Chapter 1
Chapter I.
(Verse 1.). He says therefore: Love etc. The Gloss: "Not only do." For the work of justice is not meritorious unless it is done out of love of justice. Gregory: "The branch of good work has no greenness unless it remains in the root of charity." Justice, namely uncreated, which is the rectitude of the divine will; and created, which is the rectitude of the human [will], according to Anselm. Love, I say, justice, that you may be conformed to God, because
"the Lord is just and has loved justice"; likewise, that with spiritual gladness you may be filled, according to that [verse] of the Psalm: "You have loved justice, etc.; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions"; likewise, that you may be made blessed, according to that [verse] of Matthew five: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice."
You who judge the earth: specifically indeed you, prelates, who judge the earth by public judgment: the earth, of the subject people. The Gloss: "To whom the power of judging has been given"; subject, I say, by the merit of sin. For Gregory says: "Where we do not transgress, there we are equals." And therefore he rightly says: the earth, that is, those who love earthly things; not the heavenly, because there is no need: "For the spiritual man judges all things," namely in hope, "and is judged by no one," that is, ought not to be judged, First Corinthians two; but the bestial, according to the Gloss on that [verse] of Genesis one: "Let him rule over the beasts" of the earth, that is, those living bestially.
Likewise, all of you generally, who judge, by private judgment, the earth, of your own body. The Gloss: that is, who "discreetly restrain the body," so that "your service may be rational," Romans twelve.
It should be noted, moreover, that there is found to be a fourfold earth, namely the upper earth, the earth, I say, of the living, of which in the Psalm: "I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." The lower earth, namely of the dead: Ezekiel thirty-one: "Behold, you have been brought down with the trees of pleasure to the uttermost earth." The outer earth, namely of the dying, namely the present world: Revelation eight: "Woe, woe, woe to those dwelling upon the earth"! that is, in the world. The inner earth, namely of death, that is, the mortal and earthly body: Ecclesiasticus ten: "Why are you proud, O earth and ashes"?
The first earth is not subject to our judgment, because it is not in our power; and therefore it was rightly said to Peter, Matthew sixteen: "Whatever you shall bind upon earth," not upon heaven.
The second has already been judged and cannot repent: John three: "He who does not believe has already been judged."
The third is to be judged by the judgment of justice, according to that [verse] of the Psalm: "Judge rightly, O sons of men."
The fourth is to be judged by the judgment of discerning discipline, according to that passage of Ecclesiasticus 33: "Fodder and a rod and a burden for the donkey: bread and discipline and work for the servant," that is, for the body, which must be compelled to serve the spirit, by the example of blessed Martin, who "compelled his limbs, though weakening with fever, to serve the spirit"; likewise by the example of Paul, who says: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection," into which subjection, namely, it was in the state of innocence; I bring it back, through the power and works of penance. To the aforesaid servant is owed the sustenance of bread, lest it fail; the rod of discipline, lest it grow wanton; and the occupation of holy work, lest it grow sluggish.
(Vers. 1.). Think, that is, rightly esteem, of the Lord in goodness, that is, well, not badly, as heretics do. Moreover, he admonishes us to think well both by the exterior sense, by piously reading the divine Scriptures, and by the interior sense, by piously understanding them. Whence the Gloss: "Read and understand Scripture piously," piously, namely, by devoutly approving and carrying out what you understand, and not by criticizing and despising what you do not understand. And in simplicity of heart seek him, namely, by directing the whole intention of the heart toward him. Whence the Gloss: "Submit yourselves to his will"; which hypocrites do not do, and therefore they are inconstant, according to that passage of James 1: "A double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways"; and on account of this it is said to them in Ecclesiasticus 2: "Woe to the double heart"! The heart is double when its parts are drawn principally toward diverse things, which is the occasion of spiritual death, according to that passage of Hosea 10: "Their heart is divided, now they shall perish." But the heart is simple when all its parts are drawn toward the one most simple being, namely toward God, according to that passage of Ecclesiasticus 30: "Gather your heart in holiness." In simplicity of heart, that is, in the simple unity of the heart. This unity is produced by faith in the rational power, according to that passage of Ephesians 4: "One Lord, one faith," etc.; by charity in the concupiscible power: 1 Corinthians 6: "He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit"; by peace in the irascible power: Ephesians 4: "Be careful to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." The first unity prohibits the division of errors in the intellect; the second, of desires in the affections; the third, of schisms in action.
(Vers. 2.). And well did I say: In simplicity, etc. For he is found, through grace in the present life, according to that passage of Song of Songs 3: "I found him whom my soul loves"; by those who do not tempt him, by displaying one thing outwardly while intending another inwardly, as the Scribes and Pharisees tempting Christ; and this he says against hypocrisy and duplicity: Matthew 22: "Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites?"
But He appears, namely in the future through glory: First John 3: "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him"; and Colossians 3: "But when Christ shall appear, your life, then you also shall appear with Him in glory." To those who have faith in Him: he says this against heresy and unbelief. And note that he says: In Him, because it does not suffice to believe Him or to believe that He is, but to believe in Him, which is the act of formed faith, according to Augustine. Or: He is found, on account of the devotion of the affections; He appears, through the contemplation of the intellect: Psalm: "Taste," by affection; "see," by intellect.
It should be noted, however, that according to Gregory, "to tempt is the same as to craftily test": and accordingly it happens that God is tempted in four ways, namely either by unduly wishing to test His power, as those who, tempting Christ, sought a sign from heaven, Matthew 16; or His wisdom, as the Sadducees, proposing to Him a question about the resurrection that was, according to their judgment, insoluble for those who posit the resurrection, Matthew 22; or His justice, as the Pharisees, by asking about the payment of tribute: "We know that You are truthful," etc.; or His mercy, as the Jews, by questioning about the judgment of the woman caught in adultery, John 8. And because every such tempting comes from distrust, and God is in no way to be distrusted, therefore every such tempting is prohibited; whence Deuteronomy 6: "You shall not tempt the Lord your God"; likewise Ecclesiasticus 18: "Do not be like a man who tempts God."
For perverse thoughts etc. Here he touches upon the manifold detriment of those who despise the exhortation to the good of justice, of which the first is exclusion from the fellowship of God: For perverse thoughts: the second, exclusion from the fellowship of wisdom: Because into a malevolent soul: the third, exclusion from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit: For the Holy Spirit. The first pertains to the Father, the second to the Son, the third to the Holy Spirit, whose presence is obtained through the love of justice; whence John 14:
"If anyone loves Me, etc., and We will come to him and make Our abode with him"; but their absence or deprivation, through hatred of justice.
(Verse 3). For perverse thoughts etc. I rightly said that He appears to those who have faith in Him, and not to others; for perverse thoughts, namely by perversity of faith or of morals, separate from God, with respect to the punishment of loss: Second Corinthians 6: "What fellowship has light with darkness?" Proverbs 17: "He who is perverse of heart shall not find good"; likewise Isaiah 59: "Your iniquities have divided," etc.
But proven etc., as if to say: nor does this suffice for punishment; but stands for "however." Proven virtue, that is "true virtue," according to the Gloss, namely divine virtue: corrects, by punishing: Psalm: "O Lord, do not correct me in your anger." The foolish: the Gloss says "that is, all foolishness"; this he says with regard to the punishment of the senses.
(Verse 4). For into a malevolent soul etc. I rightly said that they separate etc., for into a malevolent soul, with respect to spiritual sins, wisdom will not enter, by infusing itself into it: wisdom, I say, "which is from above, which is first indeed pure" etc.; although that wisdom may enter which is from below, "namely earthly, animal, diabolical," James 3. Nor will it dwell, by remaining, in a body subject to sins: this he says with regard to carnal sins, which, although they are of lesser guilt, are nevertheless of greater infamy, as Gregory says.
It is objected that all things desire the good: therefore no soul is malevolent, that is, willing evil.
It must be said that no one wills evil per se, but per accidens, because namely he wills that which is evil, namely an evil action, not insofar as it is evil, but insofar as it is delightful and an apparent good.
Again it is doubted: the body cannot be a dwelling place of wisdom nor the subject of sin or foolishness or grace: therefore it supposes something false when it says: Nor will it dwell etc.
To this it must be said that body there does not refer to the bodily part of man only, but by synecdoche, according to which a part is customarily put for the whole, body is taken here for the whole man, insofar as he follows the passions of the body. Hence the Gloss: "He who is subject to sins is body, not spirit." In such a one wisdom does not dwell: hence the Gloss: "In vain do heretics, Pharisees, and false Christians flatter themselves; for only those pure in heart can receive the wisdom of God."
(Verse 5). And I rightly said that he will not dwell etc. For the Holy Spirit of discipline: Gloss: "Who teaches all discipline," according to that passage of John 16: "He will teach you all truth," namely rational, natural, and moral: Psalm: "Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge." He is called Spirit, insofar as he breathes life: John 6: "It is the Spirit who gives life"; holy, insofar as he purges and renews, according to that passage of the Psalm: "You will send forth your spirit, and they shall be created: and you will renew the face of the earth"; of discipline, insofar as he removes ignorance and bestows wisdom, according to that passage of Isaiah 11: "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom" etc. He will flee, that is, in the present he will flee far from, the deceitful, that is, the sinner, according to that passage of the Psalm: "Salvation is far from sinners," and especially the hypocrite, who is properly called deceitful: Job 13: "No hypocrite shall come into his sight." And he will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, that is, from false and erroneous thoughts: for understanding pertains only to true things. He will withdraw himself etc.; behold, the punishment of loss: and he will be reproved etc.: behold, the punishment of sense.
Likewise, it should be noted that he is said to withdraw himself because naturally the commission of fault precedes the withdrawal of grace: for God is first in approaching and last in departing. And although he withdraws himself from them, they will not nevertheless remain unpunished: whence he adds: And he will be reproved etc.: correction is done with words, reproof is done with scourges. He will be reproved, I say, namely the deceitful one in the future, that is, he will be punished, by the supervening iniquity, that is, on account of the supervening iniquity: whence the Gloss: "The deceitful one, when the day of retribution comes, will be punished for his iniquity." Supervening, that is, "oppressing," on account of which it is called supervening, just as one who oppresses comes upon another. — Or: He will be reproved, that is, he will be seized together in soul and body unto punishment.
Concerning the justice of speech, the matter is treated in three ways.
For he is kind etc. Here he admonishes toward justice of speech, by drawing back from evil words. And first he removes from evil speech itself the confidence of impunity: second, he foretells their punishment: Therefore he who speaks etc.; third, he admonishes to caution against depraved speech: Guard etc.
In the first part, he first removes the confidence of impunity which might arise from the mercy of the judge: Kind: second, from his ignorance: For of the reins etc.; third, from his powerlessness: For the spirit of the Lord.
(Verse 6.) He says therefore: For the spirit of wisdom is benign etc. I have rightly said that the dissembler will be reproved etc.: for the spirit of wisdom is benign, namely of uncreated wisdom, namely of the Son, from whom the Holy Spirit is given: or of created wisdom, which he himself gives; below in chapter twelve: "O how good and how sweet is your spirit, O Lord, in all things"! Psalm: "Your good spirit" etc. And yet he will not free the accursed etc., although he is benign: because, as Gregory says, "discipline and mercy are greatly undermined if one is held without the other." Or thus: and because he is benign, he will not free the accursed etc., because benignity is contrary to malice: as the Gloss says: "He will not free, I say, the accursed, that is, the one who curses," who is accursed because he acts against God's commandment, which forbids cursing; Psalm: "Cursed are those who turn aside from your commandments"; behold, a curse in the present. Likewise, Matthew twenty-five: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire" etc.: behold, a curse in the future. From his lips, that is, from the sin of his lips, or from the punishment which he merited by the sin of his lips: Matthew twelve: "By your words you shall be condemned"; likewise in the Psalm: "The labor of their lips shall cover them." And it should be noted that the consequent is placed for the antecedent, when he says the accursed for the one who curses.
For of the reins etc., as if to say: he will truly be punished for his sins, even hidden ones: for of his reins, that is, of the affections or "carnal pleasures, whose seat is in the reins," God is a witness, that is, a certain knower, as a witness concerning the matter about which he bears testimony; Jeremiah twenty-nine: "I am the witness and the judge, says the Lord." And of his heart, that is, of the thoughts proceeding from the heart, Matthew fifteen: he is a true searcher, that is, an infallible examiner: whence First Corinthians two: "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God"; likewise Jeremiah seventeen: "I the Lord search the hearts and try the reins"; Psalm: "God, who searches hearts and reins." And of his tongue, that is, of the utterances which are formed by the tongue, a hearer, that is, an immediate knower without the report of another: Psalm: "He who planted the ear, shall he not hear"? as if to say: yes. And it should be noted that he places the instruments for the operations proceeding from them, because, just as the instruments relate more immediately to the soul than their operations do, so God more immediately than anyone else knows all the acts of a person, both interior and exterior.
(Vers. 7.). For the Spirit of the Lord etc., as if he were inferring: rightly have I said that the Spirit can do this: for the Spirit of the Lord, intransitively, that is, who is the Lord, according to that saying of Athanasius: "The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord"; or transitively, that is, the Spirit who is from the Lord, according to that saying of Isaiah sixty-one: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" etc.; likewise, John: "The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father." Has filled the whole world, by assisting all things with his presence and containing them: Jeremiah twenty-three: "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" because, according to Gregory, "God is everywhere, within all things yet not enclosed, outside all things yet not excluded, above all things yet not elevated, below all things yet not cast down." And that which contains all things, namely the Holy Spirit containing all things by preserving them through his power. For as Boethius proves in the book On the Consolation, "the world from such diverse and contrary parts would not have come together into one form, and the joined discordant diversity would have torn apart, unless there were one who joined them together and held together what he had woven." Has knowledge of the voice, that is, of all utterances and languages, by knowing all things.
From this it is clear that he can know and punish all things, both deeds on account of his universal presence and words on account of his universal knowledge.
Another exposition, or according to the Gloss: That which contains all things," that is, the Holy Spirit, who contains all things, that is, the Church," outside of which whatever exists is nothing, just as outside the ark of Noah. Has knowledge of the voice, causally speaking, "that is, he grants understanding of Scripture to men"; or formally: Has knowledge of the voice," that is, he has the same knowledge as the voice, that is, as the Word," that is, the Son, of whom John one says: "In the beginning was the Word" etc.
Allegorically, according to the Gloss, it can be expounded concerning the temporal coming of the Holy Spirit. And first is touched upon the person sent, when it says: Spirit; second, his eternal origin: of the Lord; third, the temporal mission: Has filled; fourth, the manifestation of the mission: And that which contains all things.
He says therefore: The Spirit of the Lord has filled: the Gloss says: "with gifts"; the whole world, "that is, the Church spread throughout all lands," as the Gloss says. And that which contains all things: "that is, man, who has a correspondence with every creature," on account of which in Mark at the end he is called every creature, according to Gregory. Has knowledge of the voice: the Gloss says: "Of diverse languages from the Holy Spirit," as is clear from Acts two.
To the orb indeed of the earth the primitive Church is compared, first on account of its expansion, according to that word of the Psalm: "Their sound has gone forth into all the earth." Second, on account of its perfection, which is understood through the roundness of the orb: Song of Songs 6: "One is my dove, my perfect one." Third, on account of its stability: Ecclesiastes 1: "For the earth stands forever."
Fourth, on account of its compression and wearing down: 1 Corinthians 4: "I think that God has set forth us the Apostles last, as men destined to death," etc.; just as the earth is the lowest of bodies, whence it is worn down and trampled upon by all.
Fifth, on account of the sustaining and vivifying of the human race, because it lives from the earth and is sustained by the earth, just as by the primitive Church: Job 9: "Under whom they stoop who bear up the world," namely the Apostles and their followers; nor yet are they broken, because in the Psalm: "I have established its pillars." Sixth, on account of the adornment and production of all virtues, according to that word of Genesis 1: "Let the earth bring forth green herb," etc.
