Spirits and that too in an especial manner For as it is but requisite that he who is a Spirit should have the worship of ours because most agreeable to his own Nature so also that we should for that reason intend that Worship especially and make it the chief of our Study and Design And accordingly though under the Law for the grosness of the Jews God appointed them a Worship which consisted much in Rites and Ceremonies yet he gave them sufficiently to understand that the spiritual Worship or the Worship of the Soul was that which he principally requir'd Witness one for all that of the Prophet David Psal 51.16 17. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee thou delightest not in burnt-offering The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou shalt not despise The result of the Premises is this That to worship God in Spirit and consequently to worship him after a due manner is especially to intend the worshipping him with ours that is to say by entertaining honourable thoughts of him by endeavouring to conform our Wills to his most holy one and lastly by suiting our Affections to his several Attributes by fearing and loving and trusting in him But beside the Worshipping of God with our Spirits and that too in a more especial manner to worship God in Spirit doth also imply the worshipping him without an Image or any Corporeal Representation For beside that this is the very thing here forbidden and therefore in reason to be suppos'd to be excluded by worshipping God in spirit and in truth to worship God by an Image is so far from being consistent with a spiritual Worship that it is but a dishonouring of him because resembling him to things to which he is no way like and which indeed are infinitely below the Excellencies of his Nature 2. Of the Natural or Moral Sense of Worshipping God in Spirit I have spoken hitherto and shewn both the Ground and Importance of it Let us now consider the Evangelical one according as was before insinuated For that such a one was also intended is evident from that Story to which this Passage is subjoyn'd If you please to consult the Verse preceding that which I have chosen for the Ground-work of this Argument you will there find a Woman of Samaria demanding of our Saviour whether Mount Gerizim by Sichem where the Samaritans sacrific'd or Jerusalem were the true Place of Worship In answer to which after our Saviour had told her That that Question was not now of much moment because ere long they should neither worship in the one or the other for a farther proof of that his Assertion he adds that the time was coming and even then was Mr. Mede on Joh. 4.23 that the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth Which being compar'd with the foregoing Words and the State of the Controversie to which they do relate will shew that by worshipping in spirit and in truth is meant no other than the worshipping of God with a spiritual Worship as that is oppos'd to the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law For the Question being not whether Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem were the place of Publick Prayer because both Jews and Samaritans had particular Places for them but which of the two was the proper Place to send their Sacrifices to and our Saviour making answer That in a little time neither of them should be because the Father sought such to worship him as should worship him in spirit and in truth he thereby plainly shews his meaning to be That to worship God in spirit and in truth was not to worship him with Sacrifices and other such Figures but in spiritual and substantial Worship such as are the Sacrifices of Prayer and Praise with other the like Natural Expressions of our Devotion But from hence it will follow not onely that we are to worship God without those Legal Rites wherewith it was before sufficiently clogg'd but also that we are not to clog it with other Rites than Decency and Order shall require For our Saviour not onely excluding the Rites and Sacrifices of the Law but affirming the Worship which his Father sought to be a spiritual one he doth thereby cut off the affixing of all other Rites as being alike contrary thereto save what Decency and Order shall require But so the Church of England hath declar'd it self to understand the Worshipping of God in spirit and in truth telling us in one of its Prefaces to our Liturgy That Christ's Gospel is not a Ceremonial Law as much of Moses Law was but it is a Religion to serve God not in bondage of the Figure or Shadow but in the freedom of the Spirit contenting it self onely with those Ceremonies which do serve to a decent Order and comely Discipline and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of Man to the remembrance of his Duty to God by some notable and special signification whereby he might be edified In conformity whereto as she her self hath proceeded injoyning neither many nor trifling ones so what she hath done is sufficiently warranted not onely by that Solemnity which Experience shews Things of that nature to add to all Matters of Importance but which is of more avail from the Institution of our Saviour and the Practice of the Church in the Apostles days For if all Rites are to be excluded what shall become of the Sacraments themselves But how shall we any way excuse the Apostolical Church for that holy Kiss wherewith they were wont to conclude their Prayers the laying on of hands in admitting Ministers to the Church or shaking off the dust of their feet against those that should not receive them in testimony of their rejection of them For that all those things were then in use even with the allowance of the Apostles themselves the Scripture is our Witness to which therefore if Men will exclude all things of that nature they must first oppose themselves Such is the Practice of that Church to which we relate such the Grounds upon which she proceeds but as farther than that she neither goes nor pretends to do so if she did there is no doubt she would offend against that Precept which requires the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth For how can they be said to do so whose Devotion spends it self in outward Ceremonies Which as they are of no value in themselves so have this ill property of the Ivy that where they are suffer'd to grow too luxuriant they eat out the Heart of that Religion about which they twine PART II. A Transition to the Negative part of the Precept and therein first to that part of it which forbids the making any Graven Image or other Corporeal Representation That all Images are not forbidden but such onely as are made with a design to represent the Divine Majesty or to bow down to and
mercy to those of a different profession the scope of our Saviours answer as appears from the question proposed being not to declare the necessity of shewing mercy but the persons to whom we are to do it But as Schismaticks and Samaritans by the Discipline of our Saviour are to have a share of that love which we are to shew to enemies so also Pagans and Infidels men who are not only Separatists from but perfect strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel Witness one for all that known place of S. Paul 1 Tim. 2.1 where he exhorts that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty For as it is evident from the stories of those times as well as from the words that follow that the Powers that then were had not attained the knowledge of the truth so it is no less that they were the Christians enemies and made use of that authority which God put into their hands for the repressing of evil doers to discountenance and extirpate them In the love therefore of enemies it is manifest that Christ includes the Heathen and the Samaritan as well as the Christian and the Orthodox professor But though such as these are to be lov'd whatsoever their enmity may be to us yet certainly not when enemies to us upon the account of Christianity and thereby to the Authour of it Indeed the present practice of Christians would so perswade a man that were not studied in the doctrine of our Saviour there being generally no hatred accounted too great to shew to those that are the enemies of our Religion But what the will of our Saviour was his behaviour toward the Samaritans when they denyed him entertainment snews plainly enough and his own words in his Sermon upon the Mount for it was not upon any particular grudge to his person that they denied him entertainment that they refused him that civility which seems due to all strangers the text it self tells us Luke 9.53 that the reason of their not receiving him was because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem thereby professing that he looked upon that City as the place appointed for Gods publick worship which was the chief controversie between the Jews and the Samaritans And yet notwithstanding this their rudeness to our Saviour upon the account of the true Religion our Saviour would by no means hear of calling for fire from Heaven upon them and checked his Disciples for the motion intimating withall that they were to be of a different temper from him whose fiery zeal they commended to him But let us view our Saviour's own words in his Sermon upon the Mount and see whether our love be not to take in such persons as are enemies to us for his name sake But I say unto you Love your enemies bless them that curse your do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you even to those especially which persecute you for righteousness sake which speak all manner of evil against you for mine For beside that these are the persecutors and revilers spoken of in the former verses and therefore in all probability to be understood here S. Luke hath subjoined the Precept of loving enemies immediately after that beatitude which pronounces a blessing upon those that are persecuted for Christs sake and the woe that is opposed to it thereby plainly shewing that they who persecute us for Christs sake are in the number of those enemies whom he obliges us to love and pray for For after he had said c. 6.22 Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of mans sake as on the other side Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets vers 26. he adds in the very next verse to wit the 27. But I say unto you Love your enemies do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you by which enemies what other can be meant than those who were so because they were Christians and hated them not for their own sake but the Son of man's We have seen the intent of this Precept under the Gospel let us now look upon it as prescribed by the Law and the Prophets which if we do we shall soon discern that the Precepts thereof fall short of those of our blessed Saviour For first of all whereas Christianity makes no difference between a sound Christian and a Schismatick or an Infidel the Law though enjoining the same love of enemies yet restrains it to such as were of the Jewish Nation or Religion If he who opposeth thee be of thy own blood or profession if he be a natural son of Abraham or one adopted into his family then thou oughtest to look upon him as thy neighbour and shew thy self benevolent to him Say I this of my self or saith not the Law the same For is not neighbour and children of thy people made synonymous even where this very argument is intreated of for thou shalt not saith Moses Lev. 19.18 avenge or bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Nay doth not our Saviour intimate this to have been the meaning of the Law when in pursuance of this most excellent Precept he adds Mat. 5.47 If ye salute your brethren only what do ye more than others Again to resume that place which we before made use of to shew the Jews obligation to this Precept at all doth not the book of Deuteronomy sufficiently declare the enemy whom they were there obliged to assist to be one of their own Nation or profession If you take the pains to compare them together you will easily discern that that is the due meaning of it If saith Moses in the book of Exodus thou meet thine enemies oxe or ass going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen and wouldst forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him Exod. 23.4 5. But in Deut. c. 22.1 Thou shalt not see thy brothers oxe or his sheep going astray and hide thy self from them thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother and v. 4. Thou shalt not see thy brothers ass or his oxe fall down by the way and hide thy self from them thou shalt surely help with him to lift them up plainly shewing that the enemy they were forbidden to hide themselves from was such an one as was also a brother which in the Hebrew phrase was an Israelite by Nation or Religion I observe secondly that as the love the Jews were obliged
suit his discourse to the capacity of him whom he hath taken upon him to instruct so God being to instruct mankind and particularly the common sort of it who understand nothing beyond what they see and feel was necessarily to make known his own Nature and Attributes not by such discoveries as were most proper to declare it but by such things as the capacity of them whom he was to instruct was best able to apprehend Now as no man would inferr from the explication that is made of any thing to a child that the thing it self is altogether such as it is described to him because such a one is rather to be instructed by such things as are most obvious to him than by the proper notices thereof so neither can any from the bodily representation that is made of God that God hath indeed such parts and members as he is there described withal because the weakness of the common sort requires that the nature of God be represented by the things of sense which alone they have any knowledge of Besides as there was a necessity of Gods describing his power and providence by Hands and Eyes as in like manner other Attributes of his by such parts of humane bodies which hold most correspondence with them and consequently nothing of corporeity to be attributed to him because of it so God himself hath given us sufficiently to understand that he would have those descriptions interpreted rather as Emblems and Pictures than as rigid definitions of his nature For beside the express affirmation of his being a spirit with which the affections of bodies are not consistent he frequently asks the makers of Images To whom they will liken God or what likeness they will compare unto him and this too as you may see Isa 40.17 upon the account of that vast distance that is between him and all the Nations of the World Which kind of questions being tantamount to a negation it follows that however God be sometime described as a humane body yet he hath no affinity with them nor with any other how glorious soever 2. From the nature of God pass we to his Attributes which for our more orderly proceeding may be reduced to these two heads to wit 1. Either such as are radicated in his nature or 2. As result from his operations 1. The former of these are again double commonly called Incommunicable or Communicable that is to say such of which there is no resemblance in the creatures or such of which there is Of the former of these sorts are these four his independency his unchangeableness his omnipresence and eternity each of which hath the astipulation of the Scripture and therefore to be considered by us That God is independent of any other either as to his being or subsistance S. Paul evidently declares Act. 17.25 for inasmuch as he giveth to all life and breath and all things he himself cannot depend upon them for his own and consequently is independent of any other There is the same evidence from Scripture concerning Gods unchangeableness either in his nature or resolutions For they saith the Psalmist shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as doth a garment but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end Psal 102.26 27. And again with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning saith S. James c. 1.17 Lastly as God is independent and unchangeable so is he omnipresent and eternal witness for the former that known place of the Psalmist Psal 139.7 and so on Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there If I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea Even there also shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me For the latter the same Psalmist Plal. 90.2 For from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Next to his incommunicable Attributes consider we his Communicable ones that is to say such of which there is some image in the creatures in each of which we shall find the same consent of Scripture as we found before in his incommunicable ones To begin with his Mercy and Goodness because the Scripture itself tells us that that is above all his works how did he himself triumph in it when he proclaimed his own Glory For thus Exod. 34.6 when he passed before Moses he proclaimed himself to be the Lord even the Lord merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Keeping mercy for thou sands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Next to his mercy consider we his Justice because proclaimed in the same breath he himself there adding that he was one that would by no means clear the guilty but visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children v. 7. of that chapter As in like manner though more fully elsewhere for all his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he Deut. 32.4 Where we have not only a declaration of his Justice in the largest acception of the word but a declaration also of his Truth another Attribute of his and therefore to be considered by us But because this as others of them are so frequently mentioned in Scripture that no man can be supposed to be ignorant of it I will add only for a confirmation of it that he is so much a God of truth that he is by S. Paul said to be The God that cannot lye Tit. 1.2 Lastly for these things are so notorious from the Scripture that it will be but lost labour to go about to prove them as he is a God of Mercy and Justice and Truth so he is a God of Glory and Power and Wisdom And more than this I shall not need to add concerning such Attributes as are radicated in the Divine Nature unless it be that whereas in created beings they are finite and limited in God they are infinite and unlimited But so that they are the Scripture gives us to understand either in express terms or such as do necessarily inferr it that affirming in one place * Psal 147.5 that his understanding is infinite as in another ‖ Isai 40.17 that all nations and their several excellencies are before him as nothing yea less than nothing and vanity which is in effect to say that God himself is infinite They being not to be said to be as nothing yea less than nothing in comparison of him who hold any proportion to him as they must be said to do if God himself were finite 2. One only Attribute remains even that which we have said to flow from his operations I mean his Sovereignty and Dominion Concerning which to omit others that of S. Paul may suffice Act. 17.24 where we have not only the world and all things therein
the most likely to advantage us Thus though the honest but desponding person suffer his thoughts to be taken up especially with the consideration of Gods infinite Love and Mercy to sinful man yet it will be more proper for the presumptuous and disobedient to reflect upon the Majesty and Justice of the Almighty as by which he may be most effectually drawn to the owning him for his God 3. The third act of the Vnderstanding follows even the believing what God affirms concerning which I will shew these three things 1. First of all its just extent and latitude 2. The congruity of this vertue of Faith to our present state and 3. And lastly how we own God for our God by it 1. To begin with the first of these even the extent of Faith concerning which I shall first of all observe that it is to reach to every thing which shall be found to be affirmed by the Almighty Whether it be delivered by way of narration or prediction as a thing that either is or was or shall hereafter come to pass Thus for example if God declare to me that he is merciful and just and that it is his pleasure we should be so also that he hath in ancient times given instances of both those Attributes in the redemption of mankind and the rejection of the Angels and that he will give more signal ones hereafter at the great judgment day I am equally to receive each of these into my assent and believe that they are and have and shall be according as he himself hath declared For being alike the subject of Gods affirmation I am in reason to give up my assent to each of them in what manner soever they be delivered Which observation I do the rather set before you because how trivial soever it may seem to be in its self yet the weakness shall I say or rather impiety of the present age hath made it necessary to be represented men commonly conceiving of faith as an assent only to those gracious promises which it hath pleased God to make to sinful man By which means as they have been induced to have little regard to the other Articles of our belief so much less to the Commandments of the Almighty which yet as they are equally the object of our faith so the practice thereof is the means whereby those promises are to be attained upon which that Faith of theirs is founded I observe secondly that our Faith is not only to extend it self to all Gods affirmations in what manner soever delivered but also to all of them whatsoever the subject matter thereof be and how contrary soever in appearance to the dictates of our own reason For if Gods affirmation be the ground of our belief wheresoever that ground is it is equally to be afforded whatsoever be the subject matter of it Thus for example if the doctrine of the Trinity how unintelligible soever to us do appear to be a revelation of God's it may and ought to challenge our assent no less than his affirmation of those things which we have not only no prejudice against but the dictates of our own reason to confirm us in Lastly for this is no less necessary to be observed than the former because we have now no immediate revelations from God we are to yield up our assent not only to what God affirms to us with his own mouth but also to what he declares by men inspired by him and witnessed to by miracles from himself that is to say by his servants the Prophets and Apostles and particularly that great Prophet and Apostle the ever Blessed Jesus What any one affirmeth by another being equally his affirmation with that which he affirms by himself But from hence it will follow that we are to give up our belief to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and to all things therein contained For these having been * Explication of the Apostles Creed elsewhere shewn to have been written by men divinely inspired and witnessed to by God himself they are equally the word of God with that which he himself delivers and consequently claim an equal share in our belief 2. Of the extent of our belief I have spoken hitherto and shewn what is the just object of it proceed we therefore in the second place to evince its congruity or essentiality rather to the oeconomy of the Gospel and our present state under it For the evidencing whereof not to tell you which yet I very well might that the doctrine of the Gospel is every where stiled the Faith of Christ nor yet that the Heathens * Vid. Orig. contra Celsum lib. 6. pag. 282. objected nothing more against Christianity than its calling upon men simply to believe it I will remit you to that most full and pertinent saying of S. Paul 1 Cor. 1.21 Where he tells us that after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe plainly intimating that whereas before God led men to Salvation by wisdom and knowledge now his intention was they should go to it by Faith that is to say by believing what was preached to them by those whom he commissionated and witnessed to by miracles But from hence it will follow 1. That they do in effect renounce Christianity who receive not the doctrines of it upon the Authority of him that revealed them as well as upon the grounds of reason For that is in truth to disown that Faith we are to walk by and to yield up our assent not to Christ whos 's the doctrines are but to our own only reason and judgment Which though it do in fine terminate in God whose candle that reason of ours is and consequently doth so far glorifie him yet hath not the least aspect upon the veracity of God in Christ upon which they are proposed to the world The same is much more to be said 2. Of those who will walk no farther with their Faith than the light of their own reason will accompany them For this is manifestly to subject the Faith to it and to walk rather by sight than by faith And hence when any thing is proposed to them which carries any seeming opposition to it we find it presently discarded as is notorious in the instances of the Trinity and of the Incarnation of the second Person in it doctrines which yet have as clear a foundation in the Scripture as any other doctrines of it Hence also which yet if duly considered is not so dissonant to our apprehensions the resurrection of the dead hath lately run the same fate men having been taught to believe that to salve that it is reason enough that some body or other shall be united to the Soul which how it agrees with the nature of a resurrection and the doctrine of the Gospel concerning it I shall leave all sober men to judge But who sees
threw twice Six or that we have been as intemperate as any that have kept the Round Nay to so great an intemperance are the Tongues of Men now come that God must be call'd to witness even where there is no question at all made of any thing nor it may be likely to be unless it be whether the Party be a brave resolute Sinner and have as little fear of God as Man For what other Interpretation can any Man make of such Mens swearing but that they are afraid of being thought Religious or rather of not being thought to have bid defiance to it But as all Oaths in common Converse are forbidden to us Christians and Yea or Nay substituted in their room so if the wisest of the Heathen or Christians may be credited 2. All Oaths whatsoever for which there is not a great necessity And accordingly we find the Fathers * Tertul. de Idol c. 11 23. of the Church condemning Swearing as a thing generally unlawful and the Ecclesiastical Stories ‖ Euseb Eccl. Hist l 6. c. 5. Loquitur de Basilide Martyre in Alexandria telling us of one of whom when his Fellow-soldier demanded an Oath his Answer was That it was not lawful for him to swear because he was a Christian But which is admirable to observe some of the Heathen sweetly consenting with them and with him whose Religion they propugned For thus Epictetus †Enchit c. 44. in particular adviseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to avoid swearing if it were possible wholly but if not at least as far as they might And Hierocles * Hierocles in illam clausulam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Golden Verses of Pythagoras That the best way to preserve the Reverence due to an Oath was not to use it frequently or upon trifling occasions to fill up the vacuities of our Discourse or procure credit to a Tale but as far as they might to use it onely in things necessary and when there was no other way to secure them but by the help of an Oath And to the shame of us Christians be it spoken for this Divinity was not onely in their Books but in their Practice there is mention of one Clinias ‖ Vid. Grot. in Mat. 5.34 a Pythagorean who when he might have avoided a Mulct of three Talents by onely taking an Oath yet chose rather to suffer the loss of those than take the other Such was the one and the others Opinion of the Sacredness of an Oath and of the unlawfulness of making use of it unless where there was a great necessity Which that it was not without ground I shall shew immediately when I make those the matter of my Inquiry In the mean time it is evident that all Oaths in common Converse are unlawful to Christians and much more the intermingling of Oaths with every Sentence we utter which is so frequent both with the Base and Honourable And God grant that as the Land hath mourn'd because of them so it may mourn for them and we propitiate that Name by our Humiliation and Reverence which others and our selves hitherto have onely dishonour'd and blasphem'd To go on now to shew the Grounds of the Prohibition of unnecessary Oaths and to establish it by Reason as well as by Authority Where first I shall alledge the providing that every Man speak truth with his Neighbour and be punctual in the performance of their Words and Promises For as our Saviour is thought to intimate by those Words of his Whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil the use of Oaths had undoubtedly its original from Mens falseness and perfidiousness in their Words and Promises neither would any Man be desirous of an Oath if he thought the Party he address'd himself to would speak truth without And accordingly our Law doth not generally exact an Oath of those of the Nobler sort because supposing their Birth and Education to set them above any untruth and persidiousness and the Word of an honest Man as Philo * De spec leg speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say It hath among those who deem him so the nature of an Oath it is free from the suspicion of any falsity or change Whilst he who is put to an Oath as the same Philo ‖ De Decalog speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lies under the suspicion of unfaithfulness Now forasmuch as it was manifestly our Saviour's Design to implant Faithfulness and Truth in the World at least in that part of it which embrac'd his Religion and the use of Oaths as hath been already shewn is a sign of the want of that and onely occasion'd by it it is easie to suppose that the recovery of Truth and Faithfulness was the Reason of his forbidding them in common Converse yea that he meant to forbid all that were not strictly necessary all Oaths that are not such being a sign of want of Truth in them of whom they are exacted The second Reason which I suppose induc'd our Saviour to forbid Swearing generally was to keep Men from swearing falsely it being an hard matter for a Man to allow himself in the one and not be guilty of the other We learn thus much from the forementioned Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for from much swearing saith he ariseth perjury and impiety But much more clearly from Hierocles * Loco prius citato whose Words I shall now subjoyn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Now the words Reverence an Oath do not onely enjoyn swearing truly but the avoiding of swearing as much as may be for so shall we best observe the Precept of swearing truly if we seldom allow our selves to swear at all For by swearing frequently and lightly a Man may easily fall into Perjury whereas he that swears seldom never For either such an one will not swear at all or if he doth he will swear truly and neither through an evil Custom suffer his Tongue to run before his Vnderstanding nor his Vnderstanding to be hurried away by the intemperance of his Passions And truly what else can be expected from a common Swearer than that he should sometime swear falsely and as well violate as profane the Oaths of God For beside that such Mens frequent swearing is a certain Argument that they do not esteem an Oath as Sacred for then certainly they would reserve them for Matters of importance and where as the Poet speaketh there is a knot worthy God's untying beside that I say the heat of Passion or Inconsiderateness may make such Persons ere they are aware set an Oath to that of the falseness whereof they themselves are convinc'd which is to call the God of Truth to witness to a Lie which of all other things he professeth to abhor And if this be the consequent of customary swearing no wonder if our Saviour have generally forbidden it and enjoyn'd Men as much as may be not to swear at all
to God to direct those that are our spiritual Parents in the discharge of their respective duties FROM our Natural and Civil Parents pass we to our Spiritual ones under which name I comprehend the several Governours and Ministers of the Church because however the Title of Fathers may belong more peculiarly to some of them yet all of them do in their measure contribute to our Spiritual birth which is the proper foundation of their Paternity Now concerning these I shall shew 1. That they ought to be honour'd by us 2. Enquire into the grounds of that Honour we are to pay them 3. And Lastly what Honours we are to afford them I. That our Spiritual Parents are to have a share of our Honour much need not be said to shew whether we do consider the necessity of Honouring our Earthly Parents or the ample Testimony the Scripture gives to the Honouring of our Spiritual ones For as if our Earthly Parents be to be honour'd Reason would that they should much rather be so who beget us to an infinitely better Being so especially if the Scripture hath added her Suffrage to it and not onely given Testimony to that their Paternity but expresly requir'd an honourable Acknowledgment of it Now that so it hath is evident from 1 Tim. 5.17 and 1 Thess 5.12 13. In the former whereof St. Paul gives in charge that the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine In the latter that the Brethren should know them which labour'd among them and were over them in the Lord and admonish'd them and esteem them very highly in love for their Works sake To both which if we add that of Heb. 13.17 so the proof will be full and cogent St. Paul or whoever was the Author of that Epistle obliging those he wrote to to obey them that had the rule over them and to submit themselves which are the Highest Expressions of Honour we can give II. The necessity of Honouring our Spiritual Parents being thus evinc'd from clear and express Places of Scripture proceed we now according to the Method before laid down to inquire into the Grounds of it which we shall find to have something common with the Grounds of honouring our Natural Parents and something with those of honouring of our Civil ones With the former because by these it is we are begotten unto God through the Laver of Regeneration and nourished afterwards by the Word of Truth With the latter because appointed by God as his Ministers and Vicegerents in things pertaining to the Conscience Not indeed immediately for so none but Christ the Apostles and other the Primitive Doctors of the Church were but by those who were their lawful Successors and to whom they had delegated their Spiritual Power Which Particular is necessarily to be added because without one or the other Designation we can have no Title to that Honour For however some may think that Honour due unto themselves for travelling together with us in the Dispensation of the Word and Sacraments and other such like Offices by which Men are to be begotten and conserv'd unto God yet inasmuch as all Power in Spirituals was vested in our Saviour and by him transmitted to his Apostles our Saviour not onely affirming that as the Father sent him so he sent them but appointing them for the Teaching and Discipling of the World no Man can ordinarily assume to himself that Honour without an immediate Call from God or from those whom he hath intrusted with the Management thereof Which said nothing remains to do but to inquire what kind of Honours we are to give to these our Spiritual Parents III. For the resolution whereof I will instance 1. In such Honours as are more peculiar to their Function and after that 2. In those that are common to them with other Parents I. Of the former sort is 1. The resorting to the Place where they teach and attending diligently to them when we do the laying up what we so learn from them in our Memories and in our Hearts and copying them out in our Lives and Conversations For being appointed by God the Teachers of his People as their Teaching for the instructing and bettering of those that are he that doth any thing to the prejudice of either must consequently deny them the Honour of Teachers and so far therefore offend against this Commandment Of the same nature is 2. The yielding Obedience to their Commands so far as the nature of their Function and the measure of their Office doth require For being appointed by God not onely as Teachers but as Rulers and as you saw but now out of the Author to the Hebrews we oblig'd to obey them for Obey saith that Apostle them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief Being therefore I say appointed by God not onely as Teachers but as Rulers and the People oblig'd to obey them he that refuseth so to do denies them the Honour of Rulers because that implies Obedience to their Commands The onely thing that hath with any shew of Reason been objected if yet that it self may be allow'd to have any shew of Reason is that the Rule whereof the Scripture speaks is onely doctrinal and declarative and consequently no necessity of Obedience properly so called But beside that such violence is not lightly to be offered to the Signification of Words because if it might there could be nothing certain either in the Scriptures or other Authors Beside that these our Spiritual Parents are more often represented under such Titles that imply Authority than in those that imply Teaching onely witness the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like which are usual Titles of Authority Beside lastly that in the place before quoted out of St. Paul a difference is made between those that rule well and those which labour in the Word and Doctrine which what were it but a mockery if all their Ruling were labouring in the Word and Doctrine Beside these I say and a great many other things that might be produc'd which I pass the rather over because I think the Objection deserves no farther Confutation out of the Scripture the very Being of the Church implies that Power of Commanding which those Novellists are so willing to discard For the New Testament prescribing nothing particularly or at least very imperfectly as to the Time or Place or Manner of holding Assemblies which for the orderly management thereof are of necessity to be determin'd either Christian Assemblies are not to be held which is directly contrary to the Precept of our Religion or there must be a Power in the Church to determine them and consequently a necessity of yielding Obedience to them The onely thing that can admit of a Dispute is What are the Limits of their Power
Sentence whensoever they shall please to pretend that they know the contrary to what hath been alledged and attested It may be enough for such persons to endeavour the avoiding of it if it may be with the Princes Will or if that cannot be done to use their art to convict the Witnesses of falshood which by ways best known to Men versed in those Affairs hath oftentimes been accomplished when the Judge hath had only a suspicion of their Treachery or if that cannot be done after Sentence to signifie it to the Prince in whom as the power of Pardoning is so it is hardly to be imagined but he will gladly make use of it upon such an occasion which will absolve both the Judges own Conscience and the accused party 2. I will conclude this Affair and my Discourse with admonishing those to whom the Power of Judging doth belong That in doubtful cases they ought to incline to such determinations as are favourable to the accused party For every one being in Reason to be presumed to be innocent till the contrary thereof be made appear it is but just where the Proofs are not very clear that the Judgment should be with favour towards him who hath been convented at their Tribunal PART II. An Address to the Explication of the Negative part of the Commandment where the Errors of Witnesses and the Criminalness thereof are first of all inquir'd into as after that what Falsities are comprised in them whether in or out of Judicial Proceedings The first Errour of Witnesses the bearing of a false one whether as that imports such a Testimony as disagreeth with the Nature of the Thing attested to but principally and chiefly as it imports such a one as disagrees with our own Opinion concerning it The Criminalness thereof the Prejudice it doth to him against whom it is alledg'd the Assistance it lends to the Injustice of the Accuser its hindring those from doing Justice who are otherwise dispos'd to do it and Perjury The second Errour of Witnesses the concealing of any thing that is true the Criminalness whereof is evinced from the prejudice it may bring unto our Neighbour and from its contrariety to that great Precept of Love which commands us to advantage him as well as no way injure him The like Criminalness evinced in the transposing of that which is true or affirming what we deem to be so with any greater degre of assurance than we our selves are perswaded of in our own Thoughts An Inquiry into the Falsities and other Errours which are comprehended under those of Witnesses which from the general Design of the Decalogue as well as of the present Commandment are shewn to be all Falsities in Judicial Proceedings An enumeration thereupon of the several Falsities committed in them and an Inquiry whether the Defendant may plead Not guilty to what he is justly charg'd with Extrajudicial Falsities to be look'd upon as alike forbidden by this Commandment where they are also pernicious ones BEING now pretty well provided by what I have premis'd concerning Courts of Judicature to give an account of those Sins which are by this Commandment forbidden in them Reason would I should give the first place to those of Witnesses Negative part of the Commandment which the Commandment doth expresly condemn As because what is so condemn'd ought to be look'd upon as principally intended so because whatsoever else may be suppos'd to be forbidden by it must be upon the account of its affinity with that which it principally intends Taking it therefore for granted that the Errours of Witnesses in Judgment are principally struck at I will inquire 1. What those Errours are and wherein the Criminalness thereof consisteth 2. What Falsities are comprised under them whether in or out of Judicial Proceedings I. Now there are four things according as was before observ'd which this Commandment doth either expresly or by consequence forbid in those who are Witnesses in Judgment 1. The uttering of any thing that is false 2. and 3. The concealing or transposing of that which is true 4. The affirming of any thing which is deem'd by them to be so with any greater degree of assurance than they themselves are perswaded of in their own Breasts 1. Of the first of these little need to be said I mean as to shew it to be forbidden by this Commandment the Letter of the Commandment forbidding the bearing false witness against our neighbour which is to me the same in sense with the uttering of any thing that is false For though I deny not but a false Witness may be for the advantage of one Party and therefore in that respect not a bearing false witness against our Neighbour yet inasmuch as what is for the advantage of one is eo nomine to the prejudice of the other that contendeth with him in Judgment he who gives a favourable but false Testimony for the one must be suppos'd to bear false witness against the other which is the very thing forbidden by this Commandment All therefore that will be requisite for me to shew upon this first Head is what a false Witness is and wherein the Criminalness thereof consisteth Now there are two Notions whereof the word Falshood is capable as shall be more at large declar'd * Vid. Part 3. Explicat of this Commandment when I come to entreat de industria of the nature of Truth and Falshood that which importeth the disagreement of our Words with the nature of the Thing whereof we speak and that which imports the disagreement of them with our own Opinion of it Both the one and other of these Falshoods is intended in this Commandment but the latter principally and chiefly For though a Man may be and no doubt is oblig'd to inform himself well of what he speaks because Words were intended to express the Natures of Things as well as our own Conceptions of them though he may also for that reason be chargeable with the Crime of Falshood if that whereof he speaks have not been duly weigh'd beforehand by him yet inasmuch as it is not in the power of the Speaker to give other account of any thing than according to that Opinion which he himself hath conceiv'd concerning it that Falshood is in reason to be look'd upon as chiefly forbidden which consists in the disagreement of our Words with our Thoughts as which alone we are intirely in a capacity to prevent It being thus evident what we are to understand by Falsity and particularly by that Falsity which cleaves to a Testimony in Judgment proceed we to shew wherein the Criminalness thereof consisteth and for which it is forbidden by this Commandment And here not to alledge its contrariety to Truth which as I shall afterwards shew ought to be preserv'd inviolable partly because false witnessing hath a farther Criminalness in it and partly because I shall have a more opportune place to entreat of that I shall desire you to consider 1. That
