Wisdom invites all to her feast. Folly calls another way.
Wisdom hauing built her house with seuen pillers, inuiteth al to a prepared banquette, 11. promising to multiplie ioyful dayes. 13. Folie inciteth •e her contrarie banquet of stollen water and hidde bread.
1Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars.La sapienza si è fabbricata una casa, ella ha lavorate sette colonne.VVISEDOME hath built herself an house, she hath cut out seuen pillers.Sapientia ædificavit sibi domum: / excidit columnas septem. 2She hath slain her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table.Ha immolate le sue vittime: ella ha annacquato il suo vino, e imbandita la sua mensa.She hath immolated her victimes, mingled her wine, and set forth her table.Immolavit victimas suas, miscuit vinum, / et proposuit mensam suam. 3She hath sent her maids to invite to the tower, and to the walls of the city:Ha mandate le sue ancelle ad invitare la gente alla cittadella, e alla città di buone mura,She hath sent her handmaides to cal to the towre, and to the walles of the citie:Misit ancillas suas ut vocarent / ad arcem et ad mœnia civitatis. 4Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me. And to the unwise she said:Chiunque è fanciullo venga a me: e a quelli, che mancano di giudicio ella dice:If any be a litle one, let him come to me. And to the vnwise she spake:Si quis est parvulus, veniat ad me. / Et insipientibus locuta est: 5Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.Venite, mangiate il mio pane, e bevete il vino, che io ho annacquato per voi.Come, eate ye my bread, & drinke the wine which I haue mingled for you.Venite, comedite panem meum, / et bibite vinum quod miscui vobis. 6Forsake childishness, and live, and walk by the ways of prudence.Abbandonate la fanciullaggine, e viverete; e battete le vie della prudenza.Leaue infancie, and liue, and walke by the wayes of prudence.Relinquite infantiam, et vivite, / et ambulate per vias prudentiæ. 7He that teacheth a scorner, doth an injury to himself; and he that rebuketh a wicked man, getteth himself a blot.Chi istruisce un derisore fa torto a se stesso: e chi fa la correzione all'empio se stesso contamina.He that teacheth a scorner doth iniurie to himself; and he that rebuketh the impious, purchaseth a blotte to himself.Qui erudit derisorem, ipse injuriam sibi facit, / et qui arguit impium, sibi maculam generat. 8Rebuke not a scorner, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.Non riprendere il derisore, affinchè egli non prenda odio contro di te: correggi il saggio, ed egli ti amerà.Rebuke not the scorner lest hee hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he wil loue thee.Noli arguere derisorem, ne oderit te: / argue sapientem, et diliget te. 9Give an occasion to a wise man, and wisdom shall be added to him. Teach a just man, and he shall make haste to receive it.Porgi l'occasione all'uom saggio, ed ei crescerà in saggezza; istruisci l'uom giusto, ed egli sarà sollecito di imparare.Geue occasion to a wise man, and wisdom shal be added to him. Teach the iust, and he shal make haste to take it.Da sapienti occasionem, et addetur ei sapientia; / doce justum, et festinabit accipere.
10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is prudence.Principio della sapienza egli o il timor del Signore, e la scienza de' santi ell'è la prudenza.The beginning of wisdom, the feare of our Lord: and the knowlege of the holie, prudence.Principium sapientiæ timor Domini, / et scientia sanctorum prudentia. 11For by me shall thy days be multiplied, and years of life shall be added to thee.Perocché per me saranno moltiplicati i tuoi giorni, e cresceranno di numero gli anni della tua vita.For by me shal thy dayes be multiplied, and yeres of life shal be added to thee.Per me enim multiplicabuntur dies tui, / et addentur tibi anni vitæ. 12If thou be wise, thou shalt be so to thyself: and if a scorner, thou alone shalt bear the evil.Se tu sarai saggio, lo sarai in tuo pro: ma se tu se' un derisore, ne porterai il danno tu solo.If thou be wise, to thyself thou shalt be; and if a scorner, thou alone shalt beare the euil.Si sapiens fueris, tibimetipsi eris; / si autem illusor, solus portabis malum. 13A foolish woman and clamorous, and full of allurements, and knowing nothing at all,Una donna senza cervello, e loquace, e piena di vezzi, e che non sa nulla nulla,A foolish woman and clamorous, and ful of alurementes, and knowing nothing at al,Mulier stulta et clamosa, / plenaque illecebris, et nihil omnino sciens, 14Sat at the door of her house, upon a seat, in a high place of the city,Si sta sedendo in una sedia sulla porta di sua casa in luogo eminente della città,sate in the doores of her house vpon a seate in a high place of the citie,sedit in foribus domus suæ, / super sellam in excelso urbis loco, 15To call them that pass by the way, and go on their journey:Per chiamare a se que', che passano per la strada, facendo loro viaggio:to cal them that passe by the way, and goe on their iourney:ut vocaret transeuntes per viam, / et pergentes itinere suo: 16He that is a little one, let him turn to me. And to the fool she said:Chi è fanciullo si volga a me: e a colui, che di giudicio è scemo, ella dice:He that is a litle one, let him turne to me. And to the foole she spake:Qui est parvulus declinet ad me. / Et vecordi locuta est: 17Stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread is more pleasant.Le acque furtive sono più dolci, e il pane, che tiensi ascoso, è più gradito.Stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread more pleasant.Aquæ furtivæ dulciores sunt, / et panis absconditus suavior. 18And he did not know that giants are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.Ma colui non sa, che ivi stampo i giganti, e che i convitati di colei vanno nel profondo dell'inferno.and he was ignorant that giantes are there, and her guestes in the depthes of helEt ignoravit quod ibi sint gigantes, / et in profundis inferni convivæ ejus.
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St. Gregory
House. The sacred humanity, (St. Ignatius; St. Augustine, City of God 17:20.) or the Church. (St. Gregory, Mor. 33:15.)
Calmet
Here we may receive all instruction, the seven sacraments, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Pleasure had mentioned her attractions: now those of true wisdom are set before us. (Calmet)
Worthington
God sent his pastors at all times, to invite people to embrace the latter. They are all included in the number seven, both before and under the law, as well as in the gospel, where St. Paul styles Sts. Peter, James, and John, pillars, Galatians 2:This is the literal sense, on which the mystical is grounded, and both are intended by the Holy Ghost, intimating that the uncreated wisdom took flesh of the blessed Virgin Mary, prepared the table of bread and wine, as Priest according to the order of Melchisedec, and chose the weak of this world to confound the strong, as St. Augustine explains this passage. (Sup. and q. 51.) (Worthington)
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Victims. Moses ordered the blood to be poured out at the door of the tabernacle, and a part given to the priests, after which the rest might be taken away. The like was probably done at Jerusalem, Leviticus 17:4. These victims are contrasted with those of pleasure, Proverbs 7:14.
Arist. Plut. V. Sun. i
Mingled. It was not customary for any but barbarians and the gods to take pure wine. Some mixed two, others three, five, or even twenty parts of water. But the scholiast of Aristophanes says, the best method was to have three parts of water, and two of wine. Mercury complains that his wine was half water. (Arist. Plut. V. Sun. i.)
Calmet
The Fathers often apply this text to the feast of Jesus Christ in the blessed Eucharist. (Calmet)
Worthington
St. Cyprian (ep. iii.) citeth the whole passage of Christ's sacrifice in the forms of bread and wine. (Worthington)
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Calmet
Maids. Septuagint, "servant men," the pastors of the church, inviting all to piety in so public a manner, that none can plead ignorance. (St. Gregory) (Calmet)
Haydock
To invite. Protestants, "she crieth upon the highest places of the city." (Haydock)
Christ enjoins his apostles to preach on the roofs, Matthew 10:37.
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Calmet
One. Simple, but not inconstant, like children, 1 Corinthians 14:20. Pleasure addresses the same, (chap. 7:7.) but for their destruction. (Calmet)
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Calmet
Scorner. This is the reason why wisdom speaks only to the simple. The conceited would only laugh at her instructions. These scoffers represent heretics and libertines, Proverbs 1:22. (Calmet)
Worthington
Where there is no hope of amendment, prudence and charity require us to be silent, as our rebukes would only procure us enmity, and make the sinner worse. (Worthington)
Menochius
Of such St. John was afraid, and therefore ceased from writing, 3 John 9. Yet St. Paul commands public reprehension, 1 Timothy 5:20. (Menochius)
Worthington
When there is any prospect of good, all, particularly superiors, are bound to correct. (St. Augustine, City of God 1:9.; and St. Basil, reg. fus. 158.) (Worthington)
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Occasion. This word is found in Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. We might supply instruction, (Calmet) with Protestants.
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Calmet
Prudence. Or "prudence is the science of the saints," (Haydock) directing what to choose on all occasions to obtain heaven. (Calmet)
Menochius
The knowledge contained in the holy Scriptures, and possessed by the saints, is superior to all other sciences. (Menochius)
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Haydock
And full. Protestants, "she is simple and knoweth nothing." Septuagint, "is in want of a piece of bread." They have several verses before this, which are here omitted. (Haydock)
Calmet
Wisdom and pleasure are opposed to each other. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Pleasant. Impure pleasures are more delightful (Calmet) to sensual men. (Haydock)
Menochius
The prohibition increases appetite. (Menochius)
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THE PARABLES OF SOLOMON
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•. VVisdom hath built herself a house.] According to the literal sense, wherin God built his Church with spiritual Pastors & Rites of Religion in the old Testament. the mystical is grounded (both intended by the Holie Ghost) VVisdom which is God himself, Creator & Conseruer of al thinges, whose special good pleasure, and delight is to be with men, built his house the Church, first in the Patriarches, Prou. 8. v. 3•. Priestes, Prophetes and his other faithful seruantes in the old Testament; partly before; but more conspicously in the people of Israel, establishing the same with seuen, that is (according to the frequent phrase of holie Scripture) with manie pillers, Pastors and chief gouerners, by whom the whole people were directed in al spiritual causes; as the Psalmist likevvise induceth God, Psal. 74. Galat. 2. saying: I haue confirmed the pillers therof. And as S. Paul aftervvard calleth S. Peter, S. Iames, and S. Iohn, pillers. In this house vvisdom also prepared a banquette, appointed victimes of diuers sortes, as gratful Sacrifices to God, & therto inuited al men in much better order, and to their more profite, then the adultresse vvoman, follie and vvicked concupiscence, in citeth to her carnal and vvordlie pleasures, vvhich bring to eternal ruine. And for this purpose, God neuer ceased to send Priestes and Prophetes to inuite the people of Israel, to this strong tovvre fensed vvith vvalles. In the Allegorical sense, the same diuine increated VVisdom, the second Person in the B. Trinitie, the Diuine The same are more excellent in the Church of Christ. VVORD coeternal to the Father, built himself a house, his humane bodie in the virgins vvombe, and therunto, as to the head, adioyned the members, his mystical bodie the Church, immolated victimes of Martyrs, prepared the Table in breade and vvine, vvhere also appeareth his Priesthood, according to the Order of Melchisedec, and called therto such as before vvere vnvvise, and of smal vnderstanding: because as the Apostle saith: God chose the vveake of this vvorld to confound the strong. As S. Augustin expoundeth this passage li. 1. Cor. 1. 17. c. 20. de ciuit. & q. 51. veter. & noui. Test. to. 4. The second part. Sentencious moral precepts.
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S. Cyprian li. 2. ep. 3. citeth this whole passage of Christs Sacrifice in the formes of bread and vvine.
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VVhere is no hope of amendment prudence directeth vs not to admonish, nor rebuke sinners, le•t without anie 〈◊〉 •e procure emnitie, charitie also requireth rather to expect better opportunitie, lest the offender become worse by our admonition.
But when there is hope of good, euerie one is bond, especially superiors to correct offenders. S. Aug. li. 1. c. 9. de ciuit. S. Basil. regulis fuse disput. 158.
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Smyrnæans: Shorter and Longer Versions 2
… He took a body of the Virgin, and suffered only in appearance, forgetting, as they do, Him who said, “The Word was made flesh;” and again, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up;” and once more, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me.” The Word therefore did dwell in flesh, for “Wisdom built herself an house.”
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Philippians 3
For there is but One that became incarnate, and that neither the Father nor the Paraclete, but the Son only, [who became so] not in appearance or imagination, but in reality. For “the Word became flesh.” For “Wisdom builded for herself a house.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Proverbs 1
He intends the new Jerusalem, or the sanctified flesh. By the seven pillars he means the sevenfold unity of the Holy Spirit resting upon it; as Isaiah testifies, saying, “She has slain” her “victims.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 2.11.3
… “Wisdom has prepared her table, she has killed her beasts, she has mingled her wine in her cup, and she cries with a loud voice, Come to me, eat the bread which I have prepared for you, and drink the wine which I have mingled.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 62.5
… she hath mingled her wine in the chalice; she hath also furnished her table: and she hath sent forth her servants, calling together with a lofty announcement to her cup, saying, Whoso is simple, let him turn to me; and to those that want understanding she hath said, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.3
… and to them that want understanding she has said, Come, eat of my loaves, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you. Forsake foolishness, and seek wisdom, and correct knowledge by understanding.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.19
… but It signifies a certain sense, as in proverbs, not ‘plainly,’ but latent; which It inspired the saints to use in prophecy, while soon after It doth Itself give the meaning of ‘He created’ in other but parallel expressions, saying, ‘Wisdom made herself a house
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 4.26
… Let us then consider Christ in both ways, the divine Word made one in Mary with Him which is from Mary. For in her womb the Word fashioned for Himself His house, as at the beginning He formed Adam from the earth; or rather more divinely, concerning whom Solomon too says openly, knowing that the Word was also called Wisdom, ‘Wisdom builded herself an house
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 7
… she hath killed her sacrifices, and mingled her wine in the goblets, and prepared her table; she hath sent forth her servants, inviting to the goblet with a loud proclamation, and saying, Whoso is foolish, let him turn in to me; and to them that lack understanding she saith, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine I have mingled for you
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 3.2
… But we say that in the earlier part of the book, where he says that “Wisdom has builded herself a house
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 2.6
60. You find, then, that the Father created and the Spirit created; learn, too, that the Son of God also created, when Solomon says: “Wisdom hath made herself a house.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 17.4
… For which reason also the Apostle John writes to the seven churches, showing in that way that he writes to the totality of the one Church; and in the Proverbs of Solomon it is said aforetime, prefiguring this, “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath strengthened her seven pillars.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 17.20
… she hath sacrificed her victims, she hath mingled her wine in the bowl; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent her servants summoning to the bowl with excellent proclamation, saying, Who is simple, let him turn aside to me. And to the void of sense she hath said, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 7.17
… but we assert that the body was conceived by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost in such a way that we can say that His Humanity was created for Himself by the Son of God, as the Holy Spirit Itself says in holy Scripture, testifying that “Wisdom hath builded for Itself a house.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
“We assert therefore that when He said above that wisdom built for herself a house,
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Letters 28
… But that birth so uniquely wondrous and so wondrously unique, is not to be understood in such wise that the properties of His kind were removed through the novelty of His creation. For though the Holy Spirit imparted fertility to the Virgin, yet a real body was received from her body; and, “Wisdom building her a house
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Letters 31
… And the fulfilment of the mystery of our atonement, which was ordained from all eternity, was not assisted by any figures because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon the Virgin, and the power of the Most High had not over-shadowed her: so that “Wisdom building herself a house
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Tertullian † AD 220 Scorpiace 7
… but I will embrace even such a God, with assurance derived from reason, by which reason even He Himself has, in the person of His own Wisdom, by the lips of Solomon, proclaimed Himself to be more than a murderer: Wisdom ( Sophia ), says He has slain her own children.
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Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 3.54
… “Oh, ye fools, be of an understanding heart,” and “Who is the most simple among you, let him turn unto me;”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 3.54
… “Oh, ye fools, be of an understanding heart,” and “Who is the most simple among you, let him turn unto me;” and wisdom exhorts those who are devoid of understanding in the words, “Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mixed for you. Forsake folly that ye may live, and correct understanding in knowledge.”
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
… And how should not intemperate eatings and drinkings also be contrary to God? He speaks, therefore, of things mystical. For no one shall partake of the spiritual table, but one who is called by Him, and who has listened to the wisdom which says, “Take and eat.”
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 3
… of the Cup that He gave though the draught was small, very great was its strength, so that there is no stint thereto. A Cup is He that contains all strong wines, and also a Mystery in the midst of which He Himself is! The one Bread that He brake has no bound, and the one Cup that He mingled has no stint!
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 34
… to the former Custom, to the latter Fear; and after feeding the people with your cargoes, you yourselves have come to be fed by us. For we also distribute corn, and our distribution is perhaps not worth less than yours. Come eat of my Bread and drink of the Wine which I have mingled for you.
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 19.1
… I, however, when I hear the Holy Scripture, do not understand only bodily meat, or the pleasure of the flesh; but I recognize another kind of food also, having a certain analogy to that of the body, the enjoyment of which extends to the soul alone: “Eat of my bread
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 7
… and to them that lack understanding she saith, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine I have mingled for you .’ And what hope is there instead of these things? ‘Forsake folly that ye may live, and seek understanding that ye may abide
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 17.20
… and seek prudence, that ye may have life.”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.103
In Solomon, in the Proverbs: “He who reproveth a wicked man shall be hated by him. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 6.7
… And what any other man would have made a ground of offence against me, this worthy young man took as a reason for being offended at himself, and for loving me more fervently. For Thou hast said it long ago, and written in Thy book, “Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 210
2. We ought never, indeed, to take pleasure in quarrels; but however averse we may be to them, they occasionally either arise from love, or put it to the test. For how difficult is it to find any one willing to be reproved; and where is the wise man of whom it is said, “Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 220.12
These things I have written, my dearly beloved son, at the bidding of the love with which I love you with regard not to this world, but to God; and because, mindful of the words of Scripture, “Reprove a wise man, and he will love thee; reprove a fool, and he will hate thee more,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 14.1.2
… Or was it for this reason that no one, even of such as these, dared to profess himself a wise man,—because they imagined that a wise man was one without sin? But our Scriptures do not say this, which say, “Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 141.7
… 5 ). Behold the sinner confessing. He desireth to be amended in mercy, rather than praised deceitfully.…“Shall convict me,” but “in mercy:” shall convict, yet hateth not: yea, shall all the more convict, because He hateth not. And why doth he therefore give thanks? Because, “rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.”
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St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 159
… Let this short summary be sufficient for you, my pious friends. From little seeds, with the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, you will reap the fuller crop of piety. “Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser.”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 260.5
Thus I have investigated this point to the best of my ability, though I have passed by matters therein that might be investigated, for fear of prolonging my observations beyond the limits of my letter. But for your intelligence little seeds are enough. “Give instruction,” it is said, “to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 6
With respect to the star, we have said these things, and yet more perhaps may be said by you; for, it is said, “Give occasion to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser:”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 14
… We will therefore desist from proceeding farther, and leave it to you to take in hand the rest, for it is in your power at home to put these things together, and examine their difference, and in the same way to go over what remains. “Give,” saith one, “a starting place to the wise, and he becometh wiser.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 93.17
… There were so many others which were mentioned to me by name, that, from facts themselves, I was made to own that to this matter the word of Scripture might be understood as applying: “Give opportunity to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser.”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.23.5
… For, having been beguiled by another under the pretext of immortality, he is immediately seized with terror, and hides himself; not as if he were able to escape from God; but, in a state of confusion at having transgressed His command, he feels unworthy to appear before and to hold converse with God. Now, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;”
Tertullian † AD 220 Ad Nationes 2.2
… Now what wise man is so devoid of truth, as not to know that God is the Father and Lord of wisdom itself and truth? Besides, there is that divine oracle uttered by Solomon: “The fear of the Lord,” says he, “is the beginning of wisdom.”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Hexæmeron 1.5
… “To do right is the beginning of the good way.” Just actions are truly the first steps towards a happy life. Again, we call “beginning” the essential and first part from which a thing proceeds, such as the foundation of a house, the keel of a vessel; it is in this sense that it is said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.50
262. First stands faith, which is a sign of wisdom, as Solomon says, in following his father: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 20
… iv. 9 .) Can you now distinguish whether the words are those of the reckless or those of the fool? For recklessness going out of due bounds, and being a departure from reason (whence its name recklessness, ἀπόνοια ), maketh men both fools and vainglorious. For likewise, “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord” (
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 4.39
“ The beginning” of our salvation and the safeguard of it is, as I said, “the fear of the Lord.”
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Proverbs 1
… For great is the condemnation of wisdom if she reserves her power simply for the one possessing her. But as poison is not injurious to another body, but only to that one which takes it, so also the man who turns out wicked will injure himself, and not another. For no man of real virtue is injured by a wicked man.
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Seventh Council of Carthage under Cyprian. Concerning the Baptism of Heretics 1
… and the very same, moreover, followeth the flight of birds. For he forsaketh the ways of his own vineyard, he has wandered from the paths of his own little field. But he walketh through pathless places, and dry, and a land destined for thirst; moreover, he gathereth together fruitless things in his hands.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 3.2
14. And let no one seek his own favour or his own praise, but another’s. This we can plainly see declared in the book of Proverbs, where the Holy Spirit says through Solomon: “My son, if thou be wise, be wise for thyself and thy neighbours; but if thou turn out evil, thou alone shalt bear it.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons 3.1
… It is not only able to profit those who hold to it, but those nearest at hand too. And in order that thou mayest learn that evil is evil in itself, but good is also good to others, I provide thee with proverbial evidence: “My son” saith he “if thou art become evil, thou shall bear thine evils alone, but if wise, for thyself and thy neighbour.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 59
5. And before hell too, we shall here suffer the utmost ills. “For if thou be evil,” it is said, “thou alone shalt endure the evil; but if good, it is for thyself and for thy neighbor.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 7
… but that the wonder might be made manifest, how, though they do their worst, he shall be higher than they: though the blow do come upon him, it comes from another, not from himself. On the contrary, the wicked man strikes himself first, and none other than himself. “For alone,” it is said, “shall he bear his troubles.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.12
… he also followeth flying birds. For he deserteth the ways of his own vineyard, and hath strayed from the paths of his own field. For he walketh through pathless and dry places, and a land destined to thirst; and he gathereth fruitless weeds in his hands.’
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 3.6
… Thou wert more inward to me than my most inward part; and higher than my highest. I came upon that bold woman, who “is simple, and knoweth nothing,”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 3.6
… Thou wert more inward to me than my most inward part; and higher than my highest. I came upon that bold woman, who “is simple, and knoweth nothing,” the enigma of Solomon, sitting “at the door of the house on a seat,” and saying, “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
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St Vincent of Lérins † AD 445 The Commonitory of Vincent of Lérins, For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All Heresies 21
… “Drink stolen waters, for they are sweet, and eat bread in secret for it is pleasant.” What next? “But he knoweth not that the sons of earth perish in her house.”
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 7
5. For sin has her own special bread, of her death, and calling to those who are lovers of pleasure and lack understanding, she saith, ‘Touch with delight secret bread, and sweet waters which are stolen
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 20
… Having first drunk of these things, they go on to say those things which the whore saith in the Proverbs, ‘Lay hold with delight on hidden bread, and sweet stolen waters
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 3.25
… the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.” In the same way the serpent is used in a good sense, “Be wise as serpents;” and again, in a bad sense, “The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty.” Bread is used in a good sense, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven;” in a bad, “Bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.3
… But if He be Word of the Father and true Son, and God from God, and ‘over all blessed for ever ,’ is it not becoming to obliterate and blot out those other phrases and that Arian Thalia, as but a pattern of evil, a store of all irreligion, into which, whoso falls, ‘knoweth not that giants perish with her, and reacheth the depths of Hades
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 7
… And what hast thou to do in the way of Asshur, to drink the waters of the rivers ?’ And the Wisdom of God which loves mankind forbids these things, crying, ‘But depart quickly, tarry not in the place, neither fix thine eye upon it; for thus thou shalt pass over strange waters, and depart quickly from the strange river
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 3.6
… For verses and poems I can turn into true food, but the “Medea flying,” though I sang, I maintained it not; though I heard it sung, I believed it not; but those things I did believe. Woe, woe, by what steps was I dragged down “to the depths of hell!”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.12
… For he walketh through pathless and dry places, and a land destined to thirst; and he gathereth fruitless weeds in his hands.’ And again, ‘Abstain from strange water, and drink not of a strange fountain, that thou mayest live long, and that years may be added to thy life.’
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 20.9
… So then we also, if by noxious recollections we are led to thoughts of this kind, ought at once to desist from dwelling upon them and to fulfil what we are commanded by Solomon: “But go forth,” says he, “do not linger in her place, nor fix thine eye on her;”
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1. WISDOM HATH BUILT HERSELF A HOUSE, SHE HATH HEWN HER OUT SEVEN PILLARS. — For wisdom in Hebrew it is חכמות chochmot, that is wisdom in the plural, so that the dignity, majesty and amplitude of wisdom may be signified, namely that it itself alone in itself be like many things, and comprehend many things, and thus itself be the complex and mother of all wisdoms, counsels, understandings, prudences, etc. For hewn, the Septuagint translates, set up; the Syriac, raised up; St. Ambrose, in book I of On the Faith, chapter vii, lifted up; St. Athanasius, in Disputation against Arius, established; the Chaldean, set pillars in it; the Arabic, made it rest upon seven pillars. These pillars therefore are the supports and bases by which wisdom builds the house upon them, just as we see in Rome the basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Lawrence, St. John Lateran, of the Blessed Virgin Major, St. Cecilia, etc., standing and built upon pillars hewn from marble, and those many and magnificent. He hewn therefore, that is cut from the rock, hewed, polished, raised up, established as the bases of the house of wisdom. Thus Galatinus, book III On the Mysteries of Faith, chapter III, and Aben-Ezra. It is catachresis and metalepsis. You will ask, what is this house and structure of wisdom? Note that there is here as it were a continuous allegory or parable, and therefore Solomon speaks here parabolically and enigmatically, as he does also frequently elsewhere in these Proverbs. For he himself wove it together from grave, notable, elegant, obscure, acute, and especially parabolic sayings: whence he inserted and mixed into this book every kind of sentences. Therefore because in chapter VII, 14, he set forth the enticements and finally the banquet prepared by the harlot, to which she herself invites the young man, so that she may destroy and pervert him, for this reason in this place he composes, opposes and sets before him the house of a banquet built by wisdom, furnished with true delights, to which he invites the young man, so that he may tear him away from the harlot, and lead him to the study of wisdom and the salvation of his soul. Here therefore he sets forth and expounds to him his delights, of which he spoke in the preceding chapter, verse 31: "My delights are to be with the children of men." Grammatically therefore and in the letter of the text, the house here of a banquet instructed by wisdom, or a dining room, is taken, in which she herself, namely wisdom, sets forth her dishes, doctrines and admonitions of salvation. He alludes to the ancient banquets of the wise, in which the wise as it were brought forth symbols of wisdom, and produced acute, grave, obscure sentences, parables, enigmas, etc., as is evident from Athenaeus, On the Banquets of the Wise; Plato, Macrobius, Plutarch, indeed from Sirach, Ecclesiasticus XXXII, 4, as I taught there. To this pertains what the seven Sages of Greece thought concerning economics, or concerning the wise constitution of a house, in Plutarch in their Banquet. For first Solon: "That house," he says, "seems to me the best, where the property is neither unjustly acquired, nor is there in it either distrust in preserving it, or repentance in spending it. Bias: in which the master of his own accord conducts himself such as he is abroad on account of the laws. Thales: in which the greatest leisure is granted to the master. Cleobulus: in which there are more who love than who fear the master. Pittacus: where neither superfluous things are required, nor necessary things are lacking. Chilon: a house ought especially to be similar to a city which is under a king; and he added that Lycurgus, when someone asked him to institute a popular government in Sparta, replied: First do this in your own house." But parabolically, under this grammatical covering, by house he understands the temple and the synagogue of the temple. For Solomon, the presider and prince of wisdom, built this as it were as a house of wisdom, that is of God, III Kings VI, 1, and cap. VII, 1; and this was supported and adorned by seven, that is many, columns. In it also was a table, that is an altar, on which victims were sacrificed to God, with libation, that is with mixture and pouring out of wine, likewise the table of the loaves of proposition. And in it wisdom was taught, that is true faith, law, virtue, prudence, religion and the worship of God, by priests, Scribes and Pharisees. Moreover, by temple understand the Synagogue and the Church, which was gathered in the temple to hear the worshippers and teachers of wisdom: for both the Synagogue and the temple were a type, and typified the Church, which the most wise Solomon, namely Christ, built and inhabits, and there as in a school teaches through his masters, priests and teachers Christian wisdom and virtue, of which more presently. Wisdom therefore of God, or God through wisdom, built the temple and Synagogue, that is his house, in which he might be worshipped, and through his priests and teachers might teach the Jews and proselytes wisdom, that is true knowledge of God, love, worship, and all honesty and virtue. Thus by this house and table the Solomonic temple the Hebrews understand, and our Jerome Prado in Ezech. cap. V, num. 7, and his follower Vilalpando in Ezech. XL, tom. II, part. 2, lib. III, cap. XX. Where he teaches that besides the very many columns by which the temple was supported, there were precisely seven columns of the porticoes of the temple, that is of the atrium. For the atrium was the temple of the people: for the people, but only the priests, could not enter the Holy Place, and only the high priest the Holy of Holies. For each therefore of the atrium porticoes he teaches there were seven columns on this side and that, that is, in all fourteen, and by these represented were the three groups of fourteen generations of the genealogy of Christ, Matt. I, 17. But hear Vilalpando: "There are two orders of columns in each portico; an order consists of seven columns: three such porticoes embrace the house of God and the Holy of Holies in the middle. What if perhaps St. Matthew had regard to this, cap. I, 17, dividing the whole genealogy of Christ into three groups of fourteen, as many columns as the house of God was girt about externally? For there were three porticoes, and each had a group of fourteen columns, namely seven columns in one order, and seven in the other opposite to it: there were therefore three groups of columns, equally as genealogies of Christ of fourteen." Seven therefore columns are seven gymnasia, in which there were as many chairs, from which teachers professed all the liberal arts, each his own. Concerning which hear Optatus of Milevis, lib. III Against Parmen. on that passage of Isaiah XXII, The burden of the valley of vision: "He does not say, in Sion, but in one of its valleys; not in that mount Sion, which in Syria Palestine a small stream separates from the walls of Jerusalem, on whose summit is not a great plain: in which there were seven Synagogues, where the people of the Jews assembling could learn the law given through Moses, where no law was heard, nor was judgment celebrated by anyone, nor was any sentence passed there by any judge; because the place was one of teaching, not of controversy." After teaching, if anything was to be done within the walls of Jerusalem, it was done. Hence it is written in the prophet Isaiah, cap. II: "For out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem." Hence also Aben-Ezra by seven columns understands seven liberal arts. For sciences, says R. Levi, are the columns of prudence and wisdom. The handmaids sent by wisdom to call to the citadel, that is to the academy erected in the citadel of Sion, are the diverse faculties which were taught in the academy. For these, by their object and nature, attracted and invited all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the Jews, indeed also proselytes and foreigners, to approach and hear this school of wisdom. Whence Justin in his Dialogue against Trypho asserts that the ancient priests of Mithras, that is of the Sun, imitated the Hebrews in teaching on the lofty rocks of Sion, inasmuch as they in like manner imbued their disciples in the sacred rites of Mithras in a rocky cave. The same thing is affirmed by Tertullian, in the book On the Crown of the Soldier, near the end, and in the book On Prescription against Heretics, chapter XL. Moreover, there are those who recall that the place of the academy was in the Eastern gate of the temple. Thus Arias Montanus in his Apparatus, and St. Antonius, part I, title 5, chapter 1, section 3. Paul himself noted the same, saying in Acts XXIV, 12: "Neither found they me in the temple disputing with any man," namely in the gymnasium, which was in the court of the temple. Christ wished to honor and authorize this academy by his presence and authority, when, as St. Luke says, chapter II, his parents found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors. Pineda adds, in book III of On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XXVIII, that this academy of Solomon was the mother of the others, from which accordingly proceeded Pythagoras, as testified by St. Ambrose, book I, epistle 6, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, etc. For Eusebius teaches, in book III of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter XIII, and Clement of Alexandria, in book I of the Stromata, and others, that these and the other Gentile philosophers derived their doctrines from Solomon and the Hebrews; wherefore in this academy of his Solomon himself taught, as one authorized by God as a teacher of wisdom, and uttered these and other parables, according to that: "And Solomon spoke three thousand parables; and his songs were five thousand. And he discoursed of trees," etc., III Kings IV, 32. Hence they consequently infer that Solomon uttered these things after the temple and his own house were built, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign. For in the fourth year of his reign he began to build the temple, and completed it after seven years, and then built his own house for thirteen years, III Kings chapter VII, 1. If you add all these years together, you will find twenty-five, after which in the gymnasium built near the temple he himself began to teach first, having previously taught his own people privately at home. Whence from his various sayings, pronounced at different times by him, or even repeated, this book of Proverbs was collected and arranged, as is evident from chapter XXIV, verse 23, and from chapter XXV, verse 1. Allegorically, the house of wisdom, namely the old temple of the Jews, the Academy and the Synagogue, represented the Church of Christ. For Christ, who is uncreated and incarnate Wisdom, built it, that is erected and began it, teaching and preaching in the same temple of Sion. Whence in the same place the Apostles on Pentecost received the Holy Spirit, and there proclaimed the new law in fiery tongues. Thus St. Ambrose, book I On Faith, chapter VII; Caesarius of Arles, homily 7 On Easter; Anastasius of Nicaea, Question LX in Scripture; St. Athanasius, oration 5 Against the Arians; St. Isidore, book VIII Etymologies, chapter 1; St. Thomas, III part, Question XXXII, article 1, to 3, and the author of Questions of the Old and New Testament in St. Augustine, volume IV, Question LII: "The house of Christ is the Church," he says, "which he built for himself with his blood." Hear St. Gregory, book XXXIII of the Morals, chapter XV: "The house of wisdom," he says, "is called the Church: which has hewn for itself seven pillars, because, separated from the love of the present world, she has raised up the minds of preachers to bear the fabric of the same Church. Which, because they are supported by the virtue of perfection, are designated by the number seven. She immolated victims, because she permitted the life of preachers to be slain in persecution. She mixed wine, because she preached to us the mysteries of her divinity and humanity alike. She also set forth a table, because she prepared for us the food of sacred Scripture by opening it. She also sent her handmaids, which called us to the citadel and the walls of the city: because she strove to have preachers weak and abject, who would gather the faithful peoples to the buildings of the spiritual fatherland on high." You ask, what are the seven pillars of the Church? St. Augustine answers first, in book XVII of the City of God, chapter IV, and St. Gregory, in the twenty-third book of the Morals, book I, that they are individual particular churches, from which the universal Church is formed and consists. For the number seven is a symbol of fullness and universality: therefore the seven pillars are all the particular churches, which make up the universal Church. "By the number seven," says St. Augustine, "the perfection of the whole Church is signified." St. John inscribes the Apocalypse with this symbol in this way: "John to the seven churches;" because, as St. Gregory says, "John writes to the seven churches, so that he might designate the one Catholic Church full of the sevenfold grace of the Spirit." Second, the author of the Greek Catena, and Lyra understand by the seven pillars the seven Sacraments of the Christian Church, by which as by pillars it is supported. Third, the author of the Imperfect Commentary on St. Matthew, found in St. Chrysostom, homily 50, understands by the seven pillars the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which He Himself supported the Church, Isaiah XI, 2. For these spirits are mighty, indeed the strength of the Church: for they strengthen both Prelates and individual faithful against all enemies, namely against heretics, infidels, atheists, politicians, and any impious persons, indeed against demons and the whole power of hell. Fourth, St. Ambrose (or whoever is the author, for the same Commentary is found among the works of Bede) in the Apocalypse, I, before the end, understands by the seven pillars the totality of preachers, whom God through seven, that is all, ages of the world submitted to it: "Wisdom," he says, "built herself a house, when our Lord Jesus Christ from the beginning of the world to its end, from the multitude of the elect, built and established the Church for Himself. She hewed out seven pillars, when in those seven times He appointed preachers in His Church, who would be suitable for individual times, and who would sustain it by salutary admonitions and examples of good works." Fifth, Salonius understands by the seven pillars all the doctors of the Church: for these as pillars support it. Whence Paul, Galatians II, 9, calls Peter, James and John pillars of the Church. Hear Salonius: "The pillars of this house are the holy doctors; which pillars are well said to be seven, because the holy doctors are filled with the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit. How therefore did wisdom hew out these pillars? because she separated the minds of preachers from the love of the present world as from her quarry, and raised them up to bear the structure of the same Church." Symbolically, the uncreated Wisdom, namely the Son of God, built himself a house, that is, the human body in the Incarnation, in which the fullness of the divinity dwelt bodily; the seven columns are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which the humanity of Christ was full and supported, Isaiah XI, 2. The table is the table of the Eucharist, in which Christ sets before us his flesh to be eaten and his blood to be drunk, concerning which presently. Thus St. Athanasius in his Disputation against Arius in the Council of Nicaea: "Wisdom," he says, "that is the Word or the Son of God, although he was incorporeal, for our salvation built himself a house in the womb of the Mother of God Mary without the commerce of man, and became man, and exhibited himself as an example of all virtue: so that those who wished to follow him might have, as it were, footsteps in a divine journey, to which being made similar, they would become partakers of the divine nature. The house of Christ therefore is the body, through which Christ," says St. Athanasius, "became to us σύσσωμος, that is, consubstantial with us." Thus also St. Gregory of Nyssa, oration 2 Against Eunomius: "Wisdom built herself a house, that is the flesh," he says, "which he assumed," as if to say, "The Word was made flesh." And St. Augustine, book XVII of the City of God, XX, where he explains this whole passage thus: "Here certainly we recognize the wisdom of God, that is the Word coeternal with the Father, to have built himself a house in the virginal womb, the human body, and to have joined the Church as members to this as to a head, to have offered the victims of Martyrs, to have prepared a table in wine and breads; where also the priesthood according to the order of Melchisedec appears; to have called the foolish and those poor in sense, because, as the Apostle says: The weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he might confound the strong." Thus also Anastasius of Nicaea in Questions on Holy Scripture, Question XL: "Wisdom," he says, "built herself a house, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt in us. He prepared a table, namely of divine flesh and blood in the Eucharist. He mixed his wine, so that he who united his divinity to flesh as pure wine." Thus also Caesarius of Arles, homily 4 On Easter, St. Ambrose, book I On Faith, chapter VII, and book III On the Holy Spirit, chapter VIII, and St. Gregory, book XXXIII of the Morals, chapter XV: "Wisdom," he says, "built herself a house, when the only-begotten Son of God in himself, within the womb of the Virgin by means of a human soul, created for himself a human body. For thus the body of the only-begotten is called the house of God, as it is also called a temple; in such a way, however, that one and the same Son of God and man himself is he who inhabits, he who is inhabited." Wherefore gravely in his manner St. Leo, epistle 13 to Pulcheria Augusta: "The sacrament," he says, "of our reconciliation disposed before eternal times was fulfilled by a thousand figures, etc., so that also within the inviolate womb, Wisdom building herself a house, the Word became flesh, and the form of God and the form of a servant coming together in one person, the creator of times was born in time; and through whom all things were made, he himself was born among all things." Thus also St. Thomas, III part, Question XXXII, article 1, to 3. Moreover concerning the triclinium and the banquet of the Eucharist, St. Chrysostom interprets this passage in Psalm XXII, St. Ambrose, book I On Faith, chapter VII; St. Cyprian, book II, epistle 3 to Caecilian; Anastasius of Nicaea, Question XL in Scripture; Bede, Hugh and others here; indeed the Church also in the Office of the Venerable Sacrament, which St. Thomas composed, in which the first Antiphon at Lauds is this: "Wisdom built herself a house, mixed her wine, and set her table. Alleluia." Physically, the Hebrews in the Sanhedrin according to Galatinus, book III On the Mysteries of Faith, chapter III, thus expound it: "Wisdom built her house, that is, God by wisdom created the world. He hewed out its seven columns, that is, he ordained the seven primordial days of the creation of the world, in which he created all things, formed them, and distinguished them in their places and orders as it were by columns. He immolated his victim, or cooked his victim, or his decoction: by this are understood the seas, rivers, and all the necessities of the world. He sent his maidens to call: these are Adam and Eve." Thus the Hebrews in the Sanhedrin, and R. Solomon here. Potho of Prüm, a presbyter, in the year of the Lord 1152, wrote a treatise On the Great House of Wisdom, which is found in volume XII of the Library of the Holy Fathers, the most recent Cologne edition, part I, page 642, in which he symbolically understands this entire universe by the house of wisdom; by the seven columns, the seven days of the creation of the world, and likewise the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which he then pursues through individual days, and adapts to each day its own gift, according to that passage: "The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, hath established the heavens by prudence," Prov. III, 19. But allegorically he interprets the house of wisdom as the womb of the Blessed Virgin, in which God made man dwelt for nine months; whence he mystically accommodates to it the adornment and dedication of Solomon's temple. Tropologically, wisdom, that is Christ, through grace builds a house, that is a temple in the faithful soul, when He sanctifies it. For then in it is erected a temple of virtue and holiness, in which the Holy Trinity dwells, indeed takes supper, according to that passage in the Apocalypse III, 20: "If any man hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." And that passage in John XIV: "If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him." Thus St. Athanasius in his third oration Against the Arians, and in the Disputation against Arius in the Council of Nicaea, and the author of the Imperfect homily 29 on Matthew. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 3 On the Advent: "Blessed art thou, with whom Thou wilt make Thy abode, O Lord Jesus. Blessed is he in whom wisdom builds herself a house, hewing out seven columns. Blessed is the soul which is the seat of wisdom. What soul is that? Surely the soul of the just man. Rightly indeed, for justice and judgment are the preparation of Thy seat. Who among you, brethren, desires to prepare a seat for Christ in his soul? Behold what silks, what tapestries, what cushions ought to be prepared. Justice, he says, and judgment are the preparation of Thy seat. Justice is a virtue which gives to each his own. Give therefore to the three what is theirs. Render to the superior, render to the inferior, render to the equal, to each what thou owest, and thou dost worthily celebrate the coming of Christ, preparing for him his seat in justice. Render, I say, reverence to the Prelate, and obedience, of which the one is of the heart, the other of the body." Where he also assigns the seven columns of this spiritual house, namely the custody and discipline of oneself and those committed to one, reverence and obedience toward Prelates, counsel and aid toward brethren: and he assigns as the seventh judgment, by which we judge and humble ourselves before God. "This indeed, he says, is the worthy preparation of a seat for the Lord of majesty, that he strive to observe the commandments of justice, and always regard himself as unworthy and unprofitable." Furthermore, St. Bonaventure in his treatise On the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit assigns the seven columns of wisdom from that passage of St. James chapter III: "But the wisdom that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation." Thus he constructs and erects the seven columns in this way: "The first column is chastity in the flesh, the second simplicity in the mind, the third modesty in speech, the fourth persuasiveness in affection, the fifth liberality in deed, the sixth maturity in judgment, the seventh holiness in intention." But especially the house of wisdom is the soul of one who communicates worthily. For this soul, like Zacchaeus, receives Christ into its house, and from Him merits to be blessed, and to be filled with every heavenly blessing. Thus from St. Athanasius according to Salazar. Such a soul therefore is the triclinium of wisdom, because it is adorned and furnished with three couches, and as many guests, namely memory, will and intellect. In memory feasts thanksgiving, according to that passage Psalm CX, 4: "The Lord hath made a remembrance of His wonderful works, being merciful and gracious: He hath given food to them that fear Him." In the will, as a guest reclines and feasts charity, according to that passage in the same Psalm: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;" for this fear is filial, says St. Augustine, and therefore it is charity. In the intellect is a guest and feasts the knowledge and contemplation of God according to that passage in the same Psalm: "Good understanding to all that do it," which spurs the soul to every virtue, and heroic works of justice, and especially to perpetual praise and jubilation of God. Whence it follows: "His praise remaineth for ever and ever." Again, this dining hall and its threefold delights St. Thomas thus depicts, and from him the Church in the Office of the Venerable Sacrament at Second Vespers: "O sacred banquet, in which Christ is received, the memory of His passion is recalled, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us!" Much more does wisdom build herself a house when she institutes some holy state of life, for example Religion or an Order, especially one in which all manner of wisdom is taught, such as now is the Society of Jesus, and formerly were many other Orders. See what I have said concerning this mystical fabric of virtues and orders at the end of the prophecy of Aggaeus. Mystically, Wisdom, that is the Son of God, built for herself, that is for His own use, a house worthy of Him, namely the womb of the Virgin Mother of God, when He chose it for Himself as a dwelling: and therefore that it might be divine and worthy of God, beyond Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, He adapted and adorned it with the highest graces, namely with seven columns, that is with the most robust virtues, namely the three theological virtues, robust faith, hope and charity; and the four cardinal virtues, robust prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 9 among the minor ones: "This wisdom therefore which was God's, and was God, coming from the bosom of the Father to us, built for herself a house, namely His own mother the Virgin Mary, in whom He carved out seven columns. What is it to carve out seven columns in her, except to prepare her as a dwelling worthy of Him by faith and works? Namely, the ternary number pertains to faith, on account of the holy Trinity; the quaternary pertains to morals, on account of the four principal virtues. But that the holy Trinity was in the Blessed Mary (I say was by the presence of majesty), where the Son alone was by the assumption of humanity, the heavenly messenger testifies, who revealing to her the secret mysteries says: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. And after a few words: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Behold thou hast the Lord, thou hast the power of the Most High, thou hast the Holy Spirit, thou hast the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And below: The Blessed Virgin Mary was therefore strong in purpose, temperate in silence, prudent in questioning, just in confession. With these four columns of morals therefore, and the three aforesaid of faith, heavenly Wisdom built in her a house for herself: which so filled her mind, that from the fullness of her mind both flesh was made fruitful; and the Virgin by singular grace brought forth the same wisdom clothed in flesh, which she had previously conceived in her pure mind. We also, if we wish to become a house of the same wisdom, it is necessary that we be built with the same seven columns, that is that we prepare ourselves to her by faith and morals. And in morals indeed I think justice alone suffices, yet supported by virtues. Therefore lest ignorance deceive by error, let prudence be its guide. Let temperance and fortitude be on either side, lest perchance it slip, or decline to the right or to the left." See Francis Suarez, III part., Question XXVII, art. 3, disp. 4, sect. 2, where he teaches that God gave to the Blessed Virgin in her conception and her first sanctification all the habits of virtues and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Whence St. Athanasius, sermon On the most holy Mother of God, applying to her that word of the Psalmist: "The Most High hath sanctified His tabernacle," asserts that the Holy Spirit descended upon her with all His essential virtues; and St. Bonaventure in the Psalter of the Virgin, in the place of Te Deum laudamus: "Thou," he says, "bride and mother of the eternal King; thou temple and sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, the noble dining hall of the whole most blessed Trinity." Hear the Blessed Peter Chrysologus, sermon 141: "He sufficiently knows not how great God is, who does not marvel at the mind of this Virgin, does not wonder at her soul: heaven trembles, Angels are afraid, creation cannot sustain it, nature is insufficient, and one maiden thus holds God in her breast, receives Him, delights Him with hospitality, so that peace to the earth, glory to the heavens, salvation to the lost, life to the dead, kinship of earthly things with heavenly things, the commerce of God Himself with flesh for her requires the payment of a house, that there may be fulfilled that word of the Prophet: Behold the inheritance of the Lord, children; the reward, the fruit of the womb." Wherefore by the house of wisdom St. Ignatius, in his epistle to the Philippians, understands the womb of the Blessed Virgin: "Wisdom," says he, "built herself a house, and God became as a man with a body, which he took from the Virgin, not from a collection, namely, or from the seed of a man: for the Virgin, says Isaiah chapter VII, shall conceive in her womb and bear a son." And St. Jerome in chapter VII of Isaiah, at that passage: "Behold a virgin shall conceive." St. Ildefonsus also explains this of the Mother of God, in his book On the Virginity of the Mother of God, and sermon 3 On the Assumption, and St. Bernard, sermon 9 from the minor works: "What is it," says he, "to hew out in her seven columns, except that she herself prepare for herself a dwelling worthy by faith and works?" Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Nativity, similarly expounds of the Virgin, whom he says is a house supported by seven columns, namely endowed with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. St. Jerome in chapter III of Isaiah, and in the book Against Helvidius, calls the womb of the Mother of God "the lodging of a sacred belly, in which for nine months Jesus was the inhabitant." Andrew of Crete, in his oration On the Angelic Salutation, calls it "consecrated" "the palace of the King; the unique dwelling of him who is nowhere confined." George of Nicomedia in his oration On the Presentation calls it "a glorious house." Similarly St. Bonaventure in the Mirror, chapter VIII, wishes that this passage from Psalm XCII be said of her: "Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord." And the patriarch Jacob, Genesis chapter XXVIII, spoke mystically of the same: "There is no other thing here but the house of God and the gate of heaven." Finally St. Epiphanius, in heresy 73: For "The Word was made flesh," says Solomon: "Wisdom built herself a house." Anagogically, Wisdom builds herself a house with her disciples and sons, namely the wise, who lived according to wisdom and virtue, when after death she gives them a glorious body, according to that saying of Christ in John chapter II, verse 19: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," that is to say, Crucify me, and kill my body, and I myself on the third day shall raise it up from death to life glorious. Whence St. John adds: "But he spoke of the temple of his body." Again, with them she gives a house and a throne in heaven, according to that of St. Paul, II Corinthians chapter V, verse 1: "We know that if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven."
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2. SHE HATH SLAIN HER VICTIMS, MINGLED HER WINE, AND SET FORTH HER TABLE. — The Septuagint: she hath slain (St. Ambrose, book I On Faith, chapter VII, she hath killed) her victims, mingled in a bowl her wine, and prepared her table; the Chaldean: ordained; the Syrian: prepared; Aquila: disposed; the Arabic: placed; Symmachus: set forth; Theodotion: arranged; Vatable: furnished her table; Cajetan: tore her tearing; Tertullian, to be cited presently, wisdom slew her sons. For victims, that is victims, he reads sons, that is sons. For mingled, Cajetan translated, strained, that is purified, clarified the wine, as if to say: Pure and clear unmixed wine she set forth. But the Hebrew masach signifies mingled, not strained. And the ancients were accustomed, both for the sake of health and sobriety, to mingle and dilute wine with water, lest it strike the head, inflame the liver, and sharpen the bile, and thus stir up burning fevers. Add that diluted wine is more easily digested and conveyed to the heart than unmixed. Thus Hippocrates and Galen, and from them Cornelius Celsus, book I On Medicine, chapter IV. Whence Aben-Ezra here: Wine, he says, tempered with water thus benefits the drinker, as digestion benefits the eater. Mystically, first, Anastasius of Nicaea, Question XL in Scripture: "Christ," he says, "united his divinity to flesh, as one diluting unmixed wine with water." And St. Jerome in chapter II of Ecclesiastes: "Wisdom," he says, "in a mixed bowl calls to herself those passing by. We ought to receive the body of the Lord as a great bowl, in which there was not mere divinity, as in the heavenly places, but on account of us tempered by the intervening humanity, and through the Apostles poured forth into smaller cups, small vessels and bowls, wisdom in the whole world to believers." Secondly, she mingled signifies the mixture of water with wine in the Eucharist, concerning which presently. Thirdly, that Christ tempered the cup of his precepts from historical narrative and spiritual understanding, St. Gregory, to be cited presently, says. Fourthly, that from the Jews as from unmixed wine, and from the Gentiles as from water, he mingled one Church, Caesarius of Arles says, homily 7 On the Pasch. Fifthly, water mixed with wine signifies God mingling adversities with prosperity for his faithful. You will ask, what table is this, what victims, what wine is understood literally? A learned interpreter thinks all these things signify nothing, but are merely employed through personification for the ornament of the parable: and that the parable of wisdom's banquet signifies nothing other than the discourse and doctrine of wisdom, because formerly wise men were accustomed to draw forth and teach their wisdom in banquets. But since all these things are necessary parts of the parable, namely of wisdom's banquet, they seem necessarily to represent something and to signify parabolically, equally as the parable itself. Whence other interpreters explain and adapt each of these things. Wherefore note first: A table both in Scripture and among the pagans is a symbol of nourishment, delights, and all good things. Such especially was the table of the Sun among the Egyptians, furnished most abundantly with all foods daily, and always prepared for anyone wishing to approach, concerning which Herodotus, book III. Similar, indeed far more sumptuous and splendid, is this table of wisdom. Note secondly: The ancients sacrificed during banquets, indeed they concluded sacrifice with a sacred feast. Concerning the Jews it is clear from Exodus XII. Concerning Christians it is clear in the last supper of Christ; who after the sacrifice and feast of the lamb instituted the sacrifice and feast of the Eucharist, and then had that burning discourse on wisdom, that is, charity, John XIII and following. Concerning the Gentiles it is clear from Macrobius, Virgil, Homer, Athenaeus, who append feasts to victims, indeed they call sacrifices as it were sacred feasts. Note thirdly: There is an allusion here to the tables of the ancients, which were seasoned no less with wisdom and learned and wise conversations, disputations, readings, than with foods and wine, as Plutarch beautifully teaches, book I Symposium, problem 1, Macrobius, book VII Saturnalia, chapter 1, Gellius, book VI, chapter XIII, Athenaeus, book XV Deipnosophists (that is, Wise Men's Dinners), chapter XXI. Such were the tables and dinners of Christ, Luke chapter XI, verse 38, and chapter XXII, verse 45, and of the first Christians, as Tertullian testifies, Apology XXXIX, with the reading of Holy Scripture also employed, as St. Augustine teaches, book On the Common Life of Priests, and epistle 109. A similar banquet of wisdom is here furnished. I answer therefore: By this table and banquet is understood sacrifice, and after it is completed, the agape or banquet; which those offering and sacrificing prepared in the court of the temple from the victims sacrificed to God: for a great part of these in the peace offering fell to those offering, as I said in Leviticus III. Wisdom therefore, inviting her own to this table, tacitly invites them to offer sacrifice to God. For this is the first act of religion, and the highest worship of God, which wisdom prescribes: and that they may obey it with pleasure, she at the same time invites them to a sacred feast from the victims offered to God, which she herself through priests and Levites, and through pious offerers and guests, prepared with learned and pious discourses, especially with sentences drawn from Scripture, all of which are here signified by the name of table and banquet. And this table most excellently represents allegorically the table of the Eucharist, and its agapes, which the Fathers everywhere take this passage to refer to, as I shall presently show. Wherefore in part St. Gregory cited at verse 1, and from him Bede understands by the table Holy Scripture: "Which," he says, "refreshes the weary and those coming from the burdens of the world with the bread of the word." And Anastasius of Nicaea: "She prepared," he says, "her table, namely the knowledge of the Trinity." For at the table the codices were set out, for example the