The Soul as Court and the Slanderer

He says, 'the mind shall mount upon your horses, and your cavalry shall be salvation.' And regarding Paul, the Lord says, 'to bear my name.'

A name more excellent than much wealth: He said that the virtue signified by the proper name is beautiful; for this is the beautiful name, which possesses the signified good. In this way, we shall not praise an unjust woman even if she is called justice, but rather the one possessing justice, even if she is named injustice.

A rich man and a poor man met one another, and the Lord made both of them equal. The one rich man purifies his passion through almsgiving, cultivating love; the one poor man is trained to be humble through his poverty.

The generation of wisdom is the fear of the Lord: These are the generations of Noah; these are the generations of Abraham. Snares and pits in crooked paths: And the Lord says to Adam, 'the earth shall bring up thorns and snares for you' (Genesis 3:18), that is, the soul. But he says thorns and snares mean sins, from which even the crown of Christ was struck; for he himself took away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

The rich shall rule over the poor (Proverbs 22:7): In the age to come, those having been enriched in every way, in all knowledge and all wisdom, shall rule over the unclean and the deprived of this wealth. And who are the servants and who are the masters, it is not necessary to publish now, because the word concerning them is mystical and deeper.

But the futility of his works shall complete: The Lord completes the futility of works through virtue and knowledge. He acquires victory and honor, he who gives gifts: He calls the virtues the gifts of man, through which, conquering the devil, he presents himself as precious to God, and his own soul is snatched away from those who have possessed it, from the demons.

Cast out a plague from the council, and strife shall come out with him: He called the governing state a council, from which the wise Solomon wishes to cast out man through spiritual teaching; and the strife signifies contention. But he may also mean the plague as the devil, whom it is necessary to drive away from the soul; for if he sits within it, through impurity he dishonors all the righteous thoughts.

The apostle also shows the soul as a tribunal, through which accusing thoughts are brought in and defending thoughts are brought in; for he says that thoughts are accusing or defending one another. Where there is accusation and defense, there is a tribunal.

A king shepherds with a rod: The Lord, who preserves our souls, himself shepherds us through spiritual knowledge, which knowledge the one transgressing his law despises. It should be noted that Christ, being a king, is said to shepherd us through condescension; for he says, 'I am the good shepherd' (John 10:11). But if he is a king over kings and a shepherd of sheep, he will at some time be only a king, the dignity of one having passed over into the royal.

The sluggard is faced with a lion in the paths: Our enemy the devil prowls like a lion seeking someone to swallow up (1 Peter 5:8), whom the sluggard, fearing, avoids in the work of virtues. He who is hated by the Lord will fall into him: Job did not fall into him because he was hated by the Lord, but because of testing.

A rod and instruction are far from him: The rod from the root of Jesse is far from the heart of the foolish (Isaiah 11:1). The slanderer does many evils of his own to the poor: Just as the devil slanders us, taking from us the virtues which he did not give to us, so also we slander him, taking from him the evils which we did not give to him. And just as we take the evils from him as if from a poor man in virtues, so also we give our virtues to him to our own diminishment, as if we were giving to a rich man in evil. One of the elders used to say that we are the slanderers, slandering Christ, who became poor because of us and owed nothing to us, yet we take much from him and give to Satan to the debasement of our souls.

Compare yourself with wise words: This one hears the words of God, the one doing the things protected by them; for the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (James 1:22). And you also write these things down for yourself three times in counsel and knowledge to the breadth of your heart: He who widens through purity the...