S-cuoU 
 
THE WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
 AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, 
 
 BISHOP OF HIPPO. 
 
 A NEW TRANSLATION. 
 REY. MARCUS DODS, D.D. 
 
 VOL. IX. 
 
 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTHINE ; THE ENCHIRIDION ; ON CATECHISING 
 AND ON FAITH AND THE CREED. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEOKGE STREET. 
 
 187 3. 
 
PRINTED BY MURRAY AND GIBB, 
 
 T. & T. CLAKK, EDIXBURGH. 
 
 LONDON, .... HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. 
 
 DUBLIN, .... JOHN ROBERTSON AND CO. 
 
 NKW YORK, . . . SCRIBNER, WKLFORD, AND AR.MSTKONG. 
 
ON 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE; 
 
 THE ENCHIRIDION. 
 
 CranSlateO bt? 
 PROFESSOR J. F. SHAW, 
 
 LONDONDErJlY. 
 
 ON CATECHISING; 
 ON FAITH AND THE CREED 
 
 Cran^latetJ bi) 
 REY. S. D. S ALMOND, 
 
 EDINBUEGH: 
 
 T. & T. CLAEK, GEOEGE STEEET. 
 
 187 3. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PACK 
 
 On Chkistiax Doctrine, ...... 1 
 
 The Enchiridion of Augustine, ..... 173 
 
 On the Catechising of the Uninstructed, ... 261 
 
 On Faith and the Creed, ...... 337 
 
EXTRACT FEOM AUGUSTINE'S RETEACTATIONS 
 
 llEFERRING TO 
 
 THE BOOKS OX CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 (RETIIACT. LIB. II. CAP. IV.) 
 
 '' "JT^INDING that \he books on Christian Doctrine were 
 JL not finished, I thought it better to complete them 
 before passing on to the revision of others. Accordingly, I 
 completed the third book, which had been written as far as 
 the place where a quotation is made from the Gospel about the 
 woman who took leaven and hid it in three measures of meal 
 till the whole was leavened.^ I added also the last book, and 
 finished the whole work in four books [in the year 426] : the 
 first three affording aids to the interpretation of Scripture, the 
 last giving directions as to the mode of making known our 
 interpretation. In the second book,^ I made a mistake as to 
 the authorship of the book commonly called the Wisdom of 
 Solomon. For I have since learnt that it is not a well- 
 established fact, as I said it was, that Jesus the son of Sirach, 
 who wrote the book of Ecclesiasticus, wrote this book also : 
 on the contrary, I have ascertained that it is altogether more 
 probable that he was not the author of this book. Again, 
 when I said, ' The authority of the Old Testament is con- 
 tained within the limits of these forty-four books,' '^ I used 
 the phrase ' Old Testament ' in accordance with ecclesiastical 
 usage. But the apostle seems to restrict the application of 
 
 ^ Bk. iii. chap. 25. * (^'hj^p_ g. 3 Bk. ii. clinp. 8. 
 
Vlll EXTRACT FROM THE RETRACTATIONS. 
 
 the name ' Old Testament' to the law which was given on 
 [Mount Sinai/ And in what I said as to Saint Ambrose 
 having, by his knowledge of chronology, solved a great difti- 
 culty, when lie sliowed that Plato and Jeremiah were con- 
 temporaries,^ my memory betrayed me. What that great 
 bishop really did say upon this subject may be seen in the 
 book which he wrote, ' On Sacraments or Philosophy.' " ^ 
 
 i Oal. iv. 24. 2 Book. ii. chap. 28. See p. 05. 
 
 ' This book is .imong the lost works of Ambrose. 
 
 I 
 
TOPERTV Oi 
 
 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 P E E F A C E, 
 
 SHOWING THAT TO TEACH EULES FOR, THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE IS 
 NOT A SUPERFLUOUS TASK. 
 
 1. r I IHEEE are certain rules for the interpretation of Scrip- 
 JL ture wliicli I think might with great advantage be 
 taught to earnest students of the word, that they may profit 
 not only from reading the works of others who have laid open 
 the secrets of the sacred writings, but also from themselves 
 opening such secrets to others. These rules I propose to 
 teach to those who are able and willing to learn, if God our 
 Lord do not withhold from me, while I write, the thoughts He 
 is wont to vouchsafe to me in my meditations on this subject. 
 But before I enter upon this undertaking, I think it well to 
 meet the objections of those who are likely to take exception 
 to the work, or who would do so, did I not conciliate them 
 beforehand. And if, after all, men should still be found to 
 make objections, yet at least they will not prevail with others 
 (over whom they might have influence, did they not find them 
 forearmed against their assaults), to turn them back from a 
 useful study to the dull sloth of ignorance. 
 
 2. There are some, then, likely to object to this work of 
 mine, because they have failed to understand the rules here 
 laid down. Others, again, will think that I have spent my 
 labour to no purpose, because, though they understand the 
 rules, yet in their attempts to apply them and to interpret 
 Scripture by them, they have failed to clear up the point they 
 wish cleared up ; and these, because they have received no 
 assistance from this work themselves, will give it as their 
 
 CHR. DOCT. A 
 
2 ON cnmsTiAN doctkine. [preface. 
 
 opinion that it can be of no use to anybody. There is a third 
 class of objectors ^vho either really do understand Scripture 
 well, or think they do, and who, because they know (or imagine) 
 that tliey have attained a certain power of interpreting tlie 
 sacred books without reading any directions of the kind that I 
 propose to lay down here, will cry out that such rules are 
 not necessary for any one, but that everything rightly done 
 towards clearing up the obscurities of Scripture could be 
 better done by the unassisted grace of God. 
 
 3. To reply briefly to all tliese. To those who do not 
 understand what is here set do^\Ti, my answer is, that I am 
 not to be blamed for their want of understanding. It is just 
 as if they were anxious to see the new or tlie old moon, or 
 some very obscure star, and I should point it out with my 
 finger : if they had not sight enough to see even my fmger, 
 they would surely have no right to lly into a passion with me 
 on that account. As for those who, even though they know 
 and understand my directions, fail to penetrate the meaning 
 of obscure passages in Scripture, they may stand for those 
 who, in the case I have imagined, are just able to see my 
 finger, but cannot see the stars at which it is pointed. And 
 so both these classes had better give up blaming me, and ^vay 
 instead that God would grant them the sight of their eyes. 
 For though I can move my finger to point out an object, it is 
 out of my power to open men's eyes that they may see either 
 the fact that I am pointing, or the object at which I point. 
 
 4. But now as to those who talk vauntingly of Divine 
 Grace, and boast that they understand and can explain Scrip- 
 ture without the aid of such directions as those I now pro- 
 pose to lay down, and who think, therefore, that what I have 
 undertaken to write is entirely superfluous. I would such 
 persons could calm themselves so far as to remember that, 
 however justly tliey may rejoice in God's great gift, yet it was 
 from human teachers they themselves learnt to read. Now, 
 they would hardly think it right that they should for that 
 reason be held in contempt by tlie Egyptian monk Antony, a 
 just and holy man, who, not being able to read himself, is said 
 to have committed the Scriptures to memory through hearing 
 them read by others, and by dint of wise meditation to have 
 
PREFACE.] OBJECTIONS TO THE WORK ANTICIPATED. 3 
 
 arrived at a thoroiigli understanding of tliem ; or by tliat bar- 
 barian slave Christianus, of whom I have lately heard from 
 very respectable and trustworthy witnesses, who, without any 
 teaching from man, attained a full knowledge of the art of 
 reading simply through prayer that it might be revealed to 
 him ; after three days' supplication obtaining his request that 
 he might read through a book presented to him on the spot by 
 the astonished bystanders. 
 
 5. But if any one thinks that these stories are false, I do 
 not strongly insist on them. For, as I am dealing with 
 Christians who profess to understand the Scriptures without 
 any directions from man (and if the fact be so, they boast of 
 a real advantage, and one of no ordinary kind), they must 
 surely grant that every one of us learnt his own language by 
 hearing it constantly from childhood, and that any other 
 language we have learnt, — Greek, or Hebrew, or any of the 
 rest, — we have learnt either in the same way, by hearing it 
 spoken, or from a human teacher. ISTow, then, suppose we 
 advise all our brethren not to teach their children any of these 
 things, because on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the 
 apostles immediately began to speak the language of every 
 race ; and warn every one who has not had a like experience 
 that he need not consider himself a Christian, or may at least 
 doubt whether he has yet received the Holy Spirit ? No, no ; 
 rather let us put away false pride and learn whatever can be 
 learnt from man ; and let him who teaches another communi- 
 cate what he has himself received without arro<^ance and 
 without jealousy. And do not let us tempt Him in whom we 
 have believed, lest, being ensnared by such wiles of the enemy 
 and by our own perversity, we may even refuse to go to the 
 churches to hear the gospel itself, or to read a book, or to listen 
 to another reading or preaching, in the hope that we shall be 
 carried up to the third heaven, " whether in the body or out 
 of the body," as the apostle says,^ and there hear unspeakable 
 words, such as it is not lawful for man to utter, or see the 
 Lord Jesus Christ and hear the gospel from His own lips 
 rather than from those of men. 
 
 6. Let us beware of such dangerous temptations of pride, 
 
 » 2 Cor. xii. 2-4, 
 
4 ON CIirJSTIAN DOCTRTXE. [PKEFACE. 
 
 and kt iis ratlicr consider the fact that the Apostle Paul 
 himself, although stricken down and admonished by the voice 
 of God fi'om heaven, was yet sent to a man to receive 
 the sacraments and be admitted into the Church ;^ and that 
 Cornelius the centurion, although an angel announced to him 
 that his prayers were heard and his alms had in remem- 
 brance, was yet handed over to Peter for instruction, and not 
 only received the sacraments from the apostle's hands, but was 
 also instructed by him as to the proper objects of faith, hope, 
 and love.^ And without doubt it was ijossillc to have done 
 everything through the instrumentality of angels, but the con- 
 dition of our race woidd have been much more degraded if 
 Cod had not chosen to make use of men as the ministers of 
 His word to their fellow-men. For how could that be true 
 which is written, " The temple of God is holy, which temple 
 ye are," ^ if God gave forth no oracles from His human temple, 
 but communicated everything that He wished to be taught to 
 men by voices from heaven, or through the ministration of 
 angels ? Moreover, love itself, which binds men together in 
 the bond of unity, would have no means of pouring soul into 
 soul, and, as it were, mindini^j them one with another, if men 
 never learnt anything from their fellow-men. 
 
 7. And we know that the eunuch who was reading Isaiah 
 the prophet, and did not understand what he read, was not sent 
 by the apostle to an angel, nor was it an angel who explained 
 to him what he did not understand, nor was he inwardly 
 illuminated by the grace of God Avithout the interposition of 
 man ; on the contrary, at the suggestion of God, Philip, who 
 (lid understand the prophet, came to him, and sat with him, 
 and in human words, and with a human tongue, opened to 
 him the Scriptures.* Did not God talk with Moses, and yet 
 he, with great wisdom and entire absence of jealous pride, 
 accepted the plan of his father-in-law, a man of an alien race, 
 for ruling and administering the afliiirs of the great nation 
 entrusted to him ?^ For Moses knew that a wise plan, in what- 
 ever mind it might originate, was to be ascribed not to the 
 man who devised it, but to Him who is the Truth, the un- 
 changeable God. 
 ^ AcUix. 3. 'Acts -X. ^ 1 Cor. iii. 17. ♦ AcU viii. 2G. 'Ex. xviii. 13. 
 
PREFACE.] INSTRUCTION STILL. NECESSARY. 5 
 
 8. In the last place, every one who boasts that he, through 
 divine illumination, understands the obscurities of Scripture, 
 though not instructed in any rules of interpretation, at the 
 same time believes, and rightly believes, that this power is not 
 his own, in the sense of originating with himself, but is the gifif 
 of God. For so he seeks God's glory, not his own. But reading 
 and understanding, as he does, without the aid of any human in- 
 terpreter, why does he himself undertake to interpret for others? 
 Why does he not rather send them direct to God, that they 
 too may learn by the inward teaching of the Spirit without the 
 help of man ? The truth is, he fears to incur the reproach : 
 " Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have put 
 my money to the exchangers." ^ Seeing, then, that these men 
 teach others, either through speech or writing, what they under- 
 stand, surely they cannot blame me if I likewise teach not 
 only what they understand, but also the rules of interpretation 
 they follow. For no one ought to consider anything as his 
 own, except perhaps what is false. All truth is of Him who 
 says, " I am the truth." ^ For what have we that we did not 
 receive ? and if we have received it, why do we glory, as if we 
 had not received it ? ^ 
 
 9. He who reads to an audience pronounces aloud the words 
 he sees before him : he who teaches reading, does it that 
 others may be able to read for themselves. Each, however, 
 communicates to others what he has learnt himself. Just so, 
 the man who explains to an audience the passages of Scripture 
 he understands is like one who reads aloud the words before 
 him. On the other hand, the man who lays down rules for 
 interpretation is like one who teaches reading, that is, shows 
 others how to read for themselves. So that, just as he who 
 knows how to read is not dependent on some one else, when he 
 finds a book, to tell him what is written in it, so the man who is 
 in possession of the rules which I here attempt to lay down, if 
 he meet with an obscure passage in the books which he reads, 
 will not need an interpreter to lay open the secret to him, but, 
 holding fast by certain rules, and following up certain indica- 
 tions, w^ill arrive at the hidden sense without any error, or at 
 least without falling into any gross absurdity. And so, although 
 
 1 Matt. XXV. 26, 27. 2 joij^ ^iv. 6. ^ 1 Cor. iv. 7. 
 
6 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [PREFACE. 
 
 it will sufTiciently appear in the course of the work itself that 
 no one can justly oliject to this undertaking of mine, which 
 has no other ohject than to be of service, yet as it seemed con- 
 venient to reply at the outset to any who might make pre- 
 liminary objections, such is the start I have thought good to 
 make on the road I am obout to traverse in this book 
 
 V, 
 
CHAP. I.] THE -WOEK DIVIDED INTO TWO PAKTS, 
 
 BOOK F I E S T, 
 
 CONTAINING A GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECTS TREATED 
 IN HOLY SCKIPTUEE. 
 
 AEG U MEN T. 
 
 THE AUTHOR DIVIDES HIS "WORK INTO TWO PARTS, ONE RELATING TO THE DIS- 
 COVERY, THE OTHER TO THE EXPRESSION, OF THE TRUE SENSE OF 
 SCRIPTURE. HE SHOWS THAT TO DISCOVER THE MEANING WE MUST ATTEND 
 BOTH TO THINGS AND TO SIGNS, AS IT IS NECESSARY TO KNOW WHAT 
 THINGS WE OUGHT TO TEACH TO THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE, AND ALSO THE 
 SIGNS OF THESE THINGS, THAT IS, WHERE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THESE 
 THINGS IS TO BE SOUGHT. IN THIS FIRST BOOK HE TREATS OF THINGS, 
 WHICH HE DIVIDES INTO THREE CLASSES, — THINGS TO BE ENJOYED, THINGS 
 TO BE USED, AND THINGS WHICH USE AND ENJOY. THE ONLY OBJECT WHICH 
 OUGHT TO BE ENJOYED IS THE TRIUNE GOD, WHO IS OUR HIGHEST GOOD AND 
 OUR TRUE HAPPINESS. WE ARE PREVENTED BY OUR SINS FROM ENJOYING 
 GOD ; AND THAT OUR SINS MIGHT BE TAKEN AWAY, "THE WORD WAS MADE 
 FLESH," OUR LORD SUFFERED, AND DIED, AND ROSE AGAIN, AND ASCENDED 
 INTO HEAVEN, TAKING TO HIMSELF AS HIS BRIDE THE CHURCH, IN WHICH 
 WE RECEIVE REMISSION OF OUR SINS. AND IF OUR SINS ARE REMITTED 
 AND OUR SOULS RENEWED BY GRACE, WE MAY AWAIT WITH HOPE THE 
 RESURRECTION OF THE BODY TO ETERNAL GLORY ; IF NOT, WE SHALL BE 
 RAISED TO EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT. THESE MATTERS RELATING TO 
 FAITH HAVING BEEN EXPOUNDED, THE AUTHOR GOES ON TO SHOW THAT 
 AIL OBJECTS, EXCEPT GOD, ARE FOR USE ; FOR, THOUGH SOME OF THEM MAY 
 BE LOVED, YET OUR LOVE IS NOT TO REST IN THEM, BUT TO HAVE REFER- 
 ENCE TO GOD. AND WE OURSELVES ARE NOT OBJECTS OF ENJOYMENT TO 
 GOD : HE USES US, BUT FOR OUR OWN ADVANTAGE. HE THEN GOES ON TO 
 SHOW THAT L V E — THE LOVE OF GOD FOR HIS OWN SAKE AND THE LOVE 
 OF OUR NEIGHBOUR FOR GOD's SAKE — IS THE FULFILMENT AND THE END OF 
 ALL SCRIPTURE. AFTER ADDING A FEW WORDS ABOUT HOPE, HE SHOWS, 
 IN CONCLUSION, THAT FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE ARE GRACES ESSENTIALLY 
 NECESSARY FOR HIM WHO WOULD UNDERSTAND AND EXPLAIN ARIGHT THE 
 HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Chap. i. — The interpretation of Scripture depends on the discovery and enuncia- 
 tion of the meaning^ and is to be undertaken in dependence on God's aid. 
 
 l.'nnHEEE are two things on wliicli all interpretation of Scrip- 
 
 JL ture depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper 
 
 meaning, and the mode of making known the meaning when it is 
 
 ascertained. \ We shall treat first of the mode of ascertainini:;, 
 
R ON CHRISTIAN doctrint:. [book t. 
 
 next of the mode of making known, the meaning ; — a great and 
 arduous undertaking, and one that, if difficult to carry out, it is, I 
 fear, presumptuous to enter upon. And presumptuous it would 
 undoubtedly be, if I were counting on my own strength ; but 
 since my hope of accomplishing the work rests on Him who 
 has already supplied me with many thoughts on this subject, 
 I do not fear but that He will go on to supply what is yet 
 wanting when once I have begun to use what He has already 
 given. For a possession which is not diminished by being 
 shared with others, if it is possessed and not shared, is not yet 
 possessed as it ought to be possessed. " The Lord saith, " Who- 
 soever hath, to him shall be given."^ He will give, then, to 
 those who have ; that is to say, if they use freely and cheer- 
 fully what they have received, He will add to and perfect 
 His gifts. The loaves in the miracle were only five and seven 
 in number before the disciples began to divide them among the 
 hungry people. But when once they began to distribute them, 
 though the wants of so many thousands were satisfied, they filled 
 baskets with the fragments that were left.' Now, just as that 
 bread increased in the very act of breaking it, so those thoughts 
 which the Lord has already vouchsafed to me with a view to 
 undertaking this work will, as soon as I begin to impart them 
 to others, be multiplied by His grace, so that, in this very work 
 of distribution in whicli I have engaged, so far from incurring 
 loss and poVerty, I shall be made to rejoice in a marvellous 
 increase of wealth. 
 
 Chap, ii. — What a thing is, and ichat asigji. 
 
 2. All instruction is either about^ things or about signs ; but 
 things are learnt by means of signs. I now use tlie word 
 " thing " in a strict sense, to signify tliat which is never em- 
 ployed as a sign of anything else : for example, wood, stone, 
 cattle, and otlier things of tliat kind. Not, however, the wood 
 which we read Moses cast into tlic bitter waters to make 
 them sweet,^ nor the stone wliich Jacob used as a pillow,* 
 nor the ram which Abraham offered up instead of his son;* 
 for these, though tlu^y are things, are also signs of other 
 things. There are signs of another kind, those which are 
 
 » Matt. xiii. 12. * Matt. xiv. 17, etc., x.\. 31, etc. ' Ex. xv. 25. 
 
 * Gen. xxviii. 11. » Gen. xxii. 13. 
 
CHAP. IV.] SOME THINGS AP.E FOR USE, SOME FOR EXJOYIMENT. 9 
 
 never employed except as signs : for example, words. No one 
 nses words except as signs of something else ; and hence may 
 be understood what I call signs : those things, to wit, wliich 
 are used to indicate something else. Accordingly, every sign 
 is also a thincj • for what is not a thincj is nothinf]^ at all. 
 Every thing, however, is not also a sign. And so, in regard 
 to this distinction between things and signs, I shall, when I 
 speak of things, speak in such a way that even if some of them 
 may be used as signs also, that will not interfere with the 
 division of the subject according to which I am to discuss 
 things first and signs afterwards. But we must carefully re- 
 member that what we have now to consider about things is 
 what they are in themselves, not what other things they are 
 signs of. 
 
 Chap. hi. — Some things are for use, some for enjoyment. 
 
 3. There are some things, then, which are to be enjoyed, 
 others which are to be used, others still which enjoy and use. 
 Those things which are objects of enjoyment make us happy. 
 Those things which are objects of use assist, and (so to speak) 
 support us in our efforts after happiness, so that we can attain 
 the things that make us happy and rest in them. We our- 
 selves, again, who enjoy and use these things, being placed 
 among both kinds of objects, if we set ourselves to enjoy those 
 which we ought to use, are hindered in our course, and some- 
 times even led away from it ; so that, getting entangled in the 
 love of lower gratifications, we lag behind in, or even altogether 
 turn back from, the pursuit of the real and proper objects of 
 enjoyment. 
 
 Chap. iv. — Difference of use and enjoyment. 
 
 4. For to enjoy a thing is to rest with satisfaction in it for 
 its own sake. To use, on the other hand, is to employ what- 
 ever means are at one's disposal to obtain what one desires, if 
 it is a proper object of desire ; for an unlawful use ought 
 rather to be called an abuse. Suppose, then, we were wan- 
 derers in a strange country, and could not live happily away 
 from our fatherland, and that we felt wretched in our wander- 
 ing, and wishing to put an end to our misery, determined to 
 return home. We find, however, that we must make use of 
 some mode of conveyance, either by land or water, in order to 
 
10 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK I. 
 
 reach that fatheiiand where our eDJoymeiit is to commence. 
 But the beauty of the country through which we pass, and 
 the very pleasure of the motion, charm our hearts, and turning 
 these things wliich w^e ought to use into ohjects of enjoyment, 
 we become unwilling to hasten the end of our journey ; and 
 becoming engrossed in a factitious delight, our thoughts are 
 diverted from that home whose delights would make us truly 
 happy. Such is a picture of our condition in this life of mor- 
 tality. We have wandered far from God ; and if we wish to 
 return to our Father's home, this world must be used, not en- 
 joyed, that so the invisible things of God may be clearly seen, 
 being understood by the things that are made,^ — that is, that 
 by means of what is material and temporary we may lay hold 
 upon that which is spiritual and eternal 
 
 Cn.vp. V. — The Trinity the true object of enjoyment. 
 
 5. The true objects of enjo}Tiient, then, are the Father and 
 the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are at the same time the 
 Trinity, one Being, supreme above all, and common to all 
 who enjoy Him, if He is an object, and not rather the cause 
 of all objects, or indeed even if He is the cause of all. For 
 it is not easy to find a name that will suitably express so 
 great excellence, unless it is better to speak in this way : The 
 Trinity, one God, of whom are all things, through whom are 
 all thincrs, in whom are all thinf^s.^ Thus the Father and the 
 Son and the Holy Spirit, and each of these by Himself, is 
 God, and at the same time they are all one God ; and each of 
 them by Himself is a complete substance, and yet they are 
 all one substance. The Father is not the Son nor the Holy 
 Spirit ; the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit ; the 
 Holy Spirit is not the Father nor tlie Son : but the Father is 
 only Father, the Son is only Son, and the Holy Spirit is only 
 Holy S])irit. To all three belong the same eternity, the same 
 unchaugeableness, the same majesty, the same power. In the 
 Father is unity, in the Son equality, in the Holy Spirit the 
 harmony of unity and equality ; and these three attributes 
 are all one because of the Fatlier, all e<iual because of the 
 Son, and all harmonious because of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 » Kom. i. 20. * Worn. xi. 30. 
 
CHAP. YIL] god supreme IN EXCELLENCE AND POWER. 1 1 
 
 CuAP. Yi. — In ivhat sense God is ineffable. 
 
 6. Have I spoken of God, or uttered His praise, in any 
 worthy way ? Nay, I feel that I have done nothing more 
 than desire to speak ; and if I have said anything, it is not 
 what I desired to say. How do I know this, except from the 
 fact that God is unspeakable ? But what I have said, if it 
 had been unspeakable, could not have been spoken. And so 
 God is not even to be called " unspeakable," because to say 
 even this is to speak of Him. Thus there arises a curious 
 contradiction of words, because if the unspeakable is what 
 cannot be spoken of, it is not unspeakable if it can be called 
 unspeakable. And this opposition of words is rather to be 
 avoided hy silence than to be ex^^lained away by speech. And 
 yet God, although nothing worthy of His greatness can be 
 said of Him, has condescended to accept the worship of men's 
 mouths, and has desired us through the medium of our own 
 words to rejoice in His praise. For on this principle it is that 
 He is called Deus (God). Tor the sound of those two syllables 
 in itseK conveys no true knowledge of His nature ; but yet all 
 who know the Latin tongue are led, when that sound reaches 
 their ears, to think of a nature supreme in excellence and etei:nal 
 in existence. 
 
 Chap. vir. — What all men understand hy the term God. 
 
 7. For when the one supreme God of gods is thought of, 
 even by those who believe that there are other gods, and who 
 call them by that name, and worship them as gods, their 
 thought takes the form of an endeavour to reach the concep- 
 tion of a nature, than which nothing more excellent or more 
 exalted exists. And since men are moved by different kinds 
 of pleasures, partly by those which pertain to the bodily 
 senses, partly by those which pertain to the intellect and soul, 
 those of them who are in bondage to sense think that eitlier 
 the heavens, or what appears to be most brilliant in the 
 heavens, or the universe itself, is God of gods : or if they try 
 to get beyond the universe, they picture to themselves some- 
 thing of dazzling brightness, and think of it vaguely as infinite, 
 or of the most beautiful form conceivable ; or they represent 
 it in the form of the human body, if they think that superior 
 
12 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK I. 
 
 to all otlicrs. Or if they think that there is no one God 
 supreme ahove the rest, but that there are many or even 
 innumerable gods of equal rank, still these too they conceive 
 as possessed of shape and form, according to wliat each man 
 thinks the pattern of excellence. Those, on the other hand, 
 ^vho endeavour by an effort of the intelligence to reach a con- 
 ception of God, place Him above all visible and bodily natures, 
 and even above all intelligent and spiiitual natures that are 
 subject to change. All, however, strive emulously to exalt the 
 excellence of God : nor could any one be found to believe that 
 any being to whom there exists a superior is God. And ^o 
 all concur in believing that God is that which excels in dig- 
 nity all other objects. 
 
 CiiAr. VIII. — God to he esteemed above all else, because He is unchangeable 
 
 tcisdom. 
 
 8. And since all who think about God think of Him as 
 living, they only can form any conception of Him that is not 
 absurd and unworthy who think of Him as life itself; and, 
 whatever may be the bodily form that has suggested itself to 
 them, recognise that it is by life it lives or does 'not live, and 
 prefer what is living to what is dead ; who understand that 
 the living bodily form itself, however it may outshine all 
 others in splendour, overtop them in size, and excel them in 
 beauty, is quite a distinct thing from the life by which it is 
 quickened ; and who look upon the life as incomparably supe- 
 rior in dignity and worth to the mass which is quickened and 
 animated by it. Then, when they go on to look into the 
 nature of the life itself, if they find it mere nutritive life, 
 "without sensibility, such as tliat of plants, they consider it 
 inferior to sentient life, such as that of cattle ; and above tliis, 
 again, tliey ]tlace intelligent life, such as that of men. And, 
 perceiving that even this is subject to change, they are com- 
 pelled to place al)Ove it, ac,'ain, that unchangeable life, which 
 is not at one time foolish, at another time wise, but on the 
 contrary is wisdom itself. For a wise intelligence, that is, one 
 that has attained to wisdom, was, previous to its attaining 
 wisdom, unwise. But wisdom itself never was imwise, and 
 never can become so. And if men never caught sight of this 
 wisdom, they could never with entire confidence prefer a life 
 
CHAP. XI.] TO SEE GOD, THE SOUL MUST BE PURIFIED. 13 
 
 wliicli is uncliangeaLly wise to one that is subject to change. 
 This will be evident, if we consider that the very rule of truth 
 by which they affirm the unchangeable life to be the more 
 excellent, is itself unchangeable : and they cannot find such 
 a rule, except by going beyond their own nature ; for they 
 find nothing in themselves that is not subject to change. 
 
 CiiAr. IX. — All acknowledge the superiority of uncJiangeahle wisdom to 
 that which is variable. ' 
 
 9. Now, no one is so egregiously silly as to ask, " How do 
 you know that a life of unchangeable wisdom is preferable to 
 one of change ? " For that very truth about which he asks, 
 how I know it ? is unchangeably fixed in the minds of all 
 men, and presented to their common contemplation. And the 
 man who does not see it is like a blind man in the sun, whom 
 it profits nothing that the splendour of its light, so clear and 
 so near, is poured into his very eye-balls. The man, on the 
 other hand, who sees, but shrinks from this truth, is weak in 
 his mental vision from dwelling long among the shadows of 
 the flesh. And thus men are driven 'back from their native 
 land by the contrary blasts of evil habits, and pursue lower 
 and less valuable objects in preference to that which they own 
 to be more excellent and more worthy. 
 
 Chap, x, — To see God, the soul must he purified. 
 
 10. Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to enjoy the 
 truth which lives unchangeably, and since the triune God 
 takes counsel in this truth for the things which He has made, 
 the soul must l^e purified that it may have power to perceive 
 that light, and to rest \\\ it when it is perceived. And let us 
 look upon this purification as a kind of journey or voyage to 
 our native land. For it is not by change of place that we 
 can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the 
 cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits. 
 
 Chap. xi. — Wisdom becoming incarnate, a pattern to tis of purification. 
 
 11. But of this w^e should have been wholly incapable, 
 had not Wisdom condescended to adapt Himself to our weak- 
 ness, and to show us a pattern of holy life in the form of our 
 own humanity. Yet, since we when we come to Hhn do 
 
14 ON CnRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK I. 
 
 wisely, He when He came to us was considered by proud 
 men to liave done very foolislily. And since we when we 
 come to Him become strong, He when He came to us was 
 looked upon as weak But " the foolishness of God is wiser 
 than men ; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." ^ 
 And thus, though Wisdom was Himself our home, He made 
 Himself also the way by which we should reach our home. 
 
 Chap. xii. — In ichat sense the Wisdom of God came to us. 
 
 And though He is everywhere present to the inner eye 
 when it is sound and clear, He condescended to make Himself 
 manifest to the outward eye of those whose inward sight is 
 weak and dim. " For after that, in the wisdom of God, the 
 world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the 
 foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." ^ 
 
 12. Not then in the sense of traversing space, but because 
 He appeared to mortal men in the form of mortal flesh, He 
 is said to have come to us. For He came to a place where 
 He had always been, seeing that " He was in the world, and 
 the world was made by Him." But, because men, who in 
 their eagerness to enjoy the creature instead of the Creator 
 had grown into the likeness of this world, and are therefore 
 most appropriately named " the world," did not recognise Him, 
 therefore the evangelist says, "and the world knew Him 
 not." ^ Tims, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom 
 knew not God. "Why then did He come, seeing that He was 
 already liere, except that it pleased God through the foolish- 
 ness of preaching to save them that believe ? 
 
 Chap. xiii. — The Word was made flesh. 
 
 In what way did He come but this, " The "Word was made 
 flesh, and dwelt among us"?* Just as when we speak, in 
 order that what we have in our minds may enter through the 
 ear into the mind of the hearer, tlie word which we have in 
 our hearts becomes an outward sound and is called speech; 
 and yet our thought does not lose itself in the sound, but 
 remains complete in itself, and takes the form of speech 
 without being modified in its own nature by the change : so 
 
 ' 1 Cor. i. 25. ' 1 Cor. i. 21. ^ John i. 10. « John i. 14. 
 
CHAP. xiY.] now the wisdom of god healed ma:t. 15 
 
 the Divine Word, though suffering no change of nature, yet 
 became flesh, that He might dwell among us. 
 
 Chap. xiv. — IToio the Wisdom of God healed man. 
 13. Moreover, as the use of remedies is the way to health, 
 so this remedy took up sinners to heal and restore them. 
 And just as surgeons, when they bind up wounds, do it not in 
 a slovenly way, but carefully, that there may be a certain 
 degree of neatness in the binding, in addition to its mere 
 usefulness, so our medicine. Wisdom, was by His assumption 
 of humanity adapted to our wounds, curing some of them by 
 their opposites, some of them by their likes. And just as he 
 who ministers to a bodily hurt in some cases applies contraries, 
 as cold to hot, moist to dry, etc., and in other cases applies 
 likes, as a round cloth to a round wound, or an oblong cloth 
 to an oblong wound, and does not fit the same bandage to all 
 limbs, but puts like to like ; in the same way the Wisdom of 
 God in healing man has applied Himself to his cure, being 
 Himself healer and medicine both in one. Seeing, then, that 
 man fell through pride, He restored him through humility. 
 We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent : we are set 
 free by the foolishness of God. Moreover, just as the former 
 was called wisdom, but was in reality the folly of those who 
 despised God, so the latter is called foolishness, but is true 
 wisdom in those who overcome the devil. We used our 
 immortality so badly as to incur the penalty of death : Christ 
 used His mortality so well as to restore us to lite. The 
 disease was brought in through a woman's corrupted soul : the 
 remedy came through a woman's virgin body. To the same 
 class of opposite remedies it belongs, that our vices are cured 
 by the example of His virtues. On the other hand, the 
 following are, as it were, bandages made in the same shape 
 as the limbs and wounds to which they are applied : He was 
 born of a woman to deliver us who fell througli a woman : He 
 came as a man to save us who are men, as a mortal to save 
 us who are mortals, by death to save us who were dead. And 
 those who can follow out the matter more fully, who are not 
 hurried on by the necessity of carrying out a set undertaking, 
 will find many other points of instruction in considering the 
 
IG ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK I. 
 
 remedies, "svhetlier opposites or likes, employed iu the medicine 
 of Christianity. 
 
 CiiAr. XV. — Faith is hutlresaed hy the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and 
 is stimulated by His coming to judgment. 
 
 1 4. The beli ef of the resurrection of our L ord from the dead, 
 and of His ascension into heaven, has streng thened our faith by 
 adding a great buttress o f hope. For it clearly shows how freely 
 He hiid down His life for us when lie had it in His power thus 
 to take it up again. With what assurance, then, is the hope 
 of believers animated, when they reflect how great He was 
 who suffered so great things for them while they were still in 
 unbelief ! And when men look for Him to come from heaven 
 as the judge of quick and dead, it strikes great terror into 
 the careless, so that they betake themselves to diligent pre- 
 paration, and learn by holy living to long for His approach, 
 instead of quaking at it on account of their evil deeds. And 
 what tongue can tell, or what imagination can conceive, the 
 reward He will bestow at the last, when we consider that for 
 our comfort in this earthly journey H e has given us so 
 fre ely of His Spiri t, that in the adversities of this life we may 
 retaui our confidence in, and love for. Him whom as yet we 
 see not ; and that He has also given to each gifts suitable for the 
 building up of His Church, that we may do what He points out 
 as right to be done, not only without a murmur, but even with 
 dulight ? 
 
 Chap. xvi. — Christ purges His Church by medicinal afflictions. 
 
 15. For the Church is His body, as the apostle's teaching 
 shows us ; ^ and it is even called His spouse.^ His body, then, 
 which has many members, and all performing different func- 
 tions. He holds together in the bond of unity and love, which 
 is its true health. Moreover He exercises it in the present 
 time, and purges i t with many wholesomg affli ctions, that when 
 He has transj)lanted it from this world to the eternal world, 
 He may take it to Himself as His bride, without spot or 
 wrinkle, or any such thing. 
 
 Chap, xvii.— C7ir/.s7, by forgining our sins, opened the tray to our home. 
 
 16. Furth er, when we are on the way, a nd that not a way 
 
 Compare E]»h. i. 23 with Kom. xii. 5. ' Kcv. xix. 7, xxi. 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THE KEMISSIOX OF SINS. 1 7 
 
 that lies through space, but through a change of affections, and 
 one which the guilt of our past sins like a hedge of thorns barred 
 against us, what could He, who was willing to lay Himself down 
 as the way by which we should return, do that would be still 
 gracious and more merciful, except to forgive us all our sins, 
 and by being crucified for us to remove the stern decrees that 
 barred the door against our return ? 
 
 Chap, xviii. — The keys given to the Chi^rch. 
 
 17. He has given, therefore, the keys to His_Church, that 
 whatsoever it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, 
 and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be loosed in 
 heaven ; -^ that is to say, that whosoever in the Church should 
 not believe that his sins are remitted, they should not be 
 remitted to him; but that whosoever should believe, and 
 should repent, and turn from his sins, should be saved by the 
 same faith and repentance on the ground of which he is 
 received into the bosom of the Church. For he who does not 
 believe that his sins can be pardoned, falls into despair, and be- 
 comes worse, as if no greater good remained for him than to be 
 evil, when he has ceased to have faith in the results of his own 
 repentance. 
 
 Chap. xix. — Bodily and spiritual death and resurrection. 
 
 18. Furthermore, as there is a kind of death of the soul, 
 which consists in the putting, away of former, habits and for- 
 mer ways of life, and which comes through repentance, so also 
 the death of the body consists in the dissolution of the former 
 principle of life. And just as the soul, after it has put away 
 and destroyed by repentance its former habits, is created anew 
 after a better pattern, so we must hope and believe that the 
 body, after that death which we all owe as a debt contracted 
 through sin, shall at the resurrection be changed into a better 
 form ; — not that flesh and blood shall inherit the kingdom of 
 God (for that is impossible), but that this corruptible shall 
 put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.^ 
 And thus the body, being the source of no uneasiness because 
 it can feel no want, shall be animated by a spirit perfectly 
 pure and happy, and shall enjoy unbroken peace. 
 
 1 Compare Matt. xvi. 19 with xviii. 18. ^ i Qot. xv. 50-53. 
 
 CHR. DOCT. B 
 
18 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK I. 
 
 Chat. xx.—The resurrection to damnation. 
 
 19. Now he who se soul does not d ie to this world and 
 begin lierc to be conformed to the truth, falls when the body 
 dies into a more terrible death, and shall revive, not to change 
 his earthly for a heavenly habitation, but to endure the penalty 
 of his sin. 
 
 Chap. xxi. — Neither body nor soul extinguished at death. 
 
 And so faith clings to the assurance, and we must believe 
 that it is so in fact, that neither the human soul nor the 
 human body suffers complete extinction, but that the wicked 
 rise again to endure inconceivable punishment, and the good to 
 receive eternal life. 
 
 Chap. xxu.—God p.Ione to be enjoyed. 
 
 20. Among all these things, then, those only are the trjie 
 objects of enjoyment which we have spoken of as eternal and 
 unchangeable. The rest are for^use^ that we may be able to 
 arrive at the full enjoyment of the former. We, h owever, w ho 
 en joy and use other tilings are th ings ourselves. For a g reat 
 thing tru ly is man, made after the im age and similitude of 
 God, not as respects the mortal body'tu wh ich he is clothed, 
 but as resp ects the rationa l soul by \^cii he is exalted in 
 hon our above the beasts . A nd so it becomes an imp ortant 
 question, whether men ought to enjoy, or to use, them selves, or 
 t o do both . For we are commanded to love one another : but 
 it is a ([uestion whether man is to be loved by man for his 
 own ^sake, or for the sake of something else. If it is for his 
 own sake, we enjoy liim ; if it is for the sake of something 
 else, we use him. It seems to me, then, that he is to be loved 
 for the sake of something else. For if a tiling is to be loved 
 for its own sake, then in the enjoyment of it consists a happy 
 life, the hope of which at least, if not yet the reality, is our 
 comfort in the present time. But a curse is pionuunccd on 
 liim who places his liope in man.^ 
 
 21. Neither ought any one to have joy in himself, if you 
 look at the matter clearly, because no oue_ ought to love even 
 hims elf for his own sake, but for the sake of Him who is the 
 t rue object of enj oyment. For a man is never in so good a 
 
 ' Jer. xvii. 5. 
 
CHAP. XXm.] GOD ALONE TO BE LOVED FOR HIS OWN SAKE. 19 
 
 state as w hen his whole life is a .journey towards the tinclia n.c^e- 
 able lifej^n d his affections are entirely fixed npon that. ! If, v 
 however, he loves himself for his own sake, he does not look 
 at himself in relation to God, but turns his mind in upon 
 himself, and so is not occupied with anything that is un- 
 changeable. And thus he does not enjoy hnnself at his 
 best, because he is better when his mind is fully fixed upon, 
 and his affections wrapped up in, the unchangeable good, 
 than when he turns from that to enjoy even himself ' Where- 
 fore if you ought not to love even yourself for your own sake, 
 but for His in whom your love finds its most worthy object, 
 no other man has a right to be angry if you love him too 
 for God's sake. i^'Fov this is the law of love that has been 
 laid down by Divine authority : " Thou shalt love thy neigh- '^ 
 hour as thyself ;" but, "Thou shalt love God with all thy 
 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind : " -^ so that 
 you are to concentrate all your thoughts, your whole life, and 
 your whole intelligence upon Him from whom you derive all 
 that you bring. / For when He says, " With all thy heart, and 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," He means that no 
 part of our life is to be unoccupied, and to afford room, as it 
 were, for tlie wish to enjoy some other object, but that 
 whatever else may suggest itself to us as an object worthy of 
 love is to be borne into the same channel in which the whole 
 current of our affections flows. Whoever, then, loves his 
 neighbour aright, ought to urge upon him that he too should 
 love God with his whole heart, and soul, and mind. For in 
 this way, loving his neighbour as himself, a man turns the 
 whole current of his love both for himself and his neighbour 
 into the channel of the love of God, which suffers no stream 
 to be drawn off from itself by whose diversion its own volume 
 would be diminished. 
 
 Chap, xxiii. — ITan needs no Injunction to love himself and his own hody. 
 
 22. Those things which are objects of use are not all, how- 
 ever, to be loved, but those only which are either united with 
 us in a common relation to God, such as a man or an angel, 
 or are so related to us as to need the goodness of God through 
 
 ^ Matt. xxii. 37-39. Comx^are Lev. xix. 18, Deut. vi. 5. 
 
20 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRIN'E. [BOOK I. 
 
 our instrumentality, sucli as tlie body. For assuredly the 
 martyrs did not love the wickedness of their persecutors, 
 although tliey used it to attain the favour of God. As, then, 
 there are four kinds of things that are to be loved, — first, that 
 Avliich is above us ; second, ourselves ; third, that which is on a 
 level with us ; fourth, that which is beneatli us, — no precepts 
 need be given about the second and fourtli of these. For, how- 
 ever far a man may fall away from the truth, he still con- 
 tinues to love himself, and to love his own body. Tlie_soul 
 which flies away from the unchangeable Light, the Ruler of all 
 things, does so that it may rule over itself and over its own 
 body ; and so it cannot but love both itself and its ovm body. 
 
 23. Moreover, it thinks it has attained something very gi-eat 
 if it is able to lord it over its companions, tliat is, other men. 
 For it is inherent in the sinful soul to desire above all things, 
 and to claim as due to itself, that which is properly due to 
 God only . Now such love of itself is more correctly called 
 hate. For it is not just that it should desire what is be neath 
 it to be obedient to it while itself w ill not obey its own 
 superior ; and most justly has it been sai d, " He who loveth 
 iniquity hateth his own soul."^ And accordingly the soul 
 becomes weak, and endures much suffering about the mortal 
 body. For, of course, it must love the body, and be grieved at 
 its coiTuption ; and the immortality and incorruptibilit/of the 
 body spring out of the health of the soul. Xow the health of 
 the soul is to cling stedfastly to the better part, that is, to 
 the unchangeable God. But when i t aspir es to lord it even 
 
 ^over those who are by nature its equa ls, — that is, its fellow- 
 men, — this is a reach of arrogance utterly intolerable. 
 
 CiiAr, XXIV. — Xo man Jiatrs his oxen Jlcsh, not even those tcho abuse it. 
 
 24. No man, then, hates himself. On this point, indeed, no 
 question was ever raised by any sect. But neither does any 
 ma n hate his own body. For tlie apostle says truly, " No 
 man ever yet hated his own flesh."' And when some peo^de 
 say tliat they would ratlier be without a body altogether, they 
 entirely deceive themselves. For it is not their b ody, but its 
 corruptions and its heaviness, tha t they hate. And so it is not 
 
 » Vs. X. 5 (LXX.). « Eph. V. 29. 
 
CHAP. XXIY.] KO MAN HATES HIS OWN BODY. 21 
 
 no body, but an uncorriipted and very light body, that they 
 want. But they think a body of that kind would be no body 
 at all, because they think such a thing as that must be a 
 spirit. And as to the fact that they seem in some sort to 
 scourge their bodies by abstinence and toil, those who do 
 this in the right spirit do it not that they may get rid of their 
 body, but that they may have it in subjection and ready for 
 every needful work. For they strive by a kind of toilsome 
 exercise of the body itself to root out those lusts that are hurt- 
 ful to the body, that is, those habits and affections of the soul 
 that lead to the enjoyment of unworthy objects. They are 
 not destroying themselves ; they are taking care of their health. 
 25. Those, on the other hand, who do this in a perverse 
 spirit, make war upon their own body as if it were a natural 
 enemy. And in this matter they are led astray by a mistaken 
 interpretation of what they read : " The flesh lusteth against J 
 the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are con- 
 trary the one to the other." ■*• For this is said of the carnal 
 habit yet unsubdued, against which the spirit lusteth, not to 
 destroy the body, but to eradicate the lust of the body — i.e. its 
 evil habit — and thus to make it subject to the epirit, wliich is 
 what the order of nature demands. For as, after the resurrec- 
 tion, the body, having become wholly subject to the spirit, will 
 live in perfect peace to all eternity ; even in this life we must 
 make it an object to have the carnal habit changed for the 
 better, so that its inordinate affections may not war against the 
 souL And until this shall take place, " the flesh lusteth against 
 the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;" the spirit struggling, 
 not in hatred, but for the mastery, because it desires that what 
 it loves should be subject to the higher principle ; and the 
 flesh struq-o'linrr not in hatred, but because of the bondaofe of 
 habit which it has derived from its parent stock, and whicli 
 has grown in upon it by a law of nature till it has become in- 
 veterate. The spirit, then, in subduing the flesh, is working as 
 it were to destroy the ill-founded peace of an evil habit, and 
 to bring about the real peace whicli springs out of a good liabit. 
 Nevertheless, not evciu tliose who, led astray by false notions, 
 liate their bodies would be prepared to sacrifice one eye, even 
 
 1 Gal. V. 17. 
 
 V 
 
22 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK I. 
 
 supposing they could do so without suffering any pain, and 
 that they had as much siglit loft in one as they formerly had 
 in two, unless some ol^ject was to be attained whicli would 
 overbalance the loss. This and other indications of the same 
 kind are sufTiciont to show tliose who candidly seek tlie truth 
 how well-founded is the statement of the apostle when he 
 says, " No man ever yet hated his own flesh." lie adds too, 
 " but nourisheth and cherisheth it. even as the Lord the 
 Church."^ 
 
 Chap. xxv. — A man may love ftomff/dng more than his hoihj, hut does not there- 
 fore hate hii body. 
 
 26. Man, therefore, ought to be taught the due measure of 
 loving, that is, in what measure he may love himself so as to 
 be of service to himself. For that he does love himself, and 
 does desire to do good to himself, nobody but a fool would 
 doubt. He is to be taught, too, in what measure to love his 
 body, so as to care for it wisely and within due limits. For 
 it is equally manifest that he loves his body also, and desh^es 
 to keep it safe and sound. And yet a man may have some- 
 tliing that he loves better than the safety and soundness of 
 his body. For many have been found voluntarily to suffer 
 both pains and amputations of some of their limbs that they 
 might obtain other objects which they valued more highly. 
 But no one is to be told not to desire the safety and health of 
 his body because there is something he desires more. For the 
 miser, though he loves money, buys bread for himself, — that is, 
 he gives away money that he is very fond of and desires to 
 heap up, — but it is because he values more highly the bodily 
 health which the bread sustains. It is superlluous to argue 
 longer on a point so very plain, but this is just what the error 
 of wicked men often compels us to do. 
 
 Chat. xxvi. — The command to love God and our neighbour includes a co mmand 
 
 iolove our selves . 
 
 27. Seeing, then, that there is no need of a command that 
 every man should love liimself and his own body, — seeing, that 
 is, that we love ourselves, and what is beneath us but con- 
 nected with us, through a law of nature which has never been 
 violated, and which is common to us with the beasts (for even 
 
 > Epli. V. 29. 
 
CHAP. XXVII.] THE ORDER OF LOVE. 23 
 
 the beasts love themselves and their own bodies), — it only 
 remained necessary to lay injunctions upon us in regard to 
 God above us, and our neighbour beside us. " Thou shalt 
 love," He says, " the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
 all thy soul, and with all thy mind ; and thou shalt love tliy 
 neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all 
 the law and the prophets." ^ Thus the end of the command- 
 ment is love, and that twofold, the love of God and the love 
 of our neighbour. Now, if you take yourself in your 
 entirety, — that is, soul and body together, — and your neigh- 
 bour in his entirety, soul and body together (for man is made 
 up of soul and body), you will find that none of the classes of 
 things that are to be loved is overlooked in these two com- 
 mandments. For though, when the love of God comes first, 
 and the measure of our love for Him is prescribed in such 
 terms that it is evident all other things are to find their centre 
 in Him, nothincj seems to be said about our love for ourselves; 
 yet when it is said, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
 self," it at once becomes evident that our love for ourselves 
 has not been overlooked. 
 
 Chap, xxvii. — The order of love. 
 
 28. Now he is a man of just and holy life who forms 
 an unprejudiced estimate of things, and keeps his affections 
 also under strict control, so that he neither loves what he 
 ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor 
 loves that more which ought to be loved less, nor loves that 
 equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves 
 that less or more which ought to be loved equally. 'No sinner 
 is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved 
 as a man for God's sake; but God is to be loved for His 
 own sake. And if God is to be loved more than any man, 
 each man ought to love God more than himself. LikcAvise 
 we ought to love another man better than our own body, 
 because all things are to be loved in reference to God, and 
 another man can have fellowship with us in the enjoyment of 
 God, whereas our body cannot ; for the body only lives through 
 the soul, and it is by the soul that we enjoy God. 
 
 ' Matt. xxii. 37-40. 
 
24 ox CHRISTIAN DOCTIIIXE. [BOOK I. 
 
 Chap, xxviir. — IToxo we are to decide ichom to aid. 
 
 29. Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since 
 you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to 
 those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, 
 are brought into closer connection with you. For, suppose 
 that you had a great deal of some commodity, and felt 
 bound to give it away to somebody who had none, and 
 that it could not be given to more than one person ; if 
 two persons presented themselves, neither of whom had either 
 from need or relationship a greater claim upon you than the 
 other, you could do nothing fairer than choose by lot to 
 which you would give what could not be given to both. Just 
 so among men : since you cannot consult for the good of them 
 all, you must take the matter as decided for you by a sort of 
 lot, according as each man happens for the time being to be 
 more closely connected with you. 
 
 Chap. xxix. — We are to desire and endeavour that alVmen may love Ood. 
 
 30. Now of aU who can with us enjoy God, we love partly 
 those to whom we render services, partly those who render 
 services to us, partly those who both help us in our need and 
 in turn are helped by us, partly those upon whom we confer 
 no advantage and from whom we look for none. "VVe ought 
 to desire, however, that they should all join with us in loving 
 God, and all the assistance that we either give them or accept 
 from them should tend to that one end. For in the theatres, 
 dens of iniquity though they be, if a man is fund of a par- 
 ticular actor, and enjoys his art as a great or even as the very 
 greatest good, he is fund of all who join with him in admira- 
 tion of his favourite, not for their own sakes, but for the sake 
 of him whom they admire in common ; and the more fervent 
 he is in his admiration, the more he works in every way he 
 can to secure new admirers fur him, and the more anxious he 
 l)ecomes to show him to others ; and if he find any one com- 
 paratively indifferent, he does all he can to excite liis interest 
 by urging his favourite's merits : if, however, he meet with any 
 one wlio opposes him, he is exceedingly displeased by such a 
 man's contempt of his favourite, and strives in every way he can 
 
CHAP. XXX.] WflO IS OUR NEIGHBOUE ? 25 
 
 to remove it. Now, if this be so, what does it become us to do 
 who live in the fellowship of the love of God, the enjoyment of 
 whom is true happiness of life, to whom all who love Him 
 owe both their own existence and the love they bear Him, con- 
 cerning whom we have no fear that any one who comes to 
 know Him will be disappointed in Him, and who desires our 
 love, not for any gain to Himself, but that those who love 
 Him may obtain an eternal reward, even Himself whom they 
 love ? And hence it is that we love even our enemies. For 
 we do not fear them, seeing they cannot take away from us 
 what we love ; but we pity them rather, because the more they 
 hate us the more are they separated from Him whom we love. 
 For if they would turn to Him, they must of necessity love 
 Him as the supreme good, and love us too as partakers with 
 them in so great a blessing. 
 
 Chap. xxx. — Wliether cmgels are to he rc.clconed our iieigUjours. 
 31. There arises further in this connection a question about 
 angels. For they are happy in the enjoyment of Him whom 
 we long to enjoy ; and the more we enjoy Him in this life as 
 through a glass darkly, the more easy do we find it to bear our 
 pilgrimage, and the more eagerly do we long for its termination. 
 But it is not irrational to ask whether in those two command- 
 ments is included the love of angels also. For that He who 
 commanded us to love our neighbour made no exception, as far 
 as men are concerned, is shown both by our Lord Himself in 
 the Gospel, and by the Apostle Paul. For when the man to 
 whom our Lord delivered those two commandments, and to 
 whom He said that on these hang all the law and tlie prophets, 
 asked Him, "And who is my neighbour?" Lie told him of a 
 certain man who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell 
 among thieves, and was severely wounded by them, and left 
 naked and half dead.-^ And He showed him that nobody was 
 neighbour to this man except him who took pity upon him 
 and came forward to relieve and care for him. And the man 
 who had asked the question admitted the truth of this when 
 he was himself interrogated in turn. To whom our Lord says, 
 "Go and do thou likewise;" teaching us that he is our neigh- 
 1 Luke X. 29, foU. 
 
26 ON cnniSTiAN doctrine. [book i. 
 
 boiir ^vhom it is our duty to help in liis need, or \vhom it Avoiild 
 be our duty to help if he ^ve^e in need. AVhence it follows, 
 that he whose duty it would be in turn to help us is our 
 neighbour. For the name "neighbour" is a relative one, and 
 no one can be neighbour except to a neighbour. And, again, 
 who does not see that no exception is made of any one as a 
 person to whom the offices of mercy may be denied when our 
 Lord extends the rule even to our enemies ? " Love your 
 enemies, do good to them that hate you."^ 
 
 32. And so also the Apostle Paul teaches when he says: 
 "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not 
 kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false wit- 
 ness, Thou shalt not covet ; and if there be any other com- 
 mandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely. 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no 
 ill to his neighbour."^ Whoever then supposes that the 
 apostle did not embrace every man in this precept, is com- 
 pelled to admit, what is at once most absurd and most perni- 
 cious, that the apostle thought it no sin, if a man wxre not a 
 Christian or were an enemy, to commit adultery with his wife, 
 or to kill him, or to covet his goods. And as nobody but a 
 fool would say this, it is clear that every man is to be con- 
 sidered our neighbour, because we are to work no ill to any man. 
 
 33. But now, if every one to whom we ought to show, or 
 who ought to show to us, the offices of mercy is by right called a 
 neighbour, it is manifest that the command to love our neigh- 
 bour embraces the holy angels also, seeing that so great offices 
 of mercy have been performed by them on our behalf, as may 
 easily be shown by turning the attention to many passages of 
 Holy Scripture. And on this gi'ound even (.Jod Himself, our 
 Lord, desired to be called our neighbour. For our Lord Jesus 
 Christ points to Himself under the figure of the man who 
 brought aid to him who was lying half dead on the road, 
 wounded and abandoned by the robbers. And the Psalmist 
 says in liis prayer, " I behaved myself as though he had been 
 my friend or brother."^ Lut as the Divine nature is of higher 
 excellence than, and far removed above, our nature, the com- 
 mand to love God is distinct from that to love our neighbour. 
 
 'Matt. V. 44. » lloin. .xiii. 9, 10. ' Ts. x.xxv. 1 4. 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] IN WHAT SENSE GOU USES- MAX. 27 
 
 For He shows us pity on account of His own goodness, but 
 we show pity to one another on account of His ; — that is. He 
 pities us that we may fully enjoy Himself; we pity one 
 another that we may fully enjoy Him. 
 
 Chap. xxxr. — God uses rather than enjoys us. 
 
 34. And on this ground, when we say that we enjoy only 
 that which we love for its own sake , and that nothing is a 
 true object of enjoyment except that which makes us happy, 
 and that all other things are for use, there seems still to be some- 
 thing that requires explanation. For God loves us, and Holy 
 Scripture frequently sets before us the love He has towards 
 us. In what way then does He love us ? As objects of use 
 or as objects of enjoyment ? If He enjoys us, He must be in 
 need of good from us, and no sane man will say that ; for all 
 the good we enjoy is either Himself, or what comes from Him- 
 self. And no one can be imorant or in doubt as to the fact 
 
 o 
 
 that the lio'ht stands in no need of the j^^litter of the thinsjs it 
 has itself lit up. The Psalmist says most plainly, " I said 
 to the Lord, Thou art my God, for Thou needest not my good- 
 ness." -^ He does not enjoy us then, but makes use of us. 
 For if He neither enjoys nor uses us, I am at a loss to dis- 
 cover in what way He can love us. 
 
 Chap, xxxii. — In u-7iat ivay God uses man. 
 
 35. But neither does He use after our fashion of using. 
 For wdien we use objects, we do so with a view to the full 
 enjoyment of the goodness of God. God, however, in His use 
 of us, has reference to His own goodness. For it is because 
 He is good we exist ; and so far_as^ we truly exist we are 
 good. And, further, because He is also just, we cannot with im- 
 punity be evil ; and so far as we are evil, so far is our existence 
 less complete. Now He is the first and supreme existence, 
 who is altogether unchangeable, and who could say in the 
 fullest sense of the words, " I am that I am," and " Thou 
 shalt say to them, I am hath sent me unto you ; " ^ so tliat all 
 other things that exist, both owe their existence entirely to 
 Him, and are good only so far as He has given it to them to 
 
 1 Ps. xvi. 2 (LXX.). 2Ex. iii. 14. 
 
28 ON cnrjsTTAN doctrtxr [book I. 
 
 be so. That use, then, wliicli God is said to make of us has 
 no reference to His own advantage, but to ours only ; and, so 
 far as He is concerned, has reference only to His goodness. 
 When we take pity upon a man and care for liini, it is for his 
 advantage ■vve do so ; but somehow or other our own advantage 
 follows by a sort of natural consequence, for God does not leave 
 the mercy we show to him who needs it to go without reward. 
 Now this is our highest reward, that we should fully enjoy Him, 
 and that all who enjoy Him should enjoy one another in Him. 
 
 Chat, xxxiii. — In what icay man should he enjoyed. 
 
 3G. For if we find our happiness complete in one another, 
 we stop short upon the road, and place our hope of happiness 
 in man or angel. Now the proud man and the proud angel 
 arrogate this to themselves, and are glad to have the hope of 
 others fixed upon them. But, on the contrary, the holy man 
 and the holy angel, even when we are weary and anxious to 
 stay with them and rest in them, set themselves to recruit our 
 energies with the provision which they have received of God 
 for us or for themselves ; and then urge us thus refreshed to 
 go on our way towards Him, in the enjoyment of whom we 
 find our common happiness. For even the apostle exclaims, 
 " Was Paul crucified for you ? or were ye baptized in the 
 name of Paul ? " ^ and again : " Neither is he that planteth 
 anything, neither he that watereth ; but God that giveth the 
 increase." ^ And the angel admonisheth the man who is about 
 to worship him, that he should rather worship Him who is 
 his Master, and under whom he himself is a fellow-servant.^ 
 
 37.' But when you have joy of a man in God, it is God 
 rather than man that you enjoy. For you enjoy Him by 
 whom you are made happy, and you rejoice to have come 
 to Him in whose presence you place your liope of joy. 
 And accordingly, Paul says to Philemon, " Yea, brother, let me 
 have joy of tliee in the Lord." * For if he had not added " in 
 the Lord," but had only said, " Let me have joy of thee," he 
 would have implied that he fixed his hope of happiness upon 
 him, although even in the immediate context to " enjoy " is 
 used in the sense of to " use with delight." For when the 
 
 ' ] Cur. i. 13. ' 1 Cor. iii. 7. ' Kcv. xi.\. 10. * Philcm. 20. 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] CHEIST THE WAY AND THE END. 29 
 
 tiling that we love is near us, it is a matter of course that it 
 should bring delight with it. And if you pass beyond this 
 delight, and make it a means to that which you are per- 
 manently to rest in, you are using it, and it is an abuse of 
 language to say that you enjoy it. But if you cling to it, 
 and rest in it, finding your happiness complete in it, then you 
 may be truly and properly said to enjoy it. And this we 
 must never do except in the case of the Blessed Trinity, who 
 is the Supreme and Unchangeable Good. 
 
 Chap, xxxiv. — Christ the first ivoy to God. 
 38. And mark that even when He who is Himself the Truth 
 and the Word, by whom all things were made, had been made 
 llesh that He might dwell among us, the apostle yet says : 
 " Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now 
 henceforth know we Him no more." ^ For Christ, desiring not 
 only to give the possession to those' who had completed the 
 journey, but also to be Himself the way to those who were 
 just setting out, determined to take a fleshly body. Whence 
 also that expression, "The Lord created ^ me in the beginning 
 of His way," ^ that is, that those who wished to come might 
 begin their journey in Him. The apostle, therefore, althougli 
 still on the way, and following after God who called him to 
 the reward of His heavenly calling, yet forgetting those things 
 which were behind, and pressing on towards those things which 
 were before,'^ had already passed over the beginning of the way, 
 and had now no further need of it ; yet by this way all must 
 commence their journey who desire to attain to the truth, and 
 to rest in eternal life. For He says : " I am the way, and the 
 truth, and the life ; " ^ that is, by me men come, to me they 
 come, in me they rest. For when we come to Him, we come 
 to the Father also, because through an equal an equal is 
 known ; and the Holy Spirit binds, and as it were seals us, so 
 that we are able to rest permanently in the supreme and un- 
 changeable Good. And hence we may learn how essential it is 
 that nothing should detain us on the way, when not even our 
 Lord Himself, so far as He has condescended to be our way, 
 
 1 2 Cor. V. 16. 2 A. V. jjossessed. ^ Pi'ov. viii. 22, 
 
 * Comp. Phil. iii. 13. ^ John xiv. 6. 
 
30 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK I. 
 
 is willing to detain iis, but wishes us rather to press on ; and, 
 instead of weakly clinging to temporal things, even though 
 these have been put on and worn by Him for our salvation, to 
 pass over them quickly, and to struggle to attain unto Him- 
 self, who has freed our nature from the bondage of temporal 
 things, and has set it down at the right hand of His Father. 
 
 Chap, xxxv. — The fulfilment and end of Scripture is the love of God and 
 our neighbour. 
 
 39. Of all, then, that has been said since we entered upon 
 tlie discussion about things, this is the sum : that we should 
 clearly understand that the fulfdment and the end of the Law, 
 and of all Holy Scripture, is the love of an object which is to 
 Ije enjoyed, and the love of an object which can enjoy that 
 other in fellowship with ourselves. For tliere is no need of 
 a command that each man should love himself. The whole 
 temporal dispensation for our salvation, therefore, was framed 
 by the providence of God that we might know this truth and 
 be able to act upon it; and we ought to use that dispensa- 
 tion, not with such love and deli'dit as if it were a f^ood to 
 rest in, but with a transient feelin!]^ rather, such as we have 
 towards the road, or carriages, or other things that are merely 
 means. Perhaps some other comparison can be found that will 
 more suitably express the idea that we are to love the things 
 by which we are borne only for the sake of that towards 
 which we are borne. 
 
 CiiAi'. xxxwi.— That interpretation of Scripture ichich builds rts up in love is not 
 perniciously deceptive nor mendacious, even though it be faulty. The inter- 
 preter, however, should be corrected. 
 
 40. Wioever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy 
 Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpreta- 
 tion upon them as does not tend to build up tliis tw^ofold 
 love of God and our neiglibour, does not yet imderstand 
 tliem as he might. H', on tlie otlier hand, a man draws 
 a meaning from them that may be used for the building 
 up of love, even thougli lie does not happen upon tlie pre- 
 cise meaning which the author whom he reads intended to 
 express in that place, liis error is not pernicious, and he is 
 w] lolly clear from the charge of deception. For there is 
 involved in deception the iiiltiilioii to say what is false; and 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] EDIFYING MISINTERPRET ATIONS. 31 
 
 we find plenty of people who intend to deceive, but nobody 
 who wishes to be deceived. Since, then, the man who knows 
 practises deceit, and the ignorant man is practised upon, it is 
 quite clear that in any particular case the man who is 
 deceived is a better man than he who deceives, seeing that it 
 is better to suffer than to commit injustice. Now every man 
 who lies commits an injustice ; and if any man thinks that a 
 lie is ever useful, he must think that injustice is sometimes 
 useful. For no liar keeps faith in the matter about which he 
 lies. He wishes, of course, that the man to whom he lies 
 should place confidence in him ; and yet he betrays his confi- 
 dence by lying to him. Now every man who breaks faith is 
 unjust. Either, then, injustice is sometimes useful (wliich is 
 impossible), or a lie is never useful. 
 
 41. Whoever takes another meaning out of Scripture than 
 the writer intended, goes astray, but not through any false- 
 hood in Scripture. Nevertheles s, as I was going to say, if 
 his mistaken interpretation tends to build up love, which is 
 the end of the commandment, he goes astray in much the 
 same way as a man who by mistake quits the high road, but 
 yet reaches through the fields the same place to which the 
 road leads. He is to be corrected, however, and to be shown 
 how much better it is not to quit the straight road, lest, if 
 he get into a habit of going astray, he may sometimes take 
 cross roads, or even go in the wrong direction altogether. 
 
 Chap, xxxvii. — Dangers of mistaken interpretation. 
 For if he takes up rashly a meaning which the author 
 whom he is reading did not intend, he often falls in with 
 other statements which he cannot harmonize with this meanincr. 
 And if he admits that these statements are true and certain, 
 then it follows that the meaning he had put upon the former 
 passage cannot be the true one : and so it comes to pass, one 
 can hardly tell how, that, out of love for his own opinion, he 
 begins to feel more angry with Scripture than he is with 
 himself And if he should once permit that evil to creep in, 
 it will utterly destroy him. " For we walk by faith, not by 
 sight."/ Now faith will totter if the authority of Scripture 
 
 1 2 Cor. V. 7. 
 
32 ON CHKISTIAN DOCTHINE. [BOOK L 
 
 begin to shake. And then, if faith totter, love itself will 
 grow cold. For if a man has fallen from faith, he must 
 necessarily also faU from love ; for he cannot love what he 
 does not believe to exist. But if he both believes and loves, 
 then through good works, and through diligent attention to 
 the precepts of morality, he comes to hope also that he shall 
 attain the object of his love. And so these are the three 
 things to which all kno wled ge and all prophecy are subser- 
 vient : faith, hope , love. 
 
 Chap, xxxviii.— Zore never fallcth. 
 
 42. But sight shall displace faith ; and hope shall be 
 swalljowed up in that perfect bliss to which we shall come : 
 love, on the other hand, shall wax greater when these others 
 fail. For if we love by faith that which as yet we see not, 
 how much more shall we love it when we begin to see ! And 
 if we love by hope that which as yet we have not reached, how 
 much more shall we love it when we reach it ! For there is 
 this great difference between things temporal and things 
 eternal, that a temporal object is valued more before we pos- 
 sess it, and begins to prove worthless the moment we attain 
 it, because it does not satisfy the soul, which has its only true 
 and sure resting-place in eternity : an eternal object, on the 
 other hand, is loved with greater ardour when it is in posses- 
 sion than while it is still an object of desire, for no one in his 
 longing for it can set a higher value on it than really belongs 
 to it, so as to think it comparatively wortliless when he finds 
 it of less value than he thought; on the contrary, however 
 high the value any man may set upon it when he is on his 
 way to possess it, he will find it, when it comes into his 
 po.ssession, of higher value still. 
 
 Chap, xxxix. — lie xcho is mature in faith, hope, and love, needs Scripture no 
 
 lonijer, 
 
 43. And thus a man who is resting upon faith, hope, and 
 love, and who keeps a iirm hold upon these, does not need 
 the Scriptures except for the purpose of instructing others. 
 Accordingly, many live without copies of the Scriptures, 
 even in solitude, on tlie strength of tliese throe graces. So 
 that in their case, I think, the saying is already fuHilled : 
 
CHAP. XL.] THE SPirJT IN WHICH WE SHOULD EEAD SCKIPTUEE. 33 
 
 '' Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail ; whetlier there 
 be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it 
 shall vanish away." ^ Yet by means of these instruments (as 
 they may be called), so great an edifice of faith and love has 
 been built up in them, that, holding to what is perfect, they 
 do not seek for what is only in part perfect — of course, I 
 mean, so far as is possible in this life ; for, in comparison 
 with the future life, the life of no just and holy man is perfect 
 here. Therefore the apostle says : " Now abideth faith, hope, 
 charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity:"^ 
 because, when a man shall have reached the eternal world, 
 while the other two graces will fail, love will remain greater 
 and more assured. 
 
 Chap, xl. — JVJiat manner of reader Scripture demands. 
 
 44.' And, therefore, if a man fully understands that " the 
 end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and 
 of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," ^ and is bent 
 >upon making all his understanding of Scripture to bear upon 
 these three graces, he may come to the interpretation of these 
 books with an easy mind. I For while the apostle says " love," 
 he adds " out of a pure heart," to provide against anything 
 being loved but that which is worthy of love. And he joins 
 with this " a good conscience," in reference to hope ; for, if a 
 man has the burthen of a bad conscience, he despairs of ever 
 reaching that which he believes in and loves. And in the 
 third place he says : " and of faith unfeigned." Tor if our 
 faith is free from all hypocrisy, then we both abstain from 
 loving what is unworthy of our love, and by living uprightly 
 we are able to indulge the hope that our hope shall not be in 
 vain. 
 
 For these reasons I have been anxious to speak about the 
 objects of faith, as far as I thought it necessary for my present 
 purpose ; for much has already been said on this subject in 
 other volumes, either by others or by myself. And so let 
 this be the end of the present book. In the next I shall 
 discuss, as far as God shall give me light, the subject of 
 signs. 
 
 1 1 Cor. xiii. 8. ^ i q^j,. xiii. 13. ^l Tim. i. 5. 
 
 CHU. DOCT. C 
 
34 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 LOOK S E C X D. 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 HAVING COMrLETED HIS EXPORITION OF THINGS, THE AUTHOn NOW TEOCEEDS TO 
 DISCUSS THE SUBJECT OF SIGNS. HE FIRST DEFINES WHAT A SIGN IS, AND 
 SHOWS THAT THERE ARE TWO CLASSES OF SIGNS, THE NATURAL AND THE 
 CONVENTIONAL. OF CONVENTIONAL SIGNS (WHICH ARE THE ONLY 
 CLASS HERE NOTICED), WORDS ARE THE MOST NUMEROUS AND IMPORTANT, 
 AND ARE THOSE WITH WHICH THE INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE IS CHIEFLY 
 CONCERNED. THE DIFFICULTIES AND OBSCURITIES OF SCRIPTURE SPRING 
 CHIEFLY FROM TWO SOURCES, UNKNOWN AND AMBIGUOUS SIGNS. 
 THE PRESENT BOOK DEALS ONLY WITH UNKNOWN SIGNS, THE AMBIGUITIES 
 OF LANGUAGE BEING RESERVED FOR TREATMENT IN THE NEXT BOOK. THE 
 DIFFICULTY ARISING FROM IGNORANCE OF SIGNS IS TO BE REMOVED BY 
 LEARNING THE GREEK AND HEBREW LANGUAGES, IN WHICH SCRIPTURE IS 
 WRITTEN, BY COMPARING THE VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS, AND BY ATTENT)ING 
 TO THE CONTEXT. IN THE INTERPRETATION OF FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS, 
 KNOWLEDGE OF THINGS IS AS NECESSARY AS KNOWLEDGE OF WORDS ; AND 
 THE VARIOUS SCIENCES AND ARTS OF THE HEATHEN, SO FAR AS THEY ARE 
 TRUE AND USEFUL, MAY BE TURNED TO ACCOUNT IN REMOVING OUIl IGNOR- 
 ANCE OF SIGNS, WHETHER THESE BE DIRECT OR FIGURATIVE. WHILST EX- 
 POSING THE FOLLY AND FUTILITY OF MANY HEATHEN SUPERSTITIONS AND 
 PRACTICES, THE AUTHOR POINTS OUT HOW ALL TI^AT IS SOUND ANT) USEFUL 
 IN THEIR SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY MAY BE TURNED TO A CHRISTIAN USE. 
 AND IN CONCLUSION, HE SHOWS THE SPIRIT IN WHICH IT BEHOVES US TO 
 ADDRESS OURSELVES TO THE STUDY AND INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRED 
 BOOKS. 
 
 Chap. i. — Signs, their nature and variety. 
 
 1. 4 S wlien I was writing about things, I introduced the 
 X\. subject with a warning against attending to any- 
 thing but what they are in themselves,^ even though they are 
 signs of something else, so now, when I come|nJt^ turn to dis- 
 cuss the su1)ject of signs, I lay down this direction^ not to attend 
 to what they are in themselves, but to the fa ct that they are 
 signs, that is, to what they sig nify. For a sign is a thing wliicli, 
 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 wliose 
 footprint this is has passed by ; and when we see smoke, we 
 
 » See Book i. 2. 
 
CHAP. II.] THE KINDS OF SIGNS. 35 
 
 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 
 ^ind 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. ii. — Of the hind of signs we are now concerned with. 
 
 3. Conventional sims, 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 percep- 
 tions, 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 Q,iver of the sim 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 con- 
 tained 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 observ^ation. Now whether these signs, like the 
 
3 G ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 expression or tlie cry of a man in grief, follow the movement 
 of the mind instinctively and apart from any purpose, or 
 wliether 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. 
 
 CiiAr. HI. — Among signs, tcords hold tlie 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 mpjbion 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 them- 
 selves 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 signifi- 
 cant sound, yet all these signs are very few in number com- 
 pared 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 
 odour of the ointment which was poured out upon His feet;^ 
 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.^ 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 whicli I liave briefly touclied upon, but 
 I could by no efl'ort express words in terms of those signs. 
 
 Chat. iv. — Origin of irriting. 
 
 5. r>ut because words pass away as soon as they strike 
 
 > John xii. 3-7 ; Mark xiv. 8. « Matt. ix. 20. 
 
CHAP. VI.] THE OBSCURITIES OF SCRIPTURE. 37 
 
 upon the air, and last no longer than their sound, men have by 
 means of letters formed si^ns 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 commqn^to all nations owing to 
 the sin of discord among men^ 'svhicli sjDrings 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.^ 
 
 Chap. v. — 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. 
 
 CuAP. VI. — Use of tlce obscurities in Scripture wJiich arise from its figurative 
 
 language. 
 
 7. But hasty and careless readers are led astray by many 
 and manifold obscurities and ambiguities, substitutino- 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 pivinely 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 
 
 * Gen. xL 
 
38 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 good men members of its own body; men who, as good and 
 true servants of God, liave come to tlie 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 twofold love, a love, that is, of God and tlieir neighbour ; — 
 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, wlien 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 twdns, and none 
 is barren among them " ? ^ 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 w^ith 
 the greatest pleasure, too, that I recognise them under the figure 
 of sheep that have been shorn, laying down the burthens of the 
 \vorld 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 tlie 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 difticulty 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 liave what tliey require just beside them 
 often grow languid from satiety. Now weakness from cither 
 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 
 
 » Cant. iv. 2. 
 
CHAP, til] the steps TO AVISDOM. 39 
 
 liuno-er, 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. vii. — Steps to wisdom: First, fear ; second, piety; third, Tcnowledge ; 
 fourth, resolution; ffth, counsel; sixth, x>uriJication of heart ; seventh, stop 
 or termination, loisdom. 
 
 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 ^926^3/, 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. 
 
 1 0. 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 neighbour 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 neighbour as one's 
 self — that is, in such a way that all our love for our neighbour, 
 like all our love for ourselves, should have reference to God.^ 
 And on these two commandments I touched in the previous 
 book when I was treating about things.^ 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 tem- 
 poral things — has been drawn far away from such a love for 
 God and such a love for his neighbour as Scripture enjoins. 
 Then that fear which leads him to think of the judgment of 
 God, and that piety whicli 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 
 
 ^ Comp. Matt. xxii. 37-40. 2 g^g 230^]^ j_ c. 22. 
 
40 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK 11 
 
 a man not boastful, but sorrowful. And in tliis frame of mind 
 he implores witli unremitting ])rayers the comfort of the 
 Divine help that he may not be overwhelmed in despair, ancl 
 so he gradually comes to the fourth step, — that is, strength and 
 resohUion} — in which he hunc^ers and thirsts aft<'r righteous- 
 ness. 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 un- 
 changeable Trinity in unity. 
 
 11. And when, to the extent of his power, he has gazed 
 upon this oT)ject 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 compas- 
 sion^ — 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 neighbour ; 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^jmrifics the eye itself ^chich can 
 see Gocl^ so far as God can be seen by those who as far as pos- 
 sible 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 w^e continue to wander 
 as strangers in tliis world, even though our conversation be in 
 heaven.* And at this stage, too, a man so purges the eye of 
 his affections as not to place his neighbour before, or even 
 in comparison with, the truth, and therefore not himself, be- 
 cause 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 whicli 
 beset this life. Such a son ascends to ivisdom, which is the 
 seventh and last step, and wliich he enjoys in peace and tran- 
 quillity. For the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.*^ 
 
 ' Fortitwlo. ' Consilium raiser kordice. ' Matt. v. 8. 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiii. 12; 2 Cor. v. 7. ^ pg ^xi. 10. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] THE CANONICAL BOOKS. 41 
 
 From that beginning, then, till we reach wisdom itself, our 
 way is by the steps now described. 
 
 Chap. viii. — The canonical boohs. 
 
 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 
 skilful interpreter of the sacred writings, then, will be he who 
 in the first i^lace 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 are 
 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 preju- 
 dices 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, wdiich 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 follow- 
 ing 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 Ptuth, which 
 seems rather to beloncj to the be^innincf of Kinoes ; next, four 
 books of Kings, and two of Chronicles, — these last not following 
 
42 ON CITRISTIAX DOCTRINE. [bOOK II. 
 
 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,^ 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^cclesiastes. 
 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.' Still they are to be reckoned 
 among the prophetical books, since they have attained recog- 
 nition as being autlioritative. The remainder are the books 
 which are strictly called the Prophets : twelve separate books 
 of the prophets which are connected with one another, and 
 liaving 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 autliority of the Old 
 Testament ^ 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 
 Pliilippians, 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 Eevelation of John. 
 
 ' Tliat is, Ezra and Nchcmiah. 
 
 * Aii;;»istine in his Jiclradations witlulrew this opinion so far as regards tho 
 hook of Wisdom. 
 
 ^ This application of tlip i>hrase "Old Testament" is withdrawn and apolo- 
 gized fur iji the Jidractadon^, 
 
CHAP. X.] THE METHOD OF STUDY. 43 
 
 Chap. ix. — 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 pur- 
 suing 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 dili- 
 gently ; and the more of these a man discovers, the more capa- 
 cious 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, — hope, to 
 wit, 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 doubt- 
 ful passages. And in this matter memory counts for a great deal ; 
 bilt if the memory be defective, no rules can supply the want. 
 
 Chap. x. — Unhnown or ambiguous signs p)revent Scripture from being 
 tinderstood. 
 
 1 5. ]N'ow there are two causes which prevent what is written 
 from being understood: its being veiled either under un- 
 known, 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 hos 
 when we mean an ox, becaus e all men who with us use the 
 Latin tongue call it by this name. Signs are figurative when 
 the things themselves wliicli we indicate by the proper names 
 are used to signify something else, as we say hos, and under- 
 stand 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."^ 
 
 ^ Bovem tViturantem iion infienabis. — 1 Cor. ix. 9. 
 
44 ox CIIRISTIAX DOCTRINf:. [BOOK II. 
 
 Chap. xi. — Knov:h:dgc of languages, lApeclaUy of Greek and Hebrew, necessary 
 to remove ignorance of signs. 
 
 IG. The groat 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, 
 Ptaclia, llosanua, 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 trans- 
 lated into the idiom of another language. And this happens 
 chiefly in the case of interjections, which are words that ex- 
 press 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, Piacha 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. 
 
 Chat. xii. — A diversity of interpretations is usifid. Errors arising fro77i 
 ambiguous words. 
 
 17. And this circumstance would assist rather than hinder 
 the understanding of Scripture, if only readers were not care- 
 less. For the examination of a number of texts has often 
 thrown light upon some of the more obscure passages ; for 
 
CHAP. XII.] COMPARISON OF Tr.xVNSLATIONS. 45' 
 
 example, in that passage of the prophet Isaiah/ one translator 
 reads : " And do not despise the domestics of thy seed ; " ^ 
 another reads : "And do not despise thine own flesh." ^ 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 com- 
 pared, 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 rela- 
 tion with " flesh," kinsmen most naturally occur to one's mijQd. 
 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 ;" * that is, that 
 through emulation of those who had believed, some of them 
 might believe too. And he calls the Jews liis "flesh," on 
 account of the relationship of blood. Again, that passage 
 from the same prophet Isaiah : ^ "If ye will not believe, ye 
 shall not understand,"^ another has translated : " If ye will not 
 believe, ye shall not abide." ^ 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 
 difiicult 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) ;^ 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 
 
 1 Isa. Iviii. 7, "And that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh" (A. V.). 
 ^ Et domesticos seminis tui ne despexeris. 
 
 ^ Et carnem tuam ne despexeris. * Rom. xi. 14. 
 
 fi Isa. vii. 9, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established " 
 (A. v.). 
 
 ® Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis. ^ j^isi credideritis, non permanobitis. 
 
 8 2 Cor. V. 7. 
 
40 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK II. 
 
 reasons one says, " If ye will not Lelieve, ye shall not under- 
 stand ;" 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 b}' 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 ;" ^ for the 
 word of U9 among the Greeks means both sharp and si.uift. And 
 so he saw the true meaning who translated : " Their feet are 
 swift to shed blood." The other, taking the wrong sense of 
 an ambii^uous word, fell into error. Is'ow translations such as 
 this are not obscure, but false ; and there is a wide difference 
 between the two things. For we must learn not to interpret, 
 but to correct texts of this sort. For the same reason it is, 
 that because the Greek word ijl6(T')(o^ means a calf, some have 
 not understood that iioG'^evyiaTa? are shoots of trees, and have 
 translated the word " calves ;" and this error has crept into 
 so many texts, that you can hardly find it written in any other 
 way. And yet the meaning is very clear ; for it is made 
 evident by the words that follow. For " the plantings of an 
 adulterer will not take deep root,"^ is a more suitable form of 
 expression than the " calves ;" ^ because these walk upon the 
 ground with their feet, and are not fixed in the earth by roots. 
 In this i)assage, indeed, the rest of the context also justifies 
 tliis translation. 
 
 CiiAi'. XIII. — 11 ow faulty interpretations can be emended. 
 
 19. But since we do not clearly see what the actual thought 
 is which the several translators endeavour to express, each 
 according to liis own ability and judgment, unless we examine 
 it in the language which they translate ; and since the trans- 
 lator, if he be not a very learned man, often departs from the 
 meaning of his author, we must cither endeavour 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, 
 
 » Horn. iii. 15. » Wisd. iv. 3. 
 
 * Adulteriua; plantationes non dabunt radices altas. * Vitulaniina. 
 
CHAP. XIII.] soLECis^rs and barbakisms. 47 
 
 not because these are sufficient, but because we may use tliem 
 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 Jwmines (among 
 men) or inter liominihus, is of no consequence to a man who 
 only wishes to know the facts. And in the same way, what 
 is a larharism 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 autho- 
 rity 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 know- 
 ledge of things which tend to edification, but in that of signs, 
 by which it is hard not to be puffed up,^ seeing that the know- 
 ledge 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 : " Quce est terra in qua isti insidunt supper earn, 
 si hona est an nequam ; et quce sunt civitates, in quihus ipsi 
 inhabitant in ijms?"^ And I am more disposed to think that 
 
 * Comp. 1 Cor. viii. 1. 
 
 2 '* And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad ; and 
 what cities they be that they dwell in."— Num. xiii. 19 (A. V.). 
 
48 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTPJNE. [BOOK II. 
 
 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 ipsuin autcm Jlorid sandificatio onca,"^ surely takes 
 away nothing fiom the meaning. Yet a more learned man 
 would prefer that tliis should be corrected, and that we should 
 say, not Jlorid, but JlorcliL 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, sapicntius est liominihus, et quocl infirmum est Dei, fortius 
 est liomimhus!'^ If any one should retain in this passage the 
 Greek idiom, and say, " Quocl stultum est Dei, sapientius est 
 lioniiiiuiii et quod infirmum est Dei fortius est homimun," ^ a 
 quick and careful reader would indeed by an effort attain to 
 the true meanincr, 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 sapicntius est liominibus (stronger than men) is 
 not free from ambiguity, even though it be free from solecism. 
 For whether Iwminihus is put as the plural of the dative or as 
 the plural of the ablative, does not appear, unless by reference 
 to tlie meaning. It would be better then to say, sapicntius est 
 qucun homines, and fortius est qiiam homines. 
 
 Chap. xiv. — JTow the meaning of iinhiown xcords and idioms w to he dlscovo'ed. 
 21. Al)nut ambiguous signs, however, I shall speak after- 
 wards. I am treating at joresent of uulcnown signs, of which, 
 as far as the words are concerned, there are two kinds. For 
 
 ^ " But upon himself shall my holiness flourish." — Ps. cxxxii. IS (see LXX.). 
 " But iipon himself shall his crown flourish" (A. V.). 
 
 * " Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of 
 God is stronf^er than men" (1 Cor. i. 25). 
 
 3 " What is foolish of God is wiser of men, and what is weak of God is stronger 
 of men. " 
 
CHAP. XV.] IGNORANCE OF -WORDS AND THRASES. 49 
 
 either a word or an idiom, of which the reader is ignorant, 
 brings him to a stop. Xow if these belong to foreign tongues, 
 we must either make inquiry about them from men who 
 speak those tongues, or if we have leisure wx 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 wdth, 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 w^hen they are copies of the same translation. 
 
 Chap. xv. — Among versions a preference is given to the Septuaghit and the 
 
 Itala. 
 
 22. Xow among translations themselves the Italian {Itala)^ 
 
 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' 
 
 ^ The translation here referred to is the Vetus Latlna, as revised by the 
 Church of Northern Italy in the fourth century, prior to the final recension of 
 Jerome, commonly called the Vulgate. 
 
 CHE. DOCT. D 
 
50 ox CIinT=^TTAN DOCTRIXE. [f-OOK II. 
 
 Testament is concerned ; for it is reported through all the 
 more learned churches tliat the seventy translators enjoyed so 
 much of tlie presence and power of the Holy Spirit in tlieir 
 work of translation, that among that numher of men there was 
 but one voice. And if, as is reported, and as many not un- 
 worthy of confidence assert,^ 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 pre- 
 ferring anything to it ? And even if they conferred together 
 with the result that a unanimous agreement sprang out of 
 the common labour and judgment of them all ; even so, it 
 would not be right or becoming for any one man, whatever 
 his experience, to aspire to coiTCct the unanimous opinion of 
 many venerable and learned men. Wherefore, even if any- 
 thincr is found in the oriojinal 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 never- 
 theless, as I said above, a comparison of those translators also 
 who have kept most closely to the words, is often not witliout 
 value as a help to the clearing up of the meaning. Tlie 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 Now Testament, again, if any 
 perplexity arises from the diversities of the Latin texts, wo 
 
 ' Among these nre Justin Martyr, Irenanis, ami Clomons Aloxandrinus. Comp. 
 Augustine, Dc Civ. Dii, win. 43, an<l Ei>p. 71 ami 75. 
 
CHAP. XVI.] IXTEEPKETATION OF METAPIIOES. 
 
 must of course yield to tlie Greek, especially those that are 
 found in the churches of greater learning and research. 
 
 CuAP. XVI.— The hioioledge both of language and tilings 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,^ 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 ; ^ that is to say, that for the sake 
 of our head, which is Christ, w^e should willingly ofier 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 
 
 1 John ix. 7. 2 jy^^tt. x. 16. 
 
52 ON CIiniSTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK H. 
 
 its old skin by s(|ueeziii^ jtself throu^^h a narrow hole, and 
 thus acquires new strength^how appropriately it fits in wiili 
 tlie direction to imitate the wisdom of the serpent, and to put 
 oir the old man_, as the apostle says^ that we may put on the 
 new;^ and to i)ut it off, too, by coming through a narrow 
 place, according to the saying of our Lord, " Enter ye in at 
 the strait gate !" ^ As, tlicn, 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 Avith it 
 when it returned to the ark,^ 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 tlie 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." * 
 \ 25. Ignorance of numbers, too, prevents us from understand- 
 ing things tliat 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.*^ And except by knowledge of and reflection upon 
 the number, the dilficulty of explaining the figure involved in 
 til is action cannot be got over. Yov the number contains ten 
 four times, indicating tlie knowledge of all things, and that 
 knowledge interwoven with time. For both the diurnal and 
 the annual revolutions are accomplished in periods numbering 
 
 ' Eph. iv. 22. » Matt. vii. 13. ^ Goii. viii. 11. 
 
 ♦ Ps. li. 7. ^ E.\. x.xiv. IS ; 1 Kings xix. S ; Matt. iv. 2. 
 
CHAP. XVI.] THE USE OF ArJTHMETICAL KNOWLEDGE. 53 
 
 four eacli ; the diurnal in the hours of the morning, the noon- 
 tide, the evening, and the night ; the annual in tlie 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 despis- 
 ing time and seeking eternity. Further, the number ten signi- 
 fies 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 con- 
 sists 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. Xext, 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.^ And 
 in the same way, many other numbers and combinations of 
 numbers are used in the sacred writings, to convey instruc- 
 tion 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 
 
 * John xxi. 11. 
 
54 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 by ignorance of music. One man, for example, has not un- 
 skilfully explained some metaphors from the difference between 
 the psaltery and the harp.^ 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" — viz. forty- 
 six — has a certain undefinable musical sound, and when re- 
 ferred 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 lind both 
 numbers and music mentioned with honour. 
 
 CiiAr. XVII. — Orirjin of the legend oftlie nine ITiises. 
 
 27. For we must not listen to the falsities of heathen super- 
 stition, 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 tliree 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 Jui)iter, therefore, that begat the nine Pluses, but three 
 artists created tln-ee each. And the state had originally given 
 the order for tliree, not because it had seen them in visions, 
 nor because they had presented themselves in that number to 
 
 1 Ps. xxxiii. 2. •John il 20. 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THE USE OF HEATHEN LEAHNING. 55 
 
 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. 
 
 CiiAP. XVIII. — No help is to be despised, even tJioi([/h 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 super- 
 stition 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 w^e on that account to forsal^e 
 justice and virtue. N'ay, but let every good and true Chris- 
 tian understand that wherever truth may be found, it belongs to 
 his Master ; and while he recognises 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 imagjinations, 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."-^ 
 
 CnAr. XIX. — Two kinds of heathen Jcnoidedge. 
 
 2 9. 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 
 
 » Rom. i. 21-23. 
 
56 ox CIiniSTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IT. 
 
 have notedj either as transacte d in the past or as instituted by 
 God, The former kind, that ^vhich deals ^vith huiuan institu- 
 tions, is partly superstitious, partly not. 
 
 Chap. xx. — The svpei'st'Uious 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 reach 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 pJujsica, 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 ear-rings 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 
 cuft' an innocent boy if he happens to run between men Avho 
 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 
 
CHAP. XXI.] SLTEESTITIOX OF ASTEOLOGEPvS. 57 
 
 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. xxi. — Superstition of astrologers. 
 
 32. I^or 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 matlicmatici. For 
 these, too, although they may seek with pains for the true posi- 
 tion 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 pre- 
 dict 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 honour 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 Eomans made an attempt to dedicate the star which we 
 call Lucifer to the name and honour of Ctesar. 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 trans- 
 fer to her heirs what she had never possessed, nor sought to 
 possess, in life. For where a place was vacant, or not held in 
 honour 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 honour of the men Julius Cix?sar 
 and Augustus Caesar ; and from this instance any one who 
 cares can easily see that the stars spoken of above formerly 
 
58 ON CIIPJSTIAX DOCTRINE. [COOK II. 
 
 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 
 honour, they seemed to think that in putting tlieir names 
 upon the stars tliey 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 tliis movement 
 has an-ived, 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 liud out the Lord 
 thereof ? " ' 
 
 Chap. xxii. — Thefolhj of observing the stars in order to predict the events of a Ife. 
 33. But to desire to predict tlie 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), tliis superstition is 
 refuted beyond the reach of doubt. For the observation js 
 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 tliere is no 
 interval of time between them that can be apprehended and 
 marked in tlie position of the constellations. Whence it 
 necessarily follows tliat 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 suc- 
 cession, that Jacob, who was born last, was found to liave laid 
 liold with his hand upon tlie lieel of his brother, who preceded 
 1 Wisil xiii. 9. 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] THE FOLLY OF DIVINATION EXPOSED, 59 
 
 hini.-^ 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 difi'erence there was 
 between the characters, the actions, the labours, and the for- 
 tunes 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 constel- 
 lations, 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, xxiii. — Why ice repudiate arts of divination. 
 
 35. Tor 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 tilings in 
 the past and future are made known, and turn out just as 
 they are foretold ; and in the case of those who practise super- 
 stitious observances, many things turn out agreeably to their 
 observances, and ensnared by these successes, they become 
 
 ' Gen. XXV. 24. 
 
CO ON CIirvTSTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 more eagerly inquisitive, and involve themselves further and 
 further in a labyrinth of most pernicious error. And to our 
 advantage, the AVord 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." ^ For though 
 the ghost of the dead Samuel foretold the truth to King Saul,' 
 that does not make such sacrilegious observances as those by 
 wliich his ghost was brought up the less detestable ; and 
 though the ventriloquist woman ^ 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.* 
 
 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." ^ 
 Now, what the apostle has said about idols and the sacrifices 
 offered in their honour, 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 neighbour, but 
 they waste the hearts of wretched men in private and selfisli 
 strivings after temporal things. Accordingly, in regard to all 
 these branches of knowledge, we must fear and shun the 
 fellowship of demons, wlio, with the Devil their prince, strive 
 only to shut and bur the door against our return. As, then, 
 
 * Comp. Dout. xiii. 1-3. '1 Sam. xxviii,, romp. Eoclus. xlvi. 20. 
 
 5 Ventrilofjua femina. The woman witli a familiar spirit to whom Saul re- 
 sorted in his pxtremity is called iu the Soptuagint translation iyyavrfiuvPot. 
 See 1 Sam. xxviii. 7. 
 
 * Acts xvi. 16-18. » 1 Cor. x. 19, 20. 
 
CHAP. XXIY.] DEMONIACAL OrJGIN OF SOr.CEr.Y. 61 
 
 from the stars wliicli God created and ordained, men liave 
 
 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. xxiv. — The intercourse and agreement with demons wlilch 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 thinfjj amono- the Greeks and another amoncj 
 the Latins, not by nature, but by agreement and pre- arrange- 
 ment as to its signification ; and so, any one who knows both 
 lanf]jua£jes uses this letter in a different sense when writincj to 
 a Greek from that in which he uses it when writing to a 
 Latin. And the same sound, heta, 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 Greekand^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 
 signs because they were already significant, but on the con- 
 trary they are now significant because men have agreed upon 
 
C2 ON CIiniSTIAN DOCTPJXE. [BOOK II. 
 
 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 
 tlie previous arrangement in the mind of the observer. 
 
 CiiAP. XXV. — Tn human institutions which are not superstitious, there are some 
 things superfluous and some convenient and necessamj. 
 
 38. But when all these ha ve been cut aw ay and rooted out 
 of the mind of the Christian, we must then look at human 
 institutions which are no t su])erstitious, that is, such as are 
 not set up in association with devils, but by men in association 
 with one another. For all arrangements that are in force 
 among men, because they have agreed among themselves that 
 they should be in force,, are human institutions j 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.^ 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 liim what these move- 
 ments mean, lie will give liis 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 tliey signify. But because one thing may resemble 
 another in many ways, such signs are not always of the same 
 significance among men, except wlieii tliey have mutually 
 agreed upon them. 
 
 39. But in regard to pictures and statues, and other works 
 of this kind, wliich 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, 
 
 > See Tylor's Earhj History of Maulind, pp. 42, 4?. 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] HOW TO DEAL WITH HUMAN INSTITUTIONS. 63 
 
 recognises 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 
 mth men are to be reckoned whatever differences they choose 
 to make in bodily dress and ornament for the purpose of dis- 
 tinguishing 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 stamp- 
 ing and weighing of coins, which are peculiar to each state 
 and people, and other things of the same kind. ISTow 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. xxvi. — What Jmman contrivances tve are to adopt, and ivhat ive are to 
 
 avoid. 
 
 For certain institutions of men are in a sort of way re- 
 presentations 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 super- 
 fluity, 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.^ To this class 
 also belong shorthand characters,^ those who are acquainted 
 with which are called shorthand writers.^ All these are useful, 
 
 * See above, chap. xi. 2 Xqi^q, 3 Js^otar'd. 
 
C4 ON CIirvISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 and there is nothing unlawful in learning them, nor do they 
 inyolve us in superstition, or enervate us hy luxury, if they only 
 occupy our minds so far as not to stand in tlie way of more 
 important objects to which they ought to be subservient. 
 
 Chap, xxvii. — Some departments of knoioledge, not of mere human invention, 
 aid tis in interpreting Scripture. 
 
 41. But, comin g to the next point, we are not to reckon 
 among human instit utions those things which men have handed 
 down to us, not a s arrangements of their own , but as the result 
 of Investigati on into the occurrences of the past, and into the 
 arran.gemen ts of God's providen ce. 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 wdien they are pointed out to us, or infer from 
 experience. 
 
 Chap, xxviii. — To what extent histomj is an aid. 
 
 42. Anything, theUj tliat we learn fi-om history about the 
 chronology of past tim es assists us very much in understanding 
 the Sc riptures, 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.^ Now we 
 know on the authority of the evangelist that He was about 
 thirty years of age when He was baptized ;* 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 anotlier 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 this cannot be 
 referred to our Lord's age, it may be referred to the more 
 
 i Joliu ii. 19. ' Luke iii. 23. 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] THE UTILITY OF HISTORY. 65 
 
 secret formation of the body which, for our sakes, the only-be- 
 gotten Son of God, by whom all things were made, condescended 
 to put on/ 
 
 43. As to the utility of history, moreover, passing over the 
 Greeks, wha^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 investiga- 
 tions into profane history he had discovered that Plato made 
 a journey into Eg}^t at the time when Jeremiah the prophet 
 was there," 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 ? Por 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 wliich 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 don e, faithfully and w ith 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. 
 
 * See above, chap. xvi. 
 
 2 Augustine himself corrected this mistake. Retractations, ii. 4. 
 CHR. DOCT. il 
 
GQ ON CHRISTIAN DOCTTJNE. [dOOK U. 
 
 Chap. xxix. — To what extent natural science is an ezegetical aid. 
 
 45. There is also a species of narrative res embling descrip- 
 tion, in ^vllich 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 sho^vn 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 mix- 
 ture is approved of, in the latter the superstitious charm is 
 condemned ; although indeed, where incantations and invoca- 
 tions 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. 
 
 4G. 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 movoincuts 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 interpre- 
 tation of Holy Scripture, and by engaging the attention un- 
 profitably is a hindrance ratlicr ; and as it is closely related to 
 the very pernicious error uf the diviners of the fiites, it is more 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] OF THE MECHANICAL ARTS. 67 
 
 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 gmctliliaci, 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 to-day, what her age was any number of years ago, or 
 what wiU be her age any number of years hence, in just the 
 same way men who are skilled in such computations are ac- 
 customed to answer like questions about every one of the 
 heavenly bodies. And I have stated what my views are about 
 aU this knowledge, so far as regards its utility. 
 
 Chap. xxx. — What the mechanical arts contribute to exerjetlcs. 
 
 47. Further, as to the remaining arts, whether those by 
 which something is made which, when the effort of the work- 
 man is over, remains as a result of his work, as, for example, 
 a house, a bench, a disli, 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 y 
 
 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 com- 
 pel 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. xxxt. — Use of dialectics. Of fallacies. 
 
 48. There remain those branches of knowledge which per- 
 
G8 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [dOOK IL 
 
 tain 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 q^uestions that come up in 
 Scripture, only in the use of itjwe must guard against the 
 love of wrangling, and the childish vanity of entrapping an 
 adversary. For tliere are many of what are called soj^hisms, 
 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, fur 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 otlier has given his 
 assent to this also, the first draws his conclusion : " Then you 
 are not a man." Xow of this sort of ensnaring arguments, 
 Scripture, as I judge, expresses detestation in that place where 
 it is said, " Tliere is one that showeth wisdom in words, and 
 is hated ; " ^ 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 conse- 
 quences 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 thenj, and of thus 
 leading him to give up his error, wlien he finds tliat 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 preacliing vain, and your faith 
 is also vain ; " ^ and further on drew other inferences which are 
 all utterly false ; for Clirist has risen, tlie preaching of those 
 who declared tliis fact was not in vain, nor was their faith in 
 
 'Qui sopliistii-p Inrjuitur, oJibilis est. Ecclu3. .vxxvii. 20. 
 « 1 Cor. XV. Vi, 14. 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] OF LOGICAL RULES. 69 
 
 vain who had believed it. But all these false inferences fol- 
 lowed 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, xxxii. — Valid logical sequence is not devised hut only observed hy man. 
 
 50. And yet the validity of logical sequences is not a^ 
 thing devised by men, but is observed a;nd 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 situa- 
 tions 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 ante- 
 cedent 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 resur- 
 rection 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 antece- 
 dent is, that there is no resurrection of the dead. We con- 
 clude, 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, there- 
 fore there is a resurrection of the dead. This rule, then, that 
 when the consequent is removed, the antecedent must also be 
 
 r 
 
70 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IT. 
 
 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, xxxiii. — False iriferences may be drawn fiom valid reasonings, and vice 
 
 vprsa. 
 
 51. In this passage, however, where the argument is about 
 the resurrection, both the law of the inference is valid, and 
 tlie 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. Tliis beinjj 
 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 cohclusion is false, but it is a true and valid in- 
 ference from the false admission. Thus, the truth of a state- 
 ment 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 in- 
 ference may be drawn by a valid process of reasoning, in order 
 tliat 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 pro- 
 pounds 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 tliat, as when the consequent is proved false 
 the antecedent is also false, so when the antecedent is proved 
 false the consequent is fiilsc. 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 docs not follow, " He is not a man." 
 
 Chap, xxxiv. — It is one thing to Inow the latca of inference, another to know the 
 truth of opinions. 
 
 52. Therefore it is one thing to know the laws of inference, 
 
CHAP. XXXY.] OF THE LAWS OF DEFINITION. Tl 
 
 and another to know tlie 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 con- 
 nection 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 be- 
 come 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, be- 
 cause 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. xxxv. — The science of dejinition is not false, though it may he applied to 
 
 falsities. 
 
 53. Again, the science of definition, of division, and of par- 
 tition, 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 defini- 
 tion 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 tilings that are not, though it is possible they might 
 be, true. For examjjle, the man who says that seven and three 
 
y 
 
 72 ox CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 are eleven, says what cannot be true under any circumstances ; 
 but lie wlio says that it rained on the kalends of January, 
 aUliough perhaps tlie fact is not so, says wliat possibly might 
 have been. The definition and division, therefore, of what is 
 false may 1x3 perfectly true, although what is false cannot, of 
 course, itself be true. 
 
 Chap, xxx vi. — The rules of eloquence are true, though sometimes used topersuade 
 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. Xor is it owing 
 to an arrangement among men that the exi:)ression 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 direc- 
 tions 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, xxxvii. — Use of rhetoric and dialectic. 
 
 55. This art, however, when it is learnt, is not to be used 
 so much for ascertaining: the meanincr as for settini? 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 tilings they have learnt the 
 true secret of a liappy life. Still, it sometimes happens that 
 men find less difficulty in attaining the object for the sake of 
 which these sriencos 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 
 
CHAP. XXXVIII.] OF THE SCIENCE OF NUMBERS. 73 
 
 hinges of the joints and knees. Tor 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 quicldy 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 plea- 
 sure from them as exhibitions of truth, than assistance in argu- 
 ing 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, xxxviii. — The science of numbers not created, hut 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 powder 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^ 
 have no half. Whether, then, numbers are considered in them- 
 selves, 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, 
 
 ' Intelligibiles numeri. 
 
/ 
 
 74 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTHINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 and who does not rather inquire after the source from which 
 those things which he perceives to he true derive their truth, 
 and from wliicli those others which he perceives to he unchange- 
 ahle also derive their truth and unchangeahleness, and who, 
 mounting up Irom hodily appearances to the mind of man, 
 and finding that it too is changeahle (for it is sometimes in- 
 structed, at other times uninstructed), although it holds a 
 middle place hetween the unchangeahle truth ahove it and the 
 changeahle things heneath 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 heing ; — the man, I say, 
 who acts in this way may seem to he learned, hut wise he 
 cannot in any sense he deemed. 
 
 Chap, xxxix. — To ichlch of Oie above-mentioned studies attention should 
 he fjivtn, and in what sjiirit. 
 
 58. Accordingly, I think that it is well to warn studious 
 and ahle young men, who fear God and are seeking for 
 happiness of life, not to venture heedlessly upon the pursuit of 
 the hranches of learning th at are in vogue beyo nd the pale of 
 the Church of Chris t, as if these could seciire for them the 
 happiness they seek ; hut soberly and carefully to discriminate 
 amon g 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 con- 
 jectures, 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 arrange- 
 ments 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, per- 
 
CHAP. XL.] .HOW FAR SCIENCE IS NECESSARY. 75 
 
 taining as they do to the senses, are subject to the relations of 
 space and time.^ 
 
 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 sepa- 
 rately 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 com- 
 petent man were willing in a spirit of benevolence to under- 
 take the labour 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 commit- 
 ting 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 disen- 
 tangling 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. xl. — Whatever has heeji rlrjhtly said hy the heathen^ we must appropriate 
 
 to our uses. 
 
 GO. jMoreover, if those who are called philosophers, and 
 
 ^ JVe quid 7iimis. — Terence, Andria, act i. scene 1. 
 
y/ 
 
 V6 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK II. 
 
 especially the Platonists, have said aught that is true and in 
 harmony with our fiiith, we are not only not to shrink from it, 
 but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful 
 possessio n of i t. 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 g(jld and silver, atid 
 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/ in the same way all branches of heathen learn- 
 ing 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 every wdiere 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 inter- 
 course 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 ol 
 gold and silver and garments Cyprian, that most persuasive 
 teacher and most blessed martyr, was loaded when he came out 
 of Egypt ? How much Lactantius brought with him ! And 
 Yictorinus, and Optatus, and Hilary, not to speak of living 
 men ! How much Greeks out of number have borrowed ! 
 And prior to all these, tliat most faithful servant of God, 
 » Ex. iii. 21, 22. xii. 35, 36. 
 
CHAP. XLI.] HUMILITY ESSENTIAL TO PROGRESS. 77 
 
 Moses, liad done the same thing ; for of him it is written that 
 he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.-^ And to 
 none of all these w^ould heathen superstition (especially in those 
 times when, kicking against the yoke of Christ, it was perse- 
 cuting the Christians) have ever furnished branches of know- 
 ledge 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 
 w^as done at the time of the exodus was no doubt a type pre- 
 figuring what happens now. And this I say without prejudice 
 to any other interpretation that may be as good, or better. 
 
 CHAr. XLI. — What kind of sjnrit is required for the study of Holy Scripture. 
 
 62. But wdien the student of the Holy Scriptures, prepared 
 in the w^ay 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."^ 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,^ 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 
 labour 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."* To whom is it light but to 
 the meek and lowly in heart, whom knowdedge doth not puff 
 up, but charity edifieth ? Let them remember, then, that those 
 who celebrated the passover at that time in type and shadow, 
 wdien they were ordered to mark their door-posts wdth the 
 blood of the lamb, used hyssop to mark them with.^ Now this 
 is a meek and lowly herb, and yet nothing is stronger and 
 more penetrating than its roots ; that being rooted and grounded 
 
 » Acts vii. 22. ' 1 Cor. viil. 1. 3 j Cor. v. 7. 
 
 * Matt. xi. 28-30. ^ Ex. xii. 22. 
 
78 ON CIIRISTIA.X DOCTRINT. [BOOK U 
 
 in love, we may be able to comprebeud with aU saints what is 
 the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,^ — that is, to 
 comprehend the cross of our Lord, the breadth of which is in- 
 dicated 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 cross-bar 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 Chris- 
 tian action is symbolized, viz. to do good works in Christ, to 
 cling with constancy to Him, to 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 fulness of God."^ There is besides in hyssop a purgative 
 virtue, that the breast may not be swollen with that know- 
 ledge which puffeth up, nor boast vainly of the riches brought 
 out from Egypt. " Purge me with hyssop," the psalmist says,^ 
 " and I shall be clean ; wash me, and I shall be whiter than 
 snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness." Then he imme- 
 diately adds, to show that it is purifying from pride that is 
 indicated by hyssop, " that the bones which Thou hast broken* 
 may rejoice." 
 
 Chap. xlii. — 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 after- 
 wards attained at Jerusalem, and which reached their height 
 in the reign of King Solomon, so poor is all the useful know- 
 hnlge which is gathered from the books of the heathen when 
 compared with the knowledge of Ploly Scripture. For what- 
 ever man mav have learnt from other sources, if it is hurtful, 
 
 _M i ^ 
 
 it is there c ondemned ; if it is useful, it is th erein contained. 
 And while every man may find there all that he has learnt of 
 useful elsewhere, he will iind there in much greater abundance 
 
 » Eph. iii. 17, 18. 'Kj.h. iii. 19. 
 
 ^ Fs. li. 7, 8. "• 0."<o>a humiiiata, Vulgate. 
 
CHAP. XLII.] CONCLUSION. 79 
 
 tliingjs 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, sub- 
 ject to the easy yoke of Christ, and loaded with His light 
 burden, rooted and grounded and built up in Mth, so that dJiitAl^ 
 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, endeavour to 
 say what the Lord shall be pleased to vouchsafe. 
 
 
80 ON CIIRISTLVN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III. 
 
 LOOK T II I li D. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 THE AUTHOR, HAVING DISCUSSED IN THE PRECEDING BOOK THE METHOD OP 
 DEALING WITH UNKNOWN SIGNS, GOES ON IN THIS THIRD BOOK TO TREAT 
 OF AMBIGUOUS SIGNS. SUCH SIGNS MAY BE EITHER DIRECT OR FIGURATIVE. 
 IN THE CASE OF DIRECT SIGNS AMBIGUITY MAY ARISE FROM THE PUNCTUA- 
 TION, THE PRONUNCIATION, OR THE DOUBTFUL SIGNIFICATION OF THE 
 WORDS, AND IS TO BE RESOLVED BY ATTENTION TO THE CONTEXT, A COM- 
 PARISON OF TRANSLATIONS, OR A REFERENCE TO THE ORIGINAL TONGUE. 
 IN THE CASE OF FIGURATIVE SIGNS WE NEED TO GUARD AGAINST TWO 
 MISTAKES:—!. THE INTERPRETING LITERAL EXPRESSIONS FIGURATIVELY; 
 2. THE INTERPRETING FIGURATI VE EXPRE SSIONS LITERALLY. THE AUTHOK 
 LAYS DOWN RULES BY WHICH WE MAY DECIDE WHETHER AN EXPRESSION 
 IS LITERAL OR FIGURATIVE ; THE GENERAL RULE BEING, THAT WHATEVER 
 CAN BE SHOWN TO BE IN ITS LITERAL SENSE INCONSISTENT EITHER WITH 
 PURITY OF LIFE OR CORRECTNESS OF DOCTRINE MUST^E TAKEN FIGURA- 
 TIVELY. HE THEN GOES ON TO LAY DOWN RULES FOR THE INTERPRETATION 
 OF EXPRESSIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN PROVED TO BE FIGURATIVE; THE 
 GENERAL PRINCIPLE BEING, THAT NO INTERPRETATION CAN BE TRUE WHICH 
 DOES NOT PROMOTE THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE LOVE OF MAN. THE AUTHOR 
 THEN PROCEEDS TO EXPOUND AND ILLUSTRATE THE SEVEN RULES OF 
 TICHONIUS THE DONATIST, WHICH HE COMMENDS TO THE ATTENTION OF 
 THE STUDENT OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 CliAP. I. — Sunnnary of tlie foregoing hooks, nnd scope of that which follows. 
 
 1. nnilE man who fea rs God se eks diligently in Holy Scrip- 
 I tare for a kno\vled«j;e of His wi ll. And when he has 
 become meek through piety, so as to have no love of strife ; 
 when furnished also with a knowledge of languages, so as not 
 to be sto})ped by unknown words and forms of speech, and with 
 the knowledge of certain necessary objects, so as not to be 
 ignorant of the force and nature of those which are used 
 figuratively ; and assisted, besides, by accuracy in the texts, 
 whicli has been secured by skill and care in the matter of 
 correction ; — when tlius prepared, let him proceed to the exa- 
 mination and solution of the ambiguities of Scripture. And 
 that he may not be led astray by ambiguous signs, so far as I 
 can give him instruction (it may happen, however, that either 
 from the gi-eatness of his intellect, or the greater clearness of 
 
CHAP. II.] A^IBIGUITIES OF PUNCTUATION. 8 1 
 
 tlie light he enjo3^s, he shall laugh at the methods I am going 
 to point out as childish), — but yet, as I was going to say, so 
 far as I can give instruction, let him who is in such a state of 
 mind that he can be instructed by me know, that the ambiguity 
 of Scripture lies e^therjin proper words or in metaphorical, 
 classes which I have already described in the second book/ 
 
 Chap. ii. — Rule for removing ambiguity hy attending to punctuation. 
 
 2. But when proper words make Scripture ambiguous, we 
 must see in the first place that there is nothing wrong in our 
 punctuation or pronunciation. Accordingly, if, w^hen attention 
 is given to the passage, it shall appear to be uncertain in 
 what way it ought to be punctuated or pronounced, let the 
 reader consult the rule of faith which he has gathered from 
 the plainer passages of Scripture, and from the authority of 
 the Church, and of which I treated at sufficient length when 
 I was speaking in the first book about things. But if both 
 readings, or all of them (if there are more than two), give a 
 meaning in harmony with the faith, it remains to consult the 
 context, both what goes before and what comes after, to see 
 which interpretation, out of many that ojBTer themselves, it 
 pronounces for and permits to be dovetailed into itseK. 
 
 3. Now look at some examples. The heretical pointing,^ 
 " In principio erat xerhum, et verlum erat apud Deuiii, et Deus 
 crat," ^ so as to make the next sentence run, " Vcrhum hoc 
 erat in principio apud Deum" * arises out of unwillingness to 
 confess that the "Word was God. But this must be rejected 
 by the rule of faith, which, in reference to the equality of the 
 Trinity, directs us to say : " ct Dcus erat vcrhum ;'' ^ and then 
 to add : " hoc erat in principio apud Deumr ^ 
 
 4. But the following ambiguity of punctuation does not go 
 against the faith in either way you take it, and therefore must 
 be decided from the context. It is where the apostle says : 
 " What I shall choose I wot not : for I am in a strait betwixt 
 two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which 
 
 * See Book ii. chap. x. "^Zoixw i. 1, 2. 
 
 ^ In tlie beginning was tlie "Word, and the "Word was with God, and God was. 
 
 * This Word was in the heginning with God. 
 
 ' And the "Word was God. ^ The same was in the beginning witli God. 
 
 CHR. DOCT. 'S 
 
82 ON cnrvTSTiAN DOcrrjXE. [book m. 
 
 is far better : nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful 
 for you." ^ Xow it is uncertain whether we should read, 
 " ex cludbus concuinsccntiam liahcns" [having a desire for two 
 things], or " compcllor autcm ex duohiis " [I am in a strait 
 betwixt two] ; and so to add : " concupiscent iam hahcns clissohi, 
 ct esse cum Christo" [having a desire to depart, and to be mth 
 Christ]. But since there follows " midto enim magis opti- 
 onum " [for it is far better], it is evident that he says he has 
 a desire for that which is better ; so that, while he is in a 
 strait betwixt two, yet he has a desire for one and sees a 
 necessity for the other ; a desire, viz., to be with Christ, and 
 a necessity to remain in the flesh. IS'ow this ambiguity is 
 resolved by one word that follows, which is translated enim 
 [for] ; and the translators who have omitted this particle have 
 preferred the interpretation which makes the apostle seem not 
 only in a strait betwixt two, but also to have a desire for two.^ 
 We must therefore punctuate the sentence thus : " et quid 
 eligam ignoro: compcllor autcm ex cluohiis" [what I shall choose 
 I wot not : for I am in a strait betwixt two] ; and after this 
 point follows : " concupiscentiam hahcns clissolvi, et esse cum 
 Christo" [liaving a desire to depart, and to be with Christ]. 
 And, as if he were asked why he has a desire for this in prefer- 
 ence to the other, he adds : " multo enim magis optimum " [for 
 it is far better]. Why, then, is he in a strait betwixt the two ? 
 Because there is a need for his remaining, which he adds in 
 tliese terms : " manerc in came necessari^tm propter vos " [never- 
 theless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you]. 
 
 5. Where, however, the ambiguity cannot be cleared up, 
 either by the rule of faith or by the context, there is nothing 
 to hinder us to point the sentence according to any method 
 we choose of those that suggest themselves. As is the 
 case in that passage to the Corinthians : " Having there- 
 fore thjse promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves 
 from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in 
 the fear of God. Receive us ; we have wronged no man." ^ 
 It is doubtful whether we should read, mundcmus nos ah omni 
 
 ' riiil. i. 22-24. 
 
 ' Tho Vulgnte reatls, mullo magis vieliiis, omitting the eninu 
 
 »2Cor. vii. 1, 2. 
 
CHAP. III.] A:\rBIGUITIES OF PEONUXCIATIOX. 83 
 
 coinqiiinationc carnis ct spiritus " [let us cleanse ourselves from 
 all filtliiness of the flesh and spirit], in accordance with the 
 passage, " that she may be holy both in body and in spirit," ^ 
 or, " miindcmus nos ah omni coinquinationc carnis " [let us 
 cleanse ourselves from all filtliiness of the flesh], so as to 
 make the next sentence, " ct spiritus perficientcs sanctijicationcm 
 in timorc Dei ccqnte nos " [and perfecting holiness of spirit in 
 the fear of God, receive us]. Such ambiguities of punctua- 
 tion, therefore, are left to the reader's discretion. 
 
 CuAP. III. — Hoio ijronnndation serves to remove ainhiguity. Different hinds of 
 
 interrogation. 
 
 6. And .all the directions that I have given about am- 
 biguous punctuations are to be observed likewise in the case of 
 doubtful pronunciations. For these too, unless the fault lies 
 in the carelessness of the reader, are corrected either by the 
 rule of faith, or by a reference to the preceding or succeeding 
 context; or if neither of these methods is applied with 
 success, they will remain doubtful, but so that the reader will 
 not be in fault in whatever way he may pronounce them. For 
 example, if our faith that God will not bring any charges 
 against His elect, and that Christ will not condemn His elect, 
 did not stand in the way, this passage, " Who shall lay any- 
 thing to the charge of God's elect ? " might be pronounced in 
 such a way as to make what follows an answer to this ques- 
 tion, " God who justifieth," and to make a second question, 
 " Who is he that condemneth ? " with the answer, " Christ 
 Jesus who died."^ But as it would be the height of madness 
 to believe this, the passage will be pronounced in such a way 
 as to make the first part a question of inquiry,^ and the 
 second a rhetorical interrogative.* Now the ancients said that 
 the difference between an inquiry and an interrogative was 
 this, that an inquiry admits of many answers, but to an in- 
 terrogative the answer must be either " No " or " Yes."^ The 
 passage will be pronounced, then, in such a way that after the 
 inquiry, " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
 elect ? " what follows will be put as an interrogative : " Shall 
 
 * 1 Cor. vii. 34. ^ jjom. viii. 33, 34. 3 Percontatio. ■* Interrogatio. 
 ^ Tlie English language has no two words expressing the shades of meaning 
 assigned by Augustine to x>ercontatlo and interrOQcUio respectively. 
 
84 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRixi:. [book hi. 
 
 God who jiistifieth ? " — the answer " No " being understood. 
 And in the same way we shall have the inquiry, " Who is he 
 that condcmneth ? " and the answer here again in the form of 
 an interrogative, " Is it Christ who died ? yea, rather, who 
 is risen again ? who is even at the right hand of God ? who 
 also maketh intercession for us ? " — the answer " Xo " being 
 •understood to every one of these questions. On the other 
 hand, in that passage where the apostle says, " AVhat shall 
 we say then ? That the Gentiles which followed not after 
 righteousness have attained to righteousness ; "^ unless after the 
 inquiry, " What shall we say then ? " what follows were given 
 as the answer to this question : " That the Gentiles, which 
 followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteous- 
 ness ; " it would not be in harmony with the succeeding 
 context. But with Avhatever tone of voice one may choose to 
 jironounce that saying of Nathanael's, " Can any good thing 
 come out of Nazareth ? "* — whether with that of a man who 
 gives an affirmative answer, so tliat " out of Nazareth " is the 
 only part that belongs to the interrogation, or with that of a 
 man who asks the whole question with doubt and hesitation, — 
 I do not see how a difference can be made. But neither sense 
 is opposed to faith. 
 
 7. There is, again, an ambiguity arising out of the doubtful 
 sound of syllables ; and this of course has relation to pronun- 
 ciation. For example, in the passage, " My bone [os maim] 
 was not hid from Thee, which Thou didst make in secret,"^ it 
 is not clear to the reader whether he should take tlie word os 
 as short or long. If he make it short, it is the singular of ossa 
 [bones] ; if he make it long, it is the singular of ora [mouths]. 
 Now difficulties such as this are cleared up by looking into 
 the original tongue, for in tlie Greek we find not arofia 
 [mouth], but uareov [bone]. And fur this reason the vulgar 
 idiom is freq\iently more useful in convoying the sense tlian 
 the pure speecli of the educated. For I would rather have 
 the barbarism, non est ahsconditum a tc ossum mcum^ than have 
 
 ' I^oni. ix. 30. ' .Tnlin i. 17. 
 
 ' P.S. cxxxix. 16. "My substnncc wns not hid from Thee whcu 1 was made in 
 secret" (A.V.). 
 
 * My bone was not hid from Thee, 
 
 i 
 
CIIAr. IV.] AMBIGUITIES SOLVED BY THE CONTEXT. 85 
 
 the passage in better Latin, but the sense less clear. But 
 sometimes when the sound of a syllable is doubtful, it is 
 decided by a word near it belonging to the same sentence. 
 As, for example, that saying of the apostle, " Of the which I 
 tell you before [p?TtYZ^co], as I have also told you in time past 
 [prcedixi], that they which do such things shall not inherit the 
 kingdom of God." ^ N"ow if he had only said, " Of the which 
 I tell you before [qucc 2^rcvcUco xohis\'' and had not added, " as 
 I have also told you in time past [sicut prcedixi],'* we could 
 not know without going back to the original whether in the 
 word prcedico the middle syllable should be pronounced long 
 or short. But as it is, it is clear that it should be pronounced 
 long ; for he does not say, sicut jprcedicavi, but sicut jprcedixi. 
 
 Chap, iv, — How ambiguities may he solved. 
 
 8. And not only these, but also those ambiguities that do 
 not relate either to punctuation or pronunciation, are to be 
 examined in the same way. For example, that one in the 
 Epistle to the Thessalonians : Proioterea consolati sumus fratres 
 in vobis? Now it is doubtful whether fratres [brethren] is in 
 the vocative or accusative case, and it is not contrary to faith 
 to take it either way. But in the Greek language the two 
 cases are not the same in form; and accordingly, when we 
 look into the original, the case is shown to be vocative. Now 
 if the translator had cliosen to say, proptcrca consolationcm 
 hctbuimus fratres in vobis, he would have followed the words 
 less literally, but there would have been less doubt about the 
 meaning ; or, indeed, if he had added nostri, hardly any one 
 would have doubted that the vocative case was meant when 
 he heard jpropterea consolati siimns fratres nostri in vohis. But 
 this is a rather dangerous liberty to take. It has been taken, 
 however, in that passage to the Corinthians, where the apostle 
 says, " I protest by your rejoicing [2Jer vestram gloriam] which 
 I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." ^ Por one 
 translator has it, ^;c?' vestram juro gloriam, the form of adjura- 
 tion appearing in the Greek without any ambiguity. It is 
 
 1 Gal. V. 21. 
 
 2 1 Thess. iii. 7. " Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you" (A. V.). 
 "" 1 Cor. XV. 31. 
 
S6 ON CIiniSTIAN DOCTEHsE. [BOOK III 
 
 therefore very rare and very diflicult to find any ambiguity 
 in the case of proper words, as far at least as Holy Scripture 
 is concerned, which neither the context, showing the design of 
 the writer, nor a comparison of translations, nor a reference to 
 the original tongue, will suffice to explain. 
 
 CiiAi'. V. — It is a wretched slavery which takes the fifjuraXive expressions of 
 Scripture in a literal sense. 
 
 9. But the ambiguities of metaphorical words, about which 
 I am next to speak, demand no ordinary care and diligence. 
 In the first place, we must beware of taking a figurative ex- 
 pression literally. For the saying of^ the apostle applies in 
 this case too : " The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." ^ 
 For when what is said figm-atively is taken as if it w^ere said 
 literally, it is understood in a carnal manner. And nothing is 
 more fittingly called the death of the soul tlian when that in 
 it which raises it above the brutes, the intelligence namely, is 
 put in subjection to the flesh by a blind adherence to the 
 letter. For he who follows the letter takes figurative words 
 as if they were proper, and does not carry out what is indicated 
 by a proper word into its secondary signification ; but, if he 
 hears of the Sabbath, for example, thinks of nothing but the 
 one day out of seven which recurs in constant succession ; 
 and when he hears of a sacrifice, does not carry his thoughts 
 beyond the customary ofierings of victims from the flock, and 
 of the fruits of the earth. Now it is surely a miserable 
 slavery of the soul to take signs for things, and to be^ unable 
 to lift tlie eye of the mind above what is corporeal and created, 
 that it may drink in eternal light 
 
 Chap. yi. — Utility of the bomlaje of the Jews. 
 
 10. This bondage, however, in the case of the Jewish people, 
 differed widely from what it was in the case of the other nations ; 
 because, thougli the former were in bondage to temporal things, 
 it was in such a way that in all these the One Gud was put 
 before their minds. And although they paid attention to the 
 signs of spiritual realities in place of the realities themselves, 
 not knowing to wliat the si.L,nis referred, still they had tliis con- 
 viction rooted in theii' minds, tliat in subjecting themselves to 
 
 > 2 Cor. iii. G. 
 
CHAP. YII.] BONDAGE TO THE LETTER. 87 
 
 snch a "bondage they were doing tlie pleasure of the one in- 
 visible God of all. And the apostle describes this bondage as 
 being like to that of boys under the guidance of a schoolmaster.^ 
 And those who clung obstinately to such signs could not en- 
 dure our Lord's neglect of them when the time for their revela- 
 tion had come ; and lience their leaders brought it as a charge 
 against Him that He healed on the Sabbath, and the people, 
 clinging to these signs as if they were realities, could not be- 
 lieve that one who refused to observe them in the way the 
 Jews did was God, or came from God. But those who did 
 believe, from among whom the first Church at Jerusalem was 
 formed, showed clearly how great an advantage it had been to 
 be so guided by the schoolmaster that signs, which had been 
 for a season imposed on the obedient, fixed the thoughts of 
 those who observed them on the w^orship of the One God who 
 made heaven and earth. These men, because they had been 
 very near to spiritual things (for even in the temporal and car- 
 nal offerings and types, though they did not clearly apprehend 
 their spiritual meaning, they had learnt to adore the One 
 Eternal God), were filled with such a measure of the Holy 
 Spirit that they sold all their goods, and laid their price at the 
 apostles' feet to be distributed among the needy ,^ and conse- 
 crated themselves wholly to God as a new temple, of which 
 the old temple they were serving was but the earthly type. 
 
 11. IsTow it is not recorded that any of the Gentile churches 
 did this, because men who had for their gods idols made with 
 hands had not been so near to spiritual things. 
 
 Chap. vii. — The useless homlage of the Gentiles. 
 
 And if ever any of them endeavoured to make it out that 
 their idols were only signs, yet still they used them in refer- 
 ence to the worship and adoration of the creature. What dif- 
 ference does it make to me, for instance, that the ima^e of 
 Neptune is not itself to be considered a god, but only as repre- 
 senting the wide ocean, and all the other waters besides that 
 spring out of fountains ? As it is described by a poet of theirs,'*^ 
 
 ^ Gal. iii. 24. The word Taitayuycs means strictly not a schoolmaster, bi;t a 
 servant who takes children to schooL 
 
 2 Acts iv. 34, 35. 3 Claudian. 
 
88 ox CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [dOOK III. 
 
 who says, if I recollect aright, " Thou, Father Neptune, whose 
 hoary temples are wreathed with the resounding sea, whose beard 
 is the inii^dity ocean lluwini,^ forth unceasingly, and whose hair 
 is the winding rivers." This liusk sh akes its rattlin g stones 
 within a sweet covering, and yet it is not food for men, but 
 for swine^ He who knows the gospel knows what I mean.^ 
 What profit is it to me, then, that the image of Neptune is used 
 with a reference to this explanation of it, unless indeed the 
 result be that I worship neither ? For any statue you like to 
 take is as much god to me as the wide ocean. I gi-ant, how- 
 ever, that they who make gods of tlie works of man have sunk 
 lower than they who make gods of the works of God. But 
 the command is that we should love and serve the One God, 
 who is the ]\Iaker of all those things, the images of which are 
 w^orshipped by the heathen either as gods, or as signs and repre- 
 sentations of gods. If, then, to take a sign which has been 
 established for a useful end instead of the tiling itself which it 
 was designed to signify, is bondage to the flesh, how much more 
 so is it to take signs intended to represent useless things for 
 the things themselves ! For even if you go back to the 
 very things signified by such signs, and engage your mind 
 in the worship of these, you will not be an}'thing the more 
 free from the burden and the livery of bondage to the flesh. 
 
 Chap. viii. — The Jews liberated from their bondage in one way, the Gentiles 
 
 in another. 
 
 1 2. Accordingly the liberty that comes by Christ took those 
 whom it found under bondage to useful signs, and who were 
 (so to speak) near to it, and, interpreting the signs to which 
 they were in bondage, set _tliem free by raising tliem to the 
 realities of wliic h tliese wer e si^ns. And out of such were 
 formed the churches of the saints of Israel. Those, on tho 
 otlier liand, whom it found in bondage to useless signs, it not 
 only freed from their slavery to such signs, but brought to 
 nothing and cleared out of the way all these signs themselves, 
 so that the Gentiles were turned from the corruption of a mul- 
 titude of false gods, which Scripture frequently and justly 
 speaks of as fornication, to the worship of the One God : not 
 that they might now fall into bondage to signs of a useful kind, 
 
 > Luke XV. 16. 
 
CHAP. X.] BONDAGE TO THE LETTER. 89 
 
 but rather that they might exercise their minds in the spiritual 
 understanding of such. 
 
 Chap. ix. — Who is in bondage to signs, and who not. 
 
 13. l^Tow he is in bond a ge to a si gn who uses, or pays 
 homage to, any significant object without knowing what it 
 signifies : he, on the other hand, who either uses or honours a 
 useful sign divinely appointed, whose force and significance he 
 understands, does not honour the sign which is seen and tem- 
 poral, but that to whjxih all such signs refer. Now such a man 
 is spiritual and free even at the time of his bondage, when it 
 is not yet expedient to reveal to carnal minds those signs by 
 subjection to which their carnality is to be overcome. To this 
 class of spiritual persons belonged the patriarchs and the pro- 
 phets, and all those among the people of Israel through whose 
 instrumentality the Holy Spirit ministered unto us the aids 
 and consolations of the Scriptures. But at the present time, 
 after that the proof of our liberty has shone forth so clearly in 
 the resurrection of our Lord, we are not oppressed with the 
 heavy burden of attending even to those signs which we now 
 understand, but our Lord Himself, and apostolic practice, have 
 handed down to us a few rites in place of many, and these at 
 once very easy to perform, most majestic in their significance, 
 and most sacred in the observance ; such, for example, as the 
 sacrament of baptism, and the celebration of the body and blood 
 of the Lord. And as soon as any one looks upon these ob- 
 servances he knows to what they refer, and so reveres them 
 not in carnal bondage, but in spiritual freedom. Now, as to 
 follow the letter, and to take sims for the thinG:s that are si^-ni- 
 fied by them, is a mark of weakness and bondage ; so to inter- 
 pret signs wrongly is the result of being misled by error. He, 
 however, who does not understand what a sign signifies, but 
 yet knows that it is a sign, is not in bondage. And it is 
 better even to be in bondage to unknown but useful signs than, 
 by interpreting them wrongly, to draw the neck from under the 
 yoke of bondage only to insert it in the coils of error. 
 
 Chap. x. — TToio ice are to discern whether a j^hra.'^e is figurative. 
 
 14. But in addition to the foresroin^ rule, which guards us 
 
00 ON CIirvISTIAN DOCTrJNE. [BOOK HI. 
 
 against taking a metaphorical form of speech as if it -were 
 literal, ^ve must also pay heed to that which tells us not to 
 take a literal form of speech as if it were figurative. In the 
 first place, then, we must show the way to fmd out whether 
 a phrase is literal or figurative. And the way is certainly as 
 follows : (Whatever there is in the word of God that cannot, 
 when taken literally, he referred either to purity of life or 
 soundness of doctrine, you may set down as figurative. Purity 
 of life has reference to the love of God and one's neighbour ; 
 soundness of doctrine to the knowledge of God and one's 
 neighbour. / Every man, moreover, has hope in his own con- 
 science, so far as he perceives that he has attained to the love 
 and knowled<:je of God and his neidibour. Now all these 
 matters have been spoken of in the first book. 
 
 15. But as men are prone to estimate sins, not by reference 
 to their inherent sinfulness, but rather by reference to their 
 own customs, it frequently liappens that a man will think 
 nothing blameable except what the men of his ovna. country 
 and time are accustomed to condemn, and nothing worthy of 
 praise or approval except what is sanctioned by the custom of 
 his companions ; and thus it comes to pass, that if Scripture 
 either enjoins what is opposed to the customs of the hearers, 
 or condemns what is not so opposed, and if at the same time 
 the authority of the word has a hold upon their minds, they 
 think that the expression is figurative. Kow Scripture enjoins 
 \/ nothing except charity, and condemns nothing except lust, 
 and in that way fashions the lives of men. In the same way, 
 if an eiToneous opinion has taken possession of the mind, 
 men think that whatever Scripture asserts contrary to this 
 must be figurative. Kow Scripture asserts nothing but the 
 catholic faith, in regard to things past, future, and present. 
 It is a naiTative of the past, a prophecy of the futiu-e, and a 
 description of the present. But aU these tend to nourish and 
 strengthen charity, and to overcome and root out lust. 
 I 16. I mean by charity tliat affection of the mind wliich 
 
 ' aims at the enjoyment of God for Ilis own sake, and the 
 enjoyment of one's se lf and one's ncijjhhour in subordination 
 to God ; by lust I mean that affection of the mind which aims 
 at enjoying one's self and one's neighbour, and other corporeal 
 
CHAP. XL] THE IXTERPEETATION OF FIGURES. 91 
 
 tilings, without reference to God. Again, wliat lust, when 
 unsubdued, does towards corrupting one's own soul and body, 
 is called vice ;^ but what it does to injure another is called 
 crime? And these are the two classes into which all sins may 
 be divided. But the vices come first ; for when these have 
 exhausted the soul, and reduced it to a kind of poverty, it 
 easily slides into crimes, in order to remove hindrances to, or 
 to find assistance in, its vices. In the same way, what charity 
 does with a view to one's own advantage is lorudcnce ; but 
 what it does with a view to a neighbour's advantage is called 
 Vcncvolcncc. And here prudence comes first ; because no one 
 can confer an advantage on another which he does not himself 
 possess. Now in proportion as the dominion of lust is pulled 
 down, in the same proportion is that of charity built up. 
 
 Chap. xi. — Rule for interpreting i^hrases which seem to ascribe severity to God 
 and the saints. 
 
 17. Every severity, therefore, and apparent cruelty, either 
 in word or deed, that is ascribed in Holy Scripture to God or 
 His saints, avails to the pulling down of the dominion of lust. 
 And if its meaning be clear, we are not to give it some 
 secondary reference, as if it were spoken figuratively. Take, 
 for example, that saying of the apostle : " But, after thy hard- 
 ness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath 
 against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judg- 
 ment of God ; who will render to every man according to his 
 deeds : to them who, by patient continuance in w^ell-doing, 
 seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life ; but 
 unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, 
 but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation 
 and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the 
 Jew first, and also of the Gentile."^ But this is addressed to 
 those who, being unwilling to subdue their lust, are them- 
 selves involved in the destruction of their lust. When, how- 
 ever, the dominion of lust is overturned in a man over whom 
 it had held sway, this plain expression is used : " They that 
 are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and 
 lu stg." ^ Only that, even in these instances, some words are 
 used figuratively, as for example, " the wrath of God " and 
 
 1 Flasitium. ^ Facinus. 3 n^^^^. ii. 5-9. * Cuil. v. 24. 
 
92 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IH. 
 
 '•' crucified." But these are not so numerous, nor placed in 
 such a way as to obscure the sense, aud make it alle^orical_ or 
 enigmatical, which is the kind of expression properly called 
 fi/jurativc. But Tn the saying addressed to Jeremiah, " See, 
 I have^this day set thee over the nations, and over the king- 
 doms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to 
 throw down,"^ there is no doubt the whole of the language is 
 figurative, and to be referred to the end I have spoken of. 
 
 CUAP. XII. — Buh for interpreting those sayings and actions rrhich are 
 ascribed to God and the mints, and which yet seem to the unskilful to be 
 wicked. 
 
 18. Those things, again, whether only sayings or whether 
 actual deeds, which appear to the inexperienced to be sinful, 
 aud which are ascribed to God, or to men whose holiness is 
 put before us as an example, are wholly figurative, and the 
 hidden kernel of meaning they contain is to be picked out as 
 food for the nourishment of charity. Xow, whoever uses 
 transitory objects less freely than is the custom of those among 
 whom he lives, is either temperate or superstitious ; whoever, 
 on the other hand, uses them so as to transgress the bounds of 
 the custom of the good men about him, either has a further 
 meaning in what he does, or is sinful. In all such matters it 
 is not the use of the objects, but the lust of the user, that is 
 to blame. Nobody in his sober senses would believe, for 
 example, that when our Lord's feet were anointed by the 
 woman with precious ointment,^ it was for the same purpose 
 for wliich luxurious and profligate men are accustomed to 
 have theirs anointed in tliose banquets which we abhor. For 
 the swee t odour means the good report whic h is earned by a 
 life o f good works ; and the man who wins this, wliile follow- 
 ing in the footsteps of Clirist, anoints His feet (so to speak) 
 with the most precious ointment. And so that which in the 
 case of other persons is often a sin, becomes, when ascribed 
 to God or a prophet, tlie sig n of some great truth. Keeping 
 company with a harlot, for example, is one thing when it is 
 the result of abandoned manners, another thing when done in 
 the course of his propliecy by the prophet Hosea.^ Because 
 it is a shamefully wicked thing to strip the body naked at a 
 
 1 Jci. i. 10. ' Johu xii. 3. ' Hos. i. 2. 
 
CHAP. XII.] THE OLD DISPENSATION FIGUEATIYE. 93 
 
 banquet among the drunken and licentious, it does not follow 
 that it is a sin to be naked in the baths. 
 
 19. We must, therefore, consider carefully what is suitable 
 to times and places and persons, and not rashly charge men 
 with sins. For it is possible that a wise man may use the 
 daintiest food without any sin of epicurism or gluttony, while 
 a fool will crave for the vilest food with a most disgusting 
 eagerness of appetite. And any sane man would prefer eating 
 fish after the manner of our Lord, to eating lentiles after the 
 manner of Esau, or barley after the manner of oxen. For 
 there are several beasts that feed on commoner kinds of food, 
 but it does not follow that they are more temperate than we 
 are. For in all matters of this kind it is not the nature of 
 the things we use, but our reason for using them, and our 
 manner of seeking them, that make what we do either praise- 
 worthy or blameable. 
 
 20. JSTowjthesaints^of ancient times were, under the form 
 of an earthly kingdom, foreshadowing and foretelling the king- 
 dom of heaven. And on account of the necessity for a nu- 
 merous offspring, the custom of one man having several wives 
 was at that time blameless : and for the same reason it was 
 not proper for one woman to have several husbands, because 
 a woman does not in that w^ay become more fruitful, but, on 
 the contrary, it is base harlotry to seek either gain or offspring 
 by promiscuous intercourse. In regard to matters of this sort, 
 whatever the holy men of those times did without lust, Scrip- 
 ture passes over without blame, although they did things which 
 could not be done at the present time, except through lust. 
 And everything of this nature that is there narrated we are 
 to take not only i n its historical and literal, but also in its 
 figurative and prophetical sense, and to interpret as bearing 
 ultimately upon the end of love towards God or our neighbour, 
 or both. For as it was disgraceful among the ancient Eomans 
 to wear tunics reaching to the heels, and furnished with sleeves, 
 but now it is disgraceful for men honourably born not to wear 
 tunics of that description : so we must take heed in regard 
 to other things also, that lust do not mix with our use of them ; 
 for lust not only abuses to wicked ends the customs of those 
 among whom we live, but frequently also transgressing the 
 
94 ox CHRISTIAN DOCTnixE. [book in. 
 
 bounds of custom, betrays, in a disgraceful outbreak, its own 
 hideousness, which was concealed under the cover of prevail- 
 ing fashions. 
 
 CnAP. xin. — Same suhjtct continued. 
 
 2 1 . A^HiatGver, then, is in accordance with the habits of those 
 with whom we are either compelled by necessity, or undertake 
 as a matter of duty, to spend this life, is to be turned by good 
 and great men to some prudent or benevolent end, either 
 directly, as is our duty, or figuratively, as is allowable to 
 prophets. 
 
 Chap. xiv. — Error of those lolio tlnnJc that tJiere is no alsolute rijht 
 and lorong, 
 
 22. But when men unacquainted with other modes of life 
 than their own meet with the record of such actions, unless 
 they are restrained by authority, they look upon them as sins, 
 and do not consider that their own customs either in regard to 
 marriage, or feasts, or dress, or the other necessities and adorn- 
 ments of human life, appear sinful to the people of other 
 nations and other times. And, distracted by this endless 
 variety of customs, some who were half asleep (as I may say) — 
 that is, who were neither sunk in the deep sleep of folly, nor 
 were able to awake into the li<T[ht of wisdom — have thought that 
 there was no such thing as absolute right, but tliat every 
 nation took its own custom for right; and that, since every 
 nation has a different custom, and right must remain unchange- 
 able, it becomes manifest that there is no such tiling as right 
 at all. Such men did not perceive, to take only one example, 
 that the precept, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
 to you, do ye even so to them,"^ cannot be altered by any 
 diversity of national customs. And this precept, when it is 
 referred to the love of God, destroys all vices ; when to the 
 lave of one's neighbour, puts an end to all crimes. For no one 
 is willing to defile his own dwelling ; he ought not, therefore, 
 to defile the dwelling of God, that is, himself. And no one 
 wishes an injury to be done him by another ; he himself, 
 therefore, ought not to do injury to another. 
 
 ' Matt. vii. 12. Conip. Tobit iv. 15. 
 
CHAP, xvl] the interpretation of figures. 95 
 
 Chap. xv. — Rule for interpreting figurative expressions. 
 23. The tjrranny of lust being thus overthrown, charity 
 reignS through its supremely just laws of love to God for His 
 own sake, and love to one's self and one's neighbour for God's 
 sake. Accordingly, in regard to figurative expressions, a rule 
 such as the following will be observed, to carefully turn over 
 in our minds and meditate upon what we read till an inter- 
 pretation be found that tends to establish the reign of love. 
 Now, if when taken literally it at once gives a meaning of this 
 kind, the expression is not to be considered figurative. 
 
 CiiAP. -^xi.— Rule for interpreting commands and ijrdliihitions. 
 
 24.' If the sentence is one of command, either forbidding a 
 crime or vice, or enjoining an act of prudence or benevolence. 
 It is not figurative. If, however, it seems to enjoin a crime 
 or vice, or to forbid an act of prudence or benevolence, it is 
 figurative^ " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man," says 
 Christ, " and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." ^ This 
 seems to enjoin a crime or a vice ; it is therefore a figure, en- 
 joining that we should have a share in the sufferings of our 
 Lord, and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory 
 of the fact that His flesh was wounded and crucified for us. 
 Scripture says : " If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he 
 thirst, give him drink ;" and this is beyond doubt a command 
 to do a kindness. But in what follows, "for in so doing 
 thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head," ^ one would think a 
 deed of malevolence was enjoined. Do not doubt, then, that 
 the expression is figurative ; and, while it is possible to inter 
 pret it in two ways, one pointing to the doing of an injury, the 
 other to a display of superiority, let charity on the contrary 
 call you back to benevolence, and interpret the coals of fire as 
 the burning groans of penitence by which a man's pride is 
 cured who bewails that he has been the enemy of one who 
 came to his assistance in distress. In the same w\ay, when 
 our Lord says, " He who loveth his life shall lose it," ^ we are 
 not to think that He forbids the prudence with which it is a man's 
 duty to care for his life, but that He says in a figurative sense, 
 
 1 John vi. 53. ^Rom. xii. 20 ; Prov. xxv. 21, 22. 
 
 3 John xii. 25. Comp. Matt. x. 39. 
 
G ox CnPJSTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III. 
 
 " Let him lose his life" — that is, let him destroy and lose that 
 perverted and unnatural use which he now makes of his life, 
 and througli which his desires are fixed on temporal things so 
 that he gives no heed to eternal. It is written : *' Give to the 
 godly man, and help not a sinner." ^ The latter clause of this 
 sentence seems to forbid benevolence ; for it says, " help not 
 a sinner." Understand, therefore, that " sinner" is put figura- 
 tively for sin, so that it is his sin you are not to help. 
 
 Chap. xvii. — Some commands are given to all in common, others to 
 particular classes. 
 
 25. Again, it often happens that a man who has attained, 
 or thinks he has attained, to a higher grade of spiritual life, 
 thinks that the commands given to those who are still in the 
 lower grades are figurative ; for example, if he has embraced a 
 life of celibacy and made himself a eunuch for the kingdom of 
 heaven's sake, he contends that the commands given in Scrip- 
 ture about loving and ruling a wife are not to be taken liter- 
 ally, but figuratively ; and if he has determined to keep his 
 virgin unmarried, he tries to put a figurative interpretation on 
 the passage where it is said, " Marry thy daughter, and so 
 shalt thou have performed a weighty matter.""'^ Accordingly, 
 another of our rules for understanding the Scriptures will be 
 as follows, — to recognise that |some commands are given to all 
 in common, others to particular classes of persons^ that the 
 y ]iiedicine may act not only upon the state of health as a whole, 
 
 1 »ut also upon the special weakness of each member. For that 
 which cannot be raised to a higher state must be cared for in 
 its own state./ 
 
 Cii.vr. XVIII. — ire must take i7ito consideration the time at ichich anything 
 was enjoined or allowed. 
 
 2G.\'\Ve must also be on our guard against supposing that 
 what in the Old Testament, making allowance for the condition 
 of those times, is not a crime or a vice even if we take it 
 literally and not figurati vely, can be transferred t o the_present 
 time as a habit of life. N For no one will do t his except lust 
 has dominion over hii?i, and endeavours to find support for 
 itself in the very Scriptures which were intended to overthrow 
 
 ' Ecdus. xii. 4. Comp. ToLit iv. 17. 
 'Ecclus. vii. -7. 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THE OLD DISPENSATION FIGURATIVE. 97 
 
 it. And tlie wretched man does not perceive tliat such matters 
 are recorded with this useful design, that men of good hope 
 may learn the salutary lesson, both that the custom they spurn 
 can be turned to a good use, and that which they embrace can 
 be used to condemnation, if the use of the former be accom- 
 panied with charity, and the use of the latter with lust. 
 
 2 7. For, if it was possible for one man to use many wives 
 with chastity, it is possible for another to use one wife with 
 lust. And I look with greater approval on the man who uses 
 the fruitfulness of many wives for the sake of an ulterior object, 
 than on the man who enjoys the body of one wife for its own 
 sake. For in the former case the man aims at a useful object 
 suited to the circumstances of the times ; in the latter case 
 he gratifies a lust which is engrossed in temporal enjoyments. 
 And those men to whom the apostle permitted as a matter of 
 indulgence to have one wife because of their incontinence,^ 
 were less near to God than those who, though they had each 
 of them numerous wives, yet just as a wise man uses food and 
 drink only for the sake of bodily health, used marriage only 
 for the sake of offspring. And, accordingly, if these last had 
 been still alive at the advent of our Lord, when the time not 
 of casting stones away but of gathering them together had 
 come,^ they would have immediately made themselves eunuchs 
 for the kingdom of heaven's sake. For there is no difficulty 
 in abstaining unless when there is lust in enjoying. And 
 assuredly those men of whom I speak knew that wantonness 
 even in regard to wdves is abuse and intemperance, as is proved 
 by Tobit's prayer when he was married to his wife. For he 
 saj^s : " Blessed art Thou, God of our fathers, and blessed is 
 Thy holy and glorious name for ever ; let the heavens bless 
 Thee, and all Thy creatures. Thou madest Adam, and gavest 
 him Eve his wife for an helper and stay. . . . And now, 
 O Lord, Thou knowest that I take not this my sister for lust, 
 but uprightly : therefore have pity on us, Lord."^ 
 
 Chap. xix. — Wicked menjudfje othem hy themselves. 
 
 28. But those who, giving the rein to lust, either wander 
 about steeping themselves in a multitude of debaucheries, or 
 1 1 Cor. vii. 1, 2, 9. ^ Eccles. iii. 5. ^ ^obit viii. 5-7. 
 
 CHPi. DOCT. U 
 
98 ox CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III. 
 
 even in regard to one wife not only exceed the measure neces- 
 sary for the procreation of chikh-en, but with the shameless 
 licence of a sort of slavish freedom heap up the filth of a still 
 more beastly excess, such men do not believe it possible that the 
 men of ancient times used a number of wives with temperance, 
 looking to nothing but the duty, necessary in the circumstances 
 of the time, of propagating the race ; and what they themselves, 
 who are entangled in the meshes of lust, do not accomplish in 
 tlie case of a single wife, they think utterly impossible in the 
 case of a number of wives. 
 
 20. But these same men might say that it is not right even 
 to honour and praise good and holy men, because they them- 
 selves when they are honoured and praised, swell with pride, 
 becoming the more eager for the emptiest sort of distinction 
 the more frequently and the more widely they are blown 
 about on the tongue of flattery, and so become so light that a 
 breath of rumour, whether it appear prosperous or adverse, will 
 carry them into the wdiirlpool of vice or dash them on the 
 roclvs of crime. Let them, then, learn how trying and difficult 
 it is for themselves to escape either being caught by the bait 
 of praise, or pierced by the stings of insult ; but let them not 
 measure others by their own standard. 
 
 Chap, xx, — Covfisfency of good men in all outward circumstances. 
 
 Let them believe, on the contrary, that the apostles of 
 our faith were neither puffed up when they were honoured by 
 men, nor cast down when they were despised. And certainly 
 neither sort of temptation was wanting to those great men. 
 For they were both cried up by the loud praises of believers, 
 and cried down by the slanderous reports of their persecutors. 
 But the apostles used all these things, as occasion served, and 
 were not corrupted ; and in the same way the saints of old 
 used their wive? with reference to the necessities of their own 
 times, and were not in bondage to lust as they are who refuse 
 to believe these things. 
 
 30. For if they liad been under the influence of any such 
 passion, they could never have restrained themselves from im- 
 ])lacable hatred towards their sons, by whom they knew that 
 their wives and concubines were solicited and debauched. 
 
CHAP. XXI.] THE CASE OF DAVID. 99 
 
 Chap. xxi. — David not lustful^ though he fell into adultery. 
 
 But when King David had suffered this injury at the 
 hands of his impious and unnatural son, he not only bore with 
 him in his mad passion, but mourned over him in his death. 
 He certainly was not caught in the meshes of carnal jealousy, 
 seeing that it was not his own injuries but the sins of his son 
 that moved him. For it was on this account he had given 
 orders that his son should not be slain if he were conquered 
 in battle, that he might have a place of repentance after he w^as 
 subdued ; and when he was baffled in this design, he mourned 
 over his son's death, not because of his own loss, but because 
 he knew to what punishment so impious an adulterer and par- 
 ricide had been hurried.^ For prior to this, in the case of 
 another son who had been guilty of no crime, though he was 
 dreadfully afflicted for him while he was sick, yet he comforted 
 himself after his death.^ 
 
 31. And with what moderation and self-restraint those men 
 used their wives appears chiefly in this, that when this same 
 king, carried away by the heat of passion and by temporal 
 prosperity, had taken unlawful possession of one woman, whose 
 husband also he ordered to be put to death, he was accused of 
 his crime by a prophet, who, when he had come to show him his 
 sin, set before him the parable of the poor man who had but 
 one ewe-lamb, and whose neighbour, though he had many, yet 
 when a guest came to him spared to take of his own flock, 
 but set his poor neighbour's one lamb before his guest to eat. 
 And David's anger being kindled against the man, he com- 
 manded that he should be put to death, and the lamb restored 
 fourfold to the poor man ; thus unwittingly condemning the 
 sin he had wittingly committed.^ And when he had been 
 shown this, and God's punishment had been denounced against 
 him, he wiped out his sin in deep penitence. But yet in this 
 parable it was the adultery only that was indicated by the 
 poor man's ewe-lamb ; about the killing of the woman's hus- 
 band, — that is, about the murder of the poor man himself who 
 had the one ewe-lamb, — nothing is said in the parable, so 
 that the sentence of condemnation is pronounced against the 
 
 ^ Comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 22, xviii. 5, xix. 1. »2 Sam. xii. 19-23. 
 
 3 2 Sam. xii. 1-6. 
 
V 
 
 100 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [cOOK III. 
 
 adultery alone. And hence Ave may understand with what 
 temperance he possessed a number of wives when he was 
 forced to punish himself for transgressing in regard to one 
 woman. But in his case the immoderate desire did not take 
 up its abode with him, but was only a passing guest. On this 
 account the unlawful appetite is called even by the accusing 
 prophet, a guest. For he did not say that he took the poor 
 man's ewe-lamb to make a feast for his king, but for his guest. 
 In the case of his son Solomon, however, this lust did not come 
 and pass away like ^^.^lest, but reigned as a king. And about 
 him Scripture is nqt^silent, but accuses him of being a lover of 
 strange women ; f or in the beginning of his reign he was in- 
 flamed with a desire for wisdom, but after he had attained it 
 through spiritual love, he lost it throug h carnal lust.^ 
 
 Chap. xxii. — Rule regarding passages of Scripture in which approval is ex- 
 pressed of actions u'hich are now condemned hy good men. 
 
 32. Therefore, although all, or nearly all, the transactions 
 recorded in the Old Testament are to be taken not literally only, 
 but figuratively as well, n evertheless even in the case of those 
 which the reader has taken literally, and which, though the 
 authors of them are praised, are repugnant to the habits of 
 the crood men who since our Lord's advent are the custodians 
 of the divine commands, let him refer the figure to its inter- 
 pretation^ but let him not transfer the act to his habits of life. 
 For many things which were done as duties at that time, 
 cannot now be done except through lust. 
 
 CiiAr. XXIII. — Rule regarding tJie narrative of sins of great men. 
 
 33. And when he reads of the sins of great men, although 
 he may be able to see and to trace out in them a figure of 
 things to come, let him yet put the literal fact to this use 
 also, to teach him not to dare to vaunt himself in his own good 
 deeds, and in comparison witli his own righteousness, to despise 
 others as sinners, wlien he sees in the case of men so eminent 
 both the s torms that are to be avoided and the shipwrecks 
 that are to be wept over. For the sins of these men were re- 
 corded to this end, that men might everywhere and always 
 [tremble at that saying of tlie apostle : " Wherefore let him 
 
 1 2 Chron. i. 10-12 ; 1 Kin^s .\i. 1-3. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] DIFFERENT USES OF THE SAME FIGURE. 101 
 
 that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."-^ For there 
 is hardly a page of Scripture on which it is not clearly written 
 that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.^ 
 
 Chap. xxiv. — The character of the expressions used is above all to have iceight. 
 
 34. The chief thing to be inquired into, therefore, in regard 
 to any expression that we are trying to understand is, whether 
 it is literal or figurative. For when it is ascertained to be 
 figurative, it is easy, by an application of the laws of things 
 which we discussed in the first book, to turn it in every way 
 until we arrive at a true interpretation, especially when we 
 bring to our aid experience strengthened by the exercise of 
 piety. JSTow we find out whether an expression is literal or 
 figurative by attending to the considerations indicated above. 
 
 Chap. xxv. — The same word does not always signify the same thing. 
 
 And when it is shown to be figurative, the w^ords in which 
 it is expressed will be found to be drawn^ either from like 
 objects or from objects having some affinity. 
 
 35. But as there are many ways in which things show a 
 likeness to each other, we are not to suppose there is any rule 
 that what a thing signifies by similitude in one place it is to 
 be taken to signify in all other places. For our Lord used 
 leaven both in a bad sense, as when He said, " Beware of the 
 leaven of the Pharisees,"^ and in a good sense, as when He 
 said, " The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a 
 woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole 
 was leavened." * 
 
 36. Now the rule in regard to t his var iation has two forms. 
 For things that signify now one thing and now another, signify 
 either things that are contrary, or things that are only different. 
 They signify contraries, for example, when they are used 
 metaphorically at one time in a good sense, at another in a 
 bad, as in the case of the leaven mentioned above. Another 
 example of the same is that a lion stands for Christ in the 
 place where it is said, " The lion of the tribe of Judah hath 
 prevailed ;" ^ and again, stands for the devil where it is written, 
 
 » 1 Cor. X. 12. 2 Comp. Jas. iv. 6 and 1 Tot. v. 6. 
 
 3 Matt. xvi. 6 ; Luke xii. 1. -* Luke xiii. 2L ^ liev. v. 5. 
 
i 
 
 102 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III. 
 
 " Your adversary tlie devil^ as a roaring lion, walketh about 
 seekiug whom he may devour." ^ In the same way the serpent 
 is used in a good sense, " Be wise as serpents ;" ^ and again, in 
 a bad sense, " The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty." ^ 
 Bread is used in a good sense, " I am the living bread which 
 came down from heaven ; " ^ in a bad, " Bread eaten in secret 
 is pleasant.'"* And so in a great many other cases. The 
 examples I have adduced are indeed by no means doubtful in 
 their signification, because only plain instances ought to be 
 used as examples. There are passages, however, in regard to 
 w^hich it is uncertain in what sense they ought to be taken, as 
 for example, " In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and 
 the wine is red : it is full of mixture." ^ Now it is uncertain 
 whether this denotes the wrath of God, but not to the last 
 extremity of punishment, that is, " to the very dregs ; " or 
 whetlier it denotes the grace of the Scriptures passing away 
 from the Jews and coming to the Gentiles, because " He has 
 put down one and set up another," — certain observances, how- 
 ever, which they understand in a carnal manner, stiU remain- 
 ing among the Jews, for " the dregs hereof is not yet wrung 
 out." The following is an example of the same object being 
 taken, not in opposite, but only in different significations : 
 water denotes people, as we read in the Apocalypse,' and also 
 the Holy Spirit, as for example, " Out of his belly shall flow 
 rivers of living water ; " ® and many other things besides water 
 must be interpreted according to the place in which they are 
 found. 
 
 37. And in the same way other objects are not single in 
 their signification, but each one of them denotes not two only 
 but sometimes even several different things, according to the 
 connection in which it is found. 
 
 Chap. xxvi. — Obscure passages are to be interpreted by those which are clearer. 
 
 ( Now from the places where the sense in which they are used 
 
 is more manifest we must gather the sense in whicli they are 
 
 to be under stood in obscure passages. I For example, there is 
 
 > 1 Pet. V. 8. a Matt. x. 16. '2 Cor. xi. 3. 
 
 *.Iolm vi. 51. ' Trov. ix. 17. * Ts. Ixxv. S. 
 
 ^Kev. xvii. 15.' •John vii. '<iS. 
 
CHAP. XXVII.] YAEIOUS INTERPr.ETATIONS ALLOWABLE. 103 
 
 no better way of understanding the words addressed to God, 
 " Take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help," ^ 
 than by referring to the passage where we read, " Thou, Lord, 
 hast crowned us with Thy favour as with a shield."^ And yet 
 we are not so to understand it, as that wherever we meet with 
 a shield put to indicate a protection of any kind, we must 
 take it as signifying nothing but the favour of God. For we 
 hear also of the shield of faith, " wherewith," says the apostle, 
 " ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." ^ 
 Nor ought we, on the other hand, in regard to spiritual armour 
 of this kind to assign faith to the shield only; for we read in 
 another place of the breastplate of faith : " putting on," says 
 the apostle, " the breastplate of faith and love." * 
 
 Chap, xxyii. — One jJassage susceptible of various interpretations. 
 38. When, again, not some one interpretation, but two or 
 more interpretations are put upon the same words of Scripture, 
 even though the meaning the writer intended remain undis- 
 covered, there is no danger if it can be shown from other 
 passages of Scripture that any of the interpretations put on the 
 words is in harmony with the truth. /And if a man in search- 
 ing the Scriptures endeavours to get at the intention of the 
 author through whom the Holy Spirit spake, whether he 
 succeeds in this endeavour, or whether he draws a different 
 meaning from the words, but one that is not opposed to sound 
 doctrine, he is free from blame so long as he is supported by 
 the testimony of some other passage of Scripture. For the 
 author perhaps saw that this very meaning lay in the words 
 which we are trying to interpret ; and assuredly the Holy 
 Spirit, who through him spake these words, foresaw that this 
 interpretation would occur to the reader, nay, made provision 
 that it should occur to him, seeing that it too is founded on 
 truth. For what more liberal and more fruitful provision 
 could God have made in regard to the Sacred Scriptures than 
 that the same words might be understood in several senses, all 
 of which are sanctioned by the concurring testimony of other 
 passages equally divine ? 
 
 » Ts. XXXV. 2. 2 Ps. V. 12. 
 
 » Eph. vi. IG. * 1 Thess. v. 8. 
 
104 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III. 
 
 Chap, xxviii. — It is safer to explain a donhtful passa'je hy other parages of 
 A^crijjture than by reason. 
 
 39. When, however, a meaning is evolved of sucli a kind 
 that what is doubtful in it cannot be cleared up by indubitable 
 evidence from Scripture, it remains for us to make it clear 
 by the evidence of reason. But this is a dangerous practice. 
 For it is far safer to walk by the light of Holy Scripture ; so 
 that when we wish to examine the passages that are obscured 
 by metaphorical expressions, we may either obtain a meaning 
 about which there is no controversy, or if a controversy 
 arises, may settle it by the application of testimonies sought 
 out in every portion of the same Scripture. 
 
 Chap. xxix. — The knowledge of tropes w necessary. 
 
 40. Moreover, I would have learned men to know that the 
 authors of our Scriptures use all those forms of expression 
 which grammarians call by the Greelc name tropes, and use 
 them more freely and in greater variety than people who are 
 unacquainted with the Scriptures, and have learnt these 
 figures of speech from other writing, can imagine or believe. 
 Nevertheless those who know these tropes recognise them in 
 Scripture, and are very much assisted by their knowledge of 
 them in understanding Scripture. But this is not the 
 place to teach them to the illiterate, lest it might seem 
 that I was teaching grammar. I certainly advise, however, 
 that they be learnt elsewhere, although indeed I have already 
 given tliat advice above, in the second book — namely, where 
 I treated of the necessary knowledge of languages. For 
 the written characters from which grammar itself gets its 
 name (the Greek name for letters being ypd/jLfjLaTo) are the 
 signs of sounds made by the articulate voice with which we 
 speak. Now of some of these figures of speech we fmd in 
 Scripture not only examples (which we have of them all), but 
 the very names as well : for instance, allegory, enigma, and 
 parahlc. However, nearly all these tropes which ar e sa id to 
 be learnt as a matter of liberal education are found even in 
 the ordinary speech of men who have learnt no grammar, but 
 are content to use the vulgar idiom. For who docs not say, 
 " So may you flourish ? " And this is the figure of speech 
 
CHAP. XXX.] THE T.ULES OF TICHONIUS. 105 
 
 called mda])}ior._ Who does not speak of a fish-pond^ in 
 which there is no fish, which was not made for fish, and yet 
 gets its name from fish ? And this is the figure called cato.- 
 chresis. 
 
 41. It would be tedious to go over all the rest in this way ; 
 for the speech of the vulgar makes use of them all, even of 
 those more curious figures which mean the very opposite of 
 w^hat they say, as for example, those called irony and anti^hrasis. \/ 
 Now in irony we indicate by the tone of voice the meaning 
 
 we desire to convey ; as when we say to a man who is behav- 
 ing badly, " You are doing well." But it is not by the tone 
 of voice that we make an antiphrasis to indicate the opposite 
 of what the words convey ; but either the words in which it 
 is expressed are used in the opposite of their etymological 
 sense, as a grove is called hicus from its want of light ; ^ or it 
 is customary to use a certain form of expression, although it 
 puts yes for no by a law of contraries, as when we ask in a 
 place for what is not there, and get the answer, "There is 
 plenty ; " or we add words that make it plain we mean the 
 opposite of what we say, as in the expression, " Beware of him, 
 for he is a good man." And what illiterate man is there that 
 does not use such expressions, although he knows nothing at 
 all about either the nature or the names of these figures of 
 speech ? And yet the knowledge of these is necessary for 
 clearing up the difficulties of Scripture; because when the 
 words taken literally give an absurd meaning, we ought forth- 
 with to inquire whether they may not be used in this or that 
 figurative sense which we are unacquainted with ; and in this 
 way many obscure passages have had light thrown upon them. 
 
 Chap. xxx. — The rules of TicJionius the Donatist examined. 
 
 42. One Tichonius, who, although a Donatist himself, has 
 written most triumphantly against the Donatists (and herein 
 showed himself of a most inconsistent disposition, that he was 
 unwilling to give them up altogether), wrote a book which he 
 
 * The word j5i-5CJna (literally a fish-pond) was used in post-Augnstnn times for 
 any pool of water, a swimmiug-poud, for instance, or a pond for cattle to drink 
 from. 
 
 ' Quod minime luceat. 
 
lOG ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRIXE. [BOOK III. 
 
 called the Book of Rules, because in it he laid down seven rules, 
 which are, as it were, keys to open the secrets of Scripture. 
 And of these rules, the first relates to the Lord and His body, 
 the second to the twofold division of the Lord's body, the third 
 to the promises and the law, the fourth to species and genus, the 
 fifth to times, the sixth to recapitulation, the seventh to the 
 devil and his body. Xow these rules, as expounded by their 
 author, do indeed, when carefully considered, afford consider- 
 able assistance in penetrating the secrets of the sacred writings; 
 but still they do not explain all the difficult passages, for there 
 are several other methods required, which are so far from being 
 embraced in this number of seven, that the author himself ex- 
 plains many obscure passages without using any of his rules ; 
 finding, indeed, that there \vas no need for them, as there w^as 
 no dilliculty in the passage of the kind to which his rules 
 apply. As, for example, he inquires what we are to under- 
 stand in the Apocalypse by the seven angels of the churches 
 to whom John is commanded to write ; and after much and 
 various reasoning, arrives at the conclusion that the angels are 
 the churches themselves. And throughout this long and full 
 discussion, although the matter inquired into is certainly very 
 obscure, no use whatever is made of the rules. This is enough 
 for an example, for it would be too tedious and troublesome to 
 collect all the passages in the canonical Scriptures which pre- 
 sent obscurities of such a kind as require none of these seven 
 rules for their elucidation. 
 
 43. Tlie author himself, however, Avhen commending these 
 rules, attributes so much value to them that it would appear 
 as if, when they were thoroughly known and duly applied, we 
 should be able to interpret all tlie obscure passages in the law 
 — that is, in the sacred books. For he thus commences this 
 very book : " Of all the things that occur to me, I consider 
 none so necessary as to write a little book of rules, and, as it 
 were, to make keys for, and put windows in, the secret places 
 of the law. For there are certain mystical rules which hold 
 the key to the secret recesses of the whole law, and render 
 visible the treasures of triitli that are to many invisible. Ahd 
 if this system of rules be received, as I communicate it, with- 
 out jealousy, what is shut shall be laid open, and what is ob- 
 
CHAP. XXXL] first RULE OF TICHONIUS. 107 
 
 scure shall be elucidated, so that a man travelling through the 
 vast forest of prophecy shall, if he follow these rules as path- 
 ways of light, be preserved from going astray." Now, if he 
 had said, "There are certain mystical rules which hold the 
 key to some of the secrets of the law," or even " which hold 
 the key to the great secrets of the law," and not what he does 
 say, " the secret recesses of the whole law ; " and if he had not 
 said, " What is shut shall be laid open," but, " Many things 
 that are shut shall be laid open," he would have said what was 
 true, and he would not, by attributing more than is warranted 
 by the facts to his very elaborate and useful work, have led the 
 reader into false expectations. And I have thought it right 
 to say thus much, in order both that the book may be read by 
 the studious (for it is of very great assistance in understanding 
 Scripture), and that no more may be expected from it than it 
 
 really con tains. ^Certainly it must be read with caution, not 
 
 only on account of the errors into which the author falls as a 
 man, but chiefly on account of the heresies which he ad- 
 vances as a Donatist. And now I shall briefly indicate what 
 these seven rules teach or advise. 
 
 Chap. xxxi. — The first rule of Tichonius, 
 
 4:4:. The first is about the Lord and His lody, and it is this, 
 that, knowing as we do that the head and the body — tliat is, 
 Christ and His Church — are sometimes indicated to us under 
 one person (for it is not in vain that it is said to believers, 
 " Ye then are Abraham's seed,"-^ when there is but one seed 
 of Abraham, and that is Christ), we need not be in a difficulty 
 when a transition is made from the head to the body or from 
 the body to the head, and yet no change made in the person 
 spoken of For a single person is represented as saying, " He 
 hath decked me as a brideajroom with ornaments, and adorned 
 me as a bride with jewels ;"^ and yet it is, of course, a matter 
 for interpretation which of these two refers to the head and 
 which to the body, that is, which to Christ and which to the 
 Church. 
 
 1 Gal. iii. 29. 
 
 2 Isa. Ixi. 10 (LXX.). ** As a bride groom dccketh himself witli ornament.s, and 
 as a bride adorneth lierself with jewels" (A. V.) 
 
108 
 
 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 [book III. 
 
 Cii.vr. xx.xii. — The second rule of Tichoniua. 
 
 45. The second rule is about tlie twofold division of the hody 
 of the Lord; but this indeed is not a suitable name, for that is 
 really no part of the body of Christ which will not be witli 
 Him in et ernity . We ought, therefore, to say tliat the rule is 
 about the true and the mixed body of the Lord, or the true 
 and the counterfeit, or some such name ; because, not to speak 
 of eternity, hypocrites cannot even now be said to be in Him, 
 although they seem to be in His Church. And hence this rule 
 mi^ht be desif^nated thus: Concerninfr the ruixcd Church. Xow 
 this rule requires the reader to be on his guard when Scrip- 
 ture, although it has now come to address or speak of a dif- 
 ferent set of persons, seems to be addressing or speaking of the 
 same persons as before, just as if both sets constituted one 
 body in consequence of their being for the time united in a 
 common participation of the sacraments. An example of this 
 is that passage in the Song of Solomon, " I am black, but 
 comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon."^ 
 For it is not said, I was black as the tents of Kedar, but am 
 ^ow comely as the curtains of Solomon. The Church declares 
 itself to be at present both] and this because the good fish 
 and the bad are for the time mixed up in the one net." For 
 the tents of Kedar pertain to Ishmael, who " shall not be heir 
 with the son of the free woman." ^ And in the same way, when 
 God says of the good part of the Church, " I will bring the 
 blind by a way that they knew not ; I will lead them in paths 
 that they have not known ; I will make darkness light before 
 them, and crooked things straiglit : these things will I do 
 unto them, and not forsake them;'"* He immediately adds in 
 regard to tlie other part, the bad that is mixed with the good, 
 *' They shall be turned back." Now tliese words refer to a 
 set of persons altogether different from the former ; but as the 
 two sets are for the present unit ed in one body, He speaks as 
 if tliere were no cha nge in the s ubject of the sentence. They 
 will not, however, always be in one body; for one of them is 
 that wicked servant of whom we are told in the gospel^ whose 
 
 43. 
 
 » Cant. i. 5. 
 ' Gal. iv. yO. 
 
 ' Matt. xiii. 47 
 * Isa. xlii. Id. 
 
CHAP. XXXIII.] THIED RULE OF TICHONIUS. 100 
 
 lord, when lie comes, " shall cut him asunder and appoint him 
 his portion with the hypocrites."-^ 
 
 Chap, xxxiir. — The third rule of Tichonlus. 
 
 46. The third rule relates to the loromises and the law, 
 and may be designated in other terms as relating to the spirit 
 and the lette r, which is th e nam e I made use of when writing 
 a book on th is subject . It may be also named, ot grace and 
 the law. This, however, seems to me to be a great question 
 in itself, rather than a rule to be applied to the solution of 
 other questions. It was the want of clear views on this ques- 
 tion that originated, or at least greatly aggravated, the Pelagian 
 heresy. And the efforts of Tichonius to clear up this point 
 were good, but not complete. For, in discussing the question 
 about faith and works, he said that w^orks were given us by 
 God as the reward of faith, but that faith itself was so far our 
 own that it did not come to us from God ; not keeping in 
 mind the saying of the apostle : " Peace be to the brethren, 
 aud love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." ^ But he had not come into contact with this heresy, 
 which has arisen in our time, and has given us much labour 
 and trouble in defending against it the grace of God which is 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ, and which (according to the 
 saying of the apostle, "There must be also heresies among 
 you, that they which are approved may be made manifest 
 among you " ^) has made us much more watchful and diligent 
 to discover in Scripture what escaped Tichonius, who, having no 
 enemy to guard against, was less attentive and anxious on this 
 point, namely, that even faith itself is the gifto| Him who 
 *' hath dealt to every man the measure of faijh." * Whence 
 it is said to certain believers : " Unto you it is given, in the 
 behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer 
 for His sake." ^ Who, then, can doubt that each of these is 
 the gift of God, when he learns from this passage, and believes, 
 that each of them is given ? There are many other testi- 
 monies besides which prove this. But I am not now treating 
 
 I Matt. xxiv. 50, 51. 2Eph. vi. 23. 
 
 3 1 Cor. xi. 19. « Eoin. xii. 3. 
 
 6 Pliil. i. 29. 
 
110 ox CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III. 
 
 of this doctrine. I liave, however, dealt with it, one place op 
 another, very frequently. 
 
 Ch.vp. wxiv. — The fourth rule of Tichonius. 
 
 47. The fourth rule of Tichonius is about species and genus. 
 For so he calls it, intending that by species should be under- 
 stood a part, by genus the whole of which that which he calls 
 species is a p art : as, for example, every single city is a part 
 of the great society of nations : the city he calls a species, all 
 nations constitute the genus. There is no necessity for here 
 applying that subtilty of distinction which is in use among 
 logicians, who discuss with great acuteness the difference 
 between a part and a species. The rule is of course the 
 same, if anything of the kind referred to is found in Scripture, 
 not in regard to a single city, but in regard to a single pro- 
 vince, or tribe, or kingdom. Not only, for example, about 
 Jerusalem, or some of the cities of the Gentiles, such as Tyre 
 or Babylon, are things said in Scripture whose significance 
 oversteps the limits of the city, and which are more suitable 
 when applied to all nations ; but in regard to Judea also, and 
 Egypt, and Assyria, or any other nation you choose to "take 
 which contains numerous cities, but still is not the whole 
 world, but only a part of it, things are said which pass over 
 the limits of that particular country, and apply more fitly to 
 the whole of which this is a part ; or, as our author terms 
 it, to the genus of which this is a species. And hence tliese 
 words have come to be commonly known, so that even unedu- 
 cated people understand what is laid down specially, and wliat 
 generally, in any given Imperial command. The same thing 
 occurs in the case of men : things are said of Solomon, for 
 example, the scope of which reaches far beyond him, and 
 which are only properly understood when applied to Christ and 
 His Church, of which Solomon is a part.' 
 
 48. Now the species is not always overstepped, for things 
 are often said of such a kind as evidently apply to it also, or 
 perhaps even to it exclusively. Ihit when Scripture, having 
 up to a certain point been speaking about the species, makes 
 a transition at that point from the species to the genus, the 
 
 ' 2 Sam. vii. 11-1*3. 
 
CHAP. XXXIY.l FOURTH KULE OF TICHONIUS. Ill 
 
 reader must then be carefully on his guard against seeking in 
 the species what he can find much better and more surely in 
 the genus. Take, for example, what the prophet Ezekiel says: 
 " When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they 
 defiled it by their own way, and by their doings : their way 
 was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. 
 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that 
 they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith 
 they had polluted it : and I scattered them among the 
 heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries : 
 according to their way, and according to their doings, I judged 
 them." -^ Now it is easy to understand that this applies to 
 that house of Israel of which the apostle says, " Behold 
 Israel after the flesh ; " ^ because the people of Israel after the 
 flesh did both perform and endure all that is here referred to. 
 What immediately follows, too, may be understood as apply- 
 ing to the same people. But when the prophet begins to say, 
 " And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned 
 among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of 
 them ; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord," ^ the 
 reader ought now carefully to observe the way in which the 
 species is overstepped and the genus taken in. For he goes 
 on to say : " And I shall be sanctified in you before their 
 eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and 
 gather you out of all countries, and wdU bring you into 
 your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, 
 and ye shall be clean : from all your filthiness, and from all 
 your idols, wiU I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give 
 you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I w^ill 
 take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I wiU give 
 you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit wdthin you, 
 and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my 
 commandments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the 
 land that I gave to your fathers ; and ye shall be my people, 
 and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your 
 uncleannesses." ^ Now that this is a prophecy of the New 
 Testament, to which pertain not only the remnant of that one 
 
 » Ezek. xxxvi. 17-19. M Cor. x. 18. 
 
 ^Ezek. xxxvi. 23. '♦Ezek. xxxvi. 23-29. 
 
112 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III 
 
 nation of which it is elsewliere said, " For thoiigli the nunibei 
 of the chiklrcn of Israel he as the sand of the sea, yet a 
 remnant of tliem shall be saved," ^ but also the other nations 
 Avhich were promised to their fathers and our fathers ; and tliat 
 there is here a promise of that washing of regeneration which, 
 as we see, is now imparted to all nations, no one who looks 
 into the matter can doubt. And that saying of the apostle, 
 when he is commending the grace of the New Testament and 
 its excellence in comparison with tlie Old, " Ye are our 
 epistle . . . written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the 
 living God ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the 
 heart," ^ has an evident reference to this place where the 
 prophet says, " A new heart also will I give you, and a new 
 spirit will I put within }'ou ; and I wiU take away the stony 
 heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." ^ 
 Kow the heart of flesh from which the apostle's expression, 
 " the fleshy tables of the heart," is drawn, the prophet in- 
 tended to point out as distinguished from the stony heart by 
 the possession of sentient life ; and by sentient he understood 
 intelligent life. And thus the spiritual Israel is made up, 
 not of one nation, but of all the nations which were promised 
 to the fathers in their seed, that is, in Christ. 
 
 49. This spiritual Israel, therefore, is distinguished from 
 the carnal Israel which is of one nation, by newness of grace, 
 not by nobility of descent, in feeling, not in race ; but the 
 prophet, in his depth of meaning, while speaking of thecarnal 
 Israel, passes on, without indicating the transition^ to speak 
 of tlie spiritual, and although now s^^eaking of the latter, seems 
 to be still speaking of the formerj not that he gi'udges us the 
 clear appreliension of Scripture, as if we were enemies, but that 
 he deals with us as a pliysician, giving us a wholesome exercise 
 for our spirit. And therefore we ought to take this saying, 
 " And I will bring you into your own land," and what he says 
 shortly afterwards, as if repeating himself, " And ye shall 
 dwell in the land that I gave to your f athers." not literally, as 
 if they referred to Isr a el after the fle sh, but spiritually, as 
 referring to t he spiritual Israel. For the C hurch, without spot 
 or -^Tinkle, gathered out of all na tions, and destined to reign 
 
 1 Ud. X. 22. » 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. » Ezck. xxxviii. 26. 
 
CHAP. XXXV.] FIFTH EULE OF TICIIONIUS. 113 
 
 for ever with Christ, is itself the land of the blessed, the land 
 of the living; and we are to understand that this was given to 
 the fathers Avlien it was promised to them in the sure and 
 immutable purpose of God ; for what the fathers believed 
 would be given in its own time w^as to them, on account of 
 the unchangeableness of the promise and purpose, the same 
 as if it were abeady given ; just as the apostle, writing to 
 Timothy, speaks of the grace which is given to the saints : 
 " Not according to our works, but according to His own pur- 
 pose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the 
 world began ; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our 
 SaviourJlL He speaks of the grace as given at a time when 
 those to whom it was to be given were not yet in existence ; 
 because he looks upon that as having been already done in the 
 arrangement and purpose of God, which was to take place in 
 its own time, and he himself speaks of it as now made mani- 
 fest. It is possible, however, that these words may refer to 
 the land of the age to come, when there will be a new heaven 
 and a new earth, wherein the unrighteous shall be unable to 
 dwell. And so it is truly said to the righteous, that the land 
 itself is theirs, no part of which will belong to the unrighteous ; 
 because it is the same as if it were itself given, when it is 
 firmly settled that it shall be given. 
 
 Chap. xxxv. — The fifth rule of Tichonlus. 
 
 50. The fifth rule Tichpnius lays down is on designates 
 of times, — a rule by which we_ can frequently discover or con- 
 jecture quantities of time which are not expressly mentioned 
 in Scripture. And he says that this rule applies in two ways : 
 either to the figure of speech called synecdoche, or to legitimate 
 numbers. The figure synecdoche either puts the part for the 
 whole, or the whole for the part. As, for example, in reference 
 to the time when, in the presence of only three of His dis- 
 ciples, our Lord was transfigured on the mount, so that His 
 face shone as the sun, and His raiment was white as snow, one 
 evangelist says that this event occurred " after eight days," ^ 
 while another says that it occurred " after six days." ^ Now 
 both of these statements about the number of days cannot be 
 
 » 2 Tim. i. 9, 10. 2 L^^e ix. 28. ^ Matt. xvii. 1 ; Mark ix. 2. 
 
 CIIR. DOCT. U 
 
1 1 1 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK III. 
 
 true, unless we suppose that the writer who says " after eight 
 days," counted the latter part of tlie day on which Christ 
 uttered the prediction and the first part of the day on which 
 he showed its fulfilment as two whole days ; wliile the writer 
 who says " after six days," counted only the whole unbroken 
 days between these two. This figure of speech, which puts 
 the part for the whole, explains also the great question about 
 the resurrection of Christ. For unless to the latter part of 
 the day on which He suffered we join the previous night, and 
 count it as a whole day, and to the latter part of the night in 
 which He arose we join the Lord's day which was just dawTi- 
 ing, and count it also a whole day, we cannot make out the 
 three days and three nights during which He foretold that He 
 would be in the heart of the earth.^ 
 
 51. In the next place, our autlior calls those numbers legiti- 
 mate which Holy Scripture more highly favours, such as seven, 
 or ten, or twelve, or any of the other numbers wliich the 
 diligent reader of Scripture soon comes to know. Now numbers 
 of this sort are often put for time universal ; as, for example, 
 '•' Seven times in the day do I praise Thee," means just the 
 same as " His praise shall continually be in my mouth." ^ 
 And their force is exactly the same, either when multiplied by 
 ten, as seventy and seven hundred (whence the seventy years 
 mentioned in Jeremiah ma y be taken in a spiritual sense for 
 the whole time during which t he Church is a soj ourner among 
 aliens) \ or when multiplied into themselves, as ten into ten 
 gives one hundred, and twelve into twelve gives one hundred 
 and forty-four, whic h last nu mber is used in the _Apocal}^se 
 to signify the whole bod y of the saints.** Hence it appears 
 that it is not merely questions about times that are to be settled 
 by these numbers, but that their significance is of much wider 
 application, and extends to many subjects. That number in 
 the Apocalypse, for exampL* incntioued above, has not refer- 
 ence to times, but to men. 
 
 CiiAr. XXXVI. — The s'uth rule of Tklionhis*. 
 52. The sixth rule Tichonius calls the recapitulation, which, 
 
 » Mntt. xii. 40. " Comp. Ps. cxi.x. 104 with .xxxiv. 2. 
 
 3 Jcr. XXV. 11. * liev. vii. 4. 
 
CHAP. XXXYI.] SIXTH EULE OF TICHONIUS. 115 
 
 with sufficient watchfulness, is discovered in difficult parts of 
 Scripture. For certain occurrences are so related, that the 
 narrative appears to be following the order of time, or the con- 
 tinuity of events, when it really goes back without mentioning 
 it to previous occurrences, which had been passed over in their 
 proper place. And we make mistakes if we do not understand 
 this, from applying the rule here spoken of. For example, in 
 the book of Genesis we read, " And the Lord God planted a 
 garden eastward in Eden ; and there He put the man whom 
 He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God 
 to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for 
 food."^ ]S"ow here it seems to be indicated that the events last 
 mentioned took place after God had formed man and put him 
 in the garden ; whereas the fact is, that the two events having 
 been briefly mentioned, viz. that God planted a garden, and 
 there put the man whom He had formed, the narrative goes 
 back, by way of recapitulation, to tell what had before been 
 omitted, the way in which the garden was planted : that out 
 of the ground God made to grow every tree that is pleasant 
 to the sioht, and cjood for food. Here there foUows : " The 
 tree of life also was in the midst of the garden, and the tree 
 of knowledge of good and evil." Next the river is mentioned 
 which watered the garden, and which was parted into four 
 heads, the sources of four streams ; and aU this has reference 
 to the arrangements of the garden. And when this is finished, 
 there is a repetition of the fact which had been already told, 
 but which in the strict order of events came after all this : 
 " And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the 
 garden of Eden." ^ For it was after all these other things 
 were done that man was put in the garden, as now appears 
 from the order of the narrative itself : it was not after man 
 was put there that the other things were done, as the pre- 
 vious statement might be thought to imply, did we not 
 accurately mark and understand the recapitulation by which 
 the narrative reverts to what had previously been passed 
 over. 
 
 53. In the same book, again, when the generations of the 
 sons of Noah are recounted, it is said : " These are the sons 
 1 Gen. ii. 8, 9. 2 Gen. ii. 15. 
 
116 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III. 
 
 of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their 
 countries, and in their nations." ^ And, again, when the sons 
 of Shem arc enumerated : " These are the sons of Shem, after 
 their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their 
 nations."^ And it is added in reference to them all : " These 
 are the families of the sons of Xoah, after their generations, 
 in their nations ; and by these were the nations divided in the 
 earth after the flood. And the whole earth was of one lan- 
 guage and of one speech."^ Now the addition of this sentence, 
 " And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech," 
 seems to indicate that at the time when the nations were 
 scattered over the earth they had all one language in common ; 
 but this is evidently inconsistent with the previous words, 
 " in their families, after their tongues." For each family or 
 nation could not be said to have its own language if all had 
 one language in common. And so it is by way of recapitulation 
 it is added, " And the whole earth was of one language and 
 of one speech," the narrative here going back, without indi- 
 catinfT the chan<]je, to tell how it was, that from havinf^ one 
 lanouaire in common, the nations were divided into a multi- 
 tude of tongues. And, accordingly, we are forthwith told of 
 the building of the tower, and of this punishment being there 
 laid upon them as the judgment of God upon their arrogance ; 
 and it was after this that they were scattered over the earth 
 according to their tongues. ' 
 
 54. This recapitulation is found in a still more obscure 
 form ; as, for example, our Lord says in the gospel : " The same 
 day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire from heaven, 
 and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day 
 when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which 
 shall be upon the house-top, and his stuff' in the house, let him 
 not come down to take it away ; and he that is in the field, 
 let him likewise not return back. Eemember Lot's wife."* Is 
 it when our Lord shall liave been revealed that men are to 
 give heed to these sayings, and not to look behind them, that 
 is, not to long after the past life which they have renounced ? 
 Is not the present rather the time to give heed to them, that 
 when the ' Lord shall have been revealed every man may 
 
 > Gen. X. 20. ^ Gen. x. 31. ' Gen. x. 32, xi. 1. < Luke xvii. 29-32. 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] SEVENTH RULE OF TICHONIUS. 117 
 
 receive liis reward according to the things he has given heed 
 to or despised ? And yet because Scripture says, " In that 
 day," the time of the revelation of the Lord will be thought 
 the time for giving heed to these sayings, unless the reader be 
 watchful and intelligent so as to understand the recapitulation, 
 in which he will be assisted by that other passage of Scripture 
 which even in the time of the apostles proclaimed : " Little 
 children, it is the last time." ^ The very time then when the 
 gospel is preached, up to the time that the Lord shall be 
 revealed, is the day in which men ought to give heed to these 
 sayings : for to the same day, which shall be brought to a 
 close by a day of judgment^ belongs that very revelation of the 
 Lord here spoken of. ^ 
 
 Chap, xxxvii.— TAe seventh rule of Tichonius. 
 
 55. The seventh rule of Tichonius and the last, is about 
 the devil and his hodi/. For he is the head of the wicked, 
 who are in a sense his body, and destined to go with him into 
 the punishment of everlasting fire, just as Christ is the head 
 of the Church, which is His body, destined to be with Him in 
 His eternal kingdom and glory. Accordingly, as the first rule, 
 which is called of the Lord and His hody, directs us, when 
 Scripture speaks of one and the same person, to take pains to 
 understand which part of the statement applies to the head 
 and which to the body ; so this last rule shows us that state- 
 ments are sometimes made about the devil, whose truth is not 
 so evident in regard to himself as in regard to his body ; and 
 his body is made up not only of those who are manifestly out 
 of the way, but of those also who, though they really belong to 
 him, are for a time mixed up with the Church,^ until they 
 depart from this life, or until the chaff is separated from the 
 wheat at the last great winnowing. For example, what is 
 said in Isaiah, " How he is fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of 
 the morning ! " ^ and the other statements of the context 
 which, under the figure of the king of Babylon, are made 
 about the same person, are of course to be understood of the 
 
 1 1 John ii. 18. - Comp. Rom. ii. 5. 
 
 ' Isa. xiv. 12 (LXX.). " How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of 
 the morning ! " (A. V.) 
 
118 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III. 
 
 devil ; and yet the statement which is made in the same place, 
 " He is ground down on the earth, who sendeth to all nations," ^ 
 does not altogetlier fitly apply to the head himself. For, 
 although the devil sends his angels to all nations, yet it is 
 his body, not himself, that is ground down on the earth, 
 except that he liimself is in his body, which is beaten small 
 like the dust which the wind blows from the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 56. Now all these rules^ ex cept the one about the promises 
 and the la w, make one meaning to be unders tood where 
 another is expressed, which is the peculiarity of figurative 
 diction ; and this kind of diction^ it seems to me, is too widely 
 spread to be comprehended in its full exte nt by any one. 
 For, wherever one thing is said with the intention that 
 another shoiild be underst ood we have a figurative expression, 
 even though the name of the trope is not to be found in the 
 art o f rhetoric. And when an expression of this sort occurs 
 where it is customary to find it, there is no trouble in under- 
 standing it ; when it occurs, however, wliere it is not cus- 
 tomary, it costs labour to understand it, from some more, from 
 some less, just as men have got more or less from God of the 
 gifts of intellect, or as they have access to more or fewer 
 external helps. And, as in the case of proper words which I 
 discussed above, and in which tilings are to be understood 
 just as they are expressed, so in the case of figurative words, 
 in which one thing is expressed and another is to be under- 
 stood, and which I have just finished speaking of as much as 
 I tliought enough, students of these venerable documents 
 ought to be counselled not only to make themselves acquainted 
 with tlie forms of expression ordinarily used in Scripture, to 
 observe them carefully, and to remember them accurately, but 
 also, wliat is especially and before all things necessary, to pray 
 that they may understand them. For in these very books on 
 the study of which they are intent, they read, " The Lord 
 giveth wisdom : out of His mouth cometh knowledge and 
 understanding ; " * and it is from Him they have received 
 
 * Isa. xiv. 12 (LXX.V " How art thou cut ilowu to the grouud, which didst 
 weaken tho natious ! " (A. V.) 
 9 Trov. ii. 6. 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] CONCLUSION. 119 
 
 their very desire for knowledge, if it is wedded to piety. But 
 about signs, so far as relates to words, I have now said enough. 
 It remains to discuss, in the following book, so far as God 
 has given me light, the nieans_of communicatin g our thoughts 
 to others. 
 
120 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IV. 
 
 BOOK F U E T IL 
 
 ARGUMENT. * 
 
 PASSING TO THE SECOND P.\RT OF HIS WORK, THAT WHICH TREATS OF EX- 
 PRESSION, THE_AUTUOR PREMISES THAT IT IS NO PART OF HIS INTENTION TO 
 WRITE A TREATISE ON THE LAWS OF RHETORIC. THESE CAN BE LEARNED 
 ELSEWHERE, AND OUGHT NOT TO BE NEGLECTED, BEING INDEED SPECIALLY 
 NECESSARY FOR THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER, WHOM IT BEHOVES TO EXCEL IN 
 ELOQUENCE AND POWER OF SPEECH. AFTER DETAILING WITH MUCH CARE 
 AND MINUTENESS THE VARIOUS QUALITIES OF AN ORATOP^ HE RECOMMENDS 
 THE AUTHORS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AS THE BEST MODELS OF ELOQUENCE, 
 FAR EXCELLING ALL OTHERS IN THE CO.MBINATION OF ELOQUENCE WITH 
 WISDOM. HE POINTS OUT THAT PERSPICUITY IS THE_JVIOST ESSENTIAL 
 QUALITY OF STYLE . AND OUGHT TO BE CULTIVATED WITH ESPECIAL CARE BY 
 THE TEACHER, AS IT IS THE MAIN REQUISITE FOR INSTRUCTION, ALTHOUGH 
 OTHER QUALITIES ARE REQUIRED FOR DELIGHTING AND PERSUADING THE 
 HEARER. ALL THESE GIFTS ARE TO BE SOUGHT IN EARNEST PRAYER FROM 
 GOD, THOUGH WE ARE NOT TO FORGET TO BE ZEALOUS AND DILIGENT IN 
 STUDY. HE SHOWS THAT THERE ARE THREE SPECIES OF STYLE, THE SUB- 
 DUED, T HE ELEGANT, AND THE MAJEST IC ; TILE FIRST SERVING FOR INSTRUC- 
 TION, THE SECOND FOR PRAISE, AND THE THIRD FOR EXHORTATION : AND 
 OF EACH OF THESE HE GIVES EXAMPLES, SELECTED BOTH FROM SCRIPTURE 
 AND FROM EARLY TEACHERS OF THE CHURCH, CYPRIAN AND AMBROSE. HE 
 SHOWS THAT THESE VARIOUS STYLES MAY BE MINGLED, AND WHEN AND FOR 
 WHAT PURPOSES THEY ARE MINGLED ; AND THAT THEY ALL HAVE THE 
 SAME END IN VIEW, TO BRING HOME THE TRUTH TO THE HEARER, SO THAT 
 HE MAY UNDERSTAND IT, HEAR IT WITH GLADNESS, AND PRACTISE IT IN 
 HIS LIFE. FINALLY, HE EXHORTS THE CHRISTIAN TE.VCUER HIMSELF, 
 POINTING OUT THE DIGNITY AND RESPONSIBILITY OF THE OFFICE HE HOLDS, 
 TO LEAD A LIFE IN HARMONY WITH HIS OWN TEACHING, AND TO SHOW A 
 GOOD EXAMPLE TO ALL. 
 
 Chap. i. — This work not intended as a treatise on lihetoric. 
 
 1. ri^lIlS work of mine, Avhich is entitled On, Christian JDoc- 
 JL iriiic, wa.s at the commencenient divided into two 
 parts. For, after a preface, in which I answered by anticipa- 
 tion those who were likely to take exception to the work, I 
 said, " There are two things on which all interpretation of 
 Scripture depends : the mode of ascertaining tlie proper mean- 
 ing, and the mode of making known the meaning when it is 
 
CHAP. II.] USE OF RHETORIC LAWFUL. 121 
 
 ascertained. I shall treat first of the mode of ascertaining, 
 next of the mode of making known, the meaning."^ As, then, 
 I have already said a great deal about the mode of ascertain- 
 ing the meaning, and have given three books to this one part 
 of the subject, I shall only say a few things about the mode 
 of making known the meaning, in order if possible to bring 
 them ^11 within the compass of one book, and so finish the 
 whole work in four books. 
 
 2. In the first place, then, I wish by this preamble to put 
 a stop to the expectations of readers who may think that I am 
 about to lay down rules of rhetoric such as I have learnt, and 
 taught too, in the secular schools, and to warn them that they 
 need not look for any such from me. Not that I think such 
 rules of no use, but that whatever use they have is to be learnt 
 elsewhere ; and if any good man should happen to have leisure 
 for learning them, he is not to ask me to teach them either in 
 this work or any other. 
 
 Chap. ii. — It is lawful for a Christian teacher to use the art of rhetoric. 
 
 3. Now, the art of rhetoric being available for the enforcing 
 either of truth or falsehood, who will dare to say that truth in 
 the person of its defenders is to take its stand unarmed against 
 falsehood ? For example, that those who are trying to persuade 
 men of what is false are to know how to introduce their sub- 
 ject, so as to put the hearer into a friendly, or attentive, or 
 teachable frame of mind, while the defenders of the truth shall 
 be ignorant of that art ? That the former are to tell their 
 falsehoods briefly, clearly, and plausibly, while the latter shall 
 tell the truth in such a way that it is tedious to listen to, hard 
 to understand, and in fine, not easy to believe it ? That the 
 former are to oppose the truth and defend falsehood with 
 sophistical arguments, while the latter shall be unable either 
 to defend what is true, or to refute what is false ? That the 
 former, while imbuing the minds of their hearers with errone- 
 ous opinions, are by their power of speech to awe, to melt, to 
 enliven, and to rouse them, while the latter shall in defence 
 of the truth be sluggish, and frigid, and somnolent ? Who 
 is such a fool as to think this wisdom ? Since, then, the 
 
 ' Book i. chap. 1. 
 
122 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 faculty of eloquence is available for Loth sides, and is of 
 very great service in the enforcing either of wrong or right, 
 why do not good men study to engage it on the side of truth, 
 when bad men use it to obtain the triumph of wicked and 
 wbrtliless causes, and to further injustice and error ? 
 
 Chap. hi. — The proper age and the proper means for acquiring rhetorical skill. 
 
 4. But the theories and rules on this subject (to which, 
 when you add a tongue thoroughly sldUed by exercise and 
 habit in the use of many words and many ornaments of speech, 
 you have what is called eloquence or oratory) may be learnt apart 
 from these writings of mine, if a suitable space of time be set 
 aside for the purpose at a fit and proper age. But only by 
 those who can learn them quickly ; for the masters of Eoman 
 eloquence themselves did not shrink from saying that any 
 one who cannot learn this art quickly can never thoroughly 
 learn it at all.^ Whether this be true or not, why need we 
 inquire ? For even if this art can occasionally be in the end 
 mastered by men of slower intellect, I do not think it of so 
 much importance as to wish men who have arrived at mature 
 age to spend time in learning it. It is enough that boys 
 should give attention to it ; and even of these, not all who are 
 to be fitted for usefulness in the Church, but only those who 
 are not yet engaged in any occupation of more urgent neces- 
 sity, or which ought evidently to take precedence of it. For 
 men of quick intellect and glowing temperament find it easier 
 to become eloquent by reading and listening to eloquent 
 speakers than by following rules for eloquence. And even 
 outside the canon, which to our great advantage is fixed in a 
 place of secure authority, there is no want of ecclesiastical 
 writings, in reading wliich a man of ability will acquire a 
 tinge of the eloquence with which they are ^vritten, even 
 though he docs not aim at this, but is solely intent on the 
 matters treated of; es^^ecially, of course, if in addition he prac- 
 tise himself in writing, or dictating, and at last also in speaking, 
 the opinions he lias formed on grounds of piety and faith. If, 
 however, such ability be wanting, the rules of rhetoric are 
 either not understood, or if, after great labour has been spent 
 
 ' Cicero, dc Oralore, iii. 31 ; Quinctil. Iiist. Ora(. i. 1, 2. 
 
CHAP. IV.] METHOD OF LEARNING EHETORIC. 123 
 
 in enforcing them, they come to be in some small measure 
 understood, they prove of no service. For even those who 
 have learnt them, and who speak with fluency and elegance, 
 cannot always think of them when they are spealdng so as to 
 speak in accordance with them, unless they are discussing the 
 rules themselves. Indeed, I think there are scarcely any who 
 can do both things — that is, speak well, and, in order to do 
 this, think of the rules of speaking while they are speaking. 
 For we must be careful that what we have got to say does not 
 escape us whilst we are thinking about saying it according to 
 the rules of art. Nevertheless, in the speeches of eloquent 
 men, we find rules of eloquence carried out which the speakers 
 did not think of as aids to eloquence at the time when they 
 were speaking, whether they had ever learnt them, or whether 
 they had never even met with them. For it is because they 
 are eloquent that they exemplify these rules ; it is not that 
 they use them in order to be eloquent. 
 
 5. And, therefore, as infants cannot learn to speak except 
 by learning words and phrases from those who do speak, why 
 should not men become eloquent without being taught any art 
 of speech, simply by reading and learning the speeches of elo- 
 quent men, and by imitating them as far as they can ? And 
 what do we find from the examples themselves to be the case 
 in this respect ? We know numbers who, without acquaint- 
 ance with rhetorical rules, are more eloquent than many who 
 have learnt these ; but we know no one who is eloquent 
 without having read and listened to the speeches and debates 
 of eloquent men. For even the art of grammar, which teaches 
 correctness of speech, need not be learnt by boys, if they have 
 the advantage of growing up and living among men w^ho 
 speak correctly. For without knowing the names of any of 
 the faults, they will, from being accustomed to correct speech, 
 lay hold upon whatever is faulty in the speech of any one 
 they listen to, and avoid it ; just as city-bred men, even when 
 illiterate, seize upon the faults of rustics. 
 
 Chap. iv.—The duty of the CJiristian teacher. 
 
 6. It is the duty, then, of the interpreter and teacher of 
 Holy Scripture, the defender of the true faith and the oppo- 
 
124 ON cnrjSTiAX doctrine. [book iv. 
 
 nent of error, bot h to teach what is ri^ ht and to refute what 
 is wrong, and in the performance of this task to conciliate the 
 hostile, to rouse the careless, and to tell the ignorant both what 
 is occurring at present and what is probable in the future. But 
 once that his hearers are friendly, attentive, and ready to learn, 
 whether he has found them so, or has himself made them so, 
 the remaining objects are to be carried out in whatever way 
 the case requires. If the hearers need teaching, the matter 
 treated of must be made fully known by means of narrative. 
 On the other hand, to clear up points that are doubtful requires 
 reasoning and the exhibition of proofs. If, however, the 
 hearers require to be roused rather than instructed, in order 
 that they may be diligent to do what they already know, and 
 to bring their feelings into harmony with the truths they 
 admit, greater vigour of speech is needed. Here entreaties 
 and reproaches, exhortations and iipbraidings, and all the other 
 means of rousing the emotions, are necessary. 
 
 7. And all the methods I have mentioned are constantly used 
 by nearly every one in cases where speech is the agency employed. 
 
 Chap. v. — Wisdom of more importance than eloquence to the Christian teacher. 
 
 But as some men employ these coarsely, inelegantly, and 
 frigidly, while others use them with acuteness, elegance, and 
 spirit, the work that I am speaking of ought to be undertaken 
 by one who can argue and speak with wisdom, if not with 
 eloquence, and with profit to his hearers, even though he 
 profit them less than he would if he could speak with eloquence 
 Itoo. But we must bew are of the man who abounds in elo- 
 quent nonsense, and so much the more if the hearer is pleased 
 with what is not worth listening to, and thinks that because 
 the speaker is eloquent what he says must be true. And this 
 opinion is held even by those who think that the art of 
 rhetoric should be taught : for they confess that " though 
 wisdom without eloquence is of little service to states, yet 
 eloquence without wisdom is frequently a positive injury, and 
 is of service never." ^ If, then, the men who teach the prin- 
 ciples of eloquence have been forced by truth to confess this 
 ill the very books which treat of eloquence, though they were 
 
 ' Cicero, de Invcntione Rhetorica, i. 1. 
 
CHAP, v.] WISDOM BETTER TITAN ELOQUENCE. 125 
 
 ignorant of the true, that is, the heavenly wisdom which comes 
 down from the Father of Lights, how much more ought we to 
 feel it who are the sons and the ministers of this higher 
 wisdom ! Now a man speaks with more or less wisdom just 
 as he has made more or less progress in the knowledge of 
 Scripture ; I do not mean by reading them much and com- 
 mitting them to memory, but by understanding them aright 
 and carefully searching into their meaning. For there are 
 who read and yet neglect them ; they read to remember the 
 words, but are careless about knowing the meaning. It is 
 plain we must set far above these the men who are not so 
 retentive of the words, but see with the eyes of the heart into 
 the heart of Scripture. Better than either of these, however, 
 is the man who, when he wishes, can repeat the words, and at 
 the same time correctly apprehends their meaning. 
 i' 8. Now it is especially necessary for the man who is bound 
 ^ to speak wisely, even though he cannot speak eloquently, to 
 retain in memory the words of Scripture. For the more he 
 discerns the poverty of his own speech, the more he ought to 
 draw on the riches of Scripture, so that what he says in his 
 own words he may prove by the words of Scripture ; and he 
 himself, though small and weak in his own words, may gain 
 strength and power from the confirming testimony of great 
 men. For his proof gives pleasure when he cannot please by 
 his mode of speech. But if a man desire to speak not only 
 with wisdom, but with eloquence also (and assuredly he will 
 prove of greater service if he can do both), I would rather send 
 him to read, and listen to, and exercise himself in imitating, 
 eloquent men, than advise him to spend time with the teachers 
 of rhetoric ; especially if the men he reads and listens to are 
 justly praised as having spoken, or as being accustomed to 
 speak, not only with eloquence, but with wisdom also. For 
 eloquent speakers are heard with pleasure ; wise speakers with 
 profit. And, therefore, Scripture does not say that the multi- 
 tude of the eloquent, but " the multitude of the wise is the 
 welfare of the world." ^ And as we must often swallow whole-v 
 some bitters, so we must always avoid unwholesome sweets! 
 But what is better than wholesome sweetness or sweet wliole- 
 
 ^ WisJ. vi. 24. 
 
12G ox CIIRISTIAX DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 someness ? For the sweeter we try to make such things, the 
 easier it is to make their wholesomeness serviceable. And so 
 there are writers of the Church who have expounded the Holy 
 Scriptures, not only with wisdom, but with elo(|uence as well ; 
 and there is not more time for the reading of these than is suf- 
 ficient for those who are studious and at leisure to exhaust them. 
 
 Chap. vi. — The sacred writers unite eloquence with wisdom. 
 
 9. Here, perhaps, some one inquires whether the authors 
 whose divinely-inspired writings constitute the canon, which 
 carries with it a most wholesome authority, are to be consi- 
 dered wise only, or eloquent as well. A question which to 
 me, and to those who think with me, is very easily settled. 
 For where I understand these writers, it seems to me not only 
 that notliing can be wiser, but also that nothing can be more 
 eloquent. And I venture to affirm that all who truly under- 
 stand what these writers say, p)erceive at the same time that 
 it could not have been properly said in any other way. For 
 as there is a kind of eloquence that is more becoming in 
 youth, and a kind that is more becoming in old age, and 
 nothing can be called eloquence if it be not suitable to the 
 person of the speaker, so there is a kind of eloquence that is 
 becoming in men who justly claim the highest authority, and 
 who are evidently inspired of God. With this eloquence 
 they spoke ; no otlier would have been suitable for them ; and 
 this itself would be unsuitable in any other, for it is in keep- 
 incr with their character, wliile it mounts as far alcove that of 
 others (not from empty inflation, but from solid merit) as it 
 seems to fall below them. Where, however, I do not under- 
 stand these writers, tliough their eloquence is then less 
 apparent, I have no doubt but that it is of the same kind as 
 that I do understand. Tlie very obscurity, too, of these 
 divine and wholesome words was a necessary element in 
 eloquence of a kind that was designed to profit our under- 
 standings, not only by the discovery of truth, but also by the 
 exercise of their powers. 
 
 10. I could, however, if T had time, show those men wlio 
 cry up their own form of language as superior to that of our 
 authors (not because of its majesty, but because of its infla- 
 
CHAP. VII.] EXAMPLES OF SCPJPTUPAL ELOQUENCE. 127 
 
 tion), that all those powers and beauties of eloquence which 
 they make their boast, are to be found in the sacred wiitings 
 which God in His goodness has provided to mould our charac- 
 ters, and to guide us from this world of wickedness to the 
 blessed world above. But it is not the qualities which these 
 writers have in common with the heathen orators and poets 
 that give me such unspeakable delight in their eloquence ; I am 
 more struck with admiration at the way in which, by an elo- 
 quence peculiarly their own, they so use this eloquence of ours 
 that it is not conspicuous either by its presence or its absence : 
 for it did not become them either to condemn it or to make 
 an ostentatious display of it ; and if they had shunned it, they 
 would have done the former ; if they had made it prominent, 
 they might have appeared to be doing the latter. And in 
 those passages where the learned do note its presence, the 
 matters spoken of are such, that the words in which they are put 
 seem not so much to be sought out by the speaker as spontane- 
 ously to suggest themselves; as if wisdom were walking out of its 
 house, — that is, the breast of the wise man, and eloquence, like 
 an inseparable attendant, followed it without being called for.^ 
 
 Chap. vii. — Examples of true eloquence drawn from the Epistles of Paul and 
 the Prophecies of Amos. 
 
 11. For who would not see what the apostle meant to say, 
 and how wisely he has said it, in the following passage : " We 
 glory in tribulations also : knowing that tribulation worketh 
 patience ; and patience, experience ; and experience, hope : 
 and hope maketh not ashamed ; because the love of God is 
 shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given 
 unto us" ?^ Now were any man unlearnedly learned (if I may 
 use the expression) to contend that the apostle had here fol- 
 lowed the rules of rhetoric, would not every Christian, learned 
 or unlearned, laugh at him ? And yet here we find the figure 
 which is called in Greek /cXZ/xa^ (climax), and by some in 
 Latin gradatio, for they do not care to call it scala (a ladder), 
 when the words and ideas have a connection of dependency 
 the one upon the other, as we see here that patience arises out of 
 
 ^ Cf. Cicero, Orator. 21 : "Sed est eloquentia?, sicut reliqnarum reruni, fun- 
 damcntuni sapieiitia. " 
 ' Kom. V. 3-5. 
 
123 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 tribulation, experience out of patience, and hope out of expe- 
 rience. Another ornament, too, is found here ; for after certain 
 statements finished in a single tone of voice, which we call 
 clauses and sections {membra ct cccsa), but the Greeks KOjXa 
 and Koiifiara} there follows a rounded sentence (amhitus sive 
 circuitus) which the Greeks call irepioho^;^ the clauses of which 
 are suspended on the voice of the speaker till the whole is 
 completed by the last clause. For of the statements which 
 precede the period, this is the first clause, " knowing that 
 tribulation worketh patience;" the second, "and patience, ex- 
 perience ;" the third, " and experience, hope." Then the 
 period which is subjoined is completed in three clauses, of 
 which the first is, " and hope maketh not ashamed ;" the 
 second, " because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
 hearts ;" the third, "by the Holy Ghost which is given unto 
 us." But these and other matters of the same kind are tauglit 
 in the art of elocution. As then I do not affirm that the apostle 
 was guided by the rules of eloquence, so I do not deny that his 
 wisdom naturally produced, and was accompanied by, eloquence. 
 12. In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, again, he 
 refutes certain false apostles who had gone out from the 
 Jews, and had been trying to injure his character ; and being 
 compelled to speak of himself, though he ascribes this as 
 folly to himself, how wisely and how eloquently he speaks ! 
 But wisdom is his guide, eloquence his attendant ; he follows 
 the first, the second follows him, and yet he does not spurn 
 it when it comes after him. " I say again," he says, " Let 
 no man think me a fool : if otherwise, yet as a fool re- 
 ceive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I 
 speak, T speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, 
 in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after 
 the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing 
 ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into 
 bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man 
 exalt himself, if a iiuiu smile you on the face. I speak as 
 
 * Cf. Cicero, Orator. C2 : "Qua' noscio cur, cnm Grrcci xiuftx-ra, ct *Z>,x 
 nominent, nos non recto iiuisa et membra dicamus." 
 
 »Cf. Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, 44 : •' Comprehensio et ambitus ille ver- 
 bomin (si sic perioJum appellari placet);" 
 
CHAP. VII.] EXAMPLE FEOM THE APOSTLE PAUL. 129 
 
 concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit, 
 whereinsoever any is bold (I speak foolishly), I am bold also. 
 Are they Hebrews ? so am I. Are they Israelites ? so am 
 I. Are they the seed of Abraham ? so am I. Are they 
 ministers of Christ ? (I speak as a fool), I am more : in 
 labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons 
 more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received 
 I forty stripes save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was 
 I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have 
 been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
 perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils 
 by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilder- 
 ness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren ; in 
 weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and 
 thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those 
 things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, 
 the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not 
 weak ? who is offended, and I burn not ? If I must needs 
 glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities."^ 
 The thoughtful and attentive perceive how much wisdom 
 there is in these words. And even a man soimd asleep 
 must notice what a stream of eloquence flows through them. 
 
 13. Further still, the educated man observes that those 
 sections wliich the Greeks call Kofjufiaja, and the clauses and 
 periods of which I spoke a short time ago, being intermingled 
 in the most beautiful variety, make up the' whole form and 
 features (so to speak) of that diction by which even the un- 
 learned are delighted and affected. For, from the place where 
 I commenced to quote, the passage consists of periods : the 
 first the smallest possible, consisting of two members ; for a 
 period cannot have less than two members, though it may 
 have more : " I say again, let no man think me a fool." The 
 next has three members : " if otherwise, yet as a fool receive 
 me, that I may boast myself a little." The third has four 
 members : " That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, 
 but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting." The 
 fourth has two : " Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I 
 will glory also." And the fifth has two : " For ye suffer fools 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. xi. 16-30. 
 Cim. DOCT. I 
 
130 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTmNE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise." The sixth again has 
 two members : " for ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage." 
 Then follow three sections {cccsa) : " if a man devour you, if 
 a man take of you, if a man exalt himself" Next three 
 clauses (mcmhra) : " if a man smite you on the face. I speak 
 as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak." Then 
 is subjoined a period of three members : " Howbeit, whereinso- 
 ever any is bold (I speak foolishly), I am bold also." After 
 this, certain separate sections being put in the interrogatory 
 form, separate sections are also given as answers, three to 
 three : " Are they Hebrews ? so am I. Are they Israelites ? 
 so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham ? so am I." But a 
 fourth section being put likewise in the interrogatory form, the 
 answer is given not in another section {cccsum) but in a clause 
 {incmhrum) : ^ " Are they the ministers of Christ ? (I speak as 
 a fool.) I am more." Then the next four sections are given 
 continuously, the interrogatory form being most elegantly sup- 
 pressed : " in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, 
 in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft." Next is interposed a 
 short period ; for, by a suspension of the voice, " of the Jews 
 five times " is to be marked off as constituting one member, 
 to which is joined the second, " received I forty stripes save 
 one." Then he returns to sections, and three are set down : 
 " Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, tlmce I 
 suffered shipwreck." Next comes a clause : " a night and a 
 day I have been in the deep." Next fourteen sections burst 
 forth with a vehemence which is most appropriate : " In jour- 
 neyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils 
 by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils 
 in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 
 perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in 
 watchiufTs often, in hummer and thirst, in fastincjs often, in 
 cold and nakedness." After tliis comes in a period of three 
 members : " Besides those things which are without, that 
 which cometh ii])on me daily, the care of all the churches." 
 And to this lie adds two clauses in a tone of inquiry : " Who 
 
 ' The only apparent diirercnce between meriilrum and c<Tsum is, tliat the 
 f<Mnner is the lunger of the two. It is impossible to express the difference in 
 English. 
 
CHAP. VIL] the eloquence of PAUL. 131 
 
 is weak, and I am not weak ? wlio is offended, and I burn 
 not ? " In fine, this whole passage, as if panting for breath, 
 winds up with a period of two members : " If I must needs 
 glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmi- 
 ties." And I cannot sufficiently express how beautiful and 
 delightful it is wdien after this outburst he rests himself, and 
 gives the hearer rest, by interposing a slight narrative. For 
 he goes on to say : " The God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not." 
 And then he tells very briefly the danger he had been in, and 
 the way he escaped it. 
 
 1 4. It would be tedious to pursue the matter further, or to 
 point out the same facts in regard to other passages of Holy 
 Scripture. Suppose I had taken the further trouble, at least 
 in regard to the passages I have quoted from the apostle's 
 writings, to point out figures of speech which are taught in the 
 art of rhetoric ? Is it not more likely that serious men would 
 think I had gone too far, than that any of the studious 
 would think I had done enough ? All these things when 
 taught by masters are reckoned of great value ; great prices 
 are paid for them, and the vendors puff them magniloquently. 
 And I fear lest I too should smack of that puffery while thus 
 descanting on matters of this kind. It was necessary, how- 
 ever, to reply to the ill-taught men who think our authors 
 contemptible; not because they do not possess, but because 
 they do not display, the eloquence which these men value so 
 highly. 
 
 15. But perhaps some one is thinking that I have selected 
 the Apostle Paul because he is our great orator. For when 
 he says, "Though I be rude in speech, yet not in know- 
 ledge,"^ he seems to speak as if granting so much to his 
 detractors, not as confessing that he recognised its truth. 
 If he had said, " I am indeed rude in speech, but not in 
 knowledge," we could not in any way have put another 
 meaning upon it. He did not hesitate plainly to assert his 
 knowledge, because without it he could not have been the 
 teacher of the Gentiles. And certainly if we bring forward 
 anything of his as a model of eloquence, we take it from those 
 
 • 2 Cor. xi. 6. 
 
132 ON Cnr.ISTIAN DOCTRT^'E. [cook IV. 
 
 epistles which even his very detractors, who thought his bodily 
 presence weak and his speech contemptible, confessed to be 
 weighty and powerful^ 
 
 I see, then, that I must say something about the eloquence 
 of the prophets also, where many things are concealed under 
 a metapliorical style, which the more completely they seem 
 buried under figures of speech, give the greater pleasure w^hen 
 brought to light. In this place, however, it is my duty to 
 select a passage of such a kind that I shall not be compelled 
 to explain the matter, but only to commend the style. And I 
 shall do so, quoting principally from the book of that prophet 
 who says that he was a shepherd or herdsman, and was called 
 by God from that occupation, and sent to prophesy to the 
 people of God.'^ I shall not, however, follow the Septuagint 
 translators, who, being tliemselves under the guidance of the 
 Holy Spii'it in their translation, seem to have altered some 
 passages with the view of directing the reader's attention more 
 particularly to the investigation of the spiritual sense ; (and 
 hence some passages are more obscure, because more figurative, 
 in their translation ;) but I shall follow the translation made 
 from the Hebrew into Latin by the presbyter Jerome, a man 
 thorouglily acquainted with both tongues. 
 
 IG.'when, then, this rustic, or quondam rustic prophet, was 
 denouncing the godless, the proud, the luxurious, and there- 
 fore the most neglectful of brotherly love, he called aloud, 
 saying : " Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, and trust in 
 the mountain of Samaria, who are heads and chiefs of the 
 people, entering with pomp into the house of Israel ! Pass 
 ye unto Calneh, and see ; and from thence go ye to Hamath 
 the great ; then go down to Gath of the Philistines, and to all 
 the best kingdoms of these : is their border greater than your 
 border ? Ye that are set apart for the day of evil, and that 
 come near to the seat of oppression ; that lie upon beds of 
 ivory, and stretch yourselves upon couches ; that eat the lamb 
 of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd ; that 
 chant to the sound of the viol. They thought that they had 
 instruments of music like David ; drinking wine in bowls, and 
 anointing themselves with the costliest ointment: and they 
 
 » 2 Cor. X. 10. ' Amos i. 1, vii. 14. 
 
CHAR VII.] THE ELOQUENCE OF AMOS. 133 
 
 were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." ^ Suppose 
 those men who, assuming to be themselves learned and 
 eloquent, despise our prophets as untaught and unskilful of 
 speech, had been obliged to deliver a message like this, and 
 to men such as these, would they have chosen to express 
 themselves in any respect differently — those of them, at least, 
 who would have shrunk from ravincj like madmen ? 
 
 17. For what is there that sober ears could wish changed 
 in this speech ? In the first place, the invective itself ; with 
 what vehemence it throws itself upon the drowsy senses to 
 startle them into wakefulness : '' Woe to you who are at ease 
 in Zion, and trust in the mountains of Samaria, who are heads 
 and chiefs of the people, entering with pomp into the house 
 of Israel !" Next, that he may use the favours of God, who 
 has bestowed upon them ample territory, to show their ingra- 
 titude in trusting to the mountain of Samaria, where idols 
 were worshipped : " Pass ye unto Calneh," he says, '' and see ; 
 and from thence go ye to Hamath the great ; then go down to 
 Gath of the Phihstines, and to all the best kingdoms of these : 
 is their border greater than your border ?" At the same time 
 also that these things are spoken of, the style is adorned with 
 names of places as with lamps, such as " Zion," Samaria," 
 " Calneh," " Hamath the great," and " Gath of the Philistines." 
 Then the words joined to these places are most appropri- 
 ately varied : " ye are at ease," " ye trust," " pass on," " go," 
 " descend." 
 
 18. And then the future captivity under an oppressive king 
 is announced as approaching, when it is added : " Ye that 
 are set apart for the day of evil, and come near to the seat of 
 oppression." Then are subjoined the evils of luxury : " ye 
 that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch yourselves upon 
 couches ; that eat the lamb from the ilock, and the calves out of 
 the midst of the herd." These six clauses form three periods 
 of two members each. For he does not say : Ye who are set 
 apart for the day of evil, who come near to the seat of oj^pres- 
 sion, who sleep upon beds of ivory, who stretch yourselves 
 
 ^ Amos vi. 1-6. The version given above, which is a literal translation of 
 Jerome's Latin, as quoted by Augustine, differs slightly from the English 
 authorized version. 
 
134 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 upon couches, who eat the lamb from tlie flock, and calves out 
 of the herd." If he had so expressed it, tliis would have had 
 its beauty : six separate clauses running on, the same pronoun 
 being repeated each time, and each clause finished by a 
 single effort of the speaker's voice. But it is more beautiful as 
 it is, the clauses being joined in pairs under the same pronoun, 
 and forming three sentences, one referring to the prophecy of 
 the captivity : " Ye that are set apart for the day of evil, and 
 come near the seat of oppression;" the second to lasciviousness: 
 " ye that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch yourselves upon 
 couches ; " the tliiixl to gluttony : " who eat the lamb from 
 the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd." So 
 that it is at the discretion of the speaker whether he finish 
 each clause separately and make six altogether, or whether he 
 suspend his voice at the first, the third, and the fifth, and 
 by joining the second to the first, the fourth to the third, 
 and the sixth to the fifth, make three most elegant periods of 
 two members each : one describing the imminent catastrophe; 
 another, the lascivious couch; and the third, the luxurious 
 table. 
 
 19. Next he reproaches them with their luxury in seeking 
 pleasure for the sense of hearing. And here, when he had 
 said, " Ye who chant to the sound of the viol," seeing that 
 wise men may practise music wisely, he, with wonderful skill 
 of speech, checks the flow of his invective, and not now 
 speaking to, but of, these men, and to show us that we must 
 distinguish the music of the wise from the music of the 
 voluptuary, he does not say, " Ye who chant to the sound of 
 the viol, and tliink that ye have instruments of music like 
 David ;" but he first addresses to themselves what it is right 
 the voluptuaries shoidd hear, " Ye who chant to the sound 
 of the viol ;" and then, turning to others, he intimates that 
 these men have not even skill in their art : " they thought 
 that they had instruments of music like David ; drinking wine 
 in bowls, and anointing themselves witli the costliest ointment." 
 These three clauses are best pronounced when the voice is 
 suspended on the first two members of the period, and comes 
 to a pause on the third. 
 
 20. But now as to the sentence which follows all these : 
 
CHAP. VIII.] ELOQUENCE OF THE SACRED WPJTEIiS. 135 
 
 '' and they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." 
 Whetlier this be pronounced continuously as one clause, or 
 whether with more elegance we hold the words, " and they 
 were not grieved/' suspended on the voice, and then add, " for 
 the affliction of Josei)h," so as to make a period of two 
 members ; in any case, it is a touch of marvellous beauty not 
 to say, " and they were not grieved for the affliction of their 
 brother;" but to put Joseph for brother, so as to indicate 
 brothers in general by the proper name of him who stands out 
 illustrious from among his brethren, both in regard to the 
 injuries he suffered and the good return he made. And, 
 indeed, I do not laiow whether this figure of speech, by which 
 Joseph is put for brothers in general, is one of those laid down 
 in that art which I learnt and used to teach. But how 
 beautiful it is, and how it comes home to the intellij^ent 
 reader, it is useless to tell any one who does not himself 
 feel it. 
 
 21. And a number of other points bearing on the laws of 
 eloquence could be found in this passage which I have chosen 
 as an example. But an intelligent reader will not be so 
 much instructed by carefully analysing it as kindled by recit- 
 ing it with spirit. ISTor was it composed by man's art and 
 care, but it flowed forth in wisdom and eloquence from the 
 Divine mind ; wisdom not aiming at eloquence, yet eloquence 
 not shrinking from wisdom. For if, as certain very eloquent 
 and acute men have perceived and said, the rules wliich are 
 laid down in the art of oratory could not have been observed, 
 and noted, and reduced to system, if they had not first had 
 their birth in the genius of orators, is it wonderful that they 
 should be found in the messengers of Him who is the author 
 of all genius ? Therefore let us acknowledge that the canonical 
 waiters are not only wise but eloquent also, with an eloquence 
 suited to a character and position like theirs. 
 
 Chap. viii. — The obscurity of the sacred writers, though compatible ivith 
 eloquence, noftolevmUdtedTy~Uhrl^Udn^ 
 
 22. But although I take some examples of eloquence from 
 those writings of theirs which there is no difficulty in under- 
 standing, we are not by any means to suppose that it is our 
 duty to imitate them in those passages where, with a view to 
 
l?yC) ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IV. 
 
 exercise and train the minds of their readers, and to break in 
 upon the satiety and stimulate the zeal of those who are will- 
 ins to learn, and with a view also to throw a veil over the 
 minds of the godless either that they may be converted to 
 piety or shut out from a knowledge of the mysteries, from one 
 or other of these reasons they have expressed themselves with 
 a useful and wholesoiiie obscurity. They have indeed ex- 
 pressed themselves in such a way that those who in after ages 
 understood and explained them aright have in the Church of 
 God obtained an esteem, not indeed equal to that with which 
 they are themselves regarded, but coming next to it. The 
 expositors of these writers, then, ought not to express them- 
 selves in the same way, as if putting forward their expositions 
 as of the same authority ; but they ought in all their deliver- 
 ances to make it their firsthand chief aim to be understood, 
 using as far as possible such clearness of speech that either he 
 will be very dull who does not understand them, or that if 
 what they say should not be very easily or quickly understood, 
 the reason will lie not in their manner of expression, but in 
 tlie difficulty and subtilty of the matter they are trying to 
 explain. 
 
 CuAP. IX. — How, and with icJiom, dijjicidt passages are to be discussed. 
 
 23. For there are some passages which are not understood 
 in their proper force, or ar e understo od with great difficulty, 
 at whatever length, however clearly, or with whatever eloquence 
 the speaker may expound them ; and these should never be 
 \ brought before the people at all, or o nly on rare occasions 
 when there is some u rgent reason . In books, however, which 
 are written in such a style that, if understood, they, so to 
 speak, dniw tlieir own readers, and if not understood, give no 
 trouble to those who do not care to read them, and in private 
 conversations, we must not shrink from the duty of bringing 
 the trutli wliich we ourselves have reached within the com- 
 ])rehensi()n ot" others, however difficult it may be to understand 
 it, and whatever labour in the way of argument it may cost 
 us. Only two conditions are to be insisted upon, that our 
 h(\arcr or conq^^nion should have an earnest desire to learn 
 the truth, and should have capacity of mind to receive it iu 
 
r 
 
 CHAP. X.] THE NECESSITY YOU PERSPICUITY. 137 
 
 whatever form it may be communicated, the teacher not being- 
 so anxious about the eloquence as about the clearness of his 
 teaching. 
 
 CiTAP. X. — The necessity for perspicuity of style. 
 
 24. IN'ow a strong desire for clearness sometimes leads to 
 neglect of the more polished forms of speech, and indifference 
 about what sounds well, compared with what clearly expresses 
 and conveys the meaning intended. Whence a certain author, 
 when dealing with speech of this kind, says that there is in it 
 " a kind of careful negligence," ^ Yet while taking away 
 ornament, it does not bring in vulgarity of speech ; though 
 good teachers have, or ought to have, so great an anxiety 
 about teaching that they will employ a word (which cannot 
 be made pure Latin without becoming obscure or ambiguous, 
 but which when used according to the vulgar idiom is neither 
 ambiguous nor obscure) not in the way the learned, but rather 
 in the way the unlearned employ it. For if our translators 
 did not shrink from saying, "Non congregabo conventicula 
 eorum de sanguinibus," ^ because they felt that it was im- 
 portant for the sense to put a word here in the plural which 
 in Latin is only used in the singular ; why should a teacher 
 of godliness who is addressing an unlearned audience shrink 
 from using ossum instead of os, if he fear that the latter might 
 be taken not as the singular of ossa, but as the singular of 
 ora, seeing that African ears have no quick perception of the 
 shortness or length of vowels ? And what advantage is there 
 in purity of speech which does not lead to understanding in 
 the hearer, seeing that there is no use at all in speaking, 
 if they do not understand us for whose sake we speak ? 
 He, therefore, who teaches will avoid all words that do 
 not teach ; and if instead of them he can find words which 
 are at once pure and intelligible, he will take these by pre- 
 ference ; if, however, he cannot, either because there are no 
 such words, or because they do not at the time occur to 
 him, he will use words that are not quite pure, if only the 
 
 * Cicero, Orator, 23 : ** Quoedam etiam negligentia est diligens." 
 2 **I shall not assemble tlieir assemblies of blood," Ps. xvi. 4. (Vulgate.) 
 "Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer." (A. V.) 
 
138 ox CIirJSTIAN DOCTRINE. [DOOK IT. 
 
 substance of his tliouglit be conveyed and apprehended in its 
 integrity. 
 
 25. And this must be insisted on as necessary to our being 
 understood, not only in conversations, whether with one person 
 or with several, but much more in the case of a speech 
 delivered in public : for in conversation any one has the power 
 of asking a question ; but when all are silent that one may be 
 heard, and all faces are turned attentively upon him, it is 
 neither customary nor decorous for a person to ask a question 
 about what he does not understand ; and on this account the 
 speaker ought to be especially careful to give assistance to 
 those who cannot ask it. Now a crowd anxious for instruc- 
 tion generally shows by its movements if it understands what 
 is said ; and until some indication of this sort be given, the 
 subject discussed ought to be turned over and over, and put 
 in every shape and form and variety of expression, a thing 
 which cannot be done by men who are repeating words pre- 
 pared beforehand and committed to memory. As soon, how- 
 ever, as the speaker has ascertained that what he says is 
 understood, he ought either to bring his address to a close, or 
 pass on to another point. For if a man gives pleasure when he 
 throws light upon points on which people wish for instruction, 
 he becomes wearisome when he dwells at length upon things 
 that are already well known, especially when men's expectation 
 was fixed on having the difficulties of the passage removed. For 
 even things that are very well known are told for the sake of 
 the pleasure they give, if the attention be directed not to 
 the things themselves, but to the way in which they are told. 
 Nay, even when the style itself is already well known, if it be 
 pleasing to the hearers, it is almost a matter of indifference 
 wliether he wlio speaks be a speaker or a reader. For things 
 that are gracefully written are often not only read with delight 
 by those who are making their first acquaintance with them, 
 but re-read with delight by those who have already made 
 acquaintance with them, and have not yet forgotten them ; 
 nay, both these classes will derive pleasure even from hearing 
 another man repeat them. And if a man has forgotten any- 
 thing, when he is reminded of it he is taught. Eut I am not 
 now treating of the mode of giving pleasure. I am speaking 
 
CHAP. XII.] CICErcO'S DEFINITION OF OEATOEY. 139 
 
 of the mode in wliicli men who desire to learn ought to be 
 taiif^ht. And the best mode is that which secures that he who 
 hears shall hear the truth, and that what he hears he shall 
 understand. And when this point has been reached, no 
 further labour need be spent on the truth itself, as if it re-i 
 quired further explanation ; but perhaps some trouble may be ; 
 taken to enforce it so as to bring it home to the heart. If it 
 appear right to do this, it ought to be done so moderately as 
 not to lead to weariness and impatience. 
 
 CnAP. XI. — The Christian teacher must s]peah clearly, hut not inelegantly. 
 
 26. For teaching, of course, true eloquence consists, not in 
 making people like what they disliked, nor in maldng them do 
 what they shrank from, but in making clear what w^as obscure; 
 yet if this be done without grace of style, the benefit does not 
 extend beyond the few eager students who are anxious to know 
 whatever is to be learnt, however rude and unpolished the 
 form in which it is put ; and who, when they have succeeded 
 in their object, find the plain truth pleasant food enough. And 
 it is one of the distinctive features of good intellects not to 
 love words, but the truth in words. For of what service is a 
 golden key, if it cannot open what we want it to open ? Or 
 w^hat objection is there to a wooden one if it can, seeing that 
 to open what is shut is all we want ? But as there is a 
 certain analogy between learning and eating, the very food 
 without which it is impossible to live must be flavoured to 
 meet the tastes of the majority. 
 
 Chap. xii. — Tlie aim of the orator, according to Cicero, is to teach, to delight, 
 and to move. Of these, teaching is the most essential. 
 
 27. Accordingly a great orator has truly said that "an 
 eloquent man must speak so as to teach, to delight, and to 
 persuade." ■^ Then he adds : " To teach is a necessity, to 
 delight is a beauty, to persuade is a triumph."^ Now of these 
 three, the one first mentioned, the teaching, which is a matter 
 of necessity, depends on what we say ; the other two on the 
 way we say it. He, then, who speaks with the purpose of 
 
 ^ Cicero, Orator. 21 : "Est igitur eloqiiens qui ita dicet, ut probet, ut de- 
 lectet, ut flectat. " Not quoted accurately by Augustine. 
 
 ^ "Probaie, necessitatis est; dclectare, suavitatis ; llectcre, victorisc." 
 
140 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IV. 
 
 teaching should not suppose that he has said what he has 
 to say as long as he is not understood ; for although what 
 he has said be intelligible to himself, it is not said at all 
 to the man who does not understand it. If, however, he 
 is understood, he has said his say, whatever may have been 
 his manner of saying it. But if he wishes to delight or 
 persuade his hearer as well, he will not accomplish that end 
 by putting his thought in any shape no matter what, but 
 for that purpose the style of speaking is a matter of im- 
 portance. And as the hearer must be pleased in order to 
 secure his attention, so he must be persuaded in order to move 
 him to action. And as he is pleased if you speak with 
 sweetness and elegance, so he is persuaded if he be drawn by 
 your promises, and awed by your threats ; if he reject what you 
 condemn, and embrace what you commend ; if he grieve when 
 you heap up objects for grief, and rejoice when you j)oint out 
 an object for joy ; if he pity those whom you present to him as 
 objects of pity, and shrink from those whom you set before 
 him as men to be feared and shunned. I need not go over 
 all the other things that can be done by powerful eloquence to 
 move the minds of the hearers, not telling them what they 
 ought to do, but urging them to do what they already know 
 ought to be done. 
 
 28. If, however, they do not yet know this, they must of 
 course be instructed before they can be moved. And perhaps 
 the mere knowledge of their duty will have such an effect that 
 there will be no need to move them with greater strength of 
 eloquence. Yet when this is needful, it ought to be done. 
 And it is needful when people, knowing what they ought to 
 do, do it not. Therefore, to teach is a necessity. For what 
 men know, it is in their own hands either to do or not to do. 
 But who would say that it is their duty to do what they do 
 not know ? On the same i)rincii)le, to persuade is not a neces- 
 sity : for it is not always called for ; as, for example, when tlie 
 hearer yields his assent to one who simply teaches or gives 
 pleasure. For tliis reason also to persuade is a trium])]!, be- 
 cause it is possible tliat a man may be taught and deliglited, 
 and yet not give his consent. And what will be the use of 
 gaining the first two ends if we fail in tlie third ? Neither is 
 
CHAP. XIY.] BEAUTY AND FORCE OF STYLE. 141 
 
 it a necessity to give pleasure ; for when, in the course of an ^ 
 address, the truth is clearly pointed out (and this is the true 
 function of teaching), it is not the fact, nor is it the intention, 
 that the style of speech should make the truth pleasing, or that 
 the style should of itself give pleasure ; but the truth itself, 
 when exhibited in its naked simplicity, gives pleasure, because 
 it is the truth. And hence even falsities are frequently a source 
 of pleasure when they are brought to light and exposed. It is 
 not, of course, their falsity that gives pleasure ; but as it is true 
 that they are false, the speech which shows this to be true gives 
 pleasure. 
 
 Chap. xiir. — Tlie hearer musthe moved as well as instructed. 
 
 29. But for the sake of those who are so fastidious that they 
 do not care for truth unless it is put in the form of a pleasing 
 discourse, no small place has been assigned in eloquence to the 
 art of pleasing. And yet even this is not enough for those stub- 
 born-minded men who both understand and are pleased with the 
 teacher's discourse, without deriving any profit from it. For 
 what does it profit a man that he both confesses the truth and 
 praises the eloquence, if he does not yield his consent, when it 
 is only for the sake of securing his consent that the speaker in 
 urging the truth gives careful attention to what he says ? If 
 the truths taught are such that to believe or to know them is 
 enough, to give one's assent implies nothing more than to con- 
 fess that they are true. When, however, the truth taught is 
 one that must be carried into practice, and that is taught for 
 the very purpose of being practised, it is useless to be per- 
 suaded of the truth of what is said, it is useless to be pleased 
 with the manner in which it is said, if it be not so learnt as 
 to be practised. The eloquent divine, then, when he is urging 
 a practical truth, must not only teach so as to give instruction, 
 and please so as to keep up the attention, but he must also sway 
 the mind so as to subdue the will. For if a man be not moved 
 by the force of truth, though it is demonstrated to his own 
 confession, and clothed in beauty of style, nothing remains but 
 to subdue him by the power of eloquence. 
 
 Chap. xiv. — Beauty of diction to he in keeping with the matter. 
 
 30. And so much labour has been spent by men on the 
 
142 Oy CITKISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 beauty of expression here spoken of, that not only is it not 
 our duty to do, but it is our duty to shun and abhor, many 
 and heinous deeds of wickedness and baseness which wicked 
 and base men have with great eloquence recommended, not 
 with a view to gaining assent, but merely for the sake of being 
 read with pleasure. But may God avert from His Church 
 what the prophet Jeremiah says of the synagogue of the Jews: 
 " A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land : 
 the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests applaud them 
 witli their hands ;^ and my people love to have it so : and 
 what will ye do in the end thereof?"' eloquence, which 
 is the more terrible from its purity, and the more crushing 
 from its solidity ! Assuredly it is " a hammer that breaketh 
 the rock in pieces." For to this God Himself has by the same 
 prophet compared His own word spoken through His holy 
 prophets.^ God forbid, then, God forbid that with us the 
 priest should applaud the false prophet, and that God's people 
 f^hould love to have it so. God forbid, I say, that with us 
 tliere should be such terrible madness ! For what shaU we do 
 ill the end thereof? And assuredly it is preferable, even 
 though what is said should be less intelligible, less pleasing, 
 and less persuasive, that truth be spoken, and that what is 
 just, not what is iniquitous, be listened to with pleasure. But 
 tliis, of course, cannot be, unless what is true and just be ex- 
 pressed with elegance. 
 
 31. In a serious assembly, moreover, such as is spoken of 
 when it is said, " I will praise Thee among much people,"^ no 
 pleasure is derived from that species of eloquence which indeed 
 says nothing that is false, but which buries small and unim- 
 portant truths under a frothy mass of ornamental words, such 
 as would not be graceful or dignified even if used to adorn 
 great and fundamental truths. And something of tliis sort 
 occurs in a letter of the blessed Cyprian, which, I think, came 
 there by accident, or else was inserted designedly with this 
 view, that posterity might* see how the wholesome discipline of 
 Christian teaching had cured him of that redundancy of lan- 
 guage, and confined him to a more dignified and modest form 
 
 ^ "And the priests hoar rule by thoir moans." (A. V.) 
 
 « Jcr. V. 30, 31 (LXX.). => Jer. xxiii. 29. * Ts. xixv. IS. 
 
CHAP. XV.] NECESSITY FOR PEAYER. l43 
 
 of eloquence, such as we find in his subsequent letters, a style 
 which is admired without effort, is sought after with eagerness, 
 but is not attained without great difficulty. He says, then, in 
 one place, " Let us seek this abode : the neighbouring soli- 
 tudes afford a retreat where, whilst the spreading shoots of 
 the vine trees, pendulous and intertwined, creep amongst the 
 supporting reeds, the leafy covering has made a portico of 
 vine."^ There is wonderful fluency and exuberance of language 
 here ; but it is too florid to be pleasing to serious minds. But 
 people who a;:e fond of this style are apt to think that men 
 who do not use it, but employ a more chastened style, do so 
 because they cannot attain the former, not because their judg- 
 ment teaches them to avoid it. Wherefore this holy man 
 shows both that he can speak in that style, for he has done so 
 once, and that he does not choose, for he never uses it again. 
 
 Chap. xv. — The Christian teacher should x^ray before preaching. 
 
 32. And so our Christian orator, while he says what is just, 
 and holy, and. good (and he ought never to say anything else), 
 does all he can to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure, 
 and with obedience ; and he need not doubt that if he succeed 
 in this object, and so far as he succeeds, he will succeed more - 
 by piety in prayer than by gifts of oratory ; and so he ought 
 to pray for himself, and for those he is about to address, before 
 he attempts to speak. And when the hour is come that he 
 must speak, he ought, before he opens his mouth, to lift up 
 his thirsty soul to God, to drink in what he is about to pour 
 forth, and to be himself filled with what he is about to dis- 
 tribute. For, as in regard to every matter of faith and love 
 there are many things that may be said, and many ways of 
 saying them, who knows what it is expedient at a given moment , 
 for us to say, or to be heard saying, except God who knows / 
 the hearts of all ? And who can make us say what we ought, 
 and in the way we ought, except Him in whose hand both we 
 and our speeches are ? Accordingly, he who is anxious both 
 to know and to teach should learn all that is to be taught, and 
 acquire such a faculty of speech as is suitable for a divine. 
 But when the hour for speech arrives, let him reflect upon that 
 
 1 Cyprian, ad Donat. Ep. i 
 
144 ON CnRISTIAX DOCirJNE. [book IV. 
 
 saying of our Lord's, as better suited to the wants of a pious 
 mind : " Take no thought how or what ye shall speak ; for it 
 shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 
 For it is not ye that speak/but the Spirit of your Father which 
 spcaketh in you."^ The Holy Spirit, then, speaks thus in those 
 who for Christ's sake are delivered to the persecutors ; why 
 not also in those who deliver Christ's message to those who are 
 willing to learn ? 
 
 Chap. x\i.— Human directions not to be despised, thoujJi God makes the true 
 
 teacher. 
 
 33. Now if any one says that we need not direct men how 
 or what they should teach, since the Holy Spirit makes them 
 teachers, he may as well say that we need not pray, since our 
 Lord says, " Your Father knoweth what things ye have need 
 of before ye ask Him ;" ^ or that the Apostle Paul should not 
 have given directions to Timothy and Titus as to how or what 
 they should teach others. And these three apostolic epistles 
 ought to be constantly before the eyes of every one who has 
 obtained the position of a teacher in the Church. In the First 
 Epistle to Timothy do we not read : " These things command 
 and teach " ? ^ What these things are, has been told pre- 
 viously. Do we not read there : " Eebuke not an elder, but 
 entreat him as a father " ? * Is it not said in the Second 
 Epistle : " Hold fast the form of sound w^ords, wliich thou 
 hast heard of me " ? ^ And is he not there told : " Study to 
 show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not 
 to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth " ? ^ And 
 in the same place : " Preach the word ; be instant in season, 
 out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all loug-suftering 
 and doctrine."^ And so in the Epistle to Titus, does he not 
 say that a bishop ought to " hold fast the failliful word as he 
 hath been taught, that lie may be able by sound doctrine both 
 to exhort and to convince the gainsayers " ? ® There, too, he 
 says : " But speak tliou the tilings which become sound doc- 
 trine : that the aged men be sober," and so on. ^ And there, 
 too : " These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with aU 
 
 » Matt. X. 19, 20. > iMatt. vi. 8. ' 1 Tim. iv. 11. 
 
 * 1 Tim. V. 1. ^ 2 Tim. i. 13. « 2 Tim. ii. 15. 
 
 7 2 Tim. iv. 2. • Tit. i. 9. » Tit. ii. 1, 2. 
 
CHAP. XVIL] the THEEE STYLES OF SPEECH. 145 
 
 authority. Let no man despise thee. Put them in mind to 
 be subject to principalities and powers," ^ and so on. Wliat 
 then are we to think ? Does the apostle in any way contra- 
 dict himself, when, though he says that men are made teachers 
 by the operation of the Holy Spirit, he yet himself gives them 
 directions how and what they should teach ? Or are we to 
 understand, that though the duty of men to teach even the 
 teachers does not cease when the Holy Spirit is given, yet that 
 neither is he who planteth anything, nor he who watereth, but 
 God who giveth the increase ? ^ Wherefore though holy men 
 be our helpers, or even holy angels assist us, no one learns 
 aright the things that pertain to life with God, until God 
 makes him ready to learn from Himself, that God who is thus 
 addressed in the psalm : '' Teach me to do Thy will ; for Thou 
 art my God."^ And so the same apostle says to Timothy him- 
 self, speaking, of course, as teacher to disciple : " But continue 
 thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been 
 assured of, knowincj of whom thou hast learned them."* For 
 as the medicines which men apply to the bodies of their fellow- 
 men are of no avail except God gives them virtue (who can 
 heal without their aid, though they cannot without His), and 
 yet they are applied ; and if it be done from a sense of duty, 
 it is esteemed a work of mercy or benevolence ; so the aids of 
 teaching, applied through the instrumentality of man, are of 
 advantage to the soul only when God w^orks to make them of 
 advantage, who could give the gospel to man even without the 
 help or agency of men. 
 
 Chap, xyii, — Threefold division of the various styles of speech. 
 
 34. He then who, in speaking, aims at enforcing what is 
 good, should not despise any of those three objects, either to 
 teach, or to give pleasure, or to move, and should pray and 
 strive, as we have said above, to be heard with intelligence, 
 with pleasure, and with ready compliance. And when he does 
 this with elegance and propriety, he may justly be called 
 eloquent, even though he do not carry with him the assent of 
 his hearer. For it is these three ends, viz. teaching, giving 
 pleasure, and moving, that the great master of Eoman eloquence 
 1 Tit. ii. 15, iii. 1. ^ i Cor. iii. 7. 3 pg, cxliii. 10. -» o Tim. iii. H. 
 
 CHll. DOCT. K 
 
14G ON cnniSTiAX doctrine. [book iv. 
 
 liimself seems to liave intended that the following three direc- 
 tions should subserve : " He, then, shall be eloquent, who can 
 say little things in a subdued style, moderate things in a tem- 
 perate style, and great things in a majestic style : " ^ as if he 
 had taken in also the three ends mentioned above, and had 
 embraced the whole in one sentence thus : " He, then, shall 
 be eloquent, who can say little things in a subdued style, in 
 order to give instruction, moderate things in a temperate style, 
 in order to give pleasure, and great things in a majestic style, 
 in order to sway the mind." 
 
 Chap, xviii. — The Christian orator is constantly dnalinrj tcith great matters. 
 
 35. Now the author I have quoted could have exemplified 
 these three directions, as laid down by himself, in regard to 
 legal questions : he could not, however, have done so in regard 
 to ecclesiastical questions, — the only ones that an address such 
 as I wish to give shape to is concerned with. For of legal 
 questions those are called small which have reference to pecu- 
 niary transactions ; those great where a matter relating to 
 man's life or liberty comes up. Cases, again, which have to 
 do with neither of these, and where the intention is not to 
 get the hearer to do, or to pronounce judgment upon any- 
 thing, but only to give him pleasure, occupy as it were a middle 
 place between the former two, and are on that account called 
 middling, or moderate. For moderate things get their name 
 from modus (a measure) ; and it is an abuse, not a proper use 
 of the word moderate, to put it for little. In questions like 
 ours, however, where all things, and especially those addressed 
 to the people from the place of authority, ought to have refer- 
 ence to men's salvation, and that not their temporal but their 
 eternal salvation, and where also the thing to be guarded 
 against is eternal ruin, everything that we say is important ; 
 so much so, that even what the preacher says about pecuniary 
 matters, whetlier it have reference to loss or gain, wliether the 
 amount b.e great or small, should not seem unimportant. For 
 justice is never unimportant, and justice ought assuredly to 
 be observed, even in small allairs of money, as our Lord says : 
 
 * Cicero, Orator. 29 : "Is i^ihir crit eloquens, qui poterit parva summisse, 
 modica tcmiKTate, magna granJitcr dicere. " 
 
CHAP. XYIIL] IMPOrvTANCE OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 14V 
 
 "' He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in 
 much." ^ That which is least, then, is very little ; but to be 
 faithful in that which is least is great. For as the nature of 
 the circle, viz. that all lines drawn from the centre to the 
 circimiference are equal, is the same in a great disk that it is 
 in the smallest coin ; so the greatness of justice is in no degree 
 lessened, though the matters to which justice is applied be small. 
 
 36. And when the apostle spoke about trials in regard to 
 secular affairs (and what were these but matters of money ?), 
 he says : " Dare any of you, having a matter against another, 
 go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints ? Do ye 
 not know that the saints shall judge the world ? and if the 
 world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the 
 smallest matters ? Know ye not that we shall judge angels ? 
 how much more things that pertain to this life ? If, then, ye 
 have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to 
 judge who are least esteemed in the Church. I speak to your 
 shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you ? 
 no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren ? 
 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the 
 unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among 
 you, because ye go to law one with another : why do ye not 
 rather take wrong ? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves 
 to be defrauded ? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that 
 your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not 
 inherit the kingdom of God?" ^ Why is it that the apostle is 
 so indignant, and that he thus accuses, and upbraids, and 
 chides, and threatens ? Why is it that the changes in his tone, 
 so frequent and so abrupt, testify to the depth of his emotion ? 
 Why is it, in fine, that he speaks in a tone so exalted about mat- 
 ters so very trifling ? Did secular matters deserve so much at 
 his hands ? God forbid. No ; but all this is done for the sake of 
 justice, charity, and piety, which in the judgment of every sober 
 mind are great, even when applied to matters the very least. 
 
 37. Of course, if we were giving men advice as to how they 
 ought to conduct secular cases, either for themselves or for 
 their connections, before the church courts, we would rightly 
 advise them to conduct them quietly as matters of little 
 
 » Luke xvi. 10. 21 Cor. vi. 1-9. 
 
148 ON cnniSTLVN doctrine. [book iv. 
 
 moment. liut we are treating of the manner of speech of the 
 man who is to be a teacher of the truths wliich deliver ns 
 from eternal misery and bring ns to eternal happiness ; and 
 wherever these truths are spoken of, whether in public or pri- 
 vate, whether to one or many, whether to friends or enemies, 
 whether in a continuous discourse or in convei-sation, whether 
 in tracts, or in books, or in letters long or short, they are of 
 great importance. Unless indeed we are prepared to say that, 
 because a cup of cold water is a very trifling and common 
 thing, the saying of our Lord that he who gives a cup of cold 
 water to one of His disciples shall in no wise lose his reward,^ 
 is very trivial and unimportant. Or that when a preacher takes 
 this saying as his text, he should think his subject very unim- 
 portant, and therefore speak without either eloquence or power, 
 but in a subdued and humble style. Is it not the case that 
 when we happen to speak on this subject to the people, and 
 the presence of God is with us, so that what we say is not 
 altogether unworthy of the subject, a tongue of fire springs up 
 out of that cold water which inflames even the cold hearts of 
 men with a zeal for doing works of mercy in hope of an eternal 
 reward ? 
 
 Chap. xix. — The Christian teaclier must use (liferent styles on (liferent 
 occasions. 
 
 38. And yet, while our teacher ought to speak of great 
 1 matters, he ought not always to be speaking of them in a 
 o . \ majestic tone, but in a subdued tone when he is teaching, 
 temperately when he is giving praise or blame. "S^Hicn, how- 
 ever, something is to be done, and we are speaking to those 
 who ought, but are not willing, to do it, then great matters 
 must be spoken of with power, and in a manner calculated 
 ho sway the mind. And sometimes the same important matter 
 ^is treated in all these ways at different times, quietly when it is 
 being taught, temperately when its importance is being urged, 
 and powerfully when we are forcing a mind that is averse to 
 the truth to turn and embrace it. For is there anything greater 
 than God Himself? Is nothing, then, to be learnt about 
 Him ? Or ought he who is teaching the Trinity in unity to 
 speak of it otherwise than in the method of calm discussion, 
 
 • Matt. X. 42. 
 
CHAP. XX.] EXAMPLES FROM SCPJPTURE. 149 
 
 SO that in regard to a subject wliicli it is not easy to compre- 
 liend, we may understand as much as it is given us to under- 
 stand ? Are we in this case to seek out ornaments instead of 
 proofs ? Or is the hearer to be moved to do something instead 
 of being instructed so that he may learn something ? But 
 when we come to praise God, either in Himself, or in His 
 works, what a field for beauty and splendour of language opens 
 up before man, who can task his powers to the utmost in 
 praising Him whom no one can adequately praise, though 
 there is no one who does not praise Him in some measure ! 
 But if He be not worshipped, or if idols, whether they be 
 demons or any created being whatever, be worshipped with 
 Him or in preference to Him, then we ought to speak out 
 with power and impressiveness, show how great a wickedness 
 this is, and urge men to flee from it. 
 
 Chap. xx. — Examples of the various styles draionfrom Scripture. 
 39. But now to come to something more definite. We 
 have an example of the calm, subdued style in the Apostle 
 Paul, where he says : " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the 
 law, do ye not hear the law ? For it is written, that Abraham 
 had two sons ; the one by a bond maid, the other by a free 
 woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after 
 the flesh ; but he of the free woman was by .promise. Which 
 things are an allegory : for these are the two covenants ; the 
 one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which 
 is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and 
 answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with 
 her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is 
 the mother of us all;"-^ and so on. And in the same way where 
 he reasons thus : " Brethren, I speak after the manner of men : 
 Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no 
 man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and 
 his seed were the promises made. He saith not. And to seeds, 
 as of many ; but as of one. And to thy seed, which is Christ. 
 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before 
 of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty 
 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise 
 
 1 Gal. iv, 21-26. 
 
150 ox CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IT. 
 
 of none efTect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no 
 more of promise : but God gave it to Abraham by promise." ^ 
 And because it mij^^lit possibly occur to the hearer to ask, If 
 there is no inheritance by the law, why then was the law 
 given ? he himself anticipates this objection and asks, " Where- 
 fore then serveth the law ?" And the answer is given : " It 
 was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come 
 to whom the promise was made ; and it was ordained by angels 
 in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator 
 of one ; but God is one." And here an objection occurs 
 which he himself has stated : " Is the law then against the 
 promises of God ?" He answers : " God forbid." And he also 
 states the reason in these words : " For if there had been a 
 law given which could have given life, verily righteousness 
 should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath con- 
 cluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ 
 might be given to them that believe." ^ It is part, then, of 
 the duty of the teacher not only to interpret what is obscure, 
 and to unravel the difficulties of questions, but also, while doing 
 this, to meet other" questions which may chance to suggest 
 themselves, lest these should cast doubt or discredit on what 
 we say. If, however, the solution of these questions suggest 
 itseK as soon as the questions themselves arise, it is useless to 
 disturb what we cannot remove. And besides, when out of 
 one question other questions arise, and out of these again 
 still others ; if these be aU discussed and solved, the reason- 
 ing is extended to such a length, that unless the memory 
 be exceedingly powerfid and active, the reasoner finds it im- 
 possible to return to the original question from which he set 
 out. It is, however, exceedingly desirable that whatever 
 occurs to the mind as an objection that might be urged should 
 be stated and refuted, lest it turn up at a time when no one 
 will be present to answer it, or lest, if it should occur to a man 
 who is present but says nothing about it, it might never be 
 thoroughly removed. 
 
 40. In the following words of tlie apostle we have the tem- 
 perate style : " Kebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a 
 father ; and the younger men as brethren ; the elder women 
 1 Gal. iii. 15-13. » Gal. iii. 10-22. 
 
CHAP. XX.] EXAMPLES OF THE TEMPERATE STYLE. 151 
 
 as motliers, the younger as sisters."^ And also in these : 
 '' I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
 that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 
 unto God, which is your reasonable service."^ And almost 
 the whole of this hortatory passage is in the temperate style 
 of eloquence ; and those parts of it are the most beautiful in 
 which, as if paying what was due, things that belong to each 
 other are gracefully brought together. For example ; " Having 
 then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, 
 whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion 
 of faith ; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering ; or he 
 that teacheth, on teaching ; or he that exhort eth, on exhortation : 
 he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity ; he that ruleth, 
 with diligence ; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. 
 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, 
 cleave to that which is good. Be Idndly affectioned one to 
 another with brotherly love ; in honour preferring one another ; 
 not slothful in business ; fervent in spirit ; serving the Lord ; 
 rejoicing in hope ; patient in tribulation ; continuing instant 
 in prayer ; distributing to the necessity of saints ; given to 
 hospitality. Bless them which persecute you : bless, and curse 
 not. Eejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them 
 that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another." ^ And 
 how gracefully all this is brought to a close in a period of two 
 members : " Mind not hidi thingjs, but condescend to men of 
 low estate!" And a little afterwards : "Eender therefore to 
 all their dues : tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom 
 custom ; fear to whom fear ; honour to whom honour."* And 
 these also, though expressed in single clauses, are terminated by 
 a period of two members : " Owe no man anything, but to love 
 one another." And a little farther on : " The night is far spent, 
 the day is at hand : let us therefore cast off the works of dark- 
 ness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk 
 honestly, as in the day ; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in 
 chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying : but 
 put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for 
 the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." ^ Now if the passage 
 
 » 1 Tim. V. 1,2. - Rom. xii. 1. 3 p^om, xii. 6-16. 
 
 ♦Ptom. xiii. 7. ^llom. xiii. 12-11. 
 
152 ON CnRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IV. 
 
 were translated thus, " et carnis providentiam ne in concupis- 
 centiis feceritis,"^ the ear would no doubt be gratified with a 
 more harmonious ending ; but our translator, with more strict- 
 ness, preferred to retain even the order of the words. And 
 how this sounds in the Greek language, in which the apostle 
 spoke, those wlio are better skilled in that tongue may deter- 
 mine. My opinion, however, is, that what has been translated 
 to us in the same order of words does not run very harmoni- 
 ously even in the original tongue. 
 
 41. And, indeed, I must confess that our authors are veiy 
 defective in that grace of speech which consists in harmonious 
 endings. Whether this be the fault of the translators, or 
 whether, as I am more inclined to believe, the authors 
 designedly avoided such ornaments, I dare not affirm ; for I 
 confess I do not know. This I know, however, that if any 
 one who is skilled in this species of harmony would take the 
 closing sentences of these writers and arrange them according 
 to tlie law of harmony (which he could very easily do by 
 changing some words for words of equivalent meaning, or by 
 retaining the words he finds and altering their arrangement), 
 he will learn that these divinely-inspired men are not defective 
 in any of those points which he has been taught in the schools 
 of the grammarians and rhetoricians to consider of importance; 
 and he will find in them many kinds of speech of great 
 beauty, — beautiful even in our language, but especially beauti- 
 ful in the original, — none of which can be found in those 
 writings of which tliey boast so much. But care must be 
 taken that, wliile adding harmony, we take away none of the 
 weiglit from these divine and authoritative utterances. Xow 
 our propliets were so far from being deficient in the musical 
 training from which this harmony we speak of is most fully 
 learnt, that Jerome, a very learned man, describes even 
 the metres employed by some of them,''^ in the Hebrew 
 language at least ; though, in order to give an accurate render- 
 ing of the words, he has not preserved these in his translation. 
 I, however (to speak of my own feeling, which is better known 
 
 ' Instead of ** ne feceritls in concujii^ccntiis," which is the translation as 
 quoted 1)}' Au^Lstine. 
 ^ 111 his prcfiicc to Job. 
 
CHAP. XX.] THE MA.JESTIC STYLE. 153 
 
 to me than it is to others, and than that of others is to me), 
 while I do not in my own speech, however modestly I think 
 it done, neglect these harmonious endings, am just as well 
 pleased to find them in the sacred authors very rarely. 
 
 42. The majestic style of speech differs from the temperate 
 style just spoken of, chiefly in that it is not so much decked 
 out with verbal ornaments as exalted into vehemence b;; 
 mental emotion. It uses, indeed, nearly all the ornaments 
 that the other does ; but if they do not happen to be at hand, 
 it does not seek for them. For it is borne on by its owi 
 vehemence ; and the force of the thought, not the desire for' 
 ornament, makes it seize upon any beauty of expression that 
 comes in its way. It is enough for its object that warmth of 
 feeling should suggest the fitting words ; they need not be 
 selected by careful elaboration of speech. If a brave man be 
 armed with weapons adorned with gold and jewels, he works 
 feats of valour with those arms in the heat of battle, not 
 because they are costly, but because they are arms ; and yet 
 the same man does great execution, even when anger furnishes 
 him with a weapon that he digs out of the ground.^ The 
 apostle in the following passage is urging that, for the sake of 
 the ministry of the gospel, and sustained by the consolations 
 of God's grace, we should bear with patience all the evils of 
 this life. It is a great subject, and is treated with power, and 
 the ornaments of speech are not wanting : " Behold," he says, 
 " now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salva- 
 tion. Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be 
 not blamed : but in all things approving ourselves as the 
 ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, 
 in distresses, in strifes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, 
 in watchings, in fastings ; by pureness, by knowledge, by long- 
 suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, 
 by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of 
 righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour 
 and dishonour, by evil report and good report : as deceivers, 
 and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, 
 and, behold, we live ; as chastened, and not killed ; as sorrow- 
 
 ^ An allusion to Virgil's JSneid, vii. 508 : *' Quod cuique repertum Rimanti, 
 telum ira fecit. " 
 
154 ON cnniSTiAN doctkixe. [book it. 
 
 fill, yet alway rejoicin;; ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as 
 having notliing, and yet possessing all things." ^ See him still 
 burning : " ye Corinthians, our mouth is opened unto you, 
 our lieart is enlarged," and so on ; it would be tedious to go 
 through it all. 
 
 43. And in the same way, writing to the Eomans, he urges 
 that the persecutions of this world should be overcome by 
 charity, in assured reliance on the help of God. And he 
 treats this subject with both power and beauty : " We know^," 
 he says, " that all things work together for good to them that 
 love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. 
 For w^hom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be 
 conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the 
 first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did 
 predestinate, them He also called ; and whom He called, them 
 He also justified ; and whom He justified, them He also glori- 
 fied. What shall w^e then say to these things ? If God be 
 for us, who can be against us ? He that spared not His own 
 Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not witli 
 Him also freely give us all things ? Who shall lay anything to 
 the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth ; who 
 is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, 
 that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who 
 also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from 
 the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecu- 
 tion, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? (As it is 
 wTitten, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long ; we are 
 accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) Nay, in all these things 
 we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. For 
 I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
 come, nor height, nor deptli, nor any other creature, shall be 
 able to separate us from the love of God, wliich is in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord." ' 
 
 44. Again, in writing to the Galatians, although the whole 
 epistle is written in the subdued style, except at the end, 
 where it rises into a temperate eloquence, yet he interposes one 
 passage of so much feeling that, notwithstanding the absence 
 
 '2 Cor. vi. 2 10. » Koin. viii. 2S-39. 
 
CHAP. XXI.] EX.UrPLES FEOM AMCPOSE AND CYPrJAX. 13 O 
 
 of any ornaments such as appear in the passages just quoted, 
 it cannot be called anything but powerful : " Ye observe days, 
 and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest 
 I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I 
 beseech you, be as I am ; for I am as ye are : ye have not 
 injured me at all. Ye know how, through infirmity of the 
 flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And 
 my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor 
 rejected ; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ 
 Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of ? for I bear 
 you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked 
 out" your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I there- 
 fore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth ? They 
 zealously affect you, but not well ; yea, they would exclude 
 you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously 
 affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am 
 present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in 
 birth again until Christ be formed in you^ I desire to be 
 present with you now, and to change my voice ; for I stand 
 in doubt of you."^ Is there anything here of contrasted words 
 arranged antithetically, or of words rising gradually to a 
 climax, or of sonorous clauses, and sections, and periods ? 
 Yet, notwithstanding, there is a glow of strong emotion that 
 makes us feel the fervour of eloquence. 
 
 CiiAP. XXI. — Examples of the various styles, drawn from the teachers of the 
 Church, esjjecially Ambrose and Cyprian. 
 
 45. But these writings of the apostles, though clear, are yet 
 profound, and are so written that one who is not content with 
 a superficial acquaintance, but desii^es to know them thoroughly, 
 must not only read and hear them, but must have an expositor. 
 Let us, then, study these various modes of speech as they are 
 exemplified in the writings of men who, by reading tlie Scrip- 
 tures, have attained to the knowledge of divine and saving 
 truth, and have ministered it to the Church. Cyprian of 
 blessed memory Avrites in the subdued style in his treatise on 
 the sacrament of the cup. In this book he resolves the ques- 
 tion, whether tlie cup of the Lord ought to contain water only, 
 or water mingled with wine. But we must quote a passage 
 
 1 Gal. iv. 10-20. 
 
15G ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 by way of illustration. After the customary introduction, he 
 proceeds to the discussion of the point in question. " Observe," 
 he says, "that wc are instructed, in presenting the cup, to 
 maintain the custom handed down to us from the Lord, and to 
 do nothing that our Lord has not first done for us : so that the 
 cup which is offered in remembrance of Him should be mixed 
 with wine. For, as Christ says, ' I am the true vine ,' ^ it 
 follows that the blood of Christ is wine, not water ; and the 
 cup cannot appear to contain His blood by which we are re- 
 deemed and quickened, if the wine be absent ; for by the wine 
 is the blood of Christ typified, that blood which is foreshadowed 
 and proclaimed in all the types and declarations of Scripture. 
 For we find that in the book of Genesis this very circumstance 
 in regard to the sacrament is foreshadowed, and our Lord's 
 sufferings typically set forth, in the case of Xoah, when he 
 drank wine, and was drunken, and was uncovered within his 
 tent, and his nakedness was exposed by his second son, and was 
 carefully hidden by his elder and his younger sons." It is not 
 necessary to mention the other circumstances in detail, as it is 
 only necessary to observe this point, that Noah, foreshadowing 
 the future reality, drank, not water, but wine, and thus showed 
 forth our Lord's passion. In the same way we see the sacra- 
 ment o f the Lord ' s supper pre figured in the case of Melchize- 
 dek the priest, according to the testimony of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, where it says : * And Melchizedek king of Salem brought 
 forth bread and wine : and he was the priest of the most high 
 God. And he blessed Abraham.'^ Ko w, that !Melchiz edek 
 was a type of Chr ist, the Holy S])irit declares in the_rsabns, 
 where the Father addressing the Son says, * Thou art a priest 
 for ever after the order of ^lelchizedek.'^ " ^ In this passage, 
 and in all of the letter that follows, the subdued style is main- 
 tained, as the reader may easily satisfy himself. 
 
 4G. St. Aml)rose also, though dealing with a question of 
 very great importance, the equality of the Holy Spirit with the 
 Father and the Son, employs the subdued style, because the 
 oljject he has in view demands, not beauty of diction, nor the 
 swaying of the mind by the stir of emotion, but facts and 
 
 ^ John XV. 1. » G.-n. ix. 20-24. ' Gen. xiv. IS, 19. 
 
 * Tb. ex. i. ^ Ad Ccecilium, E;). G3. 1, 2. 
 
CHAP. XXL] CYPPJAN ON VIPGINITY. 157 
 
 proofs. Accordingly, in the introduction to liis work, we find 
 the following passage among others : " When Gideon was 
 startled by the message he had heard from God, that, though 
 thousands of the people failed, yet through one man God would 
 deliver His people from their enemies, he brought forth a kid 
 of the goats, and by direction of the angel laid it with un- 
 leavened cakes upon a rock, and poured the broth over it ; 
 and as soon as the angel of God touched it with the end of 
 the staff that was in his hand, there rose up fire out of the 
 rock and consumed the offering.-^ Now this sign seems to 
 indicate that the rock was a type of the body of Christ, for 
 it is written, ' They drank of that spiritual rock that followed 
 them, and that rock was Christ;'^ this, of course, referring 
 not to Christ's divine nature, but to His flesh, whose ever- 
 flowinor fountain of blood has ever satisfied the hearts of His 
 thirsting people. And so it was at that time declared in a 
 mystery that the Lord Jesus, when crucified, should abolish 
 in His flesh the sins of the whole world, and not their guilty 
 acts merely, but the evil lusts of their hearts. For the kid's 
 flesh refers to the guilt of the outward act, the broth to the 
 allurement of lust within, as it is written, ' And the mixed 
 multitude that was amoncj them fell a lustinc^ ; and the chil- 
 dren of Israel also wept again and said. Who shall give us 
 flesh to eat ? '^ When the angel, then, stretched out his staff 
 and touched the rock, and fire rose out of it, this was a sign 
 that our Lord's flesh, filled with the Spirit of God, should burn 
 up all the sins of the human race. Whence also the Lord 
 says, 'I am come to send fire on the earth.'"* And in the 
 same style he pursues the subject, devoting himself chiefly to 
 proving and enforcing his point.^ 
 
 47. An example of the temperate style is the celebrated 
 encomium on virginity from Cyprian : " Now our discourse 
 addresses itself to the virgins, who, as they are the objects 
 of higher honour, are also the objects of greater care. These 
 are the flower on the tree of the Church, the glory and orna- 
 ment of spiritual grace, the joy of honour and praise, a work 
 unbroken and unblemished, the image of God answering to the 
 
 » Judg. vi. 14-21. n Cor. x. 4. 3 Num. xi. 4. 
 
 • Luke xii. 49. * De Spiritu Saucto, lib. i. Prol. 
 
l.'S ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IV. 
 
 lioliness of the Lord, the brighter portion of the flock of Christ. 
 The glorious fruitf illness of their mother the Church rejoices 
 in them, and in them flourishes more abundantly ; and in 
 l)roportion as bright virginity adds to her numbers, in the same 
 proportion does the mother's joy increase.' ^ And at another 
 place in the end of the epistle, ' As we have borne,' he says, 
 * the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of 
 the heavenly.'^ Virginity bears this image, integrity bears it, 
 holiness and truth boar it ; they bear it who are mindful of 
 the chastening of the Lord, who observe justice and piety, 
 who are strong in faith, humble in fear, stedfast in the endur- 
 ance of suffering, meek in the endurance of injury, ready to 
 pity, of one mind and of one heart in brotherly peace. And 
 every one of these things ought ye, holy virgins, to observe, to 
 cherish, and fulfil, who having hearts at leisure for God and for 
 Christ, and having chosen the greater and better part, lead and 
 point the way to the Lord, to whom you have pledged your 
 vows. Ye who are advanced in age, exercise control over the 
 younger. Ye who are younger, wait upon the elders, and 
 encourage your equals ; stir up one another by mutual exhorta- 
 tions ; provoke one another to glory by emulous examples of 
 virtue ; endure bravely, advance in spirituality, finish your 
 course with joy ; only be mindful of us when your vii'ginity 
 shall begin to reap its reward of honour."^ 
 
 48. Ambrose also uses the temperate and ornamented style 
 when he is holding up before virgins who have made their 
 profession a model for their imitation, and says : " She was a 
 virgin not in body only, but also in mind ; not mingling the 
 purity of her aff'ection with any dross of hypocrisy ; serious in 
 speech; prudent in disposition; sparing of words; delighting in 
 study; not placing her confidence in uncertain riches, but in 
 the prayer of the poor ; diligent in labour ; reverent in word ; 
 accustomed to look to God, not man, as the guide of her 
 conscience ; injuring no one, wishing well to all ; dutiful to 
 her elders, not envious of her equals ; avoiding boastfulness, 
 following reason, loving virtue. When did she wound her 
 parents even by a look ? Wiien did she quarrel with her 
 
 • De haUtu Mrglnnm, cliaj). vii. ' 1 Cor. xv. 49. 
 
 ^ De habit u Virjinum, chap. ,\viii. 
 
CHAP. XXI.] AMBROSE ON VIRGINITY. 159 
 
 neighbours ? When did she spurn the humble, laugh at the 
 weak, or shun the indigent ? She is accustomed to visit only 
 those haunts of men that pity would not blush for, nor modesty 
 pass by. There is nothing haughty in her eyes, nothing bold 
 in her words, nothing wanton in her gestures : her bearing is 
 not voluptuous, nor her gait too free, nor her voice petulant ; 
 so that her outward appearance is an image of her mind, and 
 a picture of purity. For a good house ought to be known for 
 such at the very threshold, and show at the very entrance that 
 there is no dark recess within, as the light of a lamp set inside 
 sheds its radiance on the outside. Why need I detail her 
 sparingness in food, her superabundance in duty, — the one 
 falling beneath the demands of nature, the other rising above 
 its powers ? The latter has no intervals of intermission, the 
 former doubles the days by fasting ; and when the desire for 
 refreshment does arise, it is satisfied with food such as will 
 support life, but not minister to appetite." -^ Now I have cited 
 these latter passages as examples of the temperate style, because 
 their purpose is not to induce those who have not yet devoted 
 themselves to take the vows of virginity, but to show of what 
 character those who have taken vows ought to be. To prevail 
 on any one to take a step of such a nature and of so great 
 importance, requires that the mind should be excited and set 
 on fire by the majestic style. Cyprian the martyr, however, 
 did not write about the duty of taking up the profession of 
 virginity, but about the dress and deportment of virgins. Yet 
 that great bishop urges them to their duty even in these 
 respects by the power of a majestic eloquence. 
 
 49. But I shall select examples of the majestic style from 
 their treatment of a subject which both of them have touched. 
 Both have denounced the women who colour, or rather dis- 
 colour, their faces with paint. And the first, in dealing with 
 this topic, says : " Suppose a painter should depict in colours 
 that rival nature's the features and form and complexion of 
 some man, and that, when the portrait had been finished Avith 
 consummate art, another painter should put his hand over it, 
 as if to improve by his superior skill the painting already 
 completed ; surely the first artist would feel deeply insulted, 
 
 ^ De Virginihus, lib. ii. chap. i. 
 
IGO ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 and his indignation would be justly roused. Dost tliou, then, 
 think that thou wilt carry off with impunity so audacious an 
 act of wickedness, such an insult to God the great artificer ? 
 For, granting that thou art not immodest in thy behaviour 
 towards men, and that thou art not polluted in mind by these 
 meretricious deceits, yet, in corrupting and violating what is 
 God's, thou provest thyself worse than an adulteress. The fact 
 that thou considerest thyself adorned and beautified by such 
 arts is an impeachment of God's handiwork, and a violation of 
 truth. Listen to the warning voice of the apostle : * I'urge 
 out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are 
 unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 
 therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither 
 with the leaven of malice and wickedness ; but with the un- 
 leavened bread of sincerity and truth.' ^ ISTow can sincerity and 
 truth continue to exist when what is sincere is polluted, and 
 what is true is changed by meretricious colouring and the decep- 
 tions of quackery into a lie ? Thy Lord says, ' Thou canst not 
 make one hair white or black ;'^ and dost thou wish to have 
 greater power so as to bring to nought the words of thy Lord ? 
 With rash and sacrilecrious hand thou wouldst fain chancre the 
 colour of thy hair : I would that, with a prophetic look to the 
 future, thou shouldst dye it the colour of flame." ^ It would 
 lie too long to quote all that follows, 
 
 50. Ambrose again, inveighing against such practices, says : 
 " Hence arise these incentives to vice, that women, in their 
 fear that they may not prove attractive to men, paint their 
 faces with carefully-chosen colours, and then from stains on 
 their features go on to stains on their chastity. "What folly 
 it is to change the features of nature into those of a painting, 
 and from fear of incurring their husband's disapproval, to pro- 
 claim openly that they have incurred their own ! For the 
 woman who desires to alter her natural appearance pronounces 
 condemnation on herself; and her eager endeavours to please 
 another prove that she has first been displeasing to hei-self. 
 And what testimony to thine ugliness can we find, O woman, 
 that is more unquestionable than thine own, when thou art 
 afraid to show thyself ? If thou art comely, why dost thou 
 
 ' 1 Cor. V. 7, 8. ^ ^I;ilt. v. 3G. ' Cyi«riun, (/i halUu Vinjinum, chap. xii. 
 
CHAP. XXII.J USE OF VARIETY IX STYLE. 161 
 
 hide tliy comeliness ? If tliou art plain, why dost thou lyingly 
 pretend to be beautiful, when thou canst not enjoy the plea- 
 sure of the lie either in thine own consciousness or in that of 
 another ? For he loves another woman, thou desirest to please 
 another man ; and thou art angry if he love another, though 
 he is taught adultery in thee. Thou art the evil promptress 
 of thine own injury. For even the woman who has been the 
 victim of a pander shrinks from acting the pander's part, and 
 though she be vile, it is herself she sins against and not 
 another. The crime of adultery is almost more tolerable than 
 thine ; for adultery tampers with modesty, but thou with 
 nature."^ It is sufficiently clear, I think, that this eloquence 
 calls passionately npon women to avoid tampering with their 
 appearance by deceitful arts, and to cultivate modesty and 
 fear. Accordingly, we notice that the style is neither subdued 
 nor temperate, but majestic throughout. Now in these two 
 authors whom I have selected as specimens of the rest, and in 
 other ecclesiastical writers who both speak the truth and speak 
 it well, — speak it, that is, judiciously, pointedly, and with 
 beauty and power of expression, — many examples may be 
 found of the three styles of speech, scattered through their 
 various writings and discourses ; and the diligent student may 
 by assiduous reading, intermingled with practice on his own 
 part, become thoroughly imbued with them all. 
 
 Chap. xxii. — The necessity of variety in style. 
 
 51. But we are not to suppose that it is against rule to 
 mingle these various styles : on the contrary, every variety of 
 style should be introduced so far as is consistent with good 
 taste. For when we keep monotonously to one style, we fail 
 to retain the hearer's attention; but when we pass from one 
 style to another, the discourse goes off" more gracefully, even 
 though it extend to greater length. Each separate style, 
 again, has varieties of its own which prevent the hearer's 
 attention from cooling or becoming languid. We can bear the 
 subdued style, however, longer without variety than the' 
 majestic style. For the mental emotion which it is necessary 
 to stir up in order to carry the hearer's feelings with us, when 
 
 1 Ambrose, de Virginibus, lib. ii. 
 CIIR. DOCT. L 
 
162 ON ciiniSTiAN DOCTRINE. [dooi: :v. 
 
 once it has been sufficiently excited, tlic lii;^^lier the pitch to 
 whicli it is raised, can be maintained the shorter time. And 
 therefore we must be on our guard, lest, in striving to carry 
 to a higher point the emotion we have excited, we rather lose 
 what we have already gained. But after the interposition of 
 matter that we have to treat in a quieter style, we can return 
 with good effect to that which must be treated forcibly, thus 
 making the tide of eloquence to ebb and flow like the sea. It 
 follows from this, that the majestic style, if it is to be long 
 continued, ought not to be unvaried, but should alternate at 
 intervals with the other styles ; the speech or wTiting as a 
 whole, however, being referred to that style which is the pre- 
 vailing one. 
 
 CuAP. XXIII. — How the various styles should he mingled. 
 
 52. Now it is a matter of importance to determine what style 
 should be alternated with what other, and the places where it 
 is necessary that any particular style should be used. In the 
 majestic style, for instance, it is always, or almost always, 
 desirable that the introduction should be temperate. And the 
 speaker has it in his discretion to use the subdued style even 
 where the majestic would be allowable, in order that the 
 majestic when it is used may be the more majestic by com- 
 parison, and may as it were shine out with greater brilliance 
 from the dark background. Again, whatever may be the 
 style of the speech or writing, when knotty questions turn up 
 for solution, accuracy of distinction is required, and this 
 naturally demands the subdued style. And accordingly tliis 
 style must be used in alternation with the other two styles 
 whenever questions of that sort turn up ; just as we must use 
 A the temperate style, no matter what may be the general tone 
 \of the^TTiscourse, whenever praise or blame is to be given 
 i without any ulterior reference to the condemnation or acquittal 
 of any one, or to obtaining the concurrence of any one in a 
 course of action. In the majestic style, then, and in the quiet 
 likewise, both the other two styles occasionally find place. 
 The temperate style, on the other hand, not indeed always, 
 but occasionally, needs the quiet style ; for example, when, as 
 I have said, a knotty question comes up to be settled, or when 
 some points that arc susceptible of ornament are left unadorned 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] THE AUTHOE'S EXPEPJENCE IN MAURITANIA. 1G3 
 
 and expressed in the quiet style, in order to give greater 
 effect to certain exuberances (as tliey may be called) of orna- 
 ment. But the temperate style never needs the aid of the 
 majestic ; for its object is to gratify, never to excite, the mind. 
 
 Chap. xxiv. — The effects produced by the majestic style. 
 
 53. If frequent and vehement applause follows a speaker, 
 we are not to suppose on that account that he is speaking in 
 the majestic style ; for this effect is often produced both by 
 the accurate distinctions of the quiet style, and by the beauties 
 of the temperate. The majestic style, on the other hand, 
 frequently silences the audience by its impressiveness, but 
 calls forth their tears. For example, when at Caesarea in 
 Mauritania I was dissuading the people from that civil, or 
 worse than civil, war which they called Caterva (for it was 
 not fellow- citizens merely, but neighbours, brothers, fathers 
 and sons even, who, divided into two factions and armed with 
 stones, fought annually at a certain season of the year for 
 several days continuously, every one killing whomsoever he 
 could), I strove wdth all the vehemence of speech that I 
 could command to root out and drive from their hearts and 
 lives an evil so cruel and inveterate ; it was not, however, 
 when I heard their applause, but when I saw their tears, that 
 I thought I had produced an effect. For the applause showed 
 that they were instructed and delighted, but the tears that they 
 were sabdued. And when I saw their tears I was confident, 
 even before the event proved it, that this horrible and barbarous 
 custom (which had been handed down to them from their 
 fathers and their ancestors of generations long gone by, and 
 which like an enemy was besieging their hearts, or rather had 
 complete possession of them) was overthrown; and imme- 
 diately that my sermon was finished I called upon them with 
 heart and voice to give praise and thanks to God. And, lo, 
 with the blessing of Christ, it is now eight years or more 
 since anything of the sort was attempted there. In many 
 other cases besides I have observed that men show the effect 
 made on them by the powerful eloquence of a wise man, not 
 by clamorous applause so much as by groans, sometimes even 
 by tears, finally by change of life. 
 
164 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 54. The quiet style, too, has made a change in many ; but it 
 was to teach them what they were ignorant of, or to persuade 
 them of wliat they thought incredible, not to make them do 
 what they knew they ought to do but were unwilling to do. 
 To break down hardness of this sort, speech needs to be vehe- 
 ment. Praise and censure, too, when they are eloquently ex- 
 pressed, even in the temperate style, produce such an eftect 
 on some, that they are not only pleased with the eloquence 
 of the encomiums and censures, but are led to live so as them- 
 selves to deserve praise, and to avoid living so as to incur 
 blame. But no one would say that all who are thus delighted 
 change their habits in consequence, whereas all who are moved 
 by the majestic style act accordingly, and all who are taught 
 by the quiet style know or believe a truth which tliey were 
 previously ignorant of. 
 
 Chap. xxv. — ITorc the temperate style is to he used. 
 
 55. From all this we may conclude, that the end arrived at 
 by the two styles last mentioned is the one which it is most 
 essential for those who aspire to speak with wisdom and 
 eloquence to secure. On the other hand, what the temperate 
 style properly aims at, viz. to please by beauty of expression, 
 is not in itself an adequate end ; but when what we have to 
 say is good and useful, and when the hearers are both ac- 
 quainted with it and favourably disposed towards it, so that it 
 is not necessary either to instruct or persuade them, beauty of 
 style may have its influence in securing their jn-ompter com- 
 pliance, or in making them adhere to it more tenaciously. For 
 as the function of all eloquence, whichever of these three forms 
 it may assume, is to speak persuasively, and its object is to 
 persuade, an eloquent man will speak persuasively, whatever 
 style he may adopt ; but unless he succeeds in persuading, his 
 eloquence has not secured its object. Now in the subdued 
 style, he persuades his hearers that what he says is true ; iii the 
 majestic style, he persuades them to do what they are aware 
 they ought to do, but do not ; in the temperate style, he per- 
 suades them that his speech is elegant and ornate. But Mhat 
 use is there in attaining such an object as this last ? They 
 may desire it who are vain of their eloquence and make a 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] USE OF THE TEMPERATE STYLE. 165 
 
 boast of panegyrics, and sucli-like performances, where the 
 object is not to instruct the hearer, or to persuade him to any 
 course of action, but merely to give him pleasure. We, how- 
 ever, ought to make that end subordinate to another, viz. the 
 efiecting by this style of eloquence what we aim at effecting 
 when w^e use the majestic style. For we may by the use of 
 this style persuade men to cultivate good habits and give up 
 evil ones, if they are not so hardened as to need the vehement 
 style ; or if they have already begun a good course, we may 
 induce them to pursue it more zealously, and to persevere in it 
 with constancy. Accordingly, even in the temperate st3de we 
 must use beauty of expression not for ostentation, but for 
 wise ends ; not contenting ourselves merely with pleasing the 
 hearer, but rather seeking to aid him in the pursuit of the 
 good end which we hold out before him. 
 
 Chap. xxvi. — In every jtyle the o rator slioukl aim at perspicuity, beauty, 
 and 2)ersuasiveness. 
 
 56. IS'ow in regard to the three conditions I laid down a 
 little while ago ^ as necessary to be fulfilled by any one who 
 wishes to speak with wisdom and eloquence, viz. perspicuity, 
 beauty of style, and persuasive power, we are not to under- 
 stand that these three qualities attach themselves respectively 
 to the three several styles of speech, one to each, so that 
 perspicuity is a merit peculiar to the subdued style, beauty to 
 the temperate, and persuasive power to the majestic. On the 
 contrary, all speech, whatever its style, ought constantly to 
 aim at, and as far as possible to disj)lay, all these three merits. 
 For we do not like even what we say in the subdued style to 
 pall upon the hearer ; and therefore w^e would be listened to, 
 not with intelligence merely, but with pleasure as well. 
 Again, why do we enforce what we teach by divine testimony, 
 except that we wish to carry the hearer wdth us, that is, to 
 compel his assent by calling in the assistance of Him of 
 whom it is said, " Thy testimonies are very sure " ? ^ And 
 when any one narrates a story, even in the subdued style, 
 what does he wish but to be believed ? But who will listen 
 to him if he do not arrest attention by some beauty of style ? 
 And if he be not intelligible, is it not plain that he can 
 
 ^ Chnps. XV. and xvii, " Vs. xciii. 5. 
 
IGC ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [bOOK IV. 
 
 neither give pleasure nor enforce conviction ? The subdued 
 style, again, in its own naked simplicity, when it unravels 
 questions of very great difficulty, and throws an unexpected 
 light upon tlicm ; when it worms out and brings to light 
 some very acute observations from a quarter whence nothing 
 was expected ; when it seizes upon and exposes the falsity of 
 an opposing opinion, which seemed at its first statement to be 
 unassailable ; especially when all this is accompanied by a 
 natural, unsought gi^ace of expression, and by a rhythm and 
 balance of style which is not ostentatiously obtruded, but 
 seems rather to be called forth by the nature of the subject : 
 this style, so used, frequently calls forth applause so great 
 that one can hardly believe it to be the subdued style. For 
 the fact that it comes forth without either ornament or defence, 
 and offers battle in its own naked simplicity, does not hinder 
 it from crushing its adversary by weiglit of nerve and muscle, 
 and overwhelming and destroying the falsehood that opposes 
 it by the mere strength of its own right arm. How exjdain 
 the frequent and vehement applause tliat waits upon men who 
 speak thus, except by the pleasure that truth so irresistibly 
 established, and so victoriously defended, naturally affords ? 
 Wherefore the Christian teacher and speaker ought, when he 
 uses the subdued style, to endeavour not only to be clear and 
 intelligible, but to give pleasure and to bring home conviction 
 to the hearer. 
 
 57. Eloquence of the temperate style, also, must, in the 
 case of the Christian orator, be neither altogether without 
 ornament, nor unsuitably adorned nor is it to make the 
 giving of pleasure its sole aim, which is all it professes to 
 accomplish in the hands of oiliers ; but in its encomiums and 
 censures it sliould aim at inducing the hearer to strive after 
 or h()h\ more firmly by what it praises, and to avoid or 
 renounce wliat it condemns. On the other hand, witliout 
 perspicuity this style cannot give pleasure. And so the three 
 qualities, perspicuity, beauty, and persuasiveness, are to be 
 sought in this style also ; beauty, of coiu'se, being its primary 
 object. 
 
 58. Again, when it becomes necessary to stir and sway the 
 hearer's mind by the majestic style (and this is always neces- 
 
CITAP. XXVII.] THE POWER OF A HOLY LIFE. 167 
 
 sary when lie admits tliat w^liat you say is both true and 
 agreeable, and yet is unwilling to act accordingly), you must, 
 of course, speak in the majestic style. But who can be moved 
 if he does not understand what is said ? and who will stay to 
 listen if he receives no pleasure ? Wherefore, in this style, 
 too, when an obdurate heart is to be persuaded to obedience, 
 you must speak so as to be both intelligible and pleasing, if 
 you would be heard with a submissive mind. 
 
 Chap, xxvii. — The man whose life i s in harmony with his te aching will 
 teach with gr eater eff ect. 
 
 59. But whatever may be the majesty of the style, the life 
 of the speaker will count for more in securing the hearer's 
 compliance. The man who speaks wisely and eloquently, but 
 lives wickedly, may, it is true, instruct many who are anxious 
 to learn ; though, as it is written, he " is unprofitable to him- 
 self." ^ Wherefore, also, the apostle says : " Whether in 
 pretence or in truth Christ is preached." ^ ISTow Christ is the 
 truth ; yet we see that the truth can be preached, though not 
 in truth, — that is, what is right and true in itself may be 
 preached by a man of perverse and deceitful mind. And thus 
 it is that Jesus Christ is preached by those that seek their 
 own, and not the things that are Jesus Christ's. But since 
 true believers obey the voice, not of any man, but of the Lord 
 Himself, who says, " All therefore whatsoever they bid you 
 observe, that observe and do : but do not ye after their works ; 
 for they say and do not ; " ^ therefore it is that men who 
 themselves lead unprofitable lives are heard with profit by 
 others. For though they seek their own objects, they do not 
 dare to teach their own doctrines, sitting as they do in the 
 high places of ecclesiastical authority, which is established on 
 sound doctrine. Wherefore our Lord Himself, before saying 
 what I have just quoted about men of this stamp, made this 
 observation : " The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' 
 seat." * The seat they occupied, then, which was not theirs 
 but Moses', compelled them to say what was good, though they 
 did what was evil. And so they followed their own course 
 in their lives, but were prevented by the seat they occupied 
 
 ' Ecclus. xxxvii. 19. ^ pyj^ j jg. 
 
 3 Matt, xxiii. 3. * 21att. xxiii. 2. 
 
J 
 
 1G8 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 which belonged to anotlier, from preaching their own doc- 
 trines. 
 
 60. Xow these men do good to many by preaching what 
 they themselves do not perform ; but they would do good to 
 very many more if they lived as they preach. For there are 
 numbers who seek an excuse for their own evil lives in 
 comparing the teaching with the conduct of their instructors, 
 and who say in their hearts, or even go a little further, and 
 say with their lips : Wliy do you not do yourself what you 
 bid me do ? And thus they cease to listen with submission 
 to a man who does not listen to himself, and in despising the 
 preacher they learn to despise the w^ord that is preached. 
 Wlierefore the apostle, writing to Timothy, after telling him, 
 " Let no man despise thy youth," adds immediately the course 
 by which he would avoid contempt : " but be thou an example 
 of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, 
 in faith, in purity." ^ 
 
 CiiAP. xxviii. — Truth is more important than expression. What is meant 1>if 
 strife about words. 
 
 61. Such a teacher as is here described may, to secure 
 compliance, speak not only quietly and temperately, but even 
 vehemently, without any breach of modesty, because his life 
 protects him against contempt. For while he pursues an up- 
 right life, he takes care to maintain a good reputation as well, 
 providing things honest in the sight of God and men," fearing 
 God, and caring for men. In his very speech even lie prefers 
 to please by matter rather than by words ; thinks that a thing 
 is well said in proportion as it is true in fact, and tliat a 
 teacher should govern his words, not let the words govern him. 
 This is what the apostle says : " Not with wisdom of words, 
 lest the cross of Christ should be made of none eftect." ^ To 
 the same effect also is what he says to Timotliy : " Charging 
 them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no 
 })rorit, but to the subverting of the hearers." * Kow this does 
 not mean that, when adversaries oppose the truth, we are to 
 say nothing in defence of tlie truth. For where, then, would 
 be wliat he says wlien lie is describing the sort of man a 
 
 ' 1 Tim. iv. 12. so Cor. viii. 21. 
 
 M Cur. ii. 17. •• 2 Tim ii. 14. 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] ELOQUENCE WITHOUT WISDOM VAIX. 169 
 
 bishop ought to be : " that he may be able by sound doctrine 
 both to exhort and convince the gainsayers"?^ To strive about 
 words is not to be careful about the way to overcome error by 
 truth, but to be anxious that your mode of expression should 
 be preferred to that of another. The man who does not strive 
 about words, whether he speak quietly, temperately, or vehe- 
 mently, uses words with no other purpose than to make the 
 truth plain, pleasing, and effective ; for not even love itself, 
 which is the end of the commandment and the fulfilling of 
 the law,^ can be rightly exercised unless the objects of love are 
 true and not false. For as a man with a comely body but an 
 ill-conditioned mind is a more painful object than if his body 
 too were deformed, so men who teach lies are the more pitiable 
 if they happen to be eloquent in speech. To speak eloquently, 
 then, and wisely as w^ell, is just to express truths which it is 
 expedient to teach in fit and proper words, — words which in 
 the subdued style are adequate, in the temperate, elegant, and 
 in the majestic, forcible. But the man who cannot speal^ 
 both eloquently and wisely should speak wisely without elo-j 
 quence, rather than eloquently without wisdom. 
 
 Chap. xxix. — It is permissible for a preacher to deliver to the people ivhat has 
 been written by a more eloquent man than himself. 
 
 If, however, he cannot do even this, let his life be such 
 as shall not only secure a reward for himself, but afford an 
 example to others ; and let his manner of living be an elo- 
 quent sermon in itself. 
 
 63. There are, indeed, some men who have a good delivery, 
 but cannot compose anything to deliver. Now, if such men 
 take what has been written with wisdom and eloquence by 
 others, and commit it to memory, and deliver it to the people, 
 they cannot be blamed, supposing them to do it without de- 
 ception. For in this way many become preachers of the 
 truth (which is certainly desirable), and yet not many teachers ; 
 for all deliver the discourse which one real teacher has com- 
 posed, and there are no divisions among them, j^or are such 
 men to be alarmed by the words of Jeremiah the prophet, 
 through whom God denounces those who steal His words 
 every one from his neighbour.^ For those who steal take what 
 
 ^ Tit. i. 9. 2 1 Tim. i. 5 and r.cm. xiii. 10. ^ Jcr. xxiii. 30. 
 
170 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTrJNE. [BOOK IV. 
 
 / does not belong to tliem, hut the word of God belongs to all who 
 obey it ; and it is the man who speaks well, but lives badly, 
 who really takes the words that belong to another. For the 
 good things he says seem to be the result of his own thought, 
 and yet they have nothing in common with his manner of 
 life. And so God has said that they steal His words who 
 would appear good by speaking God's words, but are in fact 
 bad, as they follow their own ways. And if you look closely 
 into the matter, it is not really themselves who say the good 
 things they say. For how can they say in words what they 
 deny in deeds ? It is not for nothing that the apostle says of 
 such men : " Tliey profess that they know God, but in works 
 they deny Him."^ In one sense, then, they do say the things, 
 and in another sense they do not say them ; for both these 
 statements must be true, both being made by Him who is the 
 Truth. Speaking of such men, in one place He says, " Wliat- 
 soever they bid you observe, that observe and do ; but do not 
 ye after their works;" — that is to say, what ye hear from their 
 lips, that do ; what ye see in their lives, that do ye not ; — " for 
 they say and do not." ^ And so, though they do not, yet they 
 say. But in another place, upbraiding such men, He says, 
 " O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good 
 things ?"^ And from this it would appear that even what 
 they say, when they say what is good, it is not themselves 
 who say, for in will and in deed they deny what they say. 
 Hence it happens that a Avicked man who is eloquent may 
 compose a discourse in which the trutli is set forth to be de- 
 livered by a good man who is not eloquent ; and when this 
 takes place, the former draws from himself what does not be- 
 long to him, and the latter receives from another what really 
 
 f belongs to liimself. Lut when true believers render this ser- 
 vice to true believers, both parties speak what is their own, 
 for God is tlieirs, to whom belongs all tliat they say ; and even 
 those who could not composi; what they say make it their own 
 by composing their lives in liarmony witli it. 
 
 Chat. xxx. — Tlie preacher should commence his discourse trilh prayer to God. 
 
 Go. r.ut whether a man is going to address the people or to 
 
 »Tit. i. IG. 2 Matt, xxiii. 3. » Matt. xii. 34. 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] END OF THE WOKK. 171 
 
 dictate what others will deliver or read to the people, he ought 
 to pray God to put into his mouth a suitable discourse. For 
 if Queen Esther prayed, when she was about to speak to the 
 king touching the temporal welfare of her race, that God would 
 put fit words into her mouth,^ how much more ought he to 
 pray for the same blessing who labours in word and doctrine 
 for the eternal welfare of men ? Those, again, who are to deliver 
 what others compose for them ought, before they receive their 
 discourse, to pray for those who are preparing it; and when they 
 have received it, they ought to pray both that they themselves 
 may deliver it well, and that those to whom they address it 
 may give ear ; and when the discourse has a happy issue, they 
 ought to render thanks to Him from whom they know such 
 blessings come, so that all the praise may be His " in whose 
 hand are both we and our words." ^ 
 
 Chap. xxxi. — Apology for the length of the ivorlc. 
 
 64. This book has extended to a greater length than I ex- 
 pected or desired. But the reader or hearer who finds pleasure 
 in it will not think it long. He who thinks it long, but is 
 anxious to know its contents, may read it in parts. He who 
 does not care to be acquainted with it need not complain of 
 its length. I, however, give thanks to God that with what 
 little ability i possess I have in these four books striven to 
 depict, not the sort of man I am myself (for my defects are 
 very many), but the sort of man he ought to be who desires to 
 labour in sound, that is, in Christian doctrine, not for his own 
 instruction only, but for that of others also. 
 
 1 Estli. iv. 16 (LXX.). 2 ^Yi,^d^ ^-^^ IC^ 
 
THE ENCHIRIDION OF AUGUSTINE, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO LAURENTIUS ; 
 
 BEING A TKEATISE ON FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 
 
 178 
 
THE ENCHIRIDION OF AUGUSTINE, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO LAURENTIUS ; 
 BEING A TEEATISE ON FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 LAUllENTIUS HAVING ASKED AUGUSTINE TO FURNISH HIM WITH A HANDBOOK OF 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, CONTAINING IN BRIEF COMPASS ANSWERS TO SEVERAL 
 QUESTIONS WHICH HE HAD PROPOSED, AUGUSTINE SHOWS HIM THAT THESE 
 QUESTIONS CAN BE FULLY ANSWERED BY ANY ONE WHO KNOWS THE PROPER 
 OBJECTS OF FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. HE THEN PROCEEDS, IN THE FIRST 
 PART OF THE WORK (CHAP. IX.-CXIII.), TO EXPOUND THE OBJECTS OF FAITH, 
 TAKING AS HIS TEXT THE APOSTLES' CREED ; AND IN THE COURSE OF THIS 
 EXPOSITION, BESIDES REFUTING DIVERS HERESIES, HE THROWS OUT MANY 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF LIFE, THE SECOND PART OF THE WORK 
 (CHAP. CXIV.-CXVI.) TREATS OF THE OBJECTS OF HOPE, AND CONSISTS OF A 
 VERY BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE SEVERAL PETITIONS IN THE LORD's PRAYER. 
 THE THIRD AND CONCLUDING PART (CHAP. CXVII.-CXXH.) TREATS OF THE 
 OBJECTS OF LOVE, SHOWING THE PRE-EMINENCE OF THIS GRACE IN THE 
 GOSPEL SYSTEM, THAT IT IS THE END OF THE COMMANDMENT AND THE 
 FULFILLING OF THE LAW, AND THAT GOD HIMSELF IS LOVE. 
 
 Chap. i. — The autlior desires the gift of true lulsdomfor Lanrent'ms. 
 
 I CANNOT express, my beloved sou Laurentius, the delight 
 with which I witness your progress in knowledge, and 
 the earnest desire I have that you should be a wise man : not 
 one of those of whom it is said, " Where is the wise ? wliere 
 is the scribe ? where is the disputer of this world ? hath not 
 God made foolish the wisdom of this world ?"^ but one of 
 those of whom it is said, " The multitude of the wise is 
 the welfare of the world," ^ and such as the apostle wishes 
 
 » 1 Cor. i. 20. ' Wisil. vi. 24. 
 
 175 
 
176 THE ENCHIRIDION. [CHAP. III. 
 
 those to become, whom he tells, " I would have you wise 
 unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil."^ 
 Now, just as no one can exist of himself, so no one can be 
 wise of himself, but only by the enlightening influence of 
 II im of whom it is written, " All wisdom cometh from the 
 Lord'- 
 
 CiiAr. II. — The fear of God is man's t7'ne wisdom. 
 
 The true wisdom of man is piety. You find this in the 
 book of Job. For we read there what wisdom itself has said 
 to man : " Behold, the fear of the Lord [2nctas], that is wis- 
 dom."^ If you ask further what is meant in that place by 
 pictas, the Greek calls it more definitely Oeoo-e/^eLa, that is, 
 the worship of God. The Greeks sometimes call piety evai- 
 /3eta, which signifies right worship, though this, of course, 
 refers specially to the worship of God. But when we are 
 defining in what man's true wisdom consists, the most con- 
 venient word to use is that wdiich distinctly expresses the 
 fear of God. And can you, who are anxious that I should 
 treat of great matters in few words, wish for a briefer form 
 of expression ? Or perhaps you are anxious that this ex- 
 pression should itself be briefly explained, and that I should 
 unfold in a short discourse the proper mode of worsliipping 
 God? 
 
 CiiAr. III. — God is to he worshipped through faith, hope, ayid love. 
 
 Now if I should answer, that God is to be w^orshipped with 
 faith, hope, and love, you will at once say that this answer is 
 too brief, and wiU ask me briefly to unfold the objects of each 
 of these three graces, viz., what w^e are to beHeve, what we are 
 to hope for, and what we are to love. And ^\ hen I have done 
 this, you will have an answer to all the questions you asked in 
 your letter. If you have kept a copy of your letter, you can 
 easily turn it up and read it over again : if you have not, you 
 will have no diihculty in recalling it when I refresh your 
 memory. 
 
 1 Rom. xvi. 19. ' Ecclus. i. 1. 'Job xxviii. 23. 
 
CHAP, v.] THE QUESTIONS OF LAUEENTIUS. 177 
 
 Chap. iv. — The questions propounded by Laurentius. 
 
 You are anxious, you say, that I should write a sort of 
 handbook for you, which you might always keep beside you, 
 containing answers to the questions you put, viz. : what ought 
 to be man's chief end in life ; what he ought, in view of the 
 various heresies, chiefly to avoid ; to what extent religion is 
 supported by reason ; what there is in reason that lends no 
 support to faith, when faith stands alone ; what is the starting-^ 
 point, what the goal, of religion ; what is the sum of the whole . 
 |body of doctrine ; what is the sure and proper foundation of 
 the catholic faith. Now, undoubtedly, you will know the 
 answers to all these questions, if you know thoroughly the 
 proper objects of faith, hope, and love. For these must be the^ 
 chief, nay, the exclusive objects of pursuit in religion. He 
 who speaks against these is either a total stranger to the name 
 of Christ, or is a heretic. These are to be defended by reason, 
 which must have its starting-point either in the bodily senses 
 or in the intuitions of the mind. And what we have neither 
 had experience of through our bodily senses, nor have been 
 able to reach through the intellect, must undoubtedly be 
 believed on the testimony of those witnesses by whom the 
 Scriptures, justly called divine, were written ; and who by 
 divine assistance were enabled, either through bodily sense 
 or intellectual perception, to see or to foresee the things in 
 question. 
 
 Chap. v. — Brief ansivers to these questions. 
 
 Moreover, w^hen the mind has been imbued with the first 
 elements of that faith which worketh by love,^ it endeavours 
 by purity of life to attain unto sight, where the pure and per- 
 fect in heart know that unspeakable beauty, the full vision of 
 which is supreme happiness. Here surely is an answer to 
 your question as to what is the starting-point, and what the 
 goal : we begin in faith, and are made perfect by sight. This 
 also is the sum of the whole body of doctrine. But the sure 
 and proper foundation of the catholic faith is Christ. " For 
 other foundation," says the apostle, " can no man lay than that 
 is laid, which is Jesus Christ."- Nor are we to deny that this 
 » Gal. y. 6.. = i Cor. iil 11. 
 
 ENCHIR. M 
 
173 THE ENCHIKIDION. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 is the proper foundation of the catholic faith, because it may 
 be supposed that some heretics hold this in common with us. 
 For if we carefully consider the things that pertain to Christ, 
 we sliall find that, among those heretics who call themselves 
 Christians, Christ is present in name only : in deed and in 
 truth He is not among them. But to show this would occupy 
 us too long, for we should require to go over all the heresies 
 which have existed, which do exist, or which could exist, under 
 the Christian name, and to show that this is true in the case 
 of each, — a discussion which would occupy so many volumes 
 as to be all but interminable. 
 
 Chap. vi. — Controversy out of place in a handhooh like the present. 
 Now you ask of me a handbook, that is, one that can be 
 carried iu the hand, not one to load your shelves. To return, 
 then, to the three graces through which, as I have said, God 
 should be worshipped — faith, hope, and love : to state what 
 are the true and proper oljjects of each of these is easy. But 
 to defend this true doctrine against the assaults of those who 
 hold an opposite opinion, requires much fuller and more elabo- 
 rate instruction. And the true way to obtain this instruction 
 is not to have a short treatise put into one's hands, but to have 
 a great zeal kindled in one's heart. 
 
 Chap. vii. — The Creed and the Lord's Prayer demand the exercise offailh, 
 hope, and love. 
 
 For you have the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. \Miat can 
 be briefer to hear or to read ? What easier to commit to 
 memory ? When, as the result of sin, the human race was 
 groaning under a heavy load of misery, and was in urgent need 
 of the divine compassion, one of the prophets, anticipating the 
 time of God's gi-ace, declared : " And it shall come to pass, 
 that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be 
 delivered."^ Hence the Lord's Prayer. But the apostle, when, 
 for the purpose of commending this very grace, he had quoted 
 this prophetic testimony, immediately added : " How then 
 sh.'iU they call on Him in whom they have not believed?"^ 
 Hence the Creed. In these two you have those three graces 
 exemplified : faith believes, hope and love pray. But without 
 
 1 Joel ii. 32. ' Horn. x. 1 1. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] FAITH AND HOPE DISTINGUISHED. 179 
 
 faith tlie two last cannot exist, and therefore we may say that 
 faith also prays. Whence it is written : " How shall they call 
 on Him in whom they have not believed ?" 
 
 Chap. viii. — The distinction between faith and hope, and the mutual dependence 
 of faith, hope, and love. 
 
 Again, can anything be hoped for which is not an object of 
 faith ? It is true that a thing which is not an object of hope 
 may be believed. What true Christian, for example, does not 
 believe in the punishment of the wicked ? And yet such an 
 one does not hope for it. And the man who believes that 
 punishment to be hanging over himself, and who shrinks in 
 horror from the prospect, is more properly said to fear than to 
 hope. And these two states of mind the poet carefully dis- 
 tinguishes, when he says : " Permit the fearful to have hope."-^ 
 Another poet, who is usually much superior to this one, makes . 
 a wrong use of the word, when he says ; " If I have been able 
 to hope for so great a grief as this."^ And some grammarians 
 take this case as an example of impropriety of speech, saying, 
 " He said spcrare [to hope] instead of timcre [to fear]." Ac- 
 cordingly, faith may have for its object evil as well as good ; 
 for both good and evil are believed, and the faith that believes 
 them is not evil, but good. Faith, moreover, is concerned with 
 the past, the present, and the future, all three. We believe, for 
 example, that Christ died, — an event in the past; we believe that 
 He is sitting at the right hand of God, — a state of things which 
 is present ; w^e believe that He will come to judge the quick 
 and the dead, — an event of the future. Again, faith applies 
 both to one's own circumstances and those of others. Every 
 ^ one, for example, believes that his own existence had a begin- 
 ning, and was not eternal, and he believes the same both of 
 other men and other things. Many of our beliefs in regard to 
 religious matters, again, have reference not merely to other men, 
 but to angels also. But hope has for its object only what is 
 good, only what is future, and only what affects the man who 
 entertains the hope. For these reasons, then, faith must be 
 distinguished from hope, not merely as a matter of verbal pro- 
 priety, but because they are essentially different. The fact 
 that we do not see either what we believe or what we hope for, 
 
 ^ Lucan, Phars. ii. 15. 2 Virgil, ^Eneid, iv. 419. 
 
180 THE EN'ciimiDioN. [chap. IX. 
 
 is all that is common to faitli and ho[)e. In the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, for example, faith is defined (and eminent de- 
 fenders of the catholic faith have used the definition as a 
 standard) "the evidence of things not seen."^ Although, should 
 any one say that he believes, that is, has grounded his faith, 
 not on words, nor on witnesses, nor on any reasoning whatever, 
 but on the direct evidence of his own senses, he would not 
 be guilty of such an impropriety of speech as to be justly 
 liable to the criticism, " You saw, therefore you did not 
 believe." And hence it does not follow that an object of faith 
 is not an object of sight. But it is better that we should use 
 the word " faith " as the Scriptures have taught us, applying it 
 to those things which are not seen. Concerning hope, again, 
 the apostle says : " Hope that is seen is not hope ; for what 
 a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? But if we hope for 
 tliat we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."^ When, 
 then, w^e believe that good is about to come, this is nothing 
 else but to hope for it. Now what shall I say of love ? 
 /^Without it, faith profits nothing ; and in its absence, hope 
 ; cannot exist. The Apostle James says : " The devils also 
 believe, and tremble,"^ — that is, they, having neither hope nor 
 love, but believing that what we love and hope for is about 
 to come, are in terror. And so the Apostle Paul approves and 
 commends the " faitli that worketh by love ;" * and this cer- 
 tainly cannot exist without hope. AVlierefore there is no 
 f love without hope, no hope without love, and neither love nor 
 ^hope without faith. 
 
 Chap. ix. — What we are to believe. In regard to nature it is not necessary for 
 tlie Christian to know more than that the goodness of the Creator is the cause 
 of all things. 
 
 jjfr When, then, the question is asked what we are to believe in 
 regard to religion, it is not necessary to probe into the nature 
 of things, as was done by those whom tlic Greeks QdX[ plufsici ; 
 nor need we be in alarm lest the Christian sliould be ignorant 
 of the force and number of the elements, — the motion, and 
 order, and eclipses of the heavenly bodies ; the form of the 
 heavens ; the species and the natures of animals, plants, stones, 
 
 ' Heb. xi. 1. = Rom. viii. 24, 25. * 
 
 » Jas. ii. I'J. * Gal. v. 6. 
 
CHAP. XI.] THE NATURE OF EVIL. 181 
 
 fountains, rivers, mountains ; about chronology and distances ; 
 the signs of coming storms ; and a thousand other things which 
 those philosophers either have found out, or think they have 
 found out. For even these men themselves, endowed though 
 they are with so much genius, burning with zeal, abounding in 
 leisure, tracking some things by the aid of human conjecture, 
 searching into others with the aids of history and experience, 
 have not found out all things ; and even their boasted dis- 
 coveries are oftener mere guesses than certain knowledge. It 
 is enough for the Christian to believe that the only cause of 
 all created things, whether heavenly or earthly, whether visible 
 or invisible, is the goodness of the Creator, the one true God ; 
 and that nothing exists but Himself that does not derive its 
 existence from Him ; and that He is the Trinity — to wit, the 
 Father, and the Son begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit 
 proceeding from the same Father, but one and the same Spirit 
 of Father and Son. 
 
 Chap. x. — The supremely good Creator made all tilings good. 
 
 ^ By the Trinity, thus supremely and equally and unchange- 
 ably good, all things were created ; and these are not supremely 
 and equally and unchangeably good, but yet they are good, 
 even taken separately. Taken as a wdiole, however, they are 
 very good, because their ensemble constitutes the universe in all 
 its wonderful order and beauty. 
 
 Chap, xt.— What is called evil in the universe is hut the absence of good. 
 And in the universe, even that which is called evil, when it 
 is regulated and put in its own place, only enhances our ad- 
 miration of the good ; for we enjoy and value the good more 
 /when we compare it with the evil. For the Almighty God, 
 / w^ho, as even the heathen acknowledge, has supreme power over 
 j all things, being Himself supremely good, would never permit 
 I the existence of anything evil among His works, if He were 
 I not so omnipotent and good that He can bring good even out 
 \ of evil. For what is that which we call evil but the absence 
 of good ? In the bodies of animals, disease and wounds mean 
 "nothing -but the absence of health ; for when a cure is 
 effected, that does not mean that the evils which were present 
 
 ..A^ 
 
 
l'^2 TUT- KNCHIPJDION. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 — namely, the diseases and wounds — go away from the body 
 and dwell elsewhere : they altogether cease to exist ; for the 
 wound or disease is not a substance, but a defect in the fleshly 
 substance, — the flesh itself being a substance, and therefore 
 something good, of which those evils — that is^^ivations of the 
 i^ood which we call health — are accidents. Just in the same 
 I way, what are called vices in the soul are nothing but privations 
 f of natural good. And when they are cured, they are not trans- 
 ferred elsewhere : when they cease to exist in the healthy soul, 
 they cannot exist anywhere else. 
 
 Chap. xii. — AH beings were made good, Imt not being made perfectly good, are 
 ^ ■ liable to corruption. 
 
 All things that exist, therefore, seeing that the Creator of 
 them all is supremely good, are themselves good. But because 
 . they , are not, like their Creator, supremely and unchangeably 
 good, their good may be diminished and increased. But for / 
 good to be diminished is an evil, although, however mucli it 
 may be diminished, it is necessary, if the being is to continue, | 
 that some good should remain to constitute the being. For! 
 however small or of whatever kind the being may be, the good 
 which makes it a being cannot be destroyed without destroy- 
 ing the being itself An uncorrupted nature is justly held in 
 esteem. But if, still further, it be incorruptible, it is un- 
 doubtedly considered of still higher value. When it is cor- 
 rupted, however, its corruption is an evil, because it is deprived 
 of some sort of good. For if it be deprived of no good, it 
 receives no injury ; but it does receive injury, therefore it is 
 deprived of good. Therefore, so long as a being is in process 
 of corruption, there is in it some good of which it is beinc: 
 deprived ; and if a part of the being should remain which 
 cannot be corrupted, this will certainly be an incorruptible 
 being, and accordingly the process of corruption will result in 
 the manifestation of tliis groat good. But if it do not cease to I 
 be corrupted, neither can it cease to possess good of which cor-/ 
 ruption may deprive it. But if it should be thoroughly and I 
 completely consumed by corruption, there will then be no good 
 left, because there will be no being. Wherefore corruption 
 can consume the good oidy by consuming the being. Every 
 being, therefore, is a good ; a great good, if it cannot be cor- 
 
CHAP. XIII.] EVIL ALWAYS CO-EXISTS WITH GOOD. 183 
 
 rupted ; a little good, if it can : but in any case, only the foolish 
 or ignorant will deny that it is a good. And if it be wholly 
 consumed by corruption, then the corruption itself must cease 
 to exist, as there is no being left in which it can dwell. 
 
 Chap. xiii. — Tliere can he no evil where there is no good ; and an evil man 
 is an evil good. 
 
 Accordingly, there is nothing of what we call evil, if there 
 be nothing good. But a good which is wholly without evil is 
 a perfect good. A good, on the other hand, which contains 
 evil is a faulty or imperfect good; and there can be no evil 
 where there is no good. From all this we arrive at the 
 curious result : that since every being, so far as it is a being, 
 is good, when we say that a faulty being is an evil being, we 
 just seem to say that what is good is evil, and that nothing • 
 but what is good can be evil, seeing that every being is good, 
 and that no evil can exist except in a being. Nothing, then, A 
 can be evil except something which is good. And although 
 this, when stated, seems to be a contradiction, yet the strict- 
 ness of reasoning leaves us no escape from the conclusion. 
 We must, however, beware of incurring the prophetic condem- 
 nation : " Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil : 
 that put darkness for light, and light for darkness : that put 
 bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter."^ And yet our Lord 
 says : " An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart 
 bringeth forth that which is evil."^ Now, what is an evil 
 man but an evil being ? for a man is a being. Now, if a man 
 is a good thing because he is a being, what is an evil man but 
 an evil good ? Yet, when we accurately distinguish these two 
 things, we find that it is not because he is a man that he is 
 an evil, or because he is wicked that he is a good ; but that 
 he is a good because he is a man, and an evil because he is 
 wicked. Whoever, then, says, "To be a man is an evil," or,/ 
 "To be wicked is a good," falls under the prophetic de- 
 nunciation : " Woe unto them that call evil good, and good 
 evil !" For he condemns the work of God, which is the man, 
 and praises the defect of man, which is the wickedness. 
 Therefore every being, even if it be a defective one, in so far 
 as it is a being is good, and in so far as it is defective is evil. 
 1 Isa. V. 20. 2 Luke vi. 45. 
 
184 THE ENcmrvTDioN. [chap. xv. 
 
 Chap. xiv. — Good and evil are an exception to the rnl^ that contrary attrlhufes 
 cannot be predicated of the same subject. Evil sprliifjs up in what is good, 
 and cannot exist except in what is good. 
 
 Accordingly, in the case of these contraries which we call 
 good and evil, the rule of the logicians, that two contraries 
 cannot be predicated at tlie same time of the same thing, does 
 not hold. No weather is at the same time dark and bright : 
 no food or drink is at the same time sweet and bitter : no 
 body is at the same time and in the same place black and 
 white : none is at the same time and in the same place de- 
 formed and beautiful. And this rule is found to hold in 
 regard to many, indeed nearly all, contraries, that they cannot 
 exist at the same time in any one thing. But although no 
 one can doubt that good and evil are contraries, not only can 
 they exist at the same time, but evil cannot exist without 
 good, or in anything that is not good. Good, however, can 
 exist without evil. For a man or an angel can exist without 
 b eing wick ed ; but_ nothing can be wicked except a man or an 
 angeli and so far as he is a man or an angel, he is good ; so 
 far as he is wicked, he is an evil. And tliese two contraries 
 are so far co-existent, that if good did not exist in what is 
 evil, neither could evil exist ; because corruption could not 
 have either a place to dwell in, or a source to spring from, if 
 there were nothing that could be corrupted ; and nothing can 
 be corrupted except what is good, for corruption is nothing 
 else but the destruction of good. From what is good, then, 
 evils arose, and except in what is good they do not exist ; nor 
 was there any other source from which any evil nature could 
 arise. For if there were, then, in so far as this was a being, 
 it was certainly a good : and a being which was incorruptil^le 
 would be a great good ; and even one which was corruptible 
 must be to some extent a good, for only by corrupting what 
 _^was good in it could corruption do it harm. 
 
 Chap. xv. — The preceding argument is in no wise inconsistent with the saying 
 of our Lord : " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." 
 
 But when we say that evil springs out of good, let it not be 
 thought that this contradicts our Lord's saying : " A good tree 
 cannot bring forth evil fruit."* For, as He who is the Truth 
 
 'Matt. vii. 18. 
 
CHAP. XVl] THE CAUSES OF GOOD AND EVIL. 185 
 
 says, you cannot gather grapes of thorns/ because grapes do 
 not grow on thorns. But we see that on good soil both vines 
 and thorns may be grown. And in the same way, just as an 
 evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, so an evil will cannot 
 produce good works. But from the nature of man, which is 
 good, may spring either a good or an evil will. And certainly 
 there was at first no source from which an evil will could 
 spring, except the nature of angel or of man, which was good. 
 And our Lord Himself clearly shows this in the very same 
 place where He speaks about the tree and its fruit. For He 
 says : " Either make the tree good, and his fruit good ; or else 
 make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt,"^ — clearly enough 
 warning us that evil fruits do not grow on a good tree, nor 
 good fruits on an evil tree ; but that nevertheless the ground 
 itself, by which He meant those whom He was then address- 
 ing, might grow either kind of trees. 
 
 Chap. xvi. — It is not essential to man's happiness that he should hioio the causes 
 of physical convulsions j hut it is, that he should know the causes of good and 
 evil. 
 
 Kow, in view of these considerations, when we are pleased 
 with that line of Maro, " Happy the man who has attained 
 to the knowledge of the causes of things,"^ we should not 
 suppose that it is necessary to happiness to know the causes 
 of the great physical convulsions, causes which lie hid in the 
 most secret recesses of nature's kingdom, " whence comes the 
 earthquake whose force makes the deep seas to swell and 
 burst their barriers, and again to return upon themselves and 
 settle down."^ But we ought to know the causes of good and 
 evil as far as man may in this life know them, in order to 
 avoid the mistakes and troubles of which this life is so full. 
 For our aim must always be to reach that state of happiness 
 in which no trouble shall distress us, and no error mislead 
 us. If we must know the causes of physical convulsions, 
 there are none which it concerns us more to know than those 
 which affect our own health. But seeing that, in our ignorance 
 of these, we are fain to resort to physicians, it would seem 
 that we might bear with considerable patience our ignorance 
 of the secrets that lie hid in the earth and heavens. 
 
 1 Matt. vii. 16. ^ j^jatt. xii. 33. 3 yji-gn, Geonfics, ii. 4'JO. ^ Ih. 
 
186 THE ENcnir.TDio::. [chap. xvii. 
 
 Chap. xvii. — The nature of error. AU n-ror is not hurtful, thoitgh it is man's 
 duty aft far as possible to avoid it. 
 
 For altliongli we ought with the greatest possible care to 
 avoid error, not only in great but even in little things, and 
 although we cannot err except through ignorance, it does not 
 follow that, if a man is ignorant of a thing, he must forthwith 
 fall into error. That is rather the fate of the man who thinks 
 he knows what he does not know. For he accepts what is 
 false as if it were true, and that is the essence of error. But 
 it is a point of very great importance what the subject is in 
 regard to which a man makes a mistake. For on one and 
 the same subject we rightly prefer an instructed man to an 
 ignorant one, and a man who is not in error to one who is. 
 In the case of different subjects, however, — that is, when one 
 man knows one thing, and another a different thing, and when 
 what the former knows is useful, and what the latter knows 
 is not so useful, or is actually hurtful, — who would not, in 
 regard to the things the latter knows, prefer the ignorance of 
 the former to the knowledge of the latter ? For there are 
 points on which ignorance is better than knowledge. And in 
 the same way, it has sometimes been an advantage to depart 
 from the right way, — in travelling, however, not in morals. 
 It has happened to myself to take the wrong road where two 
 ways met, so that I did not pass by the place where an armed 
 band of Donatists lay in wait for me. Yet I arrived at the 
 place whither I was bent, though by a roundabout route ; and 
 when I heard of the ambush, I congi\atulated myself on my 
 mistake, and gave thanks to God for it. Now, who would 
 not rather be the traveller who made a mistake like this, 
 than the highwayman who made no mistake ? And hence, 
 perhaps, it is that tlie prince of poets puts these words into 
 the mouth of a lover in misery:^ "How I am undone, how 
 I have been carried away by an e\'il error!" for there is an 
 error which is good, as it not merely does no harm, but pro- 
 duces some actual advantage. But when we look more closely 
 into the nature of truth, and consider that to err is just to 
 take tlie false for tlie true, and the true for the false, or to 
 hold what is ccrtiun as uiut-rtain, and what is uncertain as 
 * Virgil, Eclo'j. viii. 41. 
 
CHAP. XVIII.] EREOr. DISTINGUISHED FROM FALSEHOOD. 187 
 
 certain, and that error in the soul is hideous and repulsive 
 just in proportion as it appears fair and plausible when we 
 utter it, or assent to it, saying, " Yea, yea ; Nay, nay," — 
 surely this life that we live is wretched indeed, if only on this 
 account, that sometimes, in order to preserve it, it is necessary 
 to fall into error. God forbid that such should be that other 
 life, where truth itself is the life of the soul, where no one 
 deceives, and no one is deceived. But here men deceive and 
 are deceived, and they are more to be pitied when they lead 
 others astray than when they are themselves led astray by 
 putting trust in liars. Yet so much does a rational soul 
 shrink from what is false, and so earnestly does it struggle 
 against error, that even those who love to deceive are most 
 unwillinfT to be deceived. For the liar does not think that he 
 errs, but that he leads another who trusts him into error. And 
 certainly he does not err in regard to the matter about which 
 he lies, if he himself knows the truth ; but he is deceived in 
 this, that he thinks his lie does him no harm, whereas every 
 sin is more hurtful to the sinner than to the sinned against. 
 
 Chap, xviii. — It is never alloivahle to tell a lie; hut lies differ very much in 
 guilt, according to the intention and the subject. 
 
 But here arises a very difficult and very intricate question, 
 about which I once wrote a large book, finding it necessary 
 to give it an answer. The question is this : whether at any y 
 time it can become the duty of a good man to tell a lie ? 
 For some go so far as to contend that there are occasions on 
 which it is a good and pious work to commit perjury even, 
 and to say what is false about matters that relate to the 
 worship of God, and about the very nature of God Himself 
 Tq _ me , however^ it seems certain t hat e very _ lia,- isL_2L_sin, 
 thou!:jh it makes a great difference with what intention and 
 on what subject one lies. For the sin of the man who tells a 
 lie to help another is not so heinous as that of the man who 
 tells a lie to injure another ; and the man who by his lying 
 puts a traveller on the wrong road, does not do so much harm 
 as the man who by false or misleading representations distorts 
 the whole course of a life. No one, of course, is to be con- 
 demned as a liar who says what is false, believing it to be 
 true, because such an one does not consciously deceive, but 
 
188 THE ExcniPJDiON. [chap. xix. 
 
 rather is himself deceived. And, on the same principle, a man 
 is not to he accused of lying, though he may sometimes be 
 open to the charge of rashness, if through carelessness he 
 takes up what is false and holds it as true ; but, on the other 
 hand, the man who says what is true, believing it to be false, 
 is, so far as his own consciousness is concerned, a liar. For 
 in saying what he does not believe, he says what to his own 
 conscience is false, even though it should in fact be true ; nor 
 is the man in any sense free from lying who with his mouth 
 speaks the truth without knowing it, but in his heart wills to 
 tell a lie. And, therefore, not looking at the matter spoken 
 of, but solely at the intention of the speaker, the man who 
 unwittingly says what is false, thinking all the time that it is 
 ' true, is a better man than the one who unwittingly says what 
 , ^ is true, but in his conscience intends to deceive. Tor the 
 » Y^ ^ former does not think one thing and say another ; but the 
 U\i ^ latter, though his statements may be true in fact, has one 
 . ^ thought in his heart and another on his lips : and that is the 
 very essence of lying. But when w^e come to consider truth 
 and falsehood in respect to the subjects spoken of, the point 
 J on which one deceives or is deceived becomes a matter of the 
 ^ 'utmost importance. For although, as far as a man's own 
 conscience is concerned, it is a greater evil to deceive than to 
 be deceived, nevertheless it is a far less evil to tell a lie in» 
 4 regard to matters that do not relate to religion, than to be led 
 into error in regard to matters the knowledge and belief o^ 
 which are essential to the right worship of God. To illus- 
 trate this by example : Suppose that one man should say of 
 some one who is dead that he is still alive, knowing this to 
 be untrue ; and that another man should, being deceived, 
 believe that Christ shall at the end of some time (make the 
 time as long as you please) die ; would it not be incomparably 
 better to lie like the former, than to be deceived like the latter ? 
 and would it not be a much less evil to lead some man into 
 tlie former error, than to be hd by any man into the latter ? 
 
 CilAi'. XIX. — Men's errorx vanj very much in the inognUmle of the evils th(y 
 produce; but yet every error is in itst/j'an evil. 
 
 In some things, then, it is a great evil to be deceived ; in 
 souic it is a small evil ; in some no evil at all ; and in some 
 
 '>: 
 
CHAP. XIX. ] ERROR ALWAYS AN EVIL. 189 
 
 it is an actual advantage. It is to his grievous injury that 
 a man is deceived when he does not believe what leads to 
 eternal life, or believes what leads to eternal death. It is a 
 small evil for a man to be deceived, when, by taking falsehood 
 for truth, he brings upon himself temporal annoyances ; for 
 the patience of the believer will turn even these to a good use, 
 as when, for example, taking a bad man for a good, he receives 
 injury from him. But one who believes a bad man to be 
 good, and yet suffers no injury, is nothing the worse for being 
 deceived, nor does he fall under the prophetic denunciation : 
 " Woe to those who call evil good ! " ^ For we are to understand 
 that this is spoken not about evil men, but about the things 
 that make men evil. Hence the man who calls adultery 
 good, falls justly under that prophetic denunciation. But the 
 man who calls the adulterer good, thinking him to be chaste, 
 and not knowing him to be an adulterer, falls into no error 
 in regard to the nature of good and evil, but only makes a 
 mistake as to the secrets of human conduct. He calls the 
 man good on the ground of believing him to be what is un- 
 doubtedly good ; he calls the adulterer evil, and the pure man 
 good ; and he calls this man good, not knowing him to be 
 an adulterer, but believing him to be pure. " Further, if by 
 making a mistake one escape death, as I have said above once 
 happened to me, one even derives some advantage from one's 
 mistake. But when I assert that in certain cases a man may 
 be deceived without any injury to himself, or even with some 
 advantage to himself, I do not mean that the mistake in itself 
 is no evil, or is in any sense a good ; I refer only to the evil 
 that is avoided, or the advantasje that is gained, throucfh 
 making the mistake. For the mistake, considered in itself, is 
 an evil : a great evil if it concern a great matter, a small evil 
 if it concern a small matter, but yet always an evil. For who 
 that is of sound mind can deny that it is an evil to receive 
 what is false as if it were true, and to reject what is true as 
 if it were false, or to hold what is uncertain as certain, and 
 what is certain as uncertain ? But it is one thing to think a 
 man good when he is really bad, which is a mistake ; it is 
 another thing to suffer no ulterior injury in consequence of 
 
 * Isa. V. 20. 
 
100 THE ENcniriDio::. [chap. xx. 
 
 the mistake, supposing that the bad man whom we think good 
 inflicts no damage upon us. In the same way, it is one thing to 
 think that we are on the right road when we are not ; it is an- 
 other thing when this mistake of ours, which is an evil, leads to 
 some good, such as saving us from an ambush of wicked men. 
 
 Chap. xx. — Every error is not a sin. An examination of the opinion of the 
 Academic ijhUosophcrs, that to avoid trror we s/u/uld in all capita suspend 
 beliif. 
 
 I am not sure whether mistakes such as the following, — 
 when one forms a good opinion of a bad man, not knowing 
 what sort of man he is ; or when, instead of the ordinary 
 perceptions through the bodily senses, other appearances of a 
 similar kind present themselves, which we perceive in the 
 spirit, but think we perceive in the body, or perceive in the 
 body, but think we perceive in the spirit (such a mistake as 
 the Apostle Peter made when the angel suddenly freed him 
 from his chains and imprisonment, and he thought he saw a 
 vision^) ; or when, in the case of sensible objects themselves, 
 we mistake roudi for smooth, or bitter for sweet, or think 
 that putrid matter has a good smell ; or when we mistake the 
 passing of a carriage for thunder ; or mistake one man for 
 another, the two being very much alike, as often happens in 
 the case of twins (hence our great poet calls it " a mistake 
 pleasing to parents " ^), — whether these, and other mistakes of 
 this kind, ought to be called sins. Nor do I now undertake to 
 solve a very knotty question, which perplexed those very acute 
 thinkers, the Academic philosophers : whether a wise man 
 ought to give his assent to anything, seeing that he may fall 
 into error by assenting to falsehood : for all things, as they 
 assert, are either unknown or uncertain. Now I wrote three 
 .volumes shortly after my conversion, to remove out ot my way 
 the objections which lie, as it were, on the very threshold of 
 faith. And assuredly it was necessary at the very outset to 
 remove this utter despair of reaching truth, which seems to be 
 ^strengthened by the arguments of these philosophers. Now 
 in their eyes every en-or is regarded as a sin, and they think 
 tliat error can only be avoided by entii'ely suspending belief. 
 For they say that the man who assents to what is uncertain 
 ^ AcU xii. 9. ' Virgil, .£n. x. 392. 
 
CHAP. XXI.] EHROR NOT ALWAYS SIX. 191 
 
 falls into error; and they strive by the most acute, but most 
 
 audacious arguments, to show that, even though a man's 
 
 opinion should by chance be true, yet that there is no certainty 
 
 of its truth, owing to the impossibility of distinguishing truth 
 
 from falsehood. But with us, " the just shall live by faith." ^ 
 
 Now, if assent be taken away, faith goes too ; for without assent 
 
 there can be no belief. And there are truths, whether we 
 
 know them or not, which must be believed if we would attain 
 
 to a happy life, that is, to eternal life. But I am not sure 
 
 whether one ought to argue with men who not only do not 
 
 know that there is an eternal life before them, but do not know 
 
 whether they are living at the present moment ; nay, say that f^y^^^ 
 
 they do not know what it is impossible they can be ignorant 
 
 of. For it is impossible that any one should be ignorant that jQ4..<.y 
 
 he is alive, seeing that if he be not alive it is impossible for 
 
 him to be ignorant ; for not knowledge merely, but ignorance 
 
 too, can be an attribute only of the living. But, forsooth, 
 
 they think that by not acknowledging that they are alive they 
 
 avoid error, when even their very error proves that they are 
 
 alive, since one who is not alive cannot err. As, then, it is 
 
 not only true, but certain, that we are alive, so there are many 
 
 other things both true and certain ; and God forbid that it 
 
 should ever be called wisdom, and not the height of folly, to 
 
 refuse assent to these. 
 
 Chap. xxi. — Error, iliongli not always a sin, is always an evil. 
 But as to those matters in regard to which our belief or 
 disbelief, and indeed their truth or supposed truth or falsity, 
 are of no importance whatever, so far as attaining the kingdom 
 of God is concerned : to make a mistake in such matters is 
 not to be looked on as a sin, or at least as a very small and 
 trifling sin. In short, a mistake in matters of this kind, what- 
 ever its nature and magnitude, does not relate to the way of 
 approach to God, which is the faith of Christ that " worketh 
 by love."^ For the "mistake pleasing to parents " in the case 
 of the twin children was no deviation from this way ; nor did 
 the Apostle Peter deviate from this way, when, thinking that he 
 saw a vision, he so mistook one thing for another, that, till the 
 iRom. i. 17. ^Gal. V. 6. 
 
102 THE ENCHiniDION. [CITAP. XXII. 
 
 angel who delivered him had departed from him, he did not 
 distinguish the real objects among which he was moving from 
 the visionary objects of a dream ;^ nor did the patriarch Jacob 
 deviate from tliis way, when he believed tliat liis son, who was 
 really alive, had been slain by a beast.^ In the case of these 
 and otlier false impressions of the same kind, we are indeed 
 deceived, but our faith in God remains secure. We go astray, 
 but we do not leave the way that leads us to Him. But yet 
 these errors, though they are not sinful, are to be reckoned 
 among the evils of this life, which is so far made subject to 
 vanity, that we receive what is false as if it were true, reject 
 what is true as if it were false, and clincr to what is uncertain 
 as if it were certain. And although they do not trench upon 
 tliat true and certain faith through wliich we reach eternal 
 blessedness, yet they have much to do with that misery in 
 which we are now living. And assuredly, if we were now in 
 the enjoyment of the true and perfect happiness that lies before 
 us, we should not be subject to any deception through any 
 sense, whether of body or of miud. 
 
 CiiAr. XXII. — A lie is not aUowalle, even to save another from injury. 
 
 But every lie must be called a sin, because not only when 
 a man knows the truth, but even when, as a man may be, he 
 is mistaken and deceived, it is his duty to say what he thinks 
 in his heart, whether it be true, or whether he only think it to 
 be true. But every liar says the opposite of wliat he thinks 
 in his heart, with purpose to deceive. Now it is evident that 
 speech was given to man, not that men might therewith de- 
 ceive one another, but that one man might make known his 
 thoughts to another. To use speech, tlien, for the purpose of 
 deception, and not for its appointed end, is a sin. Nor are 
 we to suppose that there is any lie that is not a sin, because 
 it is sometimes possible, by telling a lie, to do service to 
 another. For it is ]X)ssible to do this by tlieft also, as when 
 we steal from a ricli man wlio never feels the loss, to give to 
 a poor man who is sensibly benefited by what he gets. And 
 the same can be said of adultery also, when, for instance, some 
 woman appears likely to die of love unless we consent to her 
 
 > Acts xii. 9-11. » Gen. xxxvii. 33. 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 193 
 
 wishes, while if she lived she might purify herself by repent- 
 ance ; but yet no one will assert that on this account such an 
 adultery is not a sin. And if we justly place so high a value 
 upon chastity, what offence have we taken at truth, that, while 
 no prospect of advantage to another will lead us to violate the 
 former by adultery, we should be ready to violate the latter 
 by lying ? It cannot be denied that they have attained a 
 very high standard of goodness who never lie except to save 
 a man from injury ; but in the case of men who have reached 
 this standard, it is not the deceit, but their good intention, 
 that is justly praised, and sometimes even rewarded. It is 
 quite enough that the deception shoidd be pardoned, without 
 its being made an object of laudation, especially among the 
 heirs of the new covenant, to whom it is said : " Let your 
 communication be. Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for whatsoever is more 
 than these cometh of evil."-'- And it is on account of this 
 evil, which never ceases to creep in while we retain this 
 mortal vesture, that the co-heirs of Christ themselves say, 
 " Forgive us our debts." ^ 
 
 Chap, xxiii. — Summary of the results of iJie precedlnr/ discussion. 
 
 As it is right that we should know the causes of good and — ^ 
 evil, so much of them at least as will suf&ce for the way 
 that leads us to the kingdom, where there will be life without 
 the shadow of death, truth without any alloy of error, and 
 happiness unbroken by any sorrow, I have discussed these 
 subjects with the brevity which my limited space demanded. 
 And I think there cannot now be any doubt, that the only 
 cause of any good that we enjoy is the goodness of God, and 
 that the only cause of evil is the falling away from the un- 
 changeable good of a being made good but changeable, first 
 in the case of an angel, and afterwards in the case of man. 
 
 Chap. xxiv. — The secondary causes of evil are ignorance and lust. 
 
 This is the first evil that befell the intelligent creation — ^ 
 that is, its first privation of good. Following upon this crept 
 in, and now even in opposition to man's will, ignorance of'' 
 duty, and lust after what is hurtful : and these brought in their 
 ^ Matt. V. 37. 2 ^xatt. vi. 12. 
 
 ENCHIK. N 
 
104 THE EN'CnirJDION. [CITAP. XXVI. 
 
 train error and ■'^vff'>'riiuj, wliich, when they are felt to be 
 imminent, produce that shrinking of the mind which is called 
 fear. Further, when the mind attains the objects of its desire, 
 however hurtful or empty they may be, error prevents it from 
 perceiving their true nature, or its perceptions are overborne 
 by a diseased appetite, and so it is puffed up with :i foolish 
 joy. From these fountains of evil, which spring out of defect 
 rather than superfluity, flows every form of misery that besets 
 a rational nature. 
 
 Chap. xxv.—GocVs judgments vpon fallen men and angels. Tlie death of the 
 body is man's peculiar punishment. 
 
 And yet such a nature, in the midst of all its evils, could 
 not lose the craving after happiness. Now the evils I have 
 mentioned are common to all who for their wickedness have 
 been justly condemned by God, whether they be men or angels. 
 But there is one form of punislmient peculiar to man — the 
 death of the body. God had threatened him with this punish- 
 ment of death if he should sin,^ leavincir him indeed to the 
 freedom of his own will, but yet commanding his obedience 
 under pain of death ; and He placed him amid the happiness 
 of Eden, as it w^ere in a protected nook of life, with the 
 intention that, if he preserved his righteousness, he should 
 thence ascend to a better place. 
 
 CiiAr. xxxi.— Through Adam's f^in h>s whole posterUy wrre corrupted, and were 
 horn under the penalty of death, ichich he had incurred. 
 
 Thence, after his sin, he was driven into exile, and by his 
 sin tlie whole race of which he was the root was corrupted 
 in him, and thereby subjected to the penalty of death. And 
 so it happens that all descended from him, and from the 
 woman who liad led him into sin, and was condemned at the 
 same time with him, — being the offspring of carnal lust on 
 which the same punishment of disobedience was visited, — were 
 tainted with the original sin, and were by it drawn through 
 divers errors and sufferings into that last and endless punish- 
 ment which they suffer in common with the fallen angels, their 
 corrupters and masters, and the partakers of their doom. And 
 thus " by one man sin entered into the world, and death by 
 sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have 
 
 « Gen. ii. 17. 
 
CHAP. XXVII.] T\IAX'S FALL AND RESTOEATIOX. 195 
 
 sinned" ^ By " the world " tile apostle, of course, means in 
 this place the whole human race. 
 
 Chap, xxvii. — The state of misenj to which Adam's sin reduced manlind, and 
 the restoration effected through the mercy of God. 
 
 Thus, then, matters stood. The whole mass of the human 
 race was under condemnation, was lying steeped and wallowing 
 in misery, and was being tossed from one form of evil to 
 another, and, having joined the faction of the fallen angels, 
 was paying the well-merited penalty of that impious rebellion. 
 For whatever the wicked freely do through blind and unbridled 
 lust, and whatever they suffer against their will in the way of 
 open punishment, this all evidently pertains to the just wrath 
 of God. But the goodness of the Creator never fails either to , 
 supply life and vital power to the wicked angels (without 
 which their existence would soon come to an end) ; or, in the 
 case of mankind, who spring from a condemned and corrupt 
 stock, to impart form and life to their seed, to fashion their 
 members, and through the various seasons of their life, and in 
 the different parts of the earth, to quicken their senses, and 
 bestow upon them the nourishment they need. For He 
 judged it better to bring good out of evil, than not to permit 
 any evil to exist. And if He had determined that in the case 
 of men, as in the case of the fallen angels, there should be no 
 restoration to happiness, would it not have been quite just, 
 that the being who rebelled against God, who in the abuse of 
 his freedom spurned and transgressed the command of his 
 Creator when he could so easily have kept it, who defaced in 
 himself the image of his Creator by stubbornly turning away 
 from His light, who by an evil use of his free-will broke 
 away from his wholesome bondage to the Creator's laws, — 
 would it not have been just that such a being should have 
 been wholly and to all eternity deserted by God, and left to 
 suffer the everlasting punishment he had so richly earned ? 
 Certainly so God would have done, had He been only just and 
 not also merciful, and had He not designed that His unmerited 
 mercy should shine forth the more brightly in contrast with 
 the unworthiness of its objects. 
 
 1 Rom. V. ]2. 
 
1 G THE ENCmrJDTON. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 Chap, xxviii. — Ulieti (he reheUlous aiujds were ca.it out, the rest remained hi 
 the enjoyment of eternal happiness with God. 
 
 VTinht some of the angels, then, in their pride and impiety 
 rebelled against God, and were cast down from their heavenly 
 abode into the lowest darkness, the remaining number dwelt 
 with God in eternal and unchanging purity and happiness. 
 For all were not sprung from one angel who had fallen and 
 been condemned, so that they were not all, like men, involved 
 by one original sin in the bonds of an inherited guilt, and so 
 made subject to the penalty which one had incurred ; but 
 when he, who afterwards became the devil, was with his asso- 
 ciates in crime exalted in pride, and by that very exaltation 
 was with them cast down, the rest remained stedfast in piety 
 and obedience to their Lord, and obtained, what before they 
 had not enjoyed, a sure and certain knowledge of their eternal 
 safety, and freedom from the possibility of fall, 
 
 CuAP. XXIX. — The restored part of humanity shall, in accordance with the 
 promises of God, succeed to the place which the rehellious angels lost. 
 
 And so it pleased God, the Creator and Governor of the 
 universe, that, since the whole body of the angels had not 
 fallen into rebellion, the part of them which had fallen 
 should remain in perdition eternally, and that the other part, 
 which had in the rebellion remained stedfastly loyal, should 
 rejoice in the sure and certain knowledge of their eternal 
 happiness; but that, on the other hand, mankind, who con- 
 stituted the remainder of the intelligent creation, having 
 perished without exception under sin, both original and actual, 
 and the consequent punishments, should be in part restored, 
 and should fill up the gap which the rebellion and fall of the 
 devils had left in the company of the angels. For this is the 
 promise to the saints, that at the resurrection they shall be 
 equal to the angels of God.^ And thus the Jerusalem which 
 is above, which is tlie mother of us all, the city of God, shall 
 not be spoiled of any of the number of her citizens, shall 
 perhaps reign over even a more abundant population. "We 
 do not know the number cither of the saints or of the devils ; 
 but we know tliat the cliildren of the holy mother who was 
 called barren on earth shall succeed to the place of the fallen 
 
 ' Luke XX. 3G. 
 
CHAP. XXX.] MAN SAVED BY GRACE. 197 
 
 angels, and shall dwell for ever in that peaceful abode from, 
 which they fell. But the number of the citizens, whether as 
 it now is or as it shall be, is present to the thoughts of the 
 great Creator, who calls those things which be not as though 
 they were,^ and ordereth all things in measure, and number, 
 and weight.^ 
 
 Chap. xxx. — Men are not saved hy rjood worls, nor hy the free determination of ^\^ 
 . their own will, hut hy the grace of God th'oiigh faith. l 1 
 
 T^ But this part of the human race to which God has promised 
 pardon and a share in His eternal kingdom, can they be 
 restored throuQ;h the merit of their own works ? God forbid. 
 
 — o 
 
 For what good work can a lost man perform, except so far as 
 
 he has been delivered from perdition ? Can they do anything 
 
 ^by the free determination of their own will ? Again I say, 
 
 ^God forbid. For it was by the evil use of his free-wiU V. 
 
 that man destroyed both it and himself For, as a man who 
 
 j kills himself must, of course, be alive when he kills himself, 
 
 I but after he has killed himself ceases to live, and cannot 
 
 j restore himself to life ; so, when man by his own free-wiU 
 
 \ sinned, then sin being victorious over him, the freedom of his 
 
 I will was lost. "For of whom a man is overcome, ot the same 
 
 is he brought in bondage."^ This is the judgment of the 
 
 Apostle Peter. And as it is certainly true, what kind of 
 
 liberty, I ask, can the bond-slave possess, except when it 
 
 pleases him to sin ? For he is freely in bondage who does 
 
 with pleasure the will of his master. Accordingly, he who is 
 
 the servant of sin is free to sin. And hence he will not be 
 
 free to do right, until, being ^reed from sin, he shall begin to 
 
 be the servant of righteousness. And this is true liberty, for 
 
 he has pleasure in the righteous deed ; and it is at the same 
 
 time a holy bondage, for he is obedient to the wiU of God. 
 
 But whence comes this liberty to do right to the man who is 
 
 in bondage and sold under sin, except he be redeemed by Him 
 
 who has said, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be 
 
 free indeed"?* And before this redemption is wrought in a 
 
 man, when he is not yet free to do what is right, how can he 
 
 talk of the freedom of his will and his good works, except he 
 
 be inflated by that foolish pride of boasting whidi the apostle 
 
 » Eom. iv. 17. 2 ^Yisj. xi. 20. ^ 2 Tct. ii. 19. * John viii. 36. 
 
^ 
 
 198 THE ENCiiirjDiox. [chap, xxxit. 
 
 restrains when he says, " By grace are ye saved, through 
 faith."^ 
 
 CiiAP. xxxr. — Falih itself Is the rj\ft of God ; and good icorks will not he wanting 
 ill those who believe. 
 
 And lest men should arrogate to themselves the merit of 
 their own faith at least, not understanding that this too is the 
 gift of God, this same apostle, who says in another place that 
 he had " obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful,"^ here also 
 adds : " and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God : not 
 of works, lest any man should boast." ^ And lest it should 
 be thought that good works will be wanting in those who 
 believe, he adds further : " For we are His workmanship, 
 created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath 
 before ordained that we should walk in them."* We shall be 
 made truly free, then, when God fashions us, that is, forms and 
 creates us anew, not as men — for He has done that already — 
 but as good men, which His grace is now doing, that we may 
 be a new creation in Christ Jesus, according as it is said : 
 " Create in me a clean heart, God."^ For God had already 
 created his heart, so far as the physical structure of the 
 human heart is concerned ; but the psalmist prays for the 
 renewal of the life which was still lin^^erinGr in his heart. 
 
 o o 
 
 CuAP. XXXII. — The freedom of the will is also the rjift of God, for God worlceth 
 ill us both to will and to do. 
 
 And further, should any one be inclined to boast, not in- 
 deed of his works, but of the freedom of his will, as if the first 
 merit belonged to him, this very liberty of good action being 
 given to liiiii as a reward he had earned, let him listen to this 
 same preacher of grace, when he says : " For it is God which 
 worketh in you, both to will and to do of His own good plea- 
 sure ; " " and in another place : " So, then, it is not of him that 
 willeth, nor of liim that runneth, but of God that showeth 
 mercy." ^ / Now as, undoubtedly, if a man is of the age to use 
 his reason, he cannot believe, hope, love, unless he will to do 
 so, nor obtain the prize of the high calling of God unless he 
 voluntarily run for it ; in wliat sense is it " not of him that 
 willuth, nor of him that runnetli, but of God that showeth 
 
 > Eph. ii. 8. » 1 Cor. vii. 25. • Ej.h. ii. 8. 9. *Eph. ii. 10. 
 
 ''Vs. Ii. 10. c pi^ ii. i'^^ 7 i-^^j. i_^_ 1(3^ 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] GRACE AND FREE-WILL. 199 
 
 mercy," except that, as it is written, " the preparation of the 
 heart is from the Lord"?^ Otherwise, if it is said, "It is 
 not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God 
 that showeth mercy," because it is of both, that is, both of the 
 will of man and of the mercy of God, so that we are to under- 
 stand the saying, " It is not of him that willeth, nor of him 
 that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," as if it meant 
 the will of man alone is not sufficient, if the mercy of God go 
 not with it, — then it will follow that the mercy of God alone 
 is not sufficient, if the will of man go not with it ; and there- 
 fore, if we may rightly say, " it is not of man that willeth, but 
 of God that showeth mercy," because the will of man by itself 
 is not enough, why may we not also rightly put it in the 
 converse way : " It is not of God that showeth mercy, but of 
 man that willeth," because the mercy of God by itself does 
 not suffice ? Surely, if no Christian will dare to say this, " It 
 is not of God that showeth mercy, but of man that willeth," 
 lest he should openly contradict the apostle, it follows that the 
 true interpretation of the saying, " It is not of him that 
 wiUeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth 
 mercy," is that the whole work belongs to God, who both 
 makes the will of man righteous, and thus prepares it for 
 assistance, and assists it when it is prepared. For the man's 
 righteousness of will precedes many of God's gifts, but not all ; 
 and it must itself be included among; those which it does not 
 precede. We read in Holy Scripture, both that God's mercy 
 " shall prevent me,"^ and that His mercy "shall follow me."^ 
 It prevents the unwilling to make him willing; it follows 
 the willing to make his will effectual. Why are we taught to 
 pray for our enemies,^ who are plainly unwilling to lead a 
 holy life, unless that God may work willingness in them ? 
 And why are we ourselves taught to ask that we may receive,^ 
 unless that He who has created in us the wish, may Himself 
 satisfy the wish ? We pray, then, for our enemies, tliat the 
 mercy of God may prevent them, as it has prevented us : we 
 pray for ourselves that His mercy may follow us. 
 
 » Prov. xvi. 1. * Ps. lix. 10. ^ Ps. xxiii. 6. 
 
 ♦ Matt. V. 4i. 6 Matt. vii. 7. 
 
200 THE ENcniPJDiox. [chap, xxxiit. 
 
 Chap, xxxiii. — Mcu, hrlng hy nature thf rhlhlrrn of icrnth, needed a Mediator. 
 In what sense God is said to be an'jri/. 
 
 And SO tlie human race was lying under a just condemna- 
 tion, and all men were the children of wrath. Of which ^v^ath 
 it is written : " All our days are passed away in Thy wrath ; 
 we spend our years as a tale that is told." ^ Of which wrath 
 also Job says : " Man that is horn of a woman is of few days, 
 and full of trouble." "" Of which wrath also the Lord Jesus 
 says : " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : 
 and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the 
 wrath of God abideth on him." ^ He does not say it will come, 
 but it "abideth on him." For every man is born with it; 
 wherefore the apostle says : " We were by nature the children 
 of wrath, even as others."* Now, as men were lying under 
 this AVTath by reason of their original sin, and as this original 
 sin was the more heavy and deadly in proportion to the num- 
 ber and magnitude of the actual sins which were added to it, 
 there was need for a Mediator, that is, for a reconciler, who, 
 by the offering of one sacrifice, of which all the sacrifices of the 
 law and the prophets were types, should take away this wrath. 
 "Wherefore the apostle says : " For if, when we were enemies, 
 we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much 
 more, being reconciled, w^e shall be saved by His life." " Now 
 when God is said to be angry, we do not attribute to Him such 
 a disturbed feeling as exists in the mind of an angry man ; 
 but we call His_just displeasure against sin by the name 
 " anger," a word transferred by analogy from human emotions. 
 But our being reconciled to God through a Mediator, and 
 receiving the Holy Spirit, so that we who were enemies are 
 made sons (" For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, 
 they are the sons of God " ^) : this is the grace of God tlirough 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. — The inrjfallc mystery ofthrhirfh of Chri,st (he 2Iediator through 
 the Virgin Mary. 
 
 Now of this Mediator it would occupy too much space to 
 
 • Ps. xc. 9. '.Tobxiv. 1. 
 
 3 John iii. 36. These words, attributed by the author to Christ, were really 
 spoken by John the Baptist. 
 
 ♦ Eph. ii. 3. * Rom. v. 10. « Fiom. viii. 14. 
 
CHAP. XXXV.] THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 201 
 
 say anything at all worthy of Him ; and, indeed, to say what 
 is worthy of Him is not in the power of man. For who will 
 explain in consistent words this single statement, that " the 
 Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," ^ so that we may 
 believe on the only Son of God the Father Almighty, born of 
 the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mavy ? The meaning of the 
 Word being made flesh, is not that the divine nature was 
 cliauged into flesh, but that the divine nature assum^ our 
 flesh. And by " flesh " we are here to understand " man," the 
 part being put for the whole, as when it is said : " By the 
 deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified," ^ that is, no man. 
 For we must believe that no part was wanting in that human 
 nature which He put on, save that it was a nature wholly free 
 from every taint of sin, — not such a nature as is conceived 
 ^ between the two sexes through carnal lust, which is born in 
 ' sin, and whose guilt is washed away in regeneration ; but such 
 as it behoved a virgin to brincj forth, when the mother's faith, 
 i not her lust, was the condition of conception. And if her 
 virginity had been marred even in bringing Him forth. He 
 would not have been born of a virgin ; and it would be false 
 (which God forbid) that He was born of the Virgin Mary, as 
 is believed and declared by the whole Church, which, in 
 imitation of His mother, daily brings forth members of His 
 body, and yet remains a virgin. Eead, if you please, my letter 
 on the virginity of the holy Mary which I sent to that eminent 
 man, whose name I mention with respect and affection, 
 Volusianus.^ 
 
 Chap. xxxv. — Jesus Christ, being the only Son of God, is at the same time man. 
 Wherefore Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is both God and 
 man ; God before all worlds ; man in our world : God, because 
 ^the Word of God (for "the Word was God " ^) ; and man, 
 because in His one person the Word was joined with a body 
 and a rational soul. Wherefore, so far as He is God, He and 
 the Father are one ; so far as He is man, the Father is greater 
 than He. For when He was the only Son of God, not by 
 grace, but by nature, that He might be also full of gTace, He 
 became the Son of man ; and He Himself unites both natures 
 
 1 Joliu i. 14. 2 p^om. iii. 20. 3 ^^ jo; « j^_,jji^ i ^ 
 
 ) 
 
202 THE ENcnirJDToy. [cnAP. xxxvi. 
 
 in His own identity, and botli natures constitute one Christ ; 
 because, " being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery 
 to be," wliat He was by nature, " equal with God." ^ But He 
 made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the 
 form of a servant, not losing or lessening the form of God. 
 And, accordingly, He was both made less and remained equal, 
 being both in one, as has been said : but He w^as one of these 
 as Word, and the other as man. As Word, He is equal with 
 the Father ; as man, less than the Father. S^ne Son of God, 
 and at the same time Son of man ; one Son of man, and at 
 the same time Son of God ; not two Bons of God, God and 
 man, but one Son of God : God without beginning ; man with 
 a beginning, our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 CuAr. XXXVI. — The grace of God is clearly and remarl-ahly dif^played in raising 
 the man Christ Jesus to the dignity of the Son of God. 
 
 Now ]iere the grace of God is displayed with the greatest 
 power and clearness. For what merit had the human nature 
 in the man Christ earned, that it should in this unparalleled 
 way be taken up into the unity of the person of the only Son 
 of God ? Wliat goodness of will, what goodness of desire 
 and intention, what good works, had gone before, which made 
 this man worthy to become one person with God ? Had He 
 been a man previously to this, and had He earned this unpre- 
 cedented reward, that He should be thought worthy to become 
 God ? Assuredly nay ; from the very moment that He began 
 to be man. He was nothing else than the Son of God, the 
 only Son of God, the Word who was made flesh, and therefore 
 He was God ; so that just as each individual man unites in 
 one person a body and a rational soul, so Christ in one person 
 unites the Word and man. Now wherefore was this unheard 
 of glory conferred on human nature, — a glory which, as there 
 was no antecedent merit, was of course wholly of grace, — except 
 that here those who looked at the matter soberly and honestly 
 might behold a clear manifestation of the power of God's free 
 grace, and might understand that they are justified from their 
 sins by the same grace which made the man Christ Jesus 
 free from the possibility of sin ? And so the angel, when he 
 announced to Christ's motlier the coming birth, saluted her 
 
 1 Phil. ii.6. 
 
CHAP. XXXYIL] CHrJST BOEN OF THE HOLY SriFJT. 203 
 
 thus : " Hail, thou that art full of grace ; " -^ and shortly after- 
 wards, " Thou hast found grace with God." ^ Now she was 
 said to be full of grace, and to have found grace with God, 
 because she was to be the mother of her Lord, nay, of the 
 Lord of all flesh. But, speakiug of Christ Himself, the evan- 
 gelist John, after saying, " The Word was made flesh, and 
 dwelt among us," adds, " and we beheld His glory, the glory 
 as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." ^ 
 When he says, " The Word was made flesh," this is " full of 
 grace ; " when he says, " the glory of the only-begotten of the 
 Father," this is " full of truth." For the Truth Himself, who 
 was the only-begotten of the Father, not by grace, but by 
 nature, by grace took our humanity upon Him, and so united 
 it with His own person that He Himself became also the Son 
 of man. 
 
 Chap, xxxvii. — Tlie same grace is furtliei'- clearly manifested hi this, that the 
 birth of Christ according to the flesh is of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 For the same Jesus Christ who is the only-begotten, that is, 
 the only Son of God, our Lord, was born of the Holy Ghost 
 and of the Virgin Mary. And we know that the Holy Spirit 
 is the gift of God, the gift being Himself indeed equal to the 
 Giver. And therefore the Holy Spirit also is God, not inferior 
 to the Father and the Son. The fact, therefore, that the nati- 
 vity of Christ in His human nature was by the Holy Spirit, is 
 another clear manifestation of grace. For when the Virgin 
 asked the angel how this which he had announced should be, 
 seeing she knew not a man, the angel answered, " The Holy 
 Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest 
 shall overshadow thee : therefore also that holy thing which 
 shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."* And 
 when Josex^h was minded to put her away, suspecting her of 
 adultery, as he knew she was not with child by himself, he 
 was told by the angel, " Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy 
 wife ; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost :"^ 
 that is, what thou suspectest to be begotten of another man is 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 ' Luke i. 28 ("Thou that art highly favoured," A. Y.). 
 
 2 Luke i. 30 (*' Thou hast iomid favour \Yith God," A. Y.). 
 
 3 John i. 14. * Luke i. 35. * 21att. i. 20. 
 
204 THE ENCHIRIDION. [CIIAP. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chat, xxxviii. — Jcsiis CJirist, according to thejiex/i, wa.f not lorn of the 
 Holy Sjnrit in such a sense that the Holy Spirit is His father. 
 
 Nevertheless, are we on this account to say that the Holy 
 Ghost is the fatlier of the man Christ, and that as God the 
 Father begat the Word, so God the Holy Spirit begat the man, 
 and that these two natures constitute the one Christ ; and that 
 as the Word He is the Son of God the Father, and as man the 
 Son of God the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit as His 
 fatlier begat Him of the Virgin Mary ? Who will dare to 
 say so ? Nor is it necessary to show by reasoning how many 
 other absurdities flow from this supposition, when it is itself so 
 absurd that no believer's ears can bear to hear it. Hence, as 
 we confess, " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is God, and 
 as man was born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, 
 having both natures, the divine and the human, is the only 
 Son of God the Father Almighty, from whom proceedeth the 
 Holy Spirit."^ Now in what sense do we say that Christ 
 was born of the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit did not beget 
 Him ? Is it that He made Him, since our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 though as God " all things were made by Him," ^ yet as man 
 was Himself made ; as the apostle says, " who was made of 
 the seed of David according to the flesh " ? ^ But as that 
 created thing which the Virgin conceived and brought forth, 
 though it was united only to the person of the Son, was made 
 by the whole Trinity (for the works of the Trinity are not 
 separable), why should the Holy Spirit alone be mentioned as 
 having made it ? Or is it that, when one of the Three is 
 mentioned as the author of any work, the whole Trinity is to 
 be understood as working ? That is true, and can be proved 
 by examples. But we need not dwell longer on this solution. 
 For the puzzle is, in what sense it is said, " born of the Holy 
 Ghost," when He is in no sense the Son of the Holy Ghost ? 
 For though God made this world, it would not be right to say 
 that it is the Son of God, or that it was born of God ; we 
 would say that it was created, or made, or framed, or ordered 
 by Him, or whatever form of (.'xpression we can properly use. 
 
 ^ A quotation from a form of tlie Apostles' Creed anciently in use in the Latin 
 Church. 
 ^ John i. 3. » r.om. i. 3. 
 
CHAP. XL.] CHniST NOT THE SON OF THE HOLY SPITJT. 205 
 
 ' Here, then, when we make confession that Christ was born of 
 the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, it is difficult to 
 explain how it is that He is not the Son of the Holy Ghost 
 and is the Son of the Virgin Mary, when He was born both of 
 Him and of her. It is clear beyond a doubt that He was not 
 born of the Holy Spirit as His father, in the same sense that 
 He was born of the Virgin as His mother. 
 
 Chap, xxxix. — Not everything that is horn of another is to he called a son of 
 
 that other. 
 
 We need not therefore take for granted, that whatever is 
 born of a thing is forthwith to be declared the son of that 
 thing. For, to pass over the fact that a son is born of a man 
 in a different sense from that in which a hair or a louse is 
 born of him, neither of these being a son ; to pass over this, 
 I say, as too mean a n ill ustration for a subject of so much 
 importance : it is certain that those who are born of water and 
 of the Holy Spirit cannot with propriety be called sons of the 
 water, though they are called sons of God the Father, and of 
 ^ the Church their mother. In the same way, then. He who 
 1 was born of the Holy Spirit is the Son of God the Father, not 
 \ of the Holy Spirit. For what I have said of the hair and the 
 other things is sufficient to show us that not everything which 
 is born of another can be called the son of that of which it is 
 born, just as it does not follow that all who are called a man's 
 sons were born of him, for some sons are adopted. And some 
 men are called sons of hell, not as being born of hell, but as 
 prepared for it, as the sons of the kingdom are prepared for 
 the kingdom. 
 
 Chap, xl. — Christ's hirth through the Holy Spirit manifests to us the 
 grace of God. 
 
 And, therefore, as one thing may be born of another, and 
 yet not in such a way as to be its son, and as not every one 
 who is called a son was born of him whose son he is called, 
 it is clear that this arrangement by which Christ was born 
 of the Holy Spirit, but not as His son, and of the Virgin 
 Mary as her son, is intended as a manifestation of the grace 
 
 (of God. For it was by this grace that a man, without any 
 antecedent merit, was at the very commencement of His 
 existence as man, so united in one person with the Word of 
 
20 G THE EXcnmiDioN. [chap, xll 
 
 God, that the very person who was Son of man was at the 
 Bame time Son of God, and the very person who was Son of 
 God was at the same time Son of man; and in the adoption 
 of His human nature into the divine, the grace itself became 
 in a way so natural to the man, as to leave no room for the 
 entrance of sin. Wlierefore this grace is signified by the 
 Holy Spirit ; for He, though in His own nature God, may also 
 be called the gift of God. And to explain all this sufiiciently, 
 if indeed it could be done at all, would require a very 
 lencrthened discussion. 
 
 o 
 
 Chap. xli. — Christ, who was Himself free from sin, was made sin for us, that 
 Jk we might be reconciled to God. 
 
 Begotten and conceived, then, without any indulgence of 
 carnal lust, and therefore bringing with Him no original sin, 
 and by the grace of God joined and united in a wonderful 
 and unspeakable way in one person with the Word, the Only- 
 begotten of the Father, a son by nature, not by grace, and 
 therefore having no sin of His own; nevertheless, on account 
 of the likeness of sinful flesh in which He came,! He was 
 called sin, that He might be sacrificed to wash away sin. For, 
 under the Old Covenant, sacrifices for sin were called sins.^ 
 And He, of whom all these sacrifices were types and shadows, 
 was Himself truly made sin. j Hence the apostle, after say- 
 ing, " We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
 God," forthwith adds : " for He hath made Him to be sin for 
 us who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteous- 
 ness of God in Him."^ He does not say, as some incorrect 
 copies read, " He who knew no sin did sin for us," as if 
 Christ had Himself sinned for our sakes ; but he says, " Him 
 who knew no sin," that is, Christ, God, to whom we are to 
 be reconciled, " hath made to be sin for us," that is, hath 
 made Him a sacrifice for our sins, by which we might be 
 reconciled to God. He, then, being made sin, just as we are 
 made rigliteousness (our righteousness being not our own, but 
 God's, not in ourselves, but in Him) ; He being made sin, not 
 His own, but ours, not in Himself, but in us, showed, by the 
 likeness of sinful flcsli in wliich He was crucified, tliat tliough 
 sin was not in Him, yet tluit in a certain sense He died to 
 
 nios. iv. 8. «2Coi. V. 20. 21. 
 
CHAP. XLIV.] TvEGENERATION AND BAPTIS:\L 207 
 
 sin, by dying in the flesh which was the likeness of sin ; and 
 that although He Himself had never lived the old life of sin, 
 yet by His resurrection He typified our new life springing up 
 out of the old death in sin. 
 
 Chap. xlii. — The sacrament of baptism indicates our death with Christ to sin, 
 and our resurrection with Him to neivness of life. 
 
 And this is the meaning of the great sacrament of baptism 
 which is solemnized among us, that all who attain to this 
 grace should die to sin, as He is said to have died to sin, 
 because He died in the flesh, which is the likeness of sin ; and 
 rising from the font regenerate, as He arose alive from the 
 grave, should begin a new life in the Spirit, whatever may be 
 the age of the body. 
 
 Chap, xliii. — Baptism and the grace which it typifies are open to all, both 
 infants and adults. 
 
 For from the infant newly born to the old man bent with 
 age, as there is none shut out from baptism, so there is none 
 who in baptism does not die to sin. But infants die only to 
 original sin ; those who are older die also to all the sins which 
 their evil lives have added to the sin which they brought 
 with tliem. 
 
 Chap. xliv. — In speahing of sin, the singular number is often put for 
 the plural, and the plural for the singular. 
 
 But even these latter are frequently said to die to sin, 
 though undoubtedly they die not to one sin, but to all the 
 numerous actual sins they have committed in thought, word, 
 or deed : for the singular number is often put for the plural, 
 as when the ]Doet says, " They fill its belly with the armed 
 soldier,"^ though in the case here referred to there were 
 many soldiers concerned. And we read in our own Scrip- 
 tures : " Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpent from 
 us."^ He does not say serpents, though the people were 
 suffering from many ; and so in other cases. When, on the 
 other hand, the original sin is expressed in the plural number, 
 as when we say that infants are baptized for the remission 
 of sins, instead of saying for the remission of sin, this is 
 the converse figure of speech, by which the plural number is 
 
 ^ ** Fterumque armato milite complent." — Vikgil, xEn. ii. 20. 
 * Kum, xxi. 7 ('* scri)ents, " A.V.). 
 
2 OS THE ENCHIRIDION. [CIIAP. XLY. 
 
 put in place of the singular ; as in the Gospel it is said of 
 the death of Herod, "for they are dead wliich sought the 
 young child's life,"* instead of saying, *' he is dead." And in 
 Exodus : " They have made them," Moses says, " gods of 
 gold,"^ tliough they had made only one calf, of which they 
 said : " These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up 
 out of the land of Egypt," ^ — here, too, putting the plural in 
 place of the singular. 
 
 CuAP. XLV. — In Adam" s first sin, many hinds of sin were involved. 
 
 However, even in that one sin, which " by one man entered 
 into the world, and so passed upon all men,"^ and on account 
 of which infants are baptized, a number of distinct sins may 
 be observed, if it be analyzed as it were into its separate 
 elements. For there is in it pride, because man chose to be 
 under his own dominion, rather than under the dominion of 
 God ; and blasphemy, because he did not believe God ; and 
 murder, for he brought death upon himself; and spiritual 
 fornication, for the purity of the human soul was corrupted 
 by the seducing blandishments of the serpent; and theft, for 
 man turned to his own use the food he had been forbidden 
 to touch ; and avarice, for he had a craving for more than 
 should have been sufficient for him ; and whatever other sin 
 can be discovered on careful reilection to be involved in this 
 one admitted sin. 
 
 CuAr. XLVI. — It is prohahle that children are involved in the guilt not only of 
 tlic firM jHiiry hut of their own immediate imrenis. 
 
 And it is said, with much appearance of probability, that 
 infants are involved in the guilt of the sins not only of the 
 first pair, but of their own immediate parents. For that 
 divine judgment, " I shall visit the iniquities of the fathers 
 upon the children,"'^ certainly applies to them before they come 
 under the new covenant by regeneration. And it was this 
 new covenant that was prophesied of, when it was said by 
 Ezeldel, that the sons should not bear the iniquity of the 
 fathers, and that it should no longer be a proverb in Israel, 
 "Tlie fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the childi'en's 
 
 1 Matt ii. 20. ' Ex. xxxii. 81. ' Ex. xxxii. 4. 
 
 * liom. V. 12. ' Ex. XX. 6 j Deut. v. 9. 
 
CHAP. XLVII.] OPJGINAL SIN. 209 
 
 teeth are set on edge."^ Here lies the necessity that each 
 man should be born again, that he might be freed from the 
 sin in which he was born. For the sins committed after- 
 wards can be cured by penitence, as we see is the case after 
 baptism. And therefore the new birth would not have been 
 appointed only that the first birth was sinful, so sinful that 
 even one who was legitimately born in wedlock says : " I was 
 shapen in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive 
 me."^ He did not say in iniquity, or in sin, though he might 
 have said so correctly ; but he preferred to say " iniquities " 
 and " sins," because in that one sin which passed upon all 
 men, and which was so great that human nature was by it 
 made subject to inevitable death, many sins, as I showed 
 above, may be discriminated ; and further, because there are 
 other sins of the immediate parents, which, though they have 
 not the same effect in producing a change of nature, yet 
 subject the children to guilt unless the divine grace and 
 mercy interpose to rescue them. 
 
