A69235:113
A treatise against lying Wherein is showed what it is, the nature and causes…A treatise against lying Wherein is shevved vvhat it is, the nature and causes…
A treatise against lying Wherein is showed what it is, the nature and causes of this sin, the divers kinds of it; and that all of them are sinful, and unlawful, with the motives and means to preserve us from it, or to cure us of it. By John Downame, B. of D. and preacher of Gods Word.A treatise against lying Wherein is shevved vvhat it is, the nature and causes of this sinne, the divers kindes of it; and that all of them are sinfull, and unlawfull, with the motives and meanes to preserve us from it, or to cure us of it. By John Dovvname, B. of D. and preacher of Gods Word.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Nicolas Bourne, 1636
Title page typeset from the transcription.
A TREATISE AGAINST THE SIN OF LYING. › Chapter 9A TREATISE AGAINST THE SINNE OF LYING. › Chapter 9
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And so much concerning the evil of sin. The 1second question respecteth the evil of punishment, whether we may avoid it lawfully by telling a lie, when we see no other means whereby we may be preserved from it. And because it were endless to stand upon all the particulars, I will insist only in one, which will clear the question in all the rest, as being the greatest and last of all the rest, namely Death, which is the king of terrors, and therefore to be avoided by all lawful 2means above all other temporary evils. And this we will consider either as it respecteth our neighbours or our selves. Concerning the former, we will consider the case in two instances propounded by Saint Augustine, and not much vary from him in our answer and resolution. Suppose that a Father and his deer and only Son were at the same time dangerously sick in several places or rooms, and that the Son (in whose life the life of the Father is bound up, as it is said of Jacobs in Benjamins) ⟨p. 89⟩should dye the Father continuing in great weakness, yet in some hope of recovery. If the Father in this case should inquire (suspecting the worst) whether his Son be dead or alive, what answer should be given him? If it be said that he is alive, it is a lye, but yet such an one as comforteth and strengtheneth the Fathers heart, and may prove a good means of his recovery; but if it be told him that he is dead, (or which is all one in effect, if the hearers refuse to give any answer, because he will surely presume upon their silence that he is departed, seeing otherwise they would not withhold news which would cheer him) the grief hereof will presently strike him to the heart, and be a certain cause of his death and ruin. But I answer with him, that though the case be lamentable, and much commiseration to be had of the sick Father, yet it is not lawful to save his life by telling a lye. For this is but a means of our own for his recovery, and we know not whether God will bless it or no, yea we may well suspect, that if we distrust in his All-sufficiency, who hath in his hand the issues of life and death, and is able to bring to the grave, and to return back again, and trust more to our lye and means unlawful, it will prove rather a hindrance than a furtherance to our desires.
And so much concerning the evill of sinne. The