danger of our goods liberties and life it selfe As for example when in the times of persecution wee are examined by wicked tyrants whom we know to be of our religion or who were present with us and accompanied us in such a place and at such a time in Gods divine Service Prayer and hearing of the Word we should in such a case indure any losses and tortures rather than betray them into their hands that seeke their lives But though wee may not discover the secrets and counsells of the innocent when it tendeth to their hurt and ruine yet wee may and ought to confesse when wee are examined to reveale the faults and crimes of those that are guilty and have offended against the Lawes of God or the Land yea though wee have beene copartners with them in their wickednesse and by solemne promise or oath have mutually bound our selves to secrecy because such oathes and promises are unlawfull as tending to Gods dishonour the hindring of Justice the nourishing of Vice and the great prejudice of Church and Common-wealth But here another question commeth to bee resolved §. 6. Whether malefactours are bound in conscience to confesse the truth thogh it bee with the hezard of their lives whether a man that is guilty of a fault or crime that concerneth his life being examined in a Legall manner before a lawfull Magistrate bee bound in conscience to confesse the Truth and so by accusing himselfe to indanger his life To this I answere that every one who is guilty is bound to testifie the Truth if he be required by the lawfull Magistrate though it bee with the hazard of his life and sinneth if he hide his fault with a lye and better it is to expose the body to the danger of death by confessing the Truth than by lying and sinning to offend God and cast both soule and body into Hell But yet men thus guilty are more or lesse bound to confesse the truth and accuse themselves and doe sinne more or lesse haynously by concealing it in divers cases and considerations For if the Judge having no evidence of Truth nor competent witnesses to cleare the cause and direct him in giving a right sentence doth seriously examine the offendor charging him upon his Conscience to testifie the Truth that God may be glorified when he his Deputy doth Justice and if thus strictly examining him hee doth in some degree rest upon his testimony for his direction and judgement in such a case the guilty person sinneth greatly if he conceale the truth or hide his offence with a lye for Judgement being the Lords hee dishonoureth him that hindreth the execution of justice with a lye And therefore Iosuah thus strictly examining Josh 7. 19. Achan in a waighty cause willeth him to give Glory unto God by confessing the Truth implying hereby that hee should much dishonour him if hee did otherwise Besides by concealing the truth and telling a lye in such a case he blindeth §. 7. Whether offenders at the barre are bound to plead guilty of those crimes which are justly laid to their charge in our judiciary proceeding and misleadeth the Judge and causeth him to pervert justice and to pronounce an unrighteous sentence But if as it is in our judiciary proceeding the question bee asked whether the offender at the Barre be guilty or not guilty hee is not so strictly bound as in the former case to confesse the Truth nor sinneth so much if hee doth conceale it For in this case the Judge greatly regardeth not the testimony of the person arraigned when he pleadeth not guilty thereby to bee directed in passing his sentence but onely in a Legall proceeding he demandeth this question that in a formall and orderly manner he may put himselfe upon another tryall namely of the Jewry who are in no sort directed by the offenders testimony but by the testimony of competent witnesses and evidence of reason Neither doth our law in these criminall causes of life and death binde an offender to accuse himselfe nor inflicteth any punishment if hee refuseth to doe it Yea rather if pleading not guilty he put himselfe upon tryall of his Countrey he hath a faire and sometime favourable proceeding and issue being often acquitted when being guilty he hath deserved punishment whereas if he concealeth the truth by silence and refusing to put his cause upon tryall doth condemne himselfe as guilty because hee will not use the Legall forme in pleading not guilty he hath no favour of law but is adjudged to greater and more torturing punishment than if he were found guilty by the Jewry or his owne voluntary confession Againe there is great difference betweene the offences which are confessed or concealed for if in themselves they are haynous and capitall both by the morall Law of God the law of Nature and Nations as Treasons Parricides Murthers and the like for which every naturall Conscience will condemne the offenders as worthy of death then doe they much more haynously sinne if being examined by a lawfull Magistrate they conceale the Truth and excuse themselves by telling lyes Yea in such cases it is probably thought that if there were no other to bring these haynous crimes to light they are bound in conscience that Justice may be executed to discover and accuse themselves But if the offences be such as are not capitall by the morall Law and the Law of Nations but are onely made so by the Positive lawes of particular Common-wealths which admit rather of a particular mischiefe than a generall inconvenience and respect in their punishments the universall good of the Common-wealth more than the demerit of the offender punishing with more severity lesse faults which being through the disposition of the people inclining thereunto more commonly committed to the hurt and damage of the whole State than greater offences which being rarely committed bring no such prejudice then is it much more tolerable and lesse sinnefull when the offenders by pleading not guilty doe put themselves in a Legall forme upon tryall of the Jury in hope to be acquitted by their verdict when the law affords them no favour upon their confession As for example in the case of stealth and small thefts which the Law of God punisheth not with death but restitution yet is so punished by positive lawes with all severity because it is generally necessary that it should so be for the preservation of the Common-wealth although in some particular cases there may bee a lawfull and conscionable mitigation of punishment which in Legall proceedings that respect the common good more than the preservation or immunity of some private persons cannot bee so lawfully used by inferiour Magistrates who are bound to judge according to law if the offender confesse his fault and plead guilty In such a case I say it is more excusable if the truth bee concealed by such a deniall as is to be understood onely as a forme in pleading whereby he putteth himselfe
Rom. 6. 23. body from which we cannot be freed by all Men and Angels seeing nothing can satisfie Gods Justice for it but a price of an infinite value which no finite creature could pay but onely the LORD JESUS CHRIST God and Man whose death and sufferings were an All-sufficient price for our redemption in respect of the Dignity of the Person that thus suffered Againe if it bee a sinne to lye then we ought not voluntary to commit it for the effecting of the greatest good seeing the Scripture teacheth us that wee may not doe evill that Rom. 3. 8. good may come thereof And they also teach us that all lyes without exception or distinction are odious and abominable unto God and that hee will destroy them that speake leasings And what good Prov. 12. 22. 6. 17 19. Psal 5. 6. can any lyes procure that being put into the ballance can countervaile all these evills Finally when wee lye out of hope to effect thereby any good the sinne committed is our owne but the issue and effect is not in our power for issues and future events are onely in Gods hand and therefore wee doe not know whether upon the sinne committed the good will follow yea rather wee have just cause to feare the contrary for how can wee expect Gods blessing upon the use of the meanes which hee hath cursed Especially seeing in trusting unto our owne sinnefull inventions we distrust his Power and Providence as though he were not sufficient without the helpe of our lye to effect our good ends and desires in freeing any from imminent evills or preserving them in the most desperate dangers CHAP. IX Divers questions and Cases concerning officious Lyes propounded and resolved NOw these things being well weighed §. 1. That it is not lawfull to lye for good ends or that wee 〈◊〉 doe good will serve as a thread to guide us out of the most intricate labyrinth of the most difficult cases that are usually propounded and inable us to answere the hardest questions and objections First it may be demanded whether it may not bee lawfull to tell a lye when therein wee propound unto our selves some speciall good end as either the obtaining of some great benefit or the avoyding of some great and imminent danger of falling into some evill of sinne or punishment Concerning the former I answere that there can accrew unto us no such benefit by lying as is sufficient to counterpoise the losse to wit of our soules by sinning if God in mercy should not give us repentance Secondly that is not to bee esteemed a benefit which is procured by unjustice for even the Heathen man could teach us that Nihil utile quod non honestum Cic. offic there is nothing profitable which is not honest as no lye is seeing truth is opposed by it And the doctrine of Christian religion informeth us in this truth that it is not sufficient for the making of an action good and lawfull that our end bee good unlesse also the meanes be so by using whereof wee attaine unto this end Thirdly if this were granted that wee might doe a lesse evill for the advancing of a greater good then as Saint Augustine Contra mendacium ad Consentium lib. 2. cap. 8. saith all good Lawes and manners should be quite overthrowne and a wide doore opened to all wickednesse For then it might be lawfull for a theefe to rob a rich covetous man that hordeth up his wealth and doth no good with it if he propound this end to his theft that hee will bestow the greatest part of what he hath stollen for the reliefe of the poore or for a man to beare false witnesse before a Judge if it tend to the clearing of the innocent and condemning of the nocent party or to burne a Will or Testament when the Testator hath made choice of a bad Heire and to substitute a false Will in the place thereof that the inheritance or goods may not come to the hands of such as will do noe good but may by this meanes fall unto them who will feede the hungry cloath the naked lodge strangers redeeme captives and build Churches Why should not all these evills bee done for these ends that be so good if for these good things they cease to be evill Yea saith he if this were allowed Cur non fiant illa mala propter haec bona si propter haec bona nec illa sunt mala Aug. Contr. mendaâ—â—d Consentium lib. 2. cap. 7. that we might doe evill to good ends what fact so flagitious what offence so hainous and dishonest what sacriledge so impious which might not bee said to be done rightly and justly not onely without feare of punishment but boldly and gloriously in hope of reward Concerning the latter it may bee questioned §. 2. Whether it be lawfull to lye to prevent a greater sinne in others whether it bee lawfull to lye which is a lesse evill to avoide a greater evill either of sinne or punishment Concerning sinne we may consider it either in another or in our selves In another it may bee demanded whether we may not commit this small sinne of an officious lye to pull one or many of our neighbours out of a great sinne in which if they live and dye there were no hope for them to escape damnation As when wee see men to live in some damnable heresie the which they keepe so secret that there is no meanes to discover them to the Magistrate that they may be examined confuted and reformed unlesse some orthodoxe Christian by telling a lye whereby he faineth himselfe to be of the same opinions doe dive into their secrets and come acquainted with the most of them that are of this hereticall society that so afterwards he may lay them open unto those that are best able to reclaime them And this was the case of Consentius dealing with those cunning heretiques called the Priscillianistes which occasioned Saint Augustine to write those two books of this argument wherein hee commendeth Consentius his love of truth zeale learning and elocution but withall confuteth his opinion and practice For to say nothing of that ill companion which accompanieth this kinde of lying which is treachery joyned with deceit a vice odious in the eyes of all that are vertuous and ingenuous and to consider of the lye used to the former good end what charity will teach a man to fall into one sinne that hee may pull his neighbour out of another or to offend God our selves that wee may keepe others from offending him or to endanger our owne soules that wee may deliver theirs out of danger For true charity beginneth at home and teacheth us to love our neighbour as and not better than our selves and to love them in the same quality and trueth of affection and not in the same quantity and proportion Yea if we should take this course to reclaime Heretikes wee should love our selves
lesse than them because in some respects we commit a greater sinne than they seeing they maintaine their errours out of ignorance but we lye against knowledge and conscience as hee also speaketh And Lib. â— cap. 8. therefore if we can by no other meanes pull impious Heretikes out of their secret dennes unlesse our Orthodoxe and Catholike tongues doe stray out of the path of truth it is more tolerable that they should still lie hid than that truth should bee impeached better that these Foxes should lurke in their holes than that those who hunt them that Tolerabilius in suis foveis delitescerent vulpes quampropter illas capiendas in blasphemiae foveam caderent venaâ—ores Aug. Contra mendacium lib. 2. cap. 7. they may take them should fall into the pit of lyes and blasphemy as the same Author affirmeth To say nothing that the sinne in using this lying policy is certaine but the good issue and event aimed at uncertaine seeing that being in Gods hand hee might justly crosse and curse this unlawfull means so that they shall not conduce to their conversion but rather to their further confirming and hardning in their heresie and impiety But though it be unlawfull by lying to prevent §. 3. Whether it be lawfull to lye that wee may greater sinnes in our selves aâ— nameâ—â— rape and ravishment sinne in others yet perhaps it may be lawfull yea commendable to use it when wee may thereby prevent greater sinnes not onely in others but also in our selves As suppose that a vertuous Matrone or chaste Virgine should be assaulted by an adulterer with violence to defile or deflowre them and they might escape the rape by putting him off with a lye is it not lawfull to doe it in such a case to prevent so great a mischiefe I answere that though a stony heart could not chuse but relent and be much affected to heare of such a villany and though the tentation be so strong that it is scarsely to be expected humane strength should be able to resist it yet in clearing of the truth wee must not consider what we would but what we should doe being so assaulted and brought into such straites Indeede if it were a sinne to bee meere patients in the sinne of others the question were easily answered but it is not so for the greatest sinne in others is not the least sinne in us if wee onely bee the subjects of their sinne through unresistable violence and doe not give the least consent unto it For here it is all one as in the case of persecution oppression murther or robbery all which though they be hainous sinnes in the agents yet none at all in the patients when they have no will to consent or allow the commission of such sinnes nor power to prevent or shun them Yea in such cases that is lawfully suffered which cannot but unlawfully be avoided and no act is to bee judged sinfull if the will bee wholly averse unto it For it is the very forme that giveth unto sinne its life and being to be in some kinde or degree voluntary and though the will give not its consent in all sinnes yet it hath some kinde of operation in or about it as in sinnes of ignorance though wee doe not consent unto sinne as knowing it to bee so yet wee consent to that action which is sinfull the will being