Fragments on Proverbs

Contents

Reading pages: 151–171 · 173–189 · 191–209 · 211–227 · 229–247 · 249

1. 151The word "prudence" in Scripture can mean the serpent's cunning or the virtue by which God made the heavens, and the prudent virgins show that it is a virtue.
2. 153Christ is righteousness itself, of which the righteous bear an image; innocence can be blameworthy simplicity or praiseworthy guilelessness.
3. 155Steering from God brings the soul safely to harbour; the fear of the Lord, as reverent love rather than dread of punishment, is the beginning of wisdom.
4. 157The father's instruction is Scripture and the mother's precepts are the church's unwritten traditions; the harlot of Proverbs is false teaching, and the seeds of virtue can never be wholly destroyed.
5. 159The adulteress and strange woman of Proverbs are false and pagan teaching, the ruler's table is the prophets read spiritually, and the leech of Prov 30 is the devil.
6. 163Those who lack the fear of God are insensible to wisdom, like those who reject the Old Testament; the soul that goes out from wickedness becomes the broad place where Wisdom speaks.
7. 165Wisdom "rejoices" over the destruction of sin in the converted, all people stand between angels and demons, and the evil counsel that forsook its youth is the devil.
8. 167Those who keep God's law and receive his care praise him with every power of the soul; Wisdom is the tree of life, and the world founded by wisdom is a symbol of rational beings.
9. 169Demons cannot reach the mind given to wisdom; almsgiving and meekness drive away terrors; the Lord resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
10. 171The many ways of virtue lead to Christ the one way, the virtues are lamps in this night until the day of the age to come, and the ungodly do not even know that they sin.
11. 173False teaching, like the harlot, charms only the ear; the wicked profane Christ's flesh and blood; knowledge is a spring to the pure and a deep well to beginners.
12. 175The wife of one's youth is the knowledge of God, at once mother, wife and sister; the hind and the colt of Prov 5:19 are contemplation and freedom from passion; friendship with Christ is knowledge of God.
13. 177Sleep is sin in deed and slumber the first evil thought; the ant shows the practical life and the bee the contemplation of creation, whose honey, Christ's words, will never pass away.
14. 179The soul deprived of Christ's righteous blood dies; the mother wisdom leads us through creation to the Father; the commandment's lamp and light are the Old and New Testaments.
15. 181The harlot of Prov 7 is wickedness, which meets those who give themselves to pleasure and lies in wait at every corner of impure thought.
16. 183Herons that rush to be caught picture those who compete in pleasure; Wisdom contains instruction and knowledge, gives true kingship, and loves those who love her.
17. 185Wisdom is eternal in essence but became the "beginning of ways" in relation to creation; Wisdom's house is Scripture and the Word; reproof belongs to the wise, while the wicked must be taught patiently.
18. 187The one blown about by false teaching shepherds the wind; the virtues are the soul's secret bread; true friendship with God replaces the enmity of sin, and the fear of the Lord adds days of wisdom.
19. 189The days the Lord adds are days of wisdom; the righteous are rescued from the snare that catches the wicked; salvation lies in counsel, not in a saved nature.
20. 191The teacher of evil lays violent hands on others, the one who sows to the Spirit reaps life, and the grain withheld is the divine word, which passed to the nations.
21. 193Wisdom is an invincible weapon against demons; the impure must be cleansed by learning God's commandments so as to see him; enemies of God become friends through the righteous.
22. 195Wisdom's nests are the churches and the virtues; life is the holy Trinity; the devil, the crooked and lawless man, tries to separate the saints from God through the demons.
23. 197The Spirit cools the furnace of wickedness; the servant who masters sin's demons becomes a house of God's mysteries; the riches of the faithful are knowledge of the inner principles of the world.
24. 199Virtues hide the corresponding vices; evil never leaves the house of one who repays good with evil; Christ is the friend who became man out of friendship.
25. 201God the Father and the church our mother rejoice over the instructed son and grieve over the foolish one, who has only one who bore him and not a mother.
26. 203Wisdom's river is the grace of the Spirit and the one Godhead; the sluggish are cast down by the fear of demons; only those who have heard from God should teach others.
27. 205Knowledge ends the demons' assaults and joins us to the angels, while the impure lose even their guardian angel, as Saul did; those who blaspheme the Creator are false witnesses.
28. 207The poor brother is the poor in spirit; the Lord is fire to sinners and dew to the righteous; the commandments are ways that keep the soul from death.
29. 209To lose the soul is to lose the knowledge of God; to know wisdom is to know Christ; the virtues are hands that bring the bread from heaven to the mouth.
30. 211Christ is father to the mature and mother to the immature; double weights are excess and deficiency in virtue; the eye and ear that attend to good are the Lord's work.
31. 213The deceitful balance is a mind bent by self-interest; rash vows lead to regret; Christ winnows the ungodly; the Lord's lamp searches the heart, while the devil disguises himself as light.
32. 215Christ is the cornerstone; secret almsgiving averts wrath; the soul that is a desert of old desires gives the devil no rest; wisdom pulls down every stronghold raised against God.
33. 217The mind is a horse that bears the Lord's name; rich and poor serve each other's salvation; the faithful from the nations now lend teaching to Israel; the devil must be driven out of the council of the soul.
34. 219Christ is the good shepherd and the rod from Jesse's root; the devil is the lion and the deep pit; Scripture's teaching is threefold, ethical, natural and theological, matching Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song.
35. 221Be ready to give an account of your hope; the boundaries of the faith, above all of the Trinity, must not be moved; Scripture must be read spiritually, for the sense of the letter flies away from those who cling to it.
36. 223Mysteries are not to be told to the unworthy; the soul's passionate part is the mother of the mind, trained by virtue; true teachers both do and teach.
37. 225Life is a sea battle against the demons, won with God as pilot through prayer and fasting; the wise must not neglect to teach and to rescue those being led to death.
38. 227God repays according to the quality of deeds; the honey and honeycomb are the plain and the hidden meaning of Scripture; we must not exult over a fallen enemy; the sword of the Spirit crushes sinners for repentance.
39. 229Confession brings exaltation; the fence of the soul is freedom from passion; Hades, sexual immorality and fire are never satisfied; the ravens and eagles of Prov 30:17 are powers that purify the ungodly.
40. 231God reveals mysteries to the obedient; rulers of their passions must not drink the heretics' sour wine; the penitent are to drink the Lord's vineyard; the humble take the last place.
41. 233Christ is the friend whose reproof calls us back, and the truth that sets free; wisdom belongs in a passionless mind; the coals of fire heaped on an enemy are the gifts of the Spirit that cleanse him.
42. 235Kindness to an enemy lets the Spirit's fire win him; the devil is the shameless face; Scripture names the soul and its thoughts by many figures; teaching must suit the hearer, and holy things are not for the unworthy.
43. 237Fools' frenzy can be broken and they can return to God; electing the unworthy to the clergy is like seizing a dog by the tail; the double-minded are consumed; hidden temptations should be confessed to God.
44. 239God and Christ are the friend and brother whose house we enter only with his commandments; the fig tree is God's righteousness; the brave in virtue comfort the poor whom the wicked slander.
45. 241God's law, unlike the lawless law of the demons, gives life and freedom from passion; temptations sown by the evil one should be confessed to God or a God-loving person; vices are the revenues of the evil king.
46. 243The merciful will reign over the envious; the ungodly "perish" by becoming righteous, as Matthew did; healing is possible after the fire of passion is quenched; the Father rejoices in those who imitate Christ.
47. 245Kids and sheep, tares and wheat, are named from the dispositions people choose; the wise judge is the apostolic teacher, the base man the heretic; no one is hard of heart by nature.
48. 247Whoever shares with the thief, the devil, hates his own soul; sins must be confessed; the angels set over the nations lead us; the valiant woman of Prov 31 is the soul that conquers the enemy and spins the threads of contemplation.
49. 249The valiant woman is the soul, and the church born from Christ's side; the mind free from passion lingers in contemplation; the ungodly seek to seize the righteous man's possession, his wisdom.