1. THERE are certain rules for the interpretation of Scripture which I think might with great advantage be taught to earnest students of the word, that they may profit not only from reading the works of others who have laid open the secrets of the sacred writings, but also from themselves opening such secrets to others. These rules I propose to teach to those who are able and willing to learn, if God our Lord do not withhold from me, while I write, the thoughts He is wont to vouchsafe to me in my meditations on this subject. But before I enter upon this undertaking, I think it well to meet the objections of those who are likely to take exception to the work, or who would do so, did I not conciliate them beforehand. And if, after all, men should still be found to make objections, yet at least they will not prevail with others (over whom they might have influence, did they not find them forearmed against their assaults), to turn them back from a useful study to the dull sloth of ignorance.
2. There are some, then, likely to object to this work of mine, because they have failed to understand the rules here laid down. Others, again, will think that I have spent my labor to no purpose, because, though they understand the rules, yet in their attempts to apply them and to interpret Scripture by them, they have failed to clear up the point they wish cleared up; and these, because they have received no assistance from this work themselves, will give it as their opinion that it can be of no use to anybody. There is a third class of objectors who either really do understand Scripture well, or think they do, and who, because they know (or imagine) that they have attained a certain power of interpreting the sacred books without reading any directions of the kind that I propose to lay down here, will cry out that such rules are not necessary for any one, but that everything rightly done towards clearing up the obscurities of Scripture could be better done by the unassisted grace of God.
3. To reply briefly to all these. To those who do not understand what is here set down, my answer is, that I am not to be blamed for their want of understanding. It is just as if they were anxious to see the new or the old moon, or some very obscure star, and I should point it out with my finger: if they had not sight enough to see even my finger, they would surely have no right to fly into a passion with me on that account. As for those who, even though they know and understand my directions, fail to penetrate the meaning of obscure passages in Scripture, they may stand for those who, in the case I have imagined, are just able to see my finger, but cannot see the stars at which it is pointed. And so both these classes had better give up blaming me, and pray instead that God would grant them the sight of their eyes. For though I can move my finger to point out an object, it is out of my power to open men's eyes that they may see either the fact that I am pointing, or the object at which I point.
4. But now as to those who talk vauntingly of Divine Grace, and boast that they understand and can explain Scripture without the aid of such directions as those I now propose to lay down, and who think, therefore, that what I have undertaken to write is entirely superfluous. I would such persons could calm themselves so far as to remember that, however justly they may rejoice in God's great gift, yet it was from human teachers they themselves learnt to read. Now, they would hardly think it right that they should for that reason be held in contempt by the Egyptian monk Antony, a just and holy man, who, not being able to read himself, is said to have committed the Scriptures to memory through hearing them read by others, and by dint of wise meditation to have arrived at a thorough understanding of them; or by that barbarian slave Christianus, of whom I have lately heard from very respectable and trustworthy witnesses, who, without any teaching from man, attained a full knowledge of the art of reading simply through prayer that it might be revealed to him; after three days' supplication obtaining his request that he might read through a book presented to him on the spot by the astonished bystanders.
5. But if any one thinks that these stories are false, I do not strongly insist on them. For, as I am dealing with Christians who profess to understand the Scriptures without any directions from man (and if the fact be so, they boast of a real advantage, and one of no ordinary kind), they must surely grant that every one of us learnt his own language by hearing it constantly from childhood, and that any other language we have learnt,--Greek, or Hebrew, or any of the rest,--we have learnt either in the same way, by hearing it spoken, or from a human teacher. Now, then, suppose we advise all our brethren not to teach their children any of these things, because on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the apostles immediately began to speak the language of every race; and warn every one who has not had a like experience that he need not consider himself a Christian, or may at least doubt whether he has yet received the Holy Spirit? No, no; rather let us put away false pride and learn whatever can be learnt from man; and let him who teaches another communicate what he has himself received without arrogance and without jealousy. And do not let us tempt Him in whom we have believed, lest, being ensnared by such wiles of the enemy and by our own perversity, we may even refuse to go to the churches to hear the gospel itself, or to read a book, or to listen to another reading or preaching, in the hope that we shall be carried up to the third heaven, "whether in the body or out of the body," as the apostle says,(1) and there hear unspeakable words, such as it is not lawful for man to utter, or see the Lord Jesus Christ and hear the gospel from His own lips rather than from those of men.
6. Let us beware of such dangerous temptations of pride, and let us rather consider the fact that the Apostle Paul himself, although stricken down and admonished by the voice of God from heaven, was yet sent to a man to receive the sacraments and be admitted into the Church;(2) and that Cornelius the centurion. although an angel announced to him that his prayers were heard and his alms had in remembrance, was yet handed over to Peter for instruction, and not only received the sacraments from the apostle's hands, but was also instructed by him as to the proper objects of faith, hope, and love.(3) And without doubt it was possible to have done everything through the instrumentality of angels, but the condition of our race would have been much more degraded if God had not chosen to make use of men as the ministers of His word to their fellow-men. For how could that be true which is written, "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are,"(4) if God gave forth no oracles from His human temple, but communicated everything that He wished to be taught to men by voices from heaven, or through the ministration of angels? Moreover, love itself, which binds men together in the bond of unity, would have no means of pouring soul into soul, and, as it were, mingling them one with another, if men never learnt anything from their fellow-men.
7. And we know that the eunuch who was reading Isaiah the prophet, and did not understand what he read, was not sent by the apostle to an angel, nor was it an angel who explained to him what he did not understand, nor was he inwardly illuminated by the grace of God without the interposition of man; on the contrary, at the suggestion of God, Philip, who did understand the prophet, came to him, and sat with him, and in human words, and with a human tongue, opened to him the Scriptures.(5) Did not God talk with Moses, and yet he, with great wisdom and entire absence of jealous pride, accepted the plan of his father-in-law, a man of an alien race, for ruling and administering the affairs of the great nation entrusted to him?(6) For Moses knew that a wise plan, in whatever mind it might originate, was to be ascribed not to the man who devised it, but to Him who is the Truth, the unchangeable God.
8. In the last place, every one who boasts that he, through divine illumination, understands the obscurities of Scripture, though not instructed in any rules of interpretation, at the same time believes, and rightly believes, that this power is not his own, in the sense of originating with himself, but is the gift of God. For so he seeks God's glory, not his own. But reading and understanding, as he does, without the aid of any human interpreter, why does he himself undertake to interpret for others? Why does he not rather send them direct to God, that they too may learn by the inward teaching of the Spirit without the help of man? The truth is, he fears to incur the reproach: "Thou wicked and slothful servant thou oughtest to have put my money to the exchangers."(1) Seeing, then, that these men teach others, either through speech or writing, what they understand, surely they cannot blame me if I likewise teach not only what they understand, but also the rules of interpretation they follow. For no one ought to consider anything as his own, except perhaps what is false. All truth is of Him who says, "I am the truth."(2) For what have we that we did not receive? and if we have received it, why do we glory, as if we had not received it?(3)
9. He who reads to an audience pronounces aloud the words he sees before him: he who teaches reading, does it that others may be able to read for themselves. Each, however, communicates to others what he has learnt himself. Just so, the man who explains to an audience the passages of Scripture he understands is like one who reads aloud the words before him. On the other hand, the man who lays down rules for interpretation is like one who teaches reading, that is, shows others how to read for themselves. So that, just as he who knows how to read is not dependent on some one else, when he finds a book, to tell him what is written in it, so the man who is in possession of the rules which I here attempt to lay down, if he meet with an obscure passage in the books which he reads, will not need an interpreter to lay open the secret to him, but, holding fast by certain rules, and following up certain indications, will arrive at the hidden sense without any error, or at least without falling into any gross absurdity. And so although it will sufficiently appear in the course of the work itself that no one can justly object to this undertaking of mine, which has no other object than to be of service, yet as it seemed convenient to reply at the outset to any who might make preliminary objections, such is the start I have thought good to make on the road I am about to traverse in this book.
CHAP. 1.--THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE
DEPENDS ON THE DISCOVERY AND ENUNCIATION OF THE MEANING, AND IS
TO BE UNDERTAKEN IN DEPENDENCE ON GOD'S AID.
1. THERE are two things on which all
interpretation of Scripture depends: the mode of ascertaining the
proper meaning, and the mode of making known the meaning when it
is ascertained. We shall treat first of the mode of ascertaining,
next of the mode of making known, the meaning;--a great and
arduous undertaking, and one that, if difficult to carry out, it
is, I fear, presumptuous to enter upon. And presumptuous it would
undoubtedly be, if I were counting on my own strength; but since
my hope of accomplishing the work rests on Him who has already
supplied me with many thoughts on this subject, I do not fear but
that He will go on to supply what is yet wanting when once I have
begun to use what He has already given. For a possession which is
not diminished by being shared with others, if it is possessed
and not shared, is not yet possessed as it ought to be possessed.
The Lord saith "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given."(1) He
will give, then, to those who have; that is to say, if they use
freely and cheerfully what they have received, He will add to and
perfect His gifts. The loaves in the miracle were only five and
seven in number before the disciples began to divide them among
the hungry people. But when once they began to distribute them,
though the wants of so many thousands were satisfied, they filled
baskets with the fragments that were left.(2) Now, just as that
bread increased in the very act of breaking it, so those thoughts
which the Lord has already vouchsafed to me with a view to
undertaking this work will, as soon as I begin to impart them to
others, be multiplied by His grace, so that, in this very work of
distribution in which I have engaged, so far from incurring loss
and poverty, I shall be made to rejoice in a marvellous increase
of wealth.
CHAP. 2.--WHAT A THING IS, AND WHAT A SIGN.
2. All instruction is either about things or
about signs; but things are learnt by means of signs. I now use
the word "thing" in a strict sense, to signify that which is
never employed as a sign of anything else: for example, wood,
stone, cattle, and other things of that kind. Not, however, the
wood which we read Moses cast into the bitter waters to make them
sweet,(3) nor the stone which Jacob used as a pillow,(4) nor the
ram which Abraham offered up instead of his son;(5) for these,
though they are things, are also signs of other things. There are
signs of another kind, those which are never employed except as
signs: for example, words. No one uses words except as signs of
something else; and hence may be understood what I call signs:
those things, to wit, which are used to indicate something else.
Accordingly, every sign is also a thing; for what is not a thing
is nothing at all. Every thing, however, is not also a sign. And
so, in regard to this distinction between things and signs, I
shall, when I speak of things, speak in such a way that even if
some of them may be used as signs also, that will not interfere
with the division of the subject according to which I am to
discuss things first and signs afterwards. But we must carefully
remember that what we have now to consider about things is what
they are in themselves, not what other things they are signs of.
CHAP. 3.--SOME THINGS ARE FOR USE, SOME FO
ENJOYMENT.
3. There are some things, then, which are to be
enjoyed, others which are to be used, others still which enjoy
and use. Those things which are objects of enjoyment make us
happy. Those things which are objects of use assist, and (so to
speak) support us in our efforts after happiness, so that we can
attain the things that make us happy and rest in them. We
ourselves, again, who enjoy and use these things, being placed
among both kinds of objects, if we set ourselves to enjoy those
which we ought to use, are hindered in our course, and sometimes
even led away from it; so that, getting entangled in the love of
lower gratifications, we lag behind in, or even altogether turn
back from, the pursuit of the real and proper objects of
enjoyment.
CHAP. 4.--DIFFERENCE OF USE AND ENJOYMENT.
4. For to enjoy a thing is to rest with
satisfaction in it for its own sake. To use, on the other hand,
is to employ whatever means are at one's disposal to obtain what
one desires, if it is a proper object of desire; for an unlawful
use ought rather to be called an abuse. Suppose, then, we were
wanderers in a strange country, and could not live happily away
from our fatherland, and that we felt wretched in our wandering,
and wishing to put an end to our misery, determined to return
home. We find, however, that we must make use of some mode of
conveyance, either by land or water, in order to reach that
fatherland where our enjoyment is to commence. But the beauty of
the country through which we pass, and the very pleasure of the
motion, charm our hearts, and turning these things which we ought
to use into objects of enjoyment, we become unwilling to hasten
the end of our journey; and becoming engrossed in a factitious
delight, our thoughts are diverted from that home whose delights
would make us truly happy. Such is a picture of our condition in
this life of mortality. We have wandered far from God; and if we
wish to return to our Father's home, this world must be used, not
enjoyed, that so the invisible things of God may be clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made,(6)--that is, that
by means of what is material and temporary we may lay hold upon
that which is spiritual and eternal.
CHAP. 5.--THE TRINITY THE TRUE OBJECT OF
ENJOYMENT.
5. The true objects of enjoyment, then, are the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are at the same time
the Trinity, one Being, supreme above all, and common to all who
enjoy Him, if He is an object, and not rather the cause of all
objects, or indeed even if He is the cause of all. For it is not
easy to find a name that will suitably express so great
excellence, unless it is better to speak in this way: The
Trinity, one God, of whom are all things, through whom are all
things, in whom are all things.(1) Thus the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit, and each of these by Himself, is God, and at
the same time they are all one God; and each of them by Himself
is a complete substance, and yet
they are all one substance. The Father is not the Son nor the
Holy Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit; the
Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son: but the Father is only
Father, the Son is only Son, and the Holy Spirit is only Holy
Spirit. To all three belong the same eternity, the same
unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power. In the Father
is unity, in the Son equality, in the Holy Spirit the harmony of
unity and equality; and these three attributes are all one
because of the Father, all equal because of the Son, and all
harmonious because of the Holy Spirit.
CHAP. 6.--IN WHAT SENSE GOD IS INEFFABLE.
6. Have I spoken of God, or uttered His praise,
in any worthy way? Nay, I feel that I have done nothing more than
desire to speak; and if I have said anything, it is not what I
desired to say. How do I know this, except from the fact that God
is unspeakable? But what I have said, if it had been unspeakable,
could not have been spoken. And so God is not even to be called
"unspeakable," because to say even this is to speak of Him. Thus
there arises a curious contradiction of words, because if the
unspeakable is what cannot be spoken of, it is not unspeakable if
it can be called unspeakable. And this opposition of words is
rather to be avoided by silence than to be explained away by
speech. And yet God, although nothing worthy of His greatness can
be said of Him, has condescended to accept the worship of men's
mouths, and has desired us through the medium of our own words to
rejoice in His praise. For on this principle it is that He is
called Dues (God). For the sound of those two syllables in itself
conveys no true knowledge of His nature; but yet all who know the
Latin tongue are led, when that sound reaches their ears, to
think of a nature supreme in excellence and eternal in existence.
CHAP. 7.--WHAT ALL MEN UNDERSTAND BY THE
TERM GOD.
7. For when the one supreme God of gods is
thought of, even by those who believe that there are other gods,
and who call them by that name, and worship them as gods, their
thought takes the form of an endeavor to reach the conception of
a nature, than which nothing more excellent or more exalted
exists. And since men are moved by different kinds of pleasures,
partly by those which pertain to the bodily senses, partly by
those which pertain to the intellect and soul, those of them who
are in bondage to sense think that either the heavens, or what
appears to be most brilliant in the heavens, or the universe
itself, is God of gods: or if they try to get beyond the
universe, they picture to themselves something of dazzling
brightness, and think of it vaguely as infinite, or of the most
beautiful form conceivable; or they represent it in the form of
the human body, if they think that superior to all others. Or if
they think that there is no one God supreme above the rest, but
that there are many or even innumerable gods of equal rank, still
these too they conceive as possessed of shape and form, according
to what each man thinks the pattern of excellence. Those, on the
other hand, who endeavor by an effort of the intelligence to
reach a conception of God, place Him above all visible and bodily
natures, and even above all intelligent and spiritual natures
that are subject to change. All, however, strive emulously to
exalt the excellence of God: nor could any one be found to
believe that any being to whom there exists a superior is God.
And so all concur in believing that God is that which excels in
dignity all other objects.
CHAP. 8.--GOD TO BE ESTEEMED ABOVE ALL ELSE,
BECAUSE HE IS UNCHANGEABLE WISDOM.
8. And since all who think about God think of Him
as living, they only can form any conception of Him that is not
absurd and unworthy who think of Him as life itself; and,
whatever may be the bodily form that has suggested itself to
them, recognize that it is by life it lives or does not live, and
prefer what is living to what is dead; who understand that the
living bodily form itself, however it may outshine all others in
splendor, overtop them in size, and excel them in beauty, is
quite a distinct thing from the life by which it is quickened;
and who look upon the life as incomparably superior in dignity
and worth to the mass which is quickened and animated by it.
Then, when they go on to look into the nature of the life itself,
if they find it mere nutritive life, without sensibility, such as
that of plants, they consider it inferior to sentient life, such
as that of cattle; and above this, again, they place intelligent
life, such as that of men. And, perceiving that even this is
subject to change, they are compelled to place above it, again,
that unchangeable life which is not at one time foolish, at
another time wise, but on the contrary is wisdom itself. For a
wise intelligence, that is, one that has attained to wisdom, was,
previous to its attaining wisdom, unwise. But wisdom itself never
was unwise, and never can become so. And if men never caught
sight of this wisdom, they could never with entire confidence
prefer a life which is unchangeably wise to one that is subject
to change. This will be evident, if we consider that the very
rule of truth by which they affirm the unchangeable life to be
the more excellent, is itself unchangeable: and they cannot find
such a rule, except by going beyond their own nature; for they
find nothing in themselves that is not subject to change.
CHAP. 9.--ALL ACKNOWLEDGE THE SUPERIORITY OF
UNCHANGEABLE WISDOM TO THAT WHICH IS VARIABLE.
9. Now, no one is so egregiously silly as to ask,
"How do you know that a life of unchangeable wisdom is preferable
to one of change?" For that very truth about which he asks, how I
know it? is unchangeably fixed in the minds of all men, and
presented to their common contemplation. And the man who does not
see it is like a blind man in the sun, whom it profits nothing
that the splendor of its light, so clear and so near, is poured
into his very eye-balls. The man, on the other hand, who sees,
but shrinks from this truth, is weak in his mental vision from
dwelling long among the shadows of the flesh. And thus men are
driven back from their native land by the contrary blasts of evil
habits, and pursue lower and less valuable objects in preference
to that which they own to be more excellent and more worthy.
CHAP. 10.--TO SEE GOD, THE SOUL MUST BE
PURIFIED.
10. Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to
enjoy the truth which lives unchangeably, and since the triune
God takes counsel in this truth for the things which He has made,
the soul must be purified that it may have power to perceive that
light, and to rest in it when it is perceived. And let us look
upon this purification as a kind of journey or voyage to our
native land. For it is not by change of place that we can come
nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of
pure desires and virtuous habits.
CHAP. 11.--WISDOM BECOMING INCARNATE, A
PATTERN TO US OF PURIFICATION.
11. But of this we should have been wholly
incapable, had not Wisdom condescended to adapt Himself to our
weakness, and to show us a pattern of holy life in the form of
our own humanity. Yet, since we when we come to Him do wisely, He
when He came to us was considered by proud men to have done very
foolishly. And since we when we come to Him become strong, He
when He came to us was looked upon as weak. But "the foolishness
of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger
than men."(1) And thus, though Wisdom was Himself our home, He
made Himself also the way by which we should reach our home.
CHAP. 12.--IN WHAT SENSE THE WISDOM OF GOD CAME
TO US.
And though He is everywhere present to the inner
eye when it is sound and clear, He condescended to make Himself
manifest to the outward eye of those whose inward sight is weak
and dim. "For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe."(2)
12. Not then in the sense of traversing space,
but because He appeared to mortal men in the form of mortal
flesh, He is said to have come to us. For He came to a place
where He had always been, seeing that "He was in the world, and
the world was made by Him." But, because men, who in their
eagerness to enjoy the creature instead of the Creator had grown
into the likeness of this world, and are therefore most
appropriately named "the world," did not recognize Him, therefore
the evangelist says, "and the world knew Him not."(3) Thus, in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Why then did
He come, seeing that He was already here, except that it pleased
God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe?
CHAP. 13.--THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH.
In what way did He come but this, "The Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us"?(1) Just as when we speak, in
order that what we nave in our minds may enter through the ear
into the mind of the hearer, the word which we have in our hearts
becomes an outward sound and is called speech; and yet our
thought does not lose itself in the sound, but remains complete
in itself, and takes the form of speech without being modified in
its own nature by the change: so the Divine Word, though
suffering no change of nature, yet became flesh, that He might
dwell among us.
CHAP. 14.--HOW THE WISDOM OF GOD HEALED
MAN.
13. Moreover, as the use of remedies is the way
to health, so this remedy took up sinners to heal and restore
them. And just as surgeons, when they bind up wounds, do it not
in a slovenly way, but carefully, that there may be a certain
degree of neatness in the binding, in addition to its mere
usefulness, so our medicine, Wisdom, was by His assumption of
humanity adapted to our wounds, curing some of them by their
opposites, some of them by their likes. And just as he who
ministers to a bodily hurt in some cases applies contraries, as
cold to hot, moist to dry, etc., and in other cases applies
likes, as a round cloth to a round wound, or an oblong cloth to
an oblong wound, and does not fit the same bandage to all limbs,
but puts like to like; in the same way the Wisdom of God in
healing man has applied Himself to his cure, being Himself healer
and medicine both in one. Seeing, then, that man fell through
pride, He restored him through humility. We were ensnared by the
wisdom of the serpent: we are set free by the foolishness of God.
Moreover, just as the former was called wisdom, but was in
reality the folly of those who despised God, so the latter is
called foolishness, but is true wisdom in those who overcome the
devil. We used our immortality so badly as to incur the penalty
of death: Christ used His mortality so well as to restore us to
life. The disease was brought in through a woman's corrupted
soul: the remedy came through a woman's virgin body. To the same
class of opposite remedies it belongs, that our vices are cured
by the example of His virtues. On the other hand, the following
are, as it were, bandages made in the same shape as the limbs and
wounds to which they are applied: He was born of a woman to
deliver us who fell through a woman: He came as a man to save us
who are men, as a mortal to save us who are mortals, by death to
save us who were dead. And those who can follow out the matter
more fully, who are not hurried on by the necessity of carrying
out a set undertaking, will find many other points of instruction
in considering the remedies, whether opposites or likes, employed
in the medicine of Christianity.
CHAP. 15.--FAITH IS BUTTRESSED BY THE
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST, AND IS STIMULATED BY HIS
COMING TO JUDGMENT.
14. The belief of the resurrection of our Lord
from the dead, and of His ascension into heaven, has strengthened
our faith by adding a great buttress of hope. For it clearly
shows how freely He laid down His life for
us when He had it in His power thus to take it up again. With
what assurance, then, is the hope of believers animated, when
they reflect how great He was who suffered so great things for
them while they were still in unbelief! And when men look for Him
to come from heaven as the judge of quick and dead, it strikes
great terror into the careless, so that they betake themselves to
diligent preparation, and learn by holy living to long for His
approach, instead of quaking at it on account of their evil
deeds. And what tongue can tell, or what imagination can
conceive, the reward He will bestow at the last, when we consider
that for our comfort in this earthly journey He has given us so
freely of His Spirit, that in the adversities of this life we may
retain our confidence in, and love for, Him whom as yet we see
not; and that He has also given to each gifts suitable for the
building up of His Church, that we may do what He points out as
right to be done, not only without a murmur, but even with
delight?
CHAP. 16.--CHRIST PURGES HIS CHURCH BY
MEDICINAL AFFLICTIONS.
15. For the Church is His body, as the apostle's
teaching shows us;(2) and it is even called His spouse.(3) His
body, then, which has many members, and all performing different
functions, He holds together in the bond of unity and love, which
is its true health. Moreover He exercises it in the present time,
and purges it with many wholesome afflictions, that when He has
transplanted it from this world to the eternal world, He may take
it to Himself as His bride, without spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing.
CHAP.17.--CHRIST, BY FORGIVING OUR SINS, OPENED
THE WAY TO OUR HOME.
16. Further, when we are on the way, and that not
a way that lies through space, but through a change of
affections, and one which the guilt of our past sins like a hedge
of thorns barred against us, what could He, who was willing to
lay Himself down as the way by which we should return, do that
would be still gracious and more merciful, except to forgive us
all our sins, and by being crucified for us to remove the stern
decrees that barred the door against our return?
CHAP. 18.--THE KEYS GIVEN TO THE CHURCH.
17. He has given, therefore, the keys to His
Church, that whatsoever it should bind on earth might be bound in
heaven, and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be, loosed
in heaven;(1) that is to say, that whosoever in the Church should
not believe that his sins are remitted, they should not be
remitted to him; but that whosoever should believe and should
repent, and turn from his sins, should be saved by the same faith
and repentance on the ground of which he is received into the
bosom of the Church. For he who does not believe that his sins
can be pardoned, falls into despair, and becomes worse as if no
greater good remained for him than to be evil, when he has ceased
to have faith in the results of his own repentance.
CHAP. 19.--BODILY AND SPIRITUAL DEATH AND
RESURRECTION.
18. Furthermore, as there is a kind of death of
the soul, which consists in the putting away of former habits and
former ways of life, and which comes through repentance, so also
the death of the body consists in the dissolution of the former
principle of life. And just as the soul, after it has put away
and destroyed by repentance its former habits, is created anew
after a better pattern, so we must hope and believe that the
body, after that death which we all owe as a debt contracted
through sin, shall at the resurrection be changed into a better
form;--not that flesh and blood shall inherit the kingdom of God
(for that is impossible), but that this corruptible shall put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.(2) And
thus the body, being the source of no uneasiness because it can
feel no want, shall be animated by a spirit perfectly pure and
happy, and shall enjoy unbroken peace.
CHAP. 20.--THE RESURRECTION TO DAMNATION.
19. Now he whose soul does not die to this world
and begin here to be conformed to the truth, falls when the body
dies into a more terrible death, and shall revive, not to change
his earthly for a heavenly habitation, but to endure the penalty
of his sin.
CHAP. 21.--NEITHER BODY NOR SOUL EXTINGUISHED
AT DEATH.
And so faith clings to the assurance, and we must
believe that it is so in fact, that neither the human soul nor
the human body suffers complete extinction, but that the wicked
rise again to endure inconceivable punishment, and the good to
receive eternal life.
CHAP. 22.--GOD ALONE TO BE ENJOYED.
20. Among all these things, then, those only are
the true objects of enjoyment which we have spoken of as eternal
and unchangeable. The rest are for use, that we may be able to
arrive at the full enjoyment of the former. We, however, who
enjoy and use other things are things ourselves. For a great
thing truly is man, made after the image and similitude of God,
not as respects the mortal body in which he is clothed, but as
respects the rational soul by which he is exalted in honor above
the beasts. And so it becomes an important question, whether men
ought to enjoy, or to use, themselves, or to do both. For we are
commanded to love one another: but it is a question whether man
is to be loved by man for his own sake, or for the sake of
something else. If it is for his own sake, we enjoy him; if it is
for the sake of something else, we use him. It seems to me, then,
that he is to be loved for the sake of something else. For if a
thing is to be loved for its own sake, then in the enjoyment of
it consists a happy life, the hope of which at least, if not yet
the reality, is our comfort in the present time. But a curse is
pronounced on him who places his hope in man.(1)
21. Neither ought any one to have joy in himself,
if you look at the matter clearly, because no one ought to love
even himself for his own sake, but for the sake of Him who is the
true object of enjoyment. For a man is never in so good a state
as when his whole life is a journey towards the unchangeable
life, and his affections are entirely fixed upon that. If,
however, he loves himself for his own sake, he does not look at
himself in relation to God, but turns his mind in upon himself,
and so is not occupied with anything that is unchangeable. And
thus he does not enjoy himself at his best, because he is better
when his mind is fully fixed upon, and his affections wrapped up
in, the unchangeable good, than when he turns from that to enjoy
even himself. Wherefore if you ought not to love even yourself
for your own sake, but for His in whom your love finds its most
worthy object, no other man has a right to be angry if you love
him too for God's sake. For this is the law of love that has been
laid down by Divine authority: "Thou shall love thy neighbor as
thyself;" but, "Thou shall love God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind:"(1) so that you are to
concentrate all your thoughts, your whole life and your whole
intelligence upon Him from whom you derive all that you bring.
For when He says, "With all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind," He means that no part of our life is to be
unoccupied, and to afford room, as it were, for the wish to enjoy
some other object, but that whatever else may suggest itself to
us as an object worthy of love is to be borne into the same
channel in which the whole current of our affections flows.
Whoever, then, loves his neighbor aright, ought to urge upon him
that he too should love God with his whole heart, and soul, and
mind. For in this way, loving his neighbor as himself, a man
turns the whole current of his love both for himself and his
neighbor into the channel of the love of God, which suffers no
stream to be drawn off from itself by whose diversion its own
volume would be diminished.
CHAP. 23.--MAN NEEDS NO INJUNCTION TO LOVE
HIMSELF AND HIS OWN BODY.
22. Those things which are objects of use are not
all, however, to be loved, but those only which are either united
with us in a common relation to God, such as a man or an angel,
or are so related to us as to need the goodness of God through
our instrumentality, such as the body. For assuredly the martyrs
did not love the wickedness of their persecutors, although they
used it to attain the favor of God. As, then, there are four
kinds of things that are to be loved,--first, that which is above
us; second, ourselves; third, that which is on a level with us;
fourth, that which is beneath us,--no precepts need be given
about the second and fourth of these. For, however far a man may
fall away from the truth, he still continues to love himself, and
to love his own body. The soul which flies away from the
unchangeable Light, the Ruler of all things, does so that it may
rule over itself and over its own body; and so it cannot but love
both itself and its own body.
23. Morever, it thinks it has attained something
very great if it is able to lord it over its companions, that is,
other men. For it is inherent in the sinful soul to desire above
all things, and to claim as due to itself, that which is properly
due to God only. Now such love of itself is more correctly called
hate. For it is not just that it should desire what is beneath it
to be obedient to it while itself will not obey its own superior;
and most justly has it been said, "He who loveth iniquity hateth
his own soul."(2) And accordingly the soul becomes weak, and
endures much suffering about the mortal body. For, of course, it
must love the body, and be grieved at its corruption; and the
immortality and incorruptibility of the body spring out of the
health of the soul. Now the health of the soul is to cling
steadfastly to the better part, that is, to the unchangeable God.
But when it aspires to lord it even over those who are by nature
its equals,--that is, its fellow-men,--this is a reach of
arrogance utterly intolerable.
CHAP. 24.--NO MAN HATES HIS OWN FLESH, NOT
EVEN THOSE WHO ABUSE IT.
24. No man, then, hates himself. On this point,
indeed, no question was ever raised by any sect. But neither does
any man hate his own body. For the apostle says truly, "No man
ever yet hated his own flesh."(3) And when some people say that
they would rather be without a body altogether, they entirely
deceive themselves. For it is not their body, but its corruptions
and its heaviness, that they hate. And so it is not no body, but
an uncorrupted and very light body, that they want. But they
think a body of that kind would be no body at all, because they
think such a thing as that must be a spirit. And as to the fact
that they seem in some sort to scourge their bodies by abstinence
and toil, those who do this in the right spirit do it not that
they may get rid of their body, but that they may have it in
subjection and ready for every needful work. For they strive by a
kind of toilsome exercise of the body itself to root out those
lusts that are hurtful to the body, that is, those habits and
affections of the soul that lead to the enjoyment of unworthy
objects. They are not destroying themselves; they are taking care
of their health.
25. Those, on the other hand, who do this in a
perverse spirit, make war upon their own body as if it were a
natural enemy. And in this matter they are led astray by a
mistaken interpretation of what they read: "The flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these
are contrary the one to the other."(1) For this is said of the
carnal habit yet unsubdued, against which the spirit lusteth, not
to destroy the body, but to eradicate the lust of the body--i.e.,
its evil habit--and thus to make it subject to the spirit, which
is what the order of nature demands. For as, after the
resurrection, the body, having become wholly subject to the
spirit, will live in perfect peace to all eternity; even in this
life we must make it an object to have the carnal habit changed
for the better, so that its inordinate affections may not war
against the soul. And until this shall take place, "the flesh
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;"
the spirit struggling, not in hatred, but for the mastery,
because it desires that what it loves should be subject to the
higher principle; and the flesh struggling, not in hatred, but
because of the bondage of habit which it has derived from its
parent stock, and which has grown in upon it by a law of nature
till it has become inveterate. The spirit, then, in subduing the
flesh, is working as it were to destroy the ill-founded peace of
an evil habit, and to bring about the real peace which springs
out of a good habit. Nevertheless, not even those who, led astray
by false notions, hate their bodies would be prepared to
sacrifice one eye, even supposing they could do so without
suffering any pain, and that they had as much sight left in one
as they formerly had in two, unless some object was to be
attained which would overbalance the loss. This and other
indications of the same kind are sufficient to show those who
candidly seek the truth how well-founded is the statement of the
apostle when he says, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh." He
adds too, "but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the
Church."(2)
CHAP. 25.--A MAN MAY LOVE SOMETHING MORE THAN
HIS BODY, BUT DOES NOT THEREFORE HATE HIS BODY.
26. Man, therefore, ought to be taught the due
measure of loving, that is, in what measure he may love himself
so as to be of service to himself. For that he does love himself,
and does desire to do good to himself, nobody but a fool would
doubt. He is to be taught, too, in what measure to love his body,
so as to care for it wisely and within due limits. For it is
equally manifest that he loves his body also, and desires to keep
it safe and sound. And yet a man may have something that he loves
better than the safety and soundness of his body. For many have
been found voluntarily to suffer both pains and amputations of
some of their limbs that they might obtain other objects which
they valued more highly. But no one is to be told not to desire
the safety and health of his body because there is something he
desires more. For the miser, though he loves money, buys bread
for himself,--that is, he gives away money that he is very fond
of and desires to heap up,--but it is because he values more
highly the bodily health which the bread sustains. It is
superfluous to argue longer on a point so very plain, but this is
just what the error of wicked men often compels us to do.
CHAP. 26.--THE COMMAND TO LOVE GOD AND OUR
NEIGHBOR INCLUDES A COMMAND TO LOVE OURSELVES.
27. Seeing, then, that there is no need of a
command that every man should love himself and his own
body,--seeing, that is, that we love ourselves, and what is
beneath us but connected with us, through a law of nature which
has never been violated, and which is common to us with the
beasts (for even the beasts love themselves and their own
bodies),--it only remained necessary to lay injunctions upon us
in regard to God above us, and our neighbor beside us. "Thou
shalt love," He says, "the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets."(3) Thus the end of the commandment is love,
and that twofold, the love of God and the love of our neighbor.
Now, if you take yourself in your entirety,--that is, soul and
body together,--and your neighbor in his entirety, soul and body
together (for man is made up of soul and body), you will find
that none of the classes of things that are to be loved is
overlooked in these two commandments. For though, when the love
of God comes first, and the measure of our love for Him is
prescribed in such terms that it is evident all other things are
to find their centre in Him, nothing seems to be said about our
love for ourselves; yet when it is said, "Thou shall love thy
neighbor as thyself," it at once becomes evident that our love
for ourselves has not been overlooked.
CHAP. 27.--THE ORDER OF LOVE.
28. Now he is a man of just and holy life who
forms an unprejudiced estimate of things, and keeps his
affections also under strict control, so that he neither loves
what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to
love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less, nor loves
that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor
loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally. No
sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved
as a man for God's sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake.
And if God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to
love God more than himself. Likewise we ought to love another man
better than our own body, because all things are to be loved in
reference to God, and another man can have fellowship with us in
the enjoyment of God, whereas our body cannot; for the body only
lives through the soul, and it is by the soul that we enjoy God.
CHAP. 28.--HOW WE ARE TO DECIDE WHOM TO
AID.
29. Further, all men are to be loved equally. But
since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to
those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance,
are brought into closer connection with you. For, suppose that
you had a great deal of some commodity, and felt bound to give it
away to somebody who had none, and that it could not be given to
more than one person; if two persons presented themselves,
neither of whom had either from need or relationship a greater
claim upon you than the other, you could do nothing fairer than
choose by lot to which you would give what could not be given to
both. Just so among men: since you cannot consult for the good of
them all, you must take the matter as decided for you by a sort
of lot, according as each man happens for the time being to be
more closely connected with you.
CHAP. 29.--WE ARE TO DESIRE AND ENDEAVOR THAT
ALL MEN MAY LOVE GOD.
30. Now of all who can with us enjoy God, we love
partly those to whom we render services, partly those who render
services to us, partly those who both help us in our need and in
turn are helped by us, partly those upon whom we confer no
advantage and from whom we look for none. We ought to desire,
however, that they should all join with us in loving God, and all
the assistance that we either, give them or accept from them
should tend to that one end. For in the theatres, dens of
iniquity though they be, if a man is fond of a particular actor,
and enjoys his art as a great or even as the very greatest good,
he is fond of all who join with him in admiration of his
favorite, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of him whom
they admire in common; and the more fervent he is in his
admiration, the more he works in every way he can to secure new
admirers for him, and the more anxious he becomes to show him to
others; and if he find any one comparatively indifferent, he does
all he can to excite his interest by urging his favorite's
merits: if, however, he meet with any one who opposes him, he is
exceedingly displeased by such a man's contempt of his favorite,
and strives in every way he can to remove it. Now, if this be so,
what does it become us to do who live in the fellowship of the
love of God, the enjoyment of whom is true happiness of life, to
whom all who love Him owe both their own existence and the love
they bear Him, concerning whom we have no fear that any one who
comes to know Him will be disappointed in Him, and who desires
our love, not for any gain to Himself, but that those who love
Him may obtain an eternal reward, even Himself whom they love?
And hence it is that we love even our enemies. For we do not fear
them, seeing they cannot take away from us what we love; but we
pity them rather, because the more they hate us the more are they
separated from Him whom we love. For if they would turn to Him,
they must of necessity love Him as the supreme good, and love us
too as partakers with them in so great a blessing.
CHAP. 30.--WHETHER ANGELS ARE TO BE RECKONED
OUR NEIGHBORS.
31. There arises further in this connection a
question about angels. For they are happy in the enjoyment of Him
whom we long to enjoy; and the more we enjoy Him in this life as
through a glass darkly, the more easy do we find it to bear our
pilgrimage, and the more eagerly do we long for its termination.
But it is not irrational to ask whether in those two commandments
is included the love of angels also. For that He who commanded us
to love our neighbor made no exception, as far as men are
concerned, is shown both by our Lord Himself in the Gospel, and
by the Apostle Paul. For when the man to whom our Lord delivered
those two commandments, and to whom He said that on these hang
all the law and the prophets, asked Him, "And who is my
neighbor?" He told him of a certain man who, going down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves, and was severely
wounded by them, and left naked and half dead.(1) And He showed
him that nobody was neighbor to this man except him who took pity
upon him and came forward to relieve and care for him. And the
man who had asked the question admitted the truth of this when he
was himself interrogated in turn. To whom our Lord says, "Go and
do thou likewise;" teaching us that he is our neighbor whom it is
our duty to help in his need, or whom it would be our duty to
help if he were in need. Whence it follows, that he whose duty it
would be in turn to help us is our neighbor. For the name
"neighbor" is a relative one, and no one can be neighbor except
to a neighbor. And, again, who does not see that no exception is
made of any one as a person to whom the offices of mercy may be
denied when our Lord extends the rule even to our enemies? "Love
your enemies, do good to them that hate you."(2)
32. And so also the Apostle Paul teaches when he
says: "For this, Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not
kill, Thou shall not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Thou shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it
is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shall love
thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor."(3)
Whoever then supposes that the apostle did not embrace every man
in this precept, is compelled to admit, what is at once most
absurd and most pernicious, that the apostle thought it no sin,
if a man were not a Christian or were an enemy, to commit
adultery with his wife, or to kill him, or to covet his goods.
And as nobody but a fool would say this, it is clear that every
man is to be considered our neighbor, because we are to work no
ill to any man.
33. But now, if every one to whom we ought to
show, or who ought to show to us, the offices of mercy is by
right called a neighbor, it is manifest that the command to love
our neighbor embraces the holy angels also, seeing that so great
offices of mercy have been performed by them on our behalf, as
may easily be shown by turning the attention to many passages of
Holy Scripture. And on this ground even God Himself, our Lord,
desired to be called our neighbor. For our Lord Jesus Christ
points to Himself under the figure of the man who brought aid to
him who was lying half dead on the road, wounded and abandoned by
the robbers. And the Psalmist says in his prayer, "I behaved
myself as though he had been my friend or brother."(4) But as the
Divine nature is of higher excellence than, and far removed
above, our nature, the command to love God is distinct from that
to love our neighbor. For He shows us pity on account of His own
goodness, but we show pity to one another on account of
His;--that is, He pities us that we may fully enjoy Himself; we
pity one another that we may fully enjoy Him.
CHAP. 31.--GOD USES RATHER THAN ENJOYS US.
34. And on this ground, when we say that we enjoy
only that which we love for its own sake, and that nothing is a
true object of enjoyment except that which makes us happy, and
that all other things are for use, there seems still to be
something that requires explanation. For God loves us, and Holy
Scripture frequently sets before us the love He has towards us.
In what way then does He love us? As objects of use or as objects
of enjoyment? If He enjoys us, He must be in need of good from
us, and no sane man will say that; for all the good we enjoy is
either Himself, or what comes from Himself. And no one can be
ignorant or in doubt as to the fact that the light stands in no
need of the glitter of the things it has itself lit up. The
Psalmist says most plainly, "I said to the Lord, Thou art my God,
for Thou needest not my goodness."(5) He does not enjoy us then,
but makes use of us. For if He neither enjoys nor uses us, I am
at a loss to discover in what way He can love us.
CHAP. 32.--IN WHAT WAY GOD USES MAN.
35. But neither does He use after our fashion of
using. For when we use objects, we do so with a view to the full
enjoyment of the goodness of God. God, however, in His use of us,
has reference to His own goodness. For it is because He is good
we exist; and so far as we truly exist we are good. And, further,
because He is also just, we cannot with impunity be evil; and so
far as we are evil, so far is our existence less complete. Now He
is the first and supreme existence, who is altogether
unchangeable, and who could say in the fullest sense of the
words, "I AM THAT I AM," and "Thou shalt say to them, I AM hath
sent me unto you;"(6) so that all other things that exist, both
owe their existence entirely to Him, and are good only so far as
He has given it to them to be so. That use, then, which God is
said to make of us has no reference to His own advantage, but to
ours only; and, so far as He is concerned, has reference only to
His goodness.
When we take pity upon a man and care for him, it is for his
advantage we do so; but somehow or other our own advantage
follows by a sort of natural consequence, for God does not leave
the mercy we show to him who needs it to go without reward. Now
this is our highest reward, that we should fully enjoy Him, and
that all who enjoy Him should enjoy one another in Him.
CHAP. 33.--IN WHAT WAY MAN SHOULD BE ENJOYED.
36. For if we find our happiness complete in one
another, we stop short upon the road, and place our hope of
happiness in man or angel. Now the proud man and the proud angel
arrogate this to themselves, and are glad to have the hope of
others fixed upon them. But, on the contrary, the holy man and
the holy angel, even when we are weary and anxious to stay with
them and rest in them, set themselves to recruit our energies
with the provision which they have received of God for us or for
themselves; and then urge us thus refreshed to go on our way
towards Him, in the enjoyment of whom we find our common
happiness. For even the apostle exclaims, "Was Paul crucified for
you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?"(1) and again:
"Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth;
but God that giveth the increase."(2) And the angel admonisheth
the man who is about to worship him, that he should rather
worship Him who is his Master, and under whom he himself is a
fellow-servant.(3)
37. But when you have joy of a man in God, it is
God rather than man that you enjoy. For you enjoy Him by whom you
are made happy, and you rejoice to have come to Him in whose
presence you place your hope of joy. And accordingly, Paul says
to Philemon, "Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the
Lord."(4) For if he had not added "in the Lord," but had only
said, "Let me have joy of thee," he would have implied that he
fixed his hope of happiness upon him, although even in the
immediate context to "enjoy" is used in the sense of to "use with
delight." For when the thing that we love is near us, it is a
matter of course that it should bring delight with it. And if you
pass beyond this delight, and make it a means to that which you
are permanently to rest in, you are using it, and it is an abuse
of language to say that you enjoy it. But if you cling to it,
and rest in it, finding your happiness complete in it, then you
may be truly and properly said to enjoy it. And this we must
never do except in the case of the Blessed Trinity, who is the
Supreme and Unchangeable Good.
CHAP. 34.--CHRIST THE FIRST WAY TO GOD.
38. And mark that even when He who is Himself the
Truth and the Word, by whom all things were made, had been made
flesh that He might dwell among us, the apostle yet says: "Yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth
know we Him no more."(5) For Christ, desiring not only to give
the possession to those who had completed the journey, but also
to be Himself the way to those who were just setting out,
determined to take a fleshly body. Whence also that expression,
"The Lord created(6) me in the beginning of His way,"(7) that is,
that those who wished to come might begin their journey in Him.
The apostle, therefore, although still on the way, and following
after God who called him to the reward of His heavenly calling,
yet forgetting those things which were behind, and pressing on
towards those things which were before,(8) had already passed
over the beginning of the way, and had now no further need of it;
yet by this way all must commence their journey who desire to
attain to the truth, and to rest in eternal life. For He says: "I
am the way, and the truth, and the life;"(9) that is, by me men
come, to me they come, in me they rest. For when we come to Him,
we come to the Father also, because through an equal an equal is
known; and the Holy Spirit binds, and as it were seals as, so
that we are able to rest permanently in the supreme and
unchangeable Good. And hence we may learn how essential it is
that nothing should detain us on the way, when not even our Lord
Himself, so far as He has condescended to be our way, is willing
to detain us, but wishes us rather to press on; and, instead of
weakly clinging to temporal things, even though these have been
put on and worn by Him for our salvation, to pass over them
quickly, and to struggle to attain unto Himself, who has freed
our nature from the bondage of temporal things, and has set it
down at the right hand of His Father.
CHAP. 35.--THE FULFILLMENT AND END OF
SCRIPTURE IS THE LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOR.
39. Of all, then, that has been said since we
entered upon the discussion about things, this is the sam: that
we should clearly understand that the fulfillment and the end of
the Law, and of all Holy Scripture, is the love of an object
which is to be enjoyed, and the love of an object which can enjoy
that other in fellowship with ourselves. For there is no need of
a command that each man should love himself. The whole temporal
dispensation for our salvation, therefore, was framed by the
providence of God that we might know this truth and be able to
act upon it; and we ought to use that dispensation, not with such
love and delight as if it were a good to rest in, but with a
transient feeling rather, such as we have towards the road, or
carriages, or other things that are merely means. Perhaps some
other comparison can be found that will more suitably express the
idea that we are to love the things by which we are borne only
for the sake of that towards which we are borne.
CHAP. 36.--THAT INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE
WHICH BUILDS US UP IN LOVE IS NOT PERNICIOUSLY DECEPTIVE NOR
MENDACIOUS, EVEN THOUGH IT BE FAULTY. THE INTERPRETER, HOWEVER,
SHOULD BE CORRECTED.
40. Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the
Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an
interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this
twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand
them as he ought. If, on the other hand, a man draws a meaning
from them that may be used for the building up of love, even
though he does not happen upon the precise meaning which the
author whom he reads intended to express in that place, his error
is not pernicious, and he is wholly clear from the charge of
deception. For there is involved in deception the intention to
say what is false; and we find plenty of people who intend to
deceive, but nobody who wishes to be deceived. Since, then, the
man who knows practises deceit, and the ignorant man is practised
upon, it is quite clear that in any particular case the man who
is deceived is a better man than he who deceives, seeing that it
is better to suffer than to commit injustice. Now every man who
lies commits an injustice; and if any man thinks that a lie is
ever useful, he must think that injustice is sometimes useful.
For no liar keeps faith in the matter about which he lies. He
wishes, of course, that the man to whom he lies should place
confidence in him; and yet he betrays his confidence by lying to
him. Now every man who breaks faith is unjust. Either, then,
injustice is sometimes useful (which is impossible), or a lie is
never useful.
41. Whoever takes another meaning out of
Scripture than the writer intended, goes astray, but not through
any falsehood in Scripture. Nevertheless, as I was going to say,
if his mistaken interpretation tends to build up love, which is
the end of the commandment, he goes astray in much the same way
as a man who by mistake quits the high road, but yet reaches
through the fields the same place to which the road leads. He is
to be corrected, however, and to be shown how much better it is
not to quit the straight road, lest, if he get into a habit of
going astray, he may sometimes take cross roads, or even go in
the wrong direction altogether.
CHAP. 37.--DANGERS OF MISTAKEN INTERPRETATION.
For if he takes up rashly a meaning which the
author whom he is reading did not intend, he often falls in with
other statements which he cannot harmonize with this meaning. And
if he admits that these statements are true and certain, then it
follows that the meaning he had put upon the former passage
cannot be the true one: and so it comes to pass, one can hardly
tell how, that, out of love for his own opinion, he begins to
feel more angry with Scripture than he is with himself. And if he
should once permit that evil to creep in, it will utterly destroy
him. "For we walk by faith, not by sight."(1) Now faith will
totter if the authority of Scripture begin to shake. And then, if
faith totter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man has fallen
from faith, he must necessarily also fall from love; for he
cannot love what he does not believe to exist. But if he both
believes and loves, then through good works, and through diligent
attention to the precepts of morality, he comes to hope also that
he shall attain the object of his love. And so these are the
three things to which all knowledge and all prophecy are
subservient: faith, hope, love.
CHAP. 38.--LOVE NEVER FAILETH.
42. But sight shall displace faith; and hope
shall be swallowed up in that perfect bliss to which we shall
come: love, on the other hand, shall wax greater when these
others fail. For if we love by faith that which as yet we see
not, how much more shall we love it when we begin to see! And if
we love by hope that which as yet we have not reached, how much
more shall we love it when we reach it! For there is this great
difference between things temporal and things eternal, that a
temporal object is valued more before we possess it, and begins
to prove worthless the moment we attain it, because it does not
satisfy the soul, which has its only true and sure resting-place
in eternity: an eternal object, on the other hand, is loved with
greater ardor when it is in possession than while it is still an
object of desire, for no one in his longing for it can set a
higher value on it than really belongs to it, so as to think it
comparatively worthless when he finds it of less value than he
thought; on the contrary, however high the value any man may set
upon it when he is on his way to possess it, he will find it,
when it comes into his possession, of higher value still.
CHAP. 39.--HE WHO IS MATURE IN FAITH, HOPE AND
LOVE, NEEDS SCRIPTURE NO LONGER.
43. And thus a man who is resting upon faith,
hope and love, and who keeps a firm hold upon these, does not
need the Scriptures except for the purpose of instructing others.
Accordingly, many live without copies of the Scriptures, even in
solitude, on the strength of these three graces. So that in their
case, I think, the saying is already fulfilled: "Whether there be
prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall
cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."(1) Yet
by means of these instruments (as they may be called), so great
an edifice of faith and love has been built up in them, that,
holding to what is perfect, they do not seek for what is only in
part perfect--of course, I mean, so far as is possible in this
life; for, in comparison with the future life, the life of no
just and holy man is perfect here. Therefore the apostle says:
"Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity:"(2) because, when a man shall have reached
the eternal world, while the other two graces will fail, love
will remain greater and more assured.
CHAP. 40.--WHAT MANNER OF READER SCRIPTURE
DEMANDS.
44. And, therefore, if a man fully understands
that "the end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart,
and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned,"(3) and is bent
upon making all his understanding of Scripture to bear upon these
three graces, he may come to the interpretation of these books
with an easy mind. For while the apostle says "love," he adds
"out of a pure heart," to provide against anything being loved
but that which is worthy of love. And he joins with this "a good
conscience," in reference to hope; for, if a man has the burthen
of a bad conscience, he despairs of ever reaching that which he
believes in and loves. And in the third place he says: "and of
faith unfeigned." For if our faith is free from all hypocrisy,
then we both abstain from loving what is unworthy of our love,
and by living uprightly we are able to indulge the hope that our
hope shall not be in vain.
For these reasons I have been anxious to speak
about the objects of faith, as far as I thought it necessary for
my present purpose; for much has already been said on this
subject in other volumes, either by others or by myself. And so
let this be the end of the present book. In the next I shall
discuss, as far as God shall give me light, the subject of signs.