Chapter VIII.
Second, he shows in three ways how much he loved wisdom
She reaches therefore etc. Having shown how he acquired wisdom, here it is shown how much he loved it: and this he shows from three things: first, from the desire of having; second, from the purpose of acquiring: I purposed therefore; third, from the zeal of finding: Thinking upon these things etc.
First, concerning the twofold desire of having her.
In the first he shows the desire of having caused in himself, first from her absolute value; second, from her comparative value: And if riches.
He shows her absolute value first from her power; second, from her beauty: Her I loved etc.; third, from her nobility: Her noble birth; fourth, from her usefulness: For she is a teacher.
(Vers. 1.). Therefore, because wisdom is such as has been said, she reaches, by virtual contact, not corporeal, according to that passage of 1 Kings 10: "Whose hearts God had touched": from end to end: The Gloss: "From eternity unto eternity"; or: "from the beginning of the world unto the coming of Christ": Romans 10: "The end of the law is Christ" etc. Mightily: The Gloss: "Because she is the power of God": 1 Corinthians 1: "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." And she orders all things, namely the highest, the middle, and the lowest: sweetly: The Gloss: "Because she is the wisdom of God." She orders all things mightily through justice, and sweetly through mercy; the Psalmist: "All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth," namely of justice: the same: "The mercy of the Lord is from eternity, and unto eternity upon those who fear him. And his justice unto children's children" etc.
It should be noted that Wisdom, that is the Son of God, reaches mightily those things which are in heaven, by expelling the proud devil with his companions: Job 26: "His prudence struck the proud one": Ezekiel 28: "You have sinned, and I cast you out from the mountain of God and destroyed you, O Cherub"! those things which are in the world, by overcoming and casting out the prince of the world: John 12: "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out": those things which are in hell, by carrying off the spoils of hell, according to the Gloss on Zechariah 9: "You also by the blood of your covenant have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water."
He disposes moreover sweetly those things which are in heaven, by confirming the Angels standing in grace: in the Psalm: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established": those things which are in the world, by redeeming the human race with his own blood: First Peter 1: "You were not redeemed with corruptible gold or silver etc., but with precious blood" etc.: those things which are in hell, by leading the souls of the Saints out of limbo, according to that of Zechariah 9: "You also by the blood of your covenant have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit" etc.: likewise in the Psalm: "You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive" etc. — Or thus: since uncreated Wisdom is the middle Person in the Trinity, it can be said that she reaches from end to end, that is, from the Father to the Holy Spirit, namely through identity of substance, so that no local distance is understood, but personal distinction; mightily with respect to the Father, to whom power is attributed: and she disposes all things sweetly, with respect to the Holy Spirit, to whom benignity is attributed. — Or: she reaches from end to end, that is, from Divinity to humanity, namely in the Incarnation, in which the lowest things are united to the highest: mightily, that is, through infinite power: in the Psalm: "Stir up your power and come": the Gloss: "You yourself into flesh." And she disposed all things sweetly, in the procurement of human redemption: Matthew 11: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." He was meek in the nature of the humanity assumed: for man is an animal gentle by nature, discerning by reason, upright in stature. In his manner of life: whence John the Baptist, seeing him walking one day, said: "Behold, the Lamb of God" etc., John 1. In his preaching: Matthew 4: "Do penance" etc.: likewise John 6: "You have the words of eternal life"; Matthew 11: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." In the forgiveness of sins: John 8: "Go, and sin no more"; likewise Luke 6: "Forgive, and you shall be forgiven." In his Passion: whence Isaiah 53: "He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter" etc.: likewise Jeremiah 11: "I was like a gentle lamb that is carried to the victim."
