To what is asked, who sins more greatly: I respond that it must be said that to deny providence can be twofold: in one way, because we believe God to be ignorant, or because we believe that He does not care about the deeds of mortals. Likewise, to accuse is also twofold: either because He does not care, or because He perverts. In both ways, to accuse providence is worse, because one not only errs but indeed reviles and blasphemes God; and thus one sins more greatly absolutely speaking, and knowledge there does not excuse but rather aggravates.
Art. 2. On the remedy against the vanity of avarice, since riches are to be despised for a threefold reason.
The covetous man shall not be filled with money. Above he set forth the remedy against the vanity of malice; here he adds secondly the remedy against the vanity of avarice. Now the remedy against avarice is contempt of earthly goods; therefore here he urges contempt of riches. And he does this indeed by a threefold reason: for first he shows that riches are not to be desired, because they do not enrich their possessors; second, because they are not frequently transmitted to posterity, at the passage: There is another grievous evil; third, because they frequently devolve to strangers, at the passage: There is also another evil which I have seen under the sun, etc.
First, riches are to be despised because they do not enrich their possessors, and this for a threefold reason.
First, therefore, he detests avarice, because the riches that are desired neither help nor enrich their possessors, because they do not suffice; second, because they do not profit; third, because they afflict.
(Verse 9.) Riches are therefore to be detested and spurned, because they do not suffice for the covetous man, and this is what the covetous man first desires, namely sufficiency. Therefore he says: The covetous man shall not be filled with money: Sirach 14: "The eye of the covetous man is insatiable." Whence Jerome: "The miser lacks both what he has and what he does not have"; and Seneca: "If you wish to make yourself rich, you must not add to your money but subtract from your desire."
(Vers. 9. 10.). And he who loves riches etc. Here secondly he dissuades from the love of riches, because they do not profit. Therefore he says: And he who loves riches shall not reap fruit from them, and thus they do not profit: Sirach 10: "There is nothing more wicked than to love money. For such a one has his soul for sale"; and thus riches profit the miser nothing, because he gives his soul for money: whence Matthew 16: "What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, yet suffer the loss of his own soul"? as if to say: nothing. And from this he infers the vanity of loving them: And this therefore is vanity, both of fault and of punishment: concerning the first, the Psalm: "Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart" etc.; concerning the second, the Psalm: "Their days were consumed in vanity" etc. The Psalm: "Behold the man who did not make God his helper, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and prevailed in his vanity." And he shows that riches profit the possessor nothing: because they are consumed, and the master has nothing more than the servant: therefore he says: Where there are great riches, many also are those who consume them: thus all things are consumed. Whence Seneca: "Wolves follow corpses, flies follow honey: that crowd follows the prey, not the man"; Job 39: "Its young ones lap up blood, and wherever there is a carcass, it is immediately present"; because, according to what is said in Proverbs 19, "many honor the person of the powerful and are friends of the one who gives gifts." And what does it profit
the possessor, except that he beholds his riches with his eyes? as if to say: nothing more for himself than for others, because any one of the others eats as much as he alone: and thus he has no fruit above others, but rather loss, because he has more sin; whence Sirach 11: "If you are rich, you will not be free from sin. If you pursue it, you will not overtake it" etc.
(Vers. 11.). Sweet is sleep. Here thirdly he shows that riches are to be spurned, because they afflict and do not permit a man to rest: whence they take away the sleep of quiet. Therefore he says: Sweet is the sleep of the worker, whether he eats little or much. And thus the worker and laborer sometimes rests: Sirach 31: "The sleep of health is in a frugal man: he will sleep until morning, and his soul will delight in him." But on the contrary concerning the rich man: he does not rest: whence he adds: But the fullness of the rich man does not permit him to sleep:
. Or, because he has many riches, he has many cares, which take away sleep: Job 15: "The sound of terror is always in his ears, and when there is peace, he suspects treachery"; whence above in chapter two: "All his days are full of labors and sorrows, nor does his mind rest through the night." Or also, because he eats and drinks much and does not labor, therefore he does not rest: whence Sirach 31: "Sleeplessness and bile and gripping pains are for the intemperate man," and thus on account of surfeit he does not rest.
QUESTIONS.
But a question is raised concerning what he says, that riches do not profit the possessor.
1. For below in chapter seven: Wisdom is more useful with riches, and it profits more those who see the sun.
2. Likewise, Proverbs thirteen: The redemption of a man's soul is his riches: therefore they avail for redeeming the soul.
On the contrary: 1. Everything which it is simply better to relinquish than to retain is simply useless, because if the absence of something is useful, its presence is harmful: therefore if relinquishing riches is good, retaining them is useless.
2. Likewise, all usefulness is measured according to its ordering toward the ultimate end: therefore what furnishes an impediment to arriving at the end is not useful but useless; but riches are of this kind, because it is impossible for one who loves riches to enter heaven, and it is difficult to have them and not love them: therefore the possession of riches impedes: therefore they do not profit but hinder.
I respond to this that, as Bernard says, "these temporal things are of themselves neither good nor evil, whose use is good, abuse evil, anxiety over them worse, and the pursuit of gain from them most base." If therefore it is asked whether riches are useful or useless, I say that to one using them well they are useful, but to one hoarding them they are useless, and to one using them badly they are harmful; whence it is said below in the same book: Riches kept to the hurt of their owner; but to one using them well they avail, namely when he distributes them in works of piety.
For thus they avail for the redemption of guilt: Daniel four: Redeem your sins with almsgiving. They avail for the increase of grace: First Timothy four: Exercise yourself unto piety, etc. They avail for the attainment of glory: Luke sixteen: Make for yourselves friends from the mammon of iniquity, so that when you fail, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles.
1. To the objection that they are useless because it is good to relinquish them: it must be said that to relinquish is to give to God, and this is to use riches well; whence they are useful for relinquishing, for giving to the poor, for purchasing the kingdom.
2. To the objection that it is difficult to have and not to love: I respond that from this it does not follow that they impede, because every virtue concerns what is difficult, and yet virtue does not impede but assists. Nevertheless, the more useful and safer practice is to relinquish everything at once rather than to give little by little, on account of avoiding the dangers that arise.
Second, riches are to be despised because they are frequently not transmitted to posterity.
There is also another infirmity, etc. Above he showed that riches do not enrich their possessors; here he adds secondly that they are to be despised because they are frequently not transmitted to posterity; and indeed he does this in the following order. First is noted the consideration of future poverty in one's offspring. Second, from this he denounces the toilsome anxiety of acquiring money. Third, in denunciation of this, he commends the enjoyment of present gladness, adding that this is a gift of divine generosity.
(Vers. 12. 13. 14. 15.). He considers therefore first the future destitution in the offspring of the rich man, because, when they are preserved for a long time by the father, they do not remain for the son. Therefore he says: There is also another most grievous infirmity, which I saw under the sun, another, namely, from the aforementioned one, which, I say, is in the possession of riches: whence he says: Riches kept to the hurt of their owner, because they cannot be gathered without the evil both of punishment and of fault: Ecclesiasticus thirty-one: "Blessed is the man who is found without blemish, and who has not gone after gold nor hoped in the treasures of money. Who is this? and we shall praise him: for he has done wonderful things in his life." Or: to the hurt, for they make a man come into the evil of punishment; James five: "Come now, you rich, weep and howl in your miseries which shall come upon you." Of their owner, nay rather in reality of their slave, because avarice makes the avaricious man a slave: whence Ephesians five: "Avarice, which is the service of idols." - These, I say, perish in the worst affliction, because it is necessary that he relinquish them with sorrow: Job twenty-seven: "The rich man, when he shall sleep, shall take nothing with him." Nor are they only left behind by their owner, but they are also lost by the son, whence he adds: He has begotten a son, who shall be in the utmost destitution. There is an utmost destitution, and this is of all goods, concerning which Proverbs six: "Want shall come upon you like a traveler" etc.
And thus riches that are preserved are not left to the heir, nor can they be carried away by the possessor: whence he adds: As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return, not into the womb, but into the earth. And he shall take nothing with him of his labor: Job one: "Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither." - And this is greatly to be lamented: whence he adds: A most miserable infirmity indeed: as he came, so shall he return: whence 1 Timothy last chapter: "We brought nothing into this world, and there is no doubt that neither can we carry anything away."
(Vers. 15. 16.). What then does it profit? Here secondly he reproves the solicitude of increasing money by consideration of the destitution that is to come: whence he infers as if from the aforesaid things that it is vain to afflict oneself with such great labors in the acquisition of things. Therefore he says: What then does it profit him, namely the avaricious rich man, that he labored into the wind? that is, in vain, if it is so that "as he came forth naked from the womb, naked shall he return," both he himself and his son, as if to say: nothing. Therefore in the Psalm: "O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after lying?" Riches are compared to wind on account of their vanity: whence Ecclesiasticus thirty-four: "As one who grasps at a shadow and pursues the wind, so is he who attends to lying visions"; he labored therefore into the wind, when he labored for acquiring riches.