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.
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“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!
4. “Nay, but my soul is quite happy in the love of God: therefore I cannot think it is wrong.” I answer, wrong it must be, if the bible is right. Therefore either that love is a mere delusion, a fire of your own kindling; or God may have hitherto winked at the times of ignorance. But now you have the means of knowing better. Now light is offered to you. And if you shut your eyes against the light, the love of God cannot possibly continue.
5. “But I only buy a little brandy or tea now and then, just for my own use.” That is, I only steal a little. God says, steal not at all.