(Vers. 2.). There follows: Her, namely wisdom, because she is of such great power, I loved, namely with the affection of the heart: whence above in the seventh chapter: "Beyond health and beauty I loved her." And I sought her out, that is, I sought outside myself, by the effect of good work, according to that passage of First John 3: "Let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth." From my youth, as if to say: in the flower of my age: Proverbs 8: "They who in the morning," namely of youth, "watch for me, shall find me": therefore Sirach 6: "Son, from your youth receive instruction." And I sought, namely by the zeal of reading and prayer: Luke 11: "Seek, and you shall find": to take her to myself as a bride. He says bride by reason of love: Proverbs 7: "Say to wisdom: You are my sister, and call prudence your friend." Likewise, by reason of delight: Proverbs 5: "Rejoice with the wife of your youth." By reason of inseparability: Matthew 19: "For it is not lawful to dismiss a bride except for the cause of fornication": but this has no place in wisdom: "for nothing defiled enters into her," above in the seventh chapter. By reason of generation:
Sirach 24: "Come over to me, all you who desire me, and be filled from my generations." And I became a lover of her form, that is, of the beauty of wisdom, and this by perseverance and the love of fervent affection, converting it as it were into a habit: Zechariah 9: "What is his good and what is his beauty but the grain of the elect and the wine that makes virgins to bud forth"? that is, but wisdom, which restores the affection and makes chaste or purifies the intellect from the corruption of error.
(Vers. 3.). Her nobility etc. Thus I loved wisdom etc., and deservedly, because uncreated wisdom, having companionship, that is, partnership and cohabitation, with God: the Gloss: "Of the Father, because she is coeternal with him": John 14: "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me": likewise John 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God": glorifies his nobility, "that is, represents the nobility of the Father," according to the Gloss. For the Son of God himself represents in himself the glory of the Father, because he is "the brightness of glory and the figure of his substance," as is found in Hebrews 1: likewise Proverbs 10, according to another reading: "A wise son is the glory of his father." Likewise his glory he manifests to the world: whence John 8: "I do not seek my own glory, but I honor" etc. But also the Lord of all things, namely the Father, of whom it is said in the Psalm: "The Lord said to me: You are my Son" etc.: loved her: "The Father loves the Son," John 5.
(Vers. 4.). And rightly so: for she is the teacher of the discipline of God: Baruch 3: "He found out all the way of discipline," etc. Discipline is twofold, namely of deeds and of words: whence in the Psalm: "Thy discipline hath corrected me unto the end, and thy discipline itself shall teach me." On account of this he says: Teacher, etc., namely in words. And note that the discipline of God is formed faith, which makes disciples of God: Acts 9: "Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord," that is, against the faithful. And the chooser of His works, that is, of discipline which is in deeds: the chooser of His works, that is, teaching to choose the works of the discipline of faith, "For faith without works is dead," James 2.
And if riches are desired. Here he shows the desire caused by the comparative value of wisdom, and first in comparison to money, which is the perfection of fortune; second, in comparison to industry, which is the perfection of nature: But if understanding: third, in comparison to virtue, which is the perfection of grace: And if justice: fourth, in comparison to knowledge, which is the perfection of intelligence: And if multitude.
(Vers. 5.). And if riches are desired, although they ought not to be desired — "for they who wish to become rich fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil," 1 Timothy 6; likewise in the Psalm: "If riches abound, set not your heart upon them" — in life, namely the present life, for its sustenance and sufficiency. What is richer than wisdom, which works all things ? John 5: "My Father worketh until now, and I work": I, namely uncreated wisdom; nor can he be poor who works all things. For he knows how to make silver and gold and things of this kind; therefore Proverbs 8 says: "With me are riches and glory, stately wealth"; Augustine: "Exceedingly rich is the Christian religion, to which it has been given to possess all things in the possessor of all things."
(Vers. 6.). But if understanding, that is, natural or acquired industry, works, because "art imitates nature" in working, according to the Philosopher: who among all things that exist is a greater artisan than she? As if to say: no one; whence in the Psalm: "Thou hast made all things in wisdom." The Lord filled Bezalel with wisdom, so that he might know how to make the works of the tabernacle, as is found in Exodus 31.
