Not Speak False Witness Against Thy Neighbour: And, Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour’s House, the Fourth Sermon
WE are now come to the exposition of the two last precepts of the ten commandments. The ninth commandment is: “Do not speak false witness against thy neighbour.” By this precept is confirmed faith in covenants and contracts: it ruleth the tongue, and commendeth unto us verity, the fairest virtue of all other, and teacheth us to use modesty and sincerity both in word and deed. Hitherto yet have we heard nothing in all God’s commandments touching the tongue, but a little only in the third commandment. But of the tongue 5 do arise the greatest commodities and discommodities of our life. “For the tongue” (saith James) “is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is fire, even a world of wickedness. So is the tongue set among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. All the nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and things of the sea, is meeked and [4 preces suas iterat, Lat.] [5 patrem urget, Lat. ]
tamed of the nature of men’: but the tongue can no man tame, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith we bless our God and Father; and therewith curse we men that are made after the similitude of God. Out of one mouth proceed both blessing and cursing.” Therefore very well and necessarily is the way set down in this ninth precept, how men should frame and order their tongues.
Now summarily this precept doth command us to use our tongues well, that neither privately or publicly we do our neighbour harm, either in his life, good name, or riches, by word or writing, or otherwise by painting, neither by simulation nor dissimulation, nor yet so much as by a beck or a nod. All things are forbidden that are against truth and sincerity. There is required at all our hands simplicity, plain speaking, and telling of the truth. Briefly, we are commanded every man to do his endeavour mutually to maintain plain dealing and verity. For in the twenty-third of Exodus we read that the Lord did charge us, saying: Thou shalt not have to do with a false report.” And in the nineteenth of Leviticus, “Ye shall not steal, saith the Lord, nor lie, nor deal falsely one with another.” And the apostle James, after he had touched the evils of the tongue (especially because out of one mouth proceeded good and bad) doth add: “These things, my brethren, cught not to be so. Doth a fountain at one hole send forth sweet water and bitter also? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? So can no fountain give both salt water and fresh also.” Verily, since God hath given to man a tongue, that by the means of it one man may know another’s meaning, that it may bless or praise God, and do good to all men?; it is altogether requisite that it should be applied to the use that it was made ἴον, that thereby a man out of a good heart might utter good talk, clear from deceit and hurt, from blasphemy and railings, and from filthy speaking.
But it is best for us by parts more nearly to sift the special points of this precept or argument. First of all, in this commandment it is forbidden every man in the court before a judge to bear false witness. Therefore all witness
[1 domatur et domita est, Lat. ] [2 etiam sibi ipsi. Lat. omitted: and to one’s self also.] [ ut imago respondeat archetypo, is Bullinger’s Latin. ]]
bearing simply is not forbidden us, but false witnessing only. “Do not speak (saith he) false witness.” It is lawful, therefore, to bear true witness, especially if a magistrate demand it of thee. And therefore the Hebrew phrase is very significant, and saith, “Answer not false witness against thy neighbour4.” Now he answereth, that is asked a question. And in bearing of witness, he that speaketh must have a regard of God alone and simple truth; he must lay aside all evil affections, hatred, fear, or all part-taking; he must hide nothing, nor dissemble in his speech: he must not devise any thing of his own making, nor corrupt the meaning of his words that spake; as those false witnesses did in the Gospel, when before the judges they said, “I will destroy this temple, and in three days build it again;” for they corrupted the meaning of Christ. And the Lord in the law doth say, “Thou shalt not take up a false report, neither shalt thou put thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a matter of justice according to the greater number, for to pervert judgment.” He therefore, that beareth false witness, committeth sin against God and his neighbour. For first of all, he staineth himself with sacrilege and perjury, and so by telling a lie in the name of God he doth despite to God himself. Moreover, he doth to his neighbour so much hurt, as he taketh damage by the judge’s sentence either in body, goods, or loss of life. For it is manifest that the judge, being moved with thy false witness, did punish the accused party in body, goods, or life itself: which he would not have done, had he not been drawn thereunto by thy false witnessing. And therefore a very good and just law is that, which Moses hath uttered in these words: “If a false witness be found among you, then shall ye do unto him as he had thought wickedly to have done to his brother: and thou shalt put evil away from the midst of thee: that the rest may hear and fear, and dare after that do no more such wickedness among you. Thou shalt have no compassion on him; but life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.” To this belongeth the saying of Salomon in the Proverbs, where he crieth, “God hateth a false witness.” And
+ ΓΏΓ ΝΟ. Ainsworth translates, Thou shalt not answer.) - 8 [BULLINGER, 11
ἐς “A ing ἘΠ Ρ 114 THE THIRD DECADE. [sErM. again, “A false witness shall not scape unpunished.” We have an example in the two false witnesses that rose against the chaste! and honest Susanna.
