No one violates general justice unless he transgresses out of lust against either what human society has agreed upon—as with theft, robbery, adultery, incest, and the like; or against nature—as with insult, slaughter, murder, intercourse between males or with beasts; or against measure in things that are permitted—as with beating a slave or a son more than one ought, eating or drinking more than one ought, having intercourse with one's own wife more than one ought, and similar things.

It is rightly understood that the Holy Spirit first gave to human beings the gift of tongues—languages that were established by human compact and agreement and are learned externally, through the bodily senses, by the habit of hearing—in order to show how easily he could make people wise through the wisdom of God, which is inward to them.

1. Again, the will of the eternal Word is always stable, because it possesses all things at once; but our will does not stand firm, because it does not possess all things at once, and so we will now this, now that.

2. Again, all the things that have been made were in that Word, and the very assumption of a human nature was foreknown by him in this way: just as if a painter wishes to paint an entire house and thinks of, or knows, the place where he ought also to paint himself, he has the whole thing in his art, in his preparation, and in his will, even though he carries each part out at its own definite times. So every creature, and the very man who was mystically and in an indescribable assumption to bear the person of that same Wisdom, was always in that Wisdom—as in the eternal art of God—even though he brings about each thing at its own times. This Wisdom reaches mightily from one end to the other and orders all things sweetly (Wis 8:1), and while remaining in herself, makes all things new (Wis 7:27).

3. Again, how do I will to will to die, if I had come to will to die in such a way? Whoever already has sound faith and sees where he must arrive thereby makes such progress that he gladly departs from this life. For to see where one must arrive is not the same as also to love that goal and to desire to be there already. And in whomever this has been brought about in his mind, he must necessarily die gladly.

In vain, then, do some say—those who already hold sound faith—that they are unwilling to die so that they may make progress, since their very progress is perfected in this, that they should be willing to die. If, therefore, they wish to speak truly, let them not say, "I am unwilling to die so that I may make progress," but, "I am unwilling to die because I have made little progress." And so, for the faithful, to be unwilling to die is not a counsel that they should make progress, but a sign that they have made little progress. Accordingly, let them will what they are unwilling for—namely, to be perfect—and they are perfect.

4. On what is said in the Ecclesiasticus of Solomon: the stomach will take in any food, yet one food is better than another (Sir 36:18). It is as though he were saying what the Apostle says: test everything; hold fast what is good (1 Thess 5:21). As the palate tastes the food of the hunt, so an understanding heart tastes lying words (Sir 36:19). Just as food caught by the labor of the hunt is pleasant, so it is pleasant to the heart to catch out and refute lies. A perverse heart will cause grief, and a man of experience will resist it (Sir 36:20). Like this is the saying: as for a man who is a heretic, after one admonition have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a man is perverse and sinful and is self-condemned (Tit 3:10-11). For one resists with a perverse heart the grief by which the love of good people grieves over him.

5. A woman will receive any male, yet one daughter is better than another (Sir 36:21). The woman who receives any male is understood to mean those who say: I belong to Paul, but I to Apollos, and I to Cephas (1 Cor 1:12). The better daughter is understood to mean those who say: but I belong to Christ (1 Cor 1:12). She it is who is spoken of in the Song of Songs: his beloved among the daughters is as a lily among thorns (Song 2:2).

6. On what is said in Proverbs: my son, if you are wise, you will be wise for yourself and for your neighbors; but if you turn out evil, you alone will drain the cup of evils (Prov 9:12). For the joy that good brothers have over a good brother is a good joy; and the grief that out of love they take on over a bad brother is not evil for them, because thereby too they please God. And so he alone will drain the cup of evils who is evil.

7. On what is written in Deuteronomy: if brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no offspring, the wife of the dead man shall not marry outside the family to a man who is not a kinsman; but her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife, and she shall be married to him; and it shall be that the child who is born will be reckoned under the name of the deceased, and his name will not be blotted out from Israel. But if that man is unwilling to take his brother's wife, that woman shall go to the elders of that city and say, "My husband's brother is unwilling to raise up his brother's name in Israel." And the elders of that city shall summon him and say to him, "Why are you unwilling to raise up your brother's offspring in Israel?" And he shall stand and say, "I am unwilling to take her." And his brother's wife, drawing near in the presence of the elders of the city, shall remove one sandal from his foot and spit in his face, and answering shall say to him, "So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house." And his name shall be called in Israel "the house of him whose sandal was removed." (Deut 25:5-10)

The wife of the deceased is the Church, whom Christ left behind in those first faithful, and through death and resurrection he ascended to the Father. That she might bear children, she was joined to the apostles and to the rulers of the various Churches. For in the Gospel he himself calls the apostles his brothers, who, laboring in her, were to raise up offspring not for themselves but for their deceased brother, from whose name too those would be called Christians who were born to their fathers the apostles through the Gospel. For in Christ Jesus, says Paul, I begot you through the Gospel (1 Cor 4:15). Yet he, in order to preserve the name of the deceased, says: was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:13) But whoever refuses this work of mercy and is unwilling to build up his brother's house unto the increase of posterity—as the same Apostle says, you are God's building (1 Cor 3:9)—it is commanded through this figure that the Church spurn such a one who refuses so holy and pious a work, and count his person contemptible. For this is what is meant by the widow's spitting in the face of the man who refused her marriage. And that she loosed the sandal from one of his feet—this was to show that he does not have steps that are in accord, in the bond of peace. For it is written: how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim peace, who proclaim good things (Isa 52:7). And the Apostle says: and your feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace (Eph 6:15).

8. 1. On what is written: you shall not boil a lamb in its mother's milk (Exod 23:19; 34:26; Deut 14:21). You shall not kill Christ; for the prophecy seems to give warning beforehand, lest good Israelites associate themselves with the wicked Jews by whom Christ suffered. For the tribulation of the passion is like a fire, whence it is written: like gold in the furnace he tested them, and like a sacrificial whole-burnt offering he received them (Wis 3:6). To this saying the Lord also bears witness, saying: I have a baptism to be baptized with that you do not know (See Luke 12:50). For he said this when he had said: I came to cast fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). For John says: he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (See Matt 3:11), which is understood both of the purification of sanctification and of the testing of tribulation. He himself signified this same fire also when he was being led to the Passion, where he said to those who were bewailing him that they ought rather to bewail themselves, for he concluded thus, saying: if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? (Luke 23:31)

The good, therefore, are warned not to consent with the wicked to the crucifying of Christ. For he was called the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). You shall not, therefore, boil a lamb in its mother's milk (Exod 23:19; 34:26; Deut 14:21); you shall not inflict on Christ the fire of the passion on that day on which he was conceived; for then too he is handed down to have suffered, that is, on the eighth day before the Kalends of April, from which day until the eighth day before the Kalends of January, on which his birth is commemorated, nine months are reckoned, with the tenth begun. And women's breasts are said to gather milk from the day of conception.

8. 2. But there is another, easier sense. You shall not boil a lamb in its mother's milk (Exod 23:19; 34:26; Deut 14:21); one still little and suckling—such as those of whom the Apostle says, I gave you milk to drink, not solid food (1 Cor 3:2)—you shall not thrust into a premature passion; as though it were said to Christ, who spared disciples who were still such, offering himself for them, saying: if, then, you seek me, let these go their way (John 18:8). And so that it might be understood that they were still weak and less fit for suffering, like lambs in their mother's milk, the Evangelist went on to say: that the word might be fulfilled which he had spoken, 'Of those whom you gave me I lost not one.' (John 18:9) From which it appears that, if they had then suffered, they would have perished; for they did not then suffer what they suffered afterward, being not yet lambs in the milk, but now rams in the flock.