Chapter XIX: Part 19

The same thing may be said of an unfaithful man, a man who makes promises, contracts, and agreements, and takes no care to perform them. All commerce and traffic is confounded, and the laws of it dissolved, by a person of this shameful conduct. He that loses his credit and honour by this sort of falsehood, cuts himself off from many of the blessings of civil society, and stands as it were excommunicated from the friendship, the company, and commerce of his neighbours among whom he dwells. His character becomes hateful among men, and his name is a word of scandal and infamy. But where a man is true to his word, and punctual in all his correspondencies, how fair is his reputation! How honourable is his name! And he stands entitled to all the blessings of the society where he resides.

I might borrow arguments also from the light of nature, to shew what an excellent virtue is that of constancy; how useful in the whole course of life; how honourable a name does it gain a man in the world! With what a happy regularity his affairs proceed, both in his household and in his shop, or business of life! He maintains a sacred and steady peace of mind, and all men bless him: but the character of a fickle, wavering, inconstant man, is always mean and contemptible: he is compared to a weather-cock, that is blown about by every wind: and his name is thus exalted, or stuck on high, there to become a more public mark of jest and ridicule.

The third thing I proposed, is to consider what are those additional arguments that might be drawn from the gospel for the practice of this truth and sincerity, this faithfulness and constancy: For the gospel doth not only confirm all the duties of morality that the light of nature dictates, and establish all the reasons of them that the light of nature more feebly proposes, but it adds also many arguments and motives to enforce the same virtuous practices, which the mere light of nature knows nothing of; and I shall represent all these advantages of the gospel here. But I will not overload your memory with particulars, and therefore I shall speak them more generally, and heap them together; and may your souls and mine feel the united force of them!

It is a gospel of truth we profess, even the eternal truth of God revealed to men concerning our salvation and his glory. There are a multitude of scriptures where the gospel itself is called the truth, and the word of truth; and it is a most inconsistent thing for the professors of this gospel to be guilty of falsehood.

God the Father is the God of truth: and never did he give so glorious a demonstration of the sincerity of his love, of the faithfulness of his promises, and of the constancy of his compassionate design to man, as in sending his own Son into the world, according to his ancient prophecies of a thousand years, and bestowing upon us Jesus the Saviour.

Jesus Christ, by whose name we are called, _he is the true and faithful witness_; Rev. iii. 14. _Truth, and grace_, and peace, _came by him_; John i. 17. He is called the truth; John xiv. 6. He came down to _bring life and immortality to light by his gospel_; he came to tell us, and he well knew, that in _his Father’s house were many mansions; and if it were not so, says he, I would have told you_: But it is not my business to be a deceiver to men: Therefore all the life, light, and immortality that I have discovered to you in my preaching, it is all sincere, it is all real. When you enter into the other world, trusting my promises, you will find all my words fulfilled. I would not have raised your expectations, if it had been otherwise.

Again, _the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of truth_; it is he that _guides us into all truth_; John xvi. 13. And the name of this Father, and this Son, and this Holy Spirit, is called upon us in our first admission to christianity. So that we wear the name of the God of truth upon us, and shall we indulge temptations to falsehood? Shall we practise deceit, who profess a gospel of such truth, and upon whom the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the name of the God of truth is pronounced in baptism?

God is sincere in his revelations of grace, and discoveries of his pardoning mercy; for he sent his own Son to die for us, and this is a proof of his sincerity in his designs of love. Let us then be sincere in love to our God, to our fellow-creatures, and fellow-christians. Jesus Christ is sincere in the profession of his love, and he hath given us an infallible pledge of it, for he hath given his life for us. _Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends_; John xv. 13. But he hath laid down his life for enemies, and therefore he hath magnified his love, and divinely demonstrated it to be sincere and true, beyond all possibility of jealousies and exceptions.

God is faithful to all the promises of his gospel; _all his ways are mercy and truth to his people: He is a God keeping covenant through all generations._ This is the illustrious title that he assumes to himself, and glories in: And this is the name by which the ancient saints have delighted to make their addresses to him. These heavens shall be dissolved and perish in the flame, and this earth become a smoking cinder; “heaven and earth shall pass away, but the word of the Lord and his truth abide for ever; not one jot or tittle of them shall perish, but all shall be fulfilled.”

“By two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie;” that is, his oath and his promise, he hath established his covenant of grace, “that the heirs of salvation, might have strong consolation;” Heb. vi. 18. Hereby it comes to pass that we have a sure hope of eternal life; for “God that cannot lie hath promised it to us in Christ Jesus before the world began;” Tit. i. 2. and 2 Tim. i. 9. And though it was so long ago since the first promise was made, the first promise made to Christ before the foundations of the world, and the first promise made to fallen Adam a little after the foundations of the world were laid; yet our God hath not forgotten his promises and his covenant; he remains still faithful to fulfil every word of grace “that is gone is out of his lips;” Ps. lxxxix. 33, 34. And should not this oblige us to like faithfulness to our fellow-creatures, since God, who is so infinitely our superior, is pleased thus to bind himself by promises, and thus to fulfil them.

The constancy and immutability of God in his designs of mercy to sinners, should influence us to the practice of the same constancy of spirit in our professions of his gospel. God acts always like himself, conformable to the glory, and holiness, and dignity of his nature, so should we, who are the sons and daughters of the most high and holy God. He is uniform in his counsels and methods of grace and peace, he is unchangeable in his love, and always the same: “And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;” constant to himself, and consistent with himself in all the purposes of his mercy, and in all the prosecutions of those divine and eternal purposes in heaven and on earth. No alteration of circumstances, no change of place, from a cross on earth to a throne in heaven, can change his compassion and love to his saints. And shall we suffer our petty changes here on earth, from a higher to a lower part of a little mole-hill, to make such a shameful alteration in our conduct to our friends, as too often endangers our truth, and discovers our inconstancy?

Let us consider that by our profession of christianity we renounce deceit and falsehood, and all the hidden things of darkness: We are _children of the light_, then let us _walk in the light and do the truth_, and let our _deeds be made manifest, that they are wrought in God_; that is, in the faith and fear of God; John iii. 21. Why should a christian be a deceiver, when he bears the name of Christ the faithful and true? How inconsistent a character is it for a christian to be a liar? For a christian to be false, and violate and break his word? How dishonourable is it to the holy name we bear?

Let the children of Satan, who is a liar from the beginning, delight themselves in falsehood, and sport themselves in their own deceivings: Let those who renounce all hope in the promises of God, imitate the devil, who is the father of lies: But let us who trust in the God of truth, who believe in Jesus the Saviour, and make his truth our hope, let us imitate our heavenly Father and our blessed Lord. Let us speak the truth and practise it. It was by a lie of the devil that our first parents were deceived and ruined: All our sin and misery sprung from that falsehood, _Ye shall not surely die_. And it is by our faith in the truth and promise of God that we hope for salvation. While we therefore remember either the spring of our ruin, or the means of our recovery, we should love the truth, and hate lying.

But there are motives of terror, as well as arguments of grace and love, that should ever influence us to sincerity and truth. We should remember that Christ our Lord has _eyes like a flame of fire, that he searches the hearts and the reins, and will render to every one according to their works_; Rev. ii. 23. We should remember the dreadful threatenings that Christ the faithful and true Witness, Christ the Lord and Judge of all men, hath denounced against hypocrites. You scarce find him preaching a sermon of any length, but he has one or more woes in it ready for those that practise hypocrisy.

There is no sort of sinners that he treats with such infamous names, and such killing reproaches as he does the hypocrite. They resemble the old serpent, the devil, in subtlety and falsehood, and therefore the language of Christ to them runs in this manner; Ye Jews, who are false to the inward conviction of your own consciences, _ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.—When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it_; John viii. 44. It is as if our Lord had said, “The first lie that ever was made, was made by the devil; and by his telling a lie, and our mother Eve’s believing it, he murdered mankind in Adam their head. And yet you false Jews would imitate him, and make him your father.” And again, _Woe unto you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites,—ye serpents, ye generation of vipers_, sons of the old serpent, _how can ye escape the damnation of hell_; Mat. xxiii. 29, 33. Your eternal punishment is most just and unavoidable.

In another of his discourses he makes the punishment of hypocrites to be, as it were, the pattern of the punishment of the worst of wickedness. The _servant_ who is intrusted with the household of his Lord, that shall _beat his fellows_, and _shall eat and drink with the drunken, his Lord shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrite; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth_; Mat. xxiv. 51. And when you read the black catalogue of sinners, who are doomed to everlasting destruction; Rev. xxi. 8. the name of liars is put in with a peculiar remark, _the unbelievers, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death_. As if he had said, whosoever escapes hell, no liar shall escape it, and it is repeated again in the next chapter, _Without the gates of_ heaven _are dogs, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie_; Rev. xxii. 15.

Whensoever therefore we find a temptation to falsehood, let us set ourselves under the immediate eye of God our Judge, God _who shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall judge the secrets of every heart one day by Jesus Christ our Lord_; 1 Cor. iv. 5. Rom. ii. 16. If we did but always place ourselves as in the sight of the great and dreadful God, whose eye beholds every falsehood we practise, and all the hidden hypocrisy, the lurking deceit of the soul, whose ear attends to every word of falsehood we speak, and records it all in his book against that great and terrible day of account; surely we should find a more effectual influence of it upon our spirits, to guard us from such words and actions as are inconsistent with the sincerity of a christian.

And let our hearts be melted into repentance for our past iniquities of this kind, and moulded into the love of truth by a delightful meditation of the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ to us, in performing his kind and dreadful undertaking to suffer for our sins. Let us dwell upon the thoughts of his faithfulness to all his promises, and think thus with ourselves, that he has engaged us to truth of every kind by the strongest bonds of duty and love: And if we are false and unfaithful to him in this world, how justly may he cut us off from all our glorious hopes and expectations in the world which is to come.

But this leads me to the fourth general head that I proposed; which was to lay down some directions how christians may be preserved in the ways of truth, how they may secure and maintain this blessed character of integrity and uprightness which I have described. And I think this may be better performed by distinguishing truth, or integrity, into those three distinct parts, under which I treated of it before, namely, veracity, faithfulness, and constancy, and by giving some rules for the preservation of each.

The rules to preserve veracity, or to keep our words conformable to our hearts, are such as these:

I. Be persuaded in your own minds, that no circumstances whatsoever can make a lie lawful. Though when a question is asked, there are many cases wherein it may be lawful to turn the discourse aside, to wave a direct answer, to be entirely silent; or in some circumstances it may be both lawful, prudent, and proper, to conceal a part of the truth, as I hinted in the former sermon; yet in my opinion it is neither prudent, proper nor lawful, to speak a falsehood to deceive my neighbour. The whole truth may not always be necessary to be spoken to men; but such falsehood is always a sin in the sight of God. All lying is utterly forbidden; and the true meaning of a lie is, when we speak that which we believe to be false, with a design to deceive the person to whom we speak.

Here may arise two questions:—I. If I have a good and valuable end in speaking, and my design is to serve the glory of God, or the good of my neighbour, may I not then use the art of lying, or speak a known falsehood without sin?—2. Surely there are some sort of persons who have no right to truth, such as children, common liars, knaves or cheats; may we not therefore deceive them by direct falsehoods, either for their good, or for our own?

These are enquiries of very great importance to the honour of truth, to the satisfaction of conscience, and to the welfare of mankind: And it is my present opinion (and I think there is good reason for it) that none of these cases can make an express and deceitful falsehood to be lawful, or change the nature of a lie, and make it innocent; but to debate these two cases as largely as they deserve, would too much incumber the present discourse; I leave them therefore to be read with an honest and serious mind, as an Appendix to these sermons of truth, and so proceed to the next direction, how to preserve our veracity.

II. The second rule to preserve veracity is this; accustom yourselves to a sober, modest way of speaking, avoid all those methods of speech that border upon falsehood. I shall mention a few of them, to give sufficient notice of what I mean.

Some persons affect to be certain of every thing they speak, and pronounce all that they say with the highest assurance. If they are relating matters of fact, which they only learn by report, they tell you every circumstance without the least hesitation, and endeavour even in a dubious matter to make the hearer believe it with the highest confidence: They are never in the wrong, never doubtful, whether they are in the right no. If they are declaring their own sentiments of the most difficult subject, it is always as clear to them as the light, they are always as positive as if it were divinely revealed, and written in the most express words of scripture.

Now such sort of speakers will often find they have been mistaken; and if they have modesty enough to retract their words, it is well: but for the most part they refuse conviction, and often persist to maintain their own error, even almost against their own consciences. In short, it appears to me, that a man who dares frequently to assert doubtful matters with the most positive air of assurance, has not so much tenderness about his heart, and such a religious fear of lying, as a good christian ought to have.

There are others again that affect to tell you nothing that is common, but would always surprize the company with strange things and prodigies, and all this out of the pride of their hearts, and an ambition to have their own stories applauded and admired by all that hear them. This sort of affectation oftentimes betrays a person into falsehood, and secretly and insensibly allures him to say things that are neither credible nor true. Sailors and travellers should set a special guard upon themselves in this respect.

There are a third sort of talkers, that when they discourse of common things, are ever expressing them in exalted and superlative language. If they speak of any thing small, it is prodigiously small; if they speak of any thing great, it is incomparably great. If they name a man of wisdom, he is the wisest man in the world; or a woman of piety, she is the only saint in the nation. An imprudent man with them is the greatest fool in nature; and a little disappointing accident in life, is an intolerable vexation. If they happen to hear a good sermon, the preacher was inspired, not an angel could exceed him: If it was a mean discourse, the wretch had not a grain of sense and learning. Every opinion they hold is divine and fundamental: All their own sentiments, even in lesser matters, are the very sense of Christ and his apostles, and all that oppose them are guilty of heresy or nonsense. Now persons who have accustomed their tongues to this language in common discourse, seem to want that due caution which the strict rules of godliness may seem to require, and make a little too free with truth. Either their thoughts are very injudicious, if they can believe what they say; or if they do not believe it, they should make their words agree better with their thoughts.

But besides the approaches to falsehood in this manner of conversation, there is something in it that is very vain, and almost ridiculous. Methinks such an extravagant talker is something like a man that walks upon stilts through the open street, or like one who wears a coat much longer than his neighbours; and how tall soever they may think themselves, the world will be ready to call one of them a child, and the other an idiot.

Objection. But are there not a multitude of such expressions in scripture in the books of Job, and the Psalms, and the Prophets, wherein even the more plain or common occurrences of life are dressed up in very magnificent language, and in expressions that far exceed the truth of things? Does not David, in his elegy upon Saul and Jonathan, say, _they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions_? 2 Sam. i. 23. And even in St. John’s history of the life and death of Christ, does he not suppose, _that if all things which Jesus did were written, even the world itself could not contain the books_? John xxi. 25.

Answer. It is the natural language of poetry and prophecy, and the custom of the eastern nations, to express things in a lofty and sublime manner; so that there is no danger of being deceived by that language, when a prophet or a poet indulges such figures of speech. Now the books of Job and Psalms, and David’s elegy, are so many Hebrew poems. The business of oratory is a-kin to verse, and sometimes requires a figurative style. But in familiar language and common discourse, it is not the custom of mankind to use such extravagance of expression: The hearer is many times ready to be led into a mistake thereby, because he supposes the speaker to mean plainly what he says. And I would not willingly indulge a habit of expressing my thoughts in such a manner in common conversation, as should deceive my hearers, to humour a silly affectation.

As for the figure which St. John uses to represent the variety of useful things which were said and done by our Saviour, it is such as can lead no man into a mistake, for none can believe it to be understood in a literal sense. Besides, if one would indulge the most superlative expressions and boldest figures that human language can furnish one with, to set out the honours of any person on earth, there can be no such proper or deserving subject as Jesus Christ our Lord.

III. The third rule to preserve veracity is this, practise nothing which you are ashamed of. Do nothing that you need be afraid of the ear of the world: Walk carefully in the ways of virtue and duty: Fulfil your obligations to God and man to the utmost of your power: Venture upon no practice that needs a cover, a disguise, or an excuse; and then you will not be so often under the temptation of lying.

Let children remember this, and have a care of disobeying God, or their parents, even when they are alone; lest they be tempted to excuse their faults by lying, which indeed does but enlarge and double them, rather than diminish and excuse them. Let servants take notice of this, and pay all due honour and faithful obedience to their masters and governors? or else the devil, and their own corrupt hearts, will frequently join together and help them to lie for the cover of their guilt. Let every one that hears this discourse watch over all their actions, and confine them within the rules of religion; otherwise their practice, which will not bear the light, will put them under a temptation to hide it behind a refuge of lies.

And under this head I might particularly give this advice. Do not affect a cunning way of life. Do not aim at the character of a subtle and crafty man. Be not fond of being let into secrets, nor of engaging in intrigues of any sort. There are some tempers of mankind that are naturally addicted to craft, and are ever seeking to outwit their neighbours: they seldom live upon the square, or walk onward in an open path; but are still doubling, and turning, and traversing their course. They take a special pleasure in managing all their affairs with art and subtilty, and call it necessary prudence. But if you would shew yourselves tender of the truth, and preserve it, let your course of life be bold, and free, and open. There is much prudence to be used in our daily conduct, without this crafty humour. The integrity of a man will preserve him, and keep his tongue from falsehood; whereas a man who is much engaged in crafty designs, will now and then be tempted to intrench upon truth, and come near the brink of lying, to carry on and cover all his secret purposes.

Methinks I could pity rather than envy the high station of courtiers. How often they are constrained to put on disguise, to colour or to conceal their real designs! How near they walk to the borders of falsehood, and tread hourly upon the very edge of a lie! David, the man after God’s own heart, while he kept his father’s sheep, was more secure from this temptation; but when he became a courtier and a king, he was often exposed, and therefore he begs earnestly, that God would _remove from him the way of lying_; Ps. cxix. 29. He had felt the mischievous influence of this snare, and dreaded the pernicious power of it. To be ever practising the politician at home and abroad, is a constant snare to sincerity; and to live as a spy in a foreign court, may be a post of service to our own nation; but it is exceeding dangerous to virtue and truth.

IV. Have a care of indulging any violent passion, for that will tempt the tongue to fly out in extravagance of expression, and out-run the settled judgment of the mind. Whether it be grief or impatience, or anger and resentment, it will engage the soul to form ideas far above and beyond the truth of things, and often arm the tongue with unruly expressions, even beyond the sentiments of the heart. Strife and contention, and noisy quarrels are very dangerous enemies to truth.

And upon this account, above all things, I would warn young christians to avoid the excessive zeal of a party-spirit in the lesser differences of religion. There has been often a great deal of darkness, and fire, of rage, and deceit, and falsehood in such sort of quarrels as these. Men of natural warmth, animated by an honest zeal for God and religion, taking it into their head, that every doctrine besides their own is damnable heresy, and all forms of worship different from their own, are superstitious or schismatical, and abominable in the sight of God; they have, under the influence of these principles, kindled their passions to a flame: and to secure the reputation of their own party, or vindicate all their principles and practices, they have made shameful inroads upon truth, even in relating matters of fact: and as Dr. Tillotson well expresses it, that the zealots of all parties have got a scurvy trick of lying for the truth; though he confesses he has never observed any that would be so very fond of a false report, or hug and caress a lie as the papists have done. And I wish no protestant had ever followed their example.

I should proceed now to lay down rules how persons may best preserve their faithfulness to vows or engagements of any kind. But this may be reserved to the next discourse.

HYMN FOR SERMONS XX AND XXI.
_Christian Morality_, _viz._ _Truth, Sincerity, &c._

Let those who bear the christian name
Their holy vows fulfil:
The saints, the followers of the Lamb,
Are men of honour still.

True to the solemn oaths they take,
Though to their hurt they swear;
Constant and just to all they speak,
For God and angels hear.

Still with their lips their hearts agree,
Nor flattering words devise;
They know the God of truth can see
Through every false disguise.

They hate th’ appearance of a lie,
In all the shapes it wears;
Firm to the truth: and when they die,
Eternal life is theirs.

Lo! from afar the Lord descends,
And brings the judgment down;
He bids his saints, his faithful friends,
Rise and possess their crown.

While Satan trembles at the sight,
And devils wish to die,
Where will the faithless hypocrite,
And guilty liar fly?

SERMON XXII.
_Christian Morality_, _viz._ _Truth, Sincerity, &c._
PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are true,——think on these things.

When we are ever so well informed in the nature of our duty, we still want arguments to make our consciences feel the obligation. Flesh and blood are frail and sinful; grace is feeble and imperfect in the present state; temptations surround us in this lower world, and are ever ready to allure or affright us from the paths of holiness: we have need therefore of powerful motives to enforce every duty upon our practice.

In the first discourse on this subject, we have heard the nature and extent of that truth or sincerity which the gospel requires. In the second we have considered what obligations are discovered by the light of nature to be faithful, upright and constant in our words and our ways; and what additional motives the religion of Christ has furnished us with, to practise the same virtues; and may the good spirit of God make our souls feel the power of them! But nature is dark, as well as feeble. We are unskilful in the matters of holiness, and know not how to secure our virtue, and to guard ourselves from temptation to the contrary vice, unless we are informed by particular directions. I begun this work at the end of the last discourse. And as truth was divided into three parts, _viz._ veracity, faithfulness, and constancy; so I proposed to give special rules for the preservation of each of them.

The directions to preserve our veracity, were these:

1. Be well persuaded in your minds, that a known and wilful lie is utterly unlawful: Let your heart be established in this doctrine; for a slight conviction may be easily overcome by some advantageous circumstances, and the temptation will soon prevail.—2. Be sober, modest, and cautious in the manner of your speech, and do not allow yourself in those ways of expression which border upon lying; for if you often accustom your tongue to venture near a lie, you will be in danger sometimes of falling into it.—3. Take care to do nothing that you need to be ashamed of, that so you may not be under the temptation of a lie to cover or excuse it.—4. Watch against the violence of any passion; for this will sorely endanger the veracity of your lips. Passion will carry your judgment beyond the truth of things, and then it will soon awaken your tongue to an extravagance of language, even beyond the present irregular judgment of the mind.

I persuaded you there to beware of blind and fiery zeal, and more especially in matters of small importance, lest you should be tempted to tell lies for a pretended defence of the truth. The pious frauds, as they are called, or the religious cheats that have been practised in christendom in all ages, have brought much dishonour to the gospel of Christ.

The second part of truth is faithfulness, to our vows, promises, and solemn resolutions. This is a conformity of our deeds to our words, as the former was a conformity of our words to our thoughts. And I come now to lay down some rules how we may secure our faithfulness, and maintain our conscience and conversation free from guilt or blame in this respect also.

