I should be willing to have done to me were I he, that same will I do to him! Were I in that poor man's condition that begs an alms, should I not rather have some relief, than a churlish, or at least, an empty answer? Were I he that buys, should I not, and might I not justly and reasonably will to have it so, that no more be exacted of me than the right and due price? Then so will I use him." How few that walk (I say) by this rule! And yet all that do not thus, are breakers of this commandment in the sight of God. How few that are inviolable observers of equity, and are truly liberal and bountiful, answerably to their power; that will sometimes on purpose bate a dish from their table, or a lace from their garment, not to make their stock greater, but to bestow on the poor; that are truly desirous of the good and prosperity of others, and further it all they can! It is to be like God: this is the particular, Matt. v. 45, wherein likeness to our heavenly Father is pressed; and this is meant by Homo homini Deus. Certainly, were we acquainted with it, it is more true delight to be not only just but liberal, than to possess much; it is not to possess, but to be possessed by it, to have heaps, and no heart nor power to use them. He that is thus, doth not only defraud others but himself, steals from his own necessities to sacrifice to his god, his chest or bag. When a man hath such a sum, and though he hath use for it, dares not break it, what is it better than if it were still under ground in the mine? It is no more at his service; yea, so much the worse that he is racked betwixt plenty and want, betwixt having and not having it. Both the covetous and the prodigal sin against this commandment: the covetous by unjust ways of gaining, and unjust keeping what he hath gained, keeping it up both from others and himself; and the prodigal by profuseness, making foolish wants to himself, that drive him upon unjust ways of supply. † Thus * Quicquid omnibus abstulit, sibi negat. + Turpiter amittens quod turpiùs reparct. Seneca. he that is prodigal must be covetous too; and though men think not so, these two vices that seem so opposite, not only may, but do often dwell together, and covetousness is prodigality's purveyor, being fire for it to feed it; for otherwise it could not subsist, but would starve within a while. Here, then, both avarice and prodigality are condemned; only true equity, and frugal and wise liberality are obedience to it. The main causes of all unjust and illiberal dealing are these two: 1, diffidence or distrust of the Divine providence and goodness; 2, and that λoveέia, that same amor sceleratus habendi,—the fond desire of having much. 1. When a man doth not fully trust God with providing for him, and blessing him in just and lawful ways, but apprehends want unless he take some more liberty and elbow-room; this makes him step now and then out of the way, to catch at undue gain by fraud and over-reaching, or some such way; but this is a most foolish course; this is to break loose out of God's fatherly hand, and so to forego all that we can look for from him, and to take ways of our own; to choose rather to go a shifting for ourselves in the crooked and accursed ways of unrighteousness, than to be at his providing. Labour, therefore, for fixed belief of his wisdom and goodness and all-sufficiency, and then the greatest straits and wants will not drive you to any indirect ways, wherein you run from him, but will still draw you nearer to himself, and there you will stay and wait upon his hand till he supply you. 2. Desire of having much, or covetousness, whether it be to hoard up or lavish out. But this is a madness; this desire of having much is never cured by having much; it is an unsatiable, dog-hunger. That known determination of the moralist was the most true, that to be truly rich, is not to have much, but to desire little; labour, then, not to desire much, or rather desire much-desire to have the Lord for your * Beλpia, vel canina fames. portion; and if you indeed desire him, you shall have him, and if you have him, you cannot but be satisfied, for he is all: to him therefore be all praise, honour, and glory, for ever. Amen. PRECEPT IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. The apostle St. James, in that sharp but most true censure of the tongue, might well call it an unruly evil. There are but ten precepts or words of the law of God, and you see two of them, so far as concerns the outward organ and vent of the sins there forbidden, are bestowed on it, tending, if not only, yet mainly, to keep it in order; one in the first table, and this other in the second, as being ready to fly out both against God and man, if not thus bridled. The end of the commandment is to guard the good name of men from injury, as the former doth his goods; this possession being no less, yea, much more precious than the other; and, because the great robber and murderer of a good name, is the mischievous detracting tongue, acted by a malignant heart, it requires in the heart a charitable tenderness of the good name of our brethren, and that will certainly prove truth and charitable speech in the tongue. Though divines here usually speak of lying, in the general notion and extent of it, and not amiss, being most of all exercised in the kind here mentioned; yet there be such lies as may be more fitly reputed a breach of some other commandment; and, possibly, the sin of lying in general, as it is a lie, a discrepance of the speech from the mind, and so a subverting of the divine ordinance set in nature, making that which he hath made the interpreter of the mind, to be the disguiser of it, and withal, disregarding God as the searcher of the heart, and sovereign witness of truth, and avenger of falsehood; I say, thus it may possibly *Non est illud desiderium, λovečia, sed navežia. be more proper to refer it to another commandment, particularly to the third: but it imports not much to be very punctual in this; it is seldom or never that one commandment is broken alone; most sins are complicate disobedience, and in some sins, the breach of many at once is very apparent. As to instance in perjury, if it be to testify a falsehood against our brethren, both the third commandment and this ninth are violated at once; and if it be in such a thing as toucheth his life, the sixth likewise suffers with them. This perjury or false testimony in a public judiciary way, is, we see, by the express words and letter of the command, forbidden, as the highest and most heinous wrong of this kind; but under the name of this (as it is in the other commandments) all the other kinds and degrees of offence against our neighbour's good name are comprised. 1. All private ways of calumny and false imputation. 2. All ungrounded and false surmises or suspicions, all uncharitable construction of others' actions and carriage. 3. Strict remarking of the faults of others, without any calling so to do, or honest intention of their good; which appears, if having observed any thing that of truth is reprovable, we seek not to reclaim them by secret and friendly admonition, but, passing by themselves, divulge it abroad to others; for this is a most foolish, self-deceit to think, that because it is not forged, but true, that thou speakest, this keeps thee free of the commandment: no, thy false intention and malice † makes it calumny and falsehood in thee, although for the matter of it, what thou sayest be most true; all thou gainest by it is, that thou dost humble and bemire thyself in the sin of another, and makest it possibly more thine, than it is his own that committed it; for he, may be, hath some touch of remorse for it; whereas it is evident thou delightest in it; and though thou preface it with a whining, feigned regret and semblance of pity * Ut testis falsi aut testimonium falsi non dices aut respondebis. † AλYDEJOYTES Ev ayann, Eph. iv. 15: We must not only speak the truth, but in love. ing him, and add withal some word of commending him in somewhat else; this is but the gilding and sugaring the pill to make men swallow it the more easily, and thy bitter malice pass unperceived. They that by their calling ought to watch over the lives of others, must do it faithfully and diligently, admonishing and rebuking privately; and where that prevails not, they may, yea, they ought to do it more publicly, but all in love, seeking nothing but the glory of God and the salvation of souls. 4. Easy hearing and entertaining of misreports and detraction when others speak them, (Exod. xxiii. 1,) this is that which maintains and gives subsistence to calumny, otherwise it would starve and die of itself, if nobody took it in and gave it lodging. When malice pours it out, if our ears be shut against it, and there be no vessel to receive it, it would fall like water upon the ground, and could no more be gathered up; but there is that same busy humour that men have, (it is very busy, and yet the most have of it more or less,) a kind of delight or contentment to hear evil of others, unless it be of such as they affect; to hear others slighted and disesteemed, that they readily drink in, not without some pleasure, whatsoever is spoken of this kind. The ear trieth the words, (as he says in Job,) as the mouth tasteth meats; but certainly the most ears are perverse and distempered in their taste, as some kind of palates are; can find sweetness in sour calumny. But, because men understand one another's diet in this, that the most are so; this is the very thing that keeps up the trade, makes backbiting and detractions abound so in the world, and verifies that known observation in the most, that the slanderer wounds three at once, himself, him he speaks of, and him that hears; for this third, truly it is in his option to be none of the number; if he will, he may shift his part of the blow, by not believing the slander; yea, may beat it back again with ease upon the slanderer himself by a check or frown, and add that stroke of a repulse to the wound of guiltiness he gives himself. 5. They offend that |