9. Judge what lying is by thy own desire and expectation to be believed. Wouldst thou not have men believe thee, whether thou speak truth or not? I know thou wouldst; for the liar loseth his end if he be known to lie, and be not believed. And is it a reasonable desire or expectation in thee to have men to believe a lie? If thou wouldst be believed, speak that which is to be believed.
10. Lying maketh thee to be always incredible, and so to be useless or dangerous to others; for he that will lie doth leave men uncertain whether ever he speak truth, unless there be better evidence of it than his credibility. As Aristotle saith, A liar gets this by lying, that nobody will believe him when he speaks the truth. How shall I know that he speaketh truth to-day who lied yesterday? unless open repentance recover his credibility. Truth will defend itself, and credit him that owneth it at last; but falsehood is indefensible, and will shame its patrons. Saith Petrarch excellently, As truth is immortal, so a fiction and lie endureth not long: dissembled matters are quickly opened; as the hair that is combed and set with great diligence is ruffled with a little blast of wind; and the paint that is laid on the face with a deal of labour, is washed off with a little sweat: the craftiest lie cannot stand before the truth; but is transparent to him that nearly looketh into it; every thing that is covered is soon uncovered: shadows pass away; and the native colour of things remaineth: it is a great labour to keep hidden long. No man can live long under water; he must needs come forth, and show the face which he concealed.[507] At the furthest God at the day of judgment will lay open all.
Direct. II. If you would avoid lying, take heed of guilt.[508] Unclean bodies need a cover; and are most ashamed to be seen. Faultiness causeth lying; and lying increaseth the fault. When men have done that which they are afraid or ashamed to make known, they think there is a necessity of using their art to keep it secret. But wit and craft are no good substitute for honesty; such patches make the rent much worse. But because the corrupted heart of man will be thus working and flying to deceitful shifts, prevent the cause and occasion of your lying. Commit not the fault that needs a lie. Avoiding it is much better than hiding it, if you were sure to keep it never so close. As indeed you are not; for commonly truth will come to light. It is the best way in the world to avoid lying, to be innocent; and do nothing which doth fear the light: truth and honesty do not blush, nor desire to be hid. Children and servants are much addicted to this crime: when their folly, or wantonness, or appetites, or slothfulness, or carelessness hath made them faulty, they presently study a lie to hide it with; which is to go to the devil to entreat him to defend or cover his own works. But wise, and obedient, and careful, and diligent, and conscionable children and servants, have need of no such miserable shifts.
Direct. III. Fear God more than man, if you would not be liars.[509] The excessive fear of man is a common cause of lying; this maketh children so apt to lie, to escape the rod; and most persons that are obnoxious to much hurt from others, are in danger of lying to avoid their displeasure. But why fear you not God more, whose displeasure is unspeakably more terrible? Your parents or master will be angry, and threaten to correct you; but God threateneth to damn you; and his wrath is a consuming fire: no man's displeasure can reach your souls, and extend to eternity: will you run into hell to escape punishment on earth? Remember, whenever you are tempted to escape any danger by a lie, that you run into a thousandfold greater danger, and that no hurt that you escape by it, can possibly be half so great as the hurt it bringeth. It is as foolish a course as to cure the tooth-ache by cutting off the head.
Direct. IV. Get down your pride, and over-much regard of the thoughts of men, if you would not be liars. Pride makes men so desirous of reputation, and so impatient of the hard opinion of others, that all the honest endeavours of the proud are too little to procure the reputation they desire, and therefore lying must make up the rest. Shame is so intolerable a suffering to them, that they make lies the familiar cover of their nakedness. He that hath not riches, hath pride, and would be thought somebody, and therefore will set out his estate by a lie. He that hath not eminency of parentage and birth, if he have pride will make himself a gentleman by a lie. He that is a contemptible person at home, if he be proud, will make himself honourable among strangers by a lie. He that wanteth learning, degrees, or any thing that he would be proud of, will endeavour by a lie to supply his wants: even as wanton women by the actual lie of painting, would make themselves beautiful, through a proud desire to be esteemed. Especially he that committeth a shameful crime, if he be proud will rather venture on a lie than on the shame. But if your pride be cured, your temptation to lying will be as nothing; you will be so indifferent in matters of honour or reputation, as not to venture your souls on God's displeasure for it: not that any should be impudent, or utterly regardless of their reputation; but none should overvalue it, nor prefer it before their souls, nor seek it by unlawful means. Avoid shame by well-doing, and spare not: (only see that you have a higher end.) Seneca saith, There are more that abstain from sin through shame, than through virtue or a good will: it is well when virtue is so much in credit, and vice in discredit, that those that have not the virtue would fain have the name, and those that will not leave the vice, would escape the shame; and it is well that there are human motives to restrain them that care not for divine ones. But as human motives cause no saving virtues; so devilish and wicked means are far from preventing any pernicious hurt, being the certain means to procure it.[510]
Direct. V. Avoid ambition, and human, unnecessary dependence, if you would avoid lying. For the ambitious give up themselves to men; and therefore flattering must be their trade; and how much of lying is necessary to the composition of flattery, I need not tell you. Truth is seldom taken for the fittest instrument of flattery. It is contrarily the common road to hatred: Libere et sine adulatione veritatem prædicantes, et gesta pravæ vitæ arguentes, gratiam non habent apud homines, saith Ambrose. They that preach truth freely and without flattery, and reprove the deeds of a wicked life, find not favour with men. Veritatem semper inimicitiæ persequuntur:[511] Hatred is the shadow of truth, as envy is of happiness. When Aristippus was asked why Dionysius spake so much against him, he answered, for the same reason that all other men do; intimating that it was no wonder if the tyrant was impatient of truth and plain dealing, when it is so with almost all mankind: they are so culpable, that all but flatterers seem to handle them too hard, and hurt their sores. And herein lieth much of the misery of great men, that few or none deal truly with them, but they are flattered into perdition: saith Seneca, Divites cum omnia habent, unum illis deest; scilicet qui verum dicat: si enim in clientelam fælicis hominis potentumque perveneris, aut veritas aut amicitia perdenda est: One thing rich men want when they have all things, that is, a man to speak the truth: for if thou become the dependant or client of prosperous or great men, thou must cast away (or lose) either the truth or their friendship.[512] Hierom thought that therefore Christ had not a house to put his head in, because he would flatter nobody, and therefore nobody would entertain him in the city. And the worst of all is, that where flattery reigneth, it is taken for a duty, and the neglect of it for a vice: as Hieron. (ad Cel.) saith, Quodque gravissimum est, quia humilitatis ac benevolentiæ loco ducitur, ita fit ut qui adulari nescit, aut invidus aut superbus reputetur, i. e. And, which is most grievous, because it goes for humility and kindness, it comes to pass that he that cannot flatter is taken to be envious or proud. But the time will come, that the flatterer will be hated even by him that his fallacious praises pleased. Deceit and lies do please the flattered person but a while; even till he find the bitterness of the effects, and the fruit have told him that it was but a sugared kind of enmity: and therefore he will not long be pleased with the flatterer himself. Flattery ever appeareth at last, to be but perniciosa dulcedo, as Austin calls it. Saith the same Austin, (in Psal. lix.) There are two sorts of persecutors, the opposer (or dispraiser) and the flatterer: but the tongue of the flatterer hurteth more than the hand of the persecutor.[513] And think not that any man's greatness or favour will excuse thee or save thee harmless in thy lies; for God that avengeth them is greater than the greatest. Saith Austin, (li. de Mendac.) Quisquis autem esse aliquod genus mendacii, quod peccatum non sit putaverit, decipiet semetipsum turpiter, cum honestum se deceptorem arbitretur aliorum, i. e. Whoever thinks that there is any kind of lie that is no sin, he deceiveth himself foully, whilst he thinks himself an honest deceiver of others. "Be not the servants of men," 1 Cor. vii. 23, if you would be true.
Direct. VI. Love not covetousness, if you would not be liars.[514] A lie will seem to a covetous man an easy means to procure his gain, to get a good bargain, or put off a cracked commodity for more than it is worth. Rupere fœdus, impius lucri furor, et ira præceps. Sen. Hip. He that loveth money better than God and conscience, will for money displease God and conscience, by this or any other sin.
Direct. VII. Learn to trust God, if you would not be liars.[515] For lying is the practice of him that thinks he must provide and shift for himself. Even Abraham's and Isaac's equivocation, (saying their wives were their sisters,) and David's feigning himself mad, proceeded from some distrust in God: they would not have thought it necessary so to shift for their lives, if they had fully trusted God with their lives. Gehazi's covetousness and lying did both proceed from a want of confidence in God. If a man were confident of God's protection, and that he had better stand to God's choice in all things than his own, what use could he think he hath for lying, or for any sinful shift?
Direct. VIII. Be not too credulous of bad reports, if you would not be liars. Malice is so mad, and so unconscionable a sin, and the tongues of men are commonly so careless of what they say, that if you easily believe evil, you do but easily believe the devil, and thereby make yourselves his servants in divulging malicious lies. You think because they are spoken by many, and spoken confidently, you may lawfully believe or report what you hear. But this is but to think that the commonness of liars, and their malice and impudence, will warrant you to follow them, even because they are so bad. Will you bark and bite because that dogs do so? If a man be stung with an adder, you should help to cure him, and not desire yourselves to sting him: selfish, and interested, and malicious, and partial, factious persons, are so commonly liars, and impudent in their lies, that it behoveth you, if you would not be liars yourselves, to take heed of reporting any thing they say. These spiders will weave a web of the air, or out of their own bowels.[516]
Direct. IX. Be not rash in speaking things before you have tried them. Consider what you say, and know before you speak. Is it not a shame when you have spoken falsely, to come off with saying, I thought it had been true? But why will you speak upon thought, and not stay till you better understood the case? If the matter required such haste in speaking, you should have said no more than, I think it is so. "Prove all things," and then "hold that which is good," and assert that which is true. Saith Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 1. 1. Nihil est temeritate turpius, nec quicquam tam indignum sapientis gravitate aut constantia, quam out falsum sentire, aut quod non satis explorate perceptum sit et cognitum, sine ulla dubitatione defendere: Nothing is more unseemly than temerity: nor any thing so unworthy the gravity or constancy of a wise man, than either to hold a falsehood, or confidently to defend that which is not received and known upon sufficient trial.[517]