23. In the case of figurative signs, again, if ignorance of any of them should chance to pring the reader to a stand-still, their mean- mg~Ts~To be traced partly by the knowledge "of~tanguageS; partly by the knowledge of things. The pool of Siloam, for example, wheTC"the man whose eyes our Lord had anointed with clay made out of spittle was commanded to wash, has a figurative signifi- cance, and undoubtedly conveys a secret sense; but yet if the evangelist had not inter- preted that name,1 a meaning so important would lie unnoticed. And we cannot doubt that, in the same way, many Hebrew names which have not been interpreted by the writers of those books, would, if any one could in- terpret 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 ex- plaining 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 in- vestigated and explained, many figurative expressions in Scripture become clear.
24. Ignorance of things, too, renders fig- urative expressions obscure, as when we do not know the nature of the animals, or miner- als, or plants, which are frequently referred to in Scripture by way of comparison. The fact so well known about the serpent, for ex- lample, 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 Ibody 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 gain, 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 direc- tion to imitate the wisdom of the serpent, and to put off the old man, as the apostle says, that we may put on the new;3 and to put it off, too, by coming through a narrow place, according to the saying of our Lord, " Enter ye in at the strait gate!" 4 As, then, knowl- edge of the nature of the serpent throws light upon many metaphors which Scripture is ac- customed to draw from that animal, so ig- norance 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: knowl- edge 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,s 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 insignifi- cant plant, cannot make out why it is said, " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean."6 25. Ignorance of numbers, too, prevents us from understanding" things that are set down in~Scripture in a figurative and mysti- cal wa\ 1 John ix. 7.
2 Matt. x. 16.
A candid mind, if I may so speak, cannot but be anxious, for example, to ascer- tain what is meant by the fact that Moses and Elijah, and our Lord Himself, all fasted for forty days.7 And except by knowledge of and reflection upon the number, the difficulty of explaining the figure involved in this action cannot be got over. For the number con- tains ten four times, indicating the knowl- edge of all things, and that knowledge inter- woven with time. For both the diurnal and the annual revolutions are accomplished in periods numbering four each; the diurnal in the hours of the morning, the noontide, the evening, and the night; the annual in the spring, summer, autumn, and winter months. Now while we live in time, we must abstain and fast from all joy in time, for the sake of that eternity in which we wish to live; al- 3 Eph. iv. 22. 4 Matt. vii. 13. 5 Gen. vm. 11.
6 Ps. li. 7. 7 Ex. xxiv. 18; 1 Kings xix. 8; Matt. iv. 2.
544 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book II.
though 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 con- sists of three parts, whence also God is to be loved with the whole heart, the whole soul, and the whole mind; and it is very clear that in the body there are four elements of which it is made up. In this number ten, there- fore, 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 ad- monished 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 num- ber fifty, which in our religion has no or- dinary 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 num- ber of the one hundred and fifty-three fishes which were taken after the resurrection of our Lord, when the nets were cast out on the right-hand side of the boat.1 And in the same way, many other numbers and combina- tions of numbers are used in the sacred writ- ings, to convey instruction under a figurative guise, and ignorance of numbers often shuts out the reader from this instruction.
26. Not a few things, too, are closed against us and obscured by ignorance of music. One man, for example, has not unskillfully ex- plained some metaphors from the difference between the psaltery and the harp.2 And it is a question which it is not out of place for learned men to discuss, whether there is any musical law that compels the psaltery of ten chords to have just so many strings; or whether, if there be no such law, the number itself is not on that very account the more to be considered as of sacred significance, either with reference to the ten commandments of the law (and if again any question is raised 1 John xxi. 11.
2 Ps. xxxiii. 2.
about that number, we can only refer it to the Creator and the creature), or with refer- ence to the number ten itself as interpreted above. And the number of years the tem- ple was in building, which is mentioned in the gospel3 — viz., forty-six — has a certain undefinable musical sound, and when referred to the structure of our Lord's body, in rela- tion to which the temple was mentioned, com- pels many heretics to confess that our Lord put on, not a false, but a true and human body. And in several places in the Holy Scriptures we find both numbers and music mentioned with honor.
CHAP. 17. ORIGIN OF THE LEGEND OF THE NINE MUSES.
27. For we must not listen to the falsities of heathen superstition, which represent the nine Muses as daughters of Jupiter and Mer- cury. 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 1 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 in- struments 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 3 John ii. 20.
Chap. XXI.]
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
545 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 Jus- tice 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 ac- knowledges 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 them- selves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."1 CHAP. ig. TWO KINDS OF HEATHEN KNOWL- EDGE.
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 rn~vbgue~ among the heathen. One is the knowledge of things instituted by men, the "other of" things which they have noted, either "as~Tfansacted m~thepast or as instituted by GocT The "former kind, that which deals with human institutions, is partly superstitious, partly not.
CHAP. 20. THE SUPERSTITIOUS NATURE OF HUMAN INSTITUTIONS.
30. All the arrangements made by men for the making and worshipping of idols are superstitious, pertaining as they do either to the worship of what is created or of some part of it as God, or to consultations and arrange- ments about signs and leagues with devils, such, for example, as are employed in the magical arts, and which the poets are accus- tomed not so much to teach as to celebrate. And to this class belong, but with a bolder reach of deception, the books of the harus- pices and augurs. In this class we must place also all amulets and cures which the med- 1 Rom. i. 21-23 35 ical 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 physic a, so as to appear not to be engaged in superstitious observances, but to be taking advantage of the forces of nature. Examples of these are the ear-rings on the top of each ear, or the rings of ostrich bone on the fingers, or telling you when you hiccup to hold your left thumb in your right hand.
3 1. To these we may add thousands of the most frivolous practices, that are to be ob- served 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 be- tween 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 fre- quently men are so superstitious as to venture upon striking a dog who has run between them, — not with impunity however, for in- stead 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 pros- pect 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 gcncthliaciy 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 conse- quences of our actions, grievously err, and sell inexperienced men into a miserable bond- age. For when any freeman goes to an as- 546 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book II.
trologer of this kind, he gives money that he may come away the slave either of Mars or of Venus, or rather, perhaps, of all the stars to which those who first fell into this error, and handed it on to posterity, have given the names either of beasts on account of their likeness to beasts, or of men with a view to confer honor on those men. And this is not to be wondered at, when we consider that even in times more recent and nearer our own, the Romans made an attempt to dedi- cate the star which we call Lucifer to the name and honor of Caesar. And this would, perhaps, have been done, and the name handed down to distant ages, only that his ancestress Venus had given her name to this star before him, and could not by any law- transfer to her heirs what she had never pos- sessed, nor sought to possess, in life. For where a place was vacant, or not held in honor of any of the dead of former times, the usual proceeding in such cases was car- ried out. For example, we have changed the names of the months Quintilis and Sextilis to July and August, naming them in honor of the men Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar; and from this instance any one who cares can easily see that the stars spoken of above formerly wandered in the heavens without the names they now bear. But as the men were dead whose memory people were either com- pelled by royal power or impelled by human folly to honor, they seemed to think that in putting their names upon the stars they were raising the dead men themselves to heaven. But whatever they may be called by men, still there are stars which God has made and set in order after His own pleasure, and they have a fixed movement, by which the seasons are distinguished and varied. And when any one is born, it is easy to observe the point at which this movement has arrived, by use of the rules discovered and laid down by those who are rebuked by Holy Writ in these terms: "For if they were able to know so much that they could weigh the world, how did they not more easily find out the Lord thereof?"1 CHAP. 22. THE FOLLY OF OBSERVING THE STARS IN ORDER TO PREDICT THE EVENTS OF A LIFE.
33. But to desire to predict the characters, the acts, and the fate of those who are born from such an observation, is a great delusion and great madness. And among those at least who have any sort of acquaintance with matters of this kind (which, indeed, are only fit to be unlearnt again), this superstition is 1 Wisd. xiii. 9.
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 for- tunate life, the other a most unfortunate. As, for example, we are told that Esau and Jacob were born twins, and in such close suc- cession, that Jacob, who was born last, was found to have laid hold with his hand upon the heel of his brother, who preceded him.2 Now, assuredly, the day and hour of the birth of these two could not be marked in any way that would not give both the same constella- tion. But what a difference there was be- tween the characters, the actions, the labors, and the fortunes of these two, the Scriptures bear witness, which are now so widely spread as to be in the mouth of all nations.
34. Nor is it to the point to say that the very smallest and briefest moment of time that separates the birth of twins, produces great effects in nature, and in the extremely rapid motion of the heavenly bodies. For, although I may grant that it does produce the greatest effects, yet the astrologer cannot discover this in the constellations, and it is by looking into these that he professes to read the fates. If, then, he does not discover the difference when he examines the constella- tions, 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 DIVIN- ATION.
35. For in this way it comes to pass that men who lust after evil things are, by a secret - Gen. xxv. 24.
Chap. XXIV.J ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
547 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 ac- cordance with His most admirable arrange- ment of things. And the result of these de- lusions and deceptions is, that through these superstitious and baneful modes of divination, many things in the past and future are made known, and turn out just as they are foretold; and in the case of those who practise super- stitious 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 fornica- tion 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."1 For though the ghost of the dead Samuel foretold the truth to King Saul,2 that does not make such sacrilegious observances as those by which his ghost was brought up the less detestable; and though the ventrilo- quist woman 3 in the Acts of the Apostles bore true testimony to the apostles of the Lord, the Apostle Paul did not spare the evil spirit on that account, but rebuked and cast it out, and so made the woman clean.4 36. All arts of this sort, therefore, are either nullities, or are part of a guilty super- stition, 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 any- thing," 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. " s Now, what the apostle has said about idols and the sacrifices offered in their honor, that we ought to feel in regard to all fancied signs which lead either to the worship of idols, or to worshipping creation or its parts instead of God, or which are connected with attention to medicinal charms and other observances; for these are not appointed by God as the public means of promoting love towards God 1 Corap. Deut. xiii. 1-3.
2 1 Sam. xxviii.; corap. Ecclus. xlvi. 20.
3 Ventriloqua femina. The woman with a familiar spirit to whom Saul resorted in his extremity is called in the Septuagint translation ey-yao-Tpi/auSos. See 1 Sam. xxviii. 7.
and our neighbor, but they waste the hearts of wretched men in private and selfish striv- ings 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 ex- istence under the government of God's pro- vidence, 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 OBSERV- ANCES 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, tor- turing 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 sev- eral notions and prejudices. For those spirits which are bent upon deceiving, take care to provide for each person the same sort of omens as they see his own conjectures and preconceptions have already entangled him in. For, to take an illustration, the same figure of the letter X, which is made in the shape of a cross, means one thing among the Greeks and another among the Latins, not by nature, but by agreement and pre-arrange- ment 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