I. Be very cautious in all the promises, vows and obligations, under which you lay yourself. Use a pious prudence in this matter, and it will be more easy to you to perform them. Do not multiply needless bonds upon your souls. The more care you take before you utter any thing with your lips, you will be more secure of fulfilling what your lips pronounce. In the case of vows, there is no inconvenience of solemn engagements to God to do what his law hath made your duty before. And this was the custom of the primitive christians, as Pliny, a heathen, acquaints us, that they made vows, and swore in their secret meetings, not to commit murder, or theft, or adultery, or indulge vicious courses. It is good to remind ourselves of what God requires, and establish all our obligations to the general practice of holiness.

But you had need be well advised before you make vows in matters that are indifferent; for many times this has exposed persons to greater snares and difficulties. They have hoped to restrain the violence of natural appetites by means of their own devising; and thus they have been tempted to be unfaithful to God himself. The word of God gives us this advice; Ec. v. 5, 6. _Better it is that thou shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldst vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel, it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the works of thine own hands?_ That is, “Do not hastily engage thyself in vows, such as the weakness of flesh and blood will not suffer thee to perform: Nor think of being absolved from thy own obligations in the presence of God, and his holy angels, by foolish excuses, and saying, It was a mistake; lest God, being angry and offended at thy broken vows, should bring a curse upon thee and thy affairs.” There is most abundant experience of the folly and danger of needless vows in the church of Rome.

In the case of promises made to others, and public solemn resolutions, be not too frequent in making of them. See that the reason of things, the providence of God, and the circumstances of life, seem to call you to it before you engage, that so you may better maintain your faithfulness, and turn your words into deeds. Why should you make chains to bind yourself, without necessity or reason? Why should you promise to do this, or to go thither in a thoughtless or trifling way, and let your tongue put needless bonds and fetters on your hands and feet for time to come? _My son, if thou art surety for a stranger_, or if thou make a bargain without discretion, or multiply promises without prudence, _thou art snared with the words of thy mouth_.

There are some persons who are very free of their promises upon all occasions; and often indulge this manner of speaking, “I am resolved to do such a thing to-day, or I will certainly go to such a place to-morrow,” &c. Whereas sometimes they find the thing impracticable, sometimes it is inconsistent with their other duties of life, sometimes it lays them under great difficulties and inconveniences to fulfil such appointments, and often they forget them too, and so disappoint their friends.

Before you tie yourselves by your solemn resolves and engagements, ask your hearts, Is it possible to be done, Is it lawful? Is it convenient? Is it proper? Is it consistent with other promises? Is the thing which I would promise due to my neighbour upon principles of honour, virtue, gratitude, religion? Is it necessary at all, and is it necessary at this time? Methinks I would have no promise made, but what should be kept; and therefore I would set all these guards around my lips. Experience of human affairs will teach us the use of these prudential rules, if we cannot learn them without it. A watchful caution in all such sort of language, as lays us under any engagements to future practices, is of necessary use to secure our faithfulness, and to maintain our truth with honour.

Besides, I might add also, that we should bring in something of God and piety into the common engagements of life; and this would preserve a greater guard upon our tongues, _Go to now, ye that say, to-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow;—for that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that_; James iv. 13, &c.

If therefore we would secure our faithfulness as well as our veracity, it is necessary to learn a modest and cautious way of speaking and accustom our tongues to practise it. When we are relating any thing past or present, the words, I think, I suppose, it is my opinion, are very proper where the case has any thing doubtful in it: So when we engage ourselves to do any thing for time to come, I intend, I design, I hope, I will endeavour, are more cautious methods of speech, and very proper upon most occasions of life, except where the circumstances require a more express promise, whereby we bind all our faithfulness to the performance.

II. I would add another rule in the case of vows and promises, which cannot but have some force toward the preservation of truth. Think solemnly with yourself, how miserable and abandoned a creature you must be, if neither God nor man should fulfil any of their promises or engagements to you, and thereby you should awaken your soul and all your powers to perform your obligations to them. What if your governors should break their engagements to defend and protect you? What if your parents and your friends should refuse to help and assist, to feed, or clothe, or comfort you? What if your debtors should refuse to pay what they owe you? and your servants deny you their obedience and help in a most necessary hour? What if your neighbours should disappoint you in all the agreements and promises they make? What if the great and blessed God should seize all your forfeited mercies, because of your unfaithfulness to him, and perform none of the promises of his word which regard this life, or the life to come? What a load of calamities would at once come upon you, and overwhelm you in soul and body! You would fall under universal distress and wretchedness in this world, and have no hope for eternity; and yet if you are careless to fulfil your covenants, or wilfully break your engagements, why should you expect that God should fulfil any on his side? Or why should his kind providence incline any creature to fulfil any on their side?

