15 u Thou shalt not steal. 16 w Thou shalt not bear false wit Lev. 19. 11. Deut. 5. 19. Matt. 19. 18. ness against thy neighbour. Rom. 13. 9. 1 Thess. 4. 6. w ch. 23. 1. Deut. 5. 20. & 19. 16. Matt. 19. 18. stroy.' Let us cultivate universal purity, in secret as well as openly, and feel that the strictest government over all our propensities, senses, and passions is an incumbent duty upon every one who would act upon the safe and salutary principle of the apostle, 'I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 15. Thou shalt not steal, Heb. 3 make it evident that sins of this class lo tignab. Gr. ov deyes. The original ganab is the usual word for steal, and has nothing peculiar in its import to require a special investi. gation. The scope of the commandment is to secure the right of property. It prescribes the mode in which love to our neighbor is to operate in this respect. The subject of property is one of great extent, and by its various relations entering largely into the elements of human happiness. While God is himself the great Proprietor, the ultimate Lord and Disposer of all things, he has established a constitution of things by virtue of which every man is not only entitled himself to the products of his own labor, but authorised also to make it over or bequeath it to his posterity or heirs. It is the wrongful abstraction or invasion of this property which the eighth commandment is designed to prohibit; and of all the forms of viola tion of this precept none is more palpable, more gross, or more highly provoking to God than that of depriving a man of the product of his labors by depriving him of himself. This is the most aggravated form of stealing of which it is possible to be guilty, or even to conceive. Whatever may be said of other possessions, a man's per ling the markets by stratagem, and thus obtaining inordinate prices for one's commodities; entering into combinations unduly to raise or to depress wages; taking unjust advantage of insolvent laws; exacting usurious interest for money; unnecessary subsistence on charity; evading the duties and taxes imposed by government, or in any way defrauding the public, whether by embezzling its treasures or encroaching upon its domain; using false weights and measures; removing landmarks; keeping back the wages of servants and hirelings; withholding restitution for former wrongs; refusing, when able, to pay debts from which we have obtained a legal release-all these are violations of the eighth commandment, and as such falling under the special condemnation of heaven. A slight consideration of the spirit of this precept will show that it reaches also beyond outward acts, and prohibits inordinate love of the world, covetousness, and the pride of life; that it requires industry, frugality, sobriety, submission to God's providence; in a word, a disposition to do to all others, in respect to worldly property, as we would that they should do to us. son is his own; his life is his own; his | tortion and exorbitant gain; control. liberty is his own. He who takes them away without his consent, and without any crime on his part, steals them. And surely stealing men is so much a greater crime than stealing money, as a human being holds a higher rank in the scale of existence than inert and senseless matter. The eighth commandment then forbids distinctly and peremptorily all despotic enslaving of our fellow-men, of whatever condition or color, or of exercising absolute lordship over them; because those acts virtually deprive human beings of that property in themselves with which the Creator endowed them. This is a usurpation of the rights of man which no usage, law, or custom can legalize in the sight of heaven. No title can make good my claim to another's person; no deed of inheritance or conveyance transmit it to a third party. There is but one Being competent to make the conveyance, and he has never done it. Every man under God owns himself. He has a right to himself which no other man can challenge. I may be lawfully restrained, punished, and even executed by just laws, but I can never be owned. I can never be in the sight of heaven either serf or slave. I cannot sell myself; no other can sell me. Though I may for a consideration make over to another my right to my services, yet the right to myself is no more alienable by myself than by another. God gave me myself to keep, and his ownership alone in me am I bound to recognize. 3 That THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Heb. to taaneh, thou shalt not answer. is, more especially when cited to give testimony before a judicial tribunal. Subordinate to this are various forms The drift of the precept, in its original of the breach of this commandment, of import, is more fully laid open, Deut. many of which no human laws take 19. 16-19, 'If a false uitness rise up cognizance. The essence of dishonesty against any man to testify against him, is the possessing ourselves of that which that which is wrong; then both the rightfully belongs to another." men, between whom the controversy is may be done in an almost infinite va- shall stand before the Lord, before the riety of ways. Fraudulent bargains, priests, and the judges, which shall be which impose on the ignorant, the cred- in those days; and the judges shall ulous, or the necessitóus; contracting make diligent inquisition; and behold, debts which one is unable to pay; ex-if the witness be a false witness, and This any wrong done thereby to our neighbor; while in this prohibition the head and front of the offending is the false and injurious charge preferred against our neighbor. This is a more heinous crime than common extra-judicial falsehood, inasmuch as it is usually more deliberate, and by the sentence to which it leads often involves in itself the guilt of robbery and murder, as well as that of calumny. Accordingly, we find the purport of this commandment other. wise, yet very emphatically expressed, Lev. 19. 16, 'Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor. That is, thou art not to stand as a false witness against thy neighbor, whereby his blood, his life, might be endangered. But if we ourselves are not permitted, in judicial matters, thus to injure our neighbor by bearing false witness against him, so neither are we to procure or en hath testified falsely against his brother; | impiety towards God, irrespective of Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.' This precept differs from the three preceding in the fact that while they have respect to injuries done by deeds or actions, this has reference to wrongs done by words. The predominant sense of bearing witness is clearly recognised in the verb in this connection in the Gr. ov evdoμaprupnoεis, thou shalt not falsely testify, and in the Chal., Sam., Syr., and Arab., all which render it testify. Yet the term is of large import, equivalent to utter, pronounce, declare, and while the letter admits, the spirit of the precept requires, that it should here be understood as forbidding every thing that is contrary to strict veracity in our communications with our fellow men. We say, 'with our fellow men,' for though the phrase 'against thy neighbor,' might seem to limit it to the narrower circle of our immediate neighbors, yet the in-courage it in others. Consequently the terpretation given to the term by our Savior, in the parable of the good Samaritan, plainly teaches us that a more extended application is to be assigned it. It is, in fact, equivalent to other man, whether acquaintance or stranger, friend or foe. This precept therefore constitutes the law of love as it respects our neighbor's, that is, every other man's, good name. And as one of the principal ways in which his interest in this respect may be injured is by having false witness borne against him in courts of justice, this is made the leading and primary, but not the exclusive, point of the prohibition. Lying in this form is denominated 'perjury,' and so far as this sin is concerned, the ninth commandment is closely related to the third, which forbids the taking of God's name in vain, as is always done in a false oath. The difference between them probably lies in this, that in the third perjury is condemned as a gross suborning false witnesses is hereby condemned; and it plainly behoves legal counsel in managing the causes of their clients to guard against a virtual perversion of the truth that shall amount to a bearing of false witness; nor should the verdict of inspiration be forgotten, that 'he that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, are both alike an abomination unto the Lord.' But the scope of the prohibition embraces a multitude of aberrations from the strict law of sincerity and veracity embodied in this precept, which at the same time have nothing to do with ju dicial proceedings. Of this we are to judge by comparing them with those incidental explications of the ninth commandment which occur here and there both in the Old and New Testament. Nothing can be clearer than that truth, sincerity, fidelity, candor, are required to be the governing law in all our communications with our fellow men; and, consequently, whatever is contrary to this is contrary to the spirit of this precept. 'Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.' 'Wherefore,' says the apostle, ' putting away all lying, speak every man the truth with his neighbor.' 'Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.' Thus too, in the Levitical code, 'Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.' Thus also, to 'walk uprightly, to work righteousness, and to speak the truth in his heart,' are the first lineaments in the good man's character as portrayed by the Psalmist, Ps. 15. 2. Now if this requirement of universal truthfulness be not contained in the ninth commandment, it is not embraced at all in the Decalogue; and it is scarcely to be supposed that a sin, which is every where spoken of with the most marked abhorrence, and one of which it is said, that those who are characteristically guilty of it 'shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone,' and that 'whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie,' shall be excluded from the holy city, is not intended to be expressly forbidden in the perfect law of God. The commandment evidently has its foundation in that character which is given of the Most High in the words of inspiration, Deut. 32. 4, 'A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and righteous is he.' From this view of the grounds and the tenor of the injunction, it will be evident at a glance, that not only false witness in a court, but false statements in common discourse, false promises, whether deliberate or careless, exaggerations and high colorings of facts, equivocation and deceit by word or sign, hypocritical professions and compliments, together with slandering, back. biting, tale-bearing, circulating malicious reports, imputing evil designs, or making injurious representations without sufficient proof, are all direct in fractions of the spirit of this com mand. These are all obvious methods of working ill to our neighbor, of prejudicing his reputation, and injuring or destroying his usefulness and his peace, and consequently cannot consist with the law of love. As to such cases as those of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, the Hebrew midwives, Rahab, and David, who are of ten alleged, on certain occasions in their lives, to have been guilty of gross equivocation, we must refer the reader to the remarks made on those particular, points of their conduct in the notes appended to their respective histories. It will there appear that an important distinction is to be made between telling a falsehood, and concealing the truth, or a part of the truth, from those who have no right to demand it. While the one is always wrong, the other is in some instances unquestionably right. As a preventative or preservative, on the score of the present prohibition, nothing is more important than that parents, guardians, and teachers, should aim to check this perverse propensity in its earliest developments. Children are prone to 'go astray from the womb speaking lies.' A'lying spirit' seems to be more or less indigenous to the soil of the human mind, and without the most assiduous culture is difficult to be expelled. A heedless example in this respect in parents themselves, hastily uttered and soon forgotten threats and promises, a slighter punishment for lying than almost any other fault, will be sure to confirm this evil habit in their offspring, and probably to the ul timate sorrow and affliction of their hearts. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, y thou shalt not Deut. 5. 21. Mic. 2. 2. Hab. 2. 9. Luke 12. 15. Acts 20. 33. Rom. 7. 7. & 13. 9. Eph. 5. 3, 5. Hebr. 13. 5. y Job 31.9. Prov. 6. 29. Jer. 5. 8. Matt. 5. 28. covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. covet. In the parallel passage, Deut. 5. 21, this word is rendered desire, and another equivalent term, covet; 'Neither shall thou desire ( tahmod) thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet ( tithavveh) thy neighbor's house,' &c. The affection or emotion expressed by the term is not in itself sinful, but becomes so by reason of the circumstances or the degree in which it is indulged. Accordingly, it is not simply and absolutely said in this commandment, Thou shalt not covet,' as in the preceding commandments, 'Thou shalt not kill,' 'Thou shalt not steal,' &c., but a variety of objects are specified, towards which, in their relations to others, this inward emotion is not to go forth. In the present connexion, the word strictly signifies to desire to have as our own what belongs to our neighbor to his loss or prejudice, or without his consent; and it implies that degree of propensity or appetency towards an object which usually prompts to the obtaining it, or which immediately precedes an actual volition to that effect. A simple, passing, evanescent, wish to possess any thing valuable or agreeable, which we see to belong to our neighbor, is no doubt, in thousands of cases, the mere prompting of an innate and instinctive desire, which is in itself innocent, and probably the very same feeling which prompted our neigh-sures to procure its being effected; and bor himself innocently to procure it. A man may desire an increase of his property, without having a covetous or even a discontented heart. Such wishes are the moving spring to all worldly enterprise and prosperity, without which the various businesses of life would languish and die. But the longing impulse in such cases becomes sinful when it becomes excessive, and amounts to what is termed in the Scriptures an 'evil concupiscence.' This will usually be the result where one is in the habit of setting his neighbor's possessions in contrast with his own, and of dwelling with grieved, grudging, or envious feelings upon the fancied superior advantages of his lot. There can be no harm in desiring a neighbor to sell me his house for the real value of it; but it is wrong to desire to possess the house to his prejudice, or by means of injustice or violence. That coveting a man's wife also, which is here forbidden, is not so much the desire of an adulterous intercourse with her while she remains his wife, though this is expressly for bidden, as desiring that she may cease to be his wife, and become the wife of the coveting person. Among the Jews there were two ways in which this might be done; either by a divorce, or by the death of the husband. Accord. ingly, he that transgressed this branch of the commandment, did really desire either that she would obtain a divorce from her husband, or wish that he was dead; for except upon one or the other of these conditions he could not hope to enjoy her as his own. God therefore forbade this coveting, because he that earnestly desired that a divorce might ensue, would be very apt to take mea. he that secretly cherished the desire of the death of a man, in order to possess himself of his wife, would be under a strong temptation to put him out of the way, provided he thought he could do it with impunity, of which we have a striking example in the case of David and Uriah. In like manner, coveting my neighbor's house is nothing else |