The husbandmans calling showing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandmanThe husbandmans calling shewing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandman

2. Be confident, that what is got by wronging others, will never do you good; the gain of deceit lasts but a while; or if it do, it's given thee in wrath; like a Suit with the plague in it, it's gay and fine, but death is in it; So is unjust gain, though it stay with thee till thou dye, yet the curse of God stays with it, and rests if not on thy state, body or children, yet on thy poor soul, which is worst of all; And who would be fond of a fair Suit with the plague in it? it were better to wear leather, poor leather or russet were much better: so it were better for thee a thousand times, to live poor, and just, and dye blessed, than to live rich, and dye accursed. The crafty Fox in the Fable hugged himself, that ⟨p. 125⟩he had cozened the Crow of her breakfast, but when he found himself poisoned therewith, he wished it out of his belly. Prov. 21.6. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue, is a vanity tossed to and fro, of them that seek death. Your design perhaps is to make estates for your Children, but alas this is not the way; for if you could rise out of your graves one fifty years after your death, you would find the canker of your deceit and injuries had consumed it all. The eye of Scripture, the eye of Reason, the eye of Experience sees this every day, that—De male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius haeres, The third heir seldom enjoys ill-gotten goods: What madness is this for you to lose your souls in the gaining of the world, and your posterity to lose their souls in the spending of it? and so the same purse or house damns both the Father and the Son; the Father by injurious getting it, and the Son by ungodly wasting it. How many houses have you seen ruined, where the oppressor hath dwelt? How many unconscionable Lawyers (who like you have made a prey of the simple) have built strong houses, and made strong entails, yet in a few Generations their names are blotted out, and they who preferred Earth before Heaven, have neither Earth nor Heaven; and c•n you go by their houses, and not receive instruction? will you see and know this, and yet follow them? Alas your thriving is but the fat of a dropsy, which makes a ⟨p. 126⟩great show, but is not sound; brings rottenness in the end of it. Such is your present estate, Your riches are corrupted, your Gold and Silver is cankered, ye have heaped treasu together for the last days.