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INSTRUCTED by which examples, the blessed Apostle James also, and all
the chief princes of the primitive Church urged the Apostle Paul in
consequence of the weakness of feeble persons to condescend to a fictitious
arrangement and insisted on his purifying himself according to the
requirements of the law, and shaving his head and paying his vows, as they
thought that the present harm which would come from this hypocrisy was of
no account, but had regard rather to the gain which would result from his
still continued preaching. For the gain to the Apostle Paul from his
strictness would not have counterbalanced the loss to all nations from his
speedy death. And this would certainly have been then incurred by the whole
Church unless this good and salutary hypocrisy had preserved him for the
preaching of the Gospel. For then we may rightly and pardonably acquiesce
in the wrong of a lie, when, as we said, a greater harm depends on telling
the truth, and when the good which results to us from speaking the truth
cannot counterbalance the harm which will be caused by it. And elsewhere
the blessed Apostle testifies in other words that he himself always
observed this disposition; for when he says: "To the Jews I became as a Jew
that I might gain the Jews; to those who were under the law as being under
the law, though not myself under the law, that I might gain those who were
under the law; to those who were without law, I became 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; to the weak I became weak, that I
might gain the weak: I became all things to all men, that I might save
all;" what does he show but that according to the weakness and the
capacity of those who were being instructed he always lowered himself and
relaxed something of the vigour of perfection, and did not cling to what
his own strict life might seem to demand, but rather preferred that which
the good of the weak might require? And that we may trace these matters out
more carefully and recount one by one the glories of the good deeds of the
Apostles, some one may ask how the blessed Apostle can be proved to have
suited himself to all men in all things. When did he to the Jews become as
a Jew? Certainly in the case where, while he still kept in his inmost heart
the opinion which he had maintained to the Galatians saying: "Behold, I,
Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you
nothing," yet by circumcising Timothy he adopted a shadow as it were of
Jewish superstition. And again, where did he become to those under the law,
as under the law? There certainly where James and all the Elders of the
Church, fearing lest he might be attacked by the multitude of Jewish
believers, or rather of Judaizing Christians, who had received the faith of
Christ in such a way as still to be bound by the rites of legal ceremonies,
came to his rescue in his difficulty with this counsel and advice, and
said: "Thou seest, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews,
who have believed, and they are all zealots for the law. But they have
heard of thee that thou teachest those Jews who are among the Gentiles to
depart from Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their
children;" and below: "Do therefore this that we say unto thee: we have
four men who have a vow on them. These take and sanctify thyself with them
and bestow on them, that they may shave their heads; and all will know that
the things which they have heard of thee are false, but that thou thyself
also walkest keeping the law." And so for the good of those who were
under the law, he trode under foot for a while the strict view which he had
expressed: "For I through the law am dead unto the law that I may live unto
God;" and was driven to shave his head, and be purified according to the
law and pay his vows after the Mosaic rites in the Temple. Do you ask also
where for the good of those who were utterly ignorant of the law of God, he
himself became as if without law? Read the introduction to his sermon at
Athens where heathen wickedness was flourishing: "As I passed by," he says,
"I saw your idols and an altar on which was written: To the unknown God;"
and when he had thus started from their superstition, as if he himself also
had been without law, under the cloke of that profane inscription he
introduced the faith of Christ, saying: "What therefore ye ignorantly
worship, that declare I unto you." And after a little, as if he had known
nothing whatever of the Divine law, he chose to bring forward a verse of a
heathen poet rather than a saying of Moses or Christ, saying: "As some also
of your own poets have said: for we are also His offspring." And when he
had thus approached them with their own authorities, which they could not
reject, thus confirming the truth by things false, he added and said:
"Since then we are the offspring of God we ought not to think that the
Godhead is like to gold or silver or stone sculptured by the art and device
of man." But to the weak he became weak, when, by way of permission, not
of command, he allowed those who could not contain themselves to return
together again, or when he fed the Corinthians with milk and not with
meat, and says that he was with them in weakness and fear and much
trembling. But he became all things to all men that he might save all,
when he says: "He that eateth let him not despise him that eateth not, and
let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth:" and: "He that giveth
his virgin in marriage doeth well, and he that giveth her not in marriage
doeth better;" and elsewhere: "Who," says he, "is weak, and I am not weak?
Who is offended, and I burn not?" and in this way he fulfilled what he had
commanded the Corinthians to do when he said: "Be ye without offence to
Jews and Greeks and the Church of Christ, as I also please all men in all
things, not seeking mine own profit but that of the many, that they may be
saved." For it had certainly been profitable not to circumcise Timothy,
not to shave his head, not to undergo Jewish purification, not to practice
going barefoot, not to pay legal vows; but he did all these things
because he did not seek his own profit but that of the many. And although
this was done with the full consideration of God, yet it was not free from
dissimulation. For one who through the law of Christ was dead to the law
that he might live to God, and who had made and treated that righteousness
of the law in which he had lived blameless, as dung, that he might gain
Christ, could not with true fervour of heart offer what belonged to the
law; nor is it right to believe that he who had said: "For if I again
rebuild what I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor," would
himself fall into what he had condemned. And to such an extent is account
taken, not so much of the actual thing which is done as of the disposition
of the doer, that on the other hand truth is sometimes found to have
injured some, and a lie to have done them good. For when Saul was grumbling
to 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: that all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one
to inform me," did Doeg the Edomite say anything but the truth, when he
told him: "I saw the son of Jesse in Nob, with Abimelech the son of Ahitub
the priest, who consulted the Lord for him, and gave him victuals, and gave
him also the sword of Goliath the Philistine?" For which true story he
deserved to be rooted up out of the land of the living, and it is said of
him by the prophet: "Wherefore God shall destroy thee forever, and pluck
thee up and tear thee out of thy tabernacle, and thy root from the land of
the living:" He then for showing the truth is forever plucked and rooted
up out of that land in which the harlot Rahab with her family is planted
for her lie: just as also we remember that Samson most injuriously betrayed
to his wicked wife the truth which he had hidden for a long time by a lie,
and therefore the truth so inconside-rately disclosed was the cause of his
own deception, because he had neglected to keep the command of the prophet:
"Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that sleepeth in thy bosom."
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