In this law are condemned also all false and wrongful accusations, and unjust judgments bought for money at the mouth of unrighteous judges. And as those deeds are worthily forbidden, so likewise are they misliked that set their tongue to sale; I mean, such merchants as for a morsel df bread will easily be hired either to bless or curse the innocent. Of which sort of cursing, spiteful, and soothing tongues thou mayest find a great number in every degree and state, both of rich and poor, of spiritual and of lay people.
Furthermore, we have here commended unto us the inviolable keeping of bargains, covenants, and contracts; and, on the other side, are we especially charged not to use either guile, or deceit, or craft, or any kind of cozening. Of which I have spoken where I treated of theft. the But now the especial thing that is forbidden the faithful herein is to tell a lie, that is, to speak an untruth, either upon purpose therewith to hurt his neighbour, or upon any vain and light occasion, or otherwise upon some evil affection. For among men many kinds and sundry sorts of lies are reckoned up. St Augustine, in his fourteenth chapter ad Con-sentium de Mendacio, maketh mention of eight kinds of lies I among many will name a few only. There is a jesting lie; as when I say that I lie, or other men know that I do lie, by which lie of mine they take some profit, or (as I should rather say) some pastime or pleasure. To lie in that sort, although it be no great and heinous sin, is yet a sign of very great lightness; which the apostle misliketh in the faithful, as it may appear in the fifth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. And yet I think not that devised fables, parables, and feigned narrations are hereby forbidden: which, as they are in the scripture everywhere used in matters of most importance, so have they also a very good grace, being of themselves very necessary, and profitable for the readers. Notwithstanding St Augustine will not have jesting mirth? in the number of lies.
[[ pudicissimam feeminarum, Lat. ] [2 August. Opp. Par. 1531. Tom. 1v. fol. 5. col. 1.] [ Exceptis jocis, que nunquam sunt putata mendacia.—August.]
[Tom. 1v. fol. 2.]]
There is, moreover, an officious lie; that is, when I fitten or tell an untruth, for duty’s sake, to the end that by my lie I may keep my neighbour harmless from the evil or mischief that hangeth over his head. Of this sort there are many examples in the holy scriptures. The midwives of Egypt did save the Hebrews’ children alive, whom Pharao commanded to be slain at their birth; and, being accused before the king for breaking the law, they did by an officious and a very witty lie excuse themselves, and pretend a certain speediness of travail in the Hebrews’ wives, more than the Egyptian women had. Rahab doth with a very strange tale deceive the citizens of Jericho, and by her lie preserve the spies of the people of God. And Michol, David’s wife, with a lie did save her husbands life, and sent away her father Saul’s servants without their purpose, for which the king had sent them. And Jonathan feigneth many a thing at his father’s table, for the good-will that he bare to David, whom by honest shifts and godly deceits he did rid from the bloody hand of his cruel father Saul. The holy widow Judith also by lying and dissembling doth enter the tent of captain Holo-phernes; and by cutting off his head doth set her afflicted country-folks at liberty again.
Now it hath been a question among the divines of the primitive church, whether they, whose examples I have here alleged, did sin in lying or no. Origen, and they that followed him, did permit a wise and godly man to lie, if so be it were for the welfare of them for whom the lie was made. Neither was St Hierome without suspicion of Origen’s opinion: for upon the epistle of Paul to the Galatians he writ, that Peter and Paul, to serve the time, did use a kind of simulation”. But St Augustine, admonishing Hierome of that
[4 fingo, Lat.—to fitton, to form lies or fictions.—Nares.] [5 civibus suis, Lat. her citizens.] [6 Ex quo perspicuum est, quod nisi ita mentiti fuerimus, ut mag-]
[num nobis ex hoc aliquod quearatur bonum, judicandi simus quasi]
[inimici ejus, qui ait: Ego sum veritas.—Hzc Origenes scripsit, negare]
[non possumus.docetque magistris mentiendum. Hieron. Apol. ady.]
[Rufin. Lib. 1. Tom 1v, col. 369. Par. 1706.] [7 Restitit (Paulus) secundum faciem publicam Petro et ceteris;]
[ut hypocrisis observandee legis.. correptionis hypocrisi emendaretur.]
[—Utilem vero simulationem, et assumendam in tempore, Jehu regis]
[Israel nos doceat exemplum, &c.—Hieron. Comment. in. Ep. ad Gal.]
[cap. 11. Opp. Tom. 1v. col. 243.]]
matter, denieth flatly that we ought once to suspect that a lie is allowed in the sacred scriptures. On the other side again, St Hierome telleth Augustine, that the best interpreters of the ancient church are full and wholly of his mind. There are, to and fro, very learned and large epistles written on both sides, which are extant now, and to be seen amongst us; “and therefore I need not stick hereupon any longer!, The same Augustine, in the fifteenth chapter of his book that he wrote ad Consentium contra Mendacium, saith: “He which saith that some lies are righteous, is to be thought to say nothing else but that some sins are righteous, and so, consequently, that some unrighteousness is righteous: than which what can be spoken more absurd? For whereupon is sin, but because it is contrary to righteousness? But those things that are done against the law of God cannot be righteous, Now it is said to God, Thy law is truth; and therefore that which is against the truth cannot be righteous. But who doubteth but that every lie is against the truth? Therefore no lie can possibly be righteous?” And so forth as followeth. Now on the other side, very notable learned men have thought, that Augustine was somewhat too stubbornly set against lying. And therefore some there are, which, going as it were betwixt both, do say, that they (whose examples I alleged even now) were not altogether without all sin; and yet they suppose, that their fault in those lies was a very small sin. I would wish those, which will allow themselves to lie officiously, to take heed to themselves, lest, by following their own affections more than enough, they do at last take that for an officious lie which is indeed a pernicious lie,
[1 Jerome’s Epistle on this subject is Ep. 74. Opp. Tom. 1v. col.]
[618-626. Augustine’s letters are given in the same place, and in]
[August. Opp. Ep. viu. 1x. ΧΙ. Tom. 11. fol. 8, 9. Par. 1531.] [2 Nihil autem judicandus est dicere, qui dicit aliqua justa esse]
[mendacia, nisi aliqua justa esse peccata, ac per hoc aliqua justa esse]
[que injusta sunt. Quo quid absurdius dici potest? Unde enim est]
[peccatum nisi quia justitiee contrarium est?.Ea vero qua contra]
[legem Dei fiunt, justa esse non possunt. Dictum est autem Deo, Lex]
[tua veritas: ac per hoe, quod est contra veritatem justum esse non]
[potest. Quis autem dubitet contra veritatem esse mendacium omne?]
[Nullum ergo justum esse potest mendacium.—August. Opp. ad Consent.]
[Tom. 1v. fol. 11. col. 2. Par. 1531.]]
