Christian ethics -- Fiction; Christian fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction
Wise. The want of good Education, as you have intimated, is many times
a cause why Children doe so easily, so soon, become bad; especially
when there is not only a want of that, but bad Examples enough, as, the
more is the pity, there is in many Families; by vertue of which poor
Children are trained up in Sin, and nursed therein for the Devil and
Hell. But it was otherwise with Mr. Badman, for to my knowledge, this
his way of Lying, was a great grief to his Parents, for their hearts
were much dejected at this beginning of their Son; nor did there want
Counsel and Correction from them to him, if that would have made him
better. He wanted not to be told, in my hearing, and that over and over
and over, That all Lyars should have their part in the Lake that burns
with fire and brimstone; and that whosoever loveth and maketh a lye,
should not have any part in the new and heavenly Jerusalem: {22a} But
all availed nothing with him; when a fit, or an occasion to lie, came
upon him, he would invent, tell, and stand to his Lie (as steadfastly
as if it had been the biggest of truths,) that he told, and that with
that hardening of his heart and face, that it would be to those that
stood by, a wonder. Nay, and this he would doe when under the rod of
correction which is appointed by God for Parents to use, that thereby
they might keep their Children from Hell. {22b}
Atten. Truly it was, as I said, a bad beginning, he served the Devil
betimes; yea he became a Nurse to one of his {22c} Brats, for a spirit
of Lying is the Devils Brat, {22d} for he is a Liar and the Father of
it.
Wise. Right, he is the Father of it indeed. A Lie is begot by the
Devil, as the Father, and is brought forth by the wicked heart, as the
Mother: wherefore another Scripture also saith, Why hath Satan filled
thy heart to lye, {22e} &c. Yea, he calleth the heart that is big
with a lye, an heart that hath Conceived, that is, by the Devil. Why
hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart, thou hast not lied unto
men, but unto God. True, his lye was a lye of the highest nature, but
every lye hath the {22f} same Father and Mother as had the lie last
spoken of. For he is a lier, and the Father of it. A lie then is the
Brat of Hell, and it cannot {23a} be in the heart before the person
has committed a kind of spiritual Adultery with the Devil. That Soul
therefore that telleth a known lie, has lien with, and conceived it by
lying with the Devil, the only Father of lies. For a lie has only one
Father and Mother, the Devil and the Heart. No marvel therefore if the
hearts that hatch and bring forth Lies, be so much of complexion with
the Devil. Yea, no marvel though God and Christ have so bent their Word
against lyers: a lyer is weded to the Devil himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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