Institutes & Conferences 1 part 30/44

You see, therefore, that with God it is not the progress of the deed, but the destination of the mind that is inquired into. These things, then, being laid as a foundation, that we may return to the proposed question for the sake of which all these matters have been premised, I would wish you first to answer me: for what cause did you bind yourselves with the bonds of that promise? GERMANUS: The first cause, as we have said, was that we feared to grieve our elders and to resist their precepts; the second, that, if we should perceive anything perfect and magnificent, whether by sight or by hearing, from you, we believed—by a most ill-advised persuasion—that we should be able, when we had returned to our coenobium, to practise it. JOSEPH: As we have said before, the destination of the mind either rewards or condemns a man, according to that saying:

and their thoughts among themselves mutually accusing or also defending, in the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men; and also this: But I come to gather their works and thoughts together with all nations and tongues. Wherefore, out of a desire for perfection, as I see, you bound yourselves with this chain of an oath, while you believed that perfection could be comprehended by that arrangement whereby you now perceive, upon the supervening of a fuller judgement, that its sublimity cannot be climbed to. It is no prejudgement, therefore, whatever shall have seemed to happen at variance with that disposition, provided only that no diversity of that principal purpose follow after.

For the change of an instrument is no desertion of any craftsman's work, nor does the choice of a more compendious and direct road argue sloth in a traveller: so, then, in this matter too, the amendment of an improvident disposition is not to be judged a transgression of the spiritual life. For whatever is accomplished for the charity of God and out of love of piety—which hath promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come—although it may seem to be begun with hard and adverse beginnings, is worthy not only of no reproof, but even of the greatest praise. And therefore the retraction of an incautious promise is no prejudgement, provided only that the goal, that is, the proposed destination of piety, be held by any manner whatsoever. For we do all things for this end, that we may be able to present ourselves pure of heart to God.

If the fulfillment of that purpose is judged easier in these places, the changing of the promise wrung from you will do you no harm, provided that the chief perfection of that purity, for which your vow had gone forth, be attained the sooner according to the will of the Lord. GERMANUS: As far as concerns the force of the arguments which have been reasonably and prudently set forth, the scruple of our promise could without difficulty have been driven out of us, were it not that this most vehemently deters us: that by these examples an occasion of lying seems to be opened to any of the weaker sort, if in any way they learn that the pledged faith of an agreement may lawfully be dissolved — seeing that this very thing is forbidden by words so great and so threatening, the prophet saying:

'Thou wilt destroy all who speak a lie,' and: 'The mouth that lies slays the soul.' JOSEPH: Occasions and causes of perdition cannot be lacking to those who are to perish — nay rather, to those who desire to perish. For the testimonies of the Scriptures are not to be cast away and utterly scraped off from their own body, by which either the wickedness of heretics is emboldened, or the unbelief of the Jews is hardened, or the swelling of gentile wisdom is offended; but they are assuredly both to be piously believed, and immovably held, and preached according to the rule of truth. And therefore we ought not, under the pretext of another's unbelief, to reject the οἰκονομίαι — that is, the dispensations of the prophets and saints which Scripture records —

— lest, while we believe that we ought to condescend to their weakness, we be defiled not only with the crime of lying but even of sacrilege; but, as we have said, it behoves us both to confess these things according to the letter, and to explain how they were piously done. Moreover, for those who are of a depraved purpose, an approach to lying will not be blocked by this, if we labour either utterly to deny or to weaken by allegorical interpretations the truth of those things which we are about to bring forth or have brought forth. For what will the authority of these testimonies harm those for whom even the mere corruption of the will suffices for sinning? And so a lie must be thought of, and used, as though the nature of hellebore were in it.

For if it be taken when a deadly disease is imminent, it becomes health-giving; but taken without the necessity of the utmost peril, it is the cause of present destruction. For thus we read that even holy men, most approved by God, usefully made use of a lie, so that they not only incurred no charge of sin from it, but even attained the highest righteousness. If deceit could confer glory upon them, what, on the contrary, would truth have brought them but condemnation? So Rahab, of whom Scripture records not only no virtues but even marks of unchastity, yet for a lie alone — by which she chose to conceal the spies rather than betray them — deserved by an eternal blessing to be joined to the people of God.

But if she had preferred to speak the truth or to consult the safety of her fellow-citizens, there is no doubt that she would neither have fled the impending destruction with her whole household, nor have deserved to be inserted among the authors of the Lord's nativity and numbered in the catalogue of the patriarchs, and through the succession of her offspring to bring forth the Saviour of all. Finally Delilah, who, consulting the advantage of her fellow-citizens, betrayed the truth she had discovered, obtained in return perpetual perdition, and left to all only the memory of her crime. When therefore some grave danger threatens from the confession of the truth, then the refuges of lies are to be resorted to, yet in such a way that we are wholesomely stung by the guilt of a humble conscience.

But where no condition of the utmost necessity presses, a lie is to be avoided with all caution as deadly: just as we said of the draught of hellebore, which is indeed health-giving if it be taken only when an unavoidable and deadly sickness is imminent, but if it be taken while the health of the body is entire and undisturbed, its pernicious power at once presses on to seize the vital parts. This was clearly shown in the case of Rahab of Jericho and of the patriarch Jacob, of whom the former could not have escaped death otherwise than by this remedy, nor the latter have attained the blessing of the firstborn. For God is not only the examiner and judge of our words and deeds, but also the inspector of our purpose and intention.

And if He sees anything done or promised by anyone for the sake of eternal salvation and with a view to divine contemplation — although it may seem to men hard and unjust — He nevertheless, looking into the inmost devotion of the heart, judges not the sound of the words but the desire of the will; for the end of the work and the intention of the doer must be considered, whereby one may, as was said above, even through a lie be justified, and another, by the assertion of truth, incur the sin of eternal death. Looking to which end, the patriarch Jacob too did not fear to simulate the hairy appearance of his brother's body by wrapping himself in skins, and laudably yielded to his mother who urged him to this lie.

For he saw that by this greater gains of blessing and righteousness would be conferred on him than by keeping to simplicity. For he did not doubt that the stain of this lie would forthwith be washed away by the flood of his father's blessing, and, like some little cloud, be swiftly consumed by the breath of the Holy Spirit, and that richer rewards of merit would be bestowed on him through this deliberate pretence than through that inborn truth. GERMANUS: It is no wonder that these dispensations were properly employed in the Old Testament, and that holy men sometimes laudably, or at least pardonably, lied, since we see that far greater things were allowed them in keeping with the rudiments of those times.

For why should it be a wonder that blessed David, fleeing from Saul, answered thus to Ahimelech the priest, who asked and said: 'Why art thou alone, and no one is with thee?' He said: 'The king commanded me a matter, and said: Let no one know the business for which thou art sent; for I have appointed my servants also to such and such a place.' And again: 'If thou hast here at hand a spear or a sword? for I have not brought my sword and my weapons with me' — for the king's business was urgent. Or that other thing, when, brought to Achish king of Gath, he simulated madness and frenzy and changed his countenance before them, and sank down between their hands:

and he struck against the door-post of the gate, and his spittle ran down upon his beard — while at that time men lawfully enjoyed troops of wives and concubines, and no sin was imputed to them in this regard; moreover they frequently shed the blood of their enemies with their own hand, and this was believed not only not reprehensible but even laudable? All which things we now, with the Gospel shining forth, see forbidden in every way, so that none of them can be admitted without enormous crime and sacrilege. In the same manner we believe that no lie, however covered with a pious colour, can be employed by anyone — I will not say properly, but not even pardonably — since the Lord says: 'Let your speech be yea yea, nay nay:'

'but whatsoever is more than these is of evil' — the Apostle also agreeing in the same point: 'And do not lie one to another.' JOSEPH: That ancient liberty indeed of many wives and concubines, now that the end of the ages is at hand and the multiplication of human generation is complete, was not without reason cut off, as now less necessary, by evangelical perfection; for until the coming of Christ it was fitting that the blessing of that primordial decree should be in force, by which it was said: 'Increase and multiply, and fill the earth.'

And therefore it was most just that from that root of human fruitfulness, which flourished usefully in the synagogue according to the dispensation of the time, the little flowers of angelic virginity should sprout, and the sweet-smelling fruits of continence be brought forth in the Church. But that lies were condemned even then, the whole text of the Old Testament clearly shows, saying: 'Thou wilt destroy all who speak a lie'; and again: 'The bread of lying is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth shall be filled with gravel'; and the lawgiver himself says: 'Thou shalt flee a lie.' But we have said that it was properly employed only then, when some necessity or saving dispensation was joined to it, on account of which it ought not to be condemned.

Such is that which you mentioned about King David, when, fleeing the unjust pursuit of Saul, he came to Ahimelech the priest — not with the purpose of some gain nor from a desire of harming anyone, but only that he might save himself from Saul's most impious pursuit — and used lying words; he indeed who was unwilling to defile his hands with the blood of the enemy king, one so often delivered to him by God, saying: 'God be merciful to me, that I do not this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to lay my hand upon him, for he is the Lord's anointed.'

And therefore these dispensations, which we read that holy men in the Old Testament carried out either for the will of God, or for the prefiguration of spiritual mysteries, or for the salvation of certain persons — when necessity has constrained us, we too cannot so far reject them, that we do not see even the apostles themselves not turning aside from them where the consideration of some advantage demanded it. But deferring these for a little while, when we have first arranged what we still propose to bring forward from the Old Testament, we will afterward more suitably adduce them, so that it may more easily be proved that just and holy men, both in the New and in the Old Testament, agreed with one another in all things in these dispensations.

For what shall we say of that pious pretence of Hushai toward Absalom for the safety of King David, which, though it is set forth wholly with the intent of one deceiving and circumventing, and assails the advantage of the one it counsels, is nevertheless approved by the testimony of divine Scripture, which says thus: 'But by the Lord's decree the profitable counsel of Ahithophel was frustrated, that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom'? For that could not be blamed which was carried on with a right purpose and pious judgment for the just party, and was conceived with a religious pretence for the safety and victory of him whose piety pleased God.

What too shall we pronounce of the deed of that woman, who, receiving those who had been sent to King David by the aforesaid Hushai, hid them in a well, and, spreading a covering over its mouth as though she were drying barley-groats, said: 'They passed by, having tasted a little water,' and by this fiction freed them from the hands of their pursuers? Wherefore answer me, I pray: what would you have done, if some like circumstance had arisen for us, now set under the Gospel? Would you have preferred to conceal them by a similar lie, saying in the same way, 'They passed by, having tasted a little water,' and to fulfill that which is commanded: 'Deliver those who are led to death,'

'and redeem those who are killed, spare not' — or, by the confession of the truth, to betray those in hiding to their would-be slayers? And where would that saying of the Apostle be: 'Let no one seek his own, but another's,' and: 'Charity seeks not the things that are its own, but the things that are others'; and of himself: 'I seek not,' he says, 'what is profitable to me, but to the many, that they may be saved'? For if we seek our own things and stubbornly wish to retain what is useful to us, then even in necessities of this kind we must speak the truth and become guilty of another's death; but if, preferring to our own advantages the things that are salutary for others, we satisfy the apostolic command, without doubt the necessity of lying must be undergone by us.

And therefore we shall be able neither to possess the whole bowels of charity, nor to seek the things of others according to the apostolic discipline, unless — relaxing a little those things which suit our strictness and perfection — we prefer with a ready affection to condescend to the advantages of others, and thus with the Apostle become weak to the weak, that we may gain the weak.

Instructed by which examples, the blessed apostle James also and all the chief leaders of that primitive church exhort the apostle Paul to descend to the fictions of pretence for the weakness of the weak, and compel him to be purified according to the observance of the law, to shave his head, to offer vows — counting as nothing that present loss which was engendered by this hypocrisy, but rather contemplating the gains which were to be produced by his long preaching. For not so much profit would have been conferred on the apostle Paul himself by that strictness, as detriment on all the nations by his speedy death.

which without doubt would then have befallen the whole church, had not this useful and wholesome hypocrisy reserved him for the preaching of the Gospel. For then one acquiesces in the loss of a lie, necessarily and pardonably, when, as we have said, a greater loss threatens from the confession of the truth, and the advantage which is conferred on us by the truth cannot compensate for those losses which would be produced. This same tempering the same blessed apostle testifies that he everywhere always maintained, in other words also. For when he says: 'I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to those who were under the law as under the law, though I myself was not under the law, that I might gain those who were under the law:'

'to those who were without law as without law, though I was not without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might gain those who were without law; I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak; I became all things to all, that I might make all saved' — what else does he show than that he always condescended according to the weakness and measure of those who were being taught, and relaxed something from the rigour of perfection, and did not hold to that which strictness seemed to demand, but rather preferred that which the advantage of the weak required? And so, examining these same things more attentively, let us review one by one the marks of the apostolic virtues.

Someone will ask: how is the blessed apostle proved to have fitted his person to all in all things? Where did he become to the Jews as a Jew? Assuredly there, where, keeping in his inmost heart that sentence by which he had declared to the Galatians, saying: 'Behold, I Paul say to you that if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing' — yet in the circumcision of Timothy he assumed in a manner the image of Jewish superstition. And again, where did he become to those who were under the law as though he were under the law?

Namely there, where James and all the elders of the church, fearing lest that multitude of believing Jews — nay rather of Judaizing Christians, who had so received the faith of Christ that they were still held by the rite of the legal ceremonies — should rush upon him, come to the aid of his danger by this counsel and persuasion, saying: 'Thou seest, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. But they have heard concerning thee that thou teachest a departure from Moses to those Jews who are among the Gentiles, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children'; and below: 'Do therefore this that we tell thee. We have four men who have a vow upon themselves:'

'Take these and sanctify thyself with them, and be at charges for them that they may shave their heads, and all shall know that the things they have heard about thee are false, but that thou thyself also walkest keeping the law.' And so, for the salvation of those who were under the law, trampling for a little while that strictness of his own sentence by which he had said, 'For I through the law am dead to the law, that I may live to God,' he is compelled to shave his head, to be purified according to the law, and in the temple to offer vows by the Mosaic rite. You will ask also where, for the salvation of those who were utterly ignorant of the law of God, he became as though he too were without law. Read, in the city of Athens, where the impiety of the gentiles flourished, what beginning of preaching he used:

'Passing by,' he says, 'I saw your images and an altar on which was written: To the unknown god.' And when he had begun from their superstition, as though he himself also were without law, under the occasion of that profane inscription he introduced the faith of Christ, saying: 'What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.' And a little after, as if he were utterly ignorant of the divine law, he preferred to bring forth a verse of a gentile poet rather than a sentence of Moses or of Christ, saying: 'And as certain of your own poets have said: For we are also his offspring.' So, when he had assailed them with their own testimonies which they could not refute, thus confirming true things from false ones, he added, saying:

'Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think the divinity to be like gold or silver or stone, the sculpture of art and of man's device.' And he became weak to the weak, when, according to indulgence and not according to command, he granted to those who could not contain themselves to return to the same thing; or when, giving the Corinthians milk to drink and not solid food, he says that he was among them in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And he became all things to all, that he might make all saved, when he says: 'Let not him who eats despise him who eats not, and let not him who eats not judge him who eats,' and:

'He who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who gives her not does better'; and elsewhere: 'Who,' he says, 'is weak, and I am not weak? who is made to stumble, and I am not on fire?' And in this way he fulfilled that which he had commanded the Corinthians, saying: 'Be without offence to the Jews and to the Greeks and to the church of Christ, as I also please all men in all things, not seeking what is profitable to myself but to the many, that they may be saved.' For it would without doubt have been profitable not to circumcise Timothy, not to shave his head, not to undertake the Jewish purification, not to practice going barefoot, not to offer the legal vows: but he does all these things, because he seeks not what is useful to himself, but to the many.

Which, although it was done through the contemplation of God, yet was not without pretence. For he who through the law of Christ had died to the law that he might live to God, and who had counted as loss and esteemed as dung that righteousness of the law in which he had lived without blame, that he might gain Christ — he could not offer the things of the law with a true affection of heart; nor is it right to believe that he who had said, 'For if I build up again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor,' should fall into that which he himself had condemned. And so far is the affection of the doer weighed rather than the thing itself that is done, that, on the contrary, in the case of some it is found that truth harmed and a lie profited.

For Doeg the Edomite — when King Saul was complaining before his servants about David's flight and saying, 'Will the son of Jesse give you all fields and vineyards, and make you all tribunes and centurions? for you have all conspired against me, and there is none who reports to me' — what did he betray but the truth, saying: 'I saw the son of Jesse in Nob, with Ahimelech the son of Ahitub the priest, who consulted the Lord for him, and gave him provisions, and also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine'? For which truth he deserved to be uprooted from the land of the living, and it is said of him through the prophet: 'Therefore God shall destroy thee for ever; He shall pluck thee out and remove thee from thy dwelling, and thy root from the land of the living.'

From that land, therefore, this man is torn up by a perpetual uprooting for the betrayal of truth — the land in which Rahab the harlot is planted, with her kindred, for a lie. So too we recall that Samson most perniciously betrayed to his impious wife that truth which had long been concealed by a lie, and therefore the truth, most imprudently disclosed, brought deception upon him, because he neglected to keep that prophetic command: 'From her who sleeps in thy bosom, keep the doors of thy mouth.' And to bring forth some examples also from our own unavoidable and almost daily necessities — which, with however great watchfulness, we can never so guard against that we are not, whether unwilling or willing, forced to fall into them:

What, I pray, is to be done when — we having resolved to put off our meal — a brother arriving toward evening asks whether we have eaten: is the fast to be concealed and the virtue of frugality covered, or is it to be disclosed by the profession of truth? If we conceal it, that we may satisfy the Lord's command by which it is said, 'Do not appear to men to be fasting, but to thy Father who is in secret,' and again, 'Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does' — assuredly we lie. If we make known the virtue of continence, the evangelical sentence justly strikes us: 'Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.'

What if someone refuses with a firm resolve a cup offered by a brother, absolutely denying that he will accept what the other, rejoicing at his arrival, humbly begs him to take? Is it right that he should obey — even to his own labour — the brother who has thrown himself at his knees and prostrated himself to the ground, believing that he can fulfill the bowels of his charity only by these offices; or that he should persevere in the obstinacy of his word and purpose? GERMANUS: In that former example, indeed, there is, as we believe, no doubt that it is expedient that our continence be hidden rather than betrayed to the inquirers; and in cases of this kind we too confess that a lie is unavoidable.

But in the second there presses upon us no necessity of lying: first, because we can so refuse the things that are offered by the ministry of the brethren that we bind ourselves by no bond of a firm resolve; and secondly, because, having once refused, we can hold an immovable resolution. JOSEPH: There is no doubt that these firm resolves belong to those monasteries in which, as you say, the rudiments of your renunciation were formed — whose superiors are wont to prefer their own wills to the refreshment of the brethren, and most obstinately carry out what they have once conceived in their mind.

But our elders — to whose faith the signs of apostolic virtues bore witness, and who did all things rather by the judgment and discretion of the spirit than by a rigid obstinacy of mind — judged that those who yielded to the weaknesses of others gathered far richer fruits than those who persisted in their own resolves; and they pronounced it to be of a more sublime virtue to conceal one's continence by this necessary and, as has been said, humble lie, than to disclose it by a proud betrayal of the truth.

Finally, Abba Piamun, after twenty-five years, receiving without hesitation grapes and wine offered him by a certain brother, preferred at once to taste, contrary to his custom, the things that were set before him, rather than to make known the virtue of a continence unknown to all. For if we should also wish to consider that which we remember our elders did without hesitation — who were wont to colour, under the persons of others, the marvels of their own virtues or their own deeds, which it was necessary to bring forward in a conference for the instruction of the younger — what else can we judge concerning these things than an open lie? And would that we too had something worthy which could be set before the younger to kindle their faith!

Assuredly we should not at all fear to follow such fictions of theirs. For it is more right to lie under the colour of such a figure, than, for the sake of observing that irrational truth, either to conceal by an unfitting silence the things which could have edified the hearers, or, if they be brought forth truthfully in our own person, to incur the boasting of harmful vanity. To which the teacher of the nations also clearly instructs us by his own teaching, who preferred to bring forth the greatness of his revelations under the person of another, saying: 'I know a man in Christ — whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knows — caught up even to the third heaven.'