Reverend Hale utters these words in Act Four, after he has returned to Salem. He left at the end of Act Three, having denounced the proceedings and determined that the court was, indeed, corrupt. When he says, "I come to do the Devil's work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves," he is referring to the fact that, though usually considered a sin, Hale now believes that lying -- confessing to witchcraft even...
Reverend Hale utters these words in Act Four, after he has returned to Salem. He left at the end of Act Three, having denounced the proceedings and determined that the court was, indeed, corrupt. When he says, "I come to do the Devil's work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves," he is referring to the fact that, though usually considered a sin, Hale now believes that lying -- confessing to witchcraft even though the convicted is innocent -- is the least sinful way to respond to an unjust charge that will lead to their death. He soon tells Elizabeth Proctor that "life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it [....]. [I]t may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride." In other words, he says, if the convicted will not confess due to their pride, then they are throwing their lives away and thereby commit a worse sin than lying. He believes that God would rather see them tell a lie than allow themselves to be killed for nothing.
Then, Hale says, "There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head!!" In Act Three, he said that he had signed seventy two death warrants for the convicted, and, now that he knows they were innocent, he feels responsible for their deaths.
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