A69235:156
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 13A TREATISE AGAINST THE SINNE OF LYING. › Chapter 13
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.
So also by Lying not only the Image of Satan 1is stamped upon us, but also the Image of sin; and as thereby we prove our selves to be the children of the Devil, so also the servants and slaves of sin. For as it is a great sin in it self, having in it all relations of sin, as before I have showed; so is it the cause of many other sins, and a fruitful mother and nurse of much other wickedness, even as it is also the bastardly Brat and hellish of spring of other sins which like cursed fathers beget it. First it is the Cause of sin, because it is the common encouragement which setteth men on to work wickedness whilst they hope to hide and disguise it so with their lies, that they shall never come to light. This emboldeneth the adulterers to commit filthiness, because if they be questioned 2they resolve to deny it, and none can prove it but only their Partners in wickedness. This heartneth men to kill and slay, to cozen and deceive, to ⟨p. 129⟩rob and steal, and what not? Because if they be suspected and examined, they by their cunning lies can hide their sins from the sight of men, and so escape shame and punishment. Whereas if they did not trust in lies, Adam would not eat the forbidden fruit, Cain would not murder his brother, Jacob would not deceive his father, Josephs brethren would not sell him to the Ishmaelites, Gehazi would not take a bribe; the Harlot would not entice her young Lover to commit whoredom and then wipe her mouth as though she had not committed filthiness, Ananias and Sapphira would not play the Hypocrites, and withhold part of the price of their possession; the servant would not defraud his master, the thief would not steal his neighbours goods, nor the subject commit treason against his Prince; and as the Prophet speaketh, Israel shall do no iniquity, if they will not 3speak lies to hide and cover it. But when men have made lies their refuge and have hid themselves under falsehood, then they are ready to make a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, and to let loose the reins to all wickedness, because they hope for immunity and to escape punishment, and that when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall 4