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.