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[289]
Let him that has received any thing in trust for another, take care
to keep it as a sacred and divine thing; and let no one invent any contrivance
whereby to deprive him that hath intrusted it with him of the same, and
this whether he be a man or a woman; no, not although he or she were to
gain an immense sum of gold, and this where he cannot be convicted of it
by any body; for it is fit that a man's own conscience, which knows what
he hath, should in all cases oblige him to do well. Let this conscience
be his witness, and make him always act so as may procure him commendation
from others; but let him chiefly have regard to God, from whom no wicked
man can lie concealed: but if he in whom the trust was reposed, without
any deceit of his own, lose what he was intrusted withal, let him come
before the seven judges, and swear by God that nothing hath been lost willingly,
or with a wicked intention, and that he hath not made use of any part thereof,
and so let him depart without blame; but if he hath made use of the least
part of what was committed to him, and it be lost, let him be condemned
to repay all that he had received. After the same manner as in these trusts
it is to be, if any one defraud those that undergo bodily labor for him.
And let it be always remembered, that we are not to defraud a poor man
of his wages, as being sensible that God has allotted these wages to him
instead of land and other possessions; nay, this payment is not at all
to be delayed, but to be made that very day, since God is not willing to
deprive the laborer of the immediate use of what he hath labored for.
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