Expositio in Proverbia

 the things that have fallen, that is, from the pretext of Uriah. How then does Solomon say before: “He who rejoices 17.165 at another's destruction wi

 would have difficulty, just as the desire for money a pure mind draws near to wisdom since it knows well but the impure will be far from it. Adam i

 but here, that he names the mind a good gift, on account of the one who unjustly receives gifts in his bosom, and is not prospered for those unjust g

 of virtue And this persuades me, in a small way, that the rich man being judged in Hades for his wickedness was not completely given over to every ev

 to you, You shall not be angry. It must be noted here that he calls the natural harmonious movement of the ant, wisdom for indeed one wiser than a wi

 for he was the lamp that was burning and shining a light, the New Testament For I, he says, am the light of the world a refutation of evil things,

 of the kemphos fish in the sea, flying in schools here and there which the sailors, having baited a many-hooked line, catch and not only does it not

 come to the introductions but when they become wise, and are strengthened, reprove them. And Christ, when his disciples were still young, did not rep

 of the evil one. But the impious who sin will not only fall from the kingdom, but they will inhabit the fire and not the earth. Instead of, he is full

 be not silent to me, says David, and I will be like those who go down into the pit. A lawless man will be passed over in silence by God, that is, he w

 sinning. Here he calls the senses ways but he who guards them, keeps his own soul from death unto life for life is the Holy Trinity that gives life

 afflicted, distressed? And how will the unbeliever not have an obol, when many unbelievers are clothed with much wealth, I mean kings and rulers of th

 the love of God for humanity which also brings us to God the Father himself, as sons weaned, and desiring spiritual solid food so that just as his S

 your eyes, say: for many, even without having begun virtue, not only advise others to act rightly, but also compel and exhort them. Here he says man

 body is profitable to the foolish man for he will trample it underfoot, being a pleasure-loving pig and by sensible luxury his flesh will be moved t

 that is, to imitate the virtues of the righteous and prophets who shone in the six ages before the coming of Christ, who also feed the widow and orpha

 of the Lord, is the knowledge of the Lord, and the light of the Lord is the breath of men, therefore the knowledge of the Lord is the breath of men b

 He calls the mind a horse, which is warred against by the devil, and which wars in return For you will mount, he says, upon your horses and your rid

 he slanders us to God, taking from us the virtues which he has not given us, so also we slander him taking from him the vices which we have not given

 But do not enter into the land of those who have orphaned themselves from God, who possess wickedness as the property of demons, on account of which t

 but vice diminishes virtue, and virtue obviously corrupts vice and this will happen in the age to come, until vice ceases for shall be defiled, in

 earth-born nations, and having strengthened them with virtues in faith in him, Christ the God, and having stored up the heavenly water that which flo

 is, the law given to us by him in righteousness and those who gouge out the eyes of the impious, he called ravens but those who devour him whole, he

 of lands, he keeps his own justly. Cast a precious sardius into a golden earring, and the wisdom of the Lord into a dispassionate and obedient mind to

 defines servants or those under his hand for the rod is a symbol of punishment. From his own feet, etc. Here he calls servants 'feet' and from them

 to the devil who made it, to yield as to a brother, so as to be destroyed with him. -Better is he who is joined to me through true knowledge, than he

 lawless, are the doctrines of demons, which the instructed son does not obey and by son he means the mind but he who restrains his mind from being c

 of blood are the demons, who killed those living in Christ by the shedding of blood but the upright will seek out his soul these are they who wish t

 a soul of abundance for its bodily house. He says that the soul of the diligent man has the Church as a tree of knowledge and a tree of life of knowl

sinning. Here he calls the senses ways; but he who guards them, keeps his own soul from death unto life; for life is the Holy Trinity that gives life to all things, and brought them from non-being into being; but he who loves life, and always desires to live by it, will spare his mouth from words and deeds that are not of God, and will attend to the knowledge of God. God is life; and the source of the thrice-luminous self-life is wisdom and knowledge and virtues; from which source those who drink partake of immortality and everlasting life; and for those who possess such a source, there is the conception of the words of life; but the instruction of fools is wickedness; and unchastened instruction is foolishness. He called knowledge understanding, from its knowing all things thoroughly; but the heart of the wise understands the things from its own mouth, both in the judgment of bodies and incorporeal things, and what they themselves teach to do and practice. The demons, learning arguments from the devil, attack the saints, and devise to try to separate them from knowledge, which is by nature suited to join them in friendship with the heavenly powers; and this very thing Solomon, I think, has declared through this proverb; calling Satan a perverse man; and he calls the evil demons taught by him walking lamps of deceit; and friends, the saints, who through knowledge are attached to God and to one another. The devil is a lawless man; and he makes trial of the friends of God, and leads them away by paths to destruction and not good ones; and when he deceives one of the saints, he will fix his thoughts with his eyes, and he devises perverse things, lest the one he has hunted might be saved by repenting; and he grates with his lips in that one's ears all evil thoughts, both despair and every pleasure of licentiousness; this one is a furnace 17.197 of all wickedness; and in it he burns the souls of those who are about to slip; but the divine Spirit shakes out the flame of this furnace, piping the wisdom of dew; and many wicked men still according to it are accustomed to imitate their father the devil. Here he has called bosoms the hearts of the unjust; and I think that everywhere bosom signifies either the mind or knowledge; and the devil embraces the wicked, but the Lord the just. If everyone who commits sin is a slave, everyone who has turned away from wickedness through virtue, has prevailed over the demons who are foolish masters; who also will become a house of God's mysteries, according to the proportion of his state, giving to each of the brothers spiritual knowledge; thus also Paul, giving milk to drink to those in Corinth, but nourishing those in Ephesus with more solid food, discoursing on height and length and breadth and depth; and through these dimensions signifying the division of the rational nature, which contains the arguments concerning the judgment and providence of God, being very profound, and escaping the human condition. Furnaces are temptations; for through temptations God chooses out the hearts of the elect, pure and unspotted. The heretic hearkens to a tongue of godless dogmas; but those of the Church do not even pay attention. Through "hearkening," he shows the voluntary aspect, as sinning against the wise administration of God. -This one hearkens to the tongues of the lawless, who receives from them unjust reasonings, and hastens to act according to them; to which the just man is said not to pay attention, of things seen and unseen, that is, not to nourish them further in himself. The faithful one, he says, will see the principles of this world, which he has tropically called the riches of the mind; but the unfaithful will not know the principle of even a chance thing, because of the impurity of his soul; but that the wealth of the soul is the knowledge of God, Paul teaches, saying this: "In everything you were enriched, in all knowledge and in all wisdom;" but if anyone should wish to show that this is not the meaning of this proverb, let him say where they who went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being afflicted,

ἁμαρτάνοντας. Ὁδοὺς ἐνταῦθα τὰς αἰσθήσεις φησίν· ὁ δὲ φυλάσσων αὐτὰς, τηρεῖ ἐκ θανάτου τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν πρὸς ζωήν· ζωὴ γάρ ἐστιν ἡ πάντα ζωοῦσα, καὶ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων εἰς τὸ εἶναι παραγαγοῦσα Τριὰς ἁγία· ὁ δὲ ἀγαπῶν τὴν ζωὴν, καὶ ἀεὶ ζῇν αὐτῇ ἐφιέ μενος, φείσεται στόματος αὑτοῦ ἐκ τῶν μὴ Θεοῦ λό γων καὶ ἔργων, καὶ τῇ γνώσει τοῦ Θεοῦ προσ έξει. Ζωὴ ὁ Θεός ἐστι· τῆς δὲ τρισσοφαοῦς αὐτοζωΐας ἡ πηγὴ, ἡ σοφία καὶ ἡ γνῶσις καὶ αἱ ἀρεταί εἰσιν· ἐξ ἧς πηγῆς οἱ πίνοντες, ἀθανασίας μετέχουσι καὶ ἀει ζωΐας· τοῖς δὲ κεκτημένοις τὴν τοιαύτην πηγὴν, ἔν νοια λόγων ζωῆς ἐστι· ἡ δὲ παιδεία ἀφρόνων, ἡ κα κία ἐστίν· ἡ δὲ ἀνεξέλεγκτος παιδεία, ἡ ἀφροσύνη ἐστίν. Τὴν γνῶσιν ἐπιγνωμοσύνην εἶπε, παρὰ τὸ τὰ πάν τα αὐτὴν ἐπιγινώσκειν τὰ πράγματα· ἡ δὲ καρδία τῶν σοφῶν νοεῖ τὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου στόματος ἔν τε κρί σει σωμάτων καὶ ἀσωμάτων, καὶ ἅπερ αὐτοὶ ποιεῖν διδάσκουσι καὶ πράττουσιν. Λόγους οἱ δαίμονες παρὰ τοῦ διαβόλου μανθάνοντες, ἐπιχειροῦσι τοῖς ἁγίοις, καὶ πειρᾶσθαι χωρίζειν αὐ τοὺς ἐπινοοῦνται ἀπὸ τῆς γνώσεως, ἥτις πέφυκε συν άπτειν αὐτοὺς πρὸς φιλίαν ταῖς ἐπουρανίοις δυνάμε σι· τὸ δ' αὐτὸ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Σολομῶν ὡς οἶμαι διὰ ταύτης τῆς παροιμίας δεδήλωκε· σκολιὸν μὲν ἄνδρα λέγων τὸν Σατανᾶν· πορευομένους δὲ λαμπτῆρας δόλου τοὺς δι δασκομένους παρ' αὐτοῦ κακοὺς δαίμονάς φησι· φίλους δὲ, τοὺς ἁγίους, τοὺς διὰ τῆς γνώσεως ἁπτομένους τῷ Θεῷ καὶ ἀλλήλοις. Ἀνὴρ παράνομος ὁ διάβολός ἐστιν· ἀποπειρᾶται δὲ φίλους Θεοῦ, καὶ ἀπάγει αὐτοὺς ταῖς πρὸς ἀπώ λειαν ὁδοῖς καὶ οὐκ ἀγαθαῖς· ὅταν δέ τινα τῶν ἁγίων ἀπατήσῃ, στηρίξει νοήματα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὑτοῦ, καὶ λογίζεται διεστραμμένα, μή πως σωθῇ μετανοή σας ὃν ἐθήρευσε· κνίζει δὲ τοῖς χείλεσιν αὑτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν ἐκείνου πάντα τὰ κακὰ ἐνθυμήματα, ἀπόγνωσίν τε καὶ πᾶσαν ἡδονὴν ἀκολασίας· οὗτος κάμινός ἐστι 17.197 πάσης κακίας· καὶ φλέγει ἐν αὐτῇ τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ὀλι σθησομένων· ἀλλὰ ταύτης τῆς καμίνου ἐκτινάσσει τὴν φλόγα Πνεῦμα θεῖον, διασυρίζον σοφίαν δρόσου· πολ λοὶ δὲ ἔτι τῶν κατ' αὐτὴν πονηροὶ ἄνθρωποι, εἰώ θασι μιμεῖσθαι τὸν πατέρα αὑτοῖς διάβολον. Κόλπους ἐνταῦθα τὰς καρδίας εἴρηκε τῶν ἀδίκων· οἶμαι δὲ ὅτι καὶ πανταχοῦ ὁ κόλπος ἢ τὸν νοῦν, ἢ τὴν γνῶσιν σημαίνει· καὶ τοὺς μὲν πονηροὺς ὁ διάβολος ἐγκολπίζεται, τοὺς δὲ δικαίους ὁ Κύριος. Εἰ πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν δοῦλός ἐστι, πᾶς ὁ ἀποστὰς τῆς κακίας διὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς, τῶν δαιμόνων ἀφρόνων ὄντων δεσποτῶν ἐκράτησεν· ὃς καὶ οἶκος μυστηρίων Θεοῦ γενήσεται, κατὰ ἀναλογίαν τῆς κα ταστάσεως, ἑκάστῳ τῶν ἀδελφῶν διδοὺς γνῶσιν πνευ ματικήν· οὕτω καὶ Παῦλος τοὺς μὲν ἐν Κορίνθῳ γα λαποτίζων, τοὺς δὲ ἐν Ἐφέσῳ τρέφων στερεωτέρᾳ τροφῇ, περὶ ὕψους καὶ μήκους καὶ πλάτους καὶ βά θους διαλεγόμενος· καὶ διὰ τούτων τῶν διαστημά των τὴν τῆς λογικῆς φύσεως σημαίνων διαίρεσιν, ἥτις τοὺς περὶ κρίσεως καὶ προνοίας τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγους ἐμπεριέχει, πάνυ βαθυτάτους ὑπάρχοντας, καὶ ἐκ φεύγοντας τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην κατάστασιν. Κάμινοι οἱ πειρασμοί· διὰ γὰρ τῶν πειρασμῶν κα θάρας καὶ ἀκηλιδώτους τὰς καρδίας τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν ὁ Θεὸς ἐκλέγεται. Ὁ αἱρετικὸς ὑπακούει γλώσσης τῆς τῶν ἀθέων δο γμάτων· οἱ δὲ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, οὐδὲ προσέχουσιν. ∆ιὰ τοῦ ὑπακούειν, τὸ ἑκούσιον δείκνυσιν, ὡς εἰς τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφὴν διοίκησιν ἐξαμαρτών. -Οὗτος ὑπακούει ταῖς γλώσσαις τῶν παρανόμων, ὁ τοὺς ἀδίκους δεχό μενος παρ' αὐτῶν λογισμοὺς, καὶ σπεύδων ἐνεργεῖν κατ' αὐτούς· οἷς ὁ δίκαιος λέγεται μὴ προσέχειν, ὁρα τῶν τε καὶ ἀοράτων, τουτέστι μὴ ἐπὶ πλέον τρέφειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ. Ὁ πιστὸς, φησὶν, ὄψεται τοὺς λόγους τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, οὕστινας χρήματα τροπικῶς τοῦ νοῦ προσ ηγόρευσεν· ὁ δὲ ἄπιστος οὐδὲ τοῦ τυχόντος πράγματος γνώσεται λόγον, διὰ τὴν ἀκαθαρσίαν τῆς ψυχῆς αὑ τοῦ· ὅτι δὲ πλοῦτος ψυχῆς ἡ γνῶσίς ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ Παῦλος διδάσκει λέγων τό· Ἐν παντὶ ἐπλουτίσθητε, ἐν πάσῃ γνώσει καὶ πάσῃ σοφίᾳ· εἰ δέ τις βούλοιτο δεῖξαι μὴ ταύτην τὴν ἔννοιαν εἶναι ταύτης τῆς παροι μίας, λεγέτω ποῦ εὐπόρησαν χρημάτων οἱ περιελ θόντες ἐν μηλωταῖς, ἐν αἰγείοις δέρμασι, κακουχού μενοι,