I respond: it must be said that he speaks of natural providence, not of gratuitous providence. Or: equally, that is, similarly.
And although His care of all things is equal, nevertheless He will not punish all equally.
However, in the sense of "but." For the stronger, in evil, a stronger torment awaits, in punishment, as is evident in Lucifer and the other demons.
Second, concerning the reward of wise rulers.
To you therefore etc. Here he determines and shows the reward of wise rulers: and first he arouses to wisdom: second, of the wise he sets forth the recompense or the declaration of the recompense.
(Vers. 10.). To you therefore etc. Because a stronger torment awaits the stronger, to you therefore, O kings etc: Gloss: "Having finished the discourse to the mighty, he turns his exhortation to the rulers of the Church": Gloss: " O kings, that is, rulers of the Church, or all those to whom the governance of their souls has been entrusted". To you are these my words, namely concerning the pursuit and love of wisdom: whence it follows: that you may learn wisdom: Gloss: " Divine ", not worldly: concerning both, First Corinthians chapter three: " If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may be wise". These words, to be heard and retained and fulfilled in deed, according to that passage of Jeremiah chapter fifteen: "Your words were found, and I ate them ". And do not fall away, namely from justice " through transgression of the commandments of God ", according to the Gloss . For wisdom is the salt that preserves from the corruption of sin: but neglect of wisdom causes one to fall into sin: whence Proverbs chapter seventeen: "He who avoids learning will fall into evils ", that is, into the evil of guilt and into the evil of punishment.
(Vers. 11.). And rightly did I say: that you may learn wisdom, lest you fall away from justice: for they who have kept justice, which is the way to wisdom, according to that passage of Ecclesiasticus chapter one: " Son, if you desire wisdom, keep justice "; shall be justly judged, Gloss: " They shall receive the reward of their justice ", namely in good: whence Isaiah chapter three: "Say to the just man that it is well: for he shall eat the fruit of his doings "; likewise Ezekiel chapter eighteen: " The justice of the just shall be upon him "; Luke chapter six: " With what measure you shall measure " etc. And they who shall have learned , namely through wisdom, just things: Gloss: " Right faith and works ": shall find what to answer, namely at the judgment concerning sins charged against them: Habakkuk chapter two: " I will stand upon my watch etc., and I will contemplate, that I may see what is said to me, and what I may answer to him who reproves me".
Third, an admonition to wise and unwise rulers to desire wisdom.
Desire etc. Here he admonishes rulers, both good and bad, to desire wisdom: and first he sets forth an exhortation to desire it: second, the ease of acquiring it: She is bright etc.: third, the benefit of acquiring it: To think etc.: fourth, he admonishes to love it, at the passage: If therefore you delight.
(Verse 12). Desire therefore etc. Since wisdom is so useful that it causes one not to fall from justice, etc.: desire therefore my words, to be heard concerning wisdom: Ecclesiasticus twenty-four: "Come over to me, all you who desire me." And love them, namely those already heard, according to that word of the Psalm: "I have loved your commandments above gold and topaz," etc. And you shall have discipline, namely through my very words: the Gloss: "He who loves wisdom preserves discipline in his conduct," according to that word of John fourteen: "If you love me, keep my commandments."
She is bright. Here he shows the ease of acquiring wisdom: first by this, that she is bright for seeing; second, because she is ready to show herself: She anticipates; third, because she is near for approaching: He who watches for her at dawn, etc.
(Verse 13). She is bright, etc., as if to say: you ought to desire her, because wisdom is bright: namely by her own beauty and self-evidence, because she is light: whence below in chapter seven: "I purposed to have her for my light." And she never fades, that is, she never falls from her beauty: whence the Gloss: "The beauty of wisdom is unfading." For she is not subject to time, but is above time, as divine wisdom. And easily, etc., as if to say: nor should one despair of acquiring her, because she is easily seen, namely by the eye of the intellect, by those who love her, namely with affection: whence John fourteen: "He who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him." For love purges and illuminates the interior eye for seeing: whence Ecclesiasticus two: "You who fear the Lord, love him, and your hearts shall be illuminated." And she is found by those who seek her, in effect: Luke eleven: "Seek, and you shall find," namely if she is sought where she ought to be sought. For she "is not found in the land of those who live pleasantly," Job twenty-eight, but in the harshness of sustenance and penance; whence Daniel found wisdom by the merit of his abstinence, as is clear from Daniel one.
(Verse 14). She anticipates, namely before she is found by the zeal of the seeker: the Gloss: "Offering herself freely: for she herself is the way, the truth, and the life, whence through her one goes to her and arrives." She anticipates, I say, that is, she goes before those who desire her, so that she may first show herself to them: because they would not come before her unless they were first come before and illuminated by her, just as the light of the sun illuminates in order to be seen itself: Bernard: "True wisdom, which is Christ, can be found, but cannot be anticipated."
(Vers. 15.). Who from the light etc. I have rightly said that she is found by those who seek her, because who from the light, that is, as soon as the light rises for him: Gloss: "From the beginning of the shining of faith," not from the night, as sinners always remaining in the night, but as the just, of whom Proverbs 4: "The path of the just is as a shining light" etc.: First Thessalonians 5: "You are all children of the light." Shall have watched for her, against negligence: Proverbs 8: "They who watch for me in the morning shall find me." Shall not labor, because the sweetness of the thing sought and found will alleviate the labor: Sirach 6: "In her work you shall labor but little, and soon you shall eat of her fruits." For sitting etc., that is, in quiet and without motion ready to enter, just as the ray of the sun sits at a closed window. Sitting, I say, at his doors, namely the spiritual ones, namely the intellect and the affections: he shall find her: Revelation 3: "I stand at the door and knock" etc. She herself also has doors through which one enters to her: whence Proverbs 8: "Blessed is the man who hears me and watches at my doors daily": which are faith and charity: through faith the intellect enters to her, through charity the affections.
