EXHOR.-Since corrupt nature is so inclined and propense to all carnal sins, the greater ought to be your care, O christian, to decline them, and this by shunning all occasions of them; as idleness, curiosity, lewd company, excess in eating, and drinking, too great familiarities with persons of another sex, masquerades, &c. in a word, renounce as much as may be, all sensible pleasures. To preserve us the better from these carnal acts, we must principally restrain our eyes from looking at that which may incite us to them, remembering that saying of Job, I have made a compact with my eyes, that I might not so much as think of a virgin. Job xxxi. 1. Next we must restrain our thoughts; for nothing endangers us more, or excites to action, than wilfully entertaining the foul imagination of impurity. We must, thirdly, restrain our desires; For he who looks at a woman, to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart, St. Matt. v. 24. Fourthly, we must restrain our tongues from unchaste words or songs, for these corrupt both ourselves and others: Let no filthy words proceed out of your mouth: let not fornication even be named among you, as becometh saints. Eph. Fifthly, we must restrain our hands from all impure touches: If thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; it is better one of thy members perish, than thy whole body should go into hell. St. Matt. xviii. 8. In a word, all our senses must be curbed from this evil. For your greater preservation, entertain yourself often with the following considerations: 1. As nothing makes you more like the angels, than purity of soul and body, so nothing makes you resemble so much the brute, as lust and uncleanness. 2. Your bodies are the members of Christ; but by fornication you are made one body with a harlot, for both are one flesh. 3. Bodies are the temple of the holy Ghost; what indignity to defile them with so foul a sin ? Other sins are without the body, but this is a sin against your own body,which you dishonour by it, and oftentimes destroy it by foul and painful diseases. 4. These sins are often attended with heavy judgments: how many for them have been destroyed by fire from heaven, as in Sodom and Gomorrah? And no v. 3. doubt, they have brought great punishments on whole nations, on private families and persons: the whole world was destroyed for them at the flood. God has so threatened this sin in particular, If any one defile the' temple of God, him will God destroy. To conclude, these are sins that exclude from the kingdom of heaven, Neither adulterers, nor fornicators, nor the effeminate, nor Sodomites, &c. shall possess the kingdom of God. Rom. v. 9, 10. Above all, to enforce these considerations, we must continually implore the assistance of heaven, that God would create a clean heart in us, and renew a right spirit in our bowels. Our prayers must be constant and perseverant, as these temptations are never over till death, and our best purposes are faint and unstable. Remember always to put a stop to the beginning of an ill thought before your soul becomesdelighted or consenting to it.. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. Thou shalt not Steal. Q. WHAT is forbidden by this? A. To wrong our neighbour by stealing, robbing, cheating, or by any unjust dealing. Q. What is he bound to do, who has thus wronged his neighbour. A. To make restitution to the right owner, if he is able, otherwise the sin will not be forgiven him. Q. What more are we commanded hereby ? A. To be just in all our dealings, and to take care to pay our debts. INSTRUC-AS God has given one commandment for the preservation of man's life; another to defend him from wrong in the person of his wife, who is another himself: here he has given a third to preserve every ones goods: Thou shalt not steal. Theft may be committed either clandestinely, or with open violence, or by cheating in bargaining, or gaming? When one having more craft than another, over-reaches and draws him in to consent, without knowing it, to his own wrong.Small thefts from the same person, at different times, amounting in the whole to a considerable value, are the same breach of the commandment as if the whole had been stolen together; because the same damage is done to the owner, and he bas the same right to his goods, when stolen at different times, as all at once. To use false weights and measures, by which a little is stolen from one, and a little from another, a great deal in the whole, is also a substantial breach of this precept; for this is called an abomination to God in holy scripture. This commandment is also broken by open robbery; by invading other men's right, and seizing upon it, whether by an unjust war, or forcing them to yield it up, or overcoming them at law by bribery; or by an extortion and usury, taking advantage of the necessitous; by racking of tenants, when you know they cannot reinove; by forcibly with-holding servants wages, or by any other violent methods. Theft is a mortal sin, whenever the thing stolen is of a considerable value, or does a notable damage to our neighbour: and not only those who commit the theft, but all who any ways concur thereto, and all who partake knowingly of it, are guilty of the sin. Also borrowing of another, what we do not intend to pay, is the same injustice as theft. This commandment obliges us to restitution: whatever you have unjustly gotten from your neighbour, you must restore, as far as you are able, to the right owner, otherwise your sin will not be forgiven; because refusing to restore, is continuing in the first theft, and the injustice still remains; therefore it is rightly said, without restitution there can be no absolution: all the power on earth cannot dispense with it, unless the owner consents. This restitution concerns not only those who did the wrong, but all who have concurred in it, whether by counsel, by assistance, or by partaking of the ill-gotten goods. If you are not able to make restitution in full, you must do what is in your power, unless the owner will forgive it, and shew your good will to do it, and repent heartily. If he who has done any injustice to another, dies before he had made restitution his heir is under the same obligation to do it, if what was unjustly got be part of his inheritance; and if the owner, who was wronged, be dead first, he must make the restitution to his heir, especially if his neglect to do it before, was a culpable delay. EXHOR.-Learn, O christian, to shun and detest the sin of theft; first from the injury you do to God, who as he is essentially just, loves justice, and willeth that justice be done to every one. It is depriving him of that benevolence he has shewn to others, who is the bountiful Donor of all we enjoy, and would that we should enjoy it. Hence he has commanded, Thou shalt not steal; and to support his commandment he has declared his vengeance against the transgressor: Every thief shall be judged. Let no man circumvent his neighbour, for the Lord is the revenger of these things, 1 Thess. iv. 6. even to exclude him from the kingdom of heaven: Thieves shall not possess the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. vi. 10. 2. Avoid theft, from the injury done to your neighbour. It takes from him what God has given him to sustain his life and family; and truly, in some cases, it touches his life, by depriving him of his livelihood. It breeds in him many rash censures of others, who may be innocent, to the prejudice of his soul; creates hatred and ill-will among neighbours, all which a thief, in some degree, must answer. 3. This sin ought to be shunned for the mischief it brings upon the thief himself; his good name, his reputation is entirely ruined by it; it takes away all conscience and religion from him, and disposes him to greater crimes, and often ends in terrible disasters. Judas was a thief, and then betrayed his divine Master, and then hanged himself; so the thief often comes to the like death, to the gallows: but what is worst of all, it deprives him of all grace here, and glory hereafter; Thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of God. To remedy this evil, beware of three things: of covetousness, envy and sloth; these are generally the origin of theft: 1. Beware of covetousness, for it is the nature of a covetous mind to seek with too great eagerness for the riches of this world, and this often puts men on unwarrantahle ways of getting them: Covetousness is the root of all evil; for the desire whereof some have erred from faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows. 1 Tim. vi. 10. To prevent this, rather aspire to the riches of eternal glory. 2. Beware of envy; this is the second step to the sin of theft. It is the nature of envy to be sad, and repine at others riches, and to be discontented with our own less flourishing condition, and this prompts you to steal from your neighbour what God has given him: Man's pains and labour, says Solomon, lie open to the envy of others. Eccles. iv. 4. To put a stop to this, learn to be cheerful under the condition God has placed you in: be thankful for what he has blessed you with, (though little) and trust to that providence, who, as he eloaths the lilies of the field, will not be wanting in providing for you, who are the chief work of his hands. Lastly. Beware of sloth and indolence; a vice which too often tempts people to live upon the labour of others: Idleness hath taught much malice. Eccl. xxxiii. 29. even to the making of thieves and robbers. To prevent this, employ well your time in that state God has placed you, and thus by honest living, you will never be tempted to live otherwise. If ever then you have been guilty of the sin of theft, take this instruction as from St. Paul, Let him that has stolen, steal no more, but rather labour, working with his hands, that he may have thereby to give to him that suffers want; or to make restitution to him he has stolen from. Ephes. iv. 28. In a word, let all parents be strict to punish their children's first inclinations to stealing; and all magistrates correct their first thefts with a wholesome severity: this would prevent many coming to the gallows, and put them in mind of the punishment of theft in the next world. THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. Thou shalt not bear false Witness against thy Neigh ૨. bour. HAT is forbidden by this? A. False testi WHAT detraction. Q. What is he bound to do who has hurt |