(Vers. 7.). And if one loves justice, namely general justice, that is, the rectitude of human life, concerning which above in chapter one: "Love justice," etc. The labors of this one, namely of wisdom, by which one labors to obtain her: and he says labors in the plural, because to obtain her one must labor greatly. Second Corinthians 11: "In labors most abundant"; have great virtues, that is, they acquire them. The Gloss: "Nothing idle, nothing slothful in her works." Sobriety indeed, etc. The Gloss: "He sets forth four principal virtues": sobriety, "that is, temperance," in avoiding superfluous evil. Below in chapter nine: "She will lead me in my works soberly." And she teaches wisdom, in discerning and loving the good. And justice, in rendering what is due. And virtue, "that is, fortitude," to which the name virtue more properly belongs, as though protecting by force, in enduring what is difficult and undertaking what is arduous. Concerning these three, Proverbs eight: "Mine is equity, mine is prudence, mine is fortitude." The Gloss: "No one has had these virtues except he to whom the origin of all virtues, God, bestowed them, in whatever time, under whatever law, in whatever nation. Yet certain ones, having the appearance of piety, were ignorant of virtue."
But did the philosophers have virtue? And it seems so, because according to the Philosopher, virtue is had through acquisition.
It must be said that they did not have perfect virtues but imperfect ones, because they were without merit and unformed. Or they had them from God through gratuitously given grace, though not through sanctifying grace.
Than which nothing is more useful in the life of men, that is, in the human life of man in relation to man.
But are the theological virtues not more useful and better?
It must be said that, as has been touched upon, he speaks of the human life of man in comparison to man, not to God, for he presupposes this. Now nothing is more useful to men than these, because they benefit man in acting and in suffering: in acting, because through prudence there is right choice of things to be done, and through justice right execution: in suffering, because through temperance we rightly dispose ourselves toward effeminate passions, and through fortitude toward unstable passions. Therefore the Gloss says: "He who is temperate, prudent, brave, and just—what does he lack?"
(Vers. 8.). And if a multitude of knowledge etc. Some have: And a likeness of knowledge, but that reading is false, although the present knowledge of man can more rightly be called a likeness of knowledge than knowledge, because it is mixed with much mutability and much ignorance. If, a multitude, I say, of knowledge, namely speculative knowledge, anyone desires, according to that saying of the Philosopher: "All men by nature desire to know"— it knows things past, namely wisdom itself, and judges of future things, with certainty, although they are hidden by the condition of time, because past things have already passed away and future things have not yet come to pass. It knows, I say, things past etc.: whence Moses, taught by it, prophesied concerning things past —Genesis 1: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth"; likewise concerning things future, Deuteronomy 18: "The Lord shall raise up a Prophet from your nation and from your brethren." It knows the subtleties of speeches, that is, the obscure cunning of simple propositions, such as riddles, and not only the subtleties of simple propositions, but also of composite ones; whence there follows: And the solutions of arguments, that is, of reasonings, which nevertheless lie hidden due to the more perplexing nature of human cunning: Sirach 39: "He shall seek out the hidden meanings of proverbs, namely the wise man, "and shall be conversant in the hidden things of parables." Whence Christ, "in whom were hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," could not be caught in speech, as is evident in Matthew 22; and no word of the Queen of Sheba could be hidden from Solomon, who was taught by wisdom, as is evident in 3 Kings 10. Signs, namely lesser ones, which occur beyond nature, and wonders, which occur against the common course of nature, it knows before they happen, just as well as when they have already occurred. Concerning these two, John 4: "Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe." These things are likewise hidden by reason of natural difficulty, because "a miracle, according to Augustine, is a work arduous and unusual, surpassing the hope and capacity of the one who marvels." And the events of times, that is, of those things which come to pass in the present time, and of ages, that is, of those that follow, which come to pass in eternity and in the future. To know these things, however, is not given to man: whence Acts 1: "It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father has placed in His own power": these things, however, are hidden by reason of a hidden cause.
Secondly, this is shown from the resolve to acquire it.
I resolved therefore etc. Above he showed how much he loved wisdom, and this from his desire of possessing it: here from his resolve to acquire it, and this on account of the goods which come forth from it, and first on account of goods pertaining commonly to both lives: secondly, on account of those pertaining to the active life: I shall have through her: thirdly, on account of those pertaining especially to the contemplative life: Entering into my house.