5. And how wilt thou do this that I say, “Cut him off, and cast him from thee,” and so,
it may be, amend him? answer me, how thou art going to do it? He wished to persuade thee
out of the Law to tell a lie. For he said, “speak.” And perhaps he did not dare to say, “speak
a lie;” but thus, “speak what the other wishes.” Thou sayest, “But it is a lie.” And he to excuse
it, says, “All men are liars.” Then do thou, my brother, say against this, “The mouth that lieth
slayeth the soul.”2712 Mark, it is no light thing thou hast heard, “The mouth that lieth slayeth
the soul.” What can that powerful enemy, who oppresseth me, do to me, that thou pitiest
me, and my condition, and wouldest not have me be in this evil case; whereas thou wouldest
that I should be evil? What can that powerful man do to me, and what can he oppress? The
flesh. He can oppress thy body, thou wilt say: I grant he may oppress it to destruction.2713
Still how much more mildly does he deal with me, than I should with myself were I to lie!
He kills my flesh; I kill my soul. He in his power and anger slays the body; “the mouth that
lieth slayeth the soul.” He slays the body; and die it must, though it should not be slain; but
the soul which iniquity slayeth not, the truth receiveth for ever. Preserve then what thou
canst preserve; and let that perish which must perish sometime or other. Thou hast given
an answer then, but thou hast not solved the “All men are liars.” Make answer to him to
this too, that he may not fancy that he has said anything to persuade to lying, in bringing a
testimony out of the Law; so urging thee out of the Law against the Law. For it is written in
the Law, “Thou shalt not bear false witness;”2714 and it is written in the Law, “All men are
liars.” Recur then to that which I just lately suggested, when I defined in words as best I
could the “meek” man. He is “meek” to whom in all things that he does well, nothing but
God is pleasing, and in all the evils which he suffers, God is not displeasing. Make answer
then to him who says, Lie, for it is written, “All men are liars:” I will not lie, for it is written,
“The mouth that lieth slayeth the soul.” I will not lie, because it is written, “Thou shalt destroy
them that speak lying.”2715 I will not lie, because it is written, “Thou shalt not bear false
witness.” Though he whom I displease by the truth harass my body with oppressions, I will
give ear to my Lord, “Fear not them which kill the body.”2716
6. “How then are all men liars? What! Thou art not a man, I suppose?” Answer quickly
and truly. “And O that I may not be a man, that so I may not be a liar.” For see; “God looked
down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand,
and seek after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are all together become unprofit-
able: there is none that doeth good, no not even one.”2717 Why? Because they wished to be
2712 Wisd. i. 11.
2713 Corpus, dicis tu, premit: dico ego, perimit.
2714 Deut. v. 20.
2715 Ps. v. 6.
2716 Matt. x. 28.
2717 Ps. xiv. 2, 3.
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On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xviii. 7, where we are admonished to beware…