42. It clearly appears then,
all being discussed, that those testimonies of Scripture have none
other meaning than that we must never at all tell a lie: seeing
that not any examples of lies, worthy of imitation, are found in
the manners and actions of the Saints, as regards those Scriptures
which are referred to no figurative signification, such as is the
history in the Acts of the Apostles. For all those sayings of our
Lord in the Gospel, which to more ignorant minds seem lies, are
figurative significations. And as to what the Apostle says: “I am
made all things to all men, that I might gain all;”23782378 the right
understanding is, that he did this not by lying, but by sympathy;
so that he dealt with them in liberating them with so great
charity, as if he were himself in that evil from which he wished to
make them whole. There must therefore be no lying in the doctrine
of piety: it is a heinous wickedness, and the first sort of
detestable lie. There must be no lying of the second sort; because
no man must have a wrong done to him. There must be no lying of the
third sort; because we are not to consult any man’s good to the
injury of another. There must be no lying of the fourth sort, that
is, for the lust of lying, which of itself is vicious. There must
be no lying of the fifth sort, because not even the truth itself is
to be uttered with the aim of men-pleasing, how much less a lie,
which of itself, as a lie, is a foul thing? There must be no lying
of the sixth sort; for it is not right that even the truth of
testimony be corrupted for any man’s temporal convenience and
safety. But unto eternal salvation none is to be led by aid of a
lie. For not by the ill manners of them that convert him is he to
be converted to good manners: because if it is meet to be done
towards him, himself also ought when converted to do it toward
others; and so is he converted not to good, but to ill manners,
seeing that is held out to be imitated by him when converted, which
was done unto him in converting him. Neither in the seventh sort
must there be any lying; for it is meet that not any man’s
commodity or temporal welfare be preferred to the perfecting of
faith. Not even if any man is so ill moved by our right deeds as to
become worse in his mind, and far more remote from piety, are right
deeds therefore to be foregone: since what we are chiefly to hold
is that whereunto we ought to call and invite them whom as our own
selves we love; and with most courageous mind we must drink in that
apostolic sentence: “To some we are a savor of life unto life, to
others a savor of death unto death; and who is sufficient for these
things?”23792379 Nor in the
eighth sort must there be lying: because both among good things
chastity of mind is greater than pudicity of body; and among evil
things, that which ourselves do, than that which we suffer to be
done. In these eight kinds, however, a man sins less when he tells
a lie, in proportion as he emerges to the eighth: more, in
proportion as he di477verges to the first. But whoso
shall think there is any sort of lie that is not sin, will deceive
himself foully, while he deems himself honest as a deceiver of
other men.
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