Chap. 1.--Signs, their nature and variety
1. As when I was writing about things, I introduced the subject with a warning
against attending to anything but what they are in themselves, even though they
are signs of something else, so now, when I come in its turn to discuss the
subject of signs, I lay down this direction, not to attend to what they are
in themselves, but to the fact that they are signs, that is, to what they signify.
For a sign is a thing which, over and above the impression it makes on the senses,
causes something else to come into the mind as a consequence of itself: as when
we see a footprint, we conclude that an animal whose footprint this is has passed
by; and when we see smoke, we know that there is fire beneath; and when we hear
the voice of a living man, we think of the feeling in his mind; and when the
trumpet sounds, soldiers know that they are to advance or retreat, or do whatever
else the state of the battle requires.
2. Now some signs are natural, others conventional. Natural signs are those
which, apart from any intention or desire of using them as signs, do yet lead
to the knowledge of something else, as, for example, smoke when it indicates
fire. For it is not from any intention of making it a sign that it is so, but
through attention to experience we come to know that fire is beneath, even when
nothing but smoke can be seen. And the footprint of an animal passing by belongs
to this class of signs. And the countenance of an angry or sorrowful man indicates
the feeling in his mind, independently of his will: and in the same way every
other emotion of the mind is betrayed by the telltale countenance, even though
we do nothing with the intention of making it known. This class of signs however,
it is no part of my design to discuss at present. But as it comes under this
division of the subject, I could not altogether pass it over. It will be enough
to have noticed it thus far.
Chap. 2.--Of the kind of signs we are now concerned with
3. Conventional signs, on the other hand, are those which living beings mutually
exchange for the purpose of showing, as well as they can, the feelings of their
minds, or their perceptions, or their thoughts. Nor is there any reason for
giving a sign except the desire of drawing forth and conveying into another's
mind what the giver of the sign has in his own mind. We wish, then, to consider
and discuss this class of signs so far as men are concerned with it, because
even the signs which have been given us of God, and which are contained in the
Holy Scriptures, were made known to us through men--those, namely, who wrote
the Scriptures. The beasts, too, have certain signs among themselves by which
they make known the desires in their mind. For when the poultry-cock has discovered
food, he signals with his voice for the hen to run to him, and the dove by cooing
calls his mate, or is called by her in turn; and many signs of the same kind
are matters of common observation. Now whether these signs, like the expression
or the cry of a man in grief, follow the movement of the mind instinctively
and apart from any purpose, or whether they are really used with the purpose
of signification, is another question, and does not pertain to the matter in
hand. And this part of the subject I exclude from the scope of this work as
not necessary to my present object.
Chap. 3.--Among signs, words hold the chief place
4. Of the signs, then, by which men communicate their thoughts to one another,
some relate to the sense of sight, some to that of hearing, a very few to the
other senses. For, when we nod, we give no sign except to the eyes of the man
to whom we wish by this sign to impart our desire. And some convey a great deal
by the motion of the hands: and actors by movements of all their limbs give
certain signs to the initiated, and, so to speak, address their conversation
to the eyes: and the military standards and flags convey through the eyes the
will of the commanders. And all these signs are as it were a kind of visible
words. The signs that address themselves to the ear are, as I have said, more
numerous, and for the most part consist of words. For though the bugle and the
flute and the lyre frequently give not only a sweet but a significant sound,
yet all these signs are very few in number compared with words. For among men
words have obtained far and away the chief place as a means of indicating the
thoughts of the mind. Our Lord, it is true, gave a sign through the 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 which I have briefly touched upon, but
I could by no effort express words in terms of those signs.
Chap. 4.--Origin of writing
5. But because words pass away as soon as they strike upon the air, and last
no longer than their sound, men have by means of letters formed signs of words.
Thus the sounds of the voice are made visible to the eye, not of course as sounds,
but by means of certain signs. It has been found impossible, however, to make
those signs common to all nations owing to the sin of discord among men, which
springs from every man trying to snatch the chief place for himself. And that
celebrated tower which was built to reach to heaven was an indication of this
arrogance of spirit; and the ungodly men concerned in it justly earned the punishment
of having not their minds only, but their tongues besides, thrown into confusion
and discordance.
Chap. 5.--Scripture translated into various languages
6. And hence it happened that even Holy Scripture, which brings a remedy for
the terrible diseases of the human will, being at first set forth in one language,
by means of which it could at the fit season be disseminated through the whole
world, was interpreted into various tongues, and spread far and wide, and thus
became known to the nations for their salvation. And in reading it, men seek
nothing more than to find out the thought and will of those by whom it was written,
and through these to find out the will of God, in accordance with which they
believe these men to have spoken.
Chap. 6.--Use of the obscurities in Scripture which arise from its figurative
language
7. But hasty and careless readers are led astray by many and manifold obscurities
and ambiguities, substituting one meaning for another; and in some places they
cannot hit upon even a fair interpretation. Some of the expressions are so obscure
as to shroud the meaning in the thickest darkness. And I do not doubt that all
this was divinely arranged for the purpose of subduing pride by toil, and of
preventing a feeling of satiety in the intellect, which generally holds in small
esteem what is discovered without difficulty. For why is it, I ask, that if
any one says that there are holy and just men whose life and conversation the
Church of Christ uses as a means of redeeming those who come to it from all
kinds of superstitions, and making them through their imitation of good men
members of its own body; men who, as good and true servants of God, have come
to the baptismal font laying down the burdens of the world, and who rising thence
do, through the implanting of the Holy Spirit, yield the fruit of a twofold
love, a love, that is, of God and their 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,
when it is being praised under the figure of a beautiful woman, "Thy teeth are
like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which came up from the washing, whereof
every one bears twins, and none is barren among them?" Does the hearer learn
anything more than when he listens to the same thought expressed in the plainest
language, without the help of this figure? And yet, I don't know why, I feel
greater pleasure in contemplating holy men, when I view them as the teeth of
the Church, tearing men away from their errors, and bringing them into the church's
body, with all their harshness softened down, just as if they had been torn
off and masticated by the teeth. It is with the greatest pleasure, too, that
I recognize them under the figure of sheep that have been shorn, laying down
the burthens of the world like fleeces, and coming up from the washing, i.e.,
from baptism, and all bearing twins, i.e., the twin commandments of love, and
none among them barren in that holy fruit.
8. But why I view them with greater delight under that aspect than if no such
figure were drawn from the sacred books, though the fact would remain the same
and the knowledge the same, is another question, and one very difficult to answer.
Nobody, however, has any doubt about the facts, both that it is pleasanter in
some cases to have knowledge communicated through figures and that what is attended
with difficulty in the seeking gives greater pleasure in the finding.--For those
who seek but do not find suffer from hunger. Those, again, who do not seek at
all because they have what they require just beside them often grow languid
from satiety. Now weakness from either of these causes is to be avoided. Accordingly
the Holy Spirit has, with admirable wisdom and care for our welfare, so arranged
the Holy Scriptures as by the plainer passages to satisfy our hunger, and by
the more obscure to stimulate our appetite. For almost nothing is dug out of
those obscure passages which may not be found set forth in the plainest language
elsewhere.
Chap. 7.--Steps to wisdom: first, fear; second, piety; third, knowledge;
fourth, resolution; fifth, counsel; sixth, purification of heart; seventh, stop
or termination, wisdom
9. First of all, then, it is necessary that we should be led by the fear of
God to seek the knowledge of His will, what He commands us to desire and what
to avoid. Now this fear will of necessity excite in us the thought of our mortality
and of the death that is before us, and crucify all the motions of pride as
if our flesh were nailed to the tree. Next it is necessary to have our hearts
subdued by piety, and not to run in the face of Holy Scripture, whether when
understood it strikes at some of our sins, or, when not understood, we feel
as if we could be wiser and give better commands ourselves. We must rather think
and believe that whatever is there written, even though it be hidden, is better
and truer than anything we could devise by our own wisdom.
10. After these two steps of fear and piety, we come to the third step, knowledge,
of which I have now undertaken to treat. For in this every earnest student of
the Holy Scriptures exercises himself, to find nothing else in them but that
God is to be loved for His own sake, and our 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 temporal 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 which gives
him no option but to believe in and submit to the authority of Scripture, compel
him to bewail his condition. For the knowledge of a good hope makes a man not
boastful, but sorrowful. And in this frame of mind he implores with unremitting
prayers the comfort of the Divine help that he may not be overwhelmed in despair,
and so he gradually comes to the fourth step,--that is, strength and resolution,--in
which he hungers and thirsts after righteousness. For in this frame of mind
he extricates himself from every form of fatal joy in transitory things, and
turning away from these, fixes his affection on things eternal, to wit, the
unchangeable Trinity in unity.
11. And when, to the extent of his power, he has gazed upon this object shining
from afar, and has felt that owing to the weakness of his sight he cannot endure
that matchless light, then in the fifth step--that is, in the counsel of compassion--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 purifies the eye itself which can see God, so far as God can be
seen by those who as far as possible die to this world. For men see Him just
so far as they die to this world; and so far as they live to it they see Him
not. But yet, although that light may begin to appear clearer, and not only
more tolerable, but even more delightful, still it is only through a glass darkly
that we are said to see, because we walk by faith, not by sight, while we continue
to wander as strangers in this world, even though our conversation be in heaven.
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, because not him whom he loves as himself. Accordingly, that holy
man will be so single and so pure in heart, that he will not step aside from
the truth, either for the sake of pleasing men or with a view to avoid any of
the annoyances which beset this life. Such a son ascends to wisdom which is
the seventh and last step, and which he enjoys in peace and tranquility. For
the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. From that beginning, then, till
we reach wisdom itself, our way is by the steps now described.
Chap. 8.--The canonical books
12. But let us now go back to consider the third step here mentioned, for it
is about it that I have set myself to speak and reason as the Lord shall grant
me wisdom. The most skilful interpreter of the sacred writings, then, will be
he who in the first place has read them all and retained them in his knowledge,
if not yet with full understanding, still with such knowledge as reading gives,--those
of them, at least, that 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 prejudices averse to a sound understanding. Now,
in regard to the canonical Scriptures, he must follow the judgment of the greater
number of catholic churches; and among these, of course, a high place must be
given to such as have been thought worthy to be the seat of an apostle and to
receive epistles. Accordingly, among the canonical Scriptures he will judge
according to the following standard: to prefer those that are received by all
the catholic churches to those which some do not receive. Among those, again,
which are not received by all, he will prefer such as have the sanction of the
greater number and those of greater authority, to such as are held by the smaller
number and those of less authority. If, however, he shall find that some books
are held by the greater number of churches, and others by the churches of greater
authority (though this is not a very likely thing to happen), I think that in
such a case the authority on the two sides is to be looked upon as equal.
13. Now the whole canon of Scripture on which we say this judgment is to be
exercised, is contained in the following books:--Five books of Moses, that is,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; one book of Joshua the son
of Nun; one of Judges; one short book called Ruth, which seems rather to belong
to the beginning of Kings; next, four books of Kings, and two of Chronicles,
these last not following one another, but running parallel, so to speak, and
going over the same ground. The books now mentioned are history, which contains
a connected narrative of the times, and follows the order of the events. There
are other books which seem to follow no regular order, and are connected neither
with the order of the preceding books nor with one another, such as Job, and
Tobias, and Esther, and Judith, and the two books of Maccabees, and the two
of Ezra, which last look more like a sequel to the continuous regular history
which terminates with the books of Kings and Chronicles. Next are the Prophets,
in which there is one book of the Psalms of David; and three books of Solomon,
viz., Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. For two books, one called Wisdom
and the other Ecclesiasticus, are ascribed to Solomon from a certain resemblance
of style, but the most likely opinion is that they were written by Jesus the
son of Sirach. Still they are to be reckoned among the prophetical books, since
they have attained recognition as being authoritative. The remainder are the
books which are strictly called the Prophets: twelve separate books of the prophets
which are connected with one another, and having never been disjoined, are reckoned
as one book; the names of these prophets are as follows:--Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi;
then there are the four greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel.
The authority of the Old Testament is contained within the limits of these forty-four
books. That of the New Testament, again, is contained within the following:--Four
books of the Gospel, according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke,
according to John; fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul--one to the Romans,
two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians,
two to the Thessalonians, one to the Colossians, two to Timothy, one to Titus,
to Philemon, to the Hebrews: two of Peter; three of John; one of Jude; and one
of James; one book of the Acts of the Apostles; and one of the Revelation of
John.
Chap. 9.--How we should proceed in studying Scripture
14. In all these books those who fear God and are of a meek and pious disposition
seek the will of God. And in pursuing this search the first rule to be observed
is, as I said, to know these books, if not yet with the understanding, still
to read them so as to commit them to memory, or at least so as not to remain
wholly ignorant of them. Next, those matters that are plainly laid down in them,
whether rules of life or rules of faith, are to be searched into more carefully
and more diligently; and the more of these a man discovers, the more capacious
does his understanding become. For among the things that are plainly laid down
in Scripture are to be found all matters that concern faith and the manner of
life,--to wit, hope and love, of which I have spoken in the previous book. After
this, when we have made ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language
of Scripture, we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure passages,
and in doing so draw examples from the plainer expressions to throw light upon
the more obscure, and use the evidence of passages about which there is no doubt
to remove all hesitation in regard to the doubtful passages. And in this matter
memory counts for a great deal; but if the memory be defective, no rules can
supply the want.
Chap. 10.--Unknown or ambiguous signs prevent Scripture from being understood
15. Now there are two causes which prevent what is written from being understood:
its being veiled either under unknown, or under ambiguous signs. Signs are either
proper or figurative. They are called proper when they are used to point out
the objects they were designed to point out, as we say bos when we mean an ox,
because all men who with us use the Latin tongue call it by this name. Signs
are figurative when the things themselves which we indicate by the proper names
are used to signify something else, as we say bos, and understand by that syllable
the ox, which is ordinarily called by that name; but then further by that ox
understand a preacher of the gospel, as Scripture signifies, according to the
apostle's explanation, when it says: "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth
out the corn."
Chap. 11.--Knowledge of languages especially of Greek and Hebrew, necessary
to remove ignorance of signs
16. The great remedy for ignorance of proper signs is knowledge of languages.
And men who speak the Latin tongue, of whom are those I have undertaken to instruct,
need two other languages for the knowledge of Scripture, Hebrew and Greek, that
they may have recourse to the original texts if the endless diversity of the
Latin translators throw them into doubt. Although, indeed, we often find Hebrew
words untranslated in the books, as for example, Amen, Hallelujah, Racha, Hosanna,
and others of the same kind. Some of these, although they could have been translated,
have been preserved in their original form on account of the more sacred authority
that attaches to it, as for example, Amen and Hallelujah. Some of them, again,
are said to be untranslatable into another tongue, of which the other two I
have mentioned are examples. For in some languages there are words that cannot
be translated into the idiom of another language. And this happens chiefly in
the case of interjections, which are words that express rather an emotion of
the mind than any part of a thought we have in our mind. And the two given above
are said to be of this kind, Racha expressing the cry of an angry man, Hosanna
that of a joyful man. But the knowledge of these languages is necessary, not
for the sake of a few words like these which it is very easy to mark and to
ask about, but, as has been said, on account of the diversities among translators.
For the translations of the Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek can be counted,
but the Latin translators are out of all number. For in the early days of the
faith every man who happened to get his hands upon a Greek manuscript, and who
thought he had any knowledge, were it ever so little, of the two languages,
ventured upon the work of translation.
Chap. 12.--A diversity of interpretations is useful. Errors arising from
ambiguous words
17. And this circumstance would assist rather than hinder the understanding
of Scripture, if only readers were not careless. For the examination of a number
of texts has often thrown light upon some of the more obscure passages; for
example, in that passage of the prophet Isaiah, 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 compared, a more likely sense of the words
suggests itself, viz., that the command is not to despise our kinsmen, because
when one brings the expression "domestics of thy seed " into relation with "flesh,"
kinsmen most naturally occur to one's mind. Whence, I think, that expression
of the apostle, when he says, "If by any means I may provoke to emulation them
which are my flesh, and might save some of them;" that is, that through emulation
of those who had believed, some of them might believe too. And he calls the
Jews his "flesh," on account of the relationship of blood. Again, that passage
from the same prophet Isaiah: "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 difficult for interpreters to
differ so widely as not to touch at some point. Accordingly here, as understanding
consists in sight, and is abiding, but faith feeds us as babes, upon milk, in
the cradles of temporal things (for now we walk by faith, not by sight); as,
moreover, unless we walk by faith, we shall not attain to sight, which does
not pass away, but abides, our understanding being purified by holding to the
truth;--for these reasons one says, "If ye will not believe, ye shall not understand;"
but the other, "If ye will not believe, ye shall not abide."
18. And very often a translator, to whom the meaning is not well known, is deceived
by an ambiguity in the original language, and puts upon the passage a construction
that is wholly alien to the sense of the writer. As for example, some texts
read: "Their feet are sharp to shed blood;" for the word "oxus" among the Greeks
means both sharp and swift. And so he saw the true meaning who translated: "Their
feet are swift to shed blood." The other, taking the wrong sense of an ambiguous
word, fell into error. Now 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 "moschos" means a calf, some have not understood
that "moscheumata" 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 passage, indeed, the rest of the context also justifies this translation.
Chap. 13.--How faulty interpretations can be emended
19 . But since we do not clearly see what the actual thought is which the several
translators endeavour to express, each according to his own ability and judgment,
unless we examine it in the language which they translate; and since the translator,
if he be not a very learned man, often departs from the meaning of his author,
we must either 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, not because these
are sufficient, but because we may use them to correct the freedom or the error
of others, who in their translations have chosen to follow the sense quite as
much as the words. For not only single words, but often whole phrases are translated,
which could not be translated at all into the Latin idiom by any one who wished
to hold by the usage of the ancients who spoke Latin. And though these sometimes
do not interfere with the understanding of the passage, yet they are offensive
to those who feel greater delight in things when even the signs of those things
are kept in their own purity. For what is called a solecism is nothing else
than the putting of words together according to a different rule from that which
those of our predecessors who spoke with any authority followed. For whether
we say inter homines (among men) or inter hominibus, is of no consequence to
a man who only wishes to know the facts. And in the same way, what is a barbarism
but the pronouncing of a word in a different way from that in which those who
spoke Latin before us pronounced it? For whether the word ignoscere (to pardon)
should be pronounced with the third syllable long or short, is not a matter
of much concern to the man who is beseeching God, in any way at all that he
can get the words out, to pardon his sins. What then is purity of speech, except
the preserving of the custom of language established by the authority of former
speakers?
20. And men are easily offended in a matter of this kind, just in proportion
as they are weak; and they are weak just in proportion as they wish to seem
learned, not in the knowledge of things which tend to edification, but in that
of signs, by which it is hard not to be puffed up, seeing that the knowledge
of things even would often set up our neck, if it were not held down by the
yoke of our Master. For how does it prevent our understanding it to have the
following passage thus expressed: "Quae est terra in qua isti insidunt super
eam, si bona est an nequam; et quae sunt civitates, in quibus ipsi inhabitant
in ipsis?" (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. 13:19) And I am more disposed
to think that this is simply the idiom of another language than that any deeper
meaning is intended. Again, that phrase, which we cannot now take away from
the lips of the people who sing it: "Super ipsum autem floriet sanctificatio
mea" (But upon himself shall my holiness flourish-- Ps.132:18), surely takes
away nothing from the meaning. Yet a more learned man would prefer that this
should be corrected, and that we should say, not fliriet, but florebit. Nor
does anything stand in the way of the correction being made, except the usage
of the singers. Mistakes of this kind, then, if a man do not choose to avoid
them altogether, it is easy to treat with indifference, as not interfering with
a right understanding. But take, on the other hand, the saying of the apostle:
"Quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominibus, et quod infirmum est Dei, fortius
est hominibus" (Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness
of God is stronger than men--1 Cor.1:25 ). If any one should retain in this
passage the Greek idiom, and say,"Quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominum
et quo infirmum est Dei fortius est hominum" (What is foolish of God is wiser
of men, and what is weak of God is stronger of men), a quick and careful reader
would indeed by an effort attain to the true meaning, but still a man of slower
intelligence either would not understand it at all, or would put an utterly
false construction upon it. For not only is such a form of speech faulty in
the Latin tongue, but it is ambiguous too, as if the meaning might be, that
the folly of men or the weakness of men is wiser or stronger than that of God.
But indeed even the expression "sapientius est hominibus"(stronger than men)
is not free from ambiguity, even though it be free from solecism. For whether
"hominibus" is put as the plural of the dative or as the plural of the ablative,
does not appear, unless by reference to the meaning. It would be better then
to say,"sapientius est quam homines", and "fortius est quam homines".
Chap. 14.--How the meaning of unknown words and idioms is to be discovered
21. About ambiguous signs, however, I shall speak afterwards. I am treating
at present of unknown signs, of which, as far as the words are concerned, there
are two kinds. For either a word or an idiom, of which the reader is ignorant,
brings him to a stop. Now if these belong to foreign tongues, we must either
make inquiry about them from men who speak those tongues, or if we have leisure
we must learn the tongues ourselves, or we must consult and compare several
translators. If, however, there are words or idioms in our own tongue that we
are unacquainted with, we gradually come to know them through being accustomed
to read or to hear them. There is nothing that it is better to commit to memory
than those kinds of words and phrases whose meaning we do not know, so that
where we happen to meet either with a more learned man of whom we can inquire,
or with a passage that shows, either by the preceding or succeeding context,
or by both, the force and significance of the phrase we are ignorant of, we
can easily by the help of our memory turn our attention to the matter and learn
all about it. So great, however, is the force of custom, even in regard to learning,
that those who have been in a sort of way nurtured and brought up on the study
of Holy Scripture, are surprised at other forms of speech, and think them less
pure Latin than those which they have learnt from Scripture, but which are not
to be found in Latin authors. In this matter, too, the great number of the translators
proves a very great assistance, if they are examined and discussed with a careful
comparison of their texts. Only all positive error must be removed. For those
who are anxious to know the Scriptures ought in the first place to use their
skill in the correction of the texts, so that the uncorrected ones should give
way to the corrected, at least when they are copies of the same translation.
Chap. 15.--Among versions a preference is given to the Septuagint and the
Itala
22. Now among translations themselves the Italian (Itala) 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 preeminent as far as the Old Testament
is concerned; for it is reported through all the more learned churches that
the seventy translators enjoyed so much of the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit in their work of translation, that among that number of men there was
but one voice. And if, as is reported, and as many not unworthy of confidence
assert, they were separated during the work of translation, each man being in
a cell by himself, and yet nothing was found in the manuscript of any one of
them that was not found in the same words and in the same order of words in
all the rest, who dares put anything in comparison with an authority like this,
not to speak of preferring anything to it? And even if they conferred together
with the result that a unanimous agreement sprang out of the common 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 correct the unanimous opinion of
many venerable and learned men. Wherefore, even if anything is found in the
original Hebrew in a different form from that in which these men have expressed
it, I think we must give way to the dispensation of Providence which used these
men to bring it about, that books which the Jewish race were unwilling, either
from religious scruple or from jealousy, to make known to other nations, were,
with the assistance of the power of King Ptolemy, made known so long beforehand
to the nations which in the future were to believe in the Lord. And thus it
is possible that they translated in such a way as the Holy Spirit, who worked
in them and had given them all one voice, thought most suitable for the Gentiles.
But nevertheless, as I said above, a comparison of those translators also who
have kept most closely to the words, is often not without value as a help to
the clearing up of the meaning. The Latin texts, therefore, of the Old Testament
are, as I was about to say, to be corrected if necessary by the authority of
the Greeks, and especially by that of those who, though they were seventy in
number, are said to have translated as with one voice. As to the books of the
New Testament, again, if any perplexity arises from the diversities of the Latin
texts, we must of course yield to the Greek, especially those that are found
in the churches of greater learning and research.
Chap. 16.--The knowledge both of language and things is helpful for the understanding
of figurative expressions
23. In the case of figurative signs, again, if ignorance of any of them should
chance to bring the reader to a standstill, 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, we should willingly offer our body to
the persecutors, lest the Christian faith should, as it were, be destroyed in
us, if to save the body we deny our God! Or again, the statement that the serpent
gets rid of its old skin by squeezing itself through a narrow hole, and thus
acquires new strength--how appropriately it fits in with the direction to imitate
the wisdom of the serpent, and to put off the old man, as the apostle says,
that we may put on the new; and to put it off, too, by coming through a narrow
place, according to the saying of our Lord, "Enter ye in at the strait gate!"
As, then, knowledge of the nature of the serpent throws light upon many metaphors
which Scripture is accustomed to draw from that animal, so ignorance of other
animals, which are no less frequently mentioned by way of comparison, is a very
great drawback to the reader. And so in regard to minerals and plants: knowledge
of the carbuncle, for instance, which shines in the dark, throws light upon
many of the dark places in books too, where it is used metaphorically; and ignorance
of the beryl or the adamant often shuts the doors of knowledge. And the only
reason why we find it easy to understand that perpetual peace is indicated by
the olive branch which the dove brought with it when it returned to the ark,
is that we know both that the smooth touch of olive oil is not easily spoiled
by a fluid of another kind, and that the tree itself is an evergreen. Many,
again, by reason of their ignorance of hyssop, not knowing the virtue it has
in cleansing the lungs, nor the power it is said to have of piercing rocks with
its roots, although it is a small and insignificant plant, cannot make out why
it is said, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean".
25. Ignorance of numbers, too, prevents us from understanding things that are
set down in Scripture in a figurative and mystical way. A candid mind, if I
may so speak, cannot but be anxious, for example, to ascertain what is meant
by the fact that Moses and Elijah, and our Lord Himself, all fasted for forty
days. And except by knowledge of and reflection upon the number, the difficulty
of explaining the figure involved in this action cannot be got over. For the
number contains ten four times, indicating the knowledge of all things, and
that knowledge interwoven with time. For both the diurnal and the annual revolutions
are accomplished in periods numbering four each; the diurnal in the hours of
the morning, the noontime, the evening, and the night; the annual in the spring,
summer, autumn, and winter months. Now while we live in time, we must abstain
and fast from all joy in time, for the sake of that eternity in which we wish
to live; although by the passage of time we are taught this very lesson of despising
time and seeking eternity. Further, the number ten signifies the knowledge of
the Creator and the creature, for there is a trinity in the Creator; and the
number seven indicates the creature, because of the life and the body. For the
life consists of three parts, whence also God is to be loved with the whole
heart, the whole soul, and the whole mind; and it is very clear that in the
body there are four elements of which it is made up. In this number ten, therefore,
when it is placed before us in connection with time, that is, when it is taken
four times, we are admonished to live unstained by, and not partaking of, any
delight in time, that is, to fast for forty days. Of this we are admonished
by the law personified in Moses, by prophecy personified in Elijah, and by our
Lord Himself, who, as if receiving the witness both of the law and the prophets,
appeared on the mount between the other two, while His three disciples looked
on in amazement. Next, we have to inquire in the same way, how out of the number
forty springs the number fifty, which in our religion has no ordinary sacredness
attached to it on account of the Pentecost, and how this number taken thrice
on account of the three divisions of time, before the law, under the law, and
under grace, or perhaps on account of the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, and the Trinity itself being added over and above, has reference to
the mystery of the most Holy Church, and reaches to the number of the one hundred
and fifty-three fishes which were taken after the resurrection of our Lord,
when the nets were cast out on the right-hand side of the boat. And in the same
way, many other numbers and combinations of numbers are used in the sacred writings,
to convey instruction under a figurative guise, and ignorance of numbers often
shuts out the reader from this instruction.
26. Not a few things, too, are closed against us and obscured by ignorance of
music. One man, for example, has not unskilfully explained some metaphors from
the difference between the psalters 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 psalters 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 referred to the structure of our Lord's
body, in relation to which the temple was mentioned, compels many heretics to
confess that our Lord put on, not a false, but a true and human body. And in
several places in the Holy Scriptures we find both numbers and music mentioned
with honour.
Chap. 17.--Origin of the legend of the nine Muses
27. For we must not listen to the falsities of heathen superstition, which represent
the nine Muses as daughters of Jupiter and Mercury. Varro refutes these, and
I doubt whether any one can be found among them more curious or more learned
in such matters. He says that a certain state (I don't recollect the name) ordered
from each of three artists a set of statues of the Muses, to be placed as an
offering in the temple of Apollo, intending that whichever of the artists produced
the most beautiful statues, they should select and purchase from him. It so
happened that these artists executed their works with equal beauty, that all
nine pleased the state, and that all were bought to be dedicated in the temple
of Apollo; and he says that afterwards Hesiod the poet gave names to them all.
It was not Jupiter, therefore, that begat the nine Muses, but three artists
created three each. And the state had originally given the order for three,
not because it had seen them in visions, nor because they had presented themselves
in that number to the eyes of any of the citizens, but because it was obvious
to remark that all sound, which is the material of song, is by nature of three
kinds. For it is either produced by the voice, as in the case of those who sing
with the mouth without an instrument; or by blowing, as in the case of trumpets
and flutes; or by striking, as in the case of harps and drums, and all other
instruments that give their sound when struck.
Chap. 18.--No help is to be despised even though it come from a profane source
28. But whether the fact is as Varro has related, or is not so, still we ought
not to give up music because of the superstition of the heathen, if we can derive
anything from it that is of use for the understanding of Holy Scripture; nor
does it follow that we must busy ourselves with their theatrical trumpery because
we enter upon an investigation about harps and other instruments, that may help
us to lay hold upon spiritual things. For we ought not to refuse to learn letters
because they say that Mercury discovered them; nor because they have dedicated
temples to Justice and Virtue, and prefer to worship in the form of stones things
that ought to have their place in the heart, ought we on that account to forsake
justice and virtue. Nay, but let every good and true Christian understand that
wherever truth may be found, it belongs to his Master; and while he recognizes
and acknowledges the truth, even in their religious literature, let him reject
the figments of superstition, and let him grieve over and avoid men who, "when
they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves
to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts,
and creeping things."
Chap. 19.--Two kinds of heathen knowledge
29. But to explain more fully this whole topic (for it is one that cannot be
omitted), there are two kinds of knowledge which are in vogue among the heathen.
One is the knowledge of things instituted by men, the other of things which
they have noted, either as transacted in the past or as instituted by God. The
former kind, that which deals with human institutions, is partly superstitious,
partly not.
Chap. 20.--The superstitious nature of human institutions
30. All the arrangements made by men to 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 physica, so as to appear not to be engaged in superstitious
observances, but to be taking advantage of the forces of nature. Examples of
these are the earrings on the top of each ear, or the rings of ostrich bone
on the fingers, or telling you when you hiccup to hold your left thumb in your
right hand.
31. To these we may add thousands of the most frivolous practices, that are
to be observed if any part of the body should jump, or if, when friends are
walking arm-in-arm, a stone, or a dog, or a boy, should come between them. And
the kicking of a stone, as if it were a divider of friends, does less harm than
to cuff an innocent boy if he happens to run between men who are walking side
by side. But it is delightful that the boys are sometimes avenged by the dogs;
for frequently men are so superstitious as to venture upon striking a dog who
has run between them,--not with impunity however, for instead of a superstitious
remedy, the dog sometimes makes his assailant run in hot haste for a real surgeon.
To this class, too, belong the following rules: To tread upon the threshold
when you go out in front of the house; to go back to bed if any one should sneeze
when you are putting on your slippers; to return home if you stumble when going
to a place; when your clothes are eaten by mice, to be more frightened at the
prospect of coming misfortune than grieved by your present loss. Whence that
witty saying of Cato, who, when consulted by a man who told him that the mice
had eaten his boots, replied, "That is not strange, but it would have been very
strange indeed if the boots had eaten the mice."
Chap.21.--Superstition of astrologers
32. Nor can we exclude from this kind of superstition those who were called
genethliaci, on account of their attention to birthdays, but are now commonly
called mathematici. For these, too, although they may seek with pains for the
true position of the stars at the time of our birth, and may sometimes even
find it out, yet in so far as they attempt thence to predict our actions, or
the consequences of our actions, grievously err, and sell inexperienced men
into a miserable bondage. For when any freeman goes to an astrologer of this
kind, he gives money that he may come away the slave either of Mars or of Venus,
or rather, perhaps, of all the stars to which those who first fell into this
error, and handed it on to posterity, have given the names either of beasts
on account of their likeness to beasts, or of men with a view to confer 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 Romans made an attempt to dedicate
the star which we call Lucifer to the name and honour of Caesar. And this would,
perhaps, have been done, and the name handed down to distant ages, only that
his ancestress Venus had given her name to this star before him, and could not
by any law transfer to her heirs what she had never possessed, nor sought to
possess, in life. For where a place was vacant, or not held in 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 Caesar and Augustus
Caesar; and from this instance any one who cares can easily see that the stars
spoken of above formerly wandered in the heavens without the names they now
bear. But as the men were dead whose memory people were either compelled by
royal power or impelled by human folly to honour, they seemed to think that
in putting their names upon the stars they were raising the dead men themselves
to heaven. But whatever they may be called by men, still there are stars which
God has made and set in order after His own pleasure, and they have a fixed
movement, by which the seasons are distinguished and varied. And when any one
is born, it is easy to observe the point at which this movement has arrived,
by use of the rules discovered and laid down by those who are rebuked by Holy
Writ in these terms: "For if they were able to know so much that they could
weigh the world, how did they not more easily find out the Lord thereof?"
Chap. 22.--The folly of observing the stars in order to predict the events
of a life
33. But to desire to predict the characters, the acts, and the fate of those
who are born from such an observation, is a great delusion and great madness.
And among those at least who have any sort of acquaintance with matters of this
kind (which, indeed, are only fit to be unlearnt again), this superstition is
refuted beyond the reach of doubt. For the observation is of the position of
the stars, which they call constellations, at the time when the person was born
about whom these wretched men are consulted by their still more wretched dupes.
Now it may happen that, in the case of twins, one follows the other out of the
womb so closely that there is no interval of time between them that can be apprehended
and marked in the position of the constellations. Whence it necessarily follows
that twins are in many cases born under the same stars, while they do not meet
with equal fortune either in what they do or what they suffer, but often meet
with fates so different that one of them has a most fortunate life, the other
a most unfortunate. As, for example, we are told that Esau and Jacob were born
twins, and in such close succession, that Jacob, who was born last, was found
to have laid hold with his hand upon the heel of his brother, who preceded him.
Now, assuredly, the day and hour of the birth of these two could not be marked
in any way that would not give both the same constellation. But what a difference
there was between the characters, the actions, the labours, and the fortunes
of these two, the Scriptures bear witness, which are now so widely spread as
to be in the mouth of all nations.
34. Nor is it to the point to say that the very smallest and briefest moment
of time that separates the birth of twins, produces great effects in nature,
and in the extremely rapid motion of the heavenly bodies. For, although I may
grant that it does produce the greatest effects, yet the astrologer cannot discover
this in the constellations, and it is by looking into these that he professes
to read the fates. If, then, he does not discover the difference when he examines
the constellations, which must, of course, be the same whether he is consulted
about Jacob or his brother, what does it profit him that there is a difference
in the heavens, which he rashly and carelessly brings into disrepute, when there
is no difference in his chart, which he looks into anxiously but in vain? And
so these notions also, which have their origin in certain signs of things being
arbitrarily fixed upon by the presumption of men, are to be referred to the
same class as if they were leagues and covenants with devils.
Chap. 23.--Why we repudiate arts of divination
35. For in this way it comes to pass that men who lust after evil things are,
by a secret judgment of God, delivered over to be mocked and deceived, as the
just reward of their evil desires. For they are deluded and imposed on by the
false angels, to whom the lowest part of the world has been put in subjection
by the law of God's providence, and in accordance with His most admirable arrangement
of things. And the result of these delusions and deceptions is, that through
these superstitious and baneful modes of divination, many things in the past
and future are made known, and turn out just as they are foretold; and in the
case of those who practice superstitious observances, many things turn out agreeably
to their observances, and ensnared by these successes, they become more eagerly
inquisitive, and involve themselves further and further in a labyrinth of most
pernicious error. And to our advantage, the Word of God is not silent about
this species of fornication of the soul; and it does not warn the soul against
following such practices on the ground that those who profess them speak lies,
but it says, "Even if what they tell you should come to pass, hearken not unto
them." For though the ghost of the dead Samuel foretold the truth to King Saul,
that does not make such sacrilegious observances as those by which 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 selfish strivings after temporal things. Accordingly, in regard to all these
branches of knowledge, we must fear and shun the fellowship of demons, who,
with the Devil their prince, strive only to shut and bar the door against our
return. As, then, from the stars which God created and ordained, men have drawn
lying omens of their own fancy, so also from things that are born, or in any
other way come into existence under the government of God's providence, if there
chance only to be something unusual in the occurrence,--as when a mule brings
forth young, or an object is struck by lightning,--men have frequently drawn
omens by conjectures of their own, and have committed them to writing, as if
they had drawn them by rule.
Chap. 24.--The intercourse and agreement with demons which superstitious
observances maintain
37. And all these omens are of force just so far as has been arranged with the
devils by that previous understanding in the mind which is, as it were, the
common language, but they are all full of hurtful curiosity, torturing anxiety,
and deadly slavery. For it was not because they had meaning that they were attended
to, but it was by attending to and marking them that they came to have meaning.
And so they are made different for different people, according to their several
notions and prejudices. For those spirits which are bent upon deceiving, take
care to provide for each person the same sort of omens as they see his own conjectures
and preconceptions have already entangled him in. For, to take an illustration,
the same figure of the letter X, which is made in the shape of a cross, means
one thing among the Greeks and another among the Latins, not by nature, but
by agreement and prearrangement as to its signification; and so, any one who
knows both languages uses this letter in a different sense when writing to a
Greek from that in which he uses it when writing to a Latin. And the same sound,
beta, which is the name of a letter among the Greeks, is the name of a vegetable
among the Latins; and when I say, lege, these two syllables mean one thing to
a Greek and another to a Latin. Now, just as all these signs affect the mind
according to the arrangements of the community in which each man lives, and
affect different men's minds differently, because these arrangements are different;
and as, further, men did not agree upon them as signs because they were already
significant, but on the contrary they are now significant because men have agreed
upon them; in the same way also, those signs by which the ruinous intercourse
with devils is maintained have meaning just in proportion to each man's observations.
And this appears quite plainly in the rites of the augurs; for they, both before
they observe the omens and after they have completed their observations, take
pains not to see the flight or hear the cries of birds, because these omens
are of no significance apart from the previous arrangement in the mind of the
observer.
Chap. 25.--In human institutions which are not superstitious, there are some
things superfluous and some convenient and necessary
38. But when all these have been cut away and rooted out of the mind of the
Christian, we must then look at human institutions which are not superstitious,
that is, such as are not set up in association with devils, but by men in association
with one another. For all arrangements that are in force among men, because
they have agreed among themselves that they should be in force, are human institutions;
and of these, some are matters of superfluity and luxury, some of convenience
and necessity. For if those signs which the actors make in dancing were of force
by nature, and not by the arrangement and agreement of men, the public crier
would not in former times have announced to the people of Carthage, while the
pantomime was dancing, what it was he meant to express,--a thing still remembered
by many old men from whom we have frequently heard it. And we may well believe
this, because even now, if any one who is unaccustomed to such follies goes
into the theatre, unless some one tells him what these movements mean, he will
give his whole attention to them in vain. Yet all men aim at a certain degree
of likeness in their choice of signs, that the signs may as far as possible
be like the things they signify. But because one thing may resemble another
in many ways, such signs are not always of the same significance among men,
except when they have mutually agreed upon them.
39. But in regard to pictures and statues, and other works of this kind, which
are intended as representations of things, nobody makes a mistake, especially
if they are executed by skilled artists, but every one, as soon as he sees the
likenesses recognizes the things they are likenesses of. And this whole class
are to be reckoned among the superfluous devices of men, unless when it is a
matter of importance to inquire in regard to any of them, for what reason, where,
when, and by whose authority it was made. Finally, the thousands of fables and
fictions, in whose lies men take delight, are human devices, and nothing is
to be considered more peculiarly man's own and derived from himself than, anything
that is false and lying. Among the convenient and necessary arrangements of
men with men are to be reckoned whatever differences they choose to make in
bodily dress and ornament for the purpose of distinguishing sex or rank; and
the countless varieties of signs without which human intercourse either could
not be carried on at all, or would be carried on at great inconvenience; and
the arrangements as to weights and measures, and the stamping and weighing of
coins, which are peculiar to each state and people,and other things of the same
kind. Now these, if they were not devices of men, would not be different in
different nations, and could not be changed among particular nations at the
discretion of their respective sovereigns.
40. This whole class of human arrangements, which are of convenience for the
necessary intercourse of life, the Christian is not by any means to neglect,
but on the contrary should pay a sufficient degree of attention to them, and
keep them in memory.
Chap. 26.--What human contrivances we are to adopt, and what we are to avoid
For certain institutions of men are in a sort of way representations and likenesses
of natural objects. And of these, such as have relation to fellowship with devils
must, as has been said, be utterly rejected and held in detestation; those,
on the other hand, which relate to the mutual intercourse of men, are, so far
as they are not matters of luxury and superfluity, to be adopted, especially
the forms of the letters which are necessary for reading, and the various languages
as far as is required--a matter I have spoken of above. To this class also belong
shorthand characters, those who are acquainted with which are called shorthand
writers. All these are useful, and there is nothing unlawful in learning them,
nor do they involve us in superstition, or enervate us by luxury, if they only
occupy our minds so far as not to stand in the way of more important objects
to which they ought to be subservient.
Chap. 27.--Some departments of knowledge, not of mere human invention, aid
us in interpreting Scripture
41. But, coming to the next point, we are not to reckon among human institutions
those things which men have handed down to us, not as arrangements of their
own, but as the resell of investigation into the occurrences of the past, and
into the arrangements of God's providence. And of these, some pertain to the
bodily senses, some to the intellect. Those which are reached by the bodily
senses we either believe on testimony, or perceive when they are pointed out
to us, or infer from experience.
Chap. 28.--To what extent history is an aid
42. Anything, then, that we learn from history about the chronology of past
times assists us very much in understanding the Scriptures, even if it be learnt
without the pale of the Church as a matter of childish instruction. For we frequently
seek information about a variety of matters by use of the Olympiads, and the
names of the consuls; and ignorance of the consulship in which our Lord was
born, and that in which He suffered, has led some into the error of supposing
that He was forty-six years of age when He suffered, that being the number of
years He was told by the Jews the temple (which He took as a symbol of His body)
was in building. 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 another source, can be ascertained
more clearly and more certainly from a comparison of profane history with the
gospel. It will still be evident, however, that it was not without a purpose
it was said that the temple was forty and six years in building; so that, as
this cannot be referred to our Lord's age, it may be referred to the more secret
formation of the body which, for our sakes, the only begotten Son of God, by
whom all things were made, condescended to put on.
43. As to the utility of history, moreover, passing over the Greeks, what a
great question our own Ambrose has set at rest! For, when the readers and admirers
of Plato dared calumniously to assert that our Lord Jesus Christ learnt all
those sayings of His, which they are compelled to admire and praise, from the
books of Plato--because (they urged) it cannot be denied that Plato lived long
before the coming of our Lord!--did not the illustrious bishop, when by his
investigations into profane history he had discovered that Plato made a journey
into Egypt at the time when Jeremiah the prophet was there, show that it is
much more likely that Plato was through Jeremiah's means initiated into our
literature, so as to be able to teach and write those views of his which are
so justly praised? For not even Pythagoras himself, from whose successors these
men assert Plato learnt theology, lived at a date prior to the books of that
Hebrew race, among whom the worship of one God sprang up, and of whom as concerning
the flesh our Lord came. And thus, when we reflect upon the dates, it becomes
much more probable that those philosophers learnt whatever they said that was
good and true from our literature, than that the Lord Jesus Christ learnt from
the writings of Plato,--a thing which it is the height of folly to believe.
44. And even when in the course of an historical narrative former institutions
of men are described, the history itself is not to be reckoned among human institutions;
because things that are past and gone and cannot be undone are to be reckoned
as belonging to the course of time, of which God is the author and governor.
For it is one thing to tell what has been done, another to show what ought to
be done. History narrates what has been done, faithfully and with advantage;
but the books of the haruspices, and all writings of the same kind, aim at teaching
what ought to be done or observed, using the boldness of an adviser, not the
fidelity of a narrator.
Chap. 29.--To what extent natural science is an exegetical aid
45. There is also a species of narrative resembling description, in which not
a past but an existing state of things is made known to those who are ignorant
of it. To this species belongs all that has been written about the situation
of places, and the nature of animals, trees, herbs, stones, and other bodies.
And of this species I have treated above, and have shown that this kind of knowledge
is serviceable in solving the difficulties of Scripture, not that these objects
are to be used conformably to certain signs as nostrums or the instruments of
superstition; for that kind of knowledge I have already set aside as distinct
from the lawful and free kind now spoken of. For it is one thing to say: If
you bruise down this herb and drink it, it will remove the pain from your stomach;
and another to say: If you hang this herb round your neck, it will remove the
pain from your stomach. In the former case the wholesome mixture is approved
of, in the latter the superstitious charm is condemned; although indeed, where
incantations and invocations and marks are not used, it is frequently doubtful
whether the thing that is tied or fixed in any way to the body to cure it, acts
by a natural virtue, in which case it may be freely used; or acts by a sort
of charm, in which case it becomes the Christian to avoid it the more carefully,
the more efficacious it may seem to be. But when the reason why a thing is of
virtue does not appear, the intention with which it is used is of great importance,
at least in healing or in tempering bodies, whether in medicine or in agriculture.
46. The knowledge of the stars, again, is not a matter of narration, but of
description. Very few of these, however, are mentioned in Scripture. And as
the course of the moon, which is regularly employed in reference to celebrating
the anniversary of our Lord's passion, is known to most people; so the rising
and setting and other movements of the rest of the heavenly bodies are thoroughly
known to very few. And this knowledge, although in itself it involves no superstition,
renders very little, indeed almost no assistance, in the interpretation of Holy
Scripture, and by engaging the attention unprofitably is a hindrance rather;
and as it is closely related to the very pernicious error of the diviners of
the fates, it is more convenient and becoming to neglect it. it involves, moreover,
in addition to a description of the present state of things, something like
a narrative of the past also; because one may go back from the present position
and motion of the stars, and trace by rule their past movements. It involves
also regular anticipations of the future, not in the way of forebodings and
omens, but by way of sure calculation; not with the design of drawing any information
from them as to our own acts and fates, in the absurd fashion of the genethliaci,
but only as to the motions of the heavenly bodies themselves. For, as the man
who computes the moon's age can tell, when he has found out her age today, what
her age was any number of years ago, or what will be her age any number of years
hence, in just the same way men who are skilled in such computations are accustomed
to answer like questions about every one of the heavenly bodies. And I have
stated what my views are about all this knowledge, so far as regards its utility.
Chap. 30.--What the mechanical arts contribute to exegetics
47. Further, as to the remaining arts, whether those by which something is made
which, when the effort of the workman is over, remains as a result of his work,
as, for example, a house, a bench, a dish, and other things of that kind; or
those which, so to speak, assist God in His operations, as medicine, and agriculture,
and navigation: or those whose sole result is an action, as dancing, and racing,
and wrestling;--in all these arts experience teaches us to infer the future
from the past. For no man who is skilled in any of these arts moves his limbs
in any operation without connecting the memory of the past with the expectation
of the future. Now of these arts a very superficial and cursory knowledge is
to be acquired, not with a view to practicing them (unless some duty compel
us, a matter on which I do not touch at present), but with a view to forming
a judgement about them, that we may not be wholly ignorant of what Scripture
means to convey when it employs figures of speech derived from these arts.
Chap. 31.--Use of dialectics. Of fallacies
48. There remain those branches of knowledge which pertain not to the bodily
senses, but to the intellect, among which the science of reasoning and that
of number are the chief. The science of reasoning is of very great service in
searching into and unravelling all sorts of questions that come up in Scripture,
only in the use of it we must guard against the love of wrangling, and the childish
vanity of entrapping an adversary. For there are many of what are called sophisms,
inferences in reasoning that are false, and yet so close an imitation of the
true, as to deceive not only dull people, but clever men too, when they are
not on their guard. For example, one man lays before another with whom he is
talking, the proposition, "What I am, you are not." The other assents, for the
proposition is in part true, the one man being cunning and the other simple.
Then the first speaker adds: "I am a man;" and when the other has given his
assent to this also, the first draws his conclusion: "Then you are not a man."
Now at this sort of ensnaring arguments, Scripture, as I judge, expresses detestation
in that place where it is said, "There is one that showeth wisdom in words,
and is hated;" although, indeed, a style of speech which is not intended to
entrap, but only aims at verbal ornamentation more than is consistent with seriousness
of purpose, is also called sophistical.
