Chapter 38 [XXXIV.]—We Must Not Lie, Even for the Sake of Moderation. The Praise of Humility Must Not Be Placed to the Account of Falsehood.

I am favourably disposed, indeed, to the view of our author, when he resists those who say to him, “What you assert seems indeed to be reasonable, but it is an arrogant thing to allege that any man can be without sin,” with this answer, that if it is at all true, it must not on any account be called an arrogant statement; for with very great truth and acuteness he asks, “On what side must humility be placed? No doubt on the side of falsehood, if you prove arrogance to exist on the side of truth.” And so he decides, and rightly decides, that humility should rather be ranged on the side of truth, not of falsehood. Whence it follows that he who said, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,”109    1 John i. 8. must without hesitation be held to have spoken the truth, and not be thought to have spoken falsehood for the sake of humility. Therefore he added the words, “And the truth is not in us;” whereas it might perhaps have been enough if he merely said, “We deceive ourselves,” if he had not observed that some were capable of supposing that the clause “we deceive ourselves” is here employed on the ground that the man who praises himself is even extolled for a really good action. So that, by the addition of “the truth is not in us,” he clearly shows (even as our author most correctly observes) that it is not at all true if we say that we have no sin, lest humility, if placed on the side of falsehood, should lose the reward of truth.

CAPUT XXXIV.

38. Verissime dicimus nos non esse sine peccato. Nec modestiae causa mentiendum. Laus humilitatis in parte non est ponenda falsitatis. Jam sane hoc multum faveo libri hujus auctori, quod adversus eos qui dicunt, «Rationabile quidem videtur esse quod asseris, sed superbum est dici hominem absque peccato esse posse;» ita respondet, ut omnino si verum est, nullo modo superbum esse dicendum sit. Ait enim acutissime atque verissime: «In qua magis parte humilitas collocanda est? Sine dubio, falsitatis, si in ea quae veritatis probatur esse superbia est.» Ac per hoc placet illi, et recte placet, ut in parte veritatis, non in parte falsitatis magis humilitas collocetur. Ex quo est consequens ut ille qui dixit, Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus, 0266 nos ipsos decipimus, et veritas in nobis non est (I Joan. I, 8); verum dixisse minime dubitetur, ne causa humilitatis hoc falsum dixisse videatur. Propterea enim addidit, Et veritas in nobis non est: cum forte sufficeret dicere, Nos ipsos decipimus; nisi attenderet quosdam putare posse, ideo dictum, nos ipsos decipimus, quia etiam de vero bono qui se laudat extollitur. Addendo itaque, Et veritas in nobis non est, manifeste ostendit, sicut etiam huic rectissime placet, hoc omnino verum non esse, si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus: ne humilitas constituta in parte falsitatis, perdat praemium veritatis.