est quippe falsa significatio cum voluntate fallendi Aug. contr mendac ad Consent lib. 2. cap. 12. Qua propter ille mentitur qui aliud habet in animo aliud verbis vel quibuslibet significationibus enunciat lib. 1. cap. 3. it thus A Lye is a false signification with a will to deceive And that saith he is not a false signification when as though one thing is signified by another yet that is true which is signified if it bee rightly understood And this hee explaineth in another place where he saith that he lyeth who hath one thing in his minde and uttereth another thing in his words or any other way of signification more plainely as I take it wee may thus describe it A lye is a vicious speech in which the tongue disagreeth from the minde which is voluntarily uttered with a purpose and desire to deceive or thus a lye is a false expression or signification of the notions and conceptions of the mind by speaking writing or any other significant actions or gestures voluntarily uttered with a purpose and desire to deceive or when the Truth is suppressed and betrayed by silence when wee ought to declare and confesse it whereby it appeareth that these three things doe concurre in a lye First falsity or untruth uttered by speaking writing or any other meanes contrary to that Truth with which the minde is inlightned Secondly that it be voluntary the will resisting the minde and commanding expressions which are contrary to its notions and conceptions Thirdly that it bee done with a purpose and desire to deceive The two first doe containe the matter and forme the third the end at which he aymeth who telleth an untruth But for the better and more full clearing of the §. 2. Of the name or thing defined nature of this vice wee will first say something of the name or thing defined and then of the definition it selfe Our English name whereby wee expresse it is Lye the Etymology whereof we cannot easily guesse at It may seeme to bee derived or borrowed from the Belgicke word Lieghen or the German Lügen which signifie to lye and they to be derived from the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to speake or talke because as Scaliger observeth in much speaking or talking is usually some lying The Latine expresseth it by a name which signifieth the disagreement that is in it betweene the tongue and the mind mentiri quasi contra mentem ire to lye is to goe against the minde or to say that which the mind gain-sayeth the tongue speaking contrary to that Truth which the minde conceiveth The Grecians call a lye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to deceive because deceit is the maine end of lying And this some derive from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to flye or avoyde because lying is such a vice as men naturally abhorring when it is spoken against themselves do shun and fly from it others derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Arist eth lib. 4. cap. 7. signifieth to reprehend disprayse or disgrace because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lye is reprehended and dispraysed amongst all as a thing vaine and wicked The Hebritians commonly call a lye Aven the same word also signifying iniquity and sinne because in all lyes though they seeme never so specious and excusable there is iniquity and sinne because the will and the tongue doe disagree from the minde and doe betray it by forcing it like a false interpreter to speake that which it doth not conceive and thinke And so I come from the name to speake of the §. 3. Of the falsity that is in a Lye nature of the thing described In which the first thing considerable is the falsity and untruth that is in every lye The which is twofold First when that is false which is spoken Secondly when as Men speake the Truth falsely that is with a purpose to deceive Now he speaketh false who doth not speake as the thing is whether hee thinketh it true or noe or whether he purposeth to deceive or not to deceive and he speaketh falselye who doth not speake as hee thinketh whether that hee speaketh bee true or false The one is a Logicall untruth when as the speech agreeth not with the thing the other a Morall lye or a lye against Morality when as the minde agreeth not with the speech He that speaketh that which is false but yet thinketh it to bee true cannot bee said to lye though he speaketh an untruth because his speech agreeth with his minde and as hee thinketh hee speaketh onely it is his errour either through the weakenesse of his reason and understanding and defect in judgement or else through rashnesse incogitancie and negligence because he doth not duely consider and examine what he saith before hee speaketh it If the former it is not so much a sinne as the punishment of sinne or if a sinne in the strictest censure yet but onely as it is a branch of the corruption of nature or originall sin The other must bee acknowledged and bewayled as a sinne of infirmity if it be done seldome and at unawares though nothing so haynous and odious unto God as a lye But he that speaketh willingly that which he knoweth to be false or doth speake the Truth falsely that is either when through errour and mistake hee thinketh it to bee false or knowing it to be true that he may deceive or may be better beleeved when he lyeth he is a lyer and herein resembleth the Devill who either lyeth in speaking that which hee knoweth to be false or else when hee speaketh Truth doth it with a purpose to deceive or that hee may gaine the more credit to his lyes And thus he called our Saviour Christ the Holy one of God and his Apostles Paul Mar. 1. 26. Act. 16. 17. and Silas the servants of the most high God either because he would deceive the people and make them to suspect them the more because of his testimony and approbation as though they were friends to his kingdome of darkenesse or that he might bee the rather beleeved when hee should afterwards slander and reproach them as seducers and false teachers Now which of those two he that speaketh that which is false with a purpose to deceive or he that speaketh the Truth to the same end bee in greater fault it is not easie to determine because how much the lesse the one hath of Truth in his speech who speaketh that which is false so much the more the other hath of craft and deceit who can cunningly force Truth even against its nature to advance his false ends Whereby it appeareth that there is great difference §. 4. Of the difference between lying and speaking an untruth betweene lying and telling or speaking a lye or untruth for in a lye the
whereby hee is able not onely to kill the body of him that lyeth as hee did Ananias and Sapphira but also to cast both body and soule into hell and in the meane time to frustrate all our hopes and ends which we propound unto our selves in lying either by detecting our untrueths or by crossing us in them so as they shall not effect our desires but rather hinder them and finally if wee did know that he is a God of trueth who hateth and abhorreth lyes and will according to his Word give lyars their portion in that lake which burneth Apoc. 21. 8. with fire and brimstone if they doe not prevent their just damnation by unfained repentance wee would not take pleasure in lyes nor bee hyred to tell them with the base wages of worldly vanities But it is our ignorance of these things that causeth us so easily to fall into this sinne when as Sathan or the World tempteth us unto it And therefore the Prophet joyneth them together as the Cause and Effect They bend saith hee their tongue like Jer. 9. ◠their bow for lyes but they are not valiant for the trueth upon the earth for they proceed from evill to evill and they know not me saith the Lord. Another Cause is oblivion and forgetfulnesse of God for many that know Gods Nature and Attributes and will acknowledge that he is omniscient omnipotent just and true in all his Word and wayes yet fall into this sinne through forgetfulnesse not pondering and considering what they know when they should make use of it to keepe them from sinning And of this the Prophet Esay speaketh Of whom saith hee hast thou beene affraid or feared that thou Esay 57. 11. hast lyed and hast not remembred mee nor laid it to thy heart A third Cause of lying is our inordinate and §. 4. A third Cause is immoderate feare of men immoderate feare of men more than of God the which the Prophet implyeth in the same words Of whom hast thou beene affraid that thou hast lyed and hast not remembred me whom thou hast more cause to feare than all men or devils For they at the most can but kill the bodie but God can also cast body and soule into hell Neither is either man or devill Mat. 10. 28. so able to protect us against the stroke of Gods vengeance when wee speake lyes as hee is both able and willing to defend and preserve us against all their might and malice whilest wee make conscience of speaking the trueth for according to his gracious promise Hee shall cover us with his feathers Psal 91. 4. and under his wings shall we trust his trueth shall bee our shield and buckler But because men looke onely unto the present and take care to avoid imminent danger and live by sense more than by faith beholding the arme of flesh ready to strike them and not the power of God which is all-sufficient to protect them nor seeing him that is invisible Therefore they make lyes their refuge and hide Esay 28. 15. themselves under falshood and vanitie And this appeareth principally in the practise of inferiours as children and servants who having committed any fault doe usually colour and cover it with a lye that so they may escape the displeasure of their governors whereas if they feared God more than men they would bee much more fearefull to fall into his hands than theirs seeing he is a consuming Heb. 12. 24. Fire who is able in his just wrath utterly to destroy them and would rather choose to speake the trueth though they lost the favour of mortall men than by lyes to loose the favour of the immortall God yea they would know that their greatest safety would be in speaking the trueth seeing God the authour and lover of it hath the hearts of all men in his hands and can move superiours to pardon what is done amisse yea to love them more for their trueth and ingenuity than to mislike them for their faults and errours A fourth Cause of lying is carnall confidence and security whereby men blesse themselves in §. 5. A fourth Cause of Lying is Carnall Confidence and Security this sinfull course presuming that their lyes shall bee so cunningly contrived and so boldly and impudently outfaced that they shall never come to light and that as they have long practised them and yet have escaped both the punishment of God and men so they may still goe on securely in their sinne without feare of danger And of such the Prophet Esay speaketh Who had made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell promising unto Esay 28. 1◠themselves that when the overflowing scourge should passe thorow it should not come unto them because they had made lyes their refuge and hid themselves under falshood And againe they trust in vanitie and speake lyes hoping through their cleanly conveiance Chap. 54. 4. that they shall never be discovered But the truth which they oppose is as a shining light which will lay open all these hidden workes of darkenesse and bring them at length to shame and punishment And whereas they presume that they shall still escape because having long lived in this sinne they finde no hurt in it nor have felt Gods hand in punishing of it and so encourage themselves to go on in their wickednesse according to that of the Preacher Because sentence against an evill worke is Eccles 8. 11. not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sonnes of men is fully set in them to doe evill Let them know that though they are respited yet they are not remitted and though the overflowing scourge hath Esay 28. 18. passed over and not yet whipped them yet at last they shall as God hath threatned be trodden downe by it if they doe not prevent his judgement by true repentance or though they should wholly escape in this life yet this is but cold comfort if they consider that they are hereby hardened in their sinne that living and dying in it without remorse they may at last receive their full payment without mercie Apoc. 21. 8. in the world to come The last Cause of Lying which I intend to §. 6. A fifth Cause of Lying is Covetousnesse speake of is Covetousnesse whereby men immoderately loving worldly wealth will not stay Gods leisure in the use of lawfull meanes for the compassing of their desires but resolving to bee rich and making all haste in satisfying their greedy avarice they leave no stone unmoved no meanes untryed which may advance their ends Amongst the rest they finde none more fitting for their purpose than this of Lying as being a speciall helpe whereby they are inabled to supplant and deceive one another and to enrich themselves by their neighbours ruines especially when they have any entercourse of Trading buying and selling in which all manner of deceit is used to defraude one another and all disguised and hid
voluntate fallendi c. August Enchir. ad Laurent cap. 22. against that which he thinketh in his minde with a will to deceive Now words were therefore instituted not that by them men should deceive one another but that every one might thereby make knowne his thoughts to others And therefore to use words that wee may deceive and not for that end for which they were ordained is a sinne And as this sinne of lying is pernicious to the §. 8. That lying is pernicious to every particular family Common-wealth so also unto every particular family where it raigneth as being the common cause of all confusion and disorder of all evills and mischiefes which happen unto it For as it bringeth Gods judgements upon those families where it is tolerated as the deserved punishment of their sin so doe they suffer many evills from one another which are the effects of it For if the Governours be such as doe love and listen after lyes it maketh all the servants wicked because there will bee no Justice executed no difference betweene well and ill-deserving no rewards for the one nor punishments for the other when as the innocent and faithfull shall by lyes be traduced and branded and the faulty and faithlesse excused and commended No marvell then if the governement become lame and much weakned when as rewards and punishments which are the sinewes of it are cut in sunder and if there bee no good governement how can there be any true obedience And this is that which Salomon observeth If saith hee a Ruler Prov. 29. 12. hearken unto lyes all his servants are wicked Againe if in a family there be no conscience made of lying all that live in it become negligent of their duetie and are much emboldned to commit any fault so it be not knowne and to breake burne spoile steale and loose any thing that belongeth to their governours when as they can by a lye deny or excuse it neither is there any feare of shame or punishment to restraine them seeing they can by lying so shift and shuffle off the fault from one to another that the master of the family cannot possibly discerne who is faulty or faultlesse and therefore is put to his choice whether he will let the offender escape or indanger himselfe to punish the innocent and so either to suffer evill in others or to bee evill himselfe whilest his severity is not guided by knowledge and truth And all this made David so out of love with lyars that hee professeth hee would not suffer one of them to dwell in his family Hee that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house hee that telleth Psal 101. 7. lyes shall not tarry in my sight CHAP. XIII That the Lyar sinneth most of all against himselfe BUt as lyes are in these and many other §. 1. That lying defaceth Gods Image in us and stampeth on us the image of Sathan respects hurtfull to our neighbours so are they much more pernicious to our selves and that both in respect of the evill of sinne and also of the evill of punishment Concerning the former lying is most pernitious unto our selves in many considerations For first it defaceth and blotteth out Gods Image in us seeing wee resemble him not onely in wisedome holinesse and righteousnesse but also in truth which hath such relation unto them all that it is necessarily required to their very essence and being so that wisedome righteousnesse and holinesse are of no worth and existence unlesse truth be joyned with them And therefore the Apostle exhorting us to bee renewed according to Gods Image doth bid us to put on the new man which after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4. 24. God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse or as the words there signifie holinesse of truth And this the Greeke Oratour saw by the light of nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demosthenes for being asked in what things men came neerest to the likenesse of GOD answered in Trueth and beneficence Now this Trueth is most opposed and defaced by Lying and consequently it is most pernicious For if wee esteeme it a great hurt to have our eyes put out our faces gashed and deformed and our bodies maimed and dismembred how much more hurtfull is it to have these blemishes in our soules and to have Gods image defaced in us And yet it doth not onely blot out of us the image of God but it also stampeth on us the image of Sathan and sinne For the Devill is not onely a Lyar himselfe but also the authour and father of lyes according to that of our Saviour He is a Murtherer from the beginning Joh. 8. 44. and abode not in the trueth because there is no trueth in him when hee speaketh a lye he speaketh it of his owne for hee is a Lyar and the father of it where as Saint Basil observeth our Saviour putteth no difference In reg Contract Num. 76. of lyes but speaketh this indefinitely of them all And this wee see in the example of our first Parents unto whom Sathan lyeth even against God himselfe and also teacheth them to lye from whom this corruption and disposition of Lying is propagated to all their posterity in the example of the foure hundred false Prophets in whose mouth Sathan was a lying spirit teaching them to lye perniciously to Ahabs destruction as himselfe confesseth and of Ananias and Saphira Whose hearts 1 Kings 22. 22. Acts 5. 3. Sathan filled with deceit to lye unto the holy Ghost as Saint Peter speaketh Wherein he sheweth himselfe a right Serpent indeed seeing he carrieth his poison in his mouth whereby he killeth both himselfe and others And as the Devill is the Father of Lyars so are they his children in nothing more resembling him than in loving and making lyes For in this particular respect our Saviour chiefly speaketh Yee are of your Father the Devill and the lusts of your Father yee will doe Yea in this also they Joh. 8. 44. shew themselves to bee of this serpentine generation in that Their poison is like the poison of a Serpent Psal 38. 4. 140. 3. sharpening their tongues like him and having Adders poison under their lips Yea herein they goe beyond their Father the Devill in that hee beleeveth the trueth and trembleth whereas they not onely love and make lyes but also beleeve them more than truth yea rather any thing more than it according to the saying of our Saviour Because I tell you the Joh. 8. 45. trueth therefore yee beleeve mee not Now what can bee more pernicious unto man than to have Gods Image defaced in him to become the child of the Devill and to resemble him in sinfull Lying seeing they that are like him in his sinne shall hereafter be made like him in his punishments So also by Lying not onely the Image of Sathan §. 2. That the sinne of Lying encourageth men to commit
Augustine There are saith he many kindes of lyes Mendaciorum genera multa sunt quae quidem omnia universaliter â—disse debemus Contmendac ad Consent lib. 2. cap. 3. all which universally we ought to hate For there is no lye which is not contrary to Truth for as light and darkenesse piety and impiety justice and iniquity sinne and righteousnesse health and sicknesse life and death even so Truth and lying are contrary to one another and therefore as much as we love that so much ought this to bee hated and abhorred And againe those things which are done against the Law of God cannot bee just and David saith unto God thy Law is Truth so that Psal 119. what is against Truth cannot bee just as all lyes are c. And therefore when examples of lying are alleadged out of the Scriptures either they are not lyes but are onely thought so because they are not understood or if they bee lyes they may not be imitated because they are not just as being against Truth And this is the next motive to make us to abhorre and forsake lyes because they are also opposite §. 2. That lyes are opposite to Justice to Justice the which consisting in an evennes equality and just proportion and agreement of one thing with another that is to be esteemed unjust wherein there is inequality and disagreement And consequently there is unjustice and iniquity in every lye wherein there is no equality or agreement betweene the speech and the minde this conceiving one thing and the tongue uttering another that dictating what is the truth and this speaking what is false To which purpose Saint Augustine thus speaketh every one who lyeth Omnis qui meÌ„titur iniquitatem facit c. August dedoctr Christiana Tom. 3. col 19. doth iniquity and if it seemeth unto any that a lye is sometimes profitable it may also seeme unto him that it is profitable to commit iniquity for no man that lyeth in that wherein he lyeth keepeth his faith For his will is that he to whom he lyeth should have faith to beleeve him which notwithstanding in lying to him himselfe keepeth not now every one who violateth his faith is unjust And therefore either injustice is sometimes profitable or else a lye is alwayes unprofitable and hereof it is that the Prophet Zephany joyneth these two together The remnant of Israel shall not doe Zeph. 3. 13. iniquity nor speake lyes neither shall a deceitfull tongue bee found in their mouth And so Malachie affirming that Truth was in Levies mouth denyeth also that there was iniquity found in it The Law Mal. 2. 6. of Truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lippes And therefore as wee love Justice so also we must love Truth and if we would not bee accounted unjust and wicked we must be carefull to hate and shunne lying Finally lying is contrary to Charity which as §. 3. That lyes are opposite to Charity 1 Cor. 13. 6. the Apostle speaketh delighteth and rejoyceth in the Truth Now Charity is the fulfilling of the whole Law and compriseth in it all duties towards God our neighbours and our selves and therefore lying in this respect as it opposeth Charity transgresseth the whole Law of God for first it dishonoureth God and robbeth him of his Glory as in those respects formerly spoken of namely because it is contrary to Gods Nature and Truth and transgresseth his Word and revealed Will so also because the Lyar like the Divell in a sort blasphemeth God in opposing his workes taking upon him to give a being to that which is not and to make something of nothing which is proper and peculiar to divine Omnipotency which neverthelesse is but an apish imitation and not done in Truth for whereas God by his Almighty Power giveth a true being to things that are not and maketh all things of nothing the Divell and those his children that resemble him in lying doe not by their words give a true being to things that are not but onely labour to imitate God herein as much as they are able giving unto them a false being in the opinions of those whom they deceive with their lyes and though they are not yet make them seeme to bee in shew and appearance Even as the Divell by his jugling trickes and impostures casteth false mists before mens eyes and maketh them beleeve that they see many things which they see not and which in truth are not whilest being unable to give a true existence to these things he onely deludeth and abuseth their phantasie Secondly it is contrary to true Charity in respect of our neighbors seeing it robbeth their mindes of that precious Jewell of Truth and putteth in the place thereof as it were the base bugles and worthlesse counterfeits of lyes besides all those evills and mischiefes of which I have formerly spoken Finally it is most contrary to that Charity and Love which every man oweth to himselfe seeing it bringeth upon a man innumerable evills spoyling him of truth and many other graces in this life and depriving him of all hope to injoy eternall blessednesse or to escape the everlasting torments of Hell fire in the life to come Againe for a conclusion of this point that we §. 4. That lying is but a vaine and sleight vice may be moved to loath lying let us consider that as it is base and dishonourable so it is but a vaine and sleight vice which hath no solidity or substance in it and therefore lasteth and endureth not but onely serveth for the present turne to make a seeming and false shew and then like a snuffe the blaze going out it endeth in stinke It may seeme to bring profit for the time and to make us rich like a Bristoll Diamond or counterfeite Pearle but being so soft that it will not indure the hard touch of a wise tryall it will soone loose its glosse and glory and make the owner if hee have given oughts for it a looser by his bargaine It may like glittering tinsell seeme for the time rich and make a faire shew and promise also to cover our nakednesse but even whilest it seemeth outwardly to hide our sinne and shame we are inwardly in our hearts and consciences never the warmer in respect of peace and sound comfort and within a while this base and sleight stuffe will bee worne out to ragges so that it will bee easie to see through it and to discerne all that nakednesse and filthinesse of vice and sin which at the first they promised to hide To which purpose the wise Salomon speakeeth excellently The lippe of Truth shall be established Prov. 12. 19. for ever but a lying tongue is but for a moment The which even the Heathens have found by their Menander apud StobaeuÌ„ Serm. 12. owne experience For one of them saith that no lyar can long lie hid Another speaketh the same more elegantly no lye proceedeth and
as it is disguised with some shaddow or colour of truth an untruth thus mistaken cannot be accounted a lye because the will agreeth with the minde and the tongue is directed by the will so that though a man speaketh a lye yet hee is no lyer because he neither thinketh that hee lyeth nor would willingly doe it if hee knew it to bee so Interest enim inter mentientem mendacem nam mentiens est qui mentitur invitus c. Ad Consent lib. 1. c. 11. To this purpose Saint Augustine There is a difference saith hee betweene one that telleth a lye and one that is a lyer for one may tell a lye that lyeth unwillingly but a lyar loveth to lye and dwelleth with his minde in the delight of lying The third thing that concurreth in a lye is that §. 6. That a lye is uttered with a purpose to deceive it is an untruth alwayes uttered with a purpose and desire to deceive and to make the party to whom wee speake thinke that to bee so which is not So that such an untruth as is uttered without any purpose to deceive is not to be esteemed a lye because it aymeth not at that end which a lyer alwaies propoundeth For howsoever some appropriate this end to pernicious lies that the lier intendeth it therein onely yet indeed it belongeth also to those lyes that are officious and in jest It is true that there are some lyers that have a will and desire to deceive him unto whom they speake without his losse yea it may be for his profit and delight as those that use officious and merry lyes and some lye with a will and desire to hurt and endammage him as pernicious lyers but all agree in this that all would deceive though the one for their good the other for their hurt for whosoever speaketh that which is false wittingly and willingly whether it doth good or hurt hee alwayes speaketh it to this end that the Truth may not be understood by him that heareth him and consequently to deceive him I say it is his next end to deceive although his remote end at which hee aimeth bee to delight or profit him which hee useth as a meanes to attaine unto his desire As when a Physitian telleth his sicke Patient that the potion which he willeth him to take is sweete and pleasant though intruth it be bitter and loathsome that so hee may perswade him to drinke it for the recovery of his health the maine end at which herein hee aimeth is the welfare of the sicke Man but the next end is to deceive him by telling an untruth which he useth as a meanes to further the other end of curing him which is principally in his intention and desire The last thing in the definition to bee considered §. 7. Of the divers manner and meanes whereby a lye is expressed of is the divers manner and meanes whereby a lye is expressed and committed and that is either positively and directly when as the Truth is contradicted and opposed or else privatively and indirectly when as it is suppressed and betrayed The former is done by any outward signification of the inward notions and thoughts of the minde especially by our speech and actions By our speach a lye is expressed and committed when as wee speake otherwise than that which wee conceive in our mindes either affirming that to be which wee thinke is not or denying that to bee which as we conceive is By our actions when by our outward showes gestures and deeds wee deceitfully faine dissemble and disguise the Truth that we may deceive our neighbour by making him to thinke that to bee which is not or that not to bee which is and to conceive by our outward shewes and carriage that wee intend that which is least in our thought to this end that wee may deceive and hurt him Secondly a lye is committed privatively and indirectly when as the Truth is suppressed and betrayed and that is done when as by silence it is concealed at such times and before such persons wherein and before whom wee are bound in conscience to reveale and confesse it for the glory of God and good of our neighbours For truth and falshood being contraries without meane the suppressing of the one is the exalting of the other and we may bee truely said to lye when wee deny the truth and to deny it when wee conceale it by silence at such times as wee are lawfully called to confesse it And therefore our Saviour as appeareth by his antithesis and opposition maketh this to be all one to deny him and not to confesse him Whosoever shall confesse mee before men him will I confesse Matth. 10. 32 33. also before my Father which is in Heaven but whosoever shall deny me before men him will I deny also before my Father which is in Heaven So that our silencing of truth when it ought to be spoken and confessed is no better than a denyall seeing by such silence it is betrayed and the contrary errour and truth advanced and maintained And therefore fitly doth the Apostle Iohn in that Catalogue of Apoc. 21. 8. sinners which shall have their part in that Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone ranke the fearefull with lyers because as the one bely the truth so the other through their cowardize and infidelity dare not confesse it which is all one as to betray and deny it CHAP. III. Of divers sorts and formes of speach which are to bee acquitted from the censure of a Lye ANd these are the things which alwayes §. 1. Of hyperâ—olâ—es and that they are no lyes concurre in every Lye whereby it appeareth that divers formes of speaking which are suspected and accused as lyes are acquitted and cleared hereof at the Barre before the seat of Justice by a right sentence of true judgement as namely hyperbolicall speeches fables parables and ironies In all which though there bee not the same spoken which is meant punctually and literally yet the same in the sense and intention of the speaker in whom there is no will to lye or speake contrary to the truth with a love and delight in falshood but a divers expression of the same truth conceived in the minde in other words and phrases than are ordinary namely such as are tropicall metaphoricall parabolicall and hyperbolicall not onely for the greater elegancy but also for the more profit of the hearer and not to blinde him with untruthes or deceive him with lyes but rather the better to convince him of the truth and to move him to imbrace it with greater profit and delight As first for hyperboales or hyperbolicall speeches which is the raising of things to their highest pitch and the inlarging of them above all due proportion not to deceive for then some measure should bee observed to make the thing probable and credible but to expresse the conceits of the minde in an extraordinary
and in his that heareth in ordinary understanding but also it is done wittingly and willingly and to this end that they may deceive and mislead men into errour which if it were allowed would prove most pernicious seeing it would overthrow all societies and all contracts and dealings publike betweene Common-wealths and private betweene Man and Man seeing none could know how words or oathes are to bee understood and consequently could not beleeve one another in what is spoken And as they are pernicious in these and many other respects unto other men so in this regard most pernicious to themselves In that whereas other lyes are condemned by a naturall Conscience and so often repented of these being maintained and defended as no sinnes are committed without remorse so that men live and dye in them without repentance CHAP. VI. Of the causes of Lying THE maine end of all my former discourse §. 1. Of the outward causes of Lying which are first the Divell hath beene to inform the judgement in the true nature of a Lye and to distinguish it from such Truthes as in outward shew and appearance may seeme to have some semblance of it that so rightly discerning it we may the better avoyde it and yet not through our untaught zeale in shunning it loose our lawfull liberty in speaking such truthes as being cleare and candide inough in their owne nature yet like a faire greene tree neere unto a Smiths forge are as it were dusked and obfuscated with the sulphureous smoke of lyes by reason of their vicinity For vertue dwelleth betweene its extreames and the most unreconcileable enemies doe often border one upon another And now in the next place according to my order propounded I am to say something of the causes of lying the which are either outward in others or inward and in our selves The chiefe outward cause is the Divell who as he is a lyer from the beginning and the father of lyes so doth he beget children after his owne likenesse and indeavoureth to make them as great lyers as himselfe And as by his lyes at the first hee murthered Mankinde so ever since hee maketh them murtherers of themselves by drinking dayly deepe draughts in this poysoned cup of lying which he putteth into their hands Wherein also he sheweth his desperate malice against God himselfe in that not being able to resist his Power hee opposeth him as he is the God of Truth gainesaying what he saith as wee see in his first tentation to our first Parents For God having threatned death against them if they did eate of the forbidden fruite hee expressely contradicteth him and saith Yee shall Gen. 3. 4. not die at all And when he cannot impeach or hurt him in himselfe in regard of his most absolute and perfect being hee adventureth upon us and as it is reported of a kinde of Serpent called the Panther that hee so maligneth Man that when hee cannot hurt him hee will flye upon and bite his Picture So this old Serpent the Divell bearing an inveterate malice against God when he cannot revenge himselfe upon him he flyeth upon his Image that hee may deface it blotting out of it its created Truth and Righteousnesse and stamping upon it his owne image of lyes and falshood Another outward cause of lying is the World §. 2. Of the second outward cause of lying which is the world whether we understand it of the Persons of worldly wicked men or of Worldly things For worldly Men are the common teachers of lyes both by their precepts setting up as it were a Schoole of falshood and instructing one another in those cunning and politike arts of lying for advantage and also by their practice for the whole World lying in 1 John 5. 19. wickednesse as the Apostle Iohn speaketh but yet not willing to have it discovered doe tell lyes in 1 Tim. 4. 2. hypocrisie as Saint Paul foretelleth of the false teachers of the latter times and commonly use the Art of lying to hide and disguise their sinfull courses not caring to commit any wickednesse which by lyes they can keepe from comming to light whereby they become precedents and examples to encourage one another in these wicked practices which every one not restrained with the feare of God are apt to follow partly because being become so generall and universall the custome doth take away the conscience of it and the multitude of offenders leaveth no place for shame if they bee taken in the sinne and partly because they see one another thrive by these lying Arts so as they thinke with Dionysius that Divine providence favoureth their untruthes seeing they are carried with so faire a gale of winde into the Port of their desires Yea worldly wicked men allure oftentimes one another with promises and rewards to afford mutually the helpe of a lye when as it may advance their ends and redound to their benefit and advantage which if they refuse they become enemies as the Apostle speaketh because Gal. 4. 16. they tell the Truth And if they cannot intice them to swallow the hooke with these alluring baites of favour and friendship they will not sticke to drive them into their nettes with terrours and feares watching all occasions to doe them a mischiefe if they refuse to satisfie their desires Finally the things of the World as honours riches and pleasures are by way of object the usuall meanes to draw men to lying there being no kinde of lyes which the ambitious covetous and voluptuous will baulke when they thinke them advantagious for the obtaining of their preferments wealth and carnall delights The inward Cause of lying is our owne corrupt §. 3. Of the inward causes of Lying namely the flesh and fleshly lusts and 1. Ignorance and forgetfulnesse of God flesh and the sinfull lusts thereof For as the Devill is a lyar and the father of lyes so the flesh is a lyar and the mother of this bastardly brood who receiving from Sathan this sinfull seed doth nourish it in her fruitfull wombe conceiving breeding and bearing it untill it bee so multiplyed that it hath filled the earth Neither is our corrupt nature more prone unto any vice than unto this of lying nor yet giveth more full swinge unto any without remorse or checke of conscience than unto it if it be simply considered in it selfe or produce any advantage and bee not made odious by some evill consequents or pernitious fruits which it bringeth to our neighbours or to our selves And as the flesh generally is the cause of lying so is it in its particular lusts and the sinfull fruits which it produceth As first ignorance of God and his trueth is a speciall Cause of lying For did we know and acknowledge Gods Omniscience whereby hee beholdeth all secrets and taketh notice of not only the words of our mouthes but also of the hidden thoughts of our hearts and discerneth how they differ one from another his omnipotence
with these lying arts So that as Covetousnesse is the roote of all 1 Tim. 6. 10. Exod. 18. 21. evill so especially of lyes and therefore when Iethro would describe fit Magistrates hee joyneth these together that they must be such as feare God men of Truth and hating Covetousnesse implying that covetous persons cannot love the Trueth seeing it is one of their chiefest arts in getting wealth to make no other use of Truth but that it may serve sometimes for a shew to colour their lyes In which regard if we would leave this Vice of Lying wee must also forsake our Covetousnesse which maketh men to make more haste than good speede that they may attaine unto riches To which end let us consider with the wise man that treasures of wickednesse profit nothing but righteousnes Prov. 10. 2. delivereth from death That riches thus gotten will Prov. 11. 4 not profit in the day of wrath and that when this day commeth wee shall finde by experience that it is better to be a poore man than a lyar That wealth gotten Chap. 19. 20. by vanity shall be diminished whereas hee that getteth by honest labour shall increase Finally that the Chap. 13. 11. getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed Chap. 21. ◠to and fro of them that seeke death CHAP. VII Of the divers sorts and kindes of Lyes THe next point which now commeth §. 1. The kinds of Lyes diversly distinguished to bee handled is the divers sortes and kindes of lying and lyes In which regard they are diversly distinguished The first distinction is taken from the causes for either they proceede from the Divels tentation or the Worlds instigation or from the corruption of our owne flesh if at least these may be said to bee divers kindes in which these causes ordinarily concurre and meete together And these which proceede from our flesh and the lusts thereof are either lyes which arise from ignorance and forgetfulnesse of God and his Truth or from infirmitie and immoderate feare of men of which sort was that of Abraham and Peter to avoide danger or out of a naturall vanity and delight in lying or finally from covetousnesse which causeth men to lye for their gaine and advantage The second distinction is taken from the very forme and nature of a lye which is as Aquinas saith the most proper 2◠2◠Quaest 110. art 2. and naturall division And so a lye either transcendeth and exceedeth the truth and is called boasting or arrogancy or else it commeth short of that which is true and extenuateth it offending in the defect and so is called an irony And this is the Philosophers division the which is thought to bee Arist eth lib. 4. the most proper because a lye is opposite to Truth which consisteth in an equality and evennesse betweene the speech and the thing and therefore the opposition unto it which is in a lye is according to these two extreames which are either the excesse or defect The third division which is the most common §. 2. Lyes distinguished into 3. kindes merry officious and pernicious Lyes and received is taken from the divers ends which men in their lying propound unto themselves for either their end is to delight themselves and their hearers and then it is called mendacium jocosum a merry lye or their end is to profit and doe good to themselves or others the which is called mendacium officiosum an officious lye or finally their end is to doe hurt and mischiefe which is called mendacium perniciosum a pernicious lye In which division I purpose to insist onely adding thereunto a fourth kinde which is called mendacium modestum or a modest lye when men in a kinde of humility deny or extenuate their vertues and good parts A merry lye is that wherein the lyer propoundeth A merry lye what it is this end onely that hee may delight his hearer and not deceive him or so farre onely to deceive as that thereby he may delight him For there are some as Saint Augustine saith who Contra mendacium ad Consentium lib. 1. cap. 10. desire by their lyes to please men not that they may injure or reproch any but that they may bee sweete and pleasant in their talke Now these differ from other lyars in this that they delight to lye rejoycing in the deceit it selfe but these delight to please with the urbanity and sweetnesse of their speech who notwithstanding had rather please by uttering truthes but when as they cannot easily finde true things which are acceptable to their hearers they choose rather to lye than to hold their peace Now such lyes are either so cunningly fram'd and coloured with likely hoods and similitude of truth that they deceive the hearer with their specious shewes and afterwards delight him when he discerneth the jest and findeth his errour or else spun with so course a threed by the teller of them having no probability or shew of truth that the hearer plainely discovereth them and is onely delighted with the artificiall absurdities and prodigious hyperboles of the tale which transcend all truth and likelyhood So that the hearer is no way deceived by it knowing that it is spoken in jest to move delight An officious lye is when as the speaker wittingly and willingly uttereth An officious lye what it is an untruth either out of Piety that hee may glorifie God or out of Charity and love of Justice and Mercy that he may thereby doe good to himselfe or his neighbour either to prevent or free him or himselfe from some losse danger disgrace or other mischiefe or to procure unto either some profit and benefit and that without the hurt or dammage of any other A pernicious lye is A pernicious lye what it is when as the speaker intendeth by lying not onely to deceive his hearer but also to damnifie and hurt his neighbour in his person name or state and that wittingly and willingly In which kinde concurre all the sinnefull evils that are in a lye in the highest degree For first hee that thus lyeth not onely speaketh that which is false but also falsely against his minde and knowledge Secondly hee thus speaketh willingly loving and delighting in his lye and lastly with a purpose and desire to deceive and to doe hurt and mischiefe by his deceit In all which respects this sort of lyes is above all others most abominable unto God pernicious to our Neighbours and damnable to our owne soules In the practice whereof men then grow to the highest pitch of this hellish impiety when with the Divell the Father of lyes they not onely use them for profit or necessity but also love and delight in them more than in the truth like those of whom the Psalmist speaketh Thou lovest evill Psal 52. 3 4. more than good and lying rather than to speake righteousnesse Thou lovest all devouring words O thou
Esa 52. 14. man and his forme more than the sonnes of men and seeing in him no forme comelinesse nor beauty that they should desire him Hee was despised and rejected of men as a man of sorrowes and acquainted with griefes and they hid as it were their faces from him hee was Esa 53. 2 3. despised and they esteemed him not as the Prophet Esay prophecied of him and in this regard he saith that hee was a worme and not a man as if hee should have said I am so vilified of my enemies by reason of my sufferings and so despised and contemned because they see no forme or beautie in mee being defaced and marred with afflictions and persecutions that they number mee not among men but esteeme me no better than a contemptible worme which is good for nothing but to be trodden under foote And that he speaketh this of his enemies false opinion and not as himselfe thought or would have others to conceive the words following doe sufficiently shew I am a worme saith he and no man areproach of men and despised of the people All they that see mee laugh me to scorne they shoote out the lippe and shake the head c. CHAP. XII Of the meanes to disswade us from Lying and first because it is an hainous sinne HAving spoken of the divers sorts of lyes §. 1. That Lying is an hainous sin proved by the Scriptures and proved that they are all sinnefull and unlawfull It now followeth according to the order which I first propounded that I set downe the meanes whereby we may be preserved from this sinne The which are of two sorts the first is to shew the dangerousnesse and desperatenesse of this disease of lying that so wee may with more earnestnesse desire to be cured and then the remedies which may further the cure For so much doe men sleight this sickenesse of the soule as though there were no danger in it yea so farre are the most in love with it so loath to leave it and so willing to live and die in this disease which in their carnall reason they finde so pleasant and profitable that in this if in any other the question of our Saviour may be well propounded to our sicke and impotent Patients wilt thou bee made whole For as those that John 5. 6. are sicke of a Lethargy delight in sleeping though it will bring assured death and being rouzed out of it by their friends are much displeased with them because they are disturbed and disquieted so is it with the most men in this case apprehending no danger and sensually feeling delight in this sickenesse they love their disease and loath the remedies That men therefore may not securely sleepe in this sinne of Lying as apprehending no danger I will first shew the greatnesse and hainousnesse of it in the sight of God and all good men that so all may be brought into a hatred and detestation of it and then prescribe some means which may strengthen us against it Concerning the former though lying were but a small sin in it selfe yet it were not small unto us if wee allow and approve it love and delight in it seeing it is joyned with presumption and impenitency neither as one saith is there any sinne so veniall which is not Augustine made criminall whilst it pleaseth and delighteth But it is not so in Gods sight how lightly soever men esteeme of it as will easily appeare by the following discourse For the Apostle Paul setting downe a Catalogue of most hainous sinners as prophane persons parricides murtherers adulterers 1 Tim. 1. 10. Sodomites men-stealers and perjur'd persons doth ranke lyars in the reare of them and the Apostle Iohn numbereth them with dogs sorcerers Apoc. 22. 15. whore-mongers and idolaters all which shall bee excluded out of the gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem And the Holy Ghost in the Hebrew tongue calleth a lye Aven which also signifieth iniquity implying that all lyes are iniquity and that all iniquity is after a sort included in a lye seeing every sinne is in this respect a lye as it is committed against the Truth of God which forbiddeth it And A lyer worse than a theefe howsoever men measuring the guilt of sinnes by their profit and disprofit doe hang up theeves and oftentimes laugh at lyars yea even reward them if they be skilfull in their Art yet is lying in it owne nature worse than theeving and a common lyar than a common theefe according to that of the sonne of Syrach A theefe is better than a man which Eccli 20. 25. is accustomed to lye and they both shall have destruction to heritage For theft is committed immediately against men but a lye against God the God of Truth and is therefore aggravated as being committed against a much more excellent Object Theft spoyleth us of our worldly goods and hurteth our estates but lying exceedeth theft in theft robbing us of a much more excellent jewell even spirituall truth which is the riches and ornament of the mind Yea it depriveth both the liar and him that hearkneth unto lies of eternall salvatiō seeing in this respect the theefe only hurteth himselfe but cannot hinder him from the fruition of blessednes whom he robbeth though he taketh from him his earthly riches Againe the Law of God appointed that the theefe should make satisfaction to him whom hee had wronged by restoring unto him sowre or five fold and so by recompence made the fault in respect of men curable but no satisfaction is appointed to bee made unto those who are wronged by lying there being for it no valuable recompence seeing they are robbed of a Jewell Prov. 23. 23. above all price Finally lying is worse than stealing as being the cause of it and the chiefe incouragement which setteth the theefe on worke to commit his sinne for if men were resolved to speake nothing but truth they would never steale seeing when they are examined they must confesse their offence and receive deserved punishment but because they hope to escape by hiding their sinne with lyes therefore they are imboldned to the committing of it And yet I have said nothing of the malignity of this sinne and sickenesse of the soule more than is in theft whereby it becommeth more contagious infecting others with its poyson for whereas in stealing the theefe himselfe onely sinneth and not he that is robbed by him in lying not onely they sinne who tell the lyes but all they likewise who delight to heare them and are too credulous in beleeving of them Yea not onely the Scriptures but even the Heathen writers Poets and Philosophers by the light §. 2. Lying condemned as a great sinne even by the Heathens of nature have in all ages condemned lying as an hainous and hatefull vice Many of whose sayings Stobaeus recordeth to this purpose One saith that he is unhappy who rather uses lies though seemingly Euripides good
all other wickednesse is stamped upon us but also the Image of sinne and as thereby wee prove our selves to bee the children of the Devill so also the servants and slaves of sinne For as it is a great sinne in it selfe having in it all relations of sinne as before I have shewed so is it the cause of many other sins and a fruitfull mother and nurse of much other wickednesse even as it is also the bastardly Brat and hellish of spring of other sinnes which like cursed fathers beget it First it is the Cause of sinne because it is the common encouragement which setteth men on to worke wickednes whilest they hope to hide and disguise it so with their lyes that they shall never come to light This emboldeneth the adulterers to commit filthinesse because if they be questioned Expè delinqueÌ„tibus promptissimum est mentiri Lysâ—â—s apud Stobaeum Serm. 12. they resolve to deny it and none can prove it but only their Partners in wickednesse This heartneth men to kill and slay to coozen and deceive to rob and steale and what not Because if they bee suspected and examined they by their cunning lyes can hide their sinnes from the sight of men and so escape shame and punishment Whereas if they did not trust in lyes Adam would not eate the forbidden fruite Cain would not murther his brother Iacob would not deceive his father Iosephs brethren would not sell him to the Ismaelites Gehazi would not take a bribe the Harlot would not entice her young Lover to commit whoredome and then wipe her mouth as though she had not committed filthinesse Ananias and Saphira would not play the Hypocrites and withold part of the price of their possession the servant would not defraude his master the thiefe would not steale his neighbours goods nor the subject commit treason against his Prince and as the Prophet speaketh Israel shall doe no iniquitie if they will not Zeph. 3. 13. speake lyes to hide and cover it But when men have made lyes their refuge and have hid themselves under falshood then they are ready to make a covenant with death and an agreement with hell and to let loose the reines to all wickednesse because they hope for immunity and to escape punishment and that when the overflowing scourge shall passe through it shall Esay 28. 15. not come nigh unto them And as Lying is the Cause so also the Effect of sinne which followeth it as the shadow doth the body as we see in the example of our first Parents who having committed sinne did seeke to hide it with lyes and frivolous excuses even as they did with figge leaves seeke to hide their shame The which is also the common practice of all their degenerate posterity who are no more ready to sinne than to deny or excuse it with a lye For that which Saint Chrysostome speaketh Mendacil causa ex furto nascitur Chrysost in Mat. 5. Hom. 19. of stealing that the Cause of Lying springeth from theft the same may bee verified of all other sinnes which make men lyable to shame or punishment although indeed the sinne of stealing is a most usuall cause of Lying when as men having stollen doe use it as a colour and cover to hide their theft and therefore the Prophet Nahum joyneth them together as the Cause and the Effect Woe unto the bloody citie it is all full of lyes and robberie Nahum 3. 1. And as Lying is the Cause and Effect of many other sinnes so it is the meanes to make us lye and dye in them without repentance for whereas there is no other meanes to bring us to the sight of our sinnes and unfeined sorrow for it nor to worke in us reformation for the time to come but the carefull and conscionable hearing of Gods Word and Law which convinceth us of our wickednesse and sheweth our miserable condition whilest wee continue in it Lying doth stop our eares that we will not listen unto it nor beeleve it as the Prophet implyeth in those words This is a rebellious people lying children children that will not heare the Esay 30. 9. Law of the Lord. And this commeth to passe partly because they make lyes their refuge and sheltring and hiding themselves under this covert they imagine that as they deceive men with their lyes so they shall also deceive God and preserve themselves from his just judgements because he taketh no notice of their wickednesse and partly because being accustomed to Lying they give no credit to the words of his Ministers and Ambassadours nor beleeve God or man in any thing which is spoken against them as thinking that there is no more Truth in them than they finde in themselves Secondly the Lyar maketh himselfe guilty of §. 3. That the Lyar abuseth his tongue and speech a great sin by abusing of his tongue which should bee his glory and which was given unto him by God as an excellent instrument to set forth his praise to speake the trueth which his minde conceiveth and to discover it to others for their mutuall good a privilege wherein God hath advanced man above all the rest of the creatures but Lyars shamefully abuse this singular gift of God and whereas it was given unto them as an instrument of righteousnesse and trueth and for the setting forth of Gods praise they make it to become a weapon or instrument of iniquity by their lying wherewith they dishonour God and hurt their neighbors whereby they make it appeare that they are subjects of Sathan For whereas there are two kingdomes the one of light the other of darkenesse and God the King of the one the Devill of the other they have also two severall languages the one of trueth which is the language of the spirituall Canaan the other of lyes which is the idiome or language of hell So that by our speech we may be knowne unto what Kingdome wee belong either of God when we speake the truth from Psal 15. â— our hearts or of Sathan when wee commonly lye and deceive which language when wee usually speake it may bee said unto us as it was unto Saint Peter thou art a subject of the Kingdome of darknesse for thy speech bewraieth thee Now if any lyar shall object that this is not his ordinary language Incredibile est non mentiri hominem ne capiatur qui mentitur ut capiat i. It is not to bee beleeved but that a man will lye that he 〈…〉 bee 〈…〉 who 〈…〉 not to â—â— that he may 〈…〉 â—nd overâ—â—â—â—â— August Senâ—â—â—â— 2 3. Ubi causa meÌ„tiâ—nâ—i sublata est mentimur ex consuetudine Sen. Epi. 46. Qui non seductione diaboli deceptus mentitur sed proposito mendax est nunquam desinit esse mendax neque post mortem Chrysost in Matth. 6. Hom. 10. Matth 7. â—2 but that he only useth it when it may seeme for his advantage to this I answere that a frequent act will
bring an habite and he who often lyeth for his profit will within a while be so inured unto it that he will bee ready to lye out of meere vanity and love of lying for his pleasure and delight Yea he will be ready to lye when hee never thinketh of it and as the skilfull Musition who hath brought his hand by much practice to an habite will play his lesson when his minde is on some other matter so when by custome men are come to an habite of lying they will lye at unawares and if they bee challenged for it they are ready to lye againe by denying that they lyed In respect of which habite and custome Saint Chrysostome saith that a lyar will continue to lye even after death He that lyeth saith he being not deceived by the seduction of the Divell but willingly and of set purpose will never leave to lye no not after death for death separateth the soule from the body but doth not change the purpose of lying wilt thou know this consider those lyars even after death Lord in thy name we have done this and that Did not they know in themselves that they never loved Christ nor did his Will yes but they thinke that as in this world they have deceived men so also there that they can deceive even God himselfe and therefore hee doth not say depart from me ye that have wrought iniquity but ye that now worke it because wicked men cease not to be wicked no not after death seeing though they cannot now sin yet they retain still their purpose of sining Thirdly the lyar sinneth against his owne soule §. 4. That the Lyar robbeth himselfe of his good name and credit Eccles 7. 1. Prov. 22. 1. in that by his lying hee robbeth himselfe of a most precious jewell even of a good name which is better than a precious oyntment and much to be preferred before great riches for a poore man being true and honest is better than alyar though never so rich Prov. 19. 22. as the wise man telleth us Neither is it possible that a man should hold his reputation when hee hath by lying lost all opinion of his truth but his words are esteemed no better than winde and if there be no clearer evidence for what he saith then his bare word hee is no more beleeved when hee speaketh truth than when he lyeth according to that of the sonne of Syrach Of an uncleane thing what Eccli 34. 4. can be cleansed and from that which is false what truth can come Now what greater mischiefe can befall a man in this life than to live infamous what greater losse than to loose a good name And when it is once lost what can againe bee more hardly recovered If wee loose our riches by labour and industry we may recover them If wee loose our health by physicke and good dyet it may be regained If our bodies be sore wounded they may be cured but if we once loose our fame and have woundes inflicted into our good names and reputation they hardly admit of any cure or if the wound bee healed there will ever after remaine a scarre But there is no more ready way to bring this evill of dishonour upon us than to bee accounted common lyars for as the son of Syrach telleth us The disposition of a lyar is dishonourable and Eccli 20. 26. his shame is ever with him And the wise man teacheth us the same lesson A righteous man saith hee hateth lying but the wicked man that is as the antithesis Prov. 13. 5. inferreth such an one as loveth lyes is loathsome and commeth to shame Neither can there in common repute a greater shame befall a man than to bee esteemed and called a lyar whereof it is that the very name is so much abhorred in all Nations and amongst all conditions of Men yea even those that make no conscience of committing the sinne that by a certaine kinde of propriety or eminency it is called the word of disgrace and no greater injury or affront can be offered unto them than that any upon any cause yea even when they deserve it shall give them the lye Although I thinke that our great gallants doe not take the word so much to heart because their truth is questioned and impeached for then they would hate the vice it selfe as much as the name as because it toucheth them in their valour and courage seeing lying is a base and cowardly vice into which men oftentimes fall out of meere feare and because they dare not speake or stand to the truth Fourthly this vice of lying maketh us odious §. 5. That lyes make men odious unto God and men both to God and men First God abhorreth lyars and hateth lyes because they are contrary to his Nature and to his Law and not onely very sinfull in themselves but also the causes of much wickednesse And therefore Salomon numbreth it amongst those seaven abominations which God abhorreth A proude looke a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent Prov. 6. 17. Prov. 12. 22. blood And againe lying lippes are an abomination to the Lord but they that deale truly are his delight And wisedome even that eternall Word and Wisedome of the Father his onely deare Sonne professeth that his mouth should speake truth and that Prov. 8. 7. wickednesse that is the iniquity of lying as the antithesis sheweth is an abomination to his lippes now how odious ought this vice to be unto us that maketh us odious unto God and how ought we to love and imbrace Truth which God so much loveth according to that of Ieremy O Lord are not Jer. 5. 3. thine eyes upon the Truth namely to approve love and reward it for he loveth Truth and desireth it above all things in the inward parts as the Psalmist Zech. 8. 19. speaketh And who would not love that which God loveth and embrace and delight in that in which God delighteth and will reward Secondly it maketh lyars odious unto men as being a dishonest and dishonourable vice reprehended and condemned of all as unworthy an ingenuous civill man and much more a Christian who professeth himselfe a servant and childe of the God of Truth But especially it is hurtfull to those that feare God and love his truth and maketh those that make and love lyes odious in their eyes according to that of the wise Salomon A righteous man hateth lying but Prov. 13. 5. a wicked man that is a wicked lyar is loathsome and commeth to shame An example whereof wee have in David I have saith hee hated them that regard Psal 31. 5. lying vanities And againe I hate and abhorre lying Psal 119. 163. but thy Law doe I love Yea hee maketh this a note and signe of a blessed man that hee dis-respecteth lyars Blessed is the man saith he that respecteth not Psal 40. 4. the proud nor such as turne aside to lyes
But though lyars are chiefly odious in their eyes yet not in theirs onely for even ingenuous men though meerely civill doe abhorre lyars as they are pernicious members of a State and bring with them much mischiefe both to the whole Common-wealth and also to private families and particular persons yea oftentimes they that make no conscience of lying for advantage do yet hate it in others when unpartially they looke upon it and doe not behold it through the spectacles of selfe-love and even they that like and love it in themselves yet cannot indure that others should use it Yea so loathsome it is in its owne nature if it be not sugred and sweetned with some profit or pleasure that though they use it yet they are ashamed to owne it and can upon no tearmes indure to bee branded with the name which they hold most odious and reproachfull though they make no scruple so it be unknowne to be tainted and poysoned with the vice Finally as lying maketh men odious both to the innocent and guilty so it maketh the innocent odious to the lyar when as hee knoweth that he hath abused them with his untruthes according to that Italian or rather Machivellian proverbe whom I have wronged I will never forgive And this disposition the wise Salomon observeth to be in malicious lyars and slanderers A lying tongue saith he Prov. 26. 28. hateth those that are afflicted by it Of which this may be the reason because they who have injured others by their lyes doe expect from them just revenge and upon due examination of their fault that they will bring the truth to light and them to suffer deserved shame and punishment §. 6. That Lyes weaken faith and hope dispoile us of the girdle of verity and a good conscience Fifthly lyes are pernicious unto the lyars themselves in divers other respects for first they weaken their faith in the assurance of their salvation yea deprive them of all hope of Heavenly happinesse seeing it is an infallible marke of one that shall dwell in this holy Hill that hee speaketh the Psal 15. 2. Truth in his heart Now if we count that pernicious to our persons and state that defaces our evidences of some earthly Patrimony and cuts off all our assurance ever to injoy it how much more is that pernicious that cuts off all our hopes to our everlasting Inheritance and deprives us of that comfortable note and signe that wee have just title unto it Secondly it dispoyles us of a chiefe part of our Christian armour the girdle of verity wherewith Eph. 6. 14. all the rest is buckled unto us and so layeth us open and naked to all the assaults of Sathans tentations to bee thereby foyled overcome and led captive of sinne when as he findeth us so disarmed Thirdly because it depriveth us of a good conscience when as wee make no scruple of such a sinne as is committed directly against it yea it wasteth and woundeth a naturall conscience when as wee live in such a vice as it condemneth For if conscience be not sear'd it is ready as soone as a man hath lyed to accuse him of sinne and to testifie against him that he hath offended God by denying truth and done that which would be a shame and dishonour unto him if it should come to light And this is the cause why having lyed they are so loath to acknowledge it but use all their Art and policy to hide and cover it that so they may seeme not to have lyed yea if they bee convinced or but suspected of it they are ready to discover their inward guilt of conscience by their outward blushing the which is especially to be observed in children who are not by custome hardned and heartned in their sinne because they even naturally knowing that lying is a fowle and dishonourable vice and that they have done evill in falling into it as their consciences are pressed with the guilt of their sinne so their faces are filled with the shame that accompanies it And thus lyars are pernicious unto themselves §. 7. That lyes bring upon lyars the evill of punishment in this life in respect of the evill of sinne Now further it commeth to bee considered how it bringeth upon them the evill of punishment For howsoever it is made but a sleight sinne amongst men and so accordingly for the most part sleightly punished yet it is haynous in Gods sight and punished by him with great severity And though the lyar through his cunning skill can often so hide his lyes that men cannot discover them and so are freed from the punishment both of their fault and lye with which they cover it yet Gods All-seeing eye can easily finde them out in all their subtilties and cunning conveyances and his mighty hand of Justice shall surely reach unto them and inflict upon them Prov. 19. 5. deserved punishments So the wise man saith that howsoever it may fare with others yet he that telleth Psal 63. 11. lyes shall not escape And though they delight to open their mouthes to lye for their advantage yet God will stoppe them with his punishments as the Psalmist speaketh upon which ground in another place by a Propheticall Spirit foreseeing their impenitence he prayeth against them for the sinne of their mouth and the words of their lippes let them even Psal 59. 12. bee taken in their pride and for their cursing and lying which they speake Neither will God lightly punish those who love and make lyes but it causes him to have a controversie with a land to hasten his Assises and to inflict such heavy judgements as will make the land to mourne and every one that dwelleth therein to languish as the Prophet Hosea threatneth Hos 4. 1. 2 3. For he will bring upon lyars utter destruction according to that of the Psalmist Thou shalt destroy Psal 5. 6. them that speake leasings and that of the wise man A false witnesse shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lyes shall perish To the same purpose speaketh Prov. 19. ◠the sonne of Syrach A theefe is better than a man that Eccli 20. 25. is accustomed to lye but they both shall have destruction to heritage And because they are seldome severed either in this life or in the life to come therefore the Prophet joyneth the sinne and punishment together Ephraim daily increaseth lyes and desolation Hos 12. 1. And of this we have examples in the Scripture as in Gehazi whose lie was punished with a perpetuall Leprosie upon himselfe and all his Posterity In Haman who slandering Mordecai and the Jewes and by his lyes plotting their ruine was taken in his owne net and both hee and his sonnes hanged upon the same gallowes which hee had made for innocent Mordecai And in Ananias and Sapphira Hest 3. 8. Act. 5. 2. 3. who for their lye were punished with present and sudden death And therefore
none so well civilized and instructed in morall vertue governed and restrained from vice by politique lawes but that they often breake their bounds and take unto themselves a licentious liberty to speake untruths for their advantage yea no Nation so well nurtured and taught in the knowledge of God and his true Religion but that the most of them are tainted with the contagion of this vice and though they make some conscience of other sins as murther whoredome drunkennes fraud oppression and the like yet they are nothing scrupulous to use their best skill in lying when as they thinke that it is for their gaine and advantage And therefore though some people more than others either by a naturall inclination example or custome doe exceede in this vice and like the Cretians in the Apostles time may by way of eminency be called Lyers yet there are no sorts Tit. 1. 12. of Men savadge or civill Pagans Turkes or Christians which are not too much addicted to this base and pernitious vice But that I may confine my speech within narrower §. 3. That our owne people and nation are much infected with the contagion of this sin of lying boundes and leaving others come unto our selves who seeth not that after so long a time of preaching the Gospell the light thereof hath not yet dispelled these foggy mystes of falsehood and lying Take a view of all places in our Land Court Citty and Countrey and we shall finde no Goshen that is exempted and free from this Egyptian darkenesse almost all Men indeavouring to mislead others into errours by lyes and untruths And that which is worst of all Mens consciences are not convinced of the greatnesse of this sinne whereof it commeth to passe that it is not only in dayly practice but also in some inward esteeme and credit as contrariwise plaine and simple truth in some disgrace the most mâ—n being ready to applaud themselves when they have atchieved their ends by subtle untruths and to censure others as dull and foolishly simple who loving the Truth doe loose the advantage of compassing their end because they make conscience of their words and wayes and will not purchase their hopes at the price of a lye So that in these dayes we may justly take up the complaint of Ieremie Truth is perished and is cut off from the mouth of Men and that of the Jer. 7. 28. Prophet Esay Iudgement is turned away backeward Esai 59. 14 15. and Iustice standeth a farre off for Truth is fallen in the Streete and Equity cannot enter yea Truth faileth and hee that departeth from evill maketh himselfe a prey For if wee looke amongst all sorts of Men wee §. 4. That entertainment lyes finde among Courtiers shall finde Truth neglected and lyes applauded and dayly practised Amongst some Courtiers they are esteem'd ornaments and elegancies of speech and commended as witty complements to fill up the empty place of absent Truth neither do they use their tongues for that end for which God gave them namely to bee the true interpreters of their mind's and hearts but to faine and dissemble professing the greatest love and kindnesse to those unto whom they intend most mischiefe And now it is esteemed an high point of prudence either cunningly to reserve themselves in a grave and solemne silence and concealing their owne thoughts and intentions to lye upon the catch that they may take all advantages for the discovering of others secrets or so to speake and discourse as that their words may not lay open their mindes but rather mislead their hearers into false conceits and errors Men not caring so that their maine end and aime be good though they neglect Truth when it will not serve for their purpose so well as a lye Looke into our courts of Justice in which next §. 5. That lyes are frequent in Courts of Justice Psal 82. 1. unto the Pulpit Truth may challenge a place as being the best guide that leadeth unto right where God standeth and judgeth among the gods and therefore nothing but truth should be spoken before the God of Truth who abhorreth lies and his Deputies and Vice-gerents who bearing his Image and sitting in his place should that they may judge rightly bee throughly informed in the Truth And where shall we finde Truth more neglected discountenanced and betrayed than amongst those who would seeme to pleade for it where have lyes and untruths more frequent and familiar entertainment For how few among that profession that make conscience to bee intertained in a bad cause and having taken upon them the patronage of it make any scruple to use their uttermost abilities to dazell and blinde the eyes of the Judge not onely by their Art and skill but also by speaking untruths when they will advantage their ill cause Neither doe they onely hereby indeavour to hinder the right of the adverse party but also disgrace his person with false aspersions and that not in words alone which might be blowne away with the winde but also in their Bils and writings which must remaine upon record for which nothing can bee said that I know of but that lying is growne into a custome and become a common forme in the course of pleading Yea I would there were none of this profession that doe intertaine more willingly a bad cause than a good because it promiseth greater gaine and chuse to speake lyes rather than Truth because if they prevaile in the suite they can sell them to their client at an higher price So that here againe we may complaine with the Prophet Your fingers are defiled with iniquity Jer. â—â— â— your lippes have spoken lyes your tongues have muttered perversenesse None calleth for Iustice nor any pleadeth for Truth or if they doe both yet it is rather for their fees sake than for the love of either Yea even our Divines themselves though they §. 6. That many Divines are guilty of this vice be professours of divine Truth cannot wholly be excused and cleared of this vice and that not only in respect of their private courses conversations but also in regard of the worke of their Ministery For to speake nothing of them who for sinister ends broach errours of Doctrine and in stead of Gods Truth their owne frothy and false conceits that they may make Proselytes and gather a number of Disciples by whom they may be applauded and maintained how many are there that for trencher courtesies are ready to approve and applaud their benefactors in their sins of fraud oppression usury and like those women of whom Ezechiel speaketh sow pillowes under the arme holes and elbowes Ezec. 1â— 18. â—â— of sinners that they may the more securely sleepe in their sinnes polluting Gods holy Name among the people for handfulls of barley and peeces of bread to slay the soules that should not dye and to save the soules alive that should not live by their lying to Gods People
Ezec. 24. 12. not forth out of her And therefore all that are plaine and simple hearted had now if ever need to hearken to Ieremies warning Take ye heed every Jer. 9. 4 5. one of his neighbour and trust yee not in any brother for every brother will utterly supplant and they will deceive every one his neighbour and will not speake the truth they have taught their tongue to speake lyes and weary themselves to commit iniquity Thy habitation Quid Romae faciam mentiri nescio Juvenal Satyr 3. is in the midst of deceit c. And yet let me not bee here mistaken as though I judged all men in these places alike and under the same guilt for I know that there are many of them that truely fearing God doe make conscience of all their words and wayes dealing as they would bee done by and in their trading and conversation abhorring to seeke their advantage by lyes and deceit but I speake onely of the greater part and of the usuall and common practice of the most in these dayes Neither let the countrey people blesse themselves §. 8. That Countrey people also are tainted with this vice as though they were innocent nor suppose that I acquit them because I have not hitherto discovered and reproved them For I doubt not but those that are conversant with them and are daily witnesses of their words and dealings doe finde them as faulty in their kinde as crafty and deceitfull as forward to advance their ends and accomplish their desires with untruths and lyes and as cunning to deceive in their buying and selling their contracts and bargaines by setting trueth to sale at the cheapest rate as those that live in townes and Cities Yea rather as they for the most part are more rude and untaught so they are more subject to this vice and lesse ashamed when they are taken in it than those that are civilized and better instructed Although perhaps they offend more seldome than Citizens because they are not exposed to so many tentations as those that spend their whole time in buying and selling unto which this sinne of lying sticketh as close as the shirt to the backe or the skinne to the flesh And this Salomon observed that the buyer usually disprayseth in words what he liketh and approveth in his heart It is naught it is naught saith the buyer but when hee is gone his way then hee boasteth of his bargaine And Prov. 20. 14. the sonne of Syrach telleth us that as a naile stickes Eccl. 27. 2. fast betweene the joynings of the stones so doth sin sticke close betweene buying and selling Finally as this sinne of lying raigneth in all places §. 9. That inferiours children and servants are most prone to this vice of Lying so in no persons more than in inferiours as children and servants who being not so carefull to avoid the committing of faults as being committed to hide and cover them lest they might hereby incurre the just displeasure of their Superiours and so bring upon themselves deserved punishment doe usually use lying that under this covert they may keepe them from being discovered Yea having told one lye they are ready to second it with another and that with a third and fourth not caring to fall into a greater sinne to excuse a lesse and to make the wound of conscience more deepe and desperate by doubling and redoubling of their fault whereas an humble and penitent confession would be accepted of their Governours as a good part of satisfaction being more pleased with their acknowledgement which giveth some hope of amendment for the future then displeased with the fault it selfe But let such take notice of their vanity and solly whilest they runne headlong into greater evills out of a bare hope to avoid the lesse which often deceiveth them and maketh their faults more haynous and unexcusable For what is the displeasure of mortall man which they indeavour to avoide in comparison of the wrath of the immortall GOD which they certainely incurre What are the momentany corrections and punishments inflicted by men in comparison of those torments easelesse and endlesse in that Lake Apoc. 21. 8. which burneth with fire and brimstone which are threatned by God and shall most certainly be suffered unlesse they be prevented by unfained repentance By all which it appeareth that this sin of lying §. 10. That Gods Ministers should indeavour to suppresse this vice hath so much prevailed in all places and also over all sorts of persons in our Land that God may as justly complaine of England as he did heretofore of Ephraim and Israel Ephraim compasseth me about Hos 11. 12. with lyes and the house of Israel with deceit In which regard Gods Ministers should bend their whole strength both by preaching and writing against this vice which so much raigneth in this Land for God hath appointed us to be watchmen who must give the people warning and convince them of Ezec. 3. those sinnes which doe most indanger them to his judgements and lay them open and naked to their enemies They must lift up their voyce like a Esay 58. 1. Trumpet and shew Gods People their transgression and the house of Iacob their sin Neither is it enough that they speake against sinne in generall nor yet that they inveigh against the sinnes of other Nations to which their people are not much subject for this were rather to backebite sinne than to reprove it but they must bend their chiefe strength against the common and raigning sinnes of the times and places where they live and their voyce like the Trumpet must not give an uncertaine or impertinent sound but such as may bee for the use and direction of their owne Troupes The consideration whereof as it moved mee heretofore in the time of my chiefest strength to write against those common vices of swearing whoredome drunkennesse bribery rash and unjust anger which have overflowed our Land like an universall Deluge so doth it now in my old Age and in my greater weakenesse both of body and minde incite mee to write against this vice of Lying both because it is no lesse if not more common than any of the rest and herein more pernitious because Mens consciences are not convinced of the greatnesse of this sinne and therefore securely live in it without repentance And also because I have not knowne of any other that have written of this Subject although many might much better have done it in respect of their greater strength and better abilities CHAP. II. Wherein is shewed what a Lye is NOw in speaking of this vice I will §. 1. What a lye is and what things concurre in it shew 1. What a Lye is 2. The causes of it 3. The kindes and sorts of Lying 4. The meanes to preserve us from it And lastly the uses which wee ought to make of all this Doctrine Saint Augustine briefely defineth Mendacium
tongue disagreeth from the minde and falsely speaketh contrary to that which the minde thinketh and therefore lyeth though that bee true which is spoken because it is conceived and thought to be otherwise but when a Man speaketh that which is a lye or untruth being perswaded that it is true hee lyeth not because his minde and tongue agree together and he thinketh what he speaketh but hee onely erreth and would not willingly deceive but that himselfe is first deceived so that such an one cannot be said to be a lyer seeing he mindeth affecteth and loveth Truth but is onely mistaken in what hee saith through ignorance rashnesse or incogitancie And of this judgement are the ancients So Bernard there is Est qui dubiè profert mendacium nec mentitur est qui veritatem quam nescit affirmat mentitur c. Bern. in Cant. Serm. 17 saith hee that telleth a lye doubtingly and lyeth not and there is that affirmeth the Truth which he knoweth not and lyeth for he indeed saith not that to be which is not but yet affirmeth that hee beleeveth that which in Truth he beleeveth and he saith Truth although that be not true which he beleeveth But the other when he saith that he is Non est judicandus mendax qui dicit falsum quod putat verum quiaquantum in se est non fallit sed fallitur c. Anselm in 2 Cor. 1. certaine of that whereof he is not certaine speakeeth not the Truth although that be true which he affirmeth So Saint Anselme Hee is not to bee judged a lyer who speaketh false thinking it true because as much as in him lieth hee deceiveth not but is deceived and contrariwise hee lyeth who speaketh Truth thinking it to be false For hee is not free from a lye who speaketh true things with his mouth not knowing them to be so but knowingly he lyeth in his will Saint Augustine also speaketh Quisquis autem hoc enunciat quod vel creditum animo vel opinatum tenet etiamsi falsum fit non mentitur c. August contra mendac ad Consentium cap. 3. much to the same purpose whosoever saith hee speaketh that which either hee beleeveth or thinketh in his minde doth not lye although it be false For this hee oweth to the declaring of this faith that hee uttereth by it that which is in his minde and so conceiveth it as he uttereth it But hee cannot bee said to be in no fault although hee doth not lye if hee either beleeveth things not to be beleeved or thinketh that he knoweth what he knoweth not although it be true for hee taketh things unknowne as knowne wherefore he lyeth who conceiveth one thing in his minde and uttereth another thing by his words or any other significations From whence hee that lyeth is said to have a double heart a double cogitation one is of the thing which hee knoweth or thinketh true and doth not speake it another is of the thing which hee speaketh in stead of this knowing or thinking it to bee false Whence it commeth to passe that a man may speake that which is false and yet not lye if he thinketh it to be so as he speaketh although it be not so and that he may speake that which is true and yet lye if thinking it to be false he speaketh it for a Truth although indeed it bee so as hee speaketh For a man is to bee esteemed a lyer or no lyer according to the meaning of his minde and not according to the Truth or falsenesse of the things themselves And therefore he that speaketh that which is false for true thinking it to be so may be said to erre or to be rash but he cannot bee truely said to bee a lyer because when he thus speaketh hee hath not a double heart nor desireth to deceive but is himselfe deceived And in another place speaking to the same purpose hee saith neither by any meanes is he free from a lye Enchirid. ad Laurentium cap. 17. who with his mouth speaketh the Truth not knowing it to be so because knowingly hee lyeth with his will c. and he is better who not knowing it speaketh false because he thinketh it true than he that willingly hath a minde to lye though hee speake Truth not knowing it to be true which hee speaketh c. The like also may be said of promises as P. Martyr affirmeth when as a man making 1 Sam. 21. 12. them purposeth to performe them but afterwards doth not either because hee cannot through impotency which hee foresaw not when he promised or will not upon some pressing necessity and much altering of the case from what it was As when an able man promiseth to pay a debt at such a day and in the meane time is disabled by some unexpected losse So when one promiseth to lend a summe of money to one whom he taketh to be an honest man and able to repay it at such a time and in the meane while it appeareth that hee is an unthrift who will consume it in drinking or gaming or a dishonest banke-rupt who will make no conscience to cheate him of it Or if a man promiseth to lend his sword to one that is sober and in his right minde and soone after he prove distracted and frantique who is likely therewith to kill himselfe or some other In these and such like cases a man lyeth not though hee doth not performe what he promised because his minde and tongue agreed when hee made it and the change is not from himselfe but from him unto whom hee promised because there is error personae an errour in the person he not being the same man which hee was or seemed to bee when the promise was made And thus the Apostle Paul is excused from a lye when as hee said that hee would goe into Spaine Rom. 15. 24 28. 2 Cor. 1. 15 17. whither he went not and promised the Corinthians that at such a time hee would come unto them but did not performe it In neither of which he lyed because when he made these promises he did not dissemble speaking one thing and thinking another but speaking then what he afterwards purposed to performe God did in the mean while otherwise dispose of him whose disposition overruleth all and is above all humane resolution The second thing considerable in the nature of §. 5. That a lye is alwayes voluntary a lye is that it is alwayes voluntary the will resisting the minde in a knowne Truth and injoyning the tongue to speake that which is contrary to it the heart also and affections desiring and delighting in it either absolutely or conditionally in respect of circumstances So that if the will imbraceth not an untruth as it is untrue but onely as through errour of the minde and judgement it is presented and commended unto it and if the heart affecteth it not nor delighteth in it as a lye but onely
loftinesse of speech not onely to delight the hearer but for the more full informing of him of the truth for his greater profit As also when wee give to things senselesse or inanimate motion and life yea sometimes the use of reason Of the former are such speaches as ascribe a kinde of infinitenesse to things finite as when speaking of a multitude we say commonly that they are innumerable like the sands of the Sea of long lasting things that they are everlasting and without end of those that are of great quantity or capacity that they are immense and above all measure And such phrases are used in the Scriptures as that the Benjamites were so cunning in the use of their slinges Judg. 20. 16. that they could cast their stones at an haires bredth and not misse that the sinnes which the faithfull Psal 137. 18. confesse themselves to have committed were above not onely the haires of their head in number but even the sands by the Sea shore and that if all things which Christ did should bee wtitten the John 21. 25. whole World would not containe the volumes that should bee written By which speeches no man can be deceived seeing if they were taken literally there were no shaddow or shew of truth in them but rather the truth which they perswade is the more cleared and inforced namely that the Benjamites were exceeding cunning in the use of their slings that the sins confessed were a number almost numberles and the actions done by Christ were very many more than the Evangelist had recorded Of the other we have many examples in the Psalmes and Prophets as when the Mountaines are said to skip the Flouds to clap their hands the Earth to heare the Word of the Lord which cannot be taken in their proper sense but onely as Rhetoricall phrases expressing the trueth according to the intention of the speaker in a loftinesse of speech for the better understanding of the hearer and affecting of him with more delight Neither can they be esteemed lyes because they doe not deceive the hearer or reader seeing they doe not beget a false conceit in his minde but rather cause him to conceive and imbrace the trueth with greater admiration So S. Augustine Whatsoever Quicquid autem figuratè fit aut dicitur non est mendacium c. Contra mendac ad Consent lib. 1. cap. 5. is done or spoken figuratively is not a lye For every enunciation or signification is to be referred vnto that which it signifieth to the understanding of those unto whom it is uttered otherwise as he saith in another place all tropes and metaphors which are not taken in a proper but borrowed cap. 10. sense by one thing signifying another should be judged lyes as where it is said that Christ is a Rocke a Doore a Vine and that impenitent persons have hearts of stone all which are not properly and literally true but in a figurative sense The like may bee said of an Ironie which is a §. 2. Of Ironies and that they are no lyes Rhetoricall manner of speaking whereby we signifie one contrarie by another which is commonly used by way of jesting or derision for the dispraising or discountenancing of that which is evill as when we say of an unthrift O he is a good husband or of a man infamous for deceit and unjust dealing O hee is a very honest man The which manner of speech is easily understood either by our gesture or pronunciation or the palpable difference that is betweene our words and the thing it selfe The which manner of speaking though it bee often abused unto sinne as scoffing scorning deriding yet is it lawfull in it selfe and to us also when it is rightly used not to deceive but the better to cleare the trueth to discountenance sinne and to convince offenders of their faults and errors neither hath he that so useth it a will to lie or deceive but to signifie the trueth in an improper way that it may bee received with more delight And of this wee have examples in the Scriptures as in the speech of Michajah the 1 King 22. 15. Prophet unto wicked Ahab Goe up and prosper In Elias deriding the follie of Baals Priests in Iob to his three friends No doubt but yee are the 1 King 18. 27. people and wisdome shall dye with you In the Apostle Paul convincing the Corinthians of their pride Job 12. 2. and follie Ye suffer saith he foolâ—s gladly seeing your 2 Cor. 11. 19. selves are wise and elsewhere telling them that he had not been burthensome unto them as to other Churches he concludes with an Ironie forgive me 2 Cor. 12. 13. this wrong Yea even God himselfe useth and by his using justifieth this figure and forme of speaking to Iob that he might thereby the better convince him of his follie and weakenesse Gird up now thy loynes like a man and answere me And Deeke thy selfe now with majestie and excellencie and array thy selfe with glorie and beautie c. Finally upon the same grounds we acquit and §. 3. Parables acquitted from the censure of lying exempt from lying first Parables whereby the trueth of things is signified and represented unto us by fained stories of other men and their actions wherein the circumstances are so fitted as though they had been truely done that by them the truth may bee signified as it were in reall words and portraied in living and speaking pictures for the better convincing of the hearers to the acknowledgement of the trueth when they without partialitie may judge of it in other mens persons as we see in Nathans Parable to David and our Saviours 2 Sam. 12. to the Scribes and Pharisees concerning the vineyard let out to those unjust farmers that killed the heire to get possession of it which drew Matth. 21. 33 41. from both a just sentence against their owne sinnes which they would rather have minced and excused if directly and plainely they had beene charged with them So also they serve sometimes to dazle the understanding when they are darkely propounded and not applied to use the which our Saviour used when hee spoke to those whom in just judgement he would have heare and not understand sometimes to make what is said more cleare and evident when things are illustrated by such examples as are common and familiar by which as the hearer is made docible and capable of what is taught so are the things learned much the better imprinted in his memorie Neither is there any lie in such formes of speech seeing the end of the speaker is not to deceive the hearer but rather to discover the trueth in a more familiar manner the minde and tongue agreeing together and ayming at the same end although the words must not be taken as proper and direct but by analogie and way of similitude Not much unlike unto these is the way of teaching §. 4. Of
fables and poeticall fictions and that they are not to bee reputed lyes by Fables and Poeticall fictions in which beasts and birds yea trees and plants are brought in speaking and reasoning one with another which were purposely invented to teach men some politicke lesson or morall instruction that thereby they might be made more wise or more vertuous provoked to some good dutie or made more cautious in shunning some evill either of sinne or punishment which fabulous tales cannot justly be reputed lyes because he that telleth them speaketh the truth though not in a proper and literall sense yet in the reason and morall of his speech and because it is not his purpose to deceive his hearer but to teach him the truth in an easie and familiar manner that it may bee better conceived and remembred In which respects fabulous tales are of best use when as they are told to rude and simple people who not being capable of arguments syllogismes and demonstratiue reasons give no heede unto them but when the truth is represented in a fabulous tale which they understand being allured with the noveltie of the thing they listen unto it that they may know what will be the issue and so at unawares are taken with the reason and morall of it when as stronger reasons would not perswade them And being informed in the trueth the lesson which they have learned is more firmely imprinted in their memorie for things which are strange and pleasant doe extraordinarily delight and being delightfull are not easily forgotten And of such fables we have examples in the Scriptures as that of Iotham who by that fable of Judg. 9. the trees convinced the people of their ungratitude and folly in preferring ambitious and wicked Abimelech before all the sonnes of Gedeon who were vertuous and modest And that of Iehoash in which he resembled Amaziah to a Thistle and himselfe to 2 King 14. 9. a Cedar that by the inequalitie of their strength hee might disswade him from provoking him to battaile And such was the fable of Menius Agrippa to the mutinous people of Rome about the disaagreement betweene the rest of the members of the body with the belly or stomacke whereby hee perswaded them to come backe and joyne with the Senators The which kinde of fables are lawfull as being no lyes but representations of truth under fictions and not to deceive the hearer but to draw him on more easilie to the acknowledgement of the truth onely in them that devise them care must bee had to avoide all obsceanesse and scurrilitie because as the Apostle speaketh such 1 Cor. 15. rotten speeches doe corrupt good manners For whereas it may be objected that the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 4. 4. condemneth those that turne away their eares from the truth and hearken unto fables and forbiddeth Timothy to give heede unto them and 1 Tim. 1. 4. 2 Pet. 1. 16. the Apostle Peter saith that hee had not followed cunningly devised fables they doe not speake of all fables but onely of profane old wives and Jewish fables which did not tend to edification and instruction in the knowledge of the trueth but onely by pleasing the eare to fill the minde with unprofitable vanities and misleade the judgement into errors and lyes And that he speaketh of such onely and not of the other which have their politicke 1 Tim. 4. 7. Tit. 1. 14. and morall use he plainely expoundeth himselfe in divers other places CHAP. IIII. Two questions discussed the first concerning stratagems in warre the second concerning simulation and dissimulation ANd thus have I shewed what a lye is §. 1. That stratagems in war are lawfull the nature thereof the things concurring in it and what formes and kindes of speech are suspected for untruths but cleared from this suspition And now for conclusion of this point two questions come to bee resolved First what is to be thought of stratagems in Warre by which I understand such sleights and policies either by words or actions as are purposely devised and practised to circumvent and deceive an enemie where as one thing is pretended to conceale the truth and another thing is intended but coloured and covered with some subtile device To which I answere that it is lawfull by all just and honest policies to circumvent an enemie in a lawfull war either by word or action For if it be lawfull by strength of armes to spoyle kill and utterly destroy them then also to use the strength of our wits and all good policies which may conduce to the obtaining victorie especially considering that here there is no falsehood or treacherie under shew of love and amitie but an open denouncing of hostilitie by which both sides professe that they will use the uttermost of their indeavour to supplant one another both by strength and policie by which generall profession both sides have sufficient warning to expect the uttermost that can be done by power or wisdome for their ruine and consequently to prepare themselves and as it were to countermine against them for the preventing of their designes and to catch them if they can in their owne wiles And this as it is warranted by reason and nature that in our owne defence or just and necessarie offence wee should use all good meanes to destroy them who otherwise would destroy us so also by the holy Scriptures and that both by the examples of pious and religious Kings and Captaines as Iosua David and divers others and also by the commandement of Josh 8. 2. 2 Sam. 5. 23. God himselfe injoyning them to use such politicke stratagems And with this also agreeth the law of Nations and the law of Armes that all meanes may bee used both apertly and professedly and also secretly and cunningly as ambuscadoes and subtile devices for the surprizing of Cities and Forts masked and disguized under shewes and appearances of such things as are not really intended Neither is there in all this any falsehood or unjustice but onely an indeavour to conceale the truth when as being unseasonably professed it would become hurtfull and pernicious to our selves and countrie But yet some caution must here be observed §. 2. That the former point is to be held with some caution namely that though wee take lawfull libertie in these stratagems and martiall policies to conceale the trueth from an enemie yet that wee doe not under any pretence or to advance any end tell direct lies and much lesse confirme them by false oathes and imprecations and least of all must we hold it lawfull to breake and nullifie our promises and covenants made with enemies either for the concluding of peace or a truce and cessation from armes and hostility for an appointed time or keeping of quarter or any other course agreed upon for the right ordering and managing of the warre to the good of both parties and tending to the welfare of common wealths and humane societies The which is
to be abhorred of all Christians yea though such breach of promise might be coloured and excused by equivocations mentall reservations or any other pretence whatsoever seeing such lyes and falsifying of promises are not onely most dishonourable unto God especially when as by oath he is brought in as a witnesse to a lye but also most hurtfull to humane societies and common wealths when as this chiefe bond of peace and justice is violated seeing none thus deceived would be willing afterwards to trust another or to make truce or peace upon any conditions when as they can have no assurance that they wil be observed and performed Yea such lyes and breach of promises are above all most pernicious to the parties themselves seeing through Gods just judgement they are either taken in their owne net and miscarry in their enterprise or have the same measure from others measured unto them who taking them upon advantage falsifie their faith to them whom they have found faithlesse For he that is Lord of hoasts and God of battailes Who giveth salvation to Kings Psal 144. 10. and delivereth David his servant from the hurtfull sword is also the God of truth and therefore as wee may expect that hee will crowne Justice and Truth with conquest and triumph so that he will execute vengeance upon lyers and not suffer falsehood to goe unpunished The like may be said of spies and intelligencers who if any other might in many respects pleade for a liberty in lying But howsoever it may bee lawfull for such to disguise themselves and their intentions and to use all good policies to conceale an unprofitable and unseasonable truth yet it is in no wise lawfull for them to use meanes that are evill and sinnefull to effect their desire as to deny the truth renounce their religion to make profession of a false religion as Judaisme Mahumetisme Popery by going to Masse and joyning with them in any superstitious service or finally by telling lyes or using any other falsehood to deceive and blinde their eyes with whom they converse that they may atchieve their designes the better when as they live among them unsuspected The second question is concerning simulation §. 3. The second question propoundedand discussed and first of simulation lawfull and unlawfull or faining and dissimulation or disguising Simulation is when by word action or any other signe that is fained to be which is not Dissimulation is when as by any of these means any thing is disguised and hid which in truth is Now the question is whether either of these can be judged lawfull and justly acquitted from being a lye For the former we must answer by distinction for either the thing fained hath no being at all either in reality and truth or in reason and signification or else though it have no existence properly and in the very nature of the thing yet it hath an improper and figurative being by which it signifieth and representeth something that is If the thing fained have no being at all then is it all one with a lye but though it have no being in reality yet if it haue a being in the reason of the thing and bee brought to signifie demonstrate and illustrate something that is then is it no lye but wholly tendeth to the setting forth of truth and of this kinde are many poeticall fictions fables apologies and parables So Saint Augustine not all that which wee Non omne quod singimus mendaciū est sed quando id singimus quod nihil significat c. Quaest Evangel lib. 2. cap. 51. faine is a lye but then it is a lye when as we faine that which signifieth nothing But when our fiction is referred to some signification it is not a lye but some figure of truth otherwise all those things which are spoken figuratively of wise and holy Men yea even God himselfe should bee thought lyes because according to common understanding truth is not in such speeches As for example the parable of the prodigall was not really and properly true but figuratively and in the reason and signification of it So our Saviours comming to looke for fruite on the figge tree when the time of bearing was not had in it no reall intention to finde fruite upon it seeing every one might know that in such a season it could have none but it was fained that as it were under this reall parable he might signifie that they who brought forth no Fictio quae ad aliquam veritatem refertur figura est quae non refertur mendacium est Aug. ibid. fruites were under the curse And therefore as he saith a fiction which is referred to some truth is a figure and that which is not thus referred is a lye Secondly wee may distinguish of the purpose and resolution of our minde and heart of doing or not doing what we faine and make shew of For either it is absolute or conditionall Now if in shew or words I faine that I will doe that which I have absolutely resolved not to do then doe I lye whether I doe or doe it not because my words and significations disagree from my minde and heart But if my resolution were onely conditionall then it dependeth upon the performance of the condition and I may doe a thing resolved on or not doe it without lying as the condition is observed or not observed As for example if I goe to a friendes house with a resolution to returne home to my owne supper if he doe not use some importunity in desiring me to stay supper with him then if I faine that I will goe home and use some earnestnesse that I may take leave I lye not if I goe away though I desired to stay being not at all or but sleightly intreated nor yet if I stay though I made shew that I would depart if importunity bee used because my resolution was conditionall and I was truely purposed to depart if not earnestly invited or to stay and suppe with my friend if he instantly desired it Lastly wee may distinguish of the divers ends which they that faine do aime at in their faining For either their aime is to deceive their neighbour in making him to beleeve that which is not true or to doe him some other hurt or else that they may hereby benefit themselves or others The former is to be reputed a lye yea such a lye as is hurtfull and pernicious as when men faine themselves to be pious and religious when as in truth they are impious and prophane the which is damnable hypocrisie and this fained piety double iniquity or when outwardly by their words and shewes they faine love and friendship when as their hearts are full of enmity that they may get the fitter opportunity of revenge and executing their malice These men lye in their faining seeing their minds disagree from their words and shewes and because also their end and aime is to deceive and hurt Now
these distinctions being received will §. 4. Divers examples of simulation objected and cleared serve to cleare some places of Scriptures objected to maintaine unlawfull faining as first that the holy Angels themselves fained when Lot intreating them to come into his house they refused saying Nay but we will abide in the streete all night contrary Gen. 19. 2. to what they purposed for afterwards they were content to lodge with him and so no doubt were resolved to do before he requested them I answer that their purpose was not absolute but upon the condition of his earnest intreaty which if hee had not vsed they would not have tarried for so it is said that when they refused hee pressed upon them greatly and so they turned in unto him and entred into Luk. 24. 28. his house Secondly it is objected that our Saviour himselfe fained when as travelling with his Disciples to Emaus hee made as though hee would have gone further which hee intended not for afterwards being intreated hee stayed with them and hee knew beforehand that they would thus intreat him To which some answere that this his making as though hee would goe further is to bee referred not to Christs intention but to the opinion and conceit of his Disciples who seeing him still goe on thought that hee had purposed to proceed in his journey and therefore stayed him with their earnest importunity But though this would not stand good seeing unlesse Christ had shewed some purpose of going they should not have needed to have constrained him upon this reason that it was too late to travell the night approaching yet the former answere will serve that it was his purpose to stay yet not absolutely but upon the condition of their importunity which hee knew they would use neither did hee herein as Saint Augustine observeth faine any thing which was false seeing hee was indeed a stranger upon earth and was not here to stay but to goe further till hee came into his owne Countrey and Heavenly Kingdome Neither was it his end to deceive but to convince the Disciples of the truth as of their incredulity of the necessity of his sufferings for the redemption of his People and of the certainty of his resurrection Lastly it is objected that David being in the Court of Achish fained 1 Sam. 21. 13. himselfe mad that he might escape the danger of his life To which I answere that though David were an holy Man and according to Gods owne heart yet he had his failings and infirmities as well as others and therefore we must not in all things propound him unto our selves as an example for our imitation It is true that this fact and fault of his may admit of some excuse and extenuation namely that he thus fained not out of any love or liking of this course but transported and perplexed with a great and sudden feare by the apprehension of imminent danger wherein hee shewed much weakenesse of faith seeing hee had speciall promises that God would keepe him in all his wayes and notwithstanding the malice of all his enemies would settle him upon the Throne and give unto him the Crowne and Kingdome The like also may be said of dissimulation whereby §. 5. Of dissimulation lawfull and unlawfull wee hide and disguise that which is the which is either lawfull or unlawfull lawfull when as we onely dissemble and hide the truth but doe not deny or falsifie it with a lye neither use it to hurt or deceive our neighbour but for his profit and benefit not to lead him into errour but to reserve our selves and to conceale our good counsells and intentions that they may succeede the better and not be hindered by their discovery And thus our Saviour Christ the eternall Sonne of God dissembled and hid his Divine nature under the vaile of our flesh not by denying but by not discovering that he was God and hindering also his Apostles Matth. 17. 9. from making it knowne till after his resurrection which hee did not with a purpose to deceive men but that hereby hee might further their salvation by laying downe his life as the price of their redemption The which his counsell would not have beene effected if it had beene discovered seeing the people would not have killed and crucified him had they knowne him to be the Lord of Glory as the Apostle speaketh And thus also God himselfe 1 Cor. 2. 8. Act. 3. 17. Job 42. 2. John 21. 17. Heb. 4. 13. doth graciously dissemble our sinnes not that he doth not see and know them for hee knoweth all things and they lye open and naked in his sight but because hee will take no notice of them to impute them unto us for condemnation And thus Saul laudably dissembled his displeasure when hee 1 Sam. 10. 27. was despised and neglected by the sons of Belial and David his just indignation against Shemei that 2 Sam. 19. 22. by this his clemency hee might more firmely knit unto him the hearts of his revolted people And thus may we lawfully dissemble such wrongs and injuries as have beene offered us by such friends as we are willing so to forgive as that wee are unwilling to call them to account either because wee would not grieve their hearts by such repetitions or would not make them suspicious of the sincerity of our love out of the apprehension of their owne guiltinesse Thus also wee may dissemble the good parts of our neighbour when as taking notice of them will but make them proud and much more our owne which though it be unlawfull to deny as being truth yet in modesty ought to bee dissembled seeing it is vaine glory to vaunt of them or to bee Trumpets of our owne prayse Unlawfull dissimulation is when as it is joyned with untruth or is used to deceive or hurt our neighbour seeing it is opposed not onely to Truth and Justice but also to candidous ingenuity and honest simplicity As when men hide and disguise their malice under the shew of love and friendship that they may get the fitter opportunity to take sharpe revenge as we see in the example of Absolon towards Amnon and of Ioab towards Abner and Amasa Or when they dissemble their pride and ambition under the shew of Humilitie and Affabilitie that becomming popular they may rayse themselves into the seate of Honour as wee see in Absolon who by these cunning subtilties stole the hearts of the People from his Father and made way for his owne usurpation CHAP. V. Whether it bee lawfull to dissemble the Truth BUt for the better clearing of this point §. 1. In what cases it is lawfull to conceale and dissemble the truth let us further consider whether it bee lawfull to suppresse hide or dissemble the Truth in whole or in part and in what cases it is lawfull or unlawful For the understanding whereof I will set downe this conclusion that it is lawfull to
conceale the Truth if it bee not masked with a lye in whole or in part when the Glory of God the good of our neighbour either publike or private and our owne good in particular doth require it and utterly unlawfull when it is otherwise for though it be not lawfull at any time to deny it yet is it both lawfull and expedient to conceale it in such cases by our silence or any other way which is not sinnefull And thus ought wee to conceale the truth in whole if we be left to our selves and not necessitated to declare it or in part if wee bee examined making use of that part which wee reveale to bee as a cover or colour to hide that part which we conceale which being discovered would impeach and hinder Gods Glory or our owne and neighbours good An example whereof wee have in Ieremie who being examined by the Princes The example of Jeremie and asked what king Zedechiah said unto him he confesseth the Truth in part namely his supplication to the king that hee would not send him backe to Ionathans house to die there but concealed his counsell in advising him to yeeld up himselfe and the Cittie into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar Jer. 38. 27. because this discovery would not have conduced to the former ends but onely have exasperated the Princes against both the King and Prophet and caused them to crosse this counsell if he should afterwards resolve to follow it Now if any except against this that Ieremie might doe it through infirmity and that therefore it is no president for us to The example of Samuel follow we have another example above all exceptions namely of Samuel who by God himselfe 1 Sam. 16. 2. was appointed by uttering one part of truth to conceale the other if the matter should come to bee examincd and to say if his going to Iesse his house came to Sauls eare that the end of his going was to offer sacrifice that so hee might hide from him the other part which was the maine end of his going thither namely to annoint David King in Sauls stead And thus as Saint Augustine thinketh Abraham §. 2. The speach of Abraham in calling Sarah his sister examined may bee acquitted of telling a lye when hee said that Sarah was his sister seeing shee was his neere kinswoman who according to the usuall speech of the Hebrewes were called sisters Neither did he say She is not my wife but she is my sister the which was no lye but the truth being rightly understood And so Abraham himselfe excuseth it yet indeed shee is my sister she is the daughter that is the Grandchilde of my Father c. Therefore saith hee Abraham concealed something of the truth but said nothing that was false when he concealed that she was his wife and said that shee was his sister And it is not a lye when the truth is Non est mendacium cum silendo absconditur verum sed cum loquendo promitur falsū Contra mendac ad Consent lib. 2. cap. 10. concealed by silence but when by speaking wee utter that which is false unto which might bee added that Abraham had no will to lye nor desire to deceive but to preserve his owne life and the people with whom hee conversed from the sinne of murther But saving his better judgement these reasons alleadged doe not justifie Abraham as innocent but onely thus farre excuse his fact that it was a fault of infirmity into which feare and not maliciousnesse thrust him For there is great difference betweene the fact of Ieremy and Samuel and this of Abraham seeing they concealed onely one part of truth and acknowledged another but he in the same speech uttered as I may say a truth and untruth a truth in the reality of it but an untruth in his intention a truth in some sense as himselfe understood it but not in that sense wherein hee would have them to conceive it for it was his purpose in speaking it to make them falsly to thinke that shee was onely his sister and not his wife or else it would not have secured him from that danger which he feared And a speech is not true when as it is so in a reserved sense but when it is so in that sense wherein wee would have the hearer to take it And so Abrahams speech could not be true but a plaine equivocation which is no better than a lye for in saying that she was his sister his desire was that they should conceive that shee was not his wife And though it were not Abrahams absolute and free will to ly yet it was his will by accident as he thought himselfe necessitated hereunto to save his life and though it were not his principall and maine end to deceive by speaking untruth but to escape the danger of being killed yet it was his next and mediate end which he used to advance the other Neither doth Abrahams speach to the King imply that hee was wholly faultlesse but rather the contrary For if hee had spoken a cleare and ingenuous truth in saying that she was his sister why should he excuse it that he did it not upon free choyce but because hee was necessitated thereunto being in danger of his life And his saying that indeede shee was his sister tendeth not wholly to acquit him of all fault but onely to extenuate it seeing she was so truely in some sense though not in that where in he desired that they should understand him Finally Abimelech even by the light of nature discerned that notwithstanding Abrahams excuse Sarah had equivocated in saying that she was his sister and therefore Gen. 20. 16. reproved her for it because it was such an untruth as had exposed her to the danger of being defiled But though it be unlawfull to lye or equivocate yet it is lawful to conceale the truth wholly by silence if we be not examined or to conceale it in part if wee bee questioned so that the other part which wee speake be not onely true in it selfe Non autem hoc est occultare veritatem quod est proferre medacium c. Contra mendac ad Consentium lib. 2. cap. 10. and in our owne sense but also in his understanding to whom we utter it or at least as we desire to have him understand it And of this judgement is Saint Augustine himselfe else where It is not all one saith he to hide the truth and to tell a lye for although every one who lyeth desireth to conceale what is true yet not every one lyeth who willeth to conceale it For very often we conceale things that are true not by lying but by our silence Neither did our Lord lye when hee said I have many things to say unto you but as yet yee cannot John 16. 12. beare them He concealed truthes but did not speake untruthes because hee judged such truthes as yet unfit for them to heare
But let us examine this question yet more fully §. 3. That the truth of Religion is to be confessed when wee are lawfully called thereunto and distinctly in what cases the truth is to be spoken or concealed and when the Glory of God and good of our neighbour or our owne good doth require the profession of it and when wee should conceale and hide it by silence or otherwise For the understanding whereof wee are to distinguish of truth namely that it is either religious or civill Religious truth is the truth of religion or the doctrine of Faith the which we are upon all occasions to professe being lawfully called thereunto when the Glory of God or good of our neighbour doth require it according to that of the Apostle Peter Sanctifie the Lord in your hearts and be 1 Pet. 3. 15. ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekenesse and feare Neither is it enough to beleeve the truth and keepe it to our selves but we must also openly professe it for as with the heart man beleeveth unto Rom. 10. 10. righteousnesse so with the mouth confession is made unto salvation as the Apostle Paul telleth us For if wee conceale the truth when wee are called to professe it we doe not onely deny the truth but also the Lord of Truth who is the Author and Patrone of it and whosoever shall deny him before Math. 10. 33. men him will he deny before his Father which is in Heaven But when are wee called lawfully to make this confession of truth surely at all times when by our confession wee may glorifie God or benefit our neighbours As when wee are called before a lawfull Magistrate and required an account of our faith then wee must in no case suppresse the truth though we confesse it with the danger of our lives for he standeth in Gods stead as his Deputy and to hide or deny the truth before him is as it were to deny or hide it in Gods sight and presence And then also God is glorified by our Christian apology when as wee will not shrinke from the truth whatsoever we suffer for it So also we are bound to professe the truth of our religion before private men when as wee conceive that thereby wee shall glorifie God by propagating his Truth and edifie them to whom wee confesse it Otherwise if there be no cause why we should conceive this hope because we know them to bee scorners and enemies of Gods true Religion who would but deride it and our profession wee may yea in Christian discretion wee ought to conceale it seeing we shall by our confession dishonor God by exposing his Truth to contempt and wrong our owne persons by laying our selves open to scorne and derision if not to the danger of their rage and violence For which wee have our Saviour Christs Word for our warrant Give not that which is Holy unto Dogs neither cast yee your Pearles Math. 7. 6. before Swine lest they trample them under their feete and turne againe and rent you Secondly there is a civill truth which is exercised §. 4. That civill truth is to bee confessed when Gods glory or our neighbours good doth require it about the affaires of this life the which also is to bee spoken and professed when the glory of God and our owne and neighbours good doth require it or to bee hid and concealed when by the profession of it God is dishonoured and our selves and neighbours endammaged Now if we further enquire when Gods glory and our owne and neighbours good doth require it to be spoken and when it ought to be concealed wee are to distinguish of it either as it is to be spoken publikely before the lawfull Magistrate sitting judicially upon the judgment seate or privately to ordinary men in our common course of conversation When wee are judicially called before the lawfull Magistrate and required according to law to speake the truth we ought not to conceale it whether it bee for us or against us And for this wee have the same reason that we have for speaking of religious truth for the Magistrate sitteth in the place of God as his Deputy to enquire and examine the truth and therfore to deny or dissemble it unto him in a legal maner inquiring after it is as it were to deny and dissemble it unto God himselfe the which in this respect is the more grievous sinne because in course of law men are examined upon oath and are bound thereby to speake not onely the truth but also the whole truth in which they call God as Witnesse to what they say and so grosly abuse his Majesty being the God of truth if they draw him as much as in them lyeth to countenance and confirme a lye Secondly hereby they transgresse in a high degree Gods expresse Commandement by which as he forbiddeth us to beare false witnesse in the negative part so in the affirmative hee requireth that we speake the truth to his glory and our neighbours good Finally wee sinne against the common wealth and against all good policy order and government which cannot stand if in these legall Uterque reus est qui veritatem occultat qui mendacium dicit quia ille prodesse non vult ille nocere desiderat Ad Casulanum proceedings the truth should bee denyed or suppressed In all which respects Saint Augustine speaketh fitly to our purpose either of these are guilty and faulty both hee that hideth the truth and he that telleth a lye because the one denyeth to profit and the other desireth to hurt Upon which grounds and reasons I conclude §. 5. That the Truth must bee confessed before the Magistrate when hee requireth it in a Legall manner that being convented before a lawfull Magistrate and by him examined we are bound in conscience to speake the truth and whole truth if he proceed legally and in judiciall manner and demand of us such things as we may answere unto piously without dishonouring God and justly without any prejudice to the Church and Common-wealth or wrong to any particular person For if such questions bee propounded as are not lawfully demanded nor we bound by the Law of God and of the Common-wealth to answere wee may in such a case refuse and conceale the truth So likewise when the discovery of it tendeth to Gods dishonour to the hindering or suppressing of his true religion to the hurt and dammage of the Common-wealth by betraying unto the enemy the secrets of State or the delivering of the innocent into the hands of impious and unjust men that are in authority and seeke their ruine and the taking away of their goods liberties and lives we are not bound to answere the truth of the things demanded yea wee ought in such cases to hide and conceale it though it bee with the extreame and imminent
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
deceitfull tongue And againe They onely consult to cast Psal 62. 4. him downe from his excellency they delight in lyes Now this kinde admitteth of another distinction §. 3. Of religious lyes concerning matters of faith and doctrine in respect of the divers subjects whereabout it is exercised for either it is in points that concerne matters of faith and the doctrine of Religion in which respect it may bee called a religious lye or matters civill and politicall in humane affaires and the things of life either publike or private in which regard it may bee called a politicall or civill lye The former is so much more pernicious than the latter as the glory of God and the eternall salvation of our soules which are hindred and impeached by it are more precious and highly to bee esteemed than our present corporall estate and the momentany things of this life Neither is any deceit so dangerous as this in matters of religion seeing this as wee say toucheth our free hold and leadeth us into such errours as will hinder our ever lasting salvation In which respect these errours and untruthes in matters of religion the Apostle calleth the doctrine of Divels because as hee invented 1 Tim. 4. 8. it and his instruments teach it so is it no lesse than he such an enemy that hindreth our heavenly happinesse the confirming wherof by lying wonders is by the same Apostle made a marke of Antichrist who speaking lyes in hypocrisie ratifieth his false doctrines with no lesse false miracles All which lyes 2 Thes 2. 9. are to be abhorred above all other which concerne our temporall goods or lives So Saint Augustine Contra mendacium ad Consentium lib. 1. cap. 13. If saith he a lye which is spoken against the temporall life of any man bee detestable how much more that which is against life eternall as every lye is which is made in the Doctrine of religion Enchirid. ad Laurent cap. 18 And againe he doth not hurt so much who by lying putteth a traveller out of the right way as hee that by a deceiving Lye depraveth the way of Life A modest ly is when as a man denieth or extenuateth §. 4. Of a modest lye and what it is Gods graces in him his vertues good parts and commendable actions which hee knoweth to be in him or done by him The which proceedeth either from humility whereby a man undervalueth himselfe and his gifts either in the sight and sense of his contrary corruptions or when he compareth the little which he hath received with that that he wanteth which he thinketh so far short in proportion that his little in comparison seemeth nothing And thus an humble man speaking what he thinketh cannot properly be said to lye because his tongue and heart agree although hee uttereth an untruth not speaking as the thing is or else it proceedeth from inward pride which pursueth glory and praise though not in the ordinary way yet as it were by a backe doore or posterne gate dispraysing those things in themselves which they know to bee praise-worthy and denying or extenuating those gifts and good parts which they not onely know to be in them in some good measure but also in selfe-conceite much over-value them above their true worth The which Art they use to draw on the hearer to crosse their words though not their hearts with excessive prayses which they thinke no more than their due and would be much displeased if hee should take them at their word and crossed in their ends and desires if he should not crosse them in their undervaluing of themselves and take occasion thereby to fasten upon them the greater commendations CHAP. VIII Whether any sorts of Lyes are lawfull ANd thus having shewed the diverse §. 1. Though some lyes are more sinnefull than others yet all sorts are unlawfull and against the ninth Commandement sorts of lyes it now followeth that we examine whether any of them at any time or upon any occasion bee lawfull and warrantable And surely it cannot be denyed but that there is great difference in the degree of sinfulnesse betweene some sorts of lyes and others and that the guilt of merry and officious lyes is much extenuated by many circumstances and considerations by their nature the will and desire of the speakers who love and delight not in the lye for it selfe but as they thinke it fitte to further some good end and because their end is not at all to hurt nor principally to deceive but to profit or delight their neighbours Even as contrariwise the guilt of pernicious lies is much aggravated because they are most opposite to Truth and those that tell them doe it willingly with love and delight And finally because their chiefe aime and end is to deceive and by deceite to hurt and wrong their neighbours in their goods or good name life or liberty But though some lyes are lighter and of lesse guilt than others yet all in some degree are sinnefull and unlawfull as being forbidden in the ninth Commandement For whereas some object that they are not condemned by this precept because it onely forbiddeth such untruths as are against our neighbour whereas officious and merry lyes are not against but for him and for his good even for his profit and delight and offend not against charity which is the summe of the Law To this I answere that all untruth is forbidden in this Commandement whether it be for or against our neighbour neither doth the Hebrew word Beth used here signifie only against but also toward or concerning about or touching our neighbour neither is hurt onely forbidden but also any falshood and untruth by any meanes signified of unto or concerning our neighbour for the word which is translated bearing witnesse as if it were Legally and before a Judge signifieth in the originall thou shalt not answere which is as much in the Hebrew phrase as thou shalt not say or cause to be said as appeareth in divers a Prov. 15. 1. Matth. 11. 25. b Joh. 1. 7. places And the word witnesse signifieth any manner of shewing any thing and so it is taken in other Scriptures So that the sense of the Commandement 1 Cor. 15. 15. extends further than the words outwardly portend Neither doth it onely forbid all false but also all vaine and idle speech as merry lyes for the most part are nor yet only lyes which are against our neighbour but also such as are for him either for his delight as merry lyes or for his profit and advantage as those lyes which wee call officious And therefore seeing all lyes are the transgression of the Law it followeth by the Apostle 1 Joh. 3. 4. Iohns definition that they are sinnes yea seeing every lye is a sinne against a precept of the decalogue it followeth that even by the opinion of the Schoolemen themselves who otherwise so much extenuate officious and merry lyes they
are mortall sinnes seeing veniall sinnes as they call them are not committed Contra praecepta decalogi sed praeter ea not against the Commandements but besides them Againe it is a sinne against nature to lye in any kinde because words naturally are the signes and significations of those things which are in the minde and therefore it is against nature to speake or signifie any way that which the minde thinketh not Finally in every lye though never so pleasant or profitable there is a losse of Truth which is a vertue most acceptable unto God and therefore the impeachment of it cannot be recompenced by our profit or delight But let us more particularly examine these divers §. 2. That merry Lyes are sinfull and unlawfull sorts of lyes and consider how and in what measure and degree they are sinfull and unlawfull And first for pernicious lyes there is no question made by any but that they are in a high degree sinfull as being against Trueth Justice and Charitie and wholly tend to Gods dishonor the hurt of our neighbors and our own destruction and damnation as I shall more fully shew hereafter And therefore passing them over I will examine the other kinds And first for merry lyes it is coÌ„monly conceived that if there bee no scurrility in them they may passe as tolerable because they doe no hurt unto our selves or neighbours but delight and recreate both and they that tell them intend not to deceive their hearers or but a while that they may the more delight them For either they are apparant in themselves to be but jests and lyes by the grosse absurdities that are seene at the first view or are discoverd to be so by the gesture and pronunciation So that they are not much unlike unto Hyperboles or Ironies in respect of the outward forme and shew saving that they differ in their end and use seeing they are used to teach and expresse the Trueth in a Rhetoricall manner but these onely to delight the hearer And of this minde Saint Augustine seemeth to have beene Contra mendacium ad Consentium lib. 1. cap. 2. who thinketh that they can scarcely bee taken for lyes Jests therefore saith hee are to be excepted which were never thought to be lyes because they have a most evident signification by the pronunciation or the disposition of him that thus jesteth and procede from a minde not willing to deceive although it uttereth not truthes And surely there is saith Peter Martyr but a litle of a lye in these merry tales seeing though they willingly speake that which is not true yet the falsity is easily discerned and cannot deceive the hearer But whether these merry tales or lyes ought to bee used by perfect men or strict Christians S. Augustine doubteth in Chap. 3. that place though he cleareth it in another where he saith that hee lyeth who hath one thing in his minde and uttereth another thing by his words or any other signification the which the merry lyar alwayes doth And though hee doth not deceive or hurt this doth not cleare his tales from being lyes but onely sheweth that they are not lyes of the worst kinde or such as are pernicious seeing he lyeth who doth speake willingly otherwise than he thinketh And as he speaketh in another Contra mendacium ad Consentium lib. 1. cap. 11. place Those lyes are not to bee admitted which although they doe not hurt another yet they doe not profit any and doe hurt themselves with lyes gratis and for nothing who properly Duo sunt genera mendaciorum in quibus non magna culpa est sed tamen non sunt sine culpâ cum aut jocamur aut ut proximis prosimus mentimur There are two sorts of Lyes in which is no great fault and yet they are not without fault when we jest or lye to profit our neigâ—â—â—rs Aug. in Psal 5. Tom. 8. Col. 27. Matth. 12. 36. are to bee called lyars For there is this difference betweene one that telleth a lye and a lyar For he telleth a lye who lyeth unwillingly but a lyar loveth to lye and hath a minde that delighteth in lying And though such lyes hurt not the hearer yet they greatly hurt the lyars themselves because in so lying they forsake the truth and delight in falsity and choose rather to please men than to speake the Truth Againe these merry lyes are not onely in their falsity opposite to Trueth but are also vaine and idle speeches and our Saviour telleth us that Wee must give an account at the day of judgement of every idle word Yea Epaminondas though an Heathen shall at this day rise up in judgement against merry lyars who was so strict and severe in embracing Trueth that hee would not allow a lye to bee spoken so much as by way of jest Furthermore if it bee unlawfull to tell officious lyes though they tend to our owne and others benefit as wee shall shew hereafter how much lesse these merry lyes which tend onely to carnall delight For if as wee ought to bee wee were spiritually minded why should wee rather take pleasure to heare or speake lyes than to speake and heare the Trueth Moreover the Apostle requireth that We speake the Trueth one to another and put away lying and that our speech be alwayes with grace seasoned with Ephes 4. 25. salt and tending to the use of edifying that it may minister Col. 4. 6. Ephes 4. 29. grace to the hearers Finally if they were condemned who made the hearts of Kings and Princes glad with their lyes who in respect of their great Hos 7. 3. cares and serious studies about their weighty affaires may bee allowed an over-measure of pleasure and delight how much more are they unlawfull if they bee used to ordinary persons who stand in neede of such meanes to glad and cheere their hearts Secondly it may bee demanded whether it bee §. 3. Whether officious Lyes bee unlawfull altogether unlawfull to tell officious lyes seeing these in divers respects may seeme both justifiable and commendable for he that telleth them hath no will simply to lye but to doe good nor delighteth in lying but only as it conduceth to this end neither hath hee any desire to deceive or hurt his neighbour but mainly aimeth at this end that hee may benefit him by delivering him from some dangers or free him from some great evill which hee is not able to effect by any other meanes To which I answere that if it be a sinne to lye as before I have shewed and shall more fully proove hereafter because it is opposite to truth a vertue which is in high esteeme with the God of Truth and a direct breach of his Commandement then it is unlawfull to lye out of a desire to produce the greatest good For every sinne is an offence against Gods infinite Majesty and therefore deserveth an infinite and endlesse punishment both in soule and
the man for which though they put him to many tortures yet hee remained constant in his resolution Who afterwards being brought to the Emperor seemed unto him so admirable in his faith and constancy that without any difficulty hee obtayned pardon for him whom he had hidden The other part of the question concerneth our § 6. Whether we may lawfully lye to save our owne lives selves namely whether wee ought for the preservation of our owne lives tell a lye when as all other meanes are wanting and this onely promiseth security Unto which a short answere may suffice if we consider what hath beene already said in the former cases for it is a sin to lye but no sinne to dye and our life is not so much worth that wee should spinne out the thread thereof to a further length with wicked hands nor buy it at so deare a rate as the price of sin which is an offence against Gods infinite Majesty and therefore of infinite guilt from the condemnation whereof wee could not be redeemed at any lower price than the precious death and blood shed of the Eternall Sonne of God Againe by voluntary sinning we expose our soules to death everlasting and at the most by not sinning and lying we indanger but our bodies to a temporall death which either sooner may bee brought by some unexpected sicknesse or by nature it selfe a little later so that in effect long life is but the addition and untimely death but the substraction of a few dayes or yeeres And therefore as much as the soule is to be preferred before the body and life Eternall before this life of mortality with so much more care and circumspection wee must shun lying more than dying seeing by that the losse of our chiefest jewell is indangered and by this wee have no great losse Excellently Saint Augustine to this purpose who saith hee Quis observat vanitatem qui timendo mori mentitur timendo enim morimentitur moritur antequam moriatur qui idcò mentiebatur ut vivcret c. In Psal 30. observeth vanity Hee that lyeth fearing to dye For fearing to dye hee lyeth and so dyeth before he should dye who therefore lyeth that he might live Thou wilt lye lest thou shouldest dye and so lyest and dyest And when thou shunnest one death which thou canst onely put off but not escape thou fallest into two first dying in thy soule and afterwards in body c. Finally it is so farre of from being lawfull to lye §. 7. That wee may not lawfully lye to advance Gods glory officiously in the behalfe of men that it is unlawfull to doe it for the advancement of Gods glory for though he requireth that we should propound it as the maine end of all our actions according to that of the Apostle Whether you eate drinke or 1 Cor. 10. 31. whatsoever you doe doe all to the glory of God yet hee will not have us onely to seeke his Glory in respect of the end but also in regard of all lawfull meanes which conduce to the furthering of this end and being the God of Truth hee esteemeth himselfe more dishonoured than glorified by our lye though our chiefe end and aime therein be to advance his Glory For as one saith well It is no lesse evill Pet. Mart. in 2 Sam. 9. 8. to speake false things to Gods prayse than not to beleeve of him those that are true And therefore Iob reprooveth his friendes for those untruthes which they spoke against him though their maine end was to Justifie God and to Glorifie him in his Justice Will you saith hee speake wickedly Job 13. 7. 8 10. for God and talke deceitfully for Him Will yee accept his Person Will yee contend for God Hee will surely reprove you if yee doe secretly accept persons So Saint Paul though for the glory of Christ and 1 Cor. 15. 15. God his Father he had testified that he had raised him up from the dead yet hee acknowledgeth that hee should deservedly bee esteemed no better than a false witnesse of God if Christ indeede were not yet risen So that we must not lye though our end bee that God thereby may have Glory seeing hee needeth not our lye being able to glorifie himselfe by us when wee use lawfull meanes to lawfull endes In which respect I have much misliked those fained miracles recorded in some Ecclesiasticall Stories wrought upon sleight occasions and to as little end purposely as it seemeth devised by the Authors to glorifie Christ and propagate the Gospell and much more the lying miracles and minte of untruthes invented and stamped by the Pope and his Emissaries in their Legends to worke as they pretend an higher esteeme of the Christian Truth in the hearts of the people though they grace them with the title of Piae fraudes Pious deceits seeing they 1 Thes 2. 9. not onely use lying meanes but also aime at wicked ends not to confirme and grace the truth but to seduce the people and leade them into errors CHAP. X. Objections in defence of officious Lyes propounded and answered ANd thus have I fully prooved that §. 1. The objection that officious lyes are not against charity answered no lyes though never so officious to God or men may bee lawfully used the which being clearely understood and well weighed it will bee easie to answere all objections which are usually made by the Authors of them whether they be grounded on seeming reasons or on the examples of the faithfull who have sometimes used them Concerning the former It is first objected that these officious lyes are lawfull because they are not against charity which is the end and summe of the Law but they advance our neighbours good at which we should aime in all our words and actions and doe not offend against humane societies but rather preserve them seeing thereby men are kept safe and freed from dangers So the Apostle saith that the end of the Commandement is Charity 1 Tim. 1. 5. Rom. 13. 8. Matth. 22. 37. and hee that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law I answere If wee take Charity in a generall sense it is the summe of the whole Law as our Saviour maketh it and includeth both all duties towards God required in the first Table and towards our neighbours commanded in the second in both which we are injoyned that our love should bee in truth For first God requireth that wee should John 4. 24. Psal 51. 17. worship him in spirit and in truth and in all his Service Hee requireth Truth in the inward partes without Psal 17. 1. Jer. 3. 10. Esay 29. 13. which all religious duties are odious unto him for hee abhorreth such prayers as are made with fained lippes and if there be a distance betweene our tongues and our hearts when wee draw nigh unto him our prayers will be rejected and reproved So also our love towards our neighbours must bee joyned
with Truth for Charity rejoyceth in the Truth as the Apostle teacheth us even as 1 Cor. 13. 6. the Truth rejoyceth in Charity and therefore as we must speake the Truth in Love so wee must love in the Truth seeing neither are sincere and right if either of them be divided from the other And if our Charity bee racked by importunity of our neighbours to speake a lye in their behalfe wee must say with the Apostle that wee can doe nothing 2 Cor. 13. 8. against the Truth but for the Truth For though carnall love may thus stretch it selfe beyond the bounds of Truth and Justice yet Christian Charity will never goe alone but delights in the company of these and all other vertues And even the Heathen themselves who had no other guide but the light of nature limitted their love and friendship with their Piety and Truth and therefore though they would goe farre with their friends in the way of amity yet no further than would stand with Piety to which that proverbe tended usque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad aras your friend in what I lawfully may but yet no further than the Altar And that other Plato is my friend and Socrates my friend also but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Truth is a greater friend than both And the Philosopher saith that it is a pious thing even among friends to honor and esteeme highly of the Truth besides Christian charity requireth not that wee should hurt our selves to helpe another or to destroy our owne soules by wilfull sinning that wee may preserve our neighbours body or state from destruction For it is said that the Lord will destroy Psal 5. 6. them that speake leasings Secondly it is objected that it is a good and §. 2. The objection of doing good by lyes answered commendable thing to doe good to preserve life and deliver from danger but this is done by an officious lye I answere it is good and commendable to doe good by good and lawfull meanes and to compasse our laudable ends by such meanes as are lawfull and commendable but it is not so if we use sinnefull meanes though our ends be never so excellent for wee may not doe any evill that good Rom. 3. 8. may come thereof Now lyes in all kindes are evill because they are contrary to the truth and forbidden by Gods Law as before I have shewed Neither is any lye as Saint Augustine saith to be reputed Enchirid. ad Laurentium cap. 22. no sinne because by lying wee may sometimes profit another for so wee may doe also by stealing if a poore man to whom what wee steale is openly given doe feele the profit of it and the rich man from whom wee secretly take it doe not feele the disprofit of it And yet for all this no man will say that theft is no sinne Yea so we may profit by committing adultery if a woman out of desperate lust will dye unlesse wee consent unto her seeing though she have played the harlot yet if shee live shee may repent of it and yet no man will say that we doe not sinne if wee commit upon these tearmes such an act of filthinesse Now if Chastity doth deservedly so much please us wherein I pray you hath truth offended us that we may not for another mans profit violate that by committing adultery and yet may violate this by telling of lyes Thirdly it is objected that an officious lye commeth not under the definition of a lye seeing he §. 3. The objection that an officious lye commeth not under the definition of a lye answered that useth it hath no love to lying nor delight in it neither is it his minde or desire to deceive or hurt but to doe good and benefit his neighbour I answere that it is a lye to speake an untruth contrary to that which we know and conceive in our mind whether we love and will it with delight or dislike and loath it or whether it deceiue and hurt our neighbour or delight and benefit him For though we doe not absolutely will it yet wee doe conditionally and accidentally that we may attain unto our end And though wee doe not deceive our neighbour to the hurt of his person or the hinderance of his estate yet wee deceive him by misleading his minde and misinforming his judgement causing him to fall into errour and to imbrace falsehood in the stead of truth Besides truth it selfe is violated whilst it is dis-throned and untruth which is opposite unto it is set up in its place But hereby wee doe most of all deceive and hurt our selves whilest by sinning to benefit our neighbour in his corporall and temporall estate wee indanger our soules to everlasting perdition And whereas it may be objected that it is no sinne nor breach of Gods Law which onely forbiddeth such untruths as are against not for the good of our neighbours to this I have before fully answered and therefore need not here to insist further on it Finally it is objected that wee have many examples §. 4. The objection taken from examples of the faithfull in the Scriptures answered of the faithfull in the Scriptures who upon severall occasions have used officious lyes to free themselves and others out of great and imminent dangers To which I first generally answere that these examples are recorded but not approoved or if in some respects allowed or commended yet not for their lyes but for their love of justice and mercy their aime at Gods glory or their owne and others good their pious affections to vertue and goodnesse and their readinesse to advance religious and honest actions Neither are their lyes propounded as patternes and precedents for our imitation but as examples of humane frailty that they may serve as Sea markes to make us shunne these rockes when by like tempests of tentation we are in danger to fall upon them For howsoever they were Gods great worthies and had attained to a great measure of grace and goodnes yet they were but in part sanctified having still infirmities and corruptiōs in part remaining in them as it were little spots and blemishes in beautifull bodies And therefore wee must live not by examples but by precepts or at least imitate them only so far as they follow the rule of Gods word and make them our patternes in their vertuous actions and not in their frailties and aberrations according to that of the 1 Cor. 11. 1. Apostle be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ But let us descend to some particulars And first §. 5. The example of Abraham objected the example of Abraham is objected who called Sarah his sister to preserve his life from danger But I have shewed before that this was Abrahams infirmity through feare of death and wee must follow Abrahams example in his faith and not in his frailties and failings Againe the example of Abraham is objected
than truthes when hee judgeth them evill And againe certainly it is a thing intolerable to tell lyes Another telleth us that he is equally his enemy as the gates of Hell who conceaveth one thing in his minde and speaketh another thing with his mouth And that Iupiter the great father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Iliad lib. 4. Phocyllides who helpeth all yet will not be helpfull unto lyars Another perswadeth thus tell saith hee no lyes but speake all truthes And againe doe not hide one thing in thy heart and utter another with thy tongue Another affirmeth that every prudent Cleobulus and wise man hateth a lye And the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before was shewed deriveth the Greeke word signifying a lye from another which signifieth a thing dishonest and worthy reprehension because every lye is of this nature Finally Plato in many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Theat lib. 2. de Repub. places condemneth lies and pleadeth for the truth To thinke the truth saith he is honest but a filthy and dishonest thing to lye And againe a lye is odious not onely to the gods but also to men And therefore if the Heathens could discover the fowlnesse and deformities of this vice by the dimme light of nature what a shame is it for us to bee so blinde in our understandings and ignorant as not to discerne the uglinesse of it when as we have the cleare sun-shine of the Gospell and the illumination of Gods Holy Spirit to guide and direct us But let us come more particularly to shew the §. 3. That Lying is opposite to Gods nature haynousnesse of this vice which will better bee cleared if we prove that it hath in it all relations of sinne as it is committed either against God our neighbours or our selves and is not onely a sinne in it selfe but also the cause and the effect of many other evills both of sinne and punishment as it will appeare if wee examine some particulars For first lying is in this respect a great sinne because it is contrary to God the chiefe goodnesse whether we consider his Nature or his Persons In his Nature and Essence he is in and of himselfe and the fountaine of Being and in this sense it is most true that being Truth and Goodnesse are convertible and all one He is not only True but Truth it selfe and all other things are true in and for him And thus he describeth himselfe Mercifull Gracious Exod. 34. 6. Long-suffering and aboundant in Goodnesse and Truth So Moses in his song He is a God of Truth and without Deut. 32. 4. iniquitie just and right is he So Esay Hee that sweareth in the Earth shall sweare by the God of Truth Esay 65. 16. yea hee is so essentially True as that there is none true besides him according to that of the Apostle Let GOD be True but every man a lyar and though Rom. 3. 4. it be at mans choyce to speake the truth or to lye yet truth being of Gods Essence and the Truth of God nothing but the True God hence it followeth that God can no more deny the Truth than deny Himselfe And therefore it is said that God is not a man that he should lye yea though he can doe Numb 23. 19. all things yet He cannot lye yea that it is impossible Tit. 1. 2. Heb. 6. 18. for God to lye which doth not argue any impotency in him but perfection of Being seeing if hee could lye hee could also deny himselfe and so not be seeing Truth in him and Being are all one And as the former places are affirmed of the whole Divine nature and so primarily of God the Father the Fountaine of Truth and Being so other places testifie the like of the Sonne namely that Hee is full of a John 1. 14. Grace and Trueth and that all b vers 17. Grace and Trueth come by him yea that hee is the c John 14. 6. Way the Truth and Life it selfe And so also of the Holy Ghost who is called the d John 14. 17. Spirit of Truth yea e 1 John 5. 6. Truth it selfe who proceedeth f John 15. 26. from the Father and the Sonne And those whom by regeneration hee maketh his Children g John 16. 13. He leadeth into all Truth and worketh in them all sanctifying and saving Graces and Truth amongst the rest which is therefore by the Apostle numbred among the h Eph. 5. 9. fruits of the Spirit In all which respects as it must needs follow that Truth is a Vertue most acceptable unto God as being according to his owne Likenesse so also that those best please him who resemble him in Truth by loving imbracing and speaking it approving themselves hereby to bee his Children because they are like him according to that of the Prophet Esay Surely they are my people Children Esa 63. 8. that will not lye To which purpose an Heathen Philosopher speaketh excellently who being asked Pythagoras in what thing men were most like unto God answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. if they speake the Truth And in this respect their magi or magitians affirmed that their greatest god whom they called Oromagden Serm. 11. was in his body like unto the light and in his mind or soule like unto truth as Stobaeus recordeth it And excellent to this use is the etymologie of the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which they signifie Truth which Iamblichus bringeth ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deducta sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because as the Greeke word signifying the Truth so Truth it selfe is derived from the gods although others give another Etymology deriving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the privative participle because the Truth cannot lye hid Whereby it appeareth that as Truth is deare unto God so a lye which opposeth it is a great sinne and most odious unto him seeing it opposeth himselfe and his owne nature who is a God of Truth for hee who lyeth denieth the Truth and he who denieth it denieth God himselfe Again Truth which hath its existence in the minde against which the lyar speaketh is of the Spirit of God who is the Author of all Truth and therefore what is it to lye but to make the tongue speake against the Truth ingraven in the minde by the Spirit and consequently to speake against the Holy Spirit himselfe who is the Lev. 6. 2. Author of it Secondly by lying we sin immediately against §. 4. That Lying is a breach of Gods Commandement God in that we breake and violate his Word and holy Commandements which injoine us to speake the Truth and not to lye in any thing nor at any time For in the ninth Commandement under the name of bearing false witnesse against our neighbour as in the affirmative part hee requireth all Truth so in
as much as wee hate death and destruction so much let us abhor lying which is the cause thereof and with as much care and endeavour let us shunne the one as well as the other And as God thus punisheth lyes in this life so §. 8. That God punisheth lyars with everlasting condemnation much more fearefully in the life to come For first it excludeth lyars out of the Kingdome of Heaven seeing none are admitted to dwell in Gods Holy Psal 15. 2. Hill but those that speake the Trueth from their hearts and the Gates of this Heavenly Citty are onely opened that the righteous Nation which keepeth Esa 26. 2. the Truth may enter in And as the Apostle Iohn telleth us there shall in no wise enter into it any thing Apoc. 21. 27. that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye And that without the gates of the Citty Apoc. 22. 15. are dogges and sorcerers and whoremongers and murtherers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Yea not onely doth this sinne of lying exclude lyars out of the Kingdome of Heaven but also if they live and dye in it without repentance it will irrecoverably plunge them headlong into Hell For the same Apostle telleth us that the fearefull and unbeleeving and the abominable and murtherers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all lyars without any difference made of their divers kindes of lyes shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Apoc. 21. 8. death And therefore as we love to injoy eternall happinesse in Heaven so let us love to speake the Truth from our hearts which will assure us of it and as wee abhorre everlasting torments in Hell fire so let us hate and abhorre Lyes which are the meanes that will bring us to them CHAP. XIV Divers other motives to make us hate the Vice of Lying ANd thus have I shewed that lyes are §. 1. That lyes are odious because most opposite to truth accompanied with all manner of evils both of sinne and punishment and that both in this life and in the Life to come Unto which divers other motives might be added to bring us into a further detestation of this vice though none more effectuall than those already named if wee have any respect to Gods glory our Neighbours good our owne present comfort and well-being and the everlasting salvation of our body and soules As first that as lyes are friends and fanters of all vices causing and incouraging men to fall into them and to live in them without repentance so they are enemies and opposites to all Vertues and especially to Truth Justice and Charity First they stand in direct opposition to Truth so that where they are set up there Truth falleth and fayleth and where Truth is magnified and imbraced lyes are condemned and banished And this opposition betweene lyes and Truth the Apostle Iames noteth Jam. 3. 14. Lye not saith he against the Truth and the Apostle Iohn likewise where hee saith that hee who braggeth 1 John 2. 4. 21 27. that hee knoweth God and keepeth not his Commandements hee is a lyar and the Truth is not in him Yea they are such contraries as have no meane but the presence of the one argueth the absence of the other and the same heart at the same time cannot love and delight in both but if it loveth and delighteth in lyes it hateth and abhorreth the Truth And therefore seeing Truth is a most excellent Vertue and exceeding pleasing and acceptable unto God as being like unto him in his owne Nature It must needs follow by the rule of contraries that lying is a most base and dishonourable vice and most odious and abominable unto God as being opposite to his owne Nature Neither may wee qualifie and extenuate the sinne by our distinction of merry officious and pernicious lyes for howsoever these severall kindes may in other respects bee much more hainous and wicked one than another much more odious to God and men and will condemne lyars to greater or lesser punishments in Hell fire yet all of them are alike odious and abominable in this that they are all opposite to that excellent vertue of Truth and in every kinde of them contrary to Gods pure and perfect Nature who is essentially true and Truth it selfe In which regard even the best sort of officious lyes are evill and sinfull as namely when as men will tell them to confirme the Truth of Scripture and to perswade men more strongly and effectually to imbrace professe and practice the true religion by reporting fained miracles that have beene for merly wrought for the confirmation of this Truth which as also others of like nature are called pious lyes For first they are contrary to Truth an excellent Vertue and therefore must needes be vicious they are opposite to Gods Nature and dishonourable unto him as though hee were not able to maintaine his Truth unlesse wee helped him with our lyes neither do they so much grace and confirme the Truth of religion when they are kept secret as disgrace and weaken it when they are discovered and come to light nor so much strengthen mens faith in beleeving it being thus countenanced with lying wonders as weaken it when the deceit is knowne seeing these pious and officious lyes will make men when they are discerned jealous and suspicious of reall truths and take away from their teachers all power in perswading making their arguments and motives unto piety of no credit or efficacy seeing they that are moved and perswaded are ready to suspect that their speeches are all alike that seeing they have told them of false miracles therefore there are none true but all of one kinde although some more than other are more cūningly acted and that all the reasons and motives which they use to perswade men to a godly life are nothing but officious lyes which their teachers out of a pious affection and intention use to countenance religion and to make their exhortations and perswasions unto piety and honesty more forcible and efficacious And this was the reason which made Saint Augustine August lib. Epistol Epist 15. oppose Saint Ierome who maintained the lawfulnesse of such officious and pious lyes because if this were once permitted as lawfull or tolerable it would take away all authority in the teacher all faith and beliefe in the hearer yea make the Scriptures themselves to bee suspected so as no admonitions reproofes or counsells can bee given with any fruite because the hearers and readers will easily surmise that the things they heare and read are but pious and officious lyes to bring into and keepe men in the right way and not because they have in them any reallity of Trueth And therefore seeing these lyes are also unlawfull as being opposite to Truth I conclude that there are not any lawfull according to that of Saint
liveth unto Sophocles old age And the Oratour telleth us that all Ficta omnia celeriter tanquam flosculi decidunt nec simulatū quicquam potest esse diuturnum Cic. offic lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex eo dicitur quod non possit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est latere Pro Coelio Nihil simulatio proficit paucis imponit leviter extrinsecus inducta facies Veritas in omnem partem sui semper eadem est Quae decipiunt nihil habent solidi Tenue est mendacium perlucet si diligenter inspexeris Sen. Epist 79. §. 5. That lying though it bee sleight yet is a laborious vice Oportet mendacem esse memorem fained things fade and fall like flowers neither can any thing which is false and dissembled hold out long Hence it is that the Graecians call Truth by a name which signifieth such a thing as cannot lie hid but as the same Author speaketh though by the dishonesty of many it may bee depressed yet it riseth againe and though the defence of innocency may be checked and interrupted yet in a while it will breath againe and get life So Seneca like himselfe speaketh to this point wittily and fully No dissembling saith he profitteth it deceiveth but a few sleightly drawing outwardly over it a false semblance Truth is alwayes the same and which way soever ye turne it good on both sides Those things that deceive have in them nothing solid A lye is so thinne a thing that if thou doest diligently looke into it thou mayest see through it And yet which may be another motive to make us hate lying though it bee but a vaine and sleight vice and of short durance yet it is no easie thing but requireth much labour For it putteth the wit to its strongest invention and trieth to the uttermost the memory and even tyreth it with much exercise that the parts of their lyes may agree one with another and when they are repeated may seeme like truth to be alwayes the same wherein if there be for want of wit or weakenesse of memory the least fayling they are taken tripping and tardy in their tale and sometimes punished both for their fault and falsehood but alwayes at the least shamed and disgraced In which regard when they have toyled themselves in their uttermost indeavours to hide their sinne yet are they alwayes upon the racke and even when they are safe they are not secure but still in feare lest their lyes shall come to light If at least their impudence armed with power doe not incourage them to out-face the Truth and restraine their inferiours to whom they lye from pressing them any further than will stand with their liking An example whereof we have in Iacob who intending to steale a blessing from his Father doth use the uttermost of his wit and memory to interweave cunningly the webbe of his lyes that he might not be discovered And yet when he had improoved his lying Arts to the uttermost advantage with what feare doe you thinke was he surprised with what shaking hands and trembling voyce did he utter his lyes whilest he doubted lest his father discovering his fraude hee might bring upon himselfe a curse in stead of a blessing And therefore well might the Prophet speake of Jerusalem that shee had wearied her selfe Ezech. 24. 12. with lyes and yet her great scumme even her polluting sinnes and the guilt of them was not gone out of her for they that delight not to speake the truth but have taught their tongues to speake lyes doe as Ieremy speaketh weary themselves to commit Jer. 9. 5. iniquitie So that the Art of lying may well bee compared to the Spiders web in weaving whereof shee taketh great paines yea spendeth and wasteth out her owne bowels though it serveth for no other use but to catch a few flies and when all is done shee cannot bee secure in her weake hold but might justly feare if shee had as much wit as a lyar that she shall bee beaten out of it with every blast of winde or brush of a broome whereas on the other side the way of truth is so plaine and easie that a weake memory if we have once gone in it will serve our turne to goe it againe and whereas errour is manifold it is ever one and the same so that we may with confidence proceed in it and not feare to bee tripped and catched though wee are examined at severall times and before divers persons because if wee know the truth and speake nothing but what we know the oftner we relate it the more we shall confirme it seeing we shall still speake the same thing without varying in any matter of substance from that we have first spoken And with this the judgement of Saint Augustine accordeth The fictions of a lye saith he are very Difficillima laboriosa sunt figmenta mendacii Qui verum vult dicere non laborat c. Aug. Sentent 66. difficult and laborious whereas hee who desireth to speake the truth is at no great paines For good men are farre quieter than those that are evill and the words of those who speake truth are much more absolute than the lyes of deceivers And therefore if we would not take much pains to little purpose and not with great danger goe the further way about when wee may goe the next way with ease and safety Let us not labour to compasse our endes by false sleights and lyes which have alwayes in them more frothy subtilty than substantiall solidity but seeke to attaine unto them in the plaine and safe wayes of simplicity and truth In which wayes if Iacob had walked hee had prevented many dangers escaped many cares and toilsome labours under a churlish uncle and deceitfull master and with much more speed and safety had attained unto his end and quietly enjoyed both birth-right and blessing CHAP. XV. Of the meanes whereby wee may be preserved from Lying HItherto I have shewed the reasons which §. 1. The first meanes is seriously to meditate of the manifold evils which accompany lyes may move us to loathe and abhorre Lying as a pernicious Vice and if wee bee inclined to this disease or already tainted with it to desire earnestly that wee may be preserved from it or cured of it and now in the next place if this desire by the former motives bee wrought in us it is necessary that wee carefully use all good meanes which may strengthen us against this poisonous contagion like soveraigne antidotes or if wee bee already infected may recover us out of it Now these meanes either respect meditation or affection and action First if we would shun or leave Lying we must often and seriously meditate on the manifold evils both of sin and punishment before spoken of as that it is dishonourable unto God and consequently odious and hatefull to his pure and perfect Nature most injurious to our neighbours and therefore abhorred
of all and unto our selves most pernicious both in respect of our soules and bodies in this life and the life to come For the reason why men are so apt to commit this sin is because they so much slight it as though it were no sinne at all or if it bee any yet so small and veniall that it may well passe among humane frailties and infirmities by which also wee have little dammage seeing it is so common amongst men that the multitude of offenders taketh away the shame and maketh it seeme to bee no sinne and on the other side bringeth with it so much seeming profit and benefit that it doth much overballance all the evils which doe accompany it All which false conceits will easily vanish if we throughly weigh and consider the manifold and great evils of this sinne which I have formerly discovered and contrariwise the excellency of Trueth and the innumerable blessings that it bringeth to those who love and embrace it both in this world and the world to come Secondly let us consider that wee are alwayes §. 2. That wee consider that we are alwaies in Gods sight in Gods sight and presence who is omniscient and searcheth and knoweth the very secrets of our hearts and taketh notice when wee lye what distance and disagreement there is betweene our mindes and tongues and omnipotent also to punish those sinnes which is all-seeing eye discovereth and most true as well in his threatnings as promises so that hee will not let Lyars goe unpunished seeing hee hath threatned to destroy them Psal 5. 6. Apoc. 21. 8. and cast them into hell And therefore what will it advantage the Lyar though hee can so cunningly coine his lyes that they will for a time goe currant amongst men if his Lord and Soveraigne discovereth his falsity and treason What if hee can tell his tale so smoothly that the standers by will acquit him as innocent when as the Judge himselfe seeth his guilt and sinne So Augustine Thou Mentiri Deo potes fallere non potes c. In Euang. Johannis Tract 26 maist lye unto God but thou canst not deceive him For he knoweth what thou dost hee seeth thee inwardly inwardly hee beholdeth examineth and judgeth thee inwardly hee either damneth or crowneth thee Thirdly let us consider that Trueth rather than §. 3. The third meanes is to consider that Truth is the best and readiest way to attain our ends lyes is a better and more likely meanes to attaine unto our ends either of obtaining some benefit desired or of escaping some punishment feared For the events and issues of all things are in Gods hand hee it is that by his blessing conferreth benefits and in his just judgement inflicteth punishments and the hearts of all men are at his disposing either to like or dislike us to favour and further us for our good or to bee the instruments of his justice to doe us hurt For they are all but tooles in the hand of the great Worke-man by whom he effecteth what hee will according to his good pleasure Now then which is the likelier way for the compassing of our desires either in the obtaining of good or the avoiding of evill to please God by speaking Trueth or to offend him by telling lyes seeing all things are at his disposing Lastly let us meditate and consider that there will come a Day of Judgement when the secrets §. 4. The fourth meanes is to meditate on the Day of Judgement of all shall bee disclosed and whatsoever is done in the darke shall bee brought to light At which Day we shall all appeare before Christs Tribunall to give a reckoning of all that wee have done in 1 Cor. 6. 9. the flesh yea to give an account of every idle word Matth. 12. 36. as our Saviour speaketh and how much more of lyes whereby wee have dishonoured God and hurt both our neighbours and our selves Now if it were a great shame to have all our lyes written in our foreheads or if they bee not large enough to have them published in the market place and set up upon every poste and pillar in the street then what shame and confusion shall cover their faces when as they shall bee discovered at this dreadfull Day in the presence of Men and Angels and when as Sathan finding his marke and image upon Lyars shall owne them for his children and carry them with him to inherit their patrimony in that Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone And these are the meanes which respect meditation §. 5. Of the meanes which respect affection and action first that wee worke our hearts to a love of Truth the meanes which respect affection and action are divers the first is that we worke our hearts to the love of the Truth by considering the beauty excellency profit and necessity of it whereof it will come to passe that wee shall so esteeme it that wee will purchase it at the dearest prices but not sell it at any rate according to that of the wise man Buy the Trueth but sell it not And if we love Prov. 23. 23. and highly esteeme the Trueth then will wee hate lyes as opposite unto it and then will wee delight and rejoyce in it as in a precious jewell But if we will not receive it with love and delight God will leave us to the vanity of our mindes the corruption of vile affections and unto strong delusions 2 Thes 2. 11. both to make beleeve and delight in lyes The second meanes is that wee set a carefull watch over our lippes and tongue that wee doe §. 6. The second meanes is that we set a watch ouer our tongues not speake vainely nor rashly and unadvisedly For commonly in many words there are some untrueths and they that are rash in their words speake oftentimes they know not what and for want of consideration at unawares speake lyes in stead of Trueth and having once spoken them they will stand to what they have said for their credits sake and to tell a second lye to make the former seeme trueth And therefore if we would avoid Lying wee must with David looke carefully to our wayes and keepe our mouthes as with a bridle Psal 39. 1. that we sinne not with our tongues The third meanes is That we mortifie our carnall §. 7. The third meanes is that we mortifie our carnall lusts which are the causes of Lying and worldly Lusts which are the common Causes of Lying as first and principally carnall and inordinate feare whereby we feare men more than God and so become more carefull to please them that they may favour and reward us and to avoid their anger and displeasure that they may not hurt or punish us than to please God or avoid his wrath who hath all power in his hand to reward or punish us both in this life or the life to come And this moveth men to tell
