A69235:92
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 7A TREATISE AGAINST THE SINNE OF LYING. › Chapter 7
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 third division which is the most common 1and received is taken from the divers ends which men in their lying propound unto themselves; for either their end is to delight themselves and their hearers, and then it is called mendacium jocosum, a merry lye; or their end is to profit and do good to themselves or others; the which is called mendacium officiosum, an officious lye; or finally their end is to do hurt and mischief, which is called mendacium perniciosum, a pernicious lye. In which division I purpose to insist, only adding thereunto a fourth kind, which is called mendacium modestum, or a modest lye, when men in a kind of humility deny or extenuate their virtues and good parts. A merry lye is that wherein the liar propoundeth 2this end only, that he may delight his hearer, and not deceive him, or so far only to ⟨p. 70⟩deceive, as that thereby he may delight him. For there are some (as Saint Augustine saith) who 3desire by their lies to please men, not that they may injure or reproach any, but that they may be sweet and pleasant in their talk. Now these differ from other liars in this, that they delight to lye, rejoicing in the deceit it self; but these delight to please with the urbanity and sweetness of their speech, who notwithstanding, had rather please by uttering truths; but when as they cannot easily find true things which are acceptable to their hearers, they choose rather to lye, than to hold their peace. Now such lies are either so cunningly framed and coloured with likely hoods and similitude of truth, that they deceive the hearer with their specious shows, and afterwards delight him, when he discerneth the jest and findeth his error; or else spun with so course a thread by the teller of them, having no probability or show of truth, that the hearer plainly discovereth them, and is only delighted with the artificial absurdities and prodigious hyperboles of the tale, which transcend all truth and likelihood. So that the hearer is no way deceived by it, knowing that it is spoken in jest to move delight.
The third division which is the most common 1