Seventh, on account of the origin of waters, that is, of the wisdom of saving doctrine, according to that word of Genesis 2: "A spring rose up from the earth, watering the whole surface of the earth."
On this account, he who speaks, etc. The foolish confidence of impunity having been removed, here he foretells the punishment of evil speech: and first, because it will be brought into judgment; second, because it will be examined by the Judge: "In the thoughts of the ungodly"; third, because it will be made known to all: "For the ear of jealousy."
(Verses 8–9). He says therefore: On this account, because namely the Holy Spirit has knowledge of the voice, that is, of every utterance: he who speaks iniquitous things, like those of whom it is said in the Psalm: "The mouth of those who speak iniquitous things has been stopped"; cannot be hidden, namely from the Holy Spirit in the present; whence Hebrews 4: "All things are naked and open to his eyes"; likewise Proverbs 16: "All the ways of men lie open to his eyes." Nor shall it pass by, namely by dissembling, him, namely the one speaking iniquitous things, correcting, that is, punishing; or correcting, that is, seizing together his body and soul, or all his evil works and words and thoughts; judgment, namely the future judgment: "for all things that are done, God will bring into judgment," as is found in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes.
For in the thoughts of the wicked, that is, concerning the thoughts of the wicked, in which there is less sin than in wicked words, there will be an interrogation, that is, a searching inquiry by the judge and an examination, according to that passage of the Psalm: "The Lord interrogates the just and the wicked"; Job, last chapter: "I know that no thought is hidden from you." And if there will be a searching inquiry concerning thoughts, how much more so concerning words; on account of this he adds: But of his words, etc.; as if to say: not only concerning thoughts. But, [used] for "however": the hearing of his words, that is, the examination, to God, as to the examiner and judge, will come, and for correction, that is, punishment; of his iniquities, which he committed by speaking wickedly: Genesis eighteen: "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is multiplied," etc.
(Vers. 10.). And rightly did I say that it will come, etc.; for the ear of jealousy, of jealousy, I say, of God who is jealous for souls as for brides, hears all things, that is, knows all things, as one who hears all things, namely words both evil and good and indifferent, just as a jealous man carefully hears and notes the words of his spouse and of those speaking with her: Exodus twenty: "I am a mighty God, jealous," etc. And the tumult of murmurings, by which men murmur against God: Ecclesiasticus thirty-three: "The heart of a fool is like a cart wheel." And it is called a tumult, because a man who murmurs makes a tumult, as it were, within his teeth, and does not speak clearly. Shall not be hidden, but shall be made manifest to the whole world; Luke twelve: "Nothing is covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be known"; Exodus sixteen: "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel."
Guard etc. Here he admonishes to caution against wicked speech, and first he sets forth his exhortation; second, the necessity of the exhortation: For a word, etc.
(Vers. 11.). Now the construction or continuation is as follows: since the tumult shall not be hidden, etc., guard yourselves therefore from murmuring, namely against God, which profits nothing, indeed it greatly harms; whence First Corinthians ten: "Some of them murmured and perished by the destroyer." And from detraction, namely against one's neighbor: Job six: "Why have you detracted from the words of truth?" Spare the tongue; he does not say: spare your neighbor, but the tongue, namely your own, because one who detracts from another first injures himself. Whence detraction is worse than the venom of a serpent: Seneca: "That venom which serpents produce for the destruction of others, they contain without harm to themselves; but detraction itself drinks a portion of its own poison." The Gloss: "Pernicious are murmurings and detractions"; Romans one: "Detractors hateful to God." Detractors, he says in the plural, because detraction occurs in many ways, namely either when a hidden good is denied, or when a manifest good is diminished, or when a hidden evil is made public, or when a manifest evil is further spread abroad.
And I rightly said: Spare your tongue, for obscure speech: The Gloss: "Hidden," as is the word of murmuring: shall not go into the void, that is, it shall not remain without punishment, because not even an idle word: Matthew twelve: "Of every idle word" etc.; therefore much more so of a malicious word. "An idle word, as the Gloss says there, is one that is spoken without benefit to the speaker or the hearer"; Jerome: "Everything that does not edify the hearers turns to the peril of the speakers." But the mouth that lies, namely by slandering, slays the soul: The Gloss: "By the sword of sin, the soul of the liar"; the Psalm: "You will destroy all who speak falsehood." And it should be noted that he speaks here of pernicious lying, which is mortal, not of jocose or officious lying: whence the Gloss: "There is a lie of lighter fault, when someone lies in bestowing a benefit."
But it seems that some lie is good and meritorious, because the midwives who lied merited a reward from the just judge, namely God, who cannot be deceived, as is clear from Exodus one.
But it must be said according to the Gloss that "not the lie was rewarded, but the benevolence of their piety."
But was one and the same deed a sin, and yet possessed the merit of benevolence? And it seems so, for the Gloss says: "God pardons the evil of one and the same deed on account of the good, and rewards the good itself."
It must be said that it was one by connection, not by indivisibility: because the intention to deliver was one thing, and the will to lie was another, although they were conjoined.
Concerning the justice of works, the treatment is twofold.
Do not be zealous for etc. Here he exhorts to the justice of works, and first by reasons taken from the side of creation; second, from the side of retribution, at: For justice etc.
From the side of creation, first by a reason taken from the goodness of the Creator: For God; second by a reason taken from the side of the end of creation: He created; third by a reason taken from the side of the condition of the creature: There is not in them.
(Verse 12). Do not be zealous for etc., as if to say: because lying kills, do not be zealous for, that is, do not love or desire with affection, death, namely of the soul, which one incurs through fault, according to that saying of Augustine: "True death is that which men do not fear: namely the separation of the soul from God, who is the blessed life of souls, just as bodily death is the separation of the body from the soul." Death, I say, causally established in the error of your lives, according to that passage of Proverbs fourteen: "They err who work evil"; for every wicked person is in error, according to the Philosopher. Nor acquire, in effect, perdition, of eternal punishment, which is in our power, according to that passage of Hosea thirteen: "Your destruction, O Israel; only your help is from me." By the works of your hands, causally, that is, by the merit of your works.
But it is objected that, according to Augustine, all desire life and beatitude: therefore no one desires death or perdition.
It must be said that this is true per se: but per accidens and consequently those are said to desire it who desire the act that is the cause of death and perdition. Whence he posits the consequent for the antecedent, adding: I rightly said that error is the cause of death, and evil works the cause of perdition.
(Verse 13). For God, who is the author of all things, according to that saying in John 1: "All things were made through him"; did not make death, namely present death.
But against this: Ecclesiasticus 11: "Life and death, poverty and honor are from God."
It must be said that here he speaks of the death of fault: or if of the death of nature, he speaks with respect to privation, not with respect to the sense of pain. Concerning the death of hell also, with respect to the punishment of loss, what is said here is true: God did not make death.
But against this: Every punishment is just, and everything just is good, and everything good is from God.
It must be said that when it is said: every punishment is just, this is understood per se, namely insofar as it is punishment, not according to what it is: whence it cannot be concluded that it is simply from God, but insofar as it is punishment.
Nor does he rejoice in the perdition of the living, namely their future perdition.
Against this: Proverbs 1: "I also will laugh at your destruction," etc.
It must be said that he does not delight in punishment insofar as it is the perdition of nature, but insofar as it is the effect of justice: whence Isaiah 1: "Ah! I will be consoled over my enemies, and I will be avenged upon my foes." And I rightly said that he does not delight or rejoice in perdition, which is the way to non-being.
(Verse 14). For he created, Genesis 1, all things that they might exist: The Gloss: "Not that they might perish": whence he also implanted in all things a natural appetite for existing, that is, gave it inwardly. And because "it is a common conception of the mind, according to Boethius, that everything which exists tends toward the good," and all things tend toward being: he proves that the being of all things is good. And healable, that is, created in spiritual health through innocence and reducible to health through penance, lest they perish: for he does not "will the death of the sinner," etc. Healable, I say, he made the nations of the world, that is, all who are born in the world. Their incurability therefore is from themselves, not from God: Jeremiah 30: "Your fracture is incurable, your wound is grievous."
For there is not in them: The Gloss: "In the nature of those," namely of the nations, a medicine of destruction, "that is, the cup of sin," according to the Gloss, which is the cause of destruction in present death: Baruch 3: "They were destroyed and descended to the underworld." Destruction is called sin, because it places one outside the boundaries of grace: likewise, temporal death, because it places one outside the boundary of natural life: likewise, the death of hell, because it places one outside the boundaries of glory: and he speaks by antiphrasis, as if poison were called a medicine, and as a fishpond is the name for water lacking fish.
But an objection is raised against what he says: There is not in them etc., because Ephesians 2: "We were by nature children of wrath."
But it must be said that here he speaks of actual sin, or of nature as established, that is, before the fall, not deprived through sin, of which the Apostle speaks.
Nor the kingdom of the underworld, that is, eternal perdition, on earth, that is, in man made from the earth: Genesis 2: "God formed man from the slime of the earth." He intends therefore to show that the death of sin and the perdition of eternal punishment are not from nature, but from a perverse will. Concerning the death of sin, this is clear from the Gloss, which says: "We do not sin by necessity, but by a perverse will"; concerning the perdition of punishment, this is clear from another Gloss, which says: "The devil would have harmed man in nothing, had man not consented."
For justice is perpetual etc. Here he admonishes toward justice of work from the consideration of retribution: and first he touches upon the reward of justice: second, the punishment of injustice: But injustice etc.; third, the equity of the punishment or penalty inflicted: But the ungodly etc.
(Verse 15). For justice is perpetual etc.; as if to say: I rightly said that death is not from God nor from nature, but from the injustice of a perverse will. For justice is perpetual, by bestowing eternal life, according to that passage in Proverbs 12: "In the paths of justice is life." And immortal, by liberating from perpetual death; whence below in chapter 3: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them."
But injustice is the acquisition of death, namely both of temporal and eternal death: whence Romans 6: "The wages of sin is death"; likewise Proverbs 12: "The wayward path leads to death."
But the ungodly etc. Here he shows the equity of retribution, because namely the ungodly merited this, first, by doing injustice, on account of which he says: But the ungodly with hands etc.: second, by loving it familiarly, there: And esteeming etc.: third, by inseparably adhering to it: And covenants etc.: fourth, by strongly defending it: Because they are worthy of death etc.
(Verse 16.). But the ungodly etc. I have rightly said that death is not from God, nor from nature: but, for however: the ungodly, against God and neighbor: with hands and words, Gloss: "By deeds and sayings"; they summoned it, as if to say: it did not impose itself, but they themselves called it forth, namely ungodliness and death, as is evident in the first parents, Genesis 3.
And esteeming it a friend, that is, useful and not harmful: Gloss: "Because they think they sin with impunity"; they melted away, that is, they flowed downward, Gloss: "into eternal death"; but first, into the death of guilt, second, into the death of temporal punishment, third, into the death of eternal punishment; Hebrews 2: "We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest perhaps we drift away." And they made a covenant with it, that is, an inseparable pact as of betrothal through the impenitence of obstinacy; Gloss: "Lest they be separated"; Isaiah 28: "We have struck a covenant with death, and with hell we have made a pact."
And rightly they melted away into death, for they are worthy of death who are of its party, namely of injustice, by holding and defending it, just as a man defends the party to which he belongs: Romans 1: "Those who do such things are worthy of death."
Moreover, here can be noted the progression in sins, concerning which Ecclesiasticus 20: "There is a progression in evil for the undisciplined man"; for first there is ungodliness in the heart through consent to iniquity; then in the hand through the consummation of the deed; then the word of defense or boasting; then friendship and hope of impunity; afterward the melting away through the repetition of depraved habit; next the covenant through the hardening of the mind; lastly the death of final impenitence.