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; and upon their
drawing near to the village whither they were going, He made as
though He would have gone farther: where the Evangelist, saying,
“But He Himself feigned that He would go further,”2435
hath put
that very word in which
liars too greatly
delight, that they may
with impunity
lie: as if every thing that is feigned is a
lie,
whereas in a truthful way, for the sake of signifying one thing by
another, so many things use to be feigned. If then there had been
no other thing that
Jesus signified, in that He feigned to be going
further, with reason might it be judged to be a
lie: but then if it
be rightly understood and referred to that which He willed to
signify, it is a
mystery. Else will all things be
lies which, on
account of a certain similitude of things to be signified, although
they never were done, are related to have been done. Of which sort
is that concerning the two sons of one man, the
elder who tarried
with his
father, and the younger who went into a
far country, which
is narrated so much at length.
2436
In which sort of fiction, men have
put even human
deeds or words to irrational
animals and things
without sense, that by this sort of feigned narrations but true
significations, they might in more winning manner intimate the
things which they wished. Nor is it only in
authors of secular
letters, as in Horace,
2437
| 2437 Serm. ii. 6; Epist. i.
7. |
that mouse speaks to mouse, and
weasel to
fox, that through a fictitious narration a true
signification may be referred to the matter in
hand; whence the
like
fables of Æsop being referred to the same end, there is no
man so untaught as to think they ought to be called
lies: but in
Holy Writ also, as in the book of Judges, the
trees seek them a
king, and speak to the olive, to the
fig and to the
vine and to the
bramble.
2438
Which, in
any
wise, is all feigned, with intent that one may get to the thing
which is intended, by a feigned narration indeed, yet not a
lying
one, but with a truthful signification. This I have said on account
of that which is written concerning
Jesus, “And Himself feigned
to be going further:” lest any from this word, like the
Priscillianists, wishing to have license of
lying, should
contend
that beside others even
Christ did
lie. But whoso would understand
what He by feigning that did prefigure, let him attend to that
which He by acting did effect. For when afterwards He did go
further, above all heavens, yet deserted He not His
disciples. In
order to signify this which in the future He did as God, at the
present He feigned to do that as Man. And therefore was a veritable
signification caused in that feigning to go before, because in this
departure the verity of that signification did follow after. Let
him therefore contend that Christ did lie by feigning, who denieth
that He fulfilled by doing that which He signified.
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