Against Lying.

 1. A great deal for me to read hast thou sent, my dearest brother Consentius: a great deal for me to read: to the which while I am preparing an answer

 2. Perceivest thou not how much this reasoning aideth the very persons whom as great game we make ado to catch by our lies? For, as thyself hast shown

 3. Which sentence dishonoreth the holy Martyrs, nay rather taketh away holy martyrdoms altogether. For they would do more justly and wisely, according

 4. Of lies are many sorts, which indeed all, universally, we ought to hate. For there is no lie that is not contrary to truth. For, as light and darkn

 5. Well then, let us set before our eyes a cunning spy as he makes up to the person whom he has already perceived to be a Priscillianist he begins wi

 6. It remains, then, that what the Priscillianists think, according to the nefarious falsity of their heresy, of God, of the soul, of the body, and th

 7. And, what is more miserable, even they, already made as it were our own, cannot find how they may believe us. For if they suspect that even in the

 8. But now observe how more tolerable in comparison with us is the lying of the Priscillianists, when they know that they speak deceitfully: whom by o

 9. When therefore we teach ours to blaspheme God that the Priscillianists may believe them theirs, let us see what evil themselves say when they there

 10. Ever, my brother, in such cases, it behoves with fear to recollect, “Whoso shall deny Me before men, I will deny him before My Father which is in

 11. “But, hidden wolves,” thou wilt say, “clad in sheep’s clothing, and privily and grievously wasting the Lord’s flock, can we no otherwise find out.

 12. “But,” thou wilt say, “we more easily penetrate their concealment if we pretend to be ourselves what they are.” If this were lawful or expedient,

 13. Or haply is it so, that he who plots in this way to find out Priscillianists, denies not Christ, forasmuch as with his mouth he utters what with h

 14. Wherefore, that which is written, “Who speaketh the truth in his heart,” is not so to be taken, as if, truth being retained in the heart, in the m

 &gt 15. And as for that saying of the Apostle, “Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another,” far b

 16. For there were even in the Apostles’ times some who preached the truth not in truth, that is, not with truthful mind: of whom the Apostle saith th

 17. Wherefore, though there be indeed many ways in which latent heretics may be sought out, without vituperating the catholic faith or praising hereti

 18. It does indeed make very much difference, for what cause, with what end, with what intention a thing be done: but those things which are clearly s

 19. Some man will say, “So then any thief whatever is to be accounted equal with that thief who steals with will of mercy?” Who would say this? But of

 20. But, what must be confessed, to human minds certain compensative sins do cause such embarrassment, that they are even thought meet to be praised,

 21. If then to sin, that others may not commit a worse sin, either against us or against any, without doubt we ought not it is to be considered in th

 22. And to holy David indeed it might more justly be said, that he ought not to have been angry no, not with one however ungrateful and rendering evi

 23. But in all our doings, even good men are very greatly embarrassed in the matter of compensative sins so that these are not esteemed to be sins, i

 24. Touching Jacob, however, that which he did at his mother’s bidding, so as to seem to deceive his father, if with diligence and in faith it be atte

 25. Nor have I undertaken that in the present discourse, as it more pertains to thee, who hast laid open the hiding-places of the Priscillianists, so

 26. To show then that some things in the Scriptures which are thought to be lies are not what they are thought, if they be rightly understood, let it

 27. There are some things of this sort even of our Saviour in the Gospel, because the Lord of the Prophets deigned to be Himself also a Prophet. Such

 28. Hence is also that which thou hast mentioned that they speak of, that the Lord Jesus, after He was risen, walked in the way with two disciples an

 29. Because, therefore, lying heretics find not in the books of the New Testament any precedents of lying which are meet to be imitated, they esteem t

 30. But why do these persons think they may imitate Tamar telling a lie, and not think they may imitate Judah committing fornication? For there they h

 31. But he who says that some lies are just, must be judged to say no other than that some sins are just, and therefore some things are just which are

 32. But, as for that which is written, that God did good to the Hebrew midwives, and to Rahab the harlot of Jericho, this was not because they lied, b

 33. It remains then that we understand as concerning those women, whether in Egypt or in Jericho, that for their humanity and mercy they received a re

 34. But some man will say, Would then those midwives and Rahab have done better if they had shown no mercy, by refusing to lie? Nay verily, those Hebr

 35. Since these things are so, because it were too long to treat thoroughly of all that in that “Pound” of Dictinius are set down as precedents of lyi

 36. But for that we are men and among men do live, and I confess that I am not yet in the number of them whom compensative sins embarrass not, it oft

 37. Add to this, (and here is cause to cry out more piteously,) that, if once we grant it to have been right for the saving of that sick man’s life to

 38. But infirmity pleadeth its part, and with favor of the crowds proclaims itself to have a cause invincible. Where it contradicts, and says, “What w

 39. But, some man will say, “Strong meat is for them that are perfect.” For in many things a relaxation by way of indulgence is allowed to infirmity,

 40. But sometimes a peril to eternal salvation itself is put forth against us which peril, they cry out, we by telling a lie, if otherwise it cannot

 41. Either then we are to eschew lies by right doing, or to confess them by repenting: but not, while they unhappily abound in our living, to make the

21. If then to sin, that others may not commit a worse sin, either against us or against any, without doubt we ought not; it is to be considered in that which Lot did, whether it be an example which we ought to imitate, or rather one which we ought to avoid. For it seems meet to be more looked into and noted, that, when so horrible an evil from the most flagitious impiety of the Sodomites was impending over his guests, which he wished to ward off and was not able, to such a degree may even that just man’s mind have been disturbed, that he was willing to do that which, not man’s fear with its misty temper, but God’s Law in its tranquil serenity, if it be consulted by us, will cry aloud, must not be done, and will command rather that we be so cautious not to sin ourselves, that we sin not through fear of any sins whatever of other men. For that just man, by fearing other men’s sins, which cannot defile except such as consent thereto, was so perturbed that he did not attend to his own sin, in that he was willing to subject his daughters to the lusts of impious men. These things, when we read in holy Scriptures, we must not, for that we believe them done, therefore believe them meet to be done; lest we violate precepts while we indiscriminately follow precedents. Or, truly, because David swore to put Nabal to death, and, upon more considerate clemency, did it not,27    1 Sam. xxv. 22–35 shall we therefore say that he is to be imitated, so that we may swear to do a thing which afterwards we may see to be not meet to be done? But as fear perturbed the one, so that he was willing to prostitute his daughters, so did anger the other, that he swore rashly. In short, if it were allowed us to inquire of them both, by asking them to tell us why they did these things, the one might answer, “Fearfulness and trembling came upon me, and darkness covered me;”28    Ps. lv. 5 the other too might say, “Mine eye was troubled through wrath:”29    Ps. vi. 7, turbatus est prœ ira, as in LXX. “Mine eye is consumed because of grief.” E.V. so that we should not marvel either that the one in the darkness of fear, or the other with troubled eye, saw not what was meet to have been seen, that they might not do what was not meet to have been done.

21. Si ergo peccare, ne gravius vel in nos vel in quoslibet alii peccent, procul dubio non debemus; considerandum est in eo quod fecit Loth, utrum exemplum sit quod imitari, an potius quod vitare debeamus. Magis enim videtur intuendum et notandum, cum tam horrendum malum ex impietate flagitiosissima Sodomitarum suis impenderet hospitibus, quod cuperet depellere, nec valeret, sic etiam justi animum potuisse turbari, ut vellet facere quod non humani timoris nebulosa tempestas, sed divini juris tranquilla serenitas, si consulatur a nobis, faciendum non esse clamabit; et jubebit potius ut sic nostra peccata caveamus, ne ullorum prorsus alienorum peccatorum timore peccemus. Aliena quippe ille vir justus timendo peccata, quae nisi consentientes inquinare non possunt, perturbatus non attendit suum, quo voluit subdere filias libidinibus impiorum. Haec quando in Scripturis sanctis legimus, non ideo quia facta credimus etiam facienda credamus; ne violemus praecepta, dum passim sectamur exempla. An vero quia juravit David se occisurum esse Nabal, et clementia consideratiore non fecit (I Reg. XXV, 22 35), propterea illum imitandum esse dicemus, ut temere juremus nos esse facturos, quod non esse faciendum postea videamus? Sed sicut illum timor, ut prostituere filias vellet; sic istum, ut temere juraret, ira turbavit. Denique si de ambobus interrogando ut dicerent cur haec fecerint, fas nobis esset inquirere, posset ille respondere, Timor et tremor venerunt super me, et contexerunt me tenebrae (Psal. LIV, 6); posset etiam dicere iste, Turbatus est prae ira oculus meus (Psal. VI, 8): ut non miraremur vel illum in timoris tenebris, vel istum oculo turbato non vidisse quod videndum fuit, ne facerent quod faciendum non fuit.