and the law, make one meaning to be understood where
118 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III.
devil ; and yet the statement which is made in the same place,
" He is ground down on the earth, who sendeth to all nations," does not altogetlier fitly apply to the head himself. For, although the devil sends his angels to all nations, yet it is his body, not himself, that is ground down on the earth, except that he liimself is in his body, which is beaten small like the dust which the wind blows from the face of the earth.
56. Now all these rules^ except the one about the promises and the law, make one meaning to be understood where another is expressed, which is the peculiarity of figurative diction ; and this kind of diction^ it seems to me, is too widely spread to be comprehended in its full extent by any one.
For, wherever one thing is said with the intention that another shoiild be understood we have a figurative expression, even though the name of the trope is not to be found in the art of rhetoric. And when an expression of this sort occurs where it is customary to find it, there is no trouble in understanding it ; when it occurs, however, wliere it is not customary, it costs labour to understand it, from some more, from some less, just as men have got more or less from God of the gifts of intellect, or as they have access to more or fewer external helps. And, as in the case of proper words which I discussed above, and in which tilings are to be understood just as they are expressed, so in the case of figurative words, in which one thing is expressed and another is to be understood, and which I have just finished speaking of as much as
I tliought enough, students of these venerable documents ought to be counselled not only to make themselves acquainted with tlie forms of expression ordinarily used in Scripture, to observe them carefully, and to remember them accurately, but also, wliat is especially and before all things necessary, to pray that they may understand them. For in these very books on the study of which they are intent, they read, " The Lord giveth wisdom : out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding ; " * and it is from Him they have received
Isa. xiv. 12 (LXX.V " How art thou cut ilowu to the grouud, which didst weaken tho natious
CHAP. XXXVII.] CONCLUSION. 119 their very desire for knowledge, if it is wedded to piety. But about signs, so far as relates to words, I have now said enough.
It remains to discuss, in the following book, so far as God has given me light, the nieans_of communicating our thoughts to others.