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SEAM.
XX.
TRUTH, SINCERITY,
&C.
:i3á
truth
with
his
neighbour';
for
we
all
are
members
one
off'
another
:
Members one
of
another,
as
we
belong
to the
same original, as
we
are
born
of
the
same first
parents,
as
we
are
made
of
one
flesh
and
blood,
as we
are parts
of
the
same
civil
society
or
nation, and
especially
as we
that
profess
christianity are
related
to
one
another
in
nearer
and
diviner bonds,
as
we
are
members
of
the
general
church or
body
of
Christ. Now
it
does
not
become
those
who
are
joined
in
so
near
a
relation, to
lie
and
speak
falsely,
and
deceive one
another,
no
more
than
the members
of
the
natural
body should do
injury
to
each
other,
whose single welfare lies
much
in
the
welfare
of
the whole body.
I
grant it
is
possible for
the best
and
wisest
of
men
sometimes
to be
mistaken
in
their apprehensions
of
things,
and
they
may
happen
to
speak something
that
is
false in the
course
of
their conversation
:
for they may
be deceived
themselves,
and not
know
the
truth. But in
matters
which
they
have occasion
to
speak
of,
they
ought
to
be
as well
informed
of
the
truth
of
things as
present
circumstances will admit, and to
say
nothing
to
their neighbour
but
what they really
believe themselves.
When
we
speak
a
thing which
we
sincerely
believe,
and it happens not
to
be
true,
that
is
properly called
a
MISTAKE,
for
we
had no design to deceive the
person
we
converse
with.
But
when
we
speak the
thing
that
is
false,
and
we
know
it
to be
false,
or
do
not
believe
it to
be
true, this'
is
wilfully
to
deceive
our neighbour
;
and
is
properly
éalled
by
the odious name
of
LS
1`
c.
It
is
granted
also,
that
no
person
is
always
obliged to
speak
all
that
he knows,
when
he
is
giving an
account
of
some
particular
affair
or concern
of
life.
There
are
se-
veral
seasons,
wherein it
is
a piece
of great
prudence
to
be
silent and not
to
publish
all
the truth.
We have a
most
remarkable instance
of
this
in
the
prophet Jeremiah,
when he had been
admitted
to the speech
of
Zedekiah
the
king,
and had
given him divine counsel,
that
he
should
submit himself
to
the Chaldeans, and
save
his
life,
and preserve the
city from
burning, and
at
the same
time
had
intreated
for
himself,
that
he
might
not return
to
Jonathan's
house and the
dungeon, lest
he
died there.
A
little
after, the princes
of Israel demanded of
him
what
discourse
he
had with the
king;
he
concealed
his
chief