35. Moreover what is written
“Thou wilt destroy all that speak leasing:”
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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,
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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;”
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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.
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Thou wilt
destroy all who” not only work what Thou hatest, but also
“speak leasing;”
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in holding out before them false
righteousness, and not confessing their sins in
penitence.
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Ps. v. 6
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Agere
pœnitentiam
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Ps. v. 5
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John iii. 21
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Ps. v. 6, 7