wound to religion itself, Rom. ii. 22. 24. And indeed that religion which does not make men juft neighbours to deal with, can hardly be thought to make them faints. That craft, eunning, and fraud, ufed by many, how inconfiftent is it with Christian fimplicity, the fear of an all-feeing God, and contempt of the world, which religion teaches.

4. How oppofite is it to the nature of God, who is just and righteous, and whom we muft follow as dear children? The unjust stand in direct oppofition to him who cannot but do right. God has a special love to righteousness, Pfal. xi. ult. and all injuftice is an abomination to him. He has fet a particular mark of abhorrence on it, Micah vi. 10, 11. " Are there yet the treasures of wickednefs in the houfe of the wicked, and the fcant measure that is abominable? fhall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?" And he has alfo fet a particular delight in juft dealing, Prov. xi. 1. "A juft weight is his delight."

5. It brings a blasting curfe along with it, Prov. xiii. 11. * Wealth gotten by vanity, fhall be diminished." And although it may profper for a while, it will have a foul hinder end, Prov. xx. 21. The end thereof fhall not be bleffed." It is as a moth in the man's own labours, and sometimes eats away his fubftance, makes wings to it that it leaves him, and often hurries him away from it. That is a heavy word, Jer. xvii. 11. "He that getteth riches, and not by right, fhall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end fhall be a fool."

6. It leaves a fting in the conscience, which will be felt to fmart fooner or later. Confcience is the deputy of a just God in the foul, which will be able fometimes to act its part, and both accuse, convince, condemn, and torment the unjust dealer, fo that he will be ready to throw away his unjust gain, as willingly as ever one ready to be burnt did live coals out of his bofom, and as Judas did his thirty pieces of filver, though perhaps it may be out of time. A Pythagorean bought a pair of fhoes upon truft: the fhoemaker dies: the philofopher is glad, and thinks them gain: but a while after his confcience twitches him: he repairs to the house of the dead, cafts in his money with these words, "There, take thy "due; thou liveft to me, though dead to all befides.”

7. Laftly, It will exclude you out of heaven. There is a

bar drawn on all unrighteous perfons, that they cannot come there, 1 Cor. vi. 9. The treasures of eternal glory are loft by unrighteous dealing in the world, Luke xvi. 11. Where then is the profit, though a man gain the whole world? It is fad gain where a thousand times more is loft by it. Peace with God and confcience is loft by it; the foul is loft by it, and that for ever. And they who walk not by the rules of justice in the world, shall lie under the strokes of divine juf tice eternally.

The occafions that ensnare men into stealing might be re peated here, as occafions of other pieces of injuftice. But to fence you against this evil, I offer these things.

1. Confider your unrighteous nature, and carry it to Chrift to be healed by him. When Adam's nature, and ours in him, was corrupted, it was wholly fo, not only with respect to the first, but the fecond table. There is need, then, that the plaister be as wide as the wound, Eph. iv. 24. And he that would remove the bitter streams, muft apply to get the fountain sweetened.

2. Accuftom yourselves to acknowledge the Lord in your civil actions, Prov. iii. 6. The want of this betrays men into much unfair dealing; for where there is fo little of God, there must be much of the devil.

(1.) Eye God in these matters, as he who is your witness, and will be your judge in them. Set the Lord before you in your business, and you will fear to ftep wrong. May be thou canft wrong thy neighbour, and he fhall not know it. But God knows it, and it cannot be hid from him. May be he cannot right himself for want of witneffes; but pray remember, that God and thy own conscience are witneffes to all that paffeth betwixt you and others. And though ye may think it is long to that court-day, yet remember that awful declaration, Mal. iii. 5. "I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a fwift witness against the forcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false fwearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherlefs, and that turn afide the ftranger from his right, and fear not me, faith the Lord of hofts." May be thou canst bear him down from his right, but mind the wronged party has a ftrong avenger, 1 Theff. iv. 6. O how well might it go, if men in all their bargains, work, neighbourhood, &c. would fet God thus before them!

(2.) Eye God in these matters as the fountain of ftrength. Alas! moft men have no diffidence in themselves in thefe affairs, but trust themselves as in no hazard there, and thus are the betrayers of themselves, Prov. xxviii. 26. The least of duties are too much for us alone, and in the plainest way we will go wrong, if we be not led right. Satan has fnares laid for us in these things; and therefore we have need of strength from the Lord to refift them.

3. Remember ye are not only to feek your own, but your neighbour's welfare, Phil. ii. 4. Selfishness is the cause of much unfair dealing. "Lovers of themselves more than God," and exclufively of our neighbour, are in bad condition. For a man to build up himself on another's ruins, is contrary to that love which we owe to our neighbour, as fellow-partakers of the human nature, and as members one of another as Christians, Eph. iv. 25. The goodness that is most diffusive and communicative, is most like God.

4. Confider the vanity of the world. It is an overvaluing of earthly advantages that leads people aside into unrighte ous ways, Hof. xii. 8. A due impreffion of the vanity and emptiness thereof, would let you fee that they are not worth a man's going off his way for them. It is not long till very little will ferve us; death comes, and we have no more to do with it, a coffin and a winding-sheet, and a little room in the heart of the earth, which none will grudge us, will be all we will need. What madness is it, then, to wound the confcience for fuch a pitiful business? All the gains of unrighteousness will never quit the coft.

5. Labour to mortify the luft of covetousness, which being indulged, the confcience will get fore ftretches to fatisfy it, Heb. xiii. 5. It cannot mifs to pierce people through with many forrows. Therefore "love not the world," 1 John iii. 15.; for whofo follow it too closely at the heels, it will dafh out their brains at last.

6. A little well gotten is more worth than much otherwife, Prov. xvi. 8. There is a bleffing in the one, a temporal one at leaft; but there is a curse in the other. A man may use the one with a good confcience; the other is with an ill confcience, and that is a fad fauce to the meal. The one a man has on free coft, having nothing to pay for it; the sweet of the other is fqueezed out by a dear reckoning following.

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7. Lastly, Remember the day is coming wherein all wrongs are to be righted, fecret things brought to light, and violence reckoned for. If men were to have no afterreckoning for these things, they might do in them as they lift; but thou shalt be countable for the least farthing. The Judge is infinitely wife, and the most cunning and tricky will not get him outwitted nor fhifted. He is omnipotent, and they who force their way now through all bands of juf tice, fhall not be able to make head against him. In all temptations that way, then awe your heart with that meditation, "What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he vifiteth, what shall I answer him?" Job xxxi. 14.

OF THE NINTH COMMANDMENT.

EXOD. XX. 16.-Thou shalt not bear falfe witness against thy neighbour.

THE

THE fcope of this command is the prefervation of truth amongst men, which is a neceffary bond of human fociety. And forafmuch as all the commands of the fecond table relate to ourselves as well as others, the meaning of this is, Thou shalt not bear falfe witness either against thyfelf or thy neighbour, and fo neither wrong thy own nor thy neighbour's good name.

The pofitive part of this command is implied in the negative, viz. Thou shalt bear real and foothfast witness (as our law terms it) for thyfelf and thy neighbour, and fo maintain thy own and thy neighbour's good name, fo far as truth will allow. This witneffing is to be understood not only of judicial, but extrajudicial witneffing.

Quest." What is required in the ninth commandment?" Anf.The ninth commandment requireth the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbour's good name, especially in wit nefs-bearing."

I fhall confider this commandment, as it relates,
VOL. III. No. 24.

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I. To truth betwixt man and man in general;

II. To our own good name; and,

III. To our neighbour's good name.

I. As it relates to truth betwixt man and man in the ge. neral. Truth is a facred thing, which we are to cleave to as we would to God, who is true effentially, and therefore called truth itself. It was a notable faying of a philofopher, that truth is fo great a perfection, that if God would render himself visible, he would chufe light for his body, and truth for his foul. He was not far out, for the fcripture tells us of Christ, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, that he is the light, and the truth. And, on the other hand, it holds out Satan as the prince of darkness and father of lies. And there is a mighty affinity betwixt light and truth, darkness and lies. Truth is to the foul as light to the body; and they that walk in the light, will walk in truth. Now, this command requires the maintaining of truth. We may take up this in these two things.

1. We must speak truth at all times when we fpeak, Eph. iv. 25. "Speak the truth every man with his neighbour." I fay when we fpeak, for we must not be always speaking. Nature having drawn a double bar on our tongues, teaches that our tongues must not be in our mouths as a loose window in the wind, ever clattering. And if difcretion keep the key of the door of our lips, we will not be of those that cannot rest till all the truth that is in be out, Prov. xiv. 33. But we must never speak any thing but truth.

What is truth? Pilate afked the question at Chrift, but did not stay for an answer, John xviii. 38. Truth is a harmony, a double harmony. Anatomists observe, that the tongue in man is tied by a double string to the heart. To fpeaking of truth is required, (1.) A harmony of the tongue with the heart. (2.) A harmony of the tongue with the thing itself.

(1.) If we think not as we speak, we do not speak truth; the discord betwixt the tongue and the heart mars the harmony, Pfal. xv. 2. We must speak as we think, then, and the tongue must be a faithful interpreter of the mind, otherwife it is a falfe tongue. So truth may be spoken by a man, and yet he be a false speaker, because he thinks not as he fpeaks.