Thou shalt not bear falfe Witness against thy Neighbour.

IN

N those great changes that are made in a country, by the prevailing of one party over another, it is very convenient that the prince, and those who are in authority under him, fhould use all just and proper methods for preventing any mischief to the publick from feditious And Governors do well, when they encourage any good fubject to difcover (as his duty obligeth him) whatever plots or confpiracies may be any way gerous to the ftate: Neither are they to be blamed, even when they receive informations from bad men, in order to find VOL. XIII. B

men.

dan

out

out the truth, when it concerns the public welfare. Every one indeed is naturally inclined to have an ill opinion of an informer; although it is not impoffible but an honeft man may be called by that name. For whoever knoweth any thing, the telling of which would prevent fome great evil to his prince, his country, or his neighbour, is bound in confcience to reveal it. But the mischief is, that when. parties are violently inflamed, which feemeth unfortunately to be our case at prefent, there is never wanting a fett of evil inftruments, who, either out of mad zeal, private hatred, or filthy lucre, are always ready to offer their fervice to the prevailing fide, and become accufers of their brethren without any regard to truth or charity. Holy David numbers this among the chief of his fufferings; False Witneffes are rifen up against me, and fuch as breathe out Cruelty a. Our Saviour and his apoftles did likewife undergo the fame diftrefs, as we read both in the Gofpels and the Acts.

• Pfal. xxvii. 12.

Now

Now because the fin of falfe witneffing is fo horrible and dangerous in itself, and fo odious to God and man: And because the bitterness of too many among us is rifen to fuch a height, that it is not easy to know where it will ftop, or how far fome weak and wicked minds may be carried by a mistaken zeal, a malicious temper, or hope of reward, to break this great commandment delivered in the text: Therefore, in order to prevent this evil, and the confequences of it, at least among you who are my hearers, I fhall,

I. FIRST, Shew you feveral ways by which a man may be called a falfe witness against his neighbour,

II. SECONDLY, I fhall give you fome rules for your conduct and behaviour, in order to defend yourselves against the malice and cunning of false accufers.

III. AND laftly, I fhall conclude with fhewing you very briefly, how far it is your duty, as good fubjects and good neighbours, to bear faithful witness, when you are lawfully called

to it by thofe in authority, or by the fincere advice of your own confciences.

I. As to the first, there are feveral ways by which a man may be juftly called a falfe witness against his neighbour.

Firft, According to the direct meaning of the word, when a man accuseth his neighbour without the leaft ground of truth. So we read, that Jezabel hired two fons of Belial to accufe Naboth for blafpheming God and the King, for which, although he was entirely innocent, he was fioned to death. And in cur age it is not eafy to tell how many men have loft their lives, been ruined in their fortunes, and put to ignominious punishment, by the downright perjury of falfe witneffes ! the law itself in fuch cafes being not able to protect the innocent. But this is fo horrible a crime, that it doth not need to be aggravated by words.

A fecond way by which a man becometh a falfe witnefs is, when he mixeth falfehood and truth together, or concealeth

1 Kings xxi. 13.

fome

fome circumftances, which, if they were told, would deftroy the falfhoods he uttereth. So the two falfe witneffes who accufed our Saviour before the chief Priefts, by a very little perverting his words, would have made him guilty of a capital crime; for fo it was among the Jews to prophefy any evil against the temple: This fellow faid, I am able to defroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days; whereas the words, as our Saviour fpoke them, were to another end, and differently expreffed: for when the Jews afked him to fhew them a fign, he faid; Deftroy this temple, and in three days I will raife it up. In fuch cafes as these, an innocent man is half confounded, and looketh as if he were guilty, fince he neither can deny his words, nor perhaps readily ftrip them from the malicious additions of a falfe witness.

Thirdly, A man is a falfe witness, when, in accufing his neighbour, he endeavoureth to aggravate by his geftures, and tone of his voice, or when he chargeth a man with words which were only repeated or