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On Christian Doctrine, in Four Books, by St. Augustine
This etext is in the public domain.

Introductory Note by the Editor

The four books of St. Augustine On Christian Doctrine (De Doctrina Christiana, iv libri) are a
commend of exegetical theology to guide the reader in the understanding and interpretation of the
Sacred Scriptures, according to the analogy of faith. The first three books were written A. D. 397;
the fourth was added 426.
He speaks of it in his Retractations, Bk. 2, chap. 4, as follows: "Finding that the books on
Christian Doctrine were not finished, I thought it better to complete them before passing on to the
revision of others. Accordingly, I completed the third book, which had been written as far as the
place where a quotation is made from the Gospel about the woman who took leaven and hid it in
three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.' I added also the last book, and finished the
whole work in four books [in the year 426]: the first three affording aids to the interpretation of
Scripture, the last giving directions as to the mode of making known our interpretation. In the
second book, I made a mistake as to the authorship of the book commonly called the Wisdom of
Solomon. For I have since learnt that it is not a well-established fact, as I said it was, that Jesus
the son of Sirach, who wrote the book of Ecclesiasticus, wrote this book also: on the contrary, I
have ascertained that it is altogether more probable that he was not the author of this book.
Again, when I said, 'The authority of the Old Testament is contained within the limits of these
forty-four books,' I used the phrase 'Old Testament' in accordance with ecclesiastical usage. But
the apostle seems to restrict the application of the name 'Old Testament' to the law which was
given on Mount Sinai. And in what I said as to St. Ambrose having, by his knowledge of
chronology, solved a great difficulty, when he showed that Plato and Jeremiah were
contemporaries, my memory betrayed me. What that great bishop really did say upon this subject
may be seen in the book which he wrote, 'On Sacraments or Philosophy.'"

Contents of Christian Doctrine

Preface, showing the utility of the treatise on Christian doctrine
Book I. Containing a general view of the subjects treated in Holy Scripture.

The author divides his work into two parts, one relating to the discovery, the other to the
expression, of the true sense of Scripture. He shows that to discover the meaning we must attend
both to things and to signs, as it is necessary to know what things we ought to teach to the
Christian people, and also the signs of these things, that is, where the knowledge of these things is
to be sought. In this first book he treats of things, which he divides into three classes,--things to
be enjoyed, things to be used, and things which use and enjoy. The only object which ought to be
enjoyed is the Triune God, who is our highest good and our true happiness. We are prevented by
our sins from enjoying God; and that our sins might be taken away, "The Word was made Flesh,"
our Lord suffered, and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, taking to Himself as his
bride the Church, in which we receive remission of our sins. And if our sins are remitted and our
souls renewed by grace, we may await with hope the resurrection of the body to eternal glory; if
not, we shall be raised to everlasting punishment. These matters relating to faith having been
expounded, the author goes on to show that all objects, except God, are for use; for, though some
of them may be loved, yet our love is not to rest in them, but to have reference to God. And we
ourselves are not objects of enjoyment to God: he uses us, but for our own advantage. He then
goes on to show that love--the love of God for His own sake and the love of our neighbour for
God's sake--is the fulfilment and the end of all Scripture. After adding a few words about hope, he
shows, in conclusion, that faith, hope, and love are graces essentially necessary for him who
would understand and explain aright the Holy Scriptures.

BOOK II.

Having completed his exposition of things, the author now proceeds to discuss the subject of
signs. He first defines what a sign is, and shows that there are two classes of signs, the natural and
the conventional. Of conventional signs (which are the only class here noticed), words are the
most numerous and important, and are those with which the interpreter of Scripture is chiefly
concerned. The difficulties and obscurities of Scripture spring chiefly from two sources, unknown
and ambiguous signs. The present book deals only with unknown signs, the ambiguities of
language being reserved for treatment in the next book. The difficulty arising from ignorance of
signs is to be removed by learning the Greek and Hebrew languages, in which Scripture is written,
by comparing the various translations, and by attending to the context. In the interpretation of
figurative expressions, knowledge of things is as necessary as knowledge of words; and the
various sciences and arts of the heathen, so far as they are true and useful, may be turned to
account in removing our ignorance of signs, whether these be direct or figurative. Whilst exposing
the folly and futility of many heathen superstitions and practices, the author points out how all
that is sound and useful in their science and philosophy may be turned to a Christian use. And in
conclusion, he shows the spirit in which it behoves us to address ourselves to the study and
interpretation of the sacred books.
BOOK III.

The author, having discussed in the preceding book the method of dealing with unknown signs,
goes on in this third book to treat of ambiguous signs. Such signs may be either direct or
figurative. In the case of direct signs ambiguity may arise from the punctuation, the pronunciation,
or the doubtful signification of the words, and is to be resolved by attention to the context, a
comparison of translations, or a reference to the original tongue. In the case of figurative signs we
need to guard against two mistakes:--1. the interpreting literal expressions figuratively; 2. the
interpreting figurative expressions literally. The author lays down rules by which we may decide
whether an expression is literal or figurative; the general rule being, that whatever can be shown
to be in its literal sense inconsistent either with purity of life or correctness of doctrine must be
taken figuratively. He then goes on to lay down rules for the interpretation of expressions which
have been proved to be figurative; the general principle being, that no interpretation can be true
which does not promote the love of God and the love of man. The author then proceeds to
expound and illustrate the seven rules of Tichonius the Donatist, which he commends to the
attention of the student of Holy Scripture.

BOOK IV.

Passing to the second part of his work, that which treats of expression, the author premises that it
is no part of his intention to write a treatise on the laws of rhetoric. These can be learned
elsewhere, and ought not to be neglected, being indeed specially necessary for the Christian
teacher, whom it behoves to excel in eloquence and power of speech. After detailing with much
care and minuteness the various qualities of an orator, he recommends the authors of the Holy
Scriptures as the best models of eloquence, far excelling all others in the combination of
eloquence with wisdom. He points out that perspicuity is the most essential quality of style, and
ought to be cultivated with especial care by the teacher, as it is the main requisite for instruction,
although other qualities are required for delighting and persuading the hearer. All these gifts are to
be sought in earnest prayer from God, though we are not to forget to be zealous and diligent in
study. He shows that there are three species of style,--the subdued, the elegant, and the majestic;
the first serving for instruction, the second for praise, and the third for exhortation: and of each of
these he gives examples, selected both from Scripture and from early teachers of the Church,
Cyprian and Ambrose. He shows that these various styles may be mingled, and when and for what
purposes they are mingled; and that they all have the same end in view, to bring home the truth to
the hearer, so that he may understand it, hear it with gladness, and practice it in his life. Finally, he
exhorts the Christian teacher himself, pointing out the dignity and responsibility of the office he
holds, to lead a life in harmony with his own teaching, and to show a good example to all.

On Christian Doctrine

Preface

Showing that to teach rules for the interpretation of Scripture is not a superfluous task

1. There are certain rules for the interpretation of Scripture which I think might with great
advantage be taught to earnest students of the word, that they may profit not only from reading
the works of others who have laid open the secrets of the sacred writings, but also from
themselves opening such secrets to others. These rules I propose to teach to those who are able
and willing to learn, if God our Lord do not withhold from me, while I write, the thoughts He is
wont to vouchsafe to me in my meditations on this subject. But before I enter upon this
undertaking, I think it well to meet the objections of those who are likely to take exception to the
work, or who would do so, did I not conciliate them beforehand. And if, after all, men should still
be found to make objections, yet at least they will not prevail with others (over whom they might
have influence, did they not find them forearmed against their assaults), to turn them back from a
useful study to the dull sloth of ignorance.
2. There are some, then, likely to object to this work of mine, because they have failed to
understand the rules here laid down. Others, again, will think that I have spent my labour to no
purpose, because, though they understand the rules, yet in their attempts to apply them and to
interpret Scripture by them, they have failed to clear up the point they wish cleared up; and these,
because they have received no assistance from this work themselves, will give it as their opinion
that it can be of no use to anybody. There is a third class of objectors who either really do
understand Scripture well, or think they do, and who, because they know (or imagine) that they
have attained a certain power of interpreting the sacred books without reading any directions of
the kind that I propose to lay down here, will cry out that such rules are not necessary for any
one, but that everything rightly done towards clearing up the obscurities of Scripture could be
better done by the unassisted grace of God. 3. To reply briefly to all these. To those who do not
understand what is here set down, my answer is, that I am not to be blamed for their want
of understanding. It is just as if they were anxious to see the new or the old moon, or some very
obscure star, and I should point it out with my finger: if they had not sight enough to see even my
finger, they would surely have no right to fly into a passion with me on that account. As for those
who, even though they know and understand my directions, fail to penetrate the meaning of
obscure passages in Scripture, they may stand for those who, in the case I have imagined, are just
able to see my finger, but cannot see the stars at which it is pointed. And so both these classes had
better give up blaming me, and pray instead that God would grant them the sight of their eyes.
For though I can move my finger to point out an object, it is out of my power to open men's eyes
that they may see either the fact that I am pointing, or the object at which I point.
4. But now as to those who talk vauntingly of Divine Grace, and boast that they understand and
can explain Scripture without the aid of such directions as those I now propose to lay down, and
who think, therefore, that what I have undertaken to write is entirely superfluous. I would
such persons could calm themselves so far as to remember that, however justly they may rejoice in
God's great gift, yet it was from human teachers they themselves learnt to read. Now, they would
hardly think it right that they should for that reason be held in contempt by the Egyptian monk
Antony, a just and holy man, who, not being able to read himself, is said to have committed the
Scriptures to memory through hearing them read by others, and by dint of wise meditation to have
arrived at a thorough understanding of them; or by that barbarian slave Christianus, of whom I
have lately heard from very respectable and trustworthy witnesses, who, without any teaching
from man, attained a full knowledge of the art of reading simply through prayer that it might
be revealed to him; after three days' supplication obtaining his request that he might read through
a book presented to him on the spot by the astonished bystanders.
5. But if any one thinks that these stories are false, I do not strongly insist on them. For, as I am
dealing with Christians who profess to understand the Scriptures without any directions from man
(and if the fact be so, they boast of a real advantage, and one of no ordinary kind), they must
surely grant that every one of us learnt his own language by hearing it constantly from childhood,
and that any other language we have learnt,--Greek, or Hebrew, or any of the rest,--we have
learnt either in the same way, by hearing it spoken, or from a human teacher. Now, then, suppose
we advise all our brethren not to teach their children any of these things, because on the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit the apostles immediately began to speak the language of every race;
and warn every one who has not had a like experience that he need not consider himself a
Christian, or may at least doubt whether he has yet received the Holy Spirit? No, no; rather let us
put away false pride and learn whatever can be learnt from man; and let him who teaches another
communicate what he has himself received without arrogance and without jealousy. And do not
let us tempt Him in whom we have believed, lest, being ensnared by such wiles of the enemy and
by our own perversity, we may even refuse to go to the churches to hear the gospel itself, or to
read a book, or to listen to another reading or preaching, in the hope that we shall be carried up
to the third heaven, "whether in the body or out of the body," as the apostle says,and there hear
unspeakable words, such as it is not lawful for man to utter, or see the Lord Jesus Christ and hear
the gospel from His own lips rather than from those of men.
6. Let us beware of such dangerous temptations of pride, and let us rather consider the fact that
the Apostle Paul himself, although stricken down and admonished by the voice of God from
heaven, was yet sent to a man to receive the sacraments and be admitted into the Church; and that
Cornelius the centurion, although an angel announced to him that his prayers were heard and his
alms had in remembrance, was yet handed over to Peter for instruction, and not only received the
sacraments from the apostle's hands, but was also instructed by him as to the proper objects
of faith, hope, and love. And without doubt it was possible to have done everything through the
instrumentality of angels, but the condition of our race would have been much more degraded if
God had not chosen to make use of men as the ministers of His word to their fellow-men. For
how could that be true which is written, "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are," if God
gave forth no oracles from His human temple, but communicated everything that He wished to be
taught to men by voices from heaven, or through the ministration of angels? Moreover, love itself,
which binds men together in the bond of unity, would have no means of pouring soul into soul,
and, as it were, mingling them one with another, if men never learnt anything from their
fellow-men.
7. And we know that the eunuch who was reading Isaiah the prophet, and did not understand
what he read, was not sent by the apostle to an angel, nor was it an angel who explained to him
what he did not understand, nor was he inwardly illuminated by the grace of God without the
interposition of man; on the contrary, at the suggestion of God, Philip, who did understand the
prophet, came to him, and sat with him, and in human words, and with a human tongue, opened
to him the Scriptures. Did not God talk with Moses, and yet he, with great wisdom and entire
absence of jealous pride, accepted the plan of his father-in-law, a man of an alien race, for ruling
and administering the affairs of the great nation entrusted to him? For Moses knew that a wise
plan, in whatever mind it might originate, was to be ascribed not to the man who devised it, but to
Him who is the Truth, the unchangeable God.
8. In the last place, every one who boasts that he, through divine illumination, understands the
obscurities of Scripture, though not instructed in any rules of interpretation, at the same time
believes, and rightly believes, that this power is not his own, in the sense of originating with
himself, but is the gift of God. For so he seeks God's glory, not his own. But reading and
understanding, as he does, without the aid of any human interpreter, why does he himself
undertake to interpret for others? Why does he not rather send them direct to God, that they too
may learn by the inward teaching of the Spirit without the help of man? The truth is, he fears to
incur the reproach: "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have put my money to
the exchangers." Seeing, then, that these men teach others, either through speech or writing, what
they understand, surely they cannot blame me if I likewise teach not only what they understand,
but also the rules of interpretation they follow. For no one ought to consider anything as his
own, except perhaps what is false. All truth is of Him who says, "I am the truth." For what have
we that we did not receive? And if we have received it, why do we glory, as if we had not
received it? 9. He who reads to an audience pronounces aloud the words he sees before him: he
who teaches reading, does it that others may be able to read for themselves. Each, however,
communicates to others what he has learnt himself. Just so, the man who explains to an audience
the passages of Scripture he understands is like one who reads aloud the words before him. On
the other hand, the man who lays down rules for interpretation is like one who teaches reading,
that is, shows others how to read for themselves. So that, just as he who knows how to read is
not dependent on some one else, when he finds a book, to tell him what is written in it, so the man
who is in possession of the rules which I here attempt to lay down, if he meet with an obscure
passage in the books which he reads, will not need an interpreter to lay open the secret to him,
but, holding fast by certain rules, and following up certain indications, will arrive at the hidden
sense without any error, or at least without falling into any gross absurdity. And so although it
will sufficiently appear in the course of the work itself that no one can justly object to this
undertaking of mine, which has no other object than to be of service, yet as it seemed convenient
to reply at the outset to any who might make preliminary objections, such is the start I have
thought good to make on the road I am about to traverse in this book.

BOOK I.

Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture

Argument

Chap. 1.--The interpretation of Scripture depends on the discovery and enunciation of the
meaning, and is to be undertaken in dependence on God's aid.

1. There are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends: the mode of
ascertaining the proper meaning, and the mode of making known the meaning when it is
ascertained. We shall treat first of the mode of ascertaining, next of the mode of making known,
the meaning;--a great and arduous undertaking, and one that, if difficult to carry out, it is, I fear,
presumptuous to enter upon. And presumptuous it would undoubtedly be, if I were counting on
my own strength; but since my hope of accomplishing the work rests on Him who has already
supplied me with many thoughts on this subject, I do not fear but that He will go on to supply
what is yet wanting when once I have begun to use what He has already given. For a possession
which is not diminished by being shared with others, if it is possessed and not shared, is not yet
possessed as it ought to be possessed. The Lord saith, "Whosoever has, to him shall be given." I
He will give, then, to those who have; that is to say, if they use freely and cheerfully what they
have received, He will add to and perfect His gifts. The loaves in the miracle were only five and
seven in number before the disciples began to divide them among the hungry people. But when
once they began to distribute them, though the wants of so many thousands were satisfied, they
filled baskets with the fragments that were left. Now, just as that bread increased in the very act of
breaking it, so those thoughts which the Lord has already vouchsafed to me with a view to
undertaking this work will, as soon as I begin to impart them to others, be multiplied by His
grace, so that, in this very work of distribution in which I have engaged, so far from incurring loss
and poverty, I shall be made to rejoice in a marvellous increase of wealth.
Chap. 2.--What a thing is, and what a sign

2. All instruction is either about things or about signs; but things are learnt by means of signs. I
now use the word "thing" in a strict sense, to signify that which is never employed as a sign of
anything else: for example, wood, stone, cattle, and other things of that kind. Not, however, the
wood which we read Moses cast into the bitter waters to make them sweet, nor the stone which
Jacob used as a pillow, nor the ram which Abraham offered up instead of his son; for these,
though they are things, are also signs of other things. There are signs of another kind, those which
are never employed except as signs: for example, words. No one uses words except as signs of
something else; and hence may be understood what I call signs: those things, to wit, which are
used to indicate something else. Accordingly, every sign is also a thing; for what is not a thing is
nothing at all. Every thing, however, is not also a sign. And so, in regard to this distinction
between things and signs, I shall, when I speak of things, speak in such a way that even if some of
them may be used as signs also, that will not interfere with the division of the subject according to
which I am to discuss things first and signs afterwards. But we must carefully remember that what
we have now to consider about things is what they are in themselves, not what other things they
are signs of.

Chap. 3.--Some things are for use, some for enjoyment

3. There are some things, then, which are to be enjoyed, others which are to be used, others still
which enjoy and use. Those things which are objects of enjoyment make us happy. Those things
which are objects of use assist, and (so to speak) support us in our efforts after happiness, so
that we can attain the things that make us happy and rest in them. We ourselves, again, who enjoy
and use these things, being placed among both kinds of objects, if we set ourselves to enjoy those
which we ought to use, are hindered in our course, and sometimes even led away from it; so
that, getting entangled in the love of lower gratifications, we lag behind in, or even altogether turn
back from, the pursuit of the real and proper objects of enjoyment.

Chap. 4.--Difference of use and enjoyment

4. For to enjoy a thing is to rest with satisfaction in it for its own sake. To use, on the other
hand, is to employ whatever means are at one's disposal to obtain what one desires, if it is a
proper object of desire; for an unlawful use ought rather to be called an abuse. Suppose, then, we
were wanderers in a strange country, and could not live happily away from our fatherland, and
that we felt wretched in our wandering, and wishing to put an end to our misery, determined to
return home. We find, however, that we must make use of some mode of conveyance, either by
land or water, in order to reach that fatherland where our enjoyment is to commence. But the
beauty of the country through which we pass, and the very pleasure of the motion, charm our
hearts, and turning these things which we ought to use into objects of enjoyment, we become
unwilling to hasten the end of our journey; and becoming engrossed in a factitious delight, our
thoughts are diverted from that home whose delights would make us truly happy. Such is a
picture of our condition in this life of mortality. We have wandered far from God; and if we wish
to return to our Father's home, this world must be used, not enjoyed, that so the invisible things of
God may be clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,--that is, that by means of
what is material and temporary we may lay hold upon that which is spiritual and eternal.
Chap. 5.--The Trinity the true object of enjoyment

5. The true objects of enjoyment, then, are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are
at the same time the Trinity, one Being, supreme above all, and common to all who enjoy Him, if
He is an object, and not rather the cause of all objects, or indeed even if He is the cause of
all. For it is not easy to find a name that will suitably express so great excellence, unless it is better
to speak in this way: The Trinity, one God, of whom are all things, through whom are all things,
in whom are all things. Thus the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and each of these by
Himself, is God, and at the same time they are all one God; and each of them by Himself is a
complete substance, and yet they are all one substance. The Father is not the Son nor the Holy
Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the
Son: but the Father is only Father, the Son is only Son, and the Holy Spirit is only Holy Spirit. To
all three belong the same eternity, the same unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power.
In the Father is unity, in the Son equality, in the Holy Spirit the harmony of unity and equality;
and these three attributes are all one because of the Father, all equal because of the Son, and all
harmonious because of the Holy Spirit.

Chap. 6.--In what sense God is ineffable

6. Have I spoken of God, or uttered His praise, in any worthy way? Nay, I feel that I have done
nothing more than desire to speak; and if I have said anything, it is not what I desired to say. How
do I know this, except from the fact that God is unspeakable? But what I have said, if it had been
unspeakable, could not have been spoken. And so God is not even to be called "unspeakable,"
because to say even this is to speak of Him. Thus there arises a curious contradiction of words,
because if the unspeakable is what cannot be spoken of, it is not unspeakable if it can be called
unspeakable. And this opposition of words is rather to be avoided by silence than to be explained
away by speech. And yet God, although nothing worthy of His greatness can be said of Him, has
condescended to accept the worship of men's mouths, and has desired us through the medium of
our own words to rejoice in His praise. For on this principle it is that He is called Deus (God). For
the sound of those two syllables in itself conveys no true knowledge of His nature; but yet all
who know the Latin tongue are led, when that sound reaches their ears, to think of a nature
supreme in excellence and eternal in existence.
Chap. 7.--What all men understand by the term God

7. For when the one supreme God of gods is thought of, even by those who believe that there
are other gods, and who call them by that name, and worship them as gods, their thought takes
the form of an endeavour to reach the conception of a nature, than which nothing more excellent
or more exalted exists. And since men are moved by different kinds of pleasures, partly by those
which pertain to the bodily senses, partly by those which pertain to the intellect and soul, those of
them who are in bondage to sense think that either the heavens, or what appears to be most
brilliant in the heavens, or the universe itself, is God of gods: or if they try to get beyond the
universe, they picture to themselves something of dazzling brightness, and think of it vaguely as
infinite, or of the most beautiful form conceivable; or they represent it in the form of the human
body, if they think that superior to all others. Or if they think that there is no one God supreme
above the rest, but that there are many or even innumerable gods of equal rank, still these too they
conceive as possessed of shape and form, according to what each man thinks the pattern of
excellence. Those, on the other hand, who endeavour by an effort of the intelligence to reach a
conception of God, place Him above all visible and bodily natures, and even above all intelligent
and spiritual natures that are subject to change. All, however, strive emulously to exalt the
excellence of God: nor could any one be found to believe that any being to whom there exists a
superior is God. And so all concur in believing that God is that which excels in dignity all other
objects.

Chap. 8.--God to be esteemed above all else because He is unchangeable Wisdom

8. And since all who think about God think of Him as living, they only can form any conception
of Him that is not absurd and unworthy who think of Him as life itself; and, whatever may be the
bodily form that has suggested itself to them, recognize that it is by life it lives or does not live,
and prefer what is living to what is dead; who understand that the living bodily form itself,
however it may outshine all others in splendour, overtop them in size, and excel them in beauty, is
quite a distinct thing from the life by which it is quickened; and who look upon the life as
incomparably superior in dignity and worth to the mass which is quickened and animated by it.
Then, when they go on to look into the nature of the life itself, if they find it mere nutritive life,
without sensibility, such as that of plants, they consider it inferior to sentient life, such as that of
cattle; and above this, again, they place intelligent life, such as that of men. And, perceiving that
even this is subject to change, they are compelled to place above it, again, that unchangeable life,
which is not at one time foolish, at another time wise, but on the contrary is wisdom itself. For a
wise intelligence, that is, one that has attained to wisdom, was, previous to its attaining wisdom,
unwise. But wisdom itself never was unwise, and never can become so. And if men never caught
sight of this wisdom, they could never with entire confidence prefer a life which is unchangeably
wise to one that is subject to change. This will be evident, if we consider that the very rule of truth
by which they affirm the unchangeable life to be the more excellent, is itself unchangeable: and
they cannot find such a rule, except by going beyond their own nature; for they find nothing in
themselves that is not subject to change.

Chap. 9.--All acknowledge the superiority of unchangeable: wisdom to that which is variable

9. Now, no one is so egregiously silly as to ask, "How do you know that a life of unchangeable
wisdom is preferable to one of change?" For that very truth about which he asks, how I know it?
is unchangeably fixed in the minds of all men, and presented to their common contemplation. And
the man who does not see it is like a blind man in the sun, whom it profits nothing that the
splendour of its light, so clear and so near, is poured into his very eyeballs. The man, on the other
hand, who sees, but shrinks from this truth, is weak in his mental vision from dwelling long
among the shadows of the flesh. And thus men are driven back from their native land by the
contrary blasts of evil habits, and pursue lower and less valuable objects in preference to that
which they own to be more excellent and more worthy.

Chap. 10.--To see God, the soul must be purified

10. Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to enjoy the truth which lives unchangeably, and truth
for the things which He has made, the soul must be purified that it may have power to perceive
that light, and to rest in it when it is perceived. And let us look upon this purification as a kind of
journey or voyage to our native land. For it is not by change of place that we can come nearer to
Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.

Chap. 11.--Wisdom becoming incarnate, a pattern to us of purification
11. But of this we should have been wholly incapable, had not Wisdom condescended to adapt
Himself to our weakness, and to show us a pattern of holy life in the form of our own humanity.
Yet, since we when we come to Him do wisely, He when He came to us was considered by proud
men to have done very foolishly. And since we when we come to Him become strong, He when
He came to us was looked upon as weak. But "the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the
weakness of God is stronger than men." And thus, though Wisdom was Himself our home, He
made Himself also the way by which we should reach our home.

Chap. 12.--In what sense the Wisdom of God came to us

And though He is everywhere present to the inner eye when it is sound and clear, He
condescended to make Himself manifest to the outward eye of those whose inward sight is weak
and dim. "For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
12. Not then in the sense of traversing space, but because He appeared to mortal men in the
form of mortal flesh, He is said to have come to us. For He came to a place where He had always
been, seeing that "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him." But, because men, who
in their eagerness to enjoy the creature instead of the Creator had grown into the likeness of this
world, and are therefore most appropriately named "the world," did not recognize Him, therefore
the evangelist says, "and the world knew Him not." Thus, in the wisdom of God, the world by
wisdom knew not God. Why then did He come, seeing that He was already here, except that it
pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe?

Chap. 13.--The Word was made flesh

In what way did He come but this, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us"? Just as
when we speak, in order that what we leave in our minds may enter through the ear into the mind
of the hearer, the word which we have in our hearts becomes an outward sound and is called
speech; and yet our thought does not lose itself in the sound, but remains complete in itself, and
takes the form of speech without being modified in its own nature by the change: so the Divine
Word, though suffering no change of nature, yet became flesh, that He might dwell among us.

Chap. 14.--how the wisdom of God healed man

13. Moreover, as the use of remedies is the way to health, so this remedy took up sinners to heal
and restore them. And just as surgeons, when they bind up wounds, do it not in a slovenly way,
but carefully, that there may be a certain degree of neatness in the binding, in addition to its mere
usefulness, so our medicine, Wisdom, was by His assumption of humanity adapted to our wounds,
curing some of them by their opposites, some of them by their likes. And just as he who ministers
to a bodily hurt in some cases applies contraries, as cold to hot, moist to dry, etc., and in other
cases applies likes, as a round cloth to a round wound, or an oblong cloth to an oblong wound,
and does not fit the same bandage to all limbs, but puts like to like; in the same way the Wisdom
of God in healing man has applied Himself to his cure, being Himself healer and medicine both in
one. Seeing, then, that man fell through pride, He restored him through humility. We were
ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent: we are set free by the foolishness of God. Moreover, just
as the former was called wisdom, but was in reality the folly of those who despised God, so the
latter is called foolishness, but is true wisdom in those who overcome the devil. We used our
immortality so badly as to incur the penalty of death: Christ used His mortality so well as to
restore us to life. The disease was brought in through a woman's corrupted soul: the remedy came
through a woman's virgin body. To the same class of opposite remedies it belongs, that our vices
are cured by the example of His virtues. On the other hand, the following are, as it were, bandages
made in the same shape as the limbs and wounds to which they are applied: He was born of a
woman to deliver us who fell through a woman: He came as a man to save us who are men, as a
mortal to save us who are mortals, by death to save us who were dead. And those who can
follow out the matter more fully, who are not hurried on by the necessity of carrying out a set
undertaking, will find many other points of instruction in considering the remedies, whether
opposites or likes, employed in the medicine of Christianity.

Chap. 15.--Faith is buttressed by the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and is stimulated by His
coming to judgment

14. The belief of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, and of His ascension into heaven,
has strengthened our faith by adding a great buttress of hope. For it clearly shows how freely He
laid down His life for us when He had it in His power thus to take it up again. With what
assurance, then, is the hope of believers animated, when they reflect how great He was who
suffered so great things for them while they were still in unbelief! And when men look for Him to
come from heaven as the judge of quick and dead, it strikes great terror into the careless, so that
they retake themselves to diligent preparation, and learn by holy living to long for His approach,
instead of quaking at it on account of their evil deeds. And what tongue can tell, or what
imagination can conceive, the reward He will bestow at the last, when we consider that for our
comfort in this earthly journey He has given us so freely of His Spirit, that in the adversities of this
life we may retain our confidence in, and love for, Him whom as yet we see not; and that He has
also given to each gifts suitable for the building up of His Church, that we may do what He
points out as right to be done, not only without a murmur, but even with delight?

Chap. 16.--Christ purges His church by medicinal afflictions
15. For the Church is His body, as the apostle's teaching shows us;and it is even called His
spouse. His body, then, which has many members, and all performing different functions, He holds
together in the bond of unity and love, which is its true health. Moreover He exercises it in the
present time, and purges it with many wholesome afflictions, that when He has transplanted it
from this world to the eternal world, He may take it to Himself as His bride, without spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing.
Chap. 17.--Christ, by forgiving our sins, opened the way to our home
16. Further, when we are on the way, and that not a way that lies through space, but through a
change of affections, and one which the guilt of our past sins like a hedge of thorns barred against
us, what could He, who was willing to lay Himself down as the way by which we should return,
do that would be still gracious and more merciful, except to forgive us all our sins, and by being
crucified for us to remove the stern decrees that barred the door against our return?

Chap. 18.--The keys given to the Church

17. He has given, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever it should bind on earth
might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be loosed in heaven;
that is to say, that whosoever in the Church should not believe that his sins are remitted, they
should not be remitted to him; but that whosoever should believe, and should repent, and turn
from his sins, should be saved by the same faith and repentance on the ground of which he is
received into the bosom of the Church. For he who does not believe that his sins can be pardoned,
falls into despair, and becomes worse, as if no greater good remained for him than to be evil,
when he has ceased to have faith in the results of his own repentance.

Chap. 19.--Bodily and spiritual death and resurrection

18. Furthermore, as there is a kind of death of the soul, which consists in the putting away of
former habits and former ways of life, and which comes through repentance, so also the death of
the body consists in the dissolution of the former principle of life. And just as the soul, after it has
put away and destroyed by repentance its former habits, is created anew after a better pattern, so
we must hope and believe that the body, after that death which we all owe as a debt contracted
through sin, shall at the resurrection be changed into a better form;--not that flesh and blood shall
inherit the kingdom of God (for that is impossible), but that this corruptible shall put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. And thus the body, being the source of no
uneasiness because it can feel no want, shall be animated by a spirit perfectly pure and happy, and
shall enjoy unbroken peace.

Chap. 20.--The resurrection to damnation

19. Now he whose soul does not die to this world and begin here to be conformed to the truth,
falls when the body dies into a more terrible death, and shall revive, not to change his earthly for a
heavenly habitation, but to endure the penalty of his sin.

Chap. 21.--Neither body nor soul extinguished at death

And so faith clings to the assurance, and we must believe that it is so in fact, that neither the
human soul nor the human body suffers complete extinction, but that the wicked rise again to
endure inconceivable punishment, and the good to receive eternal life.

Chap. 22.--God alone to be enjoyed

20. Among all these things, then, those only are the true objects of enjoyment which we have
spoken of as eternal and unchangeable. The rest are for use, that we may be able to arrive at the
full enjoyment of the former. We, however, who enjoy and use other things are things ourselves.
For a great thing truly is man, made after the image and similitude of God, not as respects the
mortal body in which he is clothed, but as respects the rational soul by which he is exalted in
honour above the beasts. And so it becomes an important question, whether men ought to
enjoy, or to use, themselves, or to do both. For we are commanded to love one another: but it is a
question whether man is to be loved by man for his own sake, or for the sake of something else. If
it is for his own sake, we enjoy him; if it is for the sake of something else, we use him. It seems to
me, then, that he is to be loved for the sake of something else. For if a thing is to be loved for its
own sake, then in the enjoyment of it consists a happy life, the hope of which at least, if not
yet the reality, is our comfort in the present time. But a curse is pronounced on him who places
his hope in man.
21. Neither ought any one to have joy in himself, if you look at the matter clearly, because no
one ought to love even himself for his own sake, but for the sake of Him who is the true object of
enjoyment. For a man is never in so good a state as when his whole life is a journey towards the
unchangeable life, and his affections are entirely fixed upon that. If, however, he loves himself for
his own sake, he does not look at himself in relation to God, but turns his mind in upon himself,
and so is not occupied with anything that is unchangeable. And thus he does not enjoy himself at
his best, because he is better when his mind is fully fixed upon, and his affections wrapped up in,
the unchangeable good, than when he turns from that to enjoy even himself. Wherefore if you
ought not to love even yourself for your own sake, but for His in whom your love finds its most
worthy object, no other man has a right to be angry if you love him too for God's sake. For this is
the law of love that has been laid down by Divine authority: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself;" but, "Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind:"
so that you are to concentrate all your thoughts, your whole life, and your whole intelligence upon
Him from whom you derive all that you bring. For when He says, "With all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," He means that no part of our life is to be unoccupied, and
to afford room, as it were, for the wish to enjoy some other object, but that whatever else may
suggest itself to us as an object worthy of love is to be borne into the same channel in which
the whole current of our affections flows. Whoever, then, loves his neighbour aright, ought to
urge upon him that he too should love God with his whole heart, and soul, and mind. For in this
way, loving his neighbour as himself, a man turns the whole current of his love both for himself
and his neighbour into the channel of the love of God, which suffers no stream to be drawn off
from itself by whose diversion its own volume would be diminished.

Chap. 23.--Man needs no injunction to love himself and his own body
22. Those things which are objects of use are not all, however, to be loved, but those only which
are either united with us in a common relation to God, such as a man or an angel, or are so related
to us as to need the goodness of God through our instrumentality, such as the body. For assuredly
the martyrs did not love the wickedness of their persecutors, although they used it to attain the
favour of God. As, then, there are four kinds of things that are to be loved,--first, that which
is above us; second, ourselves; third, that which is on a level with us; fourth, that which is beneath
us,--no precepts need be given about the second and fourth of these. For, however far a man may
fall away from the truth, he still continues to love himself, and to love his own body. The soul
which flies away from the unchangeable Light, the Ruler of all things, does so that it may rule
over itself and over its own body; and so it cannot but love both itself and its own body.
23. Forever, it thinks it has attained something very great if it is able to lord it over its
companions, that is, other men. For it is inherent in the sinful soul to desire above all things, and
to claim as due to itself, that which is properly due to God only. Now such love of itself is more
correctly called hate. For it is not just that it should desire what is beneath it to be obedient to it
while itself will not obey its own superior; and most justly has it been said, "He who loveth
iniquity hateth his own soul." And accordingly the soul becomes weak, and endures much
suffering about the mortal body. For, of course, it must love the body, and be grieved at its
corruption; and the immortality and incorruptibility of the body spring out of the health of the
soul. Now the health of the soul is to cling steadfastly to the better part, that is, to the
unchangeable God. But when it aspires to lord it even over those who are by nature its
equals,--that is, its fellow-men,--this is a reach of arrogance utterly intolerable.

Chap. 24.--No man hates his own flesh, not even those who abuse it
24. No man, then, hates himself. On this point, indeed, no question was ever raised by any sect.
But neither does any man hate his own body. For the apostle says truly, "No man ever yet hated
his own flesh." And when some people say that they would rather be without a body altogether,
they entirely deceive themselves. For it is not their body, but its corruptions and its heaviness, that
they hate. And so it is not no body, but an uncorrupted and very light body, that they want. But
they think a body of that kind would be no body at all, because they think such a thing as that
must be a spirit. And as to the fact that they seem in some sort to scourge their bodies by
abstinence and toil, those who do this in the right spirit do it not that they may get rid of their
body, but that they may have it in subjection and ready for every needful work. For they strive by
a kind of toilsome exercise of the body itself to root out those lusts that are hurtful to the body,
that is, those habits and affections of the soul that lead to the enjoyment of unworthy objects.
They are not destroying themselves; they are taking care of their health. 25. Those, on the other
hand, who do this in a perverse spirit, make war upon their own body as if it were a natural
enemy. And in this matter they are led astray by a mistaken interpretation of what they read: "The
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the
other." For this is said of the carnal habit yet unsubdued, against which the spirit lusteth, not to
destroy the body, but to eradicate the lust of the body--i.e., its evil habit--and thus to make it
subject to the spirit, which is what the order of nature demands. For as, after the resurrection, the
body, having become wholly subject to the spirit, will live in perfect peace to all eternity; even
in this life we must make it an object to have the carnal habit changed for the better, so that its
inordinate affections may not war against the soul. And until this shall take place, "the flesh
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;" the spirit struggling, not in hatred, but
for the mastery, because it desires that what it loves should be subject to the higher principle; and
the fleshy struggling, not in hatred, but because of the bondage of habit which it has derived from
its parent stock, and which has grown in upon it by a law of nature till it has become inveterate.
The spirit, then, in subduing the flesh, is working as it were to destroy the ill founded peace of an
evil habit, and to bring about the real peace which springs out of a good habit. Nevertheless, not
even those who, led astray by false notions, hate their bodies would be prepared to sacrifice one
eye, even supposing they could do so without suffering any pain, and that they had as much sight
left in one as they formerly had in two, unless some object was to be attained which would
overbalance the loss. This and other indications of the same kind are sufficient to show those who
candidly seek the truth how well-founded is the statement of the apostle when he says, "No man
ever yet hated his own flesh." He adds too, "but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the
Church".

Chap. 25.--A man may love something more than his body, but does not therefore hate his body

26. Man, therefore, ought to be taught the due measure of loving, that is, in what measure he
may love himself so as to be of service to himself. For that he does love himself, and does desire
to do good to himself, nobody but a fool would doubt. He is to be taught, too, in what measure to
love his body, so as to care for it wisely and within due limits. For it is equally manifest that he
loves his body also, and desires to keep it safe and sound. And yet a man may have something that
he loves better than the safety and soundness of his body. For many have been found voluntarily
to suffer both pains and amputations of some of their limbs that they might obtain other objects
which they valued more highly. But no one is to be told not to desire the safety and health of
his body because there is something he desires more. For the miser, though he loves money, buys
bread for himself,--that is, he gives away money that he is very fond of and desires to heap
up,--but it is because he values more highly the bodily health which the bread sustains. It is
superfluous to argue longer on a point so very plain, but this is just what the error of wicked men
often compels us to do.

Chap. 26.--The command to love God and our neighbour includes a command to love ourselves

27. Seeing, then, that there is no need of a command that every man should love himself and his
own body,--seeing, that is, that we love ourselves, and what is beneath us but connected with us,
through a law of nature which has never been violated, and which is common to us with the
beasts (for even the beasts love themselves and their own bodies),--it only remained necessary to
lay injunctions upon us in regard to God above us, and our neighbour beside us. "Thou shalt
love," He says, "the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;
and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and
the prophets." Thus the end of the commandment is love, and that twofold, the love of God and
the love of our neighbour. Now, if you take yourself in your entirety,--that is, soul and body
together,--and your neighbour in his entirety, soul and body together (for man is made up of soul
and body), you will find that none of the classes of things that are to be loved is overlooked in
these two commandments. For though, when the love of God comes first, and the measure of our
love for Him is prescribed in such terms that it is evident all other things are to find their centre in
Him, nothing seems to be said about our love for ourselves; yet when it is said, "Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself," it at once becomes evident that our love for ourselves has not been
overlooked.

Chap. 27.--The order of love

28. Now he is a man of just and holy life who forms an unprejudiced estimate of things, and
keeps his affections also under strict control, so that he neither loves what he ought not to love,
nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less,
nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves that less or more
which ought to be loved equally. No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved
as a man for God's sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake. And if God is to be loved
more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself. Likewise we ought to love
another man better than our own body, because all things are to be loved in reference to God, and
another man can have fellowship with us in the enjoyment of God, whereas our body cannot; for
the body only lives through the soul, and it is by the soul that we enjoy God.
Chap. 28.--how we are to decide whom to aid

29. Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay
special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into
closer connection with you. For, suppose that you had a great deal of some commodity, and
felt bound to give it away to somebody who had none, and that it could not be given to more than
one person; if two persons presented themselves, neither of whom had either from need or
relationship a greater claim upon you than the other, you could do nothing fairer than choose by
lot to which you would give what could not be given to both. Just so among men: since you
cannot consult for the good of them all, you must take the matter as decided for you by a sort of
lot, according as each man happens for the time being to be more closely connected with you.

Chap. 29.--We are to desire and endeavour that all men may love God
30. Now of all who can with us enjoy God, we love partly those to whom we render services,
partly those who render services to us, partly those who both help us in our need and in turn are
helped by us, partly those upon whom we confer no advantage and from whom we look for none.
We ought to desire, however, that they should all join with us in loving God, and all the assistance
that we either give them or accept from them should tend to that one end. For in the theatres,
dens of iniquity though they be, if a man is fond of a particular actor, and enjoys his art as a great
or even as the very greatest good, he is fond of all who join with him in admiration of his
favourite, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of him whom they admire in common; and the
more fervent he is in his admiration, the more he works in every way he can to secure new
admirers for him, and the more anxious he becomes to show him to others; and if he find any one
comparatively indifferent, he does all he can to excite his interest by urging his favorite's merits: if,
however, he meet with any one who opposes him, he is exceedingly displeased by such a man's
contempt of his favourite, and strives in every way he can to remove it. Now, if this be so, what
does it become us to do who live in the fellowship of the love of God, the enjoyment of whom is
true happiness of life, to whom all who love Him owe both their own existence and the love
they bear Him, concerning whom we have no fear that any one who comes to know Him will be
disappointed in Him, and who desires our love, not for any gain to Himself, but that those who
love Him may obtain an eternal reward, even Himself whom they love? And hence it is that we
love even our enemies. For we do not fear them, seeing they cannot take away from us what we
love; but we pity them rather, because the more they hate us the more are they separated from
Him whom we love. For if they would turn to Him, they must of necessity love Him as the
supreme good, and love us too as partakers with them in so great a blessing.

Chap. 30.--Whether angels are to be reckoned our neighbours
31. There arises further in this connection a question about angels. For they are happy in the
enjoyment of Him whom we long to enjoy; and the more we enjoy Him in this life as through a
glass darkly, the more easy do we find it to bear our pilgrimage, and the more eagerly do we long
for its termination. But it is not irrational to ask whether in those two commandments is included
the love of angels also. For that He who commanded us to love our neighbour made no exception,
as far as men are concerned, is shown both by our Lord Himself in the Gospel, and by the
Apostle Paul. For when the man to whom our Lord delivered those two commandments, and to
whom He said that on these hang all the law and the prophets, asked Him, "And who is my
neighbour?" He told him of a certain man who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among
thieves, and was severely wounded by them, and left naked and half dead. And He showed
him that nobody was neighbour to this man except him who took pity upon him and came forward
to relieve and care for him. And the man who had asked the question admitted the truth of this
when he was himself interrogated in turn. To whom our Lord says, "Go and do thou likewise;"
teaching us that he is our neighbour whom it is our duty to help in his need, or whom it would be
our duty to help if he were in need. Whence it follows, that he whose duty it would be in turn to
help us is our neighbour. For the name "neighbour" is a relative one, and no one can be neighbour
except to a neighbour. And, again, who does not see that no exception is made of any one as a
person to whom the offices of mercy may be denied when our Lord extends the rule even to our
enemies? "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you."
32. And so also the Apostle Paul teaches when he says: "For this, Thou shalt not commit
adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt
not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying,
namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour." Whoever
then supposes that the apostle did not embrace every man in this precept, is compelled to admit,
what is at once most absurd and most pernicious, that the apostle thought it no sin, if a man were
not a Christian or were an enemy, to commit adultery with his wife, or to kill him, or to covet his
goods. And as nobody but a fool would say this, it is clear that every man is to be considered our
neighbour, because we are to work no ill to any man.
33. But now, if every one to whom we ought to show, or who ought to show to us, the of
offices of mercy is by right called a neighbour, it is manifest that the command to love our
neighbour embraces the holy angels also, seeing that so great offices of mercy have been
performed by them on our behalf, as may easily be shown by turning the attention to many
passages of Holy Scripture. And on this ground even God Himself, our Lord, desired to be called
our neighbour. For our Lord Jesus Christ points to Himself under the figure of the man who
brought aid to him who was lying half dead on the road, wounded and abandoned by the robbers.
And the Psalmist says in his prayer, "I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or
brother." But as the Divine nature is of higher excellence than, and far removed above, our nature,
the command to love God is distinct from that to love our neighbour. For He shows us pity on
account of His own goodness, but we show pity to one another on account of His;--that is, He
pities us that we may fully enjoy Himself; we pity one another that we may fully enjoy Him.

Chap. 31.--God uses rather than enjoys us

34. And on this ground, when we say that we enjoy only that which we love for its own sake,
and that nothing is a true object of enjoyment except that which makes us happy, and that all
other things are for use, there seems still to be something that requires explanation. For God
loves us, and Holy Scripture frequently sets before us the love He has towards us. In what way
then does He love us? As objects of use or as objects of enjoyment? If He enjoys us, He must be
in need of good from us, and no sane man will say that; for all the good we enjoy is either
Himself, or what comes from Himself. And no one can be ignorant or in doubt as to the fact that
the light stands in no need of the glitter of the things it has itself lit up. The Psalmist says most
plainly, "I said to the LORD, Thou art my God, for Thou neediest not my goodness." He does
not enjoy us then, but makes use of us. For if He neither enjoys nor uses us, I am at a loss to
discover in what way He can love us.
Chap. 32.--in what way God uses man

35. But neither does He use after our fashion of using. For when we use objects, we do so with a
view to the full enjoyment of the goodness of God. God, however, in His use of us, has reference
to His own goodness. For it is because He is good we exist; and so far as we truly exist we
are good. And, further, because He is also just, we cannot with impunity be evil; and so far as we
are evil, so far is our existence less complete. Now He is the first and supreme existence, who is
altogether unchangeable, and who could say in the fullest sense of the words, "I AM THAT I
AM," and "Thou shalt say to them, I AM has sent me unto you;" So that all other things that
exist, both owe their existence entirely to Him, and are good only so far as He has given it to
them to be so. That use, then, which God is said to make of us has no reference to His own
advantage, but to ours only; and, so far as He is concerned, has reference only to His goodness.
When we take pity upon a man and care for him, it is for his advantage we do so; but somehow or
other our own advantage follows by a sort of natural consequence, for God does not leave the
mercy we show to him who needs it to go without reward. Now this is our highest reward, that
we should fully enjoy Him, and that all who enjoy Him should enjoy one another in Him.

Chap. 33.--In what way man should be enjoyed

36. For if we find our happiness complete in one another, we stop short upon the road, and place
our hope of happiness in man or angel. Now the proud man and the proud angel arrogate this to
themselves, and are glad to have the hope of others fixed upon them. But, on the contrary, the
holy man and the holy angel, even when we are weary and anxious to stay with them and rest in
them, set themselves to recruit our energies with the provision which they have received of God
for us or for themselves; and then urge us thus refreshed to go on our way towards Him, in the
enjoyment of whom we find our common happiness. For even the apostle exclaims, "Was Paul
crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" And again: "Neither is he that
planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." And the angel
admonisheth the man who is about to worship him, that he should rather worship Him who is his
Master, and under whom he himself is a fellow-servant. 37. But when you have joy of a man in
God, it is God rather than man that you enjoy. For you enjoy Him by whom you are made happy,
and you rejoice to have come to Him in whose presence you place your hope of joy. And
accordingly, Paul says to Philemon, "Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord." For if he
had not added "in the Lord," but had only said, "Let me have joy of thee," he would have implied
that he fixed his hope of happiness upon him, although even in the immediate context to "enjoy" is
used in the sense of to "use with delight." For when the thing that we love is near us, it is a matter
of course that it should bring delight with it. And if you pass beyond this delight, and make it a
means to that which you are permanently to rest in, you are using it, and it is an abuse of language
to say that you enjoy it. But if you cling to it, and rest in it, finding your happiness complete in it,
then you may be truly and properly said to enjoy it. And this we must never do except in the case
of the Blessed Trinity, who is the Supreme and Unchangeable God.
Chap. 34.--Christ the first way to God

38. And mark that even when He who is Himself the Truth and the Word, by whom all things
were made, had been made flesh that He might dwell among us, the apostle yet says: "Yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." For
Christ, desiring not only to give the possession to those who had completed the journey, but also
to be Himself the way to those who were just setting out, determined to take a fleshly body.
Whence also that expression, "The Lord created me in the beginning of His way," that is, that
those who wished to come might begin their journey in Him. The apostle, therefore, although still
on the way, and following after God who called him to the reward of His heavenly calling, yet
forgetting those things which were behind, and pressing on towards those things which were
before, had already passed over the beginning of the way, and had now no further need of it; yet
by this way all must commence their journey who desire to attain to the truth, and to rest in
eternal life. For He says: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life;" that is, by me men come, to
me they come, in me they rest. For when we come to Him, we come to the Father also, because
through an equal an equal is known; and the Holy Spirit binds, and as it were seals us, so that we
are able to rest permanently in the supreme and unchangeable God. And hence we may learn how
essential it is that nothing should detain us on the way, when not even our Lord Himself, so far as
He has condescended to be our way, is willing to detain us, but wishes us rather to press on; and,
instead of weakly clinging to temporal things, even though these have been put on and worn
by Him for our salvation, to pass over them quickly, and to struggle to attain unto Himself, who
has freed our nature from the bondage of temporal things, and has set it down at the right hand of
His Father.
Chap. 35.--The fulfilment and end of Scripture is the love of God and our neighbour

39. Of all, then, that has been said since we entered upon the discussion about things, this is the
sum: that we should clearly understand that the fulfilment and the end of the Law, and of all Holy
Scripture, is the love of an object which is to be enjoyed, and the love of an object which can
enjoy that other in fellowship with ourselves. For there is no need of a command that each man
should love himself. The whole temporal dispensation for our salvation, therefore, was framed by
the providence of God that we might know this truth and be able to act upon it; and we ought to
use that dispensation, not with such love and delight as if it were a good to rest in, but with a
transient feeling rather, such as we have towards the road, or carriages, or other things that are
merely means. Perhaps some other comparison can be found that will more suitably express the
idea that we are to love the things by which we are borne only for the sake of that towards which
we are borne.
Chap. 36.--That interpretation of Scripture which builds us up in love is not perniciously
deceptive nor mendacious, even though it be faulty. The interpreter, however should be corrected

40. Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts
such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our
neighbour, does not yet understand them as he ought. If, on the other hand, a man draws a
meaning from them that may be used for the building up of love, even though he does not happen
upon the precise meaning which the author whom he reads intended to express in that place, his
error is not pernicious, and he is wholly clear from the charge of deception. For there is involved
in deception the intention to say what is false; and we find plenty of people who intend to deceive,
but nobody who wishes to be deceived. Since, then, the man who knows practices deceit, and the
ignorant man is practiced upon, it is quite clear that in any particular case the man who is deceived
is a better man than he who deceives, seeing that it is better to suffer than to commit injustice.
Now every man who lies commits an injustice; and if any man thinks that a lie is ever useful, he
must think that injustice is sometimes useful. For no liar keeps faith in the matter about which he
lies. He wishes, of course, that the man to whom he lies should place confidence in him; and yet
he betrays his confidence by lying to him. Now every man who breaks faith is unjust. Either, then,
injustice is sometimes useful (which is impossible), or a lie is never useful.
41. Whoever takes another meaning out of Scripture than the writer intended, goes astray, but
not through any falsehood in Scripture. Nevertheless, as I was going to say, if his mistaken
interpretation tends to build up love, which is the end of the commandment, he goes astray in
much the same way as a man who by mistake quits the high road, but yet reaches through the
fields the same place to which the road leads. He is to be corrected, however, and to be shown
how much better it is not to quit the straight road, lest, if he get into a habit of going astray, he
may sometimes take cross roads, or even go in the wrong direction altogether.

Chap. 37.--Dangers of mistaken interpretation

For if he takes up rashly a meaning which the author whom he is reading did not intend, he often
falls in with other statements which he cannot harmonize with this meaning. And if he admits that
these statements are true and certain, then it follows that the meaning he had put upon the
former passage cannot be the true one: and so it comes to pass, one can hardly tell how, that, out
of love for his own opinion, he begins to feel more angry with Scripture than he is with himself.
And if he should once permit that evil to creep in, it will utterly destroy him. "For we walk
by faith, not by sight." Now faith will totter if the authority of Scripture begin to shake. And then,
if faith totter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man has fallen from faith, he must necessarily also
fall from love; for he cannot love what he does not believe to exist. But if he both believes and
loves, then through good works, and through diligent attention to the precepts of morality, he
comes to hope also that he shall attain the object of his love. And so these are the three things to
which all knowledge and all prophecy are subservient: faith, hope, love.

Chap. 38.--Love never faileth

42. But sight shall displace faith; and hope shall be swallowed up in that perfect bliss to which
we shall come: love, on the other hand, shall wax greater when these others fail. For if we love by
faith that which as yet we see not, how much more shall we love it when we begin to see! And
if we love by hope that which as yet we have not reached, how much more shall we love it when
we reach it! For there is this great difference between things temporal and things eternal, that a
temporal object is valued more before we possess it, and begins to prove worthless the moment
we attain it, because it does not satisfy the soul, which has its only true and sure resting-place in
eternity: an eternal object, on the other hand, is loved with greater ardour when it is in possession
than while it is still an object of desire, for no one in his longing for it can set a higher value on it
than really belongs to it, so as to think it comparatively worthless when he finds it of less value
than he thought; on the contrary, however high the value any man may set upon it when he
is on his way to possess it, he will find it, when it comes into his possession, of higher value still.

Chap. 39.--He who is mature in faiths hope and love, needs Scripture no longer

43. And thus a man who is resting upon faith, hope and love, and who keeps a firm hold upon
these, does not need the Scriptures except for the purpose of instructing others. Accordingly,
many live without copies of the Scriptures, even in solitude, on the strength of these three graces.
So that in their case, I think, the saying is already fulfilled: "Whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish
away." Yet by means of these instruments (as they may be called), so great an edifice of faith and
love has been built up in them, that, holding to what is perfect, they do not seek for what is only
in part perfect--of course, I mean, so far as is possible in this life; for, in comparison with the
future life, the life of no just and holy man is perfect here. Therefore the apostle says: "Now
abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity:" because, when a man
shall have reached the eternal world, while the other two graces will fail, love will remain
greater and more assured.

Chap. 40.--What manner of reader Scripture demands

44. And, therefore, if a man fully understands that "the end of the commandment is charity, out
of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," and is bent upon making all his
understanding of Scripture to bear upon these three graces, he may come to the interpretation of
these books with an easy mind. For while the apostle says "love," he adds "out of a pure heart," to
provide against anything being loved but that which is worthy of love. And he joins with this "a
good conscience," in reference to hope; for, if a man has the burthen of a bad conscience, he
despairs of ever reaching that which he believes in and loves. And in the third place he says: "and
of faith unfeigned." For if our faith is free from all hypocrisy, then we both abstain from loving
what is unworthy of our love, and by living uprightly we are able to indulge the hope that our
hope shall not be in vain.
For these reasons I have been anxious to speak about the objects of faith, as far as I thought it
necessary for my present purpose; for much has already been said on this subject in other
volumes, either by others or by myself. And so let this be the end of the present book. In the next
I shall discuss, as far as God shall give me light, the subject of signs.

BOOK II.

Argument

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. 3i.--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. 4i.--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.

BOOK III.

Argument.

Chap. 1.--Summary of the foregoing books, and scope of that which follows
1. The man who fears God seeks diligently in Holy Scripture for a knowledge of His will. And
when he has become meek through piety, so as to have no love of strife; when furnished also with
a knowledge of languages, so as not to be stopped by unknown words and forms of speech,
and with the knowledge of certain necessary objects, so as not to be ignorant of the force and
nature of those which are used figuratively; and assisted, besides, by accuracy in the texts, which
has been secured by skill and care in the matter of correction;--when thus prepared, let him
proceed to the examination and solution of the ambiguities of Scripture. And that he may not be
led astray by ambiguous signs, I so far as I can give him instruction (it may happen however, that
either from the greatness of his intellect, or the greater clearness of the light he enjoys, he shall
laugh at the methods I am going to point out as childish),--but yet, as I was going to say, so far as
I can give instruction, let him who is in such a state of mind that he can be instructed by me know,
that the ambiguity of Scripture lies either in proper words or in metaphorical, classes which I have
already described in the second book.

Chap. 2.--Rule for removing ambiguity by attending to punctuation
2. But when proper words make Scripture ambiguous, we must see in the first place that there is
nothing wrong in our punctuation or pronunciation. Accordingly, if, when attention is given to the
passage, it shall appear to be uncertain in what way it ought to be punctuated or pronounced, let
the reader consult the rule of faith which he has gathered from the plainer passages of Scripture,
and from the authority of the Church, and of which I treated at sufficient length when I was
speaking in the first book about things. But if both readings, or all of them (if there are more than
two), give a meaning in harmony with the faith, it remains to consult the context, both what goes
before and what comes after, to see which interpretation, out of many that offer themselves, it
pronounces for and permits to be dovetailed into itself. 3. Now look at some examples. The
heretical pointing, "In principio erat verbum, et verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat" (In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,and God was), so as to make the next
sentence run, "Verbum hoc erat in principio apud Deum" (This wbrd was in the beginning with
God), arises out of unwillingness to confess that the Word was God. But this must be rejected by
the rule of faith, which, in reference to the equality of the Trinity, directs us to say: "et Deus erat
verbum" (and the Word was God); and then to add: "hoc erat in principio apud Deum" (the same
was in the beginning with God). 4. But the following ambiguity of punctuation does not go
against the faith in either way you take it, and therefore must be decided from the context. It is
where the apostle says: "What I shall choose I wet not: for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a
desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is
more needful for you." Now it is uncertain whether we should read, "ex duobus concupiscentiam
habens " [having a desire for two things], or "compellor autem ex duobus " [I am in a strait
betwixt two]; and so to add: "concupiscentiam habens dissolvi, et esse cum Christo" [having a
desire to depart, and to be with Christ]. But since there follows "multo enim magis optimum" [for
it is far better], it is evident that he says he has a desire for that which is better; so that, while he is
in a strait betwixt two, yet he has a desire for one and sees a necessity for the other; a desire, viz.,
to be with Christ, and a necessity to remain in the flesh. Now this ambiguity is resolved by one
word that follows, which is translated denim [for]; and the translators who have omitted this
particle have preferred the interpretation which makes the apostle seem not only in a strait betwixt
two, but also to have a desire for two. We must therefore punctuate the sentence thus: "et quid
eligam ignoro: compellor autem ex duobus" [what I shall choose I wet not: for I am in a strait
betwixt two]; and after this point follows: "concupiscentiam habens dissolvi, et esse cum Christo"
[having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ]. And, as if he were asked why he has a desire for
this in preference to the other, he adds: "multo enim magis optimum" [for it is far better]. Why,
then, is he in a strait betwixt the two? Because there is a need for his remaining, which he adds in
these terms: "manere in carne necessarium propter vos" [nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more
needful for you].
5. Where, however, the ambiguity cannot be cleared up, either by the rule of faith or by the
context, there is nothing to hinder us to point the sentence according to any method we choose of
those that suggest themselves. As is the case in that passage to the Corinthians: "Having therefore
these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Receive us; we have wronged no man." It is doubtful
whether we should read, mundemus nos ab omni coinquinatione carnis et spiritus" [let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit], in accordance with the passage, "that she may
be holy both in body and in spirit," or, "mundemus nos ab omni coinquintione carnis" [let us
cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh], so as to make the next sentence, "et spiritus
perficientes sanctificationem in timore Dei capite nos" [and perfecting holiness of spirit in the fear
of God, receive us]. Such ambiguities of punctuation, therefore, are left to the reader's discretion.

Chap. 3.--How pronunciation serves to remove ambiguity--different kinds of interrogation

6. And all the directions that I have given about ambiguous punctuations are to be observed
likewise in the case of doubtful pronunciations. For these too, unless the fault lies in the
carelessness of the reader, are corrected either by the rule of faith, or by a reference to the
preceding or succeeding context; or if neither of these methods is applied with success, they will
remain doubtful, but so that the reader will not be in fault in whatever way he may pronounce
them. For example, if our faith that God will not bring any charges against His elect, and that
Christ will not condemn His elect, did not stand in the way, this passage, "Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect?" might be pronounced in such a way as to make what follows an
answer to this question, "God who justifieth," and to make a second question, "Who is he that
condemneth?" with the answer, "Christ Jesus who died." But as it would be the height of madness
to believe this, the passage will be pronounced in such a way as to make the first part a question
of inquiry, and the second a rhetorical interrogative. Now the ancients said that the difference
between an inquiry and an interrogative was this, that an inquiry admits of many answers, but to
an interrogative the answer must be either "No" or "Yes." The passage will be pronounced, then,
in such a way that after the inquiry, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" what
follows will be put as an interrogative: "Shall God who justifieth?" the answer "No" being
understood. And in the same way we shall have the inquiry, "Who is he that condemneth?" and
the answer here again in the form of an interrogative, "Is it Christ who died? yea, rather, who is
risen again? who is even at the right hand of God? who also maketh intercession for us?" the
answer "No" being understood to every one of these questions. On the other hand, in that passage
where the apostle says, "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed not after
righteousness have attained to righteousness;" unless after the inquiry, "What shall we say then?"
what follows were given as the answer to this question: "That the Gentiles, which followed not
after righteousness, have attained to righteousness;" it would not be in harmony with the
succeeding context. But with whatever tone of voice one may choose to pronounce that saying of
Nathanael's, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"--whether with that of a man who gives
an affirmative answer, so that "out of Nazareth" is the only part that belongs to the interrogation,
or with that of a man who asks the whole question with doubt and hesitation,--I do not see how a
difference can be made. But neither sense is opposed to faith.
7. There is, again, an ambiguity arising out of the doubtful sound of syllables; and this of course
has relation to pronunciation. For example, in the passage, "My bone [os meum] was not hid from
Thee, which Thou didst make in secret," it is not clear to the reader whether he should take the
word "os" as short or long. If he make it short, it is the singular of ossa [bones]; if he make it
long, it is the singular of ora [mouths]. Now difficulties such as this are cleared up by looking into
the original tongue, for in the Greek we find not "stome" [mouth], but "osteon" [bone]. And for
this reason the vulgar idiom is frequently more useful in conveying the sense than the pure speech
of the educated. For I would rather have the barbarism, "non est absconditum a te ossum meum",
than have the passage in better Latin but the sense less clear. But sometimes when the sound of a
syllable is doubtful, it is decided by a word near it belonging to the same sentence. As, for
example, that saying of the apostle, "Of the which I tell you before [praedico], as I have also told
you in time past [praedixi], that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
Now if he had only said, "Of the which I tell you before [quae praedico vobis]", and had not
added, "as I have also told you in time past [sicut proedixi]," we could not know without going
back to the original whether in the word praedico the middle syllable should be pronounced long
or short. But as it is, it is clear that it should be pronounced long; for he does not say, sicut
praedicavi, but sicut praedixi.

Chap. 4.--How ambiguities may be solved

8. And not only these, but also those ambiguities that do not relate either to punctuation or
pronunciation, are to be examined in the same way. For example, that one in the Epistle to the
Thessalonians: "Propterea consolati sumus fratres in vobis". Now it is doubtful whether "fratres"
[brethren] is in the vocative or accusative case, and it is not contrary to faith to take it either way.
But in the Greek language the two cases are not the same in form; and accordingly, when we look
into the original, the case is shown to be vocative. Now if the translator had chosen to say,
"propterea consolationem habuimus fratres in vobis", he would have followed the words less
literally, but there would have been less doubt about the meaning; or, indeed, if he had added
"nostri", hardly any one would have doubted that the vocative case was meant when he heard
"propterea consolationem habuimus fratres in vobis", But this is a rather dangerous liberty to take.
It has been taken, however in that passage to the Corinthians, where the apostle says, "I protest
by your rejoicing [per vestram gloriam] which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." For
one translator has it, "per vestram" juro "gloriam", the form of adjuration appearing in the Greek
without any ambiguity. It is therefore very rare and very difficult to find any ambiguity in the case
of proper words, as far at least as Holy Scripture is concerned, which neither the context, showing
the design of the writer, nor a comparison of translations, nor a reference to the original tongue,
will suffice to explain.

Chap. 5.--It is a wretched slavery which takes the figurative expressions of Scripture in a literal
sense

9. But the ambiguities of metaphorical words, about which I am next to speak, demand no
ordinary care and diligence. In the first place, we must beware of taking a figurative expression
literally. For the saying of the apostle applies in this case too: "The letter killeth, but the spirit
giveth life." For when what is said figuratively is taken as if it were said literally, it is understood
in a carnal manner. And nothing is more fittingly called the death of the soul than when that in it
which raises it above the brutes, the intelligence namely, is put in subjection to the flesh by a blind
adherence to the letter. For he who follows the letter takes figurative words as if they were
proper, and does not carry out what is indicated by a proper word into its secondary signification;
but, if he hears of the Sabbath, for example, thinks of nothing but the one day out of seven which
recurs in constant succession; and when he hears of a sacrifice, does not carry his thoughts
beyond the customary offerings of victims from the flock, and of the fruits of the earth. Now
it is surely a miserable slavery of the soul to take signs for things, and to be unable to lift the eye
of the mind above what is corporeal and created, that it may drink in eternal light.

Chap. 6.--Utility of the bondage of the Jews

10. This bondage, however, in the case of the Jewish people, differed widely from what it was in
the case of the other nations; because, though the former were in bondage to temporal things, it
was in such a way that in all these the One God was put before their minds. And although they
paid attention to the signs of spiritual realities in place of the realities themselves, not knowing to
what the signs referred, still they had this conviction rooted in their minds, that in subjecting
themselves to such a bondage they were doing the pleasure of the one invisible God of all. And
the apostle describes this bondage as being like to that of boys under the guidance of a
schoolmaster. And those who clung obstinately to such signs could not endure our Lord's neglect
of them when the time for their revelation had come. And hence their leaders brought it as a
charge against Him that He healed on the Sabbath, and the people, clinging to these signs as it
they were realities, could not believe that one who refused to observe them in the way the Jews
did was God, or came from God. But those who did believe, from among whom the first Church
at Jerusalem was formed, showed clearly how great an advantage it had been to be so guided by
the schoolmaster that signs, which had been for a season imposed on the obedient, fixed the
thoughts of those who observed them on the worship of the One God who made heaven and
earth. These men, because they had been very near to spiritual things (for even in the temporal
and carnal offerings and types, though they did not clearly apprehend their spiritual meaning, they
had learnt to adore the One Eternal God,) were filled with such a measure of the Holy Spirit that
they sold all their goods, and laid their price at the apostles' feet to be distributed among the
needy, and consecrated themselves wholly to God as a new temple, of which the old temple they
were serving was but the earthly type.
11. Now it is not recorded that any of the Gentile churches did this, because men who had for
their gods idols made with hands had not been so near to spiritual things.

Chap. 7.--The useless bondage of the gentiles

And if ever any of them endeavoured to make it out that their idols were only signs, yet still they
used them in reference to the worship and adoration of the creature. What difference does it make
to me, for instance, that the image of Neptune is not itself to be considered a god, but only as
representing the wide ocean, and all the other waters besides that spring out of fountains? As it is
described by a poet of theirs, who says, if I recollect aright, "Thou, Father Neptune, whose hoary
temples are wreathed with the resounding sea, whose beard is the mighty ocean flowing forth
unceasingly, and whose hair is the winding rivers." This husk shakes its rattling stones within a
sweet covering, and yet it is not food for men, but for swine. He who knows the gospel knows
what I mean. What profit is it to me, then, that the image of Neptune is used with a reference to
this explanation of it, unless indeed the result be that I worship neither? For any statue you like to
take is as much god to me as the wide ocean. I grant, however, that they who make gods of the
works of man have sunk lower than they who make gods of the works of God. But the command
is that we should love and serve the One God, who is the Maker of all those things, the images of
which are worshipped by the heathen either as gods, or as signs and representations of gods. If,
then, to take a sign which has been established for a useful end instead of the thing itself which it
was designed to signify, is bondage to the flesh, how much more so is it to take signs intended to
represent useless things for the things themselves! For even if you go back to the very things
signified by such signs, and engage your mind in the worship of these, you will not be anything the
more free from the burden and the livery of bondage to the flesh.

Chap. 8.--The Jews liberated from their bondage in one way, the gentiles in another

12. Accordingly the liberty that comes by Christ took those whom it found under bondage to
useful signs, and who were (so to speak) near to it, and, interpreting the signs to which they were
in bondage, set them free by raising them to the realities of which these were signs. And out of
such were formed the churches of the saints of Israel. Those, on the other hand, whom it found in
bondage to useless signs, it not only freed from their slavery to such signs, but brought to nothing
and cleared out of the way all these signs themselves, so that the gentiles were turned from the
corruption of a multitude of false gods, which Scripture frequently and justly speaks of as
fornication, to the worship of the One God: not that they might now fall into bondage to signs of
a useful kind, but rather that they might exercise their minds in the spiritual understanding of such.

Chap. 9.--Who is in bondage to signs, and who not

13. Now he is in bondage to a sign who uses, or pays homage to, any significant object without
knowing what it signifies: he, on the other hand, who either uses or honours a useful sign divinely
appointed, whose force and significance he understands, does not honour the sign which is
seen and temporal, but that to which all such signs refer. Now such a man is spiritual and free
even at the time of his bondage, when it is not yet expedient to reveal to carnal minds those signs
by subjection to which their carnality is to be overcome. To this class of spiritual persons
belonged the patriarchs and the prophets, and all those among the people of Israel through whose
instrumentality the Holy Spirit ministered unto us the aids and consolations of the Scriptures. But
at the present time, after that the proof of our liberty has shone forth so clearly in the resurrection
of our Lord, we are not oppressed with the heavy burden of attending even to those signs which
we now understand, but our Lord Himself, and apostolic practice, have handed down to us a few
rites in place of many, and these at once very easy to perform, most majestic in their significance,
and most sacred in the observance; such, for example, as the Sacrament of baptism, and the
celebration of the body and blood of the Lord. And as soon as any one looks upon these
observances he knows to what they refer, and so reveres them not in carnal bondage, but in
spiritual freedom. Now, as to follow the letter, and to take signs for the things that are signified by
them, is a mark of weakness and bondage; so to interpret signs wrongly is the result of being
misled by error. He, however, who does not understand what a sign signifies, but yet knows that
it is a sign, is not in bondage. And it is better even to be in bondage to unknown but useful signs
than, by interpreting them wrongly, to draw the neck from under the yoke of bondage only to
insert it in the coils of error.

Chap. 10.--How we are to discern whether a phrase is figurative
14. But in addition to the foregoing rule, which guards us against taking a metaphorical form of
speech as if it were literal, we must also pay heed to that which tells us not to take a literal form
of speech as if it were figurative. In the first place, then, we must show the way to find out
whether a phrase is literal or figurative. And the way is certainly as follows: Whatever there is in
the word of God that cannot, when taken literally, be referred either to purity of life or soundness
of doctrine, you may set down as figurative. Purity of life has reference to the love of God and
one's neighbour; soundness of doctrine to the knowledge of God and one's neighbour. Every man,
moreover, has hope in his own conscience, so far as he perceives that he has attained to the love
and knowledge of God and his neighbour. Now all these matters have been spoken of in the first
book.
15. But as men are prone to estimate sins, not by reference to their inherent sinfulness, but rather
by reference to their own customs, it frequently happens that a man will think nothing blameable
except what the men of his own country and time are accustomed to condemn, and nothing
worthy of praise or approval except what is sanctioned by the custom of his companions; and thus
it comes to pass, that if Scripture either enjoins what is opposed to the customs of the hearers, or
condemns what is not so opposed, and if at the same time the authority of the word has a hold
upon their minds, they think that the expression is figurative. Now Scripture enjoins nothing
except charity, and condemns nothing except lust, and in that way fashions the lives of men. In the
same way, if an erroneous opinion has taken possession of the mind, men think that whatever
Scripture asserts contrary to this must be figurative. Now Scripture asserts nothing but the
catholic faith, in regard to things past, future, and present. It is a narrative of the past, a prophecy
of the future, and a description of the present. But all these tend to nourish and strengthen charity,
and to overcome and root out lust.
16. I mean by charity that affection of the mind which aims at the enjoyment of God for His own
sake, and the enjoyment of ones self and one's neighbour in subordination to God; by lust I mean
that affection of the mind which aims at enjoying one's self and one's neighbour, and other
corporeal things, without reference to God. Again, what lust, when unsubdued, does towards
corrupting one's own soul and body, is called vice; but what it does to injure another is called
crime. And these are the two classes into which all sins may be divided. But the vices come
first; for when these have exhausted the soul, and reduced it to a kind of poverty, it easily slides
into crimes, in order to remove hindrances to, or to find assistance in, its vices. In the same way,
what charity does with a view to one's own advantage is prudence; but what it does with a view
to a neighbor's advantage is called benevolence. And here prudence comes first; because no one
can confer an advantage on another which he does not himself possess. Now in proportion as the
dominion of lust is pulled down, in the same proportion is that of charity built up.
Chap. 11.--Rule for interpreting phrases which seem to ascribe severity to God and the saints

17. Every severity, therefore, and apparent cruelty, either in word or deed, that is ascribed in
Holy Scripture to God or His saints, avails to the pulling down of the dominion of lust. And if its
meaning be clear, we are not to give it some secondary reference, as if it were spoken figuratively.
Take, for example, that saying of the apostle: "But, after thy hardness and impenitent heart,
treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment
of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who, by patient
continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life; but unto them
that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the
Gentile." But this is addressed to those who, being unwilling to subdue their lust, are themselves
involved in the destruction of their lust. When, however, the dominion of lust is overturned in a
man over whom it had held sway, this plain expression is used: "They that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." Only that, even in these instances, some words
are used figuratively, as for example, "the wrath of God" and "crucified." But these are not so
numerous, nor placed in such a way as to obscure the sense, and make it allegorical or
enigmatical, which is the kind of expression properly called figurative. But in the saying addressed
to Jeremiah, "See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out,
and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down," there is no doubt the whole of the
language is figurative, and to be referred to the end I have spoken of.

Chap. 12.--Rule for interpreting those sayings and actions which are ascribed to God and the
saints and which yet seem to the unskilful to be wicked

18. Those things, again, whether only sayings or whether actual deeds, which appear to the
inexperienced to be sinful, and which are ascribed to God, or to men whose holiness is put before
us as an example, are wholly figurative, and the hidden kernel of meaning they contain is to be
picked out as food for the nourishment of charity. Now, whoever uses transitory objects less
freely than is the custom of those among whom he lives, is either temperate or superstitious;
whoever, on the other hand, uses them so as to transgress the bounds of the custom of the good
men about him, either has a further meaning in what he does, or is sinful. In all such matters it is
not the use of the objects, but the lust of the user, that is to blame. Nobody in his sober senses
would believe, for example, that when our Lord's feet were anointed by the woman with precious
ointment, it was for the same purpose for which luxurious and profligate men are accustomed to
have theirs anointed in those banquets which we abhor. For the sweet odour means the good
report which is earned by a life of good works; and the man who wins this, while following in the
footsteps of Christ, anoints His feet (so to speak) with the most precious ointment. And so that
which in the case of other persons is often a sin, becomes, when ascribed to God or a prophet, the
sign of some great truth. Keeping company with a harlot, for example, is one thing when it is the
result of abandoned manners, another thing when done in the course of his prophecy by the
prophet Hosea. Because it is a shamefully wicked thing to strip the body naked at a banquet
among the drunken and licentious, it does not follow that it is a sin to be naked in the baths.
19. We must, therefore, consider carefully what is suitable to times and places and persons, and
not rashly charge men with sins. For it is possible that a wise man may use the daintiest food
without any sin of epicurism or gluttony, while a fool will crave for the vilest food with a
most disgusting eagerness of appetite. And any sane man would prefer eating fish after the manner
of our Lord, to eating lentils after the manner of Esau, or barley after the manner of oxen. For
there are several beasts that feed on commoner kinds of food, but it does not follow that they are
more temperate than we are. For in all matters of this kind it is not the nature of the things we
use, but our reason for using them, and our manner of seeking them, that make what we do either
praiseworthy or blameable.
20. Now the saints of ancient times were, under the form of an earthly kingdom, foreshadowing
and foretelling the kingdom of heaven. And on account of the necessity for a numerous offspring,
the custom of one man having several wives was at that time blameless: and for the same reason it
was not proper for one woman to have several husbands, because a woman does not in that way
become more fruitful, but, on the contrary, it is base harlotry to seek either gain or offspring by
promiscuous intercourse. In regard to matters of this sort, whatever the holy men of those times
did without lust, Scripture passes over without blame, although they did things which could not
be done at the present time, except through lust. And everything of this nature that is there
narrated we are to take not only in its historical and literal, but also in its figurative and
prophetical sense, and to interpret as bearing ultimately upon the end of love towards God or our
neighbour, or both. For as it was disgraceful among the ancient Romans to wear tunics reaching
to the heels, and furnished with sleeves, but now it is disgraceful for men honorably born not to
wear tunics of that description: so we must take heed in regard to other things also, that lust do
not mix with our use of them; for lust not only abuses to wicked ends the customs of those among
whom we live, but frequently also transgressing the bounds of custom, betrays, in a disgraceful
outbreak, its own hideousness, which was concealed under the cover of prevailing fashions.

Chap. 13.--Same subject, continued

21. Whatever, then, is in accordance with the habits of those with whom we are either compelled
by necessity, or undertake as a matter of duty, to spend this life, is to be turned by good and great
men to some prudent or benevolent end, either directly, as is our duty, or figuratively, as is
allowable to prophets.

Chap. 14.--Error of those who think that there is no absolute right and wrong

22. But when men unacquainted with other modes of life than their own meet with the record of
such actions, unless they are restrained by authority, they look upon them as sins, and do not
consider that their own customs either in regard to marriage, or feasts, or dress, or the other
necessities and adornments of human life, appear sinful to the people of other nations and other
times. And, distracted by this endless variety of customs, some who were half asleep (as I may
say)--that is, who were neither sunk in the deep sleep of folly, nor were able to awake into the
light of wisdom--have thought that there was no such thing as absolute right, but that every nation
took its own custom for right; and that, since every nation has a different custom, and right must
remain unchangeable, it becomes manifest that there is no such thing as right at all. Such men did
not perceive, to take only one example, that the precept, "Whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them," I cannot be altered by any diversity of national customs. And
this precept, when it is referred to the love of God, destroys all vices; when to the love of one's
neighbour, puts an end to all crimes. For no one is willing to defile his own dwelling; he ought
not, therefore, to defile the dwelling of God, that is, himself. And no one wishes an injury to be
done him by another; he himself, therefore, ought not to do injury to another.

Chap. 15.--Rule for interpreting figurative expressions

23. The tyranny of lust being thus overthrown, charity reigns through its supremely just laws of
love to God for His own sake, and love to one's self and one's neighbour for God's sake.
Accordingly, in regard to figurative expressions, a rule such as the following will be observed, to
carefully turn over in our minds and meditate upon what we read till an interpretation be found
that tends to establish the reign of love. Now, if when taken literally it at once gives a meaning of
this kind, the expression is not to be considered figurative.

Chap. 16.--Rule for interpreting commands and prohibitions
24. If the sentence is one of command, either forbidding a crime or vice, or enjoining an act of
prudence or benevolence, it is not figurative. If, however, it seems to enjoin a crime or vice, or to
forbid an act of prudence or benevolence, it is figurative. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man," says Christ, "and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." This seems to enjoin a crime or a
vice; it is therefore a figure, enjoining that we should have a share in the sufferings of our Lord,
and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory of the fact that His flesh was wounded
and crucified for us. Scripture says: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink;"
and this is beyond doubt a command to do a kindness. But in what follows, "for in so doing thou
shalt heap coals of fire on his head," one would think a deed of malevolence was enjoined. Do not
doubt, then, that the expression is figurative; and, while it is possible to interpret it in two ways,
one pointing to the doing of an injury, the other to a display of superiority, let charity on the
contrary call you back to benevolence, and interpret the coals of fire as the burning groans of
penitence by which a man's pride is cured who bewails that he has been the enemy of one who
came to his assistance in distress. In the same way, when our Lord says, "He who loveth his life
shall lose it," we are not to think that He forbids the prudence with which it is a man's duty to care
for his life, but that He says in a figurative sense, "Let him lose his life"--that is, let him destroy
and lose that perverted and unnatural use which he now makes of his life, and through which his
desires are fixed on temporal things so that he gives no heed to eternal. It is written: "Give to the
godly man, and help not a sinner." The latter clause of this sentence seems to forbid benevolence;
for it says, "help not a sinner." Understand, therefore, that "sinner" is put figuratively for sin, so
that it is his sin you are not to help.

Chap. 17.--Some commands are given to all in common, others to particular classes

25. Again, it often happens that a man who has attained, or thinks he has attained, to a higher
grade of spiritual life, thinks that the commands given to those who are still in the lower grades
are figurative; for example, if he has embraced a life of celibacy and made himself a eunuch for the
kingdom of heaven's sake, he contends that the commands given in Scripture about loving and
ruling a wife are not to be taken literally, but figuratively; and if he has determined to keep his
virgin unmarried, he tries to put a figurative interpretation on the passage where it is said, "Marry
thy daughter, and so shalt thou have performed a weighty matter." Accordingly, another of our
rules for understanding the Scriptures will be as follows,--to recognize that some commands are
given to all in common, others to particular classes of persons, that the medicine may act not only
upon the state of health as a whole, but also upon the special weakness of each member. For that
which cannot be raised to a higher state must be cared for in its own state.

Chap. 18.--We must take into consideration the time at which anything was enjoyed or allowed

26. We must also be on our guard against supposing that what in the Old Testament, making
allowance for the condition of those times, is not a crime or a vice even if we take it literally and
not figuratively, can be transferred to the present time as a habit of life. For no one will do this
except lust has dominion over him, and endeavours to find support for itself in the very Scriptures
which were intended to overthrow it. And the wretched man does not perceive that such matters
are recorded with this useful design, that mere of good hope may learn the salutary lesson, both
that the custom they spurn can be turned to a good use, and that which they embrace can be used
to condemnation, if the use of the former be accompanied with charity, and the use of the latter
with lust. 27. For, if it was possible for one man to use many wives with chastity, it is possible
for another to use one wife with lust. And I look with greater approval on the man who uses the
fruitfulness of many wives for the sake of an ulterior object, than on the man who enjoys the
body of one wife for its own sake. For in the former case the man aims at a useful object suited to
the circumstances of the times; in the latter case he gratifies a lust which is engrossed in temporal
enjoyments. And those men to whom the apostle permitted as a matter of indulgence to have
one wife because of their incontinence, were less near to God than those who, though they had
each of them numerous wives, yet just as a wise man uses food and drink only for the sake of
bodily health, used marriage only for the sake of offspring. And, accordingly, if these last had
been still alive at the advent of our Lord, when the time not of casting stones away but of
gathering them together had come, they would have immediately made themselves eunuchs for
the kingdom of heaven's sake. For there is no difficulty in abstaining unless when there is lust in
enjoying. And assuredly those men of whom I speak knew that wantonness even in regard to
wives is abuse and intemperance, as is proved by Tobit's prayer when he was married to his wife.
For he says: "Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers, and blessed is Thy holy and glorious name
for ever; let the heavens bless Thee, and all Thy creatures. Thou merriest Adam, and gavest him
Eve his wife for an helper and stay. ... And now, O Lord. Thou knowest that I take not this my
sister for lust, but uprightly: therefore have pity on us, O Lord."

Chap. 19.--Wicked men judge others by themselves

28. But those who, giving the rein to lust, either wander about steeping themselves in a
multitude of debaucheries, or even in regard to one wife not only exceed the measure necessary
for the procreation of children, but with the shameless license of a sort of slavish freedom heap up
the filth of a still more beastly excess, such men do not believe it possible that the men of ancient
times used a number of wives with temperance, looking to nothing but the duty, necessary in the
circumstances of the time, of propagating the race; and what they themselves, who are entangled
in the meshes of lust, do not accomplish in the case of a single wife, they think utterly impossible
in the case of a number of wives.
29. But these same men might say that it is not right even to honour and praise good and holy
men, because they themselves when they are honoured and praised, swell with pride, becoming
the more eager for the emptiest sort of distinction the more frequently and the more widely they
are blown about on the tongue of flattery, and so become so light that a breath of rumour,
whether it appear prosperous or adverse, will carry them into the whirlpool of vice or dash them
on the rocks of crime. Let them, then, learn how trying and difficult it is for themselves to escape
either being caught by the bait of praise, or pierced by the stings of insult; but let them not
measure others by their own standard.
Chap. 20.--Consistency of good men in all outward circumstances
Let them believe, on the contrary, that the apostles of our faith were neither puffed up when they
were honoured by men, nor cast down when they were despised. And certainly neither sort of
temptation was wanting to those great men. For they were both cried up by the loud praises of
believers, and cried down by the slanderous reports of their persecutors. But the apostles used all
these things, as occasion served, and were not corrupted; and in the same way the saints of old
used their wives with reference to the necessities of their own times, and were not in bondage
to lust as they are who refuse to believe these things.
30. For if they had been under the influence of any such passion, they could never have
restrained themselves from implacable hatred towards their sons, by whom they knew that their
wives and concubines were solicited and debauched.

Chap. 21.--David not lustful, though he fell into adultery
But when King David had suffered this injury at the hands of his impious and unnatural son, he
not only bore with him in his mad passion, but mourned over him in his death. He certainly was
not caught in the meshes of carnal jealousy, seeing that it was not his own injuries but the sins of
his son that moved him. For it was on this account he had given orders that his son should not be
slain if he were conquered in battle, that he might have a place of repentance after he was
subdued; and when he was baffled in this design, he mourned over his son's death, not because of
his own loss, but because he knew to what punishment so impious an adulterer and parricide had
been hurried. For prior to this, in the case of another son who had been guilty of no crime, though
he was dreadfully afflicted for him while he was sick, yet he comforted himself after his death.
31. And with what moderation and self-restraint those men used their wives appears chiefly in
this, that when this same king, carried away by the heat of passion and by temporal prosperity,
had taken unlawful possession of one woman, whose husband also he ordered to be put to death,
he was accused of his crime by a prophet, who, when he had come to show him his sin set before
him the parable of the poor man who had but one ewe-lamb, and whose neighbour, though he had
many, yet when a guest came to him spared to take of his own flock, but set his poor neighbour's
one lamb before his guest to eat. And David's anger being kindled against the man, he commanded
that he should be put to death, and the lamb restored fourfold to the poor man; thus unwittingly
condemning the sin he had wittingly committed. And when he had been shown this, and God's
punishment had been denounced against him, he wiped out his sin in deep penitence. But yet in
this parable it was the adultery only that was indicated by the poor man's ewe-lamb; about the
killing of the woman's husband,--that is, about the murder of the poor man himself who had the
one ewe-lamb,--nothing is said in the parable, so that the sentence of condemnation is pronounced
against the adultery alone. And hence we may understand with what temperance he possessed a
number of wives when he was forced to punish himself for transgressing in regard to one woman.
But in his case the immoderate desire did not take up its abode with him, but was only a passing
guest. On this account the unlawful appetite is called even by the accusing prophet, a guest. For
he did not say that he took the poor man's ewe-lamb to make a feast for his king, but for his
guest. In the case of his son Solomon, however, this lust did not come and pass away like a guest,
but reigned as a king. And about him Scripture is not silent, but accuses him of being a lover of
strange women; for in the beginning of his reign he was inflamed with a desire for wisdom, but
after he had attained it through spiritual love, he lost it through carnal lust.

Chap. 22.--Rule regarding passages of Scripture in which approval is expressed of actions which
are now condemned by good men

32. Therefore, although all, or nearly all, the transactions recorded in the Old Testament are to
be taken not literally only, but figuratively as well, nevertheless even in the case of those which
the reader has taken literally, and which, though the authors of them are praised, are repugnant to
the habits of the good men who since our Lord's advent are the custodians of the divine
commands, let him refer the figure to its interpretation, but let him not transfer the act to his
habits of life. For many things which were done as duties at that time, cannot now be done except
through lust.

Chap. 23.--Rule regarding the narrative of sins of great men
33. And when he reads of the sins of great men, although he may be able to see and to trace out
in them a figure of things to come, let him yet put the literal fact to this use also, to teach him not
to dare to vaunt himself in his own good deeds, and in comparison with his own righteousness, to
despise others as sinners, when he sees in the case of men so eminent both the storms that are to
be avoided and the shipwrecks that are to be wept over. For the sins of these men were recorded
to this end, that men might everywhere and always tremble at that saying of the apostle:
"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." For there is hardly a page of
Scripture on which it is not clearly written that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the
humble.
Chap. 24.--The character of the expressions used is above all to have weight

34. The chief thing to be inquired into, therefore, in regard to any expression that we are trying
to understand is, whether it is literal or figurative. For when it is ascertained to be figurative, it is
easy, by an application of the laws of things which we discussed in the first book, to turn it in
every way until we arrive at a true interpretation, especially when we bring to our aid experience
strengthened by the exercise of piety. Now we find out whether an expression is literal or
figurative by attending to the considerations indicated above.
Chap. 25.--The same word does not always signify the same thing
And when it is shown to be figurative, the words in which it is expressed will be found to be
drawn either from like objects or from objects having some affinity.
35. But as there are many ways in which things show a likeness to each other, we are not to
suppose there is any rule that what a thing signifies by similitude in one place it is to be taken to
signify in all other places. For our Lord used leaven both in a bad sense, as when He said,
"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," I and in a good sense, as when He said, "The kingdom of
heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole
was leavened." 36. Now the rule in regard to this variation has two forms. For things that signify
now one thing and now another, signify either things that are contrary, or things that are only
different. They signify contraries, for example, when they are used metaphorically at one time in a
good sense, at another in a bad, as in the case of the leaven mentioned above. Another example of
the same is that a lion stands for Christ in the place where it is said, "The lion of the tribe of Judah
has prevailed;" and again, stands for the devil where it is written, "Your adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour." In the same way the serpent is used in
a good sense, "Be wise as serpents;" and again, in a bad sense, "The serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtilty." Bread is used in a good sense, "I am the living bread which came down from
heaven;" in a bad, "Bread eaten in secret is pleasant." And so in a great many other case. The
examples I have adduced are indeed by no means doubtful in their signification, because only plain
instances ought to be used as examples. There are passages, however, in regard to which it is
uncertain in what sense they ought to be taken, as for example, "In the hand of the Lord there is a
cup, and the wine is red: it is full of mixture." Now it is uncertain whether this denotes the wrath
of God, but not to the last extremity of punishment, that is, "to the very dregs;" or whether it
denotes the grace of the Scriptures passing away from the Jews and coming to the Gentiles,
because "He has put down one and set up another,"--certain observances, however, which they
understand in a carnal manner, still remaining among the Jews, for "the dregs hereof is not yet
wrung out." The following is an example of the same object being taken, not in opposite, but only
in different significations: water denotes people, as we read in the Apocalypse,l and also the Holy
Spirit, as for example, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water;" and many other things
besides water must be interpreted according to the place in which they are found.
37. And in the same way other objects are not single in their signification, but each one of them
denotes not two only but sometimes even several different things, according to the connection in
which it is found.

Chap. 26.--Obscure passages are to be interpreted by those which are clearer

Now from the places where the sense in which they are used is more manifest we must gather
the sense in which they are to be understood in obscure passages. For example, there is no better
way of understanding the words addressed to God, "Take hold of shield and buckler and stand up
for mine help," than by referring to the passage where we read, "Thou, Lord, hast crowned us
with Thy favour as with a shield." And yet we are not so to understand it, as that wherever we
meet with a shield put to indicate a protection of any kind, we must take it as signifying nothing
but the favour of God. For we hear also of the shield of faith, "wherewith," says the apostle, "ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Nor ought we, on the other hand, in
regard to spiritual armour of this kind to assign faith to the shield only; for we read in another
place of the breastplate of faith: "putting on," says the apostle, "the breastplate of faith and love."

Chap. 27.--One passage susceptible of various interpretations
38. When, again, not some one interpretation, but two or more interpretations are put upon the
same words of Scripture, even though the meaning the writer intended remain undiscovered, there
is no danger if it can be shown from other passages of Scripture that any of the interpretations put
on the words is in harmony with the truth. And if a man in searching the Scriptures endeavours to
get at the intention of the author through whom the Holy Spirit spake, whether he succeeds in this
endeavour, or whether he draws a different meaning from the words, but one that is not opposed
to sound doctrine, he is free from blame so long as he is supported by the testimony of some other
passage of Scripture. For the author perhaps saw that this very meaning lay in the words which
we are trying to interpret; and assuredly the Holy Spirit, who through him spake these words,
foresaw that this interpretation would occur to the reader, nay, made provision that it should
occur to him, seeing that it too is founded on truth. For what more liberal and more fruitful
provision could God have made in regard to the Sacred Scriptures than that the same words might
be understood in several senses, all of which are sanctioned by the concurring testimony of other
passages equally divine?

Chap. 28.--It is safer to explain a doubtful passage by other passages of Scripture than by reason

39. When, however, a meaning is evolved of such a kind that what is doubtful in it cannot be
cleared up by indubitable evidence from Scripture, it remains for us to make it clear by the
evidence of reason. But this is a dangerous practice. For it is far safer to walk by the light of Holy
Scripture; so that when we wish to examine the passages that are obscured by metaphorical
expressions, we may either obtain a meaning about which there is no controversy, or if a
controversy arises, may settle it by the application of testimonies sought out in every portion of
the same Scripture.

Chap. 29.--The knowledge of tropes is necessary

40. Moreover, I would have learned men to know that the authors of our Scriptures use all those
forms of expression which grammarians call by the Greek name tropes, and use them more freely
and in greater variety than people who are unacquainted with the Scriptures, and have learnt these
figures of speech from other writings, can imagine or believe. Nevertheless those who know these
tropes recognize them in Scripture, and are very much assisted by their knowledge of them in
understanding Scripture. But this is not the place to teach them to the illiterate, lest it might seem
that I was teaching grammar. I certainly advise, however, that they be learnt elsewhere, although
indeed I have already given that advice above, in the second book namely, where I treated of
the necessary knowledge of languages. For the written characters from which grammar itself gets
its name (the Greek name for letters being "grammata") are the signs of sounds made by the
articulate voice with which we speak. Now of some of these figures of speech we find in Scripture
not only examples (which we have of them all), but the very names as well: for instance, allegory,
enigma, and parable. However, nearly all these tropes which are said to be learnt as a matter of
liberal education are found even in the ordinary speech of men who have learnt no grammar, but
are content to use the vulgar idiom. For who does not say, "So may you flourish? " And this is the
figure of speech called metaphor. Who does not speak of a fish-pond in which there is no fish,
which was not made for fish, and yet gets its name from fish? And this is the figure called
catachresis.
41. It would be tedious to go over all the rest in this way; for the speech of the vulgar makes use
of them all, even of those more curious figures which mean the very opposite of what they say, as
for example, those called irony and antiphrasis. Now in irony we indicate by the tone of voice the
meaning we desire to convey; as when we say to a man who is behaving badly, "You are doing
well." But it is not by the tone of voice that we make an antiphrasis to indicate the opposite of
what the words convey; but either the words in which it is expressed are used in the opposite of
their etymological sense, as a grove is called lucus from its want of light; or it is customary to use
a certain form of expression, although it puts yes for no by a law of contraries, as when we ask in
a place for what is not there, and get the answer, "There is plenty;" or we add words that make it
plain we mean the opposite of what we say, as in the expression, "Beware of him, for he is a good
man." And what illiterate man is there that does not use such expressions, although he knows
nothing at all about either the nature or the names of these figures of speech? And yet the
knowledge of these is necessary for clearing up the difficulties of Scripture; because when the
words taken literally give an absurd meaning, we ought forthwith to inquire whether they may not
be used in this or that figurative sense which we are unacquainted with; and in this way many
obscure passages have had light thrown upon them.

Chap. 30.--The rules of Tichonius the Donatist examined

42. One Tichonius, who, although a Donatist himself, has written most triumphantly against the
Donatists (and herein showed himself of a most inconsistent disposition, that he was unwilling to
give them up altogether), wrote a book which he called the Book of Rules, because in it he laid
down seven rules, which are, as it were, keys to open the secrets of Scripture. And of these rules,
the first relates to the Lord and His body, the second to the twofold division of the Lord's body,
the third to the promises and the law, the fourth to species and genus, the fifth to times, the sixth
to recapitulation, the seventh to the devil and his body. Now these rules, as expounded by their
author, do indeed, when carefully considered, afford considerable assistance in penetrating the
secrets of the sacred writings; but still they do not explain all the difficult passages for there are
several other methods required which are so far from being embraced in this number of seven, that
the author himself explains many obscure passages without using any of his rules; finding, indeed,
that there was no need for them, as there was no difficulty in the passage of the kind to which his
rules apply. As, for example, he inquires what we are to understand in the Apocalypse by the
seven angels of the churches to whom John is commanded to write; and after much and various
reasoning, arrives at the conclusion that the angels are the churches themselves. And throughout
this long and full discussion, although the matter inquired into is certainly very obscure, no use
whatever is made of the rules. This is enough for an example, for it would be too tedious and
troublesome to collect all the passages in the canonical Scriptures which present obscurities of
such a kind as require none of these seven rules for their elucidation.
43. The author himself, however, when commending these rules, attributes so much value to
them that it would appear as if, when they were thoroughly known and duly applied, we should be
able to interpret all the obscure passages in the law--that is, in the sacred books. For he thus
commences this very book: "Of all the things that occur to me, I consider none so necessary as to
write a little book of rules, and, as it were, to make keys for, and put windows in, the secret
places of the law. For there are certain mystical rules which hold the key to the secret recesses of
the whole law, and render visible the treasures of truth that are to many invisible. And if this
system of rules be received as I communicate it, without jealousy, what is shut shall be laid open,
and what is obscure shall be elucidated, so that a man travelling through the vast forest of
prophecy shall, if he follow these rules as pathways of light, be preserved from going astray."
Now, if he had said, "There are certain mystical rules which hold the key to some of the secrets of
the law," or even "which hold the key to the great secrets of the law," and not what he does say,
"the secret recesses of the whole law;" and if he had not said "What is shut shall be laid open,"
but, "Many things that are shut shall be laid open," he would have said what was true, and he
would not, by attributing more than is warranted by the facts to his very elaborate and useful
work, have led the reader into false expectations. And I have thought it right to say thus much, in
order both that the book may be read by the studious (for it is of very great assistance in
understanding Scripture), and that no more may be expected from it than it really contains.
Certainly it must be read with caution, not only on account of the errors into which the author
falls as a man, but chiefly on account of the heresies which he advances as a Donatist. And now I
shall briefly indicate what these seven rules teach or advise.
Chap. 3i.--The first rule of Tichonius

44. The first is about the Lord and His body, and it is this, that, knowing as we do that the head
and the body--that is, Christ and His Church--are sometimes indicated to us under one person (for
it is not in vain that it is said to believers, "Ye then are Abraham's seed," when there is but one
seed of Abraham, and that is Christ), we need not be in a difficulty when a transition is made from
the head to the body or from the body to the head, and yet no change made in the person spoken
of. For a single person is represented as saying, "He has decked me as a bridegroom with
ornaments, and adorned me as a bride with jewels;" and yet it is, of course, a matter for
interpretation which of these two refers to the head and which to the body, that is, which to Christ
and which to the Church.

Chap. 32.--The second rule of Tichonius

45. The second rule is about the twofold division of the body of the Lord; but this indeed is not a
suitable name, for that is really no part of the body of Christ which will not be with Him in
eternity. We ought, therefore, to say that the rule is about the true and the mixed body of
the Lord, or the true and the counterfeit, or some such name; because, not to speak of eternity,
hypocrites cannot even now be said to be in Him, although they seem to be in His Church. And
hence this rule might be designated thus: Concerning the mixed Church. Now this rule requires
the reader to be on his guard when Scripture, although it has now come to address or speak of a
different set of persons, seems to be addressing or speaking of the same persons as before, just as
if both sets constituted one body in consequence of their being for the time united in a common
participation of the sacraments. An example of this is that passage in the Song of Solomon, "I am
black, but comely, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon." For it is not said, I *was*
black as the tents of Cedar, but am *now* comely as the curtains of Solomon. The Church
declares itself to be at present both; and this because the good fish and the bad are for the time
mixed up in the one net. For the tents of Cedar pertain to Ishmael, who "shall not be heir with the
son of the free woman." And in the same way, when God says of the good part of the Church, "I
will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not
known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things will I do
unto them, and not forsake them;" He immediately adds in regard to the other part, the bad that is
mixed with the good, "They shall be turned back." Now these words refer to a set of persons
altogether different from the former; but as the two sets are for the present united in one body, He
speaks as if there were no change in the subject of the sentence. They will not, however, always
he in one body; for one of them is that wicked servant of whom we are told in the gospel, whose
lord, when he comes, "shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites."

Chap. 33.--The third rule of Tichonius

46. The third rule relates to the promises and the law, and may be designated in other terms as
relating to the spirit and the letter, which is the name I made use of when writing a book on this
subject. It may be also named, of grace and the law. This, however, seems to me to be a great
question in itself, rather than a rule to be applied to the solution of other questions. It was the
want of clear views on this question that originated, or at least greatly aggravated, the Pelagian
heresy. And the efforts of Tichonius to clear up this point were good, but not complete. For, in
discussing the question about faith and works, he said that works were given us by God as the
reward of faith, but that faith itself was so far our own that it did not come to us from God; not
keeping in mind the saying of the apostle: "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." But he had not come into contact with this heresy,
which has arisen in our time, and has given us much labour and trouble in defending against it the
grace of God which is through our Lord Jesus Christ and which (according to the saying of the
apostle, "There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made
manifest among you" has made us much more watchful and diligent to discover in Scripture what
escaped Tichonius, who, having no enemy to guard against, was less attentive and anxious on this
point, namely, that even faith itself is the gift of Him who "has dealt to every man the measure of
faith." Whence it is said to certain believers: "Unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Who, then, can doubt that each of these is
the gift of God, when he learns from this passage, and believes, that each of them is given? There
are many other testimonies besides which prove this. But I am not now treating of this doctrine. I
have, however, dealt with it, one place or another, very frequently.

Chap. 34.--The fourth rule of Tichonius

47. The fourth rule of Tichonius is about species and genus. For so he calls it, intending that by
species should be understood a part, by genus the whole of which that which he calls species is a
part: as, for example, every single city is a part of the great society of nations: the city he calls a
species, all nations constitute the genus. There is no necessity for here applying that subtilty of
distinction which is in use among logicians, who discuss with great acuteness the difference
between a part and a species. The rule is of course the same, if anything of the kind referred to is
found in Scripture, not in regard to a single city, but in regard to a single province, or tribe, or
kingdom. Not only, for example, about Jerusalem, or some of the cities of the Gentiles, such as
Tyre or Babylon, are things said in Scripture whose significance oversteps the limits of the city,
and which are more suitable when applied to all nations; but in regard to Judea also, and Egypt,
and Assyria, or any other nation you choose to take which contains numerous cities, but still is
not the whole world, but only a part of it, things are said which pass over the limits of that
particular country, and apply more fitly to the whole of which this is a part; or, as our author
terms it, to the genus of which this is a species. And hence these words have come to be
commonly known, so that even uneducated people understand what is laid down specially, and
what generally, in any given Imperial command. The same thing occurs in the case of men: things
are said of Solomon, for example, the scope of which reaches far beyond him, and which are only
properly understood when applied to Christ and His Church, of which Solomon is a part.
48. Now the species is not always overstepped, for things are often said of such a kind as
evidently apply to it also, or perhaps even to it exclusively. But when Scripture, having up to a
certain point been speaking about the species, makes a transition at that point from the species to
the genus, the reader must then be carefully on his guard against seeking in the species what he
can find much better and more surely in the genus. Take, for example, what the prophet Ezekiel
says: "When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way, and by
their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I
poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols
wherewith they had polluted it: and I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed
through the countries: according to their way, and according to their doings, I judged them." Now
it is easy to understand that this applies to that house of Israel of which the apostle says "Behold
Israel after the flesh;" because the people of Israel after the flesh did both perform and endure all
that is here referred to. What immediately follows, too, may be understood as applying to the
same peep]e. But when the prophet begins to say, "And I will sanctify my great name, which was
profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord," the reader ought now carefully to observe the way in which the species
is overstepped and the genus taken in. For he goes on to say: "And I shall be sanctified in you
before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries,
and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be
clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my commandments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the
land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save
you from all your uncleannesses." Now that this is a prophecy of the New Testament, to which
pertain not only the remnant of that one nation of which it is elsewhere said, "For though the
number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall be saved,"
but also the other nations which were promised to their fathers and our fathers; and that there is
here a promise of that washing of regeneration which, as we see, is now imparted to all nations,
no one who looks into the matter can doubt. And that saying of the apostle, when he is
commending the grace of the New Testament and its excellence in comparison with the Old, "Ye
are our epistle ... written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone,
but in fleshy tables of the heart," has an evident reference to this place where the prophet says, "A
new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Now the heart of flesh from
which the apostle's expression, "the fleshy tables of the heart," is drawn, the prophet intended to
point out as distinguished from the stony heart by the possession of sentient life; and by sentient
he understood intelligent life. And thus the spiritual Israel is made up, not of one nation, but of all
the nations which were promised to the fathers in their seed, that is, in Christ. 49. This spiritual
Israel, therefore, is distinguished from the carnal Israel which is of one nation, by newness of
grace, not by nobility of descent, in feeling, not in race; but the prophet, in his depth of meaning,
while speaking of the carnal Israel, passes on, without indicating the transition, to speak of the
spiritual, and although now speaking of the latter, seems to be still speaking of the former; not
that he grudges us the clear apprehension of Scripture, as if we were enemies, but that he deals
with us as a physician, giving us a wholesome exercise for our spirit. And therefore we ought to
take this saying "And I will bring you into your own land," and what he says shortly afterwards, as
if repeating himself, "And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers," not literally, as if
they referred to Israel after the flesh but spiritually, as referring to the spiritual Israel. For the
Church, without spot or wrinkle, gathered out of all nations, and destined to reign forever with
Christ, is itself the land of the blessed, the land of the living; and we are to understand that this
was given to the fathers when it was promised to them in the sure and immutable purpose of God;
for what the fathers believed would be given in its own time was to them, on account of the
unchangeableness of the promise and purpose, the same as if it were already given; just as the
apostle, writing to Timothy, speaks of the grace which is given to the saints: "Not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour." He speaks of
the grace as given at a time when those to whom it was to be given were not yet in existence;
because he looks upon that as having been already done in the arrangement and purpose of God,
which was to take place in its own time, and he himself speaks of it as now made manifest. It is
possible, however, that these words may refer to the land of the age to come, when there will be a
new heaven and a new earth, wherein the unrighteous shall be unable to dwell. And so it is truly
said to the righteous, that the land itself is theirs, no part of which will belong to the unrighteous;
because it is the same as if it were itself given, when it is firmly settled that it shall be given.

Chap. 35.--The fifth rule of Tichonius

50. The fifth rule Tichonius lays down is one he designates of times,--a rule by which we can
frequently discover or conjecture quantities of time which are not expressly mentioned in
Scripture. And he says that this rule applies in two ways: either to the figure of speech called
synecdoche, or to legitimate numbers. The figure synecdoche either puts the part for the whole, or
the whole for the part. As, for example, in reference to the time when, in the presence of only
three of His disciples, our Lord was transfigured on the mount, so that His face shone as the sun,
and His raiment was white as snow, one evangelist says that this event occurred "after eight
days," while another says that it occurred "after six days." Now both of these statements about the
number of days cannot be true, unless we suppose that the writer who says "after eight days,"
counted the latter part of the day on which Christ uttered the prediction and the first part of the
day on which he showed its fulfilment as two whole days; while the writer who says "after six
days," counted only the whole unbroken days between these two. This figure of speech, which
puts the part for the whole, explains also the great question about the resurrection of Christ. For
unless to the latter part of the day on which He suffered we join the previous night, and count it
as a whole day, and to the latter part of the night in which He arose we join the Lord's day which
was just dawning, and count it also a whole day, we cannot make out the three days and three
nights during which He foretold that He would be in the heart of the earth.
51. In the next place, our author calls those numbers legitimate which Holy Scripture more
highly favours, such as seven, or ten, or twelve, or any of the other numbers which the diligent
reader of Scripture soon comes to know. Now numbers of this sort are often put for time
universal; as, for example, "Seven times in the day do I praise Thee," means just the same as "His
praise shall continually be in my mouth." And their force is exactly the same, either when
multiplied by ten, as seventy and seven hundred (whence the seventy years mentioned in Jeremiah
may be taken in a spiritual sense for the whole time during which the Church is a sojourner among
aliens); or when multiplied into themselves, as ten into ten gives one hundred, and twelve into
twelve gives one hundred and forty-four, which last number is used in the Apocalypse to signify
the whole body of the saints. Hence it appears that it is not merely questions about times that are
to be settled by these numbers, but that their significance is of much wider application, and
extends to many subjects. That number in the Apocalypse, for example, mentioned above,
has not reference to times, but to men.

Chap. 36.--The sixth rule of Tichonius

52. The sixth rule Tichonius calls the recapitulation, which, with sufficient watchfulness, is
discovered in difficult parts of Scripture. For certain occurrences are so related, that the narrative
appears to be following the order of time, or the continuity of events, when it really goes back
without mentioning it to previous occurrences, which had been passed over in their proper place.
And we make mistakes if we do not understand this, from applying the rule here spoken of. For
example, in the book of Genesis we read, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastwards in Eden;
and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food." Now here it seems to be
indicated that the events last mentioned took place after God had formed man and put him in the
garden; whereas the fact is, that the two events having been briefly mentioned, viz., that God
planted a garden, and there put the man whom He had formed, the narrative goes back, by way of
recapitulation, to tell what had before been omitted, the way in which the garden was planted: that
out of the ground God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.
Here there follows "The tree of life also was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge
of good and evil." Next the river is mentioned which watered the garden, and which was parted
into four heads, the sources of four streams; and all this has reference to the arrangements of the
garden. And when this is finished, there is a repetition of the fact which had been already told, but
which in the strict order of events came after all this: "And the Lord God took the man, and put
him into the garden of Eden." For it was after all these other things were done that man was put in
the garden, as now appears from the order of the narrative itself: it was not after man was put
there that the other things were done, as the previous statement might be thought to imply, did we
not accurately mark and understand the recapitulation by which the narrative reverts to what had
previously been passed over.
53. In the same book, again, when the generations of the sons of Noah are recounted, it is said:
"These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their
nations." And, again, when the sons of Shem are enumerated: "These are the sons of Shem, after
their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations." And it is added in reference to
them all: "These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and
by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. And the whole earth was of one
language and of one speech." Now the addition of this sentence, "And the whole earth was of one
language and of one speech," seems to indicate that at the time when the nations were scattered
over the earth they had all one language in common; but this is evidently inconsistent with the
previous words, in their families, after their tongues." For each family or nation could not be said
to have its own language if all had one language in common. And so it is by way of recapitulation
it is added, "And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech," the narrative here
going back, without indicating the change, to tell how it was, that from having one language in
common, the nations were divided into a multitude of tongues. And, accordingly, we are
forthwith told of the building of the tower, and of this punishment being there laid upon them as
the judgment of God upon their arrogance; and it was after this that they were scattered over the
earth according to their tongues.
54. This recapitulation is found in a still more obscure form; as, for example, our Lord says in
the gospel: "The same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire from heaven, and destroyed
them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which
shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away; and
he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife." Is it when our Lord
shall have been revealed that men are to give heed to these sayings, and not to look behind them,
that is, not to long after the past life which they have renounced? Is not the present rather the time
to give heed to them, that when the Lord shall have been revealed every man may receive his
reward according to the things he has given heed to or despised? And yet because Scripture says,
"In that day," the time of the revelation of the Lord will be thought the time for giving heed to
these sayings, unless the reader be watchful and intelligent so as to understand the recapitulation,
in which he will be assisted by that other passage of Scripture which even in the time of the
apostles proclaimed: "Little children, it is the last time." The very time then when the gospel is
preached, up to the time that the Lord shall be revealed. is the day in which men ought to give
heed to these sayings: for to the same day, which shall be brought to a close by a day of judgment,
belongs that very revelation of the Lord here spoken of.

Chap. 37.--The seventh rule of Tichonius

55. The seventh rule of Tichonius and the last, is about the devil and his body. For he is the head
of the wicked, who are in a sense his body, and destined to go with him into the punishment of
everlasting fire, just as Christ is the head of the Church, which is His body, destined to be
with Him in His eternal kingdom and glory. Accordingly, as the first rule, which is called of the
Lord and His body, directs us, when Scripture speaks of one and the same person, to take pains to
understand which part of the statement applies to the head and which to the body; so this last rule
shows us that statements are sometimes made about the devil, whose truth is not so evident in
regard to himself as in regard to his body; and his body is made up not only of those who are
manifestly out of the way, but of those also who, though they really belong to him, are for a time
mixed up with the Church, until they depart from this life, or until the chaff is separated from the
wheat at the last great winnowing. For example, what is said in Isaiah, "How he is fallen from
heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! " and the other statements of the context which, under the
figure of the king of Babylon, are made about the same person, are of course to be understood of
the devil; and yet the statement which is made in the same place, "He is ground down on the
earth, who sendeth to all nations," does not altogether fitly apply to the head himself. For,
although the devil sends his angels to all nations, yet it is his body, not himself, that is ground
down on the earth, except that he himself is in his body, which is beaten small like the dust which
the wind blows from the face of the earth.
56. Now all these rules, except the one about the promises and the law, make one meaning to be
understood where another is expressed, which is the peculiarity of figurative diction; and this kind
of diction, it seems to me, is too widely spread to be comprehended in its full extent by any
one. For, wherever one thing is said with the intention that another should be understood we have
a figurative expression, even though the name of the trope is not to be found in the art of rhetoric.
And when an expression of this sort occurs where it is customary to find it, there is no trouble in
understanding it; when it occurs, however, where it is not customary, it costs labour to
understand it, from some more, from some less, just as men have got more or less from God of
the gifts of intellect, or as they have access to more or fewer external helps. And, as in the case of
proper words which I discussed above, and in which things are to be understood just as they are
expressed, so in the case of figurative words, in which one thing is expressed and another is to be
understood, and which I have just finished speaking of as much as I thought enough, students of
these venerable documents ought to be counselled not only to make themselves acquainted with
the forms of expression ordinarily used in Scripture, to observe them carefully, and to remember
them accurately, but also, what is especially and before all things necessary, to pray that they may
understand them. For in these very books on the study of which they are intent, they read, "The
Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth comets knowledge and understanding;" and it is from Him
they have received their very desire for knowledge, if it is wedded to piety. But about signs, so far
as relates to words, I have now said enough. It remains to discuss, in the following book, so far as
God has given me light, the means of communicating our thoughts to others.

BOOK IV.

Argument.

Chap. 1.--This work not intended as a treatise on rhetoric
1. This work of mine, which is entitled On Christian Doctrine, was at the commencement divided
into two parts. For, after a preface, in which I answered by anticipation those who were likely to
take exception to the work, I said, "There are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture
depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning, and the mode of making known the
meaning when it is ascertained. I shall treat first of the mode of ascertaining, next of the mode of
making known the meaning." As, then, I have already said a great deal about the mode of
ascertaining the meaning, and have given three books to this one part of the subject, I shall only
say a few things about the mode of making known the meaning, in order if possible to bring them
all within the compass of one book, and so finish the whole work in four books.
2. In the first place, then, I wish by this preamble to put a stop to the expectations of readers
who may think that I am about to lay down rules of rhetoric such as I have learnt, and taught too,
in the secular schools, and to warn them that they need not look for any such from me. Not that I
think such rules of no use, but that whatever use they have is to be learnt elsewhere; and if any
good man should happen to have leisure for learning them, he is not to ask me to teach them
either in this work or any other.

Chap. 2.--It is lawful for a Christian teacher to use the art of rhetoric
3. Now, the art of rhetoric being available for the enforcing either of truth or falsehood, who will
dare to say that truth in the person of its defenders is to take its stand unarmed against falsehood?
For example, that those who are trying to persuade men of what is false are to know how to
introduce their subject, so as to put the hearer into a friendly, or attentive, or teachable frame of
mind, while the defenders of the truth shall be ignorant of that art? That the former are to tell their
falsehoods briefly, clearly, and plausibly, while the latter shall tell the truth in such a way that it is
tedious to listen to, hard to understand, and, in fine, not easy to believe it? That the former are to
oppose the truth and defend falsehood with sophistical arguments, while the latter shall be unable
either to defend what is true, or to refute what is false? That the former, while imbuing the minds
of their hearers with erroneous opinions, are by their power of speech to awe, to melt, to enliven,
and to rouse them, while the latter shall in defense of the truth be sluggish, and frigid, and
somnolent? Who is such a fool as to think this wisdom? Since, then, the faculty of eloquence is
available for both sides, and is of very great service in the enforcing either of wrong or right, why
do not good men study to engage it on the side of truth, when bad men use it to obtain the
triumph of wicked and worthless causes, and to further injustice and error?

Chap. 3.--The proper age and the proper means for acquiring rhetorical skill

4. But the theories and rules on this subject (to which, when you add a tongue thoroughly skilled
by exercise and habit in the use of many words and many ornaments of speech, you have what is
called eloquence or oratory) may be learnt apart from these writings of mine, if a suitable
space of time be set aside for the purpose at a fit and proper age. But only by those who can learn
them quickly; for the masters of Roman eloquence themselves did not shrink from sayings any one
who cannot learn this art quickly can never thoroughly learn it at all. Whether this be true or not,
why need we inquire? For even if this art can occasionally be in the end mastered by men of
slower intellect, I do not think it of so much importance as to wish men who have arrived at
mature age to spend time in learning it. It is enough that boys should give attention to it; and even
of these, not all who are to be fitted for usefulness in the Church, but only those who are not yet
engaged in any occupation of more urgent necessity, or which ought evidently to take precedence
of it. For men of quick intellect and glowing temperament find it easier to become eloquent by
reading and listening to eloquent speakers than by following rules for eloquence. And even
outside the canon, which to our great advantage is fixed in a place of secure authority, there is no
want of ecclesiastical writings, in reading which a man of ability will acquire a tinge of the
eloquence with which they are written, even though he does not aim at this, but is solely intent on
the matters treated of; especially, of course, if in addition he practice himself in writing, or
dictating, and at last also in speaking, the opinions he has formed on grounds of piety and faith. If,
however, such ability be wanting, the rules of rhetoric are either not understood, or if, after great
labour has been spent in enforcing them, they come to be in some small measure understood, they
prove of no service. For even those who have learnt them, and who speak with fluency and
elegance, cannot always think of them when they are speaking so as to speak in accordance with
them, unless they are discussing the rules themselves. Indeed, I think there are scarcely any who
can do both things that is, speak well, and, in order to do this, think of the rules of speaking while
they are speaking. For we must be careful that what we have got to say does not escape us
whilst we are thinking about saying it according to the rules of art. Nevertheless, in the speeches
of eloquent men, we find rules of eloquence carried out which the speakers did not think of as
aids to eloquence at the time when they were speaking, whether they had ever learnt them, or
whether they had never even met with them. For it is because they are eloquent that they
exemplify these rules; it is not that they use them in order to be eloquent.
5. And, therefore, as infants cannot learn to speak except by learning words and phrases from
those who do speak, why should not men become eloquent without being taught any art of
speech, simply by reading and learning the speeches of eloquent men, and by imitating them as far
as they can? And what do we find from the examples themselves to be the case in this respect?
We know numbers who, without acquaintance with rhetorical rules, are more eloquent than many
who have learnt these; but we know no one who is eloquent without having read and listened to
the speeches and debates of eloquent men. For even the art of grammar, which teaches
correctness of speech, need not be learnt by boys, if they have the advantage of growing up and
living among men who speak correctly. For without knowing the names of any of the faults, they
will, from being accustomed to correct speech, lay hold upon whatever is faulty in the speech of
any one they listen to, and avoid it; just as citybred men, even when illiterate, seize upon the faults
of rustics.

Chap. 4.--The duty of the Christian teacher

6. It is the duty, then, of the interpreter and teacher of Holy Scripture, the defender of the true
faith and the opponent of error, both to teach what is right and to refute what is wrong, and in the
performance of this task to conciliate the hostile, to rouse the careless, and to tell the ignorant
both what is occurring at present and what is probable in the future. But once that his hearers are
friendly, attentive, and ready to learn, whether he has found them so, or has himself made them
so, the remaining objects are to be carried out in whatever way the case requires. If the hearers
need teaching, the matter treated of must be made fully known by means of narrative. On the
other hand, to clear up points that are doubtful requires reasoning and the exhibition of proofs. If,
however, the hearers require to be roused rather than instructed, in order that they may be diligent
to do what they already know, and to bring their feelings into harmony with the truths they admit,
greater vigour of speech is needed. Here entreaties and reproaches, exhortations and upbraidings,
and all the other means of rousing the emotions, are necessary.
7. And all the methods I have mentioned are constantly used by nearly every one in cases where
speech is the agency employed.

Chap. 5.--Wisdom of more importance than eloquence to the Christian teacher

But as some men employ these coarsely, inelegantly, and frigidly while others use them with
acuteness, elegance, and spirit, the work that I am speaking of ought to be undertaken by one
who can argue and speak with wisdom, if not with eloquence, and with profit to his hearers, even
though he profit them less than he would if he could speak with eloquence too. But we must
beware of the man who abounds in eloquent nonsense, and so much the more if the hearer is
pleased with what is not worth listening to, and thinks that because the speaker is eloquent what
he says must be true. And this opinion is held even by those who think that the art of rhetoric
should be taught: for they confess that "though wisdom without eloquence is of little service to
states, yet eloquence without wisdom is frequently a positive injury, and is of service never." If,
then, the men who teach the principles of eloquence have been forced by truth to confess this in
the very books which treat of eloquence, though they were ignorant of the true, that is, the
heavenly wisdom which comes down from the Father of Lights, how much more ought we to feel
it who are the sons and the ministers of this higher wisdom! Now a man speaks with more or less
wisdom just as he has made more or less progress in the knowledge of Scripture; I do not mean
by reading them much and committing them to memory, but by understanding them aright and
carefully searching into their meaning. For there are who read and yet neglect them; they read to
remember the words, but are careless about knowing the meaning. It is plain we must set far
above these the men who are not so retentive of the words, but see with the eyes of the heart into
the heart of Scripture. Better than either of these, however, is the man who, when he wishes, can
repeat the words, and at the same time correctly apprehends their meaning.
8. Now it is especially necessary for the man who is bound to speak wisely, even though he
cannot speak eloquently, to retain in memory the words of Scripture. For the more he discerns the
poverty of his own speech, the more he ought to draw on the riches of Scripture, so that what he
says in his own words he may prove by the words of Scripture; and he himself, though small and
weak in his own words, may gain strength and power from the confirming testimony of great men.
For his proof gives pleasure when he cannot please by his mode of speech. But if a man desire to
speak not only with wisdom, but with eloquence also (and assuredly he will prove of greater
service if he can do both), I would rather send him to read, and listen to, and exercise himself in
imitating, eloquent men, than advise him to spend time with the teachers of rhetoric; especially if
the men he reads and listens to are justly praised as having spoken, or as being accustomed to
speak, not only with eloquence, but with wisdom also. For eloquent speakers are heard with
pleasure; wise speakers with profit. And, therefore, Scripture does not say that the multitude of
the eloquent, but "the multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world." And as we must often
swallow wholesome bitters, so we must always avoid unwholesome sweets. But what is better
than wholesome sweetness or sweet wholesomeness? For the sweeter we try to make such things,
the easier it is to make their wholesomeness serviceable. And so there are writers of the Church
who have expounded the Holy Scriptures, not only with wisdom, but with eloquence as well; and
there is not more time for the reading of these than is sufficient for those who are studious and at
leisure to exhaust them.

Chap. 6.--The sacred writers unite eloquence with wisdom

9. Here, perhaps, some one inquires whether the authors whose divinely-inspired writings
constitute the canon, which carries with it a most wholesome authority, are to be considered wise
only, or eloquent as well. A question which to me, and to those who think with me, is very easily
settled. For where I understand these writers, it seems to me not only that nothing can be wiser,
but also that nothing can be more eloquent. And I venture to affirm that all who truly understand
what these writers say, perceive at the same time that it could not have been properly said in any
other way. For as there is a kind of eloquence that is more becoming in youth, and a kind that is
more becoming in old age, and nothing can be called eloquence if it be not suitable to the person
of the speaker, so there is a kind of eloquence that is becoming in men who justly claim the
highest authority, and who are evidently inspired of God. With this eloquence they spoke; no
other would have been suitable for them; and this itself would be unsuitable in any other, for it is
in keeping with their character, while it mounts as far above that of others (not from empty
inflation, but from solid merit) as it seems to fall below them. Where, however, I do not
understand these writers, though their eloquence is then less apparent, I have no doubt but that it
is of the same kind as that I do understand. The very obscurity, too, of these divine and
wholesome words was a necessary element in eloquence of a kind that was designed to profit our
understandings, not only by the discovery of truth. but also by the exercise of their powers.
10. I could, however, if I had time, show those men who cry up their own form of language as
superior to that of our authors (not because of its majesty, but because of its inflation), that all
those powers and beauties of eloquence which they make their boast, are to be found in the
sacred writings which God in His goodness has provided to mould our characters, and to guide us
from this world of wickedness to the blessed world above. But it is not the qualities which these
writers have in common with the heathen orators and poets that give me such unspeakable delight
in their eloquence; I am more struck with admiration at the way in which, by an eloquence
peculiarly their own, they so use this eloquence of ours that it is not conspicuous either by its
presence or its absence: for it did not become them either to condemn it or to make an
ostentatious display of it; and if they had shunned it, they would have done the former; if they had
made it prominent, they might have appeared to be doing the latter. And in those passages where
the learned do note its presence, the matters spoken of are such, that the words in which they are
put seem not so much to be sought out by the speaker as spontaneously to suggest themselves; as
if wisdom were walking out of its house,--that is, the breast of the wise man, and eloquence, like
an inseparable attendant, followed it without being called for.
Chap. 7.--Examples of true eloquence drawn from the epistles of Paul and the prophecies of
Amos

11. For who would not see what the apostle meant to say, and how wisely he has said it, in the
following passage: "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and
patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us"? Now were any man
unlearnedly learned (if I may use the expression) to contend that the apostle had here followed the
rules of rhetoric, would not every Christian, learned or unlearned, laugh at him? And yet here we
find the figure which is called in Greek "klimax" (climax,) and by some in Latin gradatio, for they
do not care to call it scala (a ladder), when the words and ideas have a connection of dependency
the one upon the other, as we see here that patience arises out of tribulation, experience out of
patience, and hope out of experience. Another ornament, too, is found here; for after certain
statements finished in a single tone of voice, which we call clauses and sections (membra et
caesa), but the Greeks "koola" and "kommata", there follows a rounded sentence (ambitus sive
circuitus) which the Greeks call "periodos", the clauses of which are suspended on the voice of
the speaker till the whole is completed by the last clause. For of the statements which precede the
period; this is the first clause, "knowing that tribulation worketh patience;" the second, "and
patience, experience;" the third, "and experience, hope." Then the period which is subjoined is
completed in three clauses, of which the first is, "and hope maketh not ashamed;" the second,
"because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts;" the third, "by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us." But these and other matters of the same kind are taught in the art of elocution. As
then I do not affirm that the apostle was guided by the rules of eloquence, so I do not deny that
his wisdom naturally produced, and was accompanied by, eloquence.
12. In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, again, he refutes certain false apostles who had
gone out from the Jews, and had been trying to injure his character; and being compelled to speak
of himself though he ascribes this as folly to himself how wisely and how eloquently he speaks!
But wisdom is his guide, eloquence his attendant; he follows the first, the second follows him, and
yet he does not spurn it when it comes after him. "I say again," he says, "Let no man think me a
fool: if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I
speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that
many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are
wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if
a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we
had been weak. Howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold (I speak foolishly), I am bold also. Are they
Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they
ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool), I am more: in labours more abundant, in stripes above
measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes
save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night
and a day I have been in the deep; in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in
perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the
wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in
watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those
things which are without, that which comets upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is
weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of
the things which concern my infirmities." The thoughtful and attentive perceive how much
wisdom there is in these words. And even a man sound asleep must notice what a stream of
eloquence flows through them. 13. Further still, the educated man observes that those sections
which the Greeks call "kommata", and the clauses and periods of which I spoke a short time ago,
being intermingled in the most beautiful variety, make up the whole form and features (so to
speak) of that diction by which even the unlearned are delighted and affected. For, from the place
where I commenced to quote, the passage consists of periods: the first the smallest possible,
consisting of two members; for a period cannot have less than two members, though it may have
more: "I say again, let no man think me a fool." The next has three members: "if otherwise, yet as
a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little." The third has four members: "That which I
speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting." The
fourth has two: "Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also." And the fifth has two:
"For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise." The sixth again has two members: "for
ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage." Then follow three sections (caesa): "if a man devour
you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself." Next three clauses (membra): if "a man smite
you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak." Then is subjoined
a period of three members: "Howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold (I speak foolishly), I am bold
also." After this, certain separate sections being put in the interrogatory form, separate sections
are also given as answers, three to three: "Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am
I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I." But a fourth section being put likewise in the
interrogatory form, the answer is given not in another section (caesum) but in a clause
(membrum): "Are they the ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool.) I am more." Then the next four
sections are given continuously, the interrogatory form being most elegantly suppressed: "in
labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft." Next is
interposed a short period; for, by a suspension of the voice, "of the Jews five times" is to be
marked off as constituting one member, to which is joined the second, "received I forty stripes
save one." Then he returns to sections, and three are set down: "Thrice was I beaten with rods,
once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck." Next comes a clause: "a night and a day I have
been in the deep." Next fourteen sections burst forth with a vehemence which is most appropriate:
"In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in
perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in
perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst,
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." After this comes in a period of three members: "Besides
those things which are without, that which comets upon me daily, the care of all the churches."
And to this he adds two clauses in a tone of inquiry: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is
offended, and I burn not?" In fine, this whole passage, as if panting for breath, winds up with a
period of two members: "If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine
infirmities." And I cannot sufficiently express how beautiful and delightful it is when after this
outburst he rests himself, and gives the hearer rest, by interposing a slight narrative. For he goes
on to say: "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth
that I lie not." And then he tells, very briefly the danger he had been in, and the way he escaped it.
14. It would be tedious to pursue the matter further, or to point out the same facts in regard to
other passages of Holy Scripture. Suppose I had taken the further trouble, at least in regard to the
passages I have quoted from the apostle's writings, to point out figures of speech which are taught
in the art of rhetoric? Is it not more likely that serious men would think I had gone too far, than
that any of the studious would think I had done enough? All these things when taught by masters
are reckoned of great value; great prices are paid for them, and the vendors puff them
magniloquently. And I fear lest I too should smack of that puffery while thus descanting on
matters of this kind. It was necessary, however, to reply to the ill-taught men who think our
authors contemptible; not because they do not possess, but because they do not display, the
eloquence which these men value so highly.
15. But perhaps some one is thinking that I have selected the Apostle Paul because he is our
great orator. For when he says, "Though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge," he seems to
speak as if granting so much to his detractors, not as confessing that he recognized its truth. If he
had said, "I am indeed rude in speech, but not in knowledge," we could not in any way have put
another meaning upon it. He did not hesitate plainly to assert his knowledge, because without it
he could not have been the teacher of the Gentiles. And certainly if we bring forward anything of
his as a model of eloquence, we take it from those epistles which even his very detractors, who
thought his bodily presence weak and his speech contemptible, confessed to be weighty and
powerful. I see, then, that I must say something about the eloquence of the prophets also, where
many things are concealed under a metaphorical style, which the more completely they seem
buried under figures of speech, give the greater pleasure when brought to light. In this place,
however, it is my duty to select a passage of such a kind that I shall not be compelled to explain
the matter, but only to commend the style. And I shall do so, quoting principally from the book of
that prophet who says that he was a shepherd or herdsman, and was called by God from that
occupation, and sent to prophesy to the people of God. I shall not, however, follow the
Septuagint translators, who, being themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their
translation, seem to have altered some passages with the view of directing the reader's attention
more particularly to the investigation of the spiritual sense; (and hence some passages are more
obscure, because more figurative, in their translation;) but I shall follow the translation made from
the Hebrew into Latin by the presbyter Jerome, a man thoroughly acquainted with both tongues.
16. When, then, this rustic, or quondam rustic prophet, was denouncing the godless, the proud,
the luxurious, and therefore the most neglectful of brotherly love, he called aloud, saying: "Woe
to you who are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, who are heads and chiefs of
the people, entering with pomp into the house of Israel! Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from
thence go ye to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines, and to all the best
kingdoms of these: is their border greater than your border? Ye that are set apart for the day of
evil, and that come near to the seat of oppression; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch
yourselves upon couches; that eat the lamb of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the
herd; that chant to the sound of the viol. They thought that they had instruments of music like
David; drinking wine in bowls, and anointing themselves with the costliest ointment: and they
were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." Suppose those men who, assuming to be
themselves learned and eloquent, despise our prophets as untaught and unskilful of speech, had
been obliged to deliver a message like this, and to men such as these, would they have chosen to
express themselves in any respect differently--those of them, at least, who would have shrunk
from raving like madmen?
17. For what is there that sober ears could wish changed in this speech? In the first place, the
invective itself; with what vehemence it throws itself upon the drowsy senses to startle them into
wakefulness: "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountains of Samaria, who
are heads and chiefs of the people, entering with pomp into the house of Israel!" Next, that he
may use the favours of God, who has bestowed upon them ample territory, to show their
ingratitude in trusting to the mountain of Samaria, where idols were worshipped: "Pass ye unto
Calneh," he says, "and see, and from thence go ye to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of
the Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these: is their border greater than your border?" At
the same time also that these things are spoken of, the style is adorned with names of places as
with lamps, such as "Zion," "Samaria," "Calneh," "Hamath the great," and "Gath of the Philistine."
Then the words joined to these places are most appropriately varied: "ye are at ease," "ye trust,"
"pass on," "go," "descend."
18. And then the future captivity under an oppressive king is announced as approaching, when it
is added: "Ye that are set apart for the day of evil, and come near to the seat of oppression." Then
are subjoined the evils of luxury: "ye that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch yourselves upon
couches; that eat the lamb from the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd." These six
clauses form three periods of two members each. For he does not say: "Ye who are set apart for
the day of evil, who come near to the seat of oppression, who sleep upon beds of ivory, who
stretch yourselves upon couches, who eat the lamb from the flock, and calves out of the herd." If
he had so expressed it, this would have had its beauty: six separate clauses running on, the same
pronoun being repeated each time, and each clause finished by a single effort of the speaker's
voice. But it is more beautiful as it is, the clauses being joined in pairs under the same pronoun,
and forming three sentences, one referring to the prophecy of the captivity: "Ye that are set apart
for the day of evil, and come near the seat of oppression;" the second to lasciviousness: "ye that
lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch yourselves upon couches;" the third to gluttony: "who eat the
lamb from the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd." So that it is at the discretion of
the speaker whether he finish each clause separately and make six altogether, or whether he
suspend his voice at the first, the third, and the fifth, and by joining the second to the first, the
fourth to the third, and the sixth to the fifth, make three most elegant periods of two members
each: one describing the imminent catastrophe; another, the lascivious couch; and the third, the
luxurious table.
19. Next he reproaches them with their luxury in seeking pleasure for the sense of hearing. And
here, when he had said, "Ye who chant to the sound of the viol," seeing that wise men may
practice music wisely, he, with wonderful skill of speech, checks the flow of his invective, and not
now speaking to, but of, these men, and to show us that we must distinguish the music of the wise
from the music of the voluptuary, he does not say, "Ye who chant to the sound of the viol, and
think that ye have instruments of music like David;" but he first addresses to themselves what it is
right the voluptuaries should hear, "Ye who chant to the sound of the viol;" and then, turning to
others, he intimates that these men have not even skill in their art: "they thought that they had
instruments of music like David; drinking wine in bowls, and anointing themselves with the
costliest ointment." These three clauses are best pronounced when the voice is suspended on the
first two members of the period, and comes to a pause on the third.
20. But now as to the sentence which follows all these: "and they were not grieved for the
affliction of Joseph." Whether this be pronounced continuously as one clause, or whether with
more elegance we hold the words, "and they were not grieved," suspended on the voice, and then
add, "for the affliction of Joseph," so as to make a period of two members; in any case, it is a
touch of marvelous beauty not to say, "and they were not grieved for the affliction of their
brother;" but to put Joseph for brother, so as to indicate brothers in general by the proper name of
him who stands out illustrious from among his brethren, both in regard to the injuries he suffered
and the good return he made. And, indeed, I do not know whether this figure of speech, by which
Joseph is put for brothers in general, is one of those laid down in that art which I learnt and used
to teach. But how beautiful it is, and how it comes home to the intelligent reader, it is useless to
tell any one who does not himself feel it.
21. And a number of other points bearing on the laws of eloquence could be found in this
passage which I have chosen as an example. But an intelligent reader will not be so much
instructed by carefully analysing it as kindled by reciting it with spirit. Nor was it composed by
man's art and care, but it flowed forth in wisdom and eloquence from the divine mind; wisdom not
aiming at eloquence, yet eloquence not shrinking from wisdom. For if, as certain very eloquent
and acute men have perceived and said, the rules which are laid down in the art of oratory could
not have been observed, and noted, and reduced to system, if they had not first had their birth in
the genius of orators, is it wonderful that they should be found in the messengers of Him who is
the author of all genius? Therefore let us acknowledge that the canonical writers are not only wise
but eloquent also, with an eloquence suited to a character and position like theirs.

Chap. 8.--The obscurity of the sacred writers, though compatible with eloquence, not to be
imitated by Christian teachers

22. But although I take some examples of eloquence from those writings of theirs which there is
no difficulty in understanding, we are not by any means to suppose that it is our duty to imitate
them in those passages where, with a view to exercise and train the minds of their readers, and to
break in upon the satiety and stimulate the zeal of those who are willing to learn, and with a view
also to throw a veil over the minds of the godless either that they may be converted to piety or
shut out from a knowledge of the mysteries, from one or other of these reasons they have
expressed themselves with a useful and wholesome obscurity. They have indeed expressed
themselves in such a way that those who in after ages understood and explained them aright have
in the Church of God obtained an esteem, not indeed equal to that with which they are themselves
regarded, but coming next to it. The expositors of these writers, then, ought not to express
themselves in the same way, as if putting forward their expositions as of the same authority; but
they ought in all their deliverances to make it their first and chief aim to be understood, using as
far as possible such clearness of speech that either he will be very dull who does not understand
them, or that if what they say should not be very easily or quickly understood, the reason will lie
not in their manner of expression, but in the difficulty and subtilty of the matter they are trying to
explain.

Chap. 9.--How, and with whom, difficult passages are to be discussed
23. For there are some passages which are not understood in their proper force, or are
understood with great difficulty, at whatever length, however clearly, or with whatever eloquence
the speaker may expound them; and these should never be brought before the people at all, or
only on rare occasions when there is some urgent reason. In books, however, which are written in
such a style that, if understood, they, so to speak, draw their own readers, and if not understood,
give no trouble to those who do not care to read them, and in private conversations, we must not
shrink from the duty of bringing the truth which we ourselves have reached within the
comprehension of others, however difficult it may be to understand it, and whatever labour in the
way of argument it may cost us. Only two conditions are to be insisted upon, that our hearer or
companion should have an earnest desire to learn the truth, and should have capacity of mind to
receive it in whatever form it may be communicated, the teacher not being so anxious about the
eloquence as about the clearness of his teaching.

Chap. 10.--The necessity for perspicuity of style

24. Now a strong desire for clearness sometimes leads to neglect of the more polished forms of
speech, and indifference about what sounds well, compared with what dearly expresses and
conveys the meaning intended. Whence a certain author, when dealing with speech of this kind,
says that there is in it "a kind of careful negligence." Yet while taking away ornament, it does not
bring in vulgarity of speech; though good teachers have, or ought to have, so great an anxiety
about teaching that they will employ a word which cannot be made pure Latin without becoming
obscure or ambiguous, but which when used according to the vulgar idiom is neither ambiguous
nor obscure) not in the way the learned, but rather in the way the unlearned employ it. For if our
translators did not shrink from saying, "Non congregabo conventicula eorum de sanguinibus" (I
shall not assemble their assemblies of blood), because they felt that it was important for the sense
to put a word here in the plural which in Latin is only used in the singular; why should a teacher
of godliness who is addressing an unlearned audience shrink from using "ossum" instead of "os",
if he fear that the latter might be taken not as the singular of "ossa", but as the singular of "ora",
seeing that African ears have no quick perception of the shortness or length of vowels? And what
advantage is there in purity of speech which does not lead to understanding in the hearer, seeing
that there is no use at all in speaking, if they do not understand us for whose sake we speak? He,
therefore, who teaches will avoid all words that do not teach; and if instead of them he can find
words which are at once pure and intelligible, he will take these by preference; if, however, he
cannot, either because there are no such words, or because they do not at the time occur to him,
he will use words that are not quite pure, if only the substance of his thought be conveyed and
apprehended in its integrity.
25. And this must be insisted on as necessary to our being understood, not only in conversations,
whether with one person or with several, but much more in the case of a speech delivered in
public: for in conversation any one has the power of asking a question; but when all are silent that
one may be heard, and all faces are turned attentively upon him, it is neither customary nor
decorous for a person to ask a question about what he does not understand; and on this account
the speaker ought to be especially careful to give assistance to those who cannot ask it. Now a
crowd anxious for instruction generally shows by its movements if it understands what is said; and
until some indication of this sort be given, the subject discussed ought to be turned over and over,
and put in every shape and form and variety of expression, a thing which cannot be done by men
who are repeating words prepared beforehand and committed to memory. As soon, however, as
the speaker has ascertained that what he says is understood, he ought either to bring his address
to a close, or pass on to another point. For if a man gives pleasure when he throws light upon
points on which people wish for instruction, he becomes wearisome when he dwells at length
upon things that are already well known, especially when men's expectation was fixed on having
the difficulties of the passage removed. For even things that are very well known are told for the
sake of the pleasure they give, if the attention be directed not to the things themselves, but to the
way in which they are told. Nay, even when the style itself is already well known, if it be pleasing
to the hearers, it is almost a matter of indifference whether he who speaks be a speaker or a
reader. For things that are gracefully written are often not only read with delight by those who are
making their first acquaintance with them, but reread with delight by those who have already
made acquaintance with them, and have not yet forgotten them; nay, both these classes will derive
pleasure even from hearing another man repeat them. And if a man has forgotten anything, when
he is reminded of it he is taught. But I am not now treating of the mode of giving pleasure. I am
speaking of the mode in which men who desire to learn ought to be taught. And the best mode is
that which secures that he who hears shall hear the truth, and that what he hears he shall
understand. And when this point has been reached, no further labour need be spent on the truth
itself, as if it required further explanation; but perhaps some trouble may be taken to enforce it so
as to bring it home to the heart. If it appear right to do this, it ought to be done so moderately as
not to lead to weariness and impatience.

Chap. 11.--The Christian teacher must speak clearly, but not inelegantly
26. For teaching, of course, true eloquence consists, not in making people like what they
disliked, nor in making them do what they shrank from, but in making clear what was obscure; yet
if this be done without grace of style, the benefit does not extend beyond the few eager students
who are anxious to know whatever is to be learnt, however rude and unpolished the form in
which it is put, and who, when they have succeeded in their object, find the plain truth pleasant
food enough. And it is one of the distinctive features of good intellects not to love words, but the
truth in words. For of what service is a golden key, if it cannot open what we want it to open? Or
what objection is there to a wooden one if it can, seeing that to open what is shut is all we want?
But as there is a certain analogy between learning and eating, the very food without which it is
impossible to live must be flavoured to meet the tastes of the majority.

Chap. 12.--The aim of the orator, according to Cicero, is to teach, to delight, and to move. Of
these, teaching is the most essential
27. Accordingly a great orator has truly said that "an eloquent man must speak so as to teach, to
delight, and to persuade." Then he adds: "To teach is a necessity, to delight is a beauty, to
persuade is a triumph." Now of these three, the one first mentioned, the teaching, which is a
matter of necessity, depends on what we say; the other two on the way we say it. He, then, who
speaks with the purpose of teaching should not suppose that he has said what he has to say as
long as he is not understood; for although what he has said be intelligible to himself, it is not said
at all to the man who does not understand it. If, however, he is understood, he has said his say,
whatever may have been his manner of saying it. But if he wishes to delight or persuade his hearer
as well, he will not accomplish that end by putting his thought in any shape no matter what, but
for that purpose the style of speaking is a matter of importance. And as the hearer must be pleased
in order to secure his attention, so he must be persuaded in order to move him to action. And as
he is pleased if you speak with sweetness and elegance, so he is persuaded if he be drawn by your
promises, and awed by your threats; If he reject what you condemn, and embrace what you
commend; if he grieve when you heap up objects for grief, and rejoice when you point out an
object for joy; if he pity those whom you present to him as objects of pity, and shrink from those
whom you set before him as men to be feared and shunned. I need not go over all the other things
that can be done by powerful eloquence to move the minds of the hearers, not telling them what
they ought to do, but urging them to do what they already know ought to be done.
28. If however, they do not yet know this, they must of course be instructed before they can be
moved. And perhaps the mere knowledge of their duty will have such an effect that there will be
no need to move them with greater strength of eloquence. Yet when this is needful, it ought to be
done. And it is needful when people, knowing what they ought to do, do it not. Therefore, to
teach is a necessity. For what men know, it is in their own hands either to do or not to do. But
who would say that it is their duty to do what they do not know? On the same principle, to
persuade is not a necessity: for it is not always called for; as, for example, when the hearer yields
his assent to one who simply teaches or gives pleasure. For this reason also to persuade is a
triumph, because it is possible that a man may be taught and delighted, and yet not give his
consent. And what will be the use of gaining the first two ends if we fail in the third? Neither is it
a necessity to give pleasure; for when, in the course of an address, the truth is clearly pointed out
(and this is the true function of teaching), it is not the fact, nor is it the intention, that the style of
speech should make the truth pleasing, or that the style should of itself give pleasure; but the truth
itself, when exhibited in its naked simplicity, gives pleasure, because it is the truth. And hence
even falsities are frequently a source of pleasure when they are brought to light and exposed. It is
not, of course, their falsity that gives pleasure; but as it is true that they are false, the speech
which shows this to be true gives pleasure.

Chap. 13.--The hearer must be moved as well as instructed

29. But for the sake at those who are so fastidious that they do not care for truth unless it is put
in the form of a pleasing discourse, no small place has been assigned in eloquence to the art of
pleasing. And yet even this is not enough for those stubborn minded men who both understand
and are pleased with the teacher's discourse, without deriving any profit from it. For what does it
profit a man that he both confesses the truth and praises the eloquence, if he does not yield his
consent, when it is only for the sake of securing his consent that the speaker in urging the truth
gives careful attention to what he says? If the truths taught are such that to believe or to know
them is enough, to give one's assent implies nothing more than to confess that they are true.
When, however, the truth taught is one that must be carried into practice, and that is taught for
the very purpose of being practiced, it is useless to be persuaded of the truth of what is said, it is
useless to be pleased with the manner in which it is said, if it be not so learnt as to be practiced.
The eloquent divine, then, when he is urging a practical truth, must not only teach so as to give
instruction, and please so as to keep up the attention, but he must also sway the mind so as to
subdue the will. For if a man be not moved by the force of truth, though it is demonstrated to his
own confession, and clothed in beauty of style, nothing remains but to subdue him by the power
of eloquence.
Chap. 14.--Beauty of diction to be in keeping with the matter
30. And so much labour has been spent by men on the beauty of expression here spoken of, that
not only is it not our duty to do, but it is our duty to shun and abhor, many and heinous deeds of
wickedness and baseness which wicked and base men have with great eloquence recommended,
not with a view to gaining assent, but merely for the sake of being read with pleasure. But may
God avert from His Church what the prophet Jeremiah says of the synagogue of the Jews: "A
wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the
priests applaud them with their hands; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the
end thereof?" O eloquence, which is the more terrible from its purity, and the more crushing from
its solidity! Assuredly it is "a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces." For to this God Himself
has by the same prophet compared His own word spoken through His holy prophets. God forbid,
then, God forbid that with us the priest should applaud the false prophet, and that God's people
should love to have it so. God forbid, I say, that with us there should be such terrible madness!
For what shall we do in the end thereof? And assuredly it is preferable, even though what is said
should be less intelligible, less pleasing, and less persuasive, that truth be spoken, and that what is
just, not what is iniquitous, be listened to with pleasure. But this, of course, cannot be, unless
what is true and just be expressed with elegance.
31. In a serious assembly, moreover, such as is spoken of when it is said, "I will praise Thee
among much people," no pleasure is derived from that species of eloquence which indeed says
nothing that is false, but which buries small and unimportant truths under a frothy mass of
ornamental words, such as would not be graceful or dignified even if used to adorn great and
fundamental truths. And something of this sort occurs in a letter of the blessed Cyprian, which, I
think, came there by accident, or else was inserted designedly with this view, that posterity
might see how the wholesome discipline of Christian teaching had cured him of that redundancy
of language, and confined him to a more dignified and modest form of eloquence, such as we find
in his subsequent letters, a style which is admired without effort, is sought after with eagerness,
but is not attained without great difficulty. He says, then, in one place, "Let us seek this abode:
the neighbouring solitudes afford a retreat where, whilst the spreading shoots of the vine trees,
pendulous and intertwined, creep amongst the supporting reeds, the leafy covering has made a
portico of vine." There is wonderful fluency and exuberance of language here; but it is too florid
to be pleasing to serious minds. But people who are fond of this style are apt to think that men
who do not use it, but employ a more chastened style, do so because they cannot attain the
former, not because their judgment teaches them to avoid it. Wherefore this holy man shows both
that he can speak in that style. for he has done so once, and that he does not choose, for he never
uses it again.

Chap. 15.--The Christian teacher should pray before preaching
32. And so our Christian orator, while he says what is just, and holy, and good (and he ought
never to say anything else), does all he can to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure, and with
obedience; and he need not doubt that if he succeed in this object, and so far as he succeeds,
he will succeed more by piety in prayer than by gifts of oratory; and so he ought to pray for
himself, and for those he is about to address, before he attempts to speak. And when the hour is
come that he must speak, he ought, before he opens his mouth, to lift up his thirsty soul to God,
to drink in what he is about to pour forth, and to be himself filled with what he is about to
distribute. For, as in regard to every matter of faith and love there are many things that may be
said, and many ways of saying them, who knows what it is expedient at a given moment for us to
say, or to be heard saying, except God who knows the hearts of all? And who can make us say
what we ought, and in the way we ought, except Him in whose hand both we and our speeches
are? Accordingly, he who is anxious both to know and to teach should learn all that is to be
taught, and acquire such a faculty of speech as is suitable for a divine. But when the hour for
speech arrives, let him reflect upon that saying of our Lord's, as better suited to the wants of a
pious mind: "Take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same
hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh
in you." The Holy Spirit, then, speaks thus in those who for Christ's sake are delivered to the
persecutors; why not also in those who deliver Christ's message to those who are willing to learn?

Chap. 16.--Human directions not to be despised though God makes the true teacher

33. Now if any one says that we need not direct men how or what they should teach, since the
Holy Spirit makes them teachers, he may as well say that we need not pray, since our Lord says,
"Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him;" or that the Apostle Paul
should not have given directions to Timothy and Titus as to how or what they should teach
others. And these three apostolic epistles ought to be constantly before the eyes of every one who
has obtained the position of a teacher in the Church. In the First Epistle to Timothy do we not
read: "These things command and teach?" What these things are, has been told previously. Do we
not read there: "Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father?" Is it not said in the Second
Epistle: "Hold fast the form of sound words,; which thou hast heard of me?" And is he not there
told: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth?" And in the same place: "Preach the word; be instant in season,
out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine." And so in the Epistle
to Titus, does he not say that a bishop ought to "hold fast the faithful word as he has been taught,
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers?" There, too,
he says: "But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: that the aged men be sober,"
and so on. And there, too: "These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no
man despise thee. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers," and so on. What
then are we to think? Does the apostle in any way contradict himself, when, though he says that
men are made teachers by the operation of the Holy Spirit, he yet himself gives them directions
how and what they should teach? Or are we to understand, that though the duty of men to teach
even the teachers does not cease when the Holy Spirit is given, yet that neither is he who
planteth anything, nor he who watereth, but God who giveth the increase? Wherefore though holy
men be our helpers, or even holy angels assist us, no one learns aright the things that pertain to
life with God, until God makes him ready to learn from Himself, that God who is thus addressed
in the psalm: "Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God." And so the same apostle says to
Timothy himself, speaking, of course, as teacher to disciple: "But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." For
as the medicines which men apply to the bodies of their fellow-men are of no avail except God
gives them virtue (who can heal without their aid, though they cannot without His), and yet they
are applied; and if it be done from a sense of duty, it is esteemed a work of mercy or benevolence;
so the aids of teaching, applied through the instrumentality of man, are of advantage to the soul
only when God works to make them of advantage, who could give the gospel to man even
without the help or agency of men.
Chap. 17.--Threefold division of the various styles of speech
34. He then who, in speaking, aims at enforcing what is good, should not despise any of those
three objects, either to teach, or to give pleasure, or to move, and should pray and strive, as we
have said above, to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure, and with ready compliance. And
when he does this with elegance and propriety, he may justly be called eloquent, even though he
do not carry with him the assent of his hearer. For it is these three ends, viz., teaching, giving
pleasure, and moving, that the great master of Roman eloquence himself seems to have intended
that the following three directions should subserve: "He, then, shall be eloquent, who can say little
things in a subdued style, moderate things in a temperate style, and great things in a majestic
style:" as if he had taken in also the three ends mentioned above, and had embraced the whole in
one sentence thus: "He, then, shall be eloquent, who can say little things in a subdued style, in
order to give instruction, moderate things in a temperate style, in order to give pleasure, and great
things in a majestic style, in order to sway the mind."

Chap. 18.--The Christian orator is constantly dealing with great matters
35. Now the author I have quoted could have exemplified these three directions, as laid down by
himself, in regard to legal questions: he could not, however, have done so in regard to
ecclesiastical questions,--the only ones that an address such as I wish to give shape to is
concerned with. For of legal questions those are called small which have reference to pecuniary
transactions; those great where a matter relating to man's life or liberty comes up. Cases, again,
which have to do with neither of these, and where the intention is not to get the hearer to do, or
to pronounce judgment upon anything, but only to give him pleasure, occupy as it were a middle
place between the former two, and are on that account called middling, or moderate. For
moderate things get their name from modus (a measure); and it is an abuse, not a proper use of
the word moderate, to put it for little. In questions like ours, however, where all things, and
especially those addressed to the people from the place of authority, ought to have reference to
men's salvation, and that not their temporal but their eternal salvation, and where also the thing to
be guarded against is eternal ruin, everything that we say is important; so much so, that even what
the preacher says about pecuniary matters, whether it have reference to loss or gain, whether the
amount be great or small, should not seem unimportant. For justice is never unimportant, and
justice ought assuredly to be observed, even in small affairs of money, as our Lord says: "He that
is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much." That which is least, then, is very little; but
to be faithful in that which is least is great. For as the nature of the circle, viz., that all lines drawn
from the centre to the circumference are equal, is the same in a great disk that it is in the smallest
coin; so the greatness of justice is in no degree lessened, though the matters to which justice is
applied be small.
36. And when the apostle spoke about trials in regard to secular affairs (and what were these but
matters of money?), he says: "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before
the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if
the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not
that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If, then, ye have
judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church.
I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be
able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law with brother, and that before the
unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with
another: why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be
defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" Why is it that the apostle is so indignant, and
that he thus accuses, and upbraids, and chides, and threatens? Why is it that the changes in his
tone, so frequent and so abrupt, testify to the depth of his emotion? Why is it, in fine, that he
speaks in a tone so exalted about matters so very trifling? Did secular matters deserve so much at
his hands? God forbid. No; but all this is done for the sake of justice, charity, and piety, which in
the judgment of every sober mind are great, even when applied to matters the very least.
37. Of course, if we were giving men advice as to how they ought to conduct secular cases,
either for themselves or for their connections, before the church courts, we would rightly advise
them to conduct them quietly as matters of little moment. But we are treating of the manner of
speech of the man who is to be a teacher of the truths which deliver us from eternal misery and
bring us to eternal happiness; and wherever these truths are spoken of, whether in public or
private, whether to one or many, whether to friends or enemies, whether in a continuous
discourse or in conversation, whether in tracts, or in books, or in letters long or short, they are of
great importance. Unless indeed we are prepared to say that, because a cup of cold water is a very
trifling and common thing, the saying of our Lord that he who gives a cup of cold water to one of
His disciples shall in no wise lose his reward, is very trivial and unimportant. Or that when a
preacher takes this saying as his text, he should think his subject very unimportant, and therefore
speak without either eloquence or power, but in a subdued and humble style. Is it not the case that
when we happen to speak on this subject to the people, and the presence of God is with us, so
that what we say is not altogether unworthy of the subject, a tongue of fire springs up out of that
cold water which inflames even the cold hearts of men with a zeal for doing works of mercy in
hope of an eternal reward?

Chap. 19.--The Christian teacher must use different styles on different occasions

38. And yet, while our teacher ought to speak of great matters, he ought not always to be
speaking of them in a majestic tone, but in a subdued tone when he is teaching, temperately when
he is giving praise or blame. When, however, something is to be done, and we are speaking to
those who ought, but are not willing, to do it, then great matters must be spoken of with power,
and in a manner calculated to sway the mind. And sometimes the same important matter is treated
in all these ways at different times, quietly when it is being taught, temperately when its
importance is being urged, and powerfully when we are forcing a mind that is averse to the truth
to turn and embrace it. For is there anything greater than God Himself? Is nothing, then, to be
learnt about Him? Or ought he who is teaching the Trinity in unity to speak of it otherwise
than in the method of calm discussion, so that in regard to a subject which it is not easy to
comprehend, we may understand as much as it is given us to understand? Are we in this case to
seek out ornaments instead of proofs? Or is the hearer to be moved to do something instead of
being instructed so that he may learn something? But when we come to praise God, either in
Himself, or in His works, what a field for beauty and splendour of language opens up before man,
who can task his powers to the utmost in praising Him whom no one can adequately praise,
though there is no one who does not praise Him in some measure! But if He be not worshipped,
or if idols, whether they be demons or any created being whatever, be worshipped with Him or in
preference to Him, then we ought to speak out with power and impressiveness, show how great a
wickedness this is, and urge men to flee from it.

Chap. 20.--Examples of the various styles drawn from Scripture
39. But now to come to something more definite. We have an example of the calm, subdued
style in the Apostle Paul, where he says: "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not
hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond maid, the other by a
free woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free
woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one
from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all;" and so on. And in the same
way where he reasons thus: "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: Though it be but a man's
covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his
seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy
seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in
Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should
make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but
God gave it to Abraham by promise." And because it might possibly occur to the hearer to ask, If
there is no inheritance by the law, why then was the law given? he himself anticipates this
objection and asks, "Wherefore then serveth the law?" And the answer is given: "It was added
because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was
ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is
one." And here an objection occurs which he himself has stated: "Is the law then against the
promises of God?" He answers: "God forbid." And he also states the reason in these words: "For
if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been
by the law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe." It is part, then, of the duty of the teacher not only to
interpret what is obscure, and to unravel the difficulties of questions, but also, while doing this, to
meet other questions which may chance to suggest themselves, lest these should cast doubt or
discredit on what we say. If, however, the solution of these questions suggest itself as soon as the
questions themselves arise, it is useless to disturb what we cannot remove. And besides, when out
of one question other questions arise, and out of these again still others; if these be all discussed
and solved, the reasoning is extended to such a length, that unless the memory be exceedingly
powerful and active, the reasoner finds it impossible to return to the original question from which
he set out. It is, however, exceedingly desirable that whatever occurs to the mind as an objection
that might be urged should be stated and refuted, lest it turn up at a time when no one will be
present to answer it, or lest, if it should occur to a man who is present but says nothing about it, it
might never be thoroughly removed.
40. In the following words of the apostle we have the temperate style: "Rebuke not an elder, but
entreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; the elder women as mothers, the
younger as sisters." And also in these: "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." And almost the whole of this hortatory passage is in the temperate style of eloquence;
and those parts of it are the most beautiful in which, as if paying what was due, things that belong
to each other are gracefully brought together. For example: "Having then gifts, differing
according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the
proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or
he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with
diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that
which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly
love; in honour preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of
saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with
them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one towards another."
And how gracefully all this is brought to a close in a period of two members: "Mind not high
things, but condescend to men of low estate!" And a little afterwards: "Render therefore to all
their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to
whom honour." And these also, though expressed in single clauses, are terminated by a period of
two members: "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." And a little farther on: "The night
is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on
the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in
chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Now if the passage were translated
thus, "et carnis prividentiam ne in concupiscentiis feceritis", the ear would no doubt be gratified
with a more harmonious ending; but our translator, with more strictness, preferred to retain
even the order of the words. And how this sounds in the Greek language, in which the apostle
spoke, those who are better skilled in that tongue may determine. My opinion, however, is, that
what has been translated to us in the same order of words does not run very harmoniously even in
the original tongue.
41. And, indeed, I must confess that our authors are very defective in that grace of speech which
consists in harmonious endings. Whether this be the fault of the translators, or whether, as I am
more inclined to believe, the authors designedly avoided such ornaments, I dare not affirm; for I
confess I do not know. This I know, however, that if any one who is skilled in this species of
harmony would take the closing sentences of these writers and arrange them according to the law
of harmony (which he could very easily do by changing some words for words of equivalent
meaning, or by retaining the words he finds and altering their arrangement), he will learn that
these divinely-inspired men are not defective in any of those points which he has been taught in
the schools of the grammarians and rhetoricians to consider of importance; and he will find in
them many kinds of speech of great beauty, beautiful even in our language, but especially beautiful
in the original,--none of which canoe found in those writings of which they boast so much. But
care must be taken that, while adding harmony, we take away none of the weight from these
divine and authoritative utterances. Now our prophets were so far from being deficient in the
musical training from which this harmony we speak of is most fully learnt, that Jerome, a very
learned man, describes even the metres employed by some of them, in the Hebrew language at
least; though, in order to give an accurate rendering of the words, he has not preserved these in
his translation. I, however (to speak of my own feeling, which is better known to me than it is to
others, and than that of others is to me), while I do not in my own speech, however modestly I
think it done, neglect these harmonious endings, am just as well pleased to find them in the sacred
authors very rarely.
42. The majestic style of speech differs from the temperate style just spoken of, chiefly in that it
is not so much decked out with verbal ornaments as exalted into vehemence by mental emotion. It
uses, indeed, nearly all the ornaments that the other does; but if they do not happen to be at hand,
it does not seek for them. For it is borne on by its own vehemence; and the force of the thought,
not the desire for ornament, makes it seize upon any beauty of expression that comes in its way. It
is enough for its object that warmth of feeling should suggest the fitting words; they need not be
selected by careful elaboration of speech. If a brave man be armed with weapons adorned with
gold and jewels, he works feats of valor with those arms in the heat of battle, not because they
are costly, but because they are arms; and yet the same man does great execution, even when
anger furnishes him with a weapon that he digs out of the ground. The apostle in the following
passage is urging that, for the sake of the ministry of the gospel, and sustained by the consolations
of God's grace, we should bear with patience all the evils of this life. It is a great subject, and is
treated with power, and the ornaments of speech are not wanting: "Behold," he says, "now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry
be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in
afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in strifes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in
watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy
Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good
report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we
live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many
rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." See him still burning: "O ye Corinthians,
our mouth is opened unto you, our heart is enlarged," and so on; it would be tedious to go
through it all.
43. And in the same way, writing to the Romans, he urges that the persecutions of this world
should be overcome by charity, in assured reliance on the help of God. And he treats this subject
with both power and beauty: "We know," he says, "that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He
called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall
lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (As it is written, For Thy
sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 44. Again, in writing to the Galatians, although the whole
epistle is written in the subdued style, except at the end, where it rises into a temperate eloquence,
yet he interposes one passage of so much feeling that, not withstanding the absence of any
ornaments such as appear in the passages just quoted, it cannot be called anything but powerful:
"Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed
upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not
injured me at all. Ye know how, through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at
the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me
as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? For I bear
you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have
given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They
zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it
is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am preset with you.
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be
present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you". Is there anything here
of contrasted words arranged antithetically, or of words rising gradually to a climax, or of
sonorous clauses, and sections, and periods? Yet, notwithstanding, there is a glow of strong
emotion that makes us feel the fervour of eloquence.

Chap. 21.--Examples of the various styles, drawn from the teachers of the church, especially
Ambrose and Cyprian

45. But these writings of the apostles, though clear, are yet profound, and are so written that one
who is not content with a superficial acquaintance, but desires to know them thoroughly, must not
only read and hear them, but must have an expositor. Let us, then, study these various modes of
speech as they are exemplified in the writings of men who, by reading the Scriptures, have
attained to the knowledge of divine and saving truth, and have ministered it to the Church.
Cyprian of blessed memory writes in the subdued style in his treatise on the sacrament of the cup.
In this book he resolves the question, whether the cup of the Lord ought to contain water only, or
water mingled with wine. But we must quote a passage by way of illustration. After the
customary introduction, he proceeds to the discussion of the point in question. "Observe," he
says, "that we are instructed, in presenting the cup, to maintain the custom handed down to us
from the Lord, and to do nothing that our Lord has not first done for us: so that the cup which is
offered in remembrance of Him should be mixed with wine. For, as Christ says, 'I am the true
vine,' it follows that the blood of Christ is wine, not water; and the cup cannot appear to contain
His blood by which we are redeemed and quickened, if the wine be absent; for by the wine is the
blood of Christ typified, that blood which is foreshadowed and proclaimed in all the types and
declarations of Scripture. For we find that in the book of Genesis this very circumstance in regard
to the sacrament is foreshadowed, and our Lord's sufferings typically set forth, in the case
of Noah, when he drank wine, and was drunken, and was uncovered within his tent, and his
nakedness was exposed by his second son, and was carefully hidden by his elder and his younger
sons. It is not necessary to mention the other circumstances in detail, as it is only necessary to
observe this point, that Noah, foreshadowing the future reality, drank, not water, but wine, and
thus showed forth our Lord's passion. In the same way we see the sacrament of the Lord's supper
prefigured in the case of Melchizedek the priest, according to the testimony of the Holy
Scriptures, where it says: 'And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he
was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed Abraham.' Now, that Melchizedek was a
type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, where the Father addressing the Son says,
'Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'" In this passage, and in all of the letter
that follows, the subdued style is maintained, as the reader may easily satisfy himself.
46. St. Ambrose also, though dealing with a question of very great importance, the equality of
the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, employs the subdued style, because the object he has
in view demands, not beauty of diction, nor the swaying of the mind by the stir of emotion,
but facts and proofs. Accordingly, in the introduction to his work, we find the following passage
among others: "When Gideon was startled by the message he had heard from God, that, though
thousands of the people failed, yet through one man God would deliver His people from their
enemies, he brought forth a kid of the goats, and by direction of the angel laid it with unleavened
cakes upon a rock, and poured the broth over it; and as soon as the angel of God touched it with
the end of the staff that was in his hand, there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the
offering. Now this sign seems to indicate that the rock was a type of the body of Christ, for it is
written, 'They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ;' this, of
course, referring not to Christ's divine nature, but to His flesh, whose ever-flowing fountain of
blood has ever satisfied the hearts of His thirsting people. And so it was at that time declared in a
mystery that the Lord Jesus, when crucified, should abolish in His flesh the sins of the whole
world, and not their guilty acts merely, but the evil lusts of their hearts. For the kid's flesh refers
to the guilt of the outward act, the broth to the allurement of lust within, as it is written, 'And the
mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting; and the children of Israel also wept again and
said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?' When the angel, then, stretched out his staff and touched the
rock, and fire rose out of it, this was a sign that our Lord's flesh, filled with the Spirit of God,
should burn up all the sins of the human race. Whence also the Lord says, 'I am come to send fire
on the earth.'" And in the same style he pursues the subject, devoting himself chiefly to proving
and enforcing his point.
47. An example of the temperate style is the celebrated encomium on virginity from Cyprian:
"Now our discourse addresses itself to the virgins, who, as they are the objects of higher honour,
are also the objects of greater care. These are the flowers on the tree of the Church, the glory and
ornament of spiritual grace, the joy of honour and praise, a work unbroken and unblemished, the
image of God answering to the holiness of the Lord, the brighter portion of the flock of Christ.
The glorious fruitfulness of their mother the Church rejoices in them, and in them flourishes more
abundantly; and in proportion as bright virginity adds to her numbers, in the same proportion does
the mother's joy increase." And at another place in the end of the epistle, "As we have borne," he
says, "the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Virginity bears this
image, integrity bears it, holiness and truth bear it; they bear it who are mindful of the chastening
of the Lord, who obscene justice and piety, who are strong in faith, humble in fear, steadfast in the
endurance of suffering, meek in the endurance of injury, ready to pity, of one mind and of one
heart in brotherly peace. And every one of these things ought ye, holy virgins, to obscene, to
cherish, and fulfill, who having hearts at leisure for God and for Christ, and having chosen the
greater and better part, lead and point the way to the Lord, to whom you have pledged your
vows. Ye who are advanced in age, exercise control over the younger. Ye who are younger, wait
upon the elders, and encourage your equals; stir up one another by mutual exhortations; provoke
one another to glory by emulous examples of virtue; endure bravely, advance in spirituality, finish
your course with joy; only be mindful of us when your virginity shall begin to reap its reward of
honour."
48. Ambrose also uses the temperate and ornamented style when he is holding up before virgins
who have made their profession a model for their imitation, and says: "She was a virgin not in
body only, but also in mind; not mingling the purity of her affection with any dross of hypocrisy;
serious in speech; prudent in disposition; sparing of words; delighting in study; not placing her
confidence in uncertain riches, but in the prayer of the poor; diligent in labour; reverent in word;
accustomed to look to God, not man, as the guide of her conscience; injuring no one, wishing
well to all; dutiful to her elders, not envious of her equals; avoiding boastfulness, following
reason, loving virtue. When did she wound her parents even by a look? When did she quarrel with
her neighbours? When did she spurn the humble, laugh at the weak, or shun the indigent? She is
accustomed to visit only those haunts of men that pity would not blush for, nor modesty pass by.
There is nothing haughty in her eyes, nothing bold in her words, nothing wanton in her gestures:
her bearing is not voluptuous, nor her gait too free, nor her voice petulant; so that her outward
appearance is an image of her mind, and a picture of purity. For a good house ought to be known
for such at the very threshold, and show at the very entrance that there is no dark recess within, as
the light of a lamp set inside sheds its radiance on the outside. Why need I detail her sparingness
in food, her superabundance in duty,--the one falling beneath the demands of nature, the other
rising above its powers? The latter has no intervals of intermission, the former doubles the days by
fasting; and when the desire for refreshment does arise, it is satisfied with food such as will
support life, but not minister to appetite." Now I have cited these latter passages as examples of
the temperate style, because their purpose is not to induce those who have not yet devoted
themselves to take the vows of virginity, but to show of what character those who have taken
vows ought to be. To prevail on any one to take a step of such a nature and of so great
importance, requires that the mind should be excited and set on fire by the majestic style. Cyprian
the martyr, however, did not write about the duty of taking up the profession of virginity, but
about the dress and deportment of virgins. Yet that great bishop urges them to their duty even in
these respects by the power of a majestic eloquence. 49. But I shall select examples of the
majestic style from their treatment of a subject which both of them have touched. Both have
denounced the women who colour, or rather discolour, their faces with paint. And the first, in
dealing with this topic, says: "Suppose a painter should depict in colours that rival nature's the
features and form and completion of some man, and that, when the portrait had been finished with
consummate art, another painter should put his hand over it, as if to improve by his superior skill
the painting already completed; surely the first artist would feel deeply insulted, and his
indignation would be justly roused. Dost thou, then, think that thou wilt carry off with impunity
so audacious an act of wickedness, such an insult to God the great artifices? For, granting that
thou art not immodest in thy behaviour towards men, and that thou art not polluted in mind by
these meretricious deceits, yet, in corrupting and violating what is God's, thou provest thyself
worse than an adulteress. The fact that thou considerest thyself adorned and beautified by such
arts is an impeachment of God's handiwork, and a violation of truth. Listen to the warning voice
of the apostle: 'Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For
even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth.' Now can sincerity and truth continue to exist when what is sincere is polluted, and what is
true is changed by meretricious colouring and the deceptions of quackery into a lie? Thy Lord
says, 'Thou can't not make one hair white or black;' and dost thou wish to have greater power so
as to bring to nought the words of thy Lord? With rash and sacrilegious hand thou wouldst fain
change the colour of thy hair: I would that, with a prophetic look to the future, thou shouldst dye
it the color of flame." It would be too long to quote all that follows. 50. Ambrose again,
inveighing against such practices, says: "Hence arise these incentives to vice, that women, in their
fear that they may not prove attractive to men, paint their faces with carefully-chosen colours, and
then from stains on their features go on to stains on their chastity. What folly it is to change the
features of nature into those of a painting, and from fear of incurring their husband's disapproval,
to proclaim openly that they have incurred their own! For the woman who desires to alter her
natural appearance pronounces condemnation on herself; and her eager endeavours to please
another prove that she has first been displeasing to herself. And what testimony to thine ugliness
can we find, O woman, that is more unquestionable than thine own, when thou art afraid to show
thyself? If thou art comely why dost thou hide thy comeliness? If thou art plain, why test thou
lyingly pretend to be beautiful, when thou can't not enjoy the pleasure of the lie either in thine own
consciousness or in that of another? For he loves another woman, thou desires to please another
man; and thou art angry if he love another, though he is taught adultery in thee. Thou art the evil
promptress of thine own injury. For even the woman who has been the victim of a pander shrinks
from acting the pander's part, and though she be vile, it is herself she sins against and not another.
The crime of adultery is almost more tolerable than thine; for adultery tampers with modesty, but
thou with nature." It is sufficiently clear, I think, that this eloquence calls passionately upon
women to avoid tampering with their appearance by deceitful arts, and to cultivate modesty and
fear. Accordingly, we notice that the style is neither subdued nor temperate, but majestic
throughout. Now in these two authors whom I have selected as specimens of the rest, and in other
ecclesiastical writers who both speak the truth and speak it well,--speak it, that is, judiciously,
pointedly, and with beauty and power of expression,--many examples may be found of the three
styles of speech, scattered through their various writings and discourses; and the diligent student
may by assiduous reading, intermingled with practice on his own part, become thoroughly imbued
with them all.

Chap. 22.--The necessity of variety in style

51. But we are not to suppose that it is against rule to mingle these various styles: on the
contrary, every variety of style should be introduced so far as is consistent with good taste. For
when we keep monotonously to one style, we fail to retain the hearer's attention; but when we
pass from one style to another, the discourse goes off more gracefully, even though it extend to
greater length. Each separate style, again, has varieties of its own which prevent the hearer's
attention from cooling or becoming languid. We can bear the subdued style, however, longer
without variety than the majestic style. For the mental emotion which it is necessary to stir up in
order to carry the hearer's feelings with us, when once it has been sufficiently excited, the higher
the pitch to which it is raised, can be maintained the shorter time. And therefore we must be on
our guard, lest, in striving to carry to a higher point the emotion we have excited, we rather lose
what we have already gained. But after the interposition of matter that we have to treat in a
quieter style, we can return with good effect to that which must be treated forcibly, thus making
the tide of eloquence to ebb and flow like the sea. It follows from this, that the majestic style, if it
is to be long continued, ought not to be unvaried, but should alternate at intervals with the other
styles; the speech or writing as a whole, however, being referred to that style which is the
prevailing one.

Chap. 23.--How the various styles should be mingled

52. Now it is a matter of importance to determine what style should be alternated with what
other, and the places where it is necessary that any particular style should be used. In the majestic
style, for instance, it is always, or almost always, desirable that the introduction should be
temperate. And the speaker has it in his discretion to use the subdued style even where the
majestic would be allowable, in order that the majestic when it is used may be the more majestic
by comparison and may as it were shine out with greater brilliance from the dark background.
Again, whatever may be the style of the speech or writing, when knotty questions turn up for
solution, accuracy of distinction is required, and this naturally demands the subdued style. And
accordingly this style must be used in alternation with the other two styles whenever questions of
that sort turn up; just as we must use the temperate style, no matter what may be the general tone
of the discourse, whenever praise or blame is to be given without any ulterior reference to the
condemnation or acquittal of any one, or to obtaining the concurrence of any one in a course of
action. In the majestic style, then, and in the quiet likewise, both the other two styles occasionally
find place. The temperate style, on the other hand, not indeed always, but occasionally, needs the
quiet style; for example, when, as I have said, a knotty question comes up to be settled, or when
some points that are susceptible of ornament are left unadorned and expressed in the quiet style,
in order to give greater effect to certain exuberances (as they may be called) of ornament. But
the temperate style never needs the aid of the majestic; for its object is to gratify, never to excite,
the mind.

Chap. 24.--The effects produced by the majestic style

53. If frequent and vehement applause follows a speaker, we are not to suppose on that account
that he is speaking in the majestic style; for this effect is often produced both by the accurate
distinctions of the quiet style, and by the beauties of the temperate. The majestic style, on the
other hand, frequently silences the audience by its impressiveness, but calls forth their tears. For
example, when at Caesarean in Mauritania I was dissuading the people from that civil, or worse
than civil, war which they called Ceterva (for it was not fellow-citizens merely, but neighbours,
brothers, fathers and sons even, who, divided into two factions and armed with stones, fought
annually at a certain season of the year for several days continuously, every one killing
whomsoever he could), I strove with all the vehemence of speech that I could command to
root out and drive from their hearts and lives an evil so cruel and inveterate; it was not, however,
when I heard their applause, but when I saw their tears, that I thought I had produced an effect.
For the applause showed that they were instructed and delighted, but the tears that they were
subdued. And when I saw their tears I was confident, even before the event proved it, that this
horrible and barbarous custom (which had been handed down to them from their fathers and their
ancestors of generations long gone by and which like an enemy was besieging their hearts, or
rather had complete possession of them) was overthrown; and immediately that my sermon was
finished I called upon them with heart and voice to give praise and thanks to God. And, lo, with
the blessing of Christ, it is now eight years or more since anything of the sort was attempted
there. In many other cases besides I have observed that men show the effect made on them by the
powerful eloquence of a wise man, not by clamorous applause so much as by groans, sometimes
even by tears, finally by change of life.
54. The quiet style, too, has made a change in many; but it was to teach them what they were
ignorant of, or to persuade them of what they thought incredible, not to make them do what they
knew they ought to do but were unwilling to do. To break down hardness of this sort, speech
needs to be vehement. Praise and censure, too, when they are eloquently expressed, even in the
temperate style, produce such an effect on some, that they are not only pleased with the
eloquence of the encomiums and censures, but are led to live so as themselves to deserve praise,
and to avoid living so as to incur blame. But no one would say that all who are thus delighted
change their habits in consequence, whereas all who are moved by the majestic style act
accordingly, and all who are taught by the quiet style know or believe a truth which they were
previously ignorant of.

Chap. 25.--How the temperate style is to be used

55. From all this we may conclude, that the end arrived at by the two styles last mentioned is the
one which it is most essential for those who aspire to speak with wisdom and eloquence to secure.
On the other hand, what the temperate style properly aims at, viz., to please by beauty of
expressions, is not in itself an adequate end; but when what we have to say is good and useful,
and when the hearers are both acquainted with it and favourably disposed towards it, so that it is
not necessary either to instruct or persuade them, beauty of style may have its influence in
securing their prompter compliance, or in making them adhere to it more tenaciously. For as the
function of all eloquence, whichever of these three forms it may assume, is to speak persuasively,
and its object is to persuade, an eloquent man will speak persuasively, whatever style he may
adopt; but unless he succeeds in persuading, his eloquence has not secured its object. Now in the
subdued style, he persuades his hearers that what he says is true; in the majestic style, he
persuades them to do what they are aware they ought to do, but do not; in the temperate style, he
persuades them that his speech is elegant and ornate. But what use is there in attaining such an
object as this last? They may desire it who are vain of their eloquence and make a boast of
panegyrics, and suchlike performances, where the object is not to instruct the hearer, or to
persuade him to any course of action, but merely to give him pleasure. We, however, ought to
make that end subordinate to another, viz., the effecting by this style of eloquence what we aim at
effecting when we use the majestic style. For we may by the use of this style persuade men to
cultivate good habits and give up evil ones, if they are not so hardened as to need the vehement
style; or if they have already begun a good course, we may induce them to pursue it more
zealously, and to persevere in it with constancy. Accordingly, even in the temperate style we must
use beauty of expression not for ostentation, but for wise ends; not contenting ourselves merely
with pleasing the hearer, but rather seeking to aid him in the pursuit of the good end which we
hold out before him.
Chap. 26.--In every style the orator should aim at perspicuity, beauty, and persuasiveness

56. Now in regard to the three conditions I laid down a little while ago as necessary to be
fulfilled by any one who wishes to speak with wisdom and eloquence, viz. perspicuity, beauty of
style, and persuasive power, we are not to understand that these three qualities attach themselves
respectively to the three several styles of speech, one to each, so that perspicuity is a merit
peculiar to the subdued style, beauty to the temperate, and persuasive power to the majestic. On
the contrary, all speech, whatever its style, ought constantly to aim at, and as far as possible to
display, all these three merits. For we do not like even what we say in the subdued style to pall
upon the hearer; and therefore we would be listened to, not with intelligence merely, but with
pleasure as well. Again, why do we enforce what we teach by divine testimony, except that we
wish to carry the hearer with us, that is, to compel his assert by calling in the assistance of Him of
whom it is said, "Thy testimonies are very sure"? And when any one narrates a story, even
in the subdued style, what does he wish but to be believed? But who will listen to him if he do not
arrest attention by some beauty of style? And if he be not intelligible, is it not plain that he can
neither give pleasure nor enforce conviction? The subdued style, again, in its own naked
simplicity, when it unravels questions of very great difficulty, and throws an unexpected light
upon them; when it worms out and brings to light some very acute observations from a quarter
whence nothing was expected; when it seizes upon and exposes the falsity of an opposing
opinion, which seemed at its first statement to be unassailable; especially when all this is
accompanied by a natural, unsought grace of expression, and by a rhythm and balance of style
which is not ostentatiously obtruded, but seems rather to be called forth by the nature of the
subject: this style, so used, frequently calls forth applause so great that one can hardly believe it to
be the subdued style. For the fact that it comes forth without either ornament or defense, and
offers battle in its own naked simplicity, does not hinder it from crushing its adversary by weight
of nerve and muscle, and overwhelming and destroying the falsehood that opposes it by the mere
strength of its own right arm. How explain the frequent and vehement applause that waits upon
men who speak thus, except by the pleasure that truth so irresistibly established, and so
victoriously defended, naturally affords? Wherefore the Christian teacher speaker ought, when he
uses the subdued style, to endeavour not only to be clear and intelligible, but to give pleasure and
to bring home conviction to the hearer.
57. Eloquence of the temperate style, also, must, in the case of the Christian orator, be neither
altogether without ornament, nor unsuitably adorned, nor is it to make the giving of pleasure its
sole aim, which is all it professes to accomplish in the hands of others; but in its encomiums and
censures it should aim at inducing the hearer to strive after or hold more firmly by what it praises,
and to avoid or renounce what it condemns. On the other hand, without perspicuity this style
cannot give pleasure. And so the three qualities, perspicuity, beauty, and persuasiveness, are to be
sought in this style also; beauty, of course, being its primary object.
58. Again, when it becomes necessary to stir and sway the hearer's mind by the majestic style
(and this is always necessary when he admits that what you say is both true and agreeable, and yet
is unwilling to act accordingly), you must, of course, speak in the majestic style. But who
can be moved if he does not understand what is said? And who will stay to listen if he receives no
pleasure? Wherefore, in this style, too, when an obdurate heart is to be persuaded to obedience,
you must speak so as to be both intelligible and pleasing, if you would be heard with a submissive
mind.

Chap. 27.--The man whose life is in harmony with his teaching will teach with greater effect

59. But whatever may be the majesty of the style, the life of the speaker will count for more in
securing the hearer's compliance. The man who speaks wisely and eloquently, but lives wickedly,
may, it is true, instruct many who are anxious to learn; though, as it is written, he "is unprofitable
to himself." Wherefore, also, the apostle says: "Whether in pretence or in truth Christ is
preached." Now Christ is the truth; yet we see that the truth can be preached, though not in truth,
that is, what is right and true in itself may be preached by a man of perverse and deceitful mind.
And thus it is that Jesus Christ is preached by those that seek their own, and not the things that
are Jesus Christ's. But since true believers obey the voice, not of any man, but of the Lord
Himself, who says, "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do: but do
not ye after their works; for they say and do not;" and therefore it is that men who themselves
lead unprofitable lives are heard with profit by others. For though they seek their own objects,
they do not dare to teach their own doctrines, sitting as they do in the high places of ecclesiastical
authority, which is established on sound doctrine. Wherefore our Lord Himself, before saying
what I have just quoted about men of this stamp, made this observation: "The scribes and the
Pharisees sit in Moses's seat." The seat they occupied then, which was not theirs but Moses',
compelled them to say what was good, though they did what was evil. And so they followed their
own course in their lives, but were prevented by the seat they occupied, which belonged to
another, from preaching their own doctrines.
60. Now these men do good to many by preaching what they themselves do not perform; but
they would do good to very many more if they lived as they preach. For there are numbers who
seek an excuse for their own evil lives in comparing the teaching with the conduct of their
instructors, and who say in their hearts, or even go a little further, and say with their lips: Why do
you not do yourself what you bid me do? And thus they cease to listen with submission to a man
who does not listen to himself, and in despising the preacher they learn to despise the word that is
preached. Wherefore the apostle, writing to Timothy, after telling him, "Let no man despise thy
youth," adds immediately the course by which he would avoid contempt: "but be thou an example
of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
Chap. 28.--Truth is more important than expression. What is meant by strife about words

61. Such a teacher as is here described may, to secure compliance, speak not only quietly and
temperately, but even vehemently, without any breach of modesty, because his life protects him
against contempt. For while he pursues an upright life, he takes care to maintain a good
reputation as well, providing things honest in the sight of God and men, fearing God, and caring
for men. In his very speech even he prefers to please by matter rather than by words; thinks that a
thing is well said in proportion as it is true in fact, and that a teacher should govern his words, not
let the words govern him. This is what the apostle says: "Not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect." To the same effect also is what he says to
Timothy: "Charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the
subverting of the hearers." Now this does not mean that, when adversaries oppose the truth, we
are to say nothing in defense of the truth. For where, then, would be what he says when he is
describing the sort of man a bishop ought to be: "that he may be able by sound doctrine both to
exhort and convince the gainsayers?" To strive about words is not to be careful about the way to
overcome error by truth, but to be anxious that your mode of expression should be preferred to
that of another. The man who does not strive about words, whether he speak quietly, temperately,
or vehemently, uses words with no other purpose than to make the truth plain, pleasing and
effective; for not even love itself, which is the end of the commandment and the fulfilling of the
law, can be rightly exercised unless the objects of love are true and not false. For as a man with a
comely body but an ill-conditioned mind is a more painful object than if his body too were
deformed, so men who teach lies are the more pitiable if they happen to be eloquent in speech. To
speak eloquently, then, and wisely as well, is just to express truths which it is expedient to teach in
fit and proper words,--words which in the subdued style are adequate, in the temperate, elegant,
and in the majestic, forcible. But the man who cannot speak both eloquently and wisely should
speak wisely without eloquence, rather than eloquently without wisdom.

Chap. 29.--It is permissible for a preacher to deliver to the people what has been written by a
more eloquent man than himself

If, however, he cannot do even this, let his life be such as shall not only secure a reward for
himself, but afford an example to others; and let his manner of living be an eloquent sermon in
itself.
63. There are, indeed, some men who have a good delivery, but cannot compose anything to
deliver. Now, if such men take what has been written with wisdom and eloquence by others, and
commit it to memory, and deliver it to the people, they cannot be blamed, supposing them to do it
without deception. For in this way many become preachers of the truth (which is certainly
desirable), and yet not many teachers; for all deliver the discourse which one real teacher has
composed, and there are no divisions among them. Nor are such men to be alarmed by the words
of Jeremiah the prophet, through whom God denounces those who steal His words every one
from his neighbour. For those who steal take what does not belong to them, but the word of God
belongs to all who obey it; and it is the man who speaks well, but lives badly, who really takes the
words that belong to another. For the good things he says seem to be the result of his own
thought, and yet they have nothing in common with his manner of life. And so God has said that
they steal His words who would appear good by speaking God's words, but are in fact bad, as
they follow their own ways. And if you look closely into the matter, it is not really themselves
who say the good things they say. For how can they say in words what they deny in deeds? It is
not for nothing that the apostle says of such men: "They profess that they know God, but in
works they deny Him." In one sense, then, they do say the things, and in another sense they do
not say them; for both these statements must be true, both being made by Him who is the Truth.
Speaking of such men, in one place He says, "Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and
do; but do not ye after their works; "that is to say, what ye hear from their lips, that do; what ye
see in their lives, that do ye not;--"for they say and do not." And so, though they do not, yet they
say. But in another place, upbraiding such men, He says, "O generation of vipers, how can ye,
being evil, speak good things?" And from this it would appear that even what they say, when they
say what is good, it is not themselves who say, for in will and in deed they deny what they say.
Hence it happens that a wicked man who is eloquent may compose a discourse in which the truth
is set forth to be delivered by a good man who is not eloquent; and when this takes place,
the former draws from himself what does not belong to him, and the latter receives from another
what really belongs to himself. But when true believers render this service to true believers, both
parties speak what is their own, for God is theirs, to whom belongs all that they say; and even
those who could not compose what they say make it their own by composing their lives in
harmony with it.

Chap. 30.--The preacher should commence his discourse with prayer to God
63. But whether a man is going to address the people or to dictate what others will deliver or
read to the people, he ought to pray God to put into his mouth a suitable discourse. For if Queen
Esther prayed, when she was about to speak to the king touching the temporal welfare of her
race, that God would put fit words into her mouth, how much more ought he to pray for the same
blessing who labours in word and doctrine for the eternal welfare of men? Those, again, who are
to deliver what others compose for them ought, before they receive their discourse, to pray for
those who are preparing it; and when they have received it, they ought to pray both that they
themselves may deliver it well, and that those to whom they address it may give ear; and when the
discourse has a happy issue, they ought to render thanks to Him from whom they know such
blessings come, so that all the praise may be His "in whose hand are both we and our words."

Chap. 31.--Apology for the length of the work

64. This book has extended to a greater length than I expected or desired. But the reader or
hearer who finds pleasure in it will not think it long. He who thinks it long, but is anxious to know
its contents, may read it in parts. He who does not care to be acquainted with it need not
complain of its length. I, however, give thanks to God that with what little ability I possess I have
in these four books striven to depict, not the sort of man I am myself (for my defects are very
many), but the sort of man he ought to be who desires to labour in sound, that is, in Christian
doctrine, not for his own instruction only, but for that of others also.

End of - On Christian Doctrine