And they shall have dominion over peoples, namely after the judgment: Revelation five: "We shall reign upon the earth," that is, over the earthly. Or: they shall have dominion over peoples, after death: Matthew fifteen: "The little dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters," that is, we of the benefits of the Blessed. And He shall reign, with them, or in them, their Lord, namely Christ: Revelation nineteen: "King of kings," etc.: forever: Luke one: "Of His kingdom there shall be no end"; Psalm: "Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages."
Who trust in him. Here he touches upon the glory of fruition: and he touches upon this in three respects, namely in the knowledge of truth, in the adherence to goodness, there: And the faithful in love: in the perfection of comprehension, there: For gift and peace is etc.
(Vers. 9.). He says therefore: Who trust etc., as if to say, not only will they judge, but also those who trust in him, namely God, in the present, according to that verse of the Psalm: "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Sion"; shall understand the truth, by open vision: First John 3: "We shall see him as he is": Gloss: "According to true confidence, the understanding of truth is given." And the faithful in love, that is, those loving him faithfully and inseparably, as the Apostle, who said: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ" etc., Romans 8: Ecclesiasticus 6: "To a faithful friend there is no comparison"; shall rest in him: Gloss: "Because in the future they will not be able to be torn from his fellowship, whom here they already held by faith and hope." Therefore rest in God through love will succeed the understanding of faith. For gift: Gloss: "Of eternal satisfaction"; Psalm: "I shall be satisfied when your glory shall appear"; likewise: "They shall be inebriated with the abundance of your house." And peace, "eternal," according to the Gloss: Isaiah 32: "My people shall sit in the beauty of peace": likewise Philippians 4: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding": is for his elect, the Saints, whom God chose from this world: John 15: "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you from the world." - This can also be expounded concerning present merit, which consists in the knowledge of truth through faith, in the conformity of human and divine will through love, so that gift is referred to the knowledge of faith, and peace to the tranquility of love.
Second, he urges toward the likeness of the just through the threefold reprobation of the opposite state.
But the ungodly, according to what they thought etc. Here he sets forth the reprobation of the opposite state; and first he shows that the error of the ungodly concerning their own impunity is false; second, that their opinion concerning the reward of the continent life is erroneous, there: For blessed is the barren: third, concerning the punishment of incontinence, there: But the children of adulterers etc.
In the first part he touches first upon their punishment in themselves: second, the equity of the punishment, there: For wisdom and discipline etc.; third, the overflowing punishment even upon their own, there: Their wives are senseless etc.
(Vers. 10.). There follows therefore: But the ungodly etc. I have rightly said that the just shall be so rewarded: but, for "yet": the ungodly, according to what they have thought, that is, by the desert of their evil thoughts, utterances, and works proceeding from their evil thoughts: shall have correction, "that is, punishment," as the Gloss says, whence it says: "When the just shall enter into rest, the ungodly shall go into eternal punishment." Who have neglected the just, in the neuter, "that is, justice"; or in the masculine, the just one, "that is, God himself," according to the Gloss, and this by omitting the good: Jeremiah 48, according to another reading: "Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord negligently"; Seneca: "Grave is the loss that comes through negligence." And they departed from the Lord, by openly committing evil; Jeremiah 2: "Know and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken your God"; evil, on account of the punishment of loss: bitter, on account of the punishment of sense; the Gloss says: "They depart from the Lord who cast away discipline and wisdom": and this is very evil.
(Vers. 11.). For wisdom etc. For, that is, "because": he who casts away, the Gloss says: "By working evil," wisdom, concerning eternal things, discipline, concerning temporal things: or rather: wisdom, of faith, discipline, of morals: is unhappy, namely his person, that is, unworthy of felicity. But on the contrary, "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom," Proverbs 3; and therefore in the same place: "My son, do not cast away the discipline of the Lord"; likewise Hebrews 12: "Do not neglect the discipline of the Lord." And empty is, namely in effect, their hope, the present one: the Gloss says: "By which they thought temporal things would be eternal, and sins would go unpunished": Ecclesiasticus 34: "Vain hope and falsehood to a senseless man." And labors, in enduring, without fruit: the Gloss says: "Of eternal reward"; Ecclesiastes 10: "The labor of fools shall afflict them." On the contrary, to the just one it is said: "You shall eat the labors of your hands; blessed are you, and it shall be well with you." From this it is clear that the life of the ungodly is laborious; whence below in chapter 5: "We have walked difficult ways," but unfruitful; whence Habakkuk 2: (For the peoples shall labor in much fire, and the nations in vain, and they shall fail." And their works are useless, in acting: useless, "because they do not merit the heavenly dwelling," as the Gloss says; Galatians 5: "They who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God." — From the foregoing it is clear that such persons shall incur four evils, which are: unhappiness of person, emptiness of hope, fruitlessness of labor, uselessness of work, or demeritorious work.
(Vers. 12. 13.). Their wives etc., as if to say: not only they themselves, but also their wives, that is, their spouses, are senseless, that is, lacking wisdom; and most wicked are their children, because they are imitators of their father's wickedness—wickedness, I say, against themselves and against their neighbor and against God, and therefore most wicked. — Cursed is their creature, "that is, their handiwork," according to the Gloss; "for the wisdom which God created by blessing does not curse, but shows that the work of the reprobate is worthy of eternal malediction."
According to the Gloss, these things can be expounded allegorically of heretics, so that we say: Wives, "that is, carnal pleasures, or perverse interpretations or doctrines"; and children, "that is, wicked works"; and their creature, that is, their disciples. — Or: cursed is the creature, not simply, but theirs, insofar as it comes to their misuse.
For blessed is the barren etc. Here he shows the reward of the continent life, which the reprobate thought to be nothing; and first he shows this on the part of the feminine sex; second, on the part of the masculine sex: And the eunuch etc.
He says therefore: For etc., as if to say: rightly did I say that their wives and the children begotten from their lust are cursed, because on the contrary blessed is the barren, that is, chaste in body—and he puts the consequent for the antecedent—and undefiled, in mind. Luke twenty-three: "Blessed are the barren and the wombs that have not borne": who has not known, by the knowledge of experience, the bed in transgression, "of adultery," says the Gloss. How great the sin of adultery is, is touched upon in Ecclesiasticus toward the end almost throughout, and in Proverbs six: "It is not a great fault when someone has stolen" etc.; and below: "But he who is an adulterer, through poverty of heart, shall destroy his own soul."
The Gloss also expounds this of spiritual adultery, saying: " Blessed is the chaste and continent soul, which is polluted neither by heresy nor by idolatry." She shall have fruit: the Gloss says: "The fruit of eternal beatitude," namely either thirtyfold, which is owed to the married, or sixtyfold, which is owed to widows, or a hundredfold, which is owed to virgins. Concerning this manifold fruit, it is said in the parable of the seed in Luke eight: "And having sprung up, it bore fruit, some a hundredfold" etc. In the visitation of holy souls: the Gloss says: "On the day of judgment, when God shall look upon holy souls by rewarding them, and they themselves shall look upon him by contemplating him."
(Vers. 14.). And the eunuch etc. Here on the part of the masculine sex, there is touched upon first the merit of continence; second, the reward, at: There shall be given etc.; third, the reason for the reward: For the fruits of good labors etc.
(Verse 14.). It follows therefore: And the eunuch, "who namely made himself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven," Matthew nineteen. Who has not wrought iniquity with his hands, that is, he has not committed the sin of incontinence in deed, but is clean in body. Nor has he thought most wicked things against God, that is, nor has he sinned by consent or will, but is clean in heart: for both kinds of purity are required: whence Augustine: "Where the Lord in judging shall find corruption of mind, He will condemn even the incorruption of body together with it." Such a eunuch, I say, repeat: is blessed, now in hope, but at last in reality. For there shall be given to him, in the present namely, a chosen gift of faith: of faith, I say, which makes blessed in hope, according to that passage in John twenty: "Blessed are they who have not seen and have believed." A chosen gift he calls the gift of faith, because it is given from divine election and makes men elect: Philippians one: "To you it has been given, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him." And a lot, that is, a portion in the future, in the temple of God: Gloss: "In heaven": Psalm: "The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord, His seat is in heaven."
