I conclude then, that a lie is the voluntary asserting of a falsehood. And the more it tendeth to the injury of another, the more it is aggravated; but it is one thing to be injurious, and another thing to be a lie. When I name a falsehood, I mean that which is apt to deceive the hearer. So that it is necessary to the being of a lie, that it be deceitful, though the purpose of deceiving be found only in the more explicit sort of lies; for _falsum dicitur a fallendo_, it were not false, if it were not deceitful, or apt to deceive. For an unapt or figurative expression which hath a right sense as used by the speaker and hearer, is no falsehood. In one language a double negative affirmeth; and in another a double negative is a more vehement kind of denial; and yet neither is to be called by the others an untruth. By asserting, I mean any expression that maketh the falsehood our own, as distinct from an historical narration; for it is not lying to repeat a lie, as only telling what another said. By voluntary, I mean not only that which is done knowingly, upon actual will and deliberate choice, or consent; but also that which is done _ex culpa voluntatis_, by the fault of the will, and is to be imputed to the will.[500] For it is of great necessity to observe this about every sin, that whereas we truly say, that all sin is voluntary, and no further sin than voluntary; yet by voluntary, here, is not meant only that which is actually willed; but all that the will is guilty of. For it is true that Austin saith, _Ream linguam non facit nisi rea mens_, The tongue is not made guilty, but by a guilty mind. But then it must be known, that the mind or will is guilty of forbidden omissions as well as actions: and so it is a lie or voluntary untruth, when the mind and will do not restrain the tongue from it when they ought. As, 1. When a man erreth or is ignorant through wilful sloth or negligence, and so speaketh falsely when he thinks it true; this is a culpable falsehood, and so a lie; because he might have avoided it and did not: and this is the case of most false teachers and heretics. So, also, if a man will through passion, custom, or carelessness, let his tongue run before his wits, and speak falsely for want of considering or heeding what he saith, this is a culpable untruth, and a lie, and it is voluntary; because the will should have prevented it and did not; though yet there was no purpose to deceive.
You see then that there are two degrees of lying. 1. The grossest is the speaking of a known falsehood, with a purpose to deceive. 2. The other is the speaking falsely through culpable ignorance, error, or inconsiderateness.
_Direct._ I. Be well informed of the evil of the sin of lying; for the common cause of it is, that men think that there is no great harm in it, unless some one be greatly wronged by it: but it is not forbidden by God only because it wrongeth others, but it hath all this evil in it.
1. Lying is the perverting of man's noble faculties, and turning them clean contrary to their natural use. God gave man a tongue to express his mind, and reveal the truth; and lying doth monstrously turn it to the hindering of the mind and truth, yea, to the venting of the contrary to both. And as it is the evil of drunkenness to be a voluntary madness or corruption of so noble a faculty as reason, so it is the fault of lying, to be corrupting, perverting, and deforming both of the mind and tongue; and by confusion, a destroying of God's work and creature as to its proper use.[501]