A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions…A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions…

O! how doth mens addictedness to creatures make them find out many inventions to satisfy their lust with them! Hence is this Command so broad, that it is difficult to speak of it in all its particulars In further prosecuting whereof, we shall not astrict our selves to so precise a method, but endeavour to lay down the direct breaches of it by which the ⟨p. 404⟩positive part, and these duties that are required, will be the more easily discernible.

O! how doth mens addictedness to creatures make them find out many inventions to satisfie their lust with them! Hence is this Command so broad, that it is difficult to speak of it in all its particulars In further prosecuting whereof, we shall not astrict our selves to so precise a method, but endeavour to lay down the direct breaches of it by which the ⟨p. 404⟩positive part, and these duties that are required, will be the more easily discernable.

Consider then its breach, 1. as it wrongeth others; 2 as it wrongeth our selves; 3. as it wrongfully seeketh to benefit our selves, or better our own estate.

As to the first, Consider it first in the quantity, it is theft whether the matter be in little or much, if so be it be a real wronging of others in that which is theirs, even as a lye is a lye in any matter, in great things as well as lesser, and this theft in little or much will seclude from the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6.10. and as drunkenness may be in drink, that is, not the very greatest quantity of drink, nor in the finest drink, so may theft be in little or course things. Consider 2. as it looketh not only to the hand, but to the heart also, even as adultery and murder do; it is a piece of the evil treasure that Christ saith is in the heart,