1 Be ye not many masters, my brethren, knowing that you receive the greater judgment.
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VERS. 1.-- *Be ye not many masters.* As I have admonished you to do works, so I admonish you to shun foolish masterships. *Be ye not many.* There were many in the times of the apostles who, coming down from Judaea to Antioch, not well instructed in the law of the faith, taught that believers from among the Gentiles ought to be circumcised, and brought in other errors, which brought upon the true preachers no small labour of controversy. These therefore he removes from the office of the word, lest they hinder the true preachers. *Greater.* He who, being unlearned, usurps the office of teaching, and announces Christ not sincerely, deserves a greater damnation than if he alone should perish by his own wickedness; as, on the contrary, he who ministers well acquires for himself a good degree.
2 For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man. He is able also with a bridle to lead about the whole body.
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VERS. 2.-- *In many things.* Truly it is perilous to wish to be set over the rest, because not only you who are less instructed, but we all preachers, even the greater, offend in many things, some by teaching ill, and others by living ill, and in other ways. The blessed Apostle numbers himself with them, that he may reprove the more freely. The just man offends in one way, the wicked in another; the just man by the frailty of the flesh, and he does not cease to be just, whence Solomon: *Seven times in the day shall the just man fall and shall rise again;* as the offence is daily, so daily is the remedy of prayers and of good works, but the wicked fall down into evil. *If any man.* He wishes to show the unavoidable offence of the word, that he may deter the unskilled, lest they desire preferment: because he who desires to be set over others must be more perfect than the rest, lest he offend when he ought to profit; but the unskilled are not able not to offend in preaching. *Offendeth not in word.* In that word, namely, whose offence human frailty is able to avoid. As the word of guile, of detraction, of pride, of boasting, and also of idle and superfluous speech, *he is a perfect man.*
3 For if we put bits into the mouths of horses, that they may obey us: and we turn about their whole body.
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VERS. 3.-- *But if we put bits into the mouths of horses.* Into our own mouths much more ought we to put them. Certain books have: *But as bits to horses,* and it is thus joined to what follows: *But as we put bits into the mouths of horses, so the tongue also is indeed a little member, and exalteth great things.*
4 Behold also ships, whereas they are great and are driven by strong winds, yet are they turned about with a small helm, whithersoever the force of the governor willeth.
5 Even so the tongue is indeed a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood.
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VERS. 5.-- *And exalteth great things.* Rewards, if the impulse of him that directs governs it well; if ill, it exalts great destruction for itself and for its own, whence Solomon: *Death and life are in the hands of the tongue*. It exalts life, if it teaches the Church well; death, if ill. For the matter is against those who, destitute both of life and of knowledge, presumed to teach. Great things therefore does that tongue exalt which, despising the words and the meanings of others, singularly boasts itself wise and eloquent. Against which: *Do not multiply to speak lofty things, glorying.* *Behold how great a fire.* So too an incontinent tongue makes a great matter of good works to perish, and so, since it is almost impossible that the sin of the tongue be avoided even by the perfect, not everyone ought to seek the mastership.
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by hell.
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VERS. 6.-- *The universality of iniquity.* He says universality, because through it almost all crimes are either contrived, as robberies, ravishments: or are perpetrated, as perjuries, false testimonies: or are defended, as when any impure man, by excusing the wickedness he has committed, feigns the good which he has not done. *Which defileth the whole body.* And because the tongue is such, it defiles the whole body, and makes it be reckoned unclean in the sight of God, and therefore it is a grave thing to undergo the mastership: because *it is set among our members,* it is one of our members, exceedingly near to us. *It inflameth the wheel,* etc. It defiles the whole course of temporal life, etc., *as far as* it compels to bring it to effect through the other members.
7 For every nature of beasts and of birds and of serpents and of the rest is tamed and hath been tamed, by the nature of man.
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VERS. 7.-- *For every nature of beasts,* etc. We read in Pliny that a most savage asp in Egypt was tamed by a certain householder, and, going forth daily from its cavern, was wont to receive its allowance from his table. We read in Marcellinus that a tigress, made tame, was sent from India to the emperor Anastasius.
8 But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison.
9 By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men who are made after the likeness of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
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VERS. 10.-- *Out of the same mouth proceedeth.* Others, seeing what we do, are led on by our example, so that they likewise bless and curse. *It ought not.* Truly it ought not to be that with the same mouth we bless concerning the head and curse concerning the members, because by the bitterness of cursing the sweetness of blessing is consumed.
11 Doth a fountain send forth, out of the same hole, sweet and bitter water?
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VERS. 11.-- *Doth a fountain.* The preacher must sometimes use bitter preaching, by withdrawing, by rebuking. Which is difficult enough, that with different words tending to the same end he should be able to do both.
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear grapes? Or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet.
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VERS. 12.-- *Can, brethren.* It cannot come to pass that a teacher be a fig tree by the sweetness of the beatitude to which he exhorts, and use sweet words, and that he be a vine, making men forget all temporal things, for which it behoves to use harsh ones: this therefore is difficult. *So neither can the salt water make sweet water,* that is, a preacher sharply biting the manners of others cannot in the same teaching be sweet to those same men.
13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge, among you? Let him shew, by a good contestation, his work in the meekness of wisdom.
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VERS. 13.-- *Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?* Those being confuted who have neither holiness of life nor continence of tongue, he admonishes those who seemed to themselves wise, or even were so, that they should show wisdom rather by living in discipline than by teaching others, because he who is more inclined to teaching than to doing sometimes incurs boasting, or contention, or envy against other teachers, and many other evils.
14 But if you have bitter zeal, and there be contention in your hearts: glory not and be not liars against the truth.
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VERS. 14.-- *And be liars against the truth.* Do not lie to God, to whom in baptism you promised to renounce the pomps of the devil, which you do not do when you wish to be proud of good things.
15 For this is not wisdom, descending from above: but earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and contention is: there is inconstancy and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.
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VERS. 17.-- *But that which.* This is the meekness which he commanded above was to be had, contrary to bitterness of zeal and to contentions. *First indeed it is chaste.* Unless chastity first sit in the mind, no perfection will follow in the work. *Easy to be persuaded, consenting to good things.* If he does aught the less, whether through ignorance or through negligence, he yields assent to the persuasion of good men.
18 And the fruit of justice is sown in peace, to them that make peace.
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VERS. 18.-- *But the fruit.* After he had distinguished wisdom through the several virtues; that he may the more easily invite to it, he subjoins its fruit: *It is sown in peace.* He does not demand to seem more learned or more holy than he is: he does not tear his neighbour for his own commendation, which contentious wisdom does. Not only for the aforesaid things ought a man to seek wisdom of this sort, but also for this; because by those who make peace, as by those who cast it, this seed is sown, and there is prepared in peace the fruit of eternal blessedness, that is the reward of justice, which is repaid for just works. He therefore who here is zealous for peace, and sprinkles the ground of his heart with the works of peace as with seed, it is just that he should have eternal peace, as the fruit of this seed.