A69235:84
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 6A TREATISE AGAINST THE SINNE OF LYING. › Chapter 6
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.
The inward Cause of lying is our own corrupt ⟨p. 63⟩1flesh and the sinful lusts thereof. For as the Devil is a liar and the father of lies, so the flesh is a liar and the mother of this bastardly brood, who receiving from Satan this sinful seed, doth nourish it in her fruitful womb, conceiving, breeding and bearing it, until it be so multiplied that it hath filled the earth. Neither is our corrupt nature more prone unto any vice than unto this of lying, nor yet giveth more full swing unto any without remorse or check of conscience, than unto it, if it be simply considered in it self, or produce any advantage, and be not made odious by some evil consequents, or pernicious fruits which it bringeth to our neighbours or to our selves. And as the flesh generally is the cause of lying, so is it in its particular lusts and the sinful fruits which it produceth. As first ignorance of God and his trueth, is a special Cause of lying. For did we know and acknowledge Gods Omniscience, whereby he beholdeth all secrets, and taketh notice of not only the words of our mouths, but also of the hidden thoughts of our hearts, and discerneth how they differ one from another; his omnipotence, whereby he is able not only to kill the body of him that lieth, as he did Ananias and Sapphira, but also to cast both body and soul into hell, and in the mean time to frustrate all our hopes and ends which we propound unto our selves in lying, either by detecting our untruths, or by crossing us in them, so as they shall not effect our desires, but rather hinder them; and finally if we did know that he is a God of trueth, who hateth and abhorreth lies, and will according to his Word ⟨p. 64⟩give liars their portion in that lake which burneth 2with fire and brimstone, if they do not prevent their just damnation by unfeigned repentance, we would not take pleasure in lies, nor be hired to tell them with the base wages of worldly vanities. But it is our ignorance of these things that causeth us so easily to fall into this sin, when as Satan or the World tempteth us unto it. And therefore the Prophet joineth them together as the Cause and Effect: They bend (saith he) their tongue like 3