ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 91
lied, and thus the okl prophet lied, who, contrary to the command of God, persuaded the man of God to go back and eat bread with him under the pretence of a divine revelation, Exod. i. 15-20 ; Josh. ii. 1-9 ; 1 Kings xiii. 14-27. And thus Jacob told his father an officious threefold lie, Gen. xxvii. 19, but he hardly ever had a merry day, a good day after it ; for God followed him with variety of troubles, and his sorrows, like Job's messengers, came posting in one after another, even to his dying day, that both himself and others might see what bitterness is wrapped up in officious lies. Solon, reproving Thespis the poet for lying, Thespis answered him, That it Avas not material, seeing it was but in sport ; then Solon, beating the ground with his staff, said. If we commend lying in sport, we shall find it afterwards in good earnest. In all our bargains and dealings let us make it our wisdom and our work to remember, ' That we must not do evil, that good may come,' Eom. iii. 8 ; yea, we must not tell a lie to save all the souls under heaven. The Priscillianists in Spain, a most pestilentious sect, taught in Augustine's time that it was lawful to lie for the helping of a good cause, and for the propagating of the gospel, and for the advantage of religion. But Augustine confuted them, and stoutly asserts in two books that we are not to tell an officious lie, to tell a lie for no hm-t but for good, though it were to save all the world. ' Will ye speak wickedly for God, and talk deceitfully for him ?' saitli Job, chap. xiii. 7, to his friends. A man may as well commit fornication with the Moabites to draw them to our religion, or steal from the rich to give to the poor, as lie to do another man a good turn. Nepos reporteth of Epaminondas, a nobleman of Thebes, and a famous warrior, that he would- never lie in jest nor in earnest, either for his own or another's gain. This refined heathen will one day rise in judgment against such kind of Christians who take a great pleasure in officious lies. Now were there none within or without the walls of London that delighted themselves in officious lies ? But,
(3.) Thirdly, and to come closer to our work. There is mendacium loemiciosum, the pemicioiis and hurtfid lie ; and this of all lies is the worst, Gen. xxxix. 13-20, and 2 Kings v. 22, 23. When men will lie out of a design .to hurt, to cheat, to defraud, or to make a prey of those they deal with, this is the sorest of all lies. Now, how rampant was this sort, of lying among all sorts of citizens before London was in flames ! What a common trade of lying did many, I say not all, drive in their buying and selling ! The trade of lying was got into every trade, as if there had been no living but by lying. Many sellers had their lies to set off tlieir commodities. It is good, it is very good, it is special good, it is the best of its kind, when it was naught, very naught, yea, stark naught : of this sort there are none so good in the city, when tlieir consciences told them that they had mucli better in their own shops ; that their commodity cost them so much, and that they could not abate, nor would not abate anything of that price they had pitched, though it were to their own father or mother ; and yet, rather than they would lose a good customer, they presently agree at a lower price. And so when poor workmen came to their shops, and offered their commodities to sell, being forced thereunto for the relief
92 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
of themselves and tlieir miserable families, they slighted their com- modities, tolIinEj them that they had no need of them, and that they had miK'li of those commodities upon their hands ah-eady, and that they had no way to vend them ; and all to beat down the price, and to make a prey of their pressing necessity ; and all this when they wanted those very commodities, and had more vend for them than they knew how to supply. Now, as the seller abounded with his lies, so the buyer had his lies too, and all to biing down the price : It is naught, it is naught, it is very naught, saith the buyer. I will not give you your price, and yet gives it before he goes out of the shop or warehouse. I have bought as good, yea, better for a lower price than Avhat I offer you, saith the buyer, when yet he had never bought of that commodity before. Use me well, saith the buyer, and you shall have my custom another time, when in his heart he resolves never to come into the seller's shop more. Ah, London ! London ! it is these lies and liars that have made thee desolate, and that have laid thy glory in the dust. 0 sirs ! a man were better be a loser than a liar ; a man were better, much better, to keep his commodity than to sell his conscience with his commodity. We hate the Turks for sell- ing of Christians for slaves ; and what shall we then think of those citizens, who by lying sell themselves and their precious souls for liaK a crown, yea, oftentimes for a penny ? I have read that there was a time when the Eomans did wear jewels on their shoes ; but liars do worse, for they trample that matchless jewel, viz., their precious souls, under feet. Doubtless the lies that were told in London, and the liars that lived in London, did more than a little help on the ruin of Lon- don. Now, that you may the better read and understand the right- eousness of God in his highest acts of severity against lies and liars, premise with me briefly these four things : —