Man knows not certainty that he is in God’s grace. After death no more work or merit.
None knoweth (certainly and ordinarily) whether they be in Gods grace or no. 4. The euil are in worse case dead then aliue, 11. neither can we know the euent of temporal thinges, nor the terme of our life, nor how gratful others wil be towards vs. 16. Sure it is, that wisdom is better then streingth.
1All these things have I considered in my heart, that I might carefully understand them: there are just men and wise men, and their works are in the hand of God: and yet man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love, or hatred:Tutte queste cose io disaminai nel mio cuore, affin di discernerle chiaramente. I giusti, e i sapienti, e le opere loro sono nella mano di Dio; eppur non sa l'uomo s'ei sia degno di amore, o di odio:AL these thinges haue I discoursed in my hart, that I might curiously vnderstand them: there are iust men and wise, and their workes are in the hand of God: and yet man knoweth not, whether he be worthie of loue, or hatred:Omnia hæc tractavi in corde meo, / ut curiose intelligerem. / Sunt justi atque sapientes, / et opera eorum in manu Dei; / et tamen nescit homo utrum amore an odio dignus sit. 2But all things are kept uncertain for the time to come, because all things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to him that offereth victims, and to him that despiseth sacrifices. As the good is, so also is the sinner: as the perjured, so he also that sweareth truth.Ma tutto rimane nell'incertezza sino al tempo, che verrà; perocché tutto succede del pari al giusto, ed all'empio, al buono, ed al cattivo, al mondo, e all'immondo, a colui, che immola vittime, e a colui che disprezza i sacrifizj, come l'uomo retto così il peccatore, e come è trattato colui, che spergiura, così quegli che giura secondo la verità.but al thinges are reserued vncertaine for the time to come, because al thinges do equally chance to the iust and impious, to the good and the euil, to the cleane and vncleane, to him that immoleth victimes, and him that contemneth sacrifices. As the good so also is the sinner: as the periured, so he also that sweareth truth.Sed omnia in futurum servantur incerta, / eo quod universa æque eveniant justo et impio, / bono et malo, mundo et immundo, / immolanti victimas et sacrificia contemnenti. / Sicut bonus, sic et peccator; / ut perjurus, ita et ille qui verum dejerat. 3This is a very great evil among all things that are done under the sun, that the same things happen to all men: whereby also the hearts of the children of men are filled with evil, and with contempt while they live, and afterwards they shall be brought down to hell.Questa è la cosa più dolorosa di quante ne avvengono sotto del sole l'esser tutti soggetti a' medesimi avvenimenti: per la qual cosa eziandio i cuori de' figliuoli degli uomini si riempiono di malizia, e di petulanza nel tempo di loro vita, e dì poi sono strascinati nell'interno.This is a very euil thing among al, which are done vnder the sunne, that the same thinges chance to al men. Wherby also the hartes of the children of men are filled with malice, and with contempt in their life, and after that they shal be brought downe to hel.Hoc est pessimum inter omnia quæ sub sole fiunt: / quia eadem cunctis eveniunt. / Unde et corda filiorum hominum implentur malitia / et contemptu in vita sua, / et post hæc ad inferos deducentur. 4There is no man that liveth always, or that hopeth for this: a living dog is better than a dead lion.Non v'ha chi viva per sempre o di tal cosa si lusinghi: un cane vivo val più, che un lion morto.There is no man that may liue alwayes, and that can haue confidente of this thing: better is a dog liuing then a lion dead.Nemo est qui semper vivat, et qui hujus rei habeat fiduciam; / melior est canis vivus leone mortuo.
5For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing more, neither have they a reward any more: for the memory of them is forgotten.Perocché quelli, che vivono sanno d'avere; il morire: i morti poi non sanno più nulla, e non han più veruna mercede, e la loro memoria è stata messa in oblio;For the liuing know that they shal dye, but the dead know nothing more, neither haue they reward anie more: because the memorie of them is forgotten.Viventes enim sciunt se esse morituros; / mortui vero nihil noverunt amplius, / nec habent ultra mercedem, / quia oblivioni tradita est memoria eorum. 6Their love also, and their hatred, and their envy are all perished, neither have they any part in this world, and in the work that is done under the sun.l'amore, e l'odio, e le invidie son ancora unite insieme; ed ei non hanno parte a questo secolo, né a cosa che facciasi sotto del sole.Loue also, and hatred, and enuies haue perished together, neither haue they part in this world, and in the worke, that is done vnder the sunne.Amor quoque, et odium, et invidiæ simul perierunt; / nec habent partem in hoc sæculo, / et in opere quod sub sole geritur. 7Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness: because thy works please God.Va adunque, e mangia lietamente il tuo pane, e bevi con letizia il tuo vino, mentre le opere tue a Dio sono accette.Goe therfore and eate thy bread in ioy, & drinke thy wine with gladnes: because thy workes please God.Vade ergo, et comede in lætitia panem tuum, / et bibe cum gaudio vinum tuum, / quia Deo placent opera tua. 8At all times let thy garments be white, and let not oil depart from thy head.In ogni tempo sian candide le tue vesti, e non manchi unguento al tuo capo.At al time let thy garments be white, and let not oyle fal from of thy head.Omni tempore sint vestimenta tua candida, / et oleum de capite tuo non deficiat. 9Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, all the days of thy unsteady life, which are given to thee under the sun, all the time of thy vanity: for this is thy portion in life, and in thy labour wherewith thou labourest under the sun.Goditi la vita colla tua cara moglie per tutti i giorni della istabil tua vita conceduti a te sotto del sole per tutto il tempo di tua vanità: perocché questa è la tua sorte mentre vivi, e pe' travagli, che sopporti quaggiù.Enioy life, with thy wife whom thou louest, al the dayes of the life of thy instabilitie, which are geuen to thee vnder the sunne, al the time of thy vanitie: for this is the portion in life, and in thy labour, wherwith thou laborest vnder the sunne.Perfruere vinum cum uxore quam diligis, / cunctis diebus vitæ instabilitatis tuæ, / qui dati sunt tibi sub sole omni tempore vanitatis tuæ: / hæc est enim pars in vita / et in labore tuo quo laboras sub sole.
10Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening.Tutto quello, che può operai la tua mano, fallo con sollecitudine; perocché né azione, né pensiero, né saggezza, né scienza ha luogo nel sepolcro, verso del quale tu corri.Whatsoeuer thy hand is able to doe, worke it instantly: for neither worke, nor reason, nor wisdom nor knowlege shal be in hel, whither thou dost hasten.Quodcumque facere potest manus tua, / instanter operare, / quia nec opus, nec ratio, nec sapientia, nec scientia / erunt apud inferos, quo tu properas. 11I turned me to another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the learned, nor favour to the skilful: but time and chance in all.Mi volsi ad altra parte, e osservai come sotto del sole né la corsa è serbata pei lesti di gamba, né la guerra pei valorosi, né il pane pei sapienti, né le ricchezze pei dotti, né il favore pei bravi artefici: ma l'occasione, ed il caso ha luogo in tutte le cose.I turned me to an other thing, and I saw vnder the sunne, that neither running is of the swift, nor warre of the strong, nor bread of the wise, nor riches of the lerned, nor grace of the artificers: but time and chance in al.Verti me ad aliud, et vidi sub sole / nec velocium esse cursum, / nec fortium bellum, / nec sapientium panem, / nec doctorum divitias, / nec artificum gratiam; / sed tempus casumque in omnibus. 12Man knoweth not his own end: but as fishes are taken with the hook, and as birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time, when it shall suddenly come upon them.L'uomo non sa il suo fine, ma come i pesci son presi all'amo, e gli uccelli al laccio, così sono sorpresi gli uomini dal tempo cattivo, che lor sopraggiunge a un tratto.Man knoweth not his owne end: but as fishes are taken with the hooke, and as birdes are caught with the snare: so men are taken in the euil time, when it shal sudenly come vpon them.Nescit homo finem suum; / sed sicut pisces capiuntur hamo, / et sicut aves laqueo comprehenduntur, / sic capiuntur homines in tempore malo, / cum eis extemplo supervenerit. 13This wisdom also I have seen under the sun, and it seemed to me to be very great:Vidi ancora sotto del sole una sorta di saggezza, ch'io reputo grandissima:This wisdom also I haue sene vnder the sunne, and haue proued it to be very great:Hanc quoque sub sole vidi sapientiam, / et probavi maximam: 14A little city, and few men in it: there came against it a great king, and invested it, and built bulwarks round about it, and the siege was perfect.Era una piccola città poco popolata: un re grande andò a campo sotto di lei, e aperse trinciera, e alzò de' fortini attorno, e strinse l'assedio.A litle citie, and few men in it: there came against it a great king, and compassed it, and builded fortes round about, and the siege was perfired.civitas parva, et pauci in ea viri; / venit contra eam rex magnus, et vallavit eam, / exstruxitque munitiones per gyrum, et perfecta est obsidio.
15Now there was found in it a man poor and wise, and he delivered the city by his wisdom, and no man afterward remembered that poor man.E vi si trovò dentro un pover uomo, ma saggio, il quale col suo sapere liberò la città, ma nessuno di poi si ricordò di quel pover uomo.And there was found in it a man poore and wise, and he deliuered the citie by his wisdom, and no man afterward remembred that pooreman.Inventusque est in ea vir pauper et sapiens, / et liberavit urbem per sapientiam suam; / et nullus deinceps recordatus est hominis illius pauperis. 16And I said that wisdom is better than strength: how then is the wisdom of the poor man slighted, and his words not heard?Or io concludeva, che val più la sapienza, che la fortezza: ma come mai la saggezza di quel pover uomo fu disprezzata, e non fu tenuto conto di sue parole?And I sayd, that wisdom is better then streingth: how then was the wisdom of the pooreman contemned, & his wordes were not heard?Et dicebam ego meliorem esse sapientiam fortitudine. / Quomodo ergo sapientia pauperis contempta est, / et verba ejus non sunt audita ? 17The words of the wise are heard in silence, more than the cry of a prince among fools.Le parole de' saggi si ascoltano in silenzio, più che le grida di uno che regna tra gli stolti.The wordes of the wise are heard in silence, more then the crie of a prince among fooles.Verba sapientium audiuntur in silentio, / plus quam clamor principis inter stultos. 18Better is wisdom, than weapons of war: and he that shall offend in one, shall lose many good things.Val più la sapienza, che le armi guerriere, e chi in una sola cosa difetta, perde molti vantaggi.Better is wisdom, then weapons of warre: and he that shal offend in one point, shal lose manie good thinges.Melior est sapientia quam arma bellica; / et qui in uno peccaverit, multa bona perdet.
9:1
Calmet
Of God. He seems to treat both alike, so that the just themselves cannot say whether their sufferings be a punishment or a trial. (St. Jerome) (Calmet)
Worthington
Knoweth not certainly, and in an ordinary manner. (Worthington)
Haydock
Hatred. Hebrew and Septuagint, "yet love and hatred man knoweth not." (Haydock)
Calmet
Prosperity or adversity proves nothing. (Calmet)
9:2
Haydock
But. Hebrew joins this with the preceding not, "by all that is before them. All things come alike to all, there is one event to," etc. (Protestants) (Haydock)
St. Jerome
The pagans distinguished real goods and evils from those which were only apparent, like prosperity and adversity, which are determined only by the good or bad use. (St. Jerome)
Calmet
Thus religion looks upon virtue and vice in the former light; and riches, poverty, etc., in the latter. It may be difficult to decide, whether, under adversity, the just have supported themselves better by virtue, or the wicked by vanity. God will manifest the truth. (Calmet)
Haydock
Perjured. Hebrew and Septuagint, "swearer, so he that fears an oath." (Haydock)
9:3
Calmet
Evil. People hence take occasion to indulge in vice, (chap. 8:14.) though the conduct of God be irreproachable. (Calmet)
Haydock
Shall. Hebrew, "they go to the dead." (Haydock)
Many think that these are the sentiments of the impious.
9:4
Calmet
There. Even those who have had the vanity to claim divine honours, never could persuade themselves that they would escape death. But the just forms a different conclusion from the wicked. He looks upon his life only as a preparation for the other, (Hebrews 11:13., and Ephesians 2:19.) while libertines make haste to enjoy the fleeting pleasure, Isaias 22:13. To the former death seems desirable, (chap. 4:2., and 6:3.) to the latter it is a subject of consternation; and he prefers the vilest creature living, to the most noble when dead. (Calmet)
Haydock
Hebrew, "for whosoever is chosen (yebuchar. Marginal note yechubar, "is united") to all the living, has hope; for a," etc. (Haydock)
Calmet
Moderns generally follow the marginal reading of the Masorets. (Calmet)
Haydock
"For who shall live for ever?" (Symmachus) "Who partakes with all the living? There is hope." (Septuagint) (Haydock)
Worthington
During life alone the sinner may amend, Ecclesiastes 2:3. The Gentiles are preferred before the Jews. (Worthington)
9:5
Challoner
Know nothing more, viz., As to the transactions of this world, in which they have now no part, unless it be revealed to them; neither have they any knowledge or power now of doing any thing to secure their eternal state, (if they have not taken care of it in their lifetime) nor can they now procure themselves any good, as the living always may do, by the grace of God. (Challoner)
9:7
Calmet
God. Be grateful to him, and make a good use of his benefits, (St. Jerome, exp. 2.) or these are the words of libertines. (Bossuet) (St. Jerome, 1. explicat.) (Calmet)
9:8
9:9
Wife. Some translate, "the woman," or harlot; as if the wicked still spoke.
9:10
Earnestly. Live in delights, or perform many good works, Ecclesiastes 2:5. Our Lord seems to allude to this passage. What thou dost, do quickly, John 13:27.
9:11
Calmet
All. Thus it appears to the inattentive, and to the wicked. For Solomon frequently inculcates that Providence directs all wisely. Human industry is not always attended with success, Deuteronomy 29:19. This is a fresh proof of the vanity of all things. (Calmet)
9:12
Haydock
With. Hebrew adds, "evil." Net, (Montanus) or hook. (Haydock)
Calmet
Them. They may use precautions; but, without God's aid, they will not succeed, Psalm 126:1. (Calmet)
9:14
Haydock
And the siege, etc. Hebrew has only "great bulwarks over or against it." (Haydock)
9:15
Calmet
Afterward, is not in Hebrew. The poor man was unnoticed before. (Calmet)
Vulgate insinuates that he met with no return of gratitude, which is but too common; (Haydock) and this shews the vanity of the world.
9:16
Plut.[Plutarch?] in Marcel
Heard? Ecclesiasticus 13:28. Men are so unjust as to despise wisdom, if it be in a poor man. The prudence of an individual has often saved cities, as was the case at Abela, and Bethulia; (2 Kings 20:22.; Calmet) and Syracuse was defended a long time by Archimedes against the whole Roman army. (Plut.[Plutarch?] in Marcel.)
9:17
Calmet
Fools. Though the wise often meet with contempt, it is only among fools, who form the majority. (Calmet)
St. Jerome
Vain declaimers in the Church shew their own folly, as well as that of their hearers. (St. Jerome)
9:18
Calmet
Things. A woman saved Abela; and Achan almost ruined Israel. Want of prudence in a general is often fatal. Virtues are connected, as well as vices. (Calmet)
St. Jerome
For one transgression, many acts of virtue are lost. (St. Jerome)
9:5
Know nothing more.... Viz., as to the transactions of this world, in which they have now no part, unless it be revealed to them; neither have they any knowledge or power now of doing any thing to secure their eternal state, (if they have not taken care of it in their lifetime:) nor can they now procure themselves any good, as the living always may do, by the grace of God.
9:1
Mortal men suffering calamities knovv not vvhether th• same be in•••ted for their proofe and merite as in I•b and Tobie, or for their sinnes only, as in Pharao, & the Aegyptians: but shal know in the indgement after their death.
9:4
A sinner in this life may amend if he wil & become inst. but after death he can not repent. chap. 11. v. •. Mystically, the Gentiles were iudged by Salomon better then the Iewes. S. Ierom.
9:2
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 108.28
… “There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the evil; to the clean and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good so is the sinner; and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath.”
9:4
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Vigilantius 6
… and when, after his dissolution, he has begun to be with Christ, must he shut his mouth, and be unable to say a word for those who throughout the whole world have believed in his Gospel? Shall Vigilantius the live dog be better than Paul the dead lion? I should be right in saying so after
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 9.127
Do not, I pray thee, in such a question trust to humility only or to gravity, which are often deceived, Better by far is a living dog in this problem than a dead lion (
9:7
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 22.8
… Come hither , he calls with the call to salvation and blessing), and drink thy wine with a merry heart (that is, the spiritual wine); and let oil be poured out upon thy head (thou seest he alludes even to the mystic Chrism); and let thy garments be always white, for the Lord is well pleased with thy works
9:8
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 14.10
10. Therefore one gives this admonition; “Observe not the beauty of a strange woman, and meet not a woman addicted to fornication.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 39.1
… As she lay there dying, her poor frame parched with burning fever, and her relatives gathered round her bed, her last words were: “Pray to the Lord Jesus, that He may pardon me, because what I would have done I have not been able to do.” Be at peace, dear Blæsilla, in full assurance that your garments are always white.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 77.12
12. I give you this, Fabiola, the best gift of my aged powers, to be as it were a funeral offering. Oftentimes have I praised virgins and widows and married women who have kept their garments always white
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 122.3
… That is to say, he receives again Christ’s robe which he had before defiled, and hears to his comfort the injunction: “let thy garments be always white.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.8
… and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.” We are told that the bridegroom feeds among the lilies, that is, among those who have not defiled their garments, for they have remained virgins and have hearkened to the precept of the Preacher: “let thy garments be always white.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.29
… Or if Paradise admits of marriage, and there is no difference between marriage and virginity, what prevented their previous intercourse even in Paradise? They are driven out of Paradise; and what they did not there, they do on earth; so that from the very earliest days of humanity virginity was consecrated by Paradise, and marriage by earth.
St Jerome † AD 420 To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 33
… I will, therefore, mass together the evidence, and glance at the proofs in passing, so that we may bring all the weight of Scripture to bear upon your poisonous argument. He who has not a wedding garment, and has not kept that command,
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 6.22
… ‘You cannot show,’ rejoined Sisinnius, ‘that a priest should be clothed in black. But Solomon is my authority, whose exhortation is, “Let thy garments be white.”
9:10
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 1.34
… Wherefore, while there is time, while it is allowed, fly thou from the animadversion which is of so great dreadfulness: consider what is written; Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is neither work, nor device, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou hastenest (
9:11
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 37
… However much you may run, however much you may wrestle, yet you need one to give the crown. Except the Lord build the house, they laboured in vain that built it: Except the Lord keep the city, in vain they watched that keep it. I know, He says, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 13.18
… not by chattering words but by experience, measure the magnitude of grace, and the paltry limits of man’s will, that “the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, nor food to the wise, nor riches to the prudent, nor grace to the learned,” but that “all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.”
9:12
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) 15
… Accordingly the rich man also, while he thought that he had yet a long time to live, heard the words, ‘Thou fool, this night they are requiring thy soul: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ?’ And the Preacher speaks confidently in the Holy Spirit, and says, ‘Man also knoweth not his time
9:16
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 18
But, one says, “the wisdom of the poor man is despised.” (
9:17
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 30
78. So, since no human voice is strong enough to be heard in such a disturbance, I reckon silence more profitable than speech, for if there is any truth in the words of the Preacher, “The words of wise men are heard in quiet,”
9:1
For their works, in Hebrew it is מעדיהם abadehem, which Pagninus translates as their services; Vatablus, their servants; the Chaldean, their disciples, as if to say, the just and wise, their disciples or followers, are in the hand of God. But it should have been said thus עבדיהם abdehem: now however it is said מעדיהם abadehem, that is, their works, as our translators, the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Arabic, Campensis and others translate it. The Septuagint elegantly translates it ἐργασίαν, that is, works skillfully wrought for gain and profit, such as are the works of distinguished craftsmen; such are the works of the just, which, although despised by the world, are nevertheless precious to God and wrought for heaven, and therefore He will render them a heavenly reward. In the hand of God. — First, Hugh: "in the hand of God," that is, he says, in the disposition, preservation, judgment and will of God, likewise as victims acceptable to God. Second, Dionysius: "In the hand of God," that is, he says, they are offered and committed to God, as to creator and judge, add also as remunerator. Third, properly, "in the hand of God," that is, in the protection, care and love of God. Thus Olympiodorus, who connects these things so aptly with the foregoing: "He had said," he says, "above what things the knowledge of which is abstruse, that he might turn us away from useless and vain anxiety of inquiry. Now however he proposes in what the mind and knowledge of the wise man can satisfy itself, namely that just and wise men together with their works rest under the shadow of God and the protection of His right hand. For God does not permit them to be devastated by the forces of the impious. For good men and dutiful works are protected by God; and indeed concerning the impious it is written: And they themselves are repelled from thy hand." The works of the just in the hand of God in a fivefold sense. The wise therefore, that is, the prudent and just, although they are not in prosperity as the impious, but in adversity, and therefore neglected and despised by the world, are nevertheless in the hand, that is, in the favor, care, custody and aid of God, because He sends them adversities out of love, that He may increase them in virtues and merits. In this sense God says to Isaiah XLIX, 16: "Behold, I have written thee in my hands," that I may regard thee as present before my eyes continually, and aid, protect and advance thee with my hands. See the things said there. Hence again the holy works of the just are "in the hand of God," because they proceed from the hand, that is, from the aid and grace of God (as St. Prosper teaches, lib. I On the Calling of the Gentiles, cap. XXIV), who therefore will abundantly reward and crown them. Fourth, the works of the just are "in the hand of God," that is, certainly known and examined by God, whereas they are uncertain and doubtful to the just themselves, as follows. Thus Lyra. Fifth, "in the hand," that is, in the full will and power equally as in the knowledge, providence and governance of God, that He may send them to the world at the appointed time for its salvation, just as before the flood He sent Enoch and Noah; after the flood, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; to the Hebrews captive in Egypt He sent Moses and Aaron; in the holy land He sent David and the Prophets; against the Arians He sent St. Athanasius; against the Pelagians, St. Augustine; against Nestorius, St. Cyril; against Eutyches, St. Leo; against the Albigenses, St. Dominic; against Luther, St. Ignatius with his companions. Thus it is said in Psalm XXX, 16: "In thy hands are my lots" or as others translate it, my times. And: "The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord: whithersoever he will he shall turn it," Prov. XXI, 1. And: "For in his hand are both we, and our words, and all wisdom, and the knowledge and discipline of works." Wisdom VII, 16; and cap. III, 1: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God;"; where more things are said about this matter. Akin to this maxim is that of the poet Caecilius, lib. XXXV: "Who would not think God supreme, in whose hand it is whether he wishes someone to be mad, to be wise, to be insane, to be brought into sickness, to be loved against, to be opposed, to be sought after." Moreover the hand of God is the mind, will and power of God; in the mind is knowledge and providence; in the will is freedom; in the power is dominion. Hence to Vespasian dining, when a human hand was brought into the dining room and placed under the table, he extended it as a sign of dominion, as Suetonius says in his Life. And the Prophets are depicted with a hand sent from heaven, as if receiving prophecy from God, as I said at the beginning of the Prophets. AND YET MAN KNOWETH NOT WHETHER HE BE WORTHY OF LOVE OR HATRED. — In Hebrew, also love, also hatred, man is not knowing. Which words, because they are broad and indefinite in the Hebrew manner, are variously defined and explained by various ones. First, Symmachus translates, and moreover neither friendships nor enmities does man know: and Campensis, nor does anyone know what friends or enemies he will have, that is to say, Man does not know who loves him, who hates him, and therefore does not know whom he ought to love as a friend, whom he ought to hate as an enemy, that is to avoid and flee. Thus the Chaldean: Even love, he says, by which someone will have loved them, and also hatred, by which he will have pursued them, is decreed; all things are decreed in providence, so that it may be before them. The Thaumaturgus adds, that is to say, He who cultivates the grace and friendship of men does not know how long he will preserve it on account of the inconstancy of human will, by which it comes about that love is turned into hatred for a slight cause. Second, others refer it to the objects of love and hatred, that is to say, Sensual man does not know what is truly good, what is evil; what is virtue, what is vice; and therefore does not know what he ought to love and pursue, what he ought to hate and avoid. There is force in the Hebrew אדם adam, that is, earthly man, who savors earthly things and does not grasp heavenly things: for he is led by the pleasure of the flesh, not by the honor of virtue; wherefore he is ignorant of the true good of virtue, and eagerly embraces the counterfeit good of pleasure. Therefore he loves things to be hated, and hates things to be loved. Thus Olympiodorus. R. Solomon and the Hebrews add, who explain it, that is to say, The common people do not know how to dispose their heart to love God, and to hate things worthy of hatred; but all these things are before the wise and the just, who know how to love God and to hate evils: namely, he does not know how to love who does not love God; the impious man does not know this, the pious and wise man knows it. Third, Isidore Clarius explains it, that is to say, That which man loves and hates is in the hand and power of God, so that He either grants it to man or denies and turns it away, and man cannot perceive this by sense. But Our author shrewdly and wisely understood that here the matter concerns not the love and hatred of men, nor of creatures, but of God. For he said just before: "The works of them are in the hand of God," that is to say, Our works are in the hand of God; and yet man does not know whether he is worthy of the love or hatred of God, because namely God keeps our works in His hand with certainty, but holds them closed and secret, and does not show to man what kind they are, but reserves them to be revealed in the future judgment; wherefore until that time they are uncertain and unknown to man. You will say: In the Hebrew it is, and all or everything before them, or in their presence; how then does Our author translate, "and all things are kept uncertain for the future"? I answer: Because τὸ all things before them signifies all works to go far before the eyes of man, that is the sight and knowledge of man, so that he cannot perceive them; because namely they are kept in heaven, in the mind and foreknowledge of God, remote and hidden. Thus the Chaldean. So the Psalmist says, Psalm 138, 6: "Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it;" and verse 3: "Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off, etc., and all my ways thou hast foreseen." Whence Campensis translates here, all these things are hidden from man. And Symmachus, all things before them are uncertain; or certainly τὸ all things before them, that is all things before him, namely God: because namely Elohim, that is God, is plural in Hebrew, hence likewise in the plural he says, before them, that is before him, namely God, who is called in the plural Elohim. Whence the Zurich Bible translates, all things are set before him, God. And the Chaldean, there is no one who knows what will be for man. All things in the providence (of God) are so that they may be before them. Wherefore Our author translates most excellently, and all things are kept uncertain for the future. This sense is required by the Vulgate version, which the whole Church has received and approved for more than 1200 years; and indeed it is approved by the Moderns, such as Beza, Mercerus, and, as it appears, Calvin, book III of the Institutes, chapter II, § 38. And if anyone examines what precedes and follows, he will perceive that this version and sense is most ample. Finally, thus St. Jerome explains it, a man most learned in expounding the Scriptures, and the greatest teacher by the judgment of the Church. Hear him therefore: "Moreover the sense here is this: Even in this I gave my heart, and I wished to know whom God would love, whom He would hate, and I found that the works of the just are indeed in the hand of God, and yet whether they are loved by God or not, now they cannot know, and they waver in doubt whether they endure what they endure for approval or for punishment. In the future therefore they will know; and in their presence are all things, that is, knowledge of this matter goes before them, when they have departed from this life, because then is judgment, now is struggle. And whoever endures adversities, whether they endure them through the love of God, as Job, or through hatred, as most sinners, now it is held uncertain." Therefore from this place it is evident the uncertainty of grace against heretics and Ambrosius Catharinus, namely that men, even the just, are not altogether certain that they are in the grace of God, or that they are just and friends of God; for although they may have probable signs and not light conjectures of this matter, which may bring them some certainty, yet they do not have so much as would exclude all doubt and fear of the opposite; for although they are conscious of no sin, yet they know that God sees more things, and therefore perhaps may discern a sin in their conscience which they themselves do not discern. Wherefore they say with St. Paul: "I am not conscious to myself of anything, yet am I not hereby justified," 1 Cor. IV. Again, even if they know that they love God, yet they know not whether this love be natural, or supernatural charity, which alone justifies. This doctrine is of faith: for thus it was defined in the Council of Trent, sess. VI, cap. IX, and Can. XII. Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Kemnitius and the other Novations deny this, who cavil that this place is badly translated in the Vulgate version. For they teach that the just ought to believe by divine faith, not only in general that Christ satisfied for us, but also in particular that their sins have been remitted to them through Christ, and therefore that they are just and holy, indeed predestined and elected to glory: and consequently that they cannot fall from it, nor sin, lest their faith be false, for they persuade themselves that this special faith is justifying faith, and therefore that it is required for the justification of anyone with certainty. But this is a most stupid error, and faith supremely unfaithful. For, to pass over other things, this faith is impossible and false. For it believes with certainty what is uncertain and doubtful, and often false. For many among the heretics have this faith, and yet live in adultery, hatred, injustice, rapine and other most grievous sins; who although they believe themselves to be just, are in truth nevertheless sinners and wicked. Again, many are converted from this heresy to the orthodox faith, and then they put aside this faith, or rather perfidy, and embrace the orthodox faith contrary to it; how therefore did they believe in heresy that they could not fall from it, when in fact they do fall? But Ambrosius Catharinus, although he is far removed from this heresy, yet from another aspect agrees with it in thinking that a just man is certain of his grace and justice. Both are urged and convicted by this place of Ecclesiastes: "Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred." But they answer that Solomon does not thus absolutely deny to the just the certainty of charity and grace, but only denies that it can be known and certainly established from external events, for example, that all things turn out happily for the just, unhappily for the unjust, when both indifferently befall either, as follows; or, as Catharinus and Vatablus, deny only that man can know this naturally, or as man is; but not supernaturally, or as he is the Son of God: for thus he can know that he is just from the testimony of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle teaches, Rom. VIII, 15. But I prove that these are frivolous and cold objections, first, from the fact that Solomon speaks not of man in himself as to nature, but of the just as to grace. For he says: "The just and the wise and their works are in the hand of God, and yet man knoweth not (namely the just and wise, as preceded) whether he be worthy of love or hatred," as if to say, The works of the just are so much in the mind and knowledge of God, that they are absolutely not in the mind and knowledge of man. Otherwise indeed if you take knowledge which is had from external events, God equally knows not whether man be worthy of love or hatred, as man knows not the same. For those external signs of prosperity or adversity are signs of grace and justice altogether indifferent and uncertain, since they befall indiscriminately the impious and the pious. Therefore from these God cannot know whether anyone be worthy of love or hatred, just as from these man cannot know it. Secondly, because he asserts that the works of the just are in the hand of God, that is in the mind, memory and divine intellect, which as a hand closes them in itself most certainly and contains them, lest they be seen by anyone else, until He unfolds them in His own time, praises and rewards them; and yet the just knows not whether he be worthy of hatred or love. Where the antithesis is clear, as if to say, The works of the just Thirdly, because he adds universally: "But all things are kept uncertain for the future"; all things, namely both supernatural things, which properly are "in the hand of God", and natural things, both internal and external; and consequently whether prosperous or adverse things, which are especially evident to the eyes, and which especially concern men, God sends to man out of hatred or love; and Solomon wishes only this in this inadequate reasoning of the similar outcome of the pious and impious, which he adds, as if to say: Man commonly observes external things, and the external events of happiness or unhappiness befalling him; and yet he does not know whether God sends them to him out of love or out of hatred. Therefore he likewise does not know whether he himself is worthy of love or of hatred. For the remaining arguments and signs, by which that same thing could be discerned, are equally obscure and ambiguous to man as this one already reviewed: therefore "all things are kept uncertain for the future" signifies that these things are unknown to man not only by reason of present events, but simply and absolutely: for if they were otherwise established to man and were certain, they would falsely be said to be uncertain. Fourthly, Holy Scripture, the Fathers and the whole Church teach this same thing frequently elsewhere. See Bellarmine, vol. III, book III On Justification, chapter IV and following, and vol. I, book II On the Word of God, chapter XII, and there James Gretser, who also powerfully refutes the absurd interpretation of Junius, saying that man does not know whether he is worthy of love or of hatred, not he himself (for each one knows, he says, himself and his own conscience), but any other person, who observes the external prosperous or adverse events of another. Indeed God wished by this uncertainty of grace to keep us in humility and solicitude, so that with fear and trembling we might work out our salvation, as the Apostle admonishes, Philippians II, 12, and so that we might strive to make our calling and election certain through good works, as St. Peter exhorts. Thus St. Augustine, or whoever is the author (for it is sufficiently clear that it is not St. Augustine), in the book On the Spirit and the Soul, chapter LIX: "Woe to me," he says, "wretched one, who in the region of the shadow of death do not know my end, do not know if I am worthy of love or of hatred." Moreover Solomon speaks properly of the love and hatred by which the just is loved on account of present justice, and the unjust is hated on account of the present state of sin in which he dwells, as St. Jerome applies it, St. Bernard, sermon I, Seventy, St. Thomas, II-I, Question XII, article 5, and elsewhere frequently, and Bonaventure, who denies that the matter here concerns the love of predestination and the hatred of reprobation: because, he says, no one is worthy of predestination, nor does anyone merit being predestined. For predestination precedes all grace and all merit, indeed it itself is the origin and cause of all grace and merit. Yet here love and hatred can be extended to predestination and reprobation: for those are the highest love of God, this the highest hatred, and both are kept uncertain until the future day of judgment, as if to say: No one knows whether he is predestined or reprobate, or rather to be reprobated; for although no one can merit the grace and love of predestination, it can nevertheless be said that he is worthy of it, not from merit, but from the grace of God, namely because God has deigned to predestine him and to take him into the lot of the Saints, and that makes him worthy, as St. Paul speaks. Thus St. Bernard takes this passage concerning predestination and reprobation, sermon 5 On All Saints, and St. Thomas in chapter VIII to the Romans, toward the end, Hugh, Dionysius and others. Except, unless to someone his justice or predestination has been revealed by a special gift, as those had the revelation of their salvation: St. Antony, as St. Athanasius testifies; St. Francis, as St. Bonaventure testifies; St. Galla, as St. Gregory testifies, book IV of the Dialogues, chapter III, and many others, whom St. Gregory recounts in the same book. Finally, although the just do not have the certainty of knowledge that they are just, they nevertheless have the certainty of conjecture and confidence, which grows together with increasing grace and good works, so much so that eminent saints scarcely doubt it, and are secure, or "when the fear has been consumed by long anxiety of sorrow, a certain security of presumption is now born," as St. Gregory says, book VI of the Register, letter 23 to Theotista; and St. Cyprian, in the book On Morals, and in the book Against Demetrian: "The strength of hope and firmness of faith press upon us," he says, "and amid the very crumbling ruins of the world an upright mind, and immovable virtue, and a soul always secure in its God." And St. Augustine on that passage of Psalm CXLIX: The saints shall rejoice in glory, etc.: "There is a certain manner of glorying in conscience, so that you know your faith to be sincere, you know your hope to be certain, you know your charity to be without pretense." Thus St. Antony, trusting, said: "I do not fear my God, but I love him." And that poor man with Tauler said he rested secure in God. I have narrated the history at length from the same source in Romans XII, 2. Moreover St. Paul, Romans VIII, 35, thus exulting glories: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ, etc.? I am certain that neither death, nor life," etc.
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By what certainty do the just have their grace certain. of mortal sin. Whence it is clear that these signs, both internal and external, are equally uncertain, doubtful and ambiguous. See Francis Suarez, vol. III On Grace, book IX, from no. 14 to 18, but especially no. 18, where he carefully weighs τὸ eo quod. Moreover in Hebrew it is, one is the outcome for the just and the wicked; the Chaldean renders this and the preceding thus: all depends on providence, and it is decreed from heaven; the Complutensian editors: it is decreed by the stars (but this favors judicial astrologers, whom the Church rejects) that what is to be happens, so that one outcome befalls the innocent and the sinner. You will say: God, in Leviticus XXVI, and elsewhere often promises the Hebrews prosperous outcomes, namely victory, peace, abundance of crops, if they keep his law and are pious; if they violate it and are impious, he threatens them with war, famine, plague and every evil; and as he promised both, so he actually granted them: how therefore is one the outcome for the just and the wicked? I answer first: For outcome in Hebrew is מקרה micre, that is accident, occurrence, event, concerning which word I spoke in chapter I, 14. Now by accident, understand that which commonly happens, such as death, disease, famine, thirst, cold, heat, etc. For these happen to the pious as much as to the impious. Whence Capnion translates: all things perish in the same manner, and nothing is free from destruction. For that by event death is chiefly understood here is clear from what follows: "No one is who lives forever," etc., and from what was said in chapter II, 14, and chapter III, 19. For he repeatedly harps upon and inculcates this vanity of death and extreme hardship, common to both the pious and the impious. I answer second: Those promises made to the Hebrews in Leviticus XXVI, and elsewhere, regard not so much individuals separately, as the whole assembly of the people, so that if it worshipped God, not idols, and kept his laws, God would give it peace and abundance of things; if it violated them and worshipped idols, he would punish it with plague, famine and war. Wherefore if the greater part of the people worshipped idols, God sent upon the whole people plague, famine, or war, which afflicted both the pious, inasmuch as they were part of this commonwealth and guilty people, and the impious. Thus even then one was the outcome for the just and the wicked: for neither famine, nor plague, nor war distinguishes the pious from the impious, but indiscriminately seizes whoever it encounters. As in the destruction of a city both the pious and impious are despoiled, captured, slain. Thus in battle both the pious Josiah and the impious Ahab were slain, III Kings XXII, 34, and II Paralipomenon XXXV, 23. I answer third: Often God in the old law granted the pious separately prosperous things, as crops and riches as a reward for piety, the same he denied to the impious as a punishment for impiety, but not always; but he sent prosperous things to the impious, adverse to the pious, as to David the persecution of Saul, to Daniel the Babylonians, to Susanna the elders, to the Maccabees Antiochus, to Elijah and the Prophets Jezebel and the idolaters, because then he heaped upon them greater goods of patience, martyrdom and eternal glory. Whence then too in one respect the same, but in another respect quite contrary was the outcome for the pious than it was for the impious. Moreover the Hebrews narrow this interpretation to Noah and Pharaoh the father-in-law of Solomon, and relate that the same outcome befell the just Noah and the impious Pharaoh, namely lameness: for Noah, when he descended from the ark, fell by chance and became lame; Pharaoh too, when he sat on the throne of Solomon and wished to descend, fell and became lame; but these are trifles and fables of the Rabbis. Not ineptly did the same authors divide the following antitheses thus: the just and the impious are considered in deed, the clean and unclean in body, the good and the sinner in heart, the perjurer and the truth-swearer in mouth, the one who sacrifices and the one who despises sacrifices in faith and religion. But they distinguish these things too minutely, since all are as it were synonymous and epithets of the just and impious. From this place St. Thomas, II-II, Question CXIV, article 10, proves that temporal goods do not fall under merit in themselves, but only insofar as they are referred and contribute to beatitude. "As he who swears, so also he who fears an oath," that is, he flees and takes care lest he ever perjure himself: he who swears, that is, he who perjures, for he who swears frequently and becomes accustomed to swearing anything, must necessarily perjure himself often; indeed he always perjures himself, because by swearing rashly anything without discrimination of true or false, he always exposes himself to the danger of perjuring. Add that the Hebrews lack compound words, and therefore use a simple word for them; נשבע nisba therefore, that is, I swear, also signifies I perjure, I swear. Thus in Zechariah, chapter V, 3, it is said: "He that swears shall be judged," that is, he who perjures shall be condemned. He swore, that is, he swears; for to swear is to swear by God, or to swear holily, says Donatus. Whence that saying of the Comic writer concerning Casina: "By all the gods and goddesses he swore." Hence sometimes to swear is to swear and promise something with attestation, as in I Kings, chapter XX, 17: "Jonathan added to swear to David."
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For contempt in Hebrew it is הוללות holeloth, that is, insanity, as Pagninus translated it; madness, as Vatablus; trifles, as Cajetan. The Septuagint, περιφερεία, that is, circumlocution, hallucination, a wandering life, erring and disturbance of mind on account of external thoughts and cares, says Budaeus. Thaumaturgus, errors and frauds; Olympiodorus, they walk hither and thither in a circle, and do not cease to be wearied; Aquila, πλανή, that is, error; Symmachus, αὐθαδεία, that is, impudence, says St. Jerome. Others, vain exultation and boasting. See what is said in chapter I, 17. He notes the impiety and foolishness of men even to insanity, who "rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things," Proverbs II, 14, and excuse "excuses in sins," Psalm CXL, 4; because they impudently work evil, and glory in it, as contemners of the divine. AFTER THESE THINGS TO HELL. — In Hebrew, after this to the dead, that is, to the state and place of the dead, namely to hell; for in the time of Solomon all the dead descended to those places, as if to say: The impious live so insolently that they do not think of death as if they were always to live, and never to die; and so when they least expect it, they are snatched away by death, and descend to hell, that they may pay the penalty of their malice in Gehenna. Thus the Chaldean: And after, he says, the days of man are kept for him, that he may be corrected with the dead according to the judgment of the sinner.
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die and descend to hell, then their life is turned into death, that is, their happiness into the utmost misery; because just as a living dog is better than a dead lion, so the vilest of mortals is superior to the impious, however rich and powerful, if these die while that one lives. For in death all their wealth and power come to an end: for just as a lion, though noble, when dying turns to ashes and worms; so also kings and tyrants, who therefore leave behind them nothing but a splendid tomb, or nothing but their skin, as a lion does. Whence that saying: "The spoils of a lion." Secondly, you may refer more generally to verse 2: "All things equally happen to the just and to the unjust;" for from this all these things are woven together, as if to say: The sum of the vanity of human things is that the same event befalls the pious and the impious, of which a clear example is in death: for this certainly befalls both. For no one at all exists who lives forever, and who has confidence in this matter. But how great this vanity is, and how much the living surpasses the dead, and life surpasses death, is clear from the fact that the vilest dog, if it lives, is better than the lion, which is the king of beasts, if it is dead. Thirdly, from this he draws out how greatly life is to be valued, and well spent, and expended in joy and good works, since death takes from man all joy and all faculty of working. Whence verse 10 concludes: "Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: because neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening." For a dog in working, running and hunting is keen, clever and provident, so much so that when it is satisfied, it provides for future hunger, and hides the bones that remain over, and buries them in the earth, which when hungry it then digs up and gnaws. Let the wise man do the same. Fourthly, from this is resolved the question which some ask, namely who is more honorable, a king, prince, bishop, pontiff, one departed, or one present; and which of the two should be preferred to the other in place and honor? For example, if Charles V were to return to life, should he be preferred to Philip IV, the reigning king? The answer must be in the negative, because Charles, now deceased, is as much deprived of life as of kingdom; wherefore he is no longer king, nor emperor. But Philip IV is king, he therefore is to be honored as king, not Charles. For death cuts off both life and kingdom, and royal dignity and honor. This is the vanity of kings and all things in this world; thus passes the glory of the world: "A living dog is better than a dead lion." Furthermore the Chaldean renders it: for who is the man who shall be associated with all the words of the law? to acquire the life of the future age is his hope. The moderns in their manner, while they forge new versions from the Hebrew, diverge from one another and from the Vulgate, and from the true mind of Solomon into various and vague interpretations. Thaumaturgus thinks these things are said in the person of the impious, who think the soul perishes with the body, and therefore that a living man, however obscure and squalid he may be, is to be preferred to one dead. Better does Olympiodorus think that here the impious are being discussed, whom he said a little before descend to hell in death. He adds the reason here, namely that there is no one to whom it is granted to live always, but all must die, and after death descend to hell. Or, as if to say: The impious when they die among the just, who alone, though dead, are to be reckoned as living, shall have no place in eternal life. Most rightly you may understand this of all both pious and impious, as if to say: There is absolutely no man who lives forever, but to all befalls the fatal event, namely death. Whence St. Jerome, Albinus, Bonaventura, Lyra, Hugh, Dionysius and others think these things are said from the person and mind of Solomon. St. Jerome, meditating on this, and applying it to the death of St. Paula in her epitaph, weeping exclaims: "O fragile and perishable nature of mortals, and unless the faith of Christ lifts us up to heaven, and eternity of soul is promised, with beasts and cattle the condition of bodies is the same, the same death for the just and the unjust!" A LIVING DOG IS BETTER THAN A DEAD LION. — In Hebrew, it is better for a living dog than for a dead lion. Thus Symmachus. It is a parable which grammatically in the letter of the text signifies that any animal whatsoever, however base, such as a dog, if it lives, is more noble than an animal most excellent, such as a lion, if it be dead. But parabolically through this is signified that a man most base, if he lives, surpasses a man most excellent, if he be dead; for which reason St. Augustine said, a living fly, or gnat, or single flea is more noble than the sky, because they are endowed with soul and life, which the sky lacks, as I said above. Hence a dog which feared a living lion, when it is dead insults it, barks at it, tears it, devours it: so also the most base of mortals do not fear to bark at and bite the dead, even though they be most powerful tyrants and kings with their jeers. Hence that saying: "Hares insult a dead lion." And the Comic poet: "The dead man is worth more than I am." In what connection does this parable connect with the preceding one? I answer first, that it can be referred to the impious, whom the preceding verse said to descend to the underworld, in Hebrew, to the dead, that is to say, The impious, even if they feast and triumph in this life, nevertheless soon Tropologically a dog is a sinner in this life, who can repent and become most holy, whose lot therefore is better than the lot of a lion, that is, whose hope in this life is better than the lot of a dead lion, that is, of a just man now deceased, to whom no hope of life and salvation remains; which St. Jerome also proves immediately after; otherwise indeed from other Scriptures, one could say the same thing everywhere, and thus the authority of the Scriptures would everywhere become very uncertain. But how does he say: "But the dead know nothing more"? Cajetan explains it in the formal sense, namely, the dead know nothing, because knowledge is life and a vital action. But this is too subtle and clever. I say therefore first, that this is true, because the dead naturally know, or can know those things which are done here, for example, about their sons, about houses, riches, offices, etc., which they left here; to which it is not repugnant that even in limbo they could once have known and been able to know by God revealing, or by angels, or by men, who depart hence to them. Second, the dead know nothing, that is, they have no sense, or taste of the pleasures and things of this life: they do not feel, do not experience, do not taste those things which they felt and tasted in this life; especially because the soul separated from the body now has neither taste nor sense, but like an Angel is wholly spiritual, and uses only the mind to understand the spiritual things of another life. Thus St. Bonaventure: "They know not, he says, the things that are in this world, nor do they remember or care about them, nor are they affected by them, nor what is written a little after, they have no part in this age, and in the work that is done under the sun." Moreover, a soul separated from the body is more apt to understand than when it was joined to the body, because the body dulls the operations of the mind and intellect. Whence angels, because they lack a body, are wholly intelligent and discerning. The separated soul is similar to these, according to that saying of Christ: "They shall be as the angels of God in heaven," Matt. XXII, 30. For the soul in itself is a spiritual and intellectual substance; whose proper operation is to understand, but it is blunted in the body through the senses and bodily sensations, which being loosed and freed from these, it freely gives itself wholly to understanding. Whence St. Jerome, epistle 61 to Pammachius, against the errors of John of Jerusalem: "We cannot, he says, feel an incorporeal and eternal soul in the manner of dormice immobile and torpid." Indeed even Cyrus in Xenophon, and Cicero, in the book On Old Age: "To me, he says, it could never be persuaded that the mind is foolish, when it has escaped from a foolish body." See St. Thomas, I part. Question LXXXIX, and the Scholastics in IV, dist. 45, and our Conimbricenses, tract. On the Separated Soul, disput. 3, art. 1, where they teach that the separated soul through species, both acquired in life and rather infused in separation from God, can know distinctly all natural things, namely all sensible things; likewise itself, and its own internal acts and powers; besides these other souls, indeed even angels, and their natural properties and operations, except the thoughts of hearts as being from their kind hidden. For this seems connatural to that spiritual nature, and as it were due. Moreover How the dead know nothing. the souls of the damned in hell know nothing except their torments, and those things which increase their torments; they feel God's wrath in themselves, the fury of demons, past pleasures and crimes by which they have brought these punishments upon themselves. Whence Lyra, Hugo and Dionysius thus explain it, as if to say: The dead, that is the damned, know nothing good any longer. But the souls in purgatory know their state, and are certain of their salvation. Whence they love and praise God continually: but the events, dangers, actions, and prayers of their parents or friends living in this life, they do not know, unless the angels reveal them to them, or the dying announce them to them. Wherefore it is ordinarily fruitless to invoke them, as St. Thomas teaches, II II, Question LXXXVIII, article 11, to 3, and more expressly Francis Victor in Relect. Yet they pray for us and our necessities, which they know in general, as having experienced them while they lived. Whence Jeremiah dwelling in the limbo of the Fathers was seen by Judas Maccabeus to pray for the Jews, and indeed gave Judas a golden sword, promising him victory against Nicanor, II Maccabees XV, 12; and the soul of St. Severinus, as also that of Paschasius existing in purgatory, wrought miracles, which St. Gregory recounts, IV Dialogues cap. XL, and Blessed Peter Damian, epistle 13, cap. VII. Finally, the blessed souls, who enjoy God, know our affairs in Him, and especially our prayers. Whence it is useful and holy to invoke them, as against Luther the faith of the Church teaches. See Bellarmine, lib. I On the Saints beatified, cap. XVIII and XIX. Mystically the Chaldean thus translates it: because the just know that if they sin, they will be as those reckoned dead in the world to come; therefore they guard their ways, and do not sin: but if they sin, they turn in penance; and sinners know nothing good of the world to come, and there is no good reward for them after their death: for their memory is forgotten among the just. Akin to this is the explanation of Olympiodorus who nevertheless explains it of this life, not of the future: "Those living," he says, "whose intellect is irrigated with living moisture, when they consider with themselves that the course of this life is temporary, live dutifully, confirmed by the hope of eternal life; but those who are dead in sin, occupied by the cloud of ignorance, live without reason, after the manner of beasts." Note here that this fleeting and brief life is nothing other than a course toward death, and through it to immortality: wherefore he who knows not this, or does not think of or care for it, is to be reckoned not so much living as deprived of life. Hence he is defined as living in this sense, who knows that he will die. The thought therefore of death is innate to man, and as it were flowing from within the soul and life, so that man ought continually to have it present, indeed to carry it in the bosom of his mind, and by it to incite and urge himself to every virtue and heroic deeds. Hence Plato defined philosophy to be a meditation on death. This very thing our Blessed Francis Borgia showed in reality, whose life was nothing other than a continual mortification and meditation on death and hell. NOR HAVE THEY ANY FURTHER REWARD. — The Zurich Bible: reward, Campensis: price, understand of this life, as if to say: While they lived, they labored, and received the reward of their labor in the gains and pleasures of this life, but after death they have nothing of theirs; yet they have the reward of another life, either in heaven or in hell, which they have merited for themselves in this life by acting well or ill. That this is the meaning is clear from the conclusion which from this maxim he draws in verse 7: "Go therefore, and eat thy bread with gladness," etc., as if to say: Use, enjoy the reward of thy labor in this life, for after it thou wilt not be permitted to enjoy it. Whence Campensis translates it: nor are they any longer in any esteem among the living. Again, they do not have further reward, that is merit, namely the time of meriting the reward of heavenly glory, as if to say: The dead do not have further time of meriting and acquiring for themselves reward in heaven. Whence the Arabic version translates it, they do not have conversion to them, that is time of repenting and converting themselves. It is a metonymy, for the effect is put for the cause, namely reward for merit. For merit is the merit of reward, and conversely reward is the reward of merit. By this maxim the error of Origen is refuted, who said that the punishments of the damned, equally as the joys of the blessed, would not be eternal, and therefore that both angels could demerit and be damned, as the damned could merit and be blessed; and the error of Luther, who thought that souls in purgatory, as being imperfect, could by patience and impatience of punishments merit or demerit, which Bellarmine refutes vigorously, lib. II De Purgat. cap. II. Therefore the end of life is the terminus of meriting. For life is a way and a stadium, in which the wayfarer runs, labors and merits; when that is completed, there remains no further place and time for running and meriting, as Holy Scripture teaches by various similitudes, Eccles. XIV, 17, and XVIII, 22; John IX, 4; Luke XVI, 2; II Cor. V, 10; Gal. VI, 10. In Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia: The dead do not have further sachar, that is reward, because they do not have zecher, that is memory, as if to say: The living do not have memory of the dead, but forget them; whence they do not pay them any reward of this life, for they have them as if dead and not existing in this world. Hence the state and region of the dead in Scripture is called duma, that is silence; likewise the land of forgetfulness, Psalm LXXXVII, 13; and this reciprocally, because both the living forget the dead and the dead forget the living. Whence that saying of the Sibyl, VI Aeneid: "To the waters of the river Lethe, Secure they drink the waters and long oblivion;" For lethe to the Greeks is oblivion; whence the Lethean, that is, the oblivious river, the poets place among the infernal regions, whose waters when anyone has tasted, he forgets all things of the past, concerning which Lucan, lib. IX: "Whom beside Lethe the silent river glides, Bringing to the veins of the infernal (as report is) oblivion." Hence also death is called by the Latins lethum from leo, says Priscian, which the ancients used for deleo, because death deletes all things; or, as Varro and Festus say, from lethe, that is oblivion which it induces.
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NOR DO THEY HAVE A PART IN THIS WORLD. — Campensis: nothing more is common to them with this world, which they have left along with all things that are in it. Hugo the Cardinal, Lyra and Dionysius interpret this of those dead through sin, that is to say, Those dead in sins, namely the damned, do not partake of the suffrages of the living, by which they pray for the dead: for these indeed only benefit the dead in a state of grace and those existing in purgatory, not the damned in hell. But this is mystical. According to the literal sense therefore the meaning is, that is to say, Whoever have finished life and are dead have nothing now in common with this life and world, so that they might use their things after the manner of the living here by eating, drinking, loving, hating, giving alms, conversing with us familiarly, as they were accustomed; but dead to this world and to all its offices and business, they have been transferred into another sphere wholly different from ours, where they find other companions, other customs, other affections, another life. This precisely, nothing else, is what St. Augustine wishes, in the book On Care for the Dead, chapters XV and XVI. That this is the meaning is clear from the following verse, where from this he infers: "Go therefore, and eat thy bread with joy," etc. Wherefore the Novatians ineptly twist this passage against purgatory and suffrages for the dead, so as to prove that one ought not to pray for them, and that our prayers do not benefit them. For these things are not said against them, but against the avaricious, who continually heap up riches even unto death, as if they were going to use them after death; to whom Solomon plainly responds that the dead have no part nor riches in this world; wherefore the avaricious have no fruit of their riches either in life or in death: because in life they are unwilling to use them, in death they cannot: and this is a great vanity.
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Allegorically, Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 4 of the Mystagogical Catecheses, understands by bread and wine the Eucharist, which as a divine banquet, indeed God himself incarnate, we ought to receive with the greatest joy, equally with reverence and devotion. Consequently, by the oil which follows, he understands the sacrament of Confirmation, whose matter is oil mixed with balsam. By the white garments he understands baptism: for the baptized put on such garments. Thus also Olympiodorus, St. Jerome, Albinus and others understand by bread and wine the Eucharist. Anagogically, the Chaldean Paraphrase: "Solomon said, it says, in the spirit of prophecy: It shall come to pass from the presence of the Lord that the Lord of the world shall say to each of the just in the face of each one: Go, taste in gladness thy bread which is laid up for thee on account of thy bread, which thou gavest to the poor and humble who was hungry; and drink in a joyful heart thy wine, for thy wine, which thou didst mix for the poor and humble, who were thirsty: behold, for these things have already been pleasing before the Lord." BECAUSE THY WORKS PLEASE GOD. — The Hebrew: because now God wills, that is loves, approves, ratifies and holds thy works as acceptable; the Syriac: because God acquiesces in thy works; the Arabic: in thy arts; Thaumaturgus: do you not see all these things granted by God? The Zurich Bible: now indeed God propitious grants thee to enjoy thy works. Some think this to be irony, as if to say: O voluptuary, O Epicurean, indulge in thy pleasures, because thou foolishly persuadest thyself that in this very thing and in thy other works thou pleasest God. Thus our Prado in Ezekiel, chapter XXIII, 42. Better do others think these words to be said simply and seriously, as if to say: Use thy riches honestly and modestly for thy own use and that of the needy neighbors, because these are works of temperance and almsgiving, which please God. Thus the Chaldean Paraphrase, whose words I have already recited. Or as Isidore Clarius, as if to say: Live cheerfully, if thou hast pious confidence in thy works, that God approves them, because thy conscience does not reproach thee, nor accuses thee of any fault. Or, as it be a concession, as if to say: Live joyfully, because as I presuppose and concede to thee, thy works please God. Whence St. Ambrose, Exhortation to Virgins: "Dost thou wish, he says, to follow good joy? make thy works please God." Hence some think that the word "because" gives the condition of joy, as if to say: Enjoy thy riches, yet under this law and condition, that thou please God through good works, especially the blessing of the table before food, and the giving of thanks after it, whereby thou testifiest that thou hast received all things from God, and referrest them as accepted to him, and spendest them in his honor, as the first Christians did, especially in the Agape, that is the common banquet of all the faithful after the sacred Synaxis. All these senses come to the same thing, and signify that the cause of true joy is the study of pleasing God, everywhere and in all acts through a pure and holy life. That saying of St. Bernard is famous: "Dost thou wish never to be sad? live well. A good life always has joy, a guilty conscience is always in punishment;" and that of Solomon: "A secure mind is like a continual banquet," Proverbs, chapter XV, 15. And that of St. Paul: "Our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience," II Corinthians I, 12. And that of the Psalmist: "Light is risen to the just, and gladness to the right of heart," Psalm XCVI, 11. For, as the Apostle says, Galatians V, 22: "The fruit of the Spirit is joy." Whence St. Bonaventure in the Mirror of Discipline, part I, chapter III: "The greatest, he says, sign of indwelling grace is spiritual joy." I have said more on this matter in chapter III, 12, and elsewhere frequently.
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By the whiteness of garments and anointing with oil, three things are noted and commended, namely, the honesty of dress, the pleasantness of feasting, and the gladness of mind. First therefore the sense is, as if to say: Use honest, bright and becoming, namely white and splendid garments, so that you may protect your dignity, and do not go about in sordid and vile clothing out of avarice, so that you may be held to be stingy, vile and abject. Hence holy men have had honest care of garments, so that they might be clean. Whence to St. Bernard and our St. Ignatius poverty in dress was always pleasing, filth never. Secondly, as if to say: In baths and banquets feast pleasantly, and anointed with white garments and oil, after the manner of the people, recline at table, and there enjoy good things, and live your life as sweetly as possible with fear of God, and do not hoard and accumulate your riches for a future and uncertain heir. For white garments and oil are symbols of baths and banquets, because formerly guests, coming out from baths, reclined at table clothed in white garment, which they called the triclinium or cenatory garment, because they dined in it. Thirdly, as if to say: "Be joyful at all times," as Vatablus translated it: for gladness is noted by white garments and oil, that is, by fragrant ointments (for oil is the base of ointments) which not only the ancient Greeks and Latins, but also the Hebrews and other orientals were accustomed to use frequently, especially at banquets; and this both for the sake of holiness, and of temperance, lest they be made drunk with wine; and also for the sake of delights, fragrance and softness. For, as Plutarch teaches in the Convivial Questions, pleasant odors, because they are warm, warm and relax the cold and contracted brain by their heat and gentleness, strengthen it, and dry and purify the senses; whereby it comes to pass that it more easily and strongly resists the vapors of wine and thence drunkenness, especially because odors open the passages of the brain, so that through them the fumes of wine may be diffused and evaporate: moreover some ointments are cold, whence they dull the heat of wine. Finally, all of them foster and nourish pure and clear spirits of the head. Wherefore the ancients said that Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, to whom the olive is dedicated, was born from the brain of Jupiter: by which they signified that the anointing with oil, that is, ointments, contributes much to the head, that is, to the mind and wisdom; and with ointments they not only anointed the head, but also sometimes drank them mixed with wine. Whence Martial: "Drink luxuriously, if you are thirsty for foliage." Whence also Juvenal, Satire 6: "When ointments drenched in wine foam with Falernian." All these things pertain to the preceding and following signs and modes of the enjoyment of riches. For Solomon, after reviewing the vanities of things and riches, after his manner adds this remedy and counsel: Enjoy your riches. He did the same in chapter VIII, 51. Note: He alludes to the garment of the ancients, first, common and vulgar, which was white for the Romans and other ancients, either because white color, as Plato wishes, is more proper to gladness; or rather because that rude age, that rustic and simple first people, with colors unknown or despised being brought in, retained the native color of wool, that is, white. Moreover this white garment, made dirty by use, especially on feast days, they washed for the sake of brightness. Secondly, he alludes to the garment of the ancients not common, but festive and honored, especially the cenatory garment, which guests reclining at table wore, linen and white, both among the Romans and among the Jews, as Philo teaches, in the book On the Contemplative Life (λευχειμονοῦντες, he says, that is, clothed in white, they held the feasts of festivals). For white color, as Plutarch testifies in the Problems, chapter XXVI, is especially natural, simple, pure, transparent and bright, in that it has much of light. Hence in white garment, but more splendid than that which was common and daily, they used to dress at banquets, in sacred rites, in seeking magistracies (whence those seeking them went about, and were called candidates), in manumissions, in military service, at festivals, at spectacles, in triumphs, at weddings. For white garment signifies, first, simple morals; secondly, pure and ingenuous ones; thirdly, gladness; fourthly, freedom; fifthly, victory; sixthly, happiness. Hear Prudentius Against Symmachus: You may see the fathers exult, the most beautiful lights of the world, and the council of old men, the Catos, rejoice to assume the whiter toga, the snowy garment of piety. And Horace, book II of Satires, satire 2: Let him celebrate banquets, birthdays, and other festive days clothed in white. Tertullian, book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter LVII: "If you have changed your servant to freedom," he says, "he is honored by the brightness of white garment, and by the honor of a golden ring, and by the name and tribe of his patron and by his table." Cicero, book On the Laws: "White color," he says, "is especially becoming to God, both in other things and especially in woven fabric." Hence the ancients clothed in white used to pray. Whence that saying of Persius: Jupiter denied this to him, although she in white garment begged it of him. Again, the garment of kings and princes was white and precious. Such was Solomon's, concerning which Josephus, book VIII of the Antiquities, chapter II, says: "But Solomon, he says, borne aloft in a royal chariot, was clothed in a white garment;" whence Christ insinuates that lilies were scattered upon it, Matthew VI, 28 and 29; and Pineda teaches this, book V On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter VI. For white brightness represents a certain heavenly majesty, and is in God as it were an ornament of divinity, Daniel VII, 9. Lucan, book X, thus depicts Cleopatra's garment: White breasts gleam through Sidonian thread. And Martial, book VIII, chapter XXVIII, compares a precious and white garment given to him by Parthenia with lilies: You surpass lilies, and not yet fallen privet, And what ivory whitens on the Tiburtine mountain, The Spartan saffron will yield to you, and the doves of Paphos, The gem drawn from the Red Sea will yield. Finally, St. James, chapter II, 2, describing the garment of a rich and noble man: "If there shall come into your assembly, he says, a man with a gold ring, in white clothing." The Author of the Convivials, book II, chapter XXVI, proves this more fully from Plato, Tertullian, Lactantius, Plautus, Persius, Cicero and others, and Lipsius, book I of Selections, chapter XIII, where he teaches that the garments of the Romans were formerly white. Hence Sisinnius, Bishop of the Novatians, a soft and delicate man, when he bathed twice a day and always wore white garments, and was reproved for this by someone, excused himself by this sentence from Ecclesiastes and the example of Moses and Elijah, whom he said used white garments, as Socrates relates, book VI, chapter XXII. But this is incorrect. For Ecclesiastes here does not counsel softness, luxuries and an epicurean life, but moderation and decency befitting in dress. Whence Jerome, book II, Epistle 14: "Avoid dark garments, he says, equally as white ones. Adornment and filth are to be fled in like manner, because the one smells of luxury, the other of vanity." Therefore extremes are to be avoided, so that the garment be neither too dark and sordid, nor too white and splendid, but hold a middle course between the two. Whence the same Jerome to Eustochium: "Let your garment, he says, be neither sufficiently clean nor sordid, and notable by no distinction;" and Seneca: "Let not the toga shine, nor be sordid." This is the literal sense, under which another symbolic and moral sense, and that the more important one, lies hidden. Tropologically therefore the sense is, as if to say, that the body and members, equally as works (for both are as it were garments of the soul) be white, that is pure, sincere, bright, so that through them we may become clothed in the purest and most blessed immortality, and this "at all times," as if to say, No age, no day, no hour, no moment, no duty, no act, no leisure and business, throughout the whole time of life be empty of sincerity and innocence, but both always and everywhere in you and your acts and deeds shine forth. Thus St. Gregory, IX Morals, chapter XIX; and St. Jerome: "Have, he says, a clean body, and be merciful." The same, book I Against Jovinian: "The eternal whiteness of garments, he says, is the purity of virginity;" so also St. Ambrose, Exhortation to Virgins: "At all times, he says, let your garments be white. What is whiter than virginity? What more bright than the garment of untouched modesty? Good indeed is conjugal chastity and the chastity of widowhood. All chastity is pure, but perhaps not all is white, or not white at all times. Not white, when one does not have power over one's own body, when prayer is suspended for a time. Of virginity therefore it is beautifully said: At all times let your garments be white, and oil upon your head, so that your lamps may always be able to shine, nor be extinguished, when the heavenly Bridegroom shall begin to come. What unction upon your head Ecclesiastes meant, we gather from other places. Because the eyes of man are in his head, that is the sense of your wisdom." Moreover Philo of Carpathus in the Canticles, tome I of the Library of the Holy Fathers, page 671, says: "Let your garments be white at all times: when a faithful soul, he says, cleanses itself from daily sins through penance, when daily it washes lesser sins with tears, and guards itself against greater ones, although it frequently sins, yet through constant penance it perpetually preserves its purity." This is always true, but especially at that time when the Eucharist is to be received: for then the mind must be clothed in all whiteness and purity, and it is fitting that it represent this by the outward brightness of garments. Whence formerly Christians about to communicate washed their hands, so that with washed and pure hands they might receive the Eucharist; for it was given not into the mouth, as now, but into the hand of the communicant, which they themselves then brought to their mouth, and thus received the Eucharist; but women covered their hand with white linen, and with it received the Eucharist. Hear St. Augustine, sermon 252 On the Seasons: "All men, he says, when they desire to communicate, wash their hands, and all women display bright linens, where they receive the body of Christ. It is not a heavy thing that I say, brothers; men wash their hands with water, thus with alms they wash their consciences." Similarly also women, when "they display a bright linen cloth, where they receive the body of Christ, thus let them display a chaste body and a pure heart, so that with a good conscience they receive the Sacraments of Christ. I beseech you, brothers, is there anyone who would wish to put his garment into a chest full of filth? And if a precious garment is not put into a chest full of filth, with what face is the Eucharist of Christ received in a soul which is stained with the filth of sins?" Whiteness therefore signifies purity, oil signifies mercy, equally as spiritual joy. For these accompany one another; for the whiteness of garments, that is the splendor of grace, is fostered by the oil of mercy. Thus Olympiodorus, Salonius, Albinus here. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it, at all times let your garments be washed from all contagion of sin, and acquire a good name, which is likened to ointment, for yourself, so that blessings and blessings (that is many blessings) may touch your head, and your goodness may not fail. Hence Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Pedagogue, as a teacher instructing the Churches of Egypt, persuades them to use white garments, by which institution we believe that Christians in Egypt used white garments, says Baronius, in the year of Christ 256. Hence it came about that when St. Antony, desirous of martyrdom, went forth to the tribunal, he put on white garments, so that from them he might be recognized as a Christian. "Girded with gleaming white garment, he provoked the judge coming forward by his appearance, burning with desire for martyrdom," says St. Athanasius in his Life. Hence also the "Essenes," who flourished under St. Mark with wonderful holiness at Alexandria, "always clothe themselves in white garment," says St. Eusebius, book IX of the Preparation, chapter 1. In other places, however, Christians used dark garments to signify modesty, gravity and penance. Again St. Gregory, II Morals XXVII: "Oil, he says, on the head, is charity in the mind, and oil fails from the head, when charity departs from the mind." and hope of blessed happiness they represented by the whiteness of garments. Wherefore St. Chrysostom, when dying, put off his common garments down to his shoes, and put on white ones as a martyr clothed for eternal life. For the day before, St. Basiliscus the martyr had invited and called him in a vision, saying: "John brother, tomorrow's day will join us in one place." Wherefore he himself, joyful and singing: "Glory be to God, the cause of all things," breathed forth his spirit into his hands, blessed by the vision of God, in the year of his age 52, of Christ 407. Thus from Palladius, Baronius, tome V, p. 255. It is memorable what Victor of Utica relates, book III of the Vandal persecution, concerning Murita the deacon, namely that he, when standing before the judge Elpidophorus, who had apostatized from the faith, to be condemned, openly showed the white garments with which he had clothed him at Baptism, and moved all to tears; for he exclaimed: "These are the linens, Elpidophorus, minister of error, which will accuse you, when the majesty of the judge shall come, my diligence guarding them, to the testimony of your perdition, to plunge you into the abyss of the sulphurous pit. These clothed you immaculate coming forth from the font; these will pursue you more fiercely, when you shall begin to possess the flaming hell, because you have clothed yourself with curse as with a garment, tearing and losing the sacrament of true Baptism and faith," etc. Again, priests celebrate in white vestments. Hence Isidore says, in his letter to Redemptus, teaching that the corporal, upon which the sacred victim is placed, ought to be of pure linen, not of silk: "But perhaps you will object," he says, "that silk cloth is more precious than linen, and therefore more suited to divine uses. To which we say in both Testaments that whiteness of garments is especially approved, because in it purity of mind is required, which is known among other virtues to be more pleasing to God, to which your charity desiring to attain, that it may be clearer, we show by the testimonies of Holy Scripture. For it says: Let thy garments be always white; and the priests of the Lord were clothed with a linen ephod for the sake of excellence. The Gospel also in the transfiguration of the Lord, in that His garments appeared as snow, clearly testifies. And in the Apocalypse, those who stood in the sight of the Lamb, and who follow Him whithersoever He goeth, are said to be clothed in white robes, and very many other things. What among cloths is as clean as linen, to which whiteness is increased by frequent washing, whereas in silks it is seen to be darkened in the same way?" Hence finally in the Life of St. Montanus the martyr with his companions, disciples of St. Cyprian, written by themselves in the spirit of martyrdom, as Surius relates on the twenty-fourth of February, we read that he received the omen of martyrdom through a white garment shown by God. For thus he himself narrates of himself and his companions: "It seemed to me that centurions came to us. And when they led us along a long way, we came to an immense field, in which Cyprian and Leutius met us. We came moreover to a bright place, and our garments became white, and our flesh was changed, becoming whiter than our white garments. And our flesh was so transparent that the sight of the eyes admitted to the innermost parts of the heart. And looking into my breast, I see certain stains, and I awoke in the vision. And Lucianus met me, and I related the vision to him, and I say to him: Do you know that those stains, that is what I did not immediately agree with Julian? He then adds the vision of Flavianus, who was the companion of Montanus in martyrdom: "It was shown to me," he says, "as if I should ask Cyprian himself (who a little before had been crowned with martyrdom with St. Cornelius the Pontiff), whether suffering blows would pain the martyr who was to be, who was consulting about the endurance of passion, saying: Another flesh suffers (not the flesh itself of the martyr), when the mind is in heaven, and this body in no way feels, when it has devoted itself to God with all its mind." Anagogically, white or bright garment denotes the whiteness and splendor of heavenly glory, to which we aspire, and which we seek, as its candidates, so that it may always be before our eyes and mind, and thus we may enter upon a holy and heavenly life. Hence the garment of the glorious Christ appeared white as snow, Matthew XVII, 2. Angels also announcing Christ's not nativity, as St. Gregory notes, homily 45 in the Gospel, but resurrection, appeared in white to Magdalene. Hence also Apocalypse, chapter III, verse 5, Christ promises to the blessed white garments: "He that overcometh," He says, "shall thus be clothed in white garments;" and chapter VII, verse 9: "Clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;" and chapter XIX, 8: "And it is given to her that she should be clothed with fine linen, bright and clean; for fine linen is the justifications of the saints." See what I have noted in those places. Hence the Essenes walked clothed in white, as if candidates of eternity, representing by the whiteness of their garments a certain faith and hope of blessed happiness.
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ALL THE DAYS OF THY UNSTABLE LIFE. — Hebrew, of thy vanity. Whence it is clear that the vanity of this life is the instability of life, namely that it is unstable, brief, various and evanescent, because it immediately vanishes in sickness and death. Whence Aquila translates it, vapor. Vatablus, of thy frivolous life; the Scholiast, of thy youth: all thy days are full of the most vain vanity. Thaumaturgus thinks all these things are said from the mind not of Solomon, but of the Epicureans. Whence he adds the reason: For besides these things nothing remains to thee either in this life or after death. But it seems altogether that Solomon speaks from his own sense, as I have said. Mystically, the wife is wisdom and virtue; to this alone the whole of life should be pleasantly devoted, because she alone will accompany us after death, and will make us blessed, and place us in heaven. Thus St. Jerome: "Follow wisdom," he says, "and knowledge of the Scriptures, and join this to thyself in marriage, of which in Proverbs, chapter IV, it is said: Love her, and she shall keep thee, embrace her, and she shall surround thee." And soon after: "For thou wilt not be able without such a wife to see life alone, etc. For this is our portion, and this fruit of labour, if in this shadowy life we are able to find true life (in the heavens)," through the doctrine and guidance of wisdom and virtue.
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To do in Hebrew is to find for doing, not by chance and accident, as the Thaumaturgus seems to wish, but by study and deliberate counsel. To find therefore is the same as to seek, to think out and by thinking to find; it is a catachresis. The Chaldean restricts it to almsgiving, as if to say: Having thrust your hand into your purse, whatever you find in it bring forth and give to the poor; whence thus he translates: Do all the almsgiving which your hand is able to distribute to the poor, because after death a man has no need, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge in the house of the grave to which you go; and nothing will help except good works alone and almsgiving. But truly this general opinion pertains to all good works, as if to say: Whatever good, whatever virtue you are able to think out, do that, because your life will soon end, after which you will be able to think nothing, do nothing, merit nothing. Whence the Nazianzen says that our life is a market in which all kinds of merchandise are exposed for sale, so that each one may buy as much as he wishes; but when this market of life is finished, the merchandise is carried away elsewhere, so that no one can buy even a jot more. Whatever work therefore, charity, patience, humility, prayer, mortification and any virtue whatsoever you are able to devise, do it at once, because soon you will be able to do nothing more. How much would the blessed in heaven wish to have still space for meriting! How much would the damned wish to have even one hour for repenting and doing well! and if they had it, what would they not do? but the door of life and merit is closed to them. You who live and are wise, embrace with both hands every opportunity of doing well, nay rather seek and devise new ones continually. For you can here gain not ten thousand, but many millions daily, nay in each hour and moment for yourself in heaven, if you persist in heroic acts of virtue. Whence Symmachus translates: All things to which your hand reaches, that is to which it is able to reach and extend itself, do that. WORK EARNESTLY. — In Hebrew בכחך becochacha, that is in your strength, that is with all your might, all your power, all your effort work. This word therefore notes and requires, first, the study, effort and striving of the will and all powers and strengths in the working of many and great virtues; second, assiduity and perseverance; third, fervor; fourth, solicitude and speed, says Bonaventure and Hugh, so that from morning to evening, from infancy to old age you may study good works, and in them be diligent and careful, so that you may work heroically, and advance from virtue to virtue; To this pertains the maxim of Solomon, and from that in Ecclesiasticus XIV, 17: "Before your death work justice: for there is no food to be found in hell;" where I have said more on this matter. Solomon adds this, lest anyone from what has been said think that this is advised so that one may live a pleasant life only, and seek pleasure like Epicurus. He adds therefore that to a pleasant life must be joined the study of good works, for he defined the happiness of this life above to consist in this. Hence Job cap. IX, 25, compares our life to a runner, to ships and eagles, which are the swiftest and most fleeting: "My days," he says, "have been swifter than a runner: they have fled, and have not seen good. They have passed by as ships carrying apples (for these pass very swiftly, lest the apples rot), as an eagle flying to food." The Wise Man, cap. V, 11, compares the same to a flying bird, a messenger running, an arrow sent forth. "Whence also holy men," says St. Gregory, lib. VII Moral. cap. XIV, "because they continually behold the brevity of life, live as if dying daily; and they prepare themselves so much more firmly for things that will endure, as they always weigh from the end that nothing is transitory. Hence the Psalmist, seeing the life of the sinner fleeing with swift course, says: Yet a little while, and the sinner shall be no more, Psalm XXXVI, 10. Hence again he says: Man, his days are as grass, Ps. CII, 15. Hence Isaiah says XL, 6: All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field. Hence James IV, 15 thus corrects the minds of the presumptuous: What is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a little while." From what has been said it is clear that heretics ineptly torture this passage against purgatory. For Solomon here denies only one's own merits, not the suffrage of others, and says that there is no place or time for anyone in hell to work and merit, but he does not deny that souls in purgatory are to be expiated, and are relieved by the prayers and good works of the living, because they themselves, while they lived, by their virtues merited that after death they could be helped by the suffrage of the living, says St. Gregory, IV Dialog. XXXIX. Add that souls which are in hell properly so called, that is in gehenna, can be freed by no works of the living. Thus St. Jerome. Moreover, some flatter themselves concerning plenary indulgences, which they will obtain at the hour of death through blessed medals or by another means, and therefore they live more freely and commit many venial sins in hope of this indulgence, as though by means of it they will go straight to heaven without purgatory; but these are deceived and deceive themselves, both because they abuse indulgences for sinning more freely, and therefore they deserve that God deprive them of indulgences; and because from histories and apparitions it is established that very few after death escape purgatory. The reason is, that indulgences do not take away guilt, but only the penalty due to guilt already remitted. Now in many of the dying venial sins cling, and in these many die, either because in dying, while they are tempted by the demon or by concupiscence, they easily consent to impatience and venial sins, into which the healthy were accustomed frequently to fall, and thus they die in the affection and act of venial sin: these certainly no indulgence can purge; or because the healthy perpetrated many venial sins, in the debt and guilt of which they cling and die; for venial sins are sometimes more difficultly remitted than mortal, because both are not deleted except through serious detestation, that is, contrition, and an efficacious purpose thereafter of abstaining from them: but it is easier until thou see the God of gods in Sion. Hence the Syriac translator renders it, all that thy hand is able to do, do it in thy strength; the Arabic, do according to thy power; the Complutensian, according to thy power; Olympiodorus, as much as thy faculty permits; the Zurich, whatever thou canst, do it with all thy might for thy portion; Campensis, do strongly. Thus St. Cassius, Bishop of Narni, as St. Gregory testifies, in the Fourth Book of Dialogues, chapter XVI, and homily 37 on the Gospel, a little before his death heard from God: "Do what thou doest, work what thou workest, let not thy hand cease, let not thy foot cease, on the birthday of the Apostles thou shalt come to me, and I will repay thee thy reward." BECAUSE NEITHER WORK (that is, the place and time of working and meriting) NOR REASON. — The Hebrew, nor thought, that is to say, There will be no time for thinking, and seeking the manner and reason of working. Whence Campensis renders it, no counsel; others, no reckoning, nor divine wisdom to be sought out, and God to be known, loved, worshipped and merited by new arts and deeds. "Nor knowledge," arts and virtues to be exercised. Whence Campensis renders it, nor prudence shall be with those in hell. This is the reason a priori, why in life one must work earnestly, because after it no one will be able to work, nor deliberate, nor discern, nor love, says Bonaventure; nor work, nor allege, nor know the reason of laboring and contemplating, says Cardinal Hugh; nor work outwardly, nor meditate in mind, nor know human things, nor divine, says Lyra. Whence St. Gregory, homily 13 on the Gospel: "Because," he says, "we know not the time of coming death, and after death we cannot work, it remains that before death we seize the times granted to us. For thus death itself when it comes will be overcome, if before it comes it is always feared." A similar keen maxim is that of Rabbi Tarpon in Pirke Avoth, chapter II: The day is short, and the work is long; the workers are slow and lazy, the reward is great; but the master of the house, compelling toward the end of the work, presses and urges. A memorable example is found in Thomas of Cantimpré, book I of the Bees, chapter XIX, number 6, which Genebrard and Albert the Great also recount, in the book On the Sacraments: Philip, they say, Chancellor of Paris, after death appeared as a dark shade to William, Bishop of Paris, and said that he was damned on account of lust and a plurality of benefices, and that he had not distributed their superfluous fruits to the poor, and he asked the Bishop: "Is," he said, "the world finished?" And the Bishop: "I marvel," he said, "that thou, once a most learned man, shouldst ask this, when thou seest me still living, and all of us living must still die before the world is finished with judgment impending." And he: "Marvel not," he said, "because there is neither knowledge, nor work, nor reason with those coming to the infernal regions." And the shade, saying these things, vanished from the eyes of the wondering bishop. WHICH THOU HASTENEST TO. — The Chaldean adds, and they will not help thee except good works and justice alone. certainly to be broken concerning mortals on account of the clear baseness of their deeds, and to propose efficaciously henceforth to abstain from them, on account of fear of hell, which is not the case with venial sins, especially so many and frequent, and so obvious and customary, in which there is no fear of hell, nor does such baseness appear. For in these it is often clear that serious contrition and purpose of abstaining are lacking, from the fact that many after their confession immediately and perpetually relapsed into them: therefore serious and efficacious contrition, which is commonly wont to extend itself to mortal sins and graver venial sins, deletes them; but because the same does not extend to lighter and daily venial sins, which are many, therefore it does not abolish them; therefore the guilt of these remains, and on account of this also the debt of punishment to be paid in purgatory, where souls, by eliciting serious contrition concerning the venial faults remaining in themselves, wash them away, and then pay the punishment of the same by the fire of purgatory. To abolish these therefore no indulgence suffices. With fear therefore and trembling let us work out our salvation, as the Apostle admonishes; let us studiously avoid each venial sin, and if we fall into any, let us immediately elicit serious contrition concerning it, by which we delete the guilt, and then indulgence will remove the remaining debt of punishment.
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First, Moringus and David de Pomis hold that these are still the words of atheists and epicureans, railing against divine providence and denying it; also of the slothful fleeing from labor, as if to say: Why should I labor and worship God, when I see that labor often does not correspond to fruit? For frequently he who runs swiftly in the race is overtaken by some chance and surpassed by the slower one, who snatches the prize from him: those fighting bravely are sometimes overcome in war by the unwarlike: the unlearned take away honors, offices and wealth from the learned: the rude take away the grace of work from excellent craftsmen, the talkative and seekers of popular favor. Therefore all things are done by chance, not by certain divine providence. This is the view of atheists. Second, on the contrary, Thaumaturgus holds that here is corrected the opinion of epicureans gaping after pleasures, as if to say: These men err who run through pleasures to the goal of happiness, and in these things expend all their strength, all their ingenuity, all their wisdom, all their art, so that they may always invent new and greater ones, because through all these things they do not attain the happiness and satiety which they seek. Third, more plainly Olympiodorus, Bonaventura, Lyra, Cajetan, Titelmann hold that here Solomon, in his usual manner, passes to another kind of vanity, namely that the outcome of things often does not depend on the strength, wisdom, art of those working, but on opportunity, chance and fortune, which in the race often prefers the slow to the swift; in war and victory, the unwarlike to the warlike; in wealth and honors, the unlearned to the learned; in grace and victory, the idle to the craftsmen. By these four he embraces all the states of men in the republic, so as to show that chance often dominates all: for by the swift, he notes merchants, who hasten about to business, and traverse lands and seas for the sake of merchandise and profit; by the strong, he notes soldiers, who defend the republic; by the wise, he notes teachers, jurists, advocates, physicians, counselors, who govern the republic; by the craftsmen, he notes artisans, who practice all arts, such as wool-working, baking, shoemaking, tailoring, smithing, etc., for all the uses of citizens. In all these therefore he shows that chance often prevails more than counsel, art and industry; to this end, first, so as to show that vanity is present in all things. Second, so as to teach men not to marvel if in this vanity fruit often does not correspond to labor and industry, nor rewards to merits, indeed if wealth and dignities owed to the worthy are given to the unworthy and undeserving, and that by the secret and inaccessible judgments of God, as Olympiodorus says: wherefore to each one a just reward is to be awaited in the other life, so that from this vanity he may long for truth, and true life and happiness in the heavens. Thus St. Jerome. Third, so as to warn the industrious and wise not to trust in their own industry, strength, wisdom, art, but to rely on God and divine providence. For it is God's to give happy successes and outcomes to each work: it is God's to govern chance and fortune. For God so orders, combines, disposes and directs all secondary causes, even contingent and free ones, that although, so far as concerns their part, they concur and work fortuitously to produce what in fact happens, yet so far as concerns God's part, they are directed by certain counsel and wise providence, because all things are foreseen, provided for, foreordained and disposed by God, so that what happens happens, not otherwise: wherefore in reality fortune, fortuning, that is, directing, ordering, prospering all things, is none other than God and divine providence. Chance therefore and fortune, which do not always indeed, but often nevertheless intervene in the things and works of men, manifestly show divine providence, by which it is directed like a ship tossing in the sea by a helmsman, without whom it would sink a thousand times. For thus likewise this world, made up of so many contrary and conflicting chances, would be overturned and would fall, unless it were governed by God, who brings all those things into order, reconciles discord, and coordinates the fortuitous, and thus from all things produces a beautiful harmony, and as it were a certain musical concert. Thus teaches St. Thomas, I part., Quest. LXXV, art. 6, ad 1. To this pertains the old saying: "The wheel applied by hand, fortune is to be implored;" by which it is signified that the aid of the Godhead is sought in vain, unless you add industry and apply your hand to the work. Thus Plutarch in Lacon. NOR IS IT THE SWIFT IN RUNNING. — The Hebrew: there is not swiftness in running; Campensis: the swift are rarely employed for running; Zurich: the swiftness of running brings no advantage to salvation; Symmachus: it is not for the swift to complete the race, whether in the stadium, or in battle, or on a journey, or in any other place and manner. The Wonderworker: nor those who are most fleet of foot will complete this great race, so as to attain to a happy life. The Chaldean: nor men who were swift, like eagles, were helped by running, so as to escape from death in battle, according to that passage in Amos, chapter II, 14: "Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, and the mighty shall not save his life: and he that holdeth the bow shall not stand, and the swift of foot shall not be saved, and he that rideth the horse shall not save his life: and the stout of heart among the mighty shall flee naked in that day, saith the Lord." And that passage in Isaiah, chapter XXX, 16: "You said: We will flee upon horses: therefore shall you flee. And we will mount upon swift steeds: therefore shall they be swifter that shall pursue you." Astrologers relate, and among them Julius Firmicus, book VIII of the Mathesis, chapter XV, that those born under the sign of the Dolphin are swift: "It will be," says Firmicus, "conspicuous in the innate agility of running." Again, Pliny, book XI, chapter XXXVII, relates that animals which have a smaller lung are swifter: "Those which have," he says, "this smaller in their bodies, so much the greater is their swiftness," because namely they breathe less: for frequent breathing impedes running. He adds that "a peculiar impediment to running" is the spleen; "wherefore it is burned in runners who labor, and even when removed through a wound, animals are said to live." Whence some have thought that the spleen is cut out from runners, so that they might be swifter, but Pliny does not say this. The common people assert that the spleen is cut and removed from runners, so that they might run more swiftly and without fatigue, and might travel continuously all day long. But the common people misunderstand the true matter. For in runners and those suffering from the spleen, the spleen is not removed or cut out, but is beaten, that is, struck and pounded with a wooden knife suited for this purpose, so that its swelling might subside, and it itself might become smaller and more compressed, and might hold less blood: whereby it happens that now smaller, tighter and lighter, it impedes the neighboring lungs less, so that they might move freely and widely, exhale and inhale, and thus the swiftness of walking and running is aided: for this is impeded by difficulty of breathing, which arises in the lungs from the swelling of the neighboring spleen, which constricts and burdens them; which being removed, they are lighter, and breathe freely and easily, and thus they make a man ready for walking and running. Thus physicians and surgeons at Rome assured me that they themselves had done this very thing, and thus had cured those suffering from the spleen. Physicians add that diseases of the spleen are cured by running. An example of this maxim is found in St. Jerome in the Life of St. Hilarion: for he, providing lustral water to an Italian, gave him victory in the circus race against a malevolent rival: "Therefore," he says, "the signal being given, these fly forward, those are hindered; beneath the chariot of these the wheels grow hot, those scarcely see the backs of those flying past; the clamor of the crowd becomes excessive, so that even the pagans themselves shouted together: Marnas is conquered by Christ. Therefore an undoubted victory and to those and to many circus-goers was an occasion of faith." To this pertains the saying of the Spanish: "The lame as well as the healthy run in pilgrimage to St. James, indeed the lame arrive quickly, the swift and hasty slowly, or never." To this likewise pertains the ancient fable, which our Pontanus recounts in the Progymnasmata, volume III, part I, chapter XL. The tortoise undertook a contest with the eagle to be completed over a fixed distance. A goal was established, and whichever of them should arrive there first, victory should stand with that one. The eagle flies forth, the tortoise being despised on account of its slowness, and trusting in its wings, it often rests, often wanders elsewhere and acts sluggishly, sometimes sleeps the whole night, and begins its flight much later in the day. But the tortoise does not interrupt its labor for a moment. Day and night it travels, and creeps toward the appointed place. It conquers the eagle by its diligence, not by swiftness, and holds the goal, when it was still thought to be far distant from it. Mystically, or rather truly in the spiritual race of the way of virtues, salvation and happiness, according to that saying of Paul: "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy," Romans IX, 16; and that saying of Habakkuk III, 19: "God the Lord is my strength: and he will make my feet like the feet of harts. And he will make me to walk upon high places, singing a hymn of victory;" and that saying of Isaiah, XL, 31: "But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." See what I have noted on those passages. NOR THE MIGHTY (who are considered strong and terrible, says the Thaumaturgus) WAR. — Symmachus, to win battle; the Septuagint, nor to the mighty battle; the Syriac, and not the giant's war, according to that: "The giant shall not be saved in the multitude of his strength," Psalm XXXII, 16. Thus Goliath the giant was overcome and slain in single combat by the small David, I Kings XVII, 49; Holofernes by a woman. The Chaldee, neither are the strong helped when they enter battle by their own strength, according to that: "He will not have pleasure in the strength of the horse, nor will he be pleased in the legs of a man," Psalm CXLVI, 10. Campensis translated less correctly, neither are the strong employed to wage wars; the Zurich version better, nor can martial strength snatch anyone away. By the strong therefore understand here those strong in body rather than in mind and martial strength; for nothing is so uncertain as the outcome of war: for the smallest thing, such as a favorable or adverse wind, gives or takes away victory. Whence in Scripture victory is said to be God's, according to that of Judas Maccabeus: "It is easy to be shut up many in the hands of few: and there is no difference in the sight of God of heaven to deliver with many, or with few: for victory in battle is not in the multitude of the army, but strength is from heaven," I Maccabees cap. III, 18; and that of David: "Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight," Psalm CXLIII, 1. Indeed Ovid also, VII Metamorphoses: Between the two flies victory on doubtful wings, Mars uncertain. And Livy, lib. II: "Nowhere less than in war does the outcome correspond to expectations; therefore nothing is so slight that it does not make the moment of a great matter;" nay, often by fear alone, and panic terror sent upon enemies by chance, nay sent from heaven, victory has been won without arms, as was that of Gideon, Judges VIII; and that of Jehoshaphat, IV Kings III, 22. Very many similar examples exist in the book of Judges, Kings and Maccabees. NOR THE BREAD OF THE WISE. — Symmachus, to provide nourishment. In the Hebrew there is a beautiful allusion and paronomasia: לחכמים lachacamim, that is to the wise, agreeing with לחם lechem, that is bread often is lacking. Some understand by the wise farmers, to whom, though industrious, on account of sterility, plundering, desolation, grain and bread often are lacking. Better you should understand the learned and educated, such as philosophers and theologians, who are often poor, because they devote themselves entirely to contemplation and wisdom which surpasses riches, not to heaping up gold, which the unlearned and mechanics do. Whence the saying of the Rabbis: "Famine came, and did not pass through the door of the craftsman," because craftsmen easily prepare their livelihood by their craft. Hear St. Jerome: "There is not," he says, "bread for the wise; this is proved daily by the example of many, who though they are most wise, lack necessities. The Chaldee, neither shall the wise be helped by his wisdom, that he may be satisfied with bread in time of famine; Campensis, and often the wise lack wherewith to live. NOR THE RICHES OF THE LEARNED. — For the learned in Hebrew is נבנים nebonim, that is the understanding, as the Septuagint translates, the prudent, the skillful; for we see that not rarely the industrious and skillful are impoverished; Campensis translated, the industrious; Cajetan, understandings. "Aristophanes in the comedy Plutus introduces him blind. But Demetrius said that not only Plutus, that is riches, is blind, but also Fortune the guide of Plutus; so that now that saying of Proverbs holds: The blind leading the blind. Fortune often bestows her gifts upon the unworthy." Thus Laertius, lib. V, cap. V. Hence the Thaumaturgus translated, nor is wisdom wont to have anything in common with riches; Pagninus for nebonim reading nechonim, translated, the riches of the upright are not. NOR THE GRACE OF CRAFTSMEN. — The Syriac version reads, nor to those knowing glory; Vatablus, that those skilled in some art are not always gracious. For craftsmen in Hebrew is יודעים iodeim, that is, of the knowing, as the Septuagint translates it, by whom Olympiodorus and Vatablus understand those who know the arts of capturing the favor and grace of men, for favor often flees those who desire favor, just as honor flees those who pursue it and pursues those who flee; the Chaldean version, the prudent; Thaumaturgus, the sagacious; Clarius, the expert and those skilled in things. But because these understand by the name nebonim which preceded, hence our Author aptly translates it, craftsmen, namely mechanical workers, or mathematicians and the like. St. Bonaventure holds that the first two, namely swiftness and strength, are gifts of the body, the other three are of the soul, for wisdom is in the heart, learning in the mouth, art in the work. Renowned craftsmen are accustomed to be in favor and esteem both with princes and with the people, but not rarely by some adverse chance the contrary happens, and this is the vanity of arts and craftsmen, which Solomon here notes. Plutarch, in the book On Fortune, relates that Appelles, when painting a panting horse and not being able to express the panting sufficiently, driven by anger, threw his brush at the image, and thus by chance expressed the color of foam, and accomplished what he sought, so that he gained the favor and admiration of all. BUT TIME AND CHANCE IN ALL THINGS. — The Hebrew reads, but time and occurrence befalls all those; the Arabic, sustains them all; the Chaldean, time and chance in their star happens to all, for the Chaldeans referred the course and chance of human affairs to the stars, whence they divined concerning these from them; Campensis, time and chance removes all from the midst; but this seems alien and contrary. Time, — that is, a suitable or unsuitable occasion for accomplishing a thing, for he who seizes a suitable occasion accomplishes the thing happily, he who seizes an unsuitable one, unhappily: thus he who seizes soft times for speaking, obtains what he asks; he who seizes hard and rough times, suffers rejection. Time therefore and occasion rule over things to be done, as I said in chapter III, 1. Occurrence and concurrence of contingent causes, which, while they concur by chance, produce chance and fortuitous effect. Cajetan by time understands the motion of the celestial spheres, which produce fortuitous effects in sublunary things; Aben-Ezra by chance understands God's providence, for this, as I said at the beginning, governs all chances and fortuitous events, and therefore it itself is fortune that makes fortunate. Better do others by chance understand the cause and fortuitous effect, which in all things does not always, but often happen. Whence St. Thomas, I part. Question LXXV, art. 6, ad 1, and Question V of Truth, art. 5, ad 5, shrewdly notes that time and chance are said: because, he says, according to some order of time fortuitous defects are found in these things, for example that the more powerful frequently succumb, shows that victory is more from divine providence than from human virtue. Excellently St. Augustine, book III On the Trinity, chapter IV: "Nothing," he says, "happens visibly and sensibly, which is not from the inner invisible and intelligible hall of the highest Emperor either commanded or permitted according to the ineffable justice of rewards and punishments, graces and retributions, in this most ample and immense commonwealth of all creation." Note: Cases or contingent effects properly are those alone which are made by a free cause, namely by God, an angel, a demon or a man; otherwise indeed rains, winds, thunderbolts and other natural things are determined and certain in their causes; but when these causes are freely changed and combined by God, an angel, a demon or a man, then from them proceed contingent and casual effects. Hence the Romans, Greeks and other nations wonderfully worshipped Fortune, as a goddess, indeed the first of the gods, who rules all things, and makes these men handsome, wealthy, happy, those deformed, poor, miserable; hence so many temples, so many altars, so many names of Fortune. "She herself," says St. Chrysostom, Oration 63, "is the victory of those waging war, and the concord of those making peace, and the goodwill of those contracting marriages, and the pleasure of lovers, and briefly good success in every matter." Servius Tullius, says Plutarch, Roman Questions LXXIV, dedicated a temple to "small fortune, signifying that fortune can do very much in the smallest moments, and it has happened in many cases that from very small things either occurring or contingent, men have obtained or lost the greatest things, teaching that the mind ought to be attentive to things, and nothing of those things which are offered ought to be neglected on account of its smallness;" the same again: "There is," he says, "to this day no temple of Wisdom, nor of Temperance, or Tolerance, or Magnanimity, or Continence: but temples of Fortune are splendid and ancient, and almost placed with the first foundations of Rome." Cornelius Sulla, says the same Plutarch in his Life of Sulla, "called himself the son of fortune." Pre-eminent among the rest was the basilica of Fortune in the city of Fano, which was hence called the temple of Fortune, concerning which Nicholas Perottus, Bishop of Siponto, writes thus in Book I of Martial: "From fando (speaking) fanum (temple) is derived, that is a temple, which the Pontiff is accustomed to pronounce certain words in the dedication of the temple; although there are some who prefer it derived ἀπὸ τοῦ φανεροῦ, which means manifest, because responses were given from the temple, etc. Hence Fano, a city of Picenum, on the shore of the Adriatic between Pisaurum and Senogallia, the most pleasant of all the cities of Italy, whether you consider the nature of the place or the character of the citizens, because in it there was a most beautiful temple of Fortune, whose remains are still to be seen: hence the Fanestrians or Fanesians are called." Vitruvius, the prince of architects, presided over the construction of this temple of Fortune, who dedicating his books On Architecture to Augustus Caesar, as a prince devoted to building, was increased by him in benefits and honors, thus writes of this temple, Book V, Chapter 1, near the end: "Comparisons of basilicas can have no less supreme dignity and majesty, which kind I placed in the Colony of Julia Fanestri, and took care to have made, whose proportions and symmetries are thus constituted;" he then describes them exactly and at length, and adds that this temple was next to the temple of Augustus. See more concerning this temple in Sigonius and Cluverius in the Description of Italy. St. Fortunatus was Bishop of the temple of Fortune, concerning whom presently. For this profane temple of Fortune was converted by Christians into a holy temple dedicated in honor of the Blessed Virgin, who is the true fortune of the faithful, making them fortunate and enriching them with all gifts and blessing them, whose magnificence therefore, and especially of a certain chapel dedicated to the Virgin assumed, equally as its religion, a whole book of poems celebrated with wonderful praises by many and the first poets of Italy, one of whom thus begins: This was the temple of Fortune, now of the Virgin: she Is a divinity (rather a name), this one the mother of a great divinity. Seneca, epistle 14: "The wise man, he says, looks to the beginning of all things, not to the end. For the beginnings are in our power; fortune judges of the outcome." The same, epistle 38: "Disease, he says, invades the most temperate, consumption the most vigorous, punishment the most innocent, tumult the most secluded. Chance selects something new, through which, as if forgotten, it may thrust its forces upon us. He has given a long delay to evils hastening, who has appointed a day, an hour, and a moment of time." Nero, says Suetonius, chapter XIII of his Life, "addressed judges, before he began, most reverently, saying that he had done all that was to be done, but that the outcome was in the hand of fortune." Plutarch in the Pseudo-Plutarch: "The goddess Fortune overcomes the counsels of a hundred learned men. And this is true, that just as each one uses fortune, so he excels; and from this we all say he is wise." Livy, Decade I, book IX: "In all things, he says, human, and especially in matters of war, fortune is powerful;" Aemilius, book I: "Fortune conducts peace and especially wars by her own judgment. She, he says, imposes tranquility on the sea, summer on winter, swiftness on the slowest, strength on the most sluggish." Finally the Jews worshipped Fortune, against whom Isaiah therefore inveighed, chapter LXV, 11: "You who set, he says, a table for Fortune, and pour libations upon it;" where I have said much concerning fortune. Morally Solomon teaches here that all sublunary things, as being subject to fickle fortune, are vain and various, and therefore are to be held of little account, and consequently against all cases of fortune, even adverse ones, and against death itself, the wise man ought to strengthen his mind with fortitude and constancy. Plato and the philosophers followed Solomon as a teacher in the customary manner. Hence Bion, as Stobaeus testifies, sermon 103, said "Fortune has given riches to the rich, not as a gift, but as a loan." Croesus, when consulted by Cyrus concerning war to be undertaken against Tomyris, in which he was afterwards slain: "If, he says, you acknowledge yourself to be a man, you will recognize that such is the circle of human affairs, which, being turned, does not allow the same to remain always fortunate." Demetrius said that he who could not bear adverse fortune could not bear favorable fortune either. Whence he himself spoke that saying of Aeschylus concerning fortune: "You have exalted me, you yourself again cast me down." Thus Antonius in the Melissa, part I, chapter LXX. The saying of Romulus was: "All things are deceptive and falling which fortune holds in her power." Thus Maximus, sermon 18. Fabius Maximus feared the favorable fortune of his colleague Minutius more than the adverse, because fortune is unstable and varies its turns, and leaps from favorable to adverse circumstances, and when she shows her face, soon turns her back. Thus Plutarch in the Life of Fabius. Zeno, when he had lost all things in a shipwreck: "Well done, he said, fortune, how well you have reduced us to this cloak." Socrates remained unmoved against all the storms of fortune with the same mind, the same countenance. Whence St. Jerome says that in Christian virtue there is required the Socratic strength of mind. Seneca, in the book On Tranquility of Mind, teaches that the wise man through virtue and vigor of mind is superior to all fortune and injury. Whence, when he had reviewed heroes slain by unjust chance, such as Socrates, Pompey, Cicero, and "the best suffering the worst," he adds the remedy: "So much the stronger, he says, so much the happier, you have escaped human chances, envy, disease; you go forth from custody: you were not deemed worthy by the gods to suffer evil fortune, but unworthy—those upon whom fortune could no longer have any power." Hear him the same, epistle 92 and 98, where among other things he gives these axioms of life: "Against fortune a mind completely strengthened avails for endurance; all mortal things are condemned to death; we live among things perishing; every good of mortals is mortal. Nothing firm is in the weak, nothing eternal and unconquered is in the fragile; it is as necessary to perish as to lose. Say to fortune: You have to do with a man; seek one whom you may conquer. Say to yourself: Of these things which seem terrible, nothing is unconquered. Many have already conquered individual things—Mutius conquered fire, Regulus the cross, Socrates poison, Rutilius exile, Cato death by the sword; and let us conquer something." Tacitly therefore Solomon here admonishes us that we transfer our mind from sublunary things, as being subject to the moon, that is, to various change through times, to the chance of fortune, to heavenly things, which surpass all the chance and sport of fortune, and know not rising and setting, but dwell in the stable age of angels and the blessed. Wise indeed and happy is he who accomplishes this. St. Fortunatus of Fano (an ancient city in the Pentapolis of Umbria, called the Temple of Fortune, because it was dedicated to him, as I said above) accomplished this very thing, Bishop in the year of the Lord 592, contemporary with St. Gregory. Whence the people of Fano placed this inscription for him: Fortunate beyond measure, who, about to reign forever, fix the unstable wheel of Fortune on its axis. Fortunatus therefore was the Bishop of fortune, its moderator and ruler. Whence the same people add these heroic verses of his virtues: "St. Fortunatus freed his country from unclean spirits. He drove away the plague raging on account of his basilica being abandoned. He deterred those secretly carrying away his sacred body by the violence of winds and dust. Manna flowing from his mausoleum and the bones of the Saint confers health on the pious sick, death on the impious. A woman of Urbino, divinely admonished, visiting his body, was healed." I received these things from the public records of the Faentines, and I saw them inscribed on a very large image of him, cast and approved at Rome. There exists an epistle of St. Gregory, book VI of the Register, in order 13, to this St. Fortunatus, Bishop of Faenza, in which he grants to him that he might sell sacred vessels for the redemption of captives, namely from the Lombards, as Baronius rightly noted: for these in that age were laying waste Italy. Finally, when in the year 1107 the Faentines sought the sacred relics of St. Fortunatus, they found them enclosed in the mausoleum with the relics of St. Eusebius and St. Ursus, Bishops of the Church of Faenza, white as snow, so that you might already contemplate in them an image of future glorification through resurrection, especially since such a fragrance of odor flowed forth that it surpassed the scents of myrrh and balsam and all ointments in incomparable sweetness. Thus Saints rule over fortune and all fortuitous things.
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Tropologically, food, hook and snare, by which men are baited and caught, is pleasure. Hear St. Augustine, On the Combat of Christ, chapter VII: "The fish rejoices when, not seeing the hook, it devours the bait; but when the fisherman begins to draw it, its entrails are first tormented, then from all its joy by that very bait in which it rejoiced, it is dragged to destruction. So it is with all who think themselves blessed by temporal goods: for they have received the hook, and with it they wander about for themselves. There will come a time when they feel what torments they have devoured with greed." Moreover, this pleasure is manifold, but chiefly threefold, namely of gluttony, wealth and pride. By some one of these man is caught, and delighting and laughing binds the chains of death upon himself, as the Poet says. To the snare of wealth or avarice pertains the maxim, or apophthegm of Pope Pius II: "Litigants are birds, the forum is the field, the judge is the net, advocates are fowlers. Wherefore he thought that dignities ought to be given to men, not dignities to men. It is a grave burden of the Pontiff, but blessed is he who bears it well." For the first and most important burden and duty of the Pontiff and prince is to establish Bishops, magistrates, judges, etc., untouched by avarice and worthy of such rank. Hence St. Antony, as St. Athanasius testifies, in a vision beheld the whole world full of snares, which demons stretched out for souls striving to ascend on high, and by these they ensnared and caught them. Whence grieving and praying: "Lord, who shall escape these snares?" he heard: "Humility." For the demon spreads snares for man in all things, and snares suited to each one's nature and affection; for the gluttonous he offers feasts and wines, for the ambitious honors, for the wrathful duels, for the fearful dangers, for the avaricious riches, etc. Hear St. Leo, sermon 7 On the Nativity: "The ancient enemy ceases not to spread snares of deception everywhere. He knows to whom he may apply the heat of cupidity, to whom he may bring the allurements of gluttony, to whom he may set the incitements of lust, to whom he may pour the poison of envy. He knows whom he may trouble with sorrow, whom he may deceive with joy, whom he may oppress with fear, whom he may seduce with admiration. He examines the habit of all, ventilates their cares, scrutinizes their affections, and seeks there causes of harm, where he sees each one more earnestly occupied." IN TIME OF EVIL (that is, wretched, difficult, dangerous, calamitous, destructive) WHEN IT SHALL SUDDENLY COME UPON THEM. — In Hebrew, when it shall fall upon them; in Greek, when it shall fall upon them from above: which phrase signifies that the inevitability and superiority of sudden punishment proceeds from higher causes, namely from heaven and angels, as Cajetan says. The Chaldean: in time of evil, which shall fall upon them in one instant from heaven. Understand any great thing, but especially death and hell, which is the greatest of all evils, according to that of Paul: "The day of the Lord, as a thief in the night, shall so come; for when they shall say, Peace and security, then shall sudden destruction come upon them, as the pains upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape," I Thess. V, 3. And that of Christ: "As in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and they knew not till the flood came and took them all away: so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be," Matt. XXIV, 38.
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would have delivered him to Saul, had he not fled with God's counsel. Thus Gideon delivered the Jews from the Midianites, and yet the Jews did not show mercy to his house, to protect his seventy sons, while they were being slain by Abimelech, Judges cap. VIII, 35. For the wise man is wholly intent upon the public good, so that he may dispel its disadvantages and enemies: wherefore he seeks and finds ways of saving the city, whereas the foolish are occupied with their own advantages and wealth, and neglect public matters. Whence the Thaumaturgus says that he would consider a small city inhabited by few people to be great and well-populated, if it had even one poor wise citizen. Allegorically, Christ, most wise and for our sake most poor, delivered the Church, which is a small city in respect to the whole world, from the tyranny of the demon and sin: and yet many ungrateful people do not acknowledge this benefit of his, nay, they spurn him and his grace, and give themselves over to their own pleasures. Thus St. Jerome. Tropologically: "Otherwise the Hebrew," says St. Jerome, "has interpreted this passage. A small city is man, he says, who is also called by philosophers the lesser world. And few men in it are the members of which man himself is composed. But when there comes against it a great king, the devil (the devil is a serpent, slippery, and if resistance is not made to his head, that is, to the first suggestion, he entirely steals into the interior of the heart while not being felt; the beginnings of diabolical temptations are shameful deeds; he is not an inflictor but an instigator of vices. Whence David: Thou hast broken the head of the dragon), and he seeks a place through which he might break in, there is found in it a humble and wise man, and a quiet sense of the interior man, and he will deliver the city, which was besieged by enemies and surrounded. And when man has been delivered from danger, whether of persecution, or of straits, or of any adverse thing and sin, that outer man, who is the enemy of that poor and wise man, does not remember the interior man, nor does he submit himself to his counsels, but again enjoys his free will." The Chaldean adds, who understands by the small city the body of man; by the besieging king, concupiscence; by the wise and poor man, good inspiration and thought, which resists concupiscence, and delivers man from sin and hell, which man then forgets. Morally, note here that the wise love silence, quiet, and poverty. The wise man, says Plutarch, lives so that no one feels him living. Again, wisdom has great affinity with poverty, as foolishness has with wealth. Yet the wise man, when it is necessary and his country needs his help, comes into the light, and unfolds his wisdom for its salvation, as Jeremiah, Isaiah and the other Prophets did. Wisely Philo, in the book On Sacrifices, Cain and Abel: "Every wise man," he says, "is the redemption of the foolish, and the reward does not last even for the shortest time, unless he, moved by his mercy and providence, looks out for his safety." Whence he soon infers: "Indeed, when I see some good man dwelling in some house or city, I proclaim that house and city blessed, thinking that the present happiness will remain perpetual, and the absent to be expected more abundantly, God being accustomed to pour out his riches beyond all measure and proportion for the sake of the worthy, even upon the unworthy." Furthermore, why the wise are often poor, Aristotle assigns various and hasty causes in Problems, sect. XXIX, cap. IV. For he asks: "Why is poverty accustomed to be among good men rather than among the wicked? Is it because it is hated by all and expelled, it takes refuge with the good, thinking especially that it can obtain safety and a place of remaining among them? On the contrary, if it comes to the wicked, it will never be content with them, but they will either commit thefts or robberies, by which things it will come to pass that it can no longer remain among them. Is it because he thinks that good men will use it best, and will not do anything to it petulantly and insultingly? And so just as we entrust deposits of money safely to good men, so also does it dispense and establish itself with them. Does it willingly betake itself to the best men, because it is a woman, and thus lacking in strength and counsel, so that it greatly wishes and desires to be commended to such men? Or because it is evil, does it never wish to join itself to the wicked? For if it should so wish, it would be considered an altogether irremediable evil." He then asks in turn cap. VIII: "Why are riches for the most part possessed by wicked men rather than good men? Is it because fortune is blind, and therefore cannot discern for itself, and choose what is better?" Again note here that benefits to the poor produce not only contempt, but also hatred and envy: wherefore they take away from them the salvation brought to the city, and transfer it to themselves or other powerful men. They despise therefore, says Pineda, both the poor benefactor, whom it shames to acknowledge the author of the benefit, and they esteem a benefit received from a poor man as an injury: in this plainly foolish, in that clearly ungrateful, in both insolently proud, because they are unwilling that anything be owed to a poor man, nor to constitute themselves his debtors, nor to be bound by any gratitude to love in return the poor benefactor. And so, since it is most hostile to give a benefit proudly, it is also most insolent to receive a benefit proudly. See Seneca, book II On Benefits, chapters XVII, XVIII, XIX. This is what Job says of the just man, chapter XII, 5: "The lamp despised in the thoughts of the rich, prepared for a time appointed." Finally, the leaders and liberators of the country experience it ungrateful, as Scipio, Themistocles, Miltiades, Coriolanus and others experienced, who, after bringing victories to their citizens, were driven by them into exile.
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Wisdom, namely already known and tested through the liberation of the city, as if to say: What is this ungrateful stupidity of men, that, when they have seen themselves escape siege and destruction through the counsel of the wise man, yet now that they are liberated they spurn him, and are unwilling to hear further his salutary admonitions and counsels, which regard the preservation and safety of the city? because forsooth they look only to external splendor and pomp, and admire this in the rich, and therefore despise wisdom in the poor man destitute of this pomp. Strength here is understood not of the soul, but of the body, namely in vigor, riches or friends; for this is what it signifies in Greek δύναμις, in Hebrew גבורה gebura, in Chaldean, coach. Whence the Septuagint, wisdom is good over strength; St. Jerome, over riches and strength; Thaumaturgus, over popular strength. For "how" in Hebrew it is "and," which in Hebrew is taken for any conjunction. Whence some here translate, "and yet"; others, "therefore"; St. Jerome in the old edition translated, "although": And "I said," he says, "that wisdom is better than strength, etc., although no one remembers that poor wise man, when all things are joyful, but all admire riches and strength; I nevertheless according to all interpretations honor more the despised wisdom, and the words which no one deigns to hear." But in the later Vulgate version he translated more forcefully, "how"; for this note of interrogation contains indignation with admiration, and drives the discourse to exaggerate the unworthiness of the matter. Akin to this maxim is that one in Wisdom VI, 1: "Wisdom is better than strength: and a wise man than a strong man." Whence also that of Phocylides: "Better than the strong is the wise man; for wisdom governs fields and cities equally as a ship." Understand the strong in body; for he who is strong in soul is the same as wise. Whence Cicero, III Tusculan Disputations: "He teaches that all wise men are strong, and all strong men are wise." For wisdom teaches to overcome fear, to moderate boldness, in dangers and difficult matters to be exalted in spirit, and with firm judgment concerning constancy, to prefer life to virtue, and to despise death, which are the duties and acts proper to fortitude. This is what is said in Proverbs XX, 18: "Thoughts are strengthened by counsels: and wars are to be managed by guidance." This is evident in military stratagems, which the cunning use to subjugate enemies.
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First, Aben-Ezra and Osorius explain it thus, that is to say: The words of the wise are despised by citizens when things are prosperous; but when siege and destruction threaten, being silent from fear and sorrow, they are eagerly heard. Second, Arboreus, that is to say: The wise man does not cry out in the crowd and noise, but seeks solitude away from the crowd, where he may speak and be heard in silence. Titelmannus agrees, who understands by silence a submissive and modest voice, as is the custom of the wise; and Campensis, the words of the wise, even if they do not cry out much, are more efficacious than the shouting of a foolish prince. Third, Clarius and Dionysius hold that here a reason is given why the words of the wise are not heard, namely because they require a silent mind, that is, a quiet, peaceful, and free from the tumult of passions, which the people, burning with desires, cannot provide. Fourth, others hold that wisdom speaks silently, that is, in a lowered voice either from shame, because it is poor, or from fear and sorrow, because it sees itself despised, or rather from piety and gravity, that is to say: When a city is besieged and the governor speaks loudly about the city's danger and its remedies, and the people are in tumult, while one man shouts approval for this counsel, another for another, then the wise man, coming forth from his quiet, by his gravity and wisdom commanding silence to the people, calms all things, brings tranquility, orders and arranges them, and proposes the most wholesome remedy for freeing the city. This sense is very apt. Fifth and genuinely, Solomon here comforts the wise poor man, and therefore despised, and consequently faint-hearted and sorrowful, because his counsels and admonitions are not heard, as I said in the preceding verse. But he comforts him from the fact that these same things are heard in silence, that is to say: Although the noisy and tumultuous crowd does not hear the words of wisdom, yet prudent and wise men hear them, and receive them with great silence of mouth and quietness of heart, and with greater applause, approval and reverence, than clamorous princes or the rich are heard by foolish flatterers, who applaud before them, but hiss and jeer at them in their absence. Note that the words of the wise proceed from the mind of one speaking in silence, that is, quiet, serene, grave, pious, prudent, and therefore are heard by wise listeners in silence, that is, with a settled, tranquil and attentive mind. Just as, conversely, the cry of a prince is heard with the clamorous applause of fools flattering him. Silence and quiet are therefore opposed both in the wise man teaching and in the people hearing, to the cry and tumult both of the prince shouting and of the fools acclaiming him. Furthermore, the silence of the mouth of the wise man proceeds from the quiet and silence of the heart, and denotes his modesty, gentleness, benevolence, gravity, prudence, constancy and likewise efficacy: namely that his prudent, wise and forceful speech, even if modest, gentle and submissive, is more efficacious than the clamorous harangues, commands and edicts of princes, because silence indicates to all wise men, and indeed in siege and dangers, when all things are full of fear and disturbance, it brings peace and safety. Whence some translate and explain it thus: The silence of the wise is more efficacious than the cry of the ruler with his foolish followers, that is, one voice of the wise is worth more for the safety of the republic than a thousand clamorous magistrates with the tumultuous people, which may restrain the tumult of the people, settle seditions, bring about unity, disperse harmful counsels, and suggest and persuade wholesome ones: the wise therefore are moderate and submissive in voice as well as in mind, the foolish are clamorous and tumultuous. "The soul," says Olympiodorus, "which is filled with foolishness, utters words with clamor and turbulence without quiet, order and constancy;" and St. Jerome: "Whoever you see in the church as a declaimer, and with a certain allurement and elegance of words exciting applause and drawing forth laughter, stirring the hearers to emotions of joy, know it to be a sign of foolishness both of him who speaks and of those who hear. For the words of the wise are heard in quiet and moderate silence; but he who is foolish, even though he be powerful and have a clamor either of his own voice or of the people acclaiming him, shall be counted among the foolish." This is what Isaiah says of Christ, the wisest of all, XLII, 2: "He shall not cry, nor take up a person, nor shall his voice be heard abroad, etc. He shall not be sad, nor turbulent;" and cap. VIII, verse 6: The waters of Siloe "which go with silence." For just as waters flowing gently and as it were silently are very deep, so also men modest and taciturn are of deep counsel and judgment. Anagogically, the just and oppressed and silent in judgment shall cry out against the wicked oppressors, according to that passage in Wisdom, V, 1: "Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those who have afflicted them." Whence the Thaumaturgus translates it: Here wisdom is silent and despised, but afterwards it shall be heard uttering a louder voice than princes and tyrants burning with the evil desire of power.
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AND HE THAT HATH OFFENDED IN ONE THING, SHALL LOSE MANY GOOD THINGS. — From the Hebrew to one can be translated variously. For the Hebrew texts have word for word, one sinner; the Septuagint, he that sins; whence Thaumaturgus, the folly of one; and the Chaldean, one sinful man, who is in a generation, is the cause that many good things perish from this age; but St. Jerome in the old edition, he who sins one; the Syriac, and one sin loses many good things; the Arabic, when one has sinned, much good will perish. It is an antithesis of wisdom and folly, or of the wise man and the fool, as if to say: Wisdom prevails over arms, because it preserves and liberates even entire cities closely besieged, and conquers and subdues all things: on the contrary, folly or a single instance of it loses and corrupts many good things, so much so that it subverts cities and kingdoms. Thus Cajetan, who aptly cites that adage here: "One fool casts a stone into a well, and a thousand wise men do not draw it out." Whence Thaumaturgus translates, the folly of one brings danger to many, even if it seems light and contemptible to many. Others explain it thus, as if to say: A small error at the beginning, unless immediately corrected, leads into many things and spreads far and wide, according to that saying: "One nail loses the horse's shoe, the shoe loses the horse, the horse loses the rider, the rider loses the camp, the camp loses the commonwealth." Some refer this maxim to war and the besieged city, of which the discourse preceded, as if it said: One error in war and in a besieged city, even a small one, not rarely loses the camp and city. Whence that common saying: "In war nothing, however small, is to be neglected." Or thus, as if it said: Wisdom is better than weapons of war: if however wisdom be exact, so that it errs in nothing; for if it errs even in one thing, it will lose many good things, namely its reputation and esteem, and the wealth and safety of those committed to it. But this sense is more restricted. For although these things are said on the occasion of the besieged city, and therefore properly regard war, yet the general maxim has place both in peace and in war, and is true everywhere. Examples are: Adam one man, by one sin of disobedience lost all his posterity, as much as Achan lost all the camp of Israel, Joshua VII. The foolish stubbornness of one Rehoboam lost ten tribes. One Jezebel, one Ahab, one Manasseh—how much and how many things did they lose? Mystically (which however many think to be literal), he that offends in one thing, as if he departs from one true good, namely wisdom, loses many good things, or, as from the Hebrew with the Septuagint can be translated, much goodness, that is, he who commits one mortal sin will lose grace, charity and the other virtues; so that here nearly the same thing is said as in James II, 10: "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all." Thus St. Jerome: "Thus," he says, "it is to be understood, that on account of one sin many justices perish; and virtues follow one another in turn, and he who has one has all; and he who has offended in one is subject to all vices." So also St. Bonaventure, Hugh, Lyra, Dionysius and Olympiodorus, whom hear: "One, whoever he may be, while he defiles himself with the filth of sin, and corrupts the good things which were seated in him from acquired virtues, and also leads many by evil example to imitation." So also Rabanus in the Gloss: "One fool," he says, "corrupts many."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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Finally, mention should be made of the texts that recommend perfect conjugal fidelity (Prov. 5:15-20; 6:24-35; 23:26-28; Eccl. 9:1-13; Mal. 2:14 ff., etc.) or describe the ideal wife (Prov. 31:10-31; Eccl. 26:1-24) in opposition to the perverse one (Eccl. 25:17-36). For the preference of the married state …
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… The E., which on the Mâl affirms the same conception as the other sacred books of the Old Testament (cf. Eccl. 9:5-10 and the passages cited above), necessarily admits that something survives the human person (nephês) that comes to an end, the body that disintegrates; person, body, which here it …
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.