III. One may also raise a doubt about what he says: This is the worst thing under the sun, that the same things happen to all.
ON THE CONTRARY: 1. It is worse when good things happen to the wicked and bad things to the good than when the same things happen to both, because, as was said above, that is undue and unworthy.
2. Likewise, it was said above: This I judge most vain, concerning the fact that the wicked are secure and evils befall the just; but "what is said by way of superabundance belongs to one alone": therefore, etc.
I respond: it must be said that increase and decrease in vanity or wickedness can be taken properly: and thus it is said intensively, in the way that one says: a pearl is whiter than a horse; and thus intensively the vanity is greater when the wicked are exalted and the good are cast down. Furthermore, more and less can be taken extensively, because it is the cause or occasion in more cases or for more people: and in this way the indistinction of the good from the wicked is a greater vanity, because it is the origin of more evils. For if bad things happened to the good and good things to the wicked, the good could be discerned from the wicked; but when the same things happen to both, they cannot be discerned.
Secondly, it is shown how pleasure arises from this.
No one lives forever. He has now shown how the vanity of false security arises from indistinction; here secondly he shows how pleasure arises from security: and indeed he does this in the following order. First is noted the certainty of death; second, the worsening of one's state through death; third, the commendation of pleasure; fourth, the confirmation of the commendation.
(Vers. 4.). First, therefore, the certainty of death is noted by the fact that no one escapes its judgment. Therefore he says: There is no one who lives forever: therefore in the Psalm: "What man is there who shall live and not see death?" And into this condemnation Adam fell with his posterity, when it was said to him in Genesis 3: "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return." And who has confidence in this matter, supply: no one; in this matter, namely the hope of living forever: Job 7: "My days have passed more swiftly than a web is cut by the weaver, and they are consumed without any hope, for my life is wind, and it shall not return," etc.
A living dog is better, etc. Here secondly it is shown that through death there is a deterioration of condition: and he proposes this under a metaphor: A living dog is better than a dead lion. Although a lion surpasses a dog, nevertheless death renders it inferior, because a living dog can do something, a dead lion can do nothing, and yet when living it is more powerful than a dog: Proverbs 30: "The lion, the mightiest of animals, shall tremble at the approach of none." Thus metaphorically he means to say that any living person, however lowly, is better than a dead person, however good.
(Vers. 5. 6.). And he proves this first with regard to the act of cognition. For the living know that they are to die: at least of this they are certain: 2 Kings 14: "We all die, and like waters that flow down into the earth, which do not return." Or: to die, that is, given over to the necessity of death; Romans 8: "The body is dead because of sin." For the dead know nothing further, because cognition presupposes life; and thus the living surpass the dead in the act of cognition: for they have neither motion nor sensation. With regard to the act of recollection he says: Nor do they have any further reward, namely of fame in the memory of others: because their memory has been handed over to oblivion: above in chapter 2: "There shall be no remembrance of the wise man, just as neither of the fool, forever and in times to come," etc. Or: because their memory does not have the act of recollection: Job 7: "He who descends to the netherworld shall not ascend, nor shall he return again to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore."
With regard to the act of affection he says: Love also and hatred and envy have likewise perished, because they are not affected as before in life. With regard to the act of exterior operation he says: Nor do they have a part in this world, and he explains with respect to what: and in the work that is done under the sun, because they cannot work, according to that saying in John 9: "The night comes, when no one can work."
(Vers. 7. 8. 9.). Go therefore and eat etc. Here the third point is touched upon, namely the commendation of present delight, to the embracing of which he exhorts first according to taste; whence he says: Go therefore and eat your bread with joy: by bread is understood everything that pertains to food. And drink your wine with gladness: by wine, everything that pertains to drink. Because God is pleased with your works: as if to say: you are not certain whether they displease; therefore presume that they please, and so eat and drink without care, according to that passage of Isaiah twenty-two: "Behold, joy and gladness, to eat flesh and to drink wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die."
Then according to sight he says: At all times let your garments be white, so that you may appear comely in clothing; and let not oil be lacking from your head, so that you may appear comely in appearance. In this manner those adorn themselves who wish to be pleasing in the sight of men. The example is of Judith, who, when she wished to please the eyes of Holofernes, adorned herself, according to what is said in Judith ten; but she did this for a good purpose, because otherwise it is reprehensible: Ecclesiasticus eleven: "Never glory in your clothing."
Then according to touch he says: Enjoy life with the wife whom you love. This enjoyment is described in Proverbs seven: "Come, let us be inebriated with breasts and enjoy the desired embraces, until the day dawns." And this not only once, but all the days of the life of your instability, which are given to you under the sun. Truly our life is unstable, according to that passage of Job fourteen: "He never remains in the same state." And for greater expression he says: All the time of your vanity. Our life is a time of vanity; whence in the Psalm: "Man is made like unto vanity; his days pass away like a shadow."
(Vers. 9. 10.). For this is the portion etc. Here the fourth point is touched upon, namely the confirmation of the commendation, and the confirmation consists in this: that man expects no other reward nor has any other fruit, and therefore he ought to take what he can. Thus he says: For this is your portion in life and in the labor with which you toil under the sun, namely, to delight in the present. Wisdom 2: "Let us everywhere leave signs of our joy, for this is our portion, and this is our lot."—And because no other reward is to be expected, man ought to take from this as much as he can. Thus he says: Whatever your hand is able to do, work at it earnestly, that is, while you have time, do not wait for the future. And therefore it is added: For neither work, in things to be done; nor reason, in things to be deliberated; nor knowledge, in things to be known; nor wisdom, in things to be loved, shall be in the netherworld, to which you hasten: these things are not there, because, as is said in Job 10, "that land is dark and covered with the shadow of death, where no order exists, but everlasting horror dwells." Thither sinners hasten, and all before the coming of Christ with respect to limbo. Job 17: "All my things shall descend into the deepest hell." Thither sinners hasten, drawing nearer day by day. Deuteronomy 32: "The day of destruction is near."
Moreover, this can be expounded spiritually, so that first it exhorts to the delight of contemplation; and second, to the urgency of action. For contemplative men, three things are necessary: meditation on Sacred Scripture, purity of conscience, and the embrace of interior devotion.
With regard to meditation on Sacred Scripture he says: Eat bread and drink wine: bread with respect to difficult matters, and wine with respect to easy matters. Proverbs 9, Wisdom says: "Come, eat my bread and drink the wine that I have mixed for you." With regard to purity of conscience he says: At all times let your garments be white, that is, a clean conscience. Apocalypse 3: "They have not defiled their garments; they shall walk with me in white." On the contrary, it is said in Isaiah 9: "A garment mixed with blood shall be for burning and fuel for fire." And because interior joy follows upon cleanness of conscience, therefore he says: And let oil not be lacking from your head: whence in the Psalm: "That he may make the face cheerful with oil"; Matthew 6: "But you, when you fast, anoint your head" etc.—With regard to the embrace of interior devotion he says: Enjoy life with the wife whom you love. This wife is the religious life, in which one must devote oneself to contemplation. Proverbs 5: "Rejoice with the wife of your youth, a most dear hind" etc. This beloved wife was prefigured by Rachel, for whom "Jacob served seven years," Genesis 29.
Then as regards the active, he says: Whatever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly. To work earnestly is to work swiftly, against negligence: Ecclesiasticus thirty-one: "In all your works be swift, and no infirmity shall befall you"; fervently, Proverbs eighteen: "He who is soft and slack in his work is the brother of him who destroys his own works"; continuously, so that one does not grow lukewarm: Ecclesiasticus twenty-seven: "If you do not hold yourself earnestly in the fear of the Lord, your house will quickly be overthrown"; perseveringly: Second Timothy two: "He who strives in the contest will not be crowned unless he has strived lawfully," that is, perseveringly. And the reason is added why one must earnestly do good works in the present: because the time of merit is brief; whence: In the underworld there is no work, for exercising oneself in piety: John nine: "I must work while it is day." And therefore it is said in the last chapter of Galatians: "Let us do good while we have time, to all, but especially to the household of the faith." There is no reason, for inquiring and discerning what is good, what is evil: Job twelve: "They shall grope as in darkness and not in light, and he shall make them stagger like drunkards"; Isaiah nineteen: "And the Lord has mingled in their midst a spirit of dizziness." There is no wisdom and knowledge: knowledge, namely for contemplating God in his works, nor wisdom, for contemplating him in himself: concerning these, Isaiah thirty-three: "The riches of salvation are wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is his treasure."
QUESTIONS.
I. It can be asked concerning what he says: The dead know nothing more.
This seems to be false, because the soul separated from the body is freer; but a substance, the freer it is from the body, the more suited it is for cognition; therefore the dead are more apt for knowing; therefore either the soul perishes, or it knows.
II. Likewise there is a doubt concerning this, that they have no further reward. This is manifestly heretical, because this removes divine justice.
III. Likewise concerning what he says, that love and hatred have perished together. On the contrary: An evil will always remains; therefore if evil will exists through love and hatred, therefore etc.
IV. Likewise concerning that exhortation: Go therefore and eat your bread and drink your wine, etc.
If we wish to respond to these by saying that it is spoken in the person of Epicurus, then the response is clear; but if we wish to maintain that it is in his own person, it must be said that when he says that the dead do not know, it is understood with respect to those things which are in this world: because they do not know these worldly things, nor are they in the memory of the worldly, nor do they have affection for worldly things. And this is clear from the text, because he says: Nor do they have a part in this age.
As to what is objected concerning that exhortation, I say that that exhortation is not stated absolutely, but is a conclusion drawn from the aforementioned vanity. Hence he says: Go therefore, that is to say: if a man cannot discern whether in the present he ought to please God and in the future be rewarded — if this, I say, he cannot know, nor can he live forever — therefore he can rejoice without care. But that does not hold unless this is supposed: that the Lord does not reward differently in the future than in the present — which is the aforementioned vanity, which he will destroy below in chapter eleven.