Solomon’s prayer for wisdom.
A prayer (made by Salomon) for wisdom, 9. wherby Superiors are able to gouerne: 13. Which by only humane wisdom, they can not rightly performe.
1God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word,Dio de' padri miei, e Signore di misericordia, il quale tutte le cose facesti per mezzo di tua Parola,GOD of my fathers, and Lord of mercie, which madest al thinges with thy word,Deus patrum meorum, et Domine misericordiæ, / qui fecisti omnia verbo tuo, 2And by thy wisdom hast appointed man, that he should have dominion over the creature that was made by thee,E di tua sapienza ornasti l'uomo, affinchè fosse signore delle creature fatte date,and by thy wisdom didst appoint man, that he should haue dominion of the creature, that was made by thee,et sapientia tua constituisti hominem, / ut dominaretur creaturæ quæ a te facta est, 3That he should order the world according to equity and justice, and execute justice with an upright heart:E affinchè governasse il mondo con equità, e giustizia, e con animo retto rendesse ragione:that he should dispose the roundworld in equitie and iustice, and execute iudgement in direction of hart:ut disponat orbem terrarum in æquitate et justitia, / et in directione cordis judicium judicet: 4Give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne, and cast me not off from among thy children:Dammi quella sapienza, che assiste al tuo trono, e non mi rigettare dal numero de' tuoi figliuoli;geue me wisdom the assistant of thy seates, and repel me not from thy children:da mihi sedium tuarum assistricem sapientiam, / et noli me reprobare a pueris tuis: 5For I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid, a weak man, and of short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws.Perocché tuo servo son io, e figliuolo di tua ancella, uomo fiacco, e di poco tempo, e inetto ad intendere i giudizj, e le leggi.because I am thy seruant, and the sonne of thy handmaide, a weake man, and of smal time, and lesse to the vnderstanding of iudgement and lawes.quoniam servus tuus sum ego, et filius ancillæ tuæ; / homo infirmus, et exigui temporis, / et minor ad intellectum judicii et legum. 6For if one be perfect among the children of men, yet if thy wisdom be not with him, he shall be nothing regarded.E se tra' figliuoli degli uomini alcun fosse perfetto, questi quando da lui sen vada la tua sapienza, sarà contato per un niente.And if one be perfect among the children of men, and thy wisdom be absent from him, he shal be counted for nothing.Nam etsi quis erit consummatus inter filios hominum, / si ab illo abfuerit sapientia tua, in nihilum computabitur. 7Thou hast chosen me to be king of thy people, and a judge of thy sons and daughters:Tu mi eleggesti re del tuo popolo, e giudice de' tuoi figliuoli, e delle tue figlie:Thou hast chosen me king to thy people, and iudge of thy sonnes, and daughters:Tu elegisti me regem populo tuo, / et judicem filiorum tuorum et filiarum:
8And hast commanded me to build a temple on thy holy mount, and an altar in the city of thy dwelling place, a resemblance of thy holy tabernacle, which thou hast prepared from the beginning:E mi ordinasti di edificare il tempio sul tuo monte santo, e un altare nella città di tua residenza, a imitazione del santo tuo tabernacolo, cui ordinasti da principio tu, e la tua sapienza con te,and badst me build a temple in thy holie mount, and an altar in the citie of thy habitation, a similitude of thy holie tabernacle, which thou didst prepare from the beginning:et dixisti me ædificare templum in monte sancto tuo, / et in civitate habitationis tuæ altare: / similitudinem tabernaculi sancti tui quod præparasti ab initio. 9And thy wisdom with thee, which knoweth thy works, which then also was present when thou madest the world, and knew what was agreeable to thy eyes, and what was right in thy commandments.La quale conosce le opere tue, e fu con teco allora quando facevi il mondo, ed ella conosceva quello, che fosse accetto negli occhi tuoi, e quello, che fosse ben fatto secondo li tuoi comandamenti.and thy wisdom with thee, which knew thy workes, which then also was present when thou madest the roundworld, and knew what was pleasing to thyne eyes, and what was direct in thy precepts.Et tecum sapientia tua, quæ novit opera tua, / quæ et affuit tunc cum orbem terrarum faceres, / et sciebat quid esset placitum oculis tuis, / et quid directum in præceptis tuis. 10Send her out of thy holy heaven, and from the throne of thy majesty, that she may be with me, and may labour with me, that I may know what is acceptable with thee:Manda lei da' santi tuoi cieli, dalla residenza di tua grandezza, affinchè ella sia meco, e fatichi con me, affinchè io sappia quello, che piaccia a te;Send her from thy holy heauens, and from the seate of thy greatnes, that she may be with me, and may labour with me, that I may know what is acceptable with thee:Mitte illam de cælis sanctis tuis, / et a sede magnitudinis tuæ, / ut mecum sit et mecum laboret, / ut sciam quid acceptum sit apud te: 11For she knoweth and understandeth all things, and shall lead me soberly in my works, and shall preserve me by her power.Perocché ella il tutto sa, e comprende, ed ella mi guiderà nelle mie imprese colla prudenza, e col poter suo mi proteggerà.for she knoweth al thinges, & vnderstandeth, and shal conduct me in my workes soberly, & shal keepe me with her might.scit enim illa omnia, et intelligit, / et deducet me in operibus meis sobrie, / et custodiet me in sua potentia.
12So shall my works be acceptable, and I shall govern thy people justly, and shall be worthy of the throne of my father.E saranno accette le opere mie ed io governerò con giustizia il tuo popolo, e sarò degno del trono del padre mio.And my workes shal be acceptable, and I shal gouerne thy people iustly, and shal be worthie of the seates of my father.Et erunt accepta opera mea, / et disponam populum tuum juste, / et ero dignus sedium patris mei. 13For who among men is he that can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of God is?Imperocché chi è degli uomini, che saper possa i consigli di Dio? o chi potrà intendere quel, che Dio voglia?For who of men is able to know the counsel of God? or who can thinke what God wil?Quis enim hominum poterit scire consilium Dei ? / aut quis poterit cogitare quid velit Deus ? 14For the thoughts of mortal men are fearful, and our counsels uncertain.Perocché timidi sono i pensieri dei mortali, e le previdenze nostre son mal sicure.For the cogitations of mortal men be fearful, and our prouidences vncertaine.Cogitationes enim mortalium timidæ, / et incertæ providentiæ nostræ; 15For the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things.Perché il corpo corruttibile aggrava l'anima, e il tabernacolo di terra deprime la mente, che ha molti pensieri.For the bodie, that is corrupted burdeneth the soule, and the earthlie habitation presseth downe the vnderstanding that thinketh manie thinges.corpus enim quod corrumpitur aggravat animam, / et terrena inhabitatio deprimit sensum multa cogitantem. 16And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth: and with labour do we find the things that are before us. But the things that are in heaven, who shall search out?E con difficoltà congetturiamo le cose della terra, e a mala pena investighiamo quelle, che abbiamo davanti agli occhi; or chi scoprirà quelle, che sono ne' cieli?And we doe hardly coniecture the thinges that are in the earth: and the thinges that are in sight, we finde with labour. But the thinges that are in the heauens who shal search out?Et difficile æstimamus quæ in terra sunt, / et quæ in prospectu sunt invenimus cum labore: / quæ autem in cælis sunt, quis investigabit ? 17And who shall know thy thought, except thou give wisdom, and send thy holy Spirit from above:E chi conoscerà i tuoi voleri, se tu non dai la sapienza, e non mandi dal più alto cielo il tuo santo spirito;And thy sense who shal know, vnles thou geue wisdom, and send thy holie spirit from on high:Sensum autem tuum, quis sciet, nisi tu dederis sapientiam, / et miseris spiritum sanctum tuum de altissimis,
18And so the ways of them that are upon earth may be corrected, and men may learn the things that please thee?Onde così siano ammendati gli andamenti di que', che vivono sulla terra, e gli uomini apprendano quel, che sia grato a te?and so the pathes of them, that are on the earth may be corrected, and men lerne the thinges that please thee?et sic correctæ sint semitæ eorum qui sunt in terris, / et quæ tibi placent didicerint homines ? 19For by wisdom they were healed, whosoever have pleased thee, O Lord, from the beginning.Imperocché per mezzo della sapienza furon sanati tutti quelli, che a te piacquero, o Signore, fin da principio.For by wisdom they were healed, whoseouer haue pleased thee ô Lord from the begynning.Nam per sapientiam sanati sunt / quicumque placuerunt tibi, Domine, a principio.
9:1
Calmet
God. This prayer, which continues to the end of the book, is a paraphrase of 3 Kings 3:6., etc., with several additional instructions, to remind people in authority of the love of justice. (Calmet)
9:7
Worthington
King. Hence it appears, that the sentiments of Solomon are expressed. (Worthington)
Judge. This is the first duty of a king.
Thy sons. He ought to govern his people, remembering that they are God's creatures and children.
9:8
Haydock
Beginning. In thy eternal decrees, or when thou madest choice of Israel. (Haydock)
Calmet
The temple was greater, but very like the tabernacle: only the court of the priests was divided from that of the people. In the desert, the whole camp was considered a the court of the latter. (Calmet)
9:9
Worthington
With thee. The uncreated wisdom is God himself: that which is communicated to man is his gift, ver. 10. (Worthington)
World. Proverbs 8:22. This request shews what idea Solomon had of God's majesty, for which he was preparing a temple.
9:17
9:19
Haydock
Whosoever, etc., is not in the Septuagint. But men includes as much. (Haydock)
Calmet
The saints have been preserved from the contagion and punishments of the world only by means of the divine benefit. (Calmet)
9:1
Concordance 3 Reg. 3. v 9. 12.
9:7
Here againe it is euident, that the Auctor reporteth Salomons speaches.
Concordance 1. Paral. 28. v. 5.
9:8
Concordance 2. Par. 1. v. 9.
9:9
VVisdom increated is with God, yea is God him selfe.
Concordance Prou. 8. v. 22.
9:10
VVisdom vvhich is geuen to men procedeth from God as a gift created.
9:13
Mans wisdom vvithout special wisdom from God is not sufficient to gouerne ourselues, much lesse others.
9:1
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 8
… At one time it uses terms descriptive of His nature, for it recognises the “name which is above every name,” the name of Son, and speaks of true Son, and only begotten God, and Power of God, and Wisdom, and Word.
9:2
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.19
… Apocalypse it says, ‘And the third part of the creatures in the sea died which had life;’ as also Paul says, ‘Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving ;’ and in the book of Wisdom it is written, ‘Having ordained man through Thy wisdom, that he should have dominion over the creatures which Thou hast made
9:6
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.13
… through the grace of God who bestows it, to those who have evinced their capacity for receiving it, and especially to those who, from knowing the difference between either kind of wisdom, say, in their prayers to God, “Even if one among the sons of men be perfect, while the wisdom is wanting that comes from Thee, he shall be accounted as nothing.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 10.19
… And that which is written about wisdom, you may apply also to faith, and to the virtues specifically, so as to make a precept of this kind, “If any one be perfect in wisdom among the sons of men, and the power that comes from Thee be wanting, he will be reckoned as nothing;”
9:9
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Morals of the Catholic Church 16
… Again, as Paul says that the Son of God is the wisdom of God, and as the Lord Himself says, "No man knoweth the Father save the only-begotten Son," what could be more concordant than those words of the prophet: "With Thee is wisdom which knows Thy works, which was present at the time of Thy making the world, and knew what would be pleasing in Thine eyes?"
9:10
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 4.20
… It is sent, therefore, by Him from whom it issues; for so she is sought after by him who loved and desired her. “Send her,” he says, “out of Thy holy heavens, and from the throne of Thy glory, that, being present, she may labor with me;”
9:13
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 2.28.9
… But if those who are perfect do not yet understand the very things in their hands, and at their feet, and before their eyes, and on the earth, and especially the rule followed with respect to the hairs of their head, how can we believe them regarding things spiritual, and super-celestial,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 12.15
… or who can think what the will of the Lord is? For the thoughts of mortal men are timid, and our devices are but uncertain. For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Harmony of the Gospels 4.10
… But before this body, which is dead by reason of sin, is quickened, it is without doubt corruptible, and presseth down the soul.
9:14
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 4
… “For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 22.29
… “The thoughts of mortal men are timid, and our fore-castings uncertain.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 3.10
… And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth, and with labor do we find the things that are before us; but the things that are in heaven, who hath searched out?” But because it goes on to say, “And Thy counsel who hath known, except Thou give wisdom, and send Thy Holy Spirit from above;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 14.11
… which last is certain only in the case of those who are prescient of the future; and this is no gift of men, unless it be granted from above, as to the prophets. And hence the book of Wisdom, speaking of men, “The thoughts of mortals,” it says, “are fearful, and our forethought uncertain.”
9:15
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.15
… Our repentance when we sin, is a human action, but an action which bespeaks a good man, belonging to that portion which is in the way of salvation. For if even our dust contracts somewhat of wickedness, and the earthly tabernacle presseth down the upward flight of the soul,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 108.23
… Or will there be no such distinction? If the distinction continues, there will be wedlock and sexual intercourse and procreation of children. If however it does not continue, the bodies that rise again will not be the same. For, he argued, “the earthy tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 7.17
… This weight was carnal custom. Yet was there a remembrance of Thee with me; nor did I any way doubt that there was one to whom I might cleave, but that I was not yet one who could cleave unto Thee; for that the body which is corrupted presseth down the soul, and the earthly dwelling weigheth down the mind which thinketh upon many things.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 131
… For Holy Scripture says the same: “The corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 143.6
… for “the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and in this we groan, being burdened,” and “the corruptible body weighs down the soul,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.16
… On this point, if I should find nothing in their own literature to refute this opinion, I should be forced laboriously to demonstrate that it is not the body, but the corruptibility of the body, which is a burden to the soul. Hence that sentence of Scripture we quoted in a foregoing book, “For the corruptible body presseth down the soul.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.3
But if any one says that the flesh is the cause of all vices and ill conduct, inasmuch as the soul lives wickedly only because it is moved by the flesh, it is certain he has not carefully considered the whole nature of man. For “the corruptible body, indeed, weigheth down the soul.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 19.4
… And who is quite sure that no such thing can happen to the wise man in this life? Then, as to the perception of truth, what can we hope for even in this way while in the body, as we read in the true book of Wisdom, “The corruptible body weigheth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle presseth down the mind that museth upon many things?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 19.27
… city of God in its pilgrim state, for it cries to God by the mouth of all its members, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” And this prayer is efficacious not for those whose faith is “without works and dead,” but for those whose faith “worketh by love.” For as reason, though subjected to God, is yet “pressed down by the corruptible body,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.17
… but that His “face” was that form of God, in which He “thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” which no one certainly can see and live; whether because after this life, in which we are absent from the Lord, and where the corruptible body presseth down the soul,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 3.4
10. If, therefore, the Apostle Paul, although he still bare the burden of the body, which is subject to corruption and presseth down the soul,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 4.3
… And its resurrection is delayed until the end; when also our justification itself shall be perfected ineffably. For then we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. But now, so long as the corruptible body presseth down the soul,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 8.2
… neither is any such thing God. Neither if you were to think of the same spirits as without bodies—a thing indeed most difficult for carnal thought to do. Behold and see, if thou canst, O soul pressed down by the corruptible body, and weighed down by earthly thoughts, many and various; behold and see, if thou canst, that God is truth.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.24
… And they would certainly not so fail in understanding, and hardly arrive at anything certain, were they not involved in penal darkness, and burdened with the corruptible body that presses down the soul.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Enchiridion 64
… And although it is truly said of them, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,” yet they are led by the Spirit of God, and as the sons of God advance towards God under this drawback, that they are led also by their own spirit, weighted as it is by the corruptible body;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Enchiridion 91
… For just as now the body is called animate , though it is a body, and not a soul [ anima ], so then the body shall be called spiritual, though it shall be a body, not a spirit. Hence, as far as regards the corruption which now weighs down the soul, and the vices which urge the flesh to lust against the spirit,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Continence 21
… Therefore, all evil having arisen from us, and having been destroyed in us, our good also having been increased and perfected unto the height of most happy incorruption and immortality, of what kind shall either of our substances be? forasmuch as now, in this corruption and mortality, when as yet “the corruptible body weigheth down the soul;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 22.78
… and Scripture truly declares that in him all die, and that by him sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And our experience gives abundant evidence, that in punishment for this sin our body is corrupted, and weighs down the soul, and the clay tabernacle clogs the mind in its manifold activity;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 32.14
… And as a sick man should not find fault with the medical treatment, because one thing is prescribed to-day and another to-morrow, and what was at first required is afterwards forbidden, since the method of cure depends on this; so the human race, sick and sore as it is from Adam to the end of the world, as long as the corrupted body weighs down the mind,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 6.1
2. For as the spiritual man, keeping "the end of the commandment," that is, "charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," can see some things less clearly out of a body which is yet "corruptible and presseth down the soul,"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 7.1
… And the holy Cyprian indeed, now that the corruptible body no longer presseth down the soul, nor the earthly tabernacle presseth down the mind that museth upon many things,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Correction of the Donatists 9
39. But in this life, when the corruptible body presseth down the soul,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 14
… For that all sin is evil who can gainsay?” We answer, that man’s nature is both good, and is also able to be free from evil. Therefore do we earnestly pray, “Deliver us from evil.” This deliverance, indeed, is not fully wrought, so long as the soul is oppressed by the body, which is hastening to corruption.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.17
… or that he was sold once in the first transgression of the commandment so as to have a corruptible body which drags down the soul;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.24
… And not to have this resistance to the spirit in the mortal flesh, was possible only to that man who came not by the flesh to men. And that the apostles, because they were men, and carried about in the mortality of this life a body which is corrupted and weighs down the soul,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 2.3
… Share my travail with me. For you see what I have undertaken; and not only what, but who I am that have undertaken it, and of what I wish to speak, and where and what my position is, even in that “body which is corruptible, and presseth down the soul, and the earthly habitation weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 81.7
7. “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Say, yea say to thy soul, “Thou art still in this life, still bearest about a frail flesh, still “doth the corruptible body press down the soul;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John chapter21.1
… For we are bound to consider well what we are, and what we are treating of. We are men bearing flesh, walking in this life; and though now begotten again of the seed of the Word of God, yet in Christ renewed in such manner that we are not yet wholly rid of Adam. For truly our mortal and corruptible part that weighs down the soul
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 23.5
… for this also is said, “To Thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul.” And let us lift it up with His own assistance, for it is heavy. And from what cause is it heavy? Because the body which is corrupt weighs down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle depresses the mind while meditating on many things.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 35.9
… and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him even as He is.” I feel that your affections are being lifted up with me to the things that are above: but the body, which is corrupt, weighs down the soul; and, the earthly habitation depresses the mind while meditating many things.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 69.2
… Brethren, how can you desire me to explain such things to you? Only reflect how lofty they are. You see what I am, I see what you are; in all of us the body, which is corrupted, burdens the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 96.4
… Accordingly, when He says, “He will teach you all truth,” or “will guide you into all truth,” I do not think the fulfillment is possible in any one’s mind in this present life (for who is there, while living in this corruptible and soul-oppressing body,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 124.5
… for hitherto it has only been proposed, not expounded. Let this, then, be the commencement of its exposition, namely, that we bear in mind that in this corruptible body, which burdens the soul,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.11
… with what fruit? what wages? what will He hereafter give me, since in this world I see that I labor among temptations? I see not here that there is any rest: mere mortality weigheth down the soul, and the corruptible body presseth it down to lower things: but I bear all things, that “that which I have heard from the beginning”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 4.9
… when the soul, given up to temporal pleasures, burns ever with desire, and cannot be satisfied; and, distracted with manifold and anxious thought, is not permitted to see the simple good. Such is the soul of which it is said, “For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth on many things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 12.9
… Hence “the corruptible body weigheth down the soul, and the earthy tabernacle presseth down the mind that museth upon many things.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 36.1
… 1 ). Not of one man, but of a race of ungodly men he speaketh, who fight against their own selves, by not understanding, that so they may live well; not because they cannot, but because they will not. For it is one thing, when one endeavours to understand some thing, and through infirmity of flesh cannot; as saith the Scripture
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 42.9
9. But seeing, brethren, so long as “we are at home in this body, we are absent from the Lord;” and “the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth on many things;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 42.15
… I who am the “hart thirsting and longing for the water-brooks,” calling to mind the sweetness of that strain, by which I was led on through the tabernacle even to the house of God; whilst this “corruptible body presseth down the soul,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 69.32
… but them crying from the fetters He hath not despised. What are these fetters? Mortality, the corruptibleness of the flesh are the fetters wherewith we have been bound. And would ye know the weight of these fetters? Of them is said, “The body which is corrupted weigheth down the soul.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 71.5
… For firm the grace of Christ maketh thee, and immovable against all temptations of the enemy. But there is there too human frailness, there is there still the first captivity, there is there too the law in the members fighting against the law of the mind, and willing to lead captive in the law of sin: still the body which is corrupt presseth down the soul.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 84.9
… “Happy is the man whose strength is in Thee” ( ver. 5 ). He knew where he was, and that by reason of the frailty of his flesh he could not fly to that state of blessedness: he thought upon his own burden, as it is said elsewhere; “For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly house depresses the understanding which has many thoughts.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 85.7
… sealing up his ears, as it were, against the tumultuous disquietude of this life, and against the soul weighed down by the corruptible body, and against the imagination, that through the earthly tabernacle pressing down, thinketh on many things,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 103.5
5. “Who redeemeth thy life from corruption” ( ver. 4 ). Behold, “the body which is corrupted, weigheth down the soul.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.4
26. …The body itself also, because it is of the earth, is reasonably understood by the word pavement; since, because it is still corruptible and weigheth down the soul,
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 7.4
… And so the νοῦς , i.e., the mind, is defined as ἀεικίνητος καὶ πολυκίνητος , i.e., ever shifting and very shifting: as it is thus described in the so called wisdom of Solomon in other words: καὶ γεῶδες σκῆνος βρίθει νοῦν πολυφρόντιδα , i.e., “And the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth on many things.”
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 95
… For then the outer man will be the peaceful and unblemished possession of the inner man: then the mind, engrossed in beholding God , will be hampered by no obstacles of human weakness nor will it any more have to be said “The body which is corrupted, weigheth upon the soul, and its earthly house presseth down the sense which thinketh many things
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 7.7
… xiii. 43; Wisd. iii. 7 ). For, in whatsoever virtue any one may excel, how can he shine forth as the sun while still in the present life, wherein The corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things (
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Morals of the Catholic Church 16
… plainly and obviously in accordance with this than the words, "Thy truth is round about Thee?" Once more, Wisdom herself says in the gospel, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me;" and the prophet says, "Who knoweth Thy mind, unless Thou givest wisdom?" and a little after, "The things pleasing to Thee men have learned, and have been healed by wisdom."
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Lord of Mercies. — Vatablus, of beneficence; Pagninus, of piety, that is, supremely beneficent, pious, merciful and compassionate, who mercifully forgave the sin of homicide and adultery to my father David and my mother Bathsheba, says Lyra; whence Lucifer of Cagliari reads, Lord of mercies. God delights in this title, and being invoked by it hears and grants petitions: for it is the proper work of mercy to have compassion on the wretched and to bring them aid; and all have need of God's mercy, so that they may allege it as their patroness before God and ought to do so: thus the poor, in order to beg alms from the rich, are accustomed to allege and praise their mercy and liberality. The word Lord has emphasis, as if to say: Thou art Lord, and dost rule over infinite mercy of Thine, equally as over the immense misery of ours; pour forth that mercy, therefore, as the richest and most liberal Lord, upon us, so that Thou mayest succor such great misery, for the abyss of our misery calls upon the abyss of Thy mercy: for Thou art the first and supreme almsgiver of all, nay, "Thou art the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort," II Corinthians I, 3. Again, God is properly called Lord of mercy, because He shows His dominion by showing mercy rather than by punishing, or by doing anything else, according to that which the Church prays: "O God, who dost manifest Thine almightiness chiefly by sparing and showing mercy:" for He is patient and clement, mighty in wrath, and of His soul and all things, as I have shown in Proverbs XVI, 32, at those words: "Better is he that is patient than the mighty man." Who hast made. — By this verse he conciliates to himself God's benevolence by three attributes of God, namely first, by alleging God's love and faithfulness, that He is the God of his fathers, and has promised them that He would bless their posterity, that is, do them good: he prays therefore that He would now faithfully and in deed show this to the needy and invoking posterity, and testify and extend the love with which He regards the fathers to the sons; secondly, by alleging God's mercy, that He would show it to him, a wretched man asking for it, in His accustomed manner; thirdly, by alleging God's power, that He has made and created all things by His word, and therefore it is very easy for Him to grant this to one asking. He teaches us therefore by these three titles to bind, and as it were to compel God to grant what we ask: for He wills to be bound and as it were compelled by us through efficacious and ardent prayer and desire. By Thy Word. — By Thy sole command, namely in the mind, saying: Let there be light, Let there be lights, etc., Genesis I, 3: mystically, by the Word, that is, by Thy Son: for through Him God the Father made all things: and so the word denotes both the facility and the wisdom by which God created all things: see what is said at Genesis I. Finally, the Word, that is, the Son of God, Solomon tacitly asks as his teacher, who through incarnation was to be the teacher of Israel and all nations; whence in III Kings III, 9, when God appeared to Solomon, Pineda and others think that not the Father, but the Son appeared; nay, the Council of Sirmium teaches that in all the appearances of God in the Old Testament, the Son alone appeared, so that He might prelude to His incarnation, by which He was to appear visibly to men. Most excellently St. Basil, in the book Against Eunomius: "Is it not," he says, "when we have heard of God that He made all things in wisdom, that we are taught His creative art? But when we hear that He opened His hand and filleth every beast with blessing, Psalm CXLIV, 16, His providence which passeth through all things? But when we hear that He made darkness His covert, Psalm XVII, 12, we are reminded of His invisible nature? When again from the person of God Himself it is said in Malachi III, 6: I am, and am not changed, we learn the eternal identity and unchangeableness of the divine substance?" and indeed Plato: "God is good," he says, "therefore He willed all things to be made most like to Himself, for the good is never touched by envy of anything; and Seneca, in book IV of On Benefits: "I shall not lie if I say that no one does not love his benefits, to whom it is not a reason for giving benefit again, once he has given. To whom there was not at the beginning a reason for giving, we give something, because we have given." of the faithful people, and of Thy Church; that therefore I may rightly discharge the royal office imposed upon me by Thee, bestow upon me the wisdom due and necessary for this: for I am the son and heir of Adam; and I am constituted by Thee not only ruler of Thy holy city, namely Jerusalem, but in some way also of the whole world, both because Thou hast destined me to be the teacher of the world, that I might pursue the natures of all things and explain them to men; and because Thou hast appointed me the wise and holy king of Thy city, so that from me the whole world might draw and receive the idea of the true king and the true example of ruling. Wherefore Solomon was equal or nearly equal to Adam in wisdom, as well as in the right of reigning: for it was easier for Adam in original justice to rule creatures lacking reason, obedient at a nod, than for Solomon after the fall to rule the Hebrews of stiff neck and addicted to their lusts; whence among interpreters it is a problem, whose wisdom was greater, Adam's or Solomon's? and the matter is still sub judice, some assigning the first place in wisdom to Adam, others to Solomon.
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gis, II Paralipomenon, XIX, 6. Whence Job, chapter XXXIV, verse 14: "If," he says, "he shall direct his heart to him, he shall draw his spirit and breath to himself." Our Lorinus adds that the rectitude or direction of the heart can signify promptness, and as it were an opening and lightness contrary to harshness, hesitation and obscurity: for many are obscure, entangled, hesitant, slow in judging, when a judge ought to be clear, resolute, expeditious, plain, equitable and easy. Hence tropologically Cantacuzenus infers: He, he says, will be a perfect king, who from the first administration of the world and the kingdom committed to man by God, learns the reason of governing in equity, that is, holily as regards himself; in justice, as regards knowing the natures and necessities of others, for rendering to each what is his own, in the manner of Adam knowing all things and having dominion over all; and in the direction of the heart, directing himself and all that is his to the religion and worship of the true God: for this is what a right heart brings about, for it directs it wholly, as much as it is, toward God.
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An Assessor. — In Greek, πάρεδρον. He alludes to learned assessors, who by ancient custom are given to younger or inexperienced judges, so that by their admonition they might pronounce a right sentence: for these were called πάρεδροι; then συγκάθεδροι, as testified by Ulpian, Digest On Excuses, book X, and Modestinus, Digest On the Office of Assessors, book I; unless you prefer to understand it as alluding to angels or guardian genii: for thus kings have their archangels as assessors, who direct them in governing. Whence the archangel Michael was an assessor of the Hebrews, another archangel was an assessor of the Greeks, another of the Persians, Daniel X, 13. Thus also Socrates had his guardian genius, that is, an angel or demon, by whose counsel he did all things, as testified by Plato and Laertius in his Life: thus magicians have demons as assessors, who reveal secrets to them: thus St. Irenaeus, book I, chapters IX and XX, teaches that Simon Magus and Marcus had guardian genii, who were certainly nothing other than familiar demons; such a one Luther also asserted he had, in his book On the Angular Mass, and Zwingli, in his book On the Supplement to the Eucharist, and Calvin, in his letter to Bucer. For when admonished by Bucer himself to refrain from insults, he replied that this was not a defect of his genius, but of his demon: see Feverardus on Irenaeus in the place already cited, where he teaches from various examples from antiquity that, just as the Holy Spirit and wisdom attend as assessor to the Church, so also a demon sits as assessor to the leaders of heresies. It is a prosopopoeia: for here wisdom is given the person of an angel or counselor, who assists God, so that he might dispose all things wisely, and is sent by him to earth, especially to kings and princes, so that he might direct them and teach them to wisely perform their duty, and to rule their subjects, Proverbs I, 20; Job XXVIII, 12. Thus poets feign that Justice, that is, equity and justice, sits beside Jupiter, whom they assert to be a whole virgin and a goddess presiding over judgments, in that she settles and decides disputes; whence Aristotle, in his book On the Universe, says: God, he says, immediately has as companion the president of justice, whom they call Dike, the avenger of divine law, at the same time whenever anything of her sanctions is neglected. Therefore Solomon prays and says: Grant, O Lord, that wisdom, which assists you as the supreme governor of all things, may also assist me, a king in need of counsel, both in governing and in pronouncing judgment: for without the counsel of wisdom kings ought to do nothing, ought to decide nothing. Grant therefore to me that wisdom as an assessor, nay rather as a president, that is, as a presiding officer and chief, which may sit with me on the royal throne, nay rather may occupy it alone: for willingly I would yield the whole of it to her, so that sitting beside her as my companion, I might stand as a disciple. Therefore let her continue to be present with me, to sit beside me and preside, and never depart from my side, so that by her teaching I may be instructed, and may learn what I ought to say, what I ought to decide, what I ought to judge: for to her as to a teacher I give myself over to discipline, to her as to a queen I submit myself; let her therefore as queen assist me on my right hand, and govern and direct me in all things, lest I err or stumble anywhere.
AND DO NOT REJECT ME FROM AMONG THY CHILDREN. — In Scripture, child signifies either a son or a servant, one chosen and beloved; the sense therefore is, as if to say, Do not cast me out from the number of thy sons and servants, whom as beloved to thee thy wisdom hath given and endowed: for I am to thee a son of the household, born of thy handmaid, as follows. Now first, Cantacuzenus understands by children the angels, especially the highest ones attending upon God, namely the cherubim (who have received their name from knowledge and wisdom) and the seraphim, who receive light from God, by which they illuminate others lower than themselves: for these are nearest to God; as it were the first children of his household, that is sons or servants. In a similar manner Solomon wishes, for so great a kingly office, to be most familiar to God like the angel cherub and seraph, and to receive light from him, which he may pour forth upon those subject to him and his people. Second, and more according to the letter, by children you may understand the fathers and patriarchs filled with divine knowledge, namely Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc., with whom also as to be numbered like a son and heir, and to be distinguished by the gift of wisdom, Solomon beseeches. Third, others aptly understand by children the kings, judges and princes, who appear to be familiar to God, and as it were from the secrets, from the counsels, with which he communicates the mysteries of his providence, according to that, Psalm LXXXI, 1: "God hath stood in the congregation of gods (in Hebrew, elohim, that is princes and judges), but in the midst he judgeth gods." Princes therefore and judges are children from the household of elohim, that is God judging and governing all things, so that the sense is, as if to say, Thou art wont, O Lord God, to communicate thy wisdom as an assistant to kings, as thou didst communicate it to David my father; do not therefore deny it to me his son and heir, and likewise as king, lest I be unfit to rule Israel, and be found unworthy of the royal office and name. Do not therefore remove me from this rank, order and power; do not cast me out, depose me, and as it were mark me with censure, pass me by, and count me among the cast out and passed by: for this is to ἀποδοκιμάσαι. Whence senators, who were removed from the senate on account of lack of wisdom or fault, were called ἀποδεδοκιμασμένοι, as witnesses Festus and Budaeus in Comment. linguae graecae, part. 68. He prays therefore lest he be rejected and erased from the roll of wise kings on account of inexperience, ignorance or lack of wisdom, as unworthy and rejected, according to that, Isaiah XXXII, 5: "The fool shall no more be called the prince, nor the deceitful counted the liberal: for the fool will speak foolish things, etc." Tropologically: "Do not reject me from among thy children," that is, do not allow me to fall into sin, so that I be deprived of thy grace and of the state and rank of the children of God, and become a servant and slave of the devil, and fuel of death and hell: thus our Alvarez de Paz, De Vita spirituali, lib. I, part. VII: What is it, he says, do not reject me from among thy children, but do not permit me, abandoned by wisdom, which is the fountain of all goodness, to lose the dignity of thy servant and friend, O Lord? for without wisdom, that is without the light divinely given, I neither recognize sin, and therefore neither detest it; nor do I see the beauty of virtue, and therefore neither love it, nor follow it, nor embrace it; nor is there any one thy servant and friend, without hatred of sins, without love of virtues.
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Tropologically, a king and prince who serves God should also acknowledge himself a servant of his subjects, so that he may serve their welfare: for those who serve God also serve their neighbor for God's sake; hence the Pontiff calls himself the servant of the servants of God. Allegorically, Christ, insofar as he is man, is the servant of God, Isaiah XLIX, 3, and the son of the Blessed Virgin, who calls herself the handmaid of God, Luke I, 38: thus the Interlinear Gloss.
A WEAK MAN, AND OF LITTLE TIME, AND LESSER IN UNDERSTANDING OF JUDGMENT AND LAWS. — Weak, in Greek ἀσθενής, that is, feeble in strength, both of body and of mind, especially in judgment, talent, fortitude and constancy to resist the powerful oppressing the poor, and to bear so many and such great burdens of the kingdom. And of little time, both because Solomon, while young, entered upon the kingdom before his twentieth year of age, when he asked wisdom from God, as he asks here; whence he himself praying for it says, III Kings III, 7: "But I am a little child, and know not how to go out and come in," that is, I know not what to do, how to conduct myself, how to end: for he has but little and brief experience, and consequently little prudence and wisdom: for experience begets this, and also because my life is short, and therefore does not suffice for learning wisdom so varied and manifold, which is required for governing, according to that saying of Hippocrates: "Art is long, life is short." Whence the Zurich version translates it, and destined to last but a short time, and lesser in understanding of judgment and laws. Vatablus, and so younger than to be able to understand justice and laws. Again and rather lesser, and this is sufficiently insinuated in I Paralipomenon XXIX, 1: wherefore although he was younger in age, he was nevertheless preferred to Adonias and his other elder brothers, and therefore was one of the chosen people of God chosen as the most chosen, for he was one of all chosen by God as king of the people selected and beloved by him, whom therefore God here calls his sons and daughters; by which he signifies that he himself ought to rule them not as a tyrant, nor so much as a king, as a father, and a father of the sons of God, that is with great love, care and reverence. Wherefore from this election Solomon urges God to give him wisdom, as if to say: Thou, O Lord, hast chosen me as king of Israel, it is therefore thine to give me wisdom for this government, not only necessary, but also useful and fitting. Hence again it is clear that this book is Solomon's, in the manner and sense which I have explained in the Preface. Morally, learn here that it is the duty of a faithful and Christian king to rule Israel, that is, the people of God, so as to keep them in God's law, worship and obedience, and to promote them and direct them to true salvation and eternal happiness. For this reason God wished Solomon to build him a temple so that he might be worshipped in it, as follows, and therefore the building of the temple was the principal work of Solomon, on account of which God seems to have made him king. It is therefore the duty of faithful kings first to care for and establish religion, then justice and the commonwealth: for the basis and pillar of this is religion and piety. Thus did Constantine the Great, Theodosius, Charlemagne, etc., who therefore became most happy and most glorious. To pass over others, in this matter the devotion of the kings of England once shone forth, who subjected the kingdom of England to the Church and the Roman Pontiff, and made it tributary: thus to Leo IV, the Pontiff illustrious in holiness, who died in the year of the Lord 855, there came from England King Agelolphus with his son, and made his kingdom tributary to the Roman Church, with a golden coin imposed on each family in each year: thus Platina, Baronius and others. St. Richard, king of England, having abandoned his kingdom and left his sons with St. Boniface at Mainz, traveled in vile clothing unknown, and made his way to Rome; but on the journey he was seized by illness, and died at Lucca, and migrated to the heavenly kingdom in the year of the Lord 771, and was renowned for miracles. Thus a king became an exile from his country, a despiser of the world and of himself, and laid down the royal crown for eternal life, and exchanged the purple for sackcloth. His sons were St. Willibald, who was afterwards made bishop of Eichstätt, and another Winibald chosen abbot of Heidenheim; and his daughter Walburga became a nun, was made abbess, and all were enrolled in the Catalogue of Saints for their noble deeds. Thus his Life has it, and Arnold Wion in the Wood of Life, book IV, Philip Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy, and others. Edward III, king of England, was so pious toward God and the Roman Church, that he received a heavenly privilege from God, and as if hereditary in Greek, ἥττων, that is less sufficient, and yielding to the understanding of judgment and laws, that is weaker than that I am able to understand judgments and laws, by which it behooves a king to be instructed. For the king of Israel ought to know all the laws of God, moral, ceremonial and especially judicial (for according to these he ought to judge), as God commands, Deuteronomy XVII, 18, and Joshua I, 8. Add to these municipal laws and the law of customs, and similar things, of which a king and judge ought to be expert. Moreover the laws sanctioned by God to the Jews in the Pentateuch the Hebrews divide into affirmative ones, which they number at 248, and negative ones, which they number at 365, as testified by R. Moses in the Guide of the Perplexed, chapters LVI and LVII. This is the third reason urging God to give wisdom, sought from humble confession of his own weakness, need and necessity: for he confesses his ignorance, that he may obtain wisdom: for "the prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds." Ecclesiasticus XXXV, 21. Morally Cantacuzenus judges that a man is said to be weak and lesser in understanding of judgment and laws, because from the time he once transgressed the law, then both to keeping the law and to exacting the observance of the law he is weak and ineffectual; therefore wisdom, which teaches to keep the law, that same thing teaches to rule well; which exacts the law from subjects, first exacts it from the very exactor himself, to whom it first commands to do things, before to subjects.
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of height:" see what is said Exodus XXV and following. Moreover the temple was the house of God and an image of heaven, in which God was worshipped with continual victims and incense, or frankincense; it was likewise an image of the sacred and divine kingdom: for in the temple God, as in his kingdom, reigned, and directed all things by his laws and ceremonies to his worship and the people's religion. Wherefore God commanded Solomon to build the temple, that from it he might receive the idea of ruling: for in the temple all things were fittingly and religiously arranged in their places, orders, degrees; and the high priest, as it were God's viceroy, commanded so many thousands of priests and Levites, and all laymen coming to the temple, so that to behold the orders of Levites and priests was the same as to see a sacred army most excellently arranged; hence in the temple there was supreme quiet, supreme peace, supreme unity, all of which the king ought to imitate and procure in the kingdom. See our Villalpandus, vol. II On the Temple, part II, book V, disputation 2, chapters XXIX, XXX and XXXI, where he teaches that the temple had the likeness of the tabernacle and the encampment of the people, and was likewise built to the likeness of the world, heaven and man. THE LIKENESS (in Greek μίμημα, that is imitation) OF THY HOLY TABERNACLE, WHICH THOU HAST PREPARED (that is didst prepare beforehand, and already didst build) FROM THE BEGINNING — Of the synagogue instituted, namely when through Moses thou didst lead this people out of Egypt, and didst choose them for thyself into a church, as if to say: Thou hast commanded me to build a temple in the likeness of the tabernacle, which Moses built, according to the idea shown to him by thee on mount Sinai. Exodus XXV, 9 and following. The tabernacle had two parts, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies: in the Holy Place was the altar of incense, the candlestick shining with seven branches and lamps, and the table of the loaves of proposition; in the Holy of Holies was the ark of the covenant (in which were the tablets of the Decalogue written by the finger of God, the rod of Aaron, and beside it manna) with the cherubim, and the mercy seat. Before the Holy Place in the open air was the altar of holocausts, on which victims were sacrificed to God; hence he mentions this altar before others, because it was the chief ornament of the temple and the instrument for sacrificing and worshipping God. Moreover the altar of Moses in the tabernacle had five cubits in length, and as many in width; but Solomon for all Israel, indeed for foreigners from the whole world coming to the temple for religion's sake, erected a larger and more capacious altar, yet preserving the proportion of the altar of the tabernacle: for, as it is said II Paralipomenon IV, 1: "He made an altar of brass twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and ten cubits in
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But more aptly and in harmony with the Greek, others connect this clause with the preceding one, namely with the construction of the tabernacle, as if to say: Thou, O Lord, once didst construct the tabernacle through Moses, and now the temple through me Solomon, and thy wisdom constructed the same thing with thee: for she suggested to thee the idea and most beautiful exemplar of the tabernacle and temple, according to which thou wouldst build it. For she "knoweth thy works," that is, the reason, form, and disposition of thy works, as well as their scope and end; whence she "was present with thee then, when thou didst make the world." She remembers the construction of the world, because this was the idea of the construction of the temple; for the world is the image of the temple; and the temple in turn is as it were a small world, whence it is said in chapter XVIII, 24: "In the robe of the podium, etc., the whole world was." Hence as the temple, so also the world is the narrow house of God, and, as Philo says: "The world is the holy temple of the Lord." Again, as wisdom first created and disposed the world as a kingdom, in which Adam, or man, as king, should rule over all creatures soberly, modestly, holily, justly and religiously, as he said in verse 3: so she here designates and disposes the temple, or the church of Israel as a kingdom, in which Solomon may reign peacefully, piously and justly. Wherefore Solomon justly demands the same wisdom for perfecting the construction of the temple as well as for the government of the kingdom, especially since God once gave the same to Beseleel and Ooliab the architects for constructing the tabernacle, Exodus XXXI, 2. And knew (that is, wisdom once knew, when she created the world, and still knows) what (is) PLEASING IN THY SIGHT, AND WHAT WAS DIRECTED (in Greek εὐθές, that is, straight) IN THY COMMANDMENTS, — that is, what thou most rightly willest, decreest, commandest and prescribest, as if he were to say: Give therefore to me also this wisdom, that I may know what is pleasing and acceptable to thee, and what is in accord and harmony with thy will, law and commandments, so that I may follow and execute the same both in building the temple and in administering the kingdom exactly. For "pleasing" in Greek is ἀρεστόν, whence the French arrêt, that is, a decree of the Court, or a judgment: it signifies to have the most absolute knowledge of the divine will, and of his counsels and commandments, which he either gave to us, or implanted in things made by him.
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Symbolically, Solomon asks that the Son be sent to him, to whom as the Word wisdom is attributed, so that he might teach it to him: thus St. Thomas, I part., Quest. XLIII, art. 5: for "to send a divine person to someone through invisible grace," he says, "signifies a new mode of dwelling of that person, and his origin from another," namely that the Son originates and is begotten from the Father: see there the scholastics and the Master, lib. I Sentent. dist. 14 et seq. For God the Father through the Son bestows wisdom, grace, and every good upon us: for this reason the Church concludes all her prayers and collects to God the Father with this form: "Through our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. The origin of this custom is most ancient, as is evident from the Canon of the Mass, whose author is said to be St. Peter; for in it all prayers are concluded in this manner: "Through Christ our Lord." The same is to be seen in the Liturgy of St. James and St. Mark, although not so frequently as in the Canon. The beginning and root of this formula was that saying of Christ, John XVI, 24: "Ask (in my name) and you shall receive;" and ibid. vers. 23 et seq.: "If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you;" whence following the precept of Christ, St. Paul thus ordains, Hebr. XIII, 15: "Through him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is the fruit of lips confessing to his name;" and elsewhere throughout teaches that Christ is our mediator with the Father, intercedes for us, etc.; whence he himself frequently and often in alternating verses inserts and reiterates the name of Jesus Christ. St. Peter and the other apostles did the same. Later, however, when Pelagius the heresiarch in the time of St. Augustine detracted from the grace of Christ, the Church, in order to refute him, concluded all prayers plainly: "Through our Lord Jesus Christ," etc.; thus did St. Gregory, who composed very many collects of the ecclesiastical office, as is evident from his Antiphonary: see more things among Amalarius, Walafrid, Durand, and others who wrote concerning ecclesiastical offices. Subtly St. Bonaventure: "Uncreated wisdom," he says, "is said to be in the bosom of the Father, to be begotten from the womb, to proceed from the mouth: the first, on account of concealment; the second, on account of consubstantiality; the third, on account of manifestation; but to be sent from heaven, on account of illumination; to sit in the soul, on account of tranquility."
THAT SHE MAY BE WITH ME, AND MAY LABOR WITH ME, THAT I MAY KNOW WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE WITH THEE. — And when I shall know, I will carry it out. In Greek, ἵνα συμπαροῦσά μοι κοπιάσῃ, that is, that being present together, or assisting me, she may labor, that is, may labor with me, or may collaborate, as Cantacuzenus reads: for the wisdom and grace of God does not work good work alone, as Calvin wishes, but together with the mind and free will of man, to which it cooperates: for from grace the work has that it is holy and pleasing to God; from free will truly, that it is human and free; whence alluding to this Paul says: "I have labored more abundantly than all, yet not I (alone), but the grace of God with me," I Corinth. XV, 10, that is, as St. Augustine explains, lib. De Gratia et libero arbitrio, cap. XV: "Yet not I, but the grace of God with me, and through this neither the grace of God alone, nor I alone, but the grace of God with him." The Greek κοπιάσῃ signifies labor with trouble and fatigue: for through this virtue must be prepared for man, and it is the property of servants (such as he professed himself in vers. 5) to labor assiduously for their master. He asks therefore for wisdom, that she not only labor with him, but also teach him to labor, and preside over labor, and urge and exact labor; whence our Pineda, lib. III De Rebus Salomonis, cap. VI, num. 3, thinks this to be a metaphor from masters of works, who press upon laboring servants, exact work, and apply themselves to continuing labor, and do not allow servants either to slumber or to act sluggishly: he says therefore: Do not allow me to grow sluggish or to slumber in performing the royal duty, since those who reign do the work and office of God. Let wisdom therefore exact from me the measure of labor, urge me, and just as I, the king, am in the midst of the people, in the manner of a master of works and an inspector traversing his subjects and urging them to execute the work, and thus I seem to labor with them: so since I am "thy servant," that by labor I may execute thy work, assign to me wisdom as a mistress, assistant and inspectress. Wisdom therefore is like a king or queen of bees, which assiduously walks about the hives examining them, so that she may urge all bees to assiduous labors, which continually fashion honeycombs as if houses, and in them make and store honey. and the fabric of the temple. Second, in executing and working, prudence, discretion, rule, norm and mode, which is signified by to sobrie, in Greek σωφρόνως, that is, moderately, discreetly, wisely, prudently; he asks therefore for the golden mean, which ought to be the norm of all our actions: for this prescribes measure to action, lest anyone apply himself to work more remissly or more ardently than right reason demands. Third is the custody of action and work, lest it be hindered by the enemy or another cause: for this is provided by the ever-watchful providence of wisdom; and from this, power, which foresees all impediments shrewdly, and powerfully dispels them.
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?" Hence Moses, in all doubts concerning the government of the people, had recourse to the tabernacle, and there consulted God, and received answers from him; the same thing God commanded Joshua to do through the priest Eleazar, Numbers XXVII, 21. Let princes and prelates imitate both, so that in perplexing matters they may consult God through prayer. St. Cyprian presses this passage most beautifully, in De Singularitate Clericorum, and teaches that God's counsel and will is the sole norm of justice and the form of just government: for thus he says: "Whose (God's) commandments are to be so observed, that if he should command anything which seems unjust according to men, it should be believed and done as just, and if he should command what is just, it should be reckoned and done as just; since that which he commands cannot be unjust, he who is able by justifying injustice to call injustice justice, and by disapproving justice to prove justice perverse, whose will alone is true justice." He adds the reason: "For if we do everything we do solely to this end, that we may please the Lord, assuredly this alone will be just, whatever God shall will, and command, and approve, whom we strive to please: for since servants cannot know from themselves what pleases their masters, unless they follow the commands of their masters; and certainly men, being similar to men, cannot recognize the advantages of men similar to themselves, unless they have received what to observe: much more do mortals not know how to comprehend the justice of the immortal God, unless he himself deign to show the judgments of his justices, as Solomon approves, saying in Wisdom IX, 13: For who among men can know the counsel of God, or who can think what God wills? For the thoughts of mortal men are fearful, and our counsels are uncertain."
