Diftrefs; 'tis a Guide in our Doubts and Difficulties, and a Companion in all our Ways; it abates and leffens our Sorrows, and adds much to our Joys; and is the very Salt that gives the Savour to all our other Blessings. But unless we speak Truth, unless we declare with our Tongues what we really think in our Minds, the Advantages of Converfation, and all the Delights of Friendship, are utterly loft: Where Truth is wanting, and Men difguise their Thoughts, what ground can we have for Affurance? What Truft and Confidence can we put in Man? And where there is no Confidence, there can be no true Friendfhip, no fatisfactory Converfation. *In fuch a Condition as this, Society is nothing but a Snare, a State full of Sufpicions, and Jealoufies, and Fears. When Truth is banish'd from among Men, and Artifice, and Falfhood, and Lyes flourish and abound, the World becomes a perfect Wildernefs, and Man in it no better than a Beast of Prey.

Thus ufeful and neceffary is the Love of Truth, and an Abhorrence of Lyes to Man, even in his natural State. But if we behold

*En verité, le mentir eft un mauvais vice: Nous ne fommes & nous ne tenons les uns aux autres, que par la parole: Notre intelligence fe conduifant par la feule voye de la parole, celui qui la fauffe, trahit la focieté publique, &c. Mont. l. 1. c. 9.

him

him in a nobler View, and confider him as a Christian, we shall fee that he hath much higher Reasons to oblige him to an honest and fincere Practice in his Converfation.

As we are Chriftians, we are all united in the fame myftical Body of Chrift, which is his Church. We are redeemed by the fame precious Blood, and ftrengthened by the fame Spirit, and nourished by the fame Doctrine. In our Baptifm we renounc'd the Devil, who is the Father of Lyes; and at our Lord's Ta1 Cor. xii. ble we drink into one Spirit, and together eat 1 Cor. v. the Bread of Sincerity and Truth. And there

13.

8.

fore in all reafon we ought to have a mutual Dependance and Confidence in one another ; being joyn'd together by fuch ftrong Tyes, and being all Parts of the fame Christian Body, we fhould be true and fincere in every thing we fay to each other; we should deteft a Lye, and abhor to deceive and impose upon our Fellow-Members. And this is the Argument which St. Paul makes use of to the Ephefians, who in their Heathen State, were much addicted to this Vice; wherefore, Ephef. iv. faith he, putting away Lying, Speak every Man Truth with his Neighbour; for we are Members one of another.

25.

1 Pet. ii. 1. As we are Chriftians, we are oblig❜d to lay Ephef. iv. afide all Guile and Hypocrifies; to Speak

15.

the

12.

16.

John xiii.

the Truth in Love; To have our Conversation 2 Cor. i. in Simplicity and godly Sincerity; To be harm- Matth. x. lefs as Doves, and innocent as little Children. Mark x. Our bleffed Saviour hath made Love, fin- 15; cere, undiffembled, unfeigned Love the pro- 35per Mark and Character, whereby his Difciples are to be known; fo that Diffimulation and Fraud, and Lying in a Disciple of Chrift, is a most strange and unaccountable Solecifm; it is a Sin against our Profeffion, and against that Part of it, which is our very Badge and Characteristic. Our Religion is called Truth; and the Gospel, in an eminent Manner, is ftyl'd, the Word of Truth; having Chrift for Coloff. i. its chief Subject, who is the Way, the Truth, John xiv. and the Life. Our Religion excells all other 6. Religions in the World in nothing more, than in this, that it exacts Truth in all our Behaviour; and the most fincere Dealing, both in Words and Actions: It commands us to love one another, in Deed and in Truth;, John iii. With a pure Heart, and with Love unfeigned: It enjoins us Integrity of Mind, and an in- 22. genuous Freedom in Difcourfe, Plainnefs of Expreffion, and Openness of Heart, in oppofition to Diffembling and Prevarication, to the Shifts and Artifices and Disguises of falfe and double-minded Men. And therefore Lying and Infincerity in a Chriftian, is a moft

deteftable

18.

Pet. i.

detestable and unpardonable thing; it is an utter Enemy to the Design of the Gospel, and a direct Contradiction to the Simplicity 2 Cor. xi. that is in Chrift.

3.

In vain therefore have Men distinguish'd Lyes into three feveral forts, with a design to make one or two of them innocent and inoffenfive; the pernicious, the ludicrous, and the officious Lye.

1. The pernicious and mischievous Lye, which is utter'd for fome Evil, for the Hurt, and Damage, and Prejudice of our Neighbour. This fort of Lye is of fuch a vile and scandalous nature, that no Man hath yet appear'd fo bold and daring as to offer any thing to excufe and defend it. It is a Sin against Juftice, and against the Right of our Neighbour; it is a Sin againft Truth in the very Nature of it, and against Charity and Mercy in the Intent of it, and therefore is unquestionably evil, and ever was, and is deservedly condemned by all Men.

2. The ludicrous and jocofe Lye, which is utter'd by way of Jeft, not with a design to damage our Neighbour, but only to please and to delight him. Such a Lye may perhaps by fome be thought harmless and innocent. What harm, may they fay, is there in speaking an Untruth, when we intend no Disadvantage

vantage to any Body thereby? No one is in the least hurt by it, it is spoke with no other Design but to raise a little Mirth and Diverfion in common Converfe. But if thefe Men do but seriously confider with themselves, can they think it allowable to excite Mirth and Laughter at the Expence of Truth? Truth is of fuch an awful and divine Nature, that it is not to be flighted and abused in Sport and Jefting. * The primitive Chriftians had such a Regard, fuch a profound Reverence for Truth, that they refus'd to tell a Lye, tho' it were to fave their Lives; and fhall we judge it approveable to talk falfly and to speak Untruths merely for our Diverfion? Shall we do that to feed our Vanity, which they would not to efcape the greatest Torments, and even Death itself? We grant there is no Hurt done to any Perfon but the Speaker by such a Lye, and for this reason a jocafe Lye is a Sin of a less heinous Nature than a pernicious one, but ftill it is a Sin. We do not fin by intending to raise Mirth in Conversation, but we fin by intending to raise it by a Lye. And therefore we may observe,

ἐκ τὸ ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἔῇ ἀρνεῖος ἐξεταζομένες ο βελόμεθα

την ψώδολογέντες. Juft. Mart. ̓Απολ β'.

Quòd cùm poffumus & facrificare in præfenti & illæfi abire, manente apud animum propofito, obftinationem faluti præferamus. Tertul. Apol. Sect. 27.

that