49. There are also valid processes of reasoning which lead to false conclusions,
by following out to its logical consequences the error of the man with whom
one is arguing; and these conclusions are sometimes drawn by a good and learned
man, with the object of making the person from whose error these consequences
result, feel ashamed of them, and of thus leading him to give up his error,
when he finds that if he wishes to retain his old opinion, he must of necessity
also hold other opinions which he condemns. For example, the apostle did not
draw true conclusions when he said, "Then is Christ not risen," and again, "Then
is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain;" and further on drew other
inferences which are all utterly false; for Christ has risen, the preaching
of those who declared this fact was not in vain, nor was their faith in vain
who had believed it. But all these false inferences followed legitimately from
the opinion of those who said that there is no resurrection of the dead. These
inferences, then, being repudiated as false, it follows that since they would
be true if the dead rise not, there will be a resurrection of the dead. As,
then, valid conclusions may be drawn not only from true but from false propositions,
the laws of valid reasoning may easily be learnt in the schools, outside the
pale of the Church. But the truth of propositions must be inquired into in the
sacred books of the Church.
Chap. 32.--Valid logical sequence is not devised but only observed by man
50. And yet the validity of logical sequences is not a thing devised by men,
but is observed and noted by them that they may be able to learn and teach it;
for it exists eternally in the reason of things, and has its origin with God.
For as the man who narrates the order of events does not himself create that
order; and as he who describes the situations of places, or the natures of animals,
or roots, or minerals, does not describe arrangements of man; and as he who
points out the stars and their movements does not point out anything that he
himself or any other man has ordained;--in the same way, he who says, "When
the consequent is false, the antecedent must also be false," says what is most
true; but he does not himself make it so, he only points out that it is so.
And it is upon this rule that the reasoning I have quoted from the Apostle Paul
proceeds. For the antecedent is, "There is no resurrection of the dead," the
position taken up by those whose error the apostle wished to overthrow. Next,
from this antecedent, the assertion, viz., that there is no resurrection of
the dead, the necessary consequence is, "Then Christ is not risen." But this
consequence is false, for Christ has risen; therefore the antecedent is also
false. But the antecedent is, that there is no resurrection of the dead. We
conclude, therefore, that there is a resurrection of the dead. Now all this
is briefly expressed thus: If there is no resurrection of the dead, then is
Christ not risen; but Christ is risen, therefore there is a resurrection of
the dead. This rule, then, that when the consequent is removed, the antecedent
must also be removed, is not made by man, but only pointed out by him. And this
rule has reference to the validity of the reasoning, not to the truth of the
statements.
Chap. 33.--False inferences may be drawn from valid seasonings, and vice
versa
51. In this passage, however, where the argument is about the resurrection,
both the law of the inference is valid, and the conclusion arrived at is true.
But in the case of false conclusions, too, there is a validity of inference
in some such way as the following. Let us suppose some man to have admitted:
If a snail is an animal, it has a voice. This being admitted, then, when it
has been proved that the snail has no voice, it follows (since when the consequent
is proved false, the antecedent is also false) that the snail is not an animal.
Now this conclusion is false, but it is a true and valid inference from the
false admission. Thus, the truth of a statement stands on its own merits; the
validity of an inference depends on the statement or the admission of the man
with whom one is arguing. And thus, as I said above, a false inference may be
drawn by a valid process of reasoning, in order that he whose error we wish
to correct may be sorry that he has admitted the antecedent, when he sees that
its logical consequences are utterly untenable. And hence it is easy to understand
that as the inferences may be valid where the opinions are false, so the inferences
may be unsound where the opinions are true. For example, suppose that a man
propounds the statement, "If this man is just, he is good," and we admit its
truth. Then he adds, "But he is not just;" and when we admit this too, he draws
the conclusion, "Therefore he is not good." Now although every one of these
statements may be true, still the principle of the inference is unsound. For
it is not true that, as when the consequent is proved false the antecedent is
also false, so when the antecedent is proved false the consequent is false.
For the statement is true, "If he is an orator, he is a man." But if we add,
"He is not an orator," the consequence does not follow, "He is not a man."
Chap. 34.--It is one thing to know the laws of inference, another to know
the truth of opinions
52. Therefore it is one thing to know the laws of inference, and another to
know the truth of opinions. In the former case we learn what is consequent,
what is inconsequent, and what is incompatible. An example of a consequent is,
"If he is an orator, he is a man;" of an inconsequent, "If he is a man, he is
an orator;" of an incompatible, "If he is a man, he is a quadruped." In these
instances we judge of the connection. In regard to the truth of opinions, however,
we must consider propositions as they stand by themselves, and not in their
connection with one another; but when propositions that we are not sure about
are joined by a valid inference to propositions that are true and certain, they
themselves, too, necessarily become certain. Now some, when they have ascertained
the validity of the inference, plume themselves as if this involved also the
truth of the propositions. Many, again, who hold the true opinions have an unfounded
contempt for themselves, because they are ignorant of the laws of inference;
whereas the man who knows that there is a resurrection of the dead is assuredly
better than the man who only knows that it follows that if there is no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen.
Chap. 35.--The science of definition is not false, though it may be applied
to falsities
53. Again, the science of definition, of division, and of partition, although
it is frequently applied to falsities, is not itself false, nor framed by man's
device, but is evolved from the reason of things. For although poets have applied
it to their fictions, and false philosophers, or even heretics--that is, false
Christians--to their erroneous doctrines, that is no reason why it should be
false, for example, that neither in definition, nor in division, nor in partition,
is anything to be included that does not pertain to the matter in hand, nor
anything to be omitted that does. This is true, even though the things to be
defined or divided are not true. For even falsehood itself is defined when we
say that falsehood is the declaration of a state of things which is not as we
declare it to be; and this definition is true, although falsehood itself cannot
be true. We can also divide it, saying that there are two kinds of falsehood,
one in regard to things that cannot be true at all, the other in regard to things
that are not, though it is possible they might be, true. For example, the man
who says that seven and three are eleven, says what cannot be true under any
circumstances; but he who says that it rained on the kalends of January, although
perhaps the fact is not so, says what possibly might have been. The definition
and division, therefore, of what is false may be perfectly true, although what
is false cannot, of course, itself be true.
Chap. 36.--The rules of eloquence are true, though sometimes used to persuade
men of what is false
54. There are also certain rules for a more copious kind of argument, which
is called eloquence, and these rules are not the less true that they can be
used for persuading men of what is false; but as they can be used to enforce
the truth as well, it is not the faculty itself that is to be blamed, but the
perversity of those who put it to a bad use. Nor is it owing to an arrangement
among men that the expression of affection conciliates the hearer, or that a
narrative, when it is short and clear, is effective, and that variety arrests
men's attention without wearying them. And it is the same with other directions
of the same kind, which, whether the cause in which they are used be true or
false, are themselves true just in so far as they are effective in producing
knowledge or belief, or in moving men's minds to desire and aversion. And men
rather found out that these things are so, than arranged that they should be
so.
Chap. 37.--Use of rhetoric and dialectic
55. This art, however, when it is learnt, is not to be used so much for ascertaining
the meaning as for setting forth the meaning when it is ascertained. But the
art previously spoken of, which deals with inferences, and definitions, and
divisions, is of the greatest assistance in the discovery of the meaning, provided
only that men do not fall into the error of supposing that when they have learnt
these things they have learnt the true secret of a happy life. Still, it sometimes
happens that men find less difficulty in attaining the object for the sake of
which these sciences are learnt, than in going through the very intricate and
thorny discipline of such rules. It is just as if a man wishing to give rules
for walking should warn you not to lift the hinder foot before you set down
the front one, and then should describe minutely the way you ought to move the
hinges of the joints and knees. For what he says is true, and one cannot walk
in any other way; but men find it easier to walk by executing these movements
than to attend to them while they are going through them, or to understand when
they are told about them. Those, on the other hand, who cannot walk, care still
less about such directions, as they cannot prove them by making trial of them.
And in the same way a clever man often sees that an inference is unsound more
quickly than he apprehends the rules for it. A dull man, on the other hand,
does not see the unsoundness, but much less does he grasp the rules. And in
regard to all these laws, we derive more pleasure from them as exhibitions of
truth, than assistance in arguing or forming opinions, except perhaps that they
put the intellect in better training. We must take care, however, that they
do not at the same time make it more inclined to mischief or vanity,--that is
to say, that they do not give those who have learnt them an inclination to lead
people astray by plausible speech and catching questions, or make them think
that they have attained some great thing that gives them an advantage over the
good and innocent.
Chap. 38.--The science of numbers not created, but only discovered, by man
56. Coming now to the science of number, it is clear to the dullest apprehension
that this was not created by man, but was discovered by investigation. For,
though Virgil could at his own pleasure make the first syllable of Italia long,
while the ancients pronounced it short, it is not in any man's power to determine
at his pleasure that three times three are not nine, or do not make a square,
or are not the triple of three, nor one and a half times the number six, or
that it is not true that they are not the double of any number because odd numbers
have no half. Whether, then, numbers are considered in themselves, or as applied
to the laws of figures, or of sounds, or of other motions, they have fixed laws
which were not made by man, but which the acuteness of ingenious men brought
to light.
57. The man, however, who puts so high a value on these things as to be inclined
to boast himself one of the learned, and who does not rather inquire after the
source from which those things which he perceives to be true derive their truth,
and from which those others which he perceives to be unchangeable also derive
their truth and unchangeableness, and who, mounting up from bodily appearances
to the mind of man, and finding that it too is changeable (for it is sometimes
instructed, at other times uninstructed), although it holds a middle place between
the unchangeable truth above it and the changeable things beneath it, does not
strive to make all things redound to the praise and love of the one God from
whom he knows that all things have their being;-- the man, I say, who acts in
this way may seem to be learned, but wise he cannot in any sense be deemed.
Chap. 39.--To which of the above-mentioned studies attention should be given,
and in what spirit
58. Accordingly, I think that it is well to warn studious and able young men,
who fear God and are seeking for happiness of life, not to venture heedlessly
upon the pursuit of the branches of learning that are in vogue beyond the pale
of the Church of Christ, as if these could secure for them the happiness they
seek; but soberly and carefully to discriminate among them. And if they find
any of those which have been instituted by men varying by reason of the varying
pleasure of their founders, and unknown by reason of erroneous conjectures,
especially if they involve entering into fellowship with devils by means of
leagues and covenants about signs, let these he utterly rejected and held in
detestation. Let the young men also withdraw their attention from such institutions
of men as are unnecessary and luxurious. But for the sake of the necessities
of this life we must not neglect the arrangements of men that enable us to carry
on intercourse with those around us. I think, however, there is nothing useful
in the other branches of learning that are found among the heathen, except information
about objects, either past or present, that relate to the bodily senses, in
which are included also the experiments and conclusions of the useful mechanical
arts, except also the sciences of reasoning and of number. And in regard to
all these we must hold by the maxim, "Not too much of anything;" especially
in the case of those which, pertaining as they do to the senses, are subject
to the relations of space and time.
59. What, then, some men have done in regard to all words and names found in
Scripture, in the Hebrew, and Syrian, and Egyptian, and other tongues, taking
up and interpreting separately such as were left in Scripture without interpretation;
and what Eusebius has done in regard to the history of the past with a view
to the questions arising in Scripture that require a knowledge of history for
their solution;--what, I say, these men have done in regard to matters of this
kind, making it unnecessary for the Christian to spend his strength on many
subjects for the sake of a few items of knowledge, the same, I think, might
be done in regard to other matters, if any competent man were willing in a spirit
of benevolence to undertake the 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 committing his account to writing. This might also be done in relation
to numbers, so that the theory of those numbers, and those only, which are mentioned
in Holy Scripture, might be explained and written down. And it may happen that
some or all of these things have been done already (as I have found that many
things I had no notion of have been worked out and committed to writing by good
and learned Christians), but are either lost amid the crowds of the careless,
or are kept out of sight by the envious. And I am not sure whether the same
thing can be done in regard to the theory of reasoning; but it seems to me it
cannot, because this runs like a system of nerves through the whole structure
of Scripture, and on that account is of more service to the reader in disentangling
and explaining ambiguous passages, of which I shall speak hereafter, than in
ascertaining the meaning of unknown signs, the topic I am now discussing.
Chap. 40.--Whatever has been rightly said by the heathen, we must appropriate
to our uses
60. Moreover, if those who are called philosophers, and especially the Platonists,
have said aught that is true and in harmony with our faith, we are not only
not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful
possession of it. For, as the Egyptians had not only the idols and heavy burdens
which the people of Israel hated and fled from, but also vessels and ornaments
of gold and silver, and garments, which the same people when going out of Egypt
appropriated to themselves, designing them for a better use, not doing this
on their own authority, but by the command of God, the Egyptians themselves,
in their ignorance, providing them with things which they themselves, were not
making a good use of; in the same way all branches of heathen learning have
not only false and superstitious fancies and heavy burdens of unnecessary toil,
which every one of us, when going out under the leadership of Christ from the
fellowship of the heathen, ought to abhor and avoid; but they contain also liberal
instruction which is better adapted to the use of the truth, and some most excellent
precepts of morality; and some truths in regard even to the worship of the One
God are found among them. Now these are, so to speak, their gold and silver,
which they did not create themselves, but dug out of the mines of God's providence
which are everywhere scattered abroad, and are perversely and unlawfully prostituting
to the worship of devils. These, therefore, the Christian, when he separates
himself in spirit from the miserable fellowship of these men, ought to take
away from them, and to devote to their proper use in preaching the gospel. Their
garments, also,--that is, human institutions such as are adapted to that intercourse
with men which is indispensable in this life,--we must take and turn to a Christian
use.
61. And what else have many good and faithful men among our brethren done? Do
we not see with what a quantity of gold and silver and garments Cyprian, that
most persuasive teacher and most blessed martyr, was loaded when he came out
of Egypt? How much Lactantius brought with him? And Victorious, and Optatus,
and Hilary, not to speak of living men! How much Greeks out of number have borrowed!
And prior to all these, that most faithful servant of God, Moses, had done the
same thing; for of him it is written that he was learned in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians. And to none of all these would heathen superstition (especially
in those times when, kicking against the yoke of Christ, it was persecuting
the Christians) have ever furnished branches of knowledge it held useful, if
it had suspected they were about to turn them to the use of worshipping the
One God, and thereby overturning the vain worship of idols. But they gave their
gold and their silver and their garments to the people of God as they were going
out of Egypt, not knowing how the things they gave would be turned to the service
of Christ. For what was done at the time of the exodus was no doubt a type prefiguring
what happens now. And this I say without prejudice to any other interpretation
that may be as good, or better.
Chap. 41.--What kind of spirit is required for the study of Holy Scripture
62. But when the student of the Holy Scriptures, prepared in the way I have
indicated, shall enter upon his investigations, let him constantly meditate
upon that saying of the apostle's, "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth."
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 knowledge does not puff up, but charity edifieth?
Let them remember, then, that those who celebrated the Passover at that time
in type and shadow, when they were ordered to mark their door-posts with the
blood of the lamb, used hyssop to mark them with. Now this is a meek and lowly
herb, and yet nothing is stronger and more penetrating than its roots; that
being rooted and grounded in love, we may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,--that is, to comprehend
the cross of our Lord, the breadth of which is indicated by the transverse wood
on which the hands are stretched, its length by the part from the ground up
to the crossbar on which the whole body from the head downwards is fixed, its
height by the part from the crossbar to the top on which the head lies, and
its depth by the part which is hidden, being fixed in the earth. And by this
sign of the cross all Christian action is symbolized, viz., to do good works
in Christ, to cling with constancy to Him, 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 fullness
of God." There is besides in hyssop a purgative virtue, that the breast may
not be swollen with that knowledge which puffeth up, nor boast vainly of the
riches brought out from Egypt. "Purge me with hyssop," the psalmist says, "and
I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear
joy and gladness." Then he immediately adds, to show that it is purifying from
pride that is indicated by hyssop, "that the bones which Thou hast broken may
rejoice."
Chap. 42.--Sacred Scripture compared with profane authors
63. But just as poor as the store of gold and silver and garments which the
people of Israel brought with them out of Egypt was in comparison with the riches
which they afterwards attained at Jerusalem, and which reached their height
in the reign of King Solomon, so poor is all the useful knowledge which is gathered
from the books of the heathen when compared with the knowledge of Holy Scripture.
For whatever man may have learnt from other sources, if it is hurtful, it is
there condemned; if it is useful, it is therein contained. And while every man
may find there all that he has learnt of useful elsewhere, he will find there
in much greater abundance things that are to be found nowhere else, but can
be learnt only in the wonderful sublimity and wonderful simplicity of the Scriptures.
When, then, the reader is possessed of the instruction here pointed out, so
that unknown signs have ceased to be a hindrance to him; when he is meek and
lowly of heart, subject to the easy yoke of Christ, and loaded with His light
burden, rooted and grounded and built up in faith, so that knowledge cannot
puff him up, let him then approach the consideration and discussion of ambiguous
signs in Scripture. And about these I shall now, in a third book, endeavour
to say what the Lord shall be pleased to vouchsafe.
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