SERMON XX.

NINTH COMMANDMENT. PART I.

EXOD. xx. 16.

THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOUR.

I

T doth not*, I think, appear, that

the testimony of a witness, according to the law of Mofes, was to be delivered upon oath. His ferious affeveration was however accompanied, according to the ufage of those times, with the folemnity of fome fignificant action.

VOL. II.

Levit. v. 1. may be understood of the Criminal.

6,7.

Deut.xvii. At the mouth of two witneffes, or three wilneffes, fhall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. The hands of the witneffes fhall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all Deut.xiii. the people. If thy brother entice thee fecretly,

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A&s vii.

58.

faying, let us go and ferve other Godsthou shalt furely kill him: thine hand shall be firft upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. It seems, as if the witneffes gave the firft blow to the criminal; and that this was at the fame time both the fignal, and, as it were, the warrant for his execution. When St. Stephen was ftoned, it was at St. Paul's feet that the witneffes laid down their clothes; which they put off, we may fuppofe, to make themfelves the readier to perform that office.

It is to this practice our Lord alludes, in his fentence on the woman taken in adultery; and his decifion, which is

every way admirable, receives an additional propriety from this allufion: He John vii. that is without fin among you, let him first caft the ftone at her.

With us indeed and other nations, false testimony hath, for many ages, been accompanied with falfe fwearing: and this, no doubt, is an aggravation of the offence.

7.

Τὸν λίθον.

God hath faid, that he will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his name in vain; intimating, perhaps, that he may delay the punishment; afferting ftrongly, that he will inflict it. The offender may escape for a time, and seem to triumph in his impunity; but he is all the while under a curse, by which he is fafter held, than by a thousand bars. This fentence of God, like a drawn fword, hangs trembling over his head, and will cut him in funder in a Luke xii. day when he looketh not for it, at an hour

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when he is not ware.

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And

And as he, who taketh God's name in vain, fhall not be held guiltless, fo we find a like threatening denounced against the other part of this complicated offence; a falfe witnefs fhall not be unpunished. There is not only a force and emphasis in this form of expreffion, but fuch a refem. blance also to the other threatening, as Exod. xx. is remarkable; The Lord will not hold Prov. xix. him guiltless. He shall not be unpunished.

5.

Guiltless, and unpunished, under God's just government agree, no doubt, in their import; at least they will be found to do fo at the confummation of all things, when He fhall render to every man according to his works. But in this case, the very language is not different: it is the fame word in both these places in the original.

Falfe teftimony draws after it also by human laws a punishment confiderable, and with us very ignominious: but yet not always, it must be acknowledged,

pro

proportionable to the malignity and mischief of the offence, or to the punish-, ment which is inflicted for other crimes lefs atrocious in themselves, and lefs detrimental to the publick. Of this the legislature are not ignorant: they have their reasons, we may be fure, for this lenity; and regard probably what is convenient and practicable, as well as what is juft. The office of an informer, however fometimes neceffary, is disagreeable and invidious; and fhould not, it is thought, be overcharged with difficulties and danger; innumerable crimes, even as the law now stands, efcaping punishment, merely because no one is willing to be the witness against them, though of them, alas! we are all witneffes.

Those who make a trade of accufing, were always, and must be ever odious: but to prosecute and bring to publick juftice, fome great and powerful offender, was esteemed honourable in the common wealths

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