and deare as his right hand or his right eye yet if hee fell to lying away he must hee would would bee so farre from shewing him any favour that hee should not so much as enjoy the sight of his countenance A wonder it is to consider that the imputation of a lie should bee so odious and yet the practice so frequent among men specially those who stand most upon their reputation the name so hatefull and the use so common that men should be so tender and sensible of the giving of the lie as to think it presently worthie the stabbe or the chalenge and yet to be so careless and unconscionable in the making of it a strange kinde of vanity I say it is and a marvailous repugnancy and contradiction in the nature of man to bee so hot in the pursuite of the one and so colde in the other Wherefore either seeme to bee as thou art or be as thou wouldst seeme either have a care and conscience that thou make not a lie or bee content that a man call a Spade a Spade a Lier a Lier This vice of all other is so universally spread over the face of the world not onely among servants but all sorts of men that what our Prophet spake in his haste I said in mine haste all men are Liers Psalm 106. 10 that the Apostle spake advisedly Rom. 3. 4 Let God bee true and every man a lyer But we must know it is one thing to lie and another to make a trade or custome of lying one thing to slip into it unawares another deliberately to forge and conceive it and which is worse to defend it and stand in it being done The one may proceed from the common frailty incident to mankinde yet not without some striving against it and repentance for it in such as are sanctified by Gods spiâ—it but the later is onely proper to the unbeleeving and unregenerate Therefore sayes our Prophet not Loquens mendacium in the singular number but mendacia in the plurall Now in the handling of this point wee may first consider the nature and diverse kindes of a Lie Secondly the greatnesse of the offence how slightly soever we esteeme of it And lastly the punishment alwaies due unto it many times inflicted upon it A Lie to speak properly is the speaking of an untruth with an intent to deceive For the clearer unfolding of which definition we are to call to mind a fourefolde truth mentioned in holy Scripture of Iudgement of Affection of Action of Speech The truth of Iudgement is opposed to Error of Affection to Hypocrisie of Action to Dissimulation and of Speech to Lies or Falshood If a man speak that which is false without an intent to deceive supposing it to be a truth it is a material lie If he speak a truth with an intent to deceive supposing hee spake a falshood it is a formall lie But if hee speake a falshood knowing it to be a falshood with an intent to deceive this is a full a flat lie it hath the whole essence the matter the forme the soule and the bodie of a lie The materiall lie is lyable to the censure of men but excusable before God at least à tanto though not à toto in as much as it proceeds out of ignorance the tongue agreeing with the understanding but the understanding disagreeing from the thing The formall lie is punishable by God though acquitted by men in as much as the understanding disagrees from the speech though the speech agree with the thing but the full lie including both the matter and the forme deserves punishment both from God and men in as much as in it both the understanding disagrees from the speech and the speech from the thing Which ground being laid I see not how the most cunning Sophisters in the world can free their equivocations and mentall reservations at leastwise from the formality of a lie which is indeed the life of it if there may bee life in such a dead work For to grant that the thing which they speake is true yet they cannot denie but they speake it with an intent to deceive and then Linguam ream facit mens rea It is a guilty minde that makes a guilty tongue according to that of Augustine Ex animi sui sententia non ex rerum ipsarum veritate aut falsitate mentiens aut non mentiens iudicandus est A Lyer is to bee iudged not so much by the truth and falshood of things as by the purpose and intent of his minde It matters not then whether my lye be iocosum onely for sport and merriment or officiosum for the pretended good of some without the hurt of any or malitiosum out of a mischievous designe if it be an untruth uttred with an intent to deceive it comes all to one for the unlawfulnesse of it howbeit the one bee sinfull in a higher degree more divelish and damnable than the other and beeing once unlawfull in it self as being a direct breach of the law none other respect but onely the dispensative power of the Lawgiver himself can possibly make it lawfull When Thespis the first stage-player was asked if he were not ashamed to utter so many untruths in so worthy an audience hee answered that hee did it in sport but wise Solon replied if wee approve and commend this sport we shall finde it in earnest in our contracts affaires And even so indeed by just judgement it befalles a man who using to ly in sport gets an habite of lying in earnest and with his jesting lies raiseth such a suspicion of him that bee he in never so good earnest hee cannot bee beleeved And for officious lies since wee cannot make a lie for God cause as Iob testifies 13. 