To come to the point itself. This declining of inconstancy, of ' yea, yea,' ' nay, nay,' it came in St Paul from hatred of inconstancy and falsehood. For ' yea ' and ' nay,' when a man is of one mind and another, it comes from one of these two gi'ounds in a carnal man :
Either because he is inconstant, that he is now of one mind and now of another ;
Or because he is false and means to dissemble.
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854 COMMENTAKY ON
Now, both are dispositions that are contrary to a Christian man ; he should neither be H<,'ht, nor l)e false and untrue.
Now, St Paul doth much more decline the imputation of falsehood and dissembling', that he should be ' yea,' when he meant not ' yea,' but 'nay,' when he hud declined the imputation of li^'htness ; for a man may truly say he will, and yet chanfjje his mind after. Ikit for a man to say he will, and yet mean it not, that is falsc^hood and disscanbling, which is worse. St Paul intends much more to decline the suspicion of that.
Dissemblers are * j'ea, yea,' ' nay nay,' not at divers times, but at the same time ; they make yea and nay all at once. We say contradictions cannot be true, for a thing to be and not to be at the same time ; but dis- semblers would have contradictions true. They make as if they loved when indeed they hate.
God is the God of truth, the word is the word of truth, and Christ is the truth, and the devil is ' the father of lies,' John viii. 44. Therefore, as we would be like to God, and as we would be unlike Sat^n, let us labour for truth in all things. St Paul here labours to avoid the opinion of dissembling.
How would he think, then, of equivocation, when there is yea and nay at a breath ? They are not at divers times inconstant, but yea and nay at once, to speak one thing and mean the contrary, to have reservations of the contrary. It is so odious that I will not spend time to speak of it, — only this.
1. If it were allowable, as the best of their wa-iters allow it and prac- tise it (however, if they do not allow it, their practice is so, but they do allow it), hy this means the devil himself should never he a liar, there would be no lie at all. And it were in vain for God to make prohibitions against lying if there might be equivocation, for there is no lie in the world but it may be salved up with reservations. Therefore, that course that brings the devil from being a liar, that frustrates God's course, and that makes men that they shall not lie, whatsoever they do, it is abominable such a conceit, and odious to God. Bnt to maintain equivocation, is to do all this ; for with absurd reservations, what in the world may not be justified ?
2. Then, again, we are exhorted to suffer martp-dom, to stand for God's cause. Now, to allow equivocation is to avoid siiferint/. Where is the honour of martyrdom and suffering for God's cause, when men shall speak untruths and justify themselves by a lie ? It is contraiy, I say, to the whole tenor and stream of Scripture.
3. Then again, they may call it equivocation to mince it, hut it is a lie to speak one thing and reserve another. For what is a lie? To speak falsehood with a purpose and intention to deceive another. Now, they speak false and with a purpose to deceive. A lie must be esteemed as it is esteemed hj another that hears it, not him that speaks it, as it is with an oath. Isidore saith (Jihh), * An oath is to be esteemed as he that I speak to esteems it, not as I in my sense esteem it ; as God esteems it, and he to whom I speak.' So a lie is to be judged as he judgeth it that I speak to, because God forbids lying as a breach of charity to others, be- cause he would not have others deceived. If I salve it up in my own thoughts and deceive others, it is a breach of charity and a lie, because it is a speech of untruth which another thinks to be a truth ; it is an untrath, and to deceive him. But these men will have yea and nay at a breath ; they will say, ' Yea,' and yet have a reservation of nay, at once. St Paul would much more decline and abhor this, if he were alive now, when he so declined the imputation of inconstancy, of 'yea, yea,' and * nay, nay,' at
2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, \'ER. 18. 355
divers times. Indeed, St Paul reserved this. He promised to come to them if God did permit, with a divine reservation. We may say in all the business we are to do, This I will do, if God pennit, and if God will. And, indeed, God hindered his jouniey. But I say for equivocation, the matter is so odious and palpable, that if it were not that nondum satis odimus, &c., we hate not these men enough, I would not have spoken of it. Their religion is so abominable and odious, we do not yet hate it enough ; and, therefore, it is good on all occasions to uncase them, and all little enough. But I go on.