his neighbour in this kind? A. To make him satisfaction and restore his good name. What is commanded by this precept? A. To speak and witness the truth in all things; for the Devil is a liar, and the Father of

lies.

INSTRUC. This commandment is of large extent, and forbids under the name of false witness all the injuries we commonly do our neighbour in words, by affronting, by detracting, by belying him, which carry something of the nature of false-witness in them. As God gave one commandment to regulate our tongues, with regard to himself, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; so he would have another, with regard to our neighbour, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour: the love of our neighbour ever inseparably following the love of God.

First then, this commandment forbids us to take a false oath, and bear false-witness to the prejudice of another, whether in judgment, or out of judgment; whether in public or private, by swearing falsely against an innocent man, alleging him to be guilty of such and such things. This crime was punished in the old law, by inflicting the same penalty upon the false witness as he would have brought upon his neighbour: Thou shalt do unto him as he taught to have done unto his brother, Deut. xix. 19.

2. It forbids also lying; that is, to speak untruth knowingly, with an intent to deceive others, and this is always a sin; but greater or less according to the prejudice done our neighbour by it: Thou shalt not lie, neither shall any one deceive his neighbour. Lev. xix. ii. Lies are three-fold: malicious lies, which are spoke directly to the prejudice of others: officious lies, which are told to excuse ourselves or others: jesting lies, which are made to divert company. To some of these we may reduce boasting lies, which we tell to our own honour and praise: flattering lies, which are to gain us favour with another, at the same time we hurt him by such flattery. All dissembling and hypocrisy, which is a feigned sanctity, is acting the liar; against all which

the apostle warns us: Laying aside all lying, let every one speak truth with his neighbour. Ephes. iv. 25.

3. It forbids rash judgment, that is censuring and condemning the actions of others, without good grounds. 4. It forbids detraction, that is speaking ill of others, with a design to blacken their reputation, or lessen their good name: if this be done by falsely accusing them, it is slander. If it be done by discovering their secret sins, or by putting an ill construction on their good actions or good intentions, or by denying their good qualities, or lessening, or concealing them, when they need our defence, or by commending them with an affected coldness, it is properly detraction: and if it be done before their faces it is affronting them; if behind their backs, it is backbiting: and as in all these cases we generally make our neighbour appear worse than he is, and there is often some untruth and misrepresentation in what we say against him, it is in some degree bearing false-witness. A slanderer and detracter may be compared, one to a robber, the other to a thief: the one like a robber, attacks your good name openly; the other like a thief, secretly, as if he had no mind to be seen.-Under the head of detraction also comes talebearing, which creates misunderstanding amongst friends, against which it is written, Thou shalt not be a detracter nor a whisperer among the people. Lev. xix. 16. This commandment also forbids mocking, affronting, or vilifying our neighbour for his defects of body or mind, for these being defects to which some are born, they are their misfortunes but not their fault, and they ought not to be reproached for them, as for a fault; for this commandment forbids us to lay any fault to our neighbour's charge which is not true. All these injuries against our neighbour in words; as lying, rash judgment, detraction, slander, derision, reviling, &c. are never more grievous than when the church of God, her ministers and religion, are falsely aspersed and discredited by them: this is acting the part of Satan, and promoting his cause. Let this be particularly noted.

As we are strictly forbid to speak the least thing in prejudice to our neighbour, so we are commanded to

speak all good of him, and attest the truth in all things, as God is truth, and would have all truth remain for ever: The truth of our Lord remains for ever. It is a very ancient and true saying, That to do good and speak truth, makes men like to God.

As by the seventh commandment we are bound to restore the thing stolen to the right owner; so if we have robbed our neighbour of his good name by detraction, slander, and by belying him, we are bound by this commandment to make him satisfaction, and restore his good name, by recalling what we falsely alleged against him, and by speaking better of him for

the future.

EXHOR. Here then, O christian, God calls upon you to rule your tongue, that you speak nothing which may prejudice another's good name, his life, or fortune. As your tongue was given you to praise God, so it was likewise to speak all good of others.-Set a guard on your lips, and beware of three sins most incident and common to mankind. The first is lying, which is a vice that makes us degenerate from the sons of God, who is Truth itself, into the sons of the Devil, who is the Father of Lies: it renders us abominable in the eyes of God: Lying lips are an abomination to God, Prov xii. 22. especially when your lies are pernicious to others by bearing false-witness against them: Thou hast hated all that do evil; thou wilt destroy all them that speak lies, Psalm v. 6. more especially when you confirm it with an oath; for then you break the second commandment as well as the eighth. For this our Saviour chastised the Pharisees: You, says he, are of your father the Devil. When he speaks a lie, he speaks that which is proper to him, because he is a liar, and the Father of Lies. In like manner, they were continually bringing false accusations against him till they had taken away his life. These are lies which will exclude you from the kingdom of heaven. Think not then a habit of lying to be a small fault, since it is the origin of many great evils; it brings on a corruption of manners; it is a mean and despicable vice; it is a blemish to reason to speak contrary to knowledge and

the sense of things; it is highly destructive to human society, for there can be no mutual tie of friendship nor security to each other, when mutual confidence and truth, the ground of it, is lost in lying. Let every one correct himself of this failing; and let parents in particular look well to their children, and chastise them for lying, to which they are but too naturally addicted. -The second evil you are to avoid, is rash judgment or rash censuring the actions of others, as the Jews did our blessed Saviour. This sin being grounded on mere hearsays, jealousies, and suspicion, without any moral certainty of great probability, it betrays an uncharitable heart, ever prone to think the worst of others, and cannot fail to turn on yourself: Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou be, that judgest, for whenever thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. Rom. ii. 1. A terrible sentence! Rather chuse to judge yourself, that you may not be judged. You know no one so well as yourself; let then all judgment fall on yourself, that it may work a true conversion on your soul-A third evil we are to avoid, is detraction and slander, which is blasting our neighbour's reputation, because this is against that law of nature engrafted in our heart: As you would that men should do to you, do you to them: It is more prejudicial to your neighbour than theft, for A good name is better than riches. And this you deprive him of by detraction, making him that was once esteemed, now despised and valued by no man. To remedy this vice look at home; see into yourself, and you will be ashamed to accuse and speak ill of others: what you are guilty of yourself, and perhaps to a greater degree than your neighbour, you must blush to expose in him: what though you have found a mote in your brother's eye, you may find a beam in your own!

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT.

Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Wife.

2. WH

HAT is forbidden by this? A. All desires of adultery and lust: all deliberate and voluntary

delight in impure thoughts. Q. What are we commanded by it? A. To entertain chaste and honest thoughts. INSTRUC. As the law of God is a spiritual law, it obliges us not only to regulate our words and exterior actions, but also our inward thoughts and desires, that we may be perfectly innocent, and not in outward appearance only; and therefore it forbids us by the two last commandments, to injure our neighbour even in will and desire. These plainly teach us, that what is sin in word or action, may be also sin in thought and desire, against certain Jews whom Christ reprehends, who imagined that the laws only forbid outward sinful actions, and therefore bad thoughts and desires they freely indulged, St. Matt. v. 8. But we are taught that God is not satisfied with the outward behaviour, but with the inward intention of the heart, and that sin is committed in thought as well as in word and deed.

There are three steps to a sin of thought: the first is suggestion, or the bad thought which occurs to the mind, and this never is sin when it is involuntarily: this is what St. Paul found in himself when he said, I find the law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, Rom. vii. 23. it comes from the Devil, or corruption of our nature, we being born in sin. The second step is delight, which arises from the thought of unlawful pleasures; and even this is not a sin when it comes at unawares, or against our will; but when we encourage it, and delay to resist it, it is a sin, as well from the danger we incur, as because we wilfully delight in that which is sin. The third step which completes the sin, is consent; and when sin is compleated, it begets death. St. James i. 15. As all sin begins with bad thoughts, and is consented to in the heart before it appears in action, hence the law of God forbids bad thoughts and desires, so to destroy sin in its very root.

The ninth commandment, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, corresponds to the sixth, Thou shalt not commit adultery; and as the latter forbids the carnal act of adultery, fornication, incest, &c. so this forbids. all carnal sin in desire, or to harbour in our minds any thing sensual with consent and delight. As the sixth puts