9 much less may we ly for the behoof of our selves or other men Vse not then to make any manner of lie for the custome thereof is not good Ecclus. 7. 13. No good and honest means are to bee neglected which tend to the refreshing and cheering of their spirits who beare the burden of the State yet the Prophet Hosea 7. 3 reproves those that make the king glad with their wickednesse and the Princes with their lies neither is it anie way warrantable to doo evill that good may come thereof Rom. 3. 8. As righteousnes then and peace so truth and charity are inseparable companions And therfore the Apostle 1. Cor. 13 puts downe this among other marks of charity that it reioyceth in the truth verse 6. And for those examples registred in holy Scripture of the Mid-wives to save the male-infants of the Hebrews of Rahab to save the spies of Michâ—l and Ionathan to save David from Sauls fury and the like of that kinde either commended or not discommended I answer that we must distinguish betwixt the deeds of the faithfull and their maner of dooing them Their facts in saving David the children the spies were commendable and argued
And which is more from a Vow to an Imprecation If mine heart have walked after mine eye let me sowe and let another eat yea let my plants be rooted out verse 7. This was the Vow and the Imprecation of this holy man howbeit the common practice of men bee that of Salomon Thine eyes shall looke upon strange women and thine heart shall speake lewd things I remember I have read a Dialogue betwixt the Eye and the Heart which of them should worke most mischief and the conclusion of it was Ratio litem dirimit Definitivo calculo Cordi causam imputans Occasionem oculo Reason takes up the matter and decides the controversie by imputing the cause to the Heart and the occasion to the Eye the Eye beeing as it were the Pandar or Broker but the Heart the Strumpet though S. Peter seem to impute it to the Eye Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease to sin 2. Pet. 2. 14 or as the Originall reads it full of an adulteress Where we see by a figurative manner of speech the very chair and throne of wantonnesse to bee seated in the Eye howâ—â—it it be in truth but the passage pipe to convay it to the soule yet such a passage as the Fathers generally understand of it those passages of Ieremy Death hath climed up by the windowes 9. 21. And again Lament 3. as the Vulgar reads it Oculus meus depraedatus est animam meam mine ey hath made a prey of my soule Which the very Heathens well understanding in the dedication of the severall parts of mans body to their severall gods and goddesses as the cars to Minerva the tongue to Mercury the arms to Neptune they leave the eye to Cupid their god of lust as being the fittest for his use the proverb houlding alike in inordinate lust as in ordinarie love Out of sight out of minde Vbi dolor ibi digitus ubi amor ibi oculus as the finger alway waits on grief so doth the eye on lust Whence it may bee in the Greek the same word only by the change of a vowell signifies both to see and to love Valerius fitly cals the eyes the spies which ly in ambush for the unâ—lermining of other mens mariages And Alexander using a different phrase shot at the same marke when hee called the Persian maides dolores oculorum griefes of the eyes and thereupon in my iudgement hee wisely refused that Darius his wife whose beauty the Macedonians so much admired and commended should bee once brought into his presence as fearing lest hee who had manfully subdued so many nations should himselfe be shamefully conquered at the sight of a woman but on the other side the Comedians saith Clemens Alexandrinus bring-in the wanton Sardanapalus sitting in an ivory chaire and casting his eyes in every corner Dinah goes a straggling through the country whom when Sichem heire to the Lord of the countrey sawe sayes the text he tooke her and lay with her and deflowred her It is noted of Potiphars wife that she first cast her eye on Ioseph before she inticed him to folly and of our Prophet that from the roof of the Kings Palace their houses being square and flat on the top he sawe a woman washing herselfe And what followed upon it you know first goes videt hanc then quickly comes after visamque cupit and instruments will not be wanting for potiturque cupita vidit sine veste Dianam Praeda fuit canibus nec minùs ille suis. This irregular glancing or inordinate gazing is that which metamorphosies a man into a beast and makes him a prey to his owne brutish affections The Divell knew full well the danger of this sense when hee presented before our Saviours eye all the kingdomes of the world and the glory of them and Hezekiah learned it to his griefe when he stirred up such coales in the Babylonish Ambassadors by shewing them his treasure that they never left till they came and fetcht it away I saw among the spoyle a goodly Babylonish garment saith Achan and two hundred shekles of silver and a wedge of gold and I coveted them and tooke them Thus as it is the instrument of wantonness so is it of covetousneâ—s and of gluttony and drunkenness too Looke not thou saith Salomon upon the wine when it is red and when it shewes his colour in the cup in the end thereof it will hurt like a Serpent and bite like a Cocatrice Prov. 23. 31. So is it of pride looking-glasses being nothing else but the artificiall eyes of pride as our naturall eye is a kinde of living looking-glasse by which so many staines and blemishes are not discovered in the face as imprinted in the soule and lastly so it is of Idolatry the Prophet Esay in his twentith chapter stiling the Idols of Egypt the abomination of the eyes twice within the compass of two verses ver 7. 8. Whence it is in my iudgement that among all those idolatrous nations which worshipped false gods and went a-whoring after their owne in ventions the greatest part have ever consented in worshipping the host of heaven the Sunne the Moone or the Starres which among all creatures the eye most admireth and delighteth in Good reason then had our Saviour to say If thine eye bee evill all the body is darke Mat. 6. 23 and Saint Iohn 1. Epist. 2. 16 to make the lust of the eyes one of those three fountaines from which all other vices streame The sonnâ—s of God saw the daughters of men that they were faire and then followes that mischiefe which drew on the flood on the olde world The first woman sawe the fruit of the tree of knowledge that it was pleasant to the eye and from thence issued that first sinne the mother of all the evill which wee both doe and suffer Whence it may be in the Hebrew the same word signifieth as well an eye as a fountaine to shew that from it as from a spring or fountaine did flowe both sinne it selfe the cause of sinne and misery the punishment of both And if our first parents were thus bewitched by the eye and thereby received their bane in the state of innocency when their appetite was yet subordinate to reason and their reason to God what can wee promise to our selues Qui animas etiam incarnavimut who have made our very spirit a lump of flesh prone to entertaine vice but weake God knowes to resist it They are in a manner composed of flax or tinder apt to conceiue fire and to bee inflamed by the least sparke admitted by this sense except it be speedily repelled or quenched by grace Great reason then had our Prophet to pray and wee with him Turne away mine eyes O Lord from beholding vanitie great reason had hee to promise and we with him I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes the one for the imploring of Gods assistance and the other for the quickning of our owne endeavours
tenne times sought to eat him up to raven all hee could get from him This was the reward he had from his Master for his faithfull service But now God so blessed him for his sincerity in religion that the very Presents he sent his brother Esau were able to make a rich maÌ„ Gen. 32. And of himself hee professeth in the same chapter verse 10 With my staff came I over this Iordan and now have I gotten two bands In regard of men it fared worse with Ioseph though God prospered his Masters house for his sake neither would he hearken to the impudent and importunate suâ—e of his mistresse yet his recompense was disgrace and imprisonment they put his feet in the stockes and the iron entred into his soule But God in stead of the stocks set him in the seat of Iustice and in stead of his fetters put a chaine of gold about his neck I will conclude this point with the exhortation of St. Peter Servants bee subiect to your Masters with all feare not onely to the good and courteous but also to the froward for this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience towards GOD endure grief suffering wrongfully 1. Pet. 2. 18. Secondly as godliness is requisite in a servant in regard of himself so is it in regard of his Master First because if hee feare his Master and not God all that hee doth will bee but eye-service hee will certainely intend his Masters good no further than hee sees it may sort with his owne whereas if God the fear of him bee before his eyes hee is the same man when his Master is absent as if hee were present hee desires and endeavours his best advantage as much though he were a thousand mile off as if hee stood by and lookt on If Gehezi had thought that his Master had been so far indued with a propheticall spirit that hee could have tould him what hee did in so great a distance from him hee would never have taken such paines to run after the Syrian Captaine for a bribe to the disgrace of his Master and the undooing of himself And if Iudas had beleeved our Saviour to have been God and consequently that hee had knowne the thoughts of his heart undoubtedly hee would never have hatched against him such a foule treason within his breast It was nothing that made Achitophel to side as a Rebel with Absolon and to plot against his Master David and Ziba against Mephibosheth but worldly respects and want of true religion Besides as ungodliness in the servant cannot but put the Master in continuall fear both of his estate and person so it serves to infect as wel the children of the house as his fellow-servants wheras on the other side the godliness of one beeing countenanced and incouraged therein serves to shame the lewder sort and to draw-on the well-disposed Thus Daniel beeing admitted into the King of Babylons Court was an instrument for the reforming and converting even of the King Nebuchadnezar himselfe And Ioseph was admitted into the King of Egypts Court that hee might inform his Princes and teach his Senatours wisedom Psal. 125. 22. In the second of Kings and the fift wee read of a poore silly maid but a Iewesse by Nation the onely people of God at that time who being taken captive by the Aramites and serving Naamans wife tolde her Mistris of the Prophet Elisha in Samaria and by that meanes gave occasion to her Lord of going thither and cleansing himselfe from the leprosie both of his bodie and his soule Lastly a godly and religious servant will ever be praying unto God to send a blessing on that worke which he is set about as Abrahams servant did Gen. 24 and so God prospered his journey and the business he was intrusted with accordingly All which considered great reason had our Prophet to say and to double it to promise and to vow it He that walketh in a perfect way he shal serve mee He he Now because the word heer used to Serve in the Originall signifies a free and liberall kind of service it may well bee thought that our Prophet intended not only the admitting of faithfull and godly servants into his family but the advancing of such to the highest offices the placing of them in the chiefest roome of government under him And surely this consideration and promise was no less nay more necessarie then the former in regarde that the good which froÌ„ hence might arise is more publique They that bee of high calling if they bee good and desire their goodness may spread abroad and reach unto others for this purpose may not unâ—ily bee likened to great Cisterns or ponds full of cleare and wholesome water that might bee beneficial to many if there were sound and sweet pipes to convay it whereas on the other side it yeeldeth no benefit at all if the pipes bee stopt nay proves hurtfull if they bee poysoned and corrupted Whereof it commeth to passe that even when there be good Princes yet things doe still continue out of frame as wee see in the dayes of Iosiah a most excellent and carefull King who feared God betimes twice in his dayes reformed religion his remembrance is as the perfume made by the Art of the Apothecarie and as musick at a banquet of wine there was no King before him either after him that like Iosiah turned to God with all his heart as hee did yet were there in his dayes even in the time of his raigne horrible abominations atheisme and contempt of God pride in apparell oppression and cruelty yea much damnable Idolatry notwithstanding the good King by his laws had taken as good order against these as possibly he could The cause of all was that such as were under him in the Common-wealth and in the Church did not that which hee willed and belonged to their place According to that complaint of Zophonie That the Princes were as roaring Lions the Iudges as Wolves in the Evening which leave not the bones till the morrow the Prophets were light and wicked persons and the Priests such as polluted the Sanctuary and had wrested the lawe of God to serve their owne turne And so what marvaile though in a rare Kings daies iniquity overflowed and abounded Esay in like manner prophecied under good Kings Vzziah and Iotham and Hezekiah yet he justly and sorely complaines how farre all things were even then out of order their silver vvas become drosse and their wine mixt with water Cap. 1. 22 and hee addes the reason hereof in the verse following because their Princes that is their chiefe Officers under the the King vvere rebellious and companions of theeves They loved gifts and followed after rewards they iudged not the fatherless neither did the widowes cause come before them The people themselves do so sensibly see and feele this that they reioyce vvhen the righteous bee in authority Prov. 29. 2 whereas cleane contrariwise they sigh and mourne when