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there wanteth not Sin: but he that refrainetb bis Lips, is wife. Perfons, who fuffer themfelves to run on heedlefsly in Talk, just as their present Humour difpofes them, or the prefent Company will be best pleased; or who will fay almost any Thing, rather than fay nothing; must be perpetually tranfgreffing some of the Duties comprehended under this Commandment; which yet it is of the utmost Importance not to tranfgrefs. For, with Respect to the Concerns of this World, He that loveth Life, and would fee good Days, let him refrain his Tongue from Evil; and his Lips, that they speak no Guile. And, as to our eternal State in the next, If any Man feem to be religious, and bridleth not his Tongue, that Man's Religion is vain'.

i Prov. x. 19.

k Pf. xxxiv. 12, 13: 1 Jam. i. 26:

LECTURE

LECTURE XXVIII.

The Tenth Commandment.

E are now come to the tenth and

WE laft Commandment; which is by

the Church of Rome abfurdly divided into two, to keep up the Number, after joining the first and fecond into one, contrary to ancient Authority, Jewish and Chriftian. How the Mistake was originally made, is hard to fay but undoubtedly they retain and defend it the more earnestly, in order to pass over the fecond Commandment, as only Part of the firft, without any distinct Meaning of its own. And accordingly many. of their devotional Books omit it entirely. But that these two ought not to be thus joined and confounded, I have shewn you already. And that this, now before us, ought not to be divided, is extremely evident: for it is one fingle Prohibition of all VOL. II. H unjust

unjuft Defires.

And if reckoning up the feveral prohibited Objects of Defire makes it more than one Commandment; for the fame Reafon it will be more than two. For there are fix Things forbidden in it particularly, befides all the reft, that are forbidden in general. And, moreover, if this be two Commandments, which is the firft of them? For in Exodus it begins, Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's House: but in Deuteronomy, Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Wife. And accordingly fome of their Books of Devotion make the former, fome the latter of thefe, the ninth ". Surely the Order of the Words would never have been changed thus in Scripture, had there been two Commandments in them

but

puts, Thou

But, in the

* Their Manual of Prayers in English, 1725, falt not covet thy Neighbour's Wife, for the Ninth. Office of the Virgin, both Latin and Englifh, called the Primer, 1717, Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's House, is the Ninth.

Indeed the Vatican Copy of the Septuagint in Exodus places, Thou shalt not commit Adultery, before Thou shalt do no Murder. And fo do Mark x. 19. Luke xviii. 20. Rom. xiii. 9. and Philo, and Part of the Fathers. But the Hebrew and Samaritan, and all Tranflations, excepting the Septuagint,

and

but being one, it is no way material, which Part is named firft. I fay no more therefore on fo clear a Point: but proceed to explain this Precept, of not coveting what is our Neighbour's.

is

The good Things, of this Life being the Gifts of God, for which all are to be thankful to him; defiring, with due Moderation and Submiffion, a comfortable Share of them, very natural and right. Wifhing, that our Share were better, is, in the Cafe of many Perfons, fo far from a Sin, that endeavouring diligently to make it better is Part of their Duty. Wishing it were equal to that of fuch another, is not wishing ill to him, but only well to ourselves. And feeking to obtain what belongs to another may, in proper Circumstances, be perfectly innocent. We may really have Occafion for it; he may be well able to bestow it; or he may have Occafion

and even That in Deuteronomy, and I believe moft Copies of it in Exodus, and Matth. xix. 18. and Jofephus, and another Part of the Fathers, keep the now common Order. And the Evangelifts did not intend to obferve the original Order: for they put, Honour thy Father, &c. laft. And St. Paul doth This therefore is not

not fay, that he intended to obferve it.
a parallel Cafe to that of the Tenth Commandment.

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