LI. [lb. xxiv, 28.] Quod scriplum est de Domino, Finxit se longius ire, non ad mendacium pertinet. Non enim omnc quod fingiinus mendacium est: sed quando id fingimus quod nihil significat, tunc est mendacium. Cum autem fictio nostra refertur ad aliquam significalionem, non est mendacium, sed aliqua figura vcritatis. Alioquin omnia quæ a sapientibus ct sanctis viris, vel etiam ab ipso Domino figurate dicta sunt, mendacia deputabuntur, quia secundum usitatum intellectum non subsisiit veritas talibus dictis. Non cnim homo qui habuit duos filios, quorum junior, accepta parte patrimonii sui, profectus est in regionem longinquam, et catera quæ in illa narratione contexuntur (Luc, xv, 52), ita dicuntur tanquam vcrofuerit quisquam homo qui hoc in filiis suis duobus aut passussit, aui fecerit. Ficta sunt ergo ista ad rem quamdam significandam, tam longe lateque majorem, ct tam incomparabiliter differentem, ut per illum fictum hominem Deus verus intelligatur. Sicut autem dicta, ita etiam facta iinguntur sinc mendacio ad aliquam ren. significandam: unde est eliam illud ejusdem Domini, quod in fici arbore quæsivit fructum co tempore quo illa poma nondum essent (Uarc. x:, 13). Non enim dubium est illam inquisitionem non fuisse vcrain: quivis euim hominum sciret, si non divinitate, vel tempore, poma illam arborcm non habere.
51. [Luke 24:28.] What is written of the Lord, "He made as though he would go further," does not pertain to a lie. For not everything that we feign is a lie; but when we feign something that signifies nothing, then it is a lie. When, however, our feigning is referred to some signification, it is not a lie, but a certain figure of the truth. Otherwise all the things that were spoken figuratively by wise and holy men, or even by the Lord himself, would be reckoned lies, because according to the usual understanding the truth does not stand in such sayings. For the man who had two sons, of whom the younger, having received his portion of the inheritance, departed into a far country, and the rest that is woven together in that narrative (Luke 15:12), are not said as though some man truly had suffered or done this in his two sons. These things, then, were feigned to signify a certain matter, so far and wide greater, and so incomparably different, that through that feigned man the true God may be understood. But just as sayings, so also deeds are feigned without a lie to signify some matter; whence is also that saying of the same Lord, that he sought fruit on the fig tree at the time when those fruits were not yet on it (Mark 11:13). For there is no doubt that that seeking was not true; for any man would know, if not by divinity, at least by the season, that the tree did not have fruits.
Fictio igitur quæ ad aliquam veritatem refertur, figura cst: quæ non rcfertur, mendacium est. Quid crgo significat qnod se ire longius Dominus finxit, cum comitaretur discipulis, exponens cis sanctas Scripturas, utrum ipse esse! ignorantibus? quid, putamus, nisi quia hospitalitatis officio ad suam cognitionem pervenire posse homines intimavit? ut cum longius ipse ab hominibus abscesserit super omnes coelos, ta, CIl ita cum eis sit qui hæc cxhibent servis cjus, ut cum dicere cœperint, Domine, quando te vidimus hospitem, et adduximus? tanquam eum scilicet qui longe abscesserat: respondeat ille, Cum uni ex minimis meis fecistis, mihi fecistis (Matth. xxv, 38, 40). Tenet ergo Christum ne Jongius ab illo eat, quisquis catechizatus verbo, in omnibus bonis ei qui se catechizat communicat; sicut Apostolus dicit Communicet qui catechizatur verbo I, ei qui se catechizat, in omnibus bonis (Galut. VI, 6): ct alio loco cum dixisset, Necessitatibus sanctorum communicantes; statim subjecit, Hospitalitatem sectantes (Rom. XII, 15). Et isti enim catechizati crant verbo, cum eis exponeret Scripturas, et quia hospitalitatem sectati sunt, eum quem in ipsa expositione Scripturarum non cognoVerant, in panis fractione cognoscunt. Non enim auditores legis justi sunt apud Deum, sed factores legis justificabuntur (Id. II, 15).
Therefore a fiction that refers to some truth is a figure; one that does not refer to truth is a lie. What, then, does it signify that the Lord feigned that he was going further, when he was accompanying the disciples and expounding the holy Scriptures to them, though they did not know that it was he? What do we think it means, except that by the office of hospitality he intimated that men can come to the knowledge of him? So that when he himself has withdrawn further from men above all the heavens, he is nevertheless with those who show these things to his servants, so that when they begin to say, "Lord, when did we see you as a guest and bring you in?"—as if to him who had gone far away—he may answer, "When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:38, 40). Therefore whoever has been catechized by the word holds Christ so that he does not go further from him, if he shares in all good things with the one who catechizes him; as the Apostle says, "Let the one who is catechized by the word share with the one who catechizes him in all good things" (Galatians 6:6); and in another place, when he had said, "Sharing in the needs of the saints," he immediately added, "Pursuing hospitality" (Romans 12:13). And these men had indeed been catechized by the word, when he expounded the Scriptures to them, and because they pursued hospitality, they recognize in the breaking of bread the one whom they had not recognized in the very exposition of the Scriptures. For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (Romans 2:13).
[lb. XXIII, 11.] Quod Dominum in passione exuerunt veste propria, et inducrunt fucata (Matth. XXVII, 28), significati sunt hi hærclici, qui cum aiunt non verum corpus habuisse, sed fictum.
That they stripped the Lord of his own garment in the passion and put on him a dyed one signifies those heretics who say that he did not have a true body, but a feigned one.