charge, whether publicly or privately, any crime or fault of which he is innocent; and, even when he has done wrong, if we publish his transgression without an urgent cause, and from a desire of hurting him, we incur the guilt prohibited in this commandment. We act from an injurious and malevolent principle. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger," injoins the apostle, "and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice." The tenth commandment is directed to eradicate the springs of all injustice in regard to our neighbour's property and conjugal happiness, by prohibiting those unhallowed desires in which all violations of either originate. Indeed, the apostle, as Christ had done before him, sums up all the social duties in this comprehensive precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" that is, "Thou shalt act towards him on the same principles which influence thee with regard to thyself." "Love," adds he, "worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." When I soon come to state the duties dictated by benevolence, I shall consider briefly our Lord's admirable and most comprehensive precept, which the Roman emperor Alexander Severus had inscribed on his palaces and public edifices." Society could hardly subsist without the use of

a Eph. iv. 31.

d Rom. xiii. 10.

b Exod. xx. 17.

c Rom. xiii, 9.

e Ælii Lampridii Alexander Severus, c. 51.

speech; and speech, in its very nature, implies social intercourse, without which it could never be acquired. But its benefit entirely depends on its veracious employment as the faithful interpreter of sentiments and representer of facts. When this is not the case, and words are used to mislead or to deceive, language becomes the bane of society; and, if it were universally perverted in this manner, human association would be speedily dissolved. But this universal perversion is impossible, and the inherent principles of human nature prevent the constant prevalence of that falsehood to which mankind are so frequently tempted by views of interest, or by consciousness of turpitude. Truth is natural to the human heart, whose first impulse is to represent things as they really are, or at least as they are conceived to be. For a person may misrepresent facts from mistake or ignorance, and sincerely state his own conviction, which, however, may be completely erroneous. This is merely logical falsehood, consisting in the error of apprehension or judgment. Moral falsehood implies, in its very essence, a wilful purpose of deceiving, by stating that as true which the speaker knows to be false. To this mean and abominable vice men are hardly ever prompted till they have committed something which they desire to conceal, or have experienced some evil from their adherence to truth. These are the

first causes of lying in children, and it is therefore of the highest importance to render it their interest, even when they have committed a fault, not to conceal it by falsehood, and thus, not to contract the most vicious and degrading of all habits, which must gradually lead to every other species of depravity. For, as a sacred regard for truth is the pledge of general virtue, so an habitual disregard for it is the substratum of all vice.

This is so much the case, that some authors, particularly Wollaston, have attempted, however erroneously, to establish the former as the foundation of all moral obligation, and to resolve all immorality into the latter. I shall not at present enter into the inquiry, if truth may never on any account be violated? a subject on which the best moralists have maintained different opinions. It is, at any rate, certain that there is a tacit compact among mankind to speak truth to each other, unless when it is manifest that the narrative, as in fable or irony, is not intended to be held as true, and not to be received by the hearer or reader as such. The greater part of human knowledge is acquired from testimony, and if no confidence could be placed in this, our information must be circumscribed within the limits of personal experience. Epaminondas so scrupulously adhered to truth, that even

b

in jest he would not relate what was untrue.* It is no wonder then, that lying and falsehood are so strictly prohibited, and so severely threatened, and truth so strongly injoined by Christianity. It is an essential quality in him "who shall abide in the tabernacle, and dwell in the holy hill of the Lord, that he speaketh the truth in his heart." "Lying lips are an abomination unto the Lord; but they that deal truly are his delight." The apostle states it as a necessary consequence of true conversion, "that putting away lying, every man speak truth with his neighbour; for we are all members one of another." "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds." Liars are, by St. John, classed in the horrible catalogue of those who have their part "in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." Religion being in its very nature placed in the understanding and the heart, can never be subject to human control. The rights of conscience are sacred, inviolable, and unalienable; and every attempt to annihilate or abridge them, while it exhibits the most flagrant oppression, exhibits also the most egregious folly. For, it is impossible to sway opinion and sentiment, the essence of religion, but by argument and persuasion.

Cor. Nep. Epaminondas, c. iii.

с

Eph. iv. 25. Col. iii. 9.

b Psal. xv. 2. Prov. xii. 22. d Rev. xxi. 8.

God is the sole Lord of conscience.

Words

and actions may be controlled and constrained, but whenever this takes place in regard to religion, and opinions are professed, and rites performed, in direct contradiction to conviction and feeling, heaven-daring hypocrisy is generated, and, by its birth, religion is murdered. Every species, and form, and guise of persecution is therefore utterly incompatible with pure religion. Absurd, however, and iniquitous as is every attempt to violate the rights of conscience, to nothing have mankind been proner in every age, and country, and church. Even the strongest pretenders to moderation and charity have not been exempt from this foul stain. The maintenance of pure and salutary doctrine is the grand pretence. Pure doctrine is, I grant, the spring of sound practice. But, in order to promote sound practice, are we to set the example of the most abominable injustice; are we to usurp the throne of God? If we cannot convince others, even with respect to fundamental points, we must leave them to the free enjoyment of their own opinions, and to God the final decision; we must acknowledge that not erroneous judgments, but injurious words and pernicious actions, are objects of restraint and punishment. Whoever encroaches in the smallest degree on the rights of conscience, is, in so far, not a Christian. What was our Saviour's answer to his disciples who