Elucidation.
————————————
The
conduct of Father Abraham,
although not approved of by Inspiration, but simply recorded
(
Gen. xxvi. 7
), gave early Christians an opinion that
the wicked may be justly foiled, by equivocation and deception, for the
preservation of innocence or the life of the innocent. In such
case the person deceived, they might argue, is not injured, but
benefited (
Gen. xxvi.
10
), being saved from
committing violence and murder. The Corinthian maiden was
accustomed to be veiled (as Tertullian intimates), and was taught alike
to cherish her own purity and to have no share in affording occasion of
sin to others. See vol. iv. pp. 32, 33. Let us call this
narrative “The Story of Corinthia and
Magistrianus.”