Temptations – Their Nature Danger and Cure Part 3, Tract · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. Of Lying.
SECT. 1. The greatnesse of the sinne.
GOD is not onelyonly true, but truth it selfe, and to lie is a sinne contrary not onelyonly to the revealed will, but after a sort to the nature of God: I say (after a sort) for properly God being infinite, and there being nothing infinite but GOD, nothing can bee contrary to the nature of GOD, sith nothing can be contrary to that which is infinite, but what is also infinite. Besides, one thing can bee properly contrary but to one thing. Wheras therefore lying is contrary to veracitie and truth in man, it cannot in strict and proper speaking, be said to be contrary to the nature of God too: but herein we speak after the common manner of men; and thus we meane when wee say that lying is contrary not onelyonly ro the expressed will, but to the nature of God.
God can kill though he cannot commit murther. Hee can command us to take away, as the life, so the goods of another, he being Lord of life and all; as hee did the Israelites to take away the jewels of the rExod. 11. 2.Egyptians (though perhaps these jewels proved after a snare to them in the matter of the sExo. 32. 4.golden calfe) but yet God cannot lye, nor give command to any man to speake that which is false: in many other sinnes the act is good, the obliquity is naught, here in a lye the very act is an obliquity; a false matter is a lye, bee the manner what it will. It is not said hee will not lye, but the termes be flat, Hee cannot lie; for whatsoever God can doe, were it done by him, must needs bee good and justly done, otherwise he should have power to be unjust. His nature is so against a lie, that he cannot commit a lie, nor command us to speake that which in the matter is false, but yet he can permit us to lye, and thus to permit us to lye is good and just. Note, that God cannot be said to sinne, being under no binding law of any Superiour, yea 'tis against his nature to speake that which is false, and things do and must needs work according to the first principles of their nature. Hee cannot lie, not because he is impotent and weake, but because hee is not weake but omnipotent. And as wee hate that most, which is most contrary to our humour: so God hates a lie as a thing contrary to the truth, and to his nature, as well as against his will. All which doth prove, that to lie is to sinne a great sin in it selfe: yet by reason of some circumstances, partly in the matter of a lie, partly in our nature, it is a sin that useth not to smite hard on our consciences, till we come to be very spirituall, and much sanctified: but then it cuts deep, not only because it is a very sinfull sinne, but also for that it is a very base sinne. For sinne is then very faulty, when is is farre off from the nature of God: as that is most cold, which is farthest off from the fountaine of heate; most darke, which is most remote from the Sunne the first light. Now this sinne of lying being farre distant from the nature of God, as being (in the sense I shewed) quite contrary to it; this makes it to be in the eye of a super-spirituall man very odious: and when it is once layd on such a conscience, though it grind but slowly, yet it grinds surely and sorely. Wee reade that the divell is the father of lies, Joh. 8. 44. Is he not the father of all sins? Yes, but yet there is something in it that he is said in a strict phrase of speech to bee the father of lies, which is for that hee brought sinne into the world by the way of lying at the first, and doth still maintaine and propagate his Kingdome by nothing so much as by lies. All the corruption that is in us came from Sathan, but yet this sinne of forging and lying is from the divell more than any, tastes of the divell more than any. Hence uRom 3. 4.every man is a lier, & so every man is every sinner else; but in a special maner every man is a lier, for that the very first depravation of our nature came in by lying, & our nature doth taste much still of this old blocke to bee given to lying, the divell breathing into us a strong breath to stirre us up to lying. Hence no *Psal. 58. 4.sooner do we speake but we …ie. As we are in body subject to …ll diseases, but yet some to one …icknesse rather than to ano…her: so in the soule all are apt …nough to all sinne, and some ra…her to one xCic. Tusc▪ 4.vice than to ano…her, but all are much inclined …o lying. A lier then is as like …he divell as ever he can looke; …s unlike to God as ever he can …e. So God is said to hate a lying …ongue, Prov. 6. 17. and wee know what S. John saith of such …s doe make or love lies, Apoc. …2. 15. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, Prov. 12. 21. Hee that loves lies is, what? an abomination, the very height of all distaste. To whom? not to men, not to Kings, but to the Lord. Which is to bee noted, for that wee can beleeve that God loves the godly, but that he hates the wicked wee are loath to beleeve. Moreover, it is a sin that useth to be done without (almost) any temptation; out comes a lie without any occasion, ay many times many have such a veine, that they will lie to their owne hurt, when to speake the truth would serve their turnes better, and make for their ends more: yet they are so foolish, and so wicked, that way, that for their tongues and hearts they cannot chuse but lie. It is a sinne soone acted, it is but to speake a word or two. And for swearing, others may know when wee sweare, but for lying men make the bolder, because it is not easie to finde them out in a lie. And when a man hath used his tongue to a custome in lying, it is hard to forbeare, sith when it is come to an use once there are two things to bee left, naturall corruption and habituall custome.
SECT. 2. What lying is.
ALie (to speake properly) is a signification of that which is false, with a will to deceive the eares of the hearer with that which is not true. So that Ironicall speeches, and some Hyperbolicall phrases are not very lies. Faining, or simulation is not ever lying, when it is only diverse from the truth, and not contrary to the truth. So parents are not bPerk. on Gal. 1. 20.thought to lie, when they doe affright their children on just occasions with the bloody man, the beare, the bulbegger. To conceale some of the truth is no lie. Abraham cGen. 12. 13.said Sarah was his sister, and so shee was, but he had lied, if hee had said shee was not his wife. Jacob is noted in the Scripture to be a dGen. 33. 14.plaine man, no dissembler, yet what saith he? Let my Lord passe on before his servant, untill I come unto my Lord unto Seir; yet he never meant to come to Seir, nor in these words doth he promise to come to Seir. So then thou shalt say (saith the King to Jeremiah) I presented my supplication before the King, that hee would not cause mee to returne to Jonathans house to die there, Jer. 38. 26. And no question thus hee did; but by the Kings command hee was not to tell to the Princes the rest which passed between the King and him. None of all this doth make for equivocation (a sinfull practise crept into the Church now in the latter end of the world). It is wisedome when it is for the glory of God, and the good of all, to hide sometime some of the truth; we are so far from being to tell all, that wee are bound to the contrary, as never to speake any thing that is false, so not ever to out with all that is true. Nor doe I justifie Davids practise in faining himselfe to bee out of his minde, 1 Sam. 21. 11. This was not fit for any man, much lesse for a man of his quality, for to save a thousand lives. Had David firmely beleeved that GOD could, and would deliver him from that danger hee was in, which hee ought to have done, hee having a promise that hee must be King after Saul, David needed not to have done as hee did, and God did looke on his upright heart, and did set him free; and David did on that occasion make the 34th Psalme.
Albeit it bee lawfull to conceale some of the truth to doe another good, yet wee must not lie to save hJob. 13. 7.Gods honour. Officious lies be sinnes, and were it possible that one by lying might save a mans soule, yet lie hee should not. A man is not to cast away his owne soule to save anothers, nor to sinne against God for any mans sake. Many measure matters by the good or hurt they doe: and when by accident a lie may serve the turne, then the lie goes for a vertue; and in the opinion of men he is so farre from sinning who tells an officious lie, that in their conceit hee sinnes, except hee lie such a li…. This is an error, for sinne doth deprive us of a greater good, than all the possible good it may bee thought to bring unto the party whom one thinkes to helpe by a lie: yet 'tis certaine that 'tis besides the nature of a lie to doe any good to any: and iJudg. 14 15. 16.Dalilah did lie to save her fathers house from burning, but wee see that her fathers house was burned. And Abraham tels a tale to save his life, and the end was that it proved a dangerous occasion to venter life and all. The way to have saved all, was to have said she was his wife. Plain English is usually best and most beneficiall on every side. Being asked by a lawfull Magistrate, a plaine and direct answer had beene best, and in likelihood have stood him in best stead; for the King would sooner have abstained from his wife than his sister, Gen. 12. 18, 19. and 20. 5. 9. and 26. 10. It was very ill to endanger Sarahs chastity, which was done more by saying she was his sister, than that shee was his wife. God that preserved them notwithstanding their dissimulation, would sure have preserved them in plaine speaking. Againe, if they would make no conscience of murther, is it like they of that land would make any conscience of adultery? so that we see faining useth to prove but a sorry shift.
Whether one may not make use of the lie of another.
First, I say in the generall that it is no sinne to make use of the sinne of another; as the taker of money to use in case of his true need is no way a partaker of the sin of the usurer, who sins in not lending gratis. For this is not to induce another to sin, but rather to occasion him to fall into the lesser sin, that is, that he rather sin the sin of usury than of homicide & undoing another: And this is lawfull, for the man is supposed to bee in danger of perishing by extreme need, in case hee have not money to serve his turne. Jacob did require an oath of Laban, Gen. 31. and yet Jacob did know that Laban would sweare by his false gods; which was a sin in Laban, but not in Jacob: and therefore to aske an oath of one who wee know will depose by Idols, in and of it selfe is No sin, which what is it but to make use of anothers sinne? So kAct. 23. 6.S. Paul was not ignorant that the Pharisees and Sadducees would, and must sinne in falling together by the eares, yet hee did, and did well in it, when hee cast a bone betwixt them a purpose to get his owne liberty. Herein hee did not partake of their sin, because he knew them to be incorrigible, & set in monstrous malice. Hee did looke at his own escape (which he might lawfully seeke) he used their unavoidable corruption to bring about his owne liberty. So that in such cases a man may use things (in others unlawfull) to bring about his lawfull ends. Neither is this to use unlawfull meanes: For an unlawfull thing may become a lawfull means to purchase our lawfull desires. So in our very particular, a man knows another will tel a lie, & by his lie he is like to receive good, or to be put in case to doe some good, as long as one doth not perswade or cause him to make an excuse, to tell a lie, I thinke it lawfull for one thus to make use of that humor wee see in others to faine matters for our good: I doe not put matter of lying in him, nor provoke him, but I doe verily thinke that in helping me hee will trip, and use a false tongue. I may make a good use of his lying lips, chiefly if hee might helpe mee without a lie if he would, but I thinke he will not: his sinne is upon him, not on me: I doe onelyonly take occasion to make use of his vicious habit of lying. But am I not bound to professe an outward dislike of his lying, and wish him in any hand to use no lies?
Ans. I am bound to abhorre his lying veine within, and that from the heart, but herein I joyne not with him in the sinne; I am not bound to professe outward mislike, and to call upon him to let all alone rather than to lie; for in so doing I should destroy the end in the meanes, and frustrate my selfe of mine owne intentions.
And for jesting lies they are worse than officious lies. There is no good meant to any by them. What? to sin against God and then to say lPro. 26. 19.am I not in jest? It is an evill indeed for a man to sport away his soule. There is no jesting with sin, sin is an edgetoole. Idle words are under a deepe mMat. 12. 36.censure, and what are idle lies? I confesse pernicious lies are worst, when there is sin against God, and hurt against men: but yet your lying jests are next, and though not so bad as pernicious, yet worse than officious lies. Saint Paul sets the text against nEph. 5 4. foreign. i. e. the abus… jests, bec… in Pauls time the Greekes called scurrilous jests foreign.jesting, and what then can be said, when jesting and lying meet together? All (but of all) such as are given to jesting are to beware of lying in jest, lest they fall into hell in good earnest. Thus we see that lying is a sinne, and what kinde of sinne it is.
SECT. 3. Remedies against lying, and temptations that way.
THe trouble of minde, which issues from this sin of lying, is not great on weaker Christians, because it is not seen in the true guilt of it: but when once we come to bee able to see day at a little hole, and to finde out sinne in its owne nature, then it goes to the heart of an humbled Christian, that he hath lied all maner of lies: then it comes fresh to his minde, that it is a sinne flat and direct against the very nature of God, who is not onelyonly true, but truth; that it is not onelyonly a thing which GOD will not doe, but which GOD cannot doe. Now hee sees how bad a vice this sinne of lying is, and the lesse hee thought on it before, the more it bites now, that on no occasion a lie was ready; and it vexeth his righteous soule something also, that it is so base a sinne as it is. All sins have a basenesse in them, but lying is more base (almost) than any, either for that it comes from feare (and feare is a base passion) or for that it tends to cousening and imposture; and this makes this sinne, when it is well weighed, to make a wofull crie in the conscience of a much mortified and enlightened man.
