a restraint on our eyes, ears, hands and tongue; so the ninth puts a restraint on the powers of the soul, as the will, memory, heart, thoughts and desires. It is true, no one at all times can prevent a sinful thought rising from the mind which is linked to corruption, yet all may, with the assistance of grace, stop the progress of it, and

refuse to consent to it.

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT.

Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Goods.

Q. WHAT

WHAT is forbid by this? A. The words are plain, that we must not covet what belongs to others, or wrong our neighbour even in heart and desire. Q. What are we commmanded hereby? A. To harbour honest thoughts, and be contented with our own estates.

INSTRUC.-The tenth commandment answers to the seventh, Thou shalt not steal: as the one forbids us to thieve or rob, the other forbids even to covet what is none of our own; because this is an overture to the other; for first you covet your neighbours's goods and then you proceed to make yourself master of them by any means just or unjust, as you can: Covetousness is the root of all evils, 1. Tim. vi. 10. it casts its eye upon every thing; and when it obtains power, no one's goods are safe from it; and hence we may see how holy is the law of God, which forbids it, and commands us to keep our hearts pure and unspotted; to moderate our boundless desires, and be contented with what he has given us; which is much happier than to be always coveting what we cannot have: he commands us to wish all good to others, and not envy their riches: Charity envieth not. 1 Cor.

xiii.

EXHOR.-Learn from these two commandments, O christian, to resist your corrupt nature, and suppress the bad desires of your heart; from thence proceeds all sin: From the hearts of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, malice, deceit, lasciviousness, envy, blasphemy, pride,

foolish wickedness. St. Mark vii. 21, 22. God is not content with our exterior comportment and outward actions, unless our interior is answerable to them. Remember the first sin committed by the bad angels was a sin of thought: in truth, all sin is first committed in the heart and will, by consenting to it, and hence we are sorbid to covet any evil thing: Let us not covet evil things. 1 Cor. x. 6. The law of God forbids us to desire revenge, murder, or any other bad thing; but more expressly to desire our neighbour's wife or goods, because our passions to these are strongest. Reflect well on this: a man perhaps may say, that he never proceeded to the criminal action of lust; but can he say he never delighted in a lustful thought, or consented to a sensual desire in his mind? Another may say he never was a thief, or robbed, or cheated; but did he never covet his neighbour's goods in thought? He may say he never hurted any one; but did he never bear ill-will, or meditate revenge? O how necessary it is always to put a stop to these evil suggestions of our hearts in their beginning! principiis obsta; because all sin begins with a bad thought; and therefore we must never entertain bad desires in our mind, no not the least, for God, who is the searcher of hearts, beholds them, and will one day bring them to light and condign punishment. Since both our souls and bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, nothing but sanctity and purity must dwell in either. Let nothing then of sin possess your souls; admit no bad thought of such things as you would be ashamed man should see. Let your hearts and tongues, your actions and intentions go together in all good, that what you do, speak, or even think, may be to the glory of God, the good of your neighbour, and the advantage of your own soul.

You see what the commandments are, and the sense of them in general and in particular. Let it be your study, care, and labour to fulfil them; by doing what is commanded, and avoiding what is forbidden. The commandments of God are a rule both to rich and poor, kings and subjects are to live by them, in order

to a happy death and a blessed eternity: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. They are law to all nations, universally just and equitable to all mankind. Consult then in time your own eternal good in keeping them. O fear, above all things, to break them! They were not given by man, but by the eternal God in thunder and lightnig, who will revenge the transgression of them in much more dreadful fires. By them you are to be tried, judged, condemned, or saved, at the last day. The fulfilling of them, is attended with innumerable blessings here, and in the end with eternal life. The breaking of them brings many curses, and everlasting destruction both of body and soul. See then you fulfil them all; no religion can save you without keeping God's commandments; Neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision, as St. Paul says, but the observance of the commandments of God, which must ever be joined to the profession of the true faith. Nor is it enough to keep some of them, but we must fulfil them all: to break one, and die in that one sin without repentance, is enough to condemn your soul for ever: He that offends in one, is guilty of all, St. James ii. 10. inasmuch as he breaks the integrity of that covenant God has made with us. And how are you to fulfil them all? Love God above all things, and your neighbour as yourself; he who does that, fulfils the whole law and the prophets, and hath life everlasting: Do this and thou shalt live. St. Luke x. 28.

The six precepts of the Church expounded.

W

HICH is the first precept of the church? A. To keep certain appointed days holy, which are therefore called holy days.

INSTRUC.-When God spake these words by the mouth of Solomon, Observe my son the precepts of thy father, and the law of thy mother do not leave, Prov. vi. 20. it was to admonish us not only to keep the commandments of God our Father, but also to observe the precepts of his Church our mother: for as he has given

the temporal power to princes, who govern the world under him, to make laws for a temporal end, which bind the people in conscience; so he gave the spiritual power to those who under him govern his church, to institute laws that conduce to our spiritual and eternal good, with a command to all to hear and obey this church; and those who disobey, he would have cut off from her communion, and be looked upon no better than heathens and publicans: If he will not hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man, and a publican. St. Matt. xviii. 17.

Accordingly we find the Apostles, soon after our Saviour's Ascension, making new precepts, and enjoining the new-converted Gentiles to abstain from blood and things strangled, which all of their communion were bound to observe: this was done in the Council of Jerusalem, Acts xv. 29. yet in reality the intent of the church in these precepts is, not so much to lay new burthens upon us over and above God's commandments, as to make the observance of them more easy and comfortable to us; for the precepts of the church are grounded upon the commandments. If the church commands us to hear Mass on Sundays; it is because the mass is the most holy action that can be done on days sacred to God, and God has commanded us to keep that day holy. If the church has appointed Lent and other days to be fasts; it is because fasting is recommended to us from God, as a thing necessary to satisfy for past sins, and to tame the rebellion of our nature. If the church commands us to confess our sins once a year; it is because Christ has declared, that none but the priests can absolve us. If the church enjoins us to receive the Holy Eucharist at Easter, it is because Christ has said, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. St. John vi. 54. If the church appoints us to pay tithes to our pastors; it is because the law of God enjoins that his priests shall be maintained with honour by the people whom they serve. Let them have a double honour. 1 Tim. v. 17. If the church determines under what impediments we are to abstain

from marriage: it is that we more strictly observe the laws which God has appointed in regard to marriage, and render the marriages of christians more holy and honourable, and the bed undefiled.

There are only six precepts that regard the state of the universal church, and bind all the faithful: as to other canons, they regard particular states, as bishops, priests, and religious; but these six are for all the members of the Catholick Church, and seem to be nothing else but holy practices, and immemorial customs received by tradition, for the most part of the apostolical times, which the church at length reduced into precepts and canons, with an injunction to all Christians to observe them, as things highly conducing to their salva

tion.

THE FIRST PRECEPT OF THE CHURCH.

To hear Mass on all Sundays and holy days, and keep them holy.

INSTRUC. spiritual life, than to preserve a

S nothing is more requisite in a

grateful memory of the benefits of God to mankind, for which reason, besides the Sabbath, many other festivals were instituted in the old law; for the same end, over and above Sundays, the church has instituted many other festivals in the new, in memory of the benefits of our redemption; of the birth, passion, resurrection and ascension of our Saviour. And because we know, that God often shews mercy to the living, through the intercession of the Saints deceased, who are in glory; as, through the merits of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and king David, he did to the Jews; hence we have days appointed to make memory of the blessed Virgin Mary, St. John Baptist, all the Apostles, and of all Saints and Angels; yet it is carefully to be noted here, that we worship God in the same manner on these Saints days, as upon the Sabbath-day: on all these days no other God do we adore, but only one God, Father, Son, and HolyGhost and in truth another principal end in the insti