All human things are liable to perpetual changes. We are to rest on God’s providence, and cast away fruitless cares.
Contrarie thinges succede in their seasons, and passe away, 9. wherof man getteth no perfect knowlege, how long soeuer he liueth, and laboreth to know them: 16. neither wil there be equitie where it ought to be in this world: 21. but in the next, good and euil shal be separated, and iudged according to their desertes.
1All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven.Ogni cosa ha il suo tempo, e dentro lo spazio ad esse assegnato passano tutte le cose sotto del cielo.AL thinges haue a time, and in their spaces al thinges passe vnder heauen.Omnia tempus habent, / et suis spatiis transeunt universa sub cælo. 2A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.Tempo di nascere, e tempo di morire, tempo di piantare, e tempo di sradicare quello che fu piantato.A time to be borne, & a time to dye. A time to plant, & a time to pluck vp that which was planted.Tempus nascendi, et tempus moriendi; / tempus plantandi, et tempus evellendi quod plantatum est. 3A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build.Tempo di uccidere, e tempo di sanare, tempo di demolire, e tempo di edificare.A time to kil, and a time to heale. A time to destroy, and a time to builde.Tempus occidendi, et tempus sanandi; / tempus destruendi, et tempus ædificandi. 4A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.Tempo di piangere, e tempo di ridere, tempo di duolo, e tempo di saltare.A time to wepe, & a time to laugh. A time to mourne, and a time to dance.Tempus flendi, et tempus ridendi; / tempus plangendi, et tempus saltandi. 5A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.Tempo di gettare le pietre, e tempo di raccoglierle. Tempo di abbracciare, e tempo di evitare gli abbracciamenti.A time to disperse stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be farre from embracings.Tempus spargendi lapides, et tempus colligendi, / tempus amplexandi, et tempus longe fieri ab amplexibus. 6A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away.Tempo di far guadagno, e tempo di scapitare; tempo di tener conto, e tempo di gettar via.A time to gette, and a time to lose. A time to kepe, and a time to cast away.Tempus acquirendi, et tempus perdendi; / tempus custodiendi, et tempus abjiciendi. 7A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.Tempo di dividere, e tempo di riunire, tempo di tacere, e tempo di parlare.A time to rent, and a time to sow together. A time to kepe silence, & a time to speake.Tempus scindendi, et tempus consuendi; / tempus tacendi, et tempus loquendi. 8A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace.Tempo di amore, e tempo di odio; tempo di guerra, e tempo di pace.A time of loue, and a time of hatred. A time of warre, and a time of peace.Tempus dilectionis, et tempus odii; / tempus belli, et tempus pacis.
9What hath man more of his labour?Qual frutto ha l'uomo di sue fatiche?What hath man more of his labour?Quid habet amplius homo de labore suo ? 10I have seen the trouble, which God hath given the sons of men to be exercised in it.Vidi l'afflizione data da Dio a' figliuoli degli uomini, affinchè in essa si consumino.I haue sene the affliction, which God hath geuen to the children of men, that they may be distracted in it.Vidi afflictionem quam dedit Deus filiis hominum, / ut distendantur in ea. 11He hath made all things good in their time, and hath delivered the world to their consideration, so that man cannot find out the work which God hath made from the beginning to the end.Tutte le cose, che egli ha fatte, ciascuna a suo tempo sono buone: ed egli abbandonò il mondo alle loro disputazioni, senza chè l'uomo discuopra l'opera fatta da Dio dal principio insino al fine.He hath made al thinges good in their time, and hath deliuered the world to their disputation, and that man can not finde the worke, which God hath wrought from the beginning vnto the end.Cuncta fecit bona in tempore suo, / et mundum tradidit disputationi eorum, / ut non inveniat homo opus / quod operatus est Deus ab initio usque ad finem. 12And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in this life.Ed io riconobbi, che altro di meglio non vi è, che di star lieto, e fare il bene in questa vita.And I haue knowne that there was no better thing then to reioyce, and to do wel in his life.Et cognovi quod non esset melius nisi lætari, / et facere bene in vita sua; 13For every man that eateth and drinketh, and seeth good of his labour, this is the gift of God.Perocché che un uomo mangi, e beva, e vegga il frutto di sue fatiche; questo è dono di Dio.For euerie man, that eateth and drinketh, and seeth good of his labour, this is the gift of God.omnis enim homo qui comedit et bibit, / et videt bonum de labore suo, / hoc donum Dei est. 14I have learned that all the works which God hath made, continue for ever: we cannot add any thing, nor take away from those things which God hath made that he may be feared.Io imparai che tutte le opere fatte da Dio durano perpetuamente: non possiamo nulla torre, né aggiungere alle cose, che Dio creò affin di essere temuto.I haue lerned that al the workes, which God hath made, perseuere for euer: we can not adde anie thing, nor take away from those thinges, which God hath made that he may be feared.Didici quod omnia opera quæ fecit Deus perseverent in perpetuum; / non possumus eis quidquam addere, nec auferre, / quæ fecit Deus ut timeatur.
15That which hath been made, the same continueth: the things that shall be, have already been: and God restoreth that which is past.Quello, che fu fatto, dura; quelle cose, che son per essere, furon già, e Dio rinnovella quello, che passò.That which hath bene made, the same is permanent: the thinges that shal be, haue already bene: and God restoreth that which is past.Quod factum est, ipsum permanet; / quæ futura sunt jam fuerunt, / et Deus instaurat quod abiit. 16I saw under the sun in the place of judgment wickedness, and in the place of justice iniquity.Vidi sotto del sole nel luogo del giudizio la empietà, e nel luogo della giustizia l'iniquità.I saw vnder the sunne in the place of iudgement impietie, and in the place of iustice iniquitie.Vidi sub sole in loco judicii impietatem, / et in loco justitiæ iniquitatem: 17And I said in my heart: God shall judge both the just and the wicked, and then shall be the time of every thing.E dissi in cuor mio: Dio farà giudizio del giusto, e dell'empio: e quello sarà il tempo (di trattare) di ogni cosa.And I sayde in my hart: the iust and the impious God wil iudge, and then shal be the time of euerie thing.et dixi in corde meo: / Justum et impium judicabit Deus, / et tempus omnis rei tunc erit. 18I said in my heart concerning the sons of men, that God would prove them, and shew them to be like beasts.Dissi in cuor mio riguardo ai figliuoli degli uomini, che Dio li provava col far vedere, che sono simili alle bestie.I sayd in my hart of the children of men, that God would proue them, and shew them to be like beastes.Dixi in corde meo de filiis hominum, / ut probaret eos Deus, / et ostenderet similes esse bestiis. 19Therefore the death of man, and of beasts is one, and the condition of them both is equal: as man dieth, so they also die: all things breathe alike, and man hath nothing more than beast: all things are subject to vanity.Per questo muojono gli uomini come le bestie, ed è uguale la sorte loro: come muore l'uomo, così muojono quelle: nello stesso modo respirano le une, e gli altri: e l'uomo non ha nulla di più della bestia, tutto è soggetto alla vanità,Therfore there is one death of man, and beastes, and the condition of both equal: as man dieth, so they also dye: al thinges breath alike, and man hath nothing more then beast: al thinges are subiect to vanitie,Idcirco unus interitus est hominis et jumentorum, / et æqua utriusque conditio. / Sicut moritur homo, / sic et illa moriuntur. / Similiter spirant omnia, / et nihil habet homo jumento amplius: / cuncta subjacent vanitati,
20And all things go to one place: of earth they were made, and into earth they return together.E tutto cammina verso uno stesso luogo; sono tutti tratti dalla terra, e alla terra similmente ritornano.and al thinges passe to one place: of earth they were made, and into earth they returne together.et omnia pergunt ad unum locum. / De terra facta sunt, / et in terram pariter revertuntur. 21Who knoweth if the spirit of the children of Adam ascend upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descend downward?Chi sa se lo spirito de' figliuoli di Adamo salga in alto, e se lo spirito delle bestie scenda al basso?Who knoweth if the spirit of the children of Adam ascend vpward, and if the spirite of beastes descend downward?Quis novit si spiritus filiorum Adam ascendat sursum, / et si spiritus jumentorum descendat deorsum ? 22And I have found that nothing is better than for a man to rejoice in his work, and that this is his portion. For who shall bring him to know the things that shall be after him?Or io riconobbi non esservi nulla di meglio, che il consolarsi l'uomo nelle opere sue; perocché chi lo condurrà a vedere quel, che dopo di lui sarà?And I haue found that nothing is better then for a man to reioyce in his worke, and that this is his portion. For who shal bring him, to know the thinges that shal be after him?Et deprehendi nihil esse melius / quam lætari hominem in opere suo, / et hanc esse partem illius. / Quis enim eum adducet ut post se futura cognoscat ?
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St. Jerome
Heaven, in this world, where alone things change. (St. Jerome)
Worthington
Nothing is here perpetual, but to be used in a proper manner. (Worthington)
Calmet
The heart must not be attached to any thing created. (Calmet)
Menochius
Pleasure had been condemned and approved, Ecclesiastes 2. He shews that all must have its time. (Menochius)
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Stones, with a sling, or to render a field useless, 4 Kings 3:25., and Isaias 5:2.
Calmet
Embraces. Continence was sometimes prescribed to married people, Leviticus 20:18., and 1 Corinthians vii. (St. Jerome) (St. Augustine, Enchiridion 78.) (Calmet)
Haydock
Hatred often succeeds love, ver. 8., and 2 Kings 13:14. (Haydock)
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Calmet
Labour? What advantage does he derive from any of these things? (Chap. 1:3.) (Calmet)
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Haydock
Consideration. Literally, "dispute." Hebrew and Septuagint, "heart." (Haydock)
Pagnin, "He has implanted the desire of immortality in their hearts."
Menochius
End. If we could discover the properties of each thing, we should be in raptures; (Calmet) but as we cannot, this increases our vexation. (Menochius)
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Calmet
Well; virtuously: or, perhaps, as literally, to enjoy himself, ver. 13. (Calmet)
St. Jerome
Thus thinks the man of pleasure, Isaias 22:31. (St. Jerome)
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Calmet
God. He gives peace and plenty; and still more, the grace to use these things, so as to obtain heaven. (Calmet)
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St. Jerome
Feared. The order of the seasons, etc., teaches men to adore Providence. (St. Jerome)
St. Augustine
He has arranged every thing, how mutable soever. (St. Augustine, Confessions 1:6.)
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Calmet
Past. He causes plants to spring forth afresh. Hebrew, Septuagint, etc., "But will God seek after the oppressed?" Here commences another objection. (Calmet)
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Haydock
And then. Protestants, "for there is a time there (ver. 1.) for every purpose, and for every work." At the day of judgment all will receive their due. (Haydock)
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St. Gregory
Beasts. Another doubt; or suggestion of infidels. (St. Gregory, Dial. 4:4.)
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Challoner
Man hath nothing more, etc., viz., as to the life of the body. (Challoner)
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Challoner
Who knoweth, etc., viz., experimentally; since no one in this life can see a spirit. But as to the spirit of the beasts, which is merely animal, and becomes extinct by the death of the beast, who can tell the manner it acts so as to give life and motion, and by death to descend downward, that is, to be no more? (Challoner)
Calmet
Few are able to prove that the soul of man is immortal rather than that of beasts, since the bodies of both are subject to the like inconveniences. The objection is answered [in] Ecclesiastes 12:7. (Calmet)
Menochius
The difficulty of answering is intimated by "Who?" etc., Psalm 14:1. (Menochius)
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Calmet
After him. He knows not who shall be his heir, or how soon he may die. None returns from the other world to inform him of what is there transacted. Thus the libertine encourages himself. (Calmet)
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Man hath nothing more, etc.... Viz., as to the life of the body.
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Who knoweth, etc.... Viz., experimentally: since no one in this life can see a spirit. But as to the spirit of the beasts, which is merely animal, and become extinct by the death of the beast, who can tell the manner it acts so as to give life and motion, and by death to descend downward, that is, to be no more?
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Generation, Corruption, & Alteration perteine only to thinges of this world vnder heauen, often here described by the terme, Vnder the sunne. For spiritual substances are not comprehended in time, nor place. S. Ierom in hunc. locum. to 7.
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Al this sheweth that nothing of this world is perpetual, but to be vsed interchangeably, in due time, place, maner, and order. For disorder maketh confusion.
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Tertullian † AD 220 On the Veiling of Virgins 1
… What, then, is the Paraclete’s administrative office but this: the direction of discipline, the revelation of the Scriptures, the reformation of the intellect, the advancement toward the “better things?” Nothing is without stages of growth: all things await their season. In short, the preacher says, “A time to everything.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Monogamy 3
… licence of marrying, whether we look into the condition on which the licence is granted, or the preference of continence which is imposed, why, after the apostles, could not the same Spirit, supervening for the purpose of conducting disciplehood into “all truth” through the gradations of the times (according to what the preacher says, “A time to everything”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 10.10
“To everything then is its season, and a time for everything under heaven,”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.103
… These are the two causes of my submission and tractability. Nor is it, perchance, unreasonable that my arguments should yield and submit to them both, for there is a time to be conquered, as I also think there is for every purpose,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 21.21
21. Such were his surroundings when he approved the wise counsel of Solomon that there is a time to every purpose:
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 27
… nor even that as in itself wrong, but only when unseasonable; nor all teaching, but only want of moderation. As of even honey repletion and satiety, though it be of honey, produce vomiting; and, as Solomon says and I think, there is a time for every thing,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… And let there be to thee also a time for war and a time for peace; a time to marry, and a time to abstain from marrying; a time for friendship, and a time for discord, if this be needed; and in short a time for everything, if you will follow Solomon’s advice.
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 43.64
… Who was more kindly in his stories, more refined in his wit, more tender in his rebukes? His reproofs gave rise to no arrogance, his relaxation to no dissipation, but avoiding excess in either, he made use of both in reason and season, according to the rules of Solomon, who assigns to every business a season.
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 1-2.26
It is clear, even with a moderate insight into the nature of things, that there is nothing by which we can measure the divine and blessed Life. It is not in time, but time flows from it; whereas the creation, starting from a manifest beginning, journeys onward to its proper end through spaces of time; so that it is possible, as Solomon somewhere
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 51.15
15. You certainly desire to be approved by God. “To everything there is a time,”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.29
29. Let us come to Ecclesiastes and adduce a few corroborative passages from him also.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 21.12
… a time to get and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to send away; a time to scatter and a time to collect; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace;” and below: “For there is a time,” it says, “for everything and for every deed.”
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 2.3
“And let it not be said, Is it not, then, proper to present comforts and admonitions to those who are in any bad case? To this I answer, that if, indeed, any one is able, let him present them; but if not, let him bide his time. For I know
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) 14
… This is written in the Scriptures, and is manifest to all men. For although it be hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each, and how it is allotted; yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 19.22
… “Because men, following their own pleasure in all things, cohabit without observing the proper times; and thus the deposition of seed, taking place unseasonably, naturally produces a multitude of evils. For they ought to reflect, that as a season has been fixed suitable for planting and sowing,
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.3
Ver. 3 . “There is a time to kill, and a time to heal.”
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.3
4 . “A time to weep, and a time to laugh.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 126.2
… When, however, I began to dictate I was so confounded by the havoc wrought in the West and above all by the sack of Rome that, as the common saying has it, I forgot even my own name. Long did I remain silent knowing that it was a time to weep.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 36.5
… that the apostles did eat upon the seventh day of the week, and his remark upon this, that the time for their fasting had not then come, because of the Lord’s own words, “The days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall the children of the Bridegroom fast;” since there is “a time to rejoice, and a time to mourn,”
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.19
Some people may be eunuchs from necessity; I am one of free will. “There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. There is a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 107.13
… You would count as nothing your desire for other offspring and would offer up yourself to the service of God. But because “there is a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 123.13
… There is “a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 3.18
… And, accordingly, if these last had been still alive at the advent of our Lord, when the time not of casting stones away but of gathering them together had come,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Good of Marriage 15
15. For what Christian men of our time being free from the marriage bond, having power to contain from all sexual intercourse, seeing it to be now “a time,” as it is written, “not of embracing, but of abstaining from embrace,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Good of Widowhood 11
11. But thou who both hast sons, and livest in that end of the world, wherein now is the time not of casting stones, but of gathering; not of embracing, but of abstaining from embracing;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.14
… For from among all nations the way is open for an abundant offspring to receive spiritual regeneration, from whatever quarter they derive their natural birth. So that we may acknowledge that the scripture which says there is “a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing,”
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.3
6 . “A time to keep, and a time to cast away.”
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.3
7 . “A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 1
… so that the blessed Paul, when instructing his disciple, teaches him to observe the time, saying, ‘Stand (ready) in season, and out of season ’—that knowing both the one and the other, he might do things befitting the season, and avoid the blame of unseasonableness. For thus the God of all, after the manner of wise Solomon
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 29
… what is hard to bear is to fail to fight its battle. The athlete does not so much complain of being wounded in the struggle as of not being able even to secure admission into the stadium. Or perhaps this was the time for silence spoken of by Solomon the wise.
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 223.1
1. There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.3
9. What then? Ought we to be dumb? Certainly not. For: “there is a time to keep silence and a time to speak.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Life of Paulus the First Hermit 13
… I do not deserve the name of monk. I have seen Elias, I have seen John in the desert, and I have really seen Paul in Paradise.” He then closed his lips, beat upon his breast, and brought out the cloak from his cell. When his disciples asked him to explain the matter somewhat more fully he said, “There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.14
… For it is written, A wise man will hold his tongue until the time ( Eccles. xx. 7 ); in order, assuredly, that, when he considers it opportune, he may relinquish the censorship of silence, and apply himself to the service of utility by speaking such things as are fit. And again it is written, A time to keep silence, and a time to speak (
Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 11
… For “he who does not transgress in word is a perfect man, able to keep down and subjugate his whole body.” And, “If a man speak, let him speak in the words of God.” And, “If there is in thee understanding, give an answer to thy brother but if not, put thy hand on thy mouth.” For, “at one time it is proper to keep silence, and at another thee to speak.”
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.3
10 . “I have seen, then, the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Containing Various Sections of the Works 2.4
… not even the meanest of them—the hair, or the nails, or such like—is so; but all have their service to do, and all their contribution to make, some of them to the soundness of bodily constitution, and others of them to beauty of appearance. For Providence cares not only for the useful, but also for the seasonable and beautiful.
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.3
11 . Everything that He hath made is beautiful in its time: and He hath set the whole world in their heart; so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning and to the end.”
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John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 8.24
… “I have learnt that all the words which God hath made from the beginning shall continue forever: nothing can be added to them, and nothing can be taken away from them,”
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 39.4
… Jacob, it is true, mourned for Joseph, whom he fancied slain, and thought to meet only in the grave (his words were: “I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning”), but he only did so because Christ had not yet broken open the door of paradise, nor quenched with his blood the flaming sword and the whirling of the guardian cherubim.
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.4
… If, however, He also announces recompense, then from the same God must come the harvest both of death and of life. But “in due time we shall reap;” because in Ecclesiastes it is said, “For everything there will be a time.”
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Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 20.6
… Did not God convert the rod of Moses into an animal, making it a serpent, which He reconverted into a rod? And by means of this very converted rod he converted the water of the Nile into blood, which again he reconverted into water. Yea, even man, who is dust, He changed by the inbreathing of His breath into flesh, and changed him back again into dust.
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.54
… Now I know partly; but then I shall know even as also I am known.” Also in Solomon, in Wisdom: “And in simplicity of heart seek Him.” Also in the same: “He who walketh with simplicity, walketh trustfully.” Also in the same: “Seek not things higher than thyself, and look not into things stronger than thyself.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.24
… Πνεῦμα , on the other hand, is uniformly rendered “spirit,” whether of man, of whom the apostle says, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” or of beast, as in the book of Solomon, “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 14.16
… We speak also of the spirit of a beast, as it is expressly written in the book of Solomon called Ecclesiastes; “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 4.37
… It is therefore quite evident that the soul of a brute animal could be rightly called “spirit” in a general sense of the term; as we read in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “Who knoweth the spirit of the sons of men, whether it goeth upward; and the spirit of the beast , whether it goeth downward into the earth?”
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1. ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR TIME, AND ALL THINGS PASS AWAY IN THEIR SEASONS UNDER HEAVEN. — For time in Hebrew is זמן zeman, that is, appointed time, or established time. The Hebrews therefore have it thus: every thing has its appointed time, and time for every will (that is, for every thing willed, or for every thing which anyone has desired and wished for) under heaven; the Septuagint, all things have time and καιρός, that is, opportunity, for every thing under heaven; the Syriac, every thing has its time, and time for every business under the sun; the Arabic, for every time and every thing under the sun there is time; the Chaldean, to every man shall come time, and an hour for every business under the sun; others, to each thing its own time is predetermined, limited and determined; Campensis, there is vicissitude in its seasons, nor is anything under the sun stable; Symmachus, every thing has its hour, and every ministry and business has its time; Thaumaturgus, through this time all contrary things happen to all; others, all things have time and whatever thing under heaven has its own opportunity. Note the word transeunt (pass away): for time consists in continual succession and passage. For "time," as Aristotle says, "is the measure of motion according to before and after." Just as therefore motion consists in continual agitation and succession, while the posterior part continually succeeds the prior, and drives it out and expels it: so also time, which is nothing other than the property and measure of motion. From this gather how little true essence and existence time has, equally as motion, and all things which are subject to motion and time. For past time is not, but has passed; future time is not, but will be: only the present is and exists; but the present is only one indivisible now, that is, one instant of time. Whence that one aptly said that man and temporal things truly do not exist at any time, but only in one now, or in one instant of time. Furthermore Varro, in book V of On the Latin Language: "Time," he says, "they say is the interval of the world and motion. This divided into certain parts chiefly by the course of the sun and moon. And so from their temperate course time is called: whence timely; and from their motion, which the whole heaven joined with God the world came by chance, from which time that from this God, day is called." Thus far Varro. You will ask, why does Solomon treat so extensively of time, and assign to it so many various actions and epithets through fourteen antitheses? I answer first, that he might prove the vanity of all things from time, with which, as he says in this verse and verse 9, all things pass away and vanish, and that by the decree of God; because God has predetermined for individual things the time in which they arise, endure, and perish. For He has decreed for each thing a time in which it exists, when and how long it ought to endure: for the Hebrew zeman signifies this fixed period of time of each thing, which our author translates as time. Whence Lyra thinks these things are said (or rather, nothing else is taught throughout this chapter), that it may be clear that happiness is not to be placed in longevity; nor is it to be desired, because a certain period of duration is predetermined by nature, or by God the author of nature, for each thing, among which is the period of human life, with which man ought to be content, just as also with every other period given to him by God. Secondly, from the definite and predetermined by God period of things, or from the vicissitude and succession of contraries, which he opposes to individual things in each verse, he shows the instability, mobility and circulation of all things, namely that all things revolve with the sun, and go in a circle with time. He says under heaven, says St. Jerome, because other "spiritual substances are contained neither under heaven, nor in time," such as angels. Whence they do not have contraries, which might change or destroy them, as men and all sublunary things have, which consist of contrary elements and warring among themselves, and therefore vary, change and perish. From these few examples however which he assigns, he leaves it to be done and assigned that a similar antithesis of time in all things and actions is to be made by each one. For it is an imperfect induction. Thirdly, he hints that vain and perverse are the cares of men, who, since to individual things time and opportunity, as the Septuagint translates it, is predetermined by God and nature, and is to be prudently awaited or patiently borne, they themselves by their own industry and excessive solicitude wish to predetermine, invert or anticipate it, in which matter they labor in vain with foolish, empty and fruitless effort. Fourth, Tertullian, in the book On the Veiling of Virgins, chapter 1, understands time as comprising the degrees of times, by which both nature in each thing and grace in man are advanced to perfection: "Nothing," he says, "is without age; all things await their time. Finally, Ecclesiastes says: A time to every purpose. Behold the very creature itself being gradually advanced to fruit. First it is a grain, and from the grain a shoot arises, and from the shoot a sapling springs forth. Then branches and leaves grow strong, and the whole name of the tree expands. Thence the swelling of the bud, and the flower is released from the bud, and the fruit opens from the flower. This too is at first rough and unformed, gradually directing its own age, is trained into the gentleness of flavor. So also justice (for the same God is of justice and of creation) was first in the rudiments of nature fearing God: then through the Law and the Prophets it advanced in infancy: then through the Gospel it burst forth in youth. Now through the Paraclete it is composed into maturity." Finally, from time always passing, circling and vanishing, he concludes by evident demonstration that all things subject to time pass away, circle and vanish with it. For in temporal things time dominates and reigns. Hence Varro, book IV of On the Latin Language, from Pythagoras establishes four principles of things, namely body, place, affliction and time: "For there are two," he says, "beginnings of things: rest and motion; what stands or is moved is body; where it is moved is place; what is in motion is action. Body is like a runner; place, a stadium; by which it runs, time; action, running. Wherefore it comes about that all things are fourfold and eternal: for there never was a time when there was not motion (for its interval is time); nor motion where there is not place and body (one of which is what is moved, the other where); nor motion where there is not action. Therefore the four-horse chariot of beginnings: place, body, time and action." Thus far Varro. To this pertains the discussion of the Seven Sages of Greece, which Plutarch recounts in their Banquet. For when Aesop, asked "what was most ancient," answered: "Time. What greatest? the world. What wisest? truth. What most beautiful? light. What most common? death. What most useful? God. What most harmful? Genius. What most strong? fortune. What most easy? what is pleasant." Thales, correcting and transposing some things, thus answered to each: "What is most ancient? God; for he lacks origin. What greatest? place; for the world contains all other things, by this is contained. What most beautiful? the world; for all its parts are fitted in order. What wisest? time; for it discovers other things, will discover the rest. What most common? hope; for those to whom all other things are lacking, this is present. What most useful? virtue; for this makes all other things useful even by right use. What most harmful? vice of mind; for by its presence very many good things are corrupted. What most strong? necessity, for it alone is insuperable. What most easy? what is consonant with nature: for pleasures also are such as are often rejected." When all approved the words of Thales, Cleodemus said: Such questions," he said, "Niloxene, it befits kings to propose and solve. Hence the Egyptians, and the ancient mythologists and mystical philosophers, gave these hieroglyphics and symbols of time: A star is the hieroglyphic of time, because nothing in the whole world observes a fixed law of time except the stars and heavens, which, since they are always moving, return in the same interval of time always and in certain periods to where they began to move. Thus Pierius, hieroglyph. LVI, p. 536. They also indicated time through a people-tree, because a tree is endowed with two-colored leaves, by which it represents the principal parts of time itself, namely day and night. Thus Pierius, hieroglyph. LII, p. 505. Some also wish the sickle attributed to Saturn, to whom times are subject, to signify time, because time measures all things, cuts them down and takes them away. Thus Pierius, hieroglyph. LVI, p. 536. Appositely Phocylides: Always remember to serve cautiously in times, Nor wish to stand against the blasts of wind. Again the Egyptians signified the revolution of time through a serpent coiled, and seizing its tail with its mouth. Hear Claudian, book II of Stilicho: It is unknown afar, and impassable to our mind, Scarcely to be approached by gods, the squalid mother of years, The cave of immense age, which times in a vast Supplies, and recalls in its bosom: the serpent contains, Which consumes all things with peaceful divinity, And perpetually thrives in scales, and drawing back its tail With its mouth, devours it, silently releasing the beginnings by its gliding. And soon: The old man writes laws, he who divides numbers among the stars. And the courses and fixed delays, by which all things live, And perish, then he reviews them with fixed laws. Furthermore, the ancients noted those who inverted the times as actors and leaders of a perverted life. Thus they noted Heliogabalus, who transferred the actions of days to nights, and nocturnal activities to days, considering this among the instruments of luxury, so that he would rise late from sleep and begin his salutations in the morning, but sleep in the morning. Thus Lampridius in his Life. Seneca, epistle 122: "There are, he says, those who pervert the duties of light and night. For these, their contrary is not a region but a life to all. There are certain ones in the city who are antipodes, who, as M. Cato says, have never seen either the rising sun or the setting sun." And further concerning a certain sun-avoider, who would wake at night and go to bed at dawn, he jokes so acutely and wittily that he says he lived most frugally, namely because he consumed nothing except the night. And when certain ones called him sordid and avaricious: "You," he says, "will also call him a lamp-liver." Now this word is ambiguous, signifying either that he was so far from being avaricious that he even consumed lamps, or so sparing that he lived on lamps. Pericles attempted to restrain Tolmides, a general of war, who was planning an incursion into Boeotia at an inopportune time, saying: If he would not believe Pericles, yet he would not err if the most prudent counselor, time, would work. But Tolmides, rejecting sound counsel, paid for his rashness with the slaughter of his army and his own death. Thus Plutarch in Pericles. A prefect of the Emperor Hadrian named Similis, renouncing his prefecture, lived for himself for seven years; whence he ordered this epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb: "Here lies Similis, who lived many years, but truly lived seven." Thus Xiphilinus in Hadrian. Tropologically, learn here how great is the value of time passing so quickly and flying away, and how great care ought to be taken of it. For from this brief and fleeting time depends our eternal salvation or perdition, according to that saying: "Eternity hangs on a moment." For God from eternity has appointed to each his own time, indeed his year, hour and day, for example, so that in the first century, in such a year, month, day and hour he is born, and after so many years on such a day and hour dies—St. Peter, St. Paul, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian; in the second century, St. Ignatius, St. Dionysius, St. Polycarp, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus; in the third century, Constantius, Constantine, Diocletian, Maximian, etc. Thus to each man he has fixed a certain century, a certain year, a certain day, on which he is to be born, to live and to die. Use therefore, O man, if you are wise, the time appointed and measured to you by God: for you will have no other from all the volumes of the ages throughout all eternity, indeed not even an hour, nor a moment of time, by which you are able to do penance, to gain merits, and to deserve eternal life. The damned had their time, but they spent it badly, and where they could have gained heaven, they acquired hell. How they would wish now to be given an hour of repentance! how many labors and crosses would they willingly undertake, if it were permitted to return to life! But in vain, the door is closed, their time has passed: there still remains for you, see that you spend it rightly, and do not later repent of it badly spent as they do. Most excellently Hugh of St. Victor here and in the book On the Vanity of the World, at the end: "All things," he says, "have their time, namely a certain and defined time, either when they begin, or when they end, or also how long they subsist, so that a prudent mind in all things should not think that anything exists which can always stand, so as to place confidence in it; but rather conforming itself to true and permanent goods, thus despises the vanity of mutable things, so that although it uses each thing according to its time while it is present, it never permits its mind to decline from its state in its passing. For he is most prudent who knows how to turn passing things to use in such a way that he does not know how to decline his mind from its stability in their deficiency. He acted badly therefore, when he chose certain things for himself as if superior to all for pleasure, and believed he could be happy in them, because indeed all things are good to one who uses all things well in their time, and yet all things which are subject to mutability, although they provide some consolation in misery, cannot however confer happiness. Nothing therefore is to be rejected in its time, and nothing is to be chosen outside its time. But thus let the mind be prepared for the use of time, so that nevertheless it is not changed by the mutability of time." Hear St. Bernard in his Declamation: "Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after a lie? This time is assigned to souls, not to bodies; it is a day of salvation, certainly not of pleasure. All things have their time: it is necessary now to apply ourselves to our souls. For he who sows in the flesh shall reap corruption from it." Remember that saying of St. Ambrose on Psalm 1: "You sleep, and your time (does not sleep, but) walks." For all times and ages revolve around eternity as a wheel around its axle. Hear also Seneca, epistle 129: "Nothing is sufficient for those about to die, indeed for those dying; for daily we stand closer to the end, and every hour drives us from that place which we must leave." And soon after: "The final day reaches death, it comes to all. It seizes us, it does not correct us; therefore a great soul, conscious of its better nature, indeed applies itself to conduct itself honorably and diligently in this station in which it is placed; yet it judges nothing of those things which are around it to be its own, but uses them as a traveler and one in haste uses borrowed things." Secondly, it is the part of the wise to do all things in opportune time and to seize occasions of acting well: for the foolish does not observe opportunity, and therefore labors and works foolishly and in reverse order, and without fruit. See St. Antiochus, homily 94, whose title is: That the Opportunity of Time Should Always Be Seized. The wise man therefore uproots from his heart excessive and untimely solicitude in acting, and awaits the time opportune for action, indeed asks it from God, that He might suggest to him occasions of meriting and of exercising heroic acts of virtue, according to that passage in Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them." Wisely Boethius, book 2 of the Consolation of Philosophy, meter 6: God marks the times, Fitting them to their proper duties; Nor does He allow those cycles Which He Himself has bound To be mixed together. And Ovid, book 1 of the Remedy of Love: Medicine avails in due times, things given in time help, And wine given at an unsuitable time harms. That the Poets might represent this, they feigned Opportunity to be a god standing on a turning wheel, with winged feet, turning himself about in a circle with a certain swiftness, with the front part of the head having hair, so that it could be seized, with the back part bald, so that it could not be held. Whence that saying: "Opportunity is hairy in front, bald behind." See the passage in Jeremiah, chapter 8, verse 7. Thirdly, some accommodate these to the inconstancy of the thoughts and desires of man, which the Hebrew favors, which reads thus: To every will (that is, to every desire and pleasure of man) its own time is. This inconstancy Horace depicts graphically in these verses, book 1 of the Epistles: My judgment thus fights with itself: What it seeks it spurns, it seeks again what it recently abandoned, It seethes, and disagrees with the order of life entirely, It destroys, builds, changes squares into circles. Fourthly, the Nyssene and Olympiodorus understand by time a mode or measure, namely the golden mean to be observed in every action, according to that saying of the Greeks: μηδὲν ἄγαν, καιρὸς ἄριστος, that is, nothing in excess, opportunity is the best thing. And that saying of Horace, book 2 of the Odes, ode 10: Whoever loves the golden mean, Safe he lacks the filth of a decayed roof, Lacks the envy of a proud hall, Sober. Cyril depicts this wisdom of Solomon with a notable allegory of the cicada and the ant, illustrated with beautiful examples, in a graphic manner, in book I of his Moral Apologies, chapter IV: "In the heat of harvest," he says, "the cicada, singing and resting, when it saw the ant drawing a grain with great labor by means of its organs, taking pity on it, said to it: Why, in such great heat, when nature requires refreshing rest and moistening shade, do you not only endure the dry air and the storm, but, what is worse, do you kill yourself with a heavy burden? Do you not see that I, resting in green shade with rejoicing, can scarcely draw a refreshing breath of heart in the suffocating heat? Rest therefore, until the harvest fire passes. To which the provident ant, though improvident, soon answered providently: All things have their time, and all things pass in their seasons under heaven (Eccles. III, 1). For which reason, just as each thing must be done in its own place and time, so also must it be sought. For if one neglects the opportune time for a matter and passes it by, when he shall have need of it, he will by no means find it afterwards, because he did not seek it in the hour necessary to him. Thus therefore, dearest, we must use providence, so that we may vigilantly gather the food of life suited to that time, when we find it while nature's bounty is present as we seek these things. But the time of gathering is harvest; hence now I providently labor by my toils, so that in the dry winter I may live in abundant rest: but you, being improvident and neglecting the future time, now exist in the unstable point of rest, or rather now you abuse yourself more with songs; and when the leaf in which you now delight, like a shadow, shall have passed away, a heavy burning of hunger together with want shall succeed, since you have gathered nothing in the harvest. Have you not therefore destroyed with the dread sword of improvidence the life which you love so much?" Then he confirms this wisdom, that "all things have their time," with various examples of fountains, the zodiac, the sun, the earth, and the vine: "But attend, I pray, so that in its affairs nature is led by the marvelous regularity of providence. For it always has springs full of veins in the pastures of animals, so that, when it shall be necessary, it may distribute to them the due and prepared food providently. For indeed in the circuit of the zodiac the sun is conducted by a provident guide, so that thus provision is made in changed times, when providence brings forth. Similarly, for the following year once it generates sweeter palm dates; thus also the vine distills its sweetest liquid in like order. Thus also fountains, which do not always gush forth, are seen to flow forth, the earth being imbued once with long-lasting moisture by the virtue of the stars. Is not the whole order of nature governed by providence? What therefore, spurning it, which is so convenient a governess of life, and neglecting the future, do you think only of the present? I certainly, if I am not mistaken, care more about future things. For I have lost the past, the present I have already passed through by the swiftest course of heaven, and I possess only what remains, the future." Then he adds the epimythium, or the end and fruit of the allegory, saying: "Having heard these things, the silent cicada asked the ant to show her by definition what these things were. But she, willingly admitting the request, said: Providence indeed (if I have a worthy word) is this: By the vigilant art of reason, in this transitory life to justly gather temporal things, and to preserve what is gathered inviolably, from which you may always live in eternal and glorious rest. Having said this, she went laden to her nest."
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2. A TIME TO BE BORN, AND A TIME TO DIE. — For "to be born" in Hebrew is ללדת laledet, which signifies both to be born and to beget. Whence the Septuagint, the Arabic, Vatablus, Campensis, Arias and others translate it "a time of begetting, and a time of dying"; but the Chaldean of Costi sometimes renders it "a time for procreation and offspring, sometimes for dying." The Rabbis in the Midrash expound it, as if to say: "Sometimes childbirth is joined with death, namely when the fetus shortly after conception in the womb, or after being brought forth into the light, dies." But this exposition is more forced and narrow, as is also that of the Chaldean of Complutum, "it is a time chosen for bearing children: it is a time for killing rebellious and provocative children, so that they may be crushed with stones according to the word of judges." Better do Our Doctors, Pagninus, the Syriac, Clarius, the Zurich Bible and others translate it "a time to be born"; for to this is directly opposed by antithesis "a time to die." Hence the Thaumaturgus translates it, "some things are born, then they die." Solomon proves his theme, which he proposed in the first verse, namely: "All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven," by induction of various examples and of opposites succeeding one another in turn, through fourteen of their combinations down to verse 8, where from these he infers and concludes that all things under heaven are vain, and nothing is left to man from continuous labor, but all things pass away and vanish. The first example is that to each living thing a time of being born and dying is predetermined by God and nature. For just as all things that arise have a fixed law that they cease and die: so likewise to these same things a fixed time of arising and ceasing, or of being born and dying, is appointed. Thus flowers, leaves, sprouts arise in spring, perish in winter. Thus animals and men are born in infancy, die in old age. And this time cannot be changed, prolonged, or reversed by man. Therefore the old man labors in vain to prolong for himself years of living, of acting rightly and of meriting, when the time of dying presses upon him, as it were, a fate: whoever therefore is wise, while he lives and is vigorous, let him accumulate for himself the merits of virtues and good works. This therefore is the pair of being born and dying by which we are all carried to death, and through it to immortality, either most blessed in the heavens, or most wretched in hell. Tacitly therefore Solomon admonishes man, as if to say: "Know, O man, who art born into the world, that thou must die and depart from the world; prepare thyself therefore, and gather together works of virtue, which after death thou mayest offer to Christ the Judge, so that on account of them thou mayest deserve to be adjudged by him to heaven, and not to be condemned to hell." That Moses might hint at this, in Genesis, that is the origin of things, he subjoined Exodus, that is the exit and setting, say Nyssenus and Olympiodorus. Therefore Solomon says these things to this end: "That he may admonish us of the temporary life," says Olympiodorus; or "by mention of death as by a certain goad he may rouse those who are immersed in the depths of carnal life, and stir them to care for future things," says Nyssenus. Again he subjoins death to nativity, as if there were no intermediate time of living, to signify that immediately from birth man tends toward death, and begins to die, according to that: "We being born straightway ceased to be," Wisdom V, 13, because as many hours as we have lived since being born, by so many steps, as it were, we proceed toward death. Thus "being born we die, dying we all live." What is life? A continual course toward death. What is death? A passage to immortality. Tropologically St. Jerome: We are spiritually reborn, he says, through fear, according to that in Isaiah XXVI, 18, according to the Septuagint: "From thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived, and have been in labor and have brought forth the spirit of salvation"; but we die through love: for while we grow in the love of God, fear dies, according to that: "Perfect charity casteth out fear," I John IV. Symbolically the Hebrews: "Israel," they say, "or the Synagogue and the Hebrew people had a time of being born when in Egypt after the death of Joseph it began to increase," Exodus I, concerning which Ezekiel XVI, 4, says: "When thou wast born, in the day of thy nativity." A time of dying was when in the Assyrian, Babylonian, and especially Roman captivity, the commonwealth of the Jews was overthrown and scattered, as if it perished. Whence Ezekiel XXXVII, 12, the captivity of the Jews is compared to a sepulcher; the captives to dry bones, those returning to their homeland to those rising again. Better, the first Christians were born in the Church through baptism, died gloriously through martyrdom. For them therefore a time of being born was baptism, a time of dying was martyrdom. Finally, the time of the birth of the Church of Christ and of Christians was the time of the death of the Synagogue of the Jews: for this perished when that was born and soon brought forth offspring, and so when from the barren Church the people of the Gentiles was born, the Synagogue lost her children, as St. Jerome says, in chapter V of Micah. TIME OF PLANTING, AND TIME OF UPROOTING (in Hebrew, uprooting or eradicating. Thus also the Syriac and Arabic) WHAT HAS BEEN PLANTED. — Campensis, now we cut away what we once took care to nurture for growth; the Chaldean, it is a time for sowings and uprooting of trees. After the work of nature (namely the time of being born and dying) there is joined the work of art and of the artificer cooperating with nature, as Hugo says, namely the time of planting trees, shrubs, herbs, such as stalks, beets, cabbages, etc., and the time of uprooting them, so that new ones may be planted. The time of planting individual plants according to the rising of certain stars, especially the moon, winds, rains, clear skies, etc., is described in detail by Columella, book II On Agriculture, chapter VIII and following, and by Varro, book I, chapter XXVII and following. Thus the Chaldean, Thaumaturgus and others. Wherefore what St. Jerome and Albinus expound, that the time of planting is the time of being born, and the time of uprooting is the time of dying, which preceded, is not literal, but mystical. Tropologically, the time of planting virtues is when at fixed times one ought now to devote oneself to penance, as in Lent; now to spiritual joy, as at Easter; now to works of almsgiving, as in time of plague, famine, war; now to patience, as in time of sickness, temptation, persecution; now to works of the active life, now of the contemplative, as obedience or necessity requires, and enjoins in turn, so that often one ought to leave God for God, that is prayer for action. For the obedient, therefore, now the rest of contemplation is to be planted, now to be uprooted, and to be exchanged with action, when obedience demands it. Again, the time of eradicating tares is when concupiscences, suggestions of the demon, and temptations of the flesh and world are to be uprooted from imagination and appetite. Symbolically, the Hebrews, says St. Jerome, refer all these combinations to the Synagogue and the people of Israel: "The time," he says, "of generating and planting Israel, the time of dying and being led into captivity. The time of slaying them in Egypt, and the time of liberating them from Egypt. The time of destroying the temple under Nebuchadnezzar, and the time of building it under Darius. The time of weeping and mourning the overthrow of the city, and the time of laughing and dancing under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. The time of scattering Israel, and the time of gathering them into one. The time of girding the people of the Jews as with a belt and baldric to God, and the time of leading them into Babylonian captivity, and there to rot beyond the Euphrates. Read περίζωμα in Jeremiah. The time of seeking them and preserving them, and the time of losing them and casting them away. The time of rending Israel, and the time of sewing them together again. The time of the Prophets being silent now in Roman captivity, and the time of them speaking then, when even in hostile land they were not deprived of God's consolation and address. The time of love, by which He loved them under the fathers of old; and the time of hatred, when they laid hands upon Christ. The time of war, now as they do not do penance; and the time of peace in the future, when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, all Israel shall be saved." Anagogically, the time of planting the choirs of the blessed in heaven, and of uprooting the reprobate from the earth, so that they may be thrust down into hell, there to burn perpetually, will be the day of judgment; for then "every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up," says Christ in Matthew XV, 13.
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3. TIME OF KILLING, AND TIME OF HEALING. — Syriac, time for killing, and time for making alive; Thaumaturgus, things which are now curable become then lethal. First, Hugo Victorinus: The time of killing, he says, is when we slaughter sheep and cattle, so that we may feed on their flesh, granted by God on account of the weakness of bodies after the flood; the time of healing is when in Lent and fasting we abstain from them, we preserve them and as it were heal them. Second and properly, the time of killing is when a guilty person is condemned to death by a judge, likewise when enemies are attacked in just war; the time of healing is when those wounded in war or otherwise are cured, when damages inflicted by war are repaired through peace. Whence the Arabic renders it, time of contending, and time of healing; and the Chaldean, time often demands mixing all things with flames and iron; but another thing is to heal those in bad condition, namely the time in which the sick are to be cured.
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4. A TIME TO WEEP, AND A TIME TO LAUGH. A TIME TO MOURN, AND A TIME TO DANCE. — The Arabic version: a time for weeping, and a time for laughing. A time for lamenting, and a time for dancing; the Chaldean: in their time the sick are to be stretched out, and at another time the friend is to be gathered together with cheerfulness and laughter. On a fixed day the dead are to be mourned, and on another day one is to exult with joy; Thaumaturgus: one weeps, shortly after one laughs; now mourning, then also dancing; Campensis: sometimes we mourn in sadness, sometimes we leap up with joy; Lyran: the time of weeping is, he says, in misfortunes, the time of laughing in good fortunes. Therefore the time of weeping and mourning is in grief, on account of the funerals of parents or friends, on account of private or public disasters, on account of dangers and any adversities. The time of laughing and dancing is in public joy, namely in triumphs, victories, feasts, banquets, weddings; where note that weeping and laughing are private, mourning and dancing are public. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Note that in these antitheses the order of contraries is indicated: for the time of weeping is first, the time of laughing is later. Thus the time of being born is first, then dying: the time of planting is first, then uprooting: the time of being silent is first, then speaking, and so on with the others. Now you mourn at a funeral, now you will dance at a banquet; now you will carry your wife to the funeral, now you will take another in a second marriage; now funeral banquets, now you will celebrate nuptial feasts. Thus all things are full of contraries succeeding one another, and linked by a chain of disparates, widowhood with marriages, sitting in dust at the time of lamentation, and dancing and leaping at a broader time and public joy, says our Pineda. Nyssenus notes in the Greek Catena that κοπετόν, that is, lamentation or the beating of the breast, adds intensity in weeping and wailing; and ὀρχηοῦ, that is dancing, adds intensity and amplification in joy bursting forth outwardly, and in exultant leaping. Note that choirs and dances are not in themselves illicit, but rather sometimes are holy, as were the dances of David leaping before the ark with the joy of his mind in honor of God, II Kings VI, 14 and 16, and of the Hebrews in thanksgiving for the passage of the Red Sea and the submersion of Pharaoh, Exodus cap. XV, 20; likewise those of the women on account of Goliath struck down by David, I Kings XVIII, 6. Indeed God had commanded that the Hebrews celebrate annually the feast of Tabernacles with sacred leaping, and dance in the tabernacle before the Lord, as I showed in Leviticus XXIII, 40. Thus from sacred dancing the Salii were celebrated among the Romans, the Curetes in Crete, the Corybantes in Phrygia. But great moderation must be employed in dances, lest they turn into wantonness and luxury. Whence they were permitted to the carnal Jews rather than to Christians. Wherefore almost all the Fathers inveigh sharply against the dances of Christians, such as St. Basil, homily 14 Against Drunkenness; St. Ambrose, book On Elijah and Fasting, cap. XVIII; St. Augustine, sermon 215 On the Seasons; St. Chrysostom, homily 48 and 56 in Genesis, and 49 in Matthew; Clement of Alexandria, II Pedagogue XX; Eusebius, XIII On Preparation, cap. XII; Lactantius, VI Institutes XX, and others. Indeed there are also laws of Emperors against them, such as those of Constantine in Eusebius in his Life, cap. XVIII; of Theodosius and Valentinian, On Spectacles, cap. V; of Arcadius, law Omnes, cap. On Holidays; of Leo and Anthemius, there law last. Much more do the Canons forbid them, On Consecration, dist. I, cap. Who on days, and dist. III, cap. Irreligious. Wherefore Matthew Clingius in Theological Loci, cap. On Dances: "What," he says, "is a dance? It is a circle whose center is the devil, and whose circumference is all his angels." Tropologically St. Jerome: "Now," he says, "is the time for weeping, in the future for laughing. For blessed are those who weep, for they shall laugh, Luke VI. We must mourn at present, so that afterwards we may be able to dance with that dancing with which David danced before the ark: because he who mourns his sins in the present world will rather laugh in the future," according to that in Malachi cap. IV, 2: "You shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd." And Didymus in the Greek Catena: "The time of the present life," he says, "is suitable for weeping, but the time of laughing lies in hope."
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5. A TIME TO SCATTER (in Hebrew, to cast; in the Septuagint, to send; in Syriac, to cast) STONES, AND A TIME TO GATHER THEM. — Campensis: now we tear down old buildings, now we construct new ones: it is remarkable that some substitute fruits for stones; whence the Wonderworker translates, now who gathers the fruits of the earth, then casts them away. A time to scatter stones is when houses are torn down, when stones are cast away from a field, garden, or vineyard, lest they suffocate seeds, herbs and plants: then therefore a field is cleared of stones, when it is freed and purged of stones. A time to gather is when those same stones are gathered and collected into a heap, so that from them a hedge or wall may be made for a field, garden or vineyard, protecting against beasts and thieves. Secondly, Arboreus restricts this interpretation to the buildings of Solomon, which he now built, now destroyed: just as even today we see wealthy men often destroy a house which they had built, for this sole reason, that its form displeases them, and they wish to build anew a new form: which is indeed costly vanity and inconstancy. Thirdly, Cajetan understands by stones precious ones, namely gems, as if to say: There is a time for gathering gems and ornaments, and a time for casting them away, namely in a time of desolation and destruction, according to that in Lamentations IV, 1: "The stones of the sanctuary are scattered in the head of every street." Again, as if to say: In this age gems are held cheap, and are as it were scattered; soon in another age they are gathered, and held in great price. For the estimation of men gives value to gems, equally as to medals; and since that often varies, hence the price of gems often varies likewise. Fourthly, more profoundly Pineda refers this to the stones of commerce, namely to the weights by which merchandise and money were weighed: for these were formerly of stone and stones, Proverbs XVI, 11, as if to say: There is a time when a man is occupied in trade, and therefore gathers stones, that is, weights by which he weighs and measures both his merchandise and his money. Conversely there is a time when a man now wealthy and aged is weary of trade, and desires to live quietly for himself and for God, and therefore scatters and casts away these stone weights. Tropologically the Author of the Greek Catena says: Stones, he says, are virtues by which we stone and bury vices. "For what else is temperance than a stone by which the unbridled and straining affections of the mind are cast down and overthrown. Again stones are the words of Holy Scripture, by which we are able to cast down and bury the enemy: yet the same he commands us to gather again into the bosom of the soul, so that at an opportune time we may use them against our adversaries, so that such casting of stones may never at any time fail, nor may we ever succumb." Symbolically, first, St. Jerome relates some who thus expound it, as if to say: The law of severity was succeeded by the law of clemency, namely the old law by the new law. For in the old law adulterers and those guilty of other crimes are commanded to be stoned: the new law however removed this rigor of the old law, when Christ absolved the adulteress, and said to the Pharisees wishing to stone her: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," John cap. VIII, 7. But he himself does not approve this exposition, namely as literal: as mystical however it can be admitted. Allegorically St. Jerome: At this time, he says, stones, that is, the stony hearts of the Jews are scattered by Christ, faith, truth, salvation; but at the end of the world they will be gathered, when they are converted to Christ, and all will be assembled. Anagogically, stones are the elect saints, whom God sends into the world, that they may sanctify it; but he gathers them when he receives them to himself through death, lest they see the evils of their nation, and that they may build the heavenly Jerusalem, says St. Gregory, III Dialog. cap. XXXVII, at the end. A TIME TO EMBRACE, AND A TIME TO BE FAR FROM EMBRACES. — The Arabic version: to separate. Interpreters commonly understand the embrace of spouses and the use of matrimony, that is to say: Now is the time to give attention to procreating children, now to abstain and to contain oneself, namely when one must be free for prayer, penance, fasting (as in Lent), according to that passage in I Corinthians VII: "Defraud not one another, unless perhaps by consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer." Likewise when the wife is sick, suffers her monthly courses, is elderly, is absent, etc. Thus St. Jerome, Olympiodorus, Hugo, Bonaventura, Lyra, Dionysius and almost all the rest. Thus Noah with his sons and all the animals in the ark abstained from the use of matrimony, on account of the common mourning for the subversion of the whole world through the flood, as I said on Genesis VIII, 16. Hence the Chaldean version: at his time there is access to the wife; but for seven days of mourning one must withdraw from her. Thus Tobias said to his bride Sarah, chapter VIII: "Rise up, and let us pray to God to-day and to-morrow and the day after, because for these three nights we are joined to God; but when the third night is past, we shall be in our marriage: for we are the sons of saints." Vatablus is added, who thus expounds it, that we contract matrimony or not, but remain unmarried, this depends on God; matrimony has its own time. Otherwise, and in a different manner, the Thaumaturgus: Now, he says, a man desperately desires a woman and embraces her with insane love; now he intensely hates and abhors her, especially after intercourse, for which matter Aristotle and the natural philosophers give a physical cause, as Amnon had Tamar in hatred after it, "so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her," II Kings XIII, 14. Hence Campensis translates at this place: now we give attention to embraces, now we are nauseated by embraces. Secondly, Hugo and Pineda understand embrace as that of friends and friendship, that is to say: Now is the time to embrace friends and to cultivate friendship; now to abstain from them, as when they are absent, die, or are found to be unfaithful, that is to say: The friendship of men is unstable, and in it there is vanity either of death, or of absence, or of treachery, or of sadness. But stable is friendship with God, in which there is truth, sincerity, constancy and blessed eternity. Cleave therefore to Him, and "grow old in Him," Ecclesiasticus II, 6. Allegorically, the time of embrace and matrimony was in the law of nature and the Mosaic law, when it was said: "Increase and multiply," Genesis I. But the time of continence is in the new law, when it is said: "There are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven," Matthew XIX. "Because it is the precept of the old Testament that the earth be filled with procreations: but of the new, that heaven be filled with continence and virginity," says St. Isidore, book II On the Offices of the Church, chapter XVII. Thus also St. Jerome and Olympiodorus. Symbolically, its time is to be free for wisdom, contemplation and embraces of God with Mary; and likewise a time to abstain from these, so as to be free for action with Martha, namely to serve the necessities of the body or the salvation of neighbors. Thus St. Jerome and Hugo. Thus Moses, about to receive the law, conversed with God for 40 days on the mountain; but afterwards when the people sinned and committed idolatry, he came down to correct them, Exodus XXXII, 7.
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6. A TIME TO ACQUIRE (Hebrew, to seek), AND A TIME TO LOSE. — Arabic, a time to make loss; Chaldean, it is a chosen time to seek money, and it is a chosen time to lose goods; Campensis, sometimes with great effort we seek what we lose shortly after. First, the Hebrews restrict this to David and Solomon, that is to say, A time to acquire was granted to the tribe of Judah and the kingdom of Israel under David; that time to lose was under Rehoboam the son of Solomon on account of his idolatry, III Kings XII. Second, Olympiodorus, that is to say, It is a time in which you lose your possession, and it is a time in which you find again what was lost, so that it is hysteron proteron. For first acquiring is placed, then losing, although in reality losing comes before acquiring what was lost. Third, Thaumaturgus, Nyssenus, Lyranus, Hugo, Bonaventura and others adapt these to merchants and those seeking profit, that is to say, There is a time when merchants acquire profits, there is a time when they lose the same, as when ships of merchandise suffer shipwreck, or are captured by enemies, or the goods themselves are corrupted, or on account of the arrival of others they are sold for less. He urges, therefore, says Pineda, that we bear losses with an even mind, and whether with fortune, or rather with God the supreme arbiter and governor of things, we enter into a partnership of profit and loss in the negotiation and possession of temporal things. For "if we have received good things from the hand of God, why should we not endure evil things?" The joy of profit is to be tempered with the sorrow of loss and damage. And so as that other man wisely said: "Confidence of mind is to be opposed to fortune, and reason to disturbance." Nor is fortune to be greatly valued, which "gives not so much as a gift as a loan," to be reclaimed at its pleasure. "For it is not very desirable (as Cicero reports from some Lacedaemonian) that fortune be fitted to sailors," namely to an inconstant matter, and always involved in a thousand dangers either with winds or with waves. Fourth and genuinely, to lose here is a verb, not neuter, but active, so that it is the same as to corrupt, to cast away, to dissipate; for this is what the Hebrew אבד abbed signifies. And thus this combination is almost the same as the following: "A time to keep, and a time to cast away," that is to say, There is a time when you buy and acquire things, namely provisions, crops, riches; there is again a time when you lose and squander the same, as when a storm arises at sea, plague on land, an enemy in the city. Again when the crops themselves are corrupted, or when for some other reason we are disgusted with our possessions, and therefore cast them away and consign them to flames. Thus St. Jerome, Albinus and others. Mystically St. Athanasius, in his tract on that passage: Going into the village which is over against you, you will find a colt, first expounds it of Christ, that is to say, Christ sought man lost by the sin of Adam: "For," he says, "the human race had long been lost, and was perishing by the deceits of the devil. For the time of seeking came, and of delivering from captivity." Second, concerning the penitent sinner, that is to say, Seek through penance what you lost through guilt; or, that is to say, Acquire grace, lose sin. Third, concerning the just man, as if to say: That you may acquire the salvation of your soul, lose and mortify its concupiscence; that you may acquire virtues, lose vices; that you may acquire heaven, lose earth; that you may acquire spiritual things, lose temporal things, according to that saying of Christ: "He that shall find his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it," Matthew X, 39; "namely so that in the time of martyrdom we may spare neither possessions, nor children, nor parents, nor body, nor even our own soul, but offer ourselves even unto death, that we may find our soul in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever therefore wishes to find his soul, let him lose it in this time. It is necessary therefore that malice be lost in us, so that seeking virtue we may find it. For if anyone does not cease from anger, how will he be exercised in meekness? If anyone does not drive out fornication from himself, how will he dare to profess temperance? I sought him whom my soul loves, I sought him and found him, and I brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me." Thus far St. Athanasius. Again the Author of the Greek Catena: "A time," he says, "to acquire is this whole life; to acquire, I say, the Lord, whom we ought to seek: on the other hand we ought to lose that, the possession of which is loss, the loss of which is gain." A TIME TO KEEP, AND A TIME TO CAST AWAY. — The Syrian: a time to bind together, and a time to loose; Thaumaturgus: now anxious custody preserves what later, disdaining it, one casts away of one's own accord, that is to say, There is a time when you keep your things; there is in turn a time when you cast them away, namely when they are corrupted, or when pestilence, plague, death, enemy, robbers, etc., impend, as I have already said. Campensis more strictly: Sometimes, he says, we spare what we later squander. Olympiodorus differently: The steward, he says, knows at what time he keeps money with himself, at what time he spends it. Others: The liberal man knows when to keep money, when to distribute it to the poor. Tropologically, the time of keeping wealth is when it helps to feed one's family and to work the virtue of almsgiving; the time of casting it away is when it harms the soul and incites it to gluttony and luxury, or when it distracts from the study of prayer and perfection: whence Christ said to the young man: "If thou wilt, he says, be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor," Matt. cap. XIX, 21. Thus Hugo. Mystically Hugo Victorinus: There is a time, he says, when God keeps his faithful from temptations and dangers: again there is a time when he exposes and subjects them to these, either as punishment for sin, or to test and increase their patience, faith and virtue.
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7. A TIME TO REND (others, to tear), AND A TIME TO SEW. — The Arabic: a time to cut off, and a time to sew; others, to sew; others, to mend; Campensis, sometimes we tear what we once sewed; the Chaldean, on his day over the dead a garment is to be rent, and finally also a fracture is to be mended. To rend garments was customary among the Hebrews in great calamity, or upon hearing some blasphemy, as Caiphas rent his garments when Christ asserted himself to be the Son of God, saying: "He hath blasphemed," Matt. cap. XXVI, 65. Conversely, when the calamity ceased, they sewed the torn garment. Therefore a time to rend is a time of mourning, a time to sew is a time of joy and gladness. Again, so that a certain garment may be made, one must appropriately rend cloth to the body, then sew it; and so that from one garment another may be fashioned, for example so that from a tunic a breastplate may be made, it is necessary to rend it and fit it to the breast, and then to mend it: thus God, who was the first tailor of the world, sewed a tunic for Adam from skins, Gen. cap. III. Thaumaturgus less aptly refers these things to the rending of the body, that is to say, There is a time when you rend the body with the sword and wound it in war, or in judgment to punish crime; there is again a time when you restore that rended body and as it were sew it. Didymus also differently in the Greek Catena: "Man, he says, now kills, now is killed." Mystically the Hebrews: There was a time, they say, to rend the kingdom of Israel under Rehoboam, when ten tribes departing from him constituted Jeroboam as king, III Kings XII. There will be a time to sew when at the end of the world all Israelites converted to Christ shall conspire in one Church and kingdom never to be rent, Ezech. XXXIV, 29. Symbolically Hugo Victorinus refers these things to the coupling and uncoupling of covenant and friendship: "For it has, he says, its sewing in its own time of social consensus: and it has also its rending in its own time of the zeal of just contradiction." More sublimely the same Hugo below refers these things to the coupling of nature and grace: "Those things, he says, which are rent are substantially one; those things however which are sewn are essentially indeed diverse, but by means of the bond of the Son as it were accidentally become one. For thus every man is united to corruptible and perishable things by nature; but he is made a partaker of eternal things by grace. Thus indeed human and divine are sewn together into one, so that what were two by nature become one by grace. For compunction itself is the needle, and charity is the thread. And the needle makes a way and pierces both, so that the thread may hold both; for sewing could not otherwise be done unless both were pierced and both held, because one would depart from the other, and would easily divide itself from unity, if both were not held by a bond. For this reason the needle of compunction pierces both, and the thread of charity connects both, so that they stand together and do not depart from one another." Again, a time to rend is a time of excommunicating, when an impenitent sinner is cut off from the Church, so that by this punishment and infamy he may repent, and thus again be sewn to and united with the Church, as Paul cut off the fornicator, and again sewed the penitent to the Church, I Cor. cap. V, and II Cor. II. Thus the Author of the Catena of the Greeks. Allegorically the body of Christ was rent in the passion, sewn in the resurrection. The same will happen to us. Tropologically, we rend our hearts through penance and the cutting away of vices, we sew through the weaving of new life and virtues. Again, we rend fellowship with heretics or wicked men, and join ourselves to Catholics and good men, when we rescind unjust contracts and enter into just ones. Finally, Arius tore the tunic, that is the Church of Christ, which St. Athanasius sewed again, as Christ showed to St. Peter of Alexandria the Bishop through a vision. See his Life in Surius, 26 November. A TIME TO KEEP SILENCE, AND A TIME TO SPEAK. — The Chaldean of the Complutensian edition: a time is chosen that words of contention be not uttered, and a time is chosen for uttering words of contention. But the Chaldean of Costus thus has it: sometimes a measure is to be put to speech and prayers; at other times, however, contention of words is to be used. He therefore refers these same things to the study of prayer or silence. Didymus in the Greek Catena: "A man, he says, now speaks, now is silent." A time to keep silence is in school, in prayers, in a sermon. Again, when a superior, teacher or elder speaks, the subject, disciple and youth must be silent and listen; when a doctor or preacher, now advanced in years, is destitute of voice, memory, eloquence and grace, let him be silent, and resign the lamp and the office of speaking, teaching and preaching to a younger man endowed with these gifts. A time to speak is for the teacher, when he must teach; for the preacher, when he must preach; for the superior, when the subject must be admonished or corrected; for an equal, when he ought to offer counsel, consolation, or direction to his neighbor. Hence Salonius: "Your words, he says, you will press down with silence, until a fitting occasion for speaking offers itself." Hear St. Jerome: "I believe the Pythagoreans, whose discipline it is to be silent for five years, and afterwards to speak when instructed, drew the origin of their decree from this. Let us therefore also learn first not to speak, so that afterwards we may speak well; this alone is so base and easy that it does not need a teacher." For this reason Solomon places the time to keep silence before the time to speak, because by keeping silence we learn to speak. Wherefore Hugo of St. Victor, lib. Institut. moral. XVI: "Solomon does not say, he says, a time to speak and a time to keep silence, but a time to keep silence and a time to speak; because first in silence the form of speaking is taken up, which afterwards in the time to speak is held in voice." Whence St. Basil, in Regul. fus. cap. XLIII: "Silence, he says, is a gymnasium of speaking well." And Blessed Diadochus, lib. De Perfect. spirit. cap. LXX: "A splendid thing therefore, he says, is silence, and nothing other than the wisest mother of thoughts." Again St. Jerome in Regul. monach. cap. XXII: "From this indeed, he says, the holy Fathers taught in the desert observe silence with the greatest care as the cause of holy contemplation." And St. Bernard, epistol. 88: "Continuous silence, and perpetual quiet from all the noise of worldly things, compels one to meditate on heavenly things." Blessed Dorotheus, serm. 20: "Beware of much speaking: for this utterly extinguishes holy and rational thoughts coming from heaven." Finally, silence teaches to do what St. Bernard commands in Specul. Monach.: "Before you utter words, let them come twice to the file, once to the tongue." And that saying of St. Augustine: "Every word first let come to the file, before once to the tongue." Albert the Great, lib. De Virtut. cap. XXXI: "Where there is no taciturnity, there a man is easily overcome by his adversary." I have said more on this matter in Proverbs XXV, 11, and Ecclesiasticus cap. XX, 6 and 7, where I cited St. Gregory and St. Ambrose, expounding this passage. Zozimus the Pope confirms the same thing with many examples, as is found dist. 36, cap. Qui Ecclesiasticis: "Hence also, he says, our same Savior first sat in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and questioning them, and afterwards began to preach: because first each one ought to learn, and afterwards to assume the office of preaching. Hence also Solomon says first a time to keep silence, and afterwards to speak: because truth is first learned by keeping silence, and afterwards proclaimed by speaking. Hence the same Lord says: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Come. Hence also he first taught the Apostles, then sent them to preach, saying: Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and simple as doves. So also first after the resurrection he opened their sense, and explained the Scriptures to them, and afterwards said to them: Going into the whole world, etc." Furthermore, Solomon places this maxim for this purpose. First, to show the vanity of wisdom and eloquence, on account of which learned and eloquent men, especially doctors and preachers, are not rarely puffed up, particularly when they receive applause on account of the grace of their speech, and draw after them crowds of hearers and disciples who hang upon their words. For to these succeeds a time of silence, when on account of old age, sickness or some other cause this grace of teaching and speaking withers away, or when there comes another doctor or preacher more eloquent, whom the people follow, abandoning the former: in which matter preachers often suffer shipwreck both of their hearers and of their name and of their peace of mind, and therefore if they pursue this vain breath of the people, they are most wretched: for it changes like the wind, and now follows this one, now that one, abandoning the former. Whoever therefore is wise will discharge this office purely from obedience and love of God, and with St. Francis preach with the same peace of mind and the same eagerness to few and to many, to the common people and to the noble; let him think that he has God as a great hearer, and let him say of Him what Plato said of Aristotle: "This one man suffices me: for he is worth more than a thousand others." Second, to teach the prudent man to distinguish prudently the time when he ought to be silent and when he ought to speak; wherefore to speak and to be silent with fruit: since the imprudent man perverts both, and speaks when he ought to be silent, and is silent when he ought to speak, and therefore speaks or is silent without fruit, nay with loss both to himself and to his neighbour, according to that: "There is a silence that is not knowing when to speak: and there is a silence that is knowing the time fit for speaking. A wise man will hold his peace till he sees opportunity: but a babbler and a fool will regard no time," Eccles. cap. XX, vers. 6. Thus St. Gregory, III part. Pastor. admon. 13: "A time to be silent, and a time to speak: for truly the times of alternation must be weighed discreetly, lest either when the tongue ought to be restrained, it flow forth uselessly through words; or when it can speak usefully, it sluggishly restrain itself."
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8. A TIME TO LOVE, AND A TIME TO HATE. — The Septuagint: a time to love, and a time to hate; the Syriac: a time for loving, and a time for hating; the Arabic: a time of loving, and a time of insult; Campensis: sometimes we love, sometimes we pursue with hatred what we have loved. The sense is, as if to say: Nothing in the world, nothing even in man's appetite is fixed and stable, but all things vary and are vain; for some thing, say a friend, whom you now love, you pursue with hatred when you find him harmful, unfaithful, opposed to you, or certainly when your affection has changed and he displeases you. Thus love and hatred are taken actively; but they can also be taken passively, as if to say: Do not trust too much in a friend and friendship, that you are loved by him; because he who now loves you will soon hate you. For thus in men these affections alternate, so that what they now ardently desire, soon when they have obtained it, they loathe, and thereafter hate. Wherefore Bias warned: "Love as if you will hate, hate as if you will love." Properly the cause and object of the love of the wise and just is virtue, of hatred sin; wherefore for the just there is a time of love when he sees his neighbor devoted to virtue; a time of hatred when he sees him turning toward sin; for then he hates him not as a man, but as a sinner; indeed properly he hates only the sin in him, so that he might destroy it and free his neighbor from it; or certainly if he be superior, he might avenge it with just punishment to the terror of others. Whence the Chaldean translates: a time fitting for one to love his companion, and a time fitting to hate a sinful man, especially one who strives to draw you and others into the fellowship of sin. Finally, a time of love is in youth, which abounding in blood, heat and spirits is inclined to love; a time of hatred is in old age, which cold, torpid, sad and gloomy inclines to loathing and hatred. Hence to the Synagogue still tender and youthful God says: "Behold thy time, the time of lovers." In Hebrew דודים dodim, that is loves or breasts, Ezekiel chapter XVI, verse 8. Tropologically now is the time to love the flesh and soul, so that we might advance it to God's grace and glory; now to hate it, when we must resist its wicked desires, according to that saying of Christ: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple," Luke chapter XIV, 26. Moreover St. Cyprian in On the Singularity of the Clergy says: "There is a time of loving, he says, and a time of hating. Love women in sacred solemnities (so that you, O Cleric, admit them to those), and hate them in private communion (lest you associate with them privately), if you wish to hold the teaching of Solomon." Again St. Jerome tropologically thus expounds: "There is a time to love after God children, wife, relatives; and a time to hate them in martyrdom, when for the confession of Christ harsh impiety assails them as an enemy." So also St. Ambrose, in Psalm CXVIII, octon. 15: "A time of loving, he says, and a time of hating, that is a time of martyrdom, when those things which are divine are to be preferred to all affection of kinship, etc., so that those whom you have loved you should hate, and those whom you hate you should love." Allegorically the same St. Jerome, as if to say: In the time of Solomon circumcision and the Jewish law were to be loved, now in the time of Christ they are to be hated and rejected. Anagogically the same, as if to say: This is the time of this life, in which we love what is present, which in future blessedness we shall loathe and pursue with hatred. Finally the Author of the Greek Catena: There is, he says, a time throughout all life both for loving and for hating, but the aim of love is none other than God; the aim of hatred is the enemy of our life, the demon. A TIME OF WAR, AND A TIME OF PEACE. — This subordinate antithesis is almost the same as the preceding one. For a time of war is a time of hatred, and a time of peace is a time of concord and love. Whence the Arabic version renders it, a time of waging war, and a time of making peace and greeting; the Chaldean, it is a chosen time for fighting, and it is a chosen time for making peace; Campensis, at one time we exercise enmities, at another we embrace peace. The sense therefore is, as if to say, It is a time in which peace must be prepared through war, so that when enemies invade or harm the commonwealth, when seditious or wicked men disturb the common peace, when vices and desires in ourselves or others must be cut away, after which it is a time of peace. For peace is to be sought for its own sake, inasmuch as it causes the commonwealth to flourish in virtue, justice, and all temporal and spiritual goods. Hence in Scripture God is called the God of peace, and the peace of God, namely a singular and proper gift, Phil. IV, 7; Rom. XV, 33. But war is to be undertaken not for its own sake, but for the sake of peace. Whence war is said by antiphrasis as if it were scarcely war, that is, beautiful, or from beasts, as if bestial; or war as if duel (just as for good they once said duon); or from Belus, who first waged war, as I have said elsewhere from Cassiodorus, lib. I Variar. epist. 30. Again, the Thaumaturgus thus expounds it, as if to say, "Human affairs are now afflicted by war, now they are tranquil and peaceful; and so great is their inconstancy that things which seemed prosperous a moment ago slip away into certain evils with swift change." Mystically, St. Ambrose in Psal. CXVIII, octon. 15: "A time of war is," he says, "when we also wage war for the name of Christ against faithless pledges. A time of peace, because his place is in peace." And Nyssenus in Caten. Graec.: "A time of peace is the whole of life, so that," he says, "peace may be with us and God, because we have taken up a hostile and troublesome spirit against our adversary (Satan)." Finally, our Alvarez de Paz, lib. II De Vita spirit. part. II, cap. XV, applies all these antitheses of Solomon to this end, that he may signify that each one ought first to be vacant to himself and his own perfection, then to apply himself to the salvation of his neighbor. Consider, he says, that all things have their time, and you ought first to grow in virtues and arrive at the perfection of spiritual age, before you beget sons to God and are called the mother of others. Observe, O soul, that now at the beginning of your conversion it is "a time of being born," and of arriving at divine love, and afterwards it will be "a time of dying" for your brethren, so that with Paul you may be able to say: "Daily I die for your glory, brethren," I Corinth. cap. XV, 31. Now it is "a time of planting," and of grafting virtues in yourself; afterwards it will be a time of uprooting from the hearts of others what has been wrongly planted by the sluggish enemy. Now it is "a time of killing," namely so that you may extinguish your disordered self-love, and in the morning slay all the sinners of the earth; and then it will be "a time of healing," when you are fit to heal the wounds of others, and to bring healing by the word of doctrine to infirm minds. Now it is "a time of destroying" what you had badly built in the world; and afterwards it will be "a time of building," when you have gathered resources by which you are able to construct the fortress of virtues in others. Now it is "a time of weeping" for your own sins, and afterwards it will be "a time of laughing," and rejoicing over the conversion of the impious wrought by you. For of preachers it is thus written: "Going they went and wept, sowing their seeds. But coming they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves." Now it is "a time of mourning" for your own evils, and then it will be "a time of dancing" from the affection of devotion for the good of your brethren. "A time of gathering stones" and preparing arms necessary for battle, and in the future it will be "a time of scattering" them and driving them into the forehead of the Philistine. Now it is "a time of embracing" the Spouse, who feeds among the lilies, and afterwards it will be "a time of being far" from embraces, when perfected in the gift of charity, you say with Paul: "I wished myself to be anathema from Christ for my brethren." Now it is "a time of acquiring" gifts which you may afterwards distribute, and then it will be "a time of losing" yourself, that is, of laboring and afflicting yourself, so that you may acquire the gain of souls. Now it is "a time of guarding" the fortress of your mind, and afterwards it will be "a time of casting away" in part the care of yourself, so that you may also admit the care of others. Now it is "a time of rending" your heart, and softening it with sorrow for sins; and then it will be a time of sewing, that is, of composing discourse for the good of your neighbor from the sentences of the Scriptures. Now it is "a time of silence," and afterwards "a time of speaking," because, as Hugh says, first through silence in the time of silence is learned what afterwards through speech in the time of speaking is uttered. Finally now it is "a time of love" of God, and "a time of war" against those things which stand in the way of this love; and in the future it will be "a time" of exercising "hatred" against those things which your beloved hates, and "a time" of rest and "peace" amid occupations.
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9. WHAT HATH MAN MORE OF HIS LABOUR? — except this alternation of contraries already recounted, inconstancy, torment, vanity, which is the theme and argument of the whole book proposed at the beginning, and then after each individual induction repeated, as an epiphonema and conclusion. Whence Campensis translates it, what fruit doth man reap from such conflicting and troublesome occupations? that is to say, None, because all things succeed one another by turns through the course of time, torment him and vanish away. Whence the Thaumaturgus infers: "Let us say therefore, he says, that such fruitless labours are sometimes of long duration," so that namely we use them in passing as it were in transit, to wit any thing in its own time, but meanwhile let us remain fixed in mind in God and eternity, and let us tend towards it continually and aspire to it. And St. Jerome: "Since all things, he says, slip away in their own time, why do we strive and labour in vain, and think the labours of a brief life to be perpetual? nor are we content according to the Gospel with the malice of the day, and think nothing of tomorrow. For what can we have in this world more by labouring? in which God hath given to men only this, that one pursuing one thing and another another may have that in which he can be instructed and exercise himself." Again Nyssenus thinks these things are said of death, that all the labours of men and their fruits are ended in death, so that profit from labour is the same as after labour and life. "It is the same, he says, as if he said: What hath he more from all human labours, from which nothing returns to him? He tills fields, he sails, he is afflicted with military works, he practises commerce, he suffers loss, he gains, he litigates, he fights, his cause falls, judgment is given and the matter is won, he is accounted unhappy, he is esteemed blessed, he remains at home, he wanders among foreigners. What doth it bring to him, who consumes his life in these things, more? Is it not that as soon as he ceases to live, all things are covered with oblivion, and abandoned by those things whose pursuit held him, he departs naked?" Moreover the Chaldee thus hath it, what more hath the man working, who labours that he may make treasures, and that he may gather money, unless he be helped from above by a good star? The Septuagint, what abundance is there for him who doeth that which he himself labours at? The Syriac, what utility is in the work which he himself labours at? The Arabic, what remaineth to him who doeth all things in which he labours? For all these things signify the Hebrew יתרון iitron, as I said cap. I, vers. 3. The sense of all is, that is to say, From the said alternation of times it is clear that nothing remaineth to man from all his labour fixed and stable, in which he may rest: and therefore nothing remaineth except that he run through all those things opportunely, and pass away with things that pass away; wherefore let him not establish for himself any happiness in this life, since there is nothing in it perpetual, nothing durable, but all things temporal, passing and vain. Let him therefore seek happiness in the future eternity, and let him prepare himself for it by serving the true God, and let him fix all his hopes in Him, with whom all things are solid, firm, eternal.
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10. I HAVE SEEN THE AFFLICTION WHICH GOD HATH GIVEN TO THE CHILDREN OF MEN TO BE EXERCISED THEREIN. — In Hebrew ענות anoth, that is, that they be humbled, afflicted, tormented therein. This maxim exists in Hebrew and Greek in the same words in cap. I, 13 (although our version translates affliction there as occupation; and for be exercised, be occupied), where I explained it: wherefore I shall not repeat what was said there. This maxim pertains to the preceding question, and appears to be a response to it, or certainly the reason and confirmation of a tacit response. Whence Campensis translates: what fruit does man gain from such conflicting and troublesome occupations? He discovered that God has sent these into the minds of men, so that they themselves torment themselves with them. And Thaumaturgus, when he had translated the preceding verse, let us therefore say that we sometimes bid a long farewell to such fruitless labors; adding the reason in this verse, he says: If indeed all these things in my judgment are armed with poisonous stings to harass men. Thus also both Hugos, Cajetan, Osorius and others. Moreover St. Jerome, and from him Albinus and Titelmann, refer this maxim to the following passage concerning the investigation of the world and of things created by God, as if to say: God has given to man this occupation of searching out things in the world created by himself, so that, being honestly occupied therein, he might know the Creator God, love him, praise him, and thus abstain from curious investigation of divine and hidden things, and from every vice. Finally, Nyssenus holds that this affliction given to man by God is not in itself, but by occasion, when man abuses the good things of God by excessive love and zeal, by which he afflicts himself: just as, he says, if a guest at a king's table abused a knife given for cutting food to his own or another's death. Thus also Olympiodorus: "Man," he says, "fallen from the right path and turned away from constant reason, turns that which is useful in each thing to the contrary." The version of the Chaldean favors this, who thinks this affliction is given to the impious man as a punishment for sin: "I have seen," he says, "the business of chastisements and vengeance, which the Lord hath given to the children of men who are wicked, that they be afflicted therein."
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11. GOD MADE ALL THINGS GOOD IN THEIR TIME. — In Hebrew, He made all things beautiful in their time; hence the world is called in Greek κόσμος, from the adornment and beauty of things. He teaches that the succession of times has already been assigned as good, inasmuch as they were made and ordained fittingly for each time, by the most excellent and wisest God, for the good and benefit of creation and man. Beautiful, or, as the ancients said, polscer, is derived from polishing, in that it shines with form. For, as Cicero says in the fourth book of the Tusculan Disputations: "The beauty of the body is the apt arrangement of limbs together with a certain pleasantness of color." Thus the beauty of the world consists in the apt figure, arrangement, and connection of the elements, the heavens, and other parts, having in mixed things a varied and manifold pleasantness of colors. The beauty of time and temporal things consists in the fitting succession, proportion, and connection of its parts, namely that the time of birth precedes, the time of growth and generation follows, and finally the time of dying concludes. Thus the beauty of the year is that to cold and rigid winter succeeds warm spring, blooming and verdant (whence spring is called because it makes all things verdant); to spring succeeds summer fertile with harvest, to summer autumn adorned with grapes, apples, and fruits of diverse colors, and as if painted. Thus God made all things beautiful in their time, because, for example, the pleasantness of spring is beautiful in spring, nor would it be beautiful or fitting and suitable in winter or summer; thus also cold is beautiful in winter, not in summer, etc. This is what is said in Genesis 1:10 and 12: "And God saw that it was good;" for good is the same as fitting and beautiful. Whence the Septuagint here translates, all things which He made good in their time; and the Syriac, all that He makes excellent in its time; and the Arabic, all things which He made I knew to be most excellent; Symmachus, each good thing in its proper time; the Chaldean, Solomon said in the spirit of prophecy: The Lord made all things good in their time. It is an occupation by which he meets a tacit objection. For someone will say: If creatures in themselves are vain and perishable, for what reason then were they created by the true and eternal God? He responds that creatures, insofar as they are made by God, are good and beautiful; but insofar as they subsist in themselves, they are vain, and their own nature inclines and tends toward nothingness. Again, they are vain insofar as man abuses them, fixing his heart on them as if they were the highest goods before God, indeed against God, so that he might enjoy them and satisfy himself with them, when God alone is able to satisfy the mind of man, and therefore man ought to use creatures only, but to enjoy God alone, as St. Augustine teaches and theologians from him. AND HE HATH DELIVERED THE WORLD TO THEIR DISPUTE. — Campensis, and He hath exposed this whole world to be examined by their ingenuity; in Hebrew it is: עולם olam delivered into their heart. Now olam first signifies something hidden, from עלם alam, that is, he hid; second, perpetual and eternity, whose end is hidden from us; third, the age and world, or the course of times and all things in the world, whose limits and boundaries are hidden from us; the Syriac translates it, the essence of the world, that is, the nature and substance of the world. Hence arises a manifold translation, and consequently a manifold interpretation. First, some according to Titelmann translate, God delivered hiddenness into the heart of men; hiddenness, that is, ignorance of death, for this is supremely hidden from man; whence in the first antithesis, verse 1, he placed the time of dying, to which he here alludes, as if to say: Death is certain to impend upon each one, but its day and hour are uncertain to us; and God wished this to be hidden from us, so that He might teach us to be watchful and to live holily, namely so that we live as if dying daily. Second, Cajetan and David of Pomis translate, God gave the desire of perpetuity into the heart of men. Wherefore man will find nothing in earthly things, inasmuch as they are perishable, that will satisfy this desire of his; but he ought to lift up his mind to God and heaven, so that fixed in Him he might become capable and possessed of the desired eternity, despising temporal things and pursuing eternal things. And Didymus in the Greek Catena: "Aeon," he says, "He gave to them, that is, the discipline and knowledge of eternity, that is, the kingdom of heaven, which the Lord pronounced to be within us: which, while it is covered and besieged by manifold disturbances and tumult, is not easily found by men." Thirdly and most excellently, the Septuagint, the Syriac and the Arabic versions translate it, and he has delivered the world or age into their heart. But here it is asked, what is it in their heart? First, theirs, namely of the demons, who rule in the world, says the Wonderworker, that is to say God permitted the world to the devil with his followers, that he might rule in it until the day of judgment, and tempt men. Whence by Paul, Ephesians II, 2, he is called "the prince of the power of the air," and by Christ, "the prince of this world," John XII, 31. Hear the Wonderworker: "All these things in my judgment are armed with poisoned stings to harass men, and the malignant demon, who from the beginning of the world until the end is always eager to harm, gnashing his teeth circles this world, and strives immoderately, if he should seize any opportunity to destroy the creature of God." Secondly, others more rightly understand theirs of men, concerning whom all the discourse here is: for no mention has been made of demons. Now because the heart is the seat and symbol of many things, namely first, of love and delight; secondly, of will and dominion; thirdly, of choice; fourthly, of disputation and examination: hence a manifold sense arises here. Some therefore expound it thus, that is to say God indeed created the world, and all things which are in the world beautiful and good, and delivered them to the heart of man, that by their love, use and taste he might delight himself modestly and honestly; but man's heart abuses them while he pours himself wholly into them; and therefore by things beautiful created by God he deforms himself, and befouls himself with the filth of sins. Whence St. Jerome thus expounds it, that is to say, "God gave the world to be inhabited by men, that they might enjoy the varieties of times, and not seek concerning the causes of natural things, how all things were created, why He made this or that grow, remain, or change from the beginning of the world until its consummation." But Gregory of Nyssa thinks that it is signified here, "whence human nature has been drawn away from good and right, namely by occasion taken from divine benefits: for God indeed made all things unto good, but gave to men reason, by which they might discern what is better: but departing by evil counsel from reason and time, they turn what is useful into the contrary." To these add the exposition of Vatablus, which is of this kind: All the works of God are good, and made in their time, and the things which are done in this world, that is the affairs of this world, that is the desire and longing to know the things of this world, He has put into the mind of men, and thus they busy themselves in this world as if they were always going to live. Thirdly, others taking heart for will and dominion, thus expound it, that is to say God delivered the world so beautiful to the heart, that is to the will and dominion of man, that it should be his, the prince and as it were king of the world, that he might use at his pleasure herbs, plants, trees, animals, gold, silver, metals, etc. But man abusing this dominion, was rebellious to God the supreme lord of all, and therefore this dominion was not indeed wholly taken from him, but was greatly cut down and diminished by God. Hence our Pineda sensibly thus expounds it: God gave the world and the age, and all the vanities of the age and of time in the heart of man, that is to say God made man a microcosm and a little world, that he might experience in himself that variety and inconstancy of times, and moreover understand that nothing outside himself is to be sought, nor is human happiness to be placed in any external good, as it is written: "The kingdom of God is within you." Whatever therefore of good and tranquility or pleasure you desire, do not seek it outside yourself, but in yourself and in your heart, when you have composed the perturbations of your mind, closed your desires, restrained your unbridled impulses, and despised all external things; the goods of your mind are your own, they are perpetual, and you will carry them with you wherever you happen to be: not so those external things, which will shortly cease. Fourthly, others take it for the heart, that is the mind's choice, that is to say God delivered the whole world, and all the contraries which are in it, to the choice of man, that he might choose in it good or evil, as it pleased him, according to that in Ecclesiasticus XV, 14: "God from the beginning made man, and left him in the hand of his own counsel. He added His commandments and precepts: if thou wilt keep the commandments, they shall preserve thee, etc. He set before thee water and fire; stretch forth thy hand to which thou wilt." Fifthly, most excellently our author takes heart for the heart, that is the mind's examination, disputation, meditation, inquiry, knowledge. For these are the workshop of the heart, or mind; whence that saying: The heart is wise, and the lung speaks, the gall stirs up anger. This is confirmed by what follows: "That he may not find the work which God hath made." For philosophers have disputed, and even now dispute, about the world, while some have said it was formed from waters, others from atoms, others from earth, etc. Hence so many of their sects—the Academics, Stoics, Skeptics, Peripatetics, etc. And so often as there are philosophers, so many are there diverse opinions and views about the world, the heavens, the stars, the winds, etc. Moreover, God has delivered the world to man's twofold disputation, namely of the intellect and the will, of knowledge and choice, of speculation and affection. First indeed, God set the world before the eyes of men like a beautiful ball, so that they might investigate the natures, properties, powers, and actions of it and of things contained in it, such as the heavens, elements, winds, plants, animals, etc., as well as the varieties of times already mentioned, and thus in these things they might recognize and praise the beauty, wisdom, beneficence, and power of God the Creator, and in doing things might inquire into and grasp the time destined and accommodated by God for each thing to be done. Thus Didymus, St. Jerome, Titelmannus, and Francis Valesius, Sacred Philosophy, cap. LXIV and LXV. Moreover, Olympiodorus holds that God permitted the wise men of this world to be solicitous and occupied about the world, lest if they had attended assiduously and with tranquil mind to the fabric and structure of this world, having perceived and known its beauty, they should think these visible things to be God or gods. He also gave to all the sons of men of the present age knowledge that all things have begun and will cease, but of those things which were before the beginning of time, and which will be after this age, certain and manifest knowledge is not had. But Nyssenus and Hugo hold that the world was given by God to disputation, that is to contemplation and moderate investigation by men, but that it has escaped from them through abuse to become the matter and object of curious and harmful disputation and contention, inquiring, contending, and judging about so many things, so varied, so absurd, so rash, so impious concerning the Creator himself, concerning his prudence and judgments, concerning happiness, etc., and meanwhile scarcely or not even scarcely arriving at an exact knowledge of the nature of any single natural thing from all those which God made from the beginning of creation and thereafter until the end. Secondly, God delivered the world to man's disputation, so that man, disputing and reasoning with himself about the vanity of the world, and about the succession, rotation, and passage of times and all temporal things, and on the other hand about God's truth, constancy, eternity, and complete perfection, might thence conclude and say to himself: Therefore turn away your heart and love from the world, and transfer and fix it in God: for he alone can satisfy and make blessed your immense desire of knowing and loving. For to this end the world was created by God and delivered to man, so that through the world he might transcend to the world's maker, and fix all his things and hopes in him, and thus obtain stable rest and perpetual happiness. Wherefore Nyssenus: "Whosoever," he says, "has not used those things which they received as they ought and for their advantage, has not found the work of God, which God made for the purpose of advantage, from the beginning of creation until the consummation of the universe, since in those things which are, there is nothing evil." THAT MAN MAY NOT FIND THE WORK WHICH GOD HATH MADE FROM THE BEGINNING EVEN TO THE END.—That is to say, the world has been delivered to the disputation of men, so that seeing God's work so beautiful, so sublime, so perfect and consummated, they may not find, that is, may not be able to find, the intimate gifts and perfections which are in it in great number "from the beginning even to the end," that is from head to foot, from bottom to top, from foundations to roof, from the center of the earth even to the height of the heavens; but they may continually dispute about them and contend with one another: whereby it comes to pass that they are forced to admire this work and to be amazed at it, and much more at its maker God, who has built this admirable machine of the world, like a most magnificent palace complete in all its parts, and has set the highest pinnacle upon it, and has added the finishing hand, so that from this admiration all might be drawn to his love, veneration, and worship. Second, others explain it in the contrary sense, that is to say, God did not wish to create the works of the world full and perfect in every respect, so that man would not find complete perfection in it, and therefore would not fix his mind on it, but would rise up to God and establish his happiness in Him. Man will not find therefore this work perfect and useful, to which something of perfection does not lack: for God did not wish His works "from the beginning to the end," that is, so perfect that no number is lacking to them; He wished nothing to be perpetual and useful at all times from the beginning to the end, but only in its own time, that is, brief and prescribed. Thus Pineda. Third, others explain it by interrogation affirmatively, that is to say, How will man not find this work of God in the world? nay rather, if he consider it diligently, he will certainly find it perfect and absolute in its numbers from the beginning to the end, so that nothing anywhere is lacking to it. Again he will find the same thing from the beginning to the end, that is, always and at all times when he has traversed its individual parts and members, and has weighed more carefully the nature, use and utility of each. But the first sense is the genuine one, as is evident from what follows; for thus Solomon explains it, verse 14. FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END. — This is thoroughly, says Cajetan, who refers it to that he may find, that is to say, God delivered the world to the disputation of men, so that man cannot thoroughly discover its properties and conditions, and their causes and effects, and therefore disputes about them continually as if in doubt. But Vatable, so that he may not find from the beginning to the end, that is, he says, so that he cannot perfectly and intimately know and penetrate all things which are in the world, pervading them from the beginning to the end. The Chaldean: lest it be made known to man from the beginning what will be in the end of days even to the ages of ages. And he adds, the last day also of death was hidden from them, lest it be possible for man to have explored what would happen from head to foot. To which Bonaventure and the Carthusian agree, from the beginning, he says, of man's life to death, or throughout the whole life. Others better refer it to the work, in that sense which I said a little before, that is to say, the work of God, namely this world, was created so beautiful and perfect, from its beginning to its end, that is, from the first day of creation to the sixth and last, Genesis I, that man cannot find and comprehend its beauty, harmony, connection, perfection, nay so that "from the beginning to the end," that is, from the first, that is the least and most vile creature to the last, that is the noblest and most excellent, he cannot fully perceive and penetrate even the least one. For who comprehends the nature and all the gifts of a fly, a gnat or a flea? assuredly: In the least things the greatest God Himself shines forth.