Bible, that it might be read by anyone, according to that: "Let their table become a snare before them:" the table, that is Holy Scripture, says Origen, Jerome, Hilary, Euthymius, Anselm, Cajetan and others, as if to say: Because the Jews from Scripture are unwilling to acknowledge Christ, hence it comes to pass that from Scripture they seek death and blindness, from which they were seeking life and light. Whence it follows: "Let their eyes be darkened." Therefore wisdom prepared the table, the victims and wine, when in Leviticus she ordained the rite of worshipping God through various kinds of sacrifices, libations, rites and ceremonies (for in the victims as it were foods wine was used as a drink which was poured out, that is poured out to God): that by these she might keep the Jews always piously and pleasantly occupied in the worship of God, lest they turn aside to the idols and vices of the Gentiles: especially because among the sacrifices the Priests and Levites sang the praises of God and psalms, both with voice and with musical instruments; they read Moses and the Prophets, and explained them to the people by teaching and preaching, as is now done in the temples of Christians during the solemnity of Masses. The table therefore here is the altar: for the altar is the table of God, at which he himself banquets with men. Whence in Scripture the altar is called a table, as I said at the beginning of Leviticus. Furthermore, that he might allure the Jews to it, she employs the allurement of the banquet table which she ordained to be made after the sacrifice in the court of the temple, which at the same time she instituted to be seasoned with sacred discourses. To this therefore wisdom invites all, that she might lead them to the worship of God and all virtue. It is an old saying of the Comic poets: "A ship and a woman are never sufficiently adorned;" add a third, "nor the table of a prince." Wherefore this table of wisdom, equally as a ship and a bride, is adorned with such variety and elegance of dishes and things already mentioned, that it cannot be adorned further, just as befits the table of God. Again our Pineda, book III On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XXVIII, just as through the house of wisdom he understood the academy erected by Solomon on Mount Sion near the temple, so through the table he understands the table of the academy, at which teachers reclined with disciples in order to teach them temperance equally with wisdom. Thus the table of Minerva consecrated is celebrated, and the Egyptian table which was set forth in the Egyptian school. Athenaeus also, book V, after the beginning, celebrates those convivial delights of the Athenian philosophers, to whom Theophrastus left money, not that in that gathering they might behave lasciviously and shamelessly with wantonness, but that the conversations which they had at the banquet they might pursue temperately and learnedly. But he adds that it was also a concern of philosophers to dine with young men brought to them by a certain law, which Xenocrates maintained in his Academy, and likewise Aristotle in the Lyceum for moderating banquets. And nothing is more well-known than a philosophical dinner. And that those disciples of Mithras were initiated by the offering of bread Justin taught in his Apology to Antoninus Pius, and Tertullian in his Prescription, chapter XL, where Pammelius is to be consulted, number 244; St. Jerome on the prophet Amos; and the same in his letter to Paulinus writes that Apollonius drank from the fountain of Tantalus, that is, as Philostratus in book III of the Life of Apollonius, chapter X, writes, from that potion which was invented among the Indians not so much for ordinary friendship as for establishing mutual agreement among the wise. But it was (as the same Philostratus in chapter VII relates) in that place where Iarchas conversed with Apollonius before other wise men, a statue of Tantalus marked with an inscription, similar to one offering a cup, which when full would suffice abundantly for drink to anyone thirsting: in which liquid an incorruptible potion dripped, which never exceeded the cup in measure. For one must believe that Tantalus was not lacking in the faculty of speech, and when he communicated it to men, he was rebuked by the poets because he gave nectar to men to drink. These things Pineda. Allegorically, these things concerning the table set forth by Christ incarnate in the Church both on the cross, and more properly in the Eucharist, the Fathers and Interpreters receive throughout, and from this they prove that the Eucharist is both a sacrifice and a Sacrament: for the victims signify sacrifice; the table, that is the altar, signifies both sacrifice and Sacrament. Concerning the table, that is the altar of the cross, St. Gregory explains, and from him Bede, Lyran and others, as if to say, Wisdom immolated victims, that is Christ immolated himself on the cross. Hear St. Gregory, book XVII of the Morals, chapter XVII: "The Lord immolated victims, offering himself for us. He mixed wine, the cup of his precepts, tempering it from historical narrative and spiritual understanding. Whence it was said elsewhere: The cup in the hand of the Lord of pure wine full mixed. And he set the table, that is sacred Scripture, which refreshes us weary and coming from the burdens of the world with the bread of the word, and strengthens us against adversaries by its refreshment. Whence also it is said by the Church: Thou hast prepared a table before me against those who trouble me. He sent his handmaids, namely the souls of the Apostles weak in his very beginning, that they might call to the citadel and walls of the city: because while they announce eternal life, they lift us to the high walls of the heavenly city, which walls truly none ascend unless humble. Whence there the same wisdom subjoins: If anyone is little, let him come to me; and as if openly saying: Whoever esteems himself great among himself, he narrows for himself the entrance of my access: because the higher one reaches to me, the more truly is each one's mind humbled within itself." You will say: Christ offered one victim, that is himself: but here wisdom is said to have offered victims in the plural. I answer, Christ's victim embraced all kinds of victims: for it was itself a holocaust, a sacrifice for sin, and a peace victim; thus Lyran, indeed St. Augustine, book XVII of the City of God, XX. Bede adds that Christ sustained not one but many deaths, and was in the manner of many victims; because he sustained very many torments, any one of which would have sufficed to kill him. Finally in the Hebrew it is not victims, but victim in the singular. The author of the Catena of the Greeks adds: "He mixed wine in the bowl, he says, for first Christ the Lord offered himself to God the Father as a victim and sacrifice for all. Then he made the Apostles and others and still others imitators of his death. But by the bowl it is permitted to understand the Church: for she has received the blood which was poured out for her into use, and keeps it holy and distributes it. This blood also he calls wine in this place by a certain mysterious reason, just as the table set up and prepared in her for the food of the Lord's body. These vessels also, which are appointed for mystical oblation, such as altars, chalices and other things of this kind, can be understood by these things." Others understand the table of the Eucharist throughout. Whence also here mention is made of both species, namely of bread and wine, and of the victim of the flesh and blood of Christ: and in the celebration of the Eucharist praises are sung to God, prophecies are recited, Epistles, Gospels, sermons and exhortations are made. Finally after it, in former times the agape was celebrated, that is a sacred banquet, in symbol of charity, as I said on 1 Corinthians, chapter XI, verse 21 and verse 33, and chapter XIV, verse 26. It alludes to the table of the loaves of proposition, which was a type of the Eucharist and of almsgiving, concerning which I spoke on Exodus XXV, 23. It also alludes to that in Psalm XXII: "Thou hast prepared a table before me, against them that trouble me." Thus St. Augustine, book XVII of the City of God, XX, and St. Athanasius in the Disputation against Arius in the Council of Nicaea: "Wisdom, he says, set up the table of the sacred altar, in which bread, that is the most holy body and blood of Christ, is set forth to be eaten and drunk." And St. Cyprian, book II, epistle to Caecilian (which in another edition is in order 63): "Through Solomon, he says, the Holy Spirit shows forth beforehand a type of the Lord's sacrifice, of the victim immolated, and of bread and wine, but also of the altar and the Apostles, making mention: Wisdom, he says, built herself a house, and added seven pillars, she killed her victims, she mixed wine in her bowl, and prepared her table, etc." And from the Septuagint he proves from "mixed" that water is to be mixed with wine in the chalice of the Eucharist: "Wine mixed, he says, is declared, that is the chalice of the Lord mixed with water and wine the prophetic voice announces, so that it may appear in the Lord's passion (in the last supper of Christ going to his passion) that that was done which had been foretold beforehand." In a similar way from "he mixed," that water is to be mixed with wine in the Eucharist, R. Samuel Marochianus collects, book On the Coming of the Messiah, chapter XX, which is found in volume V of the Library of the Holy Fathers, and St. Isidore, On the Calling of the Gentiles, chapter XXVI: "God's, he says, wisdom established for herself a house, the holy Church, in which she killed the victims of her body, in which she mixed the wine of her blood in the chalice of the divine Sacrament, and prepared the table, that is the altar of the Lord, when sending his servants the Apostles and teachers to the unwise, that is to all nations ignorant of the true God, he says: Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you." Tropologically, the table of holy doctrines and examples is set forth in the Church, and to it every faithful person is invited, according to that in Ecclesiasticus XV: "He shall feed him with the bread of life and understanding, and give him the water of wholesome wisdom to drink." Whence the author of the Catena of the Greeks: "By the victims, he says, he denotes divine mysteries and their secret meanings, and also the sound and sincere interpretation of Holy Scripture." So also St. Jerome on Isaiah chapter LV, verse 1: Buy without money, etc., wine and milk: "Rejecting, he says, that silver and the monies by which we cannot buy the waters of the Lord, let us go to him who holding the chalice of the Sacrament spoke to the disciples: Take, and drink, this is my blood, which shall be shed for you for the remission of sins. This wine which wisdom mixed in her bowl, calling all the foolish of the world, those not having the wisdom of the world, to drink. Finally thus the Church understands this passage in the Office of the Venerable Sacrament." Wherefore Christ alluded to this banquet of wisdom in the parable of those invited to the wedding; for sending servants he said: "Tell them that are invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come ye to the marriage," Matt. XXII, 4. For first, the marriage, that is, the marriage feast, which the king, that is God, made for his son, is the table of evangelical doctrine and of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist instituted by Christ. Thus Origen, Euthymius and the author of the Imperfect Commentary there; secondly, the king's son the bridegroom is Christ incarnate, whose bride is the Church. Thus Origen, Hilary, St. Jerome, St. Gregory there: these nuptials as it were are the betrothal begun in the Incarnation, and shall be consummated in heaven; thirdly, the invited are the Jews, both before and after the incarnation of Christ, that they might believe it either future or accomplished. Thus the same; invited, I say, through the law of Moses, then called through servants, that is the Prophets and Apostles; fourthly, the oxen and fatlings signify that the banquet is furnished sumptuously. Thus St. Jerome and Euthymius, and therefore it is the same: "My oxen and fatlings are killed," with that which is said here of wisdom: "She hath killed her victims." For fatlings are not birds, that is fowls, or birds; but calves, oxen, sheep, etc., so called from feeding. For this is what the Greek σιτιστά signifies, that is, fattened fatlings, as calves are fattened for a splendid banquet. Physically and ethically, just as through the building of the house of wisdom the Hebrews understand in the Sanhedrin the creation of the world, so consequently St. Dionysius the Areopagite, epistle 9 to Titus the Pontiff, through the table understands the table of divine providence, by which he provides abundantly for mortals in all things, and proposes twofold foods, solid namely and liquid: "But the chalice, he says, since it is round, and with open and patent mouth, signifies the patent and all-encompassing providence of all things, which lacks beginning and end." There is added R. Solomon: "He set forth his table, that is, he says, he willed the nature of all things to consist of dry and moist." See Theodoret and others in the book On Providence and Divinity. To this pertains what, as Pineda notes, was said by the bridegroom Christ to the Church, Cant. VII, 2: "Thy belly is like a round bowl never wanting cups;" for it pertains both to the belly, which is the symbol of the mind, where the food of doctrine is digested; and to the bowl and cup to the signification of wisdom, thus expounded by St. Ambrose, upon Exod. XVI: "For there is, he says, in all doctrine a turning, and a spiritual drink not failing in fullness, and in knowledge of heavenly secrets." And perhaps it plays upon this very ceremony that passage of Isaiah XXVIII, 9: "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, them that are drawn away from the breasts," that is, from the cups which had the form of breasts, in which, for those to be initiated into the disciples of wisdom, milk was given in a vessel in the manner of a female breast among the Egyptians, as Apuleius testifies. This is what Christ says Matt. XXII, 4: "Behold, he says, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come ye to the marriage." Where the author of the Imperfect Commentary with St. Chrysostom, hom. 41, understanding by the table Holy Scripture, by the oxen the examples of Prophets, Priests and Martyrs set forth to us in Holy Scripture for example: "Whatever, he says, is now sought for salvation, all has already been fulfilled in the Scriptures. He who is ignorant will find there what he may learn. He who is stubborn and a sinner will find there the scourges of future judgment, which he may fear. He who labors will find there the glories and promises of perpetual life, which eating he may be stirred up more to work. He who is faint-hearted and weak will find there moderate foods of justice, which, although they do not make the soul fat, yet do not permit it to die. He who is magnanimous and faithful will find there spiritual foods of a more austere life, which may lead him near to the nature of Angels. He who is struck by the devil, and wounded in sins, will find there medicinal foods, which may recall him through penance to salvation. Why is it written there that Achan was stoned for the theft of a golden plate, unless that thieves may have something to fear? why are the sons of Israel, who fornicated with the daughters of the Moabites, smitten and fled to Beelphegor, unless that fornicators may have something to abhor? why are those who lusted after flesh chastised in the desert, unless that no one may desire delights? why did David reprove Nathan and accept it, unless that adulterers and murderers may not despair of the remedy of penance? Rahab the harlot was sanctified, that hope might be given to harlots. There is therefore nothing less in this banquet than what human salvation has need of." More aptly and properly St. Augustine, book XVII of the City of God, chapter XX, and Anastasius of Nicaea, Question XL in Scripture, understand the victims which wisdom immolated as the Martyrs, whom God himself as it were sacrificed for himself. Thus also Tertullian, in the book Against the Gnostics, chapter VIII: "Sophia," he says, "slew her sons; wisely indeed she slew them, unto life; rationally, unto glory. O good mother! I myself too desire to be numbered among her sons, that I may be slain by her. I desire to be slain, that I may become a son." Again, a victim is mortification, and because it is necessary to mortify oneself to God frequently and daily, hence he says victims in the plural; which however must be seasoned with the wine of prayer and devotion; for just as sweet foods are seasoned with honey, that they may become pleasant and sweet to the taste: so also mortification must be seasoned with prayer, that it may become sweet to God and to man. Anagogically, Hugh understands the table as the eternal refreshment and blessedness, of which Christ says in Luke, chapter XXII, verse 29: "And I dispose unto you, as my Father hath disposed to me a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." Mystically, the Blessed Virgin prepared and set before us the table, when she bore and gave to us Christ, the true bread of souls. Thus St. Epiphanius, in the sermon On the Praise of the Virgin: "She herself is," he says, "the intellectual table of faith, which supplied the bread of life to the world." And a little later: "Rich is she, dearest, and full of virtues, the virgin table, abounding in the best foods, by which the earth may be nourished. O virgin candlestick," etc. And Andrew of Crete, homily 2 On the Dormition of the Virgin: "She shows," he says, "her most holy table, namely she who bore in her womb economically the very life-giving bread himself, our Lord Jesus, who is eternal life, who contains created nature, made bread from the leaven of Adamic sprinkling; who brings back to newer life those who approach him holily, and makes them perfect in God. By which same manner she also purges those, and makes them immortal, who are joined to him by participation in that new and beautiful communion of his, and become his familiars." She herself mixes wine with water, when she quiets quarrels and schisms, when she mingles diverse, nay even adverse, men and nations, and consoles them in one by the bond of peace and charity. Whence the Synod of Constantinople, in the letter to Pope Hormisdas: "Behold," it says, "by the intercession of the most holy Virgin, those members which were once divided, through the grace of the Holy Spirit have been brought back to perfect unity and charity." To this pertains what the Blessed Peter Damian writes in the Life of St. Boniface of Camaldoli, a monk, and afterwards Archbishop and Martyr, namely that he, being a kinsman of the Emperor Otto III, and so dear to him that he was called by him by no other name than my soul, having entered the church dedicated to St. Boniface the Martyr, his namesake, inflamed with desire of his imitation and martyrdom, said: "And I too am called Boniface; why therefore should not I also be a Martyr?" Wherefore, having entered the order of St. Romuald, and thence created Archbishop and Apostle of Russia, he converted that people together with their king both by preaching and by miracle, namely by passing through the midst of fire unharmed, and therefore was slain as a Martyr by the king's brother. Thus also Cornelius Musius, as Miraei testifies, constantly besought St. Cornelius the Pope and Martyr, his namesake, that he might be made like to him both in blood and in name, and obtained it; for in the year of our Lord 1572, captured in Holland, he shed his blood for Christ. Finally, she herself as it were wisdom slew her sons, as Tertullian reads it, namely Christ the Lord and the Martyrs, whom standing at the cross she immolated to God, and daily immolates and offers. Whence St. Ephrem, On the Praises of the Virgin: "I call the Virgin," he says, "both priest and altar alike, she who indeed bearing the table, gave us the heavenly bread for the remission of sins." And the Blessed Peter Damian, sermon On the Nativity: "Food," he says, "Eve gave (others read ate), by which she deprived us of the hunger of eternal banquet; food Mary gave, which opened to us the approach of the heavenly banquet." Moreover, our Fernandez in Genesis III, num. 7, rightly considers the phrase "he mixed wine." What, I ask, did you mix, O Mother of God, with the blood of your Son, which we drink? Did you not mix the clearest water of tears, which you shed at the circumcision, and which standing beside the cross of Jesus, your Son, you poured forth most abundantly and most sorrowfully from those virgin eyes, and was this mixture of the blood of the Son and the tears of the Mother seen? O if only that torrent of delight would flow to me, by which my soul might be drenched! Most justly does St. Epiphanius call the Virgin, the Mother of God, the table of faith. Truly, in His Virgin, the most worthy Mother, God set forth all things which divine love devised—feasts, foods, seasonings, and kinds of drinks, by which the souls of both the pious and the impious could be fed, nourished, and strengthened. "Come," He says, "drink the wine which I have mixed for you." Is that word "to mix," customary in amorous cups, similarly used by the Virgin Mother? If it is so, there is plainly signified in the divine Eucharist a certain admirable power, and as it were amorous, which the souls of the pious feel, when, communicating rightly the body and blood of the Lord, they are dissolved into tears, burn with the fires of love, despise all human things, long for divine things, and, wholly forgetful of themselves and having laid aside their former life, transform themselves into their God. Thus Fernandez.
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3. SHE SENT HER HANDMAIDS TO CALL TO THE TOWER, AND TO THE WALLS OF THE CITY. — In Hebrew it is נערות naaroth, that is, girls, maidens, young women, as Theodotion, Aquila and Symmachus translated it. But the Septuagint and the Syriac render it, her servants. Thus the Septuagint has it: she sent her servants, calling with a loud proclamation to the bowl; the Syriac: she sent her servants to call upon the heights. So also the Arabic; for each is accustomed to follow the Septuagint. You will ask first, what are the handmaids of wisdom sent by her to call forth and invite all to her banquet? Cajetan takes them to be all the virtues which serve wisdom and invite men to virtue and heaven; others take them to be Angels: for all are ministering spirits sent into ministry for those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation, Heb. I. R. Solomon takes them to be Adam and Eve, likewise Moses and Aaron. But I say that by handmaids are understood preachers, teachers, Prophets and Apostles. For these formerly before Christ all called to the Synagogue and the worship of God; after Christ they call all to the Church and Christianity. These are called handmaids, that is, servants, as the Syriac and Septuagint render it, because wisdom is here introduced as a matron and mistress, who demands handmaids rather than servants in her service, namely women rather than men. For this is required by the grace and beauty of the parable. Tropologically, Hugo adds that Prophets and Apostles are called handmaids on account of their lowliness and humility, and because, he says, they were gentle and tractable for relieving the infirmity of their neighbour. For thus handmaids abase themselves to the lowest and hardest tasks, that they may obey their mistress. Wherefore just as the eyes of handmaids are always fixed upon their mistress, so the eyes of Apostles and Doctors are upon Christ, that they may observe his nod, ask grace from him, devote themselves wholly to him, according to that: "Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a handmaid on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us," Psalm CXXII, 2. Thus St. Gregory, whose passage and words I have cited above, and from him Bede and Hugo. So also St. Athanasius in his Disputation against Arius in the Council of Nicaea: "After therefore his (Christ's) passion and resurrection, he says, wisdom, power, the Word, God sent Apostles to all the foolish, namely the brutish Gentiles, and those ignorant of God, a table being set forth, namely the sacred altar; and in it the heavenly bread, and incorruptible, and giving life to all who should partake thereof, his own holy and most holy body, he exhibited; and wine gladdening the mind, which produces sobriety in the soul of each who taste thereof, as it were in a bowl his own blood he mingles, calling to himself the predestined and elect through his Apostles. And thus all foolishness is indeed put away, and they shall become citizens of the kingdom of heaven, who hear them." Finally Honorius of Autun, a presbyter, wrote a brief Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon which is extant in vol. XII of the Library of the Holy Fathers, Cologne edition, where by handmaids he understands Apostles; for he says these are called handmaids "on account of their lack of wisdom, weakness and poverty; because Christ chose as Apostles the unlearned, the weak, the poor and the despised, whom he sent to preach in the world, that they might call the faithful peoples to the tower of eternal blessedness, and to the walls of heavenly Jerusalem." Thus Honorius. The same word for word Salonius has, who was far earlier than Honorius. Tropologically and mystically, by handmaids understand the eloquence, knowledge, miracles, virtues of the holy faithful who are truly wise; for through these as it were through handmaids wisdom and God draw men to himself and call them; as is evident from the Acts of the Apostles and the Lives of the Saints. Whence St. Thomas, I part. Quest. I, art. 5: Wisdom, he says, is Theology, the handmaids are the other sciences, which serve and are subject to Theology, or the science of divine things. You will ask secondly, what is the tower and the walls of the city, upon which, as the Hebrew has it, and to which, as our text has it, the handmaids of wisdom call all to her banquet? Note that in Hebrew it is literally, she called upon, or to the pinnacles (or heights) of the high city. For גפי gappe, which our text renders as tower, signifies the wings, heights and summits of houses and walls: whence Pagninus renders it, she called to the summits of the high city; R. Levi, she called upon the wings of the higher parts of the city; the Chaldean, she called in the height of the strong hills; the Syriac, upon the heights; Vatable, she sent her maidens to invite to the highest tower of the city. This being established, I answer: whereas in verse 1 He called it the house of wisdom on account of love and union, here on account of fortification and amplitude He calls it the citadel and walls of the city, that is, the citadel and city fortified with very strong walls, such as was the citadel of Sion, which was also called the city of David, in which were Solomon's palace and the temple. For a similar reason the triumphant Church is called the city of Jerusalem, Apocalypse XXI, 2. The citadel therefore is the temple and synagogue built in the citadel of Sion; and the Christian Church, which was begun in the same place by Christ and the Apostles preaching. It is called a citadel, because it was in an elevated place, and fortified with surrounding walls most strongly like a citadel, so that it might be in the sight and view of all, and so that from there the sound of voices and trumpets resounding far and wide might call all to it. Thus our Pineda, book III On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XXVIII. Moreover, he says, what is added: "And to the walls of the city," without doubt designates the city itself of David, or the citadel of the Jebusites: for this is frequently called by the name of citadel in the Scriptures, I Paralipomenon XI, 4, 5, 7; II Kings V, 7, 9, and in Josephus everywhere, especially book VII Antiquities chapter III. Moreover what is added: "And to the walls of the city," indicates the wall and most fortified walls, with which David surrounded his city, that is, the citadel of Sion, II Kings V; which wall of the citadel Josephus calls most ancient and strongest, VI. Secondly, the citadel, or, as it is in Hebrew, the summits and pinnacles of the lofty city, namely Sion, denote the highest and safest places of the Church, such as is the state of perfection, which is seen in Orders and Religious communities, where discipline flourishes. For Wisdom calls all not only to the Church and Christianity, but also to the perfection and apex of Christianity, especially all priests, religious, doctors, preachers, who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. For these ought to stand in the citadel, that is, in the height of wisdom and virtues, so that they may call others to the same more by life and example than by word. Whence Cajetan translates, called upon the shoulders of the lofty of the city; and thus explains it, as if to say: The handmaids, that is, virtues, sent by wisdom to invite all, accomplish the same, and truly invite and call all, if not by mouth, but by shoulders they are borne, that is, if not by words, but by deeds and works they are sustained, and are set forth by the lofty of the city, that is, by those who excel in status, condition and office; for it is theirs, as in status and degree, so also in virtue and merits to excel, and to surpass the rest. Thus their preaching will be so lofty, that you reprove the true ones now through the Prophets, now through the Apostles, and reveal their weakness. Tropologically, the citadel signifies that the Church is fortified like a citadel, because it is besieged and attacked on all sides by demons, flesh and the world: wherefore the faithful are therefore called to the banquet of wisdom in the citadel, and strengthened by its victims and wine, and bound and devoted to it, they may stoutly defend this citadel, and contend against all motions of concupiscence and other enemies of the Church and the faithful. This is a military banquet, which is prepared for fighting, not for resting, according to that: "Thou hast prepared a table before me against them that trouble me," Psalm XXII. For commanders are accustomed to receive soldiers about to fight with a banquet, or to give them wine and drink, both so that they may bind them to themselves, and so that they may strengthen them for battle with food and wine. Such is the banquet of the Eucharist, by which as it were militarily we are nourished, so that against all the phalanxes of the world and demons we may generously contend as fighters of Christ, according to that of St. Chrysostom, homily 61 to the People: "As lions therefore breathing fire let us depart from that table, made terrible to the devil, and turning our head, and the charity which he exhibited to us." Whence some note that this table was prefigured by the table of the loaves of proposition, which was surrounded by "a crown wreathed in," for which the Septuagint translates στεφάνη παλαιστοῦ, which the Complutensians translate, crown of the boxer, but wrongly; for it should be translated with the Romans, crown of the palm; for this is what is signified in Hebrew not by tophach, which is a measure of four fingers, or palm, as our translator and the Chaldean translate; but by malautsae, whence is the genitive malautsah, which in this place does not signify a boxer, as the Complutensians thought, but a palm; for the Hebrew tophach signifies a palm, not a boxer. Mystically, the Blessed Virgin sends her handmaids, that is, souls devoted to her, so that they may call others to her banquet, which she herself prepared both in the generation and education of Christ, and throughout her whole life, presenting the most splendid example of all virtues for us to imitate, and this in Sion, where she herself dwelt after the Ascension of Christ into heaven; for she invites all to the fortress of Sion, that is, to the lofty and contemplative life. Whence experience teaches that almost all Religious communities were instituted by her instinct and aid, and in particular, whoever are called to them are called almost by her aid and as it were by her voice. Thus we see men devoted to the Blessed Virgin, and especially members of her Confraternities, burning with zeal for souls, and therefore the Blessed Virgin working through them in all provinces of the world great and wonderful works, namely converting infidels and heretics, restoring cities to ancient virtue and piety, leading many of both sexes to celibate, indeed angelic life, whether at home or in various Religious Orders. See our Spinellus On the Mother of God II. are clothed in incorruptible raiment; who in the solitude of this age enjoy the frequency and celebration of another age; who cast aside pleasures, and yet have perpetual and inexplicable delight of souls; whose tears are a flood of sin and expiation of the world; whose outstretched hands extinguish flames." St. Gregory's companion St. Basil, in his sermon On the Institution of Monks, says that he who has sent word to the world should think this above all and always turn it over in his mind, that he has already proceeded beyond the limits of human nature, and has given himself to that institution which is as far removed from the body as possible, and therefore has undertaken to imitate the conversation of Angels, since it is proper to angelic nature to be free from earthly bonds, and not to be distracted at all to contemplate any other beauty, but to have eyes fixed continually on the face of God. This was experienced by another Gregory, surnamed and glorious in deeds the Great, who wonderfully lamented his fall from the monastery, or rather his seizure for the pontificate, as appears in book VII of the Register, epistle 126 to Leander, and book I, epistle 5 to Theoctista, sister of the Emperor: "I have lost, he says, the high joys of my quiet, and falling inwardly I seem to have ascended outwardly: whence I lament myself far expelled from the face of my Creator. For I strove daily to become outside the flesh, driving all phantasms of the body from the eyes of my mind, to see heavenly joys incorporeally; and not with voices alone, but with all the marrow of my heart's affection yearning toward the sight of God I said: My heart hath said to Thee: My face hath sought Thee, and Thy face, O Lord, will I seek. Yet desiring nothing in this world, fearing nothing, I seemed to myself to stand on a certain summit of things, so that I almost believed fulfilled in me what I had learned from the Prophet by the Lord's promise: I will lift thee up above the heights of the earth." Such in this age was St. Charles Borromaeus, who, standing at the lofty summit of all virtues, drew after him the Church of Milan, which he imbued and adorned with such holy morals that it seemed to be an earthly paradise. Therefore the state of perfection and Religion is the fortress of the Church, which is Sion, the city of David, namely of Christ. First, because like a fortress it is fortified by laws, prayers, penances, examples, exhortations, etc. Whence St. Bernard, sermon 4 On the Dedication of the Church, calls Religion the fortress of God, and indeed most fortified: "You have certainly taken the best fortress for Christ, if you had delivered it to enemies in the Clara valley." And St. Jerome to Hedybia, epistle 150: "Do you wish, he says, to be perfect, and to stand in the first rank of dignity, do what the Apostles did, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and follow the Saviour, and follow the naked cross alone with naked virtue." And St. Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer: "He who has renounced the world is already greater than honors and kingdom; and therefore, he who dedicates himself to God and Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms." For like an eagle he has placed his nest in high places, Job chapter XXXIX, verse 27. Second, because like a fortress it is lofty. Whence Apocalypse XXI, 2, the heavenly Jerusalem is called so because namely it is called from the heavens by God, and leads us to heaven. For which reason St. Bernard to the Brethren of the Mount of God, speaking of Religious: "Whom, he says, by what name I know not more worthily to call, heavenly men, or earthly Angels, dwelling on earth, but having their conversation in heaven." And Climacus, at step 4, says that a monastery is a certain earthly heaven; and therefore with what affection and reverence we believe Angels minister to God, with the same we also ought to minister to our brethren. Thirdly, because she herself is Sion, that is a watchtower: both because she contemplates heavenly things, and because she looks upon and despises all earthly things, and because from on high she surveys and averts all the snares of enemies, and because she herself is a watchtower upon which the eyes of all are turned. Wherefore most excellently St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 1 against Julian, paints religious persons with these vivid colors: "Do you see," he says, "these poor lacking food and shelter, these humble and earthly, and yet above earthly things; who dwell among men, and yet are superior to human affairs; who are pressed by chains, and yet are free; held back, and yet cannot be held; who have nothing in the world, and yet have all things; who are superior to the world; these, I say, through mortification immortal, through dissolution joined to God; who are estranged from love of self, but burning with divine love; whose fountain is light, and whose rays already, and passages of splendor; whose angelic singing of psalms, and vigil throughout the night, and the mind's excess toward God before death snatching itself to heaven; whose purification, and yet they are purified, since they establish for themselves no mode of ascent and deification; whose lot is to be broken and cast down, and whose lot at the same time is to sit upon thrones; who are also the Seventy. Such in this age was St. Charles Borromaeus." The Blessed Virgin therefore calls to the crater with exalted preaching, because she herself was the crater containing and offering to us the flesh and blood of Christ, according to that passage in the Song of Songs VII: "Thy belly is like a round bowl never wanting cups." Concerning which St. Ambrose, in the book On the Institution of Virgins, chapter XIV: "Truly," he says, "that belly of Mary was a turned crater, in which was wisdom, which mixed her wine in the crater, supplying the unfailing grace of pious knowledge through the fullness of her divinity. In which the Virgin's womb at the same time a heap of wheat and the grace of the lily's flower was germinating, since both the grain of wheat was germinating and the lily." And St. Ildefonsus, Sermon 1 On the Assumption, borrowing the same from St. Ambrose: "Truly," he says, "the belly of Mary was turned, because in it wisdom poured itself, which mixed wine in that crater." Thus Ildefonsus, whom Vincent of Beauvais cites in the Mirror of History, book VII, chapter CXXI. 4 and 5. IF ANY MAN BE LITTLE, LET HIM COME TO ME. AND TO THE UNWISE SHE SAID: COME, EAT MY BREAD, AND DRINK THE WINE WHICH I HAVE MINGLED FOR YOU. — For little one in Hebrew is פתי peti, that is a little one, to whom anything is easily persuaded; the Septuagint, the Chaldean and the Syriac, unwise; St. Cyprian, book II of Testimonies against the Jews, number 2, unknowing; others, simple, concerning which more in chapter I, verse 4. For unwise in Hebrew is חסר לב chasar leb, that is one who is deficient in heart, namely poor in heart, and to whom heart is lacking; the Septuagint, lacking in sense; the Chaldean, lacking in intellect; others, lacking in mind. Therefore the little one is the same as the unwise, namely a man who is led by sense and flesh only; for the latter part in the usual manner explains the former. St. Gregory however symbolically understands by the little one the humble; for the humble is capable of wisdom: "For he who," he says, "does not yet despise himself, does not grasp the humble wisdom of God, according to that saying of Christ: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones," Matthew XI. These are the words of wisdom inviting to herself and her feasts. Whence it is understood that she says this, which therefore the Septuagint supply in this manner, saying: If any man be little, let him come to me. By bread and wine she understands the agape, or sacred banquet from victims sacrificed to God, which was seasoned with sacred readings and sermons, as I said in verse 2. Under which allegorically understand the feast of the Eucharist, which is to be eaten by mouth and stomach both corporeal and spiritual, namely by attentive meditation, prayer, desire, love, humility and the union of the soul with Christ, to be taken and ruminated. Therefore wisdom, that is Christ, invites all here to the Holy Synaxis, as the Church calls all to it with these words on the feast of the Venerable Sacrament; and St. Gaudentius, in sermon 19 to the Neophytes: "Strive," he says, "noble chicks, toward the sacred morsel, in which is life, and let not a crumb fall from that heavenly food." For, as St. Ambrose says, in book IV On the Sacraments, chapter II: "Good eagles around the altar; for where the body is, there also are the eagles. The form of the body is the altar, and the body of Christ is in the altar; you are the eagles." And Zacharias, cap. IX, vers. 17: "For what is his good, and what is his beauty, except the wheat of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?" Where I have said much concerning the fruit of holy Communion, equally as in Exodus XVI, 33, where I have treated at length concerning the manna, which was the bread of heaven and the bread of Angels, containing in itself all delight, and every sweetness of taste: by which alone the Hebrews, nourished in the desert, became healthy and vigorous for continuous pilgrimage, and strong for waging wars against Amalec, Og and Basan. And for this reason manna was an express type of the Eucharist, which is the heavenly bread conferring health, delights and immortality both to soul and body, according to that saying of Christ: "This is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that if any man eat of it, he shall not die, etc. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever, and the bread that I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world," John VI, 51. From this place John Gerson teaches that little children are to be instructed and formed in virtue, part. II, tract. On Drawing Little Children to Christ, where he exaggerates the fruit and merit of this labour, and proposes himself as an example. For he himself, when he was Chancellor of Paris, and was occupied with the highest affairs of the Academy, nevertheless devoted himself assiduously to instructing boys and hearing their confessions, following the example of Christ, who says: "Suffer the little children to come unto me; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matt. XIX, 14. And therefore he also urged little children mature in judgment immediately to the Holy Synaxis.
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6. LEAVE OFF CHILDISHNESS, AND LIVE, AND WALK IN THE WAYS OF PRUDENCE. — That is to say, Leave off childish and infantile trifles, errors, desires, lusts; "and live," that is, and thus you will live a human and rational life, following the guidance of reason and honesty, whereas before you lived after the manner of children a life of sense, such as beasts without reason live, which are moved by imagination and sense alone; "and walk," that is, thus leaving off childishness you will walk, "in the ways of prudence," or "and," that is therefore, "walk in the ways of prudence." For if you walk in the ways of prudence, you will surely leave off childishness and imprudence, and will embrace a life worthy of man, which will lead you to a blessed and eternal life. Whence the Chaldean renders it, put away from yourselves foolish senselessness (the Syrian, foolishness), or the poverty of your understanding, and live; the Complutensian Septuagint, leave off foolishness, and you will live; and seek prudence, that you may live; but the Roman version, leave off foolishness, that you may reign forever, and seek prudence. For walk in the ways of prudence, in Hebrew it is, direct yourselves in the way of understanding, or make straight the way of prudence, that is, walk in the straight way of prudence, and direct your works according to its dictates. Whence Aquila and Symmachus, go rightly in the way of understanding; the Septuagint, correct knowledge and understanding; St. Cyprian, book II of Testimonies, chapter II, reads, "correct knowledge and understanding;"; the Syrian, think right ways. 7. HE THAT REPROVETH A SCORNER, GETTETH HIMSELF A WRONG: AND HE THAT REBUKETH THE WICKED, GETTETH HIMSELF A BLOT. — The Syrian, he that correcteth the wicked shall get himself shame. He gives the reason why he has called upon the little ones and the simple, who easily yield to admonition and believe, not the crafty, namely scorners and the wicked, obstinate in their impiety (for he sets these in opposition to the little ones and the foolish): because namely the scorner, being proud and puffed up, scorns admonitions and those who admonish. Bede, Cajetan, Jansenius and others. Wherefore he who admonishes him, "getteth himself a wrong" (the Hebrew and Septuagint, receives shame), first, because he exposes himself and his own to the ridicule and mockery of the scorner. Secondly, because he brings upon himself the mark of imprudence, in that he rebukes the scorner without fruit, nay even with harm. For he acts against that saying of the wise man, Ecclesiasticus, chapter XXXII, verse 6: "Where there is no hearing, pour not out words." And against that saying of Christ, Matthew VII, 6: "Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet." Where note first, that by the holy and pearls is signified the doctrine of the Gospel and truth; by dogs and swine, the perverse and obstinate, and that on account of their uncleanness and rebellious barking. He forbids therefore teaching and rebuking the incorrigible, because, he says, they like swine despise and trample under foot words contrary to their appetites and uncleanness, and then moreover they are sharpened against the author of the words, and lacerate him either with words or blows. Note secondly, this is to be understood in itself: for by accident Christ, St. Stephen, Paul and others preached to the most perverse Jews, and sharply rebuked their unbelief, both that they might bear public testimony to truth and the glory of God, and to prove the inexcusable impiety of the wicked, and for the benefit of others standing by, and to avoid scandal. Then indeed the holy is not given to swine, but rather to God and his elect. Thirdly, because it is a cause or occasion that the scorner sin more grievously, while he strives to defend his sin, and hardens himself in it, and detracts from the one admonishing, murmurs against him, and scorns him. Whence Plutarch: "To admonish," he says, "one obstinate in sin is the same as to hold up a mirror to a blind man," who, thinking himself and his own blindness are being mocked, is indignant at the one holding it up, and rages and raves against him. Fourthly, because he who irritates the scorner causes him to return like for like, that is, to turn back the same or similar vices upon the one rebuking, and to hurl back reproaches with a petulant tongue upon him, so that he may thus cover or defend his own. Whence St. Gregory, book VIII of the Morals, chapter XXIV: "A reed in flower," he says, "is a hypocrite in praise. In its flower the hand of the carpenter falls upon it, because the hypocrite placed in praise, lest anyone dare to rebuke him, forthwith cuts short with his harshness the life of the one rebuking. For he does not desire to be holy, but to be called so; and when perhaps he is rebuked, as if he were cut down in the glory of his reputation, he is grieved. When he is caught in wickedness he is angry, he forbids the one rebuking him to speak to him, because, as if touched in a hidden wound, he is pained. Such as he has become known to the unlearned, such he wishes to be esteemed by all; and he is readier to die than to be rebuked." From what has been said, it is clear that Aben-Ezra wrongly translates the mocker in the nominative case as mocker. The mocker, he says, who reproves another, brings shame upon himself. For when he who reproves another mocks, and displays laughter and cackling, then he brings disgrace upon himself. Reproof indeed ought to be made with a grave and mature countenance, not a mocking one. Wrongly, I say: for all others translate the mocker in the accusative case, just as the impious, of whom the following speaks. For the same reasons, "he who reproves the impious generates a stain for himself," especially because the impious, obstinate in impiety, moreover strives to draw others and the one reproving him to his own impiety, and to stain him with his guilt or suspicion. In Hebrew it is, "and he who rebukes the impious, his stain, namely he draws upon himself or increases and multiplies it"; the Chaldean, "and the reproof of the impious is a stain to him, both to the impious and to the one reproving"; the Septuagint, "he who reproves the impious has stained himself." Some codices add, "for reproofs of the impious are bruises to him," as if to say: If you reprove the impious, as many words, so many bruises and vivid painful marks you inflict upon him, which therefore cease not to drip with the bruise of indignation, cursing and vengeance, so that he may strike back the one admonishing him either by word or by blow, and in turn inflict upon him equal pains and bruises, both in body and in mind. 8. REPROVE NOT A MOCKER (Septuagint, the wicked; Syriac, the wicked), LEST HE HATE THEE. REPROVE A WISE MAN, AND HE WILL LOVE THEE. — There is an antithesis of the reproof of the mocker and the wise man, in that the former creates hatred, the latter love, and therefore the latter ought to be embraced, the former omitted: inasmuch as it is harmful both to the one reproving and to the one reproved, whom it excites to hatred and other sins, and as it were provokes. By the wise man understand one devoted to wisdom, that is, to virtue, or even one perfect in wisdom and virtue: for the perfection of this life is mixed with imperfection; for no one is so perfect that he does not have some vices which he corrects. Whence St. Gregory in the place already cited: "By reproof," he says, "he becomes worse, because he esteems the dart of purity as a dire blow. Whence exasperated, he straightway rises to insults, and what evils he exaggerates, he inquires against the life of the one reproving him. He desires to demonstrate far incomparably that the guilty one is his reprover, so that he may show himself innocent not by his own deeds, but by the crimes of others; so that often a man repents of having said something of reproof, and as it were from the hand of a carpenter, so from the mind of the one reproving, a certain, so to speak, blood of sorrow flows. Whence it is well said through Solomon: Reprove not a mocker, lest he hate thee. For it is not to be feared by the just that the mocker, when reproved, will offer insults, but lest drawn to hatred he become worse." But the wise and holy love those who reprove and reproof, because through this they are directed to the amendment of morals and the perfection of life. The wise man therefore loves correction, because he loves truth and virtue: for virtue is truth. For what else are the dictates of virtues but lights of truth? But the impious love vice, and therefore falsehood. For what is vice but practical falsehood, by which evil is desired and praised as good? In him therefore that saying of the Comic poet is true: "Compliance begets friends, truth begets hatred"; and therefore the medicine of correction is turned to poison for him. Therefore, just as the sun melts wax and hardens mud: so correction and truth are received gently by the wise man, harshly by the foolish and impious; and it produces love in the former, hatred in the latter. Hear Patian, in his Exhortation to Repentance: "As coals are wont to burn most fiercely when you move them; and fire burns most fiercely if you turn it; and rage rages most fiercely if you provoke it: so they broke with contrary heel the goads of necessary reproof, not without their own harm and wound in resisting. For it was said by the Lord: Reprove a fool, and he will hate thee. Again, just as wine mixed with honey becomes sweet, but mixed with gall becomes bitter; and just as water poured into wine becomes wine, but mixed with vinegar becomes sour, indeed the latter turns into vinegar; moreover, just as stony and thorny earth converts all moisture and rain into stones, thorns and briars, but soft and fertile earth converts rain into herbs and flowers; finally, just as a good stomach converts food into good juice and blood, but a bilious stomach converts food into bile, not by the fault of the food, which is good and pleasant, but by the fault of the stomach, which is bitter and bilious: so likewise the wise man converts reproof into love, the impious the same into bile and hatred, not by the fault of reproof, which is good; but by the fault of the impious, who has a heart infected with pride and anger." Morally, note here that correction is to be loved and sought by the wise, just as salt, though salty, is loved for seasoning meats; and pills, though bitter, for purging bad humors; and lye, though sharp and biting, for scrubbing the filth from the head: so that in like manner through correction the soul is restored to its brightness, indeed it rises to illustrious holiness and perfection. Wherefore parents of children, teachers of students, Superiors of subjects, Prelates of Religious, loving them, are accustomed to admonish and correct them frequently, so that thus they may put off all blemishes, and being accustomed to obedience and humility, they may strive toward perfection with great steps of continuous mortification. Therefore to the just not yet perfect it is said as to disciples studious of wisdom: "Hear, O children, the discipline of a father, and attend, that you may know prudence;" but to the just already perfect, as to masters, this also from Solomon is enjoined: "Reprove a wise man, and he will love thee; give to the wise," that is to the disciple of wisdom, "an occasion, and wisdom shall be added to him. Teach a just man, and he will make haste to receive." For to all these it pertains to reprove imperfections, to give occasion for advancement, and to teach true virtue, not so much by word as by deed, and by the action of purest holiness.
