X. Thou shalt not covet.
The duties are. 1. To be content with the portion God hath given us. 2. Not to be co∣vetous of other mens goods.
They sin against this commandment. 1. That Page 226 envy the prosperities of other men. 2. They that desire passionately to be possessed of what is their neighbours. 3. They that with gree∣dinesse pursue riches, honours, pleasures and curiosities. 4. They that are too careful, troubled, distracted or amazed, affrighted and afflicted with being sollicitous in the conduct of temporal blessings.
These are the general lines of duty by which we may discover our failings, and be humbled, and confesse accordingly; onely the penitent person is to remember, that al∣though these are the kindes of sins described after the sense of the Jewish Church, which consisted principally in the external action, or the deed done, and had no restraints upon the thoughts of men, save onely in the tenth com∣mandment, which was mixt and did relate as much to action as to thought (as appears in the instances) yet upon us Christians there are many circumstances and degrees of obli∣gation, which endear our duty with greater severity and observation; and the penitent is to account of himself and enumerate his sins, not onely by external actions or the deed done, but by words & by thoughts; and so to rec∣kon if he have done it directly or indirectly, if he have caused others to do it, by tempting or incouraging, by assisting or counselling, by not disswading when he could and ought, by fortifying their hands or hearts, or not weakning their evil purposes; if he have de∣signed or contrived its action, desired it or loved it, delighted in the thought, remem∣bred the past sin with pleasure or without sor∣row, these are the by-wayes of sins, and the crooked lanes in which a man may wander and Page 227 be lost as certainly as in the broad high wayes of iniquity.
But besides this, our blessed Lord and his Apostles have added divers other precepts; some of which have been with some violence reduc'd to the Decalogue, and others have not bin noted at all in the catalogues of confession, I shall therefore describe them entirely, that the sick man discover his failings, that by the mercies of God in Jesus Christ, and by the instrument of repentance he may be pre∣sented pure and spotlesse before the throne of God.
