on this, that he says: In which he labors under the sun: "for it is the same as if he were to say: under time."
On account of which it should be noted that certain things come to be with time, such as those whose origin time did not precede, as the angelic nature and prime matter. Certain things come to be in time, which began after the origin of time but do not have their setting in time, such as the soul of Peter. Certain things come to be in time and under time, which begin after the origin of time and are terminated in time, of which kind are mutable things. And such things are twofold: for some come to be for time and under time, and such things pass away in act and in fruit; some for eternity, and such things pass away in act but remain in root and in fruit, because the good will remains to be rewarded for eternity.
When therefore he says that man has nothing but vanity from all his labor with which he labors under the sun:
this is understood insofar as labor is under time with respect to act and intention; and then it has no place among good things.
II. Likewise, there is a question concerning what he says: The earth stands forever.
To the contrary: 1. Matthew twenty-four: Heaven and earth shall pass away: therefore the earth does not stand.
2. Likewise, Apocalypse twenty-one: I saw a new heaven and a new earth, therefore the earth grows old: therefore it does not stand, etc.
I respond: it must be said that the earth standing is twofold: either with respect to substance, or with respect to figure or disposition; I say that the earth stands forever with respect to substance, but passes away with respect to figure: First Corinthians seven: The figure of this world passes away. But men are generated and corrupted with respect to substance, so that they are rightly called not men but the dead.
Or eternal is said in multiple ways: in one way, that which does not have an end prescribed in Scripture: thus the land of promise was given to the children of Israel as an eternal possession. In another way, that which has an end, but not in time: thus time is said to be eternal. In the third way, that whose signification is never ended. In the fourth way, that whose substance is never ended. In the fifth way, that whose substance neither ends nor began.
In this last way, God alone; in the fourth way it applies to the earth with respect to substance, in the third way with respect to signification, in the first two ways with respect to figure.
And thus the response to that is clear in two ways.
III. Likewise, there is a question concerning what he says: The sun rises and sets.
For since other luminaries likewise rise, it is asked why he speaks more of the sun than of others?
2. Likewise, he seems to proceed in a disordered manner, because he says that it sets before he says that it circles through the south: for it circles before it sets.
I respond: to this it must be said that once mutability has been established in the sun, which is the noblest and most luminous among the heavenly bodies, it is sufficiently given to be understood in the others.
2. To that second objection it must be said that he does not arrange them according to progression, but according to dimensions or the limits of dimensions. Therefore, because east and west are opposites, they are immediately ordered together; likewise, because south and north are opposites, they are similarly placed immediately in the manner of a cross.
IV. But 1. there is a doubt about what he says: It returns to its place, because in the firmament no one place of the sun is more its place than another.
If you say that it returns to the place from which it began its course: this is manifestly false, because the sun is always moved by its own motion either ascending or descending; therefore it never returns to the same place.
2. Likewise, what does he mean when he says: Turning toward the north. For if the sun is moved by diurnal motion with the motion of the firmament, and the firmament moves uniformly and similarly, then it does not turn more toward the arctic pole than toward the antarctic, or conversely.
If you say that this is understood of its proper motion: but the sun according to its proper motion ascends and descends in the zodiac, and when it ascends, it approaches the north; when it descends, it draws near to the south; therefore it does not turn more toward the north than toward the south.
I respond: it must be said that one can speak of the motion of the sun as diurnal and annual. If we speak of the annual motion, it is true that the sun returns to its place, because it began to move from there. But if we understand this of the diurnal motion, it does not return to its place from which it began to move according to the truth, but according to our estimation, since it does not make a sphere but a spiral.
2. To the second it must similarly be said that if we speak of the annual motion, it holds true according to the four seasons, as was said above, because it rises in spring, sets in autumn, circles through the south in winter, and turns toward the north in summer. — But if you understand this of the diurnal motion, this does not hold true except according to our estimation. For we see the firmament moving, and we imagine its poles to the right and to the left; but it is not so, rather one pole is as if above our heads, namely the northern; the other as if beneath our feet. When therefore the sun revolves according to the poles of the firmament, it does not go directly above our heads and beneath our feet, but as if transversally; and because we see according to the level plane, it seems to us that by day it inclines toward the south and by night toward the north.
V. Likewise there is a question about what he says: The rivers go forth from the sea.
Against: The sea is bitter, and rivers are sweet; but contraries do not have their origin from one principle, nor one from another; therefore neither does the sea come from rivers, nor rivers from the sea.
I respond: it must be said that all water by nature is sweet or tasteless, as the Philosopher says; but it becomes bitter accidentally, either through the evaporation of the subtle parts, with the earthly parts remaining, or through the admixture of earthly parts. Conversely, that water, just as it was accidentally made bitter, can return to sweetness through refinement, as is shown by the experiment of an earthen vessel placed in the sea. Since therefore rivers, even though they return to the sea in great abundance, nevertheless flow out secretly and underground and through a certain filtration, the water is refined and turned to sweetness.