Further praises of wisdom: and her fruits.
VVisdom excelling al thinges, that can be desired, 9. is worthely preferred as the cause of much estimation, 13. and of immortal glorie, 16. without molestation. 21. Alwhich is Gods gift.
1She reacheth, therefore, from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly.Ella pertanto arriva da una estremità all'altra: con possanza, e con soavità le cose tutte dispone.SHE reacheth therfore from end vnto end mightely, and disposeth al thinges swetely.Attingit ergo a fine usque ad finem fortiter, / et disponit omnia suaviter. 2Her have I loved, and have sought her out from my youth, and have desired to take for my spouse, and I became a lover of her beauty.Questa io amai, e ricercai dalla prima mia giovinezza, è procurai di prendermela per isposa, e divenni amatore di sua bellezza.Her haue I loued, and haue sought her out from my youth, and haue sought to take her for my spouse, and I was made a louer of her beautie.Hanc amavi, et exquisivi a juventute mea, / et quæsivi sponsam mihi eam assumere, / et amator factus sum formæ illius. 3She glorifieth her nobility by being conversant with God: yea, and the Lord of all things hath loved her.La nobiltà di lei è dimostrata gloriosamente dal convivere, che ella fa con Dio; ed anzi lo stesso Signore di tutte le cose la ama:She glorifieth her nobilitie, hauing consociation with God: yea and the Lord of al hath loued her.Generositatem illius glorificat, / contubernium habens Dei; / sed et omnium Dominus dilexit illam. 4For it is she that teacheth the knowledge of God and is the chooser of his works.Perocché della scienza di Dio ella è maestra, e delle opere di lui fa scelta.For she is the mistresse of the discipline of God, & the chooser of his workes.Doctrix enim est disciplinæ Dei, / et electrix operum illius. 5And if riches be desired in life, what is richer than wisdom, which maketh all things?E se in questa vita si appetiscono le ricchezze, che v'ha di più ricco, che la sapienza fattrice di tutte le cose?And if riches be desired in life, what is richer then wisdom, which worketh al thinges?Et si divitiæ appetuntur in vita, / quid sapientia locupletius quæ operatur omnia ? 6And if sense do work: who is a more artful worker than she of those things that are?E se l'intelligenza produce delle opere, chi più di lei in queste cose, che esistono, l'arte mostrò?And if vnderstanding doe worke: who is the worker of those things that are, more then she?Si autem sensus operatur, / quis horum quæ sunt magis quam illa est artifex ? 7And if a man love justice: her labours have great virtues: for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life.E se uno ama in giustizia, le fatiche di lei hanno per obbietto delle grandi virtù; perocché ella insegna la temperanza, la prudenza, e la giustizia, e la fortezza, delle quali nissuna cosa è più utile negli uomini nella lor vita.And if a man loue iustice: her labours haue great vertues: for she teacheth sobrietie, and prudence, and iustice, and strength, then the which nothing is more profitable in life to men.Et si justitiam quis diligit, / labores hujus magnas habent virtutes: / sobrietatem enim et prudentiam docet, / et justitiam, et virtutem, / quibus utilius nihil est in vita hominibus.
8And if a man desire much knowledge: she knoweth things past, and judgeth of things to come: she knoweth the subtilties of speeches, and the solutions of arguments: she knoweth signs and wonders before they be done, and the events of times and ages.E se uno brama il molto sapere, ella è, che sa le passate cose, e fa giudizio delle future, conosce gli artifizj del discorso, e la soluzione degli enimmi, conosce i segni, e i prodigj prima che succedano, e gli avvenimenti de' tempi, e de' secoli.And if a man desire multitude of knowlege: she knoweth thinges past, & coniectureth of thinges to come: she knoweth the subtilities of wordes, and the solution of arguments: she knoweth signes and wonders before they be done, and the euentes of times and ages.Et si multitudinem scientiæ desiderat quis, / scit præterita, et de futuris æstimat; / scit versutias sermonum, et dissolutiones argumentorum; / signa et monstra scit antequam fiant, / et eventus temporum et sæculorum. 9I purposed, therefore, to take her to me to live with me: knowing that she will communicate to me of her good things, and will be a comfort in my cares and grief.Lei adunque mi risolvei di prendere a convivere con me, ben sapendo come ella comunicherà meco i suoi beni, e mi consolerà nelle cure, e negli affanni.I purposed therfore to bring her to me to liue together: knowing that she wil communicate vnto me of good thinges, and wil be a comfort of my cogitation & tediousnes.Proposui ergo hanc adducere mihi ad convivendum, / sciens quoniam mecum communicabit de bonis, / et erit allocutio cogitationis et tædii mei. 10For her sake I shall have glory among the multitude, and honour with the ancients, though I be young:Per lei io sarò illustre presso la moltitudine, e giovane sarò onorato dai seniori.I shal haue for her sake glorie with the multitudes, and honour with the ancient being yong:Habebo propter hanc claritatem ad turbas, / et honorem apud seniores juvenis; 11And I shall be found of a quick conceit in judgment, and shall be admired in the sight of the mighty, and the faces of princes shall wonder at me.E mi troveranno sottile nel giudicare, e sarò ammirato dinanzi ai grandi, e i principi mostreranno ne' volli loro com'io lor rechi stupore.and I sh•• be found sharpe in iudgement, and in the sight of the mightie I shal be meruelous, and the faces of princes wil meruel at me.et acutus inveniar in judicio, / et in conspectu potentium admirabilis ero, / et facies principum mirabuntur me:
12They shall wait for me when I hold my peace, and they shall look upon me when I speak; and if I talk much, they shall lay their hands on their mouth.S'io tacerò, aspetteranno, ch'io parli, se parlerò, saranno intenti a me, e andando io avanti nel discorso, si metteranno il dito alla bocca.Holding my peace they shal expect me, and whiles I speake manie wordes, they shallay their hands on their mouth.tacentem me sustinebunt, / et loquentem me respicient, / et sermocinante me plura, manus ori suo imponent. 13Moreover, by the means of her I shall have immortality: and shall leave behind me an everlasting memory to them that come after me.Oltre a ciò per lei avrò io l'immortalità, e lascerò a quelli, che saran dopo di me eterna la mia ricordanza.Moreouer by her I shal haue immortalitie: and I shal leaue an eternal memorie to them, that shal be after me.Præterea habebo per hanc immortalitatem, / et memoriam æternam his qui post me futuri sunt relinquam. 14I shall set the people in order: and nations shall be subject to me.Governerò i popoli, e saranno soggette a me le nazioni.I shal dispose peoples: and nations shal be subiect to me.Disponam populos, / et nationes mihi erunt subditæ: 15Terrible kings hearing, shall be afraid of me: among the multitude I shall be found good, and valiant in war.I re feroci temeranno al sentire il mio nome: col popolo parrò clemente, e forte in guerra.Horrible kings hearing shal feare me: in the multitude I shal seme good, and in battel strong.timebunt me audientes reges horrendi. / In multitudine videbor bonus, / et in bello fortis. 16When I go into my house, I shall repose myself with her: for her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness.Entrando nella mia casa avrò presso di lei il mio riposo: perocché atta ha di amaro il conversare con lei, e il convivere insieme con essa non ha tedio, ma consolazione, e gaudio.Entring into my house, I shal rest with her: for her conuersation hath no bitternes, nor her companie tediousnes, but ioy and gladnesse.Intrans in domum meam, conquiescam cum illa: / non enim habet amaritudinem conversatio illius, / nec tædium convictus illius, / sed lætitiam et gaudium. 17Thinking these things with myself, and pondering them in my heart, that to be allied to wisdom is immortality,Queste cose avendo io ripensate; e nel mio cuor rammentando, come nell'unione colla sapienza si ha l'immortalità,Thinking these thinges with myselfe, and recording in my hart, that immortalitie is in the kindred of wisedom,Hæc cogitans apud me / et commemorans in corde meo, / quoniam immortalitas est in cognatione sapientiæ, 18And that there is great delight in her friendship, and inexhaustible riches in the works of her hands, and in the exercise of conference with her, wisdom, and glory in the communication of her words: I went about seeking, that I might take her to myself.E nella amicizia di lei una buona dilettazione, e nelle opere delle mani di lei una inesausta ricchezza, e nel confabulare con lei la prudenza, e nell'essere a parte de' suoi ragionamenti si ha acquisto di gloria, io andava attorno in cerca di lei per farla mia.and good delectation in her frendship, and in the workes of her handes honestie without defect, and wisdom in the disputation of her talke, and glorie in the communication of her wordes: I went about seeking, that I might take her to me.et in amicitia illius delectatio bona, / et in operibus manuum illius honestas sine defectione, / et in certamine loquelæ illius sapientia, / et præclaritas in communicatione sermonum ipsius: / circuibam quærens, ut mihi illam assumerem.
19And I was a witty child, and had received a good soul.Or io era fanciullo ingegnoso, ed ebbi in sorte un'anima buona.And I was a wittie childe, and had gotten a good soule.Puer autem eram ingeniosus, / et sortitus sum animam bonam. 20And whereas I was more good, I came to a body undefiled.Ed essendo io più buono venni ad avere corpo immacolato.And wheras I was more good, I came to a bodie vndefield.Et cum essem magis bonus, / veni ad corpus incoinquinatum. 21And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, and this also was a point of wisdom, to know whose gift it was, I went to the Lord, and besought him, and said with my whole heart:E tosto ch'io seppi, come io non poteva essere continente, se Dio non mel concedeva (ed era effetto di sapienza il sapere da chi venga tal dono), io mi presentai al Signore, e lo pregai, e dissi con tutto il mio cuore:And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, vnlesse God gaue it, this verie thing also was wisdom, to know whose this gift was: I went to our Lord, and besought him, and said from my whole hart.Et ut scivi quoniam aliter non possem esse continens, nisi Deus det; / et hoc ipsum erat sapientiæ, scire cujus esset hoc donum: / adii Dominum, et deprecatus sum illum, / et dixi ex totis præcordiis meis:
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Worthington
She. The uncreated wisdom is infinite; and the created is the most excellent of God's gifts. (Worthington)
St. Augustine
Sweetly. God is every where present, (St. Bernard) and directeth all with ease. (St. Augustine, ep. ad Dard. q. i.)
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Haydock
Works. Directing us to imitate them, as much as possible. (Haydock)
She teaches us how to refer all to God, (Menochius) while mere philosophers stop at vain speculations, and barren admiration of the Deity.
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Speeches. Rhetoric, (Grotius) or doubtful matters, as Solomon discovered the real mother, 3 Kings 3:27.
Calmet
Arguments. Greek, "riddles," which were much in fashion, 3 Kings 10:1. (Calmet)
Menochius
Wonders. Such as comets and eclipses. (Menochius)
Plut.[Plutarch?] in Nicias
When Anaxagoras discovered the latter, he durst not write, but only instructed his disciples in secret, for fear of being taken for an atheist, or magician. (Plut.[Plutarch?] in Nicias.)
The sciences, which are now common, were formerly confined to few; and the people looked upon eclipses as so many prodigies. The wise man is possessed of all natural sciences, and can predict the changes of weather, etc.
Ages. Forming a judgment of futurity from past occurrences.
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Haydock
After me. He speaks to the great, who are more sensible of glory. Solomon's fame would have continued untarnished, if he had not fallen, (Calmet) and we may hope that he repented, and verified this prediction. (Haydock)
Worthington
It is not certain that he obtained immortal glory. (Worthington)
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Of me. Wisdom is the best protection.
Good and valiant. These are the two most essential qualifications of kings.
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St. Augustine
Received. "By lot," sortitus, (Haydock) to exclude all preceding merit. (St. Augustine, de Gen. lit. 10:18.)
Calmet
Good soul. Natural dispositions (Pineda) are perfected by grace and labour. (Calmet)
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St. Augustine
More good. The pre-existence of souls seems to be insinuated, though this is not clear, and the opinion is now rejected. Some are born with a better disposition for learning than others. (St. Augustine, contra Jul. 4:3.)
Calmet
Yet none possess any seeds of virtue by nature, or are more infected than others, with original sin, as some heretics would assert. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Continent. All good must come from God. (Haydock)
St. Augustine
Chastity cannot be preserved without his aid. (St. Augustine, Confessions 6:11.)
Haydock
Yet this seems not to be the literal sense. Solomon prays for the acquisition of wisdom, (Calmet; Ecclesiasticus 6:28., and 15:1.; Menochius) which includes continence, religion, and every virtue. (Haydock)
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God, the increated wisdom is infinite and wisdom created is also most excellent amongst Gods giftes.
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Concordance 3. Reg. 3.
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Prou. •.
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This is also the speach of Salomon, recited by the writer of this booke.
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Of Salomons wisdom, riches, glorie & renowmed fame not only the bookes of Kinges & Paralipomenon, but also our Sauiour doth witnes. Mat. 6. & 12.
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It is not certaine that Salomon hath immortal glorie, but rather by immortalitie is here vnderstood that his glorious fame remaineth to the end of this world.
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Neuertheles wisdom of her part, geueth life and glorie euerlasting, to al that perseuere to the end of this life.
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It is certaine that Salomon was sometime innocent and holie, but was peruerted by wemen. 3. Reg. 11.
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 137.12
12. Wherefore the Word of God, who is also the Son of God, co-eternal with the Father, the Power and the Wisdom of God, mightily pervading and harmoniously ordering all things, from the highest limit of the intelligent to the lowest limit of the material creation,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 12.25
… and the other natural objects which we anywhere see, received also their form, not from without, but from the secret and profound might of the Creator, who said, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” and whose wisdom it is that “reacheth from one end to another mightily; and sweetly doth she order all things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.3
… And thus Ishmael was born according to the common law of human generation, by sexual intercourse. Therefore it is said that he was born “according to the flesh,”—not because such births are not the gifts of God, nor His handiwork, whose creative wisdom “reaches,” as it is written, “from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth she order all things,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.5
… For He who says, “I fill heaven and earth,” was everywhere. But if it is said of the Father, where could He be without His own word and without His own wisdom, which “reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly ordereth all things?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.15
… of Israel had stood,” and that “there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness,” therefore we are to believe that the word and wisdom of God in His own substance stood within the space of an earthly place, who indeed “reacheth firmly from end to end, and sweetly ordereth all things;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.17
… For what place is not “by” the Lord, who “reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth order all things,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 3.1
… For where does not the wisdom of the omnipotent God work that which He wills, which “reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth order all things”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 4.13
… the most excellent wisdom of God makes use of both his snares and his fury to bring about the salvation of His own faithful ones, beginning from the former end, which is the beginning of the spiritual creature, even to the latter end, which is the death of the body, and so “reaching from the one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.5
… For He did not receive wisdom whereby to be wise, but He is Himself wisdom. And this is life, and again is power or might, and yet again beauty, whereby He is called powerful and beautiful. For what is more powerful and more beautiful than wisdom, “which reaches from end to end mightily, and sweetly disposes all things”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Faith and the Creed 3
… which [Person] is likewise called His Power and Wisdom, inasmuch as it is by Him that He has wrought all things, and in order disposed them; of whom these words are for this reason spoken: “She (Wisdom) reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth she order all things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Morals of the Catholic Church 16
… Or, if you wish more, hear another passage of the same meaning. "Wisdom," he says, "teaches sobriety, and justice, and virtue."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 23.10
… is with the Manichæans, whose understanding is so incapable of forming a conception of anything except what is material, that they cannot comprehend how the Word of God, who is the virtue and wisdom of God, while remaining in Himself and with the Father, and while governing the universe, reaches from end to end in strength, and sweetly orders all things.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 1.20
… They were the parents of the Son of Man—“He,” the Father of His Word, and Wisdom, and Power, by whom He made all things. But if all things were made by that Wisdom, “which reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly ordereth all things,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 2.5
… You acknowledge Christ then to be the Power and Wisdom of God; acknowledge too what is said of Wisdom, “She reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth she order all things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John chapter21.2
… Where is that inseparable Trinity? Where the Word, of which it is said that the same is “the power and the wisdom of God”? Where that which the Scripture saith of the same wisdom: “For it is the brightness of the eternal light?” Where what was said of it again: “It powerfully reaches from the end even to the end, and ordereth all things sweetly”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 147.23
… This belongeth to the Word of God, not to be in part, to be everywhere by Himself the Word, whereby He is “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God,” before He had taken flesh upon Him. If we think of God in the Form of God, the Word equal to the Father, this is the Wisdom of God, of which is said, “It reacheth from one end to the other mightily.”
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Widows 10
64. And in this place can be seen the disposition of the will of Peter’s mother-in-law, from which she received for herself, as it were, the seed corn of what was to come, for to each his will is the cause of that which is to come. For from the will springs wisdom, which the wise man takes in marriage to himself, saying: “I desire to make her my spouse.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Morals of the Catholic Church 16
28. Perhaps some may think that those passages do not refer to the Son of God. What, then, is taught in the following words: "She displays the nobility of her birth, having her dwelling with God?"
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 2.13
… “It has a spirit sagacious, undefiled, sure, holy, loving what is good, quick, that never forbids a kindness, kind, steadfast, free from care, having all power, overseeing all things.” And again:
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 52.13
… Do not pray at the corners of the streets, lest the applause of men interrupt the straight course of your prayers. Do not broaden your fringes and for show wear phylacteries, or, despite of conscience, wrap yourself in the self-seeking of the Pharisee. Would you know what mode of apparel the Lord requires? Have prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 66.3
3. Let me use for a moment the language of philosophy. According to the Stoics there are four virtues so closely related and mutually coherent that he who lacks one lacks all. They are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.3
… “Which is according to the Gospel of the beauty of the Blessed God.” His Power cannot be denied, of Whom the Father saith: “I have laid help upon One that is mighty.” And who dare refuse to acknowledge Him to be immortal, when He Himself hath made others also immortal, as it is written of the Wisdom of God: “By her shall I possess immortality.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.38
… So that he mentioned the inner man as coming into the world, because the outward man is of a corporeal nature, just as this world itself; as if he said, “Which lighteth every man that cometh into the body,” in accordance with that which is written: “I obtained a good spirit, and I came in a body undefiled.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 218.2
2. You require wisdom, my son, for stedfastness in this race, as it was under the influence of wisdom that you entered on it at first. Let this then be “a part of your wisdom, to know whose gift it is.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 10.29
40. And my whole hope is only in Thy exceeding great mercy. Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt. Thou imposest continency upon us, “nevertheless, when I perceived,” saith one, “that I could not otherwise obtain her, except God gave her me; . . . that was a point of wisdom also to know whose gift she was.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 10.31
45. I hear the voice of my God commanding, let not “your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness.” “Drunkenness,” it is far from me; Thou wilt have mercy, that it approach not near unto me. But “surfeiting” sometimes creepeth upon Thy servant; Thou wilt have mercy, that it may be far from me. For no man can be continent unless Thou give it.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 144.2
… It is written in the book of Christian Wisdom, “I perceived that no one can have self-restraint unless God give it to him, and that this is a part of true wisdom to know whose gift it is.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 188.8
… for wisdom had taught him this for he says, “This also was a point of wisdom, to know whose gift it was; and the knowledge did not suffice him, but he says, “I went to the Lord and made my supplication to Him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 188.12
… “When I perceived that no man can be continent unless God bestow the gift, and that this also is a point of wisdom to know whose gift it is, I went to the Lord, and made my supplication to Him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Continence 1
… For He, who bestows it upon His faithful ones when they are continent, Himself gives discourse of it to His ministers when they speak. Lastly, of so great a matter purposing to speak what Himself shall grant, in the first place we say and prove that Continence is the gift of God.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Continence 28
28. Far be it therefore that we say of continence, of which Scripture saith. “And this very thing was wisdom, to know whose gift it was,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Of Holy Virginity 43
43. Concerning continence also itself hath it not been most openly said, “And when I knew that no one can be continent unless God give it, this also itself was a part of wisdom, to know whose gift it was?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Good of Widowhood 21
… forasmuch as also no one would receive unless willing. But if you ask, Whose gift it is, that it can be by our will received and had? listen to Scripture; yea, rather, because thou knowest, recollect what thou hast read, “Whereas I knew,” saith he, “that no one can be continent, unless God give it, and this itself was of wisdom, to know whose gift it was.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.5
… When He commands us, saying, “Understand now, ye simple among the people,” and we say to Him, “Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments;” what else do we say than, “Give what Thou commandest?” When He commands us, saying, “Go not after thy lusts,” and we say to Him, “We know that no man can be continent, except God gives it to him;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter 22
… What the law of works enjoins by menace, that the law of faith secures by faith. The one says, “Thou shalt not covet;” the other says, “When I perceived that nobody could be continent, except God gave it to him; and that this was the very point of wisdom, to know whose gift she was; I approached unto the Lord, and I besought Him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter 56
… Perhaps, however, a man, in his folly, is unaware that no one can be continent except God give him the gift. To know this, indeed, he requires Wisdom herself.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 11
… the latter under the positive one, to love. The one has reference to continence, the other to righteousness. The one enjoins avoidance of evil; the other, pursuit of good. By eschewing covetousness we put off the old man, and by showing love we put on the new. But no man can be continent unless God endow him with the gift;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 8
… And yet it is God’s gift which is indispensable for the observance of the precepts of chastity. Accordingly, it is said in the Book of Wisdom: “When I knew that no one could be continent, except God gives it, then this became a point of wisdom to know whose gift it was.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints 2.43
… there, therefore, it is read, “When I knew that no one can be continent unless God gives it, and that this was of wisdom, to know whose gift this was.”
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It is answered first, that there are two extremes of the world, that is to say, Wisdom pervades all things from the highest of the heavens even to the lowest of the earth, namely from the circumference of the world even to the center, or "from the convex of the heavens even to the middle center of the earth," as Pope Hadrian says, book III On Images, and, as St. Bernard says, "from the highest heaven even to the lower parts of the earth. And it reaches mightily, not indeed by mobile discourse, or local diffusion, or by the official administration of the subject creature alone; but by a certain substantial and everywhere present strength, by which it most powerfully moves, orders and administers all things. And it is compelled to do all these things by no necessity of its own, nor does it labor in any difficulty in these matters, but disposes all things gently, with a peaceful will." Thus far St. Bernard, treatise On Grace and Free Will after the middle. Whence St. Augustine, epistle 57 to Dardanus, Question I, proves from this passage that divine wisdom, or God, is everywhere; and he adds: "But God is thus diffused through all things, that He is not a quality of the world, but the creative substance of the world, governing without labor, and sustaining the world without burden." Meditating deeply upon this and marveling at it, St. Bernard, book V On Consideration, exclaims: "O wisdom mighty reaching everywhere mightily! O power wise disposing all things gently! One thing, manifold effects, diverse operations. And that one thing is length on account of eternity, breadth on account of charity, sublimity on account of majesty, depth on account of wisdom." Second, these two extremes are the noblest and the vilest creature, that is to say, Wisdom reaches from the highest and "greatest angel even to the lowest worm," as St. Bernard says, On Grace and Free Will, preserving, vivifying, directing, governing all things; and St. Dionysius, chapter VII On Divine Names, disputing concerning divine wisdom: "The reason also," he says, "God is called in the holy Scriptures, not only because He is the giver of reason, and sense, and wisdom; but because He has embraced all the causes of all things uniformly in Himself beforehand; and because He passes through all things penetrating, as it is written, reaching even to the end of all things from the highest substances even to the lowest, etc. For this reason God is recognized in all things, and separately from all things, and from all things indeed, as I have said, that very (wisdom of God) is to be known: and it is, according to the faith of Scripture, the maker of all things and always fitting all things together, and the cause of the indissoluble agreement and order of all things, always joining the ends of prior things to the beginnings of subsequent things, and most fittingly bringing about the one conspiracy and congruence of the world." Third, St. Bernard, On Grace and Free Will: "Wisdom reaches from end to end, that is, he says, from the origin of the creature to the end which He Himself destined for it, or into which nature urges it, or grace accelerates it, or cause brings it to pass." Again it reaches from the beginning of His work (and of each thing) to the end, that is to say, He leaves nothing begun by Himself incomplete, but whatever He begins He perfects, and constantly brings to the end intended by Himself: for there are two extremes of a work, namely the beginning and the end. To St. Bernard accedes St. Augustine, book IV On the Trinity XIV: "With the devil plotting and raging," he says, "God uses for the salvation of His faithful the most excellent, or highest wisdom of God, reaching from the higher end, which is the beginning of spiritual creature, even to the lower end, which is the death of the body, reaching mightily, and disposing all things gently." Allegorically, the wisdom of God reaches from end to end in Christ, for through the incarnation two extremes are joined together, namely the highest and the lowest, that is God and man coming together in the same hypostasis and person: thus St. Augustine, in the place already cited, and epistle 3 to Volus.: for the work of the incarnation was the work of the highest wisdom, the highest strength and power, and also the highest gentleness and mercy, as St. Thomas shows, III part, Question I, article 1. Symbolically St. Bonaventure understands by the two ends the Father and the Holy Spirit: "The second person," he says, "who is called Wisdom, reaches from the Father even to the Holy Spirit, through identity of substance: mightily on account of the Father, to whom power is attributed; gently on account of the Holy Spirit, to whom goodness is attributed." Tropologically St. Bernard, in his work On Grace and Free Will, adapts these things to free will: "Thus therefore, he says, let free will strive to preside over its body, as wisdom presides over the world, touching it itself from end to end, mightily, commanding namely each sense and limb, so powerfully that it does not allow sin to reign in its mortal body, Rom. VI; and thus let it vindicate its ancient dignity and liberty, having cast off the servitude of sin; and let it take care to do these things no less sweetly than mightily, that is, not from sadness or necessity, but with prompt and eager will: for God loves a cheerful giver, and thus in all things it will imitate wisdom, while it resists vices mightily, and rests in conscience sweetly. But by whose example we are provoked to such things, we have need of aid." Again the same St. Bernard adapts these things to charity: for thus he writes, sermon 50 in the Canticles, verse 2: She hath ordered charity in me: "O wisdom, he says, which touches from end to end mightily, in instituting and containing things; and disposes all things sweetly, in blessing and ordering affections, direct our acts, as our temporal necessity demands; and dispose, as your eternal truth requires." Furthermore the same St. Bernard, in his sermon On the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, accommodates these things to them, thus he says: "Wisdom conquers malice, while God's power crushes Satan, and God's wisdom crushes Christ; it touches therefore from end to end mightily, in heaven indeed, casting down the proud; in the world, overcoming the evil one; in hell, despoiling the avaricious. And it disposes all things sweetly: in heaven, confirming the standing angels; in the world, redeeming those sold; in hell, freeing the captives. Or if it pleases better, let us understand it thus: The sevenfold Spirit proceeds in ordered array against the seven degrees of sin; and the first against negligence, fear arises, namely it itself, by which the soul is shaken, conscience is examined, lethal sleep is shaken off, solicitude is struck in; finally it fears God, neglects nothing, but dreads all its works." And with many things interjected: "Therefore wisdom, the conqueror, touches from end to end mightily, eradicating each vice, and inserting each virtue; negligence is shaken off, so that the spirit of fear may fill the mind; curiosity is cast away, so that piety may succeed; experience of evil is put to flight, and knowledge is applied. Thus also fortitude prevails over concupiscence, and counsel cuts off habit, and vigorous intellect removes contempt, and with malice utterly despairing, wisdom reigns. With this indeed triumphing, henceforth that wretched soul, which pernicious negligence had lulled to sleep, which experience had drawn, which concupiscence had held, which habit had bound, which contempt had dragged into prison, which malice had slain: fear raises up, piety gently soothes, knowledge indicating what has been done adds sorrow, fortitude, which is its own, raises up, counsel loosens, intellect leads out of prison, wisdom sets the table, refreshes the hungry one, and restores with healthful nourishment. Finally the same St. Bernard, in his work On Grace and Free Will, adapts these things to Christ and his grace, which reforms all the ends and powers of the soul deformed by sin, conforming them to itself: "And truly, he says, to whom rather did this work befit, than to the Son of God, who since he is the splendor of glory, and the figure of the substance of the Father, bearing all things by his word, appeared easily furnished from both, both whence he might reform the deformed, and whence he might strengthen the weak, while both from the splendor of the figure driving away the darkness of vices he would render wise, and from the power of the word against the tyranny of demons would make powerful? Therefore came the very form, to which free will was to be conformed, because in order that it might receive its pristine form, it was to be reformed from that from which it had been both formed. But the form is wisdom, conformation, so that the image may do in the body what the form does in the world." MIGHTILY. — In Greek, εὐρώστως, that is, powerfully, robustly, valiantly, firmly, courageously, constantly; Vatable, thoroughly, for ῥώω or ῥώννυμι is the same as I strengthen, I make strong, I confirm; whence ῥώμη is strength, force, power, health, vigor. From this also comes the name of the city of Rome, which Solinus at the beginning of his Polyhistory relates was formerly called Valentia by the Latins, although others derive Rome from ruma, that is, the breast of the she-wolf, which Remus, who is also called Romus, and his brother Romulus sucked. Our Anthony Fernandius, in Vision 6, holds it to be a metaphor from the common measures of things, who, measuring things according to a standard, know beforehand what magnitudes suit which places, lest there be any disturbance in the very arrangement of things: therefore God touches from end to end mightily, that is, He measures all things with exact foreknowledge, what they can do, what they require, whence and how far they suffice. From this it follows that He arranges all things sweetly, with things responding most aptly to each other and to their places. He touches also mightily, because where the forces of creatures fail, He Himself suffices, so that He reaches where He wills. Again, the strength of God's wisdom, providence and grace is seen in this, that He most certainly fulfills His will and obtains His intended end; but sweetness is seen in this, that He does not harm our freedom, nor inverts the condition of nature: for He does not compel free will, but by sweetly alluring and soothing it, He suggests and persuades good to it: thus the Nyssene, or rather Nemesius, book VII of Philosophy, chapter I; Theodoret, Epitome of Divine Decrees, chapter On Providence; Damascene, II On the Faith, chapter XXIX. The same sweetness is seen in natural things, for God brings force upon none, does nothing contrary to the nature of anything, but only as the nature of each thing demands: for divine providence is (as St. Dionysius writes, chapter IV On Divine Names, part 4) "the conservator of each nature, providing fittingly for those things which move of themselves and are acted upon by free will, and to all and each individually in their own way, as the nature of all and each admits, imparting most providential goodnesses according to the measure of each." Furthermore, the sweetness of divine providence shows itself in this, that it leads things to their ends through nearer and easier means, as is evident to one observing all elements and elemental things: thus St. Chrysostom in Matthew, chapter III. Thus Paul took his beginning from the God unknown to the Athenians in discoursing about the true and known God, Acts XVII, 23, as St. Chrysostom notes there. Moreover, the strength of the insuperable wisdom and divine providence governing all things shines forth in this, that it uses even things most contrary to the destined ends of its providence, as in the sale of Joseph to his principality, the passion and cross of Christ to His glory and the salvation of men, the persecution of tyrants to the crowns and triumphs of martyrs, the sins of men to show either His clemency in forgiving or His justice in punishing: for, as Boethius says both wisely and elegantly, book IV of the Consolation, prose 6: "Divine power alone is such that even evils are good to it, when it uses them competently to produce some good effect: for a certain order embraces all things, so that what has departed from the assigned reason of order, this very thing, though in another way, nevertheless falls back into order, lest anything in the kingdom of providence be allowed to chance." Thus when God brings a sinner from his concupiscences to penance, or calls a man to religion, to apostleship, to martyrdom, etc., He does not do this violently, but gently: for He first sends into the mind pious affections, velleities, desires of penance, of religion, of apostleship, of martyrdom, by which man may desire and long for these things and ask them of God and say with Saul in the very act of persecution, Acts IX, 6: "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" St. Augustine, having experienced this in himself, thus exults giving thanks, Book IX of the Confessions, chapter I: "Lord, I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid. Thou hast broken my bonds, to thee will I offer the sacrifice of praise, Psalm CXV, 16: let my heart and my tongue praise thee, and let all my bones say, Psalm XXXIV, 10: Lord, who is like unto thee? Let them say, and answer me, and say to my soul: I am thy salvation." And a little after: "How sweet it suddenly became to me to be without the sweetness of trifles, and what I had feared to lose was now a joy to lose: for thou didst cast them out from me, thou true and supreme sweetness, thou didst cast them out and enter in their place, sweeter than all pleasure, yet not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, yet more interior than all secrecy; more sublime than all honour, yet not sublime in itself. Now my mind was free from the gnawing cares of striving and acquiring and wallowing and scratching the itch of lusts, and I spoke to thee in my brightness and my riches and my salvation, O Lord my God." AND DISPOSETH ALL THINGS (in Greek, διοικεῖ, that is, governs, administers, dispenses, protects, disposeth the whole world, as a father of a family his house: for δοῖκος is house; but the world is a small house of the great God, which He ruleth economically as a father of a family) SWEETLY,—in Greek χρηστῶς, that is, as Pagninus says, usefully; Vatablus, conveniently; likewise benignly, sweetly, gently; whence Christians were called by the gentiles chrestians, as it were useful, convenient, sweet: to this St. Justin alludes, Apology II for Christians: "We are accused of being Christians, he says: but it is useful and convenient to hate, which is unjust;" Therefore the Wisdom of God disposeth all things usefully, conveniently, sweetly: because, as St. Augustine says, Book VII of the City of God, chapter XXX: "Thus doth He administer all things which He hath created, that He even suffereth them to exercise and perform their own (according to the form impressed upon them) motions," nay commandeth and effecteth it; so that no thing in the universe is found which doth not usefully perform its office in it, and is convenient to the whole, while each thing, however small, strives to attain the ends appointed to it by nature. Therefore the first cause is efficacious, namely God, but He tempereth Himself to second causes. Whence St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter V, part 4, arguing against those who said we ought to be compelled by God to virtue: but, he says, "it is not of divine providence to violate nature, but it is the conservatrix of the nature of each, providing conveniently for those things which move themselves and are acted upon by free will, and to all and each individually, as the nature of each one is capable, imparting most providently the goodness proper to each according to the measure of each," etc.; and in chapter VII he says, "God is called in Scripture κλῆσιν, not only because He is the author of reason and mind and wisdom, but also because He anticipates in Himself the causes of all things uniformly, and because He pervadeth all things individually even to the end of all, as the sacred writings teach." Equally, indeed more sweetly, God's wisdom, namely Christ, arranges and dispenses supernatural things, as is evident in His incarnation, passion and death, concerning which St. Bernard rightly says, sermon 1 On the Day of St. Easter: "He conquered, he says, truly wisdom reaching from end to end mightily, and arranging all things sweetly, but for me mightily, sweetly for me." And in the Eucharist: for this is "food of the strong and sweetness of minds;" whence its type was manna having all sweetness of taste, according to that, Psalm XXII, 5: "Thou hast prepared a table before me against them that trouble me. Thou hast anointed my head with oil: and my chalice which inebriateth me, how goodly is it!" and that, Zechariah IX, 17: "For what is his goodness, and what is his beauty, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?" see the things said there. The same is evident in the gifts and habits of created grace, for by these God infuses into man, so that through them he may easily and sweetly perform supernatural acts, which are in themselves difficult to man, indeed impossible to the powers of nature. Hear St. Thomas, I II, Question CX, article 2: God "provides for natural creatures thus, that He not only moves them to natural acts, but also bestows upon them certain forms and virtues, which are principles of acts, so that according to themselves they are inclined to such motions; and thus the motions by which they are moved by God become connate and easy to creatures, according to that, Wisdom VIII, 1: And disposeth all things sweetly. Much more therefore to those whom He moves to the attainment of eternal supernatural good, He infuses certain supernatural forms or qualities, according to which they are moved by Him sweetly and promptly to the attainment of eternal good; and thus the gift of grace is a certain quality." By the same reasoning he proves that the habit of charity must be given, II II, Question XXIII, article 2: for the habit of grace and virtues make their acts easy, sweet and pleasant to man, and therefore God infuses them into man. Tropologically, let kings, princes, prelates, rectors, etc., imitate this idea and form of divine wisdom in governing the universe, so that they may season fortitude with sweetness; whence some have taken this as their motto, sweetly and mightily, for fortitude gives efficacy to government, sweetness gives facility and duration: for nothing forced and violent is perpetual. Wherefore in ruling, fear must be mixed with love, for if fear alone be present, it will drive men, not as men, but as beasts and brutes. For men are led more by love than by fear, and love is not only sweeter but also stronger than fear: for love conquers all things. To this pertains that, mild command is imperious, because whatever commands mildly, obtains mightily. Again, mild government equally as strong and durable demands that rulers accommodate themselves to the talents, gifts and inclinations of their subjects as far as possible: for You will say and do nothing against Minerva's will. Thus God's wisdom accommodates itself to the condition of secondary causes, while with necessary things it concurs necessarily, with contingent things contingently, with free things freely, with bold things boldly, with timid things timidly, with weak things weakly, with strong things strongly and operates. Therefore let the superior imitate Christ, who was a lion to the wicked and obstinate, but a lamb to the good and obedient. Our St. Ignatius inculcated this teaching to his followers. To this pertains that chapter XII, verse 18: "But thou, O Lord, judgest with tranquility, and disposest us with great clemency;" and that Psalm XXIV, 10: "All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth;" whence St. Basil, epistle 165 to Eustathius, professes that he has learned from experience of many tribulations that God arranges our affairs by His sweet providence far better than we could wish: the same St. Ephrem asserts of himself, tract. On His Reproof, whose remarkable example of divine providence I have reviewed at length Genesis chapter XLII, 18.
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FROM MY YOUTH. — For from boyhood his mother Solomon instilled in him a desire for wisdom, that is, of an upright and holy life, as is evident from Proverbs XXI, 1; especially since, with his father David deceased, he succeeded to the kingdom at about eighteen years of age: then indeed he, seeing that great wisdom was required to govern so great a people, sought it from God and obtained it, III Kings III, 10. It signifies an ancient love of wisdom, and therefore a deep, rooted and robust one: for women who become brides to men from tender years grow old with them, are accustomed to be loved tenderly; and by that more tender love are they held by those men, the more tenderly from a tender age the spouses have lived together, the love growing with age, and the older the love, the greater it is accustomed to be, more noble, more robust and more excellent, like a tree and wine, to which age confers dignity, and as it were the splendor of a lineage, the flame glowing day by day from mutual familiarity, as if from added fuel. Hence that saying, Proverbs V, 18: "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth, a lovely hind and graceful doe: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times, be delighted continually with her love." AND I SOUGHT HER AS A BRIDE. — Hence Pineda opines, lib. II De Rebus Salomonis, cap. I, near the end, that Solomon sought wisdom as a bride, and obtained it from God, before he sought the daughter of Pharaoh and she was betrothed to him; but this is very uncertain, especially because in III Kings III, 1, it is first narrated that he took the daughter of Pharaoh, then in verse 10 his prayer is added, and the obtaining of wisdom. Add that Solomon before his reign entered into marriage with Naamah, and from her begot Rehoboam: for Rehoboam, being in his 41st year, succeeded his father Solomon in the kingdom when he died in his 40th year of reign, III Kings XI, 43, and XIV, 21. Therefore one year before his reign Solomon begot him. Wisdom therefore offers herself as a bride, not only to virgins, but also to married women, and is more necessary to them for governing wives, children and household: for she herself is a bride of another and higher order, namely spiritual, not carnal. A BRIDE. — In Greek νύμφην, that is a nymph: thus in Greek a bride is called, as if from νέο or νῦν φαινομένη, that is newly or now appearing, that is a new bride, who, since previously as a virgin she hid herself, now as a bride comes forth in public, and shows herself openly, thus Rhodiginus, lib. XXI, cap. XXVI, from Eustathius: thus to Solomon wisdom shone forth and appeared new from heaven, like a divine star. Again, the ancients thought nymphs were goddesses of waters, as it were divinities of lymphs: for the ancients called a nymph what we, by changing one letter, call lympha, that is water. Sometimes nymphs are called muses, because water flowing produces musical sounds; these nymphs are said to have been most pure virgins: such a nymph and muse before all others, indeed alone among all, is wisdom. Nymphs are also called chaste bees, when they have begun to have their first form, as Pliny testifies, lib. XI, cap. VI: the bee is heavenly, wisdom, pouring forth divine honey. A bride in Hebrew is called כלול calla, that is perfect, consummated in all beauty and adornment, by which brides before others are decorated, excel and are loved, so much so that as it were they are adorned and crowned as queens: hence the Greek κάλλος, that is beauty, which likewise calls all into love of itself, κάλεῖ, that is calls, allures and seizes, as St. Dionysius says De Divin. nomin. cap. IV. What is more beautiful than wisdom, which is calla, that is perfect, complete, and finished in all its parts, so that you desire not a whit, whether you consider the gifts of mind or body in a bride. Ten gifts are accustomed to be praised and regarded before others in a bride, which in this verse and the following ones in order Solomon attributes to wisdom: the first is, that she be at once an object of love and veneration; the second, that she flourish in pleasantness; the third, that she shine in nobility of lineage; the fourth, that she be vigorous in the dignity of wisdom; the fifth, that she overflow in the abundance of riches; the sixth, that she excel in holiness; the seventh, that she be distinguished by variety of virtues; the eighth, that she be ennobled by singular majesty of prudence; the ninth, that she be sweetened by the placid suavity of wit and character; the tenth, that she delight the philosopher, or wise man desirous of her, with all-encompassing variety of things. And the Wise man now attributes all these gifts, of which he gave some taste in the foregoing passages, to the bride, teaching her to be at once lovable and venerable, beautiful, noble, wise, rich, holy, excellent, endowed with fourfold virtue, remarkably and singularly prudent, and one with whom life conducted in partnership might be spent wholly suffused with sweetness and pleasure; which gifts are contained in the nine first verses in their order (except the fifth and sixth, which are given to riches), each in its own place. With such great gifts of the bride, and all kinds of goods flowing from them, which he soon describes, as if kindled by added sparks, he asserts that the young man, and almost a boy, is inflamed with desire for her, so that he has sought her from God with intimate prayers and obtained her. Thus Cervantes. The voice of the bride signifies Solomon's supreme love toward wisdom, tenderness, desire and delight: again, the supreme and intimate and secret union with her, conversation, familiarity, union with her, so that with her he might become not one flesh, but one spirit, according to that passage in I Corinthians VI, 17: "He that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit;" and that in Jeremiah III, 4: "From henceforth thou shalt call me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity;" and that in II Corinthians XI, 2: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ;" see the sayings there. Hence St. Dionysius, in chapter IV of On the Divine Names, near the end, says: "The name of love is more divine than that of charity; and St. Ignatius writes: My love is crucified; and in the first place in the institutions of Holy Scripture you will find someone saying this of divine Wisdom: I became a lover of her beauty:" thus Dionysius; and below he says that love unites and causes ecstasy: "And this word of love, he says, has the power of making one, and binding together and mixing things in a superior manner among themselves, whereby in the beautiful and good, because of the beautiful and good it was established beforehand, and from the good and beautiful the cause of beauty and goodness flows, and it contains equals in common mutual conjunction with one another, and impels the superior to the care of the inferior, and strengthens the inferior with the superior by conversion. Divine love also removes from their state, nor does it suffer its lovers to be their own, but to be of those things which it loves: which the superior things declare, becoming inferior by consulting for them, and equals mutually cohering with one another, and inferiors by a more divine conversion to superiors. Therefore, as that great Paul, now captured by divine love and endowed with its power, which removes a man from his state by divine utterance, in Galatians II, 20: I live, he says, now not I; but Christ liveth in me, as a true lover, and removed from the state of mind, as he himself says, from his own life to God, but as one very much to be loved by a lover." Mystically adapt all these things to the Blessed Virgin, who is the lily, that is the most perfect muse of muses, and nymph of nymphs, especially to those honoring, loving and invoking her, whom therefore, to omit others, St. Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, espoused to himself by a ring: hear the author of his Life, chapter VI: "But that his care for preserving chastity might be greater in him, by the counsel of a certain priest before the image of the perpetual Virgin, the most holy Mother of God, he made a vow of chastity, and commending himself to that singular and incomparable Virgin, he chose her as his bride; and that he might declare the covenant made with her to be altogether firm and stable, in a new manner he espoused her to himself with his ring as a pledge, that ring which he had made for that reason, placing it on the finger of her image, in which also the angelic greeting was inscribed." He adds an excellent fruit: "And from that time, as he himself confessed at his death, as often as he implored the aid of that most merciful Virgin, she quickly obtained for him in temptation an exit, in persecution consolation, in affliction a remedy, in sorrow joy. He had also on his finger the ring, with which after death, as is the custom of pontiffs, he was buried, in which likewise, to the wonder of all, the angelic greeting was inscribed, so that the most blessed virgin might deign both to have and to acknowledge her own spouse." This Life is found in Surius, on the twentieth of November. AND I BECAME A LOVER OF HER BEAUTY. — This is the second gift of Solomon's bride, namely Wisdom, to wit, form and beauty, which is a great enticement to love: of this it was said in chapter VII, verse 29, "for she is more beautiful than the sun." He speaks of essential wisdom common to the three persons, yet also concomitantly of the notional, namely of Christ, who as God is the image, that is the beauty of the Father, as man the beauty of creation, according to that passage in Psalm XLIV, 3: "Beautiful in form" before the sons of men." The same thing Plato and the philosophers learned from Solomon: for Plato in the Phaedrus says: The first beautiful thing makes all things beautiful; but beauty has this dignity, that it is the most illustrious of all things, and therefore supremely lovable. Moreover, if the form of wisdom, as a face, could be perceived by the eyes, it would excite wonderful loves of itself, indeed ardors. Cicero says the same thing of virtue, in book I of the Offices; Aristotle, whom Eugubinus cites in Psalm XLIV: "God," he says, "is the strongest power, immortal life, best in virtue, most beautiful in beauty:" see St. Dionysius, chapter IV On the Divine Names, page 1, and St. Augustine, book II Against the Academics, chapter III, and I Retractations, where he says that philosophy is the love of beauty, that is, the love of wisdom is the love of beauty. Theophilus of Alexandria writes beautifully and piously on these words, in his first Paschal letter: "In the sacred volumes of Scripture," he says, "pressing snowy members of wisdom with eager kisses, we cling to her embraces, and if the Lord permits, living with her, persevering in her love we sing, Wisdom VIII, 2: I was a lover of her beauty: for as many as read the holy Scriptures more diligently, and run through the painted meadows of heavenly words, will enjoy this blessedness," etc. Do you want examples? accept these. St. Agnes, rejecting the son of a Roman prefect who sought her, said she was espoused to him whose beauty the sun and moon admire: the same thing the other holy virgins and martyrs said, if not in words, certainly in deed; whence that saying of St. Ignatius: "My love is crucified," which St. Dionysius mentions, chapter IV On the Divine Names, as I said a little before. Attracted by this form of wisdom, St. Lawrence Justinian, the first patriarch of Venice, took her as his spouse when he was nineteen years old: for thus he himself writes of himself in the Bundle of Love: "I was like you, seeking peace in external things with burning desire, and I found it not; at length a certain virgin brighter than the sun appeared to me, whose name I did not know. She, drawing near with a lovely face and gentle speech, said: O young man, beloved, why do you pour out your heart, and seeking peace vary through many things? What you seek is with me; what you have desired, I promise to you, if only you will have me as your spouse. But when I desired to know her name, and kind, and dignity, she said she is the wisdom of God, who for the reformation of men assumed human form. I assented therefore, and having given the kiss of peace, she departed joyfully." Thus did Henry Suso, who under the year of the Lord 1350 was renowned for learning, sanctity and miracles, and was a wonderful lover of wisdom, whence he is called the minister of eternal wisdom; when these words of the Wise One: "I sought to take her to myself as a spouse, and I became a lover of her beauty," were read at table, he was so inflamed with love of her that he contracted a spiritual marriage with her: hear the author of his Life, chapter IV: "While he burned with these desires, wisdom presented herself to be seen by him in such a form: she was borne far above him, sitting in a cloud column on an ivory throne, shining like the morning star, and as the sun shining in its strength; her crown was eternity, her garment happiness, her speech sweetness, her embrace the fullness of all good. She was near and far away, sublime and humble, present and hidden; she made herself familiar, yet could not be grasped; she was higher than the highest peaks of heaven, and deeper than the abyss; she reached mightily from end to end, and disposed all things sweetly. While she seemed to be held in the form of an elegant maiden, soon she bore the image of the most beautiful youth. Sometimes she presented herself as a friend most skilled in all arts, lovable to all. And so, turning most sweetly to him, and smiling at him courteously yet not without a certain divine majesty, she addressed him kindly with these words, Proverbs XXIII, 26: Give me your heart, my son. Then, prostrating himself at her feet, he gave her thanks most humbly and from the depths of his heart." And with some things interjected: "Meanwhile, sometimes the source and outflow of almost all good communicated itself to that soul, in which he found at once whatever was beautiful, lovable or desirable; for it existed there in an ineffable manner. From this he contracted a certain habit, so that whenever he heard love songs spoken or sung, with heart and mind withdrawn in a certain contemplation to his most sweet friend, from whom whatever is lovable proceeds, he would immediately withdraw himself within, or be snatched inward. Nor indeed could it be said how many times he embraced that most welcome friend with weeping eyes and with an immensely expanded heart's bosom, and held her sweetly pressed to his breast." Moreover, understand the lover by way of excellence: for love of beauty is burning and violent, as is seen in the lovers of women, who by their love say and do admirable things, so that they appear to become foolish and mad, and they endure whatever hardships, that they might obtain them: much more ardent in Solomon and the saints is the love of divine wisdom and holiness, according to that in the Song of Songs VIII, 6: "Strong is love as death, hard as hell is jealousy:" hence ἔρως, that is love, alludes to Ἄρης, that is Mars, because love is martial, and is powerful with martial strength, like iron it subdues all things, it does not fear any battles, but enters them, it endures whatever hardships strongly, it inflicts and receives wounds, according to that in the Song of Songs II, 5: "I languish with love;" Symmachus, I am wounded with affection. Therefore, one zealous for wisdom should undertake all difficult things for it, and generously endure all hardships.
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The Greek texts word for word thus have it: εὐγένειαν δοξάζει συμβίωσιν ἔχουσα Θεοῦ, which first, Jansenius thus translates and explains, wisdom thinks it to be nobility to have intercourse with God: for δοξάζει signifies both to think and to glorify: whence δόξα denotes both opinion and glory; and the participle ἔχουσα, that is having, is placed in the Greek manner for the infinitive to have. Second, others, that is to say, Wisdom glorifies generosity, that is nobility, illustrates it, namely a generous and noble family, renders it more illustrious and glorious, as is evident in Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, whom human wisdom made celebrated and glorious: much more is this evident in St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the other Doctors of the Church, whom divine wisdom has ennobled among all nations throughout all ages. For nobility of birth is external, as it were arising from ancestors and forefathers; but nobility of wisdom and virtue is internal and proper, as it were acquired by one's own labor and study; whence Cicero boasts: "I," he says, "have shone forth before my ancestors by my virtue." But our author eliminates these senses by that which he added, and shrewdly understood in the Greek. Whence third, some refer that to the student of wisdom, that is to say, Wisdom glorifies those who are devoted to her, who have intercourse and conversation with God, as noble and generous, that is renders them illustrious and glorious, as it rendered Moses, who from his fellowship with God received rays, and as it were horns of light fixed to his face, Exodus XXXIV, 30. But in Greek it is feminine ἔχουσα, that is having, which therefore cannot be referred to a male student of wisdom: for thus it would have to be said in the masculine ἔχων. Fourth, others refer that to the form, which preceded, that is to say, the form or beauty of wisdom, which is its ornament, adornment, nobility and generosity, illustrates and glorifies the intercourse of God: for the beauty of wisdom is greatly adorned from the fact that it itself has fellowship and familiarity with God; whence the Arabic translates, its beauty ennobles, conceding the conjunction or marriage of God; conversely the Syriac translates, and the joy, and praise, and glory of God in participation of it: for spouses love and glorify one another. Fifth and properly, refer that to wisdom, concerning which all this discourse is, that is to say, From this it is evident how great is the generosity and nobility of wisdom, namely that it itself has intercourse, or, as it is in Greek, συμβίωσιν, that is intercourse, that is the highest familiarity and intimacy with God, and dwells with him, converses with him, feasts with him, is caressed by him, and that God loves and cherishes it intimately; therefore its generosity, that is its nobility, is illustrated and glorified by the very intercourse of God. Or, as others say, that is to say, Wisdom, having intercourse or familiarity with God, celebrates him and glorifies him as the highest generosity and nobility. Or rather, that is to say, the generous race and noble lineage of Wisdom, namely that it is born from God, illustrates and glorifies, in that the same as a consort and spouse of God converses with him intimately, feasts with him, and dwells with him in the same chamber and table, as if equal and peer to him. For the Greek συμβίωσις, that is intercourse, is usually attributed to spouses, whose intercourse is continuous, and whose conversation is supreme, their love equal and mutual. Wisdom therefore is introduced here as it were one and at the same time the spouse of God, and therefore by this double title most noble and most illustrious. Thus mystically the Blessed Virgin is glorified, in that she is the mother, daughter, and spouse of God, mother of God the Son, daughter of God the Father, spouse of the Holy Spirit: for the Greek εὐγένεια, that is generosity, nobility, from γένος, just as the Latin generosity from genus and the nobility of genus receives its name, as Tiraquellus teaches, On Nobility, chapter II, number 47 and following: for noble is said, as it were knowable, or known from lineage, namely from noble ancestors and forefathers, and from virtue known: thus St. Hilarius in Psalm CXXVII, from this place calls wisdom a noble spouse. She therefore is εὐγενεία, that is nobility just as συμβίωσις, that is consort and spouse of God: for she is the complete wisdom of nobility. Therefore wisdom itself has such familiarity with God, that not only is it born from Him, but also lives most intimately with Him, and possesses Him familiarly, as a bride with her bridegroom; and that God in turn loves her intimately: for from both true and supreme nobility arises, for many are the sons and daughters of kings, who are nourished not at the table of their parents, but by nurses; whence they scarcely see, scarcely know their parents, and can do nothing with them. But wisdom is so the daughter of God, that she is at the same time the companion and guest of God, and constantly sits at His table and chamber; therefore she can do much with Him. Here is a great incentive to the study of wisdom, that through it we become generous, noble, companions and familiars of God, and are intimately loved by God. The opinion of the Canonists is that nobles, if they become religious, lose their nobility, as being now dead to the world and to the age; whence in book V of the Decretals, title 34, On Purgatory, canon I, Nobilis, the Gloss says: "Through crime the name of dignity is lost, just as through monasticism one loses nobility." But rightly Tiraquellus, in his book On Nobility, chapter XXVI, explains this, so that by nobility are understood noble honors, titles and dominions, such as kingdom, duchy, county, barony: for the religious is incapable of these, by the vow of poverty; yet he retains the same pristine nobility, which consists in the right of blood, namely that he is descended from noble parents, counts, dukes, kings: for this is indelible, as being received with nature at birth. Therefore the religious does not lose his nobility, but increases and doubles it with another more divine one, while despising the dominions and kingdoms of the earth, and devoting himself entirely to God, he becomes His familiar and intimate, as the Wise man here teaches. Mystically, St. Bonaventure, the Gloss and Hugh say: The Son of God, who is the wisdom of the Father, has nobility and generosity from His kind and generation, namely that He is begotten of God the Father; whence He has the same companionship, that is equality and intimate conjunction with the Father: for He is consubstantial and homoousios with Him; whence He glorifies both His own and the Father's kind, and thus in all things seeks the Father's glory and strives to propagate it, and therefore He became man, and underwent the cross and death. Wherefore God the Father loves the Son as God with a love simply infinite; as man, with a love so great that it surpasses the love of all creatures taken together: for He assumed the humanity of Christ into hypostatic union with the Word, which is a dignity and grace so great that it far transcends all dignities and graces communicated to all creatures, even taken singly and together. Following Christ, Paul, the great lover and companion of God and Christ, says: "I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me," Gal. II, 20: wherefore God loved him before others, and made him the herald of His glory and teacher of the Gentiles. Symbolically, you can easily adapt this to the Blessed Virgin, whose nobility and generosity was so great that from her the Son of God Himself took His origin and flesh, with whom she herself had a continual bodily living together, that is, a shared household, and merited to see and hear continually that very Wisdom of God incarnate from herself, and to be kindled by his fiery words, as it were by rays of love: concerning which St. Bernard, homily I on Missus est: "Mary," he says, "knowing herself to be a mother, that majesty whom the angels serve with reverence, she calls her son with confidence, saying: Son, why hast thou done so to us? And presently: And he was subject to them, to whom? to whom? God, to whom the angels are subject, to whom principalities and powers obey, was subject to Mary, nor to Mary alone, but also to Joseph on account of Mary. Marvel either at the most benign condescension of the Son, or at the most excellent dignity of the Mother; on both sides wonder, on both sides miracle, and that God should obey a woman, humility without example; and that a woman should rule over God, sublimity without peer." Which also St. Ildefonsus seems to have regarded, sermon I On the Assumption, where, after he had enumerated many services which the Mother of God exhibited to Christ, he adds: "Therefore he who nourishes all things, who rules the heavenly and earthly things together, this most holy Virgin nourished and fed with the milk of her flesh; at whose nod afterwards all things are governed, under her discipline or authority the infant God was conversant;" and presently: "The Blessed Virgin was wounded in her soul by the sword of the passion of Christ. O most holy of all women, who had such and so great a household with God on earth; and behold today she is exalted with him whom she bore, so that she may remain glorious in heaven without end." And St. Epiphanius, heresy 78: "Mary was," he says, "a devoted follower of Jesus, always existing with him." St. Augustine likewise, book On the Assumption (or whoever is the author) chapter VII, vol. IX: "Without doubt," he says, "she was a ministrant in every work, she who bore him in her womb, and nourished and cherished him poured forth in childbirth, laid him in the manger, and fleeing from the face of Herod into Egypt hid him, and pursued all his infancy with such maternal affection, that even unto the cross, in which she saw her son now a perfect man hanging, she did not withdraw from his ministry without doubt: following not only in the footsteps of his feet, as it were for love of her son; but also in the imitation of his ways, as it were for reverence of God. Mary therefore, the ministrant of Christ, was as devoted in the qualities of spiritual works, so without doubt she was a follower in the faith of religion, and in the charity of true belief." St. Bernard, sermon entitled A Great Sign: "So many times Mary heard her son speaking not only to the crowds in parables, but also revealing to the disciples separately the mysteries of the kingdom of God; she saw him working miracles, she saw him then hanging on the cross; she saw him expiring, she saw him rising, she saw him ascending."
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He gives the reason for what he said: "But the Lord loved her above all things," because wisdom is as it were a certain priestess, and the mystical teacher of holy divine discipline and knowledge, declaring and manifesting God to men: for if, as is said in Daniel cap. XII, 3: "They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity," how much more she who instructs all, and makes them friends of God? thus from Castro. Again, as if to say God loves wisdom: for from the fact that he loves her, he made her his mystes, that is, conscious of all mysteries and secrets, according to that saying of Christ, John XV, 15: "Now I will not call you servants, etc., but friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you:" for the highest sign of love and friendship is to communicate one's secrets to someone. Furthermore he made her his mystes, or mystis, that is, the teacher of his mysteries, and the priestess of his sacraments, and the electress of his works; he therefore placed her in charge both of doctrine and sacraments, and of his works, so that whatever she chooses, God works; what she neglects, God likewise neglects and does not work; both are indeed signs of supreme love. This is the fourth dowry of our bride, namely of wisdom, that she herself is priestess and mystes, that is, teacher of discipline, in Greek ἐπιστήμης, that is, of the knowledge of God, namely that she instructs and teaches us the knowledge of the saints, by which we may know God, worship him, love him with that faith, religion and piety which such great majesty deserves. Christ accomplished this, who is wisdom incarnate, and the supreme mystes, priest, and pontiff forever according to the order of Melchisedech; whence concerning him St. John says, cap. I, 18: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him;" who therefore, Isa. IX, 6, is called the angel of great counsel, that is, messenger, according to the Septuagint; whence also Christ, John VII, 16: "My doctrine, he says, is not mine, but his that sent me;" finally he himself instituted, instructed, consecrated new mystes, new priests, new teachers of the evangelical law, namely apostles and disciples, and sent them throughout the whole world and sends them daily. Symbolically our Pineda, lib. III De Rebus Salomonis, cap. XXVI, num. 3, understanding by wisdom theology, adapts these things to theology itself: Theology, he says, ennobles the theologian, and makes him illustrious, first, because it itself obtains the highest nobility among all sciences; second, it constantly converses with God, of whom it discourses; third, it is conscious of the mysteries of God; fourth, it teaches divine things; fifth, it excels the natural sciences as much as a priest excels the laity; sixth, it is as familiar with God as a priest is with him; seventh, because Cantacuzenus on this passage: "I loved her," affirms that "from the inner sanctuaries and penetralia of theology, the mind of Solomon strove toward such an afflation of love." AND THE ELECTRESS OF HIS WORKS. — In Greek αἱρετίς, that is, electress; for which Anastasius of Nicaea in Sacr. Script. Quæst. LXXVIII (found in tom. VI of the Library of the Holy Fathers), Cantacuzenus and Budaeus in Comment. linguæ græcæ, read ὡρίτις, that is, inventress of his works: for just as a hunting dog scents and by scent finds and catches a hare, so wisdom diligently investigates, and finds a thousand modes and methods of acting and working; whence Vatablus translates it, priestess of his works, as if to say Wisdom of God, both essential and notional, by which the eternal Father produced the Son, artificially invents all the works of God: for the adornment, variety, and supreme beauty of God's works pertain to her wonderful invention. She therefore, first, as it were with an admirable sagacity scented out in nothingness, and invented the works of God, which she brought forth with him outside of nothingness; second, she invented such great and wonderful variety of things by meditation and thought; third, as if by chance she did this, that is without labor and fatigue; namely God and divine wisdom; fourth, as far as the works of grace are concerned, she did this by the invention of the cross, John IV; and of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, John VI and XIII; and of the holiness of souls, as it were of beautiful and precious pearls; likewise of the resurrection and exaltation of his true and mystical body, not without labor, sweat, blood, etc. But others commonly read αἱρετίς, that is, electress, as if to say Wisdom presides over all God's works, wherefore from the various things that present themselves, she chooses the better: for although the function of wisdom, insofar as it touches prudence, is twofold, namely, first, through euboulia, that is, deliberation and counsel, to inquire and find; second, through synesis, that is, judgment, to choose the more suitable and better from among them, as Aristotle testifies, VI Ethics cap. V; yet this is rather and more excellent than that, whence St. Hilarius in Psalm. CXXVII translates it, in the labor of useful works mighty, that is to say, Wisdom in things conducive to the end chooses what is more mighty and efficacious; our Pineda, lib. III On the Affairs of Solomon, cap. III, num. 6, translates it as weigher, that is to say, Wisdom treats the creatures of God according to their dignity, chooses the best, neglects the baser: again as the most just balance of reason, weighing and examining the merit and dignity of each, and assigning to each what it demands or deserves: thus Christ from so many millions of men, by mere grace chose twelve apostles, who would convert the whole world, thus also today he chooses apostolic men for the conversion of infidels and heretics, and to them liberally bestows and assigns the graces and gifts necessary or fitting for so great a work.
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Hence alchemists think that Solomon was skilled in the art of chemistry, which transmutes other metals into gold, and from this they gather that he procured such great riches for himself, and that that art was in use in Solomon's time from that passage Psalm. CXVIII, 119: "I have accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators;"; where for prevaricators in Hebrew is סיגים sigim, which St. Jerome translates as dross; but Augustine, bishop of Nebiensis, translates it as alchemies. But they err, both because there is no art which can transmute metals into gold, whose form is most noble; and because even if the art could accomplish this, yet it requires such great expenses for it, that whoever uses it becomes impoverished, and from the wealthy become poor, as experience shows; whence John XXII, cap. Spondent, in Extrav., lib. V On the Crime of Falsity: "They promise," he says, "riches which they do not exhibit, poor alchemists; likewise those who think themselves wise fall into the pit which they made." And with some things interjected: "Alchemists conceal falsehood with words, but finally they feign by sophistic transmutation that what is not in the nature of things, is true gold or silver." Hence some call the chemical art chamicam, that is, invented by Cham the son of Noah the impious, whom they think was the same as Zoroaster the magus: see more on this matter in our Delrio, lib. I Disq. of Magic, cap. V; Pererius, On Magic; the Conimbricenses, lib. II Physics cap. VII; Pineda, lib. IV On the Affairs of Solomon cap. XXI. Wisdom therefore taught Solomon other true arts and ways of becoming rich, namely by sending fleets to Ophir, by mining gold and silver from the veins of the earth rich in gold, which he himself discovered by his wisdom, by imposing greater tributes, by more diligently cultivating the fields and vineyards of the whole kingdom, by establishing profitable commerce, and by shrewdly capturing profit from all things.
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"She hath worked with her hands in counsel. She hath put out her hand to strong things, and her fingers have taken hold of the spindle. She hath made fine linen, and sold it, and delivered a girdle to the Chanaanite," etc.: thus from Castro. Lorinus, Jansenius, Cervantius and Pineda, book III On the Things of Solomon, chapter III, number 5, and others. The sixth is the dowry of the bride, namely wisdom, that is, that she is a wonderful artificer; for all the artifices and artificial works of divine wisdom, from which human wisdom flows, are to be attributed to her: wherefore she herself is the inventress and origin of all arts. He speaks throughout this chapter, equally as in the preceding, of wisdom abstractly and generically, inasmuch as she herself is the idea and effectrix of all things, both natural and artificial and moral, and therefore embraces all arts equally as virtues, as I noted above, and this very place proves it.
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SOBRIETY; — in Greek σωφροσύνην, which word properly signifies temperance in the use both of food and of sexual relations, and of other pleasures in some sense of sensible things, and thence wisdom and prudence (whence the Interpreter of Anastasius of Nicaea, Questions LXXVIII in Scripture, translates at this place wisdom and prudence teaches; but somewhat inappropriately, as is evident): for temperance begets this, and is therefore called σωφροσύνη, as it were σώζουσα τὴν φρόνησιν, that is preserving prudence or wisdom; whence also σώφρων is called temperate, as it were σαόφρων, that is σαὸς, or σῶς τὴν φρένα, that is sound in mind: for temperance is the health of the mind. On the other hand Euripides in Hecuba, as Aristotle testifies, II Rhetoric cap. XXIV, aptly said that Venus is called Ἀφροδίτην because she is the parent of ἀφροσύνης, that is of folly and madness. St. Augustine, lib. I On the Morals of the Church cap. XVI, reading sobriety wisdom teaches, understands by sobriety the truth of contemplation; but he rightly retracts this, lib. I Retractations cap. VII, where he teaches that it should be read, sobriety and prudence teaches, as the Greek and Our text have. PRUDENCE, — he called φρόνησιν a little before art, but here he calls it prudence, which is the mistress and charioteer of the virtues, as St. Antony used to say, as St. Athanasius testifies in his Life; indeed Socrates called all virtues prudences: see Aristotle, VI Ethics cap. V and following; and St. Thomas, I II, Question LVII, and II II, Question XLVII and following. VIRTUE, — in Greek ἀνδρείαν, that is fortitude, or manliness, from τοῦ ἀνδρός, that is from man: for fortitude is of men, not of women, and requires manly strength, such as even among women the virago women have shown. But fortitude is partly active, such as that of soldiers, who undertake arduous things in war; and partly and rather passive, such as that of those who suffer and of martyrs, who endure hard and atrocious things with a strong and unconquered spirit; whence its potential or integral parts are confidence, magnanimity, security, magnificence, patience, long-suffering, perseverance, constancy, says St. Thomas, II II, Question CXXIII and following, whom see. The Wise One here omits the three theological virtues, faith, hope, charity, of which likewise wisdom is the mother; whence by his allusion St. Sophia, that is wisdom, mother and martyr, gave to her three daughters the names of these three virtues and called them Faith, Hope, Charity, and together with them underwent noble martyrdom, as may be seen in their Life, which is extant in Surius, 1 August. But the Wise One omits them, because he treats here of moral virtues only, which consist in works and external labors: for these are the labors of wisdom, which, as he himself says in this verse, "have great virtues: but the fruit of good labors is glorious," as I said cap. III, vers. 15.
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Whence Clement of Alexandria, book VI of the Stromata, citing this whole verse, concludes: "You see the fountain of disciplines flowing from wisdom." For "multitude of knowledge," in Greek it is πολυπειρίαν, that is, experience of many things; Vatablus, much skill, for experience generates this; whence Plato, book VII of the Laws, associated πολυπειρίαν and πολυμαθίαν as it were mother and daughter; and Sallust in the Jugurtha asserts that nothing is wiser than experience: wherefore philosophers began to philosophize from the experience of things, and to investigate the causes of things. KNOWETH THINGS PAST. — In Greek, τὰ ἀρχαῖα, that is, ancient things, as if to say, Wisdom knows ancient histories and long past things: "for history is the witness of times, the light of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity," says Cicero, book II of the Orator; and St. Gregory of Nazianzus to Nicobulus: "History," he says, "is a certain conglomerated, as it were heaped up wisdom, and the mind of many men collected into one. It is pleasant and safe to learn from the events of others, whether joyful or sorrowful, what you ought to do in a similar case." Livy at the beginning of book I: "It is salutary," he says, "for you to behold all the documents of example placed in an illustrious monument, so that from there you may take for yourself and your commonwealth what you may imitate. From there the shameful in beginning, shameful in ending, which you may avoid." Wherefore the Emperor Basil thus prescribes to his son Leo, chapter LVI: "Do not refuse to go through ancient histories," he says, "for there you will find without labor what others gathered with labor; and from there you will draw both the virtues of the good and the vices of the wicked, the various changes of human life, and the turnings of things in it, the instability of this world, and the headlong falls of the impious; and, to embrace it in a word, the punishments of evil deeds and the rewards of good deeds, which you will flee, lest you fall into the hands of divine justice, and these you will embrace, so that you may obtain the rewards which accompany them." ESTIMATETH THINGS TO COME. — In Greek, εἰκάζει, that is, assimilates, compares, conjectures, exhibits a living form, represents: for from the experience of past things, or from historical knowledge, there arises prudent conjecture about the outcome of future things: thus Cantacuzenus. For prudent men, comparing past similar things with future ones, easily conjecture about their outcome: for past things represent their form and living image; whence Idacius, book III Against gia) knows before they come to pass, as if to say, Wisdom presages future eclipses, tides, cold, rains, winds, tempests, sterility, fertility, plague, diseases, etc., from mathematics and meteorological and prognostic signs: thus Cantacuzenus. Prodigies are called monsters because they foreshew future things: hear Cicero, book II of the Nature of the Gods: "Predestinations, predictions and presensings of future things, what else do they declare to men, except that those things which happen are shown, demonstrated, portended, predicted, etc., from which those showings, monsters, portents and prodigies are called." A prodigy, moreover, says Servius in the III Aeneid, is that which directs its signification toward a long time: thus called as if to be driven forward, says Nonius Marcellus. Varimadum, turns, is prescient of future things; Clement, VI Stromata, conjectures future things; Anastasius of Nicaea, Question LXXVIII, inquires into future things; Pagninus, imagines future things; therefore, apart from the utterances of the wise (who by anticipation of wisdom foresee future things sagaciously and salutarily foretell them), the remaining fates are the mad utterances of the delirious. He knows the subtleties of speech. — In Greek, στροφάς, from στρέφω (that is, I turn, I twist, I act cunningly, I torque, I turn about), just as subtleties are said to be from verto or verso, because through them a plain matter is turned into obscurity and alien speech, either through acute and subtle sentences, such as parables, as is evident from Ecclesiasticus xxxix, 9, and II Kings xiv, 20; or through words deceitfully and fraudulently composed for deceiving, such as were the captious questions proposed by the Pharisees to Christ, that they might catch him in his speech, but which were detected and dissolved by Christ through wisdom, Matthew xxii, 15 et seq. Such also are the sophisms of the sophists, especially of heretics, which dialectic dissolves and resolves; whence St. Augustine commends knowledge of it to the wise by the authority and example of Christ and Paul, lib. I Against Cresconius, cap. x et seq. Hear Clement of Rome, lib. I Constitutions, cap. vi, where he leads the reader from the reading of the gentiles to the reading of Holy Scripture: "For what, he says, do you seek in the law of God? For if you desire to read histories, you have the books of Kings; if sophistry, that is, what is argued acutely and referred to wisdom and poetry, you have the Prophets, Job, Proverbs, in which you will find more acuteness than in all poetry and the wisdom of the sophists, because he who alone is wise uttered them;" where by sophistry he understands dialectic, which the sophists abused for weaving sophisms. Dissolutions of arguments, — of ingenious, hidden and acute ones; whence in Greek it is of enigmas, that is, solutions of obscure and difficult questions to be explained: for an enigma is a riddle, or a knotty saying, that is, a speech knotted and involved; or, as Valla interprets it, a more obscure allegory, which ought to be divined rather than interpreted, such as that of Samson concerning the honeycomb found in the mouth of the lion, Judges xiv, 14: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness:" see the sayings in Proverbs I, 6. Hence, III Kings x: "The Queen of Sheba, having heard of the fame of Solomon, came to try him with hard questions; and Solomon explained to her all the things she proposed; there was not any word that he could not answer her." And Josephus relates that a contest of enigmas was begun by Solomon with Hiram king of Tyre, lib. VIII, cap. ii: "The king of Tyre sent enigmatic questions to Solomon. But he, being skilled in such matters and most prudent, left nothing unexplained, but conquering all things by reason declared them most clearly." And Ecclesiasticus xlvii, 16: "Your soul, he says, uncovered the earth, and you filled it with dark sayings." The events of times and ages. — In Greek, καιρών καὶ χρόνων, that is, of opportunities and times, as if to say: Wisdom carefully foresees and looks ahead to future opportunities of things, and suitable times from previous signs, especially meteorological ones already mentioned; whence it uses them prudently and fruitfully for its own good and that of the commonwealth.
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She will share her goods. — In Greek, ἔσται σύμβουλος ἀγαθῶν, that is, she will be a counselor of good things, which namely will give me good counsel, says Vatablus; or rather she will be a sharer of goods: for symbola are called contributions, for example feasts, in which each of the guests contributes his meal to the common contribution, concerning which Proverbs xxiii, 21. And she will be a discourse of thought (in Greek, φροντίδων, that is, of cares, for thought from its etymology is an agitation of the mind, a gathering, a collecting, says St. Augustine, Confessions XI; hence thought in Scripture often denotes an anxious disputation of the mind fluctuating within itself, as is evident Matthew xxi, 25, and xv, 19; Luke i, 29, elsewhere) and of my weariness. — Discourse, that is, consolation; for gentle discourse is the consolation of the afflicted. In Greek, παραίνεσις, that is, exhortation, consolation, admonition, as Jansenius translated it; moderation, as Clarius; alleviation, as Vatablus; relief, as the Gloss. This is the tenth dowry of the bride, namely of wisdom, that she communicate her goods to her spouse, and his cares, labors, pains and sorrows, and by her prudent discourse and counsel ease and console them: for to this end was a wife given to a man, that she be to him a help in life so miserable and calamitous, Genesis ii. Hence that passage, Hosea ii, 14: "I will lead her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart," that is, I will gently console her. Add from Agrest. Grammar: "As to speak is of a man, to speak eloquently is of an orator, to speak against is of a detractor, so to address is of one persuading, or exhorting, or cajoling." This is that celebrated saying: "The visiting of one laboring (and more the addressing of one laboring) is a lightening of labor:" one may see this in fields and among farmers. Hear St. Gregory, book V of Morals, chapter v: "To console one laboring is likewise to persist in labor: because the visiting of a fellow-laborer is a lightening of labor, just as when a companion joins one on a journey, the way is indeed not shortened, but nevertheless from the society of the companion the labor of the journey is lightened," according to that saying: "A talkative companion on the way is as a vehicle." Such is wisdom. Of my weariness. — In Greek, λύπης, that is, of sadness, of pain, of my sorrow: the same thing Severinus Boethius confesses he experienced in prison, writing books On the Consolation of Philosophy, as also Thomas More in the English prison commenting on the Passion of Christ: all students of wisdom experience the same. If such great sweetness of pleasure, says Cervantes, St. Augustine confesses he drew from love of wisdom from Cicero's Hortensius, book III of Confessions, chapter iv, so that he might lighten disgust and weariness from the study of other things by love of philosophy alone; (which Cicero, II On Duties, calls a delight of the mind, a rest from cares not only drawing away from anxiety, but on the contrary arming one stoutly against all assaults of fortune, and book XII, letter to friends 23, and Tusculan Disputations V, granting tranquility of life) how much, I ask, does all this surpass it, not the study of shadowed wisdom, which is philosophy, but wisdom itself, to her consort and spouse, by herself and by her discourse? and how beautifully do all these things apply to that same uncreated, incarnate wisdom, in the Eucharist inviting us to her dwelling, her table, her marriage, her feast, her communion, her counsels, her gifts, her communication of all goods, her discourse, and admitting the desirous of herself?
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Young. — Many refer this to what follows: and I shall be found keen; but the τὸ and stands in the way: wherefore the Romans and other more careful interpreters refer it to τὸ elders, which preceded, as if to say: Wisdom makes it so that the wise man, though young in age, is honored not only by youths his contemporaries, but also by elders, by whom though he is surpassed in age, he nevertheless surpasses them in wisdom, as happened to Solomon, Job, Daniel, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles: thus Cantacuzenus, Vatablus, Osorius, Clarius, Jansenius, de Castro and others. Mystically the wise man, that is, one strong in virtue, calls himself young, even if he be old in years, because in virtue he never grows slack, in fervor he never grows lukewarm, he never becomes weaker in good works, but while he strives daily to make progress and to become stronger in good, he retains and preserves the blooming youth of wisdom, according to that Psalm lxxxiii, 8: "They shall go from virtue to virtue, the God of gods shall be seen in Sion."
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I shall be wonderful. — That is, they shall wonder at me and my wisdom and shall be astonished, and therefore the mighty and dynasties shall receive me with gaping mouth and shall venerate me. "The greatest glory, says Cicero II Offic., consists in these three things: if the multitude loves you, if it has faith in you, if it thinks you worthy of honor with a certain admiration." In Greek it is, θαυμασθήσομαι, that is, I shall be a matter of admiration, I shall excite admiration of myself, I shall be portentous, like the heavenly Rainbow, which was called by the Greeks Thaumantias from the admiration of men, who marvel at such variety and beauty of its colors, as if admirable: for just as the Iris draws its admirable form from the reverberation of the sun's rays, so I shall draw all the splendor of my judgment and genius from the irradiation of divine wisdom, which all shall admire. Wherefore Severus Sulpitius, lib. I Sacr. histor., concerning Solomon, thus says: "Thus in admiration of his prudence and ingenuity the kings of neighboring nations sought friendship and alliance from him, prepared to do what he commanded." These things are far more true in Christ, who is incarnate Wisdom, whose wisdom the crowds were astonished at, according to that, Luke xix, 48: "For all the people were very attentive, hearing him;"; in Greek, hung in suspense of mind; the Syriac, hung upon him to hear him; and the servants sent to seize him, when asked by the Scribes why they had not brought him, answered, John vii, 46: "Never did man speak like this man." In this gift of genius and acuteness among all the Fathers and doctors of the Church, St. Augustine excelled like an eagle, to whom therefore deservedly and justly St. Prosper assigns these praises, lib. III De Vita contempl. cap. xxxi: "Saint Augustine the bishop, keen in genius, sweet in eloquence, learned in secular literature, industrious in ecclesiastical labors, renowned in daily disputations, composed in all his actions, catholic in the exposition of our faith, acute in solving questions, circumspect in refuting heretics, and cautious in explaining the Sacred Scriptures." And the Council of Toledo VIII, cap. ii, in the year of the Lord 653: "The most holy Augustine, it says, cautious in the acuteness of investigation, preeminent in the art of discovery, flowing in abundance of assertion, beautiful in the flower of eloquence, fruitful in the fruit of wisdom." in Catilin. IV: "I see, he says, that all your faces and eyes are turned upon me." For a wise orator ought to strive that either by the novelty and unusualness of things, and by the grace and energy of speaking; or by the gravity of the matter, its pleasantness and weight, he may hold the minds of his hearers suspended and intent upon himself, for thus he will make them benevolent and attentive to him. Such was Job, who, speaking of himself, says, cap. xxix, 9: "Princes ceased to speak, and put their finger to their mouth, etc. The ear that heard me blessed me, and the eye that saw me gave testimony to me," by nodding and applauding; and Paul, whose eloquence and energy of speaking the astonished Lycaonians so admired that they called him Mercury, as if a god fallen from heaven, Acts xiv, 14. And St. Maurilius, who was designated bishop of Angers by the judgment of a dove, and was consecrated by St. Martin, illustrious in sanctity and frequent miracles, captivated all in himself with his mouth and ears; hence he was "silent in speech, and speaking in silence, and nothing in him more severe than his pleasantness, and more pleasant than his severity," says Fortunatus in his Life.
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Good, — that is, benevolent, beneficent, merciful, liberal. These therefore are the two principal qualities of a prince, namely beneficence and fortitude, according to that saying of Homer: "Both, the king is good and the soldier strong;" which Alexander the Great constantly had on his lips, as Homer testifies in the Moralia: for a king ought to be good and peaceful in peace, but strong in war. To this pertains that passage of Plutarch, in the book To the Unlearned Prince, and in the book On Philosophizing with a Prince: "God is angered by thunder and lightning, and the projection of rays threatening; but those who are endowed with right reason, striving to represent him through honesty and humanity, he delights in their zeal, increases them, and imparts to them his equity, justice, truth and gentleness, than which nothing is more lasting." See Dio, oration 2 On Kingship, and oration 49, which begins: "For learned and educated men, neither is it unpleasant to hold office, nor difficult;"; and Aristotle in Questions on Politics, where he says: "A prince is formidable to enemies if he is equipped with arms and army, and with much apparatus as it were prepared for war; yet let him hold back all these things longer, as if vain, before he uses them. For God himself also, before he strikes fear into the trembling of his majesty, grants certain truces;"; which if it does not help, then at last he hurls his darts and thunderbolts at the guilty. Hear from the Laws of the Visigoths, book I, title 2, chapter vi, the enactment: "From the institution of morals, from the gentleness of princes, and from the arrangement of laws arising from this, both the concord of citizens and the triumph over enemies come about; and thus a good prince, ruling internal affairs and conquering external ones, while he possesses his own peace and breaks off the strife of others, is celebrated as a ruler among his citizens, and as a victor among his enemies." Hear also Seneca the tragedian in the Octavia conversing with Nero: N. Iron protects the prince. S. Faith does better. N. It befits Caesar to be feared. S. But to be loved is more. N. They must fear of necessity. S. Whatever is extorted is burdensome. N. And let them obey our commands. S. Command what is just. And Isocrates, oration 2 to Nicocles: "Let him be warlike in knowledge of military affairs and in preparation, but peaceful, so that he desires nothing beyond what is right and equitable and claims for himself." And Musonius in Stobaeus, discourse 48: "It is advantageous for a prince," he says, "to be loved by his subjects rather than feared."
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The cause of this peace and gladness is first, the serenity and sanctity of a good conscience: "For a secure mind is like a continual feast," Prov. xv, 15. Second, love and confidence in God. Third, hope of future glory, which absorbs all the labors and sorrows of a holy life, however harsh. To this pertains that passage, Eccli. xv, 6: "Joy and exultation shall be treasured up upon him;"; and that passage of Wisdom concerning herself, Eccli. xxiv, 27: "For my spirit is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance sweeter than honey and the honeycomb." Let wise men learn from wisdom that in conversation they should not be gloomy, austere, withdrawn, harsh; but pleasant, cheerful, joyful, easy, obliging, so that they readily lend their ears to all, and benevolently satisfy their requests as far as they can. Finally, from the fact that her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, St. Thomas, II II, Question xxxv, article 5, proves that the delight of contemplation is pure and unmixed, and has no sadness opposed to it: ascetics experience this, who constantly converse with God, with Christ, with the Blessed Virgin, with angels and saints: for these dwell as it were in an earthly paradise, and like earthly angels, taste the heavenly delights in the flesh, according to that passage, Psalm. xxx, 20: "How great is the multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hidden for them that fear thee!" and that passage, Psalm. xxxv, 9: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house: and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure."
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A good pleasure, — that is, an honest one, not a shameful one: likewise good, that is, pleasant, as Vatable translates it, according to that in Psalm cxxxii, 1: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Honesty without deficiency, — that is, inexhaustible wealth, unfailing riches, or perpetual ones, as Vatable translates it. See the sayings at verses 11 and 14, and Proverbs iii, 16, to those words: "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory." In the contest of her speech wisdom. — In Greek ἐν συγγυμνασίᾳ ὁμιλίας αὐτῆς φρόνησις, that is, in the co-exercise of her conversation prudence; Vatable, in the use of discourse (for ὁμιλία, that is, discourse, is said from ὁμοῦ λαλεῖν, that is, from speaking together) her prudence, as if to say Jansenius: Through the fact that one is exercised with her by conversing, discussing and associating, wisdom and prudence are acquired: just as those who converse and dispute with learned men in gymnasia draw out and drink in their learning; and just as in scholastic disputations, where the arguer contends with the defender by reasons, the mind is sharpened and truth shines forth; whence it is said, Ecclesiasticus li, 25: "My soul hath wrestled with her." From this flowed the Conferences of the Fathers, of which Cassian, Climacus and others speak in the Lives of the Fathers, in which by mutual conversation, and as it were discussion concerning virtues, the ascetics impressed these more powerfully and ardently upon themselves and their disciples. Although here it is not so much taught how wisdom is acquired, as what fruit and benefit that acquired wisdom provides, namely, that it makes our speeches, discourses, dialogues, disputations wise, and that they breathe wisdom everywhere, and inspire it in all, as the Fathers did in their Conferences. Splendor (in Greek εὐκλεΐα, that is, fame, name, praise, clarity of reputation, brightness; whence κλυτός is renowned, famous, splendid, bright) in the sharing of her words, — as our Lorinus says: A wise man is well spoken of everywhere, and his words are heard as axioms, apophthegms and maxims, are circulated, praised, while he shares his words, hence he is splendidly celebrated; or also honor and praise is had when one confers and converses with him. Anagogically this will be far more truly the case among the blessed in heaven. To this pertains that in Daniel xii, 3: "But they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament: and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity." Less correctly Lyran, Dionysius and Hugh explain splendor as clarity and elegance of speech, as if to say: The wise man speaks his words clearly and elegantly. I went about seeking. — This word denotes a great and constant desire of Solomon for wisdom: for thus the bridegroom goes about, that he may obtain the bride whom he loves, they contract a bond, who namely strive to bind her to themselves and betroth her, according to that in chapter xv, verse 3: "To know justice and virtue of thine, is the root of immortality." He repeats what he said in verse 13: "Moreover I shall have immortality through her and eternal memory," etc. Alluding to this, Thalassius, Century IV, number 56: "The tree of life," he says, "is the knowledge of God, whose pure participant remains immortal."
