Q. 27. What is the duty required in this eighth commandment? A. To further the prosperity or estate of your neighbour as you would do your own, that is, with the same sincerity. Q. 28. Must a man work at his trade for his neighbour as much as for himself; or as much use his estate for others? A. I said with the same sincerity' not in the same manner and degree. For there are some duties of beneficence proper to ourselves as the objects, and some common to others. And as nature causeth the eye to wink for itself, and the gust to taste for itself immediately, and yet also consequently for every member's good, and principally for the whole man; so every man must get, possess, and use, what he can immediately for himself. But as a member of the body which hath a due regard to the good of every member, and is more for the whole than for himself." Q. 29. Who be the greatest breakers of this commandment ? A. 1. They that care for nobody but themselves, and think they may do with their own as they list, as if they were absolute proprietors, whereas they are but the stewards of God: and it is the pleasure of the flesh which is the use they think they may put all their estates to. 2. Those that see their brother have need, and shut up the bowels of their compassion from him; P that is, relieve him not when it is not for want of ability, but of compassion and will; or that drop out some inconsiderable pittance to the poor, like the crumbs or bones to the dogs; the leavings of the flesh, while they please their appetites and fancies with the rest, and live as he (Luke xvi.) who was clothed in purple and silk, and fared sumptuously or deliciously daily, while the poor at the door had but the scraps. That make so great a difference between themselves and others as to prefer their own superfluities and pleasures before the necessities of others, even when multitudes live in distressing poverty. 3. Those that live idly, because they are rich or slothful, and think they are bound to labour for none but themselves; whereas God bindeth all that are able to live in some profit • 1 Cor. xii. 21; Eph. iv. 28. P Deut. xv. 8, 11; Eph. iv. 28; Jam. ii. 16; 1 John iii. 17; Matt. xxv.; Prov. xxxi. 20; Psalm lxxii. 13; Ezek. xvi. 49. 4 Prov. xxxi.; 2 Thes. iii. able labour for others, and to give to them that need. So also they that by prodigality, drunkenness, gaming, luxury, or other excess, disable themselves to relieve the poor. 4. Those that out of a covetous, worldly mind heap up riches for themselves and their children, to leave a name and great estate behind them; (that their children may as hardly be saved as themselves ;) as if all that they can gather were their children's due, while others better than they are utterly neglected. 5. Those that give with grudging, or make too great a matter of their gifts, and set too high a price upon them, and must have it even extorted from them. 6. Those that neglect to pay due wages to them that labour for them, and would bring down the price below its worth, so that poor labourers cannot live upon it: and that strive in all their bargainings to have every thing as cheap as they can get it, without respect to the true worth or the necessities of others." 7. Those that help not to maintain their own families and kindred as far as they are able. Q. 30. Who are the greatest robbers, or breakers of both parts of this command, negative and preceptive? A. 1. Emperors, kings, and other chief rulers, who oppress the people, and impoverish them, while they are bound by office to be God's ministers for their good. 2. Soldiers who, by unjust wars, destroy the countries, or, in just war, unjustly rob the people. O, the woeful ruins that such have made! So that famine hath followed the poverty and desolation, to the death of thousands. 3. Unrighteous judges, who for bribes or partiality, or culpable ignorance, do fine righteous men, or give away the estates of the just, and do wrong men by the pretence of law, right, and justice, and deprive the just of their remedy. 4. Perfidious patrons, who simoniacally sell, or sacrilegiously alienate, the devoted maintenance of the church. 5. Much more those rulers and prelates who factiously, maliciously, or otherwise culpably, silence and cast out faithful ministers, sacrilegiously alienating them from the work of Christ, and the church's service, to which they were consecrated Nabal. $ 1 Tim. y. 8; Jam. 4,5. * Exod. iii. 9, 10; Psalm xii. 5, 6, and lxxiii. 8; Prov. xxviii. 16; Eccl.iv. 1,2; 1 Sam. xii. 3, 4. and devoted, and casting them out of their public, ministerial maintenance.* 6. All persecutors who unjustly fine men, and deprive them of their estates, for not sinning against God by omission or commission, especially when they ruin multitudes. 7. Cruel, oppressing landlords, who set their poor tenants such hard bargains as they cannot live on." 8. Cruel lawyers, and other officers, who take such fees as undo the clients; so that men that have not money to answer their covetous expectations, must lose their right. 9. Unmerciful physicians, who consider not the scarcity of money with the poor, but by chargeable fees, and apothecaries' bills, put men to die for want of money. 10. Unmerciful usurers and creditors, that will not forgive a debt to the poor, who have it not to pay. 11. People that rob the ministers of their tithes. 12. Cheaters, who by gaming, false plays, and tricks of craft, or false writings, concealments, or by quirks in law that are contrary to equity, do beguile men of their right. And especially the poor, who cannot contend with them; yea, and some their own kindred. CHAP. XLII. Of the Ninth Commandment. Q. 1. WHAT are the words of the ninth commandment? A. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Q. 2. What is it which is herein forbidden? A. All falsehood injurious to the innocency, right, or reputation of another; especially in witness-bearing, accusations, or judgments, contrary to public justice. The act forbidden is falsehood; the object against which it is done is our neighbour's good or right of any sort; whether his good name, or estate, or life, especially as it perverteth the hearer's judgment and love, or public justice." Q. 3. Is all lying here forbidden, or only injurious lying? Q. 4. What injury doth a jesting lie do to any one? or a lie which only saveth the speaker from some hurt, without hurting any other? Yea, some lies seem to be profitable and necessary. As if a parent, or physician, tell a lie to a child or patient, to get them to take a medicine to save their lives; or a subject tell a lie to a traitor, or enemy, to save the life of the king; tell me, I pray you, why God forbiddeth all such lies? A. 1. You must consider, that God is the Author of order; and order is to the world its useful disposition to its operations and ends. Just as it is to a clock, or watch, or a coach, or ship, or any such engine; disorder the parts, and it is good for nothing. A kingdom, army, church, or any society, is essentiated by order, without which it is destroyed. And the world of mankind being made up of individual persons, the ordering of particular men is the chief thing to the order of the human world. As we die, when disorder of parts or humours maketh the body incapable of the soul's operations, so a man's soul is vitiated and dead to its chief ends, when its order is overthrown. All godliness and morality is nothing but the right order of the dispositions and acts of man, in our subordination to the governing will of God, which is our law. It is not another substance that grace maketh in us, but another order. And all sin is nothing but the contrary disorder; and that man's words be the true and just expression of his mind is a great part of the order of his words, without which it were better man were speechless. And, 2. You must consider, that God hath made man a sociable creature, and each one a part of the world, which is one kingdom of God, the universal King. And that each part is more for the whole than for itself, because the common welfare of the whole is better than of any part, as being a higher end of government, and more illustriously showing the glory of God. And, 3. You must consider, that because God only knoweth the heart, there can be no society and conversation but by words, and other signs. And that without mutual trust there can be no society of love, concord, or mutual help. But utter distrust There can be no prince and subjects, no husband and wife, no pastor and flocks, without some trust. Col. iii. 9; Rev. xxi. 17, and xxii 15. is a virtual war. And trustiness is truth-telling. So far as a man is taken for a liar, he is not believed or trusted.d 4. You must consider, that if God should leave it to man's discretion in what cases to lie, and in what not, and did not absolutely forbid it, selfishness, interest, and folly, would scarce leave any credibility or trustiness in mankind; for how can I know whether your judgment now bid you not lie, for some reason that I know not? 5. So that you see that leave to lie when we think it harmless would be but to pluck up a flood-gate of all deceit, untrustiness, and utter confusion, which would shame, and confound, and ruin societies and the world. And then it is easy to know that it is better that any man's commodity or life miscarry (which yet was scarce ever done merely for want of a lie), than that the world should be thus disordered and confounded. men sick of the plague must be shut up rather than go about to infect the city; and some houses must be blown up rather than the fire not be stopped. And as soldiers burn suburbs to save a city, &c., so no man's private good must be pretended for the corruption and misery of the world.e As 6. And remember that lying is the devil's character and work, and so the work and character of his servants. And truth is the effect of God's perfection, and his veracity so necessary to mankind, that without it we could have no full assurance of the future blessedness which he hath promised. If God could lie, our hopes were all shaken; for we should be still uncertain whether his word be true. And God's laws and his image must signify his perfection. f Q. 5. Wherein doth the truth of words consist? A. In a threefold respect: 1. In a suitable significancy of the matter. 2. In an agreeable significancy of the mind of the speaker. 3. And both these, as suited to the information of the hearer. Q. 6. What is false speaking? A. 1. That which is so disagreeable to the matter as to represent it falsely. 2. That which is so disagreeable to the speaker's mind as to represent it falsely to another. 3. That which speaketh the matter and mind aptly as to themselves and other hearers, but so as the present hearer, who we know d Prov. vi. 17; xii. 19, 22; xiii. 5, and xvii. 7; 1 Tim. i. 10. e Rom. iii. 7. f 1 Kings xxii. 22; John viii. 44; Tit. i. 2; Heb. vi. 18. |