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9. GIVE TO THE WISE AN OCCASION, AND WISDOM SHALL BE ADDED TO HIM. TEACH A JUST MAN, AND HE WILL MAKE HASTE TO RECEIVE. — Whom you teach. "An occasion," namely of wisdom and learning. Whence the Chaldean: teach the wise, and he will be yet wiser; show the just, and he will add knowledge. In Hebrew it is simply, give to the wise, namely doctrine and counsel, says Cajetan. By this proverb it is signified that an occasion of wisdom and virtue is to be offered to the wise, because the wise man is eager for it and will immediately seize the occasion given to him, so that in wisdom he may make progress in what he desires and seeks: for in all things he seeks his own advancement. Whence this maxim can be adorned and explained in various ways. First, so that by occasion with Cajetan we understand doctrine and counsel, as if to say: Give to the wise sound doctrine and counsel; for he will immediately embrace and execute it, and thus will become wiser, and, so to speak, more virtuous. Whence explaining it he adds: "Teach a just man, and he will make haste to receive." For the latter part of the verse explains the former. Second, by occasion understand correction, of which the discourse preceded; for correction is to the wise an occasion of advancing and correcting his defects. Whence St. Augustine, epistle 48 to Vincent, teaches from this place that the Donatists and other heretics, growing foul in heresy, are not only to be instructed by the word of God, but also to be compelled by force and punishments to the Orthodox faith, because punishments are to them an occasion of becoming wise, and this is proved by the experience of many who have been brought back to sound faith by punishments. Whence he concludes: "All these terrors of these laws, by the promulgation of which kings serve the Lord in fear, have so profited them, that now some say: We already wanted this, but thanks be to God, who gave us the occasion of now doing it, and cut off the delays of postponement." Third, it signifies that to the wise an occasion of advancing is only to be suggested: from it he will advance himself further. Whence that saying: "The wise man is to be admonished by a nod, the fool by a rod." Thus St. Antony, epistle 2 to the Brethren Arsenoites: "There were," he says, "many other things which I would wish to teach; but if I give an occasion to the wise, he will become wiser," as if to say: I wrote much, but from the few things which I wrote you will gather the rest. For the wise man from things said gathers things not said, and the fool must have things expressly said, by himself he searches out and gathers. Or, if I give an occasion, that is space and time for thinking and learning. Whence fourth, the Syrian understands by occasion a fitting time, as if to say: Do not teach, correct, exhort and urge the wise to better things at an unfitting time, but at a fitting one. For if the wise man is admonished at an unfitting time, for example when he is occupied with other things, when he is depressed by sadness, when his mind is clouded, he will be afflicted or exacerbated by the admonition: but if at a fitting time, when for example he is serene, docile, cheerful, he will very well receive the admonition. Thus the Syrian translates: give time to the wise, so that he may again be imbued with wisdom. For wisdom and virtue are learned gradually, and those who today are weak and unfit for some heroic deed, tomorrow or soon after, made stronger, will be strong and able for it. Therefore to the weak equally as to children must be given spaces of time, by which they may overcome and conquer themselves and their weakness. Thus Christ for a time tolerated the vices and infirmities of the Apostles, alleging among other things, "that old skins cannot easily bear new wine," Matt. IX, 17. Fifth, it signifies that the wise—parents, teachers and superiors—ought from time to time to give to their children, disciples and subjects the opportunity to make progress in wisdom and virtue, by suggesting and presenting occasions for its exercise. Thus teachers propose obscure questions to their disciples, so that they may investigate their solution and thereby sharpen their intellect. Thus Blessed Aloysius Gonzaga, in dealing with the Fathers and Doctors, in order to introduce discourse on spiritual matters, would propose to them questions concerning the acts of virtues and vices, concerning the meaning of certain sentences of Holy Scripture, concerning the duties of a Religious, etc., as if desiring to be instructed by them. Thus that old man in the Lives of the Fathers said that Superiors ought to suggest to novices and subjects, in due season, occasions for exercising now patience, now humility, now obedience, now resignation, now charity, etc., and therefore ought from time to time to prick them with sharper words, to spur them on and mortify them; and he who neglects to do this is cruel to his own, and withholds from his children the bread that is owed to them: for just as the body is nourished by bread, so virtue is nourished by occasions and stimuli, and the spirit is sharpened. For this reason God, as it were a skilled teacher, presents to us now tribulations, that we may learn patience; now contempt, that we may learn humility; now the afflicted and the poor, that we may learn beneficence, etc., according to that saying of the Apostle: "Created in good works (that is, for good works) which God hath prepared that we may walk in them," Ephesians II, 10. Finally, it signifies that the wise man ought not to lose opportunities of learning, but to gain profit from all things, and that the just man, if he has obtained an occasion to justify himself further, ought not to omit it, but like a fowler to hunt and capture these heavenly birds. For opportunity, like a bird, flies past unless it be seized the moment it presents itself, according to that saying: Opportunity has hair in front, but is bald behind; so that, when it has passed by, it cannot be seized. On the contrary, the foolish and the wicked allow infinite opportunities of doing good to pass by, which they will seek seriously, but too late, and they embrace with ready hands opportunities of doing evil; whence they will be eternally sorry, according to that saying in Wisdom V, 6: "We have erred from the way of truth, etc., we have been wearied in the way of iniquity and perdition, and have walked through difficult ways. And we could show no sign of virtue, but were consumed in our malice."
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10. THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM IS THE FEAR OF THE LORD: AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY IS PRUDENCE. — He established the beginning of wisdom, chapter I, 7, the same wisdom itself established here, namely the fear of God: for in this the foundation of wisdom, indeed its very sum consists. For beginning in this place in Hebrew is תְּחִלַּת techillat, which signifies nothing but beginning, whereas in chapter I, 7, it is רֵאשִׁית reschit, which also signifies firsts, first-fruits and principality, as I said there. He proves the beginning of wisdom to be the fear of the Lord, from the fact that the knowledge of the holy is prudence: for prudence is the same as wisdom; since therefore this is the knowledge of the holy, that is of those things which are holy, honest and pious, and which make their students holy, it follows that it is the same as the fear of God, because this in itself is holy, and makes its students holy. It is signified therefore, says Jansenius, that the discourse here is concerning that wisdom which begins to be in us and to grow from the conceived fear of God: and thus little ones and the foolish can attain to wisdom, if they conceive the fear of God: which because the impious and mockers have utterly cast away, for this reason they cannot perceive wisdom. To indicate more expressly the difference between this wisdom and that by which according to the world some are said to be wise, it is added: "And the knowledge of the holy is prudence," that is, the knowledge and understanding of holy things, such namely as Scripture teaches, and the knowledge which holy men have, that alone is true prudence or understanding. For τὸ holy can be explained so that it refers either to things or to men; and the beginning can be repeated in Hebrew in the second member, so that it is thus translated, and the knowledge of the holy is the beginning of prudence. Whence R. Solomon, the root of prudence is the knowledge of the holy, or of sacred things, namely of God and Angels, says Aben-Ezra; and of heaven and blessed minds, says R. Levi. Or conversely, when you translate with Vatablus, the beginning of knowledge is the understanding of the holy, and which is certainly no other than the fear of the Lord. For all prudence, and understanding, and wisdom of the holy, that is of holy things, which holy men have, consists in fear, that is in the worship, reverence, obedience and love of God. Whence another translates, the highest in prudence is to know divine things; the Septuagint translates, the counsels of the holy are understanding. And they add by way of explanation, for to know the law is of a good mind, as if to say, True understanding and wisdom is to take counsel in those things which are holy, and in the holy themselves working holy deeds; because these, since they are of a good mind, know not speculatively only, but also practically, that the fear and worship of God is placed in the observance of the divine law: for they fulfill it in deed, and therefore have the fear of God, and consequently true wisdom and prudence, which consists in the fear of God and holiness. The same therefore in reality, or as it were the same are the fear of God, knowledge of the holy, wisdom, prudence, understanding, holiness, knowledge, and practical understanding, that is the keeping of the divine law. For the fear of God stimulates and compels man to keep the law of God, indeed to fear God fully is to keep the law of God, which is to be holy. Here therefore is a sorites, which goes in a circle and round: where there is wisdom, there is the fear of God; where there is the fear of God, there is knowledge of the holy and holiness; where there is holiness, there is prudence; where there is prudence, there is understanding, that is observance of the divine law. Therefore from the first to the last, where there is wisdom, there is observance of the divine law, and in it all wisdom consists, according to that in Ecclesiastes XII, 13: "Let us all hear together the conclusion of the discourse. Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is all man." Prudence therefore is the prince of virtues, the queen, the eye and the light, which, as Iamblichus says, in his epistle to Amphalus, "referring the life of each to the divine exemplar, depicts it with the best likeness it can, and therefore makes its possessors like to God." Furthermore St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena: "There is scarcely anything else," he says, "in the counsel of the holy, than a prudent and sagacious judgment concerning those things which come into practice. But also nothing do these same prudent and holy men study and desire equally, as to know the divine will," practically namely, that is to carry out what is known. "For the Holy Spirit is the life of the soul." Thus far St. Chrysostom. A fable suited to this doctrine is found in Cyril, lib. I of the Moral Apology, cap. III, whose title is: True Prudence is that which is adorned with the innocence of simplicity. The animals, he says, sought among themselves which of them was the most prudent, and the flying creatures proposed the raven, the terrestrial ones the fox; the ape came forward and said that both the raven and the fox were cunning and deceitful, but not prudent; and he proved this by this reasoning: "Cunning is joined with ignorance of true action; but true prudence is the most excellent art of living rightly with simplicity, knowing not how to harm anyone. Those things therefore which are less provident, though armed with art, with craftiness and the goads of harming, I would say are more malicious, but not prudent. For he alone is prudent who is governed by right reason in all things. But right reason is that of rational nature, which intends its own end as the highest good, and avoids everything that impedes the attainment of this end; and does and seeks all things that conduce to that end; and in all these things, until it reaches that end, it remains with firm constancy. But the end of rational nature is to rejoice in all true good without any evil, and to be glad with perpetuity of security and with security of truth. To attain this, all vices are impediments, and all virtues are opportune. This being defined, each of the companions withdrew to his own."
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11. FOR BY ME THY DAYS SHALL BE MULTIPLIED, AND YEARS OF LIFE SHALL BE ADDED TO THEE. — The Septuagint thus: in this manner thou shalt live much longer, and years of life shall be added to thee; τὸ for gives the reason not only of the preceding verse, but also of verse 5 and those following, namely it gives the reason for the whole discourse and invitation of wisdom, as if to say: I have invited, and continually all to me, namely to wisdom, and to the fear of God, I invite; now to those coming I promise great rewards. For I am she, who to my students offer a healthy and happy life through many years in this age, and through all eternity in the future. See what is said in chapter III, 8. 12. IF THOU BE WISE, THOU SHALT BE WISE FOR THYSELF: BUT IF THOU BE A SCORNER (Syriac, wicked), THOU ALONE SHALT BEAR THE EVIL. — Here is another goad, by which wisdom pricks all to the pursuit of herself, as if to say: If, O son, thou obey my wise admonitions and institute thy life wisely, thou shalt do it for thyself, that is to thy, not to my or another's, advantage and reward; but if thou spurn and mock them, thou alone shalt bear the punishment, as if to say: It is sown and reaped for thee, not for me, lest thou think my gains concern me, and that I seek to catch disciples for my honor: I need neither disciples nor honor; it suffices me to be learned, suffices me to be honored: I seek thy utility, thy honor; I consult for thee, and I persuade thee to consult for thyself: for if thou obey me, that thou mayest be wise for thyself, thou shalt merit glory, life and happiness; but if thou mock me, thou mockest thyself, and bringest upon thyself death and hell: "For every one shall bear his own burden," Galatians VI, 5. The Septuagint add, for thee and thy neighbors; the Syriac, for thee and thy friends. "If," they say, "thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself and thy neighbors: but if thou become wicked, thou alone certainly shalt draw up (in Greek ἀντλήσεις, as if to say, thou shalt draw out with great labor, pain and anguish) evils;" Symmachus, but if thou be pestilent, thou shalt bear evils. Following the Septuagint, St. Ambrose, in Psalm XXXV, verse 1, established this distinction between the just and the unjust, that the latter is useless to the world, the former useful and profitable: "The unjust," he says, "is both useless to others and harmful to himself; but the life of the just is fruitful to others, sweet to himself. For Solomon says: Son, if thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself and thy neighbors; but if thou become wicked, thou alone shalt draw up evils. We observe therefore that justice is born rather for others than for itself: it regards the common good, not its own, and counts the good of another as its own gain. Blessed is that glorious justice, whose good profits all. From one it proceeds for the most part, and reaches all." Wherefore the same St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, octon. 10, teaching on those words: "They that fear thee shall see me, and shall be glad," shows that the just by his very appearance profits others, and breathes forth his justice to them. "He prophesies," he says, "that the whole world shall be filled with the fear of God, and therefore, as it were, those fearing God, he says rejoice in the knowledge of the Saints. For he who sees the just and rejoices, wishes also himself to be just. For it is beautiful that in others he delights in what he wishes to preserve in himself, if he could. For it is implanted in the good, that the chaste loves the modest, the prudent loves the wise with pious affection, the merciful loves the liberal, and loves his virtues in others. For to most, the sight of the just is an admonition of correction, but to the more perfect it is joy. How beautiful therefore to be seen and to profit! Good therefore is the just man." He proves this by the example of a bird called the icterus, which heals those laboring under icterus, that is the royal disease; concerning which Pliny, book XXX, chapter XI: "The bird icterus," he says, "is called from its color; which if it be seen, they say that disease is healed." To which words alluding, St. Ambrose: "For if there is such power," he says, "in natural things, that an animal by being seen profits those with icterus, so that even the dead body of that creature is said to profit, if it be shown to those who have fallen into such a disease, can we doubt that the sight of the just heals? Do not even the very rays of the eyes seem to infuse some virtue into those who desire faithfully to see him?" St. Ambrose adds that the contrary happens to the wicked: "But just as," he says, "the just gladdens the heart of the innocent when seen, so also the wicked are tormented by the knowledge of the just, because they are even reproved by the silent conduct of the saints. Chastity torments incontinence, liberality avarice, faith impiety." After this verse some Greek codices add these words: "A son receiving discipline shall be wise, but a fool shall use a foolish servant." The Romans and St. Cyprian in the Council of Carthage and the Syriac add the following: "He that trusteth in lies, he feedeth the winds; and he himself shall follow the flying birds: for he hath forsaken the ways of his vineyard, and hath erred from the paths of his field; and he goeth through places without water and dry, and into a land appointed for thirst: and he gathereth with his hands things unfruitful;" or, as the Syriac more clearly has it, he himself gathered nothing. But all these things are not in the Hebrew, nor in the Latin Vulgate, nor in the Greek of the Complutensian edition, and many of them are found in the following chapter, whence they appear to have been transferred hither from there.
The Second Part of the Chapter You may ask, who is this foolish woman? I answer that she is the same woman described in chapter VII, 10; for the Wise Man depicted her there, and here wisdom itself depicts her, as it were a rival, competitor and antagonist to itself. Grammatically therefore this woman is a harlot: for nothing is so contrary to wisdom, which is chaste, spiritual, angelic and divine, as a harlot and lust, which is unchaste, carnal, diabolical and infernal. Thus St. Ambrose, lib. I On Cain, cap. IV, and St. Jerome, in Hosea cap. XIII, and Clement, lib. III Paedagogus cap. XII, Bede, Jansenius, the author of the Catena of the Greeks and others here. Parabolically however, by the harlot is represented folly itself, namely covetousness, or concupiscence, and false doctrine, especially heresy. Whence St. Ambrose holds that by these two women are described virtue and pleasure mutually opposed to each other, each of which invites all to itself. St. Augustine however, St. Jerome, Polychronius, Evagrius and others understand heresy: for this is false wisdom, which is diametrically opposed to true wisdom. Hear Philo (whose words St. Ambrose recites, lib. I On Cain and Abel, cap. IV) in his book On the Wages of Harlots not to be Admitted to the Sanctuary, graphically depicting this strife and enticement of Anne and Phenenna, or rather of Sarah and Golla, that is of virtue and pleasure. "Each of us," he says, "has two wives in his household, and they are hostile to each other, and fill the house of the soul with jealous contentions. We love one of them, as a pleasant and familiar friend, which is called pleasure; the other we pursue with hatred, as harsh and gloomy, and not at all benevolent to us: this is called virtue." Then before he expounds their quarrels, he depicts the appearance of each: "That one," he says, "comes to us in harlot's adornment, with broken gait from softness, with wanton gaze ensnaring the souls of youths, displaying rashness and impudence in her eyes, raising her neck above her natural stature, laughing and cackling, with curled and crimped hair, painted face, painted eyebrows, freshly bathed, dressed in purple, clothed in precious and flowery garments, proud with golden and jeweled bracelets, and with little eels and other feminine finery, breathing most fragrant perfumes, loving not so much her own house as the forums and crossroads, wanton, prodigal of her own beauty, eager for what is not her own. And with her handmaidens of her household, craftiness, injustice, wickedness, by which attended as if by a retinue she thus assails the mind." Here he appends a lengthy discourse, in which pleasure inveighs against virtue, her adversary, and draws her lovers to herself. Then he similarly turns to depicting virtue. "The other," he says, "standing in seclusion, fearing lest perchance she might draw to herself alone the mind of their common husband, corrupted by gifts, either offered or displayed; nor deceive him softened by precious appearance: when she observed that he was being attracted and soothed by exotic adornment and magical tricks, she suddenly appeared, grave in intellect and matronlike gait, serene in countenance, suffused with a genuine color of modesty, simple in manners, of integral life, always like herself in mind, with words not flattering, truly expressing a sound mind, comely in native habit, moderate in gesture, modest in dress, adorned not with gold, but with far more precious ornaments. Piety, holiness, truth followed as her companions." Here he then wove in a remarkable discourse, in which virtue expostulates with her rival pleasure, and by which she calls miserable men entangled in the bonds of pleasure to the blessed freedom of her own virtue. Following Solomon in his customary manner, Plato and the Philosophers tell similar things about Hercules. "For he," as St. Basil recounts from the same source, homil. 24 On Reading the Books of the Gentiles, when one day he was uncertain whether he should follow the path of pleasure or of virtue; two women stood before him, whose condition he immediately recognized from their very appearance. One," he says, "conspicuous in form, with a softer face, wanton eyes, flattering speech, promising all things favorable and easy and tending to the comforts of life through leisure, was trying to draw Hercules to herself. The other however with rigid countenance, squalid and sad face, displaying great confidence and constancy, showed nothing pleasant, nothing agreeable, but immense labors to be undertaken on land and sea."
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13. A FOOLISH AND CLAMOROUS WOMAN (the Syrian: a deceiver by flattery) FULL OF ENTICEMENTS, AND KNOWING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. — Against Wisdom, as it were a queen inviting all to a royal feast of virtue, he sets forth a foolish woman, who draws all to her pleasures: so that her honesty and beauty, and this woman's dishonesty and baseness may appear more clearly from mutual comparison, and so that those invited may recognize and beware of her frauds and deadly enticements, and may pursue and desire that honored feast of truth and probity. Therefore both the harlot, and concupiscence and heresy, is first "foolish," in Hebrew אשת כסילות eschet kesiluth, that is, a woman of foolishness, as if to say, She is foolishness itself personified and clothed in the garb of a woman: both because the harlot, drunk with lust and avarice, has lost mind and reason, and as if demented and mad thinks of nothing but filth and luxuries; and because the harlot is a symbol of foolishness, namely of cupidity and heresy, which is very foolishness itself. Wherefore St. Isidore, book VIII of the Origins, chapter XI: "Venus," he says, "is called Cupid on account of love; for she is a demon of fornication. She is therefore painted with wings, because nothing is lighter to lovers, nothing more changeable is found. She is painted as a child, because love is foolish and irrational. She is feigned to hold an arrow and a torch: an arrow, because love wounds the heart; a torch, because it inflames." Hence the Poets relate that Venus was married to Vulcan, to signify that love is kindled by heat. Again they paint her as cross-eyed, because love is perverse. Second, the condition of the harlot, and of concupiscence, and of heresy is that she is "clamorous," in Hebrew הומיד homia, that is tumultuous, or making a tumult, as Origen, Vatablus and Pagninus translate it: The foolish woman, he says, makes a tumult; the Septuagint, bold. How clamorous and tumultuous harlots are is evident from experience, which teaches that most quarrels, brawls and murders are stirred up by or on account of harlots. The same is evident from the same concerning cupidity and heresy, which has stirred up so many tumults, wars and conflagrations in this age of ours in France, England, Scotland, Belgium and all Europe: so that through it we see temples and monasteries burned everywhere, cities overturned, provinces laid waste, countless thousands of men slaughtered. St. Ambrose adds, book I On Cain, chapter IV: "There the tumult of revelers, the clamor of those contending, the slaughter of those litigating, the singing of singers, the noise of dancers, the laughter of those laughing, the applause of the wanton, all confused." And chapter V: "That drunkenness of wine, the hunger of lust, by which through the flesh the inner organs are heated, the mind is set on fire, the soul is burned. Cruel lust is the goad of crimes, which never allows the affection to remain quiet. It burns at night, pants by day, awakens from sleep, draws away from business, takes away counsel, disquiets lovers, inclines the fallen, lies in wait for the chaste, inflames by possession, is kindled by use. There is no mode of sinning, and an insatiable thirst for crimes, which cannot be extinguished except by the death of the lover." He shows similar tumults in cupidity of avarice, or the lust for money. "Envious to all," he says, "vile to itself, in the greatest riches poor, by affection it diminishes what it abounds in by wealth. There is no mode of seizing where there is no measure of desiring. Thus it inflames, thus it feeds the soul with its fire, so that it differs in this alone, that that one is an adulteress of forms, this one of lands. It shakes the elements, furrows the sea, digs the earth, and is pleased neither in fair weather nor in foul, condemns the annual harvests, and finds fault with the fruits of the earth." Third, that it is "full of allurements," in Hebrew פתיות petaiuth: which first, Cajetan and Pagninus translate as simplicity; Marinus, as foolishness, that is to say, a simple woman; Vatablus, as inexperienced; Marinus, as foolish; for peti indeed means a little child, simple, rude, inexperienced. Second, the Septuagint translates it as lacking bread; whence the author of the Catena of the Greeks reads it thus, and it is reduced to want of a morsel of bread, so that petaiuth is derived from פת path, that is, a morsel, a bit of bread, that is to say, one who begs for bread, such as harlots often are, because they squander everything, and therefore, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 63 to the People, they are like a perforated vessel. Third, our author most excellently translates it as full of allurements. For the root פתה patha signifies to persuade, to allure, to deceive, to seduce. Whence the Zurich version translates it as has persuasions, that is to say, she is Peitho, or Suada, or Suadela. For Peitho was to the Gentiles a goddess of persuasion, persuading whatever she wished, of whom Horace, book I, epistle 6: And well-moneyed suasion adorns and charm. And Cicero, On Famous Orators: "Persuasion, which the Greeks call πειθώ, whose agent is the orator, this Ennius called Suada; and he wishes that Cethegus was the marrow of her, so that, as Eupolis wrote that this goddess sat upon the lips of Pericles, he would say that the marrow of her was our orator here." Such persuasion is the harlot, equally as pleasure, concerning which St. Ambrose, book I On Cain, chapter IV: "She," he says, "with wanton harlot's motion, with gait broken by delights, with wavering eyes, and casting nets with playful eyelids, by which she captures the precious souls of youths (for the eye of the harlot is a snare for the sinner); whomever she sees passing by destitute of sense in a corner, in the passage of her house, she accosts with gracious words, making the hearts of youths fly: restless at home, wandering in the streets, lavish with kisses, vile in modesty, rich in garment, her cheeks painted. For indeed, because she cannot have true beauty of nature, with adulterous paints she panders the appearance of affected beauty, not truth. Girt about with a retinue of vices, and surrounded by a certain chorus of wickedness, leader of crimes, with such machines of words she assaults the wall of the human mind." And below: "She displays treasures, promises kingdoms, pledges continuous loves, promises unexplored intercourse, disciplines without a pedagogue, discourse without a monitor, life without care, soft sleep, insatiable desire." And such arts of alluring did Anna Boleyn most excellently practice, who, when she was a harlot, and was called by the French the English Mare, to Henry VIII, king of England, who desired her company, asserted that she was a virgin, and that she would dedicate the flower of her virginity to no one except her husband. To converse, to play, even to dance together with the king, she never judged alien from her modesty, only she feigned that she shrank from intercourse. By which arts she so ensnared the king, that it was now fixed in his mind, having repudiated Catherine, to take such a holy virgin as his wife. He took her, she perished, and England perished even to the present day. Thus Sander, book I On the Schism of England. The fourth is, "knowing nothing at all" except her loves and lusts, and the arts of seduction and extorting money: for she directs and expends her whole mind upon these things, so that she seems able to know or think of nothing else. Whence the Septuagint, rendering the sense, translates, "which knoweth not shame," because she is wholly shameless, so as to entice young men to her unchastity. For thus shame is the bridesmaid of virginity and chastity, thus shamelessness is the pronuba of unchastity. See St. Ambrose, book I On Virgins. The Chaldean translates, "knoweth not good"; the Syrian, "knoweth not useful things."
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14. SHE SAT AT THE DOORS OF HER HOUSE UPON A SEAT IN A HIGH PLACE OF THE CITY. — The Syrian version: she sits upon a lofty throne: both because she is proud, says Aben-Ezra, and so that she might display her beauty and invite all to her loves. For this is the custom of harlots: indeed some take care to be carried through the city in chairs open on all sides, like certain Venuses, so that they might sell their form and traffic in it, and therefore they draw after them crowds of youths, as St. Pelagia did, first a sinner, then converted by the Blessed Nonnus, doing penance and becoming holy, whose Life is found in Surius, on the 8th of October. Hence that passage in Jeremiah III, 3: "Thou hast a harlot's forehead, thou wouldst not blush." Truly a great allurement in the eyes of women. Wherefore St. Lucy (not that celebrated heroine of Syracuse, but another, who is therefore invoked as it were as patroness by those who suffer in their eyes, and by some is called Lucilla) feeling that on account of the beauty of her eyes she was sought after by the tyrant, tore out her eyes and sent them to the tyrant, saying: "Know that nothing more remains in me by which I should fear injury from thee"; truly fulfilling that word of the Gospel: "If thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee." Thus Sabellius, lib. IV Exempla, cap. VIII. Isidore of Pelusium recounts a similar example, lib. II, epist. 53; see him. John Moschus has a similar one in the Spiritual Meadow, cap. LX. 15. THAT SHE MIGHT CALL TO THEM THAT PASSED BY THE WAY, AND WENT ON IN THEIR JOURNEY. — In Hebrew, those who direct their paths; the Septuagint, those who go straight in their ways; the Syrian and Chaldean, those whose ways are straight.
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16. WHOSOEVER IS A LITTLE ONE, LET HIM TURN TO ME. AND TO THE FOOLISH SHE SAID. — These are words which verse 4 attributes to wisdom. Whence the Septuagint translates, whosoever of you is most foolish, let him turn to me, and to those lacking wisdom I command, saying. Clement of Alexandria, lib. III of the Paedagogus, cap. XII, whosoever of you is most foolish, let him turn to me; and to him who lacks prudence, she commanded, saying. For harlots are accustomed to lie in wait for wayfarers and to attack them unaware and to entice them to themselves. Whence they sit in the paths by which they must pass, and from this they are called path-women. Moreover the Septuagint translates, most foolish; the Chaldean, bereft of mind, because the greatest foolishness is to follow a foolish and clamorous harlot. Whence an anonymous Rabbi in the Great Hebrew Gloss thus paraphrases it, and to doves seduced, having no heart, she spoke these words. For doves love waters, and when they drink from them, they do not bend back their necks, as Pliny testifies, lib. X, cap. XXX, as other birds do, because they have narrower throats, and because they fear snares and nets, which fowlers are accustomed to set for them near waters: but doves, being foolish, drink prone, and bathe themselves with full mouth, and therefore not looking about for the snares of fowlers they are easily caught by them. Such are foolish youths, who allow themselves to be seduced by the blandishments of harlots, and immerse and submerge themselves wholly in their stolen waters, that is, in harlotrous pleasures. St. Ambrose, lib. I On Cain, cap. IV, expounds these things thus paraphrastically: "She herself standing in the midst: Drink, she says, and be drunk, so that each one may fall and not rise again. He is first with me who is most lost of all. He is mine who is not his own: he is more pleasing to me who is more wicked to himself. The golden cup of Babylon in my hand making drunk all the earth, all nations have drunk of my wine. Who therefore is more foolish, let him turn to me, and to those lacking wisdom I command, saying: Eat secretly of hidden breads with sweetness, and drink stolen water which is sweeter. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die."
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17. STOLEN WATERS ARE SWEETER, AND HIDDEN BREAD IS MORE PLEASANT. — Enjoy hidden breads and sweet stolen water; St. Ambrose, book I On Cain, chapter IV: "You will use hidden breads sweetly, and drink sweeter stolen water;" St. Jerome, in Hosea, XIII: "And the sweetness of stolen water;" Pagninus, stolen waters are sweeter, and bread eaten in secret tastes better. For stolen in Hebrew is גנובים genubim, that is, waters taken away by theft (whence gannab is thief, and גנבה geneba is theft), and therefore clandestine, secret and hidden, and consequently containing, or thought to contain, a hidden, not commonly known, sweetness. For stolen waters are the same as hidden bread: for thieves steal clandestinely, and conceal their theft. Note: This foolish harlot imitates wisdom by inviting all, just as she herself did, to her banquet, but far unequal and dissimilar. For wisdom calls to wine, says Jansenius, the harlot to waters: because whatever the world or the flesh displays is watery, that is, insipid, without substance and cold. She sets forth her table well-furnished openly, she insinuates that hers is hidden. She calls to her bread, saying: "Come, eat my bread;" she calls to stolen waters, saying: "Stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread," that is, which is eaten in secret, because forsooth it is stolen, "is more pleasant." This saying appears to be taken from this woman from common proverbs, as she has accommodated a common proverb to her purpose. And that it is so, as the proverb signifies, the thing itself teaches. Therefore "stolen waters" and "hidden bread" are the clandestine and stolen pleasure of fornication and adultery, which this harlot sets forth and opposes as her food and table to the banquet of wisdom, verse 5. For just as servants burn to draw something secretly from a cask of water or wine which the master hides and keeps for himself alone, and if there is no stopper, having bored the cask they sip the wine through a tube, in which they feel wonderful delight, even though the wine in itself is common and less savory. So likewise adulterers and fornicators burn with stolen lust for another's wife or a harlot, even though she be less beautiful and adorned. Whence our Salazar understands by hidden or stolen bread the bran bread, which is made from bran, which is given to pigs and dogs, likewise to vile men, such as slaves and harlots. For those who imitate pigs and dogs in foulness and shameless lust ought to be fed with swine and canine husks with the prodigal son, Luke XV, 16. For bran seems to be named from stealing, because the sieve or bolter, having passed the finer flour through itself, retains and steals the bran, just as the poor who grind the bread of the rich often keep and steal it for themselves. Whence Terence in the Eunuch asserts that harlots "rightly devour black bread (such as bran bread) soaked with yesterday's broth." Furthermore, in all things indeed stolen delights are greater, but especially in love. Whence poets everywhere, who treat of loves, celebrate stolen love, that is, obtained clandestinely and as if by theft; and fornicators and pimps especially seek stolen girls, that is, abducted from elsewhere, or snatched away, according to that of Plautus in the Curculio: "Who trade in stolen girls, and freeborn virgins." And in the Persa: He brought at the same time a desirable woman, Stolen, abducted from deepest Arabia. Indeed adultery itself is called theft, because it is the theft of another's wife, which is certainly greater than the theft of an ox or horse. Whence Tibullus: Venus wishes her thefts to be hidden. that is, adulteries. And Ovid, II Metamorphoses: This theft certainly my wife will not know, he says. And a child conceived by theft is called a child conceived from adultery. Thus Clement of Alexandria, book III Pedagogue, chapter XII: "Sweet stolen water, he says, he calls stolen love. Hence aided by the Boeotian Pindar: Something sweet, he says, is the stolen care of love." Furthermore, why stolen things are more pleasant than open things, there are various causes, in that stolen things have greater desire and concupiscence, and this for many reasons. The first is, which St. Jerome gives in chapter XIII of Hosea: "For whatever is not permitted is more desired. For we always strive toward the forbidden, and we desire what is denied." Prohibition therefore sharpens the concupiscence of the forbidden thing, just as surrounding cold sharpens heat through antiperistasis. He adds a second reason, because "what is sweet by rarity becomes bitter by constant use." For things that are obvious, as it were in our hands, we esteem lightly; but secret, closed and hidden things, as if new, rare and curious, we pursue. Thus St. Augustine, whose words I shall presently recite. For lust is curious above all other things: hence it always seeks new mistresses, new loves, new modes and arts of lust. Wherefore Plutarch, in the book On Curiosity, says that adultery is nothing other than curiosity about another's pleasure. For lust, because insatiable, cannot be satisfied by one; hence it continually seeks others and others, that it might satiate itself, and finds no satiation, because, as I have said, it is insatiable, just as a dropsical person desires water again and again, because his thirst is insatiable. Wherefore in their imagination it paints and fashions a chimera of illicit pleasure as most sweet, so that they imagine and persuade themselves that nothing is sweeter than a harlot, when in the nature of the thing it is often nothing more deformed, sordid, putrid. Hence for "sweeter" in Hebrew is יִנְעָם iinam, that is, it becomes fair, that is, it appears fair, appears sweet. Third, because stolen girls, for example those captured in war, or seized by force, or led away by fraud, or seduced, are often chaste and virgins, who are more eagerly sought by fornicators. For these men disdain harlots as vile and sordid, and pursue virgins as honest and noble. Conversely virgins, because inexperienced, think that in lust there lies hidden some wondrous pleasure, hence they are more keenly tempted by it. Thus St. Jerome, in the epistle On Avoiding Suspicious Cohabitation: "Among the allurements of pleasures," he says, "lust tames even iron minds, which suffers greater hunger in virgins, while they think sweeter everything that they know not. A libidinous mind suspects sweeter what is not permitted." Fourth, because stolen things are obtained with greater difficulty: but difficulty of a desired thing increases desire. Thus Quintilian, Declamation 14: "That some affection may grow into frenzy," he says, "difficulties are necessary: affection from things conceded is brief, and soon borders on satiety." Fifth, because in stolen things the very art of deceiving and stealing delights, which is often very ingenious and contains great cleverness: and therefore both that delights greatly, and that by which one obtains it. Hence the Poets make Mercury a god, because he himself is the inventor and contriver of art and deceptions, and deceit and fraud, and therefore they give him the epithet κλέπτης, that is, thief: to which Horace alludes, book I, ode 10: "Bright," he says, "whatever it pleased the playful one to hide by theft." Thus St. Augustine, book III of the Confessions, chapter IV and following, recounts that he with his companions stole pears, not for the pears, but for the art and deception which is in theft: "And I," he says, "wished to commit theft, and I did so compelled by no want, nor poverty, but by disgust of justice and fattening of iniquity, etc.; not for our feasts, but that it might be done by us, which pleased us because it was not permitted. And at the end of chapter VI: "Did it please to act against the law at least by deception, because I could not by power, that as a captive I might imitate a maimed freedom by doing with impunity what was not permitted, by a dark similitude of omnipotence?" And chapter IX: "It was laughter, as if our heart was tickled because we deceived those who did not think these things were being done by us, and greatly did not wish it, etc., when it is said: Let us go, let us do it, and it shames not to be shameless." A similar example of a monk stealing bread, which he did not need, Cassian recounts, Conferences II, chapter XI. Many similar things confessors hear, who receive the confessions of petty thieves. Finally, the demon, that he might draw men to thefts and stolen lusts, persuades them that those are sweeter than the pleasures of marriage and other lawful things. Mystically, "stolen waters" are wicked arts and sciences which are taught secretly, such as the art of magic, divination by lots, divination, judicial astrology, and especially heresy. Thus St. Augustine, tract. 97 in John: "Beware," he says, "fearing and praying, lest you rush into that riddle of Solomon, where a foolish and bold woman, made destitute of bread, calls to those passing by, saying: Taste hidden breads willingly, and the sweetness of stolen waters. For this woman is the vanity of the impious, since they are most foolish, thinking themselves to know something, just as it was said of this woman: She is made destitute of bread. Since she is destitute of bread, she promises breads, that is, since she is ignorant of truth, she promises knowledge of truth; yet she promises hidden breads, which she nevertheless says are willingly touched, and the sweetness of stolen waters: so that those things are heard and done more willingly and sweetly which are forbidden to be said and believed openly in the Church." He adds the reason, which I assigned a little before in the second place: "For the wicked teachers themselves season their poisons with a certain concealment for the curious, so that they might think themselves to learn something great because they deserve to have a secret; and they drink in more sweetly the foolishness which they think is knowledge, whose prohibited boldness they steal in a certain way. Hence also the wicked rites they commend to their people, deceived or to be deceived by sacrilegious curiosity, by the teaching of magical arts. Hence those illicit divinations by inspecting the entrails of slaughtered beasts, or by the voices and flights of birds, or by the manifold signs of demons whisper into the ears of men about to perish (or rather, ignorant men), through the conversations of the lost. Because of these illicit and punishable secrets that woman is called not only foolish, but also bold. But these things are alien not only in reality, but also from the name of our religion. What? That this foolish and bold woman, under the Christian name, has concocted so many wicked heresies, has fabricated so many abominable fables." Hear St. Gregory, lib. XXIII Moral. cap. XXVI: "There are," he says, "certain heresies which openly fear to preach what they feel, and they season their words among the minds of the weak all the more, the more they conceal them as it were with greater reverence: for to wretched hearts the hidden words of heretics taste all the more, the more they are not had in common with the rest." The same, in the following cap. XXVII, calls this stolen water and hidden bread the pleasure of the present life. Yet the irritation in pleasure is usually so great, and in some other such earthly good, where it is first not granted, but denied, or at least obtained with difficulty, that the devil often uses this artifice: which was marvelously expressed in Pharaoh denying straw, and nevertheless compelling the Hebrews to works of clay. In Exodus V it is said: "You shall no longer give straw to the people to make bricks." Where Procopius most excellently thus explains it: "In this way the devil urges those who strive to work for God, he presents difficulty in malice, lest its satiety produce disgust in his worshipper; we always strive toward what is forbidden, and we desire what is denied; and the more we are hindered, the more we burn with desire." Thus Procopius. So to religious men the demon often sends tedium of continual obedience, and sends desire for a separated life, by which one might live blessed for himself and God. This happened to the Abbot of Chartres, who, loathing the life and burden of a Prelate, was thinking of Jerusalem, so that he might live there a private and blessed life. To whom St. Bernard, epist. 82: "But you will say," he says, "Whence then is such desire for me, if it is not from God? With your permission I will say what I feel. Stolen waters are sweeter, and such (so to speak) one who is not ignorant of his cunning does not hesitate to pour into your thirsty heart a sweetness more bitter than wormwood from the angel of Satan, under the pretext of an angel of light. For he whose envy brought death into the world, even now envies the good things which he sees you doing; and, since he is a liar from the beginning, he lies even now promising better things, which he does not see; mixing false honey with true gall, while he promises uncertain things for certain ones, he also sends true things for false ones, not that he might confer what you hope for in vain, but that he might take away what you hold fruitfully. But I trust that you will not be able to be drawn away or seduced by any malignities of the wicked, to enter certain evil in hope of uncertain good, and equally to abandon certain good." Thus Bernard scattered throughout that epistle. Finally, stolen waters are desires which, because they are foul and base, seek hiding places and are satisfied in secret; whereas virtue, being honest, seeks the light and fears no one's eyes. God presides over this, who is the fountain of all good; the devil presides over that, who promises and provides only shadows of good. Whence God justly complains in Jeremiah II, 13, saying: "They have left me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."
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18. AND HE KNEW NOT THAT GIANTS ARE THERE, AND THAT HER GUESTS ARE IN THE DEPTHS OF HELL. — He knew not, not the harlot, but the young man enticed by her. For in Hebrew the verb is masculine לא ידע lo iada, that is, he knew not, namely the little one, and the foolish young man invited and seduced by the harlot, as if to say: The rude and foolish adolescent knows not that giants rule in the house of the harlot, and that her guests with her descend to hell. Whence the improvident young man, without fear of giants and of hell, like an ox led to the victims follows the harlot, and there falls into the hands of giants, by whom he is led to tartarus: for these things are plainly to be supplied from cap. VII, vers. 22. For giants in Hebrew is רפאים rephaim; the Septuagint γηγενεῖς, that is, earth-born, or begotten of the earth and sons of the earth. For thus were giants called, as being greedy of earthly things, incapable of heavenly things. The Scholiast translates it θεόμαχοι, that is, fighting against God; the Zurich Bible and R. Levi, the dead; others translate it, the shades of hell. By giants are signified demons and the damned: for these are like unto giants both in wickedness and in damnation, and wage eternal wars and hatreds with God. He alludes to the giants, who were born of lust, Gen. VI, 2; Job XXVI, 5: "Behold, giants groan under the waters, and they that dwell with them." For as giants were submerged in the flood in the time of Noah, and thence hurled down into tartarus: so also demons and the damned. For the abyss of hell lies beneath the abyss of water. Whence Holy Scripture everywhere places giants, as it were the damned on account of their notable pride and impiety, in hell, and calls hell the house of giants, Prov. II, 18, and cap. XXI, 16; Wisdom XIV, 6; Isaiah XXVI, 14. Nay, the Gentiles, as Macrobius testifies, lib. I Saturn. cap. XX, said that the giants of the Poets signified an impious nation contemning and denying the gods; and therefore they affixed to them the feet of dragons, to represent that they thought nothing upright, the whole course and progress of their life tending to the infernal regions. Therefore it signifies that giants, that is, demons, rule in the house of the harlot, so that they incite both her herself and her lovers to lust and every wickedness. Whence St. Chrysostom, homil. 2 in Matt., calls the chamber of the harlot the workshop of the devil. The same in Psal. XLI: "As," he says, "where there is mud, thither swine run: so where there are harlots, and harlot songs, there demons gather together." And St. Ephrem in tract. Against wicked women: "What," he says, "is a harlot? The cause of the devil, the devil's consolation, the devil's weapons, the triumph of darkness, the leader of sins." Otherwise the Septuagint translates it, he himself, they say, knew not that giants perish with her; the Chaldee, and he knew not that giants are cast down there; the Zurich Bible, and he knew not that the dead are there; the Syriac, he knows not that the strong perish with her, as if to say: The bold young man, trusting in his own strength of mind and body, fears no evil from anyone in the house of the harlot; but he knows not that in the same place have perished cast down giants, that is, men mighty in strength, in wisdom, nay and in holiness and excellence, such as were Samsons, Davids, Solomons; wherefore much more shall he himself in the same place be cast down and perish, both in body by accelerating death to himself through lust and licentiousness; and in soul, binding it to the demon and to gehenna. "Lust has conquered the strongest men, and the intercourse with one woman has driven the violent to ruin," says St. Basil, in the book On St. Virgin. For indeed the way, he says, which leads to her house goes straight to hell and the abyss of death: but he meanwhile, blinded by luxury, and devoted to flesh and gluttony, does not consider that not only pygmies, but giants also perish with her. For indeed those who obey her ways and counsels become entirely earthly and carnal, and wholly turned to flesh are at length led away to eternal destruction. Clement of Alexandria, book III of the Pedagogue, chapter XII, for giants, translates serpents: "But the wretched man does not know," he says, "that serpents dwell with her;" but by serpents he understands giants: because, as Macrobius testifies, I Saturn. XX, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, oration 2 Against Julian, the ancients depicted giants as men above and serpents below, or with serpent coils, so as to signify that they mixed power with cunning and deceit, so that what they could not accomplish by strength, they might accomplish by fraud. Both serpents and giants therefore represent demons: but serpents denote their craftiness and deceits, giants their strength and ferocity. He alludes to the devil, who in the form of a serpent deceived Eve, and through Eve Adam, Gen. III. In like manner indeed day by day through women and harlots he seduces and destroys a greater number of men. Hence consequently by serpents can be understood the harlot herself, and her associates and procuresses. For these, as if breathed upon by the serpent's breath, have drawn in serpentine ways, deceits and frauds by which with a thousand enticements and arts, as with coils, they so entwine and entangle their lovers that they cannot extricate themselves, according to that passage Eccles. cap. XXV, 22: "There is no head more wicked than the head of a serpent, and there is no wrath above the wrath of a woman," etc. See the sayings there. There exists among the fables of Aesop the last one about the serpent and the farmer: "A farmer," it says, "warmed a serpent nearly frozen by cold in his bosom; but the serpent, growing warm from the heat of his bosom, bit and killed the farmer." Thus do the wicked treat their benefactors; thus indeed do harlots treat their lovers; are they not therefore serpents? What then is a harlot? St. Ephrem answers, tract. Against wicked women: "It is a desired madness, a viper clothed;" and Anastasius of Nicaea, Question LXIII in Scripture: "It is the rest of the serpent, the consolation of the devil, the workshop of demons." You would say the same of any cupidity; for this is the mystical harlot. Moreover these giants, namely demons, are called by the Scholiast θεόμαχοι, that is, fighters against God, because demons, since they burn with anger and vengeance against God, inasmuch as he torments them with the fires of hell, and cannot harm God himself, rage against men, as against living images of God, and pour out their wrath upon them; wherefore they incite them to lusts and fornications, so that by these they may defile, profane and destroy the image of God in themselves. For, as St. Ambrose says, epist. 82: "Virginity is a fountain in which the image of God shines and gleams most brightly." Add that the demon from lust makes a step to other crimes, indeed through it paves the way to these; for when he has conquered the chastity of man, he easily draws him to any crimes, and even to heresy itself. Whence Balaam gave this wicked counsel to Balac king of Moab to destroy Moses and the Hebrews: Send, he said, into the camp of the Hebrews beautiful Moabite maidens, who may entice them to love of themselves, and yet do not grant them their favors until the Hebrews have adored their idol Beelphegor. And the event answered to the counsel. See the history, Num. XXV, where I have treated it. Thus today for Luther, Calvin and other apostates lust was and is the origin and cause of apostasy and heresy. AND IN THE DEPTHS OF HELL HER GUESTS. — The Hebrew, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, her invited guests, that is to say, This harlot kills her guests and lovers, and sends them to the underworld and tartarus, so that just as here they were her guests in crime and the heat of lust, so there they may be her guests in the heat of hell. Let her therefore say to her lovers that which Leonidas said: "Dine here with me, fellow soldiers, about to sup with me among the shades." Whence the Septuagint translates, and in the depth of hell it meets; St. Jerome, in cap. XIII of Hosea: "The earthborn perish with her, and meet in the depth of hell;" the author of the Greek Catena, πέταυρον, that is, depth; also translates it as net, or snare: for the harlot is the net of the devil and the snare of hell; whoever therefore wishes to escape it, let him flee from the harlot, as birds fly away from the net. Wherefore Salonius here: "Whoever willingly hears the words of a harlot, he says, and pleasantly receives her kisses, as it were knocks at the door of hell." For, as St. Gregory says: "From the time that lust has occupied the mind of anyone, it scarcely permits him to think of good things. For desires are sticky; from consent arises action, from action habit, from habit despair." See the sayings at chapter II, verse 18, and chapter V, verse 5. Therefore let this from Isaiah XXXIII, 14 be impressed upon fornicators: "Who among you shall be able to dwell with devouring fire? who among you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" See the sayings there. Moreover St. Ephrem, in the tract On Various Torments of Hell: "That, he says, in the depths of hell, declares that some indeed are among the infernal regions, but not in the depths, or lowest part of hell, who are punished far more mildly." The lustful, therefore, who are in the depths of hell, are punished more severely than other damned. Hear St. Cyril of Alexandria, in the oration On the Departure of the Soul and on the Second Coming, volume IV, recounting the punishments of hell and vividly setting them before the eyes: "Woe to the guilty, he says, when they shall be driven out from the hall of the wedding! alas what repentance then, what affliction, what anguish, what tossing about shall there be? It is grievous to be separated from the Saints, harder to be separated from God, shameful to be bound hand and foot, and cast into fire; troublesome to be thrust down into the lowest darkness, dreadful to gnash with teeth and waste away, hateful to be tormented without end; evil for the tongue to be inflamed with ruin, to seek a drop of water, and not to obtain it; bitter to be in fire, and to cry out, and not to be helped; insurmountable gates, an immense gulf, where whoever is shut in and held cannot escape or flee; an insurmountable wall of custody, merciless keepers, a dark prison, unbroken chains, unshakeable fetters, dire and fierce flames as its ministers, those grave scourges applied to torture, firm nails and unbroken, hard sinews, turbid pitch and torrent, stinking sulphur, those fiery chambers, extinguished pyres, putrid and poisonous worm, inexplicable assembly, an invincible judge by grace, an inexcusable defense; faces of the great marked with shame, worn-out nobles, beggars as kings, ignorant wise men, foolish and rejected orators, mad rich men, unheard false flatteries of writers, manifest malices of the wicked, clear cunning of deceivers, poisonous odor of the avaricious, open simulation of persons, scourgers, impostors, all things among them naked and laid bare. Woe to the wicked! profane, criminal and impure are they in the sight of God." The Roman Septuagint adds this verse: But spring back, linger not in the place, nor cast your eye upon her, thus shall you pass over another's water. do not be swept away by the torrent of lust; flee far from the harlot. Mystically, the same Clement, in book I of the Stromata, says these words signify that one must beware of the baptism of heretics. Furthermore the Roman Septuagint adds: "But abstain from another's water, and drink not from a strange fountain, that you may live a long time, and years of life may be added to you." The Syriac also reads this, and the Council of Carthage in St. Cyprian, where Nemesianus endeavors to prove from these that one must beware of the baptism of heretics, and therefore that it is invalid and void, which was the error of St. Cyprian and of that entire Council. But Clement, in book III of the Paedagogus, chapter II, expounds it literally of the harlot: "From another's water, he says, abstain, and drink not from a strange fountain, admonishing us to avoid the flowing stream of tickling sensual pleasure, that we may live a long time; and years of life may be added to us, either to those not hunting after strange pleasure, or also to those declining heresies." Which Clement of Alexandria thus explains, in book III of the Paedagogus, chapter II: "The pedagogue counsels us not to approach another's river, signifying by another's river an alien wife given over to lust (and like a river sweeping away and absorbing lovers with itself) allegorically, so that she who flows out to all, and pours herself out through harlotrous intemperance to the pleasure of all." Just as therefore you flee far from a rapid torrent lest you be swept away by it: so flee far from the harlot lest you be swept away by the torrent of lust. Hence the author of the Catena of the Greeks notes: Just as, he says, with God there is a fountain of life, so with the devil there is a vein or fountain of death. Again, as the fountain of God is of virtue and knowledge, so the fountain of the devil is of wickedness and ignorance. But all these things are absent from the Hebrew, the Latin Vulgate, and the Greek Complutensian. Wherefore they do not obtain certain authority of Holy Scripture.
The Second Part of the Book Hitherto extends the encomium and exhortation to wisdom, by which Solomon, recounting, inculcating and exaggerating the praises, gifts and fruits of wisdom, invited and incited all to it. Having therefore set forth this as it were as a preamble, he now undertakes to deliver the Parables themselves, that is the maxims and doctrines of wisdom, or Ethics. Therefore this second part is inscribed in Hebrew משלי misle, that is Parables, that is maxims and practical sentences of Solomon, which in Hebrew are like most elegant verses and rhythms, both by antithesis, and by paronomasias, and by homoioteleuton, or similarly falling endings, and other figures, and often the latter hemistich is an opposition of the former; although sometimes tacitly only and obscurely through metonymy, by which from cause effect, and metalepsis, by which from the antecedent the consequent opposed, or conversely from the consequent the antecedent, or the concomitant, opposed, he leaves to be understood by the reader. I shall give examples in chapter X, verses 6, 8, 9, 13, 14 and following. For frequently he opposes the wise man to the fool, the just to the impious, the industrious to the lazy, the rich to the poor, and in general virtue to vice, attaching to virtue its rewards, to vice its punishments. Yet there are certain maxims that are mere parables, that is similitudes, by which he compares and assimilates one thing, for example virtue, to another; some also are not so much concerning morals as concerning the events of this life, which namely certain states, duties, actions in this life are accustomed to accompany, or to follow, whether frequently or sometimes. Moreover some are threatening, others promising, some ethical, others domestic, others political, as I said in the Prologue. Finally these maxims are set forth mixed and disparate without order and are mingled together, as happens in the distichs of Cato, of Publilius Syrus and other ancient Gnomologists. Whence Hugo on chapter X: This chapter, he says, equally as the following ones up to chapter XXV, has as many parts as parables; wherefore here connection is not to be sought, nor can the chapters be divided into certain sections.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
9:1
… representations of Sophia: 1) at Yaroslavl (a host of various representatives of the Church surrounds the group of the Crucifixion); 2) at Kiev (the Madonna with the Child, surrounded by saints and angels, stands in a temple built on seven columns; an allusion to Prov. 9:1); 3) at Novgorod (one sees a winged angel of the color of fire, with the Madonna on one side and St. John the Baptist on the other; above this principal group one sees, in a small …
9:4
… mediated, of Christ — not any sort of naivety, not the puerility that makes one accessible to the seductions of evil and error (2 Cor. 11:3). "In life, one wants a little malice, says St. Teresa, and not so much simplicity!" (Ep. 270, n. 3; cf. Ps. 17:26-27; Prov. 9:4, 16). Simplicity must be allied with Christian maturity (1 Cor. 14:20), with the evangelical art of insinuating oneself even into the heart of one's neighbor, however ill-disposed, in …
9:5
… The three essential texts of the Old Testament are: Prov. 9, 5 ff., Ps. 22, 5 and Cant. 5, 1 (see J. Daniélou, Les repas de la Bible et leur signification, in La Maison-Dieu, 18, pp. 8-12). G. comments on them in a eucharistic sense. …
9:6
… are heaped up those who forget God, sinners (ibid. 9:18; 21:16), despisers of the Law (Eccl. 41:11). It appears ever more as the "wages" of sin (cf. Rom. 2:7; 5:12, 21; 6:23), in opposition to the "life" reserved for the good (Prov. 3:18; 8:35; 9:6; 12:2; 16:21); to the f. that is below is opposed "the way of life" that leads on high (Prov. 15:24). Even after the exile, the twofold conception coexists, partly interpenetrating, …
9:10
… I have more understanding than the elders, because I observe your commandments »; Prov. 9:10: « The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh; and understanding is the knowledge of the Holy One »; in Jn. 8:12, Jesus says: « He who follows me does not walk in darkness, but …
… It has its origin in God (Ex. 28:3; 1 Kings 3:9; 5:9; Is. 28:26; Ecclus. 38:6); its basis is the "fear of God" (Prov. 1:7; 9:10; Job 28:28; Ecclus. 1:16-22; Ps. 110:10). Especially after the exile, wisdom became the favorite theme of the inspired scribes. …
9:18
… The deceased, called (Is. 14:9; 26:14, 19; Ps. 87:11; Prov. 2:18; 9:18; 21:16; Job 26:5) rēphā'im ("weak, flaccid, evanescent," Vulg. gigantes), as among the Canaanites-Phoenicians (Ugarit, inscriptions of Eshmun'azar and Tabnit), lead there, in an amorphous …
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.