misled through the errour of our judgement And so in concupiscence which goeth before consent there is that which we call inescation or the bayting of the hooke of sinne with some pleasure profit or other allurement which is Sathans tentation and not imputed unto us as sinne if we wholly resist it and there is that which we call titillation or the retaining and revolving of the tentation with some delight and as it were the itching of the desire and the watring of the teeth after it if wee might injoy it upon no hard conditions But when they are so propounded as that wee cannot injoy the pleasure or profit of sin unlesse we displease God and indanger our owne soules then the will rejects the tentation and will by no meanes give its consent Notwithstanding that retaining of the tentation with some tickling delight is a sinne of concupiscence and this very parlying with the Divell is a transgression of Gods Law though wee doe not yeeld up unto him the Fort of our hearts nor give our consent that sin shall enter Of which sinne the will is guilty which though it did not consent to the Act yet it gave way to the Divels dispute and that with some tickling delight wee should listen to his tentation alluring us to sinne But if as in this case of a violent rape the will bee wholly averse unto it and the heart abhor it even as the terrours of death though the agent and ravisher committeth an horrible sinne yet the patient or party forced and ravished is wholly cleare of it For the body onely is violated but the soule not vitiated and though that bee defiled yet it is not corrupted or at least with such a corruption that is not sinful as S. Augustine speaketh For there is onely the matter of sin which giveth it no being in a subject forced by outward violence but not the forme which giveth onely being and denomination seeing the will is wholly averse unto it So that if this bee granted which cannot bee denied that it is a sinne to lye but no sin to be forced and ravished then the case is easily cleared namely that it is not lawfull by the evill of sinne to shun such an evill as is not sinfull actively to defile the soule that the body may not passively be defiled or only in hope that wee may shun the outrage of the adulterous ravisher to cast our selves certainely into the snares of the Divell by lying and sinning and so to be defiled by spirituall filthinesse and to be deflowred and deprived inwardly in our soules of their purity and chastity And of this judgement is Saint Augustine who speaketh excellently Nulla est pudicitia corporis nisi 〈…〉 itate ani 〈…〉 deat 〈…〉 mend lib. 1. c. 7. to our present purpose There is saith hee no chastity of the body which doth not depend upon the integrity of the minde which being pulled from the other it must needs fall although it may seeme untainted and untouched and for this cause is not to bee numbred amongst temporall things seeing they may be taken from those that are unwilling to leave them And therefore by no means the minde must corrupt it selfe with a lye for its body which it knoweth to remaine incorrupt if the incorruption doth not depart from the soule For what the body suffreth through violence there being no precedent lust it is rather to bee reputed vexation than corruption Or if every such vexation bee corruption yet every corruption is not then dishonest but onely that which lust hath procured or
unto which lust hath consented And by how much the soule is better than the body it is by so much the more wickedly corrupted chastity then may there bee preserved whereas there can be no corruption but that which is voluntary neither can it bee violated in our selves by the lust of another Wherefore because no man doubteth that the soule is better than the body therefore the integrity of the minde ought to bee preferred before the integrity of the body seeing it perpetually may bee preserved But who can say that the minde of a lyar is sincere and upright c And so hee concludeth that no man can convince any that it is sometimes lawfull to lye unlesse hee can prove that an eternall good may by lying be obtained And so much concerning the evill of sinne The §. 4. Whether it be lawfull to lye to prevent the evill of punishment and namely 1. the death of others second question respecteth the evill of punishment whether we may avoide it lawfully by telling a ly when we see no other meanes whereby wee may bee preserved from it And because it were endlesse to stand upon all the particulars I will insist onely in one which will cleare the question in all the rest as being the greatest and last of all the rest namely Death which is the king of terrours and therefore to be avoyded by all lawfull Job 18. 14. meanes above all other temporary evills And this we will consider either as it respecteth our neighbours or our selves Concerning the former we will consider the case in two instances propounded by Saint Augustine and not much vary from him in our answere and resolution Suppose that a Father and his deere and onely Son were at the same time dangerously sicke in severall places or rooms and that the Son in whose life the life of the Father is bound up as it is said of Iacobs in Benjamins should dye the Father continuing in great weakenesse yet in some hope of recovery If the Father in this case should inquire suspecting the worst whether his Sonne be dead or alive what answere should be given him If it be said that he is alive it is a lye but yet such an one as comforteth and strengtheneth the Fathers heart and may prove a good meanes of his recovery but if it bee told him that he is dead or which is all one in effect if the hearers refuse to give any answere because he will surely presume upon their silence that hee is departed seeing otherwise they would not withhold newes which would cheare him the griefe hereof will presently strike him to the heart and bee a certaine cause of his death and ruine But I answer with him that though the case be lamentable and much commiseration to bee had of the sicke Father yet it is not lawfull to save his life by telling a lye For this is but a meanes of our owne for his recovery and wee know not whether God will blesse it or no yea we may well suspect that if we distrust in his All-sufficiency who hath in his hand the issues of life and death and is able to bring to the grave and to returne backe againe and trust more to our lye and meanes unlawfull it will prove rather a hindrance than a furtherance to our desires Whereas on the other side we are certaine that lying is a sinne and that all sinne will slay our soules if the wound be not recured by repentance which wee cannot promise unto our selves seeing it is not in our owne power but the gift of God which hee giveth when and to whom he pleaseth Finally if it bee lawfull by sinning to prevent the death of another the death of their body which is temporall with the death of our soule which is eternall why might it not bee lawfull also much more if an adulteresse should so desperately love us that if she might not have her lust satisfied shee would hang or drowne her selfe to prevent her death by yeelding to her desire seeing by one act of uncleannesse wee should prevent her murther and by prolonging her life procure time for her repentance that shee may bee saved whereas by the other course shee not repenting plungeth her selfe into Hell The other instance is this If an August Contra mendacium ad Consentium lib. 1. cap. 13. innocent religious man should be pursued by murtherous ruffians or bloody persecutors with a full intention to deprive him of his life for the preventing whereof hee is forced to flye from them or to hide himselfe in some secret place with which his flight or place of hiding we onely are acquainted The question is if the pursuers aske us which way he is gone or if hee be hidden with us or no whether we may not by an officious ly preserve his life directing them to take a wrong way in their pursuit that so he may escape or telling them that he is gone from us and not in our house seeing if we speake the truth we shall thereby expose him to certaine danger of death and if we refuse to answer we shall not onely be indangered to taste of their rage but also doe no good to the party whom we have received and hidden seeing upon our silence they will certainly presume that hee is hidden with us or else we would make no scruple to deny it To which I answere with Saint Augustine that wee must not lye and so by sinning offend Gods infinite Majesty and indanger the eternall salvation of our soules in hope to preserve the momentary life of anothers body What then must wee tell the truth and so betray his life into their hands that seeke it No by no meanes for this is much worse than the other Must we then say nothing when as silence is no lesse dangerous then speaking the truth Nor this neither seeing this as little conduceth to our end of preserving our neighbours life as if wee confessed the truth What then must bee done surely as Saint Augustine also resolveth it we are in such a case called by God to put on Christian courage and resolution and to endure any extremities rather than we will either betray the truth or the innocent man who hath intrusted his life to our secrecy And therefore wee ought boldly to professe that wee know what is become of the party whom they pursue but will not by telling them expose him to the danger of their cruelty because we will neither betray him nor offend God by telling a lye And of this Saint Augustine bringeth an example of a Bishop called Firmus whom he commendeth to have beene more firme in his will and resolution than in his name who when he had with all diligence hid a persecuted Christian from the rage of an heathen Emperor and being by his Pursevants which hee had sent to apprehend him demanded where they might finde him couragiously answered them that he could neither lye nor betray
scio me nihil scire I onely know this that I know nothing Fourthly hee may bee said thus to speake not as hee was now sanctified and inlightned with the spirit of Grace and understanding but as he was in the state of nature in which respect the Prophet saith Every man is brutish in Jer. 10. 1◠his knowledge understanding nothing in spirituall 1 Cor. 2. 14. things which concerne his eternall salvation till hee be regenerate and in Christ The which sense the words will best beare if with Iunius wee thus render them for I am a beast or brutish since I was a man that is even from my birth and the wisedome of a man is not in me that is like that which was in man by his first creation before by his fall hee became brutish and so ought to be in him still Secondly the example of the Apostle Paul is §. 3. The example of Paul objected and answered 1 Cor. 15. 9. Eph. 3. 8. 1 Tim. 1. 15. 2 Cor. 11. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 10. Phil. 3. 5. Act. 26. 5. objected who saith that he was the least of the Apostles and not worthy to be called on Apostle yea that he was the least of all the Saints yea which is more that he was the chiefe of sinners whereas elsewhere hee maketh himselfe equall to the chiefe of the Apostles superiour unto them all in his labours and sufferings and as touching the Law a Pharisee yea in respect of his life and conversation of the strictest of that Sect. From whence they conclude that in those speeches wherein hee so much abased himselfe he used a modest lye and therefore that modest lyes are in such cases lawfull To which I answere that hee called himselfe the least of the Apostles and the least of the Saints not simply and generally but respectively as hee expresseth himselfe because he had persecuted the Church of God 1 Cor. 15. 9. 1 Tim. 1. 13. In which regard also he calleth himselfe the chiefest of sinners as it is evident in the same places But how can this bee other than a modest lye that Saint Paul should call himselfe the chiefest of sinners seeing others committed farre greater sinnes than hee and yet upon their repentance were received to mercy as Manasses Some understand the words that hee was the first of sinners as the word may also signifie namely the first of all those that came unto Christ who had before persecuted him in his members But this had beene no great aggravation of Pauls sinne nor amplification of Gods mercy in pardoning it both which the Apostle intendeth in that place And therefore I had rather take it in a litterall sense namely that in truth hee calleth himselfe the greatest sinner that had received mercy First because hee speaketh as hee thinketh and findeth himselfe in his owne sense and feeling for as it is the nature of hypocrisie to make our owne beames moates and others moates beames so it is the nature of true repentance to aggravate our owne sinnes and to extenuate other mens and when the eyes of our mindes are inlightned wee see our sinnes to bee more in number and more haynous in quality either in themselves or in respect of circumstances than wee can charitably suspect to bee in any other of Gods servants Secondly because hee speaketh in my judgement as the thing is For if wee limitte his speech to the faithfull onely who upon their repentance have beene received to grace as wee must needs doe seeing some have lived and died in their infidelity and finall impenitency and others have committed the sinne against the Holy Ghost with whom there is no probability that the Apostle compared himselfe I say restraining the comparison onely to penitent sinners then it is true which the Apostle speaketh that of all sinners he was the chiefe whether wee consider the sinne it selfe or as it was aggravated by circumstances For he madly and maliciously persecuted the Saints of God for their profession of Christ and the Gospell and not being content Act. 26. 11. to blaspheme his holy Name himselfe hee doth as much as in him lyeth compell them also to blaspheeme as hee confesseth and so lacked nothing but this of committing the unpardonable sinne that he did it ignorantly as himselfe acknowledgeeth 1 Tim. 1. 13. Besides hee had great and many meanes of knowledge and of revealing unto him Christ and the Light of the Gospell and some of them hee carelesly neglected and some he utterly despised Of the former sort was the Law of God in which having great skill he might in the ceremonies and sacrifices have seene Christ crucified before his eyes by which through the blindenesse of his minde and hardnesse of his heart hee profitted not Of the latter was the Heavenly and Powerfull Sermons of our Saviour himselfe and of his Apostles which were confirmed by many and wonderfull miracles all which he despised either not vouchsafing to heare them or not receiving or beleeving them so that nothing could touch his heart hardened in his sinne And whereas some had sinned out of simple errour and ignorance and had proceeded in their sinne even to the crucifying of the Lord of Life yet afterwards when by the Preaching of the Apostles they were convinced of their sinne they repented of it and beleeved in Christ hee still proceedeth in his madnesse and fury to persecute the Saints of God not contenting himselfe to heare that they were murthered and massacred unlesse he stood by and satiated his eyes with their death and slaughter Yea so obstinate he was in his sinne and rebellion that either he must perish in it or God must pull him out of it by strong hand and use a miracle upon him for his conversion By all which it appeareth that S. Paul had no neede to use the helpe of a modest lye when he called himselfe the chiefest of sinners Lastly it is objected that our Saviour Christ §. 4. The example of our Saviour Christ objected and answered himselfe who was greater than all the Angels as being the Eternall Sonne of God equall with his Father the Prince of Angels and as hee was our Mediator God and Man yet in that Propheticall Psalme of his Passion and Sufferings hee that was God maketh himselfe lesse than a man But I saith hee am a worme and no man The which is to bee understood not onely of David the Type but also and that chiefly of Christ himselfe the Antitype in whose Person the Psalmist speaketh To which I answere that our Saviour speaketh this not simply but respectively not what he absolutely was nor what he was in his owne nature or in his selfe-conceit but what he was reputed to be in the sight and opinion of the people who looking upon him as a Man forsaken of God and exposed to the malice of his enemies and being astonied at him his visage was so marred with his sufferings more than any