Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) — Chapter 38

Honour the physician for the need thou hast of him; for the Most High hath created him. Medicine is a divine gift and the physician's art a sacred calling. Lapide refutes those who distrust medicine as contrary to faith, citing multiple Scripture texts and the tradition that God is the source of all healing.

The Most High hath created medicines out of the earth; and a wise man will not abhor them. God has embedded medicinal properties in the natural world for man's use. Lapide draws from Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen as well as Scripture to show that natural medicine and divine Providence work together.

Son, in thy sickness neglect not thyself, but pray to the Lord, and He shall heal thee. The sick man should pray first and seek medical help as a cooperating cause. Lapide expounds the proper ordering of supernatural and natural remedies: prayer first, then medicine as a secondary instrument in God's hands.

My son, shed tears over a dead man, and begin to lament, as if thou hadst suffered some great harm; and according to judgment cover his body. Appropriate mourning for the dead: tears, lament, and proper burial. Lapide discusses the virtue of pietas toward the dead and the theological significance of burial as anticipating the resurrection.

Give not thy heart to sadness, but drive it away from thee; and remember the latter end. Excessive and prolonged grief must be resisted. Lapide cites medical and spiritual authorities: grief unchecked kills the body and darkens the soul; the memory of one's own death should redirect the grieving heart toward God.

The wisdom of a scribe cometh by his time of leisure; and he that hath little business shall become wise. Wisdom requires leisure for study and contemplation: the scholar must be freed from manual labor. Lapide defends the dignity of the contemplative intellectual life against those who would reduce all value to practical production.