Prevalence of.

desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.

Is. 57. 17. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him.

Mic. 2. 2. They covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks.

Hab. 2. 9. Wo to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high.

1 Cor. 5. 11. I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one no not to

eat.

1 Cor. 6. 10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunk. ards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Ep. 5. 5. No whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Jude 11. Wo unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Baalam for reward.

Lying.

390. Has lying been a prevalent sin ?

Is. 59. 3. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies. 13. In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

Prohibited.

Jer. 9. 2. O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies:-Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me saith the Lord. 8. Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit.

Hos. 4. 1. The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

Mic. 6. 12. The rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful.

Jn. 8. 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth; because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it.

391. Has God prohibited lying?

Ex. 20. 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Lev. 19. 11. Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. And ye shall not swear by my name falsely.

Ps. 34. 13. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

Offensive to God.

Pr. 4. 24. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

Ep. 4. 25. Wherefore putting away lying, speak

every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.

Col. 3. 9. Lie not one to another.

1 Pet. 3. 10. He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.

392. Is God displeased with liars ?

Ps. 5. 6. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

Ps. 55. 23. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.

Pr. 6. 16. These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren.

Pr. 12. 19. The lip of truth shall be established forever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment. 22. Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.

Pr. 19. 5. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape. 9. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.

Is. 28. 15. We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore thus saith the Lord God-Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.

Zec. 8. 16. Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in

A divine ordinance-Recommended.

your gates: And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord.

Ac. 5. 3. Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?– -Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost.

Rev. 21. 8. All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Rev. 22. 15. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Marriage.

393. Is marriage a divine ordinance?

Ep. 5. 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

1 Tim. 4. 1. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faithForbidding to marry.

394. Is marriage recommended?

Gen. 2. 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him a help meet for him. 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he woman, and brought her unto the man.

Ps. 68. 6. God setteth the solitary in families.

Ps. 107. 41. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The

Marriage law inviolable.

righteous shall see it and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.

Pr. 18. 22. Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord.

I Cor. 7. 2. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

1 Tim. 3. 2. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife.

1 Tim. 5. 14. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some are already turned aside after Satan.

Heb. 13. 4. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

395. Is the marriage law inviolable?

Gen. 2. 23. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Mal. 2. 15. Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith, that he hateth putting away.

Mat. 19. 4. Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 8. Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry