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| Chapter XVII. How the saints have profitably employed a lie like hellebore.
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Chapter XVII.
How the saints have profitably employed a lie like
hellebore.
And so we ought to regard a lie
and to employ it as if its nature were that of hellebore; which is
useful if taken when some deadly disease is threatening, but if taken
without being required by some great danger is the cause of immediate
death. For so also we
read
that holy men and those most approved by God employed lying, so as not
only to incur no guilt of sin from it, but even to attain the greatest
goodness; and if deceit could confer glory on them, what on the other
hand would the truth have brought them but condemnation? Just as Rahab,
of whom Scripture gives a record not only of no good deed but actually
of unchastity, yet simply for the lie, by means of which she preferred
to hide the spies instead of betraying them, had it vouchsafed to her
to be joined with the people of God in everlasting blessing. But if she
had preferred to speak the truth and to regard the safety of the
citizens, there is no doubt that she and all her house would not have
escaped the coming destruction, nor would it have been vouchsafed to
her to be inserted in the progenitors of our Lord’s
nativity,2022
and reckoned in
the list of the patriarchs, and through her descendants that followed,
to become the mother of the Saviour of all. Again Dalila, who to
provide for the safety of her fellow citizens betrayed the truth she
had discovered, obtained in exchange eternal destruction, and has left
to all men nothing but the memory of her sin. When then any grave
danger hangs on confession of the truth, then we must take to lying as
a refuge, yet in such a way as to be for our salvation troubled by the
guilt of a humbled conscience. But where there is no call of the utmost
necessity present, there a lie should be most carefully avoided as if
it were something deadly: just as we said of a cup of hellebore which
is indeed useful if it is only taken in the last resort when a deadly
and inevitable disease is threatening, while if it is taken when the
body is in a state of sound and rude health, its deadly properties at
once go to find out the vital parts. And this was clearly shown of
Rahab of Jericho, and the patriarch Jacob; the former of whom could
only escape death by means of this remedy, while the latter could not
secure the blessing of the first-born without it. For God is not only
the Judge and inspector of our words and actions, but He also looks
into their purpose and aim. And if He sees that anything has been done
or promised by some one for the sake of eternal salvation and shows
insight into Divine contemplation, even though it may appear to men to
be hard and unfair, yet He looks at the inner goodness of the heart and
regards the desire of the will rather than the actual words spoken,
because He must take into account the aim of the work and the
disposition of the doer, whereby, as was said above, one man may be
justified by means of a lie, while another may be guilty of a sin of
everlasting death by telling the truth. To which end the patriarch
Jacob also had regard when he was not afraid to imitate the hairy
appearance of his brother’s body by wrapping himself up in skins,
and to his credit acquiesced in his mother’s instigation of a lie
for this object. For he saw that in this way there would be bestowed on
him greater gains of blessing and righteousness than by keeping to the
path of simplicity: for he did not doubt that the stain of this lie
would at once be washed away by the flood of the paternal blessing, and
would speedily be dissolved like a little cloud by the breath of the
Holy Spirit; and that richer rewards of merit would be bestowed on him
by means of this dissimulation which he put on than by means of the
truth, which was natural to him.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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