such as are committed in Judgment or such whose subject matter hath no affinity with it For though the former may be more Criminal in respect of that Oath which is affixed to them and the quality of those Tribunals which they are intended to elude yet the latter may be no less if we consider either their dissonancy to Truth which is one part of the others evil character or their prejudicialness to our Neighbour whose either Life or Fame or Fortune the Commandment we have now before us was intended to secure PART III. A Digression concerning the Nature of Truth and Falshood The several Species thereof and our Obligation to pursue the one and avoid the other An Inquiry in the close whether the Truth be always to be profess'd and if not how and in what Cases it may be either suppressed or concealed even when we make a semblance of declaring it THOUGH I had it sometime in my thoughts to defer my Discourse of Truth and Falshood till I came to entreat of those Falsities which had nothing to make them criminal but their being such yet considering with my self that Falshood is a part of the Character of those Sins which this Commandment professeth to condemn as moreover that I should be thereby oblig'd to make my Account of them compleat to scatter here and there some Remarques concerning the Nature of them which afterwards I should be forc'd to repeat considering lastly that by a present discharging my self of that Obligation I might both free my self from those Remarques and at the same time I explicated the nature of Truth and Falshood give light to all those Falsities which have or shall be the matter of my Discourse I resolv'd with my self not to defer any longer the paying of that Debt which the Argument I have now before me no less than my own Promise hath bound upon me Setting aside therefore for the present the prosecution of those Falsities which I have said to be forbidden by this Commandment I will make it my business to inquire 1. Wherein Truth and Falshood do consist where I shall moreover enumerate the several Species of them 2. What Obligation there is to pursue the one and avoid the other 3. And lastly Whether the Truth be always to be profess'd and if not how and in what Cases it may be either suppress'd or conceal'd 1. Now Truth is nothing else than an Agreement of those things to which it is attributed with the Nature of those things which they are design'd either to resemble or express and is either intrinsecal or extrinsecal Intrinsecal I call that which resideth in the Mind of Man and consisteth in the agreement of its several Apprehensions with the Nature of those things which it pretends to judge of But this as well as the contrary thereof even Errour is no part of our Inquiry here because the Commandment we have now before us is of the number of those which profess the regulation of our Deportment to our Neighbours and not the right ordering of our own private Concerns Extrinsecal I call that which either resides in our Words and other such like Expressions of our own Mind or Things or that which resideth in our Actions Whereof the former consists in the agreement of them with the Mind of him that useth them and hath the name of Ethical or Moral Truth or with the things about which our mind and the expressions thereof are conversant and hath the name of Logical The former of these is again double according to the different faculties of the Mind which are either its Vnderstanding or Will In respect of the former whereof that Speech is said to be true which is agreeable to our Thoughts and Apprchensions as in respect of the latter that Speech which is agreeable to our purpose and resolution Lastly Forasmuch as our words may not only look backward to our apprehensions or purposes but forward to some particular action to be done by us hence it comes to pass as was before noted that there may be a truth in our actions as well as in our words or other the like notes of our thoughts or meaning which is when we act agreeably to those promises or compacts which have proceeded out of our mouth or been any other way declared Which said it will be no way difficult to discover those several falsities which are committed in the world and which this Commandment was intended to discountenance For inasmuch as Falshood is nothing else than a contrariety to Truth hence it comes to pass that if the question be concerning that truth which resides in our words or other the like expressions of our own mind or things that Speech is said to be false respectively which agreeth not with our own conceptions or with the nature of those things which are the proper subject of them If the question be yet more particularly put concerning that truth which consists in the agreement of our words with our conceptions that Speech is to be looked upon as false which either agreeth not with our thoughts and hath for the most part the name of a lye or with our own purposes and resolutions and may for distinction sake be termed treachery Lastly If respect be had to that truth which resides in mens actions and which consists in the agreement of them with their promises or compacts so that action shall be looked upon as false which doth not agree with the purport of those promises or compacts 2. The nature of Truth and Falshood being thus explained proceed we as our proposed method obligeth us to enquire into the obligation we have to pursue the one and avoid the other For my more advantageous resolution whereof I will resume each of those species of Truth and Falshood into which I have before divided them To begin with that truth which I have said to consist in the agreement of our words or other such like significant notes with those things they are intended to express Where again I shall shew both that there is an Obligation to it and what the measure of that Obligation is That there is an Obligation upon men to intend this Truth will need no other arguments than what I shall afterwards alledge to shew the Obligation there is upon them to make their words agree with their conceptions For the end of Speech being to convey by the means of our own Conceptions the nature of those things which we have taken cognisance of if there be a tie upon us to make our words agree with our thoughts there will be also a tie upon us to make them agree with the nature of those things for which those our Conceptions are transmitted These two things only would be added to that assertion because but just limitations of that and our obligation 1. That the obligation of making our words agree with the nature of the things we speak of is to be understood only so far as it is in our
power to make them so by a previous information or recollection of our selves concerning it As that too 2. in such things only which we are under an obligation to understand whether from our Religion or Profession or the Office we take upon us It sufficing in other things to give such an account concerning them as our present thoughts shall suggest For whereas if we are obliged at all to make our words agree with our thoughts it must be supposed to be absolutely because no man of common understanding can be ignorant of his own thoughts or want words to express them the obligation to make our words agreeable to the things we speak of can extend no farther than it is in our power to make them so by a previous information or recollection of our selves the weakness of Humane Nature making it impossible to conceive rightly of all things and therefore also because our words must be regulated by our conceptions to speak with exact truth concerning them From whence as it will follow that it may be many times unavoidable to speak dissonantly to those things which are the subject of our Discourse so that that Falshood can be no farther imputed to us for a crime than it was in our power to have prevented it by a due information or recollection of our selves Again forasmuch as no man can be bound to enquire into the nature of any other things than those which he is under an obligation to understand it will follow that he is under no farther obligation to make his words agree with any other than his present thoughts shall suggest there being no need of any scrupulous diligence where the thing we speak of is not necessary to be known Thus for instance though it may concern a Divine to see that he deliver such doctrines in Religion as are agreeable to that word which is or ought to be the rule of them yet there is not the like tie upon him to speak with that care and consideration concerning those things which are perfectly extrinsecal to it Upon which account at the same time he shall be chargeable with Falshood by reason of the former if they be found to be dissonant to the Scripture yet he shall not be chargeable with the like Falshood upon the score of the erroneousness of the latter if he speak what his present thoughts do suggest In like manner though it may concern a man when summoned as a Witness to inform himself well before-hand or at least to recollect himself before he pretend to give a testimony in judgment because for want of that he may prejudice a man in his Cause yet there cannot be the like tie in extrajudicial matters and where there is not the same consequence of what we speak It sufficing in such cases because not concerning us to know them to speak agreeably to our own Conceptions into the obligation whereof I am next in order to enquire For the evidencing whereof though if that could be made appear it would be the most compendious method to alledge that words are naturally signs of mens conceptions because so as Aquinas * 2.2 ae quaest 110. art 3. hath argued it must be looked upon as unnatural to make shew of that in our words which we have not in our minds yet because how true soever that may be there is no natural reason to make it appear or at least none which occurs to my observation I shall take a farther way about to evince the obligation of it and such as shall be less liable to exception In order whereunto I will lay for my ground what in a former Discourse hath been sufficiently proved that God hath laid upon all Mankind an obligation to profit each other in those several ways whereby they are capacitated to contribute to it For as from thence it may be easily inferred that they are to communicate of their conceptions to each other because both a remedy of Solitude which is extremely prejudicial to Humane Nature and of necessary use to direct those they have to do with in their Lives and Actions so it will also follow that they are both to agree of certain external marks of notifying their own conceptions and having so agreed of them to abide by them as without which what they speak would be uncertain to the hearers and consequently neither delight nor profit them Now forasmuch as men are not only fitted to communicate their conceptions to each other but have also whether led thereto by the Divine Spirit at first which I for my own part believe because we find Adam making use of his tongue as soon as he had a being or conducted thereto by the aptitude there is in the tongue so to do agreed upon words as the declarers of their conceptions each to other it will follow that being thus agreed upon as the declarers of mens minds they should observe them as such and consequently make them correspond to those several conceptions which they were instituted to declare The same is to be said for the reason before mentioned of the blots of the Pen or Printing Press whether they be such as were intended to represent words figured by the tongue as the characters of most Nations in the world or the sense and importance of them as those of the Chineses For these being no less useful to persons at distance than the other to those that are present and beside that by the same general consent appointed declarers of mens conceptions there is the same necessity of making them to correspond with those conceptions which they were so agreed on to express And though Nods Gestures and Habits and other such like things are not with the same general consent appointed to declare our thoughts yet as these are alike expressive of them and made use of oftentimes either out of necessity or choice for thus dumb men speak to each other by signs and those who have the faculty of speaking do so too to them that have not the use of hearing so there is no doubt where they are alike agreed on to notifie mens thoughts there is the same obligation to make them correspond to them For the clearing whereof I will instance first in a thing which is in use among the Turks and after that descend to another which is of more general observation Epistol Turcic 3. From Busbequius we have it an Author of good credit and one who spent many years among them in an Embassy from the Emperour that one of the causes of the Turkish Womens repudiating their Husbands is their endeavouring to abuse them contrary to the prescript of Nature A crime which however rare among other Nations is yet it seems very familiar among them Now forasmuch as St. Paul speaks that is a sin not fit to be named and much less by that Sex which hath modesty for its particular ornament instead of putting them to the blush of speaking out so foul a fact
word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insinuates to stay some while with them and reveal his own person to them That which is said to be feigned or dissembled importing the absence of that which it feigns and consequently that our Saviour did not intend at that time to proceed farther In like manner when Joshua in order to the taking of Ai had laid an ambush behind the City before he betook himself to an Assault the Text tells us Josh 8.15 that the better to draw the Inhabitants out of the City Joshua and all Israel immediately after their first onset made as if they were beaten by them and to continue them in that errour fled by the way of the Wilderness though as it appeared afterwards to return upon them with the greater force and by the help of their Ambush to hem them in But what speak I of such kind of Dissimulations being lawful in War where according to that of the Poet Dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat when they may be of no small use in the management of Religion and are adopted by S. Paul into it he both by his Practice and Exhortation recommending to us the becoming of all things to all men that we may by any means save some which is in other words and accordingly S. Chrysostom * Not. ad 1 Cor. 9.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glosses it that by making shew by our practice as if we were of their mind in some things of Religion we should procure our selves a good opinion among them and by that means an opportunity to insinuate our own Doctrines This only would be added though intimated before That when we affirm it to be lawful to make use of certain Gestures to conceal our Minds from other Men we intend it only of such Gestures as are not by general consent appointed to declare that which we make semblance of those that are as was before noted being not to be made use of but where our Purposes agree with them Thus for instance though it may be lawful by such a dissembled flight to draw our Enemy into a snare yet it is not so by the hanging out of a White Flag or other such like usance to make shew of a Parley when we mean it not this being by a general consent appointed as an indication of it and therefore not to be made use of but where we are real in it From Gestures and other such like indications of our Minds pass we to Words and enquire how the Truth may be concealed in them In order whereunto two methods present themselves which where they are used with discretion contain nothing unlawful in them To give in only some part of that Truth which is demanded or cloath that we do in ambiguous terms Thus to resume the former method If a Man should be demanded an account of any Action the chief Reason whereof he were unwilling to discover I should no way doubt if he were moved to that Action by more Reasons than one but he might give in a less principal one without taking any notice of the chief He who so does unless he give it in as the only or principal one offending not against Truth because suggesting that which really mov'd him to it Agreeably whereto when Jeremiah the Prophet was questioned by the Princes of Judah concerning a Discourse that passed between him and King Zedekiah the chief subject whereof had been by that King forbidden to him to reveal Jeremiah instructed before-hand by the King told them that he presented his supplication before the King that he would not cause him to return to Jonathan's House to dye there Which though true enough yet was neither the only nor the principal part of their Discourse Jer. 38.24 and so on As little doubt is to be made but where we are to deliver some unpleasing Truth it may be sometimes lawful for us to wrap it up in ambiguous terms and such as in all probability will be construed to another sense than is by us intended Because there is nothing more frequent with holy Men in Scripture yea even with our Saviour himself who to keep his Disciples from being surprised with sorrow represented Lazarus * Joh. 11.11 his death at first under the name of sleep as his own ‖ Joh. 2.20 Body to the Jews under the notion of a Temple telling them that if they destroyed that Temple without yet specifying what he meant in three days he would raise it up Of the same make are the several Parables delivered by our Saviour in the Gospel that of Nathan to David 2 Sam. 12.1 and another of one of the Sons of the Prophets to Ahab 1 King 20.39 The only difficulty is how these latter ones may be saved from the imputation of a Lye For Nathan telling the story of a rich Man who took his poor Neighbours only Ewe-lamb not as the cover of some concealed Truth but as a thing really acted which he himself knew not to be he may seem thereby instead of a Parable to have told a false story and as Seneca speaks of an Hyperbole to come to the Truth by a Lye But because when I come to enumerate the several Falsities that are here forbidden I shall have a more opportune place to return an Answer to that Objection I will put an end to this Affair with an advertisement of the Hebrew Masters that if any man know how to use ambiguous speaking he may be allowed so to do but if not he ought rather to hold his peace altogether he who useth words in such a sense in which they are not commonly construed making a Lye instead of an ambiguity because Custom which is the Master of Language determines them to another sense and consequently makes them disagreeable to the conceptions of the Speaker In the mean time though I say that the Truth may innocently enough be either suppressed or concealed by such Artifices as have been before described yet both the one and the other are to be understood where they are no way prejudicial either to God or our Superiors or our Neighbours for where the honour of God the reverence we owe to our Superiors or our Neighbours just profit is concerned there no doubt it shall not only not be lawful for us to suppress any part of the Truth but incumbent upon us to deliver it in the most clear and expressive terms that our invention can suggest The result of which observation will be among many other things that there ought to be no equivocation either in Contracts or Judicial Proceedings As by the former whereof our Neighbours Rights may be impaired by the latter moreover an injury offered both to God and our Superiors whose those Judgments are which ambiguous speeches endeavour to elude PART IV. The Account of Extrajudicial Falsities resumed and particularly of Pernicious ones These last divided into such as strike more directly at our Neighbours Reputation as Calumnies or
told to Children Mad-men and sick Persons 2. Where the Falshood is both made use of to insinuate an useful Truth and detected by the Vtterer as soon as he finds it hath made way for the other Evidences of the lawfulness of this out of Ecclesiastical Story and from more authentick Examples in the Scripture 3. Where the Officious Falshood is made use of to save the life of an innocent Person All other cases condemned as utterly unlawful and particularly where the Falsity that is told is prejudicial to any Man as those that are allowed allowed only where a kind of necessity doth prompt Men to it An objection out of Job 13.7 against Officious Falsities answered together with a brief censure of Equivocations and mental Reservations Those Falsities which have the name of Jesting ones more universally condemned A Conclusion of the whole with a short account of the Affirmative part of the Commandment BEING now to give an account of the nature of Officious Falsities the second sort of those which I have termed Extrajudicial ones I must desire you to call to mind what hath been heretofore said concerning our Obligation to that Truth which consists in the agreement of our Words and other such like notes with those Thoughts of ours which they were intended to express Now that Obligation as you may remember I founded in that more known one which is incumbent upon all Men to profit each other in those several ways whereby they are capacitated to contribute to it For as from thence it may be easily inferred that they are to communicate of their Conceptions each to other because both a remedy of Solitude which is extremely prejudicial to Humane Society and of necessary use to direct those they have to do with in their Lives and Actions so it will also follow that they are both to agree of certain external marks to make known their Conceptions by and having so agreed of them that they should abide by them as without which what they speak would be uncertain to the Hearers and consequently neither delight nor profit them Which one thing if diligently heeded will void all that difficulty which does or may occur in the nature of Officious Falsities For from hence it will appear First That the bare officiousness of a Lye can be no just pretence for the deeming of it to be lawful Because though Officious Lyes are not only not pernicious but profitable if considered with respect to those Persons for whose advantage they are told yet they may be pernicious to Humane Society by rendring those external marks uncertain by which we are to communicate our Thoughts unto each other If therefore such Falsities or Lyes as have the name of Officious be in any case allowable it must be where they do not render those external marks uncertain which in what cases it may happen I come now to declare And here 1. In the first place I shall no way doubt to represent as one the telling of an Officious Falshood where it is allowed of by the same general consent by which Words have been agreed upon as the declarers of Mens minds partly because an exception so founded must be looked upon as a just abatement to that of which it is so and partly because if any Officious Falsities be so allowed of no Man can thence take any just occasion to call in question the meaning of those who utter them when they speak upon other perfectly unlike occasions which is one way of rendring those external marks uncertain or think it any just Warrant to himself to confound those external marks when he is called to deliver his own mind in other matters By which account we must first separate from the number of Criminal Falsities those that are told to Children and Mad-men to bring them to that peace and quiet which is not for the most part otherwise to be attained For it being allowed of by a general consent thus to impose upon Children and Mad-men for their good I see not how it can derogate ought from the credit of those that do so where they speak of other matters or encourage other persons to falsifie in them which alone can render those external marks uncertain The same is to be said of Physicians and other Persons who have to do with sick and peevish people and whom therefore they must beguile into their own good whether it be by alleviating of the Distemper they lye under or representing the Medicament they give under some other notion than appertains to it or lastly than which nothing is more common among Physicians when they have to do with Hypochondriacal persons by complying with their Patients Fancies and pretending a belief of those very Whimsies wherewith they find their Patients over-run for the telling of such kind of Falsities and to such persons being indulged by the same common consent by which Words and other such like notes have been agreed upon for the declarers of Mens minds neither can the use of such Falsities be thought to invalidate their Authority in other matters and where there is no such consent for the use of any collusion in them Not unlike I should also think for I will not be positive in things of this nature is the case of those false Stories that are commonly given out in War to incourage our own Party and discourage the adverse one such as is for Example that a Wing of the Enemies Army flyes or that a part of our own on this or that side of the main Body hath had that success which they really have not Because as such Stories may be of use to those Parties for whose advantage they are told so they may seem to have been allowed of by the same general consent by which Words and other such like external notes have been appointed declarers of our minds 2. But beside that an Officious Falsity or Lye cannot be thought to render those marks uncertain by which our Thoughts are to be declared where the Falsity is allowed of by the same general consent by which those external marks and particularly Words have been agreed upon for the declarers of Mens minds neither can they be thought to prejudice them secondly where the Falsity is both made use of to insinuate an useful Truth and detected by the Vtterer as soon as he finds it hath made way for the other An Instance hereof we have in Ecclesiastical Story and one or more in the Sacred Scriptures and in such Persons moreover and about such Affairs as will make the lawfulness unquestionable The purport of the former * See Jer Taylor 's Ductor Dubit Book 3. Chapt. 2. Rule 5. is That when two Eutychian Bishops who believing the two Natures in Christ made but one did consequently believe that the Divinity or Godhead did dye as well as his Humane Nature when these I say came to the Court of a Sarazen Prince he to undeceive them of their Errour pretended great sorrow
to insinuate an useful Truth and detected almost as soon as delivered so I should think also that neither will it where it is made use of to save the life of an innocent Person Partly because the weightiness of the occasion may both plead its excuse and take away all pretence of violating the Truth upon less occasions and partly because I find the Egyptian Mid-Wives and Rahab both commended and rewarded for that good which they procured by an untruth For though much account be not to be made of one of Egypt or Jericho if considered meerly as such yet are they not to be despised where they have the commendation of the Almighty and particularly where one of them even Rahab is magnified both for her Faith and Works These three things only seem necessary to be added to prevent all mis-interpretation of what we have said concerning some Officious Falsities First That we are to understand it of such Falsities as are purely Officious and no way prejudicial to any Man For though a Man may be allowed to advantage himself or Relations yet not with the hurt or injury of another By which means all those Falsities will necessarily be condemned which are committed in Commerce between Man and Man whether it be that of private Men between one another as in Contracts and Bargains or of Princes and States in Leagues He who useth any Falsity in that at the same time he advantageth himself doing an injury to him he dealeth with Upon which account though in that sense wherein Sir Henry Wotton used it it was a very allowable definition of an Ambassador that he was a Person sent abroad to lye for the benefit of his Prince yet is there certainly nothing which is more unbecoming their Employment or more scandalous to their respective Princes and Religion I admonish secondly That when I say there may be cases wherein an Officious Falshood may be lawful it will equally follow and therefore alike to be observed that out of those cases all Falshoods how officious soever must be concluded to be unlawful And indeed as those cases are not many wherein an Officious Falshood can be supposed to be lawful so neither can they give Men any pretence to falsifie in other matters the only cases wherein they are lawful being as hath been at large declared where they are allowed of by general consent where they are made use of to insinuate some useful Truth and detected as soon as it is or to save the life of an innocent person Lastly I shall desire it may be considered That as those who have spoken the most favourably of Officious Falsities have represented them as such things as have something of Hellebore in them so like that and other things of the same dangerous nature they ought even in the most allowed instances to be used sparingly and with discretion and rather where there is a kind of necessity to prompt men to it than when they may be avoided especially considering the severe and general condemnation of Falsities in the Doctrine of the * See Prov. 13.5 30.8 Psal 5.6 Col. 3.9 Scripture and the prejudice that may thereby accrue unto Religion and particularly to sincerity and Truth For though all Falsities are not criminal yet they look so like those that really are that they may tempt unwary Men either to make a mock of Truth or run upon any Falsity of what nature soever which may be of any advantage to themselves I will conclude this head when I have returned an answer to that which is objected out of Job chap. 13.7 Will you speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him An Exception indeed specious enough and so much the more for the Inference that seems naturally to flow from it For if we may not talk deceitfully for God and his Glory as that Question doth manifestly import then certainly not for any inferiour end and much less for the saving of a life But beside that he who shall consider that Speech of Zophar's to which this is an Answer will find the deceitful speaking here meant to be no other than the robbing of Job of his integrity that so God might be justified in his proceedings against him which is in the number of those Pernicious Lyes which I have shewn to be universally unlawful though nothing else should be meant thereby than an Officious Falsity yet will it not thence follow that because we may not talk deceitfully for God and for his Glory therefore neither may we for the saving of an innocent person He who talks deceitfully for any thing tacitely insinuating that it may stand in need of it which though a Reproach to the Almighty because arguing something of weakness in him yet none at all to Man because naturally weak and made much more so by the fall of our first Parents These things indeed as Grotius * De jure belli ac pacis l. 3. c. 1. observes do not please the School of latter Ages as which hath chosen S. Augustine of all the Ancients to be followed by them in all things But the same School hath admitted tacite Interpretations and Reservations so abhorring from all common sense that it may very well be doubted whether it were not much better to admit of speaking falsly in the cases before mentioned than so indiscriminately to exempt them from it as when they say I know not understanding in their mind so as to tell you or I have not such a thing meaning to give or lend to you and other such like Reservations which common sense rejects and which if they be admitted nothing hinders but he who affirms any thing may be said to deny it and he who denys to affirm it The result of which Discourse is That by whatever softer name the Masters of that Art may call those their Equivocations they are no other than Falsities or Lyes as expressing that in Words which is no way agreeable to the Speakers Thoughts and which therefore they are forced to piece out with interpretations in their minds Neither will it avail to say as it is by the Masters of that Art That an Address to God may be no less true which is made up in part by the expressions of the Tongue and in part with the conceptions of the Mind as for Example if a rich Man should say in any private Address of his Thou knowest O God how poor and miserable I am and understand in his mind as to the qualifications of his Soul For though in our Addresses to God it be all one as to Truth or Falshood whether we speak out the whole or a part only because our Thoughts are no less knowable to him than our Words yet among Men to whom the Thoughts of our hearts cannot be known but as they are manifested by our Words or other such like notes the Truth or Falshood * Sanderson De Juramenti Obligatione Praelect 6. Sect. 6. of them is in Reason
yet he really doth as because the violence that is offered cannot reach unto his Will which deceit and errour does so because his consent is full and absolute the present state of things considered For though if the party set upon were free from his fears he would not make a promise of paying a sum of money to him that did so yet he would not if he were wise considering the danger he is in but make such a promise to him it being more eligible undoubtedly to redeem a mans life from danger than refuse to bind himself by a Promise which is only disadvantageous to his Estate But neither is it of any force as to the nulling of such a Promise that the party that exacts it hath by his course of life violated his own Faith both to God and Man For though by so doing he makes himself unworthy of any benefit yet nothing hinders but we may bestow one on him and consequently but that having promised it we actually should Beside though as a Malefactor he might be spoiled of what he is already possessed of as having forfeited those rights he sometime had yet inasmuch as the party promising deals not with him as such Vid. Grot. de Jure Belli ac pacis li. 2. c. 11. li. 3. c. 19. but as a Contractor bonae fidei he doth thereby both remit of that advantage which he might otherwise have taken of him and obliges himself to perform his own promise to him Very apposite to this purpose is that of Nabis in * Livi. Hist li. 34. pag. 36. Edit Lugd. Livy when Quinctius Flaminius objected Tyranny to him and by that means thought to free himself from the consequence of that League which he had made with him Concerning the name of Tyrant saith he this I can answer that whatever I now am I am the same that I was when thou O Titus Quinctius enteredst into a confederation with me Then I remember you called me King now I see I am called a Tyrant If therefore I had changed the name of the Government I ought to have been accountable for my inconstancy when you change both my name and your own behaviour to me there is the same reason you should give an account of yours It being thus evident what is or is not to be looked upon as a valid Promise or Compact which I have insisted so much the longer on lest that which is no breach of any valid Promise should either fall under the same censure with that which is or give countenance to the admission of it proceed we to shew wherein the criminalness of that which is the breach of a valid Promise consisteth which the grounds before * See Explic. of this Commandment Part 3. laid down will easily discover For a simple Promise becoming obligatory by the hopes it gives to the party concerned of enjoying what is promised the disappointment whereof cannot be received without grief of mind to the party disappointed and it may be too not without prejudice to his Affairs through the neglect the Promise may occasion in him of supplying himself some other way the breach of such a Promise will consequently become criminal by that grief and prejudice which a disappointment doth naturally produce Again Forasmuch as Humane Society cannot be maintained without a Commerce of Benefits nor that Commerce often pass but by Promises and Compacts because the benefits we desire of each other are not always in our present power to bestow or not needful at the present time to the party that craves them he that violates such Promises or Compacts shall destroy that necessary means of Commerce and consequently also make a breach upon Humane Society which cannot well be maintained without it Whence it is that though other falsities have sometime met with excuse or patronage yet breach of Faith hath been always so exploded that it hath not been allowed of even towards an Enemy and from whom men were like to receive but a very ill requital for observing it For thus when Regulus had plighted his Faith to the Carthaginians Tull. de Offic. li. 3. that he would return to them again if he did not obtain from the Senate of Rome the deliverance of their Captives he not only disswaded the Senate from delivering them up as conceiving the detaining of them to be of more advantage to his Country than his own release who by reason of his old age was become unuseful to it but readily returned himself though he could not well promise himself any other usage than he afterwards met with And though there was not the like Faith in those Ten Roman Gentleman who after the Battel at Cannae were sent by Hannibal to Rome to procure the redemption of some Captives of his own yet as it appears by the Story though delivered with some variety that several of them returned to the Camp of the Carthaginians according as they had promised to do so he of them who thought to have freed himself from that Obligation by returning back immediately after his departure as if he had forgotten something was by the Decree of the Senate as Tully * Tull. de Officiis loco citato etiam li. 1. ej tractat tells the Story out of Polybius remanded back to Hannibal bound So hateful a thing was it always adjudged either to violate the Faith men have once given or use any collusion in it and not without cause if we consider the destructiveness of it to Humane Society or the Oath of God which is commonly affixed to it He who violateth a Faith which is so sealed offering no less despight to that God whom he invokes than injury to those men whom he deceives I will shut up this Discourse with a passage of St. Paul which I alledge to shew the agreement there is in this particular as well as in all others between the Scripture and the light of Reason and Nature 'T is in the First to the Romans and the 31. where among other the gross Offenders of the Gentiles and such whom he afterwards pronounceth worthy of death he reckons * Rom. 1.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. exponente Hesychio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant-breakers or such as abide not by those Compacts they have made PART V. Concerning Officious Falsities and that meerly as such they are not allowable because however they may be profitable to those persons for whose advantage they are told yet they may be pernicious to Humane Society by rendring those external marks uncertain whereby we are to communicate our Thoughts each to other An enquiry thereupon whether there be any case in which they do not render those external marks uncertain This resolved by pointing at some particular cases such as are 1. Where Officious Falshood is allowed of by the same general consent by which words are agreed upon as the declarers of Men's Minds Of which number are those Falsities that are
at the receit of some Letters Into the contents whereof when they had with some curiosity enquired the Prince with a seeming great sorrow told them that he had received certain intelligence that the Archangel Gabriel was dead They to comfort him told him that certainly it could not be true and for their parts they did believe it to be impossible O Fathers replyed the Prince can you think it to be impossible for an Archangel to dye when you affirm the Godhead of Christ did By that Fiction of his plainly convincing them of that Errour which they had taken up concerning the Nature of our Saviour But why do we look into Ecclesiastical History which is less known and less approved when the like Instance occurs in the Sacred Scriptures and that too both in divinely inspired Men and in the delivery of their Message That I mean which it acquaints us with concerning Nathan's address to David and the address of one of the Sons of the Prophets to King Ahab For though a Parable when delivered as such that is to say as an Emblem of some concealed Truth have not the nature of a Falsity because it delivers nothing disagreeable to the mind of him that useth it nor yet with the Custom of the World by which such forms of expression are agreed upon as declarers of it no less than simple and natural ones yet the like cannot be said of a Parable when it is represented as a thing really acted and as such endeavoured to be imposed upon the hearers He who so doth speaking dissonantly both to Truth and his own Thoughts because convinced that that was not real which he suggests as such Which notwithstanding we shall find that even such have been used and upon such occasions also as will put the lawfulness thereof past all question For did not Nathan when sent to David to make him sensible of his sin in the matter of Vriah's Wife did not he I say upon that occasion begin a Story to David of two Men in one City the one rich and the other poor The former whereof when a Traveller came to him spared to take of his own Flocks but took the others only Ewe-lamb which lay in his bosom and was unto him as a Daughter and dressed it for the way-faring Man that was come unto him Nay did he not all along deliver it rather as a thing really acted than as a Parable and so that he convinced King David of the truth of it he immediately subjoining in agreement with Nathan's Story that the Person who had so done should restore the Lamb fourfold according to a Provision made in that behalf by the Levitical Law And indeed otherwise the Prophet Nathan's design might have been frustrated in making David so sensible of his guilt For if he had delivered it to him as a Parable the guilty conscience of David might have been more shye in condemning the action of the rich Person whom Nathan spoke of lest as it after hapned he should be forced to condemn himself But of all the instances which either Sacred or Profane Story suggest concerning the telling of Falsities to insinuate thereby some useful Truth there is certainly none more plain than that Story which was told by a young Prophet to Ahab upon occasion of letting go Benhadad King of Syria the sum of which in short is this One of the Sons of the Prophets being so instructed by God puts on the person and guise of a Man that had been ingaged in the Battel and that he might the better appear so for that in my opinion is the best account of that action commands first one and then another by the word of the Lord to smite him which accordingly that second did and wounded him as you may see 1 King 20.35 That done as the Story doth farther instruct us the Prophet departeth and having disguised himself farther with ashes upon his face waits for the King by the way At length the King comes and this concealed Prophet cryes out to him and tells him that when he went into the midst of the Battel behold a man turned aside and brought a Prisoner to him and said keep this man if by any means he be missing then shall thy life be for his life or else thou shalt pay a Talent of Silver But it happened afterwards saith he that whilst I was busie here and there the man was gone and I thereby lyable to the Penalty Than which what more apparent instance can we desire of the telling of a Falsity thereby to insinuate some useful Truth It appearing both from the Antecedents and Consequents that this whole Story was not only a Fiction of the Prophets which all Parables are but which makes it a perfect Falsity represented not as the cover of some concealed Truth but as a Truth in it self and all the art imaginable used to make it appear so to be Neither will it avail to say as I find it is by some Learned Men that it ought not to be looked upon as such or at least not as a Lye because the intention thereof was not to deceive but to teach with the more elegancy and effectualness For beside that it is to me pretty apparent from a former Discourse of the nature of Truth and Falshood that to deceive is no essential part of the definition of a Lye though it be an inseparable accident of it even this Fiction of the Prophets can no more be acquitted from the design of deceiving than any other Officious Falsities For though the ultimate design of it was to bring the King to the sense of his sin in letting Benhadad go contrary to the Command of God yet the intermediate design of it was to deceive the King and make him believe what he told him to be a real Truth as without which he could not so easily have brought him to condemn his own action in that supposed action of the Prophet But what shall we then say to acquit this and the like actions from being to be looked upon as a sin Even that which was before said to acquit some others to wit That it was neither pernicious to the party to whom it was told which is one ground of the Prohibition of Falsities nor any way destructive of the significancy of those external marks which are agreed upon as the declarers of Mens minds All pretence of that being taken away by the Prophets immediately discovering it to be a Story and that he had no other end in it than to convince the King of his miscarriage He who not only detects the falseness of his own Story but gives an account of the Reason he made use of it leaving no pretence to Men to doubt of his sincere speaking in matters of another nature nor giving any countenance to the insincerity of theirs 3. Lastly As an Officious Falsity cannot be thought to prejudice the Authority and significancy of words where it is both made use of