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 tell him the lie, that his son was alive, then, by little and little and by minute degrees, the evil so grows upon us, and by slight accesses to such a heap of wicked lies does it, in its almost imperceptible encroachments, at last come, that no place can ever be any where found on which this huge mischief, by smallest additions rising into boundless strength, might be resisted. Wherefore, most providently is it written, “He that despiseth small things shall fall by little and little.”78    Ecclus. xix. 1 Nay more: for these persons who are so enamored of this life, that they hesitate not to prefer it to truth, that a man may not die, say rather, that a man who must some time die may die somewhat later, would have us not only to lie, but even to swear fasely; to wit, that, lest the vain health of man should somewhat more quickly pass away, we should take the name of the Lord our God in vain! And there are among them learned men who even fix rules, and set bounds when it is a duty, when not a duty, to commit perjury! O, where are ye, fountains of tears? And what shall we do? whither go? where hide us from the ire of truth, if we not only neglect to shun lies, but dare moreover to teach perjuries? For look they well to it, who uphold and defend lying, what kind, or what kinds, of lying they shall delight to justify: at least in the worship of God let them grant that there must be no lying; at least let them keep themselves from perjuries and blasphemies; at least there, where God’s name, where God as witness, where God’s oath79    “Sacramentum.” is interposed, where God’s religion is the matter of discourse or colloquy, let none lie, none praise, none teach and enjoin, none justify a lie: of the other kinds of lies let him choose him out that which he accounteth to be the mildest and most innocent kind of lying, he who will have it to be right to lie. This I know, that even he who teaches that it is meet to tell lies, wishes to be thought to teach a truth. For if it be false which he teaches, who would care to give heed to false doctrine, in which both he deceives that teaches and he is deceived that learns? But if, in order that he may be able to find some disciple, he upholds that he teaches a truth when he teaches that it is meet to lie, how will that lie be of the truth, when the Apostle John reclaimeth, “No lie is of the truth?”80    1 John ii. 21 It is therefore not true, that it is sometimes right to lie; and that which is not true to no man is at all to be persuaded.

37. Huc accedit, ubi miserabilius ejulandum est, quod si concesserimus pro salute illius aegri de vita filii ejus fuisse mentiendum, ita paulatim minutatimque succrescit hoc malum, et brevibus accessibus ad tantum acervum mendaciorum sceleratorum sensim subintrando perducitur, ut nunquam possit penitus inveniri, ubi tantae pesti per minima additamenta in immensum convalescenti possit obsisti. Unde providentissime scriptum est: Qui modica spernit, paulatim decidit (Eccli. XIX, 1). Quid, quod vitae hujus tales amatores, ut eam non dubitent praeponere veritati, ne homo moriatur, imo ut homo quandoque moriturus aliquanto serius moriatur, non tantum mentiri, sed etiam pejerare nos volunt; ut videlicet ne aliquanto citius transeat vana salus hominis, nomen Domini Dei nostri accipiamus in vanum? Et sunt in eis docti, qui etiam regulas figant finesque constituant, quando debeat, quando non debeat pejerari. O ubi estis, fontes lacrymarum? Et quid faciemus? quo ibimus? ubi nos occultabimus ab ira veritatis, si non solum negligimus cavere mendacia, sed audemus insuper docere perjuria? Viderint enim assertores defensoresque mendacii quale genus vel qualia genera mentiendi eos justificare delectet: saltem in Dei cultu concedant non esse mentiendum; saltem sese a perjuriis blasphemiisque contineant; saltem ubi Dei nomen, ubi Deus testis, ubi Dei sacramentum interponitur, ubi de divina religione sermo promitur sive conseritur, nemo mentiatur, nemo laudet, nemo doceat et praecipiat, nemo justum dicat esse mendacium: de caeteris mendaciorum generibus eligat sibi quod putat esse mitissimum atque innocentissimum mentiendi genus, cui placet esse mentiendum. Hoc scio, quod etiam qui docet oportere mentiri, verum docere se vult videri. Nam si falsum est quod docet, quis falsae velit studere doctrinae, ubi et fallit docens, et fallitur discens? Si autem ut aliquem possit invenire discipulum, docere se asserit verum, cum doceat esse mentiendum; quomodo erit illud ex veritate mendacium, Joanne Apostolo reclamante, Omne mendacium non est ex veritate (I Joan. II, 21)? Non est ergo verum, aliquando esse mentiendum: et quod non est verum, nemini est omnino suadendum.