that it is full of calamities and labors against sinners. Similar is that of Isaiah: *I am the Lord, making peace and creating evils* (Isa. XLV, 7); just as if He said, both fostering peace and permitting wars.
ON THE PROVERBS
(Mai, *Bibliotheca nova Patrum*, VII, II, 71, Rome 1851, in 4°, from the Vatican MS Catena)
PROVERBS, therefore, are exhortatory sayings that contribute to the regulation of the entire life; for to those who set out on the path to God, they become certain guides and signposts, which refresh those who are weary from the length of the journey. B Now these Proverbs are Solomon’s—that is, the "Peaceful One"—namely, of Christ the Savior. But since we know flawlessly that these are the Lord’s sayings, because they are the Lord’s, so that no one may perhaps deceive us by the similarity of names, he adds who wrote these things, and of what nation he was king; so that the authority of the speaker may make the discourse more acceptable and the hearers more attentive. For these are the words of that Solomon to whom the Lord said: *I will give thee a heart wise and understanding; there hath been none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee* (III Reg. III, 12); and the rest written concerning him. C Now he was wise, born of a wise man; wherefore the name of David is appended, from whom Solomon was born, being trained in the sacred scriptures from childhood, and obtaining the kingdom not by lot or by any force, but by the judgment of the Spirit and the decree of God.
*To understand wisdom and instruction.* He who knows the wisdom of God receives instruction from Him as well, so that he may understand the mysteries of the words. Now those who possess true and heavenly wisdom will easily perceive the sense of the mysteries. Therefore he says: *To receive the subtleties of words.* For those things which were spoken by the Holy Spirit, as it were in inverted words, are made known promptly to those who are endowed with a heart faithful toward God.
D This he understands concerning the people of the Jews, and the slaughter of Christ; for they thought that He had His conduct on earth only.
*They will not only receive, but they will also inherit.* But the impious, even if they are exalted, it but results in their own greater dishonor. Just as if one should place a deformed and distorted man on a high throne, he does not honor but rather dishonors him, making his ugliness manifest to more people; so also God exalts the impious, that He may make their disgrace public. Pharaoh was also exalted, but only so that he might have the world as his accuser.
It is to be noted that he here calls the gift a good one
on account of him who accepts bribes into his bosom unjustly. He deserts the law, he who transgresses it; the law, moreover, is what he either explicitly names or what he himself has observed.
A What is "circumcyclethe" [surround/fence in]? Surround it with holy thoughts. For you have great need of a fortification, since many things lie in wait for such a possession. But if it is in our power to surround it, the fortifications will be for us the virtues that exalt the knowledge of God—for instance, asceticism, meditation, and the rest of the choir of virtues; he who holds these honors wisdom; the reward, however, is to be exalted to her and to take delight with her in the heavenly bridal chamber.
The impious are the heterodox, but the sinners are the transgressors of the law; he says that one should not walk in their ways or their actions.
B He sees rightly who has thoughts free from perturbation and true dogmas, he who is not struck by external phantasies. When he says, "Let your eyes see uprightness," he speaks of the vision of the soul. And when he exhorts, "Eat honey, my son, that your throat may be sweetened," he speaks of honey tropically as divine doctrine, which completes the spiritual knowledge of the soul. But wisdom also touches the soul; for "love her," he says, "that she may embrace you." Now the soul, joined to virtue through an embrace, is filled with holiness and purity. Moreover, the soul also reaches for the scent of Christ's ointments.
C Virtue holds the middle ground; therefore, he also says that fortitude is midway between audacity and cowardice. Now, however, he calls them "the right," not because they are right by nature—as the virtues are—but because they seem right to you on account of pleasures; and pleasures are not only those of Venus, but also wealth and luxury. The "left," however, are envy, rapine, and things like these. For the north wind, he says, is a harsh wind, yet it is called "the right" in name; for he calls the evil one, that is, the devil, the north wind symbolically, from whom all evils are kindled upon the earth. And this name is "the right," because he is called an angel by a right, that is, a favorable, name. — Do you, he says, turn away from evil, and God will take care of your end; for He will go before you, destroying your enemies, so that you may walk in peace.
D For he shows, also through the animal [the doe], the innocence of pleasure in marriage; and through the foal, he expresses the alacrity and lovableness of a woman. And because he perceives many things that incite to vice, he counsels cautiously and imposes an indissoluble bond of friendship upon them, securing constancy for them. Otherwise, wisdom, like a doe, is naturally able to drive away and extinguish the serpentine doctrines of the heterodox. Let this, therefore, he says, be with you as a foal, so that it may renew every virtue; and because wisdom is not like a woman, let this rather be your leader. For so shall you beget good thoughts.
Lest you say: "Why is there any harm to the eyes, since there is not necessarily any need for one who sees to be perverted?" he shows you that lust is fire; and the flesh, a garment;
the former is easily captured, the latter is tyrannical. A Yet when it is not merely placed there, but also bound fast, it will not go out until it has made an exit for itself; for the one who has looked upon a woman, even if he has escaped, still does not depart pure from desire. But what need is there for affairs, when it is possible to live chastely without involvement? Observe what Job says: I have made a covenant with my eyes, that I should not think upon a strange woman (Job XXXI, 1). He recognized the power of this deception. For this reason also, Paul kept under his body, and brought it into subjection (1 Cor. IX, 27). In a spiritual sense, he who allows an impure thought to linger in his heart is binding fire to his bosom; and he who destroys his own soul by committing sin walks upon coals.
B The cemphus is a species of gull, which is so unrestrained in its lust that at the time of mating its eyes seem to be filled with blood; and being incautious, it often falls into traps or into the hands of men. To this, therefore, he compares the man addicted to a harlot because of his lechery; or perhaps because of the stupidity of the bird, for it likewise chases after everyone like a fool. They also say that the cemphus takes such delight in foam that if a person sailing should hold foam in his hand, it will alight upon his hand. It also gives birth in pain.
C You have known its damage; beware, therefore, lest you admit desire; for its end is immortal. Otherwise, it wounds with words, that is, with thoughts, but it kills those who indulge themselves with sins. For many kinds of wickedness lead the foolish to hell. The chambers of death, or the depth, or its riches. Who, then, shall escape?
He calls the New Jerusalem the holy flesh. By the seven columns, he indicated the sevenfold gift of the holy Spirit resting upon it; just as Isaiah witnesses, saying: He has slaughtered his own sacrifices (Isa. XXVIII, 14).
Mark that it is necessary for a wise man to be useful to many; for he who is useful only to himself would not be wise. For there is a great reproach to wisdom if it restricts its power to the one who possesses it. Just as poison is not harmful to another body, but only to the one receiving it; so he who becomes wicked harms himself, not another. For no one endowed with virtue is harmed by the wicked.
D The fruit of righteousness and the tree of life is Christ; who, insofar as he was a man, fulfilled all righteousness; and as self-life, he put forth the fruits of knowledge and virtue like a tree, from which those who eat shall receive eternal life, and will enjoy the tree of life of paradise, with Adam and all the righteous; but the souls of the lawless are snatched away prematurely from the face of God, because He is to abandon them in the fire of torment.
He should find grace not from men, but from God.
This man inquires after wisdom, he who seeks to know what the
A truth is. Showing himself ignorant of the thing he came to learn, he will appear prudent. If someone inquires about wisdom, wishing to know a portion of it, but another keeps silent, not only wishing to learn nothing from wisdom but also deterring others from the study of it; without doubt, the former will be esteemed more prudent than the latter.
B "To the leech." There were three daughters dearly beloved by sin: fornication, murder, and idolatry. Yet these three do not satisfy it, for it is insatiable. For by these acts, sin always destroys man, never being altered, but perpetually increasing. For the fourth, it says, never said: "It is enough"; signifying by the fourth, universal concupiscence. For just as one is the body, but it has many members; so also sin, being one, has within itself many and various concupiscences, through which it lays snares for man. Wishing to demonstrate this, it uses the examples of Hades, and the love of women, and Tartarus, and the earth never filled with rain. And water, and fire, will never say: "It is enough." For in no way does Hades cease receiving the souls of lawless men. Nor does the love of sin, as that of a woman, cease from committing fornication, having become a traitor to his own soul. And just as Tartarus, being always in a mournful and dark place, is not reached by a ray of light, so also is everyone who serves sin in any passion of the flesh. Like the earth C never filled with waters, he is never able to come to confession and the laver of regeneration, as water and fire, without saying: "It is enough."
"For in the same way that a serpent cannot leave a track upon a rock, so also the devil could not find sin in the body of Christ." For the Lord says: "Behold, the prince of this world is coming, and he will find nothing in me." For just as a ship sailing through the sea leaves no tracks or paths behind it, so neither does the Church, living in the world as in a sea, leave her hope behind on the earth, having her life laid up in the heavens; passing briefly through it, she does not leave footprints of her passage on the way. The Church not abandoning her hope in the world—the incarnation of Christ, which bears all things—makes no path of death in Hades. Of whom, if not of him who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin? Who, renewing the perfect man in the world, performed signs, taking his beginning from the baptism of John, as the evangelist also testifies. "And Jesus was beginning as of thirty years." Therefore, in this young and flourishing age, traversing cities and regions, he was healing the diseases and infirmities of men.
D "The eye that mocks his father, and despises the old age of his mother." Truly, the eye that blasphemes God, and disdains the mother of Christ, the Wisdom of God, let it be plucked out.