the contrary, render him a considerable service, because to him the money is much more convenient and useful than the merchandize of which he disposes.
The commandment, which forbids us to covet the goods of our neighbour, is accompanied with another, which forbids to covet our neighbour's wife; and which prohibits not only that criminal concupiscence, which tempts the adulterer to desire the wife of another, but, also, the wish to be united to her in marriage. When, of old, a bill of divorce was permitted, it might easily happen, that she, who was repudiated by one husband, might be married to another; but this our Lord forbad, lest husbands might be induced to abandon their wives, or wives conduct them selves with such peevish moroseness towards their husbands, as to impose on them a sort of necessity of repudiating them. But, in the Gospel-dispensation, this sin acquires a deeper shade of guilt, because, the wife, although separated from her husband, cannot marry another during his lifetime. To him, therefore, who wishes to be united in marriage to another man's wife, the transition from one criminal desire to another is easy; he will desire either the death of the husband or the commission of adultery.
The same principle holds good with regard to females who have been betrothed to another: to covet them in marriage is also unlawful; and whoever strives to dissolve the contract, by which they are affianced, violates the most sacred engagements of plighted faith. And if to covet the wedded wife of another is highly criminal, it is no less so to desire in marriage the virgin who is consecrated to religion and to the service of God. But should any one desire in marriage a woman who is already married, supposing her to be unmarried, and not disposed, had he known that she was already married, to indulge such a desire, he does not violate this commandment. Pharaoh [1] and Abimelech, [2] as the Scripture informs us, were betrayed into this error; they wished to take Sarah to wife, supposing her to be unmarried, and the sister, not the wife of Abraham.
In order to make known the remedies calculated to neutralize the evil consequences of the vice of covetousness, the pastor will explain the positive part of the commandment. God then commands, that " if riches abound, we set not our hearts upon them:" [3] that we be prepared to sacrifice them to a love of piety and religion: that we contribute cheerfully towards the relief of the poor; and that, if we ourselves are consigned to poverty, we bear it with patience and with a holy joy. And, indeed, liberality to the poor is a most effectual means of extinguishing in our own hearts the desire of what belongs to another. But, on the praises of poverty and the contempt of riches, the pastor will find little difficulty in collecting abundant matter, for the instruction of the faithful, from the Sacred Scriptures and the works of the Fathers. [4]
