIANS, CHAP. IX. VERSE 7.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

THE frequency with which the duty of alms-giving has of late been recommended; the perspicuity with which it has, on many occasions, been explained; the force of argument by which its necessity has been proved to the reason, and the ardour of zeal with which it has been impressed upon the passions, make it reasonable to believe that it is now generally understood, and that very few of those who frequent the public worship, and attend with proper diligence to instruction, can receive much information, with regard to the excellence and importance of this virtue.

But as most of the crimes and miseries of our lives arise rather from negligence than ignorance; as those obligations which are best known are sometimes, from the security to which the consciousness of our knowledge naturally betrays us, most easily forgotten, and as the impressions which are made upon the heart, however strong or durable they may at first appear, are easily weakened by time, and effaced by the perpetual succession of other objects which crowd the memory and distract the attention; it is necessary that this great