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truth_n lie_v speak_v word_n 3,929 5 4.2262 3 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A26421 An Admonition to all lying brethren, or, A cure for the times shewing the begining, folly, un-worthinesse and danger of lying. 1642 (1642) Wing A596; ESTC R18104 4,065 8

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AN ADMONITION TO All Lying Brethren Or A Cure for the Times Shewing the begining folly unworthinesse and danger of Lying PSAL. V.VI. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing the Lord well abhorre both the bloudthirsty and deceitfull man MICAH VI XI.XII.XIII Shall I count them pure with the wicked ballances and with the bag of deceitfull weights For the rich men thereof are full of violence and the Inhabitants thereof have spoken lyes and their tongue is deceitfull in their mouth Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee in making thee desolate because of thy sins LONDON Printed for J. P. 1642. The best Cure of the Times AMongst other signs and predictions of the last dayes that of St. Paul is remarkable 2 Tim. 3. This know also that in the last deyes perillous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their owne selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankfull unholy without naturall affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce dispisers of those that are good Traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God Having a form of godlinesse but denying the power thereof from such turn away c. How well the rest of those qualities agree with these times let others judge and consider I shall onely speak of that generall and horrible sin of lying and false accusation Lying was the first occasion of all evill in the World when the Devill perswaded the Woman that they should not dye And as to mankinde so it is a sore judgement upon a Nation when God suffers them to be carried away with the spirit of delusion with the making and loving of lyes It hath been the opinion of some that if lying were layd aside but for one moneth this Kingdoms peace with Gods mercy might be renewed and if truth were once set forward Peace would presently meet and kisse it And truly they do not speak impertinently for if dissention be compared to a fire then lying is that which blowes the coals and makes up the blaze and is the only practise of those that thrive and grow fat by the ruine of others that instead of quenching the fire warm their hands at it and say A ha I am warme I have seene the desired fire Some Divines have distinguished them into three kinds A merry lye an officious lye a pernicious lye A merry lye is when we lye for our own or others pastime without any other intention or harme I can rebuke this in no better words than those of the Apostle Abstain from all appearance of evill and with that of the Wiseman We must not offend and say it was in sport And since God with●ut any distinction hath threatned the destruction of all lyes we must not allow our selves liberty in any An officious lye is when a man for the excuse or advantage or commendation of his friends shall exceed the bounds of truth St. Austin was so curious in this point That when he had spoken some words of his deceased friend which might seem to be but an high expression or rhetoricall complement he had said That his soul and his friends soul were but one soul that his life was tedious to him after the death of his friend because he would not live by halfes and yet for the same reason he feared to dye least in him his friend should totally perish Yet afterwards in his book of Retractations he recanted this speech as too lavish and affected By this you see what a lively and deligate feeling good men have of the least over-lashing in this kinde A pernicious lye is when a man out of malice and injurious intent shall maintain a lye to the damage of an other mans honor life or fortune and that sometimes seconded with an oath And as there is no sin that strikes so dangerously at God and men and a mans own soul as a false oath in triall of truth so of all sins it should be least supposed among men no man being properly guilty of it that did not forthwith turn into a devill for how can he otherwise chuse that adds perjury to lying and like Judas kisses the holy Gospel and betrayes it Let all good men take advise by this to set a door of strength and closenesse before their lips and let nothing but truth open them and to be wary and circumspect where they speak every truth for goodnesse lies too open to treachery because as they intend no harm so they suspect none he that loves truth may fear falshood There may be false brethren that counterfeit Religion and discredit it Amongst many other properties of a Puritan King James makes lying to be one in his second Booke called Basilicon Doron or the Kingly gift presented and dedicated to his Son as his last Will and Testament in these words Take heed therefore my Son of these Puritans the very pests of the Church and Common-wealth whom no deserts can oblige neither oaths nor promises binde breathing nothing but sedition and calumnies aspiring without measure rayling without reason and making their own imaginations without warrant of the Word the square of their conscience I protest before the great God and since I am here as upon my last Will and Testament it is no place for me to lye in that you shall never finde among the Highlanders or border theeves greater ingratitude and mor lyes and viler perjuries than among these phanaticke spirits and suffer not the principalls of them to brooke your land if you list to sit at rest except you would keep them for trying your patience as Socrates did an evill wife And in the Page immediately before I was often calumniated in their popular sermons not for any vice or evill that was in me but because I was a King which to them is the highest evill Therefore if men would not have their Religion suspected and the way of truth to be evill spoken of if they would be pure in heart not pure by Art if they would be those that make godlinesse their greatest gaine not that make a gaine of godlinesse then let them refrain lying as well as swearing But if this lying shall reflict upon sacred Majesty if they shall calumniate it in popular sermons as King James speaks and found it by experience if they be so presumptuous as to speak evill of Dignities then they may very well own the other part of St. Judes discription and I farther referre them to the 2 Sam. 16. chap. 12 verse Although evill can have no good reason yet it is to be considered whether lying be not the greatest friend and afford the best countenance and apology to swearing If frequent lying had not begot a just incredulity I see no reason but the word of an honest man might have passed for an oath I speak not this to the least excuse of swearing but to the greater aggravation and damnation of lying which yeelds to swearing even so much shelter and defence
To prove the malignity of this sin to be the higher you shall perceive that to promote any cause with lyes argues want of faith and confidence in God want of civill faith and trust in men want of policy and leaves a suspition of guiltinesse and want of goodnesse in the cause First want of faith in God if they had any true affiance in the power and protection of God if they did at all consider that God hath wisedom to instruct and strength and readinesse to assist them That he can turn round the counsells of men and make Achitophel politick against himself If they did seriously beleeve that God can over-rule the enterprizes and dissipate the affections and melt and amate the spirits of the strongest opposers of the truth they cannot so much as pretend to it that go to promote it by lyes and forgeries Secondly Next it betrayes a want of civill faith and trust in men if they did not suspect men to be flagging from them to be wavering and uncertain if they were not afraid of their friends they would never use such unworthy means to comfort and keep them up fides fidem obligat the way to make a man trusty is to trust him and many men have taught others to deceive them by being afraid to be deceived Pavor aurilia formidat Fear is affrighted with her own supplies and suspects the very company that comes to help it and they want the true strength that are faine to fortifie with lyes Thirdly It betrayes want of policy for though lying for a while like false ware be better slee'kt and glister more yet truth wears it out Although a lye may get ground at the first going out yet truth will overtake it even the dullest at last will find himselfe to be deceived and then men will think them most odious and detestable that have beguiled them Though it may seem a trick of worldly policy to fetch in Prosolites yet at length they gain this gift amongst men to be mistrusted when they deal plainly and not to be believed when they speak truth And so truth and honesty prove the best policy There is a great deale of slavery in a bad cause it is a miserable and wretched thing to lye and flatter and thank and crouch and fawn upon every one not to dare to offend any and yet to suspect all that they will not be faithfull to them that are themselves unfaithfull they fear men are falling off and therofore they flye to this poore refuge to keep them together Lastly lying leaves a suspition and guiltinesse and weaknesse in the cause I like the phancie of the Poet well where he s●yes That lying and spreading of false alarums and rumors amongst the vulgar is a sign of guiltinesse Criminibus terrere novis hinc spargere voces in vulgum ambiguas quaerere conscius arma They make new treasons and spread false Alarums And when themselves are guilty take up Arms Lying argues weaknesse in the cause and in the person and therefore every true souldier abhors it Some give these two reasons why the lye should be so hatefull to a souldier First because it argues his cause to be such as he ought not to dare to dye in and therefore he is fain to maintain it with lyes Secondly because it shews him to be a coward that he is afraid of men and dares be only valiant and presumptuous with God Therefore let men thinke of lying as meanly as they will let them invent it as readily and set it out as plausibly and disperse it as licentiously as they please yet there is a fearfull doom upon it They shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven They shall be reckoned amongst dogs and murtherers and idolaters Rev. 22.15 For without are dogs and sorcerers whooremongers and murtherers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye But if they shall plainly declare themselves to have no feare of God before their eyes and that wotldly respects onely move them then let them consider that they shall not be believed when they speak truth That Time is the wisest of all and will discover them and then they will be odious to them whom they have deluded That falshood may get strength enough to ruine it selfe and others but never long to flourish and establish it selfe That although lying may hold up the flagge and display false colours for a while yet Truth will have the victory Magna est veritas praevalebit The cause that 's prop't with lyes must surely fail Strong is the Truth at length it will prevail FINIS