To think therefore upon her etc. Here he shows the benefit of those who acquire her, first in the present: second in the future: The beginning etc.
The benefit in the present is shown to be fourfold: first, understanding in the rational faculty: second, security in the irascible faculty: And he who shall have watched: third, gladness in the concupiscible faculty: For those worthy etc.:
fourth, foresight of future things. And in all foresight.
(Vers. 16.). To think therefore upon her: as if to say: she is given not only to one who watches and seeks, but even to think upon her, not with a simple thought, but an affective one: whence the Gloss: "With the desire of divine contemplation": Sirach 14: "Blessed is the man who shall dwell in wisdom, etc., and in his understanding shall think upon the circumspection of God": is perfect understanding, that is, complete, because wisdom perfects the understanding of man, because, according to Hugh of Saint Victor, "wisdom is that in which the form of the perfect good consists." Or: To think upon her is perfect understanding, that is, then the understanding is perfectly ordered when it devotes itself to wisdom, according to that saying of Augustine: "The end of man on the way is to seek truth perfectly." And he who shall have watched: Gloss: "With intention of mind," on account of her, to acquire or to guard her, shall quickly be secure, namely from evil: "because the attainment of her is true security," according to the Gloss: Proverbs 11: "He who guards against snares shall be secure." This is the good security, of which Proverbs 15: "A secure mind is like a continual feast."
(Verse 17). For those worthy of herself: as if to say: I have rightly said that he will quickly be free from care, for those worthy of herself, namely those clean of heart and body: whence above in the first chapter: "Into a malevolent soul wisdom will not enter" etc. She goes about seeking, that is, from every side continuously offering herself and unceasingly: which unceasingness and continuity is given to be understood through what it says: she goes about: for rectilinear motion cannot be continued in the way that circular motion can. Thus incarnate Wisdom went about through the villages, as is evident from Mark 6. And in their ways, namely in precepts and counsels observed: concerning which, Proverbs 3: "Her ways are beautiful ways, and her paths are peaceful": she shows herself to them, according to that word of the Psalm: "From your commandments I have understood": cheerfully, gladdening them, namely in this, that she gives herself to them freely: 2 Corinthians 9: "God loves a cheerful giver," as does man also: whence Seneca: "The more delay you add, the more you subtract from the favor." And in all providence, concerning future things, perfectly providing for them the things necessary for salvation: she meets them; the Gloss: "As helper," just as incarnate Wisdom, rising again, met the women, as is recorded in Matthew 28.
The beginning etc. Here are touched upon the steps of glory to be acquired through wisdom: and first he touches upon the beginning; second, the progress, at: Care therefore; third, the consummation: But the keeping of laws etc.; fourth, the end of the consummation: The desire therefore. The first step, therefore, that is, the beginning of wisdom, is the desire for discipline: from the desire for discipline, love: from love, the keeping of the law of God: from the keeping of the divine law, incorruption of mind and nearness to the divine likeness: from the divine likeness, the glory of the heavenly kingdom: therefore from the first, from the desire for wisdom, heavenly glory is obtained.
(Verse 18). This is what he means to say: For the beginning of it, namely of wisdom etc.: as if to say: thus wisdom meets and shows herself. Nor is her showing and meeting useless. For, in the sense of because: the beginning of it, namely that by which a man begins to become wise: "for no one suddenly becomes the highest," as the Gloss says: is the truest for discipline, that is, for wisdom, desire. Concerning this desire it is said in the Psalm: "My soul has longed to desire" etc. For the desire for wisdom is itself a certain part of wisdom, according to that word of Sirach 6: "If you love to listen, you will be wise."
But it seems that fear, and not love, is the beginning of wisdom, because it is said in Sirach 1: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord."
It must be said that fear is the first beginning, but love is the proximate beginning; or: fear is the extrinsic beginning, love the intrinsic beginning.
Most true but the desire is called here in contrast to the threefold vain desire, of which it is said in First John 2: "All that is in the world is either the desire of the flesh" etc., which arises from the threefold vanity, of which Ecclesiastes 1 says: "Vanity of vanities" etc.
(Verse 19). Care therefore, as if to say: since it is the case that the desire for discipline is the beginning of wisdom, therefore care for discipline, that is, the desire for discipline, is love, that is, the cause of love for wisdom itself: for what we desire, we love when we possess it. And note that he calls wisdom and discipline the same thing, because they are the same in reality, although they differ in concept, because it is called wisdom insofar as it delightfully affects the mind inwardly; discipline, insofar as it orders and arranges outward actions. Or thus: desire etc. is love, that is, the cause of divine love: below in chapter seven: "God loves no one except him who dwells with wisdom": Hebrews 12: "But if you are without discipline, then you are not sons but illegitimate." And love is the keeping of her laws, that is, the cause of keeping them: Romans 13: "The fullness of the law is love," that is, the cause of the fulfillment of the divine law: First Timothy 1: "The end of the commandment is charity"; of laws, namely the natural, Mosaic, and evangelical: concerning which Isaiah 24: "They have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant."