branded with disgrace : and it may be hoped that we, who have been so far out of the reach of want, have never been reduced to so infamous a practice. Yet how many are guilty of practices equally repugnant to the spirit of this commandment ! How many de- fraud the government by withholding or evading the legal imposts ! How many defraud the public by circulating coin which they know to be either base or defective ! How many defraud those with whom they transact business, by taking undue advantage of their ease, their ignorance, or their necessities ! How many defraud their creditors by neglecting to pay their debts ! And how many defraud the poor by not giving to them what the Great Proprietor of all hath made their due ! If indeed we regard only these effects of dishonesty, they will probably appear to us light and insignificant ; but if we look to the principle which gives birth to these things, it will be found no less corrupt than that which manifests itself in theft and robbery. Odious therefore as the impu- tation of fraud may justly be considered, there is not one who has not at some time or other been guilty of it : so that this commandment as well as all that have preceded it, will accuse us before God.
The ninth commandment respects our neighbour's reputation; " Thou shalt not bear false witness." We offend against this law, not only when we perjure ourselves before a magistrate, but whenever we mis- represent the conduct of others, or pass hasty and ungrounded censures upon them. All whisperers therefore and backbiters, and all who circulate re- ports injurious to their neighbour, are condemned by it : nor does it forbid such falsehoods only as are pernicious, but such also as are jocular, marvellous, or exculpative : for, as to the morality of the act, it matters little whether we falsify to our neighbour, or against him. Who then has not been often guilty in these respects ? Who does not feel the force of the Psalmist's observation, that " as soon as we are born we go astray, speaking lies?" Nor let any think lightly of this sin : for so detestable is it in the