 Chap, xlvii.— /^ is difficult to decide whether the sins of a man's other 
 progenitors are imputed to him. 
 
 But about the sins of the other progenitors who intervene 
 between Adam and a man's own parents, a question may very 
 well be raised. Whether every one who is born is involved 
 in all their accumulated evil acts, in all their multiplied 
 original guilt, so that the later he is born, so much the worse 
 is his condition ; or whether God threatens to visit the iniquity 
 of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth 
 generations, because in His mercy He does not extend His 
 wrath against the sins of the progenitors further than that, 
 lest those who do not obtain the grace of regeneration might 
 be crushed down under too heavy a burthen if they were com- 
 pelled to bear as original guilt all the sins of all their progeni- 
 tors from the very beginning of the human race, and to pay 
 the penalty due to them ; or whether any other solution of 
 this great question may or may not be found in Scripture by 
 a more diligent search and a more careful interpretation, I 
 dare not rashly affirm. 
 
 ^ Ezek. xviii. 2, 
 
 * Ps. li. 5 (The A. V. has the singular, " inir[uity " and "sin "). 
 ENCHIR. O 
 
210 THE ENCniKIDION. [CHAP. XLVIII. 
 
 Chap, xlviii. — 7V/c f/nilt of the first sin is so great that it can be washed away 
 only in the blood of the Mediator, Jesus Christ. 
 
 Nevertheless, that one sin, admitted into a place where such 
 perfect happiness reigned, was of so heinous a character, that 
 in one man the whole human race was originally, and as one 
 may say, radically, condemned ; and it cannot be pardoned 
 and blotted out except through the one Mediator between God 
 and men, the man Christ Jesus, who only has luid power to be 
 so born as not to need a second birth. 
 
 Chap. xlix. — Christ icas not regenerated in the baptism of John, but submitted 
 to it to give us an example of humility, just as lie submitted to death, not as 
 the punishment of sin, but to take away the sin of the world. 
 
 Now, those who were baptized in the baptism of John, by 
 whom Christ was Himself baptized,^ were not regenerated ; 
 but they were prepared through the ministry of Ijis fore- 
 runner, who cried, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord,"^ for 
 Him in whom only they could be regenerated. For His 
 baptism is not with water only, as was that of John, but with 
 the Holy Ghost also;^ so that whoever believes in Christ is 
 regenerated by that Spirit, of whom Clirist being generated, He 
 did not need regeneration. Whence that announcement of the 
 Father which was heard after His baptism, " This day have I 
 begotten Thee,"^ referred not to that one day of time on which 
 He was baptized, but to the one day of an unchangeable 
 eternity, so as to show that this man was one in person with 
 the Only-begotten. For when a day neither begins with the 
 close of yesterday, nor ends with the beginning of to-morrow, 
 it is an eternal to-day. Therefore He asked to be baptized in 
 water by John, not that any iniquity of His might be washed 
 away, but that He miglit manifest the depth of His humility. 
 fPor baptism found in Him nothing to wash away, as death 
 found in Him notliing to punisli ; so that it was in the 
 strictest justice, and not by the mere violence of power, that 
 the devil was crushed and conquered : for, as he had most 
 unjustly put Christ to death, though there was no sin in Him 
 to deserve death, it was most just that through Christ he 
 
 ' Matt. iii. 13-15. 'Matt. iii. 3. Mlatt. iii. 11. 
 
 * I's. ii. 7 ; Hfb. i. 5, v. 5. It is by a mistake that Augiistine quotes tlicso 
 M'ords aa pronounced at our Lord's baptism. 
 
CHAP. LIL] CHRIST TAKES AWAY SIX. 211 
 
 should lose his hold of those who by sin were justly subject 
 to the bondage in which he held them. Both of these, then, 
 that is, both baptism and death, were submitted to by Him, 
 not through a pitiable necessity, but of His own free pity for 
 us, and as part of an arrangement by which, as one man 
 brought sin into the world, that is, upon the whole human 
 race, so one man was to take away the sin of the world. 
 
 Chap. l. — Christ took away not only the one original sin, hut all the other sins 
 that have been added to it. 
 
 With this difference: the lirst man brought one sin into 
 the world, but this man took away not only that one sin, but 
 all that He found added to it. Hence the apostle says : 
 " And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift : for the 
 judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of 
 many offences unto justification."^ Tor it is evident that the 
 one sin which we bring with us by nature would, even if it 
 stood alone, bring us under condemnation ; but the free gift 
 justifies man from many offences : for each man, in addition 
 to the one sin which, in common with all his kind, he brings 
 with him by nature, has committed many sins that are strictly 
 his own. 
 
 CuAP. LI. — All men horn of Adam are under condemnation, and only ifneio 
 horn in Christ are freed from condemnation. 
 
 But what he says a little after, "Therefore, as by the 
 offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; 
 even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon 
 all men unto justification of life,"^ shows clearly enough that 
 there is no one born of Adam but is subject to condemnation, 
 and that no one, unless he be new born in Christ, is freed 
 from condemnation. 
 
 Chap. lii. — In baptism, lohich is the similitude of the death and resurrection of 
 Christ, all, both infants and adults, die to sin that they may icalk in neic- 
 ness of life. 
 
 And after he has said as much about the condemnation 
 through one man, and the free gift through one man, as he 
 deemed sufficient for that part of his epistle, the apostle goes 
 on to speak of the great mystery of holy baptism in the cross 
 of Christ, and to clearly explain to us tliat baptism in Christ 
 1 Rom. V. IG. 2Uo]u. v. 18. 
 
212 THE ENCHIRIDION. [cnAP. LII. 
 
 is nothing else than a similitude of the death of Christ, 
 and that the death of Christ on the cross is nothing but a 
 similitude of the pardon of sin : so that just as real as is His 
 death, so real is the remission of our sins ; and just as real 
 as is His resun-ection, so real is our justification. He says : 
 " What shall we say, then ? Shall we continue in sin, that 
 grace may abound?"^ For he had said previously, "But 
 where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."^ And 
 therefore he proposes to himself the question, whether it would 
 be right to continue in sin for the sake of the consequent 
 abounding grace. But he answers, " God forbid ; " and adds, 
 " How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? '* 
 Then, to show that we are dead to sin, " Know ye not," he 
 says, " that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, 
 were baptized into His death ? " If, then, the fact that we 
 were baptized into the death of Christ proves that we are 
 dead to sin, it follows that even infants who are baptized into 
 Christ die to sin, being baptized into His death. For there 
 is no exception made : " So many of us as were baptized into 
 Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death." And this is said 
 to prove that we are dead to sin. Now, to what sin do infants 
 die in their regeneration but that sin which they bring with 
 them at birth ? And therefore to these also applies what 
 follows : " Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into 
 death ; that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the 
 glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of 
 life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of 
 His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrec- 
 tion : knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, 
 that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we 
 should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. 
 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also 
 live with Him : knowing that Christ, being raised from the 
 dead, dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion over Him. 
 For in that He died, He died unto sin once ; but in that He 
 liveth. He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also your- 
 selves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." Now he had commenced with proving 
 » Rom. vi. 1. - Kom. v. 20. 
 
CHAP. LIV.] CHRIST'S LIFE TYPICAL OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 213 
 
 that we must not continue in sin that grace may abound, and 
 had said : " How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer 
 therein ? " And to show that we are dead to sin, he added : 
 " Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into 
 Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death ? " And so he 
 concludes this whole passage just as he began it. For he has 
 brought in the death of Christ in such a way as to imply that 
 Christ Himself also died to sin. To what sin did He die if 
 not to the flesh, in which there was not sin, but the likeness 
 of sin, and which was therefore called by the name of sin ? To 
 those who are baptized into the death of Christ, then, — and 
 this class includes not adults only, but infants as well, — he 
 says : " Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed 
 unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."^ 
 
 Chap. liii. — Christ's cross ami burial, resurrection, ascension, and sitting down 
 at the right hand of God, are images of the Christian life. 
 
 All the events, then, of Christ's crucifixion, of His burial, of 
 His resurrection the third day, of His ascension into heaven, 
 of His sitting down at the right hand of the Father, were so 
 ordered, that the life which the Christian leads here might be 
 modelled upon them, not merely in a mystical sense, but in 
 reality. For in reference to His crucifixion it is said : " They 
 that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affec- 
 tions and lusts." ^ And in reference to His burial : " We are 
 buried with Him by baptism into death." ^ In reference to 
 His resurrection : " That, like as Christ was raised up from 
 the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
 walk in newness of life."* And in reference to His ascension 
 into heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Father : 
 *' If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those thinc^s which are 
 above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set 
 your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 
 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." ^ 
 
 Chap. liv. — Christ's second coming does not belong to the imst, hut will take place 
 at the end of the loorld. 
 
 But what we believe as to Christ's action in the future, when 
 He shall come from heaven to judge the quick and tlie dead, 
 
 ^ Eom. vi. 1-11. 2 Gal. v. 24. 3 p^on^. ^i 4, 
 
 4 Eom. vL 5. « Col. iii. 1-3. 
 
214 THE ENCIIirJDION. [CHAP. LV. 
 
 has no bearing upon the life which we now lead here ; for it 
 forms no part of what He did upon eartli, hut is part of what 
 He shall do at the end of tlie world. And it is to this that 
 the apostle refers in what immediately follows the passage 
 quoted above : " When Clirist, who is our life, shall appear, 
 then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." ^ 
 
 Cii.vr. LV. — The expression, ** Clirist shall judge the quick and the dead" may le 
 understood in either of two senses. 
 
 Now the expression, " to judge the quick and the dead," 
 may be interpreted in two ways : either we may understand 
 by the " quick " those who at His advent shall not yet have 
 died, but whom He shall find alive in the flesh, and by the 
 " dead " those who have departed from the body, or who shall 
 have departed before His coming ; or we may understand the 
 " quick " to mean the righteous, and the " dead " the un- 
 righteous ; for the righteous shall be judged as well as others. 
 Now the judgment of God is sometimes taken in a bad sense, 
 as, for example, " They that have done evil unto the resurrec- 
 tion of judgment ;"^ sometimes in a good sense, as, "Save me, 
 God, by Thy name, and judge me by Thy strength."'"^ This 
 is easily understood when we consider that it is the judgment 
 of God which separates the good from the evil, and sets the 
 good at His right hand, that they may be delivered from evil, 
 and not destroyed with the wicked ; and it is for this reason 
 that the Psalmist cried, " Judge me, God," and then added, 
 as if in explanation, " and distinguish my cause from that of 
 an ungodly nation."* 
 
 CuAP. L\i. — Thc Holy Spirit and (he Churclu The Church is the temple 
 
 of God. 
 
 And now, having spoken of Jesus Christ, the only Son of 
 God, our Lord, with the brevity suitable to a confession of our 
 faith, wo go on to say that we believe also in the Holy Gliost, 
 — thus completing the Trinity which constitutes the Godhead. 
 Then we mention the Holy Church. And thus we are made 
 to understand that tlie intelligent creation, which constitutes 
 the free Jerusalem,^ ouglit to be subordinate in the order of 
 
 > Col. iii 4. 2 John v. 29 {damnation, A. V.). ' Ps. liv. 1. 
 
 * Ps. xliii. 1 (" Plead my cause against au ungodly nation," A.V.). 
 ^' Gal. iv. 26. 
 
CHAP. LYI.] THE HOLY SPIRIT. 215 
 
 speech to the Creator, the Supreme Trinity : for all that is 
 said of the man Christ Jesus has reference, of course, to the 
 unity of the person of the Only-begotten. Therefore the 
 true order of the Creed demanded that the Church should be 
 made subordinate to the Trinity, as the house to Him who 
 dwells in it, the temple to God who occupies it, and the city 
 to its builder. And we are here to understand the whole 
 Church, not that part of it only which wanders as a stranger 
 on the earth, praising the name of God from the rising of the 
 sun to the s^oinsj down of the same, and sin^inc^ a new sonoj of 
 deliverance from its old captivity ; but that part also which 
 has always from its creation remained stedfast to God in 
 heaven, and has never experienced the misery consequent 
 upon a fall. This jpart is_nmde_iip .of the holy angels, who 
 enjoy uninterrupted happiness ; and (as it is bound to do) it 
 renders assistance to the part which is stiU wandering among 
 strangers : for these two parts shall be one in the fellowsliip 
 of eternity, and now they are one in the bonds of love, the 
 whole having been ordained for the worship of the one God. 
 Wherefore, neither the whole Church, nor any part of it, has 
 any desire to be worshipped instead of God, nor to be God to 
 any one who belongs to the temple of God — that temple which 
 is built up of the saints who were created by the uncreated 
 God. And therefore the Holy Spirit, if a creature, could 
 not be the Creator, but would be a part of the intelligent 
 creation. He would simply be the highest creature, and 
 therefore would not be mentioned in the Creed before the 
 Church ; for He Himself would belong to the Church, to that 
 part of it which is in the heavens. And He would not have 
 a temple, for He Himself would be part of a temple. JSTow 
 He has a temple, of which the apostle says : " Know ye not 
 that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is 
 in you, which ye have of God V'^ Of which body he says in 
 another place : " Know ye not that your bodies are the mem- 
 bers of Christ ? "^ How, then, is He not God, seeing that He 
 has a temple ? and how can He be less than Christ, whose 
 members are His temple ? Nor has He one temple, and God 
 another, seeing that the same apostle sa3's : " Know ye not 
 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 19. 2 1 Cor. vi. 15. 
 
216 THE ENCIIiniDION. [CIIAP. LVII. 
 
 that ye are the temple of God?"^ and adds, as proof of 
 this, "and that the Spirit of God dwclleth in you."^ God, 
 then, dwells in His temple : not the Holy Spirit only, but the 
 Fatlier also, and the Son, who says of His own body, through 
 which He was made Head of the Church upon earth (" that in 
 aU things He might liave the pre-eminence"^): "Destroy 
 this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'"* The 
 temple of God, then, that is, of the Supreme Trinity as a 
 whole, is the Holy Church, embracing in its full extent both 
 heaven and earth. 
 
 Chap. lvii. — The condition of the Church In heaven. 
 
 But of that part of the Church which is in heaven what 
 can we say, except that no wicked one is found in it, and that 
 no one has fallen from it, or shall ever fall from it, since the 
 time that " God spared not the angels that sinned," as the 
 Apostle Peter writes "but cast them down to hell, and 
 delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto 
 judgment"?^ 
 
 Chap, lviii. — We have no certain knowledge of the organization of the 
 angelic society. 
 
 i^ow, what the organization is of that supremely happy 
 society in heaven: what the differences of rank are, which 
 explain the fact that while all are called by the general name 
 angels, as we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " But to 
 which of the angels said God at any time. Sit on my riglit 
 hand ? "^ (this form of expression being evidently designed to 
 embrace all the angels without exception), we yet find that 
 there are some called archangels ; and whether the archangels 
 are the same as those called liosts, so that the expression, 
 " Praise ye Him, all His angels : praise ye Him, all His hosts,"' 
 is the same as if it had been said, " Praise ye Him, all His 
 angels : praise ye Him, all His archangels ; " and what are the 
 various significations of those four names under which the 
 apostle seems to embrace the whole heavenly company with- 
 out exception, "whether they be thrones, or dominions, or 
 principalities, or powers : " ^ — let those who are able answer 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. iii. IC. » 1 Cor. iii. IG. 3 Col. i. 18. •• John ii. 19. 
 
 » 2 Tct. ii. 4. ileb. i. 13. ? Pa. cxlviii. 2. » Col. L 16. 
 
CHAP. LX.] THE ANGELS. 217 
 
 these questions, if they can also prove their answers to be 
 'true ; but as for me, I confess my ignorance. I am not even 
 certain upon this point : whether the sun, and the moon, and 
 all the stars, do not form part of this same society, though 
 many consider them merely luminous bodies, without either 
 sensation or intelligence. 
 
 Chap. lix. — llie bodies assumed hy angels raise a very difficult, and not very 
 useful, subject of discussion. 
 
 Further, who will tell with what sort of bodies it was that 
 the angels appeared to men, making themselves not only 
 visible, but tangible ; and again, how it is that, not through ^ 
 material bodies, but b}^ spiritual power, they present visions 
 not to the bodily eyes, but to the spiritual eyes of the mind, 
 or speak something not into the ear from without, but from 
 within the soul of the man, they themselves being stationed 
 there too, as it is written in the prophet, " And the angel 
 that spake in me said unto me " ^ (he does not say, " that 
 spake to me," but " that spake in me ") ; or appear to men in 
 sleep, and make communications through dreams, as we read 
 in the Gospel, " Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto 
 him in a dream, saying " ? ^ For these methods of communi- 
 cation seem to imply that the angels have not tangible bodies, 
 and make it a very difficult question to solve how the 
 patriarchs washed their feet;^ and how it was that Jacob 
 wrestled with the angel in a way so unmistakeably material.^ 
 To ask questions like tliese, and to make such guesses as 
 we can at the answers, is a useful exercise for the intellect, 
 if the discussion be kept witliin proper bounds, and if we / 
 avoid the error of supposing ourselves to know what we do 
 not know. For what is the necessity for affirming, or denying, 
 or defining with accuracy on these subjects, and others like 
 them, when we may without blame be entirely ignorant of 
 them ? 
 
 Chap. LX.—It is more necessary to be able to detect the wiles of Satan tvhen he 
 transforms himself into an angel of light. 
 
 It is more necessary to use all our powers of discrimination 
 and judgment when Satan transforms himself into an angel of 
 
 » Zech. i. 9 (" The angel that talked tvith me," A.Y.). 
 
 8 Matt. i. 20. 3 Qen. xviii. 4, xix. 2. "» Gcii. xxxii. 21, 25. 
 
218 THE ENCHIRIDIOX. [CRAP. LXI. 
 
 light/ lest by liis wiles he should lead us astray into huitful 
 courses. For, while he only deceives the bodily senses, and 
 does not pervert the mind from that true and sound judgment 
 which enables a man to lead a life of faith, there is no danger 
 to religion ; or if, feigning himself to be good, he does or says 
 the things that befit good angels, and we believe him to be 
 good, the error is not one that is hurtful or dangerous to 
 Christian faith. But when, through these means, which are 
 alien to his nature, he goes on to lead us into courses of 
 his own, then great watchfulness is necessary to detect, and 
 refuse to follow, him. But how many men are fit to evade 
 all his deadly wiles, unless God restrains and watches over 
 them ? The very difficulty of the matter, however, is useful 
 in this respect, that it prevents men from trusting in them- 
 selves or in one another, and leads all to place their confidence 
 in God alone. And certainly no pious man can doubt that 
 this is most expedient for us. 
 
 Chap. lxi. — The Church on earth has hecn redeemed from slu hy the 
 blood of a Mediator. 
 
 Tliis part of the Church, then, wliich is made up of the 
 holy angels and the hosts of God, shall become known to us 
 in its true nature, when, at the end of the world, we shall be 
 united with it in the common possession of everlasting happi- 
 ness. But the other part, which, separated from it, wandere 
 as a stranger on the earth, is better known to us, both because 
 we belong to it, and because it is composed of men, and we 
 too are men. This section of the Church has been redeemed 
 from all sin by the blood of a ^Mediator who had no sin, and 
 its song is : " If God be for us, who can be against us ? He 
 that sjjared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us 
 all." ^ Xqw it was not for the angels that Christ died. ' Yet 
 what was done for the redemption of man through His death 
 was in a sense done for the angels, because the enmity which 
 sin had put between men and the holy angels is removed, and 
 friendship is restored between them, and by the redemption of 
 man the gaps M'hich the great apostasy left in the angelic 
 host are filled up. 
 
 '2 Cor. xi. 11. 'Kom. viii. Gl. 
 
CHAP. LXIIL] redemption AND THE ANGELS. 219 
 
 Chap. lxii. — By the sacrifce of Clirlst all tJungs are restoral, and peace is 
 made between eo,rth and heaven. 
 
 And, of course, the holy angels, taught by God, in the 
 eternal contemplation of whose truth their hai^piness consists, 
 know how great a number of the human race are to supple- 
 ment their ranks, and fill up the full tale of their citizenship. 
 Wherefore the apostle says, that " all things are gathered to- 
 gether in one in Christ, both which are in heaven and which 
 are on earth." -^ The things which are in heaven are gathered 
 together when what was lost therefrom in the fall of the 
 angels is restored from among men ; and the things which are 
 on earth are gathered together, when those who are predes- 
 tined to eternal life are redeemed from their old corruption. 
 /| And thus, through that single sacrifice in which the Mediator 
 was offered up, the one sacrifice of which the many victims 
 under the law were types, heavenly things^ are brought into 
 peace with earthly things, and earthly things with heavenly. 
 Wherefore, as the same apostle says : " For it pleased the 
 Father that in Him should all fulness dwell : and, having 
 made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to recon- 
 cile all things to Himself : by Him, I say, whether they be 
 thinc^s in earth or thin2js in heaven."^ 
 
 CiiAP. LXiii. — The peace of God, tohich reigneth in heaven, passeth all 
 understanding. 
 
 This peace, as Scripture saith, " passeth all understanding," ^ 
 and cannot be known by us until we have come into the full 
 possession of it. For in what sense are heavenly things 
 reconciled, except they be reconciled to us, viz. by coming 
 into harmony with us ? For in heaven there is unbroken 
 peace, both between all the intelligent creatures that exist 
 there, and between these and tlieir Creator. And this peace, 
 as is said, passeth all understanding ; but this, of course, means 
 our understanding, not that of those' who always behold the 
 face of their Father. We now, however great may be our 
 human understanding, know but in part, and see through a 
 glass darkly.^ But when we shall be equal unto the angels 
 of God,^ then we shall see face to face, as they do ; and we 
 
 1 Eph. i. 10. 2<-,)] i 19^ 20. 3 pi^n. iv. 7. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. xiii. 12. -' Luke xx. 3G. 
 
^ 
 
 220 THE ENCHIRIDION. [CHAP. LXIV. 
 
 shall have as great peace towards them as they have towards 
 us, because we shall love them as much as we are loved by 
 them. And so tlieir peace shall be known to us : for our own 
 peace shall be like to theirs, and as great as theirs, nor shall 
 it then pass our understanding. But the peace of God, the 
 peace wliich He cherisheth towards us, shall undoubtedly pass 
 not our understanding only, but theirs as well. And this 
 must be so : for every rational creature which is hai>py de- 
 rives its happiness from Him ; He does not derive His from 
 it. And in this view it is better to interpret " all " in the 
 passage, "The peace of God passeth all understanding," as 
 admitting of no exception even in favour of the understanding 
 of the holy angels : the only exception that can be made is 
 that of God Himself For, of course, His peace does not pass 
 His own understanding. 
 
 CiiAr. LXIV. — Pardon of sin extends over the whole mortal life of the saints, 
 which,^ though free from crime, is not free from sin. 
 
 But the angels even now are at peace with us when our 
 sins are pardoned. Hence, in the order of the Creed, after the 
 mention of the Holy Church is placed the remission of sins. 
 For it is by this that the Church on earth stands : it is 
 through this that what had been lost, and was found, is saved 
 from being lost again. For, setting aside the grace of bap^tismj 
 which is jriven as an antidote to orin;inal sin, so that what 
 our birth imposes upon us, our new birth relieves us from 
 (this grace, however, takes away all the actual sins also that 
 have been committed in thought, word, and deed) : setting 
 aside, then, this great act of favour, whence commences man's 
 restoration, and in which all our guilt, both original and 
 actual, is washed away, the rest of our life from tlie time 
 that we have the use of reason provides constant occasion for 
 the remission of sins, however great may be our advance in 
 ritihteousness. For the sons of God, as loni^ as tliev live in 
 this body of death, are in conflict with death. And although 
 it is truly said of them, " As many as are led by the Spirit 
 of God, they are the sons of God,"^ yet tliey are led by the 
 Spirit of God, and as the sons of God advance towards God 
 under this drawback, that tliey are led also by their own spirit, 
 
 ' liom. viiL H. 
 
CHAP. LXVL] penitence AND PAPDON. 221 
 
 weighted as it is by the corruptible body;^ and that, as the 
 sons of men, under the influence of human affections, they fall 
 back to their old level, and so sin. There is a difference, 
 however. For although every crime is a sin, every sin is not 
 a crime. And so we say that the life of holy men, as long as 
 they remain in this mortal body, may be found without crime ; 
 but, as the Apostle John says, " If we say that we have no 
 sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."^ 
 
 Chap. lxv. — God pardons sins, hut on condition of penitence, certain times for 
 tvhich have been fixed by the law of the Church. 
 
 But even crimes themselves, however great, may be remitted 
 in the Holy Church ; and the mercy of God is never to be 
 despaired of by men who truly repent, each according to the 
 measure of his sin. And in the act of repentance, where a 
 crime has been committed of such a nature as to cut off the 
 sinner from the body of Christ, we are not to take account so ^ 
 
 much of the measure of time as of the measure of sorrow ; 
 for a broken and a contrite heart God doth not despise.^ But 
 as the grief of one heart is frequently hid from another, and 
 is not made known to others by words or other signs, when it 
 is manifest to Him of whom it is said, " My groaning is not 
 hid from Thee,"* those who govern the Church have rightly O 
 
 appointed times of penitence, that the Church in which the 
 sins are remitted may be satisfied ; and_ outside the Church 
 sins are not remitted. For the Church alone has received 
 the pledge of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no 
 remission of sins — such, at least, as brings the pardoned to 
 eternal life. 
 
 Chap. lxvi. — The pardon of sin has reference chiefly to the future judgment. 
 
 Now the pardon of sin has reference chiefly to the future 
 judgment. For, as far as this life is concerned, the saying of 
 Scripture holds good : " A heavy yoke is upon the sons of 
 Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's womb, 
 till the day that they return to the mother of all things." ^ 
 So that we see even infants, after baptism and regeneration, 
 suffering from the infliction of divers evils : and thus we are 
 
 1 Wisd. ix. 15. 2 1 John i. 8. ^ Ps. li. 17. 
 
 * Ps. xxxviii. 9. ^ Ecclus. xl. 1. 
 
222 THE ENCHIRIDION. [CHAP. LXVII. 
 
 given to understand, that all that is set forth in the sacra- 
 ments of salvation refers rather to the hope of future good, 
 than to the retaining or attaining of present blessings. For 
 many sins seem in this world to be overlooked and visited 
 with no punishment, whose punishment is reserved for the 
 future (for it is not in vain that the day when Christ shall 
 come as Judge of quick and dead is peculiarly named the day 
 of judgment) ; just as, on the other hand, many sins are 
 punished in this life, wdiich nevertheless are pardoned, and 
 shall bring down no punishment in the future life. Accord- 
 ingly, in reference to certain temporal punishments, which in 
 this life are visited upon sinners, the apostle, addressing those 
 whose sins are blotted out, and not reserved for the final judg- 
 ment, says : " For if we would judge ourselves, we should not 
 be judged. But when we are judged, w^e ate chastened of 
 the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." ^ 
 
 Chap. hx\u.— Faith lulthout worTcs is dead, and cannot save a man. 
 
 It is believed, moreover, by some, that men who do not 
 abandon the name of Christ, and who have been baptized in 
 the Church by His baptism, and who have never been cut off 
 from the Church by any schism or heresy, though they should 
 live in the grossest sin, and never either wash it away in 
 penitence nor redeem it by almsgiving, but persevere in it 
 persistently to the last day of their lives, shall be saved by 
 fire ; that is, that although they shall suffer a punishment by 
 fire, lasting for a time proportionate to the magnitude of their 
 crimes and misdeeds, they shall not be punished with ever- 
 lasting fire. But those who believe this, and yet are Catholics, 
 seem to me to be led astray by a kind of benevolent feeling 
 natural to humanity. For Holy Scripture, when consulted, 
 gives a very different answer. I have written a book on thi* 
 _subject, entitled 0/ Faith and Works, in which, to the best 
 of my ability, God assisting me, I have shown from Scripture, 
 Jhat the faith which saves us is that which the Apostle Paul 
 clearly enough describes when he says : " For in Jesus Christ 
 neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but 
 faith which worketh by love." ^ But if it worketh evil, and 
 1 1 Cor. xi. 31, 32. ' GaL v. G. 
 
CHAP. LXVIIL] saved BY FIEE. 223 
 
 not good, then without doubt, as the Apostle James says, " it 
 is dead, being alone." ^ The same apostle says again, " What 
 doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, 
 and have not works ? Can faith save him ? " ^ And further, 
 if a wicked man shall be saved by fire on account of his faith 
 alone, and if this is what the blessed Apostle Paul means 
 when he says, " But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by 
 fire ;" ^ then faith without works can save a man, and what 
 his fellow-apostle James says must be false. And that must 
 be false which Paul himself says in another place : " Be not 
 deceived : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, 
 nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor 
 thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extor- 
 tioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."* For if those who 
 persevere in these wicked courses shall nevertheless be saved 
 on account of their faith in Christ, how can it be true that 
 they shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? 
 
 Chap, lxviii. — The true sense of the passage (1 Cor. iii. 11-15) about those u'ho 
 are saved, yet so as hy fire. 
 
 But as these most plain and unmistakeable declarations of the 
 apostles cannot be false, that obscure saying about those who 
 build upon the foundation, Christ, not gold, silver, and precious 
 stones, but wood, hay, and stubble (for it is these who, it is 
 said, shall be saved, yet so as by fire, the merit of the foun- 
 dation saving them^), must be so interpreted as not to conflict 
 with the plain statements quoted above. Now wood, hay, 
 and stubble may, without incongruity, be understood to signify 
 such an attachment to worldly things, however lawful these 
 may be in themselves, that they cannot be lost without grief 
 of mind. And though this grief burns, yet if Christ hold the 
 place of foundation in the heart, — that is, if nothing be pre- 
 ferred to Him, and if the man, thougjh burninsj with ^rrief, is 
 yet more willing to lose the things he loves so much than to 
 lose Christ, — he is saved by fire. If, however, in time of 
 temptation, he prefer to hold by temporal and earthly things 
 rather than by Christ, he has not Christ as his foundation ; 
 for he puts earthly things in the first place, and in a building 
 
 ^ Jas. ii. 17. - Jas. ii. 14. ^1 Cor. iii. 15. 
 
 * 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. ^1 Cor. iii. 11-15. 
 
224 THE EXCiiiRiDiox. [chap. lxix. 
 
 nothing comes before the foundation. Again, the fire of ^vhich 
 the apostle speaks in this place must be such a fire as both 
 men are made to pass through, that is, both the man who 
 builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, and 
 the man who builds wood, hay, stubble. For he immediately 
 adds : " The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. 
 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he 
 shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, 
 he shall suffer loss ; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as 
 by fire."^ The fire then shall prove, not the work of one of 
 them only, but of both. Now the trial of adversity is a kind 
 of fire which is' plainly spoken of in another place : " The 
 furnace proveth the potter's vessels : and the furnace of ad- 
 versity just men." ^ And this fire does in the course of this 
 life act exactly in the way the apostle says. If it come into 
 contact with two believers, one " caring for the things that 
 belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord," ^ that is, 
 building upon Christ the foundation, gold, silver, precious 
 stones ; the other " caring for the things that are of the world, 
 how he may please his wife,'"* that is, building upon the same 
 foundation wood, hay, stubble, — the work of the former is not 
 burned, because he has not given his love to things whose 
 loss can cause him grief ; but the work of the latter is burned, 
 because things that are enjoyed with desire cannot be lost 
 without pain. But since, by our supposition, even the latter 
 prefers to lose these things rather than to lose Christ, and 
 since he does not desert Christ out of fear of losing them, 
 though he is grieved when he does lose them, he is saved, but 
 it is so as by fire ; because the grief for what he loved and 
 has lost burns him. But it does not subvert nor consume 
 him ; for he is protected 1)y his immoveable and incorruptible 
 toundation. 
 
 Chat, lxix.— It is not impoMihle that some heUerrrs may pass tJirougJi a 
 ]furgatorial Jire in tfie future life. 
 
 And it is not impossible that something of the same kind 
 may take place even after tliis life. It is a matter that may 
 be incjuired into, and either ascertained or left doubtful, 
 
 ' 1 Cor. iii. 13-15. ' Ecclus. xxvii. 5, ii. 5. 
 
 * 1 Cor. vii. 32. * 1 Cor. viL 33. 
 
CHAP, lxxl] purgatory. 225 
 
 whether some believers shall pass through a kind of purga- 
 torial fire, and in proportion as they have loved with more or 
 less devotion the goods that perish, be less or more quickly 
 delivered from it. This cannot, however, be the case of any 
 of those of whom it is said, that they " shall not inherit the 
 kingdom of God," ^ unless after suitable repentance their sins 
 be forgiven them. When I say "suitable," I mean that they 
 are not to be unfruitful in almsgiving; for Holy Scripture 
 lays so much stress on this virtue, that our Lord tells us 
 beforehand, that He will ascribe no merit to those on His right 
 hand but that they abound in it, and no defect to those on 
 His left hand but their want of it, when He shall say to the 
 former, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom," 
 and to the latter, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
 fire." 2 
 
 IP Chap. lxx. — Almsgiving loill not atone for sin unless the life he changed. 
 
 We must beware, however, lest any one should suppose 
 that gross sins, such as are committed by those who shall not 
 inherit the kingdom of God, may be daily perpetrated, and 
 daily atoned for by^ almsgiving. The life must be changed 
 for the better ; and almsgiving must be used to propitiate 
 God for past sins, not to purchase impunity for the commission 
 of such sins in the future. For He has given no man licence 
 to sin,^ although in His mercy He may blot out sins that are 
 already committed, if we do not neglect to make proper satis- 
 faction. 
 
 /^ Chap. lxxi. — The daily prayer of the believer malces satisfaction for the 
 trivial sins that daily stain his life. 
 
 Now the daily prayer of the believer makes satisfaction for 
 those daily sins of a momentary and trivial kind which are 
 necessary incidents of this life. For he can say, " Our Father 
 which art in heaven," * seeing that to such a Father he is now 
 born again of water and of the Spirit.^ And this prayer 
 certainly takes away the very small sins of daily life. It 
 takes away also those which at one time made the life of the 
 believer very wicked, but which, now that he is changed for 
 
 » 1 Cor. vi. 10. 2 Matt. xxv. 31-4G. 3 Eccliis. xv. 20. 
 
 * Matt. vi. 9. ^ Jolm iii. 5. 
 
 ENCIIIR. P 
 
t 
 
 22G THE ENCHIRIDinX. [CIIAP. LXXII. 
 
 the better by repentance, he has given up, provided that as 
 truly as he says, " Forgive us our debts " (for there is no want 
 of debts to be forgiven), so tinily does he say, " as we forgive 
 our debtors ; " * that is, provided he does what he says he does : 
 for to forgive a man who asks for pardon, is really to give 
 alms. 
 
 Chap, lxxii. — There are many kinds of alms, the giving of which assists to 
 procure pardon for our sins. 
 
 And on this principle of interpretation, our Lord's saying, 
 " Give alms of such things as ye have, and, behold, all things 
 are clean unto you," ^ applies to every useful act that a man 
 does in mercy. Xot only, then, the man who gives food to 
 the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, 
 hospitality to the stranger, shelter to the fugitive, who visits 
 the sick and the imprisoned, ransoms the captive, assists the 
 weak, leads the blind, comforts the sorrowful, heals the sick, 
 puts the wanderer on the right path, gives advice to the per- 
 plexed, and supplies the wants of the needy, — not this man 
 only, but the man who pardons the sinner also gives alms ; 
 and the man who corrects with blows, or restrains by any kind 
 of discipline one over whom he has power, and who at the 
 same time forgives from the heart the sin by which he was 
 injured, or prays that it may be forgiven, is also a giver of alms, 
 not only in that he forgives, or prays for forgiveness for the 
 sin, but also in that he rebukes and corrects the sinner : for in 
 this too he shows mercy. Now much good is bestowed upon 
 unwilling recipients, when their advantage and not their 
 pleasure is consulted ; and they themselves frequently prove 
 to be their own enemies, while their true friends are those 
 whom they take for their enemies, and to whom in their 
 blindness they return evil for good. (A Christian, indeed, is 
 not permitted to return evil even for evil,^) And thus there 
 are many kinds of alms, by giving of which we assist to 
 procure the pardon of our sins. 
 
 Chap, lxxii i. — The greatest of all alms is to forgive our debtors and to 
 love our cneinics. 
 
 But none of those is greater than to forgive from the heart 
 a sin that has been committed against us. For it is a com- 
 
 « Matt. \i. 12. ' Luke xi. 11. ^ Eom. xii. 17 ; Matt. v. 44. 
 
CHAP. LXXIV.] FORGIVINGNESS A CONDITION OF FOP.GIVENESS. 227 
 
 paratively small thing to wish well to, or even to do good to, 
 a man who has done no evil to you. It is a much higher 
 thing, and is the result of the most exalted goodness, to love 
 your enemy, and always to wish well to, and when you have 
 the opportunity, to do good to, the man who wishes you ill, 
 and, when he can, does you harm. This is to obey the com- 
 mand of God : " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate 
 you, and pray for them which persecute you." ^ But seeing 
 that this is a frame of mind only reached by the perfect sons 
 of God, and that though every believer ought to strive after 
 it, and by prayer to God and earnest struggling wdth himself 
 endeavour to bring his soul up to this standard, yet a degree 
 of goodness so high can hardly belong to so great a multitude 
 as we believe are heard when they use this petition, " Forgive 
 us our debts, as we forgive our debtors ; " in view of all this, 
 it cannot be doubted that the implied undertaking is fulfilled 
 if a man, though he has not yet attained to loving his enemy, 
 3'et, when asked by one w^ho has sinned against him to forgive 
 him his sin, does forgive him from his heart. For he certainly 
 desires to be himself forgiven when he prays, '' as w^e forgive 
 our debtors," that is, Forgive us our debts when we beg 
 forgiveness, as we forgive our debtors when they beg forgive- 
 ness from us. 
 
 Chap, lxxiv. — God does not pardon the sins of those iclio do not from the 
 heart forf/ive others. 
 
 JSTow, he who asks forgiveness of the man against whom he 
 has sinned, being moved by his sin to ask forgiveness, cannot 
 be counted an enemy in such a sense that it should be as 
 difficult to love him now as it was when he was engaged in 
 active hostility. And the man who does not from his heart 
 forgive him who repents of his sin, and asks forgiveness, need 
 not suppose that his own sins are forgiven of God. For the 
 Truth cannot lie. And what reader or hearer of the Gospel 
 can have failed to notice, that the same person who said, " I 
 am the Truth," ^ taught us also this form of prayer; and in 
 order to impress this particular petition deeply upon our 
 minds, said, " For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your 
 heavenly Father will also forgive you ; but if ye forgive not 
 
 1 Matt. V. 4'1. ' John .\iv. 6. 
 
228 THE ENCHIRIDIONS [CIIAP. LXXV. 
 
 men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your 
 trespasses " ? ^ The man whom the thunder of tliis warning 
 does not awaken is not asleep, but dead ; and yet so powerful 
 is tliat voice, tliat it can awaken even the dead. 
 
 Chap. lxxv. — The wicked and tlie xtnhdieving are not made clean by the 
 givinf/ of alms, except they be born ajain. 
 
 Assuredly, then, those who live in gross wickedness, and 
 take no care to reform their lives and manners, and yet amid 
 all their crimes and vices do not cease to give frequent alms, 
 in vain take comfort to themselves from the saying of our 
 Lord : " Give alms of such things as ye have ; and, behold, all 
 things are clean unto you."^ For they do not understand 
 how far this saying reaches. But that they may understand 
 this, let them hear what He says. For we read in the Gospel 
 as follows : " And as He spake, a certain Pharisee besought 
 Him to dine with him ; and He went in, and sat down to 
 meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that He 
 had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto 
 him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup 
 and the platter ; but your inward .part is full of ravening and 
 wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is 
 without, make that which is within also ? But rather give 
 alms of such things as ye have ; and, behold, all things are 
 clean unto you.""^ Are we to understand this as meaning 
 that to the Pharisees who have not the faith of Christ all 
 things are clean, if only they give alms in the way these men 
 count almsgiving, even though they have never believed in 
 Christ, nor been born again of water and of the Spirit ? But 
 the fact is, that all are unclean who are not made clean by the 
 laith of Christ, according to the expression, " purifying their 
 hearts by faith ; " ^ and that the apostle says, " Unto them 
 that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure ; but even 
 their mind and conscience is defiled."'^ How, then, could all 
 things be clean to the Pharisees, even though they gave alms, 
 if they were not believers ? And how could they be believers 
 if they were not willing to have faith in Christ, and to be 
 born again of His grace ? And yet what they heard is true : 
 
 » Matt. vi. M, 15. ' T-ukc .\i. 41. ' Luke .\i. 37-11. 
 
 * Acta XV. 9. ' Tit, I 15. 
 
CHAP. LXXYI.] ALMSGIVING. 229 
 
 " Give alms of such things as ye have ; and, behold, all things 
 are clean unto you." 
 
 Chap, lxxvi. — To give alms aright, we sJiould begin with ourselves, and have 
 pity upon our oivn souls. 
 
 For the man who wishes to give alms as he ought, should 
 begin with himself, and give to himself first. For almsgiving 
 is a work of mercy ; and most truly is it said, " To have 
 mercy on thy soul is pleasing to God." ^ And for this end 
 are we born again, that we should be pleasing to God, who is 
 justly displeased with that which we brought with us when 
 we were born. This is our Jirst alms, which we give to our- 
 selves when, through the mercy of a pitying God, we find that 
 
 -—we are ourselves wretched, and conless the justice of His judg- 
 ment by which we are made wretched, of which the apostle 
 says, " The judgment was by one to condemnation ; " ^ and 
 praise the greatness of His love, of which the same preacher 
 of grace says, " God commendeth His love toward us, in that, 
 while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us : " ^ and thus, 
 judging truly of our own misery, and loving God with the love 
 which He has Himself bestowed, we lead a holy and virtuous 
 life. But the Pharisees, while they gave as alms the tithe of 
 
 ^^1 their fruits, even the most insignificant, passed over judg- 
 ment and the love of God, and so did not commence their 
 almsgiving at home, and extend their pity to themselves in 
 the first instance. And it is in reference to this order of love 
 that it is said, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."^ When, 
 then, our Lord had rebuked them because they made them- 
 selves clean on the outside, but within were full of ravening 
 and wickedness. He advised them, in the exercise of that charity 
 which each man owes to himself in the first instance, to make 
 clean the inward parts. " But rather," He says, " give alnis 
 of such things as ye have ; and, behold, all things are clean 
 unto you."^ Then, to show what it was that He advised, and 
 what they took no pains to do, and to show that He did not 
 overlook or forget their almsgiving, "But woe unto you, 
 Pharisees ! " ^ He says ; as if He meant to say : I indeed 
 advise you to give alms which shall make all tilings clean 
 
 ' Ecclus. XXX. 24. 2 -Ro^ y. IQ. 2 p^om. v. 8. 
 
 * Luke X. 27. * Lulve xi. 42. 
 
230 THE ENCHIRIDION. [CHAP. LXXVII. 
 
 unto you ; " but woe unto you ! for ye tithe mint, and rue, and 
 all manner of herbs ; " as if He meant to say : I know these 
 alms of yours, and ye need not think that I am now admonish- 
 ing you in respect of such things ; " and pass over judgment 
 and the love of God," an alms by which ye might have been 
 made clean from all inward impurity, so that even the bodies 
 which ye are now washing would have been clean to you. For 
 this is the import of " all things," both inward and outward 
 things, as we read* in another place : " Cleanse first that which 
 is within, that the outside may be clean also."^ But lest He 
 might appear to despise the alms which they were giving out 
 of the fruits of the earth, He says : " These ought ye to have 
 done," referring to judgment and the love of God, " and not to 
 leave the other undone," referring to the giving of the tithes. 
 
 CliAP. LXXVII. — If v:e xcoxdd qxw alms to ourselves, we mustjlee iniquity ; for 
 he who loveth iniquity hateOi his soul. f,'^J_^-rX^'\ 
 
 Those, then, who think that they can by giving alms, how- 
 ever profuse, whether in money or in kind, purchase for them- 
 selves the privilege of persisting with impunity in their 
 monstrous crimes and hideous vices, need not thus deceive 
 themselves. For not only do they commit these sins, but they 
 love them so mucli that they w^ould like to go on for ever 
 committing them, if only they could do so with impunity. 
 Now, he who loveth iniquity hateth his own soul ; "^ and he 
 who hateth his own soul is not merciful but cruel towards 
 it. For in loving it according to the world, he hateth it 
 according to God. But if lie desired to give alms to it which 
 slioukl make all things clean unto him, he would hate it 
 according to the world, and love it according to God. Xow 
 no one gives alms unless he receive what he gives from one 
 .who is not in want of it. Therefore it is said, " His mercy 
 shall prevent me." ^ 
 
 Chat, lxxviii. — W/iat sins are trivial and what heinous is a matter /or 
 Qod's judgment. 
 
 Now, what sins are trivial and what heinous is not a 
 
 matter to be decided by man's judgment, but by the judgment 
 
 » Mult, xxiii. 36. 
 
 " Ps. xi. 5 (•' Him that loveth vioknce, His (God's) soul hateth," A.V.). 
 
 » Ts. Ux. 10. 
 
CHAP. LXXVIIL] relative MAGNITUDE OF SINS. 231 
 
 of God. For it is plain that the apostles themselves have 
 given an indulgence in the case of certain sins : take, for ex- 
 ample, what the Apostle Paul says to those who are married : 
 " Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for 
 a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer : 
 and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your 
 incontinency."^ Now it is possible that it might not have 
 been considered a sin to have intercourse with a spouse, not 
 with a view to the procreation of children, which is the great 
 blessing of marriage, but for the sake of carnal pleasure, and 
 to save the incontinent from being led by their weakness into 
 the deadly sin of fornication, or adultery, or another form of 
 uncleanness which it is shameful even to name, and into 
 which it is possible that they might be drawn by lust under 
 the temptation of Satan. It is possible, I say, that this might 
 not have been considered a sin, had the apostle not added : 
 " But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment."^ 
 Who, then, can deny that it is a sin, when confessedly it is 
 only by apostolic authority that permission is granted to those 
 who do it ? Another case of the same kind is where he says : 
 " Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law 
 before the unjust, and not before the saints ?"^ And shortly 
 afterwards : " If then ye have judgments of things pertaining 
 to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in 
 the Church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is 
 not a wise man among you ? no, not one that shall be able to 
 judge between his brethren ? But brother goeth to law with 
 brother, and that before the unbelievers."* Now it might 
 have been supposed in this case that it is not a sin to have 
 a quarrel with another, that the only sin is in wishing to have 
 it adjudicated upon outside the Church, had not the apostle 
 immediately added : " Now therefore there is utterly a fault 
 among you, because ye go to law with one another."^ And 
 lest any one should excuse himself by saying that he had a 
 just cause, and was suffering wrong, and that he only wished 
 the sentence of the judges to remove his wrong, the apostle 
 immediately anticipates such thoughts and excuses, and says : 
 
 > 1 Cor. vii. 5. 2 1 Cor. vii. 6. ^ 1 Cor. vi. 1. 
 
 * 1 Cor. vi. 4-6. ^ 1 Cor. vi. 7. 
 
232 THE ENCTTTRTDION. [CHAP. LXXIX. 
 
 "Why do ye not ratlier take wrong? AVhy do ye not rather 
 suffer yourselves to be defrauded ? " Tlius bringing us back 
 to our Lord's saying, " If any man will sue thee at the law, 
 and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also ; "^ and 
 again, " Of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not 
 again." ^ Tlierefore our Lord has forbidden His followers to 
 go to law with other men about worldly affairs. And carry- 
 ing out this principle, the apostle here declares that to do so 
 is " altogether a fault." But when, notwithstanding, he grants 
 his permission to have such cases between brethren decided 
 in the Church, other brethren adjudicating, and only sternly 
 forbids them to be carried outside the Church, it is manifest 
 that here again an indulgence is extended to the infirmities 
 of the weak. It is in view, then, of these sins, and others of 
 the same sort, and of others again more trifling still, which 
 consist of offences in words and thought (as the Apostle James 
 confesses, "In many things we offend all"^), that we need to 
 pray every day and often to the Lord, saying, " Forgive us our 
 debts," and to add in truth and sincerity, " as we forgive our 
 debtors." 
 
 Chap, lxxix. — Sins wIlIcIi appear very tri/l'uig, are sometimes in reality very 
 
 serious. 
 
 Again, there are some sins which would be considered very 
 trifling, if the Scriptures did not show that they are really 
 very serious. For who would suppose that the man who says 
 to his brother, " Thou fool," is in danger of heU-fire, did not 
 He who is the truth say so ? To the wound, however. He 
 immediately applies the cure, giving a rule for reconciliation 
 with one's offended brother : " Therefore, if thou bring thy gift 
 to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath 
 ought against thee ; leave there thy gift before the altar, and 
 go tliy way : first bo reconciled to thy brother, and then come 
 and offer thy gift." * Again, who would suppose that it was 
 so great a sin to. observe days, and months, and times, and 
 years, as those do who are anxious or unwilling to begin any- 
 thing on certain days, or in certain months or years, because 
 the vain doctrines of men lead them to think such times lucky 
 or unlucky, liad we not the means of estimating the greatness 
 
 • Matt. V. 40. • Luke vi. 30. ' Jas. iii. 2. « Matt. v. 22. 23. 
 
CHAP. LXXX.] BLINDING POWER OF CUSTOM. 233 
 
 of the evil from the fear expressed by the apostle, who says 
 to such men, " I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon 
 you labour in vain " ? ^ 
 
 Chap. lxxx. — Sins, however great and detestable, seem trivial when ive are 
 accustomed to them. 
 
 Add to this, that sins, however great and detestable they 
 may be, are looked upon as trivial, or as not sins at all, when 
 men get accustomed to them ; and so far does this go, that 
 such sins are not only not concealed, but are boasted of, and 
 published far and wide ; and thus, as it is written, " The 
 wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covet- 
 ous, whom the Lord abhorreth." ^ Iniquity of this kind is in 
 Scripture called a cry. You have an instance in the prophet 
 Isaiah, in the case of the evil vineyard : " He looked for judg- 
 ment, but behold oppression ; for righteousness, but behold a 
 cry."^ Whence also the expression in Genesis : " The cry of 
 Sodom and Gomorrah is great," ^ because in these cities crimes 
 were not only not punished, but were openly committed, as if 
 under the protection of the law. And so in our own times : 
 many forms of sin, though not just the same as those of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah, are now so openly and habitually practised, 
 that not only dare we not excommunicate a layman, we dare 
 not even degrade a clergyman, for the commission of them. So 
 that when, a few years ago, I was expounding the Epistle to 
 the Galatians, in commenting on that very place where the 
 apostle says, " I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed labour 
 upon you in vain," I was compelled to exclaim, " Woe to the 
 sins of men ! for it is only when we are not accustomed to them 
 that we shrink from them : when once we are accustomed to 
 them, though the blood of the Son of God was poured out to 
 wash them away, though they are so great that the kingdom of 
 God is wholly shut against them, constant familiarity leads to 
 the toleration of them all, and habitual toleration leads to the 
 practice of many of them. And grant, Lord, that we may 
 not come to practise all that we have not the power to hinder." 
 But I shall see whether the extravagance of grief did not 
 betray me into rashness of speech. 
 
 » Gal. iv. 10, 11. 2 Ps, X. 3. ^ Isa. v. 7. * Gen. xviii. 20. 
 
234 ' THE ENcniRiDiON. [chap, lxxxi. 
 
 \- CiiAi". LXXXI. — There are two muses ofsiu, ifjnoi'ance and weakness ; and we 
 need divine help to overcome both. 
 
 i I shall now say this, which I have often said before in 
 / other places of my works. There are two causes that lead 
 J to sin : either we do not yet know our duty, or we do not 
 perform the duty that we know. The former is the sin of 
 ignorance, the latter of weakness. Now against these^rts 
 ~ our duty to struggle ; but we shall certainly be beaten in the 
 fight, unless we are helped by God, not only to see our 
 duty, but also, when we clearly see it, to make the love of 
 righteousness stronger in us than the love of earthly things, 
 the eager longing after which, or the fear of losing which, leads 
 us with our eyes open into known sin. In the latter case we 
 are not only sinners, for we are so even when we err through 
 ignorance, but we are also transgressors of the law ; for we 
 leave undone what we know we ought to do, and we do what 
 we know we ought not to do. Wherefore not only ought we 
 to pray for pardon when we have sinned, saying, " Forgive 
 us our debts, as we forgive our debtors ;" but we ought to pray 
 for guidance, that we may be kept from sinning, saying, " and 
 ^ lead us not into temptation." And we are to pray to Him of 
 whom the Psalmist says, " The Lord is my light and my sal- 
 vation :"^ my light, for He removes my ignorance ; my salva- 
 tion, for He takes away my infirmity. 
 
 Chap, lxxxii. — The mercy of God is necessary to true repentance. 
 
 Now even penance itself, when by the law of the Church 
 there is sulficient reason for its being gone through, is fre- 
 quently evaded through infirmity ; for shame is the fear of 
 losing pleasure when the good opinion of men gives more 
 pleasure than the righteousness which leads a man to humble 
 himself in penitence. Wherefore the mercy of God is neces- 
 sary not only when a man repents, but even to lead him to 
 repent. How else explain what the apostle says of certain 
 persons : " if God peradventure will give them repentance" ?^ 
 And before I'eter wept bitterly, we are told by the evangelist, 
 " The Lord turned, and looked upon him." ^ 
 
 » 2 Tim. ii. 25. = Luko x.\ii. CI. 
 
CHAP. LXXXV.] RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 235 
 
 Chap, lxxxiii. — The man luho defspise.s the mercy of God is guilty of the sin 
 against the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Now the man who, not believing that sins are remitted in 
 the Church, despises this great gift of God's mercy, and per- 
 sists to the last day of his life in his obstinacy of heart, is 
 guilty of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, in 
 whom Christ forgives sins.^ But this difficult question I have ' 
 discussed as clearly as I could in a book devoted exclusively 
 to this one point. 
 
 Chap, lxxxiv. — The resurrection of the body gives rise to numerous questions. 
 
 Now, as to the resurrection of the body, — not a resurrection 
 such as some have had, who came back to life for a time and 
 died again, but a resurrection to eternal life, as the body of 
 Christ Himself rose again, — I do not see how I can discuss the 
 matter briefly, and at the same time give a satisfactory answer 
 to all the questions that are ordinarily raised about it. Yet 
 that the bodies of all men — both those who have been born and 
 those who shall be born, both those who have died and those 
 who shall die — shall be raised again, no Christian ought to 
 have the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 Chap, lxxxv. — The case of abortive conceptions. 
 
 Hence in the first place arises a question about abortive 
 conceptions, which have indeed been born in the mother's 
 womb, but not so born that they could be born again. For if 
 we shall decide that these are to rise again, we cannot object 
 to any conclusion that may be drawn in regard to those which 
 are fully formed. Now who" is there that is not rather disposed 
 to think that unformed abortions perish, like seeds that have 
 never fructified ? But who will dare to deny, though he may 
 not dare to affirm, that at the resurrection every defect in the 
 form shall be supplied, and that thus the perfection which time 
 would have brought shall not be wanting, any more tlian the 
 blemishes which time did bring shall be present : so that tlie 
 nature shall neither want anything suitable and in harmony 
 with it that length of days would have added, nor be debased 
 by the presence of anything of an opposite kind that length 
 
 » Mittt. xii. 32. 
 
236 THE EXcnirjDiON. [chap, lxxxvi. 
 
 of days has added ; but that what is not yet complete shall 
 be completed, just as what has been injured shall be renewed. 
 
 Cjiap. lxxxvi. — Jf they have ever lived, they mu-Ht of course have died, and 
 therefore sJiall have a sJiare in the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 And tlierofore the following question may be very carefully 
 
 inquired into and discussed by learned men, tliough I do not 
 
 know whether it is in man's power to resolve it : At what 
 
 time the infant begins to live in the womb : whether life 
 
 exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions 
 
 of the living being. To deny that the young who are cut out 
 
 limb by limb from the womb, lest if they were left there dead 
 
 the mother should die too, have never been alive, seems too 
 
 audacious. Now^ from the time that a man begins to live, 
 
 from that time it is possible for him to die. And if he die. 
 
 wheresoever death may overtake him, I cannot discover on 
 
 what principle he can be denied an interest in the resurrection 
 
 of the dead. 
 
 Chap, lxxxvii. — The case of monstrous hirtJis. 
 
 "We are not justified in affirming even of monstrosities., 
 which are born and live, however quickly they may die, that 
 they shall not rise again, nor that they shall rise again in 
 their deformity, and not rather with an amended and perfected 
 body. God forbid that the double-limbed man who was lately 
 born in the East, of whom an account was brought by most 
 trustworthy brethren who had seen him, — an account whicli 
 the presbyter Jerome, of blessed memory, left in writing ; ^ — 
 God forbid, I say, that we should think that at the resurrec- 
 tion there shall be one man with double limbs, and not two 
 distinct men, as would have been the case had twins been 
 born. And so other births, which, because they have either 
 a superiluity or a defect, or because they are very much de- 
 formed, are called monstrositus, shall at the resurrection be 
 restored to the normal shape of man ; and so each single soul 
 shall possess its own body ; and no bodies shall coliere together 
 even though they were born in cohesion, but each separately 
 
 ^ Jerome, in his Epistle to Vitalis: " Or bccnuse in our times a mnn was bom 
 nt Lytltla witli two li«';ul», four liaiub, one belly, auJ two feet, docs it necessarily 
 follow that all men are so born ? " 
 
CHAP. LXXXIX.] MATERIAL OF THE BODY RESTORED. 237 
 
 shall possess all the members which constitute a complete 
 human body. 
 
 Chap, lxxxviii.— TAe material of the hochj never perishes. 
 
 Nor does the earthly material out of which men's mortal 
 bodies are created ever perish ; but though it may crumble 
 into dust and ashes, or be dissolved into vapours and exhala- 
 tions, though it may be transformed into the substance., of 
 other bodies, or dispersed into the elements, though it should 
 become food for beasts or men, and be changed into their 
 flesh, it returns in a moment of time to that human soul 
 which animated it at the first, and which caused it to become 
 man, and to live and grow. 
 
 Chap, lxxxix. — But this material may he differently arranged in the 
 resurrection body. 
 
 And this earthly material, which when the soul leaves it 
 becomes a corpse, shall not at the resurrection be so restored 
 as that the parts into which it is separated, and which under 
 various forms and appearances become parts of other things 
 (though they shall all return to the same body from which 
 they were separated), must necessarily return to the same parts 
 of the body in which they were originally situated. For 
 otherwise, to suppose that the hair recovers all that our 
 frequent clippings and shavings have taken away from it, and 
 the nails all that we have so often pared off, presents to the 
 imagination such a picture of ugliness and deformity, as to 
 make the resurrection of the body all but incredible. But 
 just as if a statue of some soluble metal were either melted 
 by fire, or broken into dust, or reduced to a shapeless mass, 
 and a sculptor wished to restore it from the same quantity of 
 metal, it would make no difference to the completeness of the 
 work what part of the statue any given particle of the ma- 
 terial was put into, as long as the restored statue contained 
 all the material of the original one ; so God, the Artificer of 
 marvellous and unspeakable power, shall with marvellous and 
 unspeakable rapidity restore our body, using up tlie whole 
 material of which it originally consisted. Nor will it affect 
 the completeness of its restoration whether hairs return to 
 hairs, and nails to nails, or whether the part of these that had 
 
^ 
 
 238 THE ENCHIRIDION. [CILVP. XC. 
 
 perished be changed into flesh, and called tx) take its place in 
 another part of the body, the gi-eat Artist taking careful heed 
 that nothing shall be unbecoming or out of place. 
 
 CiiAF. XC. — If there be differences and inequalities among the bodies of (host who 
 rise aijain, there shall be nothing offtnsive or dis^jroportionatti in any. 
 
 Nor does it necessarily follow that there shall be differences 
 of stature among those who rise again, because they were of 
 different statures during life ; nor is it certain that the lean 
 shall rise again in their former leanness, and the fat in their 
 former fatness. But if it is part of the Creator's design that 
 each should preserve his own peculiarities of feature, and 
 retain a recognisalde likeness to his former self, while in regard 
 to other bodily advantages all should be equal, then the material 
 of which each is composed may be so modified that none of it 
 shall be lost, and that any defect may be supplied by Him who 
 can create at His wiU out of nothing. But if in the bodies of 
 those who rise again there shall be a well-ordered inequality, 
 such as there is in the voices that make up a full harmony, 
 then the material of each man's body shall be so dealt with 
 that it shall form a man fit for the assemblies of the angels, 
 and one who shall bring nothing among them to jar upon their 
 sensibilities. And assuredly nothing that is unseemly shall 
 be there ; but whatever shall be there shall be graceful and 
 becoming : for if anything is not seendy, neither shall it be. 
 
 Cii.vr. xci. — The bodies of the saints sJiall at the resurrection be .spiritual bodies. 
 
 The bodies of the saints, then, shall rise again free from 
 every defect, from every blemish, as from aU corruption, 
 weight, and impediment. For their ease of movement shall 
 be as complete as their happiness. Whence their bodies have 
 been called spiritual, though undoubtedly they shall be bodies 
 and not spirits. For just as now the body is called animate, 
 though it is a body, and not a soul \anima\ so then the body 
 shall be called spiritual, though it shall be a body, not a spirit.^ 
 Hence, as far as regards the corruption whicli now weighs 
 down the soul, and the vices which urge the flesh to lust 
 against the spirit,'*^ it shall not then be flesh, but body ; for 
 there are bodies which are called celestial. Wherefore it is 
 
 » 1 Cor. XV. 41. » WisJ. ix. 15 ; Gal. v. 17. 
 
CHAP, xcil] the eesuerection of the dead. 239 
 
 said, " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; " 
 and, as if in explanation of this, " neither doth corruption in- 
 herit incorruption." ^ What the apostle first called " flesh and 
 blood," he afterwards calls " corruption ; " and what he first 
 called " the kingdom of God," he afterwards calls " incorrup- 
 tion." But as far as regards the substance, even then it shall 
 be flesh. For even after the resurrection the body of Christ 
 was called flesh.^ The apostle, however, says : " It is sown a 
 natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body ; "^ because so perfect 
 shall then be the harmony between flesh and spirit, the spirit 
 keeping alive the subjugated flesh without the need of any 
 nourishment, that no part of our nature shall be in discord 
 with another ; but as we shall be free from enemies without, 
 so we shall not have ourselves for enemies within. 
 
 Chap. xcii. — The 7'esurrection of the lost. 
 
 But as for those who, out of the mass of perdition caused by 
 Jthe first man's sin, are not redeemed through the one Mediator 
 between God and man, they too shall rise again, each with his 
 own body, but only to be punished with the devil and his 
 angels. Now, whether they shall rise again with all their 
 diseases and deformities of body, bringing with them the 
 diseased and deformed limbs which they possessed here, it 
 would be labour lost to inquire. For we need not weary our- 
 selves speculating about their health or their beauty, which 
 are matters uncertain, when their eternal damnation is a 
 matter of certainty. Nor need we inquire in what sense 
 ^their body shall be incorruptible, if it be susceptible of pain ; 
 or in what sense corruptible, if it be free from the possibility 
 of death. For there is no true life except where there is 
 happiness in life, and no true incorruption except where 
 health is unbroken by any pain. When, however, the un- 
 happy are not permitted to die, then, if I may so speak, death 
 itself dies not; and where pain without intermission afflicts 
 the soul, and never comes to an end, corruption itself is not 
 completed. This is called in Holy Scripture "the second 
 death." ^ ^^ 
 
 ^ M Cor. XV. 50. - Luke xxiv. 39. ^ j Cor. xv. M. * Kev. ii. 2. 
 
240 THE ENCHIRIDION. [CHAP. XCIII. 
 
 Chap, xciii. — Both the first and the second deaths are tJie consequence of sin. 
 Punishment is i)roportioned to fjuili. 
 
 And neither the first death, which takes place when the 
 soul is compelled to leave the body, nor the second death, 
 which takes place when the soul is not permitted to leave the 
 suffering body, would have been inflicted on man had no one 
 sinned. And, of course, the mildest punislniient of all will fall 
 upon those who have added no actual sin to the original sin 
 they brought with them ; and as for the rest who have added 
 such actual sins, the punishment of each will be the more 
 tolerable in the next world, according as his iniquity has been 
 less in this world. 
 
 CiiAr. xciv. — The saints shall knoio more fully in the next world the benefits they 
 have received by grace. 
 
 Thus, when reprobate angels and men are left to endure 
 everlasting punishment, the saints shall know more fully the 
 benefits they have received by grace. Then, in contemplation 
 of the actual facts, they shall see more clearly the meaning of 
 the expression in the psalms, " I will sing of mercy and 
 judgment;"^ for it is only of unmerited mercy that any is 
 redeemed, and only in well-merited judgment that any is 
 condemned. 
 
 CiiAP. xcv. — Ood's judgments shall then be explained. 
 
 Then shall be made clear much that is now dark For 
 example, when of two infants, whose cases seem in all respects 
 alike, one is by the mercy of God chosen to Himself, and the 
 other is by His justice abandoned (wherein the one who is 
 chosen may recognise what was of justice due to himself, had 
 not mercy intervened) ; why, of these two, the one should 
 have been chosen ratlier than the other, is to us an insoluble 
 problem. And again, why miracles were not wrought in the 
 presence of men who would have repented at the working of 
 the miracles, wliile tliey were wrought in the presence of 
 others who, it was known, would not repent. For our Lord 
 says most distinctly : " Woe unto thee, Cliorazin ! woe unto 
 thee, Bethsaida ! for if the miglity works, which were done in 
 you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have re- 
 
 1 Ts. ci. 1. 
 
CHAP, xcvii.] god's permission of evil. 241 
 
 pented long ago in sackcloth and ashes," -^ And assuredly 
 there was no injustice in God's not willing that they should 
 be saved, though they could have been saved had He so willed 
 it. Then shall be seen in the clearest light of wisdom what 
 with the pious is now a faith, though it is not yet a matter 
 of certain knowledge, how sure, how unchangeable, and how 
 effectual is the will of God ; how many things He can do 
 which He does not will to do, thou^^h willino: nothinof which 
 He cannot perform ; and how true is the song of the psalmist, 
 " But our God is in the heavens ; He hath done whatsoever 
 He hath pleased."^ And this certainly is not true, if God has 
 over willed anything that He has not performed ; and, still 
 worse, if it was the will of man that hindered the Omnipotent 
 from doing what He pleased. Nothing, therefore, happens but 
 by the will of the Omnipotent, He either permitting it to be 
 done, or Himself doing it. 
 
 Chap. xcvi. — The ommpotent God does ivell even in the permission of evil. 
 
 Nor can we doubt that God does well even in the permis- 
 sion of what is evil. For He permits it only in the justice 
 of His judgment. And surely all that is just is good. 
 Although, therefore, evil, in so far as it is evil, is not a good ; 
 yet the fact that evil as well as good exists, is a good. For if 
 it were not a good that evil should exist, its existence would 
 not be permitted by the omnipotent Good, who without doubt 
 can as easily refuse to permit what He does not wish, as 
 bring about what He does wish. And if we do not believe 
 this, the very first sentence of our creed is endangered, where- 
 in we profess to believe in God the Father Almighty. For 
 He is not truly called Almighty if He cannot do whatsoever 
 He pleases, or if the power of His almighty will is hindered 
 by the will of any creature whatsoever. 
 
 CuAP. XCVII. — In what sense does the apostle say that ** God xolll have all men 
 to he saved,'' when, as a matter of fact, all are not saved ? 
 
 Hence we must inquire in what sense is said of God what 
 the apostle has mostly truly said : " Who will have all men 
 to be saved." ^ For, as a matter of fact, not all, nor even a 
 majority, are saved : so that it would seem that what God 
 
 » Matt. xi. 21. 2 Ps. cxv. 3. » 1 Tim. ii. 4. 
 
 ENCHIR. Q 
 
 //^ 
 
2-42 THE EXcriiniDiON. [chap, xcviii. 
 
 wills is not done, man's will interfering with, and hindering 
 the will of God. "When we ask the reason why all men are 
 not saved, the ordinary answer is : " Because men themselves 
 are not willing." This, indeed, cannot be said of infants, for 
 it is not in tlieir power either to will or not to will. But if 
 we could attribute to their will the childish movements they 
 make at baptism, wdien they make all the resistance they can, 
 we should say that even they are not willing to be saved. Our 
 Lord says plainly, however, in the Gospel, when upbraiding tlie 
 impious city : " How often would I have gathered thy cliildren 
 together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
 wings, and ye would not!"^ as if the will of God had been 
 overcome by the will of men, and when the weakest stood in 
 the way with their w^ant of will, the will of the strongest could 
 not be carried out. And where is that omnipotence which 
 hath done all that it pleased on earth and in heaven, if God 
 willed to gather together the children of Jerusalem, and did 
 not accomplish it ? or rather, Jerusalem was not willing that 
 her children should be jiathered tocrether ? But even thoiicrh she 
 
 o o o 
 
 was unwilling. He gathered together as many of her children as 
 He wished : for He does not will some things and do them, 
 and will others and do them not ; but " He hath done all that 
 He pleased in heaven and in earth." 
 
 y Chap, xcviii. — Predestination to eternal life is wholly of OocUsfree grace. 
 
 ^^ And, moreover, who will be so foolish and blasphemous as to 
 
 I say that God cannot change the evil wills of men, whichever, 
 
 whenever, and wheresoever He chooses, and direct them to 
 
 what is good ? But when He docs this, He does it of mercy ; 
 
 when He does it not, it is of justice that He does it not ; for 
 
 "He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He 
 
 -ivill He hardeneth."* And when the apostle said this, he 
 
 "\vas illustrating the grace of God, in connection with which he 
 
 had just spoken of the twins in the womb of Eebecca, " who 
 
 being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that 
 
 the purpose of God according to election might stand, not 
 
 of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, The 
 
 elder shall servo the younger."^ And in reference to this 
 
 > Matt xxiii, 37. » lium. ix. 18. ' Rom. ix. 12. 
 
CHAP, xcviii.] god's sovereign geace in election. 243 
 
 matter he quotes another prophetic testimony : " Jacob have I 
 loved, but Esau have I hated." ^ But perceiving how what he 
 had said might affect those who could not penetrate by their 
 understanding the depth of this grace : " What shall we say 
 then ? " he says : '" Is there unrighteouness with God ? God 
 forbid."^ For it seems unjust that, in the absence of any merit 
 or demerit from good or evil works, God should love the one 
 and hate the other. Xow, if the apostle had wished us to 
 understand that there were future good works of the one, and 
 evil works of the other, which of course God foreknew, he 
 would never have said, " not of works," but, " of future works," 
 and in that way would have solved the difficulty, or rather 
 there would then have been no difficulty to solve. As it is, 
 however, after answering, " God forbid ; " that is, God forbid 
 that there should be unrighteousness with God ; he goes on to 
 prove that there is no unrighteousness in God's doing this, and 
 says : " For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I 
 will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will 
 have compassion."^ JSTow, who but a fool would think that 
 God was unrighteous, either in inflicting penal justice on those 
 who had earned it, or in extending mercy to the unworthy ? 
 Then he draws his conclusion : " So then it is not of him 
 that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth 
 mercy.'"* Thus both the twins were born children of wrath, 
 not on account of any works of their own, but because they 
 were bound in the fetters of that orioinal condemnation which 
 
 o 
 
 came through Adam. But He who said, " I will have mercy 
 on whom I will have mercy," loved Jacob of His undeserved 
 grace, and hated Esau of His deserved judgment. And as 
 this judgment was due to both, the former learnt from the case 
 of the latter that the fact of the same punishment not falling 
 upon himself gave him no room to glory in any merit of his 
 own, but only in the riches of the divine grace ; because " it 
 is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of 
 God that showeth mercy." I And indeed the whole face, and, 
 if I may use the expression, every lineament of the counte-/^ 
 nance of Scripture conveys by a very profound analogy this 
 
 » TJom. ix. 13 ; Mai. i. 2, 3. « I^om. ix. 14. 
 
 2 Horn. ix. 15 ; Ex. xxxiii. 19. * Horn. ix. IG. 
 
■^ 
 
 244 THE ENCIIIPJDIOX. [CIIAP. XCIX. 
 
 wholesome warning to every one who looks carefully into it, 
 that he who glories should glory in the Lord.^ 
 
 Chap. xcix. — As God's mercy is free, so Ilisjudfjmcnis are just, and cannot 
 
 be gainsaid. 
 
 Now after commending the mercy of God, saying, " So it 
 is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of 
 God that showeth mercy," that he might commend His justice 
 also (for the man who does not obtain mercy finds, not iniquity, 
 but justice, there being no iniquity with God), he immediately 
 adds : " For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this 
 same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my 
 power in thee, and that my name might be declared through- 
 out all the earth." ^ And then he draws a conclusion that 
 applies to both, that is, both to His mercy and His justice : 
 " Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and 
 whom He will He hardeneth."^ " He hath mercy " of His 
 great goodness, " He hardeneth " without any injustice ; so 
 that neither can he that is pardoned glory in any merit of his 
 own, nor he that is condemned complain of anything but his 
 own demerit. For it is^ gnuia-^one that separates the re- 
 deemed from the lost, all having been involved in one 
 common perdition through their common origin. Now if any 
 one, on hearing this, should say, "Why doth He yet find 
 fault ? for who hath resisted His will ? " * as if a man 
 ought not to be blamed for being bad, because God hath 
 mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He 
 hardeneth, God forbid that we should be ashamed to answer 
 as we see the apostle answered : " Nay, but, O man, who art 
 thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say 
 to Him that formed it. Why hast Thou made me thus ? 
 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to 
 make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour ? "* 
 Now some foolish people tliink that in this place the apostle 
 had no answer to give ; and for want of a reason to render, 
 rebuked the presumption of his interrogator. But there is 
 great weiglit in this saying : " Nay, but, man, who art 
 thou ? " and in such a matter as this it sufrfjests to a man in a 
 
 •oo- 
 
 ' Coinp. 1 Cor. i. CI. ' Koni. ix. 17 ; Kx. ix. IG. ^ ijom. ix. IS. 
 
 * Horn. ix. 19. * liom. ix. 20, 21. 
 
CHAP. C] god's purpose NEVER DEFEATED. 245 
 
 single word the limits of his capacity, and at the same time 
 does in reality convey an important reason. For if a man 
 does not understand these matters, who is he that he should 
 reply against God ? And if he does understand them, he 
 finds no further room for reply. For then he perceives that 
 the whole human race was condemned in its rebellious head 
 by a divine judgment so just, that if not a single member 
 of the race had been redeemed, no one could justly have 
 questioned the justice of God; and that it was right that 
 those who are redeemed should be redeemed in such a way as 
 to show, by the greater number who are unredeemed and left 
 in their just condemnation, what the whole race deserved, and 
 whither the deserved judgment of God would lead even the re- 
 deemed, did not His undeserved mercy interpose, so that every 
 mouth might be stopped of those who wish to glory in their 
 own merits, and that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord.-^ 
 
 Chap. c. — The will of God is never defeated, though much is done that is 
 contrary to His ivill. 
 
 These are the great works of the Lord, sought out accord- 
 ing to all His pleasure,^ and so wisely sought out, that when the 
 intelligent creation, both angelic and human, sinned, doing not 
 His will but their own. He used the very will of the creature 
 which was working in opposition to the Creator's will as an 
 instrument for carrying out His will, the supremely Good 
 thus turning to good account even what is evil, to the con- 
 demnation of those whom in His justice He has predestined 
 to punishment, and to the salvation of those whom in His 
 mercy He has predestined to grace. For, as far as relates to 
 their own consciousness, these creatures did what God wished 
 not to be done : but in view of God's omnipotence, they could 
 in no wise effect their purpose. For in the very fact that 
 they acted in opposition to His will, His will concerning 
 -^them was fulfilled. And hence it is that " the works of the 
 Lord are great, sought out according to all His pleasure," 
 because in a way unspeakably strange and wonderful, even 
 what is done in opposition to His will does not defeat His 
 
 1 Rom. iii. 19 ; 1 Cor. i. 31. 
 
 * Ps. cxi. 2 (LXX.) : "Tlie worls-s of the Lord arc great, sought out of all them 
 that have pleasure therein. " (A. V.) 
 
246 THE ENCIIIllIDION. [CIIAP. CI. 
 
 ■svill. For it would not be clone did He not permit it (and 
 of course His permission is not unwillincj, but willing) ; nor 
 would a Good Being permit evil to be done only that in His 
 omnipotence He can turn evil into good. 
 
 Chap, ci.— The will of God, which Is always fjood, is sometimes fulfilled 
 throiirjh the evil will of man. 
 
 Sometimes, however, a man in the goodness of his will 
 desires something that God does not desire, even though God's 
 will is also good, nay, much more fully and more surely good 
 (for His will never can be evil) : for example, if a good son is 
 anxious that his father should live, when it is God's good will 
 that he should die. Again, it is possible for a man with evil 
 will to desire what God wills in His goodness : for example, 
 if a bad son wishes his father to die, when this is also the 
 will of God. It is plain that the former wishes what God 
 does not wish, and that the latter wishes what God does wish ; 
 and yet the filial love of the former is more in harmony with 
 the good will of God, though its desire is different from God's, 
 than the want of filial affection of the latter, thoudi its desire 
 is the same as God's. So necessary is it, in determining 
 whether a man's desire is one to be approved or disapproved, 
 to consider what it is proper for man, and what it is proper 
 for God, to desire, and what is in each case the real motive of 
 the will. For God accomplishes some of His purposes, which 
 
 I of course are all good, through the evil desires of wicked men : 
 for example, it was through the wicked designs of the Jews, 
 working out the good purpose of the Father, that Christ was 
 slain ; and tliis event was so truly good, that when the 
 Apostle Teter expressed his unwillingness that it should take 
 place, he was designated Satan by Him wlio had come to be 
 slain.^ How good seemed the intentions of the pious believers 
 who were unwilling tlint Paul should go up to Jerusalem lest 
 the evils wliicli Agabus had foretold sliould there befall him \'^ 
 And yet it was God's purpose that he should suffer these evils 
 for preaching the faith of Christ, and thereby become a 
 
 ^witness for Christ. And this purpose of His, which was 
 good, God did not fullil tlirough the good counsels of the 
 Christians, but throngli the evil counsels of the Jews ; so that 
 » Matt. xvi. 21-23. « Acts xxi. 10-12. 
 
CHAP, cm.] INTERPRETATION OF 1 TIM. II. 4. 247 
 
 those who opposed His purpose were more truly His servants 
 than those who were the willing instruments of its accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 . -CuAP, cii. — Tlie will of the omnipotent God is never defeated, and is never evil. 
 ^ But however strong may be the purposes either of angels 
 or of men, whether of good or bad, whether these purposes 
 fall in with the will of God or run counter to it, the will of 
 the Omnipotent is never defeated ; and His will never can be 
 evil ; because even when it inflicts evil it is just, and what 
 is just is certainly not evil. The omnipotent God, then, 
 whether in mercy He pitieth whom He will, or in judgment 
 hardeneth whom He will, is never unjust in what He does, 
 never does anything except of His own free-will, and never 
 wills anything that He does not perform. 
 
 -, Chap. cm. — Interpretation of the expression in 1 Tim. ii. 4 : " Who icillhave 
 
 all men to he saved.^' 
 
 Accordingly, when we hear and read in Scripture that He 
 
 / 
 
 will have all men to be saved," although we know well 
 that all men are not saved, we are not on that account to 
 restrict the omnipotence of God, but are rather to understand 
 the Scripture, " Who will have all men to be saved," as 
 meaning that no man is saved unless God wills his salvation : 
 not that there is no man whose salvation He does not will, , 
 
 but that no man is saved apart from His will; and that, J ^&^ 
 therefore, we should pray Him to will our salvation, because 
 if He will it, it must necessarily be accomplished. And it 
 was of prayer to God that the apostle was speaking when he 
 used this expression. And on the same principle we interpret 
 the expression in the Gospel : " The true light wdiicli lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world : " ^ not that there is no 
 man who is not enlightened, but that no man is enlightened 
 except by Him. Or, it is said, "Who will have all men to 
 be saved;" not that there is no man whose salvation He does 
 not will (for how, then, explain the fact that He was unwill- 
 ing to work miracles in the presence of some who, He said, 
 would have repented if He had worked them ?), but that we 
 are to understand by " all men," the human race in all 
 1 1 Tim. ii. 4. 2 joi^ i^ 9. 
 
248 THE ENCiiiniDioy. [chap. cut. 
 
 its varieties of rank and circumstances, — kings, subjects ; 
 noble, plebeian, bi^^li, low, learned, and unlearned ; the sound 
 in body, the feeble, the clever, the dull, the foolish, the 
 rich, the poor, and those of middling circumstances ; males, 
 females, infants, boys, youths ; young, middle-aged, and old 
 men ; of every tongue, of every fasliion, of all arts, of all pro- 
 fessions, with all the innumerable differences cf will and con- 
 science, and whatever else there is that makes a distinction 
 among men. For which of all these classes is there out of 
 which God does not will that men should be saved in all 
 nations through His only-begotten Son, our Lord, and there- 
 fore does save them ; for the Omnipotent cannot will in vain, 
 whatsoever He may will ? Kow the apostle had enjoined 
 that prayers should be made for all men, and had specially 
 added, " For kings, and for all that are in authority," who 
 might be supposed, in the pride and pomp of worldly station, 
 to shrink from the humility of the Christian faith. Tlien 
 saying, " For tliis is good and acceptable in the sight of God 
 our Saviour," that is, that prayers should be made for such as 
 these, he immediately adds, as if to remove any ground of 
 despair, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come 
 unto tlie knowledge of the truth." ^ God, then, in His great 
 condescension has judged it good to grant to the prayers of 
 the humble the salvation of the exalted ; and assuredly we 
 v/have many examples of this. Our Lord, too, makes use of 
 the same mode of speech in the Gospel, when He says to the 
 riiarisees : " Ye tithe mint, and rue, and every herb." ^ For 
 the Pliarisees did not tithe what belonged to others, nor all 
 tlie herbs of all tlie inhabitants of other lands. As, tlien, 
 in this place we must understand by " every herb," every kind 
 of herbs, so in the furmer passage we may understand by " all 
 men," every sort of men. And we may interpret it in any 
 other way we please, so long as we are not compelled to 
 believe that the omnipotent God lias willed anything to be 
 done which was nut dune: fur, setting aside all ambiguitios, if 
 " He hath done all that He pleased in heaven and in earth," ^ 
 
 1 1 Tim. ii. 1-4. • I.tikc xi. '12. (" All mnnnor of licrhs." A-V.) 
 
 • Ps. cxv. 3. ("Our God is ii) the heavens : He hath done whatsoever He 
 hath pkabcd." A.V.) 
 
CHAP. cv. man's feee-will. 249 
 
 as the psalmist sings of Him, He certainly did not will to do 
 anything that He hath not done. 
 
 Chap. ciy.—GoiI, forehiow'mg the sin of the first man, ordered His own 
 purposes accordingly. 
 
 vj(^ Wherefore, God would have been willing to preserve even 
 ^'^ the first man in that state of salvation in which he was created, 
 and after he had begotten sons to remove him at a fit time, 
 without the intervention of death, to a better place, where he 
 should have been not only free from sin, but free even from 
 the desire of sinning, if He had foreseen that man would have 
 the stedfast will to persist in the state of innocence in which 
 he was created. But as He foresaw that man would make a 
 bad use of his free-will, that is, would sin, God arranged His 
 own designs rather with a view to do good to man even in his 
 sinfulness, that thus the good will of the Omnipotent might 
 not be made void by the evil will of man, but might be 
 fulfilled in spite of it. 
 
 CHAr. cv. — Man teas so created as to he able to choose either good or evil: in the 
 future life, the choice of evd ivill be imjjossible. 
 
 ISTow it was expedient that man should be at first so createdy 
 as to have it in his power both to will what was right and to 
 will what was wrong ; not without reward if he willed the 
 former, and not without punishment if he willed the latter. 
 But in the future life it shall not be in his power to will evil ; 
 and yet this will constitute no restriction on the freedom of 
 his will. On the contrary, his will shall be much freer whenf. 
 it shall be wholly impossible for him to be the slave of sin/ 
 We should never think of blaming the will, or saying that it 
 was no will, or that it was not to be called free, when we so 
 desire happiness, that not only do we shrink from misery, 
 but find it utterly impossible to do otherwise. As, then, the 
 soul even now finds it impossible to desire unhappiness, so in 
 
 Juture it shall be wholly impossible for it to desire sin. But 
 
 God's arrangement was not to be broken, according to which 
 He willed to show how good is a rational being who is able 
 even to refrain from sin, and yet how much better is one who 
 cannot sin at all ; just as that was an inferior sort of im- 
 mortality, and yet it was immortality, when it was possible 
 for man to avoid death, although there is reserved for the 
 
250 THE ENCHIRIDION. [CHAP. CVI. 
 
 future a more perfect immortality, when it shall be impossible 
 for man to die. 
 
 CuAP. CVI. — Tlic (jrace of God teas necessary to viaji'^ salvation lefore the fall, 
 as well as after it. 
 
 The former immortality man lost tlirough the exercise of 
 his free-will ; die latter he shall obtain through grace, whereas, 
 if he had not sinned, he should have obtained it by deseit. 
 Even in that case, however, there could have been no merit 
 without grace ;^ because, although the mere exercise of man's 
 free-will was sufficient to bring in sin, liis free-will would 
 not have sufficed for his maintenance in righteousness, 
 unless God had assisted it by imparting a portion of His 
 unchangeable goodness. Just as it is in man's power to 
 die whenever he will (for, not to speak of other means, 
 any one can put an end to liimself by simple abstinence 
 from food), but tlie mere will cannot preserve life in the 
 absence of food and the other means of life ; so man in 
 paradise was able of his mere will, simply by abandoning 
 righteousness, to destroy himself ; but to have maintained a 
 life of righteousness would have been too much for his will, 
 unless it liad been sustained by the Creator's power. After 
 the fall, Jiowever, a more abundant exercise of God's mercy 
 was required, because the will itself had to be freed from the 
 bondage in which it was held by sin and death. And the 
 will owes its freedom in no degree io itself, but solely to the 
 grace of God which comes by faith in Jesus Christ ; so that 
 the very will, tlirough which we accept all the other gifts of 
 God wliich lead us on to His eternal gift, is itself prepared of 
 the Lord, as the Scripture says.^ 
 
 Chat. cvii. — Eternal life, thowjh the rnrard of good tcorks, is itself the 
 gift of God. 
 
 WHicrefore, even eternal life itself, which is surely the reward 
 of good works, the apostle calls the gift of God. "For the 
 wages of sin," he says, " is death ; but the gift of God is eternal 
 lifu through Jesus Christ our Lord."^ Wages (sfipcndiuvi) is 
 paid as a recompense for military service ; it is not a gift : 
 
 ^ Prov. xvi. 1. ("TliL' ]'rtji:iratiou of llu' luart iii uuin ... is from the 
 Lord." A.V.) 
 ' Hum. vi. 23. 
 
CHAP. CVIII.] ETERXAL LIFE GOD's FEEE GIFT. 251 
 
 wherefore lie says, " the ivages of sin is death," to show that 
 death was not inflicted undeservedly, but as the due re- 
 compense of sin. But a gift, unless it is wholly unearned, is 
 not a gift at all.^ We are to understand, then, that man's 
 good deserts are themselves the gift of God, so that when 
 these obtain the recompense of eternal life, it is simply grace 
 given for grace. Man, therefore, was so made upright that, 
 though unable to remain in his uprightness without divine 
 help, he could of his own mere will depart from it. And 
 whichever of these courses he had chosen, God's will would 
 have been done, either by him, or concerning him. Therefore, 
 as he chose to do his own will rather than God's, the will of 
 God is fulfilled concerning him ; for God, out of one and the 
 same heap of perdition which constitutes the race of man, 
 makes one vessel to honour, another to dishonour ; to honour 
 in mercy, to dishonour in judgment ;^ that no one may glory 
 in man, and consequently not in himself. _ 
 
 C'HAr. CVIII.— -4 Mediator ivas necessary to i^econcUe lis to God ; and unless tJus 
 Mediator had been God, He could not have been our Redeemer. 
 
 For we could not be redeemed, even through the one 
 Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, if He 
 were not also God. Now when Adani was created, he, being 
 a righteous man, had no need ofi'Vmediator. But when sin 
 had placed a wide gulf between God and the human race, it 
 was expedient that a IMediator, who alone of the human race 
 was born, lived, and died without sin, should reconcile us to 
 God, and procure even for our bodies a resurrection to eternal 
 life, in order that the pride of man might be exposed and 
 cured through the humility of God ; that man might be shown 
 how far he had departed from God, when God became incar- 
 nate to bring him back ; tliat an example might be set to 
 disobedient man in the life of obedience of the God-Man ; 
 that the fountain of grace might be opened by the Only- 
 begotten taking upon Himself the form of a servant, a form 
 which had no antecedent merit; that an earnest of that 
 resurrection of the body which is promised to the redeemed 
 might be given in the resurrection of the Eedeemer ; that the 
 devil might be subdued by the same nature which it was his 
 ' Comp. Rom. xi. 6. " Kom. ix. 21. 
 
/ 
 
 252 THE ENCITIPJDION. [CHAP. CIX. 
 
 boast to have deceived, and yet man not glorified, lest pride 
 should again spring up ; and, in fine, with a view to all the 
 advantages which the thoughtful can perceive and describe, or 
 perceive without being able to describe, as flowing from the 
 transcendent mystery of the person of the Mediator. 
 
 Chap. cix. — Tlie slate of the soul during the interval between death and the 
 resurrection. 
 
 During the time, moreover, which intervenes between a 
 man's death and the final resurrection, the soul dwells in a 
 hidden retreat, wliere it enjoys rest or suffers affliction just in 
 proi)ortion to the merit it has earned by the life which it led 
 on earth. 
 
 CiiAP. ex. — The half Jit to thesoids of the dead from the sacraments and alms 
 of their living friends. 
 
 Xor can it be denied that the souls of the dead are benefited 
 by the piety of their living friends, who offer the sacrifice of 
 the Mediator, or give alms in the church on their behalf 
 But these services are of advantage only to those who during 
 their lives have earned such merit, that services of this kind 
 can help them. For there is a manner of life which is neither 
 so good as not to require these services after death, nor so bad 
 that such services are of no avail after death ; there is, on the 
 other hand, a kind of life so good as not to require them; and 
 again, one so bad that when life is over they render no help. 
 Therefore, it is in this life that all the merit or demerit is 
 acquired, which can either relieve or aggravate a man's suffer- 
 ings after this life. No one, then, need hope that after he is 
 dead he shall obtain merit with God which he has neglected 
 to secure liere. And accordingly it is plain that the services 
 which the church celebrates for the dead are in no way 
 opposed to the apostle's words : " For we must all appear 
 before the judgment- seat of Christ ; that every one may 
 receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath 
 done, whether it be good or bad ; " ^ for the merit which ren- 
 ders such services as I speak of profitable to a man, is earned 
 while he lives in the body. It is not to every one that these 
 services are profitable. And why are they not profitable to 
 all, except because of the different kinds of lives that men 
 ' 2 Cor. V. 10 ; comp. Rom. xiv. 10. 
 
CHAP. CXII.J THE ETEFvNAL PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 253 
 
 lead in the body ? When, then, sacrifices either of the altar or 
 of alms are offered on behalf of all the baptized dead, they are 
 thank-offerings for the very good, they are propitiatory offerings 
 for the not very bad ; and in the case of the very bad, even 
 though they do not assist the dead, they are a species of con- 
 solation to the living. And where they are profitable, their 
 benefit consists either in obtaining a full remission of sins, or 
 at least in making the condemnation more tolerable. 
 
 Chap. cxi. — After the resurrection there shall he two distinct kingdoms, one of 
 eternal hapinness, the other of eternal 'misery. 
 
 After the resurrection, however, when the final, universal 
 judgment has been completed, there shall be two kingdoms, 
 each with its own distinct boundaries, the one Christ's, the 
 other the Devil's ; the one consisting of the good, the other of 
 the bad, — both, however, consisting of angels and men. The 
 former shall have no will, the latter no power, to sin, and 
 neither shall have any power to choose death ; but the former 
 shall live truly and happily in eternal life, the latter shall drag 
 a miserable existence in eternal death without the power of 
 dying ; for the life and the death shall both be without end. 
 But among the former there shall be degrees of happiness, one 
 being more pre-eminently happy than another ; and among the 
 latter there shall be degrees of misery, one being more endur- 
 ably miserable than another. 
 
 Chap. cxii. — There is no ground in Scripture for the opinion of those who deny 
 the eternity of future xmnlshments. 
 
 It is in vain, then, that some, indeed very many, make moan 
 over the eternal punishment, and perpetual, unintermitted 
 torments of the lost, and say they do not believe it shall be 
 so ; not, indeed, that they directly oppose themselves to Hol}^ 
 Scripture, but, at the suggestion of their own feelings, they 
 soften down everything that seems hard, and give a milder 
 turn to statements which they think are rather designed to 
 _terrify than to be received as literally true. For " Hath God," 
 'they say, " forgotten to be gracious ? hath He in anger shut up 
 His tender mercies ? "^ Now, they read tliis in one of the holy 
 psalms. But without doubt we are to understand it as spoken 
 of those who are elsewhere called "vessels of mercy,"" because 
 
 1 Vs. Ixxvii. 9. 2 p^o„-i^ i^_ 23. 
 
2. J -4 THE ENCHIRIDION. [chap, cxiii. 
 
 even they are freed from misery not on account of any merit 
 of their own, but solely through the pity of God. Or, if the 
 men \ve speak of insist that this passai^e applies to all man- 
 kind, there is no reason why they should therefore suppose that 
 there will he an end to the punishment of those of whom it is 
 said, " These shall go away into everlasting punishment ; " 
 for this shall end in the same manner and at the same time as 
 the happiness of those of whom it is said, " but the righteous 
 unto life eternal." ^ But let them suppose, if the thought gives 
 them pleasure, that the pains of the damned are, at certain 
 intervals, in some degree assuaged. For even in this case the 
 wrath of God, that is, their condemnation (for it is this, and 
 not any disturbed feeling in the mind of God that is called His 
 wrath), abideth upon them ;^ that is. His wrath, though it still 
 remains, does not shut up His tender mercies ; though His 
 tender mercies are exhibited, not in putting an end to their 
 eternal punishment, but in mitigating, or in granting them a 
 respite from, their torments ; for the psalm does not say, " to 
 put an end to His anger," or, " w^ien His anger is passed by," 
 but " in His auger." l^ow, if this anger stood alone, or if it 
 existed in the smallest conceivable degree, yet to be lost out 
 of the kingdom of God, to be an exile from the city of God, to 
 be alienated from the life of God, to have no share in that 
 great goodness which God hath laid up for them that fear 
 Him, and hath wrought out for tliem that trust in Him,^ 
 would be a punishment so great, that, supposing it to be 
 eternal, no torments that we know of, continued through as 
 many ages as man's imagination can conceive, could be 
 compared with it. 
 
 Chap, cxiii. — The death of the wiclrd shall he eternal in tlic same sense as 
 the life of the saints. 
 
 This perpetual death of the wicked, then, that is, their 
 alienation from the life of God, shall abide for ever, and shall 
 be common to them all, whatever men, prompted by their 
 human affections, may conjecture as to a variety of punish- 
 ments, or as to a mitigation or intermission of their woes ; 
 just as the eternal life of the saints shall abide for ever, and 
 shall be common to them all, whatever grades of rank and 
 » Matt. XXV. 40. 2 John iii. 36. ' Ps. xxxi. 19. 
 
CHAP CXV.] THE LOPvD'S PRAYER. 255 
 
 honour there may be among those who shine with an 
 harmonious effulgence. 
 
 Chap, cxiv.— Having dealt with faith, we now come to speah of hope. Every- 
 thing that pertains to hope is embraced in the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 Out of this confession oi faith, which is briefly compre- 
 hended in the Creed, and which, carnally understood, is milk 
 lor babes, but, spiritually apprehended and studied, is meat 
 for strong men, springs the good hope of believers ; and this 
 is accompanied by a holy love. But of these matters, all of 
 which are true objects of faith, those only pertain to hope 
 which are embraced in the Lord's Prayer. For, " Cursed be 
 the man that trusteth in man " ^ is the testimony of holy writ ; 
 and, consequently, this curse attaches also to the man who 
 trusteth in himself. Therefore, except from God the Lord we 
 ought to ask for nothing either that we hope to do well, or 
 hope to obtain as a reward of our good works. 
 
 Chap, cxv. — The seven petitions oj the Lord's Prayer, accojxUng to Matthew. 
 
 Accordingly, in the Gospel according to Matthew the 
 Lord's Prayer seems to embrace seven petitions, three of which 
 ask for eternal blessings, and the remaining four for temporal ; 
 these latter, however, being necessary antecedents to the 
 attainment of the eternal. For when we say, " Hallowed be 
 Thy name : Thy kingdom come : Thy will be done in earth, 
 as it is in heaven " ^ (which some have interpreted, not un- ^ 
 fairly, in body as well as in spirit), we ask for blessings that ' 
 are to be enjoyed for ever; which are indeed begun in this 
 world, and grow in us as we grow in grace, but in their per- 
 fect state, which is to be looked for in another life, shall be a 
 possession for evermore. But when we say, " Give us this 
 day our daily bread : and forgive us our debts, as we forgive 
 our debtors : and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us 
 from evil,"^ who does not see that we ask for blessings that 
 have reference to the wants of this present life ? In that 
 eternal life, where we hope to live for ever, the hallowing of 
 God's name, and His kingdom, and His will in our spirit and 
 body, shall be brought to perfection, and shall endure to ever- 
 lasting. But our daibj bread is so called because there is 
 
 » Jer. xvii. 5. - Matt. vi. 9, 10. 3 Matt. vi. 11-13. 
 
256 THE EN'CIIIKIDIOX. [CIIAP. CXVI. 
 
 here constaut need for as much nourishment as the spirit and 
 the flesh demand, whether we understand the expression 
 spiritually, or carnally, or in both senses. It is here too that 
 we need the forgiveness that we ask, for it is here tliat we 
 commit the sins ; here are the temptations which allure or 
 drive us into sin ; here, in a word, is the evil from which we 
 desire deliverance : but in that other world there shall be none 
 of these things. 
 
 Ch.\p. CXVI. — Luke expresses the substance of these seven petitions more 
 briefly in five. 
 
 But the Evangelist Luke in his version of the Lord's Prayer 
 embraces not seven, but five petitions : not, of course, that 
 there is any discrepancy between the two evangelists, but that 
 Luke indicates by his very brevity the mode in which the 
 seven petitions of Matthew are to be understood. For God's 
 name is hallowed in the spirit ; and God's kingdom shall come 
 in the resurrection of the body. Luke, therefore, intending to 
 show that the third petition is a sort of repetition of the first 
 two, has chosen to indicate that by omitting the third alto- 
 gether.^ Then he adds three others ; one for daily bread, 
 another for pardon of sin, another for immunity from 
 temptation. And what IMatthew puts as the last petition, 
 "but deliver us from evil," Luke has omitted,^ to show us 
 that it is embraced in the previous petition about tempta- 
 tion. Matthew, indeed, himself says, " hut deliver," not " and 
 deliver," as if to show that the petitions are virtually one : 
 do not this, but this ; so that every man is to understand 
 that he is delivered from eyil in the very lact of his not being 
 led into temptation. 
 
 Chap, cxvii. — Love, which is grmter than faith and hope, is shed abroad in 
 our hearts by the Holy Qhost. 
 
 And now as to love, which the apostle declares to be greater 
 than the other two graces, that is, than faith and hope," the 
 greater the measure in which it dwells in a man, the better is 
 the nian in whom it dwells. For when there is a question as 
 to whether a man is good, one does not ask what he believes, 
 or what he hopes, but what he loves. For the man who loves 
 aright no doubt believes and hopes aright ; whereas the man 
 * These petitions are not omitted in the AuthomeJ Version. " 1 Cor. xiii. 13. 
 
CHAP. CXVIII.] TI-IE FOUR STAGES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 257 
 
 who has not love believes in vain, even though his beliefs are 
 true ; and hopes in vain, even though the objects of his hope 
 are a real part of true happiness ; unless, indeed, he believes 
 and hopes for this, that he may obtain by prayer the blessing 
 of love. For, although it is not possible to hope without love, 
 it may yet happen that a man does not love that which is 
 necessary to the attainment of his hope ; as, for example, if he 
 hopes for eternal life (and who is there that does not desire 
 this ?) and yet does not love righteousness, without which no 
 one can attain to eternal life. Now this is the true faith of 
 Christ which the apostle speaks of, " which worketh by love ; "^ 
 and if there is anything that it does not yet embrace in its 
 love, asks that it may receive, seeks that it may find, and 
 knocks that it may be opened unto it.^ For faith obtains 
 through prayer that which the law commands. For without 
 the gift of God, that is, without the Holy Spirit, through whom 
 love is shed abroad in our hearts,^ the law can command, but 
 it cannot assist ; and, moreover, it makes a man a transgressor, 
 for he can no longer excuse himself on the plea of ignorance. 
 ISTow carnal lust reigns where there is not the love of God. 
 
 Chap, cxviii. — The four stages of the Christian's life, and the four corresponding 
 stages of the Church's history. 
 
 When, sunk in the darkest depths of ignorance, man lives 
 according to the flesh, undisturbed by any struggle of reason 
 or conscience, this is his first state. Afterwards, when through 
 the law has come the knowledge of sin, and the Spirit of God 
 has not yet interposed His aid, man, striving to live according 
 to the law, is thwarted in his efforts and falls into conscious 
 sin, and so, being overcome of sin, becomes its slave (" for 
 of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brouojht in 
 bondage "^) ; and thus the effect produced by the knowledge of 
 the commandment is this, that sin worketh in man all manner 
 of concupiscence, and he is involved in the additional guilt of 
 wilful transgression, and that is fulfilled which is written: 
 " The law entered that the offence misrht abound."^ This is 
 man's second state. But if God has regard to him, and in- 
 spires him with faith in God's help, and the Spirit of God 
 
 1 Gal. V. 6. 2 jjatt, vii. 7. a p^q^^ y, 5. 
 
 * 2 Pet. ii. 19. ^ Fiom. v. 20. 
 
 ENCHIR. R 
 
THE ENCniRIDIOy. [CHAP. CXIX. 
 
 begins to work in him, then the mightier power of love strives 
 against the power of tlie flesh ; and although there is still in 
 the man's own nature a power tliat fights against him (for his 
 disease is not completely cured), yet he lives the life of the 
 just by faith, and lives in righteousness so ftir as he does not 
 yield to evil lust, but conquers it by the love of holiness. 
 This is the third state j of a man of good hope ; and he who by 
 stedfast piety advances in this course, shall attain at last to 
 peace, that peace which, after this life is over, shall be per- 
 fected in the repose of the spirit, and finally in the resurrection 
 of the body. Of these four different stages the first is before 
 the law, the second is under the law, the third is under iirace. 
 and tlie fourth is in full and perfect peace. Thus, too, has the 
 history of God's people been ordered according to His pleasure 
 who disposeth all things in number, and measure, and weight.^ 
 For the Church existed at first before the law ; then under the 
 law, which w\is given by Moses ; then under grace, which was 
 first made manifest in the coming of the Mediator. Not, 
 indeed, that this grace was absent previously, but, in harmony 
 with the arrangements of the time, it w^as veiled and hidden. 
 For none, even of the just men of old, could find salvation 
 apart from the faith of Christ ; nor unless He had been known 
 to them could their ministry have been used to convey pro- 
 phecies concerning Him to us, some more plain, and some more 
 obscure. 
 
 Chap. cxix. — The grace of regeneration washes away all past sin and all 
 original guilt. 
 
 Now in wliichever of these four stages (as we may call 
 them) the grace of regeneration finds any particular man, all 
 liis past sins are there and then pardoned, and the guilt whicli 
 he contracted in his birth is removed in his new birth ; and 
 so true is it that " the wind bloweth where it listeth," " that 
 some have never known the second stage, that ot slavery 
 under the law, but have received the divine assistance as 
 soon as they received the commandment. 
 
 Cll.\r. CXX. — Death cannot injure those who have received the gract oj 
 regeneration, 
 
 Eut before a man can receive the commandment, it is 
 
 ' Comp. Wisd. xi. 21. " John iii. 8. 
 
CHAP. CXXI.] LOVE IS THE END OF THE COMMANDMENT. 259 
 
 necessary that he should live according to the flesh. But if 
 once he has received the grace of regeneration, death shall not 
 injure him, even if he should forthwith depart from this life ; 
 " for to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that 
 He might be Lord both of the dead and the living ;"^ nor shall 
 death retain dominion over him for whom Christ freely died. 
 
 Chap. cxxi. — Love is the end of all the commandments, and God Himself is love. 
 
 All the commandments of God, then, are embraced in love, 
 of which the apostle says : " Now the end of the command- 
 ment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, 
 and of faith unfeigned."^ Thus the end of every command- 
 ment is charity, that is, every commandment has love for its 
 aim. But whatever is done either through fear of punishment 
 or from some other carnal motive, and has not for its principle 
 that love which the Spirit of God sheds abroad in the heart, is 
 not done as it ought to be done, however it may appear to 
 men. For this love embraces both the love of God and the 
 love of our neighbour, and " on these two commandments hang 
 all the law and the prophets,"^ we may add the Gospel and 
 the apostles. For it is from these that we hear this voice: 
 The end of the commandment is charity, and God is love."* 
 Wherefore, all God's commandments, one of which is, " Thou 
 shalt not commit adultery,"^ and all those precepts which are 
 not commandments but special counsels, one of which is, 
 " It is good for a man not to touch a w^oman," ^ are rightly 
 [1 carried out only when the motive principle of action is the 
 \jll love of God, and the love of our neighbour in God. And this 
 applies both to the present and the future life. We love God 
 now by faith, then we shall love Him through sight. Now we 
 love even our neighbour by faith ; for we who are ourselves 
 mortal know not the hearts of mortal men. But in the future 
 life, the Lord " both will bring to light the hidden things of 
 darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, 
 and then shall every man have praise of God ;" ^ for every 
 man shall love and praise in his neighbour the virtue which, 
 
 ^ Rom. xiv. 9. ^1 Tim. i. 5. ^ ^Matt. xxii. 40 ; comp. Rom. v. 5. 
 
 4 1 Tim. i. 5 ; 1 Joliu iv. IG. ^ Comp. Matt. v. 27 aud Rom. xiii. 9. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. vii. 1. ^1 Cor. iv. 5. 
 
200 THE ENCnirvIDION. [CIIAP. CXXII. 
 
 that it may not be hid, the Lord Himself shall bring to light. 
 Moreover, lust diminishes as love grows, till th'e latter grows 
 to such a height that it can grow no higher here. For 
 " greater love liath no man than tlxis, that a man lay down his 
 life for his friends."^ Who then can tell how great love shall 
 be in the future world, when there shall be no lust for it to 
 restrain and conquer ? for that will be the perfection of health 
 when there shall be no struggle with death. 
 
 CiiAP. CXXII. — Conclusion. 
 
 But now there must be an end at last to this volume. And 
 
 it is for yourself to judge whether you should call it a haiid- 
 
 hoolc, or should use it as such. I, however, thinking that 
 
 your zeal in Christ ought not to be despised, and believing 
 
 and hoping all good of you in dependence on our Eedeemer's 
 
 help, and loving you very much as one of the members of His 
 
 I body, have, to the best of my ability, written this book for you 
 
 i on Faith, Ho;pc, and Love. May its value be equal to its 
 
 V length. 
 
 ^ Johu XV. 13. 
 
TREATISE ON 
 THE CATECHISING OF THE UNINSTRUCTED. 
 
 ■201 
 
INTRODUCTOR V NOTICE. 
 
 IN the fourteenth chapter of the second book of his Retracta- 
 tions, Auo'ustine makes the following; statement : " There 
 is also a book of ours on the subject of the Catechising of the 
 Uninstructed, that being, indeed, the express title by which it 
 is desicjnated. In this book, where I have said, ' Neither did 
 the angel, ivho, in com'pany luith other spirits ivho luere his 
 satellites, forsook in j^^^ide the obedience of God, and hecame the 
 devil, do any hurt to God, hut to himself ; for God knovjeth hoiv 
 to dispose of soids that leave Him : ' it would be more appro- 
 priate to say, ' spirits that lectve Him! inasmuch as the ques- 
 tion dealt with angels. This book commences in these terms : 
 ' You have requested me, brother Deogr alias! " The com- 
 position so described in the passage cited is reviewed by 
 Augjustine in connection with other works which he had in 
 hand about the year 400 a.d., and may therefore be taken to 
 belong to that date. It has been conjectured that the person 
 to whom it is addressed may perhaps be the same with the 
 presbyter Deogratias, to whom, as we read in the epistle 
 which now ranks as the hundred and second, Augustine wrote 
 about the year 406, in reply to some questions of the pagans 
 which w^ere forwarded to him from Carthage. The Benedictine 
 editors introduce the treatise in the following terms : " At the 
 request of a deacon of Carthage, Augustine undertakes the 
 task of teaching the art of catechising ; and in the first place, 
 he gives certain injunctions, to the effect that this kind of 
 duty may be discharged not only in a settled method and an 
 apt order, but also without tediousness, and in a spirit of 
 cheerfulness. Thereafter reducing his injunctions to practical 
 use, he gives an example of what he means by delivering two 
 set discourses, presenting parallels to each other, the one 
 being somewhat lengthened and the other very brief, but both 
 suitable for the instruction of any individual whose desire is 
 to be a Christian." 
 
 263 
 
ON THE CATECHISING OF THE UNINSTEUCTED. 
 
 IN ONE BOOK. 
 
 Chap. i. — Hoio Augustine writes in answer to a favour ashed by a deacon of 
 
 Carthage. 
 
 1. "V^OU have requested me, brother Deogratias, to send 
 JL you in writing something which might be of service 
 to you in the matter of catechising the uninstructed. For 
 you have informed me that in Carthage, where you hold the 
 position of a deacon, persons, who have to be taught the 
 Christian faith from its very rudiments, are frequently brought 
 to you by reason of your enjoying the reputation of possessing 
 a rich gift in catechising, due at once to an intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the faith, and to an attractive method of discourse ;^ 
 but that you almost always find yourself in a difficulty as to 
 the manner in which a suitable declaration is to be made of 
 the j)recise doctrine, the belief of which constitutes us Chris- 
 tians : regarding the point at which our statement of the same 
 ought to commence, and the limit to which it should be allowed 
 to proceed : and with respect to the question whether, when 
 our narration is concluded, we ought to make use of any kind 
 of exhortation, or simply specify those precepts in the obser- 
 vance of which the person to whom we are discoursing may 
 know the Christian life and profession to be maintained.^ At 
 the same time, you have made the confession and complaint 
 that it has often befallen you that in the course of a length- 
 
 1 Heading et doctrlnafidei et suavitate sermonis, instead of which, however, et 
 doctrinam . . . suavitatem, etc. also occurs, =: possessing at once a rich gift in 
 catechising, and an intimate acquaintance with the faith, and an attractive method 
 of discourse. 
 
 2 Beading retineri as in the mss. Some editions give retinere =■ know how to 
 maintain the Christian life and profession. 
 
 265 
 
26G ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. II. 
 
 ened and languid address you liave become profitless and dis- 
 tasteful even to yourself, not to speak of the learner whom 
 you have been endeavouring to instruct by your utterance, 
 and the other parties wlio have been present as hearers ; and 
 that you have been constrained by these straits to put upon 
 me the constraint of that love which I owe to you, so that I 
 may not feel it a burdensome thing among all my engage- 
 ments to write you sometliing on this sul.)ject. 
 
 2. As for myself then, if, in the exercise of those capaci- 
 ties which through the bounty of our Lord I am enabled to 
 present, the same Lord requires me to offer any manner of aid 
 to those whom He has made brethren to me, I feel constrained 
 not only by that love and service which is due from me to you 
 on the terms of familiar friendship, but also by that which I 
 owe universally to my mother the Churcli, by no means to 
 refuse the task, but rather to take it up with a prompt and 
 devoted willingness. For the more extensively I desire to see 
 the treasure of the Lord ^ distributed, the more does it become 
 my duty, if I ascertain that the stewards, who are my ftdlow- 
 servants, find any difficulty in laying it out, to do all that lies 
 in my power to the end that they may be able to accomplish 
 easily and expeditiously what they sedulously and earnestly 
 aim at. 
 
 Chap. u.—ITow it often happens that a discourse trhich gives pleasure to the 
 hearer is dijitasicful to the speaker ; and lohat explanation is to be ojlred 
 of that fact. 
 
 3. But as regards the idea thus privately entertained by 
 yourself in such efforts, I would not have you to be disturbed 
 by the consideration that you have often appeared to yourself 
 to be delivering a poor and wearisome discourse. For it may 
 very well be the case that the matter has not so presented 
 itself to the person whom you were trying to instruct, but that 
 what you were uttering seemed to you to be unworthy of the 
 ears of others, simply because it was your own earnest desire 
 that tliere should be something better to listen to. Indeed 
 with me, too, it is almost always the fact that my speech dis- 
 pleases myself. For I am covetous of something better, the 
 possession of wliiuh 1 frequently enjoy witliin me before I 
 ' rccunium Dominicain. 
 
CHAP. II.] THOUGHTS AXD WOr.DS. 267 
 
 commence to body it forth in intelligible words ■} and then 
 when my capacities of expression prove inferior to my inner 
 apprehensions, I grieve over the inability which my tongue 
 has betrayed in answering to my heart. For it is my wish 
 that he who hears me should have the same complete under- 
 standing of the subject which I have myself; and I perceive 
 that I fail to speak in a manner calculated to effect that, and 
 that this arises mainly from the circumstance that the intel- 
 lectual apprehension diffuses itself through the mind with 
 something like a rapid flash, whereas the utterance is slow, and 
 occupies time, and is of a vastly different nature, so that, while 
 this latter is moving on, the intellectual apprehension has 
 already withdrawn itself within its secret abodes. Yet, in 
 consequence of its having stamped certain impressions of itself 
 in a marvellous manner upon the memory, these prints endure 
 with the brief pauses of the syllables ; ^ and as the outcome of 
 these same impressions we form intelligible signs,^ which get 
 the name of a certain lanojuacfe, either the Latin, or the Greek, 
 or the Hebrew, or some other. And these signs may be 
 objects of thought, or they may also be actually uttered by 
 the voice. On the other hand, however, the impressions 
 themselves are neither Latin, nor Greek, nor Hebrew, nor 
 peculiar to any other race whatsoever, but are made good in 
 the mind just as looks are in the body. For anger is desig- 
 nated by one word in Latin, by another in Greek, and by dif- 
 ferent terms in other languages, acccording to their several 
 diversities. But the look of the angry man is neither (pecu- 
 liarly) Latin nor (peculiarly) Greek. Thus it is that when a 
 person says Iratus sum^ he is not understood by every nation, 
 but only by the Latins ; whereas, if the mood of his mind 
 when it is kindling to wrath comes forth upon the face and 
 affects the look, all who have the individual within their view 
 understand that he is angry. But, again, it is not in our 
 power to bring out those impressions which the intellectual 
 apprehension stamps upon the memory, and to hold them 
 forth, as it were, to the perception of the hearers by means of 
 
 * Verbis sonantihus, — sounding words. 
 
 2 Perdurant ilia cum syllabarum nioiulis. 
 
 ' Sonantia si'jna, — vocal signs. ■* I am angry. 
 
2G8 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. U. 
 
 the sound of the voice, in any manner parallel to the clear 
 and evident form in M'liich the look appears. For those 
 former are witliin in the mind, while this latter is without in 
 the body. Wherefore we have to surmise how far the sound 
 of our mouth must be from representing that stroke of the 
 intelligence, seeing that it does not correspond even with the 
 impression produced upon the memory. Kow, it is a common 
 occurrence with us tluit, in the ardent desire to effect what is 
 of profit to our hearer, our aim is to express ourselves to him 
 exactly as our intellectual apprehension is at the time, when, 
 in the very effort, we are failing in the ability to speak; and then, 
 because this does not succeed with us, we are vexed, and we 
 pine in weariness as if we were applying ourselves to vain 
 labours ; and, as the result of this very weariness, our dis- 
 course becomes itself more languid and pointless even than it 
 was when it first induced such a sense of tediousness. 
 
 4. But ofttimes the earnestness of those who are desirous 
 of hearing me shows me that my utterance is not so frigid 
 as it seems to myself to be. From the delight, too, whicli 
 they exhibit, I gather that they derive some profit from it. 
 And I occupy myself sedulously with the endeavour not to 
 fail in putting before them a service in which I perceive 
 them to take in such good part what is put before them. 
 Even so, on your side also, the very fact that persons who 
 require to be instructed in the faith are brought so frequently 
 to you, ought to help you to understand that your discourse is 
 not displeasing to others as it is displeasing to yourself; and you 
 ought not to consider yourself unfruitful, simply because you 
 do not succeed in setting forth in such a manner as you desire the 
 things which you discern ; for, percliance, you may be just as 
 little able to discern them in the way you wish. For in this 
 life who sees except as "in an enigma and through a glass" ?^ 
 Neither is love itself of miglit sullicient to rend the darkness 
 oi the flesh, and penetrate into that eternal calm from which 
 even things which pass away derive the light in which they 
 shine. lUit inasmuch as day by day the good are making 
 advances towards the vision of that day, independent of the 
 rolling sky,*'' and without the invasion of the niglit, " which eye 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. .\iii. 12. » Sine volumiue cjcli. 
 
CHAP. II.] SUBJECTS OF THE DISCOURSE. 269 
 
 liatli not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the 
 heart of man,"-^ there is no greater reason why our discourse 
 should become valueless in our own estimate, when we are 
 engaged in teaching the uninstructed, than this, — namely, 
 that it is a delight to us to discern in an extraordinary 
 fashion, and a weariness to speak in an ordinary. And in 
 reality we are listened to with much greater satisfaction, 
 indeed, Avhen we ourselves also have pleasure in the same 
 work ; for the thread of our address is affected by the very 
 joy of which we ourselves are sensible, and it proceeds from 
 us with greater ease and with more acceptance. Conse- 
 quently, as regards those matters which are recommended as 
 articles of belief, the task is not a difficult one to lay down 
 injunctions, with respect to the points at which the narration 
 should be commenced and ended, or with respect to the 
 method in which the narration is to be varied, so that at one 
 time it may be briefer, at another more lengthened, and 
 yet at all times full and perfect ; and, again, with respect to 
 the particular occasions on which it may be right to use the 
 shorter form, and those on which it will be proper to employ 
 the longer. But as to the means by which all is to be done, 
 so that every one may have pleasure in his work when he 
 catechises (for the better he succeeds in this the more attrac- 
 tive will he be), — that is what requires the greatest considera- 
 tion. And yet we have not far to seek for the precept which 
 will rule in this sphere. For if, in the matter of carnal means, 
 God loves a cheerful giver,^ how much more so in that of the 
 spiritual ? But our security that this cheerfulness may be 
 with us at the seasonable hour, is something dependent upon 
 the mercy of Him who has given us such precepts. There- 
 fore, in accordance with my understanding of what your own 
 wish is, we shall discuss in the first place the subject of the 
 method ot narration, then that of the duty of delivering in- 
 junction and exhortation, and afterwards that of the attain- 
 ment of the said cheerfulness, so far as God may furnish us 
 with the ideas. 
 
 1 1 Cor. ii. 9. « 2 Cor. ix. 7. 
 
270 ON CATECHISING. [CITAP. III. 
 
 CuAP. III. — Of the full narration to be employed in catechising. 
 
 5. The naiTation is full when each person is catechised in 
 the first instance from what is written in the text, " In the 
 beginning God created the heaven and the earth," ^ on to the 
 present times of the Church. This does not imply, however, 
 either that we ought to repeat by memory the entije Penta- 
 teuch, and the entire Books of Judges, and Kings, and Esdras,^ 
 and the entire Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, if we have 
 learned all these word for word ; or that we should put all the 
 matters which are contained in these volumes into our own 
 words, and in that manner unfold and expound them as a 
 whole. For neither does the time admit of that, nor does any 
 necessity demand it. But what we ought to do is, to give a 
 comprehensive statement of all things, summarily and gene- 
 rally, so that certain of the more wonderful facts may be 
 selected which are listened to with superior gratification, and 
 which have been ranked so remarkably among the exact turn- 
 ing-points (of the history) f that, instead of exhibiting them to 
 view only in their wrappings, if we may so speak, and then 
 instantly snatching them from our siglit, we ought to dwell on 
 them for a certain space, and thus, as it were, unfold them 
 and open them out to vision, and present them to the minds 
 of the hearers as things to be examined and admired. But 
 as for all other details, these sliould be passed over rapidly, 
 and thus far introduced and woven into the narrative. The 
 effect of pursuing this plan is, that the particular facts wliich 
 we wish to see specially commended to attention obtain 
 greater prominence in consequence of the others being made 
 to yield to them ; while, at the same time, neither does the 
 learner, whose interest we are anxious to stimulate by our 
 statement, come to these subjects witli a miiul already ex- 
 hausted, nor is confusion induced upon the memory of tlie 
 person whom we ought to be instructing by our teaching. 
 
 6. In all things, indeed, not only ought our own eye to 
 be kept fixed uj)on tlie end of the commandment, whicli is 
 " charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith 
 
 • Gen. i. 1. ' In the Mss. we also fiml the reading EzrcF = Ezra. 
 
 ^ In ipsiJi articulis^ *' amoi)'^ tlie very articles," or ** connecting link.s." Ke- 
 fercnce is made to certain great epoclis or articles of time in sections 6 and 39. 
 
CHAP. III.] Jacob's bikth and Christ's ixcabxatiox. 271 
 
 unfeigned," ^ to which we should make all that we utter refer; 
 but in like manner ought the gaze of the person whom w^e are 
 instructing by our utterance to be moved ^ toward the same, 
 and guided in that direction. And, in truth, for no other 
 reason were all those things which w^e read in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures written, previous to the Lord's advent, but for this, — 
 namely, that His advent might.be pressed upon the attention, 
 and that the Church which was to be, should be intimated 
 beforehand, that is to say, the people of God throughout all 
 nations ; which Church is His body, wherewith also are united 
 and numbered all the saints who lived in this world, even before 
 His advent, and who believed then in His future coming, just 
 as we believe in His past coming. For (to use an illustration) 
 Jacob, at the time when he was being born, first put forth 
 from the womb a hand, with which also he held the foot 
 of the brother who was taking priority of him in the act of 
 birth: and next indeed the head followed, and thereafter, at 
 last, and as matter of course, the rest of the members : ^ while, 
 nevertheless, the head in point of dignity and power has pre- 
 cedence, not only of those members which followed it then, 
 but also of the very hand which anticipated it in the process 
 of the birth, and is really the first, although not in the matter 
 of the time of appearing, at least in the order of nature. And 
 in an analogous manner, the Lord Jesus Christ, . previous to 
 His appearing in the flesh, and coming forth in a certain 
 manner out of the womb of His secrecy, before the eyes of 
 men as Man, the Mediator between God and men,* " who is 
 over all, God blessed for ever,"^ sent before Him, in the person 
 of the holy patriarchs and prophets, a certain portion of His 
 body, wherewith, as by a hand, He gave token beforetime of 
 His own approaching birth, and also supplanted^ the people 
 who were prior to Him in their pride, using for that purpose 
 the bonds of the law, as if they were His five fingers. For 
 
 1 1 Tim. i. 5. 
 
 - Reading movenclus, for which monendus = to be admonished, also occurs in 
 the editions. 
 
 3 Gen. XXV. 26. * 1 Tim. ii. 5. ^ Rom. ix. 5. 
 
 ® Reading supplantavit. Some Mss. give suppiantaret = wherewith also He 
 might supplant, etc. 
 
272 ON CATECHISING. [CIIAP. IV. 
 
 through five epochs of times ^ there was no cessation in the 
 foretelling and prophesying of His own destined coming ; and 
 in a manner consonant with this, he through whom the law 
 was given wrote five books ; and proud men, who were carnally 
 minded, and sought to " establish their own righteousness," ^ 
 were not filled with blessing by the open hand of Christ, but 
 were debarred from such good by the hand compressed and 
 closed ; and therefore their feet were tied, and " they fell, while 
 we are risen, and stand upright." ^ But although, as I have 
 said, the Lord Christ did thus send before Him a certain 
 portion of His body, in the person of those holy men who 
 came before Him as regards the time of birth, nevertheless 
 He is Himself the Head of the body, the Church,** and all 
 these have been attached to that same body of which He is 
 the head, in virtue of their believing in Him whom they an- 
 nounced prophetically. For they were not sundered (from 
 that body) in consequence of fulfilling their course before Him, 
 but rather were they made one with the same by reason of 
 their obedience. For although the hand may be put forward 
 away before the head, still it has its connection beneath the 
 head. Wherefore all things which were written aforetime 
 were written in order that we might be taught thereby,^ and 
 were our figures, and happened in a figure in the case of these 
 men. Moreover they were written for our sakes, upon whom 
 the end of the ages has come.^ 
 
 CiiAi'. IV. — That the great reason for the advent of Christ icas tJie 
 commendation of love. 
 
 7. Moreover, what greater reason is apparent for the advent 
 of the Lord than that God might show His love in us, com- 
 mending it powerfully, inasmuch as "while we were yet sinners, 
 Christ died for us"?^ And furthermore, this is with the intent 
 that, inasmuch as charity is " the end of tlie commandment,"^ 
 and " the fullilliiig of the law," ^ we also may love one another 
 and lay down our life for the brethren, even as He laid down 
 His life for us.^*^ And with regard to God Himself, its object 
 
 ' T('mi)orum articulos. * Rom. x. 3. ' Ps. xx. 8. 
 
 * Col. i. 18. ^ Kom. xv. 4. « 1 Cor. x. 11. 
 
 7 lloin. V. 8, 10. ^ 1 Tim. i. 5. ^ Kom. xiii. 10. 
 10 1 John iu, 16. 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE ACTION OF LOVE. 
 
 is that, even if it were an irksome task to love Him, it may 
 now at least cease to be irksome for us to return His love, seeing 
 that " He first loved us," ^ and " spared not His own only Son, 
 but delivered Him up for us all." '^ For there is no mightier 
 invitation to love than to anticipate in loving ; and that soul is 
 over hard which, supposing it unwilling indeed to give love, is 
 unwilling also to give the return of love. But if, even in the 
 case of criminal and sordid loves, w^e see how those who desire 
 to be loved in return make it their special and absorbing 
 business, by such proofs as are within their power, to render 
 the strength of the love wdiich they themselves bear plain and 
 patent ; if we also perceive how they affect to put forward an 
 appearance of justice in what they thus offer, such as may 
 qualify them in some sort to demand that a response be made 
 in all fairness to them on the part of those souls which they 
 are labouring to beguile ; if, further, their own passion burns 
 more vehemently when they observe that the minds which 
 they are eager to possess are also moved now by the same fire : 
 if thus, I say, it happens at once that the soul which before was 
 torpid is excited so soon as it feels itself to be loved, and that 
 the soul which w^as enkindled already becomes the more in- 
 flamed so soon as it is made cognisant of the return of its own 
 love, it is evident that no greater reason is to be found why 
 love should be either originated or enlarged, than what appears 
 in the occasion when one who as yet loves not at all comes to 
 know himself to be the object of love, or when one who is 
 already a lover either hopes that he may yet be loved in turn, 
 or has by this time the evidence of a response to his affection. 
 And if this holds good even in the case of base loves, how 
 much more ^ in (true) friendship ? For what else have we 
 carefully to attend to in this question touching the injuring of 
 friendship than to this, namely, not to give our friend cause 
 to suppose either that we do not love him at all, or that we 
 love him less than he loves us ? If, indeed, he is led to enter- 
 tain this belief, he will be cooler in that love in which men 
 enjoy the interchange of intimacies one with another ; and if 
 
 1 1 John iv. 10, 19. 2 p^o^. viii. 32. 
 
 ^ Reading quanto plus, for wliicli some mss. give ^j/«?-<i<,?, vchWo in a large 
 number we find ^if)-iz<s = with how much greater purity should it hold good, etc. 
 CATECH. S 
 
07. 
 
 ON CATECHISiyC. [CHAP. T 
 
 he is not of that weak type of character to which such an 
 offence to affection will serve as a cause of freezing off from love 
 altogether, he yet confines himself to that kind of affection 
 in which he loves, not with the view of enjoyment to himself, 
 but with the idea of studying the good of others. But again it 
 is worth our while to notice how, — although superiors also have 
 the wish to be loved by their inferiors, and are gratified with 
 the zealous attention ^ paid to them by such, and themselves 
 cherish greater affection towards these inferiors the more they 
 become cognisant of that,— with what might of love, neverthe- 
 less, the inferior kindles so soon as he learns that he is beloved 
 by his superior. For there have we love in its more grateful 
 aspect, where it does not consume itself^ in the drought of 
 want, but flows forth in the plenteousness of beneficence. For 
 the former type of love is of misery, the latter of mercy.^ 
 And furthermore, if the inferior was despairing even of the 
 possibility of his being loved by his superior, he will now be 
 inexpressibly moved to love if the superior has of his own will 
 condescended to show how much he loves this person who 
 could by no means be bold enough to promise himself so gi'eat 
 a good. But what is there superior to God in the character 
 of Judge ? and what more desperate than man in the character 
 of sinner ? — than man, I ask, who had given himself all the 
 more unreservedly up to the wardship and domination of proud 
 powers which are unable to make him blessed, as he had come 
 more absolutely to despair of the possibility of his being an 
 object of interest to that power which wills not to be exalted 
 in wickedness, but is exalted in goodness. 
 
 8. If, therefore, it was mainly for this purpose that Christ 
 came, to wit, that man might learn how much God loves him ; 
 and that he might learn this, to the intent that he might be 
 kindled to the love of Him by whom he was first loved, and 
 might also love his neighbour at the command and showing 
 of Him who became our neighbour, in that He loved man 
 when, instead of being a neighbour to Him, he was sojourning 
 far apart : if, again, all divine Scripture, which was written 
 
 ' Rp.iiUng fttudioso . . . ohfirfjuio, for which studiose, etc. also occurs in the 
 editions = are earnestly gratified with the attention, etc. 
 ' .flduat = burn, heave. ' Ex niiseria . . . e.\ niisericordia. 
 
CHAP, v.] LOVE THE END OF THE COMMANDMENT. 2*75 
 
 aforetime, was written with the view of presignifying the 
 Lord's advent ; and if whatever has been committed to wait- 
 ing in times subsequent to these, and established by divine 
 authority, is a record of Christ, and admonishes us of love, it 
 is manifest that on those two commandments of love to God 
 and love to our neighbour^ hang not only all the law and the 
 prophets, which at the time when the Lord spoke to that 
 effect were as yet the only Holy Scripture, but also all those 
 books of the divine literature which have been written ^ at a 
 later period for our health, and consigned to remembrance. 
 Wherefore, in the Old Testament there is a veiling of the 
 New, and in the New Testament there is a revealing of the 
 Old. According to that veiling, carnal men, understanding 
 things in a carnal fashion, have been under the dominion, 
 both then and now, of a penal fear. According to tliis revealing, 
 on the other hand, spiritual men, — among whom we reckon at 
 once those then who knocked in piety and found even hidden 
 things opened to them, and others now who seek in no spirit 
 of pride, lest even things uncovered should be closed to them, 
 — understanding in a spiritual fashion, have been made free 
 through the love wherewith they have been gifted. Conse- 
 quently, inasmuch as there is nothing more adverse to love 
 than envy, and as pride is the mother of envy, the same Lord 
 Jesus Christ, God-man, is both a manifestation of divine love 
 towards us, and an example of human humility with us, to 
 the end that our great swelling might be cured by a greater 
 counteracting remedy. For here is great misery, proud man ! 
 But there is greater mercy, a_2iumble God ! Take this love, 
 therefore, as the end that is set before you, to which you are 
 to refer all that you say, and, whatever you narrate, narrate it 
 in such a manner that he to whom you are discoursing on 
 hearing may believe, on believing may hope, on hoping may 
 love. 
 
 Chap, v. — That the person who comes for catechetical instruction is to he ex- 
 amined with respect to his views, on desiring to become a Christian. 
 
 9. Moreover, it is on the ground of that very severity of 
 
 • Matt. xxii. 40. 
 
 ^ Reading conscripta, for wliich some Mss. have consccuta=^liCLve followed, 
 and many give conaecrata, dedicated. 
 
276 ON CATECHISING. [CIIAP. V. 
 
 God/ by ^vllic]l the hearts of mortals are agitated Avitli a most 
 wholesome terror, tliat love is to be built up ; so that, rejoic- 
 ing that he is loved by Him whom he fears, man may have 
 boldness to love Him in return, and yet at the same time be 
 afraid to displease His love toward liimself, even should he be 
 able to do so with impunity. For certainly it very rarely 
 liappens, nay, I sliould rather say, never, that any one ap- 
 proaches us with the wish to become a Christian who has not 
 been smitten with some sort of fear of God. For if it is in 
 the expectation of some advantage from men whom he deems 
 himself unlikely to please in any otlier way, or with the idea 
 of escaping any disadvantage at the hands of men of whose 
 displeasure or hostility he is seriously afraid, that a man 
 wishes to become a Christian, then his wish to become one is 
 not so earnest as his desire to feign one.^ For faith is not a 
 matter of the body which does obeisance,^ but of the mind 
 which believes. But unmistakeably it is often the case that 
 the mercy of God comes to be present tlirough the ministry of 
 the catechiser, so that, affected by the discourse, the man now 
 wishes to become in reality that which he had made up his mind 
 only to feign. And so soon as he begins to have tliis manner 
 of desire, we may judge him then to have made a genuine 
 approach to us. It is true, indeed, that the precise time 
 when a man, whom we perceive to be present with us already 
 in the body, comes to us in reality with his mind,* is a thing 
 hidden from us. But, notwitiistanding that, we ought to deal 
 with him in such a manner that this wish may be made to 
 arise within him, even should it not be there at present. For 
 no such labour is lost, inasmuch as, if thei^ is any wish at 
 all, it is assuredly strengthened by such action on our part, 
 although we may be ignorant of the time or tlie hour at whicli 
 it began. It is useful certainly, if it can be done, to get from 
 those who know the man some idea beforehand of the state of 
 
 ' De ipsa etiam .sovcritate Dei . . . caiitas a'dificanJa est. 
 
 ' Non fieri vult j)otius tiuain fingere. 
 
 » Or= "signifying assmt by its motions," adopting the reading of the best 
 Ms{?., viz. salutantis corporis. Somo editions give aalvandi^ while certain Mss. 
 have salitCni, and otliers saltautis. 
 
 * Reading (/uando vcniat animo, for which quo rrniat animo also occurs =: the 
 mind in which a man comes ... is a matter hidden from U5. 
 
CHAP, yl] now to approach the catechumen. 277 
 
 mind in "wliicli he is, or of the causes which have induced 
 him to come with the view of embracing religion. But if 
 there is no other person available from whom we may gather 
 such information, then, indeed, the man himself is to be inter- 
 rogated, so that from what he says in reply we may draw tlie 
 beginning of our discourse. Xow if he has come with a false 
 heart, desirous only of human advantages or thinking to 
 escape disadvantages, he will certainly speak what is untrue. 
 Nevertheless, the very untruth which he utters should be 
 3nade the point from which we start. This should not be 
 done, however, with the (open) intention of confuting hi« 
 falsehood, as if that were a settled matter with you ; but, 
 taking it for granted that he has professed to have come with 
 a purpose which is really worthy of approbation (whether 
 that profession be true or false), it should rather be our aim 
 to commend and praise such a purpose as that with which, 
 in his reply, he has declared himself to have come ; so that 
 we may make him feel it a pleasure to be the kind of man 
 actually that he wishes to seem to be, On the other hand, 
 supposing him to have given a declaration of his views other 
 than what ought to be before the mind of one who is to be 
 instructed in the Christian faith, then by reproving him with 
 more than usual kindness and gentleness, as a person unin- 
 structed and ignorant, by pointing out and commending, con- 
 cisely and in a grave spirit, the end of Christian doctrine in 
 its genuine reality, and by doing all this in such a manner as 
 neither to anticipate the times of a narration, which should be 
 given subsequently, nor to venture to impose that kind of 
 statement upon a mind not previously set for it, you may 
 bring him to desire that which, either in mistake or in dis- 
 simulation, he has not been desiring up to this stage. 
 
 CiiAr. VI. — Of the way to commence the catechetical instruct'ton, and of the 
 narration of facts from the history of the icorltVs creation on to the j^ re- 
 sent times of the Church. 
 
 10. But if it happens that his answer is to the effect that 
 he has met with some divine warning, or with some divine 
 terror, prompting him to become a Christian, this opens up 
 the way most satisfactorily for a commencement to our dis- 
 course, by suggesting the greatness of God's interest in us. 
 
ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 His tlioughts, however, ought certainly to be turned away 
 from this line of thint^^s, whether miracles or dreams, and 
 directed to the more solid path and the surer oracles of the 
 Scriptures ; so that he may also come to understand how 
 mercifully that warnincj ^vas administered to him in advance/ 
 previous to his giving himself to the Holy Scriptures. And 
 assuredly it ought to be pointed out to him, that the Lord Him- 
 self would neither thus have admonished him and urged him on 
 to become a Christian, and to be incorporated into the Church, 
 nor have taught him by such signs or revelations, had it not 
 been His Avill that, for his greater safety and security, he 
 should enter upon a pathway already prepared in the Holy 
 Scriptures, in which he should not seek after visible miracles, 
 but learn the habit of hoping for things invisible, and in which 
 also he should receive monitions not in sleep but in wakeful 
 ness. At this point the narration ought now to be com- 
 menced, which should start with the fact that God made all 
 things very good,^ and which should be continued, as we have 
 said, on to the present times of the Church. This should be 
 done in such a manner as to give, for each of the affairs 
 and events which we relate, causes and reasons by which we 
 may refer them severally to that end of love from which 
 neither the eye of the man who is occupied in doing any- 
 thing, nor that of the man who is engaged in speaking, ought 
 to be turned away. For if, even in handling the fables of 
 the poets, which are but fictitious creations and things devised 
 for the pleasure^ of minds whose food is found in trifles, those 
 gi-ammarians who have the reputation and the name of being 
 good do nevertheless endeavour to bring them to bear upon 
 some kind of (assumed) use, although that use itself may be 
 only something vain and grossly bent upon the coarse nutri- 
 ment of this world :* how much more careful does it become 
 us to be, not to let those genuine verities which we narrate, 
 in consequence of any want of a well-considered account of 
 their causes, bo accepted either with a gratification which 
 
 ^ Prcerogatn sit. ' Gen. i. 31. 
 
 ' Rendiiifj ad voluptatem. V>\\i many Mss. give ad voluntatcm =z ftccoixling to 
 the inclination, etc. 
 
 * Avidani'sa^infc scccularis. 
 
CHAP, til] the exposition OF DOCTRINE. 279 
 
 issues in no practical good, or, still less, with a cupidity 
 which may prove hurtful ! At the same time, we are not to 
 set forth these causes in such a manner as to leave the proper 
 course of our narration, and let our heart and our tongue 
 indulge in digressions into the knotty questions of more intri- 
 cate discussion. But the simple truth of the explanation 
 which w^e adduce^ oucrht to be like the cjold which binds 
 together a row of gems, and yet does not interfere with the 
 choice symmetry of the ornament by any undue intrusion of 
 itself." 
 
 Chap. vii. — Of the exposition of the resurrection, the judgment, and other 
 subjects, which should follow this narration. 
 
 11. On the com^Dletion of this narration, the hope of the 
 resurrection should be set forth, and, so far as the capacity 
 and strength of the hearer will bear it, and so far also as the 
 measure of time at our disposal will allow, we ought to handle 
 our arguments against the vain scoffings of unbelievers on the 
 subject of the resurrection of the body, as well as on that of 
 the future judgment, with its goodness in relation to the good, 
 its severity in relation to the evil, its truth in relation to 
 all. And after the penalties of the impious have thus been 
 declared with detestation and horror, then the kinoxlom of the 
 righteous and faithful, and that supernal city and its joy, 
 should form the next themes for our discourse. At this 
 point, moreover, we ought to equip and animate the weakness 
 of man in withstanding temptations and offences, whether 
 these emerge without or rise within the church itself; with- 
 out, as in opposition to Gentiles, or Jews, or heretics ; within, 
 on the other hand, as in opposition to the chaff of the Lord's 
 threshing-floor. It is not meant, however, that we are to dis- 
 pute against each several type of perverse men, and that all 
 their wrong opinions are to be refuted by set arrays of argu- 
 mentations : but, in a manner suitable to a limited allowance 
 of time, we ought to show how all this was foretold, and to 
 point out of what service temptations are in the training ot 
 
 ^ Hesidrng Veritas adhilifce rat ion is, for which wo also find adhihita rationis 
 = the applied truth, etc. ; and adhihita ralioni = the truth applied to our ex- 
 planation. 
 
 2 Nou tamen ornamenti seriem ulla immodcratione perturhans. 
 
280 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 tlie faithful, and what relief^ there is in tlie example of the 
 patience of God, who has resolved to permit them even to the 
 end. But, again, ^vhile he is being furnished against these 
 (adversaries), whose perverse multitudes fill the churches so 
 far as bodily presence is concerned, the precepts of a Christian 
 and honourable manner of life should also be briefly and 
 befittingly detailed at the same time, to the intent that he 
 may neither allow himself to be easily led astray in this way 
 by any who are drunkards, covetous, fraudulent, gamesters, 
 adulterers, fornicators, lovers of public spectacles, wearers of 
 unholy charms, sorcerers, astrologers, or diviners practising any 
 sort of vain and wicked arts, and all other parties of a similar 
 character ; nor to let himself fancy that any such course may 
 be followed with impunity on his part, simply because he sees 
 many who are called Christians loving these things, and 
 engaging themselves with them, and defending them, and 
 recommending them, and actually persuading others to their 
 use. For as to the end which is appointed for those who 
 persist in such a mode of life, and as to the method in which 
 they are to be borne with in the church itself, out of which 
 they are destined to be separated in the end, — these are 
 subjects in which the learner ought to be instructed by 
 means of the testimonies of the divine books. He should 
 also, however, be informed beforehand that he will find in the 
 church many good Christians, most genuine citizens of the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, if he sets about being such himself 
 And, finally, he must be sedulously warned against letting 
 his hope rest on man. For it is not a matter that can be 
 easily judged by man, what man is righteous. And even 
 were this a matter which could be easily done, still the ol)ject 
 with which the examples of righteous men are set before us 
 is not that we may be justified by them, but that, as we 
 imitate them, we may understand how we ourselves also are 
 justified by their Justifier. For the issue of this will be 
 something which must merit the liighest approval, — namely 
 this, that when the person who is hearing us, or rather, who 
 is hearing God by us, has begun to make some progress in 
 moral (qualities and in knowledge, and to enter upon the way 
 
 * Mcdicina. 
 
CHAP. Vm.] HOW TO DEAL WITH THE EDUCATED. 281 
 
 of Christ with ardour, he will not be so bold as to ascribe the 
 change either to ns or to himself; but he will love both him- 
 self and us, and whatever other persons he loves as friends, in 
 Him and for His sake who loved him when he was an enemy, 
 in order that He might justify him and make him a friend. 
 And now that we have advanced thus far, I do not think that 
 you need any preceptor to tell you how you should discuss 
 matters briefly, when either your own time or that of those 
 who are hearing you is occupied ; and how, on the other 
 hand, you should discourse at greater length when there is 
 more time at your command. For the very necessity of the 
 case recommends this, apart from the counsel of any adviser. 
 
 Chap. viii. — Of the method to be pursued in catechising those who have had a 
 liberal education. 
 
 12. But there is another case which evidently mAist not be 
 overlooked. I mean the case of one coming to you to receive 
 catechetical instruction who has cultivated the field of liberal 
 studies, who has already made up his mind to be a Christian, 
 and who has betaken himself to you for the express purpose 
 of becoming one. It can scarcely fail to be the fact that a 
 person of this character has already acquired a considerable 
 knowledge of our Scriptures and literature ; and, furnished 
 with this, he may have come now simply with the view of 
 being made a partaker in the sacraments. For it is customary 
 with men of this class to inquire carefully into all things, not 
 at the very time when they are made Christians, but previous 
 to that, and thus early also to communicate and reason, with 
 any whom they can reach, on the subject of the feelings of 
 their own minds. Consequently a brief method of procedure 
 should be adopted with these, so as not to inculcate on them, 
 in an odious fashion,^ things which they know already, but to 
 pass over these with a light and modest touch. Thus we 
 should say how we believe that tliey are already familiar 
 with this and the other subject, and that we therefore simply 
 reckon up in a cursory manner all those facts which require 
 to be formally urged upon the attention of the uninstructed 
 and unlearned. And we should endeavour so to proceed, 
 that, supposing this man of culture to have been previously 
 
 ^ Reading odiose, for wliicli several mss. give otiose = id\y. 
 
2S2 ON CATECinSIN'C. [cnAP. YIII. 
 
 acquainted ^villl any one of our themes, he may not hear it 
 now as from a teaclier ; and that, in the event of his being 
 still ignorant of any of them, he may yet learn the same 
 while we are going over the things with which we understand 
 him to be already familiar. ^loreover, it is certainly not 
 without advantage to interrogate the man himself as to the 
 means by which he was induced to desire to be a Christian ; 
 so that, if you discover him to have been moved to that 
 decision by books, whether they be the canonical writings or 
 the compositions of literary men worth the studying,^ you 
 may say sometlung about these at the outset, expressing your 
 approbation of them in a manner which may suit the distinct 
 merits wliicli they severally possess, in respect of canonical 
 authority and of skilfully applied diligence on the part of 
 these expounders ;' and, in the case of the canonical Scriptures, 
 commending above all the most salutary modesty (of language) 
 displayed alongside their wonderful loftiness (of subject) ; 
 while, in those other productions you notice, in accordance 
 with the characteristic faculty of each several writer, a style 
 of a more sonorous and, as it were, more rounded eloquence 
 adapted to minds that are prouder, and, by reason thereof, 
 weaker. We should certainly also elicit from him some 
 account of himself, so that he may give us to understand 
 what wTiter he chiefly perused, and with what books he was 
 more familiarly conversant, as tliese were the means of 
 moving him to wish to be associated with the church. And 
 when he has given us this information, then if the said books 
 are known to us, or if we have at least ecclesiastical report as 
 our warrant for taking them to have been written by some 
 catholic man of note, we should joyfully express our approba- 
 tion. But if, on the other hand, he has fallen upon the pro- 
 ductions of some heretic, and in ignorance, it may be, has 
 retained in his mind anything which ^ the true faith condemns, 
 and yet supposes it to be catholic doctrine, then we must set 
 ourselves sedulously to teach liini, bringing before him (in its 
 
 ' Utilium tractatorum. 
 
 ' Rf.uling exponcntium. Various codices fjivo adexponenduvx = in cxpoundini:, 
 
 ' lUading quod, with Maniott. lint if we accept qubd with the Benedictine 
 
 editors, the sense will ^ and in ignorance it may be that the true faith condemns 
 
 them, has retained them in his mind. 
 
CHAP. YIIL] the case OF THE EDUCATED. 283 
 
 rightful superiority) the authority of the Church universal, and 
 of other most learned men reputed both for their disputations 
 and for their writings in (the cause of) its truth.-^ At the 
 same time, it is to be admitted that even those who have 
 departed this life as genuine catholics, and have left to pos- 
 terity some Christian writings, in certain passages of their 
 small works, either in consequence of their failing to be 
 understood, or (as the way is with human infirmity) because 
 they lack ability to pierce into the deeper mysteries with the 
 eye of the mind, and in (pursuing) the semblance of what is 
 true, wander from the truth itself, have proved an occasion to 
 the presumptuous and audacious for constructing and generat- 
 ing some heresy. This, however, is not to be wondered at, 
 when, even in the instance of the canonical writings them- 
 selves, where all things have been expressed in the soundest 
 manner, we see how it has happened, — not indeed through 
 merely taking certain passages in a sense different from that 
 which the writer had in view or which is consistent with the 
 truth itself, (for if this were all, who would not gladly pardon 
 human infirmity, when it exhibits a readiness to accept cor- 
 rection ?), but by persistently defending, with the bitterest 
 vehemence and in impudent arrogance, opinions which they 
 have taken up in perversity and error, — many have given 
 birth to many pernicious dogmas at the cost of rending the 
 unity of the (Christian) communion. All these subjects w^e 
 should discuss in modest conference with the individual who 
 makes his approach to the society of the Christian people, not 
 in the character of an uneducated man,^ as they say, but in 
 that of one who has passed through a finished culture and 
 training in the books of the learned. And in enjoining him 
 to guard against the errors of presumption, we should assume 
 only so much authority as that humility of his, which induced 
 him to come to us, is now felt to admit of. As to other 
 things, moreover, in accordance with the rules of saving doc- 
 
 ^ Allorumque doctissimorum liommum ct dls2mtationihns et scrlptionihus in 
 ejus verltate florentium. It may also be = bringing before liim the authority of 
 the Church universal, as well as both the disputations and the writings of other 
 most learned men \Yell reputed in (the cause of) its truth. 
 
 2 Idiota. 
 
284 ON CATEcnisiyo. [chap. ix. 
 
 trine, which require to be narrated or discussed, whether they 
 
 be matters relating to the faith, or questions bearing on the 
 
 moral life, or others dealing with temptations, all these should 
 
 be gone through in the manner which I have indicated, and 
 
 ought therein to be referred to the more excellent way 
 
 (already noticed).^ 
 
 Chap, ix.— 0/ the method in which grammarians and professional spea1:er8 
 are to he dealt with. 
 
 13. There are also some who come from the commonest 
 
 schools of the grammarians and professional speakers, whom 
 
 you may not venture to reckon either among the uneducated 
 
 or among those very learned classes whose minds have been 
 
 exercised in questions of real magnitude. When such persons, 
 
 therefore, who appear to be superior to the rest of mankind, 
 
 so far as the art of speaking is concerned, approach you with 
 
 the view of becoming Christians, it will be your duty in your 
 
 communications with them, in a higher degree than in your 
 
 dealings with those other illiterate hearers, to make it plain 
 
 that they are to be diligently admonished to clothe themselves 
 
 with Christian humihty, and learn not to despise individuals 
 
 whom they may discover keeping themselves free from vices of 
 
 conduct more carefully than from faults of language ; and also 
 
 that they ought not to presume so much as to compare with a 
 
 pure heart the practised tongue which they were accustomed 
 
 even to put in preference. Lut above all, such persons should 
 
 be taught to listen to the divine Scriptures, so that they may 
 
 neither deem solid eloquence to be mean, merely because it is not 
 
 inflated, nor suppose that the words or deeds of men, of which 
 
 we read the accounts in those books, involved and covered as 
 
 they are in carnal wrappings,^ are not to be drawn forth 
 
 and unfolded with a view to an (adequate) understanding 
 
 of them, but are to be taken merely according to the sound 
 
 of the letter. And as to this same matter of the utility 
 
 of the hidden meaning, the existence of which is the reason 
 
 why they are called also mysteries, the power wielded by 
 
 these intricacies of enigmatical nttcranccs in the way of 
 
 sharpening our love for the truth, and slinking off the torpor 
 
 > 1 Cor. xii. ni. Sci' also above, § 9. 
 
 * Cuiiiulibus inU'^uuKiitis iiivoluta atijue oi^crtx 
 
CHAP. X.] ALLEGOrJCAL INTERPEETATIOX. 285 
 
 of weariness, is a thing which the persons in question must 
 have made good to them by actual experience, when some 
 subject which failed to move them when it was placed baldly 
 before them, has its significance elicited by the detailed work- 
 infT out of an alles^orical sense. For it is in the hiiijhest de^^jree 
 useful to such men to come to know how ideas are to be pre- 
 ferred to words, just as the soul is preferred to the body. And 
 from this, too, it follows that they ought to have the desire 
 to listen to discourses remarkable for their truth, rather than 
 to those wdiich are notable for their eloquence ; just as they 
 ou<:>ht to be anxious to have friends distin^ruished for their 
 
 o o 
 
 wisdom, rather than those whose chief merit is their beauty. 
 They should also understand that there is no voice for the ears 
 of God save the affection of the soul. For thus they will not 
 act the mocker if they happen to observe any of the prelates 
 and ministers of the Church either calling upon God in lan- 
 guage marked by barbarisms and solecisms, or failing in under- 
 standing correctly the very words which they are pronouncing, 
 and making confused pauses.-^ It is not meant, of course, that 
 such faults are not to be corrected, so that the people may say 
 " Amen " to something which they plainly understand ; but 
 what is intended is, that such things should be piously borne 
 wdth by those who have come to understand how, as in the 
 forum it is in the sound, so in the church it is in the desire 
 that the grace of speech resides,^ Therefore that of the forum 
 may sometimes be called good speech, but never gracious 
 speech.^ Moreover, with respect to the sacrament which they 
 are about to receive, it is enough for the more intelligent 
 simply to hear w^hat the thing signifies. But with those of 
 slower intellect, it will be necessary to adopt a somewhat 
 more detailed explanation, together with the use of similitudes, 
 to prevent them from despising what they see. 
 
 CuAP. X. — Of the attainment of cheerfulness in the duty of catechising, and 
 of various causes producing iveariness in the catechumen. 
 
 14. At this point you perhaps desiderate some example of 
 the kind of discourse intended, so that I may show you by an 
 
 1 Or = confusing the sense by false pauses : perturbaieque distinguere. 
 
 2 Ut sono in foro, sic voto in ecclesia benedici. 
 ^ Bona (iictio, nuncjuani tamcn benedictio. 
 
2SG ON CATEcnisiXG. [chap. X. 
 
 actual instance how the things which I have recommended are 
 to be done. This indeed I shall do, so far as by God's help I 
 shall be able. But before proceeding to that, it is my duty, in 
 consistency with wliat I have promised, to speak of the acqui- 
 sition of the cheerfuluL'SS (to which I have alluded). For as 
 regards the matter of the rules in accordance with which your 
 discourse should be set forth, in the case of the catechetical 
 instruction of a person who comes with the express view of 
 being made a Christian, I have already made good, as far as 
 has appeared sufficient, the promise which I made. And 
 surely I am under no obligation at the same time to do m}'self 
 in this volume that which I enjoin as the right thing to be 
 done. Consequently, if I do that, it will have the value of an 
 overplus. But how can the overplus be superadded by me 
 before I have filled up the mea.sure of what is due ? Besides, 
 one thing which I have heard you make the subject of your 
 complaint above all others, is the fact that your discourse 
 seemed to yourself to be poor and spiritless when you were in- 
 structing any one in the Christian name. Xow this, I know, 
 results not so much from want of matter to say, with which I 
 am well aware you are sufficiently provided and furnished, or 
 from poverty of speech itself, as rather from weariness of 
 mind. And that may spring either from the cause of which I 
 have already spoken, namely, the fact that our intelligence is 
 better pleased and more thoroughly arrested by that which we 
 perceive in silence in the mind, and that we have no inclina- 
 tion to have our attention called off from it to a noise of words 
 coming far short of representing it ; or from the circumstance 
 that even when discourse is pleasant, we have more delight 
 in hearing or reading things which have been expressed in a 
 superior manner, and which are set forth without any care or 
 anxiety on our part, than in putting together, with a view to 
 the comprehension of others, words suddenly conceived, and 
 leaving it an uncertain issue, on the one hand, whether such 
 terms occur to us as adequately represent the sense, and on 
 the other, whether they be accepted in such a manner as to 
 profit; or yet again, from the consideration that, in conse- 
 quence of their being now thoroughly fiimiliar to ourselves, 
 and no longer necessary to our own advancement, it becomes 
 
CHAP. X.] CAUSES OF TEDIOUSNESS. 287 
 
 irksome to us to be recurring very frequently to those matters 
 \yliicli are urged upon the uninstructed, and our mind, as being 
 by this time pretty well matured, moves with no manner of 
 pleasure in the circle of subjects so well worn, and, as it were, 
 so childish. A sense of weariness is also induced upon the 
 speaker when he has a hearer who remains unmoved, either in 
 that he is actually not stirred by any feeling, or in that he 
 does not indicate by any motion of the body that he under- 
 stands or that he is pleased with what is said.-^ Not that it 
 is a becoming disposition in us to be greedy of the praises of 
 men, but that the things which we minister are of God; and 
 the more we love those to whom we discourse, the more de- 
 sirous are we that they should be pleased with the matters 
 which are held forth for their salvation : so that if we do not 
 succeed in this, we are pained, and we are weakened, and 
 become broken-spirited in the midst of our course, as if we 
 were wasting our efforts to no purpose. Sometimes, too, when 
 we are drawn off from some matter which we are desirous to 
 go on with, and the transaction of which was a pleasure to us, 
 or appeared to be more than usually needful, and when we are 
 compelled, either by the command of a person whom we are 
 unwilling to offend, or by the importunity of some parties 
 that we find it impossible to get rid of, to instruct any one 
 catechetically, in such circumstances we approach a duty for 
 which great calmness is indispensable with minds already 
 perturbed, and grieving at once that we are not permitted to 
 keep that order which we desire to observe in our actions, and 
 that we cannot possibly be competent for all things ; and thus 
 out of very heaviness our discourse as it advances is less of an 
 attraction, because, starting from the arid soil of dejection, it 
 goes on less flowingly. Sometimes, too, sadness has taken 
 possession of our heart in consequence of some offence or 
 other, and at that very time we are addressed thus : " Come, 
 speak with this person ; he desires to become a Christian." 
 For they who thus address us do it in ignorance ot the hidden 
 trouble which is consuming us within. So it happens that, if 
 they are not the persons to wliom it befits us to open up our 
 
 ^ The sentence, "either in that he is actually not stirred ... by what is 
 said," is omitted in many mss. 
 
288 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. X. 
 
 feelings, we undertake uilh no sense of pleasure what they 
 desire ; and then, certainly, the discourse will be languid and 
 unenjoyable which is transmitted through the agitated and 
 fuming cliannel of a heart in that condition. Consequently, 
 seeing there are so many causes serving to cloud the calm 
 serenity of our minds, in accordance with God's will we must 
 seek remedies for them, such as may bring us relief from these 
 feelings of heaviness, and help us to rejoice in fervour of spirit, 
 and to be jocund in the tranquillity of a good work. " Por 
 God loveth a cheerful giver." ^ 
 
 15. Now if the cause of our sadness lies in the circum- 
 stance that our hearer docs not apprehend what we mean, so 
 that we have to come down in a certain fashion from the 
 elevation of our own conceptions, and are under the necessity 
 of dwelling long in the tedious processes of syllables which 
 come far beneath the standard of our ideas, and have anxiously 
 to consider how that which we ourselves take in with a most 
 rapid draught of mental apprehension is to be given forth by 
 the mouth of flesh in the long and perplexed intricacies of its 
 method of enunciation ; and if the gi'eat dissimilarity thus felt 
 (between our utterance and our thought) makes it distasteful 
 to us to speak, and a pleasure to us to keep silence, then let 
 us ponder what has been set before us by Him who has 
 " show^ed us an example that we should follow His steps." ^ 
 For however much our articulate speech may differ from the 
 vivacity of our intelligence, much greater is the difference of 
 the flesh of mortality from the equality of God. And, never- 
 less, " although He was in the same form. He emptied Him- 
 self, taking the form of a servant," — and so on down to the 
 words " the death of the cross." ' AVhat is the explanation 
 of this but that He made Himself " weak to the weak, in 
 order that He might gain the weak " ? * Listen to His follower 
 
 > 2 Cor. ix. 7. M Tet. ii. 2. 
 
 • Pliil. ii. 17. The form in wliicli tlie <inotation is given above, with tlie 
 omission of the intermediate clauses, is due probably to the copyist, and not to 
 Augustine liimself. Tlie words loft out arc given thus in the Senn. XLVii. on 
 Kzekitd xx-xiv. : "Being made in the likeness of men, and being found in the 
 fashion of a man : He humbkd Himself, being made obedient unto death, even 
 the death of the cross." 
 
 * Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 22. 
 
CHAP. XI.] A SECOND SOURCE OF TEDIOUSNESS. 289 
 
 as he expresses himself also in another place to this effect : 
 " For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or whether 
 we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ 
 constraineth us, because we thus judge that He died for all." ^ 
 And how, indeed, should one be ready to be spent for their 
 souls,^ if he should fnid it irksome to him to bend himself to 
 their ears ? For this reason, therefore, He became a little 
 child in the midst of us, (and) like a nurse cherishing her 
 children.^ For is it a pleasure to lisp shortened and broken 
 words, unless love invites us ? And yet men desire to have 
 infants to whom they have to do that kind of service ; and it 
 is a sweeter thing to a mother to put small morsels of masti- 
 cated food into her little son's mouth, than to eat up and 
 devour larger pieces herself In like manner, accordingly, 
 let not the thought of the hen * recede from your heart, who 
 covers her tender brood with her drooping feathers, and with 
 broken voice calls her chirping young ones to her, while they 
 that turn away from her fostering wings in their pride become 
 a prey to birds. For if intelligence brings delights in its 
 purest recesses, it should also be a delight to us to have an 
 intelligent understanding of the manner in which charity, the 
 more complaisantly it descends to the lowest objects, finds its 
 way back, with all the greater vigour to those that are most 
 secret, along the course of a good conscience which witnesses 
 that it has sought nothing from those to whom it has de- 
 scended except their everlasting salvation. 
 
 Chap, xi.— 0/ the remedy for the second source of weariness. 
 16. If, however, it is rather our desire to read or hear such 
 things as are already prepared for our use and expressed in a 
 superior style, and if the consequence is that we feel it irk- 
 some to put together, at the time and with an uncertain issue, 
 the terms of discourse on our own side, then, provided only 
 that our mind does not wander off from the truth of the facts 
 themselves, it is an easy matter for the hearer, if he is offended 
 by anything in our language, to come to see in that very 
 circumstance how little value sliould be set, supposing the 
 
 » 2 Cor. V. 13, 14. ^ cf. 2 Cor. xii. 15. 
 
 ^ Cf. 1 Thess. ii. 7. ■* lUius (jaUinc(;,—m reference to Matt, xxiii. 37. 
 
 CATECH. T 
 
290 ON CATECHISING. [CIIAP. XI. 
 
 subject itself to be rightly understood, upon the mere fact that 
 there may have been some imperfection or some inaccuracy in 
 the literal expressions, which were employed indeed simply 
 with the view of securing a correct apprehension of the subject- 
 matter. But if the bent of human infirmity has wandered 
 off from the truth of the facts themselves, — although in the 
 catechetical instruction of the unlearned, where we have to 
 keep by the most beaten track, that cannot occur very readily, 
 — still, lest haply it should turn out that our hearer finds 
 cause ot offence even in this direction, we ought not to deem 
 this to have come upon us in any other way than as the 
 issue of God's own wish to put us to the test with respect to 
 our readiness to receive correction in calmness of mind, so as 
 not to rush headlong, in the course of a still greater error, into 
 the defence of our error. But if, again, no one has told us of 
 it, and if the thing has altogether escaped our own notice, as 
 well as the observation of our hearers, then there is nothing 
 to grieve over, provided only the same thing does not occur a 
 second time. For the most part, however, when we recall 
 what we have said, we ourselves discover something to find 
 fault with, and are ignorant of tlie manner in which it was 
 received when it was uttered ; and so when charity is fervent 
 within us, we are the more vexed if the thing, while really 
 false, has been received with unquestioning acceptance. This 
 being the case, then, whenever an opportunity occurs, as we 
 have been finding fault with ourselves in silence, we ought in 
 like manner to see to it that those persons be also set right 
 un tlie subject in a considerate method, who have fallen into 
 some sort of error, not by the words of God, but plainly by 
 those used by us. If, on the other hand, there are any who, 
 blinded by insensate spite, rejoice that we have committed a 
 mistake, whisperers as they are, and slanderers, and " hateful 
 to God,"^ sucli characters should afford us matter for the exercise 
 of patience witli pity, inasmuch as also the " patience of God 
 luadeth them to repentance." * For what is more detestable, and 
 wluit more likely to " treasure up wrath in the day of wratli 
 and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,"^ than to 
 rt^oice, after the evil likeness and pattern of the devil, in the 
 ^ Cf. liom. i. 30. ' Rom. ii. 4. ^ Rom. ii. 6. 
 
CHAP. XI.] REMEDIES FOR WEARINESS. 291 
 
 evil of another ? At times, too, even when all is correctly and 
 truly spoken, either something which has not been understood, 
 or something which, as being opposed to the idea and wont 
 of an old error, seems harsh in its very novelty, offends and 
 disturbs the hearer. But if this becomes apparent, and if the 
 person shows himself capable of being set right, he should be 
 set right without any delay by the use of abundance of autho- 
 rities and reasons. On the other hand, if the offence is tacit 
 and hidden, the medicine of God is the effective remedy for 
 it. And if, again, the person starts back and declines to be 
 cured, we should comfort ourselves with that example of our 
 Lord, who, when men were offended at His word, and shrank 
 from it as a hard saying, addressed Himself at the same time 
 to those who had remained, in these terms, " Will ye also 
 go away ? " ^ For it ought to be retained as a thoroughly 
 " fixed and immovable" position in our heart, that Jerusalem 
 which is in captivity is set free from the Babylon of this 
 world when the times have run their course, and that none 
 belonging to her shall perish: for whoever may perish was 
 not of her. " For the foundation of God standeth sure, 
 having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are His ; and, 
 let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from 
 iniquity." ^ If we ponder these things, and call upon the 
 Lord to come into our heart, we shall be less apprehensive 
 of the uncertain issues of our discourse, consequent on the 
 uncertain feelings of our hearers ; and the very endurance of 
 vexations in the cause of a work of mercy will also be some- 
 thing pleasant to us, if we seek not our own glory in the 
 same. For then is a work truly good, when the aim of the 
 doer gets its impetus from charity,^ and, as if returning to 
 its own place, rests again in charity. Moreover, the reading 
 which delights us, or any listening to an eloquence superior 
 to our own, the effect of which is to make us inclined to set 
 a greater value upon it than upon the discourse which we our- 
 selves have to deliver, and so to lead us to speak with a 
 reluctant or tedious utterance, will come upon us in a happier 
 spirit, and will be found to be more enjoyable after Libour. 
 Then, too, with a stronger confidence shall we pray to God to 
 
 1 John vi. G7. ^ 2 Tiin. ii. 19. ^ .^ earitate jaculatur. 
 
202 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 speak to us as we wish, if we cheerfully submit to let Him 
 speak by us as we are able. Thus is it brought about that 
 all things come togetlier for good to them that love God.* 
 
 Chap, xir. — Of the remedy for the third source of weariness. 
 
 1 7. Once more, however, we often feel it very wearisome to 
 go over repeatedly matters which are thoroughly familiar, and 
 adapted (rather) to children. If this is tlie case with us, then 
 we should endeavour to meet them with a brother's, a father's, 
 and a mother's love ; and, if we are once united with them 
 thus in heart, to us no less than to them will these things 
 seem new. For so great is the power of a sympathetic disposi- 
 tion of mind, that, as they are affected while we are speaking, 
 and we are affected while they are learning, we have our 
 dwelling in each other ; and thus, at one and the same time, 
 they as it were in us speak what they hear, and we in them 
 learn after a certain fashion what we teach. Is it not a com- 
 mon occurrence with us, that when we show to persons, who 
 have never seen them, certain spacious and beautiful tracts, 
 either in cities or in fields, which we liave been in the habit of 
 passing by Avithout any sense of pleasure, simply because we 
 have become so accustomed to the sight of them, we find our 
 own enjoyment renewed in their enjoyment of the novelty of 
 the scene ? And this is so much the more our experience in 
 proportion to the intimacy of our friendship with them ; 
 because, just as we are in them in virtue of the bond of love, 
 in the same degree do things become new to us which 
 previously were old. But if we ourselves have made any 
 considerable progress in the contemplative study of things, it 
 is not our wisli that those whom we love should simply be 
 gratified and astonished as they gaze upon the works ot men's 
 hands ; but it becomes our wish to lift them to (the contcm- 
 l)lation of) the very skill ^ or wisdom of their author, and 
 from this to (see them) rise to the admiration and praise of 
 the all-creating God, with whom ^ is the most fruitful end of 
 love. How much more, then, ought we to be delighted 
 
 ' Concnrrant in 1)onum. Rom. viii. 23. 
 
 ' Some editions read arcem = stronghold, instead of artem. 
 
 > Or = wherein : ub'i. 
 
CHAP. XIII.] A FOURTH SOUPvCE OF TEDIOUSNESS. 293 
 
 when men come to ns with the purpose ah^eady formed of 
 obtaining the knowledge of God Himself, with a view to (the 
 knowledge of) whom all things should be learned which are to 
 be learned ! And how ought we to feel ourselves renewed in 
 their newness (of experience), so that if our ordinary preach- 
 ing is somewhat frigid, it may rise to fresh warmth under 
 (the stimulus of) their extraordinary hearing ! There is also 
 this additional consideration to help us in the attainment 
 of gladness, namely, that we ponder and bear in mind out of 
 what death of error the man is passing over into the life of 
 faith. And if we walk through streets which are most 
 familiar to us, with a beneficent cheerfulness, when w^e happen 
 to be pointing out the way to some individual who had been 
 in distress in consequence of missing his direction, how much 
 more should be the alacrity of spirit, and how much greater 
 the joy with which, in the matter of saving doctrine, we 
 ought to traverse again and again even those tracks which, so 
 far as we are ourselves concerned, there is no need to open up 
 any more ; seeing that we are leading a miserable soul, and 
 one worn out with the devious courses of this world, through 
 the paths of peace, at the command of Him who made that 
 peace^ good to us ! 
 
 Chap. xiii. — Of the remedy for the fourth source of weariness. 
 18. But in good truth it is a serious demand to make upon 
 us, to continue discoursing on to the set limit when we fail to 
 see our hearer in any degree moved; Avhether it be that, 
 under the restraints of the awe of religion, he has not the 
 boldness to signify his approval by voice or by any movement 
 of his body, or that he is kept back by the modesty proper to 
 man,^ or that he does not understand our sayings, or that he 
 counts them of no value. Since, then, this must be a matter 
 of uncertainty to us, as w^e cannot discern his mind, it 
 becomes our duty in our discourse to make trial of all tilings 
 which may be of any avail in stirring him up and drawing 
 him forth as it were from his place of concealment. For 
 tliat sort of fear which is excessive, and wliich obstructs the 
 
 ' Instead of earn, the reading ca= those things, also occurs. 
 
 2 Or = by the reverence wliich he feels for the man : liumana verccundia. 
 
294 ON CATECITTSIXG. [CITAP. XIII. 
 
 declaration of his judgment, ought to be dispelled by the 
 force of kindly exhortation ; and by bringing before him the 
 consideration of our brotherly afhnity, we should temper 
 his reverence for us ; and by questioning him, ^ve should 
 ascertain whether he understands what is addressed to him ; 
 and we should impart to him a sense of confidence, so that he 
 may give free expression to any objection which suggests itself 
 to him. We should at the same time ask him whether he has 
 already listened to such themes on some previous occasion, 
 and whether perchance they fail to move him now in conse- 
 quence of their being to him like things well known and 
 commonplace. And we ought to shape our course in accord- 
 ance with his answer, so as either to speak in a simpler style 
 and with greater detail of explanation, or to refute some an- 
 tagonistic opinion, or, instead of attempting any more diffuse 
 exposition of the subjects which are known to him, to give a 
 brief summary of these, and to select some of those matters 
 which are handled in a mystical manner in the holy books, and 
 especially in the historical narrative, the unfolding and setting 
 forth of which may make our addresses more attractive. But 
 if the man is of a very sluggish disposition, and if he is 
 senseless, and without any tiling in common with all such 
 sources of pleasure, then we must simply bear with him in 
 a compassionate spirit ; and, after briefly going over other 
 points, we ought to impress upon him, in a manner calculated 
 to inspire him with awe, the truths which are most indispen- 
 sable on the subject of the unity of the Catholic Church,^ on 
 that of temptation, on that of a Christian conversation in view of 
 the future judgment ; and we ought rather to address ourselves 
 to God fur him than address much to him concerning God. 
 
 19. It is likewise a frequent occuiTcnce that one who atfii-st 
 listened to us with all readiness, becomes exhausted either by 
 the effort of hearing or by standing, and now no longer com- 
 mends what is said, but gapes and yawns, and even unwillingly 
 exhibits a disposition to depart. AVhen we observe that, it 
 becomes our duty to refresh his mind by saying something 
 seasoned with an honest cheerfulness and adapted to the matter 
 
 ' The toxt gives simply Ca.thoUcct. One ms. lias CathoUca fidti = the 
 Catholic faith. But it is most natural to supply Eccksia. 
 
CHAP. XIII.] THE PROVIDING OF SEATS. 295 
 
 wliicli is being discussed, or something of a very wonderful and 
 amazing order, or even, it may be, something of a painful and 
 mournful nature. Whatever we thus say may be all the better 
 if it affects himself more immediately, so that the quick sense 
 of self-concern may keep his attention on the alert. At the 
 same time, however, it should not be of the kind to offend his 
 spirit of reverence by any harshness attaching to it ; but it 
 should be of a nature fitted rather to conciliate him by the 
 friendliness which it breathes. Or else, • we should relieve 
 him by accommodating him with a seat, although unquestion- 
 ably matters will be better ordered if from the outset, when- 
 ever that can be done with propriety, he sits and listens. And 
 indeed in certain of the churches beyond the sea, with a far 
 more considerate regard to the fitness of things, not only do 
 the prelates sit when they address the people, but they also 
 themselves put down seats for the people, lest any person of 
 enfeebled strength should become exhausted by standing, and 
 thus have his mind diverted from the most wholesome pui^- 
 port (of the discourse), or even be under the necessity of 
 departing. And yet it is one thing if it be simply some 
 one out of a great multitude who withdraws in order to 
 recruit his strength, he being also already under the obliga- 
 tions which result from participation in the sacraments ; and 
 it is quite another thing if the person withdrawing is one 
 (inasmuch as it is usually the case in these circumstances 
 that the man is unavoidably urged to that course by the fear 
 that he should even fall, overcome by internal weakness) 
 w^ho has to be initiated in the first sacraments ; for a person 
 in this position is at once restrained by the sense of shame 
 from stating the reason of his going, and not permitted 
 to stand through the force of his weakness. This I speak 
 from experience. For this was the case with a certain in- 
 dividual, a man from the country, when I was instructing 
 him catechetically : and from his instance I have learned 
 that this kind of thing is carefully to be guarded against. 
 For who can endure our arrogance when Ave fail to make 
 men who are our brethren,^ or even those who are not yet 
 in that relation to us (for our solicitude then sliould be all 
 ^ Instead oi viros fratreSy some mss. read veros fr aires = o\\t ^Qnwnia brethren. 
 
20 G ox CATECHISING. [CIIAP. XIII. 
 
 the greater to get them to become our brethren), to be seated 
 in our presence, seeing that even a woman sat as she listened 
 to our Lord Himself, in whose service the angels stand alert ?^ 
 Of course if the address is to be but short, or if the place 
 is not well adapted for sitting, they should listen standing. 
 But that should be the case only when there are many 
 hearers, and when they are not to be formally admitted ^ at 
 the time. For when the audience consists only of one or two, 
 or a few, who have come with the express purpose of being 
 made Christians, there is a risk in speaking to them stand- 
 ing. Nevertheless, supposing that we have once begun in 
 that manner, we ought at least, whenever we observe signs of 
 weariness on the part of the hearer, to offer him the liberty 
 of being seated ; nay more, we should urge him by all means 
 to sit down, and we ought to drop some remark calculated at 
 once to refresh him and to banish from his mind any anxiety 
 which may have chanced to break in upon him and draw off 
 his attention. For inasmuch as the reasons why he remains 
 silent and declines to listen cannot be certainly known to us, 
 now that he is seated we may speak to some extent against 
 the incidence of thoughts about worldly affairs, delivering 
 ourselves either in the cheerful spirit to which I have already 
 adverted, or in a serious vein ; so that, if these are the par- 
 ticular anxieties which have occupied his mind, they may be 
 made to give way as if indicted by name : while, on the other 
 hand, supposing them not to be the special causes (of the loss 
 of interest), and supposing liim to be simply worn out with 
 listening, his attention will be relieved of the pressure of 
 weariness when we address to hira some unexpected and 
 extraordinary strain of remark on these subjects, in the 
 mode of which I have spoken, as if they were the par- 
 ticular anxieties, — for indeed we are simply ignorant (of 
 the true causes). But let the remark thus made be short, 
 especially considering that it is thrown in out of order, lest 
 the very medicine even increase the malady of weariness 
 which we desire to relieve ; and, at the same time, we should 
 go on rapidly with what remains, and promise and present 
 the prospect of a conclusion nearer than was looked for. 
 
 ' Luke X. Zd. ' /ni/iantZi = initiated. 
 
CHAP. XIV.] OTHER CAUSES OF TEDIOUSNESS CONSIDERED. 297 
 Chap, xiy.— Of the remedy against theffth and sixth sources of weariness. 
 
 20. If, again, your spirit has been broken by the necessity 
 of giving up some other employment, on which, as the more 
 requisite, you were now bent ; and if the sadness caused by 
 that constraint makes you catechise in no pleasant mood, you 
 ought to ponder the fact that, excepting that we know it to be 
 our duty, in all our dealings with men, to act in a merciful 
 manner, and in the exercise of the sincerest charity, — with 
 this one exception, I say, it is quite uncertain to us what is 
 the more profitable thing for us to do, and what the more op- 
 portune thing for us either to pass by for a time or altogether 
 to omit. For inasmuch as we know not how the merits of 
 men, on whose behalf we are acting, stand with God, the ques- 
 tion as to what is expedient for them at a certain time is 
 something which, instead of being able to comprehend, we 
 can rather only surmise, without the aid of any (clear) infer- 
 ences, or (at best) with the slenderest and the most uncertain. 
 Therefore we ought certainly to dispose the matters with 
 which we have to deal according to our intelligence ; and then, 
 if we prove able to carry them out in the manner upon which 
 we have resolved, we should rejoice, not indeed that it was our 
 will, but that it was God's will, that they should thus be accom- 
 plished. But if anything unavoidable happens, by which the 
 disposition thus proposed by us is interfered with, we should 
 bend ourselves to it readily, lest we be broken ; so that the 
 very disposition of affairs which God has preferred to ours may 
 also be made our own. For it is more in accordance with 
 propriety that we should follow His will than that He should 
 follow ours. Besides, as regards this order in the doing of 
 things, which we wish to keep in accordance with our- own 
 judgment, surely that course is to be approved of in which 
 objects that are superior have the precedence. Why then are 
 we aggrieved that the precedence over men should be held 
 by the Lord God in His vast superiority to us men, so that 
 in the said love which we entertain for our own order, we 
 should thus (exhibit the disposition to) despise order ? For 
 " no one orders for the better " what he has to do, except the 
 man who is rather ready to leave undone what he is prohibited 
 from doing by the divine power, than desirous of doing that 
 
208 ON CATECHISING. [CITAP. XIV. 
 
 which he meditates in his own human cogitations. For " there 
 are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless, tlie counsel 
 of the Lord stands for ever." ^ 
 
 21. But if our mind is agitated by some cause of offence, 
 so as not to be capable of delivering a discourse of a calm and^ 
 enjoyable strain, our charity towards those for whom Christ 
 died, desiring to redeem them by the price of His own blood 
 from the death of the errors of this world, ought to be so great, 
 that the very circumstance of intelligence being brought us in 
 our sadness, regarding the advent of some person who longs to 
 become a Christian, ought to be enough to cheer us and dis- 
 sipate that heaviness of spirit, just as the deliglits of gain are 
 wont to soften the pain of losses. For we are not (fairly) 
 oppressed by the offence of any individual, unless it be that of 
 the man whom we either perceive or believe to be perishing 
 himself, or to be the occasion of the undoing of some weak one. 
 Accordingly, one who comes to us with the view of being 
 formally admitted, in that we cherish the hope of his ability 
 to go forward, should wipe away the sorrow cJiised by one who 
 fails us. For even if the dread that our proselyte may become 
 the child of hell ^ comes into our thoughts, as there are many 
 such before our eyes, from whom those offences arise by 
 which we are distressed, this ought to operate, not in the way 
 of keeping us back, but rather in the w^ay of stimulating us 
 and spurring us on. And in the same measure we ought to 
 admonish him whom we are instructing to be on his guard 
 against imitating those who are Christians only in name and 
 not in very truth, and to take care not to sufler himself to 
 be so moved by their numbers as either to be desirous of 
 following: them, or to be reluctant to follow Christ on their 
 account, and either to be unwilling to be in the church of God, 
 where they are, or to wish to be there in such a character as they 
 bear. And somehow or other, in admonitions of this sort, that 
 address is the more glowing to which a present sense of grief 
 supplies the fuel ; so that instead of being duller, we utter 
 with j^reatcr fire and vehemence under such feelinirs things 
 which, in times of greater ease, we would give forth in a colder 
 and less energetic manner. And this should make us rejoice 
 
 » Prov. xix. 21. « Matt, xxiii. 15. 
 
CHAP. XIV.] HEAVINESS OF SrilllT RELIEVED BY CHAPvITY. 299 
 
 that an opportunity is afforded iis under whicli the emotions 
 of our mind pass not away without yielding some fruit. 
 
 22. If, however, grief has taken possession of us on account 
 of somethinq- in which we ourselves have erred or sinned, we 
 should bear in mind not only that a " broken spirit is a sacri- 
 
 fice to God," but also the saying, " Like as water quencheth 
 fire, so alms sin ; " ^ and again, " I will have mercy," saith 
 He, " rather than sacrifice." ^ Therefore, as in the event of our 
 being in peril from fire we would certainly run to the water 
 in order to get the fire extinguished, and we would be grateful 
 if any person were to offer it in the immediate vicinity ; so, if 
 some flame of sin has risen from our own stack,^ and if we are 
 troubled on that account, when an opportunity has been given 
 for a most merciful work, we should rejoice in it, as if a 
 fountain were offered us in order that by it the conflagration 
 which had burst forth might be extinguished. Unless haply 
 we are foolish enough to think that we ought to be readier 
 in running with bread, wherewith we may fill the belly of a 
 hungry man, than with the word of God, wherewith we may 
 instruct the mind of the man who feeds on it.^ There is this 
 also to consider, namely, that if it would only be of advantage 
 to us to do this thing, and entail no disadvantage to leave it un- 
 done, we might despise a remedy offered in an unhappy fashion 
 in the time of peril with a view to the safety, not now of a 
 neighbour, but of ourselves. But when from the mouth of the 
 Lord this so threatening sentence is heard, " Thou wicked and 
 slothful servant, thou oughtest to give my money to the ex- 
 changers,"^ what madness, I pray thee, is it thus, seeing that 
 our sin pains us, to be minded to sin again, by refusing to 
 give the Lord's money to one who desires it and asks it ! 
 When these and such like considerations and reflections have 
 succeeded in dispelling the darkness of weary feelings, the bent 
 of mind is rendered apt for the duty of catechising, so that 
 that is received in a pleasant manner which breaks forth 
 vigorously and cheerfully from the rich vein of charity. For 
 
 1 Ps. li. 17. 2 Ecclus. iii. 30. 3 jjos. vi. 6. * /rt«o =hay. 
 
 ^ heading islud edenlis ; for which some editions give siudentin = of one who 
 studies it. 
 
 6 Matt. XXV. 26, 27. 
 
300 ON CATECniSING. [CHAP. XV. 
 
 these things indeed which are uttered here are spoken, not so 
 much by me to you, as rather to us all by that very " love 
 which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is 
 given to us." ^ 
 
 Chap. xv. — Of the method in which our address should be adapted to different 
 classes of hearers. 
 
 23. But now, perhaps, you also demand of me as a debt 
 that which, previous to the promise which I made, I was 
 under no obligation to give, namely, that I should not count 
 it burdensome to unfold some sort of example of the discourse 
 intended, and to set it before you for your study, just as if I 
 were myself engaged in catechising some individual. Before I 
 do that, however, I wish you to keep in mind the fact that 
 the mental effort is of one kind in the case of a person who 
 dictates, with a future reader in his view, and that it is of 
 quite another kind in the case of a person who speaks with a 
 present hearer to whom to direct his attention. And further, 
 it is to be remembered that, in this latter instance in particular, 
 the effort is of one kind when one is admonishing in private, and 
 when there is no other person at hand to pronounce judgment 
 on us ; whereas it is of a different order when one is convey- 
 ing any instruction in public, and when there stands around 
 him an audience of persons holding dissimilar opinions ; and 
 again, that in this exercise of teaching, the effort will be of one 
 sort when only a single individual is being instructed, while 
 all the rest listen, like persons judging or attesting things well 
 known to them, and that it will be different when all those 
 who are present wait for what we have to deliver to them ; 
 and once more, that, in this same instance, the effort will be 
 one thing when all are seated, as it were, in private conference 
 with a view to engaging in some discussion, and that it will 
 be quite another thing when the j)Cople sit silent and intent 
 on giving tlieir attention to some single speaker who is to 
 address tliem from a higher jiosition. It will likewise make a 
 considerable difference, even when we are discoursing in that 
 style, whetlicr there are few present or many, whether they are 
 learned or unlearned, or made up of both classes combined ; 
 wliethcr tliey are city-bred or rustics, or both the one and the 
 
 • Kom. V. 6. 
 
CHAP. XY.] CIECUMSTANCES MODIFYING SPEECH. 301 
 
 other together ; or whether, again, they are a people composed 
 of all orders of men in due proportion. For it is impossible 
 but that they will aftect in different ways the person who has 
 to speak to them and discourse with them, and that the 
 address which is delivered will both bear certain features, as 
 it were, expressive of the feelings of the mind from which it 
 proceeds, and also influence the hearers in different ways, in 
 accordance with that same difference (in the speaker's disposi- 
 tion), while at the same time the hearers themselves w^ill influ- 
 ence one another in different ways by the simple force of their 
 presence with each other. But as we are dealing at present 
 with the matter of the instruction of the unlearned, I am a 
 witness to you, as regards my own experience, that I find my- 
 self variously moved, according as I see before me, for the par- 
 poses of catechetical instruction, a highly educated man, a dull 
 fellow, a citizen, a foreigner, a rich man, a poor man, a private 
 individual, a man of honours, a person occupying some position 
 of authority, an individual of this or the other nation, of this 
 or the other age or sex, one proceeding from this or the other 
 sect, from this or the other common error, — and ever in accord- 
 ance with the difference of my feelings does my discourse 
 itself at once set out, go on, and reach its end. And inas- 
 much as, although the same charity is due to all, yet the 
 same medicine is not to be administered to all, in like man- 
 ner charity itself travails with some, is made weak together 
 with others ; is at pains to edify some, tremblingly appre- 
 hends being an offence to others ; bends to some, lifts itself 
 erect to others ; is gentle to some, severe to others ; to none 
 an enemy, to all a mother. And when one, who has not gone 
 through the kind of experience to which I refer in the same 
 spirit of charity, sees us attaining, in virtue of some gift 
 which has been conferred upon us, and which carries the 
 power of pleasing, a certain repute of an eulogistic nature in 
 the mouth of the multitude, he counts us happy on that ac- 
 count. But may God, into whose cognisance the '' groaning of 
 them that are bound enters,"^ look upon our humility, and our 
 labour, and forgive us all our sins.^ Wherefore, if anything in 
 us has so far pleased you as to make you desirous of hearing 
 
 » Vs. Ixxix. 11. » Cf. Ps. XXV. 18. 
 
ON CATECHISING. [CIIA?. XYI. 
 
 from us some remarks on the subject of the form of discourse 
 which you oui^^ht to follow/ you should acquire a more thorough 
 understanding of the matter by contemplating us, and listen- 
 ing to us when we are actually engaged with these topics, than 
 by a perusal when we are only dictating them. 
 
 Chat. xvi. — A specimen of a catechHkal address ; and first, the case of a 
 catechumen with worthy views. 
 
 24. Nevertheless, however that may be, let us here suppose 
 that some one has come to us who desires to be made a Chris- 
 tian, and who belongs indeed to the order of private persons,^ 
 and yet not to the class of rustics, but to that of the city-bred, 
 such as those whom you cannot fail to come across in num- 
 bers in Carthage. Let us also suppose that, on being asked 
 whether the inducement leading him to desire to be a Christian 
 is any advantage looked for in the present life, or the rest 
 which is hoped for after this life, he has answered that his 
 inducement has been the rest that is yet to come. Then per- 
 chance such a person might be instructed by us in some such 
 strain of address as the following : " Thanks be to God, my 
 brother ; cordially do I wish you joy, and I am glad on your 
 account that, amid all the storms of this world, which are at 
 once so great and so dangerous, you have bethought yourself 
 of some true and certain security. For even in this life men 
 go in quest of rest and security at the cost of heavy labours, 
 but they fail to find such in consequence of their wicked 
 lusts. For their thought is to find rest in things which are 
 unquiet, and which endure not. And tliese objects, inasmuch 
 as they are withdrawn from them and pass away in the course 
 of time, agitate them by fears and griefs, and suffer them not 
 to enjoy tranquillity. For if it be that a man seeks to find liis 
 rest in wealth, he is rendered proud rather than at case. Do we 
 not see how many have lost their riches on a sudden, — how 
 many, too, have been undone by reason of them, either as 
 they have been coveting to possess them, or as they have been 
 borne down and despoiled of them by others more covetous 
 than themselves ? And even should they remain with the 
 man all liis life long, and niiver leave their lover, yet would 
 
 ^ Ut ali<iuam observationem sennouis tui a nobis auJirc qua^rercs. 
 * Idioturum. 
 
CHAP. XVI.] THE VANITY OF LIFE. 303 
 
 he himself (have to) leave them at his death. For of what 
 measure is the life of man, even if he lives to old age ? Or 
 when men desire for themselves old age, what else do they 
 really desire but long infirmity ? So, too, with the honours 
 of this world, — what are they but empty pride and vanity, 
 and peril of ruin ? For holy Scripture speaks in this wise : 
 ' All flesh is grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of 
 grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away ; 
 but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.'^ Consequently, 
 if any man longs for true rest and true felicity, he ought to 
 lift his hope off things which are mortal and transitory, and 
 fix it on the word of the Lord ; so that, cleaving to that which 
 endures for ever, he may himself together with it endure for 
 ever. 
 
 25. " There are also other men who neither crave to be rich 
 nor go about seeking the vain pomps of honours, but who 
 nevertheless are minded to find their pleasure and rest in 
 dainty meats, and in fornications, and in those theatres and 
 spectacles which are at their disposal in great cities for 
 nothing. But it fares with these, too, in the same way ; or they 
 waste their small means in luxury, and subsequently, under 
 pressure of want, break out into thefts and burglaries, and at 
 times even into highway robberies, and so they are suddenly 
 filled with fears both numerous and great ; and men who a 
 little before were singing in the house of revelry, are now 
 dreaming of the sorrows of the prison. Moreover, in their 
 eager devotion to the public spectacles, they come to resemble 
 demons, as they incite men by their cries to wound each other, 
 and instigate those who have done them no hurt to engage in 
 furious contests with each other, while they seek to please an 
 insane people. And if they perceive any such to be peaceably 
 disposed, they straightway hate them and persecute them, and 
 raise an outcry, asking that they should be beaten with clubs, 
 as if they had been in collusion to cheat them ; and this 
 iniquity they force even the judge, who is the (appointed) 
 avenger of iniquities, to perpetrate. On the other hand, if 
 they observe such men exerting themselves in horrid hos- 
 tilities against each otlier, whether they be those who are 
 
 > Isa. xl. 6, 8 ; 1 Pet. i. 24, 25. 
 
804 ox C.VTECIIISING. [CIIAP. XVI. 
 
 called sintcc} or theatrical actors and players/ or charioteers, 
 or hunters, — those wretched men whom tliey engage in con- 
 flicts and struggles, not only men with men, but even men 
 with beasts, — then the fiercer the fury with which they per- 
 ceive these unhappy creatures rage against each other, the 
 better they like them, and the gi-eater tlie enjoyment they 
 have in them ; and they favour them when thus excited,^ and 
 by so favouring them they excite them all the more, the spec- 
 tators themselves striving more madly with each other, as 
 they espouse the cause of different combatants, than is the 
 case even with those very men whose madness they madly 
 provoke, while at the same time they also long to be spec- 
 tators of the same in their mad frenzy.'* How then can that 
 mind keep the soundness of peace which feeds on strifes and 
 contentions ? For just as is the food which is received, such 
 is the health which results. In fine, although mad pleasures 
 are no pleasures, nevertheless let these things be taken as 
 they are, and it still remains the case that, whatever their 
 nature may be, and whatever the measure of enjoyment yielded 
 by the boasts of riches, and the inflation of honours, and the 
 spendthrift pleasures of the taverns, and the contests of the 
 theatres, and the impurity of fornications, and the pruriency 
 of the baths, they are all things of which one little fever 
 deprives us, while, even from those who still survive, it takes 
 away the whole false happiness of their life. Then there 
 remains only a void and wounded conscience, destined to 
 apprehend that God as a Judge whom it refused to have as a 
 Father, and destined also to find a severe Lord in Him whom 
 it scorned to seek and love as a tender Father. But thou, 
 inasmuch as thou seekest that true rest which is promised to 
 
 * Reading s'lve sintcB qui avpcllnntur, for which there occur such varieties of 
 reading as these : sint athletcB qui apjxlUuitur =■ those who are called athletes ; 
 or sint cpqni a]>pellantur ; or sini])ly sint qui nj)p(!hin(ur = whatever name they 
 bear, whether actors, etc. The term sintiv, borrowed from the Greek 2('»t«< = 
 dcvourers, spoilers, may have been a word in common use among the Africans, 
 as the l>encdictine editors suggest, for designating some sort of coarse characters. 
 
 ' Thymelici, strictly = tlie musicians belonging to the thymele, or orchestra. 
 
 ' Reading incitatin lavent, for wliich some Mss. give incil(iii:= excited them- 
 selves, they favour them ; and others have incitantcs ^ e.\citiiig thcui, they favour 
 them. 
 
 * Compare a passage in the Confessions, vi. 13. 
 
CHAP. XVII.] UNWORTHY VIEWS TO BE EEPROVED. 305 
 
 Christians after this life, wilt taste the same sweet and plea- 
 sant rest even here among the bitterest troubles of this life, 
 if thou continuest to love the commandments of Him who 
 hath promised the same. For quickly wilt thou feel that the 
 fruits of riditeousness are sweeter than those of unrighteous- 
 ness, and that a man finds a more genuine and pleasurable 
 joy in the possession of a good conscience in the midst of 
 troubles than in that of an evil conscience in the midst of 
 delights. For thou hast not come to be united to the Church 
 of God with the idea of seeking from it any temporal ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Chap. xvit. — The specimen of catechetical discourse continued, in reference 
 specially to the reproval oj false aims on the catechumen' s part. 
 
 26. "For there are some whose reason for desiring to 
 become Christians is either that they may gain the favour of 
 men from whom they look for temporal advantages, or that 
 they are reluctant to offend those wliom they fear. But these 
 are reprobate ; and although the church bears them for a 
 time, as the threshing-floor bears the chaff until the period of 
 winnowing, yet if they fail to amend and begin to be Chris- 
 tians in sincerity in view of the everlasting rest which is to 
 come, they will be separated from it in the end. And let not 
 such flatter themselves, because it is possible for them to be 
 in the threshing-floor along with the grain of God. For they 
 will not be together with that in the barn, but are destine.d 
 for the fire, which is their due. There are also others of 
 better hope indeed, but nevertheless in no inferior danger. 
 I mean those who now fear God, and mock not the Christian 
 name, neither enter the church of God with an assumed heart, 
 but still look for their felicity in this life, expecting to have 
 more felicity in earthly things than those enjoy who refuse to 
 worship God. And the consequence of this false anticipation 
 is, that when they see some wicked and impious men strongly 
 established and excelling in this worldly prosperity, while 
 they themselves either possess it in a smaller degree or miss 
 it altogether, they are troubled with the thought that they are 
 serving God without reason, and so they readily fall away 
 from the faith. 
 
 2 7. " But as to the man who lias in view that everlasting 
 
 CATECH. U 
 
306 ON CATECHTSIXG. [CIIAP. XVII. 
 
 blessedness and perpetual rest which is promised as the lot 
 destined for the saints after tliis life, and who desires to be- 
 come a Christian, in order that he may not pass into eternal 
 fire with the devil, but enter into the eternal kingdom together 
 with Christ,^ such an one is truly a Christian ; (and he will 
 be) on his guard in every tem})tation, so tliat he may neither 
 be corrupted by prosperity nor be utterly broken in spirit by 
 adversity, but remain at once modest and temperate when the 
 good things of earth abound with him, and brave and patient 
 when tribulations overtake him. A person of this character 
 will also advance in attainments until he comes to that dis- 
 position of mind which will make him love God more than he 
 fears hell; so that even were God to say to him, 'Avail 
 yourself of carnal pleasures for ever, and sin as much as 
 you are able, and you shall neither die nor be sent into hell, 
 but you will only not be with me,' he would be terribly dis- 
 mayed, and would altogether abstain from sinning, not now 
 (simply) with the purpose of not falling into that of which he 
 was wont to be afraid, but with the wish not to oflend Him 
 whom he so greatly loves : in whom alone also there is the 
 rest which eye hath not seen, neither hath ear heard, neither 
 hath it entered into the heart of man (to conceive), — the rest 
 which God hath prepared for them that love Him.^ 
 
 28. "Now, on the subject of this rest Scripture is signifi- 
 cant, and refrains not to speak, when it tells us how at the 
 beginning of the world, and at the time when God made 
 heaven and earth and all things which are in them, He 
 worked during six days, and rested on the seventh day.^ For 
 it was in tlie power of tlie Almighty to make all tilings even 
 in one moment of time. For He had not laboured in the 
 view that He might enjoy (a needful) rest, since indeed " He 
 spake, and they were made ; He commanded, and they were 
 created ; " ** but that He might signify how, after six ages 
 of this world, in a seventh age, as on the seventh day. He 
 will rest in His saints ; inasmuch as these same saints shall 
 rest also in Him after all the good works in which they have 
 served Him, — which He Himself, indeed, works in them, who 
 
 » Cf. Matt. XXV. 31, 41. « 1 Cor. ii. 9. 
 
 3 Gen. ii. 1-3. * Vs. cxlviii. 5. 
 
CHAP. XVIII.] THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION. 307 
 
 calls tliem, and instructs them, and puts away the offences 
 that are past, and justifies the man who previously was un- 
 godly. For as, when by His gift they work that which is 
 good, He is Himself rightly said to work (that in them), so, 
 when they rest in Him, He is rightly said to rest Himself. 
 Foi', as regards Himself, He seeks no cessation, because He 
 feels no labour. Moreover He made all things by His Word ; 
 and His Word is Christ Himself, in whom the angels and all 
 those purest spirits of heaven rest in holy silence. Man, how- 
 ever, in that he fell by sin, has lost the rest which he pos- 
 sessed in His divinity, and receives it again (now) in His 
 humanity; and tor this purpose He became man, and was 
 born of a woman, at the seasonable time at which He Him- 
 self knew it behoved it so to be fulfilled. And from the flesh 
 assuredly He could not sustain any contamination, being Him- 
 self rather destined to purify the flesh. Of His future coming 
 the ancient saints, in the revelation of the Spirit, had know- 
 ledge, and prophesied. And thus were they saved by believ- 
 ing that He was to come, even as we are saved by believing 
 that He has come. Hence ought we to love God who has so 
 loved us as to have sent His only Son, in order that He might 
 endue Himself with the lowliness^ of our mortality, and die 
 both at the hands of sinners and on behalf of sinners. For 
 even in times of old, and in the opening ages, the depth of 
 this mystery ceases not to be prefigured and prophetically 
 announced. 
 
 Chap, xyiii. — Of icliat is to be heUeved on the subject of the creation of man and 
 
 other objects. 
 
 29. "Whereas, then, the omnipotent God, who is also 
 good and just and merciful, who made all things, — whether 
 they be great or small, whether they be highest or lowest, 
 whether they be things which are seen, such as are the 
 heavens and the earth and the sea, and in the heavens, in 
 particular, the sun and the moon and other luminaries, and in 
 the earth and the sea, again, trees and shrubs and animals 
 each after their kind, and all bodies celestial or terrestrial 
 alike, or whether they be things which are not seen, such as 
 are those spirits whereby bodies are animated and endowed 
 * Humanitate, = liumanity, also occurs instead of humilUate. 
 
308 ON CATECHISIXG. [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 with lite, — made also man after His own image, in order that, 
 as He Himself, in virtue of His omnipotence, presides over 
 universal creation, so man, in virtue of tliat intelligence of his 
 by wliich he comes to know even his Creator and worships 
 Him, miglit preside over all the living creatures of earth : 
 "Whkhkas, too, He made the woman to be an helpmeet for 
 him : not for carnal concupiscence, — since, indeed, they liad 
 not corruptible bodies at that period, before the punishment of 
 sin invaded them in the form of mortality, — but for this pur- 
 pose, that the man miglit at once have glory of the woman in 
 so fixr as he went before her to God, and present in himself 
 an example to her for imitation in holiness and piety, even as 
 he himself was to be the glory of God in so far as he followed 
 His wisdom : 
 
 30. " Therefore did He place them in a certain locality of 
 perpetual blessedness, which the Scripture designates Para- 
 dise : and He gave them a commandment, on condition of not 
 violating which they were to continue for ever in that blessed- 
 ness of immortality ; while, on the other hand, if they trans- 
 gressed it, they were to sustain the penalties of mortality. 
 Kow God knew beforehand that they would transgress it. 
 Nevertheless, in that He is the author and maker of every- 
 thing good, He chose ratlier to make them, as He also made 
 the beasts, in order that He might replenish the earth with the 
 good things proper to earth. And certainly man, even sinful 
 man, is better than a beast. And the commandment, which 
 they were not to keep. He yet preferred to give them, in order 
 that they might be without excuse when He should begin to 
 vindicate Himself against them. For whatever man may have 
 done, he finds God worthy to be praised in all His doings : if 
 he sliall have acted rightly, he finds Him worthy to be pmised 
 for the righteousness of His rewards : if he sliall have sinned, 
 he finds Him worthy to be praised for the righteousness of 
 His punishments : if he shall have confessed his sins and 
 returned to an upright life, he finds Him worthy to be praised 
 for the mercy of His pardoning favours. Why, then, shouLl 
 God not make man, although He foreknew that he would sin, 
 when He might crown him if he stood, and set him right if 
 he fell, and help him if he rose. Himself being always and 
 
CHAP. XVIII.] THE GIFT OF FREE-WILL. 309 
 
 everywhere glorious in goodness, rigliteousness, and clemency ? 
 Above all, why should He not do so, since He also foreknew 
 this, namely, that from the race of that mortality there 
 Avould spring saints, who should not seek their own, but give 
 glory to their Creator ; and who, obtaining deliverance from 
 every corruption by worshipping Him, should be counted 
 worthy to live for ever, and to live in blessedness with the 
 holy angels ? For He who gave freedom of will to men, in 
 order that they might worship God not of slavish necessity 
 but with ingenuous inclination, gave it also to the angels ; 
 and hence neither did the angel, who, in company with other 
 spirits who were his satellites, forsook in pride the obedience 
 of God and became the devil, do any hurt to God, but to him- 
 self. For God knoweth how to dispose of souls ^ that leave 
 Him, and out of their righteous misery to furnish the inferior 
 sections of His creatures with the most appropriate and befit- 
 ting laws of His wonderful dispensation. Consequently, 
 neither did the devil in any manner harm God, whether in 
 falling himself, or in seducing man to death ; nor did man him- 
 self in any degree impair the truth, or power, or blessedness^ 
 of His Maker, in that, when his partner was seduced by the 
 devil, he of his own deliberate inclination consented unto her 
 in the doing of that which God had forbidden. For by the 
 most righteous laws of God all were condemned, God Himself 
 being glorious in the equity of retribution, while they were 
 shamed through the degradation of punishment : to the end 
 that man, when he turned away from his Creator, should be 
 overcome by the devil and made his subject, and that the 
 devil might be set before man as an enemy to be conquered, 
 when he turned again to his Creator ; so that whosoever 
 should consent unto the devil even to the end, might go with 
 him into eternal punishments; whereas those who should 
 humble themselves to God, and by His grace overcome the 
 devil, might be counted worthy of eternal rewards. 
 
 ^ Eather "spirits." See the correction made in the Ectradations, ii. 14, as 
 given above in the Introductory Notice. 
 '^ The heatltatem is omitted by several mss. 
 
310 ON CATECmSING. [CRAP. XIX. 
 
 Chap. xix. — Of ike co-existence of good and evil in the Ch'arch, and 
 their final separation. 
 
 31. "Neither ought we to be moved by the consideration 
 that many consent unto the devil, and few follow God ; for 
 the grain, too, in comparison with the chaff, has greatly the 
 defect in number. But even as the husbandman knows what 
 to do with the mighty heap of chaff, so the multitude of 
 sinners is nothing to God, who knows what to do with them, 
 so as not to let the administration of His kingdom be dis- 
 ordered and dishonoured in any part. Nor is the devil to be 
 supposed to have proved victorious for the mere reason of his 
 drawing away with him more than the few by whom he may 
 be overcome. In this way there are two communities — one 
 of the ungodly, and another of the holy — which are carried 
 down from the beginning of the human race even to the end 
 of the world, which are at present commingled in respect ot 
 bodies, but separated in respect of wills, and which, moreover, 
 are destined to be separated also in respect of bodily presence 
 in the day of judgment. For all men wdio love pride and 
 temporal power with vain elation and pomp of arrogance, and 
 all spirits who set their affections on such things and seek 
 their own glory in the subjection of men, are bound fast 
 together in one association ; nay, even although they frequently 
 fight against each other on account of these things, they are 
 nevertheless precipitated by the like weight of lust into the 
 same abyss, and are united with each other by similarity of 
 manners and merits. And, again, all men and all spirits who 
 humbly seek the glory of God and not their own, and who 
 follow Him in piety, belong to one followship. And, notwith- 
 standing this, God is most merciful and patient with ungodly 
 men, and offers them a place lor penitence and amendment. 
 
 32. "For with respect also to the fact that He destroyed 
 all men in the flood, with the exception of one righteous man 
 together with his house, whom He willed to be saved in the 
 ark. He knew indeed that they would not amend themselves ; 
 yet, nevertheless, as the building of the ark went on for the 
 space of a hundred years, the wrath of God which was to come 
 upon them was certainly preached to them -} and if they only 
 
 ^ Gen. vi. 7. 
 
CHAP. XIX.] god's long-suffepjng. 311 
 
 would have turned to God, He would have spared them, as at 
 a later period He spared the city of Nineveh when it repented, 
 after He had announced to it, by means of a prophet, the 
 destruction that was about to overtake it.-^ Thus, moreover, 
 God acts, granting a space for repentance even to those who 
 He knows will persist in wickedness, in order that He may 
 exercise and instruct our patience by His own example ; 
 whereby also we may know how greatly it befits us to bear 
 with the evil in long-suffering, when we know not what man- 
 ner of men they wall prove hereafter, seeing that He, whose 
 cognisance nothing that is yet to be escapes, spares them and 
 suffers them to live. Under the sacramental sign of the flood, 
 however, in which the righteous were rescued by the wood, 
 there was also a fore-announcement of the Church which was 
 to be, which Christ, its King and God, has raised on high, by 
 the mystery of His cross, in safety from the submersion of this 
 w^orld. Moreover, God was not ignorant of the fact that, even 
 of those who had been saved in the ark, there would be born 
 wicked men, who would cover the face of the earth a second 
 time with iniquities. But, nevertheless, He both gave them a 
 pattern of the future judgment, and fore-announced the de- 
 liverance of the holy by the mystery of the wood. For even 
 after these things wickedness did not cease to sprout forth 
 again through pride, and lusts, and illicit impieties, when men, 
 forsaking their Creator, not only fell to the (standard of the) 
 creature which God made, so as to worship instead of God 
 that which God made, but even bowed their souls to the 
 works of the hands of men and to the contrivances of crafts- 
 men, wherein a more shameful triumph was to be won over 
 them by the devil, and by those evil spirits who rejoice in 
 finding themselves adored and reverenced in such false devices, 
 while they feed^ their own errors with the errors of men. 
 
 33. "But in truth there were not wanting in those times 
 righteous men also of the kind to seek God piously and to 
 overcome the pride of the devil, citizens of that holy com- 
 munity, who were made whole by the humiliation of Christ, 
 which was then only destined to enter, but was revealed to 
 them by the Spirit. From among these, Abraham, a pious 
 
 ^ Jonah iii. ^ Instead of ^;asct(?2< the reading miscent, = mix, is also found. 
 
312 ox CATECHISING. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 and faithful servant of God, was chosen, in order that to him 
 mi'dit be sliown the sacrament of the Son of God, so that 
 thus, in virtue of the imitation of his faith, all the faithful of 
 aU nations might be called his cliildren in the future. Of 
 him was born a people, by whom the one true God wlio made 
 heaven and eartli should be worshipped when all other nations 
 did service to idols and evil spirits. In that people, plainly, 
 the future Church was much more evidently prefigured. For 
 in it there was a carnal multitude that worshipped God with 
 a view to visible benefits. But in it there were also a few 
 who thought of the future rest, and looked longingly for the 
 heavenly fatherland, to whom through prophecy was revealed 
 the coming humiliation of God in the person of our King and 
 Lord Jesus Christ, in order that they might be made whole of 
 all pride and arrogance through that faith. And with respect 
 to these saints who in point of time had precedence of the 
 birth of the Lord, not only their speech, but also their life, and 
 their marriages, and their children, and their doings, consti- 
 tuted a prophecy of this time, at which the Church is being 
 gathered togetlier out of all nations through faith in the 
 passion of Christ. By the instrumentality of those holy 
 patriarchs and prophets this carnal people of Israel, who at a 
 later period were also called Jews, had ministered unto them 
 at once those visible benefits which they eagerly desired of the 
 Lord in a carnal manner, and those chastisements, in the form 
 of bodily punishments, which were intended to terrify them 
 for the time, as was befitting for their obstinacy. And in all 
 these, nevertlieless, there were also spiritual mysteries signi- 
 fied, such as were meant to bear upon Christ and the Churcli ; 
 of whicli Church those saints also were members, although 
 they existed in this life previous to the birth of Christ, the 
 Lord, according to the tlesh. For this same Christ, the ouly- 
 begottcn Son of God, the Word of the Father, equal and co- 
 eternal with the Father, by whom all tilings were made, was 
 Himself also made man for our sakes, in order that of the 
 whole Church, as of His wliole body, He might be the Head. 
 But just as when the wliole man is in the process of being 
 born, although he may put the hand forth first in the act of 
 birth, yet is that hand joined and compacted together with the 
 
CHAP. XX.] THE PASSAGE THROUGH THE EED SExV. 313 
 
 whole body under the head, even as also among these same 
 patriarchs some were born^ with the hand put forth first as 
 a sign of this very thing : so all the saints who lived upon 
 the earth previous to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, al- 
 though they were born antecedently, were nevertheless united 
 under the Head with that universal body of which He is the 
 Head. 
 
 CiiAr. XX.— Of Israel's bondage in Egypt, their deliverance, and their 
 passage through the Red Sea. 
 
 34. "That people, then, having been brought down into 
 Egypt, were in bondage to the harshest of kings ; and, taught 
 by the most oppressive labours, they sought their deliverer in 
 God ; and there was sent to them one belonging to the people 
 themselves, Moses, the holy servant of God, who, in the might 
 of God, terrified the impious nation of the Egyptians in those 
 days by great miracles, and led forth the people of God out of 
 that land through the Eed Sea, where the water parted and 
 opened up a way for them as they crossed it, whereas, when 
 the Egyptians pressed on in pursuit, the waves returned to 
 their channel and overwhelmed them, so that they perished. 
 Thus, then, just as the earth through the agency of the flood 
 was cleansed by the waters from the wickedness of the 
 sinners, who in those times were destroyed in that inunda- 
 tion, while the righteous escaped by means of the wood ; so 
 the people of God, when they went forth from Egypt, found a 
 way through the waters by which their enemies were devoured. 
 Nor was the sacrament of the wood wanting there. For 
 Moses smote with his rod, in order that that miracle might be 
 effected. Both these are signs of holy baptism, by which the 
 faithful pass into the new life, while their sins are done away 
 with like enemies, and perish. But more clearly was the 
 passion of Christ prefigured in the case of that people, when 
 they were commanded to slay and eat the lamb, and to mark 
 their door-posts with its blood, and to celebrate this rite every 
 year, and to designate it the Lord's passover. Eor surely 
 prophecy speaks with the utmost plainness of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, when it says that " He was led as a lamb to the 
 slaughter."^ And with the sign of His passion and cross, 
 
 1 Gen. XXV. 26, xxxviii. 27-30. 2 Isa. liii. 7. 
 
314 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 tliou art this day to be marked on tliy forehead, as on the 
 door-post, and all Christians are marked with the same. 
 
 35. "Thereafter this people was conducted through the 
 wilderness for forty years. They also received the law written 
 by the finger of God, under which name the Holy Spirit is 
 signified, as it is declared with the utmost plainness in the 
 Gospel. For God is not defined^ by the form of a body, 
 neither are members and fingers to be thought of as existent 
 in Him in the way in which we see them in ourselves. But, 
 inasmuch as it is through the Holy Spirit that God's gifts are 
 divided to His saints, in order that, although they vary in their 
 capacities, they may nevertheless not lapse from the concord 
 of charity, and inasmuch as it is especially in the fingers that 
 there appears a certain kind of division, while nevertheless 
 there is no separation from unity, this may be the explanation 
 of the phrase. But whether this may be the case, or what- 
 ever other reason may be assigned for the Holy Spirit being 
 called the finger of God, we ought not at any rate to think C)f 
 the form of a human body when we hear this expression used. 
 The people in question, then, received the law written by the 
 finger of God, and that in good sooth on tables of stone, to 
 signify the hardness of their heart in that they were not to 
 fulfil the law. For, as they eagerly sought from the Lord gifts 
 meant for the uses of the body, they were held by carnal tear 
 rather tlian by spiritual charity. But nothing fulfils the law 
 save charity. Consequently, they were burdened with many 
 visible sacraments, to the intent that they should feel the 
 pressure of the yoke of bondage in the observances of meats, 
 and in the sacrifices of animals, and in other rites innumerable ; 
 which things, at the same time, were signs of spiritual matters 
 relating to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Church ; which, 
 furthermore, at that time were both understood by a few 
 holy men to the effect of yielding the fruit of salvation, and 
 observed by them in accordance with the fitness of the time, 
 while by the multitude of carnal men they were observed only 
 and not understood. 
 
 3G. "In this manner, tlien, through many varied signs of 
 things to come, which it would be tedious to enumerate in 
 
 > Or = circumscribed, dcjinltus. 
 
CHAP. XXI.] THE BABYLOXISH EXILE. 315 
 
 complete detail, and which we now see in their fulfilment in 
 the Church, that people were brought to the land of promise, 
 in which they were to reign in a temporal and carnal way in 
 accordance with their own longings : which earthly kingdom, 
 nevertheless, sustained the image of a spiritual kingdom. 
 There Jerusalem was founded, that most celebrated city of 
 God, which, while in bondage, served as a sign of the free city, 
 which is called the heavenly Jerusalem^ — which latter term 
 is a Hebrew word, and signifies by interpretation the Vision 
 of peace.' The citizens thereof are all sanctified men, who 
 have been, who are, and who are yet to be ; and all sanctified 
 spirits, even as many as are obedient to God with pious de- 
 votion in the exalted regions of heaven, and imitate not the 
 impious pride of the devil and his angels. The King of this 
 city is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, by whom the 
 highest angels are governed, and at the same time the Word 
 that took unto Himself human nature,^ in order that by Him 
 men also might be governed, w^ho, in His fellowship, shall 
 reign all together in eternal peace. In the service of pre- 
 figuring this King in that earthly kingdom of the people of 
 Israel, King David stood forth pre-eminent,^ of whose seed 
 according to the flesh that truest King was to come, to wit, 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, 'who is over all, God blessed for 
 ever.'* In that land of promise many things were done, 
 which held cjood as ficjures of the Christ who was to come, 
 and of the Church, with which you will have it in your power 
 to acquaint yourself by degrees in the Holy Books. 
 
 Chap. xxi. — Oj the Babylonish captivity, and the things signified thereby. 
 
 37. "Howbeit, after the lapse of some generations, another 
 type was presented, which bears very emphatically on the 
 matter in hand. For that city^ was brought into captivity, 
 and a large section of the people were carried oft into Baby- 
 lonia. Now, as Jerusalem signifies the city and fellowship of 
 the saints, so Babylonia signifies the city and fellowship of the 
 Avicked, seeing that by interpretation it denotes cov fusion. 
 On the subject of these two cities, which have been running 
 
 ' Cf. Gal. iv. 26. - Homiiipm. ^ 1 Kings xvi. 13. 
 
 * Kom. ix. 5. ^ Or = connminitv, clvitas. 
 
316 ON C.VTECIIISING. [cnAP. XXI. 
 
 their courses, mingling the one with the other, through all the 
 changes of time from the beginning of the human race, and 
 which shall so move on together until the end of the world, 
 when they are destined to be separated at tlie last judgment, 
 we have spoken already a little ago.^ That captivity, then, of 
 the city of Jerusalem, and the people thus carried into Baby- 
 lonia in bondage, were ordained so to proceed by the Lord, 
 by the voice ol Jeremiah, a prophet of that time.'^ And there 
 appeared kings ^ of Babylon, under whom they were in slavery, 
 who on occasion of the captivity of this people were so 
 wrought upon by certain miracles that they came to know 
 the one true God who founded universal creation, and wor- 
 shipped Him, and commanded that He should be worsliipped. 
 Moreover the people were ordered both to pray for those by 
 whom they were detained in captivity, and in their peace to 
 hope for peace, to the effect that they should beget children, 
 and build houses, and plant gardens and vineyards,'* But at 
 the end of seventy years, release from their captivity was pro- 
 mised to them.® All this, furthermore, signilied in a figure 
 that the Church of Christ in all His saints, who are citizens 
 of the heavenly Jerusalem, would have to do service under the 
 kings of this world. For the doctrine of the apostles speaks 
 also in this wise, that ' every soul should be subject to the 
 higher powers/ and that there ' should be rendered all things 
 to all men, tribute to whom tribute (is due), custom to whom 
 custom,'^ and all other things in like manner which, without 
 detriment to the wor.sliip of our God, we render to the rulers 
 in the constitution of human society : for tlie Lord Himself 
 also, in order to set before us an example of this sound doc- 
 trine, did not deem it uinvortliy of Him to pay tribute" on 
 account of that Iniman indiviihiality^ wherewith He was in- 
 vested. Again, Christian servants and good believers are also 
 commanded to serve their temporal masters in equanimity and 
 faithfulness f wliom they will liereafter judge, if even on to 
 
 ' Sec Chapter xix. * .Tor. .\xv. 21, xxix. 1. 
 
 ' Dan. ii. 47, iii. 29, vi. 20 ; 1 Esilr. i. 7 ; Bel, 41. 
 
 * Jer. xxix. 4-7. ^ .l«'r. xxv. 12. 
 
 fi Kom. xiii. 1, 7. ' Matt. xvii. 27. 
 
 *" Pro capile hominis, literally = on account of tint licaJ of man, etc 
 
 " Ei.h. vi. 5. 
 
CHAP. XXI.] OBEDIENCE DUE TO KIXGS. 317 
 
 the end they find them wicked, or with whom they will here- 
 after reign in equality, if they too shall have been converted 
 to the true God. Still all are enjoined to be subject to the 
 powers that are of man and of earth, even until, at the end of 
 the predetermined time which the seventy years signify, the 
 Church shall be delivered from the confusion of this world, 
 like as Jerusalem was to be set free from the captivity in 
 Babylonia. By occasion of that captivity, however, the kings 
 of earth too have themselves been led to forsake the idols on 
 account of which they were wont to persecute the Christians, 
 and have come to know, and now worship, the one true God 
 and Christ the Lord ; and it is on their behalf that the Apostle 
 Paul enjoins prayer to be made, even although they should 
 persecute the Church. For he speaks in these terms : ' I 
 entreat, therefore, that first of all supplications, adorations,^ 
 intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for kings, for all 
 men, and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet 
 and peaceable life, with all godliness and charity.' ^ Accord- 
 ingly peace has been given to the Church by these same 
 persons, although it be but of a temporal sort, — a temporal 
 quiet for the work of building houses after a spiritual fashion, 
 and planting gardens and vineyards. For witness your own 
 case, too, — at this very time we are engaged, by means of this 
 discourse, in building you up and planting you. And the like 
 process is going on throughout the whole circle of lands, in 
 virtue of the peace allowed by Christian kings, even as the 
 same apostle thus expresses himself: 'Ye are God's hus- 
 bandry; ye are God's building.'^ 
 
 38. "And, indeed, after the lapse of the seventy years of 
 which Jeremiah had mystically prophesied, to the intent of 
 prefiguring the end of times, with a view still to the perfect- 
 ing of that same figure, no settled peace and liberty were 
 conceded again to the Jews. Thus it was that they were 
 conquered subsequently by the Eomans and made tributary. 
 From that period, in truth, at which they received the land 
 of promise and began to have kings, in order to preclude the 
 
 ^ Instead of orationes, the better authenticated reading is adoradones. 
 
 2 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 9 ; cf. Jer. xxv. 12, xxix. 10. 
 
ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 supposition that the promise of the Christ who was to be their 
 Liberator had met its complete fulfilment in the person of 
 any one of their kings, Christ was prophesied of with greater 
 clearness in a number of prophecies ; not only by David him- 
 self in the book of Psalms, but also by the rest of the great 
 and holy prophets, even on to the time of their conveyance 
 into captivity in Babylonia ; and in that same captivity there 
 were also prophets whose mission was to prophesy of the 
 coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Liberator of all. And 
 after the restoration of the temple, when the seventy years 
 had passed, the Jews sustained grievous oppressions and 
 sufferings at the hands of the kings of the Gentiles, fitted to 
 make them understand that the Liberator was not yet come, 
 whom they failed to apprehend as one who was to effect for 
 them a spiritual deliverance, and whom they fondly longed 
 for on account of a carnal liberation. 
 
 CUAP, XXII. — Of tlic six ages of the icorhl. 
 
 39. " Five ages of the world, accordingly, having been now 
 completed (there has entered the sLxth). Of these ages the 
 first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from 
 Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, 
 who constructed the ark at the time of the flood.^ Then the 
 second extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called" 
 the father indeed of all nations^ which should follow the 
 example of his faith, but who at the same time in the way of 
 natural descent from his own flesh was the father of the 
 destined people of the Jews; which people, previous to the 
 entrance of the Gentiles into the Christian faith, was the one 
 people among all the nations of all lands that worshipped the 
 one true God : from which people also Christ the Saviour 
 was decreed to come according to the flesh. For these turn- 
 ing-points * of those two ages occupy an eminent place in the 
 ancient books. On the other hand, those of the other three ages 
 are also declared in the Gospel,^ where the descent of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ according to the flesh is likewise mentioned. For 
 
 » Gen. vi. 22. 
 
 " Instead of didus est the Mss. pivc also electus est — wfis chosen to be. 
 
 8 Gen. xvii. 4. * ar'/.-*/// — artii-lis. * Mutt. i. 17. 
 
CHAP. XXII.] SIX AGES OF THE WOELD. 319 
 
 the third age extends from Abraham on to David the king ; 
 the fourth from David on to that captivity whereby the people 
 of God passed over into Babylonia ; and the fifth from that 
 transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 With His coming the sixth age has entered on its process ; so 
 that now the spiritual grace, which in previous times was 
 known to a few patriarchs and prophets, may be made 
 manifest to all nations ; to the intent that no man should 
 worship God but freely,^ fondly desiring of Him not the 
 visible rewards of His services and the happiness of this pre- 
 sent life, but that eternal life alone in which he is to enjoy 
 God Himself : in order that in this sixth age the mind of man 
 may be renewed after the image of God, even as on the sixth 
 day man was made after the image of God.^ For then, too, 
 is the law fulfilled, when all that it has commanded is done, 
 not in the strong desire for things temporal, but in the love 
 of Him who has given the commandment. Who is there, 
 moreover, who should not be earnestly disposed to give the 
 return of love to a God of supreme righteousness and also of 
 supreme mercy, who has first loved men of the greatest un- 
 righteousness and the loftiest pride, and that, too, so deeply as 
 to have sent in their behalf His only Son, by whom He made 
 all things, and who. being made man, not by any change of 
 Himself, but by the assumption of human nature, was designed 
 thus to become capable not only of living with them, but also 
 of dying at once for them and by their hands ? 
 
 40. "Thus, then, showing forth the JSTew Testament of our 
 everlasting inheritance, wherein man was to be renewed by the 
 grace of God and lead a new life, that is, a spiritual life ; and 
 with the view of exhibiting the first one as an old dispensa- 
 tion, wherein a carnal people acting out the old man (with 
 the exception of a few patriarchs and prophets, who had 
 understanding, and some hidden saints), and leading a carnal 
 life, desiderated carnal rewards at the hands of the Lord God, 
 and received in that fashion but the figures of spiritual bless- 
 ings ; — with this intent, I say, the Lord Christ, when made 
 man, despised all earthly good things, in order that He might 
 show us how these things ought to be despised ; and He endured 
 1 Gratis. ^ q^.^. i. 27. 
 
320 ON CATECHISING. [CIIAP. XXIII. 
 
 all earthly ills which He was inculcating as things needful to 
 be endured ; so tliat neither might our happiness be sought 
 for in the former class, nor our unliappiness be apprehended 
 in the latter. For being born of a mother who, although she 
 conceived without being touched by man and always remained 
 thus untouclied, in virginity conceiving, in virginity bringing 
 forth, in virginity dying, had nevertheless been espoused to 
 a handicraftsman, He extinguished all the inflated pride of 
 carnal nobility. Moreover, being born in the city of Bethle- 
 hem, which amoncr all the cities of Judcea was so insi^nifi- 
 cant that even in our own day it is designated a village, He 
 willed not that any one should glory in the exalted position 
 of any city of earth. He, too, whose are all things and by 
 whom all things were created, was made poor, in order that 
 no one, while bclievinL»' in Him, miHit venture to boast him- 
 self in earthly riches. He refused to be made by men a king, 
 because He displayed the pathway of liumility to those un- 
 happy ones whom pride had separated from Him ;^ and yet 
 universal creation attests the fact of His everlastincj kinirdom. 
 An hungered was He who feeds all men ; athirst was He by 
 whom is created whatsoever is drunk, and who in a spiritual 
 manner is the bread of the hungry and the fountain of the 
 thirsty ; in journeying on earth, wearied was He who has 
 made Himself the way for us into heaven ; as like one dumb 
 and deaf in the presence of His revilers was He by whom the 
 dumb spoke and the deaf heard ; bound was He m ho freed us 
 from the bonds of infirmities ; scourged was He who expelled 
 from the bodies of man the scourges of all distresses ; crucified 
 was He who put an end to our crucial pains ;^ dead did He 
 become who raised the dead. But He also rose again, no 
 more to die, so that no one should from Him learn so to con- 
 temn death as if he were never to live again. 
 
 Cir.vr. xxiri. — 0/ (he juission of the Hohj Ghoitfjty daya after Christ's 
 resurrection. 
 
 41. "Thereafter, having confirmed the disciples, and having 
 
 sojourned with them forty days, He ascended up into heaven 
 
 as tliese same persons were beholding Him. And on the 
 
 ' Koailing ah co ; for which some editions give ah ra = from that humilitj'. 
 * There is a [ilay in the nyoiiIj lieie : cruajxxus est qui cruciatus nosirosjinlvlt. 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] THE PENTECOSTAL GIFT OF THE SPIRIT. 321 
 
 completion of fifty days from His resurrection He sent to 
 them the Holy Spirit (for so He had promised), by whose 
 agency they were to have love shed abroad in their hearts/ to 
 the end that they might be able to fulfil the law, not only 
 without the sense of its being burdensome, but even with a 
 joyful mind. This law was given to the Jews in the ten 
 commandments, which they call the Decalogue. And these 
 commandments, again, are reduced to two, namely, that we 
 should love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all 
 our mind ; and that we should love our neighbour as ourselves.^ 
 For that on these two precepts hang all the law and the 
 prophets, the Lord Himself has at once declared in the Gospel 
 and shown in His own example. For thus it was likewise 
 in the instance of the people of Israel, that from the day on 
 which they first celebrated the passover in a form,^ slaying 
 and eating the sheep, with whose blood their door-posts were 
 marked for the securing of their safety,* — from this day, I 
 repeat, the fiftieth day in succession was completed, and then 
 they received the law written by the finger of God,'^ under 
 which phrase we have already stated that the Holy Spirit is 
 signified.^ And in the same manner, after the passion and 
 resurrection of the Lord, who is the true passover, the Holy 
 Ghost was sent personally to the disciples on the fiftieth day : 
 not now, however, by tables of stone significant of the hardness 
 of their hearts ; but, when they were gathered together in one 
 place at Jerusalem itself, suddenly there came a sound from 
 heaven, as if a violent blast were being borne onwards, and 
 there appeared to them tongues cloven like fire, and they 
 began to speak with tongues, in such a manner that all those 
 who had come to them recognised each his own language ^ 
 (for in that city the Jews were in the habit of assembling from 
 every country wheresoever they had been scattered abroad, 
 and had learned the diverse tongues of diverse nations) ; and 
 thereafter, preaching Cln^ist with all boldness, they wrought 
 many signs in His name, — so much so, that as Peter was 
 
 » Cf. Rom. V. 5. 
 
 2 Matt. xxii. 37-40. 
 
 ' In imagine. 
 
 * Ex. xii. 
 
 = Ex. xix. 1. 
 
 « Luke xi. 20. 
 
 ' Acts ii. 
 
 
 CATECH. 
 
322 ON CATECHISING. [chap. XXIII. 
 
 passing by, his shadow touched a certain dead person, and 
 the man rose in life again.^ 
 
 42. "But when the Jews perceived so great signs to be 
 wrought in the name of Him, whom, partly through ill-will 
 and partly in ignorance, they crucified, some of them were 
 provoked to persecute the apostles, who were His preachers ; 
 while others, on the contrary, marvelling the more at this very 
 circumstance, that so great miracles were being performed in 
 the name of Him whom they had derided as one "overborne 
 and conquered by themselves, repented, and were converted, 
 so that thousands of Jews believed on Him. For these parties 
 were not bent now on craving at the hand of God temporal 
 benefits and an earthly kingdom, neither did they look any 
 more for Christ, the promised king, in a carnal spirit ; but 
 they continued in immortal fashion to apprehend and love 
 Him, who in mortal fashion endured on their behalf at their 
 own hands sufferings so heavy, and imparted to them the 
 gift of forgiveness for all their sins, even down to the iniquity 
 of His own blood, and by the example of His own resurrec- 
 tion unfolded immortality as the object which they should 
 hope for and long for at His hands. Accordingly, now mor- 
 tifying the earthly cravings of the old man, and inflamed with 
 the new experience of the spiritual life, as the Lord had en- 
 joined in the Gospel, they sold all that they had, and laid the 
 price of their possessions at the feet of the apostles, in order 
 that these mi^ht distribute to every man according as each 
 had need ; and living in Christian love harmoniously with 
 each other, they did not affirm an}i:hing to be their o\vn, but 
 they had all things in common, and were one in soul and heart 
 toward God.^ Afterwards these same persons also themselves 
 suffered persecution in their flesh at the hands of the Jews, 
 their carnal fellow-countrymen, and were dispersed abroad, to 
 the end that, in consequence of tlieir dispersion, Christ should 
 be preached more extensively, and that they themselves at the 
 same time should Ijc followers of the patience of their Lord. 
 
 'The rcforonce evidently is to Acts v. 15, where, however, it is only the 
 people's intention that is noticed, nnd that only in the instance of the sick, and 
 not of any individual actually dead. 
 
 > Acts ii. 44, iv. 34. 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] THE CHURCH LIKE A VINE. 323 
 
 For He who in meekness had endured them/ enjoined them 
 in meekness to endure for His sake. 
 
 43. "Among those same persecutors of the saints the 
 Apostle Paul had once also ranked ; and he raged with eminent 
 violence against the Christians. But, subsequently, he became 
 a believer and an apostle, and was sent to preach the gospel 
 to the Gentiles, suffering (in that ministry) things more 
 grievous on behalf of the name of Christ than were those 
 which he had done against the name of Christ. Moreover, in 
 establishing churches throughout all the nations where he was 
 sowing the seed of the gospel, he was wont to give earnest 
 injunction that, as these converts (coming as they did from the 
 worship of idols and without experience in the worship of the 
 one God) could not readily serve God in the way of selling 
 and distributing their possessions, they should make offerings 
 for the poor brethren among the saints who were in the 
 churches of Judea which had believed in Christ. In this 
 maimer the doctrine of the apostle constituted some to be, as 
 it were, soldiers, and others to be, as it were, provincial tribu- 
 taries, while it set Christ in the centre of them like the 
 corner-stone (in accordance with what had been announced 
 beforetime by the prophet),^ in whom both parties, like walls 
 advancing from different sides, that is to say, from Jews and 
 from Gentiles, might be joined together in the affection of kin- 
 ship. But at a later period heavier and more frequent perse- 
 cutions arose from the unbelieving Gentiles against the Church 
 of Christ, and day by day was fulfilled that prophetic word 
 which the Lord spake when He said, ' Behold, I send you as 
 sheep in the midst of wolves.'^ 
 
 Chap. xxiv. — Of tlie Church in its lilmess to a vine sprouting and suffering 
 
 priming. 
 
 4:4:. " But that vine, which was spreading forth its fruitful 
 
 ' Adopting the Benedictine version, qui eos mansuetiis passus fuerat, and 
 taking it as a parallel to Acts xiii. 18, Heb. xii. 3. There is, however, great 
 variety of reading here. Thus we find qui ante eos, etc. = who had suffered in 
 meekness before them : qui pro eis, etc. = who had suffered in their stead : qui 
 propter eos, etc. = who had suffered on their account : and qui per eos, etc. = 
 who had suffered through them, etc. But the reading in the text appears best 
 authenticated. 
 
 '■* Ps. cxvii. 22 ; Isa. xxviii. 16. • Matt. x. 16. 
 
324 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 shoots througliout the circle of lands, according as had been 
 prophesied with regard to it, and as had been foretold by the 
 Lord Himself, sprouted all the more luxuriantly in proportion 
 as it was watered with richer streams of the blood of martyrs. 
 And as these died in behalf of the truth of the faith in count- 
 less numbers throughout all lands, even the persecuting king- 
 doms themselves desisted, and were converted to the know- 
 ledge and worship of Christ, with the neck of their pride 
 broken. Moreover it behoved that this same vine should be 
 pruned in accordance with the Lord's repeated predictions,^ 
 and that the unfruitful twigs should be cut out of it, by which 
 heresies and schisms were occasioned in various localities, 
 under the name of Christ, on the part of men who sought not 
 His glory but their own; whose oppositions, however, also 
 served more and more to discipline the Church, and to test 
 and illustrate both its doctrine and its patience. 
 
 45. " All these things, then, we now perceive to be realized 
 precisely as we read of them in predictions uttered so long 
 before the event. And as the first Christians, inasmuch as 
 they did not see these things literally made good in their own 
 day, were moved by miracles to believe them ; so as regards 
 ourselves, inasmuch as all these things have now been 
 brought to pass exactly as we read of them in those books 
 which were written a long time previous to the fulfilment of 
 the things in question, wherein they were all announced as 
 matters yet future, even as they are now seen to be actually 
 present, we are built up unto faith, so that, enduring and 
 persevering in the Lord, we believe without any hesitation 
 in the destined accomplishment even of those things which 
 still remain to be realized. For, indeed, in the same Scrip- 
 tures, tribulations yet to come are still read of, as well as the 
 iiiial day of judgment itself, when ajl the citizens of these two 
 states shall receive their bodies again, and rise and give account 
 of their life before tlie judgment-seat of Christ. For He will 
 come in the glory of His power, who of old condescended to 
 come in the lowliness of humanity ; and He will separate all 
 the godly from the ungodly, — not only from those who have 
 utterly refused to believe in Him at all, but also from those 
 
 1 John XV. 2. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] THE RESUREECTION OF THE BODY. 32 5 
 
 who have believed in Him to no purpose and without fruit. 
 To the one class He will give an eternal kingdom together 
 with Himself, while to the other He will award eternal 
 punishment together with the devil. But as no joy yielded 
 by things temporal can be found in any measure comparable 
 to the joy of life eternal which the saints are destined to 
 attain, so no torment of temporal punishments can be com- 
 pared to the everlasting torments of the unrighteous. 
 
 Chap. xxv. — Of constancy in the faith of the resurrection. 
 
 46. " Therefore, brother, confirm yourself in the name and 
 help of Him in whom you believe, so as to withstand the 
 tongues of those who mock at our faith, in whose case the 
 devil speaks seductive words, bent above all on making a 
 mockery of the faith in a resurrection. But, judging from 
 your own history,^ believe that, seeing you have been, you 
 will also be hereafter, even as you perceive yourself now to 
 be, although previously you were not. For where was this 
 great structure of your body, and where this formation and 
 compacted connection of members a few years ago, before you 
 were born, or even before you were conceived in your mother's 
 womb? Wliere, I repeat, was then this structure and this 
 stature of your body ? Did it not come forth to light from 
 the hidden secrets of this creation, under the invisible forma- 
 tive operations of the Lord God, and did it not rise to its pre- 
 sent magnitude and fashion by those fixed measures of increase 
 which come with the successive periods of life ?^ Is it then 
 in any way a difficult thing for God, who also in a moment 
 brings together out of secrecy the masses of the clouds and 
 veils the heavens in an instant of time, to make this quantity 
 of your body again what it was, seeing that He was able to 
 make it what formerly it was not ?^ Consequently, believe 
 with a manful and unshaken spirit that all those things which 
 seem to be withdrawn from the eyes of men as if to perish, 
 are safe and exempt from loss in relation to the omnipotence 
 
 ^ Sed ex te ipso crede. It may also = "but, on your side, do you believe. 
 
 2 Certisque setatum incrementis, etc. 
 
 3 Reading sicut nan erat ; for which, however, cum non erat also occurs = 
 seeincj He was able to make it when it was not. 
 
326 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 of God, who will restore them, without any delay or difti- 
 culty, when He is so minded, — those of them at least, I should 
 say, that are judged by His justice to merit restoration; in 
 order that men may give account of their deeds in their very 
 bodies in w^hich they have done them ; and that in these they 
 may be deemed worthy to receive either the exchange of 
 heavenly incorruption in accordance with the deserts of their 
 piety, or the corruptible condition of body^ in accordance 
 with the deserts of their wickedness, — and that, too, not a 
 condition such as may be done away with by death, but such 
 as shall furnish material for everlasting pains. 
 
 47. " Flee, therefore, by stedfast faith and good manners, 
 — flee, brother, those torments in which neither the torturers 
 fail, nor do the tortured die ; to whom it is death without 
 end, to be unable to die in their pains. . And be kindled with 
 love and longing for the everlasting life of the saints, in 
 which neither will action be toilsome nor will rest be indolent ; 
 in which the praise of God will be without irksomeness and 
 without defect ; wherein there will be no weariness in the 
 mind, no exhaustion in the body ; wherein, too, there shall 
 be no want, whether on your own part, so that you should 
 crave for relief, or on your neighbour's part, so that you should 
 be in haste to carry relief to him. God will be the whole 
 enjoyment and satisfaction ^ of that holy city, which lives in 
 Him and of Him, in wisdom and beatitude. For as we hope 
 and look for what has been promised by Him, we shall be made 
 equal to the angels of God,^ and together with them we shall 
 enjoy that Trinity now by sight, wherein at present we walk 
 by faith.* For we believe that which we see not, in order 
 that through these very deserts of faith we may be counted 
 worthy also to see that which we believe, and to abide in it ; 
 to the intent that these mysteries of the equality of the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the unity of this 
 same Trinity, and the maimer in which these three subsis- 
 tences are one God, need no more be uttered by us in words 
 
 * Comiptibilem corporis cotuHlioncm. But corruptihilis also occurs = the 
 condition of a corniptiMe boily. 
 
 2 Satittas. Some editions, however, give socieias ^ the society. 
 ' Luke XX. 36. ♦ 2 Cor. v. 7. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] CAUTIONS AGAINST EREOR. 327 
 
 of faith and sounding syllables, but may be drunk in in purest 
 and most burning contemplation in that silence. 
 
 48. " These things hold fixed in your heart, and call upon 
 the God in whom you believe, to defend you against the 
 temptations of the devil ; and be careful, lest that adversary 
 come stealthily upon you from a strange quarter, who, as a 
 most malevolent solace for his own damnation, seeks others 
 whose companionship he may obtain in that damnation. For 
 he is bold enough not only to tempt Christian people through 
 the instrumentality of those who hate the Christian name, or 
 are pained to see the world taken possession of by that name, 
 and still fondly desire to do service to idols and to the curious 
 rites of evil spirits, but at times he also attempts the same 
 through the agency of such men as we have mentioned a 
 little ago, to wit, persons severed from the unity of the 
 Church, like the twigs which are lopped off when the vine is 
 pruned, who are called heretics or schismatics. Howbeit 
 sometimes also he makes the same effort by means of the 
 Jews, seeking to tempt and seduce believers by their instru- 
 mentality. Nevertheless, what ought above all things to be 
 guarded against is, that no individual may suffer himself to 
 be tempted and deceived by men who are within the Catholic 
 Church itself, and who are borne by it like the chaff that is 
 sustained against the time of its winnowing. For in being 
 patient toward such persons, God has this end in view, namely, 
 to exercise and confirm the faith and prudence of His elect by 
 means of the perverseness of these others, while at the same 
 time He also takes account of the fact that many of their 
 number make an advance, and are converted to the doing of 
 the good pleasure of God with a great impetus, when led to 
 take pity upon their own souls.^ For not all treasure up 
 for themselves, through the patience of God, wrath in the day 
 of the wrath of His just judgment;^ but many are brought 
 by the same patience of the Almighty to the most wholesome 
 
 ^ Ad placendmn Deo miserati animas siias, etc. Instead of miserati the read- 
 ing miseranti also occurs = to the doing of the good pleasure of the God who 
 takes pity on their souls. The Benedictine editors suggest that the whole clause 
 is in reference to Ecclesiasticus xxx. 24 (23), which in the Latin runs thus : 
 miserere animce tuce placens Deo. 
 
 2 Kom. ii. 5. 
 
328 ON CATECHISIN'G. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 pain of repentance.^ And until tliat is effected, they are 
 made the means of exercising not only the forbearance, but 
 also the compassion of those who are already holding by the 
 right way. Accordingly, you will have to witness many 
 drunkards, covetous men, deceivers, gamesters, adulterers, for- 
 nicators, men who bind upon their persons sacrilegious charms, 
 and others given up to sorcerers and astrologers,^ and diviners 
 practised in all kinds of impious arts. You will also have to 
 observe how those very crowds which fill tlie theatres on the 
 festal days of the pagans also fill the churches on the festal 
 days of the Christians. And when you see these things you 
 will be tempted to imitate them. Nay, why should I use 
 the expression, ycni vnll see, in reference to what you assuredly 
 are acquainted with even already ? For you are not ignorant 
 of the fact that many who are called Christians engage in all 
 these evil things which I have briefly mentioned. Neither 
 are you ignorant that at times, perchance, men whom you 
 know to bear the name of Christians are guilty of even more 
 giievous offences than these. But if you have come with the 
 notion that you may do such things as in a secured position, 
 you are greatly in error ; neither will the name of Christ be 
 of any avail to you when He begins to judge in utmost strict- 
 ness, who also of old condescended in utmost mercy to come 
 to man's relief. For He Himself has foretold these things, 
 and speaks to this effect in the Gospel : * Not every one that 
 saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father. !Many 
 shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, in Thy name we 
 have eaten and drunken.'^ For all, therefore, wlio persevere in 
 such works the end is damnation. Consequently, when you 
 see many not only doing these things, but also defending and 
 recommending them, keep yourself linnly by the law of God, 
 and follow not its wilful transgressors. For it is not accord- 
 ing to their mind, but according to His* truth that you will 
 be judged. 
 
 49. " Associate with the good, whom you perceive to be at 
 one with you in loving your King. For there are many such 
 
 • Cf. Rom. ii. 4. ' Mathemalicia. 
 
 » Matt. vii. 21, 22- * Or = its {i.e. the law's) truth. 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE GOOD. 329 
 
 for you to discover, if you also begin to cultivate that charac- 
 ter yourself For if in the public spectacles you wished to be 
 in congenial company, and to attach yourself closely ^ to men 
 who are united with you in a liking for some charioteer, or 
 some hunter, or some player or other, how much more ought 
 you to find pleasure in associating with those who are at 
 one with you in loving that God, with regard to whom no one 
 that loves Him shall ever have cause for the blush of shame, 
 inasmuch as not only is He Himself incapable of being over- 
 come, but He will also render those unconquerable who are 
 affectionately disposed toward Him. At the same time, not 
 even on those same good men, who either anticipate you or ac- 
 company you on the way to God, ought you to set your hope, 
 seeing that no more ought you to place it on yourself, how- 
 ever great may be the progress you have made, but on Him 
 who justifies both them and you, and thus makes you what 
 you are. For you are secure in God, because He changes 
 not ; but in man no one prudently counts himself secure. 
 But if we ought to love those who are not righteous as yet, 
 with the view that they may be so, how much more warmly 
 ought those to be loved who already are righteous ? At the 
 same time, it is one thing to love man, and another thing to 
 set one's hope in man ; and the difference is so great, that 
 God enjoins the one and forbids the other. Moreover, if you 
 have to sustain either any insults or any sufferings in the 
 cause of the name of Christ, and neither fall away from the 
 faith nor decline from the good way,^ you are certain to re- 
 ceive the greater reward ; whereas those who give way to the 
 devil in such circumstances, lose even the less reward. But 
 be humble toward God, in order that He may not permit 
 you to be tempted beyond your strength." 
 
 Chap. xxvi. — Of the formal admission of the catechumen, and of the signs 
 therein made use of. 
 
 50. At the conclusion of this address the person is to be 
 
 * Adopting nam si in spectacidis cum ilUs esse ciipiebas et eis inhcej-ere. Au- 
 other, but less weightily supported reading, is, nam si in spectacuUs et vanitatibns 
 insanorum certaminum illis cupiehas inhoirere = for if in the public spectacles 
 and vanities of mad struggles you wish to attach yourself closely to men, etc. 
 
 2 Bona via. Another and well authenticated rendering is, bona vita = the 
 good life. 
 
330 ON CATECHISING. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 asked whether he believes these things and earnestly desires 
 to observe them. And on his replying to that effect, then 
 certainly he is to be solemnly signed and dealt with in accord- 
 ance with the custom of the Church. On the subject of the 
 sacrament, indeed,^ which he receives, it is first to be well 
 impressed upon his notice that the signs of divine things are, 
 it is true, things visible, but that the invisible things them- 
 selves are also honoured in them, and that that species,'*^ which 
 is then sanctified by the blessing, is therefore not to be re- 
 garded merely in the way in which it is regarded in any 
 common use. And thereafter he ought to be told what is 
 also signified by the form of words to which he has listened, 
 and what in him is seasoned^ by that (spiritual grace) of 
 which this material substance presents the emblem. Next 
 we should take occasion by that ceremony to admonish him 
 that, if he hears anything even in the Scriptures which may 
 carry a carnal sound, he should, even although he fails to 
 understand it, nevertheless believe that something spiritual 
 is signified thereby, which bears upon holiness of character 
 and the future life. Moreover, in this way he learns briefly 
 that, whatever he may hear in the canonical books of such 
 a kind as to make him unable to refer it to the love of eternity, 
 and of truth, and of sanctity, and to the love of our neighbour, 
 he should believe that to have been spoken or done with a 
 figurative significance ; and that, consequently, he should en- 
 deavour to understand it in such a manner as to refer it to 
 that twofold (duty of) love. He should be further admonished, 
 
 ' It has been supposed by the Benedictine editors that satie may be a mis- 
 reading tor sails. Wlu'ther that be or be not the case, the sacramfntitm intended 
 here appears to be tlie sacranuiUum salts, in reference to which Neander(C/j wrcA 
 History, iii. p. 458, Bolin's Transhition) states that "in the North African 
 Church the bishop gave to those whom he received as competentes, while signing 
 the cross over them as a symbol of consecration, a portion of salt over whicli a 
 blessing had been pronounced. This was to signify the dinne word imparted to 
 the candidates as the true salt for human nature " There is an allusion to the 
 same in the Confessions (\. 11), where Angustine says, " Even from my mother's 
 womb who greatly hoped in thee, I was signed with the sign of His cross, and 
 seasoned with His salt." 
 
 * Sprciem = kind, in reference to the outward and sensible sign of the sail. 
 
 ' Adopting condiat, which umiutstinnably is the reading most accordant with 
 the figure of the sacramental salt here dealt with. Some editions give condatur 
 = what is hidden in it, i.e. in the said form of words. 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] THE BRIEFER MODE OF ADDRESS. 331 
 
 however, not to take the term neiglibour in a carnal sense, but 
 to understand under it every one who may ever be with him 
 in that holy city, whether there already or not yet apparent. 
 And (he should finally be counselled) not to despair of the 
 amendment of any man whom he perceives to be living under 
 the patience of God for no other reason, as the apostle ^ says, 
 than that he may be brought to repentance. 
 
 51. If this discourse, in which I have supposed myself to 
 have been teaching some uninstructed person in my presence, 
 appears to you to be too long, you are at liberty to expound 
 these matters with greater brevity. I do not think, however, 
 that it ought to be longer than this. At the same time, much 
 depends on what the case itself, as it goes on, may render 
 advisable, and what the audience actually present shows itself 
 not only to bear, but also to desire. When, however, rapid 
 despatch is required, notice with what facility the whole matter 
 admits of being explained. Suppose once more that some 
 one comes before us who desires to be a Christian ; and 
 accordingly, suppose further that he has been interrogated, 
 and that he has returned the answer which we have taken 
 the former catechumen to have given ; for, even should he 
 decline to make this reply, it must at least be said that he 
 ought to have given it; — then all that remains to be 
 said to him should be put together in the following 
 manner : — 
 
 52. " Of a truth, brother, that is great and true blessedness 
 which is promised to the saints in a future world. All visible 
 things, on the other hand, pass away, and all the pomp, and 
 pleasure, and solicitude ^ of this world will perish, and (even 
 now) they drag those who love them along with them onward 
 to destruction. The merciful God, willing to deliver men from 
 this destruction, that is to say, from everlasting pains, if they 
 should not prove enemies to themselves, and if they should 
 not withstand the mercy of their Creator, sent His only- 
 begotten Son, that is to say. His Word, equal with Himself, 
 by whom He made all things. And He, while abiding indeed 
 in His divinity, and neither receding from the Father nor 
 being changed in anything, did at the same time, by taldng 
 
 ^ Rom. ii. 4. ^ Cmiositas. 
 
332 ON CATECniSING. [chap. XXVII. 
 
 on Himself human nature/ and appearing,' to men in mortal 
 flesh, come unto men; in order that, just as death entered 
 among the human race by one man, to wit, the first that was 
 made, that is to say, Adam, because he consented unto his wife 
 when she was seduced by the devil to the effect that they 
 (both) transgressed the commandment of God ; even so by one 
 man, Jesus Christ, who is also God, the Son of God, all those 
 who believe in Him might have all their past sins done away 
 with, and enter into eternal life. 
 
 Chap, xxvii. — Of the prophecies of the Old Testament in their visible fulflment 
 
 in the Church. 
 
 5 3. " For all those things which at present you witness in 
 the Church of God, and which you see to be taking place 
 under the name of Christ throughout the whole world, were 
 predicted long ages ago. And even as we read of them, so 
 also we now see them. And by means of these things we are 
 built up unto faith. Once of old there occurred a flood over 
 the whole earth, the object of which was that sinners might 
 be destroyed. And, nevertheless, those who escaped in the 
 ark exhibited a sacramental sign of the Church that was to 
 be, which at present is floating on the waves of the world, and 
 is delivered from submersion by the wood of the cross of 
 Christ. It was predicted to Abraham, a faithful servant of 
 God, a single man, that of him it was determined that a people 
 should be born who should worship one God in the midst of 
 all other nations which worshipped idols ; and all things 
 wliich were prophesied of as destined to happen to that people 
 have come to pass exactly as they were foretold. Among that 
 people Christ, the King of all saints and their God, was also 
 prophesied of as destined to come of the seed of that same 
 Abraham according to the flesh, which (flesh) He took unto 
 Himself, in order that all those also who became followers of 
 His faith might be sons of Abraham ; and thus it has come 
 to pass : Christ was born ot the Virgin ^lary, who belonged 
 to that race. It was foretold by the prophets that He would 
 suffer on the cross at the hands of that same people of the 
 Jews, of whose lineage, according to the flesh, He came ; and 
 thus it has come to pass. It was foretold that He wTiuld rise 
 
 ' Uominem. 
 
CHAP. XXVIL] PEOPHECIES YET TO BE FULFILLED. 333 
 
 again : He has risen again ; and, in accordance with these 
 same predictions of the prophets, He has ascended into heaven 
 and has sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples. It was fore- 
 told not only by the prophets, but also by the Lord Jesns 
 Christ Himself, that His Church would exist throughout the 
 whole world, extended by the martyrdoms and sufferings 
 of the saints ; and this was foretold at a time when as yet 
 His name was at once undeclared to the Gentiles, and made 
 a subject of derision where it was known ; and, nevertheless, 
 in the power of His miracles, whether those which He wrought 
 by His own hand or those which he effected by means of His 
 servants, as these things are being reported and believed, we 
 already see the fulfilment of that which was predicted, and 
 behold the very kings of the earth, who formerly were wont 
 to persecute the Christians, even now brought into subjection 
 to the name of Christ. It was also foretold that schisms and 
 heresies would arise from His Church, and that under His 
 name they would seek their own glory instead of Christ's, in 
 such places as they might be able to command; and these 
 ■predictions have been realized. 
 
 54. "Will those things, then, which yet remain fail to come 
 to pass ? It is manifest that, just as the former class of things 
 which were foretold have come to pass, so will these latter 
 also come to pass. I refer to all the tribulations of the 
 righteous, which yet wait for fulfilment, and to the day of 
 judgment, which will separate all the wicked from the 
 righteous in the resurrection of the dead ; — and not only will 
 it thus separate those wicked men who are outside the Church, 
 but also it will set apart for the fire, which is due to such, the 
 chaff of the Church itself, which must be borne with in utmost 
 patience on to the last winnowing. Moreover, they who 
 deride the (doctrine of a) resurrection, because they think that 
 this flesh, inasmuch as it becomes corrupt, cannot rise again, 
 will certainly rise in the same unto punishment, and God will 
 make it plain to such, that He who was able to form these 
 bodies when as yet they were not, is able in a moment to 
 restore them as they were. But all the faithful who are 
 destined to reign with Christ shall rise with the same body in 
 such wise that they may also be counted worthy to be changed 
 
ON CATKCniSING. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 into angelic incoiTuption ; so that they may be made equal 
 unto the angels of God, even as the Lord Himself has pro- 
 mised ;^ and that they may praise Him without any failure 
 and •without any weariness, ever living in Him and of Him, 
 with such joy and blessedness as can be neither expressed nor 
 conceived by man. 
 
 55. "Believe these things, therefore, and be on your guard 
 against temptations (for the devil seeks for others who may 
 be brought to perish along with himself) ; so that not only 
 may that adversary fail to seduce you by the help of those 
 who are without the Church, whether they be pagans, or Jews, 
 or heretics ; but you yourself also may decline to follow the 
 example of those within the Catholic Church itself whom you 
 see leading an evil life, either indulging in excess in the plea- 
 sures of the belly and the throat, or unchaste, or given up to 
 the vain and unlawful observances of curious superstitions, 
 whether they be addicted to (the inanities of) public spectacles, 
 or charms, or divinations of devils,- or be living in the pomp 
 and inflated arrogance of covetousness and pride, or be pur- 
 suing any sort of life which the law condemns and punishes. 
 But rather connect yourself with the good, whom you will 
 easily find out, if you yourself were once become of that 
 character ; so that you may unite with each other in worship- 
 ping and loving God for His own sake ; ^ for He himself will 
 be our complete reward to the intent that we may enjoy His 
 goodness and beauty * in that life. He is to be loved, how- 
 ever, not in the way in which any object that is seen with 
 the eyes is loved, but as wisdom is loved, and truth, and 
 holiness, and righteousness, and charity,^ and whatever else 
 may be mentioned as of kindred nature ; and further, with a 
 love conformalile to these things not as they are in men, but 
 as they are in the very fountain of incorruptible and un- 
 changeable wisdom. Whomsoever, therefore, you may observe 
 to b(» loving- these things, attach yourself to them, so that 
 
 ' Luke XX. 3n. 
 
 ■•' Himediorum aut divinationum diabolirainnn. Some editions insert sacrlle- 
 goniin after rcmct/torum= sacrilegious cluirnis or tlivinntions of devils. 
 » Gratis. * Cl. Zoch. ix. 17. 
 
 * Many M.ss, omit the words : and holiness, and righteousness, and charity. 
 
CHAP, xxvil] the future kecompense. 335 
 
 through Christ, who became man in order that He might be 
 the Mediator between God and men, you may be reconciled 
 to God. But as regards the perverse, even if they find their 
 way within the walls of the Church, think not that they will 
 find their way into the kingdom of heaven ; for in their own 
 time they will be set apart, if they have not altered to the 
 better. Consequently, follow the example of good men, bear 
 with the wicked, love all ; forasmuch as you know not what 
 he will be to-morrow who to-day is evil. Howbeit, love not 
 the unrighteousness of such ; but love the persons themselves 
 with the express intent that they may apprehend righteousness; 
 for not only is the love of God enjoined upon us, but also the 
 love of our neighbour, on which two commandments hang all 
 the law and the prophets.^ And this is fulfilled by no one 
 save the man who has received the (other) gift,^ the Holy 
 Spirit, who is indeed equal with the Father and with the Son ; 
 for this same Trinity is God ; and on this God every hope 
 ought to be placed. On man our hope ought not to be placed, 
 of whatsoever character he may be. For He, by whom we 
 are justified, is one thing ; and they, together with whom we 
 are justified, are another. Moreover, it is not only by lusts 
 that the devil tempts, but also by the terrors of insults, and 
 pains, and death itself. But whatever a man shall have suf- 
 fered on behalf of the name of Christ, and for the sake of the 
 hope of eternal life, and shall have endured in constancy, (in 
 accordance therewith) the greater reward shall be given him ; 
 whereas, if he shall give way to the devil, he shall be damned 
 along with him. But works of mercy, conjoined with pious 
 humility, meet with this acknowledgment from God, to wit, 
 that He will not suffer His servants to be tempted more than 
 they are able to bear."^ 
 
 1 Matt. xxii. 37, 39. 
 
 2 One edition reads Dominum, the Lord, the Holy -Spirit, etc., instead of 
 donum. 
 
 3 1 Cor. X. 13. 
 
TREATISE ON FAITH AND THE CREED. 
 
 FAITH. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE, 
 
 THE occasion and date of the composition of this treatise 
 are indicated in a statement which Augustine makes 
 in the seventeenth chapter of the First Book of his Eetrada- 
 tions. From this we learn that, in its original form, it was a 
 discourse which Augustine, when only a presbyter, was re- 
 quested to deliver in public by the bishops assembled at the 
 Council of HiiJiJO-Bcgius, and that it was subsequently issued 
 as a book at the desire of friends. The general assembly of 
 the N"ortli African Church, which was thus convened at what 
 is now Bona, in the modern territory of Algiers, took place in 
 the year 393 a.d., and was otherwise one of some historical 
 importance, on account of the determined protest which it 
 emitted against the position elsewhere allowed to Patriarchs 
 in the Church, and against the admittance of any more autho- 
 ritative or magisterial title to the highest ecclesiastical official 
 than that of simply " Bishop of the first Church " {yrimce scdis 
 episcopus). The work constitutes an exposition of the several 
 clauses of the so-called Apostles' Creed. The questions con- 
 cerning the mutual relations of the three Persons in the 
 Godhead are handled with greatest fulness; in connection with 
 which, especially in the use made of the analogies of Being, 
 Knowled.cre, and Love, and in the cautions thrown in ac^ainst 
 certain applications of these and other illustrations taken from 
 things of human experience, we come across sentiments wliich 
 are also repeated in the Citi/ oj God, the books on the Trinity, 
 and others of his doctrinal writings. The passage referred to 
 in the Betractations is as follows : " About the same period, in 
 presence of the bishops, who gave me orders to that effect, and 
 who were holding a plenary Council of the whole of Africa at 
 Hippo-Picgius, I delivered, as presbyter, a discussion on the 
 subject of Faith and the Creed. Tliis disputation, at the very 
 
 239 
 
140 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pressing request of some of those wlio were on terms of more 
 than usual intimacy and affection with us, I threw into the 
 form of a book, in wliich the tlieines themselves are made the 
 subjects of discourse, although not in a method involving the 
 adoption of the particular connection of words which is given 
 to the compctcntcs^ to be committed to memory. In this 
 book, wlicn discussing the question of the resurrection of the 
 flesh, I say :^ ' VAse again the body will, according to the Chris- 
 tian faith, wliich is incapable of deceiving. And if this ap- 
 pears incredible to any one, [it is because] he looks simply to 
 what the flesh is at present, while he fails to consider of what 
 nature it shall be hereafter. For at that time of angelic 
 change it will no more be flesh and blood, but only body;' 
 and so on, through the other statements Avhich I have made 
 there on the subject of the change of bodies terrestrial into 
 bodies celestial, as the apostle, when he spake from the same 
 point, said, ' Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of 
 God.' ^ But if any one takes these declarations in a sense 
 leading him to suppose that the earthly body, such as we now 
 have it, is changed in the resurrection into a celestial body, 
 in any such Avise as that neither these members nor the 
 substance of the flesh will subsist any more, undoubtedly he 
 must be set right, by being put in mind of the body of the 
 Lord, who subsequently to His resurrection appeared in the 
 same members, as One who was not only to be seen with the 
 eyes, but also handled with the hands ; and made His posses- 
 sion of the flesh likewise surer by the discourse w^hich He 
 spake, saying, * Handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh 
 and bones, as ye see me have.' * Hence it is certain that the 
 apostle did not deny that the substance of the flesh will exist 
 in the kingdom of God, but that under the name of ' flesh 
 and blood ' he designated either men who live after the flesh, 
 or the express corruption of the flesh, which assuredly at that 
 period shall subsist no more. For after he had said, 'Flesh 
 and blood shall not inherit the kingdom ot God,* what he pro- 
 ceeds to say next, — namely, ' neither shall corruption inherit 
 
 • i.e. the third order of catecliumcns, embracing those thoroiigldy prepared 
 for l)U])tisin. 
 
 « Chap. X. § 21. ' 1 Cor. .\v. 50. * Luke xxiv. 39. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 341 
 
 incoiTuption/ — is rightly taken to have been added by way of 
 explaining his previous statement. And on this subject, which 
 is one on which it is difficult to convince unbelievers, any 
 one who reads my last book, On the City of God, will find 
 that I have discoursed with the utmost carefulness of which I 
 am capable. The performance in question commences thus : 
 * Since it is written,' etc." ^ 
 
 1 Clt7j of God, V. 21. 
 
A TREATISE ON FAITH AND THE CEEED. 
 
 IN ONE BOOK. 
 
 Chap. i. — Of the origin and object of the composition. 
 
 1. TNASMUCH as it is a position, written and established 
 J- on the most solid foundation of apostolic teaching, 
 " that the just lives of faith ;"^ and inasmuch also as this faith 
 demands of us the duty at once of heart and tongue, — for an 
 apostle says, " With the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
 ness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation," ^ 
 — it becomes us to be mindful both of righteousness and of 
 salvation. Tor, destined as we are to reign hereafter in ever- 
 lasting righteousness, we certainly cannot secure our salvation 
 from the present evil world, unless at the same time, while 
 labouring for the salvation of our neighbours, we likewise 
 with the mouth make our own profession of the faith which 
 we carry in our heart. And it must be our aim, by pious and 
 careful watchfulness, to provide against the possibility of the 
 said faith sustaining any injury in us, on any side, through the 
 fraudulent artifices of the heretics. We have, however, the 
 catholic faith in the Creed, known to the faithful and com- 
 mitted to memory, contained in a form of expression as con- 
 cise as has been rendered admissible by the circumstances of 
 the case ; the purpose of which [compilation] was, that indi- 
 viduals who are but beginners and sucklinojs amoncj those who 
 have been born again in Christ, and who have not yet been 
 strengthened by most diligent and spiritual handling and 
 understanding of the divine Scriptures, should be furnished 
 with a summary, expressed in few words, of those matters of 
 
 ' Hab. ii. 4 ; Eom. i. 17 ; Gul. iii. 11 ; Heb. x. 33. ' Ptom. x. 10. 
 
 S43 
 
344 ON FAITH AND THE CREED. [CHAP. U. 
 
 necessary belief which were subsequently to be explained to 
 them in many words, as they made progress and rose to [the 
 height of] divine doctrine, on the assured and stedfast basis of 
 humility and charity. It is underneath these few words, 
 therefore, which are thus set in order in the Creed, that 
 most heretics have endeavoured to conceal their poisons ; 
 whom divine mercy has withstood, and still withstands, by the 
 instrumentality of spiritual men, who have been counted 
 worthy not only to accept and believe the catholic faith as 
 expounded in those terms, but also thoroughly to understand 
 and apprehend it by the enlightenment imparted by the Lord. 
 Tor it is written, " Unless ye believe, ye shall not under- 
 stand." ^ But the handling of the faith is of service for the 
 protection of the Creed ; not, however, to the intent that this 
 should itself be given instead of the Creed, to be committed to 
 memory and repeated by those who are receiving the grace of 
 God, but that it may guard the matters which are retained in 
 the Creed against tlie insidious assaults of the heretics, by 
 means of catholic authority and a more entrenched defence. 
 
 Chap. ii. — Of God and His exclusive eternity. 
 
 2. For certain parties • have attempted to gain acceptance 
 for the opinion that God the Father is not almighty : not 
 that they have been bold enough expressly to aflirm this, but 
 in their traditions they are convicted of entertaining and 
 crediting such a notion. For when they affirm that there is a 
 nature ^ wliich God Almighty did not create, but of which at 
 the same time lie fashioned this world, which they admit to 
 have been disposed in beauty,^ they thereby deny tliat God 
 is almighty, to tlie effect of not believing that lie could have 
 created the world witliout employing, for the purpose of its 
 construction, another nature, which had been in existence 
 previously, and which lie Himself liad not made. Thus, 
 forsooth, [they reason] from tlieir carnal familiarity with the 
 sight of craftsmen and liouse-builders, and artiifaus of all dc- 
 
 ' Isa. vii, 9, according to the rendering of the Scptungint. 
 ' Naturam. 
 
 3 Reading pxilchre 07-dinalum. Some editions give puldirc ornatuni = beauti- 
 fully adorned. 
 
CHAP. II.] god's creative OMNIPOTENCE. 345 
 
 scriptions, who have no power to make good the effect of 
 their own art unless they get the help ■ of materials already 
 prepared. And so these parties in like manner understand the 
 Maker of the world not to be almighty, if ^ thus He could 
 not fashion the said world without the help of some other 
 nature, not framed by Himself, which He had to use as His 
 materials. Or if indeed they do allow God, the Maker of the 
 world, to be almighty, it becomes matter of course that they 
 must also acknowledge that He made out of nothing the 
 things which He did make. For, granting that He is 
 almighty, there cannot exist anything of which He should 
 not be the Creator. For although He made something out of 
 something, as man out of clay,^ nevertheless He certainly did 
 not make any object out of aught which He Himself had not 
 made ; for the earth from which the clay comes He had made 
 out of nothing. And even if He had made out of some 
 material the heavens and the earth themselves, that is to say, 
 the universe and all things which are in it, accordin^j as it is 
 written, "Thou who didst make the world out of matter 
 unseen," ^ or also " without form," as some copies give it ; yet 
 we are under no manner of necessity to believe that this very 
 material of which the universe was made, although it might 
 be " without form," although it might be '' unseen," whatever 
 might be the mode of its subsistence, could possibly have 
 subsisted of itself, as if it were coeternal and coeval with 
 God. But whatsoever that mode was which it possessed to 
 the effect of subsisting in some manner, whatever that manner 
 might be, and of being capable of taking on the forms of dis- 
 tinct things, this it did not possess except by the hand of 
 Almighty God, by whose goodness it is that everything exists, 
 — not only every object which is already formed, but also every 
 object which is formable. This, moreover, is the difference 
 between the formed and the formable, that the formed has 
 already taken on form, while the formable is capable of taking 
 the same. But the same Being who imparts form to objects, 
 also imparts the capability of being formed. For of Him and 
 
 1 Si mundiim fabricare non posset. For si some mss, give qui = inasmuch as 
 He could not, etc. 
 
 2 Be limo = of mud. ^ Wisd. xi. 17. 
 
3 40 ON FATTII AND THE CREED. [CIIAP. III. 
 
 in Him is the fairest figure^ of all things, unchangeable ; and 
 therefore He Himself is One, who communicates to everything 
 its possibilities, not only that it be beautiful actually, but also 
 that it be capable of being beautiful. For which reason we 
 do most rijrht to believe that God made all thiu^s of nothini:. 
 For, even although the world was made of some sort of ma- 
 terial, this self-same material itself was made of nothin^r ; so 
 tliat, in accordance with the most orderly gift of God, there 
 was to enter first the capacity of taking forms, and then that 
 all things should be formed which have been formed. This, 
 however, we have said, in order that no one might suppose 
 that the utterances of the divine Scriptures are contrary the 
 one to the other, in. so far as it is written at once that God 
 made all things of nothing, and that the world was made of 
 matter without form. 
 
 3. As we believe, therefore, in God the Father Almighty, 
 we ought to uphold the opinion that there is no creature which 
 has not been created by the Almighty. And since He created 
 all tilings by the Word,^ which Word is also designated the 
 Truth, and the Power, and the Wisdom of God,^ — as also under 
 many other appellations the Lord Jesus Christ, who* is com- 
 mended to our faith, is presented likewise to our mental 
 apprehensions, to wit, our Deliverer and Ruler,^ the Son of 
 God ; for that Word, by whose means all things were founded, 
 could not have been begotten by any other than by Him who 
 founded all things by His instrumentality ; — 
 
 CiiAr. III. — Of the Son of God, and His peculiar designation as the Word. 
 
 — Since this is the case, I repeat, we believe also IN Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten of the Father, 
 that is to say, His only Son, our Lord. This AVord, how- 
 ever, we ought not to apprehend merely in the sense in which 
 we tliink of our own words, which are given forth by the voice 
 and the mouth, and strike the air and pass on, and subsist no 
 
 • Speciosissima species = tlie seemliest semblance. ' John i. 3. 
 ' John xiv. 6 ; 1 Cor. i. 24. 
 
 * For 7?/j sovoral mss. give f/uifiu.^ here = under many othor appellations is the 
 Lord J«'sus Christ introduced to our mental apprehensions, by which He is com- 
 mended to our faith. 
 
 ° For Hector we also find Creator = Creator. 
 
CHAP. III.] CIirJST THE WOUD. 347 
 
 longer than their sound continues. For that Word remains 
 unchangeably : for of this very Word was it spoken when of 
 Wisdom it Avas said, " Eemaining in herself, she maketh all 
 thimrs new." ^ Moreover, the reason of His beincj named the 
 Word of the Father, is that the Father is made known by 
 Him. Accordingly, just as it is our intention, when we speak 
 truth, that by means of our words our mind should be made 
 known to him who hears us, and that whatever we carry in 
 secrecy in our heart may be set forth by means of signs of this 
 sort for the intelligent understanding of another individual ; 
 so this AVisdom that God the Father begat is most appropriately 
 named His Word, inasmuch as the most hidden Father is made 
 known to worthy minds by the same.^ 
 
 4. Now there is a very great difference between our mind 
 and those words of ours, by which we endeavour to set forth 
 the said mind. We indeed do not beojet intelliirible words,^ 
 but we form them ; and in the forming of them the body is 
 the underlying material. Between mind and body, however, 
 there is the greatest difference. But God, when He begat 
 the Word, begat that which He is Himself Neither out of 
 nothing, nor of any material already made and founded, did 
 He then beget ; but He begat of Himself that which He is 
 Himself. For we too aim at this when we speak, (as we 
 shall see) if we carefully consider the inclination^ of our 
 will ; not when we lie, but when we speak the truth. For to 
 what else do we direct our efforts then, but to bring our own 
 very mind, if it can be done at all, in upon the mind of the 
 hearer, with the view of its being apprehended and thoroughly 
 discerned by him ; so that we may indeed abide in our very 
 selves, and make no retreat from ourselves, and yet at the 
 same time put forth a sign of such a nature as that by it a 
 
 1 Wisd. vii. 27. 
 
 2 Adopting the Benedictine version, per ipsam innote^cit dignis an'miis sccre- 
 tissbmis Pater. There is, however, great variety of reading here. Some MSS. 
 give ignis for dignis = the most hidden fire of the Father is made known to 
 minds. Otliers give signis = the most hidden Father is made known by signs to 
 minds. Others liave innotescit animus secretissimiis Patris, or innotcscit signis 
 secretissimus Pater = the most hidden mind of the Father is made known by the 
 same, or = the most hidden Father is made known by the same in signs. 
 
 ^ Appetitum. 
 
348 ox FAITIT AXD THE CTlEF/). [CHAP. TV. 
 
 knowledge of iis^ may be effected in another individual ; that 
 thus, so fur as the faculty is granted us, another mind may be, 
 as it were, put forth by the mind, whereby it may disclose 
 itself ? This we do, making the attempt ^ both by words, and 
 by the simple sound of the voice, and by the countenance, 
 and by the gestures of the body, — by so many contrivances, 
 in sooth, desiring to make patent tliat which is williin ; inas- 
 much as we are not able to put forth aught of this nature [in 
 itself completely] : and thus it is that the mind of the speaker 
 cannot become perfectly known ; thus also it results that a 
 place is open for falsehoods. God the Father, on the other 
 hand, wlio possessed both the will and the power to declare 
 Himself with the utmost truth to minds designed to obtain 
 knowledge of Him, with the purpose of thus declaring Him- 
 self begat this [Word] which He Himself is who did beget ; 
 which [Person] is likewise called His Power and Wisdom,^ 
 inasmuch as it is by Him that He has wrought all things, and 
 in order disposed them; of whom these words are for this 
 reason spoken : " She (Wisdom) reacheth from one end to 
 another mightily, and sweetly doth she order all tilings.'"* 
 
 Chap. iv. — Of the Son of God as neither made by the Father nor less than the 
 Father, and of His incarnation. 
 
 5. Wherefore the only-begotten Son of God was neither 
 made by the Father ; for, according to the word of an evange- 
 list, "all things were made by Him :"^ nor begotten instan- 
 taneously ;^ since God, who is eternally' wise, has with 
 Himself His eternal AVisdom : nor unequal with the Father, 
 that is to say, in anything less than He ; for an apostle also 
 speaks in this wise, " Who, although He was constituted in 
 the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with 
 God."^ By this catholic faith, therefore, those are excluded, 
 
 * 2fo8tra notitia = our knowledge. 
 
 ' Rending conanteji et verbis, etc. Three good Mss. give conante fctu verbi = 
 as the oflspring of the word makes the attempt. The lienedictine editors suggest 
 conantes fttu vcrbi = making the atteiujit by tlie ollspring of the word. 
 
 » 1 Cor. i. 24. "* Wisd. viii. 1. ^Joliii i. 3. 
 
 • According to the literal meaning of tlie plirasc ex tempore. It may, how- 
 ever, here be used as = under conditions of time, or in time. 
 
 "^ Reading sempilerne ; ior which seiujutern us = the eternal wise God, is .'.ho 
 given. 
 
 » IMiil. ii. 6. 
 
CHAP. IV.] Christ's eelatiox to the fatheh. 349 
 
 on the one hand, who affirm that the Son is the same [Person] 
 as the Father ; for [it is clear that] this Word could not pos- 
 sibly be with God, were it not with God the Father, and [it is 
 just as evident that] He who is alone i^ equal to i;io one. And. 
 on the other hand, those are equally excluded who affirm that 
 the Son is a creature, although not such an one as the rest of 
 the creatures are. For however great they declare the creature 
 to be, if it is a creature, it has been fashioned and made.^ For 
 the terms fashion and create'^ mean one and the same thing ; 
 although in the usage of the Latin tongue the phrase ereate is 
 employed at times instead of what would be the strictly accu- 
 rate word, hcget. But the Greek language makes a distinction. 
 For we call that creatura (creature) which they call KTiaixa or 
 KTLcn^ ; and when we desire to speak without ambiguity, we 
 use not the word creare (create), but the word condere (fashion, 
 found). Consequently, if the Son is a creature, however great 
 that may be. He has been made. But we believe in Him by 
 whom all things {omnia) were made, not in Him by whom 
 the rest of things (cetera) were made. For here again we 
 cannot take this term all things in any other sense than as 
 meaning whatsoever things have been made. 
 
 6. But as "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amon^" 
 us,"^ the same Wisdom which was begotten of God conde- 
 scended also to be created among men.* There is a reference 
 to this in the word, " The Lord created me in the becrinnincj 
 of His ways." ^ For the beginning of His ways is the Head 
 of the Church, which is Christ ^ endued with human nature 
 (homine indutiis), by whom it was purposed that there should 
 be given to us a pattern of living, that is, a sure ^ Avay by 
 which we might reach God. For by no other path was it 
 possible for us to return but by humility, who fell by pride, 
 according as it was said to our first creation, " Taste, and ye 
 
 ^ Condita et facta est. ^ Condere and creare. ^ John i. 14. 
 
 ^ Adopting in kominihus creavi. One important MS. gives in omnibus = 
 amongst all. 
 
 » Prov. viii. 22, with creavit me instead of the possessed me of the English 
 version. 
 
 ^ Various editions give j^'^'incipiiim et caput Ecclcslm est Chrisius = the begin- 
 ning of His ways and tlie Head ot the Church is Clirist. 
 
 ' For via certa others give via recta = a riglit way. 
 
350 ON FAITH AND THE CREED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 shall be as gods." ^ Of this humility, therefore, that is to say, 
 of the way by wliich it ^vas needful for us to return, our 
 Kestorer Himself has deemed it meet to exhibit an example 
 in His own person, " who thought it not robbery to be equal 
 with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant ;" " 
 in order that He might be created Man in the beginning of 
 His ways, the Word by whom all things were made. Where- 
 fore, in so far as He is the Only-begotten, He has no brethren ; 
 but in so far as He is the Tirst-begotten, He has deemed it 
 worthy of Him to give the name of brethren to all those who, 
 subsequently to and by means of His pre-eminence,^ are born 
 again into the grace of God through the adoption of sons, 
 according to the truth commended to us by apostolic teach- 
 ing.* Thus, then, the Son according to nature {naturalis 
 JUius) was born of the very substance of the Father, the only 
 one so born, subsisting as that which the Father is,^ God of 
 God, Light of Light. We, on the other hand, are not the light 
 by nature, but are enlightened by that Light, so that we may 
 be able to shine in wisdom. For, as one says, " that was the 
 true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world." ^ Therefore w^e add to the faith of things eternal 
 likewise the temporal dispensation^ of our Lord, which He 
 deemed it w^orthy of Him to bear for us and to minister in 
 behalf of our salvation. For in so far as He is the only- 
 begotten Son of God, it cannot be said of Him that He was 
 and that ITe shall he, but only that He is; because, on the 
 one hand, that which was, now is not ; and, on the other, 
 that which shall he, as yet is not. He, then, is unchange- 
 able, independent of the condition of times and variation. 
 
 1 Gen. iii. 5. = Thil. ii. 6, 7. 
 
 3 Per ejus prhnatum = by moans of His standinff as the First-born. "We follow 
 the Benedictine reading, 7^* 2^08t ejus et per ejus prhnatum in Dei gradam 
 rcnascuntur. But there is another, although less authoritative, version, viz. 
 ijiii post ejus primitias in Dei gratia nascimur = all of us who, subsequently to 
 His tirst-fruits, are born in the grace of Cod. 
 
 * Luke viii. 21 ; Kom. viii. 15-17 ; Gal. iv. 5 ; Eph. i. 6 ; Heb. ii. 11. 
 
 " Id existens quod Pater est, etc. Another version is, idem existcns quod 
 Patrr Drus = subsisting as the same that God the Father is. 
 
 « John i. 9. 
 
 ^ The term dispensatio occurs very frequently as the e(][uivalent of the Greek 
 alxotifAitt = economy, designating thf liicai nation. 
 
CHAP. IV.] THE INCARNATION. 351 
 
 And it is my opinion tliat this is the very consideration to 
 which was due the circumstance that He introduced to the 
 apprehension of His servant Moses the kind of name [which 
 He then adopted]. For v^^hen he asked of Him by whom 
 lie should say that he was sent, in the event of the people 
 to whom he was being sent despising him, he received his 
 answer when He spake in this wise : " I am that I am." 
 Thereafter, too. He added this : " Thus shalt thou say unto 
 the children of Israel, He that is {Qui est) has sent me unto 
 you."> 
 
 7. From this, I trust, it is now made patent to spiritual 
 minds that there cannot possibly exist any nature contrary to 
 God. For if He is, — and this is a word which can be spoken 
 with propriety only of God (for that which truly is re- 
 mains unchangeably ; inasmuch as that which is changed has 
 been something which now it is not, and shall be something 
 which as yet it is not), — it follows that God has nothing 
 contrary to Himself. For if the question were put to us, 
 What is contrary to white ? we would reply, black ; if the 
 question were. What is contrary to hot ? we would reply, cold ; 
 if the question were. What is contrary to quick ? we would 
 reply, slow ; and all similar interrogations we would answer 
 in like manner. When, however, it is asked. What is con- 
 trary to that lulhich is ? the right reply to give is, that which 
 is not 
 
 8. But whereas, in a temporal dispensation, as I have said, 
 with a view to our salvation and restoration, and with the 
 goodness of God acting therein, our changeable nature has 
 been assumed by that unchangeable Wisdom of God, we add 
 the faith in temporal things which have been done with salu- 
 tary effect on our behalf, believing in that Son of God who 
 
 WAS BORN THROUGH THE HOLY GhOST OF THE VlRGlN MaRY. 
 
 For by the gift of God, that is, by the Holy Spirit, there was 
 granted to us so great humility on the part of so great a God, 
 that He deemed it worthy of Him to assume the entire 
 nature of man {totum honiincm) in the womb of the Virgin, 
 inhabiting the material body so that it sustained no detriment 
 
 » Ex. iii. 14. 
 
352 ox FAITH AND THI<; CriEED. [chap. IV. 
 
 {intrrjrum), and leaving it * without detriment. This temporal 
 disjiensation is in many ways craftily assailed by the heretics. 
 But if any one shall have grasped the catholic faith, so as to 
 believe that the entire nature of man was assumed by the 
 Word of God, that is to say, body, soul, and spirit, he has 
 sufficient defence against those parties. For surely, since 
 that assumption was effected in behalf of our salvation, one 
 must be on his guard lest, as he believes that there is some- 
 thing belonging to our nature which sustains no relation to 
 that assumption, this something may fail also to sustain any 
 relation to the salvation.^ And seeing that, with the excep- 
 tion of the form of the members, which has been imparted to 
 the varieties of living objects with differences adapted to their 
 different kinds, man is in nothing separated from the cattle 
 but in [the possession of] a rational spirit (rationali spiritu), 
 which is also named mind (mens), how is that faith sound, 
 according to which the belief is maintained, that the Wisdom 
 of God assumed that part of us which we hold in common 
 with the cattle, while He did not assume that which is brightly 
 illumined by the light of wisdom, and which is man's peculiar 
 gift ? 
 
 9. Moreover, those parties^ also are to be abhorred who 
 deny that our Lord Jesus Christ had in Mary a mother upon 
 earth ; while that dispensation has honoured both sexes, at 
 once the male and the female, and has made it plain that not 
 only that sex which He assumed pertains to God's care, but 
 also that sex by which He did assume this other, in that He 
 bore [the nature of] the man {virum gcrcndo), [and] in that 
 He was born of the woman. Neither is there anything to 
 compel us to a denial of the mother of the Lord, in the circum- 
 stance that this word was spoken by Him : " Woman, what 
 have I to do with thee ? Mine hour is not yet come." * But 
 He rather admonishes us to understand that, in respect of His 
 being God, there was no mother for Him, tlie part of whose 
 personal majesty {cvjiis vwjrsfatis iicrsonam) He was preparing 
 
 • Des(rens. With less point, deferens has been suggested = bearing it, or 
 (IrlivcrinK it. 
 
 ' Or it may = he should fail to have any relation to the salvation. 
 " Kcferring to the Alanicheans. * John IL 4. 
 
CHAP. IV.] Christ's birth of the virgin. 353 
 
 to show forth in the turning of water into wine. But as 
 regards His being crucified, He was crucified in respect of His 
 being man; and that was the hour which had not come as 
 yet, at the time when this word was spoken, " What have I 
 to do with thee ? Mine hour is not yet come ;" that is, the 
 hour at which I shall recognise thee. For at that period, 
 when He was crucified as man. He recognised His human 
 mother (hominem mat rem), and committed her most humanely 
 (Immanissimc) to the care of the best beloved disciple.^ Nor, 
 again, should we be moved by the fact that, when the presence 
 of His mother and His brethren was announced to Him, He 
 replied, " Who is my mother, or who my brethren ? " etc.^ But 
 rather let it teach ub, that when parents hinder our ministry 
 wherein we minister the word of God to our brethren, they 
 ought not to be recognised by us. For if, on the ground of His 
 having said^ " Who is my mother ? " every one should conclude 
 that He had no mother on earth, then each should as matter of 
 course be also compelled to deny that the apostles had fathers 
 on earth ; since He gave them an injunction in these terms : 
 " Call no man your father upon the earth ; for one is your 
 Father, which is in heaven." ^ 
 
 10. Neither should the thought of the v/omanly womb 
 impair this faith in us, to the effect that there should appear 
 to be any necessity for rejecting such a generation of our 
 Lord for the mere reason that worthless men consider it 
 unworthy {sordidi sordidam ^Uant). For most true are these 
 sayings of an apostle, both that " the foolishness of God is 
 wiser than men,"* and that "to the pure all things are pure."^ 
 Those,^ therefore, who' entertain this opinion ought to ponder 
 the fact that the rays of this sun, which indeed they do not 
 praise as a creature of God, but adore as God, are diffused all 
 the world over, through the noisomenesses of sewers and every 
 kind of horrible thing, and that they operate in these according 
 to their nature, and yet never become debased by any defilement 
 thence contracted, albeit that the visible light is by nature in 
 closer conjunction with visible pollutions. How much less, 
 therefore, could the Word of God, who is neither corporeal nor 
 
 » John xix. 26, 27. = Matt. xii. 48. ' Matt, xxiii. 9. 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 25. ^ Tit. i. 15. ^ In reference to the Manicheans. 
 
 FAITH. Z 
 
354 ON FAITH AND THE CREED. [cHAP. V. 
 
 visible, sustain defilement from the female body, wherein lie 
 assumed Imman llesli together witli soul and spirit, through 
 the incoming of which the majesty of the Word dwells in a 
 less immediate conjunction with the frailty of a Imman body !^ 
 Hence it is manifest that the Word of God could in no way 
 have been defiled by a human body, by which even the human 
 soul is not defiled. For not when it rules the body and 
 quickens it, but only when it lusts after the mortal good 
 things thereof, is the soul defiled by the body. But if these 
 persons were to desire to avoid the defilements of the soul, 
 they would dread rather these falsehoods and profanities. 
 
 Chat. v. — 0/ Clu-'mt's passion, burial, and resurrection. 
 
 11. But little [comparatively] was the humiliation (humili- 
 tas) of our Lord on our behalf in His being born : it was also 
 added that He deemed it meet to die in behalf of mortal men. 
 For "He humbled Himself, being made subject even unto death, 
 yea, the death of the cross ;"^ lest any one of us, even were he 
 able to have no fear of death [in general], should yet shudder at 
 some particular sort of death which men reckon most shame- 
 ful. Therefore do w^e believe in Him who under 1*ontius 
 Pilate was crucified and buried. For it was requisite that 
 the name of the judge should be added, with a view to the 
 cognizance of the times. Moreover, when that burial is made 
 an object of belief, there enters also the recollection of the 
 new tomb,^ wliich was meant to present a testimony to Him 
 in His destiny to rise again to newness of life, even as tlie 
 Virgin's womb did the same to Him in His appointment to be 
 born. For just as in that sepulchre no other dead person 
 was buried,"* whether before or after Him ; so neither in that 
 womb, whether before or after, was anything mortal conceived. 
 
 12. We believe idso, that on the third day He rose again 
 FROM the dead, the first-begotten for bretliren destined to come 
 
 ' The Benedictine text pives, nuVmn iutn'venn'ntVius hahUat mnjefitns Verhi 
 ah huinani rorporl* frmjUitnte aecrftius. Anotlicr wcU-supjmrted version is, ad 
 humaui corporis fra'jiiUatem, etc. = more retired in relation to the frailty of 
 the human body. 
 
 » I'hil. ii. 8. 
 
 3 For inonumenti some editions give testamenti - tcstanu ut. 
 
 * John xix. 41. 
 
CHAP. VI.] CHRIST'S ASCENSION. 355 
 
 after Him, whom He has called into the adoption of the sons 
 of God/ whom [also] He has deemed it meet to make His own 
 joint-partners and joint-heirs.^ 
 
 Chap. vi. — Of Christ's ascension into heaven. 
 
 13. We believe that He ascended into heaven, which 
 place of blessedness He has likewise promised unto us, say- 
 ing, " They shall be as the angels in the heavens,"^ in that 
 city which is the mother of us all,^ tlie Jerusalem eternal in 
 the heavens. But it is wont to give offence to certain parties, 
 either impious Gentiles or heretics, that we should believe in 
 the assumption of an earthly body into heaven. The Gentiles, 
 however, for the most part, set themselves diligently to ply us 
 with the arguments of the philosophers, to the effect of affirm- 
 ing that there cannot possibly be anything earthly in heaven. 
 For they know not our Scriptures, neither do they understand 
 how it has been said, " It is sown an animal body, it is raised 
 a spiritual body." ^ For thus it has not been expressed, as if 
 body were turned into spirit and became spirit ; inasmuch as 
 at present, too, our body, which is called animal (animale), has 
 not been turned into soul and become soul (amma). But by 
 a spiritual body is meant one which has been made subject to 
 spirit in such wise ^ that it is adapted to a heavenly habitation, 
 all frailty and every earthly blemish having been clianged and 
 converted into heavenly purity and stability. This is the 
 change concerning which the apostle likewise speaks thus : 
 " We shall all rise, but we sliall not all be changed." ^ And 
 that this change is made not unto the worse, but unto the 
 better, the same [apostle] teaches, when he says, "And we 
 shall be changed."^ But the question as to where and in what 
 manner the Lord's body is in heaven, is one which it would 
 be altogether over-curious and superfluous to prosecute. Only 
 we must believe that it is in heaven. For it pertains not to 
 
 1 Eph. i. 5. 2 i^orn, viii, 17, .T ^[.^^^t. xxii. 30. 
 
 * Gal. iv. 26. ^ 1 Cor. xv. 44. 
 
 ^ Adopting the Benedictine reading, quod ita spirilui suhdituni est. Hut 
 several mss. give quia ita coaptandum est = it is understood to be a spiritual 
 body, in that it is to be so adapted as to suit a heavenly habitation. 
 
 7 1 Cor. XV. 51, according to the Vulgate's transposition of the negative. 
 
 « 1 Cor. XV. 52. 
 
'^o6 ON FAITH AND THE CREED. [CHAP. YII. 
 
 our frailty to investigate the secret things of heaven, but it 
 does pertain to our faith to hold elevated and honourable 
 sentiments on the subject of the dignity of the Lord's body. 
 
 CiiAr. VII. — 0/ C/trist's session at the Father's ri<jht hand. 
 
 1 4. We believe also that He sitteth at the right hand of 
 THE Father. This, however, is not to lead us to suppose that 
 God the Father is, as it were, circumscribed by a human form, 
 so that, wh^n we think of Him, a right side or a left should 
 suggest itself to the mind. Nor, again, when it is thus said 
 in express terms that the Father sitteth, are we to fancy 
 that this is done with bended knees ; lest we should fall into 
 that profanity, in [dealing with] which an apostle execrates 
 those who " changed the glory of the incorruptible God into 
 the likeness of corruptible man."^ For it is unlawful for a 
 Christian to set up any such image for God in a temple ; much 
 more nefarious is it, [therefore], to set it up in the heart, in 
 which truly is the temple of God, provided it be purged of 
 earthly lust and error. This expression, " at the right hand," 
 therefore, we must understand to signify a position in su- 
 premest blessedness, where righteousness and peace and joy 
 are ; just as the kids are set on the left hand,^ that is to say, 
 in misery, by reason of unrighteousness, labours, and tor- 
 ments.^ And in accordance with this, when it is said that 
 God " sitteth," the expression indicates not a posture of the 
 members, but a judicial power, which that Majesty never fails 
 to possess, as He is always awarding deserts as men deserve 
 them {digiia dignis trihueiido) ; although at the last judgment 
 the unquestionable brightness of the ouly-begottcn Son of 
 God, the Judge of the living and the dead, is destined yet to 
 be * a thing much more manifest among men. 
 
 f'liAr. VIII. — 0/ChriH's coining fo judgment. 
 
 15. We believe also, that at the most seasonable time He 
 
 ' Kom. i. 23. « Matt. xxv. 33. 
 
 ' licadinj^ propter ini/juifatcs, laborcs atque crticiatiis. Several Mss. give 
 propter iniquitcUis laborer, etc. = by reason of the labours and torments of un- 
 righteousness. 
 
 * \U'in\'u\g/ulura sit ; for which fulsura sit also occurs = is destined to shine 
 much more manifestly, etc. 
 
CHAP. IX.] THE DOCTraNE OF THE TRINITY. 357 
 
 WILL COME FROM THENCE, AND WILL JUDGE THE QUICK AND THE 
 
 DEAD : whether by these terms are signified the rigliteous and 
 sinners, or whether it be the case that those persons are here 
 called the quick, whom at that period He shall find, previous 
 to [their] death,^ upon the earth, while the dead denote those 
 who shall rise again at His advent. This temporal dispen- 
 sation not only is, us holds good of that generation which 
 respects His being God, but also hatJi Iccn and shall he. 
 For our Lord hath been upon the earth, and at present He 
 is in heaven^ and [hereafter] He shall he in His brightness 
 as the Judge of the quick and the dead. 'For He shall yet 
 come, even so as lie has ascended, according to the authority 
 which is contained in the Acts of the Apostles.^ It is in 
 accordance with this temporal dispensation, therefore, that 
 He speaks in the Apocalypse, where it is written in this 
 wise : " These things s.aitli He, who is, and who was, and who 
 is to come."^ 
 
 Chap. ix. — Of the Holy Spirit cuid the mystei-y ^of the Trinity. 
 
 16. The divine generation, therefore, of our Lord, and His 
 human dispensation, .having both been thus systematically dis- 
 posed and commended to faith,^ there is added to our Con- 
 fession, with a view to the perfecting of the faith which we 
 have regarding God, [the doctrine of] the Holy Spirit, who 
 is not of a nature inferior^ to the Father und the Son, but, so 
 to say, consubstantial and coetenial : for this Trinity is one 
 God, not to the effect that the Father is the same [Person] as 
 the Son and the Holy Spirit, but to the effect that the Father 
 is the Father, and the Son is tlie Son, and the Holy Spirit 
 is the Holy Spirit ; and this Trinity is one God, according 
 as it is written, " Hear, Israel, the Lord your God is one 
 
 ^ The text gives simply ante mortem. Some editions insert nostram = previous 
 to our death. 
 
 2 Acts i. 11. ^ Rev. i. S. 
 
 * Instead oifideique commendata et divina generatione, etc., another, but weakly- 
 supported, version is, Jide atque commendata divina, etc. , which makes the sense = 
 The faith, therefore, having l)cen systematically disjjosed, and our Lord's divine 
 generation and human dispensation having been commended to the understand- 
 ing, etc. 
 
 8 Non minore natiira quam Pater. The Benedictine editors suggest minor 
 for minore = not inferior in nature, etc. 
 
358 ON FAITH AND THE CKEED. [CIIAP. IX. 
 
 God."^ At the same time, if we be interrogated on the subject 
 of each separately, and if the question be put to us, " Is the 
 Fatlier God ?" we sliall reply, " He is God." If it be asked 
 whether the Son is God, we shall answer to the same effect. 
 Nor, if this kind of inquiry be addressed to us with respect to 
 the Holy Spirit, ought we to affirm in reply that He is any- 
 thing else than God ; being earnestly on our guard, [however], 
 against an acceptance of this merely in the sense in which it 
 is applied to men, when it is said, " Ye are gods." ^ For of 
 all those who have been made and fashioned of the Father, 
 through the Son, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, none are gods 
 according to nature. For it is this same Trinity that is sig- 
 nified when an apostle says, " For of Him, and in Him, and 
 through Him, are all things." ^ Consequently, although, when 
 we are interrogated on the subject of each [of these Persons] 
 severally, we reply that that particular one regarding whom 
 the question is asked, whether it be the Father, or the Son, or 
 the Holy Spirit, is God, no one, notwithstanding this, should 
 suppose that three Gods are worshipped by us. 
 
 17. Neither is it strange that these things are said in re- 
 ference to an ineffable Nature, when even in those objects 
 which we discern with the bodily eyes, and judge of by the 
 bodily sense, something similar holds good. For take the 
 instance of an interrogation on the subject of a fountain, and 
 consider how we are unable then to affirm that the said 
 fountain is itself the river ; and how, when we are asked about 
 the river, we are as little able to call it the fountain ; and, 
 again, how we are equally unable to designate the draught, 
 which comes of the fountain or the river, either river or 
 fountain. Nevertheless, in the case of this trinity we use the 
 name vjater [for the whole] ; and when the question is put 
 regarding each of these separately, we reply in each several 
 instance that the thing is water. For if I inquire whether it is 
 water in tlie fountain, the reply is given that it is water ; and 
 if we ask whether it is water in the river, no different response 
 is returned ; and in tlie case of the said draught, no other 
 answer can possibly be made : and yet, for all this, we do not 
 speak of tliese things as three waters, but as one water. At 
 
 ' Dcut. vi. 1. ' Ps. Ixxxii. G. ^ Kom. xi. 3G. 
 
CHAP. IX.] THE PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. 359 
 
 the same time, of course, care must be taken that no one should 
 conceive of the ineffable substance of that Majesty merely as he 
 might think of this visible and material^ fountain, or river, or 
 draught. For in the case of these latter, that water which is 
 at present in the fountain goes forth into the river, and does 
 not abide in itself ; and when it passes from the river or from 
 the fountain into the draught, it does not continue permanently 
 there where it is taken from. Therefore it is possible here that 
 the same water may be in view at one time under the appella- 
 tion of the fountain, and at another under that of the river, and 
 at a third under that of the draught. But in the case of that 
 Trinity, we have affirmed it to be impossible that the Father 
 should be sometime the Son, and sometime the Holy Spirit : 
 just as, in a tree, the root is nothing else than the root, and 
 the trunk (rohur) is nothing else than the trunk, and we 
 cannot call the branches anything else than branches ; for 
 what is called the root cannot be called trunk and branches ; 
 and the wood which belongs to the root cannot by any sort of 
 transference be now in the root, and acjain in the trunk, and 
 yet again in the branches, but only in the root ; since this 
 rule of designation stands fast, so that the root is wood, and 
 the trunk is wood, and the branches are wood, while never- 
 theless it is not three woods that are thus spoken of, but only 
 one. Or, if these objects have some sort of dissimilarity, 
 so that on account of their difference in strength they may be 
 spoken of, without any absurdity, as three woods ; at least all 
 parties admit the force of the former example, — namely, that 
 if three cups be filled out of one fountain, they may certainly 
 be called three cups, but cannot be spoken of as three waters, 
 but only as one all together. Yet, at the same time, when 
 asked concerning the several cups, one by one, we may 
 answer that in each of them by itself there is water ; although 
 in this case no such transference takes place as we were 
 speaking of as occurring from the fountain into the river. 
 But these examples in things material {corporalia cxcmpla) 
 have been adduced not in virtue of their likeness to that 
 divine Nature, but in reference to the oneness which subsists 
 even in things visible, so that it may be understood to be 
 
 ^ Corporcum ■=■ corjtoroal. 
 
360 ON FAITH AND THE CREED. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 quite a possibility for three objects of some sort, not only 
 severally, but also all together, to obtain one single name ; and 
 that in this way no one may wonder and tliink it absurd that 
 we should call the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit 
 God, and that nevertheless we should say that there are not 
 three Gods in that Trinity, but one God and one substance.^ 
 
 18. And, indeed, on this subject of the Father and the Son, 
 learned and spiritual^ men have conducted discussions in 
 many books, in which, so far as men could do with men, they 
 have endeavoured to introduce an intelligible account as to 
 how the Father was not one personally with the Son, and yet 
 the two were one substantially ;^ and as to what the Father 
 was individually (^;rc»/>?'i>), and what the Son : to wit, that 
 the former was the Begetter, the latter the Begotten ; the 
 former not of the Son, the latter of the Father : the former 
 the Beginning of the latter, whence also He is called the Head 
 of Christ,'^ although Christ likewise is the Beginning,^ but not 
 of the Father ; the latter, moreover, the Image ^ of the former, 
 although in no respect dissimilar, and although absolutely 
 and without difference equal {omnino et indifferenter cequalis). 
 These questions are handled with greater breadth by those 
 who, in less narrow limits than ours are at present, seek to 
 set forth the profession of the Christian faith in its totality. 
 Accordingly, in so far as He is the Son, of the Father received 
 He it that He u, while that other [the Father] received not 
 this of the Son ; and in so far as He, in unutterable mercy, in 
 a temporal dispensation took upon Himself the [nature of] 
 man Qiomincm), — to wit, the cliangeable creature that was 
 thereby to be changed into something better, — many statements 
 
 ^ Many mss., however, insert colamxm after Deuvx in the closing sentence, sed 
 nnum Dtum nnamqve substantiam. The sense then will be = and that never- 
 tlic'lcss we should worship in that Trinity not three Gods, but one God and one 
 substance. 
 
 ' Spiritnles, for which religiosi = religious, is also sometimes given. 
 
 ' Non xniHs eanet Pater et Filius, sed unnm easeni = how the Father and the 
 Son wore not one in person, but were one in essence. 
 
 ♦ 1 Cor. xi. 3. 
 
 * In reference probably to John viii. 25, where the Vulgate gives principium 
 qui et lo'iuor vobia as the literal equivalent for the Greek rn* «^;t''» •»'■' *** 
 
 XaXti lf*.7i. 
 
 «Cul. i. Vo. 
 
CHAP. IX.] THE SON CONSUBSTANTIAL WITH THE FATHER. 361 
 
 concerning Him are discovered in tlie Scriptures, which are so 
 expressed as to have given occasion to error in the impious 
 intellects of heretics, with whom the desire to teach takes 
 precedence of that to understand, so that they have supposed 
 Him to be neither equal with the Father nor of the same 
 substance. Such statements [are meant] as the following: 
 " Eor the Father is greater than I ;" ^ and, " The head of the 
 woman is the man, the Head of the man is Chiist, and the 
 Head of Christ is God;"' and, "Then shaU He Himself be 
 subject unto Him that put all things under Him ;" ^ and, " I 
 go to my Father and your Father, my God and your God :'"* 
 together with some others of like tenor. Now all these 
 have had a place given them, [certainly] not with the object 
 of signifying an inequality of nature and substance ; fo-r to 
 take them so would be to falsify a different class of state- 
 ments, such as, "I and my Father are one" (uniun) ;^ and, 
 "He that hath seen me hath seen my Father also;"*^ and, 
 " The Word was God," ' — for He was not made, inasmuch as 
 " all things were made by Him ;" ^ and, " He thought it not 
 robbery to be equal with God:"^ together with all the other 
 passages of a similar order. But these statements have had 
 a place given them, partly with a view to that administration 
 of His assumption of human nature (administrationcm suscepti 
 hominis), in accordance with which it is said that " He emptied 
 Himself:" not that that Wisdom was changed, since it is 
 absolutely unchangeable ; but that it was His will to make 
 Himself known in such humble fashion to men. Partly then, 
 I repeat, it is with a view to this administration tliat those 
 thino^s have been thus written which the heretics make the 
 ground of their false allegations ; and partly it was with a 
 view to the consideration that the Son owes to the Father that 
 which He is,^^ — thereby also certainly owing this in particular 
 to the Father, to wit, that He is equal to the same Father, 
 or that He is His Peer (cidcm Patri cpqiialis ant j)ar est), 
 whereas the Father owes whatsoever He is to no one. 
 
 ' John xiv. 28. = 1 Cor. xi. 3. ^ 1 Cor. xv. 28. 
 
 * John XX. 17. '•' John x. 30. ^ John xiv. 9. 
 
 ' John i. 1. 8 John i. 3. » Phil. ii. 9. 
 
 ^0 Or it may be = that the Son owes it to the Father that He is. 
 
362 ON FAITH AND THE CRKED. [CRAP. IX. 
 
 19. With respect to the Holy Spirit, however, there has 
 not been as yet, on the part of learned and distinguished 
 investigators of the Scriptures, a discussion of the su]>ject full 
 enough or careful enough to make it possible for us to obtain 
 an intelligent conception of what also constitutes His special 
 individuality {projirium) : in virtue of which special indivi- 
 duality it comes to be the case that we cannot call Him 
 either the Son or the Father, but only the Holy Spirit ; 
 excepting that they predicate Him to be the Gift of God, so 
 that we may believe God not to give a gift inferior to Himself. 
 At the same time they hold by this position, namely, to 
 predicate the Holy Spirit neither as begotten, like the Son, of 
 the Father ; for Christ is the only one [so begotten] : nor as 
 [begotten] of the Son, like a Grandson of the Supreme Father : 
 while they do not affirm Him to owe that which He is to no 
 one, Ijut [admit Him to owe it] to the Father, of whom are all 
 things ; lest we should establish two Beginnings without be- 
 ginning {ne duo co)istituamus principia isnc principio), which 
 would be an assertion at once most false and most absurd, and 
 one proper not to the catholic faith, but to the error of certain 
 heretics.^ Some, however, have gone so far as to believe that 
 the communion of the Father and the Son, and (so to speak) 
 their Godhead (deitatem), which the Greeks designate Oeorr]^, is 
 the Holy Spirit ; so that, inasmuch as the Father is God and 
 the Son God, the Godhead itself, in which they are united with 
 each other, — to wit, the former by begetting the Son, and the 
 latter by cleaving to the Father,^ — should [thereby] be con- 
 stituted equal with Him by whom He is begotten. This 
 Godhead, then, which they wish to be understood likewise as 
 the love and cliarity subsisting between tliese two [Persons], the 
 one toward the other, they affirm to have received the name 
 of the Holy Spirit. And this opinion of theirs they support 
 by many proofs drawn from tlie Scriptures ; among which we 
 might instance either the passage which says, " For the love of 
 God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who has 
 been given unto us," ^ or many otlier proof texts of a similar 
 tenor : wliile they ground their position also upon the express 
 
 ' In reference, again, to Maniohean errorists. 
 I\itri cuhctrendo = by close connection with tlio Fatlier. ^ Rom. v. 5. 
 
CHAP. IX.] OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 fact that it is through the Holy Spirit that -we are reconciled 
 unto God ; whence also, when He is called the Gift of God, 
 they will have it that sufficient indication is offered of the 
 love of God and the Holy Spirit being identical. For we are 
 not reconciled unto Him except through that love in virtue 
 of which we are also called sons : ^ as we are no more " under 
 fear, like servants," ^ because " love, when it is made perfect, 
 casteth out fear;"^ and [as] "we have received the spirit of 
 liberty, wherein we cry, Abba, Father." * And inasmuch as, 
 being reconciled and called back into friendship through love, 
 we shall be able to become acquainted with all the secret 
 things of God, for this reason it is said of the Holy Spirit that 
 " He shall lead you into all truth." ^ For the same reason 
 also, that confidence in preaching the truth, with which the 
 apostles were filled at His advent,^ is rightly ascribed to 
 love ; because diffidence also is assigned to fear, wliich the 
 perfecting of love excludes. Thus, likewise, the same is called 
 the Gift of God,^ because no one enjoys that which he knows, 
 unless he also love it. To enjoy the Wisdom of God, how- 
 ever, implies nothing else than to cleave to the same in 
 love {ei dilectione cohcerere). Neither does any one abide in 
 that which he apprehends, but by love ; and accordingly the 
 Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of sanctity (Spiritus Sanctus), 
 inasmuch as all things that are sanctioned (sanciuntur) ^ 
 are sanctioned with a view to their permanence, and there 
 is no doubt that the term sanctity {sanctitatcm) is derived 
 from sanction {a sanciendo). Above all, however, that testi- 
 mony is employed by the upholders of this opinion, where 
 it is thus written, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, 
 and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit ;"^ " for God is a 
 Spirit." ^^ For here He speaks of our regeneration/^ which is 
 
 ^ 1 John iii. 1. The word Dei = of God, is sometimes added here. 
 
 ^ Rom. viii. 15. '1 John iv. 18. * Rom. viii. 15. 
 
 5 John xvi. 13. ^ Acts ii. 4. ^ Eph. iii. 7, 8. 
 
 8 Instead of sanciuntur, which is the reading of the mss., some editions give 
 sanctificantur = all things that are sanctified are sanctioned, etc. 
 
 » John iii. 6. ^o John iv. 24. 
 
 ^^ Reading, with the Mss. and the Benedictine editors, JIlc eniin regenera- 
 f.ionem nostram (licit. Some editions give Hoc for Uic, and dicunt fur dicit = 
 for they say that this expresses our regeneration. 
 
3G4 ON FAITII AND THE CREED. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 not, accordiog to Adam, of the flesh, but, according to Christ, 
 of the Holy Spirit. Wherefore, if in this passage mention 
 is made of the Holy Spirit, when it is said, " For God is a 
 Spirit," they maintain that we must take note that it is not 
 said, " for the Spirit is God," ^ but, " for God is a Spirit ;" so 
 that tlie very Godhead of the Father and the Son is in this 
 passage called God, and that is the Holy Spirit. To this is 
 added another testimony which the Apostle John offers, when 
 he says, " For God is love." ^ For Jiere, in like manner, what 
 he says is not, "Love is God,"^ but, " God is love ;" so tliat 
 the very Godhead is taken to be love. And with respect 
 to the circumstance that, in that enumeration of mutually 
 connected objects which is given when it is said, " All things 
 are yours, and ye are .Christ's, and Clirist is God's," * as also, 
 " The head of the woman is the man, the Head of the man is 
 Christ, and the Head of Christ is God," ^ there is no mention 
 of the Holy Spirit ; this they affijm to be but an application of 
 the principle that, in general, the connection itself is not wont 
 to be enumerated among the things which are connected with 
 each other. "Whence, also, those who read with closer atten- 
 tion appear to recognise the express Trinity likewise in that 
 passage in which it is said, " Far of Him, and througli Him, 
 and in Him, are aU things." ^ " Of Him," as if it meant, of that 
 One who owes it to no one that He is ; " tlii'ough Him," as 
 if the idea were, thxough a Mediator ; " in Him," as if it were, 
 in tliat One who holds together, that is, unites by connecting. 
 20. Those parties oppose tliis opinion who tliiuk that the 
 said -communion, which we call either .Godhead, or Love, or 
 Charity, is not a substance. Moreover, they require the Holy 
 Spirit to be set forth to them according to substance ; ncitlier 
 do .they take it to have been otherwise impossible for the 
 expression " God is love " to have been used, unless love were 
 a sul)stanee. In this, indeed, tliey are influenced by the wont 
 of things of a bodily nature. For if two bodies are connected 
 
 ■ Quoniam Spiritus Detu est. But various editions and mss. give Dei for 
 DeiM — for the Spirit is of God. 
 
 ' 1 John iv. 16. 
 
 ^ Here again, instead of dikctio Dcus est, we also find dilectio Dei est = lovr in 
 of Ciod. 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. » 1 Cor. xi. 3. ' Kom. xi. 36. 
 
CHAP. IX.] KNOWLEDGE DEPENDENT ON PURITY. 365 
 
 with each other in such wise as to be placed in juxtaposition 
 one with the other, the connection itself is not a body : inas- 
 much as when these bodies which had been connected are 
 separated, no such connection certainly is found [any more] ; 
 while, at the same time, it is not understood to have departed, 
 as it were, and migrated, as is the case with those bodies 
 themselves. But men like these should make their heart 
 pure, so far as they can, in order that they may have power 
 to see that in the substance of God there is not anything of 
 such a nature as would imply that therein substance is one 
 thing, and that which is~ accident to substance (aliud quod 
 accidat substantice) another thing, and not substance ; whereas 
 whatsoever can be taken to be therein is substance. These 
 things, however, can easily be spoken and believed ; but seen, 
 so as to reveal how they are in themselves, they absolutely 
 cannot be, except by tk^e pure heart. For which reason, 
 whether the opinion in question be true, or something else be 
 the case, the faith ought to be maintained unshaken, so that 
 we should call the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit 
 God, and yet not affirm three Gods, but hold the said Trinity 
 to be one G<)d; and again, not affirm these [Persons] to be 
 different in nature, but hold them to be of the same substance ; 
 and further uphold it, not as if the Father were sometime 
 the Son, and sometime the Holy Spirit, but in such wise that 
 the Father is always the Father, and tlie Son always the Son, 
 and the Holy Spirit always the Holy Spirit. Neitlier shoidd 
 we make any affirmation on the subject of things unseen 
 rashly, as if we had knowledge, but [only modestly] as believ- 
 ing. For these things cannot be seen except by the heart 
 made pure ; and [even] he who in this life sees them " in part," 
 as it has been said, and " in an enigma," ^ cannot secure it that 
 the person to whom he speaks shall also see them, if he is 
 hampered by impurities of heart. " Blessed," however, " are 
 they of a pure heart, for they shall see God." ^ This is the 
 faith on the subject of God our Maker and Ptenewer. 
 
 21. But inasmuch as love is enjoined upon us, not only 
 toward God, when it was said, " Thou slialt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with aU 
 
 1 1 Cor. xiii. 12. » Matt. v. 8. 
 
3G6 ON FAITH AND THE CREED. [CHAP. X. 
 
 thy mind ; " i but also toward our neighbour, for " thou shalt 
 love," saith lie, " thy neighljour as thyself;" ^ and inasmuch, 
 moreover, as the faith in question is less fruitful, if it does 
 not comprehend a congregation and society of men, wherein 
 brotherly charity may operate ; — 
 
 CiFAP. X. — Of the catholic Churchy the remission of sins, and the resurrection 
 
 of the flesh. 
 
 — Inasmuch, I repeat, as this is the case, we believe also in 
 THE HOLY Church, [intending thereby] assured ly the c atholic . 
 Tofliiotli heretics and schismatics style their congregations 
 churches. But heretics, in holding false opinions regarding 
 God, do injury to the faith itself ; while schismatics, on the 
 other hand, in wicked separations break off from brotherly 
 charity, although they may believe just w^hat we believe. 
 Wherefore neither do the heretics belong to the Cliiirch 
 catholic, which loves God ; nor do the schismatics form a 
 part of the same, inasmuch as it loves the neighbour, and 
 consequently readily forgives the neighbour's sins, because it 
 prays that forgiveness may be extended to itself by Him who 
 has reconciled us to Himself, doing away with all past things, 
 and calling us to a new life. And until we reach the per- 
 fection of this new life, we cannot be without sins. Never- 
 theless it is a matter of consequence of what sort those sins 
 may be. 
 
 22. Neither ought we only to treat of the difference between 
 sins, but we ought most thoroughly to believe that those things 
 in which we sin are in no way forgiven us, if we show our- 
 selves severely unyielding in tlie matter of forgiving the sins 
 of others.'' Thus, then, we believe also in tlie remission of 
 
 SINS. 
 
 23. And inasmuch as there are three things of which man 
 consists, — namely, spirit, soul, and body, — which again are 
 spoken of as two, because frequently the soul is named along 
 with the spirit ; for a certain rational portion of the same, of 
 which beasts are devoid, is called spirit : the principal part in 
 us is the spirit ; next, the life whereby we are united with the 
 body is called the soul ; finally, the body itself, as it is visible, 
 is the last part in us. This " wliole creation" (crcatura), how- 
 
 ' Dout. vi. 5. ' Luke x. 27. ' Matt. vi. 15. 
 
CHAP. X.] BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT. 367 
 
 ever, " groaneth and travaileth until now." ^ Nevertheless, 
 He has given it the first-fruits of the Spirit, in that it has 
 believed God, and is now of a good will. ^ This spirit is 
 also called the mind, regarding which an apostle speaks thus : 
 " With the mind I serve the law of God." ^ Wliich apostle 
 likewise expresses himself thus in another passage : " For God 
 is my witness, w^iom I serve in my spirit." * Moreover, the 
 soul, when as yet it lusts after carnal good things, is called 
 the flesh. For a certain part thereof resists ^ the Spirit, not 
 in virtue of nature, but in virtue of the custom of sins ; 
 whence it is said, "With the mind I serve the law of God, 
 but with the flesh the law of sin." And this custom has been 
 turned into a nature, according to mortal generation, by the sin 
 of the first man. Consequently it is also written in this wise, 
 " And we were sometime by nature the children of wrath," ^' 
 that is, of vengeance, through wdiich it has come to pass that 
 we serve the law of sin. The nature of the soul, however, is 
 perfect when it is made subject to its own spirit, and when 
 it follows that spirit as the same follows God. Therefore 
 " the animal man ^ receiveth not the things which are of the 
 Spirit of God." ^ But the soul is not so speedily subdued to 
 the spirit unto good action, as is the spirit to God unto true 
 faith and goodwill; but sometimes its impetus, whereby it 
 moves downward into things carnal and temporal, is more 
 tardily bridled. But inasmuch as this same soul is also made 
 pure, and receives the stability of its own nature, under the 
 dominance of the spirit, which is the liead for it, which head 
 of the said soul has again its own liead in Christ, we ought 
 not to despair of the restoration of the body also to its own 
 proper nature. But this certainly will not be eflected so 
 speedily as is the case with the soul ; just as tlie soul, too, is 
 
 ' Rom. viii. 22. 
 
 ^ Reading spiritil'i. Taking apiritiis, the sense might be = Nevertheless, the 
 spirit hath imparted the first-fruits, in that it has believed God, and is now of 
 a good will. 
 
 3 Rom. vii. 25. * Rom. i. 9. 
 
 5 Instead of caro nominatur. Pars enhn ejus (jiuTdam rfslMit, etc., some 
 good Mss. read caro nominatur et resislif, etc. = is called the flesh, and resists, etc. 
 
 ^ Eph. ii. 3. ^ Animalis liomo, literally = the soulish man. 
 
 » 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
368 ON FAITH AND THE CREED. [CIL\P. X. 
 
 not restored so speedily as tlie sj)irit. Yet it will take place 
 ill the appropriate season, at tlie last tnnnj), when "the dead 
 shall rise uncorrupted, and we shall be changed."^ And 
 accordingly we believe also in the resurrection of the flesh, 
 to wit, not merely that that soul, which at present by reason 
 of carnal affections is called the flesh, is restored ; but that it 
 shall be so likewise with this visible flesh, which is the flesh 
 according to nature, the name of which has been received 
 by the soul, not in virtue of nature, but in reference to carnal 
 affections: this visible flesh, then, I say, which is the flesh 
 properly so called, must without doubt be believed to be 
 destined to rise again. For the Apostle Paul appears to point 
 to this, as it were with his finger, when he says, " This cor- 
 ruptible must put on incorruption." ^ For when he says this, 
 he, as it were, directs his finger toward it. Now it is that 
 which is visible that admits of being pointed out with the 
 finger ; since the soul might also have been called corruptible, 
 for it is itself corrupted by vices of manners. And when 
 it is read, " and this mortal [must] put on immortality," the 
 same visible flesh is signified, inasmuch as at it ever and anon 
 the finger is thus as it were pointed. For the soul also may 
 thus in like manner be called mortal, even as it is desig- 
 nated corruptible in reference to vices of manners. For 
 assuredly it is "the death of the soul to apostati:?e from 
 God ; " ^ which is its first sin in Paradise, as it is contained in 
 the sacred writings. 
 
 24i Rise again, therefore, the body will, according to the 
 Christian faith, which is incapable of deceiving. And if this 
 appeaiTS incredible to any one, [it is because] he looks simply 
 to what the flesh is at present, while he fails to consider of 
 what nature it sIkiU be hereafter. For at that time of angelic 
 change it will no more be flesh and blood, but only body.* 
 For when the apostle speaks of the flesh, he says, " There is 
 one flesh of cattle, another of biwls, anotht?r of fishes, another 
 
 > 1 Cor. XV. 39. * 1 Cor. xv. 53. 
 
 ' The text gives, Mora quippr anim(t est apostatare a Deo. The roforonce, 
 perhaps, is to Ecclua. x. 14, where the Vulgate has, initium aupcrbice hominia, 
 apostatare a Deo. 
 
 * Augustine refers to this statoment in the passage quoted from the Retracta- 
 tions in the Introductory Notice above. 
 
CHAP. X.] THE EESUERECTION OF THE BODY. 369 
 
 of creeping things : there are also both celestial bodies and ter- 
 restrial bodies." ^ Now what he has said here is not " celestial 
 flesh," but " both celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies." For 
 all flesh is also body ; but every body is not also flesh. In 
 the first instance, [for example, this holds good] in the case of 
 those terrestrial bodies, inasmuch as wood is body, but not 
 flesh. In the case of man, again, or in that of cattle, we have 
 both body and flesh. In the case of celestial bodies, on the other 
 hand, there is no flesh, but only those simple and lucent bodies 
 which the apostle designates spiritual, while some call them 
 ethereal. And consequently, when he says, " Flesh and blood 
 shall not inherit the kingdom of God," ^ that does not contra- 
 dict the resurrection of the flesh ; but the sentence predicates 
 what will be the nature of that hereafter which at present is 
 flesh and blood. And if any one refuses to believe that the 
 flesh is capable of being changed into the sort of nature thus 
 indicated, he must be led on, step by step, to this faith. For 
 if you inquire of him whether earth is capable of being 
 changed into water, the nearness of the thing will make it 
 not seem incredible to him. Again, if you inquire whether 
 water is capable of being changed into air, he replies that this 
 also is not absurd, for the elements are near each other. And 
 if, on the subject of the air, it is asked whether that can be 
 changed into an ethereal, that is, a celestial body, the simple 
 fact of the nearness at once convinces him of the possibility 
 of the tiling. But if, then, he concedes that through such 
 gradations it is quite a possible thing that earth should be 
 changed into an ethereal body, why does he refuse to believe, 
 when that will of God, too, enters in addition, whereby a 
 human body had power to walk upon the waters, that the 
 same change is capable of being effected with the utmost 
 rapidity, precisely in accordance with the saying, " in the 
 twinkling of an eye," ^ and without any such gradations, even 
 as, according to common wont, smoke is changed into flame 
 with marvellous quickness ? For our flesh assuredly is of 
 earth. But philosophers, on the ground of whose arguments 
 opposition is for the most part offered to the resurrection of 
 the flesh, so far as in these they assert that no terrene body 
 
 1 1 Cor. XV. 39, 40. ■ 1 Cor. xv. 50. 3 i Cor. xv. 52. 
 
 FAITH. 2 A 
 
370 ON FAITH AND THE CREED. [CIIAP. X. 
 
 can possibly exist in lieaven, yet concede that any kind of body 
 may be converted and changed into every [other] sort of body. 
 And wlien tliis resurrection of the body has taken place, being 
 set free tlien from tlie condition of time, we shall fully enjoy 
 eternal life in ineffable love and stedfastness, without corrup- 
 tion.* For " then shall be brought to pass the saying which 
 is written, Deatli is swallowed up in victory. Wliere is, 
 death, thy sting ? AVliere is, deatli, thy contention ? " ' 
 
 25. This is the faith whicli in few words is given in tlie 
 Creed to Christian novices, to be held l)y them. And these 
 few words are known to the faithful, to the end that in 
 believing tliey may be made subject to God ; that being made 
 subject, they may rightly live ; that in rightly living, tliey may 
 make the heart pure ; that with the heart made pure, they may 
 understand that wliich thev believe. 
 
 * Instead of a temporis conditione liberati, ceterna vita ineffahili caritate atque 
 stabilitate sine comiptione perfruennir, several Mss. read, corjnis a temporis 
 conditione liberatum ceterna vita ineffahili caritate perfruetur = the body, set free 
 from the condition of time, shall fully enjoy eti-rnul life in ineffable love. 
 
 2 1 Cor. XV. 54, 55. 
 
IiNDEXES. 
 
 I.— INDEX OF TEXTS. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Genesis. 
 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 
 XX. 8, . 
 
 . 272 
 
 i. 1, 
 
 270 
 
 xi. 4, . 
 
 157 
 
 xxiii. 6, 
 
 . 199 
 
 i. 27, . 
 
 319 
 
 xiii. 19, 
 
 47 
 
 XXV. 18, 
 
 . 301 
 
 i. 31, . 
 
 278 
 
 xxi. 7, . 
 
 207 
 
 xxvii. 1, 
 
 . 234 
 
 ii. 1-3, . 
 
 306 
 
 
 
 xxxi. 19, 
 
 . 254 
 
 ii. 8, 0, 15, . 
 
 115 
 
 Deuteronomy. 
 
 xxxiii. 2, 
 
 . 54 
 
 ii. 17, . 
 
 194 
 
 V. 9, . . 
 
 208 
 
 xxxiv. 2, 
 
 . 114 
 
 iii. 5, 
 
 350 
 
 VI. 4, 
 
 358 
 
 XXXV. 2, 
 
 . 103 
 
 vi. 7, . 
 
 310 
 
 vi. 5, . . 19, 366 
 
 XXXV. 14, 
 
 . 26 
 
 vi. 22, . 
 
 318 
 
 xiii. 1-3, 
 
 60 
 
 XXXV. 18, 
 
 . 142 
 
 viii. 11, 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 xxx\dii. 9, 
 
 . 221 
 
 ix. 20-24, . 
 
 156 
 
 Judges. 
 
 
 xliii. 1, . 
 
 . 214 
 
 X. 20, 31, 32, 
 
 116 
 
 vi. 14-21, . 
 
 157 
 
 Ii. 5, . 
 
 . 209 
 
 xi. 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 Ii. 7, . 
 
 . 52 
 
 xi. 1, . 
 
 116 
 
 1 Samuel. 
 
 
 Ii. 7, 8, . 
 
 . 78 
 
 xiv. 18, 19, . 
 
 156 
 
 xxviii. . 
 
 60 
 
 Ii. 10, . 
 
 . 198 
 
 xvii. 4, . 
 
 . 318 
 
 
 
 Ii. 17, . 
 
 . 221, 299 
 
 xviii. 4, 
 
 217 
 
 2 Samuel. 
 
 
 liv. 1, . 
 
 . 214 
 
 xviii. 20, 
 
 233 
 
 vii. 14-16, . 
 
 110 
 
 lix. 10, . 
 
 199, 230 
 
 xix. 2, . 
 
 217 
 
 xii. 1-6, 19-23, 
 
 99 
 
 Ixxv. 8, 
 
 . 102 
 
 xxii. 13, 
 
 8 
 
 xvi. 22, 
 
 99 
 
 Ixxix. 9, 
 
 . 253 
 
 XXV. 24, 
 
 59 
 
 xviii. 5, 
 
 99 
 
 Ixxix. 11, 
 
 . 301 
 
 XXV. 26, . 27 
 
 1, 313 
 
 xix. 1, . 
 
 99 
 
 xc. 9, . 
 
 . 200 
 
 xxviii. 11, 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 xciii. 5, 
 
 . 165 
 
 xxxii. 24, 25, 
 
 217 
 
 1 Kings. 
 
 
 ci. 1, . 
 
 . 240 
 
 xxxvii. 33, . 
 
 11^ 
 
 xi. 1-3, 
 
 100 
 
 ex. 4, . 
 
 . 156 
 
 xxxviii. 27-30, 
 
 . 313 
 
 xvi. 13, 
 
 315 
 
 cxi. 2, . 
 
 . 245 
 
 
 
 xix. 8, . 
 
 52 
 
 cxi. 10, . 
 
 40 
 
 Exodus. 
 iii. 14, . .2 
 iii. 21, 22, . 
 ix. 16, . 
 xii. 
 
 xii. 22, . 
 xii. 35, 36, . 
 
 7,351 
 
 76 
 
 244 
 
 321 
 
 77 
 76 
 
 2 Chronicle.^ 
 i. 10-12, 
 
 Esther. 
 iv. 16, . 
 
 Job. 
 
 100 
 171 
 
 cxv. 3, . 
 cxvii. 22, . 
 cxix. 164, 
 cxxxii. 18, 
 cxxxix. 16, 
 cxliii. 10, 
 cxlviii. 5, 
 
 241, 248 
 . 323 
 . 114 
 . 48 
 84 
 . 145 
 . 306 
 
 XV. 25, . 
 xviii. 13, 
 
 8 
 4 
 
 xiv. 1, . 
 
 xxii. 28, 
 
 200 
 176 
 
 PROVt 
 
 ii. 6, 
 
 BBS. 
 
 . 118 
 
 xix. 1, . 
 XX. 5, . 
 
 xxiv. 18, 
 
 321 
 
 208 
 52 
 
 ii. 7, 
 V. 12, 
 
 Psalms. 
 
 210 
 103 
 
 viii. 22, 
 ix. 17, . 
 xvi. 1, . 
 
 29, 349 
 
 . 102 
 
 . 199, 2.-)0 
 
 xxxii. 4, 31, . 
 xxxiii. 19, 
 
 208 
 243 
 
 X. 3, 
 X. 5, 
 xi. 5, 
 
 
 233 
 
 20 
 
 2.30 
 
 xix. 21, 
 XXV. 21, 22, 
 
 . 298 
 . 95 
 
 Levitk rs. 
 
 
 xvi. 2, 
 
 
 27 
 
 ECCLESI 
 
 astes. 
 
 xix. 18,. 
 
 . 19 
 
 xvi. 4, 
 
 
 137 
 
 iii. 5, 
 
 . 97 
 
 371 
 
-372 
 
 INDEX OF TEXT.S. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cantici.k.s. 
 
 
 Malachi. 
 
 vi. 9 13, 
 
 . 255 
 
 i. T), 
 
 108 
 
 i. 2, 3, . . 243 
 
 vi. 12, . 
 
 193, 226 
 
 iv. 2, . 
 
 38 
 
 
 vi. 14, . 
 vi. 1.-., . 
 
 . 228 
 22 S, .3GG 
 
 I.SAIAH. 
 
 
 APOCRYPHA. 
 
 vii. 7, . 
 
 191), 257 
 
 V. 7, . . . 
 
 23.S 
 
 
 vii. 12, . 
 
 94 
 
 V. 20, . . is:^ 
 
 , 189 
 
 1 ESDRA.S, 
 
 vii. IG, . 
 
 . 185 
 
 vii. y, . 45 
 
 , 344 
 
 i. 7, . . . 31G 
 
 vii. 18, . 
 
 . 184 
 
 X. 22, . 
 
 112 
 
 
 vii. 21, 22, . 
 
 . 328 
 
 xiv. 12, 117 
 
 , 118 
 
 ToriT. 
 
 ix. 20, . 
 
 . 3(> 
 
 xxviii. IG, 
 
 323 
 
 iv. IT), ... 94 
 
 X. IG, . 51 
 
 102, 323 
 
 xl. 6, 8, 
 
 303 
 
 iv. 17, . . . 9G 
 
 X. 19, 20, 
 
 . 144 
 
 xlii. IG, 
 
 108 
 
 viii. 5-7, . . 97 
 
 X. 39, . 
 
 95 
 
 li.i. 7, . . . 
 
 313 
 
 
 X. 42, . 
 
 . 148 
 
 Iviii. 7, . 
 
 4") 
 
 Wl.SDOM. 
 
 xi. 21, . 
 
 . 241 
 
 Ixi. 10, . 
 
 107 
 
 iv. 3, . . . 46 
 
 xi. 28-30, . 
 
 77 
 
 
 
 vi. 24, . . 125, 175 
 
 xii. 32, . 
 
 . 2:j5 
 
 Jehkmiaii. 
 
 
 vii. IG, . . 171 
 
 xii. 33, . 
 
 . 185 
 
 i. 10, . 
 
 92 
 
 vii. 27, . . . 347 
 
 xii. 34, . 
 
 . 170 
 
 V. no, 31, . 
 
 142 
 
 viii. 1, . . . 348 
 
 xii. 48, . 
 
 . 353 
 
 xvii. 5, . 18 
 
 , 2r)r> 
 
 ix. 1.-., . . 221, 2.38 
 
 xiii. 12, 
 
 8 
 
 xxiii. 20, 
 
 142 
 
 xi. 17, . . . 345 
 
 xiii. 47, 48, . 
 
 . 108 
 
 xxiii. 80, 
 
 109 
 
 xi. 20, . . . 197 
 
 xiv, 17, etc., . 
 
 8 
 
 XXV. 11, 
 
 114 
 
 xi. 21, . . . 2.->8 
 
 xvi. G, . 
 
 . 101 
 
 XXV. 12, . 31G 
 
 317 
 
 xiii. 9, . . . 58 
 
 xvi. 19, . 
 
 17 
 
 XXV. 21. 
 
 31 G 
 
 
 xvi. 21-23, . 
 
 . 24G 
 
 xxix. 1, 4-7, 
 
 31 G 
 
 ECCLESIASTICUS. 
 
 xvii. 1, . 
 
 . 113 
 
 xxix. 10, 
 
 317 
 
 i. 1, . . . 17G 
 
 xvii. 13, 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 ii. 5, . . . 224 
 
 xvii. 27, 
 
 ." 31 G 
 
 EZEKIEL. 
 
 
 iii. 30, . . . 299 
 
 xviii. 18, 
 
 17 
 
 xviii. 2, 
 
 209 
 
 vii. 27, . . . 9G 
 
 XX. 34, etc., . 
 
 8 
 
 XXX vi. 17-19, 23-29, 
 
 111 
 
 xii. 4, . . . 9G 
 
 xxii. 30, 
 
 . 355 
 
 xxxviii. 2G, . 
 
 112 
 
 XV. 20, . . . 225 
 
 xxii. 37-39, . 
 
 19, 23, 
 
 
 
 xxvii. 5, . . 224 
 
 39, 
 
 .321, .355 
 
 Daniel. 
 
 
 XXX. 24, . . 229 
 
 xxii. 40, 39, 
 
 259, 275, 
 
 ii. 47, . 
 
 31 G 
 
 xxxvii. 19, . . 1G7 
 
 
 321 
 
 iii. 2!>. . 
 
 31 G 
 
 XXX vii. 20, . . G8 
 
 xxiii. 2, 
 
 . 1G7 
 
 vi. 2(i, . 
 
 31G 
 
 xl. 1, . . . 221 
 
 xxiii. 3, 
 
 1G7, 170 
 
 
 
 xlvi. 20, . . GO 
 
 xxiii. 9, 
 
 . 353 
 
 JIoSKA. 
 
 
 
 xxiii. 15, 
 
 . 298 
 
 i. 2, . . . 
 
 92 
 
 P.EL. 
 
 xxiii. 37, 
 
 242, 289 
 
 iv. S, . 
 
 2n(; 
 
 Ver. 41, . . 31G 
 
 xxiv. 50, 51, . 
 
 . 109 
 
 vi. G, . . . 
 
 2U1) 
 
 
 XXV. 2G, 
 
 5, 299 
 
 J(tKL. • 
 
 ii. 32, . 
 
 
 
 XXV. 27, 
 
 299 
 
 178 
 
 NEW TH.STAMENT. 
 
 XXV. 31-4G, . 
 
 . 2J5 
 
 
 
 
 XXV. 3.3, 
 
 . .356 
 
 Amo.s. 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 Matthew. 
 
 XXV. 84, 41, . 
 
 81 k; 
 
 i. I, 
 
 132 ! 
 
 i. 17, . . . 318 
 
 XXV. 4G, 
 
 . 2:.4 
 
 vi. 1 G, . 
 
 133 
 
 i. 20, . . 203, 2l7 
 
 
 
 vii. 14, . 
 
 132 1 
 
 ii. 20, . . . 208 
 
 Makk. 
 
 
 
 
 iii. 3, 11, 13-15, . 210 
 
 ix. 2, . 
 
 . 113 
 
 .Ion AH. 
 
 
 iv. 2, . . 52 
 
 xiv. 8, . 
 
 . 36 
 
 iii. 10, . 
 
 11 
 
 V. 8, . . 40, 'Mui 
 V. 22, 2.3, 40, . 232 
 
 Like. 
 
 
 IJAI.AKKIK. 
 
 
 V. 27, . . . 250 
 
 i. 28, 30, 35, . 
 
 . 203 
 
 ii. 4. . 
 
 343 
 
 V. 3G, . . . i«;o 
 
 iii. 23. . 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 V. 87, . . 193 
 
 vi. 30, . 
 
 . 232 
 
 Zl' IIAICIAII. 
 
 
 V. 44, 2G. 199, 22(;, 227 
 
 vi. 45, . 
 
 . I S3 
 
 i. '.», 
 
 217 
 
 vi. 8, . . . 144 
 
 viii. 21, 
 
 . .850 
 
 ix. 17. . 
 
 334 
 
 vi. 9, 225 
 
 ix. 28, . 
 
 . 113 
 
INDEX OF TEXTS. 
 
 373 
 
 X. 27, . 
 X. 29, etc. 
 X, 39, 
 xi. 20, 
 xi. 37-41, 
 xi. 41, 
 xi. 42, 
 xii. 1, 
 xii. 49, 
 xiii. 21, 
 XV. 16, 
 xvi. 10,, 
 xvii. 29-31 
 XX. 36, . 
 
 xxi. 61, 
 xxiv. 39, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 229, 'S6ii 
 . 25 
 . 296 
 . 321 
 . 228 
 . 226 
 229, 248 
 . 101 
 . 157 
 . 101 
 . 88 
 . 147 
 . 116 
 196, 219, 326, 
 334 
 . 234 
 239, 340 
 
 Jon 
 i. 1, 
 i. 1, 2, 
 i. 3, 204, 346, 
 i. 9, 
 i. 10, 
 i. 14, 14, 201, 
 i. 47, . 
 ii. 4, . 
 ii. 18, . 
 ii. 19, . 
 ii. 20, . 
 iii. 5, 
 iii. 0, . 
 iii. 8, . 
 iii. 36, . 
 iv. 24, . 
 V. 29, . 
 vi. 27, . 
 vi. 51, . 
 vi. 53, . 
 vii. 38, . 
 viii. 25, . 
 viii. 36, . 
 ix. 7, . 
 X. 30, . 
 xii. 3, . 
 xii. 3-7, 
 xii. 25, . 
 xiv. 6, 
 xiv. 9, 28, 
 XV. 1, . 
 XV. 2, . 
 XV. 13, . 
 xvi. 13, . 
 xix. 26, 27 
 xix. 41, . 
 XX. 17, . 
 xxi. 11. . 
 
 Act; 
 
 i 11, 
 
 29 
 
 201, 361 
 . 81 
 
 348, 361 
 
 247, 350 
 . 14 
 
 203, 349 
 . 84 
 . 352 
 . 117 
 64, 216 
 . 54 
 . 225 
 . 363 
 . 258 
 
 200, 254 
 . 363 
 . 214 
 . 291 
 . 102 
 . 95 
 . 102 
 . 360 
 . 197 
 . 51 
 . 361 
 92 
 . 36 
 . 95 
 227, 346 
 . 361 
 . 156 
 . 324 
 . 260 
 . 363 
 . 353 
 . 354 
 . 361 
 . 53 
 
 357 
 
 ii. 1-12, 
 ii,4, . 
 ii. 44, . 
 iv. 34, . 
 iv. 35, . 
 V. 15, . 
 vii. 22, . 
 viii. 26, . 
 ix. 3, 
 X. . 
 
 xii. 9, . 
 xii. 9-11, 
 XV. 9, . 
 xvi. 16-18, 
 xxi. 10-12, 
 
 Romans 
 i. 3, . 
 i. 9, 
 
 i. 17, , 
 i. 20, . 
 i. 21-23, 
 i. 23, . 
 i. 30, . 
 ii. 4, 
 ii. 5, 
 ii. 5-9, . 
 iii. 15, . 
 iii. 19, . 
 iii. 20, . 
 iv. 17, . 
 V. 3-5, . 
 V. 5, 257, 259, 30O 
 
 PACK 
 
 . 321 
 . 363 
 . 322 
 
 87, 322 
 
 . 87 
 
 . 322 
 
 . 77 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 . 190 
 
 . 192 
 
 . 228 
 
 . 60 
 
 . 246 
 
 191 
 
 290, 328, 
 117, 290, 
 
 V. 8, . 
 V. 10, . 
 V. 12, . 
 V. 16, . 
 V. 18, . 
 V. 20, . 
 vi. I, . 
 vi. 1-11, 
 vi. 4, 5, 
 vi. 23, . 
 vii. 25, . 
 viii. 14, 
 viii. 15, 
 viii. 15-17, 
 viii. 17, . 
 viii. 22, . 
 viii. 24, 25, 
 viii. 28, . 
 viii. 28-39, 
 viii. 31, . 
 viii. 32, . 
 viii. 33, 34, 
 ix. 5, . 
 ix. 12, . 
 ix. 13-16, 
 ix. 16. . 
 
 229, 
 200, 
 195, 
 211, 
 
 21*2, 
 
 200, 
 
 204 
 
 367 
 
 343 
 
 10 
 
 55 
 
 356 
 
 290 
 
 331 
 
 327 
 
 91 
 
 46 
 
 244 
 
 201 
 
 197 
 
 127 
 
 321, 
 
 361 
 
 272 
 
 272 
 
 208 
 
 229 
 
 211 
 
 257 
 
 212 
 
 213 
 
 213 
 
 250 
 
 367 
 
 220 
 
 363 
 
 350 
 
 355 
 
 367 
 
 ISO 
 
 292 
 
 154 
 
 21S 
 
 273 
 
 83 
 
 315 
 
 242 
 
 243 
 
 198 
 
 ix. 17-21, 
 ix. 18, . 
 ix. 21, . 
 ix. 23, . 
 ix. 30, . 
 X. 3, . 
 X. 10, . 
 X. 14, . 
 xi. 6, 
 xi. 14, . 
 xi. 26, . 
 xi. 36, . 
 xii. 1, , 
 xii. 3, 
 xii. 5, . 
 xii. 6-16, 
 xii. 17, . 
 xii. 20, . 
 xiii. 1, . 
 xiii. 7, . 
 xiii. 9, . 
 xiii. 10, 
 xiii. 12-24, 
 xiv. 9, . 
 xiv. 10, 
 XV. 4, . 
 xvi. 19. 
 
 1 CORIN 
 
 13, . 
 
 20, . 
 
 21, . 
 
 24, . 
 
 25, . 
 31, . 
 
 9, . 
 
 14, . 
 
 17, . 
 . 7, . 
 . 9, . 
 
 11, . 
 
 11-15, 
 
 13-15, 
 
 16, . 
 
 23, 
 
 20, 21, 
 1,4^7, 
 19, 
 
 9, . 
 
 10, . 
 15, 19, 
 
 " h % 0, 
 
 r>, 6, 
 
 , 25. . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 244 
 . 242 
 . 251 
 . 253 
 . 84 
 . 272 
 . 343 
 . 178 
 . 251 
 . 45 
 . 364 
 10 
 . 151 
 . 109 
 . 16 
 . 151 
 . 226 
 . 95 
 . 316 
 151, 316 
 26, 259 
 26, 169, 272 
 151 
 259 
 252 
 272 
 176 
 
 THLINS. 
 
 . 28 
 
 . 175 
 14 
 
 246, 248 
 
 14, 48, 353 
 
 244, 245 
 
 269, 306 
 
 367 
 
 168 
 
 28, 145 
 
 317 
 
 177 
 
 223 
 
 224 
 
 216 
 
 4 
 
 364 
 
 259 
 
 160 
 160 
 206 
 
 2;u 
 
 147 
 223 
 225 
 215 
 259 
 97 
 231 
 198 
 
 223, 
 
374 
 
 INDEX OF TEXTS. 
 
 
 
 PAOE 
 
 
 
 PACK 
 
 
 
 PAOP. 
 
 vii. 32, 33, 
 
 
 . 224 
 
 V. 0, 177, 
 
 180, 
 
 101, 222, 
 
 ii. 14, 
 
 
 1()8 
 
 vii. 34, . 
 
 
 S3 
 
 
 
 257 
 
 ii. 1.5, 
 
 
 lu. 
 
 2.34 
 
 viii. 1, . 
 
 
 47, 77 
 
 V. 17, . 
 
 
 21, 2.38 
 
 ii. v.). 
 
 
 
 201 
 
 ix. [), . 
 
 
 43 
 
 V. 21, . 
 
 
 85 
 
 iii. 11, 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 ix. 22, . 
 
 
 . 2SS 
 
 V. 24, . 
 
 
 01, 213 
 
 iv. 2, 
 
 
 
 144 
 
 X. 4, 
 
 
 . 1.-.7 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 X. 11, . 
 
 
 272 
 
 Epiie-sians. 
 
 
 Tm 
 
 s. 
 
 
 X. 12, . 
 
 
 '. 101 
 
 i. 5, 
 
 
 35(), .3.55 
 
 i. 0, 
 
 
 144, 
 
 100 
 
 X. 13, . 
 
 
 . 335 
 
 i. 10, . 
 
 
 . 210 
 
 i. 1.-), 
 
 
 228, 
 
 .353 
 
 X. IS, . 
 
 
 . Ill 
 
 i. 23, . 
 
 
 . 10 
 
 i. 10, 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 X. 11), 20, 
 
 
 . 00 
 
 ii. 3, . 
 
 
 2i;0, 3(57 
 
 ii. 1, 2, 
 
 
 
 144 
 
 xi. 3, . 
 
 300, 
 
 301, 3()4 
 
 ii. 8, 0, 10, 
 
 
 . 108 
 
 ii. 1.5, 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 xi. 11), . 
 
 
 . 100 
 
 iii. 7, 8, 
 
 
 . 303 
 
 iii. 1, 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 xi. 31, 32, 
 
 
 222 
 
 iii. 17-10, 
 
 
 78 
 
 
 
 
 xiii. 8, . 
 
 
 ." 1.3 
 
 iv. 22, . 
 
 
 52 
 
 Philemon. 
 
 
 xiii. 12, 40, 21i> 
 
 2(58, 305 
 
 V. 20, . 
 
 
 20, 22 
 
 Ver. 20, 
 
 
 28 
 
 xiii. 13, 
 
 
 33, 250 
 
 vi. .5, 
 
 
 . 310 
 
 
 
 
 XV. 13, 14, 
 
 . 
 
 . 08 
 
 vi. If), . 
 
 
 . 103 
 
 Hebrews. 
 
 
 XV. 28, . 
 
 
 . -M] 
 
 vi. 2.;, . 
 
 
 . 100 
 
 i. .5, 
 
 
 21<> 
 
 XV. 31, . 
 
 
 S5 
 
 
 
 
 i. 1.3, 
 
 
 2i(; 
 
 XV. 31), 53, 
 
 
 . 308 
 
 PniLirriANs. 
 
 ii. 11, 
 
 
 .3.50 
 
 XV. 44, 
 
 238, 
 
 230, 355 
 
 i. 18, . 
 
 , 
 
 . 107 
 
 V. 5, 
 
 
 210 
 
 XV. 40, . 
 
 . 
 
 . 1.58 
 
 i. 22-24, 
 
 . 
 
 . 82 
 
 x. 38, 
 
 
 343 
 
 XV. 50, . 
 
 230, 
 
 340, 3r>o 
 
 i. 20, . 
 
 
 . 100 
 
 xi. 1, 
 
 
 1^0 
 
 XV. 50-53, 
 
 
 . 17 
 
 ii. 0, . 
 
 202 
 
 , 348, 350 
 
 
 
 
 XV. 51, . 
 
 , 
 
 . .355 
 
 ii. 8, . 
 
 
 . .354 
 
 
 .7AMK.S. 
 
 
 XV. 52, . 
 
 
 .355, 3()0 
 
 ii. 0, . 
 
 
 .301 
 
 ii. 14, 1 
 
 " 
 
 223 
 
 XV. 54, 55, 
 
 • 
 
 . 370 
 
 ii. 13, . 
 ii. 17, . 
 
 
 . 108 
 
 . 288 
 
 ii. 10, 
 iii. 2, 
 
 
 1S() 
 232 
 
 2 Corinthians. 
 
 iii. 13, . 
 
 
 . 20 
 
 iv. 0, 
 
 
 101 
 
 iii. 2, 3, 
 
 
 . 112 
 
 iv. 7, 
 
 
 . 210 
 
 
 
 
 iii. (>, 
 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 Peter. 
 
 
 V. 7, .31, 40, 45, 32() 
 
 COLO.S.SI. 
 
 INS. 
 
 i. 24, 2.' 
 
 , 
 
 303 
 
 V. 10, . 
 
 
 . 252 
 
 i. 1.5, . 
 
 
 . 300 
 
 ii. 2, 
 
 
 2SS 
 
 V. 13, 14, 
 
 
 . 280 
 
 i. 10, . 
 
 
 . 210 
 
 V. (), 
 
 
 101 
 
 V. 10, . 
 
 
 . 20 
 
 i. IS, . 
 
 
 210, 272 
 
 V. 8, 
 
 
 102 
 
 vi. 2-10, 
 
 
 . 1.54 
 
 i. 10, 20, 
 
 
 . 210 
 
 
 
 
 vii. 1, 2, 
 
 
 . 82 
 
 iii. 13, 
 
 
 . 213 
 
 
 2 Peter. 
 
 
 viii. 21, 
 
 
 . 108 
 
 iii. 4, . 
 
 
 . 214 
 
 ii. 4, 
 
 . 
 
 210 
 
 ix. 7, . 
 
 
 200, 288 
 
 
 
 
 ii. 10, 
 
 ! . 107 
 
 257 
 
 X. 10, . 
 
 
 . 1.32 
 
 1 TlIES 
 
 ^AI.ONIAN.S. 
 
 
 
 
 xi. 3, . 
 
 
 . 102 
 
 ii. 7, . 
 
 
 . 280 
 
 
 1 .Torn. 
 
 
 xi. T). . 
 
 
 . 131 
 
 iii. 7, . 
 
 
 85 
 
 i. 8, 
 
 
 221 
 
 xi. 14, . 
 
 
 . 218 
 
 V. 8, 
 
 
 . 103 
 
 iii. 1, 
 
 
 .3(13 
 
 xi. 10 30, 
 
 
 . 120 
 
 
 
 
 , iii. 10, 
 
 
 272 
 
 xii. 2 4, 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 T 
 
 MnTTIV. 
 
 iv. 10, 1 
 
 0, 
 
 273 
 
 xii. 15, . 
 
 
 . 280 
 
 i. .5, .3.3, 10 
 ii. 1, 2, . 
 
 ), 25 
 
 0,271,272 
 . 317 
 
 iv. 10, 
 iv. 18, 
 
 . 250 
 
 3(54 
 30.3 
 
 Galatians. 
 
 ii. 1-4, . 
 
 
 . 218 
 
 
 
 
 iii. 11, . 
 
 
 . 343 
 
 ii. 4, . 
 
 
 211, 247 
 
 R 
 
 EV elation. 
 
 
 iii. 15 22, 
 
 
 . 1.50 
 
 ! ii. 5, . 
 
 
 . 271 
 
 i. 8. 
 
 
 .357 
 
 iii. 21, . 
 
 
 87 
 
 iv. 11, . 
 
 
 . 144 
 
 ii. 2, 
 
 
 2:;o 
 
 iii. 2«», . 
 
 
 107 
 
 iv. 12, 
 
 
 1 OS 
 
 V. 5, 
 
 
 101 
 
 iv. 5, . 
 
 
 . .3.50 
 
 V. 1, 
 
 
 111, 151 
 
 vii. 4, . 
 
 
 114 
 
 iv. 10. n. 
 
 
 . 233 
 
 v. 2, . 
 
 
 . 151 
 
 xvii. 15 
 
 
 102 
 
 iv. 10-20, 
 
 
 . 155 
 
 
 
 
 NX. 7. 
 
 
 1(5 
 
 iv. 21-20, 
 
 
 . 140 
 
 2 T 
 
 MitTHV. 
 
 \ix. 10. 
 
 
 2S 
 
 iv. 20. . 
 
 214, 
 
 315, 3.55 
 
 i. 0. 10. 
 
 
 11 .3 
 
 xxi. 0, 
 
 
 10 
 
 iv. 30, . 
 
 
 . 108 
 
 i. 13, . 
 
 
 . Ill 
 
 
 
 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 375 
 
 II.— INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 Abortive conceptions, question re- 
 garding resurrection of, 1'.'}."). 
 
 Absolute right and wrong, treated of, 
 94. 
 
 Adam, sin of, results of the, to his 
 posterity, 194; involved many kinds 
 of sin, 208. 
 
 Address, different methods of, to dif- 
 ferent classes of hearers, 3UU. 
 
 Advent. See Christ. 
 
 Affections, change of, the way to 
 heaven, 17. 
 
 Ages of the world, the six, 318, etc. 
 
 Aids to interpreting Scripture history, 
 64 ; mechanical arts and dialectics, 
 C7. 
 
 All things gathered together in one in 
 Christ, expounded, 219. 
 
 Almsgiving, will not, without change 
 of life, atone for sin, 225, 228 ; the 
 greatest, is forgiveness of debtors 
 and love of enemies, 226 ; the first, 
 is to pity our own souls, 229. 
 
 Ambiguity, rules for removing, 81, 
 84. 
 
 Ambrose, examples of style from, 155, 
 etc. 
 
 Amos, examples of eloquence from, 
 132. 
 
 Angels, the fallen, God's judgment 
 on, 194. 
 
 Angels, who fell not, 196 ; nothing 
 certainly known of their social or- 
 ganization, 216 ; bodies assumed by, 
 217 ; what Christ did for man was 
 in a sense done for them, 218. 
 
 Angry, in what sense God is said to 
 be, 200. 
 
 Antony, a monk who committed the 
 Scriptures to memory, 2. 
 
 Astrologers, superstition of, 57. 
 
 Baptism, indicates our death to sin 
 and resurrection to life, 207, 211 ; 
 open to all, both infants and adults, 
 207. 
 
 Body, the, death of, man's peculiar 
 punishment, 194 ; resurrection of, 
 235, etc., 368. 
 
 Body, the resurrection, wholly sub- 
 ject to the spirit, 21 ; a spiritual 
 body, 238. 
 
 Bondage, to the letter, 86, etc. ; to 
 signs, 89. 
 
 Canonical books, list of the, 41. 
 
 Catechetical instruction, 265, etc. ; 
 way to commence it, 277 ; of the 
 educated, 281 ; of grammarians and 
 professional speakers, 284 ; causes 
 and remedies of tediousness in, 288, 
 etc. 
 
 Catechumen, examination of, as to 
 his views, 275 ; specimen of address 
 to (1) one of worthy A'iews, (2) one 
 of false aims, 302, etc. ; formal ad- 
 mission of, 329. 
 
 Causes, essential to man's happiness 
 to know the, of good and evil, 185 ; 
 the secondary, of evil, are ignor- 
 ance and lust, 1 93. 
 
 Charms, to be avoided by Christians, 
 
 m. 
 
 Children, probably involved in the 
 guilt, not only of our first parents, 
 but also of their own immediate 
 parents, 208. 
 
 Christ, purges the Church by afflic- 
 tions, 16 ; opens the way to our 
 nome, 17 ; is the first way to God, 
 29 ; birth of, 200 ; being the only 
 Son of God, is at the same time 
 man, 201 ; grace of God in His 
 birth, 203, 205 ; made sin for us, 
 206 ; not regenerated in the bap- 
 tism of John, 210 ; took away ori- 
 ginal sin and all other sins, 211 ; 
 His life typical of the Christian life, - 
 213 ; second c(»ming of, 213 ; gene- 
 ration of, as Son of God and the 
 "Word, 316, etc. ; neither made by 
 nor less than the Father, 348 ; born 
 through the Holy Ghost of the 
 Virgin Mary, 351 ; as God, has no 
 mother, 352 ; passion, burial, and 
 resurrection of, 354 ; ascension of, 
 355 ; session at the Father's right 
 hand and coming to judgment, 356; 
 relation of, as Son to the Father, 
 360. 
 
 Christ, advent of, why foretold, 271 ; 
 shows God's love to us, 272. 
 
 Christians, nominal, described, 328. 
 
 Church, the, purged by alHictions, 
 
376 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 IG ; the keys given to; 17 ; is the 
 temple of (in<\, 214 ; cnn«lition of, 
 in heaven, 'JIG ; in its likeness to a 
 vine, .'i'J.'i, etc. ; the C'atliolic, 8GG. 
 
 Cicero, on rhetoric, 1*J4, 1'27 ; on style, 
 l.'^T, 14G ; on the aim of an orator, 
 131). 
 
 Claiulian'a description of Neptune, 
 88. 
 
 Comnianrls and prohibitions, rules for 
 interpreting, 00. 
 
 Constancy in the faith of the resur- 
 rection, 3*25. 
 
 Corruption, all things not perfectly 
 good are liable to, 182. 
 
 Creation of man, what is to be be- 
 lieved concerning tlie, 307. 
 
 Creed, the Apostles', 178 ; expounded, 
 343, etc. 
 
 Crime, as distinguished from vice, 91. 
 
 Custom, blinding power of, 233. 
 
 Cyprian, examples of style from, 155, 
 etc. 
 
 David, not lustful though he fell into 
 
 adultery, 91>. 
 Dea<l, souls of the, benefited by the 
 
 sacraments and alms of living 
 
 friends, 252. 
 Death, not destruction but change, 
 
 17 ; cannot injure the regenerate, 
 
 258. 
 Death of the body is man's peculiar 
 
 punishment, 104. 
 Death, the first and the second, con- 
 sequences of sin, 240. 
 Death, eternal, 254. 
 Definition, the science of, not false, 
 
 but may be applied to falsities, 71. 
 Deogratias, the book on catechising 
 
 the unin.structed written for, 2G5. 
 Devil, the, how he tempts, 3.'>5. 
 Devils arrange the language of omens, 
 
 61. 
 Dialectics, use of, in interpreting 
 
 Scripture, G7. 
 Dillicult jtassages, how and with 
 
 whom to discuss, 13(). 
 Discourse, a, often ]>leaaant to the 
 
 hearer and distasteful to thespeaker, 
 
 and ]irobable explanation of the 
 
 fact, 2G(J. 
 Discourses of others, when they may 
 
 be preached, IGD. 
 Divination, why we reject acts of, 59. 
 
 EntcATED, the, how to catechise, 
 
 281. 
 Egyptians, spoiling of the, typical 
 
 import of, 70. 
 
 sovereign grace in, 
 
 Election, God'a 
 
 I 243. 
 
 Elotiuence, the rules of, are true, 
 though sometimes used to persuade 
 
 I men of what is false, 72 ; of the 
 sacred writers is united with wis- 
 dom, 120, etc. 
 Enemies, love of, 220. 
 
 I Enjoyment, distinction between, and 
 use, 9 ; of man, 28. 
 Error, the nature of, 18G; always an 
 evil, 189, 191 ; not always a sin, 
 
 \K 190. 
 
 ^vil in the universe is but the absence 
 of good, 181 ; there can be no evil 
 where there is no good, 183 ; good 
 and evil are exceptions to the rule 
 that contrary attributes cannot be 
 predicated of the same subject, 184 ; 
 permission of, 241 ; man created 
 able to choose good or evd, — choice 
 of evil Mill be impossible in the 
 future life, 249 ; co-existence of, 
 with good, in the Church, and their 
 final sei)aration, 310. 
 Evil fruit, a good tree cannot bring 
 forth, expounded, 184. 
 
 Faith, strengthened by the resurrec- 
 tion and ascension of Christ, and 
 stimulated by His coming to judg- 
 ment, 10; is the gift of (iod, 198; 
 without works, is dead, 222. 
 -Faith, hope, and love, God to be wor- 
 shipped through, 170 ; their mutual 
 dependence, 179 ; distinction be- 
 tween faith and hope, 179 ; love is 
 the greatest of the three, 250. 
 
 Faith and the creeil, .343-370. 
 
 Figurative expressions, not to be 
 taken literally, 80 ; how to discern 
 whether a j)hrase is figurative, 89 ; 
 interpretation of, 91, etc ; variation 
 of figure, 101. See Tropes. 
 
 Fire, saved by, expounded, 223. 
 
 Fire, purgatorial, 224. 
 
 Flesh, no man hates his own, ex- 
 ]ioundod, 20, etc. 
 
 Flesh and Itlood shall not inherit the 
 kingd«)m of Cuxi, expounded, .340. 
 
 Flood, the, a sacraniental sign. 311. 
 
 Foreknowledge of ( iod, the, 249, 309. 
 
 Forgiveness of debtors, 227. 
 
 Freedom of the will, is the gift of God, 
 198, etc. ; man created with, 249. 
 
 Oentii.f-s, useless bondage of the, to 
 
 the letter, 87. 
 God, in what sense ineflable, and what 
 
 ail men understand by the term. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 377 
 
 11 ; is unchangeable wisdom, 12; j 
 is alone to be loved for His own 
 sake, 10 ; uses rather than enjoys 
 man, '27 ; to be worshipped through 
 faith, hope, and love, 176 ; in what 
 sense said to be angry, 200 ; par- 
 
 ^ dons sin, but on condition of peni- 
 tence, 221 ; alone decides what sins 
 are trivial and what not, 230 ; does 
 well even in the permission of evil, 
 241 ; foreknew the sin of the tirst 
 man, and ordered His own pur- 
 poses accordingly, 249 ; is love, 
 259 ; severity of, 275 ; exclusive 
 eternity and omnipotence of, 344. 
 
 God, finger of, siguities the Holy 
 Spirit, 314. 
 
 God, grace of, displayed in Christ, 202, 
 etc. ; in election, 243 ; necessary to 
 man's salvation before the fall, 250. 
 
 God, peace of, 220. 
 
 God, will of, never defeated, though 
 much is done contrary to His will, 
 245 ; always good, but sometimes 
 fulfilled through the evil will of 
 man, 24G. 
 
 God will have all men to be saved, 
 expounded, 241, 247. 
 
 God, Wisdom of, how He came to us 
 and healed man, 14, etc. 
 
 Good, all things made, 181 ; but 
 not perfectly good, hence they are 
 liable to corruption, 182 ; there can 
 be no evil where there is no good, 
 183. 8te Evil. 
 
 Good works, men not saved by, 107; 
 follow faith, 198 ; rewarded by 
 eternal life, the gift of God, 250. 
 
 HAPriNESS, knowledge of the causes 
 of good and evil necessary to man's, 
 185. 
 
 Hearers, to be moved as well as in- 
 structed, 141. 
 
 Heaven, the Church in, 21G, 219. 
 
 Heretics or schismatics, compared to 
 twigs lopped off the vine, 327. 
 
 History, to what extent an aid in in- 
 terpreting Scripture, G4. 
 
 Holy life, power of, in a teacher, 1G7. 
 
 Holy Spirit, the birth of Christ is of 
 the, 203 ; is not the Father of 
 Christ, 204 ; Holy Spirit and the 
 Church, 214, etc. ; is not a creature, 
 215 ; sin against the, 235 ; signitied 
 by the expression, linger of God, 
 314; mission of, on Pentecost, 
 321 ; the third person of the 
 Trinity, 357 ; His individuality 
 and offices, 302, etc. 
 
 Hope, a buttress of faith, IG ; every- 
 thing pertaining to, embraced in 
 the Lord's Prayer, 255. See Faith. 
 
 Human institutions, superstitious 
 nature of, 5G ; of those not super- 
 stitious, some are superfluous, some 
 convenient and necessary, G2. 
 
 Humility essential to the study of 
 Scripture, 77. 
 
 Idioms, how to attain a knowledge 
 of, 49. 
 
 Ignorance, sometimes better than 
 knowledge, ISG. 
 
 Inellable, in what sense God is, 11. 
 
 Inference, logical, how valid, 70. 
 
 Intermediate state, the, 252. 
 
 Interpretation of Scripture, rules for, 
 1 ; depends on two things, under- 
 standing and making known its 
 meaning, 7 ; dangers of mistaken, 
 31 ; a diversity of, useful, 44 ; how 
 faulty, can be amended, 46 ; figures, 
 91, etc. ; sayings and doings ascribed 
 to God and the saints, 92 ; com- 
 mands and prohibitions, 95 ; sins of 
 great men, 100 ; obscure passages 
 to be interpreted by clearer, 102 ; 
 passages susceptible of various in- 
 terpretations, 103 ; rules of Ticho- 
 nius the Donatist, 105-119. 
 
 Israel, the spiritual, 112 ; prefigured 
 the future Church, 312 ; history of, 
 and its significance, 313, etc. 
 
 Itala, the, to be preferred to other 
 Latin versions, 49. 
 
 Jacob's birth, as typical of Clirist's 
 
 incarnation, 271. 
 Jews, bondage of, to the letter, and 
 
 how liberated therefrom, 86, etc. 
 Judgments of God, on fallen men and 
 
 angels, 194 ; will be explained at 
 
 the resurrection, 240; are just, 244. 
 
 Keys, the, given to the Church, 17. 
 Kingdoms, two distinct, after the 
 
 resurrection, — Christ's and the 
 
 Devil's, 253. 
 Knowledge, a step to wisdom, 39. 
 
 Languages, knowledge of, useful, 
 44, 51. 
 
 Laurentius, the Enchiridion addressed 
 to, 175, etc. 
 
 Learning, what branches of, are use- 
 ful to a Christian, 74. 
 
 Letter, the, killeth, expounded, 86, 
 etc. 
 
 Lies, never allowable, but differ much 
 
378 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 in guilt, 187 ; not allowable to save 
 auother from injury, 1^-. 
 
 Life, eternal, though the reward of 
 pood works, is itself the gift of 
 (Jo.l, 2:)0. 
 
 Logic.'il secjuence, valid, not devised, 
 hut only obaerved by man, GO. 
 
 Lot, the, for deciding whom to aid, 
 L>4. 
 
 Love, to God and our neighbour, in- 
 cludes love to ourselves, 22 ; the 
 order of, 2'.i ; never faileth, 'A'2 ; its 
 import, 00 ; greater than faith and 
 hope, 1250 ; is the end of all the 
 commandments, 'JoO ; action of, 273, 
 etc. See Faith. 
 
 Lucan, quoted, 170. 
 
 Lucus — quod ininime luceat, 105. 
 
 Mediator, a, needed by fallen men, 
 200 ; must he God in order to re- 
 deem us, 251. 
 
 Men, ministry of, employed for teach- 
 ing and administering sacraments, 
 34. ^ 
 
 Men, fallen, God's judgments on, 
 104 ; restored through the mercy 
 of (Jod, 105 ; the restored part suc- 
 ceed to the place lost by the rebel- 
 lious angels, lOG ; not saved by 
 good works, but by grace through 
 faith, 107 ; needed a mediator, 200; 
 all born of Adam are under con- 
 demnation, 21 1. 
 
 Monstrous births, and the resurrec- 
 tion, 23(5. 
 
 Muses, tlie nine, legend of their i 
 origin, 54. 
 
 Narration', to be employed in cate- 
 
 chiHing, 270, 278. 
 Natiire, the (Christian knows no more 
 
 of, than that the goodness of the 
 
 Greator is the cause of all things, 
 
 180. 
 Neighbour, who is our, 25 ; love to 
 
 our, 30. 
 Ne])tune, described by Claudian, SS. 
 Number, the science of, not created 
 
 but only discovered by man, 73. 
 Numbers, the mystical, 52, 114. 
 
 Omens, how far of force, and the j)art 
 
 devils have in them, i\\. 
 Omnipotf-nce of (Jod, 'M4, etc. 
 Orator, aim of the, 130, 105. 
 
 Pardon of sin, conditioned by peni- 
 tence, and has reference chiefly to 
 the future judgment, 221 ; not gi van 
 
 to those who forgive not others, 
 227. 
 
 Parents, not to be recognised when 
 they hinder our ministry, 353. 
 
 Paul, example of elocjuence from, 127, 
 etc. ; his 8i)eaking by permission and 
 not of commandment expounded, 
 231 ; a persecutor, 323. 
 
 Pentecost, 321. 
 
 Philosophers, heathen, what they 
 have said rightly to be appropriated 
 to our uses, 75. 
 
 Plato, was in Egypt when Jeremiah 
 was there, 05. 
 
 Powers that be, subjection to the, 
 illustrated, 317. 
 
 Prayer, ability to read granted in 
 answer to, 3 ; to be engaged in 
 before preaching, 143, 170 ; the 
 daily, of the believer makes satis- 
 faction for daily trivial sins, 225. 
 
 Prayer, the Lord's, 178, 255, etc. 
 
 Preaching the discourses of others, 
 when permissible, 100. 
 
 Predestination to eternal life is wholly 
 of (iod's free grace, 242. 
 
 Prohibitions. Scr Commands. 
 
 Pronunciation, how it serves to re- 
 move ambiguity, S3. 
 
 Prophecies, Old Testament, fulfilment 
 of, pointed out, 332. 
 
 Punctuation, ambiguities of, 81. 
 
 Punishments, future, eternity of, 253. 
 
 Purgatorial fire, possibly some be- 
 lievers may pass through a, in the 
 future life, 224. 
 
 Purification of st>ul, necessary in order 
 to see (iod, 13. '^^^^ —,^^ 
 
 Pythagoras, not prior to the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, 05. 
 
 QricK, the, and the dea<l, Christ shall 
 judge, expounded, 214. 
 
 PvEoeneration, effects of, 258. 
 
 lle]»entance, true, the mercy of God 
 necessary to, 2.■^4. 
 
 Resurrection, the, of the Iwdy, gives 
 rise to many (questions, 235, etc. ; 
 of the saints, 238 ; of the lost, 
 230 : derided by some, 333 ; is 
 certain, 308. 
 
 Plu'toric, use of, 72 ; what use a 
 Chri'^tian teacher is to make of the 
 art, 121, etc. ; it is better to listen 
 to and imitate eloquent men than 
 attend teachers of, 125. 
 
 Saints, the, resurrection of, 238 ; 
 shall know at the resurrection the 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 379 
 
 benefits they have received by grace, 
 240. 
 
 Satan, as an angel of light, 217. 
 
 Schismatics. tSee Heretics. 
 
 Scripture, rules for interpretation of, 
 1, 43, 105, etc. ; its fultilment and 
 end is the love of Clod and our 
 neighbour, 30 ; use of the obscuri- 
 ties in, 37 ; in what .spirit to be 
 studied, 77 ; compared with pro- 
 fane authors, 77 ; what it enjoins 
 and asserts, 00. *SVe Interpretation. 
 
 Septuagint, the, authority of, 49, etc. 
 
 Signs, as distinguished from things, 
 8 ; nature and variety of, 34, etc. ; 
 when unknown or ambiguous, they 
 prevent Scripture from being under- 
 stood, 43 ; knowledge of languages, 
 especially of Greek and Hebrew, 
 necessary to remove ignorance of, 
 44, etc. ; conventional, Gl ; in- 
 telligible, 267 ; employed at the 
 formal admission of a catechumen, 
 330. 
 
 Sin, results of Adam's, 194, etc. ; sin, 
 and sins, often put the one for the 
 other, 207 ; of progenitors, 208, 
 etc. ; guilt of the tirst, can be 
 washed away only in the blood of 
 Christ, 21^; pa fd t» n of, extends 
 over the whole mortal life of the 
 saints, 22(>^ trivial, 225, 230; re- 
 lative magnitude of sins, 231 ; two 
 causes of, ignorance and weakness, 
 234 ; remission of, 300^ 
 
 Solecism, what it is, 4>. 
 
 Solomon, gave way to lust, 100. 
 
 Son of God. See Christ. 
 
 Stages, the four, of the Christian's 
 lite and the Church's history, 257. 
 
 Stars, folly of observing the, in order 
 to predict the events of a life, 58. 
 
 Style, necessity for perspicuity of, 
 137, etc. ; threefold division of — 
 majestic, quiet, temperate, 145 ; to 
 be different on different occasions, 
 148 ; examples of, from Scripture, 
 149 ; from Ambrose and Cyprian, 
 155 ; necessity of variety in, 101 ; 
 
 effects of the different styles, 103, 
 etc. 
 Superstitious nature of human insti- 
 tutions, 50, etc. 
 
 Teacher, the true, made by God, yet 
 human directions for, are not to be 
 despised, 144 ; power of a holy life 
 in, 107. 
 
 Tediousness in catechising, causes and 
 remedies of, 288, etc. 
 
 Terence, quoted, 74. 
 
 Thing, what a, is, 8. 
 
 Tichonius the Donatist, rules of, 'for 
 interpreting vScripture, 105-119. 
 
 Translations, usefulness of compar- 
 ing, 45 ; preference among, to l)e 
 given to the Latin, Itala, and the 
 Greek Septuagint, 49. 
 
 Trinity, the, true object of enjoyment, 
 10 ; doctrine of, 357, etc. 
 
 Tropes, knowledge of, necessary, 104. 
 
 Truth, more important than expres- 
 sion, 108. 
 
 Use, different from enjoyment, 9 ; 
 what, God makes of us, 27- 
 
 Varro, on the nine Muses, 54. 
 Vice, as distinguished from crime, 91. 
 Vine, the Church in its likeness to 
 
 the, 323, etc. 
 Virgil, quoted, 179, 185, 186. 
 
 Wicked, the, death of, eternal in the 
 same sense as the life of the samts, 
 254. 
 
 Wicked men, judge others by them- 
 selves, 97. 
 
 Wisdom, steps to, 39 ; of more im- 
 portance than eloquence to the 
 Christian teacher, 124 ; man's true, 
 is the fear of God, 176. 
 
 Word, the, made flesh, 14. See 
 Christ. 
 
 Words, hold the chief place among 
 signs, 36 ; strife about, expounded, 
 lh9. 
 
 Writing, origin of, 36. 
 
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