For remedies against the clamour of this sinne, take forth such rules as these:
1 First, make not this sinne of lying worse than it is. Many are against it, as though it were almost the sinne against the holy Ghost. Thus wee see mothers will not sit downe by it, but presently correct their children if they tell them a lie. But for other sinnes (as bad, though not in our eyes as base as this) they will make nothing of them: as they can teach their oPeccatum quod tibi non displicet in filio tuo delectatte: sed aetas deseruit, non cupiditas. Aug. in Ps. 50.children to bee proud, and call upon them to bee fine: You a gentleman, and be thus, do thus, bee once seene in such beggerly company! And so for the sinne of covetousnesse, their care is to teach them to save, to get, to be rich and worldly; never once angry with them for covetous practises, but doe approve and applaud them: but if a lie fall from their lips, they chide, they fight, as though there were no sinne but lying. Is this sincerity, to make such respects of sins and sinning, that one must bee condemned, the other commended? whereas pride is a farre greater sinne than lying, and is the cause of most lies that are told. Lying dies when we die, but pride lives when we are dead. We love to bee praised, and commended even after we are dead and buried. I speake not that children are to bee let alone without word or blow in this cursed sinne of lying, but wee must not teach them to sinne other sinnes, and spend all our zeale on this vice of lying. Hee that teacheth men so shall bee called the least in the Kingdome of heaven, Mat. 5. 19. To sinne is from temptation, to teach another to sin hath scarce any temptation: therefore the acter of sinne is bad, the teacher of any sinne is worse. To teach any, chiefly our children, to sinne any sin is a great wickednesse; and yet it is common to teach them to be worldly (wee call it thrifty). No mother I thinke to bee found, who doth britch her child for sparing, and saving: but for lying the very hope of the familie must up toties quoties; and they doe lash their children more for lying, than for all sinnes and faults else; and yet lying is not Idolatry as covetousnesse is: a little covetousnesse is good, and a little lying is unpardonable with them. And againe, to lie commonly is a sinne that doth lesse hurt to man than covetousnesse doth. I feare the cause why parents doe so beare their children for their lies, is not for that they sinne against God when they lie, but because it is a disgrace to their children to be lyers, and a disgrace to them to have their children flap them in the mouth with a lie. What? tell mee a lie! Ile teach you better manners. So that upon the matter 'tis not zeale, but pride that makes women fight so for lying. They can (many of them) be well content to have their children lie to others for an advantage, but not to themselves, and can place them in shops where they make a common trade of lying, but by no meanes they cannot abide that they should make a lie to them. This is pride to be lamented in the parent rather than the lie to be corrected in the child.
2 Secondly, make it as great as it is, as neere as we can. Men have some temptation to steale for some profit, to adulteries for some pleasure: but for to lie (as men doe use) on slight or no occasions, makes the sin the worse, as being almost without any temptation. Men think it an ornament to their speeches: But can that be an ornament to us, which is an abomination to God? S. qJam. 3. 6.James tells us that the tongue is a world of iniquity. What? is not the hand a world of iniquity too? Is not that set on fire of hell? It is, but not like the tongue. For the hand hath its bounds, and cannot bee all the towne and country over, cannot reach over heaven & earth: but the tongue is able to walke all the world over, can run over whole countries, parishes, houses, doth bite at every body. The tongue is a member apt to move, it turnes up and downe without any labour, it is not apt to bee quickly weary. Besides, man is a sociable creature, and the tongue is an instrument of societie, therefore wee are apt to talke. The hand is not for all sinnes, but there is no sinne but the tongue is for it, can sin all manner of sinnes, is full of deadly poyson, poysons all the soule, all the body, all the towne, all the country. Other poyson workes by contract, but the venome of the tongue works farre and neere. The uncurable poyson of aspes, which indeed isr Rom. 3. 13. Aspes poyson past remedie. Arist. hist. an. 1. 8. 29. Plin. 29. 4, said to bee under the tongue, is the sinne of lying. And it is to some purpose that Saint Paul making the Anatomie of a naturall man, doth stand more on the organ, and instrument of speaking, than all the members of the body else. A boasting, a railing tongue are bad enough, but a lying tongue is worst of all, yet a sinne very common. The other sinnes of the tongue discover themselves, this of lying lyes hid. Wherefore we are to use great heed that we fall not, or lye not in this sinne of lying. There is a way of lying, as Davids phrase is, Ps. 19. 29. and by use we come to a custome, which is as another law. Wee must looke to our selves in foure cases especially.
1 First, when we are baited with some advantage, when by a lie we may get or save. Whereas gaine got by a lie will burne our fingers, and burne in our purses too. Lie not for advantage sake. Hee loseth indeed, who loseth in the latter end. Now marke the end of your common liers, and a lying tongue many times proves their undoing.
2 Secondly, when it is to avoyd the ill will of some great man, or to please some good friend, whom we make and take for an▪ Idol. In that case we are apt to double, to say, and unsay any thing, we know not, we care not what.
3 Thirdly, when we are about the commending of any good man, or any good thing, then we thinke it no great matter, yea rather a vertue than a vice, to speak too much, to goe too farre, to borrow a point of the law, because it is to doe good, as wee thinke, to bring good men, and good things in request.
4 Fourthly, when wee praise our selves. He that saith he hath no sin, t1 Joh. 1. 8.lies, and sinnes the sinne of lying in saying that hee hath no sinne.
Now when in these cases wee do fall into some lie notwithstanding all our care, the medicine is to repent, and then God must either lie (which he cannot) or else he must forgive us our lie, and heale our tongues, and touch our lips with the law of truth, and settle us, that all is well for all this. Looke upon David, who did lie often, and Abraham did little better; and what did Peter but lie, and worse? and yet they came to themselves againe, and all went well with them.
3 Thirdly, breake off this custome of false and vaine speaking, by an anti-custome, inure our selves to speake the lesse, goe to God to rule that unruly member of ours. As when wee have got a toy by reason of use, and would but cannot leave it, we see it to bee a blemish, then we use to say, Wife tell mee of of such a matter; sonne doe you speake to mee, and rather than faile wee will put our servants upon it to tell us also: and thus many times wee breake off from a foolish custome. And so when we finde that we are given to a vaine of lying, and false speaking, what should wee doe but say, Wife tell mee of it, when you heare mee tell a lie; so to our children and friends. Wee all doe shew our selves content that our very servants should tell us of any blemish by dirt or so in our faces, and we all should desire even our servants to shew us of lies or other blemishes in our soules: do thus, and in time the law of truth will be in our lips.
4 Fourthly, we must be content to have this sinne of lying to die in us by pieces. It is a disease wee use to recover of but slowly (yet surely) wee shall remaine in part what wee were wholly in nature, and it is a sinne very naturall unto us, and rooted deepe in our nature, a sinne fit to serve turnes, and therefore it goes away by degrees, and a foote, as some diseases doe. Wherefore we must not bee dismayed in case wee finde some weaknesse this way more than ordinary. Indeed, if the oftner we lie wee hate the sinne the lesse, and begin to thinke of it, as of a veniall matter, our case is dangerous; but in case we doe …ate it the more the more wee …ommit it, and love truth in …ur selves and others, and it …umble us mightily that we are … often overtaken with a lie, …nd wee learne to consider of o…hers with mercy, and we grow …ore and more willing to cast …ff this lying skin of ours, why …hen happy time that ever we …old a lie. Wee must shew no …ercy to our sinne of lying, be …s cruell as wee can against the …ice: but to our selves wee must, …hew so much mercy, as not to …hinke that wee are utterly reje…ted, because of a lie or two. He is a uJam. 3. 2.perfect man who can rule …is tongue (it is an unruly member) and of all most in the sinne of lying the tongue is very apt to trip, and in case wee cannot doe what wee would in the government of the tongue, wee must not despaire, but pray to God to passe over all that is past, to forgive all the lies that ever wee have told: this is a common sinne of our youth, and too common a sinne of our age: for uArist Rhet. 2.old people are too too apt to talke, and they thinke they may lie by authority; and for the time to come, wee are to pray him to preserve u… from the law of lying, to set a doore before our tongues. The xJam. 3 7. Aelian. l. 17. Plin. l. 10. c. 45.creatures a man may tame, yea the fishes of the sea, but the tongue of a man or woman who can tame? God can and will.
Ob. But Saint James saith, that out of the same fountaine comes not sweete and bitter, therefore out of the same mouth comes not lying and truth.
Sol. I answer, in a regenerate man there are two fountaines, the flesh is one, the spirit is another: out of the spirit comes truth, out of the flesh lying; but the flesh is not the godly mans fountaine: Not I (saith Paul) but sinne that dwelleth in mee, Rom. 7. 20. Hee allowes nothing that comes out of the flesh, hee …wnes it not. Againe, S. James …ides those that were bitter …nd censorious against the faults …f others, have a saying against …very body, and thinke that all …his is zeale, nothing forsooth …ut the spirit. But Saint James …hews that this comes from the …ountaine of the flesh, and not …rom the spirit, as some did …reame; for to blesse is sweete, to …ensure bitter; bitter and sweete …ome not out of one and the …ame fountaine; the fountaine of …he spirit doth send forth sweete …lessings, not bitter censures; it came from flesh in them that they were so bitter against flesh in others. And therfore they did mistake, who did take their bitter speaking against others (though for their infirmities and sins) to come from the spirit.
5 Fiftly, speake with the least. Much speaking breedes much lying. Hee that hath eares to Matt. 13.heare let him heare. So saith Christ often, but we never read, he that hath a tongue to speake let him speake: rather as Saint James hath it (Chap. 1. 19.) Be swift to heare, but slow to speake, heare much, but speake little.