“O blessed and holy God, how false have we been to thee! How fickle! How unfaithful! How often have we broken the solemn engagements under which we have laid ourselves to thy majesty! Our comforts are all forfeited into thy hands, and yet we have food and clothing given us; the mercies of the night and the day are continued to us; thy compassions are renewed every morning, and in the evening thy faithfulness is glorified. We are ready to charge our fellow-creatures with unfaithfulness, and reproach their breach of promise, when we ourselves perhaps have been the unfaithful dealers, and have broken all those engagements and bonds of kindness or duty which are the foundation of their promises. We seldom or never think of our own unfaithfulness to them or to thee, but delight ourselves in accusations, while thou delightest in forgiveness. O how often hast thou pardoned our broken vows, and hast been slow to anger! But we though we are wretchedly unfaithful ourselves, yet are slow and backward to forgive. We have been guilty of many failures in thy covenant, and our everlasting hopes had been utterly lost, if thy covenant had not stood firmer on thy side than it has on ours. Blessed be the name of Jesus, our glorious Surety, our Advocate at thy right-hand, to whom thy promises were first given! He has fulfilled all his sacred engagements: Thy faithfulness to him can never fail: in him are all our hopes established; by his grace we are kept from an utter renouncing of thy covenant, though we have so often wretchedly failed in the performance of it. Glory, honour, and praise be given to a faithful God, to a kind and faithful Mediator.”

I come now to propose a rule or two for the preservation of our constancy, which is the third part of truth or integrity; and to give some directions how we may keep the whole course of our life consistent with itself, and agreeable to our profession.

I. Fix your great and general end, your chief and everlasting design, and keep it ever in your eye: then you will certainly be more regular and uniform in all your particular practices. Set your face towards heaven betimes. Let it be the most solemn and unalterable business of your lives to please God on earth, in order to enjoy him in heaven, and then you will not be easily tempted aside by the flatteries or the terrors of this world, to go astray and wander in the paths that lead to hell. Give yourselves up to Christ both in secret and in public. Devote yourselves to him, to his fear, and love, and service, in your private retirements, and solemnize your obligations to him among the churches of his saints. See that you are an inward christian, and declare to the world, that you are a follower of Christ. Mix with the sheep of his flock, and you will find many advantages thereby to secure your truth and constancy. When a temptation comes to make you act like the sinners of this world, tell the world, and tell your own heart, that you are a christian, and you must pursue heaven.

II. Get above the fear of the world, and the shame of professing strict godliness. It is sinful shame, or sinful fear, that has a thousand times tempted the professors of the name of Christ, to be false to their profession, to act unbecoming their character, and inconsistent with christianity. It is from a certain feebleness and cowardice of soul that they desire, at any cost, to keep well with all men, and are afraid, sorely afraid, to be out of the fashion, or unconformable to this world: therefore they venture upon some practice in company, that their hearts would abhor, if they were alone: Therefore they indulge many sinful compliances; sometimes they countenance the lewd and the profane, they join in a jest upon things sacred, they make the ministers of Christ their objects of ridicule; and sometimes they fall into sensuality, luxury, and excess, because they must do as their company does, and have not courage enough to refuse.

If we would be true to Christ, we must live above the world, and be dead to all its threatenings and reproaches. If we are afraid of being thought truly religious, we shall not be able to maintain religion in the truth of it. There needs a sacred courage to be constant in the faith. We must learn to _endure hardship as good soldiers of Christ_, if we would be true to the _Captain of our salvation_. All that belong to his army are _chosen_ and _faithful_; Rev. xvii. 14. It is a coward that changes his side as oft as the enemy makes a flourish, and he lists himself under every banner: But the constant christian is a soldier _faithful to the death, and he shall receive the crown of life_; Rev. ii. 10.

III. Never venture into the world without having solemnly committed yourself to the grace of Christ. Trust your soul afresh in the hands of Jesus every morning, that he may keep you true to himself all the day. All the divine motives you have learned, and all the solemn engagements under which you lay your own souls, will prove but a weak defence to virtue without faith and prayer. Commit yourselves to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless. Your hearts, your lips, and your lives must be in his keeping, if you would have them true to God or man. Your adversary the devil is watchful and busy with all his wiles to tempt you to falsehood and inconstancy; none but he who has conquered the devil can be your sufficient guardian. And when and wheresoever we find frailty and folly in ourselves, O may the strength of Christ appear in our weakness, and be glorified in our preservation!

Thus I have finished all that I proposed concerning the first duty recommended in my text, Whatsoever things are true—think on these things.

