The miseries of the life of man are relieved by the grace of God and his fear.
The first matter of spiritual meditation may be mans miserie, contracted by original sinne, 4. and increased by actual, 17. reliued by God grace: 22. which geueth manie benefites, 27. man adding his voluntarie cooperation.
1Great labour is created for all men, and a heavy yoke is upon the children of Adam from the day of their coming out of their mother’s womb, until the day of their burial into the mother of all.Una molestia grande è destinata a tutti gli uomini, e un giogo pesante posa sopra i figliuoli di Adamo dal giorno, in cui escon dall'utero della madre fino al di della lor sepoltura nel seno della madre comune.GREAT trauel is created to al men, and an heauie yoke vpon the children of Adam, from the day of their coming forth of their mothers wombe, vntil the day of their burying, into the mother of al.Occupatio magna creata est omnibus hominibus, / et jugum grave super filios Adam, / a die exitus de ventre matris eorum / usque in diem sepulturæ in matrem omnium. 2Their thoughts, and fears of the heart, their imagination of things to come, and the day of their end:Le loro sollecitudini, i timori del cuore, le apprensioni di quel, che aspettano, e il dì che tutto finisce:Their cogitations, and feares of the hart, imagination of thinges to come, and the day of their ending:Cogitationes eorum, et timores cordis, / adinventio exspectationis, et dies finitionis, 3From him that sitteth on a glorious throne, unto him that is humbled in earth and ashes:Da colui, che è assiso sopra un seggio di gloria, fino a quello, che giace per terra, e sulla cenere:from him that sitteth vpon the glorious seate, vnto him that is humbled in earth & ashes.a residente super sedem gloriosam, / usque ad humiliatum in terra et cinere: 4From him that weareth purple, and beareth the crown, even to him that is covered with rough linen: wrath, envy, trouble, unquietness, and the fear of death, continual anger, and strife,Da colui, che veste l'iacinto, e porta corona, fino a quello, che è coperto di rozza tela di lino: il furore, la gelo sia, l'inquietezza, l'agitazione, il timor della morte, l'ira ostinata, e le risse,From him that weareth hyacinth, and beareth the crowne, euen to him, that is couered with rude linen: furie, enuie, tumult, wauering, and the feare of death, anger perseuering, and contention,ab eo qui utitur hyacintho et portat coronam, / usque ad eum qui operitur lino crudo: / furor, zelus, tumultus, fluctuatio, et timor mortis, / iracundia perseverans, et contentio: 5And in the time of rest upon his bed, the sleep of the night changeth his knowledge.Anche nel tempo di ristorarsi nel letto, il sonno della notte la immaginazione di lui perturba.and in the time of repose in bed, the sleepe of night changeth his knowlege.et in tempore refectionis in cubili, / somnus noctis immutat scientiam ejus.
6A little and as nothing is his rest, and afterward in sleep, as in the day of keeping watch.Poco, e quasi nulla ha di requie, e dipoi ne' suoi sogni, come quando uno sta di sentinella,A litle is as nothing in rest, and afterward in sleepe, as in the day of watche.Modicum tamquam nihil in requie, / et ab eo in somnis, quasi in die respectus. 7He is troubled in the vision of his heart, as if he had escaped in the day of battle. In the time of his safety he rose up, and wondereth that there is no fear.E turbato dalle visioni del suo spirito, e come chi fugge nel giorno della battaglia, si sveglia allorché è in salvo, e ammira il suo vano timore:He is trubled in the vision of his hart, as he that hath escaped in the day of battel. In the time of his safetie he rose vp, and merueleth at noe feare:Conturbatus est in visu cordis sui, / tamquam qui evaserit in die belli: / in tempore salutis suæ exsurrexit, / et admirans ad nullum timorem: 8Such things happen to all flesh, from man even to beast, and upon sinners are sevenfold more.Così va per tutti gli animali dall'uomo fino alla bestia, ma sette volte peggio pei peccatori.With al flesh, from man euen to beast, and vpon sinners seuenfold.cum omni carne, ab homine usque ad pecus, / et super peccatores septuplum. 9Moreover, death, and bloodshed, strife, and sword, oppressions, famine, and affliction, and scourges:Oltre a ciò la morte, le uccisioni, la spada, le oppressioni, la fame, le rovine; i flagelli:Beside these thinges, death, bloud, contention, and sword, oppressions, famine, and contrition, and scourges:Ad hæc mors, sanguis, contentio, et rhomphæa, / oppressiones, fames, et contritio, et flagella: 10All these things are created for the wicked, and for their sakes came the flood.Tutte queste cose furon fatte per gli iniqui, e per essi venne il diluvio.for the wicked al these were created, and for them the floud was made.super iniquos creata sunt hæc omnia: / et propter illos factus est cataclysmus. 11All things that are of the earth, shall return to the earth again, and all waters shall return to the sea.Tutto quel, che vien dalla terra torna nella terra, come tutte le acque ritornano al mare.Al thinges that are of the earth, shal turne into the earth, and al waters shal returne into the sea.Omnia quæ de terra sunt in terram convertentur, / et omnes aquæ in mare revertentur. 12All bribery, and injustice shall be blotted out, and fidelity shall stand for ever.Tutte le largizioni, e le ingiustizie periranno; ma la rettitudine sussisterà per tutti i secoli.Al bribing, and iniquitie shal be cleane taken away, and fidelitie shal stand for euer.Omne munus et iniquitas delebitur, / et fides in sæculum stabit.
13The riches of the unjust shall be dried up like a river, and shall pass away with a noise like a great thunder in rain.Le ricchezze degli ingiusti si seccheranno come un torrente, e il loro fracasso è come di un gran tuono in tempo di pioggia.The riches of the vniust shal be dried vp as a riuer, and they shal sound as great thunder in rayne.Substantiæ injustorum sicut fluvius siccabuntur, / et sicut tonitruum magnum in pluvia personabunt. 14While he openeth his hands he shall rejoice: but transgressors shall pine away in the end.Uno si allegrerà nell'aprire la mano; ma i prevaricatori alla fine anderanno in fumo.In opening his handes he shal reioyce: so transgressors shal pine away in consumption.In aperiendo manus suas lætabitur: / sic prævaricatores in consummatione tabescent. 15The offspring of the ungodly shall not bring forth many branches, and make a noise as unclean roots upon the top of a rock.I nipoti degli empj non moltiplicheranno i rami loro, e le radici immonde sulla cima di un masso fanno romore.The nephewes of the impious shal not multiplie boughes, nor vncleane rootes sound vpon the toppe of a rocke.Nepotes impiorum non multiplicabunt ramos: / et radices immundæ super cacumen petræ sonant. 16The weed growing over every water, and at the bank of the river, shall be pulled up before all grass.Come ogni erba verde in sito umido, e sul margine del fiume è spiantata prima d'ogni altra erba.Ouer al water grennes, and at the brincke of the riuer it shal be plucked vp before al grasse.Super omnem aquam viriditas, / et ad oram fluminis ante omne fœnum evelletur. 17Grace is like a paradise in blessings, and mercy remaineth for ever.La benignità è come un giardino benedetto; e la misericordia non perisce giammai.Grace is as paradise in blessinges, and mercie remayneth for euer.Gratia sicut paradisus in benedictionibus, / et misericordia in sæculum permanet. 18The life of a laborer that is content with what he hath, shall be sweet, and in it thou shalt find a treasure.Dolce è la vita dell'operaio contento di sua sorte, e in essa egli troverà un tesoro.The life of a workeman that is sufficient for himself shal be sweete, and in it thou shalt finde a treasure.Vita sibi sufficientis operarii condulcabitur, / et in ea invenies thesaurum. 19Children, and the building of a city shall establish a name, but a blameless wife shall be counted above them both.Danno un nome di durata i figliuoli, e la fondazione di una città; ma a queste cose sarà preferita una moglie immacolata.Children, and building of a citie shal confirme the name, and an vnspotted woman shal be counted aboue this.Filii et ædificatio civitatis confirmabit nomen: / et super hæc mulier immaculata computabitur.
20Wine and music rejoice the heart, but the love of wisdom is above them both.Il vino, e la musica rallegrano il cuore, ma più di ambedue queste cose l'amore della sapienza.Wine and musicke make a ioyful hart: and the loue of wisedom is aboue both.Vinum et musica lætificant cor: / et super utraque dilectio sapientiæ. 21The flute and the psaltery make a sweet melody, but a pleasant tongue is above them both.Il flauto, e il saltero fan soave concerto, ma l'un, e l'altro è superato da una lingua soave.Shalmes, and Psalterie make sweete melodie, and a sweete tongue is aboue both.Tibiæ et psalterium suavem faciunt melodiam: / et super utraque lingua suavis. 22Thy eye desireth favour and beauty, but more than these green sown fields.Piacerà al tuo occhio la venustà, o la bellezza, ma più di queste i verdeggianti seminati.Thine eye wil desire grace and beautie, and greene sowen fieldes are aboue this.Gratiam et speciem desiderabit oculus tuus: / et super hæc virides sationes. 23A friend and companion meeting together in season, but above them both is a wife with her husband.L'amico, e il compagno, che vengono opportunamente (son graditi), una più dell'uno, e dell'altro una moglie unita col marito.A freind and companion meeting together in time, and aboue them both is a woman with her husband.Amicus et sodalis in tempore convenientes, / et super utrosque mulier cum viro. 24Brethren are a help in the time of trouble, but mercy shall deliver more than they.I fratelli sono un buon soccorso nel tempo di afflizione; ma la misericordia più di essi è atta a salvare.Bretheren are an helpe in the time of tribulation, and mercie shal deliuer more then they.Fratres in adjutorium in tempore tribulationis: / et super eos misericordia liberabit. 25Gold and silver make the feet stand sure: but wise counsel is above them both.L'oro, e l'argento tengono l'uomo in piedi, ma più di essi piace il buon consiglio.Gold and siluer are the establishing of the feete: and counsel is wel accepted aboue them both.Aurum et argentum est constitutio pedum: / et super utrumque consilium beneplacitum. 26Riches and strength lift up the heart: but above these is the fear of the Lord.Le ricchezze, e il valore ingrandiscono il cuore: ma più di queste cose il timor del Signore.Riches and strength exalt the hart, and aboue these is the feare of our Lord.Facultates et virtutes exaltant cor, / et super hæc timor Domini. 27There is no want in the fear of the Lord, and it needeth not to seek for help.Non manca mai nulla al timore di Dio, e con esso non occorre cercar chi ajuti.There is no diminution in the feare of our Lord, and in it there is no neede to seeke for helpe.Non est in timore Domini minoratio: / et non est in eo inquirere adjutorium.
28The fear of the Lord is like a paradise of blessing, and they have covered it above all glory.Il timor del Signore è come un giardino di benedizione, egli è ammantato di magnificenza, che ogni altra sorpassa.The feare of our Lord is as a paradise of blessing, and they haue couered it aboue al glorie.Timor Domini sicut paradisus benedictionis, / et super omnem gloriam operuerunt illum. 29My son, in thy lifetime be not indigent: for it is better to die than to want.Figliuolo, nel tempo di tua vita non ridurti in mendicità; perocché o meglio morire, che mendicare.Sonne in thy life time want not: for it is better to die then to want.Fili, in tempore vitæ tuæ ne indigeas: / melius est enim mori quam indigere. 30The life of him that looketh toward another man’s table is not to be counted a life: for he feedeth his soul with another man’s meat.Un uomo, che ha l'occhio alla mensa altrui, non impiega sua vita a provvedere il suo vitto, perché si sostenta della pietanza d'un altro:A man that looketh toward an other mans table, his life is as no life, thinking how to liue, for he feedeth his soule with an other mans meates.Vir respiciens in mensam alienam, / non est vita ejus in cogitatione victus: / alit enim animam suam cibis alienis: 31But a man, well instructed and taught, will look to himself.Ma un uomo ben educato, e saggio si guarderà da tal cosa.But a man nurtered, and taught wil looke to him selfe.vir autem disciplinatus et eruditus custodiet se. 32Begging will be sweet in the mouth of the unwise, but in his belly there shall burn a fire.Alla bocca dello stolto sarà dolce la mendicità, e nel ventre di lui arderà il fuoco.Pouertie wil be sweete in the mouth of the vnwise, and in his bellie a fire wil burne.In ore imprudentis condulcabitur inopia, / et in ventre ejus ignis ardebit.
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Menochius
Labour, "anxiety," ascholia. (Menochius)
Worthington
All misery (Calmet) is in consequence of original sin. (Worthington)
The life of man is a trial, Job 7:1., and 14:1.
Pliny
Of all. The earth, (Calmet) which covers us, when all other things cast us away. (Pliny, [Natural History?] 2:63.)
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Purple. Literally, "hyacinth," (Haydock) or violet colour. Purple was more like scarlet.
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Haydock
Knowledge. He is disquieted by restless (Calmet) and frightful dreams, ver. 6. (Haydock)
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Calmet
Fear, or no reason for it. (Calmet)
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Beast. Their instinct causes them to fear death, to fight, etc.
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Moreover. Greek, "death," etc., are all destined for the wicked.
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Calmet
Out, and severely punished. (Calmet)
They shall not appear in the book of life.
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Haydock
Rejoice. The corrupt judge once rejoiced: but now he shall mourn. (Haydock)
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And make. Greek, "they are unclean," (Haydock) and will produce no fruit.
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Weed. Literally, "verdure." Greek Achei, (Haydock) properly denotes the rush, papyrus, which grows on the banks of the Nile, (Genesis 41:2.; Calmet) and was used for fuel. (Alpin. 1:7.) (Matthew 6:30.)
Menochius
Thus the wicked will presently (Calmet) be treated. (Menochius)
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Grace. The beneficent will produce fruits, like those of paradise, Genesis 2:8.
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That is. Greek, "and of one that."
In it. Greek, "and more than both is one discovering a treasure," (Haydock) who finds himself rich, without labour or injustice.
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Both. Thus Judith, Zenobia, etc., ennobled their husbands, Proverbs 31:10.
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Green. "The sight of no colour is more agreeable to the eyes." (Pliny 37:1.)
Worthington
The Church is more excellent than the synagogue. (Worthington)
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Husband. Their union is closer, and they can best assist each other.
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Counsel. By this the Romans conquered the world, 1 Machabees 8:31., and Proverbs 11:14.
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Calmet
Heart, and make people presumptuous; while piety gives real courage, Psalm 26:1. (Calmet)
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Haydock
It, or "him." (Haydock)
The virtuous man is covered with glory.
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Calmet
Indigent. Greek, "live not by begging," being too lazy to work, or incurring this punishment for thy sins, Leviticus 26:16., Psalm cviii., and Deuteronomy 15:4. Involuntary poverty is a most severe scourge. (Calmet)
Haydock
All are bound to labour for what is needful; (Worthington) some by prayer, others by trade, etc. (Haydock)
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Haydock
Meat. Such is the condition of the parasite, (Calmet) and of the beggar. (Haydock)
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Unwise. Some read, "impudent man," with the Greek.
Calmet
Fire. He shall feel the inconveniences of poverty; (Haydock) yet will not work, being lost to all shame. (Calmet)
Plato (Leg. 11.) orders magistrates to "clear the country of such an animal," zoou, (Haydock) and the Lacedemonians suffered no beggars among them.
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The penalties which al men euen new borne infants suffer, do shew that al in general are guiltie of original sinne, for if they were not guiltie then punishment were not iust. That Christ also would be subiect to the same penalties was for the sinnes of others. And though his • mother vvas preserued from this sinne yet she vvas not exempted from the general penaltie of al mankinde.
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Concordance Gen. 7.
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Concordance Eccle. 1.
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The societie of Christs Church florishing in al vertues excelleth the benefites of the old Testament.
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Euerie one is bound to labour that he want not necessaries.
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 21.14
… For, himself king of the Bactrians, he was conquered by Ninus king of the Assyrians. In short, the words of Scripture, “An heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother’s womb till the day that they return to the mother of all things,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Enchiridion 66
Now the pardon of sin has reference chiefly to the future judgment. For, as far as this life is concerned, the saying of Scripture holds good: “A heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother’s womb, till the day that they return to the mother of all things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.50
… all is vanity: what profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?” and in the book of Ecclesiasticus, “a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam from the day that they go out of their mother’s womb to the day that they return to the mother of all things;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.3
… or, what is more free from all controversy, if it be not every man who could say this, but one to whom an everlasting country hath been promised in heaven: this I know, “that the life of man on earth is a temptation;” and that “there is a heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 20
A certain wise man, setting down a number of things in the rank of blessings, set down this also in the rank of a blessing, “A wife agreeing with her husband.” ( Ecclus. xxv. 1 .) And elsewhere again he sets it down among blessings, that a woman should dwell in harmony with her husband. (
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we die, that is, we begin to die, and we tend toward death: "In the earth we are born, in the earth we die, returning into it from which we are taken," says St. Bernard in the Feast of St. Martin. Wherefore St. Gregory, book XI, epistle 26 to Rustica: "I," he says, "live in such great groaning and occupations, that I repent of having reached the days which I live, and my only consolation is the expectation of death. Whence I ask that you ought to pray for me, so that I may be led out of this prison of the flesh more quickly, lest I be tormented longer by such great labors." In the preceding chapter he described the magnificence, power, and clemency of God toward the pious, and his severity toward the impious, so that we might worship and venerate him with bowed heads; now he aptly subjoins the consideration of human misery and fragility, so that man, considering it, might humble himself more before his God, and might earnestly beseech his aid and grace. Thus Lyra. Sirach is accustomed to combine opposites and contraries, and to pass from one to another; because contraries placed beside each other shine forth more brightly. Thus here from the contemplation of divine majesty he passes to the contemplation of human unhappiness, so that wretched man, contemplating both, might say with the Psalmist: "The deep" of my misery, "the deep" of divine mercy "calls upon," and with St. Francis: "Who art thou, O Lord, who am I?" Thou art the abyss of wisdom, goodness, power, and all goods: I am the abyss of ignorance, malice, weakness, and all evils. He therefore exaggerates the miseries of men, so that the pious might learn to bear them patiently and bravely, as common to all men, and imposed upon all in punishment of original sin, which we all contract from Adam, imposed upon all (for penance imposed by God upon the sinner is to be borne patiently, so that he might wash away and cleanse his guilt), especially because these touch the impious more, so that the pious might appear happy and blessed in comparison with them. For occupation, in Greek it is ascholia, that is, trouble, unrest, great hardships; both in gravity and in multitude, and in extent, because it extends to all; and in duration, because it extends through the whole of life. For burial he reads with the Romans epitaphes, now the Complutensian edition reads epistrophes, that is, of returning. He calls the earth "mother of all"; for the earth is the mother of all living things, and from it man was first formed by God, Genesis II, and dying he returns again into it. Thus Blessed Gregory, II Morals XI: "Because indeed," he says, "the earth has brought forth us all, hence not undeservedly do we call her mother. Whence it is written: A heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day of their coming forth from the womb of their mother, until the day of the burial of all." Hence Junius Brutus, when two sons of Tarquin consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, asking which of them would reign in Rome, and hearing that he would reign who had given a kiss to his mother before all others, immediately fell to the ground, and kissing it was the first created consul of Rome. Thus Valerius Maximus, book VII, chapter III. This serves for the consolation of mortals in death, that through it they return to their common mother, namely the earth, from which they came forth. For each thing rejoices to return to its own beginning, just as a son to his mother. The sense therefore is, as if to say, Great trouble is created, that is, destined and appointed for all men, even for little ones and the innocent: "and a yoke," that is, a burden and weight, "heavy," of manifold and great hardships, "upon the sons of Adam," to punish the sin of Adam himself; which he transmitted to all his posterity with corrupted and damned propagation, and this from the first day when they come forth from the womb of their mother into this world, until the last day when they die and are buried, so that they return into the earth from which they were formed by God. Whence the Zurich version translates: Great trouble is destined for each man, and a heavy yoke for the descendants of Adam, from the day when they emerged from the womb of their mother, until that day when they are laid in the common mother of all; the Arabic: Now God created many things and many kinds, and bound men from the time they were born in the womb of their mothers, until they return into the way of life; the Syriac: God created great things, and strong kinds upon the sons of men, from the day when they came forth from the womb of their mother, until they lie down in the land of the living, their praise, and the thought of their heart, and the end of their words, until the day of their death. This "yoke" therefore understand to be the yoke of punishments and hardships, under which we all continually sigh and groan throughout our whole life. St. Augustine, however, in book V of the Hypognosticon (or whoever is the author; for this book does not have the style of St. Augustine, nor is it cited by Possidius, or Bede, or any other ancient writer under the name of St. Augustine), by "yoke" understands original sin itself; for guilt brought with it the yoke of all punishment. And he adds that it is aptly called a "yoke," because we draw it from two, namely Adam and Eve, just as the yoke of oxen is drawn by two. Indeed, the sense will be fuller if you understand both yokes here, and explain that it is sin itself with its offspring and progeny, namely with its effects and punishments; for sin properly seems to fit, verses 2, 5 and 9. But hear St. Augustine: "What is this heavy yoke, if not sin? And why is it called a yoke, except because it comes from two, Adam and Eve; or presses and crushes the necks of two, that is of male and female, of the wicked and impious, namely, because in both sexes it is a yoke. Therefore he says generally: A heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam. In saying therefore, upon the sons, he did not distinguish ages or sex; and in comparing the yoke to sin, on account of Christ, who, like the others, was not born from the use of the married, he made all others equal to sinners. By this yoke, that is by original sin, bound both greater and lesser, corrupted by the vice from it itself, as by a plow we drag, as long as we are in the body of death: by the greed of which the plowshare tears up, that is corrupts, our earth. For which reason I think it is said in the book of Wisdom: But the body that is corrupted, presseth down the soul. From the labor and burden of which yoke, or from the corruption of the plow, so that it may rest, no one is freed by his own will and power, except by him who judges justly and shows undeserved mercy, to whom he says: Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you; take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls: for my yoke is sweet and my burden is light. And from this place he proves that infants contract original sin from Adam; because this yoke of Adam lies upon infants also: "When many," he says, "are afflicted with various kinds of hardships, and in all these, when they cannot say what they suffer, nevertheless they somehow speak of themselves being tortured by various punishments, when pricked by the sting of pains they emit confused cries of wailing. If they, being in no way struck by the stimulus of the sin of the first parents, from whose sinful flesh they are flesh of sin, suffer according to your error, God who makes such a nature, that the soul is more painfully connected with passions, is cruel, or certainly unjust, so that he permits holy innocence, and that which is in no way subject to any error, to be pressed by such great dangers, and sometimes in these very things to be deprived of life. Unless you believe that the cause of original sin makes them suffer, you certainly accuse God, who made all things very good." God imposed this yoke upon Adam after sin, and upon all his posterity in him, saying, Gen. III, 17: "Cursed is the earth in thy work: in labors thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. Whence it is well said that a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day of their going forth from the womb of their mother, until the day of burial in the mother of all," says Rabanus. Who also adds: "To this place is similar that which is written in Job: The life of man upon earth is a warfare. A quiet man could have possessed flesh, if, being well made by the author, he had wished to possess it; and when he strove to raise himself against the creator, he immediately found in himself the affront of the flesh; but because together with guilt, punishment also is propagated from the origin, we are born with the vice of infirmity inserted, and as it were we lead with us an enemy, whom we overcome with labor." Therefore the very life of man is a temptation; from which is born from itself that by which it is destroyed; which although virtue always cuts down what infirmity generates, yet it always generates from infirmity that by which virtue is cut down. Thus therefore human life is a temptation, so that, although it is now restrained from the perpetration of iniquity, yet in the very good works themselves, now by the memory of evils, now by the darkness of seduction, it is darkened by the interruption of its intention. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 2 in Septuagesima: "A heavy yoke," he says, "upon the sons of Adam; not however in the beginning upon Adam, but now already upon his sons. What is not heavy for the wretched, for whom even to live is labor? For whom also (which few seem to notice, no one perceives fully) the very use of sensuality itself is found to be a burden, so much so that it cannot be borne unless we are cherished by alternate rest. What is not labor and pain, affliction of spirit from all things that are under the sun, when even that is most heavy to him in which he is chiefly delighted, namely the vegetation and sensation of the flesh? Surely how sweet to him is the fellowship, sad the separation manifests, while scarcely at last can it be torn away, because the corruption itself of the body is utterly intolerable to that which vegetates. Certainly not simply the body, but the body which is corrupted, weighs down the soul, so that you may know the soul to have been immune from this burden of the first parent, as long as it still bore an incorrupt body." Hence also Pope Gelasius, epistle 1 Against the Pelagians, proves that infants are born with original sin, and all men need the grace of Christ, that they may be freed from this yoke of Adam: "A heavy yoke," he says, "upon the sons of Adam, from the day of going forth from the womb of the mother, etc., from which (captivity of the yoke) none but our Lord Jesus Christ alone redeemed by the commerce of his redeeming passion, and having changed our birth drew us out. He alone came to seek and to save that which was lost, that liberty, which by rash pride had been cast down, might be restored repaired by grace; and by mutual exchange the arbitrium of human will, just as by following the devil it had merited eternal captivity, so following the author of reformed liberty, it might return to the lost reward. Hence it is that the Lord himself says: When the Son shall make you free, then you shall be truly free." Therefore this yoke embraces all the infirmities, indigences, pains, sorrows, cares, anguishes, labors, contradictions, persecutions, disgust, injuries, robberies, murders, temptations of all men; nay even the very concupiscences and pleasures themselves (whence Urban IV the Pontiff, in the Metaphrase on Psalm 1, in the middle: "This yoke," he says, "is concupiscence:") for these bring with them innumerable troubles and afflictions, so that the life of man appears to be nothing other than a long and perpetual death; and with good reason anyone pitying his own soul may say that saying of Epictetus: "You are a little soul carrying about a corpse." O heavy yoke, O burdensome burden, a body infected with original stain, which sits upon the necks of all the sons of Adam, from the first day in which they receive the use of this light, until the day in which they bid farewell to mortal life! Nay rather this yoke begins to press the wretched soul from the very moment of its creation, to call it away from heavenly things, to weigh it down to earthly things, and to incline it to concupiscible, depraved, and most vile things. The soul therefore in the body is held as in a prison, and is weighed down by the limbs as by shackles. For the body is to the soul as a cloud, which does not allow it to behold heaven and heavenly things clearly; it is to it as an allurement, which draws it to evil forbidden by the law of God; it is to it as a chain, which does not permit it to fly to God on the wings of affections, according to that passage in Wisdom 9:15: "The body which is corrupted weighs down the soul;" but by love, not by weight, says St. Bernard, sermon 81 in the Canticles. St. Job depicts this yoke graphically, cap. XIV, and there St. Gregory, lib. XI Moral. cap. XXVI; St. Augustine, in Soliloquy of the Soul, cap. II; St. Jerome, epist. 139 to Cyprian, in exposition of Psalm LXXXIX, and St. Bernard, lib. Meditat. cap. III, and lib. II On Consideration to Eugenius, cap. V and IX; the Author of sermons to the Brethren in the Desert in St. Augustine, tom. X, serm. 65, finally simply, but truly and forcefully our Thomas Theodidaktos, On the Imitation of Christ, lib. I, cap. XXII, and lib. III, cap. LIII. See Bellarmine, lib. VI On the Loss of Grace, cap. XV, where he enumerates ten miseries, as it were punishments of human nature inflicted on account of original sin: the first is ignorance in the mind; the second, malice in the will; the third, concupiscence; the fourth, calamity, labor and pain in the body; the fifth, death; the sixth, the wrath of God; the seventh, captivity under the devil; the eighth, quarrels, brawls, seditions and wars; the ninth, enmity and rebellion of beasts; the tenth, all evils which befall men from heaven, earth, sea, either foreseen or wholly unexpected. And he judges that Ecclesiastes signified all these things when he said: "A heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam," etc. For these reasons very many of the ancient Gentiles lament the miseries of human life in such a way that they either accuse nature as if she were a stepmother, or suspect that through these miseries sins committed by souls in another life are punished. Whence St. Augustine, lib. IV Against Julian, cap. XII, says that they saw the matter, but were ignorant of the cause. See the sayings of the Gentiles on this matter in Theodoret, lib. V On the Cure of Greek Affections, at the beginning, and St. Augustine, lib. IV Against Julian, cap. XII, XIII, XIV, XV. Morally, from this gather what, of what kind, how great sin is, how great its malice. For one sin of Adam brought this yoke of miseries not only upon him, but upon all his posterity, upon countless, I say, millions of men, and brings it and will bring it until the end of the world. If God punishes the sin of another, namely of Adam, thus in his sons, how will he punish the proper sins of each? If he thus chastises one disobedience of Adam in innocent little ones, nay in those justified and holy in this life, how will he chastise so many lusts, envies, murders, heresies, which the reprobate accumulate daily, in hell? To bear this yoke, great need is there of penance and patience; for these indeed plainly soften it. For, as Boethius says, lib. II On Consolation: "Nothing is miserable except when you think it so, and on the other hand every blessed lot is the equanimity of one who bears it patiently."
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"their thoughts," by which they distract and torment their mind, so that they may procure for themselves the good things of this life, and turn away all evils; from which will follow, secondly, "fears" of various kinds constraining the heart, lest perhaps the good things which they desire they may not obtain, and into the evils which they shun they may fall; thirdly, "the invention of expectation," that is, invented and devised imagination of impending good or evil things, as if they themselves expect them, or rather they themselves expect them. In Greek it is epinoia prosdokias, that is, imagination of expectation, namely of things to be expected hereafter; for expectation and hope of a desired thing grievously and long torments and racks the one desiring. The Romans translate it, consideration of expectation; others, contrivance of expectation; for often hope is truly not hope, but a contrivance of hope, which namely man devises for himself, and fashions and paints in his mind. Say the same of fear. Fourthly, "the day of ending," that is, the day of death and decease, by which this life is ended, and all its joy and pleasure. Whence the Zurich version translates: Their thoughts I say, and fear of mind, then imaginings of things to be expected, and the day of death. Moreover it is wonderful how much imaginings torment a man, even of vain things and never to be. Thus we read that from imagination some have been made mad, some gray-haired, some dead. Whoever therefore is wise, let him remove those from himself, or at least restrain them and turn them elsewhere. One imagines and expects a prelacy, another a benefice, another an inheritance, another a wealthy marriage. Almost our whole life slips away in expecting, says Palatius, we live and are nourished like chameleons on the air of hope, never truly to enjoy it. How great is the power of imagination, Galen teaches, lib. III On Internal Things, or On Affected Places, and Rhodiginus, lib. XVII Miscellaneous Readings, cap. II.
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nam, even to him that lieth on the ground in rough linen, according to that saying of the Poet: Pale Death with equal foot strikes the poor man's cottage and the towers of kings... The Syriac: From those sitting in royal seats even to those sitting in earth and ashes, and from those bearing a diadem even to those clothed in the garment of poverty. It begins from Pontiffs and kings, because the cares and troubles of the greater are greater, and of the greatest are the greatest. Adrian VI, a wise and holy Pontiff, understood this, when he said: "The Pontifical seat is thorny, a path everywhere beset with thorns." Therefore in his tomb at Rome we read inscribed: "Adrian VI lies here, who deemed nothing more unhappy in life than that he ruled." The same wisdom was shown recently by Philip III, King of Spain, whose dying voice was this swan-song: "To be a king conduces to nothing else than that one repent in death of having been one," as he himself repented. Lucian graphically recounts these afflictions of kings in that dream of his, in which he introduces a rich Gaul, Mycillus the poor man, envying his quiet and recounting the troubles of the powerful: "Fear," he says, "biting cares, suspicions, hatred, by which those who live with him pursue the king, plots, and on account of these things sleep is rare, and this itself very light, and sleep full of tumult, perplexed thoughts, hopes always vain, and lack of leisure, and occupations, judgments, expeditions, edicts, treaties, consultations: by which things it comes to pass that not even in sleep is it permitted to enjoy anything pleasant. But he must despise all things alone, and sustain a thousand affairs." For sweet Sleep held not Atrides Agamemnon, turning over many cares in his breast. And this while all the other Achaeans snored.
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tion and envy, by which one envies his neighbor and strives to surpass and supplant him: for this blinds the mind with malice and hatred; thirdly, "tumult," in Greek tarache, that is, disturbance, perturbation, tumult, which fury or envy stirs up: for this causes a man to be tumultuous inwardly in his heart, and outwardly in his deed; for it stirs up seditions, quarrels, brawls and murders; fourthly, "fluctuation," in Greek allos, that is, commotion, agitation, fluctuation, by which the mind agitated by indignation, envy, fear, or some other passion, fluctuates, so that now it wills this, now that; now it takes this counsel, now that, and thus it hangs in suspense, and is torn and mangled by its own thoughts. Thus St. Augustine, book IX of the City of God, chapter VI, says from Apuleius that the heart "fluctuates through all the surges of thoughts as through the sea." Fifthly, "fear of death": for many occasions and causes of this are offered every day, so much so that a man does not have one year certain of life, nay not even one day certain, but rather on every day and hour he can and ought to fear death secretly pressing upon him, or lying in wait for him; sixthly, there is "persisting wrath": for this is as it were gall continually pricking, embittering, gnawing and eating away the soul like a moth. Our author reads with the Romans, the Zurich edition and others menima, or menima, that is, long-lasting anger, inveterate hatred, enmity watching for the time of vengeance. Now the Complutensian edition reads mimia, that is, imitation, likeness; but less fittingly, as it seems. Seventhly, "contention"; for this is as it were a fury, which disturbs the mind, renders it restless, and drives it into a thousand quarrels, lawsuits, blows and murders. These therefore seven passions and perturbations are seven parts and species of a heavy yoke pressing upon men both high and low by day, which equally as dreams by night change, agitate, alter, and lacerate the mind of man, and, as the Zurich edition translates it: affect the disposition of each in various ways. Wherefore they themselves are as it were so many executioners of the soul, tearing it to pieces; hence they are also called passions and perturbations, because they disturb the soul; and torment it with dire passions, which the Stoics therefore held could not befall the wise man. Hear St. Augustine, book XIV of the City of God, chapter VIII: "Which the Greeks call eupatheias, but Cicero in Latin named constantiae, the Stoics wished to be three in place of three perturbations in the mind of the wise man, in place of desire the will, in place of joy gladness, in place of fear caution, but in place of sorrow or pain, which we for the sake of avoiding ambiguity preferred to call sadness, they denied could be anything in the mind of the wise man. For will, they say, desires the good which the wise man does. Gladness is from good obtained, which the wise man obtains everywhere. Caution avoids evil, which the wise man ought to avoid. But sadness because it is from evil, which has already happened. But they think no evil can happen to the wise man; they said nothing of that sort could be in his mind. Thus therefore they speak, so that they deny willing, rejoicing, being cautious except in the wise man: but the fool only in desiring, rejoicing, fearing, being saddened. And those three are constantiae: but these four are perturbations; according to Cicero however very many passions. But in Greek those three, as I said, are called eupatheiai: but those four pathe. But St. Augustine refutes this opinion of the Stoics, namely that the aforesaid passions do not befall the wise man, in book IX of the City of God, chapter IV, teaching that the wise man is subject not only to the four latter, but also to the three former, and thus to all seven passions; but he knows how to restrain and govern them. The Wise Man describes these passions, fears and anguishes of the impious excellently throughout chapter XVII. Anagogically, Rabanus adapts all these things to the damned in hell: "For indeed," he says, "fury and zeal are shown in vengeance, when sinners are tormented in punishment for their offenses: where there is tumult and fluctuation, because there is no order, but perpetual horror dwells there: where there is fear of death, and persisting wrath, and contention. Truly there is fear of death, where there is continual burning of the fire of hell; wrath persists and contention, because there is no peace there, and no mitigation of pain." And further below: "For what more horrible can be said, what can be thought, than to receive the wounds of damnation, and never to end the pains of wounds? In the torments of this life, fear has pain, pain does not have fear, because fear does not at all torment the mind, when it has already begun to suffer what it feared. The reprobate delivered to the fires of hell, and in punishments feel pain, and in pains anguish, always struck by fear, are beaten: so that they endure what they fear, and in turn without ceasing dread what they endure. Here the flame that kindles illuminates: there the fire that torments darkens; here fear is lost, when what was feared has already begun to be endured: there both pain tears apart, and fear constrains." And shortly after: "He calls the time of refreshment the time of recompense, when the body having been laid to rest in the bed of the sepulcher, the soul is assigned to penal places for its sins. Then the sleep of death changes its knowledge, because then it feels far differently about its deeds than it felt before in this life: because then all things are made manifest which before were hidden: and by evil spirits those things are brought back to its memory which were neglected by these, or consigned to oblivion." And after some things: "Then a little is as nothing in rest, because although the dead and insensible flesh appears to rest from pains for a time in the earth; yet the living soul before the day of judgment feels pain, and on the day of resurrection the very body through which it sinned, receiving immortality, will live in eternal punishments. Therefore in a dreadful manner there will then be pain with fear for the reprobate, flame with darkness: thus namely, so that the weight of supreme justice ought to be felt by the damned; so that because they were never afraid to depart from the will of the Creator while they lived, in their eventual destruction the very torments themselves discord from their qualities, so that by which they assail themselves, they increase the torment: and when they proceed variously, they are felt in various ways. Thus for the wretched there is death without death, an end without end, a defect without defect; because death itself lives, and the end always begins, and defect does not know how to fail."
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one who flees from the sight of battle, more securely in the time of his safety, and they marvel at the empty terror. We experience this most truly in ephialtes, which the Latins call Incubus or Incubonem, by which someone dreams that he is invaded by some mass or by an enemy, oppressed, suffocated and strangled, and cannot escape: whence he is distressed, groans, sweats. This vice arises from gluttony and continual crudity of the stomach; whence thick and cold vapors, raised up, fill the ventricles of the brain, and prevent the spirits of the brain from being diffused through the nerves. Thus Paul of Aegina, lib. III, cap. XV. This sport of dreams, but a grave mockery, experienced Job said, cap. VII, vers. 14: Thou wilt terrify me with dreams, and with visions thou wilt affright me with horror. Wherefore my soul hath chosen hanging, and my bones death. And St. Augustine, lib. X Confess. cap. XXX, mourning his shameful dreams: "And so much, he says, does the illusion of an image prevail in my soul and in my flesh, that false visions persuade the sleeping one, which true ones cannot persuade the waking one." Yet the same Augustine, lib. XII De Genesi ad litter. cap. II, confesses that a dream sometimes appeared to him dreaming as a dream, not a true thing: "Although, he says, I know this has happened to me, and for this reason I do not doubt that it could have happened to others, or can happen, that seeing in dreams, I see myself in dreams, feel, and those images, which are accustomed to mock our very custom, are not true bodies, but are presented in dreams: most firmly even while sleeping I would hold and feel them." But even then often something false, or what does not truly exist, is mixed into the dream, as St. Augustine adds in the same place. Anagogically, Rabanus adapts all these things to the damned, who "esteemed, he says, through the prosperity of the world as if deluded through a dream, that it was a time of peace, and not of war."
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a refuge in tribulation, and God comforts those hoping in and calling upon him: neither obtains to the impious. Whence the Zurich version translates: This whole is joined to every living thing, both to man and to beast: but to the wicked sevenfold more; others: All these are present to flesh, both to men and to beasts; and to sinners moreover sevenfold more. Note: the sevenfold signifies abundance and fullness of these scourges, which befalls the impious. Thus Gen. IV, 13 and 24: "Sevenfold, he says, vengeance shall be given of Cain: but of Lamech seventy times seven." Where Procopius: "The number seven, he says, denotes the perfection of punishment." Whence that Levit. XXVI, 28: "I will chastise you with seven plagues." And Psal. LXXVIII, 12: "Render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom." See Delrio, adagio 10. Moreover the Syriac version translates: With all the sons of flesh their cares are, and riches awaken them with fear.
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God properly sends scourges as punishments for guilt, to avenge their crimes; but to the just only for trial and increase of virtue and merits: wherefore they are inflicted upon them not as evils, but as goods, says Jansenius. Whence the Zurich version translates: Death, slaughter, discord, the sword, assaults, famine, disaster, torments: all these things together were created against the unjust, and on account of them a flood came forth from God. Therefore these scourges are properly created, that is produced and sent, by God on account of sinners, to chastise their sins; but by concomitance they also touch the good, who dwell with sinners and are mixed among them: just as the sun, rain, hail, frost, cold, heat touch all the inhabitants of a place, and therefore the good together with the wicked. Wherefore the Wise Man prudently admonishes: One ought to rejoice sparingly, and grieve gradually: Because pain and joy mingle throughout the whole of life.
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standing or stagnant) SHALL RETURN INTO THE SEA,—namely, from which they originally came forth, Gen. I, 10, as if to say: All things return to their beginning, namely those things which came forth from the earth return to the earth; those which came from the waters, to the waters and the sea. He names the sea, because at the beginning of the world God separated all the waters which are under heaven from the earth into one place, "and the gatherings together of the waters he called seas," Gen. I, 9. For which reason the sea then constituted the beginning, indeed the receptacle and reservoir of all waters; so that namely through channels and veins scattered underground throughout the whole earth, and through vapors which it evaporates and resolves into water and rain, it might be the matrix and origin of all fountains and rivers, as I said at Gen. cap. I, 9, and shall say in more places, Eccles. cap. I, 7, which reads thus: All rivers enter into the sea, and the sea doth not overflow: unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return to flow again. For the Siracides alludes to this here: where see our Pinedan. Whence the Greek texts have, kai apo hydaton eis thalassan anakampei, that is, from the waters, namely born, into the sea, namely into the waters (of which the sea is the matrix) "are reflected," or turn back; the Zurich Bible: Whatsoever consisteth of the earth, returneth into the earth, and what is born of the sea returneth into the sea. Where note what I warned in the Preface, that the Zurich Bible does not render word for word, but more freely the sense which the author formed in his mind; whence it acts not so much as an interpreter, but as a commentator. For in place of from the waters (as it is in the Greek), it itself translates, from the sea; because it thought all rivers proceed from the sea. This general sense is to be explained conveniently, "all things," that is most things, the majority: for not all things absolutely born from the earth are converted into the earth: for houses, trees and wood, which are burned, are converted into fire, smoke and air, not into earth: thus likewise not all waters absolutely return into waters and the sea, as is evident in those which, heated by the rays of the sun, are converted into exhalations, and thence into fire or air, and in those which mixed with earth are converted into mud and earth; but the majority and the greatest, as huge rivers flow down into the sea and return. Whence also learned men think that the Caspian Sea, although it appears completely separated from others, is nevertheless secretly joined to the Ocean through hidden passages, and flows into it. The Siracides says this, either to explain death, of which he spoke in verses 1, 4 and 9, which is the principal part of the yoke lying upon the descendants of Adam, verse 1, as if to say: The better part and end of this yoke is death, through which men born from the earth (as also all other things) return into the earth, according to the law laid upon them, Gen. III, 19. Indeed even the impious through death not only according to the body, but also according to the soul return into the earth, to which they have affixed it: for they go into hell, which is in the center of the earth. Or rather, you should refer this sentence as a beginning to what follows: for through it the Siracides shows the yoke and foolishness of the impious, who, since they are prone to the earth like beasts of the earth, apply themselves to earthly goods, so that they may heap up riches, families, sons, grandsons, soon they are deprived of the same; because all things return and slip back into the earth from which they come forth: whereas the pious, fixing their heart on faith and virtue, heap up heavenly riches lasting eternally, according to that saying: "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return." Therefore, O foolish and unhappy man, why dost thou fix to the earth the particle of divine breath? why dost thou not rather render thy soul to thy God, so that with him it may rest in eternal glory? Whence applying and explaining the same thing, he adds: "Every gift and iniquity shall be blotted out." This is what the Syrian wished when he translated: All that is of the earth returneth into the earth, and what is of the heights, into the heights. Hear St. Jerome, in Eccles. cap. I, verse 7: "All rivers (or torrents, as he himself translated) enter into the sea." Some think, he says, "that the fresh waters which flow into the sea are either consumed by the burning sun above, or are food for the saltiness of the sea: but our Ecclesiastes, and the creator of those very waters, says that they return through hidden veins to the heads of fountains, and from the matrix of the abyss always bubble forth into their sources. But the Hebrews better think that under the name of torrents and sea, by metaphor, men are signified, in that they return into the earth from which they were taken; and they are called torrents, not rivers, because they quickly perish, and yet the earth is not filled with the multitude of the dead." This exit and return of man from dust, or his rising and setting, Holy Scripture repeatedly rubs in and sets before the eyes, as in Genesis cap. III, 19: "Until thou return to the earth from which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return." Job cap. X, 9: "Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as clay, and thou wilt bring me into dust again." Job XXXIV, 15: "Man shall return into ashes." Psalm CIII, 29: "Thou shalt take away their spirit, and they shall fail, and shall return into their dust." Psalm CXLV, 4: "His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth." Ecclesiastes XII, 7: "And the dust return to the earth from whence it was, and the spirit return to God, who gave it." Whoever therefore is wise constantly thinks upon this return of his, despises present things, looks to future things, and lives for eternity. The Council of Tiberium cites these words of Sirach, cap. XVI, and it is found in XIII, Question II, can. XIV, and from these it proves that ecclesiastical burial in the earth is not to be sold for a price, because the earth by natural right is common to all, indeed the mother of all, which therefore receives her children dying into her bosom as willingly as she does those being born: "Thou wearest the earth, thou bearest the earth, and into the earth thou art converted, thou who art taken from the earth."
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to perpetrate iniquity, as if to say: Just as everything that has sprung from the earth perishes and returns to the earth, so likewise every earthly gift given unjustly, for example to corrupt a judge, and therefore all iniquity together with its author, namely man, will perish, and will return to the earth as to its origin: but "faith," that is fidelity, truth, sincerity, justice, integrity, by which one does not allow himself to be turned from the right either by prayer or by price (for this is what the Hebrew emet and the Greek pistis signify) will stand for ever; because it will obtain eternal praise and glory from God, as if to say: Of all earthly things nothing endures and lasts except justice and virtue; all other things are abolished, and slip back into the earth from which they came. Whoever therefore seeks stable and perpetual goods should not pursue the riches and honors of this life, as things that last no longer than life itself; but should strive for integrity and virtue, which will also remain in heaven throughout all ages. Wherefore the Zurich version translates: Every gift and injustice shall be blotted out, and integrity remains for ever; the Syriac: Whoever sins and lies shall perish, and the blessed shall also themselves be raised up for ever. Whence explaining he adds:
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tates eorum destruxisti. Periit memoria eorum cum sonitu." In tonitru ergo notatur tum celeritas, tum impetus et violentia, tum strepitus et fragor ruinae impiorum.
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shall fail, that is they shall perish and be destroyed eternally. For he sets against their brief joy, which lasts no longer than the opening of a hand, their long and complete destruction: "For they rejoice indeed," says Rabanus, "for a time in worldly prosperity, when they open their hands to seize what belongs to others: but because they have transgressed God's commandment, which says, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods, in the end they shall waste away, when empty of good works they are plunged into hell for their sins." For this entire passage depicts the swift passage and destruction of the abundance and happiness of the impious. Secondly, the Zurich version translates: When anyone shall have opened his hand, they shall rejoice to flow away: thus those acting wickedly shall utterly fail. For it supplies and understands to flow away, which is not in the Greek, so that the sense is, as if to say: Just as rainwaters caught in contracted hands rejoice in a manner, when the hand is opened they are allowed to flow away into the earth, because they tend toward their center, to which they are borne by natural appetite so that they may rest in it: so likewise all the good, indeed all creatures, shall rejoice when those acting wickedly fail, so that they may return to the earth and to hell; for this is owed to their wickedness, by which they have disturbed the order of the whole universe: wherefore by this their punishment they shall make satisfaction for the scandal they gave to the whole world and the disturbance they caused in it; because through this their torment and just vengeance the order of all things, which they themselves disturbed, shall be restored, and therefore all creatures shall rejoice, as it were, on account of it. Thirdly, Palacius refers these things to thunder; whence some translate, "when it (namely thunder) shall have opened its hand, it shall rejoice," etc., as if to say: The unjust man is like great thunder, making a great crash and sound; but he does not rejoice except while he opens his hand, that is, he does not last except while he extends rays like a hand. For he speaks of thunder mixed with lightning, which does not last except while it unfolds its light: thus transgressors, although they may seem to sound and flash, yet in their end they shall quickly waste away. But it is an obstacle that the Greek autos, that is itself, being masculine, cannot be referred to bronten, that is thunder, being of feminine gender. Fourthly, Jansenius, referring auton to hyeton, that is rain, whence also the Romans translate: In opening auton, namely rain, its hands shall rejoice, thus explains it, as if to say: When rain shall have opened its hands, that is poured itself forth abundantly over the earth, it shall rejoice because it has overcome the terror, namely of thunder, and taken it away from men, whom it also makes to rejoice by its flowing down to the earth; because when rain falls copiously, thunders and lightnings cease and are feared less. Whence it is said in the Psalms: "He turned lightnings into rain." In this part therefore the similitude proposed in the preceding verse is still maintained, and is here completed. And by prosopopoeia it is attributed to rain to open its hands and to rejoice, just as also in the Psalms it is said: "The rivers clap their hands." It is signified therefore that just as some torrent is dried up by the heat of the sun, and thunder is overcome by the flowing down of rain: so also the riches of the rich together with themselves suddenly fail through the avenging justice of God coming upon them, by which, as if by a shower overwhelming them, all their terror is overcome, which they, trusting in their riches, had inflicted: and thus the just man shall rejoice, freed from their terror. Whence it is added: "Thus transgressors in the end shall waste away," that is they shall so fail that they are utterly consumed. This sense is more connected, forceful and apt, but more obscure and intricate, whereas the first is easiest and plainest.
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AND UNCLEAN ROOTS UPON THE TOP OF THE ROCK SOUND. — As if to say, Impious parents are like a root not deeply founded in earth, but lightly and thinly founded upon a rock, which therefore together with the tree springing from it is easily shaken by winds, and when shaken by the wind creaks and resounds in its branches: but at the same time with that very sound it is torn up and uprooted. For in a similar manner the impious make a loud noise and resound for a short time: but because they have no roots founded in God, hence they will soon be cut down by Him and torn up with their whole stock and posterity. The Greek text does not have "sound" in this place, but rejects it to the beginning of the following verse. Whence they have it thus: The offspring of the impious do not multiply branches, and unclean roots upon hard rock, as if to say, "And," that is "because" they themselves are like unclean roots badly founded upon rock; and therefore they cannot produce much offspring from themselves. Whence the Complutensian edition translates: upon a precipitous rock: which namely drags with itself the root and tree founded upon it into a precipice, and casts it downward. The Zurich edition: The offspring of the impious shall not multiply branches, nor unclean roots upon a lofty cliff. For the Greek akrotomou signifies both a hard and a lofty, and a precipitous rock. But from the Greek there has fallen away ei echei, or in the Doric form achei, that is "sound"; because it immediately follows, but signifies something else, whence unskilled writers thinking one to be superfluous, omitted it in this place, although nevertheless the sense demands it: otherwise indeed a verb is lacking which would complete the sense. It alludes to Wisdom IV, 3: "Bastard shoots (in Greek moscheuomata, that is propagations, shoots, or new sprouts cut from a tree and planted in earth. The Interpreter uses Greek; for he derives shoots from calf, just as the Greeks derive moschomata from moschos, that is calf) shall not strike deep root, nor lay any sure foundation. And if they flourish in branches for a time, they shall be shaken with the wind, and by the force of winds they shall be rooted out."
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For greenness in Greek is egu, or agu, or agu, which the Romans retain. Whence they translate, achi, upon every water. Achi is a Hebrew word signifying a marsh, says St. Jerome in his tradition on Genesis. For Sirach alludes to the Septuagint, which in Genesis XII, 1, for that which Our version with Aquila translates, "were feeding in marshes," retaining the Hebrew word ochu, translate, "were feeding in achi." The Scholiast says achi is "a thin and grassy plantation." Our version, Job VIII, verse 11, translates the Hebrew achu as sedge, which some following in this place translate thus: "Sedge beside any water, and the banks of the river, before any grass is plucked up." Moreover the Zurich edition, reading aga for aga, that is the very thin stalk which first sprouts from the root of plants, and from this is called pullus by the Latins, thus translates: Their shoot upon any water, or at the bank of the river before all grass is crushed. The sense comes to the same thing, although more freely, and against the faith of the manuscripts, the Zurich edition substitutes agu for agu. It does the same sometimes elsewhere, as I have noted in the Preface; which our Critics do in Cicero, Plautus, Terence, so that by conjecture they correct the fault of the writer, and by substituting a neighboring word: which boldness in profane authors is perhaps to be tolerated, but not in sacred and hagiographic texts. The Syriac: For the root of sinners is like an ear of grain which sprouts on the edge of a rock, and like a shoot which sprouts at the bank of a river, which before all verdure dries up. It alludes to Job, chapter VIII, 11: "Can the rush be green without moisture? or can the sedge grow without water? When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked with the hand, it withers before all herbs: so are the ways of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish." And verse 17: "His roots shall be thick upon a heap of stones, and among the stones he shall dwell. If one swallow him up from his place, he shall deny him, and shall say: I know thee not."
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But you would better understand grace as beneficence, both because grace here is opposed to the injustice of the impious, of which verses 13 and 15 speak, and because it is joined with mercy: for the latter hemistich in the Hebrew manner explains and completes the former. The sense therefore is, as if to say: "Grace," that is kindness, beneficence and mercy toward the unworthy and the poor, is "like a paradise" blessed by God, bringing forth the best and immortal fruits, which remain for ever: for such is the increase of grace, merit and glory, which is caused by beneficence, equally as good works, which are done by the poor sustained through almsgiving: all which as to merit and reward remain for ever. Whence Vatablus clearly translates: Kindness is like a fortunate garden, and beneficence remains perpetually. For just as paradise was a place perpetually green, flowering and bearing fruit in all the beauty and kind of fruits: so also mercy in itself and in its effects and fruits always remains green and flowers. To this the Apostle alludes, II Corinthians cap. IX, verse 6, where exhorting the Corinthians to almsgiving he says: "He that soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he that soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings," etc. Morally: Note how great a good beneficence and almsgiving are, inasmuch as they are equal to the paradise of God. Wherefore all good things given by God to paradise, which I enumerated in Genesis II, 8, you may rightly assign tropologically to beneficence.
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Moreover the Greek texts read differently, namely thus: The life of a self-sufficient worker will be sweetened, and above both things he who finds a treasure; as if here Sirach begins a threefold comparison, which Our author begins in the following verse, so that Sirach compares three things with each other here, namely, first a worker; second, one self-sufficient; third, he who finds a treasure, and he prefers this third to the two former, as if to say: Blessed is, first, the worker; second, one self-sufficient, that is, content with his lot; but the third is more blessed than either, namely he who finds a treasure. For to him, without work and labor, as if to one sleeping, happy fortune brings riches flying, on account of which he will become not merely self-sufficient to himself, but also copious and abundant. But here not three, but two are compared. For the worker and one self-sufficient are not two, but one and the same: otherwise Sirach would have added the conjunction "and," and it would denote two by saying: "The life of one self-sufficient, and of the worker will be sweetened." The Zurich Bible saw this same thing, whence it added the conjunction, and translated: The life of one content with his lot, and of one living by his work has sweetness; but he who has obtained a treasure has something greater than both. Which Vatable explains: That is, to whom a thing is left, not gained by labor, according to that saying of Martial: Life which make one more blessed. Most pleasantly Martial, these are: A thing not gained by labor, but left, etc. But the Zurich Bible added the conjunction of itself against the testimony of all Greek manuscripts, which all lack it. Wherefore our Vulgate reading, as it is more fitting, so also is it more true, according to which workers and craftsmen may rejoice in their life and manual work; for if they live content with it, they will be happy, and in it they will find a treasure. Wherefore with good reason here Palacius exclaims: What do you seek, men, in commerce? why offices in the houses of kings? Seek the life of the worker, who seeks for himself not riches, but what suffices: this life is most sweet, this is a treasure, this is the natural life, the life which God instituted in paradise, it is a life harmful to none, it is a life removed from the evils of the world, it is a life most suited to heaven when compared. Wherefore wisely Plato, in book V of the Republic, cites and praises that paradox of Hesiod: "Half is more than the whole," and applies it to tyrants greedy and ambitious, who wish to rule over all and to extend their boundaries everywhere, when it would be better to live content with their own and few things. The same, in book III of the Laws, in order to show that the infinite power of princes, determined by no limits, is the present plague of all empires; he adds that this happens because greedy and ambitious princes do not know that Hesiod speaks rightly: "Half often surpasses the whole, since it is harmful to receive the whole thing; to receive only half is moderate; but the moderate surely surpasses the immoderate and excessive, as it were the former rather, indeed." Thus in lawsuits greedy plaintiffs, who desire the whole thing, unwilling to settle with half with the opposing party, often lose the whole, to whom it would surely have been more useful to seek half than the whole; since on account of the half which they refused, they lose the whole which they greedily sought.
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Moreover the Syrian gives two sentences for this one: Majesty and honor, he says, establish a name, and more than either is he who found wisdom. Building and planting renew a name, and more than either is a wise woman. Therefore first, "sons" in the plural (for in Greek it is τέκνα), that is, an abundance of sons celebrates and propagates the name of the father, inasmuch as in them the father lives as it were surviving and is represented, according to that saying of Euripides: "Sons are the pillars of houses." Whence sons are called בנים banim, from בנה bana, that is, he built, because they themselves build the house and family of the father. For this reason the Emperor Antoninus Pius, two days before he died, having admitted his friends, spoke about his son in the way that Philip spoke of Alexander, namely, that he died with equanimity, since he was leaving behind a son as it were another self. Thus Capitolinus in his life of Antoninus. Second, he makes famous the "building of a city," either physical, as Cain built the first city of the world, and called it after the name of his son Henoch, Henochiam, Genesis iv, or moral and legal, by which someone orders and establishes a city with good laws, and forms it with good customs, as Solon gave laws to Athens, Lycurgus to Sparta, Numa to Rome. For these are celebrated as it were as legislators of cities. But to be preferred before these two is a blameless wife. For what does a multitude of sons profit, what does the glory of a name profit, if you have an unfaithful, immodest, rebellious, talkative, foolish wife, who will torment you continually, distress you, vex you, destroy you? For a wife is the companion of bed, table, and home; she accompanies you everywhere and adheres to your side as it were another part of yourself, so that if she be wicked, she afflicts and torments you intimately everywhere, nor can you cast her off any more than you could cut off half of your body from yourself. Add to this that, just as an honest and prudent wife brings great honor and reputation to her husband, according to that saying: "Her husband is noble in the gates, when he sitteth with the senators of the land," Proverbs xxxi. A harlot or wicked and evil wife is an indelible disgrace to a husband. Such was Faustina to the Emperor Antoninus, Xantippe to Socrates, Delilah to Samson. These indeed harmed their reputation more than if they had died as private and ignoble men, and had not been placed at the helm of the commonwealth. He signifies therefore that, in order that someone may acquire a good name for himself, he must above all take care that his wife be blameless; for she will bring him great dishonor. Finally, a good wife bears and educates good sons, through whom she builds the house and family, and consequently the city. Therefore in her you have at once these three things, which indeed surpass one alone, or two. Mystically Rabanus: "The building," he says, "of good works confirms the Christian name, because he truly proves himself to be Christian who keeps the commandments of Christ by believing rightly and acting well: and beyond these a spotless woman, that is, a pure, holy and undefiled soul is reckoned. Therefore virginity holds the chief and supreme reward in the merits of the elect; because it also associates them with the Angels in heaven, and follows the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth."
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Note: "The love of wisdom" properly is the love of virtue. Among the virtues, however, charity holds the first place; for true wisdom consists in the fear and love of God, according to that passage cap. i, 14: "The love of God is honorable wisdom;" see what is said there. Moreover "the love of wisdom" could be taken for wisdom of love by hypallage, which is the wisdom of loving; for the highest wisdom is to know how to love God; or "the love of wisdom," that is, wise love, for charity ought to be prudent. By a similar phrase the Apostle in II Thessalonians ii, 10, calls it "the love of truth," that is, true love. Morally: Learn how great is the force and energy of wisdom and charity from the fact that it is compared and preferred to wine and music, which are most powerful for stirring up minds and bending them in every direction. Concerning wine the matter is well known; concerning music it is evident from what is said cap. xxxii, 5 and 7. Whence St. Justin Martyr, celebrating the power of sacred music, namely the hymnody and psalmody of Christians exciting wisdom and charity, in Questions cvii to the Orthodox: "This," he says, "stirs up the mind with a certain pleasure of heavenly institution, bestows grace and glory, and fills and blesses with every good. This is the second triad of delightful things, in which the palm is given to the love of wisdom, which is indeed charity, or the effect of charity; for the Greek ἀγάπησις signifies this. There follows a third triad akin to this.
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Whence Rabanus thus explains both verses: "Wine, he says, and the art of music with its instruments naturally delight and move the human soul through the sonority of the voice; but the love of wisdom, and a tongue teaching sweetly, much more strengthens the understanding of the heart." Thus we see that sweet confessors attract penitents to themselves and bend them whichever way they wish, and thus sweet preachers have more influence on the minds of their hearers than austere and threatening ones. Again, he aptly compares and prefers the sweet tongue to the pipe and psaltery, because it itself is an animated and rational pipe and psaltery, which produces nothing but sweet melody. Pierius, in his Hieroglyphics, book 7, in the chapter on the stag, relates that a stag, although a most fleeing animal, is so detained by melody that, standing still, it allows itself to be captured and killed; how much more will a rational man fleeing be detained and won over by courteous and flattering speech? The reason a priori is that sweetness is friendly to nature, and is to it as it were honey and nectar, by which it is nourished, led, and captured. Hence it is captured by the sweetness of milk, honey, sugar, etc., which make the blood sweet, and from this sweet spirits both of loving and of speaking. Wherefore Plutarch, in his life of Artaxerxes, asserts that it was customary among the Persians to give honey mixed with milk as a drink, because it makes the blood most sweet, and this in turn produces sweet and lovable affections and manners, as well as speeches. Hence the Bridegroom says in Canticles iv, 11: "Thy lips, my spouse, drop as the honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tongue." And Proverbs xvi, 24: "A honeycomb, composed words: sweetness of the soul, health of the bones." And chapter xv, 4: "A peaceable tongue is a tree of life." And verse 1: "A soft answer breaketh wrath." Thus Homer commends Nestor, because from his mouth flowed speech sweeter than honey. It is memorable what Valerius Maximus writes, book viii, chapter ix, that Valerius by sweet oration calmed the rebellion of the Roman plebs against the senators; and that L. Antonius at the time of the Marian sedition so astounded soldiers sent to slay him by his sweet eloquence, that they returned their swords, already drawn and brandished, empty of blood to their sheaths. Thus Cicero, book ii of the Republic, compares the concord which the sweetness of eloquence produces to pipes and musical harmony: "As in lyres, he says, and pipes, and in song itself and voices there is a certain harmony to be maintained from distinct sounds; and this harmony from the modulation of most dissimilar voices becomes one and congruous: so in the state, with the highest, lowest, and middle orders interposed, as with sounds, the city moderated by nature consists in harmony of most dissimilar elements, and what harmony is called by musicians in song, that is concord in the state, which cannot exist in any way without justice."
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The first is, that that comeliness of things and beauty of bodies is often made and painted by art, as when painters paint things comely, or sculptors sculpt them; or when women color their face with antimony, white lead and purslane, or adorn themselves with artificial garments: but the greenness of plants is sincere and simple, as being implanted in them by nature. For nature surpasses art, and natural beauty that made by art, according to that saying of Christ concerning the lilies, Matt. vi: "I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was covered as one of these." The second is, that the form of bodies is alluring, and entices to base desire: but greenness is pure, undefiled and chaste, and brings a like delight to the eyes. Palacius gives the third, thus explaining it: The eye rejoices seeing pleasing and comely buildings, or seeing the comeliness and beauty of women: but truly, my son, desire thy fields sown with wheat and green. For rightly Quintilian: "It is foolish to esteem red violets more than olives laden with fruit. From those gather chaff, from these gather grain." The fourth is, that among all the kinds of things and colors by which the eye is fed, the green color stands out, especially the natural green of fields, and this both because green is most temperate to the sight, and consists in a certain mean very well proportioned to the sight. For white color too much scatters, disperses and dissolves the sight; on the other hand black gathers, tightens, constrains and saddens the sight: but green, being between both; neither too much scatters, nor too much gathers; but affects the sight in a certain equal manner. The cause is, both because white has much light, which scatters, black much opacity, which gathers. For from the mixture of the lucid and the opaque arise all the varieties of colors, as Aristotle and the Philosophers teach, lib. iii On the Soul; but green has light tempered with fitting opacity, yet so that it sharpens, excites, delights and strengthens the sight. Whence painters from yellow and blue colors ground and mixed together, make green; for yellow and blue wonderfully temper light with opacity, then because there are very many and almost infinite kinds of greenness, and so each herb and plant has its own greenness distinguished from others, so that one beholding a field or garden full of plants, sees very many varieties and kinds of greenness, some more and more whitish, others more and more blackish; some dark, some bright, some even splendid and shining; which all to behold together, it is wonderful how much it refreshes the eyes. Thus Aristotle, in Problem. sect. xxxi, num. 20, teaches that the eye is refreshed by green things and becomes better, both because green color is the mean of white and black, and because it is more moist and moderate: "The eyes, he says, when they strain toward solid things, labor and grow weary; when toward moist and soft things, because nothing hinders them, they wander about, and with license dissolve; when toward green things, because these as solid things moderately are, so contain sufficient moisture, nor are affected by any detriment, and to dwelling in these they lean more, because the habit of this color presents itself moderately to the sight." Moreover green plants are as it were tapestries and hangings of God, with which He covers this hall of the world and its fields, which indeed adorn them more than golden coverings adorn the palaces of princes. For greenness arises from moisture; and therefore greenness is vigor, and as it were the life of plants, because its nourishment is moisture; whence all herbs on account of vital moisture have greenness, and the herbaceous and vivid color is green. On the other hand those things which dry up and die, put off their greenness. Wherefore as various, and variously mixed with earthly matter is the moisture, so various arises the greenness. But this happens in very many and almost innumerable ways. Hence greenness signifies the vigor of a thing, and so among the Latins greenness took its name from vigor: whence is said green age, green old age, green minds, that is lively, vigorous and flourishing. Finally the beauty of emeralds is from greenness. Hear Pliny, lib. xxxvii, cap. i: "No color's appearance is more pleasing to the eyes. For we also eagerly behold green herbs and foliage; but emeralds we behold much more willingly, because nothing at all compared to them is more green." Allegorically, Rabanus: "Grace and beauty, he says, are surpassed by green sowings; since the adornment of the temple, and the diversity of worship, and the observance of the festivals of ceremonies, which the former people of the Jews had under the law, is excelled by the preaching of the Gospel sown throughout the whole earth, by the faith of the Gentiles, and the greenness of good works." Tropologically: Green sowings are the greenness and fervor of youths, for example Novices beginning to serve God piously and religiously; for these surpass all the beauty and appearance of things, and delight the eyes of those beholding them more; yet a mature and solid harvest of virtues, which is seen in holy men and the aged, nourishes the mind more than these. To this pertains that saying: Virtue coming in a beautiful body is more pleasing. Again, green sowings were the first Christians and especially St. Stephen and the other disciples and deacons of Christ, who, flourishing in age and vigorous in spirit, wonderfully refreshed the eyes of God and men by their virtue and fervor: whence from this sowing such a great harvest of Virgins, Martyrs, Religious, and other faithful ones afterwards grew up. Similarly, green sowings were boys, girls and youths, who consecrated the vigor of their age, namely childhood or adolescence, through the grace implanted in their mind by God to God through martyrdom, the vow of virginity, religious life, such as were St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, St. Prisca, St. Pancras, St. Vitus, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, and innumerable others, whose vigor of virtue was a delight and admiration to all. Hence St. Augustine, book ii On Genesis against the Manichees, chapter iii, takes mystically by "green herb" or "green of the field," which God produced on the third day of the world, Genesis i, 11, a "spiritual and invisible creature, on account of the vigor of life," such as are angels, to whom Christ compares and equates virgins, Matthew xxii, 30. Whence St. Augustine adds: "Because even now God makes the green of the field, but by raining upon the earth, that is when the green herb, and with its flowers blooming in spring, delights the eyes of those contemplating, and gradually withering, loses its beauty, and turns into hay, which is to be trampled: so all the appearance of men blooms in little ones, flowers in youths, is vigorous in men of perfect age, and suddenly the hair becomes hard, turns white, the face wrinkles, the skin previously stretched contracts; and at the final end, which is called here evening, that is old age, it can scarcely move, so that it is not known who was first, or it is almost changed into another." Whence he concludes: "Compared to eternity, the length of all times is brief. Everything which in the world appears long, with you, O God, is brief; for the days and years, by which human life is contracted, if compared to eternity, will be reckoned as nothing." This is the fourth triad of comparisons; the fifth follows. souls revive through his word, but he irrigates them from the clouds, that is from the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles." So also St. Ambrose, book iii of the Hexaemeron, chapter vii, takes by green herb the "greenness of life, which like a flower of a more cheerful life offers pleasantness, namely a youth flourishing in the greenness of pubescent age." And in the following chapter he graphically depicts the wonderful manner of germination: "Then," he says, "when the grain dissolves itself, it germinates herb, already a pleasing appearance of greening verdure, which immediately reveals the kind sown by its likeness. Eyes are fed by a pleasing spectacle." He adds that such are seminaries of virtues. Finally he subjoins wonderful remedies of sowings: "A sick deer," he says, "chews little branches of olive and is healed. Locusts also freed from disease by olive leaves eaten. Leaves of brambles placed upon a serpent kill it. Gnats do not touch you, if you cook wormwood herb with oil, and anoint yourself with it." St. Bernard is added, sermon 60 on the Canticles, who takes by green and flowering vineyards, of which Canticles ii, 13, novices: "Vineyards," he says, "flowering gave forth fragrance, which nevertheless is an indication of approaching fruit. This fragrance puts serpents to flight. They say that to flowering vineyards every venomous reptile yields place, and in no way bears the fragrance of new flowers, which let our novices attend to by vow, and act confidently, thinking what spirit they have received, whose first fruits demons do not endure. If such is the fervor of a novice, what will be absolute perfection? Let the fruit be discerned from the flower, and the power of taste be estimated from the force of fragrance. Flowering vineyards gave forth fragrance." And below: "But if the vineyard is the soul, the flower is the work, the fragrance is opinion, what is the fruit? martyrdom. And truly the fruit of the vine is the blood of the martyr. When he shall have given sleep to his beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord, children, reward, the fruit of the womb. I had almost said, the fruit of the vine; why not the blood of the grape, I would say the most pure blood of the innocent, the blood of the just? why not the wine reddening and approved, precious, plainly from the vineyard of Sorec, pressed in the winepress of passion? Finally, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Again St. Gregory, book xxx of the Morals, chapter xv, explaining that passage from Job chapter xxxix, 8, concerning the wild ass: "He seeketh out all green things," thus speaks: "For all things are dry which are created temporally, and by the coming end are dried up from the pleasantness of present life as if by a summer sun. But those things are called green which wither not by any temporality. For this wild ass to seek out green things is for every holy man, despising transitory things, to desire those that abide eternally." But St. Jerome, in epistle 137 to Cyprian, explaining that passage from Psalm lxxxix: "In the morning like grass let it pass away, in the morning let it flourish and pass away, in the evening let it fall, harden and wither:" "All human condition," he says, "will be compared to a dream. For as in the morning put away the swelling of your heart, the harshness of your manners, when your diligent wife comes to you; drive away indignation, when your gentle spouse provokes you to charity. You are not a master, but a husband; you have not obtained a handmaid, but a wife; God willed you to be a governor of the inferior sex, not a tyrant. Repay her diligence with study, repay her love with grace." Furthermore, the Apostle suggests an effective means to this union of husband and wife, Ephesians v, 33, saying: "Let each one love his own wife as himself: and let the wife fear (reverence) her husband." Upon which words St. Chrysostom commenting, homily 20, notes that between husband and wife there is a dissimilarity of condition, in that they are unequal in state, since the husband is the head and the wife is subject, who looks up to and reveres her husband, but through love this dissimilarity is taken away, and they become equal; for the love of the husband makes as it were an equilibrium of the reverence of the wife. For when the wife reverently humbles and subjects herself to her husband, the love of the husband lowers itself toward her, and elevates and exalts her, and makes her equal and like to himself. The love therefore of the husband corresponds equally to the reverence and subjection of the wife, and makes with her an equilibrium, so that between husband and wife in a certain inequality there is equality, and in a dissimilarity of weights an equilibrium. St. Chrysostom alludes moreover to the Greek word σύζυγος which signifies spouses: and ζυγός is a word of double meaning, signifying both a yoke and a balance, so that συζύγους may be translated both as spouses and as equally balanced or in equilibrium. Just as therefore equilibrium in a balance makes the equality and concord of the pans: so love making an equilibrium of husband and wife induces their parity, union and peace. But hear Chrysostom: "The wife holds a second place of authority, therefore let her not even seek equality of honor; for she is under the head, lest he despise her as subject, for she is his body. And if the head despise the body, it too will perish together with it. But let him bring love, which corresponds equally to obedience and subjection, which is like when the hands, feet and all other members serve the head, and it in turn cares for them and provides for them, having all sensation in them. Nothing is better than this marriage. And how can there be love, he says, when fear is present? then indeed it can be most of all. For she who fears her husband loves him also; she who loves fears him as head, loves him as member; since indeed the head is a member of the whole body. Therefore God subjected the woman, and set the man over her, that there might be peace. For where there is equality of honor, or where the family is ruled by all, or all bear authority, there can never be peace; but it is necessary that there be one authority, and this everywhere in bodily things." Tropologically, the union is most excellent and most pleasing by which in man the lower part subjects itself to the higher, namely the concupiscible portion to the rational, and sense to mind, as a wife to her husband, and unites and agrees with it in all things; for this is the highest friendship, fellowship and marriage. See what I have said concerning the good of concord in chapter xxv, verse 2.
40:24
This is the sixth triad of comparisons; the seventh follows. For Sirach multiplies triads, so that in them he may foreshadow the mystery of the Holy Trinity; for this, being essential, uncreated and immense, is the origin and fountain of the created and finite triad, and therefore in it is expressed and represented; and for this reason He has inserted into all things a certain ternary, either of powers, or of operations, or of similar things, as it were His image, as I have shown in Amos, chapter i, verse 3, but in such a way that He Himself surpasses all and each of them infinitely.
40:25
For, as Isocrates says to Demonicus: "Wisdom alone is immortal among possessions. Consider it best that from the gods indeed good fortune, but from ourselves good counsel." But take this with a grain of salt, namely that counsel be from us, yet with God assisting; but good fortunes are almost entirely from God alone. The reason a priori is that gold and silver are inanimate and external, but counsel is intimate to the thing, as it were its basis, indeed its soul. For just as reason directs man, so that he may act and live rationally: so counsel directs actions and things, so that they may be done prudently and stand firmly. For counsel suggests all the supports and props of the thing, and removes all its obstacles and what is contrary to its firmness. Wherefore kingdoms, republics, cities, colleges, assemblies, which are governed by counsel, stand firm, grow and are exalted, according to that in Proverbs xi, 14: "Where there is no governor, the people shall fall: but there is safety where there is much counsel." For just as the safety and course of a ship depends on a skilled helmsman and rudder: so the safety of the republic depends on a wise counselor and counsel. And chapter xx, 18: "Thoughts are strengthened by counsels: and wars are to be managed by guidance." For in war counsel avails more than many soldiers. Thus the Romans "possessed every place by their counsel and patience," I Maccabees, chapter viii, verse 3. Alexander the Great, when asked by what means he had conquered the world in so short a time, replied: "By counsels, eloquence and the art of command," as Stobaeus testifies, sermon 54. Whence Vegetius, book iii, chapter ix, most commends to a general of an army the counsels of the wise. Passienus Crispus, the stepfather of the Emperor Nero, used to say that he preferred the counsel of certain men to their favor. The Emperor Antoninus Pius did nothing in military or civil matters except from the counsel of the prudent, saying: "It is more fitting that I follow the counsel of so many and such great friends, than that so many and such great friends follow the will of one." Thus Julius Capitolinus in his Deeds. Memorable is the saying of Euripides: "One right counsel overcomes a great host of soldiers." For small forces armed with counsel can accomplish more than great forces lacking counsel. Paulus Aemilius used to say: "A commander, if not old in age, ought at least to be old in character and counsel." Finally, Antonius in the Melissa, part ii, sermon 60: "What," he says, "is a city whose walls are destroyed, such is a man who does not do all things with counsel." Thus Hushai by his counsel raised up David more than if he had given him many talents of gold. For he restored him, a fugitive from the face of Absalom, to his kingdom, II Samuel xxvii. The same thing was done by the counsel which Jethro gave to Moses, Exodus xviii. Mystically, Hugo understands by counsel the Evangelical counsel, for example of poverty, as if to say: Evangelical poverty is better and more pleasing to God and the Saints than all the riches of gold and silver; for it is written: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matthew v. There follows the eighth triad, or as others (who count the first from verse 18: "The life of a self-sufficient worker, etc.") reckon it, the ninth, namely the last and most perfect, of the fear of the Lord; just as the ninth choir of angels, namely the Seraphim, is the highest and most perfect; because they supremely fear, that is, revere, love and glorify God. Whence from the ardor of love they are called "Seraphim," that is, burning and inflamed, and inflaming others.
40:26
Whence the Zurich version translates: Riches and power do indeed raise up the spirit; but religion of the Lord surpasses either. For the fear of God is the veneration of God, religion, worship, obedience, obedience and love. Thus the fear of God exalted the heart of David, so that in the midst of dangers, besieged on all sides by Saul and enemies, trusting, secure and cheerful he sang: "The Lord is my illumination, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? If armies should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear; if a battle should rise up against me, in this will I be confident," Psalm xxvi. Thus we see the apostles and apostolic men armed with the fear of God attempting great things magnanimously, and accomplishing them happily; and day by day attempting and accomplishing them so as to subject to themselves kings, princes, the wise and the rich, to convert provinces and kingdoms, and to subject the whole world to Christ. Wherefore St. Basil, on that passage of Psalm xiv, 4: "The wicked man is brought to nothing in His sight; but those who fear the Lord He glorifies," thus writes: "Great indeed and excellent courage is needed, and one who does not allow himself to be turned aside to any part by human affairs, and who, endowed with manly fortitude, has already reached the highest degree of the habit of justice, so as to distribute to each his due according to his dignity, and to bring to nothing those who act wickedly; however much authority these may possess, however much they may boast themselves laden with riches, even if they are conspicuous and illustrious by the clarity of their lineage, however much they may raise up and celebrate the splendor of their name; yet if any malignity of life is found in these; these, I say, to bring to nothing, that is, to esteem them not even a little, is truly of an exalted and excellent spirit. On the contrary, those who fear the Lord, even if they are poor, ignoble, unlearned in speech, weak in body; to exalt these with glory and praises, and to esteem them blessed, befits him who, instructed in spiritual doctrine, has learned plainly that such are blessed. For it will be the mark of a well-ordered mind both to regard as nothing the one acting wickedly, however illustrious and powerful, and to glorify the one fearing the Lord, however humble, of poor and despicable life, and possessing nothing of external things, which might invite us to his commendation."
40:28
Whence the Syriac: The fear of God is exalted above all things; lay hold of it, my son, and do not let it go; for there is none like it. The fear of God is blessed in time, and above all honor it itself is praised. And Vatablus: The religion of the Lord is like a fortunate garden, in covering which all magnificence is surpassed. Our text reads ἐκάλυψαν, that is, they covered, in the plural. Now the Complutensian and Roman editions read in the singular ἐκάλυψε, that is, it covered, it clothed, supply, God the paradise, as well as the fear and him who fears God. Others translate: The fear of the Lord is like a happy paradise, whose covering surpasses all glory. The fear of God therefore is a gem, a calyptra, a golden cyclas, an emerald diadem, a royal mantle, which adorns him who fears God far more than all purples and scepters adorn kings and princes. He also alludes to the blessings and benefits given to the Patriarchs who feared God, as if to say, These and more you will obtain, and you will be crowned with them, if you fear God. But especially he alludes to that which Jacob imprecated upon Joseph, Genesis xlix, 25: "The Almighty shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, with blessings of the deep lying beneath, with blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers; until the desire of the eternal hills should come; may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren." Similar things Moses imprecates upon Joseph when dying, Deuteronomy xxxiii, 13. How therefore ought the just man, surrounded and as it were overwhelmed by so many blessings of God, to rejoice, exult and jubilate perpetually! how ought he to be secure, steadfast and magnanimous in adversities and difficulties, he whom God crowns on all sides with his mercy and compassions! Moreover the Syriac adds here two maxims which are wanting in the Greek and Latin texts: My son, it says, be courageous, do not deny. Do not be good at killing and diligent at giving life.
40:29
For "in need" and "to need," in Greek it is ἐπαιτῇ, that is, to beg; because need is the cause of begging. It is therefore a metonymy. For our Interpreter skillfully expressed the cause for the effect, which ordinarily follows from such a cause; whence the Greek texts elegantly have thus: "Child, a life of begging do not live; it is better to die than to beg," that is, as the Complutensian: "A life of begging" (the Roman, of begging; others, "a begging life do not live; it is better to die than to beg"). The Zurich: "Son, beware lest you live by begging; it is better to be dead than to beg," that is to say, Son, do not through idleness and sloth cast yourself into the utmost destitution and necessity of continual begging; for need and want here is understood not any kind, but grave and continual, which compels a man to live by begging. Otherwise there is no one, not even a king, who is not sometimes in need of something. The reason is that the life of beggars is most poor, most miserable, most sordid, most burdensome both to others and to themselves; and especially because among the Jews it was infamous; for it was a sign of wickedness and a wicked life. To punish this indeed God threatened the Jews with it, and in fact inflicted upon them scarcity of things and beggary; just as conversely He had promised riches and abundance of things to the just and those keeping His law, as is evident from Leviticus, chapter twenty-six, almost the whole chapter, and Deuteronomy, chapter fifteen, 4: "There shall be no poor nor beggar among you." Whence also the Psalmist among other curses of the wicked assigns this one too: "Let his children be tossed about, and let them beg," Psalm cviii. But among the blessings of the pious this one: "I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread," Psalm xxxvi. But Christ removed this infamy, and so pronounced blessed the poor in spirit, and having himself embraced this poverty, proposed it to Christians, especially to Ecclesiastics and Religious eager for perfection, to be followed. For this is poverty not forced, but voluntary, and undertaken willingly for the exercise of humility, patience, and penance, and so that man, free from desires and earthly cares, may be wholly vacant for God and for contemplation of heavenly things, and through this be blessed with the greatest riches in heaven by God. For such a one does not look to another's table, as follows, but to God himself, who promised to those serving him and seeking the kingdom of heaven that he would add temporal things to them. Such a one also, by praying, preaching, speaking, etc., is more useful to the commonwealth than if he labored with his hands. Whence the Apostle, I Corinthians ix: "If we, he says, have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great matter if we reap carnal things?" Indeed Christ, Luke x: "The laborer is worthy of his food." Whence St. Francis, in the Rule, chapter viii, earnestly commending poverty to his followers: "Brothers, he says, let them appropriate nothing to themselves, neither house, nor place, nor any thing, but as pilgrims and strangers in this world, serving the Lord in poverty and humility, let them go begging confidently. Nor ought they to be ashamed; because the Lord made himself poor in the world for us. This is that sublimity of the highest poverty, which makes you, my dearest brothers, heirs of the kingdom of heaven, poor in things, exalted in virtues. Let this be your portion, which leads into the land of the living; clinging wholly to it, wish to have nothing else for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ forever under heaven." Tropologically, Rabanus aptly takes this of sloth and inertia in exercising virtues, and acquiring the merit and gain of good works: "Wisdom admonishes us, he says, lest through idleness we lose the time granted to us, but rather let us labor rightly by believing, intently meditating on the law of God, and acting well; so that here we may have riches of virtues, and in the future eternal life. For it is better to depart quickly from the present life than to live here long uselessly; because idleness of long duration will have greater vengeance in torments." He then cites the example of the foolish virgins, who, lacking oil, while they beg for it and seek it, are excluded from the heavenly nuptials; and of servants, who, laboriously expending the talents of their master, received eternal reward from him, Matthew xxv.
40:30
rather long and continuous; because he is continuously in need, hungry, begging, despised and mocked. Whence among the Greeks such a life is called ἀβίωτος βίος, that is, a life without life, a non-vital life, the life of wretched people dying rather than living. Thus also Our text could be understood; for often sustenance is put for life, because life is sustained by sustenance and food, so that it is a metonymy. More plainly, however, you may expound Our text and the Greek thus, as if to say: A beggar who, since he does not have a table and food by which to nourish himself, is forced to look upon another's table, that he may be fed by it; this man, I say, leads an idle and inert life, nor does he think of laboring, that he might prepare sustenance for himself: For he nourishes, that is, his life, with another's food. For nourishes in Greek is ἀλισγήσει, that is, will contaminate; because the life of beggars is foul, wretched, destitute, vile, sordid, foolish and infamous, nay bestial and canine; for dogs beg at their master's table, and continually look upon him, that he might cast them some bone to gnaw; whence a beggar does not have his own life, but another's; for his life is in the power not of his own, but of the rich man, upon whom he looks, and who nourishes him; so that if that man should be unwilling to nourish him, he would be deprived of life and consumed by hunger; just as the imprisoned hang upon the hand and mouth of the prison keeper, that from him they might receive sustenance and life, or they will be consumed by hunger, and will be forced to die. Wherefore "a man disciplined and instructed," that is, prudent and wise, "will guard himself," lest by his own idleness he fall into a life so wretched; but rather by laboring will procure for himself food, that he may lead his own life, honest, peaceful, pleasant. Whence the Zurich version translates: The life of a man looking upon another's table is not to be reckoned as life; for he saddens his soul (Vatable, defiles) with another's food; which a prudent and instructed man will avoid. The Complutensian editors, reading οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῦ βίος, thus translate: A man, looking upon another's table, does not have life in the nature of life; he will defile his soul with another's food; but a wise and instructed man will guard himself. The Roman editors, however, reading οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῦ ἐν λογισμῷ ζωή, translate: A man looking upon another's table, his life is not in the reckoning of life, etc.; others: His life is not to be held as life, etc.; but a man knowing and instructed will avoid this. The Syriac: A man who hopes in another's table, no one will reckon as living. He hates his own soul, who loves pleasures; and to a man who knows them, they are pain of the bowels.
40:32
Some incorrectly read "will be sweetened" as "will be trampled"; for in Greek it is γλυκανθήσεται. By "inopia" (want) is understood metonymically begging, and a begging life, of which want and idleness is the cause: for this is what the Greek ἐπαιτεῖν signifies. For otherwise this meaning would be contrary to that in chapter xiii, 30: "Most wicked poverty in the mouth of the impious." The sense therefore is, as if to say, A man imprudent and shameless, who lacks prudence equally as shame, esteems begging sweet to himself; because he prefers to beg idly and shamelessly with his mouth, rather than to labor honestly with his hands, so as to procure food for himself: for he prefers idleness to labor, sweetness to honesty, shamelessness to shame. Wherefore he shall feel punishment and loss: "For in his belly and stomach there is fire," that is, hunger excited by the heat of the stomach, shall burn fiercely, and shall afflict and torment him; who if he had been willing to labor, would have driven away all hunger abundantly, and at the same time would have consulted his own shame, reputation and honor. Whence the Arabic version renders it: The question or petition of the shameless, fear in his mouth; as if fire burns in his belly; the Zurich Bible: To the shameless mouth begging is sweet (others, begging); fire burns in his belly. Thus we see vile and erring vagabond men prefer to beg imprudently and shamelessly, rather than to seek food by laboring; from this shameless idleness and want they are often driven into thefts, robberies, brigandage and other crimes, as experience shows. For this reason many well-ordered cities, in which good government flourishes, do not permit beggars, but compel the poor, if they have strength, to labor: if they lack strength on account of age or sickness, and are natives, they support them in hospitals or poorhouses: but foreigners they send back to their own cities and villages. For this reason Plutarch, in his Laconic Sayings, praises the Lacedaemonians, because they held beggars as infamous, and begging as a disgrace; because they both hated idleness, and were content with the least. Now benevolence toward beggars is indeed an act of great virtue: but that goodness of pious men nourishes the luxurious idleness of many evils. Whence a Lacedaemonian, it is said, when asked by a beggar to give him alms, replied: "If I give you anything, you will be more of a beggar; and he who first gave to you and made you idle was the author of this shameful life of yours." Wherefore Solomon, the wisest of mortals, deprecates begging, Prov. xxx, 8, saying: "Give me not begging and riches; give me only what is necessary for my food, lest perhaps being full I should be tempted to deny, and say: Who is the Lord? or being compelled by want I should steal, and perjure the name of my God." Tropologically, Rabanus continues to adapt this sentence to the idle man toward good works, to whom his own sloth is sweet: but on account of this he shall be tormented by the fire of hell. "For to him," he says, "to whom it now pleases more to grow torpid in the leisure of idleness, than to benefit his neighbors by the word of doctrine; he, burning in future punishment, shall also be tormented without remedy, even with the sorrows of penance turning in his mind."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
40:17
The memory of the extraordinary vegetation of the terrestrial paradise returns in the Bible as a term of hyperbolic comparison: Gen. 13:10; Is. 51:3; Ez. 28:13; 31:8 ff.; 36:35; Ioel 2:3; Eccli. 40:17.
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.