The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

¹⁵ “And man though he was in honour perceived not, he was compared to the beasts without sense, and was made like to them”....They ought, on the contrary, to have made ready for themselves an eternal house in good works, to have made ready for themselves everlasting life, to have sent before them expenditure, to have followed their works, to have ministered to a needy companion, to have given to him with whom they were walking, not to have despised Christ covered with sores before their gate, who has said, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me.” However, “man being in honour has not understood.” What is, “being in honour”? Being made after the image and likeness of God, man is preferred to beasts. For God has not so made man as He made a beast: but God has made man for beasts to minister to: is it to his strength then, and not to his understanding? Nay. But he “understood not;” and he who was made after the image of God, “is compared to the beasts without sense, and is made like them.” Whence it is said elsewhere, “Be not like to horse and mule, in which there is no understanding.”