1ν.} THE NINTH AND TENTH PRECEPTS, &c. 117 For the last and worst kind of lie is a pernicious lie: and that proceedeth of a corrupt mind, and tendeth to the damage of thy neighbour, which hath deserved no hurt at thy hand. This kind of lie is everywhere cried out upon throughout the scriptures: and the fault thereof increaseth according to the quantity of the mischief that it doth. For divines and ecclesiastical preachers do lie of all other most perniciously, while with lies and corrupt doctrine they kill the souls of men, and make the bodies and goods of silly seduced people both subject to the curse of God and in danger of a thousand perils more. And hereunto belongeth hypocrisy also, which the Lord Jesus doth in the gospel wonderfully taunt and bait exceedingly. Now hypocrisy doth shew itself, not only and so much in crafty and deceitful words, as also, and far more, in the whole conversation of our lives; as when we make semblance, or else dissemble such things as are not, by that means lying to God and beguiling our neighbour.
Furthermore, in this law are forbidden tale-bearings, privy slanders, backbitings, close whisperings, and all suspicions which rise by such occasions. Despiteful quips therefore, a and heads that are ready to speak evil of all men, are plainly condemned. For some there are which are without honesty, not sticking to slander all estates and conditions, both high and low, private and public, and people of all ages: and for that purpose do they cast abroad infamous libels, they stick up written pasquils, and set out pictures to defame men withal. And to themselves they seem very eloquent, while with bitter words they check, and find fault with, all sorts of men: yea, they account the malapert prattling of their un-.. bridled tongues to be a commendation of uncontrolled liberty and free licence of speaking. But they sin very grievously, which take delight in cursed speaking; that is, which carry about a tongue full of bitterness, curses, and deceit: even as they also are not without sin, that love a-life to hear envenomed speech and hurtful talking.
But we make a difference, and do except from wrongful quarrels such accusations as are justly made and openly shewed, either by writing or word of mouth; and such kind
[3 a-life, as my life, exceedingly. Nares’ Glossary in voc. ]]
of chidings and chastenings also as preachers use in sacred sermons: for they, which do in that sort chastise and pursue wicked vices and errors, do purpose nothing else but the glory of God and safeguard of men’s souls, which they desire to advance by all the means they can, not seeking to utter their spite or wreak the malice of their naughty affections.
But we may gather by many arguments, that it is a heinous crime falsely to slander and wickedly to backbite our is brethren and neighbours. For there is scarcely any thing that doth so much disgrace us as backbiting doth. We are made to the similitude and likeness of God, that we may be the sons of God; but false accusations do make us, of the sons of God, to be the sons of the devil. Now we all abhor and utterly detest the name of the devil: but if thou art a wrongful slanderer, then art thou the very same that thou dost so detest: for the devil taketh his name of wrongful accusing, and is called a slanderer!. Moreover, in the book of Proverbs, God is said to hate backbiters and wrongful slanderers. And in the twenty-fourth chapter we read: The thought of a fool is sin, and a slanderer is hated of men.” For a good name (as the same Salomon witnesseth) is a precious treasure. When xxii. 8S therefore the fame and good name of a man is put in hazard by the false reports and slanders of a wicked tongue, the chiefest jewel that a man hath is put in jeopardy; so that in very deed a slanderer doth seem to sin more deeply than a thief, unless a man make more account of his transitory riches than of his name and good report: and therefore it is strange at this day, that a thief for stealing is never pardoned, and backbiters for slanders are never once touched?2. I would to God that magistrates would once rightly weigh the sundry circumstances of sundry matters, and punish every fault with penalties agreeable to the offence, and revenge the greater crimes with great and sharper punishments. For God truly doth require of and charge every one of us, to do our best in maintaining truth, for the defence of our neighbour’s good name, and preservation of his earthly substance.
[[} AwBolos,—speciatim ita dicitur qui est ad calumniandum pro-]
[clivis, calumniator. 1 Tim. iii. 11; Tit. ii. 3; 2 Tim. iii. 3. Schleusneri]
[Lex. in voe.] [2 aut minimum, Lat. omitted: or as gently as possibly may be.]]
