[5.] By the light of nature, nothing is more odious than a lie. We love a just and true man, that is without guile, we acknowledge it a 2uoral perfection ; but a lie among men is accounted the greatest dis- grace. And nothing stirs up revenge and wrath more than the impu- tation and charge of a lie ; because it comes from slavish fear, and tendeth to deceit, both which argue baseness of spirit, and are contrary to the gallantry of a man, and to that moral equity which nature discovereth. Therefore nature disproves and taxeth it as an odious •crime.
2. Especially a lie is odious in matters of religion, to pretend that we are not ; as to profess ourselves strangers and pilgrims when it is 1)0 such matter, this is very bad. Because it is in a weighty matter ; and the more weighty the matter is in which we lie and speak falsely.
330 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XLIX.
the more heinous the lie ; for in a more weighty matter God is more appealed to, he is more challenged as a witness, and especially in the profession of religion, more than he is in acts of commerce between man and man. Religion should check and restrain a lie, and therefore when religion itself is made a lie, it is a great evil. It is an interpre- tative blasphemy : Rev. ii. 9, ' I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.' To pro- fess that we are the people of God when we are not is blasphemy. Why? because it is an implicit denial of God's omnisciency, as if he could not see, and did not regard us ; for you do in effect say, If we can but carry it fair before men, we need care for no more ; there is no God to see us.
Use 1. Let us beware of all lying, especially of dissimulation of respect to God or men. Let our words consent with our mind, and our mind with the thing itself. To move you hereto, consider, a lie is most odious to God, it is reckoned among the things that are an abomination to him: Prov. vi. 16, 17, ' These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination to him, a proud look, a lying tongue,' &c. A christian that loves God dares not yield to that which God so ex- pressly hates; he doth, as it were, hear God speak in his ears, Jer. xliv. 4, ' Oh, do not this abominable thing that I bate ! ' And then it is a sin that shall not escape unpunished : Prov, xix. 5, ' A false witness shall not be unpunished ; and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.' God that is the judge of truth, that is appealed to as the great witness of all that is done in the world, he will reveal it to your shame. Na}'', God expects it from all you that fear his name ; he reckoneth upon it that you should be far irom this evil : Isa. Ixiii. 8, ' For he said. Surely they are my people, children that will not lie.' Disappointment is the worst vexation. When the Lord standeth upon his honour in your carriage. Well, I can trust them, they are a people that will not lie ; if yoiT disa])point him, you do, as much as in you lies, make God a liar.l
Ohj. But you will say, What needs all this ? Speak to children to warn them of lying, or to heathens or profane persons that make no conscience of the truth,
Ans. Lying is a more general and common sin than Ave imagine, it is natural to us : Ps. Iviii. 3, ' The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.' We suck in the deceitful old man with our milk ; nay, we brought him into the world with us. There was a lie in our hearts long before there was a lie in our mouths. And consider how little nature is subdued even in the best ; David prays, Ps. cxix. 29, ' Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me thy law graciously.' You shall find him tri[)ping herein in his dissembling before Achish and the like. Is there not a lying to God in public and private worship ? In public worship, it was the complaint God took up against his people, Hosea xi. 12, ' Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the bouse of Israel with deceit.' How often do we show love with our mouths, when our hearts are at a distance from God ; as it was said of the Israelites, their hearts were in Egypt, wdien their bodies were in the Aviklerness : Acts vii. 39, ' In their hearts they turned back again into Egypt ; ' so here, we prattle
1 See this subject handled at large, Ts. cxix. 29.
Vers. 14-16.] sermons l-pon Hebrews xl 331