Verses 17, 18, and 19. But to Adam he said: Because you have heard the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you that you should not eat, cursed is the earth in your work: in labors you shall eat of it all the days of your life: thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken, because you are dust, and to dust you shall return.¹

VERS. 17. 18. & 19. Adae vero dixit: Quia audisti vocem uxoris tuae, & comedisti de ligno, ex quo praeceperam tibi ne comederes, maledicta terra in opere tuo: in laboribus comedes ex ea cunctis diebus vitae tuae: spinas & tribulos germinabit tibi, & comedes herbas terrae. In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane tuo donec revertaris in terram, de qua sumptus es, quia pulvis es, & in pulverem reverteris.

...[it is agreed also] that even the death of the body itself did not befall us by the law of nature, but was deservedly inflicted by the law of sin, because God, avenging sin, said to the first man, in whom we all then were, 'Earth you are, and to earth you shall go.' And some indeed escape the other aforesaid penalties, either wholly or at least for the greatest part — as those who are not in the labor of men, and are not scourged along with men (Ps 72:5). But by the penalty of death all are held commonly and equally: for Death, as that Poet said, 'strikes with equal foot the huts of the poor and the towers of kings.'⁶

re, etiam ipsam corporis mortem non contigisse nobis lege naturae, sed merito inflictam esse lege peccati, quia peccatum vindicans Deus dixit primo homini, in quo tunc omnes eramus, Terra es, & in terram ibis. Et alias quidem supradictas poenas quidam vel in totum, vel certe maximam partem effugiunt: ut qui in labore hominum non sunt, & cum hominibus non flagellantur. At vero poena mortis communiter & aequaliter tenentur omnes: Mors enim, ut ille dixit Poeta, aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres.

'At least by this stroke of death he had to tame the pride of ashes, and at some time to bend down to the mud necks that must be brought low. Already before, indeed, wretched man was truly dead, because he was dead to God — namely by the death of sin, which separates the soul from God. But God had said, that on whatever day you eat of it, you shall die the death. Yet he, smeared over with the sudden wantonness of the flesh, did not feel the bitterness of that death: just as we too today, when we see so many dying daily in the flesh as well, still, with wanton blood, jest and laugh; and, already deprived of eternal joys and soon to be deprived of temporal ones too, we are nonetheless merry. What if we were never going to die in the flesh? How would we pass over with deaf ears the death of the soul and the coming judgment at the end of the age — we who, though to die tomorrow, are proud today? What, I say, if meanwhile, while we live, every man were to eat his bread without labors and without the sweat of his face, when even always in the anxiety of hunger, and the alternating scarcity of diverse things, and moreover ever uncertain of impending death — our flesh still, from pride, does not know itself, and dissolves in lusts? Well, then, the good God, lest man be ignorant of the evil death of his soul, and, secure until the dawn of the last judgment, sleep in his pleasures, strikes him with the death of the flesh, that at least by fear of its imminence someone may awake. And meanwhile, because fullness of bread and leisure could abolish this anxiety too, he willed him to eat his bread not without labors and the sweat of his face; nay even, though laboring stoutly, to be robbed sometimes in barren years of the greatest part of his fruit. That this is not useless to man is so true that even a distinguished Poet of the Gentiles says: The Father himself willed that the way of tillage should not be easy, and first stirred the fields by art, sharpening mortal hearts with cares, nor suffered his realms to grow sluggish in heavy torpor.' He testified that torpor, which he said was Jove, was useless to a kingdom...⁸

Saltem hac mortis plaga superbiam cineris domare, & redigendas in lutum cervices quandoque flectere habebat. Iam antea quidem miser homo vere mortuus, quia Deo mortuus erat, scilicet morte peccati, quae animam a Deo separat. Dixit autem Deus, quia in quocumque die comederis ex eo, morte morieris. At ille repentina petulantia carnis delibutus, eius mortis amaritudinem non sentiebat: quemadmodum & nos hodie, cum tam multos quotidie carne quoque morientes videamus, lasciviente adhuc sanguine iocamur ac ridemus: iamque gaudiis aeternis privati, & mox temporalibus quoque privandi, tamen laeti sumus. Quid si nunquam carne morituri essemus? Quomodo animae mortem, & futurum in fine saeculi iudicium surdis auribus praeteriremus, qui cras morituri hodieque superbimus? Quid inquam, si interim dum vivimus absque laboribus, & absque sudore vultus sui omnis homo pane suo vesceretur, cum semper in sollicitudine famis, & alternante diversarum rerum penuria, praeterea de imminente morte nobis semper incertis: tamen adhuc semetipsam caro nostra prae superbia nesciat, & libidinibus diffluat? Bene ergo Deus bonus, ne malam mortem animae suae homo nesciret, & securus usque ad ultimi iudicii diluculum in suis voluptatibus dormiret, morte carnis illum percellit: ut saltem eius instantis metu aliquis evigilet. Et interim quia saturitas panis & otium, istam quoque posset abolere sollicitudinem: voluit illum non sine laboribus & sudore vultus sui vesci pane suo: quinetiam fortiter laborantem, nonnunquam sterilibus annis magna ex parte privari fructu suo. Hoc non inutile homini esse, adeo verum est, ut Gentilium quoque Poeta eximius dicat: Pater ipse colendi / Haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque per artem / Movit agros, curis acuens mortalia corda, / Nec torpore gravi passus sua regna veterno. Inutilem testatus est esse regno, quem Iovem esse dicebat, tor...

'...torpor or leisure — though, as a Gentile, he passes over the fact that from leisure is born sin. Yet the same [poet], boastful, in another place, indulging in the flattering blandishments of a certain little infant, promises among other things, as a great felicity, spontaneous riches: The field will slowly grow golden with the soft ear of corn, and the reddening grape will hang from the untended brambles, and the hard oaks will sweat dewy honey — and the rest. But this is no wonder in this pagan, a man of no good profession, since even many professors of the Christian name have there been who, not ignorant that fullness of bread and leisure was the sin of the Sodomites, yet preached that a thousand years were to come for Christ [on earth], saying that then a hundredfold of all the things we have given up were to be restored to us carnally — not considering that, if in other things the recompense be worthy, in the case of wives a foulness would appear, so that whoever gave up one wife for the Lord should receive a hundred in the future.'⁹

porem vel otium, quamvis utpote Gentilis praetereat, quod ex otio nascitur peccatum. Qui tamen gloriabundus, alio loco & cuiusdam infantuli adulatoriis vacans blanditiis, pro magna felicitate spontaneas divitias inter cetera promittit: Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista, / Incultusque rubens pendebit sentibus uva, / Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella. Et reliqua. Sed non mirum de hoc nullius bonae professionis homine ethnico, cum & plerique nominis Christiani professores fuerint, qui non ignorantes saturitatem panis & otium, peccatum fuisse Sodomorum, mille annos Christo futuros esse praedicaverunt, dicentes, tunc nobis centupla omnium rerum quas dimisimus, carnaliter esse reddenda: non recogitantes, quod si in ceteris digna sit retributio, in uxoribus appareat turpitudo, ut qui unam pro Domino dimiserit, centum recipiat in futuro.

'And in the following chapter: Therefore it is not of angry justice but of merciful grace, that God willed vitiated man to be mortal, and meanwhile, while he lives, to eat his bread in labors — namely, that before the day of judgment comes, on which, together with the ancient sinner, all the wicked are to be condemned, some may come to their senses, taught by labors and pains and at last by death itself, so that even vexation alone may give understanding to the hearing. Which a certain philosopher of the Gentiles too, Plotinus, perceiving, and reasonably judging mortality useful to men, says: Then the merciful Father was framing for them mortal bodies. So deeply did he perceive this to be expedient, that he asserted God to be merciful in this, that he willed men to be mortal. Furthermore, of those who, not even afflicted with so many stripes of fatherly discipline, come to their senses, the damnation is just, because the fault is inexcusable. For what more should God do to restrain them from evils? Concerning which he says: Wherein shall I strike you further, you who add transgression? Your land is deserted, and your cities burned with fire; strangers devour your region before you, and it shall be made desolate as in hostile devastation. When he says these things through the Prophet, he plainly hints at this: that he has struck the whole human race, and struck it at last with death itself, so that they might not, like the immortal devil, add transgression, but rather flee from the pride of the ancient transgression through the humility of penitence.'¹⁰

Et capite sequenti: Igitur non irata iustitiae sed miserationis est gratiae, quod vitiatum hominem, Deus mortalem esse, & interim dum vivit in laboribus pane suo vesci voluit, ut videlicet antequam veniret dies iudicii, quo cum peccatore antiquo damnandi sunt omnes iniqui, resipiscant aliqui laboribus & doloribus tandemque ipsa morte eruditi, quatenus vel sola vexatio det intellectum auditui. Quod Gentilium quoque quidam philosophus Plotinus sentiens, & rationabiliter utilem esse arbitratus hominibus mortalitatem, Tunc Pater, inquit, misericors mortalia illis condebat corpora. Adeo hoc expedire persensit, ut Deum in eo misericordem assereret, quod homines mortales esse voluit. Porro illorum, qui nec tantis paterna disciplina verberibus afflicti resipiscunt damnatio iusta est, quia culpa inexcusabilis est. Quid enim ultra faciat Deus, ut eos a malis coerceat? Super quo, inquit, percutiam vos ultra, addentes praevaricationem? Terra vestra deserta, & civitates vestrae succensae igni: Regionem vestram coram vobis alieni devorant, & desolabitur sicut in vastitate hostili: Haec cum per Prophetam dicit, profecto illud patenter innuit, quod & universum genus humanum & ipsa tandem morte percusserit, ut non, sicut immortalis diabolus, adderent praevaricationem, sed potius ab antiquae praevaricationis superbia per humilitatem poenitentiae refugerent.

'To this end serves also that he willed the day or hour of this same death to be unknown to man, so that, while it is not known when it will be — which without doubt will be — it may always render him solicitous, and, always apprehensive, not suffer him to be proud. For he said indefinitely, Until you return to the earth from which you were taken; and he did not say, up to so many years, or so many days, which passed you shall at once return to the earth from which you were taken. Thus, therefore, he willed man to live as if to be judged the next day, and to render an account of his own deeds. And see how terribly he rebukes the man who unjustly reckoned himself to be like God, and sets him against his own face by saying, Because you are dust, and to dust you shall return. By the stroke of this sentence nature is so affected that among men of old, in the utmost affliction, it was customary, as the greatest instrument of grief, to sprinkle their heads with ashes. But this recollection of one's own condition then usefully discloses itself, when it proceeds from wise humility, after the example of father Abraham saying, I will speak to my Lord...'¹¹

Ad hoc valet & illud, quod eiusdem mortis diem vel horam homini incognitam esse voluit, ut dum nescitur quando sit, quae sine dubio futura est; semper sollicitum reddat, semperque suspectum superbire non sinat. Dixit enim indefinite, Donec revertaris in terram, de qua sumptus es: & non dixit, usque ad tot annos, vel tot dies, quibus transactis statim reverteris in terram de qua sumptus es. Ita ergo vivere hominem voluit, quasi altera die iudicandum, & rationem de propriis factis redditurum. Et vide quam terribiliter hominem qui existimavit inique quod esset Deo similis, arguat, & statuat eum contra faciem suam dicendo, Quia pulvis es, & in pulvere reverteris. Huius sententiae percussione adeo natura sentit, ut hominibus antiquitus in summa afflictione pro maximo doloris instrumento capita cinere aspergere solenne fuerit. Verum haec propriae conditionis recordatio, tunc utiliter se aperit, cum ex sapienti humilitate procedit, iuxta exemplum patris Abrahae dicentis, Loquar ad Domi...