Fourth, the difficulty of this end is shown in two ways.
For what man, etc. Here he shows the difficulty of the end, first showing that the will of God cannot be known without wisdom: second, that it can be known only through her: But your meaning.
That it cannot be known without her, he shows first from the profundity of the divine mind: second, from the imperfection of the human mind: For the thoughts: third, from comparison with sensible things, there: And we judge with difficulty, etc.
(Vers. 13.). Rightly I said: Send her forth, etc.: for what man, namely a mere man, will be able to know, namely without your wisdom, the counsel of God? which consists in foreseeing and disposing things to be done: Isaiah forty: "Who has helped the spirit of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" Or who will be able to think, that is, to know by thinking, what God wills? namely by carrying out what has been foreseen, as if to say: no one: whence Romans eleven: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God," etc.
(Vers. 14.). For the thoughts of mortals, namely as long as we are in the state of mortality, are fearful: Gloss: "That is, fragile": and this with regard to those things which are above reason. And our foresight is uncertain: Gloss: "Because the soul is changeable, and the flesh is corruptible," and this with regard to those things which are beneath reason and the contemplation of truth.
(Vers. 15.). For the body, which is corrupted, that is, which is subject to continual corruption, on account of which it is compared to rottenness; Job twenty-five: "Man is rottenness, and the son of man a worm." Weighs down the soul, namely by drawing back its affection from heavenly things: Galatians five: "The flesh lusts against the spirit."
The body, which is corrupted, weighs down the soul. It should be noted that the body stains the soul with original sin: Job 14: "Who can make clean what is conceived of unclean seed?" Likewise, it binds to the necessity of venial sin: Romans 7: "The evil that I hate, that I do." Likewise, it inclines to mortal sin: Genesis 8: "The senses are prone, and the thought of the human heart is prone to evil from youth." Likewise, it clouds the intellect from the contemplation of truth: above, chapter 2: "Our time is the passing of a shadow, " namely by the interposition of an opaque body between the soul and the sun of justice. Likewise, it retards the affection from the love of heavenly things, as here: "The body, which is corrupted, weighs down the soul." Likewise, it hinders and binds the motive powers from good: in the Psalm: "Bring forth from custody, or from prison," "my soul"; likewise Romans 7: "The good that I will, that I do not." Likewise, it stirs up continual war against the spirit: Galatians 5: "The flesh lusts against the spirit." Likewise, care for itself makes the spirit anxious, against which Matthew 6: "Be not anxious," etc. Likewise, it disturbs the soul with its troubles: Daniel 13: "Distresses are upon me from every side." Likewise, by its mutability it disturbs and unsettles the soul's repose: Job 14: "And never remains in the same state."
And the earthly habitation presses down, that is, presses downward by drawing back from the contemplation of eternal things, that is, by inclining toward earthly things: the sense, that is, the human intellect: Genesis 8: "The sense and thought of the human heart are prone to evil from youth": therefore Romans 7: "Unhappy" etc. The sense, I say, that thinks on many things, that is, temporal things, which are many, not eternal things, which are one, according to that of Luke 10: "You are troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary."
(Vers. 16.). And with difficulty etc., as if to say: And this is evident, because we judge with difficulty, that is, we know estimatively, not with certitude: Ecclesiastes 1: "All things are difficult": the things that are on earth, that is, lower sensible things. And the things that are in sight, "that is, in the open," such as the natures of higher sensible things: we find with labor: Ecclesiastes 8: "There is a man who day and night takes no sleep with his eyes: and I understood that of all the works of God, man can find no reason." The Philosopher: "As the eye of the owl relates to the light of the sun, so our intellect relates to the most manifest things of nature." But the things that are in the heavens, who shall search out? since they are so remote from us: Sirach 3: "Seek not things higher than yourself": Ecclesiastes 5: "God is in heaven and you are upon the earth: therefore let your words be few."
But your sense etc. Here he shows that the divine will can be known only through wisdom. He shows this by attributing to it a threefold effect, namely the effect of instructing the intelligence, correcting fault: And thus were corrected: healing nature, there: For through wisdom etc.
(Vers. 17.). But your sense, that is, your counsel and will, who shall know it? as if to say: no one. Unless you had given wisdom, illuminating the intellect: Sirach 1: "According to his gift he bestows it upon those who love him": James 1: "He gives to all abundantly": Daniel 2: "He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who understand learning." And had sent your Holy Spirit, inflaming the affection, as if to say: no one. For just as no one "knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him," as is found in 1 Corinthians 2, "so neither does anyone know the things of God, except God, and him to whom he wills to reveal them." From the most high, that is, from you, who are most high, and from the Son, who is most high, and I say most high adjectivally, not substantively.
(Vers. 18.). And thus, namely through the gift of wisdom and the sending of the Holy Spirit, the paths were corrected, that is, the operations, of those who are on earth, that is, of men, and this through recall from evil: John 16: "He will convict the world of sin"; and he well says: The paths of those who are on earth, that is, of those sinning on earth: for the paths of sinning angels cannot be corrected. And men learned the things that please you, through formation in the good: John 14: "The Paraclete Spirit etc., will teach you all things."
(Vers. 19.). For through wisdom etc. I well said: And thus were corrected etc.: for through wisdom they were healed, namely from blindness of intellect and corruption of affection; Sirach 24: "I am like the river Dorix," which is interpreted as medicine of generation. Whoever pleased you, Lord, from the beginning, "namely of the world," according to the Gloss: below in chapter 16: "For neither herb nor poultice healed them" etc.: in the Psalm: "He sent his word and healed them": Proverbs 3: "She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her." Hence it is that spiritual dogs, that is, doctors and preachers of wisdom, have medicinal tongues: and he says all, because, according to Augustine, the same faith of the Mediator saved the ancients which saves us also.