for in every instance of anger, impatience, or intem- perance, yea, whenever we have wished for, or re- joiced in another's dissolution, we have violated this commandment.
The seventh commandment respects our own and our neighbour's chastity : " Thou shalt not commit adultery." Fornication and adultery are by many prac- tised without remorse, and recorded without shame. But to such we may well address the words of Solo- mon : " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes ; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." Nor will it avail any thing to say, that we committed these sins only in our youth; and that now we have left them off; for sin is sin, whensoever and by whomsoever com- mitted ; and however it may have escaped our memory, it is not therefore erased from the book of God's remembrance ; nor however partial the world may be in its judgment respecting it, will it escape due notice at another tribunal ; for we are assured by the Apostle, that " whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."
But this commandment extends much further than to the outward act : it reaches to the inmost thoughts and desires of the heart. Let us hear an infallible expositor ; let us hear what our Lord himself says in his Sermon on the Mount : " Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery : but I say unto you, that who- soever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart," By this commandment therefore is forbidden all in- dulgence of unclean thoughts, and consequently all immodest words, all obscene allusions, all wanton looks, all impure desires and affections. Who then will say, I am pure ? Who will take up a stone to cast at another ?
The eighth commandment respects our neighbours goods ; " Thou shalt not steal." Theft is universally