_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?