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12 and 13. AND I KNEW THAT THERE WAS NO BETTER THING THAN TO REJOICE, AND TO DO WELL IN THIS LIFE. FOR EVERY MAN THAT EATETH AND DRINKETH, AND SEETH GOOD (that is, enjoys good) FROM HIS LABOUR, THIS IS THE GIFT OF GOD. — Hebrew, and I know there is nothing better in them (the works and creatures of the world), than to rejoice and to do well in one's life; Vatablus, I knew that no happiness is granted to men in them, except that they may rejoice and bestow benefits on their neighbors. Didymus in the Greek Catena: "I knew indeed that things by themselves contain neither goodness nor happiness, but the very principles of things themselves, that is, knowledge and true understanding of them, on account of which it is the nature of the rational creature to rejoice, and the very exercise of doing good—this alone is good, fortunate and happy for men. For nothing so nourishes and refreshes the soul as the food of virtue and the streams of knowledge." St. Bonaventure understands these words as spoken from the mind and person not of Solomon, but of the foolish and Epicureans. But Thaumaturgus, St. Jerome, Albinus, St. Augustine, both Hugos, Lyran, Cajetan, Vatablus, Titelmann and all the others understand these as spoken from the person of Solomon, and the very words plainly signify this. The sense therefore is, as if to say: I Solomon, contemplating partly the instability and vicissitude of things, which the succession of time continually brings, as I said at the beginning of the chapter; partly the curious, troublesome, useless disputation of men about the world, since it is impossible to penetrate and comprehend the things of the world, judged it better to use creatures modestly, according to the times appointed to each, in which they are offered to us by God for enjoyment, and in their moderate use and taste to delight myself honestly, and thus to live life in honest joy and good works, because this is the will of God, whose gift therefore is the frugal use of created things, neither by lascivious abuse, nor by defrauding the spirit through sordid and miserly stinginess. See the words at chapter II, 4. For he repeats and emphasizes here what he said there. He opposes this joy to the affliction of spirit, which cupidity brings, and the labor of human affairs, as he has often said. Allegorically: There is nothing better than to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Thus St. Augustine, book XVII of the City of God, XX, where he contends that this sense is the literal one. For that Solomon, he says, "does not understand carnal feasts of pleasure is sufficiently shown," where he says (chapter VII): "It is better to go into the house of mourning, than to go into the house of feasting." And shortly after: "The heart, he says, of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of the foolish in the house of feasting." AND TO DO WELL. — This word signifies three things: First, to live happily, to live life pleasantly and cheerfully, which the Greeks call εὖ πράττειν, so that it is almost the same as to rejoice. Thus Aben-Ezra takes it here, to do well, he says, is to cheer oneself by the frugal use of goods; and Campensis, to cheer, he says, oneself, to do well to oneself while one lives; and Bonaventura thus distinguished it: "To rejoice, he says, in enjoying, and to do good things in performing delightful works." But when Scripture wishes to signify this, it is accustomed to add something, and to say: to do well to oneself or to one's soul. Second therefore, better, others by doing well understand beneficence to be noted. Thus St. Jerome: "Having, he says, food and raiment, let us be content with these: and whatever more we are able to have, let us spend in nourishing the poor and in the distribution of the needy." And Didymus in the Greek Catena: "I knew, he says, that peace of mind and beneficence are the greatest goods for man." And Morinus: I knew, he says, nothing better than to convert the good things granted into honest uses, while life lasts, first into modest care of oneself; then, if anything remains, to expend it in pious gifts and the necessities of others, according to that of Paul, or rather of Christ: "It is more blessed to give, than to receive," Acts chapter XX, 35, see the words there. For nothing is so divine as to do good, and to bind all to oneself by benefits. Thus also Vatablus, Arboreus and others. Wisely from Heraclitus, Maximus, sermon On Beneficence: "Timely beneficence, he says, like food suited to hunger, heals the want of the soul (from avarice, that sacred hunger for gold, I say)." Indeed even Plutarch, in the book On Living Pleasantly According to Epicurus, from his mind asserts that it is more pleasant to be affected by wrong and injury than to affect others with the same. And Seneca, book III On Benefits, chapter XV: "It is the part of a noble and magnificent soul, he says, to help and to benefit; he who gives benefits imitates the gods." Thirdly, fully and most excellently, "to do well" is the same as to work from virtue, to do what is honest, to fulfill God's law. For this is what doing well or good signifies, Psalm XXXIII, 15: "Turn away from evil, and do good;" II Paralipomenons XXIV, 16, and elsewhere. Thus the Wonderworker: "I am persuaded, he says, that the greatest goods of man are the joy of mind and the actions of good works;" and the Chaldean: "King Solomon said in the spirit of prophecy: It has been made clear to me that nothing better or more excellent has been given to men than that they refresh themselves with the joy of the law and spend their whole life in the best works." Thus also Nyssenus, Olympiodorus and others. He aptly connects these two things, namely to rejoice and to do well, so as to indicate that there is no true joy except in doing well; and therefore the cause of true joy is always to act well. Do you wish therefore to always rejoice? Always act well: for thus you will always be joyful. For there is no mind more joyful than one conscious to itself of what is right: more joyful, I say, "now indeed through hope of joy, but afterwards receiving the fruit of good joy, the joy proper to those who are worthy," as Nyssenus and the Author of the Greek Catena say. Hence many have established happiness in joy. Whence Aristotle, book VII of the Ethics, derives the word μακάριος from χαιρείν, that is to rejoice, to be glad, as if μακαχαιρε, that is blessed, is he who rejoices greatly. And St. Isidore, book X of the Origins: "Blessed, he says, is called, as if well increased, namely from having what he wishes, and suffering nothing that he does not wish. But he is truly blessed who both has all the good things he wishes, and wishes nothing evil. From these two things man is made blessed. For the sake of knowing the reasons of things, he says, and for the sake of doing good, it is naturally arranged that rational nature rejoice." And the Wonderworker: "This alone, he says, is pleasure divinely granted, if justice presides over the conduct of affairs." Hence formerly anchorites, and now true religious are always joyful; and so St. Anthony was distinguished from all others by the joy of mind alone, as St. Athanasius testifies in his Life. See Jerome Platus, book III On the Good of Religious Life, chapter 11 and following. On the contrary, concerning the joys of pleasures, bittersweet and somewhat bitter, thus writes St. Chrysostom, homily On Compunction: "As sick men, he says, when they are afflicted with many fevers, if they immerse themselves in cold waters, seem to themselves to have obtained some comfort for the present, but prepare for themselves multiplied flames of fevers: so also do we act, when we are agitated by the stings of conscience, if we seek merely external causes of joy and gladness." The same, homily 65 to the People, teaches that the joys of the world produce sadness, but the joys of the spirit endure and grow: "Such joy is good, better than all worldly joy; thus I set the mourner before all who rejoice." And below: "Therefore we rejoice with useless joy, which is of the world, which is immediately extinguished and produces infinite sorrows. Rather let us be sad with sadness that is the mother of joy, not rejoice with joy that is the mother of sadness. Let us shed tears, sowing much pleasure: nor let us laugh with laughter that produces for us the gnashing of teeth. Let us be afflicted with tribulation, from which indulgence is born: nor let us seek delights, from which much tribulation and anguish are produced." And he sees good, that is tastes good, namely eats and drinks something savory, and enjoys it and delights in it. For sight, because it is the noblest of the senses, is taken by metonymy for taste and any sense. Wherefore what Nyssenus says: "He sees good," that is, "he does good," namely he devotes himself to piety and good works, is mystical, not literal. "Because, he says, what food and drink are to the body by which nature is preserved, this is to the soul to look upon good, and this is truly a gift of God, to have eyes fixed on God; and just as carnal man has strength in eating and drinking: so he who looks upon good," etc. And the Author of the Greek Catena: "Nothing so nourishes and waters the soul as virtue and knowledge." THIS IS A GIFT OF GOD. — Namely a signal and excellent one. In Hebrew, a gift of Elohim itself, as if to say: This gift is peculiar to the divine nature and providence: for Elohim signifies this; Campensis thinks the gift of God is manifest; the Chaldean: and to God who has eaten and drunk, if he has indulged in this throughout his whole life, and dying has left to his sons the fruit of his labor, by this very thing he seems to be affected by the highest benefit from God; Didymus in the Catena of the Greeks: "I have ascertained that the use of temporal things comes to man from heaven, provided that justice be the guide of all actions." St. Chrysostom gives the reason, homily 1 on the epistle to the Corinthians: "He, he says, who enjoys spiritual joy cannot be seized by sorrow; but being well armed on all sides he repels the incoming darts: a fleet is more violent with any weapons than the pleasure which is perceived according to God." And soon after: "On the contrary, he who abounds in earthly pleasures can be seized and conquered by anything, and it happens to him as to one equipped with weak arms, and is wounded by even the lightest blow."
3:14
14. I have learned that all the works which God has made endure forever: we cannot add anything to them, or take away from them, which God has made that He might be feared. — The Arabic version: I have known all creatures which God has created to be eternal according to their order and state; nor can anything be added to them, or diminished from them; the Septuagint: upon that nothing can be added, and from it nothing can be taken away; the Syriac: upon it nothing is to be added, and from it nothing is to be diminished. You will ask, how is this verse connected and coherent with the preceding ones? First, Cajetan: The Hebrew לעולם leolam, he says, that is, forever, can be translated as in the age, as if to say, Whatever God makes, that will be in its age, in its period of time, so that the same thing is said here as in verse 1: "All things have their season:" but this is cold, obscure and forced. For thus he would have said בעולם beolam, that is, in the age, not leolam, that is, in the age, or forever. Wherefore also Campensis translated it less aptly, whatever God makes will be such as He Himself wishes it to be. Second, Thaumaturgus connects this verse with that which immediately preceded it, namely that to eat moderately, to drink, and to enjoy the fruit of one's labor is a gift of God, if indeed those things are done to this end, that through them we might tend toward heavenly and perpetual goods. Whence thus he paraphrased it, although I would not deny that it is from God, even if we enjoy temporal things, provided that through them, guided by justice, we are led to heavenly things, and works that never die. Third, Hugh of St. Victor understands by the works of God the judgments of God, especially of the predestination of the elect and the reprobation of the wicked. The Chaldean version favors this: I know, he says, in the spirit of prophecy, that all things which God has made in the age, whether good or evil, whatever has been determined from His mouth, this will be in the age: nor is there power in man to add strength, nor does he have power to diminish: and in the time when vengeance comes in the age, God has made the sons of men fear before His face. More clearly from the Code, I have also perceived what the Lord has done in this world for the upright and the wise, etc., that men might observe and worship Him. But all these are mystical, not literal and genuine. Fourth, our Pineda refers this saying partly to the vicissitude of the affections of the human heart, which now loves, now hates, now laughs, now weeps, now gathers, now casts away, etc., as he said at the beginning of the chapter, so that he might here oppose God to it by antithesis, in whom there is constant firmness and eternity of divine nature, according to that of James 1, 17: "With whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration." Human works therefore succeed one another in a circle and pass away with time: whence we always add something to them, or take away from them, change and are changed from hour to hour; we despise old things, we always seek new ones. But God's thoughts and works are firm, consistent with themselves, and endure forever; His will is immutable: what He once willed He always wills, and He attains it by decree in time. Again he refers this saying to that which preceded: "He that sees good from his labor, this is the gift of God," so that Solomon might signify that those things which are joined with frugality, moderation, and piety are works of God, gifts of God which He bestows, and therefore do not depend on that temporal and inconstant fortune, but are perpetual and constant. Fifth and genuinely, he refers this in the Hebrew manner not to the immediately preceding things, but to those more remote and higher, namely to verse 1: "All things have their season," etc., and to verse 11: "He has made all things good in their time." For he gives a twofold antithesis between the works of men and the works of God: the first is that the works of men do not endure except for a fixed and small period of time; but the works of God endure forever. The second is that man changes his works in time, and adds something to them or takes away from them, because they are diminished and imperfect; but the works of God are perfect, and therefore nothing can be added to them or taken away from them. Understand by the works of God both the creation of the world and all things which are in the world; and also their conservation, providence, and governance, by which He makes all things succeed one another in their fixed time, and now it is time to live, now to die, now to plant, now to uproot, etc. For this succession is continuous and perpetual by the law of God. Therefore, although as regards individuals, individual men and their works succeed one another in a circle and pass away, with new ones succeeding, yet God makes it so that as regards the species the same things endure, namely that the succession of individuals of each species, both of animals and of things and of any actions whatsoever, is perpetual and continues uninterruptedly, namely until the consummation of the age. And this is what Solomon especially intends here, as is evident both from the connection of this verse with verse 1. By this sentiment Solomon tacitly calls man away from vain labor, equally as from fear; for through it no increase of a thing comes about without God's aid, nor any decrease without God's nod and will, according to that concerning the just in Psalm XXXIII, 11: "They shall not be deprived of any good," that is to say, No one can snatch from the just even the smallest part of pleasure, joy, or sustenance, because God makes them fortunate and prospers them. For every work of God is efficacious, ratified and firm, whereas conversely every work of man in itself is inefficacious, void and null. Which God made that He might be feared,—while His immense power and wisdom are continually weighed and celebrated from His works and governance; the Hebrew (reading), that they fear from His face; the Arabic, and God made that they be terrified from His face; Olympiodorus, that they fear His face; Campensis, He made this so that we might revere Him; Thaumaturgus, for the works of God are worthy of reverence and admiration, and consequently God Himself much more, so that we might exult to Him with trembling; St. Jerome, God made all these things so that men might fear to decline from what He once disposed into another (so that they might subject themselves wholly to divine disposition and law, and attempt nothing else contrary to it); but He tempered it beautifully in saying: That they fear from His face, for the countenance of the Lord is upon those who do evil, Psalm XXXIII. He alludes to the etymology of Elohim. For Elohim is said to be from אלה ala, that is, He swore, He bound, He obliged, in that God by creating all things binds creatures to Himself by oath to His fear, worship, and love, as I said at Genesis XII. For the fear of God in Scripture comprehends the fear of God, love, reverence, obedience, worship owed to Him as to supreme majesty, and to supreme power, providence and beneficence. "Fear first made gods in the world," says Statius. Whence also some, among whom is St. Clement of Rome, in his first epistle, derive the name God, or Θεός, from Θέος that is, fear. For who would not fear God thundering, roaring, shaking all things with winds, storms and earthquakes? Who would not love Him who gives fruits, produce and abundance of things? Thus God is called by Jacob the fear of Isaac, that is, whom Isaac feared and revered, Genesis XXXI, 42. And God, in Malachi I, 6: "A son," He says, "honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear?" For to God, on account of His supreme dominion and power over death and life, heaven and hell, we owe supreme fear; to Him as the supreme Father of all we owe supreme honor, supreme obedience and supreme love. Hence Job cap. XXXI, 23: "Always," he says, "as if swelling waves were over me, I feared God, and I could not bear His weight." And St. John, Apocalypse cap. XV, 3: "Great," he says, "and wonderful are Thy works, O Lord God Almighty: just and true are Thy ways, O King of ages. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and magnify Thy name? because Thou alone art holy: because all nations shall come and shall adore in Thy sight." From this maxim, that all the works of God endure perpetually, St. Thomas, I part., Question CIV, art. 4, gathers that no created thing is annihilated: because although it be corruptible as to form, it nevertheless remains as to primary matter. The same, Question LXV, art. 1, ad 1, teaches from the same that creatures the more they approach God, the more they are perpetuated and incorruptible: whence mixed bodies are corrupted substantially as to form, the heavens are changed as to place, and angels are changed in themselves only as to the internal acts of knowledge and will. Do you wish therefore to be more and more strengthened and stabilized? Join your mind more and more to God. We cannot add anything to them, nor take away.—That is to say, We cannot produce new species of things which God has not produced; nor can we take away and destroy the species produced by God. Again, we cannot change or reverse the appointed succession of times, which is established by God for each action and thing. Moreover, nothing in the world is superfluous; nothing is also lacking which makes for its completion. Even the very noxious and venomous animals are also profitable to man, because they "either harm him punitively, or exercise him beneficially, or prove him usefully, or teach him unknowingly," says St. Augustine, lib. III On Genesis literally cap. XVII. For although man can from the mixture of various simple species produce a new mixed species, as is evident in medicines, in monsters, in mules, leopards, wolf-dogs, etc.: for God did not create these at first, but from the mixture procured by men of horses with asses, mules were born; from the mixture of lions with leopards, leopards were born; from the mixture of wolves with dogs, wolf-dogs were born: nevertheless the whole power of producing these new species is in the nature given to each animal by God; and therefore God produced these very things at first, not formally in themselves, but causally as it were in seed and root, namely in the animals from whose mixture these are born.
3:15
15. That which hath been made, itself remaineth: and the things that are to come, have already been: and God restoreth that which is gone away. — In Hebrew, that which was is now, and that which is to come has already been, and God seeketh that which is subject to persecution. For this is the Hebrew נרדף nirdaph, which a certain learned man translated as that which is seized; but he was mistaken: for nirdaph he thought by metathesis to be נטרף nitraph, that is, seized, when these two, though related in letters, are nevertheless very different in meaning; for the root רדף radaph signifies to pursue, while טרף taraph means to seize. He inculcates and confirms what he said in the preceding verse, namely that the works of God are perpetual, and the succession of temporal things perpetual, for example, "The sun which now rises, and before we were in the world, it was, and after we shall have died, it will rise again," says St. Jerome. And: "Man was, man also is: a tree was, a tree also is," says Olympiodorus. He said the same thing in chapter 1, 9: wherefore I shall add nothing more here. For God restoreth that which is gone away, in Hebrew it is, Elohim seeketh or requireth the pursued or the one pursued, that is, the past, that is, God restoreth and repaireth those things which have been snatched away by the following time and have already passed away. Whence Campensis translates it, for he continually recalls those things which, as if driven away, have departed hence; and Vatablus, God seeketh that which is driven away by the following. He seeketh, that is, he restoreth. Thus David in Psalm 118, 176, asks to be sought by God, that is, to be restored. And Job, chapter 3, 4, asks God that he not seek, that is, restore, the day on which he was born; and St. Jerome: "God seeketh that which has perished, that which has been cast out, that which has ceased to be. For past time is beautifully said to be driven away by the present and future, and by it as if by a pursuer to suffer persecution and to be put to flight, just as in a river the preceding water is driven away and put to flight by the following." Furthermore, Thaumaturgus refers this saying to the foreknowledge and decrees of the divine will, which always endure; for thus he translates it, according to the foreknowledge of God those things which once were made now exist: and future things are as certain as if they were now made; and Campensis, that which was once is now, and it was decreed once that it would also be in future times; moreover, Hugh of St. Victor thinks this saying should be understood, "not only of the works of God, by which he disposes the creation of the world, that they remain in eternity without change and confusion of order, but also of the disposition of his judgments, that they do not change the law of his providence, so that that which he did not dispose may come to pass." Hence also others understand this saying and the preceding one of the judgments of God, by which he rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For although God intermits these for a time, yet soon he recalls and restores them again. Wherefore the Septuagint and the Syriac translate, God seeketh him who suffereth persecution; the Arabic, and God seeketh that which is sought; Symmachus, God inquireth for those who are vexed and cast out, as if to say, God avenges the injuries and death of the innocent unjustly afflicted, as he avenged the blood of the martyrs by slaying the persecutors, Nero, Decius, Diocletian, etc.: for by this slaying of persecutors, the innocence of the martyrs is declared, and their name, fame, glory and as it were life is restored and repaired. Thus St. Jerome: "And God, he says, shall seek him who suffereth persecution: he uses this testimony in the persecution of the gentiles, to console him who perseveres in martyrdom. And because all, according to the Apostle, who wish to live piously in Christ, suffer persecution, they have consolation, because God seeketh him who suffereth persecution, as he requireth the blood of the slain, and comes to seek that which was lost, and brought back the erring sheep on his own shoulders to the flock." And Thaumaturgus: "He who is unjustly injured, he says, maketh use of God as his helper:" for, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus, chapter 1, 29: "The patient man shall bear for a time, and afterwards joy shall be restored to him;" and Christ: "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matthew 5: the Bishop Lucifer of Cagliari cites and urges this passage in his Apology for St. Athanasius. The Chaldean is added. But he himself defers this vengeance until the day of judgment: On the day of great judgment, he says, the Lord shall be, to seek the needy and the poor from the hand of the wicked, who hath persecuted him. Anagogically, God in the resurrection shall restore the body, which hath perished, and which hath suffered in the martyrs, that it may revive and rise glorious. Thus St. Jerome.
3:16
16. I saw under the sun in the place of judgment impiety: and in the place of justice iniquity. — Campensis, in which the impious man reigns; others, in which impiety or iniquity dominates. Moreover the Septuagint codices vary here. For the Vatican ones have, and I still saw under the sun the place of judgment, there the impious man: and the place of the just, there the pious man; which reading the Arabic version followed, translating, I knew also under the sun the place of judgment, there is indeed the apostate; and the place of the just, and there is the faithful man; namely for ἀσεβής, that is the impious man, some read εὐσεβής, that is the pious man. Thus also Lucifer of Cagliari read it, in the Apology for St. Athanasius: which some explain, as if to say, I saw paradise prepared for the pious, and hell prepared for the impious. Whence the Wonderworker, I saw, he says, in the lowest parts indeed punishments, the abyss receiving the impious, but for the pious another tranquil place. Thus also Olympiodorus, who doubts whether paradise is on earth or in heaven, because it is said to be here "under the sun." But the Complutensian Septuagint codices, reading ἀσεβής, that is the impious man, in both places, thus translate, and I still saw under the sun the place of judgment, there the impious man: and the place of the just, there the impious man. St. Jerome according to the ancient edition received from the Septuagint: I saw, he says, the place of judgment, where impiety: and the place of justice, where iniquity. Thus also the Syriac: which reading indeed corresponds to the Hebrew and the Latin Vulgate, and therefore is true and genuine. The Chaldean adds: Again, he says, under the sun I saw the forum of judgment, in which corrupt judges written down would condemn the innocent, and would absolve the guilty by their sentences: and the place in which is found the just man, and moreover the impious man, who presides over him on account of the sins of this generation. The sense therefore is clear, as if to say, I saw in the tribunal of judgment sitting an impious judge, who would pronounce unjust sentences; and therefore in the place where just judgment ought to reign, I saw reigning impiety, and in the throne of justice I saw presiding the iniquitous man, who would judge contrary to law and right, and therefore in it I saw dominating iniquity. For the same thing it takes judgment and justice and iniquity and impiety, although otherwise properly impiety is a crime against God, iniquity is a crime against equity, by which the justice and right of one's neighbor is violated. But, as I said, impiety is here taken for iniquity and injustice, namely for the unjust sentence of the judge; for this is rightly called impiety, which harms justice, by which not only one's neighbor, but also God, who is the author of all law and justice, is violated. Wherefore the iniquitous judge brings it about that in the throne of justice sits injustice, and in it as if a queen it rules and dominates, and the antichrist occupies the throne of Christ. Therefore by the place of judgment and justice, properly here public tribunals and the benches of judges are understood; generally however any place of judging and pronouncing sentence can be taken, such as where the disputes of merchants, farmers, and craftsmen are settled privately. Moreover he calls this first the place of judgment, then of justice, so as to indicate that judges ought first to examine the matter with diligent and mature judgment, before they bring forth an equitable and certain sentence according to justice. Note τὸ under the sun, as if to say, Injustice has place nowhere but under the sun, among men desirous and greedy: for above the sun in the heavens justice dwells. Whence by the Poets it is feigned that Themis the goddess of justice sits beside God the supreme judge. Hence also that saying of Ovid, book I of the Metamorphoses: "And the virgin, dripping with slaughter, Astraea, last of the heavenly ones, left the earth," as if fleeing from unjust men to the just God. Again, τὸ under the sun marks the unworthiness and shamelessness of iniquitous judges, that in the sight of the brightest and purest sun, and thus of the sun of justice, namely Christ the Lord, they dare to pronounce an impure, dark and unjust sentence, and thus to violate justice, as if a most chaste virgin entrusted to their faith, according to that in Ecclesiasticus XX, 2: "The desire of the eunuch will deflower the maiden: so he that doth unjust judgment by violence." Wherefore Isaiah thunders against them, chapter LIX, 14: "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen down in the street, and equity could not enter. And truth is forgotten: and he that departed from evil, became a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it appeared evil in his eyes, because there is no judgment." The difficulty here is in the connection, namely in what manner this maxim is inserted here, and coheres with the preceding. First, some connect it with τὸ so that it may be feared, verse 14, as if to say: God made all things so that it may be feared; but so great is the wickedness of men that they do not fear him, but openly in courts trample upon him and his truth and justice, bringing forth unjust sentences. Thus Ferus. But this seems to be drawn from afar. Second, Hugo of St. Victor, whom our Lorinus follows, thinks that here a new kind of vanity is enumerated. For when he had enumerated great vanity, situated in the vicissitude and transience of all times and things, as if it were not enough of evils from this inconstancy, says Campensis, he wove in this greater one concerning the corruption of judgments. From which, as also from the former, men take occasion to murmur against divine providence, because they see "the just man here suffering many evils, and the impious man reigning for his wickedness," says St. Jerome. Whence Ecclesiastes answers him, verse 17, that God will reform these unjust judgments, and by his own just judgment will restore to each his right. Third, Thaumaturgus, Didymus and Olympiodorus think that these things pertain to the punishments of the impious and the rewards of the pious, as if after enumerating the vanities and depravities of men, he here attaches their fitting punishment. I cited the words of Thaumaturgus at the beginning of this verse. But their version, and consequently their explanation, plainly disagrees with the Hebrew and the Vulgate. Fourth, our Pineda translates thus: that after he said the vicissitude of all human things is the greatest inconstancy, but the works of God alone are firm and stable, he now objects that impiety is seen to sit firmly and stably in the place of judge, and where justice seemed most likely to reign, iniquity dominates through the utmost tyranny, and unjust judgments are exercised so constantly that in this matter there appears to be no vicissitude, nor any time for justice to be observed purely and integrally. But let him answer in verse 17, that his own time will not be lacking for the eternal law and the judgment of the supreme arbiter, namely when "God will judge the just and the impious, and then will be the time of all things." Fifth, others who followed the version of the Septuagint think that in the preceding verse the matter is about the judgments of God, by which he punishes those who persecute the innocent, appropriately connect with them this saying, as one which explains that this persecution is seen and felt especially in the unjust sentences of judges, by which they oppress the innocent, and therefore in their consolation God will correct these judgments by his tribunal. Sixth and genuinely, this verse pertains to verse 10: "I saw affliction," etc., as is evident to one comparing the words on both sides, especially in the Hebrew. For the Hebrew here has, and I saw still under the sun in the place of judgment impiety, as if to say: I saw a twofold affliction in this vanity of the world of men. The former I enumerated in verse 10, namely that man is afflicted continually by the labor of temporal works, which do not stand firm nor endure, but with time roll away and depart: wherefore their labor and affliction is vain and empty, because it lacks fruit which is stable and perseveres. The latter I enumerate here, namely that in the seat of judgment there often presides an unjust judge, and impiety reigns, which oppresses the pious and piety. He joins this to the former; because it is analogically similar to it. For that affliction of natural labor is physical, but this of perverted judgment is moral and ethical. And just as that arises from the vicissitude of times and the transience of temporal things: so this likewise arises from the vicissitude of judges and judgments, namely that to upright and just judges in the seat succeed the wicked and unjust. Again, just as he said of those that God restores what has gone away, and thus perpetuates successive things, not in the individual, but in the species the same: so here he asserts that God will restore the unjust judgments of the wicked, when he will publicly condemn and punish them, and will restore to the just who are injured their right. Therefore this is the sequence and connection of the whole chapter: verse 1 proposes the theme of this chapter: "All things have their time, and in their seasons all things pass under heaven." He then proves this by induction through natural things, saying: "A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up," etc. From which he concludes in verse 10 that in all this succession of times he has seen labor succeeding to labor, and affliction to affliction. He proves the same theme here through ethical or moral things, namely from the fact that in the seat of judgment and justice, unjust judges often succeed just judges, who favor the wicked, and afflict and oppress the good; but to these also will succeed the time of God's most just judgment, in which God will restore justice taken away from the wicked from the seat of judgment, and will cast iniquity out of it. Whence appropriately to the theme: "All things have their time," he adds in the following verse 17: "God will judge the just and the wicked, and then there will be a time for every thing," as if to say: Just as physical things have their time, so also do ethical things; just as works succeed to works in time, so also do judgments succeed to judgments; and therefore all things pass away and vanish with time: for justice passes away when it is overthrown by the succeeding unjust judge through injustice: conversely his injustice passes away when it is reproved and punished by God the judge. Most excellently St. Gregory, book XXVI of the Morals: "The highest place," he says, "is well governed when he who presides rules over vices rather than over subjects." St. Cyprian depicts this iniquity of judgments graphically, book II, epistle 2 to Donatus: "The rage of those at discord with one another rages," he says, "and amid the togas with peace broken the forum bellows mad with lawsuits; the spear and sword are there, and the executioner stands ready, the claw digging, the rack stretching, fire burning; upon one human body, tortures more numerous than limbs. Who among these things truly comes to aid? An advocate? but he betrays and deceives. A judge? but he sells his sentence. He who sits to avenge crimes admits them, and so that an innocent man perish as guilty, the judge becomes guilty. Crimes blaze everywhere, and throughout the manifold kind of sinning the harmful poison works through wicked minds. Then he narrates the modes of injustice in particular, adding: "One here subjects a will; another writes a false one with capital fraud; here children are barred from inheritances; there strangers are enriched with goods. An enemy accuses, a slanderer attacks, a witness defames, on both sides the prostituted voice of venal audacity rages in falsehood of crimes, while meanwhile the guilty do not perish even with the innocent. There is no fear of laws; no dread of the magistrate, of the judge: what can be redeemed is not feared; to be innocent among the guilty is now a crime: whoever does not imitate the wicked offends. Laws have consented to sins, and it has begun to be lawful what is public. What shame of things there, what integrity could be, where those who condemn the wicked are lacking? only those who are condemned come before you." Moreover, this ethical affliction is graver and harsher than the former physical and natural affliction, because nothing torments men more than if they are judged, condemned and punished as guilty, when they are innocent. And what is more unworthy than if injustice sits upon the throne of justice and presides there? if iniquity reigns and dominates in the tribunal of equity? if impiety oppresses piety, dishonesty oppresses honesty, malice oppresses innocence, wickedness oppresses holiness, tyranny and cruelty oppress humanity? Let judges hear and fear David, nay God the supreme judge thundering forth to them: "God hath stood in the congregation of gods (judges): but in the midst he judgeth gods. How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? etc. I have said: You are gods, and all of you the sons of the most High. But you like men shall die: and shall fall like one of the princes," Psalm LXXXI, verse 1, where in Hebrew for gods is Elohim, that is angels or gods, by which it signifies that a judge ought to be as an angel, nay a god among men, so that he be free from all affection of flesh and blood, and according to God and truth render judgment, and thus be as "a god walking about on earth, and a holy angel in flesh." Whence Philo, in the book On the Judge, requires in him sincerity and a tranquil mind subject to no disturbance; so that he might imitate God, of whom the Wise Man says, chapter XII, 18: "But thou, O Lord of might, judgest with clemency." Hence also the wicked judge in this place is called rascha, that is restless, tumultuous, turbulent; nay he is called in the abstract rescha, that is restlessness, tumult, disturbance, because he confuses all things, disturbs, obscures, perverts. And Psalm LXXIV, 3: "When I shall take a time, I will judge justices." Let King Josaphat hear, gravely impressing upon them: "Take heed what you do; for you exercise not the judgment of man, but of the Lord; and whatsoever you judge, it shall return upon you. Let the fear of the Lord be with you, and do all things with diligence: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts," II Paralipomenon XIX. Hence in the Council of Chalcedon and Ephesus, chapter XXII, the codex of the Gospels was placed in the judgment seat as if in a tribunal, so that it might represent the person of Christ the judge, whom the Bishops ought to have before their eyes in judging, and thus pronounce a just sentence according to his mind. Thus the Ethiopians are said to set up in the Senate a lofty chair, and leave it empty, as if God the arbiter and moderator of judgment sits in it, whom therefore all senators ought to regard, fear and imitate in rendering their judgments. The kings of Egypt were accustomed to bind judges by oath, so that even if the king should command them to judge something that was not just, they should not judge it, as Plutarch says in his Moral Works, who also adds: But how can it be that a city have uncorrupt judges, where the prince sells the power of judging for a great price? Marcus Antoninus the Emperor used to say, "Private men indeed have many judges; but for the prince there is no other judge than God." Thus Xiphilinus in his Life. The Emperor Trajan handed a drawn sword to the prefect of the city and said: "Take this iron, and if indeed I shall govern the empire rightly, use it for me; but if otherwise, use it against me." Thus Nicephorus, book III of Ecclesiastical History, chapter XXIII. Cambyses flayed Sisamnes the judge, because he had pronounced an unjust sentence corrupted by money, and made a tribunal or judicial seat from his skin, and ordered his son Othon to sit as judge in it, saying: "Remember in what seat you sit and judge." Thus Herodotus, book V.
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17. And I said in my heart: God will judge the just and the wicked (on the day of judgment, says the Chaldean), and the time of every matter will be then. — "Then," namely on the day of judgment, when the Lord will judge. By the just understand any one, but properly the innocent one who has suffered injury, and unjustly condemned by a wicked judge; by the wicked, however, understand the iniquitous judge, who unjustly condemned the innocent. For by this maxim Solomon comforts himself, and at the same time those who are innocently condemned, by the hope of divine judgment, namely that God will reform and correct these iniquitous judgments of men by His most just judgment, and will decree and actually bestow upon the innocent his right and the crown of patience, and upon the wicked judge the deserved punishment and the penalty of retaliation. For this is the office of Elohim, that is of divinity and providence, to restore to the just who are wronged their right and reputation, and to punish the unjust who do wrong according to their deserts. Indeed from this we gather that there is a divinity, and that there will be a universal judgment of God; for thus we argue: In this life often the innocent are condemned and oppressed by the guilty; therefore justice and the right order of things demands that there follow God's judgment, by which these injustices are revealed, corrected, condemned, punished, and to the innocent their innocence and merits are restored. "Then therefore shall the just stand with great constancy against those who have afflicted them, and who have taken away their labors," Wisdom V, because, as it says in Ecclesiasticus XXXV, 16: "The Lord will not accept the person of the poor, and He will hear the prayer of him that is wronged. He will judge the just and will do judgment, until He take away the pride of the wicked: and will break the scepters of the unrighteous." Thus St. Jerome explains it, hear him: "Under this sun," he says, "I sought truth and judgment, and I saw also in the very benches of judges themselves that truth does not prevail, but gifts;" or otherwise: "I thought that some justice was being done in the present age, or that the pious now received according to his merit, or the wicked was punished for his crime, and on the contrary I found otherwise than I thought. For I saw both the just suffering many evils here, and the wicked reigning for his crime. But afterwards, conversing with my heart and considering, I understood that God does not judge by parts and individually, but reserves judgment for a future time, so that all may be judged together, and there receive according to their will and works. This is indeed what he says: And the time for every will, and over every deed there, that is in judgment, when the Lord shall have begun to judge, then there will be truth: now injustice dominates in the world. We read something similar also in the wisdom which is inscribed with the name of the son of Sirach: Say not: What is this, or what is that? for all things shall be sought out in their time," Ecclesiasticus cap. XXXIX. And the time of every matter will be then. — "Time," namely of examination, judgment and retribution, by which the innocent one who is wronged receives the crown of patience, and the guilty one who does wrong receives punishment according to his deserts. This therefore will be the time of God's judgment, just as in this life there is time for the freedom and judgment of men, so that they may act and judge anything. It refers back to verse 1: "All things have their time," as if to say: The wicked and those who do wrong have their time of doing wrong, and the innocent their time of suffering; in turn God will have time to judge both; just as thieves have their time of stealing, and the praetor has his time of hanging them. The Hebrews have it, and time for every will, and over every work there. St. Jerome from the Septuagint in the ancient version, time is for every will (others, pleasure) over every deed, so that it be a hendiadys, by which, the conjunction and being omitted, will is joined with deed and work, as if to say, Time will be there of the final judgment, by which namely God will judge every will, that is every act of the will, for instance whatever you shall have freely willed and chosen; and moreover every work which you shall have done from this choice, from which judgment no appeal falls, no escape, no excuse. The word "over" denotes that this judgment of God will be superior and will rule over all the works of men, even of kings and emperors, so that they all submit themselves to it, and from it receive a sentence just and equally inevitable, which no one can escape. Hence Pagninus translates, because time is for all that he willed, and over every work there will be judgment; the Zurich Bible, for there is time in which to every will, and to all deeds a worthy reward is rendered back; Vatable, time is for every thing, and that according to all works there, as if to say, After I have considered all things through the word of God, I said to myself that God will judge the just and the unjust, according to each one's works there, that is on the day of judgment, because all things are done in their time; another, for there is time there opportune for every thing and for every work; the Syriac and Aquila, because time is for every business, and all works there; the Arabic, because for every thing and every work time; the Chaldean clearly, because judgment is prepared for every thing and every work; which are done in this age will be judged there. You will say: Apocalypse X, verse 6, an angel at the end of the world, namely under the day of judgment, swears by Him that liveth for ever and ever: "That time shall be no longer;" how therefore is it said here that then time will be for every thing? It is answered, on the day of judgment there will be no more time for meriting or demeriting, but time for judging and rewarding, so that each one according to his merits may receive punishment or reward. Again, then time will be no longer, because the motion of the heavens will cease and consequently time, which is the measure of motion. To time therefore will succeed eternity of glory in the just, and of hell in the unjust. Hence the doctors gather that on the day of judgment God will reveal the consciences of men, so that each one may then see both his own and those of any other men whatsoever, words, deeds, thoughts, and even the most secret desires, because this is demanded by the public justice of God the judge, namely that from these all may see that God justly decrees to each glory or punishment worthy of his merits, according to that saying of the Sibyl: "And all the secrets of all will be revealed to all." Thus holds St. Augustine, tract. 35 in John; St. Basil, tract. On Virginity; Lactantius, book VII, cap. XXI and XXII; Isidore of Pelusium, book II, epistle 94; Anselm in the Elucidarium; the Master of the Sentences in IV, distinction 43 or 47. This is what St. John says, Apocalypse XX, 12: "And the books were opened, etc., and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works." See the sayings there.
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18. I said in my heart concerning the sons of men, that God might prove them, and show that they are like to beasts. — Thus the Latin Codices read everywhere; whence it is strange that in the Vatican copies it is read, I said in my heart to the sons of men, unless it be a printer's error. For both the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic and others have the preposition "of"; thus the Hebrew has it, I said in my heart of the word of the sons of Adam. The Septuagint and from them St. Jerome in his earlier version take "word" to mean human speech; whence they translate, I said in my heart of the speech of the sons of men, because God will separate them, to show that they themselves are beasts. Which St. Jerome thus expounds: "God willed that this alone (be the difference) between men and beasts, that we speak, they are mute; we put forth our will by speech, they are torpid in silence." And the Thaumaturgus: "Separated," he says, "from each other by articulate voice alone. But Olympiodorus, translating "will separate" as "will judge," expounds it, as if to say, Of every word both of the mouth and of the mind, account must be rendered in the day of judgment, of which discourse preceded, according to the saying of Christ, Matt. XII, 36: "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account thereof in the day of judgment." The Syriac, following the custom of the Septuagint, translates, I said in my heart of the discourse of the sons of men, whom God created. And the Arabic, I said moreover in my heart of the words of the sons of man, that God judged them, and showed them that they are beasts. But Our version with the Chaldean better understood "word" as thing and matter, by a metonymy customary among the Hebrews. Whence it translates, of the sons of men. So also Pagninus, the Zurich version, Campensis, Vatablus and others. Note: For "that he might prove them," in Hebrew it is לברם labaram, which secondly can be translated, that he might purge, or purify them; thirdly, that he might choose them: thus Pagninus; fourthly, that he might separate, sever, distinguish them: thus from the Septuagint the Arabic and Olympiodorus; fifthly, that he might create them. Thus the Syriac and Vatablus, who derive ברם baram from ברא bara, that is, he created, as if ם, being a quiescent letter, were prefixed and omitted. From these versions you may gather that the death and miseries of the human body after sin, by which man is made like to beasts, were inflicted by God for this end: first, that he might humble and lay low his pride, by which he had exalted himself against God; secondly, that he might judge and punish his disobedience; thirdly, that he might restrain and purify his desires: death therefore and diseases are a remedy for pride, a punishment for disobedience, a bridle for concupiscence and an expiation, nay, a salt and nitre. Now to the sense. This sentence appears incomplete and suspended; it is asked therefore whence it hangs, where it is perfected and fulfilled. There is a threefold answer: for first some think it hangs from the following verse; secondly, others from the preceding verse; thirdly, others think it consists in itself and completes itself. First therefore, some connect it with the following verse in this way, as if to say, That God might prove the faith and hope of men concerning future life and blessedness, by showing and making them as to the body like to beasts, for this reason he ordained that there be one death of man and beasts, and equal condition of both. By this very thing he proves and tests their faith and hope: while he sees some from this equality of man and brute not believing the soul to be immortal, but thinking it dies and perishes with the body, and therefore despairing of future life and happiness; but others on the contrary he sees carefully distinguishing the soul from the body, and feeling that man is indeed like to beasts as to the body, but unlike as to the soul: for man has this immortal, whereas in all beasts it is mortal and perishes with the body; wherefore they strive to cultivate the soul with virtues, that they may be granted future glory by God; these therefore God takes to himself and blesses, but those he rejects and condemns. This connection is probable: for indeed this sentence seems to regard what follows. Only the punctuation opposes it, namely a point, which separates and distinguishes this verse from the following; and because for "for this reason" in Hebrew it is כי ki, that is, "because," which word signifies that the following verse does not complete the preceding, but gives its reason. Secondly, others connect it with the preceding verse, but with a different connection. First, St. Jerome thus connects it: "It is not to be wondered at," he says, "that in the present life there is no difference between the impious and the just, nor does anything of virtue avail; but all things are rolled about in uncertain outcome, since even between cattle and men according to the quality of the body nothing appears to differ, and there is the same condition of being born, one lot of dying." Secondly, Aben-Ezra, Cajetan and Dionysius hold that Solomon here speaks not from his own opinion, but from the opinion of the Epicureans, who hold that the soul of man, equally as that of brutes, perishes with the body, and therefore that one ought to indulge in the pleasures of this life: for there are no other things to be hoped for in the future. To this is added the paraphrase of Thaumaturgus: "How therefore did I once foolishly think that before God I should be judged and reckoned similarly, and that it should make no difference to act justly or unjustly; whether endowed with reason, or to be a brute. Because to all without discrimination time is dispensed, and death is inflicted." Thirdly, our Pineda more wisely holds that Solomon here signifies that God on the day of judgment will examine the life of each man, namely whether he has lived as a man or as a beast; for wicked judges, who, as he said in verse 16, justify the guilty and condemn the innocent, live as beasts, nay rather as wild beasts, and are similar to lions and wolves, which tear and devour other animals, according to that: "A roaring lion and a hungry bear, an impious prince over a poor people," Prov. cap. XXVIII, 15; and again Habac. I, 13, 14: "Why dost thou look upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth one that is more just than himself? and thou makest men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler." For the greater fish devours the lesser, and does so with impunity, with no one forbidding it. Whence Campensis translates, since I could not find another reason why God would permit these things, it seemed to me that he wished to exercise man in such human tumults, so that he might see that he differs little from brutes in this life; for men do not tumble about among themselves otherwise, nor with greater separation, than brutes among themselves. Thirdly and genuinely, this opinion stands by itself and is completed in itself, as is evident from the Hebrew which thus has it, I said in my heart concerning the matter (that is concerning the thing and business) of the sons of Adam (for this purpose), that God might prove them. The force and energy of the opinion consists in the concerning the business of the sons of Adam, as if to say, considering in my heart the business, that is the condition, nature and lot of the sons of Adam, namely that Adam was made from adamah, that is man was created from the earth; and therefore similar to beasts in eating, drinking, generating, walking, sleeping, dying, etc. This, I say, business of men considering, I said of it, that it was made by God for this purpose, that by it he might prove men, namely whether they believe and hope for the immortality of their souls and their eternal glory, as if to say, That God might experience this faith and hope of men, showing them outwardly to be similar to beasts, which lack all faith and hope; therefore he gave them an earthly, corruptible and mortal body, such as beasts have: for the unwise and carnal from this conjecture that their soul, and themselves and body, is similar to the soul of beasts, and will die with the body, and therefore they give themselves to the belly and to lust; but the wise distinguish the soul from the body, and hold that the soul of man is rational and immortal, but that of beasts irrational and mortal; and therefore they strive to live, not as beasts, but as angels, so that they may deserve to attain their happiness. Thus Olympiodorus: He admonishes us by these things, he says, lest we indulge the body, but that we cultivate the soul which is endowed with reason, by which we are similar to angels, with virtues. And Vatablus, I esteemed in my heart the condition of men, that God created them most excellent, at the same time seeing how they themselves cast themselves down into the condition of cattle. And the Chaldean, I said in my heart concerning the business of the sons of men, to whom the Lord brought plagues and evil infirmities, that he might tempt them, and that he might prove them, God made; that he might see if they would turn to penance, that he might forgive them, and they might be healed. But the impious, who are like beasts, do not turn, and therefore they are corrected, that it may be ill with them. The Chaldean seems to have read דבר dabar, that is word, with other points as דבר deber, that is plague, mortality, death. Whence he translates, that there will come upon them blows and evil sicknesses: for plague is the worst. Moreover, although it is not necessary to scrutinize scrupulously here the connection of all the opinions among themselves, because Solomon here reviews various species of the world's vanity one by one, and passes from one to another quite diverse without order and connection, nevertheless a fitting connection and transition can be assigned at this place. For he had said in verse 16, among other vanities, that not the least is the iniquity of judgments and of judges who absolve the guilty, and condemn the innocent and strike them with death. Now he touches upon a similar vanity, namely that men as to body are similar to animals and beasts, so that they themselves are truly animals, and to some beasts and brutes seem to be, especially because there is one death of men and beasts. If you say there is a distinction as to the soul, in that the soul of men is immortal, and therefore to be judged by God, so that it may receive reward or eternal punishment, as he said in verse 17, but the soul of brutes is mortal and perishes with the body; he adds that to many this is obscure and doubtful, indeed if you regard external things and the senses, it seems false. For many, from the fact that they see men die like brutes, believe that the soul of men perishes, as the soul of brutes perishes. This is indeed what he says in verse 21: "Who (how many) knows whether the spirit of the sons of Adam ascends upward, and whether the spirit of beasts descends downward?" and this is the greatest vanity of man, nay rather affliction, error and vice: namely that he is ignorant of the nobility and eternity of his own soul, and therefore does not care to provide for it well by living rightly, so that he may bless it eternally, but gives himself over to illicit pleasures, by which he brings eternal fire upon it. But lest anyone think that the matter is truly thus, namely that from the destruction of man's body, the destruction of his soul is rightly inferred, he adds that God did this to prove and test men, and the faith and hope of men concerning the immortality of the soul. Whence a little before he said clearly and solemnly: "God shall judge the just and the wicked, and then shall be the time of every thing," by which he clearly signifies the immortality of the soul, and its judgment according to merits and reward, or eternal punishment. And he would show them to be like beasts. — The Hebrew: to see that they themselves are beasts to themselves; which can be taken in various ways: first, as if to say, So that it might be seen that they themselves are beasts, they themselves, I say, in their own regard. Whence the Arabic translator renders it, he showed them that they themselves are beasts. So also the Complutensian Septuagint; secondly, as if to say, So that he would show that man rages against man like a beast, according to that saying: "Man is a wolf to man;"; thirdly, as if to say, So that he would show that, just as men are beasts and animals with beasts, so in turn beasts are beasts to men themselves, when they rage against them and tear them and devour them, as lions, wolves, tigers, panthers, etc. do; fourthly, for "themselves to themselves," it can be translated "to themselves," as if to say, Man not only as to body, but also as to his opinion, according to his soul and bestial manners, and ignorance, which makes him forget his own dignity, seems to be like beasts in the same way. Just as Nebuchadnezzar was made like an ox, partly as to the form of his body, because he walked as a quadruped, and ate grass like an ox; partly as to his corrupted imagination, by which it seemed to him that he was cattle, Daniel IV, 22. Finally, man, who lives like a beast, dies like a beast. Fifthly, Cajetan, translating, "and to see that they themselves are beast to themselves," explains it, as if to say, Man is a beast to himself, that is, man is a certain political beast, because men communicate with one another, but some deceitfully, like foxes; others cruelly, like wolves; others proudly despising others, like lions; others gluttonously, like pigs; others lustfully, like asses, etc. For beasts in Hebrew is בהמה behema, which signifies every quadruped, whether tame and domesticated, such as horses, sheep and oxen; or wild and fierce, such as wolves, lions, leopards. Whence the elephant is called behemoth, that is beasts, in the plural, because in the bulk of its body it is like many beasts, Job XL, 10. Our translator frequently renders it, beasts. Man therefore is similar to beasts, which are driven by the impulse of passions, not by the judgment of reason, and he is not like one beast, but worse than all beasts. For beasts do not rage against beasts of the same species, but against those which are different; but man rages against man. Man therefore imitates, nay surpasses the envy of a dog, the voracity of a wolf, the pride of a lion, the cruelty of a tiger, the sloth of an ass, the malice of a serpent, the fraud of a fox, the filthiness of a pig, the lust of a goat; where now is your boasting, O noble one? why do you glory, O rich man? why do you despise the poor? why do you disdain to address the lowborn, when you have become not only like a poor man, but also like beasts, pigs and goats, equal and the same? Go now resplendent with gold, swollen with haughty brow, proud with horses and chariots, magnificent with a throng of servants; but look upon yourself, remember that you are compared to senseless beasts, and have been made like them. Tropologically, the garments of beasts, skins, with which God clothed Adam after sin, signify that we have put on the nature of beasts by that; and therefore we are to put off with them the skin of mortality, as St. Augustine says in Psalm CI.
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19. THEREFORE THERE IS ONE DEATH OF MAN AND OF BEASTS, AND AN EQUAL CONDITION OF BOTH: AS MAN DIES, SO ALSO DO THEY DIE: ALL ALIKE BREATHE, AND MAN HAS NOTHING MORE THAN THE BEAST: ALL THINGS ARE SUBJECT TO VANITY. — The Thaumaturgus says that the laws of death are not more severe in other living creatures than in men. The Chaldean restricts this to sinful man: for thus he translates it, because the end of sinful man and the end of an unclean beast, the end is one for all these; and as the unclean beast dies, so does he die, if he does not turn to penance before death; and the breath of the spirit of both shall be judged together in every way, and nothing more remains of the sinful man than of the unclean beast; nor is there any other difference between both, except the house of burial, because all things are vanity. Hence some have thought that the impious perish both as to soul and as to body, like brute beasts. But this is an error: wherefore the Chaldean wrongly restricts this to the sinner, since the Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, and Arabic have it absolutely and generally, one death is of man and of beasts. For death the Hebrew is מקרה micre, that is, accident, thus the Syriac; event, thus the Septuagint; lot; thus the Arabic, condition, occurrence, fall; namely the same affections, the same desires, the same diseases and troubles, the same falls, the same customs and vices. Whence Olympiodorus translates, the brutish life of beasts therefore, which indulges in lust, is mere vanity. Our translator, however, renders it death, or dying, because this itself is an accident common to all men, necessary, certain, inevitable; yet the day and hour of it is uncertain and doubtful. Again, death to man is the ultimate fall, into which all other falls of human life recur, as I said cap. II, 14; and that Solomon wished this is evident from the fact that micre, that is, accident, and explaining this fall he subjoins: "As man dies, so also do they die." Some think that Solomon here speaks not from his own, but from the opinion of the Epicureans, who deny the immortality of the soul; thus the Thaumaturgus, Clarius, and St. Gregory, IV Dialog. cap. IV, whom hear: "Our preacher, as it were from the mind of those infirm in human suspicion, proposes the opinion, while he says: One death is of man and of beasts, and an equal condition of both: as man dies, so also do they die. All alike breathe, and man has nothing more than beasts. But he then from the definition of reason brings forth his own opinion, saying: What has the wise man more than the fool, and what the poor man, except that he goes there where life is? He therefore who said: Man has nothing more than beasts, he himself again defines, that the wise man has something not only more than the beast, but also more than the foolish man, namely that he goes there where life is. By which words he first indicates, that this is not the life of men, which he testifies to be elsewhere. Man therefore has this more than beasts, because those do not live after death; but he then begins to live, when through the death of the flesh he consumes this visible life. He then proves the same by another testimony of Ecclesiastes, "who also says far below: Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly; because there is no work, nor reason, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in hell, whither thou art hastening. How therefore is there one death of man and beast, and an equal condition of both? or how has man nothing more than beasts, when beasts after the death of the flesh do not live, but the spirit of men for their evil works after the death of the flesh is led down to hell, and does not die even in death itself? But in both so different opinions it is shown, that the truthful preacher brought in that from carnal temptation, and this afterwards he defined from spiritual truth." Others judge better that Solomon speaks from his own mind and sense, that is to say, God, wishing to test and examine man's faith, made him as to his body similar to beasts: therefore just as the body of a beast perishes and dies, so also does that of man. For the body of man is similar to the body of beasts, both in origin and progress, and in decline and death. For it is born and originates from the earth, it progresses or continues its life by breathing, namely through respiration. It dies and perishes, when it returns to the earth, from which it was born. Thus St. Jerome: "Lest we should think it said concerning the soul, he added: All things are made of the earth, and return into the earth; but nothing is made of the earth except the body." And St. Thomas, First Part, Question LXXV, Article 6, to the first objection, notes that these things are said of the body of man, not of the soul, and proves this by this reasoning: "For the soul of brutes," he says, "is produced by some bodily power (the power of the seed through transmission; for just as the light of one candle kindles light in another, so the soul of a cow, sheep, wolf, lion, etc., produces the soul of a calf, lamb, wolf, lion, which it begets); but the human soul is produced by God, and to signify this it is said in Genesis I, as to other animals: Let the earth bring forth the living soul; but as to man it is said that he breathed into his face the breath of life. And therefore it is concluded in Ecclesiastes, last chapter: Let the dust return into the earth from whence it was, and the spirit return to God, who gave it. Similarly the process of life is similar as to the body, to which pertains what is said in Ecclesiastes: All things breathe alike. And in Wisdom II: We are but smoke and a breath in our nostrils, etc.; but the process is not similar as to the soul: because man understands, but brute animals do not; hence it is false what is said: Man hath nothing more than the beast; and therefore the destruction is similar as to the body, but not as to the soul." Thus far the Angelic Doctor. Again, "the destruction of man and of beasts is the same," because as far as can be gathered by sense and experience, the same is the mode of generation and corruption in beasts as in man (for beasts are procreated and grow old and die in the same manner as men), except only for the difference of perfection and subsistence of the human form, namely the rational soul, which we would not gather from the mode of generation and corruption of man, unless it were made known to us from elsewhere, namely from the spiritual operation of the intellect, by which also he understands God and incorporeal angels, and from free will, from ecstasy and rapture, from merits and demerits, and especially from acts of grace, and from faith and revelation of Holy Scripture. Morally, St. Bernard throughout sermon 82 on the Canticles beautifully teaches from this place that the soul of man, which is similar to God, created in simplicity, immortality and freedom, through sin has become dissimilar to him in these three things, and most similar to beasts: for thus he says: "Hence (from sin) the soul dissimilar to God, hence dissimilar also to itself; hence compared to senseless beasts and made similar to them; hence what is read, that it changed its glory into the likeness of a calf eating hay; hence men like foxes have dens of duplicity and fraud; and because they have made themselves equal to foxes, they will be the portion of foxes; hence according to Solomon one exit for man and beast: why should not he exit similarly who lived similarly? with bestial manner he lay upon earthly things, with bestial manner he will depart from the earth. Hear another thing: What wonder if we obtain a similar exit, we who also have a similar entrance? Whence comes it to men, except from bestial likeness, that so intemperate an ardor in coition, so immoderate a pain in childbirth? Thus man in conception and birth in life and death is compared to senseless beasts, and made similar to them. What, that a free creature does not rule the appetite subject to itself as a mistress, but follows and obeys it as a handmaid? Does it not in this also assimilate itself and number itself among other animals, which nature did not call to freedom, but created in servitude, to serve its belly, to obey appetite?" ALL THINGS BREATHE ALIKE. — In Hebrew, the use of ruach, that is, spirit, is common to all. Spirit, that is, breath or respiration, as Symmachus translated it; a blast, or vital air, as Vatablus translated it: for all animals equally with man breathe, and by breathing draw in air, so that they may temper the heat of the heart and viscera, and thus preserve and prolong life: hence when respiration is impeded by strangulation or catarrh, man is suffocated and dies. See Aristotle, book On Respiration. Hence the soul is said by some to derive from ἄνεμος, that is, air, wind, as Isidore says in book XI of the Origins, chapter 1, although he himself refutes this, and adds: "The soul is of life, the mind of counsel; for the soul is the spirit by which we live, says Nonius, the mind by which we are wise." In Greek it is called ψυχή from ψύχεσθαι, that is, from cooling. Whence Campensis translated it, and it does not appear that the soul of man is different from that of brutes, that is, the vital breath. AND MAN HATH NOTHING MORE THAN THE BEAST. — The Septuagint: and what hath man more than the beast? nothing; Theodotion: what is the excellence of man? Symmachus: and what more hath man than the beast? The Zurich Bible: nor hath man anything more excellent than the beast. Others: the dignity of man above the beasts is none, namely as to the body; for as to the soul, man hath eternal and immortal life, which brutes do not have. Nothing, therefore understand as to the mutability of the body, death and all external things. Whence the Chaldean translated it: the remainder of man for the beast is nothing between the two, except the house of the sepulchre. For nobles and the rich among men erect for themselves splendid sepulchres, such as are not erected for beasts. One must beware here of the Commentary of Vatablus, or rather inserted by heretics into Vatablus, who thus explains it, as if to say: "Human reason alone does not discover the excellence of man above the beasts, because whatever appears to the eye of reason in man is most vain." For this is erroneous and savours of Epicureanism. For it is certain that, faith being set aside, by natural reason alone, man is known to excel the beasts through the rational and immortal soul. For that the soul of man is immortal, natural philosophers prove by many natural reasons and demonstrate invincibly in the book On the Soul. Wherefore the Doctors, who corrected Vatablus, marked this passage with the censor's rod, and expunged the words already cited. Mystically St. Jerome says: Man, he says, is the just one, the beast the sinner, who often by the grace of God and penance equals the just one, nay surpasses him; of which more presently. Some Rabbis note that the soul in Hebrew has three names, which signify its threefold power, namely נשמה nescama signifies the rational power, which is a ray of divinity; נפש nephes, the sensitive power; רוח ruach, the vital power. Hence R. Abraham placed nescama in the brain, nephes in the liver, ruach in the heart: just as natural philosophers and physicians establish three kinds of spirits in man, namely rational, which serve the discourse and speculation of the mind; animal, which serve sensation and locomotion; vital, which serve respiration and life. But this distinction is not perpetual: for ruach also signifies the rational power, as is evident from verse 21, and chapter XII, 7. Indeed the Holy Spirit, which is not only rational, but also divine, nay God himself, in Scripture and by the Rabbis is everywhere called ruach hacados.
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20. AND ALL THINGS (that is, both, namely man and beasts: for of these alone the discourse has gone before) GO TO ONE PLACE (into the earth, as follows): THEY WERE MADE OF THE EARTH, AND INTO THE EARTH THEY RETURN ALIKE. — The Septuagint and the Syriac: all things were made of dust, and all things shall return into dust. For in Hebrew for earth is עפר aphar, that is, dust, namely mixed with water, such as mud or clay. St. Jerome: All things were made of earth, and all things shall return to earth. He alludes to, nay cites that passage from Genesis III, 19: "Until thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return." See the remarks there. Hence earth is called by Ecclesiasticus, chapter XL, 1, the mother of all things; wherefore Junius Brutus, having received from Delphi the oracle of Apollo that he would rule Rome who should first kiss his mother, immediately kissed the earth, and having expelled the Tarquin kings, was created the first consul of Rome, as Livy testifies, book I. A similar dream is said by Suetonius in his Life of Julius Caesar, chapter VII, to have portended to him the dominion of the world. Hence also the ancient pagans, as Varro testifies, book I On the Latin Language, would place a newly born child on the earth, and would implore Ops the goddess (that is, Earth), whom they also called Levana, from lifting up from the earth, and Fauna from favoring, and Fatua from speaking, as if it were not lawful to speak before contact with her; and Maia and Bona, finally the Great Mother. Thus our Lorinus.
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21. WHO KNOWS WHETHER THE SPIRIT OF THE CHILDREN OF ADAM ASCENDS UPWARD, AND THE SPIRIT OF BEASTS DESCENDS DOWNWARD. — The Hebrew, Septuagint and Syriac add, into the earth; the Arabic, into the depths of the earth; Campensis, whether anyone meanwhile knows if man's spirit is to ascend upward; whether the soul of other animals is to perish with their bodies? St. Gregory, IV Dialogues cap. IV, Olympiodorus, Lyra, Bonaventure, Cajetan and others hold that these things are said by Solomon, not from his own person and mind, but from that of the impious, namely the Epicureans denying the immortality of the soul, or at least doubting it. For the words themselves bear this out. Whence the Thaumaturgus translates, it was once held as a notable thing, etc., that it is uncertain concerning human souls whether they are to fly upward, and concerning the rest of the brutes, whether they are to flow downward. But if you consider the preceding matter concerning the similarity and like destruction of man and beasts, which he set forth from his own sense in verses 18 and 19, and the conclusion which he draws from it in verse 22, saying: "And I found that nothing is better than to rejoice," etc., you will altogether judge that he likewise speaks here from his own mind and sense, so that he wishes to signify that men, especially the rude and carnal men of that age, from the fact that they see the bodies of men corrupted and dying equally as those of beasts, and all external things having the same character in man as in brutes, but do not perceive the internal things of man, especially the soul and spirit, therefore scarcely perceive that the soul of man is immortal, whereas that of brutes is mortal. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Who knows, that is, how few know and are certain in their own minds that the spirit, that is the soul of man after the death of the body, ascends upward to God, who created it, so that He might judge it as immortal, and according to merits might decree and truly give to it an immortal reward or punishment, and the soul of brutes descends into the earth, so that with the body resolved into dust it might perish and vanish, as if he were saying: Few know this, and that with great difficulty, hardly and doubtfully; so much so that Aristotle, a man of supreme genius, is thought by many to have doubted concerning the immortality of the soul. Thus St. Jerome: "Who knows whether the spirit of the children of Adam, etc. He does not contend, he says, that between beasts and man, according to the dignity of the soul, there is nothing different, but by adding: Who, he wished to demonstrate the difficulty of the matter? For the pronoun who in the holy Scriptures is never taken for the impossible, but always for the difficult, as in Isaiah XXXV, 8: Who shall declare? Psalm XIV, 1: Who shall dwell? Jeremiah XVII, 9: Who shall know?" St. Jerome is followed in his usual manner by Alcuin, Salonius, Cardinal Hugh and the Latins throughout. Hence also the Chaldean translates, who is so excellent in wisdom that it might be explored by him whether the minds of men fly into heaven, and the spirits of beasts descend under the earth? And this is the notable vanity, ignorance and error of men, which Solomon here deplores, namely that they do not know themselves, that is their soul and its condition, and do not know whether it is mortal or immortal; whether it is to return to heaven or to earth. For the philosophers, and among them the divine Plato, spoke doubtfully, obscurely and frivolously on this matter. For Plato in the Phaedo and elsewhere calls God the world, which is borne in a circle. In the convex part of this he says true ideas exist, which the soul borne on wings contemplates, until it is forced to return home. Afterwards he denies that it returns to the same place unless ten thousand years have elapsed, until the wings grow again: unless someone has philosophized sincerely, why return is given after three thousand years, etc. He assigns men to certain planets which each one follows, and with them surveys the ideas of the intellectual world. Epicurus also ridiculed this by a sorites concerning death, saying that it "pertains nothing to us; for what is dissolved is without sensation: but what is without sensation pertains nothing at all to us," as Cicero says, lib. II On Ends. Tertullian detects the vice and paralogism of the sorites, lib. On the Soul: "It is dissolved, he says, and lacks sensation not death itself, but the man who suffers it. But He gave it passion, whose is action; but if it is man's to suffer death dissolving the body and destroying sensation, how absurd that such a force is said not to pertain to man!" Add that the sensation of the soul is not extinguished by death, but rather by it the soul feels the eternal fires, and is burned by them in hell. Note: That the spirit of man ascends upward signifies many things: first, that the soul of man is not from the earth, nor is it generated by transmission of the soul from parents, as the souls of brute beasts are generated, which therefore die together with the body and are resolved into the earth from which they came; but rather it is created from above from heaven by God alone, and by creating it is infused into man: and therefore it is spiritual and immortal, and consequently after the death of the body it returns to God its creator and ascends upward, so that it may present and render itself to Him, according to that passage in chapter XII, 7: "The spirit shall return to God, who gave it." Hence the Poet said that the soul of man is "a particle of divine air." And another: "There is," he says, "a fiery vigor in them, and a heavenly origin." Thus from this passage the eternity and immortality of the human soul is not weakened, but rather confirmed. The same is clearly established in chapter XI, at the end, and in chapter XII, 8 and 15. Second, that it ascends to God as to its judge, so that according as it has done good or evil in life, it may receive from Him a sentence of punishment or reward. For although grave doctors, such as Dominicus Soto in IV, dist. 43, art. 3, conclus. 2; Francis Suarez, III part., tom. II, Quaest. LIX, art. 6, disp. 52, sect. II; Gregory of Valencia, tom. IV, disp. 11, Quaest. I, punct. 2; Bartholomaeus Sibylla in Quaest. peregrinis; Peter Thyraeus, lib. I De Appar. spirit. cap. XIV, num. 134; Henry Henriquez, lib. ult. Summae, cap. XXV, § 1, and others hold that the soul after the death of man undergoes a particular judgment while it is still in the body, and is judged in the first instant after death, so that after the judgment is completed it is immediately carried from the body either into heaven or into hell: nevertheless by catachresis the soul is said to ascend upward, because it ascends to God the judge, who dwells upward in the heavens, and there sits upon the throne of glory with the angels. Whence St. Augustine, or whoever is the author, in the book De Vanitate saeculi, cap. 1: "When," he says, "the soul is separated from the body, angels come to lead it before the tribunal of the Judge." The same is asserted by St. Chrysostom, homil. 1 in Matth. For this reason Suarez in the place cited says that souls are said to ascend into heaven, because they are elevated intellectually to hear the sentence of the Judge, namely Christ as man, which He Himself exercises sometimes by Himself, sometimes through angels, says Thyraeus, even though they neither see Christ nor the angels judging. Third, it signifies that the soul of man was created by God so that it might enjoy heaven and heavenly happiness: wherefore it, if it has lived according to God's law, is given by Him and blessed with eternal heaven and glory. Hence the Apostle says that when Christ comes to judgment, "we shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord," I Thess. IV, 17. Thus St. Bonaventure, Lyra, Cajetan, Dionysius and others. To this exposition agree those who explain it thus, as if to say: Who knows, that is, who has beheld with eyes, or known by evident reason and clear demonstration, that the soul of man is immortal and capable of heavenly glory; but that of brutes is mortal and goes into the earth? For many do not believe except what they behold with their eyes, especially concerning future rewards of the good in heaven and punishments of the wicked in hell. Whence the rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers, who would testify that he was being tormented in Gehenna; and when Abraham said: "They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them," he replied: "No, father Abraham, but if one from the dead goes to them, they will repent," Luke XVI, 29. Thus in Genesis III, 7, concerning Adam and Eve after sin it is said: "They knew (that is, felt and saw) themselves to be naked." Thus Hugh: "No one," he says, "of men knows this in the way that those things are known which are seen and heard, and touched and perceived by the other senses; for they do not think that anything can be known unless it be seen by the eye of flesh and touched by sense." Furthermore Cajetan explains it thus, as if to say: "Who knows," that is, no one knows. "For no philosopher," he says, "has hitherto demonstrated that the soul of man is immortal; and no demonstrative reason appears, but we believe this by faith, and it is consonant with probable reasons." Thus also Vatablus, Campensis, Ferus, and even Scotus in IV, dist. 43, Quaest. II. But Melchior Canus refutes these, lib. ult. De locis, cap. ult.; and St. Augustine, in the book De Immort. animae, proves by twelve physical reasons that it is immortal; and others in various places more truly hold that by natural reason it can be demonstrated that the soul of man is immortal; but this reason is grasped only by the rare few who are of lofty and keen intellect. Wherefore many of the faithful believe by faith rather than know by reason that the soul is immortal. Again, Rabbi Solomon expounds it, as if to say, "Who knows," that is, who thinks, who observes, who considers that the soul is immortal, so that from this consideration he might be moved to a holy life, so that he might provide for the salvation of the soul, as if to say, Few do this, few know it practically. Thus concerning God it is said in Psalm 138, verse 1: "Thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up." Finally, St. Jerome expounds these things concerning the limbo of the fathers, to which in the time of Solomon after death the souls of the just descended: for many were ignorant where this limbo was, whether above in heaven or below in hell, as if to say, Who knows whither the souls of those who now die go, namely whether they ascend into heaven or descend into hell? Hear St. Jerome: "But he says this, not because he thinks the soul perishes with the body, or that one place is prepared equally for beasts and men, but because before the coming of Christ all were led equally to the lower regions. Whence also Jacob says he would descend to the lower regions. And Job complains that the pious and impious are detained in hell. And the Gospel testifies that a great chaos is interposed in the lower regions, and Abraham with Lazarus and the rich man in torments; and truly, before Christ with the thief would unlock that fiery wheel and the fiery sword at the gates of paradise, the heavenly places were closed, and the equal advantage of the spirit of beast and man constrained it. And although one thing seemed to be dissolved, another reserved, nevertheless it mattered not much whether to perish with the body, or to be detained in the darkness of hell." Morally, learn here how great is the vanity and blindness of the soul, which does not perceive itself and its gifts and eternity, unless it be illuminated by God. St. Augustine, in epistle 100 to Evodius, relates that Gennadius the physician, doubting concerning the immortality of the soul, was taught the same through the appearance of an Angel in dreams. For the angel said to him: "Where is your body now?" He answered: "In my chamber." "Do you know," said he, "that in that same little body your eyes are now bound and closed and idle, and that your eyes see nothing?" He answered: "I know." Then he said: "What then are these eyes by which you see me?" To this he, finding nothing to answer, was silent. To him hesitating, he opened what he was striving to teach by these questions, and immediately said: "Just as those eyes of flesh certainly in the sleeping one and in the one lying on the bed now are idle, and do nothing, and yet there are these by which you behold me, and you use this vision: so when you shall have died, your eyes of flesh doing nothing, life will remain for you by which you may live, and sense by which you may feel. Beware henceforth, lest you doubt that life remains after death. Thus the faithful man says to himself that doubt of this matter was taken away, by him teaching, unless by the providence and mercy of God." A similar example proving the immortality of the soul is recounted by John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 195, concerning Evagrius the Philosopher, who after death returned a handwritten note of money to be distributed to the poor, and received after death from Synesius the Bishop, saying to him that he was already satisfied. Marsilio Ficino, disputing concerning the immortality of the soul with Michael Mercato, a philosopher of great renown, each made a pact with the other, that whichever of them departed from this life first (if it were permitted), would make the other more certain of the state of his life. Marsilio died first in Florence, who at the hour of death appearing to Mercato absent and far distant: O Michael, he said, O Michael, those things are true which we have disputed concerning the immortality of the soul. Having said this, he vanished from the eyes of the wondering one: and thenceforth Mercatus, although he had lived well, nevertheless gave himself to more perfect virtue, and bidding farewell to philosophy, for the remainder of his time, dead to the world, lived for the future life alone. Baronius relates the matter at length, vol. V, at the year of Christ 411. Moreover, Galen, the prince of physicians, from the sympathy of the soul with the body, held it to be mortal. See him, vol. I, lib. That the Morals of the Soul Follow the Temperament of the Body, cap. III, where he teaches that the soul in general is nothing other than the temperament of the four primary qualities, namely heat, cold, moisture and dryness. The rational soul, he says, which is a species of soul, is nothing other than the temperament of the brain: whence when the brain is excessively heated or cooled, the soul departs and man dies; since therefore this temperament perishes, it seems that the rational soul also perishes: thus he himself. But the antecedent is false; for the rational soul is not a temperament of qualities, for then it would be corporeal, whereas it is spiritual, indeed pure spirit. Whence Isidore of Pelusium refutes Galen, lib. III, epist. 124. But Pythagoras, Plato and others held it to be immortal. Whence also Heraclitus, in his letter to Amphidamanta: "Heraclitus will not succumb to disease, disease will succumb to Heraclitus, etc. The body will descend to the fated place; but the spirit will not descend, since it is immortal, it will fly up to heaven. The ethereal dwellings will receive it, and I will accuse the Ephesians. I will dwell not among men, but among gods." Cicero asserts the same in the Dream of Scipio, and Quintilian, Declamation X, § 18, where he says: "But the soul, a rush of fiery vigor, and perpetuity not taking its origin from our fire, but from that by which the stars fly and by which the sacred axes are turned, comes from thence, whence we hold the spirit to be the author and parent of all things, and it neither perishes, nor is dissolved, nor is affected by any fate of mortality: but whenever it has broken through the prison of the human breast, and freed from mortal limbs, has purified itself in light fire, it seeks a seat among the stars, until in other fates as the age struggles it migrates. Then it remembers the former body: thence the summoned shades come forth, thence the body and face and whatever we see receive, dear images sometimes meet their own, and oracles are made, and by nocturnal warnings admonish, feel the offerings we send below, and receive the honor of tombs." Clement of Alexandria, lib. IV of the Stromata, near the end: "I marvel," he says, "at Epicharmus who openly says: If you are pious in mind, you will suffer nothing evil when dead. The spirit remains above in heaven. And the Lyric Poet singing: But the souls of the impious fly under heaven in bloody sorrows, under the inevitable yokes of evils; but those of the pious dwell in the heavens, singing hymns to the prince of the blessed in songs. The soul is not therefore sent down from the heavens to those things which are worse: for God makes all things toward those things which are better; but those which chose the best life from God and justice, heaven exchanges for earth." Eugubinus cites more opinions of philosophers for the immortality of the soul, lib. IX On Perennial Philosophy. Eugubinus, lib. IX. But Plato added that the souls of the wise and brave are borne up to heaven to the stars which ruled over them before their descent into bodies; Aristotle to the air; Virgil, lib. VI of the Aeneid, to the Elysian Fields; the Stoics to the moon, whom Lucan followed thus singing, lib. IX: "And what lies open between the lands and the moon's passage, the demigod shades dwell, whom fiery virtue made innocent in life, enduring the lower ether, and gathered the eternal spirit into the spheres." Tertullian reviews and refutes these errors, lib. On the Soul, cap. LIV. Gregory of Nyssa adds (or rather Nemesius; for this book is ascribed to him in the Library of the Holy Fathers, vol. IX of the second edition), lib. II of Philosophy, cap. VII, that all the Gentiles who said the soul is immortal taught with unanimous consent the transmigration of souls into other and other bodies, though they differed in various ways concerning the forms, place and state of souls. But the Catholic faith teaches that the souls of the impious from the beginning of the world are immediately thrust into hell at death; those of the just, which need purification, are sent to purgatory, where when they have been fully purified, before Christ they migrated to the limbo of the fathers, but after Christ they are immediately received into heaven, as the Council of Florence defines in the Decree of Union. Therefore Calvin and the Novatians err, who hold that souls lurk in a cave or sleep until the day of the last judgment. Finally, the immortality of the soul is joined with the divine nature, or the providence and justice of God; for it befits Him to punish the impious, who in this life oppress the pious, in the other life, and to reward the pious. Hence those who deny the immortality of the soul soon deny the Divine Being, and become atheists. Conversely, faith in the immortality of the soul and hope of its happiness stirs man to every virtue, however difficult. Thus the martyrs were inflamed to martyrdom by hope of future life, as is evident in Maccabees, chapter VII. Indeed, Socrates, unjustly condemned to death, rejoiced that his mind, freed from the body as from a prison, would begin to be master of itself, and would live better than before, as Plato and Laertius relate in his Life. Most excellently, Alphonsus, King of Aragon, while reviewing the works of Seneca, was asked why the mind of man was so insatiable, and he replied: "The mind of man, proceeding from God, does not rest until it returns to Him from whom it proceeded." Thus once Lucretius: "For what was before returns from earth into earth; but what was sent from the regions of the aether, the shining temples of heaven receive again." And a Modern: "The order of heaven is in the mind, the order of earth is in the body. He to whom a great mind belongs, to him nothing great is lacking." Furthermore, a far greater and better number of philosophers held that the souls of men after the death of the body ascend upward, but each added his own commentaries and fables to this opinion. Thus held Trismegistus, Orpheus, Socrates, Musaeus, Pherecydes the teacher of Pythagoras, Aratus, Homer, Empedocles, Seneca, Virgil, Phocylides, of whom is that saying: "For the dead there remains life, and gods are then created;" which corresponds to that saying of Christ: "They shall be as the angels of God in heaven," Matthew XXII, 30. He cites them ..."I became a beast before Thee, and I am always with Thee. And in all the Prophets men and beasts in Jerusalem are said to be saved, and to fill the land of promise with beasts and herds. Who knows whether the saint, who is worthy of the name of man, ascends into heaven; and whether the sinner, who is called a beast, descends into the earth? For both can happen on account of the uncertainty and slipperiness of this life, so that the just may fall, and the sinner may rise; and it sometimes happens that one more rational and learned in the Scriptures, that is, a man not living circumspectly, and as his knowledge deserves, is led down to hell; and a simpler and more rustic person, who in comparison with man is called a beast, lives better, and is crowned with martyrdom, and becomes a dweller in paradise." So also the Author of the Greek Catena: To ascend upward, he says, is to ascend to the sublime state of virtue; to descend downward is to fall into the depth of vices, that is to say, "Not even by those things which the just and unjust do can they be fully distinguished before judgment. For many of the unjust have passed over to justice, and have been lifted up on high; and on the contrary many of the just have fallen from justice, and have plunged themselves into vices." Most excellently St. Gregory of Nyssa, in the book On Virginity, chapter V: "As the eyes of pigs, turned by nature toward the earth, do not have the sight of wonderful heavenly things: so the mind lost in the luxury of the body, since it is inclined to base things and those of beasts, will no longer be able to see heaven, nor the fitness and beauty of other things. Wherefore, that our mind may most freely and quietly behold the divine and blessed pleasure, it will turn itself to no transient and earthly things at all, nor will it partake of those pleasures which are prepared for the indulgence of common life, but will rather transfer all the force of its love from bodily things to that contemplation of beauty, which is both without body and is perceived by the mind." And Julius Firmicus, book I of Astronomy, chapter II: "The mind," he says, "which is immortal, if it shall have been separated from the vices and lusts of the earthly body, and retaining the constancy of its origin and seed, shall have recognized the power of its majesty, will easily attain all things which are thought difficult and arduous through the investigation of the divine mind. Tell me, who in heaven has seen the path of the sea? Who by the striking of stones has struck out the spark of hidden fire? Who has known the powers of herbs? To whom has all nature of divinity both shown and revealed itself, except to the mind, which proceeding from heavenly fire was sent for the governance and administration of earthly frailty? It itself gave the reason of this knowledge, it itself gave the calculations, it itself showed the courses, retrogressions, stations, conjunctions, increases, risings, settings of the sun and moon and the other stars, which are called wandering by us, and planets by the Greeks, and constituted in the frailty of an earthly body, by a brief recollection of its majesty, it learned not these things in order to hand them down, but recognized them," which last point take with a grain of salt, lest you fall into the error of Plato, namely that our knowledge is merely the recollection of things we knew before.
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22. AND I FOUND THAT NOTHING WAS BETTER THAN FOR A MAN TO REJOICE IN HIS WORK, AND THAT THIS WAS HIS PORTION. FOR WHO SHALL BRING HIM TO KNOW THE THINGS THAT SHALL BE AFTER HIM? — Many again think that Solomon speaks in the person of the Epicureans, or in his own person while he was foolish and indulged in pleasures. Thus the Thaumaturgus, Olympiodorus, Bonaventura, Hugh of St. Victor and others, indeed even St. Gregory, IV Dialogue, cap. IV, as if he here says the same thing as Epicurus: "Eat, drink, play; after death there is no pleasure." Hear St. Gregory: "The book of Solomon, in which these things are written, is called Ecclesiastes; but Ecclesiastes is properly called a preacher. In a sermon, however, a sentiment is put forth by which the sedition of a tumultuous crowd is suppressed. And when many think differently, through the reasoning of the preacher they are led to one sentiment. This book therefore is called the Preacher, because Solomon in it took on the sense of a tumultuous crowd, as it were, so that he might say through inquiry those things which perhaps an unlearned mind might feel through temptation. For as many sentiments as he moves, as it were through inquiry, so many different persons of different kinds he takes on in himself; but the true preacher, as it were with an extended hand, settles the tumult of all, and brings them back to one sentiment, when at the end of the same book he says: Let us all hear the conclusion of the discourse: Fear God, and keep his commandments. For this is all man. And after some things: This therefore seemed to me good, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy gladness from his labour. And much further below he adds: It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting. For if it is good to eat and drink, it seemed better to go to the house of feasting than to the house of mourning. From which it is shown that he introduced that from the person of the infirm, but this he added from the definition of reason." Better St. Jerome, the Author of the Catena of the Greeks, Lyra, Hugh of St. Victor, Titelmann and others think that these things are said from the person of Solomon and the wise, and that in a twofold sense: in the first, as if he should say: Supposing the immortality of the soul, divine judgment and heavenly felicity, which few shall know, I found and concluded that nothing is better in this life than for a man to rejoice in his work, namely so that he might joyfully apply himself to honest and holy works, especially of charity and almsgiving; for these are the works of man as man, namely those conformable to reason and mind, by which he is led to his end, namely to heavenly glory. Secondly and properly, from the similarity of man with beasts, especially in death, he concludes that nothing is better than to bid farewell to excessive and vain cares and anxieties about future things, and to give himself to honest and moderate gladness, as the other animals do, which give us examples of temperance, fortitude, gladness, and the other virtues, as if to say: At least, O most vain man, who know nothing more sublime than beasts, nothing better, strive nevertheless to know what they know; drive out empty cares from your mind, use present things frugally, cast off desire for future things; and leave your mind free and prepared for better thoughts of the mind, and for the most pleasant tranquility of mind. Thus Pineda, Lorinus and the rest. To rejoice therefore in his work is to enjoy the good obtained by his labour; to enjoy, I say, not for lust, but according to right reason, which dictates that from these you should first benefit yourself, then others through almsgiving and other good works. For virtue brings forth true and solid gladness, but intemperance and vice bring forth nausea and sadness. Thus St. Jerome, Lyra and others. For this properly is his labour, because nothing is so much ours as a good deed done by virtue: for this is the work of our free will aided and imbued by the grace of God. And St. Jerome: "There is therefore nothing good in this life, he says, except that man rejoices in his work, doing almsdeeds and preparing for himself future treasures in the kingdom of heaven. We have only this portion, which neither thief, nor robber, nor tyrant is able to take away, and which will follow us after death." For in this sense he drew this conclusion from the similar vanity of things in verse 12, and in chapter II, verse 24, where in a similar manner he said this to be the portion, that is the lot of that man, namely that he should consult for himself, not for his heirs. The Chaldean translator makes this clear when he renders it: and then I perceive that there is nothing better in this life than that man should be gladdened in good works, and eat and drink, and affect his mind with joy. For this best portion is assigned to him in this age, so that he may secure for himself the future life. For why does man thus speak to himself: Why should I expend riches, so that I may cultivate justice? It is better that I leave them to my children, or that I care for myself in extreme old age. For who will bring him to see what things are to come after him? Mystically St. Augustine (although he himself wishes it to be literal), book XII of the City of God, chapter XX, takes this passage concerning the Eucharist, when he says: "It is not good for man, except what he shall eat and drink; what could be said more credibly to be understood, than what pertains to participation in this table, which the priest himself, the mediator of the New Testament, exhibits according to the order of Melchisedech, from his body and blood? For that sacrifice succeeded all those sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were offered in the shadow of the future: on account of which we also recognize that voice in the thirty-ninth psalm of the same mediator speaking through prophecy: Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not; but a body thou hast fitted to me, because for all those sacrifices and oblations his body is offered, and is ministered to those partaking." He proves this by this reasoning: For that this Ecclesiastes in this sentiment of eating and drinking, which he repeats often, greatly commends, not to savor carnal feasts of pleasure, sufficiently shows this, where he says: It is better to go into the house of mourning, than to go into the house of feasting, Eccles. VII. And a little later: "The heart, he says, of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of the foolish in the house of feasting." Thus also Philastrius, in the book On Heresies, near the end, where he attacks the Epicureans. WHO THEREFORE SHALL BRING HIM (to this knowledge, says Lyra) THAT HE MAY KNOW WHAT SHALL BE AFTER HIM? — Campensis, who will tell him what shall be after him? Various ones explain this variously: first, the Epicureans, as if to say, Enjoy the goods of this life, indulge the belly and lust, because these things are certain; but future goods, as well as the immortality of the soul, are doubtful and uncertain. Second, as if to say, Enjoy the goods of this life, while you live, because after death there will be no return to them, nor return to life. Thus the Thaumaturgus. And Olympiodorus adds, there will be no return to life, so that you may do penance. Third, Pineda thinks that here is touched upon that question, namely whether souls not yet blessed know those things which are done concerning their own on earth, and are present to them. He answers in the negative, that they do not know, nor are present. In the same way St. Augustine answers, in the book On Care for the Dead, chapter XIII and following. Fourth and genuinely, as if to say, Enjoy honestly and moderately your goods, and do not regard future things, or future heirs, because this is your portion and lot, which you know and hold: for who will bring you to foreknowledge of future things, so that you may know what kind of heirs you will have, when they are altogether uncertain and doubtful to you? Who again will bring you to know where your soul after death will go to limbo, will proceed, namely whether to heaven, or to hell? Let it suffice you to live honestly and moderately, so that you may be led to limbo and the bosom of Abraham, wherever that may be. Wherefore do not vex and torment yourself anxiously, so that you may know what shall happen to your soul after death, or to your heirs. Thus St. Jerome, the Chaldean, Hugh of St. Victor, Dionysius and others. For in this sense he used this clause, or conclusion in chapter II, verse 24. For he returns here to that notable and common vanity beyond others, by which the avaricious gather riches with great labor and care, and store them up for sons, grandsons, and other uncertain, and often ungrateful and foolish heirs, and thus defraud their own genius: for he repeatedly exaggerates this vanity, as in verse 12, and in the preceding chapter verses 18, 19, 20, 21 and following. Moreover, granted that some man cannot be persuaded of the immortality of the soul, which was frequent in that rude age, he persuades him at least that he use his goods rightly and frugally, and that he himself dispense them properly. Finally, this maxim can be applied to those excessively anxious, who vex themselves curiously and scrupulously with uncertainty about their own predestination and reprobation, and thus are driven either into despair or into madness; for they constantly turn over in their mind this dilemma: You do not know whether you are predestined by God or reprobated; nor can you avert or change God's predestination or reprobation. If therefore God has reprobated you from eternity, whatever you do you will be damned; but if He has predestined you, whatever you do you will be saved. What therefore shall I do, uncertain and wavering? Where shall I turn? Who will tell me whether I am reprobate and to be damned, or predestined and to be saved? Who knows whether my spirit will go upward to heaven or downward to hell? To these you may rightly oppose this maxim of Solomon: Enjoy your goods and God's gifts honestly and moderately for your salvation and that of others, and beware of sins and serve God joyfully: thus you will certainly be saved. Do not therefore scrutinize the secret of predestination and reprobation; this belongs to God: commit and resign it therefore to Him. For who will lead you to that lofty height of divinity, so that you might foresee and foreknow the future things which are hidden in His prescience and predestination? By this reasoning, St. Aegidius, companion of St. Francis, a man of great prudence and holiness, disputes this anxiety and temptation conceived from uncertainty about predestination, and Thomas a Kempis, Book I of the Imitation of Christ, final chapter, narrates of himself: "When," he says, "a certain anxious person frequently wavered between fear and hope, and once, worn down by sadness, prostrated himself in prayer in the church before a certain altar, he revolved these things within himself, saying: O if I knew that I would still persevere! And immediately he heard within a divine response: What, if you knew this, what would you wish to do? Do now what you would then wish to do, and you will be well assured. And soon, comforted and strengthened, he committed himself to the divine will, and the anxious wavering ceased. And he did not wish to investigate curiously, so as to know what would be his future; but rather he strove to inquire what was the will of God well-pleasing and perfect, for beginning and perfecting every good work."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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… κόσμου, the only one created, the one who came forth from the earth, the seed from which all mankind descends" (Wis. 10, 1; 7, 1; Tob. 8, 8). From a single woman sin has its beginning (Sir. 25, 24). Mankind is a conglomerate of "bènè 'Adhâm" (Deut. 32, 8; Eccl. 3, 21 etc.). …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.