godly rob him of it. Hast thou not thy life, and time, and maintenance from God? Hast thou not thy reason, and thy affections, and all thy faculties from him? And should not all thou hast be employed for him? Thou art a dishonest man that grudgest, yea deniest him one day in seven, when thou owest him all. Thou art a dishonest man that givest away thy Maker's due unto his vilest enemies that wastest thy means or strength on sin: that spendest thy precious time on vanity: that abusest his creatures to the satisfying of thy lusts, and that livest to thy flesh, when thou shouldst live to God. Thou robbest him of all which thou givest to his enemies; and of all which thou dost not use to his service. It is less dishonesty to rob thy master that trusteth thee with his goods, than to rob the Lord that trusteth thee with thy time, and parts, and all things. O blind, unworthy sinners! What makes you think him an honest man that robbeth his Maker, or denieth him his own, when you call him a dishonest man that robbeth but such silly worms as you, that in respect of God have nothing of your own? Art thou better than God, that it should be called dishonesty to wrong thee, and no dishonesty to wrong him, or deny him that which is his own? God hath an absolute title to you, and that on more accounts than one. You are his own, as you are his creatures. "All souls are mine," saith the Lord; Ezek. xviii. 4. And he hath title to thee by redemption, as well as by creation. For "to this end Christ died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living;" Rom. xiv. 9. "We are not our own; we are bought with a price; and therefore should glorify God in our bodies and our spirits which are his;" 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. "For if one died for all, then were all dead, that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but to him that died for them and rose again;" 2 Cor. v. 44, 45. And as you yourselves are God's own as being your Creator and Redeemer, so all that you have is his own as the bestower, or as your Master that trusteth it in your hands. "Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people; for all the earth is mine;" Exod. xix. 5. And saith God to Job, Job xli. 11. "Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine; the world is mine, and the fulness thereof." "What hast thou which thou didst not receive?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. Thou

hast not a minute of time which thou owest not to God; nor a thought, nor a word, nor a farthing of thy estate. And is it not the basest injustice and dishonesty to give these to thy flesh, and deny them to him, and think his service an unnecessary thing? If thou wilt give the world and thy lusts any thing, let it be that which thou canst truly call thine own. As God saith to the idolaters, Ezek. xvi. 18, 19. "Thou hast set mine oil, and mine incense before them; my meat also which I gave thee," &c. so may he say to thee. It is his time which thou hast consumed in idleness and in sinful delights; and his provision by which thou hast fed thy lusts. But the sanctified man is devoted to God. His study is to give him his own. All the business of his life which you account his overmuch strictness and preciseness, is nothing but his honesty to God, in giving him his own. You look your horse should travel for you, and your ox should labour for you, and your servant work for you, because they are your own. And shall not we give up all that we have to God, that are much more his own? Will you hang them that take your own from you, and count them honest that deal worse with God? Say not, If Christ were here we would give it him for he hath told you how you should use all his talents in his laws; and if you deny them to the poor, or any holy use that he requireth them, you deny them unto him. Read Matt. xxv. and x. 40-42.

3. Do you think that an unnatural man is an honest man? One that will abuse his father or mother, and scorn the bowels from which he sprung? All the world is agreed on it, that such are dishonest. "Honour thy father and mother," is called "the first commandment with promise;" Exod. xxi. 17. "He that curseth his father or mother shall surely be put to death." See Prov. xx. 20. xxx. 17. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and refuseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." To be "without natural affections," is the brand of highest wickedness; Rom. i. 31. 2 Tim. iii. 3.

And do you not know that it is worse to be without holy affections to the God that made you, and the Christ that bought you, and to despise, forsake, or abuse the Lord? Thou hadst thy being more from him than from thy parents. They knew not how thy parts were formed! It was he that gave thee thy immortal soul: it is by him that thou hast

lived until now; much more than on the food thou eatest, or the air thou breathest in. And art thou so unnatural as to be ungodly, and deny him thy love, and care, and service, that hath made thee? and to call a holy, heavenly life, a needless toil? "Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not thy Father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?" Deut. xxxii. 6. If an unholy man be an honest man, that is so unnatural as to cross the end of his creation, and deny his service to the Lord that made him; then he is honest that spits in his father's face, and despiseth his mother that brought him forth.

4. Do you think that he is an honest man that is unthankful? It is agreed on by all the world, that unthankfulness is a principal point of dishonesty. He is no honest man that will abuse or despise those by whom he liveth, or that have engaged him by kindness. If you were so used yourselves by one whose life or estates you had preserved, would you not say, 'What an unworthy wretch is this? have I deserved this usage at his hand?' Why all the unthankfulness against men in the world, is not to be compared to thy unthankfulness against God. What are the benefits which man hath given thee in comparison of his? Did ever man do any thing for thee that is comparable to thy creation, and redemption, and offering thee salvation from everlasting misery, and a room with angels in everlasting glory; besides every hour's mercy that ever thou hadst here in this world? And is that an honest man that will requite this God with profaneness and ungodliness, and return him sin for all his mercies, and refuse to live a holy life? Doth thy flesh deserve all thy care and labour, and is this God unworthy of it, and dost thou call his service a needless work? If ingratitude can make a man dishonest, thou art then a dishonest man. But it is the business of the godly to give themselves to him that made them, and to exercise their thankfulness in their capacities, for these greatest mercies.

5. Do you think that a cruel, unmerciful man, or a loving and merciful man is the more honest? Surely I shall here have all your voices. He that hateth those that hurt him not, and would kill them, and set their houses on fire, and carrieth malice in his face and speech, will be called an honest man but by few. And he that is loving, and studieth to do good to all about him, will be counted honest. Why

try the ungodly and the saints by this; no more malicious men in the world than the ungodly. They have an enmity even to the God that made them (Col. i. 21.), and to the Christ that bought them (Luke xix. 27.), and to the word of God that offereth them salvation, and would lead them to eternal life, and hate the knowledge of the way of life; Prov. i. 22. They are enemies to the servants of the Lord, and hate the upright that desire their salvation, and would but draw them from their sins; Prov. xxix. 10. ix. 8. They curse those that bless them, and persecute those that pray for them; Matt. v. 44. The first wicked man that was born into the world, did" kill his brother, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous; 1 John iii. 12.

But this is not their greatest cruelty: they are enemies to their own salvation. They will run into hell in despite of Christ and all the preachers in the world. For there is but one way thither, the way of ungodliness, and that way they will go. Yea, that is not all, but bloody wretches, they would have all the country do as they do, and be damned with them. They are angry with a man if he will not live an ungodly life, and tipple, and swear, and do as they. They revile him if he will not give over his diligent serving of the Lord, which is all one as to fall out with men because They will not forfeit heaven, and run from God, and damn their souls, and all for nothing! When they might more mercifully scorn us because we will not give over eating, or that we will not cut our own throats. And are these cruel persons honest men? Is that merciless wretch an honest man, that is not content to cast away his own everlasting happiness for nothing upon his fond conceits, but must needs have others do so too? that is not content to wrong the Lord, but would have others wrong him also? The devil is honest if these be honest.

But for the godly, it is their desire, their care, their work to save themselves, and further the salvation of all others. O how they long to hear of the conversion of towns and countries! and how glad are they when they hear it! Not for any worldly commodity to themselves, but because they rejoice at the good of others. And what would they not do to promote it, which they could do?

6. Do you think that a perfidious, unfaithful man, or a faithful man that will not be hired to break his word, is the

honester man? Sure this is no hard question neither. A knight of the post, that will say and unsay, swear and forswear, and will betray his dearest friend for a groat, is taken by few for an honest man, in comparison of him that will rather die than lie and be unfaithful. Why nothing is more plain, than that all of you that are ungodly, are treacherous to the Lord himself. You are perfidious covenant-breakers: you owe him yourselves wholly on the grounds that I before expressed; and yet you are unfaithful to him: you have all from him, and you serve his enemy with it. You call him your God, and will not love, nor honour, nor serve him as your God; Mal. i. 6. You bound yourselves to him in your baptism, and many a time since, by a solemn vow or covenant; but you live in the treacherous breach of it continually. You covenanted to take the Lord for your God; and yet you will not seek him, nor be ruled by him. You covenanted to take Jesus for your Saviour; and yet will not be saved by him from your sins; Matt. i. 21. You covenanted to take the Holy Ghost for your Sanctifier, to purify your hearts and lives; and yet you resist his holy motions, and hate his sanctifying word and work, and some of you will mock at sanctification and the Spirit. And can the soul of man be guilty of greater unfaithfulness or treachery? You covenanted to forsake the flesh, the world, and the devil; and now you serve them more than Christ, and think your time is better bestowed for them, than in the service of the Lord! And is this your covenant-keeping? No traitors, no perjured wretches in the world are dishonest men, if these be not dishonest.

But now it is the care of godly men to keep the covenants they have made with God. All that which you reproach them for as too much preciseness, is but the performance of their baptismal vow. And if you be against the keeping our covenants with God, should you not be against the making them? Are you not ashamed to be so forward to engage your children to God in baptism, and when you have done, would have them be ungodly, and break the vow they make? Will you by your profession of Christianity, and coming to the Lord's table, renew your covenants with Christ yourselves, and yet make no conscience to break them, and plead against the keeping of them? We promise holiness, and the serving of God, and forsaking the world,