The same place.— And judge, speaking what is just. 5. Nothing is to be spoken inconsiderately. For he who speaks, while he awaits the hearer's verdict upon his own words, is as it were subjected to the judgment of the one by whom he is heard. He therefore who fears to be reproved in his sayings ought himself first to examine what he says, so that between the heart and the tongue some fair and discreet arbiter may sit, subtly weighing whether the heart offers right words, which, usefully receiving them, the tongue may bring forth to the judgment of the hearers. Let blessed Job therefore, pleading his own cause against his friends, but denouncing ours against heretics, reprove the precipitation of speakers, and gather words to their mind, saying: Judge, speaking what is just.
As if he openly said: If in that outlet of speech which comes forth from us to you, you do not wish to be reproved, hold within the balance of justice, so that what is said may please outwardly by the weight of truth in proportion as this is weighed inwardly by the scale of discretion. And because those exercise a right judgment upon the sayings of others who first know how to judge their own, after he said, Judge, speaking what is just, fitly he straightway subjoins: