Christ, that your bodies and souls are the temples of the Holy Ghost," sanctified and bought with the precious blood of the Son of God; therefore such filthy sins ought not to be entertained in them, yea, not even the motions of those sins. This the apostle teacheth the Corinthians, who were purified from this impurity, 1 Cor. vi. 10, 11, 15, 20. (c) Let the commandment of God, with whom we have to do, affect your souls so, as to render you averse from this sin. He proclaims to you from heaven amidst a display of his exalted majesty," Thou shalt not commit adultery." Who will then dare to excite the least motion of this sin in his soul? "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour: not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God." Thus speaks Paul, I Thes. iv. 3, 4, 5. (d) It happens to some, yea, to believers also, that they are disturbed with powerful motions of these sins: an unclean devil knows how to allure them by wonderful representations, and to distress their souls, and they do not see how they shall disengage themselves from him. But I would advise these persons, (1) to be afraid of such evil motions of lust. It is the design of your enemy to bring you to a most grievous fall: repel forthwith those motions and ideas, that arise and are injected into you, as ye would shake fire from your clothes, and keep all your members under, that they may not seduce you: yea, like chaste Job, "make a covenant with your eyes, that they may not look upon a maid,” Job xxxi. 1. The words of James are applicable here, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," James iv. 7. (2) Employ yourselves with something or other: be either industriously engaged in your calling; or with some work, which is otherwise not so necessary; or associate with decent company, and discourse with them of civil, or ecclesiastical, or more spiritual matters; or sing a psalm, or spiritual song, either alone, or with others: "Be always busy with some work, that the devil may find you occupied," saith one of the ancients. (3) Be much engaged in prayer, complain of your case to the Lord, call upon him, and plead with him to help you: yea, abstain also sometimes from such meats and drinks, as inflame the spirits; "This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting," Mark ix. 29. (4) Let husbands and wives love one another heartily, that they may not loathe one another, and that their conjugal affection may not be diverted to a stranger. See what Solomon and Paul say, Prov. v. 17-21. 1 Cor. vii. 2-5, (5) Let unmarried persons, who cannot contain themselves, enter into an honour

able marriage, "but only in the Lord," as the apostle adviseth, i Cor. vii 39, that is, in the fear of the Lord, after asking counsel of the Lord, and with a person who fears the Lord: "The sons of God must not see the daughters of men, that they are fair, and take them wives of all whom they choose;" it was this that corrupted the old world, as Moses relates, Gen. vi. 1, 2. "Beauty is vain, and favour is deceitful; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised," saith Solomon, Prov. xxxi. 30. (6) I show you a still more excellent way; let every one of you enter into a spiritual marriage with the Son of God, and let him who hath connected himself with him in that blessed marriage covenant, devote his love wholly to him, and delight himself in him. This would detach the soul from too great a love to the creature, and "they who had wives would be as though they had none," 1 Cor. vii 29. "The Lord would then delight in you; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so your God would rejoice over you," as he saith, Isaiah Ixii. 4, 5, and "ye should be blessed," and according to Rev. xix, 9, "be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." Amen.

THE

EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

EXPLAINED.

XLII. LORD'S DAY.

Exod. xx. 15. Thou shalt not steal.

Q. 110. What doth God forbid in the eighth commandment ?

A. God forbids not only those thefts and robberies which are punishable by magistrates; but he comprehends under the name of theft all wicked tricks and devices, whereby we design to appropriate to ourselves the goods which belong to our neighbour; whether it be by force, or under the appearance of right; as by unjust weights, ells, measures, fraudulent merchandize, false coins, usury, or by any other way forbidden by God; as also all covetousness, all abuse and waste of his gifts.

Q. 111. But what doth God require in this command?

A. That I promote the advantage of my neighbour in every instance I can or may; and deal with him as I desire to be dealt with by others further also, that I faithfully labour, that I may be able to relieve the needy.

"GOD," saith Paul to the Athenians, Acts xvii. 25, “giveth

to all life, breath, and all things." Life and breath are either "the breath of life," which "God hath breathed into man," as Moses testifieth, Gen. ii. 17. Or if life and breath be considered distinctly, life is that which gives existence to man by his creation or birth, and breath, by which he inhales and exhales the air in breathing, is the action and preservation of his life by the influence of God, by which he maintains that life, which he hath given. But as neither life nor breath can endure, unless the powers, which are continually wasted by perspiration, be recompensed again, therefore God giveth us all things to maintain our life and breath, as food and clothing. The Lord is indeed "a faithful Creator," 1 Peter iv. 19. “The living God giveth us all things richly to enjoy," saith the apostle, I Tim. vi. 17. Man, although he is the most excellent of all God's creatures on earth, was nevertheless created by God after all the creatures and why? it was in order that God might introduce him into a plentiful habitation, and thus show that he would maintain his life and breath. If it had pleased the Lord, he could have maintained the life and breath of man immediately, as he supported Moses, Elias and Christ forty days and nights; but he would afford continually new evidences of his independence, allsufficiency, wisdom and goodness, and of man's dependence on his Maker. As the Lord then giveth man all things to preserve him alive, so he chooses that he should also retain them, and he doth not permit any person to bereave him of those things, that he thay not by the want of them lose the breath of life. Therefore he saith, as the only Lawgiver, who can save and destroy, "Thou shalt not steal." He required in the sixth commandment, that no man should kill his neighbour; and since the woman is the delight of his eyes, and thus refreshes and continues his life and breath, therefore the Lord forbids also adultery in the seventh commandment. But can any man retain and enjoy the breath of his life with the wife whom he loves, when others deprive him of food and clothing? surely no; and therefore the Lawgiver enjoins on every man in the eighth commandment, that he should not steal.

The instructor explaining this commandment, shows for that purpose,

I. The sins that are forbidden in it, Question 110.

II. The virtues that are commanded in it, Question 111.

1. The sin which the Lawgiver forbids, here is stealing. We will survey this iniquity first in itself, and then in its causes; and will

then also attend to the abominable nature of the sin. The Hebrew word ganab signifies to do something secretly, that is shameful, and of which a person is ashamed. When "David mourned for Absalom," by whose death nevertheless the insurrection against him was quelled," the victory was turned into mourning to all the people, and the people gat them by stealth into the city, as people being ashamed, steal away, when they flee in battle," as we read, 2 Sam. xix. 1, 2, 3. And this word signifies doing thus particularly by deceit, as "Absalom stole the heart of the men of Israel," 2 Sam. xv. 6, when by deceitful speeches he withdrew the minds of the Israelites from his father, and inclined them to himself. And so stealing consists in "taking our neighbour's property from him, with or without his knowledge, against his mind."

God hath given to every man his particular portion of the goods of this world, as his property. It was his will that Adam should "subdue the earth," and all the creatures on it to himself," and that he should have dominion over them," Gen. i. 28. But when men multiplied, it was necessary that each of them should have his portion: "Cain, a tiller of the ground, had therefore the fruits of the ground, and Abel, a shepherd, had his sheep," Gen. iv. 3, 4. When men were not yet so numerous, that they could occupy the whole earth, every man became the owner of that land, and of those goods, which he first found. When the whole body of men purposed to settle together in the land of Shinar, and were unwilling to disperse over the whole earth, the Lord defeated their purpose by confounding their language, that he might induce them to dwell on all the earth, and each to take for his property the possession that was allotted him; for when "the Most High separated the sons of Adam, he divided to the nations their inheritance," Deut. xxxii. 8. Are there at present no more vacant lands to be occupied, every individual nevertheless holds, as his special goods and property, that which he obtains by right of inheritance, by traffic, learning, and any honourable art, or by the labour of his hands, and thus "he eats his own bread," according to 2 Thess. iii. 12. It is therefore, considering this wise distribution of goods among men, exceedingly preposterous in certain persons,* to assert, with the ancient Essenes, a community of goods, whereby all things should be common to all, and none should have aught as his own;

By these the author designs the Labadists, a sect which existed in his time, but which hath since fallen into oblivion. They were so called from John Labadie, their founder, a minister of the Reformed Church of France, a great enthusiast, who held several other erroneous tenets.