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SERMON XVII.

EXODUS, CHAPTER XX. VERSE 16.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbour.

NOTHING is more common than for men to make partial and absurd distinctions between vices of equal enormity, and to observe some of the divine, commands with great scrupulousness, while they violate others equally important, without any concern, or the least apparent consciousness of guilt.

That to do our duty in part is better than en-tirely to disregard it, cannot be denied; and he that avoids some crimes, from the fear of displeasing God, is, doubtless, far more innocent than he that has thrown off all restraint, has forgotten the distinctions of good and evil, and complies with every temptation. But it is a very dangerous mistake to conceive that any man, by obeying one law, acquires the liberty of breaking another; 'or that all sins, equally odious to God or hurtful to men, are not, with equal care, to be avoided.

We may frequently observe that men, who would abhor the thought of violating the property of another, by direct methods of oppression or rapine; men, on all common occasions, not only just, but kind and compassionate, willing to relieve the necessitous, and active in the protection of the injured, will, nevertheless, invade the characters of

others with defamation and calumny, and destroy a reputation without remorse.

If every day did not convince us how little either good or bad men are consistent with themselves, it might be wondered how men, who own their obligations to the practice of some duties, can overlook in themselves the omission of others equally important, and enjoined by the same authority; and that those who avoid theft, because they are forbidden to steal, do not equally abstain from calumny, since they are no less forbidden "to bear false witness against their neighbour;" a prohibition, of which I shall endeavour to explain the nature and enforce the necessity, by showing,

First, What are the different senses in which a man may be said "to bear false witness against his neighbour."

Secondly, The enormity of the sin of " false witness."

bearing

Thirdly, What reflections may best enable us to avoid it.

The highest degree of guilt forbidden by this law of God is false testimony in a literal sense, or deliberate and solemn perjury in a court of justice, by which the life of an innocent man is taken away, the rightful owner stripped of his possessions, or an oppressor supported in his usurpations. This is a crime that includes robbery and murder, sublimed to the highest state of enormity, and heightened with the most atrocious aggravations. He that robs or murders by this method, not only does it, by the nature of the action, with calmness and pre

meditation, but by making the name of God a sanction to his wickedness. Upon this it is unnecessary to dwell long, since men, arrived at this height of corruption, are scarcely to be reformed by argument or persuasion; and, indeed, seldom suffer themselves to be reasoned with or admonished. It may be, however, proper to observe, that he who is ever so remotely the cause of any wickedness, if he really designs, and willingly promotes it, is guilty of that action in the same, or nearly the same degree with the immediate perpetrator; and, therefore, he that suborns a false witness, or procures such an one to be suborned, whether in his own cause or in that of another, is guilty of the crime of perjury in its utmost extent.

Nor is that man only perjured who delivers for truth what he certainly knows to be false; but he, likewise, that asserts what he does not know to be true for as an oath taken implies, in the opinion of the magistrate who administers it, a knowledge of the fact required to be proved, he that, by offering himself an evidence, declares himself acquainted with what he is ignorant of, is guilty of bearing false witness; since, though what he swears should happen to be true, it is not true that he knew it.

Such remarks as these seem, at the first view, very trifling, because they are obvious, and yet are made necessary by the conduct of mankind. Every man, almost, has had opportunities of observing with what gross and artless delusions men impose upon themselves; how readily they distinguish between actions, in the eye of justice and of reason, equally criminal; how often they hope to elude the vengeance of heaven, by substituting others to

perpetrate the villanies they contrive; how often they mock God by groundless excuses; and how often they voluntarily shut their eyes, to leap into destruction.

There is another sense in which a man may be 'said to "bear false witness against his neighbour," a lower degree of the crime forbidden in the text; a degree in which multitudes are guilty of it, or, rather, from which scarcely any are entirely free. He that attacks the reputation of another by calumny is, doubtless, according to the malignity of the report, chargeable with the breach of this commandment. Yet this is so universal a practice, that it is scarcely accounted criminal, or numbered among those sins which require repentance. Defamation is become one of the amusements of life, a cursory part of conversation and social entertainment. Men sport away the reputation of others, without the least reflection upon the injury which they are doing, and applaud the happiness of their own invention, if they can increase the mirth of a feast, or animate conviviality, by slander and detraction.

How it comes to pass that men do not perceive the absurdity of distinguishing in such a manner between themselves and others, as to conceive that conduct innocent in themselves, which, in others, they would make no difficulty of condemning, it is not easy to tell yet it is apparent that every man is sufficiently sensible, when his own character is attacked, of the cruelty and injustice of calumny; and it is not less evident that those will animadvert, with all the wantonness of malice, upon the moral irregularities of others, whom the least

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réflection upon their own lives kindles into fury, and exasperates to the utmost severities of revenge.

To invent a defamatory falsehood, to rack the invention for the sake of disguising it with circumstances of probability, and propagate it industriously, till it becomes popular, and takes root in the minds of men, is such a continued act of malice as nothing can palliate.

Nor will it be a sufficient vindication to allege that the report, though not wholly, yet, in part, is true, and that it was no unreasonable suspicion that suggested the rest: for, if suspicion be admitted for certainty, every man's happiness must be entirely in the power of those bad men, whose consciousness of guilt makes them easily judge ill of others, or whom a natural or habitual jealousy inclines to imagine frauds or villanies, where none are intended. And if small failings may be aggravated at the pleasure of the relator, who may not, however cautious, be made infamous and detestable? A calumny, in which falsehood is complicated with truth, and malice is assisted with probability, is more dangerous, but therefore less innocent, than unmixed forgery and groundless invectives.

Neither is the first author only of a calumny a "false witness against his neighbour," but he, likewise, that disseminates and promotes it; since, without his assistance, it would perish as soon as it is produced, would evaporate in the air without effect, and hurt none but him that uttered it. He that blows a fire for the destruction of a city is no less an incendiary than he that kindled it: and the

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