42. It clearly appears then,
all being discussed, that those testimonies of Scripture have none
other meaning than that we must never at all tell a lie: seeing
that not any examples of lies, worthy of imitation, are found in
the manners and actions of the Saints, as regards those Scriptures
which are referred to no figurative signification, such as is the
history in the Acts of the Apostles. For all those sayings of our
Lord in the Gospel, which to more ignorant minds seem lies, are
figurative significations. And as to what the Apostle says: “I am
made all things to all men, that I might gain all;”2378
the right
understanding is, that he did this not by
lying, but by sympathy;
so that he dealt with them in liberating them with so great
charity, as if he were himself in that
evil from which he wished to
make them whole. There must therefore be no
lying in the
doctrine
of
piety: it is a heinous
wickedness, and the first sort of
detestable lie. There must be no
lying of the second sort; because
no man must have a wrong done to him. There must be no
lying of the
third sort; because we are not to
consult any man’s good to the
injury of another. There must be no
lying of the fourth sort, that
is, for the
lust of
lying, which of itself is vicious. There must
be no
lying of the fifth sort, because not even the
truth itself is
to be uttered with the aim of men-pleasing, how much less a
lie,
which of itself, as a
lie, is a foul thing? There must be no
lying
of the sixth sort; for it is not right that even the
truth of
testimony be
corrupted for any man’s temporal convenience and
safety. But unto
eternal salvation none is to be led by aid of a
lie. For not by the
ill manners of them that
convert him is he to
be
converted to good manners: because if it is meet to be done
towards him, himself also ought when
converted to do it toward
others; and so is he
converted not to good, but to
ill manners,
seeing that is held out to be
imitated by him when
converted, which
was done unto him in converting him. Neither in the seventh sort
must there be any
lying; for it is meet that not any man’s
commodity or temporal welfare be preferred to the perfecting of
faith. Not even if any man is so
ill moved by our right
deeds as to
become worse in his
mind, and
far more remote from
piety, are right
deeds therefore to be foregone: since what we are chiefly to hold
is that whereunto we ought to call and invite them whom as our own
selves we
love; and with most
courageous mind we must drink in that
apostolic sentence: “To some we are a
savor of
life unto
life, to
others a
savor of
death unto
death; and who is sufficient for these
things?”
2379
Nor in the
eighth sort must there be
lying: because both among good things
chastity of
mind is greater than pudicity of body; and among
evil
things, that which ourselves do, than that which we
suffer to be
done. In these eight kinds, however, a man
sins less when he tells
a
lie, in proportion as he emerges to the eighth: more, in
proportion as he diverges to the first. But whoso
shall think there is any sort of
lie that is not sin, will deceive
himself foully, while he deems himself honest as a deceiver of
other men.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