There may be perhaps some other instances wherein this divine character of truth, uprightness, or integrity, ought to appear in the conduct of christians which do not so directly and immediately fall under the general heads which I have before named: But they may be easily reduced to one or another of them. There are various other methods of deceit and falsehood practised in the world, which break in upon this sacred character of truth, which I have not expressly mentioned before; such as subscribing with the hand to testify our assent to opinions, which we do not believe; counterfeiting the names or writings of other persons without their knowledge, consent, or approbation; adding or blotting out any thing from divine writings; or doing the same to the writings or men in civil affairs or contracts, whereby one party or another may receive damage; practising fraud or deceit, or any criminal concealment in matters of traffic, or in matters of trust; and, in general, forgery and knavery of all kinds whatsoever: some of these may, by natural and easy consequences, be reduced to the heads I have spoken of, and are effectually precluded by the large description of moral truth, which I have given: Others of them fall as naturally under the general head of justice and injustice, which will be the subject of one of the following discourses.

AN APPENDIX
_To the three foregoing Sermons, wherein two important Questions about_
TRUTH _and_ LYING, _are debated at large_.

Question I. If I have a good and valuable end in speaking, and my design is to serve the glory of God, or the good of my neighbour, may I not then use the art of lying, or speak a known falsehood, without sin? Did not Rahab the harlot practise this; Josh. ii. 4, 5. when she hid the spies of Israel, and told the messengers of the king of Jericho, that she knew not whence they came, nor whither they went? And yet she is commended by the apostle Paul; Heb. xi. 31. That _by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with unbelievers, when she received the spies in peace_.

Answer I. When any action, considered in itself, is utterly unlawful, it is not possible that the goodness of the end or design, can so change the law of God, or alter the nature of things, as to make that action lawful. The apostle Paul brings the same objection; Rom. iii. 7. _If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why am I judged as a sinner?_ But in the next verse, he speaks of it with indignation, as a heinous slander cast upon him, that he should maintain this pernicious doctrine, _Let us do evil that good may come_: And he adds concerning these slanderers, or concerning those who hold this doctrine of doing evil with a good design, that _their damnation is just_; ver. 8.

Answer II. The case of Rahab is easily adjusted in this manner, without allowing a lie to be lawful: Rahab, though she was a woman of evil fame in Jericho, yet had heard of the promise of God to Israel, to establish them in the land of Canaan; she believed this promise, and under the influence of this faith she entertained the spies, and thereby assisted the Israelites in the conquest of that city; so far her action is approved of God, and mentioned with honour: But she used a very sinful method in compassing this design, when she told a plain lie to the messengers of the king. The timorousness of her temper was a sore temptation to her; and though she fell into a criminal action, yet God so far excused the ill conduct, as to forgive the falsehood, and thereby put a more signal honour upon the eminence of her faith. Her name stands therefore recorded with honour in scripture among believers. But the lie, though it was pardoned, remains still a blemish to her character.

There may be also a reason given why the scripture does not particularly make any sharp remark upon this falsehood of Rahab: for the great degree of her ignorance does much lessen her fault, though not cancel it. A woman of her character, living in a heathen country, may well be supposed to have had little knowledge of the sinfulness of so beneficial a lie as that was, and no scruple about it.

But it is by no means a sufficient justification of her conduct, that the scripture does not directly censure her for lying; for there are many actions recorded in scripture, both of saints and sinners, which are utterly unlawful in the sight of God, which yet have not an express censure passed upon them. Rahab’s being an harlot is not censured in any part of her history; nor Judah’s defiling Tamar his daughter-in-law; nor Jacob and Rebecca’s complication of lies to gain the blessing; nor the most express and wicked lie of the old prophet in Bethel, though it was the cause of the death of another prophet; 1 Kings xiii. yet surely these were crimes of heinous guilt. The plain commands or prohibitions of scripture are the rules to govern our practice: Nor can we fetch the lawfulness or unlawfulness of any matter of fact from the mere silence of the historical part of scripture about it.

Question II. If there are some persons who have not a right to truth, may we not lawfully speak falsehood to them? Now to prove that some have not a right to truth, it is urged, that truth or veracity is a virtue or duty of the social life: But there are many questions may be asked in the social life which the speaker has no right to be informed of, and therefore he has no right to truth when they are answered; may we not then answer them with falsehood? There are also some characters of persons who seem to have no part in the social life, as children who are not capable of judging for themselves, nor acting regularly in society; may we not speak a falsehood to them for their good? There are some who practise no social virtue, such as knaves and cheats, thieves, and pilferers; surely these have no right to truth, who are ever dealing in falsehood; and may we not cozen them who would cozen us? I will first offer two or three general answers to the question, and then descend to consider the particular instances.

Answer I. Truth seems to be a matter of eternal right and unchangeable equity. And there are general and express commands given us in scripture to speak the truth, and there are as express prohibitions of falsehood and lies. Now if there were any such exceptions as these against the general rule, I think God would have given us some plainer evidence of these exceptions in so important a point as truth is, upon which the welfare of mankind so necessarily depends: But I cannot find any such evident exceptions given in the whole word of God.

Answer II. When we say a person has no right to truth, it may signify one of these two things: