359 / 514
SRAM.
XXI.]
TRUTH; SINCERITY,
&C.
35
t
It
is
upon
this
supposition
of
an
all
-
knowing
and
avenging
power,
that
oaths are administered in
all
coun-
tries
which
are reformed from
utter
barbarity.
An
oath
is
appointed
to be
the confirmation
of
truth
in
what
we
say
or
do.
Therein God
himself, with all his
knowledge,
his
power
and
his
terrors,
is
called
upon
to
bear
witness
to what
we
speak,
and
to
be
an avenger
of
perjury and
falsehood. Surely
we
might venture
to
say,
that
a day
will
come when the
great and
holy
God
will shew
himself
terrible
to liars and deceivers,
if
we
had nothing
but
the
light
of
nature
to
tell
us so.
II.
If
we
consider
our relation
to mankind,
truth
will
appear
to be
a
necessary duty.
Man
is
a
sociable
creature,
he
is
made to
love
society;
but
no
society
can
be
maintained without
truth
:
All
falsehood
therefore
is
inconsistent
with the social
nature of
mankind, and
con-
sequently it
becomes
contrary
to
the
law
and light
of
nature.
Without truth
we
should all become deceivers
to one another, every
man
a
liar
to his
neighbour.
No
contracts
would be
of
any
force;
no
commerce could be
maintained;
none
of
us
would
be
able
to
trust
another,
nor
could
we
live safe by
those
that
dwell
nearest
to us.
He that
indulges
himself
in
lying,
takes
away
his
own
credit, and
gives sufficient
occasion for
his
neighbour
not
to believe
him,
even when
he
happens
to
speak the
truth;
for
a
man
that
will
lie
and
deceive sometimes,
how
can
we
tell
that
he
is
not
dealing deceitfully
with
us,
even
when
he professes to be
most faithful
and true
?
And
children
should
take
notice
of
this,
that
if
once they
in-
dulge the
sin
of
lying,
there
is
no body
will
ever believe
what they
say.
A
liar
is
such
an
abandoned character amongst man-
kind,
that
though there are too
many
who
deserve
the
name,
yet
every one
is
ashamed
of
it.
It
is
esteemed
a
reproach of
so
heinous and
hateful
a nature for
a
man
to
be
called
a
liar,
that
sometimes the
life
and blood
of
the
slanderer
has paid
for
it.
The
very
nature
of
man
re-
sents
it
highly,
for
it
implies
in it,
that
a
man guilty
of
this vice deserves
to be
cut
off from all society with
mankind, and
to be
thrust out of
cities
and
families like
a
beast
of
the
earth.
The
same
thing
may be
said
of-an
unfaithful
man,
a
man
who
makes promises, contracts;
and
agreements,