Exposition of the Principal Scriptures Used in our English Liturgy, Part 31
The 8. Commandement.
THis ouerthrowethhMelancthon Catechis. tom. 1. fol. 17. & tom. 2. fol. 369. Anabaptisticall and Platonicall communitie: for if all things ought to be common, and nothing proper in possession, how can one man steale from another? All lawes of giuing, buying, selling, leaseing, letting, lending are vaine, si teneant omnes omnia, nemo suum.
A man may transgresse this Commandement in being a theefe.
To himselfe, in spending
Too much.
Too little.
To other.
Too much
Wasting more then he should in gameing, diet, brauery; such are arrant cutpurses vntounto themselves.
Getting lesse then they should: Ignaui & prodigi sunt fures, saithiTom. 1. fol. 185 Melancthon.
As a spend-all, so a get-nothing is a theefe to his estate: Pouertie comes vponupon him as an armed man: Prouerbs 24. 34. An idle person is pouerties prisoner: if he liue without a calling, pouerty hath a calling to arrest him.
Hee that spends too little on himselfe, as the couetous wretch, is a robber of himselfe also,kInnocentius de vilit. condit. Human. lib. 2. cap. 13. Corpus extenuat, vt lucrum extendat: He keepes his belly thin, that his purse may be full: helAmbros. lib. de Naboth. c. 4. cannot afford himselfe so much as an egge, lest he should kill a chicke: whereas a poore man doth want manie things, a rich miser wants eueryevery thing: like Tantalus vp to the chin in water, and yet thirstie. The which (as Salomon calles it) is an euill sicknesse: Eccles. 6. 2.
To other
Openly: which is plaine robbery: so little practised, or so much punished in KingmLamberts Perambulation of Ke…t, pag. 27. Alfreds raigne, that if a man had let fall his purse in the high way, he might with great leisure, and good assurance hauehave come backe and taken it vp againe.
Secretlie: which is properlie called stealing. And this offence is manifold: for there is not onelyonly theft of the hand, but of the heart, and tongue. Couetous greedines is theft in heart: for howsoeuer it be a maxime in our law,nMeteranus hist. Belgic. lib. 13. pag. 420. Voluntas non reputabitur pro facto, nisi in causa prod…tionis: sed exitus in maleficijs spectatur, & non voluntas duntaxat: yet it is a breach of this law, couetously to desire that which is not ours: albeit wee seeke not to get it wrongfully. Their hearts, saitho2. Pet. 2. 14. Peter, are exercised in couetousnes: andpIn 1 Thess. cap 5. hom. 10. Chrysostom plainly; The couetous man is a very theefe: fur & latro. TheqTe…mes of the Law, pag. 97. fathers of the law write that theeues are called felones, of our anciēt word fell or fierce; because they commit this sinne with a cruell, fell, and mischieuous minde: teaching vsus hereby that a felonious intent is a principall in theeuerie.
There is also theft of the tongue, byrB. Balington. lying, flatterie, smoothing, &c. So we reade thats2. Sam. 15. 6. Absolon stole the hearts of the men of Israel: and so falset2. Sam. 16. Ziba stole the goods of his master Mephibosheth.
So flatterers and parasites are great theeues in Court and Countrie: not only dominorum suorum arrisores; sed etiam arrosores: and therefore let a flatterer bee in your Pater noster, but not in your Creed: pray for him, but trust him no more then a theefe.
Fraudes in buying and selling are reduced to stealing; because hee that vseth such deceits, secretly taketh of his neighbour more then his due: but oppressions and vniust extortions are reduced by Diuines vntounto robberie; because the cruell tyrant exacteth more then his owne manifestly: not to pay debts, is reduced vntounto both: vntounto robbery, when a man to the great hindrance of his neighbour can and will not: vntounto stealing, when hee partly will and cannot: I say will partly: for if he desire wholly with all his heart to pay the vtmost farthing, God assuredly will accept of votall restitution, aswell as of actuall: and it is not a sinne though it be a sore.