APPENDIS TO SERMONS $x, xXI, AND Y7Cl2. 573 heinous guilt. The plain çómznands 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 scrip- sture about it. Question II. If there are some persons whohave 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 pat in the social life, as children who are not capable ofjudging 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 virtues, 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 in- stances. 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 areas 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 importanta point as truth is, upon which the welfareof all 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 nó right to truth, itmay signify one of these two things : I. That he has no right to demand of me a direct an- swer to his enquiry : And I will readily grant it in this sense, there are thousands who have no right to the truth; and therefore I may wave the, question, I may give them B
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