But on the contrary: Because Apocalypse twenty-one: "I saw no temple in it," namely in the heavenly city.
It must be said that there is no material temple there, but a spiritual one.
Most acceptable. It should be noted that a lot is acceptable in the goods of nature, more acceptable in the goods of grace, most acceptable in the goods of glory. This is the "best gift," of which James one speaks.
(Verse 15.). For the fruit of good labors is glorious: Gloss: "That is, eternal joy," First Corinthians three: "Each one shall receive his own reward according to his own labor." And the root of wisdom that does not fall, intransitively: "for wisdom is the root of this fruit." This root does not fall, because "it brings forth the fruit of perpetual salvation," according to the Gloss; Ecclesiasticus one: "The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord." This root is known to few; Psalm: "The fear of the Lord is not before their eyes"; Ecclesiasticus one: "To whom has the root of wisdom been revealed?"
But the children of adulterers etc. Here he determines the punishment of incontinence, which the reprobate thought to be nothing, and first the punishment to be inflicted on them in the future is touched upon; second, that inflicted in this world, at: And if indeed; third, the reason for the punishment, at: Nations etc.
(Vers. 16.). He says therefore: Children etc. I have rightly said that the continent shall be rewarded; but, that is, however; the children of adulterers, namely imitators of paternal incontinence, shall come to destruction, "that is, to eternal destruction," according to the Gloss: Exodus twenty: "Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children," namely the imitators of paternal wickedness. And from an unlawful bed, namely of adultery, the seed, supply: brought forth, shall be destroyed: The Gloss: "In the future," when namely they shall be cast beyond the borders of the land of the living: whence Baruch three: "They have been destroyed and have descended to the nether regions." The Gloss, however, expounds otherwise concerning children and seed, that is, concerning the disciples of heretics, to whom he here threatens the punishment of sense and the punishment of loss, because they adulterate the word of God. Concerning such it is said in Second Corinthians two: "We are not as many, adulterating the word of God."
(Vers. 17.). And if indeed they shall be of long life, namely in this world, they shall be counted as nothing, namely without any value in themselves: Augustine: "Sin is nothing, and men become nothing when they sin." Or: they shall be counted as nothing, according to the Gloss: "That is, their memory shall forever lack blessing." And without honor, namely shown by others, First Kings two: "Those who despise me shall be ignoble." Without honor, I say, shall be the last old age of those, which nevertheless ought to be revered: whence Leviticus nineteen: "Honor the person of the elder"; likewise here below in chapter four: "Old age is venerable, not by length of time nor reckoned by the number of years."
(Vers. 18. 19.). And if they have died more quickly, that is, overtaken by death, according to that passage of the Psalm: "Men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days." They shall have no hope, that is, the thing hoped for after death, namely eternal life, because "the hope of the wicked shall perish," Proverbs 10. Nor in the day of recognition, namely the universal one, which will be at the judgment, according to the Gloss. Now the day of judgment is called the day of recognition with respect to the good, because then they will be recognized by God, just as the brothers of Joseph were by him, Genesis 45. Likewise, with respect to the wicked, because their hidden things will be made known; 1 Corinthians 4: "He will illuminate the hidden things of darkness," etc. Likewise, with respect to God himself, because he will be known by the Saints: 1 Corinthians 13: "Then I shall know, even as I am known." Likewise, with respect to Christ as man, because then he will be openly seen by all: Isaiah 40: "All flesh shall see what the mouth of the Lord has spoken"; likewise of the same, 52: "All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God"; likewise Revelation 1: "Every eye shall see him." Likewise, with respect to the world itself, in which then nothing will be hidden or concealed, according to that passage of the Psalm: "The foundations of the world were revealed." Nor in the day, I say, of recognition, repeat: they shall have, an address, that is, a gentle or consolatory one, but a most harsh dismissal: whence Matthew 25: "Depart from me, you cursed," etc.
For wicked nations, that is, doers or imitators of iniquity, are of a dreadful end, that is, conclusion, namely they have harshness of punishment in the end, whatever may be the case regarding the beginning, or regarding the middle, because:
The last things do not correspond to the first by the same course;