Ambrose of Milan : Let no one then say, We have no portion in Jacob nor inheritance in Israel. Let no one say, I am not among the Clergy, for it is written, Give unto Levi his lots; and again David says that he who lieth in the midst among the lots ascends to heaven with spiritual wings. Say not of your God, He is grievous to us, nor of your place, it is not for our turn, since Scripture says, Leave not thy place: For the adversary would fain deprive thee of it, he would fain drive thee away, for he envies thee thy hopes and thy function. — Letter LXXXI, To Certain of the Clergy Basil of Caesarea : He who sins gives place to the devil, taking no heed of him who said, "Do not give place to the devil," or to Ecclesiastes, "If the spirit of him that has power ascends upon you, leave not your place." Let us, then, who are in the Lord and who, as much as we are able, observe closely his wonders, so draw joy to our hearts from the contemplation of them. — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 15:1 (Psalms 32) Cyril of Jerusalem : You alone are not the source of the trouble, but there is also one who instigates you, the accursed devil. He makes his suggestions to all, but he does not prevail by force over those who do not give way to him. Therefore Ecclesiastes says, "Should the anger of the ruler burst upon you, forsake not your place." If you shut your door, you will be out of his reach and he will not harm you. But if you are so careless as to admit the lustful thought, reflection will cause it to strike roots within you; it will capture your mind and drag you down into an abyss of sins. — Catechetical Lecture 2:3 Didymus the Blind : "If the anger of the ruler rises against you"—if he seems to have power over you, it is only because you have subjected yourself to him. For as "sin reigns in the mortal bodies" of those who want to "obey their passions," and as someone is ruled over if he is ruled by mammon and has focused his thinking on the desire for money, so he [the ruler] has power over the one who subjects himself as slave. — COMMENTARY ON Ecclesiastes 294:2 Jerome : We also read in Ecclesiastes, "If the spirit of him that has power, ascend upon your heart, leave not your place." From this it is clearly evident that we have committed a sin if we surrender our place to him who ascends upon us and if we have not cast down headlong the enemy ascending upon the walls. However, it seems to me that when you call down upon the heads of your brothers, that is to say, upon your slanderers, eternal fires with the devil, you are not so much dashing your brothers to the ground as you are elevating the devil, since he is to be punished in the same fires as Christians. — Against Rufinus 2.7 Jerome : "If the anger of a ruler flares up against you, do not leave your place, for defence appeases great offences. "Now the Scripture mentions the chief of that world, the creator of the darkness and he who toils for the sons of despair, whom the apostle also recalls. [Cfr. Eph. 2, 2; 6, 12.] For if he rises in our heart and the spirit of bad thoughts is wounded, we ought not to give way, but fight against the worst thoughts and free ourselves from the greatest sins, so that we do not fill our work with that thought, since it is one thing in thought, another in the deed of sinning. Reference to this great sin can also be found in the Psalm: "if they had not conquered me, I would be clean and purified from the greatest crime" [Ps. 18, 4.]. Symmachus translates the Hebrew word "marphe "as all the others do: "iama", that is, 'cleanliness' or 'neatness'. He has interpreted the meaning too, and he says, "if the spirit of a ruler defeats you, do not move from your place; since virtue wins over the greatest sin". That is, if the devil entices your mind and incites you to lust, do not follow the thought of sin and flattering desire, but stand firm and fast and extinguish the flame of desire with the cold of chastity. My Hebrew tutor suspected certain things about this passage for a reason I do not know. If you take any high-up position in the world, or are appointed a post higher than the other people, do not let go of your former works and start to forget your former virtues, or cease from your previous work, because the cure for sins is born out of doing good things, and not from pompous and overflowing rank. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes