CHAP. 1.--SIGNS, THEIR NATURE AND VARIETY.
1. As when I was writing about things, I introduced
the subject with a warning against attending to anything but what
they are in themselves,(1) even though they are signs of something
else, so now, when I come in its turn to discuss the subject of
signs, I lay down this direction, not to attend to what they are in
themselves, but to the fact that they are signs, that is, to what
they signify. For a sign is a thing which, over and above the
impression it makes on the senses, causes something else to come
into the mind as a consequence of itself: as when we see a
footprint, we conclude that an animal whose footprint this is has
passed by; and when we see smoke, we know that there is fire
beneath; and when we hear the voice of a living man, we think of
the feeling in his mind; and when the trumpet sounds, soldiers know
that they are to advance or retreat, or do whatever else the state
of the battle requires.
2. Now some signs are natural, others conventional.
Natural signs are those which, apart from any intention or desire
of using them as signs, do yet lead to the knowledge of something
else, as, for example, smoke when it indicates fire. For it is not
from any intention of making it a sign that it is so, but through
attention to experience we come to know that fire is beneath, even
when nothing but smoke can be seen. And the footprint of an animal
passing by belongs to this class of signs. And the countenance of
an angry or sorrowful man indicates the feeling in his mind,
independently of his will: and in the same way every other emotion
of the mind is betrayed by the tell-tale countenance, even though
we do nothing with the intention of making it known. This class of
signs, however, it is no part of my design to discuss at present.
But as it comes under this division of the subject, I could not
altogether pass it over. It will be enough to have noticed it thus
far.
CHAP. 2.--OF THE KIND OF SIGNS WE ARE NOW
CONCERNED WITH.
3. Conventional signs, on the other hand, are those
which living beings mutually exchange for the purpose of showing,
as well as they can, the feelings of their minds, or their
perceptions, or their thoughts. Nor is there any reason for giving
a sign except the desire of drawing forth and conveying into
another's mind what the giver of the sign has in his own mind. We
wish, then, to consider and discuss this class of signs so far as
men are concerned with it, because even the signs which have been
given us of God, and which are contained in the Holy Scriptures,
were made known to us through men--those, namely, who wrote the
Scriptures. The beasts, too, have certain signs among themselves by
which they make known the desires in their mind. For when the
poultry-cock has discovered food, he signals with his voice for the
hen to run to him, and the dove by cooing calls his mate, or is
called by her in turn; and many signs of the same kind are matters
of common observation. Now whether these signs, like the expression
or the cry of a man in grief, follow the movement of the mind
instinctively and apart from any purpose, or whether they are
really used with the purpose of signification, is another question,
and does not pertain to the matter in hand. And this part of the
subject I exclude from the scope of this work as not necessary to
my present object.
CHAP. 3.--AMONG SIGNS, WORDS HOLD THE CHIEF PLACE.
4. Of the signs, then, by which men communicate
their thoughts to one another, some relate to the sense of sight,
some to that of hearing, a very few to the other senses. For, when
we nod, we give no sign except to the eyes of the man to whom we
wish by this sign to impart our desire. And some convey a great
deal by the motion of the hands: and actors by movements of all
their limbs give certain signs to the initiated, and, so to speak,
address their conversation to the eyes: and the military standards
and flags convey through the eyes the will of the commanders. And
all these signs are as it were a kind of visible words. The signs
that address themselves to the ear are, as I have said, more
numerous, and for the most part consist of words. For though the
bugle and the flute and the lyre frequently give not only a sweet
but a significant sound, yet all these signs are very few in number
compared with words. For among men words have obtained far and away
the chief place as a means of indicating the thoughts of the mind.
Our Lord, it is true, gave a sign through the odor of the ointment
which was poured out upon His feet;(1) and in the sacrament of His
body and blood He signified His will through the sense of taste;
and when by touching the hem of His garment the woman was made
whole, the act was not wanting in significance.(2) But the
countless multitude of the signs through which men express their
thoughts consist of words. For I have been able to put into words
all those signs, the various classes of which I have briefly
touched upon, but I could by no effort express words in terms of
those signs.
CHAP. 4.--ORIGIN OF WRITING.
5. But because words pass away as soon as they
strike upon the air, and last no longer than their sound, men have
by means of letters formed signs of words. Thus the sounds of the
voice are made visible to the eye, not of course as sounds, but by
means of certain signs. It has been found impossible, however, to
make those signs common to all nations owing to the sin of discord
among men, which springs from every man trying to snatch the chief
place for himself. And that celebrated tower which was built to
reach to heaven was an indication of this arrogance of spirit; and
the ungodly men concerned in it justly earned the punishment of
having not their minds only, but their tongues besides, thrown into
confusion and discordance.(3)
CHAP. 5.--SCRIPTURE TRANSLATED INTO VARIOUS
LANGUAGES.
6. And hence it happened that even Holy Scripture,
which brings a remedy for the terrible diseases of the human will,
being at first set forth in one language, by means of which it
could at the fit season be disseminated through the whole world,
was interpreted into various tongues, and spread far and wide, and
thus became known to the nations for their salvation. And in
reading it, men seek nothing more than to find out the thought and
will of those by whom it was written, and through these to find out
the will of God, in accordance with which they believe these men to
have spoken.
CHAP. 6.--USE OF THE OBSCURITIES IN SCRIPTURE
WHICH ARISE FROM ITS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.
7. But hasty and careless readers are led astray by
many and manifold obscurities and ambiguities, substituting one
meaning for another; and in some places they cannot hit upon even
a fair interpretation. Some of the expressions are so obscure as to
shroud the meaning in the thickest darkness. And I do not doubt
that all this was divinely arranged for the purpose of subduing
pride by toil, and of preventing a feeling of satiety in the
intellect, which generally holds in small esteem what is discovered
without difficulty. For why is it, I ask, that if any one says that
there are holy and just men whose life and conversation the Church
of Christ uses as a means of redeeming those who come to it from
all kinds of superstitions, and making them through their imitation
of good men members of its own body; men who, as good and true
servants of God, have come to the baptismal font laying down the
burdens of the world, and who rising thence do, through the
implanting of the Holy Spirit, yield the fruit of a two-fold love,
a love, that is, of God and their neighbor;--how is it, I say, that
if a man says this, he does not please his hearer so much as when
he draws the same meaning from that passage in Canticles, where it
is said of the Church, when it is being praised under the figure of
a beautiful woman, "Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are
shorn which came up from the washing, whereof every one bears
twins, and none is barren among them?"(1) Does the hearer learn
anything more than when he listens to the same thought expressed in
the plainest language, without the help of this figure? And yet, I
don't know why, I feel greater pleasure in contemplating holy men,
when I view them as the teeth of the Church, tearing men away from
their errors, and bringing them into the Church's body, with all
their harshness softened down, just as if they had been torn off
and masticated by the teeth. It is with the greatest pleasure, too,
that I recognize them under the figure of sheep that have been
shorn, laying down the burthens of the world like fleeces, and
coming up from the washing, i.e., from baptism, and all bearing
twins, i.e., the twin commandments of love, and none among them
barren in that holy fruit.
8. But why I view them with greater delight under
that aspect than if no such figure were drawn from the sacred
books, though the fact would remain the same and the knowledge the
same, is another question, and one very difficult to answer.
Nobody, however, has any doubt about the facts, both that it is
pleasanter in some cases to have knowledge communicated through
figures, and that what is attended with difficulty in the seeking
gives greater pleasure in the finding.-- For those who seek but do
not find suffer from hunger. Those, again, who do not seek at all
because they have what they require just beside them often grow
languid from satiety. Now weakness from either of these causes is
to be avoided. Accordingly the Holy Spirit has, with admirable
wisdom and care for our welfare, so arranged the Holy Scriptures as
by the plainer passages to satisfy our hunger, and by the more
obscure to stimulate our appetite. For almost nothing is dug out of
those obscure passages which may not be found set forth in the
plainest language elsewhere.
CHAP. 7.--STEPS TO WISDOM: FIRST, FEAR; SECOND,
PIETY; THIRD, KNOWLEDGE; FOURTH, RESOLUTION; FIFTH, COUNSEL; SIXTH,
PURIFICATION OF HEART; SEVENTH, STOP OR TERMINATION, WISDOM.
9. First of all, then, it is necessary that we
should be led by the fear of God to seek the knowledge of His will,
what He commands us to desire and what to avoid. Now this fear will
of necessity excite in us the thought of our mortality and of the
death that is before us, and crucify all the motions of pride as if
our flesh were nailed to the tree. Next it is necessary to have our
hearts subdued by piety, and not to run in the face of Holy
Scripture, whether when understood it strikes at some of our sins,
or, when not understood, we feel as if we could be wiser and give
better commands ourselves. We must rather think and believe that
whatever is there written, even though it be hidden, is better and
truer than anything we could devise by our own wisdom.
10. After these two steps of fear and piety, we
come to the third step, knowledge, of which I have now undertaken
to treat. For in this every earnest student of the Holy Scriptures
exercises himself, to find nothing else in them but that God is to
be loved for His own sake, and our neighbor for God's sake; and
that God is to be loved with all the heart, and with all the soul,
and with all the mind, and one's neighbor as one's self--that is,
in such a way that all our love for our neighbor, like all our love
for ourselves, should have reference to God.(1) And on these two
commandments I touched in the previous book when I was treating
about things.(2) It is necessary, then, that each man should first
of all find in the Scriptures that he, through being entangled in
the love of this world--i.e., of temporal things--has been drawn
far away from such a love for God and such a love for his neighbor
as Scripture enjoins. Then that fear which leads him to think of
the judgment of God, and that piety which gives him no option but
to believe in and submit to the authority of Scripture, compel him
to bewail his condition. For the knowledge of a good hope makes a
man not boastful, but sorrowful. And in this frame of mind he
implores with unremitting prayers the comfort of the Divine help
that he may not be overwhelmed in despair, and so he gradually
comes to the fourth step,--that is, strength and resolution,(3)--in
which he hungers and thirsts after righteousness. For in this frame
of mind he extricates himself from every form of fatal joy in
transitory things, and turning away from these, fixes his affection
on things eternal, to wit, the unchangeable Trinity in unity.
11. And when, to the extent of his power, he has
gazed upon this object shining from afar, and has felt that owing
to the weakness of his sight he cannot endure that matchless light,
then in the fifth step--that is, in the counsel of
compassion(4)--he cleanses his soul, which is violently agitated,
and disturbs him with base desires, from the filth it has
contracted. And at this stage he exercises himself diligently in
the love of his neighbor; and when he has reached the point of
loving his enemy, full of hopes and unbroken in strength, he mounts
to the sixth step, in which he purifies the eye itself which can
see God,(5) so far as God can be seen by those who as far as
possible die to this world. For men see Him just so far as they die
to this world; and so far as they live to it they see Him not. But
yet, although that light may begin to appear clearer, and not only
more tolerable, but even more delightful, still it is only through
a glass darkly that we are said to see, because we walk by faith,
not by sight, while we continue to wander as strangers in this
world, even though our conversation be in heaven.(6) And at this
stage, too, a man so purges the eye of his affections as not to
place his neighbor before, or even in comparison with, the truth,
and therefore not himself, because not him whom he loves as
himself. Accordingly, that holy man will be so single and so pure
in heart, that he will not step aside from the truth, either for
the sake of pleasing men or with a view to avoid any of the
annoyances which beset this life. Such a son ascends to wisdom,
which is the seventh and last step, and which he enjoys in peace
and tranquillity. For the fear of God is the beginning of
wisdom.(7) From that beginning, then, till we reach wisdom itself,
our way is by the steps now described.
CHAP. 8.--THE CANONICAL BOOKS.
12. But let us now go back to consider the third
step here mentioned, for it is about it that I have set myself to
speak and reason as the Lord shall grant me wisdom. The most
skillful interpreter of the sacred writings, then, will be he who
in the first place has read them all and retained them in his
knowledge, if not yet with full understanding, still with such
knowledge as reading gives,--those of them, at least, that arc
called canonical. For he will read the others with greater safety
when built up in the belief of the truth, so that they will not
take first possession of a weak mind, nor, cheating it with
dangerous falsehoods and delusions, fill it with prejudices adverse
to a sound understanding. Now, in regard to the canonical
Scriptures, he must follow the judgment of the greater number of
catholic churches; and among these, of course, a high place must be
given to such as have been thought worthy to be the seat of an
apostle and to receive epistles. Accordingly, among the canonical
Scriptures he will judge according to the following standard: to
prefer those that are received by all the catholic churches to
those which some do not receive. Among those, again, which are not
received by all, he will prefer such as have the sanction of the
greater number and those of greater authority, to such as are held
by the smaller number and those of less authority. If, however, he
shall find that some books are held by the greater number of
churches, and others by the churches of greater authority (though
this is not a very likely thing to happen), I think that in such a
case the authority on the two sides is to be looked upon as equal.
13. Now the whole canon of Scripture on which we
say this judgment is to be exercised, is contained in the following
books:--Five books of Moses, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy; one book of Joshua the son of Nun; one of
Judges; one short book called Ruth, which seems rather to belong to
the beginning of Kings; next, four books of Kings, and two of
Chronicles --these last not following one another, but running
parallel, so to speak, and going over the same ground. The books
now mentioned are history, which contains a connected narrative of
the times, and follows the order of the events. There are other
books which seem to follow no regular order, and are connected
neither with the order of the preceding books nor with one another,
such as Job, and Tobias, and Esther, and Judith, and the two books
of Maccabees, and the two of Ezra,(1) which last look more like a
sequel to the continuous regular history which terminates with the
books of Kings and Chronicles. Next are the Prophets, in which
there is one book of the Psalms of David; and three books of
Solomon, viz., Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. For two
books, one called Wisdom and the other Ecclesiasticus, are ascribed
to Solomon from a certain resemblance of style, but the most likely
opinion is that they were written by Jesus the son of Sirach.(2)
Still they are to be reckoned among the prophetical books, since
they have attained recognition as being authoritative. The
remainder are the books which are strictly called the Prophets:
twelve separate books of the prophets which are connected with one
another, and having never been disjoined, are reckoned as one book;
the names of these prophets are as follows:--Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk Zephaniah, Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi; then there are the four greater prophets,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel. The authority of the Old
Testament(3) is contained within the limits of these forty-four
books. That of the New Testament, again, is contained within the
following:--Four books of the Gospel, according to Matthew,
according to Mark, according to Luke, according to John; fourteen
epistles of the Apostle Paul--one to the Romans, two to the
Corinthians, one to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the
Philippians, two to the Thessalonians, one to the Colossians, two
to Timothy, one to Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews: two of
Peter; three of John; one of Jude; and one of James; one book of
the Acts of the Apostles; and one of the Revelation of John.
CHAP. 9.--HOW WE SHOULD PROCEED IN STUDYING
SCRIPTURE.
14. In all these books those who fear God and are
of a meek and pious disposition seek the will of God. And in
pursuing this search the first rule to be observed is, as I said,
to know these books, if not yet with the understanding, still to
read them so as to commit them to memory, or at least so as not to
remain wholly ignorant of them. Next, those matters that are
plainly laid down in them, whether rules of life or rules of faith,
are to be searched into more carefully and more diligently; and the
more of these a man discovers, the more capacious does his
understanding become. For among the things that are plainly laid
down in Scripture are to be found all matters that concern faith
and the manner of life,--to wit, hope and love, of which I have
spoken in the previous book. After this, when we have made
ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language of
Scripture, we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure
passages, and in doing so draw examples from the plainer
expressions to throw light upon the more obscure, and use the
evidence of passages about which there is no doubt to remove all
hesitation in regard to the doubtful passages. And in this matter
memory counts for a great deal; but if the memory be defective, no
rules can supply the want.
CHAP. 10.--UNKNOWN OR AMBIGUOUS SIGNS PREVENT
SCRIPTURE fROM BEING UNDERSTOOD.
15. Now there are two causes which prevent what is
written from being understood: its being vailed either under
unknown, or under ambiguous signs. Signs are either proper or
figurative. They are called proper when they are used to point out
the objects they were designed to point out, as we say bos when we
mean an ox, because all men who with us use the Latin tongue call
it by this name. Signs are figurative when the things themselves
which we indicate by the proper names are used to signify something
else, as we say bos, and understand by that syllable the ox, which
is ordinarily called by that name; but then further by that ox
understand a preacher of the gospel, as Scripture signifies,
according to the apostle's explanation, when it says: "Thou shalt
not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn."(4)
CHAP. 11.--KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES, ESPECIALLY
OF GREEK AND HEBREW, NECESSARY TO REMOVE IGNORANCE or SIGNS.
16. The great remedy for ignorance of proper signs
is knowledge of languages. And men who speak the Latin tongue, of
whom are those I have undertaken to instruct, need two other
languages for the knowledge of Scripture, Hebrew and Greek, that
they may have recourse to the original texts if the endless
diversity of the Latin translators throw them into doubt. Although,
indeed, we often find Hebrew words untranslated in the books as for
example, Amen, Halleluia, Racha, Hosanna, and others of the same
kind. Some of these, although they could have been translated, have
been preserved in their original form on account of the more sacred
authority that attaches to it, as for example, Amen and Halleluia.
Some of them, again, are said to be untranslatable into another
tongue, of which the other two I have mentioned are examples. For
in some languages there are words that cannot be translated into
the idiom of another language. And this happens chiefly in the case
of interjections, which are words that express rather an emotion of
the mind than any part of a thought we have in our mind. And the
two given above are said to be of this kind, Racha expressing the
cry of an angry man, Hosanna that of a joyful man. But the
knowledge of these languages is necessary, not for the sake of a
few words like these which it is very easy to mark and to ask
about, but, as has been said, on account of the diversities among
translators. For the translations of the Scriptures from Hebrew
into Greek can be counted, but the Latin translators are out of all
number. For in the early days of the faith every man who happened
to get his hands upon a Greek manuscript, and who thought he had
any knowledge, were it ever so little, of the two languages,
ventured upon the work of translation.
CHAP. 12.--A DIVERSITY OF INTERPRETATIONS IS
USEFUL. ERRORS ARISING FROM AMBIGUOUS WORDS.
17. And this circumstance would assist rather than
hinder the understanding of Scripture, if only readers were not
careless. For the examination of a number of texts has often thrown
light upon some of the more obscure passages; for example, in that
passage of the prophet Isaiah,(1) one translator reads: "And do not
despise the domestics of thy seed;"(2) another reads: "And do not
despise thine own flesh."(3) Each of these in turn confirms the
other. For the one is explained by the other; because "flesh" may
be taken in its literal sense, so that a man may understand that he
is admonished not to despise his own body; and "the domestics of
thy seed" may be understood figuratively of Christians, because
they are spiritually born of the same seed as ourselves, namely,
the Word. When now the meaning of the two translators is compared,
a more likely sense of the words suggests itself, viz., that the
command is not to despise our kinsmen, because when one brings the
expression "domestics of thy seed" into relation with "flesh,"
kinsmen most naturally occur to one's mind. Whence, I think, that
expression of the apostle, when he says, "If by any means I may
provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some
of them;"(4) that is, that through emulation of those who had
believed, some of them might believe too. And he calls the Jews his
"flesh," on account of the relationship of blood. Again, that
passage from the same prophet Isaiah:(5) "If ye will not believe,
ye shall not understand,"(6) another has translated: "If ye will
not believe, ye shall not abide."(7) Now which of these is the
literal translation cannot be ascertained without reference to the
text in the original tongue. And yet to those who read with
knowledge, a great truth is to be found in each. For it is
difficult for interpreters to differ so widely as not to touch at
some point. Accordingly here, as understanding consists in sight,
and is abiding, but faith feeds us as babes, upon milk, in the
cradles of temporal things (for now we walk by faith, not by
sight);(8) as, moreover, unless we walk by faith, we shall not
attain to sight, which does not pass away, but abides, our
understanding being purified by holding to the truth;--for these
reasons one says," If ye will not believe, ye shall not
understand;" but the other, "If ye will not believe, ye shall not
abide."
18. And very often a translator, to whom the
meaning is not well known, is deceived by an ambiguity in the
original language, and puts upon the passage a construction that is
wholly alien to the sense of the writer. As for example, some texts
read: "Their feet are sharp to shed blood;"(9) for the word
CHAP. 13.--HOW FAULTY INTERPRETATIONS CAN
BE EMENDED.
19. But since we do not clearly see what the actual
thought is which the several translators endeavor to express, each
according to his own ability and judgment, unless we examine it in
the language which they translate; and since the translator, if he
be not a very learned man, often departs from the meaning of his
author, we must either endeavor to get a knowledge of those
languages from which the Scriptures are translated into Latin, or
we must get hold of the translations of those who keep rather close
to the letter of the original, not because these are sufficient,
but because we may use them to correct the freedom or the error of
others, who in their translations have chosen to follow the sense
quite as much as the words. For not only single words, but often
whole phrases are translated, which could not be translated at all
into the Latin idiom by any one who wished to hold by the usage of
the ancients who spoke Latin. And though these sometimes do not
interfere with the understanding of the passage, yet they are
offensive to those who feel greater delight in things when even the
signs of those things are kept in their own purity. For what is
called a solecism is nothing else than the putting of words
together according to a different rule from that which those of our
predecessors who spoke with any authority followed. For whether we
say inter homines (among men or inter hominibus, is of no
consequence to a man who only wishes to know the facts. And in the
same way, what is a barbarism but the pronouncing of a word in a
different way from that in which those who spoke Latin before us
pronounced it? For whether the word ignoscere (to pardon) should be
pronounced with the third syllable long or short, is not a matter
of much concern to the man who is beseeching God, in any way at all
that he can get the words out, to pardon his sins. What then is
purity of speech, except the preserving of the custom of language
established by the authority of former speakers?
20. And men are easily offended in a matter of this
kind, just in proportion as they are weak; and they are weak just
in proportion as they wish to seem learned, not in the knowledge of
things which tend to edification, but in that of signs, by which it
is hard not to be puffed up,(4) seeing that the knowledge of things
even would often set up our neck, if it were not held down by the
yoke of our Master. For how does it prevent our understanding it to
have the following passage thus expressed: "Qae est terra in qua
isti insidunt super eam, si bona est an nequam; el quae sunt
civitates, in quibus ipsi inhabitant in ipsis?"(5) And I am more
disposed to think that this is simply the idiom of another language
than that any deeper meaning is intended. Again, that phrase, which
we cannot now take away from the lips of the people who sing it:
"Super ipsum autem floriet sanctificatio mea,"(6) surely takes away
nothing from the meaning. Yet a more learned man would prefer that
this should be corrected, and that we should say, not floriet, but
florebit. Nor does anything stand in the way of the correction
being made, except the usage of the singers. Mistakes of this kind,
then, if a man do not choose to avoid them altogether, it is easy
to treat with indifference, as not interfering with a right
understanding. But take, on the other hand, the saying of the
apostle: "Quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominibus, et quod
infirmum est Dei, fortius est hominibus."(7) If any one should
retain in this passage the Greek idiom, and say," Quod stultum est
Dei, sapientius est hominum et quod infirmum est Dei fortius est
hominum,"(8) a quick and careful reader would indeed by an effort
attain to the true meaning, but still a man of slower intelligence
either would not understand it at all, or would put an utterly
false construction upon it. For not only is such a form of speech
faulty in the Latin tongue, but it is ambiguous too, as if the
meaning might be, that the folly of men or the weakness of men is
wiser or stronger than that of God. But indeed even the expression
sapientius est hominibus (stronger than men) is not free from
ambiguity, even though it be free from solecism. For whether
hominibus is put as the plural of the dative or as the plural of
the ablative, does not appear, unless by reference to the meaning.
It would be better then to say, sapientius est guam homines, and
fortius est quam homines.
CHAP. 14.--HOW THE MEANING OF UNKNOWN WORDS AND
IDIOMS IS TO BE DISCOVERED.
21. About ambiguous signs, however, I shall speak
afterwards. I am treating at present of unknown signs, of which, as
far as the words are concerned, there are two kinds, For either a
word or an idiom, of which the reader is ignorant, brings him to a
stop. Now if these belong to foreign tongues, we must either make
inquiry about them from men who speak those tongues, or if we have
leisure we must learn the tongues ourselves, or we must consult and
compare several translators. If, however, there are words or idioms
in our own tongue that we are unacquainted with, we gradually come
to know them through being accustomed to read or to hear them.
There is nothing that it is better to commit to memory than those
kinds of words and phrases whose meaning we do not know, so that
where we happen to meet either with a more learned man of whom we
can inquire, or with a passage that shows, either by the preceding
or succeeding context, or by both, the force and significance of
the phrase we are ignorant of, we can easily by the help of our
memory turn our attention to the matter and learn all about it. So
great, however, is the force of custom, even in regard to learning,
that those who have been in a sort of way nurtured and brought up
on the study of Holy Scripture, are surprised at other forms of
speech, and think them less pure Latin than those which they have
learnt from Scripture, but which are not to be found in Latin
authors. In this matter, too, the great number of the translators
proves a very great assistance, if they are examined and discussed
with a careful comparison of their texts. Only all positive error
must be removed. For those who are anxious to know, the Scriptures
ought in the first place to use their skill in the correction of
the texts, so that the uncorrected ones should give way to the
corrected, at least when they are copies of the same translation.
CHAP. 15--AMONG VERSIONS A PREFERENCE IS GIVEN
TO THE SEPTUAGINT AND THE ITALA.
22. Now among translations themselves the Italian
(Itala)(1) is to be preferred to the others, for it keeps closer to
the words without prejudice to clearness of expression. And to
correct the Latin we must use the Greek versions, among which the
authority of the Septuagint is pre-eminent as far as the Old
Testament is concerned; for it is reported through all the more
learned churches that the seventy translators enjoyed so much of
the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their work of
translation, that among that number of men there was but one voice.
And if, as is reported, and as many not unworthy of confidence
assert,(2) they were separated during the work of translation, each
man being in a cell by himself, and yet nothing was found in the
manuscript of any one of them that was not found in the same words
and in the same order of words in all the rest, who dares put
anything in comparison with an authority like this, not to speak of
preferring anything to it? And even if they conferred together with
the result that a unanimous agreement sprang out of the common
labor and judgment of them all; even so, it would not be right or
becoming for any one man, whatever his experience, to aspire to
correct the unanimous opinion of many venerable and learned men.
Wherefore, even if anything is found in the original Hebrew in a
different form from that in which these men have expressed it, I
think we must give way to the dispensation of Providence which used
these men to bring it about, that books which the Jewish race were
unwilling, either from religious scruple or from jealousy, to make
known to other nations, were, with the assistance of the power of
King Ptolemy, made known so long beforehand to the nations which in
the future were to believe in the Lord. And thus it is possible
that they translated in such a way as the Holy Spirit, who worked
in them and had given them all one voice, thought most suitable for
the Gentiles. But nevertheless, as I said above, a comparison of
those translators also who have kept most closely to the words, is
often not without value as a help to the clearing up of the
meaning. The Latin texts, therefore, of the Old Testament are, as
I was about to say, to be corrected if necessary by the authority
of the Greeks, and especially by that of those who, though they
were seventy in number, are said to have translated as with one
voice. As to the books of the New Testament, again, if any
perplexity arises from the diversities of the Latin texts, we must
of course yield to the Greek, especially those that are found in
the churches of greater learning and research.
CHAP. 16.--THE KNOWLEDGE BOTH OF LANGUAGE AND
THINGS IS HELPFUL FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS.
23. In the case of figurative signs, again, if
ignorance of any of them should chance to bring the reader to a
stand-still, their meaning is to be traced partly by the knowledge
of languages, partly by the knowledge of things. The pool of
Siloam, for example, where the man whose eyes our Lord had anointed
with clay made out of spittle was commanded to wash, has a
figurative significance, and undoubtedly conveys a secret sense;
but yet if the evangelist had not interpreted that name,(1) a
meaning so important would lie unnoticed. And we cannot doubt that,
in the same way, many Hebrew names which have not been interpreted
by the writers of those books, would, if any one could interpret
them, be of great value and service in solving the enigmas of
Scripture. And a number of men skilled in that language have
conferred no small benefit on posterity by explaining all these
words without reference to their place in Scripture, and telling us
what Adam means, what Eve, what Abraham, what Moses, and also the
names of places, what Jerusalem signifies, or Sion, or Sinai, or
Lebanon, or Jordan, and whatever other names in that language we
are not acquainted with. And when these names have been
investigated and explained, many figurative expressions in
Scripture become clear.
24. Ignorance of things, too, renders figurative
expressions obscure, as when we do not know the nature of the
animals, or minerals, or plants, which are frequently referred to
in Scripture by way of comparison. The fact so well known about the
serpent, for example, that to protect its head it will present its
whole body to its assailants--how much light it throws upon the
meaning of our Lord's command, that we should be wise as
serpents;(2) that is to say, that for the sake of our head, which
is Christ, we should willingly offer our body to the persecutors,
lest the Christian faith should, as it were, be destroyed in us,
if to save the body we deny our God! Or again, the statement that
the serpent gets rid of its old skin by squeezing itself through a
narrow hole, and thus acquires new strength--how appropriately it
fits in with the direction to imitate the wisdom of the serpent,
and to put off the old man, as the apostle says, that we may put on
the new;(3) and to put it off, too, by coming through a narrow
place, according to the saying of our Lord, "Enter ye in at the
strait gate!"(4) As, then, knowledge of the nature of the serpent
throws light upon many metaphors which Scripture is accustomed to
draw from that animal, so ignorance of other animals, which are no
less frequently mentioned by way of comparison, is a very great
drawback to the reader. And so in regard to minerals and plants:
knowledge of the carbuncle, for instance, which shines in the dark,
throws light upon many of the dark places in books too, where it is
used metaphorically; and ignorance of the beryl or the adamant
often shuts the doors of knowledge. And the only reason why we find
it easy to understand that perpetual peace is indicated by the
olive branch which the dove brought with it when it returned to the
ark,(5) is that we know both that the smooth touch of olive oil is
not easily spoiled by a fluid of another kind, and that the tree
itself is an evergreen. Many, again, by reason of their ignorance
of hyssop, not knowing the virtue it has in cleansing the lungs,
nor the power it is said to have of piercing rocks with its roots,
although it is a small and insignificant plant, cannot make out why
it is said, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean."(6)
25. Ignorance of numbers, too, prevents us from
understanding things that are set down in Scripture in a figurative
and mystical way. A candid mind, if I may so speak, cannot but be
anxious, for example, to ascertain what is meant by the fact that
Moses and Elijah, and our Lord Himself, all fasted for forty
days.(7) And except by knowledge of and reflection upon the number,
the difficulty of explaining the figure involved in this action
cannot be got over. For the number contains ten four times,
indicating the knowledge of all things, and that knowledge
interwoven with time. For both the diurnal and the annual
revolutions are accomplished in periods numbering four each; the
diurnal in the hours of the morning, the noontide, the evening,
and the night; the annual in the spring, summer, autumn, and winter
months. Now while we live in time, we must abstain and fast from
all joy in time, for the sake of that eternity in which we wish to
live; although by the passage of time we are taught this very
lesson of despising time and seeking eternity. Further, the number
ten signifies the knowledge of the Creator and the creature, for
there is a trinity in the Creator; and the number seven indicates
the creature, because of the life and the body. For the life
consists of three parts, whence also God is to be loved with the
whole heart, the whole soul, and the whole mind; and it is very
clear that in the body there are four elements of which it is made
up. In this number ten, therefore, when it is placed before us in
connection with time, that is, when it is taken four times we are
admonished to live unstained by, and not partaking of, any delight
in time, that is, to fast for forty days. Of this we are admonished
by the law personified in Moses by prophecy personified in Elijah,
and by our Lord Himself, who, as if receiving the witness both of
the law and the prophets, appeared on the mount between the other
two, while His three disciples looked on in amazement. Next, we
have to inquire in the same way, how out of the number forty
springs the number fifty, which in our religion has no ordinary
sacredness attached to it on account of the Pentecost, and how this
number taken thrice on account of the three divisions of time,
before the law, under the law, and under grace, or perhaps on
account of the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the
Trinity itself being added over and above, has reference to the
mystery of the most Holy Church, and reaches to the number of the
one hundred and fifty-three fishes which were taken after the
resurrection of our Lord, when the nets were cast out on the
right-hand side of the boat.(1) And in the same way, many other
numbers and combinations of numbers are used in the sacred
writings, to convey instruction under a figurative guise, and
ignorance of numbers often shuts out the reader from this
instruction.
26. Not a few things, too, are closed against us
and obscured by ignorance of music. One man, for example, has not
unskillfully explained some metaphors from the difference between
the psaltery and the harp.(2) And it is a question which it is not
out of place for learned men to discuss, whether there is any
musical law that compels the psaltery of ten chords to have just so
many strings; or whether, if there be no such law, the number
itself is not on that very account the more to be considered as of
sacred significance, either with reference to the ten commandments
of the law (and if again any question is raised about that number,
we can only refer it to the Creator and the creature), or with
reference to the number ten itself as interpreted above. And the
number of years the temple was in building, which is mentioned in
the gospel(3)--viz., forty-six--has a certain undefinable musical
sound, and when referred to the structure of our Lord's body, in
relation to which the temple was mentioned, compels many heretics
to confess that our Lord put on, not a false, but a true and human
body. And in several places in the Holy Scriptures we find both
numbers and music mentioned with honor.
CHAP. 17.--ORIGIN OF THE LEGEND OF THE
NINE MUSES.
27. For we must not listen to the falsities of
heathen superstition, which represent the nine Muses as daughters
of Jupiter and Mercury. Varro refutes these, and I doubt whether
any one can be found among them more curious or more learned in
such matters. He says that a certain state (I don't recollect the
name) ordered from each of three artists a set of statues of the
Muses, to be placed as an offering in the temple of Apollo,
intending that whichever of the artists produced the most beautiful
statues, they should select and purchase from him. It so happened
that these artists executed their works with equal beauty, that all
nine pleased the state, and that all were bought to be dedicated in
the temple of Apollo; and he says that afterwards Hesiod the poet
gave names to them all. It was not Jupiter, therefore, that begat
the nine Muses, but three artists created three each. And the state
had originally given the order for three, not because it had seen
them in visions, nor because they had presented themselves in that
number to the eyes of any of the citizens, but because it was
obvious to remark that all sound, which is the material of song, is
by nature of three kinds. For it is either produced by the voice,
as in the case of those who sing with the mouth without an
instrument; or by blowing, as in the case of trumpets and flutes;
or by striking, as in the case of harps and drums, and all other
instruments that give their sound when struck.
CHAP. 18.--NO HELP IS TO BE DESPISED, EVEN
THOUGH IT COME FROM A PROFANE SOURCE.
28. But whether the fact is as Varro has related,
or is not so, still we ought not to give up music because of the
superstition of the heathen, if we can derive anything from it that
is of use for the understanding of Holy Scripture; nor does it
follow that we must busy ourselves with their theatrical trumpery
because we enter upon an investigation about harps and other
instruments, that may help us to lay hold upon spiritual things.
For we ought not to refuse to learn letters because they say that
Mercury discovered them; nor because they have dedicated temples to
Justice and Virtue, and prefer to worship in the form of stones
things that ought to have their place in the heart, ought we on
that account to forsake justice and virtue. Nay, but let every good
and true Christian understand that wherever truth may be found, it
belongs to his Master; and while he recognizes and acknowledges the
truth, even in their religious literature, let him reject the
figments of superstition, and let him grieve over and avoid men
who, "when they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish
heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image
made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts,
and creeping things."(1)
CHAP. 19.--TWO KINDS OFHEATHEN KNOWLEDGE.
29. But to explain more fully this whole topic (for
it is one that cannot be omitted), there are two kinds of knowledge
which are in vogue among the heathen. One is the knowledge of
things instituted by men, the other of things which they have
noted, either as transacted in the past or as instituted by God.
The former kind, that which deals with human institutions, is
partly superstitious, partly not.
CHAP. 20.--THE SUPERSTITIOUS NATURE OF
HUMAN INSTITUTIONS.
30. All the arrangements made by men for the making
and worshipping of idols are superstitious, pertaining as they do
either to the worship of what is created or of some part of it as
God, or to consultations and arrangements about signs and leagues
with devils, such, for example, as are employed in the magical
arts, and which the poets are accustomed not so much to teach as to
celebrate. And to this class belong, but with a bolder teach of
deception, the books of the haruspices and augurs. In this class we
must place also all amulets and cures which the medical art
condemns, whether these consist in Incantations, or in marks which
they call characters, or in hanging or tying on or even dancing in
a fashion certain articles, not with reference to the condition of
the body, but to certain signs hidden or manifest; and these
remedies they call by the less offensive name of physica, so as to
appear not to be engaged in superstitious observances, but to be
taking advantage of the forces of nature. Examples of these are the
earrings on the top of each ear, or the rings of ostrich bone on
the fingers, or telling you when you hiccup to hold your left thumb
in your right hand.
31. To these we may add thousands of the most
frivolous practices, that are to be observed if any part of the
body should jump, or if, when friends are walking arm-in-arm, a
stone, or a dog, or a boy, should come between them. And the
kicking of a stone, as if it were a divider of friends, does less
harm than to cuff an innocent boy if he happens to run between men
who are walking side by side. But it is delightful that the boys
are sometimes avenged by the dogs; for frequently men are so
superstitious as to venture upon striking a dog who has run between
them,--not with impunity however, for instead of a superstitious
remedy, the dog sometimes makes his assailant run in hot haste for
a real surgeon. To this class, too, belong the following rules: To
tread upon the threshold when you go out in front of the house; to
go back to bed if any one should sneeze when you are putting on
your slippers; to return home if you stumble when going to a place;
when your clothes are eaten by mice, to be more frightened at the
prospect of coming misfortune than grieved by your present loss.
Whence that witty saying of Cato, who, when consulted by a man who
told him that the mice had eaten his boots, replied, "That is not
strange, but it would have been very strange indeed if the boots
had eaten the mice."
CHAP. 21.--SUPERSTITION OF ASTROLOGERS.
32. Nor can we exclude from this kind of
superstition those who were called genethliaci, on account of their
attention to birthdays, but are now commonly called mathematici.
For these, too, although they may seek with pains for the true
position of the stars at the time of our birth, and may sometimes
even find it out, yet in so far as they attempt thence to predict
our actions, or the consequences of our actions, grievously err,
and sell inexperienced men into a miserable bondage. For when any
freeman goes to an astrologer of this kind, he gives money that he
may come away the slave either of Mars or of Venus, or rather,
perhaps, of all the stars to which those who first fell into this
error, and handed it on to posterity, have given the names either
of beasts on account of their likeness to beasts, or of men with a
view to confer honor on those men. And this is not to be wondered
at, when we consider that even in times more recent and nearer our
own, the Romans made an attempt to dedicate the star which we call
Lucifer to the name and honor of Caesar. And this would, perhaps,
have been done, and the name handed down to distant ages, only that
his ancestress Venus had given her name to this star before him,
and could not by any law transfer to her heirs what she had never
possessed, nor sought to possess, in life. For where a place was
vacant, or not held in honor of any of the dead of former times,
the usual proceeding in such cases was carried out. For example, we
have changed the names of the months Quintilis and Sextilis to July
and August, naming them in honor of the men Julius Caesar and
Augustus Caesar; and from this instance any one who cares can
easily see that the stars spoken of above formerly wandered in the
heavens without the names they now bear. But as the men were dead
whose memory people were either compelled by royal power or
impelled by human folly to honor, they seemed to think that in
putting their names upon the stars they were raising the dead men
themselves to heaven. But whatever they may be called by men, still
there are stars which God has made and set in order after His own
pleasure, and they have a fixed movement, by which the seasons are
distinguished and varied. And when any one is born, it is easy to
observe the point at which this movement has arrived, by use of the
rules discovered and laid down by those who are rebuked by Holy
Writ in these terms: "For if they were able to know so much that
they could weigh the world, how did they not more easily find out
the Lord thereof?"(1)
CHAP. 22 .--THE FOLLY OF OBSERVING THE STARS
IN ORDER TO PREDICT THE EVENTS OF A LIFE.
33. But to desire to predict the characters, the
acts, and the fate of those who are born from such an observation,
is a great delusion and great madness. And among those at least who
have any sort of acquaintance with matters of this kind (which,
indeed, are only fit to be unlearnt again), this superstition is
refuted beyond the reach of doubt. For the observation is of the
position of the stars, which they call constellations, at the time
when the person was born about whom these wretched men are
consulted by their still more wretched dupes. Now it may happen
that, in the case of twins, one follows the other out of the womb
so closely that there is no interval of time between them that can
be apprehended and marked in the position of the constellations.
Whence it necessarily follows that twins are in many cases born
under the same stars, while they do not meet with equal fortune
either in what they do or what they suffer, but often meet with
fates so different that one of them has a most fortunate life, the
other a most unfortunate. As, for example, we are told that Esau
and Jacob were born twins, and in such close succession, that
Jacob, who was born last, was found to have laid hold with his hand
upon the heel of his brother, who preceded him.(2) Now, assuredly,
the day and hour of the birth of these two could not be marked in
any way that would not give both the same constellation. But what
a difference there was between the characters, the actions, the
labors, and the fortunes of these two, the Scriptures bear witness,
which are now so widely spread as to be in the mouth of all
nations.
34. Nor is it to the point to say that the very
smallest and briefest moment of time that separates the birth of
twins, produces great effects in nature, and in the extremely rapid
motion of the heavenly bodies. For, although I may grant that it
does produce the greatest effects, yet the astrologer cannot
discover this in the constellations, and it is by looking into
these that he professes to read the fates. If, then, he does not
discover the difference when he examines the constellations, which
must, of course, be the same whether he is consulted about Jacob or
his brother, what does it profit him that there is a difference in
the heavens, which he rashly and carelessly brings into disrepute,
when there is no difference in his chart, which he looks into
anxiously but in vain? And so these notions also, which have their
origin in certain signs of things being arbitrarily fixed upon by
the presumption of men, are to be referred to the same class as if
they were leagues and covenants with devils.
CHAP. 23.--WHY WE REPUDIATE ARTS OF DIVINATION.
35. For in this way it comes to pass that men who
lust after evil things are, by a secret judgment of God, delivered
over to be mocked and deceived, as the just reward of their evil
desires. For they are deluded and imposed on by the false angels,
to whom the lowest part of the world has been put in subjection by
the law of God's providence, and in accordance with His most
admirable arrangement of things. And the result of these delusions
and deceptions is, that through these superstitious and baneful
modes of divination many things in the past and future are made
known, and turn out just as they are foretold and in the case of
those who practise superstitious observances, many things turn out
agreeably to their observances, and ensnared by these successes,
they become more eagerly inquisitive, and involve themselves
further and further in a labyrinth of most pernicious error. And to
our advantage, the Word of God is not silent about this species of
fornication of the soul; and it does not warn the soul against
following such practices on the ground that those who profess them
speak lies, but it says, "Even if what they tell you should come to
pass, hearken not unto them." I For though the ghost of the dead
Samuel foretold the truth to King Saul,(2) that does not make such
sacrilegious observances as those by which his ghost was brought up
the less detestable; and though the ventriloquist woman(3) in the
Acts of the Apostles bore true testimony to the apostles of the
Lord, the Apostle Paul did not spare the evil spirit on that
account, but rebuked and cast it out, and so made the woman
clean.(4)
36. All arts of this sort, therefore, are either
nullities, or are part of a guilty superstition, springing out of
a baleful fellowship between men and devils, and are to be utterly
repudiated and avoided by the Christian as the covenants of a false
and treacherous friendship. "Not as if the idol were anything,"
says the apostle; "but because the things which they sacrifice they
sacrifice to devils and not to God; and I would not that ye should
have fellowship with devils."(5) Now what the apostle has said
about idols and the sacrifices offered in their honor, that we
ought to feel in regard to all fancied signs which lead either to
the worship of idols, or to worshipping creation or its parts
instead of God, or which are connected with attention to medicinal
charms and other observances for these are not appointed by God as
the public means of promoting love towards God and our neighbor,
but they waste the hearts of wretched men in private and selfish
strivings after temporal things. Accordingly, in regard to all
these branches of knowledge, we must fear and shun the fellowship
of demons, who, with the Devil their prince, strive only to shut
and bar the door against our return. As, then, from the stars which
God created and ordained, men have drawn lying omens of their own
fancy, so also from things that are born, or in any other way come
into exIstence under the government of God's providence, if there
chance only to be something unusual in the occurrence,--as when a
mule brings forth young, or an object is struck by lightning,--men
have frequently drawn omens by conjectures of their own, and have
committed them to writing, as if they had drawn them by rule.
CHAP. 24.--THE INTERCOURSE AND AGREEMENT WITH
DEMONS WHICH SUPERSTITIOUS OBSERVANCES MAINTAIN.
37. And all these omens are of force just so far as
has been arranged with the devils by that previous understanding in
the mind which is, as it were, the common language, but they are
all full of hurtful curiosity, torturing anxiety, and deadly
slavery. For it was not because they had meaning that they were
attended to, but it was by attending to and marking them that they
came to have meaning. And so they are made different for different
people, according to their several notions and prejudices. For
those spirits which are bent upon deceiving, take care to provide
for each person the same sort of omens as they see his own
conjectures and preconceptions have already entangled him in. For,
to take an illustration, the same figure of the letter X, which is
made in the shape of a cross, means one thing among the Greeks and
another among the Latins, not by nature, but by agreement and
pre-arrangement as to its signification; and so, any one who knows
both languages uses this letter in a different sense when writing
to a Greek from that in which he uses it when writing to a Latin.
And the same sound, beta, which is the name of a letter among the
Greeks, is the name of a vegetable among the Latins; and when I
say, lege, these two syllables mean one thing to a Greek and
another to a Latin. Now, just as all these signs affect the mind
according to the arrangements of the community in which each man
lives, and affect different men's minds differently, because these
arrangements are different; and as, further, men did not agree upon
them as
548
signs because they were already significant, but on the contrary
they are now significant because men have agreed upon them; in the
same way also, those signs by which the ruinous intercourse with
devils is maintained have meaning just in proportion to each man's
observations. And this appears quite plainly in the rites of the
augurs; for they, both before they observe the omens and after they
have completed their observations, take pains not to see the flight
or hear the cries of birds, because these omens are of no
significance apart from the previous arrangement in the mind of the
observer.
CHAP. 25.--IN HUMAN INSTITUTIONS WHICH ARE NOT
SUPERSTITIOUS, THERE ARE SOME THINGS SUPERFLUOUS AND SOME
CONVENIENT AND NECESSARY.
38. But when all these have been cut away and
rooted out of the mind of the Christian we must then look at human
institutions which are not superstitious, that is, such as are not
set up in association with devils, but by men in association with
one another. For all arrangements that aye in force among men,
because they have agreed among themselves that they should be in
force, are human institutions; and of these, some are matters of
superfluity and luxury, some of convenience and necessity. For if
those signs which the actors make in dancing were of force by
nature, and not by the arrangement and agreement of men, the public
crier would not in former times have announced to the people of
Carthage, while the pantomime was dancing, what it was he meant to
express,--a thing still remembered by many old men from whom we
have frequently heard it.I And we may well believe this, because
even now, if any one who is unaccustomed to such follies goes into
the theatre, unless some one tells him what these movements mean,
he will give his whole attention to them in vain. Yet all men aim
at a certain degree of likeness in their choice of signs, that the
signs may as far as possible be like the things they signify. But
because one thing may resemble another in many ways, such signs are
not always of the same significance among men, except when they
have mutually agreed upon them.
39. But in regard to pictures and statues, and
other works of this kind, which are intended as representations of
things, nobody makes a mistake, especially if they are executed by
skilled artists, but every one, as soon as he sees the likenesses,
recognizes the things they are likenesses of. And this whole class
are to be reckoned among the superfluous devices of men, unless
when it is a matter of importance to inquire in regard to any of
them, for what reason, where, when, and by whose authority it was
made. Finally, the thousands of fables and fictions, in whose lies
men take delight, are human devices, and nothing is to be
considered more peculiarly man's own and derived from himself than
anything that is false and lying. Among the convenient and
necessary arrangements of men with men are to be reckoned whatever
differences they choose to make in bodily dress and ornament for
the purpose of distinguishing sex or rank; and the countless
varieties of signs without which human intercourse either could not
be carried on at all, or would be carried on at great
inconvenience; and the arrangements as to weights and measures, and
the stamping and weighing of coins, which are peculiar to each
state and people, and other things of the same kind. Now these, if
they were not devices of men, would not be different in different
nations, and could not be changed among particular nations at the
discretion of their respective sovereigns.
40. This whole class of human arrangements, which
are of convenience for the necessary intercourse of life, the
Christian is not by any means to neglect, but on the contrary
should pay a sufficient degree of attention to them, and keep them
in memory.
CHAP. 26.--WHAT HUMAN CONTRIVANCES WE ARE TO
ADOPT, AND WHAT WE ARE TO AVOID.
For certain institutions of men are in a sort of
way representations and likenesses of natural objects. And of
these, such as have relation to fellowship with devils must, as has
been said, be utterly rejected and held in detestation; those, on
the other hand, which relate to the mutual intercourse of men, are,
so far as they are not matters of luxury and superfluity, to be
adopted, especially the forms of the letters which are necessary
for reading, and the various languages as far as is required--a
matter I have spoken of above.(2) To this class also belong
shorthand characters,(3) those who are acquainted with which are
called shorthand writers.(4) All these are useful, and there is
nothing unlawful in learning them, nor do they involve us in
superstition, or enervate us by luxury, if they only occupy our
minds so far as not to stand in the way of more important objects
to which they ought to be subservient.
CHAP. 27.--SOME DEPARTMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE, NOT
OF MERE HUMAN INVENTION, AID US IN INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE.
41. But, coming to the next point, we are not to
reckon among human institutions those things which men nave handed
down to us, not as arrangements of their own, but as the result of
investigation into the occurrences of the past, and into the
arrangements of God's providence. And of these, some pertain to the
bodily senses, some to the intellect. Those which are reached by
the bodily senses we either believe on testimony, or perceive when
they are pointed out to us, or infer from experience.
CHAP. 28.--TO WHAT EXTENT HISTORY IS AN AID.
42. Anything, then, that we learn from history
about the chronology of past times assists us very much in
understanding the Scriptures, even if it be learnt without the pale
of the Church as a matter of childish instruction. For we
frequently seek information about a variety of matters by use of
the Olympiads, and the names of the consuls; and ignorance of the
consulship in which our Lord was born, and that in which He
suffered, has led some into the error of supposing that He was
forty-six years of age when He suffered, that being the number of
years He was told by the Jews the temple (which He took as a symbol
of His body) was in building.(1) Now we know on the authority of
the evangelist that He was about thirty years of age when He was
baptized;(2) But the number of years He lived afterwards, although
by putting His actions together we can make it out, yet that no
shadow of doubt might arise from another source, can be ascertained
more clearly and more certainly from a comparison of profane
history with the gospel. It will still be evident, however, that it
was not without a purpose it was said that the temple was forty and
six years in building; so that, as more secret formation of the
body which, for our sakes, the only-begotten Son of God, by whom
all things were made, condescended to put on.(3)
43. As to the utility of history, moreover,
passing over the Greeks, what a great question our own Ambrose has
set at rest! For, when the readers and admirers of Plato dared
calumniously to assert that our Lord Jesus Christ learnt all those
sayings of His, which they are compelled to admire and praise, from
the books of Plato--because (they urged) it cannot be denied that
Plato lived long before the coming of our Lord!--did not the
illustrious bishop, when by his investigations into profane history
he had discovered that Plato made a journey into Egypt at the time
when Jeremiah the prophet was there,(4) show that it is much more
likely that Plato was through Jeremiah's means initiated into our
literature, so as to be able to teach and write those views of his
which are so justly praised? For not even Pythagoras himself, from
whose successors these men assert Plato learnt theology, lived at
a date prior to the books of that Hebrew race, among whom the
worship of one God sprang up, and of whom as concerning the flesh
our Lord came. And thus, when we reflect upon the dates, it becomes
much more probable that those philosophers learnt Whatever they
said that was good and true from our literature, than that the
Lord Jesus Christ learnt from the writings of Plato,--a thing which
it is the height of folly to believe.
44. And even when in the course of an historical
narrative former institutions of men are described, the history
itself is not to be reckoned among human institutions; because
things that are past and gone and cannot be undone are to be
reckoned as belonging to the course of time, of which God is the
author and governor. For it is one thing to tell what has been
done, another to show what ought to be done. History narrates what
has been done, faithfully and with advantage; but the books of the
haruspices, and all writings of the same kind, aim at teaching what
ought to be done or observed, using the boldness of an adviser, not
the fidelity of a narrator.
CHAP. 29.--TO WHAT EXTENT NATURAL SCIENCE IS AN
EXEGETICAL AID.
45. There is also a species of narrative resembling
description, in which not a past but an existing state of things is
made known to those who are ignorant of it. To this species belongs
all that has been written about the situation of places, and the
nature of animals, trees, herbs, stones, and other bodies. And of
this species I have treated above, and have shown that this kind of
knowledge is serviceable in solving the difficulties of Scripture,
not that these objects are to be used conformably to certain signs
as nostrums or the instruments of superstition; for that kind of
knowledge I have already set aside as distinct from the lawful and
free kind now spoken of. For it is one thing to say: If you bruise
down this herb and drink it, it will remove the pain from your
stomach; and another to say: If you hang this herb round your neck,
it will remove the pain from your stomach. In the former case the
wholesome mixture is approved of, in the latter the superstitious
charm is condemned; although indeed, where incantations and
invocations and marks are not used, it is frequently doubtful
whether the thing that is tied or fixed in any way to the body to
cure it, acts by a natural virtue, in which case it may be freely
used; or acts by a sort of charm, in which case it becomes the
Christian to avoid it the more carefully, the more efficacious it
may seem to be. But when the reason why a thing is of virtue does
not appear, the intention with which it is used is of great
importance, at least in healing or in tempering bodies, whether in
medicine or in agriculture.
46. The knowledge of the stars, again, is not a
matter of narration, but of description. Very few of these,
however, are mentioned in Scripture. And as the course of the moon,
which is regularly employed in reference to celebrating the
anniversary of our Lord's passion, is known to most people; so the
rising and setting and other movements of the rest of the heavenly
bodies are thoroughly known to very few. And this knowledge,
although in itself it involves no superstition, renders very
little, indeed almost no assistance, in the interpretation of Holy
Scripture, and by engaging the attention unprofitably is a
hindrance rather; and as it is closely related to the very
pernicious error of the diviners of the fates, it is more
convenient and becoming to neglect it. It involves, moreover, in
addition to a description of the present state of things, something
like a narrative of the past also; because one may go back from the
present position and motion of the stars, and trace by rule their
past movements. It involves also regular anticipations of the
future, not in the way of forebodings and omens, but by way of sure
calculation; not with the design of drawing any information from
them as to our own acts and fates, in the absurd fashion of the
genethliaci, but only as to the motions of the heavenly bodies
themselves. For, as the man who computes the moon's age can tell,
when he has found out her age today, what her age was any number of
years ago, or what will be her age any number of years hence, in
just the same way men who are skilled in such computations are
accustomed to answer like questions about every one of the heavenly
bodies. And I have stated what my views are about all this
knowledge, so far as regards its utility.
CHAP. 30.--WHAT THE MECHANICAL ARTS CONTRIBUTE TO
EXEGETICS.
47. Further, as to the remaining arts, whether
those by which something is made which, when the effort of the
workman is over, remains as a result of his work, as, for example,
a house, a bench, a dish, and other things of that kind; or those
which, so to speak, assist God in His operations, as medicine, and
agriculture, and navigation: or those whose sole result is an
action, as dancing, and racing, and wrestling;--in all these arts
experience teaches us to infer the future from the past. For no man
who is skilled in any of these arts moves his limbs in any
operation without connecting the memory of the past with the
expectation of the future. Now of these arts a very superficial and
cursory knowledge is to be acquired, not with a view to practising
them (unless some duty compel us, a matter on which I do not touch
at present), but with a view to forming a judgment about them, that
we may not be wholly ignorant of what Scripture means to convey
when it employs figures of speech derived from these arts.
CHAP. 31.--USE OF DIALECTICS. OF FALLACIES.
48. There remain those branches of knowledge which
pertain not to the bodily senses, but to the intellect, among which
the science of reasoning and that of number are the chief. The
science of reasoning is of very great service in searching into and
unravelling all sorts of questions that come up in Scripture, only
in the use of it we must guard against the love of wrangling, and
the childish vanity of entrapping an adversary. For there are many
of what are called solphisms, inferences in reasoning that are
false, and yet so close an imitation of the true, as to deceive not
only dull people, but clever men too, when they are not on their
guard. For example, one man lays before another with whom he is
talking, the proposition, "What I am, you are not." The other
assents, for the proposition is in part true, the one man being
cunning and the other simple. Then the first speaker adds: "I am a
man;" and when the other has given his assent to this also, the
first draws his conclusion: "Then you are not a man. "' Now of this
sort of ensnaring arguments, Scripture, as I judge, expresses
detestation in that place where it is said, "There is one that
showeth wisdom in words, and is hated;"(1) although, indeed, a
style of speech which is not intended to entrap, but only aims at
verbal ornamentation more than is consistent with seriousness of
purpose, is also called sophistical.
49. There are also valid processes of reasoning
which lead to false conclusions, by following out to its logical
consequences the error of the man with whom one is arguing; and
these conclusions are sometimes drawn by a good and learned man,
with the object of making the person from whose error these
consequences result, feel ashamed of them and of thus leading him
to give up his error when he finds that if he wishes to retain his
old opinion, he must of necessity also hold other opinions which he
condemns. For example, the apostle did not draw true conclusions
when he said, "Then is Christ not risen," and again, "Then is our
preaching vain, and your faith is also vain;"(1) and further on
drew other inferences which are all utterly false; for Christ has
risen, the preaching of those who declared this fact was not in
vain, nor was their faith in vain who had believed it. But all
these false inferences followed legitimately from the opinion of
those who said that there is no resurrection of the dead. These
inferences, then, being repudiated as false, it follows that since
they would be true if the dead rise not, there will be a
resurrection of the dead. As, then, valid conclusions may be drawn
not only from true but from false propositions, the laws of valid
reasoning may easily be learnt in the schools, outside the pale of
the Church. But the truth of propositions must be inquired into in
the sacred books of the Church.
CHAP. 32.--VALID LOGICAL SEQUENCE IS NOT
DEVISED BUT ONLY OBSERVED BY MAN.
50. And yet the validity of logical sequences is
not a thing devised by men, but is observed and noted by them that
they may be able to learn and teach it; for it exists eternally in
the reason of things, and has its origin with God. For as the man
who narrates the order of events does not himself create that
order; and as he who describes the situations of places, or the
natures of animals, or roots, or minerals, does not describe
arrangements of man; and as he who points out the stars and their
movements does not point out anything that he himself or any other
man has ordained;--in the same way, he who says, "When the
consequent is false, the antecedent must also be false," says what
is most true; but he does not himself make it so, he only points
out that it is so. And it is upon this rule that the reasoning I
have quoted from the Apostle Paul proceeds. For the antecedent is,
"There is no resurrection of the dead,"--the position taken up by
those whose error the apostle wished to overthrow. Next, from this
antecedent, the assertion, viz., that there is no resurrection of
the dead, the necessary consequence is, "Then Christ is not risen."
But this consequence is false, for Christ has risen; therefore the
antecedent is also false. But the antecedent is, that there is no
resurrection of the dead. We conclude, therefore, that there is a
resurrection of the dead. Now all this is briefly expressed thus:
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen;
but Christ is risen, therefore there is a resurrection of the dead.
This rule, then, that when the consequent is removed, the
antecedent must also be removed, is not made by man, but only
pointed out by him. And this rule has reference to the validity of
the reasoning, not to the truth of the statements.
CHAP. 33.--FALSE INFERENCES MAY BE DRAWN FROM
VALID REASONINGS, AND VICE VERSA.
51. In this passage, however, where the argument is
about the resurrection, both the law of the inference is valid, and
the conclusion arrived at is true. But in the case of false
conclusions, too, there is a validity of inference in some such way
as the following. Let us suppose some man to have admitted: If a
snail is an animal, it has a voice. This being admitted, then, when
it has been proved that the snail has no voice, it follows (since
when the consequent is proved false, the antecedent is also false)
that the snail is not an animal. Now this conclusion is false, but
it is a true and valid inference from the false admission. Thus,
the truth of a statement stands on its own merits; the validity of
an inference depends on the statement or the admission of the man
with whom one is arguing. And thus, as I said above, a false
inference may be drawn by a valid process of reasoning, in order
that he whose error we wish to correct may be sorry that he has
admitted the antecedent, when he sees that its logical consequences
are utterly untenable. And hence it is easy to understand that as
the inferences may be valid where the opinions are false, so the
inferences may be unsound where the opinions are true. For example,
suppose that a man propounds the statement, "If this man is just,
he is good," and we admit its truth. Then he adds, "But he is not
just;" and when we admit this too, he draws the conclusion,
"Therefore he is not good." Now although every one of these
statements may be true, still the principle of the inference is
unsound. For it is not true that, as when the consequent is proved
false the antecedent is also false, so when the antecedent is
proved false the consequent is false. For the statement is true,
"If he is an orator, he is a man." But if we add, "He is not an
orator," the consequence does not follow, "He is not a man."
CHAP. 34.--IT IS ONE THING TO KNOW THE LAWS OF
INFERENCE, ANOTHER TO KNOW THE TRUTH OF OPINIONS.
52. Therefore it is one thing to know the laws of
inference, and another to know the truth of opinions. In the former
case we learn what is consequent, what is inconsequent, and what is
incompatible. An example of a consequent is, "If he is an orator,
he is a man;" of an inconsequent, "If he is a man, he is an
orator;" of an incompatible, "If he is a man, he is a quadruped."
In these instances we judge of the connection. In regard to the
truth of opinions, however, we must consider propositions as they
stand by themselves, and not in their connection with one another;
but when propositions that we are not sure about are joined by a
valid inference to propositions that are true and certain, they
themselves, too, necessarily become certain. Now some, when they
have ascertained the validity of the inference, plume themselves as
if this involved also the truth of the propositions. Many, again,
who hold the true opinions have an unfounded contempt for
themselves, because they are ignorant of the laws of inference;
whereas the man who knows that there is a resurrection of the dead
is assuredly better than the man who only knows that it follows
that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not
risen.
CHAP. 35 .--THE SCIENCE OF DEFINITION IS NOT
FALSE, THOUGH IT MAY BE APPLIED TO FALSITIES.
53. Again, the science of definition, of division,
and of partition, although it is frequently applied to falsities,
is not itself false, nor framed by man's device, but is evolved
from the reason of things. For although poets have applied it to
their fictions, and false philosophers, or even heretics--that is,
false Christians--to their erroneous doctrines, that is no reason
why it should be false, for example, that neither in definition,
nor in division, nor in partition, is anything to be included that
does not pertain to the matter in hand, nor anything to be omitted
that does. This is true, even though the things to be defined or
divided are not true. For even falsehood itself is defined when we
say that falsehood is the declaration of a state of things which is
not as we declare it to be; and this definition is true, although
falsehood itself cannot be true. We can also divide it, saying that
there are two kinds of falsehood, one in regard to things that
cannot be true at all, the other in regard to things that are not,
though it is possible they might be, true. For example, the man who
says that seven and three are eleven, says what cannot be true
under any circumstances; but he who says that it rained on the
kalends of January, although perhaps the fact is not so, says what
posssibly might have been. The definition and division, therefore,
of what is false may be perfectly true, although what is false
cannot, of course, itself be true.
CHAP. 36.--THE RULES OF ELOQUENCE ARE TRUE,
THOUGH SOMETIMES USED TO PERSUADE MEN OF WHAT IS FALSE.
54. There are also certain rules for a more copious
kind of argument, which is called eloquence, and these rules are
not the less true that they can be used for persuading men of what
is false; but as they can be used to enforce the truth as well, it
is not the faculty itself that is to be blamed, but the perversity
of those who put it to a bad use. Nor is it owing to an arrangement
among men that the expression of affection conciliates the hearer,
or that a narrative, when it is short and clear, is effective, and
that variety arrests men's attention without wearying them. And it
is the same with other directions of the same kind, which, whether
the cause in which they are used be true or false, are themselves
true just in so far as they are effective in producing knowledge or
belief, or in moving men's minds to desire and aversion. And men
rather found out that these things are so, than arranged that they
should be so.
CHAP. 37.--USE OF RHETORIC AND DIALECTIC.
55. This art, however, when it is learnt, is not to
be used so much for ascertaining the meaning as for setting forth
the meaning when it is ascertained. But the art previously spoken
of, which deals with inferences, and definitions, and divisions, is
of the greatest assistance in the discovery of the meaning,
provided only that men do not fall into the error of supposing that
when they have learnt these things they have learnt the true secret
of a happy life. Still, it sometimes happens that men find less
difficulty in attaining the object for the sake of which these
sciences are learnt, than in going through the very intricate and
thorny discipline of such rules. It is just as if a man wishing to
give rules for walking should warn you not to lift the hinder foot
before you set down the front one, and then should describe
minutely the way you ought to move the hinges of the joints and
knees. For what he says is true, and one cannot walk in any other
way; but men find it easier to walk by executing these movements
than to attend to them while they are going through them, or to
understand when they are told about them. Those, on the other hand,
who cannot walk, care still less about such directions, as they
cannot prove them by making trial of them. And in the same way a
clever man often sees that an inference is unsound more quickly
than he apprehends the rules for it. A dull man, on the other hand,
does not see the unsoundness, but much less does he grasp the
rules. And in regard to all these laws, we derive more pleasure
from them as exhibitions of truth, than assistance in arguing or
forming opinions, except perhaps that they put the intellect in
better training. We must take care, however
that they do not at the same time make it more inclined to mischief
or vanity,--that is to say, that they do not give those who have
learnt them an inclination to lead people astray by plausible
speech and catching questions, or make them think that they have
attained some great thing that gives them an advantage over the
good and innocent.
CHAP. 38.--THE SCIENCE OF NUMBERS NOT CREATED, BUT
ONLY DISCOVERED, BY MAN.
56. Coming now to the science of number, it is
clear to the dullest apprehension that this was not created by man,
but was discovered by investigation. For, though Virgil could at
his own pleasure make the first syllable of Italia long, while the
ancients pronounced it short, it is not in any man's power to
determine at his pleasure that three times three are not nine, or
do not make a square, or are not the triple of three, nor one and
a half times the number six, or that it is not true that they are
not the double of any number because odd numbers(1) have no half.
Whether, then, numbers are considered in themselves, or as applied
to the laws of figures, or of sounds, or of other motions, they
have fixed laws which were not made by man, but which the acuteness
of ingenious men brought to light.
57. The man, however, who puts so high a value on these things as
to be inclined to boast himself one of the learned, and who does
not rather inquire after the source from which those things which
he perceives to be true derive their truth, and from which those
others which he perceives to be unchangeable also derive their
truth and unchangeableness, and who, mounting up from bodily
appearances to the mind of man, and finding that it too is
changeable (for it is sometimes instructed, at other times
uninstructed), although it holds a middle place between the
unchangeable truth above it and the changeable things beneath it,
does not strive to make all things redound to the praise and love
of the one God from whom he knows that all things have their
being;-the man, I say, who acts in this way may seem to be learned,
but wise he cannot in any sense be deemed.
CHAP. 39.--TO WHICH OF THE ABOVE-MENTIONED
STUDIES ATTENTION SHOULD BE GIVEN, AND IN WHAT SPIRIT.
58. Accordingly, I think that it is well to warn
studious and able young men, who fear God and are seeking for
happiness of life, not to venture heedlessly upon the pursuit of
the branches of learning that are in vogue beyond the pale of the
Church of Christ, as if these could secure for them the happiness
they seek; but soberly and carefully to discriminate among them.
And if they find any of those which have been instituted by men
varying by reason of the varying pleasure of their founders, and
unknown by reason of erroneous conjectures, especially if they
involve entering into fellowship with devils by means of leagues
and covenants about signs, let these be utterly rejected and held
in detestation. Let the young men also withdraw their attention
from such institutions of men as are unnecessary and luxurious. But
for the sake of the necessities of this life we must not neglect
the arrangements of men that enable us to carry on intercourse with
those around us. I think, however, there is nothing useful in the
other branches of learning that are found among the heathen, except
information about objects, either past or present, that relate to
the bodily senses, in which are included also the experiments and
conclusions of the useful mechanical arts, except also the sciences
of reasoning and of number. And in regard to all these we must hold
by the maxim, "Not too much of anything;" especially in the case of
those which, pertaining as they do to the senses, are subject to
the relations of space and time.(2)
59. What, then, some men have done in regard to all
words and names found in Scripture, in the Hebrew, and Syriac, and
Egyptian, and other tongues, taking up and interpreting separately
such as were left in Scripture without interpretation; and what
Eusebius has done in regard to the history of the past with a view
to the questions arising in Scripture that require a knowledge of
history for their solution;--what, I say, these men have done in
regard to matters of this kind, making it unnecessary for the
Christian to spend his strength on many subjects for the sake of a
few items of knowledge, the same, I think, might be done in regard
to other matters, if any competent man were willing in a spirit of
benevolence to undertake the labor for the advantage of his
brethren. In this way he might arrange in their several classes,
and give an account of the unknown places, and animals, and plants,
and trees, and stones, and metals, and other species of things that
are mentioned in Scripture, taking up these only, and committing
his account to writing. This might also be done in relation to
numbers, so that the theory of those numbers, and those only, which
are mentioned in Holy Scripture, might be explained and written
down. And it may happen that some or all of these things have been
done already (as I have found that many things I had no notion of
have been worked out and committed to writing by good and learned
Christians), but are either lost amid the crowds of the careless,
or are kept out of sight by the envious. And I am not sure whether
the same thing can be done in regard to the theory of reasoning;
but it seems to me it cannot, because this runs like a system of
nerves through the whole structure of Scripture, and on that
account is of more service to the reader in disentangling and
explaining ambiguous passages, of which I shall speak hereafter,
than in ascertaining the meaning of unknown signs, the topic I am
now discussing.
CHAP. 40.--WHATEVER HAS BEEN RIGHTLY SAID BY
THE HEATHEN, WE MUST APPROPRIATE TO OUR USES.
60. Moreover, if those who are called philosophers,
and especially the Platonists, have said aught that is true and in
harmony with our faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but
to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful possession
of it. For, as the Egyptians had not only the idols and heavy
burdens which the people of Israel hated and fled from, but also
vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, and garments, which the
same people when going out of Egypt appropriated to themselves,
designing them for a better use, not doing this on their own
authority, but by the command of God, the Egyptians themselves, in
their ignorance, providing them with things which they themselves
were not making a good use of;(1) in the same way all branches of
heathen learning have not only false and superstitious fancies and
heavy burdens of unnecessary toil, which every one of us, when
going out under the leadership of Christ from the fellowship of the
heathen, ought to abhor and avoid; but they contain also liberal
instruction which is better adapted to the use of the truth, and
some most excellent precepts of morality; and some truths in regard
even to the worship of the One God are found among them. Now these
are, so to speak, their gold and silver, which they did not create
themselves, but dug out of the mines of God's providence which are
everywhere scattered abroad, and are perversely and unlawfully
prostituting to the worship of devils. These, therefore, the
Christian, when he separates himself in spirit from the miserable
fellowship of these men, ought to take away from them, and to
devote to their proper use in preaching the gospel. Their garments,
also,--that is, human institutions such as are adapted to that
intercourse with men which is indispensable in this life,--we must
take and turn to a Christian use.
61. And what else have many good and faithful men
among our brethren done? Do we not see with what a quantity of gold
and silver and garments Cyprian, that most per suasive teacher and
most blessed martyr, was loaded when he came out of Egypt? How much
Lactantius brought with him? And Victorinus, and Optatus, and
Hilary, not to speak of living men! How much Greeks out of number
have borrowed! And prior to all these, that most faithful servant
of God, Moses, had done the same thing; for of him it is written
that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.(2) And to
none of all these would heathen superstition (especially in those
times when, kicking against the yoke of Christ, it was persecuting
the Christians) have ever furnished branches of knowledge it held
useful, if it had suspected they were about to turn them to the use
of worshipping the One God, and thereby overturning the vain
worship of idols. But they gave their gold and their silver and
their garments to the people of God as they were going out of
Egypt, not knowing how the things they gave would be turned to the
service of Christ. For what was done at the time of the exodus was
no doubt a type prefiguring what happens now. And this I say
without prejudice to any other interpretation that may be as good,
or better.
CHAP. 41.--WHAT KIND OF SPIRIT IS REQUIRED FOR THE
STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.
62. But when the student of the Holy Scriptures,
prepared in the way I have indicated, shall enter upon his
investigations, let him constantly meditate upon that saying of the
apostle's, "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth."(1) For so
he will feel that, whatever may be the riches he brings with him
out of Egypt, yet unless he has kept the passover, he cannot be
safe. Now Christ is our passover sacrificed for us,(2) and there is
nothing the sacrifice of Christ more clearly teaches us than the
call which He himself addresses to those whom He sees toiling in
Egypt under Pharaoh: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."(3)
To whom is it light but to the meek and lowly in heart, whom
knowledge doth not puff up, but charity edifieth? Let them
remember, then, that those who celebrated the passover at that time
in type and shadow, when they were ordered to mark their door-posts
with the blood of the lamb, used hyssop to mark them with.(4) Now
this is a meek and lowly herb, and yet nothing is stronger and more
penetrating than its roots; that being rooted and grounded in love,
we may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height,(5)--that is, to comprehend the
cross of our Lord, the breadth of which is indicated by the
transverse wood on which the hands are stretched, its length by the
part from the ground up to the cross-bar on which the whole body
from the head downwards is fixed, its height by the part from the
crossbar to the top on which the head lies, and its depth by the
part which is hidden, being fixed in the earth. And by this sign of
the cross all Christian action is symbolized, viz., to do good
works in Christ, to cling with constancy to Him, tó hope for
heaven, and not to desecrate the sacraments. And purified by this
Christian action, we shall be able to know even "the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge," who is equal to the Father, by whom all
things, were made, "that we may be filled with all the fullness of
God."(6) There is besides in hyssop a purgative virtue, that the
breast may not be swollen with that knowledge which puffeth up, nor
boast vainly of the riches brought out from Egypt. "Purge me with
hyssop," the psalmist says,(7) "and I shall be clean; wash me, and
I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness."
Then he immediately adds, to show that it is purifying from pride
that is indicated by hyssop, "that the bones which Thou hast
broken(8) may rejoice."
CHAP. 42.--SACRED SCRIPTURE COMPARED WITH PROFANE
AUTHORS.
63. But just as poor as the store of gold and
silver and garments which the people of Israel brought with them
out of Egypt was in comparison with the riches which they
afterwards attained at Jerusalem, and which reached their height in
the reign of King Solomon, so poor is all the useful knowledge
which is gathered from the books of the heathen when compared with
the knowledge of Holy Scripture, For whatever man may have learnt
from other sources, if it is hurtful, it is there condemned; if it
is useful, it is therein contained. And while every man may find
there all that he has learnt of useful elsewhere, he will find
there in much greater abundance things that are to be found nowhere
else, but can be learnt only in the wonderful sublimity and
wonderful simplicity of the Scriptures.
When, then, the reader is possessed of the
instruction here pointed out, so that unknown signs have ceased to
be a hindrance to him; when he is meek and lowly of heart, subject
to the easy yoke of Christ, and loaded with His light burden,
rooted and grounded and built up in faith, so that knowledge cannot
puff him up, let him then approach the consideration and discussion
of ambiguous signs in Scripture. And about these I shall now, in a
third book, endeavor to say what the Lord shall be pleased to
vouchsafe.