Wisdom And Counsel

Quid est: Ne innitaris sapientiae tuae?Quis enim innititur sapientiae suae? Ille qui sua sapientia, aut suis viribus confidit se posse implere divina mandata Ecce iterum dicit: Ne sis sapiens apud temetispsum. Quis enim sapiens apud semetipsum? Ille certe qui se prae caeteris extollit, quasi doctior, et jactat de his quae ex dictis Patrum recete cognoscere et intelligere potuit. Quae est vera sapientia? Dominum timere, et recedere a malo. Unde scis quod haec sit vera sapientia hominis? Quia in libro Job scriptum est: Ecce timor Domini, ipse est sapientia; et recedere a malo, intelligentia. Quis est homo ille de quo Salomon ait: Beatus homo invenit sapientiam? Qui doctrinam veritatis, id est Evangelli, aure corporis simul et cordis percipit, et in Scripturis sacris Domini voluntatem studet cognoscere. Quando affluit prudentia? Quando cum magno amore et sui cordis delectatione audit praecepta divina, et opere studet implere. Quid est quod ait: Viae ejus viae pulchrae et omnes semitae illius pacificae? Quae sunt istae semitae, aut quae sunt hae viae ipsius? Viae sapientiae sunt actiones Domini, quas gessit in carne, sive doctinae ipsius quae continentur in libris Evangeliorum; quae viae pulchrae sunt, quia divinae. Semitae sapientiae sunt mandata et praecepta Domini: quae semitae recte dicuntur pacificae, quia omnia praecepta Domini ad pacem aeternam perducunt. De qua lege, aut de quo consilio dicit Salomon, cum ait: Custodi legem meam atque consilium meum? De lege et consilio sapientiae Domini nostri Jesu Christi, quae est lex sapientiae, quae dicit: Si vis in gredi ad vitam, serva mandata: id est Non occides, Non moechaberis, Non furtum facies etc. Quid est quod ait: Abominatio Domini est omnis illusor? Quis est illusor? Qui verba Dei, quae cognoscit, implere contemnit. Illusor est haereticus, qui verba Dei perverse intelligendo et docendo corrumpit. Et ille est illusor, qui magna Dei promissa quasi parva despicit, et poenam aeternae damnationis quasi tolerabilem spernit. Iterum: Illusor est, qui suos proximos simplices et pauperes insultando contemnit. Omnes hos tales abominatur Dominus, et cum simplicibus est sermocinatio eius, quia illos gratia coelestis sapientiae illuminat, qui se nihil duplicitatis habent. Honorius Augustodunensis, Quaestiones Et Ad Easdem Responsiones In Duos Salomonis Libros, In Proverbia, Caput III Source: Migne PL 172.319a-b

What is 'Do not depend on your own wisdom?' 1 Who depends on his own wisdom? He who is confident that his own wisdom or ability is able to fulfill the Divine commandments. Behold, again he says, 'Do not be wise in your own eyes.' 2 Who is wise in his own eyes? Certainly he who exalts himself over others as one who is more learned, and who boasts about those things rightly said by the fathers which he knows and understands. What is true wisdom? To be in awe of the Lord, and to withdraw from evil. How do you know that this is the true wisdom of man? Because in the book of Job it is written: 'Behold the awe of the Lord, this is wisdom, and to withdraw from evil is understanding.' 3 Who is that man of whom Solomon says: 'Blessed is the man who finds wisdom.' ? 4 He who receives the teaching of truth, that is, the Gospels, both in the ear of the body and in the heart, and is eager to know the meaning of the Holy Scriptures of the Lord. When does 'prudence flourish' ? 4 When with great love and joy in his heart a man hears the Divine commands, and he is zealous to fulfill their works. Why is it said: 'Her ways are the ways of beauty and all her paths are peace?' 5 What are these paths, or what are these ways? The ways of wisdom are the deeds of the Lord which He performed in the flesh, or His teachings which are containted in the books of the Evangelists, which ways are beautiful because they are Divine. The paths of wisdom are the commands and precepts of the Lord, which paths are rightly named peaceful, because every command of the Lord leads to eternal peace. About what law or about what counsel does Solomon speak when he says, 'Keep my law and my counsel.' ? 6 About the law and counsel of the wisdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the law of wisdom, and which says: 'If you wish to enter into the way, keep the commandments; that is, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal etc.' 7 What is 'An abomination to the Lord is everyone who mocks.' Who is a mocker? 8 He is one who knows the words of God and scorns the fulfillment of them. The mocker is the heretic who corrupts the the words of God by a perverse understanding and teaching. And he is a mocker who looks down on the great promises of God as trivial things and the punishment of eternal damnation as something tolerable. Again, he is a mocker who with insults scorns his simple neighbours and the poor. All such men are an abomination to the Lord, 'and His conversation is with the simple,' 8 because the latter are illuminated with the grace of heavenly wisdom in which there is no deceit. Honorius of Autun, Questions and Answers on Two Books of Solomon, On Proverbs, Chapter 3 1 Prov 3.5 2 Prov 3.7 3 Job 27.28 4 Prov 3.13 5 Prov 3.17 6 Prov 3.21 7 Mt 19.17 8 Prov 3.32