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with dexterity of mind prepared for all things: for φύσις is disposition, namely natural goodness of mind and soul, φύω indeed means I beget, I produce, I plant, I bring forth into light; whence φυή is nature, the innate power of a thing, mind, disposition, native force, the habit and character of nature. For mind properly is called by the Latins the nature innate to each person, from begetting; but this in children is called disposition, and it is an index not only of probity but also of industry and judgment. Whence St. Isidore, book X of the Etymologies, chapter xi, near the end, derives genius from the fact that it has the power of managing all things, or from begetting children: whence also genial couches were so called, which were spread for a new bridegroom; and Festus: "The genial gods," he says, "they called water, earth, fire, air: for these are the seeds of things. They called genius the god who held the power of managing all things." Augustine: "Genius," he says, "is the son of gods and parent of men, from whom men are begotten, and therefore my genius is named, because he begot me." Others thought genius to be the god of each place. And Nonius Marcellus, chapter iv: "Mind," he says, "is natural wisdom. Sallust, in the Catilinarian War: No one exercised mind without a body. The ancients called mind both of its own accord and by nature. Naevius to Lycurgus: You, who guard the custody of the royal body, go at once into the leafy groves; mind is orchards and vineyards, not obscurity. Sallust, History, book III: And camps being joined, yet battle was prevented by the nature of the place. Virgil, Georgics, book II: Following this meaning, Peter Nannius translates at this place, I was a boy of right disposition; Vatablus, endowed with apt mind. Third, εὐφυΐα, according to Hesychius, is a tree, nature or mind flourishing, germinating well, growing abundantly: for this suits this place, as if to say that Solomon's nature, like good soil, warmed by the rays of the heavenly sun, namely the grace of God, properly conceived the seeds of probity and wisdom, cherished what was conceived, developed what was cherished, and promoted what was growing day by day: wherefore he gave greater and greater proofs day by day of his good disposition and mind, like Christ, who advanced in age, wisdom and grace with God and men, Luke ii, 52: thus according to Castro and Pineda, book I On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter xviii. "As the immortal gods," says Seneca, epistle 96, "learned no virtue, since they were born with all, and it is part of their nature to be good: so certain men, having obtained an excellent disposition, in those things which are usually taught, arrive without long instruction, and embrace what is honorable, as soon as they have heard it." Finally Aristotle, III Ethics, chapter ix: "He," he says, "is εὐφυής, to whom something is innate well, who is well formed by nature and inclined: for just as a tree flourishing, and growing and germinating abundantly, and coming together is said to be εὐφυής, so a pleasant and keen mind, which flourishes, germinates and comes together in virtue, and in those things which are joined with virtue and wisdom, is said to be well instituted by nature, and inclined to good." I obtained (that is, says Pineda in the place already cited, not by my will, not by my merit, but by the will of God, whose lot is not in our hand; I received) a good soul. — "Those things which are given by lot," says St. Augustine, book X On Genesis Literally, chapter xviii, "are accustomed to be given by God;" and below: "To remove suspicion of preceding merits the name of lot was introduced." All these things are true, if the name of lot be taken strictly: for, if from the use of sacred speech, lot does not mean that which is fortuitous, but something proper and as it were hereditary. To me, he says, the supreme arbiter of things, God, attributed the best portion of body and soul, a distinguished sort of inheritance and lot of my possession. A good soul, — that is of good disposition, inclined to all good, endowed with natural goodness, moderation of affections, and purity of character: thus Dionysius, Pineda, Jansenius, Lorinus, Castro and others. Hugo less correctly attributed good mind to nature, a good soul to grace; so also Bonaventure, who proves this from the word lot; and Lyran who assigns a good soul to purity of affection, which Solomon drew from the instruction of Nathan, who therefore imposed on him the name, beloved of the Lord, II Kings xii, 23; and Holcot, who thinks by the word boy (for boy is said from purity) is noted the cleanness of body; by the word ingenious, the skill of intellect; by "I obtained a good soul," is hinted supernatural grace. And Hugh Aetherianus, book On the Return of Souls, chapter xxxii, says that Solomon obtained a good soul through the abundance of wisdom given to him, through which he became more good. Others, thinking worse, hold that the soul is from transmission, that is, that the soul of the son is sown and transmitted from the soul of the parent, just as the light of one candle is transmitted and kindled from another candle, thus they explain it, as if to say: "I was a witty child," in Greek εὐφυής, that is, of good nature and disposition, because from the good nature and disposition of my parent's soul I obtained my lot, and received likewise a good soul, according to that passage from Lucan, book V: St. Augustine, reviewing this opinion and following it with some doubt, in book X of Genesis according to the Letter, chapter xvii: "But I was a witty child, he says, explaining this very thing, by what causes he was witty, he immediately adds: And I obtained a good soul, namely from paternal wit or bodily temperament. Finally, when I was, he says, more good, I came to an undefiled body; which if it be understood of the maternal, neither would this, which was said: I came to a body, be contrary to this opinion, since it is received that from a soul and body paternal he came to a maternal body, he would see it undefiled, either from menstrual blood; for by this wits are said to be burdened; or from adulterous contamination, which often harms the morals of sons, and pours its own depravity into them. But truly the transmission of souls from the Church has now been condemned as an error; for she teaches that all human souls are created by God by infusing them, and are infused by creating: and this error is sufficiently refuted here from what follows: "And when I was more good, I came to an undefiled body," which words suggest that the soul was prior to the body, not in time, but in nature, and had previously possessed its own goodness, of which he said: "I obtained a good soul;"; and then came into an undefiled body, therefore the soul was not transmitted from bodily seed, nor through the seed of the parent was the father's soul infused into the son's body. Excellently Seneca, book IV of Benefits, chapter vi: Implanted in us, he says, are the seeds of all ages and all arts, and God as master brings forth wits from the hidden. Mystically, St. Augustine, ibid. chapter xviii, receives all these things of Christ, who was the true Solomon, that is, the peaceful one and our peace: "What was more witty, he says, than that boy, whose wisdom in his twelve years the elders marveled at?"; and below: "And what more undefiled than that womb of the Virgin, whose flesh although it came from the propagation of sin, did not however conceive from the propagation of sin?"; and with many things interjected: "And perhaps for this reason he says: I obtained a good soul; if however this ought to be understood of him, because those things which are given by lot are wont to be given by God; or what must be said faithfully, lest that soul itself be thought to have been raised by some preceding works to such a height, that the Word would become flesh with it, and dwell in us; to remove the suspicion of preceding merits, the name of lot was added." And St. Cyprian, book of Testimonies against the Jews, chapter On the Nativity of Christ: "Who, he says, was good before birth? and who came to an undefiled and unpolluted body?"; none but Christ alone, as it were like dew falling upon the Virgin, and conceived in her from the Holy Spirit.
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In Greek it is, μᾶλλον δέ, that is, rather truly, or rather, as a correction; whence Vatablus translates it, rather I myself being good, obtained an uncontaminated body; Osorius, or to speak more correctly, since I myself by nature was good, namely according to the soul, which I obtained good from God, I obtained an unspotted body. Or μᾶλλον δέ, that is, moreover or further, as if to say: Since I was good, namely as to the soul, which I obtained good from God, moreover or further I came to an uncontaminated body: for to a good soul a good temperament of body corresponds proportionally, and therefore is naturally as it were due, and in fact is given by God: thus Nannius, Vatablus and Jansenius, whom hear: μᾶλλον δέ seems to be placed here, as often elsewhere, for rather, so that it be in a manner a correction of what he had said, and the sense be: Or rather since I was good, I came, that is, I attained, to an uncontaminated body. He had said: I was a witty child, and I obtained a good soul. From which words, since it could be understood that he signified that he had obtained a good soul by his own wit, therefore as it were he corrects that speech, saying: Or rather since I was good, or because I was good, I attained to an uncontaminated body. Signifying that the goodness of the soul, which he also had by God's gift, was the cause of the purity of the body, not contrariwise that the goodness of the soul was prepared by the gifts of the body, and that the goodness of the soul preceded, not followed. Others, whom St. Augustine favors, in book X On Genesis according to the letter, chapter xvii, translate it, so that I was good, I came to an uncontaminated body: this exposition corresponds sufficiently to the Greek text, but not to the Latin Vulgate: for it has, and since I was more good, I came to an uncontaminated body, which words, although some, as they accommodate to the sense already given, explain by transposition of the more, as if to say: And moreover, that is, further, since I was good, I came to an uncontaminated body, and they give an example, Proverbs xxx, 31: "Neither is there a king that resisteth him;" that is, and a king, there is none that resisteth him, as these words by transposing they explain Lyran, Dionysius and Jansenius: for a king is the fourth animal among those which walk well; yet this transposition seems harsh and violent. Therefore to the Vulgate version a twofold sense can be given, more apt and fitting. The first is, as if to say: I obtained a good soul, nor only a good soul, but also a good body: wherefore since I was more good, that is, since I was destined by God for greater and complete goodness, so that I should be more and more good, that is, better, nay completely, in all things namely, both as to body and as to soul good, "I came to an uncontaminated body;" whence in Greek it is, being rather good, I came to an uncontaminated body, that is, being better, nay perfectly good I became, when the soul, good in itself, came likewise to a good and uncontaminated body: for a good body was added, and perfected the goodness of the soul, for it received from a good body the completion of its goodness: for the body is the workshop of the soul, through it indeed it works all its operations. Wherefore I Solomon, since as to the soul I was good from God's creation and gift, by his gift I obtained a body most excellently tempered and wonderfully agreeing with the soul, namely moderated in its affections, and conformable and obedient to the soul: for this he calls here uncontaminated; for passions disturb and defile the soul; whence some translate it, because I was attaining to greater goodness, I came to an uncontaminated body. The second, as if to say: "Since I was more good," that is, since I was growing more and more in goodness, since day by day I was making progress in goodness through acts of virtue, since I was showing greater and greater signs day by day of probity and excellent character, since I was growing in mind equally and in the study of wisdom, "I came to an uncontaminated body," that is, then I obtained the purity of body and the gift of chastity, first virginal, then conjugal, and in it I made constant progress and grew: for since I knew this to be a gift of God, I earnestly sought it from God with all my heart, as follows, and I obtained it. This sense is fitting, and with many it is approved and explained by our a Castro, whose words comprehended in few give this sense, as if to say: I indeed, since from childhood I was endowed with good character, and a good mind and inclined to virtue; nay the more I was well instructed, the more I grew in an immaculate body, keeping it unpolluted: for that good character, with which God blessed me by his mercy, induced me to keep my body uncontaminated until the age of marriage, so that I might thus be more apt to seek and obtain wisdom, which does not dwell in a body subject to sins. This Solomon did as a young man, for as an old man he defiled his body and soul with lusts. Mystically, the Word in the Incarnation assumed a good soul, indeed the best, and, so that it might be complete in goodness in every respect, He adapted to it the best body, that is, the purest and most perfect: for the Word, by means of the soul, assumed the body; wherefore He assumed the soul prior in nature (not prior in time) to the body, as St. Thomas teaches, III part. Quest. vi, art. 3. From this principle many probably gather that human souls, although all are of the same species, are nevertheless not equal in the dignity of nature, but one is better and more perfect than another essentially; yet within the breadth of the same species; and that the soul of Christ is the most noble before the souls of all men; not, however, that this diversity of soul and character arises from the body alone being better organized, as Durandus, D. Soto, Soncinas, Henry of Ghent, Toletus, and our Conimbricenses in lib. II De Anima, cap. i, Quest. V, and Philip the Solitary in Dioptra, cap. ii et seq., wish, where he teaches that the diversity of functions which exists in men arises not from the soul, but from the various temperament or constitution of the body: just as the same rain produces one effect in the olive, another in the vine, and so of others; and just as the same sun now illuminates more, now less, if it be free from cloud or mist, or covered by them; and just as the same water through various channels is here bitter, elsewhere sweet. But Solomon seems here to signify the contrary: for he says that he obtained a good soul before others, that is, he received a better one than others implanted by God; again he says that he was ingenious from a good and ingenious soul; whence from the Greek εὐφυής, thus you may translate, I was a child of good character, and (that is, because) I obtained a good soul. Nor say that this goodness of soul came to him from the body; for he adds: "And when I was more good, I came to an undefiled body," as if to say, Prior in nature in me there was good character from a good soul, then it was perfected through the goodness and purity of the body, when this soul entered into this body. The first reason is, because if in the human body one is better and more perfect than another, therefore the same must be said far more of the soul; whence St. Thomas, I part. Quest. lxxxv, art. 7: "It is manifest," he says, "that the better disposed the body is, the better soul it obtains, both because God attunes souls to the body: therefore into a nobler body He infuses a nobler soul; and because thus the body has this breadth of degrees and beautiful variety: therefore much more does the soul have the same, which is far superior and more sublime than the body. Second, because in angels of the same choir and species, one, for example the highest angel, is more excellent than another, for example the lowest; but that arises from the soul, so to speak, of the angel, not from the body, since they lack one; therefore the same must be said of the human soul, which is of intellectual and angelic nature: for although St. Thomas holds that all angels differ from one another in species, yet others in various places think otherwise and teach that in the same species there are many angels distinguished by individual difference alone. Thus think Alensis, Albertus, Bonaventura, Scotus, Gabriel, Durandus, Marsilius, Molina, Vasquez and Suarez, lib. I De Angelis, cap. xv. Third, because in twins, for example in Esau and Jacob, where the seed is the same, often the character is very different; therefore that arises from a disparate soul. Fourth, because no one has denied that the souls of women are disparate from the souls of men, indeed were disparate from the beginning in the creation of Adam and Eve; and who would dare to say that Judas had a soul as noble as Christ had! Fifth, the very great variety and propensity of talents, studies, and inclinations seems to argue the same thing: philosophical and theological, others are inclined and apt for medicine, others for eloquence, others for mathematics, but inept for other sciences, indeed averse to them; others are drawn to speculation, others to practice; others are inclined to mercy, others to severity and rigor; others to chastity, others to lust; and some have excellent memory, but little acuteness and talent; others have great acuteness of talent, but little judgment and memory: all of which do not appear to come from the body alone. Finally, if gold surpasses gold, ox surpasses ox, water surpasses water, earth surpasses earth, stone surpasses stone, why should not one soul be more excellent than another, especially since the soul is spiritual, and therefore more elevated and more illuminated? There is added an article of the Academy of Paris, which Henry of Ghent recites, Quodlib. III, Question V, and Durandus, in II, dist. 32, Question V, which reads thus: "If anyone says that all souls are equal from the beginning, he errs: since otherwise the soul of Christ would not be more perfect than the soul of Judas." Thus teach the Master of the Sentences in II, distinction 32, and there St. Bonaventure, Albert, Richard, John Major, Capreolus, Aegidius Ferrarius, lib. I Against the Gentiles, cap. iii, Cajetan, I Question, dist. 85, art. 7, Abulensis, in Matthew cap. xv, Question 656, and Peter Nannius, Jansenius and Vatablus here, and St. Augustine favors it, lib. IV Against Julian, cap. iii, when he says: "By whose (God's) hidden judgment, and not unjust, some are born foolish, others of very slow talent and in a certain way leaden for understanding, others forgetful, others sharp and retentive, others endowed with both gifts," etc. An undefiled body,—that is, first, chaste and pure; second, lacking stain, vice and imperfection, which could harm talent or natural disposition; but perfect, well constituted, of good condition, suitable for the fruits of wisdom and virtue according to apt symmetry and proportion, so that it could be easily ruled and adapted by the soul; third, by catachresis and metalepsis, an undefiled body is a whole body, perfect, beautiful, elegant, comely, and equally vigorous, strong, sinewy, robust, and therefore a beautiful and strong bride, namely wisdom, is worthy: for Virtue coming in a beautiful body is more pleasing. For chastity, which is the sister of wisdom, greatly promotes beauty, honor and form, equally as the strength of the body; hence it is similar to asbestos (which word here is in Greek) a stone, which is not harmed by fire, and resists it, and endures whole in fire, as Pliny testifies, lib. xxxvi, cap. xix. To this pertains that passage of Boethius, lib. IV On Consolation, prose 6: "The body of a holy man, he says, virtues have built;" and with some things interjected: "There is another absolute in all virtues and holy and near to God: him to be touched by any adversities, providence judges it unlawful: so much so that it does not even allow him to be troubled by bodily diseases." Hence also Plato, Dialog. 6, at the beginning, and more fully at the end of dialog. 3, calls heroes born of gods, and to their bodies fashioned assigns matter not of our kind, but more noble than human, and as if fallen from heaven; and breathes into them a mind not defiled by the common dregs of mortals, but fashioned from the purest gold of divinity. For as the same philosopher reasons in the Timaeus: From a most choice soul, together with a most excellent body, equal in the excellence of rarity, arises in man first that admirable harmony and concord of health most perfectly tempered, and of august beauty, which cannot be separated: then exquisite acuteness of the senses, and moderate tranquility of affections: then also for understanding divine things, and for handling human things, talent of marvelous swiftness and capacity: and from these an ingenuous and chaste love of philosophy and the Muses, without which neither can anyone be beautiful, nor good. But if to these a proper education and the light of doctrine shall be added, he says the pinnacle of human dignity is raised higher, and man becomes a participant of divine music, to establish on earth the choirs of good arts for the common good of mankind, and the dances of all virtues: thus Plato. Therefore the most whole body is the living temple of God, pouring forth divine oracles.
8:21
First therefore and genuinely, the sense is, as if to say: Since I knew that I could not be continent, that is, master of my vow, able, and having in my power wisdom, so that namely I might obtain that so greatly desired, unless God himself gave it to me, I approached him and besought him for it: for all of Solomon's vow was concerning the obtaining of wisdom, as is evident from what has been said; hence also in the following chapter, praying and explaining this vow of his, he asks nothing from God but wisdom: thus Nannius, Vatablus, Jansenius, Cantacuzenus, Osorius, a Castro, Emmanuel Sa, Lorinus and the rest. For continent is the same as holding, master of, possessing, as if to say: Since I knew that by my own powers I could not obtain wisdom, nor retain it once obtained, nor use it well once retained, unless through God's grace, I implored this: thus in Ecclesiasticus vi, 28, it is said: "And continent of it," that is, holding or possessing wisdom, "do not forsake her;" and chapter xv, verse 1: "And he that is continent of justice (that is, master of justice, or he who has obtained justice) shall lay hold on her," wisdom; and chapter xxvii, verse 33: "Wrath and fury, both are abominable, and the sinful man shall be continent of them," that is, shall be master or partaker of them, or shall be subject to them. Hence the Arabic version translates at this place, and when I had known that I could not hold her in any other way, if God had not given her to me. Secondly, "continent" is the same as chaste, one who contains and restrains himself from lust, whose stimuli are most vehement: for Solomon seems to ask for chastity, as an inseparable companion of wisdom, fearing lest through lust, to which nature inclined, he would lose wisdom, as he lost it in old age: which he seems to presage here: therefore "continent" pertains to what preceded: "I came unto a body undefiled;" for he was striving to hold and preserve it in its purity. Continent therefore is the same as holding in one's power, restraining and controlling the venereal pleasures of the body, and their master, victor and lord (for this is ἐγκρατής), which is accomplished by the virtue of chastity: thus the Gloss, Dionysius, Holcot, Hugo Aetherianus, On the Return of Souls, chapter xxxii, and Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins, chapter xiii, and St. Augustine, book VI of the Confessions, chapter xi, and epistle 89, Question II, where from this place he teaches that continence is not of the powers of free will, but of God's grace: "Since I knew," he says, "that no one can be continent unless God gives it. God therefore commands continence, and gives continence, commands through the law, gives through grace; commands through the letter, gives through the spirit;" and epistle 143 to Juliana, mother of Demetrias, to whom he congratulates on the purpose of virginity, but warns that this is a signal gift of God, and therefore is to be sought from him with the lowest prayers and tears. The same teaches Prosper, Against Collatio, chapter xxxvi. Continence therefore here signifies chastity, not only virginal, but also widowed and conjugal: for this threefold chastity is a gift of God, indeed conjugal is often a greater gift than virginal: for experience of lust in marriage is a vehement stimulus and temptation to seek it outside marriage from more beautiful bodies. For Solomon, when he asked for this continence and wisdom, was already a husband, and therefore had already begotten Rehoboam, as I showed above: thus Bellarmine, book II On Monks, chapter xxxi, and book V On Grace and Free Will, chapter vii. Again Solomon speaks here, not only of the act of continence or chastity, but also of the habit, whether it be acquired or infused: for all habits, although acquired, are gifts of God, who is the author of all natural goods. Therefore not quite rightly do some scholastics prove from this place that besides acquired virtues, moral virtues are given infused by God: for although that be more true, yet it is not sufficiently solidly proved from this place and similar ones: thus Gabriel Vasquez, I II, disputation 86, number 12. Yet the Wise Man speaks here more of the act of continence, which daily must be exercised by man, amid so many and so grave occasions and temptations of lust, to overcome which nature is not sufficient, nor natural habit, but there is need of peculiar grace of God, and that frequent and powerful, as St. Augustine teaches in the places already cited, who proves the same from this place. Morally, learn here that the reward of humility and humble prayer is chastity, just as the fitting punishment of pride is lust, as St. Gregory teaches in the twenty-sixth book of his Morals, book xiii: "For often," he says, "pride has been the seedbed of lust in many: because, while the spirit lifted them up as it were on high, the flesh plunged them down in the depths: for these are first elevated in secret, but afterwards fall publicly; because, while they swell in hidden ways of the heart, they fall in open lapses of the body." Humility therefore is the guardian of chastity. Wherefore St. Ignatius, in his epistle to the Philippians: "He who is chaste, or continent," he says, "let him not be exalted, lest he lose his reward;" St. Jerome, in his epistle to Demetrias: "Do not think that only what is yours is yours, but those women have expressed their chastity in you (your mother and grandmother) and from honorable marriages and an undefiled bed have generated in you the most precious flower, which will bring forth perfect fruits, if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God;" St. Augustine, sermon 53 on the Words of the Lord: "I dare to say: It profits the proud continent to fall, so that in that very thing in which they are exalted, they may be humbled;" St. Fulgentius, epistle 3 to Proba, On Virginity, chapter xviii: "That virginity dedicated to God may remain whole, just as the integrity of the body is guarded, so much more must the humility of the heart be guarded: for if anyone is truly a virgin of Christ, she cannot be joined to Christ except through humility," etc. St. Bernard, homily 1 on Missus est: "A beautiful mingling of virginity and humility; nor does God find that soul displeasing in which humility commends virginity and virginity adorns humility; and a little later: That virginity might please, humility undoubtedly accomplished it. What do you say, proud virgin? Mary, forgetting herself a virgin, glories in humility, and you, neglecting humility, flatter yourself about virginity. He regarded the humility of his handmaid, etc. Luke i, 48. It would be better for you not to be a virgin than to grow insolent about virginity." Again Cassian, book II of the Institutes of Renunciation, chapter xviii: "Just as," he says, "chastity cannot be obtained without humility, so knowledge cannot be obtained without chastity;" humility and humble prayer therefore are the center of both, indeed of every virtue and every good. Whence St. Chrysostom in the Melissa of Antony, part I, chapter xlvi: "Through prayer," he says, "the conversation of God is acquired; but he is separated from God who has not joined himself to Him through prayer: but he who is separated from God must necessarily be-" Abbot Serenus, according to Cassian, Collation VII, chapter ii, when he persisted with unceasing supplication and tears to obtain perfect chastity, an angel came to him in a night vision, and as if opening his belly, tore out a certain burning tumor of the flesh from his bowels and cast it out, and restored all his intestines to their places as they had been: "Behold," he said, "the incentives of your flesh have been cut away, and know that you have obtained on this day the perpetual purity of body which you have faithfully sought." St. Thomas Aquinas, when young, was tempted by a harlot sent by his brothers, and he drove her away with a burning brand, and immediately praying for the gift of chastity, he saw an angel girding his loins with a zone, saying: "Receive the girdle of chastity," and thereafter throughout his whole life he was free from the sense of lust, as his Life relates. St. Cecilia, armed with a hair shirt, praying with groaning with the Psalmist, Psalm cxviii, 80: "Let my heart be immaculate in thy justifications, O Lord, that I may not be confounded," merited to obtain angelic chastity and its guardian angel; and she even inspired the same in Valerian her spouse, Tiburtius his brother, and many others, and like a resourceful bee wove the honeycomb and cells of virgins. A similar example of Abbot Moses is recounted by Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter xxii; of Pacho, chapter xxix. See St. Augustine, On Holy Virginity, chapter xliv. A famous and recent example exists in the Life of St. Elzear, Count of Ariano, chapter xxxvi: for he with his bride Delphina in the flower of their age, on the very feast of St. Mary Magdalene after the synaxis, kneeling and joining their hands over the Missal, vowed perpetual virginity to God in this form: "Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every good and gift proceeds, I, a sinful, fragile and weak sinner, cannot live chastely and continently without your special gift; but trusting in your singular help, I vow and promise to you, and to your most holy mother, and to all the saints, that for the whole time of my life I will live chastely and preserve virginity, which up to now your kindness has guarded in me, and for the fulfillment of this promise, I am prepared to endure whatever afflictions and punishments, and even death itself." Finally St. Virgin Delphina in a similar manner publicly repeated the vow of virginity which she had already made in secret. Lady Garsenda her nurse added that of St. Urban the Pontiff concerning St. Cecilia: "Lord Jesus Christ, sower of chaste counsel, receive the fruit of the seeds which you have sown in the virgin Delphina." Moreover, it wonderfully helps toward chastity to implore the aid of the Blessed Virgin, for she has been established as queen of virgins and patroness of chastity; whence the Church, invoking her, supplicates: Thirdly, the continent man here signifies not only one who is chaste, but also one who is continent and abstinent from every other vice; whence the Syriac translator renders it, "I knew moreover that I could not govern my soul": for continence is a general virtue which, as Aristotle teaches throughout book VII of the Ethics, restrains and curbs anger, gluttony, pride, avarice, sloth, and every other depraved affection of the mind, or concupiscence, and makes man moderate in his actions, and keeps the proper measure in all things. Such moderation is true wisdom, which he seeks in the following prayer; hence he says of Wisdom: "She shall conduct me in my works soberly," that is, temperately and moderately, so that I keep the proper measure in all things. Hence Lyra well expounds it as "I could not be continent from vices"; and St. Augustine, in book X of the Confessions, chapter xxix, treating this passage, interprets continence as abstinence from all vices; for thus he addresses and beseeches God: "And all my hope is in thy great mercy alone. Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt. Thou commandest us continence. And when I knew, says a certain one, that no one can be continent unless God gives it, and this very thing was of wisdom, to know whose gift this was, Wisdom viii, 21. For by continence we are gathered together and brought back into one, from which we have flowed out into many: for he loves thee less who loves something with thee which he does not love for thy sake. O love, who ever burnest and art never extinguished, charity my God, kindle me! Thou commandest continence, give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt. Thou surely commandest that I be continent from the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the ambition of the world; thou didst command abstinence from intercourse, and concerning marriage itself thou didst warn of something better than what thou didst allow." He has similar passages in book IV Against Julian, chapter iii, and in the book On the Merit of Sins, chapter v, and in the book On Continence, chapter i. Moreover, Aristotle, in book VII of the Ethics, distinguishes continence from temperance, in that the latter is a full and perfect virtue; the former, however, is only inchoate, because it still involves struggle and combat against the contrary vice, and conflicts with rebellion and, as it were, sedition of the passions. But Solomon does not distinguish these two, but calls the continent man temperate and moderate in all things. "And this same was the height of wisdom, to know whose gift this was." — Read thus with the Roman and Greek texts, for others read less correctly, "and this same was the highest wisdom"; others, "wisdom." For wisdom, in Greek it is φρόνησις, that is, prudence, understanding: for gift, in Greek it is χάρις, that is, grace. For chastity is a gift of the grace of God, and one of the greatest, on account of its difficulty, and the constant and most dangerous temptations of the flesh. How true this is St. Augustine teaches, who, while living in concubinage and heresy, thought continence from intercourse was impossible for him, because he sought it in the powers of free will: for thus he says, in book VI of the Confessions, chapter xi: "I believed continence to be a matter of my own powers, of which I was not conscious, so foolish was I as not to know, as it is written, that no one can be continent unless thou givest it. Surely thou wouldst give it, if I knocked at thy ears with inward groaning, and cast my care upon thee with firm faith"; hence the same man, now converted and made wiser, in epistle 143: "God helps us not only by his grace in this, that by loving such was St. Augustine before his conversion, whom hear, in book VIII of the Confessions, chapter vii: "But I, a most wretched young man, wretched even at the beginning of my youth, had even asked of thee chastity, and said: Give me chastity and continence, but not yet (behold a heart not whole, a double mind, inconstant in its ways, not directed by God): for I feared lest thou wouldst hear me quickly, and wouldst quickly heal me from the disease of concupiscence, which I preferred to satisfy rather than to extinguish." This prayer of Solomon is that of which in III Kings iii, 12. From this passage we learn that he had desired wisdom for many days before and in his vows, and had asked it of God; hence in the night when sleeping in Gabaon, God, wishing to satisfy his vows, commanded him to ask what he would, and he asked for wisdom, as he had often asked before, and it was given to him so remarkable that it surpassed every kind of man, as St. Jerome says, in Ecclesiastes xii (although in chapter ii of the same book he says that Solomon was not wiser than Abraham, Moses and the other saints, but than those who were before him in Jerusalem), because "he asked in faith, nothing wavering, and asked of God, who gives to all abundantly, and upbraideth not, as St. James says, Catholic Epistle i, 5." Thus from Castro. Knowing, he says, that he would be immediately stained by the filth of the most impure defilement, if divine protection were to depart from him even slightly, and therefore for the perpetuity of it he must keep watch with unceasing prayers with all contrition and humility of heart." Hence also St. Augustine in the same epistle 143 teaches that continence is a gift of God's grace not only in the faithful but also in the gentiles, and brings forward the example of Polemon, who, hearing Xenocrates discoursing on abstinence, was changed from a drunkard to a sober man. From my whole heart. — In Greek, from my whole heart, that is from the whole affection, groaning, desire and sighing of heart and mind, with the addition also of fastings, vigils, and chameunia, that is lying on the ground (for these mortify the flesh, sharpen prayer, and dispose one to chastity), says Cantacuzenus. Those who thus seriously, ardently and as it were with their whole heart ask from God the gift of chastity, obtain it; but those who ask coldly, doubtfully and with only half a heart, do not obtain it, because they do not wish to obtain it: let us do what we already know by learning, but so that we may know what is to be done. So that no one can be continent unless God gives it, and not even knowing this itself." Indeed Cassian also, Collation XII, chapter iv: "Knowing, he says, that he would be immediately stained by the filth of the most impure defilement, if divine protection were to depart from him even slightly, and therefore for the perpetuity of it he must keep watch with unceasing prayers with all contrition and humility of heart."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
8:1
… The mode of divine Providence requires in general that God's action upon man unfold gently (Wis. 8:1); therefore the supernatural activity of man postulates that God grant him operative principles proportionate to such a vocation and consequent activity, and by which man, as through …
8:7
… insofar as he guides and keeps to the right path, it is a moral virtue (ibid., a. 3 ad 1; 2ᵃ-2ᵃ, q. 181, a. 2 ad 3). To this virtue, the most remote antiquity, both pagan (Cicero, De invent., II, ch. 53; De officis, I, ch. 5) and Hebrew-Christian (Sap. 8, 7; St. Ambrose, Exposit. in Luc., I, V, nn. 49, 62; PL 15, 1738), has looked as to one of the fundamental virtues. …
8:17
The hope for the future is expressed clearly in Ps. 16, 11; 49, 16; 73, 23 ff. and often in the book of Wisdom, which speaks of immortality (Sap. 3, 4; 4, 1; 8, 17; 15, 3), of incorruptibility (ibid. 2, 23; 6, 18 ff.) and of the different lot that awaits the just (ibid. 3, 1 ff. 7, 9; 4, 4-17; 5, 15) and the wicked (ibid. 1, 16; 2, 21-25; …
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.