Ol)j. But some man will say, Except I dissemble, I shall run into danger.
Ans. Well ! it is not necessary for thee to live, but it is uecessaiy for thee to live like an honest man, and keep a good conscience. That is necessary. f For come what will upon true dealing, we ought to deal truly, and not dissemble. Those that pretend a necessity, they must do it, they cannot live else, they cannot avoid danger else, unless they dissemble : saith TertuUian very well. There is no necessity of sin to them, upon whom there lies no other necessity but not to sin (nn). Christians, they are men that have no necessity lies upon them but not to sin. It is not necessary they should be rich, it is not necessaiy they should be poor, it is not necessary they should have their freedom and liberty. There is no necessity lies upon them, but that they be good, that they do not sin. Can he pretend I must sin upon necessity, who hath no necessity imposed upon him by God, but to avoid all sin '?
As for lying, which is against this simplicity that should be in speech, all kinds of lies, officious I lies, or pernicious lies. Officious lies, to do a good turn to help ourselves or others with a lie, it is a gross sin. It is condemned by St Austin in a whole book, which he wrote against lying. § Therefore I pass it. I shall have occasion to speak somewhat of it after- ward. It is intrinsicalW ill every lie, because it is contrary to the hint|| of speech. God hath made our reason and understanding to frame speech, and speech to be the messenger and interpreter of reason, and of the con- ceit.^ Now when speech shall be a false messenger, it is contrary to the gift of speech. Speech should be the stream of understanding and reason. Now when the fountain is one, and the spring is another, there is a contra- diction. It is against nature, so it is intrinsically ill. It is not only against the will of God, but it is against the image of God, which is in truth. It is ill, not by inconvenience or by inconsequence, but a pernicious lie is inwardly ill. Jesting lies, pernicious lies, officious lies, all lies, let them be what they will, they come fi'om the father of lies, the devil, and are hated of God, who is truth itself.
Besides that, it is a sin opposite to society, and therefore by God's just judgment it is punished by society. All men hate a liar, a false dissembler, as an enemy to society, as a man that offends against that bond whereby God hath knit men together.
Now, to move us the better to this simplicity, this direct course of life, that there may be a conformity and harmony between the outward and in- ward man, in the thoughts, speeches, and actions, that they may be one.
1. Consider, first of all, that this simplicity, it is a comely thing. Come-
* That is, ' naughty * = bad.— G. § That is, his ' De Mendacio:—G.
t See note I, vol. I. p. 210.— G. || That is, ' end.'— Ed.
That is, ' o fficial.' — G. \ That is, ' conception.' — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 235
liness and seemliness, it is a thing that is delightful to the eyes of God, and to a man's own conscience ; and it stands in oneness and proportion. For you know where there is a comely proportion, there all things suit in one ; as in a comely body, the head and all the rest of the members are suitable. There is not a young green head upon an old body, or a fair face on a deformed body, for then there is two ; the body is one, and the complexion another. Beauty and comeliness is in one, when there is a correspondency, a proportion, a harmony in the parts.
In Rev. xiii. 11, seq., you have a cruel beast there with the horns of a lamb. There is two, there is a goodly pretension and show, but there is a beast that is hid within. Dissimulation is double, and where there is singleness and doubleness, there is deformity alway. It is an ugly thing in the eyes of God, it is a misshapen thing, it is a monster : Jacob's voice, and Esau's hands : words ' as smooth as oil, and war in the heart.' Prov. v. 3, Ps. Iv. 21. It is a monstrous thing. Even as there be monsters in nature, so there be in disposition. Where there is such a gross mixture, the devil and an angel of light, outwardly an angel of light and inwardly a devil ; to hide a devil in the shape of an angel of light, there is a horrible deformity.
It is a comely thing, therefore, when all things hold conformity and cor- respondence in our lives, when they are even amongst men, when we labour to have sanctified judgments of things, and speak what is our judgment, and have outward expressions answerable to the inward impressions wrought by the Spirit of God every way, then a man is like himself, he is one. There is not a heart and a heart. Adam at the first was every way like himself, but after falling from God to the creature, the changeable, corruptible crea- ture, to have his corruptible end, he fell to this doubleness.