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, and am drawn
off first by one, then by another, more urgent occupation, the year
has measured out its course, and has thrust me into such straits,
that I must answer in what sort I may, lest the time for sailing
being now favorable, and the bearer desirous to return, I should
too long detain him. Having therefore unrolled and read through all
that Leonas, servant of God, brought me from thee, both soon after
I received it, and afterwards when about to dictate this reply, and
having weighed it with all the consideration in my power, I am
greatly delighted with thy eloquence, and memory of the holy
Scripture, and cleverness of wit, and the resentment with which
thou bitest negligent Catholics, and the zeal with which thou
gnashest against even latent heretics. But I am not persuaded that
it is right to unearth them out of their hiding places by our
telling lies. For to what end do we take such pains in tracking
them out and running them down, but that having taken them and
brought them forth into open day, we may either teach them the
truth, or at least having convicted them by the truth, may not
allow them to hurt others? to this end, therefore, that their lie
may be blotted out, or shunned, and God’s truth increased. How
then by a lie shall I rightly be able to prosecute lies? Or is it
by robbery that robberies and by sacrilege that sacrileges, and by
adultery that adulteries, are to be prosecuted? “But if the truth
of God shall abound by my lie,” are we too to say, “Let us do
evil that good may come?”2384
A thing which thou seest how the
Apostle detesteth. For what else is, “Let us
lie, that we may
bring heretic
liars to the
truth,” but, “Let us do
evil that
good may come?” Or, is a
lie sometimes good, or sometimes a
lie
not
evil? Why then is it written, “Thou hatest,
Lord, all that
work iniquity; Thou wilt
destroy all that speak leasing.”
2385
| 2385 Psalm v. 6, 7. [See R.V.]
“Thou wilt destroy them that speak a lie,” Heb. πάντας τοὺς
λαλοῦντας τὸ
ψεῦδος, LXX. |
For he
hath not excepted some, or said indefinitely, “Thou wilt
destroy
them that speak leasing;” so as to permit some, not all, to be
understood: but it is an universal sentence that he hath passed,
saying, “Thou wilt
destroy all who speak leasing.” Or,
because it is not said, Thou wilt
destroy all who speak
all leasing, or, who speak any leasing whatsoever; is it therefore
to be thought that there is place allowed for some
lie; to wit,
that there should be some leasing, and them who speak it,
God
should not
destroy, but
destroy them all which speak
unjust
leasing, not what lie soever, because there is found also a just
lie, which as such ought to be matter of praise, not of
crime?
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