1082:1
i. Error illorum qui in hominibus quod habent, non quod sunt, attendunt. — Ipsa humanae a conditionis qualitas indicat quam longe rebus cæteris praestat. Nam collata homini ratio asserit quantum omnia quae vel vita, vel sensu, vel ratione carent, natura rationalis antecedit. Et tamen, quia ab internis atque invisibilibus oculos claudimus, et visibilibus pascimus, plerumque hominem non ex eo quod ipse est, sed ex his quae circa ipsum sunt veneramur. Cumque non intuemur quid ipse sit, sed quid possit in acceptione personarum, non ex personis, sed ex rebus adjacentibus ducimur.
1. The error of those who attend, in men, to what they have, not to what they are. — The very quality of the human condition indicates how far it excels the other things. For the reason bestowed on man asserts how greatly the rational nature surpasses all things that lack either life, or sense, or reason. And yet, because we close our eyes to inward and invisible things, and feed them on visible things, we very often venerate a man not from that which he himself is, but from those things which are around him. And when we do not behold what he himself is, but what he can do in the respecting of persons, we are led not by the persons, but by the things adjacent to them.
1. 那些在人身上只看重他所有之物、而不看重他所是之人的錯誤。——人這境況的本質本身就指明它遠超其他一切之物。因為賜給人的理性斷言：有理性的本性遠遠超越一切缺乏生命、知覺或理性之物。然而，因為我們對內在而不可見之物閉目，卻以可見之物餵養眼目，我們往往尊崇一個人，不是憑他本身所是，而是憑他周圍之物。當我們不看他本身是甚麼，而看他在偏待人上能做甚麼時，我們就不是被人所引導，而是被他們身旁之物所引導。
1082:2
Sicque fit ut is quoque apud nos intus in despectionem veniat, qui foris honoratur, quia dum pro his quae circa illum sunt honorabilis habetur, rebus suis in examine nostro postponitur. Sed omnipotens Deus vitam hominum ex sola qualitate interrogat meritorum; et saepe inde plus punit, unde hic majora ad ministerium contulit, Veritate aMestante, quae ait: Cui multum datum est, b multum quceretur ab eo (Luc. XII, 48). Unde bene nunc per Eliu dicitur:
And so it comes about that even he too comes into contempt within us, who is honored without, because while he is held honorable on account of those things which are around him, in our examination he is postponed to his own possessions. But the Almighty God interrogates the life of men from the sole quality of their merits; and often he punishes more from thence, from whence here he conferred greater things for ministry, Truth bearing witness, which says: To whom much is given, much shall be required of him (Luke 12:48). Whence well is it now said through Elihu:
於是就發生這樣的事：連那在外面受尊敬的人，在我們裡面也受輕看，因為他既因周圍之物而被視為可尊敬的，在我們的察驗中，他就被置於自己所有之物之後。但全能的神惟從人功德的本質來查問人的生命；他往往從那在此賜下更大職事之處，反施更重的懲罰，正如真理所見證的，說：多給誰，就向誰多取（路加福音十二48）。因此如今藉以利戶說得好：