9:14
AND OUR COUNSELS ARE UNCERTAIN. — For we think that by our little reasonings and counsels we can find means suited to accomplishing the matter, and in execution we find them weak, infirm, defective, fallacious, and ending in an unhappy outcome: wherefore we ought to consult God's providence, as being secure and certain, and depend entirely upon it. In Greek ἐπιφαλεῖς αἱ ἐπίνοιαι ἡμῶν, that is, our opinions are fallacious, as Vatablus translated it, because we know almost nothing for certain, but only conjecture; others say, our dangerous inventions; others, our unstable conceptions; others, the counsels devised by us are subject to danger: both because they depend on many and often unknown circumstances; and because they can be hindered and overturned in a thousand ways and manners; and because in the course of reasoning we often err, and commit paralogisms from the weakness and blindness of the mind. Hence the interpreter of St. Chrysostom in Psalm CXLIII translates, the reasonings of men are fearful, and their inventions unstable. This is the eighth reason, drawn from the weakness, ignorance and improvidence of man: for he has need of direction from God's wisdom and providence; whence prudently King Jehoshaphat, in II Paralipomenon XX, 12, says: "Since we know not what we ought to do, this alone remains to us, that we direct our eyes towards thee."
9:15
death this tabernacle; the skin shrivels, the sinews loosen, the feet totter: thus Pineda in Job cap. XVIII, 14. The body therefore weighs down the soul and mind, because first, it draws it away from a single thing, namely truth and God, to which it was intent, downward to corporeal and sensible things, and distracts it through various imaginings and phantasms, by which the imagination, like a wandering horse in a field plucking food, constantly roams about, whence St. Augustine, X Confess. cap. XL, sighing to unite his mind with God: "Nor in all these things, he says, which I run through, consulting you, do I find a safe place for my soul, except in you, by which my scattered things may be gathered together, nor let anything of me recede from you. And sometimes you admit me into an affection most unusual inwardly, to I know not what sweetness; which if it were perfected in me, I know not what it will be, which this life will not be. But I fall back into these burdensome weights, and am reabsorbed into my usual ways, and am held, and weep much, but am held much. So much does the burden of habit weigh me down. Here I am able to be, but do not wish; there I wish to be, but am not able: wretched on both sides." And Nazianzenus, in Carm. IX: Now, he says, when reason has been gathered, and I myself old age have reached the goal, wretched alas, like a drunkard I wander, and the cruel serpent obliquely in battle presses me down, and rightly planned things it snatches away both secretly and openly; Sometimes my mind is borne to the king of Olympus: Sometimes into the world with body weighed down it turns, by which the soul is gravely injured in its greatest part. Now, he says, when reason has been gathered, and I myself old age have reached the goal, wretched alas, like a drunkard I wander, and the cruel serpent obliquely in battle presses me down, and rightly planned things it snatches away both secretly and openly; Sometimes my mind is borne to the king of Olympus: Sometimes into the world with body weighed down it turns, by which the soul is gravely injured in its greatest part. truly, especially the heavenly and divine, to be weighed down by the weight and heaviness of the body, and as if in sleep to be agitated by various false and erroneous phantasms, by which obscured while it believes and gives assent, as if unknowing and drowsy it is deceived, and led into error, as we see happen in the delirious, and in drunkards and sleepers: for these things which they imagine and dream, although absurd and foolish, yet true and prudent they think them. The very same thing happens to a waking man, especially one burning with cares and desires: for desires so affect and imbue the imagination, that what they desire, this the imagination sees as beautiful, true and to be chosen: hence often good Homer nods, namely the mind otherwise wise is clouded, confused, hallucinates and errs: for it sees the thing as if through a mist and smoke of vapors, which rise from the stomach to the brain, and imbue it with wondrous phantasms, by which the thing appears altogether different than it is in itself; for in place of the true appearance of the thing, the imagination, and thence the mind (which wholly depends on the imagination) is thrust a fictitious and false phantasm, in place of true reason a sophism, in place of a true syllogism a paralogism, in place of certain knowledge an apparent but fallacious opinion; by which it comes about that men sometimes, when they seem most wise to themselves, then most foolishly err. EARTHLY HABITATION (in Greek γεῶδες σκῆνος, that is an earthly tabernacle; thus it calls the body, for in it, as in a tabernacle, the soul dwells for a short time, because in it it is a sojourner and tends toward heaven, whence it received its origin; the body truly, because earthly, and made from earth, the heavenly soul to earthly things) WEIGHS DOWN. — "The sense," that is the mind πολυφροντίδα, that is of many cares it calls, meditating many things, and agitated by many cares, anxious and solicitous, such as that of kings and princes, which therefore pressed by cares on this side, on that side weighed down by the weight of the body, to weight and error must succumb, unless by the protection of wisdom and divine grace it is raised up and supported; which therefore Solomon teaches must be continually implored. Alluding to this St. Paul, II Cor. V, 1: "We know, he says, that if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens, for in this also we groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation, which is from heaven:" see the things said there. Hence also Plato in Cratylus thinks the body is called σῶμα, as if σῆμα, that is a sepulcher, as if in it the soul, and its power as if in a tomb were buried; whence that philosopher pitying the wretched lot of his soul: "Little soul, he says, you bear a sensitive corpse." Moreover the analogy of the body and tabernacle is manifold, for like a tabernacle our body is covered with skin, against external injuries of the sky; it is stretched with sinews as with cords; bones like a mast or other framework sustain it; nails as it were, by which it is fixed and made firm, the feet appear; it is torn away See Cassian, Conference XXIII, chapter VII. Secondly, because the body dulls and blunts the mind's keenness by its weight, and makes it like itself, gross, heavy and burdensome, according to that saying of Virgil, Aeneid VI: Harmful bodies retard, and earthly limbs dull, and dying members. Thirdly, because it fatigues and exhausts it, so that it cannot long continue in contemplation, prayer, meditation: just as the coat of mail and arms of Saul weighed down and wearied David, so that he could not advance. Fourthly, because it clouds it with its phantasms, mocks and deceives it, as I said at the beginning: moreover the body casts upon the soul as it were chains and fetters, so that it cannot fly upward. Fifthly, because together with the mind it depresses the appetite and will yearning for spiritual goods, to the love and pursuit of bodily, earthly and perishable goods; whence the Apostle groaning sighs, Romans VII, 23: "I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And the Bride, languishing with love for her Spouse, sighs to him, Canticles II, 17: "Until the day break" of blessed eternity, "and the shadows" of the body and wretched mortality "decline." And Job, chapter VII, 20: "I have become," he says, "a burden to myself:" see St. Prosper, letter to Demetrias, not far from the end, where he teaches that temptations arise to man from the body and its concupiscence weighing him down, but that they are overcome by charity lifting the mind to God. Hence we see that the far greater part of mankind, throughout almost their whole life, are occupied about the body, so that they provide for themselves food, clothing, and other comforts and pleasures, so that they think little and rarely about the soul and its eternal salvation. Wherefore from this saying St. Cyprian in On the Singularity of Clerics advises that the company of women is to be avoided, lest clerics dwell with them: "Therefore," he says, "the company of women is to be avoided, when there is continuous and unanimous frequenting of carnal cares: for among their cares the flesh always provokes the incentives of desire, and there it produces the fuel of sin, where, handling its comforts, it has felt itself somewhat relaxed in thoughts of temporal life, as Solomon asserts, saying, Wisdom IX, 15: Earthly thought depresses the sense of one thinking much:" for, as St. Bernard shrewdly observes, sermon 81 on the Canticles, it is from sin that the body which is corruptible weighs down the soul; but by love, not by mass: for what the soul can no longer raise itself by, since it was able to fall by itself, the will is the cause, which languishing and lying in the vitiated and vicious love of the corrupt body, does not admit likewise the love of justice." Then he beautifully declares how this will becomes necessity: "Thus I know not by what perverse and strange manner the will itself, changed by sin for the worse, makes necessity: so that neither necessity, since it is voluntary, can excuse the will; nor the will, since it is enticed, can exclude necessity: for this necessity is in a certain way voluntary: it is a favorable force pressing while cajoling, and cajoling while pressing; whence the guilty will, once it has consented to sin, can neither shake off nor excuse itself by any reasoning. Hence that querulous voice, as it were groaning under the burden of this necessity, Isaiah XXXVIII, 14: Lord, he says, I suffer violence, answer for me." For this reason St. Gregory of Nazianzus aptly calls the body an echeneis, or remora: for just as this small fish, attaching itself to ships, retards and stops their course; so also the body does the soul: for thus he sings in his Precepts to Virgins: Do not introduce into your very life the echeneis of flesh, Which like an unconquered fetter will hold back the hastening stern And force so great a mass to stand still. Whence he advises that the mind and love are to be confined, for just as confined water in a narrow channel leaps upward, so the confined mind leaps to Christ: Not otherwise, he says, do I bid your love, thus confined, to be lifted to Christ with the wave removed. Moreover the remora is a fish about a cubit in size, of dusky color, resembling an eel, says Oppian, book I On Fishes. Plutarch adds in Symposium, decade 2, chapter VII, that the remora retards a ship, because it increases Do not introduce into your very life the echeneis of flesh, Which like an unconquered fetter will hold back the hastening stern And force so great a mass to stand still. Whence he advises that the mind and love are to be confined, for just as confined water in a narrow channel leaps upward, so the confined mind leaps to Christ: Not otherwise, he says, do I bid your love, thus confined, to be lifted to Christ with the wave removed. Moreover, the remora is a fish about a cubit in size, of dusky color, resembling an eel, as Oppianus says in book I of his work On Fishes. Plutarch adds in the Symposium, decade 2, chapter VII, that the remora retards a ship because it increases its moisture, and thus the body makes the soul moist, and therefore heavy and blind: for the soul is driest when most wise; the soul therefore in the body is held as in a prison, and is weighed down by its members as by shackles. The body is to the soul as a cloud, which does not permit it to see heavenly things clearly; it is to it as a snare, which draws it toward evil and forbidden things; it is to it as a chain, which scarcely permits it to fly to sublime things on the wings of affections; whence the Psalmist sighs, Psalm LVI, 7: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly, and be at rest?" Finally, hear St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the Ascension: "But we are in this region, where there is much malice, little wisdom, because the body which is corruptible weighs down the soul, and earthly dwelling depresses the sense much thinking, Wisdom IX, 15. By sense here, I judge the intellect to be designated, which is then truly depressed, when it thinks much, when it does not gather itself about that one and only meditation, which is conceived of that city, whose participation is in itself. Such an intellect ought to be depressed, and distracted by many things in many and manifold ways. But the soul here I judge to be called the affections, which by a corrupted body are affected by diverse passions, which can never be mitigated, not to say healed, until the will seeks one thing, and tends to one thing. Two things therefore are to be purged in us, the intellect and the affections: the intellect, that it may know; the affections, that it may will." He then adds examples of Elijah and Enoch: "Happy and truly happy those two men, Elijah and Enoch, to whom all matter and occasions were taken away, which might impede their intellect or affection, because living for God alone, they knew nothing but God, nor desired anything but God. Finally, of Enoch it is read, Wisdom IV, 11, that he was taken up, lest malice should change his intellect, or lest deceit should deceive his soul. Our intellect was troubled, not to say blinded, our affection was defiled, and much defiled: but Christ illuminates the intellect, the Holy Spirit purges the affection." THAT IS CORRUPTIBLE. — He gives the reason why the body weighs down the soul, namely because it is corruptible: for first, what is corruptible is material and earthly (for immaterial and heavenly things are incorruptible) and therefore heavy and weighty, just as earth is heavy and weighty. Second, because the corruptible and earthly body corrupts day by day, and tends toward the earth from which it was formed, and desires to return to it as to its mother and origin; whence it weighs down the soul with itself, so that it tends and inclines toward earthly things. Third, because the corruptible body occupies man, so that he continually encounters its corruption, and thus it calls him away from heavenly things: for the body, when it hungers, compels man to take food, so as to relieve hunger; when it thirsts, compels man to drink; when it is fatigued, compels man to rest; when it is cold, compels man to warm himself; when it grows drowsy, compels man to sleep, etc. These are the necessities of the body, to which the soul is compelled to serve unwillingly; whence we ought to pray concerning them with the Psalmist, Psalm XXIV, 17: "From my necessities deliver me." This is clear in the sick, who are wholly occupied in caring for the body and recovering its health, so that they can neither study, nor meditate, nor labor, nor do anything else: indeed even in the healthy, these spend almost a third of the day and of life sleeping; they spend the two remaining parts of the day often in manual labor, breakfast, dinner, recreation, conversation, etc., so that they scarcely find half an hour to give to prayer and God. Hence the Origenists and Pythagoreans held that the soul was created by God perfect before the body, but was thrust into the body on account of sins committed by itself, as into a prison, so that it might pay the penalties of its crimes; but the Manichees, as St. Augustine says in the book On Heresies, XLVI: "Although they use wives, they nevertheless avoid conception and generation, lest the divine substance, which enters into them through food, be bound in carnal bonds in offspring;" but these are the manias and ravings of Mani. For "depresses" in Greek is βρίθει (as if from βορά, that is food), that is, by the heaviness of food or drink, as if the body grows drowsy, and makes the mind likewise drowsy so as to shake it, and as if dreaming confuses phantasms, so that it imagines, chooses and embraces one thing for another, the false for the true, the doubtful for the certain, the counterfeit for the sincere: for thus indeed we experience the mind, when it wishes to contemplate
9:17
17. But thy counsel who shall know, unless thou give wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from the highest? — For "shall know," the Greek is the past tense "knew"; St. Cyprian, in De Singularitate Clericorum, reads "knows": for by the past tense he denotes the other tenses, namely the present and future. Hence also St. Jerome in Zechariah chapter twelve, for "thou shalt give" and "thou shalt send" reads "thou gavest" and "thou sentest." For "counsel," the Greek is ζωή, that is, counsel, mind, will. The Holy Spirit, both as created can be taken here, namely grace and charity; and as uncreated, namely the third person of the Holy Trinity: for to him are appropriated illumination and sanctification; whence the Church invoking him says: Kindle a light in our senses, Pour love into our hearts, The weakness of our body Strengthen with perpetual virtue.
9:18
18. And so (Lyran and Dionysius read badly, if) the paths of those who are on earth be rightly directed, and men learn the things that please thee? — He notes a twofold effect of wisdom and the Holy Spirit: the first is, that it teaches those things which are pleasing to God; the second, that for accomplishing them in deed, it supplies grace and strength, by which it reforms minds and corrects morals. For "rightly directed," St. Cyprian in De Singularitate Clericorum reads "directed."
9:19
19. For by wisdom were healed all whosoever pleased thee from the beginning. — These last words are wanting in the Greek. For "were healed," the Greek is ἐσώθησαν, that is, were saved or delivered, that is, were freed from dangers of death, both of body and of soul; whence he afterwards recounts examples of these even to the end of the book: for which reason some begin the tenth chapter from this verse. In like manner St. Paul, imitating the Wise Man, in Hebrews chapter eleven, throughout the whole chapter proves that all who from the beginning of the world were saved, were saved through faith.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
9:1
… descendants (Gen. 1, 29-30; 9, 2-3). Not only that; but he gave man full and absolute dominion over nature: « God, who have created all things by your word and by your wisdom have formed man so that he may dominate over the creatures made by you... » (Wis. 9, 1-2). « You have placed (man) at the head of the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet: sheep and oxen, and the beasts of the field as well, the birds of the sky …
… 7:25 it is said: "Brightness of eternal Light..., spotless mirror of the majesty of God, image of his goodness." It will not be out of place to note, moreover, that in these same books mention is made of the Word — Λόγος — of God, divinely operative (Wis. 9:1; Eccl. 42:15, etc.). …
… In Gen. 1:1-27 the creation is described as the work of the Words of God with the repeated formula "And God said." This concept is reaffirmed in Ps. 32 (33): "He spoke and it was done, he commanded and it was created" (v. 9, cf. v. 6; Eccli. 42:15; Sap. 9:1-2 with the term λόγος). …
9:2
… Actus meos viderunt oculi tui» (cf. also Pss. 7, 43, 103, 146 etc.; and furthermore: Prov. 3:19; Wis. 9:2; 14:2; Jer. 11:20; 23:24; 32:19). From the New Testament it suffices to recall Rom. 11:33: «O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei». …
9:6
… In it the Septuagint translates with τέλειον the Hebrew word tāmim which indicated perfection (Deut. 18:13; I Reg. 8:61; 11:4; Wis. 9:6) more in the sense of legal, exterior perfection than intimate, though not excluding it (cf. Fr. Platt, Perfection, in Enc. of Rel. and Eth., IX, 728 ff.).
9:17
… 21, 2), who infuses into Adam's body a spiritual soul that must return to him after death (Gen. 2, 7; Eccl. 12, 7); "God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4, 24; cf. Is. 31, 3; Wis. 1, 6; 6, 24; 9, 17). Nor do the biblical expressions cause difficulty, which present God metaphorically, as a man who walks, speaks, etc. (v. ANTROPOMORFISMO).
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.