Lyes because they looke onely to the present and not to eternity and chuse rather thereby to hazard their soules and bodies to everlasting destruction than to suffer temporary evils or to endanger themselves to present punishments And therefore if we would avoid Lying let us mortifie this carnall feare and consider for this end how much more fearefull it is to fall into the hands of the everliving God who is a consuming Fire than into the hands of mortall men who when they have done their worst can but punish or kill the body whereas he Matth. 10. 28. is able to cast body and soule into hell as our Saviour speaketh Secondly wee must if wee would avoid Lying mortifie our carnall love of the world and earthly things whereby wee are ordinarily tempted to the committing of this sin For who doth not see that they who set their hearts immoderately on riches are ready upon all occasions to lye and deceive that they may get and encrease their wealth and that they who dotingly affect honours make no scruple to supplant others by their Lyes and machievellian policies and deceits that they may raise themselves by their ruine The fourth meanes is that we bee more carefull §. 8. The fourth meanes is that we be more carefull to flie sinne than the punishment due unto it to flie sinne than the punishment due unto it and to avoid Lying than the evils of smart and shame that doe accompany it For what is the reason which moveth men so often to fall into this sin of Lying but because they make no conscience of sinne and when they have committed it and expect disgrace or punishment if it should come to light they use all their lying Arts to hide it facing and out-facing the Trueth that their faults may not be discovered nor they punished according to their demerits Whereas if men should labour in all things to keepe a good conscience they would not feare to have what they doe knowne unto any and if they walked in the wayes of innocency they would not feare to goe in the wayes of Trueth And therefore if we would not lye wee must carefully avoid the doing of any thing which being done if we be examined we are not willing to confesse or if through frailty and infirmity we have failed in our duty let us rather acknowledge our fault than hide and excuse it by a lye and chuse rather to undergoe the penalty and punishment than to free our selves from it by committing sinne To which end let us consider that sinne is the greatest evill as being an offence against an infinite Justice and Majestie provoking an infinite wrath and so deserving as the due merit of it an infinite and everlasting punishment And therefore what is all the shame and punishment of this world unto which wee shall indanger our selves by acknowledging our faults and confessing the Truth in comparison of Gods wrath which is a consuming fire and which by lying wee kindle against us and those everlasting Torments in the flames of Hell The fifth meanes is to use all our lawfull indeavour §. 9. The fifth meanes that we with all lawfull indeavour shun poverty for the preventing of poverty and to get such a sufficiency and competency of estate as that we may have wherewith to provide necessaries for our selves and those that belong unto us and to supply craving and pressing wants when they importune us For as the immoderate love and desire of riches and aboundance is a strong tentation to draw men to this sinne of lying as I have shewed so the feare of want and the sense and smart of penury is no lesse potent and powerfull to make them leave truth and to tell lyes when they seeme helpefull for the bettering of their estate And this wee finde by dayly experience for who seeth not that lyes above all sorts of men are most frequently used among them that are of poorest condition being necessitated hereunto by their pinching wants and penury And this the wise Agur well knew who having intreated God to remove Prov. 30. 8. farre from him vanity and lyes prayeth in the next place that he would give unto him neither poverty nor riches but feede him with foode convenient for him because as they who desire abundance commonly use lying that they may get and increase their wealth so they that live in want and misery doe as usually fall into this sinne of lying that they may supply their necessities and free themselves from the smart of penury In which respect those that will avoide this sinne of lying must doe their best to preserve themselves from extreame poverty and to this end use all good providence in getting and keeping a sufficient competency of estate and all industry diligence and painefulnesse in the duties of their particular callings craving Gods blessing upon their labours who onely giveth power to get riches and except he build the house they labour in Prov. 10. 22. Deut. 8. 18. Psal 127. 1. vaine that build it For as the Apostle speaketh of stealing so I may say the same of lying let him that lyed lye no more but rather let him labour working Eph. 4. 28. with his hands the thing that is good that hee may have to give to him that needeth seeing it is no lesse possible to avoide lying than stealing if through negligence in our callings wee fall into want and penury The last and chiefe meanes is fervent and effectuall §. 10. The sixth meanes is effectuall Prayer prayer unto God that he will fill our hearts with Grace and Trueth and with his Holy Spirit leade and guide us in it that hee will worke an high esteeme and love of Truth in us and an utter detestation of lying which is so dishonourable unto him and pernicious unto us and that hee will set a watch before our mouthes and keepe the doore of our Psal 141. 3. lippes that no lyes may issue out of them wherein we have David for our example who prayeth earnestly that God would remove from him the way of lying in which hee was apt to walke if he should Psal 119. 29. be left unto his naturall corruption as hee had divers times found by woefull experience and also the wise Agur who prayeth fervently that God would remove farre from him vanity and lyes the which it seemeth hee so much detested that hee could not indure the very neighbor-hood of them Neither is it inough that we use the former means unlesse God by his blessing give such vertue and power unto them that they may preserve us from this sinne nor with David that we resolve to looke to our wayes and keepe our mouthes with a bridle that wee offend not with our tongues for as the Apostle Iames telleth us The tongue is a fire and a world of iniquity Jam. 3. 6 8. and an unruly evill which no man can tame unlesse the Lord joyne with
us and give us helpe by Judg. 12. 6. setting also his Watch before our mouthes and keeping the doore of our lippes that no lying and lisping Sibboleth may passe out of them nor any speech which bringeth not with it the Watch-word of Trueth CHAP. XVI Of the uses which wee ought to make of the former discourse ANd thus having through Gods gracious §. 1. The first use that wee have Truth in high esteeme assistance handled the pointes which in the beginning of this Treatise I propounded and shewed the nature of this vice what it is the causes and kindes of it with the meanes whereby we may bee preserved from this common infection or cured if we bee tainted with it it now followeth in the last place that I adde a word or two by way of use And first seeing Truth is such an excellent Vertue and precious Jewell let this move us highly to prise and dearely love it and following the wise mans counsell let us buy it though it cost us Prov. 23. 23. deare but never sell it at any rate For though it may seeme at the first sight that we have much damage and disadvantage by it and that by speaking the simple truth wee make our selves a prey to the crafty who have great helpe by their lyes to circumvent and deceive us that wee have much losse in our trading and bargaining buying and selling when wee are restrained in our liberty of lying whilest that others that make no conscience of it have many helpes and advantages thereby to further their ends and advance their gaine And finally that wee shall by confessing the Truth when we have offended incurre much displeasure and expose our selves to the hard opinions of those that are set over us yea oftentimes to rigour and punishment whereas others more faulty by the helpe of their Iyes doe frame such excuses that they are acquitted as blamelesse held in good esteeme yea sometimes praysed and rewarded as innocent and well deserving yet let us rest assured that by loving and speaking Truth wee shall finde our selves gainers in the end For first Truth it selfe is such an unvaluable Jewell that it is sufficient to inrich its owners by it selfe and to make full amends for all the inconveniences disadvantages losses and punishments which they have by it seeing it is accompanied with the inward peace of a good conscience and Spirituall joy in the assurance of Gods Love and our Salvation Besides it will make us acceptable unto God who is in himselfe alone All-sufficient to reward our loving and imbracing of Truth in obedience to his Commandement and to recompence abundantly all inconveniences and disadvantages which we have by it For he is infinitely wise and knoweth how to uphold us in our simplicity and Truth against all the cunning machinations of crafty Machiavells He Psal 24. 1. is infinitely rich as being the Lord and Owner of Heaven and Earth and therefore able abundantly to recompence all losses which wee have by speaking Truth and shunning lyes and to give us sufficient riches by honest meanes and together with them such inward joy and peace that wee shall experimentally say with the Psalmist A little that a Psal 37. 1◠righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked and with the wise man Better is a little with Prov. 16. ◠righteousnesse than great revenewes without right Finally by his Power and Providence he ruleth our rulers and so disposeth of their hearts that they will as much like us for our truth and simplicity when we acknowledge our faults as mislike us for the committing of them and spare us for our ingenuity rather than punish our defects and failings or otherwise if they inflict upon us as much or much more than we have deserved if wee beare it with meekenesse and patience we shall have more peace and comfort in our suffrings than we should have had if wee had prevented and escaped them by telling of lyes In which respects let us not only Jer. 9. 3. stand for the Truth but be valiant also in defending and preserving of it seeing all that wee can doe or suffer is not comparable unto those benefits which we shall receive by it Secondly seeing it hath beene shewed and proved §. 2. The second use is that wee abborre lyes to the convincing of all mens Consciences not wilfully blinde that lying is a most odious vice dishonourable unto God and pernicious to our selves and neighbours let us not upon any pretence of pleasure or profit bee allured to like or love it or if wee have formerly beene overtaken with it yet let us not continue in it but rise out of this sinne by unfained repentance For howsoever heretofore our ignorance might make it the more excusable because wee did not know that it is so odious unto God so hainous in it selfe and pernicious unto us yet now that the light of Truth hath laid it open in its owne colours and shape if we still make no conscience of committing it nor lay it to heart to bewaile hate and turne from it by unfained repentance wee shall be left unexcusable and sinning against the light of our owne knowledge wee shall hereby aggravate our sinne and increase our punishment Finally seeing this vice is so hatefull and abominable §. 3. The third use is that Magistrates should indeavour by all meanes to suppresse this vice and bringeth with it so many and great evils both to private Persons and to all Families and Societies Church and Common-wealth and after this life hellish misery and eternall condemnation Let this moove all men in their severall places and callings to use their best indeavours to suppresse this vice and to amend and reforme it both in themselves and others And first Magistrates should be perswaded to doe all they can to discountenance this vice by making good lawes against it and seeing them duely executed because it is no lesse dangerous to a State than any other vices as being an incourager to all wickednesse and the colour and cover which doth conceale and hide it And therefore as Plato thought those Common-wealthes most miserable which abounded with Lawyers and Physitians because in them contentions and suites sickenesses and diseases abound also so may it much more truely bee spoken that those States and Kingdomes are most miserable in which lyes are most frequent without controule or punishment because it argueth plainely the abounding of all other vice seeing their chiefe use is to cover all other sinne and incourage to all wickednesse whilst they promise to hide it But especially it must be the care of Governors and Rulers to stoppe their eares to tale-bearers and lyars because it is the receivers that make theeves and if they had no eare to listen unto lyes men would have no tongues to tell them if they with their countenance as a North winde the raine would drive them away they would quickely
leave their Prov. 〈…〉 lying and labour to regaine their favour by speaking of Truth whereas If a Ruler hearken unto lyes Prov. 29. 12. all his servants are so wicked as to tell them if the King will be made glad with wickednesse and the Princes Hos 7. 3. with lyes those that are about them will to their uttermost skill use all their lying Arts to please and delight them But though the care of reforming this vice §. 4. The fourth use is that wee doe our best to prevent this sin in others ought to be chiefly in Rulers and Magistrates yet not in them onely but every Christian ought to doe his best to maintaine and nourish Trueth and to suppres this Vice of lying both in himselfe and others Especially it concernes every man to take heed that hee so carry himselfe in his entercourse and dealings that he be not a cause or occasion unto his neighbor of falling into this sin And because it is most frequently cōmitted in buying and selling the Seller labouring to raise his commodity by telling untrueths and the Buyer to pull downe the price by dispraising it therefore let us not only watch over our owne tongues that wee doe not offend but also avoid all occasions whereby our neighbour with whom we deale may fall into this sinne Now this is done when as wee doe not in driving our bargaine delight in using many words which are seldome free from lyes but take a plaine and faire course in our asking and offering with all convenient sparingnesse of speech And as the Seller is not by his lavish prayses to draw on the Buyer to speake worse of the commodity than either it deserves or he thinkes so let not the Buyer by his dispraises moove the Seller to use untrue commendations that hereby hee may dazle his eyes and allure him to a better liking And as the one must not aske at the first excessive prices for his wares from which height he doth not usually descend to his selling price but as it were by the steps and staires of lyes and untruthes so must not the other by too much hucking and niggardly offers as much under the just price move him to the practice of his lying arts and eloquence nor by distrusting his words when he speaketh truth occasion him to further the bargaine by speaking lyes because he seeth that the one is beleeved as well as the other To conclude all that I have to say in this discourse §. 5. Tbat governours of Families should doe their best to suppresse or reforme this vice in their inferiours seeing this vice of lying is so sinnefull and pernicious let Parents and Governours of Families use their best care and indevour in the education of their children and governement of their servants to suppresse and reforme it by all good meanes that those under their charge be not tainted and poysoned with it And to this end they must make themselves in all their speeches examples of truth unto their inferiours and such as hate and shunne lyes In which respect I have much misliked and condemned their practise which make no scruple of telling lyes to their little children either by promising unto them that which they meane not to performe that hereby they may allure them to doe what they would have them or by skaring them with bug-beares and faise frights that they may make them leave their crying or doing other things amisse whereby they usually loose their credit and authority with them so that they doe not beleeve them when as they are serious in speaking truth and withall poyson Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu Horat. their tender natures which in themselves are too apt to receive any sinnefull impression and make them apt and ready to follow their evill example and so by custome habituate them unto it that they can hardly bee brought to leave it when they come to riper age Another meanes is to make it one part of their chiefest care in observing their Children and Servants that they may finde them out in their lyes unto which by naturall corruption they are so much inclined and taking them with the manner to rebuke and discountenance them in their sinne shewing them the hainousnes of it by Gods Word and the punishments which are threatned against them that are guilty of it And if all this will not reclaime them they must adde to their instructions and rebukes seasonable corrections and shew themselves more ready and willing to remit or tenderly to chastize their faults committed against themselves than their sin of lying whereby they deny or excuse them which is committed against God Finally if we would have our inferiours to confesse the truth when they are faulty and guilty and not use lyes and false excuses we must in our government avoid too much rigor and cruelty in our corrections which out of feare and infirmity will move inferiours to hide their faults with lyes and so to hazard their soules rather than indure bodily smart and rather to presume on Gods mercy for the forgivenes of their sins than to confesse them to such governors as are so cruell that they can expect from them no pardon of their fault nor moderation in their punishments whereas if they would leave unto them some hope of finding mercy upon their confession and promise of amendment if they would not alwayes deale with them in severity and strictnesse of justice but pardon some faults because they are sleight and venial and some of an higher nature because of their ingenuity and truth which moveth them by an humble acknowledgement to submit themselves to their pleasure and to rely upon their mercy they would not be so apt to make lyes their refuge especially if they knew that they are so odious to their governours that they will if they be discovered inflict upon them more certaine and severe punishment And as rigour and cruelty must be shunned in correction so also injustice and indiscretion whereby men make no difference of faults but punish with as much severity triviall and small oversights as great and pernicious offences infirmities and unwilling slips and faylings as voluntary and wilfull negligences For when the delinquent doth not lye under any great guilt nor in his conscience is convinced that hee hath deserved much blame and yet knowing in respect of his governours indiscretion that hee shall fare as ill as if hee were more faulty this causeth him to make no scruple to prevent and escape his punishment by lyes and because these light faults happen often and so the offender is put often to his lying shifts at last custome will bring an habite and imbolden him to use lying excuses to hide his greater faults as well as his lesser faylings The like care must bee used by Superiours in their corrections that they avoid all rashnesse and furious passion for if they come masked and disguised under this terrible vizard and fall to execution before they have duely examined and judged they put the offender into a sudden fright and not being able to see the face of his Father or Master whilest it is covered with this rash rage and tyranny for very feare hee denyeth the faults which he hath committed before he well knoweth what hee speaketh and having once said it hee out-faceth the Trueth and stoutly standeth to his first lye being ready to backe it with another lest if the Truth should come to light he should incurre more displeasure and draw upon himselfe double punishment both for his fault and falshoode in hiding it with his lyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS
the negative he forbiddeth all lyes and falshood in thought word and deede even as under the name of murther hee forbiddeth all the kindes and degrees of it as anger hatred rayling revenge and under the name of Adulterer all manner of filthinesse and uncleannesse And therefore raising of a false report by lying and bearing Exod. 23. â— of false witnesse against our Neighbours are both joyned together and forbidden in the three and twentieth of Exodus And that we may know that lyes in no kindes were ever tolerated God hath ever inhibited and condemned them both in the Law Prophets and in the Gospell In the Law yee shall not lye one to another So by the Prophet Levit. 19. 11. Zecharie Speake yee every man the Truth to his neighbour Zech. 8. â—â— and the Apostle Paul Lye not one to another seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds And Col 3. 9. Eph. 4. 29. to the Ephesians Wherefore putting away lying speake every man truth with his neighbor So that if we have any respect either to Law or Gospell in yeelding obedience unto them wee must speake the Truth and abhorre lying Finally we sinne immediately against God by suppressing truth and telling lyes because thereby we hinder and impeach his Glory whilest we hide our vices and faults from comming to light and stoppe the course of Justice when it should deservedly proceede against us to inflict upon us deserved punishment in the execution whereof Gods glory is advanced as Iosuah implieth in his speech to Achan My sonne I pray thee Jos 7. 19. give Glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him and tell me now what thou hast done Secondly by lying we sinne hainously in many §. 5. That by lying we sin greatly against our neighbours by corrupting their mindes and judgements with errors and untruthes respects against our neighbours generally and particularly For first by lyes we corrupt and deprave their mindes and judgements in putting downe Truth which should raigne and rule in them to direct them rightly in all their courses and inthrone in the place of them false conceits and opinions which are fit guides to misleade them into all errours and sinnes Now if it bee a great wrong to blemish deface and defile the bodies of our neighbours then how much more to offer these injuries against their mindes whilest by our strong delusions wee make them to beleeve lyes Secondly Secondly lyes are pernicious to all humane societies in perverting order and overthrowing all contracts lyes are most pernicious to all humane Societies and Common-wealths by perverting that order which God hath appointed to bee amongst them which is that men conversing together should by their words and speeches impart and communicate their mindes and meanings one to another for the good of all whereas if lyes bee spoken in stead of Truth there can nothing follow but confusion like that of Babel whilest speaking one thing and thinking another they cannot understand one anothers language nor guesse at their meaning by their words whereby the building of the State and the worke and welfare of the Common-wealth is much hindred For hereby all contracts covenants and intercourse of dealings betweene man which is as it were the life of the CoÌ„mon-wealth the foode that nourisheth it and chiefe meanes whereby it is maintained and inriched are quite overthrowne when as men cannot give credit unto any thing that is spoken nor trust unto the performance of any promise nor bee assured of any bargaine seeing those with whom they deale make no conscience of lying nor have any care to keepe their word further than feare of losse or force of law compelleth them The which as it is pernicious unto States and Common-wealths in hindring their wealth and welfare their livelyhood and well being in time of peace so also it is no lesse hurtfull in time of warre when as Nations having experience of one anothers lyes and falsehood being at enmity can conclude of no firme peace or truce but take all advantages to worke one anothers ruine and utter destruction because they have little or no hope that any covenants betweene them wil be observed Thirdly these lyes are the causes of all jealousies §. 6. That lyes are the causes of jealousies and suspicions betweene man and man and suspicions amongst men when as there being found no fidelity and truthin the speaker there can bee no faith and beleefe in the hearer but having often found him faulty and faithlesse he dare no more trust him upon his word or promise and suspitioÌ„ interpreting al that is spoken to the worst hee will not beleeve what hee saith neither when he lyeth nor when he speaketh truth And whereas it is the nature of faith if it bee not abused to beleeve that which another speaketh because nature hath given men words that they may bee signes and significations expressions and interpreters of the minde when by lyes it is often frustrated it cannot assent to what is spoken but is turned to diffidence and unbeleefe In which respect one being Demetrius apud Stobaeum asked what evill befalleth them that tell lyes answered this that they were not beleeved when they speake the truth For we are apt to conceive that hee who hath often by lying deceived is a lyar and deceiver still and therefore shun all dealings familiarity and friendship with him because wee can have no assurance of his faith and truth So that as faith betweene man and man receiveth a deadly wound by usuall lying So is it the bane of all true friendship when we are jealous and distrustfull one of another and consequently pernicious to humane societies For not onely he that hath beene deceived distrusteth the lyar who hath falsified his faith but also he who usually lyeth distrusteth all others with whom he dealeth measuring every ones shooe by his owne Last and suspecting all others as guilty of the same vice whereof his owne conscience accuseth and condemneth himselfe to which purpose S. Chrysostome speaketh He that is a lyar saith he doth thinke Qui mendax est neminem putat dicere veritatem neque ipsum Deum In Math 6. §. 7. That lying depriveth men of the end and use of speach that no man speaketh the truth no not God himselfe Finally this vice of lying depriveth men of the use and end of that excellent gift and property of speech which was given to man above all other creatures that it might serve as a true interpreter to make knowne our mindes and the secret thoughts of our hearts one to another and not to lye and deceive seeing it were better to say nothing than to lye and to leave men to their owne uncertaine guesse then by our untruthes certainly to deceive them and mislead them into errours So Saint Augustine every one that lyeth doth speake Omnis qui mentitur contra id quod anima sentit loquitur