newing an old stock of precepts and obligations, in which all the converted and religious Gentiles did communicate with the Jews.

38. To this Christ added, that the eyes must not be adulterous: his disciples must not only abstain from the act of unlawful concubinate, but from the impurer intuition of a wife of another man; so, according to the design of his whole sermon, opposing the righteousness of the spirit to that of the law, or of works, in which the Jews confided. Christians must have chaste desires, not indulging to themselves a liberty of looser thoughts; keeping the threshold of their temples pure, that the Holy Ghost may observe nothing unclean in the entry of his habitation. For he that lusts after a woman, wants nothing to the consummation of the act but some convenient circumstances; which, because they are not in our power, the act is impeded, but nothing of the malice abated. But so severe in this was our blessed Master, that he commanded us rather to put our eyes out, than to suffer them to become an offence to us; that is, an inlet of sin, or an invitation or transmission of impurity: by putting our eyes out, meaning the extinction of all incentives of lust, the rejection of all opportunities and occasions, the quitting all conditions of advantage which ministers fuel to this hell-fire. And by this severity we must understand all beginnings, temptations, likenesses, and insinuations and minutes of lust and impurity to be forbidden to Christians; such as are all morose delectations in vanity, wanton words, gestures, balls, revellings, wanton diet, garish and lascivious dressings and trimmings of the body, looser banquetings; all

'making provisions for the flesh to fulfil the lust of it,' all lust of concupiscence, and all 'lust of the eye,' and all lust of the hand, unclean contacts, are to be rescinded; all lust of the tongue and palate, all surfeiting and drunkenness. For it is impossible to keep the spirit pure, if it be exposed to all the entertainment of enemies. And if Christ forbade the wanton eye, and placed it under the prohibition of adultery, it is certain, whatsoever ministers to that vice, and invites to 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.

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 libidi

nous 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, or detaining of rights; any thing in which injury is done directly or obliquely to our neighbour's fortune.

40. Thou shalt not bear false witness.' That is, thou shalt not answer in judgment against thy neighbour falsely; 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 further in all things else we must be severe in our discourses, ' 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.

41. " ment

Thou shalt not covet.' This commandwe find nowhere repeated in the gospel by our blessed Saviour; but it is inserted in the repetion of the second table, which St. Paul mentioned to the Romans. For it was so abundantly expressed in the inclosure of other precepts, and the whole design of Christ's doctrines, that it was less needful specially to express that which is every 1 Ephes. iv. 25.

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, in this is not the same severity; because the 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;