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V ers. 7.— Sit nox illa solitaria, nec laude digna. 39. Nulla excusando exaggeremus.—Sunt non- nulli, qui non solum nequaquam deflent quod faciunt, sed etiam laudare et defendere non desistunt. Et ni- mirum dum defenditur culpa, geminatur. Contra quod recte per quemdam dicitur: Peccasti, ne adji- cias iterum ( Eccli. xxi, 1). Peccatum quippe peccato adjicit, qui male gesta etiam defendit; et noctem so- litariam non relinquit, qui culpae suae tenebris etiam patrocinia defensionis adjungit. Hinc est, quod pri- mus homo de erroris sui nocte requisitus, eamdem noctem esse solitariam noluit; quia dum requisitione ad poenitentiam vocaretur, ei adminicula excusatio- nis adjunxit, dicens:
第七節——願那夜孤寂，不配得稱讚。三十九、我們不可用辯解加重罪過。——有些人不但決不為自己所行的哀哭，甚至不停地稱讚並辯護它。而無疑地，當過犯被辯護時，它便加倍。針對這事，藉著某人恰當地說：「你犯了罪嗎？不要再犯」（便西拉智訓二十一1）。因為凡連自己所行的惡也加以辯護的，就是罪上加罪；凡在自己過犯的黑暗上又加上辯護之庇護的，就沒有留那夜孤寂。由此可見，那頭一個人，當他被查問他錯誤的黑夜時，不願那同一的夜成為孤寂；因為當他藉著查問被召去悔改時，他卻加上辯解的支柱，說：
Verse 7.— Let that night be solitary, and not worthy of praise. 39. Let us not aggravate anything by excusing.— There are some who not only by no means bewail what they do, but even do not cease to praise and defend it. And assuredly, while a fault is defended, it is doubled. Against which it is rightly said through a certain one: 'You have sinned; add not again' (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). For he adds sin to sin who even defends his evil deeds; and he does not leave the night solitary who adds also the patronage of defence to the darkness of his fault. Hence it is that the first man, when questioned concerning the night of his error, was unwilling that that same night should be solitary; because, while by questioning he was being called to penance, he added to it the props of excuse, saying:
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Mulier, quam dedisti b mihi so- ciam, dedit mihi de ligno, et comedi ( Genes. iii, 12); scilicet excessus sui vitium in auctorem latenter in- torquens, ac si diceret: Tu occasionem delinquendi praebuisti, qui mulierem dedisti. Hinc est, quod hu- jus erroris ramus in humano genere ex illa nunc us- que radice 120 protrahitur, ut quod male agitur, adhuc etiam defendatur. Dicat ergo: Sit nox illa so- titaria, nec laude digna. Ac si aperte exoret, dicens: Culpa, quam fecimus, sola remaneat, ne dum lauda- tur et defenditur, in conspectu nos nostri judicis multiplicius astringat. Peccare quidem non debuimus; sed utinam alia non jungentes, vel ea quae fecimus sola deseramus. 40.
「你所賜給我、與我作伴的女人，把那樹上的果子給我，我就吃了」（創世記三12）；就是暗暗地把自己越軌的過失轉回到那位造物主身上，彷彿他說：你提供了犯罪的機會，因為你賜下了那女人。由此可見，這錯誤的一枝從那根源上，在人類中被引伸出來，直到如今，以致所行的惡至今仍被辯護。所以願它說：「願那夜孤寂，不配得稱讚。」彷彿明白地懇求，說：願我們所犯的過犯獨自存留，免得當它被稱讚並被辯護時，在我們審判者眼前更多重地捆綁我們。我們固然本不該犯罪；但但願我們不再加添別的罪，至少單單撇棄我們所已行的。四十。
'The woman whom You gave me as a companion, gave me of the tree, and I ate' (Genesis 3:12); namely, secretly twisting the fault of his own excess back upon the Author, as if he said: You furnished the occasion of transgressing, You who gave the woman. Hence it is that a branch of this error is drawn out in the human race from that root even until now, so that what is done wickedly is still even defended. Let it therefore say: 'Let that night be solitary, and not worthy of praise.' As if it plainly entreated, saying: Let the fault which we have committed remain alone, lest, while it is praised and defended, it bind us the more manifoldly in the sight of our judge. We ought indeed not to have sinned; but would that, joining no others to it, we might at least forsake alone those things which we have done. 40.
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Culpam suam veraciter insequitur, qui prospe- ritatem saeculi calcat.—Sed inter haec sciendum est, quia ille culpam suam veraciter insequitur, qui jam ad amorem praesentis saeculi nullo appetitu prosperitatis instigatur; qui hujus mundi blandimenta quam sint fraudulenta considerat, favoresque ejus quasi quas- dam persecutiones pensat. Unde et bene subditur:
惟有踐踏今世興旺的人，才真正追討自己的過犯。——但在這些事中間必須知道，惟有那如今不被任何對興旺的貪慾煽動去愛今世的人，才真正追討自己的過犯；他思量這世界的種種諂媚是何等的虛詐，並把它的恩寵看作彷彿某種逼迫。因此經上也美好地接著說：
He truly pursues his own fault who tramples on the prosperity of the world.— But amid these things it must be known that he truly pursues his own fault who is now, by no appetite of prosperity, incited to the love of the present world; who considers how fraudulent are the allurements of this world, and weighs its favours as if they were certain persecutions. Whence it is also well subjoined: