Exposition of the Principal Scriptures Used in our English Liturgy, Part 32
The 9. Commandement.
NExt the prohibition of iniuries in deede, follow the wrongs against our neighbour in word: Thou shalt not beare false witnesse: and that fitly, becauseuHerman explicat. huius pracept. lying is cosen germane to stealing:Erasmus com. de lingua. Da mihi mendacem, & ego ostendam tibi furem: If thou wilt shew mee a liar, I will shew thee a theefe.
This precept condemnes all manner of lying: for albeit one is worse then another,yAugustin. in Psal. 5. yet all are naught: The mouth that speaketh lies slaieth the soule: Wi…d. 1. 11. And Psal. 5. 6. Thou shalt destroy them that speake leasing. See Gospell Dom. 15. post Trinit.
Beside lies: eueryevery thing whereby the credit of our neighbour is impaired: especially those three sins of the tongue:
Contumely.
Detractation.
Cursing.
A contumely is an iniurious word, spoken with an iniurious mind, to the dishonour of our neighbour: I say with an iniurious intent; otherwise when it is vttered by way of aduice to direct or correct, as a father sometime speaketh to his childe, or a master to his scholler, or a Pastor to his people, as Paul:zGal. 3. 1. Ye foolish Galathians: out of some heat, but yet not out of any hate, then it is no contumelie or sinne.
Or in merriment, not in malice: There is a time toaEccles. 3. 4. laugh: and so by consequence a time to iest: when a wittie conceit may profit and administer grace to the hearer. He that said the Duke of Guise was the greatest vsurer in France, because he turned all his estate into obligations, hereby gaue this honest aduice, that if he should leaue himselfe nothing, but only hauehave many followers bound to him for his large gifts, in conclusion he should finde a number of bad debtors. He that called his friend theefe, because he had stollen away his louelove, did not wrong, but commend him.
It is lawfull also to iest at the vanities of irreligious men, enemies to God and his Gospell: asb1. King. 18. 27. Elia did at the soppish idolatry of Baals Priests. A friend of mine said of an vpstart gallant in Court with a gingling spur, that he had a Church on his backe, and the bels on his heeles.
EueryEvery lay Papist must beleeue as the Church beleeues, albeit he know not what the Church beleeueth: he must also worship the consecrated bread, and yet knoweth not whether it be consecrated or no:cCo…. Trident, sess. 7. can 11. Bellarm…n. de sacramentis in genere, cap. 17. for to the consecration of the host, the Priests intention is required, which no mā knowes but God, and himselfe. So that if a man tell his popish acquaintance that he is a blinde buffe, to worship and beleeue he knowes not what, it were no contumelie; because it did proceed out of zeale to God, and louelove to him; only to rectifie his error, and not to vilifie his person.
The second fault reduced to false witnes is detractation, in speaking euill of our neighbour: and it is done by reporting that which is false, and sometime by telling that which is true, but secret: whereby the credit of our neighbour is lessened with those, to whom his sinne was not knowne before: for as a man may flatter in absence, namely, when either the vertue is absent, or the occasion, and so the praise is not kinde but forced either in truth, or in time: so likewise a man may slander his neighbour in speaking the truth vnseasonably, without discretion out of time and place. A tale tossed from mouth to mouth in creaseth as a snowbal, which being little at the first, groweth to a great quantitie.
Now the backbiter is bound in reason and religion to restore the good name of his neighbour, which hee by detraction hath taken away; and that is exceeding hard: for a mans honest fame is like the Merchants wealth got in many yeeres, and lost in an houre. Wherefore speake well of all men alwaies, if it may bee done with truth: and when it cannot, then bee silent: or else interrupt euill detractation with other meere and merrie communication, asdIudges 14. 12. Sampson at his mariage feast propounded a riddle to his friends, eA…b… os. epist. lib. 9. epist. 70.hereby to stop the mouthes of backbiters, and to occupie their wits another way. Bernard excellently: The tale bearer hath the diuell in his tongue: the receiuer in his eare.
The theefe doth send one only to the diuell, the adulterer two: but the slanderer hurteth three; himselfe, the partie to whom, and the partie of whom hee telleth the tale. Ter homicide (saithfLo…. com. tit. singua. Luther) vno ictu tres occidit:gBernard ser. 24. in Cant. v…us est qui loquitur, & vnum tantum verbam profert, & tamen illud vnum verbum, vno in momento, mul…itudinis audientium dum aures inficit, animas interficit.
The third fault is malediction: a grieuoushColoss. 3. 8. offence when it is spoken with hatred and a desire that such euill come vponupon our neighbour: but when it is vttered vponupon some sudden disdaine, without regard to that we speake, it is lesse euill, yet for all that alwaies euill: because from the mouth of a Christian, who is the childe of God by adoption, nothing ought to passe buti1. Pet. 2. 1. benediction.