Com.9. Of Real Lyes by Simulation; Chap; 6, on the one hand here is falubre mendacium, a faving lye, on theother hand,here is Flomicida veritais, a killing truth. What fhould a man do in this cafe?He anfwers: When I am in this cafe, I cannot tell what to fay, and yet when I am out of it, me thinks. I can answer well enough : For I fee S. Pau/faith, Nibilpoffumu:con- 2 cor;:13.8. tra veritatem, wecan de nothing againg the truth. I fee David faith,Perd'e:armies qui Pfalm 5.6; loquuntur men'dacium, Thou /halt deflrey all thole that [peak, lies : I 'fee that God is truth ; and I fee that as Chrift is the truth, who is the firft-begotten änd only begotten Son of God ; to a lye is of theDevil, and that á lyer is the fira-borti of the Devil : and I fee that if I grant aliquamendacia, fomeiyes to be lawful, I muff alto grant aliqua peccata, Tome fins to be lawful. And further, if I may 'lye to fave a mans life ; or with the PrifcillianiJJs, diking another toChriftian Religion;then a man may commit adultery to favc ones life. I put the-cafe tò liana thus; There is a woman fo fondly enamour'd on a man, that except that unlawful act becommitted, fhewould dye, whether this may be falubre tdulre- riumor no I It is certain noman in the world would defend it. Therefore nei- ther can the other falubre mendacium be good. So his conclufion is, that nei- ther for fafeguard ofbodily life, or for the foul, mutt a lye be fpoken.. And this conclufion bath been generally held linceby the Fathers, and by the moft and belt of late Writers. This.is called the Midwiveslye, but improperly ; for I like not the rackingof places of Sciipture,tomake morefaults in the Fathers and others then they were guilty of. All the Midwives fay,is, that the Hebrewwomen were fo ftrong; that they weredelivered before the Midwife carne , which is likely tobe true of many of them, as we fee there are divers Inch among us. That they fpake then, may be faid to be only eccultatioveritati:, the concealing of. Tome truth °,. rather then the uttering of an untruth. This kind of lye may more fitly be called Ra- habs lye; who hid the Spies, and yetfaid they were gone : for inher, as S. slugufáine lof, a4: faith, there was rather virtatie indoles, a gooddtfpoftion, then perfeEla virtue, perfe& vertue, as appeared by this a&. For that other which they call yoco(um, a merry lye ; the Prophet makes it a AmereyJj4 fault to make the King merry with lye:: and if a man may not fpeak the.. truth to H°r73, pleafe men, as the Apofile faith, much lefs may he uttera lye topleafe them :And Gal.t.to: though a pernicious lye be worfe then this, yet as S.Auguiine faith, itisnogood argument to fay this is good,becapfe the other is worfe,no more then it is to fay, becaufe one man is worfe.then another, therefore the other is good. Therefore he condemns all three as evil: and though thcfe two lait are without any. great fault, yet not without any fault, But though we mutt in no cafe fpeakcontrary to the truth ;yet thereare force cafeswherein we feem to go against, but do not. t. When things are fpoken in parabolical and figural fpeeches, as where in same eap. 7othams parable, the trees are faid to go and choofea King. So when ourSaviour nbaeinone taught by parables, fuch fpeeches are not lyes,nor hereprohibited a for what in .nayfeem to them is propounded, is not res, fedfigura rei, not as a real truth,but only as a fi- gure of force thing that is true. This is lawful in fpeecli, as painting is lawful yet dash not. to reprefent things the better to the eye: and thus hyperbolical fpeeches are Judges 9.8. lawful g becaufeneither in the intention of the fpeaker, nor in the fence of the bearer, they arecontrary to the truth. 2. When part of the truth is concealed, but no untruthuttered.As when fl- Gen.ao. ta, braham toldAdimelech that Sarahwas his filer, which the was, according to the ]Hebrew phrafe, for the washis brothers daughter; but denied not that the was his wife, but concealed that.. So-when Samuel went to anoint:DavidKing,and t Sam.t644: the Elder4of the City asked him what he came about, he told.thern he came to facrifice to the Lord, which was true, for that was one end of his coming , though he had another end alfo, which heconcealed; 3. When a queftionmay have two fences or meanings, and the answer is true in-the one,but not in the other;a man may anfwer it in his own fence which is true, though it be falfe in another fence. As when Chrift was asked by Pilate, John 18,36. Whether be were a King ? he anfwered that he was, and that truly, viz, A fpiritual Gen, 1709° King; though he had no temporal Kingdom which was that that Pilate meant.So T t t ?acob 513
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