The fear of God is the best security. Times and men are in the hands of God. Take care of thyself as long as thou livest, and look to thy servants.
Feare of God defendeth from al aduersaries. 5. Follie is vnconstant. 8. God disposeth al to the best. 13. Man is in Gods hand, as clay in the po•ters. 20. Superiors must keepe their auctoritie: and their subiectes in discipline.
1No evils shall happen to him that feareth the Lord, but in temptation God will keep him and deliver him from evils.A chi teme il Signore, nulla avverrà di male, ma nella tentazione Iddio lo conserverà, e lo libererà dai mali.TO him that feareth our Lord euils shal not happen, but in tentation God wil keepe him, and deliuer him from euils.Timenti Dominum non occurrent mala: / sed in tentatione Deus illum conservabit, et liberabit a malis. / Sapiens non odit mandata et justitias, 2A wise man hateth not the commandments and justices, and he shall not be dashed in pieces as a ship in a storm.L'uomo sapiente non odia i comandamenti, e la legge, e non darà negli scogli, come una nave in tempesta.A wise man hateth not the commandments and iustices, and he shal not be shaken as a shippe in a storme.et non illidetur quasi in procella navis. 3A man of understanding is faithful to the law of God, and the law is faithful to him.L'uomo sensato è fedele alla legge di Dio, e la legge è fedele a lui.A man of vnderstanding beleueth the law of God, and the law is sure to him.Homo sensatus credit legi Dei, / et lex illi fidelis. 4He that cleareth up a question, shall prepare what to say, and so having prayed he shall be heard, and shall keep discipline, and then he shall answer.Chi illustra un quesito, si preparerà a discorrerne, e così dopo fatta orazione sarà esaudito, e conserverà la buona dottrina, a allora risponderà.He that repeteth an interrogation, shal better prepare his answer, and so shal be heard, and shal keepe discipline.Qui interrogationem manifestat parabit verbum, / et sic deprecatus exaudietur: / et conservabit disciplinam, et tunc respondebit. 5The heart of a fool is as a wheel of a cart: and his thoughts are like a rolling axletree.Il cuore dello stolto è come la ruota di un carro, e i suoi pensieri son come un asse, che gira.The hart of a foole is as a wheele of a carte: & his cogitation as a turning axeltree.Præcordia fatui quasi rota carri, / et quasi axis versatilis cogitatus illius. 6A friend that is a mocker, is like a stallion horse: he neigheth under every one that sitteth upon him.L'amico finto è come un cavallo stallone, il quale nitrisce a chiunque il cavalca.A stalion horse neyeth vnder euerie one that sitteth vpon him, so a freind that is a scorner.Equus emissarius, sic et amicus subsannator: / sub omni supra sedente hinnit.
7Why doth one day excel another, and one light another, and one year another year, when all come of the sun?Donde avvien egli, che un giorno è da più di un altro, e la luce di un dì è da più di un'altra, e un anno da più dell'altro, sendo tutti dal sole?Why doth one day excel an other, and one light an other, and one yeare an other yeare of the sunne?Quare dies diem superat, et iterum lux lucem, / et annus annum a sole ? 8By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished, the sun being made, and keeping his commandment.La sapienza del Signore li distinse dopo creato il sole, che ubbidisce agli ordini ricevuti.By the knowlege of our Lord they were seperated, the sunne being made, and keeping the precept.A Domini scientia separati sunt, / facto sole, et præceptum custodiente. 9And he ordered the seasons, and holidays of them, and in them they celebrated festivals at an hour.Egli ordinò le stagioni, e in esse i loro giorni festivi, onde in quelle si celebrano le solennità all'ora stabilita.And he changed times, and the festiual daies thereof, and in the same they celebrated the festiual daies at an houre.Et immutavit tempora, et dies festos ipsorum, / et in illis dies festos celebraverunt ad horam. 10Some of them God made high and great days, and some of them he put in the number of ordinary days. And all men are from the ground, and out of the earth, from whence Adam was created.Di essi giorni Dio alcuni li fece grandi, ed altri lasciò nella turba de' giorni; e tutti gli uomini li fece di polvere, e di terra, donde fu creato Adamo.Of them God exalted and magnified, and of them he put into the number of daies. And al men are of the ground, and of the earth, from whence Adam was created. In the multitude of the disciplineEx ipsis exaltavit et magnificavit Deus, / et ex ipsis posuit in numerum dierum: / et omnes homines de solo et ex terra unde creatus est Adam. 11With much knowledge the Lord hath divided them and diversified their ways.Colla sua molta sapienza il Signore li distinse, e variò le lor condizioni.of our Lord he separated them, and changed their waiesIn multitudine disciplinæ Dominus separavit eos, / et immutavit vias eorum. 12Some of them hath he blessed, and exalted: and some of them hath he sanctified, and set near himself: and some of them hath he cursed and brought low, and turned them from their station.Di essi altri ne benedisse, e gli esaltò, e ne santificò, e ne prese per se, e altri maledisse, e umiliò, e li discacciò dal paese dove stavano separati.Of them he blessed, and exalted: and of them he sanctified, and applied to himself: and of them he cursed and humbled, and conuerted them from their separation.Ex ipsis benedixit et exaltavit, / et ex ipsis sanctificavit, et ad se applicavit, / et ex ipsis maledixit, et humiliavit, / et convertit illos a separatione ipsorum.
13As the potter’s clay is in his hand, to fashion and order it:Come la creta del vasaio è nelle mani di lui per impastarla, e metterla in opera.As potters clay is in his hand, to fashion and dispose it.Quasi lutum figuli in manu ipsius, / plasmare illud et disponere. 14All his ways are according to his ordering: so man is in the hand of him that made him, and he will render to him according to his judgment.E l'uso di essa è in suo arbitrio; così l'uomo è nelle mani di colui, che lo fece, il quale renderà a lui secondo i suoi giudizj.Al his wayes according to his disposition: so man in the hand of him, and he wil render to him according to his iudgement.Omnes viæ ejus secundum dispositionem ejus: / sic homo in manu illius qui se fecit, / et reddet illi secundum judicium suum. 15Good is set against evil, and life against death: so also is the sinner against a just man. And so look upon all the works of the most High. Two and two, and one against another.Il bene è contrario al male, e la vita è contraria alla morte; così l'uomo giusto sta di contro al peccatore; e così tutte le opere dell'Altissimo le vedrai a due a due, e l'una opposta all'altra.Against euil is good, and against death life: so also against a iust man a sinner. And so looke vpon al the workes of the Highest. Two against two, and one against one.Contra malum bonum est, et contra mortem vita: / sic et contra virum justum peccator, / et sic intuere in omnia opera Altissimi, / duo et duo, et unum contra unum. 16And I awaked last of all, and as one that gathereth after the grapegatherers.Or io mi sono alzato l'ultimo, e come uno, che raspolla dopo i vendemmiatori.And I awaked last, and as he that gathereth bearies after the grape gatherers.Et ego novissimus evigilavi, / et quasi qui colligit acinos post vindemiatores. 17In the blessing of God I also have hoped: and as one that gathereth grapes, have I filled the winepress.Io pure nella benedizione di Dio ho sperato, e come un che vendemmia ho empiuto il tino.In the blessing of God I also haue hoped: and as he that gathereth grapes, haue I filled the wine presse.In benedictione Dei et ipse speravi, / et quasi qui vindemiat replevi torcular. 18See that I have not laboured for myself only, but for all that seek discipline.Mirate com'io non per me solo ho faticato, ma per tutti quelli, che cercano d'istruirsi.See that I haue not laboured for myself only, but for al that seeke out discipline.Respicite quoniam non mihi soli laboravi, / sed omnibus exquirentibus disciplinam. 19Hear me, ye great men, and all ye people, and hearken with your ears, ye rulers of the church.Ascoltate me, o magnati, e popoli tutti quanti, e voi, che presiedete all'adunanze, porgete attente le orecchie.Heare me ye great men, and al peoples, and ye rulers of the Church karken with your eares.Audite me, magnates et omnes populi: / et rectores ecclesiæ, auribus percipite.
20Give not to son or wife, brother or friend, power over thee while thou livest; and give not thy estate to another, lest thou repent, and thou entreat for the same.Al figliuolo, e alla moglie, al fratello, e all'amico non dar potestà sopra di te, fino, che tu se' vivo, e non cedere ad altri quelle cose, che tu possiedi, affinchè non avvenga, che ripentito tu debba inchinarti a ridomandarle.To sonne and wife, brother and freind, geue not power ouer ther in thy life: and geue not thy possession to an other: lest perhaps thou repent thee, and thou entreate for them.Filio et mulieri, fratri et amico, / non des potestatem super te in vita tua: / et non dederis alii possessionem tuam, / ne forte pœniteat te, et depreceris pro illis. 21As long as thou livest, and hast breath in thee, let no man change thee.Sino a tanto che tu se' al mondo, e respiri, nissun uomo ti faccia mutar di parere;Whiles thou art yet aliue and takest breath, al flesh shal not change thee.Dum adhuc superes et aspiras, / non immutabit te omnis caro. 22For it is better that thy children should ask of thee, than that thou look toward the hands of thy children.Perocché è meglio, che i tuoi figliuoli debban ricorrer a te, che se tu avessi ad aspettare l'aiuto de' figliuoli.For it is better that thy children aske of thee, then that thou looke toward the hands of thy children.Melius est enim ut filii tui te rogent, / quam te respicere in manus filiorum tuorum. 23In all thy works keep the pre-eminence.In tutte le cose tue mantieni la tua superiorità:In al thy workes be exquisite.In omnibus operibus tuis præcellens esto. 24Let no stain sully thy glory. In the time when thou shalt end the days of thy life, and in the time of thy decease, distribute thy inheritance.Affine di non macchiare la tua riputazione. E quando son per finire i giorni della tua vita, e nel tempo di tua morte distribuisci la tua eredità.Geue no staine to thy glorie. In the day of the consummation of the dayes of thy life, and in the time of thy decease distribute thine inheritance.Ne dederis maculam in gloria tua. / In die consummationis dierum vitæ tuæ, et in tempore exitus tui, / distribue hæreditatem tuam. 25Fodder, and a wand, and a burden are for an ass: bread, and correction, and work for a slave.Fieno, bastone, e soma all'asino; pane, sferza, e lavoro allo schiavo.Fodder, and wande, and burden for an asse: bread, and discipline, and worke for a seruant.Cibaria, et virga, et onus asino: / panis, et disciplina, et opus servo. 26He worketh under correction, and seeketh to rest: let his hands be idle, and he seeketh liberty.Questi lavora quand'è castigato, e ama il riposo: allarga con lui la mano, ed egli cercherà di mettersi in libertà.He worketh in discipline, and seeketh to rest: release him his handes, and he seeketh libertie.Operatur in disciplina, et quærit requiescere: / laxa manus illi, et quærit libertatem.
27The yoke and the thong bend a stiff neck, and continual labours bow a slave.Il giogo, e la fune piegano il collo duro, e l'assidua fatica ammansisce il servo.The yoke and the reyne bend a stiff necke, and continual workes do bowe a seruant.Jugum et lorum curvant collum durum, / et servum inclinant operationes assiduæ. 28Torture and fetters are for a malicious slave: send him to work, that he be not idle:Al servo di mala volontà battiture, e ceppi. Mandalo al lavoro, affinché non istia in ozio;For a malicious seruant torment & fetters, send him into worke, that he be not idle.Servo malevolo tortura et compedes: / mitte illum in operationem, ne vacet: 29For idleness hath taught much evil.Perocché l'oziosità di molli vizi è maestra.For idlenes hath taught much naughtines.multam enim malitiam docuit otiositas. 30Set him to work: for so it is fit for him. And if he be not obedient, bring him down with fetters, but be not excessive towards any one, and do no grievous thing without judgment.Costringilo a lavorare, perché ciò a lui si conviene, e se egli non sarà ubbidiente, fallo docile col metterlo a' ceppi, ma guardati dagli eccessi contro la carne di chicchessia, e non far cosa grave senza ponderazione.Set him to worke: for so it becometh him. And if he be not obedient, bow him with fetters, and exceede not ouer al flesh: but without iudgement doe no greuous thing.In opera constitue eum: / sic enim condecet illum. / Quod si non obaudierit, curva illum compedibus, / et non amplifices super omnem carnem: / verum sine judicio nihil facias grave. 31If thou have a faithful servant, let him be to thee as thy own soul: treat him as a brother: because in the blood of thy soul thou hast gotten him.Se tu hai un servo fedele, tienne conto come dell'anima tua: trattalo come fratello: perocché lo hai comperato col tuo sangue.If thou haue a faithful seruant, let him be vnto thee as thy soule: as a brother so entreate him: because in the bloud of thy soule thou hast gotten him.Si est tibi servus fidelis, sit tibi quasi anima tua: / quasi fratrem sic eum tracta, / quoniam in sanguine animæ comparasti illum. 32If thou hurt him unjustly, he will run away:Se tu ingiustamente il maltratti, egli si darà alla fuga.If thou hurt him vniustly, he wil runne away:Si læseris eum injuste, / in fugam convertetur: 33And if he rise up and depart, thou knowest not whom to ask, and in what way to seek him.Che se egli si toglie da te, e se ne va, tu non sai a chi domandarne, nè per qual via ricercarlo.if rising vp he depart: thou knowest not whom to aske, and what way to seeke him.et si extollens discesserit, / quem quæras et in qua via quæras illum nescis.
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Evils. God will make all turn to the advantage of the elect.
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Calmet
To him. God will fulfill all his promises. (Calmet)
Haydock
Greek continues, "as the interrogation (Haydock) of the Urim, (delon. Calmet) prepare what to say, and so thou shalt be heard. Put on instruction, and thus reply." (Haydock)
Speak not without being prepared.
33:5
Calmet
Cart. Inconstant and grating. (Calmet)
Worthington
The wicked turn from one vice to another, as heretics devise many errors, not having their heart established in grace, Hebrews 13:9. (Worthington)
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Calmet
Him. And will be unmanageable, (Menochius) when he has any thing to ridicule. (Calmet)
Horace
Qui captat risus. (Horace, 1:Sat. 4.)
33:7
Calmet
Another. God's will alone appoints one to be holy or fine; and another to be stormy, or dedicated to labour. (Calmet)
And one. Greek, "and all the light of the day throughout the year proceeds from the sun."
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The sun. Greek, "and he distinguished the seasons and holidays (10.) some," etc.
33:10
Haydock
Great. Greek, "holy." (Haydock)
Calmet
Thus all men are by nature equal. Yet what difference do we not find in their condition? Some live in obscurity, who might have shone upon the throne; and this is God's will. (Calmet)
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Station. Exterminating the Chanaanites. God disposes of all with sovereign power and justice, Romans 9:29.
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Calmet
Ordering. All depend on God. (Calmet)
St. Augustine
"The predestination of the saints is nothing but the foreknowledge and preparation of God's benefits, by which those are most certainly liberated who obtain their freedom. But where are the rest left; except in the mass of perdition, by the just judgment of the Deity? (St. Augustine, Persev. xiv. n. 35, and Corrept. xiii. n. 42.)
33:15
Haydock
Another. Lights and shades both contribute to form the beauty of a picture. (Haydock)
St. Augustine
Antitheses adorn a discourse, as opposite things do the universe. (St. Augustine, City of God 11:18.)
God will make the wicked subservient to his glory.
33:16
Menochius
The books of the Machabees were alone written after this in the Old Testament. (Menochius)
Haydock
Greek places what follows after Ecclesiasticus 30:26. These four verses may be regarded as a sort of preface. (Haydock)
33:21
Challoner
Change thee. That is, so as to have this power over thee. (Challoner)
Calmet
Be inflexible on this head. (Calmet)
33:23
Challoner
The pre-eminence. That is, be master in thy own house, and part not with thy authority. (Challoner)
Menochius
Let not thy wife or servants rule in thy name. (Menochius)
33:25
Haydock
Fodder. Greek prefixes "on slaves." (Haydock)
Calmet
They were bought like horses. Aristotle (oecon. 1:5.) gives the like instructions on their treatment. (Calmet)
33:27
Haydock
A stiff. Greek, "the neck, (28.) torture," etc. (Haydock)
33:31
Faithful, is not expressed in Greek but must be understood.
Calmet
Blood. Taking him prisoner at the hazard of thy life. The like misfortune might easily have befallen thee. (Calmet)
Seneca (ep. 47.) says, "live so with thy inferior, as thou wouldst have thy superior live with thee."
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Thou. Greek, "on what road wilt thou seek for him?"
33:21
Change thee.... That is, so as to have this power over thee.
33:23
The pre-eminence.... That is, be master in thy own house, and part not with thy authority.
33:5
Men ledde with passions runne from one vice into an other without ceasing. Especially heretikes runne into manie errors. Against which S Paul prescribeth this rule. It is best that the hart be established with grace. Heb. 13. v. 9.
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Rom. •.
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 133.8
… Thus the light set on high is Christ, whence is the dew of Hermon.…But if he have the dew of Hermon, which fell on the hill of Sion, he is quiet, peaceable, humble, submissive, pouring forth prayer in place of murmuring. For murmurers are admirably described in a certain passage of the Scriptures, “The heart of a fool is as the wheel of a cart.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 11.18
… This is quite plainly stated in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, in this way: “Good is set against evil, and life against death: so is the sinner against the godly. So look upon all the works of the Most High, and these are two and two, one against another.”
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John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 10.21
… “The ways of the idlers are strewn with thorns;” i.e., with these and similar faults, which the Apostle above declared to spring from idleness. And again: “Every sluggard is always in want.” And of these the Apostle makes mention when he says, “And that you want nothing of any man’s.” And finally: “For idleness has been the teacher of many evils:”
33:1
1. TO HIM THAT FEARETH THE LORD EVIL SHALL NOT HAPPEN, BUT IN TEMPTATION GOD SHALL KEEP HIM, AND DELIVER HIM FROM EVILS. — In Greek, but in temptation and again shall deliver him, that is to say, But in temptation not one, but frequent and repeatedly repeated shall deliver him: although it seems rather that "shall keep him" has already fallen out from the Greek: for our Interpreter once read this in the Greek, and without it the sense is gaping. The Zurich version, omitting καί, that is and, thus translates: To him that revereth the Lord nothing evil shall happen, but God shall snatch him again from temptation; others translate: To him that feareth the Lord evil shall not happen, except in temptation (for the Greek ἀλλά sometimes means except), whence again shall snatch him. Thus also the Syriac: He that feareth the Lord, it says, evil shall not befall him except in temptation: and it shall be turned away, and he shall be delivered. The Constantiense exemplar, for πάλιν, that is again, reads πάλῃ, that is struggle. Whence it translates, but in temptation and struggle shall snatch him, as it snatched St. Anthony from the struggle which he underwent with demons, and that frequent and unceasing. It adds in struggle, because God snatches him who struggles and resists generously temptation, from it, not truly him who yields to it and succumbs. Whence that saying: "Fate aids the striving: the Thunderer aids the striving." You will ask, how shall evil not happen to him that feareth God? For St. Job, David, Jeremiah, nay all the Saints many evils have happened, and daily evils happen to them, according to that of the Angel to Tobias, cap. XII, 13: "Because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee." Lyran answers first: "To him that feareth the Lord evil shall not happen," namely the evil of guilt, not of punishment. For the fear of God excludes all guilt, especially the graver. Secondly and better, evils both of punishment and of guilt take here; for of these it treats in what follows. The sense therefore is, that is to say, To him that feareth God evil both of punishment and of guilt shall not happen: evils, I say, true and perfect, which namely subject him that feareth God to himself, drive him to impatience and desperation, destroy and ruin him. For evil is taken here from the Hebrew phrase in the act, not inchoate, but perfect, so as to signify evils full and perfect, which perpetually endure, and overcome, prostrate and overturn the just. For he who suffers evils, but overcomes them through patience, fortitude and the love of God, as the martyrs did; to him evils are not evils, but evils are turned into goods, and those immense, namely into triumphs of patience, martyrdom and eternal glory. Thus Sirach explains himself, when he adds: "But in temptation God shall keep him, and deliver him from evils," either by removing evils, or by drawing the just away from evils, either by flight, as he delivered Lot from the burning of Sodom; or by death, as he delivered the Martyrs from torments, according to that Psalm XC, 13: "I am with him in tribulation: I will deliver him and will glorify him." Thus gold cooked in a furnace suffers no evil, but receives immense good, namely purity and splendor: for he that feareth God with filial fear, that is, ardently loves God, and like a man on fire, who if he fall into stubble and thorns, suffers nothing from them, but sets all on fire, says St. Chrysostom, hom. 4 Acts of the Apostles. Alluding to this place of Sirach, Paul says: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation a way out that you may be able to bear it," I Cor. X, 13. See the things said there. Finally, often God makes it that evils do not happen to the pious, but to the impious. For these Proverbs signify not what always, but what often happens: thus the flood happened and drowned the impious, from which Noah the pious was saved through the ark: the heavenly fire seized the impious Sodomites, but spared the pious Lot. Thus to David evils and snares did not happen, which Saul so often laid for him. Thus to Susanna death did not happen, prepared by the adulterous elders, but they themselves fell into the pit which they had dug for her. Thus often destructions, plagues, famines, sterilities, tempests, shipwrecks, dangers of robbers and thieves, etc., happen to the impious, and the pious are delivered from them, although contiguous and neighboring to the impious, according to that Psalm XC, 10: "There shall no evil come to thee, and a scourge shall not come nigh thy dwelling." Mystically, to the just evil shall not happen, namely future and eternal. For, as the wise man says: "No true and pure evil, except the eternal: no true good, except the eternal." Thus Rabanus: "It is certain, he says, that to him that feareth the Lord evil shall not happen, future evil which is prepared for the wicked for their sins: but in temptation God shall keep him; because according to the sentence of blessed Peter, God knoweth how to deliver the pious from temptation; but to reserve the wicked for the day of judgment to be tormented: for the Lord hath delivered his elect from evils. Because he defendeth them from the nefarious suggestions of malignant spirits, and the perverse actions of wicked men: for God shall send his Angel in the circuit of them that fear him, the just, and shall deliver them: but salvation is from the Lord, and he is their protector in the time of tribulation."
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2. THE WISE MAN DOES NOT HATE THE COMMANDMENTS AND THE JUSTICES, AND HE IS NOT STRUCK AS A SHIP IN A STORM. — He gives the reason why evils do not befall those who fear God, as if to say: The wise man, that is, he who fears God, does not hate, but greatly loves the law and precepts of God: wherefore when the waves and blasts of temptations arise, he shall not be tossed hither and thither, nor shall he be struck upon the rocks of sins and perdition like a ship, when it is tossed by a storm, dashed upon rocks or reefs and shattered: but strengthened by the anchor of hope in God, firm and unshaken, he shall remain in the keeping of the law of God: for God, who governs the ship of the soul of the wise man, that is, of the just man, shall lead it unharmed and safe into the port of salvation, avoiding the rocks of sins. Of this matter St. Paulinus recounts a wonderful and illustrious example to the letter, in his epistle to Macarius, concerning a certain old man who in a shipwreck alone remained in the ship, tossed by the waves "for twenty-three days, not only, he says, excluded from lands, but also from men, the sport of all winds, an exile from all earth, a guest of a different sea, and deprived of the human race, amid the waves and beasts of the sea, in the wandering lodging of an erratic ship, worn out by fastings, old age, and fear, with God as his governor, he at last safely reached the shore of Lucania." It is a meiosis; for less is said, and more is signified, "does not hate," that is, greatly loves; he calls "justices" the just works which the law prescribes. Whence for commandments and justices, the Greek has only νόμον, that is, the law. The Greek texts now have it differently, namely an antithesis of the wise man and the foolish man, that is, of the just and the unjust, or of the hypocrite, in this manner: The wise man shall not hate the law: but he who feigns in it, as a ship in a storm. Thus the Romans reading πλοῖον, that is, ship, for which the Complutensian edition reads πολλῶν, that is, of many; the Zurich edition clearly: The wise man does not hate the law: but he who falsely conducts himself in it is like a ship in a storm, which indeed, overcome by storms, is dashed upon rocks and broken. The sense is, as if to say: The wise man, that is, sincere and prudent, even if evils and temptations befall him, as he said in the preceding verse, nevertheless on account of them he will not hate the law, so as to depart from it: but rather, strengthened by greater love and affection through the grace of God, he will join and attach himself to it: but truly he who acts ὑποκρινόμενος, that is, hypocritically and falsely, so long as all things succeed prosperously for him, will indeed adhere to the law; but when the winds of evils and temptations come upon him, he will allow himself to be torn away from the study of the law, and to be dashed upon the rocks of sins. A splendid mirror of both these sentiments was St. Athanasius, and his whole life. For, tossed by the constant storms and persecutions of the Arians for many years, secure under God's protection and always unharmed, nay, glorious, he escaped, and so at last in his own Church, in his chair and bed, in quiet, as if triumphing over conquered enemies, he fell asleep in the Lord. He conquered four Emperors, Constantine, Constantius, Julian, and Valens: he conquered very many Arian bishops, most powerful in strength, most cunning in wickedness. But he conquered almost the whole world imbued with Arianism: he conquered Lucifer and all the strength of hell, all of whom he himself, not as an unconquered hero boldly challenging them to single combat and individual contest, but more powerfully, laid low and defeated. For he had this fixed in his mind: "If God be for us, who is against us?" Wherefore in the midst of dangers, trusting and cheerful, he sang: "The Lord is my illumination and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? If armies in camp should stand against me, my heart shall not fear. If war should rise up against me, in this will I be confident," Psalm XXVI. Whence, when under Julian he was again driven from his see, all being struck with fear, he alone, undaunted and encouraging them, said: "Do not, O children, be disturbed; for it is a little cloud, and it will quickly pass away." He was a true prophet: for soon Julian, pierced by a heavenly spear, fell. And indeed when the Arians pursued him fleeing in a ship, and now as if they were catching up and seizing him, all being terrified and suggesting hiding places: "Do not, he said, O children, be deterred, let us rather go to meet our persecutor, that he may know that he who defends us is far greater than he who persecutes us." He said and did it: turning his ship therefore to meet his persecutor, and not being recognized, and being asked whether he had seen Athanasius, he answered that he had seen him not far away going in a ship: and thus, they holding the opposite course, he escaped and eluded them.
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3. A SENSIBLE MAN BELIEVES THE LAW OF GOD, AND THE LAW IS FAITHFUL TO HIM. — For "believes" the Greek is ἐμπιστεύσει. Which some translate more aptly as "is faithful"; the Zurich version, "will conduct himself faithfully in the law," that is to say, Just as the sensible man is faithful to the law of God, so in turn the law is faithful to him, so that it turns away evils from him and brings him all good things. For the law promises to the just man and in fact provides counsel, aid, defense and reward. Our author wishes the same thing when he translates, "a sensible man believes the law of God:" for he believes the law who is faithful to the law, who namely adheres to it faithfully and fulfills it, even when pressed by temptation. The law is likewise faithful to him; because first, it shines before him, so that among so many errors he may know what he ought to do, and what path to take, so that he may reach heaven; second, it comforts and strengthens him; third, it grants him a reward, namely an increase of grace, and after this life, a crown of happiness and glory. Just as therefore the just man is faithful to the law through obedience, so also the law is faithful through direction, grace and glory. Whence the Greek texts add: The law is faithful to him, ὡς ἐρώτημα δήλων (which words our author referred to the following verse), that is, as an interrogation of manifestations, which is made through the Urim and Thummim in the Breastplate of the high priest, that is to say, Just as the high priest clothed in the Breastplate, in which were the Urim, that is illuminations and manifestations, illuminated by God, faithfully and certainly manifested hidden things, concerning which he had inquired of God: so the law sought by the just man illuminates him faithfully and certainly in doubts, and directs and leads him aright by the way of justice into heavenly happiness: for in place of the interrogation of the Urim, the Septuagint translates ἐρώτημα δήλων, as appears in Numbers XXVII, 21: for the Septuagint follows Sirach, as appears in chapter XLV, 12, in the Greek. See the remarks on Exodus XXVIII, 30. Akin to this meaning of Sirach is that saying of Scipio Africanus: "From innocence is born dignity, from dignity honor, from honor dominion, from dominion liberty." For innocence is nothing other than the keeping of the law. Learn here that the law is the Urim, that is, the oracle of God, so that, if you wish to know for certain what you ought to do, what is the will of God, what is the way to salvation, what God demands of you and wishes to be done, you must consult the law of God: for it will teach you that certainly, just as the Urim taught the high priest certainly that concerning which he had consulted God. Hence St. Augustine, St. Gregory and others assert that the law and Holy Scripture are a letter of God sent to us, by which He himself signifies to men His will, namely what He requires of us and wishes to be done. Whoever is wise, therefore, in all doubts let him approach and consult this domestic oracle of the law and Holy Scripture. Furthermore, the Greek manuscripts corrected at Rome, reading δικαίων, that is, of the just, in place of δηλων, translate: A sensible man believes the law, and the law is faithful to him, as the interrogation of the just, that is, the law will be to him as a trustworthy oracle of justice, from which namely the just may inquire and learn what things are just, or from which the just inquire and learn those things which they ought justly to do.
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4. HE WHO MAKES MANIFEST THE INTERROGATION SHALL PREPARE HIS WORD, AND THUS BESEECHING SHALL BE HEARD, AND SHALL KEEP DISCIPLINE, AND THEN SHALL ANSWER. — As if to say: He who wishes to make manifest the interrogation put to him by means of an apt response does not immediately rush forth to answer; but first he shall "prepare his word," that is, he shall premeditate by thinking and studying what, and in what manner and order, and in what words, he ought to respond: "and thus" having recourse to supplication to God, that He may illuminate his mind, by Him shall he "be heard," and he shall learn both the truth and the manner of responding; whence preserving in his mind "discipline" and the fear of God, and confirming himself therein, he shall "answer," not to court the favour of men, nor to flee their threats and terrors, but from the truth of the matter. The Zurich Bible, reading δικαίων, that is, of the just, instead of δηλοῦν, that is, he who manifests, translates: What the just seek, prepare to say: and in whatever manner thou shalt find hearers, embrace the hearing, and thus at length answer. But the Complutensian and others, reading ἐθήλωσε, thus have it: As if the interrogation be made manifest, prepare thy discourse, and thus willingly, clearly and intelligibly thou shalt have heard: gather discipline, or doctrine, and thus thou shalt answer. For gather, in Greek it is συνδήσον παιδείαν, that is, bind together, that is, compare doctrine. Whence some translate, gather to thyself erudition: or gather, that is, arrange and order, what thou hast conceived in thy mind, so that thou mayest speak it forth in congruous method and order. The Complutensian read ἐνδῦσαι, that is, put on discipline. Wherefore discipline here signifies, first, study of the law, virtue and honesty, or the fear and reverence of God, so that he who is interrogated shall not suffer himself to be drawn away from the truth by the favour or fear of men, but looking only to God, may answer from His will and law. Thus Rabanus and Palacius: "He shall keep discipline," he says, "that is, he shall not deviate in any way from the discipline or doctrine of the Church." Secondly, however, Lyra understands by discipline the good manner and method of teaching and answering, as if to say: A teacher should not only teach true things, but should also employ a good method in teaching, so that he may answer methodically, clearly and briefly, and in such a way may set forth those things which he has premeditated, that what he says may be grasped in mind by his hearers and retained in memory. And this is what the Greek συνδήσον signifies, that is, gather discipline. Thirdly, Rabanus: "Keep discipline," he says, that is, preserve what thou teachest worthy of action, so that thou mayest first do those things which thou teachest others ought to do, after the manner of Christ, who "began to do, then to teach," Acts I, 1. As if three things are noted here as necessary for a Teacher, that he may teach profitably: namely, study, prayer and action. Hear Rabanus: "He speaks of holy teachers, who, in order that they may be able to answer interrogations worthily, prepare the word in their heart, and beseech the Lord, that He Himself may make manifest to them the truth of the matter, and they keep worthy by action what He Himself commanded them to keep, and thus by meditating, praying, acting, they present to those interrogating them a worthy answer. For thus Paul taught his disciple, saying, II Tim. II, 15: Carefully study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Hence also Peter says, I Peter III, 15: But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being always ready to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. On the contrary, however, concerning foolish preachers it follows: The heart of the fool is like a wheel of a cart," etc. Note: For a Teacher, or one consulted, in obscure or doubtful matters, especially those pertaining to faith or cases of conscience, in order that he may answer aptly, it is not sufficient to have premeditation and study; but prayer must also be employed, so that God may illuminate the mind, not only that he may know the truth, but also that he may bring it forth and enunciate it in that manner in which it will be congruous and salutary for his hearers. Thus our Father Lessius, a man singular in the resolution of cases of conscience, whenever he was consulted about some difficult case, was accustomed to invoke the Holy Spirit, first reciting the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, so that he might truly and congruously answer for the progress of those consulting him. Wisely and piously St. Augustine, in epistle 120 to Honoratus: "If thou shalt beseech the Lord purely," he says, "the giver of all good things, all things which are worthy of knowledge, or certainly very many, thou shalt learn rather by His inspiration than by the admonition of any man."
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5. THE THOUGHTS OF THE FOOL ARE LIKE THE WHEEL OF A CART: AND HIS COGITATION LIKE A TURNING AXLE. — In Greek, the wheel of a wagon are the bowels of the fool, and like an axle which turns (which namely is fixed and set in the wheel: for there is another axle, which does not turn, but remains unmoved, around which the wheel of the cart revolves and is turned about) his thought; Zurich: The inmost parts of the fool are like the wheel of a cart, and like a turning axle his thought; the Syriac, however, a swift wheel the heart of the wicked, and like a pig all his thoughts; namely, filthy and unclean: for such is the pig and swine. He contrasts the fool with the sensible man, whom he said to be stable and faithful to the law, and therefore to speak and answer sensibly and in order; in that the thoughts, in Greek the bowels, that is the inmost thoughts and desires, of the fool are unstable, foolish, and like a turning wheel and axle, rolling hither and thither without order and reason, and therefore their speech and answer be similar, namely disordered, irrational, inelegant, vague and impertinent, so that they slip from one thing to another without coherence and connection. The a priori reason for this disparity is, that the wise man, that is the just man, adheres fixed to the law, and does not allow himself to be moved away from his God, because he has fixed his heart in him, that is his affections and thoughts. Adhering therefore to God immobile, he becomes likewise constant and immobile himself; but the fool, that is the carnal and impious man, fixes his heart in temporal things, which move with the heavens, and therefore adhering to what is unstable and changeable, he becomes unstable and changeable himself. This is what Isaiah says, chapter LVII, verse 20: "But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest, and its waves toss up mire and dirt;" and Jeremiah, Lamentations chapter I, 8: "Jerusalem hath sinned grievously, therefore is she become unstable;" where I have assigned many causes of this instability.
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6. A HORSE SENT OUT (others read, a breeding horse, with the same meaning), AND LIKEWISE A MOCKING FRIEND, NEIGHS UNDER EVERY RIDER. — That is to say, Just as a breeding horse (which is namely sent out and admitted to mares, so that he may impregnate them) neighs not from love of the rider (for he neighs under every and any rider, even an unwelcome one), but from love of the mare, which he sees and desires: so also a feigned friend flatters and applauds his friend, not for the friend's sake, but for his own advantage, which he demands and expects from him. For truly such a one is not a friend, but a flatterer and hypocrite, and therefore a mocker, who namely outwardly simulates and conducts himself as a friend: but inwardly in his heart he mocks and derides his friend, and secretly disparages and slanders him. Just as therefore a horse neighs to any mare seen by him, so a feigned friend smiles and applauds his friend, wherever there is hope of gain; because he neighs not to the friend, but to the gain, and therefore now to one, now to another, and to another showing greater gain, he neighs and applauds. In the preceding verse he showed the inconstancy and fickle nature of the fool in his thoughts and desires; here he shows the same in his external manners and gestures. Palacius and Jansenius add that this parable is said by Sirach against false teachers, who although they appear to seek the salvation of their hearers and to wish them well, regard only their own advantage and small profit, for love of which they teach anything, accommodating themselves to any hope of gain, such as was Peter, martyr in England, who taught concerning the Eucharist whatever the king and magistrates wished. Many such have been, and are in this age. Likewise it is said against advocates and procurators, who without discrimination of cases, whether just or unjust, neigh to anyone, rejoice and show themselves as supporters, wherever they smell the scent of gain. Secondly, Palacius understood by neighing not applause, but mockery and derision; for a horse neighs not only when he loves and approves, but also when he is angry and rages, as when in battle he is carried furiously against the enemy, so that the sense is, that is to say, Just as a breeding horse given any occasion whatsoever neighs caring nothing for the rider, and thus despises him as it were, mocks and derides him: so likewise a mocker and deride derides anyone, even a friend trusting in him; for he mocks and censures all and everything which he sees or hears. The Zurich version favors this: A breeding horse neighing under any rider is to be compared to a mocking friend; and others: A breeding horse as a mocking friend under every rider that sits on him neighs; and the Syriac: Just as a horse prepared (another text has, rich, namely richly and splendidly equipped and adorned; therefore he is proud and neighs) of a wicked friend, who under every one who loves him, neighs. Thirdly, Rabanus: "He makes, he says, an elegant comparison of an irrational animal to a foolish friend: because just as in a brute beast there is no reason, so also in a false friend there is no order of equity. For just as a wanton and proud horse by his neighing does not distinguish between a true master and a stranger, so a fool and a mocker does not distinguish in his spirit between a hypocrite and a faithful friend, but through the offices of the mouth, he equally opens the secrets of his mind to both." Mystically, Lyra refers these things to an evil Prelate: "Who ought, he says, to love God even unto death, exposing himself for the salvation of the people; and yet he mocks God by accepting the office of his vicar, and caring nothing for his honor."
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7. WHY DOES ONE DAY SURPASS ANOTHER DAY, AND AGAIN ONE LIGHT SURPASS ANOTHER LIGHT, AND ONE YEAR SURPASS ANOTHER YEAR FROM THE SUN? — Rabanus and Lyranus understand these things concerning the natural excellence of days and years, that is to say, How is it that one day, for example a summer day, is brighter and longer than another, namely a winter day, and the light of the sun is greater than the light of other stars, and one year, for example a solar or leap year, surpasses another in the number of days, namely a lunar year and a non-leap year, and this happens from the sun? For the sun, running more directly and for a longer time in our hemisphere in summer, makes the day brighter and longer. Why, I say, do these things happen thus? Certainly they happen thus from God wisely ordaining it so. But the purpose of Sirach demands another sense: for his purpose is to show that the reason why one man excels another is not to be sought from nature and disposition, namely that this be more excellent in him who excels, but more depressed in another who is more humble; for nature is common, and the same in each individual: but the reason for this distinction is to be attributed to the will and choice of God, which prefers these to others, and loads them with greater gifts. Unless someone should say that a better nature and disposition is sometimes the cause of a better lot and fortune. But this disposition is attributed to God as its creator. But what I have said is more apt. The sense therefore is, that is to say, What is the reason that one day and light excels another, namely festive days, not festive, for example, Why is the day of Easter, Pentecost, Tabernacles so celebrated and solemn with victims, psalms, the assembly of priests and people, the adornment of the temple, etc., before other days not festive and profane? Similarly, why does one festive year surpass another non-festive year? for example, the seventh year of remission, and the fiftieth year, which is the jubilee, surpass other years not festive, nor jubilees, in solemnity and pomp? They surpass, I say, "one day and year from the sun," namely equally and in the same way made, that is to say, The sun made all days equal and similar: whence therefore is that distinction of festive and non-festive days and years? Certainly it is not "from the sun," since it is common and always the same; but from God, and God's will thus discerning and ordaining days and years. Therefore in like manner, that one man excels another, to whom nature is equal, is not from nature, but from God's will and choice. That this is the sense is evident from what follows and from the Greek, which briefly and clearly thus has it: Why is one day above another day, and all the light of the day of the year from the sun? that is to say, How is it that one day surpasses another day, when any day, and the light of each day throughout the year is produced by the same sun, which, since it acts naturally, not freely, produces a similar, indeed the same, effect always, namely the same day and light in species? Whence the Zurich and other versions clearly translate: Why does one day excel another day, when all the light of the days of the year proceeds from the sun? The Syriac: Why is there a day in the year, which is distinguished from days, because all the luminaries serve the days of the year? But by the wisdom of God they were distinguished. Our text adds light to the day, because some feasts began not from the day, but from the light, as the feast of the New Moon began from the illumination of the moon, and at the very hour of the new moon, as I showed in Numbers XXVIII, 11. Thus the first day of unleavened bread began from the light of the day following the paschal night. You will ask, to what end does Sirach introduce these things at this place? what do these things have to do with those things which he has premised throughout the chapter concerning the wise man and the fool? I answer: First, Rabanus understands them to refer to the preceding verse, where he described the foolishness of the fool, who neighs and applauds all things without discrimination like a horse: him indeed he here refutes through the ordination of God, who just as he discerns one day from another, so also discerns and separates one man from another. Hear Rabanus: "Because he previously blamed the imprudence of the foolish man, in that he had no distinction in the dissimilarity of things; now he wishes to show from the creator of all things that there is a most fitting order in all things: therefore one day surpasses another day, and one light surpasses another light, and one year surpasses another year, on account of the course of the ascending and descending sun, which turns toward the south, and bends toward the north, traversing all things in its circuit, and bestows splendor on the lesser luminaries by its rays, discerning times, days and years: because in summer it makes the days longer and brighter than in winter, and makes the year of the moon and of other stars have an orderly difference among themselves: because for this it was created with the other stars, that they might be for signs, and times, and days, and years; and to men, who were about to receive the law of God, they might demonstrate the certain times of festivals." Secondly, Lyra, referring these things likewise to the preceding verse and explaining it concerning evil Prelates, refers this also to them: "Because," he says, "someone might wonder and ask, how God permits evil teachers and prelates to be promoted to the governance of the Church? To the solution of which he first sets forth an example in natural things, saying: Why does one day surpass another day? secondly, he applies it to the matter at hand in men, saying verse 10: And all men; thirdly, he confirms it by a similar example in artificial things, saying verse 13: As clay, etc.; fourthly, he solves the doubt, saying verse 15: Against evil good is." Thirdly and genuinely, you should refer these things to what he has disputed in this chapter and elsewhere frequently, concerning the difference and distinction of the wise and the foolish, that is, of the pious and the impious. For since all men are by nature equal, how does it come to pass that such a great difference is discerned among them, especially in wisdom and virtue, so that these are wise and endowed with virtue, those are foolish and covered with vices? To which he responds that from the most wise providence of God, partly active, partly permissive, this comes to pass; who likewise separated days from days, and this for this end: first, that from the various grades and orders of things there might arise the beauty and comeliness of the universe; secondly, that to each thing he might set its contrary as it were a rival and antagonist; and thus from the individual antitheses of individual things he might adorn this arena and theatre of the world, and the dignity and excellence of each thing might become known and shine forth through comparison, struggle and victory of the opposite; thirdly, that in individual things he might exhibit to mortals various modes and kinds of his power, wisdom, goodness and justice to be beheld and revered. This is what he adds: "From the knowledge of the Lord they are separated." Fourthly, that he might indicate the changes to which days equally as men are subject. For just as, for example, the second weekday this year is a feast, because the feast of St. Lawrence falls upon it; but in the following year it will not be, because this feast will fall upon the third weekday: so a man who this year is holy, in the following year will be a sinner; and he who now is a sinner, now will be holy; that we may all learn to fear and depend upon God. Hence you may gather that the cause why one is happy, another unhappy, is not fortune, not natural disposition, not the heavens, but God: for God according to his will and free choice makes happy whom he will, not only if he be prudent, but even if he be imprudent. For the prudent man, even if not always, yet often prospers in his actions, so that he has happy successes; both because he prudently arranges all things so that they turn out happily; and because he merits that God should direct and prosper his actions. St. Thomas, book III Against the Gentiles, chapter XCII, asks what is the cause why someone is fortunate, that is, so that goods and good outcomes come to him beyond expectation? and he answers that the proper cause of good fortune is God, and God's benevolence and choice, by which he directs and guides someone happily for the most part, for example, so that he digs in such and such a place where he finds a treasure: but he uses sometimes the ministry of Angels, suggesting or persuading it. But the heavens, and the influence of the heavens, do not properly make good fortune; but sometimes dispose toward it by accident, for example, when he whom it inclines to digging, to which digging the finding of a treasure is accidentally joined. For the heavens do not incline that you dig here rather where the treasure is, than elsewhere where it is not. Wherefore since these two things the heavens cannot combine, it follows that the heavens are not by themselves the cause of good fortune: therefore to God nothing is fortuitous, because he himself is the ruler and director of fortune. Finally, why one is happy, another unhappy, I have taught at length in Genesis, chapter XXX, 27. Let each one therefore expect his lot from the hand of God, and living content with it, let him say most humbly with the Psalmist: "In thy hands are my lots," Psalm XXX, 16, "lots," that is, chances, events, vicissitude, the state of my affairs, as riches and poverty, servitude and principality, health and infirmity, peace and war, says Theodoret. These lots of mine therefore are not from fortune, but are ruled and dispensed by thy certain, O Lord, providence. The Hebrew: In thy hands are my times, that is, the days of my life and death, of prosperity and adversity; the Chaldean: In thy hands are the times of my redemption. And with St. Paul, Colossians I, 12: "Giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints." "I see," says St. Augustine, "no merit by which from the whole impiety of the human race thou didst choose me especially unto salvation: I came to the tunic of the Lord by lot," just as the lot fell upon Matthias that he should be an Apostle, Acts I. Excellently Prosper, book II On the Calling of the Gentiles, chapter X: "If," he says, "we do not dare to complain about the judgments of our carnal parents, when they embrace some of their sons with a more indulgent affection before any examination of morals, before any offices of piety: in masters also toward servants there is free disposition, nor is anyone justly reproved who from a family of one condition has chosen for himself some whom he would honor more benignly and instruct more freely; why should we find fault with the most benevolent equity of the supreme Father and true Lord, that in his great house all things are varied by innumerable differences? And since no one has anything good which he has not given; yet not all shine with the same virtues, or are enriched with the same gift of charisms. Nor can we adapt this diversity of degrees to the causes of merits, since the principal cause of all merit is grace." Morally, learn that the pious are rightly compared to feast days, the impious to ordinary days: first, because as much as feast days surpass ordinary days, so much do the pious excel the impious; second, as feast days are dedicated and consecrated to God, so also do the pious consecrate themselves to God; third, on feast days one ceases from servile work, and the faithful are free for sacrifices and the praises of God: so also do the pious continually praise God in mind, voice and work. Therefore to the pious every day is a feast day. For this reason St. Sylvester wished the days to be called "feria," saying, "feria prima, secunda, tertia," etc., so that the clergy might remember that, having cast aside care for other things, they ought to be wholly free for God alone, according to that in Psalm 75:11: "For the thought of man shall confess to thee: and the remainder of thought shall keep holiday to thee." And that in Ecclesiasticus 47:2, concerning David: "And as fat separated from flesh (which was burned to God on a feast day), so David from the sons of Israel." Finally, as feast days are celebrated, so holy men are canonized: for canonization is to Saints what festivity is to days; and therefore in honor of the Saints, when they are canonized, feast days are instituted and celebrated.
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8. BY THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD THEY ARE SEPARATED, THE SUN BEING MADE, AND KEEPING THE COMMANDMENT. — Jansenius and others add, by the wisdom of God they are divided; but these words are expunged by the Greeks, Romans and other corrected codices. He answers the question proposed: "Why does one day surpass another?" as if to say, This discretion of days was not made by chance and fortune, but by the knowledge of God, as if to say, By God's providence it was made wisely: by God, I say, not by the sun, for it was made after the sun was made, which itself is also subject to God's ordinance, and God's "commandment," that is, the order of moving, shining, etc., it "keeps" exactly. Otherwise Rabanus and Lyra, who adhering to the exposition given in the preceding verse thus explain it, as if to say, Days separated from one another, and made more luminous, by God's knowledge and wisdom, namely when he made the sun, which by its approach and recession would make days unequal and more or less luminous; for the sun perfectly keeps this commandment and order of God. The Greeks briefly connect these things at the beginning of the following verse, and thus have it: By the knowledge of the Lord they are distinguished, who changed the times and feasts; Zurich: By the judgment of the Lord they are distinguished, who disposed the succession of times and feast days, and divided them by his wisdom; Syriac: Truly by the wisdom of God they are distinguished, and he made from them times and moments.
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9. AND HE CHANGED THE TIMES, AND THE FEAST DAYS OF THEM, AND IN THEM THEY CELEBRATED THE FEAST DAYS AT THE APPOINTED HOUR. — The Greeks and Syrians have only that which I placed in the preceding verse. "He changed," that is, God disposed variously, the times of the year, dividing it, both into twelve months, each of which differs and is diverse from any other in quality and effect; and into four principal parts of the year, namely, into spring, summer, autumn and winter. And in these parts he arranged and placed various feast days, each in its own order, fittingly, which the Hebrews would celebrate on the days constituted by him at the hour prescribed for them, for example, at the hour when the new moon began, they would celebrate the feast of the New Moon, as I showed in Numbers 28:11. The other feasts began from the evening hour, namely from the first hour of the night, from which the Italians begin to count the hours of the day, according to that in Leviticus chapter 23:32: "From evening until evening shall you celebrate your sabbaths."
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10. FROM THEM HE EXALTED AND MAGNIFIED GOD, AND FROM THEM HE PLACED IN THE NUMBER OF DAYS. — What the Hebrews call לימי מספר lime mispar, that is, in days of number, that is, in common days, which have nothing before others singular, but only augment the number of others like a cipher, according to that: We are number, and born to consume the fruits. For magnified in Greek is ἡγίασεν, that is, he sanctified: and thus some Latin manuscripts read: he sanctified, that is, he dedicated to God and to the Saints, so that the faithful would venerate them on those days in a holy manner with prayers, vows, sacrifices and other holy offices. Therefore the sense is, as if to say, God exalted some days from among them, while he instituted them as feasts and holy; but others "from them he placed in the number of common days," namely, so that they would remain in the number of common and profane days, and would not be feasts. Whence the Zurich version: He exalted and consecrated some days, others he brought into the order of days; the Syriac: From them he blessed and sanctified, and from them he made in the number of days. He alludes to the institution and sanctification of the Sabbath and other feasts, concerning which it is said in Genesis II, 3: "And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created him to do." Somewhat differently Palacius, as if to say, God from feast days exalted some, such as the day of Passover and Pentecost; others, such as the feast days of unleavened bread, he reduced to the number of lesser feasts: in like manner from the same elect he exalted some, making them eminent saints, such as Abraham, Isaac, David; but others he reduced to the number of common just men, who are indeed holy, not however as "the mighty gods of the earth are exceedingly exalted," Psalm XLVI, 10, but as lesser Saints, and as the common people of the Saints adhering to God. AND ALL MEN FROM THE GROUND, AND FROM THE EARTH, WHENCE ADAM WAS CREATED. — Understand, he made, or he formed. Ground is the same as earth: but ground is called from solidity, earth from treading, which is trodden by the feet of men and animals, says Lyran.
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11. IN MULTITUDE OF DISCIPLINE THE LORD SEPARATED THEM, AND CHANGED THEIR WAYS. — This is an antapodosis, or a return and application of the similitude of the days of the elect, namely of feasts, to elect men, as if to say: Just as God selected certain days, though equal to others in nature and light, and made them feasts: so likewise, since all men are equal by nature, and created from the same soil and earth from which Adam was created; yet "in multitude," that is from the greatness, "of discipline," in Greek ἐπιστήμης, that is of knowledge and wisdom of His, "He separated them, and changed their ways," both because He made it so that some would follow one manner of life, others another; and because He made "ways," that is lots, conditions and states of theirs diverse, for example so that these would be great prelates and princes, those common people, citizens and rustics; and most of all because He made some wise and holy, but left others in their foolishness and sins. For this is what Sirach chiefly aims at here; whence explaining further he adds: "Of them He blessed and exalted, and of them He sanctified, and to Himself applied them." Thus the Zurich version, which translates clearly: And all men are born from the earth (others more aptly, and men are all from the dust), and Adam was created from the earth; but the Lord by wonderful knowledge distinguished them, and varied their institutions; the Syriac: And also all men are made from clay, and Adam was created from the dust: but in wisdom God separated them, and made them inhabitants of the earth. Furthermore, Palacius and Jansenius explain these and the following things concerning those fully predestined and reprobate, namely concerning those efficaciously elected to glory, and damned to hell, as if to say: God first, according to the greatness of His wisdom, from one and the same mass of human nature corrupted by Adam's sin, through His predestination separated the predestined, and chose them to glory, so that in them He might show the riches of His grace: but others He reprobated, wishing in them to show His wrath and power; second, after He thus separated them in His mind, "He changed their ways," giving the elect efficacious aid, grace and perseverance: but leaving the reprobate and dismissing them according to the desires of their heart, so that they go in their own inventions, Psalm LXXX. But more rightly Rabanus, Lyra and others understand these things concerning the general election of God, and concerning inchoate predestination. For predestination is twofold, namely inchoate and complete. Inchoate is that by which someone is predestined to faith, grace and justice; for by these gifts he begins his salvation, so that, if he persevere and continue in them, he is certain to attain salvation and eternal glory. Complete is that by which someone is efficaciously chosen by God and destined to glory and eternal life: that inchoate predestination is treated here is proved by the reasons which I have brought in Canon XIII on St. Paul. To which add, that Sirach here treats of the predestination of nations rather than of individual men, as I shall soon show: but nations are predestined to faith and grace, not however to glory; because from the nations even the faithful, a great, indeed the greater part does not attain to glory, but perishes and is damned on account of their sins. The same is gathered from this, that he says in verse 15: "So also against the just man is the sinner." For the just man is inchoately predestined, and the sinner is inchoately only reprobate: for if he were treating of complete predestination and reprobation, he would have said: "So also against the predestined is the reprobate;" or: "So also against the elect to glory is the damned to hell." The same will be more evident from what I shall say in the following verse. Yet fittingly those things which he says concerning the faithful and unfaithful, the pious and impious, can be extended and accommodated by parity or similarity to the predestined and reprobate, the saved and damned; especially because justice is inchoate predestination, and injustice inchoate reprobation: conversely predestination and election to glory is the crown and completion of justice, just as reprobation and damnation is the perfection and completion of injustice.
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12. FROM THEM HE BLESSED, AND EXALTED: AND FROM THEM HE SANCTIFIED, AND APPLIED THEM TO HIMSELF (Syriac, even brought them to himself): AND FROM THEM HE CURSED, AND HUMBLED, AND TURNED THEM FROM THEIR SEPARATION. — Syriac: And he overthrew and uprooted them from their dwellings; Zurich: Some he made blessed and exalted, consecrated, and dedicated to himself: others he cursed, and depressed, and overthrew them from their seats. "Sanctified," that is, separated, and (as follows) "applied them to himself," as faithful men dedicated to the worship of God, so that they would be the people of God, and his family and Church; as first, from the beginning of the world, having rejected Cain the parricide, he separated to himself Abel and Seth and his descendants, so that he would be a faithful and God-fearing people. Wherefore the sons of Seth are called "sons of God," but the sons of Cain are called "sons of men," Genesis VI, 2. Secondly, in the flood he separated Noah and his sons from the rest of men; and from his sons two, namely Shem and Japheth, pious and covering the shame of their father, he claimed for himself and blessed, that is, affected with many gifts and benefits: but the third son, namely Ham, father of Canaan, as impious, mocking the shame of his father, he cursed, saying: "Cursed be Canaan (son and follower of Ham), a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren: Blessed be the Lord God of Shem," etc. Genesis IX, 25. And to this especially Sirach looked, namely, to Shem, from whom the Hebrews were born, whom God chose for himself as a faithful people, despising, indeed cutting off, the impious Canaanites, descendants of Ham and Canaan, whom therefore through Joshua and the Hebrews he expelled from the land of Canaan and their dwellings. Thirdly, from the descendants of Shem he chose only Abraham and his family into his nation and Church, the rest being left in infidelity and sins, and therefore in curse. Fourthly, from the sons of Abraham he chose Isaac and his descendants: but he rejected Ishmael and the Ishmaelites born from him. Fifthly, from the sons of Isaac he chose Jacob and the Jacobites, rejecting Esau and the Edomites, according to that word of Malachi I, 2: "I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated." Sixthly, from the sons of Jacob he chose only Levi and Aaron and his descendants, so that they would be Levites, that is, ministers and priests of the Lord, the rest of the sons being left among the common people and among the laity, according to that word (to which Sirach also alludes here) Numbers VIII, 13: "And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and thou shalt consecrate them as an oblation to the Lord, and thou shalt separate them from the midst of the children of Israel, that they may be mine." Therefore this sanctification is a separation, by which God chose and separated certain men and families, especially of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Levi, to himself as a faithful and priestly people from the rest of the families and nations, according to that word of Moses, Exodus XIX, 6, to the Hebrews: "You shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation." For in "applied" and "cursed" he alludes to Aaron, whom God took to himself as it were as pontiff; and to Korah, whom he cursed as proudly seeking the pontificate, depressed and overthrew, when he caused the earth to open and swallow him alive into hell. See Numbers XVI, 5: "Tomorrow," he says, "the Lord will make known who are his, and the holy ones he will apply to himself: and those whom he shall choose, shall draw near to him." Therefore this sanctification did not make all just and holy, but separated to God, as it were faithful and worshippers of God. For it is clear that in the faithful people, especially the Jewish, there were many sinners and impious: yet some were truly just and holy. Thus to sanctify, for to separate from the profane, and to dedicate to God, is taken in Exodus XIII, 2: "Sanctify to me all the firstborn." And Deuteronomy VII, 6: "You are a holy people to the Lord your God." And throughout Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy it is said that firstfruits, tithes, vows, victims are "sanctified," that is, separated and dedicated "to God." Now indeed, God "blessed and exalted" his faithful, for example the Jews (and much more, now Christians), both by abundance of fruits and temporal riches, kingdom, triumphs and victories, as it was under David and Solomon; both by grace and spiritual gifts, namely, law, temple, sacrifices, prophets, lawyers, miracles, oracles, pontificate, priesthood, etc. Wherefore from this passage you cannot solidly conclude (even if some wish it) that the efficacious election of each saint and elect to glory made by God was before and foreknown his merits, from mere election and good pleasure of God; for first, Sirach does not deal precisely with that here, but generally with election, by which one man with his posterity, namely one family, or one nation, is preferred to another by God, and is chosen into His people and Church; second, even if it were dealt with, that which is claimed would not be concluded; because it could be said that this election of God is made from the merits of each saint foreseen by God. For, as St. Augustine says, Questions II to Simplician, that which is pre-elected to another already excels another, and is thereby better and more excellent; for this reason indeed it is chosen before another. Nor does the similitude of the election of days into feasts before other non-feast days, which verse 7 brought forward, stand in the way, because in like manner certain days are elected and chosen into feasts, on account of their benefits and as it were merits, for example the fourteenth day of the month Nisan was elected and established as the feast of Passover, because on that day the Hebrews were freed by the Angel striking the firstborn of the Egyptians, and consequently from Pharaoh and Egypt, Exodus XII. In like manner a faithful man is chosen by God, that he be of His people and Church, or even that he be just and holy, because he freely consented to God calling him to faith and justice; because namely he believed in God, and worshipped and loved Him; wherefore he is chosen on account of his merit, or of congruity, as happens in first justification; or of condignity, as happens in the second, namely in the increase of justice. Indeed feast days dedicated to Saints, as they are now dedicated in honor of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Lawrence, etc., were dedicated and instituted on account of their heroic virtues, merits and martyrdoms. The same is evident from the antithesis of the reprobate or rejected, concerning whom he adds: "And of them He cursed." For it is certain that God cursed no one before foreseeing his sins and demerits in such a way that He absolutely reprobated him and consigned him to hell. Whence verse 14, concluding, says: "And He will render to every one according to his judgment." Especially because the Canaanites, to whom chiefly he looks here, were not so cursed that all were thereby damned to hell. For concerning Rahab and her family, and the Gabaonites, who were all Canaanites, but surrendered themselves to the Jews and became proselytes, it is very probable that they, equally as the Hebrews, were chosen by God, and called and destined to salvation. Whence Rabanus thus expounds it, so as to say that God distinguished, that He might choose these for Himself, reject others, because they themselves distinguished themselves. "After," he says, "men began to multiply, and some of them bound themselves with various errors and sins; He distinguished among them, and separated those who persisted in His faith and justice from them. And those who were worthy He blessed; but those who conducted themselves impiously, He justly condemned with eternal curse. Whence sacred Scripture numbers Abel, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other Saints, who rightly devoted themselves to divine worship, and served the one God devoutly in true religion. But those who, forsaking the true God, served false idols, and made themselves liable to manifold crimes; partly by the flood, partly by plague, and by the sword and devastation of the true worshippers of God He destroyed and consumed. Therefore He says, And He turned them from their separation, because by their distinction He distinguished them, to whom He might give rewards worthy of their good deeds, and to whom He might repay just torments for their evil deeds. In the mighty hand therefore the supreme artificer of His work, according to His will made a fitting distinction." See what is said Romans chapter IX. Furthermore this opinion, since it is indefinite and general, can be applied not only to whole families and nations, but also to individual persons. For example God chose, blessed, exalted, and applied to Himself, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David, etc.; but He despised, cursed and humbled Cain, Ham, Nimrod, Ishmael, Pharaoh, Core, Dathan, Abiron, Saul, etc. But as He despised these, and cursed them on account of their crimes and demerits, so He "blessed" those, and applied them to Himself on account of their obedience, piety and merits either of congruity, or of condignity; "blessed," I say, both by grace giving them His justice, friendship and sonship; and by glory, namely persevering in grace and justice, rewarding them with the crown of eternal glory. Finally if this work of predestination and selection of God is entirely to its first origin in God you call them forth, it is certain that this was accomplished without any merit of anyone; both because first grace, which is the first effect of predestination, is pure and mere grace, which is given to individuals without any merit of theirs; and because the separation and distinction of the order of each, namely the order of the predestined and the order of the reprobate, was made without merits or demerits. For example, that God constituted Abel in that series of gifts and graces in which He foresaw he would live faithfully and holily and die, and therefore would attain to eternal life; but He placed Cain in another series, in which He foresaw that by his own freedom and malice he would sin, live impiously and die, and therefore would be damned; all this was the work of God's mere good pleasure and election, to whom it so pleased to distribute His gifts and graces without any merit of Abel or demerit of Cain. Therefore from the mass of human nature and offspring corrupted by original sin, God predestined the elect and "blessed" them, first, because He placed them in that series of graces in which He foresaw they would cooperate with grace until the end of life, and would certainly be saved, namely, He predestined them from eternity, and in the time of their life He gave them grace which would be congruous and efficacious to them; second, He "blessed" them, because He conferred upon them justice, and in it perseverance unto death; third, He "blessed" them, because He assigned them to heaven and glory, saying: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," Matt. XXV. For these are the three effects of predestination, according to that in Rom. VIII, 30: "Whom he predestinated, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." But the rest, the reprobate, He "cursed," first, because He left them in the mass corrupted and cursed by original sin; or, if at any time He snatched them from it by grace, He permitted them to relapse into it through actual sin; second, them now liable to sin He "cursed," that is, He hated them, devoted them and assigned them to eternal curse, unless they should repent; third, He "cursed" them, that is, He permitted them to be hardened and to die in the sin of life and curse, and thus He in fact damned them, and relegated them to hell, saying: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels," Matt. XXV. This curse therefore presupposes sin, either original or actual: for God cursed, reprobates and damns no one except on account of his guilt; for reprobation is an act of vindicative justice; but God's predestination is an act of God's grace and mercy. Wherefore all the reprobate incurred and incur the temporal and eternal curse of God on account of their sins. For God has providence over all, but unequal for the good and the evil: for of the good He has direct, active and efficacious providence; but of the evil and sinners, indirect, permissive and punitive. For it is blasphemous and horrible, that which Calvin says, that God is the author of works as much evil as good, and consequently that God, before all foreknowledge of works, predestined St. Peter and assigned him to heaven; but Judas He reprobated and assigned to hell. Wisely St. Fulgentius to Monimus: "God," he says, "is not the author of those whose avenger He is." St. Augustine, in Sentences, no. 379: "God," he says, "whose author of evil He is not, is the just avenger." Therefore, to gather up in summary what has been said, the wisdom of God is said here to have distinguished between good and evil, elect and reprobate, both because it observed and observes a different mode and order of providence with these and with those; and because the good and elect are worthy by their preparation and cooperation, who through justifying grace and glory are to be separated from the evil and reprobate; and thus He judges by the most just wisdom of God that they are to be separated. This will be more evident from what follows. For God predestined the elect from eternity, and in time gives them efficacious or congruous grace, but to the reprobate sufficient, but inefficacious and incongruous grace, because, namely, they themselves are unwilling to cooperate, and God foresaw this. For efficacious grace is the grace of predestination and therefore the greatest benefit of God. Although sufficient grace, but inefficacious, is likewise a great gift of God, because it is often physically equal to, or greater than efficacious grace; nevertheless efficacious grace on account of the effect and fruit which it actually produces, in moral estimation is far the greater benefit of God than is sufficient grace. For only efficacious grace actually bestows upon us conversion, good operation, and that great gift of perseverance, and through it infallibly leads man to salvation and eternal glory; none of which does sufficient grace alone accomplish. Wherefore we must pray to God continually and ardently for this efficacious grace, since upon it the hinge of all salvation and every good depends; for we cannot merit it by good works, but only by prayer can we beg and obtain it from God. For, as St. Augustine says, On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter VIII: "This grace is rejected by no hardened heart; for it is given precisely so that the hardness of the heart may be taken away. When therefore the Father is heard within, and teaches so that one comes to the Son, He takes away the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh. Thus indeed He makes sons of promise and vessels of mercy, which He prepared for glory." The same, book II On the Perseverance of the Saints, chapter XIV, epistle 107, and elsewhere calls this grace lofty, secret, according to the purpose of God, proper to the predestined and the elect. And in the book On the Spirit and the Letter, chapter XXXIV: "Now," he says, "if anyone presses us to scrutinize that depth, why is one so persuaded that he is persuaded, while another is not so; two things alone occur to us meanwhile which it pleases to answer, O the depth of the riches! and, Is there unrighteousness with God?" Indeed the Apostle also, Romans IX, 16: "It is not," he says, "of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." Grace therefore goes before as mistress, the will follows as handmaid, says St. Augustine. Whence in book I On Grace and Free Will, chapter XVI: "It is certain," he says, "that we do when we do; but He makes us do, by providing most efficacious powers to the will." The same, book I On the Grace of Christ, chapter XIV: "For if everyone who has learned comes, assuredly he who does not come has not learned; in this manner of teaching, whereby God teaches through the grace of the Spirit so that whatever anyone has learned, he not only sees by knowing, but also desires by willing and accomplishes by doing." This is what the Apostle says: "God is he that worketh in you both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will," Philippians II, that is to say. Not from our merit, but from His good pleasure. Whence we are chosen, not because we choose, but because we are chosen, says St. Augustine. Most excellently St. Bernard, On Grace and Free Will: "Grace itself," he says, "stirs up free will when it sows a thought; it heals when it changes affection; it strengthens so as to lead to action; it preserves so that it may not experience defect." Let us therefore pray continually with the Church: "Grant, O Lord, to thy suppliants that we may think those things that are right, by thy inspiration, and do them by thy guidance." AND HE HUMBLED, AND CONVERTED (that is, subverted) THEM FROM SEPARATION (that is, on account of separation) OF THEMSELVES; — because, namely, the impious and accursed by their free will separated themselves from virtue, law and God, Angels and Saints, so that it may be opposed to what preceded concerning the pious and impious, namely that God "applied" them to Himself: just as "humbled," or (as others translate) depressed, is opposed to exalted, which preceded. Thus Rabanus. The similitude therefore is in this, that just as God by His providence separated feast days from non-feast days, although all are of the same nature: so also men, although they are from the same earth and from the same parent Adam, God nevertheless separated them, blessing, exalting and sanctifying some; but cursing, humbling and subverting others. But the dissimilitude is in this, that the impious and those to be reprobated, since they have free will, He permitted to slip and sin, and finally on account of sins He subverted them by death and calamity both present and eternal; but the pious and those to be saved He separated from the impious, calling them by congruous grace, through which, with their free will cooperating, they might be sanctified, and persisting in sanctity might be blessed and glorified. In Greek it is, καὶ ἀνέτρεψεν αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ στάσεων αὐτῶν, that is, and he subverted them from stations and seats, or from their states. Thus also the Syriac, that is to say. God cast out the impious from their kingdoms, dignities, lands and regions, as He cast out the Canaanites from Canaan, giving it to the Hebrews. For this is what it properly refers to. You may accommodate the Latin Vulgate to this reading and sense, which has: "He converted them from separation of themselves," if you take separation as a separated place, region and state, from which God cast out and threw down the impious; according to that of the Mother of God: "He hath put down the mighty from their seat," Luke I, 52. Or, as others say, from separation, that is because they themselves separated themselves from God to idols and vices. For this was their state. Or certainly Our author looked to another meaning of the Greek word στάσις: for this word frequently signifies sedition, discord, civil war, faction, by which the seditious separate themselves from the magistrate and other citizens, indeed they declare war against them, creating for themselves a new head and magistrate. In a similar manner the impious in the Church and world stir up sedition, and separate themselves from it and from God their prince, so that they may worship idols and demons, and therefore they are punished and subverted by God. that is because they themselves separated themselves from God to idols and vices. For this was their state. Or certainly Our author looked to another meaning of the Greek word στάσις: for this word frequently signifies sedition, discord, civil war, faction, by which the seditious separate themselves from the magistrate and other citizens, indeed they declare war against them, creating for themselves a new head and magistrate. In a similar manner the impious in the Church and world stir up sedition, and separate themselves from it and from God their prince, so that they may worship idols and demons, and therefore they are punished and subverted by God.
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13 and 14. AS CLAY IN THE HAND OF THE POTTER, TO MOLD IT AND DISPOSE OF IT (that is, for molding, or that he may mold and dispose of it according to his pleasure; for) ALL HIS WAYS ARE ACCORDING TO HIS DISPOSITION (that is, All the actions and moldings of the potter are according to his disposition, in Greek εὐδοκίαν, that is, good pleasure): SO MAN IS IN THE HAND OF HIM WHO MADE HIM, AND HE SHALL RENDER TO HIM ACCORDING TO HIS JUDGMENT. — Zurich: In the manner of clay which the potter holds in his hand, he directs all his works according to his nod: similarly men are in the hand of God their creator, who affects them according to his judgment with rewards; others: As the clay of the potter, which being held in his hand follows him whithersoever he pleases: so men are in the hand of their maker that he may render to them according to his judgment; Syriac: As clay, which has been molded by the hand of the potter: so man is in the hand of his Creator according to his constitution in all his works. First, you should refer these things to the predestination and reprobation of men, that is to say, Just as clay is in the hand of the potter, so that from it according to his will he may make a vessel for honor, for example an idol, which may be adored; or a vessel for dishonor, for example a chamber pot: so likewise all men are in the hand of God, so that he may place each one according to his will in this order of providence and grace, or in that one, namely in the order of predestination or reprobation, so that he may become good or evil, elect or reprobate, blessed or damned; and thus he "renders," that is, he gives to each one "according to his judgment," that is, as he himself by his wisdom deems and judges it should be done. For, as Rabanus says: "It is in the power of the author and creator to form whatever creature he wishes. Whence God also, since we are all from one and from the same mass in substance, and all sinners, has mercy on some, and despises others; but not without justification. For in the potter, a man, there is only will according to free choice; but in God, the creator of all things, there is always a just will together with omnipotence. Whence it is written: All things whatsoever he willed, he made. For he knows whom he ought to have mercy on according to his foreknowledge and predestination, and whom to despise according to his justice and judgment; for the highest justice can neither will nor do anything except what is altogether just." St. Augustine depicts this predestination and reprobation of individuals graphically and pathetically in the Soliloquies, chapter XXVIII: "Cleanse," he says, "from us, your sons of men, those in whom you were pleased to dwell; whom from the inaccessible depths of the secrets of incomprehensible judgments most wisely, always just, though hidden, without their merits you predestined before the world, called from the world, justified in the world, and magnify them after the world. But you do not do this for all, which all the wise of the earth wonder at, wasting away. And I, Lord, considering this, am struck with fear and amazed at the height of the riches of your wisdom and knowledge, to which I do not attain; and the incomprehensible judgments of your justice, because from the same clay you indeed make some vessels for honor, but others for eternal dishonor. Those therefore whom you have chosen for yourself from many into your holy temple, these you cleanse, pouring out upon them clean water, whose names and number you know, you alone who number the multitude of the stars, and call all of them by name, who are also written in the book of life, which can in no way perish, to whom all things work together unto good, even their sins themselves. For when they fall, they are not dashed, because you put your hand under them, keeping all their bones, so that not one of them may be broken." This concerning the elect; but concerning the neglected and reprobate he adds this: "Yet the death of sinners is most evil, of those, I say, whom, before you made heaven and earth, according to the great abyss of your hidden judgments, but always just, you foreknew unto eternal death; whose enumeration of names and wicked merits is with you, you who have numbered the number of the sand of the sea, and measured the depth of the abyss, whom you have left in their uncleanness; to whom all things work together unto evil, and even prayer itself is turned into sin, so that, if they should even ascend to the heavens, and their head touch the clouds, and place their nest among the stars of heaven, like a dunghill in the end they perish. For great are these your judgments, O Lord God, just and strong judge, who judge equity, and make inscrutable and deep things, which when I consider, all my bones tremble. For man living upon earth is not secure, that we may serve you piously and chastely all the days of our life in fear, and exult in you with trembling, so that service may not be without fear, nor joy without trembling." Secondly, you should refer these things to the end and rewards of the good and evil, namely, of the elect and the reprobate, as if to say, God exalts the good, blesses them and makes them blessed; but the evil he humbles, curses and overturns from their seats; because both are in the hand of God, as clay is in the hand of the potter. Wherefore as the potter from it can make this vessel unto honour, that one unto dishonour; because he judges that to be fitting and suitable for each: so God punishes the evil, but rewards the good; because he judges that to be fitting and suitable for each. For the Hebrew משפט mispat, that is judgment, signifies that which is suitable or due to each. Favours this sense τὸ ἀποδώσει, that is he will render, namely according to the merits of each. Whence the Zurich Bible translates, who affects them with rewards according to his judgment. Then τὸ judgment; for this, in order that it be just, ought to affect the good with reward, the evil with punishment. Again, because it alludes to Jeremiah XVIII, 6. Where Jeremiah promises that God will lead the Jews into Babylon on account of their sins, if they repent, will lead them back thence, as the potter refashions a broken vessel, and makes it beautiful and illustrious. The Apostle uses this same similitude of the potter, Romans IX, 21, where I have spoken of it at length. Wherefore I shall add nothing more here. Lyranus rightly notes that the similitude of the potter is dissimilar in this, that the potter intends to make vessels not only noble, but also ignoble, for example chamber pots, so that they may serve the vile works and necessities of men: but God intends to make nothing except a vessel unto honour, that is just and holy, who shall be blessed; for he cannot will the evils of guilt. Since therefore God cannot be the author of the evils of guilt, consequently he cannot be the author of damnation to anyone; for this is nothing other than the punishment of guilt. Therefore by his antecedent will and proper to himself, that is as far as in him lies, God desires and intends all to be saved, I Timothy II, but by his consequent will, because, namely, he sees the impious sinning, and persevering therein even unto death, he wills to punish and damn them: for God is not the author of guilt, but the just ordainer; because he punishes the disgrace of guilt through the beauty of justice, and, as St. Augustine teaches, Enchiridion cap. C, God is so omnipotent and good, that he would not permit evils to be done, unless from them he could draw forth greater goods: "Nor would the good one permit, he says, evil to be done, unless the omnipotent one could also make good from evil." And thus he permits in the world the evil with the good until the day of judgment, in which he will separate these from those eternally. Most excellently Boethius, book IV of the Consolation: "Alone, he says, is the divine power, to which even evils are good, when using them fittingly, it draws forth some good effect."
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15. GOOD IS AGAINST EVIL, AND LIFE AGAINST DEATH: SO ALSO THE SINNER AGAINST THE JUST MAN. AND SO CONSIDER IN ALL THE WORKS OF THE MOST HIGH. TWO AND TWO, AND ONE AGAINST ONE. — Thus the Roman codices and other corrected manuscripts; therefore some read wrongly, two against two: for it is false that in all the works of God two against two, or two things opposed to two, are found. Whence the Greek clearly has: δύο δύο, ἓν κατέναντι τοῦ ἑνός, that is, two by two, one against one, as St. Augustine and Isidore, to be cited presently, read it. Whence the Zurich Bible clearly translates: Good is contrary to evil, and life contrary to death; so the pious is opposed to the wicked, and the wicked to the pious: and so in all the works of the Most High you see pairs of things, of which one repugns the other; the Syriac: In all works good is created against evil. And life is created against death, and darkness is created against light: thus God has manifested all His works two by two, one against one. He gives the reason why God from among men chose some, namely the pious, blessed and sanctified them: others, namely the impious, left in the mass of perdition, cursed and overthrew them; namely first, so that the pious might be opposed to the impious, and piety might overcome impiety. Second, so that men seeing the impious and the shame of impiety, might perceive how great was the glory, dignity and beauty of the pious and of piety: just as the force and splendor of whiteness is better known if blackness is opposed to it; and the sweetness of sweet food is better tasted if the bitterness of bitter food is tasted at the same time. Third, so that in the good and the elect God might show the riches of His goodness and grace; but in the evil and the reprobate the severity of His severity, justice and vengeance, as the Apostle teaches, Rom. IX, 22 and 23. Just as therefore God opposed good to evil, and life to death, both so that evil might be overcome by good, and death by life; and so that the appearance of good and life, compared with the ugliness of evil and death, might appear more and be esteemed more; and so that God's power and majesty might shine forth more in this opposition of things: so likewise for the same reasons God opposed sinners to the just, for the same reasons in the other works He made "two and two," that is, pairs, of which one is opposed to the other, as if to say, Not only in good and evil men, the elect and the reprobate, is this contrariety and opposition seen, but also everywhere in all other things throughout the whole universe, and this for the beauty and variety and fullness of the universe. Besides the three reasons already given, a fourth can be added to this, namely, so that in this composition and association of contraries may shine forth the wonderful wisdom of God, which joins and combines things plainly discordant and opposed in such a way that they appear not contrary and discordant, but harmonious and connatural, and so one cannot be and subsist without the other opposed to it. Thus any mixed body is composed of four contrary elements, and mutually warring. So also the whole world is formed from four elements, among which fire fights against water, air against earth. So water, that is, the moist, the fatty and the subtle, nourishes fire contrary to itself, says Aristotle, lib. III De Anima. So matter, form, and privation, opposed to form, are the three first principles of physics, the principles of any natural thing. So white comes from black; the musical comes from the non-musical, says Aristotle, lib. I Physic. So the beauty and delight of music arises from the harmony and concord of discordant voices. So theriac, most health-giving, is made from the flesh of the viper plainly venomous, and so the most excellent medicines are made from poisonous things, broken down and tempered by fitting mixture among themselves. So from dark ashes mixed with bitumen, by the force of fire, transparent and pellucid glass is formed. So man (indeed any animal) is composed of body and soul or spirit, which is incorporeal. Most excellently and wisely does St. Augustine teach, in book XI of the City of God, chapter XXII, and in book III of Genesis according to the letter, chapter X, that harmful animals also bring many benefits to man, because, as he says, "they either wound him punitively, or exercise him beneficially, or prove him usefully, or teach him unknowingly." On this matter see more in St. Jerome, book II Against Jovinian, St. Ambrose, book III of the Hexaemeron, chapter VI, Lactantius, book VI, chapter IV, and even Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods. Moreover, that the evil of guilt redounds to the good of man and the universe, the same St. Augustine teaches, book III On Free Will, chapter IX, both because virtue compared with vice shines forth more brightly, and because the evil of guilt is corrected by the good of punishment, and because in the penitent it commends the penitence of man and the mercy of God forgiving it. See St. Augustine, the Enchiridion, chapter XI, and Lactantius, book On the Wrath of God, chapter XIII, and St. Isidore, book On the Highest Good, chapter XI. Behold here, marvel at and revere the omnipotence and magnificence of God the Creator in natures so opposed and contrary in every way. For God in His wonderful wisdom, power and providence has placed the remedy for evil in evil itself, and, so to speak, life in death itself. This is a paradox to men; yet in reality it is evident in serpents, especially the viper, concerning which this epigram, or rather riddle, exists: While you live, I die; while you, viper, die, I live. That I may live forever, die forever. Thus the remedy for poison is from poison, for the viper from the viper, which in death places poison, and dying heals poisons with its own poison. Therefore we live by poison, it dying; for the composition of theriac is made from the viper, which was discovered by Andromachus, an illustrious physician in the time of the Emperor Nero, who was a viper to his mother; for he killed her, just as the offspring of a viper is said to kill its mother by gnawing through her womb in being born. Truly with a fitting omen, that he himself like a viper would place poison in death, and his death would be the salvation of the city and the world, which he himself while living had wounded lethally like a viper. Thus Pliny, book XXIX, chapter IV, writes: "That M. Varro in the eighty-eighth year of his life reported that the bite of an asp is most effectively cured by drinking the urine of those very serpents that were bitten." And he adds: "It is established that against the bites of all serpents, however incurable, the entrails of the serpents themselves applied are helpful; and those who have once drunk the cooked liver of a viper are never afterward struck by a serpent. Nor is a serpent venomous except during one month when the moon incites it. But it helps if caught alive and crushed in water, if the bite is thus treated." And further down: "The hydri," he says, "are inferior to no serpents in venom. Their liver preserved is a help against those struck by them. The scorpion crushed counteracts the venom of stellions." In a similar mystical way, the remedy for our death was the death of Christ; for this death killed death by dying, and brought forth eternal life for us. Thus the remedy for any adversity and cross is sought from adversity and the cross itself, especially that of Christ. For if you consider that adversity, brief and fleeting, creates for you an eternal crown; if you consider how much Christ endured for you, you will easily bear tribulation however grave and troublesome. Moreover, the remedy for sin from sin itself, namely from consideration of the foulness and harm of sin, St. Paul, St. Mary Magdalene, and other penitents and saints have sought. I omit that one contrary in the presence of the other intensifies its force through antiperistasis: thus the heat of fire in winter on account of the surrounding cold sharpens and intensifies itself, and conversely cold in summer through antiperistasis of heat, just as an enemy gathers his forces in the presence of an enemy, and a rival in the presence of a rival, so as to resist him. In like manner faithful and strong men in temptation and adversity exert all their strength, and therefore emerge stronger and victorious. Thus St. Augustine explains this passage, in book XI of the City of God, chapter XVIII: "For God, he says, would not create any, I do not say of the Angels, but even of men, whom He foreknew would be evil, unless He likewise knew to what good uses He would put them, and thus would adorn the order of the ages like a most beautiful song, even by means of certain, as it were, antitheses. For antitheses, as they are called, are most becoming in the ornaments of elocution, which in Latin are called opposites; or what is said more expressly, contraposites." And a little later: "Just as therefore these contraries set in opposition to contraries render the beauty of discourse: so by a certain eloquence not of words, but of things, the beauty of the age is composed by the opposition of contraries. This is set forth most clearly in the book of Ecclesiastes in this manner: Good is set against evil, and life against death: so the sinner against the pious. And thus behold in all the works of the Most High: two and two, one against one." St. Augustine as a master is followed by St. Isidore, bishop of Seville, in book II of the Origins, chapter XXI: "Antitheses, he says, are those which in Latin are called contraposites, which, when they are set in opposition, make the beauty of the thought, and are most becoming in the ornament of elocution, as Cicero: 'On this side shame fights, on that side wantonness; on this side chastity, on that side debauchery; on this side faith, on that side fraud; on this side piety, on that side wickedness; on this side constancy, on that side madness; on this side honesty, on that side baseness; on this side continence, on that side lust; and finally on this side equity, temperance, fortitude, prudence and all virtues contend with iniquity, luxury, cowardice, with rashness and with all vices; lastly abundance contends with want, good reason with ruin; a sound mind with madness; and finally good hope with despair of all things.' In such a contest and battle with such an ornament of elocution the book of Ecclesiastes has been used, saying: Good is set against evil, and life against death: so the sinner against the pious. And thus behold in all the works of the Most High: two and two, one against one." Franciscus Valesius notes, in the book of Sacred Philosophy, chapter LXXV, that τὸ unum contra unum signifies first that Aristotelian principle: "One is contrary to one;" because two or more cannot be contrary to one; for contraries are those which in the same genus are most distant. But in the same genus more things cannot be equally distant; it is necessary therefore that there be one which is most distant. He himself proves the minor premise by many arguments. Second, that τὸ unum contra unum is not only true in those things which are properly called contraries, but also in the natural antipathies of things. Namely, not all animals exercise enmities with all; and when many things seem to be adverse to something, not all of them equally; but there is something which is adverse chiefly to each thing, a certain definite one: just as the dog pursues the hare, not so the wolf or the lion: nor does the dog so pursue the cat or the mouse: the cat pursues the mouse, not so any other animal. In inanimate things likewise it happens the same way; for although there are certain antidotes both simple and compound, which are considered to be adverse to many poisons, such as the bezoar stone and theriac; yet there are to individual poisons individual proper antidotes: because there is something which is peculiarly and properly adverse to each, just as rue to aconite, generous wine to opium, milk to the sea-hare. And so there are certain antidotes simply, certain for some things, and the genus of alexipharmacs is adverse to the worse genus, one to one (for in a certain way every genus is also one) to each poison its own antidote. Moreover, this natural law of contrariety seems to be imitated also by the enmities and hatreds of men; for whatever dissensions arise among many, whether in one house, or in a city, or in a kingdom, or even among many kingdoms; soon all those to whom their cause pertains in any way are borne into two factions; so much is the number of duality suited to division. And so all hatreds seem to be exercised, whether natural or voluntary, through pairs, so that it is necessary that one be against one, two against two, and so forth. Now all these things have a cause not very different from the former, namely, that there is always something one according to which it happens to be averse; but according to one thing it cannot be most distant, unless there be two. Third, that "one against one" also signifies an equal distribution of things, or equality and equilibrium. For Epicurus observed, not without wit, that it is the nature of things that all things correspond to all things, equals to equals, and like things to like things, and contraries to contraries and opposites; so that in all things and in each one there is preserved a certain equality and correspondence; just as there are as many things that preserve as there are that destroy; and of corporeal and incorporeal things, mortal and immortal, and of all other things which are said to exist according to opposition, there is a certain equality. Which Finally, the source and origin of this opposition and contraposition is the very Holy Trinity itself; for in it the Father is relatively opposed and contraposed to the Son, and the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son; for just as from the Father "all paternity in heaven and on earth is named," as the Apostle says, Ephesians III, 15: so also from the Son all filiation and from the Holy Spirit all love and procession. Therefore, just as the supreme opposition of the persons of the Holy Trinity ceases and comes together in the supreme unity and identity of the divine essence: so all our opposition should come together in the unity of concord and charity. Galen also in the members of man, which are situated according to opposite sides, I mean the right and left parts, observed and celebrated in a wonderful manner, calling it the justice of nature. Namely, there is no part on one of the sides to which there is not an equal opposite part on the other. For either they are paired, and one is opposite to the other on the other side, observing equality also of position, as the eyes, ears, nostrils, kidneys, testicles, hands and legs and their fingers; or they are simple, and these are situated in the middle, as the brain, heart, lung, stomach, bladder and uterus; among the external parts, the forehead, mouth and neck: or they are contraposed according to the sides toward equality, as the spleen is opposed to the liver. This is from Valesius. Now if in natural things we see and endure these oppositions and contrapositions, inasmuch as God instituted them for the good and completion of each thing, and of the whole universe; why should we not endure the same in moral things, namely in the diverse and opposite judgments of rivals, wills, endeavors, disputes, contests? We are athletes of God, boxers, wrestlers and runners in this arena of the world. To this the following paradox of Seneca, epistle 107, or rather of Sirach in this place, adds sharp spurs: "Eternity consists of contrary things. Let equity be commanded to the mind, says Seneca, and let us pay the tribute of mortality without complaint. Winter brings cold, we must be cold; summer brings heat, we must be hot; the inclemency of the sky tries our health, we must be sick. And a wild beast will meet us in place of a man, and man is more pernicious than all beasts. One thing water will take away, another fire. We cannot change this condition of things. This we can do, take great courage and that which is worthy of a good man, by which we may patiently endure the chances of fortune, and consent to nature. But nature, this kingdom which you see, tempers by changes. Clear skies follow cloudy ones; seas are disturbed when they have been calm; winds blow against each other; day follows night; part of the sky rises, part sinks. Eternity consists of contrary things. Our mind must be fitted to this law, let it follow this, obey this, and let it think that whatever happens ought to have happened, lest it wish to find fault with nature. It is best to endure what you cannot amend; and to follow God, by whose authority all things come about, without murmuring. A bad soldier is he who follows his commander groaning." And after some interjections, thus he teaches us that God addresses and prays with us: "Lead me, parent, and ruler of the lofty sky, Wherever it has pleased you, there is no delay in obeying. I am ready and eager. Make me unwilling, I will follow groaning: And I will suffer worse, what I could have suffered as a good man. The fates lead the willing, the unwilling they drag. Let us live thus, let us speak thus, let fate find us prepared and eager. This is a great soul, which has given itself to God. But on the contrary, that one is small and base, who struggles against it and thinks ill of the order of the world, and prefers to amend the gods rather than himself."
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Some read incorrectly, and I myself hoped in hope. For the phrase "in hope" must be deleted, as the Roman editors note in the errata of the press. Siracides inserts this concerning himself, about to close the preceding sentences and to begin the following ones, so that he might conciliate to himself the attention of readers through the authority of God, who blessed him and stirred him up to write them, that is to say: Among those whom in verse 42 I said God blessed, and chose for himself and sanctified, I am one, and the last of my kind. For I, after all the prophets and hagiographic writers, who ceased to prophesy and write in the Babylonian captivity, after their long silence and as it were a sleep of three hundred years, awoke, God stirring me up to write these sacred parables. But truly from humility I do not wish to equal myself to them, but I place them before me; for they were as it were vintagers, who brought into the Church the abundant doctrine of wisdom as it were a full vintage of grapes; but I judge myself to be as it were a gleaner, who after the vintage searches out and gathers the few grapes left behind: for in like manner I too have searched out sentences passed over by the ancient wise men and writers, and have gathered them into this book; but behold God blessed this humility of mine and my labor, and made it so that, because I hoped in his blessing, my gleaning grew into a vintage, which filled the "wine-press," that is, so that I wrote abundantly many excellent sentences concerning every virtue and vice, from which the wine of saving wisdom irrigating and inebriating the mind can easily be pressed out by readers, and abundantly drawn. Whence for "as one who gathers grapes," in Greek it is ὡς καλαμώμενος, that is, as one gathering stubble or ears of grain after harvest, or a gleaner; but by catachresis a gleaner is taken for a gleaner of grapes, who after the vintage gathers the few grapes left behind, which escaped the eyes and hands of the vintagers, that is to say: I thought I would be merely a gleaner of wisdom; but God blessing me, I became as it were a vintager and filled the wine-press, that is, I wrote a great book filled with many sentences, as it were with grapes heaped together, for pressing out and serving the wine of wisdom from it to both present and future believers, especially Christians. Whence the Zurich version translates: But I the last awoke, that as a gleaner I might hasten after the vintagers, the Lord prospering me well, and as a vintage I filled the wine-press; others reading somewhat differently in the Greek according to the Roman correction thus translate: And I the last awoke, and possessed them, as from the beginning, as one who gathers grapes after the vintagers, having obtained by the blessing of the Lord what I desired, and as a vintager I filled the place of the wine-press; the Syriac: I too came last like a gleaner after the vintagers, and in the good things of God I stood, and like a vintager I filled my wine-press. Siracides therefore says that he was the last hagiographic writer, who placed as it were a colophon and crown upon the Old Testament Scripture, so that it itself is now full and abounding in all the wine of wisdom, especially ethical wisdom for conforming morals. For although the books of the Maccabees were written somewhat later than Ecclesiasticus, yet these are not reckoned among the ketubim, that is among the hagiographers, but among the historical books. Add that they are not held by the Hebrews in the canon of Holy Scripture, nor are they esteemed by them as canonical. In like manner St. Paul, I Corinthians xv, 8, calls himself the last of the Apostles, nay even an abortion; yet he himself as it were a vintager filled the wine-press of the Church with every kind of Christian doctrine. Note: To evigilavi signifies that holy doctors and writers are given to the world in the night of errors and vices, so that they themselves, awakened by God exciting them, may awaken others also to the study of wisdom. Whence they themselves are like Lucifer, or the star of Venus, which after night rises in the dawn and brings the sun to the world; for thus they bring Christ, who is the sun of justice, to the world, and are as it were his forerunners and morning stars. Hence St. Peter, epistle II, chapter 1, verse 19: "We have, he says, a more firm prophetic word: to which you do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts." Hence also St. Gregory, book IX of the Morals, chapter vii, explaining that passage of Job IX: "Who maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and the Hyades, and the inner parts of the South": by Orion he understands the martyrs, by the Hyades the doctors who succeeded the martyrs; for Orion rises in winter, but the Hyades after winter at the beginning of spring, and as it were awaken. "Who, thus, he says, after Orion by the name of the Hyades, are designated but the doctors of the holy Church? who, the martyrs being removed at that time, came to the knowledge of the world when faith shines more clearly, and with the winter of infidelity repressed, the sun of truth burns more deeply in the hearts of the faithful: who, the storm of persecution removed, the long nights of infidelity completed, then arose for the holy Church when already through the spring of belief a brighter year opens. Nor without reason are the holy doctors marked by the name of the Hyades; for in Greek speech hyetos is called rain, and the Hyades received their name from rains: because they have arisen, without doubt, they bring showers. Well therefore were they expressed by the appellation of the Hyades, who, as if brought to the face of heaven for the state of the universal Church, poured forth the showers of holy preaching upon the dry land of the human heart." And a little later: "While therefore the Hyades come with rains, the sun is led to the higher spaces of heaven: because when the knowledge of doctors appears, while our mind is infused with the shower of preaching, the heat of faith is increased: and the earth being watered profits unto fruit, when it recognizes the light of the ether: because we render more abundantly the fruit of good work, while through the flame of sacred learning we burn more clearly in the heart: and while through them day by day more and more heavenly knowledge is shown, as it were the spring time of inner light opens to us; so that a new sun may shine upon our minds, and their words, known to us by him himself, may gleam daily more clearly: for with the world hastening to its end, heavenly knowledge profits, and grows more abundantly with time."
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In Greek παιδείαν, that is, as the Zurich version has it, erudition and the instruction of morals for forming the young. For a doctor labors not only for himself, but also for his disciples; and while he teaches them, he teaches himself. He repeats the sentence set down in chapter xxiv, verse 47, where I have explained it.
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For it is the duty of rulers to teach their subjects these precepts of morals by word and example. Wherefore he who teaches and forms a ruler, prince or king, teaches, composes and forms all his subjects and the whole commonwealth or kingdom: so that whoever would reform the commonwealth, must first reform its heads. Thus St. Francis Xavier, about to convert the Chinese, attempted the king himself, and asked that he be sent as a legate by the Viceroy of India to him: for if he were converted, the whole kingdom of the Chinese would be converted. Hence in Greek it is not to and all the people. Whence the Zurich version: Hear me, ye nobles of the people, and ye princes of assemblies, give ear; and the Syriac: Hear me, ye princes of the people, and ye magnates of the Church, hearken to me. Note: In the Greek texts corrected at Rome hereafter the order of chapters is altogether different: for what has been said thus far in this chapter xxxiii, in the Greek Roman texts is found in chapter xxxvi; but what in this chapter in the Latin texts will follow concerning sons and servants, in the Greek Roman texts is found in chapter xxx. However, the Greek Complutensian texts agree with the Latin in order.
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To be repeated and demanded back. Whence the Zurich version, so that you do not, led by repentance, humbly seek the same thing again; others, so that it may not be necessary for you to make supplication for them in repentance; the Syriac: To your son and wife, and brother and friend do not give power over you in your lifetime, as long as you live and there is breath in you. For woman in Greek is γυναικί: which signifies both a wife and any woman whatsoever. Therefore he advises first that power not be given to a wife, and much less to a concubine or any other woman, so that a man might allow her to rule him and to have dominion over him: for the rule of a woman over a man is contrary to nature and to its institution by God, Genesis III, 16, and therefore is unseemly, disordered, powerless and intolerable. Again, that a man not commit or permit too many and great things to a woman: for he will afterwards be able to take these away from her or restrict them with difficulty; just as servitude in fields, for example a way and path for crossing through a field once introduced, cannot be exercised and removed. For, as the Comic poet says: "By age and use a benefit becomes a debt." Whence Symmachus in a report made on behalf of the senate to the Emperor: "Once advantages are granted to the honor of the City, they cease to be gifts of those granting them: and what was a benefit at the beginning, by use and age becomes a debt." Theodore the king, in Cassiodorus, book III, epistle 39: "Wherefore," he says, "let your illustrious greatness know from the Milanese drivers that we have been approached, those things which ancient custom had indulged being subtracted from them in your times, when in the excellent time munificence is as law. Therefore if they are not vitiated by any falsehood being asserted, it behooves your sublimity to follow the antiquity by which, by a certain privilege of its own, as it were debts, which are granted, it demands." Secondly, that possession and inheritance not be given and resigned to her; for through that she receives, or invades and seizes, full authority and power over the household and family. He forbids the same to a son, brother and friend. He adds the reason: "Lest perhaps you repent and make supplication for them," that is to say, Certainly you will repent of the deed and gift: because you will be forced to become a suppliant to them and to entreat them, so that they might provide you with those things necessary for food and clothing, you who were previously honored and asked by them as suppliants. Antistrophic to this sentiment of Sirach is that saying of the Arabs, Centur. II, num. 94: "Do not be a dog of your friends." For a dog begs at the table of his master. And that one, Centur. I, num. 34: "Do not be a horse to your friend, lest you fall. For he who subjects himself too much to a friend becomes his beast of burden, and brings upon himself his contempt, poverty and heavy burdens. Wherefore prudent is the counsel of the wise man: "Rarely approach a friend, lest sated with you he hate you." Which St. Gregory of Nazianzus followed, rarely approaching the Emperor Theodosius and his courtiers as friends to himself, as his Life relates. Finally, never should so much power be given to a friend that he impel or compel a friend to sin. Whence Pericles, as Plutarch testifies in his Life, when asked by a friend to swear falsely for his sake, answered courageously: "That he was a friend up to the altars." And P. Rutilius to a certain friend asking in indignation: "What need have I of your friendship, if you do not do what I ask?" answered: "Rather, what need have I of yours, if on account of you I am about to do something dishonorable?" Thus Valerius Maximus, book VI, chapter IV. This precept is to be observed by any prudent man, but especially by a ruler, prelate, prince and king. For if he permits anyone to rule over him, he will be king in name only, and will not rule, but be ruled by him: whence it will come to pass that he loses his freedom, and brings upon himself the envy and hatred of his subjects, and the commonwealth is badly administered by him who seeks and desires not the common good of the state, but his own private gains. Moreover, there are many who insinuate themselves into the minds of princes, so that at length they may seize the reins of power, and be able to rule over princes. Such are especially the ambitious and political men, who strive to exalt themselves and theirs, and therefore contend for this by fair means and foul. Wherefore, when human supports fail them, they seek diabolical ones, and by magical arts and potions they enchant princes, so that they, as if bereft of mind, approve all their words and deeds, and depend entirely upon them and their counsels, even the wicked and harmful ones, and cannot be torn away from them: nay, they even raise them from the lowest to the highest dignities and prelacies, or take care that they be raised; so that, protected by their rank, they cannot be cast down, depressed and punished. And this is the fraud of the impious and the devil, by which he strives to destroy kings and kingdoms. For when an impious politician rules, impiety rules; when a heretic or atheist commands, heresy and atheism command; when a magician dominates, the devil dominates, who presides over the magician, whom the magician adores and invokes, nay, to whom he has devoted himself and his own and bound himself. He therefore through them, as through his harpies, plunders, corrupts and subverts the commonwealth. But God, who sees these impious arts of theirs, at length overthrows and destroys them, and brings it about that they live in infamy, and are slain by an infamous death, and often a violent one, and that by those very princes in whose favour they had been, as Ahithophel perished through David, Haman through Ahasuerus, Sejanus through Tiberius, Ablabius through Constantius, Eutropius through Arcadius, and many others even in our age. Nay, the devil himself, possessing their souls and bodies by covenant, driven by the immense hatred with which he burns against God, His creatures, and especially against all men, is wont to deceive them and soon craftily precipitate them into infamous ruin: as we have seen happen in various places in this age more than once, and see happening every day. Let princes therefore beware of such men, and permit no one of them to rule over them and dominate them, unless they wish to expect and witness the certain destruction of themselves and theirs. But let them choose for themselves as counsellors only those whom they know for certain to be orthodox and upright, and of unblemished reputation and life, and to study not their own, but the prince's and the commonwealth's advantage: nor let them easily trust themselves to one, but hear and follow many. Thus Alfonso, king of Aragon, the glory of kings and an example of wisdom, used to say that it seemed to him absurd that kings should be ruled by others, and dukes by others. And he noted princes and magnates who, although they claim for themselves the titles of empire and principality, are nevertheless ruled by another's counsel, even unwillingly: whence it comes to pass that often, to the great detriment of the commonwealth, they see with others' eyes, hear with others' ears, speak with others' tongues. And thus they are anything but Emperors, who depend so much on the judgment of their counsellors that they are plainly their slaves. Thus the Panormitanus relates it, book II, On the Deeds of Alfonso.
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That is to say: While thou livest and art surviving, while the vital spirit is in thee, see to it that all flesh does not change thee and thy mind, namely from that which I have just taught thee, "all flesh," that is all men, as if to say: Neither brother, nor son, nor any man shall turn thy sense, so that contrary to what I have warned, thou dost not subject thyself to others, and yield thy goods to them in thy lifetime. The Greek texts already have, μὴ ἀλλάξῃς σεαυτὸν πάσῃ σαρκί, that is, do not alienate, or do not emancipate thyself to all flesh, that is, subject thyself to no man; others, do not exchange thyself with any man; the Zurich version: While thou livest, and any spirit remains to thee, do not emancipate thyself to all flesh; the Syriac: As long as thou livest and there is spirit in thee, do not give power over thee to all flesh. Our text reads, μὴ ἀλλάξῃ σε πᾶσα σάρξ, that is, all flesh will not change, or let not all flesh change thee. He adds the reason, saying:
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It is better for you that your sons depend on you, than that you depend on your sons: that they themselves should ask necessary things from you, than that you should ask them from yourself. For sons, intent upon nourishing themselves and their own family and increasing it, easily forget their parents, and often one transfers their care to another. Whence the Complutensian edition has: It is better that your sons should be in need of you, than that you should look to the hands of your sons: just as hungry dogs look to the hands of their master, so that he might throw his bones to them, that is, as others translate it, it is better that they should beseech you and beg from you, than that you should do so from them. The Syriac: Do not give your riches to others, so that you might exact and seek from them: because it is better that your sons should ask from you, than that you should ask from them. The same admonition Aesop, the prince of mythologists, gave to his son Enno: "Every day," he said, "lay aside something for the morrow: for it is better to leave a dead man to your enemies, than a living man to the need of friends." Thus Planudes in the Life of Aesop. There is a well-known story of a father who, when he had distributed all his possessions to his sons, was abandoned by all and became poor, by this stratagem extorted maintenance from his sons: he filled a chest with stones, and pretended that he had placed in it an immense treasure: wherefore, so that each son might be appointed his heir, each son strove to bind his parent to himself with gifts and favors. Thus the parent lived sumptuously, and deceived the deception with deception. When he died, his sons eagerly searching the chest found in it nothing but stones.
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Thus the Roman [Vulgate], although others read in thy glory: the Syriac, in thy honour; others: Do not impose a stain on thy glory; the Zurich [Bible]: In all thy business maintain the principal place, so that thou dost not imprint a blemish on thy fame. Whence Lyra, Palacius, Jansenius and others first give this apt and genuine sense: In all the business of thy life be master of thy affairs, so that others, not thou, be subject to thee, lest thou cloud this glory of dominion with a stain, either of poverty, by which thou art forced to beg shamefully from others, which thou hadst previously given to them; or of imprudence, in that thou gavest thy affairs to others, as if thou thyself couldst not administer them prudently, and in that thou permittedst them to rule over thee, and madest thyself as it were their servant. For fathers who are prodigal or deranged in their affairs are wont to be interdicted from their goods by the magistrate, and their administration transferred to their sons or guardians. Whence Rabanus, adapting these things mystically after his manner from St. Gregory to pastors, princes and prelates: "This entire instruction," he says, "teaches fathers historically how they ought to preside rightly over their sons, and nourish them with discipline, until they come to perfect age, so that they may be worthy heirs of their parents after their departure: and it instructs the rectors of the Church spiritually, so that they may hold the dignity of their order with reasonable authority and just moderation unto the end: and thus leave well-nurtured disciples as useful heirs of their labour. Then it teaches how in the conduct of life they ought to show themselves equal to their subjects, and yet to prefer themselves before those who sin with the zeal of vengeance. On which occasion he adds a golden precept for the life of prelates, saying: Truly it must be carefully observed, lest, while the virtue of humility is guarded immoderately, the rights of government be loosened: and lest any Prelate, while he abases himself more than is fitting, be unable to constrain the life of his subjects under the bond of discipline. Let rectors therefore hold outwardly what they undertake for the benefit of others: let them preserve inwardly what they fear concerning their own estimation: but yet by certain signs decently breaking forth, let subjects perceive them humble even in themselves, so that both in their authority they may see what they should fear, and from their humility, what they should imitate. Let those who preside therefore strive without ceasing, so that their power, the greater it is seen outwardly, the more it may be depressed inwardly in them: lest thought overcome it, lest it snatch away the mind into delight in itself, lest now the mind, which subjects itself to the lust of domination, be unable to rule it. For he is rightly counted among hypocrites who turns the ministry of government into the use of domination from the likeness of discipline: and yet sometimes a graver fault is committed, if among the perverse more equality than discipline is preserved. For because Eli, overcome by false piety, was unwilling to strike his delinquent sons, he smote himself with his sons with cruel condemnation before the strict judge. Therefore let the rectors and masters of the Church rightly hold their order, and govern and guard their subjects with discipline; so that while they have ministered well, they may acquire a good degree for themselves, and receive the eternal kingdom for their good merits, Christ bestowing it at the end of life." Secondly, this opinion can be taken more generally with Jansenius, as if to say: In all that thou doest, show thyself "preeminent," that is, principal and as it were the leader, master and lord, nor commit to others what is to be done, so that they themselves are the leaders of the works, and thou doest all things by their judgment. Thirdly, properly and most broadly, as it sounds, this opinion can be taken. For the Greek ὑπεράγον is the same as surpassing, excellent, distinguished, as if to say: In all thy works be excellent and distinguished, so that thou doest all things, even the smallest, exactly, perfectly and excellently, so that thou deviate not in the least, for the sake of favour or fear of men, from what is right and perfect; but mastering fear, favour and other passions, follow and do in every matter what is more honourable, holier, more excellent, and more pleasing to God. Wherefore be distinguished in prudently administering thy goods (for on the occasion and account of this the author has woven in this general precept here, and adapted it to it, Sirach), and yield not to the prayers or threats of thy sons or friends, so that thou givest thy goods to them before death; or commit any other similar thing less worthy of thee, base or abject. Similarly do thy other works excellently and distinguishedly, so that, if thou teach, thou teach excellently: if thou study, thou study excellently; if thou preach, thou preach excellently; if thou pray, thou pray excellently; if thou eat, so eat soberly, decently and excellently, that thou mayest appear to excel other men, as in our age Pope Gregory XIII did, and so of the rest. DO NOT GIVE A BLEMISH TO YOUR GLORY, - that is, do not mix with the work which you have done or do excellently something less becoming or approved, which might stain or dishonor it, just as Solomon, who in his youth was outstanding in wisdom and every royal virtue; in old age, however, seduced by women, he became foolish, and worshipping idols, he gave a great blemish to his glory, Ecclesiasticus cap. xlvii, 22. To this meaning agrees that passage cap. xxxi, vers. 27: "In all your works be swift," in Greek ὀξύτρεχε, that is, vigorous, agile, keen, "and all infirmity shall not come upon you." Which sentence Sirach applies generally to himself in banquets, so that in them a guest may swiftly and resolutely rise at a fitting time and go home: just as here in all your works be excellent, he applies to the administration of goods. Our Louis of Granada suggests the manner of doing each work excellently, De Christ. perfect. tract. IV, cap. xv, namely if you add to each the six wings of the Seraphim, by which they fly to heaven, which are: "the memory of the presence of God" existing everywhere, and what you think, speak or do, beholding; "pure intention of His greater glory," striving in all things which you do to please Him, and always to execute His divine will, because He is supremely good; "prayer," which gives beginning to your works, and accompanies them, asking divine aid, so that with that perfection which He Himself prescribes and counsels, you may execute them; "confidence in God," on whom all your good depends, from whose omnipotence you may hope that He will aid your weakness; from His mercy, that He will have compassion and I shall rejoice that I have thought, done, spoken. For "the recompense of eternal goods is immense and infinite," says St. Hilary in Psal. cxviii, letter Het. And he adds: "Open to God is the faithful breast and a spacious possession, so that He may dwell and walk in it, etc., so that we may be God's dwelling. And while He walks in us, He Himself becomes our possession: thus we leave the world, if we renounce possession of earthly and fleeting things, if we reject the inheritance of perishable things, if living we have departed from the world." on your misery; from His faithfulness, that in your temptations and dangers He will protect you; from His providence, that He will lead you in all your ways. And hence arise the two last wings: "fortitude," namely in undertaking difficult things, casting aside all fear of difficulties; and "perseverance" unto the end of works begun, tolerating patiently whatever troubles may occur. For, as Isaiah said: "They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength," Isai. xl, 31, putting on fresh, namely another more excellent, strength; "they shall take to themselves wings as eagles," so that they may fly in spirit, and exalt their works from earth to heaven; "they shall run, and shall not be weary," on account of the delight with which God "dilates their hearts in the way of His divine commandments; they shall walk, and shall not faint," but shall persevere in the works of His service, until they obtain the crown of glory. Morally, hence let the wise man learn to excel in all his works, namely so that those things, although small in themselves, he may do excellently; thus indeed from small things he will make them outstanding: for it is outstanding to excel in every thing, however small. Hence an excellent grammarian is valued more than a mediocre orator or philosopher. For excellence is something outstanding, which by its own splendor strikes and captivates the eyes of all. "It is better," says Plato in the Theaetetus, "to do something small well than many things perfunctorily." For everything is great which is done well: but not everything which is great is done well, nor is it therefore outstanding because it is great. A sharp incentive to this is, if you consider that "what is once said and done becomes eternal," for whatever has once been said or done is irrevocable, and cannot become unsaid or undone; but the said and done thing remains, and will remain throughout all eternity. It therefore becomes eternal; so that, if it be good and excellent, you will rejoice in it for eternity, and will obtain eternal praise and glory: but if it be evil, or defective and diminished, you will grieve over it and repent of it for eternity, and will undergo eternal ignominy and punishment. Before each action therefore think: "I work for eternity: I live for eternity:" I will therefore work and live excellently, so that I may paint in my soul, nay in the whole world, an image, nay an idea of virtue, which God, Angels and men will praise for eternity. Zeuxis the painter, being asked why he painted so slowly and carefully, answered: "I paint for eternity," as Pliny testifies in lib. xxxv, cap. ix and x, and Plutarch in his Life of Pericles. Let the faithful and holy man rather say the same to himself: Behold, I am given the choice in all my works, words, and thoughts to paint either an excellent image of virtue, or a deformed one of vice: I will paint virtue, so that my works may shine like stars in heaven with joy; not vice, which divine justice will condemn and burn with eternal fire: "I will paint for eternity," I will work so excellently that throughout all eternity I will wish that I had worked thus: I will think, act, speak, so that for eternity I will wish The second incentive is, if you consider the excellence and immensity of divine majesty: for to this so pre-eminent being, nothing but excellent and pre-eminent works ought to be offered: for He Himself desires and wishes such things, and values one excellent work more than ten ordinary ones. If courtiers serve princes and kings so exactly and excellently that nothing can be desired: with how much perfection ought one to serve the King of kings and Lord of lords? Wherefore Blessed Teresa vowed to God that in every matter she would do what was best and most excellent. Thus St. Mechtildis spoke so angelically that you would think you heard not a human being, but an angel speaking in her. Thus Sts. Athanasius, Basil, Augustine, Jerome, Anthony, Bernard, Dominic, Francis and the other eminent Saints did all their deeds in a manner elevated above men, so that they seemed not so much men as angels: namely, "they lived as divinities, they spoke as oracles;" and what St. Gregory of Nazianzus writes of St. Basil: "Their speech was thunder, because their life was lightning." The third incentive is that which St. Anthony, when about to die, gave to his followers, and Barlaam to King Josaphat, in the History of Damascenus, namely, if daily, when you rise, you think that day will perhaps be your last: and therefore seriously resolve to do each work of that day so carefully, as if it were to be your last, so that you may dare to present it to Christ the Judge soon to come, and be judged concerning it, and hope and rejoice to be saved. In the morning therefore have this premeditated: "Today I will begin to serve God, today also I will end. I will not therefore degenerate from the lofty thoughts of the sons of God. I will measure my actions by the great measure of the great and the heroes." To this pertains that teaching of Seneca: "Go against the opinion of the crowd, as the stars go from West to East." And that: "The smallest things are not to be neglected, but the greatest things are to be done," both because progress is made from the smallest to the greatest, and because "nature is nowhere more wholly present than in the smallest things," as Pliny says in lib. XI, cap. II. Thus St. Gregory of Nazianzus in a poem to Nicobulus teaches that each one ought to measure himself by a great measure, that is to aspire to great things: But he should measure himself by a great measure, with a great and mighty step, whoever is wise: and it is better to bear the second rank among the great, than the first among the poor. Not otherwise than it is better for slender birds to fly high through the air below the eagles, than for larks to be confined to the earth. And as the same author says, in epistle 57 to Eudoxius: "Do not fear to excel among jackdaws, when you are able to be an eagle." For it is indeed excellent to pursue the most outstanding things, yet to remain in the second and third rank. The same Nazianzenus, in a Distich, says: "Come, abandon this desert world, and casting off the world's burdens, set sail toward heavenly life; and indeed accomplish all excellent works, as is fitting for God, but especially let the Trinity be your concern." The same author elsewhere says: "We celebrate festivals, if we shine forth in our actions," namely, by making them illustrious and splendid before others. St. Cyprian, On the Singularity of Clerics: "That which is done, he says, is not holy unless that which is holy is done holily." St. Augustine, in Psalm 34, at the end: "Take, speak, praise God. Whatever you do, do it well, and you have praised God." An axiom of St. Bernard, which Gerson recounts in the Dialogue of Francis, and Augustine, vol. II, was: "God does not reward words, but adverbs," that is, He does not regard what we do, but how well and excellently we do it. St. Basil, in the sermon On Hidden Things, decrees: "Diligently fulfill the ministry assigned to you, just as if you were serving Christ himself." Indeed, even Apuleius concerning the God of Socrates says: "Nothing, he says, is more similar and more pleasing to God than a perfect soul: he is good who excels other men as much as he himself is excelled by the immortal gods." To this pertains the symbol of Pythagoras: "Do not leave dregs in the bottom of the cup: that is, completely exhaust the arts you have begun." And that other saying of his: "Do not stand upon a bushel:" that is, Do not be content with mediocre and moderate things, but strive for the highest. Do not sit upon a choenix: that is, Have care not only for the present but also for the future. "For indeed a choenix is the measure of daily food." In the day of the consummation of the days of your life, and in the time of your departure distribute your inheritance. That is, when death is at hand, distribute your goods to your sons or friends, or to the poor, either by actually dividing them among them, or by making a will in which you command them to be distributed. The Zurich Bible: In the time of the finishing of the days of your life, when you must die, distribute your inheritance; others: In the day (in the time) when the days of your life shall be finished, and in the time of your death distribute your inheritance; the Syriac: In the time when the number of your days shall be consummated, and in the day of your death appoint your sons as heirs of your wealth, lest it pass to strangers. You will say: This sentence seems contrary to that of Christ: "If you will be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor," Matthew 19:21, which all Religious follow and practice. I answer that it is not contrary, but subordinate: For Sirach prudently commands that goods not be given to sons or friends before death; but Christ advises that they be given to the poor through the pursuit of almsgiving and virtue. Sirach instructs the Jews, Christ instructs Christians. Sirach prescribes the common way of living for a rude age, Christ sanctifies the apex of perfection through the counsel of evangelical poverty, of which carnal Jews were incapable, to the Apostles and their followers. Finally, Palacius rightly says: Note, he says, that it is one thing to abandon all things from charity and trust in God, which the Gospel counsels and perfect men have done; it is another thing, from human friendship and trust to give goods to someone, which Ecclesiasticus forbids, and those who have done this, led by repentance, have grieved. Note also that the time of the Gospel and of the old law is different. In the latter, happiness was to be rich and a master, and this happiness was given through good works; in the former, however, happiness is to lack temporal things and to cling to divine things alone. On the other hand, Eleazar the elder preferred to die rather than eat pork forbidden by the law: "Lest by this," he says, "I bring a stain and a curse upon my old age," II Maccabees vi, 25. This is what the royal Psalmist prays, Psalm L: "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation (St. Jerome: of thy Jesus), and strengthen me with a principal spirit." "Principal," that is, chief, primary; St. Jerome, mighty; the Hebrew nediba; in Greek ἡγεμονικῷ; that is, first, with a princely spirit, which befits a prince and king, such as David was; second, with a spirit which, as it were a prince, rules and dominates in the mind over lust, vices and concupiscences: thus St. Jerome; third, which going before me as a prince leads all my actions, and makes them excellent, princely and royal. It can fourth, nediba with the Zurich Bible be translated voluntary, spontaneous, liberal, beneficent, which namely by its gifts makes me go freely and willingly, indeed run the way of the Lord, be liberal toward all, obey God fully in all things, resist temptations cheerfully, bear any cross bravely. Symbolically St. Jerome: The principal spirit, he says, is God the Father, the right spirit is God the Son, the holy spirit is the Holy Spirit himself. Better St. Gregory, in Psalm L: The Holy Spirit, he says, is principal, is right, is holy. This is he who impels and elevates us, so that we do excellent, heroic works, and those which surpass common nature and the measure of other Saints. Whence whenever Samson was about to do some excellent work of strength, it is prefaced: "The spirit of the Lord rushed upon Samson," as appears Judges xiv, 6 and 19, and xv, 14. This therefore Holy Spirit is to be invoked assiduously by him who wishes to perform heroic works of virtue.
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From sons he passes to servants and slaves, such as once existed among the Jews and gentiles; but now among Christians servants are called famuli, who hire out their labors to a master; hence properly they are not slaves, but free men, workers and hired laborers. Hence he compares servants to asses, as if to say: Three things a master owes to an ass, namely food, the rod and burden: the same he owes to a servant, namely bread, discipline and work. Servants therefore ought to be governed like asses. For provisions in Greek it is χορτάσματα, that is, hay fodder. For hay-feeding therefore, says Jansenius, which is owed to an ass, bread is given to a servant, that is, necessary food and not delicate. For the rod, which is owed to an ass, discipline is given to a servant, that is, chastisement and correction. For the burden, with which asses are burdened, work is given to a servant, by which he is to be pressed and kept in his duty. The sense therefore is: Just as hay and rod and burden befit an ass, so bread and discipline and work befit a servant. And Aristotle writes that servants are owed ἔργα, κόλασιν, καὶ τροφήν. Hence asses among the Hebrews, according to the testimony of Aldrovandus, lib. De Quadrup. I, are a symbol of a disciple and discipline, because asses ought to bear much in the manner of beasts of burden. Hence Ammonius Alexandrinus, teacher of Origen and Porphyry, is said to have employed an ass as his fellow-student. And Cleanthes did not blush at the name of an ass: "I am indeed an ass, he says, but one who can carry the burden of Zeno." Indeed even the Psalmist: "I am become, he says, as a beast of burden before thee," Psalm lxxii, verse 22. The Zurich version translates: Just as fodder, rod and burdens befit an ass; so food, and chastisement, and work befit a servant; the Syriac: Fodder, and scourge, and work to an ass: and discipline, and bread, and work to a servant. "Bread" is necessary for life and strength for laboring, "discipline" for restraining wantonness, "work" for driving away idleness; "bread" for sustenance, "discipline" for chastity, "work" for fruitfulness. To this pertain the axioms of Aristotle concerning servant and master in lib. Œconom.: "It is fitting to give a servant work and sufficient sustenance. It is more fitting for a master to rise before a servant, and to go to bed later. What fattens a horse more is the eye of the master: and the dunghill which is best for a field, the footsteps of the master. The more diligently anyone obeys, the greater favor he will obtain. Each one bears very heavily the deprivation of his honor." Rightly is a servant or slave compared to an ass, because he is often stupid, dull, slow and hard like an ass, whose head by its shape reveals his stupidity, slowness and hardness. On which account there exists a sharp riddle, or rather an epigram on the ass: The horse is esteemed by his hoof, the hare by his ear, the lion by his voice, and the wolf by his color; but the ass is all head. That common saying is well-worn: A nut, an ass, a woman are bound by a like law: These three do nothing rightly, if blows cease. Hence Cujacius the jurist, among other reasons why slaves are said to be diminished in head in law (Instit., De capitis diminut., and leg. 2, § 1, ff. De capit. diminut.), also brings forward this: "Slaves, he says, are also said to be diminished in head on account of lost liberty, because, as if deprived of their own reason and counsel, they are forced to act and live by the reason and counsels of another." And Solomon, Proverbs xxix, 19: "A servant, he says, cannot be instructed by words: because he understands what thou sayest, and despiseth to answer." Understand by servant one who is of servile, hard and rebellious disposition. To this pertain the maxims of Philosophers. Euripides in Antiope: "Never, he says, ought a slave to pursue liberal studies, nor to seek leisure." For studies make slaves proud, although they are often unteachable; leisure makes them lazy and thieves. The same in Alexander: "So evil is the race of slaves. They are nothing but belly, nor do they foresee anything for the future." Theognidas: "It is never right for a servile head, but it always has a twisted and oblique neck." Democritus: "You use slaves, as parts of the body, one for one purpose and another for another." Plato, lib. VI De Legibus, teaches that piracies and robberies of pirates arise from slaves. Mystically, the body is the servant and ass of the soul, to which three things are owed, namely common food, chastisement and work. Thus St. Francis called his body brother ass, and treated it as an ass, because he forced it to bear heavy burdens of labors and penances, and to eat little, and common and vile foods. Excellently St. Lawrence Justinian in Ligno vitæ, tract. De Sobrietate, cap. III: "Often, he says, while we pursue the enemy in the flesh, we also slay the citizen whom we love; and often while we sympathize with him as a fellow-citizen, we go to battle against the enemy— we nourish: if therefore an excessive and immoderate zeal persuades us to withhold from the flesh necessary food, it must be said to him what someone said to Joab: "If thou wouldst weigh in my hand a thousand pieces of silver, I would not lay my hand upon the king's son," II Kings xviii, 12. And St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Branches of Palms, teaches that a Religious is mystically an ass upon which Christ has sat, and that this is a great dignity: first, because it touches Christ closely; second, because it expends and spends itself entirely in his service; third, because it carries Christ; fourth, because it has him within itself and also carries him about to others. Wherefore he addresses his monastery's pupils thus with joy: "I must be silent, that you may avoid elation; or should I rather speak, that you may have consolation? Are you not the beast upon which Christ sits, according to the Apostle's precept, glorifying and carrying God in your bodies?" The same in the Doctrine or manner of living in the monastery: "When you come, he says, about to ask something of the Prior, prepare yourself always for refusal; and if it should happen that what you ask is denied you, say to yourself: What was fitting for a little ass except a bridle and a goad? I can claim nothing as my own in this house, except a hair shirt and a cross; a hair shirt in death, and a cross in the grave. This is my inheritance, yet so that a small clod of earth covers the cross." The saying of an elder in the Lives of the Fathers is well known: "I and the ass are one," by which he compared himself to bearing all things from all. In the Chronicles of St. Francis, the blessed Jacopone is celebrated, who when he was in the world a man noble in talent, learning, and position, suddenly struck and moved by the ruin of his wife crushed by the collapse of the platform at the wedding, decided to renounce the world, and requesting the habit of St. Francis, heard from the brothers: "If you wish to live among us, you must become an ass, so that like an ass among asses you may dwell." Immediately therefore he put on an ass's skin, and crawling on hands and feet: "Behold, he said, brothers, I am an ass, admit an ass among asses." Admitted, he became a mirror of humility, mortification, charity and all virtues. His Life exists, filled with heroic virtues. Symbolically: The patience of the ass, says Aldrovandus in his work on the Ass, teaches men that each should faithfully and diligently perform his own lot and what is present and at hand, and that each should live content with his own fortune; nor should he refuse labors, provided they be honest, even if worthy rewards do not follow. As Stigelius also admonishes in his laborious ass: Be an ass; whatever harsh lot has made you an ass: He who knows how to bear his lot calmly, he is wise. And that saying: "If you cannot be a horse, be an ass." Furthermore, although the ass is held by the judgment of all to be vile and most wretched, he is nevertheless happier than man himself, because he does not bring misery upon himself, which man does, as the most ancient Menander says. Aldrovandus adds two fables on this matter. The first is: An ass thought a horse blessed, because it was fed abundantly and carefully, while he himself had scarcely enough straw, especially being exhausted. But when the time of war came, and an armed soldier mounted the horse, driving it hither and thither, and even leaping into the midst of enemies, the horse, wounded, fell. Seeing these things, the ass, changing his opinion, thought the horse wretched. The fable signifies that princes and the rich ought not to be imitated; but considering envy and danger in them, one should love poverty. The second: An ass serving a gardener, because it ate little, labored much, begged Jupiter to be freed from the gardener and sold to another master. When Jupiter, being entreated, ordered it to be sold to a potter, it bore the burdens and mud and tiles with a more discontented spirit than before. Again therefore, wishing to change masters, it asked, and was sold to a tanner. Having thus obtained a worse master than the previous ones, and seeing what would be done by him, sighing it said: "Woe is me, wretched one, it was better for me to remain with my former masters; for this one, as I see, will work my very skin." The fable indicates that former masters are sought by servants especially when they have experienced danger from subsequent ones. He then adds a third fable on the same matter from Aeneas Silvius, which, because it is longer, see in his work, if you please. Whence he concludes: "What is fated is incurable." Let each therefore live content with his own lot, that he may be happy and blessed. It is the ass's lot to bear burdens, just as it is the servant's to serve. Hence Isidore, book XII of the Etymologies, asserts that ass and little ass are called from sitting, as it were assedum, because men rode on asses before they used horses. The Greeks call it ὄνον from ὀνέω, as it were a beast of burden from helping, because it helps our work.
33:26
The Greek, Roman, and Zurich texts have for "operatur" ἐργάζου, that is, "work"; and for παιδεία, that is, "discipline," they have παιδί, that is, "boy" or "servant"; and for ζητήσει, that is, "will seek," they read εὑρήσεις, that is, "thou shalt find." Whence thus they read: "Work in the boy or servant, and thou shalt find rest," as if to say: If thou occupy and exercise a servant with imposed work, there will be rest with him for thee; but if thou permit him to be idle, he will create troubles for thee. For this is what by antithesis is added: "Loose thy hand from him, and he will seek liberty." Whence some from the Greek thus clearly translate: "Exercise thy servant in work, and thou shalt find rest: release thy hand from him, and he will seek liberty." But Our text reads ἐργάζεται, that is, "he works," and παιδεία, that is, "discipline," and ζητήσει, that is, "he will seek." Thus also the Complutensian Greek texts read, except that they retain τὸ ἐργάζου, that is, "work." But the sense comes to nearly the same thing; for "work" here is taken in the hiphil conjugation for "make" or "compel him to work," namely, through discipline and chastisement. It could have happened that Sirach wrote it both ways, because both are true and fitting, and both exist in approved codices, and one reading coheres with and is subordinate to the other; for the rest of the servant is the rest of the master, for while the servant, wearied by works, pants for rest, he does not think of rebellion against his master. Thus we ourselves, while we write our own works, forge and reforge them, sometimes change the same thought, and express it now one way and now another. Wherefore in the Scriptures the same thought sometimes has not only various versions and expositions, but also various readings, as I showed in Canon VIII of matters in the Epistle of St. Paul. Now first, Lyra thus explains our reading, as if to say: "A servant works as long as he is held under discipline, and seeks," that is, if he seeks rest from labors without reasonable cause. Second, our Emmanuel Sa, as if to say: "A servant, even while he is compelled by discipline and chastisement to work, seeks leisure and rest; what then will he do if thou loosen discipline? Undoubtedly he will seek liberty, or he will flee." Third, Jansenius: "He describes," he says, "the condition and nature of servants, namely that if they are driven by discipline and chastisement to works, they seek to rest from works, complaining that they are burdened too much: but if leisure is permitted them, they seek further even liberty, not content with the relaxation sought and obtained. It is signified therefore that attention should be paid not so much to their petitions as to what it befits to impose upon them according to their condition." Fourth, Palacius, as if to say: "If thou weary the servant in discipline, thou wilt make him desire rest and not think of liberty: but if thou relax him too much from work, thou wilt make him unjustly seek liberty. For just as much work, labor and fatigue allow him to think of nothing else but rest: so leisure and an idle servant meditate and scheme nothing else but liberty. He speaks of perfect servants, namely of slaves. These three last senses are true and fitting; but the second and fourth are more forceful and more connected; for they contain a manifest antithesis of the first hemistich with the latter, and at the same time give the reason for what preceded, why, namely, chastisement and work befit the servant equally as the ass, because namely the servant is of servile and asinine nature and disposition, which seeks nothing but leisure and liberty; but work and chastisement remedy both. For work does not allow one to think of anything but rest, chastisement chastises both leisure and liberty, and compels to labor and to serve. Whence the Syriac briefly thus explains the whole matter: "Give him not rest; and if thou lift up his head, he seeks liberty." Pharaoh knew this, who therefore oppressed the Hebrews, whom he treated as servants, with works, lest they should think of liberty and departure from Egypt: "Ye are idle," he said, "and therefore ye say: Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go therefore and work," Exodus v, 17. Note τὸ "loose thy hand from him," namely from the manacles, that is, release him from the bonds of the hands by which as a servant he is constrained. For the origin of servitude and of servants was that, having formerly spared the lives of enemies captured in war, they made them servants, and thus mercifully commuted death into servitude. Hence servants were called mancipia, as if "captured by hand in war," says Varro; hence the captured were bound with manacles: these therefore Sirach forbids to be loosened here. Again, "loose thy hand from him," that is, remit to him work and labors, let him be idle, and he will flee or seek liberty. Third, some thus expound it: "Loose thy hand to him," that is, permit him license, bestow upon him some power; being thus enticed, he will begin to shake off the yoke of servitude and to seek liberty. The same was the opinion of Plato concerning slaves in the sixth dialogue of the Laws: "Slaves," he says, "are always to be corrected and beaten by right, nor are they to be admonished as free men, lest they become softer: all address to slaves should be such that they have command only, and no joking in the matter. Thus let it be held, which many foolishly doing, indulge and nourish them more delicately, making life more difficult for themselves in commanding, and for them in obeying."
33:28
The Greeks now omit τὸ and bend the servant to constant labors. Whence briefly thus they read, and servants' fetters with the yoke of an ass they join: The yoke and thong they bend the neck, and to the wicked servant belong torments and tortures of questioning. But our reading, as it is more abundant and fuller, so also is it more apt and truer. For more aptly is the yoke compared with work and labor, than with torture; for torture the whip and scourge of an ass more answers to the servant. The sense therefore is, as if to say, Just as the neck of a wanton and untamed ox, horse, ass or buffalo is tamed by yoke and thong, that it may obey the driver and carry burdens imposed upon it by him: so also the hardness and idleness of a servant is broken by constant work. But truly if the servant be not only hard and stubborn, but also malevolent, in Greek κακοῦργος, that is wicked, or malicious, namely one who steals, or beats others, or otherwise harms his master and household, and contrives other evils; this one must not only be exercised with constant work, but also must be restrained with fetters and torture, examined and punished. Concerning the ancient punishments of servants see Rhodiginus, lib. XXV, cap. xxii, all of which Plautus has embraced in the Asinaria, act III, scene III: Confidence in the whip, relying on the strength of elm-wood, For running the goads, the plates, the crosses and the fetters, The cords, the chains, the prisons, the shackles, the foot-stocks, the collars, And the most cruel torturers, etc.
33:29
Zurich: Send him into work, that he be not idle: for idleness hath taught many vices; others: Cast (for in Greek it is βάλε) him into work, that he be not idle: for idleness teacheth many evils; the Syriac: Work in thy servant (that is, cause thy servant to work, or make work through thy servant), that he rebel not, because idleness worketh many evils. For the mind of man cannot be idle; wherefore if it be not occupied with honest labor, it turns to vain, dishonorable, carnal thoughts, to murmurings, detraction and other crimes to be thought upon and devised. Just as millstones turned by the wind, if they have not grain which they grind, act upon themselves, wear themselves away and are ground to dust. Wherefore St. Jerome admonishes Rusticus, epistle 4: "Do, says he, some work, that the devil may always find thee occupied." St. Ephrem, in the Spiritual Canticle, tom. II: "He who loves idleness, says he, shall never prosper." St. Chrysostom, homily 1 to the People, observes that Adam, idle, was cast out of paradise, but Paul, placed in labors and hardships, was caught up into paradise and the third heaven. The same, homily 35 on Acts: "How, says he, shall not all condemn such a one (an idle man), both friends, and household, and kinsmen? Who moreover shall not justly say: This man is a burden to the earth; he came into the world in vain, nay rather not in vain, but to his own detriment, to his own loss, to the harm of others." St. Basil, on chapter 1 of Isaiah: "How, says he, is idleness not to be pursued with hatred, which makes man worse than the ant and the bee (which are laborious and industrious)? who indeed at the beginning of his condition was placed in paradise, that he should work and keep it." St. Ambrose, epistle 25 to Vercelli, speaking of Jacob and Esau, of whom the latter was idle, the former laborious: "Not by idleness, says he, not by sleep is reward gained, there is no work of the sleeping, no fruit of idleness, but rather loss. The idle Esau lost the birthright and blessing." The same, lib. On Cain and Abel, cap. IV: "Not to the sleeping, not to the idle, but to the watchful are rewards promised, and to labor is reward prepared." St. Leo: "The kingdom of heaven comes not to the sleeping, nor is eternal beatitude bestowed upon those torpid in idleness and sloth." St. Anselm, epistle 6 to the Cistercians: "Idleness, says he, as a thing hostile to your souls, exclude from yourselves, and let each one consider, that of each moment of our life we shall render account to God." St. Bernard, lib. II On Consideration, cap. xiii: "Idleness, says he, is to be fled, the mother of trifles, the stepmother of virtues." Peter of Blois, in the chapter On the Institution of Bishops: "Have no idle time, says he; but always devote thyself to prayer, or reading, or some other study of honesty." And below: "Always be in the exercise of the Scriptures, and let no time find thee idle. Idleness without letters is the burial of a living man." See more in Cassian, lib. X On the Institution of the Renunciants, cap. viii and following. Finally, the sin of Sodom had its occasion and cause in idleness, as Ezekiel says, cap. xvi, vers. 49.
33:30
Zurich Bible: Lead him to the work which his office demands, and the disobedient one with heavy chains; Syriac: As it is fitting for him (that is, as much as he is able), place him over your house, and if he does not listen to you, multiply his chains. Excellently St. Lawrence Justinian in the Wood of Life, tract. On Fear, cap. II: Nothing in a holy purpose, he says, is worse than idleness, which not only does not acquire new things, but also consumes what has been acquired. Just as therefore idleness is the beginning of spiritual poverty, so the constancy of honest occupation is the seedbed of heavenly riches. Finally, the occasion and cause of the sin of Sodom was idleness, as Ezekiel says, cap. xvi, vers. 49. And do not multiply beyond all flesh: but do nothing grave without judgment. He moderates what he said, as if to say: I said that a rebellious and wicked servant is to be punished with works, chains and blows: now I add and warn, that nevertheless you do not rage against anyone's flesh with these things more than is fitting; for it is flesh, that is, fragile and miserable; but apply judgment, discernment and discretion in moderating the work and punishment, lest you be crueler than is right. Whence in Greek it is, καὶ μὴ περισσεύσῃς πάσῃ σαρκί. Which the Complutensian Bible translates, and do not abound in all flesh; the Roman, do not multiply beyond all flesh, that is, do not be excessive, do not press and oppress any flesh excessively, not even that of brutes, much less of men; the Zurich Bible, beware nevertheless of being excessive toward any body; others, do not be excessive toward any man; the Syriac, but not thus toward each one, and do nothing beyond the law. From this precept of Ecclesiastes there seems to be derived that constitution of the Emperor Justinian, concerning those who are under their own or another's authority, § In potestate, where among other things he thus ordains: "But the greater harshness of masters is restrained by the same prince's constitution. For Antoninus, when consulted by certain governors of provinces concerning those servants who flee to a sacred building or to the statues of princes, ordered that, if the cruelty of masters should seem intolerable, they be compelled to sell their servants under good conditions, and the price be given to the masters. And rightly so, for it is expedient for the state that no one misuse his own property." The Gloss inquires there whether it is permitted to beat a servant from time to time without any fault or cause on his part, by this sole reason that he is a servant and so that he may remember that he is a servant, or to beat him moderately? and it answers affirmatively: Because, it says, prolonged impunity makes a servant hard and contumacious, it fosters audacity in him, and increases pride and arrogance.
33:31
Thus the Roman [Gloss], the Gloss, Lyra and others. But Rabanus reads: If thou hast a good servant; others: If thou hast a sensible servant; the Syriac: If true (that is, upright, one who conducts himself truly as a servant ought) is thy servant. Therefore Jansenius contends not quite rightly that "to be faithful" should be deleted. For he admonishes prudently that a servant who is not unfaithful and thievish, but faithful, ought to be loved and cared for by his master, "as his soul," that is as himself. Whence the Greek and Syriac have: If a servant is to thee, let him be to thee as thou; the Zurich [version] translates: If a servant is to thee, cherish him as thy own soul; the Roman [version], treat him as thyself. Furthermore, a faithful servant ought to be faithful not only in the work enjoined upon him, but in speech and silence, so that he keep silent about the secrets of his master, or those things which the master wishes to be silent about. Whence it is asserted that the duty of a good servant is to be "mute and speechless," by Nemesius in Stobaeus, sermon 45. And Plautus, in the Miles Gloriosus: "A servant," he says, "ought to know more than to speak." Wherefore the words of a contumacious servant are in the same author in the Persa: "I serve, and my master ordered me to have a free tongue." For if we are commanded to love even strangers as ourselves, much more ought we to love those of our own household, such as servants, who are entirely the property and possession of their master. What therefore masters do to servants, they do to themselves; for the good of the servant is the good of the master, and the evil of the servant is the evil of the master. Wherefore he adds: "Treat him as a brother in this way." For by origin we are all brothers, because created by the same God the Father, and descended from the same Adam as parent, and the same Eve as mother. Again in faith and religion we are all brothers, because we are sons of the same Christ as it were a father, and of the Church as it were a mother, and we all await from God the same heavenly inheritance. See Ephesians vi, 5 and following. Wherefore St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in the Tetrastichs, teaches that servants should be held as fellow-servants, because we are all servants of God: "What is servant, or master?" he says, "this is an evil division; There is one maker, one law, one judge also. Thus therefore servants, as a servant, may you see yours: Servants and masters life alone makes. He served, but Christ freed us from the yoke." Moreover Cicero in the Paradoxes: "What is," he says, "liberty? The power of living as you wish. Who therefore lives as he wishes, except one who follows what is right? This falls to the wise man alone, that he do nothing unwillingly, nothing sorrowfully, nothing by compulsion. Who denies that all the frivolous, all the desirous, all the wicked in short are slaves?" More on this matter St. Gregory has, book XXX of the Morals, chapter xii; St. Augustine, tract. 41 in John; St. Jerome, book II Against Jovinian. Wherefore pathetically Seneca, epistle 47: "With servants," he says, "it befits thy prudence to live familiarly. Are they servants? nay, they are men. Are they servants? nay, they are messmates. Are they servants? nay, they are humble friends. Are they servants? nay, they are fellow-servants, if thou consider that fortune has the same power over both." And after some things: "Dost thou wish," he says, "to think of him whom thou callest thy servant, born from the same seeds, enjoying the same sky, breathing equally, living equally, dying equally? thou canst see him as free-born as he can see thee as a slave. I have seen one stand before the threshold of Callista his master, and others entering be shut out. The Marian disaster depressed many of the most splendid birth by fortune: it made one of them a shepherd, another a keeper of a house." Finally Philo in Maximus, sermon 7: "Such," he says, "show thyself to thy domestic servants as thou wouldst wish God to be in thee: for as we hear, so shall we be heard by God; and as we regard others, so shall God regard us. Let us therefore offer mercy for mercy, that we may obtain like from like." He adds the reason: Because thou hast purchased him in blood of the soul. — First, that is to say, as Jansenius [says]: Thou hast purchased him for thyself not as a beast, but as the "blood of thy soul," that is as one related to thee by blood, and a sharer with thee of the same nature and blood. Second and rather, that is to say: Thou hast purchased him for thyself "in blood," that is unto the blood "of thy soul," so that namely he might cherish and protect thy blood and life by serving and laboring, and defend and protect thee against thy enemies. Whence the Greeks, as if explaining, add and subjoin: Because as thy soul thou wilt have need of him; the Zurich [version]: Because thou hast need of him as of thy own soul; the Syriac clearly: If thy servant is true, let him be as thou; because as thou, so also the loss of thee (which thou wilt suffer in thy servant, if treated badly by thee he becomes ill, dies or flees): if thy servant is true, reckon him as thy brother, lest thou contend in the blood of thy soul. Third, others understand by blood the price. Whence they translate, because thou hast purchased him at a price; for indeed because price is obtained by blood and sweat through labor, hence blood is called by metonymy. And in this manner the Rabbis commonly use דמים damim in the plural, that is bloods, for price. Thus we commonly say that usurers and tyrants suck the blood of the poor, when they exact excessive tributes and prices from them. In this sense Micah speaks of tyrants in chapter III, verse 10: "Woe to you that build Sion in blood, and Jerusalem in iniquity." By a similar trope in Greek, βίος, that is life, is called sustenance itself, because life is preserved by sustenance. Thus Palacius: "Treat, he says, the good servant whom thou hast bought, as a brother; because thou hast purchased him with many coins as with thy blood: for a good servant is purchased only at great price; but great price is obtained only through bloody sweat. How beautiful indeed is the text for a sinner beseeching Christ for mercy: Lord, treat me not as an enemy, but as a brother: for thou hast purchased me with the blood of thy soul! How aptly also will it be said to a cruel master: Treat thy servant more kindly, if not for his sake, certainly for thine own! If thou sparest him not, spare thy blood, by which thou hast purchased him. To this pertains the admonition of Cato in the Distichs: Believe not rashly the wife complaining of servants: Often indeed a woman hates him whom her husband loves. When pain drives thee to anger because of the servants' fault, Restrain thyself, that thou mayest be able to spare thy own. Whom thou canst overcome, sometimes conquer by forbearing: For patience is always the greatest virtue of character. Fourth, Rabanus: "It signifies, he says, that we ought to love the common nature in him; and, if it be necessary, to lay down our own soul for them as for brothers: for we ought not to hate and persecute man, but the vices, which draw man to destruction, against which we must altogether resist." Tropologically, Rabanus understands by the servant the sinner; for he is indeed a servant of sin and the devil: wherefore all things which are said here of the servant, thou shouldst accommodate to the sinner, changing the name. Again, by the servant thou mayest understand the flesh, which is servant to the soul; and concupiscence, which is servant to reason and spirit, and therefore as a rebellious servant resists and kicks against reason: for which reason as a servant it must be tamed by works, penances and stripes, that it may learn to subject itself to reason and obey the spirit.
33:32
"Lifting up," that is, taking and carrying away himself and his things, departing and fleeing; for in Greek it is ἀπάρας ἀποδράσῃ, that is, taking himself, or having gone away he shall flee. Again "whom thou shalt seek," that is, whom thou shalt ask, and who might indicate to thee, "by what way" and to what place thy servant hath fled. Otherwise Palacius: "Whom thou shalt seek, he says, thou knowest not," that is, thou knowest not whether thou seekest a thing useful or useless to thee: for since the servant becomes accustomed to flight, thou knowest not whether it be fitting to bring him back, or to sell him. The Greek texts briefly and clearly thus have it: If thou shalt do evil to him (the Roman version, if thou shalt afflict him) unjustly, and taking himself he shall flee, by what way wilt thou seek him? The Zurich version: But if thou shalt injure him by wrong, and he having departed shall flee, by what way wilt thou seek him? The Syriac: Because if thou shalt sadden him, he shall go forth, he shall perish: and in what spirit wilt thou find him? This is the second reason moving the master, that he should treat the servant kindly; namely because if he afflict him, the servant, wearied of servitude and affliction, will secretly prepare flight through trackless places, forests and hiding places, so that the master pursuing him may not be able to find him, nor be there anyone who, being asked, may be willing or able to indicate to him the way by which the servant hath fled. Wherefore both the works of the servant and the price at which he bought him, he shall be deprived of forever. Nay, there are many servants who, on account of the cruelty of their masters, take their own lives, preferring to die once rather than a thousand times. The history of Lacaena is well known, who when asked at an auction by the auctioneer what she knew, answered: "To be free," signifying that she was indeed captive, but would not obey illiberal commands. And so when the buyer commanded certain things not befitting a free woman: "Thou shalt weep, she said, who enviest thyself such a possession;" and straightway she took her own life. Thus Plutarch, in the Laconian [Lives]. Who also adds a similar [story] of a boy: A boy, he says, a Spartan captured by King Antigonus, and sold under the spear, in all other things which could decently be done by a free man, was obedient to him who had purchased him: but when ordered to bring a chamber pot, he could not bear it, saying: "I will not serve." But when the master pressed him, the boy, having climbed onto the roof, said: "Thou shalt feel what sort of purchase thou hast made;" and straightway he threw himself down from on high and perished. He could be captive, he could not do servile work, and he asserted himself in freedom by a sorrowful death. More sorrowfully in this age we have heard this done in Spain. A servant harshly treated by his master, in the master's absence, led all his small children into the master's upper room, and locked the doors of the house: when the master returned home and knocked on the doors and threatened the servant that he open them tardily, the servant showing him one of his children through the window: "What wilt thou give me, he said, for this child of thine?" The master being indignant and gnashing his teeth, the servant threw the child down from on high and killed him. He did the same to the second, third and the others (the master now begging in vain, and promising everything, that he spare them), and finally threw himself down: "Learn, he said, to treat thy servants kindly." Wherefore Diogenes in Laertius, book VI, said that between bad servants and bad masters there is nothing else differing except in names, save that slaves served masters, masters served their desires: signifying that both are slaves, yet a more miserable servitude to serve bad masters than for slaves, if they are wicked: for he who serves passions has as many masters as desires, and these base and merciless ones. Certainly this servitude is equated with and compared to death, nay, is preferred as worse than death. On the other hand, how a servant kindly treated by his master has loved him in return, hear him in Menander: "To me, he says, is a city, and a refuge, and a law, and a judge of all the just and unjust, my master: to him alone it is fitting that I live." Such, says Favorinus, was "Zamolxis, who was a servant of Pythagoras, and was adored by the men of that time."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
33:11
I. THE DOCUMENTS OF REVELATION. - In the Old Testament it is said that God has mercy on all, because he loves all (Wis. 11:24-26; 12:18-20). He wills the conversion of the sinner (Sir. 33:11). The promise of redemption is without restrictions. …
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.