A69235:67
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 5A TREATISE AGAINST THE SINNE OF LYING. › Chapter 5
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 thus (as Saint Augustine thinketh) Abraham 1may be acquitted of telling a lye, when he said that Sarah was his sister, seeing she was his near kinswoman, who according to the usual speech of the Hebrews were called sisters. Neither did he say; She is not my wife, but she is my sister, the which was no lye but the truth, being rightly understood. And so Abraham himself excuseth it, yet indeed she is my sister, she is the daughter, that is, the Grandchild of my Father, &c. Therefore ⟨p. 45⟩(saith he) Abraham concealed something of the truth, but said nothing that was false, when he concealed that she was his wife, and said that she was his sister. And it is not a lye when the truth is 2concealed by silence, but when by speaking we utter that which is false: unto which might be added that Abraham had no will to lye, nor desire to deceive, but to preserve his own life, and the people with whom he conversed, from the sin of murder. But (saving his better judgement) these reasons alleged do not justify Abraham as innocent, but only thus far excuse his fact, that it was a fault of infirmity into which fear, and not maliciousness thrust him. For there is great difference between the fact of Jeremiah and Samuel, and this of Abraham: seeing they concealed only one part of truth and acknowledged another; but he in the same speech uttered (as I may say) a truth and untruth; a truth in the reality of it, but an untruth in his intention: a truth in some sense, as himself understood it, but not in that sense wherein he would have them to conceive it; for it was his purpose in speaking it to make them falsely to think, that she was only his sister, and not his wife, or else it would not have secured him from that danger which he feared. And a speech is not true, when as it is so in a reserved sense, but when it is so in that sense wherein we would have the hearer to take it. And so Abraham's speech could not be true, but a plain equivocation, which is no better than a lye, for in saying that she was his sister, his desire was that they should conceive that she was not his wife.
And thus (as Saint Augustine thinketh) Abraham 1may bee acquitted of telling a lye, when hee said that Sarah was his sister, seeing shee was his neere kinswoman, who according to the usuall speech of the Hebrewes were called sisters. Neither did he say; She is not my wife, but she is my sister, the which was no lye but the truth, being rightly understood. And so Abraham himselfe excuseth it, yet indeed shee is my sister, she is the daughter, that is, the Grandchilde of my Father, &c. Therefore