In this law also it seemeth that flattery is forbidden, which, as the proverb doth truly say, maketh a fool mad, and causeth him that is mad to be incurably mad. And therefore Salomon saith, that a flatterer is worthy to be cursed of all men. “They (saith he) which say to the wicked, thou art just, shall be cursed of the people, and hated of the tribes.” And” in another place: “The words of a tale-bearer be as though they were simple, and yet they pierce to the inward parts of the heart. When he speaketh softly, believe him not: for there are seven mischiefs in his heart.” And therefore in Ec- ο΄ clesiastes it is very well said: “It is better to hear the rebuke of a wise man than the song of a fool,” that is, of a flatterer. And yet, although flattery be so great an evil, it is notwithstanding favoured of all men; so that as an infecting plague it is crept into the church’, into princes’ palaces, into judges’ courts, and every private house. For, like an alluring mermaid, it hath a song that doth delight our flesh. For we, like fools, are blinded with self-love, and do not mark that flatteries and allurements do breed our destruction. Ezechiel blameth greatly all flattering preachers, and saith: “Woe unto them that say unto the people, Peace, peace, when there is no peace; which daub with untempered morter, which sew enticing pillows under every elbow, and put alluring kerchiefs upon every head to hunt after and catch souls.” Of such kind of teachers, that delight more in lies and flattery than in sincere verity, the apostle Paul saith: “The time shall come that they shall not abide to hear sound doctrine; but they, whose ears do itch, shall get them teachers according to their lusts, and shall turn their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables”.” And David, praying against this plague, as the thing that is most pernicious to all kings and princes in authority, doth say: “The righteous shall smite me friendly: but the precious balms of the wicked shall not anoint my head” And again, “Lord, deliver me from lying lips and [3 Bullinger follows the Vulgate. ]
[ adde et occuparit, Lat. nay, has gained possession of, omitted. ] [5 Sacram in templo cathedram, Lat.]
[6 qui consuunt blandos pulvillos sub omni axilla aut cubito, et cervicalia blanda sub omni capite, Lat.]
[7 unto, 1577, ad fabulas, Lat.]
[ et increpabit me, Lat. omitted: and shall reprove me.]
[9 oleum autem peccatoris non impinguabit caput meum, Lat. after the Vulgate, Psal. cxli. 5.]
- deceitful tongue.” Thus much have I hitherto said for the God. €Xposition of the ninth commandment. Now followeth the tenth and last commandment, which, word for word, is expressed thus: “Thou shalt not covet thy mneighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” Which words the Lord in the fifth of Deuteronomy doth lay down in this manner and order: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, nor his field, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” Neither is there any difference or contrariety in the thing itself, although in Exodus, “Thy neighbour’s house,” and in Deuteronomy, “Thy neighbour’s wife,” be set first in order. Now this maketh?!. somewhat against them that divide this last precept into two commandments, which is indeed but one, as it may be partly gathered by this order thus inverted in the setting of it down in two sundry places.
In this precept coveting is especially forbidden; I mean, evil longing and corrupt desiring. For coveting is a word indifferently used, as well in the better as the worse signification. For David affirmeth that he did long after God and his law: “I have wished for (saith he), O Lord, thy salvation.” And, “I have longed after thy commandments.” Psal. cxix. We must here, therefore, be able with discretion to judge betwixt that good affection, which God did first create in man; and that other motion, the root of evil, that groweth in our nature by the descent of corruption from our first father Adam. There was in Adam before his fall a certain good appetite with pleasure and delight. He was not so hungry, that hunger did pain his empty bowels (which is indeed a plague for sin), but he did eat with a certain sweet and delectable appetite. He was delighted with the pleasures of Paradise. He did with a certain holy desire both love and long after the woman, which God had brought and placed before him. And this good appetite or desire proceeded from God himself, who made both Adam and all his affections good at the first. Yea, and at this day also there are in men certain natural affections and desires, as, to eat, to drink, to sleep, and such like, belonging to the preserva-
[1 Facit autem. Lat. But this maketh. Sce Vol. 1. p. 213.]]
tion? of man’s life, which of themselves are not to be accounted among the number of sins, unless by corruption of original vice they pass the bounds for which they are ordained. But in this treatise upon the tenth commandment desire is used in the worser part, and is taken for the concupiscence or coveting of evil things. This concupiscence, being translated from Adam into us all, is the fruit of our corrupt nature, or offspring of original sin, whose seat is in the heart of man; and is the fountain and head-spring of all sin and wickedness that is to be found in mortal men. For the Lord in the gospel doth expressly say: “” Whatsoever entereth in by the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught: but the things that come out of the mouth proceed from the heart; and those defile the man. For out of the heart do come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, whoredoms, theft, false witnessbearings, despiteful speaking: these be they that do defile the man.” And the apostle James, speaking altogether as plainly in another place, doth say: “Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted of God: for every one is tempted while he is drawn away, and enticed with the bait of his own concupiscence. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Concupiscence, therefore, is a motion or affection of the mind, which of our corrupt nature doth lust against αοά and his law, and stirreth us up to wickedness, although the consent, or deed itself, doth not presently follow upon our conceit. For if the deed do follow the lust, then doth the sin increase by steps and degrees. For? first we must consider the very blotting out, or corrupting, of the image of God in us, original sin, and that disease that lieth hid in our members, which is by us called evil affections. Secondarily, we must consider that it increaseth by our delight and pleasure therein. Thirdly, it is augmented, if we consent and seek after counsel to commit the crime. And, lastly, if the consent break forth to the deed-doing, then is it greater and greater, according to the qualities of accidents or circumstances. Now all these are reckoned in the number of sins,
[2 ad conservationem ac propagationem, Lat., to the preservation]
[and propagation. ] [3 In peccato enim, Lat. omitted: for in the case of sin.] Indesequiturfere consensus, Lat. Thence follows usually consent. ]]
though by degrees the one of them is greater than the other: touching which I will, by God’s sufferance, speak somewhat more largely, when I come to the treatise of sin. Wherefore that evil and unlawful affection, which is of our natural corruption, and lieth hid in our nature, but bewrayeth itself in our hearts against the pureness of God’s law and majesty, is that very sin, which is in this law condemned. For, although there be some which think that such motions, diseases, blemishes, and affections of the mind are no sins, yet God, by forbidding them in this law, doth flatly condemn them. But if any man doubt of this exposition, let him hear the words vil of the apostle, who saith: “I knew not sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not lust. Without the law sin was dead: I once lived without law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and wi I was dead.” And again, “The affection of the flesh is death, but the affection of the Spirit is life and peace: because the affection of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not obedient to the law of God, neither can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” The affection of concupiscence therefore doth condemn us; or, as I should rather say, we are worthily condemned by the just judgment of God for our concupiscence’, which doth every hour and moment bewray itself in the thoughts of our hearts. There are (I confess) sundry fantasies and many thoughts in the minds of men, which, while they tend not to the offence of God or our neighbour, nor do contain any uncleanness or self-love, are not to be counted in the number of sins: as I did immediately after the beginning declare unto you.
So hitherto, verily, God hath forbidden the grosser sins which man doth daily commit against him; and now at last he cometh to the concupiscence and corrupt nature of man, the well-spring of all evil, which in this precept he goeth about to stop up and cause to sleep: or, as I should rather say, to detect to the eyes of all men the infirmity and weakness of mankind. For what is he that hath not some whiles felt concupiscence? yea, what is he, that is not every hour and moment pricked with the sting of fleshly concupiscence? What man is there, I pray you, that is not diseased with the
[1 in nobis latentem atque, Lat., omitted: which lurketh in us,]
[and.)]
