it, is within the same restraint; it is the eye, or the hand, or the foot, that is to be cut off. To this commandment fastings and severe abstinences are apt to be reduced, as being the proper abscission of the instruments and temptations of lust, to which Christ invites by the mixed proposition of threatening and reward; for "better it is to go to heaven with but one eye, or one foot," that is, with a body half nourished, than with full meals and an active lust to "enter into hell.” And in this our blessed Lord is a Physician rather than a Lawgiver for abstinence from all impure concubinate, and morose delectations so much as in thought, being the commandment of God; that Christ bids us retrench the occasions and insinuations of lust, it is a facilitating the duty, not a new severity, but a security and caution of prudence. The Eighth Commandment. 39. "Thou shalt not steal." To this precept Christ added nothing; because God had already, in the decalogue, fortified this precept with a restraint upon the desires. For the tenth commandment forbids all coveting of our neighbour's goods : for the wife there reckoned, and forbidden to be desired from another man, is not a restraint of libidinous appetite, but of the covetous; it being accounted part of wealth to have a numerous family, many wives, and many servants: and this also God, by the prophet Nathan, upbraided to David, as an instance of David's wealth and God's liberality. But yet this commandment Christ adopted into his law, it being prohibited by the natural law, or the law of right reason, commonwealths not being able to subsist without distinction of dominion, nor industry to be encouraged but by propriety, nor families to be maintained but by defence of just rights and truly purchased possessions. And this prohibition extends to all injustice, whether done by force or fraud; whether it be by ablation, or prevention, c Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops, Fugerit venis, et aquosus albo Corpore languor. Horat. lib. ii. Od. 2. 4 Ὁ γὰρ τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις ἐπικεχηνώς, κοινὸς πόλεως ἐχθρός βουλήσει μὲν πάντων, δυνάμει δὲ τὰ τῶν τίνων ἀφαιρούμενος. Philo in Exposit. Gener. Κλοπὴ μὲν χρημάτων ανελεύθερον. — Plato, lib. x. de Leg. Δὼς ἀγαθὴ, ἅρπαξ δὲ κακὴ, θανάτοιο δότειρα. -- Hesiod. lib. i. "Εργ. or detaining of rights; any thing in which injury is done, directly or obliquely, to our neighbour's fortune. The Ninth Commandment. 40. "Thou shalt not bear false witness." That is, thou shalt not answer in judgment against thy neighbour falsely f : which testimony, in the law, was given solemnly and by oath, invoking the name of God. "I adjure thee by God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ," said the high priest to the blessed Jesus, that is, speak upon thy oath; and then he told them fully, though they made it the pretence of murdering him, and he knew they would do so. Confessing and witnessing truth is giving glory to God: but false witness is high injustice, it is inhumanity and treason against the quietness, or life, or possession of a just person; it is in itself irregular and unreasonable, and, therefore, is so forbidden to Christians, not only as it is unjust, but as it is false. For a lie in communication and private converse is also forbidden, as well as unjust testimony; "Let every man speak truth with his neighbour"," that is, in private society : and whether a lie be in jest or earnest, when the purpose is to deceive and abuse, though in the smallest instance, it is in that degree criminal as it is injurious. I find not the same affirmed in every deception of our neighbours, wherein no man is injured, and some are benefited; the error of the affirmation being nothing but a natural irregularity, nothing malicious, but very charitable. I find no severity superadded by Christ to this commandment, prohibiting such discourse, which, without injury to any man, deceives a man into piety or safety. But this is to be extended no farther in : e Paulus J. C. lib. i. D. de Furtis. Ulpian. 1. Probrum, D. de Verborum Significatione. † Οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ ψεύδεσσι πατὴς Ζεὺς ἔσσετ ̓ ἀρωγός. Ὃς δὲ κε μαρτυρίῃσιν ἑκὼν ἐπίορκον ὀμόσσας Ψεύσεται, ἐν δέ δίκην βλάψας, νήκεστον αάσθη, Τοῦ δὲ τ ̓ ἀμαυροτέρη γενεὴ μετόπισθε λέλειπται. 8 ̓Αλήθειά ἐστι μεγάλη ἀρχὴ τῆς ἀρετῆς. — Pind. ψεῦδος δὲ μισεῖ πᾶς φρόνιμος καὶ σοφός. — Menand. h Ephes. iv. 25. Homer. lib. iv. Il. Hesiod. lib. i. "Epy. ¡Epaminondam ne joco quidem mentitum fuisse narrant fidi scriptores. - Probus. Idem de Aristide refert Plutarchus. all things else we must be severe in our discourses, and “neither lie in a great matter nor a small, for the custom thereof is not good," saith the son of Sirach. I could add, concerning this precept, that Christ, having left it in that condition he found it in the decalogue, without any change. or alteration of circumstance, we are commanded to give true testimony in judgment; which, because it was under an oath, there lies upon us no prohibition, but a severity of injunction, to swear truth in judgment when we are required. The securing of testimonies was by the sanctity of an oath, and this remains unaltered in Christianity. The Tenth Commandment. 