ANTE-NICENE
CHRISTIAN LIBRARY:
_TRANSLATIONS OF
THE WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS
DOWN TO A.D. 325._
EDITED BY THE
REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTS, D.D.,
AND
JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D.
VOL. IV.
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
VOL. I.
EDINBURGH:
T. AND T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
MDCCCLXVII.
MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE.
THE WRITINGS
OF
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
TRANSLATED BY
THE REV. WILLIAM WILSON, M.A.,
MUSSELBURGH.
EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
LONDON: HAMILTON & CO. DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON & CO.
MDCCCLXVII.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE, 11
EXHORTATION TO THE HEATHEN.
CHAP.
I. Exhortation to abandon the Impious Mysteries of
Idolatry for the Adoration of the Divine Word
and God the Father, 17
II. The Absurdity and Impiety of the Heathen
Mysteries and Fables about the Birth and Death
of their Gods, 26
III. The Cruelty of the Sacrifices to the Gods, 48
IV. The Absurdity and Shamefulness of the Images by
which the Gods are worshipped, 52
V. The Opinions of the Philosophers respecting God, 66
VI. By Divine Inspiration Philosophers sometimes hit
on the Truth, 69
VII. The Poets also bear Testimony to the Truth, 73
VIII. The True Doctrine is to be sought in the Prophets, 76
IX. That those grievously sin who despise or neglect
God’s gracious Calling, 80
X. Answer to the Objection of the Heathen, that it
was not right to abandon the Customs of their
Fathers, 85
XI. How great are the Benefits conferred on Man
through the Advent of Christ, 100
XII. Exhortation to abandon their Old Errors and
listen to the Instructions of Christ, 106
THE INSTRUCTOR.
BOOK I.
I. The Office of the Instructor, 113
II. Our Instructor’s Treatment of our Sins, 115
III. The Philanthropy of the Instructor, 118
IV. Men and Women alike under the Instructor’s Charge, 121
V. All who walk according to Truth are Children of God, 122
VI. The name “Children” does not imply Instruction in
Elementary Principles, 131
VII. Who the Instructor is, and respecting His Instruction, 149
VIII. Against those who think that what is just is not good, 155
XI. That it is the Prerogative of the same Power to be
beneficent and to punish justly; also, the Manner
of the Instruction of the Logos, 164
X. That the same God, by the same Word, restrains from
Sin by threatening, and saves Humanity by
exhorting, 174
XI. That the Word instructed by the Law and the Prophets, 179
XII. The Instructor characterized by the severity and
benignity of Paternal Affection, 181
XIII. Virtue rational, Sin irrational, 184
BOOK II.
I. On Eating, 186
II. On Drinking, 200
III. On Costly Vessels, 211
IV. How to conduct ourselves at Feasts, 215
V. On Laughter, 219
VI. On Filthy Speaking, 222
VII. Directions for those who live together, 225
VIII. On the use of Ointments and Crowns, 230
IX. On Sleep, 240
X. Quænam de procreatione liberorum tractanda sint, 244
XI. On Clothes, 255
XII. On Shoes, 264
XIII. Against excessive Fondness for Jewels and Gold
Ornaments, 266
BOOK III.
I. On the True Beauty, 273
II. Against Embellishing the Body, 276
III. Against Men who Embellish themselves, 284
IV. With whom we are to Associate, 292
V. Behaviour in the Baths, 296
VI. The Christian alone Rich, 298
VII. Frugality a good Provision for the Christian, 301
VIII. Similitudes and Examples a most important part of
right Instruction, 304
IX. Why we are to use the Bath, 308
X. The Exercises suited to a good Life, 310
XI. A Compendious View of the Christian Life, 313
Clothes, 313
Ear-rings, 315
Finger-rings, 315
The Hair, 317
Painting the Face, 319
Walking, 324
The Model Maiden, 325
Amusements and Associates, 325
Public Spectacles, 326
Religion in Ordinary Life, 327
Going to Church, 328
Out of Church, 329
Love, and the Kiss of Charity, 329
The Government of the Eyes, 330
XII. Continuation, with Texts from Scripture, 332
Prayer to the Pædagogus, 342
A Hymn to Christ the Saviour, 343
To the Pædagogus, 346
THE MISCELLANIES; OR, STROMATA.
BOOK I.
I. Preface--The Author’s Object--The Utility of
Written Compositions, 349
II. Objections to the Number of Extracts from
Philosophical Writings in these Books,
Anticipated and Answered, 360
III. Against the Sophists, 362
IV. Human Arts, as well as Divine Knowledge, proceed
from God, 364
V. Philosophy the Handmaid of Theology, 366
VI. The Benefit of Culture, 371
VI. The Eclectic Philosophy paves the way for Divine
Virtue, 374
VIII. The Sophistical Arts useless, 376
IX. Human Knowledge necessary for the Understanding of
the Scriptures, 379
X. To Act well of greater consequence than to Speak
well, 381
XI. What is the Philosophy which the Apostle bids us
shun? 384
XII. The Mysteries of the Faith not to be divulged to
All, 388
XIII. All Sects of Philosophy contain a Germ of Truth, 389
XIV. Succession of Philosophers in Greece, 391
XV. The Greek Philosophy in great part derived from the
Barbarians, 395
XVI. That the Inventors of other Arts were mostly
Barbarians, 401
XVII. On the saying of the Saviour, “All that came
before Me were thieves and robbers,” 406
XVIII. He illustrates the Apostle’s saying, “I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise,” 410
XIX. That the Philosophers have attained to some
portion of Truth, 413
XX. In what respect Philosophy contributes to the
comprehension of Divine Truth, 418
XXI. The Jewish Institutions and Laws of far higher
Antiquity than the Philosophy of the Greeks, 421
XXII. On the Greek Translation of the Old Testament, 448
XXIII. The Age, Birth, and Life of Moses, 450
XXIV. How Moses discharged the Part of a Military Leader, 455
XXV. Plato an Imitator of Moses in Framing Laws, 459
XXVI. Moses rightly called a Divine Legislator, and,
though inferior to Christ, far superior to the
great Legislators of the Greeks, Minos and
Lycurgus, 461
XXVII. The Law, even in Correcting and Punishing, aims at
the Good of Men, 464
XXVIII. The Fourfold Division of the Mosaic Law, 467
XXIX. The Greeks but Children compared with the Hebrews, 469
_INTRODUCTORY NOTICE._
Titus Flavius Clemens, the illustrious head of the Catechetical School
at Alexandria at the close of the second century, was originally
a pagan philosopher. The date of his birth is unknown. It is also
uncertain whether Alexandria or Athens was his birthplace.[1]
On embracing Christianity, he eagerly sought the instructions of its
most eminent teachers; for this purpose travelling extensively over
Greece, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and other regions of the East.
Only one of these teachers (who, from a reference in the _Stromata_,
all appear to have been alive when he wrote[2]) can be with certainty
identified, viz. Pantænus, of whom he speaks in terms of profound
reverence, and whom he describes as the greatest of them all. Returning
to Alexandria, he succeeded his master Pantænus in the catechetical
school, probably on the latter departing on his missionary tour to the
East, somewhere about A.D. 189.[3] He was also made a presbyter of the
church, either then or somewhat later.[4] He continued to teach with
great distinction till A.D. 202, when the persecution under Severus
compelled him to retire from Alexandria. In the beginning of the reign
of Caracalla we find him at Jerusalem, even then a great resort of
Christian, and especially clerical, pilgrims. We also hear of him
travelling to Antioch, furnished with a letter of recommendation by
Alexander bishop of Jerusalem. The close of his career is covered with
obscurity. He is supposed to have died about A.D. 220.
Among his pupils were his distinguished successor in the Alexandrian
school, Origen, Alexander bishop of Jerusalem, and, according to
Baronius, Combefisius, and Bull, also Hippolytus.
The above is positively the sum of what we know of Clement’s history.
His three great works, _The Exhortation to the Heathen_ (λόγος
προτρεπτικὸς πρὸς Ἑλληνας), _The Instructor_, or _Pædagogus_
(παιδαγωγός), _The Miscellanies_, or _Stromata_ (Στρωματεȋς), are among
the most valuable remains of Christian antiquity, and the largest that
belong to that early period.
_The Exhortation_, the object of which is to win pagans to the
Christian faith, contains a complete and withering exposure of the
abominable licentiousness, the gross imposture and sordidness of
paganism. With clearness and cogency of argument, great earnestness and
eloquence, Clement sets forth in contrast the truth as taught in the
inspired Scriptures, the true God, and especially the personal Christ,
the living Word of God, the Saviour of men. It is an elaborate and
masterly work, rich in felicitous classical allusion and quotation,
breathing throughout the spirit of philosophy and of the gospel, and
abounding in passages of power and beauty.
The _Pædagogus_, or _Instructor_, is addressed to those who have
been rescued from the darkness and pollutions of heathenism, and
is an exhibition of Christian morals and manners,--a guide for the
formation and development of Christian character, and for living a
Christian life. It consists of three books. It is the grand aim of the
whole work to set before the converts Christ as the only Instructor,
and to expound and enforce His precepts. In the first book Clement
exhibits the person, the function, the means, methods, and ends of the
Instructor, who is the Word and Son of God; and lovingly dwells on His
benignity and philanthropy, His wisdom, faithfulness, and righteousness.
The second and third books lay down rules for the regulation of the
Christian, in all the relations, circumstances, and actions of life,
entering most minutely into the details of dress, eating, drinking,
bathing, sleeping, etc. The delineation of a life in all respects
agreeable to the Word, a truly Christian life, attempted here, may, now
that the gospel has transformed social and private life to the extent
it has, appear unnecessary, or a proof of the influence of ascetic
tendencies. But a code of Christian morals and manners (a sort of
“whole duty of man” and manual of good breeding combined) was eminently
needed by those whose habits and characters had been moulded under the
debasing and polluting influences of heathenism; and who were bound,
and were aiming, to shape their lives according to the principles of
the gospel, in the midst of the all but incredible licentiousness and
luxury by which society around was incurably tainted. The disclosures
which Clement, with solemn sternness, and often with caustic wit,
makes of the prevalent voluptuousness and vice, form a very valuable
contribution to our knowledge of that period.
The full title of the _Stromata_, according to Eusebius and Photius,
was Τίτου Φλαυίου Κλήμεντος τῶν κατἁ τἡν ἀληθἢ φιλοσοφίαν γνωστικῶν
ὑπομνημάτων στρωματεἲς[5]--Titus Flavius Clement’s miscellaneous
collections of speculative (gnostic) notes bearing upon the true
philosophy. The aim of the work, in accordance with this title, is, in
opposition to gnosticism, to furnish the materials for the construction
of a true gnosis, a Christian philosophy, on the basis of faith, and
to lead on to this higher knowledge those who, by the discipline of
the Pædagogus, had been trained for it. The work consisted originally
of eight books. The eighth book is lost; that which appears under this
name has plainly no connection with the rest of the _Stromata_. Various
accounts have been given of the meaning of the distinctive word in
the title (Στρωματεύς); but all agree in regarding it as indicating
the miscellaneous character of its contents. And they are very
miscellaneous. They consist of the speculations of Greek philosophers,
of heretics, and of those who cultivated the true Christian gnosis,
and of quotations from sacred Scripture. The latter he affirms to
be the source from which the higher Christian knowledge is to be
drawn; as it was that from which the germs of truth in Plato and the
Hellenic philosophy were derived. He describes philosophy as a divinely
ordered preparation of the Greeks for faith in Christ, as the law was
for the Hebrews; and shows the necessity and value of literature and
philosophic culture for the attainment of true Christian knowledge,
in opposition to the numerous body among Christians who regarded
learning as useless and dangerous. He proclaims himself an eclectic,
believing in the existence of fragments of truth in all systems,
which may be separated from error; but declaring that the truth can
be found in unity and completeness only in Christ, as it was from Him
that all its scattered germs originally proceeded. The _Stromata_
are written carelessly, and even confusedly; but the work is one of
prodigious learning, and supplies materials of the greatest value for
understanding the various conflicting systems which Christianity had to
combat.
It was regarded so much as the author’s great work, that, on the
testimony of Theodoret, Cassiodorus, and others, we learn that Clement
received the appellation of Στρωματεύς (the Stromatist). In all
probability, the first part of it was given to the world about A.D.
194. The latest date to which he brings down his chronology in the
first book is the death of Commodus, which happened in A.D. 192; from
which Eusebius[6] concludes that he wrote this work during the reign of
Severus, who ascended the imperial throne in A.D. 193, and reigned till
A.D. 211. It is likely that the whole was composed ere Clement quitted
Alexandria in A.D. 202. The publication of the _Pædagogus_ preceded by
a short time that of the _Stromata_; and the _Cohortatio_ was written a
short time before the _Pædagogus_, as is clear from statements made by
Clement himself.
So multifarious is the erudition, so multitudinous are the quotations
and the references to authors in all departments, and of all countries,
the most of whose works have perished, that the works in question could
only have been composed near an extensive library--hardly anywhere
but in the vicinity of the famous library of Alexandria. They are a
storehouse of curious ancient lore,--a museum of the fossil remains of
the beauties and monstrosities of the world of pagan antiquity, during
all the epochs and phases of its history. The three compositions are
really parts of one whole. The central connecting idea is that of the
Logos--the Word--the Son of God; whom in the first work he exhibits
drawing men from the superstitions and corruptions of heathenism to
faith; in the second, as training them by precepts and discipline;
and in the last, as conducting them to that higher knowledge of the
things of God, to which those only who devote themselves assiduously
to spiritual, moral, and intellectual culture can attain. Ever before
his eye is the grand form of the living personal Christ,--the Word, who
“was with God, and who was God, but who became man, and dwelt among us.”
Of course there is throughout plenty of false science, and frivolous
and fanciful speculation.
_Who is the rich man that shall be saved?_ (τίς ὁ σωζόμενος πλούσιος)
is the title of a practical treatise, in which Clement shows, in
opposition to those who interpreted our Lord’s words to the young ruler
as requiring the renunciation of worldly goods, that the disposition of
the soul is the great essential. Of other numerous works of Clement,
of which only a few stray fragments have been preserved, the chief are
the eight books of _The Hypotyposes_, which consisted of expositions of
all the books of Scripture. Of these we have a few undoubted fragments.
_The Adumbrations_, or _Commentaries on some of the Catholic Epistles_,
and _The Selections from the Prophetic Scriptures_, are compositions of
the same character, as far as we can judge, as the _Hypotyposes_, and
are supposed by some to have formed part of that work.
Other lost works of Clement are:
The Treatise of Clement, the Stromatist, on the Prophet Amos.
On Providence.
Treatise on Easter.
On Evil-speaking.
Discussion on Fasting.
Exhortation to Patience; or, To the newly baptized.
Ecclesiastical Canon; or, Against the Judaizers.
Different Terms.
The following are the names of treatises which Clement refers to as
written or about to be written by him, but of which otherwise we have
no trace or mention:--_On First Principles_; _On Prophecy_; _On the
Allegorical Interpretation of Members and Affections when ascribed to
God_; _On Angels_; _On the Devil_; _On the Origin of the Universe_; _On
the Unity and Excellence of the Church_; _On the Offices of Bishops,
Presbyters, Deacons, and Widows_; _On the Soul_; _On the Resurrection_;
_On Marriage_; _On Continence_; _Against Heresies_.
Preserved among Clement’s works is a fragment called _Epitomes
of the Writings of Theodotus, and of the Eastern Doctrine_, most
likely abridged extracts made by Clement for his own use, and giving
considerable insight into Gnosticism.
Clement’s quotations from Scripture are made from the Septuagint
version, often inaccurately from memory, sometimes from a different
text from what we possess, often with verbal adaptations; and not
rarely different texts are blended together.
The works of Clement present considerable difficulties to the
translator; and one of the chief is the state of the text, which
greatly needs to be expurgated and amended. For this there are
abundant materials, in the copious annotations and disquisitions, by
various hands, collected together in Migne’s edition; where, however,
corruptions the most obvious have been allowed to remain in the text.
* * * * *
The publishers are indebted to Dr. W. L. ALEXANDER for the poetical
translations of the Hymns of Clement.
EXHORTATION TO THE HEATHEN.
CHAPTER I.
EXHORTATION TO ABANDON THE IMPIOUS MYSTERIES OF IDOLATRY FOR THE
ADORATION OF THE DIVINE WORD AND GOD THE FATHER.
Amphion of Thebes and Arion of Methymna were both minstrels, and both
were renowned in story. They are celebrated in song to this day in
the chorus of the Greeks; the one for having allured the fishes, and
the other for having surrounded Thebes with walls by the power of
music. Another, a Thracian, a cunning master of his art (he also is
the subject of a Hellenic legend), tamed the wild beasts by the mere
might of song; and transplanted trees--oaks--by music. I might tell
you also the story of another, a brother to these--the subject of a
myth, and a minstrel--Eunomos the Locrian and the Pythic grasshopper.
A solemn Hellenic assembly had met at Pytho, to celebrate the death of
the Pythic serpent, when Eunomos sang the reptile’s epitaph. Whether
his ode was a hymn in praise of the serpent, or a dirge, I am not able
to say. But there was a contest, and Eunomos was playing the lyre in
the summer time: it was when the grasshoppers, warmed by the sun, were
chirping beneath the leaves along the hills; but they were singing not
to that dead dragon, but to God All-wise,--a lay unfettered by rule,
better than the numbers of Eunomos. The Locrian breaks a string. The
grasshopper sprang on the neck of the instrument, and sang on it as on
a branch; and the minstrel, adapting his strain to the grasshopper’s
song, made up for the want of the missing string. The grasshopper
then was attracted by the song of Eunomos, as the fable represents,
according to which also a brazen statue of Eunomos with his lyre, and
the Locrian’s ally in the contest, was erected at Pytho. But of its
own accord it flew to the lyre, and of its own accord sang, and was
regarded by the Greeks as a musical performer.
How, let me ask, have you believed vain fables, and supposed animals to
be charmed by music; while Truth’s shining face alone, as would seem,
appears to you disguised, and is looked on with incredulous eyes? And
so Cithæron, and Helicon, and the mountains of the Odrysi, and the
initiatory rites of the Thracians, mysteries of deceit, are hallowed
and celebrated in hymns. For me, I am pained at such calamities as form
the subjects of tragedy, though but myths; but by you the records of
miseries are turned into dramatic compositions.
But the dramas and the raving poets, now quite intoxicated, let us
crown with ivy; and distracted outright as they are, in Bacchic
fashion, with the satyrs, and the frenzied rabble, and the rest of the
demon crew, let us confine to Cithæron and Helicon, now antiquated.
But let us bring from above out of heaven, Truth, with Wisdom in all
its brightness, and the sacred prophetic choir, down to the holy mount
of God; and let Truth, darting her light to the most distant points,
cast her rays all around on those that are involved in darkness, and
deliver men from delusion, stretching out her very strong[7] right
hand, which is wisdom, for their salvation. And raising their eyes, and
looking above, let them abandon Helicon and Cithæron, and take up their
abode in Sion. “For out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word
of the Lord from Jerusalem,”[8]--the celestial Word, the true athlete
crowned in the theatre of the whole universe. What my Eunomos sings is
not the measure of Terpander, nor that of Capito, nor the Phrygian, nor
Lydian, nor Dorian, but the immortal measure of the new harmony which
bears God’s name--the new, the Levitical song.[9]
“Soother of pain, calmer of wrath, producing forgetfulness of
all ills.”[10]
Sweet and true is the charm of persuasion which blends with this
strain.
To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus, that Theban, and that
Methymnæan,--men, and yet unworthy of the name,--seem to have been
deceivers, who, under the pretence of poetry corrupting human life,
possessed by a spirit of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction,
celebrating crimes in their orgies, and making human woes the materials
of religious worship, were the first to entice men to idols; nay,
to build up the stupidity of the nations with blocks of wood and
stone,--that is, statues and images,--subjecting to the yoke of
extremest bondage the truly noble freedom of those who lived as free
citizens under heaven, by their songs and incantations. But not such
is my song, which has come to loose, and that speedily, the bitter
bondage of tyrannizing demons; and leading us back to the mild and
loving yoke of piety, recalls to heaven those that had been cast
prostrate to the earth. It alone has tamed men, the most intractable
of animals; the frivolous among them answering to the fowls of the
air, deceivers to reptiles, the irascible to lions, the voluptuous to
swine, the rapacious to wolves. The silly are stocks and stones, and
still more senseless than stones is a man who is steeped in ignorance.
As our witness, let us adduce the voice of prophecy accordant with
truth, and bewailing those who are crushed in ignorance and folly: “For
God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham;”[11] and
He, commiserating their great ignorance and hardness of heart who are
petrified against the truth, has raised up a seed of piety, sensitive
to virtue, of those stones--of the nations, that is, who trusted in
stones. Again, therefore, some venomous and false hypocrites, who
plotted against righteousness, He once called “a brood of vipers.”[12]
But if one of those serpents even is willing to repent, and follows the
Word, he becomes a man of God.
Others he figuratively calls wolves, clothed in sheep-skins, meaning
thereby monsters of rapacity in human form. And so all such most
savage beasts, and all such blocks of stone, the celestial song has
transformed into tractable men. “For even we ourselves were sometime
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” Thus speaks
the apostolic scripture: “But after that the kindness and love of
God our Saviour to man appeared, not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us.”[13] Behold
the might of the new song! It has made men out of stones, men out of
beasts. Those, moreover, that were as dead, not being partakers of
the true life, have come to life again, simply by becoming listeners
to this song. It also composed the universe into melodious order, and
tuned the discord of the elements to harmonious arrangement, so that
the whole world might become harmony. It let loose the fluid ocean,
and yet has prevented it from encroaching on the land. The earth,
again, which had been in a state of commotion, it has established, and
fixed the sea as its boundary. The violence of fire it has softened
by the atmosphere, as the Dorian is blended with the Lydian strain;
and the harsh cold of the air it has moderated by the embrace of fire,
harmoniously arranging these the extreme tones of the universe. And
this deathless strain,--the support of the whole and the harmony of
all,--reaching from the centre to the circumference, and from the
extremities to the central part, has harmonized this universal frame
of things, not according to the Thracian music, which is like that
invented by Jubal, but according to the paternal counsel of God, which
fired the zeal of David. And He who is of David, and yet before him,
the Word of God, despising the lyre and harp, which are but lifeless
instruments, and having tuned by the Holy Spirit the universe, and
especially man,--who, composed of body and soul, is a universe in
miniature,--makes melody to God on this instrument of many tones; and
to this instrument--I mean man--he sings accordant: “For thou art my
harp, and pipe, and temple,”[14]--a harp for harmony--a pipe by reason
of the Spirit--a temple by reason of the word; so that the first may
sound, the second breathe, the third contain the Lord. And David the
king, the harper whom we mentioned a little above, who exhorted to the
truth and dissuaded from idols, was so far from celebrating demons
in song, that in reality they were driven away by his music. Thus,
when Saul was plagued with a demon, he cured him by merely playing. A
beautiful breathing instrument of music the Lord made man, after His
own image. And He Himself also, surely, who is the supramundane Wisdom,
the celestial Word, is the all-harmonious, melodious, holy instrument
of God. What, then, does this instrument--the Word of God, the Lord,
the New Song--desire? To open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the
ears of the deaf, and to lead the lame or the erring to righteousness,
to exhibit God to the foolish, to put a stop to corruption, to
conquer death, to reconcile disobedient children to their father. The
instrument of God loves mankind. The Lord pities, instructs, exhorts,
admonishes, saves, shields, and of His bounty promises us the kingdom
of heaven as a reward for learning; and the only advantage He reaps
is, that we are saved. For wickedness feeds on men’s destruction; but
truth, like the bee, harming nothing, delights only in the salvation of
men.
You have, then, God’s promise; you have His love: become partaker of
His grace. And do not suppose the song of salvation to be new, as a
vessel or a house is new. For “before the morning star it was;”[15] and
“in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.”[16] Error seems old, but truth seems a new thing.
Whether, then, the Phrygians are shown to be the most ancient people
by the goats of the fable; or, on the other hand, the Arcadians by
the poets, who describe them as older than the moon; or, finally,
the Egyptians by those who dream that this land first gave birth to
gods and men: yet none of these at least existed before the world.
But before the foundation of the world were we, who, because destined
to be in Him, pre-existed in the eye of God before,--we the rational
creatures of the Word of God, on whose account we date from the
beginning; for “in the beginning was the Word.” Well, inasmuch as the
Word was from the first, He was and is the divine source of all things;
but inasmuch as He has now assumed the name Christ, consecrated of
old, and worthy of power, he has been called by me the New Song. This
Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He
was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as
man, He alone being both, both God and man--the Author of all blessings
to us; by whom we, being taught to live well, are sent on our way to
life eternal. For, according to that inspired apostle of the Lord,
“the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking
for the blessed hope, and appearing of the glory of the great God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ.”[17]
This is the New Song, the manifestation of the Word that was in the
beginning, and before the beginning. The Saviour, who existed before,
has in recent days appeared. He, who is in Him that truly is, has
appeared; for the Word, who “was with God,” and by whom all things were
created, has appeared as our Teacher. The Word, who in the beginning
bestowed on us life as Creator when He formed us, taught us to live
well when He appeared as our Teacher; that as God He might afterwards
conduct us to the life which never ends. He did not now for the first
time pity us for our error; but He pitied us from the first, from the
beginning. But now, at His appearance, lost as we already were, He
accomplished our salvation. For that wicked reptile monster, by his
enchantments, enslaves and plagues men even till now; inflicting, as
seems to me, such barbarous vengeance on them as those who are said
to bind captives to corpses till they rot together. This wicked tyrant
and serpent, accordingly, binding fast with the miserable chain of
superstition whomsoever he can draw to his side from their birth, to
stones, and stocks, and images, and such like idols, may with truth be
said to have taken and buried living men with those dead idols, till
both suffer corruption together.
Therefore (for the seducer is one and the same) he that at the
beginning brought Eve down to death, now brings thither the rest of
mankind. Our ally and helper, too, is one and the same--the Lord, who
from the beginning gave revelations by prophecy, but now plainly calls
to salvation. In obedience to the apostolic injunction, therefore, let
us flee from “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience,”[18] and let us run to the
Lord the Saviour, who now exhorts to salvation, as He has ever done,
as He did by signs and wonders in Egypt and the desert, both by the
bush and the cloud, which, through the favour of divine love, attended
the Hebrews like an handmaid. By the fear which these inspired He
addressed the hard-hearted; while by Moses, learned in all wisdom,
and Isaiah, lover of truth, and the whole prophetic choir, in a way
appealing more to reason, He turns to the Word those who have ears to
hear. Sometimes He upbraids, and sometimes He threatens. Some men He
mourns over, others He addresses with the voice of song, just as a
good physician treats some of his patients with cataplasms, some with
rubbing, some with fomentations; in one case cuts open with the lancet,
in another cauterizes, in another amputates, in order if possible to
cure the patient’s diseased part or member. The Saviour has many tones
of voice, and many methods for the salvation of men; by threatening He
admonishes, by upbraiding He converts, by bewailing He pities, by the
voice of song He cheers. He spake by the burning bush, for the men of
that day needed signs and wonders.
He awed men by the fire when He made flame to burst from the pillar
of cloud--a token at once of grace and fear: if you obey, there is
the light; if you disobey, there is the fire; but, since humanity is
nobler than the pillar or the bush, after them the prophets uttered
their voice,--the Lord Himself speaking in Isaiah, in Elias,--speaking
Himself by the mouth of the prophets. But if thou dost not believe the
prophets, but supposest both the men and the fire a myth, the Lord
Himself shall speak to thee, “who, being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but humbled Himself,”[19]--He, the
merciful God, exerting Himself to save man. And now the Word Himself
clearly speaks to thee, shaming thy unbelief; yea, I say, the Word of
God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how man may become God.
Is it not then monstrous, my friends, that while God is ceaselessly
exhorting us to virtue, we should spurn His kindness and reject
salvation?
Does not John also invite to salvation, and is he not entirely a voice
of exhortation? Let us then ask him, “Who of men art thou, and whence?”
He will not say Elias. He will deny that he is Christ, but will
profess himself to be “a voice crying in the wilderness.” Who, then,
is John?[20] In a word, we may say, “The beseeching voice of the Word
crying in the wilderness.” What criest thou, O voice? Tell us also.
“Make straight the paths of the Lord.”[21] John is the forerunner, and
that voice the precursor of the Word; an inviting voice, preparing for
salvation,--a voice urging men on to the inheritance of the heavens,
and through which the barren and the desolate is childless no more.
This fecundity the angel’s voice foretold; and this voice was also
the precursor of the Lord preaching glad tidings to the barren woman,
as John did to the wilderness. By reason of this voice of the Word,
therefore, the barren woman bears children, and the desert becomes
fruitful. The two voices which heralded the Lord’s--that of the angel
and that of John--intimate, as I think, the salvation in store for us
to be, that on the appearance of this Word we should reap, as the fruit
of this productiveness, eternal life. The Scripture makes all this
clear, by referring both the voices to the same thing: “Let her hear
who has not brought forth, and let her who has not had the pangs of
childbirth utter her voice: for more are the children of the desolate,
than of her who hath an husband.”[22]
The angel announced to us the glad tidings of a husband. John entreated
us to recognise the husbandman, to seek the husband. For this husband
of the barren woman, and this husbandman of the desert--who filled with
divine power the barren woman and the desert--is one and the same.
For because many were the children of the mother of noble race, yet
the Hebrew woman, once blessed with many children, was made childless
because of unbelief: the barren woman receives the husband, and the
desert the husbandman; then both become mothers through the word, the
one of fruits, the other of believers. But to the unbelieving the
barren and the desert are still reserved. For this reason John, the
herald of the Word, besought men to make themselves ready against the
coming of the Christ of God.[23] And it was this which was signified
by the dumbness of Zacharias, which waited for fruit in the person
of the harbinger of Christ, that the Word, the light of truth, by
becoming the gospel, might break the mystic silence of the prophetic
enigmas. But if thou desirest truly to see God, take to thyself means
of purification worthy of Him, not leaves of laurel fillets interwoven
with wool and purple; but wreathing thy brows with righteousness, and
encircling them with the leaves of temperance, set thyself earnestly to
find Christ. “For I am,” He says, “the door,”[24] which we who desire
to understand God must discover, that He may throw heaven’s gates wide
open to us. For the gates of the Word being intellectual, are opened by
the key of faith. No one knows God but the Son, and he to whom the Son
shall reveal Him.[25] And I know well that He who has opened the door
hitherto shut, will afterwards reveal what is within; and will show
what we could not have known before, had we not entered in by Christ,
through whom alone God is beheld.
CHAPTER II.
THE ABSURDITY AND IMPIETY OF THE HEATHEN MYSTERIES AND FABLES
ABOUT THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF THEIR GODS.
Explore not then too curiously the shrines of impiety, or the mouths
of caverns full of monstrosity, or the Thesprotian caldron, or the
Cirrhæan tripod, or the Dodonian copper. The Gerandryon,[26] once
regarded sacred in the midst of desert sands, and the oracle there
gone to decay with the oak itself, consign to the region of antiquated
fables. The fountain of Castalia is silent, and the other fountain
of Colophon; and, in like manner, all the rest of the springs of
divination are dead, and stripped of their vainglory, although at a
late date, are shown with their fabulous legends to have run dry.
Recount to us also the useless[27] oracles of that other kind of
divination, or rather madness, the Clarian, the Pythian, the Didymæan,
that of Amphiaraus, of Apollo, of Amphilochus; and if you will,
couple[28] with them the expounders of prodigies, the augurs, and
the interpreters of dreams. And bring and place beside the Pythian
those that divine by flour, and those that divine by barley, and the
ventriloquists still held in honour by many. Let the secret shrines of
the Egyptians and the necromancies of the Etruscans be consigned to
darkness. Insane devices truly are they all of unbelieving men. Goats,
too, have been confederates in this art of soothsaying, trained to
divination; and crows taught by men to give oracular responses to men.
And what if I go over the mysteries? I will not divulge them in
mockery, as they say Alcibiades did, but I will expose right well by
the word of truth the sorcery hidden in them; and those so-called
gods of yours, whose are the mystic rites, I shall display, as it
were, on the stage of life, to the spectators of truth. The bacchanals
hold their orgies in honour of the frenzied Dionysus, celebrating
their sacred frenzy by the eating of raw flesh, and go through the
distribution of the parts of butchered victims, crowned with snakes,
shrieking out the name of that Eva by whom error came into the world.
The symbol of the Bacchic orgies is a consecrated serpent. Moreover,
according to the strict interpretation of the Hebrew term, the name
Hevia, aspirated, signifies a female serpent.
Demeter and Proserpine have become the heroines of a mystic drama;
and their wanderings, and seizure, and grief, Eleusis celebrates
by torchlight processions. I think that the derivation of orgies
and mysteries ought to be traced, the former to the wrath (ὀργή) of
Demeter against Zeus, the latter to the nefarious wickedness (μύσος)
relating to Dionysus; but if from Myus of Attica, who Pollodorus
says was killed in hunting--no matter, I don’t grudge your mysteries
the glory of funeral honours. You may understand mysteria in another
way, as mytheria (hunting fables), the letters of the two words being
interchanged; for certainly fables of this sort hunt after the most
barbarous of the Thracians, the most senseless of the Phrygians, and
the superstitious among the Greeks.
Perish, then, the man who was the author of this imposture among men,
be he Dardanus, who taught the mysteries of the mother of the gods, or
Eetion, who instituted the orgies and mysteries of the Samothracians,
or that Phrygian Midas who, having learned the cunning imposture
from Odrysus, communicated it to his subjects. For I will never be
persuaded by that Cyprian Islander Cinyras, who dared to bring forth
from night to the light of day the lewd orgies of Aphrodite in his
eagerness to deify a strumpet of his own country. Others say that
Melampus the son of Amythaon imported the festivals of Ceres from Egypt
into Greece, celebrating her grief in song.
These I would instance as the prime authors of evil, the parents of
impious fables and of deadly superstition, who sowed in human life that
seed of evil and ruin--the mysteries.
And now, for it is time, I will prove their orgies to be full of
imposture and quackery. And if you have been initiated, you will laugh
all the more at these fables of yours which have been held in honour. I
publish without reserve what has been involved in secrecy, not ashamed
to tell what you are not ashamed to worship.
There is then the foam-born and Cyprus-born, the darling of Cinyras,--I
mean Aphrodite, lover of the virilia, because sprung from them, even
from those of Uranus, that were cut off,--those lustful members, that,
after being cut off, offered violence to the waves. Of members so
lewd a worthy fruit--Aphrodite--is born. In the rites which celebrate
this enjoyment of the sea, as a symbol of her birth a lump of salt
and the phallus are handed to those who are initiated into the art of
uncleanness. And those initiated bring a piece of money to her, as a
courtesan’s paramours do to her.
Then there are the mysteries of Demeter, and Zeus’s wanton embraces of
his mother, and the wrath of Demeter; I know not what for the future
I shall call her, mother or wife, on which account it is that she is
called Brimo, as is said; also the entreaties of Zeus, and the drink
of gall, the plucking out of the hearts of sacrifices, and deeds that
we dare not name. Such rites the Phrygians perform in honour of Attis
and Cybele and the Corybantes. And the story goes, that Zeus, having
torn away the testicles of a ram, brought them out and cast them at
the breasts of Demeter, paying thus a fraudulent penalty for his
violent embrace, pretending to have cut out his own. The symbols of
initiation into these rites, when set before you in a vacant hour, I
know will excite your laughter, although on account of the exposure by
no means inclined to laugh. I have eaten out of the drum, I have drunk
out of the cymbal, I have carried the Cernos,[29] I have slipped into
the bedroom. Are not these signs a disgrace? Are not the mysteries
absurdity?
What if I add the rest? Demeter becomes a mother, Kore[30] is reared
up to womanhood. And, in course of time, he who begot her,--this same
Zeus has intercourse with his own daughter Pherephatta,--after Ceres,
the mother,--forgetting his former abominable wickedness. Zeus is both
the father and the seducer of Kore, and has intercourse with her in the
shape of a dragon; his identity, however, was discovered. The token
of the Sabazian mysteries to the initiated is “the deity gliding over
the breast,”--the deity being this serpent crawling over the breasts
of the initiated. Proof surely this of the unbridled lust of Zeus.
Pherephatta has a child, though, to be sure, in the form of a bull, as
an idolatrous poet says:
“The bull
The dragon’s father, and the father of the bull the dragon,
On a hill the herdsman’s hidden ox-goad,”--
alluding, as I believe, under the name of the herdsman’s ox-goad, to
the reed wielded by the bacchanals. Do you wish me to go into the story
of Pherephatta’s gathering of flowers, her basket, and her seizure by
Pluto (Aidoneus), and the rent in the earth, and the swine of Eubouleus
that were swallowed up with the two goddesses; for which reason, in the
Thesmophoria, speaking the Megaric tongue, they thrust out swine? This
mythological story the women celebrate variously in different cities in
the festivals called Thesmophoria and Scirophoria; dramatizing in many
forms the rape of Pherephatta (Proserpine).
The mysteries of Dionysus are wholly inhuman; for while still a child,
and the Curetes danced around [his cradle] clashing their weapons, and
the Titans having come upon them by stealth, and having beguiled him
with childish toys, these very Titans tore him limb from limb when but
a child, as the bard of this mystery, the Thracian Orpheus, says:
“Cone, and spinning-top, and limb-moving rattles,
And fair golden apples from the clear-toned Hesperides.”
And the useless symbols of this mystic rite it will not be useless to
exhibit for condemnation. These are dice, ball, hoop, apples, top,[31]
looking-glass, tuft of wool.
Athene (Minerva), to resume our account, having abstracted the heart
of Dionysus, was called Pallas, from the vibrating of the heart; and
the Titans who had torn him limb from limb, setting a caldron on a
tripod, and throwing into it the members of Dionysus, first boiled them
down, and then fixing them on spits, “held them over the fire.” But
Zeus having appeared, since he was a god, having speedily perceived
the savour of the pieces of flesh that were being cooked,--that
savour which your gods agree to have assigned to them as their
perquisite,--assails the Titans with his thunderbolt, and consigns the
members of Dionysus to his son Apollo to be interred. And he--for he
did not disobey Zeus--bore the dismembered corpse to Parnassus, and
there deposited it.
If you wish to inspect the orgies of the Corybantes, then know that,
having killed their third brother, they covered the head of the dead
body with a purple cloth, crowned it, and carrying it on the point of
a spear, buried it under the roots of Olympus. These mysteries are,
in short, murders and funerals. And the priests of these rites, who
are called kings of the sacred rites by those whose business it is to
name them, give additional strangeness to the tragic occurrence, by
forbidding parsley with the roots from being placed on the table, for
they think that parsley grew from the Corybantic blood that flowed
forth; just as the women, in celebrating the Thesmophoria, abstain from
eating the seeds of the pomegranate which have fallen on the ground,
from the idea that pomegranates sprang from the drops of the blood of
Dionysus. Those Corybantes also they call Cabiri; and the ceremony
itself they announce as the Cabiric mystery.
For those two identical fratricides, having abstracted the box in
which the penis of Bacchus was deposited, took it to Etruria--dealers
in honourable wares truly. They lived there as exiles, employing
themselves in communicating the precious teaching of their
superstition, and presenting the genitals and the box for the
Tyrrhenians to worship. And some will have it, not improbably, that
for this reason Dionysus was called Attis, because he was castrated.
And what is surprising at the Tyrrhenians, who were barbarians, being
thus initiated into these foul indignities, when among the Athenians,
and in the whole of Greece--I blush to say it--the shameful legend
about Demeter holds its ground? For Demeter, wandering in quest of
her daughter Core, broke down with fatigue near Eleusis, a place in
Attica, and sat down on a well overwhelmed with grief. This is even
now prohibited to those who are initiated, lest they should appear to
mimic the weeping goddess. The indigenous inhabitants then occupied
Eleusis: their names were Baubo, and Dusaules, and Triptolemus; and
besides, Eumolpus and Eubouleus. Triptolemus was a herdsman, Eumolpus
a shepherd, and Eubouleus a swineherd; from whom came the race of
the Eumolpidæ and that of the Heralds--a race of Hierophants--who
flourished at Athens.
Well, then (for I shall not refrain from the recital), Baubo having
received Demeter hospitably, reaches to her a refreshing draught; and
on her refusing it, not having any inclination to drink (for she was
very sad), and Baubo having become annoyed, thinking herself slighted,
uncovered her secret parts, and exhibited them to the goddess. Demeter
is delighted at the sight, and takes, though with difficulty, the
draught--pleased, I repeat, at the spectacle. These are the secret
mysteries of the Athenians; these Orpheus records. I shall produce the
very words of Orpheus, that you may have the great authority on the
mysteries himself, as evidence for this piece of turpitude:
“Having thus spoken, she drew aside her garments,
And showed all that shape of the body which it is improper to name,
the growth of puberty;
And with her own hand Baubo stripped herself under the breasts.
Blandly then the goddess laughed and laughed in her mind,
And received the glancing cup in which was the draught.”
And the following is the token of the Eleusinian mysteries: _I have
fasted, I have drunk the cup; I have received from the box; having
done, I put it into the basket, and out of the basket into the chest._
Fine sights truly, and becoming a goddess; mysteries worthy of the
night, and flame, and the magnanimous or rather silly people of the
Erechthidæ, and the other Greeks besides, “whom a fate they hope not
for awaits after death.” And in truth against these Heraclitus the
Ephesian prophesies, as “the nightwalkers, the magi, the bacchanals,
the Lenæan revellers, the initiated.” These he threatens with what
will follow death, and predicts for them fire. For what are regarded
among men as mysteries, they celebrate sacrilegiously. Law, then,
and opinion, are nugatory. And the mysteries of the dragon are an
imposture, which celebrates religiously mysteries that are no mysteries
at all, and observes with a spurious piety profane rites. What are
these mystic chests?--for I must expose their sacred things, and
divulge things not fit for speech. Are they not sesame cakes, and
pyramidal cakes, and globular and flat cakes, embossed all over, and
lumps of salt, and a serpent the symbol of Dionysus Bassareus? And
besides these, are there not pomegranates, and branches, and rods, and
ivy leaves? and besides, round cakes and poppy seeds? And further,
there are the unmentionable symbols of Themis, marjoram, a lamp, a
sword, a woman’s comb, which is a euphemism and mystic expression for a
woman’s secret parts.
O unblushing shamelessness! Once on a time night was silent, a veil
for the pleasure of temperate men; but now for the initiated, the holy
night is the tell-tale of the rites of licentiousness; and the glare of
torches reveals vicious indulgences. Quench the flame, O Hierophant;
reverence, O Torch-bearer, the torches. That light exposes Iacchus; let
thy mysteries be honoured, and command the orgies to be hidden in night
and darkness.[32]
The fire dissembles not; it exposes and punishes what it is bidden.
Such are the mysteries of the Atheists. And with reason I call those
Atheists who know not the true God, and pay shameless worship to a boy
torn in pieces by the Titans, and a woman in distress, and to parts
of the body that in truth cannot be mentioned for shame, held fast as
they are in the double impiety, first in that they know not God, not
acknowledging as God Him who truly is; the other and second is the
error of regarding those who exist not, as existing and calling those
gods that have no real existence, or rather no existence at all, who
have nothing but a name. Wherefore the apostle reproves us, saying,
“And ye were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world.”[33]
All honour to that king of the Scythians, whoever Anacharsis was, who
shot with an arrow one of his subjects who imitated among the Scythians
the mystery of the Mother of the gods, as practised by the inhabitants
of Cyzicus, beating a drum and sounding a cymbal strung from his neck
like a priest of Cybele, condemning him as having become effeminate
among the Greeks, and a teacher of the disease of effeminacy to the
rest of the Scythians.
Wherefore (for I must by no means conceal it) I cannot help wondering
how Euhemerus of Agrigentum, and Nicanor of Cyprus, and Diagoras,
and Hippo of Melos, and besides these, that Cyrenian of the name of
Theodorus, and numbers of others, who lived a sober life, and had a
clearer insight than the rest of the world into the prevailing error
respecting those gods, were called Atheists; for if they did not arrive
at the knowledge of the truth, they certainly suspected the error of
the common opinion; which suspicion is no insignificant seed, and
becomes the germ of true wisdom. One of these charges the Egyptians
thus: “If you believe them to be gods, do not mourn or bewail them; and
if you mourn and bewail them, do not any more regard them as gods.” And
another, taking an image of Hercules made of wood (for he happened most
likely to be cooking something at home), said, “Come now, Hercules;
now is the time to undergo for us this thirteenth labour, as you did
the twelve for Eurystheus, and make this ready for Diagoras,” and so
cast it into the fire as a log of wood. For the extremes of ignorance
are atheism and superstition, from which we must endeavour to keep.
And do you not see Moses, the hierophant of the truth, enjoining that
no eunuch, or emasculated man, or son of a harlot, should enter the
congregation? By the two first he alludes to the impious custom by
which men were deprived both of divine energy and of their virility;
and by the third, to him who, in place of the only real God, assumes
many gods falsely so called,--as the son of a harlot, in ignorance of
his true father, may claim many putative fathers.
There was an innate original communion between men and heaven,
obscured through ignorance, but which now at length has leapt forth
instantaneously from the darkness, and shines resplendent; as has been
expressed by one[34] in the following lines:
“See’st thou this lofty, this boundless ether,
Holding the earth in the embrace of its humid arms.”
And in these:
“O Thou, who makest the earth Thy chariot, and in the earth hast
Thy seat,
Whoever Thou be, baffling our efforts to behold Thee.”
And whatever else the sons of the poets sing.
But sentiments erroneous, and deviating from what is right, and
certainly pernicious, have turned man, a creature of heavenly origin,
away from the heavenly life, and stretched him on the earth, by
inducing him to cleave to earthly objects. For some, beguiled by the
contemplation of the heavens, and trusting to their sight alone, while
they looked on the motions of the stars, straightway were seized
with admiration, and deified them, calling the stars gods from their
motion (θεὸς from θεἵν); and worshipped the sun,--as, for example,
the Indians; and the moon, as the Phrygians. Others, plucking the
benignant fruits of earth-born plants, called grain Demeter, as the
Athenians, and the vine Dionysus, as the Thebans. Others, considering
the penalties of wickedness, deified them, worshipping various forms of
retribution and calamity. Hence the Erinnyes, and the Eumenides, and
the piacular deities, and the judges and avengers of crime, are the
creations of the tragic poets.
And some even of the philosophers, after the poets, make idols of
forms of the affections in your breasts,--such as fear, and love,
and joy, and hope; as, to be sure, Epimenides of old, who raised at
Athens the altars of Insult and Impudence. Other objects deified by
men take their rise from events, and are fashioned in bodily shape,
such as a Dike, a Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos, and Heimarmene,
and Auxo, and Thallo, which are Attic goddesses. There is a sixth mode
of introducing error and of manufacturing gods, according to which
they number the twelve gods, whose birth is the theme of which Hesiod
sings in his Theogony, and of whom Homer speaks in all that he says
of the gods. The last mode remains (for there are seven in all)--that
which takes its rise from the divine beneficence towards men. For, not
understanding that it is God that does us good, they have invented
saviours in the persons of the Dioscuri, and Hercules the averter of
evil, and Asclepius the healer. These are the slippery and hurtful
deviations from the truth which draw man down from heaven, and cast him
into the abyss. I wish to show thoroughly what like these gods of yours
are, that now at length you may abandon your delusion, and speed your
flight back to heaven. “For we also were once children of wrath, even
as others; but God, being rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith
He loved us, when we were now dead in trespasses, quickened us together
with Christ.”[35] For the Word is living, and having been buried with
Christ, is exalted with God. But those who are still unbelieving are
called children of wrath, reared for wrath. We who have been rescued
from error, and restored to the truth, are no longer the nurslings of
wrath. Thus, therefore, we who were once the children of lawlessness,
have through the philanthropy of the Word now become the sons of God.
But to you a poet of your own, Empedocles of Agrigentum, comes and says:
“Wherefore, distracted with grievous evils,
You will never ease your soul of its miserable woes.”
The most of what is told of your gods is fabled and invented; and those
things which are supposed to have taken place, are recorded of vile men
who lived licentious lives:
“You walk in pride and madness,
And leaving the right and straight path, you have gone away
Through thorns and briars. Why do ye wander?
Cease, foolish men, from mortals;
Leave the darkness of night, and lay hold on the light.”
These counsels the Sybil, who is at once prophetic and poetic, enjoins
on us; and truth enjoins them on us too, stripping the crowd of deities
of those terrifying and threatening masks of theirs, disproving the
rash opinions formed of them by showing the similarity of names. For
there are those who reckon three Jupiters: him of Æther in Arcadia,
and the other two sons of Kronos; and of these, one in Crete, and the
others again in Arcadia. And there are those that reckon five Athenes:
the Athenian, the daughter of Hephæstus; the second, the Egyptian,
the daughter of Nilus; the third the inventor of war, the daughter of
Kronos; the fourth, the daughter of Zeus, whom the Messenians have
named Coryphasia, from her mother; above all, the daughter of Pallas
and Titanis, the daughter of Oceanus, who, having wickedly killed her
father, adorned herself with her father’s skin, as if it had been the
fleece of a sheep. Further, Aristotle calls the first Apollo, the son
of Hephæstus and Athene (consequently Athene is no more a virgin); the
second, that in Crete, the son of Corybas; the third, the son of Zeus;
the fourth, the Arcadian, the son of Silenus (this one is called by the
Arcadians Nomius); and in addition to these, he specifies the Libyan
Apollo, the son of Ammon; and to these Didymus the grammarian adds a
sixth, the son of Magnes. And now how many Apollos are there? They are
numberless, mortal men, all helpers of their fellow-men, who similarly
with those already mentioned have been so called. And what were I to
mention the many Asclepiuses, or all the Mercuries that are reckoned
up, or the Vulcans of fable? Shall I not appear extravagant, deluging
your ears with these numerous names?
At any rate, the native countries of your gods, and their arts and
lives, and besides especially their sepulchres, demonstrate them to
have been men. Mars, accordingly, who by the poets is held in the
highest possible honour:
“Mars, Mars, bane of men, blood-stained stormer of walls,”[36]--
this deity, always changing sides, and implacable, as Epicharmus says,
was a Spartan; Sophocles knew him for a Thracian; others say he was an
Arcadian. This god, Homer says, was bound thirteen months:
“Mars had his sufferings; by Alöeus’ sons,
Otus and Ephialtes, strongly bound,
He thirteen months in brazen fetters lay.”[37]
Good luck attend the Carians, who sacrifice dogs to him! And may
the Scythians never leave off sacrificing asses, as Apollodorus and
Callimachus relate:
“Phœbus rises propitious to the Hyperboreans,
When they offer sacrifices of asses to him.”
And the same in another place:
“Fat sacrifices of asses’ flesh delight Phœbus.”
Hephæstus, whom Jupiter cast from Olympus, from its divine threshold,
having fallen on Lemnos, practised the art of working in brass, maimed
in his feet:
“His tottering knees were bowed beneath his weight.”[38]
You have also a doctor, and not only a brass-worker among the gods. And
the doctor was greedy of gold; Asclepius was his name. I shall produce
as a witness your own poet, the Bœotian Pindar:
“Him even the gold glittering in his hands,
Amounting to a splendid fee, persuaded
To rescue a man, already death’s capture, from his grasp;
But Saturnian Jove, having shot his bolt through both,
Quickly took the breath from their breasts,
And his flaming thunderbolt sealed their doom.”
And Euripides:
“For Zeus was guilty of the murder of my son
Asclepius, by casting the lightning flame at his breast.”
He therefore lies struck with lightning in the regions of Cynosuris.
Philochorus also says, that Poseidon was worshipped as a physician
in Tenos; and that Kronos settled in Sicily, and there was buried.
Patroclus the Thurian, and Sophocles the younger, in three tragedies,
have told the story of the Dioscuri; and these Dioscuri were only two
mortals, if Homer is worthy of credit:
“... but they beneath the teeming earth,
In Lacedæmon lay, their native land.”[39]
And, in addition, he who wrote the Cyprian poems says Castor was
mortal, and death was decreed to him by fate; but Pollux was immortal,
being the progeny of Mars. This he has poetically fabled. But Homer is
more worthy of credit, who spoke as above of both the Dioscuri; and,
besides, proved Hercules to be a mere phantom:
“The man Hercules, expert in mighty deeds.”
Hercules, therefore, was known by Homer himself as only a mortal man.
And Hieronymus the philosopher describes the make of his body, as
tall,[40] bristling-haired, robust; and Dicæarchus says that he was
square-built, muscular, dark, hook-nosed, with greyish eyes and long
hair. This Hercules, accordingly, after living fifty-two years, came to
his end, and was burned in a funeral pyre in Œta.
As for the Muses, whom Alcander calls the daughters of Zeus
and Mnemosyne, and the rest of the poets and authors deify and
worship,--those Muses, in honour of whom whole states have already
erected museums, being handmaids, were hired by Megaclo, the daughter
of Makar. This Makar reigned over the Lesbians, and was always
quarrelling with his wife; and Megaclo was vexed for her mother’s sake.
What would she not do on her account? Accordingly she hires those
handmaids, being so many in number, and calls them Mysæ, according
to the dialect of the Æolians. These she taught to sing deeds of the
olden time, and play melodiously on the lyre. And they, by assiduously
playing the lyre, and singing sweetly to it, soothed Makar, and put a
stop to his ill-temper. Wherefore Megaclo, as a token of gratitude to
them, on her mother’s account erected brazen pillars, and ordered them
to be held in honour in all the temples. Such, then, are the Muses.
This account is in Myrsilus of Lesbos.
And now, then, hear the loves of your gods, and the incredible tales
of their licentiousness, and their wounds, and their bonds, and their
laughings, and their fights, their servitudes too, and their banquets;
and furthermore, their embraces, and tears, and sufferings, and lewd
delights. Call me Poseidon, and the troop of damsels deflowered by
him, Amphitrite Amymone, Alope, Melanippe, Alcyone, Hippothoe, Chione,
and myriads of others; with whom, though so many, the passions of your
Poseidon were not satiated.
Call me Apollo; this is Phœbus, both a holy prophet and a good adviser.
But Sterope will not say that, nor Æthousa, nor Arsinoe, nor Zeuxippe,
nor Prothoe, nor Marpissa, nor Hypsipyle. For Daphne alone escaped the
prophet and seduction.
And, above all, let the Father of gods and men, according to you,
himself come, who was so given to sexual pleasure, as to lust after
all, and indulge his lust on all. For he took his fill of women, as the
he-goat of the Thmuitæ did of the she-goats. And thy poems, O Homer,
fill me with admiration!
“He said, and nodded with his shadowy brows;
Waved on the immortal head the ambrosial locks,
And all Olympus trembled at his nod.”[41]
Thou makest Zeus venerable, O Homer; and the nod which thou dost
ascribe to him is most reverend. But show him only a woman’s girdle,
and Zeus is exposed, and his locks are dishonoured. To what a pitch
of licentiousness did that Zeus of yours proceed, who spent so many
nights in voluptuousness with Alcmene? For not even these nine nights
were long to this insatiable monster. But, on the contrary, a whole
lifetime were short enough for his lust; that he might beget for us the
evil-averting god.
Hercules, the son of Zeus--a true son of Zeus--was the offspring of
that long night, who with hard toil accomplished the twelve labours
in a long time, but in one night deflowered the fifty daughters of
Thestius, and thus was at once the debaucher and the bridegroom of so
many virgins. It is not, then, without reason that the poets call him
a cruel wretch and a nefarious scoundrel. It were tedious to recount
his adulteries of all sorts, and debauching of boys. For your gods did
not even abstain from boys, one having loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus,
another Pelops, another Chrysippus, and another Ganymede. Let such gods
as these be worshipped by your wives, and let them pray that their
husbands be such as these--so temperate; that, emulating them in the
same practices, they may be like the gods. Such gods let your boys be
trained to worship, that they may grow up to be men with the accursed
likeness of fornication on them received from the gods.
But it is only the male deities, perhaps, that are impetuous in sexual
indulgence.
“The female deities stayed each in the house, for shame,”[42] says
Homer; the goddesses blushing, for modesty’s sake, to look on Aphrodite
when she had been guilty of adultery. But these are more passionately
licentious, bound in the chains of adultery; Eos having disgraced
herself with Tithonus, Selene with Endymion, Nereis with Æacus, Thetis
with Peleus, Demeter with Jason, Pherephatta with Adonis. And Aphrodite
having disgraced herself with Ares, crossed over to Cinyra and married
Anchises, and laid snares for Phaëthon, and loved Adonis. She contended
with the ox-eyed Juno; and the goddesses unrobed for the sake of the
apple, and presented themselves naked before the shepherd, that he
might decide which was the fairest.
But come, let us briefly go the round of the games, and do away with
those solemn assemblages at tombs, the Isthmian, Nemean, and Pythian,
and finally the Olympian. At Pytho the Pythian dragon is worshipped,
and the festival-assemblage of the serpent is called by the name
Pythia. At the Isthmus the sea spit out a piece of miserable refuse;
and the Isthmian games bewail Melicerta.
At Nemea another--a little boy, Archemorus--was buried; and the funeral
games of the child are called Nemea. Pisa is the grave of the Phrygian
charioteer, O Hellenes of all tribes; and the Olympian games, which are
nothing else than the funeral sacrifices of Pelops, the Zeus of Phidias
claims for himself. The mysteries were then, as is probable, games
held in honour of the dead; so also were the oracles, and both became
public. But the mysteries at Sagra[43] and in Alimus of Attica were
confined to Athens. But those contests and _phalloi_ consecrated
to Dionysus were a world’s shame, pervading life with their deadly
influence. For Dionysus, eagerly desiring to descend to Hades, did not
know the way; a man, by name Prosymnus, offers to tell him, not without
reward. The reward was a disgraceful one, though not so in the opinion
of Dionysus: it was an Aphrodisian favour that was asked of Dionysus as
a reward. The god was not reluctant to grant the request made to him,
and promises to fulfil it should he return, and confirms his promise
with an oath. Having learned the way, he departed and again returned:
he did not find Prosymnus, for he had died. In order to acquit himself
of his promise to his lover, he rushes to his tomb, and burns with
unnatural lust. Cutting a fig-branch that came to his hand, he shaped
the likeness of the _membrum virile_, and sat over it; thus
performing his promise to the dead man. As a mystic memorial of this
incident, _phalloi_ are raised aloft in honour of Dionysus through
the various cities. “For did they not make a procession in honour of
Dionysus, and sing most shameless songs in honour of the pudenda, all
would go wrong,” says Heraclitus. This is that Pluto and Dionysus
in whose honour they give themselves up to frenzy, and play the
bacchanal,--not so much, in my opinion, for the sake of intoxication,
as for the sake of the shameless ceremonial practised. With reason,
therefore, such as have become slaves of their passions are your gods!
Furthermore, like the Helots among the Lacedemonians, Apollo came
under the yoke of slavery to Admetus in Pheræ, Hercules to Omphale in
Sardis. Poseidon was a drudge to Laomedon; and so was Apollo, who,
like a good-for-nothing servant, was unable to obtain his freedom from
his former master; and at that time the walls of Troy were built by
them for the Phrygian. And Homer is not ashamed to speak of Athene as
appearing to Ulysses with a golden lamp in her hand. And we read of
Aphrodite, like a wanton serving-wench, taking and setting a seat for
Helen opposite the adulterer, in order to entice him to intercourse.
Panyasis, too, tells us of gods in plenty besides those who acted as
servants, writing thus:
“Demeter underwent servitude, and so did the famous lame god;
Poseidon underwent it, and Apollo too, of the silver bow,
With a mortal man for a year. And fierce Mars
Underwent it at the compulsion of his father.”
And so on.
Agreeably to this, it remains for me to bring before you those amatory
and sensuous deities of yours, as in every respect having human
feelings.
“For theirs was a mortal body.”
This Homer most distinctly shows, by introducing Aphrodite uttering
loud and shrill cries on account of her wound; and describing the most
warlike Ares himself as wounded in the stomach by Diomede. Polemo,
too, says that Athene was wounded by Ornytus; nay, Homer says that
Pluto even was struck with an arrow by Hercules; and Panyasis relates
that the beams of Sol were struck by the arrows of Hercules;[44] and
the same Panyasis relates, that by the same Hercules Hera the goddess
of marriage was wounded in sandy Pylos. Sosibius, too, relates that
Hercules was wounded in the hand by the sons of Hippocoon. And if
there are wounds, there is blood. For the _ichor_ of the poets
is more repulsive than blood; for the putrefaction of blood is called
_ichor_. Wherefore cures and means of sustenance of which they
stand in need must be furnished. Accordingly mention is made of
tables, and potations, and laughter, and intercourse; for men would
not devote themselves to love, or beget children, or sleep, if they
were immortal, and had no wants, and never grew old. Jupiter himself,
when the guest of Lycaon the Arcadian, partook of a human table among
the Ethiopians--a table rather inhuman and forbidden. For he satiated
himself with human flesh unwittingly; for the god did not know that
Lycaon the Arcadian, his entertainer, had slain his son (his name was
Nyctimus), and served him up cooked before Zeus.
This is Jupiter the good, the prophetic, the patron of hospitality, the
protector of suppliants, the benign, the author of omens, the avenger
of wrongs; rather the unjust, the violator of right and of law, the
impious, the inhuman, the violent, the seducer, the adulterer, the
amatory. But perhaps when he was such he was a man; but now these
fables seem to have grown old on our hands. Zeus is no longer a
serpent, a swan, nor an eagle, nor a licentious man; the god no longer
flies, nor loves boys, nor kisses, nor offers violence, although there
are still many beautiful women, more comely than Leda, more blooming
than Semele, and boys of better looks and manners than the Phrygian
herdsman. Where is now that eagle? where now that swan? where now is
Zeus himself? He has grown old with his feathers; for as yet he does
not repent of his amatory exploits, nor is he taught continence. The
fable is exposed before you: Leda is dead, the swan is dead. Seek your
Jupiter. Ransack not heaven, but earth. The Cretan, in whose country he
was buried, will show him to you,--I mean Callimachus, in his hymns:
“For thy tomb, O king,
The Cretans fashioned!”
For Zeus is dead, be not distressed, as Leda is dead, and the swan,
and the eagle, and the libertine, and the serpent. And now even the
superstitious seem, although reluctantly, yet truly, to have come to
understand their error respecting the gods.
“For not from an ancient oak, nor from a rock,
But from men, is thy descent.”[45]
But shortly after this, they will be found to be but oaks and stones.
One Agamemnon is said by Staphylus to be worshipped as a Jupiter in
Sparta; and Phanocles, in his book of the _Brave and Fair_,
relates that Agamemnon king of the Hellenes erected the temple of
Argennian Aphrodite, in honour of Argennus his friend. An Artemis,
named the Strangled, is worshipped by the Arcadians, as Callimachus
says in his _Book of Causes_; and at Methymna another Artemis had
divine honours paid her, viz. Artemis Condylitis. There is also the
temple of another Artemis--Artemis Podagra (or, the gout)--in Laconica,
as Sosibius says. Polemo tells of an image of a yawning Apollo; and
again of another image, reverenced in Elis, of the guzzling Apollo.
Then the Eleans sacrifice to Zeus, the averter of flies; and the
Romans sacrifice to Hercules, the averter of flies; and to Fever, and
to Terror, whom also they reckon among the attendants of Hercules. (I
pass over the Argives, who worshipped Aphrodite, opener of graves.) The
Argives and Spartans reverence Artemis Chelytis, or the cougher, from
χελύττειν, which in their speech signifies to cough.
Do you imagine from what source these details have been quoted? Only
such as are furnished by yourselves are here adduced; and you do not
seem to recognise your own writers, whom I call as witnesses against
your unbelief. Poor wretches that ye are, who have filled with unholy
jesting the whole compass of your life--a life in reality devoid of
life!
Is not Zeus the Baldhead worshipped in Argos; and another Zeus, the
avenger, in Cyprus? Do not the Argives sacrifice to Aphrodite Peribaso
(the protectress),[46] and the Athenians to Aphrodite Hetæra (the
courtesan), and the Syracusans to Aphrodite Kallipygos, whom Nicander
has somewhere called Kalliglutos (with beautiful rump). I pass over in
silence just now Dionysus Choiropsales.[47] The Sicyonians reverence
this deity, whom they have constituted the god of the muliebria--the
patron of filthiness--and religiously honour as the author of
licentiousness. Such, then, are their gods; such are they also who make
mockery of the gods, or rather mock and insult themselves. How much
better are the Egyptians, who in their towns and villages pay divine
honours to the irrational creatures, than the Greeks, who worship such
gods as these?
For if they are beasts, they are not adulterous or libidinous, and
seek pleasure in nothing that is contrary to nature. And of what sort
these deities are, what need is there further to say, as they have
been already sufficiently exposed? Furthermore, the Egyptians whom
I have now mentioned are divided in their objects of worship. The
Syenites worship the braize-fish; and the maiotes--this is another
fish--is worshipped by those who inhabit Elephantine: the Oxyrinchites
likewise worship a fish which takes its name from their country.
Again, the Heraclitopolites worship the ichneumon, the inhabitants of
Sais and of Thebes a sheep, the Leucopolites a wolf, the Cynopolites
a dog, the Memphites Apis, the Mendesians a goat. And you, who are
altogether better than the Egyptians (I shrink from saying worse),
who are never done laughing every day of your lives at the Egyptians,
what are some of you, too, with regard to brute beasts? For of your
number the Thessalians pay divine homage to storks, in accordance with
ancient custom; and the Thebans to weasels, for their assistance at
the birth of Hercules. And again, are not the Thessalians reported to
worship ants, since they have learned that Zeus in the likeness of an
ant had intercourse with Eurymedusa, the daughter of Cletor, and begot
Myrmidon? Polemo, too, relates that the people who inhabit the Troad
worship the mice of the country, which they call Sminthoi, because
they gnawed the strings of their enemies’ bows; and from those mice
Apollo has received his epithet of Sminthian. Heraclides, in his work,
_Regarding the Building of Temples in Acarnania_, says that, at
the place where the promontory of Actium is, and the temple of Apollo
of Actium, they offer to the flies the sacrifice of an ox.
Nor shall I forget the Samians: the Samians, as Euphorion says,
reverence the sheep. Nor shall I forget the Syrians, who inhabit
Phœnicia, of whom some revere doves, and others fishes, with as
excessive veneration as the Eleans do Zeus. Well, then, since those
you worship are not gods, it seems to me requisite to ascertain if
those are really demons who are ranked, as you say, in this second
order [next the gods]. For if the lickerish and impure are demons,
indigenous demons who have obtained sacred honours may be discovered
in crowds throughout your cities: Menedemus among the Cythnians;
among the Tenians, Callistagoras; among the Delians, Anius; among the
Laconians, Astrabacus; at Phalerus, a hero affixed to the prow of ships
is worshipped; and the Pythian priestess enjoined the Platæans to
sacrifice to Androcrates and Democrates, and Cyclæus and Leuco while
the Median war was at its height. Other demons in plenty may be brought
to light by any one who can look about him a little.
“For thrice ten thousand are there in the all-nourishing earth
Of demons immortal, the guardians of articulate-speaking men.”[48]
Who these guardians are, do not grudge, O Bœotian, to tell. Is it
not clear that they are those we have mentioned, and those of more
renown, the great demons, Apollo, Artemis, Leto, Demeter, Kore, Pluto,
Hercules, and Zeus himself?
But it is from running away that they guard us, O Ascræan, or perhaps
it is from sinning, as forsooth they have never tried their hand at sin
themselves! In that case verily the proverb may fitly be uttered:
“The father who took no admonition admonishes his son.”
If these are our guardians, it is not because they have any ardour of
kindly feeling towards us, but intent on your ruin, after the manner of
flatterers, they prey on your substance, enticed by the smoke. These
demons themselves indeed confess their own gluttony, saying:
“For with drink-offerings due, and fat of lambs,
My altar still hath at their hands been fed;
Such honour hath to us been ever paid.”[49]
What other speech would they utter, if indeed the gods of the
Egyptians, such as cats and weasels, should receive the faculty of
speech, than that Homeric and poetic one which proclaims their liking
for savoury odours and cookery? Such are your demons and gods, and
demigods, if there are any so called, as there are demi-asses (mules);
for you have no want of terms to make up compound names of impiety.
CHAPTER III.
THE CRUELTY OF THE SACRIFICES TO THE GODS.
Well, now, let us say in addition, what inhuman demons, and hostile to
the human race, your gods were, not only delighting in the insanity
of men, but gloating over human slaughter,--now in the armed contests
for superiority in the stadia, and now in the numberless contests for
renown in the wars providing for themselves the means of pleasure, that
they might be able abundantly to satiate themselves with the murder of
human beings.
And now, like plagues invading cities and nations, they demanded cruel
oblations. Thus, Aristomenes the Messenian slew three hundred human
beings in honour of Ithometan Zeus, thinking that hecatombs of such a
number and quality would give good omens; among whom was Theopompos,
king of the Lacedemonians, a noble victim.
The Taurians, the people who inhabit the Tauric Chersonese, sacrifice
to the Tauric Artemis forthwith whatever strangers they lay hands on
on their coasts who have been cast adrift on the sea. These sacrifices
Euripides represents in tragedies on the stage. Monimus relates, in
his treatise on marvels, that at Pella, in Thessaly, a man of Achaia
was slain in sacrifice to Peleus and Chiron. That the Lyctii, who are
a Cretan race, slew men in sacrifice to Zeus, Anticlides shows in his
_Homeward Journeys_; and that the Lesbians offered the like sacrifice
to Dionysus, is said by Dosidas. The Phocæans also (for I will not pass
over such as they are), Pythocles informs us in his third book, _On
Concord_, offer a man as a burnt-sacrifice to the Taurian Artemis.
Erechtheus of Attica and Marius the Roman[50] sacrificed their
daughters,--the former to Pherephatta, as Demaratus mentions in his
first book on _Tragic Subjects_; the latter to the evil-averting
deities, as Dorotheus relates in his first book of _Italian Affairs_.
Philanthropic, assuredly, the demons appear, from these examples; and
how shall those who revere the demons not be correspondingly pious?
The former are called by the fair name of saviours; and the latter
ask for safety from those who plot against their safety, imagining
that they sacrifice with good omens to them, and forget that they
themselves are slaying men. For a murder does not become a sacrifice
by being committed in a particular spot. You are not to call it a
sacred sacrifice, if one slays a man either at the altar or on the
highway to Artemis or Zeus, any more than if he slew him for anger or
covetousness,--other demons very like the former; but a sacrifice of
this kind is murder and human butchery. Then why is it, O men, wisest
of all creatures, that you avoid wild beasts, and get out of the way of
the savage animals, if you fall in with a bear or lion?
“... As when some traveller spies,
Coiled in his path upon the mountain side,
A deadly snake, back he recoils in haste,--
His limbs all trembling, and his cheek all pale.”[51]
But though you perceive and understand demons to be deadly and wicked,
plotters, haters of the human race, and destroyers, why do you not turn
out of their way, or turn them out of yours? What truth can the wicked
tell, or what good can they do any one?
I can then readily demonstrate that man is better than these gods of
yours, who are but demons; and can show, for instance, that Cyrus
and Solon were superior to oracular Apollo. Your Phœbus was a lover
of gifts, but not a lover of men. He betrayed his friend Crœsus, and
forgetting the reward he had got (so careful was he of his fame), led
him across the Halys to the stake. The demons love men in such a way as
to bring them to the fire [unquenchable].
But O man, who lovest the human race better, and art truer than Apollo,
pity him that is bound on the pyre. Do thou, O Solon, declare truth;
and thou, O Cyrus, command the fire to be extinguished. Be wise, then,
at last, O Crœsus, taught by suffering. He whom you worship is an
ingrate; he accepts your reward, and after taking the gold plays false.
“Look again to the end,” O Solon. It is not the demon, but the man
that tells you this. It is not ambiguous oracles that Solon utters.
You shall easily take him up. Nothing but true, O Barbarian, shall
you find by proof this oracle to be, when you are placed on the pyre.
Whence I cannot help wondering, by what plausible reasons those who
first went astray were impelled to preach superstition to men, when
they exhorted them to worship wicked demons, whether it was Phoroneus
or Merops, or whoever else that raised temples and altars to them; and
besides, as is fabled, were the first to offer sacrifices to them. But,
unquestionably, in succeeding ages men invented for themselves gods to
worship. It is beyond doubt that this Eros, who is said to be among the
oldest of the gods, was worshipped by no one till Charmus took a little
boy and raised an altar to him in Academia,--a thing more seemly[52]
than the lust he had gratified; and the lewdness of vice men called by
the name of Eros, deifying thus unbridled lust. The Athenians, again,
knew not who Pan was till Philippides told them.
Superstition, then, as was to be expected, having taken its rise thus,
became the fountain of insensate wickedness; and not being subsequently
checked, but having gone on augmenting and rushing along in full
flood, it became the originator of many demons, and was displayed
in sacrificing hecatombs, appointing solemn assemblies, setting up
images, and building temples, which were in reality tombs: for I will
not pass these over in silence, but make a thorough exposure of them,
though called by the august name of temples; that is, the tombs which
got the name of temples. But do ye now at length quite give up your
superstition, feeling ashamed to regard sepulchres with religious
veneration. In the temple of Athene in Larissa, on the Acropolis, is
the grave of Acrisius; and at Athens, on the Acropolis, is that of
Cecrops, as Antiochus says in the ninth book of his _Histories_.
What of Erichthonius? was he not buried in the temple of Polias? And
Immarus, the son of Eumolpus and Daira, were they not buried in the
precincts of the Elusinium, which is under the Acropolis; and the
daughters of Celeus, were they not interred in Eleusis? Why should
I enumerate to you the wives of the Hyperboreans? They were called
Hyperoche and Laodice; they were buried in the Artemisium in Delos,
which is in the temple of the Delian Apollo. Leandrias says that
Clearchus was buried in Miletus, in the Didymæum. Following the Myndian
Zeno, it were unsuitable in this connection to pass over the sepulchre
of Leucophryne, who was buried in the temple of Artemis in Magnesia;
or the altar of Apollo in Telmessus, which is reported to be the tomb
of Telmisseus the seer. Further, Ptolemy the son of Agesarchus, in his
first book about Philopator, says that Cinyras and the descendants of
Cinyras were interred in the temple of Aphrodite in Paphos. But all
time would not be sufficient for me, were I to go over the tombs which
are held sacred by you. And if no shame for these audacious impieties
steals over you, it comes to this, that you are completely dead,
putting, as really you do, your trust in the dead.
“Poor wretches, what misery is this you suffer?
Your heads are enveloped in the darkness of night.”[53]
CHAPTER IV.
THE ABSURDITY AND SHAMEFULNESS OF THE IMAGES BY
WHICH THE GODS ARE WORSHIPPED.
If, in addition, I take and set before you for inspection these very
images, you will, as you go over them, find how truly silly is the
custom in which you have been reared, of worshipping the senseless
works of men’s hands.
Anciently, then, the Scythians worshipped their sabres, the Arabs
stones, the Persians rivers. And some, belonging to other races still
more ancient, set up blocks of wood in conspicuous situations, and
erected pillars of stone, which were called Xoana, from the carving of
the material of which they were made. The image of Artemis in Icarus
was doubtless unwrought wood, and that of the Cithæronian. Here was a
felled tree-trunk; and that of the Samian Here, as Aethlius says, was
at first a plank, and was afterwards during the government of Proclus
carved into human shape. And when the Xoana began to be made in the
likeness of men, they got the name of Brete,--a term derived from
Brotos (man). In Rome, the historian Varro says that in ancient times
the Xoanon of Mars--the idol by which he was worshipped--was a spear,
artists not having yet applied themselves to this specious pernicious
art; but when art flourished, error increased. That of stones and
stocks--and, to speak briefly, of dead matter--you have made images
of human form, by which you have produced a counterfeit of piety, and
slandered the truth, is now as clear as can be; but such proof as the
point may demand must not be declined.
That the statue of Zeus at Olympia, and that of Polias at Athens,
were executed of gold and ivory by Phidias, is known by everybody; and
that the image of Here in Samos was formed by the chisel of Euclides,
Olympichus relates in his _Samiaca_. Do not, then, entertain any doubt,
that of the gods called at Athens venerable, Scopas made two of the
stone called Lychnis, and Calos the one which they are reported to have
had placed between them, as Polemon shows in the fourth of his books
addressed to Timæus. Nor need you doubt respecting the images of Zeus
and Apollo at Patara, in Lycia, which Phidias executed, as well as the
lions that recline with them; and if, as some say, they were the work
of Bryxis, I do not dispute,--you have in him another maker of images.
Whichever of these you like, write down. Furthermore, the statues nine
cubits in height of Poseidon and Amphitrite, worshipped in Tenos, are
the work of Telesius the Athenian, as we are told by Philochorus.
Demetrius, in the second book of his _Argolics_, writes of the image of
Here in Tiryns, both that the material was pear-tree and the artist was
Argus.
Many, perhaps, may be surprised to learn that the Palladium which is
called the Diopetes--that is, fallen from heaven--which Diomede and
Ulysses are related to have carried off from Troy and deposited at
Demophoon, was made of the bones of Pelops, as the Olympian Jove of
other bones--those of the Indian wild beast. I adduce as my authority
Dionysius, who relates this in the fifth part of his _Cycle_. And
Apellas, in the _Delphics_, says that there were two Palladia, and
that both were fashioned by men. But that no one may suppose that I
have passed over them through ignorance, I shall add that the image of
Dionysus Morychus at Athens was made of the stones called Phellata,
and was the work of Simon the son of Eupalamus, as Polemo says in a
letter. There were also two other sculptors of Crete, as I think: they
were called Scyles and Dipoenus; and these executed the statues of the
Dioscuri in Argos, and the image of Hercules in Tiryns, and the effigy
of the Munychian Artemis in Sicyon.
Why should I linger over these, when I can point out to you the great
deity himself, and show you who he was,--whom indeed, conspicuously
above all, we hear to have been considered worthy of veneration? Him
they have dared to speak of as made without hands--I mean the Egyptian
Serapis. For some relate that he was sent as a present by the people of
Sinope to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of the Egyptians, who won their
favour by sending them corn from Egypt when they were perishing with
famine; and that this idol was an image of Pluto; and Ptolemy, having
received the statue, placed it on the promontory which is now called
Racotis; where the temple of Serapis was held in honour, and the sacred
enclosure borders on the spot; and that Blistichis the courtesan having
died in Canopus, Ptolemy had her conveyed there, and buried beneath the
fore-mentioned shrine.
Others say that the Serapis was a Pontic idol, and was transported
with solemn pomp to Alexandria. Isidore alone says that it was brought
from the Seleucians, near Antioch, who also had been visited with
a dearth of corn, and had been fed by Ptolemy. But Athenodorus the
son of Sandon, while wishing to make out the Serapis to be ancient,
has somehow slipped into the mistake of proving it to be an image
fashioned by human hands. He says that Sesostris the Egyptian king,
having subjugated the most of the Hellenic races, on his return to
Egypt brought a number of craftsmen with him. Accordingly he ordered
a statue of Osiris, his ancestor, to be executed in sumptuous style;
and the work was done by the artist Bryaxis, not the Athenian, but
another of the same name, who employed in its execution a mixture of
various materials. For he had filings of gold, and silver, and lead,
and in addition, tin; and of Egyptian stones not one was wanting, and
there were fragments of sapphire, and hematite, and emerald, and topaz.
Having ground down and mixed together all these ingredients, he gave
to the composition a blue colour, whence the darkish hue of the image;
and having mixed the whole with the colouring matter that was left over
from the funeral of Osiris and Apis, moulded the Serapis, the name of
which points to its connection with sepulture and its construction
from funeral materials, compounded as it is of Osiris and Apis, which
together make Osirapis.
Another new deity was added to the number with great religious pomp
in Egypt, and was near being so in Greece by the king of the Romans,
who deified Antinous, whom he loved as Zeus loved Ganymede, and whose
beauty was of a very rare order: for lust is not easily restrained,
destitute as it is of fear; and men now observe the sacred nights of
Antinous, the shameful character of which the lover who spent them
with him knew well. Why reckon him among the gods, who is honoured on
account of uncleanness? And why do you command him to be lamented as a
son? And why should you enlarge on his beauty? Beauty blighted by vice
is loathsome. Do not play the tyrant, O man, over beauty, nor offer
foul insult to youth in its bloom. Keep beauty pure, that it may be
truly fair. Be king over beauty, not its tyrant. Remain free, and then
I shall acknowledge thy beauty, because thou hast kept its image pure:
then will I worship that true beauty which is the archetype of all who
are beautiful. Now the grave of the debauched boy is the temple and
town of Antinous. For just as temples are held in reverence, so also
are sepulchres, and pyramids, and mausoleums, and labyrinths, which
are temples of the dead, as the others are sepulchres of the gods. As
teacher on this point, I shall produce to you the Sybil prophetess:
“Not the oracular lie of Phœbus,
Whom silly men called God, and falsely termed Prophet;
But the oracles of the great God, who was not made by men’s hands,
Like dumb idols of sculptured stone.”[54]
She also predicts the ruin of the temple, foretelling that that of the
Ephesian Artemis would be engulphed by earthquakes and rents in the
ground, as follows:
“Prostrate on the ground Ephesus shall wail, weeping by the shore,
And seeking a temple that has no longer an inhabitant.”
She says also that the temple of Isis and Serapis would be demolished
and burned:
“Isis, thrice-wretched goddess, thou shalt linger by the streams
of the Nile;
Solitary, frenzied, silent, on the sands of Acheron.”
Then she proceeds:
“And thou, Serapis, covered with a heap of white stones,
Shalt lie a huge ruin in thrice-wretched Egypt.”
But if you attend not to the prophetess, hear at least your own
philosopher, the Ephesian Heraclitus, upbraiding images with their
senselessness: “And to these images they pray, with the same result as
if one were to talk to the walls of his house.” For are they not to
be wondered at who worship stones, and place them before the doors,
as if capable of activity? They worship Hermes as a god, and place
Aguieus as a doorkeeper. For if people upbraid them with being devoid
of sensation, why worship them as gods? And if they are thought to be
endowed with sensation, why place them before the door? The Romans,
who ascribed their greatest successes to Fortune, and regarded her
as a very great deity, took her statue to the privy, and erected it
there, assigning to the goddess as a fitting temple--the necessary. But
senseless wood and stone, and rich gold, care not a whit for either
savoury odour, or blood, or smoke, by which, being at once honoured
and fumigated, they are blackened; no more do they for honour or
insult. And these images are more worthless than any animal. I am at
a loss to conceive how objects devoid of sense were deified, and feel
compelled to pity as miserable wretches those that wander in the mazes
of this folly: for if some living creatures have not all the senses,
as worms and caterpillars, and such as even from the first appear
imperfect, as moles and the shrew-mouse, which Nicander says is blind
and uncouth; yet are they superior to those utterly senseless idols
and images. For they have some one sense,--say, for example, hearing,
or touching, or something analogous to smell or taste; while images do
not possess even one sense. There are many creatures that have neither
sight, nor hearing, nor speech, such as the genus of oysters, which
yet live and grow, and are affected by the changes of the moon. But
images, being motionless, inert, and senseless, are bound, nailed,
glued,--are melted, filed, sawed, polished, carved. The senseless
earth is dishonoured by the makers of images, who change it by their
art from its proper nature, and induce men to worship it; and the
makers of gods worship not gods and demons, but in my view earth and
art, which go to make up images. For, in sooth, the image is only dead
matter shaped by the craftsman’s hand. But _we_ have no sensible
image of sensible matter, but an image that is perceived by the mind
alone,--God, who alone is truly God.
And again, when involved in calamities, the superstitious worshippers
of stones, though they have learned by the event that senseless matter
is not to be worshipped, yet, yielding to the pressure of misfortune,
become the victims of their superstition; and though despising the
images, yet not wishing to appear wholly to neglect them, are found
fault with by those gods by whose names the images are called.
For Dionysius the tyrant, the younger, having stripped off the golden
mantle from the statue of Jupiter in Sicily, ordered him to be clothed
in a woollen one, remarking facetiously that the latter was better
than the golden one, being lighter in summer and warmer in winter.
And Antiochus of Cyzicus, being in difficulties for money, ordered
the golden statue of Zeus, fifteen cubits in height, to be melted;
and one like it, of less valuable material, plated with gold, to be
erected in place of it. And the swallows and most birds fly to these
statues, and void their excrement on them, paying no respect either
to Olympian Zeus, or Epidaurian Asclepius, or even to Athene Polias,
or the Egyptian Serapis; but not even from them have you learned the
senselessness of images. But it has happened that miscreants or enemies
have assailed and set fire to temples, and plundered them of their
votive gifts, and melted even the images themselves, from base greed
of gain. And if a Cambyses or a Darius, or any other madman, has made
such attempts, and if one has killed the Egyptian Apis, I laugh at him
killing their god, while pained at the outrage being perpetrated for
the sake of gain. I will therefore willingly forget such villainy,
looking on acts like these more as deeds of covetousness, than as a
proof of the impotence of idols. But fire and earthquakes are shrewd
enough not to feel shy or frightened at either demons or idols, any
more than at pebbles heaped by the waves on the shore.
I know fire to be capable of exposing and curing superstition. If thou
art willing to abandon this folly, the element of fire shall light
thy way. This same fire burned the temple in Argos, with Chrysis the
priestess; and that of Artemis in Ephesus the second time after the
Amazons. And the Capitol in Rome was often wrapped in flames; nor did
the fire spare the temple of Serapis, in the city of the Alexandrians.
At Athens it demolished the temple of the Eleutherian Dionysus; and
as to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, first a storm assailed it, and
then the discerning fire utterly destroyed it. This is told as the
preface of what the fire promises. And the makers of images, do they
not shame those of you who are wise into despising matter? The Athenian
Phidias inscribed on the finger of the Olympian Jove, Pantarkes[55]
is beautiful. It was not Zeus that was beautiful in his eyes, but the
man he loved. And Praxiteles, as Posidippus relates in his book about
Cnidus, when he fashioned the statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus, made it
like the form of Cratine, of whom he was enamoured, that the miserable
people might have the paramour of Praxiteles to worship. And when
Phryne the courtesan, the Thespian, was in her bloom, all the painters
made their pictures of Aphrodite copies of the beauty of Phryne; as,
again, the sculptors at Athens made their Mercuries like Alcibiades.
It remains for you to judge whether you ought to worship courtesans.
Moved, as I believe, by such facts, and despising such fables, the
ancient kings unblushingly proclaimed themselves gods, as this involved
no danger from men, and thus taught that on account of their glory they
were made immortal. Ceux, the son of Eolus, was styled Zeus by his wife
Alcyone; Alcyone, again, being by her husband styled Hera. Ptolemy the
Fourth was called Dionysus; and Mithridates of Pontus was also called
Dionysus; and Alexander wished to be considered the son of Ammon, and
to have his statue made horned by the sculptors--eager to disgrace the
beauty of the human form by the addition of a horn. And not kings only,
but private persons dignified themselves with the names of deities,
as Menecrates the physician, who took the name of Zeus. What need is
there for me to instance Alexarchus? He, having been by profession
a grammarian, assumed the character of the sungod, as Aristus of
Salamis relates. And why mention Nicagorus? He was a native of Zela
[in Pontus], and lived in the days of Alexander. Nicagorus was styled
Hermes, and used the dress of Hermes, as he himself testifies. And
whilst whole nations, and cities with all their inhabitants, sinking
into self-flattery, treat the myths about the gods with contempt, at
the same time men themselves, assuming the air of equality with the
gods, and being puffed up with vainglory, vote themselves extravagant
honours. There is the case of the Macedonian Philip of Pella, the son
of Amyntor, to whom they decreed divine worship in Cynosargus, although
his collar-bone was broken, and he had a lame leg, and had one of his
eyes knocked out. And again that of Demetrius, who was raised to the
rank of the gods; and where he alighted from his horse on his entrance
into Athens is the temple of Demetrius _the Alighter_; and altars
were raised to him everywhere, and nuptials with Athene assigned to him
by the Athenians. But he disdained the goddess, as he could not marry
the statue; and taking the courtesan Lamia, he ascended the Acropolis,
and lay with her on the couch of Athene, showing to the old virgin the
postures of the young courtesan.
There is no cause for indignation, then, at Hippo, who immortalized his
own death. For this Hippo ordered the following elegy to be inscribed
on his tomb:
“This is the sepulchre of Hippo, whom Destiny
Made, through death, equal to the immortal gods.”
Well done, Hippo! thou showest to us the delusion of men. If they did
not believe thee speaking, now that thou art dead, let them become thy
disciples. This is the oracle of Hippo; let us consider it. The objects
of your worship were once men, and in process of time died; and fable
and time have raised them to honour. For somehow, what is present
is wont to be despised through familiarity; but what is past, being
separated through the obscurity of time from the temporary censure
that attached to it, is invested with honour by fiction, so that the
present is viewed with distrust, the past with admiration. Exactly in
this way is it, then, that the dead men of antiquity, being reverenced
through the long prevalence of delusion respecting them, are regarded
as gods by posterity. As grounds of your belief in these, there are
your mysteries, your solemn assemblies, bonds and wounds, and weeping
deities.
“Woe, woe! that fate decrees my best-belov’d,
Sarpedon, by Patroclus’ hand to fall.”[56]
The will of Zeus was overruled; and Zeus being worsted, laments for
Sarpedon. With reason, therefore, have you yourselves called them
shades and demons, since Homer, paying Athene and the other divinities
sinister honour, has styled them demons:
“She her heavenward course pursued
To join the immortals in the abode of Jove.”[57]
How, then, can shades and demons be still reckoned gods, being in
reality unclean and impure spirits, acknowledged by all to be of an
earthy and watery nature, sinking downwards by their own weight, and
flitting about graves and tombs, about which they appear dimly, being
but shadowy phantasms? Such things are your gods--shades and shadows;
and to these add those maimed, wrinkled, squinting divinities the Litæ,
daughters of Thersites rather than of Zeus. So that Bion--wittily,
as I think--says, How in reason could men pray Zeus for a beautiful
progeny,--a thing he could not obtain for himself?
The incorruptible being, as far as in you lies, you sink in the earth;
and that pure and holy essence you have buried in the grave, robbing
the divine of its true nature.
Why, I pray you, have you assigned the prerogatives of God to what are
no gods? Why, let me ask, have you forsaken heaven to pay divine honour
to earth? What else is gold, or silver, or steel, or iron, or brass, or
ivory, or precious stones? Are they not earth, and of the earth?
Are not all these things which you look on the progeny of one
mother--the earth?
Why, then, foolish and silly men (for I will repeat it), have you,
defaming the super-celestial region, dragged religion to the ground,
by fashioning to yourselves gods of earth, and by going after those
created objects, instead of the uncreated Deity, have sunk into deepest
darkness?
The Parian stone is beautiful, but it is not yet Poseidon. The ivory
is beautiful, but it is not yet the Olympian Zeus. Matter always needs
art to fashion it, but the deity needs nothing. Art has come forward
to do its work, and the matter is clothed with its shape; and while
the preciousness of the material makes it capable of being turned to
profitable account, it is only on account of its form that it comes
to be deemed worthy of veneration. Thy image, if considered as to
its origin, is gold, it is wood, it is stone, it is earth, which has
received shape from the artist’s hand. But I have been in the habit
of walking on the earth, not of worshipping it. For I hold it wrong
to entrust my spirit’s hopes to things destitute of the breath of
life. We must therefore approach as close as possible to the images.
How peculiarly inherent deceit is in them, is manifest from their
very look. For the forms of the images are plainly stamped with the
characteristic nature of demons. If one go round and inspect the
pictures and images, he will at a glance recognise your gods from
their shameful forms: Dionysus from his robe; Hephæstus from his art;
Demeter from her calamity; Ino from her head-dress; Poseidon from his
trident; Zeus from the swan; the pyre indicates Heracles; and if one
sees a statue of a naked woman without an inscription, he understands
it to be the golden Aphrodite. Thus that Cyprian Pygmalion became
enamoured of an image of ivory: the image was Aphrodite, and it was
nude. The Cyprian is made a conquest of by the mere shape, and embraces
the image. This is related by Philostephanus. A different Aphrodite in
Cnidus was of stone, and beautiful. Another person became enamoured of
it, and had intercourse with the stone. Posidippus relates this. The
former of these authors, in his book on Cyprus, and the latter in his
book on Cnidus. So powerful is art to delude, by seducing amorous men
into the pit. Art is powerful, but it cannot deceive reason, nor those
who live agreeably to reason. The doves on the picture were represented
so to the life by the painter’s art, that the pigeons flew to them; and
horses have neighed to well-executed pictures of mares. They say that
a girl became enamoured of an image, and a comely youth of the statue
at Cnidus. But it was the eyes of the spectators that were deceived
by art; for no one in his senses ever would have embraced a goddess,
or entombed himself with a lifeless paramour, or become enamoured of
a demon and a stone. But it is with a different kind of spell that
art deludes you, if it leads you not to the indulgence of amorous
affections: it leads you to pay religious honour and worship to images
and pictures.
The picture is like. Well and good! Let art receive its meed of praise,
but let it not deceive man by passing itself off for truth. The horse
stands quiet; the dove flutters not, its wing is motionless. But
the cow of Dædalus, made of wood, allured the savage bull; and art
having deceived him, compelled him to mount a woman full of licentious
passion. Such frenzy have mischief-working arts created in the minds of
the insensate. On the other hand, apes are admired by those who feed
and care for them, because nothing in the shape of images and girls’
ornaments of wax or clay deceives them. You then will show yourselves
inferior to apes by cleaving to stone, and wood, and gold, and ivory
images, and to pictures. Your makers of such mischievous toys--the
sculptors and makers of images, the painters and workers in metal, and
the poets--have introduced a motley crowd of divinities: in the fields,
Satyrs and Pans; in the woods, Nymphs, and Oreads, and Hamadryads; and
besides, in the waters, the rivers, and fountains, the Naiads; and in
the sea the Nereids. And now the Magi boast that the demons are the
ministers of their impiety, reckoning them among the number of their
domestics, and by their charms compelling them to be their slaves.
Besides, the nuptials of the deities, their begetting and bringing
forth of children that are recounted, their adulteries celebrated in
song, their carousals represented in comedy, and bursts of laughter
over their cups, which your authors introduce, urge me to cry out,
though I would fain be silent. Oh the godlessness! You have turned
heaven into a stage; the Divine has become a drama; and what is sacred
you have acted in comedies under the masks of demons, travestying true
religion by your demon-worship [superstition].
“But he, striking the lyre, began to sing beautifully.”[58]
Sing to us, Homer, that beautiful song
“About the amours of Ares and Venus with the beautiful crown:
How first they slept together in the palace of Hephæstus
Secretly; and he gave many gifts, and dishonoured the bed and
chamber of king Hephæstus.”
Stop, O Homer, the song! It is not beautiful; it teaches adultery, and
we are prohibited from polluting our ears with hearing about adultery:
for we are they who bear about with us, in this living and moving image
of our human nature, the likeness of God,--a likeness which dwells
with us, takes counsel with us, associates with us, is a guest with
us, feels with us, feels for us. We have become a consecrated offering
to God for Christ’s sake: we are the chosen generation, the royal
priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people, who once were not a
people, but are now the people of God; who, according to John, are not
of those who are beneath, but have learned all from Him who came from
above; who have come to understand the dispensation of God; who have
learned to walk in newness of life. But these are not the sentiments of
the many; but, casting off shame and fear, they depict in their houses
the unnatural passions of the demons. Accordingly, wedded to impurity,
they adorn their bed-chambers with painted tablets hung up in them,
regarding licentiousness as religion; and lying in bed, in the midst of
their embraces, they look on that Aphrodite locked in the embrace of
her paramour. And in the hoops of their rings they cut a representation
of the amorous bird that fluttered round Leda,--having a strong
predilection for representations of effeminacy,--and use a seal stamped
with an impression of the licentiousness of Zeus. Such are examples
of your voluptuousness, such are the theologies of vice, such are the
instructions of your gods, who commit fornication along with you; for
what one wishes, that he thinks, according to the Athenian orator. And
of what kind, on the other hand, are your other images? Diminutive
Pans, and naked girls, and drunken Satyrs, and _erecta pudenda_,
painted naked in pictures disgraceful for filthiness. And more than
this: you are not ashamed in the eyes of all to look at representations
of all forms of licentiousness which are portrayed in public places,
but set them up and guard them with scrupulous care, consecrating these
pillars of shamelessness at home, as if, forsooth, they were the images
of your gods, depicting on them equally the postures of Philænis and
the labours of Heracles. Not only the use of these, but the sight of
them, and the very hearing of them, we denounce as deserving the doom
of oblivion. Your ears are debauched, your eyes commit fornication,
your looks commit adultery before you embrace. O ye that have done
violence to man, and have devoted to shame what is divine in this
handiwork of God, you disbelieve everything that you may indulge your
passions, and that ye may believe in idols, because you have a craving
after their licentiousness, but disbelieve God, because you cannot bear
a life of self-restraint. You have hated what was better, and valued
what was worse, having been spectators indeed of virtue, but actors of
vice. Happy, therefore, so to say, alone are all those with one accord,
“Who shall refuse to look on any temples
And altars, worthless seats of dumb stones,
And idols of stone, and images made by hands,
Stained with the life’s-blood, and with sacrifices
Of quadrupeds, and bipeds, and fowls, and butcheries of wild
beasts.”[59]
For we are expressly prohibited from exercising a deceptive art: “For
thou shalt not make,” says the prophet, “the likeness of anything which
is in the heaven above or in the earth beneath.”[60]
For can we possibly any longer suppose the Demeter, and the Kore, and
the mystic Iacchus of Praxiteles, to be gods, and not rather regard the
art of Leucippus, or the hands of Apelles, which clothed the material
with the form of the divine glory, as having a better title to the
honour? But while you bestow the greatest pains that the image may be
fashioned with the most exquisite beauty possible, you exercise no care
to guard against your becoming like images for stupidity. Accordingly,
with the utmost clearness and brevity, the prophetic word condemns
this practice: “For all the gods of the nations are the images of
demons; but God made the heavens, and what is in heaven.”[61] Some,
however, who have fallen into error, I know not how, worship God’s work
instead of God Himself,--the sun and the moon, and the rest of the
starry choir,--absurdly imagining these, which are but instruments for
measuring time, to be gods; “for by His word they were established, and
all their host by the breath of His mouth.”[62]
Human art, moreover, produces houses, and ships, and cities, and
pictures. But how shall I tell what God makes? Behold the whole
universe; it is His work: and the heaven, and the sun, and angels, and
men, are the works of His fingers.[63] How great is the power of God!
His bare volition was the creation of the universe. For God alone made
it, because He alone is truly God. By the bare exercise of volition He
creates; His mere willing was followed by the springing into being of
what He willed. Consequently the choir of philosophers are in error,
who indeed most nobly confess that man was made for the contemplation
of the heavens, but who worship the objects that appear in the heavens
and are apprehended by sight. For if the heavenly bodies are not the
works of men, they were certainly created for man. Let none of you
worship the sun, but set his desires on the Maker of the sun; nor deify
the universe, but seek after the Creator of the universe. The only
refuge, then, which remains for him who would reach the portals of
salvation is divine wisdom. From this, as from a sacred asylum, the man
who presses after salvation, can be dragged by no demon.
CHAPTER V.
THE OPINIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS RESPECTING GOD.
Let us then run over, if you choose, the opinions of the philosophers,
to which they give boastful utterance, respecting the gods; that we
may discover philosophy itself, through its conceit making an idol of
matter; although we are able to show, as we proceed, that even while
deifying certain demons, it has a dream of the truth. The elements
were designated as the first principles of all things by some of them:
by Thales of Miletus, who celebrated water, and Anaximenes, also of
Miletus, who celebrated air as the first principle of all things, and
was followed afterwards by Diogenes of Apollonia. Parmenides of Elia
introduced fire and earth as gods; one of which, namely fire, Hippasus
of Metapontum and Heraclitus of Ephesus supposed a divinity. Empedocles
of Agrigentum fell in with a multitude, and, in addition to those four
elements, enumerates disagreement and agreement. Atheists surely these
are to be reckoned, who through an unwise wisdom worshipped matter, who
did not indeed pay religious honour to stocks and stones, but deified
earth, the mother of these,--who did not make an image of Poseidon,
but revered water itself. For what else, according to the original
signification, is Poseidon, but a moist substance? the name being
derived from _posis_ (drink); as, beyond doubt, the warlike Ares is so
called, from _arsis_ (rising up) and _anœresis_ (destroying). For this
reason mainly, I think, many fix a sword into the ground, and sacrifice
to it as to Ares. The Scythians have a practice of this nature, as
Eudoxus tells us in the second book of his _Travels_. The Sauromatæ,
too, a tribe of the Scythians, worship a sabre, as Ikesius says in his
work on _Mysteries_.
This was also the case with Heraclitus and his followers, who
worshipped fire as the first cause; for this fire others named
Hephæstus. The Persian Magi, too, and many of the inhabitants of Asia,
worshipped fire; and besides them, the Macedonians, as Diogenes relates
in the first book of his _Persica_. Why specify the Sauromatæ, who are
said by Nymphodorus, in his _Barbaric Customs_, to pay sacred honours
to fire? or the Persians, or the Medes, or the Magi? These, Dino tells
us, sacrifice beneath the open sky, regarding fire and water as the
only images of the gods.
Nor have I failed to reveal their ignorance; for, however much they
think to keep clear of error in one form, they slide into it in another.
They have not supposed stocks and stones to be images of the gods, like
the Greeks; nor Ibises and Ichneumons, like the Egyptians; but fire and
water, as philosophers. Berosus, in the third book of his _Chaldaics_,
shows that it was after many successive periods of years that men
worshipped images of human shape, this practice being introduced by
Artaxerxes, the son of Darius, and father of Ochus, who first set
up the image of Aphrodite Anaitis at Babylon and Susa; and Ecbatana
set the example of worshipping it to the Persians; the Bactrians, to
Damascus and Sardis.
Let the philosophers, then, own as their teachers the Persians, or
the Sauromatæ, or the Magi, from whom they have learned the impious
doctrine of regarding as divine certain first principles, being
ignorant of the great First Cause, the Maker of all things, and Creator
of those very first principles, the unbeginning God, but reverencing
“these weak and beggarly elements,”[64] as the apostle says, which
were made for the service of man. And of the rest of the philosophers
who, passing over the elements, have eagerly sought after something
higher and nobler, some have descanted on the Infinite, of whom were
Anaximander of Miletus, Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ, and the Athenian
Archelaus, both of whom set Mind (νοȗς) above Infinity; while the
Milesian Leucippus and the Chian Metrodorus apparently inculcated two
first principles--fulness and vacuity. Democritus of Abdera, while
accepting these two, added to them images (εἵδωλα); while Alcmæon of
Crotona supposed the stars to be gods, and endowed with life (I will
not keep silence as to their effrontery). Xenocrates of Chalcedon
indicates that the planets are seven gods, and that the universe,
composed of all these, is an eighth. Nor will I pass over those of the
Porch, who say that the Divinity pervades all matter, even the vilest,
and thus clumsily disgrace philosophy. Nor do I think will it be taken
ill, having reached this point, to advert to the Peripatetics. The
father of this sect, not knowing the Father of all things, thinks that
He who is called the Highest is the soul of the universe; that is, he
supposes the soul of the world to be God, and so is pierced by his own
sword. For by first limiting the sphere of Providence to the orbit of
the moon, and then by supposing the universe to be God, he confutes
himself, inasmuch as he teaches that that which is without God is God.
And that Eresian Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, conjectures at
one time heaven, and at another spirit, to be God. Epicurus alone I
shall gladly forget, who carries impiety to its full length, and thinks
that God takes no charge of the world. What, moreover, of Heraclides
of Pontus? He is dragged everywhere to the images--the εἵδωλα--of
Democritus.
CHAPTER VI.
BY DIVINE INSPIRATION PHILOSOPHERS SOMETIMES HIT ON THE TRUTH.
A great crowd of this description rushes on my mind, introducing, as it
were, a terrifying apparition of strange demons, speaking of fabulous
and monstrous shapes, in old wives’ talk. Far from enjoining men to
listen to such tales are we, who avoid the practice of soothing our
crying children, as the saying is, by telling them fabulous stories,
being afraid of fostering in their minds the impiety professed by
those who, though wise in their own conceit, have no more knowledge
of the truth than infants. For why (in the name of truth!) do you
make those who believe you subject to ruin and corruption, dire and
irretrievable? Why, I beseech you, fill up life with idolatrous images,
by feigning the winds, or the air, or fire, or earth, or stones, or
stocks, or steel, or this universe, to be gods; and, prating loftily
of the heavenly bodies in this much vaunted science of astrology, not
astronomy, to those men who have truly wandered, talk of the wandering
stars as gods? It is the Lord of the spirits, the Lord of the fire, the
Maker of the universe, Him who lighted up the sun, that I long for. I
seek after God, not the works of God. “Whom shall I take as a helper in
my inquiry? We do not, if you have no objection, wholly disown Plato.
How, then, is God to be searched out, O Plato? “For both to find the
Father and Maker of this universe is a work of difficulty; and having
found Him, to declare Him fully, is impossible.”[65]
Why so? by Himself, I beseech you! For He can by no means be
expressed. Well done, Plato! Thou hast touched on the truth. But do
not flag. Undertake with me the inquiry respecting the Good. For into
all men whatever, especially those who are occupied with intellectual
pursuits, a certain divine effluence has been instilled; wherefore,
though reluctantly, they confess that God is one, indestructible,
unbegotten, and that somewhere above in the tracts of heaven, in His
own peculiar appropriate eminence, whence He surveys all things, He has
an existence true and eternal.
“Tell me what I am to conceive God to be,
Who sees all things, and is Himself unseen,”
Euripides says. Accordingly, Menander seems to me to have fallen into
error when he said:
“O sun! for thou, first of gods, ought to be worshipped,
By whom it is that we are able to see the other gods,”
For the sun never could show me the true God; but that healthful Word,
that is the Sun of the soul, by whom alone, when He arises in the
depths of the soul, the eye of the soul itself is irradiated. Whence
accordingly, Democritus, not without reason, says, “that a few of the
men of intellect, raising their hands upwards to what we Greeks now
call the air (ηέρ), called the whole expanse Zeus, or God: He, too,
knows all things, gives and takes away, and He is King of all.”
Of the same sentiments is Plato, who somewhere alludes to God thus:
“Around the King of all are all things, and He is the cause of all good
things.” Who, then, is the King of all? God, who is the measure of the
truth of all existence. As, then, the things that are to be measured
are contained in the measure, so also the knowledge of God measures
and comprehends truth. And the truly holy Moses says: “There shall not
be in thy bag a balance and a balance, great or small, but a true and
just balance shall be to thee,”[66] deeming the balance and measure
and number of the whole to be God. For the unjust and unrighteous
idols are hid at home in the bag, and, so to speak, in the polluted
soul. But the only just measure is the only true God, always just,
continuing the self-same; who measures all things, and weighs them by
righteousness as in a balance, grasping and sustaining universal nature
in equilibrium. “God, therefore, as the old saying has it, occupying
the beginning, the middle, and the end of all that is in being, keeps
the straight course, while He makes the circuit of nature; and justice
always follows Him, avenging those who violate the divine law.”
Whence, O Plato, is that hint of the truth which thou givest? Whence
this rich copiousness of diction, which proclaims piety with oracular
utterance? The tribes of the barbarians, he says, are wiser than these;
I know thy teachers, even if thou wouldst conceal them. You have
learned geometry from the Egyptians, astronomy from the Babylonians;
the charms of healing you have got from the Thracians; the Assyrians
also have taught you many things; but for the laws that are consistent
with truth, and your sentiments respecting God, you are indebted to the
Hebrews,
“Who do not worship through vain deceits
The works of men, of gold, and brass, and silver, and ivory,
And images of dead men, of wood and stone,
Which other men, led by their foolish inclinations, worship;
But raise to heaven pure arms:
When they rise from bed, purifying themselves with water,
And worship alone the Eternal, who reigns for evermore.”
And let it not be this one man alone--Plato; but, O philosophy,
hasten to produce many others also, who declare the only true God to
be God, through His inspiration, if in any measure they have grasped
the truth. For Antisthenes did not think out this doctrine of the
Cynics; but it is in virtue of his being a disciple of Socrates that
he says, “that God is not like to any; wherefore no one can know Him
from an image.” And Xenophon the Athenian would have in his own person
committed freely to writing somewhat of the truth, and given the same
testimony as Socrates, had he not been afraid of the cup of poison,
which Socrates had to drink. But he hints nothing less; he says: “How
great and powerful He is who moves all things, and is Himself at rest,
is manifest; but what He is in form is not revealed. The sun himself,
intended to be the source of light to all around, does not deem it
fitting to allow himself to be looked at; but if any one audaciously
gazes on him, he is deprived of sight.” Whence, then, does the son of
Gryllus learn his wisdom? Is it not manifestly from the prophetess of
the Hebrews,[67] who prophesies in the following style?--
“What flesh can see with the eye the celestial,
The true, the immortal God, who inhabits the vault of heaven?
Nay, men born mortal cannot even stand
Before the rays of the sun.”
Cleanthes Pisadeus,[68] the Stoic philosopher, who exhibits not a
poetic theogony, but a true theology, has not concealed what sentiments
he entertained respecting God:
“If you ask me what is the nature of the good, listen:
That which is regular, just, holy, pious,
Self-governing, useful, fair, fitting,
Grave, independent, always beneficial;
That feels no fear or grief; profitable, painless,
Helpful, pleasant, safe, friendly;
Held in esteem, agreeing with itself, honourable;
Humble, careful, meek, zealous,
Perennial, blameless, ever-during:
Mean is every one who looks to opinion
With the view of obtaining some advantage from it.”
Here, as I think, he clearly teaches of what nature God is; and that
the common opinion and religious customs enslave those that follow
them, but seek not after God.
We must not either keep the Pythagoreans in the background, who say:
“God is one; and He is not, as some suppose, outside of this frame of
things, but within it; but, in all the entireness of His being, is
in the whole circle of existence, surveying all nature, and blending
in harmonious union the whole,--the author of all His own forces and
works, the giver of light in heaven, and Father of all,--the mind and
vital power of the whole world,--the mover of all things.” For the
knowledge of God, these utterances, written by those we have mentioned
through the inspiration of God, and selected by us, may suffice even
for the man that has but small power to examine into truth.
CHAPTER VII.
THE POETS ALSO BEAR TESTIMONY TO THE TRUTH.
Let poetry also approach to us (for philosophy alone will not suffice):
poetry which is wholly occupied with falsehood--which scarcely will
make confession of the truth, but will rather own to God its deviations
into fable. Let whoever of those poets chooses advance first. Aratus
considers that the power of God pervades all things:
“That all may be secure,
Him ever they propitiate first and last,
Hail, Father! great marvel, great gain to man.”
Thus also the Ascræan Hesiod dimly speaks of God:
“For He is the King of all, and monarch
Of the immortals; and there is none that may vie with Him in power.”
Also on the stage they reveal the truth:
“Look on the ether and heaven, and regard that as God,”
says Euripides. And Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, says:
“One, in truth, one is God,
Who made both heaven and the far-stretching earth,
And ocean’s blue wave, and the mighty winds;
But many of us mortals, deceived in heart,
Have set up for ourselves, as a consolation in our afflictions,
Images of the gods of stone, or wood, or brass,
Or gold, or ivory;
And, appointing to those sacrifices and vain festal assemblages,
Are accustomed thus to practise religion.”
In this venturous manner has he on the stage brought truth before the
spectators. But the Thracian Orpheus, the son of Œagrus, hierophant
and poet at once, after his exposition of the orgies, and his theology
of idols, introduces a palinode of truth with true solemnity, though
tardily singing the strain:
“I shall utter to whom it is lawful; but let the doors be closed,
Nevertheless, against all the profane. But do thou hear,
O Musæus, offspring of the light-bringing moon,
For I will declare what is true. And let not these things
Which once appeared in your breast rob you of dear life;
But looking to the divine word, apply yourself to it,
Keeping right _the seat of intellect and feeling_; and walk well
In the straight path, and to the immortal King of the universe
alone
Direct your gaze.”
Then proceeding, he clearly adds:
“He is one, self-proceeding; and from Him alone all things proceed,
And in them He Himself exerts his activity: no mortal
Beholds Him, but He beholds all.”
Thus far Orpheus at last understood that he had been in error:
“But linger no longer, O man, endued with varied wisdom;
But turn and retrace your steps, and propitiate God.”
For if, at the most, the Greeks, having received certain scintillations
of the divine word, have given forth some utterances of truth, they
bear indeed witness that the force of truth is not hidden, and at the
same time expose their own weakness in not having arrived at the end.
For I think it has now become evident to all, that those who do or
speak aught without the word of truth are like people compelled to
walk without feet. Let the strictures on your gods, which the poets,
impelled by the force of truth, introduce in their comedies, shame you
into salvation. Menander, for instance, the comic poet, in his drama of
the _Charioteer_, says:
“No god pleases me that goes about
With an old woman, and enters houses
Carrying a trencher.”
For such are the begging priests of Cybele. Hence Antisthenes replies
appropriately to their request for alms:
“I do not maintain the mother of the gods,
For the gods maintain her.”
Again, the same writer of comedy, expressing his dissatisfaction
with the common usages, tries to expose the impious arrogance of the
prevailing error in the drama of the _Priestess_, sagely declaring:
“If a man drags the Deity
Whither he will by the sound of cymbals,
He that does this is greater than the Deity;
But these are the instruments of audacity and means of living
Invented by men.”
And not only Menander, but Homer also, and Euripides, and other poets
in great numbers, expose your gods, and are wont to rate them, and that
soundly too. For instance, they call Aphrodite dog-fly, and Hephæstus a
cripple. Helen says to Aphrodite:
“Thy godship abdicate!
Renounce Olympus!”[69]
And of Dionysus, Homer writes without reserve:
“He, mid their frantic orgies, in the groves
Of lovely Nyssa, put to shameful rout
The youthful Bacchus’ nurses; they in fear,
Dropped each her thyrsus, scattered by the hand
Of fierce Lycurgus, with an ox-goad armed.”[70]
Worthy truly of the Socratic school is Euripides, who fixes his eye
on truth, and despises the spectators of his plays. On one occasion,
Apollo,
“Who inhabits the sanctuary that is in the middle of the earth,
Dispensing most certain oracles to mortals,”
is thus exposed:
“It was in obedience to him that I killed her who brought me forth;
Him do you regard as stained with guilt--put him to death;
It was he that sinned, not I, uninstructed as I was
In right and justice.”[71]
He introduces Heracles, at one time mad, at another drunk and
gluttonous. How should he not so represent the god who, when
entertained as a guest, ate green figs to flesh, uttering discordant
howls, that even his barbarian host remarked it? In his drama of _Ion_,
too, he barefacedly brings the gods on the stage:
“How, then, is it right for you, who have given laws to mortals,
To be yourselves guilty of wrong?
And if--what will never take place, yet I will state the
supposition--
You will give satisfaction to men for your adulteries,
You, Poseidon, and you, Zeus, the ruler of heaven,--
You will, in order to make recompense for your misdeeds,
Have to empty your temples.”[72]
CHAPTER VIII.
THE TRUE DOCTRINE IS TO BE SOUGHT IN THE PROPHETS.
It is now time, as we have despatched in order the other points, to
go to the prophetic Scriptures; for the oracles present us with the
appliances necessary for the attainment of piety, and so establish
the truth. The divine Scriptures and institutions of wisdom form the
short road to salvation. Devoid of embellishment, of outward beauty
of diction, of wordiness and seductiveness, they raise up humanity
strangled by wickedness, teaching men to despise the casualties of
life; and with one and the same voice remedying many evils, they at
once dissuade us from pernicious deceit, and clearly exhort us to the
attainment of the salvation set before us. Let the Sibyl prophetess,
then, be the first to sing to us the song of salvation:
“So He is all sure and unerring:
Come, follow no longer darkness and gloom;
See, the sun’s sweet-glancing light shines gloriously.
Know, and lay up wisdom in your hearts:
There is one God, who sends rains, and winds, and earthquakes,
Thunderbolts, famines, plagues, and dismal sorrows,
And snows and ice. But why detail particulars?
He reigns over heaven, He rules earth, He truly is;”--
where, in remarkable accordance with inspiration, she compares delusion
to darkness, and the knowledge of God to the sun and light, and
subjecting both to comparison, shows the choice we ought to make. For
falsehood is not dissipated by the bare presentation of the truth, but
by the practical improvement of the truth it is ejected and put to
flight.
Jeremiah the prophet, gifted with consummate wisdom, or rather the
Holy Spirit in Jeremiah, exhibits God. “Am I a God at hand,” he says,
“and not a God afar off? Shall a man do ought in secret, and I not see
him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”[73]
And again by Isaiah, “Who shall measure heaven with a span, and the
whole earth with his hand?”[74] Behold God’s greatness, and be filled
with amazement. Let us worship Him of whom the prophet says, “Before
Thy face the hills shall melt, as wax melteth before the fire!”[75]
This, says he, is the God “whose throne is heaven, and His footstool
the earth; and if He open heaven, quaking will seize thee.”[76] Will
you hear, too, what this prophet says of idols? “And they shall be
made a spectacle of in the face of the sun, and their carcases shall
be meat for the fowls of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth; and
they shall putrefy before the sun and the moon, which they have loved
and served; and their city shall be burned down.”[77] He says, too,
that the elements and the world shall be destroyed. “The earth,” he
says, “shall grow old, and the heaven shall pass away; but the word
of the Lord endureth for ever.” What, then, when again God wishes to
show Himself by Moses: “Behold ye, behold ye, that I AM, and there is
no other God beside me. I will kill, and I will make to live; I will
strike, and I will heal; and there is none who shall deliver out of my
hands.”[78] But do you wish to hear another seer? You have the whole
prophetic choir, the associates of Moses. What the Holy Spirit says by
Hosea, I will not shrink from quoting: “Lo, I am He that appointeth
the thunder, and createth spirit; and His hands have established the
host of heaven.”[79] And once more by Isaiah. And this utterance I will
repeat: “I am,” he says, “I am the Lord; I who speak righteousness,
announce truth. Gather yourselves together, and come. Take counsel
together, ye that are saved from the nations. They have not known,
they who set up the block of wood, their carved work, and pray to gods
who will not save them.”[80] Then proceeding: “I am God, and there is
not beside me a just God, and a Saviour: there is none except me. Turn
to me, and ye will be saved, ye that are from the end of the earth.
I am God, and there is no other; by myself I swear.”[81] But against
the worshippers of idols he is exasperated, saying, “To whom will ye
liken the Lord, or to what likeness will ye compare Him? Has not the
artificer made the image, or the goldsmith melted the gold and plated
it with gold?”[82]--and so on. Be not therefore idolaters, but even
now beware of the threatenings; “for the graven images and the works
of men’s hands shall wail, or rather they that trust in them,”[83] for
matter is devoid of sensation. Once more he says, “The Lord will shake
the cities that are inhabited, and grasp the world in His hand like a
nest.”[84] Why repeat to you the mysteries of wisdom, and sayings from
the writings of the son of the Hebrews, the master of wisdom? “The
Lord created me the beginning of His ways, in order to His works.”[85]
And, “The Lord giveth wisdom, and from His face proceed knowledge and
understanding.”[86] “How long wilt thou lie in bed, O sluggard; and
when wilt thou be aroused from sleep?”[87] “but if thou show thyself
no sluggard, as a fountain thy harvest shall come,”[88] the “Word of
the Father, the benign light, the Lord that bringeth light, faith to
all, and salvation.”[89] For “the Lord who created the earth by His
power,” as Jeremiah says, “has raised up the world by His wisdom;”[90]
for wisdom, which is His word, raises us up to the truth, who have
fallen prostrate before idols, and is itself the first resurrection
from our fall. Whence Moses, the man of God, dissuading from all
idolatry, beautifully exclaims, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is
one Lord; and thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt
thou serve.”[91] “Now therefore be wise, O men,” according to that
blessed psalmist David; “lay hold on instruction, lest the Lord be
angry, and ye perish from the way of righteousness, when His wrath has
quickly kindled. Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him.”[92]
But already the Lord, in His surpassing pity, has inspired the song of
salvation, sounding like a battle march, “Sons of men, how long will ye
be slow of heart? Why do you love vanity, and seek after a lie?”[93]
What, then, is the vanity, and what the lie? The holy apostle of the
Lord, reprehending the Greeks, will show thee: “Because that, when they
knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, and changed the glory of God into
the likeness of corruptible man, and worshipped and served the creature
more than the Creator.”[94] And verily this is the God who “in the
beginning made the heaven and the earth.”[95] But you do not know God,
and worship the heaven, and how shall you escape the guilt of impiety?
Hear again the prophet speaking: “The sun shall suffer eclipse, and the
heaven be darkened; but the Almighty shall shine for ever: while the
powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and the heavens stretched out
and drawn together shall be rolled as a parchment-skin (for these are
the prophetic expressions), and the earth shall flee away from before
the face of the Lord.”[96]
CHAPTER IX.
“THAT THOSE GRIEVOUSLY SIN WHO DESPISE OR NEGLECT
GOD’S GRACIOUS CALLING.”
I could adduce ten thousand scriptures of which not “one tittle shall
pass away”[97] without being fulfilled; for the mouth of the Lord the
Holy Spirit hath spoken these things. “Do not any longer,” he says,
“my son, despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of Him.”[98] O surpassing love for man! Not as a teacher
speaking to his pupils, not as a master to his domestics, nor as God
to men, but as a father, does the Lord gently admonish His children.
Thus Moses confesses that “he was filled with quaking and terror”[99]
while he listened to God speaking concerning the Word. And art not
thou afraid as thou hearest the voice of the Divine Word? Art not thou
distressed? Do you not fear, and hasten to learn of Him,--that is,
to salvation,--dreading wrath, loving grace, eagerly striving after
the hope set before us, that you may shun the judgment threatened?
Come, come, O my young people! For if you become not again as little
children, and be born again, as saith the Scripture, you shall not
receive the truly existent Father, nor shall you ever enter into the
kingdom of heaven. For in what way is a stranger permitted to enter?
Well, as I take it, then, when he is enrolled and made a citizen, and
receives one to stand to him in the relation of father, then will he
be occupied with the Father’s concerns, then shall he be deemed worthy
to be made His heir, then will he share the kingdom of the Father
with His own dear Son. For this is the first-born church, composed
of many good children; these are “the first-born enrolled in heaven,
who hold high festival with so many myriads of angels.” We, too, are
first-born sons, who are reared by God, who are the genuine friends of
the First-born, who first of all other men attained to the knowledge
of God, who first were wrenched away from our sins, first severed from
the devil. And now the more benevolent God is, the more impious men
are; for He desires us from slaves to become sons, while they scorn
to become sons. O the prodigious folly of being ashamed of the Lord!
He offers freedom, you flee into bondage; He bestows salvation, you
sink down into destruction; He confers everlasting life, you wait for
punishment, and prefer the fire which the Lord “has prepared for the
devil and his angels.”[100] Wherefore the blessed apostle says: “I
testify in the Lord, that ye walk no longer as the Gentiles walk, in
the vanity of their mind; having their understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,
because of the hardness of their heart: who, being past feeling, have
given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness and
concupiscence.”[101] After the accusation of such a witness, and his
invocation of God, what else remains for the unbelieving than judgment
and condemnation? And the Lord, with ceaseless assiduity, exhorts,
terrifies, urges, rouses, admonishes; He awakes from the sleep of
darkness, and raises up those who have wandered in error. “Awake,” He
says, “thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light,”[102]--Christ, the Sun of the Resurrection, He “who
was born before the morning star,”[103] and with His beams bestows
life. Let no one then despise the Word, lest he unwittingly despise
himself. For the Scripture somewhere says, “To-day, if ye will hear
His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the
day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers proved me by
trial.”[104] And what was the trial? If you wish to learn, the Holy
Spirit will show you: “And saw my works,” He says, “forty years.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always
err in heart, and have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath,
they shall not enter into my rest.”[105] Look to the threatening!
Look to the exhortation! Look to the punishment! Why, then, should
we any longer change grace into wrath, and not receive the word with
open ears, and entertain God as a guest in pure spirits? For great
is the grace of His promise, “if to-day we hear His voice.”[106] And
that to-day is lengthened out day by day, while it is called to-day.
And to the end the to-day and the instruction continue; and then the
true to-day, the neverending day of God, extends over eternity. Let us
then ever obey the voice of the divine word. For the to-day signifies
eternity. And day is the symbol of light; and the light of men is the
Word, by whom we behold God. Rightly, then, to those that have believed
and obey, grace will superabound; while with those that have been
unbelieving, and err in heart, and have not known the Lord’s ways,
which John commanded to make straight and to prepare, God is incensed,
and those He threatens.
And, indeed, the old Hebrew wanderers in the desert received typically
the end of the threatening; for they are said not to have entered into
the rest, because of unbelief, till, having followed the successor of
Moses, they learned by experience, though late, that they could not be
saved otherwise than by believing on Jesus. But the Lord, in His love
to man, invites all men to the knowledge of the truth, and for this
end sends the Paraclete. What, then, is this knowledge? Godliness;
and “godliness,” according to Paul, “is profitable for all things,
having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to
come.”[107] If eternal salvation were to be sold, for how much, O men,
would you propose to purchase it? Were one to estimate the value of
the whole of Pactolus, the fabulous river of gold, he would not have
reckoned up a price equivalent to salvation.
Do not, however, faint. You may, if you choose, purchase salvation,
though of inestimable value, with your own resources, love and living
faith, which will be reckoned a suitable price. This recompense God
cheerfully accepts; “for we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour
of all men, especially of those who believe.”[108]
But the rest, round whom the world’s growths have fastened, as the
rocks on the sea-shore are covered over with seaweed, make light of
immortality, like the old man of Ithaca, eagerly longing to see, not
the truth, not the fatherland in heaven, not the true light, but smoke.
But godliness, that makes man as far as can be like God, designates God
as our suitable teacher, who alone can worthily assimilate man to God.
This teaching the apostle knows as truly divine. “Thou, O Timothy,”
he says, “from a child hast known the holy letters, which are able
to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Christ
Jesus.”[109] For truly holy are those letters that sanctify and deify;
and the writings or volumes that consist of those holy letters and
syllables, the same apostle consequently calls “inspired of God, being
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished to every good work.”[110] No one will be so impressed by the
exhortations of any of the saints, as he is by the words of the Lord
Himself, the lover of man. For this, and nothing but this, is His only
work--the salvation of man. Therefore He Himself, urging them on to
salvation, cries, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”[111] Those men
that draw near through fear, He converts. Thus also the apostle of
the Lord, beseeching the Macedonians, becomes the interpreter of the
divine voice, when he says, “The Lord is at hand; take care that ye be
not apprehended empty.”[112] But are ye so devoid of fear, or rather
of faith, as not to believe the Lord Himself, or Paul, who in Christ’s
stead thus entreats: “Taste and see that Christ is God?”[113] Faith
will lead you in; experience will teach you; Scripture will train you,
for it says, “Come hither, O children; listen to me, and I will teach
you the fear of the Lord.” Then, as to those who already believe, it
briefly adds, “What man is he that desireth life, that loveth to see
good days?”[114] It is we, we shall say--we who are the devotees of
good, we who eagerly desire good things. Hear, then, ye who are far
off, hear ye who are near: the word has not been hidden from any; light
is common, it shines “on all men.” No one is a Cimmerian in respect to
the word. Let us haste to salvation, to regeneration; let us who are
many haste that we may be brought together into one love, according
to the union of the essential unity; and let us, by being made good,
conformably follow after union, seeking after the good Monad.
The union of many in one, issuing in the production of divine harmony
out of a medley of sounds and division, becomes one symphony following
one choir-leader and teacher, the Word, reaching and resting in the
same truth, and crying Abba, Father. This, the true utterance of His
children, God accepts with gracious welcome--the first-fruits He
receives from them.
CHAPTER X.
ANSWER TO THE OBJECTION OF THE HEATHEN, THAT IT
WAS NOT RIGHT TO ABANDON THE CUSTOMS OF THEIR
FATHERS.
But you say it is not creditable to subvert the customs handed down
to us from our fathers. And why, then, do we not still use our first
nourishment, milk, to which our nurses accustomed us from the time
of our birth? Why do we increase or diminish our patrimony, and not
keep it exactly the same as we got it? Why do we not still vomit on
our parents’ breasts, or still do the things for which, when infants,
and nursed by our mothers, we were laughed at, but have corrected
ourselves, even if we did not fall in with good instructors? Then,
if excesses in the indulgence of the passions, though pernicious and
dangerous, yet are accompanied with pleasure, why do we not in the
conduct of life abandon that usage which is evil, and provocative of
passion, and godless, even should our fathers feel hurt, and betake
ourselves to the truth, and seek Him who is truly our Father, rejecting
custom as a deleterious drug? For of all that I have undertaken to do,
the task I now attempt is the noblest, viz. to demonstrate to you how
inimical this insane and most wretched custom is to godliness. For a
boon so great, the greatest ever given by God to the human race, would
never have been hated and rejected, had not you been carried away by
custom, and then shut your ears against us; and just as unmanageable
horses throw off the reins, and take the bit between their teeth, you
rush away from the arguments addressed to you, in your eager desire to
shake yourselves clear of us, who seek to guide the chariot of your
life, and, impelled by your folly, dash towards the precipices of
destruction, and regard the holy word of God as an accursed thing. The
reward of your choice, therefore, as described by Sophocles, follows:
“The mind a blank, useless ears, vain thoughts.”
And you know not that, of all truths, this is the truest, that the good
and godly shall obtain the good reward, inasmuch as they held goodness
in high esteem; while, on the other hand, the wicked shall receive meet
punishment. For the author of evil, torment has been prepared; and so
the prophet Zecharias threatens him: “He that hath chosen Jerusalem
rebuke thee; lo, is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”[115]
What an infatuated desire, then, for voluntary death is this, rooted
in men’s minds! Why do they flee to this fatal brand, with which they
shall be burned, when it is within their power to live nobly according
to God, and not according to custom? For God bestows life freely; but
evil custom, after our departure from this world, brings on the sinner
unavailing remorse with punishment. _By sad experience, even a child
knows_ how superstition destroys and piety saves. Let any of you
look at those who minister before the idols, their hair matted, their
persons disgraced with filthy and tattered clothes; who never come near
a bath, and let their nails grow to an extraordinary length, like wild
beasts; many of them castrated, who show the idol’s temples to be in
reality graves or prisons. These appear to me to bewail the gods, not
to worship them, and their sufferings to be worthy of pity rather than
piety. And seeing these things, do you still continue blind, and will
you not look up to the Ruler of all, the Lord of the universe? And will
you not escape from those dungeons, and flee to the mercy that comes
down from heaven? For God, of His great love to man, comes to the help
of man, as the mother-bird flies to one of her young that has fallen
out of the nest; and if a serpent open its mouth to swallow the little
bird, “the mother flutters round, uttering cries of grief over her dear
progeny;”[116] and God the Father seeks His creature, and heals his
transgression, and pursues the serpent, and recovers the young one, and
incites it to fly up to the nest.
Thus dogs that have strayed, track out their master by the scent; and
horses that have thrown their riders, come to their master’s call if he
but whistle. “The ox,” it is said, “knoweth his owner, and the ass his
master’s crib; but Israel hath not known me.”[117] What, then, of the
Lord? He remembers not our ill desert; He still pities, He still urges
us to repentance.
And I would ask you, if it does not appear to you monstrous, that you
men who are God’s handiwork, who have received your souls from Him, and
belong wholly to God, should be subject to another master, and, what
is more, serve the tyrant instead of the rightful King--the evil one
instead of the good? For, in the name of truth, what man in his senses
turns his back on good, and attaches himself to evil? What, then, is
he who flees from God to consort with demons? Who, that may become a
son of God, prefers to be in bondage? Or who is he that pursues his way
to Erebus, when it is in his power to be a citizen of heaven, and to
cultivate Paradise, and walk about in heaven and partake of the tree
of life and immortality, and, cleaving his way through the sky in the
track of the luminous cloud, behold, like Elias, the rain of salvation?
Some there are, who, like worms wallowing in marshes and mud in the
streams of pleasure, feed on foolish and useless delights--swinish men.
For swine, it is said, like mud better than pure water; and, according
to Democritus, “doat upon dirt.”
Let us not then be enslaved or become swinish; but, as true children
of the light, let us raise our eyes and look on the light, lest
the Lord discover us to be spurious, as the sun does the eagles.
Let us therefore repent, and pass from ignorance to knowledge,
from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-restraint,
from unrighteousness to righteousness, from godlessness to God.
It is an enterprise of noble daring to take our way to God; and
the enjoyment of many other good things is within the reach of the
lovers of righteousness, who pursue eternal life, specially those
things to which God Himself alludes, speaking by Isaiah: “There is an
inheritance for those who serve the Lord.”[118] Noble and desirable
is this inheritance: not gold, not silver, not raiment, which the
moth assails, and things of earth which are assailed by the robber,
whose eye is dazzled by worldly wealth; but it is that treasure of
salvation to which we must hasten, by becoming lovers of the Word.
Thence praiseworthy works descend to us, and fly with us on the wing
of truth. This is the inheritance with which the eternal covenant of
God invests us, conveying the everlasting gift of grace; and thus
our loving Father--the true Father--ceases not to exhort, admonish,
train, love us. For He ceases not to save, and advises the best course:
“Become righteous,” says the Lord.[119] Ye that thirst, come to the
water; and ye that have no money, come, and buy and drink without
money.[120] He invites to the laver, to salvation, to illumination, all
but crying out and saying, The land I give thee, and the sea, my child,
and heaven too; and all the living creatures in them I freely bestow
upon thee. Only, O child, thirst for thy Father; God shall be revealed
to thee without price; the truth is not made merchandise of. He gives
thee all creatures that fly and swim, and those on the land. These the
Father has created for thy thankful enjoyment. What the bastard, who is
a son of perdition, foredoomed to be the slave of mammon, has to buy
for money, He assigns to thee as thine own, even to His own son who
loves the Father; for whose sake He still works, and to whom alone He
promises, saying, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity,” for it
is not destined to corruption. “For the whole land is mine;” and it is
thine too, if thou receive God. Wherefore the Scripture, as might have
been expected, proclaims good news to those who have believed. “The
saints of the Lord shall inherit the glory of God and His power.” What
glory, tell me, O blessed One, which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
nor hath it entered into the heart of man;”[121] and “they shall be
glad in the kingdom of their Lord for ever and ever! Amen.” You have,
O men, the divine promise of grace; you have heard, on the other hand,
the threatening of punishment: by these the Lord saves, teaching men
by fear and grace. Why do we delay? Why do we not shun the punishment?
Why do we not receive the free gift? Why, in fine, do we not choose
the better part, God instead of the evil one, and prefer wisdom to
idolatry, and take life in exchange for death? “Behold,” He says, “I
have set before your face death and life.”[122] The Lord tries you,
that “you may choose life.” He counsels you as a father to obey God.
“For if ye hear me,” He says, “and be willing, ye shall eat the good
things of the land:”[123] this is the grace attached to obedience. “But
if ye obey me not, and are unwilling, the sword and fire shall devour
you:”[124] this is the penalty of disobedience. For the mouth of the
Lord--the law of truth, the word of the Lord--hath spoken these things.
Are you willing that I should be your good counsellor? Well, do you
hear. I, if possible, will explain. You ought, O men, when reflecting
on the Good, to have brought forward a witness inborn and competent,
viz. faith, which of itself, and from its own resources, chooses
at once what is best, instead of occupying yourselves in painfully
inquiring whether what is best ought to be followed. For, allow me to
tell you, you ought to doubt whether you should get drunk, but you get
drunk before reflecting on the matter; and whether you ought to do an
injury, but you do injury with the utmost readiness. The only thing you
make the subject of question is, whether God should be worshipped, and
whether this wise God and Christ should be followed: and this you think
requires deliberation and doubt, and know not what is worthy of God.
Have faith in us, as you have in drunkenness, that you may be wise;
have faith in us, as you have in injury, that you may live. But if,
acknowledging the conspicuous trustworthiness of the virtues, you wish
to trust them, come and I will set before you in abundance, materials
of persuasion respecting the Word. But do you--for your ancestral
customs, by which your minds are pre-occupied, divert you from the
truth,--do you now hear what is the real state of the case as follows.
And let not any shame of this name preoccupy you, which does great
harm to men, and seduces them from salvation. Let us then openly strip
for the contest, and nobly strive in the arena of truth, the holy
Word being the judge, and the Lord of the universe prescribing the
contest. For ’tis no insignificant prize, the guerdon of immortality
which is set before us. Pay no more regard, then, if you are rated by
some of the low rabble who lead the dance of impiety, and are driven
on to the same pit by their folly and insanity, makers of idols and
worshippers of stones. For these have dared to deify men,--Alexander
of Macedon, for example, whom they canonized as the thirteenth
god, whose pretensions Babylon confuted, which showed him dead. I
admire, therefore, the divine sophist. Theocritus was his name. After
Alexander’s death, Theocritus, holding up the vain opinions entertained
by men respecting the gods, to ridicule before his fellow-citizens,
said: “Men, keep up your hearts as long as you see the gods dying
sooner than men.” And, truly, he who worships gods that are visible,
and the promiscuous rabble of creatures begotten and born, and attaches
himself to them, is a far more wretched object than the very demons.
For God is by no manner of means unrighteous, as the demons are, but in
the very highest degree righteous; and nothing more resembles God than
one of us when he becomes righteous in the highest possible degree:
“Go into the way, the whole tribe of you handicraftsmen,
Who worship Jove’s fierce-eyed daughter,[125] the working goddess,
With fans duly placed, fools that ye are”--
fashioners of stones, and worshippers of them. Let your Phidias, and
Polycletus, and your Praxiteles and Apelles too, come, and all that are
engaged in mechanical arts, who, being themselves of the earth, are
workers of the earth. “For then,” says a certain prophecy, “the affairs
here turn out unfortunately, when men put their trust in images.” Let
the meaner artists, too--for I will not stop calling--come. None of
these ever made a breathing image, or out of earth moulded soft flesh.
Who liquefied the marrow? or who solidified the bones? Who stretched
the nerves? who distended the veins? Who poured the blood into
them? Or who spread the skin? Who ever could have made eyes capable
of seeing? Who breathed spirit into the lifeless form? Who bestowed
righteousness? Who promised immortality? The Maker of the universe
alone: the Great Artist and Father has formed us, such a living image
as man is. But your Olympian Jove, the image of an image, greatly out
of harmony with truth, is the senseless work of Attic hands. For the
image of God is His Word, the genuine Son of Mind, the Divine Word, the
archetypal light of light; and the image of the Word is the true man,
the mind which is in man, who is therefore said to have been made “in
the image and likeness of God,”[126] assimilated to the Divine Word
in the affections of the soul, and therefore rational; but effigies
sculptured in human form, the earthly image of that part of man which
is visible and earth-born, are but a perishable impress of humanity,
manifestly wide of the truth. That life, then, which is occupied with
so much earnestness about matter, seems to me to be nothing else than
full of insanity. And custom, which has made you taste bondage and
unreasonable care, is fostered by vain opinion; and ignorance, which
has proved to the human race the cause of unlawful rites and delusive
shows, and also of deadly plagues and hateful images, has, by devising
many shapes of demons, stamped on all that follow it the mark of
long-continued death. Receive, then, the water of the word; wash, ye
polluted ones; purify yourselves from custom, by sprinkling yourselves
with the drops of truth. The pure must ascend to heaven. Thou art a
man, if we look to that which is most common to thee and others--seek
Him who created thee; thou art a son, if we look to that which is thy
peculiar prerogative--acknowledge thy Father. But do you still continue
in your sins, engrossed with pleasures? To whom shall the Lord say,
“Yours is the kingdom of heaven?” Yours, whose choice is set on God, if
you will; yours, if you will only believe, and comply with the brief
terms of the announcement; which the Ninevites having obeyed, instead
of the destruction they looked for, obtained a signal deliverance.
How, then, may I ascend to heaven, is it said? The Lord is the way; a
strait way, but leading from heaven, strait in truth, but leading back
to heaven, strait, despised on earth; broad, adored in heaven.
Then, he that is uninstructed in the word, has ignorance as the excuse
of his error; but as for him into whose ears instruction has been
poured, and who deliberately maintains his incredulity in his soul,
the wiser he appears to be, the more harm will his understanding do
him; for he has his own sense as his accuser for not having chosen the
best part. For man has been otherwise constituted by nature, so as
to have fellowship with God. As, then, we do not compel the horse to
plough, or the bull to hunt, but set each animal to that for which it
is by nature fitted; so, placing our finger on what is man’s peculiar
and distinguishing characteristic above other creatures, we invite
him--born, as he is, for the contemplation of heaven, and being, as he
is, a truly heavenly plant--to the knowledge of God, counselling him
to furnish himself with what is his sufficient provision for eternity,
namely piety. Practise husbandry, we say, if you are a husbandman;
but while you till your fields, know God. Sail the sea, you who are
devoted to navigation, yet call the whilst on the heavenly Pilot. Has
knowledge taken hold of you while engaged in military service? Listen
to the commander, who orders what is right. As those, then, who have
been overpowered with sleep and drunkenness, do ye awake; and using
your eyes a little, consider what mean those stones which you worship,
and the expenditure you frivolously lavish on matter. Your means and
substance you squander on ignorance, even as you throw away your lives
to death, having found no other end of your vain hope than this. Not
only unable to pity yourselves, you are incapable even of yielding to
the persuasions of those who commiserate you; enslaved as you are to
evil custom, and, clinging to it voluntarily till your last breath, you
are hurried to destruction: “because light is come into the world, and
men have loved the darkness rather than the light,”[127] while they
could sweep away those hindrances to salvation, pride, and wealth, and
fear, repeating this poetic utterance:
“Whither do I bear these abundant riches? and whither
Do I myself wander?”[128]
If you wish, then, to cast aside these vain phantasies, and bid adieu
to evil custom, say to vain opinion:
“Lying dreams, farewell; you were then nothing.”
For what, think you, O men, is the Hermes of Typho, and that of
Andocides, and that of Amyetus? Is it not evident to all that they
are stones, as is the veritable Hermes himself? As the Halo is not a
god, and as the Iris is not a god, but are states of the atmosphere
and of the clouds; and as, likewise, a day is not a god, nor a year,
nor time, which is made up of these, so neither is sun nor moon, by
which each of those mentioned above is determined. Who, then, in his
right senses, can imagine Correction, and Punishment, and Justice, and
Retribution to be gods? For neither the Furies, nor the Fates, nor
Destiny are gods, since neither Government, nor Glory, nor Wealth are
gods, which last [as Plutus] painters represent as blind. But if you
deify Modesty, and Love, and Venus, let these be followed by Infamy,
and Passion, and Beauty, and Intercourse. Therefore Sleep and Death
cannot reasonably any more be regarded as twin deities, being merely
changes which take place naturally in living creatures; no more will
you with propriety call Fortune, or Destiny, or the Fates goddesses.
And if Strife and Battle be not gods, no more are Ares and Enyo. Still
further, if the lightnings, and thunderbolts, and rains are not gods,
how can fire and water be gods? how can shooting stars and comets,
which are produced by atmospheric changes? He who calls Fortune a
god, let him also so call Action. If, then, none of these, nor of the
images formed by human hands, and destitute of feeling, is held to be
a God, while a providence exercised about us is evidently the result
of a divine power,[129] it remains only to acknowledge this, that He
alone who is truly God, only truly is and subsists. But those who are
insensible to this are like men who have drunk mandrake or some other
drug. May God grant that you may at length awake from this slumber, and
know God; and that neither Gold, nor Stone, nor Tree, nor Action, nor
Suffering, nor Disease, nor Fear, may appear in your eyes as a god.
For there are, in sooth, “on the fruitful earth thrice ten thousand”
demons, not immortal, nor indeed mortal; for they are not endowed with
sensation, so as to render them capable of death, but only things
of wood and stone, that hold despotic sway over men insulting and
violating life through the force of custom. “The earth is the Lord’s,”
it is said, “and the fulness thereof.”[130] Then why darest thou, while
luxuriating in the bounties of the Lord, to ignore the Sovereign Ruler?
“Leave my earth,” the Lord will say to thee. “Touch not the water
which I bestow. Partake not of the fruits of the earth produced by my
husbandry.” Give to God recompense for your sustenance; acknowledge
thy Master. Thou art God’s creature. What belongs to Him, how can it
with justice be alienated? For that which is alienated, being deprived
of the properties that belonged to it, is also deprived of truth. For,
after the fashion of Niobe, or, to express myself more mystically, like
the Hebrew woman called by the ancients Lot’s wife, are ye not turned
into a state of insensibility? This woman, we have heard, was turned
into stone for her love of Sodom. And those who are godless, addicted
to impiety, hard-hearted and foolish, are Sodomites. Believe that these
utterances are addressed to you from God. For think not that stones,
and stocks, and birds, and serpents are sacred things, and men are not;
but, on the contrary, regard men as truly sacred, and take beasts and
stones for what they are. For there are miserable wretches of human
kind, who consider that God utters His voice by the raven and the
jackdaw, but says nothing by man; and honour the raven as a messenger
of God. But the man of God, who croaks not, nor chatters, but speaks
rationally and instructs lovingly, alas, they persecute; and while he
is inviting them to cultivate righteousness, they try inhumanly to slay
him, neither welcoming the grace which comes from above, nor fearing
the penalty. For they believe not God, nor understand His power, whose
love to man is ineffable; and His hatred of evil is inconceivable.
His anger augments punishment against sin; His love bestows blessings
on repentance. It is the height of wretchedness to be deprived of the
help which comes from God. Hence this blindness of eyes and dulness
of hearing are more grievous than other inflictions of the evil one;
for the one deprives them of heavenly vision, the other robs them of
divine instruction. But ye, thus maimed as respects the truth, blind
in mind, deaf in understanding, are not grieved, are not pained, have
had no desire to see heaven and the Maker of heaven, nor, by fixing
your choice on salvation, have sought to hear the Creator of the
universe, and to learn of Him; for no hindrance stands in the way of
him who is bent on the knowledge of God. Neither childlessness, nor
poverty, nor obscurity, nor want, can hinder him who eagerly strives
after the knowledge of God; nor does any one who has conquered[131]
by brass or iron the true wisdom for himself choose to exchange it,
for it is vastly preferred to everything else. Christ is able to save
in every place. For he that is fired with ardour and admiration for
righteousness, being the lover of One who needs nothing, needs himself
but little, having treasured up his bliss in nothing but himself and
God, where is neither moth,[132] robber, nor pirate, but the eternal
Giver of good. With justice, then, have you been compared to those
serpents who shut their ears against the charmers. For “their mind,”
says the Scripture, “is like the serpent, like the deaf adder, which
stoppeth her ear, and will not hear the voice of the charmers.”[133]
But allow yourselves to feel the influence of the charming strains of
sanctity, and receive that mild word of ours, and reject the deadly
poison, that it may be granted to you to divest yourselves as much
as possible of destruction, as they[134] have been divested of old
age. Hear me, and do not stop your ears; do not block up the avenues
of hearing, but lay to heart what is said. Excellent is the medicine
of immortality! Stop at length your grovelling reptile motions. “For
the enemies of the Lord,” says Scripture, “shall lick the dust.”[135]
Raise your eyes from earth to the skies, look up to heaven, admire the
sight, cease watching with outstretched head the heel of the righteous,
and hindering the way of truth. Be wise and harmless. Perchance the
Lord will endow you with the wing of simplicity (for He has resolved
to give wings to those that are earth-born), that you may leave your
holes and dwell in heaven. Only let us with our whole heart repent,
that we may be able with our whole heart to contain God. “Trust in Him,
all ye assembled people; pour out all your hearts before Him.”[136]
He says to those that have newly abandoned wickedness, “He pities
them, and fills them with righteousness.” Believe Him who is man and
God; believe, O man. Believe, O man, the living God, who suffered
and is adored. Believe, ye slaves, Him who died; believe, all ye of
human kind, Him who alone is God of all men. Believe, and receive
salvation as your reward. Seek God, and your soul shall live. He who
seeks God is busying himself about his own salvation. Hast thou found
God?--then thou hast life. Let us then seek, in order that we may
live. The reward of seeking is life with God. “Let all who seek Thee
be glad and rejoice in Thee; and let them say continually, God be
magnified.”[137] A noble hymn of God is an immortal man, established
in righteousness, in whom the oracles of truth are engraved. For where
but in a soul that is wise can you write truth? where love? where
reverence? where meekness? Those who have had these divine characters
impressed on them, ought, I think, to regard wisdom as a fair port
whence to embark, to whatever lot in life they turn; and likewise to
deem it the calm haven of salvation: wisdom, by which those who have
betaken themselves to the Father, have proved good fathers to their
children; and good parents to their sons, those who have known the Son;
and good husbands to their wives, those who remember the Bridegroom;
and good masters to their servants, those who have been redeemed from
utter slavery. Oh, happier far the beasts than men involved in error!
who live in ignorance as you, but do not counterfeit the truth. There
are no tribes of flatterers among them. Fishes have no superstition:
the birds worship not a single image; only they look with admiration
on heaven, since, deprived as they are of reason, they are unable to
know God. So are you not ashamed for living through so many periods of
life in impiety, making yourselves more irrational than the irrational
creatures? You were boys, then striplings, then youths, then men, but
never as yet were you good. If you have respect for old age, be wise,
now that you have reached life’s sunset; and albeit at the close of
life, acquire the knowledge of God, that the end of life may to you
prove the beginning of salvation. You have become old in superstition;
as young, enter on the practice of piety. God regards you as innocent
children. Let, then, the Athenian follow the laws of Solon, and the
Argive those of Phoroneus, and the Spartan those of Lycurgus: but if
thou enrol thyself as one of God’s people, heaven is thy country,
God thy lawgiver. And what are the laws? “Thou shalt not kill; thou
shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not seduce boys; thou shalt not
steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt love the Lord thy
God.”[138] And the complements of these are those laws of reason and
words of sanctity which are inscribed on men’s hearts: “Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself; to him who strikes thee on the cheek,
present also the other;”[139] “thou shalt not lust, for by lust alone
thou hast committed adultery.”[140] How much better, therefore, is it
for men from the beginning not to wish to desire things forbidden, than
to obtain their desires! But ye are not able to endure the austerity
of salvation; but as we delight in sweet things, and prize them higher
for the agreeableness of the pleasure they yield, while, on the other
hand, those bitter things which are distasteful to the palate are
curative and healing, and the harshness of medicines strengthens
people of weak stomach, thus custom pleases and tickles; but custom
pushes into the abyss, while truth conducts to heaven. Harsh it is
at first, but a good nurse of youth; and it is at once the decorous
place where the household maids and matrons dwell together, and the
sage council-chamber. Nor is it difficult to approach, or impossible
to attain, but is very near us in our very homes; as Moses, endowed
with all wisdom, says, while referring to it, it has its abode in
three departments of our constitution--in the hands, the mouth, and
the heart: a meet emblem this of truth, which is embraced by these
three things in all--will, action, speech. And be not afraid lest the
multitude of pleasing objects which rise before you withdraw you from
wisdom. You yourself will spontaneously surmount the frivolousness
of custom, as boys when they have become men throw aside their toys.
For with a celerity unsurpassable, and a benevolence to which we have
ready access, the divine power, casting its radiance on the earth,
hath filled the universe with the seed of salvation. For it was not
without divine care that so great a work was accomplished in so brief
a space by the Lord, who, though despised as to appearance, was in
reality adored, the expiator of sin, the Saviour, the clement, the
Divine Word, He that is truly most manifest Deity, He that is made
equal to the Lord of the universe; because He was His Son, and the Word
was in God, not disbelieved in by all when He was first preached, nor
altogether unknown when, assuming the character of man, and fashioning
Himself in flesh, He enacted the drama of human salvation: for He was
a true champion and a fellow-champion with the creature. And being
communicated most speedily to men, having dawned from His Father’s
counsel quicker than the sun, with the most perfect ease He made God
shine on us. Whence He was and what He was, He showed by what He taught
and exhibited, manifesting Himself as the Herald of the Covenant, the
Reconciler, our Saviour, the Word, the fount of life, the giver of
peace, diffused over the whole face of the earth; by whom, so to speak,
the universe has already become an ocean of blessings.
CHAPTER XI.
HOW GREAT ARE THE BENEFITS CONFERRED ON MAN
THROUGH THE ADVENT OF CHRIST.
Contemplate a little, if agreeable to you, the divine beneficence. The
first man, when in Paradise, sported free, because he was the child of
God; but when he succumbed to pleasure (for the serpent allegorically
signifies pleasure crawling on its belly, earthly wickedness nourished
for fuel to the flames), was as a child seduced by lusts, and grew
old in disobedience; and by disobeying his Father, dishonoured God.
Such was the influence of pleasure. Man, that had been free by reason
of simplicity, was found fettered to sins. The Lord then wished to
release him from his bonds, and clothing Himself with flesh--O divine
mystery!--vanquished the serpent, and enslaved the tyrant death; and,
most marvellous of all, man that had been deceived by pleasure, and
bound fast to corruption, had his hands unloosed, and was set free.
O mystic wonder! The Lord was laid low, and man rose up; and he that
fell from Paradise receives as the reward of obedience something
greater [than Paradise]--namely, heaven itself. Wherefore, since the
Word Himself has come to us from heaven, we need not, I reckon, go any
more in search of human learning to Athens and the rest of Greece,
and to Ionia. For if we have as our teacher Him that filled the
universe with His holy energies in creation, salvation, beneficence,
legislation, prophecy, teaching, we have the Teacher from whom all
instruction comes; and the whole world, with Athens and Greece, has
already become the domain of the Word. For you, who believed the
poetical fable which designated Minos the Cretan as the bosom friend
of Zeus, will not refuse to believe that we who have become the
disciples of God have received the only true wisdom; and that which
the chiefs of philosophy only guessed at, the disciples of Christ
have both apprehended and proclaimed. And the one whole Christ is not
divided: “There is neither barbarian, nor Jew, nor Greek, neither male
nor female, but a new man,”[141] transformed by God’s Holy Spirit.
Further, the other counsels and precepts are unimportant, and respect
particular things,--as, for example, if one may marry, take part in
public affairs, beget children; but the only command that is universal,
and over the whole course of existence, at all times and in all
circumstances, tends to the highest end, viz. life, is piety,--all that
is necessary, in order that we may live for ever, being that we live
in accordance with it. Philosophy, however, as the ancients say, is
“a long-lived exhortation, wooing the eternal love of wisdom;” while
the commandment of the Lord is far-shining, “enlightening the eyes.”
Receive Christ, receive sight, receive thy light,
“In order that you may know well both God and man.”[142]
“Sweet is the Word that gives us light, precious above gold and gems;
it is to be desired above honey and the honey-comb.”[143] For how
can it be other than desirable, since it has filled with light the
mind which had been buried in darkness, and given keenness to the
“light-bringing eyes” of the soul? For just as, had the sun not been in
existence, night would have brooded over the universe notwithstanding
the other luminaries of heaven; so, had we not known the Word, and
been illuminated by Him, we should have been nowise different from
fowls that are being fed, fattened in darkness, and nourished for
death. Let us then admit the light, that we may admit God; let us admit
the light, and become disciples to the Lord. This, too, He has been
promised to the Father: “I will declare Thy name to my brethren; in
the midst of the church will I praise Thee.”[144] Praise and declare
to me Thy Father God; Thy utterances save; Thy hymn teaches that
hitherto I have wandered in error, seeking God. But since Thou leadest
me to the light, O Lord, and I find God through Thee, and receive the
Father from Thee, I become “Thy fellow-heir,”[145] since Thou “wert not
ashamed of me as Thy brother.”[146] Let us put away, then, let us put
away oblivion of the truth, viz. ignorance; and removing the darkness
which obstructs, as dimness of sight, let us contemplate the only true
God, first raising our voice in this hymn of praise: Hail, O light!
For in us, buried in darkness, shut up in the shadow of death, light
has shone forth from heaven, purer than the sun, sweeter than life
here below. That light is eternal life; and whatever partakes of it
lives. But night fears the light, and hiding itself in terror, gives
place to the day of the Lord. Sleepless light is now over all, and the
west has given credence to the east. For this was the end of the new
creation. For “the Sun of Righteousness,” who drives His chariot over
all, pervades equally all humanity, like “His Father, who makes His
sun to rise on all men,” and distils on them the dew of the truth. He
hath changed sunset into sunrise, and through the cross brought death
to life; and having wrenched man from destruction, He hath raised him
to the skies, transplanting mortality into immortality, and translating
earth to heaven--He, the husbandman of God,
“Pointing out the favourable signs and rousing the nations
To good works, putting them in mind of the true sustenance;”[147]
having bestowed on us the truly great, divine, and inalienable
inheritance of the Father, deifying man by heavenly teaching, putting
His laws into our minds, and writing them on our hearts. What laws
does He inscribe? “That all shall know God, from small to great;”
and, “I will be merciful to them,” says God, “and will not remember
their sins.”[148] Let us receive the laws of life, let us comply with
God’s expostulations; let us become acquainted with Him, that He may
be gracious. And though God needs nothing, let us render to Him the
grateful recompense of a thankful heart and of piety, as a kind of
house-rent for our dwelling here below.
“Gold for brass,
A hundred oxen’s worth for that of nine;”[149]
that is, for your little faith He gives you the earth of so great
extent to till, water to drink and also to sail on, air to breathe,
fire to do your work, a world to dwell in; and He has permitted you to
conduct a colony from here to heaven: with these important works of
His hand, and benefits in such numbers, He has rewarded your little
faith. Then, those who have put faith in necromancers, receive from
them amulets and charms, to ward off evil forsooth; and will you not
allow the heavenly Word, the Saviour, to be bound on to you as an
amulet, and, by trusting in God’s own charm, be delivered from passions
which are the diseases of the mind, and rescued from sin?--for sin is
eternal death. Surely utterly dull and blind, and, like moles, doing
nothing but eat, you spend your lives in darkness, surrounded with
corruption. But it is truth which cries, “The light shall shine forth
from the darkness.” Let the light then shine in the hidden part of man,
that is, the heart; and let the beams of knowledge arise to reveal
and irradiate the hidden inner man, the disciple of the Light, the
familiar friend and fellow-heir of Christ; especially now that we have
come to know the most precious and venerable name of the good Father,
who to a pious and good child gives gentle counsels, and commands what
is salutary for His child. He who obeys Him has the advantage in all
things, follows God, obeys the Father, knows Him though wandering,
loves God, loves his neighbour, fulfils the commandment, seeks the
prize, claims the promise. But it has been God’s fixed and constant
purpose to save the flock of men: for this end the good God sent the
good Shepherd. And the Word, having unfolded the truth, showed to men
the height of salvation, that either repenting they might be saved, or
refusing to obey, they might be judged. This is the proclamation of
righteousness: to those that obey, glad tidings; to those that disobey,
judgment. The loud trumpet, when sounded, collects the soldiers, and
proclaims war. And shall not Christ, breathing a strain of peace to
the ends of the earth, gather together His own soldiers, the soldiers
of peace? Well, by His blood, and by the word, He has gathered the
bloodless host of peace, and assigned to them the kingdom of heaven.
The trumpet of Christ is His gospel. He hath blown it, and we have
heard. “Let us array ourselves in the armour of peace, putting on the
breastplate of righteousness, and taking the shield of faith, and
binding our brows with the helmet of salvation; and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God,”[150] let us sharpen. So the apostle
in the spirit of peace commands. These are our invulnerable weapons:
armed with these, let us face the evil one; “the fiery darts of the
evil one” let us quench with the sword-points dipped in water, that
have been baptized by the Word, returning grateful thanks for the
benefits we have received, and honouring God through the Divine Word.
“For while thou art yet speaking,” it is said, “He will say, Behold,
I am beside thee.”[151] O this holy and blessed power, by which God
has fellowship with men! Better far, then, is it to become at once
the imitator and the servant of the best of all beings; for only by
holy service will any one be able to imitate God, and to serve and
worship Him only by imitating Him. The heavenly and truly divine love
comes to men thus, when in the soul itself the spark of true goodness,
kindled in the soul by the Divine Word, is able to burst forth into
flame; and, what is of the highest importance, salvation runs parallel
with sincere willingness--choice and life being, so to speak, yoked
together. Wherefore this exhortation of the truth alone, like the most
faithful of our friends, abides with us till our last breath, and is
to the whole and perfect spirit of the soul the kind attendant on our
ascent to heaven. What, then, is the exhortation I give you? I urge
you to be saved. This Christ desires. In one word, He freely bestows
life on you. And who is He? Briefly learn. The Word of truth, the Word
of incorruption, that regenerates man by bringing him back to the
truth--the goad that urges to salvation--He who expels destruction
and pursues death--He who builds up the temple of God in men, that He
may cause God to take up His abode in men. Cleanse the temple; and
pleasures and amusements abandon to the winds and the fire, as a fading
flower; but wisely cultivate the fruits of self-command, and present
thyself to God as an offering of first-fruits, that there may be not
the work alone, but also the grace of God; and both are requisite, that
the friend of Christ may be rendered worthy of the kingdom, and be
counted worthy of the kingdom.
CHAPTER XII.
EXHORTATION TO ABANDON THEIR OLD ERRORS AND LISTEN
TO THE INSTRUCTIONS OF CHRIST.
Let us then avoid custom as we would a dangerous headland, or the
threatening Charybdis, or the mythic sirens. It chokes man, turns him
away from truth, leads him away from life: custom is a snare, a gulf, a
pit, a mischievous winnowing fan.
“Urge the ship beyond that smoke and billow.”[152]
Let us shun, fellow-mariners, let us shun this billow; it vomits forth
fire: it is a wicked island, heaped with bones and corpses, and in it
sings a fair courtesan, Pleasure, delighting with music for the common
ear.
“Hie thee hither, far-famed Ulysses, great glory of the Achæans;
Moor the ship, that thou mayest hear a diviner voice.”[153]
She praises thee, O mariner, and calls thee illustrious; and the
courtesan tries to win to herself the glory of the Greeks. Leave her
to prey on the dead; a heavenly spirit comes to thy help: pass by
Pleasure, she beguiles.
“Let not a woman with flowing train cheat you of your senses,
With her flattering prattle seeking your hurt.”
Sail past the song; it works death. Exert your will only, and you have
overcome ruin; bound to the wood of the cross, thou shalt be freed from
destruction: the word of God will be thy pilot, and the Holy Spirit
will bring thee to anchor in the haven of heaven. Then shalt thou see
my God, and be initiated into the sacred mysteries, and come to the
fruition of those things which are laid up in heaven reserved for me,
which “ear hath not heard, nor have they entered into the heart of
any.”[154]
“And in sooth methinks I see two suns,
And a double Thebes,”[155]
said one frenzy-stricken in the worship of idols, intoxicated with
mere ignorance. I would pity him in his frantic intoxication, and thus
frantic I would invite him to the sobriety of salvation; for the Lord
welcomes a sinner’s repentance, and not his death.
Come, O madman, not leaning on the thyrsus, not crowned with ivy; throw
away the mitre, throw away the fawn-skin; come to thy senses. I will
show thee the Word, and the mysteries of the Word, expounding them
after thine own fashion. This is the mountain beloved of God, not the
subject of tragedies like Cithæron, but consecrated to dramas of the
truth,--a mount of sobriety, shaded with forests of purity; and there
revel on it not the Mænades, the sisters of Semele, who was struck by
the thunderbolt, practising in their initiatory rites unholy division
of flesh, but the daughters of God, the fair lambs, who celebrate the
holy rites of the Word, raising a sober choral dance. The righteous
are the chorus; the music is a hymn of the King of the universe. The
maidens strike the lyre, the angels praise, the prophets speak; the
sound of music issues forth, they run and pursue the jubilant band;
those that are called make haste, eagerly desiring to receive the
Father.
Come thou also, O aged man, leaving Thebes, and casting away from thee
both divination and Bacchic frenzy, allow thyself to be led to the
truth. I give thee the staff [of the cross] on which to lean. Haste,
Tiresias; believe, and thou wilt see. Christ, by whom the eyes of the
blind recover sight, will shed on thee a light brighter than the sun;
night will flee from thee, fire will fear, death will be gone; thou,
old man, who saw not Thebes, shalt see the heavens. O truly sacred
mysteries! O stainless light! My way is lighted with torches, and I
survey the heavens and God; I become holy whilst I am initiated.
The Lord is the hierophant, and seals while illuminating him who is
initiated, and presents to the Father him who believes, to be kept safe
for ever. Such are the revelries of my mysteries. If it is thy wish, be
thou also initiated; and thou shalt join the choir along with angels
around the unbegotten and indestructible and the only true God, the
Word of God, raising the hymn with us. This Jesus, who is eternal, the
one great High Priest of the one God and of His Father, prays for and
exhorts men.
“Hear, ye myriad tribes, rather whoever among men are endowed with
reason, both barbarians and Greeks. I call on the whole race of men,
whose creator I am, by the will of the Father. Come to me, that you
may be put in your due rank under the one God and the one Word of
God; and do not only have the advantage of the irrational creatures
in the possession of reason; for to you of all mortals I grant the
enjoyment of immortality. For I want, I want to impart to you this
grace, bestowing on you the perfect boon of immortality; and I confer
on you both the Word and the knowledge of God, my complete self. This
am I, this God wills, this is symphony, this the harmony of the Father,
this is the Son, this is Christ, this the Word of God, the arm of the
Lord, the power of the universe, the will of the Father; of which
things there were images of old, but not all adequate. I desire to
restore you according to the original model, that ye may become also
like me. I anoint you with the unguent of faith, by which you throw off
corruption, and show you the naked form of righteousness by which you
ascend to God. Come to 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 to your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden light.”[156]
Let us haste, let us run, my fellow-men--us, who are God-loving and
God-like images of the Word. Let us haste, let us run, let us take His
yoke, let us receive, to conduct us to immortality, the good charioteer
of men. Let us love Christ. He led the colt with its parent; and
having yoked the team of humanity to God, directs His chariot to
immortality, hastening clearly to fulfil, by driving now into heaven,
what He shadowed forth before by riding into Jerusalem. A spectacle
most beautiful to the Father is the eternal Son crowned with victory.
Let us aspire, then, after what is good; let us become God-loving men,
and obtain the greatest of all things which are incapable of being
harmed--God and life. Our helper is the Word; let us put confidence
in Him; and never let us be visited with such a craving for silver
and gold, and glory, as for the Word of truth Himself. For it will
not, it will not be pleasing to God Himself if we value least those
things which are worth most, and hold in the highest estimation the
manifest enormities and the utter impiety of folly, and ignorance,
and thoughtlessness, and idolatry. For not improperly the sons of the
philosophers consider that the foolish are guilty of profanity and
impiety in whatever they do; and describing ignorance itself as a
species of madness, allege that the multitude are nothing but madmen.
There is therefore no room to doubt, the Word will say, whether it
is better to be sane or insane; but holding on to truth with our
teeth, we must with all our might follow God, and in the exercise of
wisdom regard all things to be, as they are, His; and besides, having
learned that we are the most excellent of His possessions, let us
commit ourselves to God, loving the Lord God, and regarding this as
our business all our life long. And if what belongs to friends be
reckoned common property, and man be the friend of God--for through
the mediation of the Word has he been made the friend of God--then
accordingly all things become man’s, because all things are God’s, and
the common property of both the friends, God and man.
It is time, then, for us to say that the pious Christian alone is rich
and wise, and of noble birth, and thus call and believe him to be God’s
image, and also His likeness,[157] having become righteous and holy
and wise by Jesus Christ, and so far already like God. Accordingly
this grace is indicated by the prophet, when he says, “I said that ye
are gods, and all sons of the Highest.”[158] For us, yea us, He has
adopted, and wishes to be called the Father of us alone, not of the
unbelieving. Such is then our position who are the attendants of Christ.
“As are men’s wishes, so are their words;
As are their words, so are their deeds;
And as their works, such is their life.”
Good is the whole life of those who have known Christ.
Enough, methinks, of words, though, impelled by love to man, I might
have gone on to pour out what I had from God, that I might exhort to
what is the greatest of blessings--salvation. For discourses concerning
the life which has no end, are not readily brought to the end of their
disclosures. To you still remains this conclusion, to choose which will
profit you most--judgment or grace. For I do not think there is even
room for doubt which of these is the better; nor is it allowable to
compare life with destruction.
THE INSTRUCTOR.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
THE OFFICE OF THE INSTRUCTOR.
As there are these three things in the case of man, habits, actions,
and passions; habits are the department appropriated by _hortatory_
discourse the guide to piety, which, like the ship’s keel, is laid
beneath for the building up of faith; in which, rejoicing exceedingly,
and abjuring our old opinions, through salvation we renew our youth,
singing with the hymning prophecy, “How good is God to Israel, to such
as are upright in heart!”[159] All actions, again, are the province of
_preceptive_ discourse; while _persuasive_ discourse applies itself to
heal the passions. It is, however, one and the self-same word which
rescues man from the custom of this world in which he has been reared,
and trains him up in the one salvation of faith in God.
When, then, the heavenly guide, the Word, was inviting men to
salvation, the appellation of _hortatory_ was properly applied to Him:
this same word was called rousing (the whole from a part). For the
whole of piety is hortatory, engendering in the kindred faculty of
reason a yearning after true life now and to come. But now, being at
once curative and preceptive, following in His own steps, He makes what
had been prescribed the subject of persuasion, promising the cure of
the passions within us. Let us then designate this Word appropriately
by the one name _Tutor_ (or _Pædagogue_, or _Instructor_).
The Instructor being practical, not theoretical, His aim is thus to
improve the soul, not to teach, and to train it up to a virtuous, not
to an intellectual life. Although this same word is didactic, but not
in the present instance. For the word which, in matters of doctrine,
explains and reveals, is that whose province it is to teach. But our
Educator[160] being practical, first exhorts to the attainment of right
dispositions and character, and then persuades us to the energetic
practice of our duties, enjoining on us pure commandments, and
exhibiting to such as come after representations of those who formerly
wandered in error. Both are of the highest utility,--that which assumes
the form of counselling to obedience, and that which is presented in
the form of example; which latter is of two kinds, corresponding to the
former duality,--the one having for its purpose that we should choose
and imitate the good, and the other that we should reject and turn away
from the opposite.
Hence accordingly ensues the healing of our passions, in consequence
of the assuagements of those examples; the Pædagogue strengthening our
souls, and by His benign commands, as by gentle medicines, guiding the
sick to the perfect knowledge of the truth.
There is a wide difference between health and knowledge; for the latter
is produced by learning, the former by healing. One, who is ill, will
not therefore learn any branch of instruction till he is quite well.
For neither to learners nor to the sick is each injunction invariably
expressed similarly; but to the former in such a way as to lead to
knowledge, and to the latter to health. As, then, for those of us who
are diseased in body a physician is required, so also those who are
diseased in soul require a pædagogue to cure our maladies; and then a
teacher, to train and guide the soul to all requisite knowledge when
it is made able to admit the revelation of the Word. Eagerly desiring,
then, to perfect us by a gradation conducive to salvation, suited
for efficacious discipline, a beautiful arrangement is observed by
the all-benignant Word, who first exhorts, then trains, and finally
teaches.
CHAPTER II.
OUR INSTRUCTOR’S TREATMENT OF OUR SINS.
Now, O you, my children, our Instructor is like His Father God, whose
son He is, sinless, blameless, and with a soul devoid of passion; God
in the form of man, stainless, the minister of His Father’s will, the
Word who is God, who is in the Father, who is at the Father’s right
hand, and with the form of God is God. He is to us a spotless image;
to Him we are to try with all our might to assimilate our souls.
He is wholly free from human passions; wherefore also He alone is
judge, because He alone is sinless. As far, however, as we can, let
us try to sin as little as possible. For nothing is so urgent in the
first place as deliverance from passions and disorders, and then the
checking of our liability to fall into sins that have become habitual.
It is best, therefore, not to sin at all in any way, which we assert
to be the prerogative of God alone; next to keep clear of voluntary
transgressions, which is characteristic of the wise man; thirdly, not
to fall into many involuntary offences, which is peculiar to those who
have been excellently trained. Not to continue long in sins, let that
be ranked last. But this also is salutary to those who are called back
to repentance, to renew the contest.
And the Instructor, as I think, very beautifully says, through
Moses: “If any one die suddenly by him, straightway the head of his
consecration shall be polluted, and shall be shaved,”[161] designating
involuntary sin as sudden death. And He says that it pollutes by
defiling the soul: wherefore He prescribes the cure with all speed,
advising the head to be instantly shaven; that is, counselling the
locks of ignorance which shade the reason to be shorn clean off, that
reason (whose seat is in the brain), being left bare of the dense stuff
of vice, may speed its way to repentance. Then after a few remarks He
adds, “The days before are not reckoned irrational,”[162] by which
manifestly sins are meant which are contrary to reason. The involuntary
act He calls “_sudden_,” the sin he calls “irrational.” Wherefore the
Word, the Instructor, has taken the charge of us, in order to the
prevention of sin, which is contrary to reason.
Hence consider the expression of Scripture, “Therefore these things
saith the Lord;” the sin that had been committed before is held up to
reprobation by the succeeding expression “therefore,” according to
which the righteous judgment follows. This is shown conspicuously by
the prophets, when they said, “Hadst thou not sinned, He would not have
uttered these threatenings.” “Therefore thus saith the Lord;” “Because
thou hast not heard these words, therefore these things the Lord;” and,
“Therefore, behold, the Lord saith.” For prophecy is given by reason
both of obedience and disobedience: for obedience, that we may be
saved; for disobedience, that we may be corrected.
Our Instructor, the Word, therefore cures the unnatural passions of
the soul by means of exhortations. For with the highest propriety the
help of bodily diseases is called the healing art--an art acquired by
human skill. But the paternal Word is the only Pæonian physician of
human infirmities, and the holy charmer of the sick soul. “Save,” it is
said, “Thy servant, O my God, who trusteth in Thee. Pity me, O Lord;
for I will cry to Thee all the day.”[163] For a while the “physician’s
art,” according to Democritus, “heals the diseases of the body; wisdom
frees the soul from passion.” But the good Instructor, the Wisdom, the
Word of the Father, who made man, cares for the whole nature of His
creature; the all-sufficient Physician of humanity, the Saviour, heals
both body and soul. “Rise up,” He said to the paralytic; “take the
bed on which thou liest, and go away home;”[164] and straightway the
infirm man received strength. And to the dead He said, “Lazarus, go
forth;” and the dead man issued from his coffin such as he was ere he
died, having undergone resurrection. Further, He heals the soul itself
by precepts and gifts--by precepts indeed, in course of time, but being
liberal in His gifts, He says to us sinners, “Thy sins be forgiven
thee.”[165]
We, however, as soon as He conceived the thought, became His children,
having had assigned us the best and most secure rank by His orderly
arrangement, which first circles about the world, the heavens, and the
sun’s circuits, and occupies itself with the motions of the rest of the
stars for man’s behoof, and then busies itself with man himself, on
whom all its care is concentrated; and regarding him as its greatest
work, regulated his soul by wisdom and temperance, and tempered the
body with beauty and proportion. And whatever in human actions is right
and regular, is the result of the inspiration of its rectitude and
order.
CHAPTER III.
THE PHILANTHROPY OF THE INSTRUCTOR.
The Lord ministers all good and all help, both as man and as God: as
God, forgiving our sins; and as man, training us not to sin. Man is
therefore justly dear to God, since he is His workmanship. The other
works of creation He made by the word of command alone, but man He
framed by Himself, by His own hand, and breathed into him what was
peculiar to Himself. What, then, was fashioned by Him, and after His
likeness, either was created by God Himself as being desirable on its
own account, or was formed as being desirable on account of something
else. If, then, man is an object desirable for itself, then He who is
good loved what is good, and the lovecharm is within even in man, and
is that very thing which is called the inspiration [or breath] of God;
but if man was a desirable object on account of something else, God had
no other reason for creating him, than that unless he came into being,
it was not possible for God to be a good Creator, or for man to arrive
at the knowledge of God. For God would not have accomplished that on
account of which man was created otherwise than by the creation of man;
and what hidden power in willing God possessed, He carried fully out
by the forth-putting of His might externally in the act of creating,
receiving from man what He made man;[166] and whom He had He saw, and
what He wished that came to pass; and there is nothing which God cannot
do. Man, then, whom God made, is desirable for himself, and that which
is desirable on his account is allied to him to whom it is desirable on
his account; and this, too, is acceptable and liked.
But what is loveable, and is not also loved by Him? And man has been
proved to be loveable; consequently man is loved by God. For how shall
he not be loved for whose sake the only-begotten Son is sent from the
Father’s bosom, the Word of faith, the faith which is superabundant;
the Lord Himself distinctly confessing and saying, “For the Father
Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me;”[167] and again, “And
hast loved them as Thou hast loved me?”[168] What, then, the Master
desires and declares, and how He is disposed in deed and word, how He
commands what is to be done, and forbids the opposite, has already been
shown.
Plainly, then, the other kind of discourse, the didactic, is powerful
and spiritual, observing precision, occupied in the contemplation of
mysteries. But let it stand over for the present. Now, it is incumbent
on us to return His love, who lovingly guides us to that life which
is best; and to live in accordance with the injunctions of His will,
not only fulfilling what is commanded, or guarding against what is
forbidden, but turning away from some examples, and imitating others as
much as we can, and thus to perform the works of the Master according
to His similitude, and so fulfil what Scripture says as to our being
made in His image and likeness. For, wandering in life as in deep
darkness, we need a guide that cannot stumble or stray; and our guide
is the best, not blind, as the Scripture says, “leading the blind
into pits.”[169] But the Word is keen-sighted, and scans the recesses
of the heart. As, then, that is not light which enlightens not, nor
motion that moves not, nor loving which loves not, so neither is that
good which profits not, nor guides to salvation. Let us then aim at
the fulfilment of the commandments by the works of the Lord; for the
Word Himself also, having openly become flesh,[170] exhibited the same
virtue, both practical and contemplative. Wherefore let us regard the
Word as law, and His commands and counsels as the short and straight
paths to immortality; for His precepts are full of persuasion, not of
fear.
CHAPTER IV.
MEN AND WOMEN ALIKE UNDER THE INSTRUCTOR’S CHARGE.
Let us, then embracing more and more this good obedience, give
ourselves to the Lord, clinging to what is surest, the cable of faith
in Him, and understanding that the virtue of man and woman is the same.
For if the God of both is one, the Master of both is also one; one
church, one temperance, one modesty; their food is common, marriage an
equal yoke; respiration, sight, hearing, knowledge, hope, obedience,
love, all alike. And those whose life is common, have common grace and
a common salvation; common to them are love and training. “For in this
world,” he says, “they marry, and are given in marriage,”[171] in which
alone the female is distinguished from the male; “but in that world it
is so no more.” There the rewards of this social and holy life, which
is based on conjugal union, are laid up, not for male and female,
but for man, the sexual desire which divided humanity being removed.
Common therefore, too, to men and women, is the name of man. For this
reason I think the Attics called, not boys only, but girls, παιδάριον,
using it as a word of common gender; if Menander the comic poet, in
_Rhapizomena_, appears to any one a sufficient authority, who thus
speaks:
“My little daughter; for by nature
The child (παιδάριον) is most loving.”
Ἄρνες, too, the word for lambs, is a common name of simplicity for the
male and female animal.
Now the Lord Himself will feed us as His flock for ever. Amen. But
without a shepherd, neither can sheep nor any other animal live, nor
children without a tutor, nor domestics without a master.
CHAPTER V.
ALL WHO WALK ACCORDING TO TRUTH ARE CHILDREN OF GOD.
That, then, Pædagogy is the training of children (παίδων αγωγή),
is clear from the word itself. It remains for us to consider the
children whom Scripture points to; then to give the pædagogue charge
of them. We are the children. In many ways Scripture celebrates us,
and describes us in manifold figures of speech, giving variety to
the simplicity of the faith by diverse names. Accordingly, in the
gospel, “the Lord, standing on the shore, says to the disciples”--they
happened to be fishing--“and called aloud, Children, have ye any
meat?”[172]--addressing those that were already in the position
of disciples as children. “And they brought to Him,” it is said,
“children, that He might put His hands on them and bless them; and
when His disciples hindered them, Jesus said, Suffer the children,
and forbid them not to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of
heaven.”[173] What the expression means, the Lord Himself shall
declare, saying, “Except ye be converted, and become as little
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven;”[174] not in
that place speaking figuratively of regeneration, but setting before
us, for our imitation, the simplicity that is in children.
The prophetic spirit also distinguishes us as children. “Plucking,”
it is said, “branches of olives or palms, the children went forth
to meet the Lord, and cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord;”[175] light, and
glory, and praise, with supplication to the Lord: for this is the
meaning of the expression Hosanna when rendered into Greek. And the
Scripture appears to me, in allusion to the prophecy just mentioned,
reproachfully to upbraid the thoughtless: “Have ye never read, Out of
the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise?”[176]
In this way the Lord in the Gospels spurs on His disciples, urging
them to attend to Him, hastening as He was to the Father; rendering
His hearers more eager by the intimation that after a little He was to
depart, and showing them that it was requisite that they should take
more unsparing advantage of the truth than ever before, as the Word
was to ascend to heaven. Again, therefore, He calls them children;
for He says, “Children, a little while I am with you.”[177] And,
again, He likens the kingdom of heaven to children sitting in the
market-places and saying, “We have piped unto you, and ye have not
danced; we have mourned, and ye have not lamented;”[178] and whatever
else He added agreeably thereto. And it is not alone the gospel that
holds these sentiments. Prophecy also agrees with it. David accordingly
says, “_Praise, O children, the Lord; praise the name of the
Lord._”[179] It says also by Esaias, “_Here am I, and the children
that God hath given me._”[180] Are you amazed, then, to hear that
men who belong to the nations are sons in the Lord’s sight? You do not
in that case appear to give ear to the Attic dialect, from which you
may learn that beautiful, comely, and freeborn young maidens are still
called παιδίσκαι, and servant-girls παιδισκάρια; and that those last
also are, on account of the bloom of youth, called by the flattering
name of young maidens.
And when He says, “Let my lambs stand on my right,”[181] He alludes to
the simple children, as if they were sheep and lambs in nature, not
men; and the lambs He counts worthy of preference, from the superior
regard He has to that tenderness and simplicity of disposition in men
which constitutes innocence. Again, when He says, “as sucking calves,”
He again alludes figuratively to us; and “as an innocent and gentle
dove,”[182] the reference is again to us. Again, by Moses, He commands
“two young pigeons or a pair of turtles to be offered for sin;”[183]
thus saying, that the harmlessness and innocence and placable nature
of these tender young birds are acceptable to God, and explaining
that like is an expiation for like. Further, the timorousness of the
turtle-doves typifies fear in reference to sin.
And that He calls us chickens the Scripture testifies: “As a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings.”[184] Thus are we the Lord’s
chickens; the Word thus marvellously and mystically describing the
simplicity of childhood. For sometimes He calls us children, sometimes
chickens, sometimes infants, and at other times sons, and “a new
people,” and “a recent people.” “And my servants shall be called by
a new name”[185] (a new name, He says, fresh and eternal, pure and
simple, and childlike and true), which shall be blessed on the earth.
And again, He figuratively calls us colts unyoked to vice, not broken
in by wickedness; but simple, and bounding joyously to the Father
alone; not such horses “as neigh after their neighbours’ wives, that
are under the yoke, and are female-mad;”[186] but free and new-born,
jubilant by means of faith, ready to run to the truth, swift to speed
to salvation, that tread and stamp under foot the things of the world.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; tell aloud, O daughter of
Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh, just, meek, and bringing salvation;
meek truly is He, and riding on a beast of burden, and a young
colt.”[187] It was not enough to have said colt alone, but He added to
it also _young_, to show the youth of humanity in Christ, and the
eternity of simplicity, which shall know no old age. And we who are
little ones being such colts, are reared up by our divine colt-tamer.
But if the new man in Scripture is represented by the ass, this ass
is also a colt. “And he bound,” it is said, “the colt to the vine,”
having bound this simple and childlike people to the word, whom He
figuratively represents as a vine. For the vine produces wine, as the
Word produces blood, and both drink for health to men--wine for the
body, blood for the spirit.
And that He also calls us lambs, the Spirit by the mouth of Isaiah is
an unimpeachable witness: “He will feed His flock like a shepherd,
He will gather the lambs with His arm,”[188]--using the figurative
appellation of lambs, which are still more tender than sheep, to
express simplicity. And we also in truth, honouring the fairest and
most perfect objects in life with an appellation derived from the
word child, have named training παιδεία, and discipline παιδαγωγία.
Discipline (παιδαγωγία) we declare to be right guiding from childhood
to virtue. Accordingly, our Lord revealed more distinctly to us what
is signified by the appellation of children. On the question arising
among the apostles, “which of them should be the greater,” Jesus placed
a little child in the midst, saying, “Whosoever shall humble himself
as this little child, the same shall be the greater in the kingdom
of heaven.”[189] He does not then use the appellation of children on
account of their very limited amount of understanding from their age,
as some have thought. Nor, if He says, “Except ye become as these
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God,” are His words
to be understood as meaning “without learning.” We, then, who are
infants, no longer roll on the ground, nor creep on the earth like
serpents as before, crawling with the whole body about senseless lusts;
but, stretching upwards in soul, loosed from the world and our sins,
touching the earth on tiptoe so as to appear to be in the world, we
pursue holy wisdom, although this seems folly to those whose wits are
whetted for wickedness. Rightly, then, are those called children who
know Him who is God alone as their Father, who are simple, and infants,
and guileless, who are lovers of the horns of the unicorns.[190]
To those, therefore, that have made progress in the word, He has
proclaimed this utterance, bidding them dismiss anxious care of the
things of this world, and exhorting them to adhere to the Father
alone, in imitation of children. Wherefore also in what follows He
says: “Take no anxious thought for the morrow; sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof.”[191] Thus He enjoins them to lay aside
the cares of this life, and depend on the Father alone. And he who
fulfils this commandment is in reality a child and a son to God and
to the world,--to the one as deceived, to the other as beloved. And
if we have one Master in heaven, as the Scripture says, then by
common consent those on the earth will be rightly called disciples.
For so is the truth, that perfection is with the Lord, who is always
teaching, and infancy and childishness with us, who are always
learning. Thus prophecy hath honoured _perfection_, by applying
to it the appellation _man_. For instance, by David, He says
of the devil: “The Lord abhors the man of blood;”[192] he calls him
man, as perfect in wickedness. And the Lord is called man, because
He is perfect in righteousness. Directly in point is the instance
of the apostle, who says, writing the Corinthians: “For I have
espoused you to one man, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to
Christ,”[193] whether as children or saints, but to the Lord alone.
And writing to the Ephesians, he has unfolded in the clearest manner
the point in question, speaking to the following effect: “Till we all
attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of God, to a
perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
that we be no longer children, tossed to and fro by every wind of
doctrine, by the craft of men, by their cunning in the stratagems of
deceit; but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up to Him in all
things,”[194]--saving these things in order to the edification of
the body of Christ, who is the head and man, the only one perfect in
righteousness; and we who are children guarding against the blasts of
heresies, which blow to our inflation; and not putting our trust in
fathers who teach us otherwise, are then made perfect when we are the
church, having received Christ the head. Then it is right to notice,
with respect to the appellation of infant (νήπιος), that τὸ νήπιον is
not predicated of the silly: for the silly man is called νηπύτιος; and
νήπιος is νεήπιος (since he that is tender-hearted is called ἤπιος),
as being one that has newly become gentle and meek in conduct. This
the blessed Paul most clearly pointed out when he said, “When we might
have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, we were gentle (ἤπιοι)
among you, as a nurse cherisheth her children.”[195] The child (νήπιος)
is therefore gentle (ἤπιος), and therefore more tender, delicate,
and simple, guileless, and destitute of hypocrisy, straightforward
and upright in mind, which is the basis of simplicity and truth. For
He says, “Upon whom shall I look, but upon him who is gentle and
quiet?”[196] For such is the virgin speech, tender, and free of fraud;
whence also a virgin is wont to be called “a tender bride,” and a child
“tender-hearted.” And we are tender who are pliant to the power of
persuasion, and are easily drawn to goodness, and are mild, and free of
the stain of malice and perverseness, for the ancient race was perverse
and hard-hearted; but the band of infants, the new people which we
are, is delicate as a child. On account of the hearts of the innocent,
the apostle, in the Epistle to the Romans, owns that he rejoices, and
furnishes a kind of definition of children, so to speak, when he says,
“I would have you wise toward good, but simple towards evil.”[197] For
the name of child, νήπιος, is not understood by us privatively, though
the sons of the grammarians make the νη a privative particle. For if
they call us who follow after childhood foolish, see how they utter
blasphemy against the Lord, in regarding those as foolish who have
betaken themselves to God. But if, which is rather the true sense, they
themselves understand the designation children of simple ones, we glory
in the name. For the new minds, which have newly become wise, which
have sprung into being according to the new covenant, are infantile in
the old folly. Of late, then, God was known by the coming of Christ:
“For no man knoweth God but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall
reveal Him.”[198]
In contradistinction, therefore, to the older people, the new people
are called young, having learned the new blessings; and we have the
exuberance of life’s morning prime in this youth which knows no old
age, in which we are always growing to maturity in intelligence, are
always young, always mild, always new: for those must necessarily
be new, who have become partakers of the new Word. And that
which participates in eternity is wont to be assimilated to the
incorruptible: so that to us appertains the designation of the age of
childhood, a lifelong spring-time, because the truth that is in us,
and our habits saturated with the truth, cannot be touched by old age;
but Wisdom is ever blooming, ever remains consistent and the same,
and never changes. “Their children,” it is said, “shall be borne upon
their shoulders, and fondled on their knees; as one whom his mother
comforteth, so also shall I comfort you.”[199] The mother draws the
children to herself; and we seek our mother the church. Whatever is
feeble and tender, as needing help on account of its feebleness, is
kindly looked on, and is sweet and pleasant, anger changing into help
in the case of such: for thus horses’ colts, and the little calves
of cows, and the lion’s whelp, and the stag’s fawn, and the child of
man, are looked upon with pleasure by their fathers and mothers. Thus
also the Father of the universe cherishes affection towards those who
have fled to Him; and having begotten them again by His Spirit to the
adoption of children, knows them as gentle, and loves those alone,
and aids and fights for them; and therefore He bestows on them the
name of child. The word Isaac I also connect with child. Isaac means
laughter. He was seen sporting with his wife and helpmeet Rebecca by
the prying king.[200] The king, whose name was Abimelech, appears
to me to represent a supramundane wisdom contemplating the mystery
of sport. They interpret Rebecca to mean endurance. O wise sport,
laughter also assisted by endurance, and the king as spectator! The
spirit of those that are children in Christ, whose lives are ordered
in endurance, rejoice. And this is the divine sport. “Such a sport, of
his own, Jove sports,” says Heraclitus. For what other employment is
seemly for a wise and perfect man, than to sport and be glad in the
endurance of what is good, and, in the administration of what is good,
holding festival with God? That which is signified by the prophet may
be interpreted differently,--namely, of our rejoicing for salvation, as
Isaac. He also, delivered from death, laughed, sporting and rejoicing
with his spouse, who was the type of the Helper of our salvation, the
church, to whom the stable name of endurance is given; for this cause
surely, because she alone remains to all generations, rejoicing ever,
subsisting as she does by the endurance of us believers, who are the
members of Christ. And the witness of those that have endured to the
end, and the rejoicing on their account, is the mystic sport, and the
salvation accompanied with decorous solace which brings us aid.
The King, then, who is Christ, beholds from above our laughter,
and looking through the window, as the Scripture says, views the
thanksgiving, and the blessing, and the rejoicing, and the gladness,
and furthermore the endurance which works together with them and their
embrace: views His church, showing only His face, which was wanting to
the church, which is made perfect by her royal Head. And where, then,
was the door by which the Lord showed Himself? The flesh by which He
was manifested. He is Isaac (for the narrative may be interpreted
otherwise), who is a type of the Lord, a child as a son; for he was
the son of Abraham, as Christ the Son of God, and a sacrifice as the
Lord, but he was not immolated as the Lord. Isaac only bore the wood
of the sacrifice, as the Lord the wood of the cross. And he laughed
mystically, prophesying that the Lord should fill us with joy, who
have been redeemed from corruption by the blood of the Lord. Isaac
did everything but suffer, as was right, yielding the precedence in
suffering to the Word. Furthermore, there is an intimation of the
divinity of the Lord in His not being slain. For Jesus rose again
after His burial, having suffered no harm, like Isaac released from
sacrifice. And in defence of the point to be established, I shall
adduce another consideration of the greatest weight. The Spirit calls
the Lord Himself a child, thus prophesying by Esaias: “Lo, to us a
child has been born, to us a son has been given, on whose own shoulder
the government shall be; and His name has been called the Angel of
great Counsel.” Who, then, is this infant child? He according to whose
image we are made little children. By the same prophet is declared His
greatness: “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace; that He might fulfil His discipline: and of His peace
there shall be no end.”[201] O the great God! O the perfect child! The
Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son. And how shall not the
discipline of this child be perfect, which extends to all, leading as a
schoolmaster us as children, who are His little ones? He has stretched
forth to us those hands of His that are conspicuously worthy of trust.
To this child additional testimony is borne by John, “the greatest
prophet among those born of women:”[202] “Behold the Lamb of God!”[203]
For since Scripture calls the infant children lambs, it has also called
Him--God the Word--who became man for our sakes, and who wished in all
points to be made like to us--“the Lamb of God”--Him, namely, that is
the Son of God, the child of the Father.
CHAPTER VI.
THE NAME CHILDREN DOES NOT IMPLY INSTRUCTION IN
ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
We have ample means of encountering those who are given to carping. For
we are not termed children and infants with reference to the childish
and contemptible character of our education, as those who are inflated
on account of knowledge have calumniously alleged. Straightway, on our
regeneration, we attained that perfection after which we aspired. For
we were illuminated, which is to know God. He is not then imperfect
who knows what is perfect. And do not reprehend me when I profess to
know God; for so it was deemed right to speak to the Word, and He
is free.[204] For at the moment of the Lord’s baptism there sounded
a voice from heaven, as a testimony to the Beloved, “Thou art my
beloved Son, to-day have I begotten Thee.” Let us then ask at the
wise, Is Christ, begotten to-day, already perfect, or--what were most
monstrous--imperfect? If the latter, there is some addition He requires
yet to make. But for Him to make any addition to His knowledge is
absurd, since He is God. For none can be superior to the Word, or the
teacher of the only Teacher. Will they not then own, though reluctant,
that the perfect Word born of the perfect Father was begotten in
perfection, according to œconomic fore-ordination? And if He was
perfect, why was He, the perfect one, baptized? It was necessary,
they say, to fulfil the profession that pertained to humanity. Most
excellent. Well, I assert, simultaneously with His baptism by John,
He becomes perfect? Manifestly. He did not then learn anything more
from him? Certainly not. But He is perfected by the washing--of
baptism--alone, and is sanctified by the descent of the Spirit? Such is
the case. The same also takes place in our case, whose exemplar Christ
became. Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated, we become
sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are
made immortal. “I,” says He, “have said that ye are gods, and all sons
of the Highest.”[205] This work is variously called grace,[206] and
illumination, and perfection, and washing: washing, by which we cleanse
away our sins; grace, by which the penalties accruing to transgressions
are remitted; and illumination, by which that holy light of salvation
is beheld, that is, by which we see God clearly. Now we call that
perfect which wants nothing. For what is yet wanting to him who knows
God? For it were truly monstrous that that which is not complete
should be called a gift (or act) of God’s grace. Being perfect, He
consequently bestows perfect gifts. As at His command all things were
made, so on His bare wishing to bestow grace, ensues the perfecting of
His grace. For the future of time is anticipated by the power of His
volition.
Further release from evils is the beginning of salvation. We then
alone, who first have touched the confines of life, are already
perfect; and we already live who are separated from death. Salvation,
accordingly, is the following of Christ: “For that which is in Him is
life.”[207] “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my words,
and believeth on Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not
into condemnation, but hath passed from death to life.”[208] Thus
believing alone, and regeneration, is perfection in life; for God is
never weak. For as His will is work, and this[209] is named the world;
so also His counsel is the salvation of men, and this has been called
the church. He knows, therefore, whom He has called, and whom He has
saved; and at one and the same time He called and saved them. “For ye
are,” says the apostle, “taught of God.”[210] It is not then allowable
to think of what is taught by Him as imperfect; and what is learned
from Him is the eternal salvation of the eternal Saviour, to whom be
thanks for ever and ever. Amen. And he who is only regenerated--as the
name necessarily indicates--and is enlightened, is delivered forthwith
from darkness, and on the instant receives the light.
As, then, those who have shaken off sleep forthwith become all awake
within; or rather, as those who try to remove a film that is over the
eyes, do not supply to them from without the light which they do not
possess, but removing the obstacle from the eyes, leave the pupil
free; thus also we who are baptized, having wiped off the sins which
obscure the light of the Divine Spirit, have the eye of the spirit
free, unimpeded, and full of light, by which alone we contemplate the
Divine, the Holy Spirit flowing down to us from above. This is the
eternal adjustment of the vision, which is able to see the eternal
light, since like loves like; and that which is holy, loves that from
which holiness proceeds, which has appropriately been termed light.
“Once ye were darkness, now are ye light in the Lord.”[211] Hence I am
of opinion man was called by the ancients φώς.[212] But he has not yet
received, say they, the perfect gift. I also assent to this; but he is
in the light, and the darkness comprehendeth him not. There is nothing
intermediate between light and darkness. But the end is reserved till
the resurrection of those who believe; and it is not the reception of
some other thing, but the obtaining of the promise previously made.
For we do not say that both take place together at the same time--both
the arrival at the end, and the anticipation of that arrival. For
eternity and time are not the same, neither is the attempt and the
final result; but both have reference to the same thing, and one and
the same person is concerned in both. Faith, so to speak, is the
attempt generated in time; the final result is the attainment of the
promise, secured for eternity. Now the Lord Himself has most clearly
revealed the equality of salvation, when He said: “For this is the will
of my Father, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him,
should have everlasting life; and I will raise him up in the last
day.”[213] As far as possible in this world, which is what he means
by the last day, and which is preserved till the time that it shall
end, we believe that we are made perfect. Wherefore He says, “He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”[214] If, then, those who
have believed have life, what remains beyond the possession of eternal
life? Nothing is wanting to faith, as it is perfect and complete in
itself. If aught is wanting to it, it is not wholly perfect. But faith
is not lame in any respect; nor after our departure from this world
does it make us who have believed, and received without distinction
the earnest of future good, wait; but having in anticipation grasped
by faith that which is future, after the resurrection we receive it
as present, in order that that may be fulfilled which was spoken,
“Be it according to thy faith.”[215] And where faith is, there is
the promise; and the consummation of the promise is rest. So that in
illumination what we receive is knowledge, and the end of knowledge
is rest--the last thing conceived as the object of aspiration. As,
then, inexperience comes to an end by experience, and perplexity by
finding a clear outlet, so by illumination must darkness disappear. The
darkness is ignorance, through which we fall into sins, purblind as
to the truth. Knowledge, then, is the illumination we receive, which
makes ignorance disappear, and endows us with clear vision. Further,
the abandonment of what is bad is the adopting[216] of what is better.
For what ignorance has bound ill, is by knowledge loosed well; those
bonds are with all speed slackened by human faith and divine grace, our
transgressions being taken away by one Pæonian medicine, the baptism of
the Word. We are washed from all our sins, and are no longer entangled
in evil. This is the one grace of illumination, that our characters
are not the same as before our washing. And since knowledge springs up
with illumination, shedding its beams around the mind, the moment we
hear, we who were untaught become disciples. Does this, I ask, take
place on the advent of this instruction? You cannot tell the time.
For instruction leads to faith, and faith with baptism is trained by
the Holy Spirit. For that faith is the one universal salvation of
humanity, and that there is the same equality before the righteous and
loving God, and the same fellowship between Him and all, the apostle
most clearly showed, speaking to the following effect: “Before faith
came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed, so that the law became our schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but after that
faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”[217] Do you
not hear that we are no longer under that law which was accompanied
with fear, but under the Word, the master of free choice? Then he
subjoined the utterance, clear of all partiality: “For ye are all
the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as
were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”[218] There are not, then,
in the same Word some “illuminated (gnostics); and some animal (or
natural) men;” but all who have abandoned the desires of the flesh are
equal and spiritual before the Lord. And again he writes in another
place: “For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether
Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and we have all drunk of one
cup.”[219] Nor were it absurd to employ the expressions of those who
call the reminiscence of better things the filtration of the spirit,
understanding by filtration the separation of what is baser, that
results from the reminiscence of what is better. There follows of
necessity, in him who has come to the recollection of what is better,
repentance for what is worse. Accordingly, they confess that the
spirit in repentance retraces its steps. In the same way, therefore,
we also, repenting of our sins, renouncing our iniquities, purified
by baptism, speed back to the eternal light, children to the Father.
Jesus therefore, rejoicing in spirit, said: “I thank Thee, O Father,
God of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes;”[220] the Master
and Teacher applying the name babes to us, who are readier to embrace
salvation than the wise in the world, who, thinking themselves wise,
are inflated with pride. And He exclaims in exultation and exceeding
joy, as if lisping with the children, “Even so, Father; for so it
seemed good in Thy sight.”[221] Wherefore those things which have been
concealed from the wise and prudent of this present world have been
revealed to babes. Truly, then, are we the children of God, who have
put aside the old man, and stripped off the garment of wickedness,
and put on the immortality of Christ; that we may become a new, holy
people by regeneration, and may keep the man undefiled. And a babe, as
God’s little one, is cleansed from fornication and wickedness. With the
greatest clearness the blessed Paul has solved for us this question
in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, writing thus: “Brethren, be
not children in understanding; howbeit in malice be children, but in
understanding be men.”[222] And the expression, “When I was a child,
I thought as a child, I spake as a child,”[223] points out his mode
of life according to the law, according to which, thinking childish
things, he persecuted, and speaking childish things he blasphemed the
Word, not as having yet attained to the simplicity of childhood, but as
being in its folly; for the word νήπιον has two meanings.[224] “When
I became a man,” again Paul says, “I put away childish things.”[225]
It is not incomplete size of stature, nor a definite measure of time,
nor additional secret teachings in things that are manly and more
perfect, that the apostle, who himself professes to be a preacher of
childishness, alludes to when he sends it, as it were, into banishment;
but he applies the name “children” to those who are under the law,
who are terrified by fear as children are by bugbears; and “men” to
us who are obedient to the Word and masters of ourselves, who have
believed, and are saved by voluntary choice, and are rationally, not
irrationally, frightened by terror. Of this the apostle himself shall
testify, calling as he does the Jews heirs according to the first
covenant, and us heirs according to promise: “_Now I say, as long as
the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a servant, though he be
lord of all; but is under tutors and governors, till the time appointed
by the father. So also we, when we were children, were in bondage under
the rudiments of the world; but when the fulness of the time was come,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons_”[226] by Him. See how He has admitted those to be children
who are under fear and sins; but has conferred manhood on those who
are under faith, by calling them sons, in contradistinction from the
children that are under the law: “For thou art no more a servant,”
he says, “but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”[227]
What, then, is lacking to the son after inheritance? Wherefore the
expression, “When I was a child,” may be elegantly expounded thus: that
is, when I was a Jew (for he was a Hebrew by extraction) I thought
as a child, when I followed the law; but after becoming a man, I no
longer entertain the sentiments of a child, that is, of the law, but
of a man, that is, of Christ, whom alone the Scripture calls man, as
we have said before. “I put away childish things.” But the childhood
which is in Christ is maturity, as compared with the law. Having
reached this point, we must defend our childhood. And we have still
to explain what is said by the apostle: “I have fed you with milk (as
children in Christ), not with meat; for ye were not able, neither yet
are ye now able.”[228] For it does not appear to me that the expression
is to be taken in a Jewish sense; for I shall oppose to it also that
scripture, “I will bring you into that good land which flows with milk
and honey.”[229] A very great difficulty arises in reference to the
comparison of these scriptures, when we consider. For if the infancy
which is characterized by the milk is the beginning of faith in Christ,
then it is disparaged as childish and imperfect. How is the rest that
comes after the meat, the rest of the man who is perfect and endowed
with knowledge, again distinguished by infant milk? Does not this,
as explaining a parable, mean something like this, and is not the
expression to be read somewhat to the following effect: “_I have fed
you with milk in Christ_;” and after a slight stop, let us add, “as
children,” that by separating the words in reading we may make out some
such sense as this: I have instructed you in Christ with simple, true,
and natural nourishment,--namely, that which is spiritual: for such is
the nourishing substance of milk swelling out from breasts of love. So
that the whole matter may be conceived thus: As nurses nourish new-born
children on milk, so do I also by the Word, the milk of Christ,
instilling into you spiritual nutriment.
Thus, then, the milk which is perfect is perfect nourishment, and
brings to that consummation which cannot cease. Wherefore also the same
milk and honey were promised in the rest. Rightly, therefore, the Lord
again promises milk to the righteous, that the Word may be clearly
shown to be both, “the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end;”[230] the
Word being figuratively represented as milk. Something like this
Homer oracularly declares against his will, when he calls righteous
men milk-fed (γαλακτοφάγοι). So also may we take the scripture: “And
I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ;”[231] so that the carnal may be
understood as those recently instructed, and still babes in Christ.
For he called those who had already believed on the Holy Spirit
spiritual, and those newly instructed and not yet purified carnal;
whom with justice he calls still carnal, as minding equally with the
heathen the things of the flesh: “For whereas there is among you envy
and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”[232] “Wherefore also
I have given you milk to drink,” he says; meaning, I have instilled
into you the knowledge which, from instruction, nourishes up to life
eternal. But the expression, “I have given you to drink” (ὲπότισα), is
the symbol of perfect appropriation. For those who are full-grown are
said to drink, babes to suck. “For my blood,” says the Lord, “is true
drink.”[233] In saying, therefore, “I have given you milk to drink,”
has he not indicated the knowledge of the truth, the perfect gladness
in the Word, who is the milk? And what follows next, “not meat, for ye
were not able,” may indicate the clear revelation in the future world,
like food, face to face. “For now we see as through a glass,” the same
apostle says, “but then face to face.”[234] Wherefore also he has
added, “neither yet are ye now able, for ye are still carnal,” minding
the things of the flesh,--desiring, loving, feeling jealousy, wrath,
envy. “For we are no more in the flesh,”[235] as some suppose. For with
it [they say], having the face which is like an angel’s, we shall see
the promise face to face. How then, if that is truly the promise after
our departure hence, say they that they know “what eye hath not known,
nor hath entered into the mind of man,” who have not perceived by the
Spirit, but received from instruction “what ear hath not heard,”[236]
or that ear alone which “was rapt up into the third heaven?”[237] But
it even then was commanded to preserve it unspoken.
But if human wisdom, as it remains to understand, is the glorying in
knowledge, hear the law of Scripture: “Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might; but let him
that glorieth glory in the Lord.”[238] But we are God-taught, and glory
in the name of Christ. How then are we not to regard the apostle as
attaching this sense to the milk of the babes? And if we who preside
over the churches are shepherds after the image of the good Shepherd,
and you the sheep, are we not to regard the Lord as preserving
consistency in the use of figurative speech, when He speaks also of
the milk of the flock? And to this meaning we may secondly accommodate
the expression, “I have given you milk to drink, and not given you
food, for ye are not yet able,” regarding the meat not as something
different from the milk, but the same in substance. For the very same
Word is fluid and mild as milk, or solid and compact as meat. And
entertaining this view, we may regard the proclamation of the gospel,
which is universally diffused, as milk; and as meat, faith, which
from instruction is compacted into a foundation, which, being more
substantial than hearing, is likened to meat, and assimilates to the
soul itself nourishment of this kind. Elsewhere the Lord, in the Gospel
according to John, brought this out by symbols, when He said: “Eat ye
my flesh, and drink my blood;”[239] describing distinctly by metaphor
the drinkable properties of faith and the promise, by means of which
the Church, like a human being consisting of many members, is refreshed
and grows, is welded together and compacted of both,--of faith, which
is the body, and of hope, which is the soul; as also the Lord of flesh
and blood. For in reality the blood of faith is hope, in which faith
is held as by a vital principle. And when hope expires, it is as if
blood flowed forth; and the vitality of faith is destroyed. If, then,
some would oppose, saying that by milk is meant the first lessons--as
it were, the first food--and that by meat is meant those spiritual
cognitions to which they attain by raising themselves to knowledge,
let them understand that, in saying that meat is solid food, and the
flesh and blood of Jesus, they are brought by their own vainglorious
wisdom to the true simplicity. For the blood is found to be an original
product in man, and some have consequently ventured to call it the
substance of the soul. And this blood, transmuted by a natural process
of assimilation in the pregnancy of the mother, through the sympathy
of parental affection, effloresces and grows old, in order that there
may be no fear for the child. Blood, too, is the moister part of flesh,
being a kind of liquid flesh; and milk is the sweeter and finer part
of blood. For whether it be the blood supplied to the fœtus, and sent
through the navel of the mother, or whether it be the menses themselves
shut out from their proper passage, and by a natural diffusion, bidden
by the all-nourishing and creating God, proceed to the already swelling
breasts, and by the heat of the spirits transmuted, [whether it be the
one or the other] that is formed into food desirable for the babe, that
which is changed is the blood. For of all the members, the breasts
have the most sympathy with the womb. When there is parturition, the
vessel by which blood was conveyed to the fœtus is cut off: there is an
obstruction of the flow, and the blood receives an impulse towards the
breasts; and on a considerable rush taking place, they are distended,
and change the blood to milk in a manner analogous to the change of
blood into pus in ulceration. Or if, on the other hand, the blood from
the veins in the vicinity of the breasts, which have been opened in
pregnancy, is poured into the natural hollows of the breasts; and the
spirit discharged from the neighbouring arteries being mixed with it,
the substance of the blood, still remaining pure, it becomes white by
being agitated like a wave; and by an interruption such as this is
changed by frothing it, like what takes place with the sea, which at
the assaults of the winds, the poets say, “spits forth briny foam.” Yet
still the essence is supplied by the blood.
In this way also the rivers, borne on with rushing motion, and fretted
by contact with the surrounding air, murmur forth foam. The moisture
in our mouth, too, is whitened by the breath. What an absurdity[240]
is it, then, not to acknowledge that the blood is converted into that
very bright and white substance by the breath! The change it suffers
is in quality, not in essence. You will certainly find nothing else
more nourishing, or sweeter, or whiter than milk. In every respect,
accordingly, it is like spiritual nourishment, which is sweet through
grace, nourishing as life, bright as the day of Christ.
The blood of the Word has been also exhibited as milk. Milk being thus
provided in parturition, is supplied to the infant; and the breasts,
which till then looked straight towards the husband, now bend down
towards the child, being taught to furnish the substance elaborated
by nature in a way easily received for salutary nourishment. For
the breasts are not like fountains full of milk, flowing in ready
prepared; but, by effecting a change in the nutriment, form the milk in
themselves, and discharge it. And the nutriment suitable and wholesome
for the new-formed and new-born babe is elaborated by God, the
nourisher and the Father of all that are generated and regenerated,--as
manna, the celestial food of angels, flowed down from heaven on the
ancient Hebrews. Even now, in fact, nurses call the first-poured
drink of milk by the same name as that food--manna. Further, pregnant
women, on becoming mothers, discharge milk. But the Lord Christ, the
fruit of the Virgin, did not pronounce the breasts of women blessed,
nor selected them to give nourishment; but when the kind and loving
Father had rained down the Word, Himself became spiritual nourishment
to the good. O mystic marvel! The universal Father is one, and one the
universal Word; and the Holy Spirit is one and the same everywhere,
and one is the only virgin mother. I love to call her the Church. This
mother, when alone, had not milk, because alone she was not a woman.
But she is at once virgin and mother--pure as a virgin, loving as a
mother. And calling her children to her, she nurses them with holy
milk, viz. with the Word for childhood. Therefore she had not milk;
for the milk was this child fair and comely, the body of Christ, which
nourishes by the Word the young brood, which the Lord Himself brought
forth in throes of the flesh, which the Lord Himself swathed in His
precious blood. O amazing birth! O holy swaddling bands! The Word is
all to the child, both father and mother, and tutor and nurse. “Eat ye
my flesh,” He says, “and drink my blood.”[241] Such is the suitable
food which the Lord ministers, and He offers His flesh and pours forth
His blood, and nothing is wanting for the children’s growth. O amazing
mystery! We are enjoined to cast off the old and carnal corruption,
as also the old nutriment, receiving in exchange another new regimen,
that of Christ, receiving Him if we can, to hide Him within; and that,
enshrining the Saviour in our souls, we may correct the affections of
our flesh.
But you are not inclined to understand it thus, but perchance more
generally. Hear it also in the following way. The flesh figuratively
represents to us the Holy Spirit; for the flesh was created by Him.
The blood points out to us the Word, for as rich blood the Word has
been infused into life; and the union of both is the Lord, the food
of the babes--the Lord who is Spirit and Word. The food--that is,
the Lord Jesus--that is, the Word of God, the Spirit made flesh, the
heavenly flesh sanctified. The nutriment is the milk of the Father,
by which alone we infants are nourished. The Word Himself, then, the
beloved One, and our nourisher, hath shed His own blood for us, to save
humanity; and by Him, we, believing on God, flee to the Word, “the
care-soothing breast” of the Father. And He alone, as is befitting,
supplies us children with the milk of love, and those only are truly
blessed who suck this breast. Wherefore also Peter says: “Laying
therefore aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy,
and evil speaking, as new-born babes, desire the milk of the word,
that ye may grow by it to salvation; if ye have tasted that the Lord
is Christ.”[242] And were one to concede to them that the meat was
something different from the milk, then how shall they avoid being
transfixed on their own spit, through want of consideration of nature?
For in winter, when the air is condensed, and prevents the escape
of the heat enclosed within, the food, transmuted and digested and
changed into blood, passes into the veins, and these, in the absence
of exhalation, are greatly distended, and exhibit strong pulsations;
consequently also nurses are then fullest of milk. And we have shown
a little above, that on pregnancy blood passes into milk by a change
which does not affect its substance, just as in old people yellow
hair changes to grey. But again in summer, the body, having its pores
more open, affords greater facility for diaphoretic action in the
case of the food, and the milk is least abundant, since neither is
the blood full, nor is the whole nutriment retained. If, then, the
digestion of the food results in the production of blood, and the blood
becomes milk, then blood is a preparation for milk, as blood is for a
human being, and the grape for the vine. With milk, then, the Lord’s
nutriment, we are nursed directly we are born; and as soon as we are
regenerated, we are honoured by receiving the good news of the hope of
rest, even the Jerusalem above, in which it is written that milk and
honey fall in showers, receiving through what is material the pledge of
the sacred food. “For meats are done away with,”[243] as the apostle
himself says; but this nourishment on milk leads to the heavens,
rearing up citizens of heaven, and members of the angelic choirs. And
since the Word is the gushing fountain of life, and has been called a
river of olive oil, Paul, using appropriate figurative language, and
calling Him milk, adds: “I have given you to drink;”[244] for we drink
in the word, the nutriment of the truth. In truth, also liquid food is
called drink; and the same thing may somehow be both meat and drink,
according to the different aspects in which it is considered, just as
cheese is the solidification of milk, or milk solidified; for I am
not concerned here to make a nice selection of an expression, only to
say that one substance supplies both articles of food. Besides, for
children at the breast, milk alone suffices; it serves both for meat
and drink. “I,” says the Lord, “have meat to eat that ye know not of.
My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.”[245] You see another
kind of food which, similarly with milk, represents figuratively the
will of God. Besides, also, the completion of His own passion He called
catachrestically “a cup,”[246] when He alone had to drink and drain it.
Thus to Christ the fulfilling of His Father’s will was food; and to us
infants, who drink the milk of the word of the heavens, Christ Himself
is food. Hence seeking is called sucking; for to those babes that seek
the Word, the Father’s breasts of love supply milk.
Further, the Word declares Himself to be the bread of heaven. “For
Moses,” He says, “gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He that
cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world. And the bread
which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world.”[247] Here is to be noted the mystery of the bread, inasmuch as
He speaks of it as flesh, and as flesh, consequently, that has risen
through fire, as the wheat springs up from decay and germination;
and, in truth, it has risen through fire for the joy of the church,
as bread baked. But this will be shown by and by more clearly in the
chapter on the resurrection. But since He said, “And the bread which I
will give is my flesh,” and since flesh is moistened with blood, and
blood is figuratively termed wine, we are bidden know that, as bread,
crumbled into a mixture of wine and water, seizes on the wine and
leaves the watery portion, so also the flesh of Christ, the bread of
heaven, absorbs the blood; that is, those among men who are heavenly,
nourishing them up to immortality, and leaving only to destruction the
lusts of the flesh.
Thus in many ways the Word is figuratively described, as meat, and
flesh, and food, and bread, and blood, and milk. The Lord is all these,
to give enjoyment to us who have believed on Him. Let no one then
think it strange, when we say that the Lord’s blood is figuratively
represented as milk. For is it not figuratively represented as wine?
“Who washes,” it is said, “His garment in wine, His robe in the blood
of the grape.”[248] In His own Spirit He says He will deck the body
of the Word; as certainly by His own Spirit He will nourish those who
hunger for the Word.
And that the blood is the Word, is testified by the blood of Abel, the
righteous interceding with God. For the blood would never have uttered
a voice, had it not been regarded as the Word: for the righteous man
of old is the type of the new righteous one; and the blood of old that
interceded, intercedes in the place of the new blood. And the blood
that is the Word cries to God, since it intimated that the Word was to
suffer.
Further, this flesh, and the blood in it, are by a mutual sympathy
moistened and increased by the milk. And the process of formation
of the seed in conception ensues when it has mingled with the pure
residue of the menses, which remains. For the force that is in the seed
coagulating the substances of the blood, as the rennet curdles milk,
effects the essential part of the formative process. For a suitable
blending conduces to fruitfulness; but extremes are adverse, and tend
to sterility. For when the earth itself is flooded by excessive rain,
the seed is swept away, while in consequence of scarcity it is dried
up; but when the sap is viscous, it retains the seed, and makes it
germinate. Some also hold the hypothesis, that the seed of an animal is
in substance the foam of the blood, which being by the natural heat of
the male agitated and shaken out, in copulation is turned into foam,
and deposited in the seminal veins. For Diogenes Apollionates will have
it, that hence is derived the word _aphrodisia_.
From all this it is therefore evident, that the essential principle of
the human body is blood. The contents of the stomach, too, at first are
milky, a coagulation of fluid; then the same coagulated substance is
changed into blood; but when it is formed into a compact consistency
in the womb, by the natural and warm spirit by which the embryo is
fashioned, it becomes a living creature. Further also, the child after
birth is nourished by the same blood. For the flow of milk is the
product of the blood; and the source of nourishment is the milk; by
which a woman is shown to have brought forth a child, and to be truly
a mother, by which also she receives a potent charm of affection.
Wherefore the Holy Spirit in the apostle, using the voice of the Lord,
says mystically, “I have given you milk to drink.”[249] For if we have
been regenerated unto Christ, He who has regenerated us nourishes us
with His own milk, the Word; for it is proper that what has procreated
should forthwith supply nourishment to that which has been procreated.
And as the regeneration was conformably spiritual, so also was the
nutriment of man spiritual. In all respects, therefore, and in all
things, we are brought into union with Christ, into relationship
through His blood, by which we are redeemed; and into sympathy, in
consequence of the nourishment which flows from the Word; and into
immortality, through His guidance:
“Among men the bringing up of children
Often produces stronger impulses to love than the procreating of
them.”
The same blood and milk of the Lord is therefore the symbol of the
Lord’s passion and teaching. Wherefore each of us babes is permitted to
make our boast in the Lord, while we proclaim:
“Yet of a noble sire and noble blood I boast me sprung.”[250]
And that milk is produced from blood by a change, is already clear; yet
we may learn it from the flocks and herds. For these animals, in the
time of the year which we call spring, when the air has more humidity,
and the grass and meadows are juicy and moist, are first filled with
blood, as is shown by the distension of the veins of the swollen
vessels; and from the blood the milk flows more copiously. But in
summer, again, the blood being burnt and dried up by the heat, prevents
the change, and so they have less milk.
Further, milk has a most natural affinity for water, as assuredly the
spiritual washing has for the spiritual nutriment. Those, therefore,
that swallow a little cold water, in addition to the above-mentioned
milk, straightway feel benefit; for the milk is prevented from souring
by its combination with water, not in consequence of any antipathy
between them, but in consequence of the water taking kindly to the milk
while it is undergoing digestion.
And such as is the union of the Word with baptism, is the agreement of
milk with water; for it receives it alone of all liquids, and admits of
mixture with water, for the purpose of cleansing, as baptism for the
remission of sins. And it is mixed naturally with honey also, and this
for cleansing along with sweet nutriment. For the Word blended with
love at once cures our passions and cleanses our sins; and the saying,
“Sweeter than honey flowed the stream of speech,”[251]
seems to me to have been spoken of the Word, who is honey. And prophecy
oft extols Him “above honey and the honey-comb.”[252]
Furthermore, milk is mixed with sweet wine; and the mixture is
beneficial, as when suffering is mixed in the cup in order to
immortality. For the milk is curdled by the wine, and separated, and
whatever adulteration is in it is drained off. And in the same way,
the spiritual communion of faith with suffering man, drawing off as
serous matter the lusts of the flesh, commits man to eternity, along
with those who are divine, immortalizing him.
Further, many also use the fat of milk, called butter, for the lamp,
plainly indicating by this enigma the abundant unction of the Word,
since He alone it is who nourishes the infants, makes them grow,
and enlightens them. Wherefore also the Scripture says respecting
the Lord, “He fed them with the produce of the fields; they sucked
honey from the rock, and oil from the solid rock, butter of kine,
and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs;”[253] and what follows He gave
them. But he that prophesies the birth of the child says: “Butter and
honey shall He eat.”[254] And it occurs to me to wonder how some dare
call themselves perfect and gnostics, with ideas of themselves above
the apostle, inflated and boastful, when Paul even owned respecting
himself, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect; but
I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended
of Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this
one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching
forth to those that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize
of the high calling in Christ Jesus.”[255] And yet he reckons himself
perfect, because he has been emancipated from his former life, and
strives after the better life, not as perfect in knowledge, but as
aspiring after perfection. Wherefore also he adds, “As many of us as
are perfect, are thus minded,”[256] manifestly describing perfection as
the renunciation of sin, and regeneration into the faith of the only
perfect One, and forgetting our former sins.
CHAPTER VII.
WHO THE INSTRUCTOR IS, AND RESPECTING HIS INSTRUCTION.
Since, then, we have shown that all of us are by Scripture called
children; and not only so, but that we who have followed Christ are
figuratively called babes; and that the Father of all alone is perfect,
for the Son is in Him, and the Father is in the Son; it is time for us
in due course to say who our Instructor is.
He is called Jesus. Sometimes He calls Himself a shepherd, and says,
“I am the good Shepherd.”[257] According to a metaphor drawn from
shepherds, who lead the sheep, is hereby understood the Instructor, who
leads the children--the Shepherd who tends the babes. For the babes are
simple, being figuratively described as sheep. “And they shall all,”
it is said, “be one flock, and one shepherd.”[258] The Word, then,
who leads the children to salvation, is appropriately called _the
Instructor_[259] (Pædagogue).
With the greatest clearness, accordingly, the Word has spoken
respecting Himself by Hosea: “I am your Instructor.”[260] Now piety is
instruction, being the learning of the service of God, and training in
the knowledge of the truth, and right guidance which leads to heaven.
And the word “instruction”[261] is employed variously. For there is the
instruction of him who is led and learns, and that of him who leads and
teaches; and there is, thirdly, the guidance itself; and fourthly, what
is taught, as the commandments enjoined.
Now the instruction which is of God is the right direction of truth
to the contemplation of God, and the exhibition of holy deeds in
everlasting perseverance.
As therefore the general directs the phalanx, consulting the safety
of his soldiers, and the pilot steers the vessel, desiring to save
the passengers; so also the Instructor guides the children to a
saving course of conduct, through solicitude for us; and, in general,
whatever we ask in accordance with reason from God to be done for us,
will happen to those who believe in the Instructor. And just as the
helmsman does not always yield to the winds, but sometimes, turning
the prow towards them, opposes the whole force of the hurricanes; so
the Instructor never yields to the blasts that blow in this world, nor
commits the child to them like a vessel to make shipwreck on a wild and
licentious course of life; but, wafted on by the favouring breeze of
the Spirit of truth, stoutly holds on to the child’s helm,--his ears, I
mean,--until He bring him safe to anchor in the haven of heaven.
What is called by men an ancestral custom passes away in a moment, but
the divine guidance is a possession which abides for ever.
They say that Phœnix was the instructor of Achilles, and Adrastus of
the children of Crœsus; and Leonides of Alexander, and Nausithous of
Philip. But Phœnix was women-mad, Adrastus was a fugitive. Leonides did
not curtail the pride of Alexander, nor Nausithous reform the drunken
Pellæan. No more was the Thracian Zopyrus able to check the fornication
of Alcibiades; but Zopyrus was a bought slave, and Ticinnus, the
tutor of the children of Themistocles, was a lazy domestic. They say
also that he invented the Sicinnian dance. Those have not escaped our
attention who are called royal instructors among the Persians; whom,
in number four, the kings of the Persians select with the greatest
care from all the Persians, and set over their sons. But the children
only learn the use of the bow, and on reaching maturity have sexual
intercourse with sisters, and mothers, and women, wives and courtesans
innumerable, practised in intercourse like the wild boars.
But our Instructor is the holy God Jesus, the Word, who is the guide of
all humanity. The loving God Himself is our Instructor. Somewhere in
song the Holy Spirit says with regard to Him, “He provided sufficiently
for the people in the wilderness. He led him about in the thirst
of summer heat in a dry land, and instructed him, and kept him as
the apple of His eye, as an eagle protects her nest, and shows her
fond solicitude for her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them,
and bears them on her back. The Lord alone led them, and there was
no strange god with them.”[262] Clearly, I trow, has the Scripture
exhibited the Instructor in the account it gives of His guidance.
Again, when He speaks in His own person, He confesses Himself to be
the Instructor: “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the
land of Egypt.”[263] Who, then, has the power of leading in and out? Is
it not the Instructor? This was He who appeared to Abraham, and said
to him, “I am thy God, be accepted before me;”[264] and in a way most
befitting an instructor, forms him into a faithful child, saying, “And
be blameless; and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and thy
seed.” There is the communication of the Instructor’s friendship. And
He most manifestly appears as Jacob’s instructor. He says accordingly
to him, “Lo, I am with thee, to keep thee in all the way in which thou
shalt go; and I will bring thee back into this land: for I will not
leave thee till I do what I have told thee.”[265] He is said, too, to
have wrestled with Him. “And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled
with him a man (the Instructor) till the morning.”[266] This was the
man who led, and brought, and wrestled with, and anointed the athlete
Jacob against evil.[267] Now that the Word was at once Jacob’s trainer
and the Instructor of humanity [appears from this]--“He asked,” it is
said, “His name, and said to him, Tell me what is thy name.” And he
said, “Why is it that thou askest my name?” For He reserved the new
name for the new people--the babe; and was as yet unnamed, the Lord God
not having yet become man. Yet Jacob called the name of the place,
“Face of God.” “For I have seen,” he says, “God face to face; and my
life is preserved.”[268] The face of God is the Word by whom God is
manifested and made known. Then also was he named Israel, because he
saw God the Lord. It was God, the Word, the Instructor, who said to him
again afterwards, “Fear not to go down into Egypt.”[269] See how the
Instructor follows the righteous man, and how He anoints the athlete,
teaching him to trip up his antagonist.
It is He also who teaches Moses to act as instructor. For the Lord
says, “If any one sin before me, him will I blot out of my book; but
now, go and lead this people into the place which I told thee.”[270]
Here He is the teacher of the art of instruction. For it was really
the Lord that was the instructor of the ancient people by Moses; but
He is the instructor of the new people by Himself, face to face.
“For behold,” He says to Moses, “my angel shall go before thee,”
representing the evangelical and commanding power of the Word, but
guarding the Lord’s prerogative. “In the day on which I will visit
them,”[271] He says, “I will bring their sins on them; that is, on the
day on which I will sit as judge I will render the recompense of their
sins.” For the same who is Instructor is judge, and judges those who
disobey Him; and the loving Word will not pass over their transgression
in silence. He reproves, that they may repent. For “the Lord willeth
the repentance of the sinner rather than his death.”[272] And let us as
babes, hearing of the sins of others, keep from similar transgressions,
through dread of the threatening, that we may not have to undergo like
sufferings. What, then, was the sin which they committed? “For in their
wrath they slew men, and in their impetuosity they hamstrung bulls.
Cursed be their anger.”[273] Who, then, would train us more lovingly
than He? Formerly the older people had an old covenant, and the law
disciplined the people with fear, and the Word was an angel; but to
the fresh and new people has also been given a new covenant, and the
Word has appeared, and fear is turned to love, and that mystic angel is
born--Jesus. For this same Instructor said then, “Thou shalt fear the
Lord God;”[274] but to us He has addressed the exhortation, “Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God.”[275] Wherefore also this is enjoined on us:
“Cease from your own works, from your old sins;” “Learn to do well;”
“Depart from evil, and do good;” “Thou hast loved righteousness, and
hated iniquity.” This is my new covenant written in the old letter. The
newness of the word must not, then, be made ground of reproach. But the
Lord hath also said in Jeremiah: “Say not that I am a youth: before I
formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before I brought thee out of
the womb I sanctified thee.”[276] Such allusions prophecy can make to
us, destined in the eye of God to faith before the foundation of the
world; but now babes, through the recent fulfilment of the will of God,
according to which we are born now to calling and salvation. Wherefore
also He adds, “I have set thee for a prophet to the nations,”[277]
saying that he must prophesy, so that the appellation of “youth” should
not become a reproach to these who are called babes.
Now the law is ancient grace given through Moses by the Word. Wherefore
also the Scripture says, “The law was given through Moses,”[278] not
by Moses, but by the Word, and through Moses His servant. Wherefore it
was only temporary; but eternal grace and truth were by Jesus Christ.
Mark the expressions of Scripture: of the law only is it said “was
given;” but truth being the grace of the Father, is the eternal work
of the Word; and it is not said _to be given_, but _to be_
by Jesus, _without whom nothing was_.[279] Presently, therefore,
Moses prophetically, giving place to the perfect Instructor the Word,
predicts both the name and the office of Instructor, and committing to
the people the commands of obedience, sets before them the Instructor.
“A prophet,” says he, “like me shall God raise up to you of your
brethren,” pointing out Jesus the Son of God, by an allusion to Jesus
the son of Nun; for the name of Jesus predicted in the law was a
shadow of Christ. He adds, therefore, consulting the advantage of the
people, “Him shall ye hear;”[280] and, “The man who will not hear that
Prophet,”[281] him He threatens. Such a name, then, he predicts as that
of the Instructor, who is the author of salvation. Wherefore prophecy
invests Him with a rod, a rod of discipline, of rule, of authority;
that those whom the persuasive word heals not, the threatening may
heal; and whom the threatening heals not, the rod may heal; and whom
the rod heals not, the fire may devour. “There shall come forth,” it is
said, “a rod out of the root of Jesse.”[282]
See the care, and wisdom, and power of the Instructor: “He shall not
judge according to opinion, nor according to report; but He shall
dispense judgment to the humble, and reprove the sinners of the
earth.” And by David: “The Lord instructing, hath instructed me, and
not given me over to death.”[283] For to be chastised of the Lord,
and instructed, is deliverance from death. And by the same prophet He
says: “Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron.”[284] Thus also the
apostle, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, being moved, says, “What
will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, in the spirit
of meekness?”[285] Also, “The Lord shall send the rod of strength
out of Sion,”[286] He says by another prophet. And this same rod of
instruction, “Thy rod and staff have comforted me,”[287] said some one
else. Such is the power of the Instructor--sacred, soothing, saving.
CHAPTER VIII.
AGAINST THOSE WHO THINK THAT WHAT IS JUST IS NOT GOOD.
At this stage some rise up, saying that the Lord, by reason of the rod,
and threatening, and fear, is not good; misapprehending, as appears,
the scripture which says, “And he that feareth the Lord will turn to
his heart;”[288] and most of all, oblivious of His love, in that for
us He became man. For more suitably to Him, the prophet prays in these
words: “Remember us, for we are dust;”[289] that is, Sympathize with
us; for Thou knowest from personal experience of suffering the weakness
of the flesh. In this respect, therefore, the Lord the Instructor is
most good and unimpeachable, sympathizing as He does from the exceeding
greatness of His love with the nature of each man. “For there is
nothing which the Lord hates.”[290] For assuredly He does not hate
anything, and yet wish that which He hates to exist. Nor does He wish
anything not to exist, and yet become the cause of existence to that
which He wishes not to exist. Nor does He wish anything not to exist
which yet exists. If, then, the Word hates anything, He does not wish
it to exist. But nothing exists, the cause of whose existence is not
supplied by God. Nothing, then, is hated by God, nor yet by the Word.
For both are one--that is, God. For He has said, “In the beginning the
Word was in God, and the Word was God.”[291] If then He hates none
of the things which He has made, it follows that He loves them. Much
more than the rest, and with reason, will He love man, the noblest of
all objects created by Him, and a God-loving being. Therefore God is
loving; consequently the Word is loving.
But he who loves anything wishes to do it good. And that which does
good must be every way better than that which does not good. But
nothing is better than the Good. The Good, then, does good. And God is
admitted to be good. God therefore does good. And the Good, in virtue
of its being good, does nothing else than do good. Consequently God
does all good. And He does no good to man without caring for him, and
He does not care _for_ him without taking care _of_ him. For that which
does good purposely, is better than what does not good purposely.
But nothing is better than God. And to do good purposely, is nothing
else than to take care of man. God therefore cares for man, and takes
care of him. And He shows this practically, in instructing him by the
Word, who is the true coadjutor of God’s love to man. But the good is
not said to be good, on account of its being possessed of virtue; as
also righteousness is not said to be good on account of its possessing
virtue--for it is itself virtue--but on account of its being in itself
and by itself good.
In another way the useful is called good, not on account of
its pleasing, but of its doing good. All which, therefore, is
righteousness, being a good thing, both as virtue and as desirable for
its own sake, and not as giving pleasure; for it does not judge in
order to win favour, but dispenses to each according to his merits.
And the beneficial follows the useful. Righteousness, therefore, has
characteristics corresponding to all the aspects in which goodness is
examined, both possessing equal properties equally. And things which
are characterized by equal properties are equal and similar to each
other. Righteousness is therefore a good thing.
“How then,” say they, “if the Lord loves man, and is good, is He angry
and punishes?” We must therefore treat of this point with all possible
brevity; for this mode of treatment is advantageous to the right
training of the children, occupying the place of a necessary help. For
many of the passions are cured by punishment, and by the inculcation
of the sterner precepts, as also by instruction in certain principles.
For reproof is, as it were, the surgery of the passions of the soul;
and the passions are, as it were, an abscess of the truth,[292] which
must be cut open by an incision of the lancet of reproof.
Reproach is like the application of medicines, dissolving the
callosities of the passions, and purging the impurities of the lewdness
of the life; and in addition, reducing the excrescences of pride,
restoring the patient to the healthy and true state of humanity.
Admonition is, as it were, the regimen of the diseased soul,
prescribing what it must take, and forbidding what it must not. And all
these tend to salvation and eternal health.
Furthermore, the general of an army, by inflicting fines and corporeal
punishments with chains and the extremest disgrace on offenders, and
sometimes even by punishing individuals with death, aims at good, doing
so for the admonition of the officers under him.
Thus also He who is our great General, the Word, the Commander-in-chief
of the universe, by admonishing those who throw off the restraints of
His law, that He may effect their release from the slavery, error,
and captivity of the adversary, brings them peacefully to the sacred
concord of citizenship.
As, therefore, in addition to persuasive discourse, there is the
hortatory and the consolatory form; so also, in addition to the
laudatory, there is the inculpatory and reproachful. And this latter
constitutes the art of censure. Now censure is a mark of good-will, not
of ill-will. For both he who is a friend and he who is not, reproach;
but the enemy does so in scorn, the friend in kindness. It is not,
then, from hatred that the Lord chides men; for He Himself suffered for
us, whom He might have destroyed for our faults. For the Instructor
also, in virtue of His being good, with consummate art glides into
censure by rebuke; rousing the sluggishness of the mind by His sharp
words as by a scourge. Again in turn He endeavours to exhort the same
persons. For those who are not induced by praise are spurred on by
censure; and those whom censure calls not forth to salvation, being as
dead, are by denunciation roused to the truth. “For the stripes and
correction of wisdom are in all time.” “For teaching a fool is gluing
a potsherd; and sharpening to sense a hopeless blockhead is bringing
earth to sensation.”[293] Wherefore He adds plainly, “rousing the
sleeper from deep sleep,” which of all things else is likest death.
Further, the Lord shows very clearly of Himself, when, describing
figuratively His manifold and in many ways serviceable culture,--He
says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” Then He
adds, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and
every branch that beareth fruit He pruneth, that it may bring forth
more fruit.”[294] For the vine that is not pruned grows to wood.
So also man. The Word--the knife--clears away the wanton shoots;
compelling the impulses of the soul to fructify, not to indulge in
lust. Now, reproof addressed to sinners has their salvation for its
aim, the word being harmoniously adjusted to each one’s conduct; now
with tightened, now with relaxed cords. Accordingly it was very plainly
said by Moses, “Be of good courage: God has drawn near to try you,
that His fear may be among you, that ye sin not.”[295] And Plato, who
had learned from this source, says beautifully: “For all who suffer
punishment are in reality treated well, for they are benefited; since
the spirit of those who are justly punished is improved.” And if
those who are corrected receive good at the hands of justice, and,
according to Plato, what is just is acknowledged to be good, fear
itself does good, and has been found to be for men’s good. “For the
soul that feareth the Lord shall live, for their hope is in Him who
saveth them.”[296] And this same Word who inflicts punishment is judge;
regarding whom Esaias also says, “The Lord has assigned Him to our
sins,”[297] plainly as a corrector and reformer of sins. Wherefore
He alone is able to forgive our iniquities, who has been appointed
by the Father, Instructor of us all; He alone it is who is able to
distinguish between disobedience and obedience. And while He threatens,
He manifestly is unwilling to inflict evil to execute His threatenings;
but by inspiring men with fear, He cuts off the approach to sin, and
shows His love to man, still delaying, and declaring what they shall
suffer if they continue sinners, and is not as a serpent, which the
moment it fastens on its prey devours it.
God, then, is good. And the Lord speaks many a time and oft before He
proceeds to act. “For my arrows,” He says, “will make an end of them;
they shall be consumed with hunger, and be eaten by birds; and there
shall be incurable tetanic incurvature. I will send the teeth of wild
beasts upon them, with the rage of serpents creeping on the earth.
Without, the sword shall make them childless; and out of their chambers
shall be fear.”[298] For the Divine Being is not angry in the way that
some think; but often restrains, and always exhorts humanity, and shows
what ought to be done. And this is a good device, to terrify lest we
sin. “For the fear of the Lord drives away sins, and he that is without
fear cannot be justified,”[299] says the Scripture. And God does not
inflict punishment from wrath, but for the ends of justice; since it
is not expedient that justice should be neglected on our account. Each
one of us, who sins, with his own free-will chooses punishment, and the
blame lies with him who chooses.[300] God is without blame. “But if our
unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say?
Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? God forbid.”[301] He says,
therefore, threatening, “I will sharpen my sword, and my hand shall
lay hold on judgment; and I will render justice to mine enemies, and
requite those who hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword shall devour flesh from the blood of the wounded.”[302] It
is clear, then, that those who are not at enmity with the truth, and do
not hate the Word, will not hate their own salvation, but will escape
the punishment of enmity. “The crown of wisdom,” then, as the book of
Wisdom says, “is the fear of the Lord.”[303] Very clearly, therefore,
by the prophet Amos has the Lord unfolded His method of dealing,
saying, “I have overthrown you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah;
and ye shall be as a brand plucked from the fire: and yet ye have not
returned unto me, saith the Lord.”[304]
See how God, through His love of goodness, seeks repentance; and by
means of the plan He pursues of threatening silently, shows His own
love for man. “I will avert,” He says, “my face from them, and show
what shall happen to them.”[305] For where the face of the Lord looks,
there is peace and rejoicing; but where it is averted, there is the
introduction of evil. The Lord, accordingly, does not wish to look
on evil things; for He is good. But on His looking away, evil arises
spontaneously through human unbelief. “Behold, therefore,” says Paul,
“the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell, severity; but
upon thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness,”[306] that is,
in faith in Christ.
Now hatred of evil attends the good man, in virtue of His being in
nature good. Wherefore I will grant that He punishes the disobedient
(for punishment is for the good and advantage of him who is punished,
for it is the correction of a refractory subject); but I will not
grant that He wishes to take vengeance. Revenge is retribution for
evil, imposed for the advantage of him who takes the revenge. He will
not desire us to take revenge, who teaches us “to pray for those that
despitefully use us.”[307] But that God is good, all willingly admit;
and that the same God is just, I require not many more words to prove,
after adducing the evangelical utterance of the Lord; He speaks of Him
as one, “That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and
I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world also may
believe that Thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me
I have given them; that they may be one, as we are one: I in them,
and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.”[308] God is
one, and beyond the one, and above the Monad itself. Wherefore also
the particle “Thou,” having a demonstrative emphasis, points out God,
who alone truly is, “who was, and is, and is to come,” in which three
divisions of time the one name (ὁ ὤν), “who is,”[309] has its place.
And that He who alone is God is also alone and truly righteous, our
Lord in the Gospel itself shall testify, saying, “Father, I will that
they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they
may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me: for Thou lovedst me
before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath
not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou
hast sent me. And I have declared to them Thy name, and will declare
it.”[310] This is He “that visits the iniquities of the fathers upon
the children, to them that hate Him, and shows mercy to those that love
Him.”[311] For He who placed some “on the right hand, and others on
the left,”[312] conceived as Father, being good, is called that which
alone He is--“good;”[313] but as He is the Son in the Father, being his
Word, from their mutual relation, the name of power being measured by
equality of love, He is called righteous. “He will judge,” He says, “a
man according to his works,”[314]--a good balance, even God having made
known to us the face of righteousness in the person of Jesus, by whom
also, as by even scales, we know God. Of this also the book of Wisdom
plainly says, “For mercy and wrath are with Him, for He alone is Lord
of both,” Lord of propitiations, and pouring forth wrath according to
the abundance of His mercy. “So also is His reproof.”[315] For the aim
of mercy and of reproof is the salvation of those who are reproved.
Now, that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus is good, the Word
Himself will again avouch: “For He is kind to the unthankful and the
evil;” and further, when He says, “Be merciful, as your Father is
merciful.”[316] Still further also He plainly says, “None is good, but
my Father, who is in heaven.”[317] In addition to these, again He
says, “My Father makes His sun to shine on all.”[318] Here it is to be
noted that He proclaims His Father to be good, and to be the Creator.
And that the Creator is just, is not disputed. And again he says, “My
Father sends rain on the just, and on the unjust.” In respect of His
sending rain, He is the Creator of the waters, and of the clouds. And
in respect of His doing so on all, He holds an even balance justly and
rightly. And as being good, He does so on just and unjust alike.
Very clearly, then, we conclude Him to be one and the same God, thus.
For the Holy Spirit has sung, “I will look to the heavens, the works
of Thy hands;”[319] and, “He who created the heavens dwells in the
heavens;” and, “Heaven is Thy throne.”[320] And the Lord says in His
prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”[321] And the heavens belong
to Him, who created the world. It is indisputable, then, that the Lord
is the Son of the Creator. And if the Creator above all is confessed
to be just, and the Lord to be the Son of the Creator; then the Lord
is the Son of Him who is just. Wherefore also Paul says, “But now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested;”[322] and again,
that you may better conceive of God, “even the righteousness of God
by the faith of Jesus Christ upon all that believe; for there is no
difference.”[323] And, witnessing further to the truth, he adds after
a little, “through the forbearance of God, in order to show that He is
just, and that Jesus is the justifier of him who is of faith.” And that
he knows that what is just is good, appears by his saying, “So that
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good,”[324]
using both names to denote the same power. But “no one is good,” except
His Father. It is this same Father of His, then, who being one is
manifested by many powers. And this was the import of the utterance,
“No man knew the Father,”[325] who was Himself everything before the
coming of the Son. So that it is veritably clear that the God of all
is only one good, just Creator, and the Son in the Father, to whom be
glory for ever and ever, Amen. But it is not inconsistent with the
saving Word, to administer rebuke dictated by solicitude. For this is
the medicine of the divine love to man, by which the blush of modesty
breaks forth, and shame at sin supervenes. For if one must censure, it
is necessary also to rebuke; when it is the time to wound the apathetic
soul not mortally, but salutarily, securing exemption from everlasting
death by a little pain.
Great is the wisdom displayed in His instruction, and manifold the
modes of His dealing in order to salvation. For the Instructor
testifies to the good, and summons forth to better things those that
are called; dissuades those that are hastening to do wrong from the
attempt, and exhorts them to turn to a better life. For the one is not
without testimony, when the other has been testified to; and the grace
which proceeds from the testimony is very great. Besides, the feeling
of anger (if it is proper to call His admonition anger) is full of love
to man, God condescending to emotion on man’s account; for whose sake
also the Word of God became man.
CHAPTER IX.
THAT IT IS THE PREROGATIVE OF THE SAME POWER TO BE BENEFICENT
AND TO PUNISH JUSTLY. ALSO THE MANNER OF THE INSTRUCTION OF THE
LOGOS.
With all His power, therefore, the Instructor of humanity, the Divine
Word, using all the resources of wisdom, devotes Himself to the saving
of the children, admonishing, upbraiding, blaming, chiding, reproving,
threatening, healing, promising, favouring; and as it were, by many
reins, curbing the irrational impulses of humanity. To speak briefly,
therefore, the Lord acts towards us as we do towards our children.
“Hast thou children? correct them,” is the exhortation of the book of
Wisdom, “and bend them from their youth. Hast thou daughters? attend to
their body, and let not thy face brighten towards them,”[326]--although
we love our children exceedingly, both sons and daughters, above aught
else whatever. For those who speak with a man merely to please him,
have little love for him, seeing they do not pain him; while those that
speak for his good, though they inflict pain for the time, do him good
for ever after. It is not immediate pleasure, but future enjoyment,
that the Lord has in view.
Let us now proceed to consider the mode of His loving discipline, with
the aid of the prophetic testimony.
Admonition, then, is the censure of loving care, and produces
understanding. Such is the Instructor in His admonitions, as when He
says in the gospel, “How often would I have gathered thy children, as
a bird gathers her young ones under her wings, and ye would not!”[327]
And again, the Scripture admonishes, saying, “And they committed
adultery with stock and stone, and burnt incense to Baal.”[328] For
it is a very great proof of His love, that, though knowing well the
shamelessness of the people that had kicked and bounded away, He
notwithstanding exhorts them to repentance, and says by Ezekiel, “Son
of man, thou dwellest in the midst of scorpions; nevertheless, speak
to them, if peradventure they will hear.”[329] Further, to Moses He
says, “Go and tell Pharaoh to send my people forth; but I know that
he will not send them forth.”[330] For He shows both things: both His
divinity in His foreknowledge of what would take place, and His love
in affording an opportunity for repentance to the self-determination
of the soul. He admonishes also by Esaias, in His care for the people,
when He says, “This people honour me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me.” What follows is reproving censure: “In vain do they
worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”[331] Here
His loving care, having shown their sin, shows salvation side by side.
Upbraiding is censure on account of what is base, conciliating to what
is noble. This is shown by Jeremiah: “They were female-mad horses; each
one neighed after his neighbour’s wife. Shall I not visit for these
things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation
as this?”[332] He everywhere interweaves fear, because “the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of sense.”[333] And again, by Hosea, He says,
“Shall I not visit them? for they themselves were mingled with harlots,
and sacrificed with the initiated; and the people that understood
embraced a harlot.”[334] He shows their offence to be clearer, by
declaring that they understood, and thus sinned wilfully. Understanding
is the eye of the soul; wherefore also Israel means, “he that sees
God”--that is, he that understands God.
Complaint is censure of those who are regarded as despising or
neglecting. He employs this form when He says by Esaias: “Hear, O
heaven; and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have
begotten and brought up children, but they have disregarded me. The
ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel hath
not known me.”[335] For how shall we not regard it fearful, if he that
knows God, shall not recognise the Lord; but while the ox and the
ass, stupid and foolish animals, will know him who feeds them, Israel
is found to be more irrational than these? And having, by Jeremiah,
complained against the people on many grounds, He adds: “And they have
forsaken me, saith the Lord.”[336]
Invective[337] is a reproachful upbraiding, or chiding censure. This
mode of treatment the Instructor employs in Isaiah, when He says,
“Woe to you, children revolters. Thus saith the Lord, Ye have taken
counsel, but not by me; and made compacts, but not by my Spirit.”[338]
He uses the very bitter mordant of fear in each case repressing[339]
the people, and at the same time turning them to salvation; as also
wool that is undergoing the process of dyeing is wont to be previously
treated with mordants, in order to prepare it for taking on a fast
colour.
Reproof is the bringing forward of sin, laying it before one. This
form of instruction He employs as in the highest degree necessary, by
reason of the feebleness of the faith of many. For He says by Esaias,
“Ye have forsaken the Lord, and have provoked the Holy One of Israel
to anger.”[340] And He says also by Jeremiah: “Heaven was astonished
at this, and the earth shuddered exceedingly. For my people have
committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living
waters, and have hewn out to themselves broken cisterns, which will
not be able to hold water.”[341] And again, by the same: “Jerusalem
hath sinned a sin; therefore it became commotion. All that glorified
her dishonoured her, when they saw her baseness.”[342] And He uses the
bitter and biting[343] language of reproof in His consolations by
Solomon, tacitly alluding to the love for children that characterizes
His instruction: “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord;
nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;”[344] “For a man
who is a sinner escapes reproof.”[345] Consequently, therefore, the
Scripture says, “Let the righteous reprove and correct me; but let not
the oil of the sinner anoint my head.”[346]
Bringing one to his senses (φρένωσις) is censure, which makes a man
think. Neither from this form of instruction does he abstain, but says
by Jeremiah, “How long shall I cry, and you not hear? So your ears are
uncircumcised.”[347] O blessed forbearance! And again, by the same:
“All the heathen are uncircumcised, but this people is uncircumcised in
heart:”[348] “for the people are disobedient; children,” says He, “in
whom is not faith.”[349]
Visitation is severe rebuke. He uses this species in the Gospel: “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that
are sent unto thee!” The reduplication of the name gives strength
to the rebuke. For he that knows God, how does he persecute God’s
servants? Wherefore He says, “Your house is left desolate; for I say
unto you, Henceforth ye shall not see me, till ye shall say, Blessed is
He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”[350] For if you do not receive
His love, ye shall know His power.
Denunciation is vehement speech. And He employs denunciation as
medicine, by Isaiah, saying, “Ah, sinful nation, lawless sons, people
full of sins, wicked seed!”[351] And in the Gospel by John He says,
“Serpents, brood of vipers.”[352]
Accusation is censure of wrong-doers. This mode of instruction He
employs by David, when He says: “The people whom I knew not served me,
and at the hearing of the ear obeyed me. Sons of strangers lied to me,
and halted from their ways.”[353] And by Jeremiah: “And I gave her a
writing of divorcement, and covenant-breaking Judah feared not.”[354]
And again: “And the house of Israel disregarded me; and the house of
Judah lied to the Lord.”[355]
Bewailing one’s fate is latent censure, and by artful aid ministers
salvation as under a veil. He made use of this by Jeremiah: “How did
the city sit solitary that was full of people! She that ruled over
territories became as a widow; she came under tribute; weeping, she
wept in the night.”[356]
Objurgation is objurgatory censure. Of this help the Divine Instructor
made use by Jeremiah, saying, “Thou hadst a whore’s forehead; thou
wast shameless towards all; and didst not call me to the house, who am
thy father, and lord of thy virginity.”[357] “And a fair and graceful
harlot skilled in enchanted potions.”[358] With consummate art, after
applying to the virgin the opprobrious name of whoredom, He thereupon
calls her back to an honourable life by filling her with shame.
Indignation is a rightful upbraiding; or upbraiding on account of ways
exalted above what is right. In this way He instructed by Moses, when
He said, “Faulty children, a generation crooked and perverse, do ye
thus requite the Lord? This people is foolish, and not wise. Is not
this thy father who acquired thee?”[359] He says also by Isaiah, “Thy
princes are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, following
after rewards, not judging the orphans.”[360]
In fine, the system He pursues to inspire fear is the source of
salvation. And it is the prerogative of goodness to save: “The mercy
of the Lord is on all flesh, while He reproves, corrects, and teaches
as a shepherd His flock. He pities those who receive His instruction,
and those who eagerly seek union with Him.”[361] And with such guidance
He guarded the six hundred thousand footmen that were brought together
in the hardness of heart in which they were found; scourging, pitying,
striking, healing, in compassion and discipline: “For according to the
greatness of His mercy, so is His rebuke.”[362] For it is indeed noble
not to sin; but it is good also for the sinner to repent; just as it
is best to be always in good health, but well to recover from disease.
So He commands by Solomon: “Strike thou thy son with the rod, that
thou mayest deliver his soul from death.”[363] And again: “Abstain not
from chastising thy son, but correct him with the rod; for he will not
die.”[364]
For reproof and rebuke, as also the original term implies, are the
stripes of the soul, chastising sins, preventing death, and leading to
self-control those carried away to licentiousness. Thus also Plato,
knowing reproof to be the greatest power for reformation, and the
most sovereign purification, in accordance with what has been said,
observes, “that he who is in the highest degree impure is uninstructed
and base, by reason of his being unreproved in those respects in which
he who is destined to be truly happy ought to be purest and best.”
For if rulers are not a terror to a good work, how shall God, who is by
nature good, be a terror to him who sins not? “If thou doest evil, be
afraid,”[365] says the apostle. Wherefore the apostle himself also in
every case uses stringent language to the churches, after the Lord’s
example; and conscious of his own boldness, and of the weakness of his
hearers, he says to the Galatians: “Am I your enemy, because I tell you
the truth?”[366] Thus also people in health do not require a physician,
do not require him as long as they are strong; but those who are ill
need his skill. Thus also we who in our lives are ill of shameful lusts
and reprehensible excesses, and other inflammatory effects of the
passions, need the Saviour. And He administers not only mild, but also
stringent medicines. The bitter roots of fear then arrest the eating
sores of our sins. Wherefore also fear is salutary, if bitter. Sick, we
truly stand in need of the Saviour; having wandered, of one to guide
us; blind, of one to lead us to the light; thirsty, “of the fountain
of life, of which whosoever partakes, shall no longer thirst;”[367]
dead, we need life; sheep, we need a shepherd; we who are children need
a tutor, while universal humanity stands in need of Jesus; so that we
may not continue intractable and sinners to the end, and thus fall
into condemnation, but may be separated from the chaff, and stored up
in the paternal garner. “For the fan is in the Lord’s hand, by which
the chaff due to the fire is separated from the wheat.”[368] You may
learn, if you will, the crowning wisdom of the all-holy Shepherd and
Instructor, of the omnipotent and paternal Word, when He figuratively
represents Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep. And He is the Tutor of
the children. He says therefore by Ezekiel, directing His discourse to
the elders, and setting before them a salutary description of His wise
solicitude: “And that which is lame I will bind up, and that which is
sick I will heal, and that which has wandered I will turn back; and I
will feed them on my holy mountain.”[369] Such are the promises of the
good Shepherd.
Feed us, the children, as sheep. Yea, Master, fill us with
righteousness, Thine own pasture; yea, O Instructor, feed us on
Thy holy mountain the church, which towers aloft, which is above
the clouds, which touches heaven. “And I will be,” He says, “their
Shepherd,”[370] and will be near them, as the garment to their skin. He
wishes to save my flesh by enveloping it in the robe of immortality,
and He hath anointed my body. “They shall call me,” He says, “and I
will say, Here am I.”[371] Thou didst hear sooner than I expected,
Master. “And if they pass over, they shall not slip,”[372] saith the
Lord. For we who are passing over to immortality shall not fall into
corruption, for He shall sustain us. For so He has said, and so He has
willed. Such is our Instructor, righteously good. “I came not,” He
says, “to be ministered unto, but to minister.”[373] Wherefore He is
introduced in the Gospel “wearied,”[374] because toiling for us, and
promising “to give His life a ransom for many.”[375] For him alone who
does so He owns to be the good shepherd. Generous, therefore, is He who
gives for us the greatest of all gifts, His own life; and beneficent
exceedingly, and loving to men, in that, when He might have been Lord,
He wished to be a brother man; and so good was He that He died for us.
Further, His righteousness cried, “If ye come straight to me, I also
will come straight to you; but if ye walk crooked, I also will walk
crooked, saith the Lord of hosts;”[376] meaning by the crooked ways
the chastisements of sinners. For the straight and natural way which
is indicated by the _Iota_ of the name of Jesus is His goodness,
which is firm and sure towards those who have believed at hearing:
“When I called, ye obeyed not, saith the Lord; but set at nought my
counsels, and heeded not my reproofs.”[377] Thus the Lord’s reproof is
most beneficial. David also says of them, “A perverse and provoking
race; a race which set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not
faithful with God: they kept not the covenant of God, and would not
walk in His law.”[378]
Such are the causes of provocation for which the Judge comes to inflict
punishment on those that would not choose a life of goodness. Wherefore
also afterwards He assailed them more roughly; in order, if possible,
to drag them back from their impetuous rush towards death. He therefore
tells by David the most manifest cause of the threatening: “They
believed not in His wonderful works. When He slew them, they sought
after Him, and turned and inquired early after God; and remembered that
God was their Helper, and God the Most High their Redeemer.”[379] Thus
He knew that they turned for fear, while they despised His love: for,
for the most part, that goodness which is always mild is despised; but
He who admonishes by the loving fear of righteousness is reverenced.
There is a twofold species of fear, the one of which is accompanied
with reverence, such as citizens show towards good rulers, and we
towards God, as also right-minded children towards their fathers. “For
an unbroken horse turns out unmanageable, and a son who is let take
his own way turns out reckless.”[380] The other species of fear is
accompanied with hatred, which slaves feel towards hard masters, and
the Hebrews felt, who made God a master, not a father. And as far as
piety is concerned, that which is voluntary and spontaneous differs
much, nay entirely, from what is forced. “For He,” it is said, “is
merciful; He will heal their sins, and not destroy them, and fully
turn away His anger, and not kindle all His wrath.”[381] See how the
justice of the Instructor, which deals in rebukes, is shown; and the
goodness of God, which deals in compassions. Wherefore David--that is,
the Spirit by him--embracing them both, sings of God Himself, “Justice
and judgment are the preparation of His throne: mercy and truth shall
go before Thy face.”[382] He declares that it belongs to the same power
both to judge and to do good. For there is power over both together,
and judgment separates that which is just from its opposite. And He who
is truly God is just and good; who is Himself all, and all is He; for
He is God, the only God.
For as the mirror is not evil to an ugly man because it shows him what
like he is; and as the physician is not evil to the sick man because
he tells him of his fever,--for the physician is not the cause of the
fever, but only points out the fever;--so neither is He, that reproves,
ill-disposed towards him who is diseased in soul. For He does not put
the transgressions on him, but only shows the sins which are there;
in order to turn him away from similar practices. So God is good on
His own account, and just also on ours, and He is just because He is
good. And His justice is shown to us by His own Word from there from
above, whence the Father was. For before He became Creator He was God;
He was good. And therefore He wished to be Creator and Father. And the
nature of that love was the source of righteousness--the cause, too, of
His lighting up His sun, and sending down His own Son. And He first
announced the good righteousness that is from heaven, when He said, “No
man knoweth the Son, but the Father; nor the Father, but the Son.”[383]
This mutual and reciprocal knowledge is the symbol of primeval justice.
Then justice came down to men both in the letter and in the body, in
the Word and in the law, constraining humanity to saving repentance;
for it was good. But do you not obey God? Then blame yourself, who drag
to yourself the judge.
CHAPTER X.
THAT THE SAME GOD, BY THE SAME WORD, RESTRAINS FROM SIN BY
THREATENING, AND SAVES HUMANITY BY EXHORTING.
If, then, we have shown that the plan of dealing stringently with
humanity is good and salutary, and necessarily adopted by the Word,
and conducive to repentance and the prevention of sins; we shall have
now to look in order at the mildness of the Word. For He has been
demonstrated to be just. He sets before us His own inclinations which
invite to salvation; by which, in accordance with the Father’s will, He
wishes to make known to us the good and the useful. Consider these. The
good (τὸ καλόν) belongs to the panegyrical form of speech, the useful
to the persuasive. For the hortatory and the dehortatory are a form of
the persuasive, and the laudatory and inculpatory of the panegyrical.
For the persuasive style of sentence in one form becomes hortatory, and
in another dehortatory. So also the panegyrical in one form becomes
inculpatory, and in another laudatory. And in these exercises the
Instructor, the Just One, who has proposed our advantage as His aim, is
chiefly occupied. But the inculpatory and dehortatory forms of speech
have been already shown us; and we must now handle the persuasive and
the laudatory, and, as on a beam, balance the equal scales of justice.
The exhortation to what is useful, the Instructor employs by Solomon,
to the following effect: “I exhort you, O men; and I utter my voice to
the sons of men. Hear me; for I will speak of excellent things;”[384]
and so on. And He counsels what is salutary: for counsel has for its
end, choosing or refusing a certain course; as He does by David, when
He says, “Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsels of the
ungodly, and standeth not in the way of sinners, and sitteth not in the
chair of pestilences; but his will is in the law of the Lord.”[385]
And there are three departments of counsel: That which takes examples
from past times; as what the Hebrews suffered when they worshipped the
golden calf, and what they suffered when they committed fornication,
and the like. The second, whose meaning is understood from the present
times, as being apprehended by perception; as it was said to those who
asked the Lord, “If He was the Christ, or shall we wait for another?
Go and tell John, the blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the
lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised up; and blessed is he who
shall not be offended in me.”[386] Such was that which David said when
he prophesied, “As we have heard, so have we seen.”[387] And the third
department of counsel consists of what is future, by which we are
bidden guard against what is to happen; as also that was said, “They
that fall into sins shall be cast into outer darkness, where there
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth,”[388] and the like. So that
from these things it is clear that the Lord, going the round of all the
methods of curative treatment, calls humanity to salvation.
By encouragement He assuages sins, reducing lust, and at the same time
inspiring hope for salvation. For He says by Ezekiel, “If ye return
with your whole heart, and say, Father, I will hear you, as a holy
people.”[389] And again He says, “Come all to me, who labour, and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;”[390] and that which is
added the Lord speaks in His own person. And very clearly He calls to
goodness by Solomon, when He says, “Blessed is the man who hath found
wisdom, and the mortal who hath found understanding.”[391] “For the
good is found by him who seeks it, and is wont to be seen by him who
has found it.”[392] By Jeremiah, too, He sets forth prudence, when He
says, “Blessed are we, Israel; for what is pleasing to God is known
by us;”[393]--and it is known by the Word, by whom we are blessed and
wise. For wisdom and knowledge are mentioned by the same prophet, when
he says, “Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life, and give ear to
know understanding.”[394] By Moses, too, by reason of the love He has
to man, He promises a gift to those who hasten to salvation. For He
says, “And I will bring you into the good land, which the Lord sware
to your fathers.”[395] And further, “And I will bring you into the
holy mountain, and make you glad,”[396] He says by Isaiah. And still
another form of instruction is benediction. “And blessed is he,” He
saith by David, “who has not sinned; and he shall be as the tree
planted near the channels of the waters, which will yield its fruit
in its season, and his leaf shall not wither”[397] (by this He made
an allusion to the resurrection); “and whatsoever he shall do shall
prosper with him.” Such He wishes us to be, that we may be blessed.
Again, showing the opposite scale of the balance of justice, He says,
“But not so the ungodly--not so; but as the dust which the wind sweeps
away from the face of the earth.”[398] By showing the punishment of
sinners, and their easy dispersion, and carrying off by the wind, the
Instructor dissuades from crime by means of punishment; and by holding
up the merited penalty, shows the benignity of His beneficence in the
most skilful way, in order that we may possess and enjoy its blessings.
He invites us to knowledge also, when He says by Jeremiah, “Hadst
thou walked in the way of God, thou wouldst have dwelt for ever in
peace;”[399] for, exhibiting there the reward of knowledge, He calls
the wise to the love of it. And, granting pardon to him who has erred,
He says, “Turn, turn, as a grape-gatherer to his basket.”[400] Do you
see the goodness of justice, in that it counsels to repentance? And
still further, by Jeremiah, He enlightens in the truth those who have
erred. “Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the ways, and look, and ask for
the eternal paths of the Lord, what is the good path, and walk in it,
and ye shall find purification for your souls.”[401] And in order to
promote our salvation, He leads us to repentance. Wherefore He says,
“If thou repent, the Lord will purify thy heart, and the heart of thy
seed.”[402] We might have adduced, as supporters on this question, the
philosophers who say that only the perfect man is worthy of praise,
and the bad man of blame. But since some slander beatitude, as neither
itself taking any trouble, nor giving any to any one else, thus not
understanding its love to man; on their account, and on account of
those who do not associate justice with goodness, the following remarks
are added. For it were a legitimate inference to say, that rebuke and
censure are suitable to men, since they say that all men are bad; but
God alone is wise, from whom cometh wisdom, and alone perfect, and
therefore alone worthy of praise. But I do not employ such language. I
say, then, that praise or blame, or whatever resembles praise or blame,
are medicines most essential of all to men. Some are ill to cure, and,
like iron, are wrought into shape with fire, and hammer, and anvil,
that is, with threatening, and reproof, and chastisement; while others,
cleaving to faith itself, as self-taught, and as acting of their own
free-will, grow by praise:
“For virtue that is praised
Grows like a tree.”
And comprehending this, as it seems to me, the Samian Pythagoras gives
the injunction:
“When you have done base things, rebuke _yourself_;
But when you have done good things, be glad.”
Chiding is also called admonishing; and the etymology of admonishing
(νουθέτησις) is (νοῦ ἐνθεματισμός) putting of understanding into one;
so that rebuking is bringing one to one’s senses.
But there are myriads of injunctions to be found, whose aim is the
attainment of what is good, and the avoidance of what is evil. “For
there is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.”[403] Wherefore by
Solomon He commands the children to beware: “My son, let not sinners
deceive thee, and go not after their ways; and go not, if they entice
thee, saying, Come with us, share with us in innocent blood, and let
us hide unjustly the righteous man in the earth; let us put him out
of sight all alive as he is into Hades.”[404] This is accordingly
likewise a prediction concerning the Lord’s passion. And by Ezekiel,
the life supplies commandments: “The soul that sinneth shall die; but
he that doeth righteousness shall be righteous. He eateth not upon
the mountains, and hath not set his eyes on the devices of the house
of Israel, and will not defile his neighbour’s wife, and will not
approach to a woman in her separation, and will not oppress a man,
and will restore the debtor’s pledge, and will not take plunder: he
will give his bread to the hungry, and clothe the naked. His money he
will not give on usury, and will not take interest; and he will turn
away his hand from wrong, and will execute righteous judgment between
a man and his neighbour. He has walked in my statutes, and kept my
judgments to do them. This is a righteous man. He shall surely live,
saith the Lord.”[405] These words contain a description of the conduct
of Christians, a notable exhortation to the blessed life, which is the
reward of a life of goodness--everlasting life.
CHAPTER XI.
THAT THE WORD INSTRUCTED BY THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS.
The mode of His love and His instruction we have shown as we could.
Wherefore He Himself, declaring Himself very beautifully, likened
Himself to a grain of mustard-seed;[406] and pointed out the
spirituality of the word that is sown, and the productiveness of its
nature, and the magnificence and conspicuousness of the power of the
word; and besides, intimated that the pungency and the purifying virtue
of punishment are profitable on account of its sharpness. By the
little grain, as it is figuratively called, He bestows salvation on
all humanity abundantly. Honey, being very sweet, generates bile, as
goodness begets contempt, which is the cause of sinning. But mustard
lessens bile, that is, anger, and stops inflammation, that is, pride.
From which Word springs the true health of the soul, and its eternal
happy temperament (εὐκρασία).
Accordingly, of old He instructed by Moses, and then by the prophets.
Moses, too, was a prophet. For the law is the training of refractory
children. “Having feasted to the full,” accordingly, it is said, “they
rose up to play;”[407] senseless repletion with victuals being called
χόρτασμα (fodder), not βρῶμα (food). And when, having senselessly
filled themselves, they senselessly played; on that account the law
was given them, and terror ensued for the prevention of transgressions
and for the promotion of right actions, securing attention, and so
winning to obedience to the true Instructor, being one and the same
Word, and reducing to conformity with the urgent demands of the law.
For Paul says that it was given to be a “schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ.”[408] So that from this it is clear, that one alone, true,
good, just, in the image and likeness of the Father, His Son Jesus, the
Word of God, is our Instructor; to whom God hath entrusted us, as an
affectionate father commits his children to a worthy tutor, expressly
charging us, “This is my beloved Son: hear Him.”[409] The divine
Instructor is trustworthy, adorned as He is with three of the fairest
ornaments--knowledge, benevolence, and authority of utterance;--with
knowledge, for He is the paternal wisdom: “All wisdom is from the Lord,
and with Him for evermore;”--with authority of utterance, for He is God
and Creator: “For all things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made;”[410]--and with benevolence, for He alone gave Himself
a sacrifice for us: “For the good Shepherd giveth His life for the
sheep;”[411] and He has so given it. Now, benevolence is nothing but
wishing to do good to one’s neighbour for his sake.
CHAPTER XII.
THE INSTRUCTOR CHARACTERIZED BY THE SEVERITY AND
BENIGNITY OF PATERNAL AFFECTION.
Having now accomplished those things, it were a fitting sequel that our
instructor Jesus should draw for us the model of the true life, and
train humanity in Christ.
Nor is the cast and character of the life He enjoins very formidable;
nor is it made altogether easy by reason of His benignity. He enjoins
His commands, and at the same time gives them such a character that
they may be accomplished.
The view I take is, that He Himself formed man of the dust, and
regenerated him by water; and made him grow by his Spirit; and trained
him by His word to adoption and salvation, directing him by sacred
precepts; in order that, transforming earth-born man into a holy and
heavenly being by His advent, He might fulfil to the utmost that divine
utterance, “Let us make man in our own image and likeness.”[412] And,
in truth, Christ became the perfect realization of what God spake; and
the rest of humanity is conceived as being created merely in His image.
But let us, O children of the good Father--nurslings of the good
Instructor--fulfil the Father’s will, listen to the Word, and take on
the impress of the truly saving life of our Saviour; and meditating on
the heavenly mode of life according to which we have been deified, let
us anoint ourselves with the perennial immortal bloom of gladness--that
ointment of sweet fragrance--having a clear example of immortality in
the walk and conversation of the Lord; and following the footsteps
of God, to whom alone it belongs to consider, and whose care it is
to see to, the way and manner in which the life of men may be made
more healthy. Besides, He makes preparation for a self-sufficing mode
of life, for simplicity, and for girding up our loins, and for free
and unimpeded readiness of our journey; in order to the attainment
of an eternity of beatitude, teaching each one of us to be his own
storehouse. For He says, “Take no anxious thought for to-morrow,”[413]
meaning that the man who has devoted himself to Christ ought to be
sufficient to himself, and servant to himself, and moreover lead a
life which provides for each day by itself. For it is not in war, but
in peace, that we are trained. War needs great preparation, and luxury
craves profusion; but peace and love, simple and quiet sisters, require
no arms nor excessive preparation. The Word is their sustenance.
Our superintendence in instruction and discipline is the office of
the Word, from whom we learn frugality and humility, and all that
pertains to love of truth, love of man, and love of excellence. And
so, in a word, being assimilated to God by a participation in moral
excellence, we must not retrograde into carelessness and sloth.
But labour, and faint not. Thou shalt be what thou dost not hope,
and canst not conjecture. And as there is one mode of training for
philosophers, another for orators, and another for athletes; so is
there a generous disposition, suitable to the choice that is set upon
moral loveliness, resulting from the training of Christ. And in the
case of those who have been trained according to this influence, their
gait in walking, their sitting at table, their food, their sleep,
their going to bed, their regimen, and the rest of their mode of life,
acquire a superior dignity. For such a training as is pursued by the
Word is not overstrained, but is of the right tension. Thus, therefore,
the Word has been called also the Saviour, seeing He has found out
for men those rational medicines which produce vigour of the senses
and salvation; and devotes Himself to watching for the favourable
moment, reproving evil, exposing the causes of evil affections, and
striking at the roots of irrational lusts, pointing out what we ought
to abstain from, and supplying all the antidotes of salvation to those
who are diseased. For the greatest and most regal work of God is the
salvation of humanity. The sick are vexed at a physician, who gives
no advice bearing on their restoration to health. But how shall we
not acknowledge the highest gratitude to the divine Instructor, who
is not silent, who omits not those threatenings that point towards
destruction, but discloses them, and cuts off the impulses that tend to
them; and who indoctrinates in those counsels which result in the true
way of living? We must confess, therefore, the deepest obligations to
Him. For what else do we say is incumbent on the rational creature--I
mean man--than the contemplation of the Divine? I say, too, that it
is requisite to contemplate human nature, and to live as the truth
directs, and to admire the Instructor and His injunctions, as suitable
and harmonious to each other. According to which image also we ought,
conforming ourselves to the Instructor, and making the word and our
deeds agree, to live a real life.
CHAPTER XIII.
VIRTUE RATIONAL, SIN IRRATIONAL.
Everything that is contrary to right reason is sin. Accordingly,
therefore, the philosophers think fit to define the most generic
passions thus: lust, as desire disobedient to reason; fear, as
weakness disobedient to reason; pleasure, as an elation of the spirit
disobedient to reason. If, then, disobedience in reference to reason is
the generating cause of sin, how shall we escape the conclusion, that
obedience to reason--the Word--which we call faith, will of necessity
be the efficacious cause of duty? For virtue itself is a state of the
soul rendered harmonious by reason in respect to the whole life. Nay,
to crown all, philosophy itself is pronounced to be the cultivation
of right reason; so that, necessarily, whatever is done through error
of reason is transgression, and is rightly called (ἁμάρτημα) sin.
Since, then, the first man sinned and disobeyed God, it is said,
“And man became like to the beasts:”[414] being rightly regarded as
irrational, he is likened to the beasts. Whence Wisdom says: “The
horse for covering; the libidinous and the adulturer is become like
to an irrational beast.”[415] Wherefore also it is added: “He neighs,
whoever may be sitting on him.” The man, it is meant, no longer speaks;
for he who transgresses against reason is no longer rational, but an
irrational animal, given up to lusts by which he is ridden (as a horse
by his rider).
But that which is done right, in obedience to reason, the followers of
the Stoics call προσῆκον and καθῆκον, that is, incumbent and fitting.
What is fitting is incumbent. And obedience is founded on commands.
And these being, as they are, the same as counsels--having truth for
their aim, train up to the ultimate goal of aspiration, which is
conceived of as the _end_ (τέλος). And the end of piety is eternal
rest in God. And the beginning of eternity is our end. The right
operation of piety perfects duty by works; whence, according to just
reasoning, duties consist in actions, not in sayings. And Christian
conduct is the operation of the rational soul in accordance with a
correct judgment and aspiration after the truth, which attains its
destined end through the body, the soul’s consort and ally. Virtue is a
will in conformity to God and Christ in life, rightly adjusted to life
everlasting. For the life of Christians, in which we are now trained,
is a system of reasonable actions--that is, of those things taught by
the Word--an unfailing energy which we have called faith. The system
is the commandments of the Lord, which, being divine statutes and
spiritual counsels, have been written for ourselves, being adapted for
ourselves and our neighbours. Moreover, they turn back on us, as the
ball rebounds on him that throws it by the repercussion. Whence also
duties are essential for divine discipline, as being enjoined by God,
and furnished for our salvation. And since, of those things which are
necessary, some relate only to life here, and others, which relate to
the blessed life yonder, wing us for flight hence; so, in an analogous
manner, of duties, some are ordained with reference to life, others for
the blessed life. The commandments issued with respect to natural life
are published to the multitude; but those that are suited for living
well, and from which eternal life springs, we have to consider, as in a
sketch, as we read them out of the Scriptures.
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
ON EATING.
Keeping, then, to our aim, and selecting the scriptures which bear
on the usefulness of training for life, we must now compendiously
describe what the man who is called a Christian ought to be during the
whole of his life. We must accordingly begin with ourselves, and how
we ought to regulate ourselves. We have therefore, preserving a due
regard to the symmetry of this work, to say how each of us ought to
conduct himself in respect to his body, or rather how to regulate the
body itself. For whenever any one, who has been brought away by the
Word from external things, and from attention to the body itself to the
mind, acquires a clear view of what happens according to nature in man,
he will know that he is not to be earnestly occupied about external
things, but about what is proper and peculiar to man--to purge the eye
of the soul, and to sanctify also his flesh. For he that is clean rid
of those things which constitute him still dust, what else has he more
serviceable than himself for walking in the way which leads to the
comprehension of God?
Some men, in truth, live that they may eat, as the irrational
creatures, “whose life is their belly, and nothing else.” But the
Instructor enjoins us to eat that we may live. For neither is food
our business, nor is pleasure our aim; but both are on account of our
life here, which the Word is training up to immortality. Wherefore
also there is discrimination to be employed in reference to food. And
it is to be simple, truly plain, suiting precisely simple and artless
children--as ministering to life, not to luxury. And the life to which
it conduces consists of two things--health and strength; to which
plainness of fare is most suitable, being conducive both to digestion
and lightness of body, from which come growth, and health, and right
strength, not strength that is wrong or dangerous and wretched, as is
that of athletes produced by compulsory feeding.
We must therefore reject different varieties, which engender various
mischiefs, such as a depraved habit of body and disorders of the
stomach, the taste being vitiated by an unhappy art--that of cookery,
and the useless art of making pastry. For people dare to call by the
name of food their dabbling in luxuries, which glides into mischievous
pleasures. Antiphanes, the Delian physician, said that this variety of
viands was the one cause of disease; there being people who dislike
the truth, and through various absurd notions abjure moderation of
diet, and put themselves to a world of trouble to procure dainties from
beyond seas.
For my part, I am sorry for this disease, while they are not ashamed
to sing the praises of their delicacies, giving themselves great
trouble to get lampreys in the Straits of Sicily, the eels of the
Mæander, and the kids found in Melos, and the mullets in Sciathus,
and the mussels of Pelorus, the oysters of Abydos, not omitting the
sprats found in Lipara, and the Mantinican turnip; and furthermore,
the beetroot that grows among the Ascræans: they seek out the cockles
of Methymna, the turbots of Attica, and the thrushes of Daphnis, and
the reddish-brown dried figs, on account of which the ill-starred
Persian marched into Greece with five hundred thousand men. Besides
these, they purchase birds from Phasis, the Egyptian snipes, and the
Median peafowl. Altering these by means of condiments, the gluttons
gape for the sauces. “Whatever earth and the depths of the sea,
and the unmeasured space of the air produce,” they cater for their
gluttony. In their greed and solicitude, the gluttons seem absolutely
to sweep the world with a drag-net to gratify their luxurious tastes.
These gluttons, surrounded with the sound of hissing frying-pans,
and wearing their whole life away at the pestle and mortar, cling
to matter like fire. More than that, they emasculate plain food,
namely bread, by straining off the nourishing part of the grain, so
that the necessary part of food becomes matter of reproach to luxury.
There is no limit to epicurism among men. For it has driven them to
sweetmeats, and honey-cakes, and sugar-plums; inventing a multitude
of desserts, hunting after all manner of dishes. A man like this
seems to me to be all jaw, and nothing else. “Desire not,” says the
Scripture, “rich men’s dainties;”[416] for they belong to a false
and base life. They partake of luxurious dishes, which a little
after go to the dunghill. But we who seek the heavenly bread must
rule the belly, which is beneath heaven, and much more the things
which are agreeable to it, which “God shall destroy,”[417] says the
apostle, justly execrating gluttonous desires. For “meats are for the
belly,”[418] for on them depends this truly carnal and destructive
life; whence[419] some, speaking with unbridled tongue, dare to apply
the name _agapè_[420] to pitiful suppers, redolent of savour
and sauces. Dishonouring the good and saving work of the Word, the
consecrated _agapè_, with pots and pouring of sauce; and by drink
and delicacies and smoke desecrating that name, they are deceived in
their idea, having expected that the promise of God might be bought
with suppers. Gatherings for the sake of mirth, and such entertainments
as are called by ourselves, we name rightly suppers, dinners, and
banquets, after the example of the Lord. But such entertainments the
Lord has not called _agapè_. He says accordingly somewhere, “When
thou art called to a wedding, recline not on the highest couch; but
when thou art called, fall into the lowest place;”[421] and elsewhere,
“When thou makest a dinner or a supper;” and again, “But when thou
makest an entertainment, call the poor,”[422] for whose sake chiefly
a supper ought to be made. And further, “A certain man made a great
supper, and called many.”[423] But I perceive whence the specious
appellation of suppers flowed: “from the gullets and furious love for
suppers”--according to the comic poet. For, in truth, “to many, many
things are on account of the supper.” For they have not yet learned
that God has provided for His creature (man I mean) food and drink,
for sustenance, not for pleasure; since the body derives no advantage
from extravagance in viands. For, quite the contrary, those who use
the most frugal fare are the strongest and the healthiest, and the
noblest; as domestics are healthier and stronger than their masters,
and husbandmen than the proprietors; and not only more robust, but
wiser, as philosophers are wiser than rich men. For they have not
buried the mind beneath food, nor deceived it with pleasures. But love
(_agape_) is in truth celestial food, the banquet of reason. “It
beareth all things, endureth all things, hopeth all things. Love never
faileth.”[424] “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of
God.”[425] But the hardest of all cases is for charity, which faileth
not, to be cast from heaven above to the ground into the midst of
sauces. And do you imagine that I am thinking of a supper that is to be
done away with? “For if,” it is said, “I bestow all my goods, and have
not love, I am nothing.”[426] On this love alone depend the law and
the Word; and if “thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbour,”
this is the celestial festival in the heavens. But the earthly is
called a supper, as has been shown from Scripture. For the supper is
made for love, but the supper is not love (_agape_); only a proof
of mutual and reciprocal kindly feeling. “Let not, then, your good be
evil spoken of; for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink,” says
the apostle, in order that the meal spoken of may not be conceived
as ephemeral, “but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost.”[427] He who eats of this meal, the best of all, shall possess
the kingdom of God, fixing his regards here on the holy assembly of
love, the heavenly church. Love, then, is something pure and worthy
of God, and its work is communication. “And the care of discipline
is love,” as Wisdom says; “and love is the keeping of the law.”[428]
And these joys have an inspiration of love from the public nutriment,
which accustoms to everlasting dainties. Love (_agape_), then,
is not a supper. But let the entertainment depend on love. For it is
said, “Let the children whom Thou hast loved, O Lord, learn that it is
not the products of fruits that nourish man; but it is Thy word which
preserves those who believe on Thee.”[429] “For the righteous shall
not live by bread.”[430] But let our diet be light and digestible, and
suitable for keeping awake, unmixed with diverse varieties. Nor is this
a point which is beyond the sphere of discipline. For love is a good
nurse for communication; having as its rich provision sufficiency,
which, presiding over diet measured in due quantity, and treating the
body in a healthful way, distributes something from its resources
to those near us. But the diet which exceeds sufficiency injures a
man, deteriorates his spirit, and renders his body prone to disease.
Besides, those dainty tastes, which trouble themselves about rich
dishes, drive to practices of ill-repute, daintiness, gluttony, greed,
voracity, insatiability. Appropriate designations of such people as so
indulge are flies, weasels, flatterers, gladiators, and the monstrous
tribes of parasites--the one class surrendering reason, the other
friendship, and the other life, for the gratification of the belly;
crawling on their bellies, beasts in human shape after the image of
their father, the voracious beast. People first called the abandoned
ἀσώτους, and so appear to me to indicate their end, understanding them
as those who are (ἀσώστους) unsaved, excluding the σ. For those that
are absorbed in pots, and exquisitely prepared niceties of condiments,
are they not plainly abject, earth-born, leading an ephemeral kind of
life, as if they were not to live [hereafter]? Those the Holy Spirit,
by Isaiah, denounces as wretched, depriving them tacitly of the name of
love (_agape_), since their feasting was not in accordance with
the word. “But they made mirth, killing calves, and sacrificing sheep,
saying, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” And that He
reckons such luxury to be sin, is shown by what He adds, “And your sin
shall not be forgiven you till you die,”[431]--not conveying the idea
that death, which deprives of sensation, is the forgiveness of sin, but
meaning that death of salvation which is the recompense of sin. “Take
no pleasure in abominable delicacies,” says Wisdom.[432] At this point,
too, we have to advert to what are called things sacrificed to idols,
in order to show how we are enjoined to abstain from them. Polluted and
abominable those things seem to me, to the blood of which, fly
“Souls from Erebus of inanimate corpses.”--_Odyss._ xi. 37.
“For I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons,”[433] says
the apostle; since the food of those who are saved and those who perish
is separate. We must therefore abstain from these viands not for fear
(because there is no power in them); but on account of our conscience,
which is holy, and out of detestation of the demons to which they
are dedicated, are we to loathe them; and further, on account of the
instability of those who regard many things in a way that makes them
prone to fall, “whose conscience, being weak, is defiled: for meat
commendeth us not to God.”[434] “For it is not that which entereth in
that defileth a man, but that which goeth out of his mouth.”[435] The
natural use of food is then indifferent. “For neither if we eat are we
the better,” it is said, “nor if we eat not are we the worse.”[436] But
it is inconsistent with reason, for those that have been made worthy to
share divine and spiritual food, to partake of the tables of demons.
“Have we not power to eat and to drink,” says the apostle, “and to lead
about wives?” But by keeping pleasures under command we prevent lusts.
See, then, that this power of yours never “become a stumbling-block to
the weak.”
For it were not seemly that we, after the fashion of the rich man’s son
in the Gospel,[437] should, as prodigals, abuse the Father’s gifts;
but we should use them, without undue attachment to them, as having
command over ourselves. For we are enjoined to reign and rule over
meats, not to be slaves to them. It is an admirable thing, therefore,
to raise our eyes aloft to what is true, to depend on that divine food
above, and to satiate ourselves with the exhaustless contemplation
of that which truly exists, and so taste of the only sure and pure
delight. For such is the _agape_, which, the food that comes from
Christ shows that we ought to partake of. But totally irrational,
futile, and not human is it for those that are of the earth, fattening
themselves like cattle, to feed themselves up for death; looking
downwards on the earth, and bending ever over tables; leading a life
of gluttony; burying all the good of existence here in a life that by
and by will end; courting voracity alone, in respect to which cooks
are held in higher esteem than husbandmen. For we do not abolish
social intercourse, but look with suspicion on the snares of custom,
and regard them as a calamity. Wherefore daintiness is to be shunned,
and we are to partake of few and necessary things. “And if one of the
unbelievers call us to a feast, and we determine to go” (for it is a
good thing not to mix with the dissolute), the apostle bids us “eat
what is set before us, asking no questions for conscience sake.”[438]
Similarly he has enjoined to purchase “what is sold in the shambles,”
without curious questioning.[439]
We are not, then, to abstain wholly from various kinds of food, but
only are not to be taken up about them. We are to partake of what is
set before us, as becomes a Christian, out of respect to him who has
invited us, by a harmless and moderate participation in the social
meeting; regarding the sumptuousness of what is put on the table as
a matter of indifference, despising the dainties, as after a little
destined to perish. “Let him who eateth, not despise him who eateth
not; and let him who eateth not, not judge him who eateth.”[440] And a
little way on he explains the reason of the command, when he says, “He
that eateth, eateth to the Lord, and giveth God thanks; and he that
eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.”[441]
So that the right food is thanksgiving. And he who gives thanks does
not occupy his time in pleasures. And if we would persuade any of our
fellow-guests to virtue, we are all the more on this account to abstain
from those dainty dishes; and so exhibit ourselves as a bright pattern
of virtue, such as we ourselves have in Christ. “For if any of such
meats make a brother to stumble, I shall not eat it as long as the
world lasts,” says he, “that I may not make my brother stumble.”[442]
I gain the man by a little self-restraint. “Have we not power to eat
and to drink?”[443] And “we know”--he says the truth--“that an idol
is nothing in the world; but we have only one true God, of whom are
all things, and one Lord Jesus. But,” he says, “through thy knowledge
thy weak brother perishes, for whom Christ died; and they that wound
the conscience of the weak brethren sin against Christ.”[444] Thus
the apostle, in his solicitude for us, discriminates in the case of
entertainments, saying, that “if any one called a brother be found
a fornicator, or an adulterer, or an idolater, with such an one not
to eat;”[445] neither in discourse or food are we to join, looking
with suspicion on the pollution thence proceeding, as on the tables
of the demons. “It is good, then, neither to eat flesh nor to drink
wine,”[446] as both he and the Pythagoreans acknowledge. For this is
rather characteristic of a beast; and the fumes arising from them being
dense, darken the soul. If one partakes of them, he does not sin.
Only let him partake temperately, not dependent on them, nor gaping
after fine fare. For a voice will whisper to him, saying, “Destroy not
the work of God for the sake of food.”[447] For it is the mark of a
silly mind to be amazed and stupified at what is presented at vulgar
banquets, after the rich fare which is in the word; and much sillier to
make one’s eyes the slaves of the delicacies, so that one’s greed is,
so to speak, carried round by the servants. And how foolish for people
to raise themselves on the couches, all but pitching their faces into
the dishes, stretching out from the couch as from a nest, according
to the common saying, “that they may catch the wandering steam by
breathing it in!” And how senseless, to besmear their hands with the
condiments, and to be constantly reaching to the sauce, cramming
themselves immoderately and shamelessly, not like people tasting, but
ravenously seizing! For you may see such people, liker swine or dogs
for gluttony than men, in such a hurry to feed themselves full, that
both jaws are stuffed out at once, the veins about the face raised, and
besides, the perspiration running all over, as they are tightened with
their insatiable greed, and panting with their excess; the food pushed
with unsocial eagerness into their stomach, as if they were stowing
away their victuals for provision for a journey, not for digestion.
Excess, which in all things is an evil, is very highly reprehensible in
the matter of food. Gluttony, called ὀψοφαγία, is nothing but excess in
the use of relishes (ὄψον); and λαιμαργία is insanity with respect to
the gullet; and γαστριμαργία is excess with respect to food--insanity
in reference to the belly, as the name implies; for μάργος is a
madman. The apostle, checking those that transgress in their conduct
at entertainments, says: “For every one taketh beforehand in eating
his own supper; and one is hungry, and another drunken. Have ye not
houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and
shame those who have not?”[448] And among those who have, they, who
eat shamelessly and are insatiable, shame themselves. And both act
badly; the one by paining those who have not, the other by exposing
their own greed in the presence of those who have. Necessarily,
therefore, against those who have cast off shame and unsparingly abuse
meals, the insatiable to whom nothing is sufficient, the apostle, in
continuation, again breaks forth in a voice of displeasure: “So that,
my brethren, when ye come together to eat, wait for one another. And if
any one is hungry, let him eat at home, that ye come not together to
condemnation.”[449]
From all slavish habits[450] and excess we must abstain, and touch
what is set before us in a decorous way; keeping the hand and couch
and chin free of stains; preserving the grace of the countenance
undisturbed, and committing no indecorum in the act of swallowing; but
stretching out the hand at intervals in an orderly manner. We must
guard against speaking anything while eating: for the voice becomes
disagreeable and inarticulate when it is confined by full jaws; and the
tongue, pressed by the food and impeded in its natural energy, gives
forth a compressed utterance. Nor is it suitable to eat and to drink
simultaneously. For it is the very extreme of intemperance to confound
the times whose uses are discordant. And “whether ye eat or drink, do
all to the glory of God,”[451] aiming after true frugality, which the
Lord also seems to me to have hinted at when He blessed the loaves and
the cooked fishes with which He feasted the disciples, introducing a
beautiful example of simple food. That fish then which, at the command
of the Lord, Peter caught, points to digestible and God-given and
moderate food. And by those who rise from the water to the bait of
righteousness, He admonishes us to take away luxury and avarice, as
the coin from the fish; in order that He might displace vainglory; and
by giving the stater to the tax-gatherers, and “rendering to Cæsar the
things which are Cæsar’s,” might preserve “to God the things which are
God’s.”[452] The stater is capable of other explanations not unknown
to us, but the present is not a suitable occasion for their treatment.
Let the mention we make for our present purpose suffice, as it is
not unsuitable to the flowers of the Word; and we have often done
this, drawing to the urgent point of the question the most beneficial
fountain, in order to water those who have been planted by the Word.
“For if it is lawful for me to partake of all things, yet all things
are not expedient.”[453] For those that do all that is lawful, quickly
fall into doing what is unlawful. And just as righteousness is not
attained by avarice, nor temperance by excess; so neither is the
regimen of a Christian formed by indulgence; for the table of truth
is far from lascivious dainties. For though it was chiefly for men’s
sake that all things were made, yet it is not good to use all things,
nor at all times. For the occasion, and the time, and the mode, and
the intention, materially turn the balance with reference to what is
useful, in the view of one who is rightly instructed; and this is
suitable, and has influence in putting a stop to a life of gluttony,
which wealth is prone to choose, not that wealth which sees clearly,
but that abundance which makes a man blind with reference to gluttony.
No one is poor as regards necessaries, and a man is never overlooked.
For there is one God who feeds the fowls and the fishes, and, in a
word, the irrational creatures; and not one thing whatever is wanting
to them, though “they take no thought for their food.”[454] And we
are better than they, being their lords, and more closely allied to
God, as being wiser; and we were made, not that we might eat and
drink, but that we might devote ourselves to the knowledge of God.
“For the just man who eats is satisfied in his soul, but the belly of
the wicked shall want,”[455] filled with the appetites of insatiable
gluttony. Now lavish expense is adapted not for enjoyment alone, but
also for social communication. Wherefore we must guard against those
articles of food which persuade us to eat when we are not hungry,
bewitching the appetite. For is there not within a temperate simplicity
a wholesome variety of eatables? Bulbs,[456] olives, certain herbs,
milk, cheese, fruits, all kinds of cooked food without sauces; and if
flesh is wanted, let roast rather than boiled be set down. Have you
anything to eat here? said the Lord[457] to the disciples after the
resurrection; and they, as taught by Him to practise frugality, “gave
Him a piece of broiled fish;” and having eaten before them, says Luke,
He spoke to them what He spoke. And in addition to these, it is not
to be overlooked that those who feed according to the Word are not
debarred from dainties in the shape of honey-combs. For of articles
of food, those are the most suitable which are fit for immediate use
without fire, since they are readiest; and second to these are those
which are simplest, as we said before. But those who bend around
inflammatory tables, nourishing their own diseases, are ruled by a
most lickerish demon, whom I shall not blush to call the Belly-demon,
and the worst and most abandoned of demons. He is therefore exactly
like the one who is called the Ventriloquist-demon. It is far better
to be happy[458] than to have a demon dwelling with us. And happiness
is found in the practice of virtue. Accordingly, the apostle Matthew
partook of seeds, and nuts,[459] and vegetables, without flesh. And
John, who carried temperance to the extreme, “ate locusts and wild
honey.” Peter abstained from swine; “but a trance fell on him,” as
is written in the Acts of the Apostles, “and he saw heaven opened,
and a vessel let down on the earth by the four corners, and all the
four-footed beasts and creeping things of the earth and the fowls of
heaven in it; and there came a voice to him, Rise, and slay, and eat.
And Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten what is common or
unclean. And the voice came again to him the second time, What God hath
cleansed, call not thou common.”[460] The use of them is accordingly
indifferent to us. “For not what entereth into the mouth defileth the
man,”[461] but the vain opinion respecting uncleanness. For God, when
He created man, said, “All things shall be to you for meat.”[462] “And
herbs, with love, are better than a calf with fraud.”[463] This well
reminds us of what was said above, that herbs are not love, but that
our meals are to be taken with love;[464] and in these the medium state
is good. In all things, indeed, this is the case, and not least in
the preparation made for feasting, since the extremes are dangerous,
and middle courses good. And to be in no want of necessaries is the
medium. For the desires which are in accordance with nature are bounded
by sufficiency. The Jews had frugality enjoined on them by the law in
the most systematic manner. For the Instructor, by Moses, deprived
them of the use of innumerable things, adding reasons--the spiritual
ones hidden; the carnal ones apparent, to which indeed they have
trusted; in the case of some animals, because they did not part the
hoof, and others because they did not ruminate their food, and others
because alone of aquatic animals they were devoid of scales; so that
altogether but a few were left appropriate for their food. And of
those that he permitted them to touch, he prohibited such as had died,
or were offered to idols, or had been strangled; for to touch these
was unlawful. For since it is impossible for those who use dainties
to abstain from partaking of them, he appointed the opposite mode of
life, till he should break down the propensity to indulgence arising
from habit. Pleasure has often produced in men harm and pain; and
full feeding begets in the soul uneasiness, and forgetfulness, and
foolishness. And they say that the bodies of children, when shooting up
to their height, are made to grow right by deficiency in nourishment.
For then the spirit, which pervades the body in order to its growth,
is not checked by abundance of food obstructing the freedom of its
course. Whence that truthseeking philosopher Plato, fanning the spark
of the Hebrew philosophy when condemning a life of luxury, says: “On
my coming hither, the life which is here called happy, full of Italian
and Syracusan tables, pleased me not by any means, [consisting as it
did] in being filled twice a day, and never sleeping by night alone,
and whatever other accessories attend the mode of life. For not one man
under heaven, if brought up from his youth in such practices, will ever
turn out a wise man, with however admirable a natural genius he may be
endowed.” For Plato was not unacquainted with David, who “placed the
sacred ark in his city in the midst of the tabernacle;” and bidding all
his subjects rejoice “before the Lord, divided to the whole host of
Israel, man and woman, to each a loaf of bread, and baked bread, and a
cake from the frying-pan.”[465]
This was the sufficient sustenance of the Israelites. But that of
the Gentiles was over-abundant. No one who uses it will ever study
to become temperate, burying as he does his mind in his belly, very
like the fish called ass,[466] which, Aristotle says, alone of all
creatures has its heart in its stomach. This fish Epicharmus the comic
poet calls “monster-paunch.”
Such are the men who believe in their belly, “whose God is their
belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.”
To them the apostle predicted no good when he said, “whose end is
destruction.”[467]
CHAPTER II.
ON DRINKING.
“Use a little wine,” says the apostle to Timothy, who drank water,
“for thy stomach’s sake;”[468] most properly applying its aid as a
strengthening tonic suitable to a sickly body enfeebled with watery
humours; and specifying “a little,” lest the remedy should, on account
of its quantity, unobserved, create the necessity of other treatment.
The natural, temperate, and necessary beverage, therefore, for the
thirsty is water. This was the simple drink of sobriety, which,
flowing from the smitten rock, was supplied by the Lord to the ancient
Hebrews.[469] It was most requisite that in their wanderings they
should be temperate.
Afterwards the sacred vine produced the prophetic cluster. This was a
sign to them, when trained from wandering to their rest; representing
the great cluster the Word, bruised for us. For the blood of the
grape--that is, the Word--desired to be mixed with water, as His blood
is mingled with salvation.
And the blood of the Lord is twofold. For there is the blood of His
flesh, by which we are redeemed from corruption; and the spiritual,
that by which we are anointed. And to drink the blood of Jesus, is
to become partaker of the Lord’s immortality; the Spirit being the
energetic principle of the Word, as blood is of flesh.
Accordingly, as wine is blended with water, so is the Spirit with man.
And the one, the mixture of wine and water, nourishes to faith; while
the other, the Spirit, conducts to immortality.
And the mixture of both--of the water and of the Word--is called
_Eucharist_, renowned and glorious grace; and they who by faith
partake of it are sanctified both in body and soul. For the divine
mixture, man, the Father’s will has mystically compounded by the Spirit
and the Word. For, in truth, the spirit is joined to the soul, which
is inspired by it; and the flesh, by reason of which the Word became
flesh, to the Word.
I therefore admire those who have adopted an austere life, and who are
fond of water, the medicine of temperance, and flee as far as possible
from wine, shunning it as they would the danger of fire. It is proper,
therefore, that boys and girls should keep as much as possible away
from this medicine. For it is not right to pour into the burning season
of life the hottest of all liquids--wine--adding, as it were, fire
to fire. For hence wild impulses and burning lusts and fiery habits
are kindled; and young men inflamed from within become prone to the
indulgence of vicious propensities; so that signs of injury appear in
their body, the members of lust coming to maturity sooner than they
ought. The breasts and organs of generation, inflamed with wine, expand
and swell in a shameful way, already exhibiting beforehand the image
of fornication; and the body compels the wound of the soul to inflame,
and shameless pulsations follow abundance, inciting the man of correct
behaviour to transgression; and hence the voluptuousness of youth
overpasses the bounds of modesty. And we must, as far as possible, try
to quench the impulses of youth by removing the Bacchic fuel of the
threatened danger; and by pouring the antidote to the inflammation,
so keep down the burning soul, and keep in the swelling members, and
allay the agitation of lust when it is already in commotion. And in
the case of grown-up people, let those with whom it agrees sometimes
partake of dinner, tasting bread only, and let them abstain wholly from
drink; in order that their superfluous moisture may be absorbed and
drunk up by the eating of dry food. For constant spitting and wiping
off perspiration, and hastening to evacuations, is the sign of excess,
from the immoderate use of liquids supplied in excessive quantity to
the body. And if thirst come on, let the appetite be satisfied with
a little water. For it is not proper that water should be supplied
in too great profusion; in order that the food may not be drowned,
but ground down in order to digestion; and this takes place when
the victuals are collected into a mass, and only a small portion is
evacuated.
And, besides, it suits divine studies not to be heavy with wine.
“For unmixed wine is far from compelling a man to be wise, much less
temperate,” according to the comic poet. But towards evening, about
supper-time, wine may be used, when we are no longer engaged in more
serious readings. Then also the air becomes colder than it is during
the day; so that the failing natural warmth requires to be nourished by
the introduction of heat. But even then it must only be a little wine
that is to be used; for we must not go on to intemperate potations.
Those who are already advanced in life may partake more hilariously of
the bowl, to warm by the harmless medicine of the vine the chill of
age, which the decay of time has produced. For old men’s passions are
not, for the most part, stirred to such agitation as to drive them to
the shipwreck of drunkenness. For being moored by reason and time, as
by anchors, they stand with greater ease the storm of passions which
rushes down from intemperance. They also may be permitted to indulge in
pleasantry at feasts. But to them also let the limit of their potations
be the point up to which they keep their reason unwavering, their
memory active, and their body unmoved and unshaken by wine. People in
such a state are called by those who are skilful in these matters,
acrothorakes.[470] It is well, therefore, to leave off betimes, for
fear of tripping.
One Artorius, in his book _On Long Life_ (for so I remember),
thinks that drink should be taken only till the food be moistened,
that we may attain to a longer life. It is fitting, then, that some
apply wine by way of physic, for the sake of health alone, and others
for purposes of relaxation and enjoyment. For first wine makes the man
who has drunk it more benignant than before, more agreeable to his
boon companions, kinder to his domestics, and more pleasant to his
friends. But when intoxicated, he becomes violent instead. For wine
being warm, and having sweet juices when duly mixed, dissolves the foul
excrementitious matters by its warmth, and mixes the acrid and base
humours with agreeable scents.
It has therefore been well said, “A joy of the soul and heart was wine
created from the beginning, when drunk in moderate sufficiency.”[471]
And it is best to mix the wine with as much water as possible, and
not to have recourse to it as to water, and so get enervated to
drunkenness, and not pour it in as water from love of wine. For both
are works of God; and so the mixture of both, of water and of wine,
conduces together to health, because life consists of what is necessary
and of what is useful. With water, then, which is the necessary of
life, and to be used in abundance, there is also to be mixed the useful.
By an immoderate quantity of wine the tongue is impeded; the lips are
relaxed; the eyes roll wildly, the sight, as it were, swimming through
the quantity of moisture; and compelled to deceive, they think that
everything is revolving round them, and cannot count distant objects as
single. “And, in truth, methinks I see two suns,”[472] said the Theban
old man in his cups. For the sight, being disturbed by the heat of the
wine, frequently fancies the substance of one object to be manifold.
And there is no difference between moving the eye or the object seen.
For both have the same effect on the sight, which, on account of the
fluctuation, cannot accurately obtain a perception of the object. And
the feet are carried from beneath the man as by a flood, and hiccuping
and vomiting and maudlin nonsense follow; “for every intoxicated man,”
according to the tragedy,[473]
“Is conquered by anger, and empty of sense,
And likes to pour forth much silly speech;
And is wont to hear unwillingly,
What evil words he with his will hath said.”
And before tragedy, Wisdom cried, “Much wine drunk abounds in
irritation and all manner of mistakes.”[474] Wherefore most people say
that you ought to relax over your cups, and postpone serious business
till morning. I however think that then especially ought reason to be
introduced to mix in the feast, to act the part of director (pædagogue)
to wine-drinking, lest conviviality imperceptibly degenerate to
drunkenness. For as no sensible man ever thinks it requisite to shut
his eyes before going to sleep, so neither can any one rightly wish
reason to be absent from the festive board, or can well study to lull
it asleep till business is begun. But the Word can never quit those who
belong to Him, not even if we are asleep; for He ought to be invited
even to our sleep. For perfect wisdom, which is knowledge of things
divine and human, which comprehends all that relates to the oversight
of the flock of men, becomes, in reference to life, art; and so, while
we live, is constantly with us, always accomplishing its own proper
work, the product of which is a good life.
But the miserable wretches who expel temperance from conviviality,
think excess in drinking to be the happiest life; and their life is
nothing but revel, debauchery, baths, excess, urinals, idleness, drink.
You may see some of them, half-drunk, staggering, with crowns round
their necks like wine jars, vomiting drink on one another in the name
of good fellowship; and others, full of the effects of their debauch,
dirty, pale in the face, livid, and still above yesterday’s bout
pouring another bout to last till next morning. It is well, my friends,
it is well to make our acquaintance with this picture at the greatest
possible distance from it, and to frame ourselves to what is better,
dreading lest we also become a like spectacle and laughing-stock to
others.
It has been appropriately said, “As the furnace tests the steel
blade in the process of dipping, so wine tests the heart of the
haughty.”[475] A debauch is the immoderate use of wine, intoxication
the disorder that results from such use; crapulousness (κραιπάλη) is
the discomfort and nausea that follow a debauch, so called from the
head shaking (κάρα πάλλειν).
Such a life as this (if life it must be called, which is spent in
idleness, in agitation about voluptuous indulgences, and in the
hallucinations of debauchery) the divine Wisdom looks on with contempt,
and commands her children, “Be not a wine-bibber, nor spend your
money in the purchase of flesh; for every drunkard and fornicator
shall come to beggary, and every sluggard shall be clothed in tatters
and rags.”[476] For every one that is not awake to wisdom, but is
steeped in wine, is a sluggard. “And the drunkard,” he says, “shall
be clothed in rags, and be ashamed of his drunkenness in the presence
of onlookers.”[477] For the wounds of the sinner are the rents of the
garment of the flesh, the holes made by lusts, through which the shame
of the soul within is seen--namely sin, by reason of which it will not
be easy to save the garment, that has been torn away all round, that
has rotted away in many lusts, and has been rent asunder from salvation.
So he adds these most monitory words: “Who has woes, who has clamour,
who has contentions, who has disgusting babblings, who has unavailing
remorse?”[478] You see, in all his raggedness, the lover of wine,
who despises the Word Himself, and has abandoned and given himself
to drunkenness. You see what threatening Scripture has pronounced
against him. And to its threatening it adds again: “Whose are red
eyes? Those, is it not, who tarry long at their wine, and hunt out
the places where drinking goes on?” Here he shows the lover of drink
to be already dead to the Word, by the mention of the blood-shot
eyes,--a mark which appears on corpses, announcing to him death in the
Lord. For forgetfulness of the things which tend to true life turns
the scale towards destruction. With reason therefore, the Instructor,
in His solicitude for our salvation, forbids us, “Drink not wine to
drunkenness.” Wherefore? you will ask. Because, says He, “thy mouth
will then speak perverse things, and thou liest down as in the heart of
the sea, and as the steersman of a ship in the midst of huge billows.”
Hence, too, poetry comes to our help, and says:
“Let wine which has strength equal to fire come to men.
Then will it agitate them, as the north or south wind agitates the
Libyan waves.”
And further:
“Wine wandering in speech shows all secrets.
Soul-deceiving wine is the ruin of those who drink it.”
And so on.
You see the danger of shipwreck. The heart is drowned in much drink.
The excess of drunkenness is compared to the danger of the sea, in
which when the body has once been sunken like a ship, it descends to
the depths of turpitude, overwhelmed in the mighty billows of wine;
and the helmsman, the human mind, is tossed about on the surge of
drunkenness, which swells aloft; and buried in the trough of the sea,
is blinded by the darkness of the tempest, having drifted away from
the haven of truth, till, dashing on the rocks beneath the sea, it
perishes, driven by itself into voluptuous indulgences.
With reason, therefore, the apostle enjoins, “Be not drunk with wine,
in which there is much excess;” by the term excess (ἀσωτία) intimating
the inconsistence of drunkenness with salvation (ἄσωστον). For if He
made water wine at the marriage, He did not give permission to get
drunk. He gave life to the watery element of the meaning of the law,
filling with His blood the doer of it who is of Adam, that is, the
whole world; supplying piety with drink from the vine of truth, the
mixture of the old law and of the new word, in order to the fulfilment
of the predestined time. The Scripture, accordingly, has named wine
the symbol of the sacred blood; but reproving the base tippling with
the dregs of wine, it says: “Intemperate is wine, and insolent is
drunkenness.”[479] It is agreeable, therefore, to right reason, to
drink on account of the cold of winter, till the numbness is dispelled
from those who are subject to feel it; and on other occasions as a
medicine for the intestines. For, as we are to use food to satisfy
hunger, so also are we to use drink to satisfy thirst, taking the most
careful precautions against a slip: “for the introduction of wine is
perilous.” And thus shall our soul be pure, and dry, and luminous; and
the soul itself is wisest and best when dry. And thus, too, is it fit
for contemplation, and is not humid with the exhalations, that rise
from wine, forming a mass like a cloud. We must not therefore trouble
ourselves to procure Chian wine if it is absent, or Ariousian when it
is not at hand. For thirst is a sensation of want, and craves means
suitable for supplying the want, and not sumptuous liquor. Importations
of wines from beyond seas are for an appetite enfeebled by excess,
where the soul even before drunkenness is insane in its desires.
For there are the fragrant Thasian wine, and the pleasant-breathing
Lesbian, and a sweet Cretan wine, and sweet Syracusan wine, and
Mendusian, an Egyptian wine, and the insular Naxian, the “highly
perfumed and flavoured,”[480] another wine of the land of Italy. These
are many names. For the temperate drinker, one wine suffices, the
product of the cultivation of the one God. For why should not the wine
of their own country satisfy men’s desires, unless they were to import
water also, like the foolish Persian kings? The Choaspes, a river of
India so called, was that from which the best water for drinking--the
Choaspian--was got. As wine, when taken, makes people lovers of it, so
does water too. The Holy Spirit, uttering His voice by Amos, pronounces
the rich to be wretched on account of their luxury:[481] “Those that
drink strained wine, and recline on an ivory couch,” he says; and what
else similar he adds by way of reproach.
Especial regard is to be paid to decency (as the myth represents
Athene, whoever she was, out of regard to it, giving up the pleasure
of the flute because of the unseemliness of the sight): so that we are
to drink without contortions of the face, not greedily grasping the
cup, nor before drinking making the eyes roll with unseemly motion; nor
from intemperance are we to drain the cup at a draught; nor besprinkle
the chin, nor splash the garments while gulping down all the liquor
at once,--our face all but filling the bowl, and drowned in it. For
the gurgling occasioned by the drink rushing with violence, and by its
being drawn in with a great deal of breath, as if it were being poured
into an earthenware vessel, while the throat makes a noise through the
rapidity of ingurgitation, is a shameful and unseemly spectacle of
intemperance. In addition to this, eagerness in drinking is a practice
injurious to the partaker. Do not haste to mischief, my friend. Your
drink is not being taken from you. It is given you, and waits you. Be
not eager to burst, by draining it down with gaping throat. Your thirst
is satiated, even if you drink slower, observing decorum, by taking
the beverage in small portions, in an orderly way. For that which
intemperance greedily seizes, is not taken away by taking time.
“Be not mighty,” he says, “at wine; for wine has overcome many.”[482]
The Scythians, the Celts, the Iberians, and the Thracians, all of them
warlike races, are greatly addicted to intoxication, and think that it
is an honourable, happy pursuit to engage in. But we, the people of
peace, feasting for lawful enjoyment, not to wantonness, drink sober
cups of friendship, that our friendships may be shown in a way truly
appropriate to the name.
In what manner do you think the Lord drank when He became man for our
sakes? As shamelessly as we? Was it not with decorum and propriety?
Was it not deliberately? For rest assured, He Himself also partook of
wine; for He, too, was man. And He blessed the wine, saying, “Take,
drink: this is my blood”--the blood of the vine. He figuratively calls
the Word “shed for many, for the remission of sins”--the holy stream
of gladness. And that he who drinks ought to observe moderation, He
clearly showed by what He taught at feasts. For He did not teach
affected by wine. And that it was wine which was the thing blessed,
He showed again, when He said to His disciples, “I will not drink of
the fruit of this vine, till I drink it with you in the kingdom of
my Father.”[483] But that it was wine which was drunk by the Lord,
He tells us again, when He spake concerning Himself, reproaching the
Jews for their hardness of heart: “For the Son of man,” He says,
“came, and they say, Behold a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of
publicans.”[484] Let this be held fast by us against those that are
called Encratites.
But women, making a profession, forsooth, of aiming at the graceful,
that their lips may not be rent apart by stretching them on broad
drinking cups, and so widening the mouth, drinking in an unseemly way
out of alabastra quite too narrow in the mouth, throw back their heads
and bare their necks indecently, as I think; and distending the throat
in swallowing, gulp down the liquor as if to make bare all they can to
their boon companions; and drawing hiccups like men, or rather like
slaves, revel in luxurious riot. For nothing disgraceful is proper for
man, who is endowed with reason; much less for woman, to whom it brings
shame even to reflect of what nature she is.
“An intoxicated woman is great wrath,” it is said, as if a drunken
woman were the wrath of God. Why? “Because she will not conceal her
shame.”[485] For a woman is quickly drawn down to licentiousness,
if she only set her choice on pleasures. And we have not prohibited
drinking from alabastra; but we forbid studying to drink from them
alone, as arrogant; counselling women to use with indifference what
comes in the way, and cutting up by the roots the dangerous appetites
that are in them. Let the rush of air, then, which regurgitates so as
to produce hiccup, be emitted silently.
But by no manner of means are women to be allowed to uncover and
exhibit any part of their person, lest both fall,--the men by being
excited to look, they by drawing on themselves the eyes of the men.
But always must we conduct ourselves as in the Lord’s presence, lest He
say to us, as the apostle in indignation said to the Corinthians, “When
ye come together, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.”[486]
To me, the star called by the mathematicians Acephalus (headless),
which is numbered before the wandering star, his head resting on his
breast, seems to be a type of the gluttonous, the voluptuous, and
those that are prone to drunkenness. For in such[487] the faculty
of reasoning is not situated in the head, but among the intestinal
appetites, enslaved to lust and anger. For just as Elpenor broke his
neck through intoxication,[488] so the brain, dizzied by drunkenness,
falls down from above, with a great fall to the liver and the heart,
that is, to voluptuousness and anger: as the sons of the poets say
Hephæstus was hurled by Zeus from heaven to earth.[489] “The trouble of
sleeplessness, and bile, and cholic, are with an insatiable man,” it is
said.[490]
Wherefore also Noah’s intoxication was recorded in writing, that, with
the clear and written description of his transgression before us, we
might guard with all our might against drunkenness. For which cause
they who covered the shame[491] of his drunkenness are blessed by the
Lord. The Scripture accordingly, giving a most comprehensive compend,
has expressed all in one word: “To an instructed man sufficiency is
wine, and he will rest in his bed.”[492]
CHAPTER III.
ON COSTLY VESSELS.
And so the use of cups made of silver and gold, and of others inlaid
with precious stones, is out of place, being only a deception of the
vision. For if you pour any warm liquid into them, the vessels becoming
hot, to touch them is painful. On the other hand, if you pour in what
is cold, the material changes its quality, injuring the mixture, and
the rich potion is hurtful. Away, then, with Thericleian cups and
Antigonides, and Canthari, and goblets, and Lepastæ,[493] and the
endless shapes of drinking vessels, and wine-coolers, and wine-pourers
also. For, on the whole, gold and silver, both publicly and privately,
are an invidious possession when they exceed what is necessary, seldom
to be acquired, difficult to keep, and not adapted for use. The
elaborate vanity, too, of vessels in glass chased, more apt to break
on account of the art, teaching us to fear while we drink, is to be
banished from our well-ordered constitution. And silver couches, and
pans and vinegar-saucers, and trenchers and bowls; and besides these,
vessels of silver and gold, some for serving food, and others for other
uses which I am ashamed to name, of easily cleft cedar and thyine wood,
and ebony, and tripods fashioned of ivory, and couches with silver
feet and inlaid with ivory, and folding-doors of beds studded with
gold and variegated with tortoise-shell, and bed-clothes of purple and
other colours difficult to produce, proofs of tasteless luxury, cunning
devices of envy and effeminacy,--are all to be relinquished, as having
nothing whatever worth our pains. “For the time is short,” as says the
apostle. This then remains that we do, not make a ridiculous figure, as
some are seen in the public spectacles outwardly anointed strikingly
for imposing effect, but wretched within. Explaining this more clearly,
he adds, “It remains that they that have wives be as though they had
none, and they that buy as though they possessed not.”[494] And if he
speaks thus of marriage, in reference to which God says, “Multiply,”
how do you not think that senseless display is by the Lord’s authority
to be banished? Wherefore also the Lord says, “Sell what thou hast, and
give to the poor; and come, follow me.”[495]
Follow God, stripped of arrogance, stripped of fading display,
possessed of that which is thine, which is good, what alone cannot be
taken away--faith towards God, confession towards Him who suffered,
beneficence towards men, which is the most precious of possessions. For
my part, I approve of Plato, who plainly lays it down as a law, that
a man is not to labour for wealth of gold or silver, nor to possess a
useless vessel which is not for some necessary purpose, and moderate;
so that the same thing may serve for many purposes, and the possession
of a variety of things may be done away with. Excellently, therefore,
the Divine Scripture, addressing boasters and lovers of their own
selves, says, “Where are the rulers of the nations, and the lords of
the wild beasts on the earth, who sport among the birds of heaven, who
treasured up silver and gold, in whom men trusted, and there was no
end of their substance, who fashioned silver and gold, and were full
of care? There is no finding of their works. They have vanished, and
gone down to Hades.”[496] Such is the reward of display. For though
such of us as cultivate the soil need a mattock and plough, none of
us will make a pick-axe of silver or a sickle of gold, but we employ
the material which is serviceable for agriculture, not what is costly.
What prevents those who are capable of considering what is similar from
entertaining the same sentiments with respect to household utensils,
of which let use, not expense, be the measure? For tell me, does the
table-knife not cut unless it be studded with silver, and have its
handle made of ivory? Or must we forge Indian steel in order to divide
meat, as when we call for a weapon for the fight? What if the basin
be of earthenware? will it not receive the dirt of the hands? or the
footpan the dirt of the foot? Will the table that is fashioned with
ivory feet be indignant at bearing a three-halfpenny loaf? Will the
lamp not dispense light because it is the work of the potter, not of
the goldsmith? I affirm that truckle-beds afford no worse repose than
the ivory couch; and the goatskin coverlet being amply sufficient to
spread on the bed, there is no need of purple or scarlet coverings.
Yet to condemn, notwithstanding, frugality, through the stupidity of
luxury, the author of mischief, what a prodigious error, what senseless
conceit! See. The Lord ate from a common bowl, and made the disciples
recline on the grass on the ground, and washed their feet, girded with
a linen towel--He, the lowly-minded God, and Lord of the universe. He
did not bring down a silver foot-bath from heaven. He asked to drink of
the Samaritan woman, who drew the water from the well in an earthenware
vessel, not seeking regal gold, but teaching us how to quench thirst
easily. For He made use, not extravagance His aim. And He ate and drank
at feasts, not digging metals from the earth, nor using vessels of gold
and silver, that is, vessels exhaling the odour of rust--such fumes as
the rust of smoking[497] metal gives off.
For in fine, in food, and clothes, and vessels, and everything else
belonging to the house, I say comprehensively, that one must follow
the institutions of the Christian man, as is serviceable and suitable
to one’s person, age, pursuits, time of life. For it becomes those
that are servants of one God, that their possessions and furniture
should exhibit the tokens of one beautiful[498] life; and that each
individually should be seen in faith, which shows no difference,
practising all other things which are conformable to this uniform mode
of life, and harmonious with this one scheme.
What we acquire without difficulty, and use with ease, we praise,
keep easily, and communicate freely. The things which are useful are
preferable, and consequently cheap things are better than dear. In
fine, wealth, when not properly governed, is a stronghold of evil,
about which many casting their eyes, they will never reach the kingdom
of heaven, sick for the things of the world, and living proudly through
luxury. But those who are in earnest about salvation must settle this
beforehand in their mind, “that all that we possess is given to us for
use, and use for sufficiency, which one may attain to by a few things.”
For silly are they who, from greed, take delight in what they have
hoarded up. “He that gathereth wages,” it is said, “gathereth into a
bag with holes.”[499] Such is he who gathers corn and shuts it up; and
he who giveth to no one, becomes poorer.
It is a farce, and a thing to make one laugh outright, for men to bring
in silver urine-vases and chamber-pots of crystal as they usher in
their counsellors, and for silly rich women to get gold receptacles for
excrements made; so that being rich, they cannot even ease themselves
except in superb way. I would that in their whole life they deemed gold
fit for dung.
But now love of money is found to be the stronghold of evil, which the
apostle says “is the root of all evils, which, while some coveted, they
have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows.”[500]
But the best riches is poverty of desires; and the true magnanimity
is not to be proud of wealth, but to despise it. Boasting about one’s
plate is utterly base. For it is plainly wrong to care much about what
any one who likes may buy from the market. But wisdom is not bought
with coin of earth, nor is it sold in the market-place, but in heaven.
And it is sold for true coin, the immortal Word, the regal gold.
CHAPTER IV.
HOW TO CONDUCT OURSELVES AT FEASTS.
Let revelry keep away from our rational entertainments, and foolish
vigils, too, that revel in intemperance. For revelry is an inebriating
pipe, the chain[501] of an amatory bridge, that is, of sorrow. And
let love, and intoxication, and senseless passions, be removed from
our choir. Burlesque singing is the boon companion of drunkenness.
A night spent over drink invites drunkenness, rouses lust, and is
audacious in deeds of shame. For if people occupy their time with
pipes, and psalteries, and choirs, and dances, and Egyptian clapping
of hands, and such disorderly frivolities, they become quite immodest
and intractable, beat on cymbals and drums, and make a noise on the
instruments of delusion; for plainly such a banquet, as seems to me,
is a theatre of drunkenness. For the apostle decrees that, “putting
off the works of darkness, we should put on the armour of light,
walking honestly as in the day, not spending our time in rioting and
drunkenness, in chambering and wantonness.”[502] Let the pipe be
resigned to the shepherds, and the flute to the superstitious who
are engrossed in idolatry. For, in truth, such instruments are to be
banished from a temperate banquet, being more suitable to beasts than
men, and the more irrational portion of mankind. For we have heard of
stags being charmed by the pipe, and seduced by music into the toils,
when hunted by the huntsman. And when mares are being covered, a tune
is played on the flute--a nuptial song, as it were. And every improper
sight and sound, to speak in a word, and every shameful sensation of
licentiousness--which, in truth, is privation of sensation--must by
all means be excluded; and we must be on our guard against whatever
pleasure titillates eye and ear, and effeminates. For the various
spells of the broken strains and plaintive numbers of the Carian
muse corrupt men’s morals, drawing to perturbation of mind, by the
licentious and mischievous art of music.
The Spirit, distinguishing from such revelry the divine service, sings,
“Praise Him with sound of trumpet;” for with sound of trumpet He shall
raise the dead. “Praise Him on the psaltery;” for the tongue is the
psaltery of the Lord. “And praise Him on the lyre.”[503] By the lyre is
meant the mouth struck by the Spirit, as it were by a plectrum. “Praise
with the timbrel and the dance,” refers to the church meditating on the
resurrection of the dead in the resounding skin. “Praise Him on the
chords and organ.” Our body He calls an organ, and its nerves are the
strings, by which it has received harmonious tension, and when struck
by the Spirit, it gives forth human voices. “Praise Him on the clashing
cymbals.” He calls the tongue the cymbal of the mouth, which resounds
with the pulsation of the lips. Therefore He cried to humanity, “Let
every breath praise the Lord,” because He cares for every breathing
thing which He hath made. For man is truly a pacific instrument; while
other instruments, if you investigate, you will find to be warlike,
inflaming to lusts, or kindling up amours, or rousing wrath.
In their wars, therefore, the Etruscans use the trumpet, the Arcadians
the pipe, the Sicilians the pectides, the Cretans the lyre, the
Lacedæemonians the flute, the Thracians the horn, the Egyptians the
drum, and the Arabians the cymbal. The one instrument of peace, the
Word alone by which we honour God, is what we employ. We no longer
employ the ancient psaltery, and trumpet, and timbrel, and flute, which
those expert in war and contemners of the fear of God were wont to make
use of also in the choruses at their festive assemblies; that by such
strains they might raise their dejected minds. But let our genial
feeling in drinking be twofold, in accordance with the law. For “if
thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” and then “thy neighbour,” let its
first manifestation be towards God in thanksgiving and psalmody, and
the second towards our neighbour in decorous fellowship. For says the
apostle, “Let the Word of the Lord dwell in you richly.”[504] And this
Word suits and conforms Himself to seasons, to persons, to places.
In the present instance He is a guest with us. For the apostle adds
again, “Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, in psalms,
and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to
God.” And again, “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and His Father.” This is our
thankful revelry. And even if you wish to sing and play to the harp
or lyre, there is no blame. Thou shalt imitate the righteous Hebrew
king in his thanksgiving to God. “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous;
praise is comely to the upright,”[505] says the prophecy. “Confess to
the Lord on the harp; play to Him on a psaltery of ten strings. Sing to
Him a new song.” And does not the ten-stringed psaltery indicate the
Word Jesus, who is manifested by the element of the decad? And as it is
befitting, before partaking of food, that we should bless the Creator
of all; so also in drinking it is suitable to praise Him on partaking
of His creatures. For the psalm is a melodious and sober blessing. The
apostle calls the psalm “a spiritual song.”[506]
Finally, before partaking of sleep, it is a sacred duty to give thanks
to God, having enjoyed His grace and love, and so go straight to sleep.
“And confess to Him in songs of the lips,” he says, “because in His
command all His good pleasure is done, and there is no deficiency in
His salvation.”[507]
Further, among the ancient Greeks, in their banquets over the brimming
cups, a song was sung called a skolion, after the manner of the Hebrew
psalms, all together raising the pæan with the voice, and sometimes
also taking turns in the song while they drank healths round; while
those that were more musical than the rest sang to the lyre. But let
amatory songs be banished far away, and let our songs be hymns to
God. “Let them praise,” it is said, “His name in the dance, and let
them play to Him on the timbrel and psaltery.”[508] And what is the
choir which plays? The Spirit will show thee: “Let His praise be in
the congregation (church) of the saints; let them be joyful in their
King.”[509] And again he adds, “The Lord will take pleasure in His
people.”[510] For temperate harmonies are to be admitted; but we are to
banish as far as possible from our robust mind those liquid harmonies,
which, through pernicious arts in the modulations of tones, train to
effeminacy and scurrility. But grave and modest strains say farewell to
the turbulence of drunkenness. Chromatic harmonies are therefore to be
abandoned to immodest revels, and to florid and meretricious music.
CHAPTER V.
ON LAUGHTER.
People who are imitators of ludicrous sensations, or rather of such as
deserve derision, are to be driven from our polity [or society].
For since all forms of speech flow from mind and manners, ludicrous
expressions could not be uttered, did they not proceed from ludicrous
practices. For the saying, “It is not a good tree which produces
corrupt fruit, nor a corrupt tree which produces good fruit,”[511] is
to be applied in this case. For speech is the fruit of the mind. If,
then, wags are to be ejected from our society, we ourselves must by
no manner of means be allowed to stir up laughter. For it were absurd
to be found imitators of things of which we are prohibited to be
listeners; and still more absurd for a man to set about making himself
a laughing-stock, that is, the butt of insult and derision. For if we
could not endure to make a ridiculous figure, such as we see some do
in processions, how could we with any propriety bear to have the inner
man made a ridiculous figure of, and that to one’s face? Wherefore we
ought never of our own accord to assume a ludicrous character. And how,
then, can we devote ourselves to being and appearing ridiculous in our
conversation, thereby travestying speech, which is the most precious of
all human endowments? It is therefore disgraceful to set one’s self to
do this; since the conversation of wags of this description is not fit
for our ears, inasmuch as by the very expressions used it familiarizes
us with shameful actions.
Pleasantry is allowable, not waggery. Besides, even laughter must be
kept in check; for when given vent to in the right manner it indicates
orderliness, but when it issues differently it shows a want of
restraint.
For, in a word, whatever things are natural to men we must not
eradicate from them, but rather impose on them limits and suitable
times. For man is not to laugh on all occasions because he is a
laughing animal, any more than the horse neighs on all occasions
because he is a neighing animal. But as rational beings, we are to
regulate ourselves suitably, harmoniously relaxing the austerity and
over-tension of our serious pursuits, not inharmoniously breaking them
up altogether.
For the seemly relaxation of the countenance in a harmonious manner--as
of a musical instrument--is called a smile. So also is laughter on
the face of well-regulated men termed. But the discordant relaxation
of countenance in the case of women is called a giggle, and is
meretricious laughter; in the case of men, a guffaw, and is savage and
insulting laughter. “A fool raises his voice in laughter,”[512] says
the Scripture; but a clever man smiles almost imperceptibly. The clever
man in this case he calls wise, inasmuch as he is differently affected
from the fool. But, on the other hand, one needs not be gloomy,
only grave. For I certainly prefer a man to smile who has a stern
countenance than the reverse; for so his laughter will be less apt to
become the object of ridicule.
Smiling even requires to be made the subject of discipline. If it is
at what is disgraceful, we ought to blush rather than smile, lest we
seem to take pleasure in it by sympathy; if at what is painful, it is
fitting to look sad rather than to seem pleased. For to do the former
is a sign of rational human thought; the other infers suspicion of
cruelty.
We are not to laugh perpetually, for that is going beyond bounds; nor
in the presence of elderly persons, or others worthy of respect, unless
they indulge in pleasantry for our amusement. Nor are we to laugh
before all and sundry, nor in every place, nor to every one, nor about
everything. For to children and women especially laughter is the cause
of slipping into scandal. And even to appear stern serves to keep those
about us at their distance. For gravity can ward off the approaches
of licentiousness by a mere look. All senseless people, to speak in a
word, wine
“Commands both to laugh luxuriously and to dance,”
changing effeminate manners to softness. We must consider, too, how
consequently freedom of speech leads impropriety on to filthy speaking.
“And he uttered a word which had been better unsaid.”[513]
Especially, therefore, in liquor crafty men’s characters are wont to be
seen through, stripped as they are of their mask through the caitiff
licence of intoxication, through which reason, weighed down in the soul
itself by drunkenness, is lulled to sleep, and unruly passions are
roused, which overmaster the feebleness of the mind.
CHAPTER VI.
ON FILTHY SPEAKING.
From filthy speaking we ourselves must entirely abstain, and stop the
mouths of those who practise it by stern looks and averting the face,
and by what we call making a mock of one: often also by a harsher mode
of speech. “For what proceedeth out of the mouth,” He says, “defileth a
man,”[514]--shows him to be unclean, and heathenish, and untrained, and
licentious, and not select, and proper, and honourable, and temperate.
And as a similar rule holds with regard to hearing and seeing in
the case of what is obscene, the divine Instructor, following the
same course with both, arrays those children who are engaged in the
struggle in words of modesty, as ear-guards, so that the pulsation
of fornication may not penetrate to the bruising of the soul; and He
directs the eyes to the sight of what is honourable, saying that it is
better to make a slip with the feet than with the eyes. This filthy
speaking the apostle beats off, saying, “Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but what is good.”[515] And again, “As
becometh saints, let not filthiness be named among you, nor foolish
talking, nor jesting, which things are not seemly, but rather giving
of thanks.”[516] And if “he that calls his brother a fool be in danger
of the judgment,” what shall we pronounce regarding him who speaks
what is foolish? Is it not written respecting such: “Whosoever shall
speak an idle word, shall give an account to the Lord in the day of
judgment?”[517] And again, “By thy speech thou shalt be justified,” He
says, “and by thy speech thou shalt be condemned.”[518] What, then, are
the salutary ear-guards, and what the regulations for slippery eyes?
Conversations with the righteous, preoccupying and forearming the ears
against those that would lead away from the truth.
“Evil communications corrupt good manners,”
says Poetry. More nobly the apostle says, “Be haters of the evil;
cleave to the good.”[519] For he who associates with the saints shall
be sanctified. From shameful things addressed to the ears, and words
and sights, we must entirely abstain. And much more must we keep pure
from shameful deeds: on the one hand, from exhibiting and exposing
certain parts of the body which we ought not; and on the other, from
inspection of the forbidden parts. For the modest son could not bear to
look on the shameful exposure of the righteous man; and modesty covered
what intoxication exposed--the spectacle of the transgression of
ignorance.[520] No less ought we to keep pure from calumnious reports,
to which the ears of those who have believed in Christ ought to be
inaccessible.
It is on this account, as appears to me, that the Instructor does
not permit us to give utterance to aught unseemly, fortifying us at
an early stage against licentiousness. For He is admirable always
at cutting out the roots of sins, such as, “Thou shalt not commit
adultery,” by “Thou shalt not lust.”[521] For adultery is the fruit of
lust, which is the evil root. And so likewise also in this instance the
Instructor censures licence in names, and thus cuts off the licentious
intercourse of excess. For licence in names produces the desire of
being indecorous in conduct; and the observance of modesty in names is
a training in resistance to lasciviousness. We have shown in a more
exhaustive treatise, that neither in the names nor in the members of
intercourse and nuptial embraces, to which appellations not in common
use are applied, is there the designation of what is really obscene.
For neither are knee and leg, and such other members, nor are the
names applied to them, and the activity put forth by them, obscene. And
even the secret parts of man are to be regarded as objects suggestive
of modesty, not shame. It is their unlawful activity that is shameful,
and deserving ignominy, and reproach, and punishment. For the only
thing that is in reality shameful is wickedness, and what is done
through it. In accordance with these remarks, conversation about deeds
of wickedness is appropriately termed filthy [shameful] speaking, as
talk about adultery and pæderasty and the like. Frivolous prating, too,
is to be put to silence. “For,” it is said, “in much speaking thou
shalt not escape sin.”[522] “Sins of the tongue, therefore, shall be
punished.” “There is he who is silent, and is found wise; and there
is that is hated for much speech.”[523] But still more, the prater
makes himself the object of disgust. “For he that multiplieth speech
abominates his own soul.”[524]
CHAPTER VII.
DIRECTIONS FOR THOSE WHO LIVE TOGETHER.
Let us keep away from us jibing, the originator of insult, from which
strifes and contentions and enmities burst forth. Insult, we have
said, is the servant of drunkenness. A man is judged, not from his
deeds alone, but from his words. “In a banquet,” it is said, “reprove
not thy neighbour, nor say to him a word of reproach.”[525] For if we
are enjoined especially to associate with saints, it is a sin to jibe
at a saint: “For from the mouth of the foolish,” says the Scripture,
“is a staff of insult,”[526]--meaning by staff the prop of insult, on
which insult leans and rests. Whence I admire the apostle, who, in
reference to this, exhorts us not to utter “scurrilous nor unsuitable
words.”[527] For if the assemblies at festivals take place on account
of affection, and the end of a banquet is friendliness towards those
who meet, and meat and drink accompany affection, how should not
conversation be conducted in a rational manner, and puzzling people
with questions be avoided from affection? For if we meet together for
the purpose of increasing our good-will to each other, why should we
stir up enmity by jibing? It is better to be silent than to contradict,
and thereby add sin to ignorance. “Blessed,” in truth, “is the man who
has not made a slip with his mouth, and has not been pierced by the
pain of sin;”[528] or has repented of what he has said amiss, or has
spoken so as to wound no one. On the whole, let young men and young
women altogether keep away from such festivals, that they may not make
a slip in respect to what is unsuitable. For things to which their
ears are unaccustomed, and unseemly sights, inflame the mind, while
faith within them is still wavering; and the instability of their age
conspires to make them easily carried away by lust. Sometimes also
they are the cause of others stumbling, by displaying the dangerous
charms of their time of life. For Wisdom appears to enjoin well: “Sit
not at all with a married woman, and recline not on the elbow with
her;”[529] that is, do not sup nor eat with her frequently. Wherefore
he adds, “And do not join company with her in wine, lest thy heart
incline to her, and by thy blood slide to ruin.”[530] For the licence
of intoxication is dangerous, and prone to deflower. And he names “a
married woman,” because the danger is greater to him who attempts to
break the connubial bond.
But if any necessity arises, commanding the presence of married women,
let them be well clothed--without by raiment, within by modesty. But
as for such as are unmarried, it is the extremest scandal for them to
be present at a banquet of men, especially men under the influence of
wine. And let the men, fixing their eyes on the couch, and leaning
without moving on their elbows, be present with their ears alone; and
if they sit, let them not have their feet crossed, nor place one thigh
on another, nor apply the hand to the chin. For it is vulgar not to
bear one’s self without support, and consequently a fault in a young
man. And perpetually moving and changing one’s position is a sign of
frivolousness. It is the part of a temperate man also, in eating and
drinking, to take a small portion, and deliberately, not eagerly, both
at the beginning and during the courses, and to leave off betimes,
and so show his indifference. “Eat,” it is said, “like a man what is
set before you. Be the first to stop for the sake of regimen; and, if
seated in the midst of several people, do not stretch out your hand
before them.”[531] You must never rush forward under the influence of
gluttony; nor must you, though desirous, reach out your hand till some
time, inasmuch as by greed one shows an uncontrolled appetite. Nor are
you, in the midst of the repast, to exhibit yourselves hugging your
food like wild beasts; nor helping yourselves to too much sauce, for
man is not by nature a sauce-consumer, but a bread-eater. A temperate
man, too, must rise before the general company, and retire quietly
from the banquet. “For at the time for rising,” it is said, “be not
the last; haste home.”[532] The twelve, having called together the
multitude of the disciples, said, “It is not meet for us to leave the
word of God and serve tables.”[533] If they avoided this, much more
did they shun gluttony. And the apostles themselves, writing to the
brethren at Antioch, and in Syria and Cilicia, said: “It seemed good to
the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no other burden than these
necessary things, to abstain from things offered to idols, and from
blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which,
if you keep yourselves, ye shall do well.”[534] But we must guard
against drunkenness as against hemlock; for both drag down to death.
We must also check excessive laughter and immoderate tears. For often
people under the influence of wine, after laughing immoderately, then
are, I know not how, by some impulse of intoxication moved to tears;
for both effeminacy and violence are discordant with the word. And
elderly people, looking on the young as children, may, though but very
rarely, be playful with them, joking with them to train them in good
behaviour. For example, before a bashful and silent youth, one might
by way of pleasantry speak thus: “This son of mine (I mean one who
is silent) is perpetually talking.” For a joke such as this enhances
the youth’s modesty, by showing the good qualities that belong to him
playfully, by censure of the bad qualities, which do not. For this
device is instructive, confirming as it does what is present by what
is not present. Such, certainly, is the intention of him who says
that a water-drinker and a sober man gets intoxicated and drunk. But
if there are those who like to jest at people, we must be silent, and
dispense with superfluous words like full cups. For such sport is
dangerous. “The mouth of the impetuous approaches to contrition.”[535]
“Thou shalt not receive a foolish report, nor shalt thou agree with an
unjust person to be an unjust witness,”[536] neither in calumnies nor
in injurious speeches, much less evil practices. I also should think
it right to impose a limit on the speech of rightly regulated persons,
who are impelled to speak to one who maintains a conversation with
them. “For silence is the excellence of women, and the safe prize of
the young; but good speech is characteristic of experienced, mature
age. Speak, old man, at a banquet, for it is becoming to you. But speak
without embarrassment, and with accuracy of knowledge. Youth, Wisdom
also commands thee. Speak, if you must, with hesitation, on being
twice asked; sum up your discourse in a few words.”[537] But let both
speakers regulate their discourse according to just proportion. For
loudness of utterance is most insane; while an inaudible utterance is
characteristic of a senseless man, for people will not hear: the one is
the mark of pusillanimity, the other of arrogance. Let contentiousness
in words, for the sake of a useless triumph, be banished; for our aim
is to be free from perturbation. Such is the meaning of the phrase,
“Peace to thee.” Answer not a word before you hear. An enervated
voice is the sign of effeminacy. But modulation in the voice is
characteristic of a wise man, who keeps his utterance from loudness,
from drawling, from rapidity, from prolixity. For we ought not to speak
long or much, nor ought we to speak frivolously. Nor must we converse
rapidly and rashly. For the voice itself, so to speak, ought to receive
its just dues; and those who are vociferous and clamorous ought to be
silenced. For this reason, the wise Ulysses chastised Thersites with
stripes:
“Only Thersites, with unmeasured words,
Of which he had good store, to rate the chiefs,
Not over-seemly, but wherewith he thought
To move the crowd to laughter, brawled aloud.”[538]
“For dreadful in his destruction is a loquacious man.”[539] And it is
with triflers as with old shoes: all the rest is worn away by evil;
the tongue only is left for destruction. Wherefore Wisdom gives these
most useful exhortations: “Do not talk trifles in the multitude of the
elders.” Further, eradicating frivolousness, beginning with God, it
lays down the law for our regulation somewhat thus: “Do not repeat your
words in your prayer.”[540] Chirruping and whistling, and sounds made
through the fingers, by which domestics are called, being irrational
signs, are to be given up by rational men. Frequent spitting, too,
and violent clearing of the throat, and wiping one’s nose at an
entertainment, are to be shunned. For respect is assuredly to be had
to the guests, lest they turn in disgust from such filthiness, which
argues want of restraint. For we are not to copy oxen and asses, whose
manger and dunghill are together. For many wipe their noses and spit
even whilst supping.
If any one is attacked with sneezing, just as in the case of hiccup, he
must not startle those near him with the explosion, and so give proof
of his bad breeding; but the hiccup is to be quietly transmitted with
the expiration of the breath, the mouth being composed becomingly,
and not gaping and yawning like the tragic masks. So the disturbance
of hiccup may be avoided by making the respirations gently; for thus
the threatening symptoms of the ball of wind will be dissipated in
the most seemly way, by managing its egress so as also to conceal
anything which the air forcibly expelled may bring up with it. To
wish to add to the noises, instead of diminishing them, is the sign
of arrogance and disorderliness. Those, too, who scrape their teeth,
bleeding the wounds, are disagreeable to themselves and detestable to
their neighbours. Scratching the ears and the irritation of sneezing
are swinish itchings, and attend unbridled fornication. Both shameful
sights and shameful conversation about them are to be shunned. Let
the look be steady, and the turning and movement of the neck, and the
motions of the hands in conversation, be decorous. In a word, the
Christian is characterized by composure, tranquillity, calmness, and
peace.
CHAPTER VIII.
ON THE USE OF OINTMENTS AND CROWNS.
The use of crowns and ointments is not necessary for us; for it impels
to pleasures and indulgences, especially on the approach of night. I
know that the woman brought to the sacred supper “an alabaster box of
ointment,”[541] and anointed the feet of the Lord, and refreshed Him;
and I know that the ancient kings of the Hebrews were crowned with gold
and precious stones. But the woman not having yet received the Word
(for she was still a sinner), honoured the Lord with what she thought
the most precious thing in her possession--the ointment; and with the
ornament of her person, with her hair, she wiped off the superfluous
ointment, while she expended on the Lord tears of repentance:
“wherefore her sins are forgiven.”[542]
This may be a symbol of the Lord’s teaching, and of His suffering.
For the feet anointed with fragrant ointment mean divine instruction
travelling with renown to the ends of the earth. “For their sound hath
gone forth to the ends of the earth.”[543] And if I seem not to insist
too much, the feet of the Lord which were anointed are the apostles,
having, according to prophecy, received the fragrant unction of the
Holy Ghost. Those, therefore, who travelled over the world and preached
the gospel, are figuratively called the feet of the Lord, of whom also
the Holy Spirit foretells in the psalm, “Let us adore at the place
where His feet stood,”[544] that is, where the apostles, His feet,
arrived; since, preached by them, He came to the ends of the earth. And
tears are repentance; and the loosened hair proclaimed deliverance
from the love of finery, and the affliction in patience which, on
account of the Lord, attends preaching, the old vainglory being done
away with by reason of the new faith.
Besides, it shows the Lord’s passion, if you understand it mystically
thus: the oil (ἔλαιον) is the Lord Himself, from whom comes the mercy
(ἔλεος) which reaches us. But the ointment, which is adulterated oil,
is the traitor Judas, by whom the Lord was anointed on the feet, being
released from His sojourn in the world. For the dead are anointed. And
the tears are we repentant sinners, who have believed in Him, and to
whom He has forgiven our sins. And the dishevelled hair is mourning
Jerusalem, the deserted, for whom the prophetic lamentations were
uttered. The Lord Himself shall teach us that Judas the deceitful is
meant: “He that dippeth with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me.”[545] You see the treacherous guest, and this same Judas betrayed
the Master with a kiss. For he was a hypocrite, giving a treacherous
kiss, in imitation of another hypocrite of old. And He reproves that
people respecting whom it was said, “This people honour me with their
lips; but their heart is far from me.”[546] It is not improbable,
therefore, that by the oil He means that disciple to whom was shown
mercy, and by the tainted and poisoned oil the traitor.
This was, then, what the anointed feet prophesied--the treason of
Judas, when the Lord went to His passion. And the Saviour Himself
washing the feet of the disciples,[547] and despatching them to do good
deeds, pointed out their pilgrimage for the benefit of the nations,
making them beforehand fair and pure by His power. Then the ointment
breathed on them its fragrance, and the work of sweet savour reaching
to all was proclaimed; for the passion of the Lord has filled us with
sweet fragrance, and the Hebrews with guilt. This the apostle most
clearly showed, when he said, “Thanks be to God, who always makes us
to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge
by us in every place. For we are to God a sweet savour of the Lord,
in them that are saved, and them that are lost; to one a savour of
death unto death, to the other a savour of life unto life.”[548] And
the kings of the Jews using gold and precious stones and a variegated
crown, the anointed ones wearing Christ symbolically on the head, were
unconsciously adorned with the head of the Lord. The precious stone, or
pearl, or emerald, point out the Word Himself. The gold, again, is the
incorruptible Word, who admits not the poison of corruption. The Magi,
accordingly, brought to Him on His birth, gold, the symbol of royalty.
And this crown, after the image of the Lord, fades not as a flower.
I know, too, the words of Aristippus the Cyrenian. Aristippus was a
luxurious man. He asked an answer to a sophistical proposition in the
following terms: “A horse anointed with ointment is not injured in his
excellence as a horse, nor is a dog which has been anointed, in his
excellence as a dog; no more is a man,” he added, and so finished. But
the dog and horse take no account of the ointment, whilst in the case
of those whose perceptions are more rational, applying girlish scents
to their persons, its use is more censurable. Of these ointments there
are endless varieties, such as the Brenthian, the Metallian, and the
royal; the Plangonian and the Psagdian of Egypt. Simonides is not
ashamed in Iambic lines to say,
“I was anointed with ointments and perfumes,
And with nard.”
For a merchant was present. They use, too, the unguent made from
lilies, and that from the cypress. Nard is in high estimation with
them, and the ointment prepared from roses and the others which women
use besides, both moist and dry, scents for rubbing and for fumigating;
for day by day their thoughts are directed to the gratification of
insatiable desire, to the exhaustless variety of fragrance. Wherefore
also they are redolent of an excessive luxuriousness. And they fumigate
and sprinkle their clothes, their bed-clothes, and their houses. Luxury
all but compels vessels for the meanest uses to smell of perfume.
There are some who, annoyed at the attention bestowed on this, appear
to me to be rightly so averse to perfumes on account of their
rendering manhood effeminate, as to banish their compounders and
vendors from well-regulated states, and banish, too, the dyers of
flower-coloured wools. For it is not right that ensnaring garments and
unguents should be admitted into the city of truth; but it is highly
requisite for the men who belong to us to give forth the odour not of
ointments, but of nobleness and goodness. And let woman breathe the
odour of the true royal ointment, that of Christ, not of unguents and
scented powders; and let her always be anointed with the ambrosial
chrism of modesty, and find delight in the holy unguent, the Spirit.
This ointment of pleasant fragrance Christ prepares for His disciples,
compounding the ointment of celestial aromatic ingredients.
Wherefore also the Lord Himself is anointed with an ointment, as is
mentioned by David: “Wherefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with
the oil of gladness above thy fellows; myrrh, and stacte, and cassia
from thy garments.”[549] But let us not unconsciously abominate
unguents, like vultures or like beetles (for these, they say, when
smeared with ointment, die); and let a few unguents be selected by
women, such as will not be overpowering to a husband. For excessive
anointings with unguents savour of a funeral, and not of connubial
life. Yet oil itself is inimical to bees and insects; and some men it
benefits, and some it summons to the fight; and those who were formerly
friends, when anointed with it, it turns out to deadly combat.
Ointment being smooth oil, do you not think that it is calculated to
render noble manners effeminate? Certainly. And as we have abandoned
luxury in taste, so certainly do we renounce voluptuousness in sights
and odours; lest through the senses, as through unwatched doors, we
unconsciously give access into the soul to that excess which we have
driven away. If, then, we say that the Lord the great High Priest
offers to God the incense of sweet fragrance, let us not imagine
that this is a sacrifice and sweet fragrance of incense; but let us
understand it to mean, that the Lord lays the acceptable offering of
love, the spiritual fragrance, on the altar.
To resume: oil itself suffices to lubricate the skin, and relax the
nerves, and remove any heavy smell from the body, if we require oil
for this purpose. But attention to sweet scents is a bait which draws
us into sensual lust. For the licentious man is led on every hand,
both by his food, his bed, his conversation, by his eyes, his ears,
his jaws, and by his nostrils too. As oxen are pulled by rings and
ropes, so is the voluptuary by fumigations and unguents, and the sweet
scents of crowns. But since we assign no place to pleasure which is
linked to no use serviceable to life, come let us also distinguish
here too, selecting what is useful. For there are sweet scents which
neither make the head heavy nor provoke love, and are not redolent of
embraces and licentious companionship, but, along with moderation, are
salutary, nourishing the brain when labouring under indisposition, and
strengthening the stomach. One must not therefore refrigerate himself
with flowers when he wishes to supple his nerves. For their use is not
wholly to be laid aside, but ointment is to be employed as a medicine
and help in order to bring up the strength when enfeebled, and against
catarrhs, and colds, and ennui, as the comic poet says:
“The nostrils are anointed; it being
A most essential thing for health to fill the brain with good
odours.”
The rubbing of the feet also with the fatness of warming or cooling
unguents is practised om account of its beneficial effects; so
consequently, in the case of those who are thus saturated, an
attraction and flow take place from the head to the inferior members.
But pleasure to which no utility attaches, induces the suspicion of
meretricious habits, and is a drug provocative of the passions. Rubbing
one’s self with ointment is entirely different from anointing one’s
self with ointment. The former is effeminate, while anointing with
ointment is in some cases beneficial. Aristippus the philosopher,
accordingly, when anointed with ointment, said “that the wretched
Cinœdi deserved to perish miserably for bringing the utility of
ointment into bad repute.” “Honour the physician for his usefulness,”
says the Scripture, “for the Most High made him; and the art of healing
is of the Lord.” Then he adds, “And the compounder of unguents will
make the mixture,”[550] since unguents have been given manifestly for
use, not for voluptuousness. For we are by no means to care for the
exciting properties of unguents, but to choose what is useful in them,
since God hath permitted the production of oil for the mitigation of
men’s pains.
And silly women, who dye their grey hair and anoint their locks, grow
speedily greyer by the perfumes they use, which are of a drying nature.
Wherefore also those that anoint themselves become drier, and the
dryness makes them greyer. For if greyness is an exsiccation of the
hair, or defect of heat, the dryness drinking up the moisture which is
the natural nutriment of the hair, and making it grey, how can we any
longer retain a liking for unguents, through which ladies, in trying
to escape grey hair, become grey? And as dogs with fine sense of smell
track the wild beasts by the scent, so also the temperate scent the
licentious by the superfluous perfume of unguents.
Such a use of crowns, also, has degenerated to scenes of revelry
and intoxication. Do not encircle my head with a crown, for in the
spring-time it is delightful to while away the time on the dewy meads,
while soft and many-coloured flowers are in bloom, and, like the bees,
enjoy a natural and pure fragrance. But to adorn one’s self with “a
crown woven from the fresh mead,” and wear it at home, were unfit for a
man of temperance. For it is not suitable to fill the wanton hair with
rose-leaves, or violets, or lilies, or other such flowers, stripping
the sward of its flowers. For a crown encircling the head cools the
hair, both on account of its moisture and its coolness. Accordingly,
physicians, determining by physiology that the brain is cold, approve
of anointing the breast and the points of the nostrils, so that the
warm exhalation passing gently through, may salutarily warm the chill.
A man ought not therefore to cool himself with flowers. Besides, those
who crown themselves destroy the pleasure there is in flowers: for
they enjoy neither the sight of them, since they wear the crown above
their eyes; nor their fragrance, since they put the flowers away above
the organs of respiration. For the fragrance ascending and exhaling
naturally, the organ of respiration is left destitute of enjoyment, the
fragrance being carried away. As beauty, so also the flower delights
when looked at; and it is meet to glorify the Creator by the enjoyment
of the sight of beautiful objects. The use of them is injurious, and
passes swiftly away, avenged by remorse. Very soon their evanescence
is proved; for both fade, both the flower and beauty. Further, whoever
touches them is cooled by the former, inflamed by the latter. In
one word, the enjoyment of them except by sight is a crime, and not
luxury. It becomes us who truly follow the Scripture to enjoy ourselves
temperately, as in Paradise. We must regard the woman’s crown to be her
husband, and the husband’s crown to be marriage; and the flowers of
marriage the children of both, which the divine husbandman plucks from
meadows of flesh. “Children’s children are the crown of old men.”[551]
And the glory of children is their fathers, it is said; and our glory
is the Father of all; and the crown of the whole church is Christ. As
roots and plants, so also have flowers their individual properties,
some beneficial, some injurious, some also dangerous. The ivy is
cooling; nux emits a stupefying effluvium, as the etymology shows. The
narcissus is a flower with a heavy odour; the name evinces this, and it
induces a torpor (νάρκην) in the nerves. And the effluvia of roses and
violets being mildly cool, relieve and prevent headaches. But we who
are not only not permitted to drink with others to intoxication, but
not even to indulge in much wine, do not need the crocus or the flower
of the cypress to lead us to an easy sleep. Many of them also, by their
odours, warm the brain, which is naturally cold, volatilizing the
effusions of the head. The rose is hence said to have received its name
(ῥόδον) because it emits a copious stream (ῥεῦμα) of odour (ὀδωδή).
Wherefore also it quickly fades.
But the use of crowns did not exist at all among the ancient Greeks;
for neither the suitors nor the luxurious Phæaceans used them. But at
the games there was at first the gift to the athletes; second, the
rising up to applaud; third, the strewing with leaves; lastly, the
crown, Greece after the Median war having given herself up to luxury.
Those, then, who are trained by the Word are restrained from the use
of crowns; and do not think that this Word, which has its seat in the
brain, ought to be bound about, not because the crown is the symbol
of the recklessness of revelry, but because it has been dedicated to
idols. Sophocles accordingly called the narcissus “the ancient coronet
of the great gods,” speaking of the earth-born divinities; and Sappho
crowns the Muses with the rose:
“For thou dost not share in roses from Pieria.”
They say, too, that Here delights in the lily, and Artemis in the
myrtle. For if the flowers were made especially for man, and senseless
people have taken them not for their own proper and grateful use, but
have abused them to the thankless service of demons, we must keep
from them for conscience sake. The crown is the symbol of untroubled
tranquillity. For this reason they crown the dead, and idols, too,
on the same account, by this fact giving testimony to their being
dead. For revellers do not without crowns celebrate their orgies; and
when once they are encircled with flowers, at last they are inflamed
excessively. We must have no communion with demons. Nor must we crown
the living image of God after the manner of dead idols. For the fair
crown of amaranth is laid up for those who have lived well. This flower
the earth is not able to bear; heaven alone is competent to produce it.
Further, it were irrational in us, who have heard that the Lord was
crowned with thorns,[552] to crown ourselves with flowers, insulting
thus the sacred passion of the Lord. For the Lord’s crown prophetically
pointed to us, who once were barren, but are placed around Him through
the church of which He is the Head. But it is also a type of faith,
of life in respect of the substance of the wood, of joy in respect of
the appellation of crown, of danger in respect of the thorn, for there
is no approaching to the Word without blood. But this platted crown
fades, and the plait of perversity is untied, and the flower withers.
For the glory of those who have not believed on the Lord fades. And
they crowned Jesus raised aloft, testifying to their own ignorance. For
being hard of heart, they understood not that this very thing, which
they called the disgrace of the Lord, was a prophecy wisely uttered:
“The Lord was not known by the people”[553] which erred, which was not
circumcised in understanding, whose darkness was not enlightened, which
knew not God, denied the Lord, forfeited the place of the true Israel,
persecuted God, hoped to reduce the Word to disgrace; and Him whom they
crucified as a malefactor they crowned as a king. Wherefore the Man on
whom they believed not, they shall know to be the loving God the Lord,
the Just. Whom they provoked to show Himself to be the Lord, to Him
when lifted up they bore witness, by encircling Him, who is exalted
above every name, with the diadem of righteousness by the ever-blooming
thorn. This diadem, being hostile to those who plot against Him,
coerces them; and friendly to those who form the church, defends them.
This crown is the flower of those who have believed on the glorified
One, but covers with blood and chastises those who have not believed.
It is a symbol, too, of the Lord’s successful work, He having borne on
His head, the princely part of His body, all our iniquities by which we
were pierced. For He by His own passion rescued us from offences, and
sins, and such like thorns; and having destroyed the devil, deservedly
said in triumph, “O Death, where is thy sting?”[554] And we eat grapes
from thorns, and figs from thistles; while those to whom He stretched
forth His hands--the disobedient and unfruitful people--He lacerates
into wounds. I can also show you another mystic meaning in it. For when
the Almighty Lord of the universe began to legislate by the Word, and
wished His power to be manifested to Moses, a godlike vision of light
that had assumed a shape was shown him in the burning bush (the bush is
a thorny plant); but when the Word ended the giving of the law and His
stay with men, the Lord was again mystically crowned with thorn. On
His departure from this world to the place whence He came, He repeated
the beginning of His old descent, in order that the Word beheld at
first in the bush, and afterwards taken up crowned by the thorn, might
show the whole to be the work of one power, He Himself being one, the
Son of the Father, who is truly one, the beginning and the end of time.
But I have made a digression from the pædagogic style of speech, and
introduced the didactic. I return accordingly to my subject.
To resume, then: we have showed that in the department of medicine,
for healing, and sometimes also for moderate recreation, the delight
derived from flowers, and the benefit derived from unguents and
perfumes, are not to be overlooked. And if some say, What pleasure,
then, is there in flowers to those that do not use them? let them
know, then, that unguents are prepared from them, and are most useful.
The Susinian ointment is made from various kinds of lilies; and
it is warming, aperient, drawing, moistening, abstergent, subtle,
antibilious, emollient. The Narcissinian is made from the narcissus,
and is equally beneficial with the Susinian. The Myrsinian, made of
myrtle and myrtle berries, is a styptic, stopping effusions from the
body; and that from roses is refrigerating. For, in a word, these also
were created for our use. “Hear me,” it is said, “and grow as a rose
planted by the streams of waters, and give forth a sweet fragrance like
frankincense, and bless the Lord for His works.”[555] We should have
much to say respecting them, were we to speak of flowers and odours
as made for necessary purposes, and not for the excesses of luxury.
And if a concession must be made, it is enough for people to enjoy the
fragrance of flowers; but let them not crown themselves with them. For
the Father takes great care of man, and gives to him alone His own art.
The Scripture therefore says, “Water, and fire, and iron, and milk, and
fine flour of wheat, and honey, the blood of the grape, and oil, and
clothing,--all these things are for the good of the godly.”[556]
CHAPTER IX.
ON SLEEP.
How, in due course, we are to go to sleep, in remembrance of the
precepts of temperance, we must now say. For after the repast, having
given thanks to God for our participation in our enjoyments, and for
the [happy] passing of the day, our talk must be turned to sleep.
Magnificence of bed-clothes, gold-embroidered carpets, and smooth
carpets worked with gold, and long fine robes of purple, and costly
fleecy cloaks, and manufactured rugs of purple, and mantles of thick
pile, and couches softer than sleep, are to be banished.
For, besides the reproach of voluptuousness, sleeping on downy feathers
is injurious, when our bodies fall down as into a yawning hollow, on
account of the softness of the bedding.
For they are not convenient for sleepers turning in them, on account
of the bed rising into a hill on either side of the body. Nor are they
suitable for the digestion of the food, but rather for burning it up,
and so destroying the nutriment. But stretching one’s self on even
couches, affording a kind of natural gymnasium for sleep, contributes
to the digestion of the food. And those that can roll on other beds,
having this, as it were, for a natural gymnasium for sleep, digest food
more easily, and render themselves fitter for emergencies. Moreover,
silver-footed couches argue great ostentation; and the ivory on beds,
the body having left the soul, is not permissible for holy men, being a
lazy contrivance for rest.
We must not occupy our thoughts about these things, for the use of them
is not forbidden to those who possess them; but solicitude about them
is prohibited, for happiness is not to be found in them. On the other
hand, it savours of cynic vanity for a man to act as Diomede,--
“And he stretched himself under a wild bull’s hide,”[557]--
unless circumstances compel.
Ulysses rectified the unevenness of the nuptial couch with a stone.
Such frugality and self-help was practised not by private individuals
alone, but by the chiefs of the ancient Greeks. But why speak of these?
Jacob slept on the ground, and a stone served him for a pillow; and
then was he counted worthy to behold the vision--that was above man.
And in conformity with reason, the bed which we use must be simple
and frugal, and so constructed that, by avoiding the extremes [of too
much indulgence and too much endurance], it may be comfortable: if it
is warm, to protect us; if cold, to warm us. But let not the couch be
elaborate, and let it have smooth feet; for elaborate turnings form
occasionally paths for creeping things which twine themselves about the
incisions of the work, and do not slip off.
Especially is a moderate softness in the bed suitable for manhood; for
sleep ought not to be for the total enervation of the body, but for its
relaxation. Wherefore I say that it ought not to be allowed to come on
us for the sake of indulgence, but in order to rest from action. We
must therefore sleep so as to be easily awaked. For it is said, “Let
your loins be girt about, and your lamps burning; and ye yourselves
like to men that watch for their lord, that when he returns from the
marriage, and comes and knocks, they may straightway open to him.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find
watching.”[558] For there is no use of a sleeping man, as there is not
of a dead man. Wherefore we ought often to rise by night and bless God.
For blessed are they who watch for Him, and so make themselves like the
angels, whom we call “watchers.” But a man asleep is worth nothing, any
more than if he were not alive.
But he who has the light watches, “and darkness seizes not on
him,”[559] nor sleep, since darkness does not. He that is illuminated
is therefore awake towards God; and such an one lives. “For what
was made in Him was life.”[560] “Blessed is the man,” says Wisdom,
“who shall hear me, and the man who shall keep my ways, watching at
my doors, daily observing the posts of my entrances.”[561] “Let us
not then sleep, as do others, but let us watch,” says the Scripture,
“and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that
be drunken, are drunken in the night,” that is, in the darkness of
ignorance. “But let us who are of the day be sober. For ye are all
children of the light, and children of the day; we are not of the
night, nor of the darkness.”[562] But whoever of us is most solicitous
for living the true life, and for entertaining noble sentiments, will
keep awake for as long time as possible, reserving to himself only what
in this respect is conducive to his own health; and that is not very
usual.
But devotion to activity begets an everlasting vigil after toils. Let
not food weigh us down, but lighten us; that we may be injured as
little as possible by sleep, as those that swim with weights hanging to
them are weighed down. But, on the other hand, let temperance raise us
as from the abyss beneath to the enterprises of wakefulness. For the
oppression of sleep is like death, which forces us into insensibility,
cutting off the light by the closing of the eyelids. Let not us, then,
who are sons of the true light, close the door against this light; but
turning in on ourselves, illumining the eyes of the hidden man, and
gazing on the truth itself, and receiving its streams, let us clearly
and intelligibly reveal such dreams as are true.
But the hiccuping of those who are loaded with wine, and the snortings
of those who are stuffed with food, and the snoring rolled in the
bed-clothes, and the rumblings of pained stomachs, cover over the
clear-seeing eye of the soul, by filling the mind with ten thousand
phantasies. And the cause is too much food, which drags the rational
part of man down to a condition of stupidity. For much sleep brings
advantage neither to our bodies nor our souls; nor is it suitable at
all to those processes which have truth for their object, although
agreeable to nature.
Now, just Lot (for I pass over at present the account of the economy
of regeneration) would not have been drawn into that unhallowed
intercourse, had he not been intoxicated by his daughters, and
overpowered by sleep. If, therefore, we cut off the causes of great
tendency to sleep, we shall sleep the more soberly. For those who have
the sleepless Word dwelling in them, ought not to sleep the livelong
night; but they ought to rise by night, especially when the days are
coming to an end, and one devote himself to literature, another begin
his art, the women handle the distaff, and all of us should, so to
speak, fight against sleep, accustoming ourselves to this gently and
gradually, so that through wakefulness we may partake of life for a
longer period.
We, then, who assign the best part of the night to wakefulness, must by
no manner of means sleep by day; and fits of uselessness, and napping
and stretching one’s self, and yawning, are manifestations of frivolous
uneasiness of soul. And in addition to all, we must know this, that the
need of sleep is not in the soul. For it is ceaselessly active. But the
body is relieved by being resigned to rest, the soul the whilst not
acting through the body, but exercising intelligence within itself.
Thus also, such dreams as are true, in the view of him who reflects
rightly, are the thoughts of a sober soul, undistracted for the time
by the affections of the body, and counselling with itself in the
best manner. For the soul to cease from activity within itself, were
destruction to it. Wherefore always contemplating God, and by perpetual
converse with Him inoculating the body with wakefulness, it raises man
to equality with angelic grace, and from the practice of wakefulness it
grasps the eternity of life.
CHAPTER X.[563]
QUÆNAM DE PROCREATIONE LIBERORUM TRACTANDA SINT.
Tempus autem opportunum conjunctionis solis iis relinquitur
considerandum, qui juncti sunt matrimonio; qui autem matrimonio juncti
sunt, iis scopus est et institutum, liberorum susceptio: finis autem,
ut boni sint liberi: quemadmodum agricolæ seminis quidem dejectionis
causa est, quod nutrimenti habendi curam gerat; agriculturæ autem finis
est, fructuum perceptio. Multo autem melior est agricola, qui terram
colit animatam: ille enim ed tempus alimentum expetens, hic vero ut
universum permaneat, curam gerens, agricolæ officio fungitur: et ille
quidem propter se, hic vero propter Deum plantat ac seminat. Dixit
enim: “Multiplicemini;”[564] ubi hoc subaudiendum est: “Et ea ratione
fit homo Dei imago, quatenus homo co-operatur ad generationem hominis.”
Non est quælibet terra apta ad suscipienda semina: quod si etiam sit
quælibet, non tamen eidem agricolæ. Neque vero seminandum est supra
petram, neque semen est contumelia afficiendum, quod quidem dux est
et princeps generationis, estque substantia, quæ simul habet insitas
naturæ rationes. Quæ sunt autem secundum naturam rationes, absque
ratione præternaturalibus mandando meatibus, ignominia afficere, valde
est impium. Videte itaque quomodo sapientissimus Moyses infrugiferam
aliquando sationem symbolice repulerit: “Non comedes, inquiens,
leporem, nec hyænam.”[565] Non vult homines esse qualitatis eorum
participes, neque eis æqualem gustare libidinem: hæc enim animalia ad
explendum coitum venereum feruntur insano quodam furore. Ac leporem
quidem dicunt quotannis multiplicare anum, pro numero annorum, quos
vixit, habentem foramina: et ea ratione dum leporis esum prohibet,
significat se dehortari puerorum amorem. Hyænam autem vicissim singulis
annis masculinum sexum mutare in femininum: significare autem non esse
illi ad adulteria prorumpendum, qui ab hyæna abstinet.
Well, I also agree that the consummately wise Moses confessedly
indicates by the prohibition before us, that we must not resemble
these animals; but I do not assent to the explanation of what has
been symbolically spoken. For nature never can be forced to change.
What once has been impressed on it, may not be transformed into the
opposite by passion. For passion is not nature, and passion is wont to
deface the form, not to cast it into a new shape. Though many birds
are said to change with the seasons, both in colour and voice, as the
blackbird (κόσσυφος), which becomes yellow from black, and a chatterer
from a singing-bird. Similarly also the nightingale changes by turns
both its colour and note. But they do not alter their nature itself,
so as in the transformation to become female from male. But the new
crop of feathers, like new clothes, produces a kind of colouring of the
feathers, and a little after it evaporates in the rigour of winter, as
a flower when its colour fades. And in like manner the voice itself,
injured by the cold, is enfeebled. For, in consequence of the outer
skin being thickened by the surrounding air, the arteries about the
neck being compressed and filled, press hard on the breath; which being
very much confined, emits a stifled sound. When, again, the breath is
assimilated to the surrounding air and relaxed in spring, it is freed
from its confined condition, and is carried through the dilated, though
till then obstructed arteries, it warbles no longer a dying melody, but
now gives forth a shrill note; and the voice flows wide, and spring now
becomes the song of the voice of birds.
Nequaquam ergo credendum est, hyænam unquam mutare naturam: idem
enim animal non habet simul ambo pudenda maris et feminæ, sicut
nonnulli existimarunt, qui prodigiose hermaphroditos finxerunt, et
inter marem et feminam, hanc masculo-feminam naturam innovarunt.
Valde autem falluntur, ut qui non animadverterint, quam sit filiorum
amans omnium mater et genetrix Natura: quoniam enim hoc animal,
hyæna inquam, est salacissimum, sub cauda ante excrementi meatum,
adnatum est ei quoddam carneum tuberculum, feminino pudendo figura
persimile. Nullum autem meatum habet hæc figura carnis, qui in
utilem aliquam desinat partem, vel in matricem inquam, vel in rectum
intestinum: tantum habet magnam concavitatem, quæ inanem excipiat
libidinem, quando aversi fuerint meatus, qui in concipiendo fetu
occupati sunt. Hoc ipsum autem et masculo et feminæ hyænæ adnatum
est, quod sit insigniter pathica: masculus enim vicissim et agit, et
patitur: unde etiam rarissime inveniri potest hyæna femina: non enim
frequenter concipit hoc animal, cum in eis largiter redundet ea, que
præter naturam est, satio. Hac etiam ratione mihi videtur Plato in
_Phædro_, amorem puerorum repellens, eum appellare bestiam, quod
frenum mordentes, qui se voluptatibus dedunt, libidinosi, quadrupedum
coeunt more, et filios seminare conantur. Impios “autem tradidit
Deus,” ut ait Apostolus,[566] “in perturbationes ignominiæ: nam et
feminæ eorum mutaverunt naturalem usum in eum, qui est præter naturam:
similiter autem et masculi eorum, relicto usu naturali, exarserunt
in desiderio sui inter se invicem, masculi in masculos turpitudinem
operantes, et mercedem, quam oportuit, erroris sui in se recipientes.”
At vero ne libidinosissimis quidem animantibus concessit natura in
excrementi meatum semen immittere: urina enim in vesicam excernitur,
humefactum alimentum in ventrem, lacryma vero in oculum, sanguis in
venas, sordes in aures, mucus in nares defertur: fini autem recti
intestini, sedes cohæret, per quam excrementa exponuntur. Sola ergo
varia in hyænis natura, superfluo coitui superfluam hanc partem
excogitavit, et ideo est etiam aliquantisper concavum, ut prurientibus
partibus inserviat, exinde autem excæcatur concavitas: non fuit enim
res fabricata ad generationem. Hinc nobis manifestum atque adeo in
confesso est, vitandos esse cum masculis concubitus, et infrugiferas
sationes, et Venerem præposteram, et quæ natura coalescere non
possunt, androgynorum conjunctiones, ipsam naturam sequentibus, quæ
id per partium prohibet constitutionem, ut quæ masculum non ad semen
suscipiendum, sed ad id effundendum fecerit. Jeremias autem, hoc est,
per ipsum loquens Spiritus, quando dicit: “Spelunca hyænæ facta est
domus mea,”[567] id quod ex mortuis constabat corporibus detestans
alimentum, sapienti allegoria reprehendit cultum simulacrorum: vere
enim oportet ab idolis esse puram domum Dei viventis. Rursus Moyses
lepore quoque vesci prohibet. Omni enim tempore coit lepus, et salit,
assidente femina, eam a tergo aggrediens: est enim ex iis, quæ retro
insiliunt. Concipit autem singulis mensibus, et superfetat; init
autem, et parit; postquam autem peperit, statim a quovis initur
lepore (neque enim uno contenta est matrimonio) et rursus concipit,
adhuc lactans: habet enim matricem, cui sunt duo sinus, et non unus
solus matricis vacuus sinus, est ei sufficiens sedes ad receptaculum
coitus (quidquid enim est vacuum, desiderat repleri); verum accidit,
ut cum uterum gerunt, altera pars matricis desiderio teneatur et
libidine furiat; quocirca fiunt eis superfetationes. A vehementibus
ergo appetitionibus, mutuisque congressionibus, et cum prægnantibus
feminis conjunctionibus, alternisque initibus, puerorumque stupris,
adulteriis et libidine abstinere, hujus nos ænigmatis adhortata est
prohibitio. Idcirco aperte, et non per ænigmata Moyses prohibuit,
“Non fornicaberis; non mœchaberis; pueris stuprum non inferes,”[568]
inquiens. Logi itaque præscriptum totis viribus observandum, neque
quidquam contra leges ullo modo faciendum est, neque mandata sunt
infirmanda. Malæ enim cupiditati nomen est ὔβρις, “petulantia;” et
equum cupiditatis, “petulantem” vocavit Plato, cum legisset, “Facti
estis mihi equi furentes in feminas.”[569] Libidines autem supplicium
notum nobis facient illi, qui Sodomam accesserunt, angeli. Ii eos, qui
probro illos afficere voluerunt, una cum ipsa civitate combusserunt,
evidenti hoc indicio ignem, qui est fructus libidinis, describentes.
Quæ enim veteribus acciderunt, sicut ante diximus, ad nos admonendos
scripta sunt, ne eisdem teneamur vitiis, et caveamus, ne in pœnas
similes incidamus. Oportet autem filios existimare, pueros; uxores
autem alienas intueri tanquam proprias filias: voluptates quippe
continere, ventrique et iis quæ sunt infra ventrem, dominari, est
maximi imperii. Si enim ne digitum quidem temene movere permittit
sapienti ratio, ut confitentur Stoici, quomodo non multo magis iis,
qui sapientiam persequuntur, in eam, qua coitur, particulam dominatus
est obtinendus? Atque hac quidem de causa videtur esse nominatum
pudendum, quod hac corporis parte magis, quam qualibet alia, cum pudore
utendum sit; natura enim sicut alimentis, ita etiam legitimis nuptiis,
quantum convenit, utile est, et decet, nobis uti permisit: permisit
autem appetere liberorum procreationem. Quicumque autem, quod modum
excedit, persequuntur, labuntur in eo quod est secundum naturam, per
congressus, qui sunt præter leges, seipsos lædentes. Ante omnia enim
recte habet, ut nunquam cum adolescentibus perinde ac cum feminis,
Veneris utamur consuetudine. Et ideo “non esse in petris et lapidibus
seminandum” dicit, qui a Moyse factus est philosophus, “quoniam nunquam
actis radicibus genitalem sit semen naturam suscepturum.” Logos
itaque per Moysen apertissime præcepit: “Et cum masculo non dormies
feminino concubitu: est enim abominatio.”[570] Accedit his, quod “ab
omni quoque arvo feminino esse abstinendum” præterquam a proprio, ex
divinis Scripturis colligens præclarus Plato consuluit lege illinc
accepta: “Et uxori proximi tui non dabis concubitum seminis, ut
polluaris apud ipsam.[571] Irrita autem sunt et adulterina concubinarum
semina. Ne semina, ubi non vis tibi nasci quod seminatum est. Neque
ullam omnino tange mulierem, præterquam tuam ipsius uxorem,” ex qua
sola tibi licet carnis voluptates percipere ad suscipiendam legitimam
successionem. Hæc enim Logo sola sunt legitima. Eis quidem certe, qui
divini muneris in producendo opificio sunt participes, semen non est
abjiciendum, neque injuria afficiendum, neque tanquam si cornibus semen
mandes seminandum est. Hic ipse ergo Moyses cum ipsis quoque prohibet
uxoribus congredi, si forte eas detineant purgationes menstruæ. Non
enim purgamento corporis genitale semen, et quod mox homo futurum est,
polluere est æquum, nec sordido materiæ profluvio, et, quæ expurgantur,
inquinamentis inundare ac obruere; semen autem generationis degenerat,
ineptumque redditur, si matricis sulcis privetur. Neque vero ullum
unquam induxit veterum Hebræorum coeuntem cum sua uxore prægnante. Sola
enim voluptas, si quis ea etiam utatur in conjugio, est præter leges,
et injusta, et a ratione aliena. Rursus autem Moyses abducit viros a
prægnantibus, quousque pepererint. Revera enim matrix sub vesica quidem
collocata, super intestinum autem, quod rectum appellatur, posita,
extendit collum inter humeros in vesica; et os colli, in quod venit
semen, impletum occluditur, illa autem rursus inanis redditur, cum
partu purgata fuerit: fructu autem deposito, deinde semen suscipit.
Neque vero nobis turpe est ad auditorum utilitatem nominare partes,
in quibus fit fetus conceptio, quæ quidem Deum fabricari non puduit.
Matrix itaque sitiens filiorum procreationem, semen suscipit,
probrosumque et vituperandum negat coitum, post sationem ore clauso
omnino jam libidinem excludens. Ejus autem appetitiones, quæ prius in
amicis versabantur complexibus, intro conversæ, in procreatione sobolis
occupatæ, operantur una cum Opifice. Nefas est ergo operantem jam
naturam adhuc molestia afficere, superflue ad petulantem prorumpendo
libidinem. Petulantia autem, quæ multa quidem habet nomina, et multas
species, cum ad hanc veneream intemperantiam deflexerit, λαγνεία, id
est “lascivia,” dicitur; quo nomine significatur libidinosa, publica,
et incesta in coitum propensio: quæ cum aucta fuerit, magna simul
morborum convenit multitudo, obsoniorum desiderium, vinolentia et amor
in mulieres; luxus quoque, et simul universarum voluptatum studium; in
quæ omnia tyrannidem obtinet cupiditas. His autem cognatæ innumerabiles
augentur affectiones, ex quibus mores intemperantes ad summum
provehuntur. Dicit autem Scriptura: “Parantur intemperantibus flagella,
et supplicia humeris insipientium:”[572] vires intemperantiæ, ejusque
constantem tolerantiam, vocans “humeros insipientium.” Quocirca,
“Amove a servis tuis spes inanes, et indecoras,” inquit, “cupiditates
averte a me. Ventris appetitio et coitus ne me apprehendant.”[573]
Longe ergo sunt arcenda multifaria insidiatorum maleficia; non ad
solam enim Cratetis Peram, sed etiam ad nostram civitatem non navigat
stultus parasitus, nec scortator libidinosus, qui posteriori delectatur
parte: non dolosa meretrix, nec ulla ejusmodi alia voluptatis
bellua. Multa ergo nobis per totam vitam seminetur, quæ bona sit et
honesta, occupatio. In summa ergo, vel jungi matrimonio, vel omnino
a matrimonio purum esse oportet; in quæstione enim id versatur, et
hoc a nobis declaratum est in libro _De continentia_. Quod si
hoc ipsum, an ducenda sit uxor, veniat in considerationem: quomodo
libere permittetur, quemadmodum nutrimento, ita etiam coitu semper
uti, tanquam re necessaria? Ex eo ergo videri possunt nervi tanquam
stamina distrahi, et in vehementi congressus intensione disrumpi. Jam
vero offundit etiam caliginem sensibus, et vires enervat. Patet hoc et
in animantibus rationis expertibus, et in iis, quæ in exercitatione
versantur, corporibus; quorum hi quidem, qui abstinent, in certaminibus
superant adversarios; illa vero a coitu abducta circumaguntur, et
tantum non trahuntur, omnibus viribus et omni impetu tandem quasi
enervata. “Parvam epilepsiam” dicebat “coitum” sophista Abderites
morbum immedicabilem existimans. Annon enim consequuntur resolutiones,
quæ exinanitionis ejusque, quod abscedit, magnitudini ascribuntur?
“homo enim ex homine nascitur et evellitur.” Vide damni magnitudinem:
totus homo per exinanitionem coitus abstrahitur. Dicit enim: “Hoc
nunc os ex ossibus meis, et caro ex carne mea.”[574] Homo ergo tantum
exinanitur semine, quantus videtur corpore; est enim generationis
initium id, quod recedit: quin etiam conturbat ebullitio materiæ
et compagem corporis labefactat et commovet. Lepide ergo ille, qui
interroganti, “Quomodo adhuc se haberet ad res venereas,” respondit:
“Bona verba, quæso: ego vero lubentissime isthinc, tanquam ab agresti
et insano domino, profugi.” Verum concedatur quidem et admittatur
matrimonium: vult enim Dominus humanum genus repleri; sed non dicit,
Estote libidinosi: nec vos, tanquam ad coitum natos, voluit esse
deditos voluptati. Pudore autem nos afficiat Pædagogus, clamans per
Ezechielem: “Circumcidamini fornicationem vestram.” Aliquod tempus ad
seminandum opportunum habent quoque rationis expertia animantia. Aliter
autem coire, quam ad liberorum procreationem, est facere injuriam
naturæ; qua quidem oportet magistra, quas prudenter introducit temporis
commoditates, diligenter observare, senectutem, inquam, et puerilem
ætatem. His enim nondum concessit, illos autem non vult amplius uxores
ducere. Sed non vult homines semper dare operam matrimonio. Matrimonium
autem est filiorum procreationis appetitio, non inordinata seminis
excretio, quæ est et præter leges et a ratione aliena. Secundum naturam
autem nobis vita universa processerit, si et ab initio cupiditates
contineamus, et hominum genus, quod ex divina providentia nascitur,
improbis et malitiosis non tollamus artibus: eæ enim, ut fornicationem
celent, exitialia medicamenta adhibentes, quæ prorsus in perniciem
ducunt, simul cum fetu omnem humanitatem perdunt. Cæterum, quibus
uxores ducere concessum est, iis Pædagogo opus fuerit, ut non interdiu
mystica naturæ celebrentur orgia, nec ut aliquis ex ecclesia, verbi
gratia, aut ex foro mane rediens, galli more coeat, quando orationis,
et lectionis, et eorum quæ interdiu facere convenit, operum tempus
est. Vespere autem oportet post convivium quiescere, et post gratiarum
actionem, quæ fit Deo pro bonis quæ percepimus. Non semper autem
concedit tempus natura, ut peragatur congressus matrimonii; est enim
eo desiderabilior conjunctio, quo diuturnior. Neque vero noctu,
tanquam in tenebris, immodeste sese ac intemperanter gerere oportet,
sed verecundia, ut quæ sit lux rationis, in animo est includenda.
Nihil enim a Penelope telam texente differemus, si interdiu quidem
texamus dogmata temperantiæ; noctu autem ea resolvamus, cum in cubile
venerimus. Si enim honestatem exercere oportet, multo magis tuæ uxori
honestas est ostendenda, inhonestas vitando conjunctiones: et quod
caste cum proximis verseris, fide dignum e domo adsit testimonium.
Non enim potest aliquid honestum ab ea existimari, apud quam honestas
in acribus illis non probatur certo quasi testimonio voluptatibus.
Benevolentia autem quæ præceps fertur ad congressionem, exiguo tempore
floret, et cum corpore consenescit; nonnunquam autem etiam præsenescit,
flaccescente jam libidine, quando matrimonialem temperantiam meretriciæ
vitiaverint libidines. Amantium enim corda sunt volucria, amorisque
irritamenta exstinguuntur sæpe pœnitentia; amorque sæpe vertitur
in odium, quando reprehensionem senserit satietas. Impudicorum
vero verborum, et turpium figurarum, meretriciorumque osculorum,
et hujusmodi lasciviarum nomina ne sunt quidem memoranda, beatum
sequentibus Apostolum, qui aperte dicit: “Fornicatio autem et omnis
immunditia, vel plura habendi cupiditas, ne nominetur quidem in vobis,
sicut decet sanctos.”[575] Recte ergo videtur dixisse quispiam: “Nulli
quidem profuit coitus, recte autem cum eo agitur, quem non læserit.”
Nam et qui legitimus, est periculosus, nisi quatenus in liberorum
procreatione versatur. De eo autem, qui est præter leges, dicit
Scriptura: “Mulier meretrix apro similis reputabitur. Quæ autem viro
subjecta est, turris est mortis iis, qui ea utuntur.” Capro, val apro,
meretricis comparavit affectionem. “Mortem” autem dixit “quæsitam,”
adulterium, quod committitur in meretrice, quæ custoditur. “Domum”
autem, et “urbem,” in qua suam exercent intemperantiam. Quin etiam quæ
est apud vos poetica, quodammodo ea exprobrans, scribit:
Tecum et adulterium est, tecum coitusque nefandus,
Fœdus, femineusque, urbs pessima, plane impura.
Econtra autem pudicos admiratur:
Quos desiderium tenuit nec turpe cubilis
Alterius, nec tetra invisaque stupra tulerunt
Ulla unquam maribus.
For many think such things to be pleasures only which are against
nature, such as these sins of theirs. And those who are better than
they, know them to be sins, but are overcome by pleasures, and darkness
is the veil of their vicious practices. For he violates his marriage
adulterously who uses it in a meretricious way, and hears not the voice
of the Instructor, crying, “The man who ascends his bed, who says in
his soul, Who seeth me? darkness is around me, and the walls are my
covering, and no one sees my sins. Why do I fear lest the Highest
will remember?”[576] Most wretched is such a man, dreading men’s eyes
alone, and thinking that he will escape the observation of God. “For
he knoweth not,” says the Scripture, “that brighter ten thousand times
than the sun are the eyes of the Most High, which look on all the
ways of men, and cast their glance into hidden parts.” Thus again the
Instructor threatens them, speaking by Isaiah: “Woe be to those who
take counsel in secret, and say, Who seeth us?”[577] For one may escape
the light of sense, but that of the mind it is impossible to escape.
For how, says Heraclitus, can one escape the notice of that which never
sets? Let us by no means, then, veil our selves with the darkness; for
the light dwells in us. “For the darkness,” it is said, “comprehendeth
it not.”[578] And the very night itself is illuminated by temperate
reason. The thoughts of good men Scripture has named “sleepless
lamps;”[579] although for one to attempt even to practise concealment,
with reference to what he does, is confessedly to sin. And every one
who sins, directly wrongs not so much his neighbour if he commits
adultery, as himself, because he has committed adultery, besides making
himself worse and less thought of. For he who sins, in the degree in
which he sins, becomes worse and is of less estimation than before;
and he who has been overcome by base pleasures, has now licentiousness
wholly attached to him. Wherefore he who commits fornication is wholly
dead to God, and is abandoned by the Word as a dead body by the spirit.
For what is holy, as is right, abhors to be polluted. But it is always
lawful for the pure to touch the pure. Do not, I pray, put off modesty
at the same time that you put off your clothes; because it is never
right for the just man to divest himself of continence. For, lo, this
mortal shall put on immortality; when the insatiableness of desire,
which rushes into licentiousness, being trained to self-restraint,
and made free from the love of corruption, shall consign the man to
everlasting chastity. “For in this world they marry and are given in
marriage.”[580] But having done with the works of the flesh, and having
been clothed with immortality, the flesh itself being pure, we pursue
after that which is according to the measure of the angels.
Thus in the _Philebus_, Plato, who had been the disciple of the
barbarian[581] philosophy, mystically called those Atheists who destroy
and pollute, as far as in them lies, the Deity dwelling in them--that
is, the Logos--by association with their vices. Those, therefore,
who are consecrated to God must never live mortally (θνητῶς). “Nor,”
as Paul says, “is it meet to make the members of Christ the members
of an harlot; nor must the temple of God be made the temple of base
affections.”[582] Remember the four and twenty thousand that were
rejected for fornication. But the experiences of those who have
committed fornication, as I have already said, are types which correct
our lusts. Moreover, the Pædagogue warns us most distinctly: “Go not
after thy lusts, and abstain from thine appetites;[583] for wine and
women will remove the wise; and he that cleaves to harlots will become
more daring. Corruption and the worm shall inherit him, and he shall
be held up as public example to greater shame.”[584] And again--for he
wearies not of doing good--“He who averts his eyes from pleasure crowns
his life.”
Non est ergo justum vinci a rebus venereis, nec libidinibus stolide
inhiare, nec a ratione alienis appetitionibus moveri, nec desiderare
pollui. Ei autem soli, qui uxorem duxit, ut qui tunc sit agricola,
serere permissum est; quando tempus sementem admittit. Adversus
aliam autem intemperantiam, optimum quidem est medicamentum, ratio.
Fert etiam auxilium penuria satietatis, per quam accensæ libidines
prosiliunt ad voluptates.
CHAPTER XI.[585]
ON CLOTHES.
Wherefore neither are we to provide for ourselves costly clothing any
more than variety of food. The Lord Himself, therefore, dividing His
precepts into what relates to the body, the soul, and thirdly, external
things, counsels us to provide external things on account of the body;
and manages the body by the soul (ψυχὴ), and disciplines the soul,
saying, “Take no thought for your life (ψυχῇ), what ye shall eat; nor
yet for your body, what ye shall put on; for the life is more than
meat, and the body more than raiment.”[586] And He adds a plain example
of instruction: “Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap,
which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them.”[587]
“Are ye not better than the fowls?”[588] Thus far as to food. Similarly
He enjoins with respect to clothing, which belongs to the third
division, that of things external, saying, “Consider the lilies, how
they spin not, nor weave. But I say unto you, that not even Solomon
was arrayed as one of these.”[589] And Solomon the king plumed himself
exceedingly on his riches.
What, I ask, more graceful, more gay-coloured, than flowers? What, I
say, more delightful than lilies or roses? “And if God so clothe the
grass, which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the
oven, how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith!”[590]
Here the particle _what_ (τι) banishes variety in food. For
this is shown from the scripture, “Take no thought what things ye
shall eat, or what things ye shall drink.” For to take thought of
these things argues greed and luxury. Now eating, considered merely
by itself, is the sign of necessity; repletion, as we have said, of
want. Whatever is beyond that, is the sign of superfluity. And what
is superfluous, Scripture declares to be of the devil. The subjoined
expression makes the meaning plain. For having said, “Seek not what
ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,” He added, “Neither be ye of
doubtful (or lofty)[591] mind.” Now pride and luxury make men waverers
(or raise them aloft) from the truth; and the voluptuousness, which
indulges in superfluities, leads away from the truth. Wherefore He says
very beautifully, “And all these things do the nations of the world
seek after.”[592] The nations are the dissolute and the foolish. And
what are these things which He specifies? Luxury, voluptuousness, rich
cooking, dainty feeding, gluttony. These are the “What?” And of bare
sustenance, dry and moist, as being necessaries, He says, “Your Father
knoweth that ye need these.” And if, in a word, we are naturally given
to seeking, let us not destroy the faculty of seeking by directing it
to luxury, but let us excite it to the discovery of truth. For He says,
“Seek ye the kingdom of God, and the materials of sustenance shall be
added to you.”
If, then, He takes away anxious care for clothes and food, and
superfluities in general, as unnecessary; what are we to imagine ought
to be said of love of ornament, and dyeing of wool, and variety of
colours, and fastidiousness about gems, and exquisite working of gold,
and still more, of artificial hair and wreathed curls; and furthermore,
of staining the eyes, and plucking out hairs, and painting with rouge
and white lead, and dyeing of the hair, and the wicked arts that are
employed in such deceptions? May we not very well suspect, that what
was quoted a little above respecting the grass, has been said of those
unornamental lovers of ornaments? For the field is the world, and we
who are bedewed by the grace of God are the grass; and though cut down,
we spring up again, as will be shown at greater length in the book
_On the Resurrection_. But hay figuratively designates the vulgar
rabble, attached to ephemeral pleasure, flourishing for a little,
loving ornament, loving praise, and being everything but truth-loving,
good for nothing but to be burned with fire. “There was a certain
man,” said the Lord, narrating, “very rich, who was clothed in purple
and scarlet, enjoying himself splendidly every day.” This was the
hay. “And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at the rich man’s
gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs which fell
from the rich man’s table.” This is the grass. Well, the rich man was
punished in Hades, being made partaker of the fire; while the other
flourished again in the Father’s bosom. I admire that ancient city
of the Lacedæmonians which permitted harlots alone to wear flowered
clothes, and ornaments of gold, interdicting respectable women from
love of ornament, and allowing courtesans alone to deck themselves. On
the other hand, the archons of the Athenians, who affected a polished
mode of life, forgetting their manhood, wore tunics reaching to the
feet, and had on the crobulus--a kind of knot of the hair--adorned
with a fastening of gold grasshoppers, to show their origin from the
soil, forsooth, in the ostentation of licentiousness. Now rivalry
of these archons extended also to the other Ionians, whom Homer, to
show their effeminacy, calls “Long-robed.” Those, therefore, who are
devoted to the image of the beautiful, that is, love of finery, not the
beautiful itself, and who under a fair name again practise idolatry,
are to be banished far from the truth, as those who by opinion,[593]
not knowledge, dream of the nature of the beautiful; and so life here
is to them only a deep sleep of ignorance; from which it becomes us to
rouse ourselves and haste to that which is truly beautiful and comely,
and desire to grasp this alone, leaving the ornaments of earth to the
world, and bidding them farewell before we fall quite asleep. I say,
then, that man requires clothes for nothing else than the covering of
the body, for defence against excess of cold and intensity of heat,
lest the inclemency of the air injure us. And if this is the object
of clothing, see that one kind be not assigned to men and another to
women. For it is common to both to be covered, as it is to eat and
drink. The necessity, then, being common, we judge that the provision
ought to be similar. For as it is common to both to require things to
cover them, so also their coverings ought to be similar; although such
a covering ought to be assumed as is requisite for covering the eyes
of women. For if the female sex, on account of their weakness, desire
more, we ought to blame the habit of that evil training, by which
often men reared up in bad habits become more effeminate than women.
But this must not be yielded to. And if some accommodation is to be
made, they may be permitted to use softer clothes, provided they put
out of the way fabrics foolishly thin, and of curious texture in the
weaving; bidding farewell to embroidery of gold and Indian silks and
elaborate Bombyces (silks), which is at first a worm, then from it is
produced a hairy caterpillar; after which the creature suffers a new
transformation into a third form which they call larva, from which a
long filament is produced, as the spider’s thread from the spider. For
these superfluous and diaphanous materials are the proof of a weak
mind, covering as they do the shame of the body with a slender veil.
For luxurious clothing, which cannot conceal the shape of the body, is
no more a covering. For such clothing, falling close to the body, takes
its form more easily, and adhering as it were to the flesh, receives
its shape, and marks out the woman’s figure, so that the whole make of
the body is visible to spectators, though not seeing the body itself.
Dyeing of clothes is also to be rejected. For it is remote both from
necessity and truth, in addition to the fact that reproach in manners
springs from it. For the use of colours is not beneficial, for they
are of no service against cold; nor has it anything for covering more
than other clothing, except the opprobrium alone. And the agreeableness
of the colour afflicts greedy eyes, inflaming them to senseless
blindness. But for those who are white and unstained within, it is
most suitable to use white and simple garments. Clearly and plainly,
therefore, Daniel the prophet says, “Thrones were set, and upon
them sat one like the Ancient of days, and His vesture was white as
snow.”[594] The Apocalypse says also that the Lord Himself appeared
wearing such a robe. It says also, “I saw the souls of those that had
witnessed, beneath the altar, and there was given to each a white
robe.”[595] And if it were necessary to seek for any other colour, the
natural colour of truth should suffice. But garments which are like
flowers are to be abandoned to Bacchic fooleries, and to those of the
rites of initiation, along with purple and silver plate, as the comic
poet says:
“Useful for tragedians, not for life.”
And our life ought to be anything rather than a pageant. Therefore
the dye of Sardis, and another of olive, and another green, a
rose-coloured, and scarlet, and ten thousand other dyes, have been
invented with much trouble for mischievous voluptuousness. Such
clothing is for looking at, not for covering. Garments, too, variegated
with gold, and those that are purple, and that piece of luxury which
has its name from beasts (figured on it), and that saffron-coloured
ointment-dipped robe, and those costly and many-coloured garments of
flaring membranes, we are to bid farewell to, with the art itself. “For
what prudent thing can these women have done,” says the comedy, “who
sit covered with flowers, wearing a saffron-coloured dress, painted?”
The Instructor expressly admonishes, “Boast not of the clothing of
your garment, and be not elated on account of any glory, as it is
unlawful.”[596]
Accordingly, deriding those who are clothed in luxurious garments, He
says in the Gospel: “Lo, they who live in gorgeous apparel and luxury
are in earthly palaces.”[597] He says in perishable palaces, where
are love of display, love of popularity, and flattery and deceit. But
those that wait at the court of heaven around the King of all, are
sanctified in the immortal vesture of the Spirit, that is, the flesh,
and so put on incorruptibility.
As therefore she who is unmarried devotes herself to God alone, and
her care is not divided, but the chaste married woman divides her life
between God and her husband, while she who is otherwise disposed is
devoted entirely to marriage, that is, to passion: in the same way
I think the chaste wife, when she devotes herself to her husband,
sincerely serves God; but when she becomes fond of finery, she falls
away from God and from chaste wedlock, exchanging her husband for the
world, after the fashion of that Argive courtesan, I mean Eriphyle,
“Who received gold prized above her dear husband.”
Wherefore I admire the Ceian sophist,[598] who delineated like and
suitable images of Virtue and Vice, representing the former of
these, viz. Virtue, standing simply, white-robed and pure, adorned
with modesty alone (for such ought to be the true wife, dowered with
modesty). But the other, viz. Vice, on the contrary, he introduces
dressed in superfluous attire, brightened up with colour not her
own; and her gait and mien are depicted as studiously framed to give
pleasure, forming a sketch of wanton women.
But he who follows the Word will not addict himself to any base
pleasure; wherefore also what is useful in the article of dress is to
be preferred. And if the Word, speaking of the Lord by David, sings,
“The daughters of kings made Thee glad by honour; the queen stood at
Thy right hand, clad in cloth of gold, girt with golden fringes,” it
is not luxurious raiment that he indicates; but he shows the immortal
adornment, woven of faith, of those that have found mercy, that is,
the church; in which the guileless Jesus shines conspicuous as gold,
and the elect are the golden tassels. And if such must be woven[599]
for the women, let us weave apparel pleasant and soft to the touch,
not flowered, like pictures, to delight the eye. For the picture
fades in course of time, and the washing and steeping in the medicated
juices of the dye wear away the wool, and render the fabrics of the
garments weak; and this is not favourable to economy. It is the height
of foolish ostentation to be in a flutter about peploi, and xystides,
and ephaptides,[600] and “cloaks,” and tunics, and “what covers shame,”
says Homer. For, in truth, I am ashamed when I see so much wealth
lavished on the covering of the secret parts. For primeval man in
paradise provided a covering for his shame of branches and leaves;
and now, since sheep have been created for us, let us not be as silly
as sheep, but trained by the Word, let us condemn sumptuousness of
clothing, saying, “Ye are sheep’s wool.” Though Miletus boast, and
Italy be praised, and the wool, about which many rave, be protected
beneath skins,[601] yet are we not to set our hearts on it.
The blessed John, despising the locks of sheep as savouring of luxury,
chose “camel’s hair,” and was clad in it, making himself an example of
frugality and simplicity of life. For he also “ate locusts and wild
honey,”[602] sweet and spiritual fare; preparing, as he was, the lowly
and chaste ways of the Lord. For how possibly could he have worn a
purple robe, who turned away from the pomp of cities, and retired to
the solitude of the desert, to live in calmness with God, far from all
frivolous pursuits--from all false show of good--from all meanness?
Elias used a sheepskin mantle, and fastened the sheepskin with a
girdle made of hair.[603] And Esaias, another prophet, was naked and
barefooted,[604] and often was clad in sackcloth, the garb of humility.
And if you call Jeremiah, he had only “a linen girdle.”[605]
For as well-nurtured bodies, when stripped, show their vigour more
manifestly, so also beauty of character shows its magnanimity, when not
involved in ostentatious fooleries. But to drag one’s clothes, letting
them down to the soles of his feet, is a piece of consummate foppery,
impeding activity in walking, the garment sweeping the surface dirt of
the ground like a broom; since even those emasculated creatures the
dancers, who transfer their dumb shameless profligacy to the stage, do
not despise the dress which flows away to such indignity; whose curious
vestments, and appendages of fringes, and elaborate motions of figures,
show the trailing of sordid effeminacy.
If one should adduce the garment of the Lord reaching down to the
foot, that many-flowered coat shows the flowers of wisdom, the varied
and unfading Scriptures, the oracles of the Lord, resplendent with
the rays of truth. In such another robe the Spirit arrayed the Lord
through David, when he sang thus: “Thou wert clothed with confession
and comeliness, putting on light as a garment.”[606]
As, then, in the fashioning of our clothes, we must keep clear of all
strangeness, so in the use of them we must beware of extravagance. For
neither is it seemly for the clothes to be above the knee, as they say
was the case with the Lacedæmonian virgins; nor is it becoming for any
part of a woman to be exposed. Though you may with great propriety use
the language addressed to him who said, “Your arm is beautiful; yes,
but it is not for the public gaze. Your thighs are beautiful; but,
was the reply, for my husband alone. And your face is comely. Yes;
but only for him who has married me.” But I do not wish chaste women
to afford cause for such praises to those who, by praises, hunt after
grounds of censure; and not only because it is prohibited to expose the
ankle, but because it has also been enjoined that the head should be
veiled and the face covered; for it is a wicked thing for beauty to be
a snare to men. Nor is it seemly for a woman to wish to make herself
conspicuous, by using a purple veil. Would it were possible to abolish
purple in dress, so as not to turn the eyes of spectators on the face
of those that wear it! But the women, in the manufacture of all the
rest of their dress, have made everything of purple, thus inflaming the
lusts. And, in truth, those women who are crazy about these stupid and
luxurious purples, “purple (dark) death has seized,”[607] according to
the poetic saying. On account of this purple, then, Tyre and Sidon, and
the vicinity of the Lacedæmonian Sea, are very much desired; and their
dyers and purple-fishers, and the purple fishes themselves, because
their blood produces purple, are held in high esteem. But crafty women
and effeminate men, who blend these deceptive dyes with dainty fabrics,
carry their insane desires beyond all bounds, and export their fine
linens no longer from Egypt, but some other kinds from the land of
the Hebrews and the Cilicians. I say nothing of the linens made of
Amorgos[608] and Byssus. Luxury has outstripped nomenclature.
The covering ought, in my judgment, to show that which is covered to be
better than itself, as the image is superior to the temple, the soul
to the body, and the body to the clothes. But now, quite the contrary,
the body of these ladies, if sold, would never fetch a thousand Attic
drachms. Buying, as they do, a single dress at the price of ten
thousand talents, they prove themselves to be of less use and less
value than cloth. Why in the world do you seek after what is rare and
costly, in preference to what is at hand and cheap? It is because you
know not what is really beautiful, what is really good, and seek with
eagerness shows instead of realities, from fools who, like people out
of their wits, imagine black to be white.
CHAPTER XII.
ON SHOES.
Women fond of display act in the same manner with regard to shoes,
showing also in this matter great luxuriousness. Base, in truth, are
those sandals on which golden ornaments are fastened; but they are
thought worth having nails driven into the soles in winding rows.
Many, too, carve on them amorous embraces, as if they would by their
walk communicate to the earth harmonious movement, and impress on it
the wantonness of their spirit. Farewell, therefore, must be bidden to
gold-plated and jewelled mischievous devices of sandals, and Attic and
Sicyonian half-boots, and Persian and Tyrrhenian buskins; and setting
before us the right aim, as is the habit with our truth, we are bound
to select what is in accordance with nature.
For the use of shoes is partly for covering, partly for defence in case
of stumbling against objects, and for saving the sole of the foot from
the roughnesses of hilly paths.
Women are to be allowed a white shoe, except when on a journey, and
then a greased shoe must be used. When on a journey, they require
nailed shoes. Further, they ought for the most part to wear shoes;
for it is not suitable for the foot to be shown naked: besides, woman
is a tender thing, easily hurt. But for a man bare feet are quite in
keeping, except when he is on military service. “For being shod is near
neighbour to being bound.”[609]
To go with bare feet is most suitable for exercise, and best adapted
for health and ease, unless where necessity prevents. But if we are
not on a journey, and cannot endure bare feet, we may use slippers
or white shoes; dusty-foots[610] the Attics called them, on account
of their bringing the feet near the dust, as I think. As a witness
for simplicity in shoes let John suffice, who avowed that “he was
not worthy to unloose the latchet of the Lord’s shoes.”[611] For he
who exhibited to the Hebrews the type of the true philosophy wore no
elaborate shoes. What else this may imply, will be shown elsewhere.
CHAPTER XIII.
AGAINST EXCESSIVE FONDNESS FOR JEWELS AND GOLD ORNAMENTS.
It is childish to admire excessively dark or green stones, and things
cast out by the sea on foreign shores, particles of the earth. For
to rush after stones that are pellucid and of peculiar colours,
and stained glass, is only characteristic of silly people, who are
attracted by things that have a striking show. Thus children, on seeing
the fire, rush to it, attracted by its brightness; not understanding
through senselessness the danger of touching it. Such is the case
with the stones which silly women wear fastened to chains and set in
necklaces, amethysts, ceraunites, jaspers, topaz, and the Milesian
“Emerald, most precious ware.”
And the highly prized pearl has invaded the women’s apartments to
an extravagant extent. This is produced in a kind of oyster like
mussels, and is about the bigness of a fish’s eye of large size. And
the wretched creatures are not ashamed at having bestowed the greatest
pains about this little oyster, when they might adorn themselves with
the sacred jewel, the Word of God, whom the Scripture has somewhere
called a pearl, the pure and pellucid Jesus, the eye that watches in
the flesh,--the transparent Word, by whom the flesh, regenerated by
water, becomes precious. For that oyster that is in the water covers
the flesh all round, and out of it is produced the pearl.
We have heard, too, that the Jerusalem above is walled with sacred
stones; and we allow that the twelve gates of the celestial city, by
being made like precious stones, indicate the transcendent grace of
the apostolic voice. For the colours are laid on in precious stones,
and these colours are precious; while the other parts remain of earthy
material. With these symbolically, as is meet, the city of the saints,
which is spiritually built, is walled. By that brilliancy of stones,
therefore, is meant the inimitable brilliancy of the spirit, the
immortality and sanctity of being. But these women, who comprehend not
the symbolism of Scripture, gape all they can for jewels, adducing the
astounding apology, “Why may I not use what God hath exhibited?” and,
“I have it by me, why may I not enjoy it?” and, “For whom were these
things made, then, if not for us?” Such are the utterances of those who
are totally ignorant of the will of God. For first necessaries, such
as water and air, He supplies free to all; and what is not necessary
He has hid in the earth and water. Wherefore ants dig, and griffins
guard gold, and the sea hides the pearl-stone. But ye busy yourselves
about what you need not. Behold, the whole heaven is lighted up, and ye
seek not God; but gold which is hidden, and jewels, are dug up by those
among us who are condemned to death.
But you also oppose Scripture, seeing it expressly cries, “Seek first
the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto
you.”[612] But if all things have been conferred on you, and all things
allowed you, and “if all things are lawful, yet all things are not
expedient,”[613] says the apostle. God brought our race into communion
by first imparting what was His own, when He gave His own Word, common
to all, and made all things for all. All things therefore are common,
and not for the rich to appropriate an undue share. That expression,
therefore, “I possess, and possess in abundance: why then should I
not enjoy?” is suitable neither to the man, nor to society. But more
worthy of love is that: “I have: why should I not give to those who
need?” For such an one--one who fulfils the command, “Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself”--is perfect. For this is the true luxury--the
treasured wealth. But that which is squandered on foolish lusts is to
be reckoned waste, not expenditure. For God has given to us, I know
well, the liberty of use, but only so far as necessary; and He has
determined that the use should be common. And it is monstrous for one
to live in luxury, while many are in want. How much more glorious is it
to do good to many, than to live sumptuously! How much wiser to spend
money on human beings, than on jewels and gold! How much more useful
to acquire decorous friends, than lifeless ornaments! Whom have lands
ever benefited so much as conferring favours has? It remains for us,
therefore, to do away with this allegation: Who, then, will have the
more sumptuous things, if all select the simpler? Men, I would say,
if they make use of them impartially and indifferently. But if it be
impossible for all to exercise self-restraint, yet, with a view to the
use of what is necessary, we must seek after what can be most readily
procured, bidding a long farewell to these superfluities.
In fine, they must accordingly utterly cast off ornaments as girls’
gewgaws, rejecting adornment itself entirely. For they ought to be
adorned within, and show the inner woman beautiful. For in the soul
alone are beauty and deformity shown. Wherefore also only the virtuous
man is really beautiful and good. And it is laid down as a dogma, that
only the beautiful is good. And excellence alone appears through the
beautiful body, and blossoms out in the flesh, exhibiting the amiable
comeliness of self-control, whenever the character like a beam of light
gleams in the form. For the beauty of each plant and animal consists in
its individual excellence. And the excellence of man is righteousness,
and temperance, and manliness, and godliness. The beautiful man is,
then, he who is just, temperate, and in a word, good, not he who is
rich. But now even the soldiers wish to be decked with gold, not having
read that poetical saying:
“With childish folly to the war he came,
Laden with store of gold.”[614]
But the love of ornament, which is far from caring for virtue, but
claims the body for itself, when the love of the beautiful has changed
to empty show, is to be utterly expelled. For applying things
unsuitable to the body, as if they were suitable, begets a practice
of lying and a habit of falsehood; and shows not what is decorous,
simple, and truly childlike, but what is pompous, luxurious, and
effeminate. But these women obscure true beauty, shading it with gold.
And they know not how great is their transgression, in fastening
around themselves ten thousand rich chains; as they say that among the
barbarians malefactors are bound with gold. The women seem to me to
emulate these rich prisoners. For is not the golden necklace a collar,
and do not the necklets which they call catheters occupy the place
of chains? and indeed among the Attics they are called by this very
name. The ungraceful things round the feet of women, Philemon in the
_Synephebus_ called ankle-fetters:
“Conspicuous garments, and a kind of a golden fetter.”
What else, then, is this coveted adorning of yourselves, O ladies,
but the exhibiting of yourselves fettered? For if the material does
away with the reproach, the endurance [of your fetters] is a thing
indifferent. To me, then, those who voluntarily put themselves into
bonds seem to glory in rich calamities.
Perchance also it is such chains that the poetic fable says were thrown
around Aphrodite when committing adultery, referring to ornaments
as nothing but the badge of adultery. For Homer called those, too,
golden chains. But now women are not ashamed to wear the most manifest
badges of the evil one. For as the serpent deceived Eve, so also has
ornament of gold maddened other women to vicious practices, using as a
bait the form of the serpent, and by fashioning lampreys and serpents
for decoration. Accordingly the comic poet Nicostratus says, “Chains,
collars, rings, bracelets, serpents, anklets, ear-rings.”[615]
In terms of strongest censure, therefore, Aristophanes in the
_Thesmophoriazousæ_ exhibits the whole array of female ornament in
a catalogue:
“Snoods, fillets, natron, and steel;
Pumice-stone, band, back-band,
Back-veil, paint, necklaces,
Paints for the eyes, soft garment, hair-net,
Girdle, shawl, fine purple border,
Long robe, tunic, Barathrum, round tunic.”
But I have not yet mentioned the principal of them. Then what?
“Ear-pendants, jewellery, ear-rings;
Mallow-coloured cluster-shaped anklets;
Buckles, clasps, necklets,
Fetters, seals, chains, rings, powders,
Bosses, bands, olisbi, Sardian stones,
Fans, helicters.”
I am weary and vexed at enumerating the multitude of ornaments; and I
am compelled to wonder how those who bear such a burden are not worried
to death. O foolish trouble! O silly craze for display! They squander
meretriciously wealth on what is disgraceful; and in their love for
ostentation disfigure God’s gifts, emulating the art of the evil one.
The rich man hoarding up in his barns, and saying to himself, “Thou
hast much goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, be merry,” the Lord
in the Gospel plainly called “fool.” “For this night they shall take of
thee thy soul; whose then shall those things which thou hast prepared
be?”[616]
Apelles, the painter, seeing one of his pupils painting a figure loaded
with gold colour to represent Helen, said to him, “Boy, being incapable
of painting her beautiful, you have made her rich.”
Such Helens are the ladies of the present day, not truly beautiful, but
richly got up. To these the Spirit prophesies by Zephaniah: “And their
silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of
the Lord’s anger.”[617]
But for those women who have been trained under Christ, it is suitable
to adorn themselves not with gold, but with the Word, through whom
alone the gold comes to light.[618]
Happy, then, would have been the ancient Hebrews, had they cast
away their women’s ornaments, or only melted them; but having cast
their gold into the form of an ox, and paid it idolatrous worship,
they consequently reaped no advantage either from their art or their
attempt. But they taught our women most expressively to keep clear
of ornaments. The lust which commits fornication with gold becomes
an idol, and is tested by fire; for which alone luxury is reserved,
as being an idol, not a reality.[619] Hence the Word, upbraiding the
Hebrews by the prophet, says, “They made to Baal things of silver and
gold,” that is, ornaments. And most distinctly threatening, He says, “I
will punish her for the days of Baalim, in which they offered sacrifice
for her, and she put on her ear-rings and her necklaces.”[620] And He
subjoined the cause of the adornment, when He said, “And she went after
her lovers, but forgot me, saith the Lord.”[621]
Resigning, therefore, these baubles to the wicked master of cunning
himself, let us not take part in this meretricious adornment, nor
commit idolatry through a specious pretext. Most admirably, therefore,
the blessed Peter[622] says, “In like manner also, that women adorn
themselves not with braids, or gold, or costly array, but (which
becometh women professing godliness) with good works.” For it is with
reason that he bids decking of themselves to be kept far from them.
For, granting that they are beautiful, nature suffices. Let not art
contend against nature; that is, let not falsehood strive with truth.
And if they are by nature ugly, they are convicted, by the things they
apply to themselves, of what they do not possess [_i.e._ of the
want of beauty]. It is suitable, therefore, for women who serve Christ
to adopt simplicity. For in reality simplicity provides for sanctity,
by reducing redundancies to equality, and by furnishing from whatever
is at hand the enjoyment sought from superfluities. For simplicity,
as the name shows, is not conspicuous, is not inflated or puffed up
in aught, but is altogether even, and gentle, and equal, and free of
excess, and so is sufficient. And sufficiency is a condition which
reaches its proper end without excess or defect. The mother of these
is Justice, and their nurse “Independence;” and this is a condition
which is satisfied with what is necessary, and by itself furnishes what
contributes to the blessed life.
Let there, then, be in the fruits of thy hands, sacred order, liberal
communication, and acts of economy. “For he that giveth to the
poor, lendeth to God.”[623] “And the hands of the manly shall be
enriched.”[624] Manly He calls those who despise wealth, and are free
in bestowing it. And on your feet let active readiness to well-doing
appear, and a journeying to righteousness. Modesty and chastity are
collars and necklaces; such are the chains which God forges. “Happy is
the man who hath found wisdom, and the mortal who knows understanding,”
says the Spirit by Solomon: “for it is better to buy her than
treasures of gold and silver; and she is more valuable than precious
stones.”[625] For she is the true decoration.
And let not their ears be pierced, contrary to nature, in order to
attach to them ear-rings and ear-drops. For it is not right to force
nature against her wishes. Nor could there be any better ornament for
the ears than true instruction, which finds its way naturally into the
passages of hearing. And eyes anointed by the Word, and ears pierced
for perception, make a man a hearer and contemplator of divine and
sacred things, the Word truly exhibiting the true beauty “which eye
hath not seen nor ear heard before.”[626]
BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE TRUE BEAUTY.
It is then, as appears, the greatest of all lessons to know one’s self.
For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing God, he will be
made like God, not by wearing gold or long robes, but by well-doing,
and by requiring as few things as possible.
Now, God alone is in need of nothing, and rejoices most when He sees
us bright with the ornament of intelligence; and then, too, rejoices
in him who is arrayed in chastity, the sacred stole of the body. Since
then the soul consists of three divisions; the intellect, which is
called the reasoning faculty, is the inner man, which is the ruler of
this man that is seen. And that one, in another respect, God guides.
But the irascible part, being brutal, dwells near to insanity. And
appetite, which is the third department, is many-shaped above Proteus,
the varying sea-god, who changed himself now into one shape, now into
another; and it allures to adulteries, to licentiousness, to seductions.
“At first he was a lion with ample beard.”[627]
While he yet retained the ornament, the hair of the chin showed him to
be a man.
“But after that a serpent, a pard, or a big sow.”
Love of ornament has degenerated to wantonness. A man no longer appears
like a strong wild beast,
“But he became moist water, and a tree of lofty branches.”
Passions break out, pleasures overflow; beauty fades, and falls
quicker than the leaf on the ground, when the amorous storms of lust
blow on it before the coming of autumn, and is withered by destruction.
For lust becomes and fabricates all things, and wishes to cheat, so
as to conceal the man. But that man with whom the Word dwells does
not alter himself, does not get himself up: he has the form which is
of the Word; he is made like to God; he is beautiful; he does not
ornament himself: his is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and
that man becomes God, since God so wills. Heraclitus, then, rightly
said, “Men are gods, and gods are men.” For the Word Himself is the
manifest mystery: God in man, and man God. And the Mediator executes
the Father’s will; for the Mediator is the Word, who is common to
both--the Son of God, the Saviour of men; His Servant, our Teacher. And
the flesh being a slave, as Paul testifies, how can one with any reason
adorn the handmaid like a pimp? For that which is of flesh has the form
of a servant. Paul says, speaking of the Lord, “Because He emptied
Himself, taking the form of a servant,”[628] calling the outward man
servant, previous to the Lord becoming a servant and wearing flesh. But
the compassionate God Himself set the flesh free, and, releasing it
from destruction, and from bitter and deadly bondage, endowed it with
incorruptibility, arraying the flesh in this, the holy embellishment of
eternity--immortality.
There is, too, another beauty of men--love. “And love,” according
to the apostle, “suffers long, and is kind; envieth not; vaunteth
not itself, is not puffed up.”[629] For the decking of one’s self
out--carrying, as it does, the look of superfluity and uselessness--is
vaunting one’s self. Wherefore he adds, “doth not behave itself
unseemly:” for a figure which is not one’s own, and is against nature,
is unseemly; but what is artificial is not one’s own, as is clearly
explained: “seeketh not,” it is said, “what is not her own.” For truth
calls that its own which belongs to it; but the love of finery seeks
what is not its own, being apart from God, and the Word, from love.
And that the Lord Himself was uncomely in aspect, the Spirit testifies
by Esaias: “And we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness; but
His form was mean, inferior to men.”[630] Yet who was more admirable
than the Lord? But it was not the beauty of the flesh visible to the
eye, but the true beauty of both soul and body, which He exhibited,
which in the former is beneficence; in the latter--that is, the
flesh--immortality.
CHAPTER II.
AGAINST EMBELLISHING THE BODY.
It is not, then, the aspect of the outward man, but the soul that is
to be decorated with the ornament of goodness; we may say also the
flesh with the adornment of temperance. But those women who beautify
the outside, are unawares all waste in the inner depths, as is the case
with the ornaments of the Egyptians; among whom temples with their
porticos and vestibules are carefully constructed, and groves and
sacred fields adjoining; the halls are surrounded with many pillars;
and the walls gleam with foreign stones, and there is no want of
artistic painting; and the temples gleam with gold, and silver, and
amber, and glitter with parti-coloured gems from India and Ethiopia;
and the shrines are veiled with gold-embroidered hangings.
But if you enter the penetralia of the enclosure, and, in haste to
behold something better, seek the image that is the inhabitant of the
temple, and if any priest of those that offer sacrifice there, looking
grave, and singing a pæan in the Egyptian tongue, remove a little of
the veil to show the god, he will give you a hearty laugh at the object
of worship. For the deity that is sought, to whom you have rushed, will
not be found within, but a cat, or a crocodile, or a serpent of the
country, or some such beast unworthy of the temple, but quite worthy of
a den, a hole, or the dirt. The god of the Egyptians appears a beast
rolling on a purple couch.
So those women who wear gold, occupying themselves in curling at their
locks, and engaged in anointing their cheeks, painting their eyes, and
dyeing their hair, and practising the other pernicious arts of luxury,
decking the covering of flesh,--in truth, imitate the Egyptians, in
order to attract their infatuated lovers.
But if one withdraw the veil of the temple,--I mean the head-dress,
the dye, the clothes, the gold, the paint, the cosmetics,--that is,
the web consisting of them, the veil, with the view of finding within
the true beauty, he will be disgusted, I know well. For he will not
find the image of God dwelling within, as is meet; but instead of it
a fornicator and adulteress has occupied the shrine of the soul. And
the true beast will thus be detected--an ape smeared with white paint.
And that deceitful serpent, devouring the understanding part of man
through vanity, has the soul as its hole, filling all with deadly
poisons; and injecting his own venom of deception, this pander of a
dragon has changed women into whores. For love of display is not for
a lady, but a courtesan. Such women care little for keeping at home
with their husbands; but loosing their husbands’ purse-strings, they
spend its supplies on their lusts, that they may have many witnesses of
their seemingly fair appearance; and, devoting the whole day to their
toilet, they spend their time with their bought slaves. Accordingly
they season the flesh like a pernicious sauce; and the day they bestow
on the toilet shut up in their rooms, so as not to be caught decking
themselves. But in the evening this spurious beauty creeps out to
candlelight as out of a hole; for drunkenness and the dimness of the
light aid what they have put on. The woman who dyes her hair yellow,
Menander the comic poet expels from the house:
“Now get out of this house, for no chaste
Woman ought to make her hair yellow,”
nor, I would add, stain her cheeks, nor paint her eyes. Unawares the
poor wretches destroy their own beauty, by the introduction of what
is spurious. At the dawn of day, mangling, racking, and plastering
themselves over with certain compositions, they chill the skin,
furrow the flesh with poisons, and with curiously prepared washes,
thus blighting their own beauty. Wherefore they are seen to be
yellow from the use of cosmetics, and susceptible to disease, their
flesh, which has been shaded with poisons, being now in a melting
state. So they dishonour the Creator of men, as if the beauty given
by Him were nothing worth. As you might expect, they become lazy in
housekeeping, sitting like painted things to be looked at, not as if
made for domestic economy. Wherefore in the comic poet the sensible
woman says, “What can we women do wise or brilliant, who sit with
hair dyed yellow, outraging the character of gentlewomen; causing the
overthrow of houses, the ruin of nuptials, and accusations on the part
of children?”[631] In the same way, Antiphanes the comic poet, in
_Malthaca_, ridicules the meretriciousness of women in words that
apply to them all, and are framed against the rubbing of themselves
with cosmetics, saying:
“She comes,
She goes back, she approaches, she goes back.
She has come, she is here, she washes herself, she advances,
She is soaped, she is combed, she goes out, is rubbed,
She washes herself, looks in the glass, robes herself,
Anoints herself, decks herself, besmears herself;
And if aught is wrong, chokes [with vexation].”
Thrice, I say, not once, do they deserve to perish, who use crocodiles’
excrement, and anoint themselves with the froth of putrid humours, and
stain their eyebrows with soot, and rub their cheeks with white lead.
These, then, who are disgusting even to the heathen poets for their
fashions, how shall they not be rejected by the truth? Accordingly
another comic poet, Alexis, reproves them. For I shall adduce his
words, which with extravagance of statement shame the obstinacy of
their impudence. For he was not very far beyond the mark. And I cannot
for shame come to the assistance of women held up to such ridicule in
comedy.
Then she ruins her husband.
“For first, in comparison with gain and the spoiling of neighbours,
All else is in their eyes superfluous.”
“Is one of them little? She stitches cork into her shoe-sole.
Is one tall? She wears a thin sole,
And goes out keeping her head down on her shoulder:
This takes away from her height. Has one no flanks?
She has something sewed on to her, so that the spectators
May exclaim on her fine shape behind. Has she a prominent stomach?
By making additions, to render it straight, such as the nurses we
see in the comic poets,
She draws back, as it were, by these poles, the protuberance of the
stomach in front.
Has one yellow eyebrows? She stains them with soot.
Do they happen to be black? She smears them with ceruse.
Is one very white-skinned? She rouges.
Has one any part of the body beautiful? She shows it bare.
Has she beautiful teeth? She must needs laugh,
That those present may see what a pretty mouth she has;
But if not in the humour for laughing, she passes the day within,
With a slender sprig of myrtle between her lips,
Like what cooks have always at hand when they have goats’ heads to
sell,
So that she must keep them apart the whilst, whether she will or
not.”
I set these quotations from the comic poets before you, since the Word
most strenuously wishes to save us. And by and by I will fortify them
with the divine Scriptures. For he who does not escape notice is wont
to abstain from sins, on account of the shame of reproof. Just as the
plastered hand and the anointed eye exhibit from their very look the
suspicion of a person in illness, so also cosmetics and dyes indicate
that the soul is deeply diseased.
The divine Instructor enjoins us not to approach to another’s river,
meaning by the figurative expression “another’s river,” “another’s
wife;” the wanton that flows to all, and out of licentiousness gives
herself up to meretricious enjoyment with all. “Abstain from water that
is another’s,” He says, “and drink not of another’s well,” admonishing
us to shun the stream of “voluptuousness,” that we may live long, and
that years of life may be added to us;[632] both by not hunting after
the pleasure that belongs to another, and by diverting our inclinations.
Love of dainties and love of wine, though great vices, are not of such
magnitude as fondness for finery. “A full table and repeated cups”
are enough to satisfy greed. But to those who are fond of gold, and
purple, and jewels, neither the gold that is above the earth and below
it is sufficient, nor the Tyrian Sea, nor the freight that comes from
India and Ethiopia, nor yet Pactolus flowing with gold; not even were a
man to become a Midas would he be satisfied, but would be still poor,
craving other wealth. Such people are ready to die with their gold.
And if Plutus[633] is blind, are not those women that are crazy about
him, and have a fellow-feeling with him, blind too? Having, then, no
limit to their lust, they push on to shamelessness. For the theatre,
and pageants, and many spectators, and strolling in the temples, and
loitering in the streets, that they may be seen conspicuously by all,
are necessary to them. For those that glory in their looks, not in
heart,[634] dress to please others. For as the brand shows the slave,
so do gaudy colours the adulteress. “For though thou clothe thyself in
scarlet, and deck thyself with ornaments of gold, and anoint thine eyes
with stibium, in vain is thy beauty,”[635] says the Word by Jeremiah.
Is it not monstrous, that while horses, birds, and the rest of the
animals, spring and bound from the grass and meadows, rejoicing in
ornament that is their own, in mane, and natural colour, and varied
plumage; woman, as if inferior to the brute creation, should think
herself so unlovely as to need foreign, and bought, and painted beauty?
Head-dresses and varieties of head-dresses, and elaborate braidings,
and infinite modes of dressing the hair, and costly specimens of
mirrors, in which they arrange their costume,--hunting after those
that, like silly children, are crazy about their figures,--are
characteristic of women who have lost all sense of shame. If any one
were to call these courtesans, he would make no mistake, for they
turn their faces into masks. But us the Word enjoins “to look not on
the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen; for the
things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are
eternal.”[636]
But what passes beyond the bounds of absurdity, is that they have
invented mirrors for this artificial shape of theirs, as if it were
some excellent work or masterpiece. The deception rather requires
a veil thrown over it. For as the Greek fable has it, it was not a
fortunate thing for the beautiful Narcissus to have been the beholder
of his own image. And if Moses commanded men to make not an image to
represent God by art, how can these women be right, who by their own
reflection produce an imitation of their own likeness, in order to
the falsifying of their face? Likewise also, when Samuel the prophet
was sent to anoint one of the sons of Jesse for king, and on seeing
the eldest of his sons to be fair and tall, produced the anointing
oil, being delighted with him, the Lord said to him, “Look not to his
appearance, nor the height of his stature: for I have rejected him. For
man looketh on the eyes, but the Lord into the heart.”[637]
And he anointed not him that was comely in person, but him that was
comely in soul. If, then, the Lord counts the natural beauty of the
body inferior to that of the soul, what thinks He of spurious beauty,
rejecting utterly as He does all falsehood? “For we walk by faith, not
by sight.”[638] Very clearly the Lord accordingly teaches by Abraham,
that he who follows God must despise country, and relations, and
possessions, and all wealth, by making him a stranger. And therefore
also He called him His friend, who had despised the substance which he
had possessed at home. For he was of good parentage, and very opulent;
and so with three hundred and eighteen servants of his own he subdued
the four kings who had taken Lot captive.
Esther alone we find justly adorned. The spouse adorned herself
mystically for her royal husband; but her beauty turns out the
redemption price of a people that were about to be massacred. And that
decoration makes women courtesans, and men effeminate and adulterers,
the tragic poet is a witness; thus discoursing:
“He that judged the goddesses,
As the myth of the Argives has it, having come from Phrygia
To Lacedæmon, arrayed in flowery vestments,
Glittering with gold and barbaric luxury,
Loving, departed, carrying away her he loved,
Helen, to the folds of Ida, having found that
Menelaus was away from home.”[639]
O adulterous beauty! Barbarian finery and effeminate luxury overthrew
Greece; Lacedæmonian chastity was corrupted by clothes, and luxury, and
graceful beauty; barbaric display proved Jove’s daughter a courtesan.
They had no instructor to restrain their lusts, nor one to say, “Do
not commit adultery;” nor, “Lust not;” or, “Travel not by lust into
adultery;” or further, “Influence not thy passions by desire of
adornment.”
What an end was it that ensued to them, and what woes they endured,
who would not restrain their self-will! Two continents were convulsed
by unrestrained pleasures, and all was thrown into confusion by a
barbarian boy. The whole of Hellas puts to sea; the ocean is burdened
with the weight of continents; a protracted war breaks out, and fierce
battles are waged, and the plains are crowded with dead: the barbarian
assails the fleet with outrage; wickedness prevails, and the eye of
that poetic Jove looks on the Thracians:
“The barbarian plains drink noble blood,
And the streams of the rivers are choked with dead bodies.”
Breasts are beaten in lamentations, and grief desolates the land; and
all the feet, and the summits of many-fountained Ida, and the cities of
the Trojans, and the ships of the Achæans, shake.
Where, O Homer, shall we flee and stand? Show us a spot of ground that
is not shaken!
“Touch not the reins, inexperienced boy,
Nor mount the seat, not having learned to drive.”[640]
Heaven delights in two charioteers, by whom alone the chariot of fire
is guided. For the mind is carried away by pleasure; and the unsullied
principle of reason, when not instructed by the Word, slides down into
licentiousness, and gets a fall as the due reward of its transgression.
An example of this are the angels, who renounced the beauty of God for
a beauty which fades, and so fell from heaven to earth.[641]
The Shechemites, too, were punished by an overthrow for dishonouring
the holy virgin. The grave was their punishment, and the monument of
their ignominy leads to salvation.
CHAPTER III.
AGAINST MEN WHO EMBELLISH THEMSELVES.
To such an extent, then, has luxury advanced, that not only are the
female sex deranged about this frivolous pursuit, but men also are
infected with the disease. For not being free of the love of finery,
they are not in health; but inclining to voluptuousness, they become
effeminate, cutting their hair in an ungentlemanly and meretricious
way, clothed in fine and transparent garments, chewing mastich,
smelling of perfume. What can one say on seeing them? Like one who
judges people by their foreheads, he will divine them to be adulterers
and effeminate, addicted to both kinds of venery, haters of hair,
destitute of hair, detesting the bloom of manliness, and adorning
their locks like women. “Living for unholy acts of audacity, these
fickle wretches do reckless and nefarious deeds,” says the Sibyl.
For their service the towns are full of those who take out hair
by pitch-plasters, shave, and pluck out hairs from these womanish
creatures. And shops are erected and opened everywhere; and adepts at
this meretricious fornication make a deal of money openly by those
who plaster themselves, and give their hair to be pulled out in all
ways by those who make it their trade, feeling no shame before the
onlookers or those who approach, nor before themselves, being men. Such
are those addicted to base passions, whose whole body is made smooth
by the violent tuggings of pitch-plasters. It is utterly impossible to
get beyond such effrontery. If nothing is left undone by them, neither
shall anything be left unspoken by me. Diogenes, when he was being
sold, chiding like a teacher one of these degenerate creatures, said
very manfully, “Come, youngster, buy for yourself a man,” chastising
his meretriciousness by an ambiguous speech. But for those who are men
to shave and smooth themselves, how ignoble! As for dyeing of hair, and
anointing of grey locks, and dyeing them yellow, these are practices of
abandoned effeminates; and their feminine combing of themselves is a
thing to be let alone. For they think, that like serpents they divest
themselves of the old age of their head by painting and renovating
themselves. But though they do doctor the hair cleverly, they will not
escape wrinkles, nor will they elude death by tricking time. For it is
not dreadful, it is not dreadful to appear old, when you are not able
to shut your eyes to the fact that you are so.
The more, then, a man hastes to the end, the more truly venerable
is he, having God alone as his senior, since He is the eternal aged
One, He who is older than all things. Prophecy has called him the
“Ancient of days; and the hair of His head was as pure wool,” says
the prophet.[642] “And none other,” says the Lord, “can make the hair
white or black.”[643] How, then, do these godless ones work in rivalry
with God, or rather violently oppose Him, when they transmute the hair
made white by Him? “The crown of old men is great experience,”[644]
says Scripture; and the hoary hair of their countenance is the blossom
of large experience. But these dishonour the reverence of age, the
head covered with grey hairs. It is not, it is not possible for him
to show the soul true who has a fraudulent head. “But ye have not so
learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught
by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off, concerning the
former conversation, the old man (not the hoary man, but him that is)
corrupt according to deceitful lusts; and be renewed (not by dyeings
and ornaments), but in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”[645]
But for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with
a razor, for the sake of fine effect, to arrange his hair at the
looking-glass, to shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and
smooth them, how womanly! And, in truth, unless you saw them naked,
you would suppose them to be women. For although not allowed to wear
gold, yet out of effeminate desire they enwreath their latches and
fringes with leaves of gold; or, getting certain spherical figures of
the same metal made, they fasten them to their ankles, and hang them
from their necks. This is a device of enervated men, who are dragged to
the women’s apartments, amphibious and lecherous beasts. For this is
a meretricious and impious form of snare. For God wished women to be
smooth, and rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a
horse in his mane; but has adorned man, like the lions, with a beard,
and endowed him, as an attribute of manhood, with shaggy breasts,--a
sign this of strength and rule. So also cocks, which fight in defence
of the hens, he has decked with combs, as it were helmets; and so high
a value does God set on these locks, that He orders them to make their
appearance on men simultaneously with discretion, and, delighted with
a venerable look, has honoured gravity of countenance with grey hairs.
But wisdom, and discriminating judgments that are hoary with wisdom,
attain maturity with time, and by the vigour of long experience give
strength to old age, producing grey hairs, the admirable flower of
venerable wisdom, conciliating confidence. This, then, the mark of the
man, the beard, by which he is seen to be a man, is older than Eve, and
is the token of the superior nature. In this God deemed it right that
he should excel, and dispersed hair over man’s whole body. Whatever
smoothness and softness was in him He abstracted from his side when He
formed the woman Eve, adapted to the reception of seed, his help in
generation and household management, while he (for he had parted with
all smoothness) remained a man, and shows himself man. And to him has
been assigned action, as to her suffering; for what is shaggy is drier
and warmer than what is smooth. Wherefore males have both more hair and
more heat than females, animals that are entire than the emasculated,
perfect than imperfect. It is therefore impious to desecrate the
symbol of manhood, hairiness. But the embellishment of smoothing (for
I am warned by the Word), if it is to attract men, is the act of an
effeminate person,--if to attract women, is the act of an adulterer;
and both must be driven as far as possible from our society. “But the
very hairs of your head are all numbered,” says the Lord;[646] those
on the chin, too, are numbered, and those on the whole body. There
must be therefore no plucking out, contrary to God’s appointment,
which has counted[647] them in according to His will. “Know ye not
yourselves,” says the apostle, “that Christ Jesus is in you?”[648]
Whom, had we known as dwelling in us, I know not how we could have
dared to dishonour. But the using of pitch to pluck out hair (I shrink
from even mentioning the shamelessness connected with this process),
and in the act of bending back and bending down, the uncovering openly
of nature’s unmentionable parts, stepping out and bending backwards in
shameful postures, yet not ashamed of themselves, conducting themselves
without shame in the midst of the youth, and in the gymnasium, where
the prowess of man is tested: the following of this unnatural practice,
is it not the extreme of licentiousness? For those who engage in such
practices in public will scarcely behave with modesty to any at home.
Their want of shame in public attests their unbridled licentiousness in
private. For he who in the light of day denies his manhood, will prove
himself manifestly a woman by night. “There shall not be,” said the
Word by Moses, “a harlot of the daughters of Israel; there shall not be
a fornicator of the sons of Israel.”[649]
But the pitch does good, it is said. Nay, it defames, say I. No one
who entertains right sentiments would wish to appear a fornicator,
were he not the victim of that vice, and study to defame the beauty
of his form. No one would, I say, voluntarily choose to do this. “For
if God foreknew those who are called, according to His purpose, to be
conformed to the image of His Son,” for whose sake, according to the
blessed apostle, He has appointed “Him to be the first-born among many
brethren,”[650] are they not godless who treat with indignity the body
which is of like form with the Lord?
The man, who would be beautiful, must adorn, that which is the most
beautiful thing in man, his mind, which every day he ought to exhibit
in greater comeliness; and should pluck out not hairs, but lusts. I
pity the boys possessed by the slave-dealers, that are decked for
dishonour. But they are not treated with ignominy by themselves, but by
command the wretches are adorned for base gain. But how disgusting are
those who willingly practise the things to which, if compelled, they
would, if they were men, die rather than do?
But life has reached this pitch of licentiousness through the
wantonness of wickedness, and lasciviousness is diffused over the
cities, having become law. Beside them women stand in the stews,
offering their own flesh for hire for lewd pleasure, and boys, taught
to deny their sex, act the part of women.
Luxury has deranged all things; it has disgraced man. A luxurious
niceness seeks everything, attempts everything, forces everything,
coerces nature. Men play the part of women, and women that of men,
contrary to nature; women are at once wives and husbands: no passage
is closed against libidinousness; and their promiscuous lechery is a
public institution, and luxury is domesticated. O miserable spectacle!
horrible conduct! Such are the trophies of your social licentiousness
which are exhibited: the evidence of these deeds are the prostitutes.
Alas for such wickedness! Besides, the wretches know not how many
tragedies the uncertainty of intercourse produces. For fathers,
unmindful of children of theirs that have been exposed, often without
their knowledge, have intercourse with a son that has debauched
himself, and daughters that are prostitutes; and licence in lust shows
them to be the men that have begotten them. These things your wise laws
allow: people may sin legally; and the execrable indulgence in pleasure
they call a thing indifferent. They who commit adultery against nature
think themselves free from adultery. Avenging justice follows their
audacious deeds, and, dragging on themselves inevitable calamity, they
purchase death for a small sum of money. The miserable dealers in these
wares sail, bringing a cargo of fornication, like wine or oil; and
others, far more wretched, traffic in pleasures as they do in bread and
sauce, not heeding the words of Moses, “Do not prostitute thy daughter,
to cause her to be a whore, lest the land fall to whoredom, and the
land become full of wickedness.”[651]
Such was predicted of old, and the result is notorious: the whole earth
has now become full of fornication and wickedness. I admire the ancient
legislators of the Romans: these detested effeminacy of conduct; and
the giving of the body to feminine purposes, contrary to the law of
nature, they judged worthy of the extremest penalty, according to the
righteousness of the law.
For it is not lawful to pluck out the beard, man’s natural and noble
ornament.
“A youth with his first beard: for with this, youth is most
graceful.”
By and by he is anointed, delighting in the beard “on which descended”
the prophetic “ointment”[652] with which Aaron was honoured.
And it becomes him who is rightly trained, on whom peace has pitched
its tent, to preserve peace also with his hair.
What, then, will not women with strong propensities to lust practise,
when they look on men perpetrating such enormities? Rather we ought not
to call such as these men, but lewd wretches (βατάλοι), and effeminate
(γύνιδες), whose voices are feeble, and whose clothes are womanish
both in feel and dye. And such creatures are manifestly shown to be
what they are from their external appearance, their clothes, shoes,
form, walk, cut of their hair, look. “For from his look shall a man be
known,” says the Scripture, “and from meeting a man the man is known:
the dress of a man, the step of his foot, the laugh of his teeth, tell
tales of him.”[653]
For these, for the most part, plucking out the rest of their hair, only
dress that on the head, all but binding their locks with fillets like
women. Lions glory in their shaggy hair, but are armed by their hair in
the fight; and boars even are made imposing by their mane; the hunters
are afraid of them when they see them bristling their hair.
“The fleecy sheep are loaded with their wool.”[654]
And their wool the loving Father has made abundant for thy use, O
man, having taught thee to shear their fleeces. Of the nations, the
Celts and Scythians wear their hair long, but do not deck themselves.
The bushy hair of the barbarian has something fearful in it; and its
auburn (ξανθόν) colour threatens war, the hue being somewhat akin to
blood. Both these barbarian races hate luxury. As clear witnesses
will be produced by the German, the Rhine;[655] and by the Scythian,
the waggon. Sometimes the Scythian despises even the waggon: its size
seems sumptuousness to the barbarian; and leaving its luxurious ease,
the Scythian man leads a frugal life. For a house sufficient, and less
encumbered than the waggon, he takes his horse, and mounting it, is
borne where he wishes. And when faint with hunger, he asks his horse
for sustenance; and he offers his veins, and supplies his master
with all he possesses--his blood. To the nomad the horse is at once
conveyance and sustenance; and the warlike youth of the Arabians (these
are other nomads) are mounted on camels. They sit on breeding camels;
and these feed and run at the same time, carrying their masters the
whilst, and bear the house with them. And if drink fail the barbarians,
they milk them; and after that their food is spent, they do not spare
even their blood, as is reported of furious wolves. And these, gentler
than the barbarians, when injured, bear no remembrance of the wrong,
but sweep bravely over the desert, carrying and nourishing their
masters at the same time.
Perish, then, the savage beasts whose food is blood! For it is unlawful
for men, whose body is nothing but flesh elaborated of blood, to touch
blood. For human blood has become a partaker of the Word: it is a
participant of grace by the Spirit; and if any one injure him, he will
not escape unnoticed. Man may, though naked in body, address the Lord.
But I approve the simplicity of the barbarians: loving an unencumbered
life, the barbarians have abandoned luxury. Such the Lord calls us to
be--naked of finery, naked of vanity, wrenched from our sins, bearing
only the wood of life, aiming only at salvation.
CHAPTER IV.
WITH WHOM WE ARE TO ASSOCIATE.
But really I have unwittingly deviated in spirit from the order, to
which I must now revert, and must find fault with having large numbers
of domestics. For, avoiding working with their own hands and serving
themselves, men have recourse to servants, purchasing a great crowd
of fine cooks, and of people to lay out the table, and of others to
divide the meat skilfully into pieces. And the staff of servants is
separated into many divisions: some labour for their gluttony, carvers
and seasoners, and the compounders and makers of sweetmeats, and
honey-cakes, and custards; others are occupied with their too numerous
clothes; others guard the gold, like griffins; others keep the silver,
and wipe the cups, and make ready what is needed to furnish the festive
table; others rub down the horses; and a crowd of cup-bearers exert
themselves in their service, and herds of beautiful boys, like cattle,
from whom they milk away their beauty. And male and female assistants
at the toilet are employed about the ladies--some for the mirrors,
some for the head-dresses, others for the combs. Many are eunuchs; and
these panders serve without suspicion those that wish to be free to
enjoy their pleasures, because of the belief that they are unable to
indulge in lust. But a true eunuch is not one who is unable, but one
who is unwilling, to indulge in pleasure. The Word, testifying by the
prophet Samuel to the Jews, who had transgressed when the people asked
for a king, promised not a loving lord, but threatened to give them a
self-willed and voluptuous tyrant, “who shall,” He says, “take your
daughters to be perfumers, and cooks, and bakers,”[656] ruling by the
law of war, not desiring a peaceful administration. And there are many
Celts, who bear aloft on their shoulders women’s litters. But workers
in wool, and spinners, and weavers, and female work and housekeeping,
are nowhere.
But those who impose on the women, spend the day with them, telling
them silly amatory stories, and wearing out body and soul with their
false acts and words. “Thou shalt not be with many,” it is said, “for
evil, nor give thyself to a multitude;”[657] for wisdom shows itself
among few, but disorder in a multitude. But it is not for grounds of
propriety, on account of not wishing to be seen, that they purchase
bearers, for it were commendable if out of such feelings they put
themselves under a covering; but it is out of luxuriousness that they
are carried on their domestics’ shoulders, and desire to make a show.
So, opening the curtain, and looking keenly round on all that direct
their eyes towards them, they show their manners; and often bending
forth from within, disgrace this superficial propriety by their
dangerous restlessness. “Look not round,” it is said, “in the streets
of the city, and wander not in its lonely places.”[658] For that is, in
truth, a lonely place, though there be a crowd of the licentious in it,
where no wise man is present.
And these women are carried about over the temples, sacrificing
and practising divination day by day, spending their time with
fortune-tellers, and begging priests, and disreputable old women;
and they keep up old wives’ whisperings over their cups, learning
charms and incantations from soothsayers, to the ruin of the nuptial
bonds. And some men they keep; by others they are kept; and others are
promised them by the diviners. They know not that they are cheating
themselves, and giving up themselves as a vessel of pleasure to those
that wish to indulge in wantonness; and exchanging their purity for
the foulest outrage, they think what is the most shameful ruin a great
stroke of business. And there are many ministers to this meretricious
licentiousness, insinuating themselves, one from one quarter, another
from another. For the licentious rush readily into uncleanness, like
swine rushing to that part of the hold of the ship which is depressed.
Whence the Scripture most strenuously exhorts, “Introduce not every
one into thy house, for the snares of the crafty are many.”[659] And
in another place, “Let just men be thy guests, and in the fear of the
Lord let thy boast remain.”[660] Away with fornication. “For know this
well,” says the apostle, “that no fornicator, or unclean person, or
covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and of God.”[661]
But these women delight in intercourse with the effeminate. And crowds
of abominable creatures (κιναίδες) flow in, of unbridled tongue,
filthy in body, filthy in language; men enough for lewd offices,
ministers of adultery, giggling and whispering, and shamelessly making
through their noses sounds of lewdness and fornication to provoke
lust, endeavouring to please by lewd words and attitudes, inciting to
laughter, the precursor of fornication. And sometimes, when inflamed
by any provocation, either these fornicators, or those that follow the
rabble of abominable creatures to destruction, make a sound in their
nose like a frog, as if they had got anger dwelling in their nostrils.
But those who are more refined than these keep Indian birds and Median
pea-fowls, and recline with peak-headed[662] creatures; playing with
satyrs, delighting in monsters. They laugh when they hear Thersites;
and these women, purchasing Thersiteses highly valued, pride themselves
not in their husbands, but in those wretches which are a burden on the
earth, and overlook the chaste widow, who is of far higher value than a
Melitæan pup, and look askance at a just old man, who is lovelier in my
estimation than a monster purchased for money. And though maintaining
parrots and curlews, they do not receive the orphan child; but they
expose children that are born at home, and take up the young of birds,
and prefer irrational to rational creatures; although they ought to
undertake the maintenance of old people with a character for sobriety,
who are fairer in my mind than apes, and capable of uttering something
better than nightingales; and to set before them that saying, “He that
pitieth the poor lendeth to the Lord;”[663] and this, “Inasmuch as ye
have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to
me.”[664] But these, on the other hand, prefer ignorance to wisdom,
turning their wealth into stone, that is, into pearls and Indian
emeralds. And they squander and throw away their wealth on fading
dyes, and bought slaves; like crammed fowls scraping the dung of life.
“Poverty,” it is said, “humbles a man.”[665] By poverty is meant that
niggardliness by which the rich are poor, having nothing to give away.
CHAPTER V.
BEHAVIOUR IN THE BATHS.
And of what sort are their baths? Houses skilfully constructed,
compact, portable, transparent, covered with fine linen. And
gold-plated chairs, and silver ones, too, and ten thousand vessels of
gold and silver, some for drinking, some for eating, some for bathing,
are carried about with them. Besides these, there are even braziers
of coals; for they have arrived at such a pitch of self-indulgence,
that they sup and get drunk while bathing. And articles of silver with
which they make a show, they ostentatiously set out in the baths, and
thus display perchance their wealth out of excessive pride, but chiefly
the capricious ignorance, through which they brand effeminate men, who
have been vanquished by women; proving at least that they themselves
cannot meet and cannot sweat without a multitude of vessels, although
poor women who have no display equally enjoy their baths. The dirt of
wealth, then, has an abundant covering of censure. With this, as with
a bait, they hook the miserable creatures that gape at the glitter of
gold. For dazzling thus those fond of display, they artfully try to win
the admiration of their lovers, who after a little insult them naked.
They will scarce strip before their own husbands, affecting a plausible
pretence of modesty; but any others who wish, may see them at home shut
up naked in their baths. For there they are not ashamed to strip before
spectators, as if exposing their persons for sale. But Hesiod advises
“Not to wash the skin in the women’s bath.”[666]
The baths are opened promiscuously to men and women; and there they
strip for licentious indulgence (for from looking, men get to loving),
as if their modesty had been washed away in the bath. Those who have
not become utterly destitute of modesty shut out strangers; but bathe
with their own servants, and strip naked before their slaves, and are
rubbed by them; giving to the crouching menial liberty to lust, by
permitting fearless handling. For those who are introduced before their
naked mistresses while in the bath, study to strip themselves in order
to audacity in lust, casting off fear in consequence of the wicked
custom. The ancient athletes, ashamed to exhibit a man naked, preserved
their modesty by going through the contest in drawers; but these women,
divesting themselves of their modesty along with their chemise, wish
to appear beautiful, but contrary to their wish are simply proved to
be wicked. For through the body itself the wantonness of lust shines
clearly; as in the case of dropsical people, the water covered by the
skin. Disease in both is known from the look. Men, therefore, affording
to women a noble example of truth, ought to be ashamed at their
stripping before them, and guard against these dangerous sights; “for
he who has looked curiously,” it is said, “hath sinned already.”[667]
At home, therefore, they ought to regard with modesty parents and
domestics; in the ways, those they meet; in the baths, women; in
solitude, themselves; and everywhere the Word, who is everywhere,
“and without Him was not anything.”[668] For so only shall one remain
without falling, if he regard God as ever present with him.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CHRISTIAN ALONE RICH.
Riches are then to be partaken of rationally, bestowed lovingly, not
sordidly, or pompously; nor is the love of the beautiful to be turned
into self-love and ostentation; lest perchance some one say to us, “His
horse, or land, or domestic, or gold, is worth fifteen talents; but the
man himself is dear at three coppers.”
Take away, then, directly the ornaments from women, and domestics from
masters, and you will find masters in no respect different from bought
slaves in step, or look, or voice, so like are they to their slaves.
But they differ in that they are feebler than their slaves, and have a
more sickly upbringing.
This best of maxims, then, ought to be perpetually repeated, “That the
good man, being temperate and just,” treasures up his wealth in heaven.
He who has sold his worldly goods, and given them to the poor, finds
the imperishable treasure, “where is neither moth nor robber.” Blessed
truly is he, “though he be insignificant, and feeble, and obscure;” and
he is truly rich with the greatest of all riches. “Though a man, then,
be richer than Cinyras and Midas, and is wicked,” and haughty as he who
was luxuriously clothed in purple and fine linen, and despised Lazarus,
“he is miserable, and lives in trouble,” and shall not live. Wealth
seems to me to be like a serpent, which will twist round the hand and
bite; unless one knows how to lay hold of it without danger by the
point of the tail. And riches, wriggling either in an experienced or
inexperienced grasp, are dexterous at adhering and biting; unless one,
despising them, use them skilfully, so as to crush the creature by the
charm of the Word, and himself escape unscathed.
But, as is reasonable, he alone, who possesses what is worth most,
turns out truly rich, though not recognised as such. And it is not
jewels, or gold, or clothing, or beauty of person, that are of high
value, but virtue; which is the Word given by the Instructor to be put
in practice. This is the Word, who abjures luxury, but calls self-help
as a servant, and praises frugality, the progeny of temperance.
“Receive,” he says, “instruction, and not silver, and knowledge rather
than tested gold; for Wisdom is better than precious stones, nor is
anything that is valuable equal in worth to her.”[669] And again:
“Acquire me rather than gold, and precious stones, and silver; for my
produce is better than choice silver.”[670]
But if we must distinguish, let it be granted that he is rich who
has many possessions, loaded with gold like a dirty purse; but the
righteous alone is graceful, because grace is order, observing a due
and decorous measure in managing and distributing. “For there are those
who sow and reap more,”[671] of whom it is written, “He hath dispersed,
he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever.”[672]
So that it is not he who has and keeps, but he who gives away, that
is rich; and it is giving away, not possession, which renders a man
happy; and the fruit of the Spirit is generosity. It is in the soul,
then, that riches are. Let it, then, be granted that good things are
the property only of good men; and Christians are good. Now, a fool or
a libertine can neither have any perception of what is good, nor obtain
possession of it. Accordingly, good things are possessed by Christians
alone. And nothing is richer than these good things; therefore these
alone are rich. For righteousness is true riches; and the Word is more
valuable than all treasure, not accruing from cattle and fields, but
given by God--riches which cannot be taken away. The soul alone is its
treasure. It is the best possession to its possessor, rendering man
truly blessed. For he whose it is to desire nothing that is not in our
power, and to obtain by asking from God what he piously desires, does
he not possess much, nay all, having God as his everlasting treasure?
“To him that asks,” it is said, “shall be given, and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened.”[673] If God denies nothing, all things
belong to the godly.
CHAPTER VII.
FRUGALITY A GOOD PROVISION FOR THE CHRISTIAN.
Delicacies spent on pleasures become a dangerous shipwreck to men; for
this voluptuous and ignoble life of the many is alien to true love for
the beautiful and to refined pleasures. For man is by nature an erect
and majestic being, aspiring after the good as becomes the creature
of the One. But the life which crawls on its belly is destitute of
dignity, is scandalous, hateful, ridiculous. And to the divine nature
voluptuousness is a thing most alien; for this is for a man to be like
sparrows in feeding, and swine and goats in lechery. For to regard
pleasure as a good thing, is the sign of utter ignorance of what is
excellent. Love of wealth displaces a man from the right mode of life,
and induces him to cease from feeling shame at what is shameful; if
only, like a beast, he has power to eat all sorts of things, and to
drink in like manner, and to satiate in every way his lewd desires.
And so very rarely does he inherit the kingdom of God. For what end,
then, are such dainty dishes prepared, but to fill one belly? The
filthiness of gluttony is proved by the privies into which our bellies
discharge the refuse of our food. For what end do they collect so many
cup-bearers, when they might satisfy themselves with one cup? For what
the chests of clothes? and the gold ornaments for what? Those things
are prepared for clothes-stealers, and scoundrels, and for greedy eyes.
“But let alms and faith not fail thee,”[674] says the Scripture.
Look, for instance, to Elias the Thesbite, in whom we have a beautiful
example of frugality, when he sat down beneath the thorn, and
the angel brought him food. “It was a cake of barley and a jar of
water.”[675] Such the Lord sent as best for him. We, then, on our
journey to the truth, must be unencumbered. “Carry not,” said the Lord,
“purse, nor scrip, nor shoes;”[676] that is, possess not wealth, which
is only treasured up in a purse; fill not your own stores, as if laying
up produce in a bag, but communicate to those who have need. Do not
trouble yourselves about horses and servants, who, as bearing burdens
when the rich are travelling, are allegorically called shoes.
We must, then, cast away the multitude of vessels, silver and gold
drinking cups, and the crowd of domestics, receiving as we have done
from the Instructor the fair and grave attendants, Self-help and
Simplicity. And we must walk suitably to the Word; and if there be a
wife and children, the house is not a burden, having learned to change
its place along with the sound-minded traveller. The wife who loves
her husband must be furnished for travel similarly to her husband. A
fair provision for the journey to heaven is theirs who bear frugality
with chaste gravity. And as the foot is the measure of the shoe, so
also is the body of what each individual possesses. But that which is
superfluous, what they call ornaments and the furniture of the rich, is
a burden, not an ornament to the body. He who climbs to the heavens by
force, must carry with him the fair staff of beneficence, and attain
to the true rest by communicating to those who are in distress. For
the Scripture avouches, “that the true riches of the soul are a man’s
ransom,”[677] that is, if he is rich, he will be saved by distributing
it. For as gushing wells, when pumped out, rise again to their former
measure, so giving away, being the benignant spring of love, by
communicating of its drink to the thirsty, again increases and is
replenished, just as the milk is wont to flow into the breasts that are
sucked or milked. For he who has the almighty God, the Word, is in want
of nothing, and never is in straits for what he needs. For the Word is
a possession that wants nothing, and is the cause of all abundance. If
one say that he has often seen the righteous man in need of food, this
is rare, and happens only where there is not another righteous man.
Notwithstanding let him read what follows: “For the righteous man shall
not live by bread alone, but by the word of the Lord,”[678] who is the
true bread, the bread of the heavens. The good man, then, can never be
in difficulties so long as he keeps intact his confession towards God.
For it appertains to him to ask and to receive whatever he requires
from the Father of all; and to enjoy what is his own, if he keep the
Son. And this also appertains to him, to feel no want.
This Word, who trains us, confers on us the true riches. Nor is the
growing rich an object of envy to those who possess through Him the
privilege of wanting nothing. He that has this wealth shall inherit the
kingdom of God.
CHAPTER VIII.
SIMILITUDES AND EXAMPLES A MOST IMPORTANT PART OF
RIGHT INSTRUCTION.
And if any one of you shall entirely avoid luxury, he will, by a frugal
upbringing, train himself to the endurance of involuntary labours, by
employing constantly voluntary afflictions as training exercises for
persecutions; so that when he comes to compulsory labours, and fears,
and griefs, he will not be unpractised in endurance.
Wherefore we have no country on earth, that we may despise earthly
possessions. And frugality[679] is in the highest degree rich, being
equal to unfailing expenditure, bestowed on what is requisite, and to
the degree requisite. For τέλη has the meaning of expenses.
How a husband is to live with his wife, and respecting self-help,
and housekeeping, and the employment of domestics; and further, with
respect to the time of marriage, and what is suitable for wives, we
have treated in the discourse concerning marriage. What pertains to
discipline alone is reserved now for description, as we delineate
the life of Christians. The most indeed has been already said, and
laid down in the form of disciplinary rules. What still remains we
shall subjoin; for examples are of no small moment in determining to
salvation.
See, says the tragedy,
“The consort of Ulysses was not killed
By Telemachus; for she did not take a husband in addition to a
husband,
But in the house the marriage-bed remains unpolluted.”[680]
Reproaching foul adultery, he showed the fair image of chastity in
affection to her husband.
The Lacedæmonians compelling the Helots, their servants (Helots is the
name of their servants), to get drunk, exhibited their drunken pranks
before themselves, who were temperate, for cure and correction.
Observing, accordingly, their unseemly behaviour, in order that they
themselves might not fall into like censurable conduct, they trained
themselves, turning the reproach of the drunkards to the advantage of
keeping themselves free from fault.
For some men being instructed are saved; and others, self-taught,
either aspire after or seek virtue.
“He truly is the best of all who himself perceives all things.”[681]
Such is Abraham, who sought God.
“And good, again, is he who obeys him who advises well.”[682]
Such are those disciples who obeyed the Word. Wherefore the former was
called “friend,” the latter “apostles;” the one diligently seeking, and
the other preaching one and the same God. And both are peoples, and
both these have hearers, the one who is profited through seeking, the
other who is saved through finding.
“But whoever neither himself perceives, nor, hearing another,
Lays to heart--he is a worthless man.”[683]
The other people is the Gentile--useless; this is the people that
followeth not Christ. Nevertheless the Instructor, lover of man,
helping in many ways, partly exhorts, partly upbraids. Others having
sinned, He shows us their baseness, and exhibits the punishment
consequent upon it, alluring while admonishing, planning to dissuade us
in love from evil, by the exhibition of those who have suffered from
it before. By which examples He very manifestly checked those who had
been evil-disposed, and hindered those who were daring like deeds; and
others He brought to a foundation of patience; others He stopped from
wickedness; and others He cured by the contemplation of what is like,
bringing them over to what is better.
For who, when following one in the way, and then on the former
falling into a pit, would not guard against incurring equal danger,
by taking care not to follow him in his slip? What athlete, again,
who has learned the way to glory, and has seen the combatant who had
preceded him receiving the prize, does not exert himself for the crown,
imitating the elder one?
Such images of divine wisdom are many; but I shall mention one
instance, and expound it in a few words. The fate of the Sodomites was
judgment to those who had done wrong, instruction to those who hear.
The Sodomites having, through much luxury, fallen into uncleanness,
practising adultery shamelessly, and burning with insane love for
boys; the All-seeing Word, whose notice those who commit impieties
cannot escape, cast His eye on them. Nor did the sleepless guard of
humanity observe their licentiousness in silence; but dissuading us
from the imitation of them, and training us up to His own temperance,
and falling on some sinners, lest lust being unavenged, should break
loose from all the restraints of fear, ordered Sodom to be burned,
pouring forth a little of the sagacious fire on licentiousness; lest
lust, through want of punishment, should throw wide the gates to
those that were rushing into voluptuousness. Accordingly, the just
punishment of the Sodomites became to men an image of the salvation
which is well calculated for men. For those who have not committed
like sins with those who are punished, will never receive a like
punishment. By guarding against sinning, we guard against suffering.
“For I would have you to know,” says Jude, “that God, having once
saved His people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them
that believed not; and the angels which kept not their first estate,
but left their own habitation, He hath reserved to the judgment of
the great day, in everlasting chains under darkness of the savage
angels.”[684] And a little after he sets forth, in a most instructive
manner, representations of those that are judged: “Woe unto them,
for they have gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the
error of Balaam, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” For those,
who cannot attain the privilege of adoption, fear keeps from growing
insolent. For punishments and threats are for this end, that fearing
the penalty we may abstain from sinning. I might relate to you
punishments for ostentation, and punishments for vainglory, not only
for licentiousness; and adduce the censures pronounced on those whose
hearts are bad through wealth,[685] in which censures the Word through
fear restrains from evil acts. But sparing prolixity in my treatise, I
shall bring forward the following precepts of the Instructor, that you
may guard against His threatenings.
CHAPTER IX.
WHY WE ARE TO USE THE BATH.
There are, then, four reasons for the bath (for from that point I
digressed in my oration), for which we frequent it: for cleanliness,
or heat, or health, or lastly, for pleasure. Bathing for pleasure is
to be omitted. For unblushing pleasure must be cut out by the roots;
and the bath is to be taken by women for cleanliness and health, by men
for health alone. To bathe for the sake of heat is a superfluity, since
one may restore what is frozen by the cold in other ways. Constant use
of the bath, too, impairs strength and relaxes the physical energies,
and often induces debility and fainting. For in a way the body drinks,
like trees, not only by the mouth, but also over the whole body in
bathing, by what they call the pores. In proof of this, often people,
when thirsty, by going afterwards into the water, have assuaged their
thirst. Unless, then, the bath is for some use, we ought not to indulge
in it. The ancients called them places for fulling[686] men, since
they wrinkle men’s bodies sooner than they ought, and by cooking them,
as it were, compel them to become prematurely old. The flesh, like
iron, being softened by the heat, hence we require cold, as it were,
to temper and give an edge. Nor must we bathe always; but if one is a
little exhausted, or, on the other hand, filled to repletion, the bath
is to be forbidden, regard being had to the age of the body and the
season of the year. For the bath is not beneficial to all, or always,
as those who are skilled in these things own. But due proportion, which
on all occasions we call as our helper in life, suffices for us. For
we must not so use the bath as to require an assistant, nor are we to
bathe constantly and often in the day as we frequent the market-place.
But to have the water poured over us by several people is an outrage
on our neighbours, through fondness for luxuriousness, and is done
by those who will not understand that the bath is common to all the
bathers equally.
But most of all is it necessary to wash the soul in the cleansing Word
(sometimes the body too, on account of the dirt which gathers and grows
to it, sometimes also to relieve fatigue). “Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites!” saith the Lord, “for ye are like to whited
sepulchres. Without, the sepulchre appears beautiful, but within it
is full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”[687] And again He
says to the same people, “Woe unto you! for ye cleanse the outside of
the cup and platter, but within are full of uncleanness. Cleanse first
the inside of the cup, that the outside may be clean also.”[688] The
best bath, then, is what rubs off the pollution of the soul, and is
spiritual. Of which prophecy speaks expressly: “The Lord will wash away
the filth of the sons and daughters of Israel, and will purge the blood
from the midst of them”[689]--the blood of crime and the murders of the
prophets. And the mode of cleansing, the Word subjoined, saying, “by
the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.” The bathing of the
body, which is carnal, is accomplished by water alone, as often in the
country where there is not a bath.
CHAPTER X.
THE EXERCISES SUITED TO A GOOD LIFE.
The gymnasium is sufficient for boys, even if a bath is within reach.
And even for men to prefer gymnastic exercises by far to the baths,
is perchance not bad, since they are in some respect conducive to
the health of young men, and produce exertion--emulation to aim at
not only a healthy habit of body, but courageousness of soul. When
this is done without dragging a man away from better employments,
it is pleasant, and not unprofitable. Nor are women to be deprived
of bodily exercise. But they are not to be encouraged to engage in
wrestling or running, but are to exercise themselves in spinning, and
weaving, and superintending the cooking if necessary. And they are,
with their own hand, to fetch from the store, what we require. And it
is no disgrace for them to apply themselves to the mill. Nor is it a
reproach to a wife--housekeeper and helpmeet--to occupy herself in
cooking, so that it may be palatable to her husband. And if she shake
up the couch, reach drink to her husband when thirsty, set food on
the table as neatly as possible, and so give herself exercise tending
to sound health, the Instructor will approve of a woman like this,
who “stretches forth her arms to useful tasks, rests her hands on the
distaff, opens her hand to the poor, and extends her wrist to the
beggar.”[690]
She who emulates Sarah is not ashamed of that highest of ministries,
helping wayfarers. For Abraham said to her, “Haste, and knead three
measures of meal, and make cakes.”[691] “And Rachel, the daughter of
Laban, came,” it is said, “with her father’s sheep.”[692] Nor was this
enough; but to teach humility it is added, “for she fed her father’s
sheep.”[693] And innumerable such examples of frugality and self-help,
and also of exercises, are furnished by the Scriptures. In the case
of men, let some strip and engage in wrestling; let some play at the
small ball, especially the game they call Pheninda,[694] in the sun. To
others who walk into the country, or go down into the town, the walk is
sufficient exercise. And were they to handle the hoe, this stroke of
economy in agricultural labour would not be ungentlemanly.
I had almost forgot to say that the well-known Pittacus, king of
Miletus, practised the laborious exercise of turning the mill.[695]
It is respectable for a man to draw water for himself, and to cut
billets of wood which he is to use himself. Jacob fed the sheep of
Laban that were left in his charge, having as a royal badge “a rod of
storax,”[696] which aimed by its wood to change and improve nature. And
reading aloud is often an exercise to many. But let not such athletic
contests, as we have allowed, be undertaken for the sake of vainglory,
but for the exuding of manly sweat. Nor are we to struggle with cunning
and showiness, but in a stand-up wrestling bout, by disentangling of
neck, hands, and sides. For such a struggle with graceful strength is
more becoming and manly, being undertaken for the sake of serviceable
and profitable health. But let those others, who profess the practice
of illiberal postures in gymnastics, be dismissed. We must always aim
at moderation. For as it is best that labour should precede food, so to
labour above measure is both very bad, very exhausting, and apt to make
us ill. Neither, then, should we be idle altogether, nor completely
fatigued. For similarly to what we have laid down with respect to food,
are we to do everywhere and with everything. Our mode of life is not to
accustom us to voluptuousness and licentiousness, nor to the opposite
extreme, but to the medium between these, that which is harmonious and
temperate, and free of either evil, luxury and parsimony. And now, as
we have also previously remarked, attending to one’s own wants is an
exercise free of pride,--as, for example, putting on one’s own shoes,
washing one’s own feet, and also rubbing one’s self when anointed with
oil. To render one who has rubbed you the same service in return, is an
exercise of reciprocal justice; and to sleep beside a sick friend, help
the infirm, and supply him who is in want, are proper exercises. “And
Abraham,” it is said, “served up for three, dinner under a tree, and
waited on them as they ate.”[697] The same with fishing, as in the case
of Peter, if we have leisure from necessary instructions in the Word.
But that is the better sport which the Lord assigned to the disciple,
when He taught him to “catch men” as fishes in the water.
CHAPTER XI.
A COMPENDIOUS VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Wherefore the wearing of gold and the use of softer clothing is not
to be entirely prohibited. But irrational impulses must be curbed,
lest, carrying us away through excessive relaxation, they impel us to
voluptuousness. For luxury, that has dashed on to surfeit, is prone
to kick up its heels and toss its mane, and shake off the charioteer,
the Instructor; who, pulling back the reins from far, leads and drives
to salvation the human horse--that is, the irrational part of the
soul--which is wildly bent on pleasures, and vicious appetites, and
precious stones, and gold, and variety of dress, and other luxuries.
Above all, we are to keep in mind what was spoken sacredly: “Having
your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak
against you as evil-doers, they may, by the good works which they
behold, glorify God.”[698]
_Clothes._
The Instructor permits us, then, to use simple clothing, and of a
white colour, as we said before. So that, accommodating ourselves
not to variegated art, but to nature as it is produced, and pushing
away whatever is deceptive and belies the truth, we may embrace the
uniformity and simplicity of the truth.
Sophocles, reproaching a youth, says:
“Decked in women’s clothes.”
For, as in the case of the soldier, the sailor, and the ruler, so also
the proper dress of the temperate man is what is plain, becoming, and
clean. Whence also in the law, the law enacted by Moses about leprosy
rejects what has many colours and spots, like the various scales of the
snake. He therefore wishes man, no longer decking himself gaudily in a
variety of colours, but white all over from the crown of the head to
the sole of the foot, to be clean; so that, by a transition from the
body, we may lay aside the varied and versatile passions of the man,
and love the unvaried, and unambiguous, and simple colour of truth. And
he who also in this emulates Moses--Plato best of all--approves of that
texture on which not more than a chaste woman’s work has been employed.
And white colours well become gravity. And elsewhere he says, “Nor
apply dyes or weaving, except for warlike decorations.”[699]
To men of peace and of light, therefore, white is appropriate. As,
then, signs, which are very closely allied to causes, by their presence
indicate, or rather demonstrate, the existence of the result; as smoke
is the sign of fire, and a good complexion and a regular pulse of
health; so also clothing of this description shows the character of our
habits. Temperance is pure and simple; since purity is a habit which
ensures pure conduct unmixed with what is base. Simplicity is a habit
which does away with superfluities.
Substantial clothing also, and chiefly what is unfulled, protects the
heat which is in the body; not that the clothing has heat in itself,
but that it turns back the heat issuing from the body, and refuses it a
passage. And whatever heat falls upon it, it absorbs and retains, and
being warmed by it, warms in turn the body. And for this reason it is
chiefly to be worn in winter.
It also (temperance) is contented. And contentment is a habit which
dispenses with superfluities, and, that there may be no failure, is
receptive of what suffices for the healthful and blessed life according
to the Word.[700]
Let the woman wear a plain and becoming dress, but softer than what
is suitable for a man, yet not quite immodest or entirely gone in
luxury. And let the garments be suited to age, person, figure, nature,
pursuits. For the divine apostle most beautifully counsels us “to put
on Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the lusts of the flesh.”[701]
_Ear-rings._
The Word prohibits us from doing violence to nature by boring the lobes
of the ears. For why not the nose too?--so that, what was spoken, may
be fulfilled: “As an ear-ring in a swine’s nose, so is beauty to a
woman without discretion.”[702] For, in a word, if one thinks himself
made beautiful by gold, he is inferior to gold; and he that is inferior
to gold is not lord of it. But to confess one’s self less ornamental
than the Lydian ore, how monstrous! As, then, the gold is polluted by
the dirtiness of the sow, which stirs up the mire with her snout, so
those women that are luxurious to excess in their wantonness, elated by
wealth, dishonour by the stains of amatory indulgences what is the true
beauty.
_Finger-rings._
The Word, then, permits them a finger-ring of gold. Nor is this for
ornament, but for sealing things which are worth keeping safe in the
house, in the exercise of their charge of housekeeping.
For if all were well trained, there would be no need of seals, if
servants and masters were equally honest. But since want of training
produces an inclination to dishonesty, we require seals.
But there are circumstances in which this strictness may be relaxed.
For allowance must sometimes be made in favour of those women who have
not been fortunate[703] in falling in with chaste husbands, and adorn
themselves in order to please their husbands. But let desire for the
admiration of their husbands alone be proposed as their aim. I would
not have them to devote themselves to personal display, but to attract
their husbands by chaste love for them--a powerful and legitimate
charm. But since they wish their wives to be unhappy in mind, let the
latter, if they would be chaste, make it their aim to allay by degrees
the irrational impulses and passions of their husbands. And they are
to be gently drawn to simplicity, by gradually accustoming them to
sobriety. For decency is not produced by the imposition of what is
burdensome, but by the abstraction of excess. For women’s articles of
luxury are to be prohibited, as things of swift wing producing unstable
follies and empty delights; by which, elated and furnished with wings,
they often fly away from the marriage bonds. Wherefore also women ought
to dress neatly, and bind themselves around with the band of chaste
modesty, lest through giddiness they slip away from the truth. It is
right, then, for men to repose confidence in their wives, and commit
the charge of the household to them, as they are given to be their
helpers in this.
And if it is necessary for us, while engaged in public business, or
discharging other avocations in the country, and often away from our
wives, to seal anything for the sake of safety, He (the Word) allows us
a signet for this purpose only. Other finger-rings are to be cast off,
since, according to the Scripture, “instruction is a golden ornament
for a wise man.”[704]
But women who wear gold seem to me to be afraid, lest, if one strip
them of their jewellery, they should be taken for servants, without
their ornaments. But the nobility of truth, discovered in the native
beauty which has its seat in the soul, judges the slave not by buying
and selling, but by a servile disposition. And it is incumbent on us
not to seem, but to be free, trained by God, adopted by God.
Wherefore we must adopt a mode of standing and motion, and a step, and
dress, and in a word, a mode of life, in all respects as worthy as
possible of freemen. But men are not to wear the ring on the joint; for
this is feminine; but to place it on the little finger at its root. For
so the hand will be freest for work, in whatever we need it; and the
signet will not very easily fall off, being guarded by the large knot
of the joint.
And let our seals be either a dove, or a fish, or a ship scudding
before the wind, or a musical lyre, which Polycrates used, or a ship’s
anchor, which Seleucus got engraved as a device; and if there be one
fishing, he will remember the apostle, and the children drawn out of
the water. For we are not to delineate the faces of idols, we who are
prohibited to cleave to them; nor a sword, nor a bow, following as we
do, peace; nor drinking-cups, being temperate.
Many of the licentious have their lovers[705] engraved,[706] or their
mistresses, as if they wished to make it impossible ever to forget
their amatory indulgences, by being perpetually put in mind of their
licentiousness.
_The Hair._
About the hair, the following seems right. Let the head of men be
shaven, unless it has curly hair. But let the chin have the hair.
But let not twisted locks hang far down from the head, gliding into
womanish ringlets. For an ample beard suffices for men. And if one,
too, shave a part of his beard, it must not be made entirely bare,
for this is a disgraceful sight. The shaving of the chin to the skin
is reprehensible, approaching to plucking out the hair and smoothing.
For instance, thus the Psalmist, delighted with the hair of the beard,
says, “As the ointment that descends on the beard, the beard of
Aaron.”[707]
Having celebrated the beauty of the beard by a repetition, he made the
face to shine with the ointment of the Lord.
Since cropping is to be adopted not for the sake of elegance, but on
account of the necessity of the case; the hair of the head, that it
may not grow so long as to come down and interfere with the eyes, and
that of the moustache similarly, which is dirtied in eating, is to be
cut round, not by the razor, for that were ungenteel, but by a pair of
cropping scissors. But the hair on the chin is not to be disturbed, as
it gives no trouble, and lends to the face dignity and paternal terror.
Moreover, the shape instructs many not to sin, because it renders
detection easy. To those who do [not][708] wish to sin openly, a habit
that will escape observation and is not conspicuous is most agreeable,
which, when assumed, will allow them to transgress without detection;
so that, being undistinguishable from others, they may fearlessly go
their length in sinning.[709] A cropped head not only shows a man to be
grave, but renders the cranium less liable to injury, by accustoming
it to the presence of both cold and heat; and it averts the mischiefs
arising from these, which the hair absorbs into itself like a sponge,
and so inflicts on the brain constant mischief from the moisture.
It is enough for women to protect[710] their locks, and bind up their
hair simply along the neck with a plain hair-pin, nourishing chaste
locks with simple care to true beauty. For meretricious plaiting of
the hair, and putting it up in tresses, contribute to make them look
ugly, cutting the hair and plucking off it those treacherous braidings;
on account of which they do not touch their head, being afraid of
disordering their hair. Sleep, too, comes on, not without fear lest
they pull down without knowing the shape of the braid.
But additions of other people’s hair are entirely to be rejected, and
it is a most sacrilegious thing for spurious hair to shade the head,
covering the skull with dead locks. For on whom does the presbyter lay
his hand? Whom does he bless? Not the woman decked out, but another’s
hair, and through them another head. And if “the man is head of the
woman, and God of the man,”[711] how is it not impious that they
should fall into double sins? For they deceive the men by the excessive
quantity of their hair; and shame the Lord as far as in them lies, by
adorning themselves meretriciously, in order to dissemble the truth.
And they defame the head, which is truly beautiful.
Consequently neither is the hair to be dyed, nor grey hair to have its
colour changed. For neither are we allowed to diversify our dress. And
above all, old age, which conciliates trust, is not to be concealed.
But God’s mark of honour is to be shown in the light of day, to win the
reverence of the young. For sometimes, when they have been behaving
shamefully, the appearance of hoary hairs, arriving like an instructor,
has changed them to sobriety, and paralysed juvenile lust with the
splendour of the sight.
_Painting the Face._
Nor are the women to smear their faces with the ensnaring devices of
wily cunning. But let us show to them the decoration of sobriety.
For, in the first place, the best beauty is that which is spiritual,
as we have often pointed out. For when the soul is adorned by the
Holy Spirit, and inspired with the radiant charms which proceed from
Him,--righteousness, wisdom, fortitude, temperance, love of the good,
modesty, than which no more blooming colour was ever seen,--then let
corporeal beauty be cultivated too, symmetry of limbs and members,
with a fair complexion. The adornment of health is here in place,
through which the transition of the artificial image to the truth, in
accordance with the form which has been given by God, is effected. But
temperance in drinks, and moderation in articles of food, are effectual
in producing beauty according to nature; for not only does the body
maintain its health from these, but they also make beauty to appear.
For from what is fiery arises a gleam and sparkle; and from moisture,
brightness and grace; and from dryness, strength and firmness; and
from what is aërial, free-breathing and equipoise; from which this
well-proportioned and beautiful image of the Word is adorned. Beauty
is the free flower of health; for the latter is produced within the
body; while the former, blossoming out from the body, exhibits manifest
beauty of complexion. Accordingly, these most decorous and healthful
practices, by exercising the body, produce true and lasting beauty, the
heat attracting to itself all the moisture and cold spirit. Heat, when
agitated by moving causes, is a thing which attracts to itself; and
when it does attract, it gently exhales through the flesh itself, when
warmed, the abundance of food, with some moisture, but with excess of
heat. Wherefore also the first food is carried off. But when the body
is not moved, the food consumed does not adhere, but falls away, as the
loaf from a cold oven, either entire, or leaving only the lower part.
Accordingly, urine and dung are in excess in the case of those who do
not throw off the excrementitious matters by the rubbings necessitated
by exercise. And other superfluous matters abound in their case too,
and also perspiration, as the food is not assimilated by the body, but
is flowing out to waste. Thence also lusts are excited, the redundance
flowing to the organs of generation by commensurate motions. Wherefore
this redundance ought to be liquefied and dispersed for digestion, by
which beauty acquires its ruddy hue. But it is monstrous for those who
are made in “the image and likeness of God,” to dishonour the archetype
by assuming a foreign ornament, preferring the mischievous contrivance
of man to the divine creation.
The Instructor orders them to go forth “in becoming apparel, and adorn
themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety,”[712] “subject to their
own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they may without the word
be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold,” he says,
“your chaste conversation. Whose adorning, let it not be that outward
adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on
of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is
not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is
in the sight of God of great price.”[713]
For the labour of their own hands, above all, adds genuine beauty to
women, exercising their bodies and adorning themselves by their own
exertions; not bringing unornamental ornament wrought by others, which
is vulgar and meretricious, but that of every good woman, supplied and
woven by her own hands whenever she most requires. For it is never
suitable for women whose lives are framed according to God, to appear
arrayed in things bought from the market, but in their own home-made
work. For a most beautiful thing is a thrifty wife, who clothes both
herself and her husband with fair array of her own working;[714] in
which all are glad--the children on account of their mother, the
husband on account of his wife, she on their account, and all in God.
In brief, “A store of excellence is a woman of worth, who eateth not
the bread of idleness; and the laws of mercy are on her tongue; who
openeth her mouth wisely and rightly; whose children rise up and call
her blessed,” as the sacred Word says by Solomon: “Her husband also,
and he praiseth her. For a pious woman is blessed; and let her praise
the fear of the Lord.”[715]
And again, “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.”[716] They
must, as far as possible, correct their gestures, looks, steps, and
speech. For they must not do as some, who, imitating the acting
of comedy, and practising the mincing motions of dancers, conduct
themselves in society as if on the stage, with voluptuous movements,
and gliding steps, and affected voices, casting languishing glances
round, tricked out with the bait of pleasure. “For honey drops from the
lips of a woman who is an harlot; who, speaking to please, lubricates
thy throat. But at last thou wilt find it bitterer than bile, and
sharper than a two-edged sword. For the feet of folly lead those who
practise it to hell after death.”[717]
The noble Samson was overcome by the harlot, and by another woman was
shorn of his manhood. But Joseph was not thus beguiled by another
woman. The Egyptian harlot was conquered. And chastity,[718] assuming
to itself bonds, appears superior to dissolute licence. Most excellent
is what has been said:
“In fine, I know not how
To whisper, nor effeminately,
To walk about with my neck awry,
As I see others--lechers there
In numbers in the city, with hair plucked out.”[719]
But feminine motions, dissoluteness, and luxury, are to be entirely
prohibited. For voluptuousness of motion in walking, “and a mincing
gait,” as Anacreon says, are altogether meretricious.
“As seems to me,” says the comedy, “it is time[720] to abandon
meretricious steps and luxury.” And the steps of harlotry lean not to
the truth; for they approach not the paths of life. Her tracks are
dangerous, and not easily known.[721] The eyes especially are to be
sparingly used, since it is better to slip with the feet than with the
eyes.[722] Accordingly, the Lord very summarily cures this malady: “If
thine eye offend thee, cut it out,”[723] He says, dragging lust up
from the foundation. But languishing looks, and ogling, which is to
wink with the eyes, is nothing else than to commit adultery with the
eyes, lust skirmishing through them. For of the whole body, the eyes
are first destroyed. “The eye contemplating beautiful objects (καλὰ),
gladdens the heart;” that is, the eye which has learned rightly (καλῶς)
to see, gladdens. “Winking with the eye, with guile, heaps woes on
men.”[724] Such they introduce the effeminate Sardanapalus, king of
the Assyrians, sitting on a couch with his legs up, fumbling at his
purple robe, and casting up the whites of his eyes. Women that follow
such practices, by their looks offer themselves for prostitution. “For
the light of the body is the eye,” says the Scripture, by which the
interior illuminated by the shining light appears. Fornication in a
woman is in the raising of the eyes.[725]
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, and concupiscence, and covetousness,
which is idolatry: for which things’ sake cometh the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience,”[726] cries the apostle.
But we enkindle the passions, and are not ashamed.
Some of these women eating mastich, going about, show their teeth to
those that come near. And others, as if they had not fingers, give
themselves airs, scratching their heads with pins; and these made
either of tortoise or ivory, or some other dead creature they procure
at much pains. And others, as if they had certain efflorescences, in
order to appear comely in the eyes of spectators, stain their faces
by adorning them with gay-coloured unguents. Such a one is called by
Solomon “a foolish and bold woman,” who “knows not shame. She sits at
the door of her house, conspicuously in a seat, calling to all that
pass by the way, who go right on their ways;” by her style and whole
life manifestly saying, “Who among you is very silly? let him turn to
me.” And those devoid of wisdom she exhorts, saying, “Touch sweetly
secret bread, and sweet stolen water;” meaning by this, clandestine
love (from this point the Bœotian Pindar, coming to our help, says,
“The clandestine pursuit of love is something sweet”). But the
miserable man “knoweth not that the sons of earth perish beside her,
and that she tends to the level of hell.” But says the Instructor:
“Hie away, and tarry not in the place; nor fix thine eye on her: for
thus shalt thou pass over a strange water, and cross to Acheron.”[727]
Wherefore thus saith the Lord by Isaiah, “Because the daughters of Sion
walk with lofty neck, and with winkings of the eyes, and sweeping their
garments as they walk, and playing with their feet; the Lord shall
humble the daughters of Sion, and will uncover their form”[728]--their
deformed form. I deem it wrong that servant girls, who follow women
of high rank, should either speak or act unbecomingly to them. But I
think it right that they should be corrected by their mistresses. With
very sharp censure, accordingly, the comic poet Philemon says: “You may
follow at the back of a pretty servant girl, seen behind a gentlewoman;
and any one from the Platæicum may follow close, and ogle her.” For
the wantonness of the servant recoils on the mistress; allowing those
who attempt to take lesser liberties not to be afraid to advance to
greater; since the mistress, by allowing improprieties, shows that
she does not disapprove of them. And not to be angry at those who act
wantonly, is a clear proof of a disposition inclining to the like. “For
like mistress like wench,”[729] as they say in the proverb.
_Walking._
Also we must abandon a furious mode of walking, and choose a grave and
leisurely, but not a lingering step.
Nor is one to swagger in the ways, nor throw back his head to look at
those he meets, if they look at him, as if he were strutting on the
stage, and pointed at with the finger. Nor, when pushing up hill, are
they to be shoved up by their domestics, as we see those that are more
luxurious, who appear strong, but are enfeebled by effeminacy of soul.
A true gentleman must have no mark of effeminacy visible on his face,
or any other part of his body. Let no blot on his manliness, then, be
ever found either in his movements or habits. Nor is a man in health to
use his servants as horses to bear him. For as it is enjoined on them,
“to be subject to their masters with all fear, not only to the good
and gentle, but also to the froward,”[730] as Peter says; so fairness,
and forbearance, and kindness, are what well becomes the masters. For
he says: “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of
another; love as brethren, be pitiful, be humble,” and so forth, “that
ye may inherit a blessing,”[731] excellent and desirable.
_The model Maiden._
Zeno the Cittiæan thought fit to represent the image of a young maid,
and executed the statue thus: “Let her face be clean, her eyebrows
not let down, nor her eyelids open nor turned back. Let her neck not
be stretched back, nor the members of her body be loose. But let the
parts that hang from the body look as if they were well strung; let
there be the keenness of a well-regulated mind[732] for discourse,
and retention of what has been rightly spoken; and let her attitudes
and movements give no ground of hope to the licentious; but let there
be the bloom of modesty, and an expression of firmness. But far from
her be the wearisome trouble that comes from the shops of perfumers,
and goldsmiths, and dealers in wool, and that which comes from the
other shops where women, meretriciously dressed, pass whole days as if
sitting in the stews.”
_Amusements and Associates._
And let not men, therefore, spend their time in barbers’ shops and
taverns, babbling nonsense; and let them give up hunting for the women
who sit near,[733] and ceaselessly talking slander against many to
raise a laugh.
The game of dice[734] is to be prohibited, and the pursuit of gain,
especially by dicing,[735] which many keenly follow. Such things the
prodigality of luxury invents for the idle. For the cause is idleness,
and a love[736] for frivolities apart from the truth. For it is not
possible otherwise to obtain enjoyment without injury; and each man’s
preference of a mode of life is a counterpart of his disposition.
But, as appears, only intercourse with good men benefits; on the other
hand, the all-wise Instructor, by the mouth of Moses, recognising
companionship with bad men as swinish, forbade the ancient people to
partake of swine; to point out that those who call on God ought not
to mingle with unclean men, who, like swine, delight in corporeal
pleasures, in impure food, and in itching with filthy pruriency after
the mischievous delights of lewdness.
Further, He says: “Thou art not to eat a kite or swift-winged ravenous
bird, or an eagle,”[737] meaning: Thou shalt not come near men who
gain their living by rapine. And other things also are exhibited
figuratively.
With whom, then, are we to associate? With the righteous, He says
again, speaking figuratively; for everything “which parts the hoof and
chews the cud is clean.” For the parting of the hoof indicates the
equilibrium of righteousness, and ruminating points to the proper food
of righteousness, the word, which enters from without, like food, by
instruction, but is recalled from the mind, as from the stomach, to
rational recollection. And the spiritual man, having the word in his
mouth, ruminates the spiritual food; and righteousness parts the hoof
rightly, because it sanctifies us in this life, and sends us on our way
to the world to come.
_Public Spectacles._
The Instructor will not then bring us to public spectacles; nor
inappropriately might one call the racecourse and the theatre “the
seat of plagues;”[738] for there is evil counsel as against the
Just One,[739] and therefore the assembly against Him is execrated.
These assemblies, indeed, are full of confusion[740] and iniquity;
and these pretexts for assembling are the cause of disorder--men
and women assembling promiscuously for the sight of one another. In
this respect the assembly has already shown itself bad: for when the
eye is lascivious,[741] the desires grow warm; and the eyes that
are accustomed to look impudently at one’s neighbours during the
leisure granted to them, inflame the amatory desires. Let spectacles,
therefore, and plays that are full of scurrility and of abundant
gossip, be forbidden. For what base action is it that is not exhibited
in the theatres? And what shameless saying is it that is not brought
forward by the buffoons? And those who enjoy the evil that is in them,
stamp the clear images of it at home. And, on the other hand, those
that are proof against these things, and unimpressible, will never make
a stumble in regard to luxurious pleasures.
For if people shall say that they betake themselves to the spectacles
as a pastime for recreation, I should say that the cities which make
a serious business of pastime are not wise; for cruel contests for
glory which have been so fatal are not sport. No more is senseless
expenditure of money, nor are the riots that are occasioned by them
sport. And ease of mind is not to be purchased by zealous pursuit of
frivolities, for no one who has his senses will ever prefer what is
pleasant to what is good.
_Religion in Ordinary Life._
But it is said we do not all philosophize. Do we not all, then, follow
after life? What sayest thou? How hast thou believed? How, pray, dost
thou love God and thy neighbour, if thou dost not philosophize? And how
dost thou love thyself, if thou dost not love life? It is said, I have
not learned letters; but if thou hast not learned to read, thou canst
not excuse thyself in the case of hearing, for it is not taught. And
faith is the possession not of the wise according to the world, but
of those according to God; and it is taught without letters; and its
handbook, at once rude and divine, is called love--a spiritual book.
It is in your power to listen to divine wisdom, ay, and to frame your
life in accordance with it. Nay, you are not prohibited from conducting
affairs in the world decorously according to God. Let not him who sells
or buys aught name two prices for what he buys or sells; but stating
the net price, and studying to speak the truth, if he get not his
price, he gets the truth, and is rich in the possession of rectitude.
But, above all, let an oath on account of what is sold be far from you;
and let swearing, too, on account of other things be banished.
And in this way let those who frequent the market-place and the shop
philosophize. “For thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in
vain.”[742]
But those who act contrary to these things--the avaricious, the liars,
the hypocrites, those who make merchandise of the truth--the Lord cast
out of His Father’s court,[743] not willing that the holy house of
God should be the house of unrighteous traffic either in words or in
material things.
_Going to Church._
Woman and man are to go to church decently attired, with natural step,
embracing silence, possessing unfeigned love, pure in body, pure in
heart, fit to pray to God. Let the woman observe this, further. Let her
be entirely covered, unless she happen to be at home. For that style of
dress is grave, and protects from being gazed at. And she will never
fall, who puts before her eyes modesty, and her shawl; nor will she
invite another to fall into sin by uncovering her face. For this is the
wish of the Word, since it is becoming for her to pray veiled.[744]
They say that the wife of Æneas, through excess of propriety, did not,
even in her terror at the capture of Troy, uncover herself; but, though
fleeing from the conflagration, remained veiled.
_Out of Church._
Such ought those who are consecrated to Christ appear, and frame
themselves in their whole life, as they fashion themselves in the
church for the sake of gravity; and to be, not to seem such--so
meek, so pious, so loving. But now I know not how people change
their fashions and manners with the place. As they say that polypi,
assimilated to the rocks to which they adhere, are in colour such as
they; so, laying aside the inspiration of the assembly, after their
departure from it, they become like others with whom they associate.
Nay, in laying aside the artificial mask of solemnity, they are
proved to be what they secretly were. After having paid reverence to
the discourse about God, they leave within [the church] what they
have heard. And outside they foolishly amuse themselves with impious
playing, and amatory quavering, occupied with flute-playing, and
dancing, and intoxication, and all kinds of trash. They who sing thus,
and sing in response, are those who before hymned immortality,--found
at last wicked and wickedly singing this most pernicious palinode, “Let
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” But not to-morrow in truth,
but already, are these dead to God; burying their dead,[745] that is,
sinking themselves down to death. The apostle very firmly assails them:
“Be not deceived; neither adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor railers,” and whatever else he adds to these, “shall inherit the
kingdom of God.”[746]
_Love and the Kiss of Charity._
And if we are called to the kingdom of God, let us walk worthy of the
kingdom, loving God and our neighbour. But love is not tested by a
kiss, but by kindly feeling. But there are those, that do nothing but
make the churches resound with a kiss, not having love itself within.
For this very thing, the shameless use of the kiss, which ought to be
mystic, occasions foul suspicions and evil reports. The apostle calls
the kiss holy.[747]
When the kingdom is worthily tasted, we dispense the affection of the
soul by a chaste and closed mouth, by which chiefly gentle manners are
expressed.
But there is another unholy kiss, full of poison, counterfeiting
sanctity. Do you not know that spiders, merely by touching the
mouth, afflict men with pain? And often kisses inject the poison of
licentiousness. It is then very manifest to us, that a kiss is not
love. For the love meant is the love of God. “And this is the love
of God,” says John, “that we keep His commandments;”[748] not that
we stroke each other on the mouth. “And His commandments are not
grievous.” But salutations of beloved ones in the ways, full as they
are of foolish boldness, are characteristic of those who wish to be
conspicuous to those without, and have not the least particle of grace.
For if it is proper mystically “in the closet” to pray to God, it will
follow that we are also to greet mystically our neighbour, whom we are
commanded to love second similarly to God, within doors, “redeeming the
time.” “For we are the salt of the earth.”[749] “Whosoever shall bless
his friend early in the morning with a loud voice, it shall be regarded
not to differ from cursing.”[750]
_The Government of the Eyes._
But, above all, it seems right that we turn away from the sight of
women. For it is sin not only to touch, but to look; and he who is
rightly trained must especially avoid them. “Let thine eyes look
straight, and thine eyelids wink right.”[751] For while it is possible
for one who looks to remain stedfast; yet care must be taken against
falling. For it is possible for one who looks to slip; but it is
impossible for one, who looks not, to lust. For it is not enough for
the chaste to be pure; but they must give all diligence, to be beyond
the range of censure, shutting out all ground of suspicion, in order
to the consummation of chastity; so that we may not only be faithful,
but appear worthy of trust. For this is also consequently to be guarded
against, as the apostle says, “that no man should blame us; providing
things honourable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the
sight of men.”[752] “But turn away thine eye from a graceful woman,
and contemplate not another’s beauty,” says the Scripture.[753] And if
you inquire the reason, it will further tell you, “For by the beauty
of woman many have gone astray, and at it affection blazes up like
fire;”[754] the affection which arises from the fire which we call
love, leading to the fire which will never cease in consequence of sin.
CHAPTER XII.
CONTINUATION: WITH TEXTS FROM SCRIPTURE.
I would counsel the married never to kiss their wives in the presence
of their domestics. For Aristotle does not allow people to laugh to
their slaves. And by no means must a wife be seen saluted in their
presence. It is moreover better that, beginning at home with marriage,
we should exhibit propriety in it. For it is the greatest bond of
chastity, breathing forth pure pleasure. Very admirably the tragedy
says:
“Well! well! ladies, how is it, then, that among men,
Not gold, not empire, or luxury of wealth,
Conferred to such an extent signal delights,
As the right and virtuous disposition
Of a man of worth and a dutiful wife?”
Such injunctions of righteousness uttered by those who are conversant
with worldly wisdom are not to be refused. Knowing, then, the duty of
each, “pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye
know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver
or gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot.”[755] “For,” says Peter, “the time past of
our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles,
when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings,
banquetings, and abominable idolatries.”[756] We have as a limit the
cross of the Lord, by which we are fenced and hedged about from our
former sins. Therefore, being regenerated, let us fix ourselves to
it in truth, and return to sobriety, and sanctify ourselves; “for
the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to
their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”
“And who is he that will harm us, if we be followers of that which
is good?”[757]--“us” for “you.” But the best training is good order,
which is perfect decorum, and stable and orderly power, which in
action maintains consistence in what it does. If these things have
been adduced by me with too great asperity, in order to effect the
salvation which follows from your correction; they have been spoken
also, says the Instructor, by me: “Since he who reproves with boldness
is a peacemaker.”[758] And if ye hear me, ye shall be saved. And if ye
attend not to what is spoken, it is not my concern. And yet it is my
concern thus: “For he desires the repentance rather than the death of a
sinner.”[759] “If ye shall hear me, ye shall eat the good of the land,”
the Instructor again says, calling by the appellation “the good of the
land,” beauty, wealth, health, strength, sustenance. For those things
which are really good, are what “neither ear hath heard, nor hath ever
entered into the heart”[760] respecting Him who is really King, and the
realities truly good which await us. For He is the giver and the guard
of good things. And with respect to their participation, He applies the
same names of things in this world, the Word thus training in God the
feebleness of men from sensible things to understanding.
What has to be observed at home, and how our life is to be regulated,
the Instructor has abundantly declared. And the things which He is
wont to say to children by the way, while He conducts them to the
Master, these He suggests, and adduces the Scriptures themselves in a
compendious form, setting forth bare injunctions, accommodating them to
the period of guidance, and assigning the interpretation of them to the
Master. For the intention of His law is to dissipate fear, emancipating
free-will in order to faith. “Hear,” He says, “O child,” who art
rightly instructed, the principal points of salvation. For I will
disclose my ways, and lay before thee good commandments; by which thou
wilt reach salvation. And I lead thee by the way of salvation. Depart
from the paths of deceit.
“For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, and the way of the
ungodly shall perish.”[761] “Follow, therefore, O son, the good way
which I shall describe, lending to me attentive ears.” “And I will
give to thee the treasures of darkness, hidden and unseen”[762] by the
nations, but seen by us. And the treasures of wisdom are unfailing,
in admiration of which the apostle says, “O the depth of the riches
and the wisdom!”[763] And by one God are many treasures dispensed;
some disclosed by the law, others by the prophets; some to the divine
mouth, and others to the heptad of the spirit singing accordant. And
the Lord being one, is the same Instructor by all these. Here is then a
comprehensive precept, and an exhortation of life, all-embracing: “As
ye would that men should do unto you, do ye likewise to them.”[764]
We may comprehend the commandments in two, as the Lord says, “Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and
with all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself.” Then from these
He infers, “on this hang the law and the prophets.”[765] Further,
to him that asked, “What good thing shall I do, that I may inherit
eternal life?” He answered, “Thou knowest the commandments?” And on him
replying Yea, He said, “This do, and thou shalt be saved.” Especially
conspicuous is the love of the Instructor set forth in various salutary
commandments, in order that the discovery may be readier, from the
abundance and arrangement of the Scriptures. We have the Decalogue
given by Moses, which, indicating by an elementary principle, simple
and of one kind, defines the designation of sins in a way conducive
to salvation: “Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not worship
idols. Thou shalt not corrupt boys. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness. Honour thy father and thy mother.”[766] And
so forth. These things are to be observed, and whatever else is
commanded in reading the Bible. And He enjoins on us by Isaiah: “Wash
you, and make you clean. Put away iniquities from your souls before
mine eyes. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Deliver the wronged. Judge
for the orphan, and justify the widow. And come, and let us reason
together, saith the Lord.”[767] And we shall find many examples also
in other places,--as, for instance, respecting prayer: “Good works are
an acceptable prayer to the Lord,” says the Scripture.[768] And the
manner of prayer is described. “If thou seest,” it is said, “the naked,
cover him; and thou shalt not overlook those who belong to thy seed.
Then shall thy light spring forth early, and thy healing shall spring
up quickly; and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory
of God shall encompass thee.” What, then, is the fruit of such prayer?
“Then shalt thou call, and God will hear thee; whilst thou art yet
speaking, He will say, I am here.”[769]
In regard to fasting it is said, “Wherefore do ye fast to me? saith the
Lord. Is it such a fast that I have chosen, even a day for a man to
humble his soul? Thou shalt not bend thy neck like a circle, and spread
sackcloth and ashes under thee. Not thus shall ye call it an acceptable
fast.”
What means a fast, then? “Lo, this is the fast which I have chosen,
saith the Lord. Loose every band of wickedness. Dissolve the knots of
oppressive contracts. Let the oppressed go free, and tear every unjust
bond. Break thy bread to the hungry; and lead the houseless poor into
thy house. If thou see the naked, cover him.”[770] About sacrifices
too: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith
the Lord. I am full of burnt-offerings and of rams; and the fat of
lambs, and the blood of bulls and kids I do not wish; nor that ye
should come to appear before me. Who hath required this at your hands?
You shall no more tread my court. If ye bring fine flour, the vain
oblation is an abomination to me. Your new moons and your sabbaths I
cannot away with.”[771] How, then, shall I sacrifice to the Lord? “The
sacrifice of the Lord is,” He says, “a broken heart.”[772] How, then,
shall I crown myself, or anoint with ointment, or offer incense to the
Lord? “An odour of a sweet fragrance,” it is said,[773] “is the heart
that glorifies Him who made it.” These are the crowns and sacrifices,
aromatic odours, and flowers of God.
Further, in respect to forbearance. “If thy brother,” it is said, “sin
against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. If he sin
against thee seven times in a day, and turn to thee the seventh time,
and say, I repent, forgive him.”[774] Also to the soldiers, by John, He
commands, “to be content with their wages only;” and to the publicans,
“to exact no more than is appointed.” To the judges He says, “Thou
shalt not show partiality in judgment. For gifts blind the eyes of
those who see, and corrupt just words. Rescue the wronged.”
And to householders: “A possession which is acquired with iniquity
becomes less.”[775]
Also of “love.” “Love,” He says, “covers a multitude of sins.”[776]
And of civil government: “Render to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s;
and unto God the things which are God’s.”[777]
Of swearing and the remembrance of injuries: “Did I command your
fathers, when they went out of Egypt, to offer burnt-offerings and
sacrifices? But I commanded them, Let none of you bear malice in his
heart against his neighbour, or love a false oath.”[778]
The liars and the proud, too, He threatens; the former thus: “Woe to
them that call bitter sweet, and sweet bitter;” and the latter: “Woe
unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own
sight.”[779] “For he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, and he
that exalteth himself shall be humbled.”[780]
And “the merciful” He blesses, “for they shall obtain mercy.”
Wisdom pronounces anger a wretched thing, because “it will destroy
the wise.”[781] And now He bids us “love our enemies, bless them that
curse us, and pray for them that despitefully use us.” And He says: “If
any one strike thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also; and
if any one take away thy coat, hinder him not from taking thy cloak
also.”[782]
Of faith He says: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye
shall receive.”[783] “To the unbelieving nothing is trustworthy,”
according to Pindar.
Domestics, too, are to be treated like ourselves; for they are human
beings, as we are. For God is the same to free and bond, if you
consider.
Such of our brethren as transgress, we must not punish, but rebuke.
“For he that spareth the rod hateth his son.”[784]
Further, He banishes utterly love of glory, saying, “Woe to you,
Pharisees! for ye love the chief seat in the synagogues, and
greetings in the markets.”[785] But He welcomes the repentance of the
sinner--loving repentance--which follows sins. For this Word of whom we
speak alone is sinless. For to sin is natural and common to all. But
to return [to God] after sinning is characteristic not of any man, but
only of a man of worth.
Respecting liberality He said: “Come to me, ye blessed, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an
hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was
a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; sick, and ye
visited me; in prison, and ye came unto me.” And when have we done any
of these things to the Lord?
The Instructor Himself will say again, loving to refer to Himself
the kindness of the brethren, “Inasmuch as ye have done it to these
least, ye have done it to me. And these shall go away into everlasting
life.”[786]
Such are the laws of the Word, the consolatory words not on tables of
stone which were written by the finger of the Lord, but inscribed on
men’s hearts, on which alone they can remain imperishable. Wherefore
the tablets of those who had hearts of stone are broken, that the faith
of the children may be impressed on softened hearts.
However, both the laws served the Word for the instruction of humanity,
both that given by Moses and that by the apostles. What, therefore, is
the nature of the training by the apostles, appears to me to require to
be treated of. Under this head, I, or rather the Instructor by me,[787]
will recount; and I shall again set before you the precepts themselves,
as it were in the germ.
“Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we
are members one of another. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath;
neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but
rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good,
that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let all bitterness, and
wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from
you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, as God in Christ hath forgiven you. Be therefore
wise,[788] followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as
Christ also hath loved us. Let wives be subject to their own husbands,
as to the Lord. And let husbands love their wives, as Christ also hath
loved the church.” Let those who are yoked together love one another
“as their own bodies.” “Children, be obedient to your parents. Parents,
provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to those that are
your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the
singleness of your hearts, as unto Christ; with good-will from the soul
doing service. And, ye masters, treat your servants well, forbearing
threatening: knowing that both their and your Lord is in heaven; and
there is no respect of persons with Him.”[789] “If we live in the
Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory,
provoking one another, envying one another. Bear ye one another’s
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Be not deceived; God is not
mocked. Let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due time we shall
reap, if we faint not.”[790]
“Be at peace among yourselves. Now we admonish you, brethren, warn them
who are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient
toward all men. See that none render evil for evil to any man. Quench
not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things: hold fast
that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”[791]
“Continue in prayer, watching thereunto with thanksgiving. Walk in
wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your
speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how
ye ought to answer every man.”[792]
“Nourish yourselves up in the words of faith. Exercise yourselves unto
godliness: for bodily exercise profiteth little; but godliness is
profitable for all things, having the promise of the life which now is,
and that which is to come.”[793]
“Let those who have faithful masters not despise them, because they are
brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful.”[794]
“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. Given to hospitality; communicating to
the necessities of the saints.”
Such are a few injunctions out of many, for the sake of example, which
the Instructor, running over the divine Scriptures, sets before His
children; by which, so to speak, vice is cut up by the roots, and
iniquity is circumscribed.
Innumerable commands such as these are written in the holy Bible
appertaining to chosen persons, some to presbyters, some to bishops,
some to deacons, others to widows, of whom we shall have another
opportunity of speaking. Many things spoken in enigmas, many in
parables, may benefit such as fall in with them. But it is not my
province, says the Instructor, to teach these any longer. But we need a
Teacher of the exposition of those sacred words, to whom we must direct
our steps.
And now, in truth, it is time for me to cease from my instruction, and
for you to listen to the Teacher.[795] And He, receiving you who have
been trained up in excellent discipline, will teach you the oracles.
To noble purpose has the church sung, and the Bridegroom also, the
alone Teacher, the good Counsel, of the good Father, the true Wisdom,
the Sanctuary of knowledge. “And He is the propitiation for our sins,”
as John says; Jesus, who heals both our body and soul--which are the
proper man. “And not for our sins only, but also for the whole world.
And by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He
that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar;
and the truth is not in Him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily
is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in Him. He
that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself to walk even as He also
walked.”[796] O nurslings of His blessed training! let us complete the
fair face of the church; and let us run as children to our good mother.
And if we become listeners to the Word, let us glorify the blessed
dispensation by which man is trained and sanctified as a child of God,
and has his conversation in heaven, being trained from earth, and there
receives the Father, whom he learns to know on earth. The Word both
does and teaches all things, and trains in all things.
A horse is guided by a bit, and a bull is guided by a yoke, and a wild
beast is caught in a noose. But man is transformed by the Word, by whom
wild beasts are tamed, and fishes caught, and birds drawn down. He it
is, in truth, who fashions the bit for the horse, the yoke for the
bull, the noose for the wild beast, the rod for the fish, the snare for
the bird. He both manages the state and tills the ground; commands, and
helps, and creates the universe.
“There were figured earth, and sky, and sea,
The ever-circling sun, and full-orbed moon,
And all the signs that crown the vault of heaven.”[797]
O divine works! O divine commands! “Let this water undulate within
itself; let this fire restrain its wrath; let this air wander into
ether; and this earth be consolidated, and acquire motion! When I want
to form man, I want matter, and have matter in the elements. I dwell
with what I have formed. If you know me, the fire will be your slave.”
Such is the Word, such is the Instructor, the Creator of the world and
of man: and of Himself, now the world’s Instructor, by whose command
we and the universe subsist, and await judgment. “For it is not he who
brings a stealthy vocal word to men,” as Bacchylidis says, “who shall
be the Word of Wisdom;” but “the blameless, the pure, and faultless
sons of God,” according to Paul, “in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation, to shine as lights in the world.”[798]
All that remains therefore now, in such a celebration of the Word as
this, is that we address to the Word our prayer.
PRAYER TO THE PÆDAGOGUS.
Be gracious, O Instructor, to us Thy children, Father, Charioteer of
Israel, Son and Father, both in One, O Lord. Grant to us who obey Thy
precepts, that we may perfect the likeness of the image, and with all
our power know Him who is the good God and not a harsh judge. And do
Thou Thyself cause that all of us who have our conversation in Thy
peace, who have been translated into Thy commonwealth, having sailed
tranquilly over the billows of sin, may be wafted in calm by Thy Holy
Spirit, by the ineffable wisdom, by night and day to the perfect day;
and giving thanks may praise, and praising thank the Alone Father and
Son, Son and Father, the Son, Instructor and Teacher, with the Holy
Spirit, all in One, in whom is all, for whom all is One, for whom is
eternity, whose members we all are, whose glory the æons[799] are; for
the All-good, All-lovely, All-wise, All-just One. To whom be glory both
now and for ever. Amen.
And since the Instructor, by translating us into His church, has united
us to Himself, the teaching and all-surveying Word, it were right that,
having got to this point, we should offer to the Lord the reward of due
thanksgiving--praise suitable to His fair instruction.
A HYMN TO CHRIST THE SAVIOUR.
COMPOSED BY ST. CLEMENT.[800]
Bridle of colts untamed,
Over our wills presiding;
Wing of unwandering birds,
Our flight securely guiding.
Rudder of youth unbending,
Firm against adverse shock;
Shepherd, with wisdom tending
Lambs of the royal flock:
Thy simple children bring
In one, that they may sing
In solemn lays
Their hymns of praise
With guileless lips to Christ their King.
King of saints, almighty Word
Of the Father highest Lord;
Wisdom’s head and chief;
Assuagement of all grief;
Lord of all time and space,
Jesus, Saviour of our race;
Shepherd, who dost us keep;
Husbandman, who tillest,
Bit to restrain us, Rudder
To guide us as Thou willest;
Of the all-holy flock celestial wing;
Fisher of men, whom Thou to life dost bring;
From evil sea of sin,
And from the billowy strife,
Gathering pure fishes in,
Caught with sweet bait of life:
Lead us, Shepherd of the sheep,
Reason-gifted, holy One;
King of youths, whom Thou dost keep,
So that they pollution shun:
Steps of Christ, celestial Way;
Word eternal, Age unending;
Life that never can decay;
Fount of mercy, virtue-sending;
Life august of those who raise
Unto God their hymn of praise,
Jesus Christ!
Nourished by the milk of heaven,
To our tender palates given;
Milk of wisdom from the breast
Of that bride of grace exprest;
By a dewy spirit filled
From fair Reason’s breast distilled;
Let us sucklings join to raise
With pure lips our hymns of praise
As our grateful offering,
Clean and pure, to Christ our King.
Let us, with hearts undefiled,
Celebrate the mighty Child.
We, Christ-born, the choir of peace;
We, the people of His love,
Let us sing, nor ever cease,
To the God of peace above.
We subjoin the following literal translation of the foregoing hymn:--
Bridle of untamed colts, Wing of unwandering birds, sure Helm of
babes,[801] Shepherd of royal lambs, assemble Thy simple children to
praise holily, to hymn guilelessly with innocent mouths, Christ the
guide of children. O King of saints, all-subduing Word of the most
high Father, Ruler of wisdom, Support of sorrows, that rejoicest in
the ages,[802] Jesus, Saviour of the human race, Shepherd, Husbandman,
Helm, Bridle, Heavenly Wing of the all-holy flock, Fisher of men who
are saved, catching the chaste fishes with sweet life from the hateful
wave of a sea of vices,--Guide [us], Shepherd of rational sheep;
guide unharmed children, O holy King,[803] O footsteps of Christ, O
heavenly way, perennial Word, immeasurable Age, Eternal Light, Fount
of mercy, performer of virtue; noble [is the] life of those who hymn
God, O Christ Jesus, heavenly milk of the sweet breasts of the graces
of the Bride, pressed out of Thy wisdom. Babes nourished with tender
mouths, filled with the dewy spirit of the rational pap, let us sing
together simple praises, true hymns to Christ [our] King, holy fee for
the teaching of life; let us sing in simplicity the powerful Child.
O choir of peace, the Christ-begotten, O chaste people, let us sing
together[804] the God of peace.
TO THE PÆDAGOGUS.
Teacher, to Thee a chaplet I present,
Woven of words culled from the spotless mead,
Where Thou dost feed Thy flocks; like to the bee,
That skilful worker, which from many a flower
Gathers its treasures, that she may convey
A luscious offering to the master’s hand.
Though but the least, I am Thy servant still,
(Seemly is praise to Thee for Thy behests).
O King, great Giver of good gifts to men,
Lord of the good, Father, of all the Maker,
Who heaven and heaven’s adornment, by Thy word
Divine fitly disposed, alone didst make;
Who broughtest forth the sunshine and the day;
Who didst appoint their courses to the stars,
And how the earth and sea their place should keep;
And when the seasons, in their circling course,
Winter and summer, spring and autumn, each
Should come, according to well-ordered plan;
Out of a confused heap who didst create
This ordered sphere, and from the shapeless mass
Of matter didst the universe adorn;--
Grant to me life, and be that life well spent,
Thy grace enjoying; let me act and speak
In all things as Thy Holy Scriptures teach;
Thee and Thy co-eternal Word, All-wise,
From Thee proceeding, ever may I praise;
Give me nor poverty nor wealth, but what is meet,
Father, in life, and then life’s happy close.
THE MISCELLANIES; OR, STROMATA.
THE MISCELLANIES.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
PREFACE--THE AUTHOR’S OBJECT--THE UTILITY OF WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS.
[_Wants the beginning_] ... that you may read them under your
hand, and may be able to preserve them. Whether written compositions
are not to be left behind at all; or if they are, by whom? And if
the former, what need there is for written compositions? and if the
latter, is the composition of them to be assigned to earnest men, or
the opposite? It were certainly ridiculous for one to disapprove of
the writing of earnest men, and approve of those, who are not such,
engaging in the work of composition. Theopompus and Timæus, who
composed fables and slanders, and Epicurus the leader of atheism, and
Hipponax and Archilochus, are to be allowed to write in their own
shameful manner. But he who proclaims the truth is to be prevented from
leaving behind him what is to benefit posterity. It is a good thing,
I reckon, to leave to posterity good children. This is the case with
children of our bodies. But words are the progeny of the soul. Hence we
call those who have instructed us, fathers. Wisdom is a communicative
and philanthropic thing. Accordingly, Solomon says, “My son, if thou
receive the saying of my commandment, and hide it with thee, thine ear
shall hear wisdom.”[805] He points out that the word that is sown
is hidden in the soul of the learner, as in the earth, and this is
spiritual planting. Wherefore also he adds, “And thou shalt apply thine
heart to understanding, and apply it for the admonition of thy son.”
For soul, methinks, joined with soul, and spirit with spirit, in the
sowing of the word, will make that which is sown grow and germinate.
And every one who is instructed, is in respect of subjection the son of
his instructor. “Son,” says he, “forget not my laws.”[806]
And if knowledge belong not to all (set an ass to the lyre, as the
proverb goes), yet written compositions are for the many. “Swine, for
instance, delight in dirt more than in clean water.” “Wherefore,” says
the Lord, “I speak to them in parables: because seeing, they see not;
and hearing, they hear not, and do not understand;”[807] not as if
the Lord caused the ignorance: for it were impious to think so. But
He prophetically exposed this ignorance, that existed in them, and
intimated that they would not understand the things spoken. And now
the Saviour shows Himself, out of His abundance, dispensing goods to
His servants according to the ability of the recipient, that they may
augment them by exercising activity, and then returning to reckon with
them; when, approving of those that had increased His money, those
faithful in little, and commanding them to have the charge over many
things, He bade them enter into the joy of the Lord. But to him who
had hid the money, entrusted to him to be given out at interest, and
had given it back as he had received it, without increase, He said,
“Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have given my money
to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received mine own.”
Wherefore the useless servant “shall be cast into outer darkness.”[808]
“Thou, therefore, be strong,” says Paul, “in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus. And the things which thou hast heard of me among many
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to
teach others also.”[809] And again: “Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth.”
If, then, both proclaim the Word--the one by writing, the other by
speech--are not both then to be approved, making, as they do, faith
active by love? It is by one’s own fault that he does not choose what
is best; God is free of blame. As to the point in hand, it is the
business of some to lay out the word at interest, and of others to
test it, and either choose it or not. And the judgment is determined
within themselves. But there is that species of knowledge which
is characteristic of the herald, and that which is, as it were,
characteristic of a messenger, and it is serviceable in whatever way
it operates, both by the hand and tongue. “For he that soweth to the
Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing.”[810] On him who by Divine Providence meets in
with it, it confers the very highest advantages,--the beginning of
faith, readiness for adopting a right mode of life, the impulse towards
the truth, a movement of inquiry, a trace of knowledge; in a word, it
gives the means of salvation. And those who have been rightly reared
in the words of truth, and received provision for eternal life, wing
their way to heaven. Most admirably, therefore, the apostle says, “In
everything approving ourselves as the servants of God; as poor, and
yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things.
Our mouth is opened to you.”[811] “I charge thee,” he says, writing
to Timothy, “before God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that
thou observe these things, without preferring one before another, doing
nothing by partiality.”[812]
Both must therefore test themselves: the one, if he is qualified to
speak and leave behind him written records; the other, if he is in a
right state to hear and read: as also some in the dispensation of the
Eucharist, according to custom, enjoin that each one of the people
individually should take his part. One’s own conscience is best for
choosing accurately or shunning. And its firm foundation is a right
life, with suitable instruction. But the imitation of those who
have already been tested, and who have led correct lives, is most
excellent for the understanding and practice of the commandments.
“So that whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord
unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But
let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink
of the cup.”[813] It therefore follows, that every one of those who
undertake to promote the good of their neighbours, ought to consider
whether he has betaken himself to teaching rashly and out of rivalry
to any; if his communication of the word is out of vainglory; if the
only reward he reaps is the salvation of those who hear, and if he
speaks not in order to win favour: if so, he who speaks by writings
escapes the reproach of mercenary motives. “For neither at any time
used we flattering words, as ye know,” says the apostle, “nor a cloak
of covetousness. God is witness. Nor of men sought we glory, neither
of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the
apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse
cherisheth her children.”[814]
In the same way, therefore, those who take part in the divine words,
ought to guard against betaking themselves to this, as they would to
the buildings of cities, to examine them out of curiosity; that they
do not come to the task for the sake of receiving worldly things,
having ascertained that they who are consecrated to Christ are given
to communicate the necessaries of life. But let such be dismissed as
hypocrites. But if any one wishes not to seem, but to be righteous,
to him it belongs to know the things which are best. If, then, “the
harvest is plenteous, but the labourers few,” it is incumbent on
us “to pray” that there may be as great abundance of labourers as
possible.[815]
But the husbandry is twofold,--the one unwritten, and the other
written. And in whatever way the Lord’s labourer sow the good wheat,
and grow and reap the ears, he shall appear a truly divine husbandman.
“Labour,” says the Lord, “not for the meat which perisheth, but
for that which endureth to everlasting life.”[816] And nutriment
is received both by bread and by words. And truly “blessed are the
peace-makers,”[817] who instructing those who are at war in their life
and errors here, lead them back to the peace which is in the Word, and
nourish for the life which is according to God, by the distribution of
the bread, those “that hunger after righteousness.” For each soul has
its own proper nutriment; some growing by knowledge and science, and
others feeding on the Hellenic philosophy, the whole of which, like
nuts, is not eatable. “And he that planteth and he that watereth,”
“being ministers” of Him “that gives the increase, are one” in the
ministry. “But every one shall receive his own reward, according to
his own work. For we are God’s husbandmen, God’s husbandry. Ye are
God’s building,”[818] according to the apostle. Wherefore the hearers
are not permitted to apply the test of comparison. Nor is the word,
given for investigation, to be committed to those who have been reared
in the arts of all kinds of words, and in the power of inflated
attempts at proof; whose minds are already pre-occupied, and have not
been previously emptied. But whoever chooses to banquet on faith, is
stedfast for the reception of the divine words, having acquired already
faith as a power of judging, according to reason. Hence ensues to
him persuasion in abundance. And this was the meaning of that saying
of prophecy, “If ye believe not, neither shall ye understand.”[819]
“As, then, we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to
the household of faith.”[820] And let each of these, according to
the blessed David, sing, giving thanks. “Thou shalt sprinkle me with
hyssop, and I shall be cleansed. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be
whiter than the snow. Thou shalt make me to hear gladness and joy, and
the bones which have been humbled shall rejoice. Turn Thy face from
my sins. Blot out mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit in my inward parts. Cast me not away from Thy
face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of
Thy salvation, and establish me with Thy princely spirit.”[821]
He who addresses those who are present before him, both tests them by
time, and judges by his judgment, and from the others distinguishes him
who can hear; watching the words, the manners, the habits, the life,
the motions, the attitudes, the look, the voice; the road, the rock,
the beaten path, the fruitful land, the wooded region, the fertile and
fair and cultivated spot, that is able to multiply the seed. But he
that speaks through books, consecrates himself before God, crying in
writing thus: Not for gain, not for vainglory, not to be vanquished
by partiality, nor enslaved by fear, nor elated by pleasure; but
only to reap the salvation of those who read, which he does not at
present participate in, but awaiting in expectation the recompense
which will certainly be rendered by Him, who has promised to bestow on
the labourers the reward that is meet. But he who is enrolled in the
number of men[822] ought not to desire recompense. For he that vaunts
his good services, receives glory as his reward. And he who does any
duty for the sake of recompense, is he not held fast in the custom of
the world, either as one who has done well, hastening to receive a
reward, or as an evildoer avoiding retribution? We must, as far as we
can, imitate the Lord. And he will do so, who complies with the will
of God, receiving freely, giving freely, and receiving as a worthy
reward the citizenship itself. “The hire of an harlot shall not come
into the sanctuary,” it is said: accordingly it was forbidden to bring
to the altar the price of a dog. And in whomsoever the eye of the soul
has been blinded by ill-nurture and teaching, let him advance to the
true light, to the truth, which shows by writing the things that are
unwritten. “Ye that thirst, go to the waters,”[823] says Esaias. And
“drink water from thine own vessels,”[824] Solomon exhorts. Accordingly
in “The Laws,” the philosopher who learned from the Hebrews, Plato,
commands husbandmen not to irrigate or take water from others, until
they have first dug down in their own ground to what is called the
virgin soil, and found it dry. For it is right to supply want, but it
is not well to support laziness. For Pythagoras said that, “although it
be agreeable to reason to take a share of a burden, it is not a duty
to take it away.”
Now the Scripture kindles the living spark of the soul, and directs
the eye suitably for contemplation; perchance inserting something,
as the husbandman when he ingrafts, but, according to the opinion
of the divine apostle, exciting what is in the soul. “For there are
certainly among us many weak and sickly, and many sleep. But if we
judge ourselves, we shall not be judged.”[825] Now this work of mine in
writing is not artfully constructed for display; but my memoranda are
stored up against old age, as a remedy against forgetfulness, truly an
image and outline of those vigorous and animated discourses which I was
privileged to hear, and of blessed and truly remarkable men.
Of these the one, in Greece, an Ionic;[826] the other in Magna Græcia:
the first of these from Cœle-Syria, the second from Egypt, and others
in the East. The one was born in the land of Assyria, and the other a
Hebrew in Palestine.
When I came upon the last[827] (he was the first in power), having
tracked him out concealed in Egypt, I found rest. He, the true, the
Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and
apostolic meadow, engendered in the souls of his hearers a deathless
element of knowledge.
Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived
directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, the son
receiving it from the father (but few were like the fathers), came by
God’s will to us also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds.
And well I know that they will exult; I do not mean delighted with
this tribute, but solely on account of the preservation of the truth,
according as they delivered it. For such a sketch as this, will, I
think, be agreeable to a soul desirous of preserving from escape the
blessed tradition. “In a man who loves wisdom the Father will be
glad.”[828] Wells, when pumped out, yield purer water; and that of
which no one partakes, turns to putrefaction. Use keeps steel brighter,
but disuse produces rust in it. For, in a word, exercise produces a
healthy condition both in souls and bodies. “No one lighteth a candle,
and putteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may give
light to those who are regarded worthy of the feast.”[829] For what is
the use of wisdom, if it makes not him who can hear it wise? For still
the Saviour saves, “and always works, as He sees the Father.”[830] For
by teaching, one learns more; and in speaking, one is often a hearer
along with his audience. For the teacher of him who speaks and of him
who hears is one--who waters both the mind and the word. Thus the Lord
did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath; but allowed
us to communicate of those divine mysteries, and of that holy light,
to those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose
to the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom
He knew that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being
moulded according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech,
not to writing, as is the case with God.
And if one say that it is written, “There is nothing secret which shall
not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be disclosed,”[831] let
him also hear from us, that to him who hears secretly, even what is
secret shall be manifested. This is what was predicted by this oracle.
And to him who is able secretly to observe what is delivered to him,
that which is veiled shall be disclosed as truth; and what is hidden
to the many, shall appear manifest to the few. For why do not all know
the truth? why is not righteousness loved, if righteousness belongs to
all? But the mysteries are delivered mystically, that what is spoken
may be in the mouth of the speaker; rather not in his voice, but in
his understanding. “God gave to the church, some apostles, and some
prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ.”[832]
The writing of these memoranda of mine, I well know, is weak when
compared with that spirit, full of grace, which I was privileged to
hear. But it will be an image to recall the archetype to him who was
struck with the Thyrsus. For “speak,” it is said, “to a wise man, and
he will grow wiser; and to him that hath, and there shall be added to
him.” And we profess not to explain secret things sufficiently--far
from it--but only to recall them to memory, whether we have forgot
aught, or whether for the purpose of not forgetting. Many things,
I well know, have escaped us, through length of time, that have
dropped away unwritten. Whence, to aid the weakness of my memory, and
provide for myself a salutary help to my recollection in a systematic
arrangement of chapters, I necessarily make use of this form. There
are then some things of which we have no recollection; for the power
that was in the blessed men was great. There are also some things which
remained unnoted long, which have now escaped; and others which are
effaced, having faded away in the mind itself, since such a task is not
easy to those not experienced; these I revive in my commentaries. Some
things I purposely omit, in the exercise of a wise selection, afraid
to write what I guarded against speaking: not grudging--for that were
wrong--but fearing for my readers, lest they should stumble by taking
them in a wrong sense; and, as the proverb says, we should be found
“reaching a sword to a child.” For it is impossible that what has been
written should not escape, although remaining unpublished by me. But
being always revolved, using the one only voice, that of writing, they
answer nothing to him that makes inquiries beyond what is written;
for they require of necessity the aid of some one, either of him who
wrote, or of some one else who has walked in his footsteps. Some things
my treatise will hint; on some it will linger; some it will merely
mention. It will try to speak imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and
to demonstrate silently. The dogmas taught by remarkable sects will
be adduced; and to these will be opposed all that ought to be premised
in accordance with the profoundest contemplation of the knowledge,
which, as we proceed to the renowned and venerable canon of tradition,
from the creation of the world, will advance to our view; setting
before us what according to natural contemplation necessarily has to
be treated of beforehand, and clearing off what stands in the way of
this arrangement. So that we may have our ears ready for the reception
of the tradition of true knowledge; the soil being previously cleared
of the thorns and of every weed by the husbandman, in order to the
planting of the vine. For there is a contest, and the prelude to the
contest; and there are some mysteries before other mysteries.
Our book will not shrink from making use of what is best in philosophy
and other preparatory instruction. “For not only for the Hebrews
and those that are under the law,” according to the apostle, “is it
right to become a Jew, but also a Greek for the sake of the Greeks,
that we may gain all.”[833] Also in the Epistle to the Colossians he
writes, “Admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom,
that we may present every man perfect in Christ.”[834] The nicety of
speculation, too, suits the sketch presented in my commentaries. In
this respect the resources of learning are like a relish mixed with the
food of an athlete, who is not indulging in luxury, but entertains a
noble desire for distinction.
By music we harmoniously relax the excessive tension of gravity. And as
those who wish to address the people, do so often by the herald, that
what is said may be better heard; so also in this case. For we have the
word, that was spoken to many, before the common tradition. Wherefore
we must set forth the opinions and utterances which cried individually
to them, by which those who hear shall more readily turn.
And, in truth, to speak briefly: Among many small pearls there is the
one; and in a great take of fish there is the beauty-fish; and by time
and toil truth will gleam forth, if a good helper is at hand. For most
benefits are supplied, from God, through men. All of us who make use of
our eyes see what is presented before them. But some look at objects
for one reason, others for another. For instance, the cook and the
shepherd do not survey the sheep similarly: for the one examines it if
it be fat; the other watches to see if it be of good breed. Let a man
milk the sheep’s milk if he need sustenance: let him shear the wool if
he need clothing. And in this way let me produce the fruit of Greek
erudition.
For I do not imagine that any composition can be so fortunate as
that no one will speak against it. But that is to be regarded as in
accordance with reason, which nobody speaks against, with reason.
And that course of action and choice is to be approved, not which is
faultless, but which no one rationally finds fault with. For it does
not follow, that if a man accomplishes anything not purposely, he
does it through force of circumstances. But he will do it, managing
it by wisdom divinely given, and in accommodation to circumstances.
For it is not he who, has virtue, that needs the way to virtue, any
more than he, that is strong, needs recovery. For, like farmers who
irrigate the land beforehand, so we also water with the liquid stream
of Greek learning what in it is earthy; so that it may receive the
spiritual seed cast into it, and may be capable of easily nourishing
it. The _Stromata_ will contain the truth mixed up in the dogmas
of philosophy, or rather covered over and hidden, as the edible part
of the nut in the shell. For, in my opinion, it is fitting that the
seeds of truth be kept for the husbandmen of faith, and no others. I am
not oblivious of what is babbled by some, who in their ignorance are
frightened at every noise, and say that we ought to occupy ourselves
with what is most necessary, and which contains the faith; and that we
should pass over what is beyond and superfluous, which wears out and
detains us to no purpose, in things which conduce nothing to the great
end. Others think that philosophy was introduced into life by an evil
influence, for the ruin of men, by an evil inventor. But I shall show,
throughout the whole of these _Stromata_, that evil has an evil
nature, and can never turn out the producer of aught that is good;
indicating that philosophy is in a sense a work of Divine Providence.