37. Likewise, touching that
which is written, “A son which receiveth the word shall be far
from destruction: but receiving, he receiveth it for himself, and
no falsehood proceedeth out of his mouth:”2366
| 2366 Prov. xxix. 27. Lat. Not in
the Hebrew, but LXX. xxiv. 23.
λόγον φυλασσόμενος
υἱὸ·ς ἀπωλείας
ἐκτὸς ἔσται δεχόμενος
δὲ ἐδέξατο αὐτόν.
Μηδὲν ψεῦδος ἀπὸ
γλώσσης βασιλέως
λεγέσθω, καὶ οὐδὲν
ψεῦδος ἀπὸ γλώσσης
αὐτοῦ οὐ μὴ
ἐξέλθῃ |
some one may say, that what is
here set down, “A son which receiveth the word,” is to be taken
for no other than the word of
God, which is
truth. Therefore, “A
son receiving the
truth shall be
far from
destruction,” refers to
that which is written, “Thou wilt
destroy all that speak
leasing.” But when it follows, “Receiving he receiveth for
himself,” what other doth this insinuate than what the
Apostle
saith, “But let every man
prove his own
work, and then he shall
have glorying in himself and not in another?”
2367
For he
that receiveth the word, that is,
truth, not for himself, but for
men-pleasing, keepeth it not when he sees they can be pleased by a
lie. But whoso receiveth it for himself, no
falsehood proceedeth
out of his mouth: because even when the way to please men is to
lie, that man lieth not, who receiving the
truth not thereby to
please them but to please
God, hath received it for himself.
Therefore there is no reason why it should be said here He will
destroy all who speak leasing, but not all leasing: because all
lies, universally, are
cut off in this saying, “And no
falsehood
proceedeth out of his mouth.” But another saith, it is to be so
taken as the
Apostle Paul took our
Lord’s saying, “But I say
unto you,
Swear not at all.”
2368
For here also all swearing is
cut
off; but from the mouth of the
heart, that it should never be done
with approbation of the will, but through necessity of the
weakness
of another; that is, “from the
evil” of another, when it shows
that he cannot otherwise be got to believe what is said, unless
faith be
wrought by an
oath; or, from that “
evil” of our own,
that while as yet involved in the skins of this mortality we are
not able to show our
heart: which thing were we able to do, of
swearing there were no need. Though moreover in this whole
sentence, if the saying, “A son receiving the word shall be
far
from
destruction,” be said of none other than that
Truth,
2369
| 2369 Or “of Him who is Truth
itself.” |
by Whom
all things were made, which remaineth ever incommutable; then,
because the
doctrine of
Religion strives to bring men to the
contemplation of this
Truth, it may seem that the saying, “And no
falsehood proceedeth out of his mouth,” is said to this purpose,
that he speaketh no
falsehood that pertaineth to
doctrine. Which
sort of
lie is upon no compensation whatever to be gone into, and
is utterly and before all to be eschewed. Or if the saying, “No
falsehood,” is absurdly taken if it be not referred to every lie,
the saying, “From his mouth,” should, as was argued above, be
taken to mean the mouth of the heart, in the opinion of him who
accounts that sometimes one may tell a lie.
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