41. “Thou shalt not covet." This commandment we find nowhere repeated in the Gospel by our blessed Saviour; but it is inserted in the repetition of the second table, which St. Paul mentioned to the Romans: for it was so abundantly expressed in the enclosures of other precepts *, and the whole design of Christ's doctrine, that it was less needful specially to express that which is every where affixed to many precepts evangelical. Particularly it is inherent in the first beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit;” and it means, that we should not wish our neighbour's goods with a deliberate entertained desire, but that, upon the commencement of the motion, it be disbanded instantly: for he that does not at the first address and incitement of the passion suppress it, he hath given it that entertainment which, in every period of staying, is a degree of morose delectation in the appetite. And to this I find not Christ added any thing; for the law itself, forbidding to entertain the desire, hath commanded the instant and present suppression; they are the same thing, and cannot reasonably be distinguished. Now that Christ, in the instance of adultery, hath commanded to abstain also from occasions and accesses towards the lust, this hath not the same severity; because the Furtum quoque sine ulla attrectatione fieri posse solâ mente, atque animo ut furtum fiat annitente. — A. Gell. lib. xi. c. 18. Has patitur pœnas peccandi sola voluntas. Nam scelus intra se tantùm qui cogitat ullum, Facti crimen habet. Juvenal. Non minùs esse turpe oculos quàm pedes in aliena immittere, dixit Xenocrates. vice of covetousness is not such a wild fire as lust is, not inflamed by contact, and neighbourhood of all things in the world every thing may be instrumental to libidinous desires, but to covetous appetites there are not temptations of so different natures. 42. Concerning the order of these commandments, it is not unusefully observed, that, if we account from the first to the last, they are of greatest perfection which are last described; and he who is arrived to that severity and dominion of himself, as not to desire his neighbour's goods, is very far from actual injury, and so in proportion; it being the least degree of religion to confess but one God. But, therefore, vices are to take their estimate in the contrary order: he that prevaricates the first commandment is the greatest sinner in the world; and the least is he that only covets without any actual injustice. And there is no variety or objection in this, unless it be altered by the accidental difference of degrees; but in the kinds of sin the rule is true this only, the sixth and seventh are otherwise in the Hebrew Bibles than ours, and in the Greek otherwise in Exodus than in Deuteronomy; and, by this rule, it is a greater sin to commit adultery than to kill; concerning which we have no certainty, save that St. Paul, in one respect, makes the sin of uncleanness the greatest of any sin, whose scene lies in the body: "Every sin is without the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body." : THE PRAYER. O eternal Jesus, wisdom of the Father, thou light of Jews and Gentiles, and the great Master of the world, who, by thy holy sermons and clearest revelations of the mysteries of thy Father's kingdom, didst invite all the world to great degrees of justice, purity, and sanctity, and instruct us all in a holy institution, give us understanding of thy laws; that, the light of thy celestial doctrine illuminating our darknesses, and making bright all the recesses of our spirits and understandings, we may direct our feet, all the lower man, the affections of the inferior appetite, to walk in the paths of thy commandments. Dearest God, make us to live a life of religion and justice, of love and duty; that we may adore thy majesty, and reverence thy name, and love thy mercy, and admire thy infinite glories and perfections, and obey thy precepts, Make us to love thee for thyself, and our neighbours for thee; make us to be all love and all duty: that we may adorn the Gospel of thee, our Lord, walking worthy of our vocation; that, as thou hast called us to be thy disciples, so we may walk therein, doing the work of faithful servants, and may receive the adoption of sons, and the gift of eternal glory, which thou hast reserved for all the disciples of thy holy institution. Make all the world obey thee as a Prophet; that, being redeemed and purified by thee, our High Priest, all may reign with thee, our King, in thy eternal kingdom, O eternal Jesus, Wisdom of thy Father. Amen, OF THE THREE ADDITIONAL PRECEPTS WHICH CHRIST SUPERINDUCED, AND MADE PARTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LAW. DISCOURSE XI. Of Charity, with its Parts, Forgiving, Giving, not Judging, 1. THE holy Jesus coming to reconcile all the world to God, would reconcile all the parts of the world one with another, that they may rejoice in their common band and their common salvation. The first instance of charity forbade to Christians all revenge of injuries; which was a perfection and endearment of duty beyond what either most of the old philosophers, or the laws of the nations, or of Moses, ever a Plutarchus tamen multa præclara dicit de charitate erga inimicos. "Simplicitati et magnanimitati atque bonitati plus loci hic est quàm in amicitiis Oblatâ occasione ulciscendi inimicum, eum missum facere æquanimitatis est. Qui verò miseratur inimicum afflictum, et opem fert indigenti, et filiis ejus ac familiæ adverso ipsorum tempore operam suam studiumque defert, hunc qui non amat, huic pectus atrum est atque adamantinum," &c. - De Cup. ex Inim. Utilit. Et Cicero dixit Cæsari; Pompeii statuas restitucndo, tuas defixisti. |