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THE RELATIVE DUTIES OF MANKIND. [Part HI.

delight.” # “ Lie not one to another,” says St. Paul, “ seeing

that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put onthe new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image ofhim that created him.”f Again, St. Paul says, “The law isnot made for a righteous man, but for the lawless, for the ungod-ly, and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers offathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whore-mongers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any otherthing that is contrary to sound doctrine .”\ St. John says,“ All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fireand brimstone.” § Again, “ There shall in no wise enter intoit (the holy Jerusalem) any thing that defileth, neither whatsoeverworketh abomination, or maketh a lie.” And again, “ Withoutare dogs, (all persons not good men, all defiled by sin,) and sor-cerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, andwhosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” [|

In these passages, falsehood is ranked with perjury, murder,sorcery, idolatry, parricide, and whatsoever worketh abomination.We may not perhaps be warranted in concluding, that all thesesins are of an equally dark dye ; but assuredly we may conclude,that falsehood is any thing but a light sin, when it is ranked, onDivine authority, with the abominations of perjury and parricide,without any mark of discrimination between them.

And, when we advert to the consequences of general and indis-criminate falsehood, we must be convinced, that right reasoncoincides with and sustains Divine revelation in its estimate ofthe importance of truth, and of the abomination of falsehood ;and that mankind are not in the wrong in estimating a regard fortruth as the first of the personal virtues. The seal of universalreprobation is rightfully fixed on wilful and deliberate lying.Mutual confidence is the main spring of all that renders life valu-able ; and a regard for truth is the corner-stone, nay, it is theentire foundation, of all the confidence which exists, whether inthe social intercourse, or in the business transactions, of mankind.So accustomed are we to receive and reciprocate confidence,that we cannot, without some reflection, be sensible of its abso-

* Prov. xii. 22 . f Col. iii. 9,10. t 1 Tim. i. 9,10.

§ Rev. xxi. 8- || Rev. xxl 27; xxii. 15.