Eclesiastes 5
John Cassian · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Eclesiastes 5:4
This will be fulfilled in this way by each one of us. We pray when we renounce this world and promise that being dead to all worldly actions and the life of this world we will serve the Lord with full purpose of heart. We pray when we promise that despising secular honors and scorning earthly riches we will cling to the Lord in all sorrow of heart and humility of spirit. We pray when we promise that we will always maintain the most perfect purity of body and steadfast patience, or when we vow that we will utterly remove from our heart the roots of anger or sorrow that bring about death. And if weakened by sloth and returning to our former sins we fail to do this, we shall be guilty as regards our prayers and vows, and these words will apply to us: "It is better not to vow than to vow and not to pay," which can be rendered in accordance with the Greek: "It is better for you not to pray than to pray and not to pay." — CONFERENCE 9:12
Eclesiastes 5:5
For as unbounded glory hereafter is promised to those who faithfully serve God and cleave to him according to the rule of this system, so the severest penalties are in store for those who have carried it out carelessly and coldly and have failed to show to him fruits of holiness corresponding to what they professed or what they were believed by people to be. For "it is better," as Scripture says, "that one should not vow rather than to vow and not pay"; and "Cursed is he that does the work of the Lord carelessly." — INSTITUTES 4:33