21. If then to sin, that
others may not commit a worse sin, either against us or against
any, without doubt we ought not; it is to be considered in that
which Lot did, whether it be an example which we ought to imitate,
or rather one which we ought to avoid. For it seems meet to be more
looked into and noted, that, when so horrible an evil from the most
flagitious impiety of the Sodomites was impending over his guests,
which he wished to ward off and was not able, to such a degree may
even that just man’s mind have been disturbed, that he was
willing to do that which, not man’s fear with its misty temper,
but God’s Law in its tranquil serenity, if it be consulted by us,
will cry aloud, must not be done, and will command rather that we
be so cautious not to sin ourselves, that we sin not through fear
of any sins whatever of other men. For that just man, by fearing
other men’s sins, which cannot defile except such as consent
thereto, was so perturbed that he did not attend to his own sin, in
that he was willing to subject his daughters to the lusts of
impious men. These things, when we read in holy Scriptures, we must
not, for that we believe them done, therefore believe them meet to
be done; lest we violate precepts while we indis
criminately
follow precedents. Or, truly, because David swore to put Nabal to
death, and, upon more considerate clemency, did it not,
2410
shall we
therefore say that he is to be imitated, so that we may swear to do
a thing which afterwards we may see to be not meet to be done? But
as fear perturbed the one, so that he was willing to prostitute his
daughters, so did anger the other, that he swore rashly. In short,
if it were allowed us to inquire of them both, by asking them to
tell us why they did these things, the one might answer,
“Fearfulness and trembling came upon me, and darkness covered
me;”
2411
the other
too might say, “Mine eye was troubled through wrath:”
2412
so that we
should not marvel either that the one in the darkness of fear, or
the other with troubled eye, saw not what was meet to have been
seen, that they might not do what was not meet to have been
done.
2410
1 Sam. xxv.
22–35
2411
Ps. lv. 5
2412
Ps. vi. 7
,
turbatus
est prœ ira
, as in LXX. “Mine eye is consumed because of
grief.” E.V.