from his right, and fear not me, faith the Lord of hosts. May be thou canft 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 thefe matters as the fountain of ftrength. Alas! moft men have no diffidence in themselves in thefe affairs, but truft themselves as in no hazard there, and thus are the betrayers of themfelves, Prov. xxviii. 26. The leaft of duties are too much for us alone, and in the plaineft 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 ftrength from the Lord to refift them.

3. Remember ye are not only to feek your own, but your neighbour's welfare, Phil. ii. 4. Selfifhnefs is the caufe of much unfair dealing. Lovers of themfelves more than God, and exclufively of our neighbour, are in bad condition. For a man to build up himfelf 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 Chriftians, Eph. iv. 25. The goodness that is moft diffufive and communicative is moft like God.

4. Confider the vanity of the world. It is an overvaluing of earthly advantages that leads people afide into unrighteous 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 A coffin and a windingthe earth,

fheet, and a little room in the heart of Winding

which none will grudge us, will be all we will need. What madnefs is it then to wound the confcience for fuch a pitiful balinefs? All the galas of unrightcoufnefs will never quit the cost.

5. Labour to mortify the luft of covetoufnefs, 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 laft.

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

7. Lastly, Remember the day is coming wherein all wrongs are to be righted, fecret things brought to light, and open violence reckoned for. If men were to have no after reckoning for these things, they might do in them as they lift; but thou shalt be countable for the leaft farthing. The Judge is infinitely wife, and the moft cunning and tricky will not get him outwitted nor fhifted. He is omnipotent, and they who force their way now through all bands of juftice, shall 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 rifeth up? and when he vifiteth, what shall I anfwer him? Job xxxi. 14.

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Of the ninth Commandment.

EXODUS XX. 16.

Thou shalt not bear falfe witness against thy neighbour.

T

HE fcope of this command is the prefervation of truth amongst men, which is 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 witnefs either against thyfelf or thy neighbour, and fo neither wrong thy own nor thy neighbour's good name.

The positive part of this command is implied in the negative, viz. Thou shalt bear leal and foothfaft witnefs (as our law terms it) for thyself 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 command"ment?" Anf." The ninth commandment requi"reth the maintaining and promoting of truth be"tween man and man, and of our own and our "neighbour's good name, efpecially in witnessbearing."

I fhall confider this commandment, as it relates, 1. To truth betwixt man and man in general; 2. To our own good name; and,

3. To our neighbour's name.

I. As it relates to truth betwixt man and man in the general. Truth is a facred thing, which we are to cleave to as we would to God, who is true effentially, and therefore called truth itfelf. It was a notable faying of a philofopher, that truth is fo great a perfection, that if God would render himfelf vifible, he would chufe light for his body, and truth for his foul. He was not far out; for the fcripture tells us of Chrift, 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, darknefs 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 reVOL. III.

S

quires 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 fpeaking. Nature having drawn a double bar on our tongues, teaches that our tongues must not be in our mouths as a loose window in wind ever clattering. And if difcretion keep the key of the door of our lips, we will not be of those that cannot reft 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 asked the question at Christ, 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 ftring 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 fpeak, we do not fpeak truth; the difcord betwixt the tongue and the heart mars the harmony, Pfal. xv. 2. We must fpeak as we think then; and the tongue must be a faithful interpreter of the mind, otherwise it is a falfe tongue. So truth may be fpoken by a man, and yet he be a falfe fpeaker, because he thinks not as he speaks.

(2.) But that is not all: If we do not speak also as the thing in itself is, we do not speak true. For there must be a harmony betwixt our hearts and the thing as it is in itself. For we must not think that our niftaken apprehenfions of things can stamp lies to pafs curient for truths, juft because we think them 10, 2 Theff. ii. 11.

The fum of the matter lies here: It is our duty to speak truth, that is, fo as our mind agree with the matter, and our mouth with our mind. We

muft fpeak things as we think them to be, and think them to be what they are. And hence we may fee that modefty is very neceffary to preferve us in the truth, in this our weak aud dark condition. Self-conceited ignorance, and weaknefs joined with confidence, whereby people are fo peremptory in their own uptakings of things, without any regard to the different light of others, is a great enemy to truth.

2. We must especially fpeak the truth at fome times, that is, in witnefs-bearing. This is twofold, ift, Witness-bearing in judgement. This command requires us to bear witness, and that faithfully, when called thereto. Now we are to fpeak the truth judicially, when we are lawfully called thereunto by the authority whether of church or ftate.

2dly, Extrajudicial witness-bearing, wherein a man is called to declare the truth, though there be no human authority obliging him thereto, as often falls out in the cafe of private controverfies betwixt neighbours, where a third perfon is defired to witnefs the truth. Yea, a man may be obliged to this witnefs-bearing where he is not fo much as defired to speak, as when we hear our neighbour charged with any thing unjustly, we are obliged to vindicate his innocency, it being known to us.

Now, the rule in both these cafes is this: That then is a man or woman called to declare the truth under the pain of God's difpleasure, when God's glory or their neighbour's good may be procured by it; when the difhonour of God and their neighbour's hurt, either of foul, body, name, or goods, may be avoided by it.

Both thefe forts of witnefs-bearing are neceffary for the maintaining and promoting of truth, the honour of God, and our neighbour's real good, tho it appear perhaps to be for his hurt, in discovering