cal ww] THE NINTH AND TENTH PRECEPTS, &C. 123 natural sickness common to us all, and spotted with the blemish of original guiltiness? Being therefore convinced of sin before the Lord, we are not able to excuse our fault, nor escape the sentence of the judge that doth condemn all flesh, For the just Lord doth expressly condemn our natural corruption and wicked inclination, which is a continual turning from God, and rebellion against the sincerity which he requireth at our hands. For they are called happy that are clean in heart, because they shall see God. They therefore, whose hearts are wrapped in lusts, diseased with concupiscence, and spotted with the poison of original guilt, shall not see God. But such are all we that are the sons of Adam. And therefore this law doth convince us all of sin, infirmity, natural corruption, and of damnation which followeth upon the neck of our corruption.
Moreover, God in his law doth not only require the outward cleanness of the body, but the inward pureness also of of the mind, the soul, and all our affections; and giveth charge that all, whatsoever we think, determine, go about, or do, should tend to the health and profit of our neighbour. This commandment therefore may be referred to all the other that went before. For the Lord himself expounding this commandment, “Thou shalt not commit murder,” addeth: “Whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment,” &ec. Matt. v; and again, in expounding this precept, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” he addeth; “Whosoever looketh on another man’s wife to lust after her, he hath committed adultery already with her in his heart.”
And here he doth exactly rehearse the things which we do covet, and, in longing after which, we are wont to sin. Now our covetousness consisteth in the desire either of things or persons. The things that we covet are either immovyeable or moveable: as we Germans do usually say, Die guteren sind etliche ligende, etliche farende. The immoveable things are houses, farms, lands, vineyards, woods, meadows, pastures, fishpools, and such like. Things moveable are money, cattle, honour?, office, and dignities. The persons are wife, children, man-servants and maid-servants. These and such like, which our neighbour hath in possession, none of us ought to covet
[2 Helvetice, Lat., in our Swiss phrase. [3 honores, Lat. honours
to his hurt or hinderance: or if any man happen to covet them, yet let him not consent to the concupiscence, nor take delight therein; let him not seek to obtain the thing that he so desireth, nor suffer his ill-conceived purpose to break out to the deed-doing, in taking from his neighbour his things or persons: for God requireth at the hands of those that worship him such kind of righteousness as is altogether sound and absolutely perfect, not in the outward deed alone, but also in the inward mind and settled purpose of the heart. [Matt. v. 20.) Whereupon the Lord in the gospel saith: “Unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God.” But touching the manner how God’s commandments are fulfilled, and that faith is the absolute righteousness, I will hereafter in another sermon tell you, as I have already said somewhat in the sermon that I made upon true faith.
Hitherto in twelve sermons I have run through and declared the ten precepts of the moral law, in which I told you that the form of virtue is laid before our eyes, thereby to frame our manners according to the will of God. God himself hath divided all the branches of his moral law into two tables. The first doth shew the duty of us men to our Creator, and teacheth how to worship aright our God and governor. The second table, in six whole precepts, doth declare what, and how much, every man is bound to owe to his neighbour, and how we may all live both quietly, well, and civilly one with another. It commandeth us to honour our parents, and all those which God hath ordained instead of our parents. It forbiddeth murder, or doing injury to any man in his life and body. It forbiddeth whoredom, adultery, and wicked lusts, commending wedlock, cleanness, and a continent life!. It forbiddeth lies, false witness-bearings, and evil? desires; and biddeth us to love our neighbours with all our hearts, being ready at all times with all our power to do them good.
To God, our Lord and most prudent lawgiver, be all praise and thanks for ever and ever. Amen.
[1 Prohibet furta, dolos, imposturas, Lat. omitted: it forbiddeth]
[thefts, cheatings, and impositions. ]]
[y [2 et noxias, Lat. omitted: and hurtful.]]
Of the Ceremonial Law of God, but Especially of the Priesthood, Time, and Place, Ap-
Pointed for the Ceremonies. The Fifth Sermon
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