6. If you believe the bible, I say to _you_, as St. _Paul_ said to the ancient Christians, _Render unto all their dues_: in particular, _Custom to whom custom is due, tribute to whom tribute_. Now custom is by the laws of _England_ due to the king. Therefore every one in _England_ is bound to pay it him. So that robbing the king herein, is abundantly worse than common stealing, or common robbing on the highway.
7. And so it is, on another account also: for it is a _general_ robbery: it is, in effect, not only robbing the king, but robbing every honest man in the nation. For the more the king’s duties are diminished, the more the taxes must be increased. And these lie upon us all: they are the burden not of some, but of all the people of _England_. Therefore every smuggler is a _thief-general_, who picks the pockets both of the king, and all his fellow-subjects. He wrongs them all; and above all, the honest traders: many of whom he deprives of their maintenance: constraining them either not to sell their goods at all, or to sell them to no profit. Some of them are tempted hereby, finding they cannot get bread for their families, to turn thieves too. And then _you_ are accountable for _their_ sin as well as your own: you bring their blood upon your own head. Calmly consider this, and you will never more ask, “What harm there is in smuggling?”
III. 1. But for all this, cannot men find _excuses_ for it? Yes, abundance; such as they are. “I would not do this, says one; I would not sell uncustomed goods: but I am under a necessity: I can’t live without it.” I answer, may not the man who stops you on the highway, say the very same? “I would not take your purse; but I am under a necessity: I cannot live without it.” Suppose the case to be your own; and will you accept of this excuse? Would not you tell him, “Let the worst come to the worst, you had better be honest, though you should starve.” But that need not be neither. Others who had no more than you to begin with, yet find a way to live honestly. And certainly so may you: however, settle it in your heart, “Live or die, I will be an honest man.”
2. “Nay, says another, we do not wrong the king: for he loses nothing by us. Yea, on the contrary, the king is rather a gainer, namely by the seizures that are made.”
So you plunder the king, out of stark love and kindness! You rob him, to make him rich! It is true, you take away his purse: but you put an heavier in its place! Are you serious? Do you mean what you say? Look me in the face and tell me so. You cannot. You know in your own conscience, that what comes to the king, out of all seizures made the year round, does not amount to the tenth, no not to the hundredth part of what he is defrauded of.
But if he really gained more than he lost, that would not excuse _you_. You are not to commit robbery, though the person robbed were afterwards to gain by it. You are not to _do evil, that good may come_. If you do, your _damnation is just_.
“But certainly, say some, the king is a gainer by it, or he might easily suppress it.” Wilt you tell him, which way? By Custom-house officers? But many of them have no desire to suppress it. They find their account in its continuance: they come in for a share of the plunder. But what if they had a desire to suppress it? They have not the power. Some of them have lately made the experiment: and what was the consequence? Why they lost a great part of their bread, and were in danger of losing their lives.
♦8. Can the king suppress smuggling, by parties of soldiers? That he cannot do. For all the soldiers he has are not enough, to watch every port and every creek in _Great-Britain_. Besides, the soldiers that are employed, will do little more than the Custom-house officers. For there are ways and means to take off _their_ edge too, and making them as quiet as lambs.
♦ Paragraph number out of sequence.
“But many courtiers and great men, who know the king’s mind, not only connive at smuggling, but practise it.” And what can we infer from this? Only that those great men are great villains. They are great highwaymen and pickpockets: and their greatness does not excuse, but makes their crime tenfold more inexcusable.
But besides. Suppose the king were willing to be cheated, how would this excuse your cheating his subjects? All your fellow-subjects, every honest man, and in particular, every honest trader? How would it excuse, your making it impossible for him to live, unless he will turn knave as well as yourself?
3. “Well, but I am not convinced it is a sin: My conscience does not condemn me for it.” No! Are you not convinced, that robbery is a sin? Then I am sorry for you. And does not your conscience condemn you for stealing? Then your conscience is asleep. I pray God to smite you to the heart, and awaken it this day!