Collation 4

COLLATION IV.


On the third precept of the decalogue.

Summary.

Introduction, 1.

Part I. Literal explanation of the third precept. The complete words of the same are set forth, 2.

The Legislator posits three things in it: something he commands, something he permits, something he prohibits, 3.

The reason for the precept is subjoined, 4. - Objection of the mocking Jews, 5.

Response; here one must distinguish that which is purely moral, that which is purely ceremonial, that which is mixed from both, 6. - On these three individually, 7. 8. - Seven mechanical works: some prohibited, some permitted, 9. 10. - An incidental question is resolved, 11. - Part II. The requirements for perfect charity are explained. Three things are required for this; first, divine leisure, converting the soul to God through three intrinsic works and four extrinsic works, 12. - Second, the imitation of Christ in six works of mercy with six corresponding exercises of the virtues, 13. 14. - Third, cessation from every sinful work; sin is committed in five ways, 15. 16.

1. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting and unto everlasting upon those who fear him, and his justice unto the children's children, to those who keep his covenant. We need divine mercy pardoning our offenses, and divine justice recompensing our merits. But the fear of God makes one find mercy, and the observance of the commandments, justice. The consideration of the magnificence of God leads to fearing; the consideration of the divine law leads to the observance of the commandments. And for this reason it is suggested to us that we should always meditate on the divine law. Whence the Jews on the Sabbath day were accustomed always to dispute concerning the law of God, because this is the work of God. Therefore in the beginning let us beseech God, etc.

2. Remember, etc. I was telling you that in the first tablet are contained three commandments ordering us to God according to three things appropriated to the three divine Persons. In the first commandment is commanded the humble adoration of the divine majesty; in the second, the faithful confession of the supreme truth; in the third, the sincere love of the supreme goodness. And this is the third precept, and the sum of its words is: Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. There follows: Six days you shall labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall not do any work in it, you and your son and your daughter, your servant and your handmaid, your beast of burden and the stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the day of the Sabbath and sanctified it.

3. See that in these words the Holy Spirit wrote the tablets: for by the finger of God the Holy Spirit is understood, who inscribed all the precepts with the utmost diligence, signifying the integrity and consummation of the commandment. In this commandment, however, the Lawgiver commands something, permits something, and prohibits something. He commands to sanctify the Sabbath day, where it says: Remember to sanctify the Sabbath day. For sanctification is that which turns the soul toward the holy God, toward the true God, and toward God who is to be loved above all. He permits something in this commandment, where it says: Six days you shall labor and do all your work. He truly prohibits something, namely servile work, where it says: You shall do no work on it, etc. This is the perfect rest, which has joined to it good work and the prohibition of servile work.

4. The reason for the precept is added, where it says: In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed and sanctified it. But why does he command rest? Certainly, because he blessed and sanctified it. Therefore you also, creature of God, who are an imitator of Christ, ought to do this.

5. But the Jews mock us and say: you hold the Decalogue, and the Decalogue contained only moral precepts; but a moral precept has binding force for all time. But the seventh day, on which it is not permitted to work, counting from the first day on which it is permitted to work, is the Sabbath day, which is called the day of Saturn; and you rest on the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath day.

Likewise it is said: You shall do no work on it: and you do many works, and thus you destroy the whole thing.

6. See, dearly beloved: it must be understood that that precept contains something that is purely moral, and something that is purely ceremonial, and something that is mixed from the moral and the ceremonial.

That the Lord commands sanctification, that is, rest for the sake of loving, this is a purely moral precept. Whence blessed Peter says: But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, that is, love him. For he sanctifies or makes holy the Sabbath who loves God above all things for his own sake, not for the sake of something else.

7. Likewise, there is in the precept something figurative, such as the signification of the seventh day. For the seventh day signifies the rest of souls and the rest of the Lord in the tomb and the cessation from all servile work with leisure and contemplation of God. For God wrought all things in six days, not because he could not have made them in one day: but it must be understood here that the world has something in the eternal art, namely eternal being, which is the eternity of life and one possession, in which nothing is prior or posterior: and this God impressed upon the angelic minds.

Likewise, the world has something in the created intelligence, namely a priority and posteriority by nature, though it exists simultaneously according to duration.

But it has a before and after according to duration, not according to nature, insofar as it is in matter, not on account of a defect of the worker, but on account of his condescension, so that he might fit all things together and designate all things in the first works. And just as he produced the roots of all operations in the first works, so also he fully produced the seeds of all works and their rest.

On the seventh day, however, he rested and called the intellectual creature back to himself, and on the seventh day he led the souls existing in limbo back to the rest of paradise. The signification, therefore, of the seventh day is the figurative rest of souls.

Thus, therefore, in this commandment there is contained something that is purely moral, namely, that God should be loved above all things, and something that is purely ceremonial, such as the signification of the seventh day.

8. Likewise, there is contained something that is partly moral and partly ceremonial, such as the cessation from works. And here certain things are to be understood generally, and certain things specifically. If we understand it generally, as the Jews do, who say that there ought to be a universal cessation from every servile work, so it is suggested to the Christian that he ought to abstain from all sin. But if we understand it specifically, that we ought to abstain from some things and not from others, then it is moral, not as in a precept, but as in well-being, and it has remained, as it is commanded in ecclesiastical institution.

