{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4173","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":7,"chapter_to":7,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":11,"verse_to":11},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Jerome</b>: \"Do not<br/>ask,' what is the cause that the former days were better than these?' For you do not enquire wisely about<br/>this. \"Do not prefer the previous age to this one, since God<br/>created both one and the other. Virtues<br/>create good days for man, and vices make bad days. Do not say therefore that the days were<br/>better in the time of Moses and Christ, than now they are. For even in that time there were more<br/>disbelievers and their days were made wicked by this; now there are more believers,<br/>about whom the Saviour said, \"more blessed are they, who did not see or<br/>believe\" [Ioh. 20, 29.]. Or differently: thus you ought to live so<br/>that the days that you live in are always better than those passed, lest you<br/>begin to decrease little by little, it should then be said to you, \"you<br/>did run well, who hindered you that you should not have obeyed the truth?\" [Gal. 5. 7.];<br/>and again: \"you who began in spirit are now consumed by flesh\" [Gal. 3. 3.]. Or another meaning of this: do not say that<br/>the times of old are better than now, those of Moses better than Christ, that<br/>they were more lawful than full of grace. <br/>For if you were to ask this, you would do it unwisely, not seeing how<br/>much the Gospel differs from the Old Testament.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"6db9fc6c8f69f8b4afbcc55da7ab0bd313b00006c3c8a0191edff001c288fe89","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4173,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"04d01bf2d058b88637f0514c43e375376185a8424ded8ffa3234da67f954ff34","translator":null,"work":null}