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

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 these two it does not follow that any is good, because one is worse. He is worse who steals through coveting, than he who steals through pity: but if all theft be sin, from all theft we must abstain. For who can say that people may sin, even though one sin be damnable, another venial? but now we are asking, if a man shall do this or that, who will not sin or will sin? not, who will sin more heavily or lightly. For even thefts themselves are more lightly punished by law than crimes of lust: they are, however, both sins, albeit the one lighter, the other heavier; so that a theft which is committed of concupiescence is held to be lighter than an act of lust which is committed for doing a good turn. Namely, in their own kind these become lighter than other sins of the same kind, which appear to be committed with a good intention; when yet the same compared with sins of another kind lighter in respect of the kind itself, are found to be heavier. It is a heavier sin to commit theft of avarice than of mercy; and likewise it is a heavier sin to perpetrate lewdness of luxury, than of mercy; and yet is it a heavier sin to commit adultery of mercy, than to commit theft of avarice. Nor is it our concern now, what is lighter or what heavier, but what are sins or are not. For no man can say that it was a duty for a sin to be done, where it is clearly a sin; but we say that it is a duty, if the sin were done so or so, to forgive or not to forgive.

CAPUT VIII.

19. Peccatum esse ex intentione aliud alio levius; non tamen faciendum levius, quod saepe alterius generis peccato gravius est. Dicet aliquis: Ergo aequandus est fur quilibet ei furi qui misericordiae voluntate furatur? Quis hoc dixerit? Sed horum duorum non ideo est quisquam bonus, quia pejor est unus. Pejor est enim qui concupiscendo, quam qui miserando furatur: sed si furtum omne peccatum est, ab omni furto est abstinendum. Quis enim dicat esse 0530 peccandum, etiamsi aliud sit damnabile, aliud veniale peccatum? Nunc autem quaerimus, si hoc aut illud quisque fecerit, quis non peccabit, sive peccabit; non quis gravius leviusve peccabit. Nam et ipsa furta levius utique puniuntur lege, quam stupra: sunt autem utraque peccata, quamvis alia leviora, alia graviora; ita ut levius habeatur furtum quod concupiscendo, quam stuprum quod subveniendo committitur. In suo quippe genere aliis ejusdem generis peccatis leviora fiunt, quae bono animo videntur admitti; cum tamen et ipsa alterius generis peccatis ipso suo genere levioribus inveniantur esse graviora. Gravius est enim avaritia, quam misericordia furtum facere; itemque stuprum gravius est luxuria, quam misericordia perpetrare: et tamen gravius est adulterare misericordia, quam furari avaritia. Neque nunc agitur quid sit levius sive gravius, sed quae sint peccata vel non sint. Nemo enim dixerit debuisse peccari, ubi constat esse peccatum: sed debere dicimus, si ita vel ita peccatum est, ignosci vel non ignosci.