2. Lying is the enemy and destroyer of truth: and truth is a thing divine, of unspeakable excellency and use. It is God's instrument by which he maketh men wise, and good, and happy. Therefore if he should not make strict laws for the preservation of so excellent a thing as truth, he should not secure the happiness of the world. As to the securing of men's lives it is not enough to make a law that you shall not kill men without just cause (though that be all that the law intendeth to attain); for then every man being left to judge, would think there were just cause whenever his passion or interest told him so; but the law is, You shall not kill at all without the judgment of the magistrate: so, if the law against lying did intend no more than the securing men from the injuries of error and deceit, yet would it not have been a sufficient means, to have said only, You shall not injure men by lying; for then men would have judged of the injury by their own interests and passions; but much more is it needful to have a stricter law, when truth itself is the thing that God intendeth to secure, as well as the interest of men. In the eyes of christians, and heathens, and all mankind that have not unmanned themselves, there appeareth a singular beauty and excellency in truth. Aristotle could say, that the nature of man is made for truth. Cicero could say, that _Quod verum, simplex, sincerumque est, id naturæ hominis accommodatissimum est_: Verity and virtue were ever taken as the inseparable perfections of man. Pythagoras could say, that to love truth and do good, were the two things that made man likest to God, and therefore were his two most excellent gifts. Plato could say, that truth was the best rhetoric and the sweetest oration. Epictetus could say, that truth is a thing immortal, eternal, of all things most precious; better than friendship, as being less obnoxious to blind affections. Jamblichus could say, that as light naturally and constantly accompanieth the sun, so truth accompanieth God and all that follow him. Epaminondas is praised for that he would not lie, no not in jest. Pomponius Atticus was so great a hater of a lie, that all his friends were desirous to trust him with their business, and use him as their counsellor. He knoweth not what use man's understanding or his tongue were made for, that knoweth not the excellency of truth.[502] Let a Pilate only ask as a stranger, "What is truth?" John xviii. 38, as Pharaoh asked, "Who is the Lord?" "For this end Christ himself came into the world, to bear witness to the truth, and every one that is of the truth will hear him," John xviii. 37. "He is the truth," John xiv. 6, and "full of grace and truth," John i. 14. "Grace and truth came by him," John i. 17. His Spirit is given to "guide his servants into the truth," John xvi. 13, and to "sanctify them by the truth," John xvii. 19, that "knowing the truth, it might make them free," John viii. 32. "The fruit of the Spirit is in all truth," Eph. v. 9. His ministers can "do nothing against the truth, but for the truth," 2 Cor. xiii. 8. "Truth" is the "girdle" that must "gird our loins," Eph. vi. 14. The "church" is the "pillar" and "ground of truth," 1 Tim. iii. 15. The faithful are "they that believe and know the truth," 1 Tim. iv. 3. "Speaking the truth in love," is the way of the churches' growth and edification, Eph. iv. 15. "Repentance" is given men, "to the acknowledging of the truth, that they may escape out of the power of the devil," 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26. The dullards are they that are "never able to come to the knowledge of the truth," 2 Tim. iii. 7. "They are men of perverse minds that resist the truth," 2 Tim. iii. 8. "They that receive not the truth in the love of it cannot be saved," 2 Thess. ii. 10. All they "are damned that believe not the truth," 2 Thess. ii. 12, 13. You see what truth is in the judgment of God and all the sober world. Therefore a lie, that is contrary to truth as darkness to light, must be equally odious as truth is amiable: no wonder therefore if it be absolutely forbidden of God.
3. You may the easier perceive this by considering, that other faults of the tongue, as idle talk, swearing, and such like, are forbidden, not only because they are a hurt to others, but for the intrinsical evil in the thing itself: great reason therefore that it should be so in this.