35. Moreover what is written
“Thou wilt destroy all that speak leasing:”23602360 one saith that no lie is here
excepted, but all condemned. Another saith: Yea verily: but they
who speak leasing from the heart, as we disputed above; for that
man speaketh truth in his heart, who hateth the necessity of lying,
which he understands as a penalty of the moral life. Another saith:
All indeed will God destroy who speak leasing, but not all leasing:
for there is some leasing which the Prophet was at that time
insinuating, in which none is spared; that is, if refusing to
confess each one his sins, he defend them rather, and will not do
penance,23612361 so that
not content to work iniquity, he must needs wish to be thought
just, and succumb not to the medicine of confession: as the very
distinction of the words may seem to intimate no other, “Thou
hatest all that work iniquity;”23622362 but wilt not destroy them if upon
repenting they speak the truth in confession, that by doing that
truth they may come to the light; as is said in the Gospel
according to John, “But be that doeth truth cometh unto the
light.23632363 Thou wilt
destroy all who” not only work what Thou hatest, but also
“speak leasing;”23642364 in holding out before them false
righteousness, and not confessing their sins in
penitence.