Glimpses of Christian History Presents Pastwords #132: Essay Concerning Nature and Guilt of Lying by Charles Brent ©2007

 know of no Vice in the whole List of Immorality that is less excused or spared throughout the Sacred Pages, than this of Lying; we read it generally numbered with the most enormous Wickedness, Censured with the severest Reflections, and Sentenced with the extremist Vengeance. And yet, as if the Holy Spirit had been all along too tender and remiss in bestowing Discouragements upon it, 'tis observable that just before the Heavenly Book is closed, the Divine Indignation breaks out afresh upon the Lyar, and is mindful in repeated Passages to pour out the full Vials of the wrath of God against him, and appoint him his Society, Place and Portion in the Coming World. Without are Dogs, and Sorcerers, and Whoremongers, and Murtherers, and Idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a Lye. They are without, that is, they are kept out; no such Men are suffered to enter into the Holy City before spoken of; for into the Heavenly Jerusalem shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth, or that worketh Abomination, or that maketh a Lye. But for such there is another Place provided; the Fearful and Unbelieving, and the Abominable, and Murtherers, and Whoremongers, and Sorcerers, and Idolaters, and all Lyars, shall have their Part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone, which is the second death.

By these Texts it appears that the Lyar (for he's particularly named in all three Places, in every one of which some of those mentioned in the other two are omitted) is in a true Judgment as bad as the worst of Men, and the most Profligate Wretch upon Earth; for otherwise, certainly he would not by the Judgment of God himself be linked with such Company, and Sentenced to the same Condemnation.

And yet, how surprised and stomachful will a Lyar be at this Observation? He has, 'tis true, a Failing, but 'tis such a little, trivial, foolish one, that 'tis next to nothing; and it is such a common Practice too, that Men seldom take much notice of it, either in themselves, or others. Even the Holy Scripture says, all Men are Lyars; and we find it true by our own daily experience and Observation, that the very best Men will now and then stretch a little; and should any Man, upon some Occasions that may be offered, seem to scruple a harmless and inoffensive Lye, few would take him to be the more Conscientious for that, they'd rather think that he affected to appear Nice in little things, only that he might be the less mistrusted in greater, according to that Observation we meet with in Livy. And 'tis indeed an Artifice of such as understand the right use and worth of a Lye, to be strictly, and even superstitiously true in insignificant Matters, that their Word may be the more securely depended upon when they can Lye to good advantage. In short, so common a Practice is Lying among all sorts of People, when they can serve a turn by it, that whoever takes upon him to Censure and Reprobate Men only for Lying, must expect to make many Enemies; the effects of whose Hatred to himself he will have more Cause to fear, than he will have ground to hope that by all he can say, he shall be able to work any considerable Reformation in the World.

However, I ventured once, upon a Particular Occasion, to declare my own Opinion very freely in this Matter, and to speak out two or three bold Things (Truths indeed I then thought them, and so I do still) about Lying, and what I said was spoken loud enough to be heard by a great many, and the Event was such as might be expected: Some awoke suddenly, as at an unusual noise, and were startled; How? What? Lying allowable upon no pretense whatsoever? Who dares say so? Pray, let's hear that again.

Reasons to put away and detest Lying.

I come now to offer for what good Reasons we ought seriously to put away and detest, this base and disingenuous habit of Lying. And,

1st. For the difficulties, vexations, and disappointments it brings upon our selves; to carry on the Trade of Lying with any security and success, is exceeding hard; it is an unnatural and forced Character to manage; it is to say and seem one thing, and to think and to be the quite contrary: and this part must not only be often acted, but always concealed; and falsehood be constantly contrived to look like Truth, to make any thing of it; which being a constrained and affected undertaking, 'tis a hundred to one but it is over-acted, and betrayed. The way of Truth is plain, direct, and obvious, and needs no solicitous care, or inquiry to hit it off; we see it Lye straight before us, 'tis the nearest and first that naturally presents; so that if you take the Wise Man's direction, and Let thine Eyes look right on, and let thine Eye lids look straight before thee, if thou turn not to the Right Hand, not to the Left, thou canst not fail of being secure in thy way and end; for to use the Mathematical image of a great Man; as in Geometry of all Lines and Surfaces contained within the same bounds; the straight Line, and the plain surface, is always the shortest; so of all the designs and attempts within the compass of humane Life, the shortest and surest to their end are those, which are carried on by the Lines of Truth and Sincerity. But how crooked and intricate? How winding and obscure? How abstruse, unbeaten, and hazardous, are the ways and measures of a Lyar? He steals about in dark unfrequented tracks, has a world of odd turnings to hit upon, and one false step misleads and ruins all; he entereth not in at the Door, but climbeth up some other way, and therefore comes always suspected for a Thief and a Robber; and to be but suspected in an indirect Course is to be defeated.

A designing Lyar works about his Conclusions, and makes after his Ends, by the most precarious means and premises imaginable; often upon supposition of conjecturing and reading what is in other Men's minds; but always upon supposition that Men will not put about, and examine, and compare what he says; upon so many suppositions and chances, that he must have strange kind of luck, as well as cunning, to have every thing hit right, and if but one single thread of his guesswork fly out, it unravels and undoes the whole: The projects of Lying are like false Chemistry, in which something is generally left out, or over done, which spoils all. When a Lyar has laid his scheme at best, he has reason to suspect and fear how it will go, because of the many Accidents that must be regarded, and the many provisos that must be taken in to make it succeed; it is like a Mechanism overclogged with work, in which the too great number and variety of Wheels and Instruments, that are made contributing to carry on the Movement, do but retard and perplex it, and give it so many the more Chances to go wrong and to stop; a plain System, that has the least curiosity of invention, is much the likeliest to move right, and to hold it. When the Lyar has actually built up a design without being interrupted, it is upon such an unsound and false Foundation, and hangs by such a deal of odd Geometry, that it will need continual Repairs and Underlayings to sustain it, and less than the necessary Charge to keep it shored up, would have raised a true substantial Building from the Ground; and after all, if but one piece give way, the whole must tumble down into a scandalous Rubbish.

Now when the part a Man has to act is so troublesome and unnatural, his measures are so difficult and precarious, and his disappointments so likely and so reproachful, how perplext aboding and ruffled must his Mind generally be? As wakeful and startling as a Bird; under constant Fear, Apprehension, and Alarm: His Life is mainly taken up in intricating himself out of the Surprises of past Lyes, and in providing and warding against future Entanglements; and no wonder if he find himself often bewildered past any prospect of getting out; he is like one who chuses to clamber over Fences, and to brush through Enclosures, in order to make out a shorter way to his End; but considering how oft he must be stopped and defeated of a Shord, how much space is spent in searching up and down for a convenient pass, how many times he must be forced to come back again, and ever now and then how long he must stand musing to consider whereabouts he is, he had much better have taken the plain and the true way, which may be the farthest about, but will prove the nearest and surest to bring us home; besides the hazard that attends the other course, either of breaking a bone, or scratching our Flesh, or scandalously renting our Habits, with the Vexation and Anxiety that must keep raking and harrowing up the Mind all the while, at our frequent and unavoidable disappointments, to all which the wise Man most aptly and pertinently alludeth, when he says, who so breaketh an Hedge, a Serpent shall bite him. And how miserably have I seen a little Lyar hung upon the hooks, surprised and hitched and caught, past possibility of getting off? How have I observed him wriggling about, working up and down, skipping backward and forward, striking on fore-right, and then running counter, dodging and ferreting to and fro, to make it out at a fault; saying and unsaying, sending and proving, explaining, paraphrasing, and denying what he had unadvisedly said, to make it hang a little better together; involved and vext, and hampered many times beyond all skill and endeavor of winding himself out clearly? He who is wont to bring about his purposes by Lying, will find himself so taken up, and occupied in the measures of his Conduct, that he must have little leisure for any substantial Business; and he must be so often obliged to eat his own words, that if there were any thing in them, he could have stomach for nothing else; and yet as empty as they are, 'tis a sort of Diet that goes against one exceedingly; to eat our own words, is next to eating our own Flesh; Yet this, and a thousand hardships more, a Lyar must rub through, beyond what an upright Man can well imagine; who has therefore little reason to envy that shrewd Fellow for his cunning dexterity and management in Business. Sincerity being single, has but one plain way to its end, not very troublesome to proceed in, not many chances to be mistook, and in which a Man may go boldly on, without being conscious or apprehensive at what may happen.

2. Lying ought to be abhorred, for the Mischief and Injury it does in all Civil Societies; and upon this it is, that when St. Paul exhorts, That we put away Lying, and speak every Man truth with his Neighbor; he thus grounds the reason of his Doctrine; for we are Members one of another, and therefore to deceive a Neighbor by a Lye, was such another unnatural Injustice and Treachery, as it would be for our own Eyes to lead our Feet wittingly over blocks and precipices. Lying administers to so much Deceit, Mistrust, Selfishness, Perfidiousness, and a train of such like ill-natured Vices, as tend to loosen the cement, and shock the frame of civil Bodies, to distract the good order and face of things, to ruin all mutual Trust, to break up Society, and bring Mankind back again to a state of Natural Hostility. This was the Vice that arose and gave the first blow in the War which began in Heaven; for the Devil could not abide in the Truth, and so by falling off from it the combat commenced, and in the Dispute he fell; since that he cannot bear that any other Creatures should be truer or better than himself; and therefore the first Present he made to Mankind as soon as they had learned Speech, was the gift of this degenerate faculty; and for an experiment to show what it was good for, he gave trial of it in the Fall of Man, and from that time, it is incredible what a world of Mischief and Destruction it has wrought upon the Earth: This little Ball has never rested in quiet from its cursed influences; the breath of it is pestilent, epidemical and devouring, perpetually scattering about Poison, and Wild-fire, and Ruin. Of a little Vice to speak of, no one can conceive how significant and mighty it has always been in the way of Mischief; a Lye to look to, is a meer trifle, but the effects of it often fall very heavily, like the little Cloud which Elijah saw in the element: At the first it appeared no bigger than a Man's Hand; but on a sudden, it gathered about to a sullen over-spreading darkness, and the Storm was felt severely. I have that considerable Opinion of a Lye, that I much question, whether ever there was a complete and finished Villany done without it; whatsoever is undertaken of that kind, must be either by a Lye, or by force; now rash and headlong force may mean it well, but it makes but lame mischief: For, as one well observed, The hand can hardly lift it self up high enough to strike but it must be seen, so that it warns while it threatens; and the greater swinge it fetches, the longer notice it gives to evade the vengeance; but a Lye whispers defamation and ruine so softly, that it seldom reaches the Ear, before it reaches the Heart: it brings on vengeance under the most engaging colours and pretences; and like a handy Executioner, always gives good words, while it claps over the noose: it Poisons with the tenderest endearments, it dispatches to the long home in the pleasantest vehicles; it looks us smilingly in the face, while it gives an underhand thrust at the belly; it strokes a brother lovingly by the beard, and takes that convenient hold to smite him under the fifth rib; it cries Hail Master and kisses, for the very signal of an hellish treachery. To be brief, there hardly ever was an Oppressor, a Traytor, a Tyrant, or a Villain, but he was a Lyar; or else he set up without one very necessary faculty for his business. Epanetas is mentioned by Plutarch, for being wont to say, that Lying was more or less instrumental, in all the Evils and Outrages that were done in the World. So then if we would not be thought to delight in mischief, we must not delight in Lying; and if we would rest secure from harm, let that be part of our Litany, Deliver me, O Lord, from Lying Lips, and from a deceitful Tongue.

3. Lying is a pitiful, sorry, scandalous habit, and if we have any sense of Reputation, we should disdain it: 'tis the sign of a mean, and servile, and base disposition; the shift of narrow, dastardly, and degenerate Minds; the guard and weapon of a Coward, the refuge of a Slave: 'tis the Property of Truth to be daring, to go directly to its end, and come up fairly to a Man's face; but a Lye is fearful, and skulking, steals round you, cannot endure to be confronted: it not only shows a Coward, but contributes to make him: for when once a Man gets a knack of Lying himself out of difficulties, he will never dare stand a charge, never own his words, but eat them; never take upon him what he has said or done against any opposition, but deny and Lye off all: It is not therefore for the good grace and repute of a Lye, that Men of Honour so nicely resent, and stomach to have it given them. I am loth to take a Noble Author at his word, who says, that upon examination he fears the reason of it is, because 'tis most natural to defend the part that Lyes most exposed. There may be something in that, but I rather think the true secret is, That to give a Person the Lye, is to impeach his Manhood, 'tis in effect to call him Coward; and then, if his Sword be of true Metal it will fly out almost of its own accord. A Lye is such an infamous and dirty thing, that it stains wherever it touches: A Lye is a foul blot in a Man; there is somewhat insufferably rude and offensive in the very word, it sounds obscene and gross, it shocks the senses; 'tis doubtful whether it touches a Man's Honour most to give the Lye, or to take it: and yet I know not how it comes to pass, but as Matters are managed, all the baseness and turpitude seems to be confined to the word; we are commonly reconciled well enough to the thing; nevertheless this is preposterous and intolerable, when try'd by reason; that ought to be very scandalous to tell, which it is very scandalous to be told of: both the name and the thing are hateful. Lying is a wretched, sneaking, odious Vice, and we had need be ashamed of it; if the Son of Syrach's sense will pass, it will shame us whether we will or no, for The disposition of a Lyar is dishonorable, and his shame is ever with him. But the bare shame is not yet the worst circumstance of the Sin; there is something farther in it that ought to startle us; for,

4. Lying will have by degrees a sad effect upon our Faith and Principles; it will wean our Minds from a due regard of God, from the dread of his invisible Presence; from the awful sense of his secret observation over us: for 'tis a sort of wickedness that depends altogether upon being latent, and unobserved; it keeps absconding and lurking in the secret corners of our hearts, and fears nothing so much as discovery, and the light. Now mark this for a Rule; any Sin we make free with, under this notion, that we can be private and secure in it, tends to render us regardless of the Powers unseen; and insensibly to waft away all divine fear and impression out of our Souls. If we have any thing of Principle of Conscience in us, it must appear by our being apprehensive, above all things, of being seen and censur'd by God; and the truest judgment we can make, how far that reflection goes with us, is to consider what disturbance and interruption it gives to our secret deeds and imaginations; for if while the Eyes of Men are shut we find we can make bold in the sight of God; if it be all one between him and our consciences alone, what we think or do; our state is deplorable and desperate: if his privity to our Minds be no hank upon our purposes, we must have but a loose and lifeless apprehension of a future Judgment, and that I look upon is the last and finishing sign of irreligion. Lying therefore must have a natural and sure effect to unprinciple us, because it useth us to be fearless and insensible of God, and disciplines and hardens our hearts to this impious imagination, that so long as Men do not find us out, we are safe. Hence it was said by one of the Ancients, That Lying was a manifest contempt of God, and withal, a fear of Man: upon which the honorable Writer I just mentioned, who is for the most part all fancy, made this reflection, which was full of Judgment; What can one imagine more hateful, and contemptible, than to be a Coward toward Man, and valiant against ones Maker? So then, he who would not be thought to defy God, must not dissemble with Man; he who would not be suspected for Atheistical, must keep from suspicion of being a Lyar. This therefore, to all who are not quite out of love with good Principles, should be a pressing Argument against this Sin.

5. We should no less abandon and detest Lying, for the ill influence it will have upon our Morals: We must Lye, or be bely'd in almost every Sin we commit. If we Sin against others, 'tis much but there is a Lye made instrumental in the wrong; and when ever any sin prevails upon us, it is by coming in upon our weak side with a Lye, promising the Lord knows what delight and ravishment, when upon trial we find it an errand Cheat. Lying undertakes for two things, which are of singular consequence to advance and encourage Wickedness; it pretends to bring us on successfully, and to bring us off securely: it will provide a hundred shifts, and blinds and disquises, to protect a Sinner, both coming and going: It is so apt an invention to stand by and befriend us in our evil ways, that it is commonly the first thing our degenerate Natures take a liking to: we begin with it in our Childhood, and when the Devil finds a Lad to be ready and arch in the use of this gift, he conceives great hopes of him. We first enter upon the exercise of it in our Play, and when Luck runs against us, the Lye must run for us: when we have got the knack of it, we Romance and Lye in our chat; when it is a little familiar in our Converse, we begin to turn it to account, we Lye for something, if it be but for a trifle; every thing must have a beginning: and from stretching for a small matter, we soon take to lanch out upon a round occasion: we will deprecate, perjure, and brazen out any thing to compass our Ends: Lying is the first easie in-let to all manner of Injustice, Theft, Oppression, and Villany: it fits brooding and gendring mischief, just as it is said in the Prophet's allegory, Out of the Serpents root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying Serpent. And as it brings Men on with success and improvement in wickedness, so it is very officious and ready to bring Men off in security: what a natural, apt, and present thing is a Lye, to one surprised in a fault? How thoughtfully do Men Treat and Article with it beforehand, to save them harmless? And how many bold Essays will it venture at, to vouch and clear our innocency? Such a clear and confident account! Such a plausible rehearsal of the matter! With such an inoffensive look, and so many solemn protestations, that one would imagine no room could be left for suspicion! As God is said to assist his Saints in time of peril, and give them instant answers without their premeditation; so it is not for nothing that the Psalmist, when he would have a Wicked Man's business done effectually, makes this provision, Let Satan stand at his right hand: no doubt to suggest and prompt all pertinent inventions and Lyes to bring him off. There is no end of the usefulness of Lying, to a course of wickedness; so that if we have any sort of regard for our Vertue, and our Morals, we must resolve to break with this pernicious habit, and deal sincerely.

6. We should make Conscience of Lying, as it tends to ruine us in our Credit and Trust: what touches us here, we are apt enough to be sensible of: he who has lost himself in this respect, has in a manner lost himself from Civil Society: the cement that keeps us united to one another is Faith, and Trust; this is much the same thing in Bodies Politick, as that Plastic Power which keeps the parts of Matter together, is in Bodies Natural: and when ever any particular part or Member is found insincere and rotten, it must fall off, because there is no foundation remaining for any farther dependence. Now whatever a Lyar may fancy to the contrary, the World will find him out by degrees, and settle and spread his Character: and when once he has got the Name, his condition will be something singular; he will be a Man by himself, no one will venture to contract either Friendship, or commerce, or even common acquaintance with him: his word will go for nothing; his breath may be useful to him in life, but not in speech; and then the worst is, 'tis a Name and Character hardly to be shook off again: once a Lyar, and ever so. It is in this, as in some other Cases, a Man may be depriv'd of the benefit of his Faculty, but the Character of it is indelible. The advantage of Lying can be but short, in that a Man will soon be suspended, but the scandal of it is for life: and there are two sufficient Reasons for it; for first, it is one of the difficultest habits in the World to be left off: there is an unaccountable satisfaction and charm in running on. For which a Man can give no better reason to himself, than that he is inchanted and bewitch'd to it: he shall be sensible that he is become discredited, and Proverb'd for a Lyar, that all his words are receiv'd as idle Tales, that he is ever taken with distrust and allowance, that the Company many times look hard at him, that they strive to keep their countenances, that they bless themselves as he goes, and that in general 'tis almost got into a Rule, that a Story must needs be false, because he is the Author: And yet all this shall signifie very little, either to change or silence, or abate the vain habit; or if you could suppose a Miracle, that a confirmed and common Lyar should leave off, and become conscientious in what he says; yet you must suppose another Miracle, to make Men alter their opinions of him, and give him Credit: God must work strong delusions upon a Man, to make him believe a Lyar. And what a miserable Condition is it to be run so far out of Repute, that we can have no Trust given us for one word we say? Sometimes it may vastly concern our interest to have our Words pass; now and then a Lyar tells a true story, and then it being somewhat unusual with him, he looks that particular notice should be taken of it; but all is received with the same allowance and regard: Truth itself is suspected for coming out of his Mouth, and justly enough, for what business had Truth to do there? Remember how it fared with the Shepherd's Boy; he had cheated the Family so often, with the mock and lying howl of a Wolf, that when the true Wolf came howling and rushing upon him, he cry'd out in vain for help; he had befooled them so many times with the false noise, that they would not regard him now, when it fell out to be true. The Lyar loses the main end and satisfaction even of Romancing; for 'tis nonsense to Lye, if we can't make People beLieve it: And at this rate, he deprives himself in effect of the benefit and use of Speech; for one had as good be altogether dumb, as be capable of speaking to no purpose. A man would not suppose himself in such a Case as this for the universe; and yet if a Lyar would but get as well acquainted with himself, as other People are, he cannot be perswaded how it should be otherwise. On the other Hand, there is a substantial inestimable Treasure in the very name and sound of Sincerity, which is not to be purchased by the Indies: It sets a Man high in regard and privilege, above the rest of his fellow Creatures, and carries an Authority with it, that is next to Inspiration: And is it not a singularity in Esteem worth trying for, when like Zenocrates among the Greeks, we may establish such a Character for our Truth and Integrity, that our bare words shall pass, before the solemn Oaths and Asseverations of other Men?

7. Another thing very considerable in Lying, to discourage us from the custom of it, is the bad effect it must have in time upon our very Intellectuals: By constant use and Exercise our Understanding must be perplexed and incommoded by it; 'twill mix in such an odd Medly of Ideas, the false among the true, in the repository of our Minds, that our Memories shall be at a perfect loss how to sort them, and when the Memory can't be certain which are real, and which not, the reason cannot make any sure work with them, nor the Judgment determine with certainty. The Imagination of a Lyar, is like an Inchanted Field, wherein there seems to appear such a variety of strange fantastical ideas, such a confused disorderly mixture of Chymeras with realities, such a Chaos and huddle of notions together, right and wrong, that the Vision should be enough to turn his Brains; and the mischief is, unless a Man could undertake to say back again, all those romantick things he has said to raise the delusion; there is no dispelling the charm, nor chasing away the Monsters, to let the true light arise, and clear up the Mind again. This image cannot look extravagant, if you consider how often a Lyar avers what he never heard, and quotes what he never read, and gives account of Authors which he never saw, and repeats his own Inventions so frequently, 'till he cheats himself at last into a Belief, that surely these things were real; therefore how can it be otherwise, but that of the notions which remain upon his Mind, he should in process of time be utterly uncapable to recollect which of them had, and which had not, any true Foundation in Nature? Nay, I'll undertake that a confirm'd Lyar, cannot secure himself from being impos'd upon by his own dreams; let the impressions of them be laid aside in his mind but a few days, and if he chance to turn them over again, he shall not be certain what to make of them, what Truth may be in them, nor how they came there.

If Cesellius Bassus had not been often wont to impose upon himself the belief of his own false imaginations, he could never have doted so far upon an extravagant illusion of the Night, as not only to mistake it for a real Truth himself, but impudently to pass the deception upon the Roman Emperor: the Man had a notion imprinted upon his fancy, of a prodigious Mass of Gold hidden under ground, in a certain Estate he had in Africa; and having forgot how he came by the notion, he concluded at last it was a real thing, and accordingly goes and puts it into Nero's head, with that singular confidence, and with so many probable Circumstances for tale and token, that the silly Imperial Cully takes the Imposture down glib; and without farther distrust, dispatches away the Informer with publick Cost and Solemnity, to go over and fetch it all into the Roman Treasury. The Conclusion was, all that Bassus found by digging was his own grave, which he chose to make there rather than return back to acquaint the Emperor with his disappointment. Between Dreams, and Lyes, and Realities, a Man given to Romancing must often find himself perplex'd and nonplus'd: it was for the difficulties that must follow of this kind, that it is become a Proverb, That a Lyar had need have a good Memory. Nor did this notion escape the Son of Syrach, when speaking of the Law of Reason and Knowledge, he says, Men that are Lyars cannot remember her. And thus again what the Prophet threatned as an extraordinary Judgment, is indeed the natural consequence of this Sin, A Sword (that is a Fate) is upon the Lyars, and they shall dote. A Trade of Lying must, in long run, create a great misunderstanding between a Man's intellectual Faculties, and set the Fancy, Memory, and Judgment at variance among themselves, each accusing the other of being false and treacherous; by which means the operations and results of the Mind must often prove indeliberate, and precarious: and therefore tho' all Men are alike oblig'd to detest Lying, yet there are none who have greater reason to have it in abhorrence, than those who give their Minds to Learning and Philosophy; for that being nothing else but a sincere and ardent inclination, to discover and admire Truth, it must imply at the same time, a proportionable hatred and aversion toward all Falsehood, and Lying, Accordingly, when Plato protested that he would respect none for Philosophers, but such as were earnestly and passionately bent after Truth, he signified in the same words, how much it concern'd wise and inquisitive Men, to abominate all Lying and Delusion. So that if we duly regard the improvement of our Souls, and affect those high Privileges of Truth and Knowledge, which are the perfections of Humane Nature, we will not endure to scribble and blur over the Table of our Minds with such false insignificant Scraws and Cyphers.

8. And lastly, We should utterly abandon and abhor Lying, for that just contempt and odium it brings upon us, in the sight of God and Man: 'twas Plato's reflection, and we find it distinctly confirm'd in Scripture, 'tis hateful in the sight of God: Lying Lips are an abomination in the sight of God, and all false ways he utterly abhors. It is no less detested by all good Men; it is one of Solomon's Aphorisms, That a Righteous Man hateth Lying: and it was the resolution of his Royal Father, He that telleth Lyes shall not tarry in my sight. To all this let it be added for a close, that the sure end and reward of it is Damnation; for we have had it revealed from Heaven, That the Lyar hath his part in the Lake which burneth with Brimstone, which is the second death. So then the summ is, if we have any just regard for our own inward ease and satisfaction; for the common rights and welfare of Mankind, for our Reputation, and Honour; for our good Principles, our Morals, our Faith and Credit; for our Understandings, for the love of God and Man here, and for our everlasting Condition yet to come; let us make a firm Covenant with our hearts, that we will upon no pretence whatsoever indulge ourselves to Lye.