9. Now I call servile works mechanical works, which are seven, namely agriculture, which comprehends every manner of cultivating the earth; wool-working, which consists in every work and kind of garments; fabrication, whether it be in iron material, or metallic, or stone, or wood; hunting, which comprehends every work of bakers and cooks and every manner of preparing food; medicine, which consists in the art of preparing ointments or syrups and things of this kind; navigation, which comprehends every work of sailors on the sea or every work of commerce; and theatrics, which comprehends every manner of play or amusement.

10. Now I say that among all of these there are some things that are of pure servility; some that are of continual necessity; and some that are of pure enjoyment. Those that are of pure servility are prohibited by the Church; but those that are of continual necessity, such as those that pertain to the preservation of life or health, are permitted insofar as they are of necessity, but are prohibited insofar as they are of servility. But those that are of pure enjoyment are permitted, not prohibited, because on account of our inclination they are allowed by the Church. — And thus we can respond.

11. But you will say: why did he confuse and mix together moral and ceremonial precepts? - I say that this commandment: Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day, is about charity: and whatever is manifest and hidden in the other commandments is consummated in this one. And therefore he mixed together the ceremonial and the moral, so that we might better recall them to memory: lest, if he had set them out separately, our memory would be burdened.

12. Now there are three things that are required for perfect love. The first is divine leisure, converting the soul to God. The second is the imitation of Christ in good works. The third is cessation from every servile work, which renders the heart pure and clean.

Now the conversion to God takes place according to seven works, without which the soul is not converted to perfect leisure in God; of which three are intrinsic, which are done by meditating, praying, and exulting: and from these three results contemplation. The other four are extrinsic, which are done by reading, chanting psalms, offering sacrifice, and fulfilling the divine law; and this is done either by hearing, or by teaching, or by conferring with others.

And this is what he says: Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. The Lord therefore first commands leisure converting the soul to himself.

13. Second, he commands imitation of himself, when he says: Six days you shall labor. Concerning this imitation the Apostle says: Be imitators of God, as most beloved children: and in Luke it is said: Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Now there are six works of mercy, namely: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, gathering in strangers, visiting the sick, and ransoming captives. Moreover, the work of perfect virtue cannot exist unless the creature is conformed to Christ in these things.

14. Now for the work of virtue, six things are required corresponding to the works of the six days, which are provident circumspection, right intention, pure affection, just or right election, vigorous prosecution, and charitable formation.

The first, then, is understood in the work of the first day, when God said: Let there be light: and light was made: this is provident circumspection.

Second, it is necessary that a man set for himself a right end in God; and this is indicated when he says: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. And God called the firmament heaven; because it is necessary that a man be drawn upward, so that he may have a right intention toward God.

Third, pure affection is required; and this is understood in the third work, when God divided the land from the waters, that is, secular affections from divine ones.

Fourth, just or right election is required, so that all our works may be done in an orderly manner, according as they ought: and this is indicated in the fourth work, when he says: Let there be luminaries in the firmament of heaven, that is, let our works be ordered.

Fifth, vigorous prosecution is required, which is signified in the fifth work, when God brought forth living soul in the waters, as swimming creatures, and in the air flying creatures.

Sixth, charitable formation is required, so that the works may be complete, clothed over with all circumstances, according to what the law of divine charity demands. For charity is the perfective form of all things; and he who has charity has all these six. The sixth work of virtue, therefore, is the formation of charity: which is signified when it says: God made man in his image and likeness.

When the work of man is made complete from these six, then man is said to live rightly.

15. But it does not suffice to do the work of virtue unless man guards himself from vicious work; and this is touched upon when it says: You shall do no work in it, that is, no sin.

Now man can commit sin in five ways: first, when he perpetrates sin against the commandment; second, when he incites another to sin; third, when he defends the sinner; fourth, when he accepts the sinner; fifth, when he overlooks the sinner and neither rebukes nor punishes, and this is the greatest danger, when someone neglects to correct another.

16. The first sin is touched upon when it says: You shall do no work in it, that is, you shall perpetrate no sin.

The second sin is touched upon when it says: nor your son nor your daughter, that is, you shall not be the father of sin by instigating another to sin either by word or deed or example. - The third sin is touched upon when it says: nor your manservant nor your maidservant. He who commits sin is the servant of sin: but he who defends sin is the master of sin, by providing harbor to the one committing sin. - The fourth sin is when someone accepts the sinner: which is touched upon when it says: nor your beast of burden. A beast of burden, when it was tied, was not led to work except by the acceptance of its master, and this acceptance is a binding.

The fifth sin is when someone neglects to correct another: which is touched upon when it says: nor the stranger who is within your gates. One considers a man a stranger when he sees a man sinning and says: what is his sin to me? And thus, when a man does not punish the sin of another, he becomes a partaker of that sin.

In many other ways also a man becomes a partaker of the sin of another; and on account of this the Psalm says: From my hidden sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from the sins of others spare your servant.