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How often do they endeavour to cheat and over-reach each other; and what a propensity many of them seem to have, to take what does not belong to them, when they are not observed! Some children appear to suppose, that stealing from their parents is no crime; but the Bible says,

Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer, Prov. xxviii. 24.

Repress every inclination to fraud or pilfering. Say not to yourself, "It is a little thing," for little things lead on to greater. The habit will grow with your years, and may finally bring you to disgrace and ruin. Selfishness is a great enticer to theft. Take care you do not indulge it. Cultivate a generous spirit, and you will cut off many temptations to dishonesty.

NOTE.

VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH THIS COMMANDMENT IS BROKEN.

"BESIDES What everybody calls theft, there are many practices which amount indirectly to much the same thing, however disguised in the world under gentler names. Thus in the way of trade and business: if the seller puts off any thing for better than it is, by false assertions, or deceitful arts: if he takes advantage of the buyer's ignorance, or particular necessities, or good opinion of him, to insist on a larger price for it than the current value; or if he gives less in quantity than he professes, or is understood to give, the frequency of some of these things cannot alter the nature of any of them: no one can be ignorant that they are wrong, but such as are wilfully or very carelessly ignorant: and the declaration of Scripture against the last of them is extended, in the same place, to every one of the rest. "Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small: thou shalt not have in thy house divers measures, a great and a small. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.'

"On the other hand; if the buyer takes advantage of his own wealth; and the poverty or present distress of the seller, to beat down the price of his merchandise beyond reason or if he buys up the whole of a commodity, especially if it be a necessary one, to make immediate gain of it; or if he refuses or delays his payments beyond the time within which, by agreement or the known course of traffic, they ought to be made: all such behaviour is downright injustice and breach of God's law. For the rule is, 'if thou sellest aught unto thy neighbour, or buy est aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another.'

" Again: borrowing on fraudulent securities, or false representations of our circumstances, or without intention, or without proper care afterwards to repay; preferring the gratification of our covetousness, our vanity, our voluptuousness, our indolence, before the satisfying of our just debts: all this is palpable wickedness. And just as bad is the contrary wickedness, of demanding exorbitant interest for lending to ignorant or thoughtless persons: or to extravagant ones, for carrying on their extravagance; or to necessitous ones, whose necessities it must continually increase, and make their ruin, after a while, more certain, more difficult to retrieve, and more hurtful to all with whom they are concerned. The Scripture hath particularly forbidden it in the last case, and enjoined

a very different sort of behaviour. If thy brother be waxen poor, an fallen in decay with thee, then shalt thou relieve him: yea, though he a stranger, or a sojourner. Thou shalt not give him thy money up: usury nor lend him thy victuals for increase; but fear thy God, that th brother may dwell with thee.' And the Psalmist hath expressed the tw opposite characters, on these occasions, very briefly and clearly.-The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous showeth mercy, and giveth.'

"Another crying iniquity is, when hired servants, labourers, or work men of any sort, are ill used in their wages: whether by giving them too little or, which is often full as bad, deferring it too long. The word of God forbids the last in very strong terms. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee,' meaning, if demanded, or wanted, 'all night until the morning.' 'At his day thou shalt give him his hire; neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.' Nay, the son of Sirach carries it, with reason, (as I observed to you on the sixth com. mandment,) further still. The bread of the needy is their life: he that defraudeth the labourer of his hire is a blood-shedder.'

"But, besides all these instances of unrighteousness, there are many more that are frequent in all kinds of contracts. Driving bargains that we know are too hard; or insisting rigidly on the performance of them, after they appear to be so: making no abatements, when bad times, or unexpected losses, or other alterations of circumstances call for them: not inquiring into the grounds of complaints, when there is a likelihood of their being just: throwing unreasonable burdens upon others, merely because they dare not refuse them: keeping them to the very words and letter of an agreement, contrary to the equitable intention of it: or, on the other hand, alleging some flaw and defect in form, to get loose from an agreement, which ought to have been strictly observed: all these things are grievous oppression. And though some of them may not be in the least contrary to law, yet they are utterly irreconcilable with good conscience. Human laws cannot provide for all cases, and sometimes the vilest iniquities may be committed under their authority and by their

means.

"It is therefore a further lamentable breach of this commandment, when one person puts another to the charge and hazard of law, un. justly or needlessly; or in ever so necessary a law-suit, occasions unne cessary expenses, and contrives unfair delays: in short, when any thing is done by either party: by the counsel that plead or advise in the cause, or by the judge, who determines it contrary to real justice and equity. "Indeed when persons, by any means whatever, withhold from another his right; either keeping him ignorant of it, or forcing him to unrea. sonable cost or trouble to obtain it; this, in its proportion, is the same kind of injury with stealing from him. To see the rich and great, in these or any ways, bear hard upon the poor, is very dreadful: and truly, it is little, if at all, less so, when the lower sort of people are unmerciful, as they are but too often, one to another. For, as Solomon observes, 'a poor man that oppresseth the poor, is like a sweeping rain, which leaveth no food.' But if it be a person ever so wealthy, that is wronged, still his wealth is his own and no one can have more right to take the least part of it from him, without his consent, than to rob the meanest wretch in the world. Suppose it be a body or number of men; suppose it to be the government, the public that is cheated; be it of more or less, be it so little as not to be sensibly missed; let the guilt be divided among ever so many; let the practice be ever so common; still it is the same crime, however it may vary in degrees; and the rule is without exception, that no man go beyond, or defraud his brother in any matter." "Secker's Lectures, p. 226.

ON THE COMMANDMENTS.

§ 10. NINTH COMMANDMENT.

WHAT is the ninth Commandment?

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. What member of the body is this commandment intended to restrain?

The tongue, which is too apt to offend.

I am "to keep my tongue from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering.'

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Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Ps. xxxiv. 13.

I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle. Ps. xxxix. 1.

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Ps. cxli. 3.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, this man's religion is vain. James i. 26.

The tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things: and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: it defileth the whole body, and it is set on fire of hell.-The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. James iii. 5-8.

What do you mean by bearing false witness against your neighbour?

Unjustly accusing any one, whether on oath or otherwise.

If a false witness rise up against any man, to testify against him that which is wrong; the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and if the witness be a false witness, then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother. Deut. xix. 16-19.

A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish. Prov. xix. 5. 9.

A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow. Prov. xxv. 18. Neither accuse any falsely. Luke iii. 14.

Naboth was put to death by false witnesses. 1 Kings xxi. 10-13. False witnesses were employed by the chief priests, that Jesus might be put to death. Matt. xxvi. 60.

Blasphemers, and false accusers, are in the black list of the sins of the last times. 2 Tim. iii. 2.

What does this commandment forbid?

1. It forbids evil speaking.

Evil speaking consists in relating things to our neighbour's prejudice, when the making them known cannot

answer any good purpose. The facts stated may be true, but Christian charity should induce us to hide them.* The Scriptures place this sin in the company of the worst of wicked actions.

Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people. Lev. xix. 16.

Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? He that speaketh the truth in his heart, he that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. Ps. xv. 1-3. Out of the heart proceed false witness, blasphemies. Matt. xv. 19.

Backbiters and inventors of all evil things, (Rom. i. 30,) and Revilers are ranked with those who shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. vi. 10.

Let all evil speaking be put away from you. Eph. iv. 31.
Speak evil of no man. Tit. iii. 2.

Speak not evil one of another, brethren. James iv. 11.

Lay aside all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evilspeakings. 1 Pet. ii. 1.

2. It forbids lying.

Lying is inventing falsehoods, or reporting things without sufficient evidence of their truth, whatever motive we may have in so doing. It is speaking untruths with an intent to deceive, or designedly conveying in any way an impression different from the truth.t

*Further speaking or intimating things to any person's disadvantage, though they be true, is seldom innocent. For it usually proceeds from bad principles: revenge, envy, malice, pride, censoriousness; unfair zeal for some private or party interest: or at best, from a desire of appearing to know more than others, or mere impertinent fondness of talking. Now these are wretched motives for publishing what will be hurtful to one of our brethren. Sometimes, indeed, bad characters and bad actions, ought to be known but much oftener not, or not to all the world, or not by our means. Secker's Lectures, p. 238.

† It must now be observed further, that though undoubtedly those falsehoods are the worst, which hurt others the most directly, yet falsehoods in general are hurtful and wrong. And therefore lying; all use either of words or actions of known settled import, with purpose to deceive, is unlawful. And those offences of this kind, which may seem the most harm less, have yet commonly great evil in them. Lying destroys the very end of speech, and leads us into perpetual mistakes, by the very means which God intended should lead us into truth. It puts an end to all the pleasure, all the benefit, all the safety of conversation. Nobody can know on what or whom to depend. For if one person may lie, why not another? And at this rate, no justice can be done, no wickedness be prevented or punished, no business go forward. All these mischiefs will equally follow, whether untruths be told in a gross barefaced manner, or disguised under equivocations, quibbles, and evasions. The sin the refore is as great in one case as the other. And it is so great in both, that no sufficient excuses can ever be made for it in either, though several are often pleaded.-Ibid. p. 240.

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The propensity of lying shows itself so early, that children go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. They endeavour to deceive before they are able to speak. Ps. lviii. 3. Thou shalt not raise a false report. Exod. xxiii. 1. Neither lie one to another. Lev. xix. 11.

He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. Ps. ci. 7.

I hate and abhor lying; but thy law do I love. Ps. cxix. 163. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. Ps. cxx. 2.

These things doth the Lord hate, yea, they are an abomination unto him;-a lying tongue-an heart that deviseth wicked abominations-a false witness that speaketh lies. Prov. vi. 16-19.

The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Prov. xii. 19.

Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight. Prov. xii. 22.

The Jews were guilty of transgressing and lying against the Lord, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Isa. lix. 13.

Swearing and lying were among the sins, which should cause the land to mourn. Hos. iv. 2.

The inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth, therefore will I make thee sick in smiting thee. Mic. vi. 12, 13.

These are the things that ye shall do, speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour. Zech. viii. 16.

Ye are of your father the devil. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it. John viii. 44.

Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for telling lies. Acts v. 3. 10.

Speaking the truth in love, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour. Eph. iv. 15. 25. Lie not one to another. Col. iii. 9.

The law is made for liars, for perjured persons, &c. 1 Tim. i. 9, 10.

All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Rev. xxi. 8.

There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. Rev. xxi. 27.

Without it-whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Rev. xxii. 15. 2. It forbids slandering.

Slandering is lying and evil speaking joined together; and the common practice of mending the stories that we hear of others' characters, by making additions to them, is slander.*

We all think it an injury, in the tenderest part, when bad impressions are made on others concerning us; and therefore should conscientiously avoid doing the same injury to others: making them designedly, without a cause, is inexcusable wickedness. And even where we intend no harm,

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