328 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XLIX.
Use 2. It condemns llie backwardness of God's children, that they do no more talk of theh' hopes, and the glory of their kingdom, and of the world to come, that they may go hand iu hand, and comfort and quicken one another in God's ways.
SEKMON XLIX.
For they that say such tilings declare 2:)lainly that they seek a country. — And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from ivhence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But noio they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly : lohere- fore God, is not ashamed to he ccdled their God, for lie hath 2>re- pao'edfor them a city. — Heb. xi. 14-lG.
In these verses the apostle proves that the patriarchs had an eye to heaven, from their constant profession ; wherever they came, they were telling the world that they were strangers and pilgrims. He frames his argument thus : those that are strangers and pilgrims seek another country. This was not the country whence they came, for they might have returned thither when they would, but they look for another country, that is, an heavenly.
I shall go over these verses with brief hints.
Fii^st, From their language he concludes the disposition of their hearts. From whence we inay observe this —
JDoct. That a man should speak nothing, but what he really thinks.
A lie is naught everywhere, but especially in matters of religion ; and therefore I shall show — (1.) How naught it is in any case ; (2.) How exceeding naught it is to act a false profession of mortification and strictness in the ways of God when there is no such matter ; for that is the case in hand.
1. A lie is naught everywhere.
[1.] It is the right of our neighbour that we should speak the truth to him ; for speech is a kind of traffic and commerce, a commodity by which men trade one with another, and therefore in justice the com- modity should be right. Whenj^ou defraud your neighbour of his right, you are guilty of theft, as it is theft to give him counterfeit gold and .silver for true gold and silver ; and so if you give him false words for true, you rob him of his right. As men, we are bound to speak the truth every one to his neighbour : Eph. iv. 25, ' Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour, for we are a members one of another.' When you speak that which is false, it is a violation of commerce ; for where there is no truth there is no trust, and where there is no trust there is no commerce, truth being the bond and foundation of human society.
[2.] A lie is the perversion of the order of nature. It is the office of the tongue to be the interpreter of the mind ; now if the interpreter of another man should take upon him to speak contrary to what he commands, this were a manifest wrong and disorder, ^o when the
Vers. 14-1 C] sermons upon Hebrews xi. 329
tongue speaks otherwise than the mind thinks, it is a great disturbance and deorclination.
[3.] We resemble the devil in nothing so much as in falsehood and I'ies : John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ; he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth. AYhen he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and the father of it.' And on the contrary, truth is no small part of the image of God ; for he is called the God of truth, as Satan is the father of lies ; and truth is made to be one special effect of regeneration : Eph. iv. 24, 25, ' That you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. AVherefore putting away lying, speak every one truth with his neigh- bour.' The main thing that is wrought in regeneration is to make the heart perfect, upright ; and true regeneration doth not introduce a total perfection into the soul, but it introduces uprightness ; he that is born again is not without sin, but he is without guile : Col. iii. 9, ' Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.' The old man is nothing but a bundle of deceits and crooked- ness ; the new man consists in truth and uprightness.
[4.] This is of consideration also, that God never dispensed with this precept. He hath upon special occasions dispensed with other commandments, and made a particular exception from a general law, but he never dispensed with the ninth commandment. God dispensed M'ith the eighth commandment in the theft of the Israelites when they borrowed the jewels of the Egyptians ; he dispensed with the seventh •commandment in the polygamy of the patriarchs ; he dispensed with the sixth commandment in the case of Abraham, when he bid him to offer Isaac ; he dispensed with the second commandment in Hezekioh's ■passover ; when they were not purified according to the prepara- tion of the sanctuary, yet God allowed them to eat the passover : 2 Chron. xxx. 18, ' For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves ; yet did they eat the passover, otherwise than it was written ; ' but God never dispensed with the ninth commandment upon any pretence whatsoever ; a man must not lie for God : Job xiii. 7. ' AVill you speak Avickedly for God, and talk deceitfully for him ? ' Because this com- mandment